Hey future GMs, here’s a bunch of handy tips to run your org out of the esport in no time! Follow these easy steps and your team will be pristine meme potential before you know it. There is no such thing as bad publicity and any buyout can be justified – as long as wins on the server are optional, you’ll be the best in the business before you know it!

Don’t clear out the deadwood

An easy way to capsize your team before even getting started is to acquiesce to the big names of the squad you were meant to rejuvenate. Veterancy and other intangible (meaning nonexistent) skills are supposedly really rather valuable, which is why the squad had to be rebuilt from the ground up in the first place, of course. Why not keep the players who were the main architects of the downfall to begin with? No doubt they will find a new lease of life under your expert guidance.

Grab a mediocre IGL

Much like how a good goalkeeper is the bedrock of a championship-winning side in football, a quality in-game leader can transform even four duds into a semi-competitive outfit. This is why you should never get one with real pedigree, focusing on fragging output instead. Who needs strats if you can shoot them in the head instead? You may think “just click on heads 4Head” is a mere Twitch meme but many top CS:GO teams reached the summit without any dedicated tactics [citation needed].

Cut a player after just a few tournaments

For some reason, your early results are below par, and the fans are getting restless on social media. Well, time to move fast and break things – if it worked for Zuckerberg, surely it’ll be just fine for you to follow the same approach. No doubt a roster change will solve all your problems. A team that hasn’t gelled in a month never will.

Make sure to focus on support players when identifying who to cut. If they were good enough to play for your tip-top squad, they’d frag out a lot more often, right? Since the problem is caused by the difference in the supply and demand of headshots, Economics 101 implies that now is the time to go all-in for a very specific kind of player.

Overpay for a washed-up former star

Though the current elite players will have no interest in your hodgepodge project, legends of the past may very well be. You can convince yourself that they will return to top form under your astute leadership while they can feel happy feelings as they cash your humongous checks. A perfect arrangement for everyone!

Scour the HLTV top 20 from 2017 or before for some promising picks for this slot: names like oskar, fer, AdreN and Snax come to mind. Make sure you listen to the input of those washed-up players you left in the squad at the beginning: they will no doubt point out the worst of the bunch, quite possibly one of their former teammates looking for a last big paycheck.

Sign him on a long contract with exorbitant wages and you’re ready to progress to the next stage!

Realize you have a coach and you might want to check how he’s doing

Oh yes, that guy left over from the previous regime wearing the team colors but not actually playing? He’s called “the coach”. You might want to check whether he offers any useful input. Most likely not, or you would have noticed his presence long ago. Good news: firing him to bring in a streamer or an analyst instead to paper over the cracks and generate another round of press coverage for your side!

Bring in a pug star with no adult skills

By the time you realize a coach could help you even if they don’t use exploits, your team finished last at three successive events in embarrassing fashion. Since the third loss came against an open qualifier team, no one would fault you for taking your frustration out on your squad. Use this moment as a flash of inspiration: maybe fresh young blood is exactly what you need.

Now’s the time for the Hail Mary play, if only because the org will no longer let you spend the same sort of lavish sums which got you into this mess in the first place. (Their loss, really: now you could really capitalize on your new-found experience!) Take a look at the FACEIT and ESEA leaderboards and find the most promising youngster you can think of. If their username has 1337 in it, you’ve got a star on your hands. The younger they are, the better for you as it makes it all the likelier that you can rinse them with a development contract (lol).

By the way, this is the time to say goodbye to one of the veteran players. Obviously, you can’t kick the recently signed washed-up former star yet, so it has to be one of those left behind from your original squad (non-)construction. Since it’s clear at this point that you have little to no expertise about the game, you need different criteria: terminate the one who farts louder and more often. This will clearly improve team morale.

Stop making roster changes until your org eventually leaves CS:GO

This is it, the end of the line. Having wasted tons of resources and exhausted all fan goodwill, there’s neither the money nor the interest left to rejuvenate the floundering lineup after another round of defeats. Good job all around! Now you can sit back and relax as the zombie squad stumbles from embarrassing defeat to embarrassing defeat until the direct invites run out, at which point you won’t even have to bother with travel expenses anymore as the team won’t make it past the online qualifiers anyway.

It’s not long left now until the whole project is chucked into the bin by your higher-ups. Of course, the ultimate measurement of your performance is whether your showing can convince the org to abandon CS altogether for VALORANT or some other greener pasture: after all, can you really call yourself a bad GM if you haven’t burned it all down on the way out?

ZywOo, s1mple, device: the HLTV top charts have all gone to wielders of the big green in recent years, with their squads dominating the competition. Turning CS into a point-and-click adventure costs you $4750 a pop, and it’s no surprise that the snipers are the lynchpins of team compositions and are often the last to get cut from an underperforming roster. So why are so many aspiring teams trying to make it work without them now, and do they stand a chance?

Modern warfare: AWPer go kill

It doesn’t take a lot of expertise to decipher why a long-range one-shot kill machine is a potent weapon to have in a 5v5 tactical shooter – and by the same token, why those who are great with it are so valuable as a player.

Notably, the higher you climb on the skill ladder – meaning Gold Nova 2 scrubs need not apply – the investment aspect of the weapon comes into play all the more: dumping almost $5000 into your primary rifle means that regular reinvestments are crippling at best and impossible at worst, which, coupled with the measly $100 kill reward, means that an AWPer has to be just as good at surviving a lost round as popping heads on the way to victory, which is a special skillset in and of itself.

Indeed, you’d be hard-pressed to name a top team without a strong dedicated sniper (with the one obvious exception we’ll come back to very soon), and a look at the HLTV rankings right now, flawed as they may be in the online era, seems to supplement this theory: the teams of s1mple, device, sh1ro, Jame and FalleN round out the top five, with degster, ZywOo and syrsoN to follow.

One could even argue that a glance at the team’s AWPing responsibilities tells you more about their prospects than their recent run of results – which makes it all the more curious how many squads are nevertheless trying to make it by just on rifling prowess alone. Then again, their approach isn’t entirely without merit: they’d just have to replicate one of the most notable rises in individual performance levels we’ve seen in the game.

Formless like water: the Liquid approach, circa Q2 2020

Remember when Team Liquid was on top of the world, speedrunning their way to Intel Grand Slam glory? It may seem like a long time ago now, and not just because of how the pandemic warped our sense of time: the spring of 2019 marked the peak of the North American squad’s powers, wiping the floor with their competition with the sort of raw firepower we’ve only seen glimpses of before when FaZe Clan’s superteam was close to the summit. Notably, they made it all work without a dedicated AWPer, which goes to show just how incredibly the whole squad has to perform to make this work at the highest level.

A team without a dedicated AWPer also sacrifices the double AWP pocket strat for most scenarios, making them a bit less versatile tactically – no wonder it took a sustained bout of monstrous individual form from everyone on Liquid to power them to greatness, and it also makes sense that they were exactly the sort of team that’d be extremely prone to cooling off during an extended break.

Of course, the only thing more questionable than playing without a full-time sniper is to push an incredible role-player into wasting their talents with the AWP instead of calling in a specialist.

NiKo on the big green: mission impossible?

This brings us nicely to G2’s latest gambit, a team that seems utterly destabilized and incoherent since the Bosnian superstar’s arrival, even once you factor in their decent showings at ESL Pro League so far. It takes little more than a cursory glance to see how kennyS’ performances weren’t up to par as of late, but the notion of taking your best rifler (indeed, arguably the greatest in the world) and shoehorn him into sniper duty seems just as asinine as s1mple playing eco while Zeus and Edward hog an AK. If the rumors are true and NiKo himself had a preference for this setup, it’s just another nail in the coffin of his image as a deep thinker of the game.

Much like his attempts at in-game leading, the ultimate issue of using the Bosnian as an AWPer is the waste of his potential as a rifler. Statistical analysis of the Group B matches suggests that his performance was the worst among the competition, meaning his “sniper kills per sniper rounds” stat was roughly in line with allu’s, outranked by nawwk, broky and acoR, not to mention the velociraptor that is ZywOo.

Sure, a good French sniper to replace kennyS may be hard to come by right now but considering how the free market is teeming with talent, it would surely make more sense to shop around and find the right fit than to go with a square peg in a round hole for the long run. After all, this G2 squad is not a plucky underdog: top 3 is the bare minimum now that NiKo is on the books, and based on what we’ve seen from the summit of CS:GO all these years, this approach guarantees wasted potential.

Photo credit: HLTV

Recently, a bug related to the display of odds for open bets was discovered. This was reported by several users and we want to provide clarity on the issue, share some insight on the betting process, how the issue occurred, and when it will be fixed.

What REALLY happened?

Open bets displayed outdated odds values in our user interface, both in the Bet Slip and Bet History page. After investigation, we determined that there was a bug related to the "Auto accept odds changes" feature. Only players who have selected this option would have experienced this display bug.

When placing bets with this feature, our system will store both the odds shown to the user (outdated) and the real time updated odds. Unfortunately, the outdated odds were shown to users for open bets. When the bet settled (using the correct odds), the outdated odds were discarded and the correct odds were shown in the settled bet history. This caused legitimate confusion for some users because it looked like the odds had changed.

What happens when I place a bet anyway?

This is a great opportunity to provide insight on what happens in our system when a bet is placed.

After a bet is added to your Bet Slip, we are constantly checking for updates to ensure we provide the most up to date information on the match. If odds change, we notify you in our bet slip user interface. If you enable Auto accept odds changes, the changes will be automatically accepted and displayed to you.

At the time the bet is placed (when you click the bet button), we perform internal checks to verify the risk of the bet is acceptable and compare it to the latest, most up to date odds. Often, and mostly for live betting, the odds for a match/market may update quite rapidly. In order to prevent the rejection and re-submitting of bets in these cases, you can choose to 'Auto accept odds changes'. This ensures the bet is placed before the opportunity is missed and the market closes.

If the bet is accepted, you're notified in the interface and the bet appears in your history as open. This is where the issue with displaying incorrect odds occurred. At the time we received the updated and correct odds when the bet was placed, we failed to update you. Your bet may have displayed incorrect odds from a time prior to the bet being placed. And we're really sorry about that.

When will this be fixed?

A fix for the issue has been released and we are no longer displaying incorrect odds for open bets. When we receive updated odd information at the time the bet is placed, it will be displayed to the player in their Bet Slip and Bet History.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this caused and appreciate your patience while we fixed the issue.

Esports feuds are like toybox trainwrecks: onlookers can’t help but look despite how pathetic they are, in part because of how seriously they take themselves. The average fan may roll their eyes at Flashpoint’s attempts to use a WWE writer to generate interest in tier 2 tussles, or how “the juggernaut” and “the colossus” ascended to memehood on Twitter, but we’re now starting to see the tangible value of these efforts. Thirty thousand eyeballs on a Finnish broadcast on a Friday afternoon can’t be wrong, after all, and it was all due to drama rather than the gameplay.

Finn and out

The final of Pelaajatcom Series Showoff 2021, essentially a qualifier of a qualifier, had over 30 000 viewers yesterday. The broadcast wasn’t even in English: a metric fuckton of fans listened to the machine gun-like bratatatat of jjyökkeles and laatalas, all for a chance to witness the reunion of xseven and Aerial on HAVU with allu, the ultimate impostor on the other side of the server with what remains of ENCE.

HAVU were coming in hot with a sixteen-match win streak behind their backs and the win offered one of the two teams a chance to fight on for a spot at BLAST’s Spring Showdown. Of course, that’s not the reason why the game garnered such an audience. When was the last time you had so many people tune in for a game between two functionally irrelevant teams, #27 and #39 in the world at the time of writing, especially for a foreign-language broadcast? Most likely never, barring some gaules-fueled MIBR craze or something in the depths of the CIS region.

No, the reason we were glued to the screen was the ongoing ENCE soap opera, the tale of how one of the most beloved underdog teams disintegrated after controversially removing their big brain IGL, poisoning the atmosphere so much that their young talent opted for a stint in the army rather than to keep playing with them, falling apart so much that they had to shed their Finnish identity for a Scandinavian one, the only constant being allu and his apparent iron grip on the side.

So why the growing interest in HAVU? Well, it’s the two ENCE outcasts, xseven and Aerial, fans hoping for a sort of cosmic justice that catapults their new team above the one they’ve left. This was their first reunion with allu, with some tangible stakes to boot – and people flocked to it despite being far from tier 1 Counter-Strike.

This is the power of hype and narratives, and it highlights why we should all cut some slack to those who peddle in selling them to us, even when they’re clearly peddling bullshit on Twitter and beyond.

Attention, shoppers

The idea of “attention economy” is that our eyeballs are the scarce community to compete for nowadays, which is an assumption that makes a ton of sense in the entertainment industry. We can only watch one (okay, three) streams at the same time and only pay attention to a limited number of storylines in esports at once.

Of all the teams languishing in the purgatory of 20-50 in the HLTV rankings, only one or two will gather some sort of attention from the viewer base. Let’s not even get started on whether their exploits are compelling enough to stop you from booting up Fortnite or checking out the latest top show on Netflix because that’s a whole different can of worms – but it’s nevertheless worth mentioning that these media entities see each other as direct competitors.

This is why Jason Lake, a savvy businessman who survived in a space that chewed up so many like him, took to Twitter to savage his existing squad while promising a new one. It got people’s attention. This is also why HenryG opted to make Cloud9 the Pepsi to Cokelexity by playing into the whole juggernaut angle. And if you think these are cringe-worthy endeavors, you haven’t seen anything of what’s going on in the Call of Duty space or on Twitch in general.

Stories are powerful, especially when the storylines are legit. Most of the shit-flinging in the esports scene comes across as forced and pathetic because the people in question have the charisma of a cardboard cutout and the select few who do never really figured out how to set boundaries as they were too busy practicing the whole shooty-shooty bang-bang shebang.

If you find this tiring and dumb, I’m right there with you. However, I think we’d all be better off by learning how to stop worrying and love the bullshit, if only because we don’t have a lot to lose by accepting its presence in the scene.

Embracing the bullshit

Flashpoint’s organizers were widely mocked for hiring a WWE writer to create storylines about their crappy teams. The criticism doesn’t survive scrutiny though: after all, what else are you going to do to make their subpar gameplay interesting? For someone focused on top-tier Counter-Strike and little else, no broadcasting magic will make Flashpoint’s partner teams appealing in their current state. That is fine – but why not embrace other opportunities in the meantime?

Thankfully, the presence of such endeavors in the scene doesn’t magically take away from elite competition elsewhere. Similarly, even if it’s the tabloid streamer bullshit that gets the clicks, it’s fine as long there’s high-quality analysis content to be found elsewhere. Seeing the Flashpoint format embraced at a Major or a global final would be pretty sad for me, but we’re nowhere near that dystopian timeline just yet. Better still, it’s not like these toybox trainwrecks take away from more in-depth content elsewhere, precisely because the audience overlap is so limited at the end of the day.

For every highly upvoted Twitlonger confession, there’s a tactics breakdown video to be found. Taking away the former wouldn’t increase the latter, much like how turning the New York Post into an academic paper wouldn’t turn their readers into aspiring doctoral students. They’d just go elsewhere for what they’re looking for.

This is why it would be foolish to deny the value of such endeavors, even if we’re not part of the target audience. In effect, we’re already converts, willing to consume the hardcore content without any tabloid incentives: this stuff isn’t for us but for those who are legitimately deciding whether to focus their attention on TMZ, CoD drama, or the happenings of CS:GO esports. It’s a numbers game and it’s good to have those folks around as well for the health and growth of the scene. At the end of it all, if it’s stupid CoD-esque crap that makes CS esports more appealing to the masses, let’s have some of it! Preferably far away from me, but that’s beside the point.

If this gets 30 000 people to watch ENCE versus HAVU on a Finnish broadcast, why shouldn’t we pursue this angle? Eat shit, a billion flies can’t be wrong, goes the quote – perhaps we shouldn’t go this far, but if a five-star restaurant has to offer up a buckle of feces two floors below to keep the lights on, who are we to complain? We’ve still got our gourmet meals to eat if we want to.

Photo credit: HLTV

Identifying the best team is for pussies. Wouldn’t it be so much more fun to guess who’s going to be heartbroken at the end of it all, barely missing out on the playoffs and the glory? Right. The top three advances from each six-team group – so let’s look at who’s going to come fourth!

Group A: The Onliners

Five of the six teams in this group have done very well in the online era, with radically different trajectories coming into 2021. Four of them ended up making roster changes with varying success, leaving us with a lot of unknowns to consider for the group.

• BIG, the first big (tee hee) winners of the online era;
• Heroic, who did so well when HUNDEN was around and fell so far since that they made a double roster change;
• Complexity, who perhaps finally filled the oBo-shaped hole in their soul;
• OG, the heart attack-inducing team with the latest top ten anime betrayal;
• FPX, who actually got away with kicking their in-game leader;

oh, and there’s also

• Renegades, recently decapitated by mousesports, they themselves decapitated by FaZe Clan.

None of the teams here had a particularly good time in Katowice (hell, two of them didn’t even make it there), which means we have to go a bit further back for meaningful signs of life. Now BIG and Complexity are the clear standouts here due to impressive recent showings at BLAST Premier, winning their respective groups. On the other end of the spectrum, it’s tough to imagine a Renegades side with its -100 dexterity penalty making waves, which leaves us with just three contenders to consider for fourth place.

Each of them have a recent roster move to chew through: FPX brought in suNny for chrisJ who they couldn’t come to an agreement despite a string of strong performances, OG pulled a Vitality and benched NBK-, while Heroic went for double trouble by bringing in refresh and sjuush for niko and b0RUP. In this case, perhaps it’s a good rule of thumb to consider how tactical each team is – the more they rely on brains rather than brawn, it’s likely the longer it takes to integrate new talent. With this, OG in fourth place seems like a decent shot, especially considering they still haven’t confirmed their fifth player a few days out: just the usual sort of what-could-have-been result for the squad.

Group B: The Monster Players

This bunch features some of the nuttiest individuals ever to wield a virtual rifle, promising explosive matches throughout the group. Just consider the talents of

• Vitality’s ZywOo, the most insane rookie we’ve seen to date in CS:GO;
• G2’s NiKo who may suck as an IGL but is probably the best not-AWPer in the game;
• ropz on mousesports who is surely destined for greater things than to pull a budget NiKo on a budget mouz squad;
• coldzera on FaZe, who was monstrously good back when he had a top tier IGL to guide him so there’s every chance he’ll go nuclear again;
• ztr on NiP, who may not be the same caliber as the folks listed above but was nevertheless one of the brightest spots at Katowice;

and let’s not forget

• allu on ENCE who is unparalleled at permanent TKs in the professional Counter-Strike scene

So many of these squads are a work in progress that it’s tough to establish a hierarchy going into the event. Working from the bottom up, ENCE and mouz clearly seem a class below the rest, and though my head says NiP lack the firepower to compete with the top three even though ztr was revelation at his debut event, I’ll choose my heart and say G2 will come fourth just because it would be absolutely hilarious.

Group C: The Suddenly Interesting Group

This is exactly the sort of group which would have elicited little more than a yawn a year ago, but now it’s a lot more exciting to drink the mixture of

• Na’Vi, who are always fun to watch because of s1mple;
• FURIA, who are always fun to watch because of arT;
• Gambit, who just won one of the biggest tournaments on the calendar;
• Cloud9, whose clown-car-slash-colossus project guarantees a fun time regardless of the result;
• MIBR, who finally moved on from the desiccated husk of the old Luminosity core;

and the other team emerging from the catacombs of ESEA S35,

• Team One, who could at least make the Brazilian infighting a bit more interesting.

So who’s coming fourth here? Na’Vi, Gambit and FURIA are clearly a cut above the rest, and with two of the remaining three a completely unproven roster at this stage, Cloud9 seem like the perfect fit for another entertaining elimination.

Group D: The Group of Death

If you’re going to consider the groups based on team prestige, this is the one to watch. It features five teams you could reasonably expect to be a playoff contender at a different event, which makes it a nasty bracket to play in. You’ve got

• Astralis, you know, the guys who won almost everything for three years running;
• Virtus.pro, you know, the guys who had that 20-match streak last year;
• Team Liquid, you know, the guys who hold the any% world record for an Intel Grand Slam speedrun;
• EG, you know, the guys who won those two events in 2019 and looked good for a while;
• Fnatic, you know, the guys who had the first era in CS:GO and are still good for a blowout sometimes;

…and... hang on… *checks notes*

• right, Endpoint. You know, those guys.

Funnily enough, the fact that two out of the three CIS squads are stuck over in Group C may actually make it easier for some of these sides to make it to the playoffs on their current form. It’s tough to envision Astralis and VP missing out on the top spots and Endpoint are the obvious candidates for the bottom, so what about the other three? Again, they’re all nursing recent wounds from roster changes that clearly haven’t healed yet, but if you squint hard enough, Fnatic seem like the ones who could almost make it off the back of a nutty win which they ultimately waste away by failing to convert gimmies elsewhere. Beat Astralis, lose to Endpoint? Sounds about right to me.

The way the Pro League schedule works means we’ll have to wait three weeks to see whether these incredibly precise and scientific forecasts will work out, but even if I go 0/6 on this one, I’m much more confident in predicting this: based on the group compositions, there are going to be tons of interesting storylines coming out of this stage.

Photo credit: HLTV

We expected the international side to set the world alight with big brain tactics and shutdowns but it was the string of non-stop squeakers left in their wake that fueled the memes so far. With yet another one coming our way at IEM Katowice against Vitality straight after their play-in match against Liquid, it’s high time to look at the shockingly long list of heartbreakers and heart attacks they piled up since their debut at cs_summit 5 in December 2019.

Sweet sixteen

No team in professional CS made such close results part of their identity, at least where fans are concerned, and OG’s streak of heartbreaking losses – often off the back of big leads thrown away – left a permanent burn mark on fans around the world. Indeed, it also seemed like the phenomenon affected their performances, and that they may never make it past the hurdle of close games. As it turns out, that wasn’t quite the case, even if they still display a tendency to wait until squeaky-bum time.

Of the 266 maps played to date by Aleksib’s merry men, 60 finished either by the closest possible margin in regulation or overtime, making it approximately 22.5% of soiled pants per fan each broadcast. In fact, all but two of their tournament appearances (IEM New York 2020 Europe and the BLAST Premier Spring 2020 Europe Finals) featured at least one of these schedule-stretching games. They racked up five of them at their debut, cs_summit 5, so you can’t say you haven’t been warned about what they are like.

Qualifiers, big events, group stage affairs or playoff series, you name it: chances are, there’s a 30-rounder in there. Even the maps are all over the place: Nuke, Dust2, Mirage and Inferno lead the way, but it’s not like they didn’t have four such games on Train and Overpass alike as well. They’ve even got one on Cache of all maps, courtesy of the SteelSeries Invitational. Unsurprisingly, their permaban is the only map not to appear on this list – in fact, they have zero competitive matches played on Vertigo to date. To be fair, I wouldn’t be surprised if they still managed a 16-14 result on it somehow.

Fine margins and false narratives

For a team considered to be chokers of the highest degree by some, they are split exactly down the middle in the 16-14 games, winning 19 and losing 17 of them so far. They also have a slightly positive margin when it comes to closing out overtime affairs with a 13-11 win-loss stat.

Even the notion that they had some sort of a massive mental block early on in such scenarios falls apart under closer scrutiny: they won three out of five such close maps at their debut event, cs_summit 5, followed by that incredibly narrow series win over EG at BLAST Premier Spring Series 2020. In fact, they kept up a positive overall record in such games until the end of cs_summit 6 Europe where their shock losses to HAVU evened out their win-loss record.

