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  • Abridged Arena Array:
    • de_dust and de_dust2, though dust2 more than dust. Over time, dust has died a slow and painful death due to people having finally begun to realize that the map is heavily flawed; forcing choke-points to always occur at just two locations, and both being heavily favored for the Counter-Terrorists to claim victory. It's for this reason that dust2 exists, which is a much more balanced map for both sides.
    • cs_office is also quite overused. There's just something about locking down the projector room as a terrorist that people find engaging. It's also quite beginner-friendly and somewhat easy to master since it's mostly flat, meaning players won't have to worry about looking up or down for ennemies.
    • cs_assault, despite being an incredibly unbalanced map (with only 4 easily covered entrances, and the hostage room being behind a set of doors and hard to get to, so much so that it's incredibly rare for a hostage rescue win) it has maintained decades of popularity, but because of it's odd nature, this popularity is almost exclusively confined to 24/7 servers where it was the only map played.
    • de_dust2 & cs_office are very popular deathmatch mod maps.
    • In zombie maps, it's often one of the "lila" or similar maps.
    • Two extremely popular custom maps are fy_iceworld and fy_snow, where guns spawn on both sides of an incredibly tiny map.
      • cs_deathmatch gets it fair share of love thanks to it's simple 2 sided turfs layout and being one of the oldest known custom map since the original launch.
      • For Thai players there is cs_untitled (Or as some people call it, "United".), an extremely tiny open air map. So tiny in 1.6 people love to set starting cash to maximum and spam HE grenades right into each other's spawn during buy time.
  • Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The Flying Scoutsman mode in Global Offensive. You can only use the SSG 08 and the knife, so far nothing weird, but the kicker is that you have lowered gravity, and you can play this mode on maps that are obviously located on Earth, which begs the question: how on Earth did the gravity disappear from our planet? The map Lunacy somehow manages to both make it more sensical and confusing: why the hell are counter-terrorists and terrorists fighting eachother on the freaking Moon?
  • Broken Base:
    • Which is the best Counter-Strike, 1.6 or Global Offensive? To this day there are continued debates regarding the direction Global Offensive (the most popular game in the franchise yet) is going. One view thinks that Global Offensive is going on the wrong track, with an increasingly large backlog of Scrappy Mechanic, Scrappy Weapon, and unfixed problems, and people are saying that the game should go back to the way it was in classic 1.6, just with updated graphics. At the same time, there is also a view that Global Offensive is a natural progression of the Counter-Strike series, and that people should be getting used to new things instead of clamoring to their nostalgic views of the past. The debates just never end.
    • de_nuke. It's considered CT-sided to the point where losing 5-10 on T side is considered a good score for comeback. Part of the fanbase argues it makes for exciting matches (Down to the Last Play happens frequently), others think it should be removed from competitive pool since it favors team that starts on CT. Valve seemingly agreed with the former group, moving de_nuke to reserve group (and almost certain redesign) and replacing it in competitive with a reworked de_train.
    • Crouch delays Explanation  in Global Offensive. A fair mechanic to reduce crouch spam, or a true Scrappy Mechanic that causes deaths that, from the perspective of one getting killed, seems like they shouldn't have happened?
    • Should the CZ-75 Auto's decreased kill reward be raised to normal? Those in favor of increasing its kill reward cite the more glaring problems with the weapon as of the time of this writing; its longer draw time compared to other pistols and its small magazine and reserve ammo. Those against this suggestion say that the CZ-75 pays for itself by allowing its user to steal a dead enemy's rifle, and say the kill reward is fine as it is.
    • Bullet penetration and wallbang damage. 1.6 was very lenient about it, to the point where in some places it was possible to spray significant damage through what (according to texture) was a thick stone wall. GO went the other way, removing most wallbang spots and incresing damage falloff for penetrating bullets to the point where the AWP is the only weapon capable of doing significant damage through most bangable walls. Proponents of the former system argue it awards map knowledge and discourages camping. Others say it's unrealistic and discouraging to less experienced players.
    • Balancing of pistols in Global Offensive is often debated. Some pistols (namely the Tec-9, Five-SeveN and P250) are seen as overpowered, due to decent movement accuracy, forgiving magazines, low price and the ability to one-shot an enemy with a headshot at close to medium range (sometimes outdoing the M4s in those ranges). Some think that it's a necessary evil, as overpowered pistols make eco rounds easier to win, while others disagree and think said pistols should have lowered movement accuracy and/or damage.
