History YMMV / CounterStrike

* AcceptableTargets: Any player who uses one of the auto-snipers ([=G3SG1=], SG 550 or SCAR-20) will be labeled as an "auto-noob" and will have a good chance of getting kicked by his teammates who sees using such rifles as a cardinal sin.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: ''Global Offensive'' has gained such popularity in Russia that jokes and memes about Russian players became very widespread among the fan base. It probably helps that, at least for some time, Russia was the only country where ''Global Offensive'' was sold physically, and that the game requires relatively few resources in a country where few can afford powerful but expensive gaming computers.

** de_cobblestone. The original version was hated for the sheer amount of AWP-friendly spots where Counter-Terrorists could hide. The rebooted version has a simplified layout, less towers and a more closed-off mid section which favors rifles. While having a solid AWP player (or even two) is still important for victory, the map is now much more balanced and popular in competitive.

* ThatOneAchievement: Good luck trying to achieve "Ten Angry Men" in CSS without hacks. Dominating, and killing, 10 different players in a match requires a lot of skill. This is only usually achieved on maps that run 24/7. Though as of 2015 it's possible to acquire achievement by fighting against bots.

** "[[RaceAgainstTheClock Don't be a loser]], [[TimeBomb buy a defuser]]."

** cs_office is also quite overused. There's just something about locking down the projector room as a terrorist that people find engaging...

** Regarding ''Counter-Strike: Neo'' (the Japan-only oriented spin-off of ''Counter-Strike'', changing the art style towards a much-more Animesque style,) its existence tickles the funny bone of every ''Counter-Strike'' fan who watched the older CS parody videos before the website went down for good. One specific vid discussed ways to make ''Counter-Strike'' relevant to younger gamers by making the game more anime style, full of [[Franchise/DragonBall Kamehameha-style laser blasts]], so the game can appeal to Anime/{{Pokemon}} and Anime/DragonBallZ fans. Keep in mind that the video was made in 1999, right when the Pokémon and anime craze hit the U.S. the hardest.

** For a grand total of three whole days after release, R8 Revolver was definitely broken beyond belief. It used to have damage comparable to an AWP and absolutely ZERO penalties for shooting on the move, all for $850. It's supposed to be balanced by a delay between pulling the trigger and shooting, but this can be bypassed completely by firing with a right click (at a cost of some accuracy, negligible even at the medium range). Result is, no one fires with a left click and every player with an AK or M4 essentially has an AWP as a secondary weapon. And to top it all off, [[NotTheIntendedUse you can use the secondary fire while defusing the bomb.]]

* WereStillRelevantDammit: Many accuse Valve's decision to add Danger Zone (Battle Royale) mode as this, although there are unique gameplay differences.

** The segregation between "Free" and "Prime" players. While intended to deter cheating, upgrading to Prime for new players is generally discouraged due to the disproportionately high price (twice the regular CSGO price while it was paid) and how the system discourages "old guards" playing with the "new bloods" (and how most of the non-competitive "old guards" had since moved on to another games). That being said, "Free" players can upgrade to "Prime" after reaching level 21 and "Prime" players can still invite "Free" players anytime.

** "Rise Hard": The nameless leader of [[WesternTerrorists Belfast terrorists]] led his group in taking over a high building in a large city of [[UsefulNotes/TheTroubles Northern Ireland]]. Filled with hatred toward the British, the leader spread his men across the building to prevent the British SAS from stopping him, as he planted a [[NukeEm nuke]] and set it to explode in two hours. When the protagonist fought through his men, the leader captured him and forced him to fight in a knife battle, fleeing upon starting to lose. As the protagonist deactivated the nuke, the leader gleefully tried to detonate it remotely.
** "Fastline": The nameless [[{{Yakuza}} Akunin]] leader led his gang in taking over a train full of people, killing many, taking [[WouldHurtAChild a little girl hostage]] and causing the train to crash at full speed in the Shinkane Subway Station. Sending his men to kill anyone they see, which led to deaths of more innocent people, the leader placed the bombs all around the station, hoping to blow it up and kill everyone in it.

