CS:GO's Map Stories Investigated 

“It’s not about blowing up a fountain full of fish, it’s about the principle behind it”

Damn, CS:S's explosions looked much cooler with all the physics of the objects actually being destroyed

"Valve pls f-" Nice one.

another reason nuke is awesome

On the wingman map, Guard, the terrorists spawn next to two bicycles.

I love it when i watch netflix and all of a sudden my beans taste better

"I am Dust 2, and THIS is how you rush B...."

I would love if: -The map reacted to the bomb's explosion better; -Maps had more story scattered around them (like Team Fortress 2 sometimes does); -The bombing sites were more meaningful, instead of just some 3 dull crates or a pond; -A small backstory was provided in the loading screen, like you said. I know gameplay is the most important, and many of Valve's decisions are to make the game more "competitive", but the lack of story or response from a mission success makes these maps feel empty and meaningless...

I always liked when the map kinda shows how the CT and the T got to the position that they were, more story won't be bad I think lol

Let's shout it: WE WANT CINEMATIC TRAILERS FOR MAPS LIKE TF2'S CHARACTERS!

and today's sponsor is beans by nordvpn. thank you philip

It is a shame considering that adding a simple backstory literally takes almost no effort It could be hidden to not bother the ingame HUD, but at least it could be there

I have always wondered about this very thing, why terrorists are blowing up these generic crates. I've only really played global offensive in this series but I do remember seeing my brother play a few rounds in 1.6 when I was small. I was really fascinated by seeing the stories on the loading screens and it made me make up my own stories for the different maps while playing them, when i was in a timeout or warmup. Here's what I came up with Mirage- it is set in an unnamed town in the middle east where the counter terrorists have been sent by the United nations to enforce peace. They find that the town had been used for making and storing explosives and they are gonna recover them to gauge how much resources the terrorists have and who their suppliers are. The terrorists are trying to destroy all evidence Dust 2- another map set in a conflict ridden area of middle east or northern Africa. But this time, it isnt explosives or weapons in the crate but food and medicine for the civilians trapped in the war zone sent by the united nations. Terrorists don't want them to succeed in providing aid and are thus wanting to blow it all up. For overpass the story changes depending on which site you plant the bomb. If you plant on bomb site A, you are trying to rob the truck carrying the big boxes filled up with equipment to print money. The truck was transporting it to the bank and hence why half the crates were already unloaded. You had given misinformation to the CTs that there will be a terrorist attack on bomb site B and hence why half of their forces are divided between the 2 sites. If you plant at B, blowing up critical infrastructure(the pillar) was your objective all along, the bank heist was just a ruse. I'll add more if you guys like this

Bit surprised you didn't touch on some of the environmental storytelling a bit deeper, the company that owns the nuclear reactor in (one that has a heart shaped logo, might be Radcorp but I can't confirm right now) in nuke also shows up in some parts of train, why is an old ex-soviet train station being used by an American company, and that company also shows up in danger zone, there is stories being told but are just incredibly hidden and unfinished as it Right now.

3:05 I imagine this was origin of the setting for CS:GO's SFM trailer.

wasn't nuke's backstory in 1.6 that it was a nuclear weapons cache that the terrorists wanted to destroy? I seem to remember the missile props from half-life being in it

It's sad that almost everything in CSGO goes around the competitive gaming, like come on it's not the Olympics

i love how valve games have this "design an interesting environment, explain it later" thing going on.

I remember being so so excited for csgo when I was watching the nuke cinematic trailer, so it was a shame we only got the one, fortunately we got a glimpse with the last operation but, yeah, it's something that they could totally do and add a lot of excitement to the community

Imagine if in the next CS game, the ending/results screen was themed as a news clip reporting on the operation? The tone and voiceover would depend on the results of the match, and there could be infographics in the back listing T/CT/civilian casualties or even short clips from the match as "CCTV footage"

Map trailers would be one of the best things added to the game, if they were made on similar level as game trailer

I was really interested in the back stories of CS maps. This video gave me satisfaction that someone have finally did an video of this. Thank you! (Edit: Thank you all for that much likes!)

