i started in cod 4 and sucked but during black ops i joined a clan and got way better i was getting blackbirds and dogs each match eventually the clan broke up and i stoped playing cod so...

Well me personally I just kept playing and got to be around a 1k/d player during W@W(First CoD) and in MW2 I found out about Youtube and Hutch's video "How not to suck at MW2" came up and all the tips in that video boosted me a ton

I think I noticed my improvement after I got my first real headset. Apart from the sounds that I never noticed before, I was able to communicate with my team mates better and would get a lot of advice from them. Im not great but I believe I play much better than how I used to

MW2: I got MW2 3 months after its release from a friend whose PS3 had YLOD'ed. I was absolutely terrible at first due to lack of map knowledge and game mechanics (specifically ADS...yeah ADS). I tried to play the game like I played Timesplitters (and Goldeneye 007, practically the same developers), which involved running into the middle of the map and dominating everything through accuracy and strafing. This did not work obviously. I improved at MW2 by learning basic game mechanics such as sprinting, ADSing and radar. After around 7 days of play time I managed to break even in K/D. After that my K/D began to rise quickly as I was regularly getting UAVs, which turned into Predator Missiles and Harriers. I learned how to stay alive, how to navigate the maps and how to predict enemy movement through the radar.
During the summer I began watching YouTube videos that offered tips on how to improve. The one that I believe helped me the most was WoodysGamertag's 'Terminal Domination Strategy' in which he explains controlling the engagement. The concept of taking cover was completely new to me. I felt like an idiot for not thinking of it sooner. My K/D began increasing very quickly once again, reaching 1.7-2.0 in a matter of weeks. I began playing SnD exclusively due to the prevalence of bull**** in Domination (during this time tubing wasn't common in SnD), and even began playing competitively in SnD with quite a bit of success. At the end of MW2 I had a 2.2 K/D and a 1.9 W/L, playing solo throughout. The YouTubers that helped me become a better player were WoodysGamertag, WingsOfRedemption and Sandy Ravage (towards the end of MW2 I started playing very aggressively, before that I played defensively). I joined Hupit in August, however I didn't play with anyone until around January the next year.

Black Ops: I started out well on Black Ops, 2.6 K/D, however I reverted back to playing defensively as I was consistently being punished when playing aggressively. I was much more into YouTube then than I was in MW2, and thus quickly learned to become an aggressive player once again watching the gameplay of YouTubers such as xCal and TheMarkOfJ, and later FearCrads, DyingSoldier and TheManInBlack. I learned more intricate things such as lines of sight, 'nade spots and rush routes off spawn from Wings, Tmart, FearCrads and TheManInBlack, which became a big part of my success in Black Ops. In January I started playing with some Hupit players, notably Gangsta-Nun and Welshboymick, however I still played solo for the most part. During the summer I had managed to break the game down to 2 steps: 1-Opening rush route and 2-How to play the map in a way that maximises kills&score/time. I finished Black Ops with a 4.03 K/D and a 3.81 W/L.

MW3: Like Gangsta-Nun I feel as though I can't improve upon my playstyle due to my connection. I don't play as aggressively as I did in Black Ops as my connection too often hinders me from doing so (I play with Panda very often, who gets host consistently. Trying to play aggressively on a Spanish host against Spanish players with my Northern Irish connection usually doesn't end well). I have a more defensive playstyle, in that I try to be behind cover whenever possible, but am still very mobile. I played solo for the first few months of MW3, but now play with a party for the most part as I find it makes the game more fun (except when players flip spawns). YouTube is simply a form of entertainment for me now, I no longer watch videos to learn how to play, I watch videos for commentary or for high scoring gameplay. I currently have a 4.25 K/D and a 4.47 W/L.

AlbinoGibbon wrote:
To make everybody feel better.

I don't use videos to improve I just practice. practice makes almost perfect.

I improved by just playing a ton. My Xbox has guided me through many a night with its green ring of hope beckoning to me and urging me to press onward.

However, If you're playing CoD on the PS3, as long as you have eyeballs, you're already a god compared to 99% of the playerbase.

Keen, you can bait better than that =/

And myself, I just.. played.
That's all, really. SO much of skill in CoD is just map and game knowledge anyway.

Indefinatrix wrote:

Aww man you exposed his troll trap.

You should know from the CoD complaint thread that people would be stupid enough to fall for it.