    • The introduction of Agents, Player Character to obtain and choose from, 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" (which Global Offensive itself prior to this already fixed by providing map-specific uniforms rather than a pool of 4-5 skins per team of the preceding games) gameplay out of the loop. It's even worse for colorblind players. E-sports events reportedly have banned the use of custom Agents.
      • It gets even worse when Agent skins blend into the map, becoming nearly invisible against certain backgrounds. Of particular infamy was the grate at the back of Sewers in Overpass, and crouching looking like the flowerpots in Inferno's Pit. This would be hilarious if it happened to you maybe once, but the player-base got old of it real quick. Fortunately Valve increased the contrast of Agents and the surroundings, easing the pain a bit, and 2's introduction of brighter lighting and proper global illumination combines with the contrast options to really make sure no player disappears anymore.
  • Casual-Competitive Conflict: Between the games, it was Counter-Strike (Competitive) vs Condition Zero (Casual) and Counter-Strike Source (Casual)
    • Then after the release of CS:GO, it became Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (Competitive) vs Counter-Strike Source (Casual).
  • Cheese Strategy:
    • Until it was patched around, the "Olof Boost" on Overpass was considered a cheese strategy. A CT player would boost on top of an ally to be able to peek over a high wall on the map, allowing them to see everything in the middle and snipe freely. Enemy players would be forced to go long ways to points, or else put themselves at risk of getting sniped from a position that was hard to fight back against, and this pretty much forced the entire Terrorist side to commit to one direction and easily be detected and played around.
    • The use of "Auto-snipers" and scoped automatic rifles will get a player called out in a competitive match. Oftentimes, the reasons for this being so are silly, such as the scoped rifles being "COD rifles", but auto-snipers (sniper rifles that can fire several shots in quick succession rather than needing a bolt pull after every shot) are seen as a no-skill weapon. However, to counter-balance this, they also have the highest price tag of any rifle in the game, outpricing the much more acceptable AWP by $5,000 to $4,750, only outpriced by the Negev machine gun. Notably, the professional circuit does not use them almost at all, in favor of the AWP, preferring the one-hit kill potential to the idea of a semi-rapid-fire sniper.
    • The machine guns are typically used to block choke points by firing them continuously, and anyone who dares to step into their firing cones will be shredded into pieces within milliseconds. Whereas with auto-snipers you actually need to aim, with machine guns you only need to shoot towards a certain direction, and only need to aim down to compensate for the strong recoil. Such players can be dealt with with grenades, or simply waiting until they run out of ammo, where they will be vulnerable.
  • Common Knowledge:
    • Counter-Strike is said by many to be a series of First-Person Shooters where you can only hipfire, except when using the AUG and SG 553. While technically true, the phrase's implications slowly transformed so that many are now applying the hipfire mechanics of other games (i.e. highly inaccurate and significant spread) to this game, when the mechanics in Counter-Strike are different and more similar to the effects of aiming down sights in other games (i.e. your first shot will always hit dead center, the rest will be affected by recoil, which can be reduced by standing still and/or crouching). The characters also do aim down the sights in third person, there's just no first person animation for it.
    • This track is commonly recognized as "Counter-Strike 1.6 Theme". In reality, original 1.6 never had any music. The track itself is actually from Deleted Scenes and was ported to 1.6 in various pirated versions which is where the misconception comes from.
  • Complacent Gaming Syndrome:
    • Weapon wise, most players stick with the M4/AK and AWP, with only a few other weapons such as the FAMAS/Galil being bought by people who don't yet have the money for the others. This can best be seen with the SG 553, which has its advantages over the AK and is only $300 more expensive, but in spite of that is still routinely ignored in favor of the AK.
    • Seems that in CS:GO, Valve is unable to avert it for M4A1-S and M4A4. For a while A1 ruled supreme, since its only drawback was smaller ammo capacity. After price increase, lowered damage and lowered rate of fire, most of players went to A4.
    • An October 2018 update revealed how strongly this trope can affect the behaviour of an entire playerbase. That patch reduced the price of the AUG to $3,150, making it just $50 more expensive than the M4. Almost instantly, the AUG became the preferred weapon of choice for Counter-Terrorist teams, as its new price point made people see it as a worthwhile upgrade over the M4. In a March 2019 patch, the AUG was returned to its original $3,300 price point, and player habits didn't change. Players had gotten so used to buying the M4 for almost 20 years that they had ignored the AUG until an extra incentive to buy it was provided, even as the AUG was always in many respects the superior weapon.
