Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike
Evil Geniuses debut new logo as part of big esports expansion
M Alzamora
Evil Geniuses’ brand position has changed drastically in a short time, and today it has a brand new logo to go along with EG CEO Nicole Lapointe Jameson’s vision for the brand. In the past four months, the public has seen Evil Geniuses add two of the world’s largest esports games to its portfolio. Today, it made another drastic change. After 20 years, Evil Geniuses unveiled a total brand redesign …
Counter-Strike
NiP and Astralis off to quick starts at BLAST Global Finals
M Alzamora
Ninjas in Pyjamas defeated FaZe Clan 2-0 today, while Astralis easily took down Liquid. After a year’s worth of best-of-ones, fans finally saw two real series on the opening day of the BLAST Pro Series Global Finals. The tournament showcased a Ninjas in Pyjamas team that beat the odds by taking down FaZe Clan in just two maps. Astralis versus Team Liquid wasn’t as competitive as most had hoped, as …
Counter-Strike
CLG’s missharvey talks women in esports and sexism in CSGO
Olivia Richman
Professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player Stephanie “missharvey” Harvey has been part of the esports industry since 2003, “before it was even called esports,” she joked. Missharvey has won five Women’s Electronic Sports World Cup titles, two of which were with CLG Red, where she was an original member. Being around the esports industry this long, missharvey has grown to love the community while also recognizing what was missing: Women. Whether …
Counter-Strike
Quick tips and guides for Shattered Web Week 4 missions
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s week four Shattered Web missions are a sniper’s paradise, but we’ve still got some quick tips that will help the stars roll in. Shattered Web’s week four operation missions are all focused around the SSG 08 Scout and the AWP. While there’s a MAG-7 thrown in the mix for this week’s Guardian mission, snipers are king. This week will be fairly simple for players familiar with the …
Counter-Strike
Furia Esports’ HEN1 out of CS Summit 5 due to visa, guerri in
Steven Rondina
Another late roster change is shaking up CS Summit 5. Furia Esports has announced that visa issues will prevent Henrique “HEN1” Teles from competing at the event. In his stead, Furia coach Nicholas “guerri” Nogueira will come off the bench to fill in with the team. “Unfortunately, we can’t have our important player HEN1 at the CS_Summit. The athlete is in Brazil renewing his visa,” Furia stated on Twitter. “In …
Counter-Strike
summit1g apologizes to Sweet Anita for his girlfriend’s comments
Olivia Richman
Twitch personality Sweet Anita was in the spotlight earlier this week after she was called out by another streamer for yelling racial slurs and anti-semetic statements. Some agreed with the streamer, wondering why Sweet Anita was yet to be suspended from the platform for using racial epithets when other streamers saw harsh punishments for the same explitives. The difference? Sweet Anita has Tourettes syndrome, which causes her to have uncontrollable tics. …
Counter-Strike
Christmas comes early for CSGO snipers in Shattered Web week 4
Steven Rondina
Operation Shattered Web continues on with the start of week four and it’s going to delight any snipers out there. The latest roundup of missions revolves around the AWP and the SSG 08 rifles. The two weapons are used in each of the missions, which allow players to earn up to six total stars. The stars earn credit towards the higher value rewards from Shattered Web, most notably the agent …
Counter-Strike
Astralis’ Xyp9x, k0nfig talk ghosting and crowd impact on events
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike features a long history of excited fans cheering on players live. Several incidents with these excitable crowds over the years have brought one issue to the forefront of the CSGO community time and time again. The problem is that fans like to see their team win. It’s an understandable feeling, one that every sports fan can identify with. Unlike in most traditional sports, however, fan support in CSGO can …
2020 Service Medal revealed as winter patch comes to CSGO
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
When Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players are throwing snowballs more than they’re throwing smoke grenades, it’s officially December in CSGO. Valve released the annual holiday patch on December 9, and it’s filled with everything that a Counter-Strike holiday update is usually filled with a few small exceptions. The map’s chickens have their Christmas sweaters on once again, it’s snowing in the main menu, and there are piles of snowballs stacked around …
woxic out for CS Summit, NaToSaphiX to stand in for mousesports
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Mousesports revealed this morning that their star AWPer, Özgür “woxic” Eker, will not attend the upcoming CS Summit 5 tournament in Los Angeles, California due to visa issues in an official tweet. The team also revealed that Niels Christian “NaToSaphiX” Sillassen will stand in for woxic this weekend during CS Summit 5. This is an unlucky turn of events for mousesports, especially after woxic’s stellar performance during the December 8 grand final of ESL Pro League Season …
Virtus.pro to acquire AVANGAR CSGO roster, reports indicate
