Counter-Strike was initially released as a mod to Valve’s FPS Game Half-Life. The developers, Minh “Gooseman” Le and Jess “Cliffe” Cliffe, sold the game rights to Valve immediately after. The game has seen several iterations over the years with Counter-Strike 1.6 is one of the most popular FPS titles in a long time. The latest version of Counter-Strike, released in August 2012 and had several problems during the early years. However, Valve put in a lot of efforts during the initial years to make the game a runaway success. The launch of the Major system in 2014 saw the esports scene take off in a big way.

Counter-Strike saw huge viewership numbers which were also fuelled by the growth in esports during the time. However, in the last few years, the title seems to be lacking the attention it deserves from the game developers. The FPS title which has regularly broken Twitch viewership numbers for two years in a row now (Eleague Majors) has seemingly been neglected by the developers in various aspects. But all is not lost as Valve has repeatedly brought about quality changes necessary to ensure a good gameplay experience.

A Community-Driven Title

Despite its runaway success as one of the fastest growing games, Counter-Strike has been notorious for a lack of participation from the developers. The game is wonderfully designed and has been loved by fans all over the world. The huge esports stadiums are filled with fans cheering for their favorite teams. The easy basic concept of the game is what enables the growth of the fanbase.

At its core, Counter-Strike is basically a game where you just eliminate the opponents. There are nuances and complex strategies within the game, but at the lowest ranks, the game is really simple.

Global Offensive released on XYZ and has seen huge prize pools and media exposure regularly. Over the years, we have seen various third-party websites and organizations bring about a lot of value to Counter-Strike. Be it viewer engagement via Skin betting or the third party ladder system, CS GO’s growth has been fuelled by third-party organizations.

Skin Betting Helped the early growth of Counter-Strike

The initial years of Counter-Strike were fuelled by the skin betting industry, notably CSGOLounge being at the forefront. The website was driving millions in daily revenues and they were a big reason for the growth of Tier 2-3 CS GO scene. Obviously, unregulated skin betting came under the purview of legal communities. The various skin betting scams and cheats advertised by prominent Youtubers resulted in an intense scrutiny of the industry as a whole.

We would say that regulation of the betting industry is extremely important and Valve did take steps in the right direction. However, there is no denying the fact that skin betting helped the early growth of Counter-Strike.

Third Party Ladder System

The official Matchmaking system has been deteriorating for the past few years. When 90% of the professional players refuse to pay in the public matchmaking system, you know there is something wrong with the system. The ladder becomes unplayable at high ranks due to cheaters and hackers aplenty in the official system.



The Valve Anti Cheat has proven woefully inadequate in trying to deal with the hackers. However, this is where the third party ladder system has come into play. Taking advantage of Valve’s inability to implement a good Anti Cheat system, third party services such as ESEA & FaceIT have been able to grow in popularity

Where is Valve?

But as Counter-Strike grows in popularity and esports, there is little involvement from Valve. The Game publisher has been astonishingly quiet in their approach to the development of the game. There are infrequent balance updates pushed out, but the core game has not seen any new updates.

We used to see CS GO Operations in 2014, which were quite frequent at the time. However, in the subsequent years, the frequency of Counter-Strike Operations has declined. But Valve has always shown a hands-off approach to the game. They remain indifferent to the communities demands for better features, a working DEMO UI as well as optimization of the CS GO client.

Counter-strike is filled with several problems

There have been several complaints about the way Valve have handled their FPS Game. From a poor replay system to the outdated UI Valve has their work cut out for them. Given below, we have several problems that need Valve’s immediate attention.

Im always pissed and dazed when I think about what @csgo_dev do, or don’t do, for our game. I really don’t understand why they are so inactive about the esport community, game evolution, even with casuals, operations and new maps are so rare now… wtf seriously? — neL (@neLendirekt) 15 avril 2018

Re-play System

The current replay system for Counter-Strike is woefully inadequate. The community is always complaining about a good replay system and the lack of performance on the DEMO UI. The UI has several problems associated with its performance right now. It is very coarse replay system where we see the video intermittently stutter.

Playing Counter-Strike basically means that you need to watch and review your replays. The premier FPS game uses a lot more than just aim and shoot. Positioning, movement across the map, timing of using grenades all play a crucial part in the final result of a game round.



For professional players and casual players alike, watching one’s game replays are the optimal way to correct mistakes. But the game’s replay system, via the Demo UI, is woefully ill-equipped in its current form. We have seen several comments from professional CS GO players as well as the community lamenting the lack of a good replay system. The replay system could prove to be a very useful tool in helping the teams develop their performance.

Something minor in the game that has always bothered me is the fact that the kill feed is slightly delayed after getting a kill and the demo watching system is horrendous and needs an update.

Rain

The game was released in August 2012, however, there have been little to no improvements in several features of the game. The In-Game Replay system is probably the most important one, since it directly affects the performance improvement of players and teams alike.

Poor User Interface

Another common problem faced by players is the poor UI for the game. The game has seen very few UI changes and it has largely remained similar over the past few years. The UI does seem very outdated and the lack of change just makes players feel worse. It does feel that Valve does not have as much involvement with the development of Counter-Strike as they do with some of their other titles ( such as Dota 2).

