The R8 Revolver, And The Unfairness Of

Socioeconomics
Written By Smith Comma John
There's something quite frankly stunning about how the mindset of an average
CS:GO player works. A lot of players have their choice riflemajority of which being an
AK-47and a great many have a favorite skin for their favorite gun, and a great many
of those also have a most desired skin overall (Dragon Lore, Howl, etc.) Most, if not all
of this game, is built around and about pure, mechanical skill, with the tools presented,
however, as of this writing, four weapon classes are interchangable with different styles
of weapons: M4A1-S for M4A4, USP-S for P2000, CZ75-Auto for T's TEC-9 and CT's
Five-seveN, and R8 Revolver for Desert Eagle.
All of these guns are very mix-and-match from one player's line up to the next...
except for the R8 Revolver, which has become, at best, a comedy-cum-tragedy routine
in motion. It's a weapon that's been for the most part forgotten in CS:GO canon.
So what happened? For this breakdown, I'm gonna draw a lot of parallels with
the R8's cousin: the CZ75-Auto, in how it was presented, represented, and handled.
There were, to my knowledge, a number of factors in how it was taken in by players,
and how it wasn't, all of which I will break down and explain to the best of my abilities.
Let's go back to the 8th of December, 2015: the release of the Winter Update and
the Revolver Case. At launch, the R8 was accepted with wide open arms by the
community hungry for something to shake the habitual, in the first new weapon in 22
months (last being CZ75-Auto on 12th of February, 2014). It was an alternative to the
Desert Eagle, a mainstay for those who wanted to eco with bite, or be a wise ass behind
the trigger, and at first, it was hard to not see the new Revolver in people's loadouts.
And for good reason: it was horribly broken.
It was impossible for the first 72 hours to not see entire squads rolling with
nothing but R8's, popping people from long distances with ease, armor or otherwise.
Spamming right-click and fake shooting your teammates during buyout time thanks to a
bug, holding off bomb defusal with hammer fanning... It became known as a Pocket
AWP by those who used it, and for good reason: body shots on armored units were a
death sentence, thus making the long range sniper rifle null and void. It was the end all,
be all weapon, totally by accident.
It wasn't without it's flaws, however. The primary (left-click) fire had a .46 second
cock back, meaning players had to either time shots perfectly, or prefire and get lucky
someone was unfortunate to pass through an angle at the right time. Just as well, at a
price point of $850compared to the Desert Eagle's $700not only was it impossible
to use in pistol rounds, but the risk-reward factor skyrocketed, not just from the price
point, but were people use this as the basis of a force buy, a lot would rest on the
player's shoulders to make it work. Flaws aside, it was still a wildly powerful and fun gun
to play with in a competitive match, on deathmatch, or just because.
And then a patch came out. Freezetime firefights, defusal secondary fire and
primary fire exploits were gone, but the power was still there. Then a second update
came out, taking all the bite out of the weapon, bringing it back down to the Desert
Eagle's level.

