Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike
CSPPA announces CSGO partnership with ESL and DreamHack
M Alzamora
The Counter-Strike Professional Players Association has announced a partnership with ESL and DreamHack that they say will lead to a “participation framework” between the players and the tournament organizers. The partnership covers a wide array of subjects ranging from involvement in revenue to player contracts. The official announcement contains little in the way of specific detail, merely announcing that a framework is forthcoming but has yet to be established. The …
News
Nordavind adds NaToSaphiX and HS to complete CSGO roster
M Alzamora
Norwegian esports organization Nordavind has completed its new Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster. Nordavind adds two players that have floated from team to team over the past several months in Niels “NaToSaphiX” Sillassen and Kevin “HS” Tarn. The organization made the announcement on its official Twitter account. The announcement comes days after the release of Håkon “hallzerk” Fjærli, who was previously rumored to be joining Dignitas alongside four members of the legendary 2014 Ninjas in Pyjamas roster. Though Dignitas has …
Counter-Strike
Cloud9 early favorites at DreamHack Open Leipzig CSGO tournament
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s DreamHack Open Leipzig 2020 is coming, and it offers teams a chance to receive an automatic invite to DreamHack Masters Jönköping 2020. It also gives viewers the chance to see some up-and-coming teams face off ahead of IEM Katowice 2020. The list of teams competing in Leipzig includes BIG, Cloud9, North, Renegades, Virtus.pro, Heroic, MAD Lions, and Sprout. The tournament should be an interesting test for the majority …
Counter-Strike
Shattered Web Week 9 missions release, require some skilled play
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s week nine challenges are here and are asking players to have a pretty good day in order to finish them all. Week nine’s “…Just Having a Good Day” is all about precision and ending up on top of the competition. If players just want to earn their six stars for their rewards and move on, it’s an easy week to do so. There are two three-star challenges …
Counter-Strike
IEM Katowice 2020 EU Qualifiers see FaZe, G2, and MAD Lions earn spots
M Alzamora
Finishing third after favorites FaZe Clan and G2 Esports, MAD Lions snatched the final European slot for IEM Katowice 2020 from ENCE with a 2-0 win. Despite finishing third, MAD Lions put on the strongest performance of the qualifier. Most would think that ESL’s decision to exclude FaZe and G2 from the 10 direct invitees would have irritated both teams, especially FaZe. Widely regarded as a top-10 team, FaZe’s spot was …
Counter-Strike
Tricked signs fresh roster after MAD Lions sale in November
M Alzamora
Tricked Esport announced its new team roster today after moving its previous set of players to OverActive Media’s MAD Lions team. In an official press release from the organization, Tricked Esport announced the signing of its new Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster. The team has brought in a young team to replace their old roster led Nicolai “HUNDEN” Petersen. Tricked sold that roster to the MAD Lions organization in late November. As …
Counter-Strike
CSGO has 5 different ways to throw grenades, here’s how to use them
M Alzamora
Grenades are a massive part of Counter-Strike Global Offensive and learning how to use them is tough at first. They change direction depending on how the player is moving when they throw them. They’ll bounce in completely different directions with minor changes in angles. Worst of all, they have a habit of bouncing back into the player’s face. The worst part is that CSGO doesn’t tell new players exactly how …
Counter-Strike
CSGO nears all-time player record as Valve pushes monetization
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive reached its highest average player count since March 26, 2016, pulling in over 840,000 players and threatening March 2016’s record of 855,485. CSGO’s sudden surge in popularity is explained by several factors, with most stemming from Valve’s actions surrounding the game that began nearly two years ago. The changes ranged from a massive economic overhaul to two questionable balance decisions that took months to revert. Shattered …
Cloud9 to attend WINNERS League Season 3 Playoffs
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Cloud9 will take on Faint Gaming in the first round of the WINNERS League Season 3 playoffs. The fan-favorite North American organization will go for the gold with the roster it acquired from ATK. The team will look to follow up on a successful run through the IEM Katowice 2020 Americas qualifiers. In early December, Cloud9 sent Timothy “autimatic” Ta, Damien “daps” Steele, and Kenneth “koosta” Suen to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive newcomer …
Cloud9 takes IEM Katowice spot over MiBR in stacked NA qualifier
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
The North American closed qualifiers were hotly contested, but Cloud9’s fresh roster prevailed. 2020’s iteration of IEM Katowice came with a new set of rules for qualifiers, as well as a reduction in the number of slots assigned regions. This year, North America has a single slot. The change forced teams that would have normally attended together fight over the single opportunity to compete in Poland. Some of the top …
CSGO pro settings and sensitivity for s1mple, ZywOo, dev1ce, more
