Imagine you are playing Zarya in Overwatch. Suddenly, a sweaty genji jumps on you and you start tracking him. Where do you look? At your crosshair or the Genji? Focusing on the wrong thing will 100% hurt your performance. I would even say, you will probably get killed focusing on the wrong thing. Anyways, let’s dive straight into it.
Focus On The Target
Pretty straightforward. Thank you for reading. I will see you guys next time!
But seriously, generally, focusing on the target is the right choice (There is a catch soon, though) .Remember, the crosshair is there to give you an idea of where the center of the screen. Think of it as an anchor point. You don’t want to line the center of your screen with the enemies head. You want to unconsciously look at the target, and bring your crosshairs to it. You should use your crosshair as a reference point but use your eyes to focus on the target.
As Surefour, a famous Overwatch pro player, said “you need to trust that your crosshair is going to be on the target when you need to click.” It is basically muscle memory, and experience, trusting and knowing where your crosshair is. And just bringing it to the enemies head. Your eyes should be trained to flick towards it.
You can search for pro players using eye tracker on youtube and see where they look when they shoot. They always look at the enemy. Then, bring the crosshair to the enemy. Instead of just following the crosshair 24/7. (I actually imagine that, and it is hilarious haha)
Disable Your Crosshair
There’s an FPS coach on reddit Aabove_, that said told us that we should try to turn off your crosshair and see how accurate you are. And people tried it. And it actually works. Why is that? He says it is because “People that are focusing too much on the crosshair will find that they’re more accurate with the HUD off. That’s because they’re relying on muscle memory and instinct, which is what they should be relying on in the first place. Turning off the HUD just forces it and for many players it “clicks” at that point.”
Interesting finding. It really makes sense. Once you get rid of the bad habit (not looking at the crosshair, you’ve disabled it) you can actually let your muscle memory shine. So you can try it for yourself in practice range or custom games, or even go into a casual match. Trust your eyes, muscle memory and instincts. You really don’t need that crosshair that much. And if you are focusing on it constantly, it only drags you down. So be prepared for a surprise.
Really try and practice your aim with no crosshair. It will force you to look at the enemy (there is nothing else to look at haha) and it will get rid of the bad habit of constantly looking at your crosshair.
Reduce Crosshair Opacity
How to force yourself to look at the enemies? If you find yourself constantly looking at your crosshair instead of your target, you can try and reduce your crosshair opacity. It will help you keep your eyes on the target and will force you to get rid of this bad habit.
I remember playing a bit in Overwatch with low opacity crosshairs with certain tracking heroes like Zarya and Tracer. It really helps you focus on the enemy.
Focus On The Crosshair At Long Range?
Focusing on the crosshair in super long ranges might be ideal, though. As Aimer7 said: “Focusing on the crosshair is better at long-range situations, against bad dodgers, and will increase your click-timing accuracy because you’re more aware of the exact crosshair position”.
The problem with this, is that there is no clear line. When do you focus on the enemy? When do you focus on the crosshair? It is very unrelilable and mixing between them is really hit or miss in my book. It hurts my consistency, but maybe I am still not used to it. Maybe I need some more practice. After all, who am I to disagree with Aimer7?
You are free to experiment, and for large ranges in games like Warzone try and focus on the crosshair and see how it works. Maybe you will find instant success and it will click immediately.
Conclusion
So, where should you look when aiming? Most of the time, you should focus on the enemy and use your crosshair as an anchor point to the center of the screen. But, in long ranges, focusing on the crosshair might be ideal as it will increase your click-timing accuracy.
Now that you know where to focus, make sure you are focused! How To Improve Your Focus While Gaming.
Photo by Fredrick Tendong on Unsplash
