Let me start off by saying that this will not be any article of greatly described facts or complex analysis. I have not kept up with the Counter-Strike scene very much since the change to version 1.6, so I cannot claim that this article will give you a better view of the different forces and strengths in Counter-Strike than others. Meanwhile, for some, this article may be food for thought, give a good general picture, or help get an overview or alternative view of some parts of the CS scene. In a simple way, it presents my thoughts on the areas I uncover. Only few of my observations are based on in-depth analysis or personal examination (for instance, going to netcafés, going to different countries to see how they play the game) of the exact matters I deal with. Instead, it is based on intense attention to what is expressed by many in the worldwide Counter-Strike community, conversation with top players, what I can see through demos and what other vague knowledge I might have that leads in a certain direction. You can compare it to foreigners writing professional travel-guides about your country after a visit: They never really seem to know your country as well as you do, but to your surprise they have noticed the most common things in your country, and even picked up on a few things that you did not realize or consider yourself. Then, of course, some of these travel-guides will also be complete rubbish.
First of all, I will look at what areas of Counter-Strike different countries are normally good at. Of course, as an individual, it does not really matter what coutry you are from. You can still be a great aimer, teamplayer or have good reflexes. However, from what I have observed, some countries, most of which are the leading ones in Counter-Strike, have certain specialities. This often means that the players in this country will have a "special touch" in this area or just that the occurrence of this ability will be more common in the specific country. This might be dictated by the general playing-style in the country, cultural gaming background, differences biologically, mentality or in ways of looking at serious gaming. I am aware that this is a controversial topic, and many will deem my observations as rubbish, but I am sure others will also recognize some of the things I tell you about. You can compare it to other stereotypical, more common references on the Counter-Strike scene: "French spray a lot", "Russians play extremely randomly", "Finnish players are normally not very good on LAN", "Asians have no tactics". These may or may not be true, but are some of the impressions that have come through time. Meanwhile, I will list for you some more well-considered and specific marks for certain countries. Find an explanation of the terms I use at the bottom of this article.
Americans - Shooting, logistics
Finland - Aiming
Germany - Thinking, teamwork
Sweden - Aiming, organisation
Russia - All-around, teamwork, organisation
Next up, there is the talent mass distribution in Counter-Strike. The talent I describe can form in many ways, but basically evolves around having a good touch with the game of Counter-Strike. It can be how well you shoot, think, react, etc. This varies from nation to nation, and often depends on natural flair, seriousness of play, and the general level of competition. However, my ranking below does not account for the density of talent, but rather for the total amount of talent in a country, which is more relevant when it comes to the prospect of how many good teams the country in question could produce for competition.
Top 5 talent masses (countries):
1Germany
Germany have a very well-organised culture for playing Counter-Strike, and often good settings/playing conditions due to Germany being a well-developed nations with good sponsorships and possibilities for Counter-Strike teams. They have a very punctual approach to their team effort and play. This aids to the individual player's understanding of the game, especially the tactical aspect. In fact, Germans give a lot of thought to things, and similar to the Americans they feel an urge to communicate about the views on and aspects of the game, only on a higher level and to a higher degree. A thing that inspires the German players is that Germany has always had great tradition in having many well-developed clans to look up to. Thereby the heritage from the former great German clans still lives on in the German teams today because the German try to aspire to the same level of play, especially with focus on the teamwork and flow in the game, which has earlier been exhibited by many German clans.
Finally, a very specific thing that has helped the development of talent in Germany is the ESL leagues and ladders, which have created really serious and interactive competition in Germany and pretty much brought the country back to where is was at the end of the 1.3 version in terms having many good teams. eSport seems to be really progressing in Germany, and attracts a lot of different people, who are all really enthusiastic about the concept. There really are a lot of players for the bidding in Germany, and a fair share of those with the needed talent. The slight lack of abilities in-game such as logics, co-ordination and aim would be the only way I could explain if we do not see many more German teams prove their worth at international LANs in the next period of time.
2.Sweden
The Swedish have always had many good clans, and they seem to be good at teaching each other how to play the game. In the big Swedish cities, it seems that clans are often based on close playing relations, and especially through the many netcafés the Swedes join up to explore the game thoroughly together. Both due to the competition in the top being very huge and hard, very few of the many very talented Swedish teams, and probably the biggest amount of well-developed clans in any nations, get into the lime-light. Still, they seem the have a firm belief in their skill and seem very persistent and realistic in their attempt to join the top. As with Germany, eSports is in a high state in Sweden. Especially internet-cafés seem to be predominant. But also sponsor and interest-wise. As in other Scandinavian countries, the Swedes seem to have a good sense of how to administer their game and how to improve themselves. This gives the Swedes a good all-around capability, as they look at themselves to improve both teamplay, tactical understanding and more basic in-game skills. A great amount of Swedes put their spare time into serious Counter-Strike, which really makes for a huge crowd.
3.Russia
Russians have a very strong natural touch with this game. Plus the ones of them that train seriously train very intensely and down to detail. They seem to be very straight towards the facts of the game and consider everything very intensely. The Russian players have instincts that allow them generally great aim and quickness. Meanwhile, they don't seem particularly well built for handling stress and long time focus. The Russians make up for this by keeping a really good discipline, with the players often sticking to their particular responsibility or function, and they can seem down-right stubborn in performing their assignment the right way. To sum-up on mentality and building, the Russians seem more suited with a calm but still dynamic kind of play, where the calmness is more emphasised or reflected in the attitude of the players. The Russian sense of teamplay, which I have mentioned as a speciality of the nation in the paragraph above concerning the topic, basically lies in both their touch with the game, discipline and detailed evaluation of the play.
