CS 1.6 Matchmaking — Ranked 5v5 in Your Browser
Compete is ranked Counter-Strike 1.6 matchmaking with nothing to install. Press Find match, accept the ready check, and play a full MR15 match — knife round for sides, halftime swap, overtime on 15-15 — against nine other players near your rating. The server is one player's browser, so there is no dedicated server to rent and no launcher to run. The game is the real Counter-Strike 1.6, running in the same browser tab it always has here.
How a match forms
Pick a mode and the maps you are willing to play from a pool of ten — de_dust2, de_inferno, de_aztec, de_alexandra, de_dust, de_nuke, de_mirage, de_train, de_cbble and de_tuscan — then queue on your own or with a party. Matching starts with players near you and near your rating, widens to everyone after thirty seconds, and after sixty seconds fills any empty seats with bots so a match always forms. When ten players are found, everyone gets a twenty-second ready check; one decline sends the rest back into the queue with their settings kept. The map is the one most of the ten asked for, and the two teams are balanced by rating.
The player with the best connection to our relay hosts. Their browser starts the server and the other nine connect to it through the same relay the public server browser uses, with the match rules — rounds, sides, overtime, who is on which team — configured by the matchmaker rather than by anyone in the game. Nobody has to run a server, forward a port or install a plugin.
The rules of a ranked match
Ranked 5v5 is MR15, the format competitive Counter-Strike 1.6 has always used: a knife round, whose winner picks a side; fifteen rounds a half with the teams swapping at halftime; first to sixteen rounds wins. A 15-15 tie is played out in MR3 overtime blocks until one side leads. A casual 5v5 is also available at MR8 with no knife round and no rating change, for the evening you would rather not risk anything.
Everyone starts at a rating of 1000. After a rated match each team's average rating is compared with the other's and the result is scored as an Elo update with a K-factor of 32, weighted by the scoreline: a 16-3 moves ratings further than a 16-14, up to one and a half times as far. The leaderboard lists the fifty highest-rated players; your profile keeps every match you have played, with the results page showing both rosters by the side they started on. A match that formed with bots in it is played to the end but is never rated.
Parties, voice and the lobby
A party holds up to five. Invite friends by name, chat while you wait, and talk to each other with push-to-talk before the match launches — in the game itself, voice is the server's as on any other server. The party queues as one and is always placed on the same team. The lobby shows your party as player models on a row of pedestals; click one to preview the other side's model.
Drops, rejoins and host changes
A dropped player has three minutes to come back, and a bot holds their seat until they do; nothing is recorded against a player who returns in time. Leaving for longer is an abandon: it counts as a loss for that player whatever their side does, and a queue ban follows that starts at ten minutes and grows with repeated abandons in the same week. If one side is left without any human for three minutes, the other side wins by forfeit at the last agreed score.
If the host is the one who drops, the game moves to another player's browser and resumes at the same score, sides and round number. The round that was in progress when the host left is replayed rather than restored; that is the honest limit of moving a live server between two browsers, and the results page records the match as one match.
Hit registration
In a match, a shot counts against the player as your screen showed them. Standard Counter-Strike 1.6 rewinds other players to where you saw them, but only their position: their legs, the way their body was turned and the animation they were in come from the server's own copy of that moment, not the one you were looking at. That is where many "I hit him and it didn't count" moments come from — most of all on a running player's legs, on someone landing from a jump or ducking, and on a player turning as they move.
Here the match server rebuilds every other player exactly as your game drew them when you fired — the same spot, the same stride, the same turn of the body, the same animation — and checks the shot against that. To make that possible, other players' legs in a match follow the path they actually ran, so your game and the server always agree on them. Your game also tells the server when it drew the frame you fired from; the server checks that against its own clock, so it can only sharpen the result, never be used to pick a better one. Outside of matches, on the public servers, nothing about the game changes.
What Compete is not
It is not a tournament system: there are no brackets, no scheduled leagues and no prizes. It is not an anti-cheat service in the sense a downloaded client is — match results are agreed by the players' own game clients comparing what each of them saw every round, and a disagreement makes the match unrated for an operator to look at rather than silently trusting the host. The store and the daily missions you will see in the lobby are previews and do not do anything yet. And it is Counter-Strike 1.6 only; Sven Co-op, which also runs here, has no ranked mode.
Frequently asked questions
Does CS 1.6 have ranked matchmaking?
Not from Valve, and not since ESEA dropped the game. It does here: Compete queues you into a ranked 5v5 Counter-Strike 1.6 match from your browser, with a rating that moves after every rated match and a leaderboard of the top players.
Do I need to download anything?
No. The game, the match rules and the server all run in browser tabs. There is no launcher, no anti-cheat client to install and no Steam copy to own.
What is the match format?
Ranked 5v5 is MR15: a knife round decides sides, fifteen rounds a half with a swap at halftime, first to sixteen wins, and a 15-15 tie goes to overtime played in MR3 blocks. A casual 5v5 at MR8 with no knife round and no rating is also available.
How does the rating work?
Everyone starts at 1000. After a rated match each team's average rating is compared with the other's, the result is scored as an Elo update with a K-factor of 32, and a wide scoreline moves the rating more than a close one, up to one and a half times. A match filled with bots is never rated.
Where does the match server run?
In the browser of one of the ten players — a desktop client with the best connection to our relay is picked as host. If that player drops out, the game moves to another player and resumes at the same score, sides and round; the round in progress is replayed.
Can I queue with friends?
Yes. A party holds up to five players, invited by name from the lobby. The party is placed on the same team, can chat and talk with push-to-talk while it waits, and queues together.
How long is the queue?
Matching starts with players near you and near your rating, widens to everyone after thirty seconds, and after sixty seconds fills the remaining seats with bots so a match always forms. A match with bots in it plays out normally but does not count towards your rating.
Do hits count where I see the player?
Yes. When you fire, the match server rebuilds every other player exactly as your game showed them at that moment — where they stood, their stride, the turn of their body and the animation they were in — and checks your shot against that, not against the server's own copy of the moment.
What happens if someone leaves?
A player who drops has three minutes to come back and takes their seat again with nothing recorded against them; a bot holds the seat in the meantime. Leaving for longer counts as an abandon: the match is a loss for that player and a queue ban follows, starting at ten minutes and growing with repeated abandons. If a whole side is short of humans for three minutes, the other side wins by forfeit.
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