We found this new podcast called Organised Nonsense— so I’ll link it down in the footer if you guys want to check it out. We were on the youtube channel today and my comment got like 69 upvotes or something like that, so it was a pretty small reception, but it was like the coolest feeling ever. I ended up following them on Twitter and stuff, and they all hit me up and they’re talking to me about potentially being friends.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive or CS:GO is a tactical multiplayer shooter created by Valve with the Source engine. It is the successor to Counter-Strike: Source. It is team work oriented, like TF2 or overwatch, but the similarities to those games end there.

CS:GO is a lot more precise, with higher stakes compared to other team based shooters. When you die, you’re dead for the entire round. 5-6 shots with any weapon will kill anyone. Headshots are a death sentence unless you’ve paid extra for a helmet, and then it’s not exactly a slap on the wrist either, it will permit you an extra shot before dying. Kinda like a first offender’s program or something. Running and Gunning is less viable because when you get hit, it slows down your movement speed very significantly.

Gameplay

There are two teams. Terrorists(T) and Counter-terrorists(CT).

In the classical game mode, the Terrorist team has to plant a bomb at one of two specific points on the map(of which are very well designed and numerous) and defend the planted bomb from being defused before it goes off.

CT has to prevent the bomb from being planted for a long enough time or defuse the bomb when it is planted. ‘Defusing’ the bomb is just simply holding e on it for 5 or 10 seconds, there isn’t a fancy defusing interface where you have to snip wires or anything… which while cool would probably cause conflict.

Obviously, a team also wins when the opposing team is completely eliminated

Gurnnns

CS:GO has a large collection of shiny, well-balanced weapons. Some are unique to one side, but the other side will have an equivalent that isn’t much different. Weapons are bought at the start of the round with bonus money earned in previous rounds for completing objectives, killing opponents and being part of the winning team. A minimum amount determined by the server settings is awarded at the end of each round. On public official servers it is always enough to buy a decent enough weapon. The specialist weapons are particularly expensive, and grenades are not free either.

Interestingly, in Competitive mode, you need to buy kevlar and a protective helmet rather than it being supplied by default.

So, it’s important you manage your expenses well. Sometimes it is better to settle for a cheaper weapon, so you won’t be stuck with an even cheaper weapon next round if you die.

Sometimes it’s better to let CT defuse the bomb rather than head in there and lose your fancy kit, because when you survive a round you move onto the next with your equipment from the previous.

Counter Strike GO is a very skillful and tactical game, perhaps to a fault. The learning curve is a bit uncomfortable

Shooting your opponent isn’t as straight forward as you’d expect it to be from watching people play. Spread follows a pre-determined pattern that’s unique for each gun. Grenades differ from the behaviour in most games in that their velocity is amplified by yours- I’m not really sure if it makes sense or not- but you frequently see people running forward while trying to throw a grenade over something, not expecting it to fly forward so much and hit the thing it’s supposed to be flying over. And thanks to their amazing bouncy properties, those grenades frequently hilariously fly back for teammates to deal with.

Noticing your opponent first almost guarantees you a kill unless they can find cover very quickly, A player that builds a mental map of where all their opponents could be, the weapons and equipment they are likely to have and what they expect him or her to do will perform 10x better than a player that wanders the map aimlessly, waiting to take kills that fall into their lap.

Because of the reasons listed above, knowing a map well is instrumental. And to learn the grenade sweet spots, bounce points and common behaviour exhibited by the enemy takes a very long time. Which funnily leads to everyone voting Dust 2 as the map because they don’t know others, because everyone always votes Dust 2.

Why I play

I personally enjoy CS GO because it is a good platform for me to be tactical. I can go in sneaky-beaky-like, cover a path to the dropped bomb with smokes, pop a decoy grenade round the corner and shoot everyone in the back when they look away thinking it’s a flash. All while fondling my Fu Manchu because I’m goddamn Sun Tzu.