This is a problem which has occured recently in the Counter-Strike Source scene, for years the competitors have been living under the shadow of their older brother Counter-Strike 1.6, however at the same time CSS was able to feed itself with publicity generated from the older but more popular and much more competive game. But the CSS scene has reached a turning point, the Championship Gaming Series (CGS) will be holding an woldwide event which is somehow comparable with the CPL world tour in the past years, and one of the games it will feature is Counter-Strike Source. It is a great thing to get your favorite game finaly known as a top competive game.
However if things continue like this Counter-Strike Source might soon fade away, what's the problem? Teams don't have clear priorities anymore. In the past the teams would love to play at the EuroCup, and strong and possibly longlasting teams were formed, including names like
Check Six which featured oldschool ET player feruS. Yet Check Six is no more, one of the reasons being the player I just mentioned was not old enough to participate in the CGS (18+). To be able to participate in the top competitions such as the CGS, teams want to practise more and more, how does this fit in combination with the summer upcoming? It doesn't. Over the past few weeks there have been three top CSS teams quitting the scene; 
defeaters, check-6 and 
Cadre, what also happened was the old 4Kings team getting kicked out due to inactivity, and the same organisation taking in the Reason Gaming CSS team. Big competitions like the CGS have both good things and bad things, one of the things is that teams will need to make some changes.
So why am I posting this on a ET / CoD2 community website? I think about the same could happen in these two beloved games, most likely in CoD2 but the same thing might happen in the ET scene. If for example the ClanBase EuroCup continues to drop their support for the ET scene, and if there are competitions like the etQcup and possible Dignitas Qpad Tournament, who will even care about the EuroCup next season? Teams want to win, and they will need to practise more and will lose the stability they have right now, because they will need to replace players who aren't as active as the team wants them to be.
Right now Enemy Territory is in a great state, with a lot of stable teams and a better EuroCup than ever, we should not forget about the bad things this popularity might bring however.
However if things continue like this Counter-Strike Source might soon fade away, what's the problem? Teams don't have clear priorities anymore. In the past the teams would love to play at the EuroCup, and strong and possibly longlasting teams were formed, including names like
Check Six which featured oldschool ET player feruS. Yet Check Six is no more, one of the reasons being the player I just mentioned was not old enough to participate in the CGS (18+). To be able to participate in the top competitions such as the CGS, teams want to practise more and more, how does this fit in combination with the summer upcoming? It doesn't. Over the past few weeks there have been three top CSS teams quitting the scene; defeaters, check-6 and Cadre, what also happened was the old 4Kings team getting kicked out due to inactivity, and the same organisation taking in the Reason Gaming CSS team. Big competitions like the CGS have both good things and bad things, one of the things is that teams will need to make some changes.So why am I posting this on a ET / CoD2 community website? I think about the same could happen in these two beloved games, most likely in CoD2 but the same thing might happen in the ET scene. If for example the ClanBase EuroCup continues to drop their support for the ET scene, and if there are competitions like the etQcup and possible Dignitas Qpad Tournament, who will even care about the EuroCup next season? Teams want to win, and they will need to practise more and will lose the stability they have right now, because they will need to replace players who aren't as active as the team wants them to be.
Right now Enemy Territory is in a great state, with a lot of stable teams and a better EuroCup than ever, we should not forget about the bad things this popularity might bring however.
Anyway, the biggest problem for CS has always been that CS 1.6 stayed alive and more popular and that CS:S had to compete with it.
How are the CPL and CGS even remotely comparable? The whole idea of franchises and broadening the stereotypical views by forcing franchises to have at least 1 female DOA4 player. I find it quite laughable how you try and bash the CGS for picking CS:S when Valve itself has dropped CS:1.6.
I think only the ESWC is the only competition who lets under 18s play, and that was only recent and you need parents permission, shit point.
The CGS is possibly the best thing that has ever happened to the gaming industry if only the dumb cs 1.6 players could see it. The only problem which you kinda touch on *by accident without knowing about it, and with a very very long pole* is when money is involved.
Most competitions allow players to participate with parentals permission if they need to be 18+ but aren't..
I doubt he would have wrote that if most competitions ignored the age rule, but then again you have to define competition since some would look at something like tek9 lan or CPC and laugh (from a professional circuit pov).
BTW, it really did sound like you were bashing the CGS :P Remember good games don't die ever, only the backing behind them, and if alot of these cs kiddies decide to stop playing solely because there is no money then thats there problem.
I'll edit the article a bit so it sdoesnt look so much like a bash ;p
Please explain what makes you think that Valve has dropped CS:S? I´d agree with Valve trying to squeeze every last ounce of juice out of CS 1.6 by non-removable blatant ingame advertising but not CS:S.
I've been playing (pubs + occasional mix) CS:S since its beta (August 2004) and it has come a long way since then. I don't think that Valve might try something like they have done to 1.6 anytime soon...
Most of the last ET lans didnt had a "minimum age", simply cause ET is a free game, which has never been rated. That's the good point about ET, the bad one is, that laws (i currently now the the german one) says that you need to be 18+ to play such unrated games, which is making german ET Lans with a lot of teams and players pretty hard to organise and stuff.
