Alright whamm, time for some educating.
Before Source, the world of CS was at peace. 1.6 was the only version of competitive CS. However, with the introduction of CS: Source, the “eye candy” edition of CS, the community began to divide… into either the 1.6 or Source column.
When source made its debut, it wasn’t given much attention from the general community. People pubbed it for a few days, then moved on. There were so many bugs and glitches that it was thought of as a joke, that 1.6 could never come under threat from this upstart game. However, the big shock that started a slowly growing Source community was the CPL’s announcement that it would be taking on Source for the CPL Summer 2005. The CPL thought at the time, that the community would embrace and come to love source, being our favorite game mixed with great eye candy. Oh, how the CPL got it so wrong.
What CS 1.6 players realized after playing Source, is that it’s not the graphics, it’s the game play that makes a good game.
1.6 is a much better game than Source. Why you may ask? Because it’s game play has proven to be a successful formula since it was introduced. The main reason 1.6 has much better game play than source, is because 1.6 has in heart been around since the first beta editions of it were released. Although it has been changed significantly since these days, it has kept its popularity due to it still being the same core that is the CS headshot-like action that we all love. Some aspects of 1.6 that are vital to the success of the game include the “headshots”, the ability to shoot through walls, boosting a teammate, the correct implementation of recoil and the fast paced action.
Counter-Strike 1.6 is so successful because of the way it is made. It was engineered with two sides to it. One half of CS 1.6 is the realism. This being the assortment of real world guns, the setting of terrorists versus counter-terrorists and the assortment of real life accessories you can purchase such as Kevlar, grenades and night vision. The other half of Counter-Strike 1.6 is engineered not to be realistic, but to make the game fun to play. You won’t see a counter-terrorist operative in real life shooting his enemies through thick rock walls (although this would be cool) and boosting his teammates to higher places, but that wasn’t the point of these important features. These were not added to make the game feel like you’re walking into Afghanistan in the War on Terror, they were added purely to make the game fun to play. And they succeeded. Any 1.6 competitive player will agree that although unrealistic, these features are an integral part of the entire competitive experience.
Counter-Strike 1.6 has been around for a long time now, and it will still be around for a lot longer. For those foolish enough to state that 1.6 is dying, think again. You are wrong. If you look on www.steampowered.com, you will see that 1.6 has 96,777 players, compared to 23,162. However, this relates to world wide players, which largely consists of “noobs” who have never heard of the CPL. A person who has never played counter-strike before would assume that the latest version of it is the best. Therefore, it is a safe assumption to say that a large portion of the Source players would not be interested in competitive play. It would be much more likely that 95% of this statistic are “Weekend Warriors”, people that play the game at home for half-an-hour each day after work to relax. People that play fy_iceworld more than de_dust2. People that play the game for futile entertainment, and not for their competitive fix. A more relevant piece of evidence that 1.6 is largely dominant over Source is the poll GotFrag hosted recently. This poll, voted by people who are interested in the competitive aspect of Counter-Strike, showed that 76% preferred 1.6 over the 23% that preferred source.
Source is already showing signs of ending up just like Doom 3 has. Before Doom 3 was released, it was predicted to be the best 1v1 game ever to be released. It came. And it failed. Doom 3 tournaments were held at two CPLs in a row, before it was dumped. The reason? The game play. Doom 3 has some of the most spectacular graphics ever seen, however just because something is fantastic on the eye, does not mean it will make a good competitive game. Graphics have no influence on whether a game will be good for tournament play. A good competitive game must be fun to play, consistent (not random like source) and more importantly, fun to watch. If we are to have e-sports evolve, it will need to be entertaining for spectators to watch. Source can be compared to Doom 3. Counter-Strike 1.6 is a game that has slowly evolved for more than 5 years, and still has a very strong fan base. Most Counter-Strike fans have a favourite pro team, such as 3D, NoA, NiP and Mousesports. It’s competitive aspects, such as the round timer cutting out when the bomb is planted, have been finely tuned for some time now. Source is like Doom 3. It is a brand new game, it is pretty, however it is not a good competitive game. The CPL will flirt with Source, most likely for two tournaments, before realising that 1.6 is still the way of the future.
If the number of teams registered for the upcoming CPL Summer $100,000 Source tournament counts as an indicator of the popularity of Source, than even Jon “elude” Gilbert may have to eat humble pie. With only 34 of 128 teams signed up, including names such as clan “w00t” and the “Elite Sex Force” very few teams are going to be familiar to the average GotFrag user. This will mean that no-one besides elude’s mom and dad will actually care about the Source tournament. Ok maybe that was a little harsh  but in reality it will have a very small fan base monitoring its matches, especially when popular established 1.6 tournaments such as the CPL’s 1.6 tournament and more notably the ESWC are being played at the same time. And rest assured, the 1.6 tournaments will be far more popular with the online audience as well, with big name teams that spectators can relate to, in a game they are familiar with.
Some source fanatics may use the argument that Source is a new game, it is new and should be given time to see whether it becomes successful. Well it’s been over 9 months since the CPL announced it as it’s primary game for Summer ’05, so source’s lack of popularity does not relate to the time it has been released. I would also like to quote an old proverb. “If it’s not broken, why fix it?”. 1.6 is not broken; it is a very popular game that has maintained its popularity for a long time, particularly in comparison to most game’s average age of 1-2 years. There is no need for Counter-Strike: Source in our community. And please, when someone says “source is bad”, don’t assume that they have pubbed it once and hate it without giving it a go. Everyone that I have associated with that does not approve of source has given it a good and proper go, and they have decided that it is not a game worthy of their time.
This is long enough already, so I will conclude with this. Source was an experiment, a failed experiment that the CPL has toyed with, and surely they will conclude that it is not viable to host another Source tournament ever again. With a year’s notice, they have only pulled in 34 teams to compete in their $100,000 tournament. Mark my words, Source will not take over Counter-Strike as we know it. For Source to be successful, it must be played by us, the gamers, spectators and readers of the competitive counter-strike community. Don’t let source supporters live in their fantasy world that 1.6 is dying. Their game is filled with random headshots, bugs here and there, and might I say disappearing grenades (when quick switching)? Surely the future of professional and competitive counter-strike can’t be this. For if we all stick up for the game we love best, not even the CPL can do anything about it.
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