GameSpotting

Ryan Mac Donald
Executive Producer, GameSpot Live

Now Playing: Command & Conquer: Generals (PC), Counter-Strike (PC), Indiana Jones and the Empire and the Emporer's Tomb (Xbox)

Professional Gaming

If I were to believe the other editors here at GameSpot, I became a freak this past week. Why do they say these horrible things about me now? Well, it's not for the stylish clothes I wear, my religious beliefs, or anything I could sue anyone over, but rather because of the fact that I've taken my love for playing Counter-Strike to the next level.

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There is a place for the AWP in this world.
This past week I let my fellow GameSpot editors know that I had formed a team of Counter-Strike players with the intention of trying out for the CPL, or Cyber Athlete Professional League. Half of the guys here thought I was cool for trying to compete, but the other half thought I was a big geek. Either way, it's already made for an interesting story that started about six or seven months ago when my friend Brian and I met an individual playing Counter-Strike online one weekend who turned out to live really close to us. We played off and on again with him and his friends and talked about meeting up, but the stories of people meeting other people online and then dying as a result kept us from going.

In any case, we lost contact with our newfound friend for a while. During that time, I got a chance to go cover the CPL in Dallas, where they held the last Counter-Strike tournament and gave away a ton of money. While I was there I had the privilege of playing against a few of the participants who placed well in the tournament. I have to admit, I was surprised at how well I did against them. So surprised, in fact, that I decided to consider coming back to the CPL as a competitor.

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I didn't say it was the best looking game ever.
So we looked into competing and realized that there were opportunities to test our Counter-Strike skills. As luck would have it, the friend we had met playing Counter-Strike online resurfaced. We finally agreed to meet at a public place and went to go have a few drinks. I'll never forget thinking it was the most insane thing I had done. I mean, maybe I've seen too many movies or something, but I thought for sure the guy we were about to meet would be this complete psycho. The way we worked it was we had cell phones, so when we got to the place we would call him. As my friend Brian dialed and talked to our friend, whom we now know as Jeff, I saw a young man about our age walk out with a cell phone. Sure enough, it was a normal human being who looked just about like everyone else, most importantly not like a psycho.

We chatted about Counter-Strike for a bit and had moments of awkward silence that come with meeting someone for the first time. But soon we were talking about competing, running through strategies, and having a good time talking about CS.

That was three or four weeks ago, and today we have a full squad of five guys plus one alternate, and we are practicing for our first tournament, which will take place a week from the time this posts. We've converted my garage into a surprisingly cool place where we can all set up and play. Then again, I've got to get my DSL upgraded or something since going from four to five people online gives us wicked unplayable ping rates.

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