Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike
Latest CSGO update adds new stickers based on Warhammer 40K
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has a new update and it’s chock full of customization options for hardcore players. Valve has added a brand new sticker pack to Counter-Strike for those dedicated citizens of the Imperium to enjoy. In a surprise update that no one knew they wanted, CSGO’s brand new sticker capsule comes straight out of the 41st Millenium. The Warhammer franchise has an avid fanbase, and this sticker pack may …
Counter-Strike
Is Astralis eyeing NiP, Heroic players after alleged Xyp9x departure?
Olivia Richman
Multiple sources close to Astralis have allegedly confirmed that Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth has left the organization for the time being. In a report by Jarek Dekay Lewis, it’s rumored that coach Danny “zonic” Sørensen has taken his place in recent practices. Meanwhile, Astralis has reached out to Ninjas in Pyjamas about acquiring Jonas “Lekr0” Olofsson and inquired about Patrick “es3tag” Hansen on Heroic. So far, Dekay’s report states that no …
Counter-Strike
CSGO records sudden drop in players as Valorant beta goes live
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive recorded its first drop in players since October 2019, according to Steam tracking website SteamCharts. The drop in players lines up almost exactly with the release of Valorant, Riot Games’ debut entry into the first-person shooter genre and a direct competitor to CSGO. There isn’t necessarily a reason for CSGO fans to panic. Counter-Strike is still pulling in over one million active players per day nearly nine …
Counter-Strike
Valve cooperating with Chinese state controls for push into China
M Alzamora
Fans of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Dota 2 may be surprised to learn that their favorite game’s developer has been working with government forces in China to enable the country’s strict restrictions on its citizens. Valve Software, creator of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, and the popular Steam client, has been working with the People’s Republic of China since at least June 2019 in an ongoing effort to monetize the …
Counter-Strike
Pro players run into blatant cheaters during Red Bull Flick showmatch
M Alzamora
The recent Red Bull Flick tournament saw some pretty suspicious flicks on stream, as ENCE’s Aleksi “allu” Jalli and Elias “Jamppi” Olkkonen appeared to run into a duo with inhuman reactions during the tournament’s showmatch. The Red Bull Flick tournament, a two-versus-two showdown on custom maps that WIN.gg showcased here, was marred by an instance of cheating so blatant that even a Silver 3 could have spotted them. Thankfully, the …
Counter-Strike
FURIA vs. Chaos EC, DreamHack Masters Spring Betting Analysis
M Alzamora
In North America’s fragmented Counter-Strike: Global Offensive scene, the top dogs might no longer be the most interesting teams to watch. While organizations like Team Liquid and Evil Geniuses struggle to put up wins in today’s online tournaments, two teams in FURIA and Chaos Esports Club are turning heads. There’s no denying that FURIA is the best team Brazil has to offer right now. If they had competed in the …
News
FaZe Clan’s olofmeister steps away from Counter-Strike, cites burnout
M Alzamora
Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer Gustafsson has stepped back from professional Counter-Strike, according to a tweet from FaZe Clan. Olofmeister and FaZe clan announced the news today on Twitter, citing a loss of motivation to continue to compete. The move comes just before CS Summit 6, the second Regional Major tournament through which teams will qualify for the upcoming ESL One Rio Major. FaZe Clan will lose 20% of their earned Regional …
Counter-Strike
Team Liquid gives an inside look at s1mple’s time with CSGO squad
M Alzamora
Team Liquid’s new video show “Tilts” recently took on the topic of what happens when a player leaves a team, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive manager Steve “jokasteve” Perino and Team Liquid co-owner Steve Arhancet took the opportunity to talk about one of CSGO’s best players and his time with the organization. Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev spent nearly five months on Team Liquid at the beginning of 2016, helping the team become …
VP adds yek1ndar to CSGO roster amid slump, buster is out
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Virtus.pro has made a change to its Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster following almost a year of underperformances from a former AVANGAR team that once made the finals of the StarLadder Berlin Major. The team has moved Timur “buster” Tulepov to the bench, saying that the rifler will return to the active roster soon. In his place, VP has brought in rifler Dmitry “yek1ndar” Lemeshchuk from PRO100 to fill in for …
ropz’s deagle clutch shows the true power of CSGO’s best pistol
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Durning mousesports showdown with Complexity Gaming at DreamHack Masters Spring, mouz found themselves down a whole map and facing an 8-3 lead from Complexity on Dust 2. In the 12th round however, Robin “ropz” Kool was tired of being bullied. Armed with armor and a Desert Eagle, ropz turned what was an eco round from mousesports into a win against four members of Complexity. And he did it as the …
