Red’s Corner is a bi-weekly column by Paul "ReDeYe" Chaloner released every other Thursday exclusively at Cadred.

Paul's last three columns can be read by clicking the following links:

It's The FANS, Stupid	18th June
Update My Lada Riva	4th June
It's Not Boring	21st May

Once was the time when Americans proudly ruled the virtual killing fields. They were supreme in every way, blasting past opponents with more ease than finding a Michael Jackson album to download. They would strut their stuff, turn up, collect the cheque (sorry, check) and be polishing the big shiny trophy before you had a chance to say “bloody Americans”. These days however, you are more likely to be visited by the ghost of Farrah Fawcett than witness an American victory in an eSport tournament.

Seriously, they used to be bloody good at seemingly everything. I remember seeing Complexity dominating ESWC back in 2005 and Team 3D ruling the roost at WCG, for what seemed like 20 years running (in reality it was just JUST 3). The Yankee’s didn’t limit their supremacy to Counter Strike either, with thumping wins in almost every type of deathmatch tournament you care to name from the early days of Deathmatch 95, through the years of domination by Thresh (he won every tournament he ever entered) up to and including the domination of Quake by a certain Mr.Wendel in the early part of the new millennium.

American Dominance... Not so easy on the European eye

It was little different in other genre’s, with Americans even having the audacity to challenge the Koreans at Starcraft and then there is console gaming. The one saving grace for them, but there are plenty of people who believe that they have only stayed strong in the likes of Halo due to having MLG running their brilliant tournaments in their own back yard. Here in, for me at least, lies the key to the downfall of American domination: Tournaments, specifically, the lack there of.

When CGS died last year, it was the last in a series of high profile, American backed venture in to the wide world of international gaming. Before that, we had the demise of CPL and the failure and pull back of WSVG, both international tournaments for sure, but with secure roots in the good old US of A.

Some of you (those who pay attention to the areas outside of Cadred) could and probably will point to the fact that America still managed to finish 3rd in the medal table at the WCG finals in 2008 and you would be correct, but lets examine that a little deeper. They actually took five medals away, three bronze, one silver and one gold. The gold medal came thanks to an excellent performance from Ryan Mancl (who?) in Age of Empires III and which well known pillar of the American gaming community won the silver? You’d be hard pressed to recognise Steven Anderson as the runner up in (wait for it) Asphalt 4: Elite Racing (on a phone). Even in something they are supposed to be good (Halo 3) they only managed 3rd behind the Canadians (!!!) and France. It’s hardly much to write home about is it?

You are probably wondering what the hell all of this has to do with you by now, our avid Counter Strike Source/Call of Duty 4 person and here it is. When will see an American team attending a European large scale tournament to compete with the best that Europe has to offer? Will we ever see it happen?

Well there are plans afoot by one clan in the USA to do exactly that. It would be unfair to mention who they are (just in case it doesn’t work out and you guys all slate them for it), but they are serious about attending i38 later in the year. Personally, I can’t wait to see if that happens. The last time we saw this was also at an iseries when the Americans from EG came over to Europe for some serious Call of Duty and they certainly gave as good as they got. By no means am I saying that American gaming is dead, but it’s certainly not representing as it used to.

You could also argue that they still send teams to major 1.6 tournaments the world over and they sure do, but when was the last time they won anything? Hell, when was the last time they actually got out of the group stages…

Perhaps there are other reasons, other than the lack of big money tournaments that used to litter the North American scene, but I can’t find them. If you look at the line ups, on paper at least, some of the players are borderline legends in Source and should be in a great organisation, but it’s just too damn expensive to ship them over to Europe to compete, even for some of the very best organisations and the greatest will in the world, its hard work.

So how about some of the Europeans travel over to the USA and compete? Well, same problem exists, cost, although it is exacerbated by the lack of said tournaments. Catch 22 either way you look at it and until the Americans are given the chance of competing with the best that Europe and beyond has to offer, we aren’t going to be any nearer finding a true world champion for Counter Strike Source or Call of Duty for that matter.

Even if we did manage to find a location, reasonable prize money and players were in an organisation that could ship them over to a tournament, would they even be any good? History says possibly not, although when you look through the scene, there are still some incredible players waiting for that chance. CGS was the chance they had been waiting for of course, all be it, in a bastardised format and whilst we had some epic matches, it didn’t really give us a true world champion, at least not for Counter Strike Source alone.

The Dallas Venom CS:S team that beat Birmingham Salvo

Purists may point to the defeat of Birmingham Salvo by Dallas Venom in the individual finals in season 1 as an American victory and sure, it was, but can it really count as a world championship using “that” rule set? I think not. And not to dampen the fantastic achievement of the Salvo boys a year later in winning $500k and being crowned CGS World Champions, that cant be counted as solely a Counter Strike Championship either.

I am sure I am not alone in wanting the question of “who is the best counter strike source team in the world” answered and definitively, but the worry is, as the game fades from major tournaments and gets less support from major organisations, we may never get to see that match, that tournament where we can truly say “they are the best in the world” and actually mean it.

What we should be able to do is something remarkable and something that comes from us in the community. It may sound hard to raise £25,000 for a tournament and it is, but its not impossible. With £25k as prize money and another £25k to help teams get to the tournament (not just from the USA but from further a field in China, Australia and South Africa too) and great written and video coverage provided with a big song and dance being made by mainstream media being involved, there still remains the opportunity to hold something that we could well call the CS:S World Championship.

You are probably thinking this is nothing more than a pipe dream and you would be right, at least for now, but it is something I am going to pursue for the next few months if only to satisfy myself that it can be done and we can dare to dream the impossible. Call me an old romantic but the thought of having such a tournament excites me and fills me with renewed hope, not only for the game, but for larger tournaments run on an esport basis that shows the mainstream we are serious, can run organised tournaments, on time and with quality coverage and good value for money for sponsors. The end result is, we get to find out who really is the best in the world and whether those pesky Americans really are bad at gamings.

Happy 4th my American friends.