CSGO AWP Nerf

It is an one-shot, one-kill weapons which is basically why people call it OP. First lets see the Pros and Cons of the AWP. Pros: 1. One shot is an insta-kill unless shot at the legs. 2. It's long ranged weapon with a scope that can zoom twice 3. One AWP can change the whole course of the game. 4. You can easily defend huge places with just one AWP. 5. Ever since the 3/31/15 update, when scoped you make no sound while walking. Cons: 1. It's bolt-action, making the Rate of Fire really slow. 2. It's heavy, making you move slowly(200 units per second when unscoped while the nerf made it 100 ups when scoped). 3. You need to stay still to be accurate. 4. It's really expensive ($4750) as it is one of the most expensive guns in the game. 5. The kill reward is really low ($100 per kill) giving you a lower economy when using it. 6. When unscoped it is inaccurate and compared to 1.6 quickscopes in CSGO aren't as accurate either. 7. The amount of time needed to be accurate when scoped is at least 0.4 seconds(giving enough time for Riflers to one-tap you) and firing immediately after reloading makes the shot inaccurate. 8. It's a situational weapon often discarded for a rifle in many cases 9. You can be easily flashed and overwhelmed if nobody is there to help you. 10. If you miss, you are probably as good as dead. From what I just wrote you could say that the AWP is a High-Risk, High-Reward weapon as it is expensive and the kill reward is low, but in competitive the AWP serves the purpose to make teams guarantee victory as much as possible. Now what did the nerf do to the AWP? All it did was reduce movement speed while scoped(from 150ups the update made it 100ups). Is that really a big change? YES IT IS. What the nerf did to the AWP was prevent players from doing Aggressive AWPing(like what KennyS does best) which was a style of AWPing that was hard and takes months practicing since AWPing itself isn't an easy task and makes peeking corners even much harder. It makes the game even more CT sided since T's can't risk peeking with an AWP in most cases giving then T's a harder time getting into a bomb site. This nerf also makes the game more campy than it should be making people rely on doing it even more, "It's a sniper rifle, they're supposed to camp" is one of the points people make of this but what is more important? Realism or Gameplay? The AWP was never overpowered, in fact it was perfectly balanced before the update. If the AWP was so "OP" why are teams not filled with 4-5 AWPers? Why do people still use rifles if the AWP was overpowered? All this nerf does is benefit riflers, campers and changing the meta, for the worse. "How does giving riflers a better chance of killing an AWPer be a bad thing? " Let's compare it to a game we all played as a child: Rock,Paper,Scissors. Rock beats Scissors, Scissors beats Paper, Paper beats Rock. Now this is how it's supposed to be and should stay that way. An AWPer should always or usually beat the rifler, not the other way around, just like pokemon: Fire isn't effective to dragon while dragon is weak to it's own type. Now the effects of the nerf is that it changes the meta of the game that even the maps are effected since all these maps were made with areas for peeking. The AWP is already a risk using and they make it harder to use. It also effects the professional teams since many are based on the AWP picks(like Titan,Fnatic,etc. ) and many players(even the pros) were complaining from steam to Twitter: . https://mobile.twitter.com... and . https://mobile.twitter.com... . Now many AWPers hard work practicing their aggressive styles have now been wasted thanks to this nerf. Seriously, just imagine that all your hard work just vanished within one update. .. . " This AWP nerf brought to attention to players that they cannot only depend on ONE weapon to do everything" No one ever depended on the AWP in winning. It can help you win but it will never fully guarantee it. The AWP is not something you can just pick up for the first time and say "I'm godly with this weapon"(unless you're playing with silvers). AWPing takes a lot of practicing, there is a reason why JW and KennyS are the best AWPers in the world. .. .. But not the BEST PLAYERS of the world. Most of the top players of CSGO are RIFLERS, such as GeT_Right, some other peeps. These guys are at the top since CSGO is a rifle-dominated game and get more opportunities on killing enemies while AWPers can only get an angle. Although JW's aggressive AWPing is OP, it is the player not the gun. The AWP is just a tool, only the player decides how to use it. He chose how and is good at it. You can't nerf something just because one guy is too good at it, you nerf it if it's unfair and easily done by anyone. The player is good, not the AWP. What about an alternative? The Scout! You see, the scout is supposed to be a weaker and cheaper alternative of the AWP. That's all it should be. But we could adapt from these changes and simply go on with our lives right? No, the thing is the nerf was completely unnecessary, it's like fixing something that isn't broken. They could have nerfed the AWP in a less-game changing way such as diminishing the amount of ammo per magazine. It's just really sad that they made something that took skill to use into a campyty-camp pile of garbage. CSGO is a competitive-Esport game that takes skill to play. Valve shouldn't make it easy for everyone, since it's supposed to be hard in the first place. That's why we have professional players, because they practice and practice ti'll they got good at it. Now if what I wrote does not content you, let me introducing someone: This is Thorin, a journalist and an expert Esport historian. He recently posted his opinion on the update on youtube. I think you should watch it since he does bring up various good points(the video is at least 18 mins long): . https://m.youtube.com... That'll be the end of my arguement. I wish good luck to my opponent :) "We need to have an Icefrog-ish dev team at CSGO :/"