What I'm about to explain in this section, I'm sure 99% of you already know but for those of you that don't; Counter-Strike is a tactical FPS with two bomb sites: A and B. There are two teams, Terrorists (AKA: T's) and Counter-Terrorists (AKA: CT's). The T's objective is to plant the bomb on either of the two sites and ensure the bomb explodes. The CT's objective is to defend the bomb sites ensuring the bomb isn't planted and if it is planted, defuse it. Rounds last 1 minute and 55 seconds. During this time if either team eliminates the entire other team, the round is won. A full competitive game is compiled of two halves and each half is 12 rounds. The first team to 13 rounds, wins. There are multiple different game modes in CS2 but when discussing strategy of the game, competitive is the one I will be referring to.

Having settings that make the game easier t is essential. With that in mind, we are going to go over each setting to make sure you have everything to your preference.

Video Settings:

Main Menu Background Scenery - This option is entirely you choice as it only provides aesthetic changes in the main menu.
Item Inspect Background Scenery - Once again, this option only provides aesthetic changes when inspecting an item in the main menu so it is entirely up to you.
Brightness - Entirely your choice, but make sure this high enough so that you're not playing in the dark.
Aspect Ratio - For new players, I would recommend keeping this as what ever ratio your monitor is.
Resolution - Again, I would recommend keeping this as the resolution your monitor is when first starting out in CS.
Display Mode - I would recommend keeping this setting on 'fullscreen' to receive the best performance.
Refresh Rate - This setting is very important, always make sure this setting is set at the highest refresh rate that your monitor is capable of supporting. If you are unsure what your monitors refresh rate is, you can check this by right clicking your desk top and selecting 'NVIDIA Control Panel' and opening the 'Change resolution' tab on the right of the window. In this menu, you will find what your monitors refresh rate is. Make sure this aligns with your settings in-game.

Advanced Video Settings:

For these settings, you can copy the settings below as a 'base setting' for good Performance and high Quality balance. However, I would suggest watching videos or reading other guides on how best to alter your advanced video settings based on your setup.
Boost Player Contrast - DISABLED
Wait for Vertical Sync - DISABLED
Current Video Values Preset - CUSTOM
Multisampling Anti-Aliasing Mode - 4X MSAA
Global Shadow Quality - VERY HIGH
Model / Texture Detail - HIGH
Texture Filtering Mode - ANISOTROPIC 16X
Shader Detail - HIGH
Particle Detail - VERY HIGH
Ambient Occlusion - HIGH
High Dynamic Range - QUALITY
FidelityFX Super Resolution - DISABLED (HIGHEST QUALITY)
NVIDIA Relfex Low Latency - ENABLED

Audio Settings:

Master Volume - I'd suggest changing this setting to whatever you feel comfortable with. Be sure that you're still able to hear audio even when it's at it's maximum hearing distance. This is will prove especially important when it comes to footsteps, terrorists lighting molotovs, players reloading, bomb being dropped or even players dropping weapons.
Audio Device - Set this setting to your headset.
EQ Profile - I like to keep this setting at natural and would suggest the same for you.
L/R Isolation - Keeping this at 0% ensures noises reach both of your ears at the same time.
Perspective Correction - I'd suggest turning this setting off as whilst enabled it can muffle noises from behind you.
Voice/Microphone Mode - I'd strongly advise having this setting on 'PUSH TO TALK' to reduce the amount of noise in your teammates ears and to reduce the chance of you being instantly muted as soon as your team mates realise you have 'open mic' enabled. With that said you should set your keybind for your push to talk to something you feel comfortable with. Personally, I find one of the side buttons on my mouse the easiest and most accessible.
Voice Input Audio Device - Make sure this is set to whichever device your microphone is and that you haven't accidentally selected your webcam.
Other Player Voice Volume - If you find other players too loud, you can adjust this setting from 100%. Personally, I keep this at 100% and adjust individual players in-game if they are too loud.
Streamlined Push To Talk - Keep this setting as 'NO'
Microphone Trigger Threshold - Throughout my many hours in CS I have never adjusted this setting so I would suggest keeping it at '-120'
Hear My Own Voice - OFF
Play Audio When Game In Background - NO
For all of your music settings, I'd suggest turning them all to 0%. Unless of course, you like main menu music. The only music option i keep turned on is the 'Ten Second Warning Volume'. This is so I can be reminded of how much time is left of the round.

