Which CS Pros Have the Best Aim?

In the first-person shooter, one skill reigns above all. Hours upon hours spent training in deathmatches and offline servers. Millions upon millions spent on peripherals. Countless websites that track the pros’ specific peripherals & settings. All in the quest to replicate our idols’ heroics. 

However, while we may know which players have good aim, do we know what makes their aim so good? Sure you can see and remember a GuardiaN flick, but do you know *how* a GuardiaN flick? That’s where Leetify comes in.

Data Collection

Leetify is a platform regularly used to evaluate the performances of casual and professional players alike. It has its own rating system akin to HLTV’s, and the site also tracks other metrics such as positioning, utility usage, and, the topic of the day, aim. 

So instead of watching every demo and relying on the eye-test, Leetify can collect the data for almost* every active professional player. Then that data can be compiled and used to compare every player against each other to see which players excel at which aim skills. 

This is a spreadsheet with the aim data of 308* different players from their HLTV matches in CS2. The players come from every team that qualified for their respective RMRs, so this includes the likes of Vitality and G2, as well as underdogs “15 average Gang” and “BOSS”. Also included are some notable teams that didn’t qualify: BIG, ECSTATIC, Aurora, NRG, 9z, and Rooster. Only players with 30 matches on HLTV will be looked at for the purpose of our analysis. This narrows down our scope to 220 qualified riflers and 53 qualified AWPers.

• *Note: sharkyyy from 15 AVERAGE GANG and nero from Rocket are not included as their stats were not able to be acquired.

To see which players have the best aim we will examine different aiming characteristics, compare different aiming profiles, and see how players succeed at the highest level of competition. 

What We’re Measuring

Before we can analyze the pros, it’s important to know what data Leetify collects. 

For aim specifically, it keeps track of 7 individual aim metrics which it then compiles into its own aim rating which are as follows:

• Headshot Accuracy - This measures how many of your shots that hit an enemy were a headshot. Does not include AWP shots.

• Total Accuracy - All shots that hit an enemy divided by every shot you fire

• Enemy Spotted Accuracy - All shots that hit an enemy divided by every shot you fire at a spotted enemy. Notably, this does not include smoke spamming or wallbangs.

• Spray Accuracy - When you’re spraying, how many shots hit an enemy. This only counts sprays with rifles.

• Counter Strafing - This measures how many shots are fired while being slow enough to be accurate. Includes AWP and Rifles.

• Crosshair Placement - Measures how much your mouse moves (in degrees) from when you spot an enemy to when you hit them. The posted value is the median in the sample. 

• Time to Damage - How long it takes you to damage an enemy once you spot them. Also the median value. Note that this is different from reaction time, as that is only how fast you input, whether mouse click or mouse movement, after someone appears on your screen. Time to damage is specifically how fast you *damage* someone after they appear, so it takes every aspect of aiming into account. 

So, which stats are most important? 

The three most obvious stats to consider are time to damage, enemy spotted accuracy, and headshot accuracy. When it comes to defining what “good aim” is, the simplest definition is “how fast do you kill people on your screen”. Breaking that definition into multiple parts, “how fast” is time to damage and “on your screen” is enemy spotted accuracy. While there isn’t explicitly a “time to kill” metric (although it would be super useful), everyone that’s played Counter Strike, or really any first person shooter, knows the most efficient way to kill someone is with a headshot. By that logic, the more headshots you hit, generally, the faster you will be getting kills rather than just hits.

Crosshair placement and spray accuracy are both worthwhile to look at because they can tell us more about a players’ aiming profile. They tell us how these players are more accurate, or how they damage so quickly. But, ultimately, you don’t need to be good at either of these metrics to have a good time to damage, enemy spotted accuracy, or headshot accuracy. 

Total accuracy and counter strafing will be ignored. Considering total accuracy isn’t even the primary accuracy metric Leetify uses, it feels safe to exclude it from our overall analysis in favor of enemy spotted accuracy. On the other hand, counter strafing is a weird metric to compare because it is an aspect of your aim but intuitively it feels like more of a movement metric given that it’s an action done entirely by your keyboard (unless you’re one of the mouse2 +forward freaks). 

For the purpose of our analysis, Aim Rating will be ignored. It was also not collected but if interested, you can visit Leetify’s site to check a pros individual profile for yourself. 

Now that we know which metrics are most important, let’s examine which players excel in which areas.

ZywOo, NiKo, and ropz

What better place to start than the HLTV’s top three of last year? All three are incredibly well rounded aimers. ZywOo’s stand out metric is his enemy spotted accuracy, which is in the 97th percentile compared to all players. Overall, his average percentiles compared to all players is 85%, which stands as tied for second place. When compared to only AWPers, his crosshair placement doesn’t stand out as phenomenal (10th percentile), but given how much ZywOo uses rifles compared to other AWPers and the fact that AWPers usually have better crosshair placement anyway, means his crosshair placement is still phenomenal compared to all players

ZywOo

Similar aim profiles: mantuu (1st), w0nderful (3rd), XELLOW (12th)

NiKo and ropz, on the other hand, don’t have that issue as they don’t use the AWP, so they can strictly be compared to other riflers. And when compared to other rifles, NiKo has the highest average percentile among all rifles. Of the five metrics we’re looking at, NiKo is at the 86th percentile in every metric. No other rifler has a higher minimum percentile even close. NiKo is in a world of his own. Though NiKo hasn’t been his usual self in CS2, you can’t point to his aim to diagnose the issue as he is still one of the absolute best rifle aimers in the world. 

