Where your crosshair lives
Keep the crosshair at head height and on the edge you expect an enemy to appear from, not on the floor and not at the wall you are walking towards. Every corner you clear with the crosshair already on the angle is a duel you win for free. This alone accounts for most of the gap between ranks in games like Counter-Strike 2 and Rainbow Six Siege.
Movement makes you miss
Accuracy recovers after you stop moving. Fire in short bursts after you have come to a stop rather than spraying while strafing. In Counter-Strike 2 the first shot is accurate while still, so the habit is: stop, fire, move, stop, fire. In faster titles like Apex Legends, the same principle applies to recoil control — burst and re-centre.
Sound is a second screen
Play with headphones. Footsteps, reloads and ability audio tell you where someone is before they are visible. In Rainbow Six Siege, sound is the primary information channel: a single footstep on a wooden floor identifies the room. Turn music off and keep effects loud.
Learn the economy
In round-based games with a buy phase, winning a round is worth less than winning two in a row. Saving as a team so everyone can buy properly beats four players buying rifles and one buying nothing. If the scoreboard shows your team cannot full-buy, say so early and save together.
Trade, do not trickle
When a teammate dies, the correct response is usually to take the same angle immediately while the enemy is still reloading or recovering from recoil — a trade. Walking in one at a time hands the defending side a series of one-versus-one duels with full information.
Utility is information, not damage
Smokes and flashes are primarily for denying sightlines and forcing movement. In Rainbow Six Siege a single well-placed gadget that clears a shield or a deployable cover is worth more than a grenade thrown at a guess.
Review one death per match
After a match, pick one death and name the reason: bad crosshair position, no information, wrong timing, or a duel you simply lost. Fixing one recurring category is faster than playing ten more matches on autopilot.
Settings first
Lower your sensitivity until you can track a target smoothly — most new players run far too high. Cap frame rate stability over visual fidelity, disable mouse acceleration, and use a consistent field of view so your muscle memory transfers.