Author: Nik Ranger

CS:GO: Karrigan gets brutally turned on after ’embarrassing’ whiff ESL/VALVECounter-Strike: Global Offensive team’s game against Valiance. Anyone who has played CS:GO will know the heartbreaking feeling of missing an easy shot, before getting turned on and eliminated from the round. You think you’ve got an easy kill lined up and you’re going to do some economic damage to the other team in a bid to mount a comeback, but you shoot wide and completely fluff your lines. It’s a familiar feeling, and it can happens to professional players too. Karrigan suffered such a fate during Mosuesports’ Dreamhack Open Tours game with Valiance. Looking to make a comeback on Dust 2, the newly-formed European mix squad were faced with the prospect of a half-buy Desert Eagle round as they looked to rectify their economy. However, things didn’t work out as planned, as Nemanja ‘huNter’ Kovač, mowed three players down in the A Long Doors position. That left Karrigan, who had found his way up close to the A bombsite, all alone against three Valiance players. He looked to have an easy kill on Otto ‘ottoNd’ Sihvo as he manoeuvered above the Finnish youngster. Yet, when he landed up for a clean headshot attempt, the long-time Danish star whiffed and frantically tried to run away before ‘ottoNd’ pulled off a brutal turn-on kill to give his team the round and extend their lead. Karrigan takes the blame While some viewers may have found an excuse and blamed something like a broken hitbox, Karrigan’s miss came down to the accuracy reset after jumping – which the Desert Eagle has the longest time of any other in-game gun. The former FaZe clan in-game leader, however, didn’t opt for excuses and instead stated, after the game, that the moment summed up his individual performance which wasn’t “good enough.” Sums up my individually performance in that match, not good enough. WP to @valianceandco https://t.co/3Nfhplls3v — karrigan (@karriganCSGO) May 17, 2019 The bad luck seemed to sum up Mousesports’ match against Valiance, as they fell to a crushing defeat by a 16-6 scoreline – in a match-up that they probably would have expected to win. Yet, at least the play didn’t result in their exit from the tournament. Mousesports will take on Windigo in their bid to stay alive in the French open event. A potential rematch with Valiance could be on the cards if both teams progress through their respective sides of the playoff bracket.

CS:GO: Karrigan makes up for Deagle fail with genius 1v2 clutch ESL/VALVEDanish Counter-Strike: Global Offensive star Finn ‘Karrigan’ Andersen completely made up for his ‘embarrassing’ Desert Eagle miss by pulling out an incredibly clever 1v2 clutch. Karrigan was left red in the face on May 18, when he failed to secure a seemingly easy kill against Valiance due to the game’s jumping accuracy reset. The clip, which showed how the Danish in-game leader completely whiffed, immediately went viral in the wake of Mousesports’ 16-6 defeat at DreamHack Open Tours. Yet, there was salvation for the former FaZe Clan star as he made up for his error later in the day – completely bamboozling Bulgarian upstarts Windingo by using all of his CS:GO knowledge to pull off a devastating 1v2 clutch. Karrigan gains redemption Left in a dire 1v2 situation, with his health on the ropes, Karrigan opted against the easy plant at the B bombsite and rotated up all the way through heaven and stairs, bringing him out to the A site. Despite being faced with two players, the Mousesports IGL had wasted enough time in the round that he had forced one player to rotate to the other site – giving him an easy one on one. With Windigo not expecting him to strike from behind, the Dane was able to sneak up behind one foe and stab them in the back, securing the extra money from the knife kill and a valuable weapon. He waited out the second player, who didn’t have a defuse kit and was unable to try a sneaky defuse, by letting them pass before taking aim for a headshot. Karrigan didn’t miss and secured the twelfth round for his squad. Mousesports eventually pulled out the 2-0 series win, handing them a semi-finals berth against AVANGAR. While Karrigan didn’t exactly light up the scoreboard against the Eastern European squad, he put his teammates in the right positions as they were, again, able to sweep the series with a comfortable 2-0 victory – putting them into the grand finals. As expected, the newly-formed European squad – and Karrigan in particular – will get their shot at revenge against Valiance as they compete for the $50,000 grand prize. Some fans may expect that the Dane will be hoping to turn his whiff into a kill next time around but he’s probably a bit more focused on securing his first title back under the Mousesports banner.

