How to go pro in CS:GO

How to Go Pro in Counter Strike: Global Offensive

A Noob’s Perspective

So you’ve spent dozens, maybe hundreds, maybe thousands, of hours playing deathmatch and watching demos from pros and yourself, but you’re still no closer to being a pro than you were a couple months ago.

What gives?

If this sounds like you, I hope these musings will be helpful¹—more helpful than videos like this.

Advice online tells you what to do and to work hard at it, but not how to do it or what working hard looks like. That’s what I’m going to try to do here.

Deathmatch

Deathmatch (DM) is important for reaction and muscle-memory training. The goal is to make simple but deceptively challenging mechanics like counter-strafing, crosshair placement, flicking/snapping, and (possibly) peeking second nature while getting familiar with all the angles and ways you can get shot on a map.

DM has quickly diminishing returns. Keep sessions under 30 minutes to ensure you’re not wasting time, and DM on different maps—in matchmaking if you have to.

The same goes for dedicated aim, spray, and retake training. Keep those short.

Demos

Demos are problematic because they contain an overwhelming amount of information. How you use them will make or break your career.

Demos are all about decision making. Ideally, you’ll be able to trace the progression of how decision-making has changed through the game’s history.

Fortunately, you can find pro demos as old as 2012 on HLTV. Go to Stats > Top Events > Time Filter [2012] > Ranking Filter [All]. Then choose an event like the AMD Sapphire CS:GO Invitational, click on an interesting match, and download the GOTV demo.

Demos are notoriously buggy, and some might not work anymore. Just find the earliest interesting ones that do. Try toggling demo settings in the console.

If you set demo_index 1 and skip to the end before replaying the demo, navigating through the match will be smoother and less frustrating.

Tools like the CS:GO Demo Manager can be overwhelming at first, but they’re dead useful. Start using them ASAP, and if you find the in-game demo controls absolutely unpalatable, try using something like Skybox.

What not to watch for

• Nade lineups
• Tactics²

You can find better resources to learn those.

What to watch for

Ideally, you can watch each game 3 times: twice in-demo and once on Youtube to put it all together (if there’s a vod or casted game).

On the first watch-through of the demo, shadow a player you find interesting, and make sure to turn off x-ray and anything else that gives you more information that a player would have during the match. Compare their decisions and actions to the ones you would make.

On the second watch-through, note what utility is thrown, where it lands, the role it serves, and how the opposing team reacts to it. Use Skybox or the Demo Manager to avoid having to hunt these moments down.

On the third watch-through, note player positioning, crosshair placement, and peeking, especially during key moments. Where are they looking and why? Was it effective or not, and why? Do they (un)crouch? This should be done via the in-game demo watcher, in POV view.

Scrub back and forth in time within rounds to look at all players. See if you can rank their relative strengths and weaknesses (this is more for fun). Do some do better in clutches? What do they do different? Oh, and make sure to keep sound on.

Write your observations and inferences along with screenshots and short clips in a note-taking tool like Notion. Don’t worry about organization until it becomes a problem. By then, you’re already doing great.

Notice how these change as the demo dates progress. Infer why, and write that information down.

We’re writing things down to force coherent articulation and clearer thinking. This will not only help in-game, but it will also be tremendously helpful when you’re feeling down and hopeless. You can see the progress you’ve made and take productive steps to revise and improve.

Watch as many demos from each year as you can. Try to develop meta storylines and graphs of influence. Work your way up.

Modern Pro Games and Your Own Games

While you’re doing this, you can still be watching pro games and your own demos.

I would stick to live streams and youtube vods/ highlights. There’s no need to watch modern pro demos unless 1) you’ve worked up to it or 2) you’re bored, and you want to. You simply won’t get the most out of your time this way because you’ll be missing context and you might not understand the game well enough to accurately decipher it.

As for your own demos, you’re only looking for your mistakes. This should be pretty quick, 20 minutes per session at most.

Schedule

Phew. That was a lot to take in. So what does a regular day look like?

Assuming you’re in school, watch a (modern) pro game (or a nade/game tutorial) on youtube for 10-15 minutes before hopping in-game. Don’t forget to eat and stay hydrated. Don’t shoot yourself in the foot.

Depending on your mood, you can flip these two blocks (playing and analysis) around, though I recommend it this way³.

Playing

10-30 minutes of deathmatch. Play game. Take a 5-minute walk. Aim/spray training. Play game. Another break/snack, then entry & nade training on workshop maps. Play game. Retakes/Executes or reaction training on workshop maps.

Ideally, you don’t play the same map twice in a given day. Try to be as comprehensive as possible in games. Don’t tunnel vision on winning games. You need to be versatile, sharp, and clutch as a player. When you improve, you will improve dramatically.

