Counter-Strike in esports

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Counter-Strike
MLG Columbus 2016
Highest governing bodyValve
First played2000
Characteristics
TypeVideo game, esports
Equipmentcomputer, mouse, keyboard, headphones

Professional Counter-Strike competition involves

mod developed by Minh "Gooseman" Le and Jess Cliffe of the 1998 video game Half-Life, published by Valve. Currently, the games that have been played competitively include Counter-Strike (CS also called CS 1.6), Counter-Strike: Condition Zero (CS:CZ), Counter-Strike: Source (CS:S), Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), and Counter-Strike 2 (CS2). Major esports championships began in 2001 with the Cyberathlete Professional League Winter Championship, won by Ninjas in Pyjamas.[1][2]

History

The Counter-Strike series has over 20 years of competitive history beginning with the original

Major".[1]
The final significant update to the original Counter-Strike game was version 1.6 in 2003, and so the game became known as Counter-Strike 1.6 ("CS 1.6").

2001 Winter CPL Counter-Strike tournament

In 2002, the

Electronic Sports World Cup in 2003. These, along with the bi-annual CPL tournaments, were the dominant Majors of CS 1.6 through 2007. CPL ceased operation in 2008, but another league, ESL, then added Counter-Strike to its Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) series. These tournaments continued for four years.[1] The years of 2002-07 are considered Counter-Strike's first Golden Age, as the game's popularity and market-share eclipsed all others in the fledgling esports industry.[citation needed
]

Valve struggled to iterate and evolve on CS 1.6 because of its high skill ceiling and gameplay. The Counter-Strike

MOBA
genre overcoming Counter-Strike's previous stranglehold on the team-based esport market.

The release of

DreamHack Winter 2013.[1]
The Valve-sponsored Majors would go on to be the most important and prestigious tournaments in the Global Offensive esports scene.

In October 2015, a number of professional

ESL with many esports teams, including Fnatic, Natus Vincere, Team EnVyUs and FaZe Clan,[5] though FaZe Clan left soon after the league's formation.[6] In its announcement, WESA said it would "further professionalize eSports by introducing elements of player representation, standardized regulations, and revenue sharing for teams". They also planned to help fans and organizers by "seeking to create predictable schedules."[5]

Valve's decisions have a strong influence on the competitive metagame. Decisions such as the removal of old maps and additions of new maps are often met with criticism, as well as changes made to certain weapons' performance characteristics. In 2016, Valve was "heavily criticized" for the removal of the map Inferno and its replacement, Nuke, in the competitive map pool.[7][8] The release of CS 1.6 in 2003 saw a contentious nerf of the iconic AWP sniper rifle by increasing its draw time. This significantly reduced the ability of a player armed with an AWP to simultaneously engage multiple targets. The AWP was again the subject of a controversial nerf in 2015 when players' movement speed and acceleration was decreased while the weapon was equipped. Valve has also implemented new coaching rules restricting the ability of communication between coaches and players during a match, and altered a 15-year precedent by increasing the duration of each round and bomb timer in 2015.[9]

By 2014, 25 million copies of the Counter-Strike series were sold. The game's fan base remains strong, having reached a new record of 1.4 million concurrent players in March 2023, surpassing the game's previous record of 1.3 million concurrent players in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.[10][2][11]

Tournament system

Counter-Strike tournaments can be hosted by any entity, and do not have a single official event organizer (like FIFA in football association, for example). The Major Championships, sponsored by Valve and held by different organizers twice a year, are the most prestigious tournaments, although they may not necessarily have the highest prizes. Most of the big teams compete, most of the time, in world tournaments that bring together teams from all corners of the world.[12][13] Some of the most notable major tournaments are organized by ESL, such as the Intel Extreme Masters and ESL Pro League, and by BLAST, such as the BLAST Premier series. Tournaments that do not have a worldwide character are usually organized for teams of lower level, serving as qualifiers for the main tournaments.[14][12]

Teams rankings are published by HLTV and ESL, who use various criteria to determine the best ranked teams from the most recent tournaments. These rankings are then used by some tournament organizers to directly invite teams, depending on their rank. In 2023, Valve announced that starting in 2025, only the official Valve ranking system could be used to generate invitations, and all other "large-scale" events need to use open qualifiers.

