General game guide

General guide on CS:GO. Understanding of the game, improving gameplay, tips.

Introduction

The name`s denvy. I`ll try to create a guide on gaming in general, taking as an example some of my most played games. So let`s begin somewhere, I`m an avid LoL and CSGO player. First thing you want to determine is how to win the game, what is the end goal. Doesn`t matter what game it is. Then you determine how you win the game.
In this guide I`ll go over some things that you might hear from time to time in broadcasts of pro games.
So in order to win pros and , of course, everyone else forms some sort of strategy, to defeat enemy team. That strategy is called meta. As the game changes so does the meta. Meta is the popular pop song that everyone is listening , while so called cheese is a underground indie rock band, that a handful of people know, yet if you show them the band once, they will become known.

Game itself

Familiarize yourself with the game. In CSGO there are 5 players that play against 5 other players. There is a certain way to play the game and you are kind of expected to abide the meta. I want to give you some freedom on to how and why should you play, I want you to think outside of the given box and be creative, because that`s how you advance to a new level. This comes with a lot of knowledge about the game. So in order to go outside the box, you have to be able to know the ins and outs of the box. Especially the framework .
So you have to tweak the Hud to comfortable settings so it doesn`t flood your screen, you can get the maximum amount of information.
In CSGO Hud shows you crucial information as well, your hp, armor, ammo, radar (most important). Radar shows you the enemies you`ve seen, or heard their shots in range of visibility, for example you`re being shot at from behind, you`ll see a red dot on the radar. Of course, you can also notice the damage bars, that appear whenever you get hit.

Before playing

Warm up. Not just 10 minute bot game you do before the game, but actually warm up your hands, so you can click freely and your fingers are not freezing. You do want to warm up before a game , knowing you did everything possible to win.
Team lobby if you are premade with someone and limited choice of weapons to enable or disable, picking certain weapons enables you to be more or less effective in certain spots and situations. Example: Dust 2, B site as CT, much easier to hold with a incendiary, smoke , p2000, m4a4, than m4a1-s or usp. If they go rushing and even if u manage to take one out , they take you out , cause you ran out of bullets, not only that you gave them a weapon and control of the site.

In game

In CSGO resources are earned by killing enemies, different guns give you different amounts of money for a kill. At the end of the round no matter if you win or lose, you gain money , the amount varies for wins and losses. The economy is one of the most important aspects in CSGO. After each consecutive win or loss, the amount of money gained changes. If enemy team loses 3 times in a row, you can safely bet they will be able to buy normal gear, IF they didn`t buy expensive weapons previous rounds. Rounds with only pistols are called eco. So called economy rounds. Only inexpensive pistols are bought , a little better than the default ones, to have some hope of winning the round against armored opponents.
This brings us to a huge subject - timing.
In CSGO timing is knowing the approximate time of enemies coming to certain spots, and peeking accordingly without showing yourself. If enemies decide to rush, you should be able to anticipate it , and throw a nade just before they all run out. However, if there`s no movement, they are either waiting for a specific time or going for another site. An example would be if you managed to smoke the exit off, then they wont rush out through smoke, as that would most likely be suicide. So they are going to wait out the smoke, which is 15 seconds.
Anticipating the time that enemy approaches a certain site can also be helpful in surprising him, instead of keeping a constant angle , you hide and only prepeek (peek and be ready to prefire the angle) at certain times, to catch enemy off guard. In CSGO timing is very mportant. You have to know exact time to throw the nade or flash, and how long will it take to pull out your weapon, how long is it to switch weaps, how long to reload. These are times when you are most vulnerable, considering your positioning is good. you have to know how much time will it take for enemy to reach you and what can you do in that time.
Lots of people seem to have trouble with clutches, so I`ll take it as an example. As in any game, you assess the situation you are in, and the resources available to you, I mean nades, flashes, smokes, as well as defuse kit, bomb. Consider your weapon, alternative weapon, if you know of someone who dropped a better weapon nearby, consider picking it up, unless you might get killed for it. It should be a weapon that increases your chances of winning the round, not lower them. By that i mean, don`t pick up an AWP, if you are not able to freely kill people left and right, like JW, and are confident in your skills, you have higher chances of killing someone with a rifle, even if you miss one bullet , not the end of the world and most likely second or third bullet will connect. while missing with awp most likely implies death. Try to assess where enemies where last spotted, and how long ago, how much hp do they have, this involves your teammates help, so involve them if you can, if not just pick one objective and stick with it, instead of being hesitant, always pick a certain goal and go with it, even if it was the wrong call, it`s better than hesitating. Let`s say for the sake of example, you are in a 1v2 situation with m4 , smoke, flash. The bomb was just planted on B site on Dust2. You know it`s B because you were holding A site. A teammate of yours tells you there`s a defuse kit on short, so the route you take to B is through short, to get the defuse kit and increase your chances of defusing the bomb, if you dont succeed and yet survive , you practically earned 400$. You walk near B site from CT spawn, not seeing any resistance. Most likely one of them is in site or plateau and the other is either car or tunnels. Use the smoke to smoke off tunnels or car so that the enemy doesnt see you coming out from tunnels or car. then flash in over wall, and go into the site with your back against the smoke, hopefully without making a lot of sound, so that the enemy doesn`t prefire the smoke, some people seem to think that if they are in the smoke they are invincible. You enter the site looking for the enemy and locating the bomb, if you dont see anyone , while checking most of the spots, then flick back to car, the smoke should disappear soon, prefire there and then fake defuse , so that the enemy goes back to stop you from defusing, now having checked a bunch of spots, there are only so many places they can be. Only thing left is to execute it correctly and aim properly. There should be some sort of a plan in your mind when going in, not running in and expecting to headshot everyone out of the blue. You need to set yourself up for the kills.

