Richard "Dr. Gonzo" Lewis reflects on the repercussions of apathy in the CS:S scene.

This article is the sole opinion of the author and does not represent the opinion of Heaven Media Ltd or the opinion of any affiliates.

“We don’t want to read pessimistic articles about how CS:S is struggling” people have often said in response to my columns, usually ignoring the fact that they were actually quite positive. But never let the truth get in the way of a good old fashioned moan and so it shall be here. After people demanding positivity it seems that people would rather manufacture things that put an entirely negative spin on what we have to look forward to in 2010. No doubt stating this opinion will somehow reaffirm my position as some sort of hate figure, but the CS:S “community” has of late shown its true rotten colours.

While games that really have no right at all to flourish have continued to go from strength to strength, CS:S has come out of a promising 2009 and pretty much regressed back to 2005 in the first quarter of this year. They’d already dug the grave for CoD4 when Modern Warfare 2 was announced and if it hadn’t been such an unmitigated disaster in terms of its value as an e-sports title the soil would have been patted flat with the back end of a spade sometime ago. Instead, presented with an uncertain future and an inferior title, the CoD-heads got together and did something constructive, and out of it came the CiC7 event with record sign-ups and one of the biggest prize-pots since the game was launched. Team Fortress 2 make sure that every event, even small online cups, is heavily supported and that starts from the top of the organisations downwards. Sure, they’re not above petty bickering and a fanatical devotion that borders on the psychotic, but what’s the alternative.

The almost criminal levels of apathy is a crop that has grown from seeds sewn by sponsors and tournament organisers. They thought that it would be acceptable to delay payments to such a level where players question why they even bother practicing in the first place. I myself currently have acted as an independent party chasing up money from organisations, managers and tournaments on behalf of players that don’t feel there’s any other avenue available to them. They are being naive in thinking that a stern e-mail will make any difference… People’s greed and lack of big picture awareness has really pushed the scene to this critical mass we’re facing and I wonder how long it will be before those who had hoped to profit wake up to the fact that they may just have killed the golden goose.


SmackLAN, set to take place at the Outpost centre has been cancelled

The knock-on effects are clear to see. SmackLAN was one of the most highly anticipated events on the calendar. When the first list of interested teams was published people couldn’t believe that they might actually be seeing an event that would eclipse any that had gone before. Yet it is one thing to sign-up in principle and another to put down cold hard cash. No-one wanted to be the first to commit and you might well ask why? Well, with the track record of having to wait six months to get money you’re entitled to, there was no doubt a good number of managers thinking that they may have to wait equally long for refunds, perhaps due to paperwork or some more bollocks about the crushing impact of the recession.

And incidentally, while we’re on the subject, that excuse about the recession and all… Pretty soon people are going to have to come up with some new material, because most economists seem to be of the mind that we are definitely through the worst of it and the economy has started to grow again. Certainly with banks, utility companies and internet powerhouses such as Google all announcing record profits, you do have to wonder if this whole recession gibberish was just sort of excuse for big business to further imprint their jackboot into the face of the proles. But that’s another matter entirely, can we at least say that even in the occasionally shambolic world of e-sports commerce, we’ve had more than enough time to get our act together and such sound bites are no longer appreciated.
So, the organisations falter and don’t pay up. They don’t see it as a problem because if other teams jump first, then maybe they’ll decide to change their mind, once it’s apparent it is a safe bet. But no-one is communicating, no-one is asking who is doing what and no-one is beating a drum and saying “if you don’t sign up you just condemned a fragile scene to losing an event that it sorely needed”. There is another facet to this incredible conundrum, namely how we can claim to be e-sports enthusiasts when in reality most people involved in CS:S seem about as enthusiastic at the whole scene as a 24 terrorist suspect is when Jack Bauer walks into the room. A good time will not be had it seems, certainly not in that Republican wet dream and certainly not in CS:S. Yet we hover, we linger and we make false promises.

Some managers and players alike breathed a sigh of relief when the event was cancelled. You may wonder why, but it is because virtually no-one was practicing anyway. Teams had dropped out of online leagues on the grounds they “couldn’t be arsed” – a phrase so often used in CS:S it actually spawned an acronym – and the people who were running them must have been scratching their heads as to what was going on. I mean, didn’t we actually demand online leagues with cash prizes? Wasn’t that something people wanted? Yet when it came along the prospect of 40 minutes of a week was too much for some people. Incredibly, while admitting to not practicing, the players also seem to labour under the delusion they have a God given right to win every game. But what is the good of liberally throwing around the “onliner” tag if you’re contributing to a process that will see the death of offline events for the game?

