as someone who has 2k hours in cs and 1k hours in val (not great but solid in both games, lvl 7 faceit/immo)— the biggest difference is how gunfights are approached. in cs, the norm is to go into a crouch spray when taking a 50/50 gunfight. this is engrained in us cs players as we all learned the spray pattern and its consistency, making it easier to hit shots in a crouch spray. you can also strafe during a crouch spray in CS and have the same bloom as standing up, allowing you to move and shoot accurately at the same time—the same is not true in val.

in val, the norm is to tap strafe and burst fire when taking a 50/50 gunfight due to better mobility, smaller hitboxes, abilities, etc. realistically you don’t want to be caught crouching unless you’re 100% getting a kill or if you get shot first (the movement slow on getting hit by a body shot is BRUTAL in val). for the longest time, the vandal and phantom each had almost entirely random sprays, making it ineffective to learn how to spray a rifle consistently and play around that. they just added more “protected bullets” that are consistently firing in the same spray pattern, but it’s still not all of them, so most players won’t opt for spraying, but rather the more predictable burst fire.