Why CSGO Surf Died

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
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[szlept]

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.

[ethhics]

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

[biiiiiiig_gg]

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 <3

[bermuda]

very nicely produced. as a kz / bhopper i'd love to see such a well produced video about those modes

[aa]

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.

[ArtisticTrex]

I play csgo as a coping mechanism for Depression. It keeps me distracted from the thoughts and voices in my head.

[headcrab]

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.

[krakerz]

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

[carrinhodemao]

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.

[niko]

Same story can be told about bhop, and it truly feels terrible being one of the last players who has not yet moved on

[benjisurf]

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

[Nightwinds_]

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.

[houseparkour]

im still just sitting here mindblown by the transition into aircontrol

[salamanz]

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

[vertuh]

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.

[synth]

>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 Youtube recommended me your content. Surf's not dead.

[minekraftgamertom]

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

[fairsaa]

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.

[JohnDoe-rjnd]

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 YouTube 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.

[FastaPasta]

Dude you should be killing it, I'm a fan of surf but you're a great creator, I can tell you love surf