Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike
Is Valve planning something big for CSGO’s 20th anniversary?
M Alzamora
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 …
Counter-Strike
Xyp9x lands in top 10 players with return, NiKo climbs higher
Steven Rondina
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 …
Counter-Strike
Vitality jumps in CSGO team rankings, Furia tops Americas
Steven Rondina
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: …
Counter-Strike
G2 Esports tops BLAST group as new addition NiKo dominates
William Davis
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 …
Vitality’s Nivera substitution leads to BLAST Premier win
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Team Vitality won a close match against BIG with the most effective substitution fans have seen so far in pro Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Map substitutions are the newest addition to tournament level CSGO, with organizers starting to allow teams to substitute players in between maps for the first time in the game’s esports history. In Vitality’s close series against BIG at BLAST Premier, it seems to have made a huge …
Here’s how to make a new jump throw bind in CSGO
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s best smokes are often the hardest ones to throw, but a jump throw bind makes them much easier. Jumpthrow binds are probably the most complicated bind to make in CSGO, but a few additions to a player’s autoexec.cfg file make them that much easier. The problem is that jumpthrows aren’t just one command. They use several commands grouped together under what CSGO’s engine calls an alias. Unfortunately, …
New MIBR roster debuts against Astralis at BLAST Premier
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
MIBR’s revamped roster will face Astralis in their first match ever, and it will be a tough one. Formerly Brazil’s best team, MIBR has undergone some serious roster changes in the past month, and their first test definitely isn’t going to gently ease them into this new era. After the organization benched longtime stars Epitácio “TACO” de Melo and Fernando “fer” Alvarenga, in-game leader Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo decided to remove …
s1mple banned from Twitch again, says it’s for homophobic slurs
Steven Rondina
Counter-Strike
Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev is in trouble with Twitch moderators. Again. The Natus Vincere star has been banned from the streaming platform. Again. This is his fourth time being banned from Twitch. Twitch hasn’t issued a statement on the matter, but s1mple suggested that the ban came from his using homophobic language. Again. He touched on the matter on Twitter shortly after it was announced: It’s funny that I get banned …
Watch Neymar show his CSGO mastery by outsmarting his opponents
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Brazil’s passion for both Counter-Strike and football are unmatched, especially when the two cross over thanks to Neymar de Silva Santos, a professional soccer player and avid CSGO fan. The Brazilian football star is well-known for his ability on the pitch, and for the past several years he’s also become a virtual superstar in CSGO, often streaming his matches to thousands of football fans on Twitch. He’s nabbed clip-worthy aces …
Vitality vs. Complexity BLAST Fall Series betting odds, predictions
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Both Vitality and Complexity are coming into their upper-bracket match at BLAST Premier Fall Series with something to prove, but both are also coming in from very different places. While Complexity will enter the series with a brand new player in former 100 Thieves rifler Justin “jks” Savage, Vitality comes in after a crushing loss to Heroic at DreamHack Open Fall. While the markets have Vitality as heavy favorites, fan …
FaZe Clan drops coach YnK shortly after NiKo’s move to G2 Esports
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Alongside the announcement of Nikola “NiKo” Kovač’s transfer to G2 Esports, FaZe Clan confirmed the release of head coach Yanko “YNk” Paunović. The two high-profile changes came soon after FaZe announced the return of Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer Gustafsson following a six-month break from professional CSGO. The timing is curious, and may indicate that olof’s break was related to his relationship with the two. Regardless, FaZe is now down a head …
NiKo goes from FaZe to G2 Esports in “biggest CSGO signing in history”
Fariha Bhatti
Counter-Strike
After much delay, the transfer of FaZe Clan’s Nikola “NiKo” Kovač to G2 Esports has finally materialized. The Bosnian superstar will now enter the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive battlegrounds in G2’s jersey. The rifler aptly announced the move with a new profile pic on Twitter. Rumors of G2 making a move from FaZe to G2 first started swirling in September and have been circulating since then, but neither G2 nor the …
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
