By Jason "moses" O'Toole

You either love it or you hate it. Prodigy has been around for ages, but that didn’t stop CAL and CPL from taking it out of the map rotation due to unbalanced sides. However, with Source being the way it is you might find that it is more balanced. This might very well be one of the better competitions maps ported for Source.

Glass This has nothing to do with the map, but since it is the first appearance of glass in any of my write-ups I thought I’d update you non-Source playing newbies. Glass no longer completely shatters when you shoot it with a bullet or two. Instead, you just put a hole in it and the whole pane of glass becomes weak. To completely break it you must shoot it many more times OR run into it/crouch through it. Another useless change, but I think it’s pretty cool. Maybe they did it in an effort to make it more realistic- but I wouldn’t know… I’ve never shot a window.

CT Spawn Nothing changes in a tactical aspect (not that there was much of a tactical aspect to begin with). You’ll find that the changes made to the rooms in prodigy make them BEAUTIFUL. I mean it, the textures and details of the rooms in this map are stunning, especially in the other bombsite. The cart you see at the top left of the screenshot provides a cool piece of cover. You can stand on it and it provides a pretty decent spot to kill enemies coming to that site from the halls up there. The barrels can provide a lot of confusion if a grenade is thrown by them while players are entering that site… they get a decent amount of air.

Pipe 'n Vent This screenshot shows how they extended the pipe in CT spawn along the wall to the entrance. I doubt anyone would play there seeing as how it’s just as much suicide as standing on any other part of the pipe. However, you might want to start looking up above the ladder in vent because they made the entrance visible to anyone there. One camping CT there can foil any attempt to enter the bombsite.


The Intersection This is a very important chokepoint to hold as either team. The huge blue box on the right is new, and it proves a great ledge to AWP the Long Halls from. Also, the three spindle-looking things become some interesting scenery. There is a small crack between the corner of the wall and the spindle on top that gives any sniper a great view of the halls, providing easy pickoff and causing enemies to have trouble killing him in turn. However, a couple well placed smokes by the Terrorist can make any sniper ineffective. The name intersection comes from the fact that two routes intersect here at this spot. Assuming you know the layout of the old Prodigy, if you keep running beyond the blue box you arrive at steps, and you can run up those to computer room and on to Site 2… OR you can turn towards CT Spawn and plant at that site. Either way has its ups and downs, but with the added cover it will prove to be interesting to see how teams will hold the Intersection.

Long Halls pt. One This is the first half of the Box Halls. “But moses there ain’t no boxes!!!” Astute observation my friend. Apparently Valve thought more people would buy their games if they knew barrels would be flying across the map instead of stupid, lame boxes that don’t do shit but sit there. Those three barrels don’t look like much, but they certainly are a pain when you’re trying to run around or strafe back and forth. They can easily push your model around more than Hare pushes around that little sissy Gosu at the apartment. The doorways in the wall are cool hiding spots and it’s going to be a HUGE pain for T’s to have to check those. However they can also provide cover for Terrorists as they make their way up to the Intersection.

Long Halls pt. Deux Pretty damn identical to Part One… but there are some nifty differences. The two carts that are resting against the wall can actually be used as a cool spot to push up to as CT. Many times I have pushed up there and hopped up onto the trolley and blown up some ugly faces. The three spindles there on the left are actually pretty fun. There is a space between the top spindle and the wall so you can spot any CT hiding there, but he can also see YOU so be careful. You can also jump up onto it and climb over for a more safe way of reaching the Intersection. A lot of great changes to both parts of the Long Halls.

Vents Honestly no difference in the vents. But I DO like how the fan looks =D Also, this is a good picture to show you those FPS eating airborne bacteria. Valve calls them dust particles, NVIDIA calls them money, and players call them useless.




Vent Ladder Nothing changed here, just trying to put more body into this article so it looks like I actually do work for the ESEA management! Drop a flash down and be ninja to rape surprised faces. Or use it as a way to coordinate grenades. When you hear someone below you, tell a teammate near the intersection to throw one down the halls while you drop one down the vent… causes mucho damage.


Sandbags Right outside of the Long Halls is some strategically placed cover: a pile of sandbags and two barrels. The sandbags provide cover and the barrels eat your FPS. The best change in this area is probably the fact that there is now a fence instead of a cliff… meaning you can’t 1) get shot off, 2) drop guns down it where your teammates can’t get them, 3) drop the bomb down the cliff causing your team to probably lose the round, and 4) hop down and luckily land on a ledge to be an annoying little butt pirate.

T Spawn This is where the Terrorist team appears at the beginning of each round. They also buy guns here. For some reason it is now a train yard. But hey… if this is any preview to what the trains are going to look like when de_train gets ported then consider me the most excited man alive. Looks like Hare’s video card was overheating a little bit, but it’s still a pretty, pretty picture.


