Author: Nik Ranger

Vitality reportedly plotting shock move for Astralis CS trio According to a report by 1pv.fr, Danny ‘zonic’ Sørensen, Emil ‘Magisk’ Reif, and Peter ‘dupreeh’ Rasmussen will be the next additions to Team Vitality’s CS:GO roster. Following Astralis’ addition of k0nfig, blameF and ave to their roster – replacing Magisk, dupreeh, and zonic – the three are supposedly set to join Team Vitality upon the expiry of their contracts with the Danish org at the end of the year. The three Astralis members have played an integral part of the organization since its inception, widely considered the most dominant lineup in CS:GO history, with zonic’s and dupreeh’s arrival in 2016, and Magisk’s arrival two years later in 2018. However, it appears to be the end of an era as the Danish players and coach will be joining the French organization Team Vitality. As per 1pv.fr’s report, Vitality will be parting ways with Richard ‘shox’ Papillon, Jayson ‘Kyojin’ Nguyen Van, and Rémy ‘XTQZZZ’ Quoniam to make room for the new arrivals Magisk, dupreeh, and zonic. With the history of the Danish players – winning multiple Majors – Vitality looks to be preparing to take the Counter-Strike scene by storm in 2022. Dan ‘apEX’ Madesclaire – Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut – Kévin ‘misutaaa’ Rabier – Peter ‘dupreeh’ Rasmussen – Emil ‘Magisk’ Reif – Danny ‘zonic’ Sørensen (coach) –

CSGO: Vitality hires a bus to bring French fans to the Berlin Major Twitter: TeamVitalityTeam Vitality has qualified for the Champions stage of the StarLadder Berlin Major, and they want to bring out their fans to help support them. The French Counter-Strike team struggled early on in Berlin, but have looked to hit their stride heading into the playoffs. They took down North, FaZe Clan, and mousesports on their way to the Champions stage, after being one loss away from being knocked out in the New Challengers stage. To help them get the extra edge over their opponents in the Mercedez-Benz Arena though, owner Fabien ‘Neo’ Devide posted on Twitter about bringing out their biggest fans in a bus from France to cheer them on. “If Team Vitality get a coach, departing from Paris on Wednesday night to go to the Berlin Major, who is sure to come,” he said. Read more: apEX comforts kennyS after G2 exit – The team organised tickets and a coach for fans, going for the small price of €10. Only 50 seats were available on the bus from Paris, and the €10 ticket included transport, a ticket to the Major, and merch. The cheap price was to make sure the event was accessible to die-hard fans who might not have been able to make the journey to support their favorite team. Réponses sérieuses uniquement. Si @TeamVitality met un car à disposition, au départ de Paris mercredi soir, pour allez au Major CSGO Berlin. Qui est sûr de venir ? @VaKarM_net @Vitality_Ultra — Fabien ‘Neo’ Devide (@Vitality_Neo) September 2, 2019 The tickets the team put on were so popular, they sold out within 20 seconds. With the tickets selling out so fast though, Vitality are now looking at putting up more to help fans who missed out in the first phase. Read more: Berlin Major Champions stage set – “I promise nothing, but if the demand is there like today(sold out in 20 seconds), I’ll see if we can get more seats tomorrow. No promises because it has a cost, but we will do our best.” Je promets rien. Mais si la demande est aussi important qu’aujourd’hui (sold out en 20sec, c’est ouf), je vais voir si je peux chopper des places en plus demain. Pas de promesses car ça a un coût, mais on fait au mieux. https://t.co/BT2QTcJE7y — Fabien ‘Neo’ Devide (@Vitality_Neo) September 2, 2019 Vitality currently hold the #2 rank in the world, but they have looked shaky at times through the Major. A win at the StarLadder Major will help cement their legacy, and finally bring French Counter-Strike back to the summit after years of failure. Bringing out their fans might be the edge they need to get over the likes of ENCE, Team Liquid, and Astralis, who will be there standing in their way in Germany. There’s no German team in the final eight, so having a passionate French support group might be able to intimate anyone they face on the big stage. Vitality will play Avangar in the quarter-finals of the StarLadder Berlin Major at 9:30am PT on Thursday September 5. Be sure to keep up-to-date with everything you need to know about the Major via our StarLadder Major hub.

CSGO: Vitality and G2 reportedly agree to Shox deal StarLadderAfter a New Legends stage exit at the Berlin major for G2 Esports, and after NBK was benched by Team Vitality, it is being reported that G2 are sending Richard ‘shox’ Paillon to Vitality for just under half a million dollars. Following the benching of NBK after Berlin, numerous rumors surrounding the two premier French teams in Counter-Strike began appearing left and right. G2 were rumored to be approaching players from CR4ZY, a move that the CR4ZY CEO criticized and labeled as “poaching.” shox was initially rumored to be in consideration, but just days ago, it was reported that G2’s asking price was too high. But a deal has finally been made, according to 1pv. Apparently, G2 reduced their asking price and Vitality raised their initial offer, and the two organizations settled on a transfer number within the $350-450k range. It is being reported that both organizations will make an official announcement some time next week. Many fans seem critical of the move online, suggesting that shox could be unwilling to take a backseat role to IGL ALEX and future star zyWoo, but French CS reporter @neLendirekt, who broke the story, defended the move on Twitter: “Decisions are taken by XTQZZZ, ALEX is the leader, the star is ZywOo and shox is aware and accepted the conditions.” Many people are talking shit about shox but let’s be clear: decisions are taken by XTQZZZ, ALEX is the leader, the star is ZywOo and shox is aware and accepted the conditions. And tbh, shox wasn’t even leading at the end of G2, apparently amanek was calling most times. — neL (@neLendirekt) September 14, 2019 Both Vitality and G2 began their StarLadder Berlin runs in the New Challengers stage. But despite the stronger showing in that stage by G2, it was Vitality who advanced through the New Legends stage to make playoffs. Read more: CSGO roster shuffle post-Berlin Major – G2 were eliminated after back-to-back losses to AVANGAR and Renegades, and Vitality were also eliminated by AVANGAR in the quarterfinals. The two teams played a combined 30 maps in the Berlin major group stages, but didn’t face each other once. After Berlin, Vitality were forced to pull out of BLAST Pro Series Moscow after benching NBK. The reported new roster for Team Vitality: Alex ‘ALEX’ McMeekin (in-game leader) Dan ‘apEX’ Madesclaire Cédric “RpK” Guipouy Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut Richard ‘shox’ Papillon Nathan ‘NBK’ Schmitt (benched)

CSGO: Vitality explain why NBK has been benched after Berlin Major exit StarLadderTeam Vitality confirmed a report about potentially benching Counter-Strike pro Nathan ‘NBK’ Schmitt by making an official announcement that provided context and reason to their drastic decision. Vitality went into the StarLadder Berlin Major with the number two ranking in the world, and were considered a championship contender despite having to start tournament play in the New Challengers stage. But for Vitality, the championship dream was cut short as they found themselves upset by AVANGAR, who were in the midst a magical run to the grand finals. Two days later, on September 7, during the semifinal series between NRG Esports and Astralis, Vitality confirmed reports that they were considering benching NBK by making the roster change official via an announcement. “CSGO update: we decided to remove NBK from the starting roster,” they tweeted. “The team has shown amazing results but a change was needed as the quad in its current form, with two in-game leaders, reached its limits.” CSGO Update: we decided to remove @NBK from the starting roster. The team has shown amazing results but a change was needed as the squad in its current form, with 2 in-game leaders, reached its limits. — Team Vitality (@TeamVitality) September 7, 2019 According to Vitality, the team had “reached its limits’ with its current squad that featured two in-game leaders, and they’ve elected to retain the services of their lone Brit Alex ‘ALEX’ McMeekin, and move NBK to the bench. This comes, of course, after a heavily inconsistent performance at the Berlin Major, as they were highly expected to go 3-0 in the Challengers stage, but were upset twice by Syman Gaming and DreamEaters, and finding themselves on the brink of an early elimination. From a fragging and statistical standpoint, NBK was instrumental towards the survival of his team in that stage, as he had a terrific second map against HellRaisers, and a great series against Grayhound to advance to the next stage. He was outshined only by his teammate, the young star Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut. But in the New Legends stage, while the team as a whole performed better, NBK played significantly worse. His KD +/- was +33 in the New Challengers stage, but it was -41 in the New Legends and Champions stages. However, despite all that and the decision to bench NBK, Vitality had nothing bad to say about the player: “NBK’s professionalism, talent & dedication played a big part in the many achievements recorded since the creation of the squad. However, the entire team had a hard time being consistent recently and a big decision was mandatory to go forward.” NBK’s professionalism, talent & dedication played a big part in the many achievements recorded since the creation of the squad. However, the entire team had a hard time being consistent recently and a big decision was mandatory to go forward. — Team Vitality (@TeamVitality) September 7, 2019 NBK is a natural born killer, but he’s not a natural born leader, which is why Vitality decided to go forward with a true in-game leader in ALEX. As for a replacement, it is rumored that G2 Esports is considering benching Richard ‘shox’ Papillon, who would form a superstar duo with ZywOo if he were to wear to don the yellow of Vitality. Vitality did not have anything concrete on what lays in store for NBK in the future, but did say that an announcement should be coming in the very near future. “As of now, NBK is still under contract with Team Vitality and a decision regarding his future will come in the upcoming days.” As of now, NBK is still under contract with Team Vitality and a decision regarding his future will come in the upcoming days. — Team Vitality (@TeamVitality) September 7, 2019 Vitality are slated to appear at the BLAST Pro Series Moscow event just a week after a major, so the team will need to find a fifth, whether permanent or temporary, in a short amount of time.

Vitality sign Astralis CSGO trio following $56m investment VitalityFrench esports organization Team Vitality have unveiled their renovated Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster for the 2022 season, confirming they’ve signed the multiple-Major-winning Astralis trio of Peter ‘dupreeh’ Rasmussen, Emil ‘magisk’ Reif, and Danny ‘zonic’ Sørensen. Team Vitality are hitting 2022 hard with plenty of new capital at their disposal and a new-look roster in CS:GO that they hope will help them rival the likes of NAVI and G2 Esports. The French org have signed the former Astralis trio of dupreeh, magisk, and coach zonic, a move they describe as a super team. They join Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut, Dan ‘apEX’ Madesclaire, and Kévin ‘misutaaa’ Rabier on the org. Existing Vitality investor Rewired, a venture capital firm, have committed to investing €50M ($56.7m) into the company over the next three years so they can “create European super teams” that are capable of winning “the most coveted trophies in esports”. These signings quickly follow on from Vitality announcing their brand new roster for European League of Legends competition LEC, in which they signed former G2 and Cloud9 star Luka ‘Perkz’ Perković and former MAD Lions player Matyáš ‘Carzzy’ Orság. Read More: Sources: nexa to join OG in Aleksib swap deal with G2 The new funding will help Vitality to provide more support for their players, providing “unrivalled facilities and performance staff” as they hunt down more success across titles like CS:GO, League of Legends, FIFA, Fortnite, Rocket League, Rainbow Six Siege, and Valorant. On the side of Astralis, the Danish org recently signed former Complexity duo Kristian ‘k0nfig’ Wienecke and Benjamin ‘blameF’ Bremer, as well as new coach Alexander ‘ave’ Holdt. Today, we bid farewell to three Astralis legends. Best of luck, Peter, Emil and Danny. You will forever be a part of the #AstralisFamily. Thank you for everything. We will see you later. ❤️@dupreeh@MagiskCS@zonic pic.twitter.com/sNe4qcDnLm — Astralis Counter-Strike (@AstralisCS) December 29, 2021 “This scale of talent investment has never been seen in esports before and I am honoured to be leading the charge with these rosters which have the potential to make history in Europe and beyond,” said Vitality co-founder and esports director Fabien ‘Neo’ Devide. “Since the beginning of our entrance into CS:GO, we have been working with intensity to get to the top and nurture some of the best talent France has to offer. It’s now time to think internationally and create a new CS:GO culture of European talent with legacy athletes. As proven winners, dupreeh, magisk & zonic have what it takes to move us from not just being a strong contender, but the best CS:GO team in the world.”

Vitality’s apEX on why CIS is the “best region” in CSGO Gambit / ESLTeam Vitality’s Dan ‘apEX’ Madesclaire has been really impressed with the CIS teams and the level of grit in its performances has made it one of “best regions” in CSGO. ApEX has been in CS since 2009, and has seen regions rise and fall throughout his career. As the effects of the online era are still being felt across CSGO, the CIS region has become a hopeful talking point about the future of the game. But it could be one of those CIS teams that deny the Frenchmen a chance at the $425,000 main event as Team Vitality head into the BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown. “We are in a moment where the best teams are really young or that just made a change,” apEX told Dexerto. These young teams have been keeping legacy orgs on their toes, and it’s been the “CIS-style” that’s been gradually netting great results. CIS is CSGO’s best region The rise of CIS isn’t surprising for pros like apEX. They’ve been playing with these players for years, with recurring names making themselves known. As the CSGO scene, overall, is experiencing a huge shift of teams and participants, it’s the time to strike for these teams. “When you’ve been so successful for so long, you don’t surprise anyone,” apEX said of Natus Vincere (Na’Vi), but was instead impressed by the teams rising up. “Gambit they are the team that surprised me the most,” he explained to Dexerto. “I mean we’ve been playing with them in practice a bit before their rising up and to be honest they played really solid Counter-Strike – with their CIS-style but it’s really good.” BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown 2021 CIS participants like Gambit and Team Spirit come from a region that has healthy pool of players to choose from when facilitating a roster. “Obviously CIS region has been rising in the past in terms of number of players,” he said. “So they have a big pool of players playing CS. I feel like half of [FACEIT] players are Russians or Ukranians, Russian-speaking, and yeah when you have a bunch of players like that, you can pick the best ones.” If Vitality wants to qualify for the BLAST Spring Finals, then they could be on a collision course with Gambit in their bracket. With superstar Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut among Vitality’s ranks, apEX likes his team’s chances against these orgs but know they’re going to have to work to keep up with the players rising up. “That’s what I like about the CIS region, their people are grinding and grinding,” he continued. “It’s a chance to be here in the pro scene, and they’re grinding as much as possible. And that’s what I like to see from them.” Read more: G2 Nexa explains decision to bench KennyS – He hopes that LANs change the narrative once they come back and reverses Vitality’s fortunes along with it. Until then, apEX and his team are looking forward to the BLAST Spring Showdown where they’re going to be tested by some of the world’s best, including those from the CIS region. Dexerto’s Matt Porter contributed to this report.

CSGO pros capitalize on StarLadder Major delays with brilliant in-server antics Steam: LennertRaccoon/StarLadderIt wouldn’t be a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive major if it started on time, but Vitality and Syman are making the best of their time together. The StarLadder Major in Berlin got off to a slow start. The first match of the tournament between Vitality and Syman Gaming was delayed over an hour. For the many fans who have been itching for some high quality CSGO during this player break, the long wait seemed to last forever. Casters, both on the official stream and on alternate streams, didn’t seem to know how to fill the time. Viewers on the main StarLadder were treated to the above image for nearly an hour. For the two teams waiting in the lobby for StarLadder to plug in the right cables, they eventually got tired of having an extended deathmatch warmup, and grouped together in an attempt to kill time together. Their solution? A game of leapfrog all the way down the Long A section of Dust2. Well, not so much leapfrog because they’re just running on top of the heads of everyone else in the line instead of hopping, but it’s the best they can do given the situation. The conga line of Counter-Strike began in the CT spawn and went all the way through Long A into double doors. They also: Kicked a soccer ball all across the map – Fought over control of said soccer ball in mid – Threw all their guns (must have been hundreds after that long of a pause) in a big pile in CT spawn – Picked up all the guns and threw them at each other, or out of the map – After an hour of shenanigans, the match finally got underway, and for fans who were upset about the delays, their day got worse from there when Syman upset Vitality in the first game, ruining the 3-0 and 0-3 predictions for plenty of Pick’Em players. According to a survey on the GlobalOffensive subreddit with nearly 4000 responses, roughly 40% of participants had Vitality as their 3-0 pick, and about 30% of responses had Syman as their 0-3. Were you one of thousands to wake up early to get some CSGO action, like me, only to have to wait an hour for delays and then watch your perfect Pick’Em get destroyed immediately? If you were, at least be happy that Counter-Strike is back. And better luck next stage.

Virtus.Pro replaces entire CSGO team with AVANGAR roster Virtus.Pro have confirmed that they have changed their whole Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster, picking up the AVANGAR line-up that finished as runners-up at the StarLadder Berlin Major. Virtus.Pro have been synonymous with Counter-Strike: Global Offensive ever since their all-Polish roster made themselves a dominant force by plowing over teams and continually reaching their latter stages of tournaments. The organization secured their first CSGO Major back in 2014 at EMS One Katowice but despite going close on a number of occasions, they haven’t been able to climb that mountain again. After bombing out of the ELEAGUE Boston Major, their line-up has been in flux – with legendary names like pashaBiceps, NEO, Snax, Byali, and TaZ moving on for pastures new. While the organization has embraced new blood and tried to recapture their old form with different line-ups – even keeping with the all Polish nature – it hasn’t quite worked out, leading them to a bigger overhaul. As of December 16, the new-look VP roster – which had been previously reported by Dbltap’s Jarek ‘DeKay’ Lewis – will come in the form of AVANGAR’s most recent team, the all-CIS roster that most recently came in as BLAST Pro Series: Moscow winners. This means that fans of Virtus.Pro will be able to look forward to seeing Dzhami ‘Jame’ Ali, Dauren ‘AdreN’ Kystaubayev, Sanjar ‘SANJI’ Kuliev, Alexey ‘qikert’ Golubev, and Timur ‘buster’ Tulepov playing under the iconic brand. Welcome our new CS:GO team Jame time #GOGOVP pic.twitter.com/vhKsrhiZIY — Virtus.pro (@virtuspro) December 16, 2019 The team’s debut with Virtus.Pro isn’t all that far off either as they have been confirmed to play at EPICENTER 2019, which kicks off from Moscow on Tuesday, December 17. While top teams like Evil Geniuses, Natus Vincere, and Team Vitality will be taking part, a win for the new-look line-up would represent a significant success for the organization. Virtus.Pro hasn’t had a remarkable finish at any international event since the 2017 installment of EPICENTER, where they finished second. Virtus.Pro’s new roster will consist of: Dzhami ‘Jame’ Ali – Dauren ‘AdreN’ Kystaubayev – Sanjar ‘SANJI’ Kuliev – Alexey ‘qikert’ Golubev – Timur ‘buster’ Tulepov –

Virtus.pro look to rebuild CS:GO roster by recruiting two former star players Prominent Russian esports organization Virtus.pro are looking to re-enter the competitive scene of CounterStrike: Global Offensive. According to reports, the org is already actively recruiting players to reassemble their roster shortly after having ceased all operations of their former CS:GO team due to performance issues. Two of the players that they are trying to sign are Janusz ‘Snax’ Pogozelski and Pawel ‘byali’ Bieliński, both of whom formerly played for Virtus.pro as recently as just a few months ago. Snax left the org back on June 27, moving over to mousesports, while byali was still on the team in early November before leaving, although he never actually joined another team. Since their departure, the team has gone severely downhill, and after having failed to qualify for the IEM Katowice Major, Virtus.pro decided to take a step back and reassess their priorities when it came to players and recruitment, placing their entire roster on inactive status on December 13. Virtus.pro are a huge name in CS:GO esports, partly thanks to the play of Snax and byali. Bringing back the two players would be a huge boost for an org that is very much in a transitional phase right now when it comes to CS:GO esports. With both Snax and byali on the team, Virtus.pro won five Premier tier tournaments, most recently the Dreamhack Masters Las Vegas in February of 2017. Winning trophies aside, they both helped the org earn the respect and support of thousands of fans, and were crucial in establishing Virtus.pro as one of the prominent names it is today. Snax was a huge part of VP’s amazing spell of success in recent years. Reports have also mentioned that Snax and byali are not the only two players that Virtus.pro are considering bringing on to their new team. Sources claim that the org is actively negotiating the transfer of Mateuz ‘TOAO’ Zawistowski from AGO Esports, who would join the two former VP stars. As for the remaining two spots on their new roster, sources are also reporting that VP plan on retaining Michal ‘snatchie’ Rudzki and Michal ‘MICHU’ Muller, both of whom are on the currently inactive roster of players. Sources have claimed that VP are close to acquiring TOAO from AGO Esports.

Virtus.pro CSGO team to play in ESL Pro League 15 as ‘Outsiders’ João Ferreira/DexertoVirtus.pro’s CS:GO team will compete in ESL Pro League 15 under the tag ‘Outsiders’ following ESL’s ban of organizations with ties to the Russian government, Dexerto has confirmed. The CIS team will compete under a neutral name after ESL elected to impose a ban on all “organizations with apparent ties to the Russian government” following the Kremlin’s decision to invade Ukraine on February 24. Virtus.pro are one of the two Russian-based organizations that ESL believes have ties to the Kremlin. Russian state-run insurance company Sogaz has a controlling stake in Virtus.pro’s ownership group VK, and is one of the companies included on the European Union’s sanctions list imposed on Russia over the invasion of Ukraine. Despite this, Virtus.pro claimed that they were “not connected” to the Russian government, adding that they had provided ESL with documentation to this effect. The Russian organization showed their displeasure with ESL’s decision, which they described as “a prime example of ‘the cancel culture.” Still, Virtus.pro stressed they would not stand in the way of the players competing in the tournament under a different tag if they so wished. Virtus.pro’s CS:GO team has two players from both Russia and Kazakhstan, and one from Latvia. In a recent interview with Sportacentrs, Mareks ‘YEKINDAR’ Gaļinskis, the Latvian player, said that the future was “uncertain” as travel restrictions and tournament sanctions could affect his team. Gambit, the other organization identified by ESL as having ties to the Russian government, have not yet stated whether their team will compete in ESL Pro League 15, which begins on March 9.

Virtus.Pro CS:GO roster to “cease competition” following poor results Russian esports organization Virtus.Pro has announced that their all Polish CS:GO roster will be ceasing competition until further notice, following a string of poor results. Led by veteran players Jarosław ‘pashaBiceps’ Jarząbkowski and Filip ‘NEO’ Kubski, who have both been with the organization since 2014, VP was one of the fan favorite teams in Counter-Strike. However, after a roster shuffle which eventually saw three other veterans, Snax, TaZ and byali, all leave the lineup, results did not improve as was hoped. Throughout 2018, Virtus.Pro continued to underperform, especially at the biggest events, placing top 24 at the FACEIT London Major in September. In their statement, the organization makes it abundantly clear that the team’s performance is the cause of the change. “After relegating from Faceit London Major our squad finished 5th at BLAST Pro Series: Istanbul 2018, did not make it to main stage of EPICENTER 2018 and could not qualify to the next ESL Pro League season.” Our CS:GO lineup ceases competition. Read more on https://t.co/JGlDZBIKgE pic.twitter.com/sBqJpZkjOg — Virtus.pro (@virtuspro) December 13, 2018 The organization is not departing CS:GO entirely however, as General Manager Roman Dvoryankin explains that “the long term strategy for us is to build a competitive team around young players.” It’s a sad day for us, but we have to go through. Right now our players can’t show their best game as a group, it’s bad for them, it’s bad for us, it’s bad for our fans. We will update you on our plans by the end of the year #GOGOVP — Roman Dvoryankin (@dvoryrom) December 13, 2018 The team was expected to challenge for a spot at WESG 2019 in the Polish qualifier vs AGO on December 18, but it is presumed they will forfeit the match. PashaBiceps, a beloved player by almost all CS:GO fans, posted a resilient message on Twitter following the news. That’s it ! I grew up in esport , I will stay in esport I will die in esport… your papito pic.twitter.com/mcmg6BPKzB — paszaBiceps (@paszaBiceps) December 13, 2018 The Virtus.Pro organization is legendary in Counter-Strike, having competed since as early as 2004 in the original Counter-Strike 1.6. Source: Virtus.Pro

Virtus.Pro’s CSGO round derailed by bugged bomb on Overpass A bugged spot on Overpass threatened Virtus.Pro’s advantage during an official United Masters League CS:GO match against BIG – making the bomb disappear. Valve has patched up many holes in their game throughout CS:GO’s life span. Typically these spots eat up everything that falls into their clutches like weapons, utility, and even the T-side’s C-4 objective. While the discovery of the voids can be hilarious moments in a matchmaking or casual game, it could have terrible repercussions during a competitive match where pros are facing off against each other for cash and other prizes. Bugged spot on Overpass That’s exactly what happened in the late stages of VP’s match on the attacking side. As the norm, the T side advanced the bomb to the upper portion of Tunnels when dropping the item to be collected later. VP proceeded to poke and prod around the map to see where they could get an advantage with the bomb safely behind their control. Mobile viewers can see clip here Well, after Janusz ‘Snax’ Pogorzelski managed to get an opening AWP kill, the team decided it was time to regroup for a play on the A side of Overpass. Read more: Stuchiu’s Stance: The arT of Space Creation – That’s when Snax discovered that the bomb was no longer where the team had last left it. “Wait a second, where’s the bomb,” a caster can be heard saying. The bomb has actually glitched through the map and fell down to oblivion without a hope of being retrieved. Since a minute had already elapsed and damage had been dealt, tournament rules dictated that the round had to be played out. Even with a man-advantage, any intention that VP had of systematically playing out the round was shot since their only way of winning was to completely eliminate the BIG players. Shortly after the bug, VP players started dying left and right as they were forced to find fights. Luckily, Snax and Michał ‘MICHU’ Müller were able to actually pull off the 2v3 comeback to at least mitigate the damage from the glitch. VP would eventually lose the match and series 0-2 to BIG, but hopefully the spotlight on the bug leads Valve to patch up the spot sooner than later.

Virtus.Pro bring back legacy players for new CS:GO roster StarLadderVirtus.Pro have announced their new CS:GO line-up heading into 2019. One of the most legendary brands in Counter-Strike, Virtus.Pro revealed on December 13 that their existing squad would be disbanding. Most notably, the move meant the departure of Filip ‘neo’ Kubski, considered one of the greatest Counter-Strike players of all time, and Jarosław ‘pashaBiceps’ Jarząbkowski, an enormously popular player throughout CS:GO. The two were the last remaining members of the iconic Virtus.Pro squad that played without roster changes for three years. In their stead, however, VP will be bringing back two other members of that line-up, as Janusz ‘Snax’ Pogorzelski and Paweł ‘byali’ Bieliński will return to the team after previously departing. Snax spent a period on Mousesports that was highlighted by a win at ESL One New York, while Byali has been inactive at the elite level since stepping down from the VP roster after the FaceIt London Major. The pair will join Michał ‘Snatchie’ Rudzki and Michał ‘Michu’ Müller, who are the only players returning from the most recent iteration of Virtus.Pro. Finally, the roster will be rounded out by Mateusz ‘TOAO’ Zawistowski, previously of AGO Esports, who is the only player on the new roster not to have represented Virtus.Pro before. Virtus.Pro’s new CS:GO roster:

Valve’s John McDonald Comments On New Skin Trading Restrictions and Possibility of Reverting the Decision GDC / ValveValve’s John McDonald has commented on the recent decision to introduce a seven day trade ban for new items in CS:GO and made it clear that it is unlikely to ever be reverted. For the first time in what feels like forever, the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive community is able to openly ask questions to a Valve developer and get a public response within days rather than months (or never). Valve’s John McDonald has made it his personal mission to improve the developers’ community interaction and regularly answers questions on Twitter, explaining Valve’s thought processes and plans. One of the biggest concerns within the community in recent months has been the introduction of the new seven day trading ban on new skins and items in CS:GO – a ban that has changed the face of skin trading forever. Most community members, including current and former professional players, have spoken out against the decision, saying that it is punishing the many in an attempt to tackle the minority of people that take advantage of the system in order to create scams. However, McDonald has now made it clear that it is “exceedingly unlikely” that we will see the developers revert the decision as there has been a “70% decrease in the number of scamming tickets filed” since the trade ban was implemented. Support tickets do not agree with you–there has been a 70% decrease in the number of scamming tickets filed. While we will continue to monitor trade (yes, we see your petition), it is exceedingly unlikely we will revert it. https://t.co/jy4H9oQmgA — John McDonald (@basisspace) May 10, 2018 Of course, the obvious counter-argument to McDonald’s statistic is that this is due to the fact that nobody is able to trade like they once could and that the scamming aspect is still there, just broken up slightly due to the wait time. There’s probably a fairly good chance that we would also see similar percentage drops in trading of all sorts and this will potentially do nothing but hurt a game that has relied heavily on the skin trading ecosystem in recent years. Whether you agree or disagree with John McDonald and Valve’s decisions, it cannot be understated how refreshing it is to see some communication finally.

