This week, one of my friends asked me if I wanted to play a few games of CS: GO with him, and I decided to play again since I wasn’t really doing anything at the time. I haven’t really played CS: GO at all since around April, so there were some things that I think were a bit interesting playing since then.
The first thing that I noticed was how much the game hadn’t changed. Everything was still pretty much exactly the same. As far as I know the only big things that Valve added to the game this year were two new skin collections which is pretty disappointing. Supposedly, there’s supposed to be a big update coming out soon, but those are just speculations. Even then, I feel like CS: GO has it’s gameplay pretty solidified, and if there’s nothing wrong with the game then I guess there’s not really a need to make changes.
Another thing that I noticed was that it took a little while to get used to the feeling of the movement and shooting. I’ve been playing Valorant which is really similar to CS: GO, but it’s still not quite the same. Player models move faster in CS: GO and aiming feels it needs to be a lot more precise. I was ranked a lot higher than my friend when I stopped playing, but he was still doing better than I was for our first few games.
However, once I got back into the feel of the game I was doing consistently better than my friend. That probably has to due to the fact that I just had to get my aim warmed up, but also because I’ve played a lot more than he has. I think a large part skill of CS: GO definitely lies in your aim, but also how well you can communicate, your utility usage, map knowledge, and experience. For me, I’ve spent a lot of time in the past learning different smokes and flashes that I can throw that will help my team get into advantageous positions. As long as I don’t forget them, I’m still able to help the team even if my aim isn’t that good and I’m not getting kills.
I think that just goes to show that in CS: GO you can’t just be a good player through aim and getting kills alone. The same friend I was playing with this week used to complain he was getting so many kills in his games, but how his teammates were always bad and he was never ranking up. The thing is that he never bothered learning how to use his utility to support his teammates or how to communicate with them effectively. Personally, I don’t think that my aim is that much better than his, but I think that the knowledge and experience is the reason why I used to be ranked a lot higher than he was.
Overall, playing CS: GO again was definitely a lot of fun. Of course we weren’t always 100% focused on winning and more so having fun, but there were a few times where we had to step up our game for the win. Even if there’s a skill difference in a naturally competitive game, you can still have fun with the right people.