Whether you’re swimming with the silvers or gliding with the globals, CS:GO’s ranking system is a great way to gauge your skill in comparison to other players in competitive matchmaking.
Unlike most of the assault rifles in CS:GO, the M4A4 is incredibly accurate when fired at a distance. This high accuracy, coupled with average recoil allows the M4A4 to shine when burst fired at a distance.
Counter-Strike’s competitive ranks range from the noobs to the elite like other esports games. And you can expect a roller coaster of emotions for as long as you play it. You can feel the gaming high after ranking up. You can feel the disdain for the game after deranking. The noobs can hurt your head with ignorance. The elite can tilt you into tantrums with their talent.
No matter what your rank is or how good other players in your matches are, two things are certain: You’ll want to invest some time into getting better at the game and improving your rank for a more CS:GO enjoyable experience.
How do I get a rank?
If you’re a noob to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, you may need to set aside some time to earn your stripes.
The level system ranges from one to 40 and is only used as a rewarding system for receiving cosmetic skin drops and service medals. Once you’ve played enough, those medals change color for every 40 times you rank up in a given year—like prestige in Call of Duty. To unlock competitive Matchmaking, you must first reach level two by playing any of the game modes created by Valve: Casual, Arms Race, Demolition, and/or Deathmatch. Attaining level two will grant you access to Matchmaking, where CS:GO’s finest are found.
Your rank won’t show until you’ve won 10 competitive matches. You’ll be placed in mixed games with players from various ranks, but generally, players are initiated in the lower tiers until at least halfway into their placement progress.
Since you’re playing on a new account, you’ll be restricted to two competitive wins per day until you reach your 10th. Valve implemented this to combat the use of smurfs by higher-ranked players, but it still doesn’t stop them from smurfing. Assuming that you’re able to reach two wins per day, your rank should be given to you on the fifth day of playing in Matchmaking. Once you’ve won 10 competitive matches, your skill group will finally appear under your 10th in-game scoreboard.
Once you’ve earned your stripes, your rank will be displayed under your username at the start-up screen and to the right of your username on match scoreboards. You can only see your teammates’ ranks if you’re in a party with them.
So what are the ranks?
Valve’s player hierarchy is comprised of 18 ranks, with each rank more skilled than the last. The ranks are in the following order from bottom to top.
What does my rank mean?
Players classify the ranks into tiers. Generally, players exhibit the same behaviors as other players in their ranks, with some exceptions. For instance, “MGs” are typically familiar with the economy system for the first four rounds, so minimal team communication is required.
“Silvers” are at the bottom of the food chain; it’s the rank where players are total beginners, and there’s little to no strategy involved in gameplay. This range of ranks are where smurfs (higher ranked players on alternate accounts) are commonly found. Escaping the silver division is extremely challenging for newer players because of smurfs.
“Novas” sit in the middle of the bell curve as they’re beginning to learn more and more about the game, such as economy, spray patterns, smokes, and pop-flashes. The upper Nova ranks act as the true checkpoint for being above-average. Players who are “all aim and no brain” are most commonly found in Nova, meaning that they can aim their gun and kill enemies, but they lack the game sense to improve.
Players with “Master Guardian” in their rank are generally more advanced. They already have knowledge of sprays, economic buy trends, site execution with utility, and retake coordination. Moving up anywhere past the MG ranks requires perfecting your skills, learning from your mistakes, and making incremental changes to your playstyle for improvement.
Anything above DMG (LE through GE) is where the elite of Counter-Strike reside. These guys are really, really good at finding ways to kill you.
As you move up the ranks, players will have a greater knowledge of the game, and at points, it may seem as though they’re cheating. It’s extremely easy to fall into this perception. Don’t let this discourage you. Use this as motivation to become better at the game.
How do I rank up?
Improving your rank is pretty rudimentary: If you win enough games, then you rank up. Losing games will derank you.
CS:GO follows a modified Glicko-2 ranking system, according to Valve. Essentially, this algorithm evaluates a player’s skill pool based on their round influence, and whether their team wins the round. Factors such as kills, deaths, MVPs, assists, damage given, and bomb plants all affect a hidden numerical value that determines your place within a rank. A general in-game model to follow would be to play for the round win and not for kills. The amount of kills you have doesn’t matter as much if your team is consistently losing. Those kills only play as a long-term role in preventing you from deranking.
How do you efficiently rank up?
What Is Dmg In Csgo Money
The best way to rank up in a short period of time is to play with players who share the same goal. Players who queue with other serious players are more likely to win more rounds and even the match than five players that are solo-queued. The best way for finding other serious players is to befriend other passionate players in community servers or on third-party sites.
If you’re serious about your rank, it’s best to avoid solo queue. You run the risk of encountering griefers (players who intentionally lose the match) or players who don’t care if you win. Solo queuing is associated with deranking due to the variable competitiveness of players.
The big picture
Your rank isn’t everything. It’s just an arbitrary name that defines how other players perceive you. If you focus on becoming better at Counter-Strike rather than winning, then ranking up becomes seamless.
Prime
Prime is CS:GO’s latest feature. It was added to the game a while ago, but it’s recently been updated. Originally, you had to grind through a grueling 21 levels to achieve Prime status. But now, you can choose to pay $15 instead. Considering the game is free to play, it’s a fair price.
Slothsquadron Weapon Spreadsheet
Prime is an incredibly-important feature for ranked play. Previously, the ladder was plagued with aimbotters and wallhackers who thrived on your misery. They created a fresh account and cheated without any real repercussions.
