How to Get Into the Top Ten on CSports, and Stay There!
By
Vlad
One afternoon last fall, as I was sniping away with my Geld in Oasis, a person
on my team told me that he had seen my name at #32 on www.csports.net and
congratulated me on being ranked so highly. I said, “ Thanks, but what is CSports? “.
He replied that it’s a Website that keeps track of online gamers worldwide,
and ranks them numerically according to what games they play. I was very surprised,
not only had I never heard of CSports, but also I knew that I was, at the time,
a mediocre player. I immediately went to the CSports Website to see what my
friend was talking about, and sure enough there I was ranked at #32 in the
world playing No One Lives Forever, Harm vs. Unity. Wow, I was on cloud nine,
me an average Joe being ranked at #32 in the world at anything was mind blowing
and surreal. In real life, I have a hard time being the 32nd best me on most
days. I felt like Superman must feel every time he wakes up, invincible and
ready to take on the world. At that moment, I became obsessed with my CSports
ranking. I started checking it after every few hours of playing NOLF, hoping
that I had moved closer to #1. I stayed #32 for a few days and then I started
moving up, not the good up, as in toward the top of the ranking ladder, but
up as in #35, #41 and #47. I was destroyed and my self-esteem was in tatters.
How could I the #32 best player in the world, I still thought of myself that
way, be getting worse the more I played? And then I had a transcendent moment
of clarity. Something was either seriously wrong with the way CSports tracked
players or I stunk at NOLF. Unfortunately, I came to realize that CSports does
a pretty good job given its limitations -read the article explaining how CSports
works, written by its’ developer Edward Watson, posted elsewhere here at NG.com-
and that the latter was the case, my NOLF skills were woeful. I vowed then
and there to do whatever it took to become a top ten player on CSports. I made
it into the top ten in two weeks and was number one after three.
The first thing I did was to figure out how I had gotten to be # 32, seemingly
without knowing what I was doing. As it turned out, I had been doing two very
important things that helped me move up the player ladder. First and foremost,
I played a lot of NOLF- 20 to 30 hours a week- and I had mastered an offensive
skill, which in my case was sniping. The next thing I did was to join a clan
in order to learn some good tips. I was asked to join BoS by Jack Ryan, the
BoS recruiter and co-founder, the same person who had congratulated me on my
# 32 position. Joining a clan is a very personal decision, it’s not for everyone
and you don’t have to join one in order to be a good, or even a great, player.
If you want to join a particular clan, and haven’t been invited in, just ask
a clan member how to arrange a try out. Most clans are happy to try out people
who they’ve seen play a decent game. I joined BoS because Jack and Crayon,
the other BoS co-founder, were very friendly, good players who flattered me
by asking me to join them and they were willing to help me improve. Whether
or not you join a clan, if you follow the advice below you can get into the
top ten at CSports fairly quickly and stay there, as long as you don’t mind
playing NOLF every waking moment of your life.
Play
at least 20 hours a week, 40 is better. Plan on having your life revolve
around NOLF even if it means giving up sleep, off-line friends, family,
good grades or your job. Hey, what’s more important to you a normal
life or a top ten CSports spot?
Master
an offensive skill. Learn to snipe with the Geld, the proper use of
the Corrector and other weapons, how to use explosives or the best
way to take pics.
Learn
to Bunny Hop and shoot/ take pics at the same time. I cannot emphasize
this point strongly enough. If you can’t Bunny Hop you should stick
to playing the Sims. Bunny Hopping is achieved with proper left hand
finger placement on your keyboard. The ring finger on A, the middle
finger on W and ready to move back to hit S, the index finger on D
and your thumb on the space bar. Now all you have to do is hit various
combinations of those keys as quickly as possible, think of Fats Waller
playing a wild boogie-woogie piano bass line, only a lot faster. Once
you’re hopping like a cricket in a frying pan, learn to aim and fire
your preferred weapon as accurately as possible. If you like the AK
or the Geld learn to use the scope while Bunny Hopping and always aim
at the head. When using the AK remember to use phosphorus bullets,
fire short controlled bursts and start by aiming about chest high for
a good head kill, as the AK fire will climb on full automatic. If you
use rockets, the grenade launcher, explosive bolts or the Corrector
aim at the feet, or at a nearby hard surface, in order to maximize
their destructiveness. Always Bunny Hop near the intelligence case
after taking a pic, in order to defend yourself and stay alive long
enough to take another pic when the case reappears. Once you are Bunny
Hopping, killing people and scoring at the same time, you will be a
threat to any enemy and you will be on your way to the top.
Practice
by playing Death Match. All the top players have honed their skills
by doing this; don’t think that you will be the one exception.
Play
with better players, always and without fail. Not only will you learn
survival skills more quickly, but also CSports ranks you higher if
you play with and score against those people ranked above you. Look
for the better players in Hydro or Blizzard; I can pretty much assure
you they won’t be playing Abduction or Protect the King.
Take
the time to learn the maps by hosting a game with just you playing.
