Professional Counter Strike:Global Offensive players will no longer be able to rely on a coach giving them tips and calling plays mid-game, as Valve has banned the practice of having a sixth man on the team.
While technically pro tournaments of CS:GO only allow five man teams, often there is a sixth man in there, calling the shots for what plays to run, keeping track of ammunition and enemy player positions - they raise the standard of play, by being an extra set of eyes and ears but with a meta focus.
Valve thought that this didn't best represent the skill of the players though and has announced an end to the practice moving forward. In all future Valve tournaments and many of the other major pro play events throughout the year, coaches will only be allowed to interact with players between games, at half times and during any called for time-outs.
As PCG explains though, the community hasn't reacted well to this. The concern is that this will ultimately lower the standard of play, since it will force players to keep track of even more and will mean that it's harder for them to run certain plays on the fly.
Valve though is remaining firm. In an email sent out to players and teams, it said that having a high-level coach to hand wasn't something all teams could have, so it wanted to boil down the experience to five players, their peripherals and their skills - that's it.
That seems fair enough, right?
Image source: Navi Gaming.
