A traditional server browser pings each game server from the client, so the ping you are shown is roundtrip time between your client and that server. CS follows

A traditional server browser pings each game server from the client, so the ping you are shown is roundtrip time between your client and that server. CS follows this client-server architecture. The server browser retreives a list of game servers from a directory server, and all that directory does is manage the list of game servers for presentation to clients.