Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike
Dignitas reuniting GeT_RiGhT, f0rest, and other NiP legends
M Alzamora
Patrik “f0rest” Lindberg is reportedly set to depart Ninjas in Pyjamas to rejoin three previous teammates on Dignitas. According to French news site 1pv.fr, the player’s rumored move to Dignitas has been finalized. F0rest is the final player remaining with Ninjas in Pyjamas from its legendary 2014 roster that also included Richard “Xizt” Landström, Adam “friberg” Friberg, and Christopher “GeT_RiGhT” Alesund. 1pv goes on to state that f0rest himself decided to part …
Counter-Strike
Everything you need to know about CSGO betting markets
Steven Rondina
Betting is woven into the fabric of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s fanbase. For years, the game had a massive and vibrant betting industry that revolved around in-game cosmetic items. Players could freely wager their skins through various third-party sites with few limitations. The questionable ethics and legality of the practice eventually resulted in multiple lawsuits, an FTC investigation, and a crackdown from CSGO publisher Valve that largely killed skin betting. Despite …
Counter-Strike
mOE trolls Wardell on stream with fake Vertigo run boost
M Alzamora
Vertigo has always been a controversial map, but nobody can deny that if offers some of the best run boost plays in all of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. During a pick-up game on Vertigo, Counter-Strike fixture Mohamad “m0E” Assad managed to get Matthew “Wardell” Yu to fall for the oldest trick in the book. Literally. After convincing Wardell that it was possible to runboost from B site to T spawn, Wardell took …
Counter-Strike
GG.Bet ICE Challenge sees mousesports, Na`Vi as early favorites
M Alzamora
The list of teams and tournament format for the GG.Bet Ice Challenge 2020 have been revealed. The eight competitors will travel to London in February to compete for their slice of the tournament’s $250,000 prize pool. Both Natus Vincere and mousesports are the favorites to take home the $125,000 first-place prize. While they are the strongest teams on paper, OG will attend their second tournament ever at the ICE Challenge, …
Counter-Strike
Ninjas in Pyjamas undergo big 2020 changes with new COO and HQ
Olivia Richman
Ninjas in Pyjamas is undergoing a lot of change coming into 2020. The Swedish esports organization hired a new chief operating officer, Jonas Gundersen. The former Counter-Strike 1.6 pro, who played under the name “calc,” will will be NiP’s go-to for esports operations and revenue. Before joining the popular CSGO org, Gundersen served as the chief commercial officer for North. “I think Ninjas in Pyjamas is arguably one of the most …
Counter-Strike
Streamer Summit1g wins “Worst Play of the Decade” for CSGO
M Alzamora
Jaryd “Summit 1g” Lazar now has an unfortunate award to add to his successful streaming career. A Twitter poll posted by ESL production staff member Don Constantin awarded streamer Summit 1g the top spot for CSGO’s “Worst Play of the Decade” for his infamous gaffe against CLG while playing for Splyce. At DreamHack Austin 2016, professional streamer Summit 1g was playing for Splyce against CLG on Train in an early matchup. With …
Counter-Strike
These are the most expensive skins you’ll find in all of CSGO
Steven Rondina
Skins are a part of almost every online title. Games like League of Legends, Fortnite, and Overwatch all look to retain users and incentivize them to drop a bit of extra cash using fun and interesting cosmetic items. But none of them have skins as tightly woven into the community as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. CSGO players relish the opportunity to show off their items to teammates and the enormous trading …
Counter-Strike
Shattered Web Week 7 tips to beat new Guardian AI, challenges
M Alzamora
Shattered Web’s week seven ups the difficulty from the previous weeks, focusing on two fairly tough Guardian missions and a technical headshot challenge on Dust 2. Despite how overwhelming the Dust 2 challenge seems, many players have come out the other side saying they feel like they’ve improved after completing it. Here are tips and tricks for each one of Shattered Web’s week seven challenges followed by the best strategies …
Envy bench ANDROID, leaving three active players on the roster
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Team Envy continued its Counter-Strike: Global Offensive purge today with the benching of Bradley “ANDROID” Fodor from its active roster. Formerly known as Team EnVyUs, Envy has benched Bradley “ANDROID” Fodor, according to a tweet from the organization’s official Twitter account. The team said that it will field offers for the 25-year-old rifler, but the decision leaves Team Envy with only three players on their active roster: Noah “Nifty” Francis Jacob …
WINNERS League Season 3 Playoff brackets revealed
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
After seven weeks of intense matches, WINNERS League Season 3’s playoffs are about to begin. WINNERS League Season 3 will ring in the new year with the playoffs for both the European and North American Invite Divisions. The European playoffs will begin on Sunday, January 12 while their counterparts across the Atlantic start a day prior on January 11. The WINNERS League playoff teams have faced a long road to …
Breaking down all of Shattered Web’s Week 7 Missions, Challenges
