5 million concurrent players, and even when I take a break from playing, I follow the thrilling competitive scene that awards millions of dollars in prize money to its participants each year – not bad for a slow-paced, strategic shooter series that started life as a Half-Life mod in 1999. Sometimes the sound stops working after a round, only returning after 20 seconds in the menu changing output devices; other times, my keyboard, headset and mouse will stop working entirely, requiring a full system reboot to restore – yet the game continues to run, with my teammates getting increasingly exasperated with my inactivity. Buy things with globes on themBad puns and video games since 1999