The meta of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is complex and ever changing, with strategies and gun usage cycling throughout the years. However, after nearly six years of updates, reworks, nerfs and buffs to the 33 guns (34 with the Zeus) found in CS:GO, some weapons are still nearly completely useless, seeing next to no play in the competitive environment. In this three part series, we’ll go over the untouched guns of CS:GO, and what they need to see play.

The Negev

The Negev is a completely different weapon than it once was. The impossible to control and wildly expensive gun is gone, replaced by a weapon that doesn’t seem to follow any of the rules of CS:GO. Even though Valve has recently updated the Negev, lowering the price further to $1700, it still seems to have no place in competitive play. For the first several shots, the Negev is mildly accurate, allowing for reasonable burst-fire. However, should the player not fire in short, 3-round bursts, the Negev is wildly inaccurate for a few moments, only to turn into a rapid-fire death laser a few seconds later. While a wound-up Negev has the potential to mow down an incoming rush faster than nearly any other weapon, it still sees no play in the competitive meta. The reason why is simple: guns that cannot take down an enemy immediately on sight have no place in CS:GO. Should a player with a Negev be peeked by a competent player, they would have no chance — not having time to reach accurate fire. Not being able to immediately reliably shoot at an opponent makes the Negev completely obsolete, and in a 1v1, nearly any other weapon is a better option. The burst fire doubtlessly makes the Negev far more viable, but it doesn’t allow for the instant spray downs that complement the large magazine and fast fire rate of the gun. While some players have adapted by winding up the Negev before peeking a corner, this gives away position and allows the opposing team to react accordingly. With the price change to $1700, Valve is clearly trying to make the Negev compete with the SMGs as the anti-eco weapon of choice. However, the SMGs don’t need to fire in bursts to take down enemies at close-mid range and are far more capable of quick spray transfers. As it stands, the MP7, also at $1700, is a far more versatile option, and offers double the kill reward of the Negev.

To fix the Negev, Valve needs to rework the weapon completely. First and foremost, the wind-up should be entirely removed. The player should be able to kill an enemy without wasting 100 bullets. The original Negev was not a terrible weapon, just far too expensive at $5700. The Negev can be reverted back to its original state, with no wind-up or laser accuracy, but should cost much less, perhaps slightly more expensive than the price of an AK-47 or M4. While it is difficult to find a place for LMGs in CS:GO (due to rifles being better in nearly every regard), the Negev could see niche play for holding close range bomb sites against incoming rushes.

WarOwl’s take on the new Negev: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBFlaSJrR6U

The R8 Revolver

The R8 suffers from a similar problem to the Negev: not being able to immediately fire accurately. While the R8 has been buffed and has much less trigger delay than it once did, it still holds little advantage over the Desert Eagle, its loadout counterpart. Even the best player in the world can be killed by a Silver before managing to complete a left-click shot with the R8. While the R8’s trigger delay has been buffed, it now no longer has perfect accuracy, the one advantage the R8 had over the Deagle. Both weapons can be bought on the pistol round, and both have a one-hit headshot kill. While the R8 does more damage at long range, the Deagle is much more reliable at close range, with the R8’s right-click spam being all but useless outside of when the barrel is practically touching the enemy. Overall, the Deagle is a stronger choice nearly all of the time, even though the R8 is slightly cheaper.

The left-click of the R8 does not need much adjustment. While it isn’t fantastic for aim battles, it is excellent against unaware players and pre-firing angles. To compete with the Deagle, the R8 should have its perfect accuracy returned, giving it a niche use at extremely long ranges. I also believe that the price of the R8 can be lowered still, perhaps to $500. The extra $200 to purchase a flash with your R8 as opposed to a Deagle is tantalizing, and even professionals could take up the weapon for specific areas on force buys.

Sadly, the main obstacle for the R8 Revolver is the professional scene. While lower ranked players can sometimes pull off a few shots before getting killed, trigger-delay against high level teams renders the gun useless. In its current state of a delayed but powerful revolver, the R8 will never be good enough to see competitive play without a complete mechanics change or being able to one-shot opponents to the body as it once could.

