Welcome to the first edition of the Team Fortress 2 101 series, Getting Started. Here I’ll show you how to set up TF2 and go over some tips for beginners. Later editions will go more in depth on different aspects of the game, such as config files, maps and gametypes, and the different classes in the game. If you would like me to go over anything just let me know, either by posting a comment here, in the #strafeRight IRC channel, or emailing me at yankeedeuce ^at straferight ^dot com.

TF2 History

The first Team Fortress game was made in 1996 as a mod for Quake. The game was a hit, and in 1998 the developers announced Team Fortress 2, which would be a stand alone game on Valve’s GoldSrc Engine. Valve first contracted, then employed, two of the original developers – Robin Walker and John Cook. In 1999 Team Fortress Classic was released, a port of the original to the GoldSrc Engine. Work was still being done on TF2 at the time, which at first had a modern, realistic, military game, with innovations including command hierarchy, a commanders birds eye view, parachute drops, and VoIP. In 2000, TF2 was delayed again when Valve announced they would be switching to their new game engine, now known as Source.

Nothing was really heard about TF2 after that until 2006, when it was revealed TF2 would be shipped with HL2:E2. This was the first time the new cartoon style graphics were shown, with Robin Walker saying later that they had actually developed 3-4 games before they decided on the final design of the game. In October of 2007 TF2 was finally released as part of The Orange Box, included with HL2 and HL2:Episodes 1 and 2, and Portal.

The Basics

TF2 is a class-based game, with 9 different classes split roughly into 3 roles, Offense, Defense, and Support. The Offensive classes are the Scout, the Soldier, and the Pyro. Defensive classes include the Demoman, the Heavy Weapons Guy, and the Engineer. The Support classes are the Medic, the Sniper, and the Spy. Just because a class is a certain role doesn’t mean a Defensive class won’t be good on offense or vice versa, you will often see Demos and Heavies on the offensive, along with Pyros defending points. Valve is in the process of adding unlockable weapons and achievements for all the characters. So far the Medic is the only class done, with 39 Achievements and new weapons after 12, 25, and 39 Achievements are unlocked. Valve has announced the Pyro will be the next class to get achievements and unlocks. Each class has their different strengths and weaknesses, as do the unlockable weapons.

The Scout .:. The Soldier .:. The Pyro

The Demoman .:. The Heavy Weapons Guy .:. The Engineer

The Medic .:. The Sniper .:. The Spy

There are currently two different teams, Reliable Excavation and Demolition (RED), and Builders League United (BLU). The two companies fight on 9 different official maps with several different game types. The game types are CTF, CP, TC, and PL.

CTF (Capture the Flag) maps have the teams on either end of the map, with each team trying to capture the others intelligence briefcase that is located in their base. Each time the Intelligence is captured the capping team gets a point, by default the first team to 3 caps wins the round. (ctf_2fort, ctf_well)

On CP (Control Point) maps the objective is to capture control points, with a few variations available. Some maps have RED owning all the points while BLU must try to take them, capping A and B before being able to cap C (cp_gravelpit). Others have 5 control points, BLU owning 2, RED owning 2, and the middle point free (cp_granary, cp_well, cp_badlands). The teams fight for control of the next point they don’t own, while defending the points they do. The last CP type has different stages of the map, with BLU needing to take two ponts in order before being able to move through to the second and third stages (cp_dustbowl).

TC (Territory Control) maps have a single control point per area that either team can capture. Teams must take all the territory areas before being able to attack the enemy’s main base. (tc_hydro)

PL (Payload) maps are the newest gametype available. BLU must push a cart on tracks through the map to control points while RED defends. The cart is moved by BLU players standing near it, RED can stop it by standing near it, and if no BLU player has touched the cart in 20 seconds it starts rolling backwards. The cart also acts as a dispenser, healing and refilling ammo for the BLU team. (pl_goldrush)

cp_badlands .:. cp_dustbowl .:. cp_granary

cp_gravelpit .:. cp_well .:. ctf_2fort

ctf_well .:. pl_goldrush .:. tc_hydro

Getting Started

TF2 is on the updated Source Engine, known as the Orange Box. Instead of setting your name in the options or a config file, it is tied to your Steam Community name. Ingame it will show your Steam Community name and avatar, and your Community profile page will have your TF2 stats and achievements displayed.

How to change your Steam Community name .:. TF2 Stats on your Steam Community page

Once you get ingame go to the Options menu and select the Multiplayer tab. I always enable the Minimal HUD, which makes it easier to see the action going on around you by making the HUD smaller.Along with the Minimal HUD, I also change the Field of View. This allows you to see more of the action going on around you. To change this select the Advanced menu from the Video tab, and you can change the FoV between 75 (default) and 90. I always set this to 90 to get a better view of the battlefield. With FoV at 90 and the minimal HUD, you are able to see much more, making it easier to spot enemies to frag.

Field of View 75 & Regular HUD .:. Field of View 75 and Minimal HUD

Field of View 90 & Regular HUD .:. Field of View 90 and Minimal HUD

In the Multiplayer Advanced menu I turn off Suicide after selecting a class, this will only change your class when you respawn. Instead of killing yourself and switching immediately, why not just rush in and try to take out an enemy or two before you switch? You could help out your team and you will spawn a little faster by not commiting suicide. Other options are having the Medics Medigun continueously heal instead of having to hold down your fire button, and having the Sniper rifle automatically re-zoom after firing. Personally I like having to hold the fire button to heal when a Medic, I think it is a little easier to switch between different players to heal them with that off. I do set the Sniper rifle to automatically re-zoom after a shot, as most of the time it isn’t a problem, and lets you recharge your shot for that next crit headshot.

The last part of Getting Started are just some general in-game tips that are good to know before you hop in for your first game of TF2. No one wants to be that noob running around the server with no idea what they are doing. Before playing a multiplayer game for the first time, I always like to create my own server and run around a little, just to get to know the general layout of maps. Join both RED and BLU and run around the map so you have a general idea of where to go.

1.Teleporters

If you run out of spawn and see a teleporter in front of you, don’t just run to it and take it. Some classes need a teleporter more than others. If you are a Scout and you steal a ride from a Heavy, you should be slapped. You can run almost 60% faster than a Heavy, who then must wait for the next teleporter or walk to the frontlines. If you are a Sniper, don’t take a teleporter from a Soldier or Demoman. While you will be hanging back trying to get that perfect headshot, the Soldier and Demo need to be up front trying to cap or defend.

Heavy, Soldier, Demo, and Medic should have the first priority for teleporters due to them being the slower classes that are most needed on the fron lines. Pyro, Engineer and Sniper should only take teleporters when they are the only ones spawning or the classes listed before have already taken teleporters. Spy and Scout should never take teleporters. Spies used to leave a trail when exiting, and it’s hard to be cloaked or disguised when you have a glowing trail following you. This was changed in an update recently, but Spies should still defer to other classes. As for Scouts, well, every time you do a kitten is killed (not war kittens either, regular cute kittens, baby cats). So don’t take teleporters. You can run across the whole map, die, respawn, and still beat a Heavy that has to walk to the front lines.

