UKTerrorist
I anxiously hug my pillow as the timer drops to the 2:20 minutes remaining mark, the voice of the commentator barely echoes above the noise of the crowd - "only two minutes and twenty seconds left with Four-Kings needing one round to bring the CPL trophy to the United Kingdom for the first time". Is it possible for a good CS team to win the CPL?
The clock slowly ticks away as each group of players gradually make their way towards their destiny, I can feel the atmosphere of the crowd from here, the roar of supporters echo through my TV speakers... 2 vs. 2 now, 3 down from each side - can 4K possibly do it?
Sadly this is an all but a distant dream, but a dream that I wish to look into in this article. It's not the actual result of the game that's the dream, sure a British clan winning the CPL would be great, but surely a better dream is the roar of the crowd and the tension brought about by the commentator. Sad? Probably. Only a dream? Sadly at the moment it looks like yes.
But why is it only a dream? What is preventing Counter-Strike (or online gaming in general) from being hammered into our lives much like Football is these days? How long do we have to wait until we see the [marine]-b0b-'s sporting mohican haircuts and pouring tomato ketchup or whatever over their heads just to guarantee a front page picture on tabloid newspapers?
Another way in which CS might grow is the more F1-style format, with teams producing the equipment for the players. But this would also turn out like Formula 1 where only the players with the best equipment are successful, thus leaving the rest of us as mere backmarkers.
Do clans have any supporters yet? Can you run down to your local PCworld or Electronic Boutique and buy the latest Four-kings or Tammer gear? Nope, you can't, but why not?
You can go to some sports shops and buy equipment for strange sports that seem to only exist because Eurosport says so. Flicking on Eurosport just now I see some woman using a form of kite and bodyboard to produce all sorts of water stunts. I can see in the backround (beach) a nice big audience and even fans of certain competitors asking for autographs. Have CS players ever been asked for their autograph? Probably not, but again, why not? Surely the CS players of the highest level such as those in clans like aNc & TAMM have spent just as many hours practicing and perfecting their skills and tactics. Don't they deserve the fame and fortune just as much as any of the competitors I can see on Eurosport at the moment?
So how do these competitors have many fans and followers but not aNc or TAMM?. Do CS players themselves even have a favourite clan?. Lets ask a couple of questions on irc:
Myers: Who's your favourite CS clan and would you say you were fans of that clan(s)?...would you cheer for them at events such as the CPL & other major european lans?noc|-nemo-: TAMM or [a], TAMM have amazing team play and are great guys (little egos), but [a] have skillful teamwork/play which I admire. I would support them depending on who they were against, if they were agaisnt noc or 4K, or any UK team i would chear for the UK team, with a few excepttions but yeah I would support them against other clans.
Myers: Would you make the extra effort to go see aNc or TAMM play even if your own clan weren't playing there?
noc|-nemo-: lol no way.
This seems to point to a conclusion that nemo respects the skills of the top clans, he isn't exactly a true fan of any clans. So the question remains...why aren't there any clan fan-clubs?
Let's look at why teams of any sports have faithful supporters. Many supporters (excluding Manchester Utd.) support their local team, even the small stadium of my local town team is packed full of faithful supporters on a match night. Are there any local clans in my area? Nope, even my clan R@GE come from all around the UK and Europe. How do you identify your local clan? You can't. Unless a clan strictly comes from, or is based in a certain area you can't really tell where a clan is from apart from the country. There are some obvious exceptions (W.A.N.K - We are north kent), but on the whole you cannot support your local clan because there are very few clans local to a specific region other than the confines of a country. No-one is exactly going to move to an area just so they are local to their clan. This is because the Internet allows us to play over distances, and makes changing clan very simple and all to common. Not to mention any names (Realfire) but too many players think that changing clans is, well, cool; what ever happened to loyalty? The players I tend to respect most for loyalty are those best players in lower clans. The majority of lower clans have at least one outstanding player who could walk into a top 15 clanbase clan, those are the loyal players. I'm not always against changing clans and I admit that those players that do change clans often have to have the skill, connection and social skills to be able to do this, but still it dosen't exactly go with the spirit of the community.
I know comparing CS to football is kinda lame but it's the only other sport most of you understand :). What do you think would happen if Michael Owen decided to change team everyone week, or David Beckham, or any football player to be more exact. CHAOS, that's what!
