Like any competitive environment where you set out to achieve your best, CS:GO is an environment where your mindset has a direct impact on your performance. This comes in many forms, from overthinking your plays and getting upset when you make mistakes to being angry with team mates and blaming things that are out of your control. This article looks to detail some of the things that could cause you to tilt in game and what steps you can take to change your mental state from a disadvantage to an advantage.

Sometimes a negative mindset can leave you seeing things backwards

Tilt is a word used frequently in gaming to describe when a person who would normally not make certain mistakes does. In other sports a term more frequently used is a slump, a series of uncharacteristically poor plays that could be caused by various factors. Maybe you miss a shot and start doubting yourself, maybe someone on your team calls you out for a mistake again and again or maybe you just had a bad day at work and take that poor attitude into game with you. Tilt is a common problem for players at all levels. For me, tilt comes in the form of questioning my aim. In particular, I start to focus so hard on crosshair placement to land headshots that the rest of my game goes. I begin to make poor game decisions, react more slowly and subconsciously play more slowly around the map because all of my focus is on one area of my game. Others take it out on teammates or even hacks, pushing the blame of their own poor plays on other people when the only major effect you can have is on yourself. Overthinking situations is key to tilt; if you look at your very best games of Counter-Strike and remember what you were thinking when you played it, I can almost guarantee it wasn’t about your aim. When you think of great sports people it’s not that they think of a certain play and then make it, they just do it via muscle memory. They go and practice a jump shot 1000 times, take 500 free kicks from outside the box, run 10km to practice for a 200m sprint. It’s the same for CS, if you just play and trust your body to subconsciously make the right shots, then your mind can go elsewhere and think about outplaying your opponent based on their strategy.

Having discussed tilt and mindset, sometimes it’s easier said than done to go back to relaxing and trusting yourself to play well. The first and most rehashed step to not tilting is to take a break; most of you guys aren’t pro so remember you don’t need to grind out Counter-Strike for any particular reason. Treat it as competitive fun like you would a weekend match of football or soccer for your local club. I’m not talking for a couple of hours either. Sometimes you might need a day or two just to get back and feel comfortable with yourself again. Secondly, you might want to just play in a less stressful environment, competitive on your main account is demanding mentally as you want to get the best rank possible. Go relax in a deathmatch server, play with friends or go onto a second account where you care less and then come back when feeling relaxed and refreshed. If you’re in a game and feel like you’re tilting put yourself in comfortable situations that you know you can succeed in. If you like holding B site make sure your team knows that and then do it, spark up a conversation about something unrelated to the game to get your mind away from the game a little. Even watch a little funny video when you’ve died, just do anything to elevate your mood. In some of my best games my team and I have barely even called positions and instead have been talking about current affairs, movies and pro teams, always remember you’re here to have fun as well as compete. Finally, remember to always practice if you want to improve. That doesn’t mean play more competitive games, instead it means you should practice your aim in deathmatch, look at your replays, learn new smokes and flashes, spray at a wall for 10 minutes from various distances. Professional athletes don’t play 5 games a week and magically improve, they do 2 hours of drills a day plus fitness, so if all you’re doing is competitive and get upset because you’re plateauing, remember that you have to independently train your gameplay and then put it into practice.

Try using aim maps to practice your skills in a relaxed environment

Mindset is a key element to success in Counter-Strike that can go either way. Some days it seems like you’re unstoppable and others like you can never really get going. To play at your best you need to trust your muscle memory, be relaxed and understand that the way your team and your enemies play is out of your control. Spend plenty of time practicing, have fun and a negative mindset shouldn’t be a problem.

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