Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike
CSGO addiction timeouts are now live in China, limit play time
M Alzamora
After announcing that it would require games to limit the number of hours minors spend playing video games last November, China’s government officially put them into effect in June. Just before CSGO’s professional players took some much needed time off, China’s anti-addiction measures aimed at minors became official. The measures were put into place after the country’s government gave players early notice around the release of the game’s Shattered Web …
Counter-Strike
Perfect World releases 128-tick CSGO servers before Valve
M Alzamora
Perfect World has released an outside client that has brought 128-tick server to China’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players. Called the Perfect World Battle platform, the client seems to operate much like other third-party options like ESEA and FACEIT. The Chinese publisher originally inked a deal with Valve to bring CSGO to China’s enormous playerbase in 2018. Now, PW is officially launching its own 128-tick servers in China before Valve launches …
Counter-Strike
Pronax sends alarming tweets from hospital, updates fans
Olivia Richman
Former Counter-Strike: Global Offensive pro Markus “Pronax” Wallsten alarmed his followers when he sent out a string of concerning tweets late Sunday night. On August 23, Pronax tweeted that he “needed help” after his coworkers had “invented lies” about him, resulting in him needing a lawyer to get out of a mental hospital. Jag behöver hjälp i Malmö, mina egna kollegor har hittat på lögner om mig, och jag behöver …
Counter-Strike
mousesports bench woxic despite promising ESL One Cologne start
M Alzamora
mousesports didn’t last long in ESL One Cologne 2020, but its sudden benching of AWPer Özgür “woxic” Eker is cause for concern. After dropping out of ESL One Cologne 2020 without a win, woxic took to Twitter and confirmed reports that the organization had benched him. While there has been no official word from the mousesports organization, woxic told fans that more details will be released in the near future. …
Counter-Strike
smooya leaks failed North deal on ESL Cologne stream
M Alzamora
Owen “smooya” Butterfield announced to viewers that he was set to join North’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster prior to a regional matchup between Ninjas in Pyjamas and his former team BIG Clan at ESL One Cologne. While BIG would go on to lose a close best-of-three against a young NiP side, smooya revealed that he’s still entertaining offers from some of CSGO’s top teams. When ESL hosts Hugo “Hugo” Byron, …
Counter-Strike
Valve responds to Jamppi’s request to lift VAC ban temporarily
Olivia Richman
The ongoing drama between pro Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player Elias “Jamppi” Olkkonen and Valve is still going. But this time, Valve has spoken out against Jamppi directly. Jamppi filed a lawsuit against the Counter-Strike developers in March when Valve barred him from all Valve-sponsored tournaments due to a VAC ban. The 19-year-old was seeking €268,092 in compensation for “missed earnings.” He also demanded that his VAC ban be lifted, claiming …
Counter-Strike
MIBR’s European region switch isn’t working as team implodes
M Alzamora
MIBR’s switch to the European region for ESL One Cologne hasn’t gone exactly to plan. When news came through that Brazilian Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team MIBR planned to switch to the European region to compete in ESL One Cologne, many fans were confused. MIBR had been struggling in North America, most recently at CS Summit 6, losing to both FURIA and Team Liquid in miserable fashion. While Europe’s Regional ESL …
Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike 1.6 just got its first update in a year
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike 1.6 received an update on August 19, almost a year after Valve last updated the original CS. Valve has pushed an update to CS 1.6 that includes several fixes. Most crucial are some security fixes that deal with how the 1.6 client handles communications to and from the game’s servers. Developers have also addressed an issue with CS 1.6 demos loading incorrectly, which resulted in crashes in certain instances. …
ALEX reportedly targeted to lead FunPlus Phoenix CSGO roster
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Reports indicate that Alex “ALEX” McMeekin is at the top of the list to lead FunPlus Phoenix’s CSGO roster. After a rough entrance into Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s competitive scene, FPX is reportedly looking at former Vitality in-game leader ALEX to lead its return to CSGO, according to a report from DBLTab. FPX was at the center of a controversy during FLASHPOINT 1 when it attempted to acquire Danish CSGO team …
CSGO devs claim to have fixed a new report botting exploit
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
CSGO developer John McDonald tweeted out that the game’s development team had fixed CSGO’s report botting issues highlighted in a recent video. A recent video by CSGO YouTuber Sparkles highlighted the ability to manipulate CSGO’s Overwatch mechanic to not only cause innocent players to receive bans, but to also protect their own accounts from being banned by the service. Just several days after the video’s release, CSGO developers have said …
CSGO wall hack bug still present in game after latest patch
