I don’t remember the specifics of this game, but snowballing is definitely not helpful.
Though what I really liked about older games, e.g. CS 1.6 is how it was purely skill-based and unforgiving. When I started playing, I barely had kills, was always dying. Then over time I became very good, and it was an incredibly rewarding experience.
It taught me that you can become great in almost anything, if you (1) have the motivation/discipline to keep persevering through failures, and (2) dedicate enough time to practice. A very valuable life lessons that kids these days are not getting from most games, as they are focused on opening their parent’s wallet for the newest shitty skins.