The Bomb: T side Basics

Pre: sorry for such a long delay in-between my guides, I originally wanted to release a guide every week but once I started this guide on the bomb it became apparent that any guide on a fundamental gameplay mechanic would be quite large and would take quite a while to complete to a level I am happy with. Because of this I have decided that on weeks were I will not be able to release a full guide I will release a mini guide on smaller topics such as individual weapon guides and simple gameplay tactics or techniques. On the topic of this guide on the bomb, due to its large size I have decided to split the guide into smaller sections and release a series of guides on the bomb, “the bomb: T side Basics”, “the bomb: CT side Basics” and “the bomb: advanced techniques and strategy”.  

The Bomb: T side Basics

The bomb is one of if not the most important element in counter-strike, often what happens with the bomb determines who will win that round and as such know what to do with the bomb can make a big difference in not only your performance but your team’s performance in wars.

In this guide I am going to address  not only some of the basics when it comes to using the bomb in a war from a terrorist perspective but also the most common mistakes people make. This guide is going to be broken up into three topics

1)Tips on what you should and should not do when you have the bomb.
2)Planting the bomb.
3)Covering the bomb after the plant.

The bomb as a T

When playing as a terrorist you could consider the bomb as your most potent weapon, it often presents the easiest way to win a round as planting the bomb can give your team a huge advantage forcing the counter terrorists to retake a site against your entire team with a 30 second deadline to start a defuse. But when the bomb is not used effectively it can quickly become a double edged sword with a mistake as simple as planting in the wrong place or at the wrong time putting you in a difficult situation or with bigger mistakes unwinnable situations.

Tips on what you should and should not do when you have the bomb.

When you find yourself with the bomb there are a few tips you should remember which will improve your game and also help you from making some of the most common mistakes. The first two tips go together,

1) Unless a strategy calls for it try to stay near at least one other member of your team when you have the bomb
2) Where possible don’t make solo pushes or try to make picks where you could lose the bomb in counter terrorist controlled areas.  

The reason these are related is that if you get killed with the bomb you want your team to be able to retrieve it relatively quickly and easily and not following these tips can lead to you losing the bomb where your team will have trouble retrieving the bomb.  For example on dust2 playing in dark if you had an awp and decided to try and make a pick in B, you move down the entry to B and get killed in the hall from an awper playing in window, now let’s say that the counter terrorist are using the common 2,1,2 hold with an awp and m4 in B, all it would take is for that awper from window to move to platform overlooking the dropped bomb with the m4 playing up close to make it difficult for your team to retrieve the bomb. it is also highly likely that the players from mid and A will rotate to B making the situation even worse. 

All it would have taken to avoid that situation is for you to drop the bomb in upper dark for a teammate to take so that if you were killed you won’t have put your team in a difficult situation.

The third and fourth tip is in relation to when your team decides to hit a site,

3) Where possible don’t be first or last into the site.

This is something that is often overlooked by a lot of people but can make a big difference in a round. When you are carrying the bomb you do not what to be the first or last person into the site, if your team still has all five members alive the optimum position for you to be with the bomb is third or fourth. The reason you do not want to be one of the first into the site is that they should be focused on clearing the most threatening spots in the site and the getting into position to stop the fast rotators and not be focused on getting close to the plant area. The reason you do not want to be last is that if you are killed the last person can keep running and pick up the bomb, while if you were last someone would have to run back to get the bomb.

4) Don’t go chasing kills

This is one of the most common problems that people new to warring make and it can very easily cause your team to lose a round. They go chasing kills when they have the bomb. Except for specific circumstances such as those discussed in the “how to clutch” guide, when you have the bomb and have made it into the site the first thing you should be doing is planting the bomb. Every second that you delay planting the bomb is and extra second that the counter terrorists have to rotate and defuse the bomb.

The last tip is to do with approaching the site to plant.

 5) Don’t run with the bomb out.

While this may seem very logical, all too often people run to the plant spot with the bomb out. You should keep your weapon out right up until you are ready to start the plant. What happens if you are running with the bomb out and a counter terrorist gets into a position to engage you, he could be a fast rotator or hidden in the site, either way you are an easy target while you draw your weapon and that second it took for you to take out your weapon could be the difference between you killing him and him killing you or one of your teammates.

