Disclaimer: This is a long read, but I think you’ll find a lot of it useful.
I play under the name Chippy. I started playing CSGO about a year ago. I started as a Nova 1 and have worked my way up to DMG where I’ve stayed for the past few months. I don’t have great aim, I don’t have superior reflexes, but I really enjoy playing CS and improving. I’ve lurked this subreddit for a year and have learned a ton for everyone that contributes here. I figured it was time to give back to the community and try and help some people out. I made this guide for people that legitimately want to get better at this game. There are no quick fixes or secrets that are going to make you instantly better. Improving at CSGO, like anything else in life, takes practice, dedication, and time. Here are 20 tips that I think people at any level can use to help improve.
You have to enjoy practicing and getting better. The best athletes in the world are great competitors, but they are also great at PRACTICING. When you play competitively, take is seriously. Spend time warming up. Make sure you are in the right mindset. Most importantly, stay positive and analyze your game. The rest of these tips are useless unless you are willing to spend time outside of MM on improving your game.
Every time you play CS spend at least your first 5 minutes learning a new nade spot, and 10 minutes practicing and warming up your aim. Those two things will make you drastically better over a month or two. You can find a ton of great nade videos on this subreddit or just by searching YouTube. Operation L2P[1] is a great place to start with basic nades for every comp map. Regarding aim practice see tip 3 and 4.
Use a consistent and measureable form of aim practice. Launders posted this great guide to aim warm-up a few weeks ago [2] . I usually spend 5 minutes with large targets (size 12, 0.5 second duration) and then another 5-10 minutes with small targets (size 5, 0.75 duration). Then I’ll death match for 10 minutes.
Find private death match servers. I recommend using private servers for DM and not the crappy valve 64-tick team death match servers. The goal of DM is to encounter as many targets as you can in a short period of time. It’s also a good idea to find a HS only server or pistol only DM server to play on sometimes as well.
Make friends! I see so many people complaining about solo queuing being bullshit. Well, solo queue sucks, but there is a way to fix that. Any time you play with someone who you think was an OK player, friendly, or good fragger, add them. If you do that every time you play before you know it you’ll have a full friends list with plenty of people to party up with. I started with 3 real life buddies that play CS, now I have 150+ friends. Pretty much any time I log on to steam I’ve got 20 people I can ask to play MM. You can solo queue your way to DMG, but you’re putting yourself in luck’s hands and you’ll find yourself queued with toxic players. Take matters into your own hands and make friends.
Communicate. For the love of god before you play comp please have headphones and a mic. Communication is essential to this game. When you see something, say something. Let your team know what’s going on, but don’t be a mic spammer. For example; when you get killed by 3 people at long A, don’t say “Oh my god!! A! A! A! A!” Stay calm and say “Three Long A. 2 AKs. 1 AWP. With bomb.” This gives your team the most amount of information possible and lets them make decisions for themselves. Now they know that 3 are Long A and 2 T’s are still unaccounted for. They can’t blindly sprint to A because there are possibly two lurking somewhere else. They can now make a play with information based on facts rather than based on your chaotic screaming.
Improve your game sense! Strategy is a big part of CS. Knowing when and where to push, when to expect a flank, or when to rotate bombsites is a very complex and sometime intangible skill in CS. The undisputed best way to improve this is simply by playing and spending time learning the maps. When you’re new to the game I suggest only playing one map at a time until you feel you’ve mastered the timing of the map and the default positions. Play 15 – 20 matches on one map at a time and then move on. It’s too big of a task to try and play 7 different maps on a random rotation and expect to improve very quickly. Furthermore, I suggest playing the same position, or at least the same bombsite multiple matches in a row to really feel like you have a good understanding of how it can be played.
Let the clutcher clutch. Don’t try and backseat clutch. If there is only 1 person alive on your team, let him listen to footsteps. If you’ve got some crucial info, say it once and then be quiet. So many rounds are lost because people feel like they need to tell someone everything to do. They’re alive, let them play for themselves.
Buy as a team. Get in the simple habit of pressing tab at the end and beginning of the round and checking your teams economy. Too many times someone is unaware of their teammates and buys an AWP when everyone else has $2,400. Don’t be “that guy”. Just press tab and talk with your team about who is buying what.
