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First Person Shooters (Games) Entertainment Games

Swedes Dominate Counter-Strike Championship 246

Posted by timothy from the nerdjocks-or-jocknerds dept.
fluor2 writes "'Guys, somebody stepped on a switch. I'm not kidding; someone actually stepped on a switch and unplugged our network!' These are not the words one would like to hear from one of the staff in the middle of Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) Extreme World Championships $100,000 Counter-Strike finals. But it happened. Finally, after the game was restarted, Team Eyeballers (Sweden) is the new CPL CS Champion over Schroet Kommando (also Sweden), winning (7-5;6-0)." Update: 08/02 01:06 GMT by S : There's a more detailed report over at Gotfrag.
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Swedes Dominate Counter-Strike Championship More

Swedes Dominate Counter-Strike Championship

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  • Same players...New game... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by oneiron ( 716313 ) on Sunday August 01, 2004 @05:57PM (#9859891)
    I've not followed the 'pro gaming' scene for quite some time, and it never ceases to amaze me how the same players dominate the leagues no matter what game is being played.

  • Military uses (Score:4, Funny)

    by Azadre ( 632442 ) on Sunday August 01, 2004 @05:58PM (#9859894)
    Are these guys being recruited by their governments to be counter terrorist forces?
    • Are you serious? CS isn't real life. Now a better question would be if counter terrorist teams try using tactics that Pro CS people use.
      • Even that is iffy. I know a few people who still play CS (just about everybody did at one point), and they say that the 'scene' is pretty polar. There are the superserious folks who compete with their clans and total newbies who just picked up the game from an older brother, a parent, or a friend ("hw yuo buy rockt loncher??/".

        In watching them play, they really have very few tactics that stick throughout all the maps. Everything they do is map specific for the most part. The few strategies that stick
    • I would think their governments would find better use with those who play sports for hours daily rather than sit down and "practice" for hours.

    • Re:Military uses (Score:5, Funny)

      by darc ( 532156 ) on Sunday August 01, 2004 @06:06PM (#9859933) Journal
      > Are these guys being recruited by their governments to be counter terrorist forces?

      Sure. Much like the best Spiderman 2 player is recruited by the Avengers every year.
      • Sure. Much like the best Spiderman 2 player is recruited by the Avengers every year.
        Seriously?!
        I just beat Rebel Strike and Rogue Leader. I'm waiting for my call from Luke Skywalker.
    • These guys are great at fighting terrorism in a game that has almost no relation to real life. Counter strike tactics would get them killed very quickly in real life (they die in the game after all, only it doesn't matter so much).

      • Re:Um, no (Score:2, Funny)

        by andreyw ( 798182 )
        Really? How could you tell?

        Maybe by the fact that this is a game where you respawn every 5 minutes?

        Sheesh!

        Up next - "Day of Defeat not an accurate portrayal of WWII through the eyes of a soldier."

    • Re:Military uses (Score:5, Funny)

      by partridge ( 207872 ) on Sunday August 01, 2004 @06:28PM (#9860029)
      Umm... Yeah.. That's why you see the special forces teams running around everywhere frantically whilst jumping up and down continuously...

      • Clearly, the Gov't recruits GR players... (Score:4, Insightful)

        by kaladorn ( 514293 ) on Sunday August 01, 2004 @07:11PM (#9860212) Homepage Journal
        Yes, obviously the government would recruit the Ghost Recon players since that's a game that forces you to not run around, to not hop around, and to use careful tactics. Note: The prior paragraph was written with tongue firmly in cheek. I know members of the SF community (and I don't mean sci-fi) and the whole idea of recruiting out of shape (or even in shape) computer gamers for the type of work various Special Operations units do is rather hilarious. They lack the discipline, training, probably basic physical and dispositional requirements, and they may not have the required social skills. And there is a heck of a difference between blowing up someeone else in a video game and having to hold your buddy's hand while he bleeds out from a mine strike or bullet wound. :( The idea is silly enough to have been a Monty Python skit....
        • The military does use games similar to GR, TacOps, etc to help their special forces with tactics and such. But yea, these guys are already SF material, they're not geeky kids to begin with.
        • I find it vastly hilarious this was considered a 'troll'. It doesn't advocate a particular position nor was it intended as provocatory. I'm not sure exactly what aspect makes it a troll.

          I guess it might be the generalizations about computer gamers. But generalizations have a basis (often) in fact and I can't help but feel the average soldier is in better physical shape and is more disciplined than the average computer gamer. They are certainly better trained for military tasks, at least in the armies of t
      • "running around everywhere frantically whilst jumping up and down continuously..."

