Michael McGhee takes a look at the first five of the 10 CS:S players he see's as the most over rated in the history of the game.

I don't know what you got up to last night but I spent my evening sipping on whiskey and tracing my family roots back to see where the McGhee clan started. After a few hours of trawling through past articles I found out that my family come from a long line of warriors and legendary fighters, as such I have a large network of people around the world that can be called upon should I run into some trouble. It was perfect really as I had been planning something that could land me in that trouble for a few months and the only thing holding me back was fear of attack on me or my family.

I wasn't planning to rob the Yakuza's or anything, simply to write an article detailing the 10 players I felt were the most overrated by their peers in the history of the game we all love. It may seem strange to be reluctant about writing such a piece but gamers are a weird bunch and there is no telling what some of them are capable of, just be warned, people, after reading this article if you have any plans of attacking me at my next LAN event it won't go unanswered..

It's odd really that nobody has done it before as it's a topic that should drum up plenty of debate and a whole lot of conversation, I mean there are plenty of players around the world who failed to live up to hype surrounding them or who were simply carried to big event wins by a team filled with better players. Trying to whittle the list down to just ten was difficult but it's been done now, lets just hope I'm not wrong..

A note to all players listed: This is nothing but my personal opinion, there is no malice behind it and nothing personal whatsoever, please don't take offence. Also the feature image is merely a joke, I don't think you're poo.

Might as well jump straight into the deep end and alienate myself from the entire German community by highlighting the fact that their poster boy and hero is one of the most over rated players of all time. I didn't really want to include Andre given his pedigree in Germany and the fact he has represented the number one organisation in Germany for a number of years, winning plenty of national titles and earning plenty of respect from his peers.

Yet to look at it from an outsiders point of view he is another German player who has been fantastic in his own country yet failed to recapture that form at international events, in the past many put that down to the fact that the mTw team as a whole wasn't good enough to perform against the best in Europe, that other German players were letting Andre down and he was a diamond in the rough. That was a fair opinion to have and at times it was clear that he was better than anyone else on the all-German mTw side by a country mile, yet that doesn't warrant being called one of the best in Europe.

Without trying to flame an entire country it's a well known fact that Germany hasn't produced many wonderful players over the years and as such, schooling Germans has never proven too difficult. Just how out of his depth he is against the very best can be witnessed by looking through the hundreds of recent demo's of mTw in action at the CPH Games, 30P LAN or DSRack LAN, three events in which he has failed to perform at all, at times costing his team important rounds. Yet still he remains one of the most loved players in Germany and has legions of fans supporting him, he is still the face of mTw and looks likely to remain so for some time to come.

There must be a point when people will realise that as a CS:S player Andre isn't all he is hyped up to be, when that time will come is unknown but if mTw continue to lose vital games against opponents they should be defeating something will have to change - and it shouldn't be the guys who have been doing their part.

If you're a big 1.6 fan then you will know who this guy is, sadly he didn't quite make the same impact in CS:S yet people still talk about him like he was one of the greatest players in the world. Not many folk could deny Marcus' credentials as a CS 1.6 player, he was widely regarded as one of the best Swedish players even and played a huge role in the stellar rise of the famous NiP side of 2006, alongside legends such as SpawN, ins and Potti.

A big fragger with the rifle and with some of the best aim in the game he was given a chance to join up with Franchised organisation Complexity, relocating to the States to live the dream of playing in the CGS. When the announcement was made the hype surrounding Marcus was incredible, perhaps the first time that European fans of 1.6 had dared to watch CS:S just to catch their hero in action, yet after doing so they'd wish they hadn't.

As a general rule, almost every round of CS:S compLexity played would follow this pattern:

Zet uses 27 bullets spraying down an enemy from close proximity

Zet is killed and an opening is created to the bombsite he was defending

Danny 'fRoD' Montanner picks up two insane AWP shots to regain the advantage before the rest of the team clean up.

People may argue that compLexity failed to lose a single LAN event - other than the CGS Combine - with Marcus on their roster, that they were an unstoppable force and although both of those statements would be correct, not much of that was down to zet, his play or his ability to frag. The main reason they were such a good side was because of fRoD and Warden, with Ron 'Rambo' Kim calling the strategies. Yet for some reason people remember zet as one of the best players around at the time, especially over on the big 1.6 websites - although the users of those sites are a different breed of gamer. Sorry to break it to you folks, he wasn't.

