Before the Game
Reach level 2. You cannot play in the competitive ranks until you reach a normal rank of 2, which you can do by getting exp in different game modes. The recommended way to do this is to play deathmatch, as it gets you used to the types of guns that you will be playing with. Casual is also a good option, as it gets you used to the type of playing you will be doing in Competitive, a bomb scenario with limited money. Consider getting Prime Matchmaking. This requires you to level up to level 21 and activate a 2-step verification with a phone, however you will meet fewer hackers and "smurfs" this way. Casual also allows you to learn the main routes to get to the bomb site, meaning you will have more knowledge for the map.
Lower your sensitivity. This may seem counter-intuitive, as slower spinning means slower reactions, however the added accuracy is worth it. Since most guns can give a one shot headshot, accuracy is everything. For best results, find out how far you need to make your mouse move to do a full 360. Your mouse should move about 25 cm. If you are only moving 5 or 15 cm, a drastic change is needed If your mousepad isn't big enough, a bigger one may be necessary, there are many places to get a 36 by 42 cm mousepad.
Get a good headset. Audio is a huge part of the game, and you can hear some sounds across the map, so you can determine where the any is even if you aren't near them. Coming with a good headset, of course, is raising your audio levels. Since you cannot predict how loud other people's microphones will be, you should keep the chat volume semi-low, and put the environmental sounds high
Get used to the spray patterns of weapons. Each of the main weapons has a definitive pattern in which their bullets go. You don't need to do this for every gun, just with the main weapons, such as an AK-47, M4A1-S (or M4A4), along with the SMG of your choice, the p90 is recommended. You only need to learn the first 6-7 bullets, as they are the only bullets that change vertically, the rest go left and right randomly, however with it going up, you need to know how far to lower your weapon to get optimal headshot range. Consider downloading a practice map off the workshop, they can be a good way to warm and practice your shots.
Control your gunfire. Spraying is not a very accurate way to spend your shots, the more effective way to shoot is shooting in short, controlled bursts at long to medium range. The only reason you should spray is if the enemy is very close and you cannot possibly miss them.
Practice with lesser-used guns. There will be time in the game in where you will need to use sub-machine guns or shotguns, such as on an anti-eco when your opponent is saving. You will need to know how to shoot with these weapons and kill people quickly so they will not be able to kill you and steal your gun. Be aware of how to spray with these guns, or how to use each shotgun. In most cases, you are able to run-and-gun with these weapons, so don't be afraid to change your style when using these weapons.
Place your crosshair optimally. When you are just walking around, don't have your crosshair near the body or feet, have it at about head level. Reason being, if you see an enemy that surprises you, you don't have time to get your gun into position then fire, you need to be able to get the first shot off right then. If you type "cl_showpos 1" into console, then it tells you what Y coordinate you are related to the head, 0.00 being head height.
Learn the callouts of each map. The best way to do this would be to go into a private match game, then look in the top left and see what each place you travel too. However, some places are not consistent with the game, such as on cache, where the right side route to A is not called "Corridor", but rather "Squeaky". You can pick this up pretty fast in competitive. In addition, you should know common economical call-outs. A "full-save" is where your team buy absolutely nothing, to save all your money for the next round. This is uncommon, most often seen if CT's win the first round, buy, and lose the second round. A "half-save" or "half-buy" is where you buy with about half of your money, so what you buy depends on your money. If you only have two or three thousand, buy armor and a pistol such as the P250 or Tec-9. If you have 5-6 thousand, you can consider buying a lower tier SMG or an SSG. An "anti-eco" round is a round in which you know the other team will be saving, so it would be unwise to buy powerful guns like AKs. As such, you should buy armor better at dispatching unarmored foes, such as the Mac-10 or UMP. A "full buy round" is a round in which you spend all or most of your money for this round, buying utilities like smokes and flashes.
