Every CS:GO player has a similar experience that goes roughly like this: you get into a game, frag your heart out, and just obliterate the opponent team. You feel like the best player in the world. Then you go for a second one… and nothing goes your way. Obviously everyone has bad days where our games just don’t click, but there’s also the issue with consistency.

A consistent player is not someone who delivers at his highest level every match, but someone who’s able to perform at a good level without fail. It’s better to be a consistent player that your team can rely on instead of being someone that only delivers from time to time.

“I would say for every team that it's better to have a consistent player because you can't rely on the guy having good stats every time and if he has a bad game, he might lose the game for you. So it's way better to have a consistent guy that will win the game for you every time, or at least not lose it.” - hallzerk

Håkon "hallzerk" Fjærli is a CS:GO player from Dignitas and I’ve had the chance to talk with him about consistency and what a player could do to improve this important asset to have. He agrees that it’s way better to have a consistent player than someone who delivers awesome numbers from time to time.


What makes a player inconsistent?

That’s not an easy question to answer - a player can be inconsistent for the most varied reasons. The most common one is just that they’re not good enough. Not practicing enough is the reason most of the time for players not being as good as they want to be, although some refuse to accept that. The only solution for these cases is… to practice.

“I think it depends a lot from player to player, but usually, if you start to tilt or rage you'll play worse, so I think it would be bad for most players.”

But then comes the more mental issues that affect your level - tilting, raging, or even having a bad start are all things that can affect the way you play the current match and, without you even realizing it, getting you to play poorly the entire match. The more tilted you are, the more you want to “prove” something to your team or the opposing one, making you take unnecessary risks or decisions.

When questioned about what he would say to a player that struggles with consistency, hallzerk answered:

“It really is in your mindset and how you really feel. Sometimes you have a good game, you feel good and eventually play good, there are no bad thoughts in you, but in the next game you may get some early bad rounds and then the whole match just goes to ruins, because you're in a bad state of mind."

"One key factor for being a consistent player is having a good mindset and not getting tilted, or at least be able to reset your mind.”

The key tip that the young player gives on this topic may seem simple, but it’s actually really hard to master. Being able to avoid getting tilted or even getting out of that dreaded zone may seem impossible on such a competitive game as CS, but it’s possible! A lot of players get tilted due to playing with randoms - avoid doing that if that’s your case. Try and get a group of players together so that the experience improves a little bit. If you don’t have that chance, just try to be a little more calm and serene when playing with random people on the internet. Sometimes you might find some really nice players - ask to add them so you can play again in the future!


You Had a Bad Start to a Match - How Do You Recover from It?

Sometimes the frags just don’t click at the beginning of the match, sometimes you get a bad pistol and subsequent rounds… and that eventually affects your entire performance on that match. Knowing how to avoid this is not only important in CS, but also in life in general. Being pessimistic is not the right path to take and you can use the way you see life to get better numbers in CS - if you have the right mindset.

“You have to practice being able to reset your mind and let go of what happened. Maybe you're missing some shots or you have bad stats overall, just try to forget that, don't look at the stats... just look forward to the next round and do your best.”

Reset your mind! That’s the most important tip. Again, since it’s not a practical one, it may be hard to actually follow the advice. These things take time to learn, so be patient. One approach that may work with someone may not work with you. You have to figure out how your mind works on topics such as these. As hallzerk says, not being overly focused on your numbers or performance stats may be a good way to start. Take the game round by round, try to do the best you can and clear your mind from what was irritating you during the previous rounds.


And What about More Practical Ways to Improve Consistency in the Long Run?

This article talked mostly about mental aspects of improving consistency because what that’s the most common reason for being inconsistent, besides not being good enough yet. But there’s also another important thing, as hallzerk says:

“I would say don't change settings at all. Keep them the way they are, find your sensitivity, and just stick with it. Put in a lot of hours consistently, if you want to become really good have at least 80+ hours in the past two weeks every time and you'll be a lot more consistent!”

Practice and your settings! I just can’t stress this enough! So many players have the habit of changing settings, namely resolution and sensitivity, as soon as they miss some shots - DON’T DO IT! Your body is a machine of habits and muscle memory. If you don’t allow it to learn your sensitivity value, you’ll never stop undershooting or overshooting, for example. Find comfortable settings for you, whether that is native resolution or 4:3, high or low sensitivity, whatever… just stick to them for a long period of time! You’ll start seeing improvements on the long run, believe me!

It’s (almost) everything in your mind! The most important thing is to remember that CS:GO is a game and, above all, you should have fun playing and competing on it. If you start doing it out of habit and don’t enjoy doing it, it will be way harder to improve. Get out there and good luck!

Thank you for reading! You can get in contact with me for feedback or suggestions through my Twitter.