Top 5 ways to rank up in CS:GO

‘Global Elite’ – The pinnacle of matchmaking achievement. A goal for many CS:GO players but for every person that achieves it, there are more that get lost forever in LEM limbo and even more than that who end up stuck at the lower ranks.

If you feel ‘stuck’ at any rank then your goal is most probably to rank up. In this guide we are going to share some of best ACTIONABLE tips you can take to instantly better your game.

‘You can’t INSTANTLY improve your game Mr.Stupid-blog-writer-man, it takes hours and hours of practice’. 

First of all, did you just assume my gender? I mean, you’re right but its still not OK to do that these days. Also you’re the one reading MY blog post, now who’s stupid, hmm?!… Anyway now that I’m done insulting you for no reason we can move on from the minefield of a conversation of gender… Yes you can. You can literally change just a few things that will have an instantaneous effect on your game. Lets get into it.

1. Keep your ego in check, be willing to learn.

I can honestly say that an inflated ego or a false sense of entitlement is the cause of skill plateau in 99.9% of people. It’s far too easy to blame external factors that are out of your control for the loss of your game but by doing this you neglect EVERY FACTOR THAT IS WITHIN YOUR CONTROL. Stop making excuses for why you lose to your opponents and focus instead on how you can beat them. Every player that beats you is an opportunity to learn. 

Example – An AWPer on A-Long on Dust_2 is killing you when you try to rush even when ‘HE SHOULD DEFINITELY BE BLIND!!’. Adapt. Try jiggle peaking him instead. Adapt. Try faking the rush and going short instead. Adapt. And if what he is doing ends up being hard to counter – Take what he is doing and adopt it into your own play style when its your turn to defend. 

When you accept that a player is better than you without hurting your precious ego it stops becoming a frustrating dead end and becomes an opportunity to learn. 

2. Work on your communication

So often I hear my friends blame their teammates for losing a game. And whilst you can’t control the skill level of your allies, you can control how you decide to communicate with them. Raging at people, calling them noobs or whatever else you might want to do is a sure fire way to destroy team morale and most likely push them into a downward spiral of no longer caring about the game. 

Adopt helpful, friendly communication with your teammates and see an instant improvement to both the team play and your enjoyment of the game.

Now, in the event that you meet someone that hasn’t read this blog, isn’t taking this advice and is being a toxic idiot then the best thing to do is simply mute them. Do not lower yourself to their level. Remain positive and continue to communicate with the other members of your team. 

3kliksphilip has a great video on this and whilst a little old, the points he covers are still relevant –

3. Give accurate call outs.

This point goes hand in hand with our previous tip but deserves its own point on the list due to its importance. Stop giving bad calls with inaccurate information. 

A few days ago we tweeted out this – 

(you should definitely follow us on Twitter @applootbear if you haven’t already by the way)

There is NOTHING worse in this game (except maybe CS:GO’s update schedule #burn) than rotating to another bomb site based on a call of ‘THEY’RE ALL B’ when in actuality there is only 1 player in tunnels and he isn’t even rushing. Calls like this cause your teammates to lose their competitive positioning (on either team) and can lead to losing rounds faster than throwing a cat over your head can lead to a ban on Twitch. Oh wait, that isn’t very fast at all is it? Okay never mind – its fast. Promise.

Start being more accurate. Call the number of players you hear / see, wait that extra second to decide if they are actually rushing you after all or if they are simply going Lowers to Mid. 

The same goes for being on T side. Giving accurate information on how many players go where, the weaponry etc can go along way to securing you the round. 

4. Learn helpful nades / flashes / smokes for ALL maps.

I feel that, especially at the lower ranks, utility is either underused or misused far too often. CS:GO is a strategic game focused around the common theme of gaining or denying space. There is no better way to deny access to a bombsite than with the use of a properly placed smoke or a well timed molotov.

Learning how to deny your enemy the space they require or to provide space for your teammates can go a LONG way towards securing a win. The longer you can hold off a terrorist team from being able to take action upon a bombsite, the more pressure you put them under. And the same in reverse – The more angles you can deny the CT team access to, the easier the job of taking space becomes. 

No-one (apart from maybe Nadeking) enjoys practicing nades endlessly on empty servers, so what is the best way to learn all of these important throws? 

S L O W L Y. Slowly is the answer. Focus on one map at a time, or even 1 bombsite at a time. Try learning a few key smokes and flashes for bomb site A on Mirage on a private server then queue specifically for Mirage in your next game and put them into practice. Solidify your learning by implementing them in real situations and you will find that you remember things more consistently. Sure, learning a crazy-bounce-off-4-walls pop-flash for someone camping behind an obscure position seems cool but 1 – How often will you actually use that? And 2 – Will you remember it anyway? 

Here is a great guide from the king of nades him self… Nadeking, obviously… To get you started – 

5. Configure your sensitivity properly

Everybody is different. Some people like high sensitivity, some people like low sensitivity. You need to find what works best for you. Do not be stupid enough to google things like ‘ScreaM’s CSGO Sensitivty’ thinking that by copying him you will somehow suddenly get paid to make cringe mouse advertisements too. It doesn’t work like that. 

Personally, I have always preferred a slow sensitivity as I tend to aim with my whole arm vs. just using the wrist as some players do. How did I settle on my sensitivity? By following this guide I found on YouTube – 

It can take a while to get to the final result but trust me when I say that its worth it. Invest this time into getting your sensitivity PERFECT in CS:GO and you will notice an instant increase in your consistency.

Also, please be aware that you should try to maintain a consistent sensitivity across all FPS games that you play. There are many calculators online that can convert your CS:GO sensitivity into any other game you play. This keeps your muscle memory in check and stops you from missing those heads. 

I hope that you have found this guide useful. The most important (and incredibly cliche) thing to remember is that CS:GO is, after all, just a game. If the frustration of losing games is causing you too much emotional torment then perhaps you should reconsider your hobbies. Maybe take up fishing. Chill out a bit, come back to the game when you can control your emotions and focus on your self improvement. 

Thank you for reading and have a great day!