So what else draws supporters to a clan? Success. Any successful team will have more support than an unsuccessful team. Manchester United have more supporters than Manchester City. Why? Success! So looking at the successful UK clans who can we see... Four-Kings? Successful at many LANs and online tournaments, for a while the undisputed best UK clan.
When Four_Kings go to LANs such as the CPL and Lanarena do they have a fan club? I'm not talking about fellow players probably already knocked out of the tournament, but actual fans - the people who go to the LANs especially to catch sight of Four-Kings' players, cheering them on, waving their banners and urging them on... I think not, but why not? They're successful aren't they?
This may seem strange when you think about it. A game, played by 300,000 people, does not have any supporters. In my opinion the important factor missing from this equation is promotion. Even when Four-Kings (as H&SDBAM 2) won the PCGamer Counter-Strike tournament at Nottingham last December they didn't get a single mention in PCGamer. Not one mention at all. Incredibly the coverage of that tournament by PCGamer was very poor. But that is irrelevant, what does matter is that when Four-Kings do win tournaments they don't get enough publicity from it. If they were to win the CPL they probably still wouldn't get the publicity from it that they deserve.
Recently there was a small article in the Sunday Times covering the topic of Online Gaming, and within seconds every CS website, including this one, had links to the website URL. Was the news really that great? Surely there should be better coverage than that. The reason why the article on the Sunday Times stood out was that it was in the Sunday Times, the article itself was nothing new. But the fact that it reached a national audience, was like the online gaming community hitting them on the head with a hammer and saying "HELLO, WE DO EXIST, BOUT TIME WE GOT SOME GODDAM PUBLICITY!"
Many people say that "it's only a game", true, but so is football; so why are there so many football related arguments? So why if football is only a game are there so many arguments, and even riots. Take the recent riots by cricket fans, why would they riot if it was "only a game".
In my opinion telling people during a heated argument, probably over cheating, that it's only a game, does not exactly help. Especially for clans that wish to become turn pro and make some serious money out of this. They don't want to hear that it's "only a game", they want to get the damn argument sorted already.
My point is that this game needs much more promotion than it does at the moment, when someone wins a league or a cup they shouldn't just get mentioned on a few gaming websites, they should be interviewed my newspapers and magazines have their own proper trophy/medal somewhere.
When clan Numbers scraped a victory over UKLA in the BWCSL final it was simply a news story of the day, no-one looks deeper into the match, no-one has recently cared to point out how Numbers have had a great season, winning the Irish cup, Barrysworld cup, Savage cup and topping clanbase (abeit of a limited time, but still an achievement surely). Surely in a proper CS community the highlights of the game should've been analysed Andy Gray style, mistake should be pointed out, so should those moments of pure skill. Numbers should be mentioned, they did the triple FFS!, they should have their names mentioned in magazines and on the news, not just the relevant cup & league websites.
It's the lack of promotion that's holding back Counter-Strike as a sport, yes I agree it's slowly getting better especially with the release of Valve's multicast spectator software which used to great effect at the recent CPL Dallas, but in the long run only good offline CS coverage is seriously going to turn this into a proper sport.
Admittedly some poor PR agent somewhere down the line is going to have to work out how to promote a clan. Promoting an individual Quake player has so far proven to be much easier than promoting a clan. Let's face not all clans are as handsome as their skill and IRC banter suggests. Those of you that haven been to LANs will know that clan members come in all shapes and sizes, I think opening a magazine to see an advertisement for a clan with any random 6 CS clan members might come as somewhat of a shock to the reader. I'm not saying that CS players are ugly, I'm trying to say that not all members are exactly the David Beckham's or David Ginola's of the CS world. Who can seriously imagine watching TV and seeing [4k^TheGenius] advertising Brylcreem?, or [aNc^pSc] driving the latest Ford motor around various obstacles? No I'm not saying he's ugly either ;).
I'm trying to place emphasis upon the fact that CS is still a long way off this yet and it's going to take a major push by like The Sun newspaper or ITV before we reach a stage where we are used to seeing cyberathletes on posters, styling clothes and in tabloid scandals.