Use your radar. If you haven’t already, go ahead and type in cl_radar_scale 0.25 in your consol. You should be able to see almost the whole map. It’s important to know where your team is as well as the enemy and bomb position.
Use smokes and flashes effectively. Ever find your team getting absolutely destroyed at a position? Can’t push out Long on D2 T side because there is an AWPer killing you every time? Can’t push banana because a guy at CT or spools is headshotting you into oblivion? Guess what, if you had a smoke to block them off they wouldn’t be relevant anymore. Learn smokes and flashes and use them! You might not have the best aim or the best game sense yet, but you can be just as valuable as a support player.
Similar to #11. Don’t waste your nades. I see a lot of smokes and flashes wasted in MM because people throw them way too early. If you’re a T, communicate with your teammates. If the CT’s have smoked off banana, there is no reason to smoke off spools or throw flashes into B site until the smoke in banana has cleared. Your nades are only useful if you are going to follow them up with action.
Pick up nades after the round. Instead of pulling out your knife and slashing the dead body or tea bagging the guy you just sprayed down, quickly run around the map and pick up nades, kits, and guns that might have been dropped. This alone can save you $10,000 or more in a match and could be the advantage your team needs to win.
Be friendly and be positive. I can’t tell you how many times keeping a positive attitude has saved my teams. Encourage each other. Everyone makes mistakes so it’s best not to dwell on them. Just play the game, have fun, and do your best to be a positive influence on your team. This might be the most important point of this whole thread. Just don’t be a dick. Not much more to say about this one.
Don’t jump to conclusions about hit reg and hackers. MM has an epidemic of people who lose pistol round and instantly begin to complain about crappy 64 tick servers and hackers on the other team. Is it possible they just got a lucky shot on you or have better aim? Absolutely. The only thing complaining like this does is put your team in a bad mindset. Hold off on the hacking accusations and hit reg complaints. If you think they are hacking, report them and let overwatch do it’s job.
Stay alive! You are much more valuable to your team as an alive player than a dead one. For example, if you’re a CT and get picked off, now it’s 4 v 5. The T’s have the advantage and know that one spot will now be left unguarded or at best be held by just 1 person. Instead of engaging and dying, engage and fall back. Let your teammate with 100HP peek now and play a support role or set up a cross fire. In lower ranks I see people crouch and hold down a spray that will obviously lead to their death. It takes practice and a lot of self-control to fall back, but in most cases it’s the smarter play. Tap or burst and fall back and wait for backup. In CS there is strength in numbers, use this fact to your advantage. There is a time and place to stay, pray, and spray, but those times are few and far between in upper level play.
Watch videos. War Owl, Adren, TrilluXe, and many other people make some great tutorial videos on YouTube and twitch. If you’re having a bad day or getting frustrated playing MM, take a 15-minute break and watch a video. You cannot get great at this game without learning from others. Take advice from the pros and use it in your matches.
Watch pro matches. Watch what the best players in the world are doing and try and implement what you can into your game. You won’t have their godly aim or reaction times, but you can learn the spots they play, the nades they use, and the strats they have. What better way to learn how to push into banana than by watching Friberg? Watch how F0rest picks mid. Watch how Hiko holds B. Watch what the best players in the world are doing and try and learn something from them.
Learn when and where to plant the bomb. Bomb placement is a very underutilized skill in lower ranks. This thread[3] is a great place to start if you want to learn some different bomb plant spots.
Take a break. If you find yourself getting too frustrated or just having a bad day, take a break. Step away from your computer. Go for a run, go to the gym, pet your dog, have a beer, fap one out, or cook a meal. Do whatever it is you like to do besides CS for a little bit. You can’t improve if you’re in a bad mental state. Reset your attitude by stepping away from CS for a little while and come back when you’re ready.
Thank you to everyone that has taken the time to post guides on this sub, make videos, stream, or just leave a comment. It has been hugely helpful to me. There are way too many awesome people in this community to name them all.
Hope some of this is helpful for some of you. Please let me know if you have any questions or want clarification on anything