Game Settings:

Game
Enable Developer Console - I'd suggest setting this to 'YES' as it will come in handy later on down the line
Max Acceptable Matchmaking Ping - I'd keep this setting below 80ms to prevent high ping matches
Max Acceptable Game Traffic Bandwidth - UNRESTRICTED
Buffering To Smooth Over Packet Loss - NONE
Install Counter-Strike Workshop Tools - By selecting 'YES' it enables you to download maps from the Counter-Strike Workshop. These maps will help you develop key skills and other things.
HUD
For your HUD Settings I'd suggest using the workshop map "Config Generator ✮ CS2 GEN" which will be linked onto this guide. Whatever you change here is entirely to your preference.
Team Settings
Show Team Positions In HUD - I like to set this to 'SHOW LOCATION AND EQUIPMENT' so I can see exactly where my team mates are and what weapons/utility they have available for executing plays
Show Player Colours In Competitive - You'll find that in CS, players will refer to you as a colour so it's worthwhile having this setting as 'SHOW COLOURS'
Use Player Colours on Team ID - YES
Friends Lobby Default Permissions - Your Preference
Looking to Play when Counter-Strike Starts - Your Preference
Communication
Player Pings - DISPLAY AND PLAY SOUND
Mute Enemy Team - NO - If you have reoccurring issues with toxic enemy teams, keep this setting in mind. However, you can always mute people individually in-game
Mute All But Friends - NO
Allow Animated Avatars - Your preference. Using the 'NO' option may help to reduce distractions when in-game
Hide Avatar Images - Your preference. Again, having these enabled may cause distactions
Clean Player Names - Your preference
Spectator / Scoreboard
Scoreboard Mouse Enable / End of Match Scoreboard Toggle - USE NUMBER KEYS
End of Match Local Player Defeat Animation - Secondary mouse fire is the most common setting for this and will enable you to interact with the scoreboard, allowing you to: mute people, add friends or access peoples steam profiles.
Survivors Always On - Your preference
Smooth Spectator Camera - Your preference
Item
I like to keep the majority of these settings at default. However, I would suggest changing 'Detatch Silencer on M4A1-S and USP-S' to 'DISABLED' to prevent accidentally clicking this whilst in a firefight. I would also suggest setting 'Open Buy Menu With Use Key' to 'NO' so that you don't constantly open your buy menu when trying to pick up a dropped weapon whilst in spawn.
Radar / Tablet
Radar Centers The Player - Your preference
Radar Is Rotating - Your preference
Radar HUD Size - It may be worth making your radar a decent size to increase your map awareness
Radar Map Zoom - This setting is worth keeping low, to allow you to see the full map at all times. Maps like 'Overpass' are quite large and certain areas can be cut off your radar if zoom is too high
Toggle Shape With Scoreboard - Your preference
Crosshair
Your crosshair can be edited in the workshop map attached to the bottom of this section.

Keyboard / Mouse Settings:

Reverse Mouse - OFF
Duck Mode - HOLD
Walk Mode - HOLD
Zoom Button Hold - REPEAT DISABLED

All following settings should be set to YOUR preference.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3142121155

Introduction to Movement

Movement is a fundamental mechanic in Counter Strike. Although it may seem as simple as W A S D, crouching, jumping, and walking. As you continue to play CS, you'll realise the importance of movement. A lot of times, poor movement can cause a player to be killed during critical moments in the game. We'll start with the basics of movement and then move onto more advanced concepts which you can learn now and practice later.