Watch professional players. As clearly shown by their ranking, they are the best at what they do, so they can probably be trusted when watching what they do. If you can watch what these people do in certain positions on maps, odds are if you play similarly in the same position, you can do much better in that position. Along with this, you can learn some more unique grenade placements or places to boost.
Find a team to play with. If you have to find new, random people with different skill levels each game, you aren't going to play as well. The people you play with might not even be able to talk, or just be griefing. If you can get a team of people that you know or get to know, your team can start doing better. This means that you know exactly where each person is going to be each round, and you can count on them to be where you expect to be, as well as you know how well that person can play, so you can guide them if needed.
Know plays with your team before you start playing competitively. You can't expect to call a "Cat Rush to B" for example without ever talking it over with your team what that means. Go into each map, and talk over who is going to do what in whatever play you call. For example, if you call a "Cat to B" on Dust II, you can have one member watch mid, one throw a smoke to Lower Tunnels, one to peek to site etc. Your team will be a mess if you all just run in to site spraying everywhere.
Have roles for each player. Every player should know what they are going to do that round and where they should be. An overlook of each type and who should play is below, but keep in mind these are not concrete roles. You may need to change up who is your support or lurk player if the other team keeps easily picking them off, or you may need to change your IGL if they aren't calling good plays.' In Game Leader or IGL is the one who calls the plays. They can also be any of the other roles, as this is only really during the beginning of the round, and the rest is watching your and the other team's economy to make sure you know what to do next. The entry-fragger. This player's point is to be the first one who goes into confrontations and gets the damage. Getting kills is good, but not absolutely necessary, as their main roles is to do significant damage onto lots of people so that the support player can mop up the kills, as well as get the information as to where the other team is. This person should always be given a rifle, even if they cannot afford it, and will die a lot with few kills, so their scoreboard rank may not be the best. The Support. This person follows quickly behind the entry-fragger. They have 2 main roles. They are there to provide utility to the entry, by flashing them in, providing a smoke if they need to get away, or watching their back while the fragger rushes in. The other role is to clean up the people the fragger has tagged. The person needs to be accurate, maybe even more than the entry-fragger, as the support needs to be able to hit the shots, as if this player dies, you have few people left that can easily kill them. The AWPer. As the name suggests, this person carries an AWP and uses it to either pick long or hold angles. Before that, they need to understand the economy. The AWP costs 4750 to buy, which unless you win every round including the anti-eco without dying, isn't going to be in a lot of people's price range, so they are going to need to save a lot in the first few rounds. This person, instead of buying a M4 or AK in the anti-eco, will often buy a FAMAS or Galil to save money. If they are on the CT side, they often won't buy a helmet or grenades either, to save even more money. Once they have an AWP, this person looks down mid, or the middle of any map. This is not only to get kills, but to see how many people are going to each site as well. This information can change your strategy depending on how many people are going to each site. The lurker. This person is one who goes alone, walking, to other parts of the map to try to catch people rotating to the bomb, or from site to site. This person normally excels in the mid to late round game, as people are either rushing to get to the bomb, or rushing to get away from it, not checking every corner.
Early Game for Terrorists
Know where you are going before the round starts. If the round starts and people are standing in spawn just waiting for someone to lead them, you give the CTs valuable seconds to get set up and just wait it out. You have to have maximum coordination and preparation when taking a site, and everyone needs to be on board. Even if you aren't the one who normally calls bomb sites, but you notice that the pre-round is ticking away, you may need to make a decision and call it.
Understand your role in the Pistol round. Your ultimate goal should be to get the bomb planted through any means necessary. Even if you lose the round, it may be a win economically. Knowing this, everyone should rush the bomb site, picking up frags wherever you can, but rushing the bomb plant. After planting the bomb, you want to waste as much time as possible. In the first round, odds are there is only one, if any defuse kit on the CT side, meaning they are going to need a lot of time to get the bomb defused. If you can get the bomb planted, but still lose, you get an extra 800 each on top of the 1400 from losing a round, as well as a 300 bonus for whomever planted the bomb.
