In CSGO you run by default, but can move silently
by crouching or walking. Crouching moves you
the slowest and is generally frowned upon
since it makes you slow to react to things.
Get into the good habit now of walking when
near enemies who don't know you're there.
A LOT of kills in CSGO are done by knowing
where the enemy is- never underestimate the
importance of stealth. I can't emphasise this
enough. If the enemy hears you first then
you're going to be at a disadvantage before
you even see them.
Your movement speed in CSGO is determined
by the weapon you have out. The knife is the
fastest. As you master the game you'll get
used to switching to it when you need to get
somewhere quickly. You have to be careful
that you don't run into any enemies with it
equipped, mind.
There's nothing worse than being stuck behind
a teammate who's running slower than you are.
Particularly at the beginning of rounds, be
sure to run with a knife so that you don't
hold up those behind you. If you're new to
the game and would rather hold a gun at all
times, stand out of the way and let others
overtake you so that you don't annoy your
team. You'll learn with time.
When shooting, you need to learn when to move
and when to stand still. Side-stepping makes
you harder to hit, but standing still makes
it easier for you to shoot enemies. If there
is no chance of being shot at, like if the
enemy has their back turned to you, stand
still. If they're shooting back at you, practice
side-stepping, stopping, not flicking, firing,
then repeating this process until somebody
dies.
This is over-simplifying a massively complicated
topic, as it also depends on the weapon you
and your opponent have equipped, the distance
he is away from you and where the fight takes
place.
This is a difficult thing to teach- it's more
about learning through hundreds of hours of
practice. You can speed it up by imitating
better players even if you don't fully understand
why they do the things they do. Understanding
their actions should hopefully come with time
or when you decide to deviate from what better
players usually do. When I die in a round,
I tend to watch the best performer on the
team to work out what they're doing differently
and if there's any tactics that I can learn
from them. There are always games of varying
skill levels that can be watched from the
main menu of CSGO, as well as many match analysis
videos on youtube. Find some with narration
and hopefully they'll point out the things
you should be aware of.
When defending a location, you should preferably
have cover close-by to protect you from incoming
fire. When choosing which side of the cover
you're going to step out from to shoot back,
be as erratic and as unpredictable as possible.
If you keep peaking out of the same position,
enemies will quickly recognise this and will
prepare for you at those points.
Next up is crouch-jumping. Your player can-
in theory- jump onto things the same height
as their head. You'll rarely have to do this
in normal maps. Try jumping onto it using
the jump button, however, and you'll find
you won't be able to make it. You have to
press the crouch button a split second before
you jump to make these- it takes a bit of
practice and I doubt that anybody gets it
right 100% of the time. You also have to be
holding the forward button while jumping or
you'll pathetically flop back to where you
started, even if you time the crouch perfectly.
Then there's boosting. You can stand on people's
heads in CSGO. Aside from the comedy value,
it lets you reach areas and viewpoints that
you otherwise couldn't, giving you a HUGE
advantage and a degree of surprise when you
attack. Unfortunately you can't do a 3-person
stack. It results in the top person sliding
off whether they want to or not, but 2's fun
enough. Just be careful not to be caught in
a fight when you're on the bottom, since you'll
be slow to move with the person above you.
If both of you run at the same time you can
get a very powerful boost when you jump, as
shown here. I'm showing you this because it's
amusing; you'll rarely use this in proper
play! The hardest part is both starting the
run at the same time. You'd think you could
say something in voicechat like '3, 2, 1'
and time your rushes using this, but audio
in CSGO lags behind. The only thing that isn't
is shooting. Right here you can see that we
both run the moment the third shot is fired.
Bunny-hopping is where you jump the moment
you touch the floor, which if timed correctly,
makes you quickly bounce across the level.
Like a bunny! In older versions of the game
you could gain a lot of speed by doing this,
but in CSGO it's very inconsistent and is
best relied upon to make you harder to hit.
Much like head boosting, it's an advanced
technique that is best used to get you out
of dangerous situations and into safety without
being shot. You can make it a lot easier by
binding your mouse's scroll wheel to jumping
since scrolling that is like hammering the
jump button 20 times a second, making it easier
to get a good bunnyhop. I have both spacebar
and my scrollwheel set to jumping as I find
there are situations where I use both.
Bunnyhopping is an art and there are entire
maps designed for practicing it. You can find
one such map in the description of this video
which lets you practice real jumps that you'll
find in existing CSGO levels. Learning these
WILL be hard until you get the technique right
and is probably best left until you have hundreds
of hours of practice under your belt. It's
not a high priority for newer players and
as such isn't something that I want to cover
here.
You now know how to buy weapons, shoot people
and MOVE! Now it's time to learn about communication,
which is the stepping-stone to teamwork in
CSGO.