Planting the bomb

When you get to the site the most important thing for you to do with the bomb is to choose the right spot to plant. The wrong spot could lead to the counter terrorists being able to kill you while you plant the bomb or defuse it without you being able to engage them effectively while a good plant can make it extremely difficult for the counter terrorists to defuse the bomb. All the possible places you could plant the bomb can be broken up into two categories covered plants(also known as hidden plants) and open plants. 

What is a covered plant and an open plant.

The two types of plants are differentiated by how much cover is given to the planter or defuser and how many places a person is able to cover the bomb effectively.  A covered or hidden plant is where the bomb is positioned in a way that the counter terrorists can defuse the bomb while covered from most  angles or where there are few places that terrorists would be able to cover the bomb from.  An open plant is where the bomb is positioned in such a way that the defuser cannot use cover effectively to shield himself from any terrorists or where there are many places where a terrorist can hide and easily kill the defuser.

Choosing the right spot to plant.

When you are choosing where you will plant the bomb there are a number of things to take in to consideration. Do you have teammates covering you, is it likely that a counter terrorist is going to be in a position to engage you while you are planting, what weapons does your team have and what weapons did the counter terrorists have.

Do you have teammates covering you?

if you have teammates covering you, you will generally want to attempt an open plant at least to some extent. When you have 3 or more teammates covering you you should always go going to the best open plant in the site but even when you have only 1 or 2 teammates left covering you, your chance of successfully completing  a plant without a counter terrorist engaging you is quite high so you should be aiming for the best open plant that is safe. For example in Bomb site A on Dust2 if you only have two left on your team and you have approached the site from short and you find that there is a counter terrorist at long it would be best to attempt a short plant with you teammate covering you instead of the long plant. An open plant also means that your team can spread out to cover the different entrances to the sites and still be able to cover the bomb should a counter terrorist start a defuse.

Is it likely that a counter terrorist is going to be in a position to engage you while you are planting?

just because you have one teammate with you does not mean that a counter terrorist will not get into a position to engage you when you plant and just because you are the only terrorist left does not mean that the counter terrorists are going to be close enough to engage you while you plant. you need to make a decision based on where and when the counter terrorists were last spotted as well as how much cover any teammates are giving you. If you know that the counter terrorists are at least 5 seconds away go for that open plant, if they are closer or have a view of the bombsite then go for a covered plant where they cannot see you and it will take them longer to get into a position to engage you.

What weapons does your team have?

When you have an option of places you can plant you should consider the weapons your team has as in some sites certain plants will give a big advantage to different weapons. A classic example is bomb site A on Dust2, if your team only has pistols or MP5’s you would be best with a short plant as you weapons will not be effective from long, while if you have rifles and AWP’s a long plant would normally be recommended.

What weapons did the counter terrorists have?

you want to give yourself the biggest advantage possible so if you know information about what weapons the counter terrorists have use it to your advantage. Try and plant where it allows you to cover from a position that gives you weapons the advantage. If they only have pistols or SMG’s and you have rifles or sniper rifles plant where you can cover from a longer range while if they have sniper rifles and you only have rifles try and plant where you can engage from closer distances.

To demonstrate some good and bad plants the following three examples each show four common locations where people plant the bomb with an explanation as to why or why not that plant is good and when the right time to use that plant would be.

Example 1:

A: Open plant, known as the long plant. It is one of the best plants for this site. It allows you to cover the plant from anywhere in the site including Long and Short (assuming that they do not go for an illegal defuse which is covered from short). You can use this plant almost all the time but notable situations are when you have weapons that are effective at range, you intend holding from pit or when most of your team is still alive
B: Open plant, known as the short plant. Another one of the best plants for this site.  It allows you to cover the bomb from almost everywhere, the only place where you cannot cover from being the end of Long near Pit. You could use this plant when you intend to hold from short, you have weapons more suited to close combat or when there are counter terrorists near Pit.
C: Covered plant, a very common plant but not a very good one, I would almost always call planting here a blunder. While it does give you cover while planting it gives the counter terrorists a lot more cover when they go to defuse the bomb. Never use this plant wherever possible.
D: Covered plant, while there is not much difference between this plant and spot C this is a far superior plant as it reduces the cover the counter terrorists have while defusing while not changing the amount of cover you had planting the bomb. The bomb is still exposed to long but not to the extent of A. You would use this plant when you need to plant under fire from short or CT spawn.

