We sit down with mousesports CS:S player RattlesnK to discuss CS:GO. His team will be competing in the upcoming CS:GO tournament on Wednesday at Copenhagen Games, where the team have been drawn up against Xapso in the first round.

In 2008 RattlesnK became a World Champion at CGS with Birmingham Salvo, taking $500,000 in the process. He also led Team UK to gold at ENC CS:S 2010.



A lot of the CS 1.6 players have mentioned the movement being an issue in CS:GO as the feeling is similar to Source in the sense they don’t have full control of their player. People would say for example that ESC neo has a lot of success partly due to his movement. How do you think the movement shapes up to CS:S and do you think that this will give you advantage when facing the CS 1.6 teams in Copenhagen?

I can understand why 1.6 players talk about the movement in CS:GO as being a problem for them because it is quite like source but to be honest once you get used to it I don't think many players will have a hard time adjusting. As you say players like neo use their movement to gain an advantage in 1.6 but the same can be said for source players when they are moving around the map. As you say CS:GO is more like source and the movement is the very similar I guess for me that's not a problem as I have full control of my model as I have practiced my movement on the source engine and I know how to control it. If 1.6 players are expecting to be able to just change to CS:GO and instantly have the best movement because they played the original CS then I guess yes we will have an advantage. It doesn't necessarily mean it's bad and that neo couldn't have good movement in CSS because he could... it's just that he hasn't played source at all.


Which three teams do you think will come out on top of the CS:GO tournament in Copenhagen and what’s your reasons for those choices?

I guess I would have to go with SK, Mouz and ESC for the top3 because I know that we will be decent as CS:GO and for me those two sides should be better than the other source teams that are participating. If there was a few different CSS teams participating it could be different but for the current line-up of teams I would say those three should do well.

Having played both CS 1.6 and CS:S professionally for a number of years, which game do you think CS:GO is more similar to overall and why?

It's definitely more like source... the movement as you mentioned earlier is more like the source engine, the maps are basically source ones with a few additions, the flashbangs are almost as effective and the general way to play the game is going to be more like source. I guess 1.6ers will have as good aim, if not better than the source players but I'm not too sure if they'll know how the actual mechanics of CS:GO works. By that I mean the way to play it rather than their individual game which I presume will still be good!


DotA II was backed fully by Valve with hosting a tournament with a large amount of prize money. Do you feel as if similar tournaments will have to be made for CS:GO for the top teams to make the switch or is it more down to the quality of the game overall?

I don't think so, if some of the big leagues and tournaments decide to change over to CS:GO instead of 1.6 or source I think you might see a switch between games from some of the teams but at the moment it's probably too early to call. I do think 1.6 is slowly dying with less organisations willing to support the game as more tournaments decide they want to move onto new games but it's not going to just die. It will be the same for source as 1.6 either way, if CS:GO goes main stream I think most source teams will have to make the decision - to play CSS or CS:GO?

I mean all this rubbish about the two scenes being in competition is just ludicrous anyway. For me both games are going to die out if CS:GO is pushed by Valve, ESWC, ESL and the main leagues as the professional teams will have to move the more modern game and the ones that are sponsored. I guess what you will see is a lot of old 1.6 and source players decide they don't want to spend the effort getting good at CS:GO or simply that they don't particularly like the game. If that's the case then maybe some teams won't switch over it all comes down to what games are supported by what leagues..

If ESL decide their IEM is going to be CS:GO because VALVE put their money into it or there is going to be a large tournament such as the one DOTA2 had then I can see even teams like SK who seem to deplore anything that isn't 1.6 having to make the switch. At the end of the day no source player is forcing 1.6 teams to love CSS but I do think at some stage everyone has to look at it objectively and see that CS:GO could if improved and updated unite the communities. If the games good it will definitely make it a far easier task to convince both 1.6 and source players to change over but for now at least there is still a lot of updating to be done and changes to occur before anyone should judge if teams will make the switch.


Some people feel as if the recoil is bad in CS:GO whereas others will say the problem lies within the movement of the screen when shooting. What’s your opinion on this?

