cyx joined mousesports as a rookie to top tier competitive play and without any fanfare. When his CS career came to an end he had progressed all the way to being a legitimate champion and legendary player within the German scene. Along the way he won international titles, improved year on year as an individual player and became one of the most efficient German players to ever play Counter-Strike. This is cyx's game analysed on every level: from his raw skills, his choice of techniques, his T/CT play, his role within his team, his impact on mouz and his claim to greatness as a German player. Meet cyx, the German gunslinger.

A gunslinger at heart

cyx was a player whose aim dictated his success to a great degree early on in his career. Watch him play back then and you'll see a player who is what I would a gunslinger, a guy who actively wants to engage with every enemy he can in a head-on battle of skills and aim. He even seek engagements regardless of his health situation and take positions which normally would be out of the question for other players with 20 or less health.

cyx never met a shot he didn't like or wouldn't take. If he faced an enemy he was happy enough to trade his own life in exchange for one or two kills against the opposing team. cyx's philosophy was almost one of 'well I know how good my aim is so I'll take your best shot while giving you mine and we'll see who's standing at the end'.Now since he had good, but not exceptional, aim early on in his career that allowed him to make a name for himself as a skilled player within Germany. cyx always played to a high level against domestic players and could dominate them from early on in his career. What is interesting is how he adapted and developed the rest of his game around that core approach to become more and more effective and successful on an international basis.



Big time player in the small sites

Take that approach and apply it to his Counter-Terrorist play and you can see why he quickly fit into the mouz lineup and became a good CT player. cyx's traits meant he played the role of a lone B/small site player effectively. You could put him in the small site and his ability to kill the first enemy who entered meant you could not only stack four guys at the other site, knowing once he was engaged that you needed to rotate your B support guy, but also when you had your support playing nearer to the site then he often just needed to mop up the additional frags to finish the round.

Putting cyx in a small site and letting him use his aggressive engagement-heavy choice of positions meant that if he died immediately you could fast rotate all of your players over to the B site, since it likely meant the site had been attacked full-on, and that your support player would likely be facing enemies who had taken damage and thus a player like gore or Kapio, with good spray, could put up a solid wall of colt spray to kill multiple enemies still entering the main part of the site.

Due to taking up aggressive angles, not always necessary pushed up, cyx could kill or die against enemies who had only just shown themselves at the outskirts of the site, meaning when the support player focused his attention on them he was still shooting enemies who had not taken up position within the site yet, a key concept since small sites become expotentially more difficult to retake when the enemy is in position. From early on in his mouz career you could see how good his B player became on maps like inferno, dust2 and nuke. Teams even back then, and especially later, would focus nearly all of their attention on the other site. When they did come to the smaller site they knew that they'd have to bring most of the team and made a commmitted push. You couldn't just send two rifle players to probe cyx's site.

What made cyx's style so effective in small sites was that he did not always choose aggressive positions, even if he often chose aggressive angles. He would start the game out with aggressive positions and then vary and adapt his selection of where to be based on his success-rate and the kind of attacks the enemy was executing against his team. Note I said his team, not just his site. When cyx kills someone early by pushing as CT he will pull back and give his team the advantage, often then taking a more passive position so that his support player can rotate over and watch somewhere else, subtly loading the other site. If the terrorists then attack cyx he is in a solid position to kill at least 1-2 while they look for his positioning, again giving his team an advantage in terms of numbers or damage left, regardless of if he dies or not.

cyx was one of the best players in the world at rotating from his site aggressively. He could push down banana and up through middle on inferno as well as anyone who has ever played the game, very often getting the first kill onto a T who still doesn't know a CT could be behind him as he executes onto A. On nuke and dust2 he showed a similar excellence for rotating through B tunnels and down to mid/catwalk on the latter and through ramp room to radio room to lobby on the former. In that dust2 scenario he had an excellent sense of when to time his push to still kill a player moving up the catwalk corner. Likewise, on nuke he could push out of radio and kill players still looking into the squeaky door area or hut.