The Basics

First off is the basics, you're going to use W A S D to move your player model, CTRL to crouch and SHIFT to walk. Its important to use shift walking to your advantage. CS is a game of sound, and when you shift walk, you make absolutely no noise. As you play the game more you'll recognise the importance of not making noise in specific situations. Limiting the enemies knowledge of where you are, and where your team mates could be is essential for developing solid fundamentals in CS2. Along with shift walking, crouch walking also produces no noise.

Another important thing to note, is that when you shoot whilst crouching, your weapon becomes far more accurate. You are able to shoot multiple rounds in quick succession whilst maintaining accuracy. When crouch shooting with an automatic weapon, you can also reduce the variability of recoil.

Now, take some time to practice these and learn how they can be used to your advantage in your games.

Jumping

Jumping can seem simple at first, but there are several mechanics that go into it. For beginners, I'd suggest learning how to crouch jump. This requires you to jump and whilst in the air, crouch in order to reach the maximum height your player model can achieve.

There are countless jumps in the competitive map pool that require crouch jumping so I would strongly suggest you get this movement skill perfected.

On the topic of jumping, it's probably worth while discussing what key most players have their 'jump' bound to. Personally, I have 'jump' bound to 'mouse wheel down' which is a very popular setting for most players. If you too want to bindyour jump key to mouse wheel down, you do so by opening the developer console using (the [`] key above TAB on the left side of your keyboard) and typing "bind mwheeldown +jump". If you want to keep 'spacebar' as your jump button along side the mousewheel, simply type "bind mwheeldown +jump; bind space +jump".

The leading reason players bind jump to mwheeldown, is so they can bunny hop. bunny hopping is where a player is moving and whilst doing so they're jumping, but just before they hit the ground they hit their jump button which allows them to achieve higher speeds than what the game allows.
This very complicated mechanic requires countless hours of practice to do so consistently.

There is no expectation (especially for new players) to be able to bunny hop, but overtime you may want to give it a try. like most points raised in this guide, its all down to personal preference and you will be at no disadvantage when not being able to bunny hop.

Movement Speed

It is very important to note, that holding certain guns will limit the speed at which your player model can travel. Generally speaking, the larger the gun you're holding, the slower you'll move. With that said, the weapon that allows your player to move fastest, is your knife. With this in mind, in situations when you know you aren't going to run into any enemies, you should pull out your knife to maximise your speed. This same principle applies when you're shift walking. Many players don't realise this but if you pull your knife whilst you walk you're actually going to walk faster.

This short guide provides no justice to just how many layers there are in regards to movement in Counter Strike. If you wish to practice your movement, i would suggest trying some different workshop maps that will challenge your movement and using YouTube videos to coach you through it. (See the attached map to train your movement)

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3174969471&searchtext=Movement

Introduction to Shooting

Arguably the most important part of Counter Strike is shooting and killing your opponents. It may seem as simple as aim and shoot, but there are a few things that are crucial to know and practice in order to become great at shooting in CS.

Movement Whilst Shooting

Whilst moving in CS, you're not accurate. In order to consistently hit your opponent, you have to be standing still when you fire. There aren't many other games other than Valorant that shares this mechanic, so if you're new to this genre of game, this may take some time getting used to.

It is also important to note, that when we spot an enemy we may be moving. Unlike Valorant, we can't just stop and shoot and maintain our accuracy; We have to do what is called Counter Strafing. Counter Strafing is basically us forcing our player model to stop moving entirely by inputting the opposite direction key to stop us instantly. The reason for this is because in Counter Strike, when we release a movement key, our player continues to move briefly. If we decided to fire at that time our first bullet would not be accurate. As you play more of the game, you will see the importance of the first bullets accuracy.

Now take some time to practice Counter Strafing, and you'll see just how quickly you progress from a beginner, to an intermediate player.

