Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike
FaZe Clan win BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen thanks to NiP throws
M Alzamora
FaZe Clan defeated Ninjas in Pyjamas at BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen 2-0 to take first place at the event. Few thought that the BLAST Copenhagen finals would include either the Ninjas in Pyjamas or FaZe Clan given their rocky runs of late, often looking decent but not up to scratch with their competitive prime. Copenhagen proved to be a different story for both rosters. NiP and FaZe booked their tickets to …
Counter-Strike
s1mple reportedly signs new deal, staying with Na’Vi through 2020
M Alzamora
Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev has reportedly renewed his contract with Natus Vincere’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team. According to dbltap.com, Na`Vi’s star CSGO player has reportedly signed a new deal that will keep him with the Ukrainian esports organization through December 2020. s1mple originally signed with the organization in August 2016 after a stint with Team Liquid. The reported signing keeps one of CSGO’s best players with Na`Vi for at least another …
Counter-Strike
EG, Astralis, Liquid, Fnatic all set for ECS Season 8 Finals
M Alzamora
Evil Geniuses and Astralis are two of the eight elite teams set to face off against each other at the FACEIT ECS Season 8 Finals in Arlington, Texas. AVANAGAR, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Astralis, Fnatic, Sharks Esports, Evil Geniuses, Team Liquid, and MIBR are all locked in for the finals after ECS’ five-week circuit. The series started in September with each region slowly locking in teams for the live finals in …
Counter-Strike
Astralis and Team Liquid headline ESL Pro League final teams
M Alzamora
ESL has announced the second round of groups across all four Pro League regions. Round two will will determine the final eight spots at the ESL Pro League Finals in Odense for the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Oceana Four teams from both Europe and the Americas already have their slots secured for the finals. The second set of eight teams will include four more teams from Europe, along with two …
Counter-Strike
These are the next big League, CSGO, Dota 2 esports tournaments
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
With the League of Legends 2019 World Championship coming to a close, Dota 2’s The International 2019 having been played in August, and both Counter-Strike: Global Offensive majors for 2019 finished, this year has seen its esports tournaments peak. But new seasons are on the horizon, with many upcoming top-tier tournaments still lying ahead. After Worlds 2019 wraps up on November 10, professional League of Legends players will rest until 2020. …
Counter-Strike
The EG roster’s run from NRG to the number one rank in CSGO
M Alzamora
Evil Geniuses is now ranked world number one in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive after three solid months of performances. They leapfrogged both Team Liquid and Astralis to take the top spot after their wins at ESL One New York and StarSeries & i-League Season 8. Starting with the StarLadder Berlin Major, EG has improved exponentially in each tournament. The need for comebacks has dwindled while close wins have become blowouts. The …
Counter-Strike
Everything to know about BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen
M Alzamora
RFRSH Entertainment has revealed the scheduled matchups for this weekend’s BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen tournament. Six of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s most recognizable teams will be in attendance, and the final regular season BLAST event should shed some light on how these teams will perform in the upcoming gamut of tournaments in the winter season. BLAST’s unique format is not changing for the showdown in Copenhagen. Teams will all play in …
Counter-Strike
Swole Patrol, Nemiga Gaming start WINNERS League Season 3 strong
M Alzamora
WINNERS League Season 3 has finally arrived. With that, fans can watch some of the hottest up-and-coming teams in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive face off. Some of them, like the New England Whalers, are looking to prove themselves in the NA division as they enter the next tier of CSGO competition. Others, like returning champions Swole Patrol, are looking to reestablish themselves as serious threats with a new roster. The situation …
Twitch shares tribute to shroud as streamer heads to Mixer
Olivia Richman
Counter-Strike
Many were shocked when popular streamer Michael “shroud” Grzesiek announced he was switching to Mixer last week. So far, the move has been a positive one for the former Counter-Strike: Global Offensive pro. His first new streams saw big numbers, and he received a lot of support from fellow Mixer star Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, who made the move himself in August. Twitch continued spreading the good vibes by releasing a …
Breaking down the breakdown between TenZ and Cloud9
William Davis
Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is meant to be a fun game, even at its highest levels of play. But some recent drama at Cloud9 has made clear that no matter how fun CS:GO may be, the high stakes can make it difficult for top players to get along. For fans, it’s a little easier. Playing casual games can be relaxing, there are opportuntiies for opening cases on platforms like this one …
