Direct TV created a gaming league called CGS that played CS:Source because it had better graphics than 1.6. It was the first time pro CS players in the US could get contracts (25-35k a year? It wasnt much). This league forced all of the top talent in North America to move to Source. The game was buggy, trash with horrible hitboxes, netcode, audio issues, cluttered maps (with actual trash in them) and unpredictable, overly-complicated physics.

Source hitboxes: https://youtu.be/fdRpYaQA8cU

At the time, many 1.6 players still had single/dual core CPUs and source would run at 20-80 fps, when gamers were just starting to get 100+ hz monitors. There was no mass migration of players, due to gameplay and performance issues. The game really wasn't ready for eSports level competition (and never improved to that point)

CGS failed after 2 years, and most of the pros retired afterwards.

During that time, the European 1.6 scene was flourishing. The death of the NA scene was a huge blow to international play. The compLexity roster that was drafted into CGS could have been one of the best NA teams of all time.

Fun fact, the first player drafted in CGS was a female. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Championship_Gaming_Ser...

I sucked at CS at the time so couldn't tell a difference. After getting decent at CSGO though I can see how a game with certain changes in gunplay would be a turn off. I enjoyed source casually though and switched over completely.

It split the community. Source had poor weapon balance and the hit boxes were too big.