Whether you are a truly competitive player that’s looking to qualify for tournaments or you’re just a casual players that enjoy playing some matches with friends from time to time, everyone wants to get better. Everybody wants to be that player that clutches a round and wins the match for his team!

In order for you to do that, you have to get better! There are thousands of guides and videos out there that help you get there - maybe it helps you getting better aim, better positioning, or even explain how to throw the most overpowered one-way Smoke Grenade. This article will be none of that - I’m looking to give you the best not-so-usual tips that will cover other aspects that will help you improve your gameplay in the short or long-term.

Without any further talking, let’s get to what really matters!

Make sure you know your Callouts

This is something that most players know, but some often don’t give it the proper importance. Sure, you may know Catwalk, Short, Long, Middle… but there’s so much more to that. Middle has different parts, as do Short and Long. Also, even more important - you have to know them almost without thinking. There’s no point in knowing that’s “f0rest” if you’re not able to convey that information as fast as possible to your team before the player that killed you from there takes out another teammate.

In my opinion, really knowing map callouts is one of the big barriers that most players can’t seem to be able to cross. Being able to call them as soon as you have information is vital to have a death being successfully traded or even avoiding another unnecessary death in your team. Just google “Map X Callouts” and study! Also, remember that you have the callout name at all times in the upper-left corner of your screen, above the map. Even if forget, there’s no excuse not to call it!

Have your Settings in Order

Sometimes the smallest thing can make the biggest difference. Do you have the feeling that sometimes your mouse moves faster than it should? Maybe you have Raw Acceleration off in the game settings. Are you unable to see your opponents in dark rooms? Maybe you should turn up that brightness, not only in-game but also on your Graphics Card software and monitor.

Taking your time to set up not only your game settings but also your peripherals settings can be the key to unlock even further potential. It will not make you a better player all of a sudden, but I believe it will make you a more consistent one - which is arguably even more important than being the best only from time to time.

rkd, one of our writers from Dignitas, recently wrote an extensive article covering exactly that - you can check his recommendations for Video Settings, Mouse Settings, Windows Settings and so much more here!

Watch Professional Players’ Streams

You might have heard a lot of “you should watch professional matches to learn more about match mechanics, how the teams react to different things happening around the map, etc”... and that’s all true! Definitely watch professional matches to better understand the game and how it should be played, that’s amazing advice!

But there’s something I’d like to add - adding up to that previous advice, you should also watch professional players’ personal streams, even if they’re not playing official matches (you won’t be able to find POV’s of top players on official matches). But what should you be looking for? Communications, positions, and movement around the map. Try to understand why pro X holds the angle Y that way and not the way you thought it was the best. See how he reacts when receiving information from his teammates… there are so many nuances and details you can pick up this way!

FPL (FACEIT Pro League) streams are a good source of good content, and most of the top professional players do it almost daily! Just remember that they’re not playing in their team’s environment and some things said and done are more towards a PUG style (looser and more relaxed than a competitive match).

Avoid tilting and raging

This is so important! You might not even notice, but you end up playing so much worse when you’re tilted. You’re more aggressive than you should just because you’re eager to get a kill to shut up the player who just trash-talked you. What ends up happening most of the time is you just giving a free kill to the opposing team, making your team be at a disadvantage and most likely losing the round, causing you to get even more tilted.

Remember that CS:GO is a team game, and if you’re not helping your teammates, it will get even worse the more rounds go by. If you’re being a victim of toxic behaviour from the opposing team, make sure to use the in-game tools that are made exactly for that - mute those players and report them. After that, just forget it and keep on playing your game, as focused as you were before something happened.

Of course, playing a competitive game as CS:GO will eventually get you tilted - maybe you missed an easy shot, maybe an opponent got a lucky headshot on you, stuff like this just happens. It’s up to you to take a deep breath and just keep on playing calmly the next round.

One important tip: once you die, give the call to your teammate as fast as possible and shut up! Don’t start complaining about your lack of luck, don’t start calling out the other player… just shut up. You’ve died, you’ve given the info, now let your teammates do their job. There’s no point in just talking nonstop, your teammates won’t care because they’re focused on the round and you will just end up distracting them or even causing them to no hear some sound cues that may be important for the round’s success. Seriously, I can’t stress this enough. Just shut up after giving your information.

Make sure PC and Gear are optimized

CS:GO might not be a demanding game to run well, but it’s still a game and having a bad performance can hinder your own skill. Make sure to have all your Windows Updates done and the drivers updated (especially the graphics card’s). Having the latest updates from the manufacturers can sometimes squeeze every last bit of performance from the CPU or GPU. And trust me, you’ll want that!

Remember that a computer is a combination of different hardware, and yours’ is probably not the same as your friend that has 300+ frames per second at all times. Remember, your game can only run as smoothly as your hardware will allow it, so if you have a PC that was used by your grandparents in 2005… well, maybe it’s time to buy a new one.

Also, make sure you keep it tidy and clean, externally and internally. Make sure to dust off your PC at least once a year, as the different parts can eventually bottleneck themselves if they can’t keep cool enough to run at safe temperatures, giving you lower frames per second. You should also make sure to avoid having software that is using precious resources when playing, like dynamic wallpapers or antivirus running a disk check at the same time you’re playing.

PCs are amazing tools but can sometimes also be a pain. It is what it is!

Thank you for reading this article! Hopefully, it was helpful and good luck on becoming an even better player! You can reach out to me for feedback or suggestions via Twitter!

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