You ever have one of those ideas that sound great in your head, even at the same time you’re realizing it’s completely crazy? I happen to have one of those ideas.
The good thing about them is you know immediately whether your crazy idea is going to fail or succeed, and it’s either going to burn like the Hindenburg or become as popular as adding “izzle” onto words to sound cool. If it’s truly crazy (crazizzle?), people are going to be skeptical even when you’re just setting up the idea. You’ll get some furrowed brows, a snort or two, and maybe the dreaded stink eye if you're really off your rocker. So at that point you know it’s not going well, but it’s not like you can stop, either. The idea’s been percolating too long, and it’s time to let it out into the world. And the great thing about a site like this is that I get to go down swinging in front of thousands of strangers.
(Here goes nothing … )
What’s the one thing in sports that makes any situation more exciting? Overtime. The only thing better than Albert Pujols hitting a game winning grand slam in the bottom of the ninth during the World Series is Pujols hitting that home run in the bottom of the eighteenth inning. (Bonus points if it utterly crushes the psyche of the other team or pitcher. Minus points if you’re rooting for that team.) There’s only one unbreakable, irrefutable, irrevocable law for overtime: it has to be fair. Teams can’t play to a tie in regulation only to be given an advantage in overtime based on the luck of the draw. Yes, National Football League, I’m looking at you. The team that wins the coin flip in an overtime NFL game has around a 60% chance of winning the contest. That’s a good ratio when I’m all-in with a pair of fives, not when the Chicago Bears are getting ready to play the Green Bay Packers in OT. And really, everybody knows it’s unbalanced. Think of it this way: is there any set of circumstances where an NFL team would choose to be the defense first? Maya Angelou could be the quarterback and they’d still choose to receive the kick. That’s a sign there might be a slight imbalance.
Sadly, the only thing worse than the NFL overtime is the system the CGS is using. They have a one round overtime, even on maps where the defense wins seven out of nine rounds. Which means in the CGS Finals the best teams in the world could play to a 9-9 tie, and then one of them would be randomly given almost an 80% chance of winning. Good plan. If I had hopes of winning, I’d start figuring out who’s going to be flipping that coin, and if they prefer a Ferrari or a Lamborghini. Barring that, I’d start learning magic tricks with double-sided coins.
There needs to be something different for the sake of fairness, and instead of going back to the boring old OT formats, here’s my crazy idea: go with a hockey or soccer shootout. They’re the most exciting overtime formats in professional sports because the whole game literally rides on every shot. You can’t get more dramatic than that. Even the MLB uses the same system, there just isn’t a predetermined number of rounds. In hockey you get five rounds (shots on goal), whereas in baseball the first team that outscores the other in a round (inning) wins. If three of the most successful professional leagues use that basic format, and everybody agrees the one that doesn’t is silly, maybe competitive gaming should do something similar. I see some eyes rolling just at the thought of a shootout in Counter-Strike, but it could work.
Here’s how it would look: the terrorist team has five players with pistols, attacking a site against one defender with a rifle. Basically, the weapon and position advantages go to the defender, while the attackers just have to rely on greater numbers. (Terran vs. Zerg, if you’re a Starcraft fan.) There’s going to be complaints about the arbitrary or artificial nature of the setup, but it’s no different than soccer or hockey where they remove the whole defense and leave only a goalie. It’s just a test of skill for the most talented player on each team.
Of course, that’s only the basic format. I’m not sure what the best weapon restrictions would be. Five Deagles seems like too much of an advantage for the offense, so maybe they get four Glocks and one USP. Full nades for the defender seems excessive, too. It wouldn’t be much fun if he could just blind everybody and pick three people while they can’t see or hear. Maybe the defender gets two nades of any kind, and the offense has one flash to help them through a choke point.
The maps would have to be slightly altered as well – one CT can’t cover both sites, even against five people with pistols. But it wouldn’t be too hard to just cut out part of a map, or at the very least you could just label areas off-limits and have any team that goes out of bounds disqualified or that member is ruled “dead”. The overall goal of the whole setup should making the round hard enough on the defender that aces are still special, but easy that he doesn’t get creamed. If it’s too easy or too hard, it becomes too predictable.
Even though it’s completely different than the current OT formats, it’s clearly more fair than what the CGS is using. Teams would be playing on the same map with the same restrictions so there isn’t anything inherently unfair with the setup, unlike a coin flip to determine which team gets CT side on Nuke. In this system, the player with the best individual performance wins the match for his team, which can hardly be considered unfair. Artificially forcing the action with the player imbalance will make sure the pace is fast and entertaining, which is a huge concern for the CGS. In my mind I imagine Method trying to hold off five members from coL rushing, and he needs four kills to win the tournament for 3D. What’s better than watching one of the most talented players getting to show of his skills under pressure?
Truthfully, the chance of this being implemented is smaller than the chance of finding WMDs in Iraq tomorrow. But it’s fun to think about, and the CGS system definitely needs to be changed. I promise if they use my suggestion I won’t demand royalties. Not being crazy is enough of a reward for me.
