The most influential aspect of playing Counter-Strike is your ability to aim. After all, the goal of a first-person shooter game is to fire your bullets as accurately as possible.
Every CSGO player dreams of having aiming skills as good as the professionals, but you can’t improve your abilities overnight. Still, if you’re committed to refining your aim, even though it may take years, this article will teach you all the building blocks required to have precise aim in CSGO.
Adjusting Settings For Proper Aim
Before we get to work, we need to make sure your in-game settings are up to speed. Even the greatest football players can’t kick a ball to their maximum potential if their sports gear is off.
You must adjust your settings to meet your preferences, as it will make aiming significantly easier and infinitely more accurate. The two most important settings to tweak are crosshair and sensitivity settings.
Crosshair Settings
Your crosshair is the most important in-game tool that helps you adjust your aim. You must ensure that the crosshair you are using has the right size, shape, and color, as you will need it for every aim duel you take.
Though crosshair settings come down to personal preference, professional and experienced players in the community recommend a few characteristics of a good crosshair:
- Generally, try using smaller crosshairs so it doesn’t take up too much of your screen.
- Use bright colors, such as green, cyan, or white.
- Do not use too many elements, such as crosshair dots, or follow recoil.
You can try copying the crosshairs of the best CSGO players in the world. These crosshairs might not give you the perfect fit immediately but will give you a good idea of where to start.
Mouse Sensitivity and DPI
Another crucial tool you must tweak accordingly is your mouse sensitivity and DPI. In case you are confused between the two terms:
- Sensitivity is adjusted through your in-game settings.
- DPI is adjusted through your mouse buttons or mouse software.
Typically, players use 400 or 800 DPI, then adjust their in-game sensitivity. Take some time off your day to slowly change your mouse sensitivity up and down to see if you prefer low-sens or high-sens.
Most professional players recommend a low mouse sensitivity, as it helps them become more precise with their mouse movement, which is crucial for hitting headshots.
However, more than crosshair settings, mouse sensitivity and DPI settings are entirely down to your personal preference, and there is no “best sensitivity” out there. Though it is true that the majority of professionals use very low sensitivity, there are successful ones that play on extremely high sensitivity, too.
Aiming Mechanics In CSGO
After getting the in-game settings adjustments out of the way, we can finally get to the nitty-gritty of aiming mechanics and how each of them is relevant to hitting more headshots.
Crosshair placement
One of the most critical concepts of aiming properly in CSGO is maintaining proper crosshair placement. You have probably heard this term being tossed around but might not know what it is and what it means.
Crosshair placement is a skill that can give you a significant advantage in aim duels. The idea of it is the vertical location of where your crosshair is placed. Since headshots are the most lethal type of shots, it is essential for you to always maintain your crosshair at head level.
If proper crosshair placement is practiced, you will take significantly less time to move your cursor to secure a kill. You can already get a good idea of a person’s skill level just by observing their crosshair placement.
Pre-aiming
Another way to improve your aiming capabilities is to understand the idea of “pre-aiming” in CSGO.
Pre-aiming is when you aim at a specific position where you are expecting an enemy player to be. You are already lining up your crosshair appropriately before you even see them or peek the angle. With proper pre-aiming, your crosshair will immediately be placed close to an enemy player’s head if they are actually there.
The best angles to pre-aim are common positions where enemies often hide behind. Though these common angles are often strong, they also backfire because of how easy they are to predict.
Pre-aiming is also directly related to “pre-firing,” which is a concept you have definitely heard of. If you pre-fire common angles, there is a slight chance you can get a kill on an enemy player before they can even react.
Shooting styles
Using the correct shooting style is also important to adjust your aim properly in CS:GO. There are three main categories of shooting style, which are: tapping, bursting, and spraying. These techniques should be used in different situations, and require you to approach your aim differently. Let’s go over the basics of each shooting style in the game.
Tapping
Tapping your gun is one of the easiest ways to start mastering your aim in CS:GO. As the name suggests, this shooting style involves shooting one bullet at a time. Since you’re not letting it rip, it is vital that you aim your crosshair accurately, meaning you should aim at head level.
For tapping, accuracy is the name of the game. It is most-effectively used in long-ranged duels since it requires precision. It would be foolish to shoot one bullet at a time when you’re right in front of your enemy.
Bursting
You could say that bursting is the middle ground between tapping and aiming. With this shooting style, you are shooting 3 to 5 bullets per burst. Bursting will give you more room for error than tapping since you are shooting more bullets at a time. However, you must control the recoil of these bursts.
Bursting should be used in mid-ranged gunfights. You still don’t want to burst in short-range duels, and the bursts are relatively difficult to control in long-range. Obviously, you still want to be aiming around head level when using this shooting style.
