Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike
From Cologne to EPL Season 11, CSGO tournament schedule is packed
M Alzamora
Starting with the move of ESL Pro League’s season 11 to online play in March and Valve’s rescheduling of ESL One Rio 2020, almost every CSGO event has been shifted. To complicate matters, Valve added three more tournaments to the schedule. Called Regional Major Ranking tournaments, ESL’s Road to Rio, CS Summit 6, and an unannounced third tournament serve as pathways to CSGO’s 2020 Major. Here’s a list of the …
Counter-Strike
HenryG responds to allegations of abuse as accusations continue
Olivia Richman
Prominent streamers, espots personalities, and content creators have been accused of sexual assault, harassment, and rape over the last few days. Some of the men admitted to their wrongdoings in lengthy apologies, while others have denied the alegations. One of the more prominent esports professionals to be so accused was Counter-Strike: Global Offensive caster and analyst Henry “HenryG” Greer. His former girlfriend wrote a TwitLonger outlining alleged mental, verbal, and …
Counter-Strike
This Vertigo grenade combo makes taking A so much easier
M Alzamora
Vertigo’s A bombsite is notoriously one of the hardest to execute on in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, but a new smoke, Molotov, and flashbang combination makes taking it much easier. Vertigo has favored the attacking side even with Valve’s latest updates to the map making it slightly easier to defend. But with most of the changes coming through in the form of the map’s middle area and B site, Vertigo’s A …
Counter-Strike
Evil Geniuses beats MIBR for BLAST Premier NA title
M Alzamora
Evil Geniuses defeated MIBR in two maps and took the North American BLAST Premier Spring title. While they had to fend off a resurgent MIBR to do it, the win marks the team’s first tournament win since StarSeries iLeague Season 8 in October 2019. Both maps were hotly contested, with Dust 2 ending 16-14 in Evil Geniuses favor while Inferno actually went to overtime after MIBR managed to tie the …
Counter-Strike
CSGO tournaments want MR12 to come back, but would it work?
M Alzamora
Some Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament organizers have recently espoused the virtues of the game returning to its MR12 roots. But even if such a change would help some events to stay on schedule, would it really be good for the game? If fans have ever tuned into competitive CSGO and heard the terms MR15 or MR12, they might not know what it stands for. It’s a simple concept that is …
Counter-Strike
New CSGO Steam Community features leak, include animated stickers
Steven Rondina
Valve seems to be planning a big update to the Steam Community functionality, and it’s likely to delight Counter-Strike: Global Offensive fans. Data miner Pavel Djundik unearthed some files added to Steam that suggest some new features will be added soon. The first is new animated stickers for Steam Chat, while the second is a new avatar framing system. Animated chat stickers are exactly what they sound like. Steam chat …
Counter-Strike
FaZe Clan win after Bymas hits smoothest floor bang of 2020
M Alzamora
In today’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, players and fans see wall bang kills all the time. But a wall bang kill on Nuke from FaZe Clan’s Aurimas “Bymas” Pipiras during BLAST Premier’s upper-bracket semifinal should have FaZe fans feeling very excited. In FaZe’s first map against Team Vitality for a BLAST Premier grand final spot, Bymas made a huge play that showcased both his aim and his game sense. Up 6-3 …
Counter-Strike
OG team comms hint at struggles after loss to Ninjas in Pyjamas
Steven Rondina
There might be a few issues within the lineup of OG’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive division. BLAST released a short clip of the team’s in-game comms during their lower bracket showdown with Ninjas in Pyjamas. OG coach Casper “ruggah” Due can be heard during the clip trying to rally his team while imploring them to tighten up their sloppy teamwork. “It’s really important for me to stress now, we need to …
Jamppi sued the wrong Valve company after being banned
Olivia Richman
Counter-Strike
After being banned from all major Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournaments, 18-year-old pro player Elias “Jamppi” Olkkonen is suing Valve. But not the Valve you’re thinking of. When Jamppi was banned from Valve-sponsored touraments due to a recorded VAC ban, Jamppi decided to sue the developer for the earnings he missed out on due to the punishment, about €268,092. Due to Finland’s Tort Act of 1974, which states that “courts can …
MIBR versus FURIA round restart ignites CSGO controversy
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
With FURIA and MIBR duking it out for the title of top Brazilian CSGO team at the BLAST Premier Spring Finals, a technical issue during the matchup had each team fighting in a battle outside the server. Pegged as the match that would determine the best South American CSGO team today, the series had massive viewership. More than 100,000 people tuned in to Brazilian CSGO streamer and former Counter-Strike pro …
MonteCristo announced as new commissioner of FLASHPOINT
