Why CSGO Surf Died
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- Опубліковано 21 лис 2022
- Or Is it... • They Said our Game was...
Surf has survived for 18 years across almost a dozen platforms. In particular, KSF Servers were regarded as the pinnacle of surfdom, with the fastest times and most consistent players. However, in recent years KSF has seen their numbers reduce significantly, in tandem with the surf communities of TF2, GMOD, and Roblox.
This is a post-mortum on CSGO Surf; why did numbers so drastically decrease in just two years? And could the answer hold the key to its revival?
tags
CS Surf,Source,XQC surf,bhop pro,cs go surf,cs source surf,cs surf,csgo surf,csgo surf gameplay,dizzy surf,how to play surf on csgo,how to surf csgo,how to surf in csgo,ksfrecords,poke surf,pokelawls surf,repster,repstersurf,surf csgo,surf ski 2,surf ski 2 cs 1.6,tips cs go surf,CS:GO Surf Cheating,CS Surf Cheating,momentum mod, momentum mod update, momentum mod release date, momentum mod waitlist, surf ski 2 - Ігри
Private servers are a big issue in smaller knit communities where much of the player base are players that have played for years. Although I am not from surf or bhop which I feel are much more known rather than kz (my primary game mode) our community experiences many of the same issues as other movement based communities. Our high skill ceilings compared to the real game tends to lead people away along with the fact we are playing a mini game inside a game. Just looking at statistics kz for 2019 had 84% of new unique players not being able to finish a map and I feel that says a lot about how difficult movement in general is.
I think kz in general is just an inherently more difficult gamemode than bhop and surf. In my opinion, there is much more tech in kz and just general map knowledge that is necessary in order to be decent at this game compared to the other gamemodes. Not that the other gamemodes can't be difficult, but just to start out in kz you must know more about source movement than you need to for the other game modes, which is probably a huge factor in the fact that newbies can't finish a map, and then quit.
Late to the conversation but I think the real issue is just way more simple.
I used to be a big movement nerd back in like 2008, played a shitton of kz, surf, and other movement gamemodes like hns and deathrun. Right now on csgo, when I join a surf or kz server, most of the time I end up on a map that I am either barely able to beat, or just outright can't. The difficulty of maps has risen so much, that the only "easy" maps for me are basically only 1.6 ports.
Back in 1.6 days, most maps were stupidly long, but they all allowed casual players to progress, nowadays I can easily get stuck in the first few minutes on an annoying ladder jump, or a surf portion that requires a lot of strafing around but without losing that much velocity.
What the community needs is to rethink map design, maybe even giving easier routes, or keeping difficult parts as "skips" instead of basing all maps around incredibly hard jumps.
@@lef_kuralate again buuut, joined kz about 5 months ago and now Im playing pretty hard maps, up to easy t6.
There are platforms that host servers for individual map tiers, few for t1-t3, t4-t5, and the hardest ones. One of such platforms is cybershock, plus you can just rtv on kzclimb servers and see the map tiers when choosing.
But honestly, when I started, I was driven by... something? and just continued to play on random maps, I knew only air strafing, just around the corner and was bashing my head on xplay, which are not global servers and dont even show map tiers. But even there I met some good players that taught me, well, eventually you start analyzing yourself and become much better. And now, I'm the one teaching new players, most of them are too 'good' to be taught, so they miserably fail, and even if they listen to me, not all of them will continue to play. I've taught about 20-30 ppl about pre, air strafing, ladder jumps and many other tech things by now, but I still think that the entry point is high.
Most players see kz on xplay and dont know what that shit is, when they struggle they quit right away and dont come back, I, on the other hand, tried kz affter discovering it on yt and had a goal of improving. Compared to kz most of cs playerbase know about surf and bhop, they know it looks cool, and best players are crazy good, but kz is just much smaller, they encounter that wall, and have no motivation to continue.
Lots of text, but just everything i saw for these past 5 months.
