Hopeful future

It's not everyday that I get to be pretty positive about eSports, and counter-strike in particular. In the last year the whole CS scene basically collapsed - with only 2 real tournaments in the whole year so far. To put it in perspective, we had roughly 6 by this time last year. And we had an equal number coming up in the second half. Plus the online leagues and smaller tournaments around the world. However with CSGO coming out it seems that things have actually gone better than i ever expected them to - i had made relatively arrogant comments on twitter to pus, thorin and lurppis about how half of the 1.6 community would switch and all the tournaments would too etc etc etc. But damn even more than have seemed to.

So lets recap what's happened in the last month and a half:

• Almost every single professional north american team's players are playing CSGO in ESEA and it looks like the interest is there at both the midlevel and the lower level of competition
• ESWC's NA tournament is HUGE, featuring over 700 teams
• ESL's Go4CSGO cup has a pretty solid attendance of 30+ teams ever week with several thousand(even 10-15K on one of the finals that I watched) watching the stream
• EPS germany(the premier tournament in germany AND the flagship of ESL's online leagues) has switched to CSGO
• NiP, with heaton at the helm, is back featuring 3 1.6ers(including 2 of the best ever, f0rest and get_right) and 2 source kids.
• It looks like the golden 5 are going all in with CSGO
• Fnatic appears to be switching as cArn as stated that they will be "playing multiple CS titles"
• Two CoD teams have switched, holdmouse1 in NA and kola eSports in EU
• Natu is switching with a finnish team
• Dignitas, EG and coL have all shown various levels of interest in CSGO - with dignitas being the most interested in picking up a team
• Almost every source team is switching or will be switching in the near future
• It appears that most of the 1.6 community seems receptive to CSGO and have seen the changes in recent patches as major steps in the right direction in terms of competition
• Dreamhack will feature a CSGO tournament
• Numerous top level pros are streaming
• Numerous top level pros are tweeting
• HLTV's news feed is mostly CSGO related
• r/global offensive is gaining thousands of subs - going from 4 thousand last week to over 7 thousand this week.
• CSGO's recent patches have made the game better than ever
• CSGO is the most popular version of CS on steam
• Volcano's de_nuke_ve shows how fast the community can create better versions of the map than valve can

However i can't feel like some minor slights and problems with CSGO

• When asked about FPS games both sundance of MLG and david ting of IPL have shown more interests or outright confirmed little to no interest in CSGO
• IEM have shown no interest in CSGO
• Matchmaking still sucks in CSGO
• not a lot of people are really watching CSGO streams despite the fact that more people are streaming CS than ever before
• The clan matches which were supposed to be in CSGO appear not to be occuring
• The spectating tools have not been implemented, although the CSGO developers have stated that they  were waiting on DoTA2's spectating client to base thiers off of
• The major content providers in the beta, corey dunn, whisenhunt and ESEAnews have slowed significantly - essentially slowing the growth of CSGO's personality/content creation growth.
• the game still doesn't have a silencer(LOOK AND ME AND MY NITPICKINESS)
• Matchmaking doesn't make use of the _se versions of the map and volcano's _ve version of nuke

It looks like a major mixed bag. Mostly good, yes, but without one of the two major tournament circuits in north america(IPL or MLG) or the many houses that CS built(IEM, WCG) picking up the game,  I seriously doubt that CSGO will get the coverage or the respect that it should in the higher echelons of eSports. No matter how good a game is(as seen in quake live), if people don't watch it it won't last. Furthermore it looks like some of the problems of CS's past might come back stronger than ever now if we dont' fix them immediately, but that's a topic for another time. 

Sandwich patch notes

Years after the sequel to the original delicious sandwich the next installment of the franchise that has sold over 25 billion copies receives it's 3rd installment; CHEESESTEAK SANDWICH.