Example 2:

A: Open plant, considered the perfect plant for this site, not only is able to be covered from anywhere in the site including outside B and dark but during the defuse the defuser will have to either look at the ground or be looking at a wall giving you a huge advantage. Use this plant whenever it is safe to do so.
B: Open plant, while this is classified as an open plant it could be considered in some situations as a covered plant as it is protected from dark as well as partial protection from window and doors. This plant is inferior to spot A in almost all cases, it is only when there is a threat of a counter terrorist engaging you from dark while you are planting that this should be an option.
C: Covered plant, a very common plant especially in public games it gives a lot of cover from pretty much any attacking angle, but has the same advantage as A not allowing the counter terrorists to look towards any areas you could threaten them from.  Only use this plant when you are under pressure to plant the bomb and have counter terrorists near who could engage you if you planted at spot A or B.
D: Covered plant,  slightly more exposed from doors and window then C but still provides a lot of cover from pretty much everywhere. Generally this is considered a poor plant as it gives few advantages over spot C but leaves you more exposed while planting the bomb.

Example 3:



 












A: Open plant, considered to be one of the 2 best plants for the site giving cover from library while leaving the bomb exposed to pretty much every other hiding spot around the site. Use this plant when you do not intend holding from library, when you intend to hold from boiler and red roof (diggity) or whenever planting in spot B may be risky due to the possibility of counter terrorists in library or quick rotating through CT spawn.
B: Open plant, the other plant that could be considered one of the best, it requires more cover while you plant and makes it more difficult for you to cover the bomb from red roof (diggity) requiring you to move into the site to kill the defuser but it allows you to cover the bomb from library, alcove and arguably cover the bomb more effectively from pit. I would recommend planting in this spot whenever possible as it can be held from almost anywhere, only exception being when you want to have someone holding from boiler or red roof (diggity).
C: Covered plant,  a good plant when you are required to plant from cover providing fairly good cover from everywhere except graveyard. Use this plant when you are under time constraints to plant the bomb and are at risk of having counter terrorists engage you while you are planting.
D: Covered plant,  probably the plant providing the most cover out of all the examples giving the ability to have cover from everywhere except either graveyard or balcony. Use this plant in the same conditions as spot C

covering a planted bomb

Once you have planted the bomb most of the time you will have given your team an advantage, before now your team has been pressured by the clock to plant the bomb, now the roles have reversed and the counter terrorists have a race against the clock to defuse the bomb. Now you must shift your strategy from being an aggressive player in taking the site to a more defensive role as you defend the bomb but just because as a team you must be thinking defensively don’t think that you cannot play with an aggressive style, there will be times where playing slightly aggressive can pay off and this will be discussed along with other alternative ways to hold a site in the advanced techniques and strategies guide.

When you have planted the bomb your most important decision is how and where you will hold the site. You need to decide if you are going to play a passive or aggressive style defence and where you are going to hold.

What is a Passive or aggressive defence?

In general an aggressive defence is one where you are playing to make picks before the counter terrorists make it into the site, such as having a player stay in mid on dust2 to catch the rotators while a passive defence is one where you wait for the counter terrorists to get to you, this includes picking counter terrorists from within the site, such as awping from window in B on dust2. Normally an aggressive defence is a lot more complicated to organise and execute so this guide is going to focus on a passive defence.

Choosing where you will hold

When you are choosing your position in the site there are four things you should take into consideration. Spread out from your teammates, be able to cover the bomb, cover an entrance and complement your teammates.

Spread out from your teammates.

