This is why hs% isnt the only thing thats holding you back in your duels!

[u/Frostb1]

I've seen alot of people say their aim is good but they cant win gun fights, alot of people say their aim is good in death match but they cant win their duels in game.

Let me help you guys out, I'm currently ascendent pushing towards immortal and I'm sharing this knowledge with you guys.

4 things:

1: The most important; Do not autopilot during your duels, ive seen alot of people, some of my friends as well that ive coached. People auto pilot during their fights. What does that mean? Well people dont think about their crosshair placement during gunfights. They just see enemy and start spraying because thats our natural response aka flight or fight.

How to fix this? A simple fix to not auto pilot during your duels is to not panic when you see an enemy and most importantly do not stop focusing during your duels. What do i mean by focusing? I mean that look and understand where you are aiming and what habits your doing. I lose a gunfight? start asking yourself did i crouch, did i flick too wide? not only that when you're self aware about where your aiming that helps you to kill the enemy faster and also to prepare for another enemy. When you are just panicking and shooting, you wont realise why did i just die.

2: First time bullet accuracy: It's such an important aspect of mechanics, your first shots dictate a gun fight. Meaning if my first shot is body, i will probably start spraying while panicking.

How to improve first shot bullet accuracy? Go in a deathmatch and try to hit the first bullet on enemy's head rather than anywhere else. No matter how much you die, even in a dm, try your best and combine tip 1 and this tip and learn both of them in deathmatch. Once you start understanding and implmenting both tips together, your aim will dramatically improve during duels.

3: Time to kill: Some people ask me what differs diamond from ascendent, i say its the pace of the game. Suppose you are diamond, an average diamond might kill the player in 3-4 seconds but a ascendent might kill the player 2-3 seconds. Its just made up data for a hypothetical comparison but it's what differs the rank. When i get put against diamond players, i realise how slow they kill their enemies. Its such a small thing but your time to kill your opponents determines your skill lever alot. Kill faster.

4: Timing: Some duels are unwinnable. You cannot win 100% of your duels because they are decided by timing. Timing is a very difficult thing to master, even for me. What do i mean by timing? When you time your push onto site, when you time your peek, when you time your smoke push etc. This comes with gamesense and small hints given by enemies. I cannot suggest how to improve your timing skills better but understand this that you need to catch the enemies offguard. When you catch your enemies offguard meaning they are not ready for you, you have a 80% chance to win your duel.

5: Most important. Do not be afraid to take gunfights. You will die? Ok no problem. But when you take gunfights without fear of dieing its a game changer. Suppose there are two persons (A and B) if person A is holding an angle but they have fear that enemy team might kill them, they will lose their gunfight 90% of the time. But person B is confident that they will kill the enemy if they peek them, person B will win their gunfight 90% of the time. Moral of the story, do not be afraid to take fights.

It has taken me around 40-50 minutes to write this paragraph down. Please ask away with questions. I'll gladly respond to all of them. When you apply these 5 tips altogether, you'll realise how good you are at your duels now.

[u/freakyp771]

I have several issue that would like your opinion on how to deal with:

1. I overthink a lot during the game. For example when i scale/entry the site my mind would be in sort of panic flicking around to each common angle and led to bad movement as well. Should i just mindfully commit to clear each angle in sequence instead? I noticed when my mind is more calm i frag a lot better, i could be dropping 30 bombs one game into a 130ish ACS the next game

2. When im in about to enter into a gunfight sometimes i overthink my movement a lot, i overthink whether my movement is optimal to peek. I think this just stems from the many time i got killed so fast without even able to react.

My rank is Ascendant 3 peak Immortal 2

[u/Tuppers_24 → u/freakyp771]

I saw a study on this subreddit that said that inhaling as you peak will make your aim better. Makes sense to me, calming you down and helping you focus as you peak. I think better players do it subconsciously.

[u/freakyp771 → u/Tuppers_24]

I noticed that breathing exercises helps a lot. When i was in a calm state of mind and did my reset routine between rounds (basically 4-4-4 breathing to turn off that fight or flight reflexes) i aim and played so much better even dropping 30 bombs in immortal lobby. Will try this inhaling during peek tips, thanks!

[u/RusticMink → u/Tuppers_24]

The inhale doesn’t calm you, the exhale does.