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Below are some of the top professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players’ settings from major pros like Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut and Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz. CSGO players are free to copy them into their configuration file or autoexec, but there are some things they have to keep in mind. Just because pro players use a certain crosshair or viewmodel doesn’t mean that it’s the best version. Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski of Team Liquid, for example, uses …
Top CSGO team says Valve reached out to pros to help with skins
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Valve is working with at least one top-tier team to address the visibility of Shattered Web models, a source revealed today. With the release of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s Shattered Web operation, the developer brought customizable player skins into the first-person shooter. It was immediately clear that some of these new Agents models blended into CSGO’s maps, making them hard to see and giving a competitive advantage to those that bought …
DickStacy leaves Renegades shortly after joining
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
After only a month on Renegades, one of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s infamous bad boys is looking for a new job. Oliver “DickStacy” Tierney has left or been released by the Renegades organization, according to a Tweet from the team’s official Twitter account and an official press post on the team’s blog. WIN.gg reported yesterday that ex-Order member Jordan “Hatz” Bajic had joined the Renegades ESEA roster and paid his league …
Breaking down the week 8 challenges for CSGO Operation Shattered Web
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Week eight of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s Operation Shattered Web Operation has begun, with a new batch of challenges now available to players. Week eight, code-named “Italian Job,” comes with a standard roundup of missions, but with each one taking place on CSGO’s Italy-themed maps. While this set of missions isn’t as compelling as previous weeks’, the good news for fans is that they don’t have to play Danger Zone for …
MICHU leaves VP, DickStacy possibly out of Renegades
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s Michał “MICHU” Müller has officially announced his free agency and there are signs that Oliver “DickStacy” Tierney’s time on Renegades might be over as well. Speaking on Twitter, MICHU publicly announced his availability after leaving Virtus.pro. The move doesn’t come as a surprise, given Virtus.pro’s acquisition of the AVANGAR squad. With a new roster to pour its efforts into, MICHU was expendable to Virtus.pro, but he stands as …
IEM Katowice 2020 invites include Astralis, Team Liquid, NiP
Steven Rondina
Counter-Strike
The direct invitations to IEM Katowice 2020 have been sent out, fleshing out much of the competitive field for the event. 10 teams have been penned into a spot at the tournament. There are few surprises to be had, as the invitees to IEM Katowice likely stand as the top-10 ranking for most Counter-Strike: Global Offensive pundits: Fnatic Astralis mousesports 100 Thieves Evil Geniuses Ninjas in Pyjamas Team Liquid Virtus.pro …
CSGO bots can now use utility for a perfect Mirage execute strat
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Valve didn’t just release Shattered Web’s challenges on December 21, they implemented the ability for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s bots to throw perfect executes. In week seven of CSGO’s Shattered Web operation, players got a bit of a surprise when playing through the Guardian mission “Coordinated Attack.” What starts off as a slaughter that favors the human CTs quickly becomes complicated as perfect jungle, CT, and stairs smokes land on the …
North socials disappear before fresh rebranding announced
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
In the early morning of January 7, all of North’s social media accounts and website went dark, but it was always a juke. As all of North’s online presence disappeared, the Counter-Strike:Gobal Offensive community bought in to the latest social media tease. Even CSGO insider Richard Lewis was sucked in. It was good a good sell, but North left several signs that something a rebrand was incoming. Twitter was where it all …
These are five of the best CSGO players from 2019
Jared Wynne
Counter-Strike
2019 was a very competitive year for the top Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players. Some of the best teams and players emerged during the course of the year, and some have become even better than they were in 2018. Here we will discuss some of the top CSGO players of the year and consider who may have been the best overall. While all of these players depend on their teammates to …
CSGO’s best practice config guide with brand new commands
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
In order to get better at Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, players need three things. The patience to identify their weaknesses, the time to invest into turning them into strengths, and a practice config file. This small list of commands, also called a .cfg file, is a basic text file that enables some pretty neat features in CSGO. When activated through the console, all of the commands activate at once to change …
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.
