CarolinaCore.com has had an article written by Mike Luxion of LanDodger.com entitled "The Tale of Torrez". It is easily one of the best pieces I've read so far, I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I do, it goes beyond the game and into the player.

In some ways, his story isn’t much different than the rest of the competitive gaming community. Guy grows up playing video games with his group of friends. One day he goes over to a buddy’s house, same as always. Friend is playing a new game called Counter-Strike Beta 1. Both are immediately addicted. The story is such a cliché that it seems like the creator of Counter-Strike had a million friends, and they all came over to his house, one after the other, for an introduction.

Of course, clichés are often true, and that’s the case here. Mark played Duke Nukem and Doom 2 with his friends until Counter-Strike came along. When a beautiful game like that shows up in a person’s life, it’s hard to stay with your old standbys. He was hooked, sometimes practicing and playing over six hours a day.

Counter-Strike, besides being revolutionary in terms of style, also provided Mark with a completely new experience: the competitive gaming community.

“My friends that I played Beta with, Beta 1, they were really into competitive CS, and they were in one of the better clans back then, “ Mark said, “After a while I started playing with them, my friend got me in the clan, and it pretty much went on from there.”

You can read the full article HERE