What I’m about to explain to you is what I believe to be the #1 thing that separates average players from those at the top of the skill ladder. And the level at which you can do this thing dictates EXACTLY how far you can make it as a player.
So what is that thing? Playing with Intention. Stay with me here, because I know that sounds a bit nebulous.
What I mean is that top players have an algorithm in their brain that is far more specific and detail oriented compared to an average player.
What this looks like in game is extreme attention to detail when it comes to the fundamental mechanics of movement skill, aiming, and general game awareness.
When watching top players, the main thing that always sticks out to me is just how many details they take into account – and you can see it in game with how they move around the map.
They are constantly keeping a tally of where enemy players could or couldn’t be, and paying attention to details that could give them an advantage – things like listening for sound queues and reacting to them, keeping tabs on what grenades or abilities they have available, how much time is left on the clock, and keeping a keen eye on the kill feed to know which teammates or opponents are taken out of the fight.
There’s 2 main components of this subject that I want to cover for this video, and while they certainly work in tandem, I think it’s best to break them down individually before we combine them.
- Crosshair Placement
- Movement
Let’s tackle the first component: Crosshair Placement.
I have many times before discussed aiming mechanics in depth.
For here though, I want to dive deeper into one specific component of aiming, which is maybe the most important part. And that is being incredibly precise with where you hold your crosshair BEFORE you get into a fight.
See, most inexperienced players exhibit the cardinal sin of FPS gaming, which is having a “lazy crosshair”. That means they have their crosshair on the ground, way up in the air, or generally somewhere that’s not helpful.
When you watch top players in any FPS game, they do the complete opposite. Their crosshair is always placed EXACTLY where an opponent’s head would be located if one was to come onto the screen. This is a concept known as “pre-aiming”, where instead of needing to perform some wild flick to correct their aim onto the target, all these top players have to do is click and they get a free kill.
This habit is what makes the game look so easy when you watch the best of the best. It’s not just that the game is inherently easier for them, it’s that they MAKE it easier by being so intentional with their crosshair placement, and aiming becomes simpler for them because they need to make fewer corrections.
Let’s go deeper on this topic with a couple of examples:
I think the best way to explain this is to quickly examine a game that moves at a slightly slower pace so we can really dig into the details. I promise these concepts will 100% guaranteed make you a far better Destiny player, or better at any FPS game you play for that matter.
Here’s NiKo – one of the best pre-aiming CSGO pros in the world.
In this clip, he retakes a defensive position on the B bombsite and I want you to pay special attention to how he holds his crosshair exactly at head level for when enemies enter the room.
With his exceptional aim and crosshair placement, he’s able to take out the entire enemy team with just a deagle – and these are fellow professional players that he’s challenging! NiKo’s aim in this clip demonstrates incredible crosshair placement when playing defensively – that is, waiting for a player to walk into your screen
This skill is equally as important in Destiny or any other FPS game
I was having a conversation with a friend about shutting down supers in Destiny with a sniper rifle a few days ago, and he was remarking about how rarely he seems to be able to snipe an enemy super in an average game.
I really believe the #1 reason that I’m able to do it pretty consistently isn’t that I’m a better aimer, but rather that my pre-aim is much more intentional than the average aimer. It makes a world of a difference.
In Destiny we have a few more intricacies to manage because opponents have a lot of advanced movement options. When you’re holding an angle, you need to not only worry about watching for someone to strafe into a lane, but they could also slide into that lane, so you need to be ready to adjust your aim down for that movement.
Or they can also jump high into a lane, so you have to be ready to look up. This is actually something you’ll see top teams sometimes coordinate on purpose – they’ll count down 3, 2, 1, peek and have one player slide across a lane while another jumps in the air. Double peeking a lane like this gives you a temporary 2 on 1 situation and can often end up winning you the fight.
One other tip to give you a leg up – When you see an enemy on radar coming your way, you can often listen for the double-jump sound queue and know to look up in the air to anticipate where they will be.
Okay so let’s look at another clip, but this time we’re looking at the offensive side of the coin. What I mean is that we’re now talking about advancing our position on the map and needing to clear each angle where an opponent is likely to be.
Here’s fan favorite and FPS legend Shroud playing some CSGO. His team is attempting to take the A site on Mirage to plant the bomb and win.
Watch as he meticulously uses his knowledge of where enemies could or couldn’t be, and flicks his crosshair from spot to spot scanning for enemies to appear in likely positions.
As he clears the angles, he’s ready to pull the trigger as soon as an enemy is detected in one of those positions where he’s pre-aiming.
Pre-aiming while clearing angles offensively is just as important as when playing defensively. You may have heard of the term “peekers advantage”, where someone who peeks into a lane that you are holding has a slight advantage due to the way netcode works and will often get the kill on you.
However peekers advantage only presents a benefit if you have exceptional pre-aiming skill so that you can predict exactly where your opponent will most likely be located, and you’re already aimed ready to take them out.
In fact, to combat this pre-aim ability that some players have developed – you can often hold what’s known as an “off angle” so that you’re in a spot that’s slightly less conventional and can throw off your opponent when they go for the pre-aim shot.
At the highest level, especially in games with a developed Pro scene like counter-strike, much of the gameplay becomes a battle of mental chess. And when you watch Destiny tournaments with the best players in the game, the same elements tend to play out.
Now that we’ve talked about being intentional with your aiming, let’s dig into the second core component of playing at a high level: Being intentional with your movement.
I see it all the time when I watch less experienced players pick up a game like Destiny. They move around the map with very little regard to where an enemy could be located, and expose themselves to many possible lanes.
You may get away with this lackadaisical movement at a lower level, but as you climb the skill ladder, you’ll start getting punished HARD.
When you’re moving around the map, strafing into lanes, and jumping onto surfaces, you need to always be considering what lanes of fire you’re exposing yourself to. This is where map knowledge really comes into play. The better you’re able to study and know every single common shooting lane in a map, the more aware you’ll become.
As part of your map knowledge toolkit, you also need to have a plan of retreat in case you start losing the fight.
One of the concepts you’ll hear good players talking about is being one shot away from cover. That means that if you take a big hit from a handcannon headshot or sniper bodyshot, you’re close enough to cover that you can dip out of the fight to regen your health and either escape or take the fight again with full health.
As the time to kill creeps faster and faster in Destiny 2, this concept is getting more important than ever.
Know your environment.
In addition to knowing the physical layout of the map, it’s also important to start learning timings for various events on the map.
For example, knowing how fast an enemy player is likely to get to a certain spot can mean the difference between you getting a pick or being taken out. This gets complicated because there’s so many different movement abilities in the game that good players can utilize to get an edge here – like how top tree dawnblade players can blaze around the map with icarus dash.
Especially in scenarios like elimination with Trials of Osiris, knowing these timings can make or break the whole match.
And in respawn modes like survival, knowing the timings and locations of respawn areas can earn you some easy kills to give your team a big advantage.
I think the best way to improve in both of these areas of crosshair placement and movement is to record your own gameplay and watch it back later in slow motion.
Keep a keen eye on your crosshair – are you pre-aiming at head level where an opponent will pop out onto your screen, or is your crosshair lazily on the ground?
When you’re moving around the map – are you unnecessarily exposing yourself to danger, or doing a good job of having a lane of retreat?
When you die, pay attention to the lane of fire that killed you – was this avoidable with some better positioning?
These are the habits that will make you a great player, but it takes time to develop these instincts.
I hope you found this video helpful, I know it’s a bit more conceptual than many of my other videos, but I truly believe these are the topics that will greatly improve your abilities as a player, and I hope that you find them valuable.