Valve VAC banned a record number of accounts in December 2018 Statistics for December 2018 show that Valve have banned a record number of accounts for having cheats installed on their systems to be used in some of Steam’s most popular games. Valve’s Anti-Cheat System, commonly known as VAC, is an automated system created by Valve that detects cheats installed on players’ computers, such as aimbots or x-ray vision. If a user connects to a VAC-Secured server with cheats installed on their system, they will be banned from playing the game. VAC is used across multiple Valve titles, including games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, DOTA 2 and legendary shooter Team Fortress 2. It seems that the system was working overtime during December, with over 500,000 Steam accounts issued with VAC bans over the course of the month, setting a new record for bans in a one month period. Before December, the record for most VAC bans in a month was set in July 2018, when 193,000 bans were handed out. Interestingly, it appears that the amount of game bans this month sat just slightly higher than VAC bans, with just 700,000 game bans compared to April 2018 which saw 1.6 million. While VAC bans are most strongly associated with Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, it’s unlikely that all of these bans are linked to the title, with a large chunk perhaps attributed to DOTA 2, TF2 and other games that use the VAC system. Valve are yet to comment on what caused so many accounts to get banned in December, but many CS:GO fans believe that it’s probably connected to the game becoming free-to-play, as it may encourage people to use cheats, safe in the knowledge that they won’t have to pay to play the game again.

Valve stops hackers abusing CSGO’s Overwatch to ban innocent players ValveThe Overwatch system in CS:GO gives players the control to manually review suspect cheaters in the game. However, hackers have been able to abuse the system to report, and convict, prominent players and streamers. Valve is putting a stop to it though. Overwatch in CS:GO is a relatively successful system. It can catch cheaters VAC otherwise wouldn’t detect, and helps players manage their own community. However, it’s not without its problems. From false positives, to potential human error, Overwatch can’t be perfect all the time. However, it’s been especially flawed as of late. A rise in “report botters” have only increased the odds of innocent players getting banned. There was a way hackers could target specific Steam IDs to either avoid bans through the system, or take down players after mass-reporting them. The Overwatch system was being used against itself to take down legit players. According to player reports, report botters were the reason popular personalities like Jacob ‘Pimp’ Winneche and Erik ‘fl0m’ Flom were handed 30-day bans. It got to the point where players were dodging lobbies with cheaters to avoid getting onto Overwatch. “It’s so bad that if you get matched against cheaters you recognize, you’re not allowed to AFK or else you’ll get ‘report-botted’ by them for griefing and then get a 30+ day ban. This is how Pimp and fl0m got their 30 day griefing bans,” CS:GO personality Don Haci said on Twitter. However, Valve are taking a stand. According to developer John McDonald, report botting is no more. Simply put, “RIP report botting.” How Valve have cracked down on the practice is unclear. It’s likely they found the loophole that allowed hackers to access players’ Steam IDs, and cut it off. Valve could also have taken extra potential measures, like banning said hackers who abused the system. The details will remain private though, as Valve looks to sure up their anti-cheat systems without letting the public know too much. This notice should be enough to go off though. Prominent players shouldn’t be at risk of getting their accounts taken down by Overwatch, and the system should be fully functional again.

Valve issues statement on CSGO broadcast bans and exclusivity after Berlin major Valve/StarLadderAfter the conclusion of the Berlin Major, which saw Astralis take home its third straight title, Valve has weighed in on issues that arose during and after the tournament regarding conflicts of interest, exclusivity, and broadcasting rights. The presentations of the StarLadder Berlin major was marred by a fight in the background between streamers and StarLadder over the right to stream the tournament on alternate streams. On day one of the event, streamers were being issued DMCA takedowns for streaming the GOTV feeds without permission from the organizer. Eventually these takedowns for revoked, but many streamers called on Valve to issue a statement on the matter. On September 18th, they did in a post titled “Keeping Things Competitive,” saying in essence that is the responsibility of the tournament organizers to work with streamers. “The Major tournament operator has always been the only party that has had a license to broadcast the Major…However, major tournament operators are expected to work with streamers in order to provide viewers with access to valuable alternative content and underserved languages, whether through official streams or otherwise.” In addition to a statement on broadcasting rights, Valve spoke out about conflicts of interest between organizers and teams, and rumors of leagues/tournaments seeking exclusivity. Regarding conflicts of interest, Valve reiterated a requirement that they have in place regarding them: “In order to participate in Majors, we require that players, teams, and tournament operators confirm that they have no existing conflicts of interest, or if they do, disclose them and work to resolve them.” In the announcement, Valve provides more details on this requirement by revealing the terms that players, teams, and organizers sign and accept when they register for a major. Regarding exclusivity, Valve outlined their reasons for having issue with the concept, and released this statement: “At this time we are not interested in providing licenses for events that restrict participating teams from attending other events.” If this is truly the case, this will have severe repercussions on the recently announced ESL DreamHack Pro Tour, which according to information provided to DeKay and Dexerto, has several clauses regarding exclusivity in its rules section. You can read the full Valve announcement here.

Valve take control of CS:GO Major calendar with set dates for 2020 and 2021 ESLValve are set to take more control over the CS:GO calendar by enforcing set dates for the Majors over the next two years. According to a report by HLTV, Valve have contacted tournament organizers to request proposals for the CS:GO Majors of 2020 and 2021. Unusually, however, they’ve also specified that the Majors in the next two years be held on specific dates. Previously, organizers could make proposals for dates of their choosing, another factor for Valve to consider but not strictly determined by the developer. Valve are reportedly seeking to have the Majors take place on the following dates. 2020: May 11-24 – November 2-15 – 2021: May 10-23 – November 1-14 – These dates also mean that the Majors will be condensed somewhat compared to recent iterations, taking place over two weeks compared to the three weeks allocated for the most recent Major, IEM Katowice. Read more: “Emergency” CS:GO update fixes major lobby exploit, riot shields coming soon – Patch notes – According to HLTV, Valve are aiming to determine which organizers will be host the Majors in 2020 by the end of June 2019, and are also open to proposals for 2021. How do the Majors work? While Valve is largely hands-off with the CS:GO tournament circuit, not taking direct control in the way Riot or Blizzard do and even being less involved than they are with DotA 2, their other major title, the CS:GO Majors are the one aspect of the scene that Valve dictate. Taking place twice a year, the Majors are the game’s most prestigious events, with a $1,000,000 prize pool provided by Valve and an extensive Minor system to qualify through for those that weren’t able to secure one of the eight Legends spots in the previous Major. While Valve control the Majors, however, they don’t operate the event themselves. Instead, they seek proposals from tournament organizers, who detail when, where, and how they’d put on the best possible event, with Valve then selecting the proposal they like the most. Previously, those proposals could include dates of the organizer’s choosing, but now they will have to fit their proposals to Valve’s schedule. What does the change really mean? While Valve have often been praised for their relatively off-hands approach to CS:GO, which many argue allows the scene to evolve in a more natural manner – determined by the various interests of players, teams, and organizers rather than prescribed by the absolute power of the developer – there have been calls for Valve to take more direct control of the Major schedule. In the past, there have been issues of the Major falling unfavorably in relation to the annual player breaks, leaving teams to choose between actually taking time off, and practicing for one of the most important tournaments of the year. For organizations and teams, the set schedule should also make it possible to determine contracts going forward that make it easier to plan for potential roster moves around the biggest events of the year. Likewise, a set schedule for Majors is also likely to make life easier for tournament organizers, who should now be able to plan for their events in the coming years without the fear of clashing with a Major and therefore being unable to draw top teams. The next CS:GO Major will be the StarLadder Berlin Major, and is set to take place from August 20 to September 8, 2019.

Valve reveals CSGO’s final Major sticker collection: All Paris Major 2023 stickers ValveValve has finally revealed the design of CSGO’s very last Major sticker collection for the Paris Major 2023, and it’s a nice throwback to the Katowice 2014 stickers. As the Paris Major, which is the very last CSGO major, comes closer to its start, many players have been on the edge of their seats for the sticker reveals. And throughout the wait, there has been much hype, and even some unintentional trolling from NIP’s CEO. And finally, just three days from the start of the Major – which is the most delayed sticker release to date – details are now upon us. Sporting a clean borderless look with the Major’s name at the bottom, it harkens back to the classic Katowice 2014 stickers, which have been long coveted, not only due to being CS:GO’s very first Major stickers but also because of its clean borderless look. We also have gotten a good showcase of what each sticker finishes look like, which does not differ all too much from previous Major stickers, as at this point Valve already has a formula in place and they’re sticking to it. Stickers will be available in four different finishes. Paper, Glitter, Holo, and Gold. Their rarity to gain from the sticker capsules is also in that order. This goes for both the Team stickers and Player autographs. Naturally in Valve’s showcase, NAVI’s sticker gets first billing as the legendary Ukrainian org is on record for being the only team to have participated in all of CSGO’s Majors. The sticker release also marks it as the final Major sticker collection CSGO will receive as the scene gears up for the release of Counter-Strike 2 and the game’s next Major happening next year in the new version. The sticker capsules are now available to buy in-game in CSGO, with the viewer pass and token also available for purchase.

Valve reveals CSGO player numbers on 10-year anniversary: “Stronger than ever” ValveCounter-Strike: Global Offensive turns ten years old this year, and Valve is celebrating the occasion with new in-game content. As part of the 10th birthday celebration, Valve has also revealed impressive player numbers for the now decade-old game. Counter-Strike as an entity is over 20 years old now, first launching in 1999 in beta. Originally a humble Half-Life mod, it’s become one of the most popular first-person shooters of all time. When Global Offensive launched in 2012, it wasn’t an immediate hit, with many fans of the series opting to stick with previous versions, like 1.6 and Source, not predicting GO to be a success. Of course, the sands of time have proven this very wrong, as CS:GO quickly cemented itself as the gold standard in tactical first-person shooters, a big part of why it remains so popular today. How popular is CS:GO in 2022? How popular? Well, Valve revealed on August 16, that in the past 12 months, the game has “seen more players than ever before.” The exact figure given is 20 million unique monthly players on average, with a peak of over 1 million concurrent players in April 2022. Valve also boasted that the CS:GO Majors have broken previous viewership records, peaking at 2.7m concurrent viewers for the grand final of the PGL Antwerp Major, between NAVI and eventual-winners FaZe. They also confirm that over $70 million was “raised” for professional orgs, teams and players, through the in-game Major items such as stickers. “The future could not look brighter,” Valve concluded. While there have been concerns raised about the level of competition in tactical FPS games increasing, namely because of Riot Games’ 2021 release of Valorant, Counter-Strike’s grip on the top spot isn’t loosening yet.

Counter-Strike 2 revealed: Source 2 update overhauls CS:GO maps, graphics, smokes, more ValveValve has officially revealed Counter-Strike 2, an overhaul of CS:GO with improved maps, graphics, and all-new features, after years of rumors and hype. Counter-Strike 2 will release in Summer 2023, with no official date yet revealed. But, a limited test beta is available today, March 22, for select players. The full release of CS2 will be free to all players in Summer. The update will also include an update to tick rate, in addition to visual changes. The game will now use a ‘subtick’ system. “Counter-Strike 2 is the largest technical leap forward in Counter-Strike’s history, ensuring new features and updates for years to come,” Valve said. Contents What is new in Counter-Strike 2? – Map overhauls in CS2 – Smoke changes – Sub-tick servers in CS2 – Skins in Counter-Strike 2 – New UI – What is in Counter-Strike 2? Updates in Counter-Strike 2 include overhauled maps, improved audio and visuals, changes to how smoke grenades work, and much more. Watch the reveal videos from Valve below, and a full breakdown of what else is to come below. Map overhauls in CS2 The first video focuses on improved maps, with new lighting and more. The maps featured in the video include Mirage, Overpass, Dust2, Nuke, Ancient, Italy and Inferno. Lighting, props and even some of the layouts have been altered. Smoke changes in Counter-Strike 2 Valve dedicated a whole video to new smokes, which are being dubbed ‘responsive.’ Valve says: “Smoke now has the ability to interact with other gameplay events, creating new opportunities. Bullets and HE grenades can push smoke to briefly clear sightlines or expand occlusion.” Smoke will also “fill spaces naturally” and react to lighting. Sub-tick servers in CS2 Instead of a traditional tick rate system, CS2 will use “Sub-tick”. “Sub-tick updates are the heart of Counter-Strike 2. Previously, the server only evaluated the world in discrete time intervals (called ticks). Thanks to Counter-Strike 2’s sub-tick update architecture, servers know the exact instant that motion starts, a shot is fired, or a ‘nade is thrown.” “As a result, regardless of tick rate, your moving and shooting will be equally responsive and your grenades will always land the same way.” Skins in Counter-Strike 2 Valve has also confirmed that skins and all other items in your CS:GO inventory will transfer over to Counter-Strike 2. They also say that these items will be unchanged but will benefit from the improved lighting in Counter-Strike 2. New UI Counter-Strike 2 also includes an overhauled UI, with better-looking ranks and overlay in-game. There is also a new main menu, which shows your team together when they join the lobby. “The UI in Counter-Strike 2 has gotten a complete overhaul,” Valve say. “Including fresh visual effects throughout the HUD. Not only do these improvements look nice, they also communicate important game state.” Reworked audio “Counter-Strike 2 sounds have been reworked to better reflect the physical environment, be more distinct, and express more game state,” Valve said. “[Sounds] have also been rebalanced for a more comfortable listening experience.” Valve also said there is still “more to come” too, and that the limited test “only evaluates a subset of Counter-Strike 2’s features, so that major issues can be resolved before the summer. But there’s much more to come. In just a few months we’ll reveal all of the details of Counter-Strike 2, and we can’t wait to share it with you.” For more on Counter-Strike 2, check out the rest of our coverage: How to play Counter-Strike 2 limited beta test | Is Counter-Strike 2 going to be free to play? | What is sub-tick in Counter-Strike 2? | All smoke changes in Counter-Strike 2 | Can you play Counter-Strike 2 on Linux or macOS? | Can banned CS:GO players play Counter-Strike 2? | What will happen to my CSGO skins? | Will Counter-Strike 2 come to Steam Deck? | Everything we know about Counter-Strike 2

Valve reveal new CSGO anti-cheat measures to combat hackers Valve[jwplayer CeoYrVaS]Valve has rolled out a new, optional beta for CS:GO to test several changes that could be going live soon for their anti-cheat system. Cheaters have become a meme with a life of their own in Counter-Strike; no matter how hard devs have tried to counter them in the past, there always seems to be some who manage to sneak through and make it into matches. On June 26, Valve announced a new, optional beta for CSGO that “now significantly restricts the types of programs and files that can interact with the game.” The program, which would only operate while the game is running, will warn players if they have an incompatible program or file on their computer and that they might be banned from Valve Anti Cheat-enabled servers as a result. There is an option where players can disable the ‘Trusted Launch’ feature in your game settings, but doing so could temporarily impact your trust score, which, in turn, can affect the quality of the matches you’re placed into. Even if any of the third-party software you have running at the same time as CSGO is legitimate, it still might not work with the new restrictions as the developers will have to get authentication from Valve for all programs and files that interact with the game directly. Exactly what kind of programs and files the feature will pick up on and flag is unknown, but it seems like all third-party apps and programs could be affected until their devs work with Valve to get approved. The system has only been released to beta at the moment, which means it’s not required to use and is still in the testing phases, for now. But, if developers are offering players the chance to try and test it out, chances are it could see a wider release sometime soon in the future. If you’re interested in trying and testing these new changes out for yourself, you can opt into the beta right here, but as we mentioned, if you’re using any outside apps or anything that interacts with CSGO at all, you may want to disable them, as they may not work right away with the new system just coming out.

Valve tease return of old-school Counter-Strike weapon for 20th anniversary Just ahead of the 20th anniversary of Counter-Strike, the CSGO Twitter account teased the return of a beloved item from the game’s past. With only weeks until the Counter-Strike community celebrate the two-decade mark for the franchise, CSGO fans are gearing up for something big to commemorate two days of the storied shooter. But Valve will seemingly start the celebration a bit early, with a Throwback Thursday post that has sent the Counter-Strike community into a nostalgia-fueled frenzy. In an October 17 post, the devs showed a T-sided player running down A long after planting the bomb on the classic Dust 2 map. Just before reaching pit, they turn around and switch to a classic knife from the franchise’s past while the bomb explodes – as did the minds of every longtime CS player. For those unfamiliar with what they are watching, the knife being held is from Counter-Strike 1.6, an updated version of the original Counter-Strike game that was released in 2000. Many of the older faces in today’s CSGO competitive landscape got their start in the scene by viewing, casting, or competing in 1.6. The title was released in 2003 after spending over a year in beta access and is by far the biggest update in Counter-Strike’s history. It introduced new weapons, a completely reworked interface, and was released with the very first version of Valve’s Steam client. This 1.6 knife in particular is modeled after the Badland Bowie knife, designed by renowned knifemaker Mick Strider. Along with the major update to Cache that’s on its way out, the CSGO devs are really pushing to merge a bit of the old with the new for the upcoming 20th anniversary celebration. The knife will appear almost exactly like it did in the previous title, but with the updated visuals and shine from Valve’s latest CS version. Unlike the knife, however, Cache will be getting a few noteworthy changes that will definitely alter the way pro teams and even casual players maneuver around the longtime CS fixture. It’s unclear when the knife will be made available to obtain, but it shouldn’t be long as Counter-Strike’s 20th anniversary celebration carries on. Dexerto’s Scott Robertson contributed to this report.

Jamppi’s request for temporary pause on CSGO VAC ban denied by court SJ GamingProfessional CS:GO player Elias ‘Jamppi’ Olkkonen’s call for his Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC) ban to be temporarily lifted while the legal case is ongoing has been denied by the court. Jamppi initially filed a lawsuit against the Counter-Strike developers after an account he previously owned was issued with a VAC ban, hindering the star from signing to OG Esports and stopping him from competing at CS:GO Majors. The young pro was seeking compensation of €268,092 for missed earnings as well as having his VAC ban lifted, and called for the District Court of Eastern Uusimaa to temporarily lift his VAC ban while these legal proceedings were ongoing. Valve responded to this on August 20, following the 19-year-old’s demands to compete without restrictions until the legal feud is decided in court, according to reports from Finnish website Ilta-Sanomat. The response from Valve revealed that they had refused Jamppi’s demands for temporary measures, claiming that it would cause more damage to the company. “The applicant seeks to gain temporarily, by means of a precautionary measure, what he cannot achieve with the main case he has initiated,” Valve’s representative responded. – Removing the VAC ban temporary while the lawsuit is handled would cause damage to Valve. – If they remove the VAC ban temporary while the case is ongoing it would give players false signal that you can cheat in CSGO and VAC could be removed without reason. — neL (@neLendirekt) August 20, 2020 It was also pointed out that this would give other players false signals that they could cheat in CSGO and their ban would be lifted without justification. It also added that both they and the community as a whole would suffer if they could not ensure that there would be no cheating in a competitive environment. Now, the District Court have ruled on Jamppi’s demand and chosen to deny his call for his VAC ban to be removed on a temporary basis. This means that the 19-year-old will not be able to compete in any major Counter-Strike tournaments while this action continues. Jamppi can now lodge an appeal with the Court of Appeals against this decision but must do so within seven days of the decision being given. With this issue seemingly concluded, the next step required is to decide if the District Court of Eastern Uusimaa has the jurisdiction to investigate further. The district court were unable to give Ilta-Sanomat a timeframe for the decision on whether the court is eligible to handle the case moving forward.

Valve responds to invisible CSGO characters issue in December 13 patch ValveThe new agent skins added to Counter-Strike at the beginning of the Shattered Web operation caused a bit of controversy regarding issues of visibility on certain maps. Valve have addressed the issue in their latest patch. When Shattered Web first released in November, CS:GO fans were thrilled with the influx of new content. One new aspect was custom player character skins, known as agent skins, that players could buy or earn by leveling up their operation pass. But little time passed before players at casual, competitive, and professional levels noticed that certain skins gifted an additional advantage on certain maps. In the notes for their December 13 patch, the Counter-Strike team at Valve noted that the problematic skins would be adjusted, not removed. “3rd Commando Company, ‘Two Times’ McCoy, and Seal Team 6 Soldier have been updated to improve visibility. These previously mid-tone agents have been darkened, and contrast has been increased in their head and shoulders.” The previous iterations of these characters featured much lighter greenish tones, which let them hide in numerous spots around various CSGO maps. One of the more egregious examples was on the newly revamped Cache. There was also an issue of these skins being used with a bit of shrubbery on Overpass, next to bathrooms. In addition to the darkening of the problematic skins, Valve announced that they “pruned” the shrubbery that made CTs appear nearly invisible. Finally, they removed the pixel-gaps in the boxes on the A bombsite on Mirage; a frequent spot for players to get cheeky frags through, including FaZe’s Olof ‘olofmeister’ Kajbjer Gustafsson in the recent BLAST Global Final. The issues created by the initial versions of these skins had the potential to cause problems at the pro level, and players and professionals at that level responded. Team Liquid’s star Jonathan ‘EliGE’ Jablonowski suggested a command that would revert models to default for the players, which would keep the new skins viewable for spectators. Shawn ‘FMPONE’ Snelling, who designed and then re-designed the previously mentioned Cache map, originally said there should be an option to disable them altogether. Both ESEA and FACEIT announced that the new skins wouldn’t be used during their competitive matches. With the decision to alter the skins rather than outright remove them, Valve has made it clear that they are committing to the skins remaining in the game. If these changes, along with any potential future ones, satisfy the competitive community, we may see tournament organizers unban them heading into 2020. Full patch notes for December 13 CS:GO update: [ AGENTS ] – 3rd Commando Company, ‘Two Times’ McCoy, and Seal Team 6 Soldier have been updated to improve visibility. These previously mid-tone agents have been darkened, and contrast has been increased in their head and shoulders. [ MISC ] – Accolade weighting has been adjusted for non-Competitive modes. – Added nametag preview on the model to match the rendering rules. – Fixed items inside storage units sometimes showing up as unacknowledged. – Fixed overview map from crashing when drawing too many line segments. [ MAPS ] – Overpass: – Pruned some shrubbery. – Mirage: – Removed pixel-gaps on boxes in bombsite A.

Valve respond to Jamppi lawsuit over CSGO VAC ban DreamHackValve has responded after ENCE star Elias ‘Jamppi’ Olkkonen filed a lawsuit against the CS:GO devs for damages and to lift his ban from competing at Major tournaments. Jamppi is currently one of the top prospects in Counter-Strike and is now competing under Finnish organization ENCE. After being added to the roster in April, the young player has shown some strong performances as of late, with an impressive showing during BLAST’s Spring Showdown on June 7. However, the Finnish pro has not had the easiest start to his career and claimed that the dispute with Valve has cost him opportunities, such as joining OG esports’ initial roster, when an account connected to his name received a VAC ban, making him unable to compete at CS:GO Majors. He filed a lawsuit in March and claimed that he had purchased a copy of CS:GO for one of his friends during a LAN party in 2015 and sold the account before it was issued a VAC ban months later. His case against the gaming giant, which sought compensation of €266,092 and the removal of his major ban, has now seemingly progressed, according to Finnish news site Ilta-Sanomat, who reported that Valve has now responded to the lawsuit. The report claims that the District Court of Eastern Uusimaa revealed that Valve has now responded to Jamppi’s lawsuit, although exact details of the response are not public as of yet. Jamppi’s lawyer Hannu Kalkas was also asked about the details and revealed that he, along with the CS:GO star, would likely be making a statement on June 15 to provide an update. “I will not comment. Current plan is that we make a statement by June 15,” Olkkonen’s lawyer explained, according to a translation by u/warkod. Jamppi’s father, who has been handling most of the lawsuit on behalf of his son also added that, despite also suing for damages, having the Major ban lifted was their biggest priority. The result of the lawsuit will set an important precedent for future cases in esports, however, as of now, Jamppi is continuing to compete as normal, in hopes that his ban will be lifted in time for him to qualify for ESL ONE Rio Major in November.

Valve respond to Drone’s CS:GO ban ahead of Major qualifiers Valve / DreamHackValve has addressed an Overwatch ban placed on the CS:GO account of former Team Envy player Taylor ‘Drone’ Johnson that almost caused him to miss taking part in the StarLadder Major qualifiers. The 21-year-old revealed on June 1 that his main Steam account had been issued with an Overwatch for griefing, meaning another player had watched his gameplay and decided that he was purposefully attempting to ruin his teammates experience by killing them or intentionally flashing them. Drone immediately disputed these claims, stating that he had been “falsely reported and convicted by an abusable system,” and that he had been playing with personal friends at the time. The Overwatch ban initially ruled him out of taking part in the StarLadder Major open online qualifiers, as his account was ineligible to join VAC-protected servers – which he was required to play on as part of the qualification process. Intervention from StarLadder allowed him to compete in the qualifiers using a different account, but questions still remained as to whether he would be able to take part in the closed qualifiers with his team Peeker’s Advantage. Valve has now stepped in to resolve the issue, with the American tweeting his thanks to the developers for their help, saying they “got it sorted” for him, and labeling them as “legends.” In the post is a screenshot, which states his ban has been removed. And we got it sorted boys. Legends @csgo_dev pic.twitter.com/4UZqeJT3PP— Taylor Johnson (@Dronecsgo) June 3, 2019 The ban was set to last until July 11, but the lifting of the suspension now means that Drone can use his main account in VAC-protected servers, allowing him to use it in the StarLadder Closed Minor Qualifier. His team, Peeker’s Advantage, will be in action in the Americas Minor North American Closed Qualifier on June 12, where 16 teams will battle to secure a spot in the Americas Minor, and move one step closer to qualification for the StarLadder Berlin Major, which takes place in August.

Valve reportedly introducing ranking system for CS:GO Major invitations Helena KristianssonValve have announced a significant change to the invitation system for the Fall 2020 CS:GO Major, moving away from automatic invites in favor of a ranking system. According to a report by HLTV, Valve have informed tournament organizers that they are changing the means by which teams will receive direct invites for the second Major of the year. Historically, teams have been able to guarantee their position at the next Major based on their placing at the previous one. The top eight teams secured ‘Legends’ status and an invitation directly to the Legends stage of the next Major, while the following six teams secured ‘Returning Challengers’ status and automatic invites to the Challengers stage. The remaining spots were open to qualifiers through the Minor system. For the second Major of 2020, it seems Valve are looking to replace this system with a ‘Major ranking’ which will determine which teams receive invites to the Major. Points in the ranking system will be distributed to teams based on their performance at the ESL One Rio Major in May 2020, and two other events leading into the second Major of the year, which is set to take place November 2-15. The top eight teams in this ranking system will then be granted Legends status, while the next eight teams will receive Challenger status for the November Major. The final eight spots will be available through the existing Minor system. Details of which tournament organizer will be running the second Major of the year, or where it will be held, have not yet been revealed, although Valve have already stipulated that the event must take place on November 2-15. Valve have also reportedly informed tournament organizers that they are taking proposals for the two additional events between the Majors that will count towards the Major ranking, with the following criteria: The event will be between July and September. – The event will result in a LAN portion with a minimum of 8 teams. The portion of the event preceding the LAN competition can be online or LAN. – The event will include a minimum of 24 teams, of which 16 slots are available to teams by Major ranking, and 8 are selected by a process of the TO’s choosing. – The event results will differentiate between the top 16 performing teams and the remaining teams. – Initial seeding for the event will be done by Major ranking. – Valve will match up to $250k in prize money. – HLTV also report that Valve highlighted that they will not be placing any constraints on the size, location, or format of these events, with the primary purpose being to identify the teams which will qualify for the Major.

Valve reportedly making $54 million a month from CSGO cases ValveSkin trader and YouTuber Anomaly has seemingly crunched the numbers and reported Valve could be making $54 million in an average month just from CSGO case keys. It should be no surprise that CSGO cases are Valve’s cash cow, as the game studio turned game publisher and distributor giant was a pioneer of in-game cosmetic microtransactions. YouTuber and skin trader, Anomaly, has decided to crunch the numbers and figure out just many cases are being opened each month, and how much money Valve is making from them. If his data holds true, it appears to be a staggering amount. Anomaly was working on the calculations of Fjedjik, a user from the CSGO Market Forum subreddit. The user sought to calculate how many cases are being opened per month, and decided to use the database of CSGO float, a skin website. Using his own math formula alongside the database, he was seemingly able to calculate how many cases were being opened. Fjedjik estimated that from May 1, 2021 to June 1, 2021, a total of 25.9 million cases were unboxed. If we were to calculate the keys required to open the cases at $2.50 each, Valve would have made $65.75 million that month. Anomaly decided to expand Fjedjik’s calculations into January 2023 and found from May 2021 to January 2023, a total of 458 million cases were opened. If we were to break it down into 641 individual days, it’s around 714,509 cases per day. That means Valve could be earning $1,786,271.45 per day, according to the YouTuber’s calculations. That’s $54,355,263.16 per month on average and $651,989,078.25 per year. Anomaly asked why this money is not put into prize pools for Majors, just like in Dota 2’s International. In Dota 2, the prize pool is funded by the community through cosmetic sales, but no such thing has been ever done for CSGO. The prize pool for both Majors combined last year, $2.25 million, was just 0.34% of the amount Valve has earned from CSGO case keys alone. Anomaly also pointed out Valve once released cases specifically made to fund CSGO prize pools, called eSports Cases. The last one was in 2014. After the cases, team stickers replaced it as a form of supporting players who participate in the yearly Majors, but it does not go to the prize pool, rather only a percentage goes to the teams and players. Anomaly points out this is all just from the keys used to open the cases. Not including community market transaction fees, weapon name tags, and Prime Account sales. Let alone profits from Dota 2 and Steam.

