Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike
Team Liquid confirms the return of nitr0 as CSGO captain
Steven Rondina
At long last, Nicholas “nitr0” Cannella is returning to Team Liquid’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team. The organization confirmed the return of its former captain on Twitter. The decorated shot-caller has been playing on 100 Thieves’ Valorant lineup, but is instead returning to his old game and his old organization in a blockbuster transfer. To celebrate his return, Team Liquid put out a dramatic video that shows nitr0 polishing a Captain …
Counter-Strike
Everything you need to know about CSGO’s player count in 2022
Steven Rondina
2022 is set to be a very big year for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and the best barometer for the game’s health is its player count. Rival tactical shooter Valorant is in its second year of existence, and CSGO saw some major changes to its matchmaking system in 2021. This resulted in some enormous shifts to the game’s player base. But what did CSGO’s player count look like in 2021, and what …
Counter-Strike
CSGO pro FUSiON passes away unexpectedly, shocking community
Olivia Richman
A well-known Counter-Strike: Global Offensive pro player has passed away. Alex “FUSiON” Dincof died on January 3, 2022 at just 23 years old. Next month he would have turned 24. The details behind FUSiON’s passing remain unknown. FUSiON was an Italian player who started competing in CSGO at just 17 years old. While Italy isn’t often on the map in esports, FUSiON had already competed on the international stage. In …
Counter-Strike
CSGO skin tradeups explained, plus how to guarantee factory new
William Davis
Tradeups are a great way to get new skins in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, as long as you understand how they work. That’s where we can help. Opening new cases and ranking up your profile aren’t the only ways to get skins in CSGO. Tradeups are a volatile, but potentially very rewarding, option to get the gun of your dreams. But the rules for tradeups aren’t as simple as they may …
Counter-Strike
All you need to know about CSGO rank distribution in 2022
Steven Rondina
Even in 2022, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s ranks and matchmaking system is an absolute mess for a variety of reasons. But with a little work, it’s possible to break it down and understand how it works and how ranks in CSGO are distributed. Hackers remain omnipresent in CSGO, with recent numbers suggesting that players came across a hacker in every two to three games. Even worse, CSGO’s ranking system is downright …
Counter-Strike
cadiaN calls out CSGO FPS issue, FACEIT admin shares a fix
William Davis
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players have discovered a massive FPS drop at the start of 2022, but there could be an easy fix. A recent update from Valve seems to have caused a lot of FPS issues in CSGO. Players have reported massive frame drops as big as 100 since an update in early January 2022. Among the affected players is Heroic in-game leader Casper “cadiaN” Møller. The cause of these …
Counter-Strike
These are the best pro CSGO crosshair codes in 2022
Fariha Bhatti
Winning in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive depends heavily on your ability to hit your shots. A perfect CSGO crosshair can help with your aim and precision, ultimately boosting your performance. We’ve assembled some of the best crosshairs for you to use, with exact instructions in how to make your choice and implement them. CSGO is a team game, but coordination has low impact in a team whose players lack accuracy. Each player …
Counter-Strike
These are the best NVIDIA settings for high FPS in CSGO in 2022
Fariha Bhatti
Looking to boost your FPS in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive? Use these NVIDIA settings to squeeze the full juice out of your gaming rig. CSGO players always prefer optimal frames per second over high-definition scenery. To achieve this, players often crank their settings down to the lowest. Lowering visual settings can help, but make sure your NVIDIA graphic card is well-optimized first. Use these NVIDIA settings to achieve high FPS in …
Team Vitality signs Magisk, dupreeh to 2022 CSGO roster
Fariha Bhatti
Counter-Strike
Team Vitality has finally unveiled new signings for 2022 after much anticipation. The ex-Astralis trio has officially joined Dan “apEX” Madesclaire in an impressive attempt to rebuild Vitality. The blockbuster move of Astralis’ trio to Vitality has been confirmed in a climactic video announcement. The organization has completed its roster for 2022 by adding Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen, Emil “Magisk” Reif, and coach Danny “zonic” Sørensen. https://twitter.com/TeamVitality/status/1478773292081115138 The announcement comes a …
Operation Riptide is ending soon, so what happens to new skins?
