As many fellow redditors have likely seen, a few weeks ago a video was posted on r/GlobalOffensive about how to deal with being in a slump, you can watch the video here:

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This video brought to my mind many things about slumps and consistency in general. But before defining how to deal with being in a slump, you must first understand what a slump is. The exact definition of the word is “to undergo a sudden severe or prolonged fall in price, value, or amount.” But in terms of skill, more specifically CS:GO, it is to be much worse than you usually are, be this in aim, movement, or general awareness and game-sense. Slumps are an inevitable part of Counter-Strike and even in general life, they are unavoidable, yet with practice and the right mindset they can be easily overcome.

What to do

The video above speaks of how a lot of players fall into a slump because they are too comfortable in their play and forget how the opposition can differ so heavily. The speaker goes on to compare this to driving and how a driver does everything the same over and over until something drastic happens that they didn’t expect, like another car pulling out in front of them.

A way to make yourself pay more attention to the game is to change your settings; for example some people change their resolution in order to make themselves focus more, and personally I think this is going to hinder your ability in the long run as keeping consistent settings is a key part of improving your game. Instead of this I suggest you switch hands in viewmodel settings, as this isn’t an overly major change to the settings and is relatively easy to do, I actually have a bind to change which hand the player model uses, but it can be done just as easily by typing cl_righthand (0 or 1, depending on which hand you already use) in the console. If you want to use a bind instead you can simply use bindtoggle (button) "cl_righthand", there are multiple benefits to having a bind for this but that’s another topic. The purpose of switching hands is that it makes you focus more on surroundings and subsequently focus more on the game in general, even if it’s just a placebo effect-- I’ve had this work for me countless amounts of times.

Another way some people deal with playing worse than normal, is by simply taking a break, just go do something else. This could involve playing another game or going for a run or something, as cheesy as it sounds, clearing your head is a really good way of getting back to your old self. Also to avoid playing exceedingly worse than your normal skill level, avoid playing for extortionate amount of time, this not only leads to strain on your ability to play the game, but it also makes you “too comfortable” in your play, and will lead to sloppy mistakes. After five or so full games in a row you should probably take a break, this is for the sake of your skill and your health. During this time you can play other game modes like Bunnyhop or Surf, or do something entirely different.

What not to do

Make sure you do not change any key settings, this includes sensitivity, resolution, or your crosshair. As much as doing this will make you pay attention to your game for maybe 15-20 minutes, but then when you’ve surpassed the “honeymoon phase” of having new settings, you’ll soon realise that you’ve changed your settings for no reason and now have to adjust to playing with something like a new sensitivity, which can hugely change how you play.

Don’t doubt yourself, as much as it probably doesn’t seem that important, mental state in a game is super important. You need to avoid getting angry as much as possible, we’re all guilty of it, but it not only negatively affects you, you’ll begin annoying your own team as well- bringing you all down, distracting them from the game, and making them angry too, which can only end badly. Keeping yourself in a good state of mind is on yourself, everyone is specific in this sense.

Slumps are pretty unavoidable, but use this pretty simple guide to get a better hold on them, and hopefully you’ll be much more consistent. You can also adapt all of the above advice to pretty much any competitive game.

Good luck!