Clutch situations are some of the most difficult and stressful situations in the game. Not only do you have to try and win the round without any help, but you have the constant added pressure of your entire team watching your every move while silently or, more likely, vocally judging you whenever you make a mistake. Today I’m going to give some very helpful advice that can make these situations far easier.

When to Clutch

Generally you’re not going to want to try and clutch a round, as it can be more beneficial in certain cases to either save a weapon or kill some of the remaining enemy players before the round ends, depending on the financial situation of both teams. However if your team is filthy rich and doesn’t have to worry about having an eco round in the near future, or the remainder of the enemy team is very low on health, then you should consider trying to win the round for your team.

Dealing With Teammates

If you do decide to try to clutch, the first thing you’ll want to do when your last teammate dies is ask your team for useful information. This consists of anything that can help you win the round such as where the remaining enemies are, how much health the enemies have, where the bomb was last sighted / planted, or what weapons the enemies are using. Once your team has given you all the information they have, it can be very helpful to mute them, so as to avoid them backseat gaming and ruining your concentration. To mute all players easily, I suggest setting up a key bind. For example if you want to use F11 to mute all and F12 to unmute all players, you would open the command console and enter the following commands: bind "F11" "voice_enable 0" and bind "F12" "voice_enable 1". Now you can play the game peacefully without having to worry about the 12 year old on your team loudly trying to tell you what to do.

Smaller Victories to Be Had

If you don’t feel confident in your ability to win the round alone then not all is lost, there are still several things you can try to accomplish instead of trying to win the round. This can be anything from saving your weapon, trying to kill some of the remaining enemy players, or planting the bomb. Whichever you choose will depend upon what the economic situation. If your team doesn’t have much money going into the following round, try to save your weapon, or plant the bomb to gain an extra $800 for every member of your team. If your team has a lot of money but you suspect the enemy team may not have a lot of money it may be best to try and kill as many of the enemy players as possible, forcing them to rebuy their equipment the next round.

Playing the Objective

If you decide to clutch, the easiest way to increase your odds of winning the round is to play around the bomb. If you’re on the CT side, try to prevent the enemy team from planting the bomb by hiding on the bombsite you think the enemy team is most likely to attack and attempt to kill the bomb planter. Bear in mind if the Ts run out of time in the round then they lose. If you have absolutely no clue which site the enemy team is going to attack, stay between the two sites so you can listen for footsteps or the sound of the bomb being planted.

If you’re on the T side, get the bomb planted ASAP, and then stall the enemy team so that they don’t have enough time to defuse it. If the bomb timer is very low, to keep the CTs from defusing it for a few more seconds, throw a Molotov on the bomb to completely deny them from access to it.

You can also fake the objective by starting to plant/defuse the bomb then immediately pulling out your weapon, in hopes that the enemy CT players will peek while you plant and will expose their positions. Fake defusing also forces the enemy to show themselves as the enemy T players can’t risk the chance of you fully defusing the bomb and have to try and either kill you or at the very least force you to stop defusing the bomb.

Isolating the Enemy Team

If playing the objective is not a viable option (for example, the enemy team has dropped the bomb carrier while you were on the other side of the map), then your other option is to kill some of the enemy players. When playing at a lower skill level, just wait for the enemy team to get impatient and try to attack one at a time, it’s far easier to kill one player at a time than it is to kill two players at the same time. When playing at a higher skill level the enemy team will no doubt know better than to rush you, and will likely set up a crossfire around the bomb. This is where smoke grenades become your best friend, as they can break up crossfires and isolate the remaining players. If you don’t have any grenades to help you win the round it may be wiser to just try and save your weapons, unless you can kill some of the remaining enemies quickly and bring things back into a 1v1.

Retaking Bombsites

Some bombsites are far more difficult to retake than others. For example, the B Bombsite on Dust 2 is widely considered the most difficult bombsite to retake as there are only 3 narrow choke points from which to enter the site. The A Bombsite on Mirage is considered to be one of the easiest Bombsites to retake as there are several entry points for the CTs and there aren’t many positions for the terrorists to hold that can’t easily be outflanked or smoked off completely. These are just some things to consider when trying to clutch the round.

I hope this tutorial helps you improve your gameplay. If you feel as though I’ve left out some important points, mention them in the comment section. Now good luck, and have fun.

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