    • YouTube might lead one to think that the only strategy of Russian players is to buy the P90 or TEC-9 and rush B, сука блять!
  • Complete Monster (Condition Zero Deleted Scenes):
    • "Rise Hard": The nameless leader of Belfast terrorists led his group in taking over a high building in a large city of 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 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 Akunin leader led his gang in taking over a train full of people, killing many, taking 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.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse:
    • The chickens on cs_italy. They were removed from Source, but came back in Global Offensive.
      • There are chickens in various maps in CS:GO. In fact, chickens sometimes spawn in Deathmatch mode, and give 1 point when killed.
    • de_season. When it became apparent that de_nuke would be removed from competitive map pool, a large part of the community wanted season to replace it instead of de_train.
    • The Anarchist faction on cs_office. Their over-acted lines and general look (looking more like teenage rebels than terrorists) have led to much love among the fanbase.
    • A specific character model for the Balkan faction (nicknamed 'Ido') became incredibly popular among players, something Valve has acknowledged.
    • cs_agency. A community map that had appeared four times in Operations and received a warm reception due to its fun gameplay and stylish appearance.
  • Fan Nickname:
    • The so-called "map callouts" are nicknames for specific locations on the maps, developed by the English-speaking community over the span of 20 years. If you don't know what "A long", "B", "mid catwalk" or "low tunnel" in de_dust2 means, you must uninstall the game.
    • The South American community has developed a few nicknames of their own, owing to the popularity that HLCS reached in that region:
      • "Terro": Glock 18, the default terrorist sidearm.
      • "Pajera": Benelli M3 / Nova. This name means "wanker" in English, in allusion to the motion of repeatedly pulling and pushing the bolt back and forth.
      • "Mocha": Benelli XM1014
      • "Grapadora", "Cacharro", "Porotera": Ingram MAC-10. These nicknames mean respectively "stapler", "clunker" and "bean shooter", in allusion to its poor firepower.
      • "Piu-piu": Steyr TMP, in allusion to its silenced shots.
      • "Corchetera": UMP45
      • "Americana": M4A1
      • "AM": Steyr AUG
      • "Conejera", "Matagatos": Scout
      • "Pipa": AWP
      • "Mayasera": SCAR-20 and G3SG1. It is believed to be a Hispanization of "my ass".
      • "Machin": FN Minimi
      • "Heavy Mashinegun": Negev, due to the great popularity of SNK arcade videogames in Latin America.
      • The South American community independently developed its own callouts for de_dust2, such as "carreta" for A long, "cata alta" for mid catwalk, "pacos culiaos" for T spawn, or "beta" for B.
    • Most Thai players during 1.6 era often call the in-game guns not by their names but by their numerical keyboard shortcuts. AWP get called the "4-6" for example. New UI in Global Offensive eventually forced them to move away from using these nicknames.
    • "Autonoob": The SCAR-20 and G3SG1 in Global Offensive, because their great precision and automatic fire makes them absolutely killer and supposedly good for noobs — with the caveat that they're so expensive that if you die and didn't buy them with full funds, your next round is going to be eco.
      • In Australia & New Zealand any autosniper is given the Saying Sound Effects Out Loud nickname of "Dak", often doubled up like their penchant for unusual location names as "Dak Dak" with a user of one being called a "Daka".
    • "Rhodesian": The G3SG1, due to its IRL protagonism in the Rhodesian Bush War.
    • "Choppa": The AK-47, which is also an IRL nickname.
    • "Goat horn": The AK-47 as called by Mexican gamersnote , also an IRL nickname.
    • "Allahu Akbar": The AK-47, because of the many videos depicting Islamist guerrillas firing their AK-47s in the air yelling "allahu akbar!".
    • "Durka gun": The AK-47, for the same reason as above.
    • "Discount AK": The UMP45
    • "Pocket AK": The Desert Eagle, because its shots are as powerful as those of an AK-47.
    • "Magic Stick": The AWP, because one single shot is guaranteed death.
    • "Tickle gun": The PP-Bizon, because it fires the weakest shots of the entire game.
    • "Discount tickle guns": The Dual Elites, because they function like a cheaper, semiautomatic PP-Bizon.
