Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike
CSGO meta shifts hard at ESL One Cologne after Anniversary Update
Steven Rondina
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive professionals are dialing back their use of the AUG. The CT-side scoped assault rifle has experienced a steep drop in usage at the ESL One Cologne tournament. This suggests that the recent nerfs to the gun have had a serious impact on its viability in pro play. The AUG has only been chosen around 20% of the time when it comes to CT assault rifle purchases, with …
Counter-Strike
Lazarus Esports beats New Identity in debut WINNERS League NA final
Jared Wynne
Lazarus Esports has been crowned the inaugural champion of WINNERS League’s debut North American invitational tournament after a thrilling grand finals victory. Lazarus defeated New Identity in the final series by a 2-1 margin. The finals included overtime, comebacks, and big individual performances from some of America’s best Counter-Strike: Global Offensive talent. New Identity got off to a promising start on Overpass. The team played Lazaraus to a standstill, trading …
Counter-Strike
s1mple knife fail allows Team Liquid to come back at ESL One Cologne
Steven Rondina
Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev is probably the single best Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player in the world, but he isn’t perfect. The Natus Vincere star wound up with some egg on his face at ESL One Cologne. During a group stage match with Team Liquid, the player botched an attempted knife kill on Nicholas “nitr0” Cannella that helped facilitate a comeback for the North American side. The moment was clipped on Twitch: …
Counter-Strike
Virtus.pro CSGO team benches OKOLICIOUZ, announce phr as stand-in
Olivia Richman
After just a few weeks, Virtus.pro is benching Michal “OKOLICIOUZ” Glowaty. The Polish team has announced that Tomasz “phr” Wojcik will be the stand-in for OKOLICIOUZ, who joined the roster in May. At the time, OKOLICIOUZ was serving as Pawel “byali” Bienlinski’s replacement. byali had left Virtus.pro after playing on the team for five years, stating he couldn’t agree with Virtus.pro’s “general principles.” The team’s fans were skeptical of OKOLICIOUZ …
Counter-Strike
CSGO VAC bans in 2019 have already surpassed 4 million
Jared Wynne
The Counter Strike: Global Offensive community has been desperate for anti-cheating improvements since the dawn of the franchise 20 years ago. Valve has now issued 500,000 account bans in May alone to help combat the prevalence of cheating in the game.The Valve Anti-Cheat system that has been present on the platform for years, and was recently made able to recognise a few popular free-to-use cheating softwares that have led to …
Counter-Strike
s1mple racks up 58 kills in FPL game against all-star opponents
Steven Rondina
Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev is pretty darn good at Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The Natus Vincere star has long been wowing fans and frustrating opponents with his huge playmaking abilities. While his baseline has always been high, sometimes he manages to outdo even his own expectations. That happened recently in a FACEIT Pro League game in which he racked up an obscene 58 kills. The full stats on the FACEIT match page …
Counter-Strike
Maikelele looks for money on social media, gets NASA and Elon Musk
Jared Wynne
Ex-Ninjas in Pyjamas star Mikail “Maikelele” Bill asked his followers on Twitter to help him find a new sponsorship in order for his team, NoChance, to afford flights and have a bootcamp. NoChance will be competing in the European Minor for qualification to the StarLadder Major 2019 on July 17. Maikelele is famed as a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive professional for his prior tenures with NiP, Kinguin, G2 Esports, and FaZe Clan, …
Counter-Strike
Pro CSGO player gets zero kills in a game as Virtus.pro flames out
Jared Wynne
A pro Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player recently played a match that couldn’t have gone much worse. On June 26, Virtus.pro played a professional match against Nemiga Gaming in the LOOT.BET Smack My Beach Cup tournament. In the match, Polish player Michał “snatchie” Rudzki managed to finish the first map with zero kills and eighteen deaths. Belarusian side Nemiga managed to take the best-of-three match by winning both Mirage and Dust2, …
LUCAS1 to MiBR, felps to Luminosity in Brazilian CSGO player swap
Jared Wynne
Counter-Strike
Brazilian rostermania is underway as MIBR has traded João “felps” Vasconcellos for Luminosity Gaming’s Lucas “LUCAS1” Teles. The star riflers will be swapped with immediate effect and on a temporary basis. Rifler felps will be joining Luminosity Gaming after his brief return to the MIBR organization in January. Since then, MIBR has failed to rekindle the flame the team once had when it played under the Luminosity and SK Gaming …
Copenhagen Flames victorious as WINNERS League Season 2 concludes
Jared Wynne
Counter-Strike
Copenhagen Flames has won WINNERS League Season 2’s European league, besting Nemiga Gaming in the grand final. The theme of the finals series was Nemiga’s inability to carry forward its momentum after getting off to hot starts. The first map of Inferno saw Nemiga Gaming open up an early 6-1 lead on the map’s T side. Copenhagen Flames’ defense snapped back to attention in the eighth round and remained resilient …
