TS-NEWSMAIL.CF - Counter-Strike: Global Offensive ever.
One game. Six overtimes. 88 goddamn rounds. Consensus says it’s the longest single game of pro
It was
supposed to be a one-sided mismatch. exceL eSports, a team that some
felt didn’t even deserve to be competing in the ESL UK Premiership, was
matched against Team XENEX, a UK team of much better renown. People
figured it’d be quick—and probably a little ugly.
(This is only part of the overtime portion of the game. You can watch the entire thing on this Twitch page.)
What happened instead was one of the longest knock-down, drag-out back-and-forths in Counter-Strike history, and the longest in pro Counter-Strike: Global Offensive history. As UKCSGO explained:
“Opening up on the [counter terrorist] side, XENEX went on to take the
half with a five round lead of exceL, who had managed to take five
rounds of their own during the half. Whilst this is a typical score for
an Inferno clash, the odds were stacked heavily in favour of XENEX who
would have been aiming for a greater advantage. This was no great worry
for the XENEX side though, who began to rack up the terrorist rounds for
themselves and bring the score to a comforting 14-8. At this stage in
the game, something must have clicked for the exceL camp, who managed to
take hold of 5 consecutive rounds before any sort of response from
XENEX, who eventually led the game 15-13. Just two more rounds from
exceL eSports saw the game lead into what would become the longest games
of Counter Strike in memory.”
Back and
forth and back and forth and back and forth. Neither team could pull
ahead definitively, enough to be declared the winner. The game was a
nail-biter that ended up going for nearly three hours—resolve-whittling
ages in a tense, methodical game like Counter-Strike. But that wasn’t what sealed it so much as it was the fact that Counter-Strike isn’t designed for such lengthy games. Every player exceeded 50 kills, buy rounds (and really, the entire Counter-Strike meta) went haywire.
Eventually, XENEX took it, but exceL proved they could dance with the
big(ger) boys and keep them on their toes the whole time. Oh, and then
there was an entire second game after that, because pro Counter-Strike: Global Offensive works on a best-of-three system. The whole series lasted more than four hours. So yeah: grueling.
Still,
it’s interesting to see both a game and its players taken to the limits
like this. And while there have been longer pro play times in games like StarCraft, this was definitely one of the more entertaining Longest Matches Ever. Bravo to all involved, and may angels who only get aces sing of their deeds in Counter-Strike valhalla.
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(kotaku.com)