Cheesesteak sandwich v1:
-meat is shit
-the spread is vomit
-the cheese is snot
-the bread is old and moldy

cheeseteak sanwich v1.01:
-shit is changed to 3 month old meat
-vomit is toned downed
-snot cheese is toned down
-Changed bread value from old and moldy to stale

cheesesteak sandwich v1.02
-meat changed to month old meat
-vomit changed to mayonnaise in the back of refrigrator
-snot cheese toned down

Cheesesteak sandwich v1.03
-meat changed to 3 week old meat
-Mayonnaise changed to old mayonnaise
-snot changed to hard american cheese
-stale bread changed to 3 day old bread

cheesesteak sandwich v1.04
-Bread changed to day old bread
-meat changed to week old meat
-american cheese made relatively fresh
-mayonnaise changed to right before expiration date mayonnaise

GOAL:
-Fresh sandwich roll
-nice spread
-delicious carmelized onions
-diced steak
-american cheese perfectly melted

Hopefully it'll get there...but right now it's not looking great.

Map balance part 3

So here's the thing I've wanted to talk about for a while but I haven't mainly because it's really hard to explain. 

 So when you're looking at DE nuke there is only a few areas you need to look at. The "ramp room" which leads to the lower bombsite and there is the "outside" area at the very bottom of the screen which leads to the upper bombsite. The middle area of the map is the lobby and it leads to ramp and to the upper bombsite through a "hut" or a "squeaky" door and through a "radio" room. The CT's lead tot he same places, only their have an upper view of the hut which is directly in front of their spawn and a big garage which looks at outside and squeaky.

Only that's not it. There's also a second entry point for the lower bombsite. It's behind the big garage. now i couldn't find a real overview which properly displays this but the overview below shows it relatively effectively in their bottom lefhand corner. It isn't to scale but it does the job.

This is the biggest change from CS1.6 and CS:S to CSGO. They completely drop that route. Now the argument for it was that that pathway wasn't used so why even have it in the game?

They removed the stairs and they removed to "green mile", the fake bombsite and the second tunnel on lower. They still have the control room which allows for a bit of diversity on bonmbsite coverage for the T's or CT's to hold.

That being said the unforeseen consequence for us CS players, something that valve probably didn't really think about. By taking away that pathway and the second doorway on lower it makes the lower bombsite  infinitely harder to play AND makes it infinitely hard to take. Instead of 2 or 3 viable ways to get to that bombsite there is only one: ramp. This makes radio room AND lobby a death trap because the CT's can just run up on the T's. and the outside can only funnel into the minigarage connector to A. So it's all rushes and all  death for the T's instead of them being able to control the pace and abuse the multitude of pathways that the T's have to take outside.

Basically they made a map which was already NOTORIOUSLY CT sided EVEN MORE CT SIDED.

map balance part 2

So now i'm going to touch on two maps which have not been touched much from their layouts and map designs outside of cosmetics and some minor changes in between the games - dust2 and inferno.( I haven't forgotten about de_Nuke but that'll be touched on in the near future). 

INFERNO:

 de_inferno is considered one of the most balanced maps in the history of counter-strike mainly due to the equal times it would take from A bombsite and the B bombsite for BOTH teams. Where de_train had fast times of rotation from outer to inner for the counter-terrorists than it would with the terrorists,  the times of rotations for the CT, specifically from apartments to B-bombsites and vice versa, can be relatively long but overall it's a pretty fast rotate for the players of archway on both sites. The terrorist path of rotation from alt mid or apartments to banana and vice versa, are equally long. Furthermore 2 areas of the map, mid and banana, are easy paths to cut off for either side if they attempt to abuse that path of rotation.

On CSGO little has changed outside of a few minor changes - most notably the constricted pathways for apartments and banana - the map's layout has not changed much. This is GOOD. By not really changing much of the map the balance of the map should not have swayed too much. While i could make a big stink over the placing of the fountain in the B bombsite, having a construction site where L-halls was or the fast rotation path from CT archways to B from my play through these things have not really changed much from one version of CS to another. This allows for the metagame to change very little and the strategies and tactics should be applicable from one game to the other

DUST2:

dust2 is THE iconic map of counter-strike. Where most people who have played halo will know wizard or warlock, quake will know DM6 and starcraft will have played a game on lost temple CS is the cs communities map. IT goes without saying that this map will not be changed much, if at all.