While there are strategies to hold a site that utilise having multiple people stack an area such as the short stack in Dust2 generally it is preferable to have your team spread out within and in some cases around the site. By spreading out you are giving your team a few benefits, first your team won’t be taken out by a well-placed grenade or well-aimed spray, second it is going to be a lot harder for the counter terrorists to find you all and kill you before they start to defuse the bomb and third it becomes a lot harder to the counter terrorists to defuse the bomb before killing at least a few people on your team as they will be taking fire from multiple directions if they start a defuse.

Be able to cover the bomb.

While the reason for needing to take this into consideration should be self-explanatory how it is achieved can sometimes be misunderstood. Being able to cover the bomb does not mean that you must be able to see the bomb from where you are holding but you must be able to tell when a defuse has started and be able to move into a position where you can engage the defuser within 3 seconds, for example you are able to cover a bomb planted in B from B ramp on Dust2 even tho there is a wall between you and the bomb, when you hear the counter terrorists running to the bomb or the start of the defuse you can start walking to the doors and within 3 seconds you should be in a position to easily kill the defuser.

cover an entrance.

When playing a passive defence one of the most important things you need to do is cover the potential entrances that the counter terrorists could use. The entrance that you choose to cover should ideally be either an entrance not covered by someone else on your team or the entrance with the weakest defence. When you are covering an entrance your position should achieve two things, first give you an advantage in an engagement over any counter terrorist attacking from your entrance and second prevent a counter terrorist from moving into a position to attack one of your teammates who is holding a different entrance from behind.

complement your teammates.

The final thing that you need to take into consideration is where your teammates are and where they are covering. Where possible you want to choose a position where you can support your teammates and there are a couple simple ways you can do this. first is you want to be in a position where you are covering them from any attack from the entrance you are holding and second is trying to be in a position where you can create a crossfire with your teammates.

using grenades.

Grenades are one of the most useful weapons you have to defend the site and being able to use them effectively can greatly increase your chances of winning the round. Unfortunately they are often forgotten and underutilised once players are defending a planted bomb.

HE grenade

Other than the common uses for the HE grenade such as damaging a group of enemies or damaging enemies while they are behind cover, it can be used effectively to defend the bomb by damaging or killing the defuser without exposing yourself to the enemy, e.g. holding A site on Dust2 and throwing a He grenade off the back wall to kill the defuser.

Flashbang

The flashbang is a very powerful grenade in these situations. While most people will use the blinding effect of the flashbang to give them an advantage while engaging their opponents, when the bomb has been planted the flashbang can be used in another way, it can be used to slow the rotation of the counter terrorists into the bomb site. E.g. having planted the bomb at B on Dust2 after a few seconds when you think the counter terrorists would be around the mid doors/B ramp area throw a flashbang over the wall towards CT spawn, the flashbang will normally effectively blind anyone in that area. The effect of this is that the counter terrorists will be unable to effectively move towards the site until most of the blinding effects have worn off and even with a relatively short flash of 3 seconds that is about 10% of the bomb time that you have delayed the rotation by. This effect can be increased further if you can co-ordinate throwing your teams remaining flashbangs such that only one flash is thrown every 3 to 4 seconds.

Smoke grenades.

Smoke grenades are generally considered the hardest grenade to learn to use effectively and often the most underutilised grenades in the game and this is even more evident once the bomb has been planted. Two of the best uses for smoke grenades when the bomb has been planted are, denying the counter terrorist the ability to make picks from outside the site and forcing them to move out of cover to engage you. For example in bomb site B on dust2 there are multiple locations smokes can be used in these ways. A smoke thrown in window will achieve both of these advantages, it will prevent the counter terrorists from seeing into the site or making any picks as well.

How not to be clutched

How not to be clutched

In my previous guide I explained what clutching is and how as an individual player to achieve this.  Now in this Guide I am going to explain how as a team you can avoid being clutched. This is an important thing to understand as a team, as losing a round when you have an advantage can be very demoralising and sometimes can lead to a team falling apart.

Fortunately it is not too hard to put your team in a good position to finish a round once you have put your opponent in a clutch situation; it all revolves around doing your best to put your opponents in impossible situations.

There are 2 elements which you can use to force your opponents into impossible situations:
1) Teamwork
2) Using the time.

