Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike
Team Liquid vs NaVi IEM Global Challenge betting analysis
M Alzamora
The IEM Global Challenge is already in full swing, but its matchup between Team Liquid and Natus Vincere in the tournament for first place in group B is going to be a shootout for teams bettors alike. Group B’s winner’s match between Na`Vi and Team Liquid is about as uncertain of a game as punters could ask for. At eight teams, there isn’t much wiggle room at IEM for teams …
Counter-Strike
Gambit and Virtus.pro rocket up the latest CSGO rankings
M Alzamora
Both Gambit and Virtus.pro have made major strides to end 2020. While the top half of WIN.gg’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s rankings have remained relatively stable over the past several weeks, the second half of our top ten has seen major changes as the holidays approach. Two teams in particular stick out as having improved the most since the last time our algorithm dug into each team’s statistacal performances. Both Gambit …
Counter-Strike
Magisk, gla1ve plummet as a new face arrives in CSGO rankings
M Alzamora
While two Astralis players have enjoyed their time in the spotlight, Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander and Emil “Magisk” Reif took a hit this week in the CSGO player rankings while mousesports rifler David “frozen” Čerňanský moved nearly seven spots and broke out into the top 10. It looks like the honeymoon period is over for Astralis. The team is still one of the most powerful in the world, but gla1ve’s return …
Counter-Strike
autimatic considers Valorant as Gen.G CSGO roster is up for sale
M Alzamora
Gen.G’s veteran Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player Timothy “autimatic” Ta announced that he is considering making a move from CSGO to Valorant, according to tweets from his official Twitter account. The tweet followed comments made to RushBMedia from Gen.G that it was open to offers for autimatic, Kenneth “koosta” Suen, and Hansel “BnTeT” Ferdinand. In a Twitter thread from December 15, autimatic announced that Gen.G has allowed the him to seek …
Counter-Strike
Operation Broken Fang end date leaked in hidden CSGO files
M Alzamora
Thanks to recent updates to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s code, players now know Operation Broken Fang’s end date. CSGO’s game files are pre-loaded with all the content for Broken Fang, including future missions and the stop date for the event. Broken Fang includes a premium queue, 50 ping commands for use in all game modes, and more skins than collectors can get their hands on. But CSGO’s operations have mainly stayed …
Counter-Strike
CSGO coach claims new bug lets you see opposing team’s pings
M Alzamora
PACT coach Vincent ”vinS” Jozefiak tweeted that he could see his team’s opponent’s pings during a live match against Alternate aTTax. With Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s new operation came a huge update to the ability for players to communicate information in competitive games. CSGO’s ping system had previously been limited to Danger Zone, but Operation Broken Fang introduced it to other modes and expanded on it, adding 50 customizable commands that …
Counter-Strike
Tips and tricks for beating CSGO’s first Broken Fang missions
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s Broken Fang operation has almost 34 stars for players to earn over its first two weeks’ worth of missions. Even though players have two big lists of missions to complete, Broken Fang has only been out for just over a week. Its first mission card, Start Your Engines, came out just a week ago, followed quickly by Week 2’s Moon Shot. While some of the operation’s missions …
Counter-Strike
Complexity loses poizon for 2020 season after emergency surgery
M Alzamora
Complexity Gaming’s Valentin “poizon” Vasilev will not finish out 2020 with the team after the organzation announced that he had undergone emergency surgery. A tweet from Complexity Gaming CEO Jason Lake announced the news on Twitter, making sure to mention that Complexity expects the AWPer to make a full recovery. The tweet kept the exact nature of poizon’s surgery private. Lake ended the unfortunate announcement with the organization’s intention to …
BLAST teams debunk CSPPA release, say voice comms issue resolved
Fariha Bhatti
Counter-Strike
The Counter-Strike Professional Players’ Association released a statement ahead of the first final of BLAST premier fall series after players refused to give BLAST access to voice comms and video screen recordings. However, a joint statement from 14 organizations reveals a conflict between Counter-Strike: Global Offensive teams and CSPPA. All the teams that are partnered with BLAST for the Fall season published a joint statement on Twitter in which they confirmed that …
Broken Fang CSGO skin hit with DMCA claim, Valve investigating
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
One of the skins included in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s Operation Broken Fang has been hit with a DCMA copyright claim. CSGO’s new operation came with over 40 new skins for players to collect, but one of them might end up changing. The Galil Vandal, originally named “Robber,” has been flagged for review by Valve for a potential copyright violation according to a warning on the skin’s original workshop entry. While …
