/rant
Back in CSS, I was a server admin for a NYC Pub server with a dedicated playerbase of guys like Comic, Goober420, Shanks4Giggles and a bunch of other players I can't even remember the names of anymore. It was a great sense of community, we ended up all getting into League of Legends during the beta and eventually the server died. I ended up getting to known the server owner pretty well. He lived in the Bronx, grew up in the Projects and was living at home with dad because of the rough economy. He was good with computers, and he got a job with some big retailer in the PC section. Made computers on the side as he tried to support his father in his rough days. I checked up on him and I asked him how his father was doing and sadly he passed. He was probably around his mid forties and I felt like he was always a child at heart, or at least that's how he always acted like it. He was a funny guy, a wise guy. Someone that was fun to have a laugh with but at the same time, I realized he was living a pretty rough life. He had friends of course, but he was also alone with no real family of his own. His community was something he always loved, and he was really engaged with everybody in it on Ventrilo. Sure, there was dramatics, but nothing serious. League of Legends changed all of that. It was the game that broke the camels back, sure we all played it together, but that's where tensions rose. The better players started to leave other behind, thinking they could go out and play ranked and some of us stayed behind, just playing normals for the fun of it. It was the game that tore the community apart, and things were never the same.
When you all say that 'Counter-Strike isn't fun/good' or whatever you want to say, just remember that there was more to Counter-Strike than these stupid fucking competitive match ups. Pubs were so much more better, and you always knew the people you were killing, and you always had a back and forth playful competition with people you felt were friends. Hearing the server owner losing his shit when he's spectating a blatant hacker is priceless. My experience playing all eras of Counter-Strike was priceless.
