Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike
GIRLGAMER Sydney announces Benefit Cosmetics as new sponsor
Olivia Richman
GIRLGAMER Esports Festival’s Sydney event has just announced a new non-endemic sponsor, Benefit Cosmetics. Other brand partners sponsoring the event include EB Games, Logitech, and ASTRO Gaming. While this is Benefit Cosmetics’ first venture into esports, fellow LVMH brand Sephora sponsored the GIRLGAMER Esports Festival last year, located in Portugal. According to The Esports Observer, specific brand activations are not yet finalized but they will include Benefit Cosmteics signage and …
Counter-Strike
UPS lost the DreamHack Masters Dallas trophy won by Team Liquid
Nina Forneloza
DreamHack Masters Dallas awarded Team Liquid a strange prize for winning the tournament. After defeating ENCE Esports, the North American squad hoisted small table plaques and were given a set of oversized rings to celebrate their victory. According to a tweet by DreamHack, that’s because the actual trophy for the tournament was lost by delivery company United Parcel Service. “As you may have noticed, the DreamHack Masters Dallas trophy has …
Counter-Strike
CS:GO fan recreates Dust2 in the Unreal engine with great results
Steven Rondina
What would Counter-Strike: Global Offensive look like with better graphics? YouTuber Quixel answered that question with a tutorial on how to recreate iconic CS:GO map Dust 2 in Unreal Engine 4. Though Global Offensive is graphically solid, the UE4 remake is absolutely stunning. Check out the full video here: The tutorial focuses in on the area surrounding the A bombsite, including a portion of long, catwalk, and the CT spawn. …
Counter-Strike
FaZe Clan dealing with second lawsuit as Tfue, H1ghsky1 drama unfolds
Steven Rondina
When it rains for FaZe Clan, it pours. According to a report by The Blast, the esports organization has been quietly dealing with a lawsuit from defunct social media platform Hubrick. The two sides have been locked in a legal battle since 2018 for “intentional interference with prospective economic advantage and misappropriation of trade secrets,” with Hubrick seeking over $1 million in damages. Per the report, Hubrick helped build FaZe …
Counter-Strike
Famous CS:GO YouTuber Zuhn gets permanent ban, denies all wrongdoing
Steven Rondina
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has a big problem with players cheating, but at least one infamous alleged hacker might just have gotten his comeuppance. YouTuber Zuhn has received a permanent ban from CS:GO. The bans are visible on two of Zuhn’s Steam accounts and were delivered simultaneously. The player has built a sizable social media following, including over 300,000 subscribers and tens of millions of views on YouTube with his highlight …
Counter-Strike
Legendary Fnatic player Pronax announces his retirement from CS:GO
Steven Rondina
A Counter-Strike legend is hanging up his proverbial gloves. Swedish star Markus “pronax” Wallsten has announced his retirement from Counter-Strike: Global Offensive competition, effective immediately. He announced the news on his Twitter account. “As of today I am officially retired from competitive CS:GO and I would like to sincerely thank everyone that have supported me through my career as a player,” Pronax said. “I am moving on to something bigger …
Counter-Strike
New map Ruby joins CS:GO competitive map pool, Zoo sent to casual
Steven Rondina
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s competitive map pool has received another big shakeup. After spending a month in Defusal Group Sigma in the casual matchmaking rotation, Ruby has officially been added to the competitive map pool. Losing its spot as a result is Zoo. Ruby was added on the April 25 update alongside hostage map Workout. The level based on historic Portugal stands apart from most other defusal maps, with a labyrinthian …
Counter-Strike
Denial Esports gets blasted by CS:GO pro after latest scandals
Steven Rondina
Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski has some important advice for young esports talents. The Counter-Strike: Global Offensive star has been keeping a close eye on esports news of late and one of the biggest topics of discussion is the downward spiral of Denial Esports. The organization which fields teams in multiple esports titles, including CS:GO, has been mired in controversy surrounding its inability, or perhaps its unwillingness, to pay its talent. His …
Winners League Season 2 playoff brackets are now revealed
Steven Rondina
Counter-Strike
The Winners League Season 2 playoffs are officially upon us. The group stage has wrapped up and with that, the list of teams advancing to the playoffs has been set. The top four teams from each group have qualified for the playoffs, lining up 16 squads to compete in both the North American and European regions. The playoffs bracket for North America is as follows: The North American region will …
Na`Vi reportedly set to bring in Boombl4 to replace veteran Edward
Fariha Bhatti
Counter-Strike
The Natus Vincere CS:GO team looks set to make a roster change as HLTV reports that Kirill “Boombl4” Mikhailov will join the team, replacing Ioann “Edward” Sukhariev. Talks between Na`Vi and Winstrike Team are reportedly at an advanced stage, with a deal expected to be confirmed in the coming days. Boombl4 is best known as the star player and in-game leader of Winstrike Team, formerly known as Quantum Bellator Fire. …
