​As a longtime Counter-Strike fan, I can still remember watching “n0thing but headshots” and being convinced Jordan “n0thing” Gilbert was a cheater. The sheer number of people he killed on Nuke with mere sound clues and impeccable timing was mind blowing. Perhaps the most popular movie of all time is phoon’s “too much for zblock” bunnyhopping montage but I’m talking straight up fragmovies. The mSx fragmovie is another beautiful creation from that era. It is a perfect combination of pace, talent and god-tier spray control that the game of Counter-Strike has ever seen.





But today, those clips are fewer and farther between. It could be nostalgia speaking, but it’s a shame fragmovies aren’t appreciated more by the Counter-Strike community today.





You know you’ve found a classic fragmovie when you notice a slight euphoric feeling watching it. The best ones make you want to hop right in a server and bang some heads. I’ve seen some people say that CS:GO fragmovies just don’t capture the same vibe or feeling as their ancestors from Counter-Strike 1.6 or Source. I beg to differ. Watch CS:GO shox - GODMODE and you’ll have goosebumps five seconds into it.





The reason for disparity between then and now is mostly obvious, though. We live in a world of content overload, with access to information at our fingertips at all hours of the day. Oh, you missed that GuardiaN 1-v-3? Just hit the clip button and find it. Nothing like that existed back in the day. Streams didn’t even exist until the latter days of 1.6. Most of the time, the frags people watched in fragmovies were fresh to even the most diehard fans. Now, you’ll be hard pressed to find a NiKo deagle clip that hasn’t spent a day on the front of the CS:GO subreddit before it eventually appears in a fragmovie.





YouTube monetization has definitely played a part in the equation, too. Many movies are made with royalty-free music to ensure the video is safely monetized, rather than picking the best song for the player and/or the style of the editor. I will be first in line to step up to the plate to bat for content creators receiving compensation, but it just sucks that must come at the expense of quality.





If I’m honest, I’m fine with the fact that fragmovies aren’t as popular as before. This was always going to happen. It’s OK if people don’t like the same things I like. What I don’t understand, though, is just how little attention fragmovies get. Am I just part of an older generation that holds fragmovies in an unrealistic prestigious regard? Some of the all-time greats are just too good if you are a legitimate fan of Counter-Strike. I’ve yet to see a Twitch clip that makes me feel fuzzy inside like fragmovies do.





I understand why there’s fewer of them, but I guess it’s just sad.





Photo by Adela Sznajder/DreamHack

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