Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike
flusha may leave Fnatic to start new team with autimatic, suNny
M Alzamora
Timothy “autimatic” Ta, Robin “flusha” Rönnquist, and Miikka “suNny” Kemppi are reportedly working together and talking with organizations about becoming sponsored. A report from DBLTAP states that multiple sources have said that the three players have approached several organizations about the prospective roster. Gen.G has publicly stated that it has allowed autimatic to seek other opportunities for the upcoming year, while suNny is in limbo on ENCE’s bench. But while …
Counter-Strike
Who dominated the Red Bull Flick CSGO tournament in Australia?
William Davis
Red Bull pounced on one of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s newest game modes, Hold The Flag, to create a one-of-a-kind esports event known as Red Bull Flick. The idea for Red Bull Flick came about from the realization that, like most professional sports, the way competitive CSGO is set up means there might be some good players flying under the radar. Because of the game’s heavy team-based nature, a player with …
Counter-Strike
Cloud9 to drop Woxic for Xeppaa according to report
M Alzamora
Cloud9’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive squad is set to make its second roster change in less than a month, according to a new report. The North American esports organization is preparing to make yet another change to its recently revamped roster according to a report from RushB Media. The team is looking to bring in former Chaos Esports rifler Erick “Xeppaa” Bach to replace AWPer Özgür “woxic” Eker, who is said …
Counter-Strike
Map creators tease the debut of Tuscan’s new CSGO version
Fariha Bhatti
Map developers Catfood and Brute have revealed a glimpse of classic Counter-Strike map Tuscan remade for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The map trailer has thrilled the fans as its addition has been a hot topic among players for years. Catfood released a short preview of the classic map that is still under construction. The trailer gave a peek inside the location that ruled the Counter-Strike 1.6 arena for many years. While …
Counter-Strike
This is how to complete all of CSGO’s Steam achievements
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has four achievements that are impossible to get unless players know this handy trick. CSGO has a massive 167 different achievements for players to chase. Some ask little of players, like winning ten rounds for “Newb World Order.” Others can require 1,000 hours to complete, like inflicting 1,000,000 points of damage for the game’s famous “A Million Points of Blight.” That said, even those can be accomplished …
Counter-Strike
Reports say Cloud9 close to signing Xeppaa and coach Elmapuddy
Fariha Bhatti
Several reports have claimed that Cloud9 is all but set to acquire Erick “Xeppaa” Bach to its active roster, while the discussions to sign Chris “Elmapuddy” Tebbit as the head coach are also underway. The reports of Xeppaa joining HenryG’s colossus first came from 1pvr. According to the website’s sources, the deal has nearly been sealed and the player will soon join the North American organization. If the move comes …
Counter-Strike
Here’s how to turn on Steam Guard and save your Steam account
M Alzamora
Using Steam Guard will protect your games, inventory, and Steam Wallet. Here’s why you should use it and the simple steps you need to follow to turn it on.Steam Guard is Valve’s version of a security feature known as two-factor authentication, a security feature that is all about keeping an account safe by asking for a randomly generated code after a user puts in their password. This extra step adds …
Counter-Strike
CSGO tops Among Us, wins Steam Awards’ “Labor of Love” award
Fariha Bhatti
Valve’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive won a prize in the 2020 Steam Awards. The game has been dubbed the 2020 “Labor of Love” winner. CSGO was nominated in the category of “Labor of Love” alongside a mix of ongoing titles including Among Us, Terraria, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and No Man’s Sky. While other games in the category had the advantage of being fresh and popular among the audience, CSGO’s …
s1mple admits to sharing a VAC-banned account with friend
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive star Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev tweeted out that he unknowingly logged into a VAC-banned account when trying to play with friends. When trying to play CSGO’s matchmaking with his friends, Natus Vincere’s s1mple ran into a problem. Being a pro, all of his Steam accounts happen to be very highly ranked CSGO limits the difference between the ranks of players in a party so that highly-skilled players can’t …
How to use CSGO footstep sounds to win more of your games
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s best players are more than just good aimers. While both esports pros and talented casual players understand CSGO inside and out, the game often comes down the smallest noises that decide the winners. CSGO is full of sounds. For new players, sound is usually one of the last things they think about. Between trying to master the game’s complicated movement mechanics and spray patterns, it’s easy to …
Devastate enemy pushes with this late-round Overpass smoke