CSGO: K0nfig responds to criticism in series of eye-opening tweets DreamhackProfessional CS:GO player Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke, who currently represents OpTic Gaming, has responded to criticism in a series of revealing tweets in the early hours of October 4. Following Duncan “Thorin” Shields’ fascinating feature on the Dane, in which he refers to K0nfig as “one of CS:GO’s lost talents and tragic cases”, he wrote out an eye-opening series of posts addressing the criticism – saying that Thorin is completely right. Kicking off the long series of tweets, K0nfig promises to return to “god-tier form” before saying that he has been “a bad professional and spent my hours wrong.” He continues: “I have been an arrogant idiot thinking everything would come easy, which it never will. I’m honestly sorry for my bad choices. I have been lying to myself thinking I was still a top player but I’m not.” The truth hurts. I have been an arrogant idiot thinking everthing would come easy which it never will. I’m honestly sorry for my bad choices. I have been lying to myself thinking I was still a top player but I’m not. The grind has begun again and this time it wont stop. — Kristian Wienecke (@k0nfigCS) October 4, 2019 Following up, K0nfig directly addressed his fans and former teammates. “I regret so many things and I apologize to everyone, to old teammates as well as to you fans. I’m going to change and become the k0nfig you remember. It’s very sad that it has reached this point before I realized it. I won’t look the other way anymore and try to hide. This is my return.” It’s very sad that it has reached this point before I realized it. I won’t look the other way anymore and try to hide. This is my return. — Kristian Wienecke (@k0nfigCS) October 4, 2019 It’s rare that we get to see professional players address the issues they face so candidly and be so open in their shortcomings, but this may just be the inspiration k0nfig needs to become one of the greatest talents in CS:GO once again. Most recently, k0nfig and his OpTic teammates were knocked out of Dreamhack Masters Malmö with a top 12 placement. After a shock win over Team Liquid in the opening round, OpTic fell short against Natus Vincere and mousesports respectively, ending their run in the Swedish city abruptly.

CSGO June 15 patch notes: M4A1-S nerfs, Ancient map changes, more ValveValve dropped a big CS:GO update on June 15, shipping M4A1-S nerfs and Ancient map changes at the stroke of midnight. A handful of other updates have also been added: here’s the full patch notes. It’s rare nowadays that a CS:GO patch will have some impact on the meta, but the June 15 update shipped by Valve is one of those rare occasions. The Counter-Strike developers are changing two major things which could dictate the pro meta: shipping M4A1-S nerfs as well as some major map changes to Ancient. Here’s all the details on CS:GO’s June 15 update, including the patch notes. What’s changing in CS:GO’s June 15 patch? M4A1-S magazine size nerfed The M4A1-S has become the go-to rifle on CT side in 2022 after its buffs in Operation Riptide in September 2021. Since then, it’s contributed to nearly 25% of kills in competitive Counter-Strike while the M4A4 — which reigned supreme for longer — fell into relative obscurity. Valve is trying to bring some balance back to the defender rifles by nerfing the M4A1-S’ magazine size from 25 to 20. Players will have 80 bullets in reserve, up from 75. While the number of bullets isn’t changing, sprays have to be on-point to secure kills before reloading. Ancient map changes around Cave, B-site Valve are also shipping changes to five maps in CS:GO as part of the June 15 patch, most notably Ancient. The developers have cleaned up the Cave area, removing the crate stack located outside and fixing some pixel gaps towards T mid. Additional cover has been added to the pillar near B Site, aiding CTs trying to hold back the tide. Wallbang damage through the scaffolding on B Site has also been cut. Some pathways — including the archeological dig in Cave and a sidepath towards A Site — have also been closed. Inferno, Vertigo, Cache, and Vineyard have also had minor changes made. You can find the full CS:GO June 15 patch notes below, courtesy of Valve. CS:GO June 15 patch notes Gameplay M4A1-S Reduced the M4A1-S magazine size to 20 bullets, with 80 in reserve. – Maps Ancient Remove cratestack outside of “cave” location – Fixed pixelgap from inside “cave” towards T mid – Fixed ground clipping bugs in mid causing players to go slightly airborne – Smoothed out ground outside of “cave” down towards B ramp – Blocked archeological dig inside of “cave” – Smoothed out corners in “donut” room – Added additional cover near pillar on B – Blocked one sidepath exit towards A site, widened remaining exit – Fixed some visual glitches when looking out towards mid from “donut” room – Reduced wallbang damage through scaffolding at B site – Boosted light emitted from candles/lanterns – Cache Fixed an exploit – Inferno Increased bomb explosion damage from 500 to 620 – Vertigo Another attempt at fixing molly through floor bug at mid – Removed a position by ramp corner – Vineyard Performance and stability improvements – Ivy now sways in the wind – Fixed displacement vphysics issues –

