I have seen a few of these posts and was not entirely happy with the information propagated throughout a lot of the threads. I also have seen a lot of newer people, both on the Reddit and personally, interact with the game in various ways and focus on the wrong things. I have thousands of matchmaking wins from CSGO and am ex-Radiant. Right now I focus on coaching, and have seen hundreds of people play from literally every rank.

Ask away!

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Here are some main ideas I picked up, that I wish more people shared. They might not seem really important at first, but they have been true for the last near-decade of playing for me.

• Separate yourself from the game, a healthy amount:
  • I love FPS games, but there are a few things you must look out for. If you cannot stop playing because your last game is a loss, ask yourself why. If you only play because you want to rank up, reflect on why losing makes you feel unhappy. No one's win-rate is much higher than 50%, so why is it hard to accept the losses when they lead to the same result.
• You will not see improvement in one day, from playing a slew of ranked matches.
  • The BEST tip I can give is one most people do not consider. Here is a simple thought experiment: Let's say there are 60 days in an act. If you simply win ONE MORE GAME A DAY THAN YOU LOSE you net +20 elo. This is 1200 points total and the equivalent of 4 entire tiers of ranks. Yes, this is an ideal case, like anything else in life: aim for half. This might seem impossible, but every single person I have coached can ensure 1 win, the hard part is learning to cut your wins the same way you cut losses.
    • This strategy is how I got radiant the second time during a busy school schedule: get the win, enjoy the game, and get off. You only will get better playing against better people, so if you really want improvement and only play ranked, don't forget you need to ensure you actually rank up.
  • Sleep is essential. You will 100% not improve sacrificing health for this game. You only get better at things when you go to sleep. There is no argument for improving while playing deep into sleep deprivation.
• Mechanics are important, but most people practice the wrong things.
  • You don't have to flick much in this game, you should already be aiming at where the enemy is coming from (yes there are microflicks). You don't have to track very long either in this game, its very low time to kill. If you spend all your time practicing flicking and constantly doing easy/medium/hard bots in the range and don't see improvement, there is a reason. You need to practice click timing!
• Teamwork is important, but you cannot expect 4 strangers from a variety of backgrounds and experiences to mesh. Ranked is about ADAPTING.
  • Ranked is about learning how to win in any situation. If your teammates don't listen, why give up there. Part of this game is using numbers to an advantage, and having good timing. TIMING is not just based on your own opportunity to make a play, its based on your teammates locations as well (and a lot of other things).
• If you don't enjoy playing, DO NOT play the game.

Higher Level Tips:

• You have the mechanics down: why do you lose?
  • I reached radiant on 60 Hz. No matter what I did, I was not going to be faster than the people I played against: not a chance. What else is there to consider?
• Ranked feels harder than normal, what gives and why am do I feel worse?
  • Stop worrying about the symbol next to people's names on the scoreboard. Focus on the actions being made of the player models in each round. You may have deranked at the start of the act, but so did everyone else. I know this isn't true for everyone, but many of you/us are playing against the same people from last act who are in the same boat.
• Gamesense
  • Gamesense is not knowing what the right decision is and only making it at all times. This is quite literally, impossible. For now, think of game sense as the ability to make a play, recall why you did it, and make a risk assessment of whether it was "good" or "bad." The collection of all of these experiences forms the gamesense of a player. [This is a very surface-level description]
• How to become a high-level player
  • Timing. You have way more time thank you think. I'll leave it to questions to get more into this.
  • Playing foundationally. The fundamentals matter more as you climb up the ladder, the problem is most people neglected these due to the nature of all ranked ladders, and just focus on being able to shoot faster than the opponent. Fundamentals are not the same as mechanics. Fundamentals is understanding why attackers get an advantage when someone gets traded, for example.
  • Attention to detail. Pay attention to your surroundings and the patterns in this game. This is extremely vital to be not just a top-ranked player, but an actually good player. A high-ranked player will secure the kill, but a good player will win the round. Again, I'll leave it to the comments to get more into this.

I know this is long, but hopefully this is helpful to at least one of you. FPS games are so dope and fun, its hard to see the same mistakes, poor advice, and unhealthy mindsets still around- so I hope this might address some of those things.