Your teammates have been overrun by the Terrorists and the bomb has been planted. You start rotating, hastily checking your corners for a Terrorist lying in wait for you. The coast seems clear, but you know your enemies will swing around the corner the moment they hear the beep indicating the bomb's defusal. You want to push further and eliminate the enemies before they can spot you, but there is no time. The bomb is beeping more quickly every second. Your heartbeat increases, palms become sweaty, and mind is racing. It's now or never.

If you have ever found yourself in this situation, you might have fumbled the clutch, dazed by the many possible scenarios running through your head. In this guide, I take a look at some of the actions you can take to win the round. Ultimately, all of these options boil down to variations of two basic options. You will either lure out your enemies from their hiding spots by faking the defuse or you will call your enemies' bluff and ninja defuse. Both of them can be quite dangerous, but luckily there is an arsenal of tools at your disposal that can help you get the upper hand in any situation.

Fake Defuse

First off, let's take a look at the fake defuse. A fake defuse means that you press the button to start defusing, only to immediately release it. By doing so, hopefully, you can lure an enemy into the open who has to check whether you are sticking the defuse or not. By letting go of the defuse, you can reposition yourself and lie in wait for the unlucky enemy to have to push you. Naturally, to do this you need to walk away from the bomb. A rookie mistake still made by many people playing on high levels is to run instead of walking, making sound in the process. For example, see if you can hear the footstep after the fake defuse in the following clip:

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The sound of a single step alerted me that I should not peek yet because I knew he was trying to figure out where I was hiding instead of defusing the bomb. Had he not made any sound, I would have had no other option but to push or call him bluff, equally risky possibilities. So whenever you fake the defuse, remember to press the key to walk, or as one of my friends would say, "Don't run around like an elephant."

Usually, when rotating, you will have some time to clear at least part of the site. Doing so is usually a smart move, as it will provide crucial information as to which angles you can rule out. Based on this information, position yourself optimally to cover as many angles as you can while being exposed to as few angles as possible. Keep in mind, however, that in many cases your position can simply not be as perfect as you would want it. That is simply the curse of the rotator, and the only thing you can try to do is to minimize the risks entering the site.

Once you've tapped the bomb, try to reposition towards an off-angle and predict where an enemy will appear. If the enemy suspects you have a defuse kit, he will have less than 5 seconds to peek and kill. Pre-aim a position and if the enemy has not appeared after two seconds, there is a good chance he will come at you from another angle, so adapt to that information. Keep in mind, however, that he can also be calling your bluff and simply hide until you inevitably start defusing for real.

During these intense situations, you will find a good friend in your utility. Different types of utility can be crucial to clutching, all in their own way. A smoke grenade can even be used for different purposes. You can either throw one on the bomb itself, which allows you to tap the bomb and reposition without your enemy knowing. Don't forget to press the walk button before repositioning and be careful of the natural reflex of your enemy to start spraying through the smoke. While it gives you a useful indication of his position, it might also bring down your HP to critical levels.

Another option is to smoke off the angle from which you predict the enemy will come. By tapping the bomb, you force him to push through the smoke, granting you a massive advantage and an easy kill. Other utility usage is fairly self-evident. A Molotov is an excellent tool to prevent an enemy from pushing an angle (or at least take damage doing so), while flashes can be used to blind any pushing enemies. Grenades, then, are used for dealing some early damage to secure yourself an easier later kill.

Ninja Defuse

Another possibility is not to fake the defuse, but to stick it and defuse the bomb right under the Terrorist's noses, known as 'ninja defusing'. This is particularly risky, as you are entirely vulnerable during the time it takes you to defuse. However, there are several situations in which ninja defusing is a very viable tactic. For example, the last remaining terrorist is the lurker that has to rotate from the other site. Or, you have managed to stay hidden on the site or entered it when the terrorists decide to withdraw from it to hunt you. In these situations, it is generally a good idea to wait for the enemies to get as far from the site as possible while making sure you still have time to defuse the bomb. Finally, a ninja defuse can also be a last resort. Perhaps you have tried to find the position of the last enemy but time has run out, you have no choice but to defuse the bomb and, for whatever reason, it is not worth saving the gun.

For a long time, it was a valid tactic to start defusing and to spin your mouse around in a random pattern. This would make the in-game model, and particularly its head, spin around at such speed that it would be nearly impossible to get a quick, clean kill. However, in one of the latest updates, Valve patched the game so that the defuse is automatically interrupted if you spin around too fast, thus removing the possibility of this tactic. Consequently, it will be no surprise that utility has become even more important in pulling off a successful ninja defuse.

The possibilities mentioned under the 'fake defuse' section generally also apply here. However, instead of putting down a cloud of smoke to use it as a quick escape route, this time you will drop the smoke to hide in during the defuse. This works better if the enemy has no idea where the bomb was planted and if the smoke is not dropped right on the bomb, but slightly to the side of it. This way, the enemy cannot simply spray the middle of the smoke to end the defuse. Often, players will also drop a flash by clicking the right mouse button while defusing. This will blind any enemy looking directly at you for almost two seconds. This may not seem long, but during a five-second defuse it can mean the difference between getting sprayed down and defusing the bomb successfully.

Ultimately, clutching rounds as a CT when the bomb is planted comes down to playing smart and collected. The tips in this article can give you some guidance on the possible actions you can take to win the round. Not only will this net you more rounds on the CT-side overall, losing rounds such as these can be very tilting for the enemy team, especially when it comes to ninja defuses, and will give your team a massive boost in confidence. However, also think about the rounds after the one you are playing. Especially with the current state of the economy, in the long run it might be better to save your equipment for the following rounds rather than trying to do the impossible.