And I was having fun in public servers, but after waiting for the night and rtv-ing for some hard maps to beat, and having some bozos join when there are 10 empty servers, and fucking rtv the map after close/more 1h of progress, I honestly wish for a private server, I stopped playing alone on hard maps, if I see a hard map, I will take some time to commit or just skip it, instead of just diving into that test of my skill. These lil goblins know nothing, dont wanna know nothing, talk trash, cant even play t2 maps and ruin your day.
Honestly cybershock is one of the best solutions but still not perfect, there are few good players, less communication, sometimes you will just be alone, which is fine if the you just wanna play, but, well, talking with some bois is fun, the best ppl in cs I've met are from kz public servers, it would be nice if based on the points you gain from maps, or just your current timer you if dont want to rtv they cant, or you just have a higher priority.
These noobs are prevalent in all cs movemsnt communities, and are ruining it all.
Regardless of if surf is gonna take the path of decline the next years, I'll always be there on some kind of server. It's just too much fun to pass up
I play csgo as a coping mechanism for Depression. It keeps me distracted from the thoughts and voices in my head.
Thats cool
it’s not a coping mechanism, it’s a distraction, you’re putting off the inevitable. face your issues like a man and stop hiding from them
@@willparker7763 he’s being ironic you can tell, nobody would say “voices in my head” unironicly
@@Ajwct i see, my mistake. for a minute there i thought he was serious.
L
I have been a casual surfer since the 1.6 days (15 years ago) and only within the last few months have gotten more interested (addicted). A big part of it for me was finding your videos, Repster. I have been subscribed to KSFRecords for years and I would always watch their uploads but I think the real problem is the lack of a personality spearheading the communal interest. Take WoW for example, there are so many massive streamers/personalities that all have their own thriving communities that keep interest and content going. The first person to really rope me into WoW Content was TotalBiscuit, rest in peace.
I think that what your doing and your effort to bring back the community of Surfing is awesome and I am really appreciative and thankful for it.
Keep fighting the good fight
makes a huge difference. i love surf but i dont have the personality or passion for content creation. all you can find when you type 'csgo surf' on youtube is a bunch of godlike players and no tutorials or commentary. its already a niche game mode and theres no central place to learn about it or participate
Really well said. I agree that Repster is also helping revive my interest in surf.
(also a long time 15+ year vet)
On the one hand, I'm really glad I started surf on Roblox then discovered CSS surf through KSFrecords and skipped the commentary videos with subpar gameplay in the background.
On the other hand, it's really sad to see that competitive surf is dying (many would argue already dead), and that I basically jumped on a sinking ship.
Even though I am just one person, hopefully this still gives you hope that new players can still discover this game and that the community can survive.
Got a pc 3 days ago and havebeat utopia and handful of other maps on roblox and csgo and it sucks to feel so late what was a blossoming community but I will continue to play until I cannot anymore.
@@rize... How is your surf career going now:?
@@TheRealTaco Slow but steady. I’ve been slowly trying harder and harder maps but momentum mod has really sped up my pace I have finished some tier 4 maps but I have issues with boarding more awkward angles that I need to straighten out. For now im just a slightly above average surfer.
To be honest, I do play Roblox surf, but the community is less fragmented and better than you would think.
It allows many new and inexperienced players to find the game and from there want to learn to play it, and as many get better they start to branch out, looking at surf content and finding things like CSS and csgo and other places to do surf. (This is unintentionally also how I found your channel)
The main reason I rather the Roblox community even though I tried the counter strike ones is mainly because I feel the private server Vs public server system in it works better than any other, and there is an honestly good array in the styles of maps and the skill of players, and many of which play in the public servers. These allow newer players to strive to match the skill shown by others. It also means there is so much support for newer players.
It also features many styles not seen in other areas of surf which create new challenges to learn (styles like a only and w only).
Also it is just simpler and easier to use than the older systems. The guis in it are so much simpler, and the quick load and pick up and play a map style means it can be played by anyone with any laptop no matter how bad.
It's movement may be more forgiving with much of it, but it doesn't lack the fun feeling or surf that any of the counter strikes do and it is mainly beneficial to the community around surf, as it then reaches to a much younger audience (as most people who are not an adult have never heard of CSS or such).