Plan your next move depending on whether or not you won the pistol round. Knowing that if you won, you have the economy in your favor, and vice versa for the CTs, your strategies should differ. If you won the pistol round, odds are you will probably win the next one, however do not get cocky. The CTs will probably save the next round, meaning you should have a light buy with good anti-eco uses. What this means is, since the CTs are saving, they are probably not going to buy armor, this allows for guns with low armor penetration, but high damage or fire rate to become extremely effective. Two good examples of this are the MP9 and the Nova shotgun. These offer a high damage output against unarmored opponents, as well as gives you a hefty kill reward, with 600 and 900 for SMGs and shotguns respectively, but be wary. If the CTs manage to win, especially by killing all of you, your economy is essentially gone for the next two rounds, forcing you to save. Get the bomb plant off and watch out for CTs going in for a sneaky defuse! If you lose the pistol round, but planted the bomb, make your goal to be able to buy fully in the third round. You cannot buy effectively the second round, so it's wiser to save all your money, saving a smoke or two, as you will get a combined 3500 from losing two rounds in a row. You will also have an extra 800 from getting the bomb down, bringing your total to 4300, which is enough to buy armor and a helmet, an AK, and quite a few grenades, like a smoke or a Molotov and a flashbang. For this round, focus on getting the bomb planted and stealing a few guns. Everyone should be a in wolf pack, save the lurker, maybe, and go for picks while rushing on a bomb site. If you kill one, take their rifle and try to keep it until the next round, as you will benefit your economy when you don't need to buy a new gun. Get the bomb down early, as the extra 800 will give you a full set of grenades, or even the AWP player an AWP to look mid with, provided they don't buy armor. Losing this round isn't a huge deal, as you can buy on the third round regardless, but it would be a nice bonus. If you lost the pistol round and did not get a bomb plant, you need to force buy. Since you received 1400 from losing, and whatever, if any, money you had left from the pistol round, the only supplies you can buy is armor and a pistol, preferably the Tec-9 or P250, due to their one shot capacities. You need a win here, otherwise you will be saving for 2 more rounds, which are hard, but not impossible to win on. You need to get early kills to pick up rifles, as they will be your saving grace when defending the bomb site. Plant the bomb if you can, but don't take unnecessary risks in doing so. Getting the win is everything, and since most people will have pistols, saving isn't that important except for the armor. Losing here sets you back miles, forcing you to save for two more rounds at least.
Plan the third round. If you've won the first 2 rounds, you have a decision. You can stick with your weapons, or upgrade to a "full buy", which means buy AKs. If you know the CTs cannot do a surprise buy, which is buying FAMAS on the third round, because they had bought the second round, stick with your guns. If you think they might buy weapons, buy up yourself. This is similar to counting cards in blackjack, you need to know where the money is and who has it. If you can predict what the CTs will do based on their economy, then you can also plan accordingly. If you lost the first round, but got bomb planted on the second round, this is you chance to make a come back. Buy up armor and AKs, and grenades if you can afford them. If you lost both rounds without a bomb plant, you will have to save.
Go into the midgame. This is where the economy starts to go into a predictable pattern, if one team wins, the other has to save and will most likely lose again. They then get another attempt to take back the win and force the other team to spend more money, and eventually try to save. You need to keep an eye on the CT economy here, as they need to spend more than you. The M4A4 and M4A1-s cost 400 and 200 more respectively than the AK, and they also need to buy defuse kits. Your goal should be similar here, take bomb to a site, clear the site, and try to get bomb down if it can reasonably be done. This is where people can start buying depending on their roles. The AWPer and buy his AWP, support and lurker start buying up on grenades, as well as the lead player can start buying his flashes. Knowing where you are on your team will determine what to buy here.
