There are certain settings that can improve the user experience and make a game look more beautiful, but when you're playing competitively these things aren't important. So for those who are playing to win, here are all the settings you need to disable
Disable Motion Blur
Motion Blur is a more modern feature of gaming, and it really does help simulate what turning at speed can look like to the human eye. As the name suggests, this feature works by blurring objects in motion. You can see here what it looks like in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2019, on the left is motion blur disabled, and on the right you can see it enabled:
It's a good feature for immersion, but we want to disable it to get an advantage, and it's probably obvious why. If we keep motion blur enabled then it's both distracting to look at, and makes it harder to clearly identify new threats as you spin around. Instead, we'll disable it so that we can maintain a clear image of everything in front of us.
Mute The Music Volume
Sorry guys. We know that many of our favorite games have fantastic music. But, and this is a big but, you don't need to be listening to music when you should be focused on the footsteps you can hear approaching you from behind. This is a simple one, and it's obvious why we need to disable it in competitive games, but we had to mention it to those who might have forgotten.
Disable Vibration
Of course if you're playing on a mouse then you won't need to deal with this anyway, but for those using a controller: disable vibration, because although it adds to the immersion it makes it more difficult to make precise adjustments. You really don't need the controller bouncing around in your hand while you're getting shot at, the indicators on your screen should make it obvious enough.
If you're using a controller, and you're willing to spend a little, then we would also recommend picking up a pro controller (these come with paddles on the back which act as extra buttons, and more precise sticks and triggers).
Don't Maximize Your Controller's Sensitivity
This one also only applies to controller-users, but it's absolutely key. A lot of naive gamers might believe that you need to maximize your horizontal and vertical sensitivity for the best results. And their thinking is easy to understand; if you can turn and look at someone faster, how is this not an advantage? But the answer is just as obvious when you think about: you might be able to turn more quickly but if you can't make micro-adjustments you'll be missing most of your shots. In general, you want to get comfortable with a higher sensitivity than the default, but not by much.
If you don't believe us, then you should check out the settings that pro-gamers have played with. These are the folks playing or having played at the absolute highest level, with hundreds of thousands of dollars on the line, and you'll find they all use surprisingly low sensitivity settings:
- Shaiiko (Rainbow Six Siege pro who won the Gamers8 R6 tourney), played on 12-12 when the max would be 100-100.
- Kenny (Call of Duty pro who was MVP at the 2022 World Championship) played on 6-6 when the max would be 20-20.
- Penguin (Halo Infinite pro who won the Major in 2022) played on 3-5.5-5.5, when the max would be 5-10-10.
So as you can see, there's really no need to try and max your sensitivity when even the best players in the world don't.
And there you have it gang, some simple tips on which settings to disable for those gamers looking to gain a competitive advantage. We hope you found it helpful, and if you think we've forgotten to mention any other disadvantageous settings, then let us know in the comments.