Only sucks that new more surf like physics update means half the maps need fixing :D
Also didn't mean for this to go on for so long lol
Same story can be told about bhop, and it truly feels terrible being one of the last players who has not yet moved on
Lil bro u started bhopping in 2022
@@shanebhop shane on my dick once gain 🥱
@@shanebhop i started bhopping in 2007 and surf i feel sad for it all to die :(
transition at 1:25 is really cool
very nicely produced. as a kz / bhopper i'd love to see such a well produced video about those modes
Surf suffers from some of the same problems that games like stepmania or ddr have. The skill floor is waay higher than the main game's (csgo/css, etc) so new players, or even experienced players, that aren't too familiar with source movement might not be interested in picking up something that is just seen as a side mode.
The bigger problem, though, is that the skill curve is quite steep, just like ddr or stepmania (or any rhythm game for that matter), so that in combination with how surf isn't really seen as a game on its own makes it almost definitely doomed to a small but dedicated community.
Even with momentum mod, I can't really see the community exploding that much. You might want to compare it to something like trackmania, but that game's skill floor is pretty much as low as it gets, unlike surf.
All in all, surf will never die, but I can't see it being mainstream any time soon.
as a stepmania player i agree lol
big fax
passou de 2 linha n leio
@@bunny_hop 🗿
we could lower that skill floor by creating and playing easier maps, but then it just becomes a strafe contest for the best players and they'll get bored of that quickly.
I remember my first exposure to surf... I was browsing the CS:S server browser, looking for all the weirdass game modes that lived there. Then I saw a server running surf__110b_austinpowers. There were 32 players in the server almost constantly, and good lord was the experience magical. Part of me misses the wild-west of the CS:S server browser.
I remember that map, lol. Yeah, it was nice having the minigame servers packed with people just having fun. It’s sad to see how empty the vast majority of the servers are now. 1.6 is more active than source. Still, I hop on there every once and a while and stop by ksf, gungame servers, etc. Trying to enjoy it before it’s completely dead
im still just sitting here mindblown by the transition into aircontrol
ikr
*(why css surf died)*
ye
we dont use css in titles here
@@Repster bait and switch
4:19 i fail to see how charging $100 a month for a server on a 20 year old game isn't greed on the server owner's part
They charged 100 becuase they didn't think he would pay that amount of money. (I think) which means they weren't too found of the idea of private servers? therefore the greed is with the player and not the owner.
If they charged less for private servers, then there would be more private servers, making the problem worse. Maybe the server owner is being greedy but that is a separate issue from what Repster is talking about, which is not greed in terms of money but rather greed in terms of space.
From what I've heard, they charged $100 as a joke amount because they didn't expect boo to pay for it. Even after they found out boo was one rich motherfucker, it still took some persuading to get it hosted. Honestly I wouldn't blame the server owners, they are literally hosting the plugins and public servers for free, and the money was just too good to pass up.
Damn this is sad, brings back some good memories seeing all those OG names in the chatlog, I used to surf for years and years on KSF servers. Drained over 4000+ hours into it! Life changes tho, work and family commitments take over and it's not the same as when you're a kid. There's a few of my WR runs floating around on the KSF channel I think from about 10 years ago. Highly doubt they're still standing but seems like there's a new Josh on the block smashing WRs left right and centre
I think the issue with Momentum Mod is that it's production has been incredibly slow. I've heard nonstop about Momentum Mod from hardcore surfers and it's still nothing like surfing in CSS or CSGO. The past 2 years, Surf has been good to me. Been hopping around NA communities and always find servers to play in.
TIL about Momentum Mod. Thanks!
As a casual, momentum mod is really cool. The movement is close enought so that I don't see a difference, and I can play on wifi and stuff easely
i have been thinking about this so much lately, nicely made!
Great video! And didn't expect to see myself at the end there :)
>You can't find surf if you don't know about it.
Of course you can. I did, I stumbled across it when looking through the server browser as a stupid kid back in CS 1.6 days. I must have spent hundreds of hours on surf ski 2. I also found Leafy when he was at 300k subs I think and started watching him partly to learn surf in GO. And to this day, I still play it every now and then. Especially after I watch videos like yours, just seeing the maps activates muscle memory for me. Good video, glad UA-cam recommended me your content. Surf's not dead.