Early Game for Counter-Terrorist
Know what to do in the pistol round. You are trying to defend the bomb site at all costs from a defuse, and if that fails, defuse it as fast as possible. The bomb gives a huge economic boost for the Terrorists, so you don't want that to happen. You want to stop the onslaught of terrorists, but keep your encounters long range. The USP-S is a one-shot headshot from any range towards unhelmeted opponents, and terrorists cannot buy helmets first round. Split your team up, 2 going to each bombsite, and one going mid. There are some exceptions to this rule, such as on Cobblestone, in which you will probably want to consider putting 3-4 people B site, as it is an easy and common site for T's to take, and is nearly impossible to hold with just 2 players on the pistol round.
Rotate to the bombsite. As soon as you can see what site the Terrorists are pushing towards, call it out for your team to rotate. You want as many players as possible defending the site, and the sooner you see bomb coming to a site the sooner they can get there. Be careful not to over-commit to a bombsite. In higher-level play, the T's may rush 2-3 players one bomb site to force you to rotate, and then send the bomb and the remaining players to the other bombsite. Until you can see bomb on the minimap, don't completely abandon a site.
Use your strategy depending on who wins the pistol round. If you won the pistol, odds are you'll win the next one too, but if you lost, you are in dire straights. If you won, the Terrorists will need to save, and they absolutely need that bomb plant. You need to stop that at all costs, so buy the anti-eco weapons with high damage against unarmored opponents and high kill rewards, such as shotguns and SMGs (excluding the p90). You, again, have to stop that bomb plant at all costs. If they get the plant down, they can buy AKs the following round, and you will have competition for a point. However, if you can stave off the plant, the Terrorists will need to save again. If you did not win, you are most likely going to lose the next few rounds. You have to save up more than the Terrorists, as their supplies cost significantly less than yours. You mainly are looking for a few kills that will force the Terrorists to buy armor again, wasting their economy, and sneaking a weapon or two away if you can. You can try to buy light the third round, with Famas and SMGs, however if you lose that round, you have to save again until round 5. Your main goal is to be able to buy fully by the 4th round.
Get ready for the third round. If you lost, this is just another save for you, and if you managed to stop the bomb plant from happening, this is another save from the Terrorist side. If the Terrorists got the bomb planted, however, this is the first round both teams can buy fully. This is the first "real" match of skill, as both teams are fully bought with rifles. You need to win this, otherwise its back to saving for you. Stopping the bomb plant would be quite beneficial to you, however is not absolutely necessary, as if the Ts lose 3 in a row, they only get 2400, not enough to buy an AK, even with the bomb plant.
Start getting settled into the Midgame. This is where the game stabilizes and becomes a pattern, win, get an easy win, go against a rifle match, save, and so on. This is where buying Defuse kits and grenades is not optional each round, you need to have at least one defuse kit on each bomb site, as you will lose rounds stupidly because of this mistake.
The Midgame
Understand what the Midgame is. The Midgame is not a defined point, but rather when the economy has "stabilized." The midgame lasts until the very last round, and even into overtime. This is where neither team buys "light" or "eco" weapons when the other team saves, as money becomes slightly less important, but still vital for a game. This is where both teams can buy fully for at least a round, and be able to half-buy Famas or Galil the next. From this point, the game begins to become all about studying patterns and knowing what the other team will buy.
Know your role in the Midgame. The point of every round in the midgame is, as you might expect, to get points. This might seem to be common sense, however, remember in the early game where sometimes your role was to simply force the other team to save the next round. This is not to say you shouldn't try to force the team to save, as it guarantees the enemy team will be under gunned, however, instead of just focusing on getting the bomb down, for example, focus on getting it to explode. Don't rush the game on either side at this point, you can afford to plan carefully and move in when completely ready.