So... Given philip's track record, we'll see a Mirage remake with a new trailer and new Agents next week?

My childhood favorite game America's Army had detailed briefings for each map, and different maps had sometimes unique objectives. I think it made playing the game a lot more fun, although today I can see how much AA was a clone of CS.

I imagine that Mirage is a "camp" for the terrorists and the CTs just found it, and then the terrorists needs to blow up some evidence before the CTs gets a hold of it (Hence CT spawning by the APC and T spawning just in a passage )

I’m happy to see Phillip advertising. The man deserves the money he will get from it.

I like these small funny details like the "before-" in subtitles at 4:20 when you talk about sudden, abrupt ending of the text, while you continue speaking. Having seen your video about subtitling your videos, I am so sure that you did that on

Ever since I played half life 2 episode 2, I listened to one of the developer commentaries about how mappers put props around the map to tell a story, and they used as an example a pit full of zombies, a well protected barricade with a smg, an ammo box, a chair, and a ton of empty beer bottles. The developer explained that someone was probably bored on his chair while killing zombies and drinking beer. After that I started paying more attention to these neat little details in valve games, and started making up my own stories.

Having short films about the maps would be great to watch. Imagine merging pro moments into the stories of the maps. Like how one brave soul burned so the bridge on Overpass wouldnt collapse and his dead team's effort was not wasted, or how the downfall or Mirage's terrorist was thanks to one sniper that held them at apartments.

I've always thought a small intro animation for the map right before game start would be great. For instance on Nuke, you could show the truck crashing through the gate and the terrorists hopping out and taking out the guy at the kiosk, and the CT's could be shown dropping in from a helicopter. You could even do it in-engine, so everyone's custom skins are preserved. That way it feels more like YOU and YOUR TEAM are about to embark on a dangerous mission, and not just you and some randos messing about on a game map for half an hour.

7:47 Fun fact: Inferno's orginal version (1.1) had a bombsite in CT spawn, which still does have gas pipelines

Your music is so iconic

When i learned about overpass story, my mind was blown, it felt really more meaningful playing in the map, i wish there were more creative ideas behind the maps, and mainly some good reason to blow up the creates, even more to why blowing one or another bomb doesn't make a difference in the mission like in overpass and nuke, just don't make every map with two bombsites on top of each other plz volvo

Disappointed you didn't talk about Overpass. The terrorist are stopping some sort of monetary transaction via the money truck (On A site by the bank) and can either blow up the A bombsite (and consequently the truck) or the pillar on B bombsite, which would blow up the overpass and stop the money truck from crossing the bridge. Not sure if everything I said is entirely accurate, but I felt as though it was a well-thought-out story. Plus the truck and ladder by the fence at T spawn show how the terrorists entered. Love the video though, Philip. Great as always!

"Youve played cs:go for thousands of hours..."

This was back when counterstrike was still fun, now everyone is a tryhard and thinks they're in a tournament.

as a lore nerd in general, I really appreciate this

thank you for making this video when you did! i've been planning on a backstory for my new map and have already got one ready! A small, German town is disrupted every summer by tourists coming into the city to admire their iconic church. The residents of that town hate the way the tourists book every hotel slot, litter everywhere, and disturb the peacefulness of the town. It's gotten to the point where some of the residents have had enough and decide to blow up their main attraction, the church, or to blow up the only bridge out of town. It's up to the GSG-9 to stop them or they might have to go a summer without tourists coming in to ruin everything... also, i did ironically make both sides have their ups and downs. the terrorists hate the amount of disruption going around so try to stop it but accidently cause more. and the cts are stopping them from destroying parts of the town as it's bad, but they're letting more and more tourists basically do the same thing

They NEED to add physics to the bomb explostions. IMAGINE IT ON OVERPASS! The whole bridge coming down when you bomb B would be epic (literally).

This is my favorite video you've made. Having subtle stories in CS maps has been a personal interest of mine since Operation Vanguard's story mode. Thank you.