And cause of that law giga isnt allowed to show ET before 23cet.
I think ppl in my age just need somethin they can do, something that is more than a hobby, u understand me?
If you say the "more professional" aspect of the new ETQCup will force teams to change their lineup's, I have to disagree with you as well. In my opinion, ETQCup is not more important for ET players than EC or the IPS for example. Did this cups destroy teams? I guess the cups kept the scene alive. There won't be a development which destroys stable teams, I suppose.
When it comes to CoD2 you might be possibly right. CoD2 has much potential and it might happen that tournaments like CGS pick CoD2 as a game. Then your mentioned points could come true.
But in conclusion I would say that such a development you try to warn about will never effect, change or destroy competitive gaming in ET and CoD2 just because there will never be a professional cup such as CGS (Yes, I know there are 2 WSVG spots in the USA).
It's not specifically the CGS which is the reason for the changes in the css scene, but its more the competition and the prizes which are more worthy playing for. I think CoD2 has a large chance of being picked by a league like the CGS, however the same counted for vCoD, which gotblocked by CoD:UO and CoD2, and now CoD4 might block CoD2 as well :9
not really, 2 hax0rs playing in it + no $1500 prizepot!
Polar junk52
TLR
Impact
Pro5
Dignitas
Cadre
Thats why I think its the best ever, but thats an opinion ofcourse, other people might think an EC with a bigger prize or less hackers is better.
Do you have shit for brains?
Check six folded due to one player not being old enough for one event, boo hoo. They didn't try and fight the age limit like redeye did (and won), they just went LOL ONE OF OUR PLAYERS ISN'T OLD ENOUGH, LET'S FOLD THE TEAM SO ALL THE PLAYERS HAVE TO SUFFER. Awesome team they were!
If a team is not prepared to practise day in day out, no matter the weather, they do not deserve to be sponsored and have the opportunity to go to events such as CGS.
I've been there and done it in 2 different games. If you want something that bad, you fucking work your ass off for it.
Tell me one thing that's bad about the whole CGS organisation? In my eyes it's the god damn best thing that's ever happened to competitive gaming, bringing it to the mainstream and offering large money prizes for the best teams.
You're whole article boils down the last paragraph, the bumf before it is just jibba jabba. You're saying that because ET is popular right now, it might fall on it's ass at some point in the future. I've got news for you buddy, every game falls flat on it's ass at some point, there is nothing you can do about it.
no doubt about that, where did I say anything about teams being worthy or not?
one of the things is that teams will need to make some changes, changes in a fully working team just to be able to participate in any new large event like the CGS is no good thing.
I've already been over the age thing.
A team having to take in more active players means the team isn't ready for tournaments.
Joining up with an organisation is a good thing like you said, so can you state some changes competitions "require" you to do that has a negative effect on your team?
Remember this is a column and I am expressing my opinion.
'so can you state some changes competitions "require" you to do that has a negative effect on your team?' I just did, removing 18+ members and taking in new more active players. In the end this is good for the team, but in short notice the team might perform worse because of not being used playing with each other or not as skilled players as they had before.
If the team isn't ready for competition at that level, why are they getting rid of players who aren't old enough to compete?
You just keep contradicting yourself now.
I understand this column is your opinion, i think it's great people take the time to write such columns as i have done myself in the past. I just don't like it when the blame is placed on an organisation that is doing everything humanly possible to improve e-sports when the real problem is that the teams just can't be bothered to do some hard work to get where they want to be.
Now to your next point of players being changed at short notice.
The CGS starts in roughly 3 months? That is plenty of time to prepare one new player. As you then go on to say, it will most likely be beneficial to the team further down the line so in reality it's not bad for the team at all once the initial few months are over.
There is plenty of time to find a new player for CGS, but what about the other competitions the team is active in? I think most of them think folding is more honorable than losing all matches by forfeit..
BINGO. They didn't do this though did they, they just said fuck it, we can't be arsed and folded the team.
What other competitions are bigger than the CGS? Why worry about changing squads for CGS if your main concern is losing clanbase matches.
Honour doesn't even come into the equation when you're talking about big events with big cash prizes, you do what you have to do to be in with a chance of winning.
This implies that those teams were not prepared to do what it takes to enter the CGS.
They are not worthy of a CGS spot if they quit as soon as the event is announced.
If teams got inactive players, they will get replaced. I don't think whole teams fold because of that
CPL have chosen their own game (in production),
they have let down cs1.6 ofte4n enough, now.
cs1.6 players need to move on or stay the fuck away.
it's nice when big tourney organisations pick new games
or sometimes go back to old kiQass games .. (cpl chosen q3 for a season)
but sticking to one and the same CRAP GAME is stupidity.
but ye, now with et:qw coming, et competition might die out or might get very rarely until the community knows what game is more competitive, either et:qw or et ...
we will see...
and with rtcw2, all fag online games can go home! :>
7/10