Anticipate what your opponent will buy. If you just won two or more rounds in a row, and you know the other team had just fully bought armor, rifles, grenades and etc, then you can make a safe assumption that they are probably out of money and are going to have to save. This is not change how you prepare for a round in the midgame. You don't throw your weapons away to buy SMGs or shotguns, as even if you do get a few kills with them, you will take a net loss, as the next round you have to throw that gun away and buy a rifle, as they will be fully armored by the next round. This knowledge is simply a luxury that lets you take a few more risks, knowing an AWP probably isn't around the corner.
Don't be afraid to save. This is where you are in a scenario where you are extremely unlikely to win, and you have something that would be a fallacy for your team or beneficial for the opposing team for you to lose. For example if you are a CT, the bomb is planted, you are the only member and the other team has full members, you most likely won't win that. If you have no armor and just a pistol, who cares? Rush in and try to get a lucky headshot, you can cost them armor and a rifle, and if you do die it's only a few hundred dollars in their inventory. However, if you have full armor, an AWP, and grenades, well it would be stupid to waste the thousands you have trying to clutch, so just hide in the back of the map and wait until the round is over and you can have teammates support you.
Begin buying more expensive luxuries. Guns like an AWP watching mid or having a 3 smoke set-up to run into B site as a terrorist, are viable options Worst-case scenario is you have to save and then go back with a buy the round after that. Consider buying utilities like defuse kits as a team instead of one or two people, as looking around for a kit can waste precious seconds when needing to defuse a bomb.
Start playing for points. This was already briefly talked about, but you shouldn't be rushing into bombsites or rushing the Ts anymore. Each play should be carefully called with information from people watching. If you notice that the CTs stacked B, head towards A, slowly killing unaware players on your way to the bomb site. If you notice the Ts are rushing B, start rotating and watching to see if it's a fake. You shouldn't be going for meaningless strategies like a bomb rush even though you know will die, or trying to stick a kitless defuse, play patiently and collected in these rounds.
Gameplay for Both Teams
Communicate with your teammates. You need to know what each person is going to buy, who is going to defend what site, or what site you are pushing onto. You cannot expect to win games without proper synergy and support from teammates, as you cannot defend or take a bomb site with 2 players on it, and the other 3 going to the other. In the famous words, teamwork makes the dream work.
Know proper grenade placement. You need grenades to take a bomb site in the later rounds, especially on the Terrorist side. Whether it is to block off 2 players lines' of sight to the bomb or to do some extra damage to the opposing team, you will not be as successful without grenades to aid you. You also need to know places to throw these grenades that will help you without putting you in unnecessary danger. Spending some time in a private match or casual game can help you practice these.
Play angles. This is where you can see part or all of an enemy before they can see much of you. A great example of this is on Dust II, on Long A. From the CT side, one can look around the corner to Doors and easily watch and the enemies entire body if they are there, however someone in the Doors will only be able to see a side of the CT, making the CT a much harder target to hit. This is just about knowing where you can be and look. Another thing to know is if you are covered from angles. For example, if you are watching long from Site A on Dust II, you can go back as far as you can, and people coming from Cat won't be able to see you.
Know your role. These should be predetermined, and known by each player. If you are an entry-fragger and you pick up an AWP, don't keep it, give it to the player who was playing the AWP. This also will affect what you buy, as support and lurk players will typically buy more grenades than the AWPer or Entry-Fragger.
Understand your economy. If you lose a round in the mid-game, it isn't a good idea to full buy again unless you can afford it with plenty of money. If you are low on money, don't be afraid to save for a round. It is better than buying low-power weapons, and then losing all your money the next round. Similarly, if you know the other team is going to need to save the next round, plan your play accordingly.
Don't flame your teammates. This is where you either constantly criticize your teammates for actions that weren't their fault or teamkilling your own players. This isn't to say telling your teammates what they did wrong is bad, but it is to be done in a constructive way, not to tear them down. After all, this is just a game, there isn't a need to get worked up about it. Just focus and have fun during the experience, and you won't cause too much trouble.
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