Of course some of this specifically refers to ESEA and I had promised to make something of a fuss regarding the decisions that have seen Reason Gaming and VeryGames, probably two of the most professional organisations when it comes to CS:S, out of the tournament at the expense of mix-teams, default takers and part-timers. Alas I will have to let you draw your own conclusions. What I will say is while I understand that a lack of Zblock – pretty much the main reason why CS:S has even made it this far in e-sports – and admin presence is a problem for any league, on the flip-side sometimes you just have to put up with something when it’s bad in the hope that it might get better. That’s not to excuse a half arsed approach, but we need to appreciate exactly where we are, something I’ve always said. CS:S is a toddler in an industry where the old and the wise are still themselves only teenagers.



Without Zblock would CS:S be anywhere near the level it is now?

I write this after just being told by the organisers of Wiredout LAN that they too might well be faced with the realistic prospect of having to cancel the event due to lack of sign-ups, something I again find bewildering. Had many not complained about the monopoly seemingly held by Multiplay over domestic UK LANs and the amount they were charging. Yet a non-BYOC LAN event in the second city of the country for only thirty-five pounds a head is struggling to hit sixteen sign-ups. At the moment it has eight from only nineteen that expressed a genuine enough interest to book a place. If it doesn’t hit a minimum of eleven teams by Wednesday then the event will be called off and all of a sudden the CS:S calendar is already starting to look very bare indeed in the first half of 2010.

In addition to all of this the people that are leaving the scene behind seem completely intent in making sure no-one follows in their wake, or even wants to. “It’s dead” they tell you, which might well come to pass if people can’t do simple things like deliver on promises. And that’s what it all boils down to; everyone’s flapping their gums about what they are going to do, without ever actually thinking through whether they are going to do it or not, or even be able to. Teams say they’ll stay together, then don’t. Organisations say they’ll send players to events, then don’t. Tournament organisers promise fabulous prizes and then get them for you a year later, funded by the next wave of suckers who’ll be waiting just as long. In the end, everyone’s good faith has run dry.

But it doesn’t have to stay this way. As long as people are interested in playing there is a future for the game, for any game, no matter what you say or think about it. I just think that there is something so sour at the heart of CS:S that we’d rather have bad things to talk about than anything good. Maybe this alarming trend will shake loose some of the negative influences that helped bring us to this precipice, but for now we need to be wrathful – reward the righteous and punish the wicked. There are those events that do right by the community, or at least try to if you will let them. There are those organisations that will support scenes through thick and thin. And there are figureheads that actually worth emulating as opposed to those that have taken all they can and given the bare minimum back.


WiredOut could quite easily be cancelled as well at this rate

I don’t know if it’s because we’ve had it so good, people literally fawning over the game and giving it attention it perhaps didn’t deserve, or temporarily elevating it to heights it could never sustain. I don’t know if there’s something about the game mechanics that just means that it attracts a specific type of person. What I do know is that the cancellation of events due to lack of interest is incredible in 2010. I’ve seen events cancelled because they were badly run, or because they were a scam, or because of some weird extenuating circumstances – but never because no-one gives a shit anymore, because no-one wants to attend. It seems inconceivable given the things we’ve openly called for.

Is it only a matter of time before this trend starts to spread? I don’t know how to answer that. I can only hope not, but even I’m not so sure. We collectively seem to have no reverence for the past, no respect for the present and no interest in the future. I’m usually accurate in my predictions when it comes to e-sports. It is a shame that I can’t apply such prescience to something useful like a hugely profitable weekend accumulator. But I’d thought this year would continue to see growth, that we’d have another year where all the people that run the game down are made to look stupid. 2010 isn’t shaping up that way at all and right now we’re all shouldering some of that blame.

On a side note there’s still time to save Wiredout 2 from going down the pan. If you’re one of the allegedly interested in teams get paid up. If you’re not and you’re a UK team looking for a cheap and convenient LAN event, then scrape some cash together. If you’re a UK organisation with a team sat around twiddling its thumbs, take that budget you were going to use for Belgium and put some of it towards this. Nobody wants to see two events cancelled in the space of a week.

http://www.wiredout.co.uk