Counter-Strike began in 1999 as a free fan-made mod of Half-Life, built by Minh Le and Jess Cliffe, who stripped out the sci-fi and replaced it with terrorists versus counter-terrorists, bomb sites, hostages, and no respawns until the next round. This episode traces how the mod's in-game economy, with cash for wins, penalties for shooting teammates, and the dreaded eco round, turned twitch shooters into exercises in loss aversion and real-time financial planning, and why Valve bought the rights and shipped it as a retail product in November 2000.

From there the story splinters and reunites: the chaotic 2004 double release of Condition Zero and Counter-Strike: Source, Namco's anime-styled Counter-Strike Neo arcade cabinet in Japan, Nexon's free-to-play Counter-Strike Online for Korean cybercafes, and a zombie spin-off built on the ancient Go ...