    • "Dualies": The Dual Elites/Berretas.
    • "Max Paynes": Berettas.
    • "Pocket AWP": The R8 Revolver, because, when it was first introduced, it could kill enemies in one hit in the upper body, much like an AWP, before an update three days later nerfed it.
    • "AWP Made in China": The Steyr Scout, because it functions like an AWP with less powerful shots.
    • "Columbine": The Tec-9, which was the main gun used on the Columbine school shooting.
    • "Kek-9": The Tec-9, a nickname born out of the internet alt-right's slight fascination with school shootings and the word "kek".
    • "Wreck-9/Rekt-9": The Tec-9, given its damage capacity in the early game (and even later, against armored opponents).
    • "Shrek-9": Again, the Tec-9, born out of the internet's fascination with the Dreamworks ogre.
    • "Alligator": The XM1014 nickname prefered by tournament casters.
    • "Mom's Credit Card": A catch-all nickname for expensive gun skins.
    • Players jokingly call the remakes of Nuke and Inferno; "New-ke" and "Infer-new" respectively.
  • Game-Breaker:
    • The AWP/AWM was long considered one (and still is, even after nerfing) due to its extreme power (it only did less than the full 100 damage with a leg shot). A later addition that gets this treatment are the semi-automatic sniper rifles.

      Due to changes in the money system, though, the AWP has since been accepted as a legitimate weapon in Global Offensive due to its hard to purchase status, and nerfing by reducing payout per kill - hilariously resulting in an AWPer who kills an entire 5-man team receiving a measly $500. So while it is still very much a Game-Breaker that wins rounds easily in the right hands, it is still generally acceptable as a competitive weapon and not a Scrappy Weapon.
    • For a grand total of three whole days after release, the 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 was supposed to be balanced by a delay between pulling the trigger and shooting, but this could 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, you could use the secondary fire while defusing the bomb.
  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff: 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 doesn't require a high-end build in a country where few can afford powerful but expensive gaming computers.
  • Good Bad Bugs:
    • How surf maps were born.
    • The de_train remake in Global Offensive had a pigeon that one can step on and see the entire map as the bird flew away with a fully-armed and armored man standing on its back. Naturally Valve has removed this, but not before placing a sign inside the map asking you not to step on the birds.
    • Within a month of Counter-Strike 2 releasing, players learned that slowing oneself down by e.g. aiming a scoped weapon caused something to go wrong with the animation system, resulting in characters leaning in what was quickly dubbed a "Michael Jackson peek". This one blew up so much that the official Twitter account changed its header image, replacing the usual silhouette of a man holding a gun with a silhouette of Michael Jackson doing the "Smooth Criminal" lean.
  • High-Tier Scrappy:
    • The CZ-75 Auto pistol has been derided as being overpowered and drowning out the other pistols, even the mighty Desert Eagle, prompting some people to call Global Offensive after the pistol was introduced as CZ-GO. It has been nerfed since its introduction but still remains an effective weapon. However, the weapon is seeing descent into Scrappy Weapon territory due to having a pathetic kill award, despite having a small magazine and only one extra in reserve.
    • The Terrorist-only TEC-9 pistol for the same reasons as the CZ along with a high magazine capacity and low recoil on the move. Players often refer to this gun as the "REKT-9", and players who stick to it are sometimes derisively referred to as "Klebolds". Like the AK-47, it is often picked up by Counter-Terrorists if they're able to kill a Terrorist wielding it while some prefer sticking with the Five-SeveN. It has been nerfed to have lower magazine capacity (from 32 to 24) and range, but it's still the best option for eco rushes.
    • The P90: with its easy-to-use spray pattern, low movement penalty, and fast firing speed, it's a silver's worst nightmare. However, in higher levels, a rifle player can do much more damage to a P90 user in a shorter amount of time than the P90 can do to them, rendering it useless. It's jokingly called the ELO-90 sometimes to reference the community viewing it as a Skill Gate Weapon.
    • Similar to the above, the auto-snipers are considered to be too easy to use, and with poorer-aim lower players, a spam of auto shots is enough to take even an awper down. However, at higher levels, an AWP outduels the auto-sniper every time. It does, however, have a few tiny specialized roles in competitive play, like shutting down buy round rushes.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • 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 Kamehameha-style laser blasts, so the game can appeal to Pokémon: The Series and Dragon Ball Z 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 years, modders would make custom reskins for the weapons, notably custom textures, and now with Global Offensive, players can have customised weapons directly into the game without even needing mods thanks to official weapon skins that can be obtained from item cases.
