There are plenty of guides (written, as videos, or as pictures) about grenade line-ups that help you get on site and plant the bomb as a T - but what about the CTs? Although you should try to avoid such situations if possible, eventually you will find yourself in a retake after the Ts have planted the bomb - a scenario that greatly favours the Ts, generally speaking. So what can we do to swerve the round in our favour? What do we have to do so we can still turn the situation around and walk off as the victor?

Although this isn't the whole answer, we can start off by practising utility that will help us regain map control and allows us to move more freely, either alone or as a group, in the retake. In this video, you will find close to twenty retake-focused line-ups that can help you advance through the map, shut out positions, and flash enemies off strong positions, starting with a picture of the affected area, some text that quickly asserts how to throw the grenade and what it does/when to use it and finishes off with an embedded video, showing you the full line-up.

Let's start with A:

Smoke: A-Main



Stand on the third step (if you count the steps from top to bottom) and center yourself on it, standing right at the wall behind Ticket. Aim above the slanted wall in front of you, on the vertical level of the protruding pipe in the building towards A-Main, and crouchwalk-throw to have the smoke land perfectly in the middle of A-Main.

Since you are open to the general A-Site, this smoke is quite risky to throw when you don't have info where the enemies are or if there are more than two or three enemies left. You should be sure that the enemies are towards Tetris, in which case you will block off their strongest position of A-Main and force them to either take the gamble and wait behind the smoke or get out onto Tetris again, where you could flash and peek them much easier than in A-Main.

Smoke: A-Site



Stand in the corner of the armoured vehicle in CT-Spawn and aim at the top of the "A" spray-painted on the blue wall. Jumpthrow to have the smoke bounce off the big building at A-Site and land in between Firstbox and Triple, cutting the bombsite in half.

Use this smoke for a variety of situations, including an afterplant in which the Ts planted at Triple and went back towards A-Main and even Stairs, knowing that you may have a strong presence in CT. By blocking off the view from Tetris and A-Main to the planted Bomb, you force their hand and can either stick it, preferably with a flash that can also blind the Tetris/A-Main players, or tap the bomb in order to bait out a reaction and pick the Ts off who are spraying the smoke. A different reason to use this smoke is if you are rotating from Kitchen to A through CT and the Ts are currently taking the site, making it harder for them to swarm the actual on-site part of A and, in turn, making it easier for you to hold A.

Smoke: Palace



Stand at the wall of Connector, look at the wooden bar above the exit of Palace, and throw your smoke to have it land in the middle of the exit, blocking off the view as well as the easy entryway into A, allowing you to have the advantage should someone decide to go through the smoke and making the angle from top of Stairs favourable again for your team.

Getting rid of a strong afterplant position is just one positive effect of smoking off Palace, but it also allowing you to use Stairs again is a big benefit of this line-up, too. You don't need to take care of the AWPer in Palace (yet), and instead you can focus on using incendiary grenades to push the Ts out of Ninja, Underwood, and Sandwich, making sure that you thoroughly check the site and pressure the Ts in order to get closer to defusing the bomb.

Smoke: A-Main (from Jungle)



Stand in the corner of the pillar in Jungle, aim to the right of the top end of the door carved into the wall on the left of the platform of stairs, and simply throw to have the smoke bounce off the platform of Tetris and land in the exit of A-Main, blocking it off perfectly.

In a similar way as you force the T's hand when smoking off A-Main from CT, you do the same here, but you can directly peek from Stairs to catch the (potentially last) T cross from A-Main to Tetris and pick him off before he even gets the chance to reposition himself. On a different note, if the enemy stays behind the smoke you get a big advantage when sticking or tapping the Bomb.

Smoke: CT



To throw this line-up, stand in the corner of the invisible wall at the big curbstone in Mid and aim at the right-most leaf on the hanging bush at the wall towards A before jumpthrowing. This one might need a few tries in an empty server since you need to figure out where exactly the invisible wall ends and where to aim at the leaf, due to this line-up being rather specific and not leaving a lot of room for error if you do not want to accidently give the Ts in CT a one-way.

Sometimes, the Ts like to get into CT, either during the actual take or after the bomb is planted, hoping to catch you off-guard and overwhelming the sole CT player with the force of two or three Ts. If this has happened, you now know the perfect smoke from Mid to counter this behaviour and block the Ts out of the round if you get on-site quickly and tap or stick the bomb defuse.

