It was fun, wasn’t it?

The beauty of CS was that it was simple and it remained so, at its core, even with newer versions. It was exceptional with its Terrorist Vs Counter-Terrorist gameplay, as each match came down to teamwork, strategy, and pure skill. 

And unlike most mission games, there was no unlocking of new equipment or guns that make life a lot easier. There was no regenerating health and if you died in the middle of the round, you fucking stayed dead. 

But even then, watching your teammates trying to plant a bomb, or rescue a hostage or worse, getting into an ambush would keep you glued to the PC screen, yelling instructions into your headset and going through a plethora of facial expressions like a maniac who couldn’t decide how to react. 

Also, there were always noobs playing the game. They would just pick up a gun and run out, like WTF? And then get killed like an idiot. There was always that one moron jisko Border ka Sunny Deol ban na tha. 

I remember one noob who kept running out like Dothraki during the Battle of Winterfell and getting shot in the head every round. And the bloke had no idea!

Counter-Strike was Chess with guns. Every piece was equally important to win a game. 

For example, if you used an AWP, the one shot-one kill sniper rifle, you better not miss because if you did and the enemy has spotted you, they could come back and kill you with a knife before you reloaded another in the chamber. 

We needed a good strategy to win. And most of us were pretty good at it. Hell, some of us had played the game so many times that they just knew. And if you had an opponent, who could match you, that would be a fucking derby!

See, video games are like deserts. They don’t need to be complicated. They just need to make you happy. 

And that’s exactly what CS did. I remember walking into a cyber cafe once with my dad and seeing all the cabins being filled up by seniors who had their board exams the day after. 

They were all talking in the game’s lingo to each other. And then it hit me. They were all playing the same game. This was awesome! As an 8-year-old, this was the best thing ever. All your friends could be part of the same world, completing the same missions, saving each others’ ass and sharing the same bloody experience. 

In the beginning, we were all such noobs that every time the game started someone would be waiting for the door to open and take this exact shot. 

And all of us would immediately switch to knives because that would make us run faster!

As far as my memory serves, this was the first game that developed a community of people. 

After a certain point in our lives, we moved on with our education and our lives. Better games with better storylines and graphics came up and we began to shift our allegiances. 

But a few years later, a bunch of us were just hanging out in our hostel, getting bored and someone just mentioned Counter-Strike. 

And that was it. we started playing the game again in about 20 minutes and kept playing till our bloody convocation. 

So yeah, there could be a new Modern Warfare coming out or PUBG might be making a new map, it doesn’t matter. Counter-Strike is the shizz. And that’s the tea.