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Reports point towards legendary Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team Virtus.pro purchasing AVANGAR’s roster in its entirety. Virtus.pro is in the latter stages of purchasing AVANGAR’s CSGO roster wholesale, according to a report from DBLTP’s Jarek “Dekay” Lewis. The AVANGAR organization currently fields an international team of players which includes a CSGO Major winner in Dauren “AdreN” Kystaubayev and the aggressive AWPer Dzhami “Jame” Ali. AVANGAR has existed since 2017, but burst onto the international CSGO …
s0m leaves Envy for Gen.G, sicK stands in for IEM Katowice qualifiers
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Team Envy has announced the transfer of Sam “s0m” Oh to Gen.G. In an official tweet from the organization, Envy announced that s0m’s transfer to Gen.G Esports’ Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team has been finalized. The 17-year-old player joins three other players on Gen.G’s first-ever CSGO roster. Gen.G announced the signing on Twitter while also revealing that Complexity Gaming rifler Hunter “SicK” Mims would stand in for the new team at the upcoming IEM Katowice North American …
Mousesports win ESL Pro League Season 10 with sweep of Fnatic
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
The ESL Pro League Season 10 Finals wrapped up with a showdown between Fnatic and mousesports. The grand finals matchup that few were expecting took a surprising turn of its own, as mousesports scored a quick, clean, 3-0 victory to take home the top prize. The match could’ve gone either way in theory, but Fnatic started slowly and never really hit a higher gear. Mousesports was composed both emotionally and strategically, and …
shroud down to one third of his viewers since moving to Mixer
Olivia Richman
Counter-Strike
Stream Metrics has just revealed that popular streamer Michael “shroud” Grzesiek has seen a drastic decline in viewership since he moved to Mixer at the end of October. The tweet declared that their own data shows shroud’s livestream audience in November was one third the size of his Twitch reach in October when it came to US viewership. In fact, shroud’s viewership on Twitch before moving platforms was 1.62 times larger …
Fnatic, mousesports face off for ESL Pro League Season 10 championship
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
After a wild week of action, the ESL Pro League’s Season 10 grand final is less than a day away. Surprisingly, the final showdown won’t feature top teams Team Liquid or Astralis. Instead, Fnatic and mousesports will face off in a best-of-five where brains will meet brawn for the lion’s share of a $600,000 prize pool. Fnatic and mousesports had oddly similar runs in the event. In an odd coincidence, both teams struggled …
Map drawing returns to CSGO in 2019 after being gone for a year
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
After almost more than a year, Counter-Strike: Globel Offensive developers have again enabled the ability to draw on the in-game map for players. Players are understandably happy after CSGO developers reactivated a long-time feature of the game. The ability to draw on the map was removed with the introduction of the Panorama user interface update in June of 2018. While technically a beta, fans flocked to the update to check …
Autimatic, daps, koosta leave Cloud9 for new Gen.G CSGO team
Steven Rondina
News
Gen.G Esports has officially entered the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive scene. The organization confirmed the addition of former members of the Cloud9 roster in Timothy “autimatic” Ta, Damian “daps” Steele, and Kenneth “koosta” Suen. The team also added Cloud9 assistant coach Chris “Elmapuddy” Tebbit, who will seemingly take on head coaching duties. “We are honored to join the CSGO community and welcome three veteran players as the core of our CS …
StarLadder offers clarity on freelance talent payment policy
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
In 2018, members of the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive freelance talent circuit accused tournament organizers of failing to pay them for their work. Over one year later, two more esports freelancers have hit out for similar reasons. On November 25, esports host and broadcaster James Banks posted a series of raw and emotional tweets in which the esports veteran publicly worried about making ends meet and supporting his family. He wasn’t …
Report says OG CSGO will play their first games at CS Summit 5
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
A report released December 4 indicates that Counter-Strike: Global Offensive fans will get their first look at the OG CSGO roster in action very soon. A report from Finnish website yle.fi says that OG CSGO will play their first games as a squad at CS Summit 5. WIN.gg recently speculated that CS Summit 5 could be the first tournament for the new roster, especially given that many top teams are will …
KRIMZ breaks NiKo’s Dust 2 kill record with 44 kills before OT
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Freddy “KRIMZ” Johannsan broke the world record for kills on Dust 2 during regulation in Fnatic’s ESL Pro League Season 10 finals group stage match against MIBR earlier today. The 25-year-old rifler slammed MIBR on the classic map, putting up 44 kills on the Brazillian team before the map went to overtime. KRIMZ’s performance broke the previous world record of 40 kills set by Nikola “NiKo” Kovač almost two years …
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.
