COUNTER-STRIKE: 25 YEARS OF AMATEUR MOD TO ESPORTS

On June 19, 2024, a message dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the Fashion, which revolutionized the genre of competitive jokes in the first person, was published on the official Counter-Strike account. The modern team of developers Counter-Strike 2 called it “the greatest video game ever created”, which reflects the huge impact of the game on the industry.

Counter-Strike originated as a mod for the popular Half-Life shooter, developed by the Minem “Gooseman” Le. Le, who graduated from the university at that time, sought to create a gaming project to improve his career prospects in the industry. Having experience developing mods for Quake, he decided to use the Valve GoldSRC engine for his new project. The programming of the first beta version took about a month and a half, after which the Cliff Jess Cliff joined the project, which made a significant contribution to the development of cards and other elements of the game.

The inspiration for Le was his interest in special military units and games such as Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six. The first beta version of Counter-Strike was released on June 19, 1999 and quickly gained popularity in the game community. The game attracted Valve to the fifth beta version, which acquired the rights to Counter-Strike and hired its creators. In September 2000, the first retail version of the game was published, marked the beginning of a new era in the history of the shooters.

Over the past years, the Counter-Strike franchise has passed after a few iterations:

Each version retained the basics of fascinating gameplay, while introducing new elements and improvements.

Many players with nostalgia recall their first acquaintances with Counter-Strike through beta versions, spreading along with game magazines, such