How to reach level 10 on FACEIT

If you're struggling to find consecutive wins and hard stuck in the lower levels of FACEIT you're in luck! We're giving you some much needed tips to improving your overall performance in your journey to becoming a feared level 10 FACEIT contender. 

We'll cover aspects of CS:GO that will be mostly useful for players with advanced knowledge of fundamental game mechanics and already know how to aim, so ideally you'll have 1000+ in-game hours of CS:GO before continuing reading.

5 tips to improve your gameplay

Remind yourself to be critical of your own habits and understand when you're doing something wrong. This will help you improve every aspect of your gameplay.

Practice using your radar and play on the premise that your teammates will take care of your blind spots. Looking at your radar when reloading or aligning a throwable will make you quickly realize where enemies could be hiding when you factor in the space that's already taken up by your teammates.

After a lot of practice, you'll have a good idea of enemy positioning by just glancing at the radar.

Trading kills is key to winning matches. The ability to immediately revenge a fallen teammate will get you the upper hand during the round. Remember to position yourself and engage in duels where a teammate has the chance to revenge you as well.

A high amount of traded kills are a clear indicator of a team in sync, they're beautiful to watch and even more satisfying when timed with flashbangs.

Defend the same spot and attack the same area throughout the match. You'll become familiar with the tendencies of the enemy team, and as you play more matches you’ll get multiple variations on how to deal with different situations.

Check your own utility damage (UT) on the scoreboard. You'll quickly find out if the grenades you're throwing are worth the effort. A certain way to increase your impact with throwables is to save them for specific situations. As a Counter-Terrorist, you should practice waiting for the Terrorists to throw their utility first. This will allow you to work your own utility as a counter to whatever they’re trying to accomplish.

A very important tip is to consider if you’re revealing your position when popping flashes. If enemies smoke your angle it might be the right play not to throw anything at all, and instead going for a high-risk high-reward play pushing through the smoke silently.

Some days you’ll feel invincible, easily countering everything the enemy team throws at you, while some days might have you question if you should quit the game altogether. On those bad days, it's always a great idea to change pace by playing a different role with less pressure.

Try playing a support role as the anchor for holding off flanking enemies. If you're tilted or just feeling incredibly unlucky, use the half time stoppage to mentally reset. Think of the next half as a new start, and let them know that you're a force to be reckoned with!

Identify the economy 

Everybody knows economy is one of the key features in CS:GO that separates it from a lot of other shooters. It's essential to master your economy within the team, and failing to do so will most likely result in you and your team struggling to win rounds.

The first few rounds are very important in determining how the rest of the match will pan out. We've listed a few scenarios and how to handle them:

• You lose the 1^st round as Terrorists without a bomb plant, so you save in the 2^nd.
• You lose the 1^st round as Terrorists, but you manage to get the bomb planted, so you half buy in the 2^nd.
• You lose the 1^st round as Counter-Terrorists, so you buy upgraded pistols in 2^nd You do this because you will have an eco-round in the 3^rd round most likely.
• You win the 1^st round as Counter-Terrorists and they don’t plant the bomb, so you half buy.
• You win the 1^st round as Counter-Terrorists but they get a bomb plant, so you should half buy with the expectations that your enemies will also have a half buy that’s slightly better than yours.

When you find yourself in an eco-round on the CT side, it’s always a great idea to communicate with the team and come up with a set-piece strategy. Your goal for the round is to find a favorable situation where you outnumber the enemy team and take their rifles. Don’t think about the bomb sites but imagine you’re the attacking team instead.

When you're on the T side and looking at an eco-round it isn't necessary to rush a bomb site as a unit. You might find much more success to go out in pairs and try to do trade kills in hopes of catching an upgraded gun out of place. Once the initial kill has been made, it should start rotations across the map, and that's when the eco-round becomes unpredictable, with the best wind conditions for a pistol. 

For the rest of the game, you should be wary of their purchases and try to predict if they're on eco-rounds and if they manage to save certain guns like an AWP.

Once you’ve managed to do so, you can change your play style to counter their following round. For example, if you know they shouldn’t have a sniper, you can use your own sniper in a more dominating fashion.