1) Teamwork

Teamwork is the most important element in not being clutched. Now I’m going to give an example of how poor team work can lose a round for a team from a war I played quite a while ago on inferno.

We were playing an eco and decided to rush up banana, in the process of taking the site everyone died to the solo awper except Pred. in this 1v4 situation he was able to awp the quick rotator coming from CT, he had enough time pick up the bomb before killing a person pushing banana, then he had enough time to plant the bomb before the next guy came from banana after this it was still a couple of seconds before the last guy came into the site.

So what did they do wrong here? Well if you remember in my guide on how to clutch I said that one of the most important things was breaking the other team into smaller groups. Well in the above situation the opposition effectively did that themselves for Pred, they presumed they had won the round so went chasing the kill. But what would have happened if they had waited to retake the site as a team? Pred would have been in the middle of a cross fire of 4 people from 3 directions and as good as Pred was, it would have taken some divine intervention for him to have won that round, he would have been in an impossible situation.

What you should be doing in any situation is using your advantage to push the opponent into unwinnable situations, what is key is that when possible you should be playing so that you can cover and create crossfires with your teammates at all times. This does not mean that you should play right next to them in fact that would be a bad idea as it would allow a well aim spray to take you both out. You want to be playing where you can watch your spot but still be able to quickly put yourself in a position to assist your teammate.

As a Counter Terrorist:
As a counter terrorist there are going to be three situations, the terrorist’s still have the bomb, the bomb has been dropped or the bomb has been planted. When the terrorist’s still have the bomb you have a number of options on how to play depending on how many players are left on your team, I am going to focus on when there are 2 or 3 players left on your team as these are the most common rounds and also the most challenging.

If it is a 2v1 and you do not know where the last terrorist is with the bomb there are two options to choose from, you can either play one person per site or both play the same site. If you choose to both play the same site, which I would recommend in most cases as you will not be splitting your team, make sure that you are both playing in positions which allow you to support each other. This option is especially advantageous on the maps where the bomb sites are close together such as nuke, however you need to be careful on maps such as train which have a large number of hiding spots as well as maps where the bomb sites are spread quite far apart such as season and inferno as this will prove a hindrance when it comes to retaking the other site should the bomb get planted there.

If you choose to play one person per site, which can be preferable on some maps and in some situations, both players must play passively as the objective of playing like this is to get a faster rotate so that you can use your advantage in numbers. You should be playing either in a position where it would be hard for the terrorist to kill you before your teammate can rotate to help you, such as at the back of the trains at the inside bombsite on train, or you could try and play in a hiding spot inside the site in an attempt to get the terrorist as he plants the bomb, this may be risky against experienced player because generally they will tend check all of the hiding spots before starting to plant the bomb. No matter which style to choose to play try not to get into a standing fire fight with the enemy before your teammate has rotated, the last thing you want is to turn your 2v1 advantage into a 1v1.

If you are in a 3v1 situation generally your best course of actions is to have 2 players working together at one of the sites with the third person playing a passive role at the other site. For example on nuke it would be preferable to have two people playing the top site and one person the vents watching the lower site.

If you have killed the bomber you are probably in the best position to win the round, generally the bomb will have been dropped either in a site or around a choke point where a push was stopped. Almost always in this situation there is only one thing you should do, have everyone cover the bomb; treat it as if it is the only bomb site in the map. Everyone should be in a position such that all the possible locations that the terrorist could come from are covered and if the terrorist is coming from someone else’s position they can quickly move to create a crossfire.

The final situation, when the bomb has been planted essentially is the most dependant on team work. The most important thing is that unless there is not much time left on the bomb timer, nobody should hit the site by themselves. You want to enter the site as a team and if possible from multiple locations so that the terrorist’s must split their firepower. The first thing you want to do is see where the bomb is, what you do next depends on whether it is an open plant or a covered plant. If it is an open plant with many places the terrorist could be hiding it is more important that you find him while if it is a covered plant or there are only a few places the terrorist could cover the bomb from you can have one person defuse while the others watch the potential spots the terrorist could be. If you have not in a position to engage the terrorist the first thing you should do before starting the defuse is if possible have someone throw a smoke on the bomb to cover the defuser, next any other smokes should be put in places to hinder the terrorist.