Momentum

Momentum is carried power over rounds.E.g. Winning pistol rounds usually carries momentum over next 2 rounds with so called anti-eco guns(though some still prefer normal weapons, which is not optimal in my opinion) that allow you to rack up significant amounts of money. In terms of resources this creates a safety net for your team if you were to lose a round, or you can go for odd-ball strategy where you don`t buy better weapons, and try to win with the smgs that you have. This is medium risk - high reward strategy, because even if you lose you still have money to buy next round, if you win, then they have to eco next round. The only downside to this plan is that you are more likely to lose with smgs, and the gap you create is not that big, because enemy team will have the losing bonus full, they will eco only one round , and then they will be able to buy again, by that time your team should have 16k at that point. Also their morale would be really low, because they lost to smgs and are already 5 rounds behind, this should also boost your team`s morale and create less pressure.
In case of losing pistols, your team can still opt to go vesthelm pistol (pref. 5/7, TEC-9). Chances are that you won`t win if you hold the site like you usually do, you need to either rush one site, or stack somewhere to create crossfire.

Cheese

Cheese - non-meta strats that work once or twice during the game. Example: CT eco round. 2 people buy grenades, other 3 stack the site hiding. The 2 guys run out throw nades and do as much damage as they can, while the other 3 wait for the enemies to come to the site, they most likely will, because they just saw 2 people rush out. CTs hide until they hear the sound of the bomb, or someone gets found.

Mechanics

Peeking - Peek as little as you can, at an angle your opponent wont expect and wont prefire if you can, at higher tiers of play all of the common spots are just prefired without even looking. The team already knows they are in site no point in sneaking , so just prefire every damn spot.
Peek once, if nobody noticed you, hide, peek again aiming head level ready to fire. If somebody saw you consider peeking from a different angle if you can, if you peek the same spot the same way every time, you`re gonna die. If you can change the angle , but be mindful of your surroundings. As well as your own gear: flashes, smokes.
Prefire ties into spots and angles. Best spots are usually well known and are controlled by nades. Best angles are the ones where you catch your opponent off-guard or he`s moving. Another thing you need to bear in mind when holding angles is how your opponent sees you. The closer you are to the wall , more of your hitbox is available to him. So peek from further away if you can.
Weapons: Matter of preferance. If you really want to know what I think of certain guns then you can ask me. USP/M4A1-S cant be seen on radar.
Practice - For practice I use CSDM FFA, FFA HS ONLY, bot games, arena, some kz maps that are competetive based.
I have certain rules for every weapon, how to shoot with it, etc. I`d suggest practicing the weapons you actually use, and use only them. If you get an awp during the game, and you can`t kill anyone with it, what`s the point ...
Movement - Go into a bot game or CSDM and set a dynamic crosshair for practice. Then try to shoot only when crosshair is back to where it was when you stop. I`m not going to explain how to do it, bunch of vids on youtube.

Psychology

A little bit about the psychological aspect of competetive gaming. You shouldn`t play without warming up.

• You should never argue with anyone, because you won`t prove anything to anyone.
  
• Always try to be polite.
  
• If someone on your team is being toxic or negative, block communication with them, because their negativity does nothing but lower your confidence.
  
• If you want something done, ask for it beforehands.
  
• If you can`t say anything good, then don`t say anything.
  
• If you are toxic, don`t expect people to follow you or your calls.
  
• Only look at yourself, your mechanics, your aim.
  
• Other people are variables you can`t control.
  
• This guide is for you to improve, forget about elo, forget about ranks, forget about names. You can only get better if you are not bound by some made up boundary that limits you. Making a goal reaching DMG, means you are so focused on it, you get more anxious every game the closer you get, you might do some mistakes you would never do. Even if you reach your goal, you won`t know what to do, once you`re there because you thought that this is the best you could be, which will show on your gameplay.
  
• Try to get someone you can trust to play with you.
  

Tips

Some tips I didn`t know where to put:

• Flash out before peeking, flash out your ally. (not the ally)
  
• Learn smokes on maps.
  
• Don`t buy helm on CT side, buy defuse kit instead.
  
• Think ahead where you`re gonna go and what nades you`re gonna need.
  
• Put automatic weap switch on, to react faster, I`ve seen a bunch of players just forget that they picked up a gun. Can be lethal.
  
• When making calls, they have to be fast and precise. Where and how many enemies.
  
• Count nades to know how many people were there (doesn`t mean it`s not a fake)
  
• Fake defuse to lure out Ts.
  
• Fake fake defuse to win round. (normal defuse if you know that he has to run around a long time to kill you, you can flash or smoke yourself off.)
  
• If your team has an eco, you have an eco.
  
• Use your nades before dying , or it`s wasted money.
  
• Flick 90 degrees to avoid flashes.
  
• Don`t use decoys with USP/ M4A1.
  
• Use decoys to confuse enemies, make them check another spot, while sitting in crossifre.
  
• Nades
  
• right-click : throws under your feet
  
• right and middle click: middle distance
  
• left click: normal distance
  
• Distance varies if you crouch, jump, run, crouch+jump, run+jump. Nades follow the distance you were going when you threw it. So if you were strafing left it will go left, useful for corners.
  
• Smoke: blocks vision, you can still be heard and shot through, lasts 15 seconds
  
• Flash: can be thrown over walls, against walls,ground to pop-flash enemies. If your enemy flicked from the first flash he wont see the second flash coming, so you can throw 2 flashes in rapid succession.
  
• Decoy: used to confuse enemies by creating another person on radar.
  
• Fire: gets people out of spots or entering spots/sites.
  
• HE: does AOE damage, can be blocked by walls, throw over boxes or behind them.

[K.Ronaldo]

gj mate