Valve replaces CSGO AWP skin amid stolen art allegations Steam WorkshopA CSGO AWP skin which was included in the new Revolution case has quickly been replaced after allegations of stolen art being used. Valve has always been a champion of community artists, with most skins in CSGO, Dota 2, and Team Fortress 2 being made by fans of the games. But there is a glaring problem with getting skins from community artists which has plagued Valve for a long time. It is hard to moderate what art assets are used by artists in the community, and it is especially hard to tell if any assets in the skin were taken from other artists well after it is released publicly for all to see. Once again, developers have run into trouble after introducing a new skin. An artist, Vexx, created a very similar dragon design to what eventually appeared in the AWP skin, Doodle Lore. Valve has responded by replacing the skin with a new one, the AWP Duality. But this was not the same when the M4A4 Howl was found to contain stolen art and a new item replaced it in the case, leaving existing Howl’s untouched, and now incredibly rare as the only skin in the game with the label Contraband. Rather, Valve has decided to retroactively replace every single existing AWP Doodle Lore with the Duality skin, leaving no trace of the Doodle Lore in the game. High-profile skin traders such as Anomaly and ohnePixel had already predicted Valve would make this move, as Valve is reluctant to create another Contraband skin in the game. This can be seen when it was found the M4A4 Griffin contained stolen art and was replaced with an updated version. But when the AWP Doodle Lore was accused of having stolen art, another skin in the case also was accused of containing stolen assets. The M4A4 Temukau was accused of having stolen art, but it is much more complicated than the Doodle Lore. Whereas the Doodle Lore had seemingly art ripped from Vexx, the creator of the Temukau vehemently denied any wrongdoing. Only admitting that he took inspiration from multiple different pieces of work to create his own. Anomaly says the M4A4 skin most likely won’t be replaced because it’s far too altered to be considered from a single artwork. So far, no one artist has claimed the M4A4 has copied their work, rather only people pointing out the similarities of the artwork on the gun to other existing artwork.

Valve registers new trademarks for CSGO as Source 2 rumors continue ValveAs hype for a CS:GO 2 or Source 2 beta for Counter-Strike continues to build, new trademarks registered by Valve have sparked speculation about what the game will be called. Expectations are that a Source 2 beta for CS:GO will be released this month, March 2023. This was first reported by Richard Lewis and then solidified by lots of CS:GO updates in the background on Steam. Players have been on the edge of their seats for the whole month, but there is still no Source 2 CS:GO beta to download yet. However, the latest ‘leak’ to get the rumor mill going are official trademark applications made by Valve. On March 17, the game publisher registered two new marks: “CS2” and “Counter-Strike”. Immediately, players presumed this will be used for the new Source 2 release of CS:GO. CS2 and Counter-Strike trademarks The new trademarks were highlighted by Twitter user Aquarius, who has been tracking all the little updates and developments regarding the Source 2 update for CS. Filed by the Valve Corporation on March 17, the trademarks relate to “the categories of entertainment services, namely, providing online video games.” It’s also confirmed that these trademarks, unsurprisingly, are connected to the CS:GO trademark, which is listed as a “related property” on the application. Will CS:GO be renamed Counter-Strike? These new trademarks could indicate a number of possible changes for the CS:GO brand. While you might assume that CS2 stands for ‘Counter-Strike 2’, others have suggested it could be ‘Counter-Strike Source 2’, or ‘CS:GO Source 2’. As for the plain ‘Counter-Strike’ trademark, this could be for a total rebrand of CS:GO, where Valve drops the ‘Global Offensive’ part from the title. One option will be that for the duration of the beta, the Source 2 version will be known as CS2, until the Source 2 version is merged with CS:GO proper, at which time the game could be rebranded as just ‘Counter-Strike’. For now, this is all purely speculation, but these new trademarks are some of the first concrete evidence from Valve itself that changes are coming to this legendary shooter. For more updates on the Source 2 version of CS:GO, use our hub here.

Valve reveal reason behind CSGO case key ban on Steam market Valve has made the shock decision to block Counter-Strike: Global Offensive case keys on the Steam Community Market, with the developer cracking down on trading fraud. Trading in CSGO is a common occurrence. Whether you want to sell your entire inventory for one epic knife skin, or look to trade up slowly, most players have had an interaction with the market. However, players will now be restricted in what items they can use to get their next best skin. Valve will be blocking keys from trading and the Steam Community Market in an attempt to crack down on fraudulent accounts. In a blog post on October 28, Valve announced that they were taking CSGO case keys off the market. It won’t impact any keys currently sitting in player’s inventories, but any future key purchases will be unmarketable and untradeable. Read more: Complexity drop dephh, ShahZaM – “Starting today, CSGO container keys purchased in-game can no longer leave the purchasing account,” it said. “Pre-existing CSGO container keys are unaffected – those keys can still be sold on the Steam Community Market and traded.” While Valve recognized that key trading was once used for legitimate purposes, the rise in fraud involving keys has forced them to crack down on how they move between accounts. “Worldwide fraud networks have recently shifted to using CSGO keys to liquidate their gains,” it said. “At this point, nearly all key purchases that end up being traded or sold on the marketplace are believed to be fraud-sourced.” Today we’re making changes to CS:GO case keys. Full details in today’s blog post: https://t.co/OkiQ9Gl8aJ — CS:GO (@CSGO) October 28, 2019 Keys were a valuable form of currency to be used in CSGO skin trading. They had a baseline value that could be scaled up, meaning people would often trade keys for skins. While this meant that it made for an easy currency to trade off, it could just as easily be exploited by people looking to defraud innocent players. The change means that players – legitimate or not – will have to look for alternative in-game items to trade, or resort to risky out-of-client trades. “Unfortunately this change will impact some legitimate users, but combating fraud is something we continue to prioritize across Steam and our products,” it said. Fraud has been a massive issue in the CSGO trading community, dating back to the start of the Community Market. As Valve looks at finding more permanent ways to catch suspects, the key ban has set the tone for their approach towards the subject. While the popular currency is now slowly going out of circulation, players should still always be vigilant about trading. Be sure to check over the trade before you accept to make sure you haven’t been duped, and be very wary of clicking any links in chat with anyone you trade with, even if you trust them, as your account may get compromised.

Valve patches viral CSGO Mirage smoke bug during PGL Major ValveJust a day after an egregious CSGO smoke bug went viral for a clip of it being exploited during the PGL Antwerp Major, Valve has pushed an update to patch it out. The bug allows players to see out of a cloud of smoke even though their enemies couldn’t see in. Otherwise known as a ‘one-way smoke.’ A video of the glitch went viral on May 14 after being used by G2’s mONSEY against Imperial during a match at the PGL Major on May 14. Teams won’t have that chance anymore though, since Valve has patched the problem. Valve patches CSGO Mirage smoke bug during PGL Antwerp Brief Release Notes for today. We fixed a recently reported smoke bug; you know the one: https://t.co/WRsxuO4qR1 — CS2 (@CounterStrike) May 15, 2022 The patch notes are almost comically short for the May 15 update, simply stating that Valve “fixed a recently reported smoke bug.” There’s no doubt which smoke bug is getting fixed either, if you’ve been tuned in during PGL Antwerp it should be pretty clear. While the turnaround to patch the bug took less than a day, it still didn’t happen in time for the PGL matches on May 15. That being said, at least it will be fixed headed into Round 4, with matches beginning there on May 16.

Valve lifts Fnatic star KRIMZ’s mysterious CSGO VAC ban ValveValve has lifted the VAC ban on CSGO legend KRIMZ, and although fans think it was probably due to a matchmaking tool, the reasons are still unknown. The CSGO community stood still on November 28 after Freddy ‘KRIMZ’ Johansson announced he had been VAC banned. Valve never specified why, which made the situation a bit of a mystery. “It seems that my account got vac banned,” he said. “CSGO can you fix this asap pls.” It sounded like he was probably more confused than anyone else and was adamant he’d done nothing wrong. It seems that my account got vac banned. @CSGO can you fix this asap pls 🙏🤔 — Freddy Johansson (@Krimz) November 28, 2020 CSGO fans think he might have been banned for using a third-party tool named esportal to find matches. However, there has been no official word to support it. FNATIC coach Andreas “Samuelsson” Samuelsson issued a statement not long after. “We have reached out to Valve, TOs, and third-party community websites… to understand the nature of this unexpected shutdown,” he said. “We have no reason to believe this is the consequence of any intentional use of any illegal program.” About Krimz VAC banned account. pic.twitter.com/ztEwun6Q0q — Andreas Samuelsson (@SamuelssonCSGO) November 28, 2020 Either way, it didn’t take Valve long to rectify the issue. They’ve already lifted the ban, and it’s been a huge relief to CSGO players and FNATIC fans around the world. Read more: CSGO Player Ditches ENCE for Military – The first one to spill the beans was ‘DonHaci.’ “Krimz has been unbanned,” he said. “His VAC ban has been removed from his Steam page. Krimz has been unbanned, his VAC ban has been removed from his Steam page.https://t.co/KanSGcPRTu — Hac1 (@DonHaci) December 1, 2020 KRIMZ’s Steam profile isn’t private, which means anyone can take a look and see for themselves. His fans have been pouring in and leaving comments to celebrate and share their relief. Still, nobody is more excited than the man himself. KRIMZ made a brief statement on Twitter and expressed his gratitude for having it fixed. “I’m free [motherf**ers], he said. “Thank you CSGO for sorting it out quickly.” Interestingly, Valve still hasn’t explained why they banned KRIMMZ in the first place. KRIMMZ hasn’t elaborated on it either. In the end, though, the key takeaway is that it appears to have been a mistake. The CSGO community is thrilled to have its favorite son back.

Valve issues punishments to CSGO teams for exploiting coaching bug ESL / DreamHackCounter-Strike: Global Offensive developer and publisher Valve has issued a statement responding to the recent cheating scandal in CS:GO regarding professional coaches, handing down a significant punishment. In the wake of the Rio 2020 Major being canceled, Valve has confirmed that all teams found to have used the coaching bug at Regional Major Ranking (RMR) events will have their Major qualifying points reset totally. Although Valve expressed regret that the bug wasn’t fixed sooner, and accepted responsibility for this, the publisher also stated that it expects to be able to trust the players and coaches. “Recently we’ve been made aware that several coaches of professional CS:GO teams exploited a bug in the game in order to gain an advantage over their opponents,” Valve said. “It is unfortunate and frustrating that we did not respond to this bug sooner. “But bugs are the reality of software—and until they are resolved, we need to be able to trust players and coaches. At a minimum, we expect that players and coaches will play by the rules, and immediately pause the match and alert tournament admins if they know of an issue that may give them (or an opponent) an unfair advantage.” Any teams that were disqualified for exploiting the coaching bug, are to have their RMR points reset, a massive blow for teams hoping to qualify for the next Major – whenever it may be. So far, a handful of top coaches have been found guilty of exploiting the bug, including Heroic’s Hunden, MiBR’s Dead, and MechanoGun of Hard Legion. These coaches were banned from ESL competitions for varying lengths of time for 6, 12 and 24 months respectively. This scandal has also threatened the careers of other coaches, as Valve concludes their statement by saying: “Mid-match coaching will always be a tempting opportunity for some teams to violate the integrity of the match. So we may also consider limitations to coaching.” This was a fear among coaches when the scandal broke, as Valve – who have shown reluctance about the very involved roles of coaches before – could take further action to mitigate possible cheating in future.

Valve ignores ESIC’s changes to demerit system for CSGO coach bug cases ESIC/Valve/Unsplash: Alexander JawfoxThe Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) has announced that it has changed the demerit system in place to handle the CS:GO coach bug cases, though Valve is not going to follow the new calculation methodology. The esports watchdog decided to revisit the demerit system following successful appeals lodged by Brazilian coaches Alessandro ‘Apoka’ Marcucci and Nicholas ‘Guerri’ Nogueira. Represented by Luiz Felipe Maia, the same lawyer that was employed by Luis ‘peacemaker’ Tadeu in his case earlier in the summer, Apoka and guerri were able to convince ESIC Commissioner Ian Smith that Valve’s Sanctions “had distorted the intended effect of the ESIC sanctions” when they were determined and issued. Apoka had the static variant of the bug in 61 rounds across six games between 2017 and 2020, resulting in eight demerit points and a three-year ban. guerri, on the other hand, experienced the bug in 26 rounds across two games, which translated into five demerit points and a ten-month ban. Apoka had an 85% reduction in his ban after assisting with the investigation, which saw him miss only 5,4 months of action, while guerri served a four-month ban after a 60% concession. Meanwhile, Valve stated that it would translate ESIC demerits into Major ineligibility, with offending coaches facing bans that ranged from a minimum of one CS:GO Major to a permanent ban from its events. However, the developer disregarded the concessions that ESIC gave to coaches, which meant that Apoka was handed a lifetime ban from Majors, while guerri was barred from attending five Majors. ESIC explained that, when designing the original calculation methodology, it did not imagine that Valve would use the demerit system as the basis for Major bans. The new formula sees the concessions given to coaches included in the calculation of the demerit points: Apoka’s updated demerit points would be 1,2, while guerri’s would be 2. ESIC notified Valve of the new calculation methodology with hopes that the developer would adjust its sanctions accordingly. However, Valve made it clear that it will not adjust the original bans, which is in line with what it told Dexerto in February. “While this is a matter for Valve, ESIC has asked Valve to reconsider their stance,” ESIC said. The news confirms the fraught relationship between Valve and ESIC. In a July 9 article, Dexerto revealed that the lack of communication from Valve had slowed ESIC’s investigation into the historical use of the bug and that the esports watchdog’s efforts to convince the publisher to change its sanctions had fallen on deaf ears.

Valve Has Released a Free Edition of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive ValveValve has released a free-to-play version of CS:GO that could work as a gateway for potential players wanting to try before they buy. The Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Free Edition will give players free access to offline play against bots and the ability to spectate matches through GOTV. That means that anyone that owns the Free Edition will be prevented from playing any form of online match, whether it be matchmaking, casual games or competitive play through a client like FACEIT. With a reputation for a steep learning curve hard-to-master mechanics, CS:GO is a daunting game for many casual players, but having the opportunity to find out whether you can get the hang of those mechanics for free could make all the difference. The move by Valve could also be evidence of them dipping their toes into the world of free-to-play games and a sign that the full version of CS:GO could follow suit some time in the future. Prominent members of the Counter-Strike community like Duncan ‘Thorin’ Shields and Richard Lewis have expressed a desire to see the game go free-to-play one day, saying that it could open up a whole new market and breathe new life into the title.

Valve finally cracking down on one of CSGO’s “most common” cheats ValveValve appeared to have finally taken action on one of the most common CSGO hacks in recent years by VAC banning players who have taken advantage of it before, but some of the players have denied it’s happened. CSGO hacks are incredibly widespread, but Valve finally seems to be taking some more action, based on recent reactions from users of one of the most popular cheats for the game. Dexerto won’t include the name of the affected hack here, but screenshots from the Discord server and the cheaters’ forums were posted by u/AlphaSlashDash on the GlobalOffensive subreddit. In the most recent patch notes of the cheat (yes, even cheats have patch notes now) the developers of the hack seemed to inform users that Valve had recently updated their anti-cheat system without any announcement, and that it was now capable of detecting and VAC banning those who had used it before. “Unfortunatley, due to these events our cheat [REDACTED] has been detected,” the hack’s patch notes read. “The majority of persons that have used the cheat in the last 2-3 months will most likely be banned soon.” Indeed, plenty of users on both the Discord and the cheat’s sub were posting their own accounts of apparently being VAC banned. Not just on the cheating accounts either, they’re losing all of their skins, stickers, and everything else associated with any account they’ve ever used. “Woke up to all of my accounts being VAC banned,” one user claimed. “I even lost my main that I never cheated on. I’m speechless, so much money locked forever.” After this supposed action by Valve was reported, sources told Dexerto that no mass VAC ban had taken place and the report was one big joke by the hack’s users. Valve didn’t make many details of this latest anti-cheat update public either, which could also be evidence that it was indeed all one big troll. Still, anti-cheat is a constant battle, so we wouldn’t be surprised if the users — VAC banned or not — manage to find a way to keep on not playing with the same rules as everyone else.

Valve ease restrictions on VAC-banned players for CSGO Majors ValveValve have announced a change to its Regional Major Rankings (RMR) guidelines which now gives previously VAC-banned CSGO players a way to participate in future Valve-sponsored events. Some VAC-banned players can once again participate in Majors. – Disqualified if: VAC bans less than five years old. – Disqualified if: VAC ban received after first participation of Valve-sponsored event. – Valve change Major rule for VAC banned players The CSGO developers have finally amended their stance on VAC (Valve Anti-Cheat) banned players on April 15, which will now ease some restrictions for Major-eligibility. While other effects of a VAC-ban will stay in place on the account, the owner of the account will now have an avenue to participate in Valve-sponsored events, like the Stockholm Major in the Fall. “Up until today, players were ineligible to participate in Valve-sponsored events if they had ever received a VAC-ban in CSGO,” Valve said. “These guidelines had not seen an update since the game was new and all CSGO VAC bans were relatively recent.” New RMR Eligibility guidelines Players who received a VAC-ban less than five years prior or accrued a VAC-ban after their first participation in a Valve-sponsored event will still be ineligible. All other player-cases will now ease up and allow them to once again enter in RMR events such as qualifiers and big-money Majors. This will give some CSGO players previously implicated in a VAC-ban a chance to once again compete at the highest level of the game.

Valve drops player signature restrictions for Antwerp CSGO Major after backlash ValveOn May 3, Valve released the highly anticipated team stickers and player autographs for the PGL Major Antwerp in CS:GO, with all 120 players immortalized in the game. With PGL Major Antwerp just around the corner, one of the CS:GO community’s biggest questions was whether Valve would limit the player signatures – released before every Major – to only those who reached the playoffs, as it had for the previous Major, held in Stockholm in 2021. The decision at the time came under intense scrutiny from the community. Some of the players attending the Major criticized Valve’s decision to impose restrictions on autographs for the first time, especially the fact that they were kept in the dark by the developer until days before the event began. One of the players denied the chance to have an in-game signature in Stockholm was FaZe’s Helvijs ‘broky’ Saukants. As he watched his team crash out of the Major just before the playoffs, the Latvian AWPer did not hide his sadness at failing to have his name immortalized in the game. Valve drops player signature restrictions Valve announced on May 3 that all players attending the Antwerp Major will have in-game autographs, which, just like the team stickers, come in four variants: paper, glitter, holo, and gold. Prior to the release of the stickers, Valve showcased broky’s signature to assure him that he wouldn’t endure the same ‘flight’ again. As with every Major, half of the proceeds from the sales of the stickers, autographs and the viewer pass will go to the players and organizations attending the Antwerp Major, which begins May 9. Like broky, many players who missed out on signatures in Stockholm have expressed their delight at finally getting the chance to have their own in-game autograph. But for some of those who were in Stockholm and couldn’t qualify for Antwerp, like MOUZ’s Aurimas ‘Bymas’ Pipiras, the wait to get an in-game signature continues. And there are also cases of players, such as Jhonatan ‘jnt’ Silva, who attended the previous Major and have since retired from the game. For them, in particular, the sense of unfairness has been made even more acute now. the one major out of 17 that i qualify has stickers for top 8 only pic.twitter.com/1MXnWtzm5m — Bymas (@bymascs) May 3, 2022 You can keep up with all the action from the PGL Major Antwerp when it begins with the Challengers Stage on May 9 here.

Valve dispute claims made in Finnish reports relating to Jamppi lawsuit SJ GamingIn March, the 19-year-old Finnish player Elias “Jamppi” Olkkonen filed a lawsuit against Valve in a bid to overturn his ban from competing in Valve CS:GO competitions. The ban was put in place after an account with a VAC ban was traced back to Olkkonen. The player has always maintained his innocence and said that he sold the account to a friend on the day it was created, an act that had taken place at a LAN party when he was just 14. The lawsuit seeks not only to set the record straight and have his ban overturned, but also seeks damages for the lost opportunity he had when the professional team OG passed on recruiting him to their roster following Valve’s decision. The court case has been fraught with many problems since its inception. Most notably are rebuttals by Valve’s legal team that in electing to sue the German subsidiary of their parent company, which did not exist at the time Olkkonen entered into the agreement regarding the account. The district court has also ruled that it lacks the jurisdiction to pursue the matter, a decision it looks like Olkonnen’s legal team will appeal. As the outcome of the lawsuit could have wide reaching implications for the professional Counter-Strike scene it has been closely reported upon by the press. Claims made in a report by Finnish publication Ilta-Sanomat on 11th November stated that during the course of the arguments, both parties had agreed that Olkkonen was not in control of the account at the time the cheating infraction took place. These claims were subsequently repeated on social media and by other media outlets. Disclosure: Dexerto hosts a Counter-Strike podcast that repeated this reporting as part of its broadcast. Naturally, these “revelations” were viewed as fundamentally unfair and were met with much criticism from the community. Following this Valve reached out to Dexerto to state that they disagree with Ilta-Sanomat’s published conclusions. Read More: Richard Lewis: What is in Valorant’s fridge? – The Finnish legal team representing Valve in this matter wanted to clarify four points of information following the reporting error being disseminated in esports publications and podcasts. Mr. Olkkonen is currently suing a Valve subsidiary (“Valve GmbH”) in order to lift a VAC ban on one of the user accounts he created (the “Banned Account”). – The information on the Banned Account does not indicate that anybody but Mr. Olkkonen was in control of the Banned Account when the cheating happened. – At no time has Valve GmbH agreed that the account was out of Mr. Olkkonen’s control when the cheating happened. Further, Valve GmbH has not in the District Court proceedings agreed it to be undisputed that Mr. Olkkonen would have sold or transferred the Banned Account. – Mr. Olkkonen’s lawsuit has been dismissed by the court of first instance for lack of jurisdiction. Whether Mr. Olkkonen has used cheats on any of his user accounts was not part of the court’s decision. – This response is likely to change the recent calls from players for the Counter-Strike Professional Players Association to unify behind Olkkonen’s appeal. Most recent, Cloud9’s captain Alex “ALEX” McMeekin publicly called for his pros to support the player’s efforts to get unbanned although that request was predicated on the belief shared by all in the community that a court had agreed he hadn’t cheated on the account. Olkkonen’s representatives have stated that the CSPPA have refused to help up until this point. They added that they had also been in contact with the Esports Integrity Commission but had not received any offers for assistance from them either. While i’m on twitter, I saw a video from @RLewisReports that states that Valve are well aware that Jampi didn’t cheat on the banned account, if that’s true I ask that @CSGO unban him from majors, and urge the @CSPPAgg & my fellow pros to request the same. https://t.co/AoBfDBS50h — ALEX (@CSGOALEX) December 10, 2020 Following Valve’s response, Ilta-Sanomat has since amended their report with the journalist acknowledging they had misunderstood court documents and included a line that did not represent what had occurred. Despite this Olkkonen’s legal team maintain the player’s innocence and have provided a lengthy statement to Dexerto as they continue to battle to have the ban overturned. They explain the situation in their court filings as the following: “At the age of 14, in 2015, Olkkonen and his friends had held a LAN party at home. Participation in the game had required all participants to have a player’s account and a game. The price of the game was 15 euros. Olkkonen had his parents’ credit card information. Olkkonen had created an extra player account and bought the game so that everyone could participate. On the same evening, Olkkonen had sold and handed over the game to an underage friend.” They believe that if it is agreed upon that the account was sold, which doesn’t seem to be disputed at this time, then it must be agreed upon that their client was not in control of the account. They explained this to Dexerto in the following statement: “In their response [in court], Valve would have had the opportunity to dispute our claims and also present all the evidence they have, but they didn’t, not at that time nor later on. According to them what was significant is that the account had been under the “complainant’s name”. Based on the court documents (summary and decision), the sale of the account has not been disputed by Valve and it is stated as “indisputable”. In addition Valve has not disputed any other claims for what we have presented e.g. relating to account selling or Valve has not demanded or provided any evidence about the account selling or anything else. We see it as that after the sale of the account, it has not been under Jamppi’s control in any way and Jamppi is not responsible for what has been done with that account after the sale.” While this clears up a misunderstanding around what Valve has publicly acknowledged, it still leaves many questions as to the fairness of the ban overall. Valve has always maintained a zero tolerance policy for any professional players being associated with VAC banned accounts that is upheld regardless of age. There are also criticisms that can be levied in regards to the communication around such issues. In the absence of a commissioner of CS:GO esports community manager, incorrect information can take hold and spread. While Olkkonen’s lawsuit looks set to continue, these standards show no likelihood of changing anytime soon.

Valve releases CS:GO update fixing major streaming issues affecting Warowl and coldzera – Patch notes A new CS:GO patch dropped on March 6 that featured new improvements that will make streaming the game much less of a risk for prominent figures in the scene. Professional CS:GO players and streamers like Marcelo ‘coldzera’ David, Warowl and more, have been routinely targeted by trolls who intentionally display obscene or offensive imagery for the purposes of deterring a broadcast. It looks like Valve is starting to be more attentive to their streaming community by giving broadcasters features that will essentially censor out unwanted information from other players, much like the Streamer Mode that was popularized by Fortnite. Valve FINALLY adds the ability to block avatars in CS:GO. I’ve been asking for this for YEARS. This is not just helpful for Streamers like myself, but also people who want to game around family, etc. — War Owl (@TheWarOwl) March 7, 2019 The latest CS:GO update implemented new tools that let players take control of the player icons on their screen, communication between people in a server and more. CS:GO players have come to find that an opposing team, especially if they suspect someone is streaming, will spam the chat with offensive terms. The new patch will take care of the problem by allowing users to completely mute the enemy team. Players like Coldzera could come back to streaming without the fear of being locked in a game with trolls. Previously, a streamer would be forced to play 30-50 minute matches with people more concerned with getting them banned than playing the game. Similarly, the update will let users change the names of players that aren’t on their friends list. Since Steam names can be changed on a whim, this finally gives players control to prevent bannable words or terms pop up on their screens. Valve’s push to combat trolls in CS:GO will go a long way to finally letting top-tier CS:GO streamers broadcast without needing to worry about facing a possible ban. You can read the full patch notes below. GRAPHICS Added an optional -d3d9ex command line switch to reduce CPU memory use by about 40%. If you encounter graphics problems with this feature, please send an email to CSGOTeamFeedback@valvesoftware.com with the subject “D3D9EX”. – COMMUNICATION OPTIONS Added communication options in Game Settings which allow the following: – Mute enemy team – Block communication from everyone except players you are friends with or players in your matchmaking party – Hide avatar images – Change names of players not on your friends list to something neutral – MISC Katowice 2019 comes to a close: Champions and Legends have been engraved on the trophies, and the Katowice 2019 graffiti can no longer be applied in game. – Increased the voting time on official servers before transitioning to the next map. – Fixed a scoreboard case where a player’s rank icons sometimes didn’t get removed when the player was replaced with a bot. – Rumor has it: Here is the in-game Champion trophy as well as the Quarter-/Semi-/Finalist trophy with some new names as well as some familiar names – There are a couple of cosmetic issues however, the first one being that the IEM Katowice 2019 ring is partially cut off due to a vtf spacing error. The second issue is that all in-game major trophies’ descriptions now obscure the Katowice 2019 ring – One small unmentioned fix about the in-game Quarterfinalist/Semifinalist/Finalist and Champion trophies did happen, when inspecting them, you can now spin them around all the way (previously immediately after the switch from legacy Scaleform to Panorama, you could only spin it 30 degrees either way) – Though your IEM Katowice 2019 graffiti can no longer be used, you can still buy stickers and capsules…at least for now. The next time the GC is restarted however, that probably won’t be the case anymore, so consider this your very last chance to stock up on some dirt cheap stickers – Other than the above things in the notes, there’s also some localization file updates which are made possible in part by contributions from Translators Like You – Thank You: https://github.com/SteamDataba… necessarily directly related to this update, but remember when Danger Zone was released that Valve appeared to be using Google’s Cloud Platform to host some Steam Datagram system infrastructure in Helsinki and Sao Paulo? Recent Steam Datagram system configuration changes (which have also been locally synced) indicate that Valve has given up on that project at least for right now – Size is ~25 MB –

Valve reveal CS:GO autograph stickers for the StarLadder Berlin Major ValveCounter-Strike: Global Offensive pros facing off at the StarLadder 2019 Berlin Major now have incredible souvenir autograph stickers in their honor for the upcoming event. For Major events, Valve typically creates in-game items like stickers and sprays for fans to support and represent their favorite talents and orgs. For the upcoming Berlin festivities, the CS:GO devs have announced the StarLadder Major offerings with 50% of the proceeds going to the players and teams participating in the event. But for the fans who want to get straight to in-game items with their favorite teams or players, they can buy into the team sticker capsules and the Legends, Returning Challengers, or Minor Challengers Autograph Capsules. For the team stickers, fans will be able to buy them directly to start customizing their weapons with the logos from their favorite orgs. The Legends this year are Team Liquid, NiP, Astralis, Renegades, FaZe Clan, MiBR, Na’Vi, and ENCE. The Returning Challengers are represented by Vitality, G2 Esports, Complexity, Hellraisers, mousesports, NRG, Avangar, and Forze. As for the Minors team stickers, those include Greyhound Gaming, CR4ZY, Furia, Syman Gaming, TYLOO, North, INTZ eSports and DreamEaters. But the big ticket items undoubtedly lie with the plethora of unique autograph player stickers superimposed on the silhouette of the Berlin Major’s crest along with respective orgs featured in the background. CS:GO fans are always raring to add some of the big name players to their collection with every passing Major, but this time there are a lot of fresh faces who will look to make a big splash in Berlin. While autographs from Peter ‘dupreeh’ Rasmussen, Fernando ‘fer’ Alvarenga and Jonathan ‘EliGE’ Jablonowski look right at home on Major memorabilia, fans will be able to pick up designs from newcomers to celebrate their teams’ run so far. Like always there will be a paper, foil and gold autograph variants of the stickers for fans to collect for the duration of the event. CS:GO players will be collecting to their hearts’ content as the StarLadder 2019 Berlin Major Challengers stage will start on August 23 while the Champions stage will crown a victor on September 8.

