At the end of 2003, Griffin 'Shaguar' Benger of NoA wrote an article on Gotfrag about the CS money system. He described its flaws, summarised the impact it was having on professional CS, and proposed changes that would improve the balance between terrorists and counter-terrorists on defusal maps. Coming from a highly-respected international player who had just finished second at CPL Winter, the article was strongly supported by the community and resulted in Valve changing the system reflect his proposals.
 
Shaguar's article was primarily concerned with the fact that teams like SK and 3D were winning matches by controlling their opponents' money. At times, they were deliberately losing rounds knowing that it would do more damage to the other team's financial situation than it would to their own. The changes that were made following Shaguar's article have undoubtably limited one team's ability to affect the other team's money, but there are still ways of maximising the amount of money that you and your team receives each round.
 
Click read more to learn how the CS money system works, and how you can use that information to win more matches.

For those who are interested, Shaguar's original article can still be found at http://www.gotfrag.com/portal/story/5428/

Introduction
 
Why is the money system important? Because understanding how it works can help you: Understanding how much money you (and your opponents!) will be getting each round can influence the decisions that you make in any given situation. It's essential that your in-game caller understands the system so that he can prepare for opposition ecos and decide whether or not your team should be buying, but it's equally important that every player on the team understands how individual decisions about bomb planting and 'save outs' can affect the entire game. 

 
The Basics
 First of all, let's look at how much money you get for winning and losing rounds: There are two important elements so far as money management goes - the $500 bonus for losing consecutive rounds, and the $800 bomb plant bonus. Let's look at each of them individually.

The Losing Bonus
 The $500 bonus is designed to assist teams who are struggling by giving them more cash the more they lose. Lose two rounds, and you each get $1900, lose three and you get $2400. Lose 5 rounds straight, and you actually start getting more cash than the winning team. So how come when you're losing matches, you still have to eco so much? Because the bonus can get reset two ways:

 When your team has lost 3+ consecutive rounds, one of the worst things your team can do financially is win a round, then lose the following one. When that happens, the bonus gets reset and you're almost always so poor that you have to eco twice - as the pros would say, you've been 'money-screwed'. The other way that your bonus gets reset is when you or one of your team-mate decides that the round can't be won and saves their gun (as terrorist). Known as a 'save out', it not only reset the bonus for losing consecutive rounds for your whole team, but that player won't get any money at all next round - a disastrous outcome if they get killed after the timer runs out, but before the next round starts!
 
The Bomb Plant Bonus
 The other important element of the money system is the $800 bonus for planting the bomb. This bonus is critical because $800 will frequently be the difference between having enough money to buy next round, or being forced to eco. Since the introduction of the bonus about a year ago, the most common goal of eco rounds is to ensure that the bomb gets planted at all costs. Similarly, even when a round is un-winnable, terrorists can still salvage some extra cash by planting the bomb. Planting 10 times in a match will give each terrorist an additional $8000 - that's enough for two extra buy rounds.
 
When should I 'save out'?
Everyone has been in 1v4's and 2v5's where they don't think they have a chance of winning, but now that you understand how the losing bonus works, you will realise how saving your $2500 AK can sometimes cost each of your teammates $2000 next round, and continue costing them money every round after that. Before you save out, you always need to consider the status of the losing bonus, and the financial position of your team-mates.
 
You should also consider the financial position of the other team. If they're already short of money, killing two or three of them (forcing them those players to buy new weapons and armour next round) will put even more strain on their finances.  Even if you don't win the round, getting those extra kills can make the difference between facing 5 players with full weaponry and grenades next round, or forcing them into a 'half-buy' with deagles and famas/galils.
 
Counter-terrorists also need to be aware of the impact of 'save outs'. In particular, if you've won consecutive rounds as counter-terrorist, you should generally avoid chasing down any terrorists who are trying to save out, because letting them save out the round will hurt their team's money. In fact, if the terrorists have no chance of planting the bomb within the round time, sometimes running away to make sure that the last terrorist survives is actually the best play.

How do I know if the other team has money?

It's surprisingly easy to estimate how much cash the other team has, and knowing that they're almost broke can be enough to justify deagle rounds and part-buys, just to wreak more havoc with their money. All you really need to do is ask two questions: If you know how many rounds they've won or lost in a row, you should have a fairly good idea about how much cash they'll be receiving next round. On top of that, the closeness of the previous rounds is an indicator of how much money they already have saved up - if every round is coming down to a 1v1, that means four of their players have to rebuy weaponry every round, depleting their savings. Everybody's played in games where one team has been winning 7-0 or 8-0, but because they lost so many players each round, they still had to eco the first time they lost. Estimating the other teams cash involves a necessary degree of guesswork, but with a solid understanding of the money system and a bit of experience to go with it, you'll get it right more times than not.
 

Conclusion
Unlike the days of old, you can no longer win matches solely by ruthlessly controlling your opposition's money. Despite that, every good team needs to understand how the money system works so that they can maximise the amount of cash they receive at the end of every round, and minimise the amount of cash that their opponent receives. In close games, understanding the money system can be the difference between winning and losing.