2. Class Awareness

After you join a game and choose RED or BLU, before you select your favorite class be sure to see what classes the rest of your team are. If there are a couple Snipers already, don’t be a Sniper. If your team has no Soldiers or Demos, choose one of them. If you have too many of one class it makes it hard to win rounds.

The core of your team should be Soldiers, Demos, Medics, and Heavies. Too many support classes and your team will have a hard time capping or defending. At the same time, having no Medics or Engineers can make it difficult to win as well due to players dying when a Medic could have saved them, or not having a teleporter to get you to the action faster. It is all about balance, and having a well balanced team is often the reason why one team beats another.

3. Sentries

Sentries can sometimes be the only thing between a win and a loss. Having no sentries can let the attacking team roll through unopposed, while not being able to take out a sentry can stop you from getting to that cap point or intellingence. This goes along with the class awareness, especially if an enemy sentry is denying you from advancing. There are a few ways to effectivly take out sentries, the first being a Demo+Medic combo. Detonating a few sticky bombs will take out the sentry, along with the Engineer, dispenser, and anything else nearby. An Ubercharged Pyro is also a great way to take out sentries, providing they can get close enough to do damage. The way to do this is have the Medic run in first, allowing him to take the pushback from the sentry so the Pyro can get close enough to burn the sentry and Engineer. To make it even easier to destroy sentries, have a Spy sap it right before your attack. This will cause the sentry to take damage and distract the enemy, as they will be trying to kill the Spy while you can attack the sentry.

If you are playing as an Engineer, before you build your sentry, build your dispenser first. This will allow it to build up metal to use when upgrading your sentry. Also try to build with your back to a wall in order to defend against Spies; if you build in the open, they will have an easier time sapping and backstabbing you. Another thing to take into consideration when you build is what direction will the enemy come from, and where your teammates sentries located. Having good crossfire between sentries will make it easier to frag, and harder for them to be destroyed. If there are 2 or more sentries in a small area, a single Demoman will be able to take them out easily with stickies.

4. Ubercharges

Ubercharges allow you to be invincible for 8 seconds, or have 100% critical hits for 10 seconds, depending on what the Medic has equipped. In order to use an Uberchage the Medic first needs to fill up the Uber bar by healing his teammates. Teammates with less health will fill up the bar faster, while players who are already overhealed will fill the bar slower. During setup time the bar fills at a faster rate, enabling you to have an Ubercharge ready when play begins. A Medic equipped with the Ubersaw will also be able to f
ill their bar when they hit a player with their Ubersaw, with each hit filling up the bar by 25%.

When you have an Uber charged up and ready to go, think before you use it. Make sure the player you are going to uber knows you are ready, and pick out some specific targets. Be sure he also has enough ammo and has just reloaded – being invincible doesn’t do a lot of good if you have no ammo to shoot. If you are trying to take out a sentry, the Medic should first to take the pushback, allowing the other class to get in closer to do more damage. If an enemy pair comes at you and Ubers, try to hold off deploying yours as long as you can. When their Uber runs out, you will still have enough left to frag them and any others that are nearby. When you are Ubercharged, ignore the Ubered enemies, you won’t be able to kill them, so go after the players you can frag.

5. Achievements and Unlocks

Valve has recently added Achievements and Unlockable Weapons to TF2. So far the only class enabled is the Medic, while it was just announced the Pyro would be next in line. There are currently 56 Achievements, 17 general achievements and 39 that are Medic specific. After unlocking 12, 25, and 39 Medic achievements you are able to unlock the new weapons, one primary, one secondary, and one melee.

The Blutsauger is the primary weapon that replaces the Syringe Gun. You won’t be able to get critical hits, but each hit you do will give you 3 health. The secondary weapon is the Kritzkrieg. While the Medigun it replaces will make you invincible for 8 seconds, the Kritzkrieg will make your healing target fire 100% critical hits for 10 seconds. Last but not least is the Ubersaw, which you unlock after getting all 39 achievements. It fires 20% slower than the default Bonesaw, but each time you connect with an enemy your Ubercharge bar increases by 25%. The only news about the Pyro’s acievements and unlocks is the Axtinguisher. Replacing the default Fire Axe it will do 50% less damage, but after you light an enemy on fire you will be guaranteed a critical hit with the Axtinguisher. This may change however, as the first details about the Medics unlocks were the Overhealer, which would let you heal someone to 200% permantly, but was scrapped after testing.

That is all for this installment of Team Fortress 2 101, the next segments will be up soon, and focus on the different classes and maps in the game. Once again, if there is anything you would like to see in the future, please let me know.

Intro to INS

Insurgency is a new total conversion mod for Half Life 2, currently on Beta 1.1. It is a realism mod, so you can’t just run and gun like you can in Counter Strike. Teamwork is neccesary to win. I’ve been playing this for a while now and love it, for an early beta it is great. There are a few bugs and glitches, but nothing that makes it unplayable. If you haven’t played INS yet, go download it and try it out. You can get it from FilePlanet, first by downloading and installing the Beta 1 Full Installer, then the Beta 1.1 Patch. If you don’t like FilePlanet, there are plenty of mirrors available here. Total it’s about 750MB, so just start the download before you go to sleep, then install it the next day.

Once you’ve installed the game fire it up and start setting the controls how you like. If you have a CS:S autoexec, most of it will work in INS. A few things different from CS:S control-wise:

To play around with the controls go to Create Server and load up test_shootingrange. Take some time to get used to the controls, also tweak any graphics settings if your FPS is a little low. After you get everything set up the way you like, you’ll probably want to hop right into a server and start playing. Instead, take some time to learn the maps. There are no ingame maps, so you need to have at least a general idea of the layout and where to go so you don’t end up looking like a moron. Create a server and run through the maps to get an idea. One of the next INS101 articles will go over the maps.

This is what your HUD will look like ingame. There’s not much to it, no health bar, no ammo indicator, just the basics.

Here is what you should be looking at on the HUD. A shield means to defend an objective. If the enemy holds an objective you are trying to take, you will see crossed swords instead. The triangles are for waypoints your commander has set, which will show up as as blue triangles when you can see the waypoint. Your commander will be represented by Captain’s bars (looks like railroad tracks or an H).

This is what you communications menu looks like as a commander, just press G to bring it up. Other players get a more limited menu when bringing up the menu. Just scroll your mouse to highlight and left click to select. For waypoints, you will need to point in the direction you want to place it, then left click again. There are times you may want to tell your team to attack/defend an objective that is not shown in the menu. To do so, just select another objective first and others will appear.

Gametypes

There are 4 different gametypes in INS, Battle, Firefight, Push, and Strike. Unlike some games where the different multiplayer gametypes are completely different, and some are hardly ever played; INS’s gameypes are very similar, yet each offers a little something different from the other gametypes, but all are fun to play.
Battle maps are large and can go back and forth, as each team is able to capture objectives, but objectives must be captured in order, ie. A, then B, then C for the Insurgents team, or C, then B, then A for the USMC team. Your spawns also move forward as you take more objectives. (ins_baghdad)
Push maps are linear, where you are either attacking, or defending. The attacking team must take all objectives in order to win, the defenders need to stop the enemy from taking new objectives until time runs out or they are out of reinforcements (more on that later). Your spawns move forward as you take objectives do as well. (ins_almaden, ins_karkar, ins_sinjar)
Firefight maps are smaller maps with fixed spawnpoints, where you are able to take objectives in any order. This means there could be a huge firefight on one side of the map, while on the other 1 person is taking an objective. To win you must control all 3 objectives, I’ve seen games take literally a few seconds, or go back and forth for an hour. ins_haditha, ins_hillah, ins_ramadi)
Strike maps are a mix between Push and Firefight, though there are currently no Strike maps. They will be small/medium sized maps with fixed spawns, like Firefight maps. Like Push maps, one team is attacking, the other is defending.

