!stats are nothing

!the benefit of spawnkilling is an illusion

!the word noob

!aggression and cs

!whine from an amateaur-psychology perspective



!stats are nothing


Stats. What are they? Well.. Really just numbers. But they represent something. The kills/deaths ratio. I started playing seriously when i got an upgrade from 56kbps to 10Mbps about 3 years ago. It was just around when 1.5 was released. Playing public, the scoreboard was always there. Starting out as a 1-14 in ratio I always admired those at the top. I memorized the names and wished i would one day join that crowd. A few months later i got into the routine where you play as much as you possibly can, only taking breaks for the seemingly inevitable parental control. Then came the period where you either had 1-2 or 1-1 in ratio. A year later I got to the 2-1. All this while the stats were the only guide of how your skills were progressing. I didn't start playing in clans before i had played almost 1,5-2 years so i had some experience. Still the group-mentality was that of public players. Top-frag, 5-0 on the pistol round, 0-12, being furthest down on the list. I recogniced that focusing on the scores were hurting my play. Right after I died I usually popped up the scoreboard, a well trained habit from the days of public. When i was top-fragging in a clanmatch I felt great, my aim got steady and my mind clear. When I was somewhere in the middle I always felt lucky I wasn't in the bottom, but was afraid of getting there. Even if I didn't think less of anyone actually having the worst kills/deaths ratio, I worried because I thought others might think I was bad if I had the worst stats in the team. And it became more about trying to have good stats in order to not get hung up on it and play bad. I tried so bad to never look at the stats when i got the scoreboard up to check how many opponents were alive. I never succeeded. I also got into a really disturbing thought-game where i tried to get really annoyed with myself whenever I saw a glimpse of the stats. I thought that if I punished myself this way I would stop eventually. But it never came to it. I just got agitated and seemingly threw away all my work with some wreckless statsfocused public frag-fest instead.


I didn't want my play to be controlled by numbers that I really didn't care for. All I wanted was to play good. When playing with a team you are no longer an individual player. You are a part of the team. You still have to try and play really good, but always with the mindset that if you eliminate the opponents there will be a better chance for your team to take the round. If the mentality of the team is more that of a free for all 18vs18 server you might notice that the communication during matches suffer. Single players tend to do risky stuff and die off far from the rest of the team without even uttering a word.


Nowadays, playing public to me is all about practicing so you can be better when you are playing as a part of a team. I like to unbind the button for the scoreboard, change name to something like 'unbind tab, stats is nothing' and try to spread the good news that focusing your mind on these numbers makes your play unstable. Perhaps a big kill/death-ratio makes you feel good inside. If numbers that doesn't really say anything can make you feel this good think about where a motivated mindset, visualization and self-hypnosis might get you.




!the benefit of spawnkilling is an illusion


spawnkilling is killing someone before they can move or fire their gun in the beginning of the round. Try playing on an aimmap server with freezetime and you'll pick up on the concept. What are the cons of spawnkilling? Well.. fewer targets to practice aim on, annoyed opponents and you might also get annoyed if the opponents pick up on your spawnkilling as revenge. Pros? The numbers in the little table you get if you write +showscores in the console change. This is my opinion, but i play public to practice. Spawnkilling does not seem to benefit.




!the word noob


noob = newb = newbie = newcomer

So the next time you want to harass someone you can use this word the right way. A noob playing Counter-Strike would be someone who hasn't played the game very much. It seems many people who are newcomers to online games don't know the meaning of this word but they pick up on it quickly and use it frequently. It seems kind of silly put in this way doesn't it?




!aggression and cs


Control your anger. This is very important in my opinion. Think about it, how often does anger actually help your game? If you get killed by the same person five times in a row at the same location and the guy's got an awp, you might get pretty irritated. I think it is really scary how aggravated some people get. I've played with people who scream their heart out every time they die. I am not going to dive deeper into this. I'm just gonna state that i have become a much more stable player since i realized that rage is not beneficial when you are playing cs. In my honest opinion I really don't think anger is a feeling that is beneficial unless you are really tired and need adrenaline to do something. If you wanna get rid of this feeling my advice is to try and analyze the feeling when you get it. Feel how it flashes into your mind, lingers and blinds your thoughts and subsides. Notice how this feeling is more of an impulse. It isn't intelligent, it's not an urge. I think it is a product of evolution and not needed today. I would rather control this body and mind with consideration than being driven by blind impulses that do not promote my cause. Practically? I try to play aimmaps lots. Just remember to never pull down the console and type quit before you realize that you are beaten by your anger. Remember to just play and play and play. Analyze the feeling and see how your game improve. You can recognice how other people lose their temper and lose their game. Anger is subvertive. When you have analyzed the feeling, try to focus on improving your own game instead of getting angry because it seems so bad. There is another very similar method. Have you heard of kz? That is a prefix for maps (like kz_goldenbean.bsp). The goal of these maps is to jump from ledge to ledge until you get to the top of the map. You dont use weapons at all. Now some of these jumps are really quite hard and (if you play without an amx module that lets you save checkpoints and teleport to your latest position) i assure you, annoyance will come out of this practice. This is a great way to try and control anger. I also find it helps to listen to soft music while i do this. (i can get really wound up if i listen to some hard and fast stuff)




!whine from an amateaur-psychology perspective

I have subcounciously registered and catagorized whiners and it just about now came to mind. Well, what kind of whiners are there?


I think some people might scream and harass people because they are ashamed of how bad they play and want to express that they really are quite adept, but just has got a bad day. Now, everyone does experience times when nothing seems to happen the way it ususally does. We all understand this, but please don't shout and nag about it.


The classic whine would be the excusing kind. Understand that lacking skill can not be compensated by words of excuse. Well... If it's not very funny that is. 'I just scratched my crotch!' In my opinion this isn't very occuring in cs. As amateaur psychologist i think the most of these excuses aren't just made up.


A not very popular whiner is the one who blames other people. In my opinion shouldn't blame in whatever form exist within a team. The phrase 'Nice teamflash' destroys group-moral.


I think the most interresting whiner is the one who is really irritated and whines out of reflex every time he dies. The whiner really cannot help himself, the cannon just goes off without him noticing. I think this behaviour is caused by a build-up of the habit of whining. And the habit of whine isn't really something that (as far as i know) cultivates when you are alone, so if my theory is correct there has to be some poor people that have had to listen to overwhelmingly much whine (I do feel for you!). This habit becomes some kind of habitual mechanism that triggers easier with annoyance.


Noone benefits from whine. The play and moral of the group goes down and the whine spreads! I promise, this thing is contagious. A violent whiner can entice sleeping whiners. Now, whine can break up clans. If you want to rid the clan of it, try recording the ventrilo sound during a pcw. Play it for the clan and discuss it and its effects.