This would take a lot of work by everyone involved but it would hold serious rewards for all. The promoters would soon reap the profits, any television company would find themselves attracting the huge audiences and watching CS blossom, and the players...well let me put it like this, if cs grew to the extent i'm forcasting then we could well see the likes of [4k^Liquid] or TAMM|Gladiator dating the Britney Spears or Dannii Minogue's of this world.
Since this is my first article and I'm watching the end of American History X at the moment, I suppose I should end with a quote:
"It's not the winning that counts, it's the taking part"
I'll leave you to discuss the validations of that.
Comments
19:04 29/6/2001
19:06 29/6/2001
Editor
UKTerrorist
19:18 29/6/2001
as for fans...it'd also be very hard unless we had an 'official' league table type setup. There are just to many different leagues to compete in and there is no consistency between what leagues clans play in.
for e.g. - Football, fans know whats goin on..there are 4 official leagues and thats it (as well as cups)....obviously with CS there are too many clans, leagues etc for this to be the case and for someone who doesnt know the clan scene it could be rather mind boggling. [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
19:26 29/6/2001
19:50 29/6/2001
20:23 29/6/2001
20:32 29/6/2001
20:38 29/6/2001
20:39 29/6/2001
21:00 29/6/2001
"Give us publicity or we'll beat you over the head with a crobar untill you respawn."
And yea, I know that crowbar thing is stolen from somewhere but I can't remember where so I won't give credit.
And also, those Football players are going to be pretty p***ed when we steal all their publicity. Heh. Good thing we know how to use TMPs
21:05 29/6/2001
And I think the main reason that TV doesn't support us is because they spent sooooooo much time making us look evil hackers who hack to be evil, that if they started giving us publicity, it would make them look bad and TOTALLY go against their laws.
Note: The laws of reporting and media are as follows:
1) Use your omniscient amazing power to make money and control Presidents and Prime Ministers of countries, especially US
2) Make money
3) Don't tell the truth if you can make MORE money or the same amount of money by lying
4) Make money [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
21:28 29/6/2001
1. Great article m8
2. How cool is this?.......FAR2COOL!!!
:-) [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
Croydon
21:31 29/6/2001
21:42 29/6/2001
Nice m8 :) [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
22:07 29/6/2001
But to let people sit behind a computer all day and play CS for money and fame....If this becomes a sport we wouldnt see people working anymore course then they would get money for sitting down and play CS at home!!
So why go to work if you can be a millioner for playing CS????? [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
22:20 29/6/2001
I hope it's just a matter of time, oh and BTW you oughta read PCZone, they give a lot more oline and Lan party coverage, and I think their writing style is much better then PCGamer. What's more they've been discussing this same topic too! [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
22:29 29/6/2001
23:40 29/6/2001
Britney is all good.
Good article too, valid points. [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
01:30 30/6/2001
CPL's are a waste of f***ing time. IT'S JUST A GAME!!! So what if you're f***ing good. Why have CPL's for a simple computer game? CS is taken too f***en seriously [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
01:45 30/6/2001
02:02 30/6/2001
06:05 30/6/2001
11:30 30/6/2001
As for the article it makes many relevant points, but I think one of the main factors in online gaming becoming publicised, is that of the advancements in hardware. A game such as soccer has been around for hundreds of years, and over time has created a strong base for support and has become well known around the world, whereas in comparison a computer game will last 2 years approximately (not including the dedicated players who generally continue to play) before dying out to the mass consumer market, which then move onto the latest game. With this rapid movement from game to game one cannot expect it to become well known and achieve status of a 'sport'. However, with these advancements, it is thought that the gaming scene is progressing and is attracting more gamers and producing better games, I believe it is just time that will prove online gaming as a whole will eventually reach the level other 'sports' are at. [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
11:32 30/6/2001
12:26 30/6/2001
Croydon
13:51 30/6/2001
14:04 30/6/2001
Well put together and some very nice points
17:53 30/6/2001
19:56 30/6/2001
20:02 30/6/2001
23:36 30/6/2001
It is unlikely that a game will ever see popularity as large as even a minor sport (rowing for example), simply because the 'game of the moment' canges so often... CS has only been the CPL game for a short time, evn though its 2 yrs old.. within the year, it will have been replaced imo... [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
04:02 1/7/2001
your article was a waste of bandwidth
gg! [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
05:24 1/7/2001
14:05 1/7/2001
02:23 2/7/2001
18:50 2/7/2001
Anyone can be good at CS. All it takes is practice. When it comes to playing professional sports, practice is helpful, but you also need to be blessed with some natural athletic ability. This is the reason why pro athletes are paid insane amounts of money.