Squads, Classes, and Reinforcements

Right now there are 2 teams in INS, the Insurgents, and the USMC. There are two 8 man squads able to use on each team, a Rifle Squad and a Special Weapons Squad. The classes depend on what the map maker has implemented, the official maps use the default squads of:

Reinforcements

When you are killed ingame, you respawn as a reinforcement. The reinforcement timer and the amount of reinforcements can be changed depending on the map. You can see how many reinforcements are remaining on the top of the HUD. Your commander/cell leader can call in extra reinforcements when the automatic waves are depleted, but they must be alive and actually know they can (which most do not unfortunately). Another way to get more reinforcements is to capture objectives.

Coming Soon

I’m working on the next 2 INS101 articles, going more indepth on the weapons and the maps in Insurgency. Be sure to check back soon to learn more about Insurgency. If you have any questions, let me know.

Official Game Trailer

Once again, I find disappointment. Once again, I find no satisfaction. Once again, I find that Duke is a small part of a large movement that seeks to redefine humanity as alienated machines/beasts and then convince everyone that they were never human to begin with. But first, let me pose you a question: Is he actually concerned about any of us, or does he just want to elevate his animadversions to prominence as epistemological principles? After reading this letter, you’ll indubitably find it’s the latter. More to the point, every so often, you’ll see him lament, flog himself, cry mea culpa for seeking to send selfish radicals on safari holidays instead of publicly birching them, and vow never again to be so sententious. Sadly, he always reverts to his old behavior immediately afterwards, making me think that his frightful, pugnacious smear tactics leave the current power structure untouched while simultaneously killing countless children through starvation and disease. Are these children Duke’s enemies? I’ve never gotten a clear and honest answer to that question from Duke. But what is clear is that if he can’t stand the heat, he should get out of the kitchen.

How can we expect to provide an atmosphere of mutual respect, free from immoralism, jujuism, and all other forms of prejudice and intolerance if we walk right into Duke’s trap? We can’t, and that’s why he should not replace intellectual integrity with jejune sloganeering. Not now, not ever. There is no place in this country where we are safe from Duke’s supporters, no place where we are not targeted for hatred and attack. It is hardly surprising that Duke wants to stultify art and retard the enjoyment and adoration of the beautiful. After all, this is the same virulent, petty antagonist whose rapacious prattle informed us that newspapers should report only on items he agrees with.

If we don’t soon tell Duke to stop what he’s doing, he will proceed with his maledicent canards, considerably emboldened by our lack of resistance. We will have tacitly given Duke our permission to do so. He ignores a breathtaking number of facts, most notably:

• Fact: Compared to yawping chuckleheads like him, every pimp is a man of honor.
• Fact: He is not at all apologetic for the harm his assistants have caused.
• Fact: Sometimes, duplicitous finks are so haughty, they merit special attention.

In addition, I should note that his most drossy tactic is to fabricate a phony war between clueless, yellow-bellied gits and high-handed, perfidious cowards. This way, Duke can subjugate both groups into helping him stonewall on issues in which taxpayers see a vital public interest. I certainly don’t want that to happen, which is why I’m telling you that you shouldn’t let Duke intimidate you. You shouldn’t let him push you around. We’re the ones who are right, not Duke. The gloss that Duke’s disciples put on Duke’s newsgroup postings unfortunately does little to act honorably. Did it ever occur to Duke that maybe he often starts with a preconceived story and then plugs in supposed "information" in order to create a somewhat believable tale? Dream on.

However, Duke should think for himself. Once we realize that, what do we do? The appropriate thing, in my judgment, is to shelter initially unpopular truths from suppression, enabling them to ultimately win out through competition in the marketplace of ideas. I say that because I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people. I can therefore assure you that he has declared that he’s staging a revolt against everyone who wants to view the realms of sesquipedalianism and voyeurism not as two opposing poles, but as two continua. Duke’s revolting all right; the very sight of him turns my stomach. All kidding aside, his apothegms are rife with contradictions and difficulties; they’re entirely sappy, meet no objective criteria, and are unsuited for a supposedly educated population. And as if that weren’t enough, he is not only immoral, but amoral. I must admit that I’ve read only a small fraction of Duke’s writings. (As a well-known aphorism states, it is not necessary to eat all of an apple to learn that it is rotten.) Nevertheless, I’ve read enough of Duke’s writings to know that Duke claims to be fighting for equality. What he’s really fighting for, however, is equality in degradation, by which I mean that Duke wants to produce an army of mindless insects who will obey his every command. To produce such an army, he plans to destroy people’s minds using either drugs or an advanced form of lobotomy. Whichever approach he takes, Duke proclaims at every opportunity that he’d never create a kind of psychic pain at the very root of the modern mind. The gentleman doth protest too much, methinks. Duke likes to compare his ramblings to those that shaped this nation. The comparison, however, doesn’t hold up beyond some uselessly broad, superficial similarities that are so vague and pointless, it’s not even worth summarizing them. He condones the disrespectful exegeses that will use mass organization as a system of integration and control.

It’s quite a feat of hypocrisy for Duke to deny he wants to tinker about with a lot of halfway prescriptions after so recently doing exactly that. Duke will almost certainly tiptoe around that glaringly evident fact, because if he didn’t, you might come to realize that his ideas are evil. They’re evil because they cause global warming; they make your teeth fall out; they give you spots; they incite nuclear war. And, as if that weren’t enough, I have no idea why Duke wannabees have sprouted across the country like mushrooms after a downpour. That’s self-evident, and even Duke would probably agree with me on that. Even so, there is no such thing as evil in the abstract. It exists only in the evil deeds of evil people like Duke. Are you prepared to discuss this, Duke? Socrates was condemned to death by the city of Athens for his views. I hope I don’t receive the same treatment for saying that we cannot afford to waste our time, resources, and energy by dwelling upon inequities of the past. Instead, we must reinforce the contentions of all reasonable people and confute those of repressive witlings. Doing so would be significantly easier if more people were to understand that Duke has been known to say that unfounded attacks on character, loads of hyperbole, and fallacious information are the best way to make a point. That notion is so inarticulate, I hardly know where to begin refuting it. Be forewarned: It’s astounding that he has found a way to work the words "thyroparathyroidectomize" and "ultraphotomicrograph" into his expedients. However, you may find it even more astounding that if he had his way, schools would teach students that Duke is the most recent incarnation of the Buddha. This is not education but indoctrination. It prevents students from learning about how if Duke is victorious in his quest to substitute rumor and gossip for bona fide evidence, then his crown will be the funeral wreath of humanity. Let me end this letter by pointing out that the battle to hinder the power of blathering self-proclaimed arbiters of taste and standards like Duke is now joined on many fronts. We will not waver; we will not tire; we will not falter; and, we will not fail.

