Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike (sometimes referred to as Half-Life: Counter-Strike or Counter-Strike 1.6, and shortened to CS) is a tactical first-person shooter developed by Valve Corporation, originating from a Half-Life mod by Minh "Gooseman" Le and Jess "Cliffe" Cliffe. The first public beta was released on June 19, 1999, the developers of the mod teamed up with Valve on April 12, 2000, and the game being completed and fully released to the public on November 8, 2000.
The game has been expanded into a series since its original release, which currently includes Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, Counter-Strike: Source, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Counter-Strike pits a team of counter-terrorists against a team of terrorists in a series of rounds. Each round is won by either completing the mission objective or eliminating the opposing force.
The best Counter-Strike 1.6 players came from all around the world: MiBr from Brazil, multi-game teams WeMade FOX and eSTRO from Korea, North America's Team 3D and Evil Geniuses, but the top talent centered around Europe, with Swedish teams being the most dominant at the game.
Largest Prize Pools
Top Players
| Player ID | Player Name | Total (Game) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  f0rest | Patrik Lindberg | $191,485.83 |
| 2. | cArn | Patrik Sättermon | $173,572.35 |
| 3. | dsn | Harley Örwall | $170,588.24 |
| 4. |  neo | Filip Kubski | $143,554.64 |
| 5. | TaZ | Wiktor Wojtas | $141,694.64 |
| 6. | RobbaN | Robert Dahlström | $130,176.27 |
| 7. | Loord | Mariusz Cybulski | $128,847.79 |
| 8. | kuben | Jakub Gurczyński | $127,800.87 |
| 9. |  zonic | Danny Sørensen | $116,209.57 |
| 10. | walle | Dennis Wallenberg | $110,306.50 |
| 11. |  Edward | Ioann Sukharev | $105,520.22 |
| 12. | Zeus | Danylo Teslenko | $103,017.17 |
| 13. |  Kapio | Navid Javadi | $102,363.77 |
| 14. | GeT_RiGhT | Christopher Alesund | $101,970.66 |
| 15. | ave | Alexander Holdt | $98,452.09 |
| 16. | LUq | Łukasz Wnęk | $96,869.30 |
| 17. |  gore | Franz Burghardt | $94,457.34 |
| 18. | starix | Sergey Ishuk | $94,291.92 |
| 19. | tixo | Manuel Makohl | $91,777.78 |
| 20. | Tentpole | Kristoffer Nordlund | $90,492.33 |
| 21. | Archi | Oscar Torgersen | $85,859.89 |
| 22. |  Storm | Tyler Wood | $84,849.41 |
| 23. | ins | Oskar Holm | $84,136.64 |
| 24. | fRoD | Danny Montaner | $83,709.41 |
| 25. | markeloff | Yegor Markelov | $82,283.88 |
Online/LAN Breakdown
| Location | Prize Money | % of Total |
|---|---|---|
| Online Only | $718,934.18 | 5.28% |
| Offline/LAN | $12,905,226.00 | 94.72% |
Comparisons
| » Counter-Strike: Global Offensive | -$149,023,547.07 |
| » CrossFire | -$11,784,197.78 |
| » World of WarCraft | +$4,473,622.57 |
| » StarCraft: Brood War | +$6,068,244.50 |
| » WarCraft III | +$7,317,006.45 |
| » Counter-Strike: Source | +$10,510,937.89 |
| » Heroes of Newerth | +$10,550,714.46 |
| » Halo 3 | +$11,306,080.78 |
| » Halo 2 | +$11,997,397.71 |
| » Quake III Arena | +$12,426,054.16 |
Top Countries
| Country Name | Prize Money | |
|---|---|---|
| 1. |  Sweden | $2,880,823.80 |
| 2. |  Germany | $1,513,707.65 |
| 3. |  United States | $1,494,285.27 |
| 4. |  Russian Federation | $1,132,587.16 |
| 5. |  Denmark | $1,035,882.09 |
| 6. |  China | $861,123.19 |
| 7. |  Poland | $762,327.23 |
| 8. |  Ukraine | $719,584.97 |
| 9. |  Norway | $452,829.85 |
| 10. |  France | $412,626.42 |
Other Notable Players
The following players may not have necessarily competed in this game, but have contributed to the competitive scene in other ways.
| SirScoots | Scott Smith | Content Creator |