Part 1

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Part 1​

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The purpose of this section is to introduce newer players to unfamiliar concepts and to provide a deep analysis of these concepts that even experienced players can benefit from.  There will also be brief bits of information about the history of the evolution of jumpstats in CSGO.  If you are above average in skill or have played for a long time you may wish to skip to Part 2.​

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• Before you even sit down to play

Jumpstats are something that require you to be in top form to improve your records after a point. This means things outside of the game are going to impact how you do in the game. It is important to be hydrated while you play and to not play while hungry or tired. Another helpful tip is that staying physically active is going to help you play a bit better. Maybe it all sounds a bit ridiculous, but if you want to play your best, I suggest focusing on staying hydrated, eating before you play, and going for a brief ten to fifteen minute walk before you sit down to play. ​

This applies to more than just practicing jumpstats, however, jumpstats require so much mechanical skill and input, you really have to do everything you can to keep yourself in good performing condition. These are small changes you can make that will boost how well you play.​

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• Does your equipment and setup alter potential performance?

The short answer is no.  You do not need to have the best mouse, or keyboard, or have a 144hz refresh rate monitor, or anything of the sorts to become the very best. The only thing that matters is that your setup is comfortable.  Many of the best players are using membrane keyboards, a medium tier wired mouse, and a Steelseries QCK+ or QCK heavy mousepad.  Some people are under the impression that a mechanical keyboard is ideal for strafing, although I would actually argue that a membrane works much better. ​

I spent a lot of time worrying about things that turned out to be trivial, such as how I rested my arm on my desk, or how good my keyboard was, and other things of the sort.  What I learned after reaching a high skill level is that I could perform basically equally on any setup so long as it was comfortable.​

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• In-game settings

First and foremost it is important to set the correct rate settings for 128 tick, which is the primary tickrate servers running KZTimer will be using. Exactly how I have everything set up can be seen in my autoexec which I have linked at the end of this guide.  

Secondly, keybindings need to be considered. Generally in KZ you want to be using mousewheel up or down to jump, and the opposite key to duck for the purpose of Countjumps. 

For those who wish to best apply their jumpstats skills to running maps, I suggest you use the same jump key to practice jumpstats that you run maps with, which is generally mousewheel down.  For those who wish to improve at jumpstats primarily, I suggest picking between using Mouse1, Mouse2, Mouse4, or Spacebar to jump.  

The reason for this is that the only working version of the crouch bind is an alias, and alias’ can only be bound to keys which have a release. If you want your non bind skills to transfer over to using the bind, it is best to practice on a key that can also be used with the bind. Mousewheel can not be used with the bind for this reason. 
 
Next, you must consider mouse settings. I think as a general rule you will want to have Raw Input turned on.  This is because we want to eliminate inconsistent forms of mouse acceleration that are present as a result of how your operating system interprets mouse input. Using acceleration as an in-game setting is a preference, although for what it is worth, none of the top ten strafers or KZ players are using mouse accel as far as I am aware. I think it is generally bad because strafing requires an even movement speed of the mouse and an even travelling distance of the mouse back and forth several times in under one second.  Human error is exaggerated by the use of mouse acceleration .  

In regards to mouse sensitivity, the sensitivity you use for longjumping is of very little importance.  I have done amazing jumps on 800 DPI 1 sensitivity, and done amazing jumps on 800 DPI 2.6 sensitivity, as well as many other sensitivities in between.  The only thing that matters is that you pick a sensitivity you can play KZ on and stick with it.  One of the biggest mistakes I have made is changing my sensitivity several times. Changing your sensitivity can only ever be a bad thing, and any time you are unable to do things and want to blame your sensitivity, it is likely that you just lack the required skills. I would recommend  a sensitivity that makes moving your mouse across the entire usable space of your mousepad no less than 200 degrees turned in game and no more than two full 360s.