As far as a roadmap is concerned, our priorities for 2017 are to replace the UI with Panorama, to make CS:GO available in more territories where a lot of Counter-Strike fans don’t have easy access to it (like China), and anti-cheat. Of course, we’re also planning on continuing to ship bug fixes and new features throughout the year, as in the past. We plan to continue updating every week or two. As for Operations, there’s no set schedule. We weigh that work relative to other work we could choose to focus on and other recent work seemed better for the product. For example, at the end of 2016 we chose to focus on shipping Inferno, improving spatial audio via HRTF, joinable public lobbies, and some long-term work that hasn’t shipped yet.

Valve made the promise of the Panorama UI during an AMA more than a year ago. However, despite the fact that we are already in 2018, their promise of a Panorama UI still holds hope for most of the community.

Hopefully, we should see a big UI change around the corner. There has been no official communication regarding the upcoming Panorama UI. But the extreme delay in the same might suggest a lack of interest or something bigger coming our way.

Lack of Operations Events

Valve started Operations in order to bring about a seasonal event within CS GO. They have done this repeatedly and with success in their other Game titles. The initial years saw a lot of effort and man-hours being put into these operations. There were new maps added to the operations, new game modes and cosmetic skins. However, with time the frequency of the operations has fizzled down with 2017 featuring only one Counter-Strike operation.

The new operations in the game add a new mode for casual fans to play. Counter-Strike is one of the easiest concepts to understand and regularly attracts new players to the game. However, not all of them want to play the standard maps and the competitive matchmaking mode. The Wingman mode, which was introduced during Operations has been added to the regular matchmaking system. But the number of operations has seen a steady decline and that just adds to the community belief of disinterest from the developers.

But it’s not all bad…

However, it’s not all bad news as Valve has put in a lot of changes to some aspects of the game. These changes might be few in number but definitely have a huge impact on the game and the community. Ensuring that the basic gameplay remains the same, Valve has brought in steps such as the VACnet which will better help them in removing future cheats from the game.

VACNet

Combating cheats in an FPS game such as CS GO is always going to be a daunting task By it’s definitely the anti-cheat will always be one step behind that of the new cheats constantly being developed by programmers. In order to counter, the rising phenomenon of cheaters and new hacks in Counter-Strike, Valve has started working on the development of VACnet.

Our customers are seeing fewer cheaters today than they have been, and the conversation around cheating has died down tremendously.

John Macdonald, Valve

The VACnet is a deep learning algorithm which learns to detect hacks and cheats based on the various information it gathers from players. It could be due to certain playstyles and movements across the map. However, it will not take isolated incidents or atoms to judge the legitimacy of a play. It usually requires 140 atoms ( in the current model ) to judge. The VACnet works alongside Valve Anti-Cheat ( Overwatch ) System. The two combined have dramatically reduced the number of cheats and hackers within the game.

Map Changes

Ensuring that the competitive nature of the game stays at it’s prime, Valve has repeatedly ventured to make changes to professional tournament maps. We have seen several maps reworked in order to bring them up to date with the gameplay. Over the past years, Valve has made changes to Nuke, Inferno, Dust 2, Overpass and Cobblestone. Mirage is one of the only maps not to see any changes, but it does seem very balanced for now.

Changes to Trading

Valve has also brought about significant changes to the trading community. The recent seven-day ban on new items is the latest measure to counter the growing influence of skins in the game. Virtual Cosmetic skins are one of the biggest sources of revenues for the game developer. They pioneered the cosmetic virtual skins industry with their two games – CS GO and Dota 2.

But with skin betting and gambling coming under the purview of legal committees, Valve has had to take steps to remove skin gambling. Over the years, they have tried various methods by either reducing the bots or banning bots to help combat the problem. But new websites always crop up the trend continues. We hope that Valve finds out a solution to this problem which would not entail huge changes to how the steam market and trading function.

Coaching Changes

It is very rare to see Valve implement big changes in tournament formats and playstyle. They prefer ‘not to disrupt conversations’ and take a back seat in most of the cases. However, they weighed in heavily on how the coaches work in the game.

A few years ago, Coaches were present within tournament player booths. It essentially provided unrestricted communication access with the rest of the team. This would ensure that the players could take a backseat and let the coach do the shot-calling for the team. But Valve put their foot down and ensured that the game effectively remains a 5v5 matchup between the players. There would be an In-Game Leader, but he would be a player. The coach’s communication time with the players was limited to the freeze time and during breaks. This severely impacted certain teams such as NIP who relied heavily on the coach to call out the next course of action.

Will a new FPS Competitor put Value into action?

There is no doubt that Valve seems to be taking the backseat in their approach to the game. There are several issues with the game right now. The lack of communication on part of the development team only makes matters worse for the community.

They better start to think about it with the new FPS from Riot in works. Heard that it was a copy of CS or something. Would explain why Volcano is working there… https://t.co/GDeqCE0tAD — neL (@neLendirekt) 15 avril 2018

But with the rumored new FPS game by Riot Games, we can hope Valve starts taking their game seriously. Regular updates and new improvements to the UI and the replay system are first on the list. If Valve is found lacking in their approach to their game, the competition might just prove to be too strong for them.