Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike
CIS ranking tournament Clutch Island announces groups and teams
M Alzamora
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
dev1ce admits he pukes from event stress, questions CSGO’s circuit
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has been a stalwart of esports since the first version of the game was released in 1999, but its open tournament circuit now seems to be causing serious problems for its pro players. Over the past several weeks, top players including Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander and Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth have taken breaks from competitive CSGO. Their reasons are understandable: constant tournaments, hectic travel requirements, and unavoidable stress. Recently, …
Counter-Strike
You can play tic-tac-toe on CSGO’s Inferno now, for real
M Alzamora
It has been a long time coming, but fans of CSGO’s Inferno map can really, truly play Tic-Tac-Toe in the attacking spawn. It has always been a pastime for the attacking team to engage in the friendly schoolyard game during warm ups, but Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s latest update has added the ability to play Tic-Tac-Toe for real, complete with X’s and O’s, winners, and losers. Previously, players were left to …
Counter-Strike
Valve just added a new chat filter to battle toxicity in CSGO
M Alzamora
A new update from the game’s developers has added a profanity filter to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. A recent update to CSGO added a new text filter to the game’s chat. Users can now turn the filter on and off in the game’s settings. The text filter comes several months after Valve announced that it would ban players from voice chat if they received repeated reports of toxicity from fellow gamers. …
Counter-Strike
Ex-MVP PK star xeta announces retirement from CSGO, move to Valorant
Jared Wynne
Seon-ho “xeta” Son, one of South Korea’s best Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players, has announced his retirement from the game. Xeta joins an increasing number of CSGO professionals that are making the switch to Valorant. He announced the news in a post on Twitter: “I’m officially moving to Valorant, thanks for all of your support and cheers…Thanks to this experience I have nothing but good memories of people in Counter-Strike…I will …
Counter-Strike
Valve threatening FaZe, MIBR players for conflicts of interest
M Alzamora
Valve has cited a number of different Counter-Strike: Global Offensive pro players and staff for potential conflicts of interest surrounding the upcoming ESL One Rio Major, including players on MIBR, FaZe Clan, and DIGNITAS. Seven individuals, including Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo, Epitacio “TACO” de Melo, Marcelo “coldzera” David, MIBR manager Ricardo “dead” Sinigaglia, Evil Geniuses coach Wilton “zews” Prado, Christopher “GeT_RiGhT” Alesund, and Immortals’ general manager Tomi “lurppis” Kovanen were warned …
Counter-Strike
Everything you need to know about crosshair placement in CSGO
M Alzamora
If there’s one thing that advanced players could tell themselves when they first started playing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, it might be to focus on better crosshair placement. That’s all fine and good to say to a player when they’re first starting out, but it’s a vague statement to make in a game where there is so much more to learn. Some beginners don’t even know what good crosshair placement means, …
Counter-Strike
WINNERS League Season 4 Invite Division – Chaos in North America, crazy CIS matchup in Europe
gabhernandez
Round 4 is in session and we’ve seen our first teams qualify for playoffs and get eliminated from the event.Instability plagues the NA CS scene and we’re seeing a lot of notable teams go through heaps of roster changes and disbands. Tensions are heating up, as the upcoming week will bring a lot more critical matches and perhaps even heartbreaking upsets. As always, viewers will be able to tune in …
Dupreeh fires back at Astralis critics after string of losses
M Alzamora
News
After losing three games in a row, Astralis’ Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen took to Twitter to defend the team’s two stand-ins. The second-ranked team in the world has lost five of its last six after the departures of in-game leader Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander and rifler Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth. Fans of the organization aren’t pleased with the profound dip in production. One member of Astralis took the time to send a message …
CS Summit 6 reveals team lineups and schedule for EU and NA
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Valve’s second Regional Ranking tournament, CS Summit 6, will host competitions in both Europe and North America starting on June 13. The two-stage qualifiers will begin on June 13 and 14 with the open portion of CS Summit 6, followed by what are the actual regional qualifiers for the tournament. Eight teams from North America and 16 from Europe will then compete in another round of qualifiers on June 22 …
CIS RMR Clutch Island teams announced, include forZe, Syman, more
