How to Effectively Peak and Place Your Crosshair in Counterstrike: Global Offensive

Introduction:

In Counterstrike: Global Offensive, the gameplay is primarily tactical. At all times, you should be searching for ways to gain advantage over your opponents. Although teamwork is the most important part of Counterstrike since it is completely dependent on team strategy, it is equally important to improve your individual skills. Throughout this tutorial, you will learn how to gain significant advantage over your opponents by learning proper crosshair placement and peaking.

What is Crosshair placement?

Crosshair placement is the act of having your crosshair placed for anticipating your enemy at all times.

What is peaking?

Peaking is when you step out from a wall or corner to find and attack your enemy.

Step 1: Find a Good Crosshair That Compliments Your Playstyle.

Finding a crosshair that suites your taste is important because it is what you’ll be focusing all of your attention on as you place and peak. To find the perfect crosshair for you, I suggest using one of the following options:

- Download and run the Crosshair Generator map to experiment with crosshairs used by pros and other players (http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/...).

- Play around with options from a crosshair generator (my personal favorite: http://tools.dathost.net/)

- Find settings from someone who uses a crosshair that you like.

Step 2: Select the Right Sensitivity for Gradual, Consistent Aiming.

It's very important that you choose a sensitivity that flows smoothly as you move your crosshair. You should never have to re-adjust your aim while following a player's body. It should always seamlessly “glide,” or at least appear to. To reiterate, as your opponent comes out from behind a wall, you should be able to smoothly follow their torso (or head) with your crosshair. Often, players will have a sensitivity that is too high for them, causing them to have to readjust their crosshair while the opponent is moving.

Generally speaking, the lower you can tolerate a sensitivity, the better. Lower sensitivities provide more accurate aiming, but cause you to use more of your arm and desk space for your mouse pad. Pro players tend to play on very low sensitivities such as 1.0 sensitivity at 400 D.P.I. With a sensitivity like this, it requires a much larger mouse pad than usual. Personally, I play a 1.3 sensitivity at 400 D.P.I. My mouse pad set-up is displayed at the top of this page.

Often, I need to re-adjust my mouse to the center of the mouse pad. At first this feels unnatural, but over time you will become used to this play style and gain significant advantage.

This concept of finding the right sensitivity can be very complicated. To get more insight into the topic, check out this explanation by pro player "adreN":

Step 3: Always Expect Your Enemy.

It may seem intuitive to “expect your enemy,” but I mean it in a literal sense. Turn every corner as if you expect someone to be there. Prepare your finger to press the mouse button as you walk around. Be prepared to stop walking and shoot at any moment. In addition, remember to utilize sound to try and predict where your enemy is headed.

One way you can expect your enemy is by always having the best crosshair placement as possible, which is thoroughly explained in the next step.

Step 4: Hold Your Crosshair at the Appropriate Level for the Gun You’re Using.

It takes time and practice to know the correct level to place your crosshair steady as you hold positions or peak. The level you place your crosshair depends on what gun you are using. Here are some examples of how situations change depending on which gun you use.

If you are using a rifle, here is an example of the level where you should hold you crosshair:

http://i.imgur.com/lOy4ezb.jpg

Notice that when an enemy appears, the crosshair is already at head level. Also notice that the crosshair is placed slightly away from the wall, so that as your enemy moves out you have time to react. With a rifle, it is important to always aim for headshots first. For example, the AK-47 is a single shot headshot in the game, so it is completely advantageous for you to be prepared to make that shot every time.

If you are using the AWP, here is roughly where your crosshair should be placed:

http://i.imgur.com/V3dpqov.jpg

With an AWP, a torso shot or above is a one-shot frag (note: a frag kill in counterstrike). Because of this, it is an easier shot to make and more advantageous to aim lower than when aiming with a rifle. Similar to the last example, the crosshair is placed in the middle of the two walls, giving time to react to a moving target.

Step 5: Know the Speed and Way That You Should Peak

There are many different speeds and ways that you can peak a corner. Some ways that you can peak are by walking, crouching after peaking (crouch peaking), or peaking quickly to juke your opponent and give away their positioning.

Walk peaking:
Typically, it is not advised that you peak while walking; however, it is possible that you can gain an advantage if you do this. To walk peak, you need to be as far away from the wall as possible.

Crouch peaking:
This type of peaking (as well as walk peaking) is typically done by AWP players. The goal of this type of peaking is to walk out from the corner as fast as possible, then quickly crouch to stabilize your crosshair. By successfully executing this peaking technique, your opponents may not be able to react quick enough. In addition, they may miss your head if they had solid crosshair placement.

Step 6: Use Sound and Instinct to Know When to Peak Corners.

As you may already know, sound is very useful in Counterstrike. With a solid headset, you can give yourself an advantage by listening at high volumes to become aware of where your enemy is going. In order to fully take advantage of sound, it's important to listen to where people are walking in areas that you cannot see.

Not only do the footsteps of your opponent give away their position, but you can also hear their gunshots. For example, let's say on the map Dust II you can hear gun shots from the B bomb site tunnel. You're playing CT side and you are positioned at the bomb site. This tells you with 100% certainty that a player is coming from tunnels, so a good move to make would be to either prefire, throw a nade, or peak them quickly.

Lastly, pay attention to the call-outs from your teammates. This can give you the peaker's advantage by knowing where an opponent is, so you can either pre-fire while peaking or peak with good crosshair placement.

Conclusion

Now that we have gone over how to place your crosshair correctly and peak, you are ready to get into matches and utilize these strategies to dominate your opponent! If you are at lower ranks, you will notice a significant increase in your skill among your teammates and opponents. By using these tactics, you will notice people calling you a cheater – do not worry! These are players who have not yet read this tutorial, so send them here after claiming your glory.