Hi, my name's 2kliksphilip and I'm on a quest
to go low. I want to understand what it's
like to take a vertical slice through the
skill levels as I plummet downwards through
the ranks to reach Silver 1.
My quest started up here somewhere. I'm not
the best, but neither am I the worst... yet.
I see the ranks as a bubbling mess of people
scrambling for the top, allowing me to slide
down past them.
I started this series for a bit of fun, playing
terribly on purpose to see how the world would
react, but it's taken on greater importance.
I must have played over 100 games in this
manner now. It's getting to the point where
I think I may never recover.
On the way I've hit criticism from people
who think that what I'm doing is cold and
selfish. Maybe. But I've also met people who
have become my friends, who have enjoyed taking
a step back from an endless conflict to mess
about like it's Christmas.
And now I would like to share it with you.
My quest has taken me down to Master Guardian
1 and by the end of this series I hope to
reach the Silver ranks. Welcome to Going Low
in CSGO.
So far, my quest has looked a bit like this.
Season 1 only consisted of one game, which
was inspired after I played a game horribly
drunk and went down a rank. Season 2 dropped
me down through the AK ranks over a series
of games, ending me at 4 stars.
Between performing those games and the one
I'm about to show you I accidentally played
quite well and went up a rank again, so it's
important that I get down a rank as quickly
as possible. But what I promised myself in
season 2 may interfere with that.
Hmm, play badly, but don't play badly. I 
pondered this question for all of 3 seconds
before deciding that I should play as best
as I could! Only with certain limitations.
The game started with a B rush. I was to rush
in first.
We had secured the bombsite, then I rushed
out, got blocked and died.
An INCREDIBLY long battle then broke out in
the bombsite. It was kind of cool and had
me on the edge of my seat for a while. Then
a teammate also got a knife kill. Not a bad
start! How many people is it possible to kill
in one match with just a knife? Time to find
out.
By now I was beginning to slip on the leaderboard,
but not enough for anybody to care. Our enemies
were getting an easier opponent and our team
seemed to find it quite amusing.
But two kills isn't enough!
Round 5 was another B rush, but I was robbed
of any kills what so ever!
The troll becomes the trolled.
Some of the kills were easier than others.
This guy turned around and practically OFFERED
me his behind. How could I resist such a tempting
prize?!
I plunged deep inside him and my points continued
to rack up.
Other attempts weren't so successful.
At times I felt that I baited my teammates.
It's never something I deliberately aim for,
but it sure does make it easier to get people
when they're distracted.
And with that, Terrorist side was complete.
Half way towards a respectable score of 10
kills. In a competitive game. With just a
knife. Against... mature players. Maybe.
Now you'll see that I'm playing with jfcc.
I play a lot of competitive games with him.
For some reason, he doesn't mind if I deliberately
muck up and make him lose. I still don't think
he's won 10 competitive games, bless him.
I've played with a lot of people over the
last few months. Sure, it's nice to have somebody
there to prevent you from being kicked, but
there's more to it than that.
If you were hoping for more flashbacks to
the past... you're out of luck. I've covered
everything from my Counter Strike Source days!
And I appreciate the responses I've received.
It means a lot to me when people message me
saying how it really related to them and the
good old days.
But don't be one of those people who thinks
that the past was always better. It wasn't.
If you want to see more CSS action I recently
unearthed a 2007 recording of a clan game
we had in the early days of Dissolutions.
Check it out and you'll see that it's just
a match between people. Nothing magical or
nostalgic about it. I don't even remember
playing that game... or whoever Icotpan was.
It's amazing how much you forget.
Counter Strike Source was great at the time
but I'd pick CS:GO over it any day. I remember
longing for a sequel, just to mix things up.
I got so excited when they released a new
map for CSS like, once a year. Compared with
that, CSGO is a thriving community, even without
any external programs or websites! I'd have
KILLED for matchmaking back then. Probably
not the gun models. I'm just bitter and jealous
of the amount of money everybody's raking
in from that.
Any way, the point of this is that I've had
lots of great games on CSGO as well that match
or even surpass anything that I had in Counter
Strike Source. Going down on the rankings
has gone from being a novelty to a way of
life and has become rather exciting and deep.
I no longer have to think 'play like a noob!',
I just DO it! Going down a rank is something
that requires a lot of work and effort.
