Counter-Strike Global Offensive (CS:GO) is a first-person shooter game developed by Valve and is the most recent entry into the Counter-Strike franchise that has been around since 2000.

Two teams of five players compete in a best of 30 rounds competition, with one side trying to plant and detonate a bomb – and the other trying to stop them.

CS:GO is very simple to play, you use the WASD keys to move your player, while your mouse controls where you are aiming.

Left click is used to fire your weapon. Right click is used to scope/unscope, or other secondary functions your weapon of choice might have.
You’ll want to make sure your crosshair is over the head of your opponent before shooting as this will do the most amount of damage and make sure to drag your mouse down as you fire, to account for recoil.

Recoil patterns can be quite tricky to learn, however when starting out you might want to take a look through the steam workshop as there is many different maps that can help you learn the recoil patterns.

Competitive games of CS:GO consist of best of 30 rounds, so you need to get 16 round wins to win the game, but in matchmaking games you can tie 15-15.

At the mid-way point, teams swap sides. If you are playing on the Terrorist side you win by either killing all of the opposing players, or by planting and detonating the bomb at one of the two bomb sites.

The Counter-Terrorist side can win a round by killing all of the Terrorists, defusing the bomb after it has been planted by the Terrorists, or stopping the Terrorists planting the bomb until time expires.

Managing your money is a key tactic in CS:GO, if you have a ton of money but your team doesn’t you should probably save it for the next round when you can all buy a good weapon.

Money does carry over from round to round, but is reset at the start of round 16 when teams swap sides. All weapons, apart from the pistol you start each round with, cost money to buy.

You will get money at the end of every round and for other positive actions, such as getting kills or planting the bomb and of course you get an extra bonus amount for winning the round.

You will want to get good with all of the weapons available, but the key ones to learn how to use are the M4A4 / M4A1-S on the CT side, the AK47 on the T side, and the AWP sniper rifle for both sides.

These are the main weapons you will want to purchase when you have the money to do so, as they do the most damage relative to their cost, and are effective at the longest ranges. It’s also a good idea to get comfortable with the basic pistol that you get at the start of every round. That being said, should you not have money enough for a rifle, but the rest of your team is buying get an SMG or shotgun.

There are more resources than you could ever need to get better at CS:GO. There are huge amounts of community-made maps that are designed to improve your skills in every way.

From ones to practise your headshot aim, through to others that teach you how to bunny hop to improve your movement in matches.

Of course, a good way to improve is just to play as many games as possible, but if you start in the lower ranks you might find yourself playing with team-mates who seem hell-bent on losing.

That is where services such as FACEIT/esportal/ESL/etc come in. They are external matchmaking systems that will put you with players that take things a little more seriously and should be more open to helping you improve.

And, as you would expect, there are thousands of YouTubers and streamers out there who create great educational content for you to watch. There are a great many people who have spent years creating guides to watch – and even if they're older videos most still apply to CS:GO today.

Perhaps more than other eSports, watching pro players stream is also a good way to learn as you can see exactly where they place their crosshairs and the tactics they use. Just look for the most popular CS:GO streamers on Twitch.