  • Junk Rare: In Global Offensive, some players may prefer certain weapon skins over others, regardless of their rank, rarity and price tag on the Steam market. Case in point: some higher-tier skins are sold for cheaper on the Steam market than other skins of the same rank, or even the previous lower rank, and from the same collection.
  • Memetic Badass: Juan Deag, a fictional character made up by the CS community, whose weapon of choice is the Deagle (of course) and is capable of doing implausible and impossible feats, like being a One-Man Army that dismantles the entire enemy team by himself.
  • Memetic Molester: Russian player Dosia has been lovingly dubbed the "Sex God" by HLTV and Twitch.
  • Memetic Mutation:
    • Boom, Headshot! by way of Pure Pwnage, where FPS Doug first used it while playing America's Army. Only after the next episode did it become associated with Counter-Strike and turn into the legendary meme it is today.
    • "DOOR STUCK!"note 
    • "I'M THE LAW! I'M THE LAW! OH GOD I'M THE FREAKIN LAW! I'M THE LAW! I AM THE LAW I AM THE LAW I AM THE LAW I AM THE LAW I AM THE LAW I AM THE LAW...Explanation 
    • The Menu Music LOUDLY blasting out of your speakers when you open Global Offensive.
    • The extremely stupid victory phrases in Global Offensive have become a minor meme in the Counter-Strike community.
    • Added a boiler to boiler. This patch note announcing the undoing of the Artifact Title of a room in Inferno became memetic almost immediately after the patch was released.
    • Several of the quotes from the British SAS in Global Offensive have gained memetic status, some have been immortalised as stickers:
      • "Are we rushin' in or are we goin' sneaky-beaky like?" (which is said randomly at the start of a round)
      • "Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!" (which is a cheer).
      • "Bingo bango bongo" and "Bish bash bosh" (both cheers) also became memetic because of how silly it sounded.
    • "Let's roll-oll!" Every game in Global Offensive begins with the ST-6 "Let's Roll" voice clip. Occasionally the clip will stutter adding an extra "oll" at the end. Valve patched this but brought it back (along with a sticker referencing the glitched quote) after fans got upset.
    • СУКА БЛЯТЬ (SUKA BLYAT). A phrase famous for being spoken by Russian players. Roughly translates to "whore bitch" or "fucking bitch". Often used in conjunction with "Rush B" and P90s (commonly thought to be noob weapons and memetically associated with Rush B).
    • "Don't be a loser, buy a defuser." Similarly, "No kit no clue".
    • On the Game Mod side of things, "func_vehicle"
    • Any Real Life building that splits the road into two may referred as cs_italy.
    • 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 Team Fortress 2, Fortnite, or even something that doesn't even involve shooting in the first place like Assetto Corsa.
    • admin he doing it sideways Explanation 
    • To Thai players during "internet cafe era" (somewhere around 2000's), a certain Thai bootleg voice pack mod for 1.6 has popularized several quotes taken from a Thai dub of Thin Red Line (1996) film. Here are some selections.
    • The Anti-gravity lean Explanation 
    • When the Arms Race update for 2 allowed players to freely place stickers anywhere on their guns, it immediately became common to use the feature to make penises, slurs, and other NSFW creations.
    • From the professional/streaming scene:
      • Due to the perception of North American CS as being subpar when compared to European, any failed grenade will usually be referred to as a NA Nade/Smoke/Flash/Molly. This has even extended past grenades to other things like strategies and spray control. Similarly, a well-placed grenade will usually be referred to as "EU".
      • Getting a kill with a grenade is referred to as a "Kobe".
      • Hiko's inhuman reactions.
      • Former Fnatic player Olofmeister will always be known as "Boostmeister" thanks to this play.
      • Summit1G dying to his own molotovnote  has led to a kill with a molly being dubbed a 1G. It even got popular enough to get its own BetterTwitchTV global emote.
      • Twitch chat's seal of approval for a good play is "GOD (player name)". Likewise, "BOT (player name)" refers to a bad play (referencing the Artificial Stupidity of CSGO's bots). It started with NiP's allu, and took off from there.
      • MLG Columbus 2016 featured a commercial for G2 Esports player ScreaM's new line of mice, which used a piano music track, cinematic camera shots, and a melodramatic narration by ScreaM in his heavy French accent. "They talk about my one taps" has since become a meme related to the player.
