Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike
OG officially signs niko to CSGO roster after benching ISSAA
William Davis
OG has unveiled Nikolaj “niko” Kristensen as a permanent part of its Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster, after the Dane competed as a stand-in for the team. The announcement comes just a day after OG announced that it had benched Issa “ISSAA” Murad. niko had already been playing with OG for a while, as he filled the gap left by Nathan “NBK” Schmitt’s departure earlier this month. With niko on the …
Counter-Strike
This brand new Molotov bug can break Overpass games
William Davis
A new bug involving the Molotov grenade in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has been discovered. The different grenades in CSGO have a history of not working as intended. HE grenades often have trouble when thrown near edges on a map, and smokes are notorious for not completely blocking off vision. Now, a recently discovered bug with the Molotov changes the distance these fiery grenades can travel. The bug was discovered on …
Counter-Strike
Explaining all of the different roles on a CSGO team
William Davis
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is a first-person shooter with a heavy emphasis on the tactical part of the game. Players have to do much more than just shoot the enemy in order to be consistently successful. With this in mind, these are the different roles that exist within a CSGO team. The in-game leader, or IGL for short, is the tactical mastermind behind the team. They decide what the team does, …
Counter-Strike
Astralis report shows it lost $8.5M million through 2020
William Davis
The Astralis Group has unveiled its annual financial results, with the organization producing an $8.5 million operational loss over the past year. The Astralis Group, which field rosters in popular titles including Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and League of Legends, has to make its yearly revenue public as it is a public company. In the past year, the team earned around $8.26M with the lion’s share coming from its CSGO team. …
Counter-Strike
Dust 2, Inferno, and Vertigo have just turned 20 years old
M Alzamora
20 years ago, Counter-Strike fans played their first games on what are now some of the most famous maps in gaming history. Dust 2, Inferno, and Vertigo each celebrated two decades of play this weekend. On March 13, 2000, CS 1.1 was released, and it looked little like the modern first-person shooter that over 1,000,000 players will log into today. Player models looked very different, and players still had to …
Counter-Strike
New custom map lets players reenact CSGO’s greatest clutches
M Alzamora
Even though Counter-Strike: Global Offensive doesn’t see many mods, the game’s custom maps are a great way for players to try out something new. This week, an impressive map by Ansimist came out, letting players relive 15 clutch moments by some of CSGO’s most popular professional players. The map offers a ton of replayability with a handful of moments to start and more that can be unlocked as players gain …
Counter-Strike
Nivera steps down from Vitality’s roster
William Davis
Belgian AWPer Nabil “Nivera” Benrlitom is stepping down from Vitality’s starting roster, as the team abandons its six-man roster in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Nivera joined Vitality back in October of last year, being introduced as the team’s sixth player. He initially only played on Dust II and Inferno but was later given playtime on Nuke as well. With Nivera on the roster, Vitality won IEM Beijing-Haidan and the Blast Premier …
Counter-Strike
Relog Media accused of underpaying its CSGO broadcast talent
William Davis
Serbian company Relog Media is being accused of underpaying members of the broadcast talent team working its Counter-Strike: Global Offensive events. CSGO commentator pr0nogo accused Serbian company Relog Media and its partner GRID Esports of underpaying its on-air broadcast talent. The companies are best known for the production of the Snow Sweet Snow and Pinnacle Cup events. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time to stop beating around the bush. Meet @EsportsKieran, …
Blast Premier NA Qualifier plagued by technical issues
William Davis
Counter-Strike
The North American Open Qualifier for the Blast Premier showdown last weekend saw several players complaining openly about server issues, technical difficulties, and bug exploits. The drama started when Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player Tyler “tweiss” Weiss posted a clip on Twitter. In the clip, he and his teammates were killed by an invisible opponent who only became visible when tweiss and his teammates were already dead. y’all can keep this …
CSGO’s Steam store page disappearing reveals hidden Steam apps
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Early in the morning of March 9, Valve’s flagship first-person shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive disappeared from the Steam Store. Players could still play it and could even find it when searching the Steam Store, but for an hour, CSGO and some other games blinked in and out of existence. SteamDB creator Pavel X tweeted out a quick CSGO joke before saying that he thought the hiccup was a bug due …
Train now has two major smoke bugs that Valve isn’t fixing
