Introduction:

Maintaining your skill level in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive comes easy in a general sense. However, when you face a slump in your skill level, it becomes a nightmare to climb out of it. A slump could be caused by many things, from losing the feel to your mouse to forgetting the proper game concepts to use during a situation. Some people would start to think they are just unlucky at that point in time or perhaps facing a cheater is the cause for their underperformance. To address the issue we look at several things one must go through to fully understand the cause of this slump. You should begin to analyze your gameplay, re-create the comfort zone and find good sources to improve your skill level.

Analyzing your gameplay:

The first step to take when breaking out of a slump, is analyzing your gameplay. When analyzing your mistakes, you should think about whether your movement decisions were correct, whether your crosshair placement was correct and whether you properly used your utility. When you are not playing up to your expectations, looking at a demo of your previous match and starting to look at what might seem to be mistakes will help a great deal. Looking at different scenarios and thinking of different ways you could have dealt with the situation is definitely a good way to restore your old skill level as it refreshes your mind to think more clearly in future games. Without a doubt, analyzing demos will put you back in the proper mindset.

Re-creating the comfort zone:

The second step to take after analyzing your gameplay, is beginning to re-create your comfort zone. Re-creating your comfort zone is a pretty vague term. To break down the process of re-creating your comfort zone we begin to look at matters which are game related first, then we look at the external factors which are causing this abnormal discomfort. Game related discomfort is often caused by being out of practice. On one hand, fixing the game related issues could only a matter of playing the game long enough in order to build up you feeling of the mouse and keyboard. On the other hand, you might have to trace your actions back to any changes to your game settings. Changes to the game settings are a possible cause for your discomfort. Now, taking a look at external factors, such as: posture, arm position and distance from the monitor. Taking a deeper look into these external factors will surely help you find the competitive edge you need. Firstly, we take a look at your posture. It is obviously very difficult to play the game if you are sitting in a sense that your body is not facing the monitor properly; sitting down with an angle will create problems when you are trying to move your mouse around. Proper posture creates less tension while trying to move your mouse around. Secondly, where you position your arm on the mouse mat plays a big deal in your aiming capabilities. Obviously, for right handed people moving your mouse to the left is easier than it is to move it to the right. Your arm should be positioned a little bit to the right with the point of reference being the middle of the mouse mat. This technique is useful because often you will have to flick to your right if you want to aim at someone. Therefore, placing your hand slightly to the right will allow you to master the mouse movement better and will allow for more control; as the zone in which you have perfect control over your mouse is greater this increase the chance of you landing some crucial shots with proper crosshair placement. Lastly, the distance between you and your monitor is something you need to account for. Although this can fall under the posture branch, the way in which we approach this matter comes in a different sense. When setting up your chair, if you sit too close to the monitor, this will have an effect on your mouse’s position on the mouse mat. As distance between you and the monitor is directly related to your arm position, you should try to find a median point, in which you can move your arm with ease without it hurting in any way or causing difficulties in moving your mouse. Looking at your distance between you and the monitor from a different perspective, it might cause difficulty in sight. You must try to find a proper distance in which your eyes are comfortable; Eye comfort being in the sense that you can see enemies from a long range easily but without having to sit too close that it makes it difficult for your eyes to spot the edges of the monitor. After accounting for all the possible problems that may arise from not being in the comfort zone, it will only be a matter of time in order to get used to the game feeling while assuming your new posture.

Finding good sources to improve your skill level:

The last step to finally climb back up from the slump, is to find a reliable source to improve your skill level and find guides on how to execute the practices needed to acquire those new skills. Although some people tend to ask their friends that belong in a higher skill group for help on how to improve in certain aspects of the game, it is not the most reliable resource. However, a proper reliable source are the videos posted by the expert players that have been competing in big tournaments for a long amount of time. Some information provided by your friends in higher skill groups are probably correct. But, they could provide false information that they believe is true. However, finding guides to improve your skill are surely a good way of breaking out of a slump. A good idea is to also look for guides that provide evidence of their effectiveness. Some content creators will provide evidence that their methods are actually effective when used. The guides that provide evidence are often reliable, if the guide is not outdated.

To conclude:

To sum things up, you cannot neglect any of the above factors when trying to break out of a slump. All of the discussed methods are essential to bring back your game sense, re-develop your command over certain game aspects and using every possible detail to your advantage.