Again, the recoil in CSS is dreadful so maybe its inherited that side of the problem from the HL2 engine and they've been unable to fix it. Personally I'm not too bothered about the recoil being a problem because the way you play source successfully is by not spraying like 1.6 and actually shooting people with bursts. I would naturally prefer it if they could make the recoil much more like 1.6 as it would improve CSS's weakness towards spraying and rectify the one issue that has plagued it for so long. As I said though I still think it really isn't a problem with the game, it's that 1.6 players want the game to be identical to 1.6 with the graphics improved which is not going to happen I'm afraid.

I changed over from 1.6 to source for the CGS back in 2008 and I can honestly say I preferred 1.6 at the time... the only reason I changed was because no UK organisation could support us as 4kings had died a death and dignitas refused to pay salaries to CS players. Despite that, after a good few months of actually playing the game and getting used to it I actually found it was fine to play and once you got used to the game mechanics it was very similar in terms of teamplay, communication, strats and the like to 1.6... I think that's the problem people have, they haven't even played the game for more than five minutes and just said it sucks.

You talk of the movement of the screen but that's just people not knowing the commands to prevent the screen from necessarily moving and I've even heard recently that the tracers in CS:GO are going to have a command to remove them. Slowly the game will improve as long as VALVE are committed to the project so I think right now we can say the recoil could be improved, the movement as a source player is fine, and we should not judge until it is officially released.

The models are said to be similar to CS:S but with hitboxes which are a lot smaller which Valve feel as if much of the problems of weapon inaccuracy arise from. How do you feel about the size of the hitboxes in comparison to CS:S? Have they made it too hard?

So far when I've played it I wouldn't have even noticed the difference in the hit boxes if you hadn't of told me about it so for me it's not really a problem at all. Whether they are the same, smaller, larger it makes no difference to me as whatever they decide to use is what you will get used to if you play the game any amount of time.

As CS:GO is still in its beta phase and still improving, what aspects of the game would you want to see changes in to make it more playable?

The deagle needs a massive nerf as its far too powerful... in CSS its already a joke and in CS:GO its just disgusting. The amount of deco rounds people get in source is outrageous considering its a $700 weapon... that just should not happen. It's not even teams playing bad in source it's just the weapon is pretty OP and easy to use.

Also unless you want AWP players like myself running around bazookaring everyone VALVE might want to consider adding a bit more delay to the AWP so you can't just freestyle with it and use it almost as a rifle. If they don't change it I'll enjoy the game more so maybe I don't want them to change it? But yea.. I guess they should.

Another thing that would be nice is for the smokes to be improved but I have heard that this is already being done so it might not be so much of an issue... I guess I'm not too fussy about what type of CS I play so I'm ready to change to CS:GO if it becomes competitive.

Some of the maps have been revamped slightly in CS:GO, for example the bomb site on train being out in the open. Do you think that this will promote teams to come up with new tactics to deal with the change or do you feel as if the maps should be returned to their normal state?

Again I don't really mind... If you change the maps surely it will mean you won't see the same strats that have been run since 2000 with teams just continuing on without any adaptation. I think the only reason people complain is because they don't want to think up new strategies as it could be time consuming or they simply want to complain about something. Yes, the lower bombsite backstairs have been removed but it doesn't mean the end of the world. I think it will make teams come up with new strategies and adapt to how the game will have to be played, and maybe it will make it simpler to play?

I'm not even sure on that when you consider as T on train you're going to have to fight a guy above CT Link outside because of the dual nest... I mean really until it gets played you can't just claim its bad because you haven't experienced what it's like. So yea, I don't mind a few changes on the maps but I think the core foundations of maps in terms of d2, nuke, train, inferno and such like should remain the same.


CSPromod has come back into the spotlight after having a Deathmatch weekend testing. Which game would you prefer to see improved if you had the choice – CSPromod or CS:GO? Which one has further to go to make it into the perfect game?

I've never really played CSPromod before and can't actually believe anyone cares about it tbh... How long has that thing been in testing and who cares. Thats all I've got to say about it so CS:GO has my choice.

Thanks for your time the final words are yours!

If anyone wants to find video tutorials, tips and tricks towards CS then feel free to check out my website at RattlesnK101.com.

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