CS:GO tips for competitive players (Part 2)

Another week has passed, so I decided to revisit the topic of CS:GO with more tips for you dear readers. Here is the list of first three tips. This time we will discuss some new ones!

1. Learn how to control the bullet spray of various weapons

This is already a common topic all over the CS:GO community, but to stress the importance of this even more, I will mention it as well. The idea of spray control is that a player fires as rapidly as possible, and then tries to control the weapon’s recoil to create a devastating spray of bullets in a fast-paced, short-range battle.

Keep in mind that there are a lot of shooting styles, and spray-shooting is not ALWAYS the way to go, as it makes you a relatively static and thus a vulnerable target for the enemy. With that in mind, I still think that spray control is a necessary individual skill that should be mastered – if not for all weapons, then at least for your weapons of choice. This skill could save you when facing enemy team players at close and mid range. As for long range, I’d suggest using the tap-shooting technique instead.

To start off, here are some pictures of spray patterns for my favorite weapons:

Arrows indicate how the pattern of bullets unfolds, if you go in with guns blazing. As you can see, every weapon has its own unique bullet offset pattern, so mastering one will not allow you to use the same technique on others. Due to this, it is highly suggested that you always keep in mind what weapon you’re using, so that when it comes to spray-shooting, you’ll actually hit your mark.

When learning any spray pattern, always keep in mind that your target won’t always be a static dot. I’d suggest hopping into offline mode and start practicing on walls first to learn how the pattern looks like. A specific weapon will always have that specific pattern; the engine doesn’t actually generate it randomly. Once you have it down, try to hit all the bullets in one spot by moving your cursor down, since the recoil will kick it upwards, and perhaps also to the sides, depending on a specific weapon.

After that, I suggest you try it out in CS:GO Deathmatch mode, as this will provide you with moving targets and more realistic situations.

2. Be clever and strategic in the eco rounds

Eco (or saving) round in competitive matchmaking is a round where a team decides to buy little or no items at the beginning so they can buy fully on the next round. This round very often ends in a bloodbath for the team trying to save money. But ideally, the team should be satisfied with some kills – or a planted bomb, if the saving team is the Terrorist team.

Now, I’m not an expert, but I have some recommendations that can help you do as much damage as possible to the other team in eco rounds:

Pistols are deadly as long as you can use them up close. I advise keeping close angles and short range with your enemy, especially in an eco round, because damage and armour penetration decreceses over distance for pistols. So always try to keep a short distance between you and the enemy.

This leads me to my next theory: if the Terrorist team loses a pistol round, then in the second round they should go for a bomb site that doesnt require shooting over high distances. In de_dust2, de_cache, de_inferno, and de_mirage I would go for bomb site B in this case.

For the Counter-Terrorist team, in an eco round, I suggest that your team does an eco rush instead of a common split between the sectors. For example, in de_mirage on the CT side, I usually force my team to rush the middle of the map. This is because it is common for two enemy players to go there, and very often one of them is a sniper. So you can gain the upper hand by pitting your 5 players, give or take, against their 2 players – which increases the chance of success. And I mentioned, one of those two is likely going to be a sniper. In close-range combat, you are going to put him at a great disatvantage. Even with some luck you are very likely to lose a player or two, but in exchange you will have gained a sniper rifle and an automatic rifle.

After that, it is up to you where you decide to go, but I’d suggest your team try and stick together, as you probably won’t have armor, which makes it a very silly time for heroism. Generally what I’m trying to say is that you should try to create an element of surprise and go for the spots where players don’t expect a push and therefore won’t be prepared to defend.

Quite a common practice I’ve tried as a CT in an eco round is to stack a sector. Stacking a sector means that all five members of your team camp in one bombsite. In my experience, this has not proven to be very effective when compared with an eco rush, but I have seen pro matches where it’s worked. But remember that there is a chance the enemy team will go to the other bomb site, and retaking a bomb site on an eco round is very hard indeed.

3. Have your teammates give you a boost, when it’s in order!

Boosts are a great way to surprise your enemy. They are usually best exploited in positions where you can’t get good view or get up a structure yourself, meaning that you need to be “boosted” by one of your teammates. For an example, when pushing de_dust2’s long A, you (and hopefully one of your teammates) will often get stuck behind that large blue container just when you rush out of the double doors. In this situation, it is commonly understood that you’ve done a boo-boo, because now you’re cornered by enemy players and are in quite a pickle. That is where this so-called boosting can come in handy. And here is a picture of how you can try to fight your way out.

Outro

Lastly, for greater performance improvements, I suggest following pro matches where the cool ideas, creative thinking, and strategies of different players might leave you in awe and give you some inspiration. And most importantly – have fun with it!