Counter-Strike

Without the games these professional gamers play, e-Sports would not exist, so I'm going to take this time to talk about one of my favorite video games of all time, Counter-Strike.

How I Got Started
I got into video games with the Nintendo, Sega, Super Nintendo, and PlayStation, but once I found out about computer games I never looked back. Blizzard games were all I knew in the computer game world, and I had a lot of fun playing them. While playing StarCraft, many people would talk about this game Counter-Strike and I always wondered what it was. Why I didn't just look it up on the internet I do not know, perhaps I was too young to figure that out. A few years later, many people I played StarCraft with were starting to switch over to Counter-Strike. I was curious, so I asked one of my friends to burn me a copy of it. The first night I had the game, I played until five in the morning. This was the latest I had ever stayed up and by the time I decided it was time to sleep I realized this was the best game I had ever played, and all I was doing was running around shooting at people. That night I had the ambient noise from one of the levels in the game ringing in my head, a noise you can hear in the movie OldBoy in a scene at a LAN center. I enjoyed the game on a non competitive level for almost a year until one of my friends convinced me to play a two versus two with him. He was the one that taught me about competitive play, and once I got over the fear of not doing well in these informal matches I got the hang of it. About a year later I was ready to compete in the Cyberathlete Amateur League with a group of people I met online. The game was still extremely fun at this point, so I didn't realize I was way better than the guys I was playing with. Several teams, leagues, and years later, here I am today, still playing.

The Game
If you watched the CPL video in my last blog post, you got a glimpse of Counter-Strike, but it probably wasn't enough for you to know how it is played. I will explain how it is played from a competitive point of view, since it is much more organized and generally isn't just chaos. It is a first-person shooter for the computer. There are two teams: the counter-terrorists and the terrorists. The terrorists are trying to blow up one of two bomb sites with C4, and the counter-terrorists are trying to stop them. The terrorists have one designated bomb carrier on the team. If he falls, the bomb is dropped and another terrorist can pick it up. Once the terrorists plant the bomb, the counter-terrorists have thirty-five seconds to defuse it. If the bomb explodes, the terrorists win the round. If the counter-terrorists defuse the bomb, they win the round. Alternatively, the teams may simply eliminate everyone on the opposing team to win the round. Rounds have a time limit of one minute fourty-five seconds, and if the terrorists have not planted the bomb by then, they lose the round. After each round, everyone is respawned in their designated team spawn area, and given fifteen seconds where no one can move to purchase gear. In competitive play, matches are split into halves; each team plays one half as a terrorist, and the other half as a counter-terrorist. Halves last fifteen rounds. The first team to win sixteen rounds wins the match.

End of first half screenshot
Source: my computer

End of second half screenshot
Source: my computer

There are many weapons in Counter-Strike, but only about nine of them are actually used in competitive play. They can be split into three categories: pistols, rifles, and the sniper. There are high-explosive grenades, flashbangs, and smoke grenades. Armor and a helmet are also required as it reduces the damage you take from bullets and grenades. A helmet can keep you from being killed by one shot to the head with many lower damage weapons. Since you have to buy all of this gear, much of the game is based on the economy. Everyone starts with eight hundred dollars on what is known as the pistol round because no one can afford anything other than a pistol. On the pistol round, players can buy either grenades, a pistol, or armor. Whichever team loses the pistol round has to save up their money for the next one or two rounds in order to buy rifles. Players will often drop their teammates weapons so everyone has a weapon. Knowing when the other team is saving is very important for choosing what strategy to use for that round.

Strategies
Counter-terrorist strategies are generally not as complex as terrorist strategies. The counter-terrorists simply have to know where to wait for the terrorists in order to get the jump on them. Generally they will have two players in each bomb site, and one somewhere in the middle providing support. Terrorists have to have perfectly placed flashbangs that blind the other team for easy frags, they have to know where to place smoke grenades for safe passage. They have to work together to take down the one or two guys trying to keep them out of a given bomb site. Since sound is the key to determing where your opponent is, many players who do not want to lose the advantage of being sneaky will walk around the entire level and waste a lot of time. These players will crouch and wait for the counter-terrorists to get too aggressive, and just pick them off. On the opposite end of the spectrum, are very fast paced strategies that take advantage of different spawning positions, attacking a bomb site before the counter-terrorists can get in position. Teams use voice over IP programs like Ventrilo to call out things that are happening such as the whereabouts of the other team, or calling out where to go. Because of this, the terrorists sometimes take advantage of counter-terrorists that leave their bomb site quickly to help the other bomb site by using fakes. They will run around making a lot of noise, throwing flashbangs and smoke grenades and then run away and go to the other bomb site. Strategies can be simplified down to three categories: rush, walk, and fake. However, the timing of everything is what makes the difference.

This video shows the first person point of view of every player during one round. It might be hard to understand what's going on, but it shows how dependent they all are on each other and how perfect the timing of everything is.


Strategies can only get a team so far, however. Individual play is a huge part of the game. A player has to have great aim, great movement, know how to outsmart his opponent, be able to throw all types of grenades, and know how to handle one versus one, two, or three situations. A player has to be able to overcome unfortunate things happening to them, and not get so upset that it affects his play. A player has to get along with his teammates, and be able to play well with them. Being patient is also a large part of the game, being aggressive because nothing is happening usually ends up costing the team.

The Heart of e-Sports
Counter-Strike has driven e-Sports over the years because of its popularity and the community that has supported it. The amount of players still playing the game has decreased slightly, but according to Steam's stats, 67,406 people were playing Counter-Strike at some point today. [1] That's impressive for a game that came out almost ten years ago.

References:
Valve Corporation (2010, Sep 13). Steam & Game Stats. Retreived from http://store.steampowered.com/stats