You’re playing CS:GO as a CT and suddenly you hear your teammate saying “they’re A, they’re A… damn, saw 3 and they’re planting”. And there you go again - it’s time to prepare for yet another retake and try to save the round for your team. How do you and your teammates prepare for one of the hardest parts of a CS:GO round?

This article will not focus on a single map or position. The goal of the text you’re about to read is to help you to understand how to improve your odds of succeeding at a retake even before you start it. Remember, trying to retake is not always the best solution.

Ok, Your Opponents Planted, Now What?

The first step is really simple and is something you need to be aware of at all times during your match - know how many players are alive.

Ideally, you want to be at least with the same number of players alive or, even better, with a man advantage (but that’s not always the case). After that, look at the map and the positions of your teammates. Are you separated or are you close by? How much time do you take to group up? This last question is important, because the time you have to do the retake and defuse is, naturally, very limited.

Let’s say you’re 3v3 and the bomb is planted. You have no idea where your opponents are going to be hiding and defending the bomb from, but you have three players ready to go for the retake.

How Much Utility Do You Have?

I don’t mean only you, but all the players in your team. Understand a very basic rule of CS:GO - the less utility you have, the harder your game will be, doesn’t matter the situation. You have one smoke and three flashbangs - where do you throw your smoke? Most players would say that smoking the bomb is the way to go, and that’s generally true, but not always. If you’re with a man advantage and know where the last opponent is, you want to smoke him off and not the bomb, for example.

With the recent update that allows players to drop utility, you can drop your flashbangs to one player that throws them while the others push. Make sure the player flashing knows what he’s doing - you want him to be flashing in a way that blinds the majority of the site while not blinding you.

Play Together!

When going for a retake, you need to have your communication on point. That’s one of the main reasons why playing CT without a premade team is hard - the rotations need to happen fast, information needs to be relayed even faster and trades have to happen. And I can’t stress the trades part enough.

When going for a retake, make sure that trades do happen. It’s rare for a retake to happen without losing a few players, but if it works in the end it doesn’t matter (unless you have a really fragile economy). Have the support player flash, push together, avoid lining up and make sure the second player is ready to react to a possible death of the player that went first.

The Faster You Start the Retake, the Better

This is not a valid rule for every single situation, but it’s something to have in mind every time. The more time you give to your opponents after planting, the better their post-plant positions. If you start a retake as soon as the bomb is planted, you’ll generally have at least the planter being caught unaware, generally having a player next to him covering the plant. If you push with more than one player during that moment, there’s a higher probability of coming out on top of that situation.

Even starting the retake 10 seconds after the plant is better than starting it after 30 with everything fully prepared… unless you want to try to make your opponents think you’re saving and trying to go for that cheeky ninja defuse (that 99% of times does not work).

But… Should You Really Go for the Retake?

Like I said previously, there are situations where you should really think if going for the retake is the best thing to do. Retakes are one of the hardest situations in CS:GO, and the only thing you have guaranteed is a failure. And, depending on the situation of the match, a failed retake can sometimes mean the loss of the map.

Look at your economy. Before committing to a retake, take a look at the team’s economy. You should be asking yourself two things:

Will we have money to buy in the next round?

If we don’t, it’s the risk of losing more than one round in a row worth it?

Let’s say you’re winning 13:4 - maybe the risk of losing the retake and ecoing the next round is worth trying to go for the retake. In the worst situation, you’ll just be losing 13:6 after losing those two rounds. But what if it’s 13:13? You might end up facing match point because you were unable to buy on 13:14 after losing the retake. Saving even 2-3 guns on the 13:13 by deciding to not go for the retake is generally enough to have weapons dropped for everyone and improve your chances of getting to 14:14 - and still, end up losing 14:16, but that’s a whole other story.

The other situation where you might consider an immediate save is when you know that your chance of actually succeeding is minimal. For example, a 3v4 on Dust2’s B is something that no player likes to find themselves in - that’s pretty much an automatic save for me.

Different players like to do different things, that’s a given, but sometimes it’s (really, really) worth sacrificing a single round to avoid losing two or three in a row. Think about that.

All in all, CS:GO is a game where no two rounds are the same, and deciding when to go for the retake ends up being something that is decided on the go, in less than a few seconds. The more you play, the more experience you’ll have to make better judgments on each different situation.

Thank you for reading this article. Hopefully, it will help you become a better CS:GO player. You can reach out to me for feedback and/or suggestions via Twitter.

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