Valve bans worst CSGO coaching bug abusers from future Majors StarLadderValve announced the extent of punishments to coaches who abused the CSGO bug based on the ESIC’s independent findings, with multiple people indefinitely banned from the company’s prized Major events. After the initial findings, Valve punished teams and 37 coaches based on the initial announcement of people abusing a spectator bug that made it possible to gain unfair advantages during a live match. This resulted in all teams found to have used the bug forfeiting their Regional Major Rankings (RMR) qualifying points, with more individual consequences being handed to the specific coaches that were using the exploit. Now the company has followed up with more changes as a result of the coaching bug saga, with new rules for online RMR matches as well as ineligibility for those found using the bug. Valve issue bans for CSGO coaches While the studio is generally hands off with the CSGO scene in its entirety, they’ve given a general outline of how many Majors coaches will be ineligible based on the ESIC demerits from their full report. “As our follow up, we have decided that coaches that exploited the camera bug will be ineligible to participate in some number of future Valve-sponsored events–that number to be determined by the extent of the abuse.” These ‘demerits’ are based on “the frequency as well as the duration of the abuse of the Spectator Bug” decided by the ESIC and outlined in their findings. Read more: Banned CSGO pro Jamppi switches to Valorant – While there are many who will be barred from a few Majors, the following have been permanently banned: Alessandro ‘Apoka’ Marcucci – Morgan ‘B1GGY’ Madour – Bruno ‘bruno’ Ono (who went by ‘ellllll’) – Ivan ‘F_1N’ Kochugov – Arthur ‘prd’ Resende – Allan ‘Rejin’ Petersen – Slaava ‘Twista’ Räsänen – Aleksandr ‘zoneR’ Bogatyrev (who went by ‘MechanoGun’) – The ESIC is expected to make their demerit calculations public in the near future. Director of Global Strategy & Partnership at ESIC Stephen Hanna said there are “a number of ongoing appeals” and will update Valve if there are any changes. Valve RMR coaching rule change Along with the new rulings, Valve also announced a competition-wide rule change as it pertains to coaches’ participation in RMR online matches that will keep managers from being in the same room as their players. “During online matches only players are allowed in the room and on the server. Neither coaches nor any other team staff will be allowed in the room, on the server, or to otherwise communicate with the team during an online match,” Valve said. Due to “how commonly coaches exploited the bug, for how long it went unreported, as well as how common coach stream-sniping accusations have been” this rule will apply to all coaches regardless if they were implicated in the findings. This is a sweeping change to come out of ESIC’s investigations and is already causing frustration among those impacted. 💔😡 I did nothing wrong and get punished the same. Honestly just heartbreaking and infuriating at the same time. Thanks to everyone who knew about / abused this bug. Thanks to @CSGO who can’t even acknowledge their own fault in all of this. — Wilton Prado ‘zews’ (@zews) January 28, 2021 “I did nothing wrong and get punished the same. Honestly just heartbreaking and infuriating at the same time,” Evil Geniuses head coach Wilton ‘zews’ Prado said. “Thanks to everyone who knew about / abused this bug. Thanks to CSGO who can’t even acknowledge their own fault in all of this.” The next premier CSGO event, the Stockholm 2021 Major, will be in late October.

Valve bans CSGO traders with over $2 million in skins linked to gambling sites ValveIn a ban wave, approximately 40 CS:GO trader accounts have been hit with community bans on Steam, resulting in millions of dollars worth of items being potentially lost forever. CS:GO skin trading is a common and often lucrative business, and a livelihood for some particularly successful traders. However, it is not without its risks, given at any time, Valve can ban the trader’s account without warning or recourse. In 2023, traders who deal with gambling sites have been targeted by Valve. In May, a number of traders who had dealt with gambling sites were banned. On June 28, at least forty high-value accounts belonging to traders have been community banned. Although not confirmed, it is speculated their ban is related to dealing with CSGO Roll, one of the best-known skin gambling platforms. The site partnered with G2 earlier in 2023. CS:GO trader ban wave hits millions in skins On June 28, rival gambling site CS:GO Empire shared a document of CS:GO traders who they allege have been engaged in a scheme to “illegally launder” crypto through the rival site. While this cannot be verified by Dexerto, later on June 28, the vast majority of the accounts named in the list were community banned on Steam. Dexerto has confirmed this through CS:GO Float, a database that tracks all skins in the game. Only one account on the list does not appear to be banned at the time of writing. Based on the cumulative values of these accounts at the time of the bans, at least $2 million in skins, stickers, knives, gloves and other items have been lost in a potentially irreversible fashion. A community ban prevents the user from trading, effectively making the items worthless. CSGORoll vs CS:GO Empire It should be noted that CS:GO Empire and CSGORoll have been engaged in a public dispute in recent months, with the two websites butting heads on social media. It’s also important to note that skin trading itself is not bannable – or at least, Valve does not take action against it – but it has long been thought that dealing with gambling sites was in breach of the Steam Subscriber Agreement and Code of Conduct. On May 11, Steam updated its Code of Conduct to explicitly mention gambling as one of the prohibited ways of using a Steam account. However, allegations from CS:GO Empire against CSGORoll are somewhat more sinister. They allege that the traders were in a secret “Supplier program” that “allows select suppliers to withdraw their on-site balance as cryptocurrency.” They also claim that the traders were under NDA not to disclose this. “CSGORoll advertises itself as a marketplace without crypto cashouts and it operates in the United States,” Warren from CS:GO Empire said. “In reality, crypto withdrawals are enabled, money is laundered through [Owner] Killian’s holding company, and traders involved keep quiet to keep their millions flowing.” Following the bans, the CSGORoll owner responded, saying “Things have gotten too far.” “16 people who support themselves financially from trading skins on my and other platforms, who are well known in the community as trustworthy traders, have been banned for a total cost of $2m in skins, because they have been falsely accused of money laundering with no evidence by this bitter individual,” his post stated. In response to the allegation, he said, “I own a gamified skins trading platform, by law, this is not classified as a casino in our largest markets because we do not offer cash withdrawals. “Contracted skins suppliers are not allowed to play games on the platform, thus we can legally pay them crypto for their skins to always ensure that we have a liquid marketplace. This was all checked by lawyers years ago, and we keep ourselves up to date on modern regulations to always make sure that we are compliant with the law.” On May 18, CSGORoll was banned from operating in Australia, after breaching the country’s gambling regulations. In May, when an initial ban wave hit some CSGO traders, CS:GO Empire refuted claims that it was due to trading with their site. Instead, they argued that these traders had used various websites to send and receive items – not just them. Dexerto has reached out to banned traders and CSGORoll for comment.

Valve awards CSGO hacker thousands for finding in-game exploits ValveThe Counter-Strike: Global Offensive community were shocked to see Valve payout a major bounty to a hacker for finding exploits in their game. Companies throughout major markets will routinely enlist what are called “white hat hackers” or “ethical hackers” to rummage through their backend systems to find major flaws or exploits which they would then report. The practice makes it easier for developers to close any potential loopholes or unintended effect on their product that could pose a threat if a malicious hacker or otherwise happens to come across the vulnerability. This is why you report CS:GO Bugs instead of abuse them My man @2Eggsss got awarded a total of $11250 in bounties from Valve via HackerOne for reporting critical bugs, which have been patched and solved. Don’t abuse, report instead. https://t.co/RGlR9a3z3p — Haci (@DonHaci) October 8, 2019 One such ethical hacker was surprised to see his work being blasted on the GlobalOffensive subreddit after helping Valve squash bugs they found in the game. “This is why you report CS:GO Bugs instead of abuse them,” Twitter user ‘DonHaci’ said. “My man 2Eggsss got awarded a total of $11250 in bounties from Valve via HackerOne for reporting critical bugs, which have been patched and solved.” Yay, I was awarded a $9,750 bounty on @Hacker0x01! https://t.co/X4SsLrOUUx #TogetherWeHitHarder — 2Eggs :soon: Cologne 2020 (@2Eggsss) October 8, 2019 The hacker named ‘2Eggs’ helped Valve on two separate occasions with major payouts of $9,750 and $1,500 for their services in reporting the bugs. The exact nature of the bugs 2Eggs found and reported don’t seem to be publicly disclosed, which would make sense seeing as they’re probably a vulnerability that Valve might not want to let general audiences know about. Many onlookers were stunned to see Valve actually pay people for finding exploits, but the company actually has a long list of what’s in their “scope” for exploits as well as a huge backlog of previous disbursements to hackers. While there’s apparently a lot of money to be made looking for bugs in Valve’s systems, it’s not a simple task to take on. In a March 15 public case, Valve paid out $18,000 to a group of hackers who gave a thoroughly detailed report on an issue with a ‘Severity’ level of 9.6 out of what seems to be a 10-rated scale. 600The report is rife with detailed explanations of how to replicate the hack, where in the code to find it, the impact it could have if “an attacker” found it, and a lot more. It’s safe to assume Valve likes to keep its products, including CSGO, clean from harmful exploits – making the work of 2Eggs and others incredibly appreciated by fans.

CS:GO March 29 Patch Notes – Valve add Vertigo to competitive map pool in surprise update The latest CS:GO update sees a major break from tradition, as a brand-new map has joined the competitive map pool for the first time. Vertigo’s surprise addition to the CS:GO map pool The March 29 update sees Vertigo added to the competitive map pool, replacing Cache. This will be the first time in CS:GO’s competitive history that Vertigo enters the competitive map pool. For most of CS:GO’s history, the competitive map pool has consisted of seven maps from a rotating pool of eight in total, with the remaining map typically reworked and reinstated. Cache is one of the only maps in the pool that hasn’t undergone a significant update during that time. This is the first time since these eight were first established as the “competitive” maps that a new map has joined that rotation. Based on the historical cycle, most fans would have expected the return of Cobblestone as the next addition. What does Vertigo look like in CS:GO? Vertigo has been in CS:GO since 2012 and even became somewhat of a specialist map for some casual players and individuals. The versatility of the map is what sets it apart from many of the other sprawling maps in CS:GO; this makes it play differently to almost anything else that you’ll be used to. For an in-depth look at the map and its many quirks, check out TheWarOwl’s video below: The update to the competitive map pool isn’t the only change in the March 29 update. Fans of IEM Katowice Major runners-up ENCE will be pleased to see the addition of the #EZ4ENCE song as a music kit. To prepare it for Active Duty, Vertigo was also subject to a variety of bug fixes and minor updates in the latest patch. The full patch notes can be read below. NEW RELEASES A new music kit EZ4ENCE by The Verkkars is now available for purchase. – A new Feral Predators Sticker Capsule is now available for purchase. – MAPS Vertigo has been moved from Reserves Group into the Active Duty Group. – Cache has been moved from Active Duty Group into Reserves Group. – Vertigo: Added new cover in bottom of mid, that doubles as a ramp towards “window” to B site – Pushed up CT spawns slightly – Prioritized spawn positions, CTs will be biased towards forward spawns, Ts biased towards rear spawns – Added corner railing to catwalk on B site – Blocked two-man boost on top of spools in CT spawn – Blocked angle over wall when going down stairs from B site towards T spawn – Tweaked T stairs up to bombsite B – Tweaked layout of T spawn slightly – Updated bombsite target models on sites – Elevator shaft injuries now count towards the injury statistic – Fixed various clipping issues – GAMEPLAY Grenades will no longer go through closed doors in certain rare circumstances. – Players can no longer pick up weapons through walls or without direct line-of-sight. – MISC Fixed certain textures sometimes not rendering when running with -d3d9ex launch option. – Fixed an issue causing certain areas to not render correctly when spectating a player with zoom-in activated. – Fixed items removed from user’s inventory sometimes showing up in loadout and buy menu incorrectly. – Fixed player disconnect messages to have neutral names when communication preference is set to sanitize player names. – Added “consecutive_round_losses” value for each team to Game State Integration output. –

Valve reportedly unhappy with the ESL and Facebook streaming deal ESL Press ReleaseESL’s streaming deal for certain Dota 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive competitions has been a point of contention ever since it was announced, and now Valve are reportedly unhappy, too. Fans of both esports games have continually voiced their issues with watching their respective titles on Facebook’s’ Live platform. With every stream, there have been plenty of problems – be it starting late, lagging or sound and quality issues. According to esports journalist Rod ‘Slasher’ Breslau, Valve and ESL are disappointed with the poor viewership figures that Facebook streamed events have seen in the 12 months since the deal was made. SlasheR tweeted: “That marks the end of the final ESL CSGO or Dota stream on Facebook in 2018,” following the ESL Pro League S8 Finals on December 9. “Really poor viewership all year and Facebook hasn’t proven it can do streaming, to the detriment to both esports. Valve not happy. ESL neither even with $. Correction: Deal runs through end of 2019.” To highlight just how bad the viewership has been, SlasheR quoted statistics from two major CS events in 2019 – the ELEAGUE Boston Major Grand Finals in January and the ESL Pro League Finals in December: Cloud9 wins the ELEAGUE Boston Major on home soil: CSGO breaks the Twitch record for most viewers on a single stream (1.1M+). Astralis wins the ESL Grand Slam on home soil: 30,000 viewers on Facebook (without embed), a best for FB Wouldn’t be surprised to see the deal broken. — Rod Breslau (@Slasher) December 9, 2018 According to Breslau, the deal for ESL One events is now over, meaning that Dota 2 fans may have seen the last of Facebook streams. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for CS:GO, where the ESL Pro League is due to remain on the much-maligned platform until the end of 2019. The only hope for CS fans, it would seem, is for the deal to be broken entirely and for all parties to go their separate ways. While this would likely involve some sort of legal procedure, Slasher says he “wouldn’t be surprised” to see it happen.

Valve Adds Conflict of Interest Rule Ahead of FACEIT London Major Which Could Affect Some High Profile Teams FACEIT / RFRSHA new rule has been implemented for the FACEIT London CS:GO Major qualifiers which tackles the issue of teams and players conflicts of interest. The Counter-Strike: Global Offensive scene, like many others, has had conflict of interest concerns in recent years with organizations like ESL and WESA making the early moves to try to tackle them. The most common conflicts of interest seem to involve management companies owning stakes or rights to various different different teams (think ESforce or RFRSH). However, there have been situations where players hold shares in one company or team while playing for another one, or even individual investors holding small shares in multiple teams. Read More: Former Cloud9 Star shroud Makes an Exciting Announcement About a Return to Competitive CS:GO – Clearly, this open up the possibility for collusion at the highest level of the game and Valve has now decided to introduce a new rule preventing any conflicts of interest at the FACEIT London Major or any of its qualifiers. Very few people had actually noticed the change in ruling until Richard Lewis released a YouTube video discussing it on May 13th. Lewis made it clear that he believes the decision is a step in the right direction but pointed out that some prominent teams could be affected. “Organizations that immediately come to mind are gonna be ESforce. You know, potential interests, well certainly in Virtus.Pro and SK Gaming, and of course there’s this whole ‘Are they? Aren’t they?’ with Na’Vi. Then you’ve got obviously RFRSH. Certainly with the European Minors there’s a chance that we might see RFRSH teams qualify. They still haven’t sold GODSENT, they still own Heroic, obviously they own Astralis. This could create this conflict of interest that may mean one of these teams has to drop out or they have to push through a super fast sale to such a degree that it satisfies Valve that there is no shared ownership or anything like that.” Lewis explains that some of the concerns with the RFRSH owned teams is that they have often used “player owned” models which gave players small shares in their teams which they could potentially still own after having moved on to other teams. He also points out that this is yet more evidence of a new shift in focus from Valve as they continue to increase their community interaction with the likes of John McDonald regularly taking to Twitter to answer questions on everything from Panorama UI to anticheat. The full Richard Lewis video on the new ruling can be found below.

Valve accused of allowing CS:GO workshop scams to continue L: Isaac Brekken / R: ValveCounter-Strike: Global Offensive developer Valve has been accused allowing scams to continue, following years of hoax attempts plaguing the CS:GO workshop. The CS:GO workshop is a place for players and fans to share their custom created game content with the community. This usually takes the form of maps, skins, or different game modes, but, there are some less than friendly submissions. These submissions draw users in with an offer of free items, although, in reality, they are scams that aim to steal sensitive information. Counter-Strike YouTuber 3kliksphilip posted a video about this topic on July 22, showing that these scams are constantly upvoted to the top of the CS:GO workshop, meanwhile, any real content gets massively downvoted until it’s out of the way. He claims that this is likely done by bots, and it’s impossible for anyone but Valve to do anything about this. Unfortunately for real content creators, all they can do is hope their content gets enough votes to be near the top of the workshop, but not so much that it threatens these scam posts. According to the YouTuber, this has been going on for many years with no signs of any real intervention from Valve. In fact, 3kliksphilip made a very similar video three years ago highlighting this exact issue and it is still going on. Read More: Liquid making bid for ‘most dominant CS:GO team ever’ after matching another Astralis record – This workshop issue stops real people’s content from getting the recognition it deserves. Just a few weeks before 3kliksphilip’s video, a Reddit thread gained a fair amount of popularity as an up-and-coming skin creator saw his content fall from an 88% positive rating to just 14% in a matter of minutes due to mass downvotes. Valve are yet to comment about this issue. However, as more people become aware of the problem and key community members like 3kliksphilip continue to talk about it, Valve may be motivated to take a look at the workshop.

valde on leaving OG: “Our ambitions did not line up” João Ferreira for PGLIn an exclusive interview with Dexerto, Valdemar ‘valde’ Bjørn Vangså talks about the decision to explore his options away from OG and what he seeks in his next team. For valde, his next career move could define his legacy. He is carefully weighing up his options after a disappointing 30-month tenure with OG, another chapter of a career that has been marked by unfulfilled promise. After a rocky tenure with North, in which at one point he even took it upon himself to lead the team, valde tried to turn a page when he joined OG right as the famed Dota 2 organization was entering the game, but it ended up being more of the same. His time with the international squad came to an end on May 11, when he was moved to the bench. The announcement came as OG are turning their focus to developing talent, which in esports is almost always used as a euphemism for making cutbacks. “They want to focus on younger players and develop a team from scratch, only keeping a few pieces from the old team,” valde tells Dexerto. “And that’s not a direction in which I see myself going. “I was a part of building the original OG roster from scratch. I also tried a little bit of the same with North towards the end. So I feel that I am ready for a different team, one that is able to contend for trophies now and play in all the big tournaments. “Our future ambitions did not line up, so I think it was pretty natural that we go our separate ways.” Less than just two months ago, valde had spoken of how “happy” he was in OG and highlighted the progress the team had made since signing Nemanja ‘nexa’ Isaković to replace Aleksi ‘Aleksib’” Virolainen. But their season was derailed when they failed to qualify for PGL Major Antwerp — the second Major in a row that they missed. 889 days together. Boy, it’s been quite a ride. But like any epic journey, it must come to an end. Thank you, @Officialvalde. We were honored to have such a great professional on board. We wish you the best of luck in the future. Read more: https://t.co/qVQAotPlYv#DreamOG pic.twitter.com/PjVzsp1gRF — OG Counter-Strike (@OGcsgo) May 11, 2022 valde was still willing to commit to OG, provided that “some significant roster moves” were made to upgrade the team’s firepower. But when it became clear that the organization wanted to move in a different direction, he had no choice but to seek a future elsewhere. It took a team like ENCE more than a year to get to where they are now after going down that same route. valde, who turns 27 next month, cannot afford to wait that long. “Everyone knows that your career does not last forever,” he says. “You have to make the most of it while you can. At the end of the day, nobody remembers who came in second place. For me, it’s about trying to win titles and being part of a team that has the same ambitions as me. “I don’t want to be part of a project that is being started from scratch, but of a team that is already established and where I can be like the last piece of the puzzle.” Missing another Major After two years of Aleksib leadership, playing in a new system felt like a breath of fresh air for the team — and the players made sure to point that out publicly. For nexa, too, the change of scenery was needed, although there were concerns about how committed to the role he was after expressing his wish to stop calling in G2. It seemed like a win-win scenario for all parties involved, and the early signs were encouraging. OG secured a spot in the BLAST Premier Spring Finals after coming through a tough group that also included NAVI, Astralis, and MIBR before beating NIP in the playoffs. The first cracks appeared when the team went out of IEM Katowice in last place after losing to Heroic and MOUZ (who at the time were ranked 33rd in the world and had Jon ‘JDC’ de Castro as a stand-in). Everyone felt the weight of expectation building up ahead of the RMR, a defining moment for a team that had stumbled at the final hurdle in the qualifiers for the Stockholm Major. Defeats to NAVI and forZe after a win against MOUZ put OG against the ropes in the RMR tournament. They survived their first elimination series against Unique but then fell short against Eternal Fire, leaving the players gutted and in disbelief. “It felt terrible,” he says. “I think we had no excuse, to be honest. We can only blame ourselves at the end of the day. We didn’t play well enough, we didn’t want it badly enough. “We had good match-ups but the results weren’t there.” valde agrees with the assessment that the community put too much stock in the team’s early results. “In hindsight, I would say yes,” he says, calling the BLAST Premier Spring Groups run “a little bit overrated.” According to him, the team merely took advantage of their honeymoon period and the fact that opponents didn’t know at first how to prepare for this new version of OG. But once they were figured out, OG fell short in terms of consistency and were incapable of finding a way out of a slump. Initially praised for the team’s improvements upon his arrival, nexa has suddenly seen community opinion turn against him. However, valde says that everyone is to blame for the team’s collapse. “At the beginning, it really helped those players [flameZ and niko] that we got nexa,” he says. “But I think that towards the end it didn’t work. “I cannot put all the blame on nexa, I think we all had our fair share of the blame. Individually, we didn’t perform well enough and we were not coherent as a team. We wanted to move in different directions and had different outlooks on the game.” As valde closes this chapter of his career, he looks back at this time with OG with mixed feelings. “It was a huge learning experience but it was also filled with a little bit of disappointment,” he says. Despite the lack of titles or Major appearances, OG came close to breaking into the top five in the world rankings on multiple occasions and showed glimpses of brilliance here and there. But they were never able to take that extra step, the one that separates contenders from pretenders. In some tournaments, OG looked like an elite side; in others, they were little more than also-rans. “We came close to winning tournaments and really breaking through,” valde notes. “But we consistently failed to take the final leap to be a really good team. “I really enjoyed playing with a lot of different players, and I also met a lot of amazing people in the organization. But at the end of the day, results matter a lot. That’s what you can look back on when you’re not playing anymore.” Career goals With only seven months left on the contract that he signed in April 2021, valde should be courted by plenty of teams as the end of a Major cycle always brings a flurry of roster activity. valde says there is no preference for his next team to be Danish or international as he sees pros and cons to both options. “It would be easier to play with a Danish team in terms of the language and the culture,” he explains. “With an international team, there are more options available but it might be harder to get really good teamplay going and stuff like that.” Read more: Behind gob b’s CSGO return to coach BIG – A new challenge could give valde the chance to flourish again in a central role after he took a back seat for most of his OG spell for the team’s sake. However, he says that he can just as well continue to play “a more supportive/anchor role” as long as his teammates “are good enough to fill the other roles”. It all depends on the team. But he wants to make one thing clear: He has no interest “whatsoever” in being an in-game leader again. For all of his teams’ shortcomings, valde has remained a consistent performer, both on LAN and online. But with a solitary appearance on HLTV’s Top 20 player ranking, in 2018, and only one Big Event title to his name, from DreamHack Masters Stockholm, his place in the pantheon of Danish Counter-Strike isn’t even assured — something that was almost unthinkable when he rocketed to the top of the game with Heroic in 2016 and 2017. This is why it’s so important for valde to make up for lost time. After years of heartbreaks, near-misses and underperforming rosters, he wants to be more than a good player on a decent team. He is craving what he feels is rightfully his: a spot on a top team that can challenge for the biggest titles. “I’m at a stage where I need to make the right decisions,” he says. “That’s also why I decided that I don’t want to join another mediocre team where things are not going right and where I am not happy. “I’m still super motivated. I love competing and I love playing the big tournaments, so I want to find a team that can help me reach my goals and that I can help reach theirs. I feel like I have been a really consistent player, taking into account the roles I have had. “I still believe I can play at the top level. So it’s about finding the right team to show it. Hopefully, the right offer will come my way.”

Upsets galore: IEM Rio CSGO Major had rarest diamond coin in years ESLThe IEM Rio CS:GO Major had the lowest percentage of diamond coin collectors from the Pick’em Challenge in recent years, according to Leetify. The CS:GO stats company analyzed 40,000 public inventories to determine the rarity of obtaining the highly sought-after diamond coin from the Pick’Em Challenges during the last five Majors. The data obtained by Leetify showed that only 0.1% of the inventories with pick’em coins since IEM Katowice 2019 had a diamond coin from the IEM Rio Major. In order to obtain a diamond coin, players need to complete all nine challenges, the last of which is correctly predicting the winner of the grand final. The percentage of diamond coin collectors during the Rio Major is by far the lowest of the past five Majors, which speaks to the number of upsets that shook up the Brazilian events. Teams like FaZe, Vitality and Liquid could not go beyond the Legends Stage, while the tournament was won by Outsiders, who were not regarded as a title contender heading into the event. The highest percentage of diamond coins was obtained during PGL Major Stockholm, where 57% of the players were able to complete all nine challenges. Below you can find the percentage of diamond coins from the past five Majors, according to Leetify: IEM Katowice 2019: 40% – StarLadder Major Berlin 2019: 8% – PGL Major Stockholm 2021: 57% – PGL Major Antwerp 2022: 11% – IEM Rio Major 2022: 0.1% –

UPS delivery service loses DreamHack Dallas CS:GO trophy Team Liquid scored an impressive victory in the finals of DreamHack Dallas CS:GO 2019, but their hard earned hardware was nowhere to be found. The DreamHack Dallas SC:GO grand finals on June 2 saw ENCE take Liquid to a tense Map 3, but the eventual champions were able to hold them off in the end. After a great final match Team Liquid players probably expected to get a trophy, but there was a problem – it was nowhere to be found. As you may have noticed, the #DHMasters Dallas trophy has been no where to be seen all event. Unfortunately UPS has lost it and we’ve been unable to get it in time. We will ensure that the trophy gets shipped to @TeamLiquid once its found. — DreamHack Counter-Strike (@DreamHackCSGO) June 2, 2019 What happened to the trophy? Team Liquid should have gotten a trophy to go along with their rings after winning DreamHack Dallas, if it hadn’t been lost in transit by the United Parcel Service (UPS). While the players received their rings and commemorative plaques, the DreamHack casters confirmed that the trophy did exist, but had been lost on the way to the event. “Probably a good time for me to mention that the actual trophy was in fact lost by the United Parcel Service, that would be UPS,” one of the casters said. “Shoutout to them.” DreamHack promised to ship the trophy to Team Liquid “as soon as it was found,” whenever that ends up being. The event seemed to be taking the loss of the one of the most important pieces of hardware for the entire tournament in stride, even asking ESL if they could get hooked up with DHL (another delivery company) in the future. Hey @ESLCS, could you maybe hook us up with DHL next time we have to ship valuable goods? :thinking_face: https://t.co/4ibde6cEER — DreamHack Counter-Strike (@DreamHackCSGO) June 2, 2019 Team Liquid win Dreamhack Dallas 2019 Team Liquid took the first map of the DreamHack Dallas grand finals, but ENCE would come back and win the second map to send it all to the third and final map. After coming hot out of the gate, Team Liquid somehow allowed ENCE to come back on Map 3 after being down 9-1 to start things off early. But it wasn’t meant to be, and Liquid would pull ahead in the final few rounds to walk away as DreamHack Dallas 2019 champs.