No one wants to buy a shirt advertising the clan of 6 pasty kids sitting in their basement. You want CS publicity? Find someone charismatic to go around spreading the word on television. Only internet geeks care what other internet geeks have to say. [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
22:53 2/7/2001
First off, the CS scene is much bigger here, I think anyways by judging your article, I mean I went to a school to check it out, and I met HeatoN there (team9, SoA.swe and now NiP) and omfg! alot of people had gone to that school and they just kinda flocked around him talking and asking questions =) and NiP for example do have a PR agent =) fixes sponsorship and other stuff for them, and clans in Sweden with sponsorship deals arent very unusual quite the opposite, you see some mediocre clans with sponorships from ISPs giving them 1000mbit CS SERVERs!?!?!?! (I know the clan in question and I honestly hate there guts;]) and different Net Cafes quite often have a CS clan they sponsor.....
hope you guys also get to feel this trend because its real sweet to get a little recognition, and a second thing, here in Sweden it is a general opinion that if you dont play on Clanbase or play ar CPL you aint worth jack, in some other league? too bad, no one cares about them =) unknowingly clanbase has scored a monopoly of the Swedish(CS) clan scene, this isnt a bad thing I think... well just pointing somethings out, forgive me crappy english just got home from a LAN and Iam still drooling......
"good night, good fight" [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
19:10 3/7/2001
07:51 4/7/2001
"I'm no gamer, I'm a CYBERATHLETE! [insert maniacal laughter here]" [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
13:47 4/7/2001
Also, computing is far too closed off from everyone else. It's a rather undesirable culture because it's got so many idiosynchrases (spelling? - anyway, look in a dictionary) which take a lifetime to learn. Can you imagine the commentry on a televised match? It would be laughable whichever way you take it. Imagine.....
[3 minutes to end of round. 1 CT vs 3Ts on de_ map]
... and ~Dr.AxEHeAd~ showing m4D $k33lz, headshotting j00rMAMA with a n00bStick. Shout's of "PLANT IT YOU f0rkH33d!" coming from his teammates but he chose to camp and now he's been dead. When asked about his last few moments in the tournament, j00rMAMA said "ARGHHewghiwgwfuxorshtis***s***" and then declined to comment. [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
18:41 5/7/2001
I posted it @ www.tammer.de , here is the link:
http://tamm.fraggers.de/pages/news.php?action=details&news_id=633 [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
04:27 8/7/2001
FyreBALL
WaNt A FyRe,StrYkE a MaTcH. [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
16:30 17/7/2001
oh and if you looks at the scope for individual finesse in most other spectator sports (i disinclude darts from this category
sorry to burst you bubble, but lets not be blind to it. at the end of the day all players are subordinated to valves code and no one can exceed it, thus there is no real extra-ordinary, and thats said all that is left is plain ordinary. And ordinary never moved millions.
Dollar xx --- representing goodlooking intelligent cs players - rather than the beast one would expect having read the above article
and yes the americans would probably beat the uk in clan matches, for the sole reason that there is a march larger proprotion of dissatisfied adolescants who relish the chance to adopt a dynamic avatar to substitute their under-developed real life social skills. oh but i forget most of thsoe americans reading this probably wont understand that because you spent your formative tennage years watching your 6 thousand cable channels rather than reading books.
20:56 17/7/2001
23:19 17/7/2001
If i had the money here's what I would do.
Set up a professional team with the right hardware. The building must have 2 or 4 separate rooms consisting of 8 pc's and 2 controller consoles. The controller will see all of the 8 participants and give orders to the field players (like Alien 2 and the power station battle!)
The building with have a central viewing area with a large screen and seeting for 100 People.
Seminars will be given on SAS tactics buy real SAS guys with an entrance fee of course
With sponsorship,Prise money and proper marketing the team could actualy make a profit!
The first ever business model for a Profesional CS team.
The software needs to be updated so that there are profesional settings. If you die then no looking around!
