If you’re a Counter-Strike veteran, you’ll almost certainly have found yourself as the last man standing once or twice. While there’s a certain prestige to outlasting your teammates, having to fend off an entire roster of enemy combatants on a sprawling map isn’t particularly fun. Enemy fire could come from any direction, while the slightest sound can herald the arrival of a full team of terrorists. This is before factoring in the nail-biting exercise of actually defusing a bomb with the timer quickly ticking down to zero.
Only a fortunate few have what it takes to weather this storm and win a clutch. Struggling to hold your nerves and beat the odds while under pressure? Read on for a breakdown of how you can improve your odds of winning a clutch in Counter-Strike.
Enemy Intel is Priceless
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You’ll never stand a chance at winning a clutch if you don’t know what your enemy is doing. The more intel you have, the more likely it is you’ll win. Of course, being the last man standing complicates matters somewhat. While you can’t turn to your teammates for information, you can use their untimely in-game deaths to help you. Specifically, you need to consider where on the map they were when they were killed by the enemy. From that, you can build a relatively reliable picture of where those same enemies will be now.
Avoid Certain Weapons
It’s tempting to unleash all of your firepower if you’re facing insurmountable odds in the death throes of a match. While some of the tools in your arsenal might seem like a good idea when you’re forced to clear the only path forward, they’ll only alert remaining opponents to your location. Before you start reaching for that HE grenade, stop and ask yourself whether there’s another way out of the situation.
Familiarize Yourself with Map Layouts
One thing that many gamers were looking forward to with Counter-Strike 2 was a new selection of maps. While this brought some much-needed variety to fans growing tired of CS:GO’s offering, it has forced players to rethink the way they pick positions. If you find yourself as the lone wolf at the end of a game, you need to understand how to check corners safely and the best way to avoid open spaces. If you’re still fairly green when it comes to Counter-Strike 2’s maps, now’s the time to brush up on those layouts.
Confuse the Enemy as Much as Possible
You don’t have to unleash a full-throttled offensive to keep the enemy at bay. In fact, dirty tricks work just as nicely. Smoke grenades are particularly useful for confusing your enemy. Rather than use them to conceal your location, deploy them to make your enemy think you’re approaching from a completely different position entirely. You clear the path you’re really interested in, while your opponents will be wasting precious time stalking entirely different sections of the map.
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