Updated CSGO bot framework paves the way for super smart AI Valve / PixabayValve has released an update to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive today to implement a new bot decision making framework, and it could pave the way for super smart AI to take over the popular FPS. ‘Bot’ is usually used as a derogatory term in gaming. New players are encouraged to learn games by playing against the game’s designated AI on a low-level, while at higher competitive levels, calling someone the term is an insult to their ability in game. However, the bots are looking to revolt, and CS:GO is its next target. Valve has implemented a new framework to help make their bots in Deathmatch matchmaking smarter, and it could revolutionise the meaning of them in gaming. In their September 16 release notes, Valve noted the small change to their AI framework that could change the way bots are perceived in CS:GO. Read more: ECS qualifier delayed after bomb threat – “Updated deathmatch bots with an experimental decision framework based on behavior trees,” the list stated. The impact of the change has been felt already, according to some members of the Counter-Strike community. No longer are they just characters mindlessly walking around the map – the bots can actually put up a consistent fight against human opponents. User ‘iTzR4nger’ said that “using AI to improve bots is actually very good and can make deathmatch more fun and difficult,” while ‘Wintermute1v1’ noted the bots “play much more reactively and similar to real players.” Read more: Flusha and Golden return to Fnatic – This might make warming up in matchmaking Deathmatch a lot nicer, as an empty server will still be filled with worthy opponents. It might not replace a closed Deathmatch server for now, but who knows in the future. While it’s only a small change to matchmaking, AI in other games have started to take on pro players and thrash them. Read more: Why Astralis aim differently – In Dota 2, developer OpenAI made their own bot system, OpenAI Five, based off machine learning. OpenAI Five managed to take down TI8 champions OG in a best-of-three, and maintained a 99.4% winrate over 7,257 games against human opponents online. Over in Starcraft II, Google’s DeepMind smashed pro players Dario “TLO” Wünsch and Grzegorz “MaNa” Komincz in 5-0 sweeps, before hitting the ranked ladder under the name ‘AlphaStar’. The bot has an estimated MMR of over 7,000, putting it at the peak of Starcraft’s ranked system. While Valve hasn’t looked to push their AI against the pros just yet, they’ve implemented the framework to look towards such a thing in the future. For now though, players will be able to test how the new bots work in any Deathmatch lobby.

Up-and-coming CS:GO player br0 shares his side of the story following permanent FACEIT ban The Danish Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player who was recently banned from the FACEIT Pro League has questioned the decision to ban him, labelling it a “mistake.” FACEIT’s Partnerships Manager Milos ‘FACEIT Mikey’ Nedeljkovic posted on Twitter that Alexander, who goes by the alias ‘br0’, had been found to previously own an account that was VAC banned, and would no longer be allowed to compete in any of the company’s Pro League competitions. In the aftermath of the situation, br0, who is believed to be around 16 years old, posted a TwitLonger in response to his ban which he feels is unfair. Alexander states that three years ago, he allowed a friend from school to borrow his smurf account to play Counter-Strike on. When he got the account back, he realized “that he cheated on it, or at least cheated while having it.” Read More: ESIC announce Forsaken’s ban length after being caught cheating under OpTic India The Dane claims that he has chat logs and evidence to back up his side of the story, and would love to send it to FACEIT in an attempt to clear his name. Br0 says he respects “the work FACEIT do against cheaters”, but that he strongly believes this is a mistake. Alexander also questions whether it’s fair to punish someone for mistakes they made as a child, asking: “The fact is I was 12 at the time, and now almost four years later, all the hard work I put into this has vanished. That’s not what FACEIT stands for, right?” Fans of the FPL seem to agree, with many people tweeting Mikey saying that it is unfair to enforce a lifetime ban on a player who made a mistake when they were 12. This situation regarding cheating in CS:GO comes hot on the heels of the news of forsaken, former member of OpTic India, getting caught cheating while competing in a LAN event. Nedeljkovic has yet to respond directly to br0’s TwitLonger, but did post a thread on Twitter that stated the lifetime ban rule was originally implemented by players in the league, and that playing in the FPL was a “privilege, not a right”. We’ll keep you updated as the situation develops. The oldest rule of FPL, brought together by the players, is that players with CSGO VAC/FACEIT ban can’t compete inside FPL and FPLC. They are completely online competitions for money that are very vulnerable to this issue and players are not comfortable with allowing them inside. — Milos Nedeljkovic (@Faceit_Mikey) October 25, 2018 They can still play on FACEIT with a VAC. Enter different leagues/hubs with different rules. FPL is a community in it’s own, a hub, with specific rules decided together with the players. It’s not a LAN, it’s not a FACEIT league. It’s a privilege to play inside, not a right. — Milos Nedeljkovic (@Faceit_Mikey) October 25, 2018

Unreal Counter-Strike mod lets you play Rocket League in CS 1.6 Twitch: Johanzilla / ValveA Rocket League streamer stumbled across an unreal Counter-Strike mod that allows you to play the beloved car soccer game directly in CS 1.6. A little-known side of the classic Counter-Strike 1.6 application is its modded server community. In that there are hundreds of unique servers that transform CS 1.6 from its original 5v5 bomb defusal game mode into a wide variety of experiences. From your standard surf and KZ maps, to modded servers that introduce popular game modes like Jailbreak, zombies, and even capture the flag, there’s plenty for everyone to enjoy. But a game mode, or rather, a full game in this case, that you would never expect to be recreated in the 20-year-old CS 1.6 is Rocket League. However, it very much is real, and you can check it out for yourself. It’s hard to say when the Rocket League mod for CS 1.6 came out, but it appears to have been around in some capacity since at least 2020. However, the mod and servers running it haven’t gained a lot of traction since its launch. That is until a Rocket League streamer, Johanzilla, found out about the mod while playing CS 1.6. As he was looking for a new server to join, he was intrigued by a server named Rocket League, and he had to check it out. As he loaded into the server, it downloaded a plethora of resource files. Johanzilla was then shocked to find a replicated version of Rocket League in CS 1.6. With three cars on either side of the pitch and a ball in the middle, it functioned exactly the same as the now iconic title. He would ask the other players in the server why they were playing in the modded server when Rocket League is free. Their response; one of them said “My PC is s***”, to which the others expressed much the same. As for how faithful a recreation it is to Rocket League, it has all the fundamentals of the original game, but is missing some extras such as boosts or the ability to air dribble. Nonetheless, it’s still Rocket League in CS.

Unikrn sponsors CSGO United Master’s League return with $150k prize pool Unikrn/Zach BojanowskiCS:GO teams will be competing for a $150,000 prize in the second season of the United Masters League in the fall. The 9-week event, plus the grand final, is being sponsored by Unikrn, one of the leaders in esports betting. Additionally, GRID esports will be partnering with Unikrn to provide stats and data to enhance the viewing experience. They aim to launch their new Overlay Broadcasting Tool when the tournament begins. Fans watching the tournament will be eligible to place bets on their own CS:GO matches with Unikrn UMode. So far, this is the only way for players to bet on their own games. “Unikrn is a proud investor in developing rising esports talent,” Unikrn CEO Rahul Sood said. “UML Season 1 created opportunity and experience which propelled several participating teams up the CS:GO rankings — creating opportunities for players at every level is core to Unikrn’s esports-first mentality.” “United Masters League Season 1 knocked viewers out with its data resolution,” said Moritz Maurer, CEO of GRID Esports, “GRID is continuing to push the boundaries of what can be achieved for esports fans with seamless data integration into broadcast analysis.” Tournament Format The event will be split into three parts. Phase 1 — GSL Qualifiers, Four weeks of Qualifiers In the first portion, there will be four weeks of qualifiers with eight teams playing in GSL groups. At the end of each week, the top seed will play the second seed from the other group. The winners will advance to the next phase to play each other for seeding. Any team who doesn’t advance will have another opportunity next week with two additional challengers competing. Phase 2 — League Play, Swiss System, 8 Invited Teams with 8 Qualified Teams In the second phase, eight of the invited teams will play a Swiss-style group stage. Teams with a similar performance will compete in best of three matches for five weeks. Two teams will be eliminated in this phase and eight will advance onto phase 3. Phase 3 — Single-Elimination Bracket for $90,000 Grand Prize The last portion is an eight team final bracket with the remaining teams fighting for the grand prize. Last year’s final was in Osnabrück, Germany with Valiance winning it all. Teams will be announced in August and September with Phase One expected to begin on October 2, 2019.

Under fire NiP CEO leaves XTRFY board as player pressure intensifies NiP / XtrfyOn July 23, former NiP player Robin ‘Fifflaren’ Johansson went public about many of the negative experiences he had while contracted to the organization, which included non-payment of prize money and going against player wishes to remove him from the team. Following his tell-all interview, several other former NiP players and staff came forward to speak of their negative experiences representing the Swedish esports company, challenging the notion that these were problems of a bygone era. A recurring name in the middle of these allegations was the NiP CEO Hicham Chahine. In response to Johansson’s interview he released a written statement addressing some of the claims and asked “that anyone else that feels mistreated by the organization in the past give us a chance to address their concerns.” He also spoke of how the organization was now run by a “new management team” and had been since 2016. This was challenged by Johansson publicly as documents show that Chahine has been involved on an ownership and managerial level since at least 2014. On August 5, Johansson has also released some NiP internal emails from 2014 and 2015 that appear to show Chahine signing player contracts and calling for weekly meetings, suggesting he held an active management role at that time. Since 10+ (There will be more) Have come out against @ChahineHicham doesn’t seem to have worked, maybe internal emails from 2014 and 2015 does? Hard to think just an “”investor”” signs player contracts and asks for weekly meetings with rest of management? pic.twitter.com/buZFP4o2cP — Robin Johansson (@Fifflaren) August 5, 2019 The resulting negative publicity seems to have led to Chahine leaving the board of directors of Swedish gaming peripheral company XTRFY who are one of NiP’s title sponsors and have been since 2015. The information, that is available through the website Creditsafe, shows that Chahine left the board on the July 28. Chahine also holds a position on the executive board of the World Esports Association (WESA), the controversial would-be governing body of esports that sprung out of ESL. WESA describes its goals as seeking to “further professionalize esports by introducing elements of player representation, standardized regulations, and revenue shares for teams.” They too have yet to release a statement about the allegations made towards Chahine and NiP, which should be especially concerning to them since as it was said that he pushed staff who had issues with NiP towards WESA as an arbitrary body. No doubt XTRFY will be waiting to see where this story goes before making a decision about their long term relationship with the NiP brand. It now seems it would be a decision that Chahine himself would not play an official part in.

Ukrainian legend s1mple sends powerful message of peace to CSGO fans at IEM Katowice ESL_CSGO on TwitchAs NaVi took to the stage at IEM Katowice on February 25th, legendary AWPer Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev delivered a heartfelt message of peace to CS:GO fans across the world as conflict worsened between Russia and Ukraine. The team took to the stage to receive their Intel Grand Slam trophy, a prestigious award that recognizes the first team to win at four Major events out of a pool of ten throughout the course of a year. NaVi took the trophy in 2021, and finally received their award today after months of waiting. What should have been a joyous affair for NaVi quickly became solemn, however, when s1mple took the microphone from host Oliver James Borg ‘OJ Borg’ D’Anastasi to deliver a message to the hundreds of thousands of fans watching around the world. S1mple, who is a Ukrainian national, has spoken on social media about his fears regarding the crisis in Ukraine, mentioning that he has family living in some of the worst-affected areas of the country. On the IEM stage, he spoke of the friends he has made in the CS:GO community, and how, despite their nationalities, none of CS:GO’s pros had “anything to do with government decisions.” Controversy in the CS:GO scene The speech came only a day after rumors surfaced that multiple CS:GO organizations were preventing their players from expressing support for Ukraine during the conflict. Many players were quick to deny the rumors, with s1mple himself responding that the claims were untrue. The message of his speech, delivered in his second language of English, was simple, but powerful. “All of us want peace- for Ukraine, and for the whole world. All of us are scared, and all of us need to show an example at this tournament. We need to stay together as a unit, with our fans, with our friends, and with everybody watching. And we all need to stay humans first.” IEM confirmed in a tweet that they were “closely monitoring” the situation in Ukraine, and that they were providing support to players and staff who may have been affected by the ongoing situation. S1mple’s message on February 25th was one of hope, and of bringing the esports community together in the face of international conflict. We are closely monitoring the situation in Ukraine. Our current priority is to support the players, the talent and the staff who may be affected by it. The SC2 & CSGO tournaments will continue as planned.— Intel® Extreme Masters (@IEM) February 24, 2022

Ukrainian president congratulates NAVI after PGL CSGO Major victory João Ferreira/DexertoUkraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelensky, has sent a message of congratulations to NAVI for winning the PGL Stockholm CS:GO Major. NAVI made history on November 7 as they won their first-ever CS:GO Major title after beating G2 Esports 2-0 in a nail-biting grand final that had a peak viewership of over 2.7 million people — a record number for the game. The victory capped off a spectacular unbeaten run in Stockholm and further solidified NAVI’s status as the undisputed No.1 team in the world. It also finally brought an end to star player Aleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev’s quest for a Major title. The 24-year-old is on course to reclaim the title of the best player in the world after finishing second to Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut in HLTV’s Top 20 player ranking in 2019 and 2020. Message from the political world The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, joined the chorus of congratulations for NAVI with a tweet that heaped praise on the organization’s historic achievement. “For decades, our esports athletes have been winning titles, making Ukraine famous on the world stage,” Mr. Zelensky wrote. “This day was not an exception. Ukrainian club NAVI won a CS:GO Major for the first time in its history. “Another success that inspires a lot of people!” Десятиліттями наші кіберспортсмени завойовують титули, вирізняючи Україну на світовій мапі. Учорашній день не став винятком. Український клуб @natusvincere вперше у своїй історії переміг на Major-турнірі з CS:GO. Черговий успіх, що надихає багатьох! pic.twitter.com/sVP5Iawthx — Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) November 8, 2021 NAVI’s success at PGL Major Stockholm came just weeks after Team Spirit, another CIS-based organization, won The International 10, the biggest event in the Dota2 circuit. Spirit’s victory, which netted the team over $18 million in prize money, did not go unnoticed by Russian president Vladimir Putin, who wrote a letter to congratulate the players.

Two Former iBUYPOWER CS:GO Stars Leave Torqued Floundering Just Weeks Before ESL One: Belo Horizonte Beyond The Summit / Todd Gutierrez @TGphoto_Braxton ‘swag’ Pierce and Keven ‘AZK’ Larivière have surprised the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive community by announcing that they are leaving Torqued just weeks before their biggest event to date, ESL One: Belo Horizonte. At 21 years of age, swag is arguably the greatest tragedy of the ex-iBUYPOWER matchfixing scandal – an act which resulted in the culprits receiving bans from Valve at the start of 2015. For throwing the match, and receiving some skins in return, swag, Joshua ‘steel’ Nissan, AZK, and a number of other notable members of the North American CS:GO scene all received indefinite bans from Valve and most tournament organizers followed suit. This effectively ended the promising careers of some of North America’s biggest talents. None more so than swag, the youngest member of the team and widely regarded as the most promising talent in North American Counter-Strike at the time. After over 2 years away from the professional CS:GO scene, swag and co. got thrown a lifeline after the likes of ESL and DreamHack announced that the banned players would be allowed to begin competing in their events and leagues once more. Swag, steel, and AZK have been playing together on Torqued for a number of months now and recently qualified for their biggest event yet in the form of the $200,000 ESL One: Belo Horizonte tournament. They also recently attended DreamHack Tours 2018 and have been on an upward trajectory throughout 2018. However, that all came to an abrupt halt on May 23rd when swag announced his shock departure via a TwitLonger statement: “Hey all, today I have decided to step down from Torqued. I don’t want to go into details why I’m making this decision and I know the timing is really bad as they have a big tourney coming up in Brazil but I don’t think there was a good time to make this choice. I still have love for the players and wish them the best of luck As for me, I know my “comeback” since being unbanned from ESL and Dreamhack has been underwhelming. I know i’m capable of way more and I just need to keep grinding. I feel like I need a mental reset but for now I will start streaming and playing FPL/Rank S to try and reach my potential and consider other offers that come my way. Thank you for continuing to support me throughout all of these ups and downs > The news left Torqued in a tough spot as ESL One: Belo Horizonte begins on June 13th, giving the team a mere three weeks to find a replacement and get them ready for the Brazilian event. However, things got even worse when AZK followed suit on May 24th, stating that he had found out that he was going to be benched in the near future anyway. “During the last day of our trip in Europe, I was told that the team was going to bench me and that I would not be playing with them in the upcoming ESEA season and the ESL One Belo Horizonte event in Brazil. After taking some time to reflect on everything that has happened, I’ve decided to leave Torqued to pursue opportunities elsewhere. I will still be playing CS:GO actively and I’ll be working everyday on trying to improve as a player. I wanted to finish by saying that there’s no bad blood between us and I sincerely wish the best of luck to all of the guys on Torqued.” It is currently uncertain what Torqued will decide to do next. With Belo Horizonte looming they now need to find two suitable replacements or they could be forced to withdraw entirely.

Twitch star dizzy freaks out after beating CSGO odds with back-to-back knife openings Twitter: ValveTwitch star dizzy has somehow beaten the absurd CS:GO odds of 0.26% per case and opened back-to-back knives while live on stream. There is arguably no more hyped moment in gaming than opening a knife in CS:GO. It’s just one of those classic, rare things that always breeds some of the most genuine reactions from players and streamers alike given their rarity and thus, insane value. According to statistics, a player has a 0.26% chance to open a knife in a single case. To open it back to back, the odds are obviously lower still at a seemingly impossible 0.000676%. But just because the chances are slim, doesn’t mean it can’t be done, as dizzy just proved. Twitch star dizzy somehow managed to not only open one, but two of them in the span of a minute. Making it all the sweeter, they were two rare butterfly skins as well, with pretty intricate patterns to up their value. He first opened a Minimal Wear Butterfly Knife Case Hardened. Despite it not being a Blue Gem, like one of his friends suggested, it still had a good pattern on it. But right after opening it, dizzy’s friends egged him on to open another one. “If you get it back-to-back I’ll shave my head” one of his friends promised. “If this is back-to-back I’ll actually whip out my c***,” dizzy responded in kind. Right there and then he unboxed a Butterfly Knife Fade, another one with a solid pattern as well. Price-wise, dizzy just made a tremendous amount of money. A minimal-wear Butterfly Knife Case Hardened goes for around $1,200 USD. Accounting for the good pattern, it could fetch some overpay. As for the Butterfly Fade, he did not say what the wear is. Factory new would fetch around $3,800, and Minimal Wear would fetch around $3,050. Now fans of dizzy will have to wait and see if he actually decides to follow through on his outlandish promise, or if he’ll just sell the skins for a quick payday instead.

Twitch scammers are impersonating s1mple after CSGO pro’s ban Counter-Strike: Global Offensive professional player Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev is currently banned on Twitch, but that hasn’t stopped impersonators trying to take advantage of his fanbase with scam streams. S1mple is one of Counter-Strike’s most accomplished pro players, highly regarded for his incredible mechanics in-game. While he’s a good player, he’s also a great personality, fooling around at tournament and at home on stream. However, he’s been taken offline for the time being after being banned on Twitch in November. S1mple labelled the ban “a joke” and asked for Twitch to remove his partnership, with the intention of stopping streaming on the platform. While he’s off the platform for now, scammers are taking advantage of the Ukrainian’s misfortune by hosting streams in the player’s name and trying to exploit his fans. Streams have popped up in the CS:GO category on Twitch showing s1mple’s videos with a more nefarious intent. They run with names similar to the CSGO pro player’s handle to try and give it a more authentic look. However, the scam is incredibly obvious with bright banners bordering the stream telling viewers about an upcoming $10,000 skin giveaway. If players follow the links in these streams, they will be directed to log into their Steam accounts on a look-alike site, and expose their account details. With access to the player’s accounts, scammers can trade away skins to their own accounts and make profit with the stolen cosmetics. While streams are being taken down when Twitch are alerted, the scammers start again on a new account and boost themselves right back to the top of the category with view bots. Read more: Why was s1mple banned on Twitch again? – S1mple is aware of the issue, tweeting out on December 3 asking Twitch to take action against the accounts. “I see my live fake profiles on Twitch scamming people everyday,” he said. “Isn’t it your responsibility to protect your own people?” I see my live fake profiles on twitch scamming people everyday, wtf? Isn’t it your responsibility to protect your own people? — Sasha (@s1mpleO) December 4, 2019 Twitch scammers often impersonate popular personalities to try and take advantage of their fanbase and make a quick buck. Michael ‘shroud’ Grzesiek has had to deal with his fair share of impersonators on Twitch since moving to Mixer, but shared that there’s not much he can do. The best thing Twitch users can do when they see a scammer impersonating a popular account is to report the stream so that it’s brought to the platform’s attention and can be taken down quickly.

Twitch explicitly bans CSGO skin gambling sponsorships affecting countless streamers Twitch/ValveTwitch, the Amazon-owned streaming platform, now explicitly prohibits sponsorship and promotion of CS:GO skin gambling sites – a rule that, if enforced thoroughly, will impact the sponsorships of countless CS:GO streamers. CS:GO skin gambling is a lucrative business, and one that sponsors streamers and YouTubers with big-money deals, who then often use the gambling sites on stream and have affiliate codes and deals to share with viewers. It is generally frowned upon but is the norm for even the biggest streamers and pro players – many active and former professional players promote skins gambling sites, and G2 Esports itself is sponsored by CS:GORoll, one of the most popular sites in the space. Despite being in breach of Twitch terms of service previously, it has rarely if ever been enforced – although this may be about to change. Twitch highlights CSGO skin gambling as prohibited In Twitch’s community guidelines, under the section regarding prohibited gambling, an FAQ question reads: Is sponsorship of skins gambling, such as for CSGO skins, allowed on Twitch? No, promotion or sponsorship of skins gambling is prohibited under our policy. In a statement to Dexerto, Twitch said: “There’s been renewed interest in CSGO gambling broadly, so we’ve added clarifying language to our FAQ to make clear that promotion/sponsorship is not allowed on our service.” In a popular video published in July 2023, YouTuber HOUNGOUNGAGNE reported that an estimated 75% of the top 300 CS:GO streamers on Twitch have skin gambling sponsors. The mention of CS:GO skins being prohibited was not featured in Twitch’s Community Guidelines as of the making of that YouTube video, so it appears it has been added since. However, how strictly this rule is enforced remains to be seen. Even under the existing community guidelines, promotion of unregulated gambling sites, which many of these skin gambling sites are, was already prohibited. Despite this, there have been no bans issued against streamers promoting these sites. At the time of writing, a number of streamers are currently promoting skins gambling live on their channels. Valve, the publisher of CS:GO, has also been taking action against skin gambling, banning numerous traders deemed to be “suppliers” of items to the gambling sites.

Twitch denies claims platform suppresses CSGO streams despite popularity ValveTwitch has denied claims the platform suppress popular CSGO streams in favor of other titles like Valorant, insisting the game’s esports streams — which are its most popular — aren’t recommended to new users because historically, those users prefer other things. The CS:GO community has criticized Twitch after a screenshot from CS:GO caster Alex ‘Mauisnake’ Ellenberg went viral, with the game nowhere to be seen when new users log onto the site despite it being in the top 10 streams at the time on December 11. “Using Twitch on a new PC, and they really hide CSGO well,” he said. “Opened my eyes to how much the Twitch algorithm works against CS. Despite the ESL stream being the sixth most-viewed stream right now, it’s not even recommended.” His post gained traction on the CSGO subreddit, which snowballed into a heated discussion between players. Using Twitch on a new PC, they really hide CSGO well. Opened my eyes to how much the Twitch algo works against CS. Despite the ESL stream being the 6th most viewed stream right now, it’s not even recommended EVEN in the Browse > Shooter category – wtf? @TwitchEsports pic.twitter.com/3uX082vZ3s — alex ellenberg (@Mauisnake) December 11, 2021 Tom Verrilli, the Chief Product Officer at Twitch, responded to Mauisnake’s tweet several hours later. He denied the claims, saying: “This is my first time hearing ‘Twitch nerfs CSGO,’ but I can assure you it ain’t true.” He explained that when someone loads Twitch for the first on a new PC without signing in to an existing account, the algorithm makes recommendations for brand new users based on what other new users watch. Read More: How to watch IEM Winter 2021 – “In general, esports channels don’t feature heavily in those not because we don’t love them — we very much do — but because tournaments infrequently happen, so they don’t tend to be the channel that someone watches daily, weekly, or frequently.” In general, esports channels don’t feature heavily in those not bc we don’t love them – we very much do – but bc Tournaments happen infrequently so they don’t tend to be the channel that someone watches daily/weekly/frequently — Tom Verrilli (@tdrobbo) December 12, 2021 However, not everyone was satisfied with his explanation. “We can only speculate, but it’s interesting to me that it gives off the impression to an outsider that CS:GO has almost no extra weight associated with it in their algorithm,” wrote one player. “It’s such a dumb reply,” wrote another. “You won’t even see CS:GO during a major, and if you click into CS:GO, it again hides it because it doesn’t even sort by views anymore. He can provide as much reasoning as he wants, but it still makes zero sense.” Mauisnake also replied to Twitch’s statement and wrote: “Just gonna say following those retweets… lmao,” implying he also isn’t convinced.

Twistzz vs Liquid & G2 Looking For Redemption | BLAST Spring 2021 Preview There’s a few different headlines we’re keeping an eye on during the BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2021, as there’ll be plenty of CSGO teams looking to show early dominance in the stacked event. All three groups in the Spring Showcase have potential to upset, since roster additions and subtractions have revitalized some teams while leaving others with things to figure out. G2 Esports are one team that are trying to perfect their play as they have the talent to challenge any team on the server. The question is, how will that talent perform from day-to-day? They’re looking to strike back even harder after a lackluster series against eventual BLAST Premier: Global Final 2020 champions, Na’Vi. Teams like FaZe Clan and Evil Geniuses will also look to make a resurgence, but in two different capacities. EG want to get back into form since its been a while since they’ve truly dominated. FaZe on the other hand are eager to log in some games with new addition Russel ‘Twistzz’ Van Dulken. Even more exciting is that TL and FaZe share Group 3, so the former Liquid star is going to want to get off on the right foot with his new home. BIG and Astralis are two teams many expect to see move on, but are prone to surprises. In BLAST’s unforgiving format, one bad day could really throw a wrench in your event early on. CS fans have a lot to be excited for in the BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2021.

Twistzz suggests unusual fix for CSGO’s most controversial weapon The elevated use of Krieg rifle, also known as the SG-553, has been a point of contention and debate in the Counter-Strike world, and Team Liquid’s Russel ‘Twistzz’ VanDulken suggested an idea on how to fix it that’s already convinced a handful of pro players. Just because something is popular, doesn’t necessarily mean it is well-liked. Take the Krieg rifle, also known as the SG-553, for example. A typically infrequently used rifle for years compared to its fellow T-side rifle the AK-47, the Krieg’s price reduction in October of last year saw a spike in usage. And now, a number of pro players are really sick of it. But just when pro player frustrations were reaching new heights, a star player on a world class team presented a unique idea. Twistzz of Team Liquid suggested turning the automatic rifle into a semi-automatic, as to give it an appropriate nerf but still make it viable. No semi-automatic gun in cs yet, I think it should be the first. In my mind this is the only way not to ruin the gun entirely — Russel VanDulken (@Twistzz) October 27, 2019 Twistzz provided reasoning in a reply to his tweet, saying that a “Krieg with a low fire rate would turn people away from using it, but if it had the same accuracy and the ability to tap fast would make it viable.” A couple of pro players immediately expressed their excitement at the idea with both Nathan ‘NBK’ Schmitt and Peter ‘dupreeh’ Rasmussen saying they liked the interesting idea. Recently, dupreeh’s teammate on Astralis in Nicolai ‘dev1ce’ Reedtz went on Instagram to explain why he thought the current version of the Krieg was hurting those who played the AWP primarily. Dupreeh himself asked the question on Twitter whether the AUG meta or the Krieg meta is worse, with 59% of over 9000 voters choosing the Krieg meta. With its automatic fire rate and its high accuracy at short and long ranges, the Krieg emerged as a superior option to the AK-47 since its price reduction, given how well it could challenge other rifles including the AWP. This follows almost the exact same trend as the AUG did when its price reduction cause a sharp increase of AUG usage in matchmaking and at pro events. Since its reduction, the Krieg has become a staple of T-side buy rounds, and has stood at the top of gun usage charts for recent tournaments. Whether Valve will make such a drastic change to one of their most heavily used rifles by either adjusting the fire rate or simply the price remains to be seen. But one thing is for sure, a change needs to be made unless they want to continue frustrating their pro player base.

Twistzz sets lofty target for FaZe CSGO in 2022 João Ferreira/DexertoFaZe CS:GO star Russel ‘Twistzz’ Van Dulken is confident that the team can reach the very top of the esport this year. 2021 was a rollercoaster year for FaZe’s CS:GO division. Despite the high-profile signing of Twistzz from Team Liquid and the return of veteran captain Finn ‘karrigan’ Andersen, the team still struggled for consistency, with a semi-final appearance at IEM Cologne one of the few highlights from the season. But FaZe are shaping up to be legitimate title contenders in 2022. They were one of the winners of the off-season with the signing of Estonian prodigy Robin ‘ropz’ Kool, who took veteran Olof ‘olofmeister’ Kajbjer’s spot in the starting lineup. https://twitter.com/FaZeClan/status/1478048711318122499 This is on paper one of the best FaZe lineups in years, and Twistzz has no doubt that the team will do their utmost to fly the organization’s flag high this year. “We’ve had a lot of time in the top five this year [2021],” he told Dexerto. “Obviously, next year [2022] the goal is number one. “Whatever we have to do to make that happen, I’m all for it.” The Canadian star, who was named the 17th best player of 2021 by HLTV.org, said that he has felt “rejuvenated” on FaZe after struggling to make his voice heard on Team Liquid. Karrigan, he added, gives him the freedom to take more responsibility in the game. “I was struggling in North America,” he said. “Looking back now, I’m just like, ‘These players aren’t on my level in any way. When I look back, I’m like, ‘This is where I’m supposed to be’. This is for me. “I feel rejuvenated as a player. When I joined I was immediately given that space. For example, there’s this important space on Mirage, the connector player. Even when karrigan joined, I was still given a lot of that space. On our CT sides, a lot of players look at me to make the calls and adjustments for whatever is going on.” FaZe will begin the new season with a match against Team Liquid on January 30 in the BLAST Premier Spring Groups. This will also be the North Americans’ first appearance with their new lineup, featuring Richard ‘shox’ Papillon, Josh ‘oSee’ Ohm, and returning captain Nick ‘nitr0’ Cannella.

