Source has come a long way since it started; at the beginning it was all a bit of a mess, especially with the issue of interpolate values and a treasure trove of bugs to be fixed, as well as a match spectator system that was as good as broken. Now most of the bugs are fixed, interpolation is much better than it used to be and people can finally watch the matches they want to without continuous errors. LANs have been another strength for Source, with prizes going from hardware and a bit of cash that barely refunded the travel and ticket fees to funds now reaching £5000, and soon to exceed this by a long way it seems. More LANs are being held than ever, and, although all are not as successful as would be liked, people are learning from previous mistakes to make each new LAN bigger and better than the last.

Currently Source seems to be suspended halfway between a casual and a competitive game. Valve seem to be catering for the mass public, who are naturally casual gamers, while still trying to keep the competitive players reasonable happy. A recent example of this was them adding the mp_dynamicpricing 0 CVAR, to stop the ‘dynamic weapon market’ they introduced, allowing for competitive play to remain at a constant standard. Clans are able to attend LANs all over their respective continents regardless of which country they are from, a recent example being the Finnish squad Insignia Cadre attending the EuroCSS LAN. This shows that Source has come a long way from online public play. The reason for this happening has mainly been the increased prize funds and corporate backing LANs now have. But it isn’t enough.

Amongst recent attempts to push Counter-Strike: Source to the next level is the Source for CPL movement (found at #SourceforCPL on the IRC network QuakeNet). The aim for this project, to get the Cyberathlete Professional League to host a Counter-Strike: Source competition, seems logical. Whereas currently the competitive state of Source is improving slowly through increasingly larger LANs and online leagues and cups, Source for CPL are trying to get right to the heart of e-sports by pushing for the game to be held at what is one of the most influential and prestigious gaming events. If this happened, then we could say that Source has finally at the competitive standard that many desire. However, it will take more than an IRC channel and a website with a mission statement.

What the Counter-Strike: Source community must do – in my opinion – to get the game to CPL, and from there to other events such as the WCG, is initially to create an ‘HQ’ for Source, where people who are important and have influence within the community can make the plans, and then to begin contacting any and all organisations and companies, be they e-sports and computing related or not. Once the game has the support of large corporations, then this will garner the attention of the prestigious gaming events like CPL, since they will see there is a profit to be made from hosting a Source competition. You can see that the type of company doesn’t really matter, as long as they’re large and rich, from the fact that Pizza Hut sponsors both the Cyberathlete Amateur League (CAL) and the CPL. A lot of people who play Source have contacts within the computing and gaming industries, and these people, who will also benefit through getting Source recognised at a higher competitive level, are key to the procedure.

We have the game at a stage that’s ready for professional competitive play, and we also have the clans that could go the distance, both in the USA and Europe. What’s needed now is the backing from those with money, to attract the competitions that could really put Source in the limelight. Source is MUCH more developed than many games that are already hugely successful competitively, and with the constant development Valve are giving Source, it can be tweaked to suit the needs of the players and their audience. It has the capability to actually be able to show off newer hardware than other professional e-sports games, and look good too, even to audiences that may not have seen the game before, overall providing what should be a ‘dream package’ for people and companies looking to invest.

My opinion is that, overall, this path is much better than slowly increasing the size of LANs until they get the attention of the CPL, as, although it can be done, it’s all about the money, and that way just seems a more round-about route of acquiring money from corporations.

Anyone interested in helping me, and those at Source for CPL, with this project are welcome to e-mail me at paul@carsten.plus.com .