The guardian is a sleeper weapon. Before I explain why, here is some background information:

• I have not played CS before, just some TF2 and overwatch; I am by no means a professional player and I'm just sharing my experiences with it.

• I don’t use any form of aimlabs/kovaaks, just one or two deathmatches before comp

• I placed silver 2 last season, climbing up to immortal using only the guardian this season

• I use a DPI of 2000 and a sensitivity of 0.226 (EDPI of 452)

1. Crosshair placement. Crosshair placement and how tight you hold an angle is something that everyone can improve upon and using the guardian ensures you are always improving it since you can’t spray or burst. I found that my crosshair placement improved drastically from using the guardian.

2. Pacing shots. Firing before the crosshair reaches the target is something that is very common, especially in lower elos. This is something you can’t do with the guardian, so it will force you to pace your shots. I found this really helped my consistency. Not having the ability to spray also lets you improve timing the rhythm of enemy peeks.

3. Long range superiority. The guardian’s ADS is very good for holding longer angles and will give you the edge against a vandal or phantom. Although fights against the operator aren’t in your favour, you have the ability to get multiple kills which can turn many rounds in your favour.

4. Slower firerate. Yes, I think this is actually an advantage. When you try to tap fire using the vandal, sometimes you will end up shooting 2 bullets. This will delay the recoil reset and make it harder to make some follow up shots.

5. ~~Less spread~~ Edit: Better first shot accuracy. The guardian has ~~very littlespread~~ better first shot accuracy, making it more consistent over long range than the phantom or vandal.

6. High penetration. Situational, but very useful when you need it.

7. Eco advantage. You will save 500 credits every time you buy this instead of a vandal/phantom. This stacks up over a game and really lets you buy yourself/teammates more which will give you a huge eco advantage.

Once you get used to it, you can also start buying your “full buy loadout” after a round 1 win, giving you a higher tier loadout and a better bonus round weapon.

Reasons 1 and 2 alone will help improve your mechanical skills, the rest will help you win more fights and rounds.

The guardian isn't without drawbacks though, and the most obvious one is the lack of its ability to spray. This is a downside but it isn't a gamebreaker, especially when you consider all the upsides of using it.

This is a look into some guardian-only gameplay; note how much I take advantage of the 1.5x ADS.

To conclude, the guardian is an excellent buy that should be considered over the usual vandal/phantom, especially at lower elos where there is room for personal improvement.