As you may know,
we recently announced that one of our longtime and loved servers for Counter-Strike: Source would be closing up. As you can assume, there has been mixed emotions over this action as many of us trace our earliest roots of the community back to late night shenanigans from the back halls and projector room of this excellent CS:S map.
As sad as anyone is to see something they recall so vividly in their favorable online gaming experiences go away, all things must come to an end for new springs of life to come forward and reinvigorate our little world with new and memorable experiences for the future.
Interestingly enough, what I think many of us are missing out on in our sadness (yes people, I'm somewhat saddened too), is that it isn't any specific game or game server that keeps us together as a community. In fact, we could shut down every server that wears the SR tags, and our community would continue to flourish and prosper. Why? Simple.
What brings us together as a community,
is one another. Though we may meet in game servers, and use that as a platform to start our relationships as online gaming comrades, what keeps us together as a group is our passion for friendship with other like-minded individuals like ourselves.
It isn't the games we play that make us what we are. It isn't the platforms we play them on that define us a community. It is the fact that we enjoy one another so much as people, that we open ourselves up to share in our common love of friendship and gaming together in an online arena.
No single game or game server gives you that feeling you get when all of your SR homies are dug in next to you in the heat of battle, listening to bullets whiz by your head, watching bodies fly as explosions go off around you and wondering just how you're going to get out of the predicament at hand.
What gives you that feeling of immersion in the gaming experience isn't the stunning graphics of the game (even as good as they are these days), it isn't the full bore surround sound and thumping sub-woofer bass you have. No, it is in fact none of those things when it comes to our community here at SR.
What makes you feel like you absolutely must rescue that one last hostage, must get your dispenser up before that cart turns the corner, must check the backdoor while peeking up into the vents, must survive one more round to have enough money for that next big rifle, must play on to live another day... is this:
What makes you feel so passionate about gaming at SR is that you're enjoying your gaming experience with people you know, trust and in some sick ways love like a brother in arms. You know that live or die, win or lose, w00t or phail, those same folks will be there with you in-game and/or ventrilo, ready for the next round to clear the slate, to give you another competitive chance at dominating the other team and coming out the victor. Giving you and your SR brethren reason to congratulate the rest of the server, knowing all along that you truly and sincerely won and won with integrity, and that those who were less fortunate than you gave it their all and will one day win victory for themselves.
You truly mean it when you say GG to these folks. Truly, because they are your kin, your community brothers and sisters, your own cyber flesh and blood. They are there for you on the forums, in the servers, in ventrilo and in instant message. They are you, and you are them. We are one and we are all.
We are
StrafeRight...
And
that is what makes us great.
sR is the best 
