Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike
s1mple admits to sharing a VAC-banned account with friend
M Alzamora
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 …
Counter-Strike
How to use CSGO footstep sounds to win more of your games
M Alzamora
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 …
Counter-Strike
Devastate enemy pushes with this late-round Overpass smoke
M Alzamora
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 …
Counter-Strike
oBo announces comeback desire, open to NA and EU team offers
M Alzamora
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 …
Counter-Strike
s1mple and electronic re-sign with Natus Vincere through 2022
M Alzamora
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 …
Counter-Strike
Coach kassad leaves Cloud9 following clash with ALEX
Fariha Bhatti
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 …
Counter-Strike
Broken Fang’s Control Case is filled with quality skins, new Fade
M Alzamora
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 …
Counter-Strike
MAD Lions, Virtus.pro are CSGO’s top-earning teams of 2020
Steven Rondina
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 …
allu refutes claims on roster changes as ENCE drama continues
Fariha Bhatti
Counter-Strike
ENCE’s in-game leader and star rifler Aleksi “allu” Jalli has finally broken his silence over a Finnish podcast host’s recent claims. The star player was blamed for making a biased decision in the benching of Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen that seemed to lead to ENCE’s fall from grace. A Finnish podcast Urheilucast has added more fuel to the fire in the ENCE situation that had recently defused to some extent. The …
ENCE CSGO woes continue as Finnish team benches suNny
Steven Rondina
News
ENCE has had a disastrous 2020, and the organization is looking to rebound in 2021. Part of the plan to make that a reality includes some changes to its Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster, and the latest to come through is the benching of Miikka “suNny” Kemppi. The organization announced the news in a statement on its website. “Effective today, suNny has been benched from playing in ENCE’s active CS:GO roster. …
Neymar streamed CSGO during the Best FIFA Football Awards
Fariha Bhatti
Counter-Strike
The Brazillian football prodigy Neymar Jr. skipped The Best FIFA Football Awards ceremony to stream Valve’s shooter Counter Strike: Global Offensive. His stream was titled “The best of CSGO” during the award show. Football club Paris Saint-Germain’s forward Neymar Jr. has already cemented a firm foot in sports and has recently dipped his toes into streaming. The football maestro was not named in the list of top three best players …
jkaem reportedly joins former 100 Thieves teammates in Extremum
Fariha Bhatti
Counter-Strike
Joakim “jkaem” Myrbostad is preparing to reunite with his former 100 Thieves teammates, according to a report by DBLTAP. The 26-year old rifler is reportedly in talks with the Russian organization Extremum. It seems that the oceanic core is not yet done playing together as Jay “Liazz” Tregillgas, Sean “Gratisfaction” Kaiwai, Aaron “AZR” Ward, and Jkaem may finally reunite under Extremum. The reports come a few days after Apeks revealed that Jkaem had been …
ZywOo holograms light up Paris for his new Vitality contract
Fariha Bhatti
Counter-Strike
Vitality star AWPer and Counter Strike: Global Offensive maestro Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut’s holograms illuminated several buildings and monuments across Paris when the French organization announced the extension of his contract till 2024. The French prodigy ends the year on a bright note by continuing his stay in the organization that he’s called home since his breakthrough in 2018. The news was announced days after the team’s final showing of the …
Is Valve hinting that 128 tick servers are coming to CSGO soon?
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Players’ frustration with Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s slow servers might soon come to and end. CSGO currently runs on 64-tick servers, meaning that all of the action on a player’s screen might not really match what the server says it is. A faster server takes more snapshots of what’s going on in game compared to slower ones, and that’s why CSGO’s player base wants those faster servers. Riot Games has made …
Astralis sweeps Team Liquid 3-0 in IEM Global Challenge finals
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
One of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s best rivalries continued in the IEM Global Challenge grand finals, where Team Liquid took on Astralis in 2020’s first LAN competition since February. It was the 10th grand finals matchup between two teams who had jockeyed for the top spot in the world between 2018 and 2019. World events kept the two teams separate for most of 2020, but Liquid surprised Europe early on at …
Report says MIBR’s FalleN may be up to replace Twistzz for TL
Steven Rondina
Counter-Strike
Russell “Twistzz” Van Dulken is done with Team Liquid, and that has a lot of folks asking some big questions. Where will Twistzz end up? Will Twistzz take anyone with him? And who will take Twistzz’ spot on Team Liquid? The latter question might actually have an answer, as Rush B Media is reporting Team Liquid is looking to replace Twistzz with MIBR’s Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo. WIN.gg has not verified …
Twistzz announces departure from Team Liquid after IEM loss
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Team Liquid rifler Russel “Twistzz” van Dulken announced that he has played his last game with Liquid after the team’s loss to Astralis at the IEM Global Challenge. In an interview after Team Liquid’s loss to Astralis at 2020’s last Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament, twistzz shared that the grand final was his final game with Liquid. As the interview ended, Twistzz asked for another moment to make an announcement to …
TACO speaks out about MIBR, leaving Team Liquid, and more
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Brazilian CSGO player Epitácio “TACO” de Melo opened up about his experiences over the last two years of Competitive CSGO on Brazilian YouTube show and podcast Cortes do Flow earlier this week. While the show covered all of TACO’s CSGO career, the interview’s most interesting points came after TACO was asked about his stint with North American organization Team Liquid and his subsequent release and transfer to MIBR. The talk …
ZywOo adds another AWP clutch to his list of incredible plays
Fariha Bhatti
Counter-Strike
Vitality’s Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut is known for his incredible AWP plays, but his recent clutch against Astralis in the IEM Global Challenge 2020 may have been one of his best plays yet. Team Vitality failed to outclass Astralis in the final match of group stage but ZywOo’s extraordinary performance throughout the game turned heads. ZywOo seemed in a great shape from the outset. His excellent KD on Nuke and Dust …
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.
