I enjoy Counter-Strike because I love being competitive and I love winning. The thrill of trying my hardest and then getting the win is like nothing else to me. To win, I need to become a good player, which unfortunately requires training. As someone with many hobbies who strives to be at least halfway decent at them, I’ve spent considerable time training and learning about effective training methods. In this article, I want to share what I’ve learned and how it applies to Counter-Strike 2.

Options

There are plenty of guides on how to improve at Counter-Strike, as there are for improving at anything. Many guides discuss counter-strafing, crosshair placement, movement, reaction speed, and other skills essential for becoming a good player. However, few guides or articles focus on how you should learn these skills. Some suggest that playing more games is the way to go, while others recommend spending hundreds of hours in a deathmatch server to become the next Donk. I believe these guides have it wrong, and I helped create Refrag to prove it.

Analysis, learning, practicing

I often compare practicing for Counter-Strike to practicing for Chess; the process is similar. In Chess, you can play a thousand games and hardly improve, and the same is true for Counter-Strike. Simply playing won’t lead to rapid improvement. To improve in Chess, you need to analyze your games, and the same applies to Counter-Strike. You need to play, analyze your mistakes, find better ways to do things, practice those methods, and then play again. I call this “circular learning” because I like cheesy names. Circular learning consists of Playing, Analyzing, Learning, Practicing, and then Playing again.

Playing game after game without understanding why you’re not performing like that 3000-elo player who keeps destroying you is pointless. Similarly, only playing and analyzing isn’t enough. Knowing what you did wrong is nearly useless if you don’t know how to improve. You need to learn how to do it better and then practice it. Historically, most Counter-Strike players stop there. They play a game, look at their Leetify data, and regardless of the analysis, they jump into a Deathmatch server, do 1000 aim_botz kills, or start another game. I believe this happens because there hasn’t been a good way to practice with focus.

Focus

When we started Refrag, we evaluated the existing training options for Counter-Strike 2 and concluded that nothing allowed for high-volume, targeted training. There are workshop maps, deathmatch servers, retake servers, execute servers, scrim lobbies, and more. However, few of these actually help you improve efficiently. Most of them focus on simply putting you in the game and having you shoot at other players. This approach is fine for someone with unlimited time, and deathmatch is a decent enough warmup tool for 5-10 minutes before a game, but if you’re like me and don’t have the luxury of playing a hundred hours a week, you need something that allows you to focus on your weaknesses.

Deathmatch servers are an example of inefficient training that feels efficient. You shoot at many players in quick succession, but the situations aren’t realistic. People spawn behind you, bhop around the map, and flick quicker than anyone in a real game. This is fine for warming up your aim, but it’s too varied. You’re training too many things at once, and none of them are practiced with the volume needed for improvement. In contrast, Refrag’s Crossfire places you in realistic situations where players peek at you in quick succession from positions found in real games. This primarily teaches crosshair positioning and counter-strafing, two critical skills in Counter-Strike.

When we first created Refrag training tools, they focused on improving one or two skills at a time. Prefire teaches crosshair placement on the T-side, Crossfire teaches crosshair placement and counter-strafing, and Nadr teaches proper utility usage. We designed these tools to optimize users’ training, allowing them to pick a skill to improve and train only that part of the game. We believe this high-volume, targeted training approach allows for quick improvement in specific skills, which, when combined, enhance overall performance.

Full circle

So we know what to do, but how do we do it?

1. Play

I don’t need to explain how to play Counter-Strike 2. There are plenty of places to play, from Valve’s Competitive, Wingman, and Premier to Faceit, Esportal, and even IRC (yes, it still exists!). To improve, play to the best of your ability without putting too much pressure on yourself. Try your best, but don’t be too upset when you have a bad game. Self-hate is rarely a good motivator.

2. Analyze

This is where things get interesting. Analyzing your CS2 skills isn’t easy, and Refrag is developing tools to automate this process. Until then, I suggest using Leetify’s focus areas. They’re not perfect, but they’re currently the only automated way to identify areas for improvement. If you know a bit more about CS, examining raw data can be helpful. Compare your stats with other players of your rank and identify areas where you’re lacking. Choose one or two aspects to focus on before your next game.

3. Learn

Learning and practicing are distinct activities. In this step, find information on improving the skills you’ve identified. I recommend using the Refrag Academy, where co-founders Elige and Pimp have created video courses on many essential skills. We’ve structured these courses to optimize your learning. If you don’t want to spend money, there are many free YouTube videos and articles available. Focus on videos that explain only what you’ve decided you want to improve at, don’t get distracted.

4. Practice

This is where Refrag’s value shines. Once you’ve identified a skill to improve, use the appropriate Refrag tool. The provided graph helps determine which tool to use. If you’re not a Refrag user, find one tool for each skill you decide to practice. Ensure the tool focuses solely on that skill to avoid practicing too many things simultaneously. If you are a Refrag user, check the graph, and select the mod that has the highest score for the skill you want to practice.

5. Play

After analyzing, learning, and practicing, play again. Don’t focus too much on what you’ve practiced; let muscle memory take over. Play a few games and then return to analysis. Again, play to the best of your ability but don’t put too much pressure on yourself.

Timing

This circular learning doesn’t form a perfect circle, and not every activity is equally important. Even though I advocate for high-volume training tools, they shouldn’t dominate your time. There’s no perfect ratio for every player, but I suggest a 50/50 split between playing and other activities. Playing the game is enjoyable, forms the basis for analysis, and integrates your newly practiced skills. About 10% of your time should be spent on analysis to avoid over-analyzing and training the wrong things. Another 10% should be for learning, just enough to understand what to improve. The remaining 30% should be for practicing with high-volume training tools like Refrag.

This split might not work for everyone. Some may benefit more from playing, while others may prefer practicing. Adjust the ratio to suit your needs, but ensure you play enough.

Conclusion and caveats

I stand behind my theory of circular learning, but it’s not a guaranteed path to becoming a pro player. Not everything I’ve suggested will work for everyone, and some may not want to take CS2 training as seriously as I do. My biggest advice is to remember why you’re playing. You most likely want to improve at CS2 because you enjoy it. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t improve as quickly as others or feel like you’re not improving at all. Learning how to learn takes time, perfecting your training takes time, and some people just get (un)lucky.

As a co-founder of Refrag, I am biased in recommending our CS2 training tools, but I genuinely believe they are the best. Our goal with Refrag is to follow the path of circular learning, automating as many steps as possible. We want to eliminate the need for you to know everything about CS before you can start improving, so we’ll automate the analysis and assist with the other parts of the circular learning system. Until then, don’t forget to have fun!