Peeking, as well as holding angles is, besides clicking mouse1, literally the most basic thing in CS:GO. It decides who gets the entry and who is able to hold on as a CT. A lot of things are easy enough to be understood quite early on in your CS career, like only pressing A or D to reach maximum peek potential and not wasting part of your maximum movement speed on going forward or backwards, as well as not holding too close to the corner where you're aiming, since people are going to run past your crosshair anyway. However, that is not enough to know, since there is more, actually much more.

In CS:GO, people still have trouble understanding angling, and why it is better to stand further away from a corner or edge of an object than to stand closer. Let me explain to you why that is by starting off with the models and where our eyes actually are. We all know that games aren't a 100% realistic recreation of real life. Especially in CS:GO, that is wanted to create a competitive environment: Seemingly random movements of the models, different movement speeds for different players, all of that would lead to a more random pro scene. This is one of the reasons why your POV emanates from between and slightly above the eyes, and not through the eyes.



As you can see, Ava actually doesn't see through her eyes

(the POV line starts a few units in front of the model, not on the model)

Keep this in mind when we continue on with this article, since you will understand the basic principle of advanced peeking quickly that way. I want you to look at the image again and notice where the model is holding the gun, as in, which arm is more behind and which arm is holding it more sideways. In an attempt to make the CS:GO models not look awfully unnatural, they made the models hold right-handed stance and not have them hold the gun perfectly in the middle of the model, something that just gets more and more unnatural the bigger the guns are. This means that the back is slanted and that, when looking at the centre of the model, the point where we see through, the models have, from their point of view, more hitbox to the left compared to the right.

What Does This Mean?

This means that, when moving to the right, your model will be less exposed before your camera can see a potential enemy compared to moving to the left. This means that peeking to the right or holding to the right is an innate advantage of every single CS:GO model. This sounds a little made-up, however, there are real competitive uses for this knowledge, the knowledge that this scene needs to gain. I still see casters and players get mad or astonished when person A only sees just a bit more than an elbow while person B already killed Person A, which is just a natural consequence of such models.

What Can I Do?

There are many things that go into why you should peek and hold how exactly, like the strengths and weaknesses of the enemy, the playstyle and what information you have, as well as what patterns you give away about you. However, in general, it is always better to peek to the right and to hold to the left, as in, if you have to go around something, go to the right, if you have to look through two things or hold an alleyway, holding from the left obscures more of your model compared to holding from the right.

To show you this, I will embed a GIF created to showcase and compare holding to the left and holding to the right, as well as peeking differently. See for yourself and decide: Who's harder to hit?

It will take a while to get used to, and you'll have to stop and think for a second at least a few times during your next games when you try to establish peeking and holding the right way. To take some work off-of you, I'll list a few applicable positions that are commonly held wrong to start you off right:

Dust 2: CT: On A, holding towards long: Better to hide behind the right box instead of the left, which will give the enemy coming from long a big advantage

Dust 2: T: Jigglepeeking Long House from outside Long from the left instead of the right

Train: CT: Ivy, holding or jiggling from the left instead of the right

Mirage: CT: Holding or jiggling from the right instead of the left of Triplebox/Firebox

Inferno: T: Peeking Apps only coming from Anti-Boiler instead of using the Lightroom to peek from the other side

Conclusion

This is probably the least known aspect of peeking in CS:GO. Part peeking with your right side first together with the nature of an online game and you will regularly kill people before they feel like they could've reacted, further taking them out of the game mentally. However, keep in mind that getting into a position to peek or hold an angle this way may not be worth it depending on the situation of the round, like the knowledge a team has about you after a few rounds or when you have to cross the sight of an enemy player.

If you have any feedback, feel free to write me on Twitter or to join into our #Digscord, maybe to also say hi on occasion:).