Guide to becoming a real AWPer

A good AWPer is one who is able to adjust the tempo of the game to his liking. There are many different styles of play and each awper will help his teammates in his own way. An aggressive Peek that leads to an early loss on the other side leaves the site open and makes that round much easier. Or playing passively, you can keep a key position on the map and make sure the team is always in control. This article will try to best introduce the different ways of playing and how it works in the team.

So what does an AWPer need to do?

As mentioned above, there are many different ways to play the AWP role. It’s hard to say what a good awper should do. But your ultimate goal is to win the match. To do that, you need to understand a few things. First off, the AWP costs $4750, which is $2050 more than the AK-47. For example, you have enough armor, AWP, Smoke and 2 Flash and confront an opponent with the same equipment but the weapon is an AK-47. If the opponent kills you, the opponent has exchanged $6450 plus $300 (kill). If a teammate doesn’t pick up the AWP, it’s a pretty big blow to the team’s economy.

To make buying AWP a good investment, you need to kill your opponent’s awper or 2 riflers. Of course that doesn’t always happen: you can swap lives 1-1 with your opponent so that your teammates can go to the bomb site and win that round, but the cost you probably already know ($4750) . In the long run, it’s very important that you don’t ‘throw’ those important rounds when you have awp in hand. And AWPer should always survive as long as possible.

It is very difficult to prioritize survival or influence the game. Therefore, each player must carefully weigh his or her decisions. Normally, it is not advisable to peek A long on Dust II without the support of teammates. Let your support flash first and make sure they’re there to swap lives and pick up awp if you die. AWPer needs more backup plans. Choose safe angles and make sure you always have positions where you can retreat if you miss. And try to predict your next move before you have to retreat. For example this phase:

If you want to be successful with AWP, you need to try to find favorable peek positions. Especially if you suspect that the enemy does not have a good weapon. They may try to sweep you with pistols to sabotage their team’s economy.

Another important role of an awper is knowing when to really buy awp. Some players, like Josh ‘JDM64’ Marzano, buy AWP whenever possible. Usually that’s one of their weak points. Sometimes buying M4/ak is better and can be used for a long time. The longer you play, the more experience you will have to know when to buy.

Who should become AWPer?

A good awper must have high accuracy and quick reflexes. These traits will come in handy to beat the opponent awper. Many games win or lose depending on the outcome of those gunfights.

If you’ve seen some of the world’s top rated players like Jesper ‘JW’ Wecksell or Kenny ‘KennyS’ Schrub. They had unbelievable peeks from positions no one would have dared to play. And it misleads us into thinking that it takes a bit of “crazy” to be a successful awper. At first glance, it might seem like they really don’t know what they’re doing, but that’s not true. If you are the team awper, you need to know the risk as well as the reward from a phase you intend to do.

The awper should be the calm person in all situations. Being an AWPer means you are under a lot of pressure. With just one precise click you can put the whole team to the advantage. An incorrect click can lead to losing the round and the worst case scenario is the team is forced to eco in the next round.

Don’t be afraid to voice your ideas with the team. If you believe you can take out the enemy AWPer in mid with a flash assist, ask your teammates for help. Be confident and decide your own destiny.

Learn from the Pro Player.

Below is a clip of the ESL Pro League Season 3 tournament between Luminosity and G2. Marcelo ‘coldzera’ David showed experience, precision, quick reflexes and he had a plan in mind. He knows what he has to do. In other words, those are the qualities that a good AWPer should have. At the time, Ladislav ‘GuardiaN’ Kovács and Olof ‘Olofmeister’ Kajbjer both had wrist injuries, and coldzera was arguably the best player in the world at the time. He put on a great performance and showed his stability on a completely different chart, which you can only expect from a true superstar.

