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Swedes Dominate Counter-Strike Championship
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.
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.
Are these guys being recruited by their governments to be counter terrorist forces?
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!"
Well, athletic ability is not only restricted to your legs, arms and body. A person with fast reflexes, good hand-eye coordination, quick thinking and strong concentration can be considered as "athletic" too. There is as much sport in Cybergaming as there is in Football or any other conventional sport game.
The Swedes won ?
= tournam ents
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
That's where the actual event information is.
...all your base are belong to sweden
Cyberathlete, eh? Are there any Swedish Universities giving out Cyberathletics scholarships?
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)
Interesting. You imply cyberatheletes aren't real atheletes, yet in your .sig you think that third party Presidential candidates are real candidates.
I seriously doubt any of the CPL players were using bots, considering a) aimbots are notoriously easy to detect b) point a is even more true when there is a judge standing right behind you.
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Crudely Drawn Games
Does anybody know if there's movies from the competition? I'm especially interested in in-game clips.
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."
What a beginner's mistake: Allowing a physical attack to unplug the network.
They should have a Self defending network
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.
I doubt it. Their aim is probably around the same as yours. And they would win because you're a lamer and they're not.
Beware he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master. -Anonymous
Yes, because the military teaches you that gravity has no effect on bullets, the muzzle velocity of all guns is near infinite, and grenades and AWP shots can damage you through 2 feet of solid metal.
Vikings anyone?
'A furore normannorum libera nos domine'
'Skona oss herre från nordmännens raseri'
'Oh lord, save us from the rage of the Nordic people'
[A common prayer in the French churches during the 9th century.]
Those other teams probably forgot the prayer.
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Views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the author.
Hear, hear. CS is *very* fun if you play it with down-to-earth folks, but the downright retarded comunity that has spawned arround it drove me away as well.
And "cyberathlete"... sheeze. I work at a cybercafe, and i hear people from 15 to 30 years old seriously considering "living off CS". It made me chuckle the first times. Now it's pathetic.
Yeah, $100,000. If you win, then it has to be splitted to all members of your team (no less than four). Once or twice a year, maybe. And i wonder how much of that is real cash as oppsed to sponsors' hardware.
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....
-- Mal: "Well they tell you: never hit a man with a closed fist. But it is, on occasion, hilarious."
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.)
Hobby seems to fit more then an actual job; since only very few in the many thousands of players across the world actually sees any money from this stuff.
- It's not the Macs I hate. It's Digg users. -
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.
For the love of god, stop them before they dominate Everquest too!
I used to play a game called Tactical Ops; a mod for UT. It was awesome, we were in the #1 clanbase ladder position - because we worked together really well, we were honest players, we went over tactics and plans during practice runs.. it was just a blast. Unfortunately, a lot of bad element started to come onto the scene after awhile and we just ended up losing interest. But it was the most fun I've ever had with online gaming.
It's the kids. And no, it's not all of them. We had a couple young guys in our clan (age 14 and 15 I think) and they were cool; great players and nice kids. But that's not usually the way it goes. The young kids, age 13 - 16, are so troublesome. I ran four TacOps servers for over a year and that demographic was constantly and continuously a thorne in my side as well as all the players that played on the servers.
- It's not the Macs I hate. It's Digg users. -
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>
"[T]he single essential element on which all discoveries will be dependent is human freedom." -- Barry Goldwater
"...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.
"In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart." - Anne Frank
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.
Since nobody answering has bothered to respond factually to the question, I'll do:
Every male is drafted around age 18, after high school but before college. However, not all are selected to actually do military service - I think the numbers are down to about 30-35% at this point.
And I have to disagree strongly as to whether it teaches a "sense a weaponry". It doesn't. It does, however, teach how to think creatively in a group to solve an immediate problem.
(The American military, by comparison, considers its chain of command as holy. The Scandinavian militaries rely a lot more on the intelligence of the individual soldier.)
/ CrystalFalcon
(15 months of geeking around with military-grade radio hardware ain't that bad)
right, because real candidates raise enough campaign money to advertise, which makes them real candidates.
maybe one day we will vote for candidates based upon their qualifications, not how famous they are. Arnold comes to mind. and these will be the real candidates you speak of.
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!
I just came back from the CPL and met with many of the top players. One thing I've noticed is that alot of the top players are actaully quite accomplished athletes. Many of the swedish players are soccer players. And they are thin but well built. I've noticed that I play fps's better if I am regularly exercising. I don't want to go into any deep psyho-analysis but I think the whole mental attidude many athletes develop, such as being determined to win,focused, relaxed, and confident, will bleed off into other things like video games.
I can see how these people can get away with being called a "cyberathlete" because they have to focus, train hard, have good reactions and hand-eye coordination.
I will have to admit though, there were some really pale, fat, and unhealthy players there that manage to hang with the cream of the crop.
Abaddon: An Xbox 360 Indie game