One thing that can bring the Russian players down is the hardware and playing-environment, maybe also software in some cases. Playing with 40 fps, shots not registering and having no space to make yourself comfortable, your play often suffers, and you might even find yourself unable to concentrate. I know that some Russians have had to play like that, especially at badly organised tournaments. It is not necessarily that the computer technology in Russia is not advanced enough; it is just that not everyone has it, and especially the right places to play from are missing. Things such as LAN centres or huge rooms for LANs are scarce, and often the newest computers are not bought, but the Russians keep trailing a bit behind on the hardware level. However, this might well work the other way around when the Russians come to play in perfect conditions, like seen in many Eastern European countries: They will be able to hit their shots and control their game even better than the ones who are already used to the perfect conditions, because the hard conditions have made them struggle with that part of the game much more and they get a better understand and possibly appreciation of how these things work in better conditions, although lacking routine in this environment.
A thing that also really helps the Russians is that they practise just as much on LAN as on internet, which is quite rare in Central European and Scandinavian countries. Practising on LAN always makes it easier to approach your problems and improve, plus the terms of play are less random than on the internet, which makes it easier for players to clarify how exactly your techniques work, whereas LAN practise is also always a good thing for teams when they have to play big LAN tournaments. Compared to the multiplicity of the people who play Counter-Strike rather seriously in Russia, the country is the one with the biggest density of talent in the world. You very rarely see a Russian player with no control of the game whatsoever.
4.United States
The Americans seem to have a more hardcore gaming culture than anyone else. Their history as the most progressive nation technologically and what this has put of marks on the culture would seem like a natural cause for this. The Americans give and receive much feedback, and are naturally curious about what the other teams do. This gives the American teams very diverse areas of expertise, and often many strong forces. Like the Finnish described below, the Americans seem to have a good flair for the individual skill part of the game, if even a more advanced one. Once again, I think culture has a role. The good control of the hardware (mouse and keyboard) and the generally well-rehearsed techniques and reaction skill seems to give the Americans a natural edge shooting-wise, even though they do not practise as intensely as others do. Despite the apparent lack of intensity, though, the American culture also seems to offer particularly unhealthy dozes of computer use at times, which leads to some people becoming really good of the game due to playing it non-stop (in a much higher degree than similar cases in other countries), most likely without any direct purpose to begin with. While it is limited just how broad coverage the talent of the American players gives (in terms of different abilities and attributes, all-around players), a lot of Americans play the game, and ultimately this results in a lot of talent, which is centred in leagues like CAL and UGS, but often unknown local American LAN-teams will surprise you, too.
5.Finland
The Finnish players seem to have a good flair for the game. As players they are often more "independent" than, for instance, the Germans. The abilities concerning individual performance are always well in place. It seems that the Finnish players are not afraid of testing themselves, and that, combined with a relatively big portion of official games, helps them gain great confidence in themselves. The fact that the Finnish mentality in play is very straight-forward often helps the fact that the individual skill is at a generally high level. For some reasons, most Finnish players have a good understanding of how the different aspects of the game work. Meanwhile, their focus is much on the challenge right in front of them, and not so much the aspect of development, event and consequence while the match is played.
All-around: An all-around player is a player with a good level in all areas of abilities.
Shooting: Shooting is a definition of both aiming and shooting-techniques. While aiming is simply put about hitting the target, shooting techniques might be combination of movement and shooting, control of recoil, timing and use of weapons, etc.
Aiming: Concerns the accuracy when a person aims at something/someone. It is not about the rate of headshots, for instance, but how quickly and smoothly they can be made by dragging your pointer, the crosshair, from one point to another. Of course, a part of aiming is also to know where to hold you aim ready, for instance knowing the head-height in a certain situation. Meanwhile, it is not good aiming to shoot someone through a wall only using two shots if you use three seconds to direct your fire, however, if you instantly shoot the person you see running behind the wall, it is good aim.
Teamwork/teamplay: Teamwork is about utilizing the most thoughtful manner of assisting your teammates in a given situation, but even more importantly about how you coordinate attacks and defences with them. If you do this in the most effective way, and in that show that you understand what your teammates do and act accordingly, you are a good teamplayer.
Organisation: Organisation concerns your organisation in-game, meaning the handling of action between the five players on a team; how well they substitute positions, handle simultaneous attacks from different directions, how they build up attacks, etc. A single player can have a good sense of organisation, whereas his teammates might not. Organisation is not quite the same as positioning. With positioning, you are able to find the position most effective for the given situation and alter that position in a smart way when action develops, to, for instance, avoid getting shot in the back or being surrounded. Meanwhile, while positioning yourself as a player with a good sense of organisation, you also consider the positions of your teammates when choosing you spot and movement manner. Organisation is one of the most important things in a team, and can help you avoid getting killed by opponents who try to make smart moves on you, and it can help you not to be surprised by opponents in a pushed position and the like. When you are well organised, you will be able to make use of the mistakes of your opponent much better, because you can strictly perfect certain actions without error.
Logics: Without deep thinking, the player is good at finding the logic consequence of an action, and therefore finds quick and smart solutions to a specific situation, which, for instance, can prove very useful in some 1on1 situations, but also gives you a good opportunity of being one step ahead in the direct action.
Reflexes: This means how quick you are able to react upon spotting an opponent, grenade or whatever visual element might make you react. It is simply about how sharp your instincts are concerning reaction, and not so much about the thinking.
Recoil control: When you use weapons they all have recoil, different depending on the weapon. With good recoil control, you should never lose control of where your bullets are going. People who perfect this ability will know exactly where and in which way they will have to fire to control the weapon they use fully.