CSGO Newbie Tips to Improving Your Gameplay

Hi there. My name is Dallas 'Aich' Mitchell and I am a frequent competitive CSGO player. Today I'm going to be sharing some basic tips to helping new players get better at the game. If you know your way around CSGO, there is probably not much point in continuing to read this guide, as it's generally aimed at new players. However, it's entirely up to you.

TIP #1: EFFECTIVELY CONTROL WEAPON RECOIL.

Tap-shooting is a very effective way to controlling weapon recoil, but did you know that holding the trigger down, as well as aiming down is, in most cases, better? In close to mid-range, you should always start at the head of an enemy player, and keep the trigger down whilst slowly aiming down towards the enemy player's feet. This is more effective than tap-shooting because it allows you to dispense bullets faster. Every gun has a slightly different recoil pattern so it will take some time getting used to all of the different gun types, but most follow the simple "start at head, aim down" notion (some don't, such as pistols). A good gun to show how recoil works is the Negev. The Negev has extreme recoil and therefore you must keep your crosshair at or lower than the enemy player's feet to control it.

In long-range scenarios, tap-shooting may be better (e.g. you are a Terrorist (T) on Dust II with an AK-47 attacking B site. It's better to tap-shoot from the tunnels into B site at the Counter-Terrorists (CT) holding it at the back of the site (e.g. behind crates or on the window [broken wall])).

TIP #2: COMMUNICATION IS KEY.

Communicating with your team is key. It's recommended to have a mic when playing because it is far easier than using text-chat to communicate in-game. People that don't have a mic tend not to communicate until they're dead - which can hinder your teammates and cause them to make mistakes that could've been avoided in crucial moments in the match. Anyways - constant, useful communication (not unrelated information/spam, etc) is key. This means that, whenever you spot an enemy player, you should tell your teammates as soon as possible (e.g. "two on short" or "it's a B rush").

If you are dead, try and use your "deathcam" to your advantage. For example: you're holding B site on Dust II as CT with an M4A4 and you kill two enemies before being overrun on an eco round - tell your team that they are eco'ing, and one has an M4A4 now. Thus, your team doesn't have to worry about an AWP and could assault B site from tunnels with less pressure. As a side note, when killing an enemy in a 1v1 situation, you can try and mess up their communication by walking one way, waiting, and then walking back - they'll tell their teammates that you kept walking that one way, not knowing you walked back because his "deathcam" time would've run out. This is higher-level play.

TIP #3: GRENADES ARE GOOD.

Buying grenades when you have the money to do so is, hands down, good. There is, in most cases, no need not to buy grenades if you have the spare cash to do so. There are many different types of grenades to choose from and knowing which grenade is better for the situation at hand is key to becoming a better player. Flashbangs and smoke grenades are good for taking areas of the map. Flashbangs can also help in combat situations, giving you the edge, whereas smoke grenades can also help by nullifying enemy players (such as an enemy CT AWP'er holding "outers" on Nuke when you are playing  T trying to get to B site from "secret".

Fire grenades and HE grenades are good for stopping rushes. For example: if you're holding B site on Dust II as CT throwing an HE grenade into the tunnels can seriously do mega damage to the T's if they are rushing the site from there. Fire grenades can also be used as crowd-control, forcing enemy players out from behind certain objects. If you are unsure what grenades to buy, a good starting setup is 1x HE, 1x smoke and 2x flashbangs.

TIP #4: KEEP YOUR TEAM ECONOMY AFLOAT.

It's important that your team keeps a stable economy. What I mean by this is, that your team members always try to "eco" on the same rounds (to "eco" means to save money (e.g. don't buy guns)). Obviously this isn't always the case, but in most cases all team members economy (money) should be in sync.

For example: you lose the pistol round. This means that no one (including you) on your team should buy the second round, as you won't have enough money to buy proper guns and armor. Usually in low elo play (e.g. silver), people buy on the second round even if they lose the first, and end up with an SMG and no armor. This is bad. Very bad. Saving to buy proper guns and armor is always better. If you are playing T, just simply getting the bomb plant on an eco round is very good.

If you win the pistol round, a PP-Bizon is a good second round weapon to buy because it has a high clip with a fast reload time which makes it good at killing eco'ing players fast and easy. It's very effective at killing many unarmored opponents at once.

A higher level play is buying a P250 + head armor on the second round if you lose the first, however, it's not recommended at low ranks because for this to work, your team needs to be on-point with their headshots.

Thank you for taking the time to read this article. This is just some of the many, many different tips out there that can help you improve as a player. Apart from that, make sure to continue to practice to become the best marksman you possibly can be in this game!

Cheers,

Aich.