As the title. Little bit of background (I've posted here a couple of times before, and people have been awesome). Previously Plat 3, first ever PC shooter. Took 8ish months off to play other things, came back. Still *pretty* good, placed at Gold 2, placement matches were CRAZY. Played against Diamonds and ex-Immortals. No idea why. Won 3/5, went pretty well.

I have to play a lot on a smurf, which is currently Silver 3, as most of my mates are out of range of my Gold 2 account sadly. I've noticed that I have an issue with consistently landing headshots when they matter. So, as a result, I've been hopping into Deathmatch and Escalation a lot in my downtime to practise my 1v1 engagements and landing consistent headshots. I've been pretty shocked to find that when I put my mind into it, I'm a pretty brilliant shot. Sounds braggy, but even in Deathmatch, with everyone running around like a nutter, I'm able to finish top three just using a sheriff and going HS only. I'll get the 'overkill' streak thing chaining headshots with minimal effort,

Jump into unrated or comp? Suddenly my headshot percentage drops like a stone. Even though I'm consciously attempting to aim for the head. Now, I know that in comp the calibre of player in these two modes is going to be a little higher on average than in the more casual modes. But I'm often the better player in a fair 1v1. I'll win a lot of duels, but that'll come down to spray management instead of precise headshots. I know that as my mates start to climb (as they already are, thankfully), I'll be able to jump onto my Gold 2 account which will drag our matchmaking up, so I need to learn how to one tap reliably with a Vandal or pistol when it counts. If my aim, and by extension crosshair placement, isn't the issue, then I'm not sure the easiest way to improve my headshot accuracy in ranked?

TLDR: Aim is fantastic, except when it actually counts.