Prime helps you avoid this type of player. If you have Prime, you’ll be queued with other Prime users. There’s not a sure chance you’ll never meet a hacker again, but it will help drastically reduce the rate. It’s unlikely they’ll want to bother getting level 21, and the chances of them paying for Prime status are extraordinarily slim.
In addition, you’ll also be eligible for Prime-exclusive souvenir items, item drops, weapon cases, and you’ll have access to all Community-operated servers.
If you want to become a Prime user, it should automatically be activated once you reach the acquired level, or if buy the upgrade. If you’ve been playing CS:GO for a while, however, there’s a chance that you’ll have to opt into Prime yourself. You can do this by pressing “Play” in the upper left of your screen, then selecting the green coin. Once you’re there, just click to enable Prime.
Rank | Abbreviation |
The Global Elite | TGE |
Supreme First Master Class | SMFC |
Legendary Eagle Master | LEM |
Legendary Eagle | LE |
Distinguished Master Guardian | DMG |
Master Guardian Elite | MGE |
Master Guardian II | MG2 |
Master Guardian I | MG1 |
Gold Nova IV | GN4 |
Gold Nova III | GN3 |
Gold Nova II | GN2 |
Gold Nova I | GN1 |
Silver IV | S4 |
Silver III | S3 |
Silver II | S2 |
Silver I | S1 |
Blogs
Today, we will be going in-depth on the Time-to-Kill at various ranges on the M4A1-S vs M4A4. Ever since the M4A1’s inception, there have been countless debates and comparisons between the two. In this article we compare both and provide stats to find the right choice for you.
As of the 9/15/2015 patch, the M4A1-S was changed drastically:
- Reduced price to $3100
- Reduced Rate of Fire
- Increased base spread
This changed brought a much needed balance between the two rifles, bringing their usage in-game to around 50:50 for each. In this guide, we will be looking to see if what the M4A1-S lacks in Rate of Fire(ROF) can be made up in its Time-to-Kill(TTK) and Damage-per-Second (DPS).
The difference between the two rifles after the patch are as follows:
What you can draw from this information is that the M4A1-S has less Rate of Fire, but higher damage and penetration. Now, we will look into some in-game statistics on the guns.
Testing:
The following was tested at a variety of distances on the map Cobblestone, multiple times each to ensure consistency. This diagram shows the locations of where the specific wallbangs were tested at.
Each test was completed against a bot with full Kevlar armor and 100% health. The range was tested with the server command sv_showimpacts_penetration 1. This command shows the damage, range, and damage lost from object penetration, and whether the bullet was stopped or not. Here you can see an example of what it looks like in-game. (Note: sv_cheats 1 must be enabled to use this command)
Here are the results that followed the testing:
Data Analysis:
From this data, we can see that at close ranges, at around 20m, both rifles have nearly identical damage. The M4A4 will kill in 5 hits from this range, along with the M4A1-S, making the M4A410% faster at killing. However, differences can be seen emerging between the two after the 50m range. The M4A4 will take 6 shots, dealing 114 damage to get a kill, while the M4A1-S will only take 5 shots, dealing 110 damage to get a kill. This makes the M4A1-S12.5% faster at killing from distances greater than 50m. A headshot at close range will still take 2 shots for either rifle. The M4A4 will kill 10% faster for a double headshot compared to the M4A1-S, as noted in the difference in rate of fire.
Now, how about wallbangs?
Wallbangs can be very effective on maps like cobblestone, such as clearing out Hut, or stopping terrorists from pushing from A Long by getting an easy kill through the wood on Alley. For wallbangs on an easy object like the wood on Alley, at 25m no difference can be seen between the two rifles. Both the M4A4 and M4A1-S take 6 shots each, totaling 102 damage to get a kill. As the range increases, the difference in the M4A1-S penetration can be seen. At only 30m it takes the M4A4 7 shots to get a kill for 105 damage, while the M4A1-S only takes 6 to deal 102 damage. This makes the M4A1-S8% faster at killing from 30m for wallbangs, and 5% faster from 50m.
But looking at the data, one can notice that sometimes the DPS is lower than the TTK. How is this possible? The DPS was taken from the amount of shots needed to kill, the damage dealt, and the ROF of the gun. The TTK was taken from the bullets needed for a kill, and the rate of fire. This means that the TTK is a more real-world comparison between the two, and the DPS is a more analytical, and should only be used for data analysis like this.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, both rifles have their own strong and weak points. The M4A4 is better as a close range weapon, while the M4A1-S is better at further ranges. At ranges over 50m, the M4A1-S will kill faster than the M4A4. For wallbangs, the distance is lowered to 30m for the M4A1-S to be more effective than its counterpart. The M4A1-S will not suffer a damage drop off for wallbangs until 50m, while the M4A4’s damage will start to drop off after only 30m.
A general rule of thumb:
- For chest shots: After 50m the M4A1-S will take 1 less bullet to kill
- For wallbangs: After 30m the M4A1-S will take 1 less bullet to kill
But just how far is 50m? Let’s look at some in-game examples on a familiar map like Dust 2:
(left) CT-Mid to Cat is 50m. (right) Mid to T-Spawn is 50m
Lem Csgo
(left)Back of Plat B-Site to Upper is 50m. (right) Cross to the front of Pit is 35m; back of Pit is 50m
From Back of A to Long is 60m
Cs Go All Guns
From the person having to solo B-Site, to the Mid player, each person's role varries for their team, and so should their weapon of choice. Hopefully this guide gave you a general idea of what range each rifle excels at, and helps make you make the correct choice between the two for your playstyle.