If you are not in a position to fully cover the defuser there are a couple of tricks that can be used to finish the defuse, the first is to use your body as a shield while the defuse finishes, this will only work if there are only a couple of seconds left on the defuse and the terrorist is not close, otherwise you will just both end up dying. The second will only work if there is a position which is hidden from the terrorist the first person start the defuse from behind cover while the second person pretends to be defusing in the open. The terrorist will peak and kill the fake defuser and hopefully assume that he stopped the defuse allowing the defuse to finish. Both of these techniques should only be used in the most desperate of cases as you are sacrificing a player for the round when you could have saved the money and possibly killed the terrorist.

2) Using the time

The other important element in putting your opponent in an impossible situation is using the time. Essentially there is only one time when you are going to be able to use the time effectively to put the opponent into an impossible situation.

As a Terrorist:
your main objective as a terrorist is to plant the bomb and in a round where you have put your opponent in a clutch situation doing so will give you a further advantage, you have just given the counter terrorist’s a very tight time constraint to take the site and defuse the bomb.

The first thing to consider in this situation is where to plant the bomb, you want to make sure that it is in a position that can be covered from as many angles as possible. This will allow you to spread out and still cover the bomb from multiple angles. For example say you have taken the top site on nuke and it’s a 1v3 or even a 2v3 with the bomb planted on the annex side of the boxes. If you had one person playing snipers/rafters, one playing hut and the last person playing outside annex, as long as nobody peeks until they hear the defuse the counter terrorist’s will not have time to find everyone, kill them and then defuse the bomb. In doing this you have effectively put the counter terrorist’s in an unwinnable situation simply by utilising the tight time limit

Essentially proper teamwork and making sure that your team does not become overconfident as well as an understanding of what can make you vulnerable to losing this type of round is generally enough to prevent the majority of people from clutching.

Guide to Clutching: outgunned and outnumbered… but not outplayed!

Guide to Clutching: outgunned and outnumbered… but not outplayed!

Before I go into how to clutch I should first explain what it is. Clutching for the purpose of this guide and in my opinion is where your team is able to win a round against the odds, whether it is a 1v2 or a 2 v 5.

The ability to be able to clutch is an important element of being a good player. This is because on top of the standard benefits of winning a round it has an added benefit, Psychology. This effect is on two fronts.

1) clutching a round especially a 2 v 5 or a 1 v 5 can give your team a big boost and inspire the whole team to play better.
2)losing a round where your team has a big advantage such as a 1v4 can be very demoralising and in some cases can cause a team to fall apart as they start blaming each other etc.

The ability to clutch well can be broken down into 3 things.
1) knowledge of the map and how the opponent likes to play.
2) Time management
3) ability to split the opponent’s team.

1) Knowledge.

Knowledge is the first part of being able to clutch, first you need to have a good knowledge of the map, most importantly where the strong points are, where the common holding places are and how long it takes to get to places both running and walking. Second is knowledge of the opponent, what I mean by this is, how do they like to play, what guns are they using, how aggressive are they, where do they commonly play from. With this information when it comes down to a 1v3 you should be able to have a good guess on where they are and how they will rotate.  Then you can use this to your advantage. E.g. In the second half of war on inferno a while back I was in a 1v1 on CT side and the bomb was planted at B, I rotated through library and from the first half I knew that the opponent liked to play from graveyard so after walking along graveyard checking the site i threw a flash into graveyard and came around the corner to graveyard stairs almost pre-firing and killed him. The point of this, when you know what your opponent likes to do you can use that to get the upper hand.

2) Time management

Whenever you are in a clutch situation you should consider the clock with everything you do. On T side most important is that you don’t want to run out of time, but you also want to make the best use of the time you have left as well. When on CT side you want to be considering the time and what you think the opponent will be doing, using the time well on CT’s is just as important as on T’s especially when it comes to timing rotates just that couple of seconds you gained because you realised they had to be at the other site could be all you need to finish defusing the bomb and remember letting the time run out is still a win on CT’s. When on T’s if you have a lot of time left on the clock you should make use of it, if possible don’t just go plant the bomb straight away you are just creating a big beacon for the CT’s saying I’m here come gang up on me. Instead use the time to confuse them, make them guess where you are, this will force them to split their forces to guard both sites.  Turn an unwinnable situation into a winnable one. And this leads me to the main point of clutching

3)splitting the opponent’s team.

