1 Introduction- 2 Movies
Choual/CS-view's history
As you maybe noticed it, 
ZMX published a video introducing this review article a few weeks ago.
What is a Choual? : this is the famous question of YokozowneR's very own movie that made people aware of the « Choual » name. Choual has been created by Sai4n in 2000, under the name of cs-view (www.cs-view.fr.st). The site changed his domain name one year later, and became www.cs-view.com. kento, firenze and g4v helped him to administrate and add content.The site knew his glorious years between 2003 and 2007, with his record of visitors, downloads, members : the activity was at his pinnacle.
Flat Eric : more than a logo, an icon
Flat Eric is Choual's official mascot. The others having sunk into oblivion. The members crushed on it, they even bought small Flat Eric puppets for their bedrooms (and for hugging them secretly). [p-ind]According to S4ian, the existence of Flat Eric as a mascot started with a private joke, while playing awp on de_dust. He won't go further, because private jokes are private.
For the anecdote, evenHeatoN had recognized Flat once, at the ESWC! :p --
Choual's fall
Let's talk about it, but not much. First, the domain name has been lost by Lycos. Sai4n didn't had the money to continue and decided to stop there.
After 6 years, all the CS movies were starting to get similar, the number of downloads was falling. During the old times, CS was one of the few online game played. Youths were asking for computers only in order to play CS, and people were looking to the newest version and new maps, cyber cafes were making much money thanks to CS! That's very different today. I finally lost the motivation and the availability that I had before. The CS community changed, and internet too. Moreover, CS has not evolved in 10 years. The day when Valve will release « the next Counter-Strike », it will be worthwhile to start again, but this won't happen soon.
What about now ?
Choual is still alive despite of the frightening diminution of the content and visitors. Currently on Cs-View.com, the few active members offer from time to time popular videos of CS, CS:S of COD4.Another site has been created : Choualbox. But it has a completely different purpose : post and comment images found on the web.