NiKo

ropz as an aimer has two standout traits. Accuracy and spray accuracy, where he places in the 100th percentile in both, and is the only player who eclipses a 50% spray accuracy, meaning half of his shots while spraying a spotted enemy hit. Given how many players have maligned CS2’s spray, it’s no wonder the rifler who has most embraced CS2 has excelled at this mechanic. His other metrics are merely good instead of excellent compared to his peers, but that’s still good enough to make ropz the second best rifler on average. 

ropz

Similar aim profiles: REZ (3rd), Twistzz (4th), shane (6th), donk (12th)

Nothing But Headshots

Instinctively, when you think of aim, your mind goes to headshots. There are many reasons for this. Headshot % is the most visible aim stat, as it is tracked on the in-game leaderboard and is the one posted on HLTV. The player known most for his aim historically, ScreaM, boasts the moniker “Headshot Machine” as a result of his signature one tap style. Counter Strike players have always had this natural inclination towards headshots, so let’s examine the best headshot players.

The rifler with the highest Headshot Accuracy is s0und. However, his overall aiming profile isn’t very impressive. What sticks out most is his low percentile (33rd) in time to damage, so while he’s very accurate with his headshots, he’s not hitting them very quickly. That begs the question, who are the players that hit headshots and do it quickly? Out of all riflers, only two  placed in the 90th percentile in both headshot accuracy and time to damage. Their names? b1t and mezii.

b1t

mezii

b1t burst onto the scene in 2021 with Natus Vincere. Since then, he has remained at the top of leaderboards for headshot kills, and in Leetify’s data he’s tied for 3rd among riflers in headshot accuracy. But what stands out on top of that, is he is also 6th in time to damage among qualifying riflers. Meanwhile, mezii sits 11th and 19th respectively in each category. Given his aim training prowess, this isn’t super surprising although mezii doesn’t really have that reputation among the general player base.

Similar aim profiles: insani (15th), danistzz (38th), z4kr (44th), MATYS (59th), dobu (86th)

Anything But Headshots

Team Spirit is the hottest team in CS2 right now. Adding one of the best AWPers in the world to a band of young up and comers flanking veteran IGL chopper has proven to be an intoxicating recipe for exciting Counter Strike. Headlining this roster is possibly the most exciting prospect *ever* in counter strike history, donk. Right behind him is sh1ro, an AWPer who HLTV ranked as their fifth best sniper of 2023 and the site’s third best the two years prior. However, the player who has the “best” aim on Spirit is actually the 18 year old Ukrainian rifler, zont1x, and he does it in the most unorthodox way possible. 

zont1x

Among all 312 players tracked, zont1x posted a headshot accuracy in the 2nd percentile, sitting at 16%. Flanking zont1x near the bottom of the headshot accuracy are notorious aimers such as aumaN and daps. While each of those two have average percentiles of 15% and 39%, zont1x is at 74% and is tied for 6th among qualifying riflers. 

Aside from headshot accuracy, his lowest percentile in any of the other metrics is 82nd, and he is tied with ropz for the highest enemy spotted accuracy among all riflers. If you watch zont1x play, it’s immediately recognizable how it’s a conscious decision to pre-aim torsos. And the best part is, it works. During Spirit’s parade to the Katowice trophy, the Ukrainian had a 1.16 HLTV rating. It is interesting to think about whether zont1x could be better if he tried to hit more headshots, though there is admittedly a charm in his atypical aiming style.

Similar aim profiles: KRiMZ (6th), blameF (16th), INS (31st)

Analyzing The AWPers

Aim isn’t really an attribute cited for AWPers and rightfully so. Generally the best AWPers excel at positioning, movement, and map awareness. That’s why broky, despite ranking below average in most aim categories, is still considered one of the best snipers in the world. However, aim is still at least somewhat important. You DO have to hit your shots, and hopefully you’re fast enough to survive a donkpeek while doing it. With that being the case, the aim metrics that will be considered for AWPers are enemy spotted accuracy and time to damage.

