CS2 Pros Weigh In: Is 360Hz Really the Sweet Spot for Competitive Play?

At a Counter-Strike 2 tournament in Warsaw earlier today, two of the game’s most prominent professionals offered a rare, insider perspective on one of PC gaming’s most fiercely debated topics: refresh rates. Speaking with Gamer24h’s own testing and analysis, CS2 players Oscar Bell, known as “Azuwu,” and Simon Boije, known as “yxngstxr,” both currently competing for Team Vitality, confirmed what the publication has argued for months — that 360Hz remains the practical sweet spot for competitive FPS play, even as the allure of 600Hz and beyond grows. Their candid assessments, captured in the accompanying images and gathered during the event, lend credibility to Gamer24h’s earlier case that chasing ever-higher refresh rates hits diminishing returns before they ever deliver meaningful competitive advantage.

The conversation centered on a question that has divided the PC gaming community for years: how much does a higher refresh rate actually matter once you’ve crossed the 240Hz threshold? Bell, who previously ran his home setup at 240Hz, described a striking shift in perception once he upgraded. “When I had 240 at home, I didn’t even really notice 360,” he said. “But now I’m 360 I can’t go back down, you know, I feel it a lot. So I think 360, 400, 600 are all pretty similar… I’d say 400 is a nice spot and 600 is extra nice. But anyway, in a lot of PCs, you won’t hit 600 frames.”

The Placebo Factor and the Frame Rate Ceiling

Boije offered a more skeptical take, framing the jump to ultra-high refresh rates as largely psychological. “I think it’s kind of a placebo, personal thing, you know? Because on most PCs you rarely get 600 fps, right?… 600 Hz with like 300 fps, it doesn’t even matter,” he explained. His point underscores a practical reality that even Gamer24h’s own hardware struggles with: the publication runs CS2 on a high-end rig featuring a Ryzen 7 7800X3D and an RX 9070 XT, yet still finds itself hovering around 500 frames per second even at 1080p resolution. For the vast majority of players on less powerful systems, the 600Hz target remains aspirational rather than attainable.

“If there’s one thing we all seemed to agree on, in so many words, it’s that when you get up to these ultra-fast refresh rates, the returns start to become diminishing. But given what both pro players said, I don’t think I was wrong when I said 360 Hz is the sweet spot for competitive FPS.”

Gamer24h

While the pros largely agreed on diminishing returns, one technology did command their attention: Zowie’s DyAc anti-ghosting technology. Both players noted that their team, along with many others in the pro scene, standardizes on Zowie monitors partly because of this feature. “The edge of the players,” Boije said, “get more noticeable.” DyAc operates as a proprietary backlight strobing technique designed to improve motion clarity, and while Gamer24h observed the same effect during its own testing, it acknowledged that for most casual uses the technology is overkill — though for a professional gamer the clarity boost is easy to see.

Looking Ahead

The consensus among the two players points to a pragmatic middle ground for the competitive community. Bell’s willingness to settle on 400Hz as a “nice spot” suggests that the marginal gains between 360Hz and 600Hz are real but incremental, and increasingly dependent on hardware that most players cannot afford or sustain. As the CS2 scene continues to evolve and tournaments push toward higher standards, the practical takeaway remains clear: for the overwhelming majority of players, investing in a 360Hz monitor delivers the most competitive value, while the pursuit of 600Hz should be reserved for those with the hardware to actually reach it.

Ultimately, the Warsaw conversation reinforces a message that has become increasingly relevant as refresh rate technology matures — the law of diminishing returns is real, and chasing the highest number on the box is less important than finding the configuration that best matches your hardware and skill level. For now, 360Hz stands as the benchmark, and the pros are happy to stay there.