Olivia Richman
Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players were disappointed to find out that yesterday’s patch still hadn’t fixed a potentially game-breaking wall hack bug. For the past week, CSGO players have been exploiting a wall hack discovered by YouTuber “Sparkles” on August 12. Similar to a previous wall hack bug, players can boot up the game without activating the first-person shooter’s vpk files. CSGO players can create their own custom vpk files to …
These CSGO players just broke the gun range world record
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s gun range world record has been broken, twice. Two players beat the record time on CSGO’s training range within hours of one another, posting their times on the game’s subreddit. CSGO’s gun range serves as a training level for new players to get accustomed to the game’s novel recoil and movement systems. The first player to break the record clocked in at an even 20 seconds while …
s1mple shows off a cool new bench boost for Mirage’s B site
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
It’s sometimes hard to take aggressive positions on Mirage, but Natus Vincere’s Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev showed off a neat boost that serves as an easy way to get an early heads up on a Mirage B rush. The boost that s1mple shows off here is a clever way to get eyes into the B site apartments without the defending CTs taking up any of the usual positions. But there are …
Valve used Overwatch to train machines to combat CSGO cheating
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
A Counter-Strike: Global Offensive developer has explained just how CSGO’s Overwatch, Trust Factor, and VAC all work together. We just have to go back to the 2018 Game Developers Conference in order to hear about it. In 2018, CSGO developer John McDonald took the stage at the Game Developers Conference for a presentation titled “Using Deep Learning to Combat Cheating in CSGO.” The presentation gave an in-depth explanation of the …
Lekr0 set to join North as Kjaerbye replacement, report says
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Jonas “Lekr0” Olofsson is set to join the North esports organization, according to reports. A report places Lekro in the North lineup with an official announcement coming in the following days, according to HLTV.com. Lekro’s move to North comes just a week after former North star Markus “Kjaerbye” Kjærbye announced that he would join FaZe Clan’s international lineup. Lekr0 has sat the Ninjas in Pyjamas bench since May of 2020 …
100 Thieves coach ImAPet thinks CSGO badly needs new maps
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
100 Thieves head coach Chet “ImAPet” Singh has a problem with CSGO’s map rotation. In a post on Twitter, ImAPet critiqued Valve’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive map choices, calling them “not exciting,” while suggesting that Valve remove Mirage, Overpass, and Train from the current rotation. We need 3 new maps in CSGO in the rotation, the current pool isn’t exciting anymore — 100T Chet Singh (@chetsingh) August 14, 2020 CSGO currently …
This programmer is trolling CSGO cheaters in hilarious ways
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s cheating problem has driven vigilante programmers into baiting hackers with fake cheats, often to hilarious effect. With CSGO’s serious increase in VAC bans, fans know there’s been some real work done by Valve to combat the game’s cheating problem. But the first-person shooter’s cheating issue has turned into a community issue. It isn’t just Valve who’s doing the work anymore, as a few programmers have taken it …
CSGO’s next operation should steal Valorant’s Spike Rush
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
While Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s recent Shattered Web operation didn’t come bundled with any limited-time game modes, the shooter’s next operation should copy Valorant game mode Spike Rush wholesale. CSGO is a notoriously difficult game to get into and learn for new players. The game’s tutorial is lacking, and the difference between Counter-Strike’s casual game mode and its competitive mode are too many to list. While there aren’t any item builds …
DIGNITAS vs. Budapest 5 Eden Arena: Malta Vibes betting analysis
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
DIGNITAS has had a rough go of it this summer, and it’s completely possible that their streak of poor performances continues against Budapest 5. B5 hasn’t been playing particularly well either, but bettors looking for lines that could pay off solely on the name recognition of the losing team ought to take a good look at this one. Don’t be fooled by the names on the DIGNITAS roster. Comprised of …
Stats show dev1ce and dupreeh carry Astralis while Magisk slumps
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
The loss of Astralis’ in-game leader and its best clutch player hasn’t dampened Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz’s incredibly consistent CSGO prowess. But the same can’t be said for some of his teammates. Ever since their time together at Team SoloMid, Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen and dev1ce have been each other’s wingmen. Fans who are familiar enough with Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s micro plays can catch the small details and see the fingerprints of …
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.
