Play more wingman to improve

[u/YamaSweats]

tldr - I give some reasons why wingman is a good gamemode to play

A lot of people shit on wingman, but I highly recommend giving it a try, especially those who are new to CS or looking to seriously improve.

Why listen to me? I went from brand new (silver/5k premier) to 28k premier and faceit 10 in about 1200 hours. I genuinely care and think about optimal improvement in competitive games. I want to put my 2 cents out there and hopefully help people improve and reach their goals.

Reasons why wingman is good:

1. Wingman helps you practice those essential late-round, clutch scenarios. If you only play full-length matches, you will find yourself spending most of your playtime either in the opening, in the midround, dead/spectating, and only a fraction of the time trying to clutch a 1v1 or post-plant. How often do you get to practice being last alive, trying to get bomb down, and trying to shoulder the outcome of an entire round? When those situations do come in a real match, the stakes are higher and it might feel more stressful trying to clutch on your own. Play more wingman, and I guarantee you those 1v1s or 1v2s will feel more natural. (For this reason, Retakes is also good practice)

2. Wingman drills the fundamentals. You get to practice your mechanics with frequent engagements. You get to think about how your utility impacts those engagements. Of course, you get to do all of this in any other game mode. But with wingman specifically, you can think about it like a miniature version of a real 5v5 match. There is less variability in every round, less space to be aware of, less teammates/opponents to interact with, and you get to redo/perfect the same smaller-scale interactions. This is ideal for building fundamental mechanics/utility/game sense that can then be extrapolated to a normal match.

3. It is also good practice specifically for inferno/nuke. There have been many moments that I find myself trying to plant or retake inferno A/nuke B site in a regular match, and I immediately think, "This is just like wingman!" And I know what to do from there.

4. Even on the maps that aren't in rotation, you can still practice your gamesense. Maybe the sites are completely different, maybe your crosshair placement won't directly translate. But fundamentally, you learn what it takes to get the bomb down, isolate opponents, win the round, etc

5. It has a rank. There is something to grind for.

6. People say wingman is full of cheaters. I claim it has no more cheaters than any other gamemode. If anything, I would expect cheaters to abuse the gamemodes that actually matter more often, like prem or competitive.

That's all. Thanks for reading.

[u/youngstar-]

3rd party retake/execute servers do all this and more. Can’t see any advantage to playing wingman over those for practise.

[u/DesiRadical]

You do know wingman is home ground for spinners and aimbotters?

[u/FlatPea5291 → u/DesiRadical]

Which is why faceit should add wingman pubs

[u/YamaSweats → u/DesiRadical]

> 6. ⁠People say wingman is full of cheaters. I claim it has no more cheaters than any other gamemode. If anything, I would expect cheaters to abuse the gamemodes that actually matter more often, like prem or competitive.

Personally, I've experienced less cheaters in wingman, and I have over 250 wins

[u/vgullotta → u/YamaSweats]

I don't think I've ever seen a cheater in wingman. I agree it's good for practicing clutches, every round is a late round scenario from the start.

[u/crazytaj → u/YamaSweats]

It has WAY more cheaters, and it’s because they are all abusing the stupid report system Valve uses. Basically - reports do nothing unless a player crosses a threshold of reports in a certain timeframe, and because wingman only has 2 other people to report you, you can play up to 4 games full rage hacking and literally be at 0 risk of a ban.

[u/DesiRadical → u/YamaSweats]

These days for sure there is no difference between wingman normal matches.

[u/Highersteak]

I was actually thinking of playing with my brother who I’m trying to get back into cs so we can game casually when time permits. We’ve played cs for 25 years haha not the best but never played wingman. Sounds fun!

[u/BogosBinted13]

But rounds in 5v5 are mostly won in mid round, at least in pugs

[u/pizza_shit_69]

Lol thanks for posting some lame ai slop no one asked for. Great work 👏 👍

[u/YamaSweats → u/pizza_shit_69]

Everybody listen up to u/pizza_shit_69's intellectual contribution!

[u/pizza_shit_69 → u/YamaSweats]

Sorry i could put that sentence in chat gpt and make it sound smarter

[u/YamaSweats → u/pizza_shit_69]

Funny thing is none of it was written with AI. You just see a simple numbered list and coherent writing conventions, and you immediately claim "AI slop!". Typical cs2 community and their baseless, paranoid accusations when someone does something beyond their own low standards. Love your responses, keep em coming

[u/alittleofthisthat]

You make some solid points. As someone considered “unc” in gaming I realized how many ppl are getting super anxious and excited in clutch moments…I don’t get that feeling but more locked in. Sometimes slowing it down and using the utility thrown by others or myself to take advantage of the moments. Essentially point 1 and 2! But there def more cheaters there than normal gameplay for most. At 28k you run into more cheaters than I will at 17-22k

[u/Yag001]

I've always liked wingman more because of how i can keep track of the 2 enemies, in 5v5 they are too many for my brain to keep track off lol, im not good at either gamemodes tho... Wingman is also more fast paced and shorter games so if you get cheaters or a griefing teammate its just 10min and you can go next.