Richard Lewis looks at seven unsung heroes from the world of CS:S.

This article is the sole opinion of the author and does not reflect that of Heaven Media or any other affiliates. The CS:S community is as unforgiving as it gets. As a player, you’re as good as your last LAN appearance and regardless of how you perform some players will never get the credit or respect they are due. By the same token some players seem to cruise by on things that happened so long ago it may as well have been another life time, past “glory” earning them a golden pass and an army of propaganda spewing fanboys,

Yeah, it’s tough being a player. No matter what you do someone’s going to have an opinion about you that you’re powerless to control. Hell, some people might even go buck wild and have the audacity to say you’re “overrated”… Yet you’re just out there trying to do your job, play the best you can and earn a bit of cash into the bargain.

Just to show how I’m on your side, that it’s not all negativity and nastiness, I’ve compiled a salute to the unsung heroes that have played this game down the years, a guide to the player’s players who probably never got the plaudits they deserved back when it was relevant, These players were worthy of your respect even if you never knew it at the time and, in most cases, the scene is a worse place without them.

Name: Jack “Callisto” Mason
Position: Rifler
Notable Teams: TLR, xciteuk, Guns 4 Hire, 4kings, TCM
Current whereabouts: GLG squad player
Career highlight: i37 final, TCM vs Reason

Callisto at the Gadget Show Live

Jack was probably the one player in the UK that never really got any of the respect a player of his experience and ability deserved, so much so that his inclusion in the Team UK squad prompted a poll on this very website that questioned his inclusion. A wealth of 1.6 experience before he finally made the move to CS:S, he took the game better than most players did and put together performances that made people stand up and take notice.

In his first CS:S event, i31, he was one of the standout players for TLR, regularly top fragging and dropping more 20s per half than any other player in the group stages. This was proved not to be a fluke when at i33 he was awarded a prize for the most frags of any player in the group stages. Yet despite his ability and consistency he was very much off the CGS radar, so much so that Zboard declined to take him as apart of their squad electing instead for the pin-up boy for their long standing rivals Auxilia in the form of John “Gandofini” Johnston.

Still, every team he played in he was always the glue that generally held a roster of stars together, the player that would do the unselfish work. Scapegoated out of Guns 4 Hire after i33, he was still a player that was coveted to play alongside in a series of line-ups that all earned respectable finishes. A 4th place for 4kings at the last truly competitive CS:S event the I-series hosted, i36, was followed up by an appearance on the stage at i37 where his TCM team lost to the then untouchable Reason Gaming.

What followed was supposed to be a period of retirement to focus on new projects, such as running his own computer business in the form of GLHF.co.uk (shameless plug) but he was persuaded to play with some friends from the Twisted Play community in their first team, the Good Looking Gamers. Jack’s inclusion took the squad to previously unseen heights, such as beating both Fragmasters Toxic and fnatic at LAN and earning themselves a 4th place spot at i38. Without him they didn't do as well. He was still that effective even when he was part time.

Name: Simen “warclown” Aas Henriksen
Position: AWPer / Rifler
Notable Teams: Crossed, Reason, TCM,
Current whereabouts: Uknown, presumed fabulous
Career Highlight: Winning IG5

Simen is one of those players where his full value can’t be seen by spectating STV. Not that he isn’t a consistent player, capable of using both rifle and AWP, who likely would flourish in an environment where both versatility and ability with the big green gun are in short supply. Still, while Simen couldn’t be called a spectacular player, as in the kind that will only hit those movie-frag shots, ask anyone who played with him about his value to a competitive set-up.

Simen enjoying a bit of 'strange'..

All too often the player who will fit into the requirements of his own team, to the detriment of his own ability to shine, Simen made a career out of being an unflappable and non-egotistical competitor, always happy to lay the foundations for the other players around him to shine. Not only that but cut from the same cloth as his one time teammate, Christopher “Helblinde” Nilsson, he is someone who motivates those around him to deliver their best.

Take for example the performance of the famous mixed European Reason Gaming team that arrived at IG5 to be predicted a third or fourth place finish. Certainly they weren’t rated by the two UK CGS franchises that were in attendance. The team was greeted in a typically hostile fashion even being told by the likes of Salvo rifle Elliot “Wez” Welsh that he would be looking forward to “shitting all over them”. The London Mint reception wasn’t even worth repeating.

Still, that didn’t stop them battling their way past Guns 4 Hire, defeating Birmingham Salvo and edging the final against the London franchise in the final. While at that event every member of the team performed to the best of their ability, Simen is often forgotten about when it comes to doling out the plaudits. It’s easy to remember shouty Swedish brute Helblinde, the wily bald tactical genius of Fetish, the deagle rounds of Giftig, the sublime brilliance of one of Europe’s finest players jIMMy… Yet Simen was as much a part of the victory as any of them.

