How to practise prefires in CS2
A prefire is a shot at a common angle just before you see the enemy there, so the bullet lands as he appears. You get good at it by learning where people stand on each map and clearing those spots in the same order, again and again, until your crosshair goes there without thinking.
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Prefire or pre-aim?
Pre-aiming is having your crosshair on the spot, at head height, before you peek it. Prefiring is shooting as you clear it, without waiting to see the player. You pre-aim most angles. You prefire the few where a player almost always stands.
Prefiring an empty angle tells the enemy where you are and costs bullets, so learn which spots are worth it.
Learn the spots first
- Pick one map and one route, like a T-side entry into a site.
- List the spots a CT can hold on that route, in the order you clear them.
- Walk the route slowly with your crosshair on each spot, then speed up.
- Watch your own demos for the spots you keep dying to.
Drill them on a practice server
Put bots on the spots and clear them in order. Aim for the head, and reset until you clear the whole route without missing one. On a Subtick server:
- .bot spawns a standing bot, and .cbot a crouched one.
- .savepos stores your starting spot, and .loadpos takes you back after each run.
- .impacts shows where your bullets landed.
- .nobots removes the bots when you are done.
Subtick's ranked Prefire drill
Prefire is a ranked drill on your personal Subtick server. You walk a path and clear the angles while bots hold them. Clear a take and the next one loads. Die and the take restarts.
- Type .prefire to pick a creator, a course and a stage, or play all stages in a row.
- Your rating moves once per take: clear it to gain, die and you lose.
- Bot levels go from easy through normal, hard and expert to nightmare, each set against your rating. Harder takes gain more and lose less.
- The rating runs from 200 to 5000 and starts at 1500, across five leagues from Ash to Crown, each with tiers I to III.
- There is a monthly season and an all-time board, and you are listed after 20 rated takes. Custom bot tuning makes a run unrated.
Build your own routes
If the route you need is not there, build it. Type .studio on your server to open Creative Studio, record the walk, place bots with .place, keep a draft with .save and publish it with .publish.
Prefire trains taking angles. Swap turns it around: kill the bot, take its seat, and swing the hold you just left.
Questions
What is prefiring in CS2?
Shooting at a common angle just before you see an opponent there, so the shot lands as they appear.
Is prefiring better than pre-aiming?
Neither replaces the other. Pre-aim every angle you clear, and prefire the few spots where someone almost always stands.
How do I practise prefires alone?
Use a practice server with bots on the spots you want to clear, or a ranked drill like Subtick's Prefire, where bots hold the angles and every take is scored.
How does the Prefire rating work?
It is a Glicko-2 rating from 200 to 5000 that starts at 1500. It moves once per take: clear the take to gain, die and you lose. Harder bot levels gain more and lose less.