Media coverage

As the game and the scene grew in popularity, companies, including

ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier 2018's docuseries on TBS.[16] In 2019 Danish television station TV 2 secured exclusive TV rights to broadcast ESL Pro League and Dreamhack's ESL Pro Tour in Danish.[17] In 2023 TV 2 announced it would no longer broadcast Counter Strike from 2024 onwards citing a lack of commercial sustainability given free alternatives, such as Twitch, and the downturn in results from the Danish superteam Astralis leading to a decline in popularity within Denmark.[18]

Controversies

Cheating

Cheating, particularly through the use of

Faceit, which have proprietary anti-cheat programs.[20]

Linus "b0bbzki" Lundqvist was the first known professional player to be banned in Global Offensive. Hovik "KQLY" Tovmassian was one of the highest-profile players to be issued a VAC ban. KQLY was banned, along with several other professional players, such as Gordon "Sf" Giry, while KQLY was playing for France's best team,

Titan.[21] Vinicius “v$m” Moreira from Brazil was VAC-banned while he was playing for Detona Gaming.[22]

Cheating has also occurred at LAN tournaments, and players who cheat at organized tournaments may receive permanent bans or may be dismissed from their team. In 2018, at the eXTREMESLAND ZOWIE Asia CS:GO, Nikhil "forsaken" Kumawat of OpTic India was caught cheating mid-match using aimbot during a tournament game against Revolution, a Vietnamese Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team.[23] The tournament had a $100,000 prize pool.[24] OpTic India was disqualified and Kumawat was dismissed from the team.[25]

In 2020, the Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) banned over 37 coaches[26] due to abuse of a spectator mode bug. Valve also has punished these coaches from a number of CS:GO Majors with the severity dependant on the number of times the bug was abused.[27]

On 15 April 2021, Valve updated event guidelines to allow players with VAC banned accounts to compete again in Valve sponsored events.[28] The updated rules state: A VAC ban will only disqualify a player from an event if it was either received fewer than 5 years prior, or if it was received at any time after their first participation in a Valve-sponsored event.

Match fixing

Players have also been banned for

Dot Esports that the match was fixed.[30]

On 20 Jan 2021, ESIC issues sanctions against 35 players[31] for betting related offences primarily in the Australian CS:GO scene.

On the 31st of March 2021 the Commissioner of the ESIC, Ian Smith, has revealed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is now involved in the ongoing investigation into match-fixing in North American Counter-Strike, which has been underway since September 2020.[32] ESIC is collaborating with federal law enforcement as part of a larger investigation into players bribed to fix matches by outside "betting syndicates".

Gambling

Main article: Skin gambling

Following the introduction of

loot boxes appeared to violate Dutch and Belgium gambling laws.[40] However, some parties have tried to contest Valve's gambling rules.[41]

