Absurd Minds

I'm pretty sure I'm always telling you guys (at least those I've played with) that I'm capable of Nova-level play. Except when we cue together, I always fail to back up my claim and do poorly. I think I just panic for whatever reason in those games. But whenever I play by myself and get matched with Novas, well: http://i.imgur.com/jI0N5D3.png

I'm able to do extremely well. It's after these games that I feel like I should be at least Nova 1 since Silver players hardly present any more challenge than bots. But to reiterate, when I do get to go against Novas with you guys, I'm plain terrible. I think I become too eager to please and my play suffers because of it. What are you rituals to get in a proper state of mind to play? Do you warm up? How and for how long? I want to be able to constantly cue against Novas so I can improve but for whatever reason the rank system won't level me up so I'm still cueing against Silvers and not really learning anything or learning how to adapt and improve.

I usually warm up for about ten minutes. I just have to stay calm. You'll notice when I played with you on Ali I was really worked up, because I was nervous playing with lower skilled teammates, and I did pretty badly for the first part. One thing I do to keep calm is not obsess. When the round is over our I die, I try not to over analyze why I died or get worried about the skill level of the people who killed me. I try to just say "oh well, the next round is a new round, no sense worrying about this". I also find it helpful to chew gum, and I try to listen to music quietly enough that it doesn't down out sounds.

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Warm up but once you start hitting your shots you should stop. U don't want to go into a game in a rut. I actually do better after I've had a cup or coffee and I'm hyped up

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Since plastic is made from petroleum and petroleum comes from dinosaurs, then that means plastic dinosaurs are made from real dinosaurs

Oh god I'm so bad after coffee. It makes me really jittery.

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same here. the gum thing is actually something that works for anything that involves nerves. it releases excess energy and allows you to focus better. me and anubis read a study about it once.

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I'm so official, like a dealer with a pistol or referee with a whistle.

I don't understand what you mean hurr


For me, I deathmatch for 5-10 mins using only deagle/ak and then I'm good to go. Sometimes I don't even warm up. If my hands are cold, and I mean physically cold, I'll surf for 30mins-2hours. I absolutely cannot even think when my hands are cold.

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Honey Badgers have very tough skin. The skin is very thick and rubbery, which is almost impervious to arrow and spears. Even a blow from machete can't scratch the skin. The skin protects them from bites.

I mean that if I'm death matching ill usually start up slow and continue to get better. But then every once in a while I'll start doing bad. So when I'm hitting my shots, I start matchmaking.(probably a subconscious thing for me)

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Since plastic is made from petroleum and petroleum comes from dinosaurs, then that means plastic dinosaurs are made from real dinosaurs

I've tried music before but always feel like it gets in the way when I'm playing, no matter how quiet I set it haha. As for gum, I try] to do this but for some reason always take it out midgame. To talk maybe? I'm trying to get better with this

Now for warmups, I will usually do 10 minutes on the aim_training (I think that's the name) map in the workshop. Then I'll do an offline against bots to get practice against "moving" targets. And since I play on a Mac laptop, it helps my game load up everything first so that when I play, I don't get lag. Should I switch to DMs instead? As for when I play DMs, I usually only use pistols. Most of the time I use the P250 since I'm not as handy with it as I am with the 5-7. And say I can't start hitting targets, that's when you suggest ending warmup and going into game?

Thanks for all the responses by the way :]

EDIT: Finally ranked up to SEM.

, have you tried having the music come though speakers while the game comes through your headset? Some music programs will let you do this.

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I do not think macs allow you to do that(I haven't found one as I also use a mac...sadly)
But yay for another mac user (kind of)

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Since plastic is made from petroleum and petroleum comes from dinosaurs, then that means plastic dinosaurs are made from real dinosaurs

It would be up to the music program, not the operating system.

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Mac books also don't have 2 3.5mm output jacks so you would be able to listen to both unless you have USB headphones or speaker or a y-cable

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Since plastic is made from petroleum and petroleum comes from dinosaurs, then that means plastic dinosaurs are made from real dinosaurs

I don't know why redman said that about missing shots. If I'm missing shots, I'm not warmed up.

Also, playing DM is much better than playing against bots. Bots are predictable and slow. People are much more unpredictable.

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Honey Badgers have very tough skin. The skin is very thick and rubbery, which is almost impervious to arrow and spears. Even a blow from machete can't scratch the skin. The skin protects them from bites.

I have a couple questions:

1) You can play CSGO on a Mac laptop?! What kind of performance and FPS do you get?

2) I don't understand the nerves you guys are talking about with MM. Perhaps that is because I have yet to play MM, lol. What is on the line while MM to be nervous about? I could understand if you were playing a league match and didn't want to let your clan-mates down. Someone fill me in please.

* To address the OP, I don't have any rituals or calming techniques I guess because I don't feel nervous when playing. Perhaps just remind yourself that you are just playing a game and the point is to have fun. If you are too stressed and not having fun, then something is wrong. I am usually drinking a beer and just having a good time when I play. Don't worry about what others think of you, just focus on improving and relax. Remember that your opponents are playing the same game with the same weapons that you are. They don't have any magic spells or pixie dust to beat you (unless they are hacking). So don't let them beat you just because you psyched yourself out. Perhaps you should try pubbing a little more right now if the MM thing is causing problems.

I can fill in abut for the mac laptop. I use on whenever I got to palms' house. It's a MacBook Air so monarch will probably get better fps. On all the graphics turned down and on 600x800 I get 50-100 fps depending on the map.

Monarch, next Tim you're in game go to options/video settings/advanced, and turn down all the settings that are high to low. They are useless for competitive play and should up your fps by about 20-30

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Since plastic is made from petroleum and petroleum comes from dinosaurs, then that means plastic dinosaurs are made from real dinosaurs

This is not true. Anubis made a post just the other day about graphic settings.

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Honey Badgers have very tough skin. The skin is very thick and rubbery, which is almost impervious to arrow and spears. Even a blow from machete can't scratch the skin. The skin protects them from bites.

I know what he's saying. I have cycles when I play. I want to time it so my horrible cycle isn't during the match I'm about to play.

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It's not that anything is on the line, it's just that it's a new setting and the change makes me nervous. The times I do best in MM is when I forget it's a match and play like it's a pub, because then I'm not psyching myself out.

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And in that post you could see how all graphical settings are useless for competitive play, except anti-aliasing, which is neutral. (Both high and low have about an equal number of pros and cons for competitive play.) Anti-aliasing is a huge resource hog, though, and if you're not getting over 128 fps I think you should work on maximizing that, for competitive viability, than anti-aliasing. So in a sense, Redman is correct since Monarch is playing on a mac. His main goal needs to be maximizing fps, and since anti-aliasing is "neutral" when you have good fps it's definitely going to be detrimental when you have too low of fps.

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I am like travis. If I am missing shots then I am not ready. I will deathmatch until I feel my shots coming. I mean I not thinking about them anymore and I can make flick shots. Also, I get nervous sometimes when I match make or make a really big play. If you can keep your heart rate down and your breathing normal it helps a lot.

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I'm so official, like a dealer with a pistol or referee with a whistle.