This block should take 4-6 hours.

Analysis

First, analyze your games and look for mistakes. Write them down with screenshots/clippings. This should take less than an hour.

Next, study a pro game. Watching it three times should take upwards of three hours, likely more, depending on your notes.

It would be a good idea to eat dinner and do (the optimal amount?) of homework to ensure maximum time to focus on the game in the long run. Remember, extra hours at the end of the day will have diminished returns anyway.

Instead of spending it in-game, spend it planning the next day out. Have your next historical pro game and routine prepped for the next day. Reflect on how the day went, how moments made you feel. Writing this part down is optional. Just wind down and process shit. It’ll be rough most days.

What’ll kill your career/prospects won’t be your lack of skill; it’ll be getting demoralized, beating yourself up, and being inconsistent or unmethodical.

Note that this obstacle is present in any career or path you choose. Learning how to process and get through those feelings is invaluable and transferable to anything. It isn’t unique to esports.

Still, you need emotional support and someone to give you sanity checks, because shit’s going to happen. Make sure you choose that person carefully. They don’t have to be family or irl friends, though that helps immensely.

As for weekends, you can start earlier. Instead of one game, study two. Instead of three games, play six (with training and breaks between each).

Teams and Playing with People

I haven’t mentioned this so far because the simple truth is most people are shit at the game and won’t be putting in the work and thought you are.

It’s far more valuable to do your own study and analysis and come to your own conclusions than to play with pre-mades/friends or watch youtube analyses (though certain ones may help you level up your analysis). As arrogant and shitty as this may feel, you need to back yourself here and believe in the fundamentals.

Over the course of a year, you’re going to be unrecognizable compared to when you began, so if you choose a team too early, they’ll anchor you down.

When you feel your understanding of the game stagnate for weeks (while continuing your routine), maybe for about a month, it’s time to look for a serious team or put one together yourself. They should be playing in online leagues with direct paths to pro play and LANs.

Remember, you have standards. Push people to meet them (ideally without being abusive). If they don’t, start looking for a new teammate, or a new team altogether. Take initiative because no one else will.

For team conflict and criticism, which are healthy parts of the larger game, look for videos like this. It may be time to look at different kinds of tutorials.

During this time, never stop studying. That’s your competitive advantage because non-pro players don’t study. There’s a reason why Ropz was able to go Tier 1 so quickly, and it wasn’t because he was a banger in FPL.

On that note, however, you have to stand out (to learn from and work with better people). I’m sure that conjures images of streaming, youtube content, and twitter shenanigans, but I don’t agree with that.

Those things take work, and they’re a distraction. Pro’s know this. There’s a reason not a single pro actively produces content⁴.

At this stage, you’re serious, and you have some substance. Don’t sabotage it. Reach out to better players, maybe even pros. You got this.

How to talk to better and pro players

Think about what they could want, struggle with, or need. Practice dummies? Extra analysis? Maybe not if they’re Tier 1 pros, but your improvement is more advantageous to them than you (and maybe they) think. Sincerity, humility, and openness (and responsiveness) might be enough⁵.

When more people get good, there’s more (exciting) competition, and scenes grow. This brings in more money. Lots more money. For all levels of the pro spectrum.

Additionally, it creates future teammates, more options, and more fun. Those knock-on effects may reduce the amount of headaches and bullshit players (and organizers) have to deal with one or two years down the road. It could also be great for players’ mental health and understanding of the game.

At the pro level, this could look something like an academy or intern arrangement.

Here are some things those better players and teams might be interested to know:

• What stage you’re at
• How long you’ve been playing and at what level of commitment
• What level of commitment you’re willing to make
• What you understand that others don’t

Avoid bullshit and marketing speak. Don’t waste people’s time or lowball their intelligence. Communicate clearly. Be tactful and specific⁶.

Gender in Professional Play

Oh boy.

Well, the hurdles to going pro are clear and intense. It’s much, much harder for girls because they aren’t treated with default dignity.

I already mentioned that feeling demoralized and beating yourself up are the true career killers. Those are natural outcomes. Compounded with the shit they get (outside the game too, probably), they become inevitable ones.

We gamers are a lost cause for the foreseeable future, but there are a couple of things that might make the pro-path feasible for women soon. That would make CS, and maybe all of esports, a lot cooler to watch.

• Realtime AI voice changers
• Clearer path to high-level play. More high-level players = more non-assholes to play/team with

I hate writing this. At the same time, I hope it helps. Esports can be a force for a lot of healing in the world—in ways traditional sports can’t be.

Can’t wait to see y’all at LANs at the retirement home. I’m AWPing. Peace.