Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike
Hundreds banned from FACEIT after CSGO audio exploit discovered
Olivia Richman
After Polish YouTuber “Mefju23” shared a video outlining an audio exploit in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, hundreds of players were permanently banned from FACEIT. Mefju23’s video showed off an audio exploit where players were able to increase the sounds of footsteps, weapon drops and other vital audio cues, making it much easier to know where opponents were at any given time. The file, called “Soundmixers.txt” changes certain parameters to give users …
Counter-Strike
This B rush on Vertigo is pretty much unstoppable for CTs
M Alzamora
Recent changes to Vertigo have given the map a completely different feel, as many of the advantages that the attacking players relied on are now gone. The mid window, long relied on for late flanks to the B bombsite, is now gone and replaced by an elevated platform that gives defenders rule over mid. Although the perch is easily mollied, it provides a strong postion when coupled with a lean …
Counter-Strike
Thorin and Montecristo on the future of Flashpoint, Cloud9, FPX, more
M Alzamora
With Flashpoint’s inaugural season wrapped up, WIN.gg sat down with the league’s creative director Duncan “Thorin” Shields as well as broadcaster and talent advisor Christopher “MonteCristo” Mykles to discuss what went right and what went wrong. The two covered the wild ride that was the league’s first season and the league’s future. WIN.gg: Flashpoint 1 is in the books. How does it feel? Thorin: Satisfying. The only problem with expectations …
Counter-Strike
Astralis loses to Fnatic after some huge mistakes in Road to Rio EU
Steven Rondina
Astralis is among the best Counter-Strike: Global Offensive teams in the world. At their absolute worst, they’re still very close to the top. They do still make mistakes, though. Astralis went 1-1 in the first week of the Road to Rio: Europe group stage, beating Complexity Gaming while dropping a series to Fnatic. Though Fnatic is typically crisp, the series between Astralis and Fnatic turned on a few apparent misplays …
Counter-Strike
CSGO and Team Fortress 2 source code leaks with big implications
M Alzamora
The source code for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Team Fortress 2 has been leaked online, posing a huge issue for Valve and the communities of both games. Valve News Network’s Tyler McvVickers was originally blamed for the leak by 4chan, but McVicker is adamant that he did not leak the code, but he knows who did. On a Q&A Twitch stream, McVicker explained that the code was provided to him …
Counter-Strike
How exactly does new FPS Valorant compare to CSGO?
M Alzamora
Valorant is turning heads around the globe as Riot Games’ first entry into the shooter genre inches closer to release. While the game has captured the attention of pro players from around the gaming world, one game’s players in particular seem more suited to Valorant than the rest. Valorant has clearly borrowed its best bits and bobs from today’s popular games, but it has used the proven formula pioneered by …
Counter-Strike
ENCE adds banned player Jamppi after losing Finland’s top ranking
Steven Rondina
ENCE is in a tough spot right now and they are making some big changes as a result. The Finnish team has slipped down on HLTV’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive rankings to the point where they are no longer ranked as the top Finnish team in Counter-Strike. That spot has been taken over by HAVU Gaming. HAVU has been on an upswing over recent months, posting first-place finishes in Assembly Winter …
Counter-Strike
This Nuke wallbang by OG Aleksib is the craziest of the year
M Alzamora
Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen isn’t OG’s most explosive player, but the young, in-game leader came alive in OG’s match against AVEZ. During the closed qualifiers for this year’s Spring DreamHack Masters, Akeksib found himself stuck on the B bomsite on Nuke. As the plant came in from AVEZ directly above him, Aleksib rolled the dice and fired off several shots from his Desert Eagle through the floor and onto A site’s …
shroud says Valorant will become more popular than CSGO
Olivia Richman
Counter-Strike
Riot’s new FPS title Valorant has been called the “Overwatch killer” since details started coming out. But now Counter-Strike players are also starting to wonder if the similarities between their game and Valorant will also lead to a loss of players for them, too. Popular CSGO streamer Michael “shroud” Grzesiek is among them. There are a lot of game elements Valorant has taken from Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, including the look …
MIBR versus MAD Lions in Flashpoint’s Season 1 grand final breakdown
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Flashpoint’s first season hasn’t exactly gone to plan. That said, despite several teams dropping out from the young Counter-Strike: Global Offensive league, Flashpoint has delivered on what it promised: good fun, good banter, and good Counter-Strike. Now, it’s left to the final two teams to deliver. The veteran MIBR under the leadership of the ageless Gabriel “FalleN” Toldeo will take on young upstarts MAD Lions for $500,000 and the the …
Valve reveals ESL One Rio Major’s Regional Major Rankings