The only marksman that has a 90th percentile mark in both metrics (among fellow marksmen) is mantuu, whose aim was previously compared to ZywOo’s. If you change that to 80th, mantuu is joined by ZywOo and nqz, who is a 19 year old Brazilian currently on paiN Gaming. Seeing nqz here is interesting because his HLTV stats in the past few months are actually fairly average, exhibiting only a 1.09 rating in recent matches. However his combination of reflexes and accuracy show that he at least has promise to be Brazil’s next best sharpshooter.

mantuu

nqz

Similar profiles: device (6th), SunPayus (9th), Jame (14th), oSee (20th), deko (24th)

m0NESY and… hallzerk?

m0NESY is a unicorn, everyone knows that. Last year he was ranked as the fourth best player by HLTV and he’s continuing to get better each event. hallzerk on the other hand, is hallzerk. There’s not a whole lot to say about him, he’s on Complexity and he’s a decent-ish tier 1 AWPer. So what do the generational prodigy and m0NESY have in common? Surprisingly, headshots. 

m0NESY

hallzerk

Earlier when discussing headshot players, it was mentioned that s0und has the highest headshot accuracy among all riflers. What was not mentioned, was that m0NESY has the highest headshot accuracy among ALL players, and he’s an AWPer. Similarly, hallzerk is 7th among all players in headshot accuracy. So if EliGE ever brainwashes m0NESY into wanting to join Complexity (somehow), the org can just tell him that they have m0NESY at home. 

Similar profile: DGL (18th), acoR? (36th)

Miscellaneous Notes

Here are a ton of other little tidbits that don’t really deserve their own section but were still worth noting.

• The fastest time to damage among all riflers is KRiMZ, who is currently 29 years old. Not only is he first among riflers, but he’s also third when compared to every player even though AWPers generally have a faster time to damage than riflers. The gap between him and Perfecto, who is the second fastest rifler, is the same as the gap between Perfecto and Ax1Le, who is the 29th fastest qualified rifler. 

• donk right now is the best player in the world by a large margin. Among qualified riflers, his average percentile places him 12th. His only below average metric is crosshair placement which is in the 34th percentile. This makes sense because of the nature of his role. He’s an entry fragger and it’s impossible to be certain where to expect a fight when you’re running into a bombsite. Despite that, it seems like he never loses an aim duel. What’s most insane to think about is that donk has the potential to get *even better* despite him just posting the highest big event rating ever. 

• There are some names I was surprised to see so low on the leaderboard. NAF (195th), stavn (156th), and Senzu (150th) are just a few.

• Speaking of Senzu, he does do one thing well, he’s tied for 8th in qualified headshot accuracy. However, he’s not the only from his country who has this trait. mzinho is 3rd, Techno is 17th, and Zesta is 20th. That’s 20% of the top 20 taken up by one country, and keep in mind, there are only 8 Mongolian riflers on the list. 

Noteworthy Flaws

These stats are fun to look at, but unfortunately, that’s all they really are. There are quite a few things that make the samples inconsistent:

• There have been constant updates to CS2 that have changed the gunplay/peekers advantage/movement that all could have an effect on aim stats.

• There isn’t a way to filter for LAN and Online matches, so if you’re playing with 100 ping your aim stats are counted the same way as when you’re playing with 0 ping.

• The sample size for matches isn’t large enough. The minimum for analysis here is 30 matches but 30 hardly seems enough for a healthy sample. For context as well, sh1ro, NAF, and stabbi all only just hit the minimum at 30 matches. Meanwhile, nicoodoz has 119. There’s a large disparity there which should even out more once more teams play events and there are more regular events.

• There isn’t a filter for different weapons so it’s hard to compare AWPers to riflers. In fact, it’s hard to compare different AWPers to each other because of how much weapon usage varies among them. Jame’s 55.14% usage is in stark contrast to nicoodoz’s 22.28%. Not even mentioning all the other weapons that can affect things, such as the deagle or scout. 

• There isn’t a filter for the T and CT side, both of which change the way you interpret somebody’s aim. 

So while a lot of the numbers are representative of general expectations, it’s still important to take these numbers with a grain of salt. It takes a lot more than just aim to be a good player. I’m sorry to say, as shocking as this, that mantuu actually *isn’t* the best player in the world. Sorry to all the mantuuzuma believers out there but practically every other European AWPer is a conquistador at this point. 

Also just a disclaimer, you might be tempted to compare your Leetify metrics to the pros. Just remember all the data collected is from official matches and is against players who are 50 times better than whatever bum you’re facing in your premier game in terms of aim, utility usage, movement, positioning, and map awareness. The worst pro is here is still better than 99.9% of the people that are reading this.

With all that said, hopefully these stats shed some players in a new light and bring new analysis to professional Counter Strike. While these metrics are in a rudimentary stage without proper weapon tracking or a time to kill metric or other filters, this sort of analysis is the future of professional Counter Strike scouting and development.

Outro

Thank you for reading. This is the first time I’ve done something like this so hopefully you enjoyed. If you want to see a graph for any of the players list, this is for Riflers, AWPers, and All Players, and the spreadsheet with all the raw data was linked at the beginning.

This is a topic I’m going to revisit at the end of the year after the Shanghai Major when hopefully the game is more consistent and players have a much bigger sample under their belts. In the meantime, I’ll be trying to write more about CS. I have a few more topics in mind ranging from broad critiques of the way we evaluate players to more fun stuff, and as well there are always going to be new things that pop up in our ever changing era of CS2.

Until next time, good luck and have fun.