Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike
In Road to Rio, Astralis beats G2 in one of CSGO’s shortest Bo5s ever
Steven Rondina
Getting second place in one of the ESL Road to Rio events is pretty good no matter how it’s sliced, right? What about if you lose in one of the quickest best-of-five grand finals ever in Counter-Strike’s history? Second-place finisher G2 earned 1,500 RMR points, moving them forward towards a spot in the ESL One Rio Major. They also got 350 points for the ESL Pro Tour, keeping them in …
Counter-Strike
Intel Grand Slam on hold until at least ESL One Cologne, possibly longer
M Alzamora
ESL has announced the postponement of the INTEL Grand Slam meta-tournament. This comes as the organizer stated that online events and Road to Rio’s multiple winners prevents the organizer from determining who the best team in the world actually is. The move comes on the heels of the postponement of several major LAN tournaments and their move to regional online formats. The decision makes sense, given the fact that the …
Counter-Strike
Astralis vs. G2 Esports ESL Road to Rio EU betting analysis
M Alzamora
After a spicy three-map series against FaZe Clan, G2 Esports has made the finals of ESL’s Road to Rio. This makes the European contest the only Road to Rio to go as expected. While there was a time where it looked like Astralis might actually drop more than a single game on their way to the final, the Danish superstars took down FaZe earlier in the week to lock up …
Counter-Strike
Team Spirit vs. Winstrike, Road to Rio CIS Final Betting Analysis
M Alzamora
In a surprise grand finals, Team Spirit and Winstrike will face off for first place in the ESL Road to Rio CIS event tomorrow. The tournament itself was full of surprises, with favorites Natus Vincere dropping out early in 7-8th place and Virtus.pro left fighting over a 3-4th place finish. Both Spirit and Winstrike are decidedly tier-two teams, with most international appearances stemming from bigger organizations underperforming or a hot …
Counter-Strike
CSGO update brings big graphics improvements with texture streaming
M Alzamora
Valve’s latest Counter-Strike: Global Offensive update has added a setting for texture streaming, a process that has the potential to boost performance in Counter-Strike by a massive amount. Texture streaming allows textures to be called up from a user’s hard drive only when they’re needed, freeing valuable memory and ultimately boosting performance by a serious amount. Even on powerful machines, texture streaming makes a massive difference in FPS, especially on …
Counter-Strike
BLAST allegedly considering player substitutions during games
Olivia Richman
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament organizer BLAST is allegedly considering changing a big substitution rule for upcoming competitions. According to a report by Jarek “DeKay” Lewis, the Danish event organizer is considering a rule change that would allow teams to make substitutions at halftime of matches. The existing rules for BLAST Premier allow teams to bring on two substitute players to swap out between maps if needed. These changes are only …
Counter-Strike
WINNERS League S4 teams, tournament structure, and prize pool revealed
Olivia Richman
WINNERS League Season 4 is bringing an all-new format and all-new features to Counter-Strike: Global Offenisive players across Europe and North America, along with the wild competitive action the CSGO community has come to expect from the series. Vbet has become the official WINNERS League sponsor, and WIN has partnered with FeedConstruct to bring interactive features and a trustworthy betting platform to WINNERS League fans. The new invitational season begins …
Counter-Strike
Leaked CSGO patch improves weapon pickup, fixes grenades and sv_pure
M Alzamora
Developers have made several adjustments to two of CSGO’s oldest issues in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s latest patch. First, Valve has finally fixed a widespread issue that has plagued both professional and casual CSGO players for years. When a player dies in CSGO, they drop both their primary weapon, if they have one, and their most expensive grenade. Since both are dropped at the exact same time, it was common to …
FaZe Clan owner admits he ran a CSGO skin gambling site
Olivia Richman
Counter-Strike
FaZe Clan owner Ricky Banks recently revealed on an episode of the BADNWZ podcast that members of the FaZe esports organization ran a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive skin gambling website. A little before 2016, FaZe Clan started looking for a new CSGO roster to invest in, which Banks stated was going to cost them $1 million. It was an amount the organization did not have at the time. He told the …
ATK makes roster moves after flexeeee release
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
After a tough run at the original ESL One Rio Minor championship, ATK has announced changes to its South African roster that include the release Rieghardt “flexeeee” Romatzki, and the additions of AWPer Aaron “SloWye” van der Walt and entry fragger Johnathan “Doru” Fox. Both SloWye and Doru come to ATK from the South African team Big 5. SloWye spent just over a year with his former team and regional …
Astralis says if they perform, 20% roster change penalty won’t matter
