Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike
MIBR Cup will see MIBR’s players coach playoff teams
M Alzamora
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 …
News
Man disguises himself as a woman in all-female CSGO tournament
Olivia Richman
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 …
Counter-Strike
MIBR drops meyern, adds trk ahead of DreamHack Masters Spring
Steven Rondina
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 …
News
Valve quietly releases censored Steam China client to alpha
M Alzamora
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 …
Counter-Strike
G2 vs. North betting analysis, DreamHack Masters Spring 2020
M Alzamora
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
Europe’s CSGO Regional Major Rankings after ESL Road to Rio
M Alzamora
Europe’s top teams came out of the gate ready to roll in the region’s ESL Road to Rio event. While some teams majorly underperformed, Europe generally showed fans how consistent the region actually is. Here are the current rankings for Valve’s first-ever Regional Major CSGO tournament. We’ve included any points teams gained from their placing at StarLadder Berlin Major just shy of a year ago, so these standings are an …
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 …
Astralis vs. G2 Esports ESL Road to Rio EU betting analysis
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
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 …
Team Spirit vs. Winstrike, Road to Rio CIS Final Betting Analysis
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
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 …
FaZe Clan loses to Astralis after this hilarious anti-eco fail
Steven Rondina
Counter-Strike
FaZe Clan is really good right now. The squad of stars has been surging in the ESL Road to Rio European division and is guaranteed a finish in the top three of the tournament. Despite struggling to live up to the hype throughout most of its existence in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, FaZe might be ready to finally start living up to its potential. That doesn’t mean they’re perfect, though. They’re …
North’s Kjaerbye takes indefinite break due to illness
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Markus “Kjaerbye” Kjærbye has announced that he will take a step back from competitive Counter-Strike in a tweet from his official Twitter account. Kjaerbye cited health problems as the reason why he was taking the break, including abdominal pain and difficulty breathing. Kjaerbye had recently missed the final matches of ESL One’s Road to Rio, forcing North’s coach, Jimmy “Jumpy” Berndtsson, to play in his stead. The responses to Kjærbye’s …
Watch CSGO pro RpK go AFK in bombsite and stay alive for 20 seconds
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
In one of ESL’s Road to Rio Europe’s final games, a matchup between Vitality and NiP took a hilarious turn as the series first map on Mirage came to a close. At 12-14, NiP went for the old school Tech-9 Rush B strategy, running into what surely would have been a slaughter. Both Vitality’s Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut and Cédric “RpK” Guipouy awaited them, seemingly ready for NiP’s rush and in …
CSGO update brings big graphics improvements with texture streaming
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
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 …
BLAST allegedly considering player substitutions during games
Olivia Richman
Counter-Strike
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 …
WINNERS League S4 teams, tournament structure, and prize pool revealed
Olivia Richman
Counter-Strike
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 …
Leaked CSGO patch improves weapon pickup, fixes grenades and sv_pure
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
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 …
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.
