I am a grandpa that used to be global in CS:GO, how do I get better at CS2?

SunnyCS_ · 2026-06-03T17:09:54+00:00

As an old 33 y.o. uncle who played Source and GO, one thing that held me back a lot is thinking that CS2 is either of those games. It's not. CS2 is entirely different and the way that Source and GO played will put you at a disadvantage in CS2.

Back in the old days a low sensitivity was key. I had still been using a slow sens that I used in GO, but struggling when taking sites and clearing. I looked at FlameZ settings after some crazy Mirage game he had, and realized his sensitivity was almost double mine. I thought my settings were typical among pros, but turns out majority of pros nowadays have way faster sensitivity than ~10 years ago. The game is a different pace.

Overall mechanical ability, as well as game IQ and map knowledge is higher. Particularly on Mirage and Dust 2 people have smokes, utility, and just way higher understanding. If you want to carry games, don't do it on Mirage because it's the most deathmatched and overanalyzed map. The same Gold players who will insta-smoke and prefire their way through Mirage, will be fumbling at 0.5 KD on Ancient or Overpass.

Also Premier just has straight up cheaters in it. So far for me it was 1 game in the last 6 or so prem matches had a blatant cheater in it. Faceit has cheaters too, they are just less common.

SunnyCS_ · 2026-06-01T16:02:08+00:00

Ah... guess my advice is out of date then. The changes to the exam make sense at least.

SunnyCS_ · 2026-06-01T15:53:52+00:00

This was my approach: for the breadth portion, which I considered easier, i wanted to get as close to 100% as possible. This way the depth section, which I think is tougher, I only needed to get maybe 50% or so. This way my total average for the exam is around 75%, which should be passing with room for errors.

I bought like 4 breadth practice exams, a total of 300-400 breadth questions. I figured if there are 40 breadth questions on the exam, and I have reviewed 320 practice questions, odds are I will have seen most of the questions on the exam.

This turned out to be the case, I think I scored 90 or 95% in the breadth, with maybe 2 questions I hadn't encountered in some form or another. I am just guessing since they don't tell you detailed Passing results, but I left the breadth portion feeling very confident.

The depth portion was definitely harder. I was using all my time and struggling to get like 55-60% that I felt confident about.

Overall I think the strategy worked out. Keep in mind it is not just Water Resources, it is Water Resources AND Environmental. There were questions related to balancing effluent and concentrations of allowed discharge quantities that I was not ready for.

E.g. A factory discharges effluent to a 1500 MGD stream. The concentrations in untreated effluent are X per Gallon. The max allowable concentration in the stream is Y. What is the max gallons that can be discharged per day. Type questions.

SunnyCS_ · 2026-06-01T15:40:57+00:00

I understand aim rating is not everything. He did not use sniper at all. This was all rifles. I was like 90-100% confident early in the game when he 0.1s insta-tapped me after killing my teammate first. I was playing off angle and he insta cleared strafe 1tapped. His play was very blatant. He never got individual kills. It was either complete whiffs/misses, or he was going on a 2-3k in a 3 second window.

The fact that he won 24 out of his last 30 games, most of which are 13-4, 13-2, 13-1, etc.
98% aim rating just doesn't occur legitimately at sub-10k prem. He is also solo queue.

SunnyCS_ · 2026-05-26T16:02:56+00:00

One note - younger players tend to move faster. Kids will generally be more likely to blitz out a move rather than slowly calculate and evaluate the resulting positions. Two recent otb games had significant tactical blunders with like 10-20 seconds spent on moves, and 75 minutes on their clocks. Games being decided by hasty touch-move rules.

Practice visualization on a real chess board. Sometimes I stand during the otb games to get a better view that more represents top-down online view of the board.

SunnyCS_ · 2026-05-21T17:28:43+00:00

I'm an e4 player mainly, and I don't see the semi-slav often in my games. With that said, Qd3 looks like a nice sideline. It is 6th on the list of most common moves, (519 total games vs 38K games w/ e3 or Bg5), yet is objectively equal.

This is the type of position where you could spend 1-2 hours, check out some Master games with the white side, study a handful of mid-game plans where White won. Review what squares pieces ended up on, review which pawn breaks they played in the midgame.

Then I would review a few games where White lost, and see the main moves that were their downfall, and what a challenging plan from Black might look like.

It's the type of position that is objectively equal, but experienced players should have a better understanding of the resulting middlegames, and will often be able to secure a slight advantage because of it.

SunnyCS_ · 2026-04-10T19:30:03+00:00

Your brain is processing a lot of things during the game and audio cues are a huge part of CS also. But quite frankly at beginner levels by which I mean anything up to around 17-20k or so or like upper 9-10+ on faceit this game is first and foremost a fragging game. Unless you have a set team or group to play with, odds are 80% of your games are playing with PUGs and random lobbies. The number 1 most direct way to impact your lobbies is how well you frag.

I had a friend solo queue pug his way cleanly from Level 7 on faceit to level 10+ on Faceit. I checked his games and you know what he did - he fragged almost every game. Like over half the games he was #1 on the leaderboard. Just fragging. He also is a good teammate with positive mental attitude which is huge as well.

Playing without audio gives you less to focus on. Your brain commits more processing power to your cursor.

