Pistol Rounds: The Importance of Small Victories

CSGO is a game that is all about small victories. So many small details and different situations are involved in each decision made in-game. These small decisions can decide an entire round. Each round is crucial, thats why the decision and actions you make in the pistol rounds are so important. If played right, a pistol round can almost guarantee three rounds which is why you should be able to play a pistol round correctly in many different ways. With some maps being mostly Counter Terrorist sided, if you are able to pick up three rounds to start, it can be absolutely devastating to the Terrorist morale and it makes them extremely desperate to pick up wins on actual rifle rounds. However, if you can pick it up as a Terrorist, then you can then use that as momentum to have six to nine rounds on the Terrorist side which leads to a much easier Counter Terrorist side once you switch over.

First let's look have a very quick overview of each different pistol you can use on a pistol round.

Glock-18: This is the Terrorist starter pistol. It can fire in burst and single shot mode. Burst can be used for closer range engagements while single shot should be used for most longer range battles.

USP-S: One of the Counter Terrorists starting pistols. A silenced pistol that has very high accuracy while standing still. Downsides is the accuracy goes down dramatically while moving.

P2000: The other Counter Terrorist starting pistol. It is very similar to the USP-S, However, it does have a higher moving accuracy and is slightly less accurate while standing still.

Dual Berettas: Commonly known as the “Dualies”, this pistol is one of the lesser used ones. It has benefits in different situations as it’s fire rate is higher than other pistols.

Five-Seven: The Five-Seven is commonly used as the force buy pistol for the CT’s. It has good armor penetration and can be fired as a decent pace. It also has quite good accuracy making it deadly in a sharpshooter’s hand.

Tec-9: The Tec-9 is the T’s version of the Five-Seven. I like to call this pistol “The Mini AK”. It has good moving accuracy and is spammable. Its armor penetration is also very good for a pistol and if you can land a good headshot, you can take out a player in one hit.

Desert Eagle: Last but not least is the Desert Eagle. The most powerful pistol that will take opponent's head off with or without head armor. It is like a smaller version of an AWP with great accuracy. However, the Desert Eagle takes a very long time to master, but once it is mastered, it is a force to be reckoned with.

Now with all of the pistols explained and laid out, let's look at some of the strategy of pistol rounds. The biggest problem I see with many players in pistol rounds is the tendency to panic once enemies are spotted. It can happen to anyone at any rank. Once you see enemies it just is our tendency to spray or rapidly click away until they are dead. Once you’ve panicked and are shooting randomly at opponents, the chances of you killing any enemies are greatly diminished. It is imperative with the pistols to stay calm and try to line up your crosshair with their head and just click them away.

In this clip, Mikail "Maikelele" Bill, is able to stay calm in the face of a rush and simply one click his enemies off the map.

And also showing masterful ability with both starting pistols and the burst mode from the Glock-18 is TSM's Rene "cajunb" Borg

In order to shoot more like Maikelele and Cajunb in these clips it takes hours upon hours of practice.  You can see that they are always under control of their gun and they are relaxed and move very fluidly. It is imperative if you want to be able to land these one clicks, to practice on maps or deathmatch servers with headshot only enabled. It truly does improve your pistoling by ten-fold which makes you much more of a contributor to pistol rounds.

As Counter Terrorists, always try to play a more passive angle unless your are confident in your aim and are willing to risk your life on an aggressive push. I see many players often dying and giving away a site for free because of an over aggressive push. On pistol rounds, you should always try to have one player buy a defuse kit as well in case of a close defuse. Also try to have some grenades on the first round as they can offer so much utility on such an important round. Smokes and flashes to stop a rush or aid a re-take can go so far. Many rounds can be won with a simple flashbang or a smoke walling off the other teams crossfire.

Now as a Terrorist, the strategies are much more rush based as you will simply not have enough grenades to have a planned out A or B take. It is very important however to at least flash your way onto a site so you are not sitting ducks out in the open as you make your way onto the site. Again as a T’s you still want to be aiming for the head and while your glock may be more spammable than a USP-S or a P2000, it won’t matter if you are one clicked as you step on site. A common strategy used by many pro teams is to have one player buy a Tec-9 and give it to the entry fragger who has also bought armor. This way the person can charge onto the site with a spammable pistol that is capable of quickly eliminating opposition and bringing the site under their control

The last point I will make is that communication on these rounds are very vital. Call-outs in any round are important for giving your team information, but with almost a guaranteed three rounds on the line, it is even more important than usual to stay calm and give your teammates concise and clear callouts so that they can then get the return kill or make a critical rotate without getting picked off.

And as always, I suggest playing at least two different deathmatch games or other CS:GO game modes in order to warm up. Counter Strike is much like traditional sports in the way that you will not be as good as you would have been if you had warmed up. Playing those few games of deathmatch can help you with getting your aim back on point after a day off of playing. I also want you to remember that the game is not over after losing a pistol round! It is very important not to let the loss of the round affect your mental state. You just keep playing the game and wait till that rifle round where you can then shut them down on a full execute, or a solid hold of a site

Hope you enjoyed the article and learned a few things about the importance of pistols rounds. Try to take the knowledge from here and put it into your next competitive game and pick up those three rounds that will get your team on the right path to victory!

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