This article is going to be a bit shorter, but it is a very important article. One thing that has come along with my job as an analyst for GotFrag and also as a coach, is a great ability for watching HLTV's. "Bootman, I know how to watch HLTV. Are you stupid?" Kind of! But let's get to the point. The focus of this article is to let everyone who reads this learn how to get the most out of a live HLTV server or an HLTV demo they are watching.

First we'll start out by listing the three types of HLTV spectators.

1. Improving your personal or your team's game
This is a player or clan leader out there who is all about improving. They sit and watch HLTV and are noting different positions, headstacks, or anything else they can to improve their game. This is how I started learning the game more, and it is great for players trying to eventually make it big by either playing, or taking my job at sucking at the game, but having a great understanding of it.

2. Playbooking
These are players who are usually at the top level of play. They are watching other top teams' demos trying to figure out what it is they are doing and certain tips they may give off to show they are about to do a certain tactic.

3. The frag whore
This is who you definitely don't want to be. This is anybody that is sitting and watching HLTV or POV demos just to watch their favorite player kill a lot of people. If you are this type, you are wasting your time. No matter how much you watch from your favorite player's point of view, it is going to do little to nothing to improve yourself. If you are that die hard about seeing a lot of frags, do this when you are extremely bored and can't spend your time better by actually benefiting from your spectating experience. If you really like a certain player's style of play, watch an HLTV demo. This way you can click around and see how his team is helping him get all of those frags.

Demo Watching

If you remember my How To Guide on Making A Playbook I gave you all a link to my little assistant called movie.cfg. This little tool that, when executed, will give you some nice helpers.

Buttons:
F9: Fast Forward
F10: High Speed Fast Forward
F11: Pause

This is more or less to fast forward through eco rounds or boring parts of the demo that aren't that useful to you. You could use the viewdemo feature, but I don't like to. It takes longer to load the demo. The only perk is that it has a rewind feature, but I'd rather fast forward and if I miss a part, I just reload the demo and use F10 and I'm back at my place pretty darn quick.

Always Keep Clicking

The main tip I can give you is that you shouldn't stop clicking around when watching HLTV. This means clicking your fire button, but mostly your jump button. This is constantly going to change player's point of views so you will always know what is going on. By doing so, you will see why players move the way they do and in what situations they will do it. Also, by always clicking the space bar, you won't ever see a dull moment. By changing from POV to a map overview, you are always going to know when players will meet up with each other for a gun fight.

People are asking why I don't recommend using the picture-in-picture feature that HLTV provides. I think it takes away from your main focus. It is hard to keep track of the crosshairs and an overview of an entire map and ten players. Once you get used to always clicking around, you're going to be able to do both and it will benefit you much more than the picture-in-picture-feature.

What To Look For
Map Overview
The first time I watch the demo, I like to watch in only the map overview and keep holding down fast forward. This will give you a good idea of where most of the action will take place and I also jot down some rounds where something important happened so I can have a more in-depth look when I watch in 3rd person or 1st person my second time.

Watching in the overview first will give you a good idea of what splits are working and the timing the team is using on the offense. And for the defense, it will show you when they are losing rounds, and how or if they adjust to help them stop a particular offensive tactic that is winning a lot of rounds for their opponent.

Grenades
In 100% complete honesty, I don't find them that important when watching HLTV demos. Sure they are a big part of fakes and things like that, but any smart player isn't going to adjust until his teammate sees two or three opponents.

The perks of this are seeing different angles of the grenades that a team or player is throwing. There are a lot out there and I am still learning new ones myself. You will learn new angles of grenades to help your team run a few fakes from a lot farther back on the map, so that is one good thing you can learn. Most of the time you can pretty much tell how they are throwing it or where they are banking them off of from looking in different point of views (3rd or 1st person).

1st Person POV
As mentioned before, sitting in this point of view is not really going to make you better at the game if you are looking for how their crosshairs wiggle to get all those frags. What you have to do to gain the most from this 1st person POV is hit the jump button from 3rd person to 1st person. You will see the general area they are sitting in from the 3rd person, and then the 1st person will show you what they are aiming at that helps them get the frags. When I am making playbooks in an HTML or printed out format, I like to use a little split screen action that will show you both their 3rd person and first person POV.

Realistically, if you know this player is going to get a lot of frags from this angle, you should start clicking your fire button and jump button to see how his teammates are rotating over to help him out, just in case he doesn't have a godly performance.

Headstacks and Partnerships
This is probably the best part you can learn from. Just watch how two players play certain areas, doing various headstacks, crossfires, or flashbang/bait positions. I'm talking about defensive positions like Catwalk on Dust2 or pretty much any B bombsite in competitive play.

The point is to watch as many of these positions as possible and when practicing with your team, try as many as possible with your teammate and pick out three or four that work out the best for you two in scrimmages.

Well that's just about it for the demo watching. It seems like a pointless article, but I have gotten many questions about how I scout teams or how I started to learn so much about the game. Doing all of the above will help out your game indefinitely from the mental aspect; there isn't much you can do for your aim besides practicing until your fingers bleed. This seems like it is a little easier, so have at it students!