The only time they suffered a huge string of such defeats came between August and October 2020, starting at ESL One Cologne 2020 Europe with an infamous 17-19 loss to G2 on Dust2 on map 3 followed by four 14-16 losses at Pro League Season 12’s continental bracket and a defeat to Fnatic on Overpass at DreamHack Open Fall. However, this doesn’t seem to be reflective of anything other than a temporary general downturn of form, especially because it was followed up by a streak of ten wins in close scenarios, five of which came during their deep run at Flashpoint 2.  Since then, their record in 30+ round maps reads four wins and five losses.

There also aren’t that many anomalies to be found once you dig into the map stats. Their winrates in close series hover around the 50% mark on each of them. Nuke is the only map where they dip into the negatives, a somewhat subpar record of 7 wins out of 17 if the game reaches 30 or more rounds – which could be a bit of a concern considering it’s the one that comes up most often for them in these games, making up almost a third of the sample. On the other side of the equation, they have a 100% record at closing out Train, which is impressive even if it only came up four times so far (against the post-FalleN MIBR which is currently without an org, Sprout, ENCE and VP).

It goes to show that the international squad’s issues can’t be fixed “just” by getting steelier balls for when the going gets tough, as they already do alright in those scenarios, regardless of whether the competition in on LAN or played online. Whether they really do need a firepower upgrade in the AWP department or should shop around for a more robust support player is a valid discussion – but so is whether it’s worth making such moves in this anomalous era. Perhaps the most important takeaway is just how many games OG have, as it suggests we really are talking about fine margins here, and it gives more credence to the notion that small benefits from internal adjustments could make a meaningful difference even after over a year of trying.

Whether they are bad at closing out games or good at pulling off comebacks in the grand scale of things is beyond the scope of this article – but it’s definitely worth keeping in mind that a close match doesn’t at all guarantee a defeat for Aleksib’s squad, and that you are indeed pretty damn likely to get one of these squeakers if you tune in to an event featuring the international side. Even if this iteration of the roster won’t challenge for the highest honors, they are a sure-fire bet for a good time from the viewer’s perspective – which is a good way to convert neutrals to fans, if nothing else.

A loud minority of G2 fans seem to have grown sour on Kenny ‘kennyS’ Schrub’s performances with the big green, and a glancing look at the numbers seems to justify their criticism, especially after his howler on Nuke against Evil Geniuses. Would it be right for G2 to do the unthinkable and bring in someone else to AWP?

Je suis hard carry

Before we begin, let’s look at kennyS’s finest hour:

This was back in 2015, the year of the fateful AWP nerf, with the young Frenchman still close to the height of his powers in the GO era, en route to winning his only Major title to date, surrounded by a functional unit for once and no longer having to pull off the sort of futile heroics he regularly managed on Titan. (For those who weren’t around at time, think s1mple on the later-day Edward-burdened Na’Vi levels of solo carry performances and multiply it by ten. That should get you there, just about.)

The Frenchman’s career stretches back to the Source days, starting out at the age of sixteen on a team as notable as VeryGames. His eventual replacement as part of an ur-French shuffle in May 2013? A guy called shox. He returned in May in his place into the project that would become Titan, and it was a fateful decision on his part to stick with them instead of the LDLC squad. Once KQLY got his VAC ban, the project’s prospects quickly faded away, prompting the period of insane carry attempts with the occasional top tier trophy to show for it.

It’s a testament to his skills that he remained there or thereabouts in the top tier of CS as esports for so many years, and his team is clearly still working on integrating a mercurial high-maintenance rifler talent in the form of NiKo. However, that doesn’t excuse progressively degrading performances, and there’s a good argument to be made about how Kenny’s flicky, risk-taking style is the same sort of hopeless retro holdout as GeT_RiGhT’s maniacal spray attempts were past 2015.

Indeed, the underlying numbers don’t suggest an HLTV #1 challenge for G2 (or the player himself), nor any sort of progressive improvement. Even with the myriad caveats of today, there are concerns which much be acknowledged about his play.

Can the “modern” kennyS cut it at the top?

First things first, just to take care of recency bias and all, let’s look at that stinker against EG at BLAST. It was the Frenchman’s career-worst performance on a map, going 3-20 as they failed to put up a meaningful defense on the CT side of Nuke in the decider.

It came at the same event as ZywOo’s shocking performance against Complexity on Overpass, and it’s worth noting that each of the teams playing from home failed to qualify at the expense of those who were playing together from a facility.

There’s also the obvious caveat about online play: many have said that kennyS is exactly the sort of player who gets a big boost on LAN when the stakes and pressures are at their highest, and it would be shocking if G2 were to cut him before a return to offline competitions. Put all this together, plus the fact that we’re still in the early days of the new season, and you can explain away a lot about the Frenchman’s current performances.

However, the long-term trends (or indeed, the numbers from the end of the pre-COVID days) are worrying if you’re a kennyS fan. He had as many events with negative or 0 total K/D in the past two years as the previous five, with his HLTV rating dipping below one for the latter part of 2020 – a drop even more precipitous than the one in the autumn of 2018. This might be more acceptable for a support rifler or a lesser veteran, but it is an unacceptable return for the constant investments in the big green.

A quick look at the other elite contenders (and surely no other designation is acceptable for a team with NiKo on the roster) shows that they all can count on their AWPer as the main threat. You know the list: s1mple, ZywOo, device – or FalleN, JW and kennyS himself from top teams long gone. No team made it to the summit off the back of a godlike rifler like NiKo – indeed, even FaZe Clan at its best had an imperious GuardiaN to rely on. There’s no such thing as a support AWP when you’re going for the number one spot, and unless he can’t reinvent himself once LAN events return to the fore, it might be time for Cartman to scream his usual line once this episode of CS concludes in earnest.

Photo credit: HLTV

Na’Vi, Virtus.pro and Team Spirit won the first three big tournaments of the year, with scintillating performances across the bracket for the former two against the biggest names in the scene. Is this a sign of things to come, or just a mirage before everyone else clicks into high gear? Whatever the case may be, there are definitely lessons to be learned from these sides for the rest of the field if they’re looking to replicate these results.

Three for three

The CIS trifecta in January should serve as a warning sign to competitors that teams in the region should definitely be taken seriously. To recap, Na’Vi won the BLAST Premier Global Final off the back of a massive lower bracket run, dispatching each of their realistic title contenders along the way: G2, Team Liquid, Vitality, and finally, Astralis. (Incidentally, any and all complaints about the Danes’ poor showing in the Fall Finals and how it may have related to playing two best-of-threes in quick succession should be shelved after seeing this spectacular iteration of the s1mple show.)

Next, Virtus.pro dominated the competition at cs_summit 7, not dropping a single map along the way to the trophy in a run including well-established teams like FURIA and NiP. Meanwhile, amid much less fanfare, Team Spirit clinched the DreamHack Open 2021 EU title with wins over BIG and FunPlus Phoenix (the ex-GODSENT lineup) in the playoffs, including a 3-0 sweep in the grand final, after coming second in their group behind Gambit. Overall, the three CIS sides went 30-9 in maps across the tournaments, with 14 series won out of sixteen played, a positively monstrous record.

It has to be said that most of their opposition is in one form of transition or another. Many of the middleweight European teams had a decidedly poor start to the new season, prompting roster changes which will take time to have an effect – if they work out at all, that is. NiP already decided to move on twist in favor of an academy talent in the form of ztr, Fnatic still need to fully integrate Jackinho for flusha, even if early signs are positive, mousesports and FaZe Clan are tightly locked in a deadly embrace waiting until March when karrigan’s contract expires, Complexity are struggling with a stand-in: that’s a lot of free real estate on the rankings, waiting to be taken by enterprising upstarts.

Likewise, Liquid’s FalleN pickup or the ex-GODSENT squad’s integration of chrisJ highlights similar considerations. Having a well-established roster is extra beneficial in these times, as transfer deals are just as challenging to pull off in the COVID climate as they are in traditional sports.

Rugrats and roleplayers

As such, a big part of what makes these teams tick is that they finally cleared out the deadwood. No doubt the economic havoc wreaked by the pandemic forced this on every org in the scene, but these teams in particular seem to have done an excellent job in finally getting rid of the players who got their paychecks due to past exploits rather than ones in the present.

In that sense, Na’Vi and VP were quite similar, with clearly underperforming players like AdreN or GuardiaN (and Zeus plus Edward going back further in the case of Na’Vi) actively hindering the potential of otherwise already quite exciting squads. Similarly, pulling the trigger on iDISBALANCE after what was over a year and a half of poor performances seemed to have an instant impact on Team Spirit.

Figuring out the right roles also helps a lot, and the fact that Na’Vi seems to have finally found the right approach to integrate B1T on Inferno, shoring up a big weakness of their map pool in the process. (Though the youngster has an overall negative K/D for the BLAST Global Finals due to an extremely poor showing against Liquid the first time around, he posted +4 in the lower bracket rematch and +5 in the grand final against Astralis, certainly making a larger impact than Bubzkji or Nivera did at the event. Over on VP, it seems Jame’s will-he-or-won’t-he-captain soap opera has reached a satisfying conclusion, making them one of the quietly impressive squads from 2020.

The biggest tests on LAN still await these teams and no doubt the top tier competition will improve as the season progresses – however, what we’ve seen so far suggests both tangible improvement and showings borne out of more than just strong individual performances. Having a strong AWPer is a key part of any top team nowadays (just look at the perennial HLTV top three), which is another aspect of squad-building these teams have nailed down.

With North American CS still bleeding from the stomach thanks to VALORANT’s shot across the bow, and no remedy in sight, it’s nice to see another region rising to the challenge, hopefully ensuring we’ll get more than just a collection of Europe-only finals once the pandemic eases off. As nice as it is to savor a vintage Astralis or a top-shelf Vitality performance, I, for one, welcome our new CIS overlords.

Photo credit: HLTV

Like a neglectful dad returning from a multi-day session in the pub, Valve took off their well-worn belt to spank the coaches who just couldn’t keep their act straight in their absence. It’s not like they ever wanted to be a parent anyway, and the sad thing is that with no child support services in sight. ESIC, the malnourished watchdog kicked out to the curb just couldn’t do enough to make people play nice.

Cheating was always worth it in CS

There’s always the iBUYPOWER-shaped elephant in the room when it comes to competitive transgressions in CS, but there are so many more small stories in the grey zone which we could talk about over the years – starting, of course, with the whole conceit of skins betting, the grand bargain which fueled CS:GO’s growth as a competitive esport alongside the number of problematic and unregulated actors. Valve looked the other way for a few years and tournament organizers couldn’t exactly get picky about the sponsors they chose: it’s the eternal blot in the copybook for those early years.

In many ways, esports are easier to officiate than most other competitions: the software itself takes care of a large chunk of potential controversies. If the shot didn’t kill, it didn’t kill – nuff said. You can’t leave spawn a fraction of a second before you are meant to because the game stops you from doing so. And yet, we’ve also had our fair share of controversial conceits on the server too, though they were more about bending the rules rather than outright cheating. Stories of Señor VAC, the olofboost, FalleN and co. with their hats, baiting the crowd into giving away information, jury-rigging a round reset for one reason or another and much more – these issues have been surprisingly tough to police over the years.

Then online CS became the forefront in 2020, and the beast with the seedy underbelly decided to sleep on its side for once, prompting Valve to act.

Oops I did it again

I had more faith in online CS than many but progressively worse revelations significantly eroded them over time. Biggest of all was the coaching bug controversy, made even worse by the fact of how far back it went, coupled with the myriad stream-sniping issues, with the cherry on top being ESIC’s admission that the issues were so widespread they had to draw the line and only issue punishments going forwards lest they take down the whole elite scene in the process.

This was late in 2020 and it didn’t take long for the dam to break: Vitality were the first to find themselves in hot water for what seems a lot like stream-sniping, the BLAST broadcast showing up in the background of the webcams in their all-glass Renault-infused office. Valve’s reaction to all this is both typically slow and characteristically overbroad, but can you blame them at this point? The parties themselves have shown no willingness to change their behavior and the third-party watchdogs are busy fighting along one another for a multitude of reasons. It’s well-known that the developers of CS are not particularly keen on having coaches involved at the top tier of the game, and this served as the perfect opportunity for a crisp headshot from their metaphorical AK-47.

That red smudge on the wall is the brain matter of people like Twista, Rejin, zoneR and the rest, banned for life from Majors.

Coaching crackdown

This isn’t the first time coaches were marginalized in CS esports: it was back in August 2016 when Valve suddenly deprived them of the ability to communicate with the squad throughout the match, sinking teams like Na’Vi and Cloud9 who sought to offload the in-game leading duties to the sixth man. The devs have always insisted that they want the competitive gameplay to mirror the regular Joes’ experience as closely as possible, though one has to wonder where are the ragequitting players and the spinbotting squadmates at the LAN events.

It’s not a controversial statement that this approach severely lowers the ceiling of strategic complexity in the game, as DeKay persuasively argued in a column last September, going as far as to say that the removal of coaches would “permanently damage” pro CS. Whether that’d be the case or not is tough to tell, but we’re better off not knowing. However, it’s tough to argue that repeatedly drawing the games’ competitive integrity into question is the lesser of two evils.

No doubt the next period of competitive CS, still stuck in the online realm, will be diminished by this change, and we can only hope it won’t be made permanent by the time LAN events roll around again. As for the damage done to teams and individuals – see also the quite frankly bullshit conclusion of the 2020 RMR “season”, with Astralis in The lack of meaningful input from other interested parties is nothing new – just ask the investors of the Overwatch League, the TOs whose work was co-opted by Riot, or people like Jamppi or the aforementioned iBUYPOWER crowd who tried to go up against the steamy juggernaut for a shot and redemption and were enveloped in silence.

One day, we’ll have that prophesized great confrontation between game developers and those who hold up the esports ecosystem – but until that titanic struggle, perhaps we could stop giving Valve such perfect excuses to neuter the competitive scene? We’re stuck under their roof and they’ll make full use of them once they stumble back from the pub.

Photo credit: HLTV

On Monday, the preliminary findings of ESIC’s landmark spectator bug investigation were made public, implicating 37 coaches for a slate of offenses across the last five years. With more to come (supposedly about issues involving stream-sniping, not to mention the match-fixing investigation), it feels like a purge is overdue. The real question is whether Valve will step in, and if so, will they keep with the brutal precedents they set almost half a decade ago.

And then there were thirty-seven

The slow-motion fallout of the spectator bug controversy continued on Monday with ESIC’s preliminary report on the matter, leading to the ban of 37 different coaches based on 20% of the available 99 650 demos examined. Notably, they have indicated that they expect this to cover a substantial majority of the total cases (hence the release of this report) and that “only 0.1% of the total demos […] returned a positive indication” of the abuse.

https://twitter.com/ESIC_Official/status/1310489037149405185

It’s not the only iron ESIC have in the fire, as commissioner Ian Smith has confirmed on HLTV’s podcast that they’re also looking into stream-sniping matters. It’s quite a lot to have on their plate: the commission is also knee deep in the murky waters of MDL, with fifteen different ongoing investigations(!) which they “consider to be of significant concern to the industry”. If we do get some sort of purge in the CS:GO scene, their work will be on the forefront of it all, and the goodwill they’ve generated is quite notable compared with actors like the CSPPA. It goes to show that the developers will only go so far in policing matters like these in esports, and independent watchdogs are invaluable for the health of the competition. As Ian Smith pointed out, Valve are a business first and foremost, meaning they understandably have very different incentives than everyone else in the scene – and it’s worth pointing out how ESIC members have indeed lifted the ban on the players involved in the iBUYPOWER scandal, allowing them to compete in the third-party circuit even as the devs maintained their indefinite sanction (and could never be bothered to confirm whether it’s indeed a lifetime ban or not).

Coaches REACT to INSANE accusations (like, comment and subscribe!)

Predictably, many of the coaches implicated in the matter opted to respond on that famous blue-and-white platform well known for its focus on eloquence, depth and context in discussions: Twitter. (For what it’s worth, some of them did choose its more flowery cousin, Twitlonger). Their reactions range from contrite to completely stupid. While people like FURIA’s guerri, OG’s ruggah and Heroic’s HUNDEN (perhaps the most tragic story out of the three) have rightfully earned a reduction on their ban, not to mention the support of their respective organizations, for both the limited nature of their infractions and their willingness to confess, starix decided to play dumb to spectacularly good effect with the equivalent of a shrug in the form of a tweet.

https://twitter.com/guerri/status/1310574447854866432

https://twitter.com/OGesportsCSGO/status/1310497549661417472

https://twitter.com/starixCS/status/1310502664548102146

It’s the petty nature of the crimes contrasted with the long conspiracy of silence that is the saddest about this affair. Individual rounds at the beginning of matches which were of mixed importance at most, a pocket strat for pointless occasions in online cups that apparently everyone involved decided to sit on for years. As nasty as Reijin’s antics were (and may have caused the disbandment of pro100), at least he was remorseless and short-termist, just as you’d expect from a cheater. Good riddance. (Incidentally, Hard Legion seems to have a thing for a certain type of coach, don’t they?)

The problem is, it’s likely that the ESIC decisions were just the beginning, with the hammer blow to come later. You see, the developers of this game are not the kind to offer percentage-based ban reductions.

Enter Valve, stage left?

There have been quite a few people who erroneously conflated the coaching bans by ESIC with Valve’s own decision to ban members of the old iBUYPOWER squad for life after they threw an irrelevant online match for a bunch of skins. Not only are these two completely different organizations (even if ESIC’s bans are upheld by most TOs), there were extenuating circumstances in the latter case as the players essentially tried to lie their way out of the investigation.

Still, the question of Valve’s own precedents remain, and they are draconian to say the least. Jamppi may or may not have got a VAC ban at an age where you can’t even buy an ice cream without some pocket money from your parents? Guess you can never play at a Major, sorry. Got caught up in the iBUYPOWER thing? Guess you can never play at a Major, sorry. You cheated at a Regional Major Ranking event as a coach? It would only make sense to fill the blank the same way. Valve have already indicated they may act further after the ESIC report’s publication, and if they will, it likely won’t be pretty and many may be caught in the crossfire. If they choose to highlight the fact that many more coaches seem to have encountered the bug, and even though they didn’t abuse it, they also haven’t publicized the matter, it seems like they have a pretty good argument at this time.

Though in an ideal world many of us would prefer to see an expansion on the coaching role and the deeper strategies it enables (as DeKay passionately argued in a recent column, matching the perspective of many a fan) and less draconian rulings on player bans, that simply isn’t who Valve are. I’d also like a fluffy unicorn and a revamped matchmaking experience alongside the previous two points, but none of them are likely to come to fruition. Developers will always have different incentives and esports will ultimately remain nothing more than a marketing arm for them, and this perspective explains the sort of decisions Valve likes to take with matters like these. Anything problematic has to go and it has to go for good. Small issues simply don’t register on their radar, which at least partly explains their brutal punishments. As ESIC’s commissioner rightfully said, .

Coaches and their trickeries are unfortunately no longer a small issue – and if the careers of people like zonic are going to be interfered with because some people couldn’t help but go for a marginal advantage during a pistol round of Noname Cup Played From Home 4, that would be an incalculable loss for everyone involved with CS. Then again, we’ve now got hard evidence that the people involved with the controversy didn’t do a good job with their calculations of expected value.

Photo credit: HLTV

There’s never been a CS:GO event preview in verse before. This should make clear why that is the case.

Curtain-raiser, excitement, time the new season
An event called 2020 (for whatever reason)
Featuring the top three plus a bunch of riff-raff,
Two teams with their stand-ins, the four stooges and NAF.

Double elim format: there’s a lower bracket
Meaning if you lose, you shouldn’t just say “fuck it”:
Six hundred thousand reasons to keep fighting
Even if you fall the first time of asking.

Astralis and EG: used to be quite fun
Back when stan’s motley crew sometimes even won
If tarik can’t change his bottom-fragging ways
They will fall victim to 300IQ plays?

G2 and FURIA: we’ve seen this one before
NiKo’s boys have racked up a map edge of plus four
Across three fun series – now’s time to make it six
As Brazil’s finests deal with roster gymnastics.

It seems ZywOo plus four equals a huge match win
The math seems right to us, and since JUGi’s the stand-in
For Complexity here, it seems their only hope
Is a heavenly DDoS called on by the Pope.

FalleN makes his return: exciting times as we
Watch with bated breath his debut versus Na’Vi
Just imagine: sick frags, drawing s1mple’s ire?
Oh, that would be quite the baptism of fire.

Astralis, of course, the best of the whole lot
Their rivals tried and failed to take over their spot
Kept missing their chance as they came at the king:
gla1ve’s men might just sweep this entire damn thing.

There’s no shortage of rumors about karrigan’s return to FaZe Clan after a topsy-turvy stint on mousesports, with the player himself apparently still undecided about what are no doubt just two of many offers for someone of his caliber. Now on the wrong side of thirty from a CS perspective, the Dane who was the first to get a girlfriend in high school may be looking at his last chance of securing a Major title and to bolster an already impressive legacy with it – so one has to wonder, if this is the end of the show with this mouz side, how should one rate their results and his contributions?

The mouz and the motorcycle

It’s safe to say that both parties were in need of a new beginning around the time when karrigan was picked up by mousesports. The in-game leader’s tenure on FaZe Clan disintegrated around him in spectacular fashion just as mouz were still reeling from the failure of the Snax pickup and their shock elimination from in the European Minor.

Couple this with their shared history – the Dane has already worn the mouse-adorned jersey during the early years of the previous decade, though still before the CS:GO era kicked off in earnest with the Majors – and the pairing made a lot of sense. There was quite a lot to be excited about here: though the team fell on hard times, they still possessed same core that briefly topped the world rankings off the back of two big event wins just a year ago in the early part of 2018. There was also the memorable comeback they pulled off against Team Liquid in the grand final of ESL One: New York 2018 with the Snax-burdened iteration of the lineup.

Still, that tournament victory came off the back of an early elimination at the FACEIT Major, and mousesports were merely treading water for the rest of the year, with Snax leaving for Virtus.pro shortly thereafter and prompting the return of STYKO to the active roster. They couldn’t recapture the magic though, and a set of failures culminating in a shock elimination to VALIANCE (the future CR4ZY squad) led to a compete revamp of the lineup as karrigan joined the picture.

The changes were swift, with both STYKO and sunNy getting the axe and woxic and frozen coming in to replace them. A team comprised of young and therefore quite moldable talent, an explosive AWPer plus long-term veteran chrisJ to augment karrigan’s calling? It was a promising mix, but no guarantees of success.

A different kind of honeymoon

It’s been often said that karrigan’s rosters are the best early on during his tenure, with a well-established honeymoon period slowly but surely turning sour in the case of TSM/Astralis and FaZe Clan alike. Here, perhaps due to the inexperience of a few players on the squad, it took longer to get the machine going. A straightforward win in their ESL Pro League group was a good start, the lackluster loss to MIBR in the playoffs of IEM Sydney less so.

Like many other promising teams, their detour to a DreamHack Open event meant to kickstart their winning ways, and though their 6-16 loss to Valiance in the group stage winners’ match at Tours was a major concern to fans, they did end up getting revenge over their nemesis from the Minor with a 2-0 win in the grand final.