Although I'm dropping down a rank per video
for the sake of this series, what you don't
see behind the scenes are the 10 or so games
that don't make the cut. It's tiring to deliberately
play all the time like a total noob, most
of the time I'm just a bad omen on the team
who mucks things up if we're getting too close
to winning the game.
It doesn't take much to tip the scales and
being the deciding player is quite empowering,
as though you're secretly controlling the
other 9 players' destinies. Sometimes, I play
too well and win the game despite only using
a pistol or whatever. Embarrassingly, I've
also had games where I'm the bottom of the
team despite playing properly. Those tend
to be the ones where I drop a rank at the
end, just to rub it in. I often confuse what's
good for this series with what's good for
my rank.
Yes, I'll probably be shot down for this and
criticised for how I'm clearly a rubbish player.
But even when playing in a game with people
6-7 ranks below where I was, I'm not always
the best, even when I'm trying. I end up making
all sorts of justifications in my mind about
why this is the case.
The closest you can get to experiencing this
is on a public server where your team is holding
you back and the enemies happen to get lucky
shots on you every round. It's frustrating
and somewhat embarrassing, but it's happened
to all of us at one time or another.
I assume that when you're up against 5 players
with a lot of money who have just won a few
rounds, no matter how good you are you're
not going to break the winning streak they're
having.
Other times I assume it's because although
I'm trying to be good, I'm still just blindly
rushing in, hoping that my aim and knowledge
of the level will protect me. It often doesn't.
What's even stranger is how my perception
of other players has changed. When I see somebody
with 4 gold stars, I now think 'WOW he must
be good!' even though I was way above him
before and would immediately think that I
could OWN him. But if you're in a game and
you're deliberately sucking, is there any
difference between you and a low-skilled player?
What I'm saying from this is that it's a big
mistake to assume that just because you're
a higher ranked player than everybody else
by quite a large margin, that you'll always
come top- sometimes, luck just isn't on your
side. Or you can blame lag and make a video
about it, as I've done.
In future videos I plan to cover the unseen
matches in this bit of the video. But I figure
this lecture has bored the hell out of you,
so back to the main game for now.
Getting a knife kill as a CT certainly feels
different and I found myself up against paranoid
and aggressive opponents. Getting 5 more kills
was becoming less and less likely.
I scored another kill, taking it up to 6.
But even that was a close one.
I became increasingly suicidal and risky in
my attacks and they just weren't paying off.
They seemed to have me sussed.
I had 12 more rounds TOPS to get another 4
knive-kills.
Hmm... 5 with guns vs 1 with a knife? I tried
it.
Nope.
This was beginning to get tense, with only
9- 8 more rounds to prove myself.
Two rounds later, a lone awper was all that
was standing between our team and another
win. And more importantly, another knife.
Yeahhh. Three more to go.
Still counts.
My team was friendly and fun to play with
through-out. Maybe I was just lucky, or maybe
my antics unleashed their fun, playful side?
Nah, probably just lucky.
Of course, only using a knife meant that I
had a lot of money to lavish on my wonderful
team-mates, It really brought out the charitable
side in all of us.
Sadly, this wasn't enough to save us, and
it reached 15-14 to them, and I had just one
final round to get that 10th kill to bring
me into double figures.
I'm going to run this round in full, so that
you can feel the pressure I felt. Would I
manage it? Would I not? Or worse still, would
I ALMOST manage it? Time to find out.
I 
had managed it- double figures with just a
knife. Okay, I wasn't the best player on the
team. I'm pretty sure that they'd have preferred
me if I had used a gun and the match would
probably have been a lot easier. But what
I've learned from this game is that stealth,
cunning and down-right suicidal rushing have
their role in CS:GO. Imagine if I had done
the same but with a gun and how much damage
I would have inflicted on the enemy's team.
And for the first time in Going Low in CSGO,
I've contributed to the team. We've had a
great time together and have shared the jokes.
We walked away from this game happy and with
stories to tell and it's even aided my progress
towards going low. Thank you for watching
this video. Ah, go on then, have the ending
you were hoping for.
Next time in Going Low in CSGO our entire
team plays using only CZ75's.
With wallhacks and thought, could become even
better- maybe employ it in normal situations?
(with guns)
