In any good game, every valid strategy has a valid counter. If camping doesn’t have a valid counter, then that just means it’s not a very well designed game.

For instance in CSGO, “camping” is one of the main parts of the game for both teams during different phases of each round. There are dozens of strategies to clear campers out. You can lob a grenade, throw a flashbang, or throw a smoke to block their potential line of sight. You can send in two or more people at the same time to try to overwhelm them. You can wait til you hear them reload or unscope or walk away. You can try to come at the site from a different angle and get a flank on them.

Most of the time I find that if people are getting killed over and over to campers when so many valid strategies exist, it’s less that the other person is camping and more so that you can’t overcome that.

Its part of the game. Some people just want to run around mindlessly rushing to get the jump on people then complain when someone was watching that door or corner

If camping is too effective, then the map or weapon balance is what needs work.

For example, of people are camping spawn points, why is the spawn point so easily accessible at all? Why don’t players spawn behind cover with multiple exit points? Do they not get temporary invulnerability?

Or camping objectives. Why is there only one, easily defended path to the objective? Why isn’t there a path for you to sneak up and just stab the camper in the ass while he’s staring down the scope? Or just walk around him and ignore him completely?

Watch some professional CS:GO. Those maps have been refined and balance-tweaked for decades. You can’t just camp one objective because there are two objectives. Every good camping spot is still leaves you exposed to getting flanked. Even with arguably the most OP camper’s weapon in any competitive game - the AWP, teams still only run 1 AWP, maybe 2 at most. Simply because camping alone isn’t effective.

It is as viable of a strategy as any other. People who complain about people “ratting” or being “bush wookies” crack me up… its like saying that chargin a point is a dumb way to play… its not… it is just the way people play. Some people are door kickers, some people want to sneak through a window, some people will camp an exit point. It all adds to the tension in a game. I think that if you are playing a game and dont like that people exit camp, like the do specifically in extraction shooters, then you might want to try a game that is more of a TDM… Because extraction games are generally designed around chokepoints… ala EFT or Hunt to name the most dominant ones I can think of.

I have wondered if this concept of “playing the right way” stems from a generation of people who watch twitch streams. Those guys cannot really afford to play the flanking/ambush style, so people watch and think that pushing a point, or dropping into the hottest zones are the correct way to play. My old ass lacks the snap reflexes of a 15yo. I am for mid tier, or mid tier +1… So I try to play games that allow for me to push when I feel a tactical advantage, or snipe from the flanks when I dont. Which most people would never want to watch.