That does not mean this is a perfectly balanced map as, with the exception of long A, every single pathway on the map is easily accessible by the terrorists, and not for the counter-terrorists. The map has a middle area which is connected to every since pathway and there are more entry point for the terrorist side to this area than there are for the counter-terrorists. However the benefits of this are marginal as a strong CT side could be dominate their half and win it outright. However for the most part this goes in the way of the terrorists however slightly(IE 9-6, 8-7, 10-5 for the T's).

Similar thing to inferno, while there have been some minor changes(the big box in middle is slightly shorter and makes it able to be jumped on it and then ton cat walk, the boxes on lower can be jumped onto etc) for the most part the overall format and layout remains unchanged. This allow, like inferno, for the same strategies, the same tactics, the same metagame to transfer over and from the recent CSGO tournament in Copenhagen it appears that the T sided nature has been toned down a bit, but that could be more the player than the map. 

Overall these 2 maps display the old saying "if it aint broke, don't fix it." Most people, outside of the hardcore gamers who play this game for a decade like myself, will not notice these changes and most people will not even care - and for the most part these changes do not really hurt the game as a whole. 

Map balance part 1

So here's my attempt at explaining why 1.6 maps are better than CSGO maps - specifically train and nuke - and why certain maps are more balanced than others. I'm sure there is more that is far above my level of understanding but here's my attempt.

TRAIN:

So here's the problem with this map: it's far too easy for the CT's to rotate from one site to the other and it's much, much harder for the T's to rotate from one site to the other. For example if you're cut off white halls it's next to impossible for you to actually rotate from white halls to T mid or IVY. Going down ladder, if the CT's called fast enough they'd have that covered.

On the other hand if the CT's get the call that they're going IVY but haven't actually gone through the people covering lower inside  could run through white halls and flank them. IF they're actually through ivy they could provide backup through ladder room, z halls or run all the way to CT spawn and flank from there.

Basically the problems of the map is that it's far to hard to properly spread out the CT side and pick them off or exploit there weakest point or have an easy place to rotate to when the T's initial plan fails. While it can be done - and over the last few months they have seemed to have balanced themselves out, however slightly(IE instead of 11-4 or 12-3 CT halves we have 10-5 and 9-6 CT halves).

So how did CSGO fix these problems(ala the stairway from underpass to overpass on dust)? They didn't. In fact they made it worse in some regard.  Where the bomb sites were in cover and only had 2 real points of attack in the previous game(s) In CSGO they're more out in the open and they have taken away cover and prevented vertical support outside. So where on the inner bombsite there was the flatbed(although i misspelled flatbed fatbed...don't mind that, i'm just stupid) and took out the 2 train.

Now most would argue that this isn't a real issue and that train was perfect how it was. But there is another issue which remains unsolved from the removal of those train cars and getting rid of the ladder to 5(and now 6) trains. By removing those trains and limiting the vertical movement you have a map which, once you take a bombsite, is actually incredibly hard to hold as you have less places to hide and are more out in the open.

By limiting the ability to get onto 5 and 6 or under ANY of the trains you don't have that extra place to hide(preventing depth in strategy) and by adding another heaven(above Z halls) the map moves more towards the CT's favor again as once you take a site it's harder to hold and simply taking the sites will be harder due to the fact they have height advantage and almost all the areas that CT's have to hold can be held by multiple areas and most of the areas on the maps can be covered by multiple CT's without much of a rotation.

While i'm sure the changes in the map might not show these changes favor the CT side the potential that they could - and the fact that most of the players in the beta from my experience have not played CS and do not understand the layout, the benefits and the drawbacks of playing each spot the way they do - might harm the game in the long run. Basically they shouldn't try to fix what isn't broken, even if they don't like how the game APPEARS to be played - let the players try to sort that out, as it has been the last 13 years.