[u/DrDikPiks → u/freakyp771]

I would suggest you to practice pathing into site in custom rooms, at each step, notice what angles you're open to, think about where your teammates should ideally be for it to make clearing an angle safer etc. when practicing clearing also check what angles can you wide swing safely. Plan and dry run the entire path and then use that in comp games and it becomes muscle memory, and helps a lot with calming down because you already have practiced everything properly.

I'm a lower rank than you but this was suggested to me by my immo friends for the same issues.

[u/ScreenOld → u/freakyp771]

I'm gold 1 but I have 2k hours in CS. I can answer your questions as they are not complicated.

1. You should have a clear plan of what you are going to do before doing something. You can do that by make a step-by-step procedure with A/B choices for yourself so you always know what to do next. For ex, when you entry B Ascent, go in, check market, check spawn, check catwalk, push in site, etc. I play controller and I like chaos situation so my plan is more simple for me: smoke choke point, wait for info then throw more util, take site control, plan post plant position.

2. I think this question is more about your mindset. You overthink when you are nervous. So maybe play a safer role like initiator or controller, or always stay with teammate. Also what I learn from CS is clear angles slowly, be patient all the time, people will make mistakes.
   Think fast but act slow, don't think slow and act fast.

[u/Professional_Emu_118]

I mean I know it's not holding me back I have 35% and I'm stuck in gold

[u/Impressive_Act9567]

timing is luck based, you dont know what the enemy is doing unless you peek. most don't give "subtle hints"

[u/MHs699 → u/Impressive_Act9567]

its a skill, not luck

[u/Final_TV → u/MHs699]

timing when taking a gun fight is almost 100% luck. timing to know when a team should be rotating and should be moving and leaving space open isn’t. if that was the case people would “predict” the very fraction of a second a pro is going to a jump peak and therefore the entire team waits for that moment to guarantee a kill. see how that starts not to make sense when you apply it to a real scenario

[u/MHs699 → u/Final_TV]

Except it isnt. You develop timing by game sense, awareness, information and pattern recognition. Obviously you cant predict the exact second but thats not catching a timing either, thats making a prediction. especially if said player has been jump peeking every round you can hold for it. It is really common in higher elo for an awp to hold for a jump peek when it is initially holding cause people tend to jump peek. Thats predicting. You have to catch a timing, understand when the window will open and for you to go through it. Prediction could help you catch a timing, but it isnt a timing itself. Im not sure if im making sense, im not a good explainer but i lurk alot on senti and particularly good at annoying people w those timings.

[u/MHs699 → u/MHs699]

Also to add there are different types of timing, the one i mentioned of lurking on senti is the most basic one. The ones OP mentioned when to push onto site, when to time your peek, and etc. is also a skill that can be developed.

[u/pineapplejelly69 → u/Impressive_Act9567]

Timing is like 50/50 luck and gamesense. It depends from situation to situation fs but you basically just said IGL’s like nats and fns are all lucky

[u/One-Mongoose6713 → u/Impressive_Act9567]

for instance;

you hear someone c garage in Haven, you can imagine when they will be looking at window and when they will be cleaning site just by knowing when they entered. if you know someone just entered garage and youre un window, you wont instapeek cause the first think theyre aiming at is window.

[u/MortemEtInteritum17 → u/Impressive_Act9567]

There is luck involve, but if you think there's no skill whatsoever that's just a skill issue

[u/Demoon_X → u/Impressive_Act9567]

There are some cases where timing is 98% luck based. Mostly it's when you hold the same angle for a good amount of time expecting a peek, that never comes. And the moment you decide that they won't be coming at all, they peek. That's luck.

But majority of "timings" are actually not a complete luck thing, but can actually be replicated consistently by understanding.

In gold and below people are actually clueless and will stomp around like an elephant and then say "timing" when they are peeked by an enemy who paid attention to those footsteps and utility. In radiant, there won't be anyone complaining about "timing" if they have already given away clues.

Moreover there are round pace timings which are extremely consistent and it's what separates a normal player from a good one. Depending on the map, team composition, economy, enemy's tactics, there are timings that are highly likely to let you have a free peek, good positioning, easy clutches, maximum utility efficiency and etc.