CSGO June 10 patch changes Dust 2 & Mirage, improves player contrast, more ValveA new update for CS:GO was pushed live on June 10. Six maps have undergone major design changes in an attempt to help improve player contrast. A new video setting has also been added to help with visibility. Players blending into the environment is an issue that has existed in CSGO since the game’s launch in 2012. The introduction of Agent skins didn’t help visibility at all, and can make fighting some players at distance a nightmare. However, through a bevy of map changes as well as visual updates, Valve is committed to make CSGO characters easier to see, no matter where they lie in wait. Big changes made to Dust 2, Mirage, and more Six CS:GO maps have undergone major design changes in the recent update. The biggest of them were shipped to Dust 2, Mirage, Cache, and Overpass. On Dust 2, the doors to B site have been flipped, changing the way players can play boxes. The windows on A Ramp have also been raised to improve player contrast. On Mirage, the trash pile at the top of mid has been removed, while the lighting in market has been boosted. On Cache, the ladder to Sniper’s Nest has been replaced by a box, while various colour tweaks were pushed live. Finally, on Overpass, the large ivy models near bathrooms have been removed, alongside other map assets, to clean up the battlefield. Inferno and Train also received minor updates. New “Boost Player Contrast” setting helps players spot enemies In some locations, like looking into Tunnels on Dust 2, players can be awfully hard to spot. Between lighting, shadows, and the character models themselves, it can feel like your enemies blend into the environment. Valve is looking to fix this though, by adding a new contrast setting. “To improve character read across all maps and locations, we’ve added a new graphics setting called ‘Boost Player Contrast’ which is enabled by default,” Valve stated in a June 10 blogpost. “[It] increases the character’s contrast against the background at far distances, strengthens edge pixels for characters at far distances, creates a small blur around a character to reduce background noise, and creates a small contrasting halo around a character when there is no color difference between the character and the environment.” Today we’re shipping a number of changes to improve player visibility. We’ve added a new ‘Boost Player Contrast’ setting, made changes to locations on certain maps, modified a number of agents, and adjusted selective fog. Full details in today’s Blog Post: https://t.co/SAtGz3D1fT — CS2 (@CounterStrike) June 11, 2020 Valve also adjusted some of the character models and how fog interacts on some maps to help characters stand out at longer distances. You can find the full CS:GO June 10 patch notes below. CSGO June 10 patch notes Gameplay Added the ‘Boost Player Contrast’ advanced video setting, which improves the legibility of players in low contrast situations. – Agents Adjusted some agent textures for improved visibility. – Maps Cache Replaced ladder to sniper’s nest with a box – Cleaned up several important angles – Added 1v1 Arenas – Replaced cargo containers with new model for improved performance – Visibility improvements in T entrance to A Main – Fixed unwanted/unintuitive wallbang in Mid Shed – Subtle color tweaks – Various clipping fixes – Optimizations – Dust 2 Flipped B site doors – Simplified background when looking from B tunnels towards truck in mid – Changed fog start distance from 1000 to 512, changed max density from .2 to .4 – Raised windows by A site ramp to make characters stand out more – Inferno Trimmed ivy by CT spawn towards A site arch – Fixed CSM shadow from tower in mid – Mirage Removed trash pile at top of mid – Trimmed plant by T spawn, towards apartments – Boosted light in market window – Fixed silent dropdown bug from B site balcony – Changed angle of ladder in ladder-room – Overpass Removed large ivy-models near bathrooms by A site – Removed thin windows in bathrooms by A site – Removed bicycle by picnic by A long – Brightened up connector tunnel – Brightened up T spawn – Added nice stone trims – Train Added new train bumper model with flat top – Rendering Minor texture streaming optimizations. – Miscellaneous Adjusted dropped C4 collision geometry. – Fixed Danger Zone drone pilot camera getting stuck when drone received burn damage. – Added Desert Eagle shell eject event for last bullet fired. –