The team then comfortably navigated the next European Minor and made it to the semis of the ESL Pro League Season 9 finals, losing to a red-hot Team Liquid. Though an early exit at ESL One Cologne followed, they did rally in time for the Major, barely missing out on a playoff spot due to a punishingly tough slate of opponents (a loss to FaZe Clan followed by wins against North and Na’Vi, with defeats to Vitality and, again, Team Liquid scuttling their run). It was deemed a creditable performance by the side.

A string of poor results followed in the autumn, making it all the more surprising to see how strongly karrigan’s men closed out 2019. A win at the CS:GO Asia Championships over the Aleksib-free ENCE was followed by an incredibly impressive run at the ESL Pro League Season 10 Finals, beating EG, Astralis and Fnatic in the playoffs to cap a marathon lower bracket run. A win at cs_summit 5 (with karrigan infamously skipping out on the end of the grand final to sort out some visa issues) and a runner-up finish at EPICENTER 2019 suggested there’s more to come from the team.

Instead, the eventual drop-off arrived, and it was much more pronounced than usual, even if you take into account the many additional trials and tribulations brought along by the hellscape that was 2020. Their win over Na’Vi at ICE Challenge 2020 back in February was their only trophy in the cabinet last year, with a silver medal in ESL Pro League Season 11’s European bracket soon thereafter serving as an early highlight of the year. Sandwiched between these two was a poor performance at IEM Katowice, losing to 100Thieves in the lower bracket decider.

From then on, it all fell apart rather quickly, starting with the first RMR event: multiple joint-bottom eliminations and hardly any playoff showings eventually triggered woxic’s slow-motion departure. Though there was an uptick in results at the end of the year with the victory at the BLAST Premier: Fall 2020 Showdown and a second-place finish at DreamHack Masters Winter 2020’s European bracket, a joint-last finish at the BLAST event they barely qualified to (courtesy of back-to-back 2-0 losses to Vitality and Astralis, so admittedly a tough draw) showed that they are nowhere near back to being consistent contenders.

As for karrigan’s individual performances, the numbers are not good, but they never really have been in the first place. Apart from a big spike in 2014, his ratings on HLTV have always stayed below the iron barrier of 1.0, which makes his teams’ performances all the more incredible. Indeed, there is a good argument to be made that whatever the limitations of this mouz squad may be, it could be due to the doubled veterancy aspect and the massive loss of total firepower that comes with it considering what chrisJ’s been bringing to the table recently – it takes a legendary talent like s1mple or ZywOo to keep a squad competitive under these circumstances.

Still, the fact that his summer 2020 ratings equaled the career lows of late 2018 (the tail end of his FaZe tenure) also seem to suggest that this lineup has ran its course, at least as far as he is concerned. He has left an enduring legacy when it comes to the youngsters, most notably revitalizing ropz’s flagging displays, vindicating the org’s Moneyball-esque approach to recruiting fresh and unproven talent over the last few years. As for the issues with woxic, no matter how unclear they remain, his troubles in Cloud9 suggest there’s no reason not blame karrigan for that one in the grand scheme of things.

Counting the score

So all in all, should one consider the Dane’s tenure on mouz a success or not, were it to end once his contract is up? It’s true that the team did return to winning ways at some of the most high-profile events at the tail end of 2019, and the top-level competition is arguably tougher than ever with Astralis’ well-known strengths coupled with the ever-present threats of Na’Vi and Vitality, plus the emergence of tactical sides like Heroic and BIG in the online era, making those achievements all the more notable. However, the team never really found consistency and even though it’s a credit to karrigan that the team is already looking like less than the sum of its parts just by virtue of these rumors, it also makes one question the prospects of legacy.

A high ceiling with frustrating inconsistencies featuring a squad of youngsters: it’s tough to imagine anyone else doing a significantly better job with this side. It’s tough to envision a straight swap for another IGL making mouz any better than they are right now, and at the end of the day, it’s no surprise that karrigan holds all the cards when it comes to this particular negotiation – but by the same token, with what’s likely his last big contract in CS:GO, no doubt most neutral fans would like to see what he could do with another superteam.

Photo credit: HLTV

For the public, it all began with a seemingly innocuous delay to a match between mousesports and Vitality, but the disagreements quickly spiraled out of control and into the public eye, turning in to a multifaceted civil war between supporters of the CSPPA, ESIC, the various TOs and the different teams. Nobody knows what’s next, except that things can’t continue the way they’ve been so far.

Delaying an explosion

What a mess. Let’s try to untangle this web by starting with the incident that sparked it all, then zooming out further to the wider scene. The first match of BLAST’s Premier Fall Finals event between mouz and Vitality was held up for two hours as the players refused to join Teamspeak. The dispute was over the way BLAST handles and manages their comms recordings for the broadcasts and beyond, spearheaded by the CSPPA. It was a historic moment, the first strike action in competitive CS:GO.

The very next day, all partnered teams involved signed a joint statement that the issues were “[already resolved] … on November 23rd”.

To begin with, there was the question of why the players’ association took the hammer to a tournament organizer they aren’t involved with in the first place, and why they didn’t target their own employers – the teams – instead if they were unhappy with the terms they agreed for them with BLAST. The technical term for this is “clusterfuck” and there are still a lot of unknowns in this story: however, it served as the spark for the explosion on Twitter and beyond as seemingly all stakeholders jumped at each other’s throats, raising further concerns about the behavior of the CSPPA, the efficacy of ESIC, the greed of ESL, the passivity of Valve and the looming threat of VALORANT. Many bridges were burned.

The CSPPA’s track record

Announced in July 2018, the Counter-Strike Professional Players' Association is “the worldwide representative association for professional Counter-Strike (CS:GO) players”. Though they rarely engage with the endemic esports press directly, a look at the list of press releases on their website serves as a good barometer of what they deem the most important out of their activities.

On January 16, they’ve released details of their framework agreement with ESL over their Pro Tour. On January 20, another press release announced the association’s leadership, with the appointment of Mads Øland as full-time CEO and a board comprised of professional players: Andreas ‘Xyp9x’ Højsleth (as chairmain), Jonathan ‘EliGE’ Jablonowski (as vice-chairman), Chris ‘chrisJ’ de Jong, Epitacio ‘TACO’ Pessoa, Tarik ‘tarik’ Celik, Nathan ‘NBK’ Schmitt and Jordan ‘n0thing’ Gilbert.

Finally, on January 27, a statement on “recent events”, namely the Pro League changes which led to multiple association members losing their spots in the upcoming season, stating that “there are business decisions and commercial aspects of such leagues/tournaments which the CSPPA cannot dictate”. Indeed, the lack of major action on this issue and multiple other pertinent concerns (like Jamppi’s ban or the MIBR/Yeah controversy in the first RMR event) is one of the main sources of criticism when it comes to the association.

The CSPPA also hasn’t involved itself with the recent coaching bug controversy or the stream sniping allegations covered by ESIC. The association’s acting as a player representative back in July was also seen as a potential source of conflict of interest – recently, their license has also come under scrutiny as it signs over exclusive IP rights for five years with no power to terminate for any reason.

The CSPPA also got in hot water with Flashpoint over unfulfilled obligations, which led to the tournament organizer withholding a previously agreed upon payment. Combining two of these popular conceits – namely, that the association only cares about the big teams and that they did a horrible job with their ranking system, maybe there’s a holistic alternative to consider: if the CSPPA isn’t willing to help you out (see also: HAVU, Chaos et al), you clearly belong in tier 2.

ESIC: the malnourished watchdog

If you google the acronym of the Esports Integrity Commission, you will have to go to the dreaded second page of search results to find their website. That’s the size of CS:GO’s esports watchdog, an entity that’s only recently managed to hire someone to manage their PR and press releases. Yet, they’re the ones who deal with the biggest controversies in the scene, handing out bans which are then mirrored by most tournament organizers. The commission was established in 2016, helmed by Ian Smith, previously a legal director and then the COO of the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations. Alongside his role as ESIC’s Integrity Commissioner, he is a consultant on sports integrity in the traditional sports space.

ESIC has been responsible for the wide-ranging (and still ongoing) investigation of the coaching bug, handed out bans for the MDL Australia betting scandal and also hammered forsaken with a five-year expulsion. The commission is not entirely without blemish in the eyes of the community: their investigation of NiP didn’t yield any sort of smoking gun and many criticized their decision not to take action on past stream-sniping incidents. With limited resources available to them, ESIC’s ability to police everything CS is limited, and the fact that ESL’s parent company was responsible for the initial seed investment that got the project going makes certain operators skeptical of their independence, even if nothing credible has emerged to suggest any sort of impropriety.

TOs, players, Valve and VALORANT, oh my

The beef between these entities and the controversies swirling around them are just one part of the bigger storm around CS:GO esports. It’s player versus caster (see chrisJ and launders on Twitter), a multitude of cheating (or at least unfair-advantage-gaining) allegations, old friends like Richard Lewis and SirScoots going up against one another, ESL being blamed by other TOs for dominating the calendar, Flashpoint’s organizers courting controversy with their breached COVID bubble and an atrocious scheduling of the grand final at the expense of OG and their lower bracket run… the list is long.

(Incidentally, Twitter is not the place for these discussions. So much context gets lost, you can’t follow a back-and-forth in detail in a convenient manner. Every line of thought has to be artificially shortened and chopped up, wrecking the discourse before it could even begin. Say what you will about Dota and its talent pool, but at least their preferred medium for big pronouncements is Medium, not TwitLonger.)

CS is in an odd place right now, with regular player numbers through the roof and the viewer count staying strong on streams, but sustainability issues have never seemed more pertinent than today. It seems the various stakeholders are either unable or unwilling to play nice in this uniquely open playpen, and Valve are not looking to intervene anytime soon – then again, seeing how they manage Dota, it may still be for the better. There is, however, a juggernaut on the horizon in the form of VALORANT: say what you will about Riot Games, they know how to manage an esport. North American orgs have basically all jumped ship already. There’s a lot to do, and few who seem willing to do it.

CS esports may be growing but it still remains a small world – it would be a shame if we ripped it apart for ourselves. Just for a few months, can we all try playing nice for a change?

A high risk/high reward roster change and a fascinating storyline will ensure that 2021 begins with a bang for CS – but can he find a way back to the top after three years in the wilderness?

The good: perfect player profile

Suppose you’re the Dr. Frankenstein of pro CS and put yourself to the task of building the best player to get Liquid out of their current rut. Chances are, you’d be looking at some sort on a storied in-game leader who’s also pretty good with the AWP.

In that sense, FalleN is the perfect pickup, and his existing link with Stewie2K from their time together on the first ill-fated MIBR squad is basically just an added bonus. Even factoring in the sort of communication issues which plagued that mixed-nationality roster (which featured tarik, fer and coldzera alongside them at the time), this squad will only have the one non-native English speaker, one you’d also expect to have improved his language skills since if only because of the natural passage of time.

The Brazilian’s pedigree also can’t be called into question, and if you’re a proponent of “form is temporary, class is permanent”, that ultimate cliché in sports coverage, he’s definitely got a high ceiling both as an individual player and an in-game leader. You can’t overstate his part in establishing the country as a strong presence in the CS scene, and even though the emergence of FURIA and the duds of his latter-day MIBR talent pickups suggest he may have lost the golden touch when it comes to spotting emerging talent, that won’t be a part of his remit with Liquid to begin with, suggesting it’s his individual playing prowess that will make or break this move.

The bad: basically everything from 2018 onwards

Indeed, a lot of this is predicated on the belief that a return to better times past is possible for the veteran AWPer and in-game leader. What some seem to forget is just how long it’s been since he’s spearheaded a truly elite side.

FalleN’s last tournament win (and indeed MIBR’s only one to date) came at ZOTAC Cup Masters 2018, an event supposedly marked as A-Tier on Liquipedia but only featuring a single opponent from the top 15 (OpTic’s Danish squad) due to Team Liquid’s withdrawal. In the end, that trophy came off the back of wins over Flash Gaming, MVP PK and TaZ’s Team Kinguin – not exactly top-tier opposition. In fact, you’d have to go back as far as December 2017, the ESL Pro League Season 6 Finals culminating in one of his many high-profile wins over FaZe Clan.

There’s also the age bracket to consider: though we still haven’t really seen what a truly dedicated older player could do in this game of youngsters (and there are indeed freaks of nature seen in traditional sports), the fact of the matter is that at the age of 29, time is not on FalleN’s side to rediscover the mojo that seems to have left him over three years ago.

Indeed, it’s a real challenge to make sense of FalleN’s individual stats simply because of how big a drop they’ve seen in the level of opposition at the tail end of the MIBR project. Even though his average rating on HLTV spiked in the summer of 2020 before fading again later in the year, it’s not like he was facing titans of CS at events like the Eden Arena Malta Vibes Cup or the Vie.gg Legend Series – and even then, poor showings at small online cups can just as well be down to a lack of motivation for a player as accomplished as he is.

Here’s what we’ve got: a -15 K/D at ESL One Cologne 2020’s European bracket, with a +1 match against FaZe on the three-map defeat and a -16 pasting against G2. Though most of the team did even worse, those are not really acceptable numbers when you’re the one wielding the big expensive green. For a more consistent metric, a look at his regular opponents throughout the year of the pandemic provides a somewhat nicer view: FalleN still could style on small fish like Envy and Gen.G (or, indeed, even Chaos, +47 across 13 maps), with a notable +38 K/D against Evil Geniuses across eleven maps. However, poor performances against the region’s big boys (Liquid, FURIA, five maps against Complexity) are clearly in the negatives and dip into sub-1 territory per HLTV’s rating 2.0 – nowhere near enough for a climb back to the summit.

The ugly: the state of NA CS as a whole

As with so much else in Counter-Strike nowadays, there’s a wider context to consider, sticky and scary in the middle of the pandemic and so much mismanagement. The issues with the state of North American CS are well-documented and often discussed, and there’s a good argument to be made that any further failure could prove to be devastating, especially one that involves such big names – who are, just to remind you, just bounced back from a stint outside the top fifteen for the first time since December 2017.

Besides, it’s not like everything’s strong and stable elsewhere in the scene: it’s just been confirmed that cogu departed from MIBR after just three months, with a bunch of players likely to follow. Unless some sort of high-profile acquisition is on the way (hello FURIA?), the fact that their impressive early performances and the community goodwill they’ve garnered wasn’t quite enough to keep themselves onboard, one has to wonder what the expectations are. Keep in mind the travails of the former Chaos squad, splintered and disintegrated and partially VALORANTified with no org to pick them up, and the 35-year-old veteran’s plan of a “stable and set project with 6 players” might struggle to get off the ground in this environment.

Which ties us back neatly to the wider implications of FalleN’s rumored move to the North American org. Even if you’re not a fan of Liquid’s lovable lot, we should still be united in wishing them well. It’s tough to imagine what would happen to NA CS going forward if even this high-profile change would turn out to be a failure, and it’s quite possible the flames that burned through the lower levels of the regional scene could encroach the top of the ivory tower too. If they can’t make it work, who can?

Photo credit: HLTV

In the immortal words of The Crazy Russian Hacker, "Safety is number one priority." For those of you that don't know what this means, what we're saying is that at Rivalry we're serious about security, seriously. 

Writing a blog saying we care about your safety and the safety of your account might seem like a Raptor saying, "I won't eat you, bro, I'm Vegan." Right? What if the Dino-keeper told you that the Raptor can't eat you because he's safely behind iron bars and an electric fence? We know we sure as hell would trust that more. Maybe not if it was a park with a Jurassic name though...

What we mean to say is that even if you don't believe that we genuinely care about your safety, you best believe that we're accountable not only to our regulator but to many other institutions that make sure we are. These institutions exist to ensure we protect you and that we can't sneakily do anything to keep what is rightfully yours from you.

In other words, we are legally bound to pay you if you are a legitimate customer. No wiggle room at all. Read further to understand what this really means.

What we do to make sure that you are as safe as you can be

We conduct extensive KYC

We make sure we're dealing with real people by using some of the best software on the market to conduct what is called, "KYC." A measure that's put in place to protect us, but also to make sure that no one's gone and stolen your details or is trying to impersonate you. KYC stands for, "Know Your Customer," and we use it as one of many tools to try and prevent terrorist funding and any kind of criminal money laundering. 

No underage gambling

Part of KYC is also making sure that everyone, yes you heard me, EVERYONE is at least 18 years of age while playing on our website. No kids allowed at all, ever.

We are legally required to protect your $'s

Do you think we're joking about being legally bound to pay you what's due to you? We are required to make sure that for every $ in your account we have enough funds tucked away in a safe place to cover that balance. We're not joking here, check out more about this...here.

We are always watching, not in a creepy way but to keep you safe...

We make use of a team of highly trained individuals that are armed with the best software around to detect any "baddies". Our goal is to make sure that from the moment you log into our website until the moment you leave, and even after, we know what is happening on your account and to your funds. Does this mean they have access to all of your details, not even slightly!

Your data is safely locked up, away from prying eyes

We do not store your most sensitive information at all, we make sure that all of that is handled by globally trusted and renowned firms that we can whip at a moment's notice if we feel something is amiss. Our team can identify issues, but they cannot access your most personal information.

We have to pay you out if you're a legitimate customer

Not only do we need to protect your funds, we also are legally bound to pay you out if you are a legitimate customer. You are completely within your power to question this with our license provider, The Isle of Man Gambling Commission. We hold ourselves to the highest standards and if it's any assurance at all, we would rather be as safe as possible than make a quick buck.

TL;DR

If you’ve skimmed through this article and think what we’re saying is bull, we would like you to take at least one thing from this.

We care.

It’s not some fancy line we say to make you feel better. Behind every action Rivalry takes there are real people who are working their butts off to make gambling as entertaining as it possibly can be, all for you. Words can often mean nothing, but let our actions speak louder than the words you see and you will think back to this and know that not only do we say we care, but for our real customers, we do and will go that extra mile.

With news of MSL and aizy’s departure shortly after North’s CEO opted to step down, it is clearly the end of a chapter for Denmark’s eternal underachievers. Though neither the backing nor the names ever amounted to much for the side, it’s worth revisiting their one glorious exception in Stockholm in September 2018 as they shocked the world en route to their only S-Tier LAN victory to date, if only to wonder what could have been.

Going south

It’s tough to pinpoint exactly when and how North turned into a punchline in the CS:GO community but it’s safe to say that they are one of the highest-profile losers in the game. Unlike an org like Titan which crashed and burned or Luminosity who cashed out on their one good team only to fade back into irrelevance, North kept at it for years, wasting money and stacking Danish talent every which way, never to find the right combination. They completely failed to made an impact on the big leagues, let alone challenge Astralis for domestic and global dominance.

It seems patience has run out in more ways than one and a new approach is in order. Most CS fans will focus on the roster changes, with MSL and aizy reaching a mutual agreement to get the hell out dodge, but from a birds-eye business perspective, CEO Christopher Håkonsson’s decision to step down and leave after just a year in charge should be the bigger warning sign. The interim replacement, Alexander Pedersen, was responsible for the org’s much-ridiculed rebrand as marketing and brand vice president in his previous role. He’s gone on record stating that the organization is looking for additional investment – a sign of how much esports have changed in recent years. At its founding in January 2017, North as the joint venture of FC Copenhagen and Nordisk film promised to be one of the financial juggernauts in the scene. It wasn’t supposed to go like this – but for one glorious week in Sweden, it seemed like North might finally live up to its promise.

A stacked field

Remember when DreamHack events still had a bit of luster? The Masters ones, that is, often featuring notable enough lineups to match of even surpass some of their ESL One-branded counterparts. Stockholm 2018 was certainly such a tournament, featuring Astralis, pre-freefall versions of FaZe Clan and MIBR alongside Na’Vi and mousesports with other top ten teams also in attendance.

North were the eighth team confirmed for the tournament, fresh off of their top four finishes at DreamHack Open Summer and StarSeries i-League Season 5, results which propelled them to a top ten spot for the first time since they introduced Kjaerbye and mertz to their roster. For this event, they’ve agreed to a swap loan deal with Heroic, which meant that their lineup featured niko and valde alongside MSL, aizy and Kjaerbye.

A decent team on paper, one with a nice string of recent results behind them, but not one you would expect to go all the way at such a top tier tournament.

The miracle run

Getting out of group A seemed like a straightforward enough proposition, even with Astralis present, but taking the top seed was not part of the script. A comfortable 16-7 win on Inferno over BnTeT and co. set up the big encounter as gla1ve’s men took down Grayhound Gaming in dominant fashion.

By this point, Astralis were already looking unstoppable, with wins of DreamHack Masters Marseille, ESL Pro League Season 7, the ECS Season 5 Finals and ELEAGUE Premier in dominant fashion a harbinger of things to come, and yet they became unstuck by their domestic rivals in a three-map series in the winners’ bracket, who managed to come back from a heavy defeat on Nuke thanks to a comfortable 16-10 victory on Inferno and an overtime squeaker on Mirage.

Their reward for a job well done was a meeting with Na’Vi in the quarterfinals as the CIS side unexpectedly lost their opening game to steel’s Ghost Gaming side and the top seed with it. Perhaps that defeat was a sign that s1mple and co. weren’t firing on all cylinders, but it’s safe to say no one predicted the massacre to come: 16-3 on Train off the back of a dominant CT side and a 16-9 win on Inferno, despite Na’Vi racing to a 6-2 lead early on. Not even s1mple could end such a series with a positive K/D on the losing side.

If it was the firepower that impressed against Na’Vi, it was the resilience that showed against mousesports. Coming back from an 0-16 loss on Dust 2 takes  toughness, especially on LAN amidst the crowd’s jeers. Once again, it was their pristine Inferno play that led to the series victory, taking a 4-0 lead on the CT side and racing to a 9-1 scoreline. Though mouz rallied back to a 10-5 scoreline and almost managed to take the map to overtime, North closed it out in regulation 16-14. Mirage was the decider and also a fairly close affair, but after securing a crucial win at 12-12, forcing out a save with limited resources of their own, they took control of the game and punched their ticket to the finals with four straight rounds.

It was time to meet Astralis again, who immediately banned out Inferno for the series. After North’s Cache ban, they leapt on the opportunity to play Dust 2 against them. In one of the biggest surprises of an event full of shocks, MSL’s men secured a dominant victory on the map, winning 16-1 just a day after losing 16-0 in the semis. Though gla1ve and co. scored a comfortable win on Train to push the series to Overpass, and looked good value to win the series off the back of an 8-3 lead on the deciding map, North ended the half with six rounds and played a blinder on their own T side, winning the first six in a row and eventually winning 16-11 to secure the trophy off the back of a blistering B rush.

Beating Na’Vi and Astralis, the latter in two different best-of-three series, no less, plus a monster comeback against mousesports? Sounds like the perfect preparation for the FACEIT Major. Indeed, North were even considered dark horse candidates after this string of results.

Seven days later, they were eliminated in the first stage of the event by Vega Squadron. Two weeks later, the org benched MSL and he was picked up by Rogue late in October. He would return in January 2020 – but it looks like he’s ready to depart again. North have not made the final of an S-Tier event since.

Photo credit: HLTV

It seems Richard Lewis’ crazy concoction that was the BOT Major might actually end up getting Sadokist back in the casting fold, and his performance in the final of the brilliantly stupid competition gave us a glimpse both of what we’ve been missing by his absence and the many disparate elements that go into top tier casting even when the gameplay is just window-dressing.