As always, if you have something you would like to see covered, either post in the Source 101 Forum Thread or send me an email at yankeedeuce ^at straferight ^dot com.

To start your buy script, open up a text editor like notepad. Personally I use PSPad as my text editor. Once you have your editor open go to C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\USERNAME\counter-strike source\cstrike\cfg and open up your autoexec.cfg (If you don’t have one, read Source 101 – Getting Started)

Binds

For our first script, we are going to bind your F1 key to buy an M4.  At the bottom of your autoexec, type bind “F1″ “buy m4a1″. Now when you are ingame, pressing F1 will buy an M4. However, you still have to buy your ammo, armor, and grenades. To bind multiple commands to a button, seperate them using a semicolon (;). To buy ammo with your M4, change the line to bind “F1″ “buy m4a1; buy primammo”

Since you can only buy an M4 as a CT, let’s change our bind to the following: bind “F1″ “buy m4a1; buy ak47; buy primammo”. Now when you press F1 you will buy either an M4 or AK47 with full ammo depending on what team you are on.

Using this script you can buy any combination of weapons and equipment, as long as you have the money available. Also, be sure not to buy an M4 and AUG, or any 2 weapons you can buy normally, or it will buy both. Only have a CT weapon and T weapon bound to the same key. Below is a list of the CVARs to use when buying weapons.

Aliases

Aliases are another part of creating your buyscript. You can use an alias to give a CVAR name to a command or series of commands to use. I have more on aliases later as general things to make it easier for you. For now, the basics:

To create an alias type alias “rifle1″ “buy m4a1; buy ak47″. Now when creating your buyscript, instead of typing buy m4a1; buy ak47, you can just type rifle1. I generally set up aliases for tmp/mac10, fiveseven/elite, famas/galil, m4a1/ak47, aug/sg552, the autosnipers, and full primary/secondary ammo.

The way I have my buyscript set up is so I use my keypad. I use a basic setup with my weapons, equipment, and ammo seperate so I can get exactly what I need. While having a setup where you buy everything with one key would work in a pub, in matches where money is an important part of your strategy, having everything seperate gives you a little more control.

Here is the actual script that I use, with comments showing exactly what the binds do.

bind "DEL" "buy defuser" //Buys a defuser
bind "KP_HOME" "buy scout" //Buys a Scout
bind "KP_UPARROW" "buy_autosniper" //Buys an Autosniper depending on team
bind "KP_PGUP" "buy awp" //Buys an AWP
bind "KP_LEFTARROW" "buy_rifle1" //Buys a FAMAS or Galil depending on team
bind "KP_5" "buy_rifle2" //Buys an AUG or Krieg depending on team
bind "KP_RIGHTARROW" "buy_rifle3" //Buys a M4 or AK depending on team
bind "KP_END" "buy_ammo" //Buys full ammo
bind "KP_DOWNARROW" "buy deagle" //Buys a Desert Eagle
bind "KP_PGDN" "buy mp5" //Buys a MP5
bind "KP_ENTER" "buyammo1" //Buys 1 Clip of Primary Ammo
bind "KP_INS" "buy vesthelm" //Buys full armor
bind "KP_DEL" "buy vest" //Buys light armor
bind "KP_SLASH" "buy flashbang" //Buys a flashbang
bind "KP_MINUS" "buy smokegrenade" //Buys a Smoke Grenade
bind "KP_PLUS" "buyammo2" //Buys 1 Clip of Pistol Ammo

Things to make your life easier

Here are a couple of scripts that I use that make a few things easier. I use my MOUSE4 to switch to my primary weapon and MOUSE5 to switch to my secondary. Instead of binding both MOUSE4 and 1 to slot1, I use these aliases:

alias use_primary "use weapon_mp5navy; use weapon_m4a1; use weapon_m249; use weapon_p90; use_primary2"
alias use_primary2 "use weapon_scout; use weapon_awp; use weapon_g3sg1; use weapon_sg550;  use_primary3"
alias use_primary3 "use weapon_sg552; use weapon_aug; use weapon_tmp; use weapon_mac10; use weapon_ak47; use_primary4"
alias use_primary4 "use weapon_ump45; use weapon_xm1014; use weapon_m3; use weapon_famas; use weapon_galil"
alias use_secondary "use weapon_usp; use weapon_glock; use weapon_deagle; use weapon_p228; use weapon_elite; use weapon_fiveseven"
alias buy_ammo "buy primammo; buy secammo"

Now I can have 1 bound to slot1 and bind MOUSE4 to use_primary. When I press either button it will switch to my primary weapon. Same thing with 2 and MOUSE5 after using the alias, either one will switch to my pistol.

Another thing I use aliases for is joining servers. I know you have gone to play on your favorite strafeRight server and found that all of your Favorites are gone. This makes it so you can always join your favorite servers. All you need to know is the servers IP (or DNS name) and the password if it is a private server.

alias "/roto" "connect 209.40.96.71:27015"
alias "/office" "connect 209.40.96.71:27016"
alias "/assault" "connect 209.40.96.71:27023"
alias "/private" "connect 209.40.96.70:27020;password serverpwd"

Now whenever you want to join the strafeRight 24/7 Office Server, just type /office in your console, hit enter and you’re in.

The other 2 scripts that I use are for demos and movie making. They allow me to push 1 button to start recording, a second push to stop, and a third push to start recording another demo or movie, so on for up to 50 demos.

Also, instead of placing all my aliases in my autoexec, I made another config with all the aliases in it and added a single line to my autoexec: exec alias.cfg. I do the same with my demo and movie scripts so my config files are short and clean.

It is now 4:20AM, so I am off to grab a little sleep (or more likely go play some Source) before work tomorrow. If you have any questions about scripts,
binds, or aliases let me know and I’ll do my best to answer it. As always, if you would like to see something in Source 101 be sure to let me know.

In the last Source 101 I went over starting CS:Source and building an autoexec. In this installment I will cover recording and playback of demos. By watching demos of yourself and other players, you can learn from mistakes and recognize what worked in order to play better the next time.
There are two types of demos in Source – Point of View and SourceTV. POV demos are recording by you and show exactly what you did while playing. SrcTV demos are recording on the server and show everything that happened. You can view all the players and choose from first person, third person, or free look to view the demo.

Recording your demo

To start recording your demo, open your console and type record demoname. On the next line you should see Recording to demoname.dem…. Once you see that, it will record everything you see until you stop the demo. If the next line reads Cannot record demos while a smoke grenade is active. you must wait until there are no smoke grenades before recording.

While you are recording your demo, you may notice the gameplay is choppier than before. There are a few steps you can take to reduce this. The first is to reduce the settings you play at. Reducing your resolution and/or graphic settings will smooth the game out. Another way is to add a number after record demoname. record [incremental] This will tell the engine to record at that number of ticks per second. Instead of recording at the tickrate of the server (for example the sR servers run at 66 tic) it will record at the tic you enter. In the past there have been some problems reported with using this method and the demos have been corrupted. I have not heard of any problems recently, but be aware your demo might be damaged. Common values to use for this are 10 and 33.