Twistzz leaves Team Liquid with FalleN set to replace him Team Liquid / MIBRCandian professional CSGO player Russel ‘Twistzz’ Van Dulken announced he would be leaving Team Liquid almost immediately after the team’s defeat in the IEM Global Challenge 2020 Finals, and we may already know who his replacement will be next year. Team Liquid has had a rough year in the pro CSGO circuit, ending with just one trophy in 15 tournaments they played. While the org did manage to reach the Grand Finals of the IEM Global Challenge to finish 2020 off, it was a one-sided affair against Astralis that ended 3-0 in the Danes’ favor. Almost immediately after that match had concluded, Twistzz announced in the post-game interview that he would be parting ways with Liquid, but hinted on Twitter that he would be heading to another EU team. I’ll comment about my future soon, I hope I bring the NA support where ever I go in EU. I wish all the best to and for my teammates. Happy holidays everyone and stay safe 😊 — Russel van Dulken (@Twistzz) December 20, 2020 This might be rough news for Liquid fans, seeing as how Twistzz was the second longest-tenured member of the roster behind Jonathan ‘EliGE’ Jablonowski; spending three and a half years there and helping the org to a number of titles before the 2020 troubles happened. But, barring an amazing upset of Astralis to close out 2020, something had to change going into the new year, and it seems like the team’s higher-ups agreed with Richard Lewis that the 21-year-old Canadian had to be the one to go if things were ever going to start getting turned around. We also didn’t have to wait long for news on who would be replacing Twistzz either. According to a report from Rush B Media, Liquid is looking to replace him with MiBR’s Gabriel ‘FalleN’ Toledo, and are already in talks with the Brazilian organization, even though no contracts have been signed. FalleN parted ways with MiBR earlier in 2020 after the team finally pulled the trigger on kicking Epitácio ‘TACO’ de Melo, Fernando ‘fer’ Alvarenga, and coach Ricardo ‘dead’ Sinigaglia on September 13. The 29-year-old would bring years of experience as an in-game leader and could be a good piece of what Liquid is looking for to turn things around. While FalleN certainly seems like a likely pick, only time will tell what the actual contract is, and when he’ll begin playing, but when and if the change does go through, Liquid’s lineup would look something like this: Jonathan ‘EliGE’Jablonowski – Jake ‘Stewie2K’ Yip – Keith ‘NAF’ Markovic – Michael ‘Grim‘ Wince – Gabriel ‘FalleN‘ Toledo – The Brazilian certainly wouldn’t be the end-all, be-all solution to the problems facing this team, but something had to be done about the recent underperformance, and it seems like Twistzz is the first domino to fall.

Twistzz joins FaZe Clan CSGO from Team Liquid, Kjaerbye benched ESLFaZe Clan have announced the signing of Russel ‘Twistzz’ Van Dulken to their CSGO roster, alongside the benching of Danish Rifler, Markus ‘Kjaerbye’ Kjærbye. Twistzz joins from Team Liquid – Kjaerbye benched from FaZe’s starting lineup – Olofmeister will still stand-in for FaZe – Twistzz joins FaZe CSGO On January 30, FaZe Clan officially welcomed Twistzz to their starting lineup. The 21-year-old joins after moving to an inactive role on Team Liquid following IEM Global Challenge. “The next step of my career, the chance to continue my growth as a player and to get back to where I want to be,” the Canadian wrote. “Trophies are in the future and I believe in myself and my teammates that we can be the best, super excited for this opportunity.” Twistzz is here. 🇨🇦 Please join us in welcoming @Twistzz to FaZe Clan’s professional Counter Strike roster & starting lineup!#FaZeUp pic.twitter.com/6rbt6kuhdQ — FaZe Clan (@FaZeClan) January 30, 2021 FaZe Clan bench Kjaerbye Alongside the announcement of Twistzz, FaZe have moved Kjaerbye to an inactive role in the squad — meaning that Olofmeister will continue to stand-in as a temporary fifth. “I came into my first international team with big dreams and high hopes,” wrote the Major winner in a Tweet. Kjaerbye added that the roster never found the “synergy and consistency” as part of his statement. 2/2 The season just started and, I am very eager to play. For now I am looking forward to grind a lot of FPL in February, while looking for my next adventure & project within CS. First being cut in my career, it doesn’t feel nice to not fit in, but it might be positive in end 👍 — KJAERBYE (@KjaerbyeCS) January 30, 2021 What next for FaZe CSGO? After crashing out of CS Summit 7 in dead last, the squad will be hoping Twistzz can inject some firepower into their ranks. In terms of Kjaerbye’s replacement, rumors have previously done the rounds that Danish In-Game Leader, Finn ‘karrigan’ Andersen would be joining after NiKo’s departure in October. However, Karrigan remains at the helm of the mousesports project, who have recently added Frederik ‘acoR’ Gyldstrand to their ranks. The new-look FaZe outfit will debut at BLAST Premier’s Spring Groups on February 4.

Twistzz explains why Team Liquid’s new CS:GO coach has been an instant success DexertoTeam Liquid star Russel ‘Twistzz’ Van Dunkel has credited new coach Eric ‘adreN’ Hoag with making a big impact on the North American team, despite only coaching them for such a short period of time. Famed Brazilian coach Wilton ‘Zews’ Prado departed the team for MiBR (Made in Brazil) back on December 21, reuniting with the majority of the roster he’d initially coached under the Luminosity and SK Gaming banners. Zews received plenty of credit for the improvement in Liquid’s play under his leadership, especially in 2018, when the North American and Brazilian mixed roster cemented themselves as one of the top-three teams in the world. However, Twistzz believes that team’s new coach, former Team Liquid player adreN, has already improved the team in a different way to the Brazilian. Liquid will be looking to grow even further in 2019. Speaking on Twitch on January 22, ‘Twistzz’ said: “Eric brings a different type of composure and awareness to the team. Read More: How to watch the IEM Katowice 2019 CS:GO Major and Minors – Streams, schedule, results and more – “So far (he) identifies issues that we are having early on and is not afraid to call us out on it, while also giving a simple but detailed solution, which is something we lacked before.” Team Liquid picked up their first event win of the year with their new roster, and under their new coach, on January 20 at the iBUYPOWER Master’s Event in Los Angeles, California. While a number of players criticised the event, including Twistzz, Liquid stuck it out until the end, defeating Danish powerhouse Astralis in best-of-three grand finals. Despite losing the first map of the series – Inferno – 16-4, the new-look roster bounced back by winning the next two maps – Dust2 and Overpass – by the scorelines of 16-11. Next up for Liquid is a trip to Poland for the IEM Katowice Major on February 20 for the New Legends stage, where they will hope their good form can continue and secure the $500,000 first place prize.

Besiktas Esports allegedly hasn’t been paying League of Legends or CSGO players Beşiktaş Arena ForumIt has been alleged that Turkish esports organization Beşiktaş Esports has not been paying the players of their esports rosters, according to one of their former League of Legends players. According to a post from League of Legends player Natalie ‘Stratospanda” Kristiansen, formerly of Beşiktaş Esports, the organization has neglected to pay its players properly across its multiple esports rosters. Beşiktaş Esports is the pro gaming division of the Turkish football club, Beşiktaş J.K. Natalie ‘Stratospanda” Kristiansen joined the Turkish club’s women’s LoL roster in October 2018, and according to her, there were problems from day one. Their first salary payment was allegedly delayed for multiple weeks. The players allegedly went five months without receiving on-time payments, despite alleged promises to the contrary. According to Stratospanda’s Twitlonger, this was also the case for other rosters in the organization, as well as many members of staff. Beşiktaş reportedly went so far as to instruct players not to go public about the salary problems, threatening to withhold payment altogether if they did. According to Stratospanda, BJK was allegedly trying to get all of their present and past players to sign non-disclosure agreements in an attempt to keep the problems from going public. Stratospanda left the organization in June and has been trying out for other teams since then. One of her former teammates, Olimpia ‘Komedyja’ Cichosz replied to the original post, adding some extra fuel to the fire. She alleges that BJK were promising things like boot camps and media days, all while being unable to pay for any of it on time. She also alleged that the team shut the players’ Discord server down when players from the other rosters got wind of what was going on. According to another source that spoke to Dexerto, the Discord was shut down immediately after players on different rosters started asking each other if they were paid while the organization experienced major problems on its football side. Huzurlarınızda Kadın League of Legends takımımız, Beşiktaş’a hoşgeldiniz. Sırada ne var? We’re very proud to announce our female League of Legends roster! Ladies welcome to Beşiktaş! What’s next?@Nutteper @komedyja @BesiktasTifa @Stratospanda @KyannaLoL#CometoBeşiktaş pic.twitter.com/oafhFGvXUR— Beşiktaş Esports (@bjkesports) October 10, 2018 Beşiktaş J.K. as a football club has had its own problems with money. The club announced in February 2018 that it owed nearly $450 million dollars, with a big portion of that coming from their newly completed stadium. In January of this year it was reported that between BJK and three other Turkish clubs, they collectively owed $2.6 billion. Beşiktaş Esports fields teams in men and women’s League of Legends, women’s CS:GO, and Zula (a Counter-Strike clone.) As a result, BJK has had trouble paying its football players as well, and the organization is reported to be on the brink of financial collapse.

TSM want to be a force in CSGO again. Just not overnight. TSMTSM’s VP of Esports Dominic Kallas discusses the organization’s vision for their return to CS:GO in an exclusive interview with Dexerto. When TSM revealed their intention to compete in CS:GO again from 2023 in Europe, the news was met with a mixture of excitement and surprise in the scene. TSM last competed in CS:GO in late 2016, their time in Valve’s FPS title ending in acrimony following a dispute with their North American team over the exclusivity proposed by the now-defunct Professional Esports Association for its league (which never got off the ground because of the controversy surrounding it). In the years that followed, there was not so much as a hint that TSM was monitoring the scene and weighing up a return. The announcement came just two weeks after Riot Games unveiled the ten teams for its Valorant partnership league in the Americas region. Despite topping Forbes’ list of the most valuable esports companies at $540 million and having grandiose competitive plans for Valorant, TSM were among the organizations left out in the cold. There have been suggestions that the return to CS:GO came in response to the Valorant snub. But the two situations are unrelated, according to Dominic Kallas, who assures that the wheels were set in motion at the start of 2022, shortly after he was hired from Gen.G to help steer TSM’s esports department. “Internally, we started talking about it in January,” he tells Dexerto. “I was already communicating in May that we were going to be looking at a European CS:GO team. Regardless of whether or not we got accepted into the partnership program, we would field a CS:GO team in 2023. “This is more of getting the news out there early so that we can start the process. It’s to get our fans excited and start building an organic fanbase in Europe.” TSM are going full circle with their decision to compete in Europe, having entered CS:GO in 2015 with a promising Danish lineup that included Nicolai ‘device’ Reedtz, Andreas ‘Xyp9x’ Højsleth, and Peter ‘dupreeh’ Rasmussen. The team competed under TSM’s banner for a year before moving to Astralis. Back then, TSM were “super aggressive” in their approach, according to CEO Andy ‘Reginald’ Dinh, and became involved in a bidding war for the Danish team, driving up salaries and improving players’ contract negotiation power scene-wide in the process. But this time around, they will be doing things differently. Instead of going out and splashing the cash on an elite lineup, TSM will be taking small steps on their way to the top. Kallas will spend some time on the ground, working in tandem with a yet-to-be-appointed General Manager on finding talent and setting up the right infrastructure for the team. “I think we will be looking at HLTV top 30 talent,” he says. “It’s not like we’re going to pick up a bunch of rookies. I think it could be a mix of rookies and players that are on other teams. “I think there’s still very much an idea that we want to pick up players from relatively the same region just because you need to have the same ideologies, right? It’s very much [about] narrowing in on a region we want to put our time and effort behind. Making sure that the GM, the players and the coach are all aligned on how to play the game but are also okay with spending so much time together.” Kallas does not wish to elaborate on the kind of profile that fits this General Manager role, but he makes it clear that the person hired will be solely responsible for the CS:GO team. “This isn’t the kind of game where you can enter and do things as a side project,” he notes. “This needs to be a full-time effort. So it’s very much a structure of finding a GM, a coach, a strong team manager, and likely a small analyst crew to go along with that as well.” Moving away from North America Kallas has clearly done his homework on the CS:GO scene. He knows how “brutal” the landscape of the esport in Europe is and how quickly today’s mainstays can become tomorrow’s has-beens. A handful of bad decisions can prove disastrous and set a team back several months. It would be easier, one would think, for TSM to simply invest in North America. The competition is less fierce and there are a number of unsigned players yearning for an opportunity after the exodus of organizations to Valorant. This would also give TSM the chance to play a key part in the revitalization of the scene in the region. The explanation for the decision to compete in Europe is twofold. Firstly, the move is part of TSM’s expansion plans as it looks to increase its global presence after venturing into the Japanese, Indian and Brazilian markets. “The idea is to have a strong footprint within Europe so we can reach our European fans,” Kallas says. “We have always been a global company, so we are just continuing to expand on that. One of our most popular players, and one who has been with us the longest, is [Swedish FGC player] Leffen.” Secondly, CS:GO remains a European-centric esport, with the region constantly producing the best players in the game. TSM are not in it just to win domestically — “There are higher ambitions [than that] with TSM,” Kallas explains — or be also-rans at Majors. And that means being present in the strongest region. “It’s like, if we’re going to be in an esport, let’s find a way to win world championships,” he notes. “Let’s not just be in an esport to be in an esport. “Whether it’s Katowice, whether it’s the BLAST Pro Major in France, we want to be on the biggest stage and we want to give our fans something to cheer about. I think you’re going to hear TSM chants in every stadium where you go. If we can actually do that with having our players on stage, I think that’s the ultimate goal.” TSM will have to work hard to win over the skeptics who still remember just how poorly the Danish CS:GO team was managed in 2015. The players’ relationship with TSM quickly became rocky over sponsorship obligations, and there were criticisms that the organization barely gave attention to the team on social media, despite the success it was enjoying. “At that time there were like ten people here, and now we’re at 155,” Kallas says. “The company has scaled to another level and we have built the infrastructure to be able to support teams globally. “We have the resources and we have the commitment to make sure that we have content that is being captured at these events, whether that’s through full-time [people] or contractors who are just jumping from event to event. A lot of different teams have different models and we will obviously get that sorted. This is going to be a core team for TSM here in the future, so we will obviously invest to show that.” Finding the right pieces CS:GO fans were surprised at Kallas’ revelation that TSM had “already started discussions with ESL and BLAST” about how the CS:GO division can be successful in Europe “through long-term partnerships.” Many immediately took that as a sign that TSM are looking to enter the ESL Pro League and BLAST Premier circuits in 2023 already. The former recently expanded by three teams to 15 in a $20 million deal, while the latter has had 12 teams since its inception. However, Kallas notes that his comments may have been taken “a little bit out of context.” “I think it’s more of just finding the right tournament type of circuit that we can be part of for the whole year,” he explains. “For us, it’s working with those guys to figure out, ‘Hey, what is the right tournament cycle for us?’ Depending on our players, how do we slot into these programs longterm? “I don’t think it’s going to be immediate. I think that in either of those systems you need to show that you’re going to be a good partner. I think you need to show that you have talent that is worthy of being in those leagues. Granted, some of those partner teams probably don’t have the talent to warrant being in those leagues.” Right now, there is no timeline set for TSM to enter CS:GO, though fans can expect more updates within the next three months. In the last two weeks, he has had “a lot of players flood my DMs” with requests about joining the team, but he insists that he won’t be rushed into making decisions. There is a chance that TSM will have a lineup in time for the BLAST Major qualifiers, but it’s no guarantee. 2023 will be a Year Zero scenario, in which TSM will be focused on getting the right European infrastructure in place. 2024 will be the true acid test of their credentials, the year when they hope to rub shoulders with the CS:GO elite. “We’ve set the goal internally that at the end of 2023 we will hopefully be a top-15, top-10 team, and then by 2024 to be a top-five team,” he says. “I’m not going to come out and say, ‘Our goal is if we don’t reach number one, we have screwed up’. We want to field a competitive roster but we also understand that it’s going to take a little bit of time to put all the pieces together.”

TSM to make long-awaited CSGO return in 2023 TSM | TwitterTSM have announced they’re returning to CSGO in 2023, more than five years after their departure from the esport. And this time, they’re building a brand-new roster from the ground up in Europe. TSM didn’t have a long stay in CSGO, but they certainly had an impactful one. From 2015 to the start of 2017, all-time CSGO greats and future Valorant superstars played for their organization. Finn ‘karrigan’ Andersen and Russel ‘Twistzz’ Van Dulken both spent time on TSM years before they’d come together and take home a Major for FaZe and become one of the best teams in CSGO. The Danish in-game leader was also part of the roster that would go on to form Astralis, the most successful team in CS:GO history, with four Major titles to their name. Now, TSM are coming back with a major focus on cultivating new talent directly from Europe. TSM’s building a new roster from the ground up Dominic Kallas, the Vice President of Esports at TSM, announced that the organization would be making a return. But not in the way some fans might expect. An organization with the presence and history TSM possesses would be expected to come in and start picking up some of CSGO’s best-established players. But Kallas has a different approach. He makes it clear in the announcement that their approach won’t be to “go out and buy a top-five team” upon their re-entry to CSGO. Instead, Kallas will be spending a “significant amount of time in Europe” working with a local General Manager, who has not yet been announced, to build a team and the right infrastructure. “We gave already started discussions with ESL and BLAST about how TSM can be successful within Europe through long-term partnerships,” he said. “We have a lot of work to do, a lot of infrastructure to put in place.” As a result of their grassroots approach, there isn’t a confirmed roster as of yet. All we know so far is that TSM will be coming back to CSGO in 2023, and that they’re aiming to compete in the biggest tournaments CSGO has to offer.

TSM returns to Counter-Strike with new EU roster after six-year leave Twitter: TSMTSM has officially returned to Counter-Strike with a new EU roster after a six-year absence from the scene. TSM has made its reentry into the CSGO scene with a new EU roster. The roster was first reported by Dust2.us on July 26, fielding a mix of veteran names and young talents. It was then reported by Blix on August 1 that the team was seemingly in jeopardy as disagreements over the contracts of head coach Rémy ‘XTQZZZ’ Quoniam supposedly resulted in him pulling out of the roster. However, it seems that the disagreements were resolved as XTQZZZ will be coaching the team among the other reported members of the squad as it’s all been made official as of August 29. TSM makes a return to Counter-Strike with new EU roster Announced by TSM directly, joining XTQZZZ as the coaching staff is Lambert “Lambert” Prigent as the assistant coach. Their IGL, Valdemar “valde” Vangså has led some of EU’s best upcoming teams over the past five years, notably with Heroic and North early into his career, and stints with OG and ENCE. French veteran Audric “JACKZ” Jug was last seen as a stand-in for Vitality at ESL Pro League Season 17. After being dropped from G2 in 2022, JACKZ has had rocky results as he would go on to sign with HEET who eventually dropped the roster. Timothy “interz” Yakushin burst onto the scene in 2019 as a part of Gambit Youngsters, which would go on to be Gambit’s main team, and eventually sold to Cloud9. He was eventually let go by C9 in January. Cai “CYPHER” Watson was one of the key members of Into The Breach’s miraculous run to the quarter-final of the BLAST.tv Paris Major, and now for the first time play on a major org. Mădălin-Andrei “MoDo” Mirea has had stints with a Romanian team, Nexus Gaming, however, has not been active for as long as some other members of the team nor as many matches. Starting roster Valdemar “valde” Vangså – Audric “JACKZ” Jug – Timothy “interz” Yakushin – Cai “CYPHER” Watson – Mădălin-Andrei “MoDo” Mirea – Coaching staff Rémy ‘XTQZZZ’ Quoniam – Lambert “Lambert” Prigent –

TSM reportedly set to make Counter-Strike return with EU CSGO team TSMNorth American esports giants TSM are reportedly on the verge of announcing their new CS:GO team. It marks the organization’s return to the scene after a six-year absence. According to a report from Dust2.us, TSM’s new CS:GO team will make its first official appearance in the $200,000 CCT Online Finals 2, which will begin on August 2. The team, which will be guided by former Vitality and G2 coach Rémy ‘XTQZZZ’ Quoniam, features players from five different European countries, selected after a long scouting process. TSM announced in October 2022 that they were planning a return to Counter-Strike scene with a European roster, almost six years after withdrawing from the game. Shortly afterward, Dominic Kallas, TSM’s then VP of Esports, told Dexerto that the organization had its sights on “HLTV top 30 talent” and noted that the expansion into CS:GO was another step in the company’s strategy to “have a strong footprint within Europe.” TSM poised to make Counter-Strike return TSM’s new CS:GO team features three players with over a decade of tier-one experience between them. Valdemar ’valde’ Bjørn Vangså, who is expected to take over as in-game leader, has played for teams like Heroic, North, OG, and ENCE throughout his career. French veteran Audric ’JACKZ’ Jug was last seen playing for Vitality in ESL Pro League Season 17, averaging an impressive 1.26 HLTV rating and 1.35 Impact during his stand-in stint. “I know that if I have my roles I can get the job done,” he would later tell Dexerto. Timofey ‘interz’ Yakushin burst onto the CS:GO scene in 2019 as part of Gambit Youngsters, a roster that eventually became Gambit’s main team and was later sold to Cloud9. He was replaced by Timur ‘buster’ Tulepov in January and released by the organization two months later. The final two pieces of the team might not be instantly recognizable names, but they have received a decent amount of hype in the European scene in recent times. Cai ‘CYPHER’ Watson was instrumental in Into the Breach’s surprising quarter-final run at the BLAST.tv Paris Major, where he averaged a 1.11 HLTV rating. Mădălin-Andrei ‘MoDo’ Mirea, the team’s AWper, averaged a 1.09 HLTV rating during his seven-month spell with Romanian team Nexus. But questions remain about how MoDo will acquit himself at a tier-one level: he only has only eight maps against HLTV top 30 opponents on record and not a single map against a top 20 team. TSM’s CS:GO return has created a level of excitement in the scene, but not everyone seems to be hyped up about the choice of players. “That’s really bad,” one fan said on TSM’s official subreddit. “Sh*t roster,” another comment read. TSM was once a CS:GO powerhouse with players like Nicolai ‘device’ Reedtz, Peter ‘dupreeh’ Rasmussen, and Andreas ‘Xyp9x’ Højsleth, who went on to establish a dynasty with Astralis. dupreeh, who is currently on Vitality’s bench, was briefly linked with TSM last month, though it appears that talks broke down, which helps explain why fans might feel disappointed by the absence of star names from the rumored roster. TSM’s new CSGO team: Valdemar ’valde’ Bjørn Vangså – Audric ’JACKZ’ Jug – Timofey ‘interz’ Yakushin – Cai ‘CYPHER’ Watson – Mădălin-Andrei ‘MoDo’ Mirea –

TSM ramp up plans for CSGO division with hunt for General Manager TSM have posted a job opening for a CS:GO General Manager, confirming their plans to return to the game in the near future. The North American organization first announced its intent to compete in CS:GO again in October in a video update about TSM’s future. In it, Dominic Kallas, TSM’s Vice President of Esports, revealed that the organization would build a European roster from the ground up with the help of a local General Manager. But questions were asked about whether those plans were still in motion after TSM suspended a $210 million partnership with crypto exchange FTX. When announcing the deal in June 2021, described as the “largest in esports history” by TSM, the organization had said that it would invest resources “into esports and gaming over the next five years”. Kallas put those fears to rest in a message posted on TSM’s official Discord in January. He did not provide a timeline for TSM’s return to CS:GO but noted that there would be opportunities for the organization to start making moves during the roster shuffles that would happen “between IEM Katowice and IEM Cologne”. And on February 8, TSM posted on LinkedIn a job opening for the role of CS:GO General Manager, who “will be responsible for running and ensuring the success of TSM’s CS:GO division.” According to the job description, at least five players of management experience in esports or sports and a high-level understanding of the CS:GO landscape are required, as is fluency in English. The posting lists several duties expected of the GM, such as evaluating upcoming talent, sizing investments into new circuits/leagues, and controlling the costs of the division. TSM adds that fluency in Danish, German, Dutch, Polish, Czech, and/or French is a bonus, which indicates that the organization, as Kallas told Dexerto in October, is open to picking up talent from various regions. So far, over 200 people have applied for the job.

TSM president reveals true cost of a CS:GO team amid rumors of return L: Leena XuTeam SoloMid President Leena Xu has revealed why the organization hasn’t yet returned to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Reports since February 2019 have suggested that one of North America’s biggest organizations is exploring options for picking up a CS:GO team, but so far nothing seems to have come of these inquiries. According to president Leena Xu, however, the reason they’ve yet to pick up a team isn’t for lack of interest, but rather because of just how big a project moving into CS:GO is. While answering questions on her Instagram story, Xu revealed that picking up a team would cost in the region of “1.5 to 2 million dollars, maybe more depending on the staff that you pick up for your players”, and so the organization isn’t rushing into anything. TSM roster rumors Though TSM haven’t yet reached the stage of actually signing any CS:GO players, the organization has reportedly had talks with multiple players. Dexerto’s Jarek ‘DeKay’ Lewis revealed that TSM approached several players that were on the bench of their respective teams, including Tarik ‘tarik’ Celik, then on the Made In Brazil bench, and BIG’s Owen ‘Smooya’ Butterfield. The team also had talks with the international line-up featuring Kevin ‘Ex6TenZ’ Droolans and Adil ‘ScreaM’ Benrlitom, but that squad has since signed with Team GamerLegion. Whether TSM have identified other potential players is currently unknown. TSM’s 2015 CS:GO roster later became Astralis after a stint as “Team Questionmark”. TSM’s history in CS:GO If TSM do in fact pick up a CS:GO roster, it won’t be their first venture into the game. Unfortunately, their previous forays into Counter-Strike haven’t always been particularly successful. The organization originally entered CS:GO in 2015, when they picked up the Danish line-up formerly of Dignitas, the core of which today makes up Astralis. While the squad certainly wasn’t the all-powerful force that the modern Astralis is, they were very much one of the best teams in the world. Disagreements over the team’s management ultimately led to TSM parting ways with the Danish squad, however. Later, the organization returned to CS:GO with a North American line-up that at various points featured notable players such as Timothy ‘autimatic’ Ta, Russel ‘Twistzz’ Van Dulken, and briefly Sean Gares, but the team largely failed to deliver notable results and was ultimately transferred to Misfits following a falling out between the roster and TSM management over plans for an exclusive CS:GO league by the Professional Esports Association (PEA). TSM hasn’t fielded a CS:GO roster since that transfer occurred in January 2017.

TSM CSGO roster reportedly in jeopardy due to dispute between players and org João Ferreira/DexertoTSM’s rumored CS:GO roster is reportedly in jeopardy due to contractual disagreements, according to multiple reports. TSM has been out of CS:GO since 2017, but expressed an interest in returning in 2022. The organization said at the time that it was looking to sign a European roster and field some of the best players in the world. On July 26, Dust2.us reported that TSM has agreed to terms with its new roster and that it was set to debut in an online tournament. However, TSM is reportedly dealing with a dispute between its newly signed players and the organization. Blix reports that the team’s rumored coach, former Team Vitality head coach Rémy ‘XTQZZZ’ Quoniam, has pulled out of TSM. The coach was said to be the architect of their new European roster. XTQZZZ has been away from coaching since October 2022 after a 10-month stint with G2 Esports. TSM CS:GO roster reportedly in peril Along with the exit of XTQZZZ, the players signed to TSM have apparently been in disagreement with the organization over the supposed breaking of verbal promises. Those promises reportedly include the length of their contracts and bonuses. The dispute has also caused TSM to pull its roster out of CCT Online Finals #2, where it was expected to make its competitive debut. The squad will now focus on the qualifiers for IEM Sydney 2023 according to Dust2.us. Because TSM is not a partnered organization with ESL, they will likely need to play through the European Qualifier for a select few spots at the international LAN tournament. The European roster for TSM reportedly consists of IGL Valdemar ’valde’ Bjørn Vangså, French veteran Audric ’JACKZ’ Jug, former Gambit and Cloud9 player Timofey ‘interz’ Yakushin, along with Cai ‘CYPHER’ Watson and Mădălin-Andrei ‘MoDo’ Mirea.

