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Ask any number of low to middle ability CSGO players why they can’t quite make the jump to the elite level of competition and one of the most common reasons given is that the best players also happen to own the best CSGO Weapon Skins.
The argument goes something along the lines of the best players are the ones who are willing to spend more on the game, and as a result they own the most expensive CSGO skins.
However, is that really the case? Given that it is a contentious issue in the CSGO esports community, Scope.GG decided to conduct their own research to discover whether the better players did indeed spend more money on in-game weapons and skins to ensure they stay at the top of the game.
Who Are Scope.GG And What Do They Do?
Scope.GG is an analytics firm that specialises in stats tracking across CSGO. This not only includes tracking the in-play statistics of individual players and teams, but also tracking the spending habits of these players.
The company quickly realised that they could provide its customers and readers with a very specific insight into how a player’s skill level and the skins and weapons that they own, are linked (or not).
For the research, the details of over a million CSGO players who were active playing the game and interested in skins. The research does not include trader accounts, collectors, or bots in the data.
What Did The Research Discover?
There were many different aspects of the research that Scope.GG looked at for this project and the findings showed that there was a somewhat more complex relationship between the more expensive skins and weapons and the higher ranked players than many people first appreciate.
What is certainly clear is that the greater your skill level in CSGO, then the more expensive your inventory is likely to be and that there is a clear correlation that shows that the more you move through the rankings and gain skill and experience playing the game, the more you are likely to spend your cash at CSGO trading sites and similar to claim the latest skins and weapons.
So, the better players have the better skins because they are the best? Well no actually, there is no evidence that a players skill level will determine what skins they own.
Scope.GG argue that what their research does show is that as a player plays CSGO and develops their skills and moves through the in-game rankings to become a better player, they are more likely to invest their money, as well as time, to enhance their gameplay.
It does appear that players that have played the game for longer and acquired the higher rankings in the game are also those that want to be more individualistic and it is this, combined with their enjoyment in the game, that may well be the driving factor behind these top players having the rarer, more expensive skins and other items.
So What Does This Mean For The Average Joe In CSGO?
It means that essentially, your ability in the game is not a barrier to you unlocking and having the top skins, provided that you are willing to stump up the cash to pay for the rarer items.
It also means that blaming your losses on a player with more individual items and skins won’t wash. It’s their skill, not their skins, which determine whether the teams you are facing wins or loses!
As Scope.GG put it in their conclusion:
Valuable inventory is not the key to success in the game, however higher skill level makes players more incentivised to buy more expensive skins. It brings much needed variety to a training routine and allows you to stand out in the sea of default and cheaper skins.
According to the research, the most expensive inventory in the game is one valued at just a couple of cents short of $712,805. That is a staggering amount of money to spend even for a top ranked player. The average (median) spend of a top ranked player on their inventory is around $300. That drops to around $20 for the lowest rank of player.
What this research shows is that skins are very much a key component of CSGO. The items are now more than simply cosmetic enhancements to the game, but also a digital status symbol that is widely recognised in the community.