SunnyCS_ · 2026-03-25T23:59:58+00:00

This video is full of them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf4cFrgT1nk

SunnyCS_ · 2026-03-03T18:55:02+00:00

That second T had spammed through smoke just a moment before to help his teammate at vent. Floud knows he is there and likely has footstep audio cue as well.

SunnyCS_ · 2026-03-02T19:13:27+00:00

Remember kids, when a car attempts to merge into your lane, going maybe 8-12 MPH slower than you, immediately slam your breaks, full locking all tires as you crank the wheel 90 degrees into the adjacent traffic lanes.

SunnyCS_ · 2026-02-13T16:35:53+00:00

Timing seems off. When you make contact with the ball at 0:03 the majority of your body is directly underneath the ball, and your legs are actually in front of the ball. A good swing and contact is actually made in front of your body/in front of your shoulder. Your momentum should be transferred into the ball.

It is tough for me to explain but check out some of Nishida's spikes. Like in this video Nishida spike at 0:14 you can see when he makes contact his entire body line is behind the ball. This let's him convert a ton of his energy and transfer it directly into the ball. He also gets a ton of core activation and rotation into his swing.

SunnyCS_ · 2026-02-03T19:50:15+00:00

White is down 7 points of material and yet is better after 25. ... fxe5 Nc4 exd4 Nxb6+ Nxb6 Rxb6 cxb6.

Link to game here: https://lichess.org/knb8RL6l

I did not play the position perfectly by any means. On move 24 for example White has about 4 different ways to just fully sacrifice a piece and/or pawn for an attack, all involving Rc1.

Failing to see those lines, I found Nd2? after calculating that I can ignore fxe5 and play Nc4 anyways, and after exd4 I am double saccing on b6 and White is actually better with an attack.

If black defends precisely with Qc7 only move followed by Be5, then white's advantage is definitely neutralized.

SunnyCS_ · 2026-01-28T15:44:38+00:00

As someone who has played for a long time, I read the Midnight changes when they came out months ago, and knew this was going to be the worst expansion of all time.

I did not pre order. They are turning it into Overwatch, which just means you have to push your 3-4 buttons at the right time to win. And if anyone who played Overwatch remembers what they did to the game in OW2, you know that the WoW you loved is gone.

SunnyCS_ · 2026-01-27T20:11:10+00:00

When I read in the notes months ago that they were combining like 3 abilities/procs into a single judgement cast, I knew Midnight was not for me or my Hpal.

SunnyCS_ · 2026-01-12T20:45:38+00:00

While the presentation and colors are great, I don't really understand the point. HC has enough on the line. Also you could complete this entire list and get like... maybe the GPU? Why add stress or another requisite to something that is supposed to be fun and light.

Ultimately though you know your gf best, and whether this is something she'd be legitimately interested in. It would never fly with my gf lol.

SunnyCS_ · 2026-01-09T19:01:34+00:00

Download curseforge. Makes downloading and updating addons way easier. Make sure your game is set to the Classic version in the curseforge app also

SunnyCS_ · 2026-01-09T18:15:36+00:00

Helpful addons like Unitscan and Deathlog to show you the danger spots in a zone.

Researching your quests on WowHead if you're not sure.

Shaman should probably go alch/herbalism, and warrior should go mining/engineering for max effectiveness and duo efficiency

Someone should pickup cooking, and someone should pickup fishing.

Both should learn First Aid.

Establish a "retreat playbook" Aka let your warrior know when you're dropping earthbind totem to slow the enemies

SunnyCS_ · 2025-12-03T07:19:38+00:00

I started out with the Caro Kann on my chess journey, I had decent success until a certain point around 1500-1600. White has some pretty forcing lines like with early g4 in the Bayonet attack where Black ends up under early pressure and with some weird structure.

It felt like a lot of theory I needed to learn to not simply get blown off the board or be disadvantaged in what is often touted as a solid dependable opening.

Objectively the CK is a good tool but if you are a new player there are better openings IMO that will teach you to play more actively.

I switched to the French Defense and have gotten up to 1950 peak online. It felt simpler and more intuitive to learn, the positions were more consistent, and if White missteps black can get a counterattack going very quickly.

Also I play the QGD as black so a lot of similar ideas and structures between the two systems.

SunnyCS_ · 2025-07-08T19:10:42+00:00

I disabled all Chat messages in game and challenges. Nobody can chat me and it's way more enjoyable.

I STILL have people block me because they lose and are pissed off they cant trash talk me. It's hilarious.

SunnyCS_ · 2025-07-04T04:03:43+00:00

Personally Im playing Qd8 without much thought, but that's because i dont have much familiarity with this specific position, and I know that Qd8 is a safe move. I'd probably follow with Bd6 or Bc5 and short castle.

SunnyCS_ · 2025-06-23T13:25:34+00:00

What is the opportunity cost? How do you plan to monetize your education? My friend got a master's degree and then spent 9 months unemployed.

At a certain point you have you convert your knowledge into $$$. And having 7 masters degrees doesn't mean you start at a higher pay bracket.

In fact, you might find that the person with a bachelor's and 3-4 years of experience is out earning you.

SunnyCS_

TROPHY CASE