TSM chief provides update on planned CSGO expansion TSMTSM VP of Esports Dominic Kallas has updated fans about the organization’s plans to re-enter CS:GO in 2023. In October 2022, TSM revealed that they would return to CS:GO with a European team sometime in 2023, more than six years after withdrawing from the game following a dispute with their North American squad. In a subsequent interview, Kallas told Dexerto that TSM were looking at “HLTV top 30 talent” for the team and that the return to CS:GO was part of the organization’s expansion plan as it looked to increase its presence in Europe. But those comments came before the public implosion of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, with which TSM had agreed to a ten-year naming rights deal worth $210 million. The partnership has since been suspended, but TSM have refused to say if the company’s expansion plans are still on track or if they have been put on hold because of the deal’s collapse. TSM provides CSGO update In a message posted to TSM’s official Discord, Kallas all but confirmed that the organization is keeping a close eye on the CS:GO space. He did not provide a timeline for TSM to re-enter the game, but he said that it won’t happen in time for the BLAST.tv Paris Major because of the short window before the qualifiers for that event. “Due to the BLAST open qualifiers being super early, there was no way to qualify for the BLAST Major,” he wrote. “There will be roster shuffles between IEM Katowice and IEM Cologne, where there will be opportunities for TSM to make their move”. IEM Katowice is the next big event on the CS:GO calendar, with 24 teams in attendance and a $1 million prize pool. The tournament will take place between January 31 and February 12. IEM Cologne is scheduled for July 25-26 and will also feature 24 teams and a $1 million prize purse. TSM competed in CS:GO in 2015 and 2016, enjoying sustained success during their first year in the game, when their team, based in Denmark, won a series of international tournaments. In December 2015, TSM parted ways with the players, who went on to join Astralis.

Tributes paid to ex-CSGO pro MAiNLiNE, dead at 26 Joe Brady/CEVOThere has been an outpouring of tributes in the North American esports scene to Michael ‘MAiNLiNE’ Jaber, a former CS:GO player and coach who has passed away at the age of 26. The news was revealed on Twitter by current Complexity Valorant player Joel ‘jcrueL’ Cruel, who competed alongside MAiNLiNE in CS:GO on a number of teams between 2016 and 2017, including Vault and eUnited. I wish I checked up with you more often, Rest In Peace brother @Mainlinecsgo . Those csgo teams and times we spent at lan will always be some of the best memories for me. — jcrueL (@jcrueL_) October 7, 2021 MAiNLiNE’s cause of death has not yet been confirmed, but he had revealed in 2019 that he had been diagnosed with testicular cancer. MAiNLiNE was part of the wave of CS:Source players who transitioned to CS:GO following the game’s release in August 2012. He quickly became a regular presence in top-level North American competitions and went on to play the first three seasons of ESL Pro League with three different teams — Method, Enemy, and Selfless. He also attended ELEAGUE Season 1 and won the Americas Minor leading to the MLG Columbus Major over teams like OpTic Gaming and Splyce. He struggled to return to the top following his departure from eUnited but continued to play an important role in the development of up-and-coming North American talent. As the coach of Ghost Gaming and New Identity, he worked with some of today’s best Valorant players in North America, including Michael ‘dapr’ Gulino (Sentinels), Matthew “Wardell” Yu, and Yassine “Subroza” Taoufik (both on TSM). Heartfelt tributes to MAiNLiNE Numerous players who competed alongside MAiNLiNE or were coached by him have since expressed their condolences on Twitter. He was my teammate for like 6 months at the start of CSGO & I literally saw him a year and a half ago in NYC. Was a good dude, rip 🙁 — FNS (@FNS) October 7, 2021 I can’t believe it. I’ll never forget the memories I have with you as a teammate, coach, and a friend. One of the realest ones out there. This fucking sucks. Rest in peace Mike.. https://t.co/1jenI4XAAE — seb (@sebbucki) October 7, 2021 Other community figures, including Tarik ‘tarik’ Celik, Nick ‘nitr0’ Cannella and Rory ‘dephh’ Jackson, have also paid tribute to the player on social media.

Trainwrecks loses his mind after unboxing rare $5,000 CSGO sticker Twitch: Trainwreckstv / ValveTyler ‘Trainwrecks’ Niknam is counting his lucky stars after unboxing an incredibly rare CS:GO sticker on his Twitch stream, turning one capsule into $5,000 in an instant. Trainwrecks is a freak for a rare case opening or two from CS:GO. He lives life on the edge, and for the popular Twitch streamer, it’s paid dividends in the past. He’s picked up some great finds, including one time where he pulled a Factory New StatTrak AK-47 Wasteland Rebel, worth $1,500. JUST OPENED $1500 AK WHILE HANGING WITH TEA pic.twitter.com/z8wqJqvr7P — Trainwreck (@Trainwreckstv) January 26, 2020 It’s not always roses for him either, like his MLG Columbus 2016 Cobblestone souvenir opening which saw him spend $175 just to get a $12 UMP-45 skin. The thrill of opening a case is too alluring for the streamer, and his thousands of viewers sit on the edge of their seat when he puts it all on the line. That’s what made his recent EMS Katowice 2014 Legends sticker capsule opening all that more intense. The EMS Katowice 2014 Legends sticker capsule is one of the most sought after items in CS:GO, with the stickers inside being even more lucrative. If you manage to roll a holo sticker, regardless of team, it’s worth thousands. Because of this, finding a sticker capsule is hard, and getting it for a ‘reasonable’ price is even more difficult. There are no listing on the Steam Community Market for it, which has a hard cap of $1,800, and trying to find one from a third-party reseller online is even harder. However, after he got his hands on one, he didn’t let his opportunity go to waste. He hyped himself up for the thousand-dollar roll, and as he clicked it, he begged the CS gods to give him something good. And boy, did they deliver. “I got the LDLC, I got the LDLC,” the streamer screamed, as he had found himself a Team LDLC.com (Holo). Read more: Na`Vi dominate G2 to win IEM Katowice 2020 – The second-most expensive sticker in the game, the LDLC 2014 (Holo) cannot be found on any regular marketplace nowadays. While it used to go for a handful of dollars back in 2014, it’s now considered one of the game’s rarest items, valued at around $5,000. HOLY SHIT WE DID IT, UNBOXED A $6,000 STICKER pic.twitter.com/twMMWZSMt2 — Trainwreck (@Trainwreckstv) March 2, 2020 Only the Titan 2014 (Holo) — Train’s desired result from the sticker capsule — goes for more in the entire collection. If he had netted the sticker of the prestigious French roster who disbanded in 2016, he would have made a cool $11,000. Trainwrecks couldn’t believe his luck. Whether he will hand off his LDLC Holo now or hold onto it for the future remains to be seen, but either way, Trainwrecks now owns one of the game’s most rare items, and it’ll only go up in value.

Trainwrecks’ report on “hacking” CSGO player backfires spectacularly Popular Twitch personality ‘Trainwreckstv’ was in disbelief after getting destroyed in a match of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and his report of the “cheating” player backfired unexpectedly. CSGO is the fourth game in the Counter-Strike series, and is still one of the most popular online first-person shooters despite releasing in 2012. However, Trainwrecks found himself in an intense exchange with another player during his November 23 stream that saw him getting destroyed by some incredibly accurate headshots. So much so, the streamer believed the player could be cheating, and reported them after they continuously pulled off the perfect shots. Except everything wasn’t as it seemed. The popular Twitch streamer was in the middle of a match in CSGO, when a player in his cross-hairs outgunned him with a clean headshot with his Desert Eagle. “There is no way, dude!” he exclaimed immediately. “My 50.cal bullet doesn’t go through a piece of f*cking metal!” he continued in disbelief. The other player then approached him and his teammate for a second encounter. “That’s the guy that just Deagled me!” the streamer cautioned, before getting cut off as he was gunned down with another shot to the head. “Yep, same guy he headshot me too. I dunno, dude! Three Deagle headshots instantly? I dunno!” he exclaimed before reporting the player. The streamer reported the other player for wall hacking, aim hacking, and other hacking, and then continued his broadcast playing the FPS. However things took an unexpected twist when the player he reported spoke out on Twitter, and was revealed to actually be pro Rainbow Six Siege player Ethan ‘RizRaz’ Wombwell. The Fnatic player tweeted “Please don’t report me, I love you @Trainwreckstv” on November 23, shocking fans who didn’t realize it was him in the match with Trainwrecks. Please don’t report me, I love you @Trainwreckstv https://t.co/LLDZVGVH3n — Ethan (@RizRazR6) November 24, 2019 So far the two have not spoken up since the time of this article, so there is no telling whether the R6 pro’s account was actually punished for the report. If nothing else, it’s an honest mistake anyone could make, given the pro player’s skills. We’ve all been there!

Trainwreck reveals $1 million CSGO investment he has kept hidden away Twitch: TrainwrecksTVPopular Twitch and Kick streamer Trainwreck has been rumored to own a large and very expensive collection of rare items in CS:GO, but has kept it fairly secretive – until now. Many items in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive fetch a very high price, with some skins and knives worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. With Counter-Strike 2 revealed, coming in Summer 2023, the market for CS:GO items has also shot up recently, turning a profit for many collectors. One such collector is Trainwreck, who has been buying up items in the game for years. And now, he has revealed just how insane his collection is – or at least part of it. Trainwreck owns 66 Katowice 2014 sticker capsules The most expensive stickers in CS:GO come from the 2014 Major in Katowice. Team stickers for orgs like Titan and iBuyPower sell for more than $50,000 each. As a result, the capsules which these stickers can be opened from also cost approximately $12,000, and it’s believed that Trainwreck now owns a large portion of the remaining supply. CS:GO streamer Arrow tallied up a total of 66 Katowice capsules in Trainwreck’s inventory, with a total value of around $800,000 – and as more of these capsules are opened, the price is likely to keep rising. But that’s not all, as Train also has three ‘Titan Holo’ stickers, which currently sell for around $60,000, and are in high demand from Chinese collectors particularly. This is only one of Trainwreck’s multiple ‘storage units’ too, and there is no telling how much value is locked away in the others. There are estimated to be less than 100 of these rare capsules still in circulation, meaning Train now holds over half of the current supply. The exact numbers are unknown as some capsules could be in private inventories or other storage units. For now, Train says he has no intention of selling these items, clearly hopeful that their price will keep rising. With CS2 on the horizon, it could be a bet that will pay off handsomely.

Trainwreck randomly blesses Summit1g with one of CSGO’s most expensive knives Twitch: Summit1gJaryd ‘Summit1g’ Lazar was almost speechless as fellow streamer Tyler ‘Trainwreck’ Niknam decided to send him a very generous trade offer on CS:GO – giving him a knife and glove combination worth over $25,000, simply because green was his favorite color. Summit has been getting back into CS:GO lately, and is getting his skills back to what they used to be like back when he played semi-professionally. Although his inventory already has a number of expensive items, like a Case Hardened AK-47 and a variety of knives, he’s never been a big skin collector or case opener. Trainwreck, however, is big on expensive CSGO skins, priding himself on his very impressive inventory, which is 100% unboxed items. Seeing Summit playing without many top-tier skins gave him an idea – to give him some. Summit1g’s insane CSGO skin combo from Train “I want to get you a more permanent loadout, ok, in terms of knives and gloves,” Train said. “So here’s what we’re going to do. Send me back my setup, and consider this next setup as ‘yours’. Consider this your early birthday gift.” After confirming that green was his favorite color, Trainwrecks sent an Emerald Butterfly Knife, worth around $22,000 – 24,000, as well as Emerald Web gloves, worth around $2,000. “I don’t even know what to say, thank you man, that’s insane,” summit said on his June 23 stream, after checking out the skins in-game. Summit might want to round out the collection with other Emerald skins, such as the Emerald Glock, Emerald Jörmungandr Desert Eagle, and Emerald CZ75-Auto. And the skins might have given Lazar that well-known new knife buff, as his team won their playoff match in a quick 2-0, and boasted a 20-7 scoreline himself on the second map. Although he was gifted the skins, Trainwreck doesn’t want them back, meaning they are Summit’s to keep – although maybe not sell, as it’s always bad etiquette to sell a gift. In related news, one of the biggest CS:GO skin collectors was hacked, with over $2 million worth of items stolen.

Top CSGO teams slam timing of huge patch days before Major Qualifier OG/DreamHackEarlier in September, Valve released a CS:GO update introducing significant gameplay changes. Two of the teams that will be affected by this new patch most are Complexity and OG. On September 21, Valve rolled out the ‘Operation Riptide’ update, with a new weapon (the Riot Shield), balancing changes to the M4A1-S and the Desert Eagle, new skins, and other gameplay adjustments. The biggest talking point about the patch is the ability for players to drop grenades like any other weapon. Community response has been mixed, with some welcoming the change and others pointing to how the feature goes against a core mechanic of the game. NAVI star Aleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev, the best player in the world at the moment, was seen downplaying the importance of these changes on his stream, only to change his mind just moments later after realizing just how impactful this feature can be in certain scenarios. Regardless of which side of the argument one rests on, it’s clear that the grenade-dropping option has the potential to have a significant impact on how the game is played. One of the first opportunities to see this new feature will be at IEM Fall Europe, the final Regional Major Ranking (RMR) event of the year in the region. For some teams, this will be a season-defining moment. There are still 23 spots up for grabs at PGL Major Stockholm, the first Major in over two years because of the global health situation. The main point of contention surrounding the grenade-dropping feature is how close to IEM Fall and the Major it was introduced. CS:GO commentator Jason ‘moses’ O’Toole said that this is a “crazy random factor” to add to the game one week before an event like this, while community figure and Dexerto’s Editor-at-Large Richard Lewis lamented that some teams have had the “rug pulled out from under them” because of a “radical meta shift.” Got to feel sorry for all the teams that got their shit together ahead of the CS:GO Major only to have the rug pulled out from under them ahead of the final qualifier with a radical meta shift. Hopefully pro MOBA players can offer some words of comfort. — Richard Lewis (@RLewisReports) September 23, 2021 But not all teams have been affected by this change equally. Unfair conditions For most teams, the process of incorporating the grenade-dropping feature in their stratbook started right after the update was released. But for Complexity, FaZe, OG, and NAVI, their preparations for the final RMR have been thrown into disarray because of their commitments in the BLAST Premier Fall Groups (which was played on the previous patch) as they were placed in Group C, which ran between September 24-26. This will leave the quartet with only a few days to really sink their teeth into the new meta. NAVI have the luxury of approaching the CIS portion of IEM Fall with a carefree attitude, as they are already qualified for the Major. But for the other three teams, a poor run in the qualifier could mean missing out on what is perhaps the most anticipated event in the history of the franchise. “This puts us in an unfair position because other teams are already practicing on the new patch, which we won’t be able to do for three or four days because of BLAST,” Complexity coach Luis ‘peacemaker’ Tadeu explained to Dexerto. “This is just terrible, but since no one is talking about it, nothing will get done. This will only change when players and influential people start fighting for each other’s causes. “Some teams have a competitive advantage over others because of this update. Terrible timing and decision to implement this for IEM Fall already.” Casper ‘ruggah’ Due, who coaches OG, also believes that these three teams are going to be at a disadvantage at the Major qualifier. “Obviously, our situation isn’t ideal,” he told Dexerto. “We’ve already theory-crafted and talked some things through, but we definitely would like to have a couple of more days on the new update before our first competition.” Peacemaker says that, without the option to practice on the previous update, his team had to ask scrim opponents not to utilize the newest mechanics. “It’s a nuisance, but every team that we scrimmed was helpful.” Valve’s disconnect with CSGO esports Both coaches made it clear that they are in favor of significant meta changes that keep the game fresh. Peacemaker said he approves of most of the update’s gameplay changes and expressed his belief that the community will get used to the concept of players dropping grenades. Ruggah also thinks that this new feature is “good” for the game, but he noted that Valve’s execution was “a bit too naive”. “In the long run I think it will be balanced and there will be limitations,” the Danish coach said. “These are, for example, ‘locking’ an item for like 15 seconds before it can be used, sticky grenades that cannot be dropped, and limitations to one’s throwing ability of a certain type of grenade.” But despite their forward-thinking attitude, the two coaches can’t help but feel frustrated with the disconnect between Valve and the esports side of CS:GO. In their opinion, Valve’s disregard for the competitive circuit continues to affect those who work year-round to compete in the game. “There’s not much that can be done, because of the way Valve acts and because of the lack of dialogue and communication with the people who are actively promoting their game on a daily basis by streaming it, playing in tournaments, etc.,” peacemaker said. “It seems like decisions are made internally and we are told about them the same way the general public is.” “I think it’s a fair point from Valve, who want to showcase their game in its newest and freshest state, with skins, agents, maps, gameplay, etc.,” ruggah added. “For me, they just have to own up to their responsibility and make sure to at least give participants enough time to adjust and adapt.”

Best CSGO players of 2022 – top Counter-Strike players Eric Ananmalay/ESL Gaming via ESPAT2022 marked the return of a full LAN circuit to the CS:GO scene after a hybrid model in 2021. As in-person events with a crowd became the norm again and pushed teams to their limit, which players stood out the most during the year? After a year that was largely dominated by NAVI, 2022 was a tale of two seasons. FaZe, fresh off picking up Robin ‘ropz’ Kool, were the undisputed No.1 in the world right until the player break, with the CS:GO scene then becoming a wide-open race for the final stretch of the year as teams took turns winning titles. But even though FaZe were the dominant team for most of the year, they do not have a single player in our top five — a testament to the collective strength of the team, where everyone is capable of taking over games. When it comes to individual performances, the usual suspects stood out the most, but the rise of Cloud9’s team could be pointing to a change of the guard in 2023, especially if teams like NAVI, G2 Esports and Vitality are unable to sort out their issues. Here are our top five CS:GO players of 2022: 5 – Nikola ‘NiKo’ Kovač In a way, 2022 was even worse than 2021 for G2 Esports and NiKo. Yes, the team finally ended their title drought at the BLAST World Final (an event that in the end felt a bit underwhelming), but if you take that away, you have a year when G2 were rarely in contention for titles, swapped in-game leaders, missed a Major and constantly had an air of dysfunction. And there are fears that G2’s title in Abu Dhabi may turn out to be more of a curse than a blessing. With that in mind, it’s remarkable that NiKo managed to put in big numbers all year, which speaks to not only his amazing skill set but also his consistency and ability to perform, no matter what the circumstances around him are. Despite some stellar showings, NiKo was not in the conversation for another top-three appearance because of two key factors: the IEM Rio Major that he missed, and his playoff struggles in certain key tournaments. At IEM Katowice, for example, he averaged a disappointing 1.01 HLTV rating after the groups, while at the BLAST Premier World Final, his playoff rating was just 1.09. Those were the most prestigious tournaments where G2 reached the playoffs, and it was his teammates who had to do the heavy lifting. 4 – Sergey ‘Ax1Le’ Rykhtorov After a learning year when he and the rest of his Gambit team were only taking their first steps in major LAN competitions after the online era, Ax1Le hit a new level of performance in 2022 and became the best rifler in the scene. Cloud9 won just one LAN title in 2022 — at IEM Dallas, a rather lackluster event — and were rarely in contention for the biggest trophies, but Ax1Le’s individual greatness was something to see. He came up big against all sorts of opponents (he even had FaZe’s number, averaging a 1.23 HLTV rating against them) alongside his partner-in-crime, AWPer Dmitry ‘sh1ro’ Sokolov, and picked up one MVP award Every time Ax1Le played well, Cloud9 were spectacular, but he also had some troughs in form along the way that cost his team during key moments (think IEM Rio Major quarter-finals against MOUZ). He knows that he is held back by the fact that Cloud9 are not a BLAST Premier partner — which limits the number of premier events his team can attend every year — but if he is able to avoid the occasional off days in the latter stages of tournaments, he may well feature even higher in next year’s ranking. 3 – Dmitry ‘sh1ro’ Sokolov Just like his Cloud9 teammate Ax1Le, sh1ro elevated his game even higher in 2022 and became more consistent at Big Events — the main thing that prevented him from being in the top three last year. The 21-year-old added to his MVP resume at the start of the year, when he helped Gambit to win the Funspark ULTI 2021 Finals, an eight-team online tournament with $250,000 on the line. That was the sole MVP medal that he won this year, but he was in stellar form at LAN events as well, averaging a team-high 1.26 HLTV rating. Whereas Ax1Le had moments of brilliance interspersed with occasional lapses when it came to playoff matches, sh1ro was consistency personified and at times the only player on the server for his team, like during the IEM Katowice quarter-final against FaZe or the IEM Rio Major quarter-final clash with MOUZ. If Cloud9 are to overcome their issues and make more deep runs at the biggest events, sh1ro can make a strong case for being the best player in the world in 2023. But for now, he must watch as two giants occupy the top spots on the podium. 2 – Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut Vitality were one of the biggest letdowns of 2022, but that did not stop ZywOo from continuing to hit peak levels of performance. Like many times before, it was him against the world, only this time he was playing on an international roster, using English to communicate with his teammates. ZywOo ended 2022 with an HLTV rating of 1.24 at Big Events, with his next-closest teammate being Emil ‘Magisk’ Reif at 1.07. That alone explains how hard it was for Vitality to be a title contender without someone who could assist ZywOo and carry some of the weight load. In 2022, the French AWPer won only one MVP medal, bringing his tally to 13, after helping Vitality to win the ESL Pro League Season 16 with a stunning 1.42 HLTV rating. That was one of just two events all year where Vitality were able to reach the playoffs. (They also made it out of the groups at the BLAST Premier World Final and placed 5th-6th, but HLTV.org does not consider that a playoff finish as it requires a team to be in the top 50% of event placings.) ZywOo had by far the best Big Event playoff rating at 1.31, although the extremely small sample size takes away some luster from that record. Only time will tell whether Vitality will get any better in 2023, but ZywOo will certainly continue to be in the conversation for the best player in the world, 12 months from now. 1 – Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev NAVI were unable to match the lofty standards set in 2021, but they were still a very competitive side for the majority of the year and picked up one title, at the BLAST Premier Spring Finals. Despite the team’s struggles and the obvious impact of the war in Ukraine, s1mple was a solid performer all year long and added two MVP medals to his collection. (His second MVP award came at IEM Cologne, where NAVI finished runners-up.) s1mple averaged an impressive 1.25 HLTV rating and 1.29 Impact at Big Events, with a 0.87 rating in the IEM Rio Major quarter-finals against home side FURIA one of the rare bad moments that he had in the playoffs of these top tournaments. His numbers may have dropped significantly when compared to 2021 (1.45 rating and 1.55 impact, albeit from a small sample size of four LAN events), but s1mple was still an elite performer, one that was able to overcome extremely difficult circumstances to cement his status as the game’s greatest icon. Best Valorant players of 2022 | Best League of Legends players of 2022 | Best CoD players of 2022 | Best Warzone players of 2022

Top 10 wasted talents in CSGO history Counter-Strike’s scene is brimming with top-tier players with seemingly limitless potential that looks set to be the next big thing on the scene. That is, however, until it all comes crashing down around them. The esports industry can undoubtedly be incredibly fickle, with new talent coming into the scene on a metaphorical conveyor belt. Some seem destined for legend status, with the sky as the ultimate limit. But when things fall, it’s a different story. Here, we’ve broken down the top ten incredible talents within the scene that had their potential wasted. As one of the biggest brains in the history of Counter-Strike, Joshua ‘steel’ Nissan was known for his Einstein-level game IQ; the player that the North American scene needed to turn the tide on the dominating Scandinavian teams. After being caught in a match-fixing scheme, though, the star was never able to reach the true heights he was undoubtedly set for. Johannes ‘nex’ Maget, the incredible entry-fragger, was known for his tip-top aim – making him one to watch for Germany in 2015. In 2019, though, BIG only used the star on occasion due to his wrist problems, and he spent the whole of 2020 benched, where he still remains now in 2021. Swedish star Andreas ‘znajder’ Lindberg used to have the world at his feet while on the Fnatic roster, winning his first Major in 2013 before being dropped in favor of Freddy ‘KRiMZ’ Johansson and Olof ‘olofmeister’ Kajbjer Gustafsson. Hitting him hard, the swede battled with personal issues in the years that followed, and now sits on esports team Lemondogs as he attempts to reclaim his old glory. Check out the full video above to find out just where each of these stars ranks alongside the other six talents with wasted potential. For all CSGO news and events, keep it locked over at our dedicated main page.

Top 10 moments From IEM Katowice Groups: Stewie and Degster dominate Katowice has hosted some of Counter-Strike’s most iconic moments, and it certainly wasn’t a disappointment this time around. Staking their claim for a piece of the $1,000,000 prize pool and some coveted prestige, everyone had a point to prove. With all eyes undoubtedly on Aleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev, he came out of the gates firing. However, ultimately, as aforementioned, Eastern Europe’s trailblazers stole his team’s thunder. If the Groups were anything to go by, it’s surely set that we’re going to be treated to some of the very best plays that CIS has to offer. Read More: IEM Katowice 2021 quarterfinals preview – Plays like Vitality’s astounding four-man boost on Overpass make it on our list, which saw Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut getting creative to deliver a fatal blow on the unsuspecting Timur ‘buster’ Tulepov. Unquestionably, this list wouldn’t be complete without a mention of Abdul ‘degster’ Gasanov’s phenomenal play. Team Spirit’s new kid danced around their opposition in Astralis, proving that there’s a new king of Banana in town. To see just where the above kills place, along with 8 more astounding moments, check out the video above. For all IEM Katowice news, make sure to stay tuned over at our dedicated event hub.

Top 10 moments from IEM Katowice 2021: CIS takes over CIS dominated this year’s event, and so it’s no surprise that our list is full of CIS players. Abay ‘Hobbit’ Khassenov and co swept aside some of the best talent around on Gambit’s journey to the crown. Even though they started the Group Stage as the lowest-ranked team, their stars make up 3 of our top 10. Mareks ‘YEKINDAR’ Gaļinskis’s standout play put the nail in the coffin for Team Liquid in the semi-finals as he destroyed his opposition’s method with pizzazz. Similarly, Gambit’s Russian star Dmitry ‘sh1ro’ Sokolov came in hot with the AWP, and teammate Vladislav ‘Nafany’ Gorshkov delivered an unbelievable quad-kill. Though CIS took the cake throughout the majority of the event, other locales and stars also shone. Brazillian star Gabriel ‘FalleN’ Toledo refused to let Virtus.pro take over, standing his ground within the AWP role. Powerhouse player Jake ‘Stewie2K’ Yip also took home the bacon with a quad-kill that left everyone speechless. For all 10 of our top moments, and to see where they all rank – make sure to check out the video above. Stay tuned over at our main CSGO page for all the latest news and events.

Top 10 moments from CSGO’s tricksy Hobbit Abay ‘Hobbit’ Khassenov has endured a rollercoaster Counter-Strike career. From Major winner to second-tier obscurity — and back to the top again — the Gambit Rifler has seen it all! The player has always had ice in his veins, alongside a huge brain and impeccable aim. Eventually all but disappearing from top-tier CS, the player is back on form yet again. We’ve picked out the top 10 moments from the Kazakhstani star’s career. Check out the full video above to find out just where each of these ranks alongside these monumental showings listed below: Clutch Aces One of Hobbit’s first, and most clutch aces as a professional player saw the big brain dominate against Singularity all the way back in 2017, obliterating them like dominoes. Explosive clutches At IEM Katowice 2021, against Evil Geniuses, Hobbit and Gambit’s miracle run saw a death-defying, quick-witted performance from the player, utilizing all the tools in his arsenal to take the opposition down. Overtime plays against rivals At PGL Krakow 2017, a phenomenal display that he described as one of the most stressful of his career, flashbangs and landing sprays against a down and out Egor ‘flamie’ Vasilev, and Denis ‘electronic’ Sharipov will go down as one play for the history books. One for the history books Perfectly executed, this moment at 2017’s PGL Major helped hobbit secure a title. Destroying his opposition with lightning-fast reflexes, the Gambit star nabbed his team the round in monumental fashion, as this legendary moment continues to be remembered for all the right reasons. For all dedicated CSGO news and events, keep it locked to Dexerto over at our dedicated main page.

Top 10 BLAST Global Final Moments – S1mple & dev1ce dominate Throughout the BLAST Global Finals tournament, we’ve seen incredible plays that will be remembered for a long time to come. We’ve whittled it down to the top 10 moments that showcased incredible panache. As the climax to the year-long season that brought players into the online era and saw the very best competing together in an alien environment draws to a close, things were always going to prove interesting for both players and fans. Battling for the ultimate prize of $1,000,000, it was to be assumed that Astralis and Team Vitality were the ones to watch. With NAVI taking the cake, though, the team clawed their way back up to the top spot in an incredible sight to behold. After a worrying start that set the team in the Lower Bracket, NAVI showcased some incredible plays from the likes of MVP Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev and Kirill ‘Boombl4’ Mikhailov. All in all, though, who had the best plays of the event? Nicholai ‘dev1ce’ Reedtz’s Desert Eagle 4k with a headshot collateral was peak performance, wiping out his opponents in a flash. Check out the video above for our top-10 list to see why the likes of s1mple and dev1ce dominate against other star-performers. To be further updated on all CSGO news and events, make sure to head on over to our dedicated Counter-Strike hub.

