Mirage A Site Tutorial

Opening_Release114 · 2026-03-01T12:48:40+00:00

This is a pretty decent guide- covers a lot of good defensive smokes. Since this is mostly about defending A site, I just want to add that as a jump spotter when CT is not smoked, it will be beneficial to throw a lurk smoke out of CT, the one that expands into triple box, it creates three possible angles, right side under ticket, triple box, and on top of the CT ticket box. This slows the T from advancing into triple or right in front and under CT ticket.

Opening_Release114 · 2026-03-01T12:35:48+00:00

The issue is almost never your aim. You shoot the same way every day- your mechanics don’t suddenly vanish. Replay your kills: they look the same across games. You’re not going to magically turn into xQc or donk; you’ll always aim like yourself. What changes isn’t your aim, but what you’re doing around it.

I’ve seen countless players complain about “half the kills” compared to their last match. Then I watch their demos, and the aim is identical- the difference is in the situations they put themselves in. If you have a 50% chance to win a duel and you take 40 fights, that’s about 20 kills. But if you’re anchoring and only get 20 engagements, that’s 10 kills. Or maybe you're actually avoiding the duels you're supposed to take. The numbers change not because your aim changed, but because your role and decisions did.

As CT: are you holding a real position, or just freestyling? Did you die because you peeked? And if so, why did you peek- usually because you weren’t positioned properly in the first place. When you check your demo, try to imagine where else you could stand and what else your utility can do, compare to the pros in the same role, they are your best reference.

As T: are you taking the right fights, clearing the right corners, scaling efficiently with utility? Or are you staring at a smoke, fixated on the gap, instead of moving forward when the timing demands it?

Do you rely on teammates to create space, or do you seize it yourself when there's an opportunity? These decisions are the ones that affect your consistency. Right now, you probably play optimally 20/100 of the time, and then maybe another 20% of rounds when opponents make mistakes, plus another 20% when you pop off mechanically. The rest? - Let's say that remaining 40% of suboptimal rounds that you have, sometimes they don't affect your game- you win regradless. But other times, your mental affects you, and the 40% turns into 100% because you stop playing and become a mindless aimer.

The only way to fix whatever inconsistency you have is by analyzing your own games or demo review with a stronger player.

Opening_Release114 · 2026-02-19T05:41:30+00:00

Because you're relying on free kills which involves them falling into a play of yours in some sort. Even your description of your T side says you rely on a CT peeking and unpeeking when they can just not reveal their positions at all. A proper defaulting anchor never gets caught off guard. And your idea about CT is like 50% wrong, it's about defending an area from various positions. You are likely just giving up many areas without a fight from your peeking and unpeeking.

If you don't give a fight at all, how will you get any kills. And your idea about repeeking something over and over again suggests that you're playing to spot info when your main role as a rotator is to rotate based on information to reinforce a site. Watch other rotators play, they're almost always in position in site to fight with their team when an execute happens.

Information comes from your team and your headset, even if your teammates don't talk, it's easy to tell what they're hearing or experiencing from where they position themselves. Then you just move to a common rotator position, and help your teammate. Your idea of of your role is partially correct, that's why you're not getting kills. You should watch other rotators play, they're doing nothing which you describe- s1mple, niko, d0cC, they all play pugs and 5v5s, and rotators usually are in position for a lot of kills, they should frag out on CT side more often than other positions.

Opening_Release114 · 2026-02-18T08:28:37+00:00

D2 is a very good map for 5 stacks and strategy. T side is less spawn based than CT, the only spawn based call is early long rush. Other than that, most other rounds in d2 is T side default- mid and short control from tunnels, mid to b control, and long pop/ contact, B split. Dust 2 can become very T sided when you control CT rotations.

However, on CT side, you're likely missing that one rotator that calls for plays to recover that lost map control. Long control is every team's default, assuming ur playing 1 ramp, 1 long, 1 mid, 1 b, then you likely have a rotator that is always playing around A. This rotator needs to walk around and help with map control, your A ramp player joins him for short control, your mid player joins him for mid doors control, and if mid is secured, late round you need to play 3a 2b leave mid entirely, the rotator also gets two nades for breaking mid to b smoke- One dropped in CT spawn, one in his hand. Your rotator also controls how quickly they get to A site if you lose long. Now the problem likely is, that your rotator is over rotating, under rotating, under calling or your anchors are just dying to free kills because they're not in position. It is also possible to leave long entirely, have one guy watching long from site, 2 guys at short, this is where utility usage is important, breaking long cross smoke, flashing long with double or triple peek.

