Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike
Zonic’s book discusses Astralis roster moves, feud with Fnatic
M Alzamora
Astralis head coach Danny “zonic” Sørensen has released “The Brain Behind Astralis,” a new book that gives fans an inside look into life through a coach’s perspective. The book covers both his life and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive career. According to Reddit user /u/Temporal_Bellusaurus, the book contains some interesting tidbits about CSGO’s best team. While the book is currently only available in Danish, /u/Temporal_Bellusaurus gave the Global Offensive subreddit a summary …
Counter-Strike
Deathrunners brings CSGO obstacle courses to a deadly new level
Steven Rondina
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is a tactical shooter, but there have always been fun options out there for players looking to mix things up. From deathmatches to surfing, there have been both official and unofficial ways to change up one’s CSGO experience. A map designer is looking to add an interesting new style of game to the match with “Deathrunners.” Deathrunners “is a movement-based game mode which sees competing players race …
Counter-Strike
GODSENT returns to CSGO by signing NoChance roster
Nina Forneloza
GODSENT have signed a new Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster. The Swedish organization announced that it has signed the players of NoChance, comprised of Martin “STYKO” Styk, Mikail “Maikelele” Bill, Kevin “kRYSTAL” Amend, Pavle “Maden” Bošković, Jesse “zehN” Linjala, and coach Jonatan “Devilwalk” Lundberg. This comes following NoChance’s reformation following the squad’s split from SMASH Esports after less than two months. The team was released by the SMASH organization earlier this …
Counter-Strike
BLAST Global Finals features Liquid vs Astralis in first round
M Alzamora
The BLAST Pro Series has announced the starting matches for the upcoming BLAST Global Finals. BLAST Pro Series released the starting matches for the BLAST Global Finals, setting the stage for the end of BLAST’s first circuit season. According to BLAST, team seeding for the groups was determined by the total number of points each team accrued over the seven qualifying BLAST Pro Series tournaments. At the conclusion of the …
Counter-Strike
GeT_RiGhT and SicK are among the top CSGO free agents
M Alzamora
There are always players looking for teams, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has names big and small in the scene left riding the bench today. CSGO’s lack of franchising means that the traditional free agency period found in esports like League of Legends doesn’t exist. Teams and players are free to make moves all year-round. Roster locks, the cutoff date for teams to submit their rosters to tournament organizers, are different …
Counter-Strike
The most useful console commands to customize CSGO settings
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s Source Engine is ancient by programming standards, but its console still gives users a surprising amount of control over their gaming experience. CSGO’s console allows users to enter commands that affect the way the game behaves. For example, users can adjust the volume of game sounds with the console command “volume” or clear bullet holes and blood from walls using “r_cleardecals.” Not all commands work on every …
Counter-Strike
BIG Academy, Swole Patrol impress in WINNERS League Week 3
M Alzamora
WINNERS League Season 3’s third week was a showcase for some of the stronger teams in the invite divisions. Things calmed down after last week’s upsets, with the only outlier being a Team Queso upset over Team LDLC. ESuba started strong on Mirage, building up a solid 5-1 lead before allowing BIG Academy to storm back and take the half 8-7. They carried the comeback mentality into the second half, only allowing …
Counter-Strike
The best CSGO launch commands that everyone should be using
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive gives players many ways to customize their game experience. When someone is looking for a way to increase FPS or improve the game’s textures, they’ll normally look to the game settings menu or console, but there’s actually a third “Launch Options” tool for changing CSGO settings located in the Steam client. Launch options are short commands that tell CSGO what to do when the game opens. For …
CSGO is Steam’s most-played game in October, beating Dota 2 and PUBG
gabhernandez
Counter-Strike
For the first time ever, Counter Strike:Global Offensive enjoyed the highest monthly average player count of any game on Steam, bringing in more players than PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Dota 2. Those numbers come from Steam Charts, which has CSGO and Dota 2 trading the daily lead back and forth. CSGO first started peaking above Dota 2 in September, but has started to regularly stand above its rival esports title of …
Amid rumored return, the history of CSGO map de_tuscan
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive personality “Don Haci” says that sources have revealed that the classic de_tuscan may be the next map in line for a rework. Community figure Don Haci tweeted that the classic Counter-Strike map Tuscan might soon be getting some attention from mapmakers. Tuscan is an iconic map that reaches all the way back to Counter-Strike 1.6, but Valve has declined to include the classic defusal map in any …
Chaos Esports Club returns to CSGO with Ben’s Anime Team, steel
Steven Rondina
Counter-Strike
