r/LearnCSGO

I haven’t played much cs2 the past few weeks, but I’m still 10k premier, peaked 12k a few weeks ago. How am I getting shit on every wingman game I play (every opponent I’ve played has been sub-10k elo, often sub-5k), and against those same players in premier/competitive as well? I’m diamond/ascendant level in valorant as well, so how am I getting destroyed by players whole tiers lower?

Let me start off by saying I am not the greatest player in the world, but would consider myself better than the average player. I’ve been playing CS for just shy of 8 years but up until the past year never touched faceit. I decided to pick it up and very quickly climbed to level 10 in around 211 matches as a predominantly solo queue player right before the elo reset. Now here’s where the problem begins. Foolishly I admit I played all 10 of my placement games in 1 day as I was leaving soon for a couple weeks and wanted to get them out of the way. I will also admit that in these games I was not performing to the best of my abilities and really played Russian roulette with 6 bullets solo queuing. This resulted in me dropping to level 7 after going 2-8 in placements. Besides the obvious horrible teammates excuse (multiple people I played with that day got banned) I really don’t know what happened. Shortly after I went on a 3 week vacation and was very excited to get back on the game fresh and mind fully cleared and was actually looking forward to grinding my way back to level 10. That was short lived as over the past two days I have continued to lose (only 3 games) but have fell to level 6 now and really am at a loss of words. Besides the obvious “find people to play with”, “take a break” I really don’t know what to do anymore. I feel lost and don’t know how I can get back to my old form and performance. Could this be my worst slump of all time or am I really just that unlucky?

I know this sounds dramatic, but I think Counter-Strike is giving me an identity crisis.

I genuinely love CS. I enjoy improving, learning utility, reviewing demos, aim training, thinking about the game, all of it. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to get better: DM, aim trainers, demo reviews, utility practice, watching better players, trying Faceit, fixing mistakes, being more disciplined, etc.

The problem is: I feel like I’ve hit a wall that maybe just means… this is my level.

I hover around average-ish ratings (around 10k–14k Premier depending on form), and every time I think I’m improving, reality punches me in the face. Yesterday I went into DM feeling great, had a solid session, thought “damn, maybe today’s the day.” Then I queue and get completely destroyed.

And it’s not just mechanics. It feels like whatever decision I make is wrong. Peek? Dead. Don’t peek? Wrong timing. Rotate? Wrong side. Hold? They hit the other site. Sometimes I feel like everyone else just naturally sees the game better than me.

The worst part is that it actually affects my ego way more than it should. I’m in my 30s, have a family, a job, real responsibilities — and somehow getting destroyed in CS still makes me feel genuinely bad about myself. Like: Why can’t I just be good at this thing I care about?

I recently played some higher-level games (17k–18k-ish players) and honestly, while I could sometimes keep up mentally, mechanically and under pressure I just got exposed hard. In pistol DM I sometimes get sent home with a 0.6 KD and wonder what the hell I’m even doing.

I guess what I’m asking is: when did you realise you’re maybe just… average at something you deeply care about? Did you accept it? Keep grinding? Change your mindset?

Because right now I honestly can’t tell whether I’m plateauing, overthinking, or just facing the uncomfortable truth that I’m simply not talented enough for the level I want.

i usually try to play with someone in faceit matchmaking pretty much never soloq i play in lvl8 but recently ive been trying to get back into soloq but i dont understand why i cannot play the same as when i play with someone such as my mechanics are gone, i do dumb decisions like i know what to do in these common situations but i cannot focus in soloq its like something is blocking me from playing fully

Hi everyone,

Haven't played cs since CS2 came out. Was thinking about starting to play again now that the game seems to be in a pretty good state. What tips do you have for someone who used to be decently good at csgo and is now coming back to the server.

\-Do I need to adjust my movement compared to csgo?

\-What about the spray patterns and shooting in general, are they the same?

Thanks in advance to everyone who shares their tips and tricks.

What’s a good benchmark to know I’m on the right track?

Ignoring niche interactions like apparently the AK killing faster on unarmored body shots, is there any situation where I shouldn’t drop an AK/M4 for their more expensive counterpart if I see it on the ground at the end of the round? Maybe not from Ak to AUG but they all seem better than the m4.

I always warmup with aimbotz, kovaak's, deathmatch, etc. but I STILL have awful aim. I've completely plateaued, still I rarely ever go KD positive and am usually at the bottom of the scoreboard.