Finding a French player who was supremely over-rated proved pretty difficult, who'd have thought? After looking through list after list of potential candidates and crossing them off for either not being rated, or actually being good, I came to the infamous akamatt.. I don't really know how he managed to make his way into redLine - back when they were considered the best side in Europe - but somehow he did it, since then he's failed to impress on a number of occasions.

The first time anyone had really heard of the name was during an ESEA-Invite match between Dreamaker and Danish contenders MoD (FeTiSh, wantz, 3k2, gravity, purity) where he burst onto the international scene with a brilliant 30 bomb. Shortly afterwards though rumours began circulating that it was actually another Frenchman, namely Loic 'RegnaM' Peron who apparently played on the youngsters account - A link to the POV of "akamatt" can be downloaded Here. Those rumours were strengthened by his decidedly average performance at OOF3 just a week later with redLine, this tme at LAN.

Still, redLine chose to give him a chance to prove himself at the big event, The Experience. The French side went on to win the tournament in convincing fashion but once more akamatt was far from spectacular. His failure to shine proved the final straw for the team as they decided to remove him from the roster just a few months after joining. Since then though he has been linked with numerous high profile teams and maintains his status as one of the better team-less European players - with rumours he linked up with Team Dignitas for all of 7 days before deciding to leave.

Now here is where things get a little bit tricky and the walking on eggshells begins. The most difficult was selecting the UK players as there have been a fair few down the years, hyped by clueless fanboys the tree-house at the top end of the UK scene has been infiltrated by a number of overrated players. The list will feature two players I feel have been overrated throughout their time as CS:S players, the first of which is Luke 'KritikaL' Green.

Much like zet - only nowhere near as successful in either game - Luke decided to make the switch to CS:S in order to compete in the CGS, linking up with team Guns4Hire alongside fellow 1.6er Frank 'FrankstaH' Rini. The team had enjoyed some moderate success before picking up the two 1.6 players but afterwards they were never really the same. The influence of the one and only Tom 'beta' Hanna, also known as "Crazy Beta", saw them go through a number of players before finally settling for Dan 'Re1ease' Mullan shortly after i34.

No matter which players they picked up or what they did though they were always considered the third best team in the UK and rarely came close to toppling the two CGS franchises. Soon the team were split in two as mx and beta left for Crack Clan and the ever revolving door of Fragmasters opened once more. When Fragmasters eventually folded Luke was given a shot by Team Dignitas, his former 1.6 teammates and CS:S rivals. It didn't last long though as the team parted ways shortly after his second event.

He has remained towards the top end of the UK scene since then, playing for a number of teams despite never really shining individually, his first major event win came at i41 - one of the least competitive events ever - where his team, Fragmasters, saw off mix team BBoMM in the grand final. Soon after he retired once more - with rumours he was kicked - only to return just a few weeks ago with a new lineup under the name c4u.. In the words of Luke:

AV SOME OF THAT, YOU WANKAAAAAS

The most overrated North American player of all time, period - and a massive onliner to boot. Somehow he managed to make his way into most major top American teams including the mighty PowersGaming side which attended the DigitalLife LAN in 2005, losing out to the mighty verGe in the grand final. Shortly after the event Ben was picked up by team verGe despite having a fairly average LAN himself, replacing Zack 'cannoN' Cannon.

The player survived several incarnations of the verGe lineup before eventually heading into the first CG combine with them, however once more he failed to shine and wasn't drafted. Afterwards he played with numerous teams before linking up with Guardians alongside current rulers of America AZK and PEX. The team performed brilliantly online but on arrival at the second CGS combine they failed to win a single map during the tournament, and in turn failed to be picked up by any franchises.

Afterwards he linked up with another famous American name, zomblers. With that team - including some legendary names - they managed to remain unbeaten in the regular season of CEVO-P - once more online - with struK playing a huge part in their success. They were however pipped to the title by Dallas Venom. Since then things have remained quiet for the player who has moved on to other things, perhaps people realised that he was a huge name for no real reason.. We can but hope.

Keep an eye out for the second part next week.. If I make it till then.