Richard Lewis says cheats and throws rampant in CSGO pro scene
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
A stunning report from veteran esports reporter Richard Lewis says more than half of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s top teams would have been barred from competition for cheating without the intervention of tournament organizers in an attempt to save face. The report comes just days after a strange ruling by CSGO’s self-proclaimed governing body, the Esports Integrity Commission, stated that it would give “a pass [to] coaches, players, and teams” it …
dev1ce has just reached some huge milestone at Astralis
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Astralis’ Nicholi “dev1ce” Reedtz crossed a major Counter-Strike: Global Offensive milestone last week when he reached and then passed one of CSGO’s most monumental pro player acheivements. dev1ce has now played over 1,000 maps since the team formally known as TSM went solo and named itself Astralis. dev1ce, considered by many fans to be one of the most deadly AWP users in the history of CSGO, reached the 1,000-map milestone …
CSGO dev says trusted accounts see few cheaters, players disagree
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
A conversation between CSGO developer John McDonald and a twitter user revealed that Valve has stats that say trusted accounts very rarely see cheaters. But CSGO players don’t seem to agree. In a Twitter thread, McDonald quoted some statistics from Counter-Strike: Global Offensive that said that highly-trusted accounts see a confirmed cheater in only one game out of every 40, meaning that those accounts face a cheater in matchmaking about …
A closer look at CSGO’s Broken Fang Case skins
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s Operation Broken Fang comes with a brand new case, and here are the impressive skins in all their glory. CSGO’s new operation has put a huge number of skins into users’ virtual hands, but the in-game viewer doesn’t do justice for how impressive these skins are. From the humble military-spec CZ-75 Vendetta all the way to the third Neo-Noir skin stylishly applied to the Glock-18, Broken Fang’s …
BIG to play IEM Global Challenge in place of Chaos, NA teams
Fariha Bhatti
Counter-Strike
North American organization Chaos Esports has confirmed the withdrawal of its Counter Strike: Global Offensive roster after a final sprint in 2020. And due to ongoing travel restrictions, German CSGO team BIG will be replacing Chaos esports in IEM Global Challenge. ESL had first sought other North American teams to replace Chaos. But with a lack of NA teams that both can travel and are of appropriate quality, German CSGO …
Every Ancient skin from CSGO’s new Operation Broken Fang
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Valve borrowed heavily from previous skin cases for Operation Broken Fang’s new collections, and we’ve got them all here in high-resolution. Spend a little bit of time looking through Broken Fang’s Case collections and players might start to notice a theme. A carbon-fiber skin here or an Aztec look-alike there, and players might think that Valve simply edited older skin textures to apply them to different weapons. In some instances, …
G2 Esports benches Jackz as AmeNEk returns to CSGO roster
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
G2 Esports is done with Audric “JaCkz” Jug after deciding to fill its fifth roster spot with François “AmaNEk” Delaunay. After G2 announced that it had signed Counter-Strike: Global Offensive star Nikola “niKo” Kovač in October, the top-10 CSGO team utilized a six-man roster. While it had switched JaCkz and AmaNEK in and out since niKo’s addition, G2 has decided to release JaCkz with no intention of bringing him back …
ESIC will not penalize CSGO cheating after long investigation
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
The Esports Integrity Commission, funded by a conglomeration of well-know tournament organizers including ESL and BLAST, has decided to not take any official action against teams, players, and coaches implicated in this past summer’s stream sniping incidents. The response from the ESIC took months to be released, and did little but reiterate the already established rules that stream sniping isn’t allowed. In other words, so many teams were suspected or …
Here’s how to use and customize CSGO’s new ping system
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s new ping system shipped with Operation Broken Fang and it might be the most customizable ping menu in gaming today. Valve has created a total of 50 different options for players to map to CSGO’s three new ping menus. By default, the menus can be brought up by holding the user’s ping key and scrolled through using the scrollwheel. Expanded ping systems have become standard in today’s …
CSGO Rio Major reportedly delayed again, until late 2021
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Valve has reportedly postponed the next Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major until at least November 2021. According to an email obtained by HTLV, Valve has scrapped plans for a CSGO major until the second half of 2021. While plans had been in place to hold the first CSGO Major in over a year in early 2020, the email details the developer’s plans to delay the next major tournament by at least …
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.
