Lately we have seen some new teams appear at the top of the Counter-Strike talent pool. We saw Rival surprise everyone at CPL Summer '04, The Titans emerge at ESWC, and MaveN take down SK at WCG. Another example is TAU taking out NoA at CPL Summer '04. While the TAU match was obviously a big fluke, it still supports my opinion on just ONE of many possible reasons why these teams come from seemingly nowhere and take out the highly favored teams.

To keep you all from wondering, I'll simply say it. The reason we see new teams, and sometimes less skilled teams, beating the tournament favorites are because of the maps used in competition.

When you think about it, the maps we use in tournaments (de_train, de_dust2, de_inferno, de_nuke and de_cbble) are getting old. Yes, they are exciting to watch matches on, but the potential for new strategies has long since been depleted. When was the last time you saw a completely new strategy? This holds true even for a map like de_cpl_mill, although admittedly not as much as the other maps as cpl_mill is comparatively much newer.

So why is this such a problem, and what can we do to change it?

In my opinion, these old maps have turned into a huge problem. Many players know that a random, out-of-the-blue headshot on, say, pistol round or fourth round can change the course of a whole match. That should never be the case. One or two kills should never determine whether a match ends 16-6 or 16-14. The team with better teamwork, tactics, and five players with more overall skill shouldn't lose to teams who are lesser in all of those aspects.

Looking back to my introduction, let's examine the TAU vs. NoA match. The five players in NoA were obviously more skilled individually than anyone in TAU (no offense to those players). NoA had the tactics and teamwork to beat top teams in the world, as proven at CPL Winter '03. Thus, the question arises, "Why did they lose?" I have thought about this for a while, and my answer to that question is the map.

The "strategic river," if you will, has run completely dry on de_inferno. A team who watches demos (or reads Bootman's playbooks) can easily learn teamwork on that specific map by taking strategies from other teams.

That aspect really hurts this game. The fact that there hasn't been a new map or a major change in any map really hinders the progress of eSports. The minds of players we look at because of their ability to make strategies (element from NoA, hare of United 5, moto for 3D and hyper in SK) are wasted. They cannot make any new strategies, only variations to tactics we've seen used over and over again, season after season, CPL after CPL.

When a team studies enough demos to know that the first guy watches the corner, while the second guy flashes, and the 3rd guy watches the right hallway as the 4th and 5th guys both nade the corner, and then that team plays against the studied team, the result isn't pretty. Of course one random headshot is going to change the course of the match when maps play out such as above. Both teams are using the same strategies to defend and attack bombsites!

How do we fix the problem, you ask?

Clearly, new maps need to be created. I know that might seem outrageous to some of you, but I honestly think it would prove to be much more exciting, as well as noticeably improve the game. I'm not saying that we should simply toss out the current maps. I love them just as much as the next guy. Nonetheless, new maps need to be added to the current rotation.

I think it would make for a great tournament if, say, a month or two before the CPL tournament they released a CPL map package, containing five or six brand new, never before played, maps. Doing this would allow us to see the top strategic minds create insane tactics to make our jaws drop. We would see spots and stacks never before seen. We would see the teams who practice the most and work the hardest win the tournaments.

There also wouldn't be enough demos to make one of those crazy playbooks, either. There also wouldn't be enough demos to teach teams that have no teamwork and, essentially, no business winning, how to win (i.e. TAU vs. NoA). We would see teams like u5, 3D, SK, The Titans, DSky, and maybe a couple others always emerging as winners when they play teams that shouldn't even be allowed in the same tournament.

To top it off, this solution wouldn't hinder the spectator aspect of this game at all; in fact, it may enhance the experience. People from all over the world could watch these matches and be rewarded in the end. Exciting fake strategies, full out rushes, defensive pushes, crazy head-stacks, and valiant last stands would be seen left and right between some of the most popular teams of our age. Indeed, I certainly feel that this change would attract even more spectators and bring Counter-Strike the excitement it has lacked of late.