Beep boop, out of the loop

It’s been said that a good actor can make reading the phone book sound like Hamlet to their audience, and casting a bunch of bots messing up the basics of CS under the guise of a Major final is pretty much the esports equivalent of such an act. Sadokist and Jacky passed the test with flying colors, delivering quite the hype cast for what was basically a big practical joke.

Yet, it’s one that has value beyond the fun factor, especially to those of us who are interested in the world of commentary. It turns out that you can put together a pretty entertaining cast on the fly even without any real gameplay, simply because that has very little to do with what brings the hype.

Turns out even casters need inhuman reactions to catch the exciting moments in time: in fact, a quick look at any lower-level event’s casting will show that the commentators often take a few seconds before they can interrupt their train of thought and vocally highlight the highlight-worthy moment. It kills the hype when the guy who got that sick double entry is already gunned down by the time the caster shouts the second syllable in his name.

This isn’t just the question of verbiage: getting up to speed with the hype moments requires a fairly wide vocal range, too. Sadokist can go from a regular conversational tone to THIS IS ULTRA EXCITING in the time it takes to pull off a noscope with an AWP. Again, this is something you’ll often find missing with lower-level casts, where the big moments get treated by those typical restrained shouts from a tired commentator: vocal cords strained, no air left for the oomph.

Esports casting is very different from the way traditional sports broadcasts are managed, with extreme examples like tennis or snooker commentators only chiming in in-between gameplay breaks. Imagine a similar approach in Dota where there aren’t any and weep!

The human element

It can make sense not to impose your personality so much on the broadcast, but with a lot of the human element missing due to the players’ in-server representation being the main focus, much of the burden of communicating the human impact of the big moments falls on the casters.

A good understanding of the gameplay is also paramount, and even if you can toss off the in-depth analysis to a secondary commentator, you still need to be able to identify the big moments for the audience. It was exactly what made Semmler so popular during his original stint in the CS:GO space, and it’s a very important attribute to have for any caster, so much so that many in the community ended up taking the good thing for granted, driving him out into the OWL wilderness for a few years. His hype reactions were derided as repetitive and without any strategic insight – the former wasn’t true, and the latter has never been the point.

The new breed of CS:GO casters have also been excellent at crafting wordplay on the fly, alliterations and rhymes springing from their minds in the middle of a round to provide that extra flair to their descriptions. Though most would agree that Machine is the undisputed master of the art, Sadokist is a close second, with perhaps an even better understanding of when to hold back. Sometimes simple is better, and no matter the lyrical excellence if the context isn’t right. The exploits of stunna and James Banks behind the desk show how loud the clang is when the wordplay has nothing to do with what was previously said, and as tough as it is to come up with a good transition, it can be even tougher to find one that’s appropriate to the moment. The added joke factor of the bot-based matchup made this all the easier this time around, but it nevertheless served as a great highlight of the experience.

There are also the soft skills which you don’t get to see on the broadcast but can make or break a career. Beyond the ever-pervasive question of social skills in esports, casters that are flexible enough to be paired with anyone at a moment’s notice and able to find the right wavelength at no time will have an edge over those who are still clinging to a set partner in a well-established duo. You also need to be able to manage the same tensions of the long travels and the insane hours as the players do – but spending a whole lot more time in the public eye in the process.

Of course, the BOT Major is no substitute for the real thing: it’s not possible to conjure meaning out of thin air and it’s the twists of fate and the real people involved that make those big moments on the servers memorable for the rest of us. And still, it’s perhaps no surprise that this fun little affair nudged Sadokist all the closer to a return to the casting booth – after all, if he could get this much mileage out of ten bots’ attempts to tenderize one another, he’ll be just as good as he always was when it comes to the real deal.

Photo credit: HLTV

As we are coming to the end of 2020, we wanted to ask several CSGO pro players ‘Who has been the best CSGO player of 2020 so far?’. It's safe to say we got some very unexpected answers.

The CS:GO pro players all gave multiple different answers ranging from the typical Device and s1mple through to some very unexpected claims about Gambit’s up and coming players as well as the debate about EU vs NA due to the online seasons. 

The question of ‘who is the best CSGO player’ is often split into three different categories.

1. Who is the best CSGO player of the year?
2. Who is the best CSGO player of all time?
3. Who is the best CSGO player from NA or EU?

We have already answered two of the three questions and you can watch them below.

CSGO Pros Answer: Who is the best Counter-Strike player from North America?

CSGO Pros Answer: Who are the top 3 best Counter-Strike players?

CSGO Pros Answer: Who is the best Counter-Strike player you’ve played with?

We hope you enjoyed this video! Check out other great content on Rivalry's CS:GO channel, where you can watch other popular YouTube series such as Teammates, CSGO Top 5, Overrated or Underrated, The Web’s Most Searched Questions and CSGO Pros Answer.

Flashpoint’s second season is right around the corner with a very different set of squads looking to compete than what we’ve seen the first time around. In case your favorite team isn’t around to fight for a portion of the million dollars they offer, we’ve put together a handy list of reasons to support the various participants.

Cloud9

Not only is this an exciting team brimming with talent, there are also fascinating storylines which could emerge if the boys in blue end up doing well at Flashpoint. The big question is whether ALEX can do it without ZywOo or if their story is the esports equivalent of Guardiola and Messi in the Champions League but the redemption arc of woxic after his odd departure from mousesports comes in as a close second. Besides, the NA scene could use a bit of a boost, even if the org is running a majority-European roster to glory. The colossus-versus-juggernaut memes would be immense!

MIBR

The Brazilian side made more strides in the art of self-immolation than CS for most of the year and their temporary replacement squad surprised everyone with their spirited showing at the BLAST Premier Fall Series. Having made it to the grand final of the first season as part of FalleN’s last dance that never quite was, it’ll be tough to do one better in Flashpoint’s second outing – but if you’d like the org to stick with this bunch of players as much as possible, a playoff tilt would do a world of good for this upstart side.

OG

Just as it seemed like OG finally cracked the code and managed to conquer their close encounters of the 14-16 kind, their showings at IEM Beijing seem to suggest there’s more adjustments to make. NBK-‘s showings continue to remain a concern and an underwhelming result at Flashpoint may be what prompts a roster change. Fans of the current side should hope for a deep run to ensure the band gets to stick together going forward as we hopefully emerge from the online era.

Fnatic

The Swedes have already reinvented themselves over the course of 2019, becoming championship contenders again with the return of Golden, but they were also one of the big losers of the pandemic era and the online-only play it brought along. Any concerns about motivation should be out of the window here: as one of the favorites playing for Flashpoint’s outsized prize pool, questions must be asked if JW and co. fail to rise to the occasion – but if they do well, no doubt he himself will bring all the Twitter sass we need for November.

Virtus.pro

Being a VP fan must have felt like water torture for the past couple of years as seemingly everything the org touched turned rotten – but the ex-AVANGAR core has suddenly revitalized itself, and possibly just at the right time, with a chance to follow up a win at IEM New York with a portion of the Flashpoint megabucks. A strong performance from a team coming from the qualifiers always makes for a good story and could very well motivate big-name non-founders to pay more attention to the competition going forward.

c0ntact Gaming

Let’s be real: c0ntact’s CS:GO story so far is one of the saddest out there. Having paid big for the remnants of the CR4ZY roster which set the world alight in Berlin, they haven’t had any meaningful success since after G2 swooped in to blow the roster apart. Joint-last finishes in recent online cups and a 9th-place slot in the inaugural Flashpoint season are not the sort of returns you’d like to see on a $1.5 million investment.

Though c0ntact itself is no stranger to the big leagues, holding an OWL and a CDL slot alike, their Counter-Strike prospects could use a kick in the backside. The revamped roster with Spinx and rigoN began to show some signs of life, too, as they made it to the DreamHack Masters Winter 2020 main event coming through the entire open qualifier, beating out Heretics and byali’s Poland side in the process at the later stages. Whether that’s a sign of meaningful improvement remains to be seen: calling it a comeback story doesn’t quite sound right but a “getting started” story is also one worth cheering for.

Dignitas

Though the reunion of the old Ninjas didn’t work out the way they wanted – and we’ll never know what would have happened had they had a chance to keep on keeping on in a LAN environment – the new-look Dignitas lineup deserves a chance and Flashpoint serves as their only real pathway into the scene right now with the ESL and BLAST avenues apparently closed out and no RMR events in sight. Nostalgia still remains a powerful tonic and if you’d like to see f0rest get out of jail, rooting for Dignitas is just the thing to do.

Team Envy

You don’t get to see much of Envy nowadays due to the near-collapse of tier 2 NA CS at this time, with no recorded results since the summer’s RMR events. Their surprise playoff run at the Road to Rio tournament was followed by a joint-last place finish at cs_summit 6, a result that could very well have been the catalyst of further changes in the side. With kuben recruited as the coach and manager plus the removal of moose and ryann in the favor of LEGIJA (previously their coach) and Endpoint’s Thomas, this is a new-look Envy side and yet another interesting international mix, an exotic prospect in North American Counter-Strike whose strong showing would be a breath of fresh air in an otherwise fairly stale scene.

Gen.G Esports

Gen.G were hit hard by the VALORANT talent raid, losing daps and s0m in a project that was beginning to show some promise with wins at DreamHack Open Anaheim 2020 and ESL One Road to Rio’s American bracket. Though it seemed like a foregone conclusion that they would sign oBo after his high-profile departure from Complexity, we’re instead left with two stand-ins in the form of Xizt and kreaz (previously of Syman Gaming, now known as K23). The temporary nature of this squad leaves us with the personalities: fans of the ex-NiP squad could root for them alongside Dignitas for what would be Mr. Landström’s approximately fourth last hurrah – remember FaZe and Fnatic? – and those who have fond memories of Cloud9 rosters past can root for some long overdue success for autimatic and even koosta in the black-and-gold colors.

MAD Lions

The Season 1 winners are not quite what they used to be, with a very different lineup aiming to return to the summit this time around. The loss of Bubzkji, AcilioN and HUNDEN has definitely had an effect on the team’s results, which makes it somewhat unlikely that they’ll make it all the way through again, especially with the high-tier invited opposition. Still, if you like the idea of Flashpoint royalty and a team that consistently triumphs against the odds, you could do worse than to root for what is yet another strong Danish team gracing Counter-Strike.

BIG

Ze Germans were one of the big winners (pun intended) of the online era, winning events left and right early on before fading away after a poor showing at “Cologne”. With XANTARES finally coming online as every event transitioned online, it seemed like the squad has finally found the right tactical formula to accommodate his talents as tabseN moved to the in-game leader role. Flashpoint serves as their best chance yet to prove the doubters wrong and show that their big wins on Mirage were not just a mirage.

forZe

Sorry, no, can’t do it. They deserve to go down in flames and I can’t wait to hate-watch their games.

There have been countless debates about who are the best aimers in CSGO but we wanted to settle them once and for all. Who better to do this than the king of one taps and statistically the best aimer in CSGO history, ScreaM. 

ScreaM gave us his list of the top 5 best aimers in CSGO. We have to admit that we weren't expecting the NiP legend and current Dignitas player F0rest and Fnatic legend Krimz to come in 5th and 4th place but it just goes to show that consistency and longevity can sometimes beat our natural talent. 

There is a lot of great Counter-Strike insight and certainly countless ways to improve your aim. Let us know if you agree or disagree with his CSGO Top 5 best aimers in the comments below!

If you liked this video you might like CS:GO Top 5: Best AWPers in Counter-Strike with JW

You might also like CSGO Top 5: Most underrated CS:GO players with Flusha

Finally, why not finish the CS:GO Top 5 series with CS:GO Top 5: Best Counter-Strike Teams Of All Time With Richard Lewis

We hope you enjoyed this video! Check out other great content on Rivalry's CS:GO channel, where you can watch other popular YouTube series such as Teammates, CSGO Top 5, Overrated or Underrated, The Web’s Most Searched QuestionsandCSGO Pros Answer.

In our latest episode of CSGO Overrated or Underrated we sat down with Navi’s benched AWPer Guardian. We discussed what is overrated, fairly rated or underrated in CS:GO. 

Guardian talks about his up and down relationship with CS:GO’s best player, s1mple. Guardian then goes on to discuss his time on Navi with Zeus and how Zeus made Guardian a better CSGO player because he taught him a different way to play Counter-Strike. 

We rounded out the video with the classic ‘are you overrated or underrated’ and surprisingly Guardian was brutally honest about his career and where his ‘level’ is at the moment. We believe that a player with such a prestigious past and experience at the highest level will always bounce back. 

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We hope you enjoyed this video! Check out other great content on Rivalry's CS:GO channel, where you can watch other popular YouTube series such as Teammates, CSGO Top 5, Overrated or Underrated, The Web’s Most Searched Questions and CSGO Pros Answer.

Nadeshot’s organizations has confirmed its departure from the Counter-Strike scene after just a little more than a year with their current squad. Despite the promise, they never really lived up the expectations of a “championship-calier roster”, and once you factor in their disastrous first attempt at entering CS:GO, you wouldn’t exactly blame them for staying away from the game for the foreseeable future. It’s not just the performance of the ex-Renegades but the state of NA CS as a whole that may prove to be the real deterrent.

The opening gambit

The first part of the 100Thieves CS:GO story goes back all the way to December 2017 with their ill-fated attempt to parachute into the Boston Major off the back of the ex-Immortals lineup consisting of HEN1, LUCAS1, fnx, bit and the now-infamous Giuseppe “kNgV-“ Vito, who has somehow managed to outlast Nadeshot’s org in Counter-Strike.

He was technically still just a loanee at the time of their miracle run to the finals of the PGL Kraków Major but the org unsurprisingly opted to make his visit from Red Reserve permanent as they were aiming to find a permanent replacement for fnx. At that time, it seemed like two different Brazilian rosters could challenge for top spots in the world, and though the then-SK lineup still had some juice left in them, the Immortals squad imploded in much faster and a lot more spectacular fashion.

There was the infamous “prove it or I’ll kill you” affair the very next month as the team was a no-show for the first map of the DreamHack Open Montreal 2017 finals against North. It was the second time they were inexcusably late from the beginning of the series – pulling a similar stunt against Counter Logic Gaming in the semis without a similarly harsh penalty – prompting a tweet from FNS saying “Worst part is I lost to a team with 3 players who were hung over”.

As any serious competitive player would, kNgV- responded with a death threat, one he apparently tried to follow up on soon thereafter, which prompted his benching from the squad after a bit of back-and-forth. It marked the end of the Immortals saga as the Teles brothers (HEN1 and LUCAS1) sided with the mercurial player and benched themselves in protest, and the org ended up dropping them like a hot rock with the then-SK squad firmly in their sight, even sacrificing a Major appearance in the process.

Enter 100Thieves and a brilliant opportunistic pickup of a problematic side without a home but with a ticket to the biggest CS:GO event in town. They announced the move on December 13th, just 30 days before the Major was set to begin in Boston, but the team failed to acquire the requisite visas to participate, much to the schadenfreude of many who weren’t fans of the players’ aggressive antics. On January 21st, kNg attempted a second career suicide in less than six months by tweeting a remark with homophobic undertones at Duncan “Thorin” Shields in response to one of the analyst’s standard Twitter… things. He was promptly removed from the lineup four days after the fact. Five days after that, 100Thieves let the entire roster go without a single official match played and withdrew from CS:GO with immediate effect.

For a first attempt, it could have gone better.

A “championship-caliber” team

100Thieves’ next chapter in CS:GO began at the end of October 2019 with the acquisition of the Renegades roster, a move that came just a month after Evil Geniuses’ high-profile return to the game and promised a potential great new North American rivalry, especially with Team Liquid still firmly in the mix at the time. Instead, the org now departs with just $180 500 in total winnings to their name and no tournament win whatsoever. In fact, their best showing came right after they were picked up by 100Thieves, a second-place finish at IEM XIV Beijing where a resurgent Astralis completely carved them apart in the grand final.

Early playoff exits followed basically everywhere else since, though Liazz and co. did manage to book-end their stay with the org with another silver medal earned, albeit merely at a regional online event this time in the form of ESL Pro League Season 12’s North American bracket, losing to FURIA in another grand final blowout. Not even the biggest fans of the boys would contend that their play saw any significant improvement over the course of their time with 100Thieves, which is perhaps the biggest indictment of the move overall. Far from the “championship-caliber” team Nadeshot was looking for, it seems like the roster’s time together is reaching its end with reports about multiple impending transfers (jks to Complexity and jkaem to one of the multiple interested parties) and their coach’s departure to VALORANTer pastures at the end of September.

What’s next for the roster (and North American Counter-Strike?)

To be fair to 100Thieves, all this could be a sign of things to come. Nadeshot has basically confirmed in his video that the decision to drop the squad was related to their desire to move to Europe due to the lack of high-quality opposition in the current era of regionalized competition. Though it’s well worth asking whether it was worth the investment to do so for the current squad in their particular state (with few notable results against other North American sides and the expected departure of jks), the owner is certainly on to something when he says that “everything is transitioning over to Europe”.

This isn’t just about the plans for NA teams to temporarily move to EU for cross-regional end-of-year tournaments, or even the rumors about EG’s potential departure from the scene. The NA talent pool simply isn’t that deep. Both Complexity and Cloud9 opted for an international roster with mostly European talent – meanwhile, Gen.G doesn’t have a full roster. As for the more established squads,. neither Team Liquid nor EG have managed to return to the heady heights of late 2019 in terms of results or performances so far. Meanwhile, many of the region’s up-and-coming talent (and to be fair, a decent chunk of never-have-beens, too) opted for VALORANT instead, with salaries far exceeding that of what European orgs are willing to stake at this moment in time for that game. It’s not the best time to be an NA CS fan.

In any case, a combination of visa issues, calendar kerfuffles and sheer bad luck means that 100Thieves once again departs from CS:GO without a chance to compete at a Major in earnest.

“It just sucks.”

Nadeshot certainly has that right.

Photo credit: HLTV

HLTV’s got quite the scoop with their NiKo interview as the Bosnian star freely discussed contractual matters and team setups off the back of his big move to G2. There were many question marks about how he should be integrated on the eve of his debut at BLAST, and it’s tough to shake the feeling that it’s going to be a rocky road ahead for all parties concerned. You don’t even have to read between the lines too much – as is customary nowadays, he said the quiet part out loud.

Put up or…

No doubt the headline quote is NiKo’s assertion that he’s willing to say quiet and leave the in-game leader’s mantle behind, as the big point of contention in his previous teams – either mousesports or the post-karrigan FaZe Clan was that he accumulated power yet in their hour of need he seemed to forget about so many things. The prevailing narrative was – with reason – that every team he plays on eventually turns into his personal project, which ends up wasting both is prodigious skills as a rifler and the potential of having a good in-game leader on the squad.

For now, the public pronouncement seems to be that this was as much as by accident as by design, and he’s looking to return to the frag machine role which made him one of the greatest in the game. Part of G2’s team composition suggests this could actually succeed: most of CS:GO’s superstar players (device, s1mple, ZywOo, pre-2018 FalleN, coldzera, JW, the list could go on) either main the AWP or want to take it upon themselves to use the big green in search of a comeback. NiKo is a rare exception to this rule and this by itself can defuse some of the potential tensions of the usual superstar signing, even if kennyS’ recent performances in the online era leave a lot to be desired.

Still, coaching or caging NiKo has not been a realistic possibility at any point during his meteoric rise, neither in the NiKosports era nor the FaZe Clan days. The woes of someone like s1mple or even ZywOo and his myriad lost finals show that CS is ultimately a team game and you can’t rely on a super carry to get across the finish line, and the real question here is whether he’ll still be willing to listen if the results are not there a few months into the LAN era. There should be a fairly long grace period for all parties to work with as they aim to figure out whether to keep AmaNEk or JaCkz as their fifth, but starting their game against FURIA, the countdown to bicker time officially begins.

Brothers in arms

As much of a fairytale as it is to see huNter and huNter’s cousin on the same team, the familial aspect of the G2 affair actually makes this an even more volatile squad composition than it seems on the surface. A star player already has a big pull and negotiating power – though the fact that s1mple didn’t join MIBR and FaZe took so long to pick up coldzera should tell you everything you need to know about how the orgs still have more than enough say in the proceedings – but now any GM that’s looking to get NiKo onboard is signing up for a package deal with his brother and therefore two-fifths of any prospective squad with a strong sway over the various decisions.

Indeed NiKo’s suggestion that he and his brother could have also ended up at Cloud9 means that any discontent will be doubled by default, and if they join forces in any dispute, be it contractual or otherwise, it will take quite the GM to keep them in line or to ward off prospective suitors – and by the same token, making any such pickup a double-edged proposition should they ever end up leaving G2 together.

YNk the coach deserves ignorance, not ridicule

Though the news of NiKo’s move to G2 obviously overshadowed everything else about the FaZe squad, YNk’s decision to step down after his fellow countryman’s departure has generated its own share of snark on social media. The meme-y suggestion that he brings nothing more to the table than tepid motivational quotes obviously doesn’t make sense, but there’s also little to suggest that he made a material difference to either of the teams he’s coached to date.

Though most would concede the point that FalleN’s MIBR side was essentially uncoachable (so much so that they were one of the last top sides to start using one), it’s still not a good look that their only tournament win and most of their best performances came at the very beginning of his tenure, with little to no tangible improvement to follow. Now, with moses at Team Liquid and HenryG at Cloud9 (though admittedly in a very different capacity as kassad’s the one with the coaching responsibilities), we’ll get a better idea of how transferable a broadcast analyst’s skills are to supporting an actual competitive team.

YNk deserves credit for taking the leap and adjourning a successful career as an on-screen personality to test himself – but there’s not much to suggest he’s a cut above the rest in this particular field, even if he ended up with back-to-back poisoned chalices. Regardless of whether it was by design or not, the fact is he hasn’t become the sort of emblematic figure like a kassad or a zonic, nor has he introduced anything tangibly “YNk-esque” to either of his teams.

Though NiKo doesn’t specifically mention YNk in his wide-ranging interview, he does suggest his impact and influence was fairly limited during his tenure on FaZe. Between March 2015 as the observer at ESL One Katowice and ESL One Cologne 2018, the Serb’s established himself as one of the best CS:GO analysts – his achievements over the last two years in coaching don’t come anywhere close to that. No doubt someone who pushed himself so far his previous profession of choice would consider this the greatest indictment of them all.ű

Photo credit: HLTV

We sat down with several pro players in our latest CSGO Pros Answer video to talk about how to stay motivated whilst playing CS:GO? From regular practice routines in both life and CSGO to not relying on motivation and instead focusing on dedication, discipline and hard work.

It's safe to say that the CS:GO Pros Answer series can sometimes focus on less serious subjects but we thought we should mix it up a little bit and learn something from the CS:GO Pros given that they have spent tens of thousands of hours playing official matches and practicing.

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It’s been quite a while ago now but OG’s entry to the CS:GO scene was quite a tantalizing prospect and there was quite a lot of expectation on the squad. An odd mishmash of results followed as the world turned upside down, but after a seemingly endless stream of 14-16 losses and overtime defeats, it seems like they have finally turned a corner, ready to challenge for the top spots.

An ode to big brains

Let me start by saying that OG is exactly the sort of team I adore, and therefore I may very well be biased in their assessment. The idea of a group of big brain players with limited firepower coming together after having been rejected by their respective squads is exactly the sort of revenge/redemption story I watch CS for, and I always found a flank more impressive than a flick, if only because I myself can only rely on the former in the game. That said, there’s no denying this is one of the more exciting projects in the scene, an international side with an approach closer to Astralis’ than FaZe’s, one that has already leapfrogged all but one of the squad members’ previous teams.