        Obligatory Penny Arcade link [penny-arcade.com]

    • Re:Military uses (Score:5, Funny)

      by jcam2 ( 248062 ) on Sunday August 01, 2004 @08:18PM (#9860501) Homepage
      No .. they think they are just playing CS, but in reality are remotely controlling actual teams of soldiers involved in real anti-terrorist operations (cf. Ender's Game) :-)

      • Re:Military uses (Score:3, Funny)

        by Caine ( 784 )
        Then someone has a lot of spare counter-terrorists hanging around considering the average number of losses in a round.
    • Only if the government starts using droids that are remotely controlled in the same way that jets and tanks were in the movie Toys.

    • Depends on which site they play. Either what you said or they are beeing recruited by your goverment to guantanamo bay.

  • Cooking the competition (Score:5, Funny)

    by raistphrk ( 203742 ) on Sunday August 01, 2004 @06:00PM (#9859901)
    After winning the competition, the members of Team Eyeballers were overheard saying "borkborkbork!"

    Asked about the condition of the dedicated game server, another of the team members reportedly replied "b0rked!"

  • Did somebody forget to invite... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Animaether ( 411575 ) on Sunday August 01, 2004 @06:03PM (#9859916) Journal
    The Swedes won ?
    Did somebody forget to invite the South Koreans ?

    On a more serious note.. what's with the link ? It points to a way too generic site.
    http://www.thecpl.com/extreme/index2.php?p= tournam ents

    That's where the actual event information is.
    • The Koreans are unbeatable at Starcraft and to an extent Warcraft. Not surprising considering Starcraft is the national sport in Korea. Matches are shown on public TV, game replays of top players are recorded and sold as DVDs, some players have insured their fingers (the best korean player's fingers are insured for 80k$). Starcraft is as big in Korea as any other national sport.
      Speaking of Swedes, they are known to be good at CS. They have LANs there with 1000+ PCs for CS only.

      • Re:Did somebody forget to invite... (Score:5, Informative)

        by bugbread ( 599172 ) on Sunday August 01, 2004 @06:54PM (#9860112)
        While I've heard that from Slashdotters, most people I've talked to who actually live in Korea say that pro gaming is nowhere near as huge as it's made out to be. Games are shown at 2:00 or 3:00 a.m., and most regular folks would much rather play a game than watch one. Pro players are famous among avid amateurs, but the average person on the street couldn't name a single pro gamer.
        • Not true. I have friends (Swedish as it happens) who live in South Korea who says Star Craft is just as big as it is made out to be. They show games in the evenings and a lot of people watches of all ages. If you go out to bars etc, it's not unusual to have SC running with a lot of people watching.

          As a a sidenote, Sweden is right up there in Star Craft and Warcraft too, though of course, after the Koreans.
    • This isn't a Starcraft tournament boy!

      Besides, they are too busy playing Lineage II.

  • can't help not to say... (Score:5, Funny)

    by b374 ( 799492 ) on Sunday August 01, 2004 @06:03PM (#9859919)
    ...all your base are belong to sweden

  • Huh? (Score:4, Funny)

    by iamdrscience ( 541136 ) on Sunday August 01, 2004 @06:05PM (#9859929) Homepage
    Cyberathlete, eh? Are there any Swedish Universities giving out Cyberathletics scholarships?
    • Swedish universities are socialized. As long as you can get in, you don't have to pay anything.
    • No, but just give it a little time to build popularity and there will be several "colleges" here in America offering courses in Video Game Strategy and Technique to cash in on the new craze. They'll do this in much the same way they are currently trying to cash in on the "ooo, I know HTML, I could be a game designer" craze. Funny or insightful, I'll leave it to the mods to decide.

  • Common traits in 'pro' gamers? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Professor Oompa ( 258687 ) on Sunday August 01, 2004 @06:12PM (#9859959)
    When it comes these championship caliber gamers, is there any particular areas in which these folks excel? Do they have extrordinary IQs? Uber fast reaction times? Xtreme mouse-eye coordination? Do they have better hardware, are they great mentalists, or do they just spend way too much time playing video games?

    In the end I'm sure its probably a combination of more than one trait, but I'm curious if any of them are outstanding in other arenas as well. (i.e. can make a Big Mac like nobody's business)

    • Re:Common traits in 'pro' gamers? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 01, 2004 @06:55PM (#9860117)
      I know the reason they excel. They know how to exploit the rules of the game they're playing. Realizing hitscan, gun glitches, recoil behavior, model hitboxes, physics rules, and even in some cases map flaws can help in professional gaming. It gets to the point where you're trying to play against the rules of the game instead of playing the game. That's why I hate "pro" gaming.

