Mauisnake on the modern CS:GO rifler: It’s very rare nowadays to see riflers stand out
The CS:GO expert adds to the discussion surrounding the rifle and its current impact in the game.
Have riflers lost their edge and strength in the current meta of CS:GO?
If you ask Alex "Mauisnake" Ellenberg, a renowned CS:GO expert and analyst, the answer is yes. In the most recent episode of ‘Snake and Banter’ with Duncan “Thorin” Shields, Mauisnake explains that he feels like the skill ceiling for riflers has been “more or less hit”.
- I do think in terms of movement and aim it’s very rare nowadays, or at least it has been, to see riflers actually stand out, and that’s why you sort of saw Ax1Le fall off. (…) you see these guys come out of nowhere and just be incredibly skilful. Like xertioN for example – he looks incredibly skilful, yet he hasn’t really played at the tier-1 for very long.
According to Mauisnake, it makes “you scratch your head a little bit” as he believes it’s sometimes tough to distinguish the best riflers from the rest.
- When we want this game to be so masterful and that there’s so much you can do to up your own individual ability, and then you see these guys come in and just like “oh well, they are about as good as the best riflers in the world”. I don’t think there’s a noticeable difference always between the 5th best rifler in the world and the 50th-best.
In the vodcast, Mauisnake gives his take on some things Valve can adjust to make the rifle stand out more by again pointing towards aspects like movement and smaller hitboxes of the in-game characters.
- CS:GO’s mechanics themselves don’t allow you to actually push it. If you wanted CS:GO to be a little bit more skill-based, I think you would probably increase the movement speed and make the hitboxes smaller. There are ways you can outplay someone in a rifle 1v1 duel but so many times it just feels like it’s 50/50 when top players are rounding corners. It’s kind of taking away the star power of a lot of players.
CS:GO, an AWPers paradise
- AWPing is where the most skilful players almost have to go to now because that’s where you can truly see some of the best players consistently are delivering. But for rifles, you just flip a coin and it’s like this rifler of the day is going to top frag in the server.
With that being said, Mauisnake still has some hopes for the riflers due to Valve’s newly-revealed nerf to the M4A1-s rifle, as he thinks "it will make the playing field a little bit less even”, he stated.
You can watch the entire 'Snake and Banter' episode with Mauisnake, Thorin and Sam 'Tech Girl' Wright down below.