Headshots

Headshots are very important. Unlike most games that apply a 2x multiplier for headshots, CS applies around a 4x multiplier. Aiming for the head at all times, is key to developing good fundamentals.

Recoil

In CS, each gun has a different recoil pattern. The crosshair you're using may be misleading you to believe that when you fire your weapon, the spray spreads in a similar way to most other games, but that isn't the case.

I'm not suggesting that all new players should start learning every recoil pattern, but perhaps spend time on the workshop map "Recoil Master - Spray Training (CS2)" (attached at the bottom of this section) to learn the basic recoil patterns for the AK-47 and M4A4/M4A1-S.

It isn't necessary to learn all 30 bullets of the pattern but rather the first 5-10. If you haven't killed the enemy within 5-10 bullets its important to reset your spray.

A setting that you can enable to learn the recoil of weapons, is 'Follow Recoil' in your crosshair settings. I personally don't like using this setting, but for a new players I can see how this can be beneficial.

Crosshair Placement

Another mechanic we should be practising, is our cross hair placement. cross hair placement is the conscious attention to where our crosshair is aimed. We should always aim to put our crosshair where the enemy may be, this is also one of the many intuitive aspects of CS that takes hours to perfect.

A sound way of improving this skill, is by memorising maps. This will allow us to have a better understanding of where the enemies commonly hide, and where they may peek us from.

Peeking

When it comes to peeking, you may or may not have heard of the term 'Peekers Advantage'. Peekers Advantage is where a player comes round a corner and has an advantage on the player they're peeking; This is because of server delay.

The player that's peeking, receives information on the player being peeked before the player being peeked has them registered on their screen. A good way to prevent falling victim of Peekers Advantage, is to peek and unpeek corners whilst you're holding the angle. This way if someone comes round a corner, neither player or hopefully you will have the advantage.

Counter Strike is what people call a right-eyed game. This means that when we play we aren't playing as Mike Wasowski, instead the camera angle that were seeing isin the perspective of our right eye. This can be misleading for new players, when they think they're hidden from the enemy.

To use this mechanic to your advantage, your have to hold angles from the left so the right side of your player model is the one hanging out. This will stop the enemy from getting free kills on you and put you in the advantage.

As said at the start of this section, shooting is one of the most important skills in CS so make sure to practice this in order to get better. see the bottom of this section for examples of workshop maps to help you perfect this skill.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3100869952&searchtext=recoil
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3070244462&searchtext=aim+botz

Armour

The very first thing we have in the Buy Menu is armour. It may not seem like armour is that important because people can kill you just as quick regardless as to whether you have it or not. Believe it or not, it's extremely effective! It reduces the amount of damage taken from all sources.

Forcing our enemy to shoot just one extra bullet, can be the difference between living and dying. In some rounds, armour really shows it's value, such as pistol rounds. The default pistols have very low armour penetration value, which means if someone were to body shot you while you're wearing armour, there would be very little damage.

For head armour, that's where things get tricky. The same principle applies when it comes to damage reduction, but there are several guns in the game that will One-Shot headshot you regardless of if you're wearing armour. A prime example is the AK-47.

Zeus

The Zeus, regardless of armour will oneshot your opponent, but only if you are very close. When it's fired (unlike before in CS:GO), the Zeus will now recharge itself so it can be used multiple times in a round. Keep in mind, that the Zeus will take 30 seconds to charge in between each use.

Defuse Kits

The defuse kit is a piece of equipment is VERY important. Normally, without a defuse kit, it'll take 10 seconds to defuse the bomb. This is a very long time, considering the bomb is only active for 40 seconds until it explodes. However, with a defuse kit, the bomb can now be diffused in 5 seconds.

Important to note: if a teammate or yourself dies with a diffuse kit it can be picked up by any Counter-Terrorist.

Also, always remember: Don't be a loser, Buy a defuser!

Guns

In CS2's new load-out menu, we have the option to select which guns we want to bring into the game to be available for purchase. My only advice when it comes to this is, always bring the AK for T-side and the M4A1-S and M4A4 for CT-side. Apart from that, it really doesn't matter what you bring. Find out what guns you like using and make sure to have them equipped before heading into a match.