1.6 community logic

coL drops CS - "who cares, the CGS ruined their credibility"
mTw drops CS - "who cares, they've been bad for like 2 years now"
EG drops CS - "who cares about american CS?"
Mouz drops CS - "they haven't been good since cyx died"
Lions drops CS - "who cares they're the 3rd swedish team"
WCG stops PC gaming - "just like cArn said, WCG is a joke"
WEM drops CS - "They weren't important anyway"
IEM rumored to stop hosting 1.6 - "we have 70k viewers why would they stop?"
DreamHack looks to be moving more for sc2 - "who cares dreamhack is just a glorified lan party"

Seriously guys, it's bad when we're losing basically ALL of our infrastructure. I don't want our game to be an also ran or a not-ran-at-all. I'm sorry lurppis and cArn, you mother fuckers aren't helping our game grow anymore, seems like you disregard all the progress that CSGO has made because it was bad 6 months ago. CSPROMOD will NEVER, EVER, EVER, work - especially with CSGO right around the corner. Why? CSP has been slow to develop - it took 4 years for them to release thier first beta version and it takes them 6 months per update - whereas the CSGO development is weekly and they seem to start to give a shit about our tournaments, our scene and attempting to grow our scene and trying to get our game as close to the version we love. But, just like CSP, you'd rather have the game die because it was IMMEDIATELY because it was EXACTLY like 1.6 - and you seem to forget that from beta 1 to beta 5 of the original game CS wasn't ANYTHING like what we have now. Hell even 1.0 to1.3 is nothing like the version we've been playing for the last 6 years.

Basically it's CSGO or bust for us, and it's rather sad you'd rather have bust than help build CSGO.

Arsenal mode

So the latest CSGO beta has come out. And well...it's interesting. They changed the map to de_lake, a reused L4D2 map which is actually surprisingly fun to play, and they changed the game type to arsenal demolition. Arsenal demolition is like gun game but with a bomb and a single bombsite - which is actually surprisingly fun when you're playing it. You also move down the gun ladder(start with m4, go to P90, then deagle then shotgun...after that idk. never got that far yet).

Now lets get into the problem with this. Unlike gun game in CS, CSS or even CoD you don't get your weapon upgraded(or downgraded in this situation) you have to wait until the next round to get your shiny new gun. This causes a slight boredom because - like in CS, CSS and CoD where respawns are on - you have you wait after you're dead before you get your next gun. This is probably due to the fact you have a bomb site in the middle of the map, but it's still not that great.

The next obvious problem is the amount of rounds you get to play. I think i'm pretty alright at CS, or i should be i've been playing it pretty much my entire life,  but i can't seem to get past shotgun, as when i finally get a kill with it it's the last round of the half and i have to start over again. Now this could be remedied by upping the gun after each additional kill but that'd get rid of one of the better features in the game - "bonus grenades" which come with each kill.

So heres the run down:


Positive:
The small map size allows for fast action and is equal distance from each spawn to allow for intense firefights
The game itself is pretty fun and the strategy involved can be there...just hasn't been developed yet
It's a good warm up for a "real" game of CS

Negative:
Too few rounds
Guns don't upgrade fast enough
You don't get a new gun after each kill
The addition of a bomb prevents you from continuing the fast action gungame is known for

Overall:
It's a good concept, but they need to hammer out a few problems. When they add "arms race" or whatever they're calling "real" gun game it should be fun....but until then IDK what they're doing.

CSGO update feedback UPDATED

UPDATE ON THE UPDATE:
I'M WAS WRONG ABOUT BEING WRONG: the spray recoil for the rifles is grabage.

UPDATE:
UPON FURTHER REVIEW: I was wrong about the recoil, it's all in my head, I still think the SMG is useless though, I don't know what to do to fix it though, outside of upping the damage, but that might lead to more harm then good.

So i recently got into the CSGO beta and seems pretty legit so far, although there are definitely things that need to be tweaked in order for the game to recapture it's podium as the king of the eSports world - if it ever does. But before I go on my AVGN style tirade i'd like to mention what is good about this game.

THE GOOD
1) That it exists

Now most people in the CS community would see this game as a useless sequel that nobody wanted. And potentially they'd be right - if they haven't noticed the decreasing prize pots, the thinning out of the CS farm system or the fact that a little game called SC2 has taken over in EVERY SINGLE ASPECT in the last year or the fact that our collective CS community is fractured right through the middle and as long as that is the case CS as a game will never get the love and attention that it should simply because our blood feud over shit that occurred 7 years ago is more important to us than our game and our gametype living on(instead of the bastardization of it that we see in CoD, sorry guys, you guys are bros but SND as you play it is kinda horrendous). And too be honest i'd rather have any game with the words "counter-strike" in the name to be the king of the eSports world, even if it means that my beloved 1.6 has to drive off into the sunset.