CSGO June 1 patch fixes major grenade damage bug YouTube: Spawn Terror / ValveCS:GO received a patch on June 1, but it wasn’t for Source 2. It did, however, fix a major bug that was introduced in a recent patch that changed grenade collision, which led to the throwables doing more damage than intended. Grenades were updated in a major patch on May 11 that made them a bit more reliable. They didn’t block you from picking up weapons anymore, and generally they clipped around terrain a bit better. They followed this up with a smaller patch on May 27, which fixed phasing issues with grenades going through doors, and also players getting stuck on them while they were on the ground. However, as with most bugs in gaming, as one issue was squashed, a dozen more popped up. The grenades were bouncing around better, and interacted with terrain as expected, however they didn’t interact with players with the same niceties. Grenades were doing tons of damage on collision thanks to the phasing bug fix. If a grenade dropped at a player’s feet, it would repeatedly do damage until it settled down, turning a three HP hit to 15, 20, or sometimes even more. Thankfully, on June 1, this issue was patched out. In the only note attached to the patch, “grenades can no longer apply impact damage more than once.” This means that you will only be tagged for three health after getting hit by a grenade before it deploys. This is how it was intended, so you won’t need to worry about taking 18 damage from a smoke grenade, or having your decoy fight back for a Glock shot’s worth of HP. Release Notes for today are up. We’ve fixed the dodgeball grenades: https://t.co/JFD159aojm — CS2 (@CounterStrike) June 1, 2020 It’s only a small 5MB patch, but it helps fix a major bug that was plaguing CS:GO over the last few days. While it was a rare occurrence to hit someone with a grenade on the body, it had drastic impacts on how some rounds played out. If you were looking for any news about Source 2, sadly you’re out of luck. Valve haven’t released anything related to the updated engine yet, so it’s still a waiting game as to when it’ll come out. It’s expected that Source 2 will be released soon, given initial dates penned in the engine update for mid-May. There’s also been pointers towards what we should expect from the patch. It shouldn’t change the game too drastically right now, but it’ll help improve CS:GO in the long run. CSGO June 1 Patch notes Gameplay Grenades can no longer apply impact damage more than once. –

CSGO July 8 patch ships Trusted Mode live in major cheater crackdown ValveCounter-Strike: Global Offensive has implemented a new anti-cheat named Trusted Mode in a major crackdown on cheaters. However, the new system seems to be having unintended consequences. Since CS:GO’s move to free-to-play at the end of 2018, players have noted a sharp increase in cheaters. With the game no longer locked behind a paywall, it’s easy to create a new account and just continue cheating. VAC banwaves are issued few and far between to stop cheat developers from figuring out their secrets. On top of that, the current Prime matchmaking system has proven to be a band-aid solution, and not a proper fix. Today we are shipping Trusted Mode into CS:GO: https://t.co/nFpBdb03bF — CS2 (@CounterStrike) July 8, 2020 Valve are looking to turn that around though. After a couple of weeks of beta testing, CS:GO will have a secondary anti-cheat enabled at launch. Called Trusted Mode, the system will detect third-party software running in the background, and block it. “By default, players will launch CS:GO in Trusted Mode, which will block third-party files from interacting with the game,” the developers said in a July 8 blogpost. If a player launches CS:GO with “incompatible files,” they will be notified as such. It will also give them an option of launching in “Untrusted Mode.” This will reduce their trust factor, and players won’t be able to join VAC-secured servers. If the system detects third-party software mid-game, it will boot players out until the files are closed. The system, in theory, should block cheats from launching in CS:GO. However, Trusted Mode has already had its flaws exposed. Some cheat developers have reportedly gotten around the third-party blocking measures in under an hour. Not only that, but false positives have also been recorded with streaming software, which has forced CS:GO broadcasters offline. This is on top of numerous other third-party software like GeForce Shadowplay, a popular screen capture service, reportedly not working after the new update. takes an absolute genius to ship an update that cheaters have already bypassed but with none of the major streaming or recording softwares whitelisted lmao — voo “”cs2” csgo (@vooCSGO) July 9, 2020 Trusted Mode was the only addition to CS:GO in the July 8 patch. No balance changes or bug fixes were made to the game. However, given it’s been upwards of a month since the last big patch, more changes shouldn’t be far away.