Spraying
The last shooting style is probably the coolest one to do among the three, but also could be the most difficult. Spraying is when you hold down your left mouse button and let your bullets loose. However, just because you are shooting more bullets does not mean you are going to hit all of them.
Each weapon has a unique spray pattern, which is the gun’s recoil you must control. Mastering the entire spray control of the primary weapons can take players years to perfect. If you’re just starting out, at least familiarize yourself with the first ten bullets of the pattern.
Unlike tapping and bursting, spraying is very flexible as it can be used in many situations, especially when you are facing numerous enemies. Transferring your spray from one target to another is something you might have to do. It may be difficult to control, but feels extremely satisfying if done correctly.
Tracking
Tracking is another important aspect to aiming. It is how well you can follow your crosshair on moving targets. In a game of CSGO, you will often see players running, jumping, and wide peeking. It is crucial that you can track your crosshair properly so you can eventually land shots on players that are moving.
We’ve talked about crosshair placement and how important it is for the vertical side of your aim. If your crosshair is already placed correctly, tracking requires the horizontal movement of your mouse.
Flicking
Flicking is slightly similar to tracking but has distinct differences. When flicking, instead of making your crosshair follow a moving target, you are immediately moving your crosshair to an enemy player as fast as possible.
This concept is usually used for players wielding sniper rifles such as the SSG 08 or AWP. However, skilled players can also flick their crosshairs to an enemy player’s head and land a quick headshot.
To be good at flicking, you must find the perfect mouse sensitivity, as you need to be extremely precise in a very short amount of time.
Aiming In Different Distances
A mechanic that is overlooked by many people is how crosshair placement and aim can differ depending on distance.
If an enemy is far from you, their player model appears smaller, meaning their head is seen at a lower position than usual. As a result, you should aim your crosshair slightly lower when looking to take long-ranged engagements.
How To Improve Your Aim In CS:GO
Now that we’ve uncovered most relevant aiming mechanics in the game, let’s go over how you can actually apply this knowledge and elevate your aim.
Familiarize Yourself With The Maps
We’ve just gone over how crosshair placement and pre-aiming matters in winning aim duels. Therefore, the first course of action is to know the ins-and-outs of CSGO maps.
We’re not talking about learning all the callouts so you can communicate with your team. You need to understand all the common angles on a map so you can pre-aim and pre-fire corners accordingly.
Additionally, CSGO maps have different elevations and verticalities, so you must have a good feel for each map so you can maintain proper crosshair placement everywhere you go. Simply take some time to walk around the maps in a private server and figure out where an enemy player’s head would be in different scenarios.
Understand The Different Weapons
Aiming in CSGO doesn’t only come down to raw skill and talent. Different weapons have varying spray patterns and damage.
It is your job to learn the spray patterns for the weapons in the game. You don’t have to master all of them; just start with the most relevant weapons, such as the AK-47, M4A1-S, and M4A4. You could also study a few SMGs, such as the P90, MAC-10, or MP9.
If you are too lazy to learn every weapon in the game, at least understand how each of them works, as you might find yourself picking them up in certain situations.
Watch Professional Players Play
One of the most effective ways to improve as a CSGO player is to learn from the best. Professional players have spent years perfecting their game to compete at the highest level.
You can watch these players for free through tournament matches or from their personal live streams. Carefully watch how they move, where their crosshairs are positioned, and how they approach aim duels. Then, you can immediately apply some of the plays they make to your game.
If you really want to improve your aiming aspect, watch replays of players such as NiKo, Twistzz, or b1t. Watch the matches from their point of view and see how they are maintaining some of the highest headshot percentages in the professional scene.
Start Doing Aim Training Routines
Last but not least, you can’t improve on something without getting your feet dirty. You can understand all the aiming mechanics in the game, but there’s no point if you never practice your aim. Every Global Elite player has trained their aim at some point, and it is nearly impossible to reach the top 1% of players without any practice.
Aim training routines do not need to be intense or too hardcore. Some players shoot bots for ten minutes everyday, or play one or two deathmatch games. What’s important is to maintain consistency and perform these routines on a regular basis.
There are a bunch of community workshop maps you can download for free that are specifically made to help you train your aim. Take some time to visit the Steam community workshop and pick out some interesting maps.
Some of the best workshop maps include:
- Aim Botz – Aim Training (CS2)
- CSStats Training Map (CSGOHUB)
- Aim_Rush / Aim training map
- Recoil Master – Spray Training (CS2)
Conclusion
In conclusion, aiming is one of the most substantial aspects of Counter-Strike, and you cannot be a good player without proper aim. It is a skill that requires time and effort to improve, and you won’t see immediate results. It is vital to understand all the aiming mechanics, but it is even more important to practice your aim, as a lack of training will get you nowhere.