Let’s run down the list: ENCE is down in the dumpster having burned through most of the capital they earned with the fans, North remain a perennial punchline, Hellraisers is so irrelevant you wouldn’t even be able to tell whether they’re in the top 30 without looking it up (nope, #34 at the time of writing) and ALTERNATE aTTaX have never really been a part of this conversation to begin with. Vitality have done well after shedding their skin twice, and they are certainly among the top teams right now, but they still remain incredibly top-heavy – and a quick glance at Na’Vi’s last few years tells everything you need to know about the ceiling of such a side.

The potential has always been there for OG and now it finally seems to have begun to materialize, and it makes sense that a team full of cerebral players would show slow but steady progress instead of a quantum leap to the top of the charts. As the many close defeats begin to turn into wins and their tournament runs get deeper over time, there’s a very tempting direct comparison you can make about the team: their win over EG yesterday versus how they accomplished the same at BLAST Premier Spring Series back in February.

Cooler heads prevail

14-16 on Inferno, 16-14 on Nuke, 19-17 on Dust 2 to cap things off. Though OG seems to have some sort of a spell over Evil Geniuses, the different nature of their victory this time around is worth discussing. Not only were two of the maps a whole lot more one-sided (and the veto questionable on EG’s part, floating Overpass despite their awful record on the map, not to mention their economic self-immolation in the last rounds of the series), the way the close rounds played out were markedly different and less chaotic than in the Spring Series event. This comms sample from OG the February BLAST broadcast was full of crosstalk and noise in the late-round scenario. Now listen to this clip from yesterday’s game against Na’Vi where Aleksib is basically playing as a Commander in Natural Selection 2 rather than the dead guy in the middle of a round of CS:

The difference is night and day, and make no mistake, the sense of calm and focus on the comms in the middle of such a close game (and especially the fact that they still managed to close out the map 16-14 after losing this retake) suggests they have shattered the mental block that caused so many of their narrow defeats. The numbers also bear this out: the players’ clutch success rate has ticked up since the end of the summer, with Aleksib himself contributing three different ones against Na’Vi across the two maps. This may not seem like much, but when your team became synonymous with close defeats, turning around one or two rounds on confident and calm individual play matters a lot. No wonder their position in the HLTV rankings has also shown the same sort of slow but consistent improvement over the last few months.

It’s rare in CS to see a team materially improve without a roster change over the course of multiple months, and one has to wonder whether they would have been given the chance to work things out the same way had the LAN circuit not been interrupted by the pandemic. With OG’s recent performances, the question is rapidly becoming academic, and they will no doubt be an exciting prospect once the offline events roll around.

Though it’s usually the pressures of LAN we consider the most important mental part of competition, doing well in the online era requires its own sort of resilience. More games, lower prize pools, less prestige, no end in sight, stuck at home – more than six months into this upside down world, we’ve got to give credit to those who keep on keeping on playing the same permutations of CS over and over again for our entertainment, and finding a way to get better in the meantime. With that in mind, the teams forged in the monotony of the pandemic may end up doing a whole lot better than expected once the LAN circuit returns.

Something something NA CS LUL KEKW

A quick word about one of OG’s vanquished rivals, too: the first act of the much-hyped intercontinental reunion has not worked out the way North American fans would have hoped it to, with Evil Geniuses suffering an early and painful exit, but there’s no reason to panic about their level of play just yet. Small and closed ecosystems don’t tend to produce excellence, and with the same set of familiar faces going up against each other over and over again in the NA bracket of the online era, there’s more to adjust to than just the bootcamp circumstances in Serbia. Even if the North American sides fail to live up to expectations at the first few events where they get to compete against the European powerhouses, their level of play will only improve from there as the cross-regional encounters (hopefully) become regular affairs again going forward.

Now, if FURIA come in hot and dominate the competition, that would paint a very different picture altogether…

Photo credit: HLTV

The legendary AWPer has lived through multiple interactions of Na’Vi and FaZe lineups playing with some of the best players CS:GO has ever seen from NiKo and s1mple to Zeus and Karrigan. So expect a lot of insight to how these teams worked and what went wrong. 

Guardian was recently benched by Na’Vi and is likely looking for new options to move on in his CS:GO career. Given his experience and reputation as one of the best AWPers in CS:GO history he shouldn't be short of options.  

If you're a fan of our CS:GO Teammates YouTube series check out FaZe NiKo on his best and worst CS:GO Teammates.

Like this video? Check out our CS:GO Teammates series, we have spoken to everyone from FaZe Clan’s Coldzera and NiKo to Fnatic’s JW and Krimz. If you prefer shorter videos that are 100% to the point then our CS:GO Pros Answer series where CS:GO pro players offer their opinions on everything CS:GO related is the series for you!

Not interested in Guardian or NiKo? Surely you have to be a fan of one of the best Brazilian players of all time, Coldzera?

We hope you enjoyed this video! Check out other great content on Rivalry's CS:GO channel, where you can watch great interviews by Richard Lewis and some of the biggest CS:GO personalities playing games like Overrated or Underrated, CS:GO Top 5 and The Google Autocomplete challenge.

It’s seven defeats on the trot for G2 after their loss to Fnatic on Wednesday which led to their elimination in joint-last place at IEM New York 2020’s European division. With only three maps won throughout this dismal run, alarm bells seem to be ringing throughout the fanbase. Though a deeper examination of the losses shows that the situation isn’t as awful as the topline numbers would suggest, there are definitely questions worth asking because the team no longer feels more than the sum of its parts like it was just a few months ago when they were one of the best teams in the online era.

Consider the context

Seven losses in a row, with just the three maps won across them: that looks pretty horrible no matter how you slice it. And yet, perhaps the closeness of most affairs should serve to assuage at least some of the concerns of G2 fans. Of the fourteen maps lost, they’ve reached at least thirteen rounds on seven of them – four of which went to overtime –, and only the Na’Vi loss really counts as a blowout from their slump in the Pro League. The fact that G2 lost each and every overtime encounter during this streak, not to mention the fact that two of their precious few map wins ended up with a 16-14 scoreline, sometimes after dropping large leads before eventually finding a way to close things out, seems to suggest that map choices and mental blocks are at least partly to blame for this downturn in form.

Rely less on Vertigo – or fix your hellish Inferno

The map on top of the skyscraper slowly ended up overtaking Nuke as G2’s most-played map, with a pretty decent winrate to boot until the last month. However, a 55% winrate on a map you like to float and occasionally pick into is not good enough, and the Fnatic game has clearly shown that teams are beginning to figure out their tactical setup. Perhaps more importantly, the team’s Inferno stats are abysmal, with just one win in six attempts in the last three months (against AGO with a 16-14 scoreline). It’s worth noting that G2 are actually putting up decent numbers on the T side but their defense is simply woeful on the map, and that might have something to do with the sad downtun in kennyS’s form as of late…

Ask questions of kennyS

Though it’s JacKz’s nasty -73 K/D that grabs the eye first from the team’s stats over this poor set of results, there’s also a sacred cow on the team who has also fallen on tough times in the last few months. Look, we all love him and it is always annoying to watch as the bastards kill Kenny, but it has to be said that it’s an occasion which happens more and more often nowadays, and the once indomitable AWPer has hit a career-low HLTV ranking of 0.92 off the back of a consistent drop in his three-month rolling average since May. He’s also one of the notable underperformers of the recent G2 loss streak, with a combined K/D of -46 across the seven matches, five of which saw him in the red. Of course, AWPers sometimes just don’t get going in a heavy defeat because the team doesn’t have the economy to supply a regular stream of the big green across the rounds, but the previous point about the close maps invalidate this oft-used excuse for his performances.

Just sign NiKo already!

This one is only half in jest. No doubt the FaZe marksman would represent a big firepower upgrade (as long as you keep someone else around to IGL), but it also has to be said that the team lost every single match they played since the reports broke about their interest in acquiring the other Kovač brother, many in incredibly close fashion. Such rumors, regardless of whether they’re substantiated or not, will inevitably have an awful effect on team cohesion and morale, if only because everyone is trying to ascertain who’s the odd man out of the lineup.

The fact that no one came out to squash the reports was pretty telling, but such a steep downturn in form (especially once you consider that the opposite seemed to happen in the FaZe camp) with seemingly no end in sight should prompt a swift reaction from the G2 camp, even if Banks and co. are notoriously difficult to negotiate with when they’re the ones with the asset. For an org with such a strong meme game as G2, no doubt they would be able to spin the story effectively either way.

Most of the chatter about the brotherly union in the Kovač family revolves around how one would realign the G2 squad to make space for one of the best individual riflers – however, trying to game out the next chapter for FaZe Clan is arguably an even more exciting proposition…

FaZe’s era that never was

It has to be said that FaZe Clan were this close to breaking CS:GO at one point. A team of five superstars with limited tactical cohesion was never supposed to work and, indeed, never worked before in the history of the game. They were on the verge of cracking the code, with their title-winning run at IEM New York 2017 serving as the highlight of how a team like this can truly dominate the competition. Backed by a loose calling style from karrigan, FaZe’s star players seemingly took turns to pop off, clinching round after round after map after map after win after win.

Deep runs were a given: titles, however, were not, and the team’s championship window featured so many late-stage defeats that you can’t really justify calling their reign an era – especially once you consider how the Boston Major’s climactic final symbolizes everything that was good and bad about that team at the same time. Not only did they fail to win the biggest title CS has to offer, it was also off the back of a spectacular implosion.

Next up, a state of decline and karrigan’s eventual removal, which was either a coup or an agreed-upon decision depending on who you ask. One thing is clear: no matter who says what, FaZe have not brought in a dedicated in-game leader since December 2018 – whether by design or transfer failures is a somewhat irrelevant question on such a timescale. The closest they currently have to a tactical mastermind is YNk.

Ah yes, it’s the “NiKo-as IGL” question again with all its Shakespearean undertones. You might recall the many discussions around the time when NiKo was stuck in the mousesports dungeon: surrounded by vastly inferior players, he took the mantle of the in-game leader and kept calling around himself, putting in monster performances which were still only enough for the occasional playoff spot. At the time, there were many who thought this approach diminished his teammates to such an extent that it was a counterproductive effort – of course, the later careers of the various players involved in that squad (see also: Spiidi, denis). The problem with NiKo the in-game leader is the very fact that you’re using him as an IGL – you’d get more out of him as the dedicated star alongside a dedicated in-game leader, and it’s no coincidence his best career tournament results came from the time when he actually had one alongside him.

It will be fascinating to see how G2 will square this particular circle if the transfer goes through – but perhaps just as importantly, it would open up a slate of new opportunities for FaZe’s not-so-superteam for their next adventure.

New-look FaZe: same as the old?

There’s no doubt G2 will have to fork over a decent chunk of change for NiKo’s signature, but there’s also no guarantee FaZe will want to reinvest that sum into their CS:GO operations. If you squint hard enough, you can see the outlines of a basic setup provided a good IGL is brought in: coldzera thrust into the star role (if only because you’d struggle to name a single dedicated lurker in recent years who could consistently secure wins for their team), rain as the entry with a bit less dirty work to do, broky on the AWP and… well, Kjaerbye already looks like the odd one out, doesn’t he?

For what it’s worth, bringing in an IGL in the current environment is a fairly challenging prospect. With multiple orgs entering CS and sometimes looking to replicate FaZe’s international approach, the pool of available in-game leaders is fairly limited, as evidenced by the team’s own previous tryouts. Even beyond their failed attempts at finding a fifth on the cheap once they ditched karrigan, they apparently tried out pronax and even Aleksib, with no signing to materialize. Where else do you go? Pray HappY is willing to try something other than lurking in the new decade? Bring back karrigan? Give the Godfather of Brazilian CS an offer he can’t refuse, likely blowing coldzera’s top off in the process?

You’ll note how all these names – or indeed, the potential free agents in general – are experienced players rather than the sort of exciting newcomers FaZe ended up going for recently with broky and Bymas. The IGL role in a team full of stars (especially ones who aren’t performing as well as they used to) necessitates incredible people skills and experience beyond the CS acumen. Unlike a C9 or an OG a few months ago, they can’t even offer a blank check of a clean slate for their prospective leader as it seems impossible to ship out the rest of this expensively assembled squad, which makes it even more unlikely that they can get a big-name in-game leader as it seems tough to imagine how they could tempt someone from another top team to join their floundering project.

There’s also the question of how disruptive you even want to be in the middle of a pandemic. Criticize FaZe as much as you want for the cheapo punts they took on AdreN and NEO (then broky and Bymas), the same sort of baby’s-first-Moneyball attempts would actually make a lot of sense right now when every result is fleeting due to online play and no proper bootcamps. Even if the best IGL was available – and willing to join – is it worth paying top dollar at this moment in time when teambuilding basically equals online scrims and maybe a friendly game of Among Us or two?

(Wonder who would be the impostor on this FaZe roster. Food for thought…)

Maybe you just take the NiKo money, keep skidding towards the bottom of the rankings for a little while longer, bide your time and plan for a large-scale rebuild sometimes in 2021? Of all the bad options they have, this is perhaps the most serviceable.

Photo credit: HLTV

Though the the Brazilians and the Poles peaked at very different times, the two legendary cores with a historic fall from grace have similar stories to tell. It’s a path riddled with upvoted match threads about upset losses, Twitter dramas, wasted invite slots and outstaying your welcome. It seems there’s still a sting in the tale of the MIBR saga as FalleN shocked the world by stepping down – but whether there’s a pathway back to the top is a very different question at this point.

Dumpster fire

Luís Mira wasn’t kidding when he classified the trigger of MIBR’s triple kick as “a disastrous run of results”: the Brazilians followed up the chain of crushing defeats at ESL One Cologne with embarrassing losses in smaller online cups which were no doubt expected to be a lay-up for a team with their tenure. Instead, a quarter-final finish and a group stage exit followed at Eden Arena Malta Vibes Cup 9 and 10, both embarrassing for different reasons. The loss to a neutered MAD Lions was notable because of the insane scoreline (1-16 Train, 6-16 Vertigo) and the direct contrast it served to the Flashpoint Season 1 final, but the back-to-back losses to PACT and Galaxy Racer which led to a group stage elimination a few days later were arguably even worse. Can you name a single player from either roster without looking them up?

Next up, another loss to a husk of a tier three Danish side: even a severely weakened Copenhagen Flames managed to get one over them in the opener of the Vie.gg Legend Series, with another 2-1 victory in the group stage decider. They would go on to lose to Heretics in the quarter-finals. That is the level of opposition MIBR was struggling against nowadays, and the roster moves were long overdue for the side.

TACO and fer are gone from the roster alongside their disgraced coach, and now it seems FalleN is pining for the arch-lemming role in following his mates down the cliff. It seems the man who made his career by ruthlessly cutting players and finding the best up-and-coming talent has lost his touch. Meanwhile, newly crowned IGL kNg did an oopsie on Twitter once again, though it remains to be seen whether his spat with gaules was just regular-level stupid or career-jeopardizing-level stupid this time around. No doubt the soap opera will continue for a while, but one has to wonder whether there’s any precedent to such a complete implosion in CS:GO history. VP’s slow-motion fall from grace is immediately what comes to mind to most, so does the comparison make sense? Let’s wind back the clock and remember the good times while the dumpster fire rages on.

Made in Keyd Stars

To think it’s been almost three years since FalleN’s last big tournament win. It was the final of ESL Pro League Season 6, a 3-1 win over a FaZe Clan side in its prime. Still under the SK Gaming banner, they decimated FaZe after an opening map loss (13-16 Inferno, 16-11 Overpass, 16-9 Mirage, 19-16 Train). A semi-final loss to Cloud9 at the infamous Boston Major followed, the event where they notoriously opted against practicing with felps, their fifth squad member in the Valve-sponsored event instead of boltz at the time. It turned out to be the beginning of the end for that side, and the only trophy in their cabinet as MIBR still remains that early ZOTAC Cup Masters win from August 2018 thanks to triumphs over minnows like Flash Gaming, MVP PK and Team Kinguin.

It’s a far cry from the team that shocked the world, the plucky Brazilians so far from home and with so little money they needed help to even make it to the big European LANs. Though it’s the 2016-2017 run we tend to remember about the team, let’s not forget about the year that came before either, with a string of near misses and devastating turnarounds in their opponents’ favor which would have no doubt cracked a lesser side. It was art from adversity that formed FalleN’s best teams: now, it’s arT who’s the adversary in Brazil, and it seems the Godfather of Brazilian CS no longer has the stranglehold on the region he used to.

The story of the Virtus.plow

Every top team begins as an underdog, and VP was no exception to this rule. Though the CS:GO-era side is often mistakenly referred to as “the Golden Five” (when in fact that was the ’06-’08 roster featuring LUq, Loord and kuben alongside TaZ and NEO), the quintet that was such a force of nature in CS:GO only came together under the Universal Soldiers banner in 2013.  – They didn’t even make the playoffs at DreamHack Winter 2013, losing to NiP 16-4 on Inferno in their group. After a few twists and turns, they were eventually picked up in early 2014 by Virtus.pro – and less than two months later they scored the biggest possible upset by beating out the Ninjas on home soil in the grand finals of the second CS:GO Major in history. It remains their only such title to this day – and likely forever.

From that point on, they remained a force to be reckoned with in the scene for years, and they were renowned for surviving slumps without resorting to roster changes, adjusting roles over and over again to reinvigorate their existing synergies. First it was in 2016 that the vultures began circling, early eliminations in many tournaments, albeit often to the eventual winners, but they closed the year out strong, with their victory in ELEAGUE Season 1 perhaps the high point of that period.

A notoriously long contract extension followed, with a runner-up finish at the next Major and an emphatic win in DreamHack Masters Las Vegas after, but nothing was the same after that, as embarrassing exits to hitherto unknown teams kept piling up, stinking up the place on LAN with invite slots earned from past glories rather than recent accomplishments, with eventual knee-jerk roster moves which couldn’t remove the rot which set in at the heart of the project.

Sounds familiar? At least Immortals Gaming Club was willing to pull the plug proper.

The end of the road

So to recap, Virtus.Pro’s tale is a rise out of nowhere followed by a string of near-misses and resurrections until an eventual complete collapse, with relevant competitive performances for over five years in the CS:GO era. You’d be hard-pressed to say the same about the Brazilians of FalleN, who had a higher ceiling, a bigger mouth and an infinitely lower soil. They were also denied the chance to upset the odds on home soil, not just because of the cancellation of the Rio Major but the wipeout of their RMR points due to their (now former) coach’s involvement with the spectator bug controversy.

Also, say what you will about VP, their coach didn’t get banned for cheating, they didn’t get embarrassingly upstaged by a domestic rival and they didn’t conduct themselves in the way FalleN and co. do on social media as their project continues to spin out of control. Both of these legendary squads are now consigned to the history books of CS, even if a plurality of the players are still around in zombie form, shredding their respective legacies at every turn. FalleN promised a new chapter, but history is not on his side. It’s a testament to your greatness when everyone else adapts your innovation, but it also makes it very difficult to stay on the top from that point on – the Napoleonic fate, if you will.

You could argue they served up their last great performance against each other in the epic best-of-five final of EPICENTER 2017, a competition where no one expected the Poles to even make it out of the groups who have long ago faded into the twilight by then. It’s an exciting series that stood the test of time (even if Cobblestone was involved in the affair), and if you want to get a glimpse of why these squads retained such loyalty from their fans for such a long time, you could do worse than watching it again. For fans of VP and then-SK, those were much happier times.

Featuring Dendi, MSS, Lelis, and Lyrical - the pros of the dota world (yes Lyrical counts, pro caster duh) explain THE MYSTERIES that have long plagued us. How does Axe counter helix and not get tangled up? Where exactly is Morphling putting his boots? Is the shopkeeper secretly terrified of ghosts? Dendi has the answers, Lyrical the conspiracy theories, and MSS and Lelis fill in all the blanks in between. Dota 2 pros explain the BIG questions in dota, the mysteries we all face. And shout out to Rocksoftcookie and his 3 things I don't understand about dota series for asking some of these in the first place!

Looking for more great content? Try some Techies!

It’s almost like we’ve traveled back in time to a more innocent (and more annoying) era of Counter-Strike.

I’ve just been in this time before

Sometimes I get a strong sense of déjà vu when I sit down to watch the day’s Pro League matches. In a way, it’s a testament to Counter-Strike’s enduring success that the core gameplay experience remained the same for so long, and a proof of the professional contingent’s talents that many of them are still around to fight it out at the highest levels after all these years. Still, with all competitive play happening online, coaches doing odd shenanigans and many lower-level teams being investigated for matchfixing in ESEA MDL and the like, I can’t shake off the sensation that I was transferred back to 2015. Every time JW does something like this only compounds my suspicions that a time machine was involved in this somehow.

Depending on how you look at it, the scattered esports landscape of 2020 either shows the inherent fragility or the durable nature of our industry. Many competitions which revolved around LAN play are shuttered and struggling, yet the large boost in viewer count at the time when the whole world ground to a halt – including traditional sports – highlighted the massive growth potential of the scene even to those who were forever skeptical about the idea of watching people play video games.

And yet, these newly converted CS:GO fans won’t appreciate the irony of how far we were knocked back in terms of production levels and the sort of problems we’re facing. High-stakes games are once again played online with all the issues which accompany that sort of thing – with the notable exception of constant DDoS attacks – while teams and players on the lower rungs of the ladder are thrust into an even more desperate situation than usual, which no doubt played a part in the re-emergence of matchfixing allegations in ESEA MDL and the like.

And then there’s the whole issue with coaches doing things they probably shouldn’t, to the extent that there’s now a real worry that Valve may once again crack down on the role of the sixth man behind the curtain in a bid to make pro play look more like the regular affair. It’s become much harder to argue with a straight face that no shenanigans are going on in the background once you consider how long this bug was apparently an open secret among the competitors and how widespread its use was over the years. It’s not quite Devilwalk gleefully admitting that they kept the infamous olofboost a secret instead of reporting it to Valve live on air, but it’s clear that there are still many who value short-term benefits to long-term stability in CS:GO esports. To them, all I can say is what moses tweeted out a few days ago in so many words: you’re fucking this up for everyone.

https://twitter.com/MosesGG/status/1301201999774519309

Valve’s deafening silence can’t be tolerated any longer

Speaking of feeling like it’s 2015, Valve remains just as passive and inscrutable as ever. Except now this attitude is costing people more money and livelihoods are at risk because they can’t be bothered to communicate properly with the community. We’re in the middle of perhaps the biggest cheating controversy in top-level CS with the whole coach bug kerfuffle just as we’re still trying to figure out whether the biggest Major in the game’s history will get the go-ahead in the COVID-ransacked hellscape of late 2020. So far, all we’ve got from Valve is the patch notes. It also took community members to identify the smoke grenade exploit, and all the outrage in about the Yeah/MIBR situation got us is that Valve merely wanted us to discuss it in the open instead of properly enforcing the pretty harsh conflict of interest rules they put in place a while ago.

It’s not just the teams but the TOs as well that are getting the silent treatment – and it’s a sword which cuts both ways. Thorin’s recent tirade on By the Numbers pretty much confirmed how Flashpoint’s second season is adversely affected by all the unknown unknowns on the calendar, but if you go back further, Valve also dropped the ball at the Berlin Major with their non-handling of the StarLadder DMCA controversy. At this point, even knowing whether we’ll have a Major this year or not seems to be too much to ask for. If, like me, you hoped that Valve will start treating CS:GO better now that it overtook Dota by so many metrics, it seems you’re sorely mistaken.