*** cs_deathmatch gets it fair share of love thanks to it's simple 2 sided turfs layout. It's one of the oldest known custom map since the launch of original CS.

* JunkRare: In ''Global Offensive'', some players may prefer certain weapon skins over others, regardless of their rank, rarity and price tag on the Steam market.

** [=de_dust2=] has become a staple of video game maps that modders of other games were porting (or recreating) the map to various other games such as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjH6iGIsM04 Team Fortress 2]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOFJ06mLAJA Fortnite]], or even something that doesn't even involve shooting in the first place like [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yeh5vFG1GK0 Assetto Corsa]].

** The segregation between "Free" and "Prime" players. While intended to deter cheating, upgrading to Prime for new players is generally discouraged due to the disproportionately high price (twice the regular CSGO price while it was paid) and how the system discourages "old guards" playing with the "new bloods" (and how most of the old guards have since moved on to another games). That being said, "Free" players can upgrade to "Prime" after reaching level 21.

* WereStillRelevantDammit: Many accuse Valve's decision to add Danger Zone (Battle Royale) mode as this, although there is unique gameplay differences.

** The introduction of Agents, PlayerCharacter to obtain and choose from, has been divided the base hard by the casual players who liked personalization against competitive players who feel that the ability to choose player models throw the "identifying enemy or friendly players on the map" gameplay out of the loop. It's even worse for colorblind players. E-sports events reportedly have banned the use of custom Agents.

** For a grand total of three whole days after release, R8 Revolver is definitely broken beyond belief. It used to have damage comparable to an AWP and absolutely ZERO penalties for shooting on the move, all for $850. It's supposed to be balanced by a delay between pulling the trigger and shooting, but this can be bypassed completely by firing with a right click (at a cost of some accuracy, negligible even at the medium range). Result is, no one fires with a left click and every player with an AK or M4 essentially has an AWP as a secondary weapon. And to top it all off, [[NotTheIntendedUse you can use the secondary fire while defusing the bomb.]]

** As of release day R8 Revolver is definitely broken beyond belief. It has damage comparable to an AWP and absolutely ZERO penalties for shooting on the move, all for $850. It's supposed to be balanced by a delay between pulling the trigger and shooting, but this can be bypassed completely by firing with a right click (at a cost of some accuracy, negligible even at the medium range). Result is, no one fires with a left click and every player with an AK or M4 essentially has an AWP as a secondary weapon. And to top it all off, [[NotTheIntendedUse you can use the secondary fire while defusing the bomb.]]

* SideTrackedByTheGoldenSaucer: In ''CS:GO'', it's very tempting to shoot on the harmless chickens on the map they're present, even if they don't contribute to the scoreboard, except in Deathmatch mode where killing them grants one point, and even then killing other players grants much more points.

* FanNickname: Players jokingly call the remakes of Nuke and Inferno; "New-ke" and "Infer-new" respectively.
* FollowTheLeader:
** Most modern Korean, Taiwan, or Chinese free to play FPS adopted gameplay and mechanics similar to ''Counter-Strike'', with the most infamous one being Smilegate's Crossfire. And then in 2008, Nexon licensed Counter-Strike and released [[Videogame/CounterStrikeOnline their own free to play spin.]]
** Search and Destroy game mode in various shooters including Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.
*** Zombie mode as well. Even ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'', the game everyone ''else'' rips off these days, included a similar Infected mode starting from ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare 3''.
** CSGO introduces Wingman mode, where the map is even smaller and the match is two players versus two players. It was then followed up by Gunfight mode in ''Videogame/CallOfDutyModernWarfare2019''
** Critical Ops, a free-to-play mobile game that plays very similarly to CSGO and even include weapon skins, and non-paying players can grind in game points to unlock crates.
** CSGO itself jumps into the BattleRoyaleGame bandwagon with "Danger Zone" although there are significant gameplay differences (such as everybody is wearing yellow jumpsuits, the ability to rescue hostages for money and every player is equipped with a tablet to buy and deliver weapon via drone)