How to Improve Your Movement - A CSGO Guide With hallzerk
hallzerk shares some tips on improving your movement in CSGO.
Movement is something that became so important in the Counter-Strike franchise that it eventually became one of the ways you could separate the “pros” from the “noobs”. The Source engine works in a way that rewards those who master it and are able to use movement mechanics to the best of their abilities.
But how can someone improve it? To help me answer this question, I’ve had the chance to work with Håkon "hallzerk" Fjærli, one of the CS:GO professional players from DignitasVIE!
Why is movement so important in CS:GO?
Newer players might think that playing a competitive FPS such as CS:GO is all about being able to shoot in the opponents’ heads, use utility correctly and outsmart the opponents. But there’s so much more to it! Even stuff that might allow you to become an even better player, with movement being one of the key mechanics.
When questioned about this, hallzerk said the following:
Good movement in CS:GO is important because, let’s say, if you stop walking before a guy you see stops walking you're going to get the first bullet at him, so you're going to get an advantage of a fraction of a second that will probably get you the win in the majority of fights. If you had bad movement, it wouldn't happen as much. Good movement is directly correlated to winning a lot of gunfights! It also helps you going around a corner when running away from people - players with good movement will survive more times than those who don't!
It’s really simple - good movement will get you killed less and get you in a better position to win more gunfights! It will also allow you to get to different positions faster, although bunny- hopping might not be as effective as it was in 1.6 - in fact, it’s way harder and somewhat random.
Movement is also one of those skills that you can’t really practice directly. You can’t go into a server and just run around until you learn how to cross corners… I mean, you can, but that wouldn’t be really effective, would it? It’s more of a passive skill that you will improve over time.
How to Practice Movement
Sure, I’ve just said you can’t really practice movement, but you can play game modes that will require a lot of control over the movement mechanics, allowing you to accelerate the learning process.
There are two popular game modes in CS:GO that require a lot of mouse control and, therefore, movement - kz and Surf.
People really underestimate those two modes to improve your movement! It improves it so much! I think it's really important, especially for new players.
For those who aren’t familiar with the game modes, kz is diminutive to kreedZ, the original creator. It’s a mode where you jump and climb to the top of each community-made map. It’s known for using the jump mechanic to the limit, enormous gaps, and small platforms that give no space for a misstep. On the other hand, surf is a game mode where you use a game mechanic to slide down ramps and gain speed, allowing you to essentially glide around continuously.
Photo courtesy of Steam Workshop - surf_utopia_v3
What about hallzerk, how much did he really play these game modes?
I played so much kz and Surf! I probably have more hours in those modes than I have in "regular" CS. I started playing kz and hide-n-seek in 1.6, I probably played more than 2-3 thousand hours! Then I got into bunnyhopping in CS:Source - that's where I got the majority of my hours in that game! In CS:GO, when I don't want to be bothered to play a match, I go into a surf or kz server because I really do think it's fun! In total, I probably have more than 4-5 thousand hours in kz/surf alone. I take pride in my movement now!
As you can see, not only are those game modes useful to improve your movement in the long run, they’re also really fun!
You can play them on public servers easily! Just go into the Community Tab in CS:GO and use one of the keywords (kz or surf) on the search bar. You’ll get a lot of results and some of those servers are well-populated, which means you also have a good opportunity to make some new friends!
Regarding kz, it can help you improve your hopping and jumping skills, as well as allowing you to practice crouch jumping, which allows you to reach further and/or higher platforms. Surf is mostly about improving your control and learning that movement barely relies on W - in fact, and this may come as surprise for newer players, you barely touch W when surfing. You pretty much only use A or D, depending on which side of the ramp you’re surfing. The goal is to always press the key that’s on the same side as the ramp.
Your best bet to learn these game modes is to search on YouTube. Some Content Creators have made some amazing and detailed guides that will help you improve your skills on either mode and, consequently, on the game itself.
To finish the conversation with hallzerk, I’ve made sure to ask him if he had any final tips to improve movement, to which he said:
It's the same as aiming - you just have to practice it! The more you do, the better you're going to be at it! My biggest tip is definitely just going into a kz/surf server and get good at it! But avoid doing what I did - I had different sensitivity settings for the normal mode and kz/surf. Play with your own settings, avoid changing them, because that will definitely mess up your aim when going back to a normal server!
Remember, CS:GO has a very high skill ceiling, which means you’ll most likely always have something you can improve, and movement is probably one of them. As hallzerk said, it’s all about practice. It’s something that will improve over time and you’ll start to see some places where you can use your new skills - maybe that crazy peek you wouldn’t do before… you might be able to pull it now with success!
Don’t forget to follow hallzerk on Social Media!
Thank you for reading this article! Hopefully, it will make you want to improve movement in CS:GO! You can reach out to me via Twitter for suggestions or feedback!
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