I recently started surfing on CS:S again after a more than decade long hiatus. Back then I mostly played deathmatch surf, but wasn't very skilled in surfing, just understood the basics enough to be able to launch off ramps. I played CSGO, primarily competitive matchmaking from like 2012 -2015 then stopped playing all together. I would occasionally open CS:S from time to time to play some gun game but that was it. My only exposure to gaming was watching others play. Recently I started watching this twitch streamer Atrioc who is known for Hitman speed running, and I caught a VOD of him learning to surf. After watching that I was getting UA-cam recommendations for surf videos including ones from your channel, and I decided to hop on the KSF beginner server on CS:S. I've gotta say I've been having a great time, I finally found enjoyment playing a game that I haven't felt in a very long time. Over the past two weeks I've managed to improve my surfing enough to the point that I've actually managed to complete 7 or 8 maps at this point. One thing that CS:S surf has going for it is that PC requirements aren't a problem.
john thats awesome! not many folks have made their way to KSF, I'm glad you're enjoying it. Yeah atrioc's video was funny, tragic that he started on surf_simpsons lol
7:48 the irony of surfers staying on land in this metaphor
Idk if any of you guys used to play on the Abyss server (formally Skillsurf), but that was peak surf for me. It wasn't a server I used in the peak of surf's history, and it was shut down back in February of 2020, but that community was one of the most fun things I have been a part of. RIP Abyss Surf Utopia 24/7
I used to play these servers called "go-free" and they hosted 24/7 Meta, Utopia, Kitsune and Beginner. Remember loving to chat away with the people in there, and there was always some interesting characters, and some really lovely chats you'd get to have at 1AM on a weekend. I remember the ranking system on the server used to go up to 80,000+. You'll be lucky to see 3 people on there at a time now, and it really makes me sad to see.
1:48 - 1:50 thats me 🥶
It's ok guys source 2 for csgo will be so bad people will move back to css and ksf will thrive
I wish I could give two thumbs up, one for the overall video and another for throwing shade at leafy
Why doesnt KSF have csgo servers anymore? Just recently got into your content and im loving it, i've surfed before but i really want to improve now. I just dont really wanna install CSS, even if I have it. Oh and the CSGO server browser is kinda broken atm so that makes it kinda hard to find good servers...
Surfheaven and GFL are both very good (you can google them.)
Alternatively I have a full list of servers in my discord in the description above!
@@Repster I will live and die by Horizon's bot path, don't u dare exclude me!
I know this is 8 months old but the real reason links back to the reason they made it into this video. Greed, they never cornered the market for cs:go so people just went to other servers. With CSS they have almost the whole pie and make good money from private servers. Why waste time on a game you dont make much money on when you can cut that loose and make more on one game.
Leafy had so much influence for surf with his sapphire comedy. I know players like morning and habitat would agree it’s sad to see people sensitize and overreact to this, You all see the decline in popularity in present time but I feel surf will grow again.
Great video!
I started surfing on ksf in 2014 and man it was fun times :D glad I was there while it was still poppin' tf off. Made a lot of good homies.
Where do people surf now?
7:41 I only play the Roblox version. I like how easy the server stuff is and everything is always connected. I always had issues in other games from missing textures or not understanding how leaderboards work. Roblox made it easy, and I think a big reason surf lost popularity is because of how hard it is for new players to start playing. Most surf maps are literally impossible for someone with less than 250 hours of practice, and new players who don't understand that will have a hard time finding the easy maps to practice on.
I'd imagine that Valve cracking down on clients loading third party assets also accelerated the decline of community servers. Casual players in between games wouldn't risk joining these lobbies anymore because they may have to restart their game. That small inconvenience would eventually cause people to stop joining community servers.
"...banned from youtube, after a long and abhorrent career..." XD I love this sentence. Also wonderful job repster, great vid.
