The Demo Show – Raise Curtain
During CS’ rise in popularity competitive POV demos were very few and far between, especially of the top players. Even when were they released these demos only appeared on a small handful of sites. Nowadays the floodgates have swung entirely open and a deluge of demos rushes down on the would-be viewer from all directions. Few have the time or sanity to go through all of these looking for the best viewing experiences and understandably so. That’s why I’ve done the work for you and in ‘The Demo Show’ I offer you a menu of frag delicacies with no filler in sight. There’s also a handy rating system to give you an idea of what to expect.
EG.usa vs. Loaded on de_inferno (CEVO-P Season XI Playoffs)
POV: fRoD
Stats:
CT-side 20-6
T-side 9-0
Ever since he returned from Source people have been waiting for fRoD’s AWP to become the AWP we all remember from 2005-2006 as being capable of taking over games in the biggest competitions. fRoD’s AWP has been good since his return but it’s taken a little while before his team were in positions where he could show off the signatures that make up a fRoD AWP show. This is a demo which signals the fRoD AWP is well and truly back online and ready to execute across the faces of many international players henceforth.
In this playoff game there are only 4-5 rounds which contain the juicy meat of the demo but they really pack some flavour so be ready to watch this demo via viewdemo so you can rewind certain sequences and watch them again. Noscope kills galore, blind kills, those angled AWP kills where he places it from onto the enemy’s head when he can barely it see it that make you say ‘uggggh’ internally and hell, he even finishes the match with a knife kill. fRoD’s AWP is back to that stage where he can fire very quickly and when he make those flick shots which are half flick and half tracking which seem to land so often.
Thorin rating: 8/10
Crack Clan vs. EGC on de_nuke (EM IV Finnish qualifier)
POV: plastE
Stats:
CT-side 22-1
Skip forwards/viewdemo through the first half of this demo which isn’t very interesting. In the second half, as CT plastE really shows his skills and dominates his less well known Finnish countrymen in EGC. On the second round he kills kills all three enemies in what begins as a 2v3 but becomes a 1v2 quickly. The manner in which he does it, pulls out his deagle and ‘boom ok I headshot and now I head down to kill the other guy and defuse with no kit’ really sets the tone for the kind of flow he’s going to be in this demo.
When he gets a colt in his hands it’s all over for any EGC which head his way as his spraying is immaculate and ever so satisfying to watch while his instincts for when to switch to tapping are a joy to watch. The highlight of this demo has to be the 11th round when he rips the heads of three EGC guys, the last two in particularly impressive fashion. Not the most competitive demo but one where you get to a player who hasn’t been in the spotlight for a while, due to the deterioaration of his clans, get a chance to show off his skills. Fun to watch, especially for technique junkies.
Thorin rating: 7.5/10
fnatic vs. TitaNs on de_dust2 (Global Challenge Chengdu)
POV: f0rest
Stats:
T-side 26-4
fnatic had lost the first map of their bracket play matchup against Singapore’s TitaNs on nuke and were now looking a little silly in light of their prior loss to China’s TyLoo in the groups. Luckily for them they have this guy called f0rest who can seemingly decide by sheer force of will to be the best Counter-Strike player in any server regardless of who else in there. This was one of those times where he flipped that switch and for the TitaNs they just had to pray they could weather the storm.
Even early on as we see f0rest killing ecoing CTs you can see from the way his AK burst is working that his game is warming up and his movement has that flair to it where there is no hesitation and he is just waiting for opportunities to unleash on the opposition. We see him pulling off those oh-so perfect f0rest bursts, the ones where he fires five bullets and by the 5th one leaves his gun he has a headshot. Did anyone ever burst an AK better than this man? Whether it’s bursting guys up close at catwalk or at long range from long A onto players on the ramp heading up to B f0rest’s game gets hotter and hotter until he is dialed in. The last round is icing on the cake as he gets an AWP, headshots the guy crossing middle through the smoked doors and then proceeds to headshot three more guys in A with an AK later in the round. 14-1 T side on dust2 for his team, 26-4 individually, and suddenly everyone is back to thinking ‘TitaNs who?’.
Thorin rating: 8/10
oXmoze vs. Gamers-Area on de_nuke (EPS France Season IV finals)
POV: mSx
Stats:
T-side: 20-8
CT-side: 11-6
Thanks to oXmoze/emuLate’s dreadful form it’s been some time since mSx’s name was on the tip of everyone’s tongues like it was in 2007 when his incredible individual play sparked his team to a WCG gold medal. Like many great players whose teams struggle though it’s not always the case that they individually have lost the magic. This demo at times seems like it’s going to be slow but mSx keeps interupting any moments of boredom to pull of a nice headshot or two quick kills. This demo is a lot of two kill rounds but even still it’s not lacking in entertainment. Almost every kill mSx gets is worth watching, his style is so interesting and the way he fires is so novel. mSx is one of those players who can spray away and miss the first 4-5 bullets before the next three smash the enemy squarely in the head and get him a sick looking kill.
After a T half which, aside from a nice 3rd round four kill affair, comes mostly two kills at a time you get a second half which is short but sweet as mSx shows off the kind of spraying I referred to above and eats GA up outside and in the lobby area. His team weren’t playing so great but this is a nice demo for any fan of this guy’s game.
Thorin rating: 7.5/10
coL vs. EG.usa on de_train (CEVO-P Season XI Finals)
POV: evolution
Stats:
T-side 22-5
This finals demo sees coL really taking to EG.usa as terrorist on train, running up a big score and leaving EG shaking their heads. This demo is one with a couple of levels of appeal: firstly it’s a POV of an online finals so it’s interesting to see how the team was behind the scenes and at different moments in the game, secondly because there are a couple of really nice rounds. evolution shows how to control outside as a terrorist with an AWP as he hits a number of shots at different ranges and in different situations. We see fast kills moving up ladders and onto trains to outshoot the other guy. We see shots into Z halls from the 5 train. Overall though the wow factor is centered around two four kill rounds though, one of which features some nice noscopes and the other which ends in a clutch situation.