William Davis
Counter-Strike
We’ve known Operation Riptide’s end date for a while, but it still hurts to see it go. Every Counter-Strike: Global Offensive fan should appreciate Operation Riptide while it lasts. The newest operation introduced a massive amount of fresh content to the game, including five new skin collections and a ton of new agent skins. Frugal players appreciate the chance at earning some skins for themselves through the weekly missions. But …
CSGO Operation Riptide week 16 mission guide
William Davis
Counter-Strike
Say goodbye to Operation Riptide, but say hello to your platinum coin. If you’ve been following our Operation Riptide mission guides for the past four months, only six stars stand between you and maxing out the newest battle pass for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Week 16 is appropriately titled Riptide!, and it’s effectively a celebration of all the cool things the season has brought to CSGO. Rev up your new Riptide …
Here’s what some of CSGO maps look like in real life
Fariha Bhatti
Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s cut-throat maps aren’t all fictional. Here’s what some of these locations look like in real life. Valve has released dozens of maps in Counter-Strike, and real-life places have inspired most of them. The origin of these locations is unknown, but dedicated CSGO players can’t stop digging. We might have a few guesses regarding the whereabouts of some vital CSGO maps. Dust 2 is one of the oldest …
Valorant anti-cheat dev offers to help with CSGO cheater problem
William Davis
Counter-Strike
The solution to cheaters in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive may come from an unexpected source. A former Riot Games anti-cheating developer has reached out to Valve offering to help fight cheaters. The conversation was spurred by a social media post from a Valve developer, who called cheating a pervasive problem across all online competitive titles. The outcome of this conversation has not been revealed, but every CSGO fan knows that Valve …
The complete history of s1mple, CSGO’s biggest star
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Widely considered one of the most skilled players to ever compete in professional Counter-Strike, Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev started his professional career in September 2014 when he was invited to join a Hellraisers team captained by Yegor “markeloff” Markelov. s1mple immediately made an impact. His addition helped Hellraisers take a win over a surging Fnatic at DreamHack Winter 2014 and take second place in their group. Hellraisers would lose to Ninjas …
How to set up an easy bhop command in CSGO
William Davis
Counter-Strike
Looking to bhop around in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive? A few simple commands can make it easy. Love it or hate it, bunnyhopping is an important part of CSGO culture. The days where you could zoom through maps by bhopping are long gone, but it’s still fun to mess around with it on your own private server. The basic rule set severely limits bunnyhopping and makes it harder to do, but …
These 3 CT smokes can get you easy wins on Inferno
Fariha Bhatti
Counter-Strike
Smokes are crucial for winning on Inferno, as they block off terrorists from breaking through key chokepoints. They can become overpowered when placed strategically to create a one-way. Inferno is one of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s oldest maps. The classic stage carries the 1.6 legacy with rocky architecture and dusty rooms. Inferno is visually pleasing, but it’s incredibly tricky to tackle on the Counter-Terrorists side. Smokes are essential to bag rounds …
This may be why low-ranked players queue with Global Elites
Fariha Bhatti
Counter-Strike
Have you ever matched up with players way outside of your league? There might be an explanation for why low-ranked players queue with Global Elites and other more highly-ranked players. Nine years after CSGO’s release, players are still not satisfied with the game’s matchmaking. The system often matches lower ranks with players way out of their skills range, leading to an unfair game. Many have made their peace by blaming …
CSGO Operation Riptide week 15 mission guide
William Davis
Counter-Strike
Our latest mission guide will help you make short work of the missions in Operation Riptide week 15. We’ve known that Operation Riptide would be coming to an end for a while now, but that doesn’t stop it from feeling a bit sad. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive doesn’t get big events like this very often. The next operation is probably several months away, and all of the awesome new skins added …
shox added to Team Liquid’s CSGO roster alongside oSee
Olivia Richman
Counter-Strike
