Before we begin, let us learn a little about the subject.
Half-Life Television (HLTV) came into being around January of 2000, when Angel Munoz traded words with Valve about adding a spectator-friendly aspect to Counter-Strike. With The CPL in mind, Gabe Newell himself contacted Quake prodigy Martin Otten (the man behind Argus) about creating a similar tool for CS. HLTV is a multicast tool that streams live data to a client with or without a delay buffer. It is compatible with every Half-life Modification, but requires extra work on the modder’s part for total camera optimization.

Now let us get down to brass tacks…

I want to spectate a match. Where can I find an HLTV IP address?
There are a quite a few resources at your disposal, so we will stick with the most apparent. HLTV is supported by a master server which sends all the IPs to the filtered game list. What does this mean? It's simple. First open your server list (adjusting the filter accordingly) and select “Spectate”. From here we can find every HLTV server visibly available.



Admittedly, this can become quite tedious. Perhaps you have a specific match in mind that you want to view? If it is a professional CS match, the chances are that there is an HLTV. You can find the latest HLTV match IPs at www.hltv.org & www.GotFrag.com . Lastly, do not forget to check your matches respected sites. You can usually find the latest IPs on the team or events website.

I know the IP to my match, now what? Here is the easiest part. There are two ways you can do this. The first and primary way used in the competitive scene is to use your console. First, make sure your console is enabled. To enable it, add the “-console” command line to your Counter-Strike launch options.


From here, it is pretty simple. Just open your console (~) and type “connect yourIP” without the quotations. Click Submit or hit Enter, and you are ready to roll.


The second route is a road less taken. Select the “Favorites” tab from the tab menu and press the “Add Server” button. At this point, it is self explanatory. Simply enter the IP to add the server to your favorites list, select, and connect.



I am connected! Sweet! Uh…What does this button do?
You will notice that while spectating there are quite a few camera control options. These are very handy & increase the viewing experience greatly by customizing the view just to your specifications. Now, let us go over the basic controls.

Pressing the “duck” key will open the spectator menu. “Fire1” will cycle between players and “Fire2” will switch back to the last player. Your jump key can be used to switch between view modes, and lastly your “Use” key is meant to change inset windowed modes. Take a look at the picture below and I will examine what each button on the GUI (graphical user interface) does so you do not have to.


You will initially see three toolbars. On the bottom left is the Options tab; this expands to four more options and sub options. In the middle is the Player bar. You can switch between players by either pressing the left or right buttons adjacent to the toolbar, or selecting one from the drop down menu. To the right we find the View Mode toolbar. It is here you can switch between, well, View Modes. This will be covered more extensively in just a minute, but for now let us continue on. On the top right, you will find the more informative features. The number next to “Spectators” is the current number of viewers connected to the HLTV and the Clock below it is time left in the round. Just to the left of this, you see Counter-Terrorist & Terrorists, and next to each is a number. This is the current score of the game. As you can see, Nuke is quite the CT sided map.

What does each View Mode do?
Referring to the last picture, you can see the camera modes available to you.

Chase Map Overview: Chase Map Overview is a rather bland, but more globally informative viewing choice. The view switches to a map overview and keeps focus on the specified player.

Free Map Overview: The Free Map Overview is essentially the Chase Map Overview, minus one thing, individual player focus. In this mode you can see an Overview of the action without being limited by a player's movement.

First Person: First Person mode gives you an in-eye perspective of the action. Want to see what he sees? First person is the way to go!

Free Chase Camera: Free Chase Camera follows the selected player in third person. You get to see the action from a “close, but not too close” perspective.

Locked Chase Camera: Locked Chase is the same as the Free Chase Camera, with the addition of a fixed cam. The camera still follows the specified player in third person, except this time your view is locked in a directional sense. You look in the direction they look.

Free Look: Free Look offers the most versatile of modes. When Free Look is your View Mode, you can whiz through the action in first person to anywhere you please. Not bounded by player movements, you can set up your camera wherever you think the action is going to take place.

Could you explain the Options tab?
Of course, in the options toolbar you will find five options...


Help: Help shows you the movement and camera control keys in HLTV. This is very handy in case you forget.

Settings: Settings controls the variables in your viewing experience. Select to enable or disable whether or not you can see chat messages from players. Show player health status and names in overview. Even disable the visual aid View Cone in overview.

Picture-In-Picture: Picture-In-Picture is just how it sounds. With PiP you can have more than two modes on at once, great for multitasking. Not all modes are compatible though, so mix and match!

Auto Director: Auto Director is a very simple idea; take the spectator where the action is! With Auto Director it automatically detects where the action is and brings you to it accordingly.

Show Scores: If you want the scores to remain on screen while you watch, tick this option.

Can I adjust these variables through console?
Yes you can, the following is a list of known commandlines.

spec_autodirector <0|1> - turns Auto Director mode on or off
spec_drawcone <0|1> - shows your view cone in map overview mode
spec_drawnames <0|1> - shows player names under their icons
spec_drawstatus <0|1> - shows game information (time, map etc)
spec_pip <0|1> - turns Picture-In-Picture mode on or off
spec_menu - opens the spectator menu
spec_help - shows a help screen
spec_mode <1-6> [<0-4>] - set the main view mode, seconds parameter is
the PIP mode. Not all combinations are valid.
Main modes are:
1 : Locked Chase 2 : Free Chase
3 : Free Roaming 4 : First Person
5 : Map Overview 6 : Chase Map Overview
PIP modes are:
0 : PIP off 1 : Free Chase
2 : First Person 3 : Map Overview
4 : Chase Map Overview


Great! But how can I record an HLTV demo?
Believe it or not, you have the ability to record your own HLTV demo right now. However it is really not recommended unless you have a very strong computer otherwise you will find HLTV to be quite fussy. It is much better to get a dedicated HLTV for your server, or a rental one at cheap rate. A few good dedicated HLTV hosts include SteamID.com's HLTV and some great packages from ReconGamer.

I have an HLTV demo I want people to see. Can I upload it to GotFrag?
It is easier than you might imagine. Simply select your game from the left menu bar, click “demos” and scroll down to the bottom. There you will find a link to “Upload" (Prime users need just click ADD from the "New Demos" bar)

Fill in the appropriate information and you are good to go!

Well that is about everything you need to know aside from how to view an HLTV demo, so keep your eyes peeled for Demos 101!