Clutching
This guide/explanatory thread is going to address the art of clutching, or 1vX. A lot of it has been taken from The Art Of CS and just re-worded, along with a few things I've picked up myself.
The most important skill you have to have is thinking fast. The main principle of clutching is to have a plan, and execute it objective by objective. I quote from TAO-CS "You have to know how you're going to take down the second guy before you even kill the first." So obviously, you need to know how they'll be set up.
When you find yourself in a clutch situation, it's VERY IMPORTANT to have information from earlier rounds as to where the opponent's big players are playing, what guns they use, how they rotate/push, and then deduct how to move from there. See denxi's article on skill (stickied in the Guide section) for a more in-depth explanation.
When you're GR with the bomb down and you're LMS (last man standing), the pressure is on. You've got to find and kill X amount of enemies and then defuse the bomb, which takes about 4 seconds, or 8-9 without a defuse kit. A helpful thing to do is when you get the bomb down message, take note of what time the clock is at (unless they pulled a Xanax and planted with less then 30 seconds) so that you know roughly what time it will explode. It takes 30 seconds from when it's planted to do so. You can look back on it later to know if you have time to flash/smoke when entering the site, or if you have to defuse (if you haven't already memorized the audible beeping patterns).
A helpful exercise they used in TAO-CS was to describe a clutch situation, tell the reader to go over in their mind how they would do it, and then read on to see if they were correct or not. I'll employ the same exercise.
-Bomb is down in B on black widow, with 3 BL's still alive. You don't know where they are-
When entering the bombsite (I have a silver M4), I like to smoke B double doors before I enter, not in the entrance but a bit further into the site so that I can go either left/right without being too visible. My first objective would be to clear box room, since it would be very simple to pick me off while defusing from there, and I can't smoke under windows because I already used it on doors. Once I check/kill enemies in box room (I wouldn't push out into water unless I know someone plays there from previous rounds), I would jump out windows while in the air checking gaybox (the one to your left going out). After that, I would use my nade, assuming I have one, on double stack in back of site, and put 5-7 bullets in it, too. If I didn't have a nade I would have to run to it and prefire the box, then go defuse. None of this would be done shift-walking.
All this is done in about 10-15 seconds so even if I'm at A plat it's still do-able. A sterotype people place on clutching is that you have to "ninja" the whole thing. This applies to a lot of scenarios, but it's all situational; there's literally dozens of different ways to do that same scenario I just described.
A random tip for GR: If you have absolutely no time left and no enemies are in sight, throw a nade and start defusing at the same time it explodes to cover the defusing sound.
As BL, in my opinion, clutching is made much easier since you have no time constraint, except for the long round times. If you have bomb, it makes it that much easier. Even without 5 players, most teams will split the sites as they normally would against 1 BL player if they don't know where bomb is. This is a mistake. The best way to avoid being clutched is to stay together. If you know they're split, draw upon past information to know where their weakest players are, what spots they're likely to use, and then exploit it. Hit them where they are the most vulnerable, clearing spots with wallabang spams and displacing enemies in far-away spots with a nade. Once you plant, you have to pick a position where you can focus on 1 entrance point while being able to pop out and get the jump on approaching GR's. If they know your position, stall for time as long as possible and make quick peaks only aiming for the defuser (if there's 3+ alive). In a 1v2, kill the GR who's not defusing and then play the bomb with the other (only peeking when you're sure he's defusing). In a 1v1, it's a simple matter to pop out and kill him/her. Be wary of the "fake defuse" where the player makes the defuse noise and then starts clearing the area silently. If you can, prime a flashbang and throw it when you hear the first noise.
When you know the GR's are on the dropped bomb, things get much more difficult. You have to put yourselves in their shoes and think where they would be and what area they would be watching. If you know more than 2 are near the bomb, clear the angle slowly, checking all the spots. If it's just 1 GR left, jump out and pop him. If you want, displace him with a nade or flash him.
Sometimes in a 1v1 situation where the bomb is down the GR player will play the site the BL player is most likely to plant in. Example is if bomb is under cat, the GR player will go into B window room and just watch the door/wait for the planting noise. If you pick up the bomb in a similar situation and the GR player is nowhere to be seen, pick up the bomb, clear ALL THE SPOTS in the site most obvious site (A in that situation), and plant.
If you can mitigate how hard the clutch actually is, mentally, it works wonders. You stop playing scared and start playing smart. A lot of the time I see my team intimidated at a clutch and they blow it because they miss an easy shot or make a dumb move. Without that heart beating in your ears it makes it a lot easier (even physically) to pull off that 1vX situation. If your team is talking on vent, yell at them to shut the hell up.
