[ihalip]

I fondly remember playing fy_iceworld and minor variations of it in netcafes 20 years ago. What made these maps special was that they 1) removed all game strategy - just walk 2 steps to pick up a gun and go fight the enemy, and 2) there were no hiding spots - so no more campers. For kids who could only afford 1 hour of computer time in a netcafe, fy_iceworld was the obvious choice.

[damagednoob]

I think there are two other factors that people forget.

1) Most (if not all) FPSs at the time (Quake 3, Halflife etc.) had respawn times of around 10s after death. Counter-Strike introduced the idea of rounds which only ended when your whole team died. Scenarios would often play out with 8 players dead watching 2 players camping out the round.

2) IIRC, the default round timer was 5 minutes. This promoted conservative game play which slowed the pace of the game, especially for new players. I stopped playing CS for years but when I came to CS:GO, it was so refreshing that the round timer had been reduced to 3 mins. I spent countless hours being dead watching other people play out rounds.