I remember my first matches on maps like de_dust and cs_assault. Games full of adrenaline, improvised strategies, and shouting between friends whenever someone pulled off an epic play… or died in the dumbest way. But it was also in those servers where I met the people who, without realizing it at the time, would become my best friends.

As time passed, we grew up. We studied, worked, moved away, some of us became parents. I now have several kids, responsibilities, a life that no longer revolves around spending afternoons at a LAN café. But one thing hasn’t changed: I still play Counter-Strike. Not every day, of course. Sometimes once a month, maybe twice. But always with the same friends. We log in, even if it’s just for an hour, and we’re back to being those kids from the 2000s — yelling through our headsets, laughing at silly moments, and coming up with absurd strategies that never actually work.

The most beautiful part is that now my kids watch me play, asking about that “old game” I like so much. Some of them have even started playing it too. I tell them that thanks to Counter-Strike, I have my best friends. That it was more than a game; it was a bridge between eras, a bond that’s lasted decades, a space where we’re still ourselves, no matter how much our lives change.

Counter-Strike didn’t just define a gaming era — it defined a part of my life. And as long as I can lift a mouse and hit the “buy AK-47” key, I’ll be there, in the server with my lifelong friends. Because some matches, simply, never end.