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Danish Counter-Strike: Global Offensive organization Astralis officially announced Jakob “JUGi” Hansen’s signing in a press release, calling it a “second increase” and leaving room for the addition of even more players beyond its new seven-man roster. The move continues Astralis’ pursuit of what it describes as “the most competitive and healthy environment for the players.” Rumors have swirled for weeks that Astralis didn’t plan to stop adding players to its …
blameF drops more than 50 frags on one map vs Dignitas in Road to Rio
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
ESL’s Road to Rio has been full of surprises so far, but Complexity’s Benjamin “blameF” Bremmer’s performance during the tournament’s last-place decider match has to take the cake. Complexity has been a difficult team to nail down since putting together its new roster after the StarLadder Berlin Major, with big ups and downs over the first half of 2020. In their recent Road to Rio matchup against Dignitas however, blameF was …
CSPPA makes new deal with TOs around 2020 CSGO player break
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
The Counter-Strike Professional Player’s Association has rescheduled the 2020 player break, according to a tweet from the association’s official Twitter account. The change comes after many tournaments have either been moved from LAN to online, rescheduled completely, or canceled as travel between countries has become increasingly difficult. The player break was first introduced in 2016 to combat the increasing number of Counter-Strike tournaments. Teams and players complained that the non-stop …
FaZe Clan vs. c0ntact Gaming, ESL Road to Rio EU Betting Analysis
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Make no mistake, c0ntact Gaming will likely lose to a FaZe Clan that is above and beyond the better team in this matchup. Winners.bet has placed the line at FaZe 1.31 to c0ntact’s 3.51, which is arguably being generous to c0ntact. In Europe’s Road to Rio, c0ntact has gone 0-6 despite facing teams like Movistar Riders, Copenhagen Flames, and GODSENT, all teams that should have been manageable foes for c0ntact. …
Na’Vi stunned by Syman Gaming in ESL One Road to Rio CIS
Steven Rondina
Counter-Strike
A couple of months ago, Natus Vincere looked ready to completely take over the global Counter-Strike: Global Offensive scene after their victory at IEM Katowice 2020. In the ESL Road to Rio, they aren’t looking nearly as strong. Natus Vincere now finds itself with a 2-2 record in the CIS region’s group stage. That second loss came after a shock defeat at the hands of Syman Gaming. NAVI TOP1 kek …
Former NiP player Pyth is latest CSGO pro to switch to Valorant
Jared Wynne
Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive pro Jacob “pyth” Mourujärvi has announced his retirement from the game, and confirmed plans to pursue a career in Valorant. In a TwitLonger post, pyth stated that Valorant has reinvigorated his competitive spirit. He also reflected on the impact Counter-Strike has had on his life and paid homage to his former Ninjas in Pyjamas teammates. Pyth thus joins an ever-growing list of former CS players that have …
New data shows how effective CT aggression on Vertigo can really be
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
When players think about map movement in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, bunnyhops and difficult jumps are usually the things that come to mind. But after looking at this animated illustration of Vertigo’s rush timings, players should see that there’s a lot more to just moving around a complex map than they’d previously thought. The gif visualizes player movement from ESL’s Road to Rio matches up until this point, animating them and …
North loses points as coach stands in for kjaerbye in Road to Rio EU
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
North is officially the first team to lose qualification points under Valve’s new rules surrounding its Regional Major Ranking tournaments for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. RMT’s are a new addition to the CSGO calendar this year, introduced when Counter-Strike’s 16th Major, ESL One Rio, was postponed until November. North is the first team to officially be on the hook for the announced point penalty introduced by Valve in a recent blog …
These are the best ways to organize your CSGO inventory
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike is known for its snappy gunplay, intricate mechanics, deep strategy, and for better or worse, its many items. While most players come to the game looking for a competitive experience, for some the first exposure to CSGO comes from the game’s weapon skins. It’s not just weapon skins that help fill out Counter-Strike’s economy, either. The game also offers things like display items, patches, pins, graffiti sprays, and even …
Some CSGO skin collectors are willing to pay for the ugliest skins
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
When people think about skins in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, nine times out of 10 they are picturing a pristine Factory New AK-47 Bloodsport, or the famous and popular AWP Dragon Lore. They likely aren’t picturing something that barely has any paint on it. But that’s exactly what some collectors in the Steam Community have set out to gather. Some say they chase these beat-up skins because it’s a different type …
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.
