Intel Extreme Master has recently imposed a rule regarding in-game suicide in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, it lasted only three days.
On 4 November, Intel Extreme Master implemented the rule and received criticism from most professional players. A player was not allowed to cause suicides of their player character in-game intentionally. The methods included the /kill command in-game or using special map features to deny kills for the opposing team (such as jumping off cliffs in specific maps).
Instead of banning the practice of denying your opponent kill money, Intel Extreme Masters will start talking to the Association of Counter-Strike Professionals to find a solution that pleases all parties involved.
The rule affected recent professional games because it didn’t allow players to commit tactical suicide to deny opponents kill money and an economy bonus. If a player died to an SMG, for example, the killer gained 600 cash, which is quite significant in a low economy round. If someone commits tactical suicide, the enemy player will earn 300 money instead, which is the most moderate bonus possible.
The trigger for this rule was the recent actions of professional players at the German ESL National Championship, where many professional players would commit tactical suicide, making the game non-interactive for enemies. The rule had it’s flaw though; it didn’t forbid enemies to walk into Molotov grenades, which would grant low kill money to the opposing player as well.
Going into the 2020 season, Intel Extreme Masters stated that they’d look to discuss with all parties involved in the professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive scene to identify flaws in the rulebook and update it accordingly. Even though, sometimes players refer to some tactics as a tactical advantage, they are usually close to breaking the official rules for the tournament.
As a result, more caution will be paid in the future regarding such tactics, more notable tactics which were banned was also stacking to gain vision in inaccessible areas or throwing the grenade in a specific spot to trigger it on the other side without exposing yourself.
Counter-Strike is not the only game, where professional players tend to look for different tactics and exploit them, a recent case has happened over in World of Warcraft, where players would abuse a specific spot in the arena to make them non-targetable by ranged abilities, while they could still cast ranged abilities on allies.
This is human nature, after all, looking for every small advantage to gain over the opponents. Stay tuned for the update rule book for the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive 2020 season coming soon.