Incendiary: Ninja



Stand right in front of the wall on the left in CT, stand centered in front of the vertical line in the texture of the wall (as shown in the video), and aim at the middle wooden beam above the rocket slots in front of you, setting ablaze every T hiding in Ninja.

As I've mentioned above, after blocking off popular passageways and strong positions comes flushing enemies out of strong and annoying positions, most notably Ninja, a very popular spot where a T will end up in almost every chaotic round. This line-up is designed to set fire to the whole area in Ninja, forcing the enemy out of cover and, since you are already in CT, most likely into your waiting crosshair.

Incendiary: Ninja (from Connector)



Stand in the opposite wall as for the Palace smoke line-up above and aim above the up-pointing dirt in the wall texture above Ninja, pulling the crosshair up to the vertical level of the most right-sided wooden bar on the left of your crosshair as seen in the video before throwing the incendiary and, once again, setting ablaze the entirety of Ninja.

It is important to know different line-ups for different situations and positions: Although you already know the incendiary line-up for Ninja from CT, you should also be able to throw your incendiary reliably from the Jungle/Connector area, not stealing you time when you have to reposition all the way to CT in the middle of a retake, where every second can and will count.

Incendiary: Sandwich



To eliminate Sandwich, a pretty annoying and strong position in the afterplant, stand in the same corner as you had to stand in for the A-Main smoke from Jungle but aim lower, so low that my crosshair touches the dirt in the texture in the wall of A-Main.

If you threw this incendiary correctly, your grenade should bounce off the wall in Sandwich and land between Stairs and Tetris, giving the T the choice of burning alive or running out into the waiting arms of one and potentially more CTs, giving you the advantage in the fight and saving you time, since you don't need to fight the T in Sandwich when he is in the safety of his position.

Flash: Out of Jungle



Stand in the door frame of Window to Jungle and position yourself in front of the white dot of the texture in the door frame before aiming above the weird protruding bit on the roof of the building to the right of you, placing your crosshair on the cable above you. If you threw this flash correctly, it should bounce off of the slanted bit of the protruding bit of the roof.

After bouncing, the flash will fly in a way that it pops basically right in front of the exit of Jungle, either making the enemies holding the angle turn around/away from the flash or become blinded, both giving you a distinct advantage in your fight. Since Jungle is often watched by an AWP from Palace or right in front of Palace, making the AWP take the scope off of you can give you a huge chance to open the round back up again.

Flash: Jungle to CT/Onsite A



After making it out of the door frame, position yourself on the corner of the white-ish wall in Jungle and aim to the left of the top of the orange tower in the background before letting go of mouse1 to have the flash fly up high and blind anyone holding the angle from CT or Onsite towards Jungle again.

Since people like to stand just outside of CT, especially in 1v1s, when they know the enemy is in Jungle. You can use this line-up to use the read you have of your opponent to flash him and peek him when he's blind and vulnerable. Even though the T could also be on-site, unless you have specific information stating otherwise, this flash will still help you get out of Jungle since it also blinds people standing Onsite and looking towards Connector or Jungle.

Let's move to B

Smoke: Kitchen Window Exit



For this line-up, you will need to place yourself in front of the edge of the wall in Kitchen and aim where the shelves on your right meet the edge of the window frame in the background before simply using mouse1. This line-up has a bit of wiggle room and, with just a few tries in an offline server, can be thrown quickly and reliably in almost every situation.

Exiting Kitchen in a retake for B can be quite frustrating due to the multitude of angles you need to check/cross through and with this smoke, you are limiting the positions the Ts have to instantly fight you as you exit Kitchen. The fewer people are alive, the stronger this smoke becomes, like with most line-ups for retake situations. The only thing you should be watching out for is a T creeping into Kitchen as you line this smoke up.

Incendiary: Van



To quickly line this incendiary grenade up, you need to back into the corner of the shelf in front of the window and aim at the level of the leaves of the palm tree on the right before using nothing more than mouse1.

By throwing this incendiary grenade, you make the entire position of Van useless unless the T wants to jump up on the Van, where you get a chance to catch them off-guard. If you have an AWP, you are in a 1v1, and you believe that the T is hiding in Van, you can throw use this line-up to catch the T leaving the Van and walking straight into your crosshair. This incendiary, overall, is just good to have when retaking B, where the Ts can hide almost everywhere.

