By Mark "Lockhart" Prokop

With all the uproar over CPL going to Source for next summer, SPAMBOO wrote a very well-written article laying out the case for the need to have a pro mode. He essentially described his pro mode as Source: 1.6.

I say that this is the last thing the community needs. I was around through one of the biggest changes to CS ever: the jumping change, where they added the stutter-step after a jump. Even today, years after it was done, I still disagree with the change, but I'm still playing CS and reading about it on GotFrag, aren't I?

The reason I bring this up is because every single time there is a change, the community complains about it, sometimes in an eloquent way, and sometimes in a “kthxbye” way. But after every update, the game grows. Now, popularity isn't always a good thing, especially in a game with a certain level of randomness in it. You can easily compare CS to poker: online, it's much more random, with terrible people beating good people simply based on luck, whereas live, better players exploit the leveling of the playing field, producing less random results.

Even online, Source is less random than 1.6, especially when you use the cl_interp tweaks, (written about on GotFrag awhile ago) to improve the hit box registration. Two of the changes SPAMBOO had were fixable right through the console: Rag doll physics are easily turned off and the net code is far far more accurate than 1.6, especially with the interp tweaks.

He also brought up how Source is 'slowed down.' Having scrimmed on it a few times, it certainly doesn't feel any slower, and if it is, it's only a tiny bit. He brought up the shield and the AWP delay as examples of Valve slowing down CS, which are both removed in Source. I do agree with him that the barrels and extra things they put into the maps are annoying and unnecessary, but it's possible to use them to your advantage, like on dust2, you can shoot the barrel into the long A doors, obstructing a T's movement. It's another level of strategy, at the very least. (Even if it is stupid.)

As far as complaints about the visuals, with the nostalgic longing for the 1.6 models and textures, I think people just want their computer to run the game faster. Source looks good, even with the graphics turned down a bit so it's playable on an older machine. I don't have a problem playing on an old Radeon 8500 because I'm not obsessed with getting over 100fps all the time. I don't noticeably lag during firefights, and that's really all you need. Like he said, better graphics are going to attract sponsors to the game, and this isn't always a bad thing. To bring up his 'backyard game' analogy, wouldn't football have trouble attracting sponsors if they were all playing at Randy Moss' house?

However, doesn't 1.6 have this same 'backyard' analogy? CPL doesn't play on fy_iceworld with low gravity on a 32 player server, do they? The majority of casual 1.6 players play like this, on pubs with 16-32 people, running around, spraying their Colt/AK, hoping to hit something. In this same way, CPL is going to set up rules to structure the game the same way they do 1.6: it's going to be played a certain number of rounds, with certain console settings and tweaks, and the players are going to play as smart as they always have.

A player does NOT have a better chance running and spraying at someone in Source than actually aiming and shooting. It's much much easier to one-bullet headshot people in Source, because if you aim at their head, and shoot a bullet at where their head is, they WILL die, whereas in 1.6 you might hit their helmet or miss completely, despite your aim being dead-on.

Recoil is reduced; but this is a good thing. The nice thing about games like UT and Painkiller is that they are NOT random, because shots go where you aim them. I've believed that having random recoil in CS creates a 'skill ceiling,' where you notice very little difference between the top players, because they've reached a point where it comes down to the game deciding who dies. You can control your recoil all you want, but it's still random.

I disagree that there's no 'learning curve,' as there are always bad players who will get lucky kills, but I've noticed that you don't get lamed as much in Source as you do in 1.6. Even just pubbing, you notice a difference when you don't die to some idiot running at you spraying with a Galil as long as you aim when you shoot him.

Fatal1ty is the one of the best FPS and now Painkiller players in the world, and there are only maybe four or five people in the world who are capable of beating him.

Who is the best CS player in the world?

Is it Ksharp? Heaton? Elude? Potti? Element? Rambo? XeqtR? Shaguar? Aimetti?

You can make an argument for any of them (except Aimetti) and this isn't good for the community. I'm not a great player, but I wouldn't be surprised if I could get a few kills on any of those guys in a match. If I played a Painkiller match against Fat or vo0 or pretty much anyone in that CPL tourney, I'd have to hit the luckiest shot of my life to even get one frag.

Who's the greatest basketball player ever? Who's the greatest hockey player ever? Who's the greatest baseball player ever? I think everyone who answered any of those questions would only be choosing between one or two, maybe three people. Those are all team sports, just like CS, but CS simply doesn't have one of those stars that transcends the game.

I don't think it's that CS, and professional gaming as a whole, hasn't been around long enough to produce a really big star; I think the game prevents it from occurring. And I think that Source's reduction in the randomness of recoil is going to improve the chances of that happening, because the people with the best aim are going to be better in Source than they were in 1.6.

As far as locking in the game and saying 'this is how it's going to be,' even the major sports don't do that. They lock in the field of play, generally, but they do tweak things. Football has the two point conversion, which was taken out and then put back in. Baseball lowered the mound. Hockey moved the nets forward. Basketball added the three point line.

What if we locked CS:Pro in with the old money system, with players camping out rounds in the most boring fashion possible? This obviously wouldn't be in the pro mod, but something could always happen that would need a change; just like the 'major' sports, there always needs to be room for changes.

Yes, there are some problems with Source. First off, they absolutely have to port more competitive maps. Inferno needs to have been ported about a month ago, because it's probably the best overall map in CS. Nuke needs to be in there, preferably without the floating box bug. Mill needs to make the trip over, too.

Again, the extra “show off the physics” barrels and stuff should probably go, but it's not something that is so game-breaking that it makes Source unplayable. As far as the original animations, well, it's just a taste thing. If you can't see people be hit, then take this nugget of advice: when they slow down, you can see that you've shot them. Putting back the old textures is only for nostalgia's sake, it has no impact on the game at all.

There are some bugs that MUST be fixed, too, before you can use Source in a competitive environment. The biggest one is the 'gun doesn't fire' bug. It seems to occur randomly when you're switching between weapons, you'll press fire and it simply doesn't shoot. This is one of those bugs that really hurts the overall experience.

Bottom line, though, is that Source is going to be a better competitive game than 1.6 with a few updates, simply because of a reduction in the randomness of recoil. It has its problems, and it is currently not as good as 1.6, but it can get there, and I think it'll pass 1.6 once those bugs are fixed and the maps are ported. This 'pro mode' talk has always been unrealistic, and the best idea is simply to badger Valve into fixing what needs to be fixed; not going out and copying the old game.