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• Types of jumps

Bunnyhop ​

A bunnyhop is when a player jumps into the air, turns to collect speed, and then jumps again as they land.  When executed perfectly the player will maintain the speed they gained into their next jump.  ​

Weirdjump​

A Weirdjump is when a player walks off of an elevated surface and lands on a lower surface, followed by an immediate bunnyhop.​

Dropbunnyhop  ​

A Dropbunnyhop is when a player jumps off of an elevated surface, lands on a lower surface, and then immediately bunnyhops.  ​

Countjump  ​

A Countjump is when a player prestrafes to 274-276.145 speed, briefly hits the crouch key and releases W at the same time, turns in the air while holding a strafe key to collect speed, and then bunnyhops upon landing.​

Ladder Jump  ​

A Ladder Jump is when a player gains speed while travelling up a ladder and then strafes off of the ladder, going around the side of it rather than over the top of it to maintain their speed.  I am purposely not including Ladder Jumps in this guide because there is no competition amongst players for this type of jump, and improving strafing in other jumps will provide you with the necessary level of strafing required to do all Ladder Jumps found in KZ maps.  ​

Multi Bunnyhop  ​

A Multi Bunnyhop is a type of jump where a player chains several normal Bunnyhops in a row in order to reach the speed cap of the server, which is generally 380 U/S takeoff speed.  ​

Longjump ​

A Longjump is a type of jump where a player prestrafes to as high as 276.145 units of speed before takeoff and then jumps, landing on a surface level with the surface they originally jumped from.  Some servers do not have prestrafe enabled and you will not be able to reach above 250 units per second speed before takeoff.  ​

Block Longjump  ​

A Block Longjump is a measurement of how far of a gap a player can cross using a standard Longjump.​

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• What is the crouch bind and where did it come from?

The crouch bind is as follows;

• alias +LJ "+duck; +jump; -forward; +klook"
• alias -LJ "-duck; -jump; -klook"
• bind key +LJ

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What this bind does is crouch at the same time you jump. This gives a player an additional 1.1 units of height, which leads to an additional three to four units of distance on jumpstats. In addition to that, the bind cancels out the forward key as soon as you jump.  It is impossible to gain speed if your forward key is held in the air, so this gives players an extra level of consistency that is otherwise impossible by removing the need to perfectly time the release of the W key when jumping.  

The idea to bind -forward to your jump key belongs to the player doc.mad. I came up with the idea to bind crouch and jump together to improve my Longjump distances after talking to one of the House of Climb Co-Owners, Chuckles, about how height could impact distance travelled. Conversations between doc.mad and I led to the creation of the original longjump bind, which was used until a patch to CSGO changed air accelerate values while a player crouched, making it no longer effective how it was written. After that time, players had to switch to the alias version of the bind. The first person to write an alias version of this bind was a user by the name of Logos on the House of Climb forums, who also had the idea to include Klook in the bind, which is a similar command to -forward.​

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• Problems that the crouch bind has introduced

A massive problem that the crouch bind has introduced is the reduction in the potential skill gap for both jumpstats and KZ maps. By making it possible to consistently reach the max height, some jumps in maps have become extremely consistent, making times on those maps possible that were once highly unlikely to be achieved. Relevant to this guide, however, is the massive decline in the skill gap it has caused amongst Longjumpers. Releasing W is the most important part of any Longjump, because releasing W too early can lead to low prestrafe speed, and releasing it too late prevents you from gaining speed in the most critical part of the jump, the first strafe. The bind has removed this aspect of jumping, therefore allowing many players of several different true skill levels to jump at a similar actual level, and making the distinguishment between the “good” players and the “very elite” players less pronounced.  ​

The bind has also caused a massive block in the development of player skill due to the release of W becoming automated.  Many players are quick to rush into using the longjump bind when they start playing because they are unhappy with their relative lack of skill compared to other players, not realizing that the best players in the KZ mod have been playing for years and years to get to their skill level. Chasing immediate satisfaction and success, players turn on the bind, see the results that they desired, and then continue seeking longer distances by continuing to use the bind, under the impression that they could never beat their record again if they did not continue using it.  ​

This action and mindset leads to a decline in rate of progression for a few reasons. The first problem is that it eliminates the carry over into running maps. When running maps, using the version of the longjump bind that includes -forward and +klook is suboptimal, because the type of jumps that benefit most from the crouch bind are high jumps that require the use of the W key to get over the edge of upon contact with it. When players attempt to use the bind for actual longjumps or skill jumps within maps, they have no correct muscle memory for releasing the W key, and therefore are unable to easily complete the jump.  ​

The problem that this bind causes in practicing longjumping stems from the same root cause. Players lack fundamental skills in releasing W, which seems unimportant to many because they think that the bind will always just take care of it for them. That much is true, the bind will always ensure a perfect W release. However, learning to manually release W correctly benefits the timings and airtimes of the first and second strafe, and helps players complete the release of W and every subsequent strafe as an individual action, rather than blending them together. This leads to a more ideal flight path. Players who are so quick to use the bind are robbing themselves of progress because they are too caught up in immediate satisfaction rather than long term results.​

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• What is the "pLex height trick"? 