Attax and Heretics show that the talent gap in Europe is closing
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
A match between Counter-Strike: Global Offensive teams Alternate aTTaX and Heretics shows how some upcoming talents in Europe are threatening to overtake the region’s best. Competitions like BLAST Rising and WINNERS League Season 4 are showcasing some of that top talent every day. When Alternate aTTaX faced off against Heretics earlier this week, few thought that the matchup would be a barnburner. It turned out to be one of the …
Team Liquid still leads NA CSGO Major Rankings after Road to Rio
M Alzamora
News
With Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s first Regional Ranking tournament now over, fans have an accurate picture of where their favorite team stands as CSGO heads into the just-announced summer Regional Major Ranking tournament, CS Summit 6. Only teams from the European and North American regions are able to compete at CS Summit this summer, meaning that the teams in these regions will have an additional opportunity to make up or lose …
MIBR Cup will see MIBR’s players coach playoff teams
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
A brand new tournament announced to be run by Brazillian Counter-Strike: Global Offensive entity Gamers Club will give teams the opportunity to see how well they do with professional CSGO players as their coaches. The MIBR Cup has just been announced, and it features an interesting twist. After competing in online open qualifiers, the tournament will progress to the playoff stage where the winner from each qualifier will be coached …
Man disguises himself as a woman in all-female CSGO tournament
Olivia Richman
News
Desperate times call for desperate measures. A male Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player decided to dress up as a woman, wig and all, to sneak his way into a CSGO tournament meant for female gamers only. Lenovo’s Legion of Valkyrie tournament was a 32-team tournament meant for female CSGO players only. The tournament had a prize pool of $1,000, with $600 of it going to the first-place team. With so many …
MIBR drops meyern, adds trk ahead of DreamHack Masters Spring
Steven Rondina
Counter-Strike
MIBR is back to being an all-Brazilian team once again. The Immortals Gaming Club-owned team has added Alencar “trk” Rossato to its roster. In adding him, MIBR benched Argentinian player Ignacio “meyern” Meyer after five months. Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo bid meyern farewell on Twitter. “Thank you little brother for all of your dedication and work with us. This rookie has many, many years of Counter-Strike in front of him and …
Valve quietly releases censored Steam China client to alpha
M Alzamora
News
Users haven’t heard much about a Chinese version of Valve’s Steam client since it was announced in 2018, but an alpha version of Steam China has now appeared. A recent update to the Steam Client revealed Valve not only still working on the long-awaited Steam China client, but that the client itself has officially moved into an alpha stage. While there are no official Steam China servers online, the client …
Ninjas in Pyjamas drops IGL Lekr0, signs Hampus from GamerLegion
Steven Rondina
Counter-Strike
After a rough start to 2020, Ninjas in Pyjamas is making a change to its Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster. The organization has announced the signing of Hampus “hampus” Poser. He will take over in-game leadership duties from Jonas “Lekr0” Olofsson, who has been benched from the lineup and placed on the transfer list. “The philosophy and ideologies I have around the future of esports performance, is something that I am …
As Astralis captain gla1ve steps back, new member JUGi stands in
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Astralis announced that Jakob “JUGi” Hansen will replace Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander as the Astralis in-game leader spends what the team says will be several months away from competition. The release contains a statement from gla1ve in which the player cites stress surrounding competition and overall burnout as the reasons why he will take the next several months off. gla1ve goes on to say that he made the decision after consulting …
Ex-Virtus.pro stars TaZ and Neo unveil new CSGO team Honoris
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Filip “NEO” Kubski and Wiktor “TaZ” Wojtas have announced their returns to competitive Counter-Strike: Global Offensive with Honoris, a brand new Counter-Strike team with the backing of Red Bull. The two had previously spent over ten years as teammates on the legendary Virtus.pro roster before TaZ found himself benched and subsequently released by the team in 2018. NEO stayed with Virtus.pro for a while longer, ultimately leaving the team in …
G2 vs. North betting analysis, DreamHack Masters Spring 2020
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
G2 Esports needs to quickly brush off the dust from the ESL Road to Rio event, because DreamHack Masters Spring is right around the corner. After an embarrassing defeat at the hands of Astralis during Europe’s first Road to Rio tournament, G2 gets a lucky draw at DreamHack Masters Spring. It will face off against North, a team that will play without one of their best veterans in Markus “Kjaerbye” …
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.
