Counter Strike: Global Offensive is, on balance, a better competitive FPS than Team Fortress 2.

A big thanks to Icylittlething for accepting! I look forward to a fun debate. Keep in mind throughout this debate I will mostly be referring to 6v6 TF2 as it's deemed the more "competitive" out of TF2's two primary competitive gamemodes, though I'll also make references to the other gamemode, Highlander, or 9v9 one-of-each-class gameplay. The BoP is on me to show CS:GO is a better competitive FPS than TF2, and it is my opponent’s goal to prove that TF2 is a better competitive FPS than CS:GO. Let’s begin. C1. Accessibility of Competition Both TF2 and CS:GO have a competitive side to them that’s available to access. However, when looking at the longevity of a game, determining the ease of access to a competitive side of the game is very important. And CS:GO has much easier access to a competitive format than TF2, ignoring the cost barrier. For starters, CS:GO, at this point in time, has a complete matchmaking system built into the client, with a ranking system to boot. TF2 has no such thing. This matchmaking is not the epitome of competition within CS:GO, as there many higher services such as ESEA or FaceIt available to those seeking better competition. The closest alternative TF2 has to this is tf2center.com, which works similarly to a PUG (pick-up game) service. Because TF2 has no matchmaking built into the client, if there are any unaware of these external sites, they will not be able to play competitively, and instead stick to the public servers Valve provides. Which leads into my next point- While Valve IS preparing for competitive in TF2 (through the use of buffs/nerfs), their primary demographic is the “pub” scene, or the scene that consists of players who spend most of their time in public servers rather than competitive ones. The only notable example of influence for competitive TF2 is a player by the name of “b4nny”, who did a Q&A about Competitive as he was one of the beta testers [1]. A notable example of Valve’s catering toward the pub scene is the Machina and the Phlogistinator’s weapon balances. The Phlogistinator was a weapon many pub players considered overpowered even before its buff, yet competitive players knew it was not a good weapon in the slightest, removing the Pyro’s utility. When Valve buffed it, the pub scene constantly complained about how overpowered it was, yet comp players still thought it wasn’t good because it’s completely countered through knowing where the Pyro is and watching the flanks. Because of the “complaints” Valve received, they nerfed the Phlog. The Machina, on the other hand, is a weapon considered blatantly overpowered in competitive due to being able to, with proper communication/assistance, completely negate its downsides. The pub scene doesn’t have the same issue, and as such it wasn’t nerfed. In addition to all of this, Valve has yet to finish a competitive matchmaking service over 8 YEARS after TF2’s release, even when the interest has been there for a long time, and has been expressed (it was even revealed back in April of 2015 [2] that Valve is working on competitive, about 10 months ago). If Valve refuses to listen to its competitive community for so long, and still doesn’t listen, it won’t succeed as a competitive shooter. Thirdly, there are a LOT more resources available for those looking to get better at CS:GO than those looking to get better at TF2. Some examples include: sothatwemaybefree.com netcodeguides.com “steel” and “adreN”’s YouTube channels Workshop maps (training_aim_csgo2, recoil master, grenade maps, etc.) Lastly, Valve is very poor when it comes to optimizing their game. First, Valve is forcing DirectX 9 in their matchmaking service. While this is not bad in itself, the thing that is bad is Valve’s lack of optimization in TF2. Over the years of adding cosmetics, particle effects, etc., Valve has not optimized their game well enough to even be played on higher end systems without an external graphics config. If a newer player wants to play but has a bad computer, they likely can’t due to how poor TF2’s optimization is. If Valve is considering matchmaking, they have to make their game at least able to maintain a consistent 144 frames per second on a decent card. Secondly, the voice codec for TF2 is heavily outdated. It has very bad quality and the delay is too long to be of any use competitively. CS, on the other hand, is well optimized and can run really well even on lower end machines. C2. Skill Floor/Ceiling The skill floor for CS:GO is a lot lower than that of TF2’s. This is because there are no really advanced mechanics a player needs to know before getting started in competitive. They need to know how to aim, common grenade spots, the map layout, and some weapon aspects (such as cost). In TF2, you’ll need to know all of the above (save grenades and economy), but in addition, you’ll also need to know about crit heals, Ubercharge, off-classes (in 6s), heal order, spies/spychecking (in HL), and how to push/hold in 5CP, among others. This makes the barrier for entry in competitive a lot harder for newer players in TF2 than in CS. Once this barrier is passed, however, the skill ceiling is a lot higher in CS than in TF2. This is because, apart from gamesense, the game revolves around proper crosshair placement. Evident in grenade throws, peeking angles, and AWPing, crosshair placement has an infinitely high skill ceiling because people rely on precise crosshair placement that has yet to be 100% perfect (or even close to 100%!). This can be improved upon and perfected tons over time, as well as gamesense. TF2 does not place as much as an emphasis on crosshair precision. While it’s still necessary to aim well in TF2 (especially for Sniper), no class has the same amount of precision needed to aim, control recoil (recoil isn’t evident in TF2), etcetera than the people in CS GO. Classes such as Medic, Demo, Pyro, Spy, and Soldier all have it so that their primary weapon isn’t a hitscan gun (Spy’s is technically his knife), while Scout, Heavy, Engineer, and Sniper have all hitscan primaries, 3/4 of whose primaries have lots of leniency when aiming. If someone is seeking competition, they are seeking depth. CS:GO provides more depth to a game than TF2 does, resulting in more room for improvement and competition. C3. eSports Scene While this does not directly deal with playerbase, the population and power of the CS:GO eSports scene should definitely be noted. The scene is alive and thriving. This is evident through many different tourneys (ESL Cologne, ESL Katowice, etc.) as well as the betting on CSGOLounge. The tourneys have large prizes and pots of hundreds of thousands of dollars, while the closest TF2 has to one of these tourneys is the Insomnia series, which pales in comparison to the previously mentioned tournaments. CS:GO betting also helps keep the scene alive, through the use of CSGL betting. Players can bet a certain amount of skins, and receive, in dollar value, some skins back if they win (in addition to their own). If they lose, they lose their skin. This encourages those seeking profit to look into the scene and its players quite a bit to profit. TF2 betting exists, but is rather small, in the form of saloon.tf. Compare some of their recent bets (50 combined) to CSGL, where tens of thousands of bets are placed on various teams. The most notable example of how large the scene is is sponsors. Professional organizations such as Cloud9, CLG, Fnatic, and iBUYPOWER have all taken a large role in CS:GO competitive. They sponsor their players, help them head to tournaments, allow for sponsorships, etc., while most of the sponsors for TF2 (Intel most notably) have dropped out. The most recent sponsor to TF2 is Razer through their use of the Razer Arena, though it’s nowhere near as popular as services such as ESEA and FaceIt. I rushed my arguments last minute due to accidental deletion, so I apologize. I look forward to Con’s Round 2! Sources: [1] [2]