Who saysCounter-Strike: Global Offensiveis just about two teams shooting each other with guns outfitted with expensive skins? Surprisingly, outside competitive tournaments,Counter-Strike Global Offensivehas quite a lot more to offer than just shooting baddies from the other team. To hardcoreCounter-Strikefans, they’ll be delighted to know that the Surf Maps actually exist inCS:GO, and it’s quite easy to surf in them!
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At its core, Surf Maps cater to a dedicated “mode” where players don’t shoot each other but instead “surf” around the map at ridiculous speeds. As a result, Surf Maps end up becoming a challenge of navigation and speed - something that proves more difficult than it seems. How exactly could players participate in Surf Maps, though?
What Even Is Surfing?
At its core,Surfingis a modification of an FPS’s slide mechanic. Instead of the game’s physics stopping a player from sliding after a certain distance, Surfing disables these physics to some degree. As a result, Surfing will have players strafe on surfaces at a much faster rate.
Surfing is best used in Surf Maps built specifically to accommodate Surfing. These maps often feature slanted walls or ramps designed for players to “strafe” or Surf in and gradually increase their velocity. This movement results in these actions:
Due to this simple mechanic, Surf Maps often feature various ramps of increasing difficulty. And if players get bored enough, some Surf Maps feature combat elements that attempt to incorporate the map’s rather chaotic environment.
How Does Surfing Work In CS:GO?
WhileCS:GOis the modern iteration of the Surfing concept, it takesa lot of the basic conceptsfrom its previous iterations. These include much of the controls and the core mechanics. Here’s a quick run-through as to how to navigate Surf Maps inCS:GO:
Strafing Is The Key
At its core, Surfing relies on the modification of the game’s strafe mechanic to work. As fans remember, players can strafe in the game or walk left and right by pressing the A and D keys, respectively. In the core gameplay, pressing W and either the A and D keys would have the player walk diagonally. This movement, alongside strafing itself, is a core Surfing mechanic. Here’s how to strafe properly:
Turning Is Essential Mid-Air
At first, most initial ramps in any Surf Map are easy enough to navigate. However, middle sections of any Surf Map may feature ramps farther away from each other, transforming into headscratchers for most amateur Surfers. Thing is,traversing these “impossible” distancesare possible with another Surfing principle: Turning.
Essentially, Turning mid-air allows players to maintain momentum while being able to steer their way to another ramp. To do this, they need to find the right rhythm of pressing a strafe key and turning the crosshair in that direction. Here are things to consider:
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Bunnyhop Gives A Slight Edge
Players who’ve spentenough time inCounter-Strike SourceandCS:GOhave probably heard of the term bunnyhopping. Essentially, bunnyhopping involves jumping while strafing to get a slight speed boost that can give a considerable edge in close combat encounters.
As it turns out, bunnyhopping is a lifesaver in Surf Maps. Although an advanced technique, timing a bunnyhop can give players the appropriate boost to their jumps and help reach tighter ramps.
Where To Find Surf Maps In CS:GO?
While Surfing has become a niche mode inCS:GO, players might find Surf Maps quite easy to accessif they know where to look. Here’s the most common method of accessing Surf Maps in the game:
Joining A Community Server
Finding a Surf Map through a Surf Server is the best way to access multiplayer Surfing inCS:GO. Thankfully, accessing Surf Servers is quite easy:
However, while selecting a server is easy, it’s important to take note of certain considerations when choosing a Surf Server. At its core, most creators provide the difficulty setting of their Surf Map right on the server title, with TIer 1 being the easiest and Tier 5 being the hardest.
Joining An Offline Map
Players who want to train their Surfing techniques might want to tryjoining an offline surf mapinstead. However, players may need to do some manual adjustments to the game’s physics settings in order to meet optimal surfing quality. In order to access offline maps, players need to do the following:
How Did Surfing Come To Life?
BeforeCS:GOplayershead straight to the Surf Maps, it may help to learn where the concept even came from. All leads point to Reddit user u/mariowned, who apparently invented the concept of “surfing” out of boredom. As u/mariowned, or Charlie Joyce explainedin separateReddit threads, he had a pastime of using the Valve Hammer level editor to createCounter-Strikemaps for his friends to play in.
One particular map, called “ka_kilbox,” had quite a number of houses with slanted but extremely slippery roofs. At some point after hours of sliding, Chris eventually landed on a ladder. He took this particular roof and transformed it as one of the first ramps in what would be called “surf_the-gap” and birthed the minigame.
How Does CS:GO Surfing Fare Against Source?
CS:GOpredecessorCounter-Strike Sourcealso gave players the opportunities to create their own Surf Maps. Thanks toSourceimproving on the game’s graphics and providing more flexible settings, a lot of Surf Maps stuck withSource. Classic options such as gimped surfing and bunnyhopping added a new level of thrill to Surf inSource.
Unsurprisingly, when Surf Maps steadily became popular inCS:GO, other older Surf fans compared some prominent elements from theSourcevariation and theCS:GOvariation. In terms of overall differences, it seems Surfing inSourceis much smoother given more customizable options. In terms of specifics:
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Other Games Have Surf Too
Since the launch of the first Surf Maps, a fringe community of casual players became quite avid fans of the concept. The idea of Surf Maps moved on fromCounter-Strike 1.6and even made its way to other games. Some games with Surf Mods include:
