Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike
CSGO hits 1 million player count again as new operation looms
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive hit one million concurrent players for the first time since hitting its all-time peak over seven months ago. On November 15, CSGO once again passed the million player mark and logged a total of 1,011,026 players online at once. Early numbers suggested that Valve’s competitive shooter had taken a hit during the closed beta for Valorant, Riot Game’s’ entry into the first-person shooter space, but CSGO has …
Counter-Strike
CSGO mapper FMPONE and Rust devs rave about Source 2 tools
M Alzamora
The co-creator of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive map Cache has been raving about Source 2’s mapmaking tool since late October. There’s a ton going on in CSGO right now. Fans have enjoyed some impressive professional CSGO games over the past several weeks, with international competition resuming at esports events including IEM Beijing and FLASHPOINT 2. On top of that, CSGO players have also been glued to CSGO’s Twitter and official blog, …
Counter-Strike
CSGO devs working overtime as 10th operation rumors swirl
M Alzamora
The Valve-only development version of CSGO recorded four developers online for just the fifth time ever since Steam Database started tracking the statistic in 2014. While the rest of the world waits for CSGO’s next operation, it looks as though developers put in some serious time behind the scenes this week. In fact, a closer look shows that Valve is doing something in CSGO, and has been for some times. …
Counter-Strike
mousesports adds new coach mithR in the middle of IEM Beijing
M Alzamora
mousesports has officially signed Torbjørn “mithR” Nyborg away from Renegades’ Counter-Strike: Global Offensive squad to replace Allan “Rejin” Petersen. After Rejin’s removal from mousesports due to the Esports Integrity Commission’s report on the CSGO coaching exploit, mousesports has once again looked to Denmark for coaching. In a surprise transfer, both mousesports and Renegades announced the move from their respective Twitter accounts. mithR didn’t waste any time hopping into the role, …
Counter-Strike
smooya apologizes on Twitter for his past toxic behavior
Olivia Richman
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive pro Owen “smooya” Butterfield took to Twitter to apologize for his past behavior. “Made too many mistakes in my career outside of the game which has heavily messed with my career in the game,” smooya tweeted. He then apologized to those who “wanted the best” for him. Made too many mistakes in my career outside of the game which have heavily messed with my career in the …
Counter-Strike
Cloud9 vs Virtus.pro at FLASHPOINT 2 betting analysis
M Alzamora
Cloud9’s international lineup will face its first real test in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive with a matchup against an improved Virtus.pro at FLASHPOINT 2. The North American team has been much hyped since bringing on a new general manager in former player and caster Henry “HenryG” Greer, who in turn signed some of the best talent available in an effort to turn around Cloud9’s run of middling performances. Fans will finally …
Counter-Strike
Liquid Stewie2k fails the famous s1mple knife
M Alzamora
Team Liquid’s Jake “Stewie2k” Yip returned to the server during IEM Beijing-Haidian 2020 North American regionals, but the Liquid leader’s best s1mple impression wasn’t good enough. After a break from competition, Team Liquid returned to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive against Rugratz in their opening matchup in the regional competition. Liquid’s opening best-of-three series went its way, but Stewie’s attempt at Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev’s famous vent knife on Nuke went hilariously wrong. …
Counter-Strike
The famous CSGO Overpass decoy exploit still works in 2020
M Alzamora
Overpass’ train can still be stopped by decoy grenades five years after Cloud9’s Jordan “n0thing” Gilbert used the now-illegal trick against Natus Vincere. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s decoy grenades are rarely used, but a bug from the game’s early days still works to let attacking players speed up their B site hits. The first prominent instance of this bug being used came during the ESL Pro League Season 1 grand finals …
Neymar banned from Twitch, likely due to DMCA strikes
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Update: It’s also possible that Neymar’s Twitch ban came as a result of his accidental leaking of fellow Premier League star Richarlison de Andrade’s phone number live on stream. Richarlison tweeted that he received more than ten thousand messages after Neymar showed the telephone number on stream. Famed dual-threat star Neymar received his first ban from Twitch, and most are blaming the internet’s sudden crackdown on anyone who runs afoul …
10th CSGO operation may launch soon as files get updated
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Steam Database has manually updated the list of the files it tracks for CSGO code changes, adding numerous scripts that were used to run CSGO’s past operations. Many map files were added to the game’s watchlist in addition to the scripts used to execute the game’s code. The list of scripts had been manually removed from SteamDB’s tracking, which is standard protocol when an operation isn’t underway, but the site’s …
coldzera has been competing in IEM Beijing while battling COVID
Steven Rondina
Counter-Strike
FaZe Clan star Marcelo “coldzera” David is not in a good place right now. The Brazilian announced that he has contracted COVID-19. The news was delivered with a succinct message on Instagram that simply stated “corona, you got me.” From there he gave a more in-depth discussion of his symptoms and from the sounds of things, he is not having an easy go of it. “I’m not feeling well yet. …
Real Madrid star Casemiro just founded a new CSGO team
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Brazilian football player Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior might soon have some competition on the way, as Real Madrid’s Carlos Henrique Casimiro has signed a professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team. Casemiro has officially launched a Brazilian esports brand called CaseEsports, and he’s starting with CSGO. The footballer announced the signing of an entire CSGO squad earlier this week ahead of the upcoming 20th anniversary of Counter-Strike’s 1.0 release. The football …
Is Valve planning something big for CSGO’s 20th anniversary?
