What crosshair placement is

Most missed shots start before the enemy even shows up. Crosshair placement is where the crosshair sits before anyone appears. It is at head height on the path a player will use, and it is already there. When they come around that edge, the swipe left is small. A crosshair on the floor, the sky, or the far side of the screen means the first move is a long rescue.

I play Zarya at Master in Overwatch.

The official details below come from Blizzard and a SteelSeries explainer.

The official picture

• The gun I actually hold: Blizzard’s Zarya page lists Particle Cannon as a short-range linear beam weapon and an energy grenade launcher. Energy: damage blocked by barriers increases Particle Cannon damage. The beam still has to start on a body. Energy on a beam that is on the floor is energy you are wasting.
• Where I can see the place without a fight: Blizzard’s Invasion notes added a firing range to the Practice Range, with practice settings and multiple targets. I use that range, or the bots that were already there.
• The X and Y split the other pages use: SteelSeries’ pre-aim explainer is a CS:GO article. The useful half is still true in any first-person shooter: height (Y) and the edge (X) are two jobs. Head height on the far wall still leaves a long swipe. An edge aimed at their feet still leaves a drag up.

The short version: head height, on the path, already there. A long swipe means it started somewhere else.

Height first

Freeze in the game you queue, at a corner you actually play. Do not wait for a person to walk into view. Look at the crosshair now. Head height is where a standing player’s head would be on that path. It is not the middle of the monitor, and it is not a pixel count you copy. A door, the top of a box, and an open lane are different heights. The test is the path in front of you.

CS2 and Valorant guides all start here. ClutchLeague’s glossary is the same job: keep the crosshair where a head will appear, before you see them. SteelSeries calls that the Y-axis. Newer players put it on the ground so the weapon model is out of the way. Then the first move is a drag up while they are already shooting.

If the crosshair is on the floor or on their feet, raise it. If it is on the sky or the ceiling, lower it. Same problem in the other direction.

You cannot measure the height in pixels. Distance, slope, and field of view all move it. I sit at FOV 103. A copied pixel from a different FOV is someone else’s picture. Use a thing in the world. SteelSeries’ useful tip, stripped of the CS:GO boxes: a teammate on the same floor is a ruler, and so is a crate or a door frame that sits about a person high. On a path I actually hold as Zarya, I use the lip I can already see.

A standing head and a crouched head are not the same spot. If the players on that path crouch it, a crosshair at standing height shoots over them and the first correction is downward. Drop it to where that crouched head will be. If they stand that path, the lower crosshair shoots into the chest and you drag up. Match the posture you actually meet there. One height for the whole map is how both mistakes survive.

A box changes it again. A head that appears over the box is at the top of the box, not at standing height on the floor behind it. Aim the crosshair at the lip you are watching. The floor behind the box is a path you cannot see yet. High ground is the same test in the other direction: the head is higher than your floor. High ground is that page. This one only asks whether the crosshair already sits on that new height.

Then the edge

Head height on the far wall still leaves a long swipe when they appear at the corner beside you. Bring the crosshair to the edge they will come around. Any gap you leave is the swipe you will have to make. A gap you can justify, because you still need to see the lane, is a choice. A gap you did not notice is the rescue.

SteelSeries calls the horizontal half angle-snapping, then has to say it is not the mouse-sensor setting. The job is closer to the cover than to the middle of the screen. The other CS2 pages add a second mistake I do see on Zarya: hugging the wall so tight that they pop out already past the beam, or holding so wide that they appear in the corner of the screen. Close enough that the first body is on the beam. Far enough that you can still see the lane.

Where you stand is not placement, but it changes how large the swipe has to be. Pressed against the lip, they cross your screen fast. A few steps back, the same peek is smaller. Holding an angle is that step back. Peeker’s advantage is why the lip is a bad place to wait online. Cover is the wall. Placement is only where the crosshair is once you have chosen the spot. A step or a reload can pick the edge before you see them. Audio in a shooter is that cue.

Already there

Placement is early. If you move the crosshair only after you see them, you did not place it. You reacted, and the reaction is the long move. Put it on the path before you take the space. The seconds you spend waiting are the seconds it should already be sitting there.

The competitor pages call that pre-aim and then argue about the word. CSDB’s split is the cleanest: placement is the habit of keeping the crosshair at head height and off the floor. Pre-aim is that habit pointed at one known spot before you have seen anyone. I pre-aim the choke I am about to beam. I do not pre-aim a Mirage window.

Do the same in a practice range. A drill that starts with the crosshair on the floor teaches the rescue. Start with the crosshair already at head height on the edge, then let the target appear. The motion you repeat is the small one.

Walk the corners you use, not a tour of the whole map. At each one, stop and see height, edge, and whether it was there before a target showed up. One path done honestly is worth more than ten corners you glanced at. The next time you die at that edge, the question is whether the crosshair was already at head height, not whether you swiped hard enough after they appeared.

While you move

Placement is not only the pause at a corner. While you walk a lane, the crosshair stays at head height on the path ahead. Looking down at your own feet drops it, and the next person you meet gets the long drag from the floor. The same drop happens after a reload, after you pick something up, and after you clear a corner and relax. Put it back before you keep walking. The default between fights is the place, not the ground.

