This is what I would do if I had all of this knowledge and none of the skill — starting completely fresh.
It is not worth tilting if you are going to play 500 games this season. What is the impact of one game that ended 4–5? You have to learn to manage your own mind, or you are a slave to your emotions.
Never let your ego get ahead of you. Understand that you are not the greatest, and never will be — the moment you decide you are the best, you stop improving. That is different from being happy. Do not confuse being happy with having an ego. As hard as this game is, you can be happy and still be humble.
You will have bad games. Nobody wins every game. But the moment you start complaining is the moment you stop being willing to learn. Bad game? Go support. There is always an opportunity to win and frag the next one.
Death replay is a good way to understand where the bullets came from and how they moved to kill you. It also shows you their perspective of you, and what you could have done differently.
Headshot only. Playing a single map for a whole day builds map knowledge faster than anything else, and it is the quickest way to train crosshair placement. You learn where everything is. Opening floors teaches you the vertical angles. You develop a mental map of default plants and common angles.
Ideally I want you playing one map for a week straight, Quick Match and Ranked included. Rushing to kill bots trains the same movement you will use in a real round. But the human mind is flawed, so in practice: three hours a day, one map a day, repeated until you reach level 200.
Comparing yourself to streamers and pro players is a legitimate way to learn. You are not a pro player or a streamer. You might be one day, but not right now. Learn how they move. Ask what they are doing that you are not. Note how they swing, clear, breach, communicate and drone.
Critique yourself, but do not fold. Comparison is a killer of self-development. Do not discount what you have already achieved. Keep learning and keep improving — that is what this game is about.
There is no better way to develop game sense than getting beaten repeatedly, then going back and watching what happened. The reflection is the part that turns losses into knowledge.
Change your settings based on need. But once you have found something you like, after a year or two, stop changing it. Why change something that works? Consistency comes from practising with the same setup long enough that it stops being a variable. Your aim should feel natural: you move your hand this far, you expect to move that much in game.
Grow up. Your teammates will not improve because you screamed at them, and you will not improve by screaming until you wake the neighbours. Learn not to tilt. Reflect on what actually happened — what did they do to get the advantage over you?
Even if your teammates are bad at the game, communicate calmly. If they do not listen and you lose, queue the next one. One 4–5 game in a pool of 500 will not mean anything, and you will have forgotten it within a month.
Play at least 10 to 15 games a day if you are seriously trying to learn the game. Anything less and you are limiting how good you could become. It is not hard — it is a video game. What is hard is doing maths for fifteen hours straight. But it still has to be done.
Related: how SiegeIQ compares to other coaching options.
This chapter is from The Principles of Competitive Siege, a free guide by Szhutsen K. Liang. SiegeIQ puts the same thinking on your own clips: upload a round and get a breakdown of what actually went wrong. Try it free.