That ability to play by sense made his CT play very dynamic and thus his team were able to focus much of their attention on A site setups while he neutralised B approaches from the enemy. If you want to look for a comparison in terms of that style of B player you can look to plastE of Roccat/GamePlay/Power Gaming. The Finn also played largely off his aim and held sites in a similar fashion, dealing damage and being capable of playing as a lone man so that the support player can overload the A site.



First to enter, first to kill

On the terrorist side cyx was more than happy to be the entry man, the first to enter the site and clear an area. It's quite rare that players with good aim will take this role in all but the elite teams as it's not going to get you huge half scores unless you completely dominate your opponents. As a result madfragger types often prefer to be the third guy in, cleaning up damaged opponents, or hang back and try to play the 1onX or 2onX situations which allow for high scores as then the player's high level of skill stands a very good chance against injured opponents who might be out of position, due to having their original selection of position exposed in the intial attacks.

cyx liked to enter so much he would even run past 1-2 team-mates to enter the site, making mouz's terrorist pushes that much more effective. Where his team-mates preferred to spot each corner and move up with two men clearing each side cyx could push straight into a site, not worrying about people to his side or behind him, and look directly ahead seeking that first engagement with the closest opponent. In that sense a good comparison would be Gux, who also plays off his aim to a great degree and is aggressively seeking those early confrontations in sites. Both players shared a talent for attacking the upper site out of hut on nuke and the ramp room, also on nuke. Despite the fact these situations should be favoured towards the enemy, flashbang use aside, these players have an uncanny knack of killing 1-2 players and breaking open attacks towards those sites as a result.

Mousesports was famous as a team who liked to play slow on the Terrorist side. Firstly that frustrated opponents, who would then engage too early or give up the surprise of their positions. Also it allowed mouz to push into an area, hold for a few seconds and then pull back out and spread the defense thin by rotating over and over between the sites. When they finally did attack, usually after guaging which site was weakest, having a player like cyx helped ensure that first kill would ensure entry and a plant even if cyx died as a result of the kill or the attempt.

Medium range, so you're not too far

cyx was an very good player at the medium range, and this applied to all of his weapons. His usp and deagle were ferocious at those distances, with the latter he developed a very nice single bullet headshot to get mouz out of jams on decos. His AK and silenced colt were good but not out of this world early on, but then as his career progressed they increased in effectiveness and his technique developed very naturally to become precise. cyx's AK and silenced colt bursts became very dangerous and laser-like at the medium range by the latter part of his career. This meant as CT he could still take those aggressive angles but now kill the opponent outright before taking damage. Likewise, as a terrorist he could push into a site and have the first kill in the bag before the CTs could rotate. He got many three kills tearing open sites like that.

That rifle technique began as standing bursts which went into sprays. This was still good for getting kills but you were looking at a range of about 7-15 bullets fired to be certain of getting that kill. As cyx's aim improved in precision and his technique became refined he got into that sweet spot that the elite riflers reside in where they can burst 2-5 bullets and kill the enemy instantly, with plenty of 1-2 immediate headshots. Then if that burst doesn't kill he also had developed a nice 4-8 bullet burst which killed any enemy within that mid range at a high rate.



Single scope, cos I got it like that

Fans of frag movies will know of cyx's AWPing but it's worth defining off the top that he wasn't a dedicated AWPer in the same sense that the likes of fRoD, cogu and markeloff are. Those AWPers are so exceptionally talented with the weapon that it becomes a weakness for their team when they don't use it, since it takes away a key asset. In cyx's case he could go between the weapons much more since his AWPing was not lockdown impossibly good in the same way that those AWPers have their sniping game down. Instead cyx's AWPing was more limited but by playing within his game he made it a very effective part of his arsenal.

cyx's best AWPing comes as CT when he holds an aggressive medium range angle. From these scenarios he can kill the first two often. What's key to note, and part of why he probably didn't enter that elite AWPer echelon, is that cyx's best AWPing came when he was in single scope. In double scope he didn't really develop a consistent hit with the AWP until the last year of his career. In single scope he can tear up opponents by repositioning and landing with a very nice degree of consistency.