CS:GO July 31 update patch notes – Vertigo changes, new competitive maps and more CS:GOA major new update has gone live in CounterStrike: Global Offensive, including new content and major changes to important aspects of the game. The latest CS:GO update went live on July 31, adding two new maps to the competitive pool and making significant changes to Vertigo. Below, you can find all of the details about the update, including the patch notes in their entirety. Breach and Seaside added to competitive Following the release of this update, the brand new Breach and fan-favorite Seaside maps have been added the Defusal Group Sigma competitive pool. Read More: CS:GO addresses laggy players issue – According to the CS:GO blog, Breach is a defusal map set in a spacious corporate building. To make room for the two maps, Workout has been removed from official matchmaking. Those looking to try out the new maps, as well as Ruby, can do so by visiting the Scrimmage section on the Competitive tab. Major changes to Vertigo The July 31 update has implemented a series of fundamental changes to the Vertigo map, chief of which is a new approach to the B site. A total of 11 adjustments have been made to the map, including removing the “rafters” around the B site entrance, removing the one-way drop down elevator shaft, moved T spawns further back, and more, all of which can be seen in the patch notes below. Vertigo B bombsite has been updated Pictures: pic.twitter.com/0789jLxNIZ — Haci (@DonHaci) August 1, 2019 CS:GO update for 7/31/19 (8/1/19 UTC, 1.37.0.8) – Patch Notes GAMEPLAY Added Breach and Seaside to Defusal Group Sigma. – Removed Workout from official matchmaking. – Added “Scrimmage Maps” to official competitive matchmaking. Scrimmage maps include: Ruby, Breach, Seaside. – When playing Scrimmage Maps in official competitive matchmaking: there are no restrictions on players in your party, your Skill Groups will not be adjusted after the match, your Competitive Wins counter will not be incremented upon winning the match. Abandoning the match after you ‘ACCEPT’ will result in a penalty. – LINUX Game server logs on Linux are now using a separate thread to write the data to filesystem which improves performance of the game server main thread. – MISC Fixed a regression which prevented cycling grenades with TAG grenade. – Fixed a rare crash related to bump mines and breach charges. – Mute spinner on in-game players can now be dragged all the way down to zero. – MAPS Fixed an unintended boost position on Overpass. – Vertigo: New approach to B site – Removed “rafters” around B site entrance – Offset HVAC units on B site, numbered them – Added a way to throw utility into B site without being exposed – Removed one-way drop down elevator shaft – Added ladder-room near elevator shaft, connects up to mid chokepoint, allows utility towards A – Moved bridge over elevator shaft – Moved T spawns further back – Widened utility hole in T corridor to mid – Made jump up on scaffolding at back of A easier – Widened door at back of A – Various minor bug fixes – Rumor has it: Defusal Group Sigma is a Casual group, so both Breach and Seaside can’t be selected for Competitive matchmaking as they’re not in either Active Duty or Reserves – You might remember Seaside as having made an appearance in not one (Payback), not two (Bravo), but THREE (Phoenix) Operations in years past. – A large bulk of the size is in these map additions (for Breach/Seaside) and updates (for Overpass/Workout). Both Yanzl and Puddy will be getting a Prototype-quality Map Token for their part in making Breach at some point. Otherwise, the rest of it contains localization