      • DaZeD rants about getting killed by Glawks!
      • Streamer and former pro m0eTV is better known for his rages than his actual gameplay.
      • KennyS said that "Kio was the problem" after EnVyUs dropped k1oShiMa for DEVIL. The phrase has since become spammed whenever a struggling team performs better after replacing one of their players, in the form of "(replaced player) was the problem"
      • KQLY-style. KQLY was a former Titan player famous for a jump pistol headshot in ESL One Cologne 2014. After he was VAC-banned later in 2014, the meme took off mocking him by calling all jumpshots KQLY-style shots.
      • M 1 6 R / M 1 6 R-0Explanation 
      • Word.exeExplanation 
      • "Check HLTV"Explanation 
  • More Popular Spin-Off: Since the 2000s, it's become more well-known than Half-Life itself.
  • Narm:
    • The voice acting for several foreign languages in Deleted Scenes was positively horrible. The Spanish dub takes the cake with ¡Muere cerdo! (Die, you pig!) shouted in the most childish and nasally voice ever heard.
    • English terrorist voices in Global Offensive on cs_office. Why do terrorists speak like Totally Radical fratboys?
    • The way Doctor Romanov pronounces "flashbang". "Flashbenng"?
  • Obvious Beta: Counter-Strike 2 released at the tail end of September 2023, only barely missing Valve's promise for the Summer by a scant few days — with only ten maps, and only the Competitive, Casual, Wingman and free-for-all Deathmatch modes available, along with various little quirks and bugs. Considering this was a major update for Global Offensive that outright replaces the game and its matchmaking (unless you download the demo viewer from the Steam Betas list solely for playing old dedicated servers), it meant well over half of the game people were used to was suddenly gone with only a vague implication in the announcement trailers six months prior that more of the old content would be coming back. The result of the rushed release caused no small amount of Broken Base.
  • Paranoia Fuel:
    • Camping tactics, combined to the fact that classic (pre Global Offensive) Counter-Strike maps are unusually sprawling compared to most contemporary FPS at the time, leads to this naturally as a lone hostage rescuer could be greeted by lone camping T that will unsuspectingly hose the unfortunate CT, giving the round win to the T. The best part? The bots love to do this, even on the easiest difficulty.
    • Also, when both teams are wiping out eachother, and it ends up with barely a couple players still alive, and you just happen to be one of them, your ennemy could be anywhere, they may not know where you are but neither do you. That's particularly worse on large maps or when you have low health.
    • But that scenario, at least, still gives you a chance of winning! You know what's arguably worse? When the enemy team wipes out your whole team, and when you realise you're the last one left on your team, and you have to face off against three, five or ten opponents.
  • Periphery Demographic: Halo: Combat Evolved and GoldenEye (1997)/Perfect Dark mapmakers have found the version of Hammer used by Counter-Strike 2 useful for making maps for those games as well.
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
    • 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, fewer 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.
    • de_overpass was a poorly designed map at release (many considered it to be a mediocre attempt for Valve to inject some new blood into the game), but it is now considered a perfectly viable competitive map.
  • Scrappy Mechanic:
    • Prior to Global Offensive, there are a pool of 4-5 different skins per team, which understandably could throw beginners out of the loop due to the lack of "red vs blue" recognition. It got worse in Nexon (formerly Online) where there are dozens to hundreds of new skins. Since Global Offensive onwards each map has the CT and T wore single type of uniform with contrasting colors or design per team and only little difference between teammates... and then in 2020, Agents, custom skins, are introduced as paid items (see Broken Base above).
    • While it isn't as bad as Team Fortress 2 due to the lack of advanced gameplay mechanics, Bots who fill in for an absent player in competitive play in Global Offensive will almost never follow commands, even at the cost of their own lives. While this is fine for punishing players who are a bit kick-happy, it's absolutely frustrating when you're stuck with toaster A.I. because of a Rage Quit or the absentee simply hasn't gotten into the game proper. And, in the latter case, when the player finally does get into the game, the bot is automatically killed, preventing the rejoining player from playing until the next round.
    • The sprays added later in Global Offensive's lifespan caused a ton of controversy. They had to be purchased and replenished with real money (for a mechanic that other Valve shooters provided for free), in addition to the visual screwiness they introduced that could potentially create Bribing Your Way to Victory.
