Prefiring tips that every CSGO player should know

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive can be all about outsmarting your opponent, but sometimes all it takes is good crosshair placement, sound mechanics, and a little bit of luck to seal a win.

When fans think of Counter-Strike, they think of the exciting duels and the impressive flick shots, but many kills come from a tactic known as “prefiring.” Prefiring is the act of shooting where a player thinks their opponent will be before actually seeing them, and it can lead to some easy frags in-game.

Prefiring in CSGO is easy to learn and easy to master

The T ramp on Mirage is an excellent showcase for prefiring’s benefits. Many CT players often play near ticket booth, hiding behind the crate that leads to CT spawn. If an attacking player peeks the angle and fires immediately instead of waiting to see if anyone is actually there, they can grab a kill that might make the CT throw their mouse across the room in frustration. While it looks like a complicated technique, it might actually be one of the easiest things to learn to do in CSGO.

Prefiring is an easy skill to understand and master, but it takes practice. Luckily, it’s made much easier by the way CSGO’s maps are designed. Using Mirage as an example, map textures and objects are all made for lining up headshots. The separations between the crates stacked crates at triple showcase the idea well. In fact, players can just draw an imaginary line across the whole bombsite and see just how much CSGO’s textures can help when learning to prefire.

These hints built into the map aren’t accidental. Good level designers build them in to help players line up shots. Using them is a great way to learn where players should keep their crosshair. Eventually, it’s a skill that becomes automatic, but players that are first starting out in CSGO should take special note of the hints that each map gives to them.

Inferno is another good example.

Inferno’s banana is made for flashy CSGO prefires

Banana is sometimes difficult to take, especially if the defending team has advanced positioning. That said, players should pay particular attention to how all of these defenders’ heads line up no matter what position they have when peeking banana.

Since executing onto bombsites is CSGO’s main attacking objective, the best counter a defending team can use is clever positioning. But a good prefire from an attacking player can lay waste to the defending team’s anchor and give the attackers the advantage. Statistically, professional teams win about 70% of the rounds when they get the first kill. While casual players aren’t pros, everyone’s win rate goes up when they’re playing at an advantage, and CSGO’s prefiring technique is one of the best and most reliable ways to get there.

New to CSGO? Crosshair placement is incredibly important when learning how to prefire, so beginners can check out this guide on crosshair placement to help them learn the basics.