Counter-Strike is more than a first-person shooter. Beneath its intricate strategies and flashy gun battles lies a nuanced allegory of the world’s most pernicious and long-enduring conflicts.

A game of Counter-Strike is a bitter fight to the death between two ardently opposed factions, each trying to detonate the bomb or stop it before it’s too late.

Virtually every player pursues these objectives without question, but those few who take a moment to reflect on the “why” of the conflict between terrorist and counter-terrorist will inevitably meet the game’s true dilemma: to blindly submit to your side’s faceless authority, or to rise up as an individual and forge your own path.

At the crux of this dilemma is, of course, the ability to teamkill. One’s natural instinct is to abstain, to continue as you always have and perpetuate the war ad infinitum. But you, the player, have a choice, true agency, the ability to rise up against your shepherd and those around you who choose to stay blind.

Kill your teammates, set yourself free. Take flight atop your wings of destiny and let faith’s currents guide you to paradise.