Counter Strike Source: The Past, The Present and The Future.

The Past:

Counter Strike Source has been around since November 14th 2004, in the beginning Counter Strike Source was not seen as a competitive game, teams from 1.6 did not like the fact that their computers could not maintain any type of decent FPS, for this reason the competitive teams stayed with 1.6.

However as Counter Strike Source progressed, and with the news that WCG 2005 would hold a major CS: Source event teams began to come over. The first major teams to grace the CS Source scene in Australia were the infamous DIOS (Do It On Source) and SONO (Sex or Nearest Offer). These two teams together revolutionized the Source scene all over Australia. Finally with a couple competitive teams around, it seemed the Source had just broken through to the competitive scene.

AUSource was created soon after and was the place to be, with many idlers, constant advertising for wars, it seemed that Source had been given a fresh breath of life and that things would pick up, and pick up they did. With DIOS and SONO setting the bar very high, a lot of teams could not keep up with them, however some new teams did emerge, the likes of CP, consisting of South Australian players came to the surface and immediately impacted the Source scene. As WCG approached more and more players from 1.6 made the switch to Source, with iCHOR bringing what was a dominant line-up to the team, Capital also threw together a CS Source team. These two teams dominated WCG, iCHOR finishing first, with Capital taking runners up. Jolt, CP and SyK where the next three teams with DIOS coming in 6th postion.

It looked as though Source was fast becoming the game to play, unfortunately this was not the case, after WCG teams began to lose interest, the GA league was in place, however it was not enough to keep teams motivated, slowly the Source scene began to wear thing, but there was a light at the end of the tunnel, OGN decided to pull out a Defend Your Server Competition (DYSC), finally something to play for, OGN had some top teams lined up for this, amongst those teams were Livid, who to this day remain a power house in the Source scene, and team Induced, an unknown team who many thought would be out after the first round, this was not the case, Induced went on to win the competition against Livid in the final. After the OGN DYSC things started to simmer again, not much happened for a while, AUSource was trying to establish a league but with very limited resources were unable to pull one together, OGN hosted another DYSC which was even bigger and better than the others, invalid came out winners of this competition, unfortunately invalid could not keep their team together and they disbanded, a couple of their players began 3PGaming (also now known as imminent).

With OGN seeming to be the only company running big scale competitions, GA and GameSpace running smaller ladders it was time for something major, OGN decided to run an invite league, and the teams involved were outstanding. The teams in the league were teamz0r, Livid, Sykotic, Induced jolt and more. It was shaping up to be a great league, with 5 matches played unfortunately there was issues with the ladder software and the webpage got hacked into, prematurely ending the competition. Lucky for Source soon after GotGames was created.

The creation of GotGames proved to be the biggest and best thing to happen to Source as it not only bought a new standard to competitions, it bought a new standard to Source teams in general. Just before GotGames announced an invite league of their own, there was a Source Nationals LAN Competition which was held in Queensland, this was a huge move for CS Source as teams travelled all from all over Australia to compete. This LAN competition helped GotGames chose their teams for their invite league which consisted of powerhouses imminent, f4f, livid, NewType, encore and more. The first season was won by imminent who proved far too strong for any other team during this season. GotGames announced their National LAN Comp soon after in Sydney, unfortunately the turnout wasn’t as big as they expected however it was still impressive, imminent defeated f4f in the finals of this competition winning a total of $5000 for their team. Teams from Tasmania, QLD and SA travelled to this event, also Atvar came from New Zealand to play for GTeSports.

Finally I have come to the biggest news that has hit Australian Source, and that is CEVO merging with GotGames, with this bought the CEVOGG-Professional League and also the CEVOGG-Intermediate league. The leagues are at their climax now with the semi final between Encore and Virtue been played on Thursday the 7th of June (today) and the Intermediate Grand Final between Zero Remorse and Team Fury been played on Sunday the 10th of June.

There is one last thing that has been huge for CS Source, and that’s the birth of Anything Interactive and their running of the AINC National LAN competition, the 1st national LAN competition with state qualifiers and what many say the first REAL Nationals held in Australia for Source. The AINC Nationals is to be held on the 26th and 27th of June, it is both a 1.6 and Source event, but the turnout for Source has been fantastic, with the first Melbourne Qualifier over, AINC are preparing for the Sydney, WA, Queensland, SA and Tasmania qualifiers. You can be sure that Anything Interactive will be one of the biggest things in the future of Australian Source

Source as a game:
At the beginning Source was seen random with dodgy registration, and people were correct, originally the hit boxes were all over the place and a lot of people were getting kills which they shouldn’t have been getting. However as the game progressed and new features were added (such as the new and improved radar), glitches were fixes and even the rego was improved, the game has gotten a lot better over time.

The present

Slowly the CS Source scene has been growing, more and more 1.6 players have been merging to the game, more and more teams have been practicing and becoming better, from having two dominant teams in Australia it has progressed to having 10 – 15 competitive teams, anyone on their day could beat the other. Imminent remains the team to beat but f4f, Encore and Virtue are three of the teams that remain right on their tails looking to edge them off that top spot. Today teams are practicing hard, making their own strats, and even going to LAN café’s to practice as a team. Its an exciting time for everyone involved

There are many competitions that people are looking to play now, GotGames remains the major league in Australia, however Reality Gaming are running their own Invite league, AusMasters have began their own Invite league also, and what is looking to be the biggest thing in Australia AINC are looking to push through the future bringing many more Source events.

Source as a game:
Honestly, the game at the moment is fantastic, sure you will find some randomness in the game, and you’ll also find you should have killed someone but didn’t, but when doesn’t that happen in every game? There are still small bugs but unfortunately I think the 1.6 band wagon of “Source is random” is to big at the moment and is the main reason why people haven’t moved over to Source already.

The Future

Where is Source headed? Well, there has been lots of talks of CS Source Pro Mod (which has been “in the making” since Source was released) and also rumours about a “Counter-Strike 2” however I don’t believe these will happen anytime soon, Valve are still updated and improving Source, players from 1.6 are slowly but surely moving to Source, and Source is headed to be Australia’s biggest game within the next couple of years.

GotGames will most likely be at the front leading the charge for Source to become the number 1 game, however the AINC Competitions, Reality Gaming and AusMasters will also help make Source a bigger and better game, you can be sure that more companies will be looking to start leagues in the near future, and with more companies and leagues, the ever improving game, and also some of the massive prize money that’s started coming out in a lot of the competitions, you will find more and more players and teams making the move from 1.6 to Source. And I say bring it on!

Thanks for taking the time to read my write-up lads, hope you all enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Source as a game:
The future looks bright for Source, with valve always improving it, the rego is getting better, skill is starting to show more and more, you can tell the difference between good and lucky now, and with more and more people moving the game, its just going to get better!