When you want to stop recording your demo, open your console and type stop. The next line should read Completed demo, recording time xxxx.x, game frames xxxxx. This tells you how long the demo was as well as the number of frames in the demo. If you are recording and the map changes, the demo will automatically be stopped and a new demo named demoname_2.dem will be recorded when you rejoin the server. Demos are also stopped when you disconnect or quit the game. All the demos you have recorded can be found in C:/Program Files/Steam/SteamApps/username/counter-strike source/cstrike.

Watching your demo

After you are done playing and want to watch your demos, disconnect from the server and go to the main menu. A demo is just a recording of what happened while playing and needs the game engine to be viewed. There is no stand alone player to watch your demos. There are two ways of loading your demos. You can either type playdemo demoname in console which will start the demo, or use the Demo UI. This can be accessed by typing demoui in console or by pressing Shift + F2.

Once the Demo UI is up, press the Load button to find the demo you wish to playback. Once the demo loads you can pause, stop, increase or decrease playback speed, or skip to a certain frame using the Demo UI. You can also access the Edit and Smoother tools.

When I playback my demos, I like to watch the entire thing, only pausing to write down certain times or frames to go back to later to get a better look. Once I finished running through it the first time, I go back to review the parts I noted earlier. This time I watch it at 100% speed a couple times, then slow it down to get a better picture of what happened. Sometimes I will pause the demo and use the Drive button to move around. When the Drive button is enabled, hold down left click and you can navigate using your movement keys and the mouse to look. This lets you see different angles to get a better view of what happened. It is also a great tool to use when you want to see how a nade bounced off a wall into a certain area.

I do this for every part of the demo I want to review, then go back and watch again at 100% speed to see if there was anything I missed. For me, reviewing demos has been a great tool to improve my game, as well as my teams strats. It has made me a smarter player by noticing where I get the most frags, how to throw a nade off walls and around corners to do the most damage, and many other things.

Where to find demos

There are many places you can find demos of other players, including the Downloads Section here. We do not have many demos up right now, but when the next season rolls around we will upload our demos for you to check out.
One of the best places to find great demos is at GotFrag. You can find demos from most of the CAL-Invite and CEVO-Professional league matches, as well as many Main and Open demos as well.

As always, if you would like to see something in the next Source 101 let me know and I will get it done.

The first thing to do after you install CS:Source is start it up and configure you options. Before that however, right click on Counter-Strike: Source from the Steam Games menu and select properties.

From there select the Set Launch Options tab. Here you can set up some different things. One of these is heapsize. You want to set this to half of your RAM, for example if you have 1 GB of ram, you would enter -heapsize 524288 . The next option I like to use is -condebug. This creates a log of your console in your cstrike directory. I also use several mouse commands here in addition to the CPL Mouse Fix, which takes out all mouse acceleration. These commands are -noforcemspd -noforcemaccel -noforcemparms. Put it all together and this is what my Lauch commands are:
-heapsize 524288 -condebug -noforcemspd -noforcemaccel -noforcemparms

Other options to use in the launch options are:

-autoconfig

Restores video and performance settings to default for the current hardware detected. Ignores settings inside any .cfg files until this parameter is removed.

-dev

Enables developer mode. Also disables the automatic loading of menu background maps and stops the quit dialog from appearing on exit.

-condebug

Logs all console output into the console.log text file.

-console

Starts the game with the developer console enabled.

-toconsole

Starts the engine directly in the console, unless a map is specified with +map.

-dxlevel

Forces a specific DirectX version when launching the engine. 50, 60, 70, 80, 81, 90 or 95

-32bit

Forces the engine to start in 32-bit mode. Only useful on 64-bit Operating Systems.

-fullscreen

Forces the engine to start in fullscreen mode.

-windowed or -sw

Forces the engine to start in windowed mode.

-w

Forces the engine to start with resolution set to .

-h

Forces the engine to start with resolution set to .

-refresh

Force a specific refresh rate.

-heapsize

Specifies the heapsize (in kilobytes) the game will use.

-nocrashdialog

Suppresses some ‘memory could not be read’ unhandled errors.

-novid or -novideo

When loading a game with this parameter, the Valve intro video will not play.

-nosound

Forces the specific game to not use the sound card.

-nosync

Forces the specific game to not use VSync.

-low

Forces the specific game to launch in a LOW process priority.

-high

Forces the specific game to launch in a HIGH process priority.

-noforcemparms

Disable the forcing of mouse parameters on startup.

-noforcemspd

Disable the forcing of mouse speed on startup.

-noforcemaccel

Disable the forcing of mouse acceleration on startup.

Once you have added any launch options to Source, start up Source and selct Options from the main menu.

From here you can set your name, the spray you wish to use in game, and your crosshair options. One thing to note is the Translucent checkbox is backwards. Selecting the box turns off Translucent crosshair and makes it dark. When it is unselected, then your crosshair is translucent. Everytime you enter the options menu, it will uncheck the box. I think this has been fixed in the latest update, but you might want to double check.

Selecting the Advanced tab brings you to more settings, however I have a custom menu GUI, so I’m not 100% sure what options are in the default GUI.

From this menu you can select your weapon alignment, either left or right-handed. It is all personal preference as to which one you use, personally I use left handed weapons. You can also choose where player names will show up, either in the center of the screen or the bottom left. The biggest reason to go into the Advanced menu is the Automatically switch to picked up weapons. If you only have a pistol and run over a primary weapon it will switch to it, same for any weapons that are more powerful than the weapon you currently have. For me, I always have this off, as do most of the players I know. The reason for this is because if you are in a fire fight, you do not want to switch to another weapon until you want to. If this option is on, you may be shooting at someone then all of a sudden find yourself switching to an empty MP5 instead of continuing to fire your deagle. Most of the time it should’t affect you, but the times it does will be enough to turn it off.

After you modify any options in the Multiplayer tab, switch to the Keyboard tab to change any setting you like.

After you have set up your controls how you like them, select the Advanced tab again. This allows you to enable the console and fast weapon switch.

Turning the console on allows you to check the damage stats after you have been killed, as well as enter in CVARs to change settings. Fast weapon switch allows you to switch between weapons using only 1 key. With it off you press 1, then must left click to select your primary weapon. When it is enabled, pressing 1 will bring out your primary weapon right away, allowing you a little more time to frag.

The Mouse tab is where you can change your sensitivity. This is all personal preference, and depends on a lot of different factors including resolution, refresh rate, windows mouse settings, mouse driver settings, mouse DPI, and mouse polling rate. So comparing different players sensitivity will never be exact. The best way to compare your sensitivity with others is to go ingame and turn 180 degrees, then measure how far it takes you. For example, my sensitivity is at .56 and it takes me about 20 inches to do a 180 degree turn.

The Video tab allows you to change your resolution as well as your graphic settings.

Personally I use 800×600 with all settings on High except for Reflections and HDR, or High Dynamic Range lighting. Reflections have no influence on gameplay, so I lower them to save a few frames. HDR on the other hand changes gameplay a lot for the maps that are HDR enabled. It also destroys framerates so I turn it off.

The Audio and Voice tabs are mostly self-explanitory, so I won’t go into those here. There are some important CVARs to use for you config file though.

