In Counter-Strike, crosshair placement is one of the most essential skills in becoming a good player. The words “aiming” and “crosshair placement” go hand-in-hand. This gameplay aspect refers to positioning your crosshair at head level to minimize mouse movement.
By placing your crosshair appropriately, you reduce the time needed to aim at an enemy player, giving yourself a higher chance of winning a gunfight. All you need to do is move your mouse horizontally, giving you a split-second advantage over an enemy player that is not ready
Crosshair placement is a valuable skill that helps players with min-maxing their aim. Practicing it can lead to:
Minimizing required reaction time and mouse movement
Maximizing accuracy since the crosshair is always near head level
How To Improve Crosshair Placement
Getting better at crosshair placement will directly increase your skill. In this article, we will focus on the best methods for refining your crosshair placement and making you a better player.
Familiarize Yourself With The Maps
“Learning a map” doesn’t only refer to memorizing callouts and smoke lineups.
The first step to perfecting CS:GO crosshair placement is getting accustomed to the Counter-Strike maps. Each map in the game has differing terrains, designs, angles, and elevations, so it is crucial to understand what to expect on different maps.
It is your job to determine where an enemy’s head would be positioned when playing from different angles on the map. To learn this, load into a bot match and walk around the map.
While wandering through the map, focus on placing your crosshair at head level everywhere you go. You will notice that your crosshair must continuously be adjusted since you are walking up and down ramps or stairs. Get used to the different angle elevations. The goal is to drill proper map crosshair placement into your brain so it will eventually turn into muscle memory.
Pre-Aim Common Angles
This step can be considered a “part two” to getting used to the CS2 maps.
Pre-aiming a map’s common angles is an additional strategy to improve your CS:GO crosshair placement. The idea behind this term is to anticipate where an enemy player is going to play. Before you peek an angle, your crosshair is preemptively targeted, giving you the upper hand in the engagement if the enemy is actually there.
It’s all about anticipating and predicting. Knowledge of the most-used positions in a map will help predict where enemies will appear. You must train in map knowledge and game sense and identify common trends from previous encounters in the game.
Proper use of this strategy will free your focus up for movement and information gathering since half the job of aiming has already been completed. Practicing to pre-aim angles will significantly benefit you in the long run. It is an excellent habit to improve your consistency since more muscle memory is being developed.
Click here to see our full aiming guide
Jiggle Peeking For Information
The jiggle peeking strategy can be combined with pre-aiming to boost CS:GO crosshair placement abilities. It is used by all high-level Counter-Strike players and is popular in professional play.
The idea of jiggle peeking is to figure out where enemy players are positioned. It is usually used when you have no information at all. To jiggle peek, you must slightly peek by revealing your shoulder to gain slight vision and bait shots from the enemy.
Once an enemy player is spotted or shoots bullets, you will fully grasp where the enemy is playing. Now, we can implement the “pre-aiming” strategy. Prepare your crosshair, and then go for a wide swing and shoot the enemy!
Reduce Your Mouse Sensitivity
One common trend found in Counter-Strike and numerous other first-person shooters is playing with low sensitivity. Most professional Counter-Strike players play on low-sens to improve their crosshair precision.
By reducing your mouse sensitivity, you get more control over your mouse movements, making it much easier to precisely aim your crosshair. In intense situations, turning down mouse sensitivity can also lead to more stable movements. Since crosshair placement focuses on horizontal movement, stability is crucial because you don’t want your mouse moving slightly upward or downward when sliding.
Though something like mouse sensitivity entirely comes down to personal preference, low sensitivity is widely considered better. It rewards players with more control and consistency since players are less likely to overaim or underaim, which is crucial in a game like Counter-Strike, where every pixel matters.
Learn From The Best Players
There is an apparent reason why professional players are miles ahead of everyone else. They are doing things differently from the average player. One of the best ways to develop your CS:GO crosshair placement is to watch how the best players are doing it.
Download a replay of a professional player known for high headshot percentages and impeccable crosshair placements. Some players that meet the criteria include Nikola “NiKo” Kovač, Valerij “b1t” Vakhovsjkyj, and Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken. These three are known to be the fathers of crosshair placement, and you can definitely learn a thing or two from watching them play.
While watching the demos, pay close attention to how they position their crosshairs. Focus on how they are pre-aiming common spots, holding angles, and adjusting during gunfights. Sometimes, you might need to slow down the replay to notice the micro-adjustments they make.
Watch Your Own Gameplay
Replays of professional player gameplay aren’t the only thing you can watch to improve your CS:GO crosshair placement. It is often a really good idea to introspect and review your gameplay.
We highly recommend recording two or three full Counter-Strike matches you’ve played and rewatching the game. Alternatively, you can download the replay and watch the demo.
You can learn a lot from watching yourself play. In this case, you should focus on your crosshair placement and ask yourself some questions. Is my crosshair always at head level? Am I adjusting my crosshair everywhere I walk? Were my kills mostly body shots, or head shots?
Watching your own replays will improve not only your CS:GO crosshair placement but also numerous other aspects of the game. Learning from these mistakes can help you fix your aim and become a better player overall.
Practice, Practice, Practice!
Learning all the concepts above will help you become better at crosshair placement, but at the end of the day, progress is impossible without any actions. You must put in some effort into some practice.
One way to practice crosshair placement is using CS:GO community workshop maps. Some maps such as Aim Botz and Yprac’s Practice Maps are focused on helping players improve their aiming aspects, including crosshair placement.
The second way to practice your crosshair placement is hopping on Deathmatch servers. During the Deathmatch game, focus on adjusting your crosshair placement wherever you walk, and try aiming for the head for every kill.