If you know they're on a pistol round, you need to be ready for a fast-paced push. Furthermore, if you know an eco-round is coming up, and you’ve died the previous round – you could buy a shotgun if you’re covering a space of the map with close angles. Bringing a surprising shotgun close to a bunch of players with no armor is a fantastic way to earn a ton of cash for your team.

Knowing when to save your weapon, is simply determined by your dead teammates' cash balance. If most of your team have $3.000 in your bank when a round finishes, you will be able to rebuy the most basic weapons needed for a “full buy”.

Saving your weapon may also be determined by the sheer number of enemy players alive. If you are alone versus 4 players, you should probably go and save your weapon or armor if you don’t get 1 or two kills offered for free quickly after the bomb was planted.

If you have a defuse kit or not on your team, will also play a big factor if you should be trying to clutch a 2vs3 situation.

Talking makes the team

Be kind and friendly to your teammates, and establish a comfort zone where everyone feels welcome, and thereby create a team atmosphere.

When the match begins, and you have a rough start, you should try to pick your teammates up.

If the match starts amazingly and your team gets a bunch of kills, you should encourage and praise every single kill or play. Whenever it is possible you should try to hype and compliment every single good play made by your teammates, even if the round is lost. Try to compliment each teammate so they feel like they contribute to the success of the team.

Criticizing your teammates is a sure way to lose a match very fast. If you see a very bad tendency early in the game from one of your teammates, you should try to fix it before you lose a round because of it.

If you see a player constantly pushing the enemy in an after-plant situation, you should try to compliment him and then suggest him to do something else than what he did in the previous round. Try to use a friendly tone of voice when you wish to tell a teammate he is doing something wrong.

Team up with your previous team

Once the match is about to conclude, and your team will become victors. You should elaborate on the team’s performance, and maybe hear them out if they would be interested in a second match afterward?

This will greatly increase your chances of consecutive wins and boost your grind for ELO. Don’t be afraid to befriend your former teammates, and maybe team up with them another time.

Warm up your aim

You’ve played CS:GO for a long time, and you’ve been told several times to warm up your aim and movement before playing for ELO. This is still one of the best tips for improving your overall gameplay and winning more matches.

People are different, and so are the preferred ways of warming up in CS:GO:

• Deathmatch server
• Retake server
• Workshop map

If you warm up on a server with other people, you should try to set a goal for the number of kills you want to achieve before playing a match on FACEIT. A great tip is also to warm up with both a pistol and an upgraded gun, so you’re ready for those pesky pistol rounds.

An important thing to remember is to warm up on servers with 128 tick since this will be similar to how the FACEIT servers are running. When it comes to improving your aim, you should also stay away from the regular matchmaking queue with servers running at a tick rate of 64.   

During warm-up, you’ll also quickly find out if you’re feeling tired or irritated today, and this would be a sign to shut down CS:GO and head to bed early.

Smokes you’ll need

Making it hard for the opposing team, is easily done with a great combination of throwables.

The idea that you need to know all smokes to become level 10 FACEIT player is a lie, and we’ve made a list of the most important smokes you’ll need to heighten your chances of winning:

Mirage

• Smoke CT-spawn from T-spawn for A-site on Mirage.
• Smoke Stairs from T-spawn for A-site on Mirage.
• Smoke Jungle from T-spawn for A-site on Mirage.
• Smoke the window in middle on Mirage.

Nuke

• Smoke garage outside on Nuke.
• Smoke wall 1st outside on Nuke.
• Smoke wall 2nd outside on Nuke.

Inferno

• Smoke the coffins for B-site on Inferno.
• Smoke CT for B-site on Inferno.

Vertigo

• Smoke right side of A-site on Vertigo.
• Smoke left side of A-site on Vertigo.

It doesn't happen over night

It takes a great deal of commitment, and self-reflection to stop bad habits you may have in game, and even if you do everything right, you might have teammates not hitting the target.

Once you’ve mastered and accomplished the trades mentioned in this guide, you’ll quickly find yourself in level 10 on FACEIT, and with the ability to stay there!