I'd like to start off by saying I'm not a great CSGO player by any means, but I like to think I have a pretty good understanding of the game and how its played. The topic of this discussion, the eco round, has existed for quite some time, and I don't think anyone here will dispute that there is some merit to handing your opponents a win (most of the time anyway) to better your chances in the next round. However, most sources I've looked at on this topic say that the only time you should throw the eco out the window and force buy (besides after a pistol loss) is when you need that round to stay in the game. Feel free to dispute this in the comments, but the next point, and the real reason for posting this discussion, assumes this to be the case. A friend of mine and I had a dispute today over when a round counts for "staying in the game." I had the impression that in order for a round to be "game deciding," it either has to be the last round of the half, the last round before you have to play for a tie, or the last round before you lose the game (7-7, 8-14, or 8-15, respectively). Obviously you may want to move your eco so that you can appropriately buy for those crucial rounds, but it makes no sense to save when the economy resets, the best outcome could be a tie (this might be debatable in some circumstances, as sometimes avoiding a loss is more important than securing a win), or the game will be lost. To my friend, however, a "game deciding" round can occur outside of those scenarios as well. The example he provided was such: The score is 0-10, you have a broken economy, but with the round loss bonuses, your terrorist team can all afford vesthelm and AK for this round AND the next. In his eyes, the better idea would be to "force rifle buy" both of those rounds with no utility on either rather than save or "light buy" one to "full buy" the next. To me, giving a round up to buy fully the next is still a better idea (even though any economic damage we inflict in the save round would have little effect on the other team's economy, being up 0-10). The possiblility of a win is still on the table at 0-11, albeit unlikely when the game has gotten that out of hand, therefore it is not "game deciding." So, I'm posing this question to the CSGO subreddit, 1) to settle the disagreement, and 2) to better my understanding of the game. I'm ok with being wrong so long as I find out about it!!! Is every round a crucial round after 0-10, or should it still be played normally until the other team hits 14?