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Days after WePlay! Clutch Island was announced as the CIS region’s summer Regional Ranking tournament, WePlay! has announced the full list of teams that will participate in the tournament. Five teams have earned a spot in the tournament through its closed qualifiers, include Nemiga Gaming, Syman Gaming, ESPADA, Gambit Youngsters, and forZe. These five teams will compete against three other squads that will have fought their way through the tournament’s …
Hiko retires from CSGO, will now captain 100 Thieves in Valorant
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Long-time Counter-Strike: Global Offensive competitor Spencer “Hiko” Martin announced his retirement from professional CSGO today while at the same time revealing that he will captain 100 Thieves’ entry into Valorant. Hiko started his Counter-Strike career at the end of the game’s 1.6 era before transitioning to Global Offensive upon its release in 2012. Over a career spanning eight years, Hiko was a member of some of CSGO’s most famous North …
CSGO now has a serious memory leak on custom servers
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Many Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players warm up on custom servers before they hop into an official game of CSGO, but some players have found a big potential problem that’s cropping up on some of these servers. According to a recent post on Reddit, Valve’s first-person shooter has some trouble with a particular texture that causes the game to use more and more of a computer’s memory until there is none …
Astralis reportedly drops out of summer RMR, cs_summit 6
M Alzamora
News
cs_summit 6 was recently announced as the second tournament used to distribute points to qualify for the ESL One Rio Major scheduled for November, but it looks like at least one top team has decided not to participate. Astralis has announced that it has “declined an invite” to the summers Regional Ranking tournament, which is used to determine spots for the upcoming ESL One Rio Major. The Danish organization has consistently …
smooya announces free agency after move to TIGER fails
Steven Rondina
Counter-Strike
Owen “smooya” Butterfield is a free agent. Again. The British AWPer announced he is back on the market after previously flirting with Mongolian organization TIGER. Smooya wants to return to action, but shut down the idea of moving to Asia by stating he is looking for offers from North America or Europe. Smooya first broke into the upper echelons of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive in 2017 with Epsilon Esports. He departed …
CIS Regional Ranking Tournament will be WePlay!’s Clutch Island
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Valve has announced the next Regional Ranking Tournament for the CIS region as WePlay!’s Clutch Island. The tournament offers a $50,000 grand prize, but participants will most likely be more focused on the qualification points available for the upcoming ESL One Rio Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major. The tournament will play out over three stages that begin on June 8 with the tournament’s open qualifiers allowing three teams to move forward …
ORDER vs AVANT at DreamHack Masters Spring betting analysis
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
While neither ORDER nor AVANT immediately come to mind when some international fans think about the Oceanic region, this DreamHack Masters Spring upper bracket showdown should be a fiery one. Fans may immediately want to hand this game to ORDER, especially considering the greater name recognition of the team’s players. With players like Ricardo “Rickeh” Mulholland and Karlo “USTILO” Pivacs, ORDER immediately has an advantage in this matchup. Rickeh has …
New CSGO Source 2 hints drop along with Dota 2’s TI10 Battle Pass
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
New CSGO code was found inside DotA 2’s TI10 Battle Pass update and a recent update to Half-Life: Alyx that has to do with graphical improvements to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and its long-awaited Source 2 port. Fans have heard this before. Over the last several months, several changes relevant to CSGO have appeared inside updates to both Dota 2 and Half-Life: Alyx. That may sound odd to newcomers given that …
This 64-tick Mirage smoke is going to win you more games
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Of all the big Counter-Strike: Global Offensive maps, the second most popular has to be Mirage. And there’s a great smoke that could dramatically increase your win rate on the popular map. Whether playing on FACEIT, ESEA, or just regular old matchmaking, Mirage pops up a ton. While even players of the lowest rank can throw the A-site stairs smoke, players are hard pressed to find someone who knows a …
Did you know silent jumping in CSGO isn’t really silent?
Steven Rondina
Counter-Strike
Silent jumping is an important and valuable tool in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. It doesn’t quite live up to its name, though. 100 Thieves coach Chet “ImAPet” Singh discussed this in a short post on Twitter, saying that he’s surprised at how many people are unaware of this nuance: Just going to spread awareness but when you think you’re silent jumping to an area, there is still sound (very low), so …
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.