Once you have changed all your settings hit OK to save them, then go ingame and test them out, as well as having the game create your config file. Next up – creating your autoexec.

Using an autoexec config is a great way to make sure all your setting stay the same. Some updates may reset your config, or an abusive admin could change it via an admin mod (just another reason to play on the sR servers, n
o admins will do that to you!). Either way, an autoexec is a great idea. Any settings you always want to be the same when you start up Source should be in there.

To get started with your autoexec open up a text editor such as Notepad. Below is a copy of my autoexec with explainations of all the commands.

//-----------
// NETCODE
//-----------
cl_cmdrate 100 //Changes the amount of packets you send to the server
cl_interp 0.01 //The interpolation value, default for CAL/CEVO
cl_interpolate 1 //Interpolate 0 is best, although most leagues lock it at 1. Will be very choppy on lower tick servers.
cl_timeout 30 //You will timeout after this long, I lower it from default.
cl_updaterate 100 //Changes the amount of packets you get from the server.rate 25000
//-----------
// OTHER
//-----------
cl_autowepswitch 0 //Disables auto-switching to picked up weapons.
cl_crosshairalpha 999 //Sets crosshair alpha - 99 is the darkest
cl_crosshairusealpha 1 //Whether to use the crosshair alpha
cl_crosshairscale 1680 //Crosshair scale. Bigger value = smaller crosshair
cl_downloadfilter "nosounds" //Will not download all those crappy sounds from a server. Using "none" will not download anything.
cl_dynamiccrosshair 0 //Whether your crosshair will expand while ducking/moving.
cl_logofile "materials/vgui/logos/strafeRight.vtf" //The spray file you use.
cl_minmodels 0 //Uses only 1 model per team
cl_min_ct 1 //Specifies the model used for minmodels
cl_min_t 2 //Specifies the model used for minmodels
cl_righthand 0 //Weapon alignment - I use lefthanded
con_enable 1 //enables console
jpeg_quality 100 //Quality of screenshots
hud_fastswitch 1 //Allows you to switch to weapons only using 1 key
name "sR -> Username" //My ingame name
net_graph 3 //The netgraph, shows FPS and netcode information
net_scale 4 //The netgraph scale
net_graphpos 2 //The netgraph position, 2 is the bottom center
sensitivity .56 //The sensitivity I use ingame
violence_ablood 1 //Makes blood show up better
violence_agibs 1 //Makes blood show up better
violence_hblood 1 //Makes blood show up better
violence_hgibs 1 //Makes blood show up better
zoom_sensitivity_ratio .75 //The sensitiviy when you are zoomed in, expressed as a ratio.
//-----------
// GRAPHICS
//-----------
cl_phys_props_enable 0 //Gets rid of all the little garbage
cl_phys_props_max 0
cl_ragdoll_collide 1 //Ragdolls collide with each other
cl_ragdoll_physics_enable 0 //Ragdolls are not shown - bodies disapear when dead
cl_show_splashes 0 //Does not show splashes in water
fps_max 101 //Caps my FPS at 100
mat_hdr_enabled 0 //Disables HDR
mat_vsync 0 // Disables VSync
r_drawdetailprops 0 //Gets rid of detail props
//-----------
// AUDIO
//-----------
snd_mixahead .1 //Synchs the audio
//-----------
// BINDS
//-----------
bind "TAB" "+showscores"
bind "ESCAPE" "cancelselect"
bind "SPACE" "+jump"
bind "'" "+moveup"
bind "*" "buy hegrenade"
bind "0" "slot10"
bind "1" "slot1"
bind "2" "slot2"
bind "3" "slot3"
bind "4" "slot4"
bind "5" "slot5"
bind "6" "slot6"
bind "7" "slot7"
bind "8" "slot8"
bind "9" "slot9"
bind "`" "toggleconsole"
bind "a" "+moveleft"
bind "b" "buymenu"
bind "c" "+duck"
bind "d" "+moveright"
bind "e" "+use"
bind "f" "impulse 100"
bind "g" "drop"
bind "CTRL" "+voicerecord"
bind "m" "chooseteam"
bind "n" "nightvision"
bind "o" "buyequip"
bind "q" "lastinv"
bind "r" "+reload"
bind "s" "+back"
bind "t" "impulse 201"
bind "u" "messagemode2"
bind "v" "radio3"
bind "w" "+forward"
bind "x" "radio2"
bind "y" "messagemode"
bind "z" "radio1"
bind "~" "toggleconsole"
bind "SHIFT" "+speed"
bind "F1" "autobuy"
bind "F2" "rebuy"
bind "F5" "jpeg"
bind "F10" "demo"
bind "DEL" "buy defuser"
bind "KP_HOME" "buy scout"
bind "KP_UPARROW" "buy_autosniper"
bind "KP_PGUP" "buy awp"
bind "KP_LEFTARROW" "buy_rifle1"
bind "KP_5" "buy_rifle2"
bind "KP_RIGHTARROW" "buy_rifle3"
bind "KP_END" "buy_ammo"
bind "KP_DOWNARROW" "buy deagle"
bind "KP_PGDN" "buy mp5"
bind "KP_ENTER" "buyammo1"
bind "KP_INS" "buy vesthelm"
bind "KP_DEL" "buy vest"
bind "KP_SLASH" "buy flashbang"
bind "KP_MINUS" "buy smokegrenade"
bind "KP_PLUS" "buyammo2"
bind "MWHEELDOWN" "invnext"
bind "MWHEELUP" "invprev"
bind "MOUSE1" "+attack"
bind "MOUSE2" "+attack2"
bind "MOUSE4" "use_primary"
bind "MOUSE5" "use_secondary"echo "Autoexec Loaded"

To save your autoexec go to File… Save As… and be sure to select All File Types, otherwise you will end up with a text file. Save it as autoexec.cfg. The autoexec file is stored in C:/Program Files/Steam/SteamApps/USERNAME/counter-strike source/cstrike/cfg depending on where you installed Steam. After you have saved it, head ingame and all your setting will be the way you want them. If for any reason while playing something gets changed, simply go in console and type exec autoexec and the autoexec will be reloaded.

That’s all I have for right now, if you have any questions on this or anything else about Source that you would like to see in the next Source 101, either email me at yankeedeuce ^@ straferight ^dot com or PM me on the sR forums with your question. In addition to anything the community has questions about, I’ll be going over other basics – weapons, maps, strats, etc. as well.

Dave: Hey Yankee, let me preface this by saying thank you for taking the time to let me interview you here. Why don’t we kick things off with a little background from you. How long have you been PC gaming, and specifically, what FPS got you into gaming?

Yankee: I’ve been gaming on the PC for I don’t know how long. I started off with Doom and Wolfenstein on a friend’s computer with Windows 3.1, using a joystick to move. After that I got into Half Life and the Rainbow 6 series, which is where I fell in love with First Person Shooters.

Dave: When did you start playing CS?

Yankee: I was introduced to CS during beta 5 and started playing beta 7. I took a year off when I was in Basic Training and AIT, but when I was stationed in Germany I started playing again. We held LAN parties every now and then and also played online. When we were deployed every so often our group would all be together and we would play CS over the LAN we had set up.