Does this make sense? [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
23:38 17/7/2001
01:39 21/7/2001
18:38 23/7/2001
Good article btw
08:44 26/7/2001
06:23 27/7/2001
Ps At least people like Ak and Hellion have a life. You all should look up to them. [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
06:40 27/7/2001
And all this about cs is being a professional sport, thats just retarded. Myers, you need to step into reality, cs will never be a sport, it will always be a game that people play in their spare time for fun; or in most of you peoples cases, all the time. Besides, its just a matter of time before cs is replaced by another game of the same genre. [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
08:45 27/7/2001
09:58 1/8/2001
P.S CS will never be a sport its just a game, only people who skip work just to play it and all the weekends and run up 100£ phone bills could call it a sport for them [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
13:13 1/8/2001
There isnt a difference between cs and pro sports, its all a mind thing. Football is a *very* serious sport for some, but i dont like football, and dont care about it for me its just a game i do with my mates when i have some free time. I much prefer cs. Football players may have skills and physical training, hence are considered by some of you guys as "worthier", but cs players have to show skills too.
You dont believ me? Read on... Some of you say its easy to be good by using the spray effect of weapons. First, this is not so easy to use, different weapons have different recoil, and it takes lots of practice to properly use an ak. Truth is, the ak is the most effective weapon, but most people prefer the colt just because its easier to use... And to kill someone with less than 5 bullets you have to be real good with recoil.
Anyway, lets just suppose that getting good at cs is easy. Well, thats just a complete paradox, because if anyone can be good at cs, how could there be only one guy topping the scoreboard? Or one team winning a tournament or a clan war? In other words: if its easy for me too be good at cs, why would it be difficult for someone else? No, it has to be as easy for someone else (cos you guys said it was) but if he plays against me, whos gonna win? There has to be a winner, innit? Well, ill tell you who'll be winning... The best one. The one that has practiced most and is best used to the game (hence cs/hl engine obviously)...
Thats were the interesting aspect of cs comes in, that in the end, a good team is NOT about aiming skill, but cleverness and a sense of the game. And being cleverer than your opponent, and getting to know your opponent faster than he gets to know you, will make you a better player. For exemple knowing where the Ts will attack when youre a defending CT, and at what time exactly. Have you ever watched a eurocup demo ffs? These guys are good, because of pure aiming skills, but also because after a few round as T, they know where the weakest point in the CT defences is... Get to know that mate (ak, hellion, doll and others) then youll be real good...
Now, why couldnt cs be a real sport just like football. Promotion? Money? Coverage? Sure, but why does it lack all this?...
Because promoters know for a fact that a typical football supporter can relate to football and know what it takes to be good, but as no f***ing clue whatsoever about playing cs... And this ignorance, this inability to relate to the players themselves, will stop his curiosity...
And i know for a fact, that me and my mates, because we are players, and because we practice a lot and try to improve ourselves, we will be there, watching the cpl final or any other cs competition, on a computer screen thanks to multicast, together, as a f***ing social event (cos we do have a life ya know), and we will be whooping and cheering and admiring those higher skills these top players display, cos we know what it takes, we know how much practice and skill and teamplay and tactics and cleverness it takes to be there...
cs is not easy, cos we playing against other human beings, and as doll says, if it only asks for a few motoring skills that everybody has, then to be better than others, you have to show skills they dont have... [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
Croydon
16:22 1/8/2001
12:35 5/8/2001
05:45 6/8/2001
18:50 6/8/2001
16:34 9/8/2001
I think, though, that as these barriers are lifted by us nerds becoming more predominant and outspoken and less ignored/disrespected, games like CS could get the kind of publicity ... maybe not soccer, but... say, cricket gets. This is not going to happen overnight, though; it will be a slow process.
I look forward to the day when a good PC game will be supported, popular, and media-covered for years at a time... [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
11:23 10/8/2001
But on the other hand who would go to a gaming arena and pay good money when you have a perfectly good computer at home. Okay so you wouldn't get the atmosphere at home and no pats on the back after wasting 4K, but paying to use a PC??
The secret is sponsorship and promotion. CS needs more of it. More CS players, more prize money, more tournaments. Only then will these LAN gaming centres be worth going to. Maybe with enough sponsorship the gaming could be free.
El-Chavatto [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
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