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
After all the work Valve did to clean up Counter-Strike: Global Offensive before the release of Operation Broken Fang, there are still parts of CSGO that could use some work. Recently, players reminded Valve again that something very weird was happening inside Train’s upper B halls, and it’s been happening for over a year. When players smoke the hallway in just the right location, a bugged smoke is cut in …
This might be the fastest USP 4K you’ll ever see in CSGO
Fariha Bhatti
Counter-Strike
Complexity’s in-game leader Benjamin “blameF” Bremer helped his team secure the first victory in the ESL Pro League season 13 opening match by his impeccable shot-calling and a smooth pistol kill streak. The blameF-led roster looked confident from the outset, despite kicking off the game on FunPlus Phoenix’s map pick Nuke. On their own turf Dust2, the team barred all entries on the Counter-Terrorists side and rallied on FunPlus Phoenix …
Thorin steps down as creative director at Flashpoint
William Davis
Counter-Strike
Duncan “Thorin” Shields has decided to not renew his contract with Flashpoint, criticizing the management of the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament organizer. The 39-year-old joined Flashpoint in February 2020 as a creative director and on-air analyst. He became the public face of the company as he tried to help revolutionize the professional CSGO landscape. But he claims to have never been given the means to make a real impact. Flashpoint …
DIGNITAS makes the right move with Lekr0 roster signing
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player Jonas “Lekr0” Olofsson has signed with DIGNITAS ahead of this week’s matchups, according to a release from the organization. This officially reunites the player with his former mentor, Patrik “f0rest” Lindberg. Lekr0 has replaced Haris “H4RR3” Hadzic, who was benched by DIGNITAS just five months after the organization brought the rifler onboard to replace famed CSGO legend Christopher “GeT_RiGhT” Alesund. Happy to announce that I will …
Reports say legendary CSGO AWPer kennyS might switch to Valorant
Fariha Bhatti
Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s legendary professional player Kenny “kennyS” Schrub may be packing to move to Valorant. The infamous CSGO player exodus to Valorant continues to advance as more players switch games. Most recently, OG’s former rifle Ethan “Ethan” Arnold left to serve Valorant esports, leaving CSGO fans in a shock. The nascent scene of Riot’s shooter is maturing into proper esports, tempting for North American CSGO players missing out on …
3 big questions ahead of ESL Pro League 13’s group A
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
ESL Pro League Season 13 is just around the corner, so here’s a breakdown of the three biggest storylines ahead of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s premier league. ESL Pro League’s 13th season starts on March 8, with the six teams from group A kicking off weeks of professional CSGO matches. Group A’s initial matchups are an excellent opportunity for fans to check out some rosters that are unknown commodities looking to …
CSGO pro ragequits during official match, team wins anyway
Fariha Bhatti
Counter-Strike
A close match between Nordavind and Movistar Riders proved that rage-quitting is never a good idea. The two teams faced off in a close match in the lower bracket of the Dreamhack Masters Spring 2021 qualifiers. Nordavind looked sharp on the third map Mirage, leaving no space for Movistar Riders to breathe. The team was struggling throughout the second half, and Nordavind progressed to match point. The team seemingly had …
These were the most popular pro CSGO teams in 2020
William Davis
Counter-Strike
Which Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team drew in the biggest audience in 2020? The worldwide travel restrictions imposed in 2020 had a major impact on CSGO’s tournament circuit. Players were locked in their houses, and competition moved from LAN events to online competitions. But the teams kept competing, giving the fans endless hours of top-tier CSGO to watch. With 2020 behind us, we can look back and see which teams drew …
Evil Geniuses adds young star oBo to its CSGO roster
William Davis
Counter-Strike
Evil Geniuses has announced Owen “oBo” Schlatter as the newest addition to their Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster. The 17-year-old joins the lineup after having left Complexity Gaming. oBo initially benched himself in September 2020 to return to the United States. The American rifler had been competing with Complexity in Europe and cited the long time spent away from home and in uncertainty as the main reason for his departure. The …
You can skip CSGO’s main menu with this hidden command
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Tired of loading into Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s main menu? There’s a command that lets players skip the menu entirely and loads them right into the map of their choice. CSGO’s main menu sometimes feels like a roadblock to actually playing the game. Sitting at the main menu seems silly when most players’ first stop is a warmup map or a favorite surf server before their first match of the day. …
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.