Team Liquid has officially confirmed that Richard “shox” Papillon is on its starting Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster. Team Liquid announced the news on Twitter, calling the French veteran CSGO pro a legend. The tweet came with a short video hyping up the roster news, showing some exciting gameplay highlights. Team Liquid called it a “new chapter” for the org’s CSGO team. https://twitter.com/TeamLiquidCS/status/1476251670002606081?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1476251670002606081%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdotesports.com%2Fcounter-strike%2Fnews%2Fteam-liquid-officially-signs-shox-to-csgo-lineup Team Liquid has been making waves in the …
Should the AWP price be increased? Top CSGO pro says yes
Steven Rondina
Counter-Strike
The AWP is the most powerful gun in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, but it’s not actually the most expensive. Should that change? CSGO esports star Keith “NAF” Markovic apparently thinks it should. The longtime member of Team Liquid discussed what he would change in CSGO, and he honed in on the AWP. NAF thinks that AWPers tend to be the most impactful players in the game, and that’s not just down …
Counter-Strike has long been among the biggest titles in esports and competitive gaming, even going back to esports’ deepest roots from decades past. What’s more, the game continues going strong today, with developer and publisher Valve releasing the latest iteration of the franchise in 2023. The newest version, Counter-Strike 2, has not been without its issues. But its popularity continues the enduring prominence of the Counter-Strike series, signaling that the venerated franchise is likely here to stay for many years yet to come.
But how did the franchise come be to so prominent in the esports space, and role does CS2 have to play in the industry moving forward?
Counter-Strike has roots in the beginnings of esports
Counter-Strike was unquestionably one of the biggest drivers of what we would today consider to be early professional esports movement. It was far from alone, and it wasn’t the most advanced. That likely was StarCraft: Brood War, a real-time strategy game from famed developer Blizzard that caught on in South Korea and led to a professional scene in the country well ahead of any examples of esports industry elsewhere in the world.
But outside of Korea, Counter-Strike quickly became the driving force behind competitive gaming and esports. First released in 1999 as a modification for popular first-person shooter Half-Life, the game was easy to pick up and play for many gamers. Half-Life was borderline ubiquitous software for gamers with a PC, and adding a mod to it was as simple as downloading and applying said mod. So it was that Counter-Strike began to catch fire and spread across the world.
As it spread, so too did its competitive play. Early competitions often centered around online play, most prominently including the Cyberathlete Amateur League (CAL) in North America and the Clanbase Eurocup in Europe. But live, in-person tournaments, similar to those enjoyed by StarCraft players and fans in Korea, were also rising in prominence.
Within just a few years, there were a number of major annual tournaments being held for the original version of Counter-Strike. Notable international tournament organizers included the Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) in the United States, the Electronic Sports World Cup (ESWC) in France, and the World Cyber Games (WCG) in Korea. This was in addition to many other regional tournaments through which teams could test their mettle and battle over smaller prizes.
But even at bigger tournaments, prizes weren’t what they are today, and in general there was far less money available to professional Counter-Strike players than there is in today’s thriving esports industry which sees many players and teams playing at the full-time pro level. That’s a far cry from a time when perhaps a small handful of players were able to make a true living through playing CS alone, and even them, it was often a modest one.
Counter-Strike 2 at the fore of a bigger esports scene than ever before
Counter-Strike 2 was released to a far different esports space than that which the original Counter-Strike occupied. But what exactly is it that has changed the scene so much, besides the accrual of years?
Esports betting is at the top of the list. The sports betting industry is growing and expanding around the world each and every year, and esports has absolutely been a part of that. As esports betting continues to grow and thrive, it brings its benefits to the games that are being bet on. And Counter-Strike 2 is at the top of that list.
These benefits have arrived through a myriad of means. Fan interest in tournaments has gone up and become more consistent with betting markets available for each and every game played, which further incentivizes tournament organizers and their sponsoring partners. But those partners are also now more likely to work with the pro teams and players themselves. Betting operators are among the most common and most generous sponsors in the pro CS2 space, showing how esports betting’s rise has contributed to Counter-Strike’s continued prominence in esports and competitive gaming as a whole.