Incendiary: Bench



This line-up is really nonspecific in nature and has a lot of wiggle room. Just be sure to keep it close to these instructions: Stand in front of the door frame in Apps, aim at the middle of the window without the bars and make sure you will not hit the weird object that outlines the actual B-Bombsite before runthrowing your incendiary, which should bounce off the wall in the back of Bench and set fire to the area behind the bench.

Again, incendiaries are just important to use if you have them. By eliminating the possible positions in which a Terrorist can hide will greatly help you moving forward in your retake since you will have to focus your power on fewer positions, making it easier for your team to get the kills necessary to win the round.

Incendiary: Short Corner



Pretty simple, fast, and has a lot of wiggle room. For this line-up, simply stand at the beginning part of the green carpet in apps and aim at the pillar on short before runthrowing. Be sure that you checked a few angles before getting the grenade out so that you can't be shot when you have your incendiary out.

A lot of Ts like to hide in this corner in Short and it can be a pain to get them out of there without losing at least one of your peeking CTs. Especially when you have the disadvantage in numbers, such line-ups help you pull through the round and do the unlikely, which is win this round with a retake. You can throw this grenade and either wait for the T to change position or keep moving in order to be sure that you don't have to check that angle after the T has repositioned.

Incendiary: Short Pillar



In similar vein to what you did above, you also need to stand in Apps, in front of the window with the bars and aim at the wall behind the Pillar instead of on the pillar this time before runthrowing your incendiary, which should land behind the pillar. Please use the video below for reference.

Generally, the Ts like to hide behind the pillar in Short and it can be time-consuming to get them out of there since they can just run around the pillar as you hunt them. Especially when you have the disadvantage in numbers, just like the line-up above, such line-ups can help you still win the round.

Incendiary: Kitchen Window



This line-up needs to be thrown quite accurately, which is why I suggest that you throw this incendiary only after practising it a bit in an offline server. Stand at the left side of the window without the bars in Apps and aim just to the left of the right dark line in the texture of the wall of Kitchen. You will need to be accurate, so I suggest you watch the video below.

AWPs in the window of Kitchen can be quite hard to deal with, which is why I included this line-up. You use this line-up to force the AWP off the angle for your teammates to cross from Short to Site or to get the AWP to make the decision of either hiding or taking the premature duel. A specific example situation goes like this: A teammate of yours has already made it out of Apps and is hiding in Bench as you made it to the second window in Apps. You know that the AWP is in Kitchen and the bomb is planted for Apps. Both of you have an incendiary. Your teammate throws his in the exit of Kitchen and you in the Window, instantly jumping out and sticking the defuse before the AWP can react.

Flash: Apps "Rush"



This one comes in handy when you are already hot on their heels with the retake, basically starting it just as the bomb goes down. Stand in the beginning of Apps, aim to the right of the white-ish spot on the texture of the wall in Apps and runthrow, as seen in the video, to have it bounce off the wall and fly through the first window in Apps.

If the Ts aren't really in good positions yet and you have reacted quickly enough to already be knocking on their door, throw line-ups like this to increase the pressure. Make noise and blind the enemies while they can't decide where to look, since you are attacking from all sides equally, not giving the Ts a chance to set up a proper defense.

Flash: Kitchen Exit



Players like to hide in Bench and hold Kitchen, especially if they know that you are coming from there. If you find yourself in such a situation, simply stand at the beginning of the shelf closest to the window of Kitchen and runthrow your flash against the pillar of B to have it bounce off the floor and blind anyone looking from Bench to Kitchen.

By throwing this flash and then quickly running to the exit of Kitchen, you will be able to exit more easily, making the Bench players turn around/hide or get blinded, heightening your chances of exiting Kitchen alive tremendously.

Flash: Kitchen Window Exit



To get out of the Kitchen window, simply stand at the corner of the wall to the left of the window, aim at the inner corner of the wood on the top right of the window, and throw to be able to jump out of the window safely.

People like to hide in the corner to the right of Kitchen, and to counter this, I present you this quick and easy line-up to be able to jump through the window and catch the Ts when he is either turned around or blind by the flash. Since you need to get the timing of jumping through right, I'd advise you to still practise this line-up and the jump through the window offline for at least a few times.

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