Suddenly, the shots went silent. Adopters abandoned, players shunned it, and an
entire weapon in a game built around them was almost entirely exiled by its community.
A major theory I had around the gun's lack of acceptance in the community at
large was not because of it being nerfed from a series of updates, rendering it lesser to
the Desert Eagle (on the contrary, the R8 is still stronger than the Desert Eagle), but
rather, how at launch, it didn't have as many skins available for it.
This is where the CZ75-Auto comes into play. When the CS:GO Weapons Case
3 was released alongside the Arms Deal 3 update, it came with the newest weapon
since the Counter Terrorist team got silenced weaponry back: the CZ75-Auto. A fully
automatic weapon with the same level of risk-and-reward as the R8, with only 24 bullets
total at hand, compared to the staggering 144 for the TEC-9 and the equally reasonable
120 for the Five-SeveN. Ammunition size aside, it's also marginally weaker to them,
albeit by a few damage points a shot. For an alternative, it seems more like a hindrance,
but it's seem to been accepted wholly by the community. And again, repeating my point,
my biggest reason is that it had more skins available at release.
Let's compare the two weapons. The R8 Revolver had a total of four skins
released for it at launch: two in the Revolver Case, a Covert Fade, and a Mil-Spec
Crimson Web; one as a drop in the Bank Collection, a Consumer Grade Bone Mask;
and one as a drop in the Dust II Collection, a Restricted Amber Fade.
The CZ75-Auto had five at launch: four in the CS:GO Weapons Case 3, a Covert
Victoria, a Classified The Fuschia Is Now, a Restricted Tread Plate, and a Mil-Spec
Crimson Web; and one as a drop in the Bank Collection, a Mil-Spec Tuxedo.
Now you might say Oh but it's only one skin difference between the two, but you
need to see that while the CZ75 runs the gamut of all rarities, the R8 case only hits the
lowest and highest rarities in it's case, whereas the other drops are either most common
or relatively rare; not much range in the selection.
And while the skin economy for the R8 skins was strong for around a month, it
has taken a heartsinking drop in an astonishingly short time, no thanks to the
aforementioned nerfs and patches. From pricing indexes on CSGO Analyst, the Factory
New Fade with StatTrak, was selling for upwards of $150+ at its peak just days after
release, and in a matter of weeks declined sharply to only $60+. It is now trending at
around the $25 mark as of November 26th, 2016.
Compare this to the CZ75-Auto's sole Covert skinVictoria--also Factory New,
also StatTrak, is selling at around $80 as of November 26 th, 2016. At launch, it floated
around the $100 mark, but rose to as high as $400 in individual sales. The skin's been
on the market for almost three years now, and it's holding its value far better than the
R8's highest graded skin.
As of this writing, the R8 Revolver has only had one additional skin released for
it: the Restricted Reboot, in the Gamma 2 Case released on the 18 th of August, 2016;
just over 10 months after its debut.
The CZ75-Auto, in a similar time frame, has had a staggering seven skins
released for it. Two for the Huntsman Case, Mil-Spec Poison Dart and Mil-Spec
Twist; one for the Operation Breakout Case, Restricted Tigris; one for the Baggage
Collection, Consumer Grade Green Plaid; one for the Cobblestone Collection,
Restricted Chalice; one for the Overpass Collection, Mil-Spec Nitro; and one for the

eSports 2014 Summer Case, Mil-Spec Hexane. Two skins were released three
months after the reveal, and another four were released not two months after that, with
one last one released nine days later.
A lot of this game, and not a lot of people want to admit this, is opulence, and
showcasing it. Everyone on a squad who sees a Dragon Lore, or a Fire Serpent, or a
Glock-18 Fade in your hands will often go ape for it, ask to see it, ask for a drop, or go
as far as team kill to greedily have it. I've not once seen anyone go wild for a CZ75 or
an R8 in freezetime, but just because it doesn't happen now, does not mean in the
slightest that it's not a possibility. But as it stands, there's no users for the weapon
because there is no real economy, nor is there any real expression either.
Absolutely every other weapon in the game, save for the Negev and M249, have
over a dozen different skins to choose from, in a myriad of designs, styles, price points
and rarities. The R8 as of today still only has five, almost a year after release, and two
of them are in the Fade family, and another two were from families with many skins on
different weapons available. It never got a fair chance at being its own thing.
I hope ever so dearly that the R8 Revolver can find itself a second wind and
become a proper alternate choice to the Desert Eagle in player canon, but as of right
now, it's not even second banana to it's seniority. Right now, the R8 doesn't exist on the
map for players, skin collectors, or gameplay theorists. As much of a mechanical
advantage it holds over its counterpart, it just does not garner the kind of respect that it
deserves. Perhaps in upcoming cases and collections, more skins will be released for it,
and more life will be pumped into the weapon. But the way I see it, if on the next case,
there are no R8 Revolver skins, then the weapon is as good as dead.