Set a password and load the maps you want to learn. Find the quickest
routes to the enemy’s intelligence room and where all the weapons,
ammo and best spots to pic from are located. Every map has an angle
that you can exploit, if you know it well enough. Lastly regarding
maps, if all you care about is moving up the CSports ladder and you
are on a server that loads a map that you are unfamiliar with, thank
the other players for a good game and leave that server for one that
has a map you know. Make a mental note to become more familiar with
that map the next time you practice by yourself.
Learn
how to leave your base without picking up any items when you are repeatedly
being killed upon respawn. Sometimes it’s better just to get out of
Dodge empty handed than trying to get the glasses, or some weapon,
when your base has been overrun. This is where knowing the maps will
be invaluable. You will always be able to find what you need on your
way to the enemy base, or even in it.
Customize
your weapon hot keys (1-0) in the way that best suits your playing
style with those weapons and items you use most frequently. For me
I have the glasses # 1, the zip cord # 2, the Corrector # 3, the Geld
# 4 and so on, based on the weapons and items that I favor being closest
to the dancing fingers of my left hand.
Use
an optical mouse with a center wheel, use the wheel for the scope and
set the mouse sensitivity bar to its lowest level for ease of aiming.
This one, inexpensive change to your hardware set-up will profoundly
alter your gaming proficiency for the better.
If
you’re in close quarters in a desperate battle for your life and your
armor and health are dropping rapidly stop, crouch down and unload
everything you have in your gun at your opponent’s head. This simple
trick has saved my life a hundred times.
My
next suggestion won’t make you a lot of friends, but it will help you
in your mad dash to the top of the CSports ladder. Steal every pic
you can from your teammates. Your teammate is patiently waiting, with
his glasses on, for the intelligence item to reappear, that’s fine,
just make sure you time it so that you take the pic before him. Don’t
do this all the time. On second thought, don’t do this at all and forget
where you read that this was a good idea, even though it does work
really well in your favor and gets you those last few precious points
to push you into the top ten.
This
final tip is one of the most important ones of all and should always
be observed. Respect all of the other players, all of the time no matter
what. It is entirely possible to disagree with someone and have a heated
argument without swearing and ranting. An occasional expletive is normal
and expected, but don’t take it any farther than that. Cursing a blue
streak just makes you sound like a moron and nobody, especially a good
player, wants to play with a moron. If you sound like an idiot chances
are you’ll be booted from the server faster than a red headed stepchild.
Say “ hi “ when you join a game, be courteous in the game by saying “nice
shot “ to an opponent when he’s made one and don’t forget to say “ thank
you “ when someone compliments you. Bite your tongue and don’t reply
to taunts and don’t forget to thank all the players for a good game
when you leave. Remember, you will have more fun by being respectful
to everyone, because people will want to play with you and the person
you ragged on today may be the person that you depend on to cover your
back tomorrow.
After you have utilized all of my tactics and gotten into the CSports top ten,
just keep repeating them as long as your sanity will allow, and you’ll stay
there. And remember one last thing, being in the top ten doesn’t make you
a great or even a good player, defense does. So after you’ve made it to the
top and have stayed there long enough to satisfy your ego, learn how to play
defense. All of NOLF’s truly great players are defensive experts. As this
essay is about offense I’m not going to discuss all of the complex defensive
strategies that one can employ in NOLF, but I will tell you one of the dirty,
little secrets of NOLF that is entirely defensive in nature. The Unity Team
simply cannot win against the Harm Team on the map Storm; assuming Harm plays
the proper defense. Even as you claw your way to the top of the CSports ladder,
try using this strategy when you find yourself on Harm playing Storm, because
your teammates will think that you are a defensive genius, an indispensable
asset and someone they will want to have on their team all of the time. When
you first spawn grab a zip cord and run to get the rocket case. Run back
to your base and use the zip cord to get onto the stone ledge above the tunnel
on the left as you face the Harm base. Use the armor that’s on the ledge
and move over to your left. From this spot you cover the only two ways into
Harm’s base, which are down the stairs below you to the left, or out of the
tunnel below you to the right. If you keep the rockets crosshairs on the
wooden ledge below and on the right you’ll kill anyone coming out of the
tunnel and it is a very short arc to swing to the left and kill anyone rushing
down the stairs. When you run low on rockets get more either from the people
you killed or from the ammo box to the left of the main stone archway leading
into the Harm base. If someone does manage to get by you, jump down and follow
them to finish them off. I’ve played this defense many times where Unity
has failed to take even one pic.
So there you have it, a roadmap to the top ten with a little detour to Defenseville
thrown in. Let me know when you get into the top ten and if we meet on Storm
and I’m on Unity, just remember I still know one way to kill you when your
up on that ledge, but for now I’m keeping that to myself. G2G, CYA
Play
at least 20 hours a week, 40 is better. Plan on having your life revolve
around NOLF even if it means giving up sleep, off-line friends, family,
good grades or your job. Hey, what’s more important to you a normal
life or a top ten CSports spot?