GeT_RiGhT joins mousesports as sub, plays first post-NiP match
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Ex-Ninjas in Pyjamas star Christopher “GeT_RiGhT” Alesund stepped in to help out fellow Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team Mousesports’ today when Robin “ropz” Kool was unable to play in the team’s scheduled ECS match against Virtus.pro. According to a tweet from ropz, he was forced out of the game due to “travel complications,” necessitating a stand-in for today’s match against VP. This came alongside a photo finish for in-game leader Finn …
CSGO keys no longer tradable, sellable after latest update
Steven Rondina
Counter-Strike
The latest Counter-Strike: Global Offensive update is going to shake up the game’s economy in a big way. The latest patch is restricting players’ ability to trade and resell keys. Crate keys have functionally worked as a form of currency across the entire Steam marketplace, serving as the most liquid asset available on the platform. According to Valve, this fact hasn’t been lost on scammers and other ne’er do wells …
Fnatic set to join EG, Vitality, and more at EPICENTER Moscow
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
EPICENTER has unveiled another team directly invited to the upcoming EPICENTER Moscow event, naming Fnatic as the fifth team to receive a direct invite to the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament taking place in December. Fnatic joins Natus Vincere, AVANGAR, Evil Geniuses, and Team Vitality as squads that will skip the open qualifiers and instead be seeded directly into the $500K tournament. The European Open qualifiers for EPICENTER Moscow will get …
Report indicates Complexity to replace dephh with k0nfig
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
According to a report from French esports news site 1pv.fr, Complexity Gaming is in the early stages of replacing longtime player Rory “dephh” Jackson with Denmark’s Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke. Dephh is currently the longest-tenured player on the Complexity roster, having joined in 2016 and captained several iterations of the organization’s CSGO squads. k0nfig has spent time with several teams since his split with North in February 2018. The unconfirmed rumor …
Evil Geniuses sweep Fnatic, win StarSeries Season 8
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
Evil Geniuses solidified their top-five ranking this weekend by winning StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 8, defeating Fnatic in the grand finals in just two maps. EG’s firepower was simply too much for Fnatic to handle, even as the Swedish team was coming off a statement win at DreamHack Masters Malmӧ earlier this month. The victory restores some faith in the North American organization, especially after their own rough performance …
BLAST Global Final’s last team to be determined in Copenhagen
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
When the BLAST Pro Series Global Final kicks off on December 12, fans will be able to see the circuit’s top four teams duke it out in Bahrain for the top prize of $350,000. RFRSH Entertainment’s BLAST Pro Series originally started in 2017 as a series of low-pressure tournaments with an emphasis on the fan experience. That changed when organizer RFRSH Entertainment reworked the standalone events into a rebranded tournament …
Astralis’ dev1ce is latest pro to speak out against Krieg
Nina Forneloza
Counter-Strike
Astralis star Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz is among the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive pros who are frustrated with the SG553, also known as the Krieg. In a story posted to Instagram, dev1ce voiced his displeasure with the current power of the rifle, questioning whether it’s even worth buying the AWP with its pervasiveness in the current meta. “Tough night for me personally, struggling to awp against the kriegs. Not quite sure if …
shroud hits big numbers in his first Mixer live stream
Olivia Richman
Counter-Strike
Fans were shocked over Michael “shroud” Grzesiek’s move to Mixer, but it seems they’ve quickly adapted and followed him to a new streaming platform. According to Lightstream, shroud had 240,000 followers on Mixer on day one, before he even started to stream. Once he finally went online playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, shroud’s first Mixer broadcast saw him peak at 78,000 viewers with an average of 67,000 viewers throughout the …
Anti-toxicity AI Minerva fights bad behavior on FaceIT
M Alzamora
Counter-Strike
FACEIT, a third-party server provider for several popular multiplayer games, is no stranger to toxicity. Online gamers are notorious for their poor behavior, and third-party clients aren’t exempt from the toxicity, either. Companies have spent years attempting to fix this very issue, with solutions ranging from in-game reporting to requiring players to verify a phone number in order to play. While these stopgaps often slow toxic behavior, they always fail …
shroud reveals reason behind his jumping from Twitch to Mixer
Nina Forneloza
Counter-Strike
Michael “shroud” Grzesiek has revealed the real reason that he made the move from Twitch to Microsoft’s streaming platform Mixer. Shroud was one of the most popular streamers on Twitch with over 7 million followers on the platform. Earlier this week he made the shocking announcement that he was going to join Mixer. During his first Mixer stream he was asked the question of why he left Twitch in 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.
