Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike
Valve finally speaks on coaches caught cheating with exploit
M Alzamora
After nearly two weeks of admissions from teams and coaches that they used a long-running exploit to gain advantages in competitive matches, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive developer Valve has finally commented on the scandal. In an announcement that came alongside the developer’s decision to cancel the ESL One Rio Major, Valve also handed down penalties to teams who had been caught abusing a spectator bug to view enemy teams. The list …
Counter-Strike
ESL cancels Rio Major, reveals IEM Global Challenge plans
M Alzamora
Valve and ESL have announced that the ESL One Rio Major has officially been cancelled. The event was previously scheduled for November 2020. The announcement comes after months of speculation that ESL Rio would not take place due to the ongoing global situation which has caused extreme travel restrictions to and from Brazil and other countries around the world. ESL finished its announcement by stating that, as of now, there …
Counter-Strike
missharvey calls out Valve for not supporting competitive CSGO
Olivia Richman
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive veteran Stephanie “missharvey” Harvey was not afraid of calling out Valve in a recent column where she discussed the game’s competitive scene. In a column for Dexerto, missharvey said she was worried for CSGO’s future due to the first-person shooter’s lack of fresh material. For that, she blames the game’s developers, Valve, who she feel don’t properly “cherish” their players or “strive to make the scene better.” …
Counter-Strike
CSPPA still has FalleN and MIBR ranked in top 10 despite slump
M Alzamora
The Counter-Strike Professional Players’ Association’s rankings need some serious work, especially when it comes to MIBR’s place in them. Rankings are found across all sports, whether it’s a top ten list of League of Legends mid laners or the best teams in the National Football League. But rankings in CSGO are more meaningful. They determine which teams get invited to some of the worlds biggest tournaments, which teams have to …
Counter-Strike
mousesports suspends coach Rejin over cheating with coaching bug
Olivia Richman
mousesports coach Allan “Rejin” Petersen has been suspended for using a coaching bug while working for previous organizations. The organization tweeted that Rejin had admitted to “knowing and using” the bug while with Tricked. While they couldn’t find proof that Rejin used the coaching bug while on mousesports, they still decided to suspend him until the investigation has concluded. “None of our players nor staff were aware of the past …
Counter-Strike
Former NiP coach Pita admits to cheating with spectator bug
Olivia Richman
Ninjas in Pyjamas’ former head coach, Faruk Pita, has revealed that he used the coach spectating bug in 2018 during ESL Pro League Season 8 Europe. Earlier this week, a coaching bug issue was reported by esports referee Michael Slowinski. With help from IT expert Steve Dudenhoeffer, Slowinski had three coaches banned for exploting the coaching bug. This includes Ricardo “dead” Sinigaglia from MIBR and Heroic’s Nicolai “HUNDEN” Petersen. The …
Counter-Strike
What does VAC mean in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive?
M Alzamora
Valve has its own anti-cheat program, and it’s more than 99% effective. If a player has played Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, they’ve probably heard of VAC. But new players might be a little confused about all the different types of anti-cheat that Valve uses to protect CSGO. Some players have complained that Valve’s anti-cheat programs don’t work, but a better observation would be that it doesn’t catch every cheat. The most …
Counter-Strike
FaZe Clan versus mousesports ESL Pro League betting analysis
M Alzamora
mousesports will take on FaZe Clan in their opening matchup of ESL Pro League Season 12. FaZe Clan versus mousesports could be a measuring stick for both of these teams after subpar performances from each at ESL One Cologne. FaZe’s addition of Markus “Kjærbye” Kjærbye has had another week to gel and his first week of real games against tier-one competition to review. This should lead to an increased floor …
HUNDEN suspended from Heroic following tournament exploit, ban
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Heroic has suspended Counter-Strike: Global Offensive coach Nicolai “HUNDEN” Petersen following his involvement in using an exploit used to gain a competitive advantage during Dreamhack Malmö and Home Sweet Home Cup Season 5. The announcement came a day after the public reveal that three teams had used an exploit that allowed coaches to gain an unobstructed view of any part of the map during tournament play. ESL announced that it …
ESL bans MIBR, Heroic coaches for exploiting bugs in tournaments
M Alzamora
News
ESL has banned three coaches from playing or participating in ESL and DreamHack events for exploiting a coaching bug that allowed players to gain a tactical advantage in tournament play. The exploit has been possible for months now, with the three bans stemming from the coaches’ actions in a number of ESL tournaments, including ESL’s Road to Rio series. All teams involved have been retroactively disqualified from those tournaments and …