Dave: I know you had been involved with CAL in the past with WD. Was that your first experience with CAL?

Yankee: That was my first time playing in CAL. In Germany we had decided to start our own team for America’s Army. We were a part of one but had some issues with others, so we decided to create our own. However, it fell apart before we could play as we were deployed and then some members transferred to other duty stations, so we went our separate ways.

Dave: For a lot of the people that know little of competitive gaming, can you help differentiate the different aspects of CAL (M, I, etc).

Yankee: The different divisions of CAL are Open, Intermediate, Main, Premier, and Invite. CS1.6 has all of those divisions, while CS:S has CAL-O, M, and I. Open is where everyone starts. It is open to everyone that has a team. If you do well enough in Open to make the playoffs and win, you earn a move-up into the next higher division. Getting into the Invite division is exactly that – CAL will invite your team to play that season. The names that most gamers know are the Invite teams: 3D, compLexity, United 5, Weekend Warriors, etc.

Dave: We know you are putting a lot of effort into getting a strafeRight CAL team together. How is it going?

Yankee: It is going pretty well, we just started hold pick-up games, or PUGs, the other night. We will be holding a few of them a week before I select a few people to tryout for the team. I have a few people in mind already, and I feel we will do well.

Dave: What is your vision for this team? Where would you like to see it go?

Yankee: My goal for this season is to finish 5-3 or better. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but we will not have too much time to build team chemistry and develop our strats before the season starts. This first season will be more of a test to see where we are at and see where we can improve. The next season my goal is to go into the playoffs and earn a move-up into CAL-Main. I would also like to attend the CPL Summer 2006 Tournament if there is a Source tourney. This will be the hardest thing, as everyone on the team would need to be able to attend, and also to afford it. Things like travel, accommodations, food, and extra spending money can add up quickly. We would also need to bootcamp beforehand, as playing on LAN together is very different from playing online in the comfort of your home.

Dave: Competitive PC gaming seems to be growing at a fast pace. Prize money is on the rise. Sponsorship, coverage, and popularity are all on the up and up. Do you see competitive gaming on consoles having a neutral, positive, or negative effect on PC gaming? It seems to me that MLG is fresh to competitive gaming but garnering a huge amount of support from consoles as they are a wider supported platform.

Yankee: Competitive gaming will be associated with PC’s for some time still. I think console gaming will not effect PC gaming, as there will always be more sponsorships and coverage for PC games. I have friends that are into console gaming, but even they know who 3D, compLexity, NiP, and SK are. At most large LANs there are booths for Intel, NVIDIA, AMD, ATI, etc. There is more money to be made as gamers need to upgrade their computers to always have the fastest components. For a console, there is not much upgrading you can do, so I don’t feel the opportunity for sponsorships is as big as it is for PC gaming. I know many CS teams that have sponsorships for their game server, voice server, website, and travel/entry fees for LANs. Most of the big eSports teams such as 3D and SK have many different divisions including consoles, but the main team they are known for is usually the CS team. Another reason is spectators. Spectators are what drive sponsors – the more people that are watching, the more people that will see that product. HLTV is a great example. There are tens of thousands of people that tune into the HLTV broadcasts for the finals of large LANs. Streaming audio and video such as TSN, VBCast, and iTG also get thousands of fans tuning in. There are also many who only "watch" the match through a ScoreBot in an IRC channel. Even though in terms of general population those numbers are very small compared to the Super Bowl or World Series, it is much harder to watch a CS match than major sports. The fans that tune into HLTV need to own Half Life and Counter-Strike, need to find the IP address of the HLTV server, and need to connect to the internet in order to watch an hour match. If you could instead turn on your TV and change the channel, eSports would gain many new viewers that otherwise would not or could not have watched. It is much easier to do this with PCs than consoles, but that is beginning to change with the next generation consoles being released.

Dave: It seems to me that the Counter-strike community is divided between 1.6 and Source. It is widely known that the Winter CPL dropped Source in favor of a 1.6 tourney. What are your thoughts on that and the future of CS:S?

Yankee: While I love CS:S and fully support it, I was not surprised to see 1.6 picked for the CPL World Tour 2006. 1.6 has a bigger fan base and more international teams by far than Source. This will ensure that at every stop there will be many great teams playing. Instead of having only the top 2 or 3 teams being able to travel to the stops playing against local teams for Source, you will see many of the top teams in the world attending for 1.6 Another reason that I feel is one of the biggest is the issue of spectating. SrcTV is simply not good enough for people to watch it. Instead of 1.6′s HLTV, where you can control everything you see in the match, in SrcTV it is set to auto-director mode which can only be controlled by a cameraman spectating in the server. But still, you are limited to what they control for you. Even if there would be someone controlling the camera for every match, while in 1st person view you cannot see any view models. This includes the zoom on sniper rifles, so you cannot see when they are zoomed in. I believe if SrcTV was as fully functional as HLTV Source would have gotten much more consideration for the World Tour Game. Another issue for Source is the maps used for competitive play. Some maps like de_inferno are too cluttered and have changed too much from the 1.6 versions. Also, several m
aps are missing, most notably de_nuke, de_cpl_strike, and de_cpl_fire. de_nuke is now being made by Valve, and strike/fire are being made by members of the Source community.

Dave: Well that about wraps it up for this session! Thank you my friend, and I must say I do enjoy getting that random headshot on you when we PUG or play in the shed;) Best of luck to sR’s CAL team. I get to play with many of the future members of the team on a nightly basis and think you guys will do an outstanding job. Anything else you would like to add?

Yankee: I just want to say thanks for asking me to do the interview!

eSports has grown immensely in the past few years. What started as a few gamers playing with their friends is now a multi-billion dollar industry with year long international tournaments worth $1,000,000. Teams are now sponsored by companies such as Subway, Kappa, and Tylenol. Mainstream news coverage has increased dramatically, with this year’s World Tour being aired on MTV, multiple articles in newspapers around the country, and CBS’s 60 Minutes airing a segment on the Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) and World Tour champion Johnathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel. Fatal1ty was also listed as second in Fox Sports’ "Ten most feared people in sports" list.

Even with all the recent exposure, eSports is not quite what anyone would consider a mainstream sport here in America. In Korea, however, it definitely is. Starcraft, a real time strategy game, is played by millions of people everyday. There are 2 national TV stations dedicated to Starcraft, and major tournament finals have had as many as 8,000 live spectators. The top players earn over two hundred thousand dollars a year. SlayerS_’BoxeR’, arguably the best and most known Starcraft player, has a fan club with over one hundred thousand members, has written books, and earns several times the national average wage in South Korea.

I don’t think eSports in North America will ever get to be as large as Korea, but I would like to see more coverage, especially on TV. The average gamer is in the mid-teens to early-twenties, a market that executives are always trying to capture. For the CPL Summer 2004 Championships, a single match had over 34,000 unique connections to HLTV, which is used to view the matches live. While this may seem like a small number compared to other televised sporting events, there is another factor. All 34,000 of those spectators needed to own the game, find out the IP of the server the match was being played on, and connect to the server. There are also gamers that watch on streaming video over the internet, live at the event, and on IRC scorebots, which are like a box score for the match that is updated live. If the finals were on a TV channel, you would get all of those spectators and more that were unable to watch for other reasons. In addition to the live spectators, recorded broadcasts of the matches are downloaded from eSports websites all around the world. On just one site, GotFrag.com, there were 36,783 downloads of one match alone, and over 25 other matches had been downloaded more than 10,000 times.

