In Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, you must constantly move around the map: get from cover to cover, watch out for enemies, and even collide with them, surprising each other. In order for such meetings not to be your last in a round, you need to know how to peek in CS:GO. Peeking is a method of moving from behind an obstacle (corner, cover, wall, etc). What are the peeks in CS:GO? How to peek and counterpeek? CS.MONEY Blog prepared a thorough guide.
Quality peeking is one of the most vital skills in a player’s arsenal. With successful peeks, you can collect information and effectively engage in firefights. The main task of any peek is simple: to get as much advantage as possible with the least risk. Therefore, a good peek should be lightning-quick, surprising and, at the same time, cautious.
Let’s talk about CS:GO peeks. But first, we suggest you make a quick peek at the skins on CS.MONEY Trade. It’s the easiest way to trade: fast deals, prices below Steam and various filters. Don’t hesitate; go style up!
Types of CS:GO peeks
There are five types peeks in CS:GO. Basically, it means you can peek from around the barrier in five ways:
- casual/regular peek
- shoulder peek
- Jiggle-peek
- long/wide peek
- ducking/crouching peek
Casual/regular peeks are the easiest. Tease your enemy a little by showing yourself from both sides of the cover (or the only side), counter-strafe and shoot or slip back into cover. It’s important not to go too wide or long; you need to show yourself to the enemy as little as possible.
Shoulder peeks are performed to collect information or bait your enemy for a shot. Here, get out of cover as quickly as possible and go back in an instant. At the same time, try not unveiling yourself to the enemy as much as you can. Showing just a shoulder tip and hiding again is more than enough. Basically, the name says it all.
Jiggle-peeking is an advanced technique. It’s a whole series of small strafes in opposite directions. This technique allows you to check positions one by one without being exposed to enemy fire. Note that Jiggle-peek can still be countered: your enemy can still calculate the moment and click your head.
Long/wide peeks and ducking peeks pretty much speak for themselves. With the first, just jump from your cover at a greater-than-usual distance. With the second, combine it with a duck/crouch. Both techniques have a common idea: to deceive the enemy’s expectations and force them to re-aim, which will buy you some time.
How to peek correctly in CS:GO?
Any good peek requires three steps: preparation, timing, and execution. Let’s look at each point in more detail.
Preparation. Here, we include whatever you can do before the peek itself. The simplest example of preparation is locating your crosshair at the right height. With proper pre-aiming, you can significantly reduce the time of searching for your enemy’s head and, due to this, shoot faster. You can also throw a flashbang or deceive your opponent with a sound fake like a zoom click. Such tricks make your peeks more successful.
Timings. Be wise and study the enemy’s behaviour or use distractions created by teammates. For example, when retaking B on Dust 2, you better peek at the door when your teammate climbs through the window: their actions may be for a fraction of a second but will still distract the enemy and give you an opportunity.
Executing. Basically, this means your personal aiming and shooting skill. When peeking, you need to stop or change direction, or even counterstrafe (which is very handy). Then, if a crossfire starts, you need to aim at the enemy and shoot faster and more accurately than them. So, your skill in aim and recoil control is crucial in peeking.
Overall, with no proper individual skill, even a best-timed peek or perfect instaflash entrances can end in failure. Thus, take the time to practice. If you don’t know where to start, you can just repeat s1mple’s training routine. One of the best players on the planet knows exactly how to polish skills.
Entry’s Advantage
CS:GO is an online FPS game. Ideally, all the players and the server have the same game state data. These days people talk about 64 and 128 tickrate servers, gigabit ICs, and a whole bunch of other technologies to get rid of lagging and ping. But in real life, it’s impossible for everyone to have perfect connection. Let’s give credit to Valve’s programmers: in CS:GO, the Entry player may not have a technical advantage.
See, in CS:GO, a player to enter by peeking and executing a proper tactic and therefore winning an opening duel is called an entry fragger. Even if you’re just peeking behind a box and not even planning to enter a site, you’re still in an Entry position. You have to enter. And the Entry player (Peeker) always has the advantage equal to the defender’s ping. Indeed, at a LAN game with near zero ping, such a player has no technical advantage, only pure skill. Even when playing online with a ping of about 50 or lower, the advantage of the Entry player is just one factor, but not a decisive one. Aiming time, counterstrafe, and other factors also take time and somewhat reduce the importance of Entry’s technical advantage.
Finally, trying to counter a peek with a ping of over a hundred is a serious problem. In such a situation, the game’s network code gives the defender the same advantage as you would have as an Entry player. You will see the target much earlier and be able to react.
Perspective and Initiation
In addition to the technical advantage, which, as we found out, might be levelled, two more aspects are beneficial for peeking in CS:GO. First, the Entry player has the Initiative. As long as the defender simply holds the corner, the Entry/Peeker has the Initiative. You can prepare the peek and do everything at your own pace.
This leads to another advantage: by having the Initiative, an Entry player also gets the opportunity to win the fight for Perspective. Simply told, the closer you stand to the corner, the greater part of the field of view this corner blocks. Therefore, it is more profitable for both the defender and the Entry to be as far as possible from cover.
The Entry player can choose the distance to their cover when peeking, but the Defender must work off what they have. This usually means taking a default position at a maximum distance from a corner or cover. Obviously, such a position is easy to read. As a result, the Defender becomes an excellent target for the prefire.
How to counterpeek right?
it’s pretty hard to learn instantly how to counterpeek. If the Entry player (Peeker) does everything right (prepared, aimed, and timed), winning against such a peek/entrance is almost impossible. So the best way to win against a peek is to interfere with their preps and timings.
When facing a peek, you need to constantly move and switch positions. Get closer or further than usual, crouch/duck or vice versa, do a boost, and so on. One can only catch the Entry Peeker by surprise and win the duel by creating chaos. You can also seize the initiative. Having jumped out on a player preparing for the peek, you can quickly make a frag and retreat to your defensive position. This is a risky manoeuvre, but it can be effective.
Speaking of timings, you can follow simple rules. First, make no sound. There is no point in endlessly clicking the zoom or stomping back and forth. No matter how joyful it is to spam your AWP’s sight, it will not help to win the game. Second, you need to understand what and why you are doing on the map. If you are holding a specific pass, don’t leave your position as soon as you hear a flashbang pop somewhere.
So, we hope now you know more about how to peek in CS:GO and why it’s so important. It’s an essential part of gameplay, and you won’t be able to play and advance through the map without it. Therefore, CS.MONEY Blog recommends mastering and honing this skill as soon as possible. And to not get bored with practice, haste to update your inventory on CS.MONEY Trade: new skins bring new emotions! And clutching against a top peeker with your favourite skin makes it even better.
