History

I never took CS too seriously. I grew up playing early versions such as 1.3, 1.5 , and the beloved and most well-known version 1.6. I never played competitively, mostly just casual with friends in community servers. We are now at the 3rd iteration (4th if you count condition zero, which I don’t) and this is the first time I’ve ever taken the competitive side seriously. I played the game here and there but, never tried to get better at the game. CS:S came around and I dabbled in the competitive scene. By dabbled, I mean, I joined an CAL-O team with an old friend and played two matches and never touched the game again due to the team disbanding. Fast forward to CS:GO and 561 hours on my steam account later, I’m here.

When I decided to take a more serious attitude towards the game, I decided to dedicate time towards practicing my spray, learning angles, and just playing the game a lot. I placed at Nova 4, grinded to Double AK, and held for a bit. After placing there and stayed there steady for a while, I began to lose footing. Slowly but surely, I fell down to Nova 1. I could easily blame it on playing with friends who liked to throw the game, hackers, and smurfs, but at the end of the day, I was the one losing ranks. I felt at a loss but still determined to figure out what I was doing wrong. Through time and patience, I learned a few things that may be very basic, but strong fundamentals allow players to grow and learn at a quicker rate.

Tips

1. Learn to play the bomb

   1. Once the bomb is down, it’s not moving. Find an angle that’s not already taken and just sit on it. If you are playing with a few friends or a team, set up a crossfire. Post-plant plays can make or break a team. I can’t tell the number of times I am able to get the bomb plant but my team gets ran over due to everyone watching the same angle or peeking to get frags to increase the score. A 4v2 just turned into a 1v2 in a matter of seconds due to greed and impatience. Just play the bomb and you’ll get that W soon enough.

2. When to be passive vs aggressive

   1. Now this is something I still struggle with, but learning slowly. Sometimes its out of your hands and you simply get out peeked and overwhelmed. A few things that can help are listening to your surroundings, callouts, and watching the minimap. Enemies can be marked if seen and sometimes your teammates might not be as helpful as you’d like.

3. Communication

   1. If you are worried about using a mic, don’t fret. Even typing “2 b” is more than sufficient at times to allow your teammates to react. If you want to get more in depth, you could learn callouts on maps. Now this may require a lot more time and some research, but nothing a quick google search can’t fix. Learning spots in maps are super helpful for your teammates and yourself for obvious reasons.

Although at the end of the day, CS has always been about fun. Even if you don’t like playing regular 5v5 modes, there are a multitude of options in the community servers that make it feel as if 1998 never left. Surf , KZ (Climbing), Zombie, and Jailbreak maps are just a few options out there if you just want to play the game. CS is still alive and well along.

Nowadays, you can find me competing with my coworkers in a online league. It really brings me back to the days of hopping into an IRC channel, finding a scrim or match, and playing as if everything was on the line. The eSports side is a whole beat in itself, but I'll hold that off for another time.