Coldzera was standing in heaven next to Bomb Train. From this position he can support his teammates whenever he wants. In fact, Fernando ‘fer’ Alvarenga was killed by Edouard ‘SmithZz’ Dubourdeaux behind the Green Train. At this point, coldzera knows that Gabriel ‘FalleN’ Toledo has control of the alley and SmithZz will most likely have to peek to pick up the bomb.

Marcelo got the kill, he immediately climbed to heaven to make it difficult for G2 to change lives. While climbing, Adil ‘ScreaM’ Benrlitom knocked out Coldzera’s teammate. That helped him know the location of ScreaM and thanks to that, he aggressively peeked and killed ScreaM with precision and quick reflexes.

After that kill, Richard ‘shox’ Papillon was in a difficult 1v3 situation. He had only 13 seconds to find the bomb, plant it and stay alive at the same time. Knowing this, coldzera is hidden in heaven. shox kills both FalleN and Tacio ‘TACO’ Filho. Right after that, the shox didn’t have time to plant the bomb. He had to: either save the weapon or kill the last one. Because of coldzera’s wise position, the only way shox can win that round is to go to heaven, which is like suicide. He should have saved his weapon.

So, what did coldzera do? He killed the bomber, putting the team in a 3-1 situation by actively peeking in the direction of the bomb train and surviving the round with his awp. Such ways of playing can change the whole game. Remember that a awper alive will always be a big threat and limits the options the opponent has.

How to practice?

First of all you have to master how to use the rifle even if your role is awp. You should practice Deathmatch with both awp and rifle as much as possible to better understand your weapon.

An easier way is to study the map. Create an empty server and try to pre-aim at the usual corners as you pass. Remember that your movement speed when aiming (scope) will be slower than when not aiming. Use the date scope only when you’ve just reached the corners or you can die pretty easily. Like this:

^{If you do this right, you will have a high chance of winning gunfights.}

As you probably already know, you can’t move and shoot exactly at the same time. What does that mean? It means you have to learn to stop as fast as you can. For example, you are going to the left (strafe) to align. At that point you are holding A (default keys used in this example). If you let go of A, you will “slip” for a short distance. What you’re supposed to do is release A, and press D to reverse the move and then hold both A and D to make sure you’re completely still. Practice this move and slowly the habit will go into your blood.

Going back to Deathmatch, there are many different ways you can practice, but here is the effective way that the article recommends: try practicing each one, separately. In a deathmatch, focus on “shooting as fast as you can when you see the enemy”. At another session, it might be “no matter what happens, I won’t miss”. A third option might be to focus on switching greens as quickly as possible to finish off the enemy every time you suck with AWP. Try each exercise for about ten minutes, then the other for ten minutes, and play normally for ten minutes. It’s a generic 30-minute workout.

Watch the players play

You should watch the good players play and try to learn from what they are doing. Go to HLTV.org and download some demos. Focus on where and how they center the shot. Ask yourself, “Why did he do it and how did he do it?”

When it comes to AWP: There are a lot of good players with different playing styles that are worth a look. For active play you can check out players like JW from Fnatic and s1mple from Navi. s1mple is one of the rare players with natural talent. If he can learn to control his emotions, s1mple will become a real superstar one day.

And we have awpers that play passively and can take down opponents when they come into range. Cloud9’s Tyler ‘skadoodle’ Latham is an example. Now he admits that he has fallen in form compared to before. The 4th person that the article wants to mention is GuardiaN. Before his wrist injury, he was considered one of the top two players in the world. He’s a great player overall. GuardiaN’s greatest strength is its vast source of map knowledge. He can peek at certain positions with absolute precision through smoke and he probably has more wallbang kills than any pro player right now.

Clip see more

There’s always something special going on in professional games right now. Those magical moments, we all enjoy watching. One of those moments was when Luminosity (current SK) faced Liquid in the semifinals of the major MLG Columbus and coldzera did it.

^{Valve decided to add a little change to Mirage to portray that utopian moment. Can’t forget}

Source: pcgamer