10 Tips For Becoming A Professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Player

If you haven’t already played Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, you should definitely go and check it out. It’s a completely free-to-play game, so you won’t be losing anything if you do. Played it and love it? Maybe you should consider going pro if you think you’ve got the skills.

Not everyone is cut out to be a pro CS:GO player; even if you rank yourself among the best of your friend group or even your server, that might not mean you’ve got what it takes. Here are 10 tips for becoming a professional CS:GO player.

1. Brush up your skills

It might sound obvious, but you will never make it as a professional CS:GO player if you’re not up on your skills. Check out a montage on YouTube and see if you can pull off the kind of insane moves the players in those videos do on a regular basis. If you can, then professional play may well be for you. If not, you need to put in the work and practice until you can. If your competition is at that standard, there’s no excuse for you not to be.

2. Look into the esports scene

As a professional CS:GO player, a lot of your time on the pro circuit will be spent in esports competitions. Before you embark on your new career, it’s a good idea to read more about CS:GO esports. That means understanding what kind of person spectates (and bets on) esports, as well as your competition and what you’ll be expected to do as a pro player. If you find esports confusing, it’s a good idea to become a spectator yourself for a while to get a feel for the scene.

3. Create a practice regime

You can’t view CS:GO as “just a game” if you want to go pro. Instead, you need to create and stick to a rigid practice routine. Every day, devote a certain amount of time to improving particular skills in CS:GO. That could be aiming, movement, reaction time, or any number of other skills you feel you need to work on. Your timetable should take into account all of the areas in which you need work, as well as honing the things you already feel like you’re good at.

4. Try not to play other games

Obviously, we’re not suggesting that you completely cut out other games from your life. If you want to play other games in order to unwind after a long time practicing, that can be good for your mental health. However, if you want to become a CS:GO professional, there’s no avoiding the fact that you will need to play a disproportionate amount of CS:GO. It’s especially a good idea to avoid other first-person shooters, since you might get muddled in terms of controls, objectives, and game feel.

5. Build a good setup

Here’s a good rule of thumb for building a gaming PC: don’t go overboard, but do pick high-quality components. The system requirements for CS:GO are pretty lenient, so you’re likely to meet them without too much upgrading, but it’s all in the peripherals. Get yourself a high-quality headset with virtual surround. A mechanical keyboard can really help with key feedback and speed, and if you can find good-quality wireless equipment, you should try to opt for that too.

6. Hire a coach

If you just can’t stick to a good training regimen, then it might be a good idea to find and hire yourself a coach. As esports is a burgeoning discipline, coaches are likely to be in very high demand, so you can expect to pay a reasonable amount for a good-quality coach with good lessons to impart. If you do want to embark on a professional career, though, it’s completely worth it, because the knowledge and skills you gain from great coaching can’t be matched.

7. Don’t be a lone wolf

Solo-queue matchmaking famously isn’t indicative of the professional esports experience in CS:GO. While it’s true that you can succeed in solo queue with the right discipline and knowledge, CS:GO is a team sport, and expecting to carry every single game on your own is unrealistic. Learn to operate as part of a team. Work with your teammates to identify objectives, efficiently take down enemies, and co-operate well. Don’t think you can play alone and don’t insult others when they aren’t doing well.

8. Create or develop a persona

It may be that you’re already playing CS:GO as a streamer and you’re looking to make the leap. If that’s the case, you’ve likely already cornered your personal brand and are working on it. If not, think about the aspects of your personality that will make you stand out and emphasise them. Are you particularly calm? Hot-headed? Charismatic? Any of these things can work as a cornerstone for your esports persona, and you’ll need one if you want to be a popular professional player.

9. Be realistic

If you’re not willing to dedicate a hundred percent of yourself to becoming a professional CS:GO player, you likely won’t make it. Even if you are, there’s a huge amount of luck and right-place-right-time involved in actually crossing over to the professional circuit. Many excellent, talented CS:GO players simply don’t become professionals, not because they lack the motivation but because things just don’t pan out that way. You may not be able to achieve your dream even with hard work, so make sure you love the journey as well as the destination.

10. Consider life after esports

Esports won’t be your career forever. The oldest esports players are in their late twenties or early thirties, and the average age of professional esports players is around twenty or twenty-one. That’s way, way earlier than most professionals retire. Think about what you want to do when – not if – you leave the world of professional esports. You could pursue a career as a streamer, or you could move into coaching. There are plenty of options!