Unfortunately, this guide is not directed towards new players. (Although do not be discouraged new players, this is still a good way to learn about the awp.) This guide is geared towards players who have experience in this game (~150+ hours) and wish to try and improve their awp.

If you think that because you read this guide then you will be the best awper in the world, then think again. Do not expect to suddenly hit everything in a matter of seconds. Mastering the awp takes time and patience.

This picture was taken from HattonGame's CSGO AWP tutorial video from a long long time ago.

As you can see, the awp kills in one shot to the head, chest, stomach, and arms. The infamous leg shot will doom us all. The legs are equipped with extra strength leather protection sold directly from IKEA. Try to go for ANYWHERE BUT THE LEGS PLEASE, but if you do shoot their legs a few accurate pistol shots will take care of them.
(Awp damage varies but all you need to know is that anything but the legs are one shot kills except when you shoot through materials.)

The price of the awp is definitely high, but worth it if you can hold onto the awp for a couple of rounds. The award money that Hatton shows is the amount of money you earn in casual. You earn $100 per kill in competitive.

The reload of the awp is very slow so make sure you find a safe spot to reload. If you are in a tight spot then a powerful pistol will do the job until you can reload (I prefer the P250/Five-Seven) The awp makes you extremely fat (like Gaben during Christmas sales but with $) Your normal running speed is 250 units with a knife and the awp drops you down to 200 units while in your hands. (Don't ask me why the gun is lighter on your back.)

Luckily for us awpers, the awp normally does not get nerfed or buffed. It kind of just sits there. So we don't have to worry about relearning or learning anything new :D

An awper's main job in a game is to do the following:
1. Get the cross information - You can do this on both sides terrorists our counter-terrorists. On a map like Dust 2, a terrorist may want to watch mid doors with the awp and see how many cts go to bombsite b (and hopefully get a sexy headshot through mid.) Or the cts may want to peek mid and see if the ts jump towards long or not. This is valuable information for someone to have. Also in maps like Inferno, a t may watch mid for a ct to jump towards boiler/quad.













2. Punish enemy plays at mid - One of the most important roles of an awper is to get early frags for their team. In a competitive match, there are only 5 players on each team so even if you only killed one player the other team would be severely outmatched. Even damaging opponents contributes a lot because the enemy would be extremely low on hp even if you shoot them through walls.

























3. Hold angles and prevent pushes - This is probably the most played role of an awper. You need to hold bombsites from enemies and prevent the bomb being planted. YOU are the best person to prevent long range pushes. For example, you can play from goose on dust 2 to watch pit and long in general. Normally a rifle would not be too efficient to shoot that long of a range and be accurate (unless a very good aimer). You have to learn how to hold down corners and angles to the best of your ability. (I will cover corner/angle holding in more depth later)

BE WARNED. YOU WILL NOT GET GOOD WITHOUT PRACTICE.(except for KQLY, he's just good.)

There are many ways to acquire the muscle memory you need for the awp.
1. Deathmatching You MUST deathmatch. Period. Whether you want to master the ak47, awp, m4, etc. YOU MUST DEATHMATCH. No questions asked. Some good servers include FragShack (http://fragshack.esea.net), Netcode Illuminati (http://netcodeguides.com/servers), and -abM- (http://abmgaming.com/index-4.html) The only downside to deathmatching is that sometimes you may feel very frustrated that you're being killed over and over again as you spawn, but once you get over the hump you'll be good to go. YOU MUST BE CAREFUL TO NOT OVERDO IT!

2. Bot Training/Aim Training Maps There are many workshop maps that help people learn how to aim and such.

One is this bot map: http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=243702660&searchtext=
The advantage to this map is that you can choose to peek boxes, long range, uneven ground, etc. But the most helpful aspect to this map is the fact that you can choose 4 different types of strafes the bots will do. This helps you anticipate player movement and how to adjust quickly. I use this map A LOT.

Another one: http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=213240871&searchtext=
This map is a very classical one. You see people like friberg making videos about this. This map has everything in one. Reaction time training, angle and sliding memory, general shooting, spraying (not awp), and so forth. This map is very customizable and a great way to help your aim.

3. AWP Servers Awp servers are a fun way to slowly learn how to flick and trace people while in an actual server with real people who will shoot back. In addition, awp servers give you a relaxing time to sit back and just have fun! I prefer vLg's awp server (http://vlgsite.com/forum/portal.php)

As I stated earlier, this is probably one of the most played jobs of an awper. You need to have the ability to peek corners and hold down corners. Doing this may be hard but practice makes perfect.

Tips to peeking corners:

• Be able to do the stutter-step technique to first quickly peek the corner to gather information and then peek out again but this time with your scope ready to kill.
  
• Hold down crouch while you peek out the corner and stand up immediately when you are visible.
  
• DO NOT. DO NOT. DO NOT. do stupid shoulder peeks where you peek so slowly that you are dead before you even see the enemy. This also includes peeks like crouching out from a corner or walking out. Honestly, anything slow = dead

Tips to holding down angles:

• This is a VERY good way to hold corners. If you are holding an angle where you know for sure someone will pop out, move your crosshair slighty to the right or to the left (depending on where the corner is). If you hold the crosshair exactly at the opening, you'll never kill the enemy. We all know we have reaction time that will take a split second before you shoot.
  
• If the opponent tries to stutter-step peek the corner you will need to have the reflex (from practicing on deathmatch) to flick right to the exact spot where he is peeking out to kill him.

WRONG












RIGHT

Tracing honestly is not that hard. You need to move your crosshair slightly in front of the enemy and then shoot when you believe that you have a clear shot. Mainly getting accustomed to your zoom sensitivity and already having decent muscle memory from practicing.

Now you come to the final words of my guide. I wish all of you good luck in the future of awping. I believe that anyone can be good at anything by practicing.
Now I want to leave you all with some videos for you to watch. Keep in mind that you should always watch good awpers and how they play. Reading may not be as helpful as actually watching someone show you so enjoy :)!

I had a jazz band director who would say that playing your instrument was only half of the job. Listening to jazz was the other part.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to add me :D Constructive criticism appreciate in comments on anything to edit/fix.

My friend Beasto 'Mazin made a general guide to CS:GO, if you're new then check this out!
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=363923227

Pretty up to date.

Kind of old but still very factual.