Soooooo that's about all I could think of to put in this guide. If I need something added I'll speak to a mod about it. Thanks for reading.
The most important skill you have to have is thinking fast. The main principle of clutching is to have a plan, and execute it objective by objective. I quote from TAO-CS "You have to know how you're going to take down the second guy before you even kill the first." So obviously, you need to know how they'll be set up.
When you find yourself in a clutch situation, it's VERY IMPORTANT to have information from earlier rounds as to where the opponent's big players are playing, what guns they use, how they rotate/push, and then deduct how to move from there. See denxi's article on skill (stickied in the Guide section) for a more in-depth explanation.
When you're GR with the bomb down and you're LMS (last man standing), the pressure is on. You've got to find and kill X amount of enemies and then defuse the bomb, which takes about 4 seconds, or 8-9 without a defuse kit. A helpful thing to do is when you get the bomb down message, take note of what time the clock is at (unless they pulled a Xanax and planted with less then 30 seconds) so that you know roughly what time it will explode. It takes 30 seconds from when it's planted to do so. You can look back on it later to know if you have time to flash/smoke when entering the site, or if you have to defuse (if you haven't already memorized the audible beeping patterns).
A helpful exercise they used in TAO-CS was to describe a clutch situation, tell the reader to go over in their mind how they would do it, and then read on to see if they were correct or not. I'll employ the same exercise.
-Bomb is down in B on black widow, with 3 BL's still alive. You don't know where they are-
When entering the bombsite (I have a silver M4), I like to smoke B double doors before I enter, not in the entrance but a bit further into the site so that I can go either left/right without being too visible. My first objective would be to clear box room, since it would be very simple to pick me off while defusing from there, and I can't smoke under windows because I already used it on doors. Once I check/kill enemies in box room (I wouldn't push out into water unless I know someone plays there from previous rounds), I would jump out windows while in the air checking gaybox (the one to your left going out). After that, I would use my nade, assuming I have one, on double stack in back of site, and put 5-7 bullets in it, too. If I didn't have a nade I would have to run to it and prefire the box, then go defuse. None of this would be done shift-walking.
All this is done in about 10-15 seconds so even if I'm at A plat it's still do-able. A sterotype people place on clutching is that you have to "ninja" the whole thing. This applies to a lot of scenarios, but it's all situational; there's literally dozens of different ways to do that same scenario I just described.
A random tip for GR: If you have absolutely no time left and no enemies are in sight, throw a nade and start defusing at the same time it explodes to cover the defusing sound.
As BL, in my opinion, clutching is made much easier since you have no time constraint, except for the long round times. If you have bomb, it makes it that much easier. Even without 5 players, most teams will split the sites as they normally would against 1 BL player if they don't know where bomb is. This is a mistake. The best way to avoid being clutched is to stay together. If you know they're split, draw upon past information to know where their weakest players are, what spots they're likely to use, and then exploit it. Hit them where they are the most vulnerable, clearing spots with wallabang spams and displacing enemies in far-away spots with a nade. Once you plant, you have to pick a position where you can focus on 1 entrance point while being able to pop out and get the jump on approaching GR's. If they know your position, stall for time as long as possible and make quick peaks only aiming for the defuser (if there's 3+ alive). In a 1v2, kill the GR who's not defusing and then play the bomb with the other (only peeking when you're sure he's defusing). In a 1v1, it's a simple matter to pop out and kill him/her. Be wary of the "fake defuse" where the player makes the defuse noise and then starts clearing the area silently. If you can, prime a flashbang and throw it when you hear the first noise.
When you know the GR's are on the dropped bomb, things get much more difficult. You have to put yourselves in their shoes and think where they would be and what area they would be watching. If you know more than 2 are near the bomb, clear the angle slowly, checking all the spots. If it's just 1 GR left, jump out and pop him. If you want, displace him with a nade or flash him.
Sometimes in a 1v1 situation where the bomb is down the GR player will play the site the BL player is most likely to plant in. Example is if bomb is under cat, the GR player will go into B window room and just watch the door/wait for the planting noise. If you pick up the bomb in a similar situation and the GR player is nowhere to be seen, pick up the bomb, clear ALL THE SPOTS in the site most obvious site (A in that situation), and plant.
If you can mitigate how hard the clutch actually is, mentally, it works wonders. You stop playing scared and start playing smart. A lot of the time I see my team intimidated at a clutch and they blow it because they miss an easy shot or make a dumb move. Without that heart beating in your ears it makes it a lot easier (even physically) to pull off that 1vX situation. If your team is talking on vent, yell at them to shut the hell up.
Soooooo that's about all I could think of to put in this guide. If I need something added I'll speak to a mod about it. Thanks for reading.
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