Crosshair positioning, or placement, is arguably one of the most important aspects to master in CS:GO. If positioned correctly, it allows you to have an instant advantage over your opponent when taking raw aim duels, as you will have the better chance of a first headshot. Having good crosshair placement comes with practice, eventually becoming something you do naturally out of muscle memory. This article will be mostly focused on helping newer players, giving them the initial ropes necessary to learn and improve.

Starting Up

When playing CS:GO, or any other FPS, it’s very natural for the player to aim mostly at the floor or at least not as high as it should. Since the top body part of the character model is bigger than the head, it is easier to aim at it instead of the tiny pixels in the head. What I advise when starting up is to always imagine an invisible line in front of you at head-height and trying to keep your crosshair there. It might feel weird at first, or even make you frag less due to missing headshots, but in the long run it will make you a better player. The more time you play, the better you’ll feel about the head-height in parts of the map with different height levels.

The best way to practice is, in my opinion, playing on aim and bot maps. Eventually you’ll get a natural feel on where to keep the crosshair at all times, becoming something you start doing without even thinking about it – that’s what muscle memory is.

Predicting Movements

When holding or gaining positions, most of the times it is better to pre-aim to spots where the enemy will appear, preferably where their head will be, allowing for minimal mouse movement and faster reactions. Remember that the player on the other side can have his crosshair locked in place ready for you to appear, so the less time you take adjusting your crosshair, the better your chance of winning the fight. At higher levels of gameplay, having good crosshair placement is not enough to win this kind of engagements, as the opposing defending players will not even give you time to adjust your crosshair before landing an headshot on you, meaning you have to approach these spots differently: utility is your best friend in these situations.

Attacking and Defending Are Two Different Things

Regarding crosshair positioning, you should behave differently when playing as Terrorist or as a Counter-Terrorist. Although CS is a game that thrives on applying new strategies and trying to outsmart your opponents, there are some default rules that should be respected. When defending, it’s easier to hold angles than when attacking. No matter what happens, the Terrorists have to bring the fight to the Counter-Terrorists to try and steal a bombsite from them. That goes to show that the T-side usually has the riskiest aim duels and peeks, as the most common CT player could just sit down in a spot and hold an angle waiting for the approach.

Both sides are looking for the instant headshot at any time, which means the need of having a correct crosshair positioning, but you need to know how to adapt to the different ways of playing the different sides. Prepare to be more mobile and do faster mouse movements as a T than as a CT, where the patience and the ability to discover new angles are rewarded the most.

Crosshair Settings

This tip is not directly correlated with the positioning of your crosshair, but having the best settings definitely helps with keeping it on the best place at all times. When setting up your crosshair, visibility is key – you should do it in a way that allows you to see it clearly against any kind and color of texture in the different maps.

In my opinion, the default green is easily the best color to have it. There are no assets or textures in-game with the same color (on the official maps, at least), which means you’ll be able to discern it anywhere. Another color that shares the same qualities as the mentioned before is the “Lt Blue”, as called in the game settings. Red and yellow are also widely used colors, although I don’t feel as comfortable playing with them.

Having a small gap on the crosshair can also be helpful when aligning headshots, as you can easily fit the model’s head inside of it (cl_crosshairgap_x). But in the end, it comes down to personal preference. Some of the best players in the world play with unorthodox colors and crosshair sizes, so just experiment with different settings and see what works best for you.

Workshop Maps

There are maps in the Steam workshop that can prove very useful when trying to find the perfect crosshair or improving your positioning. While some allows you to easily try out professional player’s crosshairs under different map backgrounds, others help you with aligning your crosshair with usual pre-fire spots.

Crosshair Generator – by crashz’

You’ll be able to see the different crosshairs of many professional players and put them to test. It also serves as a very intuitive way of changing crosshair settings without having to worry about console commands.

Aim Botz – by Mr. uLLeticaL™-S-

The most classic bot map out there. With very simple and intuitive settings, it serves as one of the best warm-up maps you can find in the workshop. Also serves as a good way to work your crosshair alignment at head-height.

Yprac Practice and Warmup – by Yesber

Easily one of the best collection of maps in the entire Workshop for those who want to improve in the different maps of the competitive pool. Yesber has created a different file for each map that allows you to practice prefire on common and uncommon angles, learn new spots or practice your movement. A must have!

Practicing and Improving

CS:GO is a game with an enormous skill ceiling, meaning the more you play, the better you will become. Although you can pick up important tips on the different guides you see/read, nothing is as good as playing and practicing in the game itself. There are some mechanical aspects of the game that you’ll only understand and improve by playing, so get out there in the server and put these tips to play!

Like our content? Support us by getting our merchandise in our shop