Proving there was life in the (not so) old dog, he managed to triumph over some of his old adversaries at i39 with TCM, racking up another tournament win for a player who could have probably had a lot more along the way if he only had the gift for shameless self promotion some of his peers did.

Name: Luuk “darky” Verink
Position: Rifler
Notable Teams: fnatic, Zboard, Eindbazen,
Current whereabouts: Drunk
Career Highlight: Dominating for an entire year, with wins at TeX, LAN79 and i31.

Luuk was a true player’s player in every sense of the word, someone described as the ultimate support player by many who played with him. Yet, he was all too often the forgotten man of the hugely successful fnatic team, the first true dynasty that CS:S saw and one of the ones most fondly remembered by enthusiasts of the game the world over.

Lesser players would have hated being surrounded by such talent. Blaze, at one time the best rifler in Europe, often drew a lot of the plaudits. Proph took centre stage as the prodigal AWPing talent. Xertion was the charismatic face of the team, always content to deliver his brand of humble and humourous interviews that were lapped up by the media. What about the calling of AirRaid that saw them tactically dominate teams from their era?

darky, far left, as part of fnatic.

When discussions about talent would come around, it was darky that would often be notable by his absence. This wasn’t because people didn’t rate the player but rather he was so good at what he did it was all too easy to forget that he was the master of doing it. Who else could be the player that would peek at just the right time to enable a colleague to rack up three kills with a timed spray, or bounce a flash with such precision that it’d blind an onrushing crowd but not the person perfectly placed to capitalise on it?

And when the chips were down, it wasn’t like he couldn’t play. An underrated clutcher, when he was the last man standing his smarts and ability to read the game, as well as an uncanny sense of timing, ensured that it was never a done deal. Yet it was almost as if he never really wanted the limelight, much preferring it to go to his teammates.

These attributes made him such a great player he could have slotted into any side and made it successful – as proven by his solitary appearance for a mostly drunk Zboard mix that won CLUK21 – and yet it was some of his colleagues that had their day in the sun when they were picked up by CGS. A class act to the end, Luuk never once grumbled about being overlooked despite the fact his team had collectively beaten everyone at the CGS combine that year. Who needs sour grapes when everyone in Europe would have given one of their eyes to play with you?

Name: Marc “Mangiacapra” Mangiacapra
Position: Rifler
Notable Teams: Team Dignitas, Birmingham Salvo
Current whereabouts:
Career Highlight: Winning 2nd Seasons CGS World Finals

It might seem mad that a player who was part of the team that won the single largest cash prize ever awarded to a CS:S team ($50,000 per player) would have to justify their contribution, yet in typical fashion the wider community called for him to be replaced on the strength a few halves with a low amount of frags.

Firstly, CGS mythology goes, although this could be total bullshit (impossible to tell what is real or not with almost everybody associated with it still lying through their teeth about what really went on) that Marc had been sounded out about the General Manager’s job. Certainly this makes sense in terms of their marketing strategy, picking up the biggest names in a bif to get community buy-in. As a 1.6 legend that turned down moves to big organisations to stay loyal to 4kings he would certainly have been a desirable figurehead for a league that was experiencing an angry backlash from the 1.6 community.

mangiacapra during the CGS days

If this did happen, it is also said he turned it down as he wanted to win a big prize as a player, a World Championship no less, something that had eluded him as a player. As such he chose to stay on and captained his team to the big prize after two seasons, after only a relatively short space of time playing the game. A great story regardless of whether it was true or not.. Since as the CGS were prone for making shit up, it’s a shame that one wasn’t shouted from the rooftops true or otherwise.

Marc was a player with a big brain rather than a spectacular fragger as he had been in his prime 1.6 days. Here, he was the guy who did the donkey work. If he was getting rushed, rather than go for the spectacular five man, he’d instead throw flashes, eat away time, hide, flash more if able, hide in a smoke… Whatever it took to allow his teammates to rotate and get the glory. He may have posted some low scores in some of the big games but it never really told the full story of his contribution.

Still unconvinced? Look what happened after he left, finally content with all that had e-sports had given him… They went from being the best team, to a great team, to a good team in the space of a year. No matter how many players they tried to bring into the fold, no matter what combination of talent they put together, it was never quite the same… Sure, good enough to win I-series, good enough to place at other events. Yet that team with Marc at the centre of it was unbeatable. All evidence points to him being the largest part of the success jigsaw.