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s map Overpass can sometimes feel like a rotation simulator, but this easy monster smoke is powerful enough to win CTs the round, provided defenders have enough confidence to throw it. Overpass is a polarizing CSGO map, and at times, it can feel even more verticle than Vertigo. That’s all thanks to the map’s distinct areas in connector, the upper A site half, and the bottom B site …
oBo announces comeback desire, open to NA and EU team offers
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Benched Complexity rifler Owen “oBo” Schlatter announced that he was open to offers in both North America and Europe just months after leaving his former team with little warning and even fewer options. A tweet from oBo’s official Twitter account told any interested teams to contact Complexity and its CEO, Jason Lake, to discuss options for a transfer. On September 22, oBo suddenly boarded a plane back to the United …
Everything to know about Operation Broken Fang’s new agents
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
With Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s Broken Fang content, Valve has continued to add new agents for players to use in its first-person shooter. Valve first unveiled the option to customize characters in 2019’s Shattered Web Operation. That first content pack included 10 CT and 12 T models for players to choose from with agents like the classified rarity The Elite Mr. Muhlik and Special Agent Eva were popular, and Eva marked …
kassad reportedly set to join former 100 Thieves at Extremum
Fariha Bhatti
Counter-Strike
Cloud9’s former coach Aleksandar “kassad” Trifunović is set to join Russian esports organization Extremum, according to a report by 1pv. The Serbian coach had recently joined the available coaches’ market, but it seems that he won’t remain a free agent for long. The reports cite that kassad will be coaching Extremum’s roster that is still under construction. The organization is reportedly building a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team. The coach had …
FPX agree to GODSENT roster deal pending player signings
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
FunPlus Phoenix has agreed in principle to a deal that would send GODSENT’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster to the Chinese esports organization pending FPX’s ability to negotiate contracts with each of the roster’s members individually. The news comes after the FLASHPOINT founding member declined to participate in the league’s second season, citing a desire to grow a “long-lasting” CSGO roster. FPX general manager Petar “peca” Markovic confirmed the rumor, making …
s1mple and electronic re-sign with Natus Vincere through 2022
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Natus Vincere took the time to retain key pieces of its Counter-Strike: Global Offensive squad this weekend when it signed both Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev and Denis “electronic” Sharipov to contract extensions that would keep the players with the organization throughout the 2022 CSGO season. As cornerstones of one of CSGO’s oldest and most successful organizations, both electronic and s1mple have produced consistently for Na`Vi since their arrival. The two are …
Coach kassad leaves Cloud9 following clash with ALEX
Fariha Bhatti
Counter-Strike
Cloud9 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive coach Aleksandar “kassad” Trifunović parts ways with the organization after a four-month run with the overhauled roster. General manager Henry “HenryG” Greer revealed an internal clash to be the reason behind the move. The announcement comes as a surprise for the fans as the freshly renewed Cloud9 roster has just started to gain some ground. The general manager said that a conflict of styles between the …
Broken Fang’s Control Case is filled with quality skins, new Fade
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Alongside Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s Operation Broken Fang came two smaller cases that each have a strange theme. And there’s one weapon in the Control Collection that might wind up as the most expensive skin of them all. CSGO’s new Control collection is filled to the brim with what might come next for CSGO, but before that, news players might want to get an inside look at the skins themselves before …
MAD Lions, Virtus.pro are CSGO’s top-earning teams of 2020
Steven Rondina
Counter-Strike
2020 has been a strange year for everything, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is no different. CSGO esports’ annual calendar was emptied last week with the end of the IEM XV Global Challenge. With that, the top-earning teams of 2020 were officially determined. The results are not what most fans might expect. MAD Lions ($643,500) Virtus.pro ($641,750) Complexity ($632, 250) Astralis ($631, 000) Natus Vincere ($626,000) Team Vitality ($621,000) BIG ($519,604) …
New CSGO ping system reacts to enemy models, acts as wallhack
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
While Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s Broken Fang operation may have brought the game in line with other shooters with its addition of contextual pings, developers probably didn’t mean for them to act like this. Na`Vi Youth player Ilya “m0NSEY” Osipov discovered that CSGO’s new ping system gives away enemies that walk over it while live on stream during the holidays. A clip from m0NSEY’s stream shows that player pings are affected …
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.