The “pLex Height Trick” is a method of increasing Multi Bunnyhop distances discovered by a [size=medium]House of Climb Admin, pLekz.  He made the discovery that if the last bunnyhop a player does before strafing in a multi bunnyhop is done from a platform higher up than the rest of the bunnyhops in the sequence were done from, the player receives additional height that is otherwise not possible, leading to increased distance travelled.[/size]​

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• Important fundamentals of travel distance

In Counter-Strike Global Offensive, it is important to understand how your player moves without airstrafing. If you run to 250 U/S speed and then jump, you will travel approximately 217 units.  If you hold crouch before landing, you will travel 225 units.  If you use the crouch jump bind or manually crouch before takeoff, and then crouch again at landing (Double Ducking), you will travel 227.3 Units. This is a clear illustration of the minimum amount that the crouch bind helps. The potential that the crouch jump bind helps is not a fixed amount, however. The crouch jump bind works by adding time in the air. A player who uses the additional time they get in the air more effectively will travel farther as a result.  A player travelling at a higher speed in the same duration of additional airtime will go farther than a slower moving counterpart so long as their flight path is a constant. ​

I first realized this was the case when the player eightbO, one of the top KZ players, widely regarded as having the most technical skill in all of KZ, pointed this out to me in regards to general strafing through the use of analogy.  While it seems so simple, his analogy was that if two cars are travelling the same amount of time on a linear and fixed path, but one of them is travelling faster than the other, that car will cover more distance. The exact same is true in regards to movement in KZ.​

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• What is prestrafe and how does it impact jumpstats?

Prestrafe is a method of acquiring more prespeed. Prespeed is simply the speed you have before you jump in regards to any jumpstat. Prestrafing is the use of the forward key + the left or right movement key combined with a gradual turn of the mouse in the appropriate direction to gain speed on the ground. The maximum prestrafe possible is 276.145, although anything above 274 is acceptable. Prestrafe is the single largest contributing factor to the distance a player travels. A jump on 270 prespeed will never be as good as a jump on 276.145 prespeed where everything else was the same.  If a player prestrafes to 276 speed and double ducks, they can reach as far as 259 units, compared to 227.3 when not prestrafing.  ​

If you are unsure about how to prestrafe, many video tutorials are available that would be of more help to you than what I can offer in the form of text.  Also, many players would be glad to help you learn in any KZ server you go to.  
I am frequently asked what the best way to prestrafe is when using a block. The answer to that question is without a doubt the way that gets you 274-276 prespeed the most often. There is no difference in effectiveness among different methods of prestrafing.​

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• What is airstrafing and why are we doing it?

The idea of airstrafing is that you are using the left and right movement keys in the air, synched up with left and right mouse movements to collect speed. Most players already understand what it is, but most do not truly have an understanding of why we are doing it. The most ideal flight path is the most straight one. We are obviously airstrafing to increase the distance we travel, and we are doing it through collecting speed. So, in theory, the best way to collect speed is to simply turn in one direction in the air at the optimal rate for speed gain. The problem is that doing that would take us way off the ideal flight path and we would actually travel nearly no distance from our starting point. We strafe in alternating directions in rapid succession collecting speed in order to continuously cross our player model over the most ideal flight path with the intent of travelling in a straight line. This is why a seven strafe jump is going to have the potential to travel farther than a five strafe jump, for example, because you are staying closer to the overall ideal flight path, and you can collect more speed with less deviation from the flight path.​

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• The components of jumpstats

Sync​

Sync is the percentage of the total time spent in the air where the players’ keyboard presses matched their mouse movement.​

Airtime​

Airtime is the percentage of the total time in the air that any given strafe was involved in.​

Prestrafe​

More appropriately referred to as prespeed, this is the speed that a player has before jumping.​

CJ​

Crouch jump.  This indicates whether or not a player crouched at takeoff.  
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W​

This indicates whether or not a player released W at the appropriate time or not.
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Strafes​

The number of strafes a player does while in the air.
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Height​

The highest height a player’s character achieves in the air.
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Gain​

The amount of speed gained on any particular strafe or, while not represented in jumpstats, can mean the total gain of a jump.  
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Loss​

The amount of speed lost on any particular strafe.  
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Max Speed​

The highest speed achieved at any point of a jump.  
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(If a longjump block is registered with !ljblock) Jumpoff Edge​

The distance remaining before the edge of a block when a player jumped off of it.​

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