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Valve has released its initial rankings for the build to the ESL One Rio Major. In March, Valve revealed that teams will be required to requalify for 2020’s only CSGO Major, citing the length of time between the StarLadder Berlin Major in September 2019 and ESL One Rio, which comes in November. Fans and teams now know exactly how it works, thanks to a blog post from the developer. The …
New CSGO major rules spell trouble for Astralis’ six-man roster
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Contained in a blog post delving into the specifics of the new Regional Major Rankings system, Valve detailed several rule changes that could have a major impact on Astralis. When the Danish team announced it would switch to a six-man roster in March by adding Patrick “es3tag” Hansen, it whipped up controversy over the impact this had on a business deal between Heroic and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive newcomer FunPlus Phoenix. …
ESL Pro League stats show that taco really likes killing chickens
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike fans are obsessed with statistics. From a player’s headshot percentage to their open duel win rate, fans consistantly find new ways to rate Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s pro players. But one startup has found way to calculate some truly weird statistics. Scope.gg posted a number of out-there statistics on its official Twitter account, making us wunder just what else is out there. In one of the most surprising of the …
CSGO’s player count just passed Dota 2’s all-time peak
Steven Rondina
Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s player count has been on a steady climb for months now and has hit yet another big milestone. On April 17, CSGO’s concurrent player count reached a whopping 1,298,888. That doesn’t just set a new benchmark for CSGO, it also eclipses the all-time high of Dota 2. The two Valve-made esports titles have long had something of a rivalry, and have inhabited the number-one and number-two spots …
Vertigo changes, M4A1-S buff part of huge CSGO meta shift
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Between the SG-553 nerf that hammered the rifle’s viability and the surprise overhaul of Vertigo, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s developers have done something they rarely do. In two patches, the developers have signaled that they believe the attacking side is too powerful in today’s meta, and they’re going to do something to fix it. Several changes suggest that a CT-friendly meta is on the horizon. Over the past nine months, Counter-Strike’s …
Here’s everything you can do in CSGO’s in-game watch tab
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
With Counter-Strike: Global Offensive adding online tournaments to the watch tab today, it’s a good time to go through exactly what players can and can’t do with CSGO’s powerful GOTV browser. CSGO boasts some serious integration between the game and outside tournaments, and today it got a little bit closer to being the complete CSGO viewing package. In a surprise reveal, Counter-Strike developer Valve announced on the game’s official Twitter …
CSGO teams being sued for “negligence” after former pro passes away
Olivia Richman
Counter-Strike
Team Reapers and Imperial Esports are being sued by the family of Matheus “bruttJ” Queiroz, a former Counter-Strike: Global Offensive pro who passed away in December 2019 at 19 years old. Imperial Esports had announced the sad news at the end of last year, citing “health complications” in the tweet. bruttJ had taken a 10-day hiatus from professional CSGO before his untimely death. During that time he was suffering from …
New CSGO update changes Vertigo, makes it easier to copy crosshairs
Steven Rondina
Counter-Strike
Big updates just keep arriving in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Less than a week after Valve delivered a major shakeup of the CSGO arsenal, which included the long-awaited nerf of the Krieg, the publisher has shipped another update that includes various map changes, upgrades to spectating, and a new experimental warmup game mode. While map changes are usually the centerpiece of big patches like this, the so-called “Change Your Tune” update …
Valve trolls CSGO players with Office changes and Inferno wall bangs
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Since the release of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s Shattered Web operation in November, there has been a steady stream of hints that all seemed to point in one direction – the return of the Office to competitve CSGO. While the map has been available to CSGO players for years, it has never seen competitive play on an esports stage. CSGO’s most recent patch moved the mystery forward slightly when developers included …
summit thinks CSGO’s tournaments are a problem, warns Valorant
Olivia Richman
Counter-Strike
Valorant’s closed beta key drop system has helped Riot’s new FPS set new records on Twitch. The highly anticipated title already has 34 million hours watched, with a peak viewership hitting over 1.7 million viewers, beating Twitch’s previous single-day viewership record. Fans from all over have been watching their favorite streamers play the new game, both to find out more about the included agents’ abilities and to get access to …
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.
