CSGO community disappointed with Valve's 20th anniversary event

Olivia Richman Published 20/10/2019

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s 20th anniversary update brought a class Dust 2, an AUG nerf, and even some chickens. But that wasn’t enough for many fans of Valve’s popular game.

One Reddit user took to the platform to discuss why they didn’t like the 20th anniversary event, and a day later it has over 1.5k upvotes and 520 comments, almost all in agreement with the original poster.

“I’ve been looking forward to CS20 as an anniversary event where valve will treat us, perhaps give us some free goodies and celebrate the full event by showing the love to their playerbase. But I guess it was just dissappointment,” they started.

They explained their reasoning behind the let down, pointing out that the only free content was the reworked Cache. Everything else that came with the update, from new skins to the classic knife from 1.6, wasn’t readily available to fans.

“I won’t lie, the new skins are hella nice. But for most players who don’t have a larger budget, [they] will never see these skins in their hands,” they continued. “What grinds my gears especially is the knife, the classic knife. What was a nostalgic weapon dating to 1.6 has been brought back to GO…as a cash grab. It’s pretty upsetting that during the 20th anniversary they’ve turned this nostalgic knife to a skin that a lot of the playerbase will never get a hold of due to Case RNG or just the pricing of it.”

Other Reddit users were quick to agree with this point, stating that most of the 20th anniversary updates were “fluff” and “cosmetics.” Another Redditor said there was so little offered to fans that “any random bloke logging into the game” would have “absolutely no idea” it was even a celebration or event.

“It’s really disappointing to see such a milestone being kinda thrown away,” they noted.

Valve’s underwhelming CS20 event

But a few CSGO fans felt that this was a lot for a company like Valve, who usually doesn’t do anything like this.

“The point with the knife is kinda stupid because you’re never gonna please everybody,” they continued. “For example, if you monetize the knife, people like you are annoyed. If you replace it with default, people with already existing knives will be annoyed (because it will likely decrease the price of their existing knife), and if you make it a temporary knife until the end of November, people after that will just beg for it back.”

The original poster had touched upon this possibility in their original rant, noting that CSGO is different from other games since it has a “real world market and a trading system with real value.”

But is saying “this is Valve” making an excuse for the developers? Are fans who speak up about the event just upset over nothing?

The original poster pointed out some other games that celebrate anniversaries in a much more grandiose fashion, including League of Legends giving away an item each day for their 10th anniversary and Runescape allowing players to play small minigames for rewards.

One Reddit user felt this was a valid point, real market or not.

“You’ve listed three games, but in reality almost every online game, still actively being developed, has better celebrations than this. Even Fortnite had possibly their biggest BR update of all time, and I don’t think that was even their birthday? Just celebrating 10 seasons by making a second ‘chapter.'”

This comment pointed out that players didn’t need free items to feel appreciated. It was the fact that Valve barely changed anything in-game aside from an additional map. One player, who mentioned they had been playing CSGO for 15 years, said it was the most underwhelming event they’ve ever seen. But many users didn’t want anything too drastic to feel that Valve had put effort in.

Said one Reddit user: “I don’t want CSGO to change much. It’s a near perfect game, changing things would be more likely to ruin it… But surely they could do something. A limited time event (not necessarily an operation), bringing back some older maps (as they were, not completely different like Vertigo. Just for a while for nostalgia). I’m not sure what I expected from Valve but it was more than this. They did pretty much nothing. Ninety percent of the content in this update was made by the community.”

This was a sentiment echoed throughout the CSGO community: The 20th anniversary event felt very low effort.

Olivia Richman

About Olivia Richman

Olivia has worked in media ever since graduating from college, with her coverage ranging from traditional newspaper reporting to digital coverage of all things gaming, online betting, and nerd culture. She has traveled around the world pursuing that coverage, from the far coasts of the United States to the busy downtown core of Tokyo, Japan. Olivia’s favorite games include Overwatch and Super Smash Smash Bros, and she has been published at Esports Illustrated, Inven Global, EsportsInsider, Upcomer, and elsewhere.

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