Intel Extreme Masters
2012.03.06 - 
The action starts today in Hanover Germany at CeBit for one of Counter-Strike 1.6’s biggest tournaments of the year – Intel Extreme Master’s Championship.
This year not only has some great teams but great stories as well. cArn has recently announced he will retire for CS after this tournament, will this be his swan song with fnatic? Can SK Gaming with two ex-fnatic members spoil his retirement?
Do either of them have a chance against Na’Vi going for their record third straight IEM championship?
Or will of the other 9 teams come out ahead including last minute ESC Gaming?
You can follow all the action here.
So who do you think is going to win? Who do you want to win? Any incredible action you want to share – tweet it our way.
The Science of Fog
2012.03.05 - 
Counter-Strike players need to quickly identify their targets, so it’s important that those targets stand out. But as environments have become more richly detailed, it has gotten harder to separate a player from the background. This affects players by slowing their searches for targets, and can be the difference between life and death.
Atmospheric haze (‘fog’) is one of the tools we use to solve this problem. It reduces the visual impact of the distant environment, and when the appropriate amount is used in a map, players become far more distinguishable:
Spot the terrorist and then mouse over the image to add fog.
Did you spot both terrorists?
In today’s update, we have adjusted the levels of haze in de_train. The adjustment balances the need to make out players at long distances with the benefit of separating players from the background. We’re going to keep de_train the map to play as we collect more data to measure the impact of this change.
It’s true that eliminating haze would allow snipers to see very distant targets more clearly. However, aside from helping in that isolated case, removing it entirely would slow searches in the vast majority of player interactions. Counter-intuitive as it may seem, a little fog can help you see much more clearly.
Tournament Time!
2012.03.02 - 
It’s Counter-Strike tournament time. First up is ESEA’s Season 10 LAN Playoffs and next week is Intel Extreme Masters Championship. This weekend there will be a mix Counter-Strike 1.6 and CS:S matches streaming. You can find the full schedule on esea.net.
You can watch the main stream here on Twitch TV.
With perennial favorite Evil Geniuses out of the race, Tweet @ us who you think is going to come out on top.
This weekend’s teams.
Counter-Strike 1.6
1. Back2Back Gaming
2. Check-Six
3. MouseSpaz
4. Ultimax Gaming
5. Black and White
6. High Rollers Gaming
Counter-Strike: Source
1. 3DMAX
2. Dynamic
3. Blight Zomblers
4. Vindicated
5. Swolepatrol
6. Just Cause Project
5000
2012.02.28 -
Today we added 5,000 players to the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Beta. Our selection criteria this round was simple – we chose a group of players who represented the full range of survey responses. This way, everyone who filled out the survey had a chance to get access to the beta. The recipients will get the game added to their library and a key to gift to a friend.
The survey has been a great success so far, and we are seeing a wide range of players and skill levels. We will use the survey data to drive future selections as we continue to build the beta size in the coming months.
The best way to get into the beta is simple, fill out the survey (this will launch Steam).
Experiments
2012.02.24 -
We just updated the CS:GO Beta today and changed the default map to Train. You can read all of the release notes here.
Besides the map fixes and changing the default map to Train, we are trying two changes in competitive mode: buyable defuse kits and splitting helmets and Kevlar.
We have been listening to your feedback on these subjects and want to experiment and collect data from both setups.
We have created a scenario for testing the change over the next few weeks that will allow us to capture its impact. We will share our findings with you when the experiment is complete.
The best way you can help us test the change is to play. This will generate the data that we need that will help us make smart decisions. Also make sure to give us feedback in the Steam forums and Twitter on your impressions of the changes. We will compare this feedback to the data we collect and then make a decision.
For this weekend, if you are in the Beta – we ask that you play de_Train. If you aren’t in the beta, make sure to fill out the survey (This will launch Steam). Early next week we will expand the Beta again by selecting players across all demographics from those who filled it out.
