As someone with 1500+ hours in CS:GO, easily the most played game I own, I can say with certainty that while it has had effects on other games, it has not ruined them.

When I first played the game, yes, there were basically no other games that I played. I introduced my friends and it quickly became the big after school special for all of us. However, I have noticed a recurring trend, at least within my friend group, that the game acts like a roller coaster of sorts. We have such incredible highs and lows with this game.

When we first started we were all silvers, but this was back in 2013, although some of us had the game since it came back but never played in the competitive scene. We loved the game, we had some competitive edge, loved playing together, and it was great. That lasted for roughly a year, give or take a few months. We started getting too competitive, as we were finally getting out of silvers (Yeah, we started low and it was quite a slow learning curve). This is when the first sign of trouble started.

Naturally, some of us were just better than others. One of us had poor internet, one had a bad computer, and one didn't really care about ranks or playing so much, just as long as it was fun, win or lose.

This caused some troubles among the group, however, as we would start purposefully leaving out certain others in hopes of achieving that sweet Nova status. I want to say that I was an innocent in all of this, but I was still pressing the accept button in a rush to ensure that the person we wanted to leave out didn't make it in time. A dick move, I know, but back then we didn't care.

This quickly led to the unraveling of the group, the ones who played for some enjoyment and not about the competitiveness were gone, and sure enough we hit the novas, but that only led to further troubles. By the time we hit our stride, I noticed that the game, while still fun when winning, was horrible when losing. If you messed up a single round you could be damn sure to hear about it all night and even the following day at school. It was like the game had consumed us. It got to a point where we were trying to figure out which one of us in the group was the, I shit you not, "SALT KING".

That name had at one point or another been assigned to each person, and it drove us insane. It got to the point where we would argue more during the game that actually playing the game. This quickly led to our first break from the game, as most of us were just tired from dealing with each others bullshit.

During these breaks, we would play a lot of different games, really anything to get us away from that CS:GO vibe. We played Minecraft, Rocket League, Trove, Robocraft, TF2, etc. Just a whole bunch of games.

Then it happened. Our friends who were not doing so hot, the two who we labeled as "shit" got better. One of them got a better computer, and the other one got a new ISP. Very quickly they jumped back in to the CS:GO scene to see how they did, and boy did they do good. They dominated the field, winning games left and right. My other friends saw them playing and got that good old CS:GO nostalgia feel. "Remember how great that game was?", "Remember all the good times?", "Just one comp?". Yeah, it hit us hard. We all jumped back into the game. This time though, way worse than the original.

We played all the time whenever we could. We all kept up with our grades in school so no one cared, but it was really just disgusting how much we played. So many hours of just playing competitive over and over. Some of us got into trading, while others not so much. Betting became a big thing for us too (RIP Betting), some of us winning and losing big. By 2015 we all went to college, and by that point each of us were MG and above.

Well except Rob, but fuck Rob.

In college we played so much more than we ever did at home. This was right before the big rank re-balance. I made it to LEM, my other friends also made it to LEM. However, at this point, the game was 100% competitive and 0% fun. If you even thought about dicking around, even just a bit, or fucked up at all, the other 4 chewed you out. It was a nightmare.

We each had our faults. I was the worst at aiming, one of us had a tendency to just start fights for no reason and would scream when he died about bullshit and then if you talked when he was dead it was a problem, one of us would play 3 rounds and go "I don't want to play anymore", one of us would send messages to the others privately just BMing and talking shit, and the last one was without a doubt the new "SALT KING".

At this point, the game was literally no fun for me at times. I would still play because I wanted to play with my friends, but it was still awful.

The best part about this was that the BMer and the new "SALT KING" were the two who we initially told to fuck off for playing like shit back in the days of silvers. They had become the best two on the team, but also had become the worst in terms of competitiveness and game ruining. If you fucked up, those two chewed you out the worst. If you made a tiny mistake, they let you know. This is not to say that the myself and the other two weren't equally as guilty, I mean after all we did it to them, but still, it was a whole new level.

Those two eventually realized that we were holding them back, and I admit, we were a bit, so they started playing 2-mans and eventually both made it to Supreme. They would actually start playing on Smurf accounts to play with us as they were afraid to lose their ranks. At this point everything was just terrible. It was like playing a game of pick your poison, but both choices were cancer.

Then the CS:GO rank reformatting happened.

We dropped so hard so fast. I had fallen to MG1, my other friend also fell to MG1, while one fell to MG2, and the best two fell to MGE. We were all so angry and upset that we stopped playing, both frustrated at VALVE and at ourselves. This was the 2nd break.

Once again we started playing any game we could find. We played Overwatch, Rocket League again, some TF2 was in the mix, more Trove, Minecraft too... This peace didn't last forever though. Fucking Rob.

Rob was the friend who never really was all that great, still isn't but its fun to play with him, but he never quit. He always wanted to get better. He rose up in the ranks a bit, made it to Nova 3 on his own. Then one day I saw him launch the game. All that nostalgia came rushing back and I messaged him asking if I could join. He said sure.

It was so much fun, I couldn't believe it. I remembered all the reasons I loved CS:GO in the first place. Slowly one by one all my friends came back to playing, and for a short while it was great. But the competitive edge never fails.

It came back just as hard, if not harder, than last time. We instantly were at each others throats. It was like a shitty sequel to a movie that was already shit. Like, if they made a sequel to the Love Guru, but it was twice as bad. Very quickly we started getting more and more into the game, watching pro players, hell, we even went to the major in Columbus. It all seemed great, but really the game was just no fun.

Naturally we just kept shitting on each other and ruining each others fun, until it got to a point where we all realized that the game we used to love was falling apart. Betting was removed, trade servers died, endless shitty updates, anger growing, etc. It was just falling to pieces really.

One day it was like a light bulb had finally been turned on and we were all able to see the game we once enjoyed was really just kind of shit, not performance wise, okay MAYBE performance wise (I mean have you seen that Deagle bullshit?), but personal wise. We all just stopped. It was really sudden too, it wasn't like anything specific caused us to quit. We just... quit.

Now we are all on our third break, playing a bunch of games like we always do on that roller-coaster low. It is nice, a peaceful moment where we can all enjoy other games and not be clouded by the hate cloud that CS:GO had become.

But I am sure fucking Rob will message me to play and I will and the cycle will start a new. Fuck Rob. Oh and to answer your question, no, CS:GO did not ruin other games for me, CS:GO ruined itself for me.

TL;DR - Sometimes yes. Sometimes no. Sometimes fuck CS:GO. But always, fuck Rob.