Counter-Strike
News
Chaos releases Swedish CSGO roster, reportedly adds Rush, Steel
Steven Rondina
Chaos Esports Club is looking for a fresh start in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The organization has announced the release of its Swedish roster and indicated it is planning to start over in North America. “Starting today we will be parting ways with the current Chaos Counter-Strike roster. The teams contracts have expired and we’re opting not to renew as we look to reposition within the scene,” the organization said in …
Counter-Strike
denis rejoins Sprout, replaces mirbit for ECS Pinnacle Clup
Olivia Richman
Denis “denis” Howell’s return to Sprout has completed the organization’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster. denis left for BIG just under four months ago, replacing Johannes “nex” Maget while he took time off due to wrist issues. The 25-year-old CSGO pro attended four LAN events as BIG’s AWPer, despite previously playing primarily as a rifler. While the team actually did well at these events, denis didn’t seem too upset about leaving …
Counter-Strike
Conquer Gaming seeks to raise the bar for new esports organizations
Jared Wynne
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive continues to dominate the first-person shooter marketplace, as it is constantly bolstered by fresh faces, supportive brands, and of course Valve’s own devotion to continuously updating the experience for both players and viewers. The competition is far from easy, but new teams emerge each year to demonstrate their considerable skills. While they savor each minute of esports stardom, their audiences also sitting back and watching the action …
Counter-Strike
Report indicates Zeus to be replaced at Na’Vi after September
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
Natus Vincere is allegedly looking for a replacement for their Counter-Strike: Global Offensive captain, veteran player Danylo “Zeus” Teslenko. According to an article published by Dexerto and multiple sources that are known to reporter Jarek “DeKay” Lewis, Na’Vi is scouting for a player that will replace Zeus after the conclusion of the StarLadder Berlin Major and BLAST Pro Series: Moscow 2019 later this month. Although there is no official confirmation …
Counter-Strike
100 Thieves headed to Berlin Major to start building new CSGO team
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
American esports organization 100 Thieves will be returning to the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive scene. After teasing a return to the game in July, 100 Thieves founder Matthew “Nadeshot” Haag is looking to make those plans to reality. The former Call of Duty pro tweeted that he will be in attendance for the final days of the StarLadder Berlin Major to meet and scout CSGO talent. “I am so damn excited …
Counter-Strike
Astralis loses longest CSGO major game, beats CR4ZY anyway
Steven Rondina
Astralis are heading to the StarLadder Berlin Major playoffs, but they had to take an incredibly long road to get there. Though the team advances out of the Legends Stage with a 3-1 record, they will likely end up having played more rounds of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive than any of the teams that head to round five. That’s because Astralis competed in its second quintuple overtime game of the event, …
Counter-Strike
Pizza Hut may or may not be looking to hire a Call of Duty pro
Olivia Richman
In one of the strangest signs of how far competitive gaming has come over the years, Pizza Hut is looking to hire a professional Call of Duty player. The restaurant chain posted a job listing on LinkedIn, putting out a casting call for a legitimate esports talent. Why? Nobody seems to know. “We’re looking for brilliant Call of Duty Pro Players to take on clients locally. Are you knowledgeable, friendly and …
News
NRG Esports headed to Berlin Major playoffs over Astralis
Steven Rondina
Big things could be just around the corner for NRG Esports. The North American squad scored an impressive win over Astralis in round three of the StarLadder Berlin Major Legends Stage. That advances their record to 3-0, giving them a spot in the Champions Stage playoffs and a guaranteed spot in the next Counter-Strike: Global Offensive major. Game one initially looked like it would be a quick one. NRG Esports …
ENCE beats Team Vitality, advances to Berlin Major playoffs
Steven Rondina
Counter-Strike
Making it to the StarLadder Berlin Major playoffs was easy for ENCE. The Finnish squad became the first team at the event to hit 3-0 in the Legends Stage, handily defeating Avangar, MiBR, and Team Vitality. That sets them up with a spot in the Champions Stage and a guaranteed Legends Stage spot in the next Counter-Strike: Global Offensive major. ENCE skated through the best-of-ones in the first two days …
Team Liquid, Natus Vincere face elimination from Berlin Major
Steven Rondina
Counter-Strike
Two of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s top teams are teetering on the brink of an early exit from the StarLadder Berlin Major. During round three of the Legends Stage, Natus Vincere and Team Liquid both dropped best-of-one games. This puts their records at 1-2 and leaves them one series away from elimination. Natus Vincere got off to a decent start in its game on Nuke against Mousesports. Though Mouz kicked things …