Whenever you have time your primary objective should be to break up the opponent’s team into smaller ‘killable’ chunks. Why? Because even if you’re playing a bad team it’s going to be easier to pick them off one by one then to take on three on more people at once. For this you need to take into account the knowledge I talked about in the first part and time management.  You want to use the map to split the team as best you can within the time you have left.  E.g. lets say that you are playing T’s on D2 and the strat called was a split, you are going short and the bomber is with you, your team begins to take the site and kills the 2 CT’s defending the site but all 4 team mates go down.  Now instead of running to plant the bomb you pick it up and walk to catwalk and wait for a few second to see if you can get a CT rotating too fast from lower or mid. Then you have an option you could quickly go to B and try to get the bomb down while they have rotated to A or you can try to fake them by hiding in short for 30 seconds before hitting A in the hope that they either think you went to B and start to rotate back or they split up to cover both sites as they realise they don’t know where you or the bomb is anymore.  What I was trying to demonstrate is the advantage of trying to do things that are unexpected, instead of always advancing to the bomb site try catching the opponent by surprise, try to kill the early rotators, occasionally fake a bomb site.

When on T’s the last part of clutching is often once you get the bomb down, and I’m going to break this down 2 situations.
1) when there are 3 or more CT’s left most of the time you are going to want to whittle down their numbers before they start the defuse otherwise they could have one defuse while the others can cover the few places you could be hiding( generally the only exception is in sites like inside on train where with a good plant there are more places to hide and peek the defuser then CT’s to cover them), often the best way to whittle the numbers is  to try and peek them as they rotate to the site.

2) when there are only one or 2 CT’s you have a much better chance you can attempt to hide then you can start your job of making it hard to defuse the bomb, do things like when you hear to defuse peek and kill the defuser, throw flashbangs, generally be an annoyance remember you don’t need to kill them all, you only need to make it hard enough that they can’t defuse the bomb in time.

In summary, to clutch: break up the opponent’s team into ‘killable chunks’ by making them guess where you are and forcing them to rotate to where you are not, within the time limit using what you know about how they play. When this is done well a 1v5 can quickly turn into a 1v1

The unwritten laws of warring

The unwritten laws of warring.

1. At the beginning of every round do not buy! Instead, type how much money you have (assuming the war mod does not do it for you). Then buy what the caller wants, if it’s an eco don’t buy it does not matter how much money you have unless you can buy for the rest of the team you will have some people with guns others without. Same goes for buys like deco and nade’s only

2. Always listen to the caller. It’s better to have a team working together then an unorganised rabble. Do not talk at the beginning of the round everyone needs to understand what the caller is saying. Also whatever happened previously does not matter now. Don’t yell at people in a war you need to be focused and Being negative will only harm the team. The next training is the time for bringing up improvements that can be made and practiced and even then be positive and don’t play the blame game. 

3. Gun>Defuse>nades>Armor. If you have a choice between a defuse kit or armor, get the kit.

4. When CT often the caller will not be in a position to see what is happening at each site so it is useful to have someone calling at each site. Also have a variety of different strategies at each site you don’t want the opponent to catch on to what you do. Note that these holds should be practiced beforehand. 

5. most important on CT side but also important with set strats on T side. Do not randomly push. Let people know first. While pushing at the right time can give your team a big advantage whether from killing a couple of opponents or from the information you can obtain (e.g. if mid CT pushed up mid on D2 and did not see a T behind long halls and someone holding long knows they are not at long already the team can be pretty sure they are in dark or backyard and can react accordingly.) Pushing is often risky and can open a gap that opponents can slip through. This means if your team mates are not prepared they could get shot from behind.