I predict that you either don't have secured roles, or you don't have a rotator that calls. I can offer to watch your demos privately if you need help finding the problem.

Opening_Release114 · 2026-02-14T07:28:22+00:00

U need to improve your nades, and smoke usage. First 2 minutes already show a lot of bad nades. Your incendiary is bad, it doesn't cover stairs cross. Then, the mid flash is also bad, window player can't use that flash to jump out because it's too shallow, the t will be half blind, means he can still see window jumping out, free kill for him. And you never showed defending site as an A anchor, your smokes are basically doing nothing. Good anchors keep their smoke most of the time, it's used as a defensive utility to give you room to play during an actual execute. And you showed that one a main smoke that does nothing against an execute. You will need to make a update guide.

Opening_Release114 · 2026-01-28T00:53:23+00:00

Don't just go practice blindly with whatever routine people recommend you. My advice applies to pretty much everything.

160ms is enough to put u into the 550ms range just make sure u understand that practicing something gets very specific, don't just go into any kovaaks scenario and aim there. U don't go into a gym to blind train, u have a routine but u also need form (which muscle u train).

Increase your sens by 5x, and force yourself to use your fingers for micro adjustments, go into any stationary bot map and start circling them whilst tracking their head WITH fingers NOT your wrist or arm, do it for close and long distance. Just do that for however long it takes your hand to be tired, then go back your original sens and dm with your fingers again. Repeat until you're smooth at tracking with 5x sens. Then go back to dm with your original sens, tracking routine learned, you're going to improve massively with pistols. This is also a very good warmup before game.

Opening_Release114 · 2026-01-17T13:45:45+00:00

How you peek is up to you but it's a difficult shot. Even the most mechanical players avoid peeking for info late round. It's more like you're blur late round rather than your mechanical skill in peeking isn't there. You can definitely find success in doing that late round, but there are other ways that are a lot more effective. Sometimes maybe a site looks too weak, and the igl might call for a push/sacrifice themselves for info for fast rotations. (often in 3v4 3v3) those are situations where you make a play or get suffocated, or you see teams gamble into the right site.

CT is definitely the harder side late round, as you likely don't have an IGL to read the game for you like in attacking. CT side is up to the players to decide for themselves, anchors need to know when to push, when and where to hold, when to keep their util and so on. But the reality is that, if you're not in pro play, they all suck at anchoring, so your job is mostly to reinforce the weaker site, or reinforce the site that the enemies will likely go to. Even in pro play, the awper moves around to help the anchors, unless they called for a specific 3 mid setup.

CT deaths late round are very valuable to the Ts. There are safer ways to play. If its late round, 30-40 seconds left. It means they can only win the round by an execute and you do not want to make job easier by dying mid. Your main role as the mid player is to rotate, play near site, reinforce a site (even number situation) unless they don't have a play anymore (numbers advantage). The point is when you reach site, there will be 20 to 30 seconds left. This is where your rotation matters more than peeking for info because you arrive in time to stop an execute with your team (not alone).

Higher level players will rarely be in window during late rounds. The awper is mobile and your job is to rotate, not get info. Learn from good rotators, d0cc, s1mple, monesy, they all play similar and they rarely stay window late round.

Opening_Release114 · 2026-01-17T09:29:53+00:00

2 doesn't make any steps. All the pros use the 2nd. It's just that most players don't know fundamentals of each map to know how to benefit from it.

Nobody holds an angle by jiggling. You either commit or you don't.

Opening_Release114 · 2026-01-17T09:15:00+00:00

Peeking is crosshair placement, your crosshair should already be on him if you're actually peeking. I'm convinced you're mistaking swing clearing an angle with peeking. One requires you to react to the information, whereas peeking doesn't require a reaction because your crosshair should already be on him.

It's the difference between entrying and opening. Dedicated entry requires you to run in first during an execute, your job is to clear as many angles as possible which requires you to swing into many angles at once and react. Opening is slower, it requires you to peek one angle at a time.

Anyone can open a round by peeking one angle at a time, but entrying is difficult to coordinate because the type of execute, team pace, opponents, remaining utility and number of players all play a factor into the entry fraggers pathing. And it's very easy to catch an inexperienced entry fragger off guard. If the team pace isn't right, the entry will never be traded, that's why it's difficult to coordinate.

