How to use HLTV.org - Guidebook

HLTV.org brings to you the first in a series of “How to use HLTV.org – Guidebook” starting with the top banner & menu.

How well do you really know how to navigate around HLTV.org? Have you discovered everything our website has to offer you? What if there are a few surprises you never really knew about? HLTV.org begins a series of articles in a series called “How to use HLTV.org – Guidebook”.

This guidebook is aimed to inform and help our existing users about what we have to offer here on HLTV.org. With this guidebook we seek to increase your usage on HLTV.org so you can benefit and get more out of your HLTV.org experience.

Chapter 1 – The Top Menu Bar & Banner

Most of you have hopefully noticed by now that at the top of every HLTV.org page there is a menu with 7 tabs all with drop-down menus allowing you to navigate everywhere around the website. Today we will attempt to explain where all these menu links lead to and what they can be used for.  The 7 tabs include the following sections: “General”, “HLTV”, “Help”, “Forum”, “Coverage”, “Betting” & “About”.

General –

There are four sub-sections under this menu including “News”, “Galleries”, “Search” & “Jobs”.

By clicking on the “news” link it takes you straight to the frontpage which lists all HLTV.org’s most recent news. We don’t think that really needs explaining more than that so we shall quickly move on.

The “galleries” section includes all the HLTV.org photo galleries uploaded from all the events we’ve attended in the past. In it we have pictures of professional teams playing at their finest as well as pictures of what a real-life gaming event looks like. 

Following the “search” link will take you straight to our search feature. If you remember once reading a news piece, a forum thread or simply a comment but can’t remember where exactly you saw it just go here, type in key words and presto! Hopefully you’ve found what you were looking for.

If you think you have what it takes to join the HLTV.org team then the “jobs” section is where you need to visit! There we list the jobs currently available at HLTV.org. Each role is accompanied by a brief description of what we need and if you think that you can deliver and satisfy our needs then follow the contact link with your details.

HLTV –

This is one of the oldest sections here at HLTV.org and we are more than sure that most of you have used this tab at some point. We will therefore keep the guide for this part relatively short. Under the HLTV tab the following sub-sections exist: “HLTV Ips”, “Source TV Ips”, “Booking” & “Demo Section”.

It is certainly not rocket science and we are sure most of you can guess that by following the “HLTV Ips” and the “SourceTV Ips” links it will take you straight to a list of all the HLTV and SRCtv IPs we are currently providing. It lists both top flight games from major tournaments as well as amateur games from around the world.

The “booking” section is perhaps one of the most important features here at HLTV.org as this is where anyone can go to book an HLTV or SRCtv for an upcoming clanwar. We expect most of you know how to use this page by now, however if after this post there is demand for a guide for that page, one will follow!

Finally, the “demo section” lists all the top demos that are on our servers available for you to download.  Here matches from leading tournaments such as the ESWC, WCG, KODE5 and many more can all be found in a demo and it is all absolutely free. Take advantage of this feature all you like as watching demos is beneficial if you wish to improve your CS1.6 personal and also team skills.

Help –

If you are relatively new to HLTV.org, or even if you are an experienced user you should all have looked at the “FAQ” and “Rules” that this drop-down menu includes. It is pretty obvious what both pages lead to and we advise you take a look at them if you haven’t yet in order to continue making HLTV.org a friendly and popular environment.

Forum –

Again, it is clear where this leads to. The tab lists all our forum pages which can also be seen by clicking on the first link, "view forums". If you haven’t been very active on HLTV.org now is the time to do so! Ask your questions on anything you wish, post a thread on anything (within reason and complying with the rules ie. nothing offensive), even if it is just introducing yourself!

Coverage –

Perhaps the most unused though very useful feature here at HLTV.org. This section lists all the events HLTV.org is currently providing coverage for. On the release of this post we are currently covering the following events: ESL Pro Series XIII Germany, Extreme Masters III Norwegian Qualifier (which ends on Saturday) and the Extreme Masters III Qualifying Round 1.

The coverage section will keep you informed of everything you really need to know about any event. It gives a brief description of the event, including the number of teams participating and the total prize purse. It will also give you a list of results, demos, groups and brackets. For the more important events there will also usually be HLTV.org predictions and the event seedings. Browsing the coverage pages regularly will ensure you are stayed up-to-date with all important events and participating teams’ performances.

Betting –

The betting tab speaks for itself really, this is where you go to see our open bets and attempt to win one of our monthly betting prizes! A complete guide for the betting has already been made and can be found by going to the bottom of the “betting” drop-down menu and following the “guide” link. Don’t forget to read the “rules” while you’re there!

About –

This tab has three links in its drop-down menu: “History”, “Staff” & “Contact”. We suggest that if you have not done so you take a little time to look at the first one if you can.

The “history” section gives an extended description of HLTV.org’s history. How we started, how we’ve grown and where we are today. We’d like to thank all our users for showing us the support and enabled us to grow as the years have gone on. It has been almost 8 years since HLTV.org started and we are now one of the leading gaming websites thanks to you!

You can see who is part of the current HLTV.org crew by following the “staff” link and if you wish to contact HLTV.org about anything at all then follow the “contact” link.

The Banner

Did you know that by clicking on the HLTV.org image (top left banner) it takes you straight back to the front page? Similarly the VeryGames logo leads to our leading sponsor’s website who without, HLTV.org would not be possible, and finally the middle banner leads to another of our sponsor’s websites, currently SteelSeries.

Well there we have it, the end of our very first episode of “How to use HLTV.org – Guidebook”. Out of interest, how many of you knew about all these features already?

We hope this has been helpful to anyone that did not know about all these features and any feedback about the website or about this post will be welcomed! We are always looking to hear for new ideas we could add to the website so don’t be shy about listing things you think might go well with HLTV.org.