From Half-Life mod to CS2: a brief history of Counter-Strike

A1 Adria League has been hosting tournaments in CS since its inception in 2017. Counter-Strike is our main game, the most competitive and with the highest prize pool. In the A1AL teams have been competing in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS: GO) up until recently when CS2 entered the scene. Today, this game is one of the most popular, if not the most popular and known FPS games. Its esports scene is also one of the largest, so I think it’s time to look at how the game became so big and its evolution.

From Mod to the most popular FPS

Counter-Strike is one of those games where once you get hooked there is no stopping. It all started in 1999 when Counter-Strike was just a mod for Valve’s groundbreaking first-person shooter, Half-Life. This was when the strategic angle was put in the spotlight.  It was a tactical multiplayer strategy mod where you could choose to be either a terrorist or a counter-terrorist.

Since the game was pretty popular, the developers decided to release Counter Strike 1.0 just one year later. The new version brought new weapons, maps and of course, the gameplay was improved. Things were even more improving with the release of its third version Counter Strike 1.3. This was when the esports scene was starting to form.

I asked the A1 Adria League project manager Leonardo Bujas to tell me more about the history of Counter since he was there since the beginning.

With the release of Half-Life, we finally got a new first-person shooter, at the time so realistic that we couldn’t stop playing single player missions, and playing together in the arcade became a daily routine. Counter-Strike was a very fun mode because it was more realistic than HL (more realistic guns, shooting, you had to use tactics because you played as a team and not solo, etc.), so we also learned to play it better and better every day.

Beta versions 5.0, 6.0 and 7.1 brought something new each time, and with the release of the first full version of CS 1.0, various tournaments began to be held. Versions 1.3-1.5 saw their full bloom and Counter-Strike experienced a worldwide boom. ClanBase was then a platform where various tournaments were played on a daily basis, and the first ones that remain in my memory are the Nations Cup tournaments where the “representations” of the countries of that time played.

Now this was all before my time, but the version which I first played was 1.6. This version appeared in 2003 and to this date is one of the most played games. It’s a nostalgic game that brings back many memories. Looking at those old maps, I can’t decide which one was more fun to play, Dust, Dust 2, or Aztec.

With faster internet and the release of Counter-Strike 1.6, and the transfer of all players to the Steam platform, it became easier to find servers and play on public servers against players from all over the world. For some, it was a step towards a playing career, and CS will definitely gain the greatest popularity, which it has retained to this day. Fragmovies, videos with presentations of clans of the time, huge LAN parties, big tournaments, portals with news and interviews – internet is officially infected with a virus called CS.

For many years, we watched the dominance of Scandinavian countries in CS 1.6 tournaments, which was (and for some still is) the best version of CS that existed.

Counter-Strike 1.6 was improved and optimized, it was suited for both competitive and casual players. The mechanics were refined, maps adjusted and it included for the first time a silenced rifle M4A1-S.

After two more versions, Condition Zero and Source, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was released and the esports scene exploded with the creation of ESL and Dream Hack tournaments. This game featured updated graphics, new game modes, and improved matchmaking. The introduction of weapon skins and the market system added a new layer of engagement, which made the game even more popular.

At the beginning, there were a lot of “bugs” that bothered the players, but Valve decided to go in that direction and release improvements every 2 weeks to address all the problems that existed. CS was the most played and the biggest FPS in the world in this period as well, experiencing many peaks and all-time highs in the number of players, the number of viewers of live broadcasts, the number of tournaments and prize funds, etc. As time went on and other new games came out with much nicer graphics and new mechanics, CS stagnated a bit, because it was not attractive to new players, and old players stopped playing.

CS: GO Danger Zone and Operation Riptide have come and gone, and in 2023 Valve released a huge bomb on the audience and brought us Counter Strike 2. The game showcased improved graphics, enhanced mechanics, better matchmaking, more regular updates and feedback from the community, and many more.

Like any big change, CS2 was met with a lot of disapproval from players who have been playing CS:GO for a long time, “bugs” in the game, the changes did not go well, and especially the big noise was about the fact that Valve decided to just shut down the old CS: GO and force all organizers and players to play the new CS2, which according to many was not ready yet. But, as in the previous iterations, the biggest mistakes were slowly corrected with regular updates, and more and more players realize the potential of the new mechanics that have been added to the game and return to playing.

The king is dead, long live the king. Today, the king of first-person shooters CS2 is still at the top in terms of the number of players and viewers, counting 900k to 1.2 million players per day on average, while the highest number it ever had was 1.8 million players simultaneously. Looking at the tournaments that are being organized now, the prize funds, the production, the look of arenas where the tournaments are held in and of course all the fans who come to support the teams they are rooting for, we have nothing left but to shiver and bow down to the king – CS.