6. Call what you see, if they are rushing your site, call it, how many opponents you know are there (sound and sight), and most importantly if you see the bomb. If you rotate to help someone, say you are rotating just like pushing. Also be careful of rotating when the bomb has not been seen they may be playing a goblin. Conversely if the bomb is down or bomber has dedicated to a push everyone should rotate, if they take the other site it does not matter if they can’t plant and if the bomb is on the ground it forces them to take on your whole team or lose the round (note. If the t’s lose a round and don’t die they don’t get any money). Lastly Call before you are dead, not after.

7. When retaking a site, unless there is no time to group up wait for everyone to be ready to enter the site. Throw flash bangs and smoke, and then take the site together. If you start defusing, make sure someone is ready to cover you and if possible pop a smoke on the bomb with the latest updates it makes it a lot harder for the T’s to pick off the defuser. And as the defuser do not assume that others are covering you unless they say they are.

8. When throwing a flashbang near others on your team say you are throwing one. It means they can be prepared whether they were just about to peek and stop for that one second or you threw a bad flash.

9. As T, follow the strategy exactly as it was practiced. For example a 2-3 split on A if you need to go one way because you have the bomb or an awp let people know also be smart if you are heading towards short and 2 people are already there go back to long. In other words do not do whatever you want this is just like pushing and rule 2, let the caller know what you are doing, if they don’t like it don’t do it. If you are doing whatever you want it will lead to an unorganised team and most likely a lost round.

10. Once the bomb is planted, cover a specific spot. Call where you are covering, and listen to where others are covering. (Note: in a 1v1 do not peek wait for the defuse, and then you peek and kill them, or get them to stop defusing. This will be explained further in the how to clutch guide.)

11. Except for the very beginning of the round before the opponent can be in a position to hear you or where a strategy calls for it you should never run. It makes noise same goes for other noise making actions like switching weapons or jumping. Any opponent with half a clue will notice it. So always walk. Common exceptions are rushes, hitting a site and decoys.

12. When picking, pick as a group. Flash then peek as a team. Don't do it stupidly (i.e. leaving a flank exposed, line up), do something like have one jump out and the other strafe out.

13. DO NOT BAIT YOUR TEAMMATES.

14. The most common failing point of a rush when this is violated. When a rush is called RUSH do not stop, keep running. It does not matter if you are flashed or get binked. A) if you are flashed the other behind or infront of you probably are not stopping will block them. B) the strength of a rush is the overwhelming force and speed which it brings. Having 5 players in the site means 5 targets for the CT’s to shoot, if they kill you when you were blind it means one of your team mates who is not blind is still shooting accurately back/ killing the opponent. If it was done the other way with 2 rushing in 2 coming in after because they were flashed and 1 hiding back not only are they are just going to pick you off one by one but they will call it and now instead of something like a 5v2 for the site you end up with a 2v5 to try and get the bomb back. 

15. Very simple rule that I would hope would not be new to anyone. At the end of the round, do not shoot your teammates. If they need to buy armor because you damaged them they won’t be happy and your team is down $1000. If this kills them, they are going to be pissed. And your team is down $4500 – $7500.

16. Most probably your team does not care if you are lagging or if your dad was talking to you. They don't want to hear excuses. Either you made the shot or you didn't. If you made it excellent keep it up. If you didn't don’t worry about it and your team mates should not either. Just get it out of your mind and focus on getting that amazing shot next round. 

17. following on from 16 if someone on your team does something great, wins a 1v2 – 1v5, makes some great shots etc. even if the round was lost congratulate them. Positive thinking can go a long way.

17. Once you are dead, you do not talk on vent. Others need to hear what’s happening in game. And unless you’re the caller don’t go telling people what they should be doing, if they stuff up because they made a mistake it will stick in their head better and they won’t make the mistake again. If you still think you should say something take a note of it and bring it up at the next training.

18. Do not message mode one unless you are the team captain. It does not matter if they are E-thugs. Let them be they can lose by default in their next ladder war. (note: in most competitions anyone but captain using mm1 without a legitimate cause is a reason for dispute with penalties ranging from rounds over turned to match overturned and suspension. Its unsportsmanlike conduct.)