I know people in CS1.6 who turn their brightness up all the way just to they can see people in the shadows.............
Most professional players do it, in pretty much every competitive game out there. Most professional players also run with 16-bit color, minimum detail, and very low resolution. When it's competitive, you don't really give a shit about graphical quality, just about the gameplay. I've been playing Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory competitively for quite a while, and I can't play well with lots of details at all, it's distracting. I play ET at 1024x768, minimum texture quality, 16-bit color, z-buffer, textures, low geometric quality and very high gamma. Believe me, if your only goal is trying to win and not looking at pretty graphics, that's the way to go.
![:roll:](http://192.241.182.11/images/smilies/rollseyes.png)