For pistols, I really like using the FiveSeven and Desert Eagle. Each of these has a time and a place where they're most optimal, but in my opinion the most beginner friendly pistol is the FiveSeven. The most important thing to remember about any of these pistols, is that the only one that will oneshot headshot through head armour is the Desert Eagle which most players refer to as the Deagle. This gun, is extremely powerful, IF you feel confident in your aim and ability to shoot headshots. If you struggle to hit the enemy in the head, the next best thing is the FiveSeven. It has a higher magazine capacity, a much higher fire rate and is more effective at close quarters.

SMGs

Sub Machine Guns are very beginner friendly, due to their forgiving accuracy while running.

A very beginner friendly option would be, the PP-Bizon due to its very high magazine capacity and running accuracy. Most experienced players, when forced to buy an SMG, will prefer the MP9 on CT due to its high rate of fire and weapon accuracy whilst on T side they'll opt for the MAC-10.

As you progress and learn more about the game and get better at shooting mechanics, it's important to grow out of only using SMGs. You can only get so good at the game using these guns and you'll miss out on mastering those shooting fundamentals that I previously wrote about.

Rifles

Rifles are the most effective weapon in Counter Strike, this is due to their high level of accuracy, fire rate and magazine capacity.

My personal preference for CT rifle is the M4A1-S, this is because compared to the M4A4 this one has less recoil and is silent at long ranges. I would suggest trying out both and seeing which one you like most.

A cheaper rifle option would be, the Famas for CT and Galil for T. These guns are mostly designed for when your team cannot afford a full buy and need to force all their money to win the round.

We also have the AK, which is mine and many others personal favourite. This is mostly due to its high damage and one shot headshot ability. For beginners, this gun can be quite unattractive due to it's high recoil and difficulty to control. However, I strongly advise if you want to play this game for a long time you should invest some time practising with the AK.

When it comes to scoped rifles, we have the SG-553 for T and the AUG for CT. Both of these weapons are really attractive for newer players because they have the ability to scope in and out.

Snipers

When it comes to snipers, we have the SSG-08 commonly known as the Scout and the AWP.

The Scout is the much cheaper alternative and one of the few guns in the CS arsenal that is capable of one shot headshotting. The only real downside to this weapon, is that it does not one shot body shot, instead it takes two body shots to kill an enemy. Other than that, the Scout is quite fun to use, simply because of how fast you can move with it, whether you're scoped or not. Along with that the magazine size is 10. For a sniper, it also has a significantly high fire rate.

Easily the most infamous guns in Counter Strike is the auto sniper. If you want to be hated by everyone in your games feel free to purchase this weapon.

Lastly, we have the AWP. The AWP is easily the most famous gun in Counter Strike. It is one of the most expensive guns and is capable of one shot body shotting anyone wearing whether they have armour or not.

However, the AWP has very high risk versus reward; If you miss a shot more times than not, this can result in you dying. This is because the AWP is very immobile and has a very slow rate of fire.
If you invest a lot of time becoming good with the AWP, then you can quickly become a valuable asset for any team.

Grenades

For newer players, using grenades can be quite difficult. My greatest piece of advice to anyone trying to get better at using grenades or what more people refer to as utility is just keep using them; As you use them more, you become more comfortable with how grenades are thrown and when to throw them.

To throw any grenade, we can left click throw (which is an overhand throw) and we'll go the furthest. Another option is to hold mouse button one and two to do a lesser overhand throw which will not go as far. We can also do a right click throw, which will result in you underhand throwing the grenade.