Heroic sign Snappi to roster once again, replacing blameF
Olivia Richman
Counter-Strike
Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer is returning to Heroic. The Danish organization announced the addition of Snappi soon after Adam “Friberg” Friberg left Heroic to pursue other career opportunities. The rifler stated that he’s now a free agent looking for a new challenge. Heroic called Friberg “one of the greatest” on Twitter. But the team is beyond excited to have Snappi fill in for him. CSGO coach Frederik “Lomme” Nielsen called Snappi …
shroud happy to stream WoW Classic even if viewers are turned off
Nina Forneloza
Counter-Strike
Twitch streamer Michael “shroud” Grzesiek is best known for his entertaining streams of popular FPS games, but even the former Counter-Strike: Global Offensive legend has been lured in by the release of World of Warcraft Classic. shroud is the second most popular streamer on the platform with over 6.8 million followers, and he regularly attracts over 20,000 concurrent viewers. He is second on Twitch only to competitive Fortnite player Turner …
Berlin Major tackles observer problems by bringing in Sliggy
Steven Rondina
Counter-Strike
StarLadder is taking some new measures to deal with lingering production issues at the Berlin Major. Seasoned Counter-Strike: Global Offensive observer Connor “Sliggy” Blomfield has announced that he is headed to Germany as a late addition to the StarLadder production team. He revealed the news on Twitter. “Happy to announce I am observing at the StarLadder CSGO Major. I will give it everything I’ve got,” Sliggy said. This is likely …
MonteCristo surprised by XFL team’s similarity to Renegades brand
gabhernandez
Counter-Strike
Christopher “MonteCristo” Mykles received a surprise on Twitter when someone notified him of a new XFL football team that debuted with a logo and name suspiciously similar to one that he created years ago. There are multiple issues at play that were brought to MonteCristo’s attention. The first is copyright law, and the standard used for determining that a defendant has infringed on a copyright is substantial similarity. Previously the …
CR4ZY defeat NiP at Berlin Major, Ninjas on brink of elimination
Nina Forneloza
Counter-Strike
Serbian Counter-Strike:Global Offensive team CR4ZY defeated Ninjas in Pyjamas during the StarLadder Berlin Major’s New Legends Stage. The first half was a back and forth affair, with NiP getting out to a 4-0 lead before the newcomers to the major won a force buy with four desert eagles and a CZ to get their first round on the board. CR4ZY would fight back to a 5-5 draw with some aggressive …
Berlin Major observers are from PUBG with little CSGO experience
Olivia Richman
Counter-Strike
StarLadder is facing fresh backlash for their handling of the Berlin Major. After the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive community started complaining about the observers switching perspectives during fights and missing key moments, a fan decided to look closer into the observers listed on StarLadder’s talent tab on Liquipedia. In a Reddit post, one user listed all of the observers’ Liquipedia pages. All of the Ukranian observers have one thing in common: …
NRG Esports shocks Team Liquid in Berlin Major with emphatic win
Steven Rondina
Counter-Strike
NRG Esports is looking very, very good at the StarLadder Berlin Major. In round two of the Legends Stage, NRG upset North American rivals Team Liquid. This advances them to 2-0 in the stage. They’re just one series away from qualifying for the Champions Stage playoffs. The showdown on Dust 2 started off in ugly fashion for Liquid. Despite winning the pistol round, NRG denied the conversion and proceeded to …
Natus Vincere start run at Berlin Major by dropping game to G2
Steven Rondina
Counter-Strike
For 15 rounds, Natus Vincere was looking like the team to beat at the StarLadder Berlin Major. Then they weren’t. The CIS squad seemed ready to cruise to a victory after racking up an early lead over G2 Esports, but wound up stumbling their way to an overtime loss. Natus Vincere was in complete control early on. Egor “flamie” Vasilev and Danylo “Zeus” Teslenko anchored the team while Oleksandr “s1mple” …
NRG edge past Renegades in Legends stage at Berlin Major
William Davis
Counter-Strike
NRG had a slow start to the Challengers stage of the 2019 StarLadder Berlin Major, and has narrowly avoided the same result in the first round of the Legends stage. The mixed squad survived a valiant effort from Renegades on Dust 2 to take a 16-14 victory in the stage’s first round of play. It took a heroic four-kill effort during a 3v5 that boiled down to a 1v1 situation from …
Team Liquid start Berlin Major strong with win over CR4ZY
Steven Rondina
Counter-Strike
Team Liquid are off to a good start at the StarLadder Berlin Major. The favorites to win the event are now 1-0 in the Legends Stage thanks to a 16-9 win over CR4ZY. While that score line might suggest the game was a rout, CR4ZY showed that it is a real threat to the top-ranked teams at the event. Liquid surprised the desk by taking the game to Mirage, historically …
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.
