Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike
FaZe broky lands an insane no-scope on NAF after tabbing out of game
Fariha Bhatti
In a recent match, FaZe’s AWPer Helvijs “broky” Saukants proved that tabbing out of the game isn’t a reason good enough to perform poorly after he shut down Team Liquid’s Keith “NAF” Markovic in an AWP no-scope. The opening round of BLAST Premier Spring’s Group C saw FaZe clan go up against Team Liquid for a slot in upper finals. All eyes were on Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo and Russel “Twistzz” …
Counter-Strike
s1mple tells fans to “show some respect” after ZywOo criticism
M Alzamora
Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev wasn’t happy with his viewers making fun of fellow Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut’s performance during Vitality’s matches during BLAST Premier’s group stage, and the Natus Vincere star let them know about it. s1mple has come a long way since CSGO veteran Wiktor “TaZ” Wojtas dressed down the young player on Twitter in 2016. Since then, s1mple has attempted to take the high road in …
News
These are all the top pro CSGO crosshair codes for 2022
M Alzamora
Pro players in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive use all different types of settings and crosshairs, and while these may not make everyone else a better player if they mimic them, pro settings are a great way to try out something different in a player’s own CSGO setup. There are a couple of ways users can get pro crosshairs into their own game. The first way to copy them over is through …
Counter-Strike
This is the best way to control mid on Dust 2 with your utility
Fariha Bhatti
It’s time to discard the classic rush B strategy. These new utility lineups will help you breeze into the B site safely from mid. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s oldest and most legendary locale of Dust 2 lives on and remains one of the most challenging maps to play. Years after its original release, players are still figuring it out. Getting middle control on Dust 2 can be an arduous task as …
stanislaw replicates olofmeister “hot defuse” in BLAST Spring
Fariha Bhatti
Counter-Strike
In a match against Team Vitality, Evil Geniuses’ Peter “stanislaw” Jarguz stole the show with a game-saving defusal while standing in a molotov. Heroic defuses are some of the most memorable parts of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive esports. Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer’s “hot defuse” for Fnatic against Team Dignitas in the 2014 ESL One Cologne Major is the greatest example of this. The “Olof on fire” defuse hasn’t been truly imitated yet, …
mousesports adds Renegades’ dexter, karrigan to FaZe Clan likely
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
mousesports has signed in-game leader Chris “dexter” Nong away to its Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster. The 26-year-old joins from Renegades, where he has spent the past year dominating the Oceania region, leading Renegades to 10 tournament wins in a row since March 2020. dexter tallied impressive stats for the Austrailian team over that time. His lowest rating of the year came during DreamHack Open Summer 2020, where he posted a …
Broken Fang Guardian bug give players $1,000 when they die
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s last big patch introduced a bonus for players stuck in a game after a teammate quits. It was meant to give players a chance to win after developers removed bots from the game’s competitive mode, but it looks like Valve forgot to turn part of this update off when it came to the Guardian mode. CSGO’s config files can be weird, as shown by the latest mixup …
ELiGE exposes racist CSGO pros at Depth Esports, gets them kicked
Fariha Bhatti
Counter-Strike
Depth Esports has released its entire roster after Team Liquid’s Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski shared evidence that proved the former players’ problematic behavior outside of the server. Toxicity in casual Counter-Strike: Global Offensive matches is usually brushed off as dark humor. Valve’s meek attempts at handling such toxicity haven’t changed much, enabling players to run wild. Since the game has become free-to-play, even more players are abusing the chat feature, spewing …
Team Vitality’s apEX takes temporary leave from CSGO
Fariha Bhatti
Counter-Strike
Team Vitality’s in-game leader Dan “apEX” Madesclaire has decided to take a breather and temporarily step down from the active roster amid BLAST Premier Spring. Taking to Twitter, the French team’s coach Rémy “XTQZZZ” Quoniam made official that apEX won’t be calling the shots during the BLAST spring series as he’ll be going inactive for an indefinite period. Official statement from our CS:GO coach @XTQZZZ.TL;DR: our captain @Vitality_apEX takes a …
Steam China missing features, doesn’t transfer player purchases
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Steam China is live but players might be forced to leave their games behind if they want to move from Steam’s global client to Valve’s official Chinese client. It looks like players that move from Valve’s global client to Steam China will be waiting a long time for their games to come with them. The Chinese government will have to approve each game for sale in the country. And only …
These are all the ways to mute a player in CSGO
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
From muting to filtering, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has a ton of ways for players to decide who gets to talk to them using the game’s many communication tools. These days, many competitive games can be filled with toxicity, but that doesn’t mean players have to just sit there and take it. Here are four easy ways players can mute other users in CSGO. A couple of years ago, players were …
CSGO’s Mirage built in Minecraft, chock full of blocky goodness
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s Mirage has been remade in Minecraft by one dedicated fan. Players can’t decide whether they love or hate Mirage, CSGO’s other desert-themed level. It’s been around since CSGO launched in 2012 and has been a part of the competitive map rotation ever since. But even if Valve has decided the map doesn’t need a full rework, a fan of both Minecraft and CSGO decided to take the …
shroud blasts “garbage” CSGO experience, praises Valorant
Steven Rondina
Counter-Strike
Michael “shroud” Grzesiek’s roots are in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive but that doesn’t mean he has any illusions over the state of the game. The former Cloud9 rifler discussed the key differences between Valorant and CSGO in a recent stream. He didn’t mince words either, tearing apart CSGO while praising Riot Games’ efforts in establishing its own tactical shooter. “I’d love to play CSGO if it was fucking good. The beauty …
These 3 grenades will let you take over Train’s B bomb site
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
When Valve opened the skybox on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s map Train, they opened the door for some clever grenades. Train isn’t played often by CSGO’s casual crowd, but players who get a hang of the map’s basic smokes usually grow to like it. It’s even easier for players to get into Train today than it was a year ago, with the map’s skybox wide open and ready for grenades. Train …
New CSGO ping bug lets you find enemies around corners
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has another ping bug to worry about. Just a week after rediscovering CSGO’s crouchwalk bug, a Reddit user uncovered another bug with Valve’s first person shooter. This time it had to do with the game’s ping feature added with Operation Broken Fang. CSGO’s player pings are incredibly useful, but they’ve also had several different issues since their release. The latest one to appear is making enemy players …
OG’s new banana nade setup can easily finish off enemies
Fariha Bhatti
Counter-Strike
In a match against Astralis, Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen-led OG showcased that they’ve been rehearsing their utility in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Astralis has eliminated OG from BLAST Premier Spring Group series in a 2-0 fashion. The losing team, however, has left some key lessons for CSGO fans. In the second map inferno, Astralis had the lead of four rounds against struggling OG. In an effort to open B site, three …
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.
Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike