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Valve released Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s week seven “Hot Shot” missions, but no new patch was applied to the first-person shooter. Shattered Web kicks off 2020 with week seven of the Shattered Web Operation, bringing new Guardian missions and challenges to CSGO. There’s a list of them below, plus an inside look at how CSGO’s updated enemy bot AI might make Guardian missions a little harder from now on. Pace Yourself …
BIG adds k1to and syrsoN, releases smooya and LEGIJA, benches nex
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
BIG Clan announced the departures of two members of its Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster and confirmed the signing of two players from Sprout. In an official statement, the German organization announced the acquisitions of Florian “syrsoN” Rische and Nils “k1to” Gruhne. The transfer is accompanied by the releases of Owen “smooya” Butterfield and coach Nikola “LEGIJA” Ninić. Alongisde this, Johannes “nex” Maget was deactivated to make room for the two new …
The beginner’s guide to setting up autoexec files in CSGO
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is one of the most customizable titles in modern gaming, even at eight years old. At the heart of that customization is the autoexec.cfg file. An autoexec can do basic things, like making sure that all of a player’s settings are saved. Every time Counter-Strike starts, it reads a file called config.cfg. This configuration file tells the game what settings to load. If the in-game settings don’t match …
s1mple’s rating has plummeted since GuardiaN returned to Na`Vi
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Natus Vincere star Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev hasn’t been himself since the team’s wayward AWPer, Ladislav “GuardiaN” Kovács, returned to the team. Something odd is going on with Na`Vi, and its more than the usual early tournament exits and the team’s signature inability to make it to a grand final. s1mple, inarguably one of the best players in the world, has started to see a sharp drop in rating following the addition GuardiaN …
CSGO has just broken another record for highest number of players
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive broke another record this month as it logged over 450,000 average players for the month of December. Valve’s first-person shooter continued its comeback as the world’s most popular tactical shooter this month, cracking the 450,000 average player mark over the month of December. CSGO smashed its previous average player count by more than 35,000. That record was initially set in August 2019. Players have logged over 330 …
CSGO’s Operation Shattered Web Stickers are hiding new secrets
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
It turns out that Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s Operation Shattered Web stickers have some pretty cool secret artwork hidden in them. CSGO’s ninth operation added six unique stickers and three rare versions to the game’s new battle pass model. The stickers were created by community artist Daniel “Danidem” Lucano, whose work can also be seen in the Skill Group and 20th Anniversary capsules. The stickers look great in their own right, but …
Fnatic CEO and CSGO coach are not happy with BLAST Premier snub
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Fnatic CEO Sam Matters expressed disappointment and frustration that Fnatic wasn’t offered a spot in the upcoming BLAST Premier circuit today on Twitter. Fnatic’s lack of an invite is curious, considering the team is currently ranked number three in the world. When BLAST Entertainment released the list of participating teams, many wondered why new and unproven lineups were included in BLAST Premier in the place of teams like Fnatic and …
Tips and tricks for CSGO’s Week 6 Challenge, Guardian Missions
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Shattered Web’s week six is finally here, meaning that Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players are more than a third of the way through the latest operation. Valve hasn’t yet released anything else as groundbreaking as CSGO’s selectable player skins, but this week brings fans two Guardian Missions that add some heat to the fire of a bland week five. In the operation’s sixth week, players will fight through a deathmatch on …
Week 6 Shattered Web live after Valve mixes up operation cards
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Week six of Operation Shattered Web has arrived in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, but Valve made a bit of a mistake. Don’t worry, the client isn’t broken. The game’s publisher just mistakenly announced that Christmas Eve marked the start of week seven of the event, rather than six. This resulted in someone at the company posting the wrong picture and description for the CSGO operation’s sixth week. Despite the hiccup, Operation …
EG ImAPet says BnTeT’s visa issues would’ve taken “a year” to fix
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
While Gen.G has officially completed its first Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster with the addition of Hansel “BnTeT” Ferdinand, there’s one more hurdle to clear. The move confirmed a month’s worth of rumors that Gen.G was targeting Chinese CSGO organization TYLOO’s BnTeT for its fifth and final roster spot on its first CSGO roster. The organization officially announced the move on December 22 and made the announcement welcoming BnTeT in a tweet …
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.
