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Counterstrike is among the most popular first-person-shooters of all time. It relies on a simple premise. Players are split into two teams: one is a team of terrorists, the other is a team of counter-terrorists. They battle it out to plant a bomb, rescue a hostage, or get hold of a location.
When a round is over, players can spend the points they’ve earned on new and better weapons, so there’s a sense of incremental progress that you don’t really get from traditional deathmatch.
Wherever you are in the world, you’ll be able to watch a match and bet on its outcome via counterstrike inplay betting. – and, as with every other sport, there are a range of ways of betting (including handicaps), and a steady supply of games to bet on.
Certain teams tend to dominate, but there’s always a chance that an outsider will come in and cause an upset!
How did Counterstrike start?
The game started life as a mod for the original Half Life, designed by Minh Le and Jess Cliffe. The former was in the last year of university, and started work on a project before valve had released the SDK (software development kit) for the GoldSrc engine.
After just a few months, the mod had garnered huge amounts of interest, and a thriving community which contributed maps, skins, HUDs and spray graphics.
It proved so phenomenally successful that Valve acquired the rights in 2000, giving both Le and Cliffe jobs in the company, to oversee the development of the franchise. A string of sequels has followed, with CS:GO (Global Offensive) being the most recent.
How is CS:GO played?
There are multiple ways to play CS:GO casually, including battle royales, arms races, and novelty games in which the gravity is turned down and players must dispatch one another using only a knife and a sniper rifle. Consequently, there’s plenty of variety for players.
In competitive mode, however, the rules are more traditional and rigid: two teams of five face off against one another in 30 rounds. Since there’s no respawn for dead players, a more conservative approach is incentivised – and the tension is a great deal higher. Fast reactions play a role – but so does strategy, and the judicious use of smoke grenades.
One of the virtues of CS:GO is that it’s able to run on many PCs. Its mechanics are finely-balanced, and it’s hugely popular among competitive gamers. Thus, we can say with some certainty that it’ll be around for a while to come.
How does Competitive CS:GO work?
CS:GO started life as an online game, and that’s where the vast majority of the action still unfolds. However, when there’s a significant cash prize on the line, competitors usually gather in a suitably large venue, and duke it out in front of a paying audience (when safe to do so).
Despite its age, CS:GO is still going. Some players have left for Valorant and some would say it’s been on a bit of a decline of late. But the ESL Pro League, founded in 2015, sees 24 teams compete across four regions. Then there’s the CS:Go Major (and Minor) Championships.
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