So, in the first part of our Saving Silver series, we covered a few of the crucial Refrag modes needed to kickstart your Counter-Strike career and get you scaling the lofty heights of the ranking system. If you’ve read that article and put our advice into practice, you will be firmly on the road to escaping from Silver hell. This time, we will look at some more specific modes that target a couple of common weaknesses when it comes to players in the lower ranks.
In this article, we’ll delve into three Refrag modes, each targeting a specific element of your game. Once you’ve added these three modes to your practice routine, you should notice improvements in no time. So, without further ado, let’s jump straight into our first scenario and get you on track to putting your Silver woes behind you.
To start our trio of scenarios, we have one that every single Counter-Strike can relate to. Are you ready? Here we go…
You miss a shot.
See? We told you it was relatable. If you have ever missed a shot (let’s be honest, you have) we have just the mode for you.
Pop
Pop Mode is, as the Refrag Wiki states, ‘our quick Gridshot type aim trainer built into Refrag’. In this mode, you’ll be facing balloons that need to be popped. Each time a balloon is popped, another takes its place. It is as true to a traditional aim trainer as you can get.
As with most Refrag modes, Pop is customizable up to a point, to guarantee you the flexibility to find which precise warmup routine works best for you. You can set the colors of the balloons, change the mode to timed or untimed, and edit the number of targets that spawn. You can also remove your gun, or the HUD in its entirety, to maximize focus on your warmup.
While we cannot guarantee that you’ll never miss a shot again (but, if you never miss a shot again, it was definitely because of Refrag), we can guarantee that you will be vastly more warmed-up, focussed, and mechanically ready to deal with anything that comes your way in the rest of your games.
So, now that we’ve established how to get your raw aim warmed up, let’s stick our hand into the hat of Silver Scenarios and see what we draw out next…
Picture the scene. You have the AWP, your opponents don’t know where you are. You’re shifting somewhere, unscoped, when suddenly an enemy peeks you. You scope in, notice your crosshair is far away from the target, and whiff the shot. It’s embarrassing, but it’s also a hard shot to hit. If this happens a lot to you, we’ve got the solution right here.
Quickscope
That’s right, you now have a dedicated space to practice your quickscopes! Refrag’s Quickscope mode is designed to simulate real in-game peeks in popular parts of the map, allowing you to focus solely on developing insane reflexes and M0nesy-style quickscopes.
Whether it’s Mid on Mirage, Yard on Nuke, or Ramp on Vertigo, our Quickscope mode gives you the chance to dedicate some real practice time to hitting the shots that will make your Silver teammates turn on their microphones (for once) and congratulate you on your S1mple-style decimation of your opponent. Of course, the real way to get your Silver teammates to turn on their microphones is to have cool skins. Unfortunately Quickscope can’t help you with that.
Quickscope is guaranteed to make you a beast with the AWP, transforming you from a static, slow shooter to a snappy, stunning sniper in no time. You will be entering retakes, holding sites, and winning crucial fights almost straight away, providing you add some Quickscope grinding to your warmup routine.
Now for the last scenario in this second of our three-part Saving Silver series. You’re a CT, hiding on your bomb site, ready for the usual disjointed, slow, and easily-defeated Silver site take to come in from the T-side. Except, after eating a third flash in six seconds and hearing the horrifying hiss of a molly underneath your feet, you realize that you’ve stumbled across that rarest of beasts – a Silver stack that knows how to execute a bomb site. After dying, and your teammates on the other side of the map asking ‘How is it so hard to just stay alive?’, you might want to check out a particular mode made for this exact reason.
Defender
The Defender mode is a fantastic user-generated training mode made by Czaaje (using Refrag’s Creator Studio) which masterfully simulates how it feels to defend against realistic site takes. Whether it’s holding off a T-side execute, or CT retakes, Defender mode gives you access to a huge range of situations on every map, forcing you to dodge flashes, avoid mollies, play around smokes, and hold for common peeks.
If you add some time grinding Defender mode to your warmup routine, you will be able to lock down your site, defend the bomb, or just simply crush any team rushing against you. Your opponents will be crying about the fact you weren’t blind, confused by how you dodged all their utility, and your teammates will be on the mic asking you ‘How is it so easy for you to stay alive?’. If you want to get yourself out of Silver, knowing how to defend a bomb site is an absolute must.
No matter if you’re popping balloons like a party-averse aim demon, quickscoping enemies out of the server like M0nesy, or dodging flashes and destroying rushes, these three modes will add some much-needed mechanical flair to your warmup routine. Next time, for our final installment in the Saving Silver series, we will add the final touches to your practice sessions, and get you fully equipped to take the final leap out of Silver and into the light. Until then, keep grinding!
