This article was originally published on GameSpot's sister site onGamers.com, which was dedicated to esports coverage.
After more than 24 months of competitive Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, the top tier of players in the game is composed of a fairly balanced mixture of former 1.6 and Source players. Most of the latter day 1.6 pros attempted to transition over, but only some of them were able to successfully do so or stick with the new game long enough to make an impact. With all the hundreds of good CS pros in history, here are 10 who would, in my estimations, have made good CS:GO pros.
Stevenson was a player who did not want to leave the comfort of playing with his friends to venture off and try and become a world beater with teams of better North American players, despite receiving a number of offers from high profile teams like Team3D. The reason for those offers, is that Stevenson was very much a "complete package" kind of player: calm under pressure, famous for winning 1vX clutch rounds, capable of putting up numbers and good with all of the weapons, even in an area when there was still not much crossover between riflers and AWPers.
In CS:GO, a game more predicated upon skill than team-play and tactics, Stevenson would have been forced out of his comfort zone if he had attempted to compete in the pro scene. On a team of other skilled players, Stevenson's all-around game could have yielded something akin to what we've seen from shox at his peak, able to impact the game in all facets. That Stevenson hails from North America would only have made it that much sweeter, as that scene still longs for more skilled players who are capable of performing under pressure.
face was known for being one of the best reactive thinkers in 1vX clutch round situations, always able to mentally construct a plan to get the first kill, then reset and re-analyse the situation to craft the right approach to securing a second or third kill, depending on the situation he was presented with. In terms of aim, he had both very good spray and burst aim, so his colt and AK should have been up there. Finally, he was a good proponent of the tapping style of USP firing, so his pistols could have been a significant factor on both ecos and pistol rounds.
In face's case, I got the sense he was a victim of both the latter day mentality of the 1.6 pros and the early CS:GO pros. In the end of 1.6, the pros lived in something of an esports fantasy land, getting paid good salaries, relative to the rest of esports, but with very few media requires and almost no exposure at all into the world of building a fanbase and maintaining a social media presence. This meant that when CS:GO came out, and CS quickly dropped off the esports radar as a major game, many of the old pros simply lost any remaining motivation as they saw their opportunities and salaries fall considerably.
In terms of the early CS:GO scene, there was also confusion amongst the pros over who would be able to transition and was good. Even if you were good at the end of 1.6, if you were seen to have any weaknesses early on, then some of the former Source players and teams may simply assume you weren't going to be a significant player and move on to try out a different talent. Had there been major events from the launch of CS:GO, it may have been a different story for face and his kind.
roman was a player who was, during his aTTaX time at least, seemingly unshaken by competing against the other world class talents. His aim was impressive, particularly his first couple of rifle bullets, and his pistols were deadly, including his deagle, a strangely effective weapon for Germans, in terms of Western European countries.
roman had bowed out of 1.6 before CS:GO ever came along, so the world will never know what the promised genius prodigal sun of Germany could have produced in the new game.
Amazing with every weapon, savage was a powerful AWPer and could have dominated CS:GO games with his speed and accuracy firing the sniper rifle. With China having essentially no impact in modern day CS, partly due to the free-to-play craze which dominates their region in the FPS sector, it would have been fun to see what savage could have done in a game which even more greatly skewed towards raw skill.
Sunde's approach was both skill-based and tactics-centric, as mTw's in-game leader, ave, would place the AWPer in positions to pick off an opponent and then move him to another part of the map, confusing opponents and maximising the effect of the Danish team's intrictate tactics. ave was an incredible mid-round caller and Sunde was the weapon he used to carve up opposing teams. In CS:GO, Sunde could have gone up against the likes of kennyS and Guardian with his AWPing speed, even if he wouldn't have been quite at their level for overall precision and all-around sniper usage.
In CS:GO, GuX could have been a monster playing in teams like Virtus.pro or the new fnatic line-up, with fast reactive aggression the name of the game.
On the CT side, his aggressive tendencies took no respite, as he would regularly push again and again on positions, forcing battles with the waiting terrorists. Even if he killed two or more opponents, nothing could stop ruuit continuing to push on to get the rest of the skills or die trying. Unlike most pros, death early on in those pushes seemingly had no effect on ruuit's desire to push, as he had an unshakeable confidence that the kills would come. While I would argue he took his approach to too much of an extreme, it's obvious to see both a strength and weakness intertwined in that way of playing the game.
At his best, ruuit was a one man army, who could single-handedly win his team a game. The problem was that at his worst he could also single-handedly lose his team a game. In CS:GO, Finland still looks for star players, with allu being their only offering so far, as others either refuse to dedicate enough time or can't match up with the best from the rest of Scandinavia. In ruuit, they could have a true star, if he would embrace the game and find the time.
Photo credits: fragbite, SK Gaming