Then again, maybe we should be careful what we wish for. It only takes a quick glance at the Dota world to realize how things could actually get even worse than this. Just look at Dota’s barren August and the limited clarification this blog post has brought a few days ago. For what it’s worth, at least they are quite consistent now in the way they handle their two big esports titles: complete radio silence and neglect regardless of the specifics. One step forward, circa twenty backward.

HenryG drops the mic for good

Many of Counter-Strike’s hypest moments owe their commentary to Henry Greer, one of the few CS pros who successfully made the transition to the other side of the silver screen. We already know from traditional sports that most ex-players are relegated to short analytic snippets or a drama queen role in the studio under the guise of “analysis”, and it’s a testament to HenryG’s dedication and skillset that he gave such a good account of himself both as a player and as a commentator over the years.

His casting style was a breath of fresh air after years of false equivalency and fake hype in one-sided clutch situations. Will the CT clutch the 1v4 retake? Everything is possible! Oh wait, he’s just saving. Listening to Henry calling it like it is, even if he didn’t have a 100% track record – let’s face it, no one does – was a nice change of pace from the early years of CS casting, and those rare occasions when the player pulled off the impossible were made all the more memorable by his genuine astonishment as things were turned around.

Now it’s our turn to be astonished by the abrupt conclusion of a stellar casting career. It’s not the ending we wanted but perhaps it’s the one we deserved: no swan song at a Major, just a short interview instead. His next adventure at Cloud9 as their general manager will serve as a fascinating contrast with moses’ efforts – and regardless of how it ends up, someone who’s seen and done it all more than deserves it to be able to quit on his own terms, a legacy well and truly secured.

Photo credit: HLTV

This should have been the high point of the Dota calendar. It’s shortly after TI, just as the DPC awakens from its slumber, new hopes and possibilities abound, perhaps with a patch or two to shake up the meta. Early September would be the time of shock roster moves, sad retirements and exciting arrivals, the beginning of a new era of perhaps the continuation of what came before. No matter whether it’s a Secret quarter-final exit or a VP choke or an OG shock that keeps everyone on their toes, Dota fans would certainly have something to talk about. Instead, it took until September 4 to get a few breadcrumbs instead of the usual feast, a sad reminder of how a benign ruler can quickly turn into a neglectful one under the wrong circumstances.

Schrödinger’s DPC

You can’t blame Valve for a pandemic. No one was ready for a scourge that would stop the world, even if the esports industry was among the few which had a ready-made escape hatch to the online realm. The LAN calendar was disrupted across each and every game, with no end in sight for the forced postponements and cancellations. By itself, the decision to push back TI10 to 2021 and to look at the long-overdue reconstruction of the bloated DPC system in the meantime makes sense. No one having any idea what’s going on in September… doesn’t.

It never feels right to bring it up, but it doesn’t make it any less true: esports remains a marketing tool for the game developers who maintain control with an iron fist over their title, holding on to licenses and access with little to no exception, and it’s tough to make anything happen without their support, implicit or otherwise. Though Valve didn’t quite pull a Blizzard with the Dota scene and haven’t fully suffocated the third-party scene, many TOs’ face turned blue over the last few years. Good luck holding a top tier event with the biggest teams in the world while they are gunning for DPC points! Regardless of the prestige or the prize pool, your tournament will inevitably end up at the back of the queue and the bottom of the priority list. Just ask ESL about their ill-fated efforts in Mumbai.

https://twitter.com/1437x/status/1300835890697125888

Imagine any other competition operating under a similar cloud. Even in the case of traditional sports, you could read about the non-stop wrangling and negotiations by the interested parties as everyone tried to get things off the ground again. Now the deity has deigned to drop a blogpost with more questions than answers, more a set of suggestions than a proper road map in these trying times.

At the end of the day, is this a baked-in facet of esports competition, the complete control of the developers who can just drop everything at the drop of a hat when they feel like it? The power imbalance between the different stakeholders is staggering, and one of the first big lessons learned by non-endemic investors who come from the world of traditional sports. One day, these issues will go to court. In the meantime, we’re stuck with Valve, Riot and the rest.

At this juncture, it’s simply not realistic to make your own esports scene with blackjack and hookers if you want to fill the void created by the developers. It’s a simple equation: if it’s small enough, it’s not worth the effort. If it’s big enough, the devs will swoop in to take over, even at the cost of overall reach and market share. They will even feel good about it. Just ask Blizzard about StarCraft 2 and KeSPA, or Riot and basically every single one of their partners. When everything comes down to Valve, and they take so long to provide so little, why would you stick along for GabeN’s crazy ride? Geek Fam and Reality Rift certainly didn’t.

Meanwhile, the prize pool of TI10 keeps breaking records day after day. At least we’ve got a tentative date for it. August* 11** 2021***, Stockholm****, each subject to change.

Staring into the Crystal Eye

What’s Dota esports without the allure of TI? The struggles of the tier 2 scene and the aforementioned blue-faced TOs were all acceptable to the various parties as long as they could eventually play a part in competitive gaming’s showpiece event. The last few months should be a major warning (pun absolutely intended) for everyone involved, an accelerator of the various discussion topics which periodically cropped up in the scene, never to be resolved in a satisfactory manner. The top-heavy nature of the Dota scene, the broadcasting rights issues, the challenges of attracting newcomers. We’ve been here before

It’s no secret that Dota player counts are down from where they used to be, and that online competition doesn’t make up for the real deal, regardless of whether you’re a player or a fan. Whether these issues will be adequately addressed remains to be seen. However, we can already tell that Valve’s statement about tournament broadcasts doesn’t amount to as much as it used to, for the simple reason that they couldn’t be bothered to follow up on their bolsterous statements in the CS:GO scene, much to the surprise of that community. Though the situation isn’t quite the same, just bring up “StarLadder DMCA” to any fan and watch their face turn red from rage. While you’re there, maybe add “MiBR and Yeah” for an added bit of fun.

Valve’s blog post has already attracted its fair share of criticism for not clearing up the pressing matters in a conclusive way, which is nothing new. It seems enforcement isn’t really on the mind of this international behemoth of a gaming company. Despite the cracks in the wall and the occasional collapsed ceiling, the castle still stands strong, and the minions will keep trying their best to fix them up as much as possible. Meanwhile, the king is away on a forever hunt for a very different kind of game. Letting people do their thing is wonderful as long as the things are good and the doing is actually happening. Right now, Valve’s behavior feels more neglectful than benign.

Valve Updates the Community on the Competitive Dota 2 Scene

After a tumultuous few weeks in the Dota 2 scene, Valve has spoken up with a surprisingly detailed (detailed for Valve) blog post about their plans for the competitive scene AND an elusive ruling on the topic of exclusivity and broadcast rights for professional matches.

Before we dive in, a bit of background on the two issues at hand.

The DPC (or lack of it)

Back in February, Valve announced that the 2020-2021 DPC season would consist of three majors, no minors, and a series of online regional leagues. However, in light of the global pandemic and the postponement of TI10, the entire schedule was thrown into chaos. While we as a community expected delays and an unconventional year, the regional leagues seemed like the obvious stop gap for the scene while we waited for the return of in person events. Valve didn't see it that way.

In the above tweet, Valve announced that pretty much everything was on hold - and the community was NOT happy. Players, casters, and community members saw a reliable future deteriorate with questions of stability plaguing everyone. This morning's announcement about Geek Fam and Reality Rift dropping their rosters, with the lack of a DPC system being a large factor in the decision.

Broadcast Exclusivity

The topic of broadcast exclusivity isn't new at all, and our article last week sums up most of the history around it. However it was a tweet from Kyle attacking SingSing (and a subsequent apology and longer explanation) that really got the conversation going again. The ultimate problem is most simply described as this: Valve's stance on non-tournament affiliated casters is that they were free to broadcast and cover tournament streams, depriving tournament organizers of the ability to provide exclusivity to sponsors. This impacts TOs abilities to fund their tournaments, limits the talent they can hire, and deprives them of the budget to innovate and improve.

Valve's NEW Stance on Broadcast Exclusivity

Valve has decided to update their stance on third party streamers, stating that "Organizers that run Dota 2 Tournaments will have to provide community streamers with a reasonable and simple to execute set of non-monetary requirements, such as displaying the organizers sponsors on their streams or having a slight delay on the games. Community streamers will be able to use the DotaTV feed in their broadcast as long as they agree to those requirements."

While this isn't exactly exclusivity, it does ensure that tournament sponsors will have visibility on ALL tournament coverage.

Unfortunately, as with many Valve blog posts, we are left with a few questions. Will TOs have the ability to DMCA community streamers that do not follow their posted guidelines? Or does that responsibility still lie with Valve? (This might just be answered by someone with a better understanding of what the term 'Dota license' covers and means in this case). Will TOs comply with providing 'simple' requirements? Or will they intentionally ignore and block out streamers they don't want covering their event? How far ahead of a time will a streamer need to clear covering a game?

This is a step, but a first step. (And almost identical to the one they took with CSGO last year). A step that does, once again, leave out a lot of specifics and leave the onus on the TOs to navigate community backlash for looking to protect their sponsor relationships.

What About the Competitive Circuit?

The majority of the blog post looks to give some clarity around TI10 and resuming the normal DPC system, as well as justifying the lack of regional leagues. The quick takes are these: TI10 will likely be in Stockholm with an aim of August 2021. Valve hopes to resume the DPC starting in early 2021 if possible. There will be no DPC point related events until that time, and EU/CIS/China have a lot of unannounced third party events planned for the next several months. They also state that they will be looking to provide assistance to run events in the regions that currently look pretty empty.

Does this actually fix anything?

Not exactly. Communication and some transparency are both very helpful, but in a scene where everything has been about getting to TI (or at least to a LAN) - a series of fairly meaningless online events with the same casters, the same players, and nothing really on the line (what's $100K in light of a 34 million dollar event?).

North and South America as well as South East Asia have, are, and will struggle without the DPC to guarantee visibility to sponsors. Viewers struggle to find a reason to care while watching these games, and the rivalries between teams doesn't mean much when nothing is really on the line.

This last part comes as a bit of doom and gloom - but obviously this isn't all bad. The community has a better idea of what is coming for them, and teams and players know that there are plans for resuming the DPC at some point in the semi near future. But as always, we are left a bit lacking on specifics and the hands on approach many crave.

Need something a little more fun? Try one of our latest videos:

Explosions, Chaos, and absolute MAYHEM. Squee, Spleen, and Spoon, know ever so fondly as ‘the Techies’ were released six years ago with a bang during the TI4 all-star match To celebrate, here is a look at THE SIX BEST Techies MOMENTS in Dota 2.

Number Six: OG vs VG at TI9

We’re starting off this video with a bit of a fizzle as we work our way up to the fireworks - OG may not have won this game (or the Techies game they tried at the Epicenter Major a couple months before) but they definitely had some fun along the way...

Number Five: The Arteezy Reveal at TI4

For those of us among the crowd, this reveal hype alone gets this into the top 6 Techies moments of all time. Even if Arteezy and his teammates were a bit… unfamiliar with how to best handle the hero.

Number Four: EG vs Ehome at TI5

Although not the epic EG vs Ehome comeback that would happen a year later at TI6, Aui2000’s Techies moved regularly all over the map to harass CTY in any lane he moved to, constantly pushing in lanes and make space, and functioning as Techies functions - pure unadulterated annoyance.

Number Three: Team Secret.Kuroky Techies against Fnatic at ESL One Frankfurt

With a crowd going wild at the pick and a Zai Tuskar to combo with it, this was a beautifully executed Techies. The game saw endless carnage at Radiant’s safelane tower during the laning stage, and then a SIX MAN TEAM WIPE in the midlane. The game only got better for Kuro from there, with double and triple kills demolishing Fnatic again and again across the map.

Number Two: Techies & Pudge picked by Wings up against DC at TI6

From the team that could make anything work (usually), is it a surprise to anyone that they gave the absolute pub strat a try? For pure courage, or ego, alone - this Techies game earns second place.

Number One, the first place, the best Techies in pro Dota 2 goes to Aui_2000 during his time on EG as they played vs CDEC at TI5

Aui played Techies (and really any four position) in a way that teams just weren’t prepared for. He farmed and pushed, constantly making space for his team, forcing rotations and movements from CDEC. His stasis usage, utility, and overall play style made sure that EG’s presence at TI5 was explosive, with a beyond godlike performance to cement him as the best of Techies in Dota 2.

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It’s safe to say not even the biggest Heroic fan would have predicted them to win ESL One Cologne’s European bracket, and their run has to be considered one of the greatest upsets in modern Counter-Strike history. How does it stack up against the era-defining surprises of the past? Take a trip down memory lane with us and enjoy a few legendary CS:GO clips with all the crowd noise we wish we could have right now!

6) NiP Magic flickers one last time at IEM Oakland 2017

“holy fuck the chip spam worked” – this was the highest-rated Reddit comment after an incredible performance by the Ninjas, still featuring all but one of the legendary core on what was perhaps their last great adventure. It was one of the most improbable of title defenses as they topped Group A featuring SK and Astralis, beating the Brazilians 2-1 before setting up the grand final matchup with the still indomitable karrigan-led FaZe Clan side. It was their first title since the previous year’s Oakland event, and even though the international team crushed the Swedes on their own map picks (16-7 on Inferno and Overpass), losing on Cobble and Train set up Cache as a decider where Xizt turned back the clock with an incredible individual performance, as his team clinched multiple eco rounds to crawl to the title.

Even though it’s only been three and a half years since then, most of the players involved in this monster match are way past the point of competing on a stage of similar stature. With mousesports out of the top ten and the Dignitas core sinking far below the sightlines, only NiKo and rain remain near the top from this ten. Are you feeling old yet?

5) BIG wins the first big title of the online era in the spring

For a team that lost to Movistar Riders in the qualifiers of the Europe Minor qualifiers just as we were entering into the online era (not to mention their joint-last finish in ESL Pro League Season 11, albeit with a 2-3 score and on tiebreakers), rising to the top of the pile was nothing short of sensational, especially once you consider what followed after. Pulling off the ultimate comeback against a surging G2 in the grand final of DreamHack Masters Spring 2020 turned out to be a mere sign of things to come.

Still, the BIG core already has some decent pedigree thanks to deep Major runs in the past, and at the time you could still argue that the online results shouldn’t be taken so seriously, which means tabseN and co. can’t quite push past some of the other candidates on this list.

4) DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018: MSL’s finest hour

It was August 2018, just as the teams emerged from the dark wilderness of the player break. With the Major looming large, the stacked field in Stockholm seemed like a harbinger of things to come. Instead, it brought surprise after surprise: group stage eliminations for fnatic and NRG, defeats to FaZe Clan and Na’Vi in the quarter-finals, then the rest of the madness.

North actually topped their group ahead of Astralis, winning 2-1 thanks to an overtime win on Mirage despite a huge comeback masterminded by gla1ve. They then demolished Na’vi with a 16-3 Train and a 16-9 Inferno, but it was perhaps their win over mousesports which highlighted their newfound resilience the most: despite a 16-0 loss on Dust 2 to open the series, they clawed their way back with a 16-14 win on Inferno, securing their spot in the grand final with a 16-12 Mirage game.

There’s no better way to put it: they demolished Astralis on Dust 2 the very next day, winning 16-1, and even though they lost their own map pick of Train 16-6, they still had the fortitude to close out the series on Overpass with ten out of twelve T rounds in the second half. Watching from home, it felt like entering a mirror universe.

Of course, we all remember what came next: Astralis dominated the FACEIT London Major immediately thereafter as North crashed out the New Challengers Stage due to losses against HellRaisers, Team Spirit and Vega Squadron. They have not made it to the final of an S-Tier event since then.

3) The Miracle of Massachusetts: Cloud9 win the Boston Major

Perhaps this choice is controversial. Wasn’t North America’s only Major title one of the biggest upsets in CS:GO history? Well, yes, which is why it makes top three on our list. However, what most of us don’t recall anymore is that even though Cloud9 (and NA teams in general) had a horrible record at the Majors, the Skadoodle/RUSH/Tarik/automatic/Stewie2K quintet was ranked fifth in the world, ahead of fnatic and G2. They made it to the semis of the aforementioned IEM Oakland event shortly before they went to Boston, and had quite a few other deep runs on their resumé in 2017, which means that as incredible as their accomplishment was, Heroic’s run was even more out of the blue than FaZe Clan’s most painful defeat.

Still, there’s always that Inferno B hold to savor.

2) Heroic’s heroics in Cologne

It’s remarkable how quick the rise of this Heroic roster was. This is only the fourth tournament they competed in with this particular lineup, and they only survived the group stage thanks to a head-to-head win against the basement dwellers of North, losing to Team Vitality in the first playoff round soon thereafter. Just as BIG scored their first big win, they finished 9-12th. This placed them in 24th on the HLTV rankings at the time.

What came since then was nothing short of spectacular, with a fourth-placed finish at cs_summit 6 followed by a silver medal at DreamHack Open Summer 2020’s European bracket, with two losses to BIG over the course of the event. And now? The five plucky Danish heroes slayed each and every dragon in their path, and even if HUNDEN fell by the wayside, their dominant run through the playoff makes them the team to watch going forward in the online era.

1) Zeus fulfills his destiny in Krakow

And yet, there’s nothing more incredible – or depending on your point of view, a bigger fluke – in CS:GO tournament history than Gambit’s Major win in Poland, a team stuck in fifteenth place on the HLTV rankings at the time that also lost “every online match and practice” during the run-up to the set-piece event. It’s no wonder the two Majors with the most unexpected winners featured the most variance due to a best-of-one unseeded Swiss group bracket: Gambit earned their spot in the playoffs thanks to a 16-10 win over a mousesports side still featuring lowel, an impressive 16-6 against G2 and a 16-11 win over a VP side on the tail end of their glistening careers. They followed this up with a straightforward 2-0 against the recently reassembled legendary fnatic lineup which was still shaking off the effects of its recent GODSENT-infusion (only to be torn apart by FaZe swooping in for olof), following up with the series of the tournament in their close-fought 2-1 win over Astralis. The final against the rookies of Immortals felt like an undercard battle of lightweights, though it did have its fair share of legendary moments.

Boom. Sour grapes or not, zeus’ redemption arc and fulfilled promise remains one of the most appealing storylines of CS:GO history, and a historic upset we won’t see topped anytime soon.

Photo credit: HLTV

Once upon a time, a long time ago in a faraway land, where metas were fun and heroes were balanced, the legends of Dota were born.

Today, we tell the tale of how the DPC came to be - the problems in Dota, the storylines along the way, and the ultimate evolution of a competitive circuit. For esports fans new and old - this is for you.

Five years ago, Valve announced The Majors, the beginning of what would become the DPC as we know it today.

No esports scene is perfect, and while Dota has plenty of ways to improve, let's take a look back at the scene in 2015

Problems in Dota 2, Before the Majors

Rosters shuffled constantly, and there were no RULES around it. The only unwritten rule was that TI invited rosters were set in stone. Fnatic fought to compete with Xcalibur, rather than Era in TI4, with nothing other than emails from Valve to determine who was allowed to compete

Era ended up playing at TI4, and Fnatic came in 13th-14th place, forced to stick with the roster that was invited to TI

And while we are on the topic of invites... guessing who would be invited to TI was a FUN GAME FOR FANS - less fun if you were one of the players wondering if you would need to play qualifiers or if you were already in. And the system for invites? A closed Valve decision, with zero transparency.

As one article put it "While TI shines like a beacon for everything good and glamorous about competitive gaming, it only lasts for a few days in the summer. Once its bright lights have been shut down and the massive Seattle venue has been emptied out, players are left to their own devices for the rest of the year."

And ultimately, little to no communication from Valve was the unfortunate standard of care for the Dota 2 scene.

And so - the majors were born. This gave teams an idea of the schedule to expect, pumped in tons of prize pool to the scene (3 million per major), and added somewhat clear and rigid roster rules to look to protect players

Before we jump into the Majors, we have to acknowledge DAC 2015, the event that was clearly the testing ground for the higher prize pool and hjigher budget majors to come - featuring over 3 million in prize pool, a dedicated compendium, and the almost debut of now superstar SumaiL

The Dota 2 Majors

Now, into the actual majors! Frankfurt, presented by ESL, was the first event to roll around. OG claimed their first title, starting a legacy of success that no one could have predicted.

Shanghai was next up, with Team Secret winning their first Valve title. Unfortunately for their legacy, few really focus on their succes and instead... remember a few other things from that major

Not only was Shanghai the source of IMMENSE production and event failures, the roster aftermath was bloody - to say the least. Arteezy and Universe left EG to join Secret, Bulba and Aui 2000 left DC to join EG, and DC picked up w33ha from Secret's kick. All in the space of a week or so due to the harsh constraints of the Major roster rules.

Secret and EG ended up in last at the Manila Major, leaving an easy field for OG to roll over everyone and grab another title. More roster chaos ensued, with the deadlines imposed by Valve pushing both EG AND Secret through the open qualifiers for TI. That's right, TI5 champions and Shanghai Major winners had to play open qualifiers to make it into TI6.

And then the team they both poached from ending up in second place.... go figure.

So... after the first year we were left with three majors that took about a month each, far too rigid roster locks, and multiple week long qualifiers for the next Major.

All of that meant that third party tournaments suffered, teams made forced roster change decisions, and last minute kicks could mean some players were unfairly left team less. So then they cut it down to two Majors for the next year.

It wasn't just one less Major to free up the schedule, majors also got condensed, moving into a single elimination (rather than double) format - making way for one of the best story lines in the history of Dota - Ad Finem. OG won that event, but Ad Finem's performance, and enthusiasm, will always be what is most remembered. OG felt that three Major titles weren't enough, so they picked up a fourth at the Kiev Major. But even with this system, we still lacked invite transparency, and the guessing games of who would make it to TI continued. And with this, the Dota 2 Pro Circuit was born.

The Dota 2 Pro Circuit

A series of Majors and Minors, with half the prize pool contributed by Valve, would be run by third party tournament organizers.

Majors were worth more points than minors, and at the end of the season, the top 8 point earning teams were directly invited to TI. Points were attached to players rather than rigid roster deadlines, with penalties for roster moves outside of approved trading windows

While this season was fun - it was messy. ESL and Starladder DMCAs threatened viewer access to tournaments, while drug testing and player safety concerns meant that one major got downgraded. Teams traveled and played non stop, and minors meant for the T2 scene got flooded by tier 1 teams stacking up loads of points, and some TOs dissapeared without ever paying out their prize pool or talent fees.

With no clear guidelines on what teams could be invited and what formats could be used, this system lacked the tier 2 support that Valve was pursuing,

And that is how we landed on the 5 majors and minors system that most current Dota fans are most familiar with.

Qualifying points moved to sitting with teams rather than players, and even less rigid roster locks resulted. Minor winners earned themselves a spot to the Major, and most of the qualifying points came from those Majors. Unfortunately, open qualifiers started RIGHT after the Major ended, leaving teams with little to no time to make roster changes, fly home, practice - anything. The schedule was too full, and players suffered.

The next season of the DPC remained mostly the same, but with more space between the end of Major events and the qualifiers, and a single qualifier for both the minors and the majors. This iteration didn't get to finish, but we did have some fun memories along the way.