As a terrorist cyx began to incorporate AWPing more to his dust2 play and as a result mouz's hold on middle/doors/catwalk became that much more difficult to counter. That area of dust2 is one where the AWPer can choose to always take fights at the mid range if he wants, even going up the catwalk, as cyx nearly always did, to ensure that range is again maintained and the enemy doesn't get too far away.



Aim and improvement all the time

cyx had a very naturalistic aim which developed by playing against better and better players so that he had to subconsciously adjust to survive situations he would have been gifted easier opportunities in against weaker opponents or purely domestic teams. That style of aiming meant that if he missed his first shots he often didn't correct his aim quickly, as weaker players tend to. This wasn't an issue as his aim got more and more precise over time but it did rear it's head noticeably when he used the glock in single-fire mode. When he missed those first 2-3 bullets he could sometimes be seen aiming on the same exact pixel while firing the rest. Now with a deagle and usp as good as cyx's this wasn't a significant weakness and is more of an interesting insight into his style of firing.

What made cyx one of the most unique players I can think of is the rate of development that he underwent during his time in mouz. Most players, especially good aim players, who make it to a top tier team come fairly polished and as kind of a complete package. Most of the time their chief concern is maintaining the skill level they had at previous teams and trying to do the same things. In cyx's case he rose to the top of the German scene so fast that actually his best didn't kick in until later in his career.

Towards the end of 2008 cyx really got his game to a higher level and began to excel in his strengths against all levels of opponent. His aim looked much looser and as a result his bursting started to get nice so that he wasn't just half spraying enemies down. As 2009 went on his burst began to get really nasty and he developed that killer 2-5 bullet burst which dominates small sites as CT and allows you to enter big sites as T without taking much damage or having to worry too much about good CT positioning, assuming the CT is on his own.

By 2010 had come around cyx's game had hit its peak and he was a really effective player in all of his roles and at all of his strengths. cyx is one of the few players I can think of in top tier CS who actually improved year on year both in his aim and with his effectiveness with the entire range of weapons he used. His rifles were good enough in that latter half that even in 2onX situations where he had an AWP he would often drop for a rifle to allow him to be more versatile in helping his team-mate/going for the clutch.

A few peculiarities

There are a few strange aspects of cyx's game which become apparent the more one watches his play over the years. For example he was very very good at getting blind kills, even onto opponents he hadn't spotted yet who were around a corner he was pushing. Countering that he also team-killed more than any top level player I can think of. Usually these game either through the team-mate moving through his crosshair unexpectedly or cyx mistaking his team-mate for the enemy when peeking an area. I think you can put those two scenarios down to the kind of focused burst aim he wielded, where he wasn't always thinking of his team-mates position due to how useful he was a lone gun holding a site or pushing one. In many ways cyx was the tip of mouz's spear in how they used him on both sides.

On a side note, but seriously meant, cyx also got a disportionately high amount of his best rounds on the 10th round of games. This is perhaps due to the fact that his aim was entirely zoned in by that point and that he had gotten into the flow of the opponent's rhythm, meaning his choice of aggressive or passive play would suit the opponent's pace.

Excelling in his role in mouz

I think it's key to make the point that cyx wasn't a star player in the same way many will think of the great players Counter-Strike has to offer at the top level. Those star players are often so gifted that their teams rely on them heavily and their play in every game can be directly correlated against how successful their teams are in tournaments. The good mouz teams of 2008 and 2010 weren't like that.

The mouz team of 2008 in particular was unique and interesting in the sense that they legitimately had four players who had at one point in time been stars on teams and now were all adapted to playing team roles. This made mouz dangerous and consistent in the sense that they really didn't have to rely on one player. If one or two players were not having great games others could be in position to step up and contribute as the top fragger. For those who have followed the NBA I would draw a comparison between the mouz 2008 team and the Detroit Pistons of 2004 who won the championship. Like mouz their team was made of players who were all capable of 20 point nights and by melding those different styles together they were effective on all areas of the court and it didn't fall to one guy to do it all in the big games.