2) The prettiness

The game is really pretty. That's basically it. It's desaturated, sure, and i love me some colors but overall i like it. IT's not CoD/battlefields' ALL BROWN ALL THE TIME yet but it's not nearly as colorful as CSS or CS1.6. And while there is some useless stuff scattered around the map I don't really give a shit about that. IF you do you need to go to the doctor and get yourself a prescription of Ritalin because you have ADHD.

3) The developers ACTUALLY SEEM TO CARE

Let me say that again: THE DEVELOPERS ACTUALLY SEEM TO CARE. THEY ACTUALLY WANT THIS GAME TO SUCCEED, AND FOR PEOPLE TO PLAY IT IN COMPETITION. THEY'RE ACTIVELY TAKING SUGGESTIONS AND FEEDBACK FROM PROFESSIONAL PLAYERS OR FORMER PROFESSIONAL PLAYERS ON THE MATTER. THEY ACTUALLY WANT THIS GAME TO BE GOOD. For valve to even want this is a massive step forward from the "oh esports exists, that's cool I guess" that we've seen before and now they're trying to do their best to make the game the best that it can be, and it seems just about every update is a MASSIVE improvement over the last.

Riot during their beta actually actively discouraged people from competing in League of Legends and Blizzard managed to ignore the fact that Terran, at every level and on next to every map, was completely overpowering. This does not seem to be the case with the CSGO developers - they've even changed 2 things that they were hardline on recently because the community wanted it so badly(the addition of chest armor and defuse kit).

Well now that the lovefest is over time to get to what everybody wants: RAW UNDYING HATRED.

THE BAD


1) The maps

Now while some things can be overlooked - as can be seen minor graphical updates or can be waved off with a collective "mleh." Others can be TOTALLY GAME BREAKING. Perfect example: Nuke. How the fuck is the cleanest map the one map I seem to despise the most? Because they took out what was a major advantage - and one of the only advantage the T's had over the CT's on that map - the fact they could attack from multiple angles and if you took outside the counter-terrorists had to stay on guard and watch an area which they might not otherwise - the actual lower bombsite rather than simply guarding ramp. By taking out green mile they took out that weapon in the T arsenal and now they have almost no way to actually take the lower bombsite other than to chance it and run directly into the death trap that is ramp, and upper is even safer now with the massive nuclear waste barrels and the the fucking forklift allowing upper floor to be really safe now. Oh yeah, also get ride of the crane thing. Shit needs to be gone.

Inferno i have a problem with as well, but it's less now than i thought it once was. The cubby/flophouse area at the end of CT side apartments kinda pisses me off but it's not as bad as i thought it would be, but I'd still rather it not exist.  And then there's the fucking fountain. Now I get why it's there. Wait, no I don't. WHY PUT IT IN THERE, THERE'S NO REASON FOR IT TO BE THERE. TAKE THAT SHIT OUT VALVE GOD DAMN IT AND JUST PUT IN SOME MISSILE BOXES OR WHATEVER WE WERE FIGHTING OVER ON INFERNO. WHATEVER IT IS JUST TAKE OUT THE GOD DAMN FOUNTAIN. Also, get rid of the archway on banana to allow for CT's to be less dominating on that area. or simply widen banana. Whichever works.

Train is well, train. But what I really hate is how people could actually get over z-hallways and get to a spot of the map that really they shouldn't be able to(EDIT: noticed the ladder...I still don't like it though). That annoys me. But what really is something they should change is the ability to go under-neither the trains and make most of the trains lower and move the ladders to the back so that it's easily accessible. I like what they did on the T side of mid and i get why that ladder is there, but I liked getting on top of 5 train, and I'm sure that 6 train would be a pretty awesome angle too. On inside I'd like the trains to be slightly closer together and for them to add the flatbed back to right next to ladder. That'd be awesome. I'm sure the more I play it the more I'd find more things to hate about it, but right now I don't like it for these reasons.