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Christopher “MonteCristo” Mykles will serve as the commissioner of FLASHPOINT as well as the young tournament’s vice president of brand, according to an official press release from the organization. MonteCristo has spent more than 15 years in esports and has always had an interest in creating content for esports fans. With this experience, MonteCristo will serve as FLASHPOINT’s vice president of brand and will be a major figure in charge …
CSGO’s 2020 player count shows that it’s more popular than ever
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
As recently as the summer of 2019, CSGO was filled with players saying that the game was dead or dying. Looking at Counter-Strike’s 2020 player counts, it’s safe to say that things have changed. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is as strong as it has ever been, and its player counts back that up. On March 15, CSGO passed the one million concurrent player mark more than eight years after its release …
WePlay! Clutch Island’s closed qualifier guide, full schedule
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
WePlay!’s Clutch Island CIS tournament is moving full steam ahead, with WePlay! announcing the groups for the closed qualifier to the second Regional Major Rankings tournament of ESL One Rio. According to a post on Twitter, the groups are all set for closed qualifiers of Clutch Island’s first stages. The organizer released both the groups and the schedule for the remaining stages of the tournament. Clutch Island has a prize …
Contradictory statements from Astralis support turmoil reports
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Astralis, now the former number one team in the world, is in trouble. According to a report by Dexerto’s Richard Lewis, the Astralis organization has been suffering from internal turmoil for months, with its most recent roster swaps being just the tip of the iceberg. Lewis’ report cites several sources that say players of the Astralis Group, which include the CSGO team Astralis, League of Legends team Origen, and FIFA …
CSGO players just found a new Overpass boost that changes games
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Overpass has been host to many memorable events in CSGO. From Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer Gustafsson’s famous flaming defuse to Cloud9’s 16-10 win on the map that helped the team win its first CSGO Major title at ELEAGUE Boston 2018, Overpass has become iconic. But the map is also known for featuring a number of crazy boosts. More than any other map, Overpass’ multilevel layout lends itself to boosting, where one …
Former fnatic veteran dennis officially joins Apeks
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Dennis “dennis” Edman has finally found a home after an extended shuffle between European Counter-Strike teams. Apeks officially announced that they had officially signed the former fnatic rifler to their roster through a post on the team’s official Twitter account. PRESS RELEASE????Signing @denniscsgod full time – read more in our press release on Facebook!https://t.co/wGgeRppsej pic.twitter.com/chncKhtdzZ — Apeks (@apeksgg) June 15, 2020 dennis has been a part of competitive CSGO since …
FURIA tops Liquid, BIG reverses G2 in DreamHack Masters Spring
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
The DreamHack Masters Spring finals treated CSGO fans to some hotly competitive action in Europe, while the North American competition was surprisingly one-sided. FURIA Esports, which started with a one-map lead after clearing the upper bracket, demolished Team Liquid 3-0 to reclaim a spot among Counter-Strike’s elite. On the other side of the Atlantic, BIG pulled off the reverse sweep against a powerful G2 Esports team. While DreamHack Masters Spring …
WINNERS League Season 4 Invite Division – The final decider matches
gabhernandez
Counter-Strike
The final week of group stages is upon us. Every match is “do or die”, you either make it to playoffs and secure at least $500, or you get eliminated. This is where the pressure mounts and players need to prove that they have what it takes to move on to the next stage. It has been a surprise seeing some of these teams in the position of potential elimination. …
CSGO visual update contains bug that lets players wall hack
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
A recent Counter-Strike: Global Offensive update created a serious issue that can bestow a massive competitive advantage to some players. A Redditor showed off a bug that allows players to see the outline of enemies through Nuke’s B-site silo. The bug seems to be caused by Counter-Strike’s contrast update. The patch added a new contrast setting to the popular FPS and was meant to make player models stand out from …
CIS ranking tournament Clutch Island announces groups and teams
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
CIS’s second Regional Ranking tournament, Clutch Island, has announced its groups for stage one of the tournament’s closed qualifiers. WePlay!’s Clutch Island has released the teams participating in the tournament’s first stage of its closed qualifiers that will eventually lead to the main event. Five teams were automatically invited to the tournament’s closed qualifiers and will face off against the winners of Clutch Island’s three open qualifiers. The groups for …
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.