Thorin rating: 7/10
TyLoo vs. SC.United on de_dust2 (Global Challenge Chengdu)
POV: GoodRifle
Stats:
T-side 32-7
The talk of the first part of the GCC was the antics which occured in group A as fnatic’s loss to TyLoo left their fate in the hands of this dust2 game between TyLoo and their fellow Chinese players in SC.United, led by ex-wNv.gm star Jungle. The first half of the game saw SC.United go up 12-3 and bearing in mind all the round difference fnatic had lost their game to TyLoo SC only needed to win this game and they’d be through in place of the Swedes. Skip forwards through the TyLoo’s T side because it’s fairly uneventful in terms of action from GoodRifle, the CT side is where you want to be.
Despite the monster individual score GoodRifle puts on the board this is not an out of this world demo. It is an interesting one to watch though as it is quite unlike the kind of POVs Western players produce. Firstly GoodRifle can fluctuate from appearing to have sloppy aim to having killer precision headshot aim in a fraction of a second, within the same sequence even. This demo is mainly a lot of rounds where he kills one or two and then dies himself. An example of his aim is the round where he kills two Ts with headshots from medium range as they are coming up the stairs of catwalk. Later in the 11th round GoodRifle kills a couple of enemies from the spawn with an AWP and then uses an SK to kill the last terrorist who has planted from below him while he is in site. By far the best moment comes in the final and most crucial round as TyLoo need to win it to tie the game and knock out fnatic. With B overrun GoodRifle goes nuts and kills four players one by one, three of them with headshots, using his lockon and then tap style of rifle shooting.
Not the craziest demo but an interesting insight into a relatively unknown player and some excitement along the way when you know the context of the action.
Thorin rating: 7/10
Star of the show
coL vs. Frag Dominant on de_dust2 (WCG USA qualifier)
POV: evolution
Stats:
T-side 25-7
coL may have gotten run over when it mattered the most at the WCG USA qualifier against Turmoil and EG.usa but the appearance of this demo makes up for that from a fan’s perspective. evolution has also just been removed from the team, but clearly not for his play if this is anything to go on. In this demo evolution gets his AWP going on LAN and I mean really going. Some of the stuff he does here you have to keep remembering this is a LAN event the demo comes from and not just an online game.
You get the hint evo’s AWP is on when he headshots the guy crossing double doors on the 3rd round but then on the 5th the message gets through loud and clear when he noscopes two guys in a row who are rushing him at long A doors up close. The noscope becomes the weapon of choice as far as entertaining the viewer in this demo. The last 4 rounds see plenty of action as we see more noscopes and all in different scenarios. What makes them so satisfying to watch is the speed some of them come at meaning you think he’s about to die and he suddenly has the enemy dead and is moving on.
This isn’t an AWP demo where you see a lot of actual AWP shots, as in scoped in tracking shots or flick shots onto groups of enemies. Instead it’s a lot of really nice and sometimes crazy noscope shots across the whole map seemingly, there’s not just one spot where they occur. This demo may remind some people that when it comes to the AWP and North America it’s not only about fRoD.
Thorin rating: 8.5/10
Certified classic
fnatic vs. SK-gaming on de_inferno
POV: f0rest
Stats:
CT-side 23-7
After his one man wrecking crew display against TitaNs what better time to reminisce on f0rest’s incredible display against SK-gaming at EM III Montreal. On its own this demo would be nuts but the fact it is against either the 3rd or 4th best team in the world that year, on LAN and in the deciding map of a final where fnatic came from the lower bracket all combines to make my head almost exploded trying to comprehend f0rest’s play. One of the baffling qualities of the great ones is their ability to play at the very peak of their game in the highest pressure moments. There are plenty of top players who in practice or against weaker opposition can take your breath away with out of this world frags but there are only a handful who can do it in finals or against the best competition deep in tournaments. We’ve all known f0rest was one of those guys for all his other legendary performances but this one really takes the cake and to get a POV of it was a beautiful thing in and of itself for those of us who remember the bad old days of the CPL and company.
The pistol round lets you know what kind of mood f0rest is in as he headshots the first two guys out of balcony with single bullets and then kills a third SK player with a single bullet before finishing on a four kill round. Aside from some eco fragging the demo slows down a little in terms of action for our hero then but on the 9th round f0rest pops like neo towards the end of the first matrix film and realizes he is unstoppable. At the bottom of banana f0rest kills one SK player then while pulling back for a second with only 7 bullets left in his colt he is pushed by another, he then proceeds to kill two SK players in quick succession with gorgeous burst headshots and using only 6 of his remaining 7 bullets to do so. This guy is so incredible sometimes you can’t get over it, you keep expecting the novelty of the things he does to wear off but it never seems to because it’s above and beyond even what some of the other elite players can do at times.
In the following, 10th, round f0rest manages to change my mind on eco frags momentarily as he rips SK players left, right and center as they rush up middle. The 15th round sees him with a nice two kill round for which the second kill is a thing of beauty, barely spots the side of the enemy’s head before he has moved in a smooth motion, locked on and executed a headshot. When f0rest plays like this it’s not really fair for the other teams, their only comfort is knowing not even f0rest can play like this every game.
Thorin rating: 9/10
Use of the coLdemoplayer is recommended. http://code.google.com/p/coldemoplayer/
The Demo Show will return in the near future to profile more great POV demos as well as bring you another classic blast from the past.