Dust2 has some minor changes i'd like to occur but overall it's pretty good. One such change would be them making the triangle boxes on A plat or the double stack boxes on CT side cat. Both would be nice, but from my playtime and experience with the map so far it doesn't seem like a big deal.

2) The recoil

The recoil is kinda broken. It's better than it was in the original beta but it's still pretty bad. While every update they make it less and less terrible it's still pretty terrible.  Now the bursting is spot on and the tapping is getting better every update - at least for the main 2 rifles the AK/M4 - it still has a major problem in that the hold down mouse 1 and pull down spray is still TERRIBLE. About 4-5 times every match I've noticed that a close range spray whiffs and sometimes both the CT and the T player hold down mouse 1 and both waste both of their entire clips. That needs to change. Right now.

The same thing could be said about the SMG's, the whole strategy of the SMG - historically and in my persoanl experience at least - is for the player to spray down their opponent with simple mass of bullets and that leads them to pick up a more powerful weapon. It's a gamble but it works some times. as of right now EVERY SINGLE SMG is useless because even if you're close range and you spray your entire clip you'll end  up missing far more then you hit. and it'll often lead to embarrassing moments where you spray a guy whose not looking at you and you'd hit 2-3 shots and they'd just turn around and shoot you in the face with whatever rifle they had.

3) The weapons

SMG's are useless as stated above - they don't do enough damage or have a good enough spray in order for them to be useful.

Rifles are kinda broken, but from my estimation it's a simple fix. Lower the recoil for the AK/M4 and it should be alright. The AUG and the Kreigg are fucking AMAZING...although the spray is useless and the only successful way to fire the gun is single shot. So far the AUG and the Kreigg are the best guns in the game in my estimation, but i haven't played with them enough to really tell. The awp and the scout are effectively the same.

The real problem, so far at least, has been 2 things and 2 things alone. The pistols and the shotgun. BOTH starting pistols are pretty weak and I dread pistol rounds because I can't tell when i'm hitting shots or when i'm totally off. And when I do hit shots it doesn't seem to be doing a lot of damage or it seems to do INCREDIBLE amounts of damage.  One of the other,but not the perfect middle it should be at. Oh yeah, the deagle is better than all the SMG's and now the shotgun. This leads me to the shotgun. Oh nova, you were so great in the last beta. What happened?  They must have patched you...and they should have. But now it seems like an overnerf, an over reaction to the awesomeness. Basically they made one of the most cost efficient weapons in the game to a gun which is barely usable. Poor gun, it was so awesome too.

4) Grenades

So let me do a fast summary of everything that's wrong with the grenades so far. This is way longer than I originally thought it would be so i better wrap this up fast before you guys get bored and watching some of the amazing cat videos or something.

HE grenade: Either devestating or no damage. If it's dead on it does like 3/4 of the opponent's health, if it's off by like 2-3 feet it does 4 damage. that needs to be balanced out

Flashbang: The flash's flash need to be shortened, only a little and much more important the fucking double vision needs to be tweaked shorter or needs to be taken out completely. It's too long IMO, and quite annoying. I should also see the crosshairs while flashed.

Smoke; seems pretty alright, but it needs to a little less dense. Minor tweak, not much needs to be done really.

Molotov/incendiary: the AOE is a bit big but the damage over time seems pretty big. Overall I don't see it as a big deal, but the area it effects that it takes up is a bit big.

Decoy: it went from "oh wow, thats not a human at all" to "wow, that's pretty convincing...if you're a bit thick." I've been confused by it occaisonally, but usually it's useless.

OVERALL


It's pretty alright right now, but it still needs a lot of work before it can considered ready for competition. The grenade damge, the recoil and the maps needs serious tweaks before this game is even close to being ready for either competition or for the average consumer. That being said it's definately better than it looked originally and it's definately better now then it was at the last beta. I just hope they don't release it before it's almost perfect and it causes a splintering in the community - causing the scene to go from 2 60-70K communities to 3 30-40K  communities.