    • The "Locked Crate" mechanic where you need to purchase a key for 2.5 dollar to unlock the crate containing randomly selected weapon skins. While the skins didn't give any significant advantage over the others, it has since become a thriving commodity of trading in the Market, price based on rarity. This mechanic originated from the infamous Mann-Co crates in Team Fortress 2 and it has seeped to other games like PAYDAY 2 and Killing Floor 2. Mitigated, however, that all the mentioned games has a "Market" functionality on the Steam client where one can purchase the desired weapon skins in price gauged by the community and rarity.
    • 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).
  • Scrappy Weapon:
    • Riot Shields for Counter-Terrorists didn't make a reappearance since 1.6 until 2021 for only one specific period of time with Global Offensive in Casual matchmaking and more permanently as a general item in Danger Zone, as the only way to kill shield users were to grenade them, time the shot correctly when they move the shield to pull out their pistol, or get lucky and somehow pop the shielder through the vision hole. The Danger Zone and limited Casual versions also protect your back when not equipped, though in exchange the player's speed is universally slowed down so long as it's in your inventory and they lost the sidearm in favor of a melee smack.
    • AWP/Auto-sniper rifles. Banned on a plethora of servers due to their overall "cheapness." While AWP has the excuse of being a competitively viable weapon due to just how powerful it is, auto-snipers especially are considered noob weapons as their increased rate of fire gives them a much smoother learning curve (with the AWP, missing the first shot if the enemy sees you is usually a death sentence), while being economically unbeneficial due to their extreme cost, making them rare sights in competitive games.
    • The M294 and P90 which are considered too noob-friendly when the player just spams their 100 and 50 round belts/mags non-stop. Think of it like how people view W + M1 Pyros from Team Fortress 2. Both the weapons get an extra kick in the knees due to being the most expensive weapons in the game, making them competitively unviable as well. Even worse, an attempt at balancing one of them leads to some more problems, which is...
    • The $2000 Negev. In 2017, Valve made the Negev $2000 dollars (meaning you can get it as early as the second round) and gave it "Suppression" mechanics (basically the first 10 bullets go everywhere, the rest become fixed to a perfect point slightly above the crosshair), ostensibly to test the weapon and try to make it more relevant. This ended up being seen as a ridiculous joke by the community as the new weapon mechanics are not very effective and removed the fun aspect the original Negev's ridiculous firing rate had. The $2000 price also meant that the weapon could appear anywhere and basically ruined many tactics in the metagame.
    • After being nerfed, the R8 Revolver became one due to its delayed fire mechanic and near useless alt-fire. The patch that introduced the new Negev somewhat helped by reducing the length of the trigger pull, but it's still not quite as popular as the Deagle.
  • Sidetracked By The Golden Saucer: In CS:GO, it's very tempting to shoot on the harmless chickens on the maps where they're present, even if they don't contribute to the leaderboard, except in Deathmatch mode where killing them grants one point, and even then killing other players grants much more points.
  • Song Association: An unofficial server mod did this to Chesney Hawkes' The One and Only.
  • Sophomore Slump: All the various games and spin-offs released between 1.6 and Global Offensive are considered to fall to this. Although Condition Zero, Counter-Strike: NEO, and Nexon's two F2P spin offs are subject to Fanon Discontinuity by most, Counter-Strike: Source is subject to most of the controversy. Due to Source being the most popular game in the series for the longest time while simultaneously being considered the weakest of the 3 "main" games, most of the inevitable arguing is centered around whether or not CSS is a good game.
    • Generally Source is good for modding and custom games, while CS:GO is played competitively.
  • "Stop Having Fun" Guys: There are a portion of servers that ban the AWM, the auto sniper, the auto shotgun, the CT shield, and they're usually the same ones that cycle solely between de_dust2 and cs_office. Enough of those servers exist that, in any other situation, use of the contrary will result in the regulars letting you know of their disgust with your choice, generally with an ample amount of expletives to accompany said disgust. While many of them do receive legit hate due to their power, the enforcement is often a bit too aggressive, making it difficult for newcomers to enjoy.
  • That One Achievement:
    • 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 and with larger player counts. Though as of 2015 it's possible to acquire achievement by fighting against bots.
    • The requirements for the "Clan Warfare" achievement can make it hard for anyone who didn't get it while playing in the clan heyday to do without wrangling 9 other random players that agree to all join the same clan (which in CSS isn't very straightforward to do) AND to actually win a match as opposed to a round.