Racist incident sees CS:GO pro Sindi given ban from FACEIT
Steven Rondina
Counter-Strike
An ugly incident involving racism and slut-shaming has hit the pro Counter-Strike: Global Offensive community. During a game on FACEIT involving several pro players, ACES Esports player Tatyana “Sindi” Gracheva unloaded a number of racial epithets at Noel “melonhead” Raki. The language came during an ugly argument involving multiple players in the game. An exchange between Monolith Gaming’s Artem “malik” Arkhipov, Winstrike Team’s David “n0rb3r7” Danielyan, and former Epsilon Esports …
Team Vitality cruise through CS_Summit 4, take the chicken trophy
Steven Rondina
Counter-Strike
Team Vitality are the champions of CS_Summit 4. The French squad looked excellent throughout the house party-style tournament, crushing the group stage and making a strong run through the playoffs to hoist the trophy. The final victory for Vitality came at the expense of the favorites to win the tournament, Team Liquid. Vitality entered the grand finals coming off a dramatic win over ENCE Esports, and the team seemed to …
NRG Esports players fly in a wild play during game at CS Summit 4
Steven Rondina
Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive pros have made it pretty clear that they hate Vertigo, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t come up with some cool new tricks for it. During CS_Summit 4, NRG Esports showed that off in brilliant fashion by essentially demonstrating how to fly on the map. Check out the clip here, from the team’s group stage match against Team Liquid: Starting off in the area above the T-side …
StarLadder CS:GO Major dates in August and September are changed
Fariha Bhatti
Counter-Strike
StarLadder has announced a slight change to the dates of the Challengers and Legends stages of the upcoming Counter-Strike: Global Offensive major. The Challengers Stage has been reduced to just four days, now running between August 23 and 26. The original schedule for the event had this stage listed as a six-day tournament. Meanwhile the Legends Stage of the competition will now be held between August 28 and September 1, …
Winners League Season 2 playoffs schedule and format announced
Steven Rondina
Counter-Strike
The Winners League Season 2 playoffs are just around the corner. Starting in June, teams from the five Winners League Season 2 divisions will begin competing in best-of-three series play in single elimination tournaments for their share of over $46,000 in prize money. The tournaments will run side-by-side and end June 23. Teams are afforded the same scheduling tools during the group stages, but must complete their games within allotted …
Cache map update nearing completion according to creator FMPONE
Steven Rondina
Counter-Strike
The reboot of popular Counter-Strike: Global Offensive map Cache is nearing completion. Map designer FMPONE released an update on his progress in redesigning the stage. Judging from his post, there are just a few areas left that need to be overhauled before it can be rolled out in full. According to FMPONE’s post, the only areas left to tweak are the T-side pathways towards the bombsites including A main, squeaky …
Gambit Esports dissolving CS:GO team, puts players up for trade
Steven Rondina
Counter-Strike
Gambit Esports is performing a hard reboot on its Counter-Strike: Global Offensive division. The former major winning organization has outlined its plans to withdraw from CS:GO for the immediate future. Gambit is planning to transfer its remaining players and put together a new team at some point later in 2019. “Over the past two months we’ve been conducting a series of negotiations, however, a suitable combination of players hasn’t formed …
Valve bows to CS:GO pros and tweaks Vertigo, changes Danger Zone
Steven Rondina
Counter-Strike
Valve has heard the complaints of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s pro players and has changed things accordingly. Following resoundingly negative reactions to the latest iteration of Vertigo, the CS:GO development team has rolled out a patch that provides some major changes to the new map. The tweaks are entirely made around the A bombsite, which has become a source of frustration among the pro community. The overhaul introduces a number of …
Spanish organization cuts CS:GO team after match fixing scandal
Steven Rondina
Counter-Strike
One of Spain’s top Counter-Strike: Global Offensive teams is no more. According to a statement on the organization’s website, Team Queso has officially dropped its CS:GO roster. The cause of the move is alleged intentional match throwing by the squad at the Liga de Videojuegos Profesional Superliga 2019 in a game opposite Tenerife Titans. “After analysing the evidence and concluding the investigation into the Superliga Orange CS:GO match that pitted …
Complexity Gaming reveals new high tech headquarters in Texas
Olivia Richman
Counter-Strike
Complexity Gaming’s vision for the “esports 3.0” era has manifested in the opening of its new headquarters right next to the Dallas Cowboys World Headquarters. The GameStop Performance Center is an 11,000-square-foot building constructed on 90 acres of land, where the organization’s various esports teams will practice similarly to their football counterparts, all owned by the same man: president Jerry Jones. “We see the opening of our new headquarters as …
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.
