Counter-Strike without Molotovs and only one AWP in the entire game? What seems unthinkable today was completely normal ten years ago. A look at the finals of Dreamhack Winter 2013.
Do you still remember Dreamhack Winter 2013? It was the first major in CS:GO, released in August 2012. Today, you can probably only smile about the gameplay at the time.
The YouTuber TheWarOwl took another look at how Counter-Strike pros played ten years ago, just a few weeks after the last major in CS:GO. He stumbled across some funny details. We list them for you.
Dreamhack Winter 2013: A finale full of nostalgia
The finals of Dreamhack Winter 2013 saw the two Swedish teams Ninjas in Pyjamas and fnatic face off.
NiP was played by the likes of current Heroic coach Xizt, GeT_RiGhT and f0rest, who most recently stood in for fnatic during this year’s Intel Extreme Masters in Dallas.
The fnatic lineup at the time consisted of JW, SCHNE1DER, flusha, pronax and Devilwalk. The quintet finally secured their first major title after three maps. On the second map, Inferno, however, they suffered defeat. TheWarOwl watched the demo of this very match.
Table of Contents
Molotows were not yet CS:GO meta
While it’s hard to imagine CS:GO without the Molotov today, the incendiary grenade received virtually no attention back then. Nowadays, it is often used by terrorists on Inferno, for example, to avoid danger from the boiler or the middle early in the round, but ten years ago players preferred to use HE grenades.
The reason for this should be obvious: Molotovs were first implemented by Valve in CS:GO – but the pros, who at the time came mainly from CS 1.6 and CS:Source, preferred to fall back on the tried and tested.
The fact that the price for the Molotov was reduced from $500 to $400 only a few weeks before the Major did not change this.
Still without loss bonus: Players entered every duel
Watching high-level Counter-Strike these days, it’s clear that depending on the bomb spot, situation, and economy, if you’re outnumbered and a bomb is placed, the decimated opponent will decide to safen their weapons.
This was different then too.
So during the first half of the game on Inferno, there are several scenes where the NiP players are still trying to win the round despite being clearly inferior.
Why? Because the economy was very different back then and it wasn’t worth keeping the weapons.
In the old days, if you lost the round, you only got $1,400. The now familiar changes to the economy were only introduced in 2018 or 2019. At the same time, however, this also meant that with an account balance of $2,300 after a lost round, nothing was bought back then – whereas nowadays, depending on the loss bonus, better pistols are sometimes bought in such a round.
AWP was hardly used
Can you imagine a professional Counter-Strike match with only one AWP that is bought at the end of the map?
Probably not. But that’s exactly what happened between NiP and fnatic back then. It wasn’t until the second half, when fnatic was playing the counter-terrorists, that JW picked up the sniper rifle.
For the record, we are talking about a version of the gun that was significantly more powerful than today. Movement speed was hardly limited (this was only changed in 2015). In addition, you could move at full speed when shooting from a crouch. This nerf caused a lot of criticism from the pros at the time.
Today we’re adding Anubis to the Active Duty map pool. Dust2 has been removed. We’re also making adjustments to the M4A1-S and the AWP: https://t.co/SDjg8uaXs2 pic.twitter.com/1h6YMkw0Mb
– CS2 (@CounterStrike) November 18, 2022
And: A magazine of the AWP still had ten rounds at that time. A dream for every AWP player nowadays!
Counter-penalty was not necessary in CS:GO
Of course, the design of the maps and the mechanics of the game were very different. For example, who remembers the invisible skybox on the A-Spot on Inferno
?
This allowed a player on the CT side to wait hidden there until the opponent tried to plant the bomb. Not only once in the past this might have caused big surprises or even moments of shock.
What is also noticeable: In the past it was virtually possible to shoot while running. The gun’s recoil and spray were only changed over the years, making it necessary to aim much more precisely and to stand while shooting (or at least to work with the well-known counter-strafing).
Valve has always found the right way
Through the changes over the years, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has evolved into the game we all love today. Would it have quickly disappeared from the scene if the developers hadn’t made regular adjustments? Probably.
Valve, however, has managed to almost always find the right way. That’s how today’s meta has evolved and shaped the game. This will most likely continue with Counter-Strike 2
And who knows? In 2033, when we look back at this year’s final of the BLAST.tv Major in Paris between Team GamerLegion and Heroic, maybe we’ll smile about it too.