I remember when I was 14, I couldn't stop watching CSGO's trailer over and over, it was so good, the storytelling it has and the action on it really took me aback

next video: remaking the valve trailer but like a normal round

This is why I really liked the map "Insertion" from Operation Hydra in 2017 (god how I miss it). When in the spawn area as the terrorists, there's a cork-board detailing the plans of the terrorists. They went to the lakeside house in order to steal a boat to take the hostages to a safehouse they have set up, but the boat isn't there/doesn't work, forcing them to change their plan to holding out in the houses.

More map stories would be really cool

You ever just sit in the living room watching Netflix enhanced beans

"Meet the Mirage" would be a great title for a short. "Meet the Dust II", not so much.

getting rid of map background stories is how we end up with 15 year olds not understanding why they can't recreate their school in the map editor.

A work around for the short workshop descriptions is to save what you want to be in the description in a sticky note or word doc. then after you have updated the file go into the workshop through steam then edit title and description. then save. it will then have the full description. My guess is that the updater can only have a few lines of text as a hold over from its early stages or if the workshop ever limited description length and valve just isn't bothered to update it.

I think it's a shame a studio with Valve's resources fall short on these details. They are simple meta-stuff, but still, they could hire literally anyone to make sure everything is neat and tidy. I guess loot boxes and 30% fee for developers are their current business focus!

"Terrorists are bent on destroying the evidence of massive weapons cache in the *Shadow of Chernobyl* " "We thank you, oh monolith..."

I didn't even know there were stories for any of the maps before this but now that you explained some of it I am yearning for more.

Congrats on 1 mil btw, absolutely mental!

Man I almost shed a tear at the end of the video. 3kliksphilip never disapoints

We need more philip talking about old Source Engine stories pls

You just reminded me a memory I didn't know I had. The map story blurbs were awesome! I used to love reading those little snippets before playing. It's just something else we lost with the e-sport and corporate nature of CS:GO.

This is one of those videos that someone would find 9 months from now, and become someone who watches most/all of your videos like how I found you.

Man, even Doom wads parodying wads with unecessarily extensive stories are better written than these maps.

*Oh no! You are a long way up and there are lots of baddyes everywhere and OH NO they have a bom! U must stop them or else bomb go brrrr* Valve please add this in the game.

i think overpass has the best mesh between the two and it blew me away when i realized you either destroy the truck on the bridge, or take down the bridge itself

3:28 Fun fact: MAC power plant also appears in Left 4 Dead’s Dead Air campaign as the building you leave before entering the airport

can't they just throw some HE's and be done with it rather than wait 40 seconds risking counters?

It would be cool to see the csgo trailer being played out as an actual round in the game. I know nuke has changed and the trailer might not give that much info about the everyone's positions but still. Load up an old version with a few mates, play it out, and make a video about it. Think about it 3kliks.

Man, I love the original CS:GO trailer so much. The music especially made it feel so epic! Making a trailer like that for more maps is a fantastic idea and I hope they do that.

Love these kind of videos, please never stop :)

it still mind-boggling for me that CS GO wins the Labor of Love award when the CS GO is still alive today was not because of valve effort but the community. The anti-cheats rely on players too for crying out loud.

Never thought about the backstory of the maps before, good video!

I've always loved this. This is why my workshop is filled with CT and T model corrections. I'm still mad because Engage uses the FBI models instead of the GSG-9 (Literally the German Bundespolizei). The custom skins always bothered me because of how inconsistent they are. You can get a FBI, KSK and SWAT agent in Dust II where the Elite Crew, a terrorist resistence is fighting the IDF (Israel Defence Force). I think that Valve could make custom skins to factions and sell them like weapon skins, where you can only use them in maps that use that specific faction. That would keep the backstory, fix the visibility issues completely, and to be honest, would make Valve more money. Which is always good.

Compound was one of my favourite maps from source.. Just a 4 second of this map brings so many nostalgia.. Thank you to the creator of that map

8:53 rizz

The dust one makes it sounds like a much better game, as if you could plant the c4 anywhere but had to choose where to plant it to maximise destruction

The music came back

There's some way to see how the Terrorists and Counter-Terrorists got there: Inferno: You can see an SUV behind the Terrorists. At CT spawn there is a APC. Overpass: Truck behind T spawn. GSG-9 trucks are at CT spawn. Canals: Several boats are nearby both spawns. Vertigo: Elevators near both spawns.

