Counter-Strike esports in the CS 1.6 era: CPL to IEM, 2001-2010

In March 2001 the Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) dropped Quake III Arena and named Counter-Strike the official game of its December World Championship Event. Version 1.6 did not arrive until September 2003, so the 2001 events belong to the years before it. From there the game’s tournament calendar ran through the CPL, the Electronic Sports World Cup (ESWC), the World Cyber Games (WCG) and Intel Extreme Masters (IEM); this article follows it to 2010.

Key dates

CPL buys into the Domain of Games league: March 5, 2001
CPL names Counter-Strike the World Championship Event game: March 14, 2001
CPL World Championship Event, Dallas: Dec. 5-9, 2001
First ESWC finals, Futuroscope near Poitiers: July 8-13, 2003
CPL Summer 2003 Championship, Dallas: July 30-Aug. 3, 2003
Counter-Strike.net announces version 1.6: Sept. 15, 2003
CPL Winter 2003 Championship, Dallas: Dec. 16-20, 2003
IEM Season IV World Championship Counter-Strike Grand Final, Hanover: March 6, 2010

Before 1.6: the CPL turns to Counter-Strike (2001)

In its own history series, archived in November 2006, the CPL writes that it moved ahead with more events and, “to the astonishment of all,” a new game. The Speakeasy CPL Event in April was the first standard CPL event whose main tournament was not a Quake game. It hosted only Counter-Strike.

On March 5, 2001, the CPL announced it had acquired a significant interest in Frank Nuccio’s online league, Domain of Games. Renamed the Cyberathlete Amateur League, it was to add Quake III Arena and Unreal Tournament to Counter-Strike. According to the CPL, the league gave US players and teams a recorded competitive history that fed into seedings for CPL event tournaments.

Nine days later, on March 14, the CPL announced a change to its World Championship Event:

“The Cyberathlete Professional League has announced changes to its World Championship Event, to be held December 6-9, 2001. The CPL has named Counter-Strike as the official tournament game for the event.” – CPL announcement, March 14, 2001, as quoted in the CPL’s history series

The CPL history says the reaction was confusion and outrage in the Quake community. European Quake III player Mirza Cirkinagic recalled his first thought as “Oh oh, there is going to be trouble.” In an interview published five days after the announcement, CPL president Angel Munoz was asked to justify the move.

“The CPL is a company interested in the expansion of competitive computer gaming worldwide, not in the promotion of a particular game.” – Angel Munoz, interview published March 19, 2001, as quoted in the CPL’s history series

On March 14, the CPL also released a statement on a delayed prize payout. Karna, the parent company of Razer, had sponsored the Counter-Strike tournament at the 2000 Babbage’s Event with a $15,000 prize purse. On Feb. 27, 2001, Karna said financial difficulties would delay the payout.

Karna/Razer and the CPL later agreed to each pay part of the money. The CPL kept its side, Karna/Razer did not, and the Babbage’s winners received only two-thirds of their prizes.

According to the CPL’s later events page, the December event ran from Dec. 5 to Dec. 9, 2001, in Dallas, with $150,000 in cash prizes across the event. Team NiP is listed as the Counter-Strike winner.

The CPL in 2001 and 2003

The CPL’s event pages list the following Counter-Strike winners.

Event	Dates	Event prizes	Counter-Strike winner
Speakeasy CPL Event	April 12-17, 2001	$30,000	Team X3 Blue
CPL Pentium 4 Invitational	May 22-24, 2001	$12,000 (merchandise)	Team X3
CPL World Championship Event	Dec. 5-9, 2001	$150,000	Team NiP
CPL Pentium 4 Summer 2003 Championship	July 30-Aug. 3, 2003	$200,000	Schroet Kommando
CPL Pentium 4 Winter 2003 Championship	Dec. 16-20, 2003	$130,000	Schroet Kommando

All five events were held in Dallas. The Summer 2003 Championship listed attendance of 3,000 and the Winter 2003 Championship 1,500.

The Counter-Strike.net news page recorded the summer final on Aug. 4, 2003. Schroet Kommando of Sweden (Element, Potti, Heaton, fisker and Ahl) beat Team9 (Vesslan, XeqtR, Luciano, Quick and Lucchese) on Dust II.

Version 1.6 arrives

On Sept. 15, 2003, Counter-Strike.net announced that version 1.6 was out. Players could install Steam and let it download the update, or use a Fileplanet file that installed Steam and included the full 1.6 update.

An Aug. 27 post on the same site had previewed one change tied to competition. Version 1.6 would carry an updated Cobble in which the flashbang bug was fixed, along with other exploitable areas “as pointed out by CS leagues.”

ESWC: finals in France, then San Jose

The Electronic Sports World Cup held its first finals in 2003. According to Wikipedia, about 150,000 players were narrowed to 358 finalists from 37 countries, who played at Futuroscope near Poitiers. Winners of national qualifier events earned the right to represent their countries.

ESWC’s own history page lists where the finals went next.

Year	Venue	Dates
2003	Parc du Futuroscope, Poitiers, France	July 8-13
2004	Parc du Futuroscope, Poitiers, France	July 7-11
2005	Le Carrousel du Louvre, Paris	July 6-10
2006	Bercy, Paris	June 28-July 2
2007	Hall 5 Paris Expo	July 5-8
2008	Convention Center, San José, USA	Aug. 25-27
2010	Disneyland Paris	June 30-July 4
2011	Paris Games Week, Hall 3 Porte de Versailles	Oct. 21-25

The 2008 finals were the first held outside France. Wikipedia lists Counter-Strike in both an open and a female competition that year. It also says a “Masters of Paris” event, held from July 4 to July 6, offered extra qualifying slots for San Jose.

WCG 2009: AGAiN against fnatic.msi

On its Hall of Fame page, the World Cyber Games singles out the 2009 Counter-Strike final, in which the Polish team AGAiN faced fnatic.msi for gold. WCG wrote that the match “pitted perhaps the two best CS players of all time, NEO and f0rest, against each other with everything on the line.” AGAiN took the title after two sets the page called “impossibly close.”

IEM Season IV at CeBIT, March 2010

The Intel Extreme Masters Season IV World Championship was held at CeBIT in Hanover, with Counter-Strike played in version 1.6. ESL reported a record on-site attendance of 42,000 on Thursday, the third day.

The Counter-Strike semifinals were played on March 5. Na’Vi beat Team EG 16-5 on Inferno and 16-13 on Train to reach the Grand Final. In the other semifinal, fnatic beat SK Gaming 2-0, winning 16-6 on both Inferno and Train. ESL wrote that fnatic could become the first World Champion to defend a title.

The Grand Final between Na’Vi and fnatic was scheduled for 3 p.m. CET on March 6 in the Intel Gaming Hall at CeBIT.

What came next

ESWC 2011 marked a changeover. According to Wikipedia, it was the first and only year with Counter-Strike: Source and the last year with Counter-Strike 1.6. Wikipedia describes 1.6 as the main attraction of the tournament for many years and the last game left from the inaugural 2003 event.

The 2012 ESWC, held from Oct. 30 to Nov. 4 at Paris Games Week, listed Counter-Strike: Global Offensive on PC (5v5) among its official disciplines. Wikipedia’s lists for 2013 and 2014 name it too.