CS:GO is an infamously skill-based game that, in most cases, rewards skillful play and punishes bad plays. This means that generally speaking, your skill will decide if you win the next match or not. Matchmaking, however, is infamously random. If you queue alone, you could come upon a fully organised enemy team and have four teammates that may have a playstyle that is completely useless paired with yours. This means that you have a skill-based game where your chances of winning still get influenced by rather random factors.

What can you do to minimise randomness and maximise your chances of winning? This guide will help you rank up in CS:GO!

I know what the first thought of many of you is, "My teammates are bad! I do my best, yet the enemy is a full stack! It's literally impossible to win like this!" Ok, first off, if you encounter many toxic/shady enemies and teammates, then you have a low Trust score. Trust Factor is a hidden score that is influenced by a multitude of factors: How long your account has been active for, how many games has it been in and how many hours does it have in those games, how much your teammates and enemies report you, and so on. The more concern there is that you are a smurf, cheater, or toxic, the lower your Trust score will be and you will get placed in matches with people with a similar Trust score.

This is active in both, Trust and Prime Matchmaking, meaning that you can't escape your Trust score. At the same time, if you are in a premade lobby with one or more person, the system will look for a match according to the lowest Trust score in that lobby. So if you encounter bad matches with one friend only, then that friend most likely has a low Trust score. If you want to rank up, it may be better to not to play with said friend. Also, remember when everyone cried about servers getting crashed in their Matchmaking matches? According to John McDonald, a Valve employee, all of those players had extremely low Trust score, meaning that, if you encountered them regularly, you or someone you were in a premade lobby with has an incredibly low Trust score. It may be time to stop being toxic/smurfing and start being a positive member of the community. And yes, that is honest advice.

Now, where do we actually start the ranking up part?



Let's Start with You

Get ready to carry! And no, I don't mean carry every now and then: Try to put yourself in a position where your mechanical skill (Aim, Movement) and map knowledge (Utility, Timing) is above average for your current rank to ensure that you will be contributing to your team's success. How do you expect to surpass the fellow players at your rank if you aren't above their level? You can read more about increasing your mechanical skill here and here, and there are plenty of good Grenade Guides on our awesome website!

Get comfortable! Although you may feel like you need to play an insane amount of Matchmakings to rank up, it can be way more valuable for you to be comfortable and not play too much in order to stop you from burning out. At the same time, you want to ensure that you customise your game in a way that allows you to be fully comfortable. Let's say by going through different crosshairs and sticking with one you think is ideal for you. The console lets you customise the in-game look of the HUD and your viewmodel in so many ways that it will surely help you get comfortable, which can help you rank up as well!

Eliminate your mistakes! In order to rank up in CS:GO, you need to try and review your demos critically, looking for mistakes and plays that are too hesitant or too rushed and so on. You can only climb the ranks in the upper bracket by being critical of yourself and seeing what is going wrong and fixing your issues. Reviewing your demos is also a good way to find out what mechanical skill you are lacking the most in order to concentrate on that skill the next time you find time to practice.



Pressing "shift" and "F2" will allow you to use the Demo UI, which helps you navigate the demo properly

Have a positive mental attitude and do not get frustrated in a way that won't allow for innovation during the next few rounds. If you insist on doing the same over and over again, the enemy will start to read you like a book. If you are unwilling to change your playstyle on the fly, you might find yourself trapped by only yourself. I know, sometimes overcoming yourself is the greatest task, but if you manage to have a positive outlook and you are willing to experiment, you will find that you are way less likely to get trapped in the first place.

Play puggy, but leave room for team play and smart plays! We all know who rank up the easiest: The Stewie2ks, the shrouds, the S1mples. People with high skill ceilings are allowed to play almost however they want, as long as it works. What this doesn't mean is disregard your team. A lot of the times most people in a fully random team are willing to cooperate on a basic level, allowing you to ask for and suggest flashes, to go in as a team, and to even try and trade frag reliably if you are lucky. Do not let your ego and your playstyle get in the way of team play.

Keep the economy in mind! Way too often do I see people fail to win rounds and whole games due to bad money management. To increase your chances of a rank up, be sure to read the economy and have a basic understanding of said economy. Try to make basic economy calls, like eco, buy, and half-buy if you are in a game with two or more random teammates.

Be a loose and loving leader! CSGO is a team game, so leading your team is crucial to ranking up. Even in soloqueue, by bringing the team together with simple and easy to understand calls you will likely increase the chances to win the round. Be sure to not to sound condescending, as you otherwise may hit a nerve with one or more players. At the same time, if your teammates try their best to follow your orders but they fail, be sure to give them positive reinforcement. Instead of going, "Why the hell are you pushing in so late?", be sure to say something like, "Ah, nice try, I think we should've been faster and we would've had that to be honest.", not allowing the teammates to find an excuse to be mad at you or each other.

Queue with one or more reliable friends! Although you can do a lot to increase your chances of winning in a random lobby, the less random factors there are the more likely you are to win. If you know how a friend plays you can be sure that you can play in a specific way around him, too. On the other hand, be sure to not to let your friendship with someone decide if you play with them or not. If he's your best friend but is incredibly toxic or just a stubborn or unreliable player, you may need to play with someone else in order to rank up in such a competitive game like CSGO.

Situations that are detrimental to your chance of ranking up and how to avoid them

Bad or little communication. Everyone knows those games. No one knows what the others are doing and what the plan is or if there even is any. To try and avoid this, you can try to call as much useful information as possible and have a positive tone and outlook. This may break the ice and animate the others to participate as well, seeing that they won't be the only one calling and taking away the risk that they will think they will only talk to a wall.



Sadly, sometimes it is best to report and mute the enemy or your teammate

Toxic and tilted teammates. The first step to avoiding such a situation is to keep away from language or chat messages that may cause others to tilt or make them feel the need to try and defend themselves. Instead of scolding them for a failed clutch, be supportive and tell them that it was a nice try if they had the right idea or the round was close. Also, laughing with them will show them that you are no threat, which may cause them to let their guard down and have fun.



Conclusion

A reliable five-man-stack may be the best chance for you to rank up, but it also is possible to rank up while you are soloqueueing. Just try to be a positive member of the community to try and avoid bad situations, be a supportive player and do not let yourself get trapped by your own playstyle. Mix it up. Be ready to carry every game if push comes to shove, but don't beat yourself up about a lost game. Take the opportunity to learn from your past mistakes and analyse demos, and above all: Have fun!

Want to show us your new rank? Be sure to join our #digscord in order to share your joy with us!