This system has starved out third party tournaments from the schedule and still failed to properly support a healthy t2 scene. Now, we wait to see the next iteration of the DPC, where we return to three Majors and see regional leagues that hopefully develop and prop up the tier 2 and 3 scenes

And there is the tale of the evolution of the DPC system - with iterations and changes every year in the hopes to sustainably support the Dota 2 ecosystem. Players, teams, tournaments and Valve all battle to find a balance. Perhaps regional leagues will be the happily ever after Dota 2 has been looking for

Famous Cosplayers Who Don't Play Dota Rate Dota 2 Low Cost Cosplays

In an event starved world, cosplayers have stepped forward to show their cardboard expertise in the great Dota 2 Cospobre movement of South America. But can these cosplayers stand up to the legacy of the low cost Vietnamese Dota 2 cosplays we once revered? It’s time to let our expert judges decide.

These people know everything about cosplay and NOTHING about Dota. Please welcome to the stage Ridd1e, PhDPool, and DJBluePDX as they make the ultimate decision in the finest of shitty Dota 2 cosplays. Will it be the Cospobre of South America, or the low cost vietnamese cosplay of the subreddit of days past that is deemed the BEST that Dota 2 can offer?

All comments all in good fun with love and respect to all cosplayers. Remember, the rules are made up and the points don’t matter - so let’s start assigning some random points! (And all cosplay is awesome, no matter the budget, style, or characters you choose - the judges were all very impressed!)

Your JUDGES:

• Ridd1e - https://www.instagram.com/ridd1e
• PhDPool - https://www.instagram.com/phdpool
• DBluePDX - https://twitter.com/DJBluePDX
• Narration by: Reinessa - https://twitter.com/ReinessaGaming

TIMESTAMPS:

• 0:30 - Clockwerk (SA)
• 2:15 - Arc Warden
• 3:40 - Techies (SA)
• 5:35 - Medusa
• 7:56 - Snapfire (SA)
• 9:04 - Bristleback
• 10:55 - Undying (SA)
• 12:25 - Windranger
• 14:20 - Treant Protector (SA)
• 15:40 - Nature's Prophet
• 17:50 - Score summaries

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoints of Rivalry.

Gorgc Leaves OG Over Casting Issues (Partially)

Recently, popular streamer Gorgc released a Twitlonger in which he stated "unfortunately what we set out doing in the start of me signing with OG to cast their games, has changed a lot when they started being involved in organising tournaments."

Again and again, the community has discussed third party casters vs tournament organizers, which just about anyone involved on the tournament side pointing out how the lack of exclusive broadcast rights impact budgets for tournaments, and many in the community trending towards the free market/competition arguments. Previously, OG had clearly hired Gorgc (in part) to cast their games and provide unqiue fan interactions - something that directly competes with tournament streams . Now that OG has a vested stake in a major tournament (The Omega League) - Gorgc was no longer casting it. (It seems Bulldog hasn't been covering the Alliance games either). Based on the twitlonger, it looks like that casting decision was one of the main reasons for Gorgc and OG parting ways. (Obviously if there were events, Gorgc would likely have been there in person creating content, so that also factors into it).

Anyways, this decision seems like a very very clear message: It's okay to be a competing third party streamer, as long as you aren't involved in the tournament. Now that OG (and Alliance) have a stake? Looks like those third party streams aren't such a good idea anymore. I decided it would be a good idea to go through the history of broadcast rights and third party streamers in Dota 2, so everyone has a decent overview of the storylines.

If you would prefer a video form, the video is below outlines everything we will hit in this article, with timestamps, sources, and links in the video description if you go over to YouTube.

Back to the Beginning: Starladder Threatens Bulldog

Broadcast rights became a point of contention during the inaugeral event of the brand new DPC system in 2017 at the StarLadder i-League Invitational Season 3  when Starladder tried to threaten Bulldog for streaming their tournament. As a beloved caster, TI winner, and provider unique perspective on ongoing tournaments - the community wasn't very happy with this threat.

Valve Responds Quickly to Establish Broadcast Rights in Dota

Valve responded almost immediately to the controversy to establish and protect broadcast rights in Dota. Broadcast rights for third party streamers, not the tournaments. Their blog post outlined their approach towards community content, noting that "We tend to try to tread pretty lightly around areas where the community outside of Valve is doing a lot of the work, primarily because we don’t want to stifle invention that leads to someone doing something really cool."

Considering their approach around the workshop, lore, highlights, tournaments, short films and every other form of content - this makes sense. Valve benefits greatly from community innovation, design, and not having to hire people on staff to handle content when their focus is on development. This led them to ultimately saying that non-commercial broadcasts from DotaTV that don't use any caster audio or camera movement and are not sponsored or monetized are allowed.

Seems clear to you? Well, turns out, it wasn't.

The ESL x Facebook Deal Adds Fuel to the Fire

The next chapter in the great broadcast rights debate came in the form of an 'exclusive' broadcast rights deal signed between ESL and Facebook. Facebook was working towards their ability to live stream esports events, and it seemed that ESL was one of their first major test launches. Dota 2 viewers were met with glitched screens, streams that were challenging to even find, and their real names linked to their chat experience. (Plus a lot less emotes, a main stay of the Twitch experience to the vocal fans).

Streamers 'Save the Day' with Twitch Broadcasts

Twitch was flooded with streamers, casters, and players looking to provide a better alternative ESL stream - anything was better than Facebook, even someone in their bedroom with a questionable mic. Or well... they tried. ESL has different ideas as community streamers were hit with DMCAs and temporary Twitch bans.

ESL held their ground, insisting that they were following Valve's original guidelines across multiple posts.

Valve uh... decided they thought differently. In an updated blog post, they stated that "No one besides Valve is allowed to send DMCA notices" and reiterated that community figures and up and coming casters should be allowed to cast matches. Their language does specify that these third party casts should happen occasionally and again states that commercial organizations are not allowed to compete with the primary stream.

WePlay Didn't Get the Memo and DMCA'ed ColdFox for His Broadcast

WePlay, a TO many view as 'new' to the Dota 2 scene seemed to have missed Valve's memo, and issued a DMCA against a popular caster, ColdFox. (In addition to CIS caster Casper). The reddit debate raged aggressively on both sides - pointing out that DMCAs were not allowed by anyone but Valve, but also pointing out that by ColdFox's own admission, he made his money off of covering games as a third party caster. Kyle condemned streamers for theft of tournament content while Gorgc insisted that he wasn't taking away any viewers from the broadcasts.

An important note, WePlay has been running tournaments in Dota 2 since 2013.

AdmiralBulldog of course had his own opinion about Kyle's statements and the issue of broadcast rights - but he deleted them not too long after tweeting.

Community opinion went back and forth, with many insisting that if a streamer in their room can provide a better product than the TO themselves, the TO deserves to lose viewers. This opinion is widely shared, but seems a little out of place when discussing the talent roster, stage, production, and content of a WePlay stream (which is what the screenshots from reddit show below are from). This line of thought also fails to take into account the ability of OG to provide players for exclusive content to a Gorgc stream - which seems a lot like a commercial organization directly competing with the main stream?

Why are Broadcast Rights Relevant with Gorgc Leaving OG?

The reason that broadcast rights are fascinating to bring up again? The top teams have banded together to create the Omega League, a league where the teams themselves have a share/stake in the tournament's success, in addition to competing for the prize pool. Interesting that Bulldog and Gorgc, who have been defended as an alternative to the main cast, not taking away views, and not competing with the main stream, have 'chosen' not to cast the Omega League games.

Gorgc states in his twitlonger that he had originally signed with OG in order to cast their games, but now that he can't because of their tournament involvement, the partnership no longer makes sense.

OG signed Gorgc in order to provide exclusive fan content with their players, content that is not on the broadcast for the tournament that is offering large sums of prize money to these teams. OG is a commercial organization that is sponsoring the coverage of their games. Suddenly, when OG is the commercial organization they would be competing against, they choose to no longer offer that exclusive fan content through Gorgc.

This is the reason that this discussion is incredibly compelling right now. We don't know if OG themselves have made this ruling or if this was a stipulation of WePlay before they agreed to work with the teams. No matter what the reason, this is a clear signal that broadcast exclusivity is likely playing an important role in tournament monetization and sponsorship value. Which begs the question - why does Valve continue to limit the ways in which tournaments can monetize?

Tournaments NEED Better Revenue Options

This all boils down to the fact that Dota 2 either needs to rework their broadcast rights system, or tournaments need significantly better discoverability and monetization options. Pause screens could have simple GIF ads instead of mini games, in game space could have advertising baked in, loading screens could be video ads - meaning that anyone who watches DotaTV has sponsorship advertising up.

Third party casting could be limited to non-partnered streamers, or stricter rulings on competing organizations (like OG and Bulldog) having streamers covering the games. TOs could be promised platform exclusivity, with third party casts allowed on other platforms .

Proper ticketing, stream embeds, working with Twitch to highlight official coverage, the return of compendiums - all of these would help with the promotion, awareness, and viability of TOs.

(The above are options, not a list of every single thing that I think needs to be done - just food for thought)

People complain about a dying tier 2 scene and in the same breath defend third party streams to the death and insist TOs become more entertaining and innovative. It is time to fix this system and give TOs the incentive and ability to expand their tournament offerings while also creating products that viewers enjoy and actually know about. In no way am I saying that TOs aren't partially to blame here - there has been a stagnation in the tournament landscape for a while, but they face immense risk even in running an event.

I am sure the solutions aren't simple, but we haven't had any update or changes for about 2.5 years. It seems like it might be time.

Most of the changes made in light of the global pandemic feel like downgrades and temporary solutions, the virtual equivalent of duct tape in the world of esports. However, “art from adversity” seems to apply to CS:GO broadcasts as well, and some of the innovations seem good enough to become permanent parts of future tournaments as well once we get our long-awaited return to LAN.

Triple casting

Long-time CS fans may remember the awkward moment when Deman was shoved into the Anders-HenryG duo in the grand final of ESL One Cologne 2015, which pretty much canned any discussion of tri-casting for the next few years. ESL’s already experimented with the observers’ occasional inclusion in Pro League group stage matches, but it was only recently that they really seem to have found their groove with the different setups.

Currently, it feels like a three-person cast lives and dies on the individuals’ chemistry, and the third wheel needs to have some sort of special insight, either in the form of play-by-play casting ability like stunna or strong analysis chops like SPUNJ. Luckily, everyone’s favorite Aussie brings a unique combination of insight and banter with the occasional Skybox-enhanced mid-game round breakdowns (another aspect which would be nice to see more of in the future beyond just the regular round replays), and it’s one of those cases where a third person on the broadcast has actively enhanced the experience. It certainly shouldn’t become the new normal but it can definitely work with the right setup.

Fan cams

Traditional sports and esports alike have struggled to find a way to keep fans a part of the live experience even as it became impossible to hold large gatherings, with varying degrees of success. In terms of esports, the live crowd’s financial impact is much lower at this point in time than you would expect in something like football, making this a bit more of an academic exercise. There are always going to be excited viewers ready to supply the rest of us with secondhand embarrassment regardless of whether they are personally in attendance or not, and as long their hijinks are broadcast-friendly and the image quality isn’t potato-like, why not make them part of the experience as well? You could perhaps even bundle that into a virtual pass of sorts to generate a bit of much-needed extra revenue.

Having found the way to incorporate fans in the experience from far away, tournament organizers can now also make fans and viewers a part of the experience even in the early stages. Fan cams seem like a great tool to introduce for group stages of larger events which are not yet open to the public, setting the stage for the real hype moments in the arena going forward. You can never have enough meme threads.

More and better graphics

Usually, it’s a pointless shot of a fist bump through a webcam that production uses to highlight the key player of a specific round, but ESL’s current impact player graphic does a pretty good job of seamlessly conveying more information about their recent performance. It’s just one of many potential additions for a game that does much little with its slate of available data than other esports like Dota 2 – and who knows, with MonteCristo’s continued involvement with Flashpoint, maybe he can make good on his vision to make better use of this kind of information even if ESL doesn’t go full spreadsheet mode.

Funky formats

It seems the pandemic has also opened the floodgates to changing some of the fundamentals of the game as well. Different formats like MR12 began to crop up in real competition, showcasing there’s more to top tier CS than the usual first-to-sixteen affairs. Though that may not be the perfect solution to many of the issues cropping up in the world of tournament organizers, there’s certainly something to be said about streamlining matters somewhat. It’s not even MR12 itself that is the most exciting aspect of it all: the willingness to experiment is what makes this a relevant development.

Aggressively changing formats and innovating along the way is something we’ve seen more of in Dota, but it would be welcomed in CS as well: BLAST’s Bounty Hunt tournament has created interesting added incentives with its cash pool system, and the MoonduckTV crowd’s various tournaments like Midas Mode have also offered a unique take on the competitive experience both for the players and the viewers alike.

Fostering regional rivalries

Though it goes without saying that we don’t want to be deprived of heavyweight clashes like 2018-19’s Astralis vs Liquid saga, a smaller pool of competitors serves well to establish distinct storylines and growth potential for up-and-coming sides. It feels like the NA quarantine has made MIBR’s downfall even faster, their play even more predictable to those they come up against a regular basis (though based on the tonking G2 gave them, maybe that’s just universal), while a team like Chaos could establish itself much faster against progressively better teams in their region off the back of regular playtime and a multitude of direct results and demos to compare and contrast.

Much like how the Euros or the Copa America is an event onto itself in football, it would be nice to see a set of high-profile regional tournaments complement the usual circuit in the future. Just like with the formats, there’s so much more we could do with CS than running the same exact tournament over and over again – and the current crunch might force tournament organizers to further innovate in order to differentiate their product.

Photo credit: ESL

Ever heard the term sunsfanned? Well, here is where sunsfanned came from. In... song form.

Did you know that August 14th is Sunsfan's Birthday? Well, normally in a meme explained video we would walk you through the origins in a nice documentary style clip, BUT INSTEAD WE WROTE A SONG. (Yes we know DC actually got second at TI6, that's kinda part of the meme) - good job to the team, but let us have out fun with the Sunsfanning meme pls and ty.

No rights claimed, just a fun Oops we did it again parody song! (Sources are linked over on the YouTube video)

Concept & lyrics by @ReinessaGaming

Singing by @PepperCoyote

Editing by @Fiveso

----------------------------------------------

I think we got in again

We made them believe, we maybe could win

Oh poggers

It might seem like it's pity

But it doesnt mean, this isn't mysterious

Cause to lose all of our games

That is just so typically us

Oh poggers, poggers

Oops we sunsfanned again

We made it to LAN, got in for the memes

Oh poggers, poggers

Oops, you think that we're good

That we're not gonna chooooke

We're losing the event

You see our problem is this

We're dreaming away

Wishing our heroes, had never been nerfed

I cry, 'membering the days

When we werent fools, in so many ways

But to lose all of our games

That is just so typically us

Oh poggers, oh

Oops we sunsfanned again

We made it to LAN, got in for the memes

Oh poggers, poggers

Oops, you think that we're good

That we're not gonna chooooke

We're losing the event

...

All queue up

Bruno before you go, there's something I want you to have

Oh, it's well thank you... but wait a minute, do you want...?

Yeah, yes I do

But I thought Digital Chaos wasnt any good right now?

Well Bruno, that's why we're here right now

Aww, you shouldn't have

...

Oops we sunsfanned again into LAN

Got in for the memes, oh poggers

Oops you think that we're not gonna choke

We're losing the event

Oops I sunsfanned again

I made it to LAN, got in for the memes

Oh poggers, poggers

Oops, you think that we're good

That we're not gonna chooooke

We're losing the event

Oops I sunsfanned again

I made it to LAN, got in for the memes

Oh poggers, poggers

Oops, you think that we're good

That we're not gonna chooooke

We're losing the event

More Parody Songs:`

Online CS always comes with an asterisk, even when we have no LAN events to cheer about. Still, there has to be a tipping point where BIG’s continuous wins and deep runs would warrant an undisputed number one designation. Maybe a thousand event wins in a row would suffice?

Asking the BIG question

Another tournament, another win for tabseN and co., a comfortable run through a bracket in an event with mostly lesser opposition. It’s a testament to their growth spurt that they no longer feel like a good fit for a DreamHack Open event, and if you look through their scalps over the course of the last few months of online play, it’s easy to understand why that is the case.

As of the time of writing, BIG has an 85.7% winrate over the course of the last three months and three big event wins in a row. Looking at their most-played maps, they have a 16-2 record on Dust 2, 10-2 on Nuke and 12-5 on Mirage, with a positive winrate on the rest of the three maps they play. BIG split the difference with Vitality in their two encounters in the online era at cs_summit 6 but had the last laugh with their grand final win – it was the same story against G2, climbing back from a default map deficit in the most important match of DreamHack Masters Spring 2020. Their win over Na’Vi in March during the ESL Pro League Season 11 group stages was one of the first big upsets of the online era. It was around the same time they scored their first win over fnatic, with another one during the cs_summit 6 playoffs. Their recent record against FaZe is the stuff of legends, and their two recent games against Complexity were also wins.

With that, we’ve already reached the end of HLTV’s top ten, at least as far as European teams are concerned. All right, all right. But apart from winning three of the biggest events in a row, a positive record against all the high-ranked regional teams and playing some pretty good Counter-Strike, what have the Berliners ever done for us?

You can see the futility of the discussion. It’s only logical to assume that there would be a point where online events go on long enough where they become the norm – just imagine if BIG won 1000 such tournaments in a row with no LANs in sight – and we’d have to concede that no matter what other ideal sort of CS may be out there one day, it is the pinnacle of what we’ve got right now, and consistently strong performances over a long period of time should be treated seriously. Realistically, it’s quite unlikely that we’ll see LAN events this calendar year, and there’s little to no chance of Brazil safely hosting a CS:GO Major in November. The longer this twilight zone stretches, the more credit BIG deserve with progressively fewer asterisks.

Transferable skills

Then again, maybe the online era – no matter its length or relevance – will always be treated as an afterthought by some, regardless of the circumstances. Let us turn our thoughts to the eventual return of LAN play then, and I think you’ll find that BIG are well-suited to a return to the big time.

Offline events are often considered more prestigious because of the added discomfort piled onto the experience. You can’t play on your preferred setup in the comfy chair you’re used to, with your favorite food on the side and maybe just a few hours after you woke up. Let’s consider the fact that a decent chuck of this BIG roster already has LAN experience, even if XANTARES is perhaps not as effective so far under that kind of a setup as fans would like him to be.

Also, this team seems just fine where the mental strength is concerned. Their eight-round comeback against OG on Inferno in the decider game was the sign of the sort of mental resilience which should serve them well in the offline events as well. Similarly, the way they ruthlessly closed out both maps of the grand final against Heroic is exactly the sort of characteristic you’re used to seeing from a top team. Encouragingly, it’s not just the tabseN show either: it was XANTARES and srysoN topping HLTV’s rating charts for this tournament with blameF sandwiched between the two of them, and if you look back at their two previous big event wins before the player break, it was XANTARES in 8th and tabseN in 5th respectively as their top performers. It would simply be incorrect to assume that this is just the case of a few players fragging out of their mind.

Perhaps the most interesting question is how the gob b effect will transfer to the LAN environment now that he’s in a coaching role. Transitioning him from a spot inside the playing squad to one just right behind them was a definite upgrade from a firepower perspective, though it remains to be seen how impactful he will be in his new role as the head of CS:GO for BIG. The smallest of samples we’ve got so far for LAN events? Two wins: DreamHack Open Leipzig 2020 and the FLASHPOINT Season 1 LAN qualifier. You know about the rest. As for their coach, tow b has been a part of the setup since last August, joining around the time gob b opted to hang up his mice. All in all, it seems like a stable and well-oiled setup, much more so than some of their potential rivals who you’d assume to have a leg up on LAN. At this point, BIG simply has to be considered the favorites for the European portion of ESL One Cologne.

All in all, don’t count BIG out when the LAN circuit returns. History shows that tactics-based innovations have a longer staying power than anything that relies on raw firepower. Even the old Fnatic lineups owed a lot to pronax’s meta-defining moves like the now-standard Inferno mid take. There was also that Astralis stuff you may have heard of. Compare and contrast their legacy with Liquid’s. In the meantime, maybe give a bit more credit to their online accomplishments than you would otherwise be inclined?

Photo credit: HLTV

Team Liquid’s revamp of their flagging squad continues with a high-profile coaching replacement, bringing in Jason "⁠moses⁠" O'Toole as a replacement for adreN shortly after their decision to remove nitr0 from the lineup. Is he the right person to lead Team Liquid forward, and can he do better than fellow ex-analyst YNk in this new role? As it turns out, the answer to this question mostly depends on how you see the role of coaches in CS:GO in the current environment.

OK, I’m the coach. What’s next?

Perhaps with the exception of “esports consultant”, no job description is more nebulous in the scene than that of a CS:GO coach. Are they your tactical mastermind, a pillar of mental and moral support under the floodlights, a general tool for team cohesion as the grim day-to-day to-do lists pile up, chief opposition scout or all of the above? What makes the players listen to your insight and how can you ensure that you won’t be the first one out the door if the side hits a rough patch?

After all, you’re not the head of the operation as in the case of a traditional sports team (not that their coaches and managers spared from the axe at the expense of the players either). Also, since your chance to provide input during a match has been drastically and arbitrarily capped by Valve’s coaching rule changes, any sort of tactical insight you can provide will inevitably be limited (though it’s worth pointing out that the coaches could actually provide input throughout the entire game in the Valve-sanctioned Road to Rio events). How can you augment your team’s in-game leader both in and outside the server and how does that hierarchy look like? No doubt each team has its own answer to this question at this point of time depending on the specific skillsets – not to mention the relationship – of these two individuals.

With adreN’s departure, Liquid are letting go of the man who was inarguably a part of their most successful run in history, who also had a proven track record and experience as an IGL. There’s no denying the team is a shadow of its former self, even if it seemed impossible to pinpoint the kind of move they should make to put things right as each individual piece of the puzzle seemed just as pristine as it was a year and a half ago. They are clearly taking a risk here with the removal of their longest-standing player just as they bring in a greenhorn coach. Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt: what is the setup where this sort of a decision makes sense, especially in the middle of the online era where everything is temporary, and what is the sort of change you want to promote by this move?

Untangling the intangibles

With no IGL experience in his professional career, the tactical breakdowns on the silver screen is most of what we can gather from moses’ preferences about the game. However, even a cursory look at Liquid’s playstyle would suggest that they aren’t looking for a chess master as their sixth, as that hasn’t been the reason why they managed to get to the top.

Liquid at their best never exhibited anything like Astralis’ boa constrictor-like grip on their opponents, resembling the best Fnatic sides of the past instead with ruthless aggression and unplayable levels of skill on display. Their grand final against ENCE at IEM Chicago last year remains the pinnacle for the team in many ways, total domination of the opponents and the stage equipment itself. When you’re in such form, CS:GO becomes a point and click adventure – and that is when Liquid are at their sterling best.

By the same token, their blocker against Astralis in grand finals over the entirety of 2018 had nothing to do with tactics: it was purely a mental one. With their performances in disarray, wouldn’t it make sense to opt for a coach who can get them in the right headspace again? Signing The Bald Eagle to coach the premiere North American side is a perfect cultural fit in a way YNk’s first coaching stint never was.

