How to Get Better at CS:GO: 12 Useful Tips

CS 2 is already on the doorstep and knocking. Naturally, many players want to warm up before its release. However, many just play match after match without any understanding of what they are doing or why. And while this approach may seem like a fun one, it's not quite effective. If you don't want to be stuck at one rank for the rest of your life, you need a comprehensive training program, as well as some tips to become better at CS:GO.

In this article, we'll look at some of the most effective ways to raise your skill level. We'll look at both methods that take hard work and patience, as well as easier and quicker ways to get better at playing CS:GO. Let's answer the question once and for all about how to get better at CS:GO and make you a true gunslinger on any map.

In competitive play, knowing the most balanced CS:GO maps can give teams an edge.

1. Learn your maps 

We'll start our top tips on how to get good at CS:GO with fairly obvious but effective advice. If you want to raise your skill to a level where you can play competitively, you need to learn the basic maps and how to control them. Thankfully, there are only 7, with occasional changes. To achieve at least minimal success, you need to clearly understand where you are and where your opponent is. Having learned the map, you will be able to effectively use the radar and inform your teammates about the location of the enemy. Ideally, you should know all the names of potential positions, so you can coordinate with your allies.

To prevent the process of memorizing the map from turning into a pile of lost matches, we recommend practicing on special training maps. On such a map, you can practice shooting, arrange a variety of challenges, imitate game situations, and train in throwing smokes. Just enter "de dust 2 training map", install the desired map, and in a couple of hours, you will know everything about this battlefield. Throwing a grenade across the map and quickly dispersing your enemies at your favorite ambush point is the most straightforward skill enhancement.

2. Lower your mouse sensitivity

It may seem that the higher the sensitivity, the faster and more accurately you can react to in-game situations, right? What could be more important in a competitive shooter than reaction speed? Well, that's not exactly how it works. In practice, when people meet the enemy, they start to panic, then try to aim at a moving target, and high sensitivity doesn't help at all.

Of course, everything depends on the device and its calibration, but in this case, the rule is the same for everyone. Decrease the sensitivity of the mouse to 1.6 from your 6.3, and you'll immediately notice that you're hitting targets more often. Sometimes players simply copy the settings of the pro players, but in this case, it is better to go your own way. When your muscle memory is honed, speed and accuracy may be crucial.

3. Watch Pro-tier Playing

Once you've mastered the basic and advanced mechanics, it's time to look at how they are winning. Watching professional teams play, you can learn strategies and sometimes see new tricks that a minority of players know about. Once, a jump on an invisible pixel ensured victory in the championship, though, after that, there was a scandal about the fairness of such a victory.

Some of the best CS GO binds are often shared among the community to improve gameplay efficiency.

Player replays are a sure way to see that you still have room to grow, but they also encourage you to get better and adequately assess your skill level. We recommend watching the analysis of the games with commentary, YouTube is full of such videos, where experts explain who did what and why. Otherwise, you’ll just watch an entertaining match.   

4. Learn your weapon's firing patterns

You know the situation when you just press the left mouse button, fire a round at your opponent, which enemy survives, and then he just kills you with a single headshot? Unpleasant, isn't it? The thing is that each weapon has its own firing pattern and bullet burst. To play well and hit a lot, you have to feel these things. Training maps usually have a practice for burst, where you can put special effects to see the tracers from the bullets. 

To keep up with tournaments, many rely on the CS GO matches schedule provided by various esports platforms.

5. Peek like a pro

Good old peeking will always be relevant among tips to get better in CS:GO. The essence of this ancient technique is to peek from cover in certain areas of the map without getting completely exposed. This way you reduce the risk of a one-shot because the damage to the arm or leg is less. Some training maps have special scenarios that teach picking. Of course, for every map, the list of such convenient places is different, so you'll have to be patient.  

6. Listen to the game

Set up your sound properly. Good players play with headphones as the sound gives a better understanding of the situation. The explosion of a grenade, the clatter of footsteps, or the sound of a firefight will help you orient yourself on the battlefield and avoid being ambushed by the whole team like a lemming.

The CS:GO bind maker tool assists players in customizing their key assignments effortlessly.

7. Regular training

Yes, to improve your play at CS:GO, you need to play CS:GO. Be prepared to devote at least 2 hours a day to the game to become a pro. You can, of course, reduce the intensity of training if you do not aim for the pro league and just don’t want to let your teammates down.  And again, training maps are your best friends. You can train your aim there and get a good warm-up, and then try yourself in a real match.  

Mastering CSGO spray and recoil patterns is key for players aiming to rise through the ranks.

8. Customize your configs

This is the utility for those wanting to know how to get better at CS:GO quickly. To improve your performance in the game, set your config file. On our website, you can find CFG files of different pro players and adjust such things as screen refresh rate, tick rate, etc. This will help get optimal settings, and the game will generally feel smoother.

9. Learn your keyboard shortcuts

You do know that if you press Q when reloading, the animation will cancel, and the reload will get faster, and it's quite a legitimate mechanic. There is more of such key trickery, and you should learn them. You can also bind your own commands for the keyboard and mouse, which will greatly help win precious seconds. 

10. Crosshair Settings

Your crosshair should clearly show where you're shooting without getting in the way. A couple of minutes in the crosshair settings might help you to aim more accurately. Well, if you are a lucky owner of the monitor with the ability to set the crosshair overlay on top of the game, then you can also get the crosshair in the AWP without scope. You are likely to be called a cheater, but if you start getting better at CS:GO, you will be called a cheater anyway. You also can create your own crosshair using a crosshair generator on Profilerr.

11. Deal with the in-game economy

You need to be clear about how much you can buy at the beginning and subsequent rounds. By understanding how the in-game economy works, you can form your strategy and clearly understand what gun you will take next.

Creating a personalized configuration becomes easier when you learn how to make autoexec in CSGO.

12. Deal with the root weapons

To demonstrate your skill with the AWP or the Deagle, you first have a few kills to do. You will start with a standard pistol anyway and then move on to an assault rifle. In total, the guns you need to train first are as follows:

1. Pistols: Tec-9 (T), Five-SeveN (CT), P250 (both teams)
2. Riffles: AK-47 (T) and M4A4/M4A1-S (CT)

For focused practice, players frequent CS:GO aim training maps to hone their shooting skills.

Summary

We hope this article on how to play CS:GO better has really helped you and that you are already making your own individual training plan. The tips for playing better at CS:GO listed in this article may not make you a killing machine, but they will definitely help you in survivability. Of course, you'll have to practice for several hours every day to become a pro, but even a less intense training schedule will yield noticeable results over time. There are many maps oriented to different scenarios that can significantly improve your understanding of the game mechanics. Practice more often, pick and tune your hardware, aim for the best, and most importantly, have fun.

New players often seek guidance on how to shoot in CS GO to get a head start in their gaming journey.

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