APC Room Basically the same layout, the APC might have been rotated a couple degrees clockwise but no big deal. Nothing ever happened tactically in this room except idiot terrorist would look through the hole and get picked off. I am showing this portion of the map just because it shows that Valve has, once again, made a room with such great detail that it looks extremely realistic and very, VERY beautiful.


The Hole OOOOOOOH…. Ahhhhhh… No big changes, but instead of a hole with some random jutting angle it actually looks like part of a wall that got blown apart. It is also actually a bit wider than the old hole, meaning there is more chance to get picked off if you’re looking through it as a Terrorist.



Prep Room I call this area the Prep Room basically because this is where any Terrorist players will “prep” (prepare) their attack on the CK3 Room, whether it is a rush or a slow calculated attack. The file cabinets take the place of a vending machine that used to sit there, and they provide much more cover. But be careful, a grenade or even bullets from a colt can knock them over and quickly expose you. The wall directly to the left of the file cabinets is no longer spam able so there should be no excuses to stop while your team is full out rushing… stupid baiting newbies.

CK3 Room If you weren’t around for the days of CK3 then you probably won’t know why this is called the CK3 Room. It is unfortunately irrelevant to this article to explain why so you’ll have to find out on your own sometime. Anyways, this room has never been used too much, but the table inside might provide a small amount of cover for anyone with the balls to sentence themselves to death by playing inside. A more suitable spot, however, would be peeking out those small windows to the big entrance… where you could just tear apart bodies without worry of being blinded.

CK3 Courtyard For lack of better name I called this a courtyard. It really isn’t much of a courtyard but you’ll live. CT’s have always played in the corner towards the top-right of the SS, and that won’t change one bit for Source. The barrels give a little bit of cover for Terrorists entering this area, but that small amount of cover is truly immeasurable. As always… it will be awkward for Terrorists to have to check countless spots if they attack this area slow, a rush would be more convenient for them. That spells bad news for CT’s because of the lack of the green boxes that are replaced by the ammo boxes in the top-left. Those large green boxes we saw in the original provided a great angle to bounce a grenade or flashbang off of, which would land right at the bottom of the steps causing much damage and/or confusion. This will make for interesting and exciting attacks.

Atop the CK3 Room Exciting, huh? Yes, I truly have artistic vision. Anyways, the only reason I showed you this is because of how they changed the top of the building. The ground has bumps everywhere and doesn’t have a consistent level. This will be a little tricky for any CT on top, because his head will be visible at random while moving on top to any Terrorists on the ground… peek-a-boo!


CT Halls These are the halls right at the upper part of the CT spawn. A passive strategy at playing prodigy has been to guard spawn with one to two players guarding these halls, and one player guarding the computer room/electric door. The small, though important, changes only help this setup. Much like the Long Halls, Valve has added a doorway on each side of this hall. These provide unorthodox angles you can take but also cover for a CT who is falling back and needs to hide and reload. But be careful, playing in these spots is as much suicide as jumping off the top of a building.

Computer Lab This is another room that is stunning when you look at the change made from old CS to Source. This area has always been a popular spot to guard the door and protect the backs of your teammates. The changes have only made it a more interesting environment. There are more spots to play in, and I can almost drool at the thought of how exciting gunfights will be in this region of the map. Hopefully teams won’t be too intimidated by the plethora of positions defenders can take and attack here.

Site 2 Front I know this has got to start sounding redundant, but WOW does this site look amazing. My jaw almost hit the floor when I first laid my eyes on this site, and it still continues to amaze me. This site shows a fantastic balance between littering movable environment objects (chairs) on the ground with tactical style. The steps up to a platform on the left of the SS looks like it will be a popular spot for defenders to play, and you can always expect someone to be right underneath that drop off ready to shoot players jumping into the site. If you look closely, you’ll notice they extended the floor perpendicular to the main pathway where there used to be a line of computer monitors. It will be interesting to see how teams will use these changes to their tactical advantage.

Site 2 Back No less stunning than its partner. There is another stairway to platform addition which you can expect will be used frequently by Terrorists defending the site. It extends across the whole site so you can expect it to be used as a “pivot” for someone who is trying to cover all three entrances to this site. Anyone left alive, especially in a 1v2 or 1v3 will be able to easily keep an eye on the main entrance, the ladder from the vent, and the entrance that will be used by anyone who drops from the gap in the vents. The hard part is killing all three…


No matter what its past reputation has been, prodigy looks to be one of the best (if not THE best) maps for competition. If you actually read the content you will know that I am utterly infatuation with how the map physically looks. They didn’t butcher the map like they did dust2, and the random objects lying on the ground actually enhance the environment instead of clutter it (except the barrels at Long Hall… there is an exception to everything). I’m looking forward to the public view of the map as well as how the professional players accept it. Valve did an excellent job on this map, hopefully they will continue the trend onto the other maps that they haven’t already massacred.