Retakes are a core part of gameplay in Counter-Strike 2. Ideally, the defending CT side would prefer if the T side attack never made it into one of the two bomb-sites to plant, but it’s rare to pitch a shutout when playing as either faction. A great defense includes the threat of a great retake, and that’s what today’s blog post is all about. Here are 5 actionable tips you can implement to increase your retake success in CS2.
Tip 1: Avoid taking first contact when alone
Sometimes it’s best to stay patient, especially when you’re alone on a retake. If your teammates are grouped on one of the other paths to the bomb-site, it’s ideal if you wait for them to begin to take contact before you make your move. Information is important for Ts trying to hold onto a bomb-site during an after-plant. The more they know about the positions of incoming CTs, the easier it is for them to position themselves advantageously.
If the T side finds out you’re alone on one side of the map, it allows them to deduce where the rest of your teammates are and further isolate the rest of the incoming retake attempt. Whether you get fragged or not doesn’t matter as much, as a savvy T player can use context clues to tell that you’re alone, allowing their teammates to reposition without having to worry about an onslaught. If you do get fragged, it should be fairly obvious you were alone immediately because of the lack of a trade kill attempt.
An example of this would be a retake on the Inferno B bomb-site. If you’re an A player who pushed down Middle to retake from the Banana flank, you may be alone more often than not. It’s a good idea to get as close as possible to the half-wall without being spotted. A late flank that the T side hasn’t sussed out is a nightmare to deal with in an after-plant.
Tip 2: Know when to cut your losses
Knowing when to hold ’em is just as important as knowing when to fold ’em. And sometimes, you’ll be folding them often.
At the time of publication, the current CS2 economy and the nature of MR12 lend itself well to carrying full-buy arms into as many rounds as possible and minimizing lost gear as much as possible. Due to this, it’s important to give careful consideration to staying alive rather than going for that seemingly advantageous retake. If the opportunity presents itself, either in the form of an early frag to put yourself at a man advantage or otherwise, it may be worth going for it.
This is also heavily map dependent, and knowing which bomb-sites have a low retake percentage is important to gauging when you need to cut your losses. Inferno, for instance, is notorious for being difficult to retake on. Rather than throwing it all on black and trying to get lucky, it’s probably a better idea to cash out, and allow that M4 of yours to live to see the next round.
Tip 3: Communicate utility with your teammates
Communicating utility is paramount in every venture on the battlefield, none more than during a Retake, however.
Communicating both the utility you have and the utility being thrown at you is key for your teammates to know. If you’re smoked off and your teammates run into the occupied bomb site expecting cover, the results can be disastrous. You can avoid this completely with a simple call out of: “I’m smoked off.”
Two smokes or two incendiaries thrown at the same location is a complete waste, but it happens far too often. If you have an idea for where you’re going to throw your retake utility, say it early so your teammates don’t waste their nades.
Tip 4: Tap the bomb ASAP
So picture this: You’ve made it past the initial storm of utility and angle-holding, and have made your way into the bomb-site. There’s no Ts to be seen, as they’re all hiding and playing off of each other. Many players in this scenario end up pushing into an unfavorable fight, whether it’s a bad angle or a set crossfire.
The T side has no reason to peek out into you if you don’t give them one, and once you have access to bomb, you have a free way to force a fight: tapping the bomb. Tapping the bomb is such a crucial part of a successful retake because defusing makes a sound queue. If it didn’t, the Ts would be at a massive disadvantage. The only way they would be able to ensure nobody is actively defusing is to have constant visual contact with the bomb.
Tapping the bomb early plants a seed of doubt in the now-defending T side, and especially against inexperienced opponents, it will induce poor peeks. Additionally, a bomb tap will sometimes pull any remaining utility the Ts may have.
Tip 5: Practice your retakes with Refrag
Repetition is one of the best ways to improve in any discipline, and there’s no better way to improve your retake ability than to practice retakes! Only one problem: public retake servers are often full, leaving no room for your friends to join. Additionally, you have little to no control over server location, map choice, and sometimes weapon selection. Don’t waste your time. Subscribe to Refrag.
Your subscription to Refrag includes a fully featured, on-demand retake server that you and your friends can use at any time. No more waiting for open slots on a public server! Simply start your Refrag server with the Retakes mode selected, or type .retakes in the in-game chat to set the server to the Retakes mod.
Once in server, you can change weapons by typing .weapon-name, such as .ak for an AK-47, .m4 for a M4and so on. .start will restart the game. For a full list of commands, see the Refrag Wik.
The best Retake experience is waiting for you on Refrag. Click below to get started!