This is actually so true

CS Needs this, games are so much more fun when you know why you're doing what you're doing. Lore always creates an extra fun layer in any game.

Wow, Philip. The idea of making "Meet the maps" videos is incredible! That would be awesome. Valve, please think about it.

Stories definitely adds a new dimension to CS:GO and can be one of the reasons you wanna play a certain map, it can be used on unpopular maps to increase their play rates because I'm sure there are more people like me who will play a map because of its story (troll stories does it for me :).

That's what is called a true gamer move Philip

fun fact : I enjoy csgo because of the characters it has. I miss the days where source lets people spawn as multiple variants of people cuz they all have a personality.

8:30 Very good point you made around this mark. I like to think of this time as "the golden era" of gaming. Thanks for the content mate.

Assault still has a car with a boot full of money in the one of the corners.

Can you do a video on who wins the trailer? We don’t see who wins so it would be interesting to see who does.

beans, the most bri'sh thing beside tea and crackers

The old Insertion map had a celebrity picture, possibly Thor himself or Chris Pratt or a similar looking male celebrity with a large red target painted over him. You could see it at the start of the map during the planning stage

Thanks for pointing out, I did not know that the backstory was cut off like that on the workshop.

I want the map stories get more attention to be finally added to csgo(creativity has ben found?), the explosions in cs source is very much cooler than csgo!!! **PHILIP THIS VIDEO NEED TO HAVE MORE VIEWS TO BE NOTICED FROM VALVE**

If the sites were damaged, terrorists would have no objective of blowing it up again when they respawned :D

I think you are the best cs youtuber and that you should keep bringing attention to these beautifully small details that make the game just a little bit more enjoyable.

Thank you for this video Philip! Story is one of the most overlooked elements in CS it seems. I know it doesn't hold much importance to the competitive side of things and many gamers just want to get to shooting, but it does feel refreshing to feel like every map is a one-time thing, sorta like a important realistic affair! Even if it will be a cheesy B-movie action plot, I will rather have that than "oh Ts and CTs are gonna come around again, let us just add two three bricks to this wall... move this barrel, for the Ts so they can see better... Chisel out this little corner for the CTs... Bastards won't ever stop fighting in our little village."

I’ve been waiting since hydra to hear csgo lore, we need a full storyline 😂

One disadvantage of an expensive rendered video trailing *Engage* is that changes to the map are not reflected, unless you remake the video. Overall, a good story is more, uh, engaging... but some players simply want to play the game and don't really care about the narrative. [EDIT: Succinct prose, placeholder joke removed, new conclusion.]

amazing!!! love these types of videos

Ooh I would love trailers/ small story videos for maps, especially for mirage They could totally make one big update introducing stories to each map and then slowly releasing trailers, or what would be cooler, is if they make a map description, and then ship one video, then a month later, they do the same thing but for a second map, and then a third one after another month and so on

2:41 Phillip, what happened to your voice fam?

Does this bring Valve money? nope! So yeah they will not do it.

I've been having a really shit day, but watching this made me feel better. Thanks Philip

The introduction of stories on maps is a fun idea. Reminds me of “1337(leet) world” the css series which gave all the character models their own personality and added some story to the game!

I LOVE YOU PHILIP PLEASE MARRY ME #NOHOMO I WILL EVEN BUY THE VPN

PogU Actually early.

The dead guard in old de_nuke is actually still present in game files, but it's under the de_train directory. I don't know if it's used in de_train, but it's still there.

I once briefly played offline in csgo on a map called Lite (or was ist de_lite?) where you could find several clipboards detailing the backstory a bit. Supposedly an employee of the oil refinery under attack has found several weapon crates and a suspicious guy named stan who recently started working there moved one of the crates inside only to quit his job the day after. Now the refinery is under attack and the terrorists want to blow up said crate. I thought that was a pretty cool way of telling the backstory to a map.