Top 10 best CSGO players of the decade DexertoAs CS:GO celebrates its tenth anniversary, we look back at the last decade and present a list of the best players that the game has produced. Ten years after its release, CS:GO is stronger than ever. It remains one of the best and most-watched esports in the world, with top storylines, drama, and a swath of global superstars capturing the attention of millions of fans worldwide. Over the past decade, the CS:GO community has witnessed many different eras. As the game has evolved, some players have disappeared into obscurity while others have risen to prominence. Some of today’s biggest names have been around the block for only a handful of years, but there are also cases of longtime players who have been able to mold themselves into perennially relevant contenders. Ranking the top players of the last decade is by no means an easy task. Some elite-level competitors had to be left out (there are three honorable mentions at the end of the article), but these are the ten players who have stood out the most in the ten years since CS:GO’s release. Here’s to the next decade. 10. Peter ‘dupreeh’ Rasmussen dupreeh was an integral part of the Astralis team that set a new standard of excellence in the CS:GO scene and won almost all there is to win, including a record four Majors. He was not the flashiest or the most talked about player on that roster, but he still had a vast portfolio of superstar-level performances. Moreover, he was the heart of the team and someone who didn’t mind letting others take the spotlight, as shown by the fact that he played a variety of roles, from entry fragger, to lurker, to primary AWPer, and reinvented himself based on his team’s needs. But his impact goes much beyond the five-year period in which he represented Astralis. Nicolai ‘dev1ce’ Reedtz, his former teammate, is the only player with more appearances in HLTV’s Top 20 year ranking. dupreeh may have only two MVP medals to his name, but he deserves to be celebrated as one of CS:GO’s greats. 9. Olof ‘olofmeister’ Kajbjer olofmeister helped define an era of CS:GO as part of the fearsome fnatic team that bullied opponents and won back-to-back Majors in 2015 — which saw him named that year’s best player. By then, the CS:GO scene was at olofmeister’s feet, but a wrist injury ruled him out of action for several months in 2016. He was never quite the same after that (though he still featured in HLTV’s top year ranking in 2016 and 2017), but he remained an elite-level competitor thanks to his experience and superb game awareness. Between 2017 and 2021, he was in and out of FaZe’s starting lineup, with many of his teammates praising his contribution in the server, which did not always translate into stats. 8. Ladislav ‘GuardiaN’ Kovács The Slovakian AWPer is perhaps the best CS:GO player without a Major trophy who can no longer win the prestigious event. After a slow start to life in CS:GO, caused in part by the lack of opportunities in his country, GuardiaN began to build the sort of flashy AWPer reputation that he used to enjoy back in CS:Source with Reason Gaming. GuardiaN was a mainstay in HLTV.org’s Top 20 player of the year ranking between 2013 and 2018, featuring as high as second in 2014. During his first NAVI stint and his time on FaZe, he won eight MVP medals and numerous trophies, though a Major crown eluded him. He was on the losing team of a Major final on three occasions: DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca, MLG Columbus, and ELEAGUE Major Boston. His once-glowing reputation was damaged in 2019, when he was in such poor form on his return to NAVI that he was removed just four months into his tenure. But that shouldn’t take away from what he accomplished in the eight years prior. 7. Marcelo ‘coldzera’ David coldzera took the scene by storm in 2015 when he came out of relative obscurity to help revitalize a struggling Luminosity team. That year, he showed flashes of his potential, but in 2016 he took his game to another level as he helped his team to back-to-back Major victories. Between 2016 and 2017, coldzera was at the top of the pile in terms of fragging output and consistency, winning eight MVP medals. A vital cog in the aggressive machine that was LG/SK, he was capable of moments that bordered on the sublime, such as a jumping AWP shot at the MLG Columbus Major that has been immortalized in-game. At the end of 2016, coldzera stated his ambition of being “the best and most consistent player in the world for many years and create a legacy.” But just like the rest of his Major-winning team, he has fallen off the radar in recent years, though he remains the highest-rated player at CS:GO Majors. His spells with MIBR, FaZe, and Complexity (as a stand-in) were largely unsuccessful, and he’s now trying to find his feet again by leading a new generation of talent as part of 00NATION. 6. Kenny ‘kennyS’ Schrub “I felt like they did it for me, they did it because of me,” kennyS said in a reference to the AWP nerf in 2015. He was a dominant force in his prime, but when Valve limited the movement with snipers while scoped, he was one of the players hit the hardest. As the 1.6 and CS:Source professional scenes converged when CS:GO was released, there was a great deal of expectation surrounding kennyS. And he lived up to the hype with his fearless style that forced opponents to be on their toes every time they faced him. Between 2013 and 2017, he won a series of international trophies, including one Major. Despite the AWP nerf costing him some of his explosiveness, kennyS had two more good years. However, mental health issues and a “really weird mindset” ended up taking their toll and pushing him out of CS:GO royalty. The general consensus seems to be that his style doesn’t fit the modern game. With his future still a mystery, kennyS remains tied with Christopher ‘GeT_RiGhT’ Alesund for the third-most MVPs in CS:GO history. His is a story that still feels incomplete, but there’s no denying that he was one of the most influential players of the past decade. 5. Denis ‘electroNic’ Sharipov Every Batman needs a Robin, and electroNic has always been there to support Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev and help carry some of the load. The Russian player broke through as a rising talent on FlipSid3 Tactics before earning a move to NAVI, where he has developed into one of the finest players in the world. Between 2018 and 2021, electroNic never ranked below seventh in HLTV.org’s top 20 players of the year list, yet he has only one MVP medal to his name — which shows how hard it is for someone to step out of s1mple’s shadow. Despite his lack of individual accolades, electroNic remains one of the best and most consistent players CS:GO has seen. 2021 saw him finally win a Major title, and he’s now taken more responsibility on himself as NAVI’s new in-game leader. 4. Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut Never before had a player had such a profound impact on the game in his first full year as a pro. After shining for French minnows WySix and aAa, ZywOo — rejected by G2 Esports — signed with Vitality in October 2018 and quickly showed what all the hype was about. ZywOo was named the best player in the world in 2019 and 2020 as Vitality rose to the top of the scene. He has become one of the faces of French esports, and his role as the cornerstone of the team earned him a four-year contract at the end of 2020. In recent years, ZywOo has been able to battle with s1mple for the title of the world’s best player — a duopoly that no one seems to be able to break anytime soon. But for all his talent, which has translated into 12 MVP medals (though six of which came from online tournaments), ZywOo is still missing big trophies in his cabinet; at Majors, for example, he has never gone farther than the quarter-finals. This, more than anything, is what puts him behind three other players on this list. 3. Nikola ‘NiKo’ Kovač According to Fatih ‘gob b’ Dayik, it took only one practice session for him to realize just how talented NiKo was, back in 2015. By then, the Bosnian prodigy had long outgrown his surroundings, but a lack of opportunities meant that he had to wait until Nikola ‘LEGIJA’ Ninić suggested his name to MOUZ’s team to finally get the chance to prove his worth internationally. The rest, as they say, is history. For the last six years, NiKo has been at the top of the game, putting in big performances time after time, even when his teams have failed to perform. An amazing rifler in an AWPer’s world, NiKo is also very competent with the ‘Big Green’ and has dabbled in in-game leadership duties (a controversial topic in the scene). NiKo sometimes doesn’t get the recognition that he deserves because his record pales in significance when compared to that of s1mple and dev1ce. His reputation has also been harmed by the perception that he runs his teams and tries to overthrow an in-game leader if things aren’t going well. (Remember what happened with Finn ‘karrigan’ Andersen in 2018?) The lack of a Major title has for years been a stick with which to beat NiKo, especially since his Boston Major heartbreak, but he still has plenty of time to cross that achievement off his list. One thing is clear: he shows no signs of slowing down. 2. Nicolai ‘dev1ce’ Reedtz How can a player with the pedigree, résumé, and star quality of dev1ce be underrated? But that’s exactly what FaZe’s Håvard ‘rain’ Nygaard told Dexerto when asked for his opinion on the Danish player, who has been an ever-present figure in every top 20 ranking since CS:GO came out. An all-rounder who eventually morphed into a dedicated AWPer, dev1ce is a case of substance over style. He may not be the flashiest AWPer out there, but few others come close to him in terms of reliability in big-pressure moments — a trait he developed over time. Astralis’ success story would not have been possible without ‘Mr. Consistent’, the MVP in two of the team’s Major victories. dev1ce’s numbers speak for themselves: 30 international trophies, 19 MVP medals (the second most overall), and a record eight consecutive appearances in HLTV.org’s Top 20, six of which are in the top 5. But as shocking as it is, he has a ‘bridesmaid but never the bride’ record: he has never ranked higher than second in a Top 20, not even at the height of Astralis’ powers in 2018, when he racked up seven MVP awards in a historic year. In many ways, dev1ce is a remarkable story of triumph: he overcame performance struggles and health problems to become one of the greatest players in the history of the franchise. Unfortunately, mental health issues have kept him on the sidelines for the better part of the last year, but his position in the pantheon of CS:GO gods is unassailable. 1. Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev “s1mple can come back from hell all the time.” Dan ‘apEX’ Madesclaire laid it out perfectly. One defining quality of all-time greats, be it in traditional sports or esports competitions, is that they shape key moments to their will, and s1mple is the sort of player that you can never write off, not even if he’s seemingly having the worst game of his life. All it takes is one flick, one good round, for him to get fired up, and then opponents know that they’re in for a world of pain. Controversy used to follow s1mple during the early days of his journey, from an ESL ban for cheating, to controversial on-stream remarks, to spats with teammates. Despite his obvious immense talent and production, he needed to grow up to realize his potential, and a successful formative experience — albeit trophy-less — with Team Liquid set him on a path to greatness. Later that year, he signed with NAVI, where he became the sun around whom everyone orbits. Since then, he has racked up 21 MVP medals and countless trophies, though he only ended his long quest for a Major crown in 2021 at PGL Major Stockholm. s1mple performs with a polish and presence that few others have. “That kind of fear puts a little bit of hesitation and just constantly a little bit of stress and worry in the back of your head when you’re competing against him,” commentator Jason ‘moses’ O’Toole told Dexerto. s1mple is as fierce a competitor as there is in the game, and he still displays a large appetite for self-improvement. After losing the title of the best player in the world to ZywOo two years in a row, he dug deep and — somehow — has found new ways to elevate his game and reach even higher peaks. No one knows how high his ceiling is, and that’s part of the fun of watching him as he continues to share his genius and redefine excellence in the game. But beyond his in-game achievements and wizardry, s1mple’s journey of personal growth is also a key part of his legacy. He is not just a very talented player, but a star who has blossomed into an icon and a standard-bearer for what esports should represent. Honorable mentions Gabriel ‘FalleN’ Toledo: The ‘Godfather of Brazilian Counter-Strike’ played an integral role in putting his country on the map, both inside the game and outside of it with his Games Academy project. He led his Luminosity/SK team to back-to-back Major wins in 2016 and was one of the best players in the world for two years in a row. However, he hasn’t been able to find success since 2017, and his performance levels have dipped considerably. Christopher ‘GeT_RiGhT’ Alesund: The Swedish player carried his spectacular 1.6 form over to CS:GO and was practically in a league of his own during the first two years of the game, when NIP were the dominant team in the scene. However, it must be noted that the general level of play was fairly low at the time. As a new class of players took over in 2015, GeT_RiGhT and his NIP team began to fall behind. Still, his legacy in the game is untouchable. Janusz ‘Snax’ Pogorzelski: It may seem like a distant memory now, but Snax was one of the best players in the world in the mid-2010s and a key part of the ‘Virtus Plow’ team that could strike fear into the hearts of opponents and won a number of international tournaments, including the EMS One Katowice 2014 Major. He came close to adding a second Major to his resume three years later before Virtus.pro lost the Atlanta Major final to Astralis. Snax’s career has taken a nosedive in recent years, but while he’s not as explosive as he used to be, he’s a serviceable veteran who can hold his own against the best in the world. In 2018, he won ESL One New York with a struggling MOUZ team, and earlier this year he helped ENCE to the IEM Dallas final.

TmarTn responds to claims that his CSGO skins website was “rigged” YT: TmarTn/CSGO LottoPopular YouTuber Trevor ‘TmarTn’ Martin has hit back at claims that his infamous CS:GO sweepstake website – abandoned back in 2016 over transparency issues – was “rigged” against its users. Despite four years having passed since TmarTn’s role in the CS:GO Lotto website, many members of the game’s community are still holding the discrepancies against the YouTuber. He and fellow YouTuber Tom ‘Syndicate’ Cassell promoted the website to their millions of followers, without disclosing the fact that they were behind it. Both men shared videos showing them winning big prizes through CS:GO Lotto, but it was then uncovered that Martin was the site’s President, with Cassell listed as Vice-President. The fallout saw both YouTubers widely criticized for obfuscating their respective roles in the website. Questions were also raised over whether the website was promoting gambling to underage users. As proof that the issue is not completely dead and buried, Jake Lucky, self-described esports talk guy, posted a screenshot of TmarTn replying to a user on December 19. The user sarcastically thanked TmarTn for “stealing” his CS skins, to which Martin replied: “Guess you shouldn’t have wagered what you weren’t willing to lose!” The post garnered the attention of John ‘BLU’ Mullen, a caster who is perhaps best known for his work on Valorant and Rainbow Six Siege, but has also casted CS:GO. He condemned TmarTn’s response, saying: “‘Guess you shouldn’t have gambled as a minor while I did nothing to restrict you from doing so on my rigged algorithm.’ What a piece of shit.” Martin responded, stating that while he made “mistakes”, the website was never rigged against its users. “It wasn’t rigged. That was the point of my tweet. Criticize me all you want for not disclosing ownership, definitely a major mistake on my part. One I am deeply sorry for. Players had the right to know. But nothing was rigged, I’m not gonna stand for that slander.” It wasn’t rigged. That was the point of my tweet. Criticize me all you want for not disclosing ownership, definitely a major mistake on my part. One I am deeply sorry for. Players had the right to know. But nothing was rigged, I’m not gonna stand for that slander. — TmarTn (@TmarTn) December 19, 2020 BLU accused TmarTn of “trying to act like the fact that it didn’t outright steal money absolves you.” Martin replied again, saying: “I didn’t disclose that I was an owner. That’s a massive mistake on my end and definitely something our players should have been aware of. The site wasn’t rigged and no money was ‘stolen’. Do you have anything to back up your baseless claims?” Caesars Kiddie Palace? What? I didn’t disclose that I was an owner. That’s a massive mistake on my end and definitely something our players should have been aware of. The site wasn’t rigged and no money was ‘stolen’. Do you have anything to back up your baseless claims? — TmarTn (@TmarTn) December 20, 2020 A number of other critical Tweets followed from other Twitter users, many of whom are still angry about the YouTuber’s role in the scandal. TmarTn still boasts a large subscriber base across multiple YouTube channels, but his involvement in CSGO Lotto and subsequent apology attempt have stained his career permanently.

tiziaN is ready to start a new CSGO chapter after break from action: “I feel very confident” Stefan Petrescu/PGLTizian ‘tiziaN’ Feldbusch spoke with Dexerto about his personal struggles during the final stages of his BIG journey and his future goals as he looks to continue his CS:GO career abroad. When tiziaN heard the news that he was getting benched by BIG, he took it in stride. If anything, he was surprised that it didn’t happen sooner. tiziaN had felt his individual level drop, and elements of burnout had started impacting his energy. The criticism he had received from the community after a rough patch of form, while not undeserved, had only made things harder. “I couldn’t give 100 percent,” he tells Dexerto. “Even if I tried, it wouldn’t be the 100 percent I would [normally] give. I couldn’t get over the fact that I was playing really badly.” Initially, tiziaN was dead-set on not competing again. For months he didn’t touch CS:GO, instead using his time on the bench to relax, travel with his girlfriend and “get a little bit more into cultural things”. He was due to transition to another role within the BIG organization at some point, but that plan didn’t work out in the end due to “different perspectives” about what he would do. At the same time, he started feeling the urge to compete again, like an itch that needed to be scratched. He got a new computer at the end of January and since then, his days have been spent grinding to get back to where he was during his better days. “I’m feeling a lot better after my break and I’ve got really hungry,” he says. “I have also started streaming, which is something that I never imagined myself doing. I’m not an introvert but I never really liked to be in the limelight. But that has grown on me.” After weeks of a daily schedule that included aim practice, pugs and demo reviews to get his skills back, he announced on March 5 his intention to compete again. “I am buzzing about what the future holds,” he wrote on Twitter. Getting out of his comfort zone After playing on German teams for most of his career, tiziaN has his sights set on joining an international project. “I don’t see any future in German teams,” he says, before correcting himself. “Except for BIG, obviously.” It has been three years since he last played on a team that communicated in English. (For over a year, BIG had British AWPer Owen ‘smooya’ Butterfield on the roster). During the early days of CS:GO, he was also part of an international mousesports lineup that included current Heroic in-game leader Casper ‘cadiaN’ Møller. In announcing his return to activity, tiziaN said that he is open to being an in-game leader for the first time in his career. It is a side of the game that he was already exploring during his time with BIG and that has been a key focus for him since he resumed playing. “With BIG I was kind of the second caller, but I couldn’t really do it on a consistent basis because of the things impacting me outside of the game,” he explains. “I was trying to do it but I wasn’t really feeling confident because I wasn’t confident in myself. This is something I have been working on and it’s why I feel confident about becoming an IGL.” Becoming an IGL, perhaps the most ungrateful role in CS:GO, is, like the decision to start streaming on a regular basis, part of tiziaN’s plan to challenge himself and get out of his comfort zone. And given the mentors he has had in his career and the experience he has accumulated, he’s certain that he can thrive in the role. “I will see, with time, how I will grow into the role,” he says. “I have a lot of experience. I mean, I have been playing CS professionally for ten years. I have played under the best IGLs in the game, and I have had the best coaches. In my opinion, I can do it. “I’m mentally very strong right now and I feel very confident. I will leave no stone unturned.” tiziaN says he was buoyed by the warm welcome from his old teammates and other professional players after he announced his return to competition. “The general response has been very nice and people are stoked to see me play again,” he says. “That also gave me a lot of hope and confidence.” As tiziaN prepares to embark on a new challenge, he knows that an important chapter of his career will inevitably close. He spent over four years playing at the highest level with BIG, challenging for top honors and eventually reaching the No.1 spot in the world rankings. “It was the time of my life,” he admits. “It’s like they say: You don’t know how good you have it until it’s gone. After I stepped down, I was traveling, I was doing stuff, but I missed competing and I missed my teammates. After five years of living together and doing stuff together, we were literally a family. “I was living in Berlin together with tabseN and everything. I’m sad that I’m not playing there anymore, but it’s also time to move on and find something else for me. Hopefully, it’s going to work out.” tiziaN knows that some in the Counter-Strike scene may view his return with suspicion. Six months is a long time in esports, after all, and not many players come back from such a break looking sharp. But he is not worried about working his way back to the top and proving his doubters wrong. “Mechanically, I’m maybe even better than what I was before because I’ve been doing a lot of aim practice and I’ve been pugging a lot,” he says. “I didn’t pug at all when I was with BIG. After practice, I would go to the gym and then just chill because I didn’t have the energy after a long practice day to pug. But now I’ve got the endurance again to play a lot. “I’m still very confident,” he adds. “I’ve been playing this game since I was six. I’m 26 now. I basically grew up with the game. For me, it’s like riding a bike. The only thing I’m missing a bit is the meta and what teams are playing, but I’m catching up on that now. The mechanical things are not that hard to catch up on. It’s about playing and getting into the situations again, you know?”

TimTheTatman makes Dr Disrespect break character with hilarious CSGO commentary YouTube: DrDisrespectDuring a recent stream, Dr Disrespect teamed up with TimTheTatman to play some CSGO, with the latter making Doc completely break character and begin laughing during a match while playing live. One of the reasons why Dr Disrepect is so popular is because of just how fleshed out his online persona is. He completely embodies the character and it is very rare to see him on stream as anything other than the rough as guts and self-confident Doc. However, there have been times throughout the years when he does break, something that his fans always find hilarious and take my enjoyment out of seeing. Previously, Dexerto shared how Dr Disrespect broke character after losing a $100 bet to a fan early in 2023. In a recent CGSO stream, it happened again in a truly hilarious moment. Dr Disrespect collaborated with TimTheTatman, the two playing through the game together while chatting as normal. During one match, however, TimTheTatman’s in-game commentary was so funny that Doc completely broke character. Pushing himself away from his desk and doubling over in laughter. Dr Disrespect breaks character while streaming CGSO with TimTheTatman While it appears that Doc quickly recovers from the moment, he then begins laughing even harder. Those who watched the stream live loved the moment, with the chat filled with laughter and people pointing out how much they enjoyed watching the two together. If the clip fails to load, be sure to check the 4:11:25 timestamp. One YouTube user wrote, “Really love today’s stream, please play more csgo with timmy Doc, better yet, you need to make cs2 your main game when it’s released.” Another added, “Get Doc and Tim a show, this is the best duo since Laurel and Hardy sign this guy and get a podcast minimum.” For all the latest entertainment news and updates, be sure to check out Dexerto’s full coverage here.

TimTheTatman begs Valve to stop teasing Counter-Strike 2 YouTube: TimTheTatmanAs Counter-Strike 2 rumors intensify, TimTheTatman demands clear communication from the social media team. After years of leaks and rumors of a long-awaited Counter-Strike sequel, it finally feels closer than ever. Sources told veteran esports journalist Richard Lewis fans could expect to play a beta version of the game as early as March 2023. Lewis’ report sparked a series of teasers and rumors. The official CS:GO Twitter account responded to multiple tweets, discussing Source 2. On March 21, the account ramped things up by updating its banner with a new logo. Fans speculated that the logo will be used as the new logo for the sequel. Some community members can’t wait much longer amid consecutive days of being teased. TimTheTatman demands more clarity from CS:GO social media team Many know TimTheTatman for his Call of Duty content, but he poured countless hours into CS:GO during the early stages of his streaming career. Tim was a member of the CS:GO community during its heyday in the early 2010s and still revisits the game occasionally. On March 21, TimTheTatman responded to the CS:GO Twitter page changing its logo. “I don’t know who is on this account, I hope you are having a great day. I need you to stop. I need you to communicate with me, please. You changed the banner, it looks like a brand new logo.” “Is it coming soon? Stop teasing me, please. Is it happening?” CS:GO has responded to multiple content creators on Twitter over the past couple of days but has yet to respond to TimTheTatman. Tim tried his best to bait the social media team into revealing more information, but we will still don’t know much about the highly-anticipated sequel. We will provide an update if CS:GO responds to Tim, but for now, all fans are eagerly awaiting new info to finally drop.

Tickets for PGL Antwerp CSGO Major now available PGLTickets for the upcoming PGL CS:GO Major in Antwerp have been made available, the tournament organizer has announced. With no ticket bundle available for the playoffs, fans wishing to attend all four days between May 19 and 22 will need to purchase multiple tickets to watch the closing stages of the Major at the Antwerps Sportpaleis. A regular ticket will cost between 35 and 55 euros, depending on the stage of the competition. A premium floor ticket, which gives access to a floor seat located close to the stage, will cost between 75 and 90 euros. This means that fans will need to spend a minimum of 175 euros to watch all playoff matches live from the arena. The floor seat ticket option will cost 325 euros for all four days. 🏆🇧🇪PGL Major Antwerp 2022 tickets are now AVAILABLE! 🎫Buy now: https://t.co/LWArj7QZPV#PGLANTWERPMAJOR pic.twitter.com/m7CHp9eYKl — PGL (@pglesports) March 15, 2022 On top of these ticket tiers, there are also two VIP options available, costing 195 euros and 295 euros per day. PGL Major Antwerp ticket prices Regular ticket: Thursday and Friday (quarter-finals) – 35 euros – Saturday (semi-finals) – 50 euros – Sunday (grand final) – 55 euros – Premium floor seats: Thursday and Friday (quarter-finals) – 75 euros – Saturday (semi-finals) – 85 euros – Sunday (grand final) – 90 euros – VIP tickets: VIP ticket – 195 euros/day – Premium VIP ticket – 295 euros/day – Tickets for the event can be purchased on Sportlaeis’ website. PGL Major Antwerp will take place between May 9-22, with only the playoffs being held in front of an audience. The first two stages of the event will be held at a studio location. PGL chose Antwerp as the host city for the first Major of 2022 because of its central location in Europe. It will be the third CS:GO Major run to be held by the Romanian tournament organizer after Krakow 2017 and Stockholm 2021. In a February interview with Dexerto, PGL CEO Silviu Stroie vowed to raise the bar after the Stockholm Major was dogged by production and technical issues. Read more: Top 20 highest earning CSGO pros of all time – The 24 teams attending the Major will be determined by four Regional Major Ranking (RMR) events. These will be held in PGL’s studio, located in Bucharest, between April 11 and May 1.

Thunderpick to host CSGO World Championship with “record-breaking” Bitcoin prize ThunderpickCrypto and online betting platform Thunderpick has announced that it will organize a CS:GO tournament with a Bitcoin-guaranteed prize pool of $600,000 USD. Taking place online in November 2023, the Thunderpick World Championship will feature 16 CS:GO teams, half of which will be invited by the tournament organizers. The other eight spots will be filled through qualifiers in Europe and North America that will start in July. The $600,000 prize pool in guaranteed Bitcoin is, according to Thunderpick, “the largest provided by a betting platform in esports to date”. Of the total prize, $100,000 will go to the qualifiers, with the remainder being on offer in the main tournament. “We are thrilled to bring the Thunderpick World Championship 2023 to the professional CS:GO scene,” Kelly Sanders, Head of Strategy for Thunderpick, said in a statement. “This exceptional competition will feature some of the world’s best esports talent competing for a record-setting prize pool of $600,000 in guaranteed Bitcoin. We take great pride in supporting and growing esports and the players’ opportunities with this tournament, which will surely be an epic experience that players, fans, and our users will remember for a long time to come.” Contacted by Dexerto, Thunderpick stated that the tournament will be played in Counter-Strike 2 if the competitive scene has transitioned to the game by November. The announcement of the Thunderpick World Championship comes less than a month after the crypto betting platform partnered with Evil Geniuses. Following the deal, which will run for multiple years, according to Digiday, Thunderpick is now the “Marquee Partner” for Evil Geniuses’ three Counter-Strike teams. Evil Geniuses’ main squad is one of the eight teams invited to the Thunderpick World Championship. The names of the other invited sides have not yet been disclosed. Meanwhile, Thunderpick has announced that Berlin-based data firm GRID will be the official esports services provider and data partner for the event.

Three years later, Team Liquid’s nitr0 gets redemption against Astralis João Ferreira for PGLTeam Liquid fought off elimination at PGL Major Antwerp with a 2-0 win against Astralis. For in-game leader Nick ‘nitr0’ Cannella, it was a moment he had been waiting for since 2019. nitr0 put his left hand on his forehead in disbelief, his coach, Eric ‘adreN’ Hoag, sitting behind him, looking just as shocked. With Liquid trailing Astralis 9-11 on the second map of their elimination series, nitr0 found himself in CT spawn in a well-timed flank, ready to catch the Danes off-guard. He showed trigger discipline as he waited for the right moment to fire his AK-47 and reveal his presence. But he completely missed the timing and was killed by Andreas ‘Xyp9x’ Højsleth with nothing to show for his efforts, costing Liquid the round. “That’s unforgivable,” caster Harry ‘JustHarry’ Russell said. It is the sort of mistake that can get into a player’s head, especially when something as important as Major survival is on the line. A round victory would have seen Liquid drive Astralis’ economy into a ditch as the game headed towards its final stages. Would Astralis reverse sweep the series and continue to haunt nitro? The North American player returned to CS:GO in January 2022 after spending almost 18 months competing in Valorant with 100 Thieves. Prior to switching games, he was on a seven-match losing streak against Astralis that stretched back to StarLadder Major Berlin 2019, when Liquid were the No.1 team in the world. That quarter-final defeat marked the end of Liquid’s short reign. The North American team had looked unstoppable earlier that summer, winning the Intel Grand Slam in a record 63 days, but they came back from the summer break looking sluggish and out of sorts. Liquid never found their groove again, and before long, nitr0 was on his way to Valorant, with Russel ‘Twistzz’ Van Dulken following him out the door months later. This was nitr0’s shot at redemption against Astralis (albeit a different version, with only Lukas ‘gla1ve’ Rossander and Andreas ‘Xyp9x’ Højsleth left). And he would not let this chance go to waste. ‘Captain America’ steps up nitr0 shrugged off the blunder and picked up four kills in the following round, including two in a 1v2 scenario. Shortly afterward, he pulled off another miraculous clutch with the score tied at 12-12, sowing seeds of doubt into the minds of Astralis’ players. After such a long period of one-sided rivalry between these two teams — 9-3 in Astralis’ favor between January 2019 and nitr0’s retirement —, it almost felt personal to the Liquid captain. The rest of the game was pretty much a stroll. Astralis could hardly put up a fight as Liquid took Ancient 16-13 to secure a spot in the Legends Stage of the Major. With this victory, Liquid dealt a huge blow to Astralis, who do not make the top 16 of a Major for the first time since these events were expanded to 24 teams to include what was known before as the Offline Qualifier. It also ensures that North America still has a word to say in the Legends Stage of the Antwerp Major after Complexity were eliminated on May 11, precisely by Liquid. LEGENDS AT THE MAJOR!!! #TLWIN We defeat @AstralisCS 2 – 0 and complete the reverse sweep!!! We move onto the Legends Stage!!! 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/wksmHOmhYz — Team Liquid CS (@TeamLiquidCS) May 12, 2022 The road ahead will be much tougher for nitr0 and his troops, with teams like NAVI, FaZe and Cloud9 entering the fray. There’s very little chance that they will take a big scalp in the next stage. But in tough periods like this for North America, it’s as much about securing wins as it is about finding small victories. Today, nitr0 achieved both.