The CS2 pages name that drop floor drift. I will keep the habit and leave their maps. You are thinking about the next corner, the cart, or the bubble cooldown, and the crosshair follows the eyes down. A Zarya who looks at her own feet between chokes starts the next beam from the floor.

The center of the monitor is not a height. The camera points wherever you last looked, so the middle of the screen can be the floor. A door frame, the top of a box, or the open lane tells you where a head will be. The bezel does not.

Clearing a space is the walking version of the same three checks. Uncover one path at a time. Reset the crosshair onto the next edge before you take the next step. On the maps I actually queue, it is still one choke, then the next. Holding means you stay still and they walk into the beam. Clearing means you are the one moving, so the place has to reset. Holding an angle is the still half.

Why a beam still needs it

Most of those guides are for rifle games. That is why people think a beam hero can skip placement. They can’t.

Blizzard’s Particle Cannon is a short-range linear beam. The damage arrives while you hold the button The beam is easier when it is already on the body they are about to show.

The right-click is the other half of the same gun: an energy grenade. That one is a throw and a stop, closer to a flick than a follow. A long flick from the floor is a rescue.

A bubble is not placement. The bubble buys the second you use to keep the beam on them, or to step off a known hold. Don’t die is still the first line, because a death resets energy. Placement starts the fight. It does not finish the positioning.

Sensitivity doesn’t place the crosshair for you. A lower number makes a rescue from the floor slower. A higher number makes the same rescue fly past. Fix the place first. Then judge the small swipe that is left.

Common misses the other pages name

I will use their list and keep my game.

Too low. The default. Feet, floor, or the weapon model. Every fight starts with an upward correction. Raise it before they appear.

Too wide. Head height, but parked in the middle of the lane or on the far wall. They appear at the near edge and you still have a long horizontal swipe. Bring it in.

Over-clearing. The crosshair sweeps across the angle while you are still walking past it. The beam is never on them long enough. Stop the place on the lip, then move.

Panic flick. A huge snap from a resting point that was somewhere else. That snap is what a flick is for when placement failed. It is not the plan. A death-grip in that snap is tension, not a new sensitivity.

Wrong path. They came from the door you were not watching. Placement does not cover two edges. The next hold watches that door. Parking the crosshair in the middle “just in case” is how both edges get a late beam.

Those pages also mention a scoped rifle that wants center of mass, not a head. That is their AWP exception, not my queue. A beam wants the body you can keep it on. Chest is fine if the head is a guess and the beam will climb or sit. Feet are still a rescue.

One death, one path

After a death, name the path they used. Ask the three checks only. Was the crosshair at the height they appeared? Was it on the edge they used? Was it there before you saw them? If any answer is no, that is the note for the next round, not a new number on the slider.

If all three were yes and you still missed, the place was not the cause. The swipe, the spot you stood, or the path you were not watching did the work. A hold on the lip after they already knew it is peeker’s advantage plus a known angle, not a placement miss. How to review an Overwatch loss is the longer habit. Watch where the reticle sat the second before they appeared, not whether the beam eventually found them. The replay the game already keeps is enough.

What placement does not change

It does not change your sensitivity. Take one calm swipe with the crosshair already in the right place. If that small move still flies past, the number is the problem. If the only huge moves are the ones that start on the floor, leave the slider alone and fix the place. I leave the PRO 2 at 1200 and change Overwatch, not G HUB, when a distance is wrong. Changing both in one night hides which one you felt. How to find your sensitivity is that test.

It does not change the reticle. Color, thickness, and the gap in the middle are how the center of the screen is drawn. A clear drawing on the floor is still on the floor. Set the place first. The drawing can wait.

It does not choose where you stand. A different spot in the room is a different decision, made before this one. Once you are standing where you mean to stand, placement only asks where the crosshair is. A perfect spot with the crosshair on your feet is still a rescue when they appear.

It does not cover every path. They can come from a door you were not watching. Placement is the path you chose. It does not aim for you, and it does not watch two edges at once. If you keep dying from the other door, that is the path to place next time, not a reason to park the crosshair in the middle and hope.

It does not replace tracking, and it does not replace a flick. Placement makes both shorter. Aim training is the motion page. A long rescue is also how a hand starts tensing. Place it, then take the small swipe.

Practice it in the short block before you queue. At the corners you actually use, the crosshair is at head height, on the edge, before you move. Then play.

Head height, on the path, already there. If the first move is a long rescue, the place was wrong. More under PvP.

Common questions

What is crosshair placement?

Keeping your crosshair at head height, on the spot where an enemy is likely to appear, before they appear. Good placement means you barely need to move to hit the first shot.

Where should I put my crosshair?

At head height, close to the edge of the corner or doorway you expect an enemy to come from.

Why is my crosshair always too low?

Most players let it drift toward the floor while walking, reloading, or relaxing after a fight. Make a habit of resetting it to head height.

How do I practice crosshair placement?

Walk through maps you play with nobody around and check your crosshair at each corner. Is it at head height and already on the edge?