It seems like the only thing I CAN improve at in this game is my utilities, but that's not all you need to be successful in this game. I feel like I've completely hit a wall. I have bad reaction time, and my aim is shaky and poor despite having 19in/360. It's just really, really frustrating putting in more time and effort into trying to aim better only to be below average while others effortlessly pass by. Honestly I'm close to just quitting.

I have 687 hours (vast majority of those hours are from years ago in CSGO), and I just reached gold nova 1.

DPI: 1000

In-game sensitivity: .85

EDIT: thank you all so much for the comments and advice!

Heyo, I’m a R6S player learning CS2! I’ve played a lot of R6 so I know a bit about tac shooters and have played a little Valorant so the gunplay isn’t too foreign to me. I’m wondering what players would y’all recommend to watch for learning good fundamentals for counterstrike? Someone not too flashy, who mainly focuses on smart and understandable decision making with solid mechanics. If it helps players I liked watching in R6 so I could emulate them are HerdsZ and Canadian.

I'm watching peeking guides in CS2 and the content creators never really say whether you still have to counter-strafe when you're jiggle-peeking. They only seem to be going from left to right or right to left off a wall without stopping or counter-strafing, at least from my perspective.

Started playing faceit a few months ago currently sitting at level 8, last season I hit 28800 on premier #8000 global placement.

More or less mirage is by far my worst map on both premier and faceit but the coordination against level 9-10 stacks makes it impossible as a solo q compared to other maps. Premier I have a 50% win rate on the map but faceit I’m sitting at a 37% with an overall win rate of 52-54% overall.

I know how to play the map and know all the line ups and retakes but the coordination factor is so hard to the point that I have to make hero plays to win rounds. I switch roles based on what the team is doing, if someone else is fragging hard I’ll be a support for them or lurk if no one else can find an opening and always igl regardless. Even still most of my wins come from solo hard carry. Im talking 40 bombs just to win in a single overtime type of carry.

I know there’s got to be something different I can do or a better way to coordinate people to get my win rate up on the map. For sure my biggest personal weakness on the map is my mid round ct and late pre plant on t side. Any advice or tips is welcome.

I've been playing this game on and off since 2019, I never bothered to spend extra time on aim training cause I've always just wanted to play for fun, but lately I'm looking to improve especially with headshots, I have no issue with sprays, and hitting headshots with rifle bursts, but I just can't be consistent with one taps especially with pistols, how do I improve on that front?

I love playing the game. I think I’m decent and could improve a lot if I played more than I currently do, but I always get queue anxiety or what they call ladder anxiety when it comes to playing. I know ranks are just numbers, but I get into a bad mood easily or feel discouraged if I have a bad game or a rough solo queue experience. If anyone has suggestions on how to get over it, I’d appreciate the help.

I’ve played Counter-Strike for 12+ years, reached Global Elite in 2015, Faceit level 10 in 2019, and later climbed to 2.8k elo.

I’m curious what lower/mid-level players struggle with the most in CS2 right now.

What is the #1 thing holding you back?

Aim?
Movement?
Peeking?
Gamesense?
Confidence?
Bad habits?
Not knowing what to practice?

Drop your rank/elo and your main problem.

I’ll try to reply with a specific direction if I can.

I'm going to be very basic and just copy other pro players, I decided to go with donk he plays 30 minutes of aim_rush and 3 competitive games then 30 minutes of deathmatch after

is this good for an experienced but shit player at the same time somehow

I play CS2 on a 3440x1440p monitor and I want to play on a stretched resolution that gives similar feeling to 1280x960 on a 1080p monitor. Does anyone have any resolutions to try out that would be good?

I used to play VALORANT, was Immortal every season I played. I have 750 hours on CS but that’s spread over 12 years, so it’s essentially nothing.

I’ve been playing for a couple weeks now consistently and I’m 20k premier but my biggest issue is entrying/playing aggressively.

Obviously there are no abilities in CS, and you’re expected to use utility in its place, but it feels impossible sometimes to push a site with the utility given. I don’t want to blame my teammates, and I’m not going to act like I know all the lineups I need to know either, but I feel like 20k premier is pretty average players (maybe even below average) and a lot of us don’t know utility that well in general.

I’m generally just curious of a few things:

1. Rushing in CS feels impossible, is it a viable option?
2. Should I slow down in general? Without all the utility it feels like getting kills before taking space is a requirement
3. Are flash lineups good to know or frowned upon? Or maybe it’s just scenario based. I feel like flashes are the most important thing to know for entries but taking time to line up a flash isn’t ideal
4. Any other tips for switching? I know the basics and have generally just been focused on counterstrafing/spraying and have made good progress. I’m just struggling with playing aggressively and getting shot in the back or side.