What is Counter Strike?

   Photo courtesy of Counter Strike on Steam

Counter Strike is a multiplayer first person shooter video game series for the PC. There are multiple games in the series, the first being Counter Strike (1999 - mostly referred to as 1.6 or CS 1.6), followed by Counter Strike: Condition Zero (the only game with a campaign!) and Counter Strike: Source in 2004, and then the most popular inception, Counter Strike: Global Offensive in 2012. 

Gameplay and the fundamentals have remained relatively the same over the years. Since this blog is about the current professional eSports scene, I will only talk about Counter Strike: Global Offensive, as it is the only one where a professional community is supported by those outside of the community (organizations and sponsors). 

Gameplay consists of two teams: terrorists and counter-terrorists. There are 30 rounds, meaning that a team has to win 16 rounds in order to win the game. Each round lasts up to one minute and 55 seconds. There are five players on each team. 

Terrorists can win by: 

• planting the bomb and defending it until it detonates (45 seconds after the bomb is planted - the round timer goes away when the bomb is planted, so if there are 4 seconds left in the round and someone plants the bomb, the round can last an additional 45 seconds)
• Killing all five counter-terrorists before the round timer runs out

Counter- Terrorists can win by:

• defusing the bomb (takes 10 seconds normally, 5 seconds with a defuse kit)
• Killing all 5 terrorists if the bomb hasn't been planted
• surviving until the round timer runs out without the bomb being planted 

The company behind Counter Strike, VALVe, introduced a dedicated matchmaking system with Counter Strike: Global Offensive. Before CS:GO, the only competitive counter strike you could play would have to be on servers hosted by players. With CS:GO, servers are hosted at the expense of VALVe, which, combined with the ELO system, allow for much more consistent competitive playing.