Koosta with the new R8: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTDUzobQ0yg

The G3SG1

While the SCAR-20 sees mild play, popular on Mirage and Train in particular, its T-Side twin, the G3SG1, is practically never purchased. The SCAR is a situational weapon, great at holding down rushes and spamming smokes, making it perfect for the CT-Side. However, when it comes to peaking angles and entering sites, the autosniper is not the best option with its two-shot kill. When holding an angle with a SCAR, the player has two chances to fire at and kill the enemy: as the opponent peaks and as the opponent begins to shoot back. However, when peaking with the G3SG1, the player will often not have a change to fire more than one shot (not enough for a full kill) before being shot down. This makes the G3SG1 definitively worse than the cheaper AWP in 1v1 situations, and its slow movement speed makes even the Scout preferable when peaking an angle. The $1700 Scout allows for a much speedier recovery after firing and does around the same damage per shot.

While lower ranked players will always complain about the use of an autosniper, the G3SG1 is simply not effective on the T-Side at higher levels, as an experienced player with a rifle can easily eliminate a user of an autosniper before two shots are fired. Getting headshots with the G3SG1 or SCAR is necessary for their usage in professional play, and this is much easier said than done. The G3SG1 has only seen play as a tool for spamming mid doors on Dust2 during final round buyouts. Along with this, the SCAR has a faster reload speed and slightly better tagging than the G3SG1, for seemingly no reason.

The G3SG1 is by no means a bad weapon, especially when compared to the other weapons I’ve covered, and is certainly useful, it just has a very low skill cap that can be taken advantage of by higher skilled players. Without being able to kill in one shot to the body, I find it unlikely that the G3SG1 will ever see play in the professional scene without major changes. However, there are certainly adjustments that can be made for the weapon to see more play. I believe a price change to around $4500 is certainly plausible without making the G3SG1 too overpowered in lower ranks, along with an adjustment to reload speed and tagging to match the SCAR. This would perhaps help the G3SG1 see play in matchmaking more often, and give it a new role between the snipers of CS:GO.

All G3SG1 highlights are skin showcases

The AUG

The AUG holds an interesting place in the history of Counter-Strike, once being one of the most powerful weapons due to a ridiculous fire rate buff. However, since nerfs several years ago, the AUG has seen little to no play outside of the silver ranks, where some consider it easier to use than the M4s. When un-scoped, the AUG is far more difficult to control that the other CT rifles, and having to scope-in during aim battles wastes precious shooting time. While the AUG is powerful when scoped-in and used to hold an angle, it still has a tough to learn pattern, and doesn’t have enough damage output over the other M4s too warrant its slightly heftier price tag. With a lack of versatility and an odd pattern, there is little reason to purchase the AUG over M4s. While the AUG isn’t terrible, most players are simply used to the other rifles, and capable enough with the M4 to use it to do anything an AUG could. It is, however, interesting to note that the AUG is the only CT assault rifle capable of a one-hit headshot against armored opponents (albeit at extremely close range).

The idea of a CT rifle with a scope to match the T-side SG-553 is interesting, and the AUG could certainly have a place in the game. To keep its unique place in the game, the un-scoped spray pattern of the AUG should not be changed; and the use of the scope should be required for more precise kills. The AUG’s minor ability to kill opponents in one headshot should also not be changed, as long range one-shots should be reserved for T-side weapons to keep the meta intact. To buff the AUG, changes need to be made to keep it on par with its M4 cousins. Changing the movement speed from 220 to 225 is a start, along with increasing the pathetically slow reload speed to match or even overtake the M4A4. I would also suggest increasing the tagging of the AUG, to help scoped fire take down moving enemies, and perhaps update tapping accuracy. This would allow the AUG to take up a more long-range role, somewhere between the M4s and AWP. As it stands, the M4 can easily take down enemies at the same range the AUG can, but by implementing some of the changes I suggested, we could see a potential new role in CS:GO.

The AUG pre-nerf: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THR5qKDnCYs

Next time: Nova, XM1014, Five-SeveN, and Tec-9.