When the event was first released, DirecTV announced the Championship Gaming Series (CGS) Counter-Strike tournament would use a modified set of rules to make the matches more television friendly. The first trial of CGS’ television friendly format took place yesterday at the Championship Gaming Invitational (CGI) in San Francisco’s Treasure Island. DirecTV promoted gaming to mainstream audiences by creating a massive set, attracting a large crowd, and rolling in two magnificent broadcasting trucks that could edit every piece of video ever created. The considerations for mainstream air time are different than anything we, as a community, as fans, and as athletes, have ever seen.

The CGI tournament was designed to condense the length of matches. One source said the tournament aimed to have a max time limit of 30 minutes per match -- no matter what. So what did CGI do to accomplish it? Let’s breakdown the differences between DirecTV’s CGI and other events that feature Counter-Strike competitions.



Simply put, the CGI rules made the game faster. Friday’s match between Team 3D and NiP (including half time breaks) lasted 20 minutes. The match between Complexity and Jax Money Crew lasted a mere 18 minutes. The actual average in-game match time was 16:02 minutes. According to GameSense, the average match from CPL Winter 2005 was 26:33 minutes while ESWC 2006 boasted 31:55 minutes of action, and both excluded overtime! Therefore the CGI format roughly cut the length of the matches in half.

This brings forth the question: How does the reduction of match time affect game play? After watching Friday’s matches, it affects it a ton.

When players first examined the rule set, their initial concern questioned what happens when a team loses the opening round. By starting with $7,000 most players will have around $2,000 left over after a first round buy (excluding any players purchasing the AWP.) Should both teams buy the first two rounds, and one team win both of them, the winning team would be at a $7,000 to $1,900 money advantage going into round 3. Properly managed, the winning team would not have to save until the latter rounds of the tournament; whereas the losing team would be forced to save potentially every other round.

With this type of money system, a first round victory by the offense would require the team on defense to save the next round. The first half of the NiP versus Team 3D match saw the Swedes lose nine rounds; four of which NiP was required to save. The money system isn’t the only problem.

Counter-Strike is strategically similar to American Football in that the other team is constantly judging the opposition’s plays or setups is in order to create effective counters. With nine rounds, teams didn’t have enough time to make adjustments. It is not uncommon to see a team jump out to an 8-1 lead in a Counter-Strike match before the opposition adjusts and turns a potential blowout into a 6-9 or 7-8 half score making a second half comeback very reasonable.

It’s great to see DirecTV creating such an awesome gaming experience and pushing eSports to the mainstream, but don’t we want our best foot forward? We need Counter-Strike to be exciting and enjoyable, not 10-1 and 10-4.

CGI is a beta and its DirecTV’s goal to make it the best beta it can be. From what I have seen, DirecTV is doing just that and more by taking steps the whole industry if not the world will have to notice. As this event is a learning process for DirecTV, let’s support them and work with them to make it right.