3 of the most common CS2 bad habits (and how to fix them)

Let’s talk about habits. Everyone has them, whether they’re the good kind or the not-so-good kind. Today, we’re going to be taking a look at the latter. We’re going to go through some of the most common bad habits in CS2, how they affect the game, and how to fix them.

Bad Crosshair Placement

Okay, let’s get the most obvious one out of the way first. Perhaps the most common, frustrating, and damaging bad habit in Counter-Strike is bad crosshair placement. It is one of – if not the – most important mechanical skills to have in your locker as a CS player, and one that will quite literally win you games.

To explain it very simply, for any of your out there who may not be sure what we mean, crosshair placement is the simple act of positioning your crosshair at head-height, at any given angle. This simple habit gives you an automatic advantage in any engagement, as you’re always prepared to do the most damage in the least amount of time.

Sadly, there are an awful lot of CS players out there (most of them end up on my team) who don’t seem to understand how to keep their crosshair placement at a generally good level throughout the game. If that sounds like you, we have a couple of easy fixes.

Prefire mode is probably the single best way to get the basics of crosshair placement polished. In Prefire mode, you’ll be placed in a map, and will have to follow a set path. Your task is to meticulously clear out every angle on this path, with multiple bots placed on a variety of common angles. Training on this mode will help to build the muscle memory and visualization you need when clearing angles, pathing through any given map, and keeping your crosshair at the optimal height for engagements at any time.

Once you’ve perfected your Prefire runs, you can take it one step further and begin the Angle Trainer grind. Where Prefire teaches general crosshair placement and every common angle, Angle Trainer takes that knowledge and puts your discipline and awareness to the test. Instead of multiple bots on almost every angle, there will only be a couple of bots, hidden in a couple of the most common angles. This means that you will have to clear each and every angle diligently, in the knowledge that there could always be one of the bots waiting to catch you off guard.

If you grind Prefire and Angle Trainer, you’ll notice a significant uptick in the quality of your crosshair placement. Winning engagements, taking better fights, and closing out in-game situations will be easier than ever before.

Over-Crouching 

This is an interesting one. When and when not to crouch has been a conversation in the sphere of Counter-Strike mechanics for a long while. Whilst there are layers of subtlety to the debate, it is important to remember that a lot of players crouch too often, generally speaking.

It’s understandable why this is such a common issue. On the surface level, crouching whilst fighting seems fairly sensible. Crouching stabilizes your aim and allows for a more streamlined decision tree when taking a fight. You don’t have to worry about how, where, and when to move.

However, this is actually a problem (mostly). Moving whilst taking a fight is the most effective way to make yourself hard to kill. As they almost say, a good offense is a good defense, and making your opponent have a hard time landing their shots is always going to result in more favorable fights for you. Of course, crouching some of the time is great, but it needs to be a weapon in your arsenal – not the entire arsenal.

A good way to practice keeping mobility in mind whilst taking fights is Xfire mode. Some bots will swing you, some bots will wait to be swung by you, and you’ll have to manage your mobility throughout the arena. Alongside Xfire, Crossfire is another great way to practice your in-fight fluidity. 

Dumping utility all at once (or not using any at all)

One of the oft-overlooked bad habits in Counter-Strike is poor utility usage. This can mean dying without using your utility, or using your utility suboptimally, like using it all at once without a rhyme or reason. Luckily for you, both of these come with an easy fix.

NADR is the best way to learn, research, and perfect your utility usage. You can find lineups using the inbuilt map grenades, try out lineups you’ve seen in other places, or even cook up your own. You can save any lineups you want to for future access, and build a bank of utility for yourself so that you never forget an important lineup again.

If you want to find out what utility is working, and which of your lineups are not having the desired effect, you can watch your demos back with our 2D Demo Viewer. This will show a 2D, top-down demo, with nades, timings, and trajectories. You can see how your opponents react to your utility, and fine-tune your timings and decisions in terms of what you’re throwing and when.

Bad habits take time to fix

Everyone wants to improve at Counter-Strike, but progress isn’t just about aim maps or grinding hours. It’s about breaking the habits that hold you back. The difference between a good player and a great one often lies in the small, consistent details: where your crosshair sits, how disciplined you are in fights, and how intelligently you use your utility. None of these things can be fixed overnight, but each small adjustment you make compounds over time.

Old habits die hard, but you can accelerate process that with Refrag.