Golden joins Ninjas in Pyjamas on loan from Cloud9 for Berlin Major
Steven Rondina
Counter-Strike
Roster rules for the StarLadder Berlin Major are putting Ninjas in Pyjamas into an awkward spot. The organization announced on Twitter that it is receiving Cloud9 in-game leader Maikil “Golden” Selim on loan. The player joins to replace the newly acquired Nicolas “Plopski” Gonzalez Zamora. “As Plopski is unable to attend the upcoming Berlin Major with us due to Valve rules, Cloud9 has agreed to lend us Golden as a …
Team Liquid win ESL Pro League Season 9, approach Grand Slam
Steven Rondina
Counter-Strike
It’s getting much, much harder to remember the days when Team Liquid had a reputation for flopping in tournament finals. The North American squad captured one of the top prizes in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, winning the ESL Pro League Season 9 Finals. Along the way, Liquid further solidified themselves as the greatest team in the game today by knocking off a number of established elites. They won the tournament by …
ESL Pro League grand finals set as Liquid beat Mouz, NRG fall to G2
Steven Rondina
News
The grand finals to the ESL Pro League Season 9 Finals are now set. In a surprising turn of events, Team Liquid will take on a resurgent G2 Esports. Both teams will look to cap what has been a strong run at the event. Liquid earned its spot by taking a convincing victory off of Mousesports in the semifinals. The North American squad entered the event as one of the …
Furia locks up CSGO team with long-term contract extension
Steven Rondina
Counter-Strike
Furia eSports’ Counter-Strike: Global Offensive squad seems to be headed in a good direction and the players and organization want to keep that going. The organization announced that it has agreed to terms on a five-year contract extension with its CSGO roster. The news comes alongside the revelation that another team courted two Furia players. “We are delighted to announce that we renewed the CSGO team’s contract for another 5 …
Team Liquid get revenge, eliminate Astralis from EPL Season 9 Finals
Steven Rondina
Counter-Strike
Team Liquid are finally starting to get revenge on Astralis. Recently ranked as the top squad in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Liquid found themselves in a high stakes showdown against their bitter rivals in the quarterfinals of the ESL Pro League Season 9 Finals. Though Astralis has long gotten the better of that rivalry, it was the North American squad that came out with the victory and an even more definitive …
NiP kicks Dennis for Plopski, GeT_RiGhT possibly retiring
Steven Rondina
News
Ninjas in Pyjamas have been on a skid recently and they’re looking to fix it. The organization has announced the deactivation of Dennis “dennis” Edman from its roster. The rifler is replaced by Team Ancient player Nicolas “Plopski” Gonzalez Zamora. The news was broken on the team’s website. “To maintain a position as a top tier team, changes to the roster are needed,” NiP coach Faruk “pita” Pita said. “We …
CSGO Anniversary Update nerfs AUG, adds classic version of Dust 2
Steven Rondina
Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike is now 20 years old and Valve is throwing a party for it. The 20th Anniversary update to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has dropped. The update brought a few small additions to the game which were overshadowed by a massive nerf that is likely going to delight many fans and players alike. Two new features were added to celebrate Counter-Strike’s anniversary. For a limited time, the casual Dust 2 matchmaking …
Snappi leaves OpTic Gaming after Immortals purchase team
Olivia Richman
Counter-Strike
“As of today I am officially a free agent and no longer contracted to OpTic Gaming.” Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer’s tweet this morning did not come as a shock to the majority of the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive community. No official information has been released regarding Snappi’s departure. But while the in-game leader helped the team win the last week of ECS Season 7 Europe, Snappi was no longer on the active roster …
Top teams stand tall in as Winners League Season 2 playoffs continue
Steven Rondina
Counter-Strike
Week two of the Winners League Season 2 playoffs has wrapped up. While week one was defined by upset wins, things settled down as the league’s top teams reasserted themselves in week two. Those victories didn’t necessarily come easily, as favorites like ATK, Team Singularity, and Dreameaters were pushed to the brink. But ultimately, the top contenders lived up to their billing. There were lots of impressive showcase performances in …
Does spaghetti code threaten to unravel CSGO? One redditor thinks so
William Davis
Counter-Strike
An inquisitive redditor poured over Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s item coding. The results were not positive. Reddit user -ZooL- decided to search through the files of the popular first-person shooter. There, they uncovered instances of buggy code that caused various issues with the way items are implemented in the game. They shared those findings on the community subreddit r/GlobalOffensive CSGO launched in 2012 and since then, Valve programmers have been building …
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.