    • Re:Common traits in 'pro' gamers? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by zerocool^ ( 112121 ) on Sunday August 01, 2004 @07:33PM (#9860314) Homepage Journal
      It's probably a combination of features, including practice. However, (and I learned some of this from my wife, who studied neurochemistry in college) a lot of it is probably reaction times. Case in point: if you practiced driving a stock car, you could still never drive in nascar. Studies have shown that their reaction times are (admittedly) nanoseconds faster than the average person, and this gives them an edge.

      So, you could practice your build order, or your objective list, or memorize every querk in the maps, etc, and get very, very good at a game, but most of us could never be excellent.

      • Re:Common traits in 'pro' gamers? (Score:4, Interesting)

        by leathered ( 780018 ) on Sunday August 01, 2004 @08:48PM (#9860630)
        A TV show here in the UK once analysed Michael Schumacher to learn what makes him the greatest racing driver in the world. To their surprise they found out that his reaction times were no better than the rest of us.

        They found out that what makes him great is his ability to anticipate, to prepare himself and make the correct decisions in his mind anything up to a few seconds before he executes them. I play fps games myself and I can believe his is probably the case with the top gamers.

        • Re:Common traits in 'pro' gamers? (Score:4, Interesting)

          by noewun ( 591275 ) on Monday August 02, 2004 @03:11AM (#9861715) Journal
          A TV show here in the UK once analysed Michael Schumacher to learn what makes him the greatest racing driver in the world.

          Whoa - stop the hype. There are five or six WRC drivers who could drive circles around Schumacher. The WRC guys will always win in sheer driving skill, cause it takes a enormous level of finesse to drive a 400 hp car down a logging road at 160 km/h.

          Schumacher has benefitted immensely from being on the best team of the era in a time when competition in F1 is at an all time low. He has also benefitted greatly from all of the semi-auto shifting and traction control crap in the cars now. In his Bennetton days, before all that, he was infamous for blowing engines with botched downshifts - when the car isn't good, he isn't good. Compare to Senna or Prost, who could (and did) win in less than stellar cars.

          • Whoa - stop the hype. There are five or six WRC drivers
            While that may be true, you are too busy arguing semantic of the word "racing", and bigging up rally car drivers to appreciate the point made by the grandparent - that Schumacher dominates a sport with incredibly intense competition, and does so without having extraordinary reactions.

            • Schumacher dominates a sport with incredibly intense competition

              But that's part of my point: the level of competition in F1 is at an all time low. Ecclestone's remaking of the series into a TV-friendly spectacle has meant that the same three teams dominate the sport year-in and year-out. Compare this to the '80s, when there were five or six drivers who could win the championship at any given time (and when drivers actually passed for the lead) and it's a sad sight. Schumi is definitely a great driver, b

              • Schumi is definitely a great driver, but he has benefitted from driving in a low time in F1 history.
                Missing the point again. Regardless of whether the sport is "good" or "bad" or at an all time low or not, if quick reactions were a major advantage the sport would be dominated by someone with those reactions, not someone without.
      • That is true, but in CS and (moreso even) Day of Defeat SOUND is the most important thing. Get a surround sound system, or good headphones. Knowing where the enemy is is necessary. Also, the ability to count in one's head without being distracted is needed for DoD. The respawn timer is 15 seconds. If you can count 15 seconds from the time of the first killed enemy, then 15 from the first after the respawn, etc, you can know approxamately when you will encounter the enemy, and where. Very important. Also ver
    • "they just spend way too much time playing video games"

      the pro gaming community is very very diverse, and that is the only trait I would say is in common for all of them.
    • I remember reading about the guy who was the Q3 champ (or maybe it was the Starcraft champ?). He would practice 8-10 hours a day.

      I don't play CS. But I used to play Q3 a lot. I would download the replays of the championship matches. The champ knew the maps down cold. Knew all of the spawn points and had absolutely incredible rail gun accuracy.

      As an aside, Starcraft replays are also available. The champs have an amazing ability to multitask, being able to micromanage their base and their attack at the same

    • Re:Common traits in 'pro' gamers? (Score:4, Funny)

      by vehn23 ( 684035 ) on Sunday August 01, 2004 @09:04PM (#9860706)
      Not really the same thing, but I am a pro poker player (cash games mostly) and my biggest advantage over the average amateur players is that I'm not a total fucking retard. YMMV.
      • I am a decent amateur player, and I've played a few Vegas tournaments (and once knocked Julian Gardner out), and some cash games, and the real difference between pros and most (decent) amateurs is...