Flashbangs are able to totally blind the enemy with a white screen for up to 1.9 seconds, depending on the angle, distance at which it pops in front of the player and
if the player players looking in the direction of the flash. Blinding effects can last up to 4.9 seconds (which includes a fading white screen and a loud ringing sound that drowns out noise heard by the player). What you must keep in mind while using flashbangs is their ability to blind everyone, that includes your own teammates. When you're throwing flashbangs, think about where they're going to land and if they're going to blind your teammates. You can easily turn away from where a flashbang is thrown to reduce the blind time significantly.

Smokes are grenades that will bloom in a cloud, screening vision from those on either side of it. After a smoke pops, it takes 20 seconds for it to fade. Smokes can be incredibly useful and an essential piece of utility. Smokes have great versatility, they can be used to block off vision when you're defusing the bomb as a CT and they can provide cover as a T whilst planting the bomb. They can also be used to block vision of common spots where CTs like to hold. The uses of smokes are honestly endless and it's very important that you get comfortable using them.

Counter-Strike is an Economy based shooter. At the start of a game, you're given $800 this round is referred to as the "pistol round" because you're unable to purchase any other firearm. There are several ways to earn money throughout the match, the most effective way to do so is to win rounds.

Ts that win a round via a bomb detonation will be give $3,500 each. CTs, if they diffuse the bomb, will be awarded $3,500 each. For T's, if they win the round by eliminating all the CTs they're awarded $3,250.

Now, in the rare scenario where CTs win by lapsing all the allotted time in the round (1m 55s), they're given $3,250 each and every T player that remained alive by the end of the round, receives $0.

There are some more benefits of planting the bomb, the T who plants the bomb will be given $300. In the scenario where the bomb is planted but the CTs still win, the remaining T's including the bomb planter will receive another $800 on top of the money received for losing the round.

Now that I've mentioned that the losers of each round also receive money, the baseline money received for losing a round is $1,400, but if your team manages to lose multiple rounds in a row, they will receive additional compensation. After two losses, they will receive $1,900. After three, it becomes $2,400. After four, it's $2,900 and after five consecutive losses your team will receive $3,400 for each loss.

This can be a lot to remember but conveniently for us if we open the scoreboard, we can always see what our minimum income will be at the end of the round by hovering on the right side. We can use this feature to work out what kind of money we'll have in the following rounds.

Now that we have basic understanding of how the economy works in Counter Strike, we can start to discuss money management. At very low levels of play, this isn't as essential because most players will prefer cheaper weapons like SMGs and Scouts so won't be purchasing utility anyway. However, at higher levels of play it's common practice to wait until your entire team is able to purchase a full loadout. A full loadout is usually full armour, an expensive rifle or AWP and four grenades with a defuse kit if you're a CT. This is called a full buy.

While your team is waiting to get enough money for a full buy, they may opt for a save round this is basically when your team is calculating how much money they'll have next round by purchasing what they can accordingly so they have enough funds for their full buy. The other most common strategy is a force buy, this is when your team absolutely needs to win a round, so everyone on the team spends all of their money to buy whatever they can. Constantly doing this every round will more than likely lose you games.

As you progress through the skill levels and start playing against better players, it's important to know basic strategy for the game.

Hands down the most effective strategy for Ts at a beginner level, is to just rush a site. This involves ALL members of the terrorist team running directly to whichever site you want usually with SMGs. As you play more Counter-Strike you'll see just how often the strategy is played.

For CTs, a good way to win a full save round is by having ALL of your teammates gamble a site and hope that the enemy doesn't go to the opposite one. This is commonly referred to as stacking a site. This strategy gives you and your teammates the best opportunity to win the round.

Another strategy for the Ts, that you may see played a lot, is just 'playing for picks' this basically means spreading your entire team across the map and waiting for the enemy CTs to make a mistake. This will create an opportunity for your team to make an opening onto a site. This strategy often works the best, simply because CTs will often get bored and start running through the map.

When playing as CT especially at lower levels, it's important to just remain patient and let the game come to you. There isn't much reason to try and force things when the sole objective for the Ts is to come to you. Don't do half the job for them!

