Is inspecting weapons the secret to ranking up in CSGO?

The stats say that inspecting weapons is a core part of reaching Global Elite in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, but the stats don’t reveal everything.

A recent study shows that higher-ranked players spend a ton of in-game time inspecting their weapon skins. Scope.gg claims that players at Global Elite inspect their weapons more than three times as often as silver-ranked players. Can inspecting your weapon be the secret to ranking up in CSGO?

To find these numbers, Scope.gg pulled stats from more than 500,000 demos from players across all ranks. It also took a look at how pro players inspect their weapons.

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Check one of our latest takeaways, where we talked about the average weapon inspect time per rank – https://t.co/Nnx9D5BBr2

— SCOPE.GG (@scope_gg) July 27, 2021

Distinguished Master Guardian AWPers came out on top with more than 4.5 seconds per match. Meanwhile, snipers at the lowest rank glance at their guns for less than one second on average. Pro players also inspect their guns way more often than the average player with riflers at 2.5 seconds and AWPers at 4.0. With all this info in mind, does inspecting your CSGO weapon really make you a better player?

Why do Global Elite players inspect their weapons so often?

Inspecting weapons has no impact on gameplay whatsoever. In fact, it can even hinder a player by blocking their sight. But even with that in mind, there’s a few reasons why high-skill players may look at their skins more often.

The most obvious reason is that dedication to the game often correlates with fancy skins. Players who have put in the time to reach high ranks like Global Elite probably have more weapon skins worth inspecting. Pro players often have extremely flashy skins ranging from Factory New Fire Serpents to lavishly stickered Printstreams. Players at Distinguished Master Guardian and up probably have more guns worth inspecting.

The other reason is related to actions per minute. APM is a key indicator of performance in several games, especially top-down strategy games like StarCraft II and League of Legends. High-level CSGO players can take several actions per second. Notice how pros often rapidly switch between weapons at the start of rounds, often inspecting them? Those tiny moments add up at the end of a match. There’s no concrete benefit to doing this, but it does keep players’ hands warm.