Chaos Esports Club is back in the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive business. The organization has announced the acquisition of a new North American roster with the sponsorship of Ben’s Anime Team. The news was revealed on Twitter, with the new lineup standing as follows: Cameron “cam” Kern Gage “Infinite” Green Benjamin “ben1337” Smith Joshua “steel” Nissan Maxim “wippie” Shepelev Chaos also adds Alan “Shakezullah” Hardeman, who has been working as the …
Astralis demolish 100 Thieves, win IEM XIV Beijing
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Astralis mowed down 100 Thieves 3-0 on its way to the IEM XIV Beijing title. The win marks Astralis’ first prominent tournament victory since winning the StarLadder Berlin Major. 100 Thieves reached the Grand Final in Beijing after a surprise organization switch from Renegades, but failed to close out the tournament against Astralis. With the first-place finish in Beijing, Astralis enters the race for the Intel Grand Slam Season 3 title and …
This is how the Krieg became the best weapon in CSGO
M Alzamora
News
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive pro players are calling for the SG-553’s immediate nerf, and there’s a story behind how the controversial weapon became this strong. On October 9, 2018, Valve released a CSGO update that introduced a new economy system and price changes for several weapons. The development team reduced the price of the CT-only AUG from $3300 to $3150. The T equivalent, the SG 553, was also lowered in price …
CLG announces missharvey as new director of esports outreach
Olivia Richman
Counter-Strike
Counter Logic Gaming has announced that retired Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player Stephanie “missharvey” Harvey will be the organization’s director of esports franchise development and outreach. According to a press release, this was a role created for missharvey, where the former CLG Red player would focus on engaging with the female esports community. The goal is to inspire “inclusivity-focused esports programming.” Dan Fleeter, CLG’s COO, called missharvey a “legend in the esports …
CLG Red, Tenerife Titans shine in WINNERS League Season 3
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Upsets and comebacks were the name of the game during week two of WINNERS League Season 3, as a few fresh faces made their debut. This week, CLG Red takes WIN.gg’s Team of the Week honors with their upset win over Whatever It Takes. Fans were also treated to a first look at the new versions of the Tenerife Titans and Team Singularity. While last week’s games largely went as …
poizon and k0nfig complete new Complexity CSGO roster
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Valentin “poizon” Vasilev and Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke will join Owen “oBo” Schlatter, William “RUSH” Wierzba and Benjamin “blameF” Bremer in Complexity’s newly revamped lineup. After weeks of rumors, Complexity announced that Valentin “poizon” Vasilev and Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke would be the final two members of its overhauled CSGO lineup. The announcement completes the roster rebuild the team began after finishing poorly at the StarLadder Berlin Major Championship in late August. …
Cloud9, TSM, FaZe Clan, NRG among most valuable esports teams
Steven Rondina
Counter-Strike
The business end of the esports world has been a hot topic of late. It always has been, given the sheer number of celebrity investors jumping into the fray including rapper Drake investing millions in 100 Thieves and NBA star Jonas Jerebko buying Renegades. An explosive piece from Kotaku about the “esports bubble” alongside some harsh statements by Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban had many wondering whether there was any …
Grand Slam continues with EG and Astralis at IEM Beijing
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive returns to China this week with the Intel Extreme Masters Beijing, and another tournament means another chance for CSGO’s top teams to continue to dominate the competition. IEM Beijing has an interesting assortment of teams in attendance. There are the four European teams in Astralis, ENCE, FaZe Clan, and Team Vitality. Rounding out the list is the new North American 100 Thieves squad signed away from Renegades …
shroud says more streamers to leave Twitch as streaming changes
Olivia Richman
Counter-Strike
When Tyler “Ninja” Blevins made the move to Mixer in August of 2019, fellow streamer Michael “shroud” Grzesiek had described the transition as “the best move he ever made.” And it appears that shroud meant it, because the former Counter-Strike: Global Offensive pro decided to leave Twitch himself at the end of October. On November 4, Jack “CouRage” Dunlop announced that he would be streaming on YouTube instead of Twitch, and shroud …
Gen.G reportedly targeting Autimatic, daps for new CSGO team
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Reports are swirling that Gen.G is looking to enter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive esports and that the organization wants to make that a reality by signing players from CR4ZY and Cloud9. According to dbltap.com, Gen.G is actively pursuing Cloud9’s Timothy “autimatic” Ta and Damian “daps” Steele. The report also mentions that Gen.G has been in talks with Georgi “SHiPZ” Grigorov of CR4ZY. For Cloud9, the moves make little sense from the …
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.