With all of this said, you will end up winning most of your games by just practising good fundamentals, maintaining a level head and purely playing together with your team mates.

Counter Strike is a competitive team based shooter, some people may forget the team aspect of things, but it's important that you don't.

Every time you discover something during a round, it's important that you inform your team. A perfect example of this would be if you're holding B site on Mirage as a CT and there's only one T left; If you heard the T running through Apartments, you should absolutely communicate with your team as soon as you hear the T.

One of the most frustrating thing Counter Strike, is playing with players that refuse to communicate. If you're not sure what you should and shouldn't be saying, just say whatever you think may be important for your team to know. Experience will aid you in the direction of understanding things your teammates need to know and what they don't need to know. Generally speaking, calling out when you see an enemy should ALWAYS happen. Also, if you happen to see an enemy and hurt them but they get away you should say one of them is hurt or 'tagged' as its more commonly referred as. The same thing applies if you're fighting an opponent but they end up killing you, it will still be valuable information to know that someone is tagged on the enemy team.

I would much rather have someone on my team that communicates too much than someone that doesn't communicate at all.

However, a bad call out would be saying something like "they're over there" or "he's right there". But how else would you be able to call out exactly where they are? There is this convenient thing in Counter Strike that is called exactly that "call outs". Call outs are names of places around the map that help teammates communicate the location of the enemy.

If you're a brand new player and have no idea about any of the call outs on the map, there's an easy way to start learning them. All you have to do is go to a private match and set it to practice mode. Once you load in, walk over to the area which you're unsure of what is called and look in the top left corner where your radar is, just under the radar will be a name of the call out. Use this to your advantage when learning certain call outs and also communicate with your team and discover what they call those areas.

Similar to call outs, map knowledge is something that unfortunately takes a lot of time, but once you start to learn the ins and outs of a map you'll see just how fast you grow as a player.

The best way you can start learning maps is by learning them one by one. In matchmaking, you can queue for just one map at a time and play only that map for however long you like. I recommend finding a map you personally enjoy and playing it and memorising it. Learn the call outs, find good lineups for your grenades and start to strategise with your team.

When I was a new player, all I used to want to do is play Cache. I felt comfortable on the map and I knew what I thought at the time was everything to know about it. I'm thankful for the map because it was my stomping ground where I learned how to master all my fundamentals. Unfortunately, if you want to become an even better player, it's important to do this with ALL the competitive maps if you ever start playing Premier or Faceit, you'll be forced to play all the maps in the competitive pool. So it's important before you head over there that you have a basic understanding of all maps.

The unfortunate truth about the current state of CS2 as of writing this guide, is that public matchmaking and Premier is filled with cheaters. This is especially true at high ranks of Premier.

In the lower ranks (which is more than likely where you're going to start) there's a good chance that you won't run into that many cheaters but that also may not be true by the time you're reading this. If you feel okay with dealing with cheaters, then by all means continue to play either Premier or matchmaking. But if you want to and feel ready, I recommend that you try to move over to a more competitive platform like faceit.

Faceit forces it's users to run an anti-cheat whilst they play. This results in far less cheaters. I know what you're thinking as you're reading this, you may not feel ready to play on a competitive platform like faceit because you don't want to ruin other people's games or you don't want to not have fun as you get stomped out. Both these statements are completely reasonable but I will say once you lose a few games, the matchmaking service does a great job at putting you in the ELO where you belong.

Even as a brand new player, you're probably much better than the lowest ranked player on Faceit and don't be discouraged about playing against better players, everyone has to start somewhere and everybody deserves the right to play in a cheat free environment.

When I started writing this guide, I didn't quite realise just how long it was going to take, nor did I realise just how much effort it would require.

This guide took me countless hours to put together across a span of several days.
So if you found this guide at all helpful or if you learned something new, click the like button it really does reassure me that my time was worth spending on this guide. If you're feeling especially generous, awards would be great!

If you want to see more guides like this in the future, let me know in the comments what you would like me to cover!