Greatest German player ever?

I decided before I set out to write this article that I would close on the topic of whether or not cyx was the greatest German player ever, since I knew there would be a lot of comments along those lines ever since his passing. I think it's very tough to outright say he was the greatest for a couple of reasons. Firstly in terms of sheer accomplishments he is one of the 2-3 greatest Germans to ever play, with only Kapio and Tixo having better resumes overall. In terms of sheer talent/skill I think it's down to cyx and roman. This is where it gets tricky because I think I'd have to lean roman's way on this one.

cyx got his numbers and kills seemingly every game and sometimes would have one of those huge games but not in the same way that roman did repeatedly. As part of Alternate aTTaX roman had enough monster games on LAN against international opposition that he seemed like a shoein to join the f0rest/neo class of player one day and go down as one of the all time greats. This is where the matter gets even more tricky though as roman didn't stay with aTTax and joined up with mouz in 2010. It should be noticeable for all that even though roman did have some big games at the first event for mouz, the IEM IV European Finals, and has played well a number of times he was never the same monster he was in aTTaX.

cyx on the other hand had all of his best performances as a mouz player and his best performances drove mouz to some of their titles and top placings. In that respect cyx was certainly the more effective player. So roman probably is the greatest in terms of sheer talent and ability within a Counter-Strike server. He is also probably the greatest in terms of his body of work. cyx is certainly one of the greatest Germans ever though, and right up there in every category.

Volume shooters and efficient role players

To address the issue of cyx and roman's differing levels of effectiveness in mouz I'll draw another basketball comparison, but one which doesn't require much knowledge of the game. There is a concept called a "volume shooter" in basketball which basically means a player who has enough talent then if he simply gets enough shots then he will make a certain number and be effective in that sense. So while he might not shoot a high percentage he will make enough baskets, from taking enough shots, that he can put up numbers which can win you games. This volume shooter has to be the focal point of your team and usually it's a very good individual player who you base your entire game around and give as many opportunities as he needs.

In teams which don't have an exceptional player they aim for more structured systems where shots are shared out and instead they look for skilled players who can be very efficient within their system. This is where the difference between cyx and roman becomes apparent within my theory. When roman was on aTTaX those teams were largely filled with players who were significantly less individually skilled in comparison to roman and he was such a stellar individual player that the team was based around him. Opportunities were created for him and people got out of his way to allow him to excel. aTTaX adapted to roman.

In mousesports the team is filled with much more skilled players, the best in Germany, and as previously mentioned their best year, 2008, saw the team very balanced in terms of talent and roles. This meant that when roman came to mouz he became just another talented individual player who had to play roles within the team. It was not the roman show anymore and everything was not setup for roman. There were no weaker players to die and repeatedly give roman scenarios where he was playing from behind in numbers but against weakened opponents.

To draw the volume shooter analogy back in roman went to a team with a defined system where suddenly he wasn't getting every opportunity or position which might suit him and his skillset. Instead he was getting less to work with and now was expected to be successful with those opportunities he did get. When a volume shooter is put in a position like that he is often significantly less effective. Suddenly he is getting the same number of shots as the efficient player, who typically has a much higher field goal percentage on less shots.

cyx was such a player and didn't need any opportunities created for him or to be the focal point. Instead he would maximise what he was given by virtue of his role in the team and be very efficient and effective within that role. cyx adapted to mouz rather than mouz adapting to cyx. The more developed cyx's individual game became as his aim got tighter and tighter accompanied by more refined technique cyx's effectiveness skyrocketed and he had his best ever games in a mouz uniform. roman on the other hand has had most of his greatest games in an aTTaX uniform and is stil in the process of figuring out how to be more selective and effective with less.

Greatest German player ever? It's tough to make an airtight case for cyx in that respect. Most effective German player ever? I think a pretty solid case can, and has here, been made for that over his roughly three year long career.

(Photographs copyright of fragbite)