Hi there! From the veteran sniper mains to the newer players wanting to learn the class eight, this comprehensive guide will cover everything you need to know about Sniper vs. Sniper, better known as svs.

Before I go any further, many newer players ask me this question:

"Does svs really improve your sniping?"

After 700~ hours playing svs, the best answer would be yes AND no.
Yes, because it helps to develop muscle memory as it pertains to aiming tendancies and general reflexes, which improves your overall countersniping.
No, because svs is killing one particular class over and over. It is imperative to have prior knowledge of positioning, and map awareness.

Playing svs 24/7 will not make you the best sniper. One has to remember that svs is just another gamemode, it has its own gameplay style and habits, of which may not be ideal for other gamemodes such as competitive 6's or Highlander. I've seen alot of UGC Platinum snipers do terribly in svs, and svs players do terrible in a competitive or public setting. A good balance is key.

Sniper vs. Sniper is not exclusive to Team Fortress 2. Many other FPS games such as Call of Duty, Counter Strike and Halo have similar game modes. However, often times the svs scene in these games are ridiculed or looked down upon due to the misconception that it is "stupid and easy".

I can assure you that SvS is not easy. There is much more depth to the art of countersniping.

You might be wondering, "What's the goal? These maps don't even have objectives!" The answer is simple: kill them all. Svs is a deathmatch, simply whoever accrues the most points during the limited time wins. In most cases, you face the opposing team on a base vs. base formatted map using the various terrain (windows, corners, or anywhere you can find cover) to your advantage. With the easy to understand maps, and a relatively simple objective, svs is a relaxing and fun gamemode that anybody can enjoy.

"Face off against your enemies, take heads with the pull of a trigger. Stylishly. Effortlessly, Efficiently. SvS."

SvS maps have two oppsite sides where opposing teams spawn. There is often a zone in the middle that cannot be crossed, whether it be water, an invisible wall, or a steep drop. Below are examples of some popular svs maps.

- 2Fortsniper
- SpaceSniper
- Orange
- Sniperz_ridge

The following are styles of sniping that can be used by anyone, learned by anyone. Many are considered playing dirty, or "cheap" but they can be countered very easily once you better understand that particular style. Keep in mind that these are not pure sniping styles, but moreso techniques to clutch kills here and there.

• Crouchjumping : By crouching repeatedly, you can exploit the head hitbox, as it detaches the hitbox from your model, making it harder to headshot. However, Valve has fixed the crouch jump mechanic, so you can no longer cancel the animation after a shot. This is now used as an escape manuever, avoiding headshots in certain situations.
  
  
• Strafing : Mashing your WASD keys to move rapidly in different directions, making it "harder" to be targeted. Often used in secondshotting or juke scoping (see below).
  
  
• First shotting : Hitting the opponent first. Being the most difficult, skilled snipers often do this, a result of constant practice. I recommend practicing this as soon as possible. It may be rough in the beginning. Often used with corner hugging (see below).
  
  
• Second Shotting : Waiting until the opponent has shot before taking a shot. This is the most common style, frequented by newcomers of svs. I do not recommend this as a main sniping style.
  
  
• Juke(or bait) Scoping : Similar to second shotting, juke scoping elaborates further in its execution. You bait the opponent into scoping first by either standing still or scoping. Once they react and scope in, you unscope, dodge the shot by strafing it, and kill them while they recover from the small delay of missing the shot. There are many variations of juke scoping.
  
  
  
  
• Corner Hugging : You peek out briefly from a wall or corner to locate the target. You exploit the visual animation speed of scoping in to quickly get behind cover after locating your target. Then you creep out to headshot that scoped target. This technique is met with heavy criticism for being "cheap". I will explain in a later section when I discuss the way I snipe.
  
  
  
• Corner Exploitation (HEADSHOT ONLY SERVERS) : There are two main methods: crouching and standing. The crouching method is often used for more conservative snipers. They will crouch and hide behind a wall in a fashion so only the rifle shows. From that vantage point, they are able to shoot without often times being seen or targeted. They primarily second shoot in this fashion. The standing method is similar to the crouching method, the primary difference being you are standing. However, this method is more difficult as your hitbox is completely unaffected since you are not crouching (crouching moves your hitbox slightly downwards and sideways). Another "cheap" technique that can be alot of fun.

First of all, there is no "right way" of sniping. You might encounter people that will complain about how you play and trust me it happens to me a lot, but do not listen to them. Every technique has it's own merits and it's downs. But there are Better ways of sniping, more efficient techniques than others. Your goal is to master them, know how to counter them and apply them when needed.
You need to find your sniping style, like I said there is no right way of sniping, so get one that you are good at and you are comfortable, but for the sake of this guide I will try to explain to you how I play which I think is the best.

First rule about how I play, never stand in the open for too long it makes you vulnerable. I do not recommend jumping in the open without any cover UNLESS there are not many players in the other team. Scoping in the open makes you vunlerable to every other snipers that might be looking. Second rule, use obstacles as cover. When I play I use walls as much as I need to protect myself from incoming shots, so everytime I take a shot I am near a wall so I have a quick escape just by starfing. Third rule, isolating targets with walls. I make sure that when I want to hit a target that I'm isolating him with the wall so all my angles are covered, making me less likely to be killed by someone else. Fourth and last rule, element of suprise. Usually it's good to move from window to window to get that element of suprise between my attacks making me less predictable and more deadly. Overall, it's pretty hard to describe a sniping style with only text so I will post a video shortly.

I would say that aim skill is 50% of what you need to be good in SvS, so how do you improve your aim ? There is only one answer: Practice. Practice a lot, playing vs good snipers will help you improve quickly. There are also training maps like tr_walkway and tr_aim that are great to improve tracking and other methods of aiming. I will leave a link for those below.

What to practice ? Your first shots, you need to learn how to hit moving targets: that is the most important factor of aiming because if you can only hit standing still snipers, you will get destroyed by the one that can hit moving targets.

Here is my advice concerning configurations such as Crosshairs, sensivity, lerp, etc. All those things are only for your preference, find one that you like and don't change it until you are fully used to it. There are no "right" crosshairs or "better" sensivity, it's only your preference but if you are really insecure about it here's my config list:

Crosshair: Crosshair #7 - Red (Red Cross)
Sensivity: 0.32 and 2400 dpi on my mouse
Lerp: Default

I use Comanglia's max fps config that can be found here:
Comanglia max fps config[www.teamfortress.tv]

Here are some links to training maps:

tr_aim[tf2.gamebanana.com] - Bots moving in odd paths, help you improve your tracking abilities.

tr_walkway[tf2.gamebanana.com] - Bots walking, very customizable.

Snipezilla[www.snipezilla.com] - Only SvS community still alive (that I know of)

Some SvS servers ips

• 64.74.97.164:27015 - Snipezilla (all maps) - Chicago (US)
  
• 64.74.97.164:27016 - Snipezilla (Orange only) - Chicago (US)
  
• 31.186.251.205:27015 - Snipezilla - Germany (EU)
  
• 85.131.163.228:27015 - CP server - Germany (EU)
  
• 199.230.104.7:27015 - NewbsTF2 - (US West coast)
  
• 74.91.119.106:27015 - Sniper Legacy - (US)
  
• 72.5.195.104:27017 - SNP : Data - (US)

From Fay:
This is what I used to warm up, along with 10-20 minutes on tr_aim.
Exact Aiming training, shoot for 30k+[aim400kg.com]
Press Reaction, shoot for .25 or lower.[aim400kg.com]

If you know any other, please throw it in the comments and I will add it.