FPS Basics : AIM

Joseph opened a custom training map for Mona after some assistance from Danny and started by saying : "Grip the mouse however way you like, what's important is that your comfortable with it. "

Mona proceeded to grip the mouse in a normal way like she always does, Joseph did not comment on it and continued : "Now, we have to find your sensitivity."

Joseph elaborated further : "Your sensitivity needs to be right, not too high for you and not too low. You can play with high or low sensitivity just that you need to adapt to it and train your muscle memory."

Mona asked Joseph : "So I just need to find my sensitivity?"

Joseph replied : "Yes. Try flicking to that bot on the head ."

Mona began to use the Taker to shoot for the first time in 'All Fight', she moved her mouse in a jagged and slow manner, creating a shaking effect on the screen as she uncomfortably guided her crosshair to the bot's head. There was a momentary pause that lasted for a few seconds after she placed her crosshair on the bot's head, Joseph got confused and wondered why she didn't already shoot.

Mona turned to the her left side to face Joseph who was seated beside her and asked : "How do I shoot?".

Joseph was in disbelief after she said that, he had never seen someone who is so inexperienced in games that they didn't know how to shoot by instinct.

Joseph realized that he needed to guide her through the basic controls and did so for about an hour till she knew how to at least move and shoot .

Joseph instructed Mona after that : "Now, try flicking again but only use your wrist, maintain a pivot point on your forearm and only turn your wrist. "

Mona nodded as Joseph continued : "Place your crosshair to the head level, since the bots are all on the same even ground as you, with good crosshair placement you can reduce the complexity of the flick by only moving left and right ."

Mona listened to Joseph and placed it on head level, from then on , she flicked clumsily to another bot's head and repetitively did so. Mona realized that when she needed to flick across a longer distance either to the left or right, she needed to readjust her grip again as she reached her wrist's limits when she turned her mouse. Another hour passed as Mona kept doing it, the bots would always respawn in front of her in random positions so she could keep doing it. Joseph would always correct her whenever she decided to aim at the chest and forced her to always shoot at head level. Danny , Ellie and Luna would look over occasionally during and after their ranked game just to see Mona rooted to her PC in full concentration. Luna stood up from her PC and wanted to come over to encourage her but was stopped by Joseph who noticed this and signaled her away, Joseph then turned his chair back to face Mona's screen as he attentively looked at how she aimed. Another hour passed and Joseph interrupted Mona by shaking her shoulders, Mona abruptly stopped and looked at Joseph.

Joseph said : "You actually stuck to using your wrists all the way, by now you should have realized that you can use your forearms." Mona seemed to have been enlightened after hearing Joseph say that and moved her forearms while gripping onto the mouse tightly. Mona remarked to Joseph after she tried practicing for a while : "Oh, so for flicking a longer distance I need to use my forearm more and if necessary use my wrist as well."

Joseph smiled and replied : "Yes. By now your muscle memory should be adapted to this sensitivity, if you lower it, you need to use more of your forearms and it will offer higher precision for micro-flicks using your wrists. If you make it higher, it is much easier to turn, flicks across longer distance can also be easily achieved using your wrist but micro-flicks is so much harder to do."

Mona appeared a little confused and asked : "Micro-flicks?"

"Move your character far away from the bots and try flicking to two bots from afar."

Mona did as instructed and realized that if two bots are very close to one another, she found it really hard to flick from one head to the other as they appeared tiny in the horizon.

"How do I flick then?" Mona pondered about the task at hand.

"You don't, you can move your character instead or flick to the area above the chest."

Joseph then added on : "Normally , if the margins are tight especially for high sensitivity users like me, my crosshair placement or pre-aim needs to be precise. I need to aim where my opponents will appear across a far distance."

Joseph sighed before continuing : "I needed to maintain my aim much more rigorously as compared to others who play on low sensitivity as my wrist needs to be very precise. My warm ups can take more than an hour before I could start playing back then. For now, adjust your sensitivity as you see fit and also try flicking much faster."

For those few hours, Mona persisted and kept pushing herself, she only stopped practicing after the day was over.