        Pros are much, much more consistent. When an amateur is playing wel, he'll win. But if his confidence gets a little knocked (maybe he loses a hand when he had JJ in the hole), he'll get "on tilt". Pros shrug their shoulders and play on. And if they feel they're not playing too good, they'll usually get up and w
    • I've played in competitive rtcw (including getting creamed in the first rtcw tourney at quakecon) and I've spec'd a few really great players in my day. Its a combination of practice, understanding and properly executing strategies, amazing eye-mouse coordination. Some of the best can spin around and know exactly when to stop to fire at someone's head, whereas other people see a blur. Reaction time does help in some situations, but thinking and executing a strat in many modern games is just as important.

  • Movies? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by sn0wflake ( 592745 ) on Sunday August 01, 2004 @06:15PM (#9859977)
    Does anybody know if there's movies from the competition? I'm especially interested in in-game clips.

    • Re:Movies? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 01, 2004 @06:32PM (#9860040)
      www.gotfrag.com has full coverage of the event - download the MFAVP videos on the right(you need an account on the site, it's free, and gives you access to most of the event videos except those marked with a p). The videos cover the matches with a mix of ingame clips, interviews, and footage of players during the matches.

      -tso duong

  • Somebody stepped on a switch ? (Score:5, Funny)

    by snowtigger ( 204757 ) on Sunday August 01, 2004 @06:36PM (#9860056) Homepage
    What a beginner's mistake: Allowing a physical attack to unplug the network.

    They should have a Self defending network [cisco.com]

  • HLTV statistics... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 01, 2004 @06:49PM (#9860095)
    Some interesting facts about the HLTV network used to broadcast the final. HLTV is what we in the HL community use to spectate games live much like GTV for quake.

    There were 35000 spectators watching the finals. The HLTV network had over 180000 spectator slots spread over more than 700 proxies worldwide.

  • Just got back from the CPL myself... (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 01, 2004 @07:25PM (#9860276)
    I just got back from watching the finals at the CPL, and team EYE was ahead 2 to 0, and they were showing off with some cool jump-on-top-of-each-other-to-get-to-higher-places moves, and then all the computers simultaneously crashed, on live TV and radio, into a "Net Packet Error."

    A loud mixture of booing and laughter erupted from the crowd, and several anxious looking guys ran up to the computers to figure out what happened.

    About five minutes later, the founder of the CPL gets on the PA system and says that the round will be restarted, and the scores will be reset to zero-zero. There was more booing, and some team EYE member made snide comments about the CPL over team-chat.

    The founder then gets back on and says "the press is no longer aloud on the stage. The reason for the earlier crash was that a cameraman stepped on a router and actually unplugged it."

    I'd hate to be that cameraman. Fortunately, team EYE won anyway (although the other team [team SK] scored 3 times before team EYE got back into their game.)

    • AWPed (Score:5, Funny)

      by ktakki ( 64573 ) on Sunday August 01, 2004 @08:40PM (#9860593) Homepage Journal

      I'd hate to be that cameraman.

      "...and in other news, a local cameraman was found dead today, killed by a single shot to the head from a high-powered rifle. A police spokesman stated that a possible suspect was seen jumping off of a wooden crate and hopping away at high speed. No arrests have been made."

      k.

  • Fish (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I'm not surprised to see Swedes winning online gaming competitions. In the online gaming I've done, the Scandinavians are always among the elite players. They're clever, fun, and think things through.

    I put it down to the fish they eat. Fish is high in omega 3 fats. These fats greatly enhance brain development. A person who consumes large amounts of omega 3 will think faster and concentrate better than a person who doesn't.

  • I for one welcome our new Swedish Overlords! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Picass0 ( 147474 ) on Sunday August 01, 2004 @07:36PM (#9860327) Homepage Journal
    For the love of god, stop them before they dominate Everquest too!
  • but then I looked at the title--"Extreme World Championships"?

    I looked deep into myself, seeing my suburban American white-bred, khaki-pants wearing, '84 Subaru-driving middle class lifestyle, and realised, that no, I couldn't be a part of it all. I'm just not "extreme" enough.

    Pity when you look at it.

    </sarcasm>
  • Did they make record copies of the games? I understand the data can be captured for replay, right? I'd like to ghost around and watch the matches.

  • Swedes dominate at Quake too! (Score:3, Informative)

    by Jagasian ( 129329 ) on Sunday August 01, 2004 @10:37PM (#9861101)
    The Swedes also dominate in Quake (i.e. Quakeworld). I think their entire country is wired with high quality inexpensive broadband. Hence they all get round-the-clock LAN practice, which is great for training for competitions that are usually held on LANs.
  • I wonder how much of this may be due to the Swedes (and other Europeans) having more leisure time. In Sweden, they get a mandated 32 days of vacation a year, as part of their Social Democratic welfare state. In the USA, there is NO mandated vacation. Often you are lucky to get your 2 weeks. For us techies, it may also be problematic whether we get to use it!

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