See also

  • List of Counter-Strike maps

References

  1. ^ a b c d Mitchell, Ferguson (2018-09-19). "Esports Essentials: The Impact of the Counter-Strike Majors". The Esports Observer. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  2. ^ a b Llewellyn, Thomas (2018-09-17). "An eSports phenomenon: Counter-Strike". National Science and Media Museum. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
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  4. ^ Rosen, Daniel (October 4, 2015). "Report: eSports team union forms, outlines requirements for CS:GO, Dota 2 tournaments". The Score Esports. Archived from the original on June 22, 2017. Retrieved November 17, 2015.
  5. ^ a b Campbell, Colin (May 13, 2016). "The who, what and why of the World Esports Association". Polygon. Vox Media. Archived from the original on June 22, 2017. Retrieved June 22, 2017.
  6. ^ Walker, Alex (May 19, 2016). "Surprise, The World Esports Association Is Already In Trouble". Kotaku. Gawker Media. Archived from the original on June 22, 2017. Retrieved June 22, 2017.
  7. ^ "Removing One Of Counter-Strike's Best Maps Was A Mistake". Kotaku Australia. 2016-04-26. Retrieved 2023-04-17.
  8. ^ Mike Stubbs (2016-08-18). "Top CS:GO pros weigh in on the Nuke and Inferno map switch". PC Gamer. Retrieved 2023-04-17.
  9. ^ wallabeebeatle (2017-02-08). "The Valve Meta: An Alternative History of Competitive CS:GO". Dot Esports. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  10. ^ Te, Zorine (2014-05-26). "Dust to Dust: The History of Counter-Strike". GameSpot. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  11. ^ Crew, The (2023-03-12). "CS:GO Hits 1.4 Million Concurrent Players Amid Rumors of Source 2 Update". TalkEsport. Retrieved 2023-03-12.
  12. ^ a b Dessel, Josse van (2022-10-18). "CSGO Tournaments: The guide to everything you need to know". Jaxon. Retrieved 2023-07-29.
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  14. ^ Šimić, Ivan (2023-07-06). "What are the most popular Counter-Strike esports events?". Esports Insider. Retrieved 2023-07-28.
  15. ^ Spangler, Todd (September 23, 2015). "Turner, WME/IMG Form E-Sports League, With TBS to Air Live Events". Variety. Penske Media Corporation. Archived from the original on June 22, 2017. Retrieved November 13, 2015.
  16. ^ Frederick, Brittany (August 22, 2018). "ELEAGUE announces CSGO Premier TV plans, Esports 101 special". Fansided. Archived from the original on August 23, 2018. Retrieved September 19, 2018.
  17. ^ Martinello, Eva (October 21, 2019). "TV 2 Denmark acquires Danish broadcast rights for ESL Pro Tour". Esports insider. Retrieved November 26, 2023.
  18. ^ Goos, Sebastian (August 31, 2023). "TV 2 dropper Counter-Strike". Journalisten. Retrieved November 26, 2023.
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  20. ^ Ingram, Finn (2019-09-07). "Massive exploitation in CSGO enables wall-hacks without being detected". EsportsJunkie.com. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  21. ^ Mira, Luis (November 21, 2014). "KQLY: "BAN WAS JUSTIFIED"". HLTV.org. Retrieved September 11, 2018.
  22. ^ Marques, Roque (November 5, 2018). "Valve aplica banimento em v$m; ESL isenta jogador". ESPN. Retrieved November 5, 2018.
  23. ^ Deason, Ross (2018-10-19). "OpTic India disqualified from eXTREMESLAND CS:GO event after player is caught with hacks Update – Roster released". Dexerto.com. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  24. ^ Good, Owen S. (2019-10-21). "Watch a Counter-Strike pro get caught cheating during a major esports tournament". Polygon. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  25. ^ Porter, Matt (2018-10-24). "Former OpTic India player Forsaken explains why he cheated". Dexerto.com. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  26. ^ "ESIC issues bans to 37 coaches for spectator bug use". HLTV.org. Retrieved 2021-02-09.
  27. ^ "Counter-Strike: Global Offensive » 2021 RMR Update". blog.counter-strike.net. Archived from the original on 2021-01-27. Retrieved 2021-05-23.
  28. ^ "Counter-Strike: Global Offensive » New RMR Eligibility Guidelines". blog.counter-strike.net. Archived from the original on 2021-04-15. Retrieved 2021-05-23.
  29. ^ Cooke, Sam (18 August 2016). "Phil Kornychev – Forget the TV show, this is the real Skins drama". Esports Insider. Retrieved 4 July 2017.
  30. ^ Lewis, Richard (22 August 2014). "Leaked screengrabs hint of match-fixing at CEVO". Dot Esports. Retrieved 4 July 2017.
  31. ^ "ESIC issues 35 bans for betting-related offences in Australia". HLTV.org. Retrieved 2021-02-09.
  32. ^ "ESIC involves FBI in North American match-fixing investigation". HLTV.org. Retrieved 2021-04-15.
  33. ^ "How Counter-Strike spawned a $5 billion gambling market you've never heard of". ESPN.com. Retrieved 2023-04-17.
  34. ^ Maciej, Martin (June 3, 2015). "CS:GO-Jackpot – was ist das und wie funktioniert es?". GIGA Games (in German). Archived from the original on January 9, 2016. Retrieved February 3, 2016.
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  36. ^ Assael, Shaun (January 23, 2017). "Skin in the Game". ESPN. Archived from the original on January 22, 2017. Retrieved January 23, 2017.
  37. ^ "CSGO Lotto and owners sued over 'illegal gambling' allegations". Polygon. 7 July 2016. Retrieved July 15, 2020.
  38. ^ Crecente, Brian (6 July 2016). "Lawyer: Valve's silence while helping gambling sites is 'unconscionable'". Polygon. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
  39. ^ Sarkar, Samit (July 11, 2016). "How do Counter-Strike: Global Offensive skins work?". Polygon. Vox Media. Archived from the original on June 22, 2017. Retrieved July 11, 2016.
  40. ^ Jones, Ali (July 13, 2018). "Valve disables CS:GO loot boxes in Belgium and the Netherlands". PCGamesN. Archived from the original on September 7, 2018. Retrieved September 19, 2018.
  41. ^ Sayer, Matt (8 July 2016). "The CS:GO gambling lawsuit against Valve is fundamentally flawed". PCGamer. Archived from the original on March 13, 2020. Retrieved July 15, 2020.

External links

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