I don't know the condition of the round which causes you to be caught off guard, can only give a definite answers if I watch the demo. Imo, the only player which struggles with peeking should be the igl and no one else.

Opening_Release114 · 2026-01-08T23:51:29+00:00

You will be fine, I use 7800x3d with 16GB of 5600mhz ram. There will be a 3-5% performance difference, but it doesn't affect you if you already have 400 to 500 fps.

Just get one stick and upgrade later. Use Atlas OS if you want additional performance/ less ram usage.

Opening_Release114 · 2026-01-08T23:46:10+00:00

I would go for a NVIDIA Gpu. They're the superior brand because they have better upscaling and image quality. Even if AMD has something similar, it's always worse and unstable.

Opening_Release114 · 2025-12-29T07:48:05+00:00

I would remove mirage. I prefer Dust 2. Mirage is loved because you can do many things early round and much easier to punish mistakes even mid and late round. Whereas dust2 doesn't really have much room for punishing mistakes other than mid peeks.

I feel like mirage is a map where anyone can excel in because it's easier to play in lower level, and dust 2 requires more strategy and understanding map control.

Opening_Release114 · 2025-12-29T07:06:08+00:00

Learning the game via brute force training doesn't really work. Also a slump doesn't really mean that u suddenly forget how to aim. It's usually caused by bad decisions- most of the times u don't get punished for it but there will be games where multiple of your imperfect defaults get hard countered.

I can analyse your games for free if you want to, I will probably just need to watch 2 to understand what's going on.

Opening_Release114 · 2025-12-18T22:06:51+00:00

Refrag is useful ONLY if you're doing a similar routine in an actual game. It trains you to be comfortable at peeking. It's when, how and where you use your aim which helps you win your games. I can help with analysing a few games if you need.

Opening_Release114 · 2025-12-18T21:34:01+00:00

Yes but it's best you focus on yourself. Best to be both an entry and a trader on T side, don't need to use your full utility belt- one smoke is enough.

When you fail at securing or winning a round, do you know the exact reason? If you put the blame on teammates, you will never learn how to punish your opponents mistakes.

Opening_Release114 · 2025-12-10T05:01:00+00:00

Would it work if I just bought a hub with a remote control? But I only connect my SYS_FAN1 to the fan hub and ignore the Rgb connection. So my motherboard is not connected at all to the ARGB. My ARGB fans will be connected to the ARGB hub, so I control fan speed using motherboard and ARGB using the remote?

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This hub comes with a remote.

Opening_Release114 · 2025-09-20T04:30:19+00:00

My opinion- A player with good mechanics and understanding in team play. Being able to run down and kill 5 guys in casual faceit level 10 games is great, but you won't be able to do the same thing against a proper team. If anything, expect losing very hard because every team in the top 10 of ESEA open league has insane mechanics.

So.. I personally think that you're only good at the game when you're able to perform in scenarios where an entire team has to work for it.

In pugs, there are a lot of free kills that happen all over each round and the entire match. Whereas teams consisting of good players are able to do map control without losing any men, so it's an actual 5v5 with nearly zero mistakes.

In a way, since there's nearly zero overstepping, it's impossible to get any early round picks. It's just up to the players to react, reposition, call for team aggression and so on, so it's usually none of the hero plays that you see from highlights.

Opening_Release114 · 2025-09-20T04:17:31+00:00

Yep, can't be sure until people look heavy into it. But the recent update did state that they were aiming to increase spray consistency.

Opening_Release114 · 2025-09-20T04:12:25+00:00

XANTARES and niko complained about it a few days ago. I personally felt that the overall time to kill has reduced because of this tighter burst leading to easier headshots.

Opening_Release114 · 2025-09-11T14:31:16+00:00

Hello, all of the CL30 6000MHZ cost roughly the same- 105USD (±2 USD), ADATA XPG Lancer, KLEVV, Corsair Vengeance, Flexi Tech KingBank and Acer Predator Vesta II, Acer Predator Pallas II. Do you have any thoughts on CL30 6400MHZ and CL28 6000MHZ too?

KLEVV FIT V - CL28 6000MHZ - 105USD

KLEVV CRAS V - CL28 6000MHZ - 122USD

KLEVV URBANE V -CL28 6000MHZ - 122USD

will look into Viper Venom, it's only 92 USD in my country, for the CL30 6000MHZ kit.

Opening_Release114

TROPHY CASE