This week, from Wednesday the 14th to Saturday the 18th, is the CPL Winter 2005 Championships, held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Dallas, Texas. Over 600 gamers will attend to compete for a total of $100,000 in prizes in three different games. In addition to the tournaments there will also be a BYOC, or a Bring Your Own Computer area, where gamers connect to a LAN network and play their game of choice with hundreds of others. There are also exhibition booths to show off the latest products from sponsors and other companies in the gaming industry as well as workshops and raffles. Some of the workshops show you how to get the most out of your gaming equipment; others are aimed at educating parents and non-gamers about competitive gaming. If this were not finals week for me, I would definitely be in Dallas at the CPL.

However, this will be the last event at the Hyatt Regency which has been the venue for CPL Winter events the last several years. The reason for this is there is not enough room available due to the growth of eSports. The CPL Summer 2006 Championships will feature almost 2,000 gamers in the official tournaments as well as a 2,000 seat BYOC area. The CPL has also been receiving tons of requests from the media to cover the CPL World Tour 2006. But even though eSports is growing in numbers and recognition, there is still a long way to go before it is truly a mainstream sport. Most professional sports have been playing the same basic game since it was invented, with only minor changes in gameplay and rules. In eSports however, there are new games that come out every few years with improved graphics, more life-like physics, and updated gameplay. There are also several different types of games played; the three biggest being real time strategy, team based first person shooter, and deathmatch, which is a one versus one first person shooter. The Counter-Strike community has been split within the last year however, with a new version called Counter-Strike: Source released. The basic gameplay is the same, you can easily recognize it as CS, but there were many changes made including new graphics, physics, and gameplay. Many players felt it was too different from the old version, 1.6, and decided to not switch to Source. However, there are other players that have never even played Source yet say the game is bad. This leads to another reason why eSports has a long way to go – the maturity of the gamers.

The majority of gamers are in their mid-teens to early twenties. Most are mature, but every so often you will play against a team that is immature. While playing they will harass you for anything you do. It is not uncommon to see insults, profanity, racial slurs while in game or on forums at gaming sites. It doesn’t seem to matter whether you are winning or losing the match, some players feel the need to insult others. The only bright spot in this is that most of these incidents are online rather than on LAN. At a LAN everyone is together playing in person on a truly equal playing field. Online there are many factors which can give a team or players an advantage over their opponents. Most of the mature, professional gamers that I have played against have all been to LAN’s. They are the players that will always say "gg", or good game, even if it was a blowout or tell you "nice shot". Even on forums they come off as more professional. This is not the case with every team or player, but from what I seen eSports could use more professionalism.

I will never be one of the world’s best players. I will not be playing when and if eSports becomes a mainstream sport. But I still play the game because I have fun. Growing up I played baseball, basketball, football, and hockey. I focused on baseball and went from little league to high school, but playing Counter-Strike is more fun and more rewarding to me. Even if eSports never takes off, I will still play. Attending a LAN tournament and meeting the teams and players you have played against online is always a good time. Some teams have players that have never met before, and a LAN tournament is the first time for the team to actually get together in person. Some of my best friends I first got to know through playing video games with them. Others I have introduced to competitive gaming and they have loved it as much as I have. I don’t expect everyone that I tell about eSports to immediately start playing and understand, but even if one person decides to learn a little more about eSports, that is just another step in the right direction.

Most of the Source community has by now heard of the rumors surrounding CEVO having a Source league. I was recently given the chance to interview Charlie Plitt, the CEO of Cyber Evolution about the situation in hopes to clear everything up.

Mr. Plitt I want to thank you again for agreeing to the interview. To get started, could you please tell us a little about yourself and CEVO?

Charlie Plitt: My name is Charlie Plitt and I am the CEO and President of CEVO LLC. While I am considered "NEW" to the gaming scene, I have been involved in the gaming community for many years now and in various capacities.

CEVO LLC has been deemed the "next generation" or "evolution" of online gaming. This tag was given to CEVO by the community after we introduced the community to our "Pay to Play" high dollar cash tournament, and our evolutionary anti cheat software application.

There have been some rumors lately that CEVO will announce a Source league on 30 OCT. Everyone in the Source community would love to know – are these rumors true?

Charlie Plitt: Yes the rumors are true. CEVO will be opening registration for our Counter-Strike Source event on October 30th. The event will initially feature two (2) divisions (Professional and Amateur) and there will be $7,500 up for grabs. The cash prize pot is subject to change based on advertisement and sponsorship revenues just like the inaugural CS v1.6 event.

Among the innovations that CEVO has brought to eSports is the CEVO Match Network. Has CEVO developed a CMN for Source, and will it be similar to the 1.6 version?

Charlie Plitt: Yes there will be a CMN client for the CS:Source event as well. While in the process of redeveloping the CMN for our second CS v1.6 event, we made sure that it would be compatible with CS:Source. As for its functionality it will look and work identically to the CS v1.6 version.

Currently the Source community is dependant on CSP to lock certain CVARs. The biggest of these is setting cl_interpolate 1 and cl_interp .01. Will CMN have a similar feature?

Charlie Plitt: The CMN has never locked or blocked our members from using any settings instead the CMN monitors game environment variable settings and reports them back to the content servers. We have been looking into all of the various CVAR settings that could be and are deemed "taboo", and we will take the necessary steps to keep game play fair and just for all.

CEVO currently has four divisions (Amateur, Intermediate, Main, and Professional) for 1.6. What divisions will be included for Source and will the player fee still be $15? How will you base team placement in the higher skilled divisions the first season?

Charlie Plitt: As I stated before there will initially be two (2) divisions (Amateur and Professional). We have decided to go with (2) divisions in order to evaluate the overall event so that when changes need to be made, we make them in the best interest of the CS:Source community.

The membership fees into the CS:Source event will be $15.00 US just like our CS v1.6 event.

In order to determine what teams will be placed into the CS:Source Professional division, we have been consulting the media agencies (TsN, GotFrag, and AmpedNews) that cover CS:Source and evaluating past team accomplishments. Currently we are looking to host between 12 and 16 teams in the professional division, and the remainder of teams in the Amateur division. If it is determined that there is too great of a gap in skill levels between the Amateur teams, we have considered opening a third division (Main).

Source is limited by the amount of quality maps available for competitive play. Are there any plans to convert de_russka and de_tuscan to Source?

Charlie Plitt: We have contacted Brute Maps the creators of both of these maps, and requested to port them to CS:Source. While the request has been made, I can not guarantee that this will be completed in time for this event.

Once again, thank you for the opportunity to interview you Mr. Plitt. Do you have any final thoughts or comments?

Charlie Plitt: I would just like to wish all the players and teams that decide to participate in this inaugural CS:Source event the best, and remind all who have general comments or suggestions to email me or stop by our and talk to us on Ventrilo (texas.cevo.nationvoice.com port 1337) as CEVO’s ultimate goal is to help the CS:Source community grow and flourish.