Report says steel is leaving CSGO to join a pro Valorant team
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Current Chaos EC in-game leader Joshua “steel” Nissan is set to leave the ranks of professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive for new first-person shooter Valorant, according to a report at dbltap. If true, it means that steel will become the one of the last players from iBUYPOWER’s infamous CSGO roster to switch sides in the tactical shooter war between Valve’s CSGO and Riot Games’ upstart Valorant. iBUYPOWER existed in CSGO’s early …
Heroic surprises Vitality, wins ESL One Cologne 2020 with 3-0 sweep
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Team Heroic swept Team Vitality 3-0 in ESL One Cologne’s European grand finals. Heroic won three in a row to take first place in one of Counter-Strike’s most storied events, making quick work of their French opponents. The Danish team walked away from the grand finals with a 16-7 win on Mirage before second map Inferno nearly went the distance, but ultimately ended with another Heroic win to the tune …
These are the best pistol round pro players in all of CSGO
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s pistols are powerful weapons in the right hands. With each CSGO match starting with a pistol round, teams with proficient pistol players start at a distinct advantage. The list of the top five pistol players includes some of CSGO’s best, a testament to how much of an impact skills with the pistol make. What’s even more interesting is that while Astralis leads teams in overall pistol round …
Evil Geniuses outlasts Team Liquid, wins ESL One Cologne 2020
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
North America’s ESL One Cologne grand final went all five maps but Evil Geniuses took first place at the expense of Team Liquid. The series went back and forth, with EG needing all five maps before it could secure victory with a 16-12 win on Dust 2. The matchup went back and forth with each team taking their own map picks, starting with an overtime win by EG on Nuke …
Rapper Post Malone invests more in esports, buys part of Team Envy
Olivia Richman
News
Rapper Post Malone is making moves in the esports industry. Envy Gaming has revealed that Post Malone is now a part-owner of the esports organization. “I grew up in Texas and I’ve been gaming my whole life, so this just really felt right. I have always wanted to be a part of bringing gaming into the professional sports world so to be involved with what Envy is doing in my …
s1mple owns the record for best kill-death score in CSGO history
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev leads all pro Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players in history in kill-to-death differential. s1mple has posted a +6,471 over 1,207 maps, beating out Kenny “kennyS” Schrub, Nicolai “device” Reedtz, and Marcelo “coldzera” David for the number one spot. Natus Vincere’s star player also came in second in all-time rating with a 1.24 behind Team Vitality’s Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut. While this is an amazing stat, it probably doesn’t come …
Dignitas’ GeT_RiGhT says he receives death threats from fans
Olivia Richman
Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive pro Christopher “GeT_RiGhT” Alesund recently revealed that he often receives death threats from CSGO fans. Dignitas posted an interview yesterday with GeT_RiGhT after the CSGO team returned from their vacation. The candid conversation discussed the team’s return to practice and how the squad has decided to take part in smaller tournaments in order to accrue more experience together. But the part that really stood out to the …
Niko calls out FaZe Clan haters after ESL Cologne elimination
Olivia Richman
Counter-Strike
FaZe Clan fans were left disappointed again when the team was eliminated early from ESL One Cologne. A lot of the criticism directed towards the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive squad was leveled at new player Markus “Kjaerbye” Kjaerbye. Many fans felt that the team should have practiced more together at a facility, which seems to be a successful strategy for other teams and players. It appeared that FaZe Clan wasn’t appropriately …
Chaos and Liquid postpone ESL Cologne match to support protests
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Chaos Esports Club and Team Liquid have postponed their ESL One Cologne matchup, making them the first esports organizations to publically take such a step in protesting racial inequality and a rash of police brutality against minorities in the United States. Chaos was scheduled to play Team Liquid in ESL One Cologne’s semifinal matchup on August 27, but a tweet from the organization announced that it had decided to postpone …
CSGO update brings changes to Cache, as well as Swamp, Mutiny
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s latest update changed its two newest maps, Swamp and Mutiny, while also fixing several bugs on the popular Cache. CSGO’s latest update made improvements to Swamp, with developers focusing on improving the map’s performance and overall gameplay flow. Swamp saw the most impactful changes in the update, with a brand new radar texture added as well as the addition of a new path that players can use …
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.