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
As Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s 20th Anniversary approaches, Valve seems to have something on the way. Last year was the unofficial 20th anniversary of the Half-Life mod that would come to be known as Counter-Strike, but 2020 marks the game’s official 1.0 release under Valve. As Dota 2, Left for Dead 2, and other Valve titles have seen updates and events over the past several months, Valve’s CSGO developers have focused …
Xyp9x lands in top 10 players with return, NiKo climbs higher
Steven Rondina
Counter-Strike
With top Counter-Strike: Global Offensive teams starting to coalesce in Europe, things have started getting hectic once again. Though this winter likely won’t get as busy as 2019’s did, BLAST Premier Fall, IEM New York, and DreamHack Open Fall have all taken place over the last two weeks. Alongside that have been a number of high-profile roster changes including Cloud9’s acquisition of Patrick “es3tag” Hansen, G2 Esports’ signing of Nikola …
Vitality jumps in CSGO team rankings, Furia tops Americas
Steven Rondina
Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is entering a busy season over the next month, and a lot has changed over the last two weeks. DreamHack Open Fall 2020 and BLAST Premier: Fall both wrapped up and resulted in some big changes to the rankings. Though there weren’t many enormous jumps, there were still some interesting changes that came about. Here is how things stand ahead of IEM Beijing and Flashpoint Season 2: …
G2 Esports tops BLAST group as new addition NiKo dominates
William Davis
Counter-Strike
G2 Esports newest addition Nikola “NiKo” Kovač proved that he is the signing of the year in BLAST Premier Fall Series 2020. G2 is already starting to deliver after adding former FaZe leader NiKo, which has clearly brought a boost to the team’s individual level. NiKo was previously acting as the in-game leader on FaZe for a while, making it hard for him to perform at the individual level that …
G2 NiKo puts up a big performance for his new team vs Astralis
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
G2’s Nikola “NiKo” Kovač put up a mighty effort today in G2’s match against Astralis on Dust 2, breaking a 2.0 rating over the course of the map. One of the world’s best players was everywhere on the classic map, putting up a monstrous 2.08 rating and an average damage per round of 135.1. He simply couldn’t be stopped, and plays like these showed why he’s one of the world’s …
Is Valorant killing CSGO? It’s a fight between Riot and Valve
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Many pro players and some teams have recently spoken to the possibility that Riot Games’ new tactical first-person shooter Valorant could soon overtake Counter-Strike: Global Offensive in popularity. But how is that happening, and is there anything that CSGO developer Valve can do about it? In terms of professional talent, Valorant has seemingly taken the most from CSGO teams. The game has sometimes struggled to develop its new talent, with …
Watch Astralis’ dev1ce get killed by a smoke grenade versus MIBR
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
An unlucky grenade toss led to Astralis’ Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz’s shocking demise on Vertigo. BLAST Premier’s matchup between Astralis and MIBR didn’t go exactly as planned for the Danish team at first. MIBR, with a completely fresh roster and seemingly little hope of even taking a map off Astralis, surprised everyone by taking the series to the full three maps. Although Astralis eventually took the match on the decider Inferno, …
CSPPA announces player committee to work on world ranking rules
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
The Counter-Strike Professional Players Association has announced a player committee dedicated to working on refining the rules that dictate its own world rankings. In a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive world where there exist several different sets of world rankings that claim to be definitive, the one organization that should be focusing on player health and well-being wants in on the ranking game too. A one-page press release distributed on November 2 …
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.