Chemistry class

Famously reluctant to work with coaches, FalleN’s MIBR was a tough a nut to crack as you could get for your debut assignment. Becoming a sixth wheel, as it were, in a tight ship ran by a veteran IGL with a big brain (and as we’re seeing nowadays, perhaps an even bigger ego), hailing from the other side of the world and hobbled by a change to English comms, was the dictionary definition of a poisoned chalice. Seeing how rudderless the Brazilian side remained both during and after his involvement, we can conclude both that he wasn’t at fault for their failings and that he was fairly ineffectual for the reasons described above, and he’s confirmed in an interview with HLTV that he was unable to create the sort of culture he’s envisioned for the side.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, moses has also touched on a similar theme in his announcement video where he also targeted a Major title as his goal in non-equivocal terms. In his eyes, everything else would be a failure – certainly a nod to that wonderful run in the middle of 2019 but nevertheless a moonshot considering the precedent of the last seven years. The only North American Major title to date is rightly remembered as a miracle, perhaps even a mirage. Who knows? Maybe it is exactly this sort of bravado that Team Liquid need to rediscover their old selves.

Looking past the standard challenges of a CS:GO coaching role, there are also the unique aspects of the current landscape to consider. How can you integrate a new player and a new coach remotely and what kind of work can you do under the current, quite challenging circumstances? Realistically, it will take a few LAN events to determine the real levels of this new-look Liquid side, which could still be quite far away. It’s pretty much an open secret at this point that there’s no way you can host such an event in Brazil considering the current state of things.

If we accept the premise that a CS:GO coach can be at its most useful by developing a good relationship with the team’s IGL and creating a unique responsibility-sharing setup, it makes sense see why YNk clearly seems much more at home at FaZe Clan and why Liquid decided to take a gamble on moses. It’s been accepted for a long while now that the superteam is basically NiKosports 2.0, and working with a compatriot with a solid understanding of the tactical side of the game has clearly eased out many of the wrinkles in the side, bringing along a marginal improvement in performances and results alike.

If it’s the mentality and the fortitude that a coach could improve in the middle of a high-stakes series, and the pursuit of individual perfection outside of it, moses’ lack of experience as an IGL and previous coaching roles matters a lot less than you would think at first glance. For a team like Liquid, the social intangibles could prove more important than any sort of tactical insight, and he clearly has existing relationships with the squad. Whether the sixth man can fix the front five in CS remains an open question – but based on his on-camera chops, moses clearly has a lot of answers to offer.

Photo credit: HLTV

Any Ursa spamming Immortal hopefuls out there? Please enjoy "I wanna be Immortal". No rights claimed, just a fun parody!

• Concept & lyrics by @ReinessaGaming
• Singing by @PepperCoyote
• Editing by our South American content team

LYRICS:

Twenty, Twenty, Twenty mmr to go

I wanna be immortal

Nothing to do with teammates who throw-oh

I wanna be immortal

Just get me to the pickscreen, it's worth all the pain

Carry, carry, carry, can I take the strain

I can't control my teammates, this hero's not my main

Oh no-o-o-o-o

Twenty, Twenty, Twenty mmr to go

I wanna be immortal

Nothing to do with teammates who throw-oh

I wanna be immortal

Just get me to the tower, last hit with my Bane

Carry, carry, carry, juke through the terrain

I can't control my teammates, I can't control my lane

Oh no-o-o-o-o

Twenty, Twenty, Twenty mmr to go

I wanna be immortal

Nothing to do with teammates who throw-oh

I wanna be immortal

Just get me to the rosh pit, game won't be in vain

Carry, carry, carry, before we go insane

I can't control my teammates, I can't control my brain

Oh no-o-o-o-o

Twenty, Twenty, Twenty mmr to go

I wanna be immortal

Nothing to do with teammates who throw-oh

I wanna be immortal

I'm going for the rapier, don't make me explain

Carry, carry, carry, before they all complain

I can't control my teammates, this game is down the drain

Oh no-o-o-o-o

Ba ba baba, baba ba baba, I wanna be immortal

Ba ba baba, baba ba baba, I wanna be immortal

Ba ba baba, baba ba baba, I wanna be immortal

Ba ba baba, baba ba baba, I wanna be immortal

More great videos!

What Happened to Wings Gaming? - https://youtu.be/C8lVzdr56C4

Dota 2 Mysteries - https://youtu.be/1Lr-1Rco2_M

We Won't Pay - https://youtu.be/-V9cIH8WUJs

This is what happens when Slacks gets to be Slacks. You're... welcome? Reddit (and twitter) asked for it and Slacks delivered - your own personal experience watching cartoons with Capri Sun witch doctor. What more could you want?

More stuff to watch should you make it through this:

▶️ ASMR Gyro - https://youtu.be/lNNieMfEq4A

▶️ I wanna be immortal - https://youtu.be/zF5xxuk25e4

▶️ What Happened to Wings Gaming? - https://youtu.be/C8lVzdr56C4

▶️ Dota 2 Mysteries - https://youtu.be/1Lr-1Rco2_M

▶️ We Won't Pay - https://youtu.be/-V9cIH8WUJs

Isle of Man licensed betting platform, Rivalry, is the latest esports focused sportsbook to adapt to changing player preferences by supporting payments through Bitcoin.

COVID-19 has, in many cases, served as an accelerant to slow-burning changes in consumer behavior and preferences. Most notably: the meteoric rise of esports betting. While many operators were left scrambling to adapt to the overnight demand, a select few, such as Rivalry, were perfectly positioned to capitalize on the pandemic pivot. Much like cryptocurrencies, esports betting is proving to be anything but a fad.

Forward-thinking operators like Rivalry believe esports provide a glimpse into the future of betting. Their average esports bettor is in their early twenties - an early adoptor and digital native that is no stranger to Bitcoin, but maybe less so to traditional betting mechanics and terminology. This brings new opportunities for operators to reshape and reimagine the betting experience.

UK Bitcoin exchange, CoinCorner, has seen business appetite adjusting to accommodate the recent rise in demand for online banking and payment methods, with an uptick in businesses keen to introduce Bitcoin payments as a way to gain competitive advantage by opening up to new markets, receiving cheaper fees and no chargebacks.

Sam Tipper, Business Development Manager at CoinCorner, said: “Since I joined CoinCorner in 2019, we’ve been making huge strides in assisting businesses across multiple industries to accept Bitcoin - preparing them for the new reality of a changing payment landscape. This is particularly true for businesses regulated out of the Isle of Man, like Rivalry, who cater to a global market.”

While the gambling industry debates on the staying power of esports as a profitable betting market, operators like Rivalry are adapting with ease and transforming the betting experience to meet the needs of an evolving user base.

Omega Dota 2 League Groups

The Omega League Groups for Dota 2 have been released! With no international in sight, the top teams across the world will be delivering regular dota and competing for over $500,000 in prize money. Although the qualifiers aren't completed yet, we know the groups and what games to expect to start off the Eurpean division!

GROUP A

• Team Nigma
• Evil Geniuses
• Alliance
• Virtus.Pro
• Natus Vincere
• TBD

GROUP B

• Team Secret
• Team Liquid
• OG
• FlytoMoon
• NiP
• TBD

The EU division is stacked - with nothing else to do, we aren't seeing the big teams sit anything out this summer. (Okay Secret took August off, but after you win 5 events in a row, we can allow it). Let's take a quick look at the strength of each group and what to expect.

What to expect from Group A?

If we take a look at the DatDota team rankings - (you'll have to ask Noxville exactly how those work) - they basically award points based on team's performances against other teams, taking the other teams relative strength into account for adjusting rankings based on wins and losses. Team Nigma tops Group A with NaVi at the bottom. The average rating of this group is 1073.31.

• Nigma - 1141.57
• VirtusPro - 1096.09
• EG - 1070.68
• Alliance - 1032.62
• NaVi - 1025.58
  
• Average - 1073.31

What to expect from Group B?

If we take a look at Group B, it's no surprise that Secret holds the highest position, with roster struggling NiP at the bottom of the group. The average rating of Group B is 1112.94. The average rating in Group B is much higher than A, but any group that Secret is in will currently skew that pretty heavily. Secret has won the Beyond Epic EU/CIS division with a 3-0 over Nigma, Blast in a 3-0 again OG, ESL One Birm in a 3-0 against Alliance, OGA DotaPit in a 3-0 against Liquid, Gamers Without Borders in a 3-0 against NaVi, and the WePlay Pushka league with a 3-0 against VP.Prodigy. It looks like it's up to NiP or FTM to take them down in the groups - but that seems pretty unlikely based on how they've been playing.

• Secret - 1288
• Liquid - 1117.25
• FTM - 1095.73
• OG - 1046.07
• NiP - 1017.65
  
• Average - 1112.94

Several teams have been struggling with their rosters - SumaiL has recently been replaced by Ceb on OG while EG and NiP both sit with TBDs in their roster on Liquipedia. Location and travel restrictions have forced several roster changes, new team synergies have been powerful in the past, and the return of Ceb could be what OG needs. The first matches start on August 14th - who knows what will happen?

The North project is one of the more interesting in recent CS:GO history. For those who don’t know, the Danish team was originally formed and funded using VC from a number of European sources, with the majority of the funding provided by FC Copenhagen, one of the top teams in the Danish Superliga, and traditionally one of Denmark’s best football sides.

This created a lot of headlines and excitement about the prospect of two world-class teams in the country, and fans latched on the angle of ‘professional sports team invests into CSGO’, as they have with Complexity and Dallas Cowboys or PSG’s involvement in Dota. However, things have been a lot more difficult for North of late than the other juggernauts.

The first, and most important thing to state before we get into the meat and Akvavit of the topic is that FC Copenhagen are not a team like PSG or the Dallas Cowboys. The French champions have virtually unlimited funds provided by their Middle Eastern owners, and Complexity’s success has been funded by the richest sports team in America, which throws the ‘underdog’ story Jason Lake is pushing into a different light when you consider they have spent more money than any team in history just to become top 5 in the online era. But we digress…

The point is that in Denmark, the average salary in the top division of the football system is around £150k a year, or £2,868 a week. While this is good money, it’s not close to the obscene amounts the likes of Neymar or Demarcus Lawrence will take home, and quite a way below the reported £305k a year Astralis are said to be taking home at present, or the £14,500 average North players earn per month.

This means North have never been the same as Complexity, in terms of having the power to just flex and make a life-changing offer to a player that would otherwise never dream of moving their way, even if fans have viewed them as a rich team. Now, as the org seems to have reached a crossroads, it is time for the people in charge to make some tough decisions, starting with what they do now that they have no star players on the books.

Eighteen months ago, North were still not a great team, but they at least had a caveat. While the results were mixed, nobody could doubt the quality of valde, their star man, and anyone with a CS:GO brain knew that former Astralis man Kjaerbye was still a formidable operator, capable of gracing a top 5 team when playing at his best.

Today, valde is struggling to reproduce that same form for OG esports and Kjaerbye has just announced his departure from the team, having taken time off to deal with stress a few months ago, leaving North without a star, and to be honest up that creek without a paddle. DBLTP reported last week that the owners were considering the possibility of an international lineup to get back on track, so what exactly can North do to stop things from continuing to go south?

Given what we know about the finances, and with the existence of big-spending teams like Complexity, it’s not going to be a case of whipping out the checkbook and making everything alright. You simply cannot spend on a level high enough to convince players to move at present, and in these COVID times there is no way to convince investors its worth it either, so that is a dead end.

For this writer at least, it’s time for North to really build a team, rather than trying to become Astralis 2.0. Though valde is a top-level player today, he was signed from Heroic as nothing like the name he has become, and that should be the route North go down to get back to the top. For me, the North hierarchy should stop looking at existing players, and work with the sports division to improve their scouting, as Denmark produces CS talent like no other nation, and FC Copenhagen have the tools to potentially revolutionize the scouting landscape.

The Danish club are no Ajax, but a quick look at their history will show Copenhagen’s strength in developing and selling world class talent. Over recent years, they’ve sold talent to the Premier League, Bundesliga, Serie A, Ligue 1 and every other top division you’d care to name. As the top team in a tiny league, it’s vital generally to ensure you get value for any player you develop that surpasses the expectations of your club too, and they team has managed on most occasions to get fair return on the players they have been forced to sell.

It may be slightly expensive at present, but if the investors in North decide to push down that road and potentially add a little more cross-pollination to their two properties it could transform the fate of the org, and don’t forget they are far from poor in esports terms. FC Copenhagen might have to sell if they uncover the Danish Messi, but if North find the next dev1ce they have the cash to ensure he plays a good chunk of his career under their banner.

FaZe and others are doing a decent job of finding young players in FPL, and mousesports have done the same with players like ropz and frozen. If North can combine the existing expertise in scouting their sports department undoubtedly has with the CS knowledge the org possesses, we could see them back as a powerhouse that gives the stars of tomorrow a stage to shine on, but if they chose to try and buy their way out of jail in 2020, with the CoLs of the world circling, it’s going to be a long, maybe impossible journey back to the top.

Your name is Roman, or Dietrich, or Steve, and you’re a phenomenally wealthy man with a portfolio that includes sports teams, private yachts and maybe a submarine. You’re also bored, as often happens to people with infinite resources, and after a quiet afternoon of solitude and reflection at your top secret volcano retreat/New York penthouse, and a bit of time spent on a new app you just found called Steam, you’ve decided what your next hobby is going to be.

Counter-Strike is the game that has attracted your attention, and you want to add the world’s greatest CSGO team to your portfolio of other expensive baubles and billion-dollar trinkets. Yes, this seems a lot like the setup to one of those ‘you have 25m to spend build a team’ tweets, but we’re going to add a few conditions, namely that this has to be able to actually operate as a team within six months, and also have potential for growth that previous such projects might not have done. So let’s jump in…

We’ll start at the top. The IGL is the most important part of the equation in modern CSGO, and possibly the rarest asset if you’re talking about world class operators. In terms of our goal here, we aren’t looking for a decent start but limited ceiling, which could rule out the likes of karrigan or stanislaw, but we are at least going to focus on one attribute that the former FaZe man made crucial in his time with the superteam, that being fluent English.

As most of you will already know, the ‘best’ IGL in the game is almost certainly Lukas ‘gla1ve’ Rossander, and while he currently IGLs in Danish he is comfortable in English in interviews at least. We’re going to back him to at least match karrigan’s ability in English, as he has certainly at least matched his compatriot in other areas, and insert gla1ve as the leader of our team, and cornerstone of the side that will dominate CS.

The next piece of the puzzle is going to follow on a similar theme, and be our primary AWP player. There are a lot of choices here, but this is the man who will get the AWP to play the AWP as his main weapon, and for that reason we’re going to go with Gla1ve’s team-mate Nicolai ‘dev1ce’ Reedtz as our main sniper. His synergy with gla1ve is crucial, as is his ability to reinvent the wheel, but it’s the sheer Ronaldo-level consistency that gives him the edge over other primary AWP players, combined with his understanding of the gun in the context of the team. And his good English of course.

One of the other great things about dev1ce is his ability to play in a team environment, and not need all the resources poured into him the way kennyS or GuardiaN used to in their pomp. That leaves space for a true star, and most fans will already know the choice we’re going to have to make, between a Ukrainian god and a French kid who looks to be at least semi-deity already, with plenty of room to grow.

Now, one advantage you’d give s1mple over his young rival here would be the fact he has already played in an English-speaking team, as it’s quite obvious at this point that our band of brothers is going to need to talk Blighty. However, the eventual conclusion to his American adventure and the fact he has a few years on his rival might count against him when our billionaire is making bids, as could his record as a team-mate and public figure...

If you’re a Roman-style, owner of Chelsea gentleman from the Siberian wastelands, that might change things, but for this team we’re taking Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut as our star man, over s1mple, so sorry if you’re a Na’Vi fan. ZywOo’s age means he has (in theory) more good years ahead of him, and while s1mple might have better English today, the amount of time it would take himto catch up probably isn’t a significant factor when balanced against the potentially toxic influence s1mple has been reported to have on his team, as well as smaller factors like marketability and culture.

That gives us three, and the last two roles are the hardest of all to fill. Position four can go either way, between support and star, but in this team we need to at least have a player that understands his role in the team is to win, and that might mean sometimes taking the short end of the deal. Guys like Stewie2k and EG’s tarik both fill that criteria but picking a dude up who has good pedigree and room to grow, as well as a record of developing into new roles.

Robin ‘ropz’ Kool has been a ‘star’ of mouseports for almost his whole career, meaning he’s also spent his entire CS life to date playing in English-speaking, mixed teams. He can adapt to multiple positions and carry the team when needed, and his disposition means he should be an asset to the team off the server as well, with the player most certainly boasting the fabled ‘old head on young shoulders’. While his star status might take a hit here, there is no doubt Gla1ve operates a five-man team, meaning no player will permanently have the ‘bitch’ roles in the way it used to be.

The obvious fifth in a lot of eyes is going to be the clutch minister, but with the talent in the team clutch probably isn’t going to be an area they lack in, and there are also considerations about having too many Danes in a mixed team. For that reason we want a guy with talent, but also plenty of experience and an iron disposition, and our choice for the last spot is Håvard ‘rain’ Nygaard, currently of FaZe Clan.

It’s not been a great few years for rain since karrigan left, but he’s a guy with crazy ability that has a proven record speaking English in international teams, at the very highest level of play. He’s also shown he can work under extremely challenging conditions, and his sanguine outlook, or at least public outlook, in the face of everything FaZe have been through in recent years is something to behold, and should ensure he is comfortable flexing when ZyWoo, dev1ce or the like needs space.

As for the coach, it’s hard to say who would work best, and we’d love to hear from you guys if you have suggestions for the man (or woman) to counsel and improve our Galacticos of GO. Whether or not we ever see this sort of project in CS is another matter, with the walls closing in and the days of unlimited spending possibly fading, but in 2020 it’s still just about possible – providing the team isn’t in the US of course. Sorry Complexity.

 Photo credit: HLTV

Team Secret’s domination of big Dota events is nothing new to fans of the game, but we wouldn’t fault you for saying a change is in order either. Six grand final wins in a row without dropping a single game? That’s Michael Schumacher/Lewis Hamilton levels of boring dominance. So how could one put a stop to it? We’ve rubbed together our remaining braincells (hey, 2020 took a toll on us, too) and brainstormed a few totally legit ideas to put Puppey’s men down a peg or two.

1) Cut their internet cable

“What a nonsensical idea, how’s that even possible”, I hear you cry – but there’s actual real-life precedent for this pro strat, courtesy of Fierce Tiger from May 2018’s CS:GO Asia Championships. Though their attempts to get an edge over their opposition ended up with a pretty swift disqualification from the tournament, there’s no denying it’s a novel strategy, and if executed better, a forced no-show by Secret in the middle of a raging pandemic could be just the way to beat them outside the server even if you can’t deal with them inside it.

2) Gift Puppey a puppy

If you can’t stop the team from playing, you can still negatively influence the brains behind the operation. For someone like Puppey, you can’t reasonably contest his dedication to the game, so the best you can go for is a short-term distraction. Find the loveliest, most adorable puppy around and hand it over to that dastardly IGL. Maybe it’s enough to make him mess up one draft in a crucial series?

3) It’s in the name, stupid

Then again, the truth could be out there, staring us in the face. A team that relies on secrets requires someone dedicated to bringing them to light. How can you expect to beat them if you have no idea what they’ve been hiding all along? We’ve got business associates, how about Inves1337ative Journalists coming along to reveal Puppey’s machinations?

4) Extend their break indefinitely

Hey, if they’re not playing, there’s no way they can stop you, right? Just ping Cyborgmatt and come to an understanding. Maybe leave the severed head of a Courier in his bed and make an offer he can’t refuse…

5) Ban Broodmother

I mean come on, Liquid, you really should have thought of that #hindsightis2020

6) Just wait until TI

Like magic, the issue will take care of itself at the biggest Dota event in the world, most likely in spectacular fashion, possibly involving OG.

There is an old adage, handed down from Twitter warlord to Twitter warlord, known to ever CS fans since the days of yore, or possibly Space Soldiers. The lines goes something like ‘in an online world, all you’d need to do was sign XANTARES, and you’d be the best team in the game’. There is also an older, pre-VAC meme about never beating Germans online. While that one is now dead, it seems every dog has its day, and 2020 is the year the old tales are finally coming to pass, as the prophecy of the pinglord is fulfilled. But what made BIG the best CS:GO team in 2020 so far, and is it really a legit accomplishment?

Ich bin ein Berliner

On July 15th 2020, if you looked at either HLTV or Thorin’s world rankings, you will see Berlin International Gaming at the top of the tree, looking down on the likes of FaZe Clan, Na’Vi, Astralis with an asterisk and many other great teams. They have won massive (online) tournaments recently, with victories over legit CSGO royalty, including series wins over the likes of Fnatic, Vitality, FaZe and any other team you’d like to call a contender.

While they are a deserved world number one, it would be wrong to ignore the circumstances of BIG’s ascent. Success gained in this time period, by any team, has to be balanced against the fact that not all players seem to care about CSGO when it’s played exclusively online. It’s not just Astralis that have checked out on tournaments in 2020, if we are honest. Teams like Na’Vi and other elite sides aren’t putting the same weight on the results gained in this period, and the same is true of a lot of fans. Viewership is up for some events, but we’ve had years of being rightly told that LAN is the true test, and as a result everything now feels like a fever dream rather than pure reality.

As a result there is an opportunity for teams like BIG and Complexity to make an impact and become ‘top 5 in the world’. To the untrained eye that is very impressive, but for the true fan it should always come with a caveat, forcing us to wait for the inevitable return of offline events for further context. With all that said, let’s look at what put BIG in pole position, and the potential reasons they may be able to maintain a spot near the top of the rankings when LAN play eventually resumes in the near future.

BIG’s long-overdue changes

Back when BIG were making waves at ESL One Cologne there was a feeling that the team needed changes, although it was hard to pinpoint what precisely would do the trick. Many people thought the best thing would be to let gob b go, as the IGL was increasingly becoming a fragging liability, but those same people were often vocal about their doubts BIG could thrive without their talismanic player at the wheel as his system and leadership were seen as vital to their success.

At the same time, there was a lot of speculation that players like gob b, HUNDEN, Happy and others, who had maybe not kept up in the fragging department but had legendary brains for the game should consider transitioning to the coach position. The problem with this theory is that these players would prefer to hang on to the dream of being top level players, and until very recently resisted the pressure to transition into a more logical role in favor trying to improve as individuals.

Finally, there was the issue of smooya. He was the playmaker BIG needed in a lot of ways, but his clashed with tabseN and inability to buy into the culture of the team meant his time was always going to be fraught, and when he shot himself in the foot pre-Katowice Major, analysts were quick to point out that BIG needed a playmaker, even if their only option was a moody young Brit that was relatively hit and miss with the most expensive gun in the game.

Flash forward to July of 2020, and you can see the hard work paying off. Removing gob b from the playing lineup but keeping him around has paid dividends for the team, and potentially given proof of concept to other teams, and even changing how we think about CS coaching. There is no doubt it is easier for coaches to have a voice in online play, but even so every team is operating under the same rules and BIG are working out best.

They also have a playmaker in XANTARES, one who buys into the culture of the team and doesn’t appear to make tabseN angry. It shows they recognised what smooya did for them, and where they could get an upgrade too. This, combined with the decision they and others have taken to treat this downtime as a period for reflection and improvement has all added up to BIG being a legit world leader in the online CSGO era.

We’ll have to wait until 2021 most likely to see if they can carry that over into offline tournaments, but there is an old saying in sport: you can only beat what is in front of you. 2020 has been a difficult year for CS, and BIG are doing a better job than their peers of taking the lemons we’ve all been given and turning them into delicious German lemonade.