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Why the American CS Scene Can't Match the European Scene
Not too often, an American team is created that displays talent enough to climb to the top of American leagues and tournaments. We follow and put faith in these teams, and are fully confident that these teams have some of the best players in the world, and can compete among the best. Yet time and time again, when these teams reach an international tournament, they take an early exit to an unknown European team, or get a handful of rounds against a top European team. I plan to break down possible reasons for this:
By Mike 'MecH-' Eshak
Jan 29, 2009 03:10
Not too often, an American team is created that displays talent enough to climb to the top of American leagues and tournaments. We follow and put faith in these teams, and are fully confident that these teams have some of the best players in the world, and can compete among the best. Yet time and time again, when these teams reach an international tournament, they take an early exit to an unknown European team, or get a handful of rounds against a top European team. I plan to break down possible reasons for this:
1. Inferior scheduling, tournaments, and leagues.
Until recently, top American teams have always participated in the online league CAL (Cyber Athletic League) who was also owned by the CPL. The highest level in this league was the Invite level, or CAL I. Each team in this advanced league had to be talented and LAN proven.
However, a few years ago, Team 3D and Complexity both dropped out, as CAL was a free league and therefore no prize money was involved, and they chose to spend more time preparing for large tournaments where they could make money. Other top American teams followed suit and left CAL, and CAL I was left with sub-par teams.
Furthermore in the present, top teams still don't compete in CAL and therefore attend VERY few tournaments. They are left to bootcamp online with a small group of other top American teams who also need to be in a nearby area of the United States to ping well. This leaves teams a small selection of competition on an infrequent basis, which is unlike European teams.
Europe is a very compact yet diverse continent. Lots of top teams can compete with each other on a regular basis. There are frequent qualifiers for international events which is inexpensive to travel to. They have more tournaments than the US, and therefore gain more experience from playing.
An analogy of this is: Imagine you're a great basketball player. You've proven you're better than anyone you've played against. However, everyone you play against isn't very good. You are unable to practice against equally as good opponents and therefore can't work on your game as well as some one who is traveling across the country playing other great teams on a consistent basis.
2. Inferior internet connections
As most of us know, CS is game that is very habit-forming. With consistency being key, people try to play in the same way each time they play. We form habits such as quick-switching too often, checking the scores compulsively, cycling through weapons, etc. These things are so burned into our brain that we don't notice or can choose to train these things.
Now, the United States is a very large country with 3 separate time zones. This is unlike Sweden, who is a relatively small country with a single time zone. The US also has 1000s of different internet providers, some which are very poor. Therefore, not only are we limited to playing 1/3rd of our country, but we have compete with inconsistent, weak internet. Therefore, we create habits like not spraying as much, as spraying is far less accurate with bad internet. When playing on LAN, these habits are still etched into the brain and they still play as if though they are on bad internet.
Sweden, however, has great internet service providers and is small enough that it is powerful enough to be consistent in Swedish servers. They are able to play in the same way each time they play. It has been admitted that Europeans spray more often and with higher accuracy than Americans.
(TO BE CONTINUED)
Until recently, top American teams have always participated in the online league CAL (Cyber Athletic League) who was also owned by the CPL. The highest level in this league was the Invite level, or CAL I. Each team in this advanced league had to be talented and LAN proven.
However, a few years ago, Team 3D and Complexity both dropped out, as CAL was a free league and therefore no prize money was involved, and they chose to spend more time preparing for large tournaments where they could make money. Other top American teams followed suit and left CAL, and CAL I was left with sub-par teams.
Furthermore in the present, top teams still don't compete in CAL and therefore attend VERY few tournaments. They are left to bootcamp online with a small group of other top American teams who also need to be in a nearby area of the United States to ping well. This leaves teams a small selection of competition on an infrequent basis, which is unlike European teams.
Europe is a very compact yet diverse continent. Lots of top teams can compete with each other on a regular basis. There are frequent qualifiers for international events which is inexpensive to travel to. They have more tournaments than the US, and therefore gain more experience from playing.
An analogy of this is: Imagine you're a great basketball player. You've proven you're better than anyone you've played against. However, everyone you play against isn't very good. You are unable to practice against equally as good opponents and therefore can't work on your game as well as some one who is traveling across the country playing other great teams on a consistent basis.
2. Inferior internet connections
As most of us know, CS is game that is very habit-forming. With consistency being key, people try to play in the same way each time they play. We form habits such as quick-switching too often, checking the scores compulsively, cycling through weapons, etc. These things are so burned into our brain that we don't notice or can choose to train these things.
Now, the United States is a very large country with 3 separate time zones. This is unlike Sweden, who is a relatively small country with a single time zone. The US also has 1000s of different internet providers, some which are very poor. Therefore, not only are we limited to playing 1/3rd of our country, but we have compete with inconsistent, weak internet. Therefore, we create habits like not spraying as much, as spraying is far less accurate with bad internet. When playing on LAN, these habits are still etched into the brain and they still play as if though they are on bad internet.
Sweden, however, has great internet service providers and is small enough that it is powerful enough to be consistent in Swedish servers. They are able to play in the same way each time they play. It has been admitted that Europeans spray more often and with higher accuracy than Americans.
(TO BE CONTINUED)
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