    • SAR Czar, rescuing 500 hostages is a common unfulfilled achievement as rescue maps are less popular than the bomb maps.
    • Militia Map Veteran is widely regarded as the hardest of the map veteran achievements because Militia is highly unpopular due to being a rescue map that is strongly T focused and where rounds are often very slow.
  • That One Level:
    • No one likes to play cs_militia. The house the Counter-Terrorists have to invade is just too Terrorist friendly.
    • cs_assault has a similar Terrorist-friendly design.
    • de_dust ended up going this route after people realized just how Counter-Terrorist friendly the map is. Literally everyone prefers to play de_dust2 over it.
    • cs_havana is one of the least played maps in great part because its layout changes between rounds, for instance, a window can be open in one round and closed in the next, making it confusing and difficult to master.
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Whenever Valve does anything at all to the game, complaints a-plenty may arise.
    • The Operation Wildfire update for Global Offensive brought a new and improved de_nuke... which turned out to be filled with unnecessary and framerate-killing clutter, disruptive background noise, and a silo on bombsite B that can be easily planted on and defended. Things had calmed down a bit after Valve implemented optimizations and people started getting used to the new design.
    • Counter-Strike 2, which replaces Global Offensive, were initially highly anticipated after successful closed beta sessions. When it came out, however, there is so much firestorm that at a point it's the first Valve game with a Mixed user rating after Half-Life Source. Issues ranging from heavy bump on system requirements (to the point that the Steam Deck struggled to ran it well), removal of all gamemodes apart from Casual, Competitive, and Deathmatch, removal of non-Agent characters down to SAS for CT and Phoenix for T (along with most of their variants as well), to VAC being overactive to the point of banning players who use Windows 7, banning players for using the new "Anti-Lag" feature, and banning players for no reason (although the bans have been reversed due to it being unintentional bug on Valve side).
  • Unintentional Period Piece:
    • In the original 1999 mod and 2000 retail release, all of the terrorist groups were Ripped from the Headlines. The Elite Crew and Guerrilla Warfare groups were both Arab terrorist groups referred to as "fundamentalists", with their listed acts including a 1982 bombing of a rock and roll band (reminiscent of the 1986 West Berlin discotheque bombing), drawing to mind the very high profile attacks by Sunni Arab terrorists on Western civilians in the 80s and 90s, infamously supported by the regime of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
    • Interestingly, rather than making them Al-Qaeda expies as would be expected in a mid 2000s game, Condition Zero doubled down on their initial inspiration by specifying that both groups were funded by the regime of Libya, which had ceased such activities for years before Global Offensive began development (Libya was taken off the U.S. state sponsors of terror list in 2006). Their character descriptions also mention more of their actions in the 1980s that are clearly inspired by those of real-world terrorists supported by Libya in that time, such as "the 1989 hijacking of Fly Friendly Airlines Flight 983", or "an attack on a Mediterranean luxury cruise ship."
    • Also from the original, the Phoenix Connection, a militant group formed in the aftermath of the breakup of the USSR (only 8 years old at the time of the original game). Relevant in the 1990s, but Russia massively improved from the hellhole it was back then, reaching comfortably middle income levels of wealth and stability by the late 2000s, making their motivations seem quaint today. That is, until the embargo campaign launched at Russia for the Ukraine invasion massively damaged Russia's economy, which compares them to the infamous Wagner Group.
    • The Separatist terrorist group in Global Offensive is a thinly disguised version of the the ETA. The Basque insurgency was quelled and the ETA dissolved near the end of 2011, during the game's development.
    • The Pirates terrorist group in Global Offensive are clearly based on Somali pirates, who were big in the news from the mid to late 2000s and early 2010s. By 2013, they had been more or less stamped out.
    • Another example are the Anarchists, who were an exaggerated caricature of Occupy Wall Street protestors, an organisation whose influence was at its peak during the game's development. In the years since, left-wing protest groups have become a much more polarising presence when it comes to the strength of both their support and opposition. It is very unlikely that Valve today would consider portraying such groups as silly terrorists to be worth the controversy that it would spawn. The Anarchists, however, are almost never used in official maps due to how their predominantly black colored clothing wasn't too much of a contrast compared to the SWAT team they're often pitted against. They doesn't even have an Agent representing them.

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