There's a wide variety of workshops that players use to warm up before competitive matches. But adding certain community servers to your warmup and practice routines can be extremely rewarding. Community servers give you a chance to practice specific skills and situations against other players. While you can practice against bots in workshops, bots cannot move and shoot like real players do. Practicing against bots too often can form bad habits such as slow target aquisition and running with your knife out as bots are much slower to attack you. Thus, it is important to use a combination of both to best improve your skills.

If you have never accessed the community servers before, you can access them by clicking PLAY > BROWSE COMMUNITY SERVERS. The interface does take a moment to adjust to, but it's easy to use if you know what tags you're looking for. A fair warning, community servers are usually used by players in the upper ranks, usually DMG or above. Depending on the server, they may not be the best learning environment for newer players. But if you find Valve casual and deathmatch servers to be too easy or want to give yourself a new challenge, I would recommend giving community servers a try. The rank pool is less diluted and practicing against players of higher rank than yourself can help you learn new tricks you might not see in lower rank MMs. This guide focuses on the different scenario/skill-focused servers at your disposal and how to get started on them.

Choosing Your Weapons on a Community Server

 
Above: Typical 1v1 Server Gun Menu Interface

The buy menu in a community server is very different from a typical competitive buy menu. While some servers randomize weapons in pistol/rifle rounds, others allow you to choose your weapon using a menu similar to the ones above. Most 1v1 servers allow you to choose your weapons, so I will use them as an example. To access the menu, the typical command is "!guns" in chat. This opens the menu above on the left. Options 1 and 2 lead you to the rifle and pisol choices, and the rest vary depending on what type of server you are on/server host specifications. Rifles are usually limited to the AK-47, M4A1-S, M4A4, and sometimes the Galil and Famas. AWPs and automatic sniper rifles (G3SG1 and SCAR-20) are usually saved for special rounds.

FFA Deathmatch Servers (search tag "FFA" or "DM")

FFA DM servers are fairly similar to Vavle DM servers, except the teams don't matter (ergo free-for-all). With 20 players, this makes the map seem twice as cluttered with enemies. Most server hosts dictate 12-16 players per map to amend this. Be aware that spawn kills are very common as there are more enemies constantly moving around on the map. But this is common on all DM servers so try to just relax and focus on the main goal: quick target aquisition and quick kills. FFA DM maps usually are from the Active Duty or Reserves group. Be aware that people are usually more aggressive on DM servers than they would be in competitive matches as the kill/death ratio doesn't matter. Do not let your recklessness in DM become a habit in comp.

Pistol Only Servers (search tag "pistol")

Pistol only servers are benefitial for practicing exactly what you would think: pistol performance. Community pistol only servers are usually FFA DM mode, but they are still viable for improving your competitive gameplay. Pistol rounds are heavily depended on raw skill with a pistol. The T side strategy is often to all push a site together, so on the CT side it comes down to how well you can hold site while your teammates retake. While is it possible to just use pistols in a Valve deathmatch, it is not as realistic as most of your enemies will be using rifles. Remember to practice both starting pistols and your eco round pistols. Learn which ones you need to stand still with for accurate shots and which ones you can use to charge forward and spam. Try to focus on headshots while on a pistol server. Some players are so used to playing with rifles and ecoing SMGs that they get nervous and tend to spam body shots with pistols. Many pistol servers are also headshot only to help get rid of this bad habit.

Headshot Only Servers (search tag "HS")

Headshot only servers are for practicing quick target aquisition and crosshair placement. These servers are also usually FFA DM mode. It is common to try to body spray rather than take the time to go for accurate headshots, so only being able to do damage with headshots helps get rid of that bad habit. Make sure to focus on the height of your crosshair as you round corners.

1v1 Arena (search tag "1v1")

 
Left: 1v1 Arena Map am_skybound | Right: Special 1v1 Round Options

1v1 servers help you practice your clutch situations. It is common in deathmatch and casual matches to focus on one enemy only to be shot in the back by another. The round times are very short to simulate the time crunch you'll experience in a real round where the bomb has been planted. You will choose the pistol and rifle of your choice when you enter the server using the !gun system. On some servers you can also opt in to pistol-only or AWP-only rounds. Each 1v1 matchup is in a different arena of the same map and you move up or down an arena depending on if you win or lose your round. This way, you are able to practice against players of a similar skill level. The maps are typically designed so you can either have long distance engagements or try to lurk and sneak behind the other player. Some other servers use small portions of active duty maps (i.e. banana on Mirage or cat on Dust 2) for practice.

Site Retake (search tag "retake")

Retake servers simulate bomb defense/retake strategies on Active Duty maps. The servers that I've played on specify 35 seconds until detonation rather than the usual 45 seconds in Vavle competitive. This puts a little more pressure on the CTs to act quickly, and more accurately simulates professional/tournament matches. The team player counts vary (2v3, 3v4, etc) depending on the server specifications and the number of players on the server. Typically the cap is at 4v5, since retakes are almost never 5v5. Most weapon choices are limited to non-sniper rifles and pistols. Some maps allow you to pick up an awp to use if you win the round. One downside to practicing on a retake server is that there is usually minimal team cohesion.

Community Competitive (search tag "competitive" or "5v5")

It is normal to want to practice full bomb defusal matches without the clutter of a 10v10. Community competitive servers allow you to practice your 5v5 matches without ranking/deranking. But because there is no matching system, these games are usually mixed ranks. As I mentioned earlier, however, this is an opportunity to play against better players in the competitive setting, which will help you improve. Unlike most community servers, the buying system is the same as Valve competitive. And unlike Valve casual matches, community competitive matches are best of 30 rounds, so you are able to play both sides.

There are many more community servers out there for you to use, but these are the main ones I have used for practice and warmup. Don't get discouraged if a server is empty; there are always new players coming and going. Because they are player-hosted, your favorite server may not always be running, so keep an eye out for new servers in your area. Remember to pay attention to your latency and to save nearby servers to return to them more easily. GLHF!