Nice video! love ur content
i love my combat surf pls bring my only joy in life back😂
I learned to surf from Leafy's tutorial
I loved the combat surf with awp no scope flickshots in cs:s..surf in cs:go just didn't feel as smooth for me somehow
"Missing map.." is why it died for me
You play on KSF servers Repster? Just wondering
Ksf, occasional gfl sneaks ego. Mostly playing zombie escape rn
i play surf on source until these days, even bein harder, i love the feeling
Love ur channel and love your video
Glad you enjoy it!
Another issue is the server bloat. There's so many the communities are split, not to mention some are impossible to find because of all the empty garbage that isn't even surf that shows up.
the community server browser ended up breaking after i made this too -_-.
now that its fixed CSGO surf is popping off but ksf is still dead
i wish ksf had more servers. i play on csgo and ive tried ksf on css but theres only one server for new players in NA. if so many people pay for private servers they should at least have a tier 1-2 server for beginners.
i will not lie, for new players without private access CSGO is much better. Surfheaven is ok for NA, and then you get GFL, Sneaks, Gofree, Surf Central that all have open servers
such a well made video
CSGO KZG is the best surf community atm still always atleast one server with 50+ players and active chat between people from all over the world
whaaa
why levi is banned?
i go on csgo but i cant even find just surf servers all of them are fight servers
thats really weird, you could also search up GFL or Surf Heaven, two skillsurf servers
Otherwise I have a huge list of surf servers on my discord discord.com/channels/1008423302685003896/1008425162057711738
I returned to surf after 4 years, and the servers I used to play on have grown in number. KZG group for australian servers :) not widely known outside of australia
Oh... Lol we need an update
We really need combat surf to come back
definitely wish there was somewhere people could go in the mean time. CSS always felt too competitive while skial felt too bloated
momentum couldn’t come sooner
I'll be honest I never surfed in Source in my life, nor go ofcourse. I've been on 1.6 forever.
I definetly feel that people enjoy joining servers to talk, not to get times
krashkalash seems like a nice fella
those tags are something else lmao.
I refuse to believe
Map name at 2:57?
surf_synada! good map
Surf maps in CS:GO where most players won't reach the third ramp is considered "beginner". The death of surf is self-inflicted.
big man repster coming in hot with another banger vid
Great video keep it up!
I dunno what he means by you can still find many servers on cs go. Yeah all over 300 ping and russian
server browser broke in February :(
In the mean time check out gflclan.com/servers/
and surfheaven.eu/
But why was leafy banned from youtube???
"bullying"
good video
im a cat
I was here
When 1.6 video
Honestly at this point I want KSF to fall for their greed. I think their greed has a larger role than you give it credit for.
bro cs go surf is alive dont talk shit xD
Did you even watch the video
8:46 Repster agrees with you, but if he used CSS in the title instead of CSGO you probably wouldn't have even found this video
:)
After listening to the video, that headline feels waaaaaaay off. You even state the opposite in the video, so that 1 could probaly have said something els. hehe
The competitive side maby(i really enjoy surf's up tourney's), but the casual aspect is not going anywhere unless all server hosts just agree to shut down at the same time.
Personally i surf just to relax with some music and try and do new maps or beat my own times, so not having a full server doesn't affect me. The only fun part for me being on a populated server is if new players join and there's a tiny chance i can help them getting started and want to return some other day.
But let's be honest here. I've been surfing in csgo sins 2013 and maby 90% of good surfers that can actually go for records ect. don't give a f about us casuals. They might have voice off and all huds hidden. And that's perfectly fine, we just don't need to paint the picture that all surfers need to stick together like we are all friends, because that's far from the truth, and when you are on the servers it shows.
no idea why the hell this is my username "user-mq7ow9pb5y" guess somethings changed.
CSGO surf died for our skin addicted sins
Ksf killed itself with the heavy gatekeeping and grinding terrible maps no one wants to play for hours in silence so they can get a good time. Unless you're going for records theres no reason to play ksf
quit css convert to roblox surf real
real
real
real
momentum mod and fragsurf also dead :(
surf is dead
All dead except for 1.6
I couldve saved you the video, it died because all the best players moved to css, csgo movement is shite & no one likes utopia 24/7
informate yourself before talking
normies ruined surf
they hated jesus because he spoke the truth
surf died a few hundred times. ask trofle dude
really enjoy this type of content