Keenano wrote:

I played a bit of MW3 xbox first on my brothers account and got a 2.5 kd straight away, when i had no map knowledge and no idea what weapons were good. On ps3 when i first played mw3 i had about a 2.3 kd when i first started. xbox obviously has more noobs than ps3
I'm guessing you're trolling?

EDIT: just read the comments after that post lol.

adb-93 wrote:

No.

MW2: I actually found the Youtube community before I had ever played CoD. I watched a few SeaNanners videos of him getting Nukes and it wasn't even the game that really impressed me. I mostly enjoyed his organized layout of his kills, deaths, perks, etc for the game. So I bought MW2 sometime after the Models got patched but before people knew about OMA. People were still using Scavenger at this point. So I was already watching lots of Youtube videos. I don't really remember who, but Hutch and Nanners were my favorites. Slowly, I learned general tactics of how to play. I finished MW2 with a 1.07 K/D.

BO: Made my biggest jump here. I learned every sightline, rush route, and grenade spot that I could, mainly through Youtube. Playing Domination on that game requires no thought from me at this point. What held me back was not getting the basics down, such as not sprinting around corners. In that game, I felt responsible for a lot of my deaths. But overall, I went from a player who was getting killed a lot to a player who was killing a lot. It felt good to do well in Black Ops because I felt like my success could be tied to my knowledge and (somewhat) my tactics. I finished Black Ops with a 1.70 K.D, which could have been higher if not for my obsession with the Mac 11.

MW3: I don't feel like I've made any strides in this game. The people I played with a lot in BO reached points in their lives where video games didn't have any bearing, so they just quit playing. I found myself playing solo more and more often. Contrary to BO, I rarely feel like deaths are my fault in this game. I almost always feel like I get killed in situations that I would have never even wanted to be in, but I was forced into because of various game mechanics. I still feel like I'm generally smarter than my opposition, but it doesn't seem to have any bearing on any success I may find. And that's the frustrating part. I don't feel like I've gotten worse as a player. But I don't see the same success that I had in Black Ops. I'm convinced it's the game at this point. It just doesn't suit me I guess. My K/D was 1.93 at its highest. Currently, it is 1.68 due to various combinations of utterly stupid classes and lack of caring.

I never really played cod for mw2,black ops,waw etc since it was much funner playing gears of war, halo, runescape.

But for my short time lived of no lifing mw2: I learned all i needed from watching goldgloves videos. he was my favorite commentator and i thought he was the best cod player ever. managed to hold a 2k/d because all i played was ffa and the players were so bad when mw2 was in its prime.

black ops was horrible because i didn't play cod for almost a year and the guns recoil was insane to me. was holding a 0.80 k/d and then i started getting better from watching xcalizorz videos. ended up with a 1.90 k/d

mw3 was horrible also, because i switched over from xbox and my accuracy was shit because i didn't realize the controller was reversed. was below a 1k/d for a week. i started watching fearcrads and xcalizorz videos and got better at the game. ended up with a 2.30 k/d

I never watched youtube videos to get better. By the time I started watching videos I had a 2.5 K/D and knew what I was doing. If anyones channel helped it probably be Hutch's. When I started playing Cod one of the first friends I made was a Gamebattles veteran in Cod4. He helped me get to the next stepo of skills

I've played CoD since CoD2 Big Red One on the PS2. I wasn't new to the series by any means. I didn't have a PS3 until the summer of 2010.

2008-2009 - I would play over at my friend's house and we would take turns on the campaigns, zombies, and spec ops on CoD4, W@W, and MW2. At the time my gun skill was enough to be able to beat campaigns on veteran. He had an Xbox and PS3 so we played both, but eventually settled on PS3 because his Xbox RLOD'ed (is that even a word? whatever.).

Summer of 2010 - I finally got a PS3 and started to play multiplayer. The first game I bought was MW2. I thought I was actually going to be somewhat above average at the game... Holy shit was I wrong haha. I still remember the first match - it was TDM on Terminal.. I just remember that everything was happening so fast and I didn't know what the hell was going on. I got destroyed.

For the first week of multiplayer, I had about a .8 k/d. I played TDM only because I was still getting used to the concept of CoD multiplayer. I came from Battlefield 1942 and Vietnam on the PC.

I found YouTube because I looked up tutorials and tricks for doing well on certain maps. I found this small channel that offered pretty good advice, and from that I found the CoD community. The first big commentator I found was Tejb. His videos were entertaining, he had a pretty cool personality, and at the time I was in total awe of the gameplay. I didn't really learn as much from him as other commentators, however. I found Wings from his double nuke video on Terminal that he posted to Machinima. I remember that he described his channel as a tool to help people get better at the game, and his tips made a lot of sense. I started to get better, and by the time Black Ops came out, my k/d was about a 1.5 on MW2.

Black Ops - By the time Black Ops came out, I had found more commentators like Hutch, Woody, Sam5000i, Trout, and a few others. I bought W@W and played multiplayer from August 2010 till Black Ops came out. During this time, I really learned all the basics and was watching a lot of YouTube.

When Black Ops dropped, I had about a 1.8 k/d during the first few months. The Christmas n00bs helped me boost that up to a 2.9 which was so fun. At the time, I was somewhat of a killwhore, and played by myself. I would make an initial push for flags, but if I felt that my team was sitting back in the spawn, I would just killwhore and not even bother. I also backed out of a lot of games if I had terrible teammates. I find that when you back out often, you seem more likely to join a game in progress, and I joined a lot of hopeless ones. I didn't really have incentive to win. My w/l was like a .6

I joined Hupit January of 2011 and started adding people. I started putting more emphasis on the objective and I really started to enjoy winning over anything else. Playing through until August, my w/l jumped to a 2.2 and my k/d settled at a 2.76 or so.

MW3 - I still watch YouTube and play with parties, and now I have a lot of experience playing with parties so I'm used to winning when I play with my friends. I enjoy getting on a good winstreak with my team.

yankdotcom wrote:

Oh man that was too funny lol.I improved by just playing the game.Youtube tips barely helped me.

For me it was playing another shooter, namely Killzone 2. Before KZ2 i was your typical shooter noob, i ran out in the open with little plans or gun skill or even knowledge of spawns. I got into killzone and i really had to learn gun skill, KZ2 weapons had a ton of recoil, usually hipfired even at long distances and little to no aim assist. So learning to burst fire and control the gun was huge. also KZ2 at its core has a very basic spawn setup, each team spawns on one side of the map and that spawn (or base) is fixed and you will never spawn anywhere else (the game had spawn grenades to throw down anywhere however)

So I learned the very basics, gun control and map knowledge and I noticed a huge change from COD4 to MW2 (i played KZ2 during W@W)

Youtube did have an effect as well, watching xcal, and even onlyusemeblade (if you use smg's or shotguns watching the routes that blade takes and how he handles close quarters situations can be very helpful to people that use smgs and shotguns)

Also watching some MLG players streaming has opened my eyes a lot to lines of sight and a more methodical approach, Rambo for example has very very average gun skill but is incredibly smart with map knowledge

AlbinoGibbon wrote: But, you still can improve despite the lack of strength in your connection. The improvement play style of a player isn’t defined as aggressiveness.

Keenano wrote:

PS3 player base is the same as Xbox.

Realise that Call Of Duty, at all levels, is not a game where skill can be learnt, then go out and buy Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

Watched a lot of Youtube videos that broke down spawns and typical routes people use.

And most times I play with a team. This game is painful for me to play solo.

maltar7 wrote:

If you're connection is bad, doing well usually means being less mobile and winning more gun fights on your terms, i've become good at this (isn't hard) if i was to have a better connection that would all me to rush a lot more and open up a lot more doors for success.

I didn't really learn from youtube videos.

I just played a lot. With repetition, I just became one with the game. lol.

Keenano wrote:

So you were trying to turn this thread into something worse than an assassin thread,

I thought you knew better

COD4: First time playing cod, running 1 bar with 100+ ping, was fun days. Averaged a .5 kdr, but when i got a two or three bar i averaged a 3 kdr, always played solo.

MW2: Started to run a group a little bit, and i didn't do anything particular to improve i kind of just did. I remembered certain routes and positions i took and just catalogued them in my mind, and they seemed to work out. Did poorly in the beginning with a 1kdr, but towards the end i was avergaing 3-5 kdr per game.

Blops: Started out terrible, but got into watching pro's and my kdr inflated, i started to carry domination on my own, because i knew certain spawns, for example, firing range if your in the white trailer they can't spawn behind you ever.

MW3: Don't play it anymore.