Learning from pro players is one way of improving your game regardless of what sport or video game you play. But, how do CS:GO pro players practice? Let’s find out.

Different routines

Of course, every pro player has his own warm-up routine. Some players like to spend a lot of time in Deathmatches, others like to practice more with aimbots, and some players prefer FPL or Rank S matches rather than aimbots and Deathmatches. As we can see, everyone is doing what suits them the most. They try to figure out what works the best for them and then they pursue it every day.

Additionally, the daily routines of players depend on if there is an event they are attending or not. Apparently, this affects their routine as they have to prepare differently. When they play tournaments, CS:GO pro players spend much more time with their team as they have to prepare for their next opponent, so there is much more preparation of strategies and various tactics.

Nevertheless, there are some common patterns that we can notice in each players’ routine. All CS:GO pro players do more or less the same things but in different ways. Let’s see how CS:GO pro players usually practice.

Aimbots and Deathmatch

Obviously, muscle memory is incredibly important in video games, especially in First Person Shooters such as CS:GO. There is no better way of improving your muscle memory than practicing with aimbots and playing Deathmatches. When it comes to these two things, players have different objectives. Some of them are going for a certain number of kills, and others practice for a particular amount of time.

For example, kennyS likes to practice in Deathmatches until he gets 100 kills with AK, M4, and AWP each. On the other side, EliGE from Team Liquid doesn’t bother himself with the number of kills but instead, he does both aimbots and Deathmatches for about 30 minutes.

Some players like TACO and XANTARES think Deathmatches and aimbots are very important so their goal is 1,000 kills in both mods. However, there are also players like fer and NAF who play this game at the highest level but according to their words, they don’t put so much effort in aimbots and Deathmatches. As fer says, he practices in Deathmatches only when he has to, and NAF does it for just 5 minutes in order to warm-up his hands.

So, there is really no rule about these kinds of things. You simply need to find something that you feel the most comfortable with.

Scrims and team practice

Another important aspect of pro players’ practice is team practice and scrims. Given that CS:GO is a team game, scrims and team practice are perhaps more useful than an individual one, although both are very important. Additionally, if we look at the time that CS:GO pro players spend practicing, we will see that they spend most of their time in actual matches and games. Hence, there is no better way to practice than playing the game as much as you can.

Simply, playing the games with your team prepares you the best for the real thing, and that’s official games. So, if you want to get better at the game, Deathmatches and aimbots can help you, but there is no reason to spend more time practicing your aim than actually playing the game.

Other useful information

What’s more important of what you do is how you do it. If we want to figure out how CS:GO pro players practice, it’s very important to see what they put the focus on. For example, n0thing talked about his practice routine in detail in one of his YouTube videos. He mentions that he likes to find the most comfortable posture in his chair before anything else. Then, he jumps into aimbots where he spends some time doing different things. He practices one taps, bursts and spray transfers. Finally, he switches to AWP to practice his flicks.

Then, he moves to FFA Deathmatches. N0thing said he usually uses AK and M4, but occasionally he switches to some other weapons such as FAMAS. This helps him to feel more comfortable with guns that are not that common. In Deathmatches, he doesn’t like to use one taps, but instead, he practices sprays.

Of course, pro players also spend a certain amount of time in offline servers finding new grenades and doing other stuff. Basically, they try to learn more about maps they play in general. In a post-tournament interview after IEM Katowice and won MVP medal, Magisk told us that he did a lot of work on an individual level. He particularly emphasized that finding new flashbang line-up can make a difference between winning and losing rounds. So, this is also something you don’t want to ignore.