u/This-Lynx-6295

I’m actually so tilted right now…
So with the new CS2 update letting you trade up souvenir skins, I tried to jump in early for once instead of being late like usual. Even a few hours after the update, prices were already going crazy, but there were still some insane deals if you looked hard enough.
Here’s where it went wrong.
I don’t have a credit card (I’m 23, I know 😭), so I usually use my mom’s card and just give her cash. I was messaging her all day trying to get permission to buy some souvenir skins while they were still “cheap.”
She finally responds and asks how much. At first I say like $60… then I see the craziest deal of all time and tell her maybe $200.
There was a Souvenir Factory New Oxide Oasis for $200.
Not only was that already like ~$700 cheaper than other FN ones, but it was also the #7 lowest float of that skin. Which means it could’ve been used for an insanely low float Desert Hydra trade-up… basically collector-level stuff.
I tried explaining it to her (probably badly because I rushed it), like how:
there are two versions of skins

now both can be used in trade-ups

low float = more valuable

people overpay a ton for top-ranked floats

She just hit me with “hell no, that’s stupid to spend on a game.”
I tried to explain the resale/value side and even told her to look up the CS2 market, but she wasn’t having it and just said people who buy that stuff are dumb.
So I gave up and said fine, I’ll just spend $60.
And literally 2 minutes later… the skin sold.
I’m actually sick 😭 that was easily the best deal I’ve ever seen and I couldn’t grab it.
Anyone else miss out on something crazy like this today or am I just cursed?

Title: Why am I suddenly climbing, and what openings should I focus on?
I usually play on Chess.com and only started about 2 months ago. I was stuck around ~400 for a few weeks, but this past week I’ve been steadily climbing. I have two accounts now—one around 550 and the other around 600.
The thing is, I don’t really know what changed. I do watch chess videos here and there, but sometimes it’s more for entertainment and I forget a lot of what they teach.
Recently I tried learning the Ponziani (I think that’s what it’s called), and for the past few days I’ve been focusing on the Fried Liver. I even got a checkmate in under 9 moves once, which was pretty fun. But a lot of the time people just play random or “weird” moves, and the videos I watched don’t really explain what to do in those situations, so I get lost.
So in those cases, what should I be doing? Is the Fried Liver still worth learning, or is it kind of outdated? It feels like in most of my games people defend it pretty easily.
I’ve also been trying the King’s Indian as Black, and it works sometimes, but other times I get completely crushed, so I’m not sure if it’s right for me.
Are there any good, simple openings you’d recommend for both White and Black at my level? I’m down to keep learning the Fried Liver if it’s actually worth it—I won’t lie, it’s pretty fun catching people off guard with it lol.

I usually play on Chess.com and only started about 2 months ago. I was stuck around ~400 for a few weeks, but this past week I’ve been steadily climbing. I have two accounts now—one around 550 and the other around 600.
The thing is, I don’t really know what changed. I do watch chess videos here and there, but sometimes it’s more for entertainment and I forget a lot of what they teach.
Recently I tried learning the Ponziani (I think that’s what it’s called), and for the past few days I’ve been focusing on the Fried Liver. I even got a checkmate in under 9 moves once, which was pretty fun. But a lot of the time people just play random or “weird” moves, and the videos I watched don’t really explain what to do in those situations, so I get lost.
So in those cases, what should I be doing? Is the Fried Liver still worth learning, or is it kind of outdated? It feels like in most of my games people defend it pretty easily.
I’ve also been trying the King’s Indian as Black, and it works sometimes, but other times I get completely crushed, so I’m not sure if it’s right for me.
Are there any good, simple openings you’d recommend for both White and Black at my level? I’m down to keep learning the Fried Liver if it’s actually worth it—I won’t lie, it’s pretty fun catching people off guard with it lol.

I’ve seen a ton of people showing their ranks on kovaaks and stuff like that but I was wondering how do they do it? I also heard tons of people recommending viscose or some other benchmark playlist thing so does anyone know where I can find these things please? I’d appreciate the information very much thank you!

I’m relatively new to KovaaK's FPS Aim Trainer (only about 30 hours so far), and up until now I’ve just been playing scenarios that I’ve clicked the like button on instead of using a structured playlist.
Recently I spent over an hour making my own playlist with a bunch of scenarios I wanted to practice. But when I finished and tried to find it, it was just… gone. I couldn’t find it anywhere.
The weird part is I also made a really small playlist with just 2 versions of the same scenario (different speeds), and that one shows up fine. So now I’m confused if my main playlist just disappeared into the shadow realm or if I did something wrong.
Has this happened to anyone else?
Did I forget to save it properly or is this some kind of bug?

I’ve been using KovaaK's Aim Trainer for a bit now (around 25 hours total), and I’ve been trying to train pretty consistently—usually like 20–60 minutes a day.

One thing I’ve noticed is that when I warm up, my aim in games like The Finals feels pretty solid, but if I don’t warm up, it can feel really inconsistent or just bad overall.

I’ve mainly been focusing on tracking and other scenarios to improve my mouse control, and I also try to play scenarios that are actually fun while still helping me improve, so I don’t burn out just grinding stuff I don’t enjoy.

But I’m not sure if I’m actually improving yet or if I’m just having “good and bad days.”

So I was wondering—around how many hours did it take you guys to actually start noticing real improvement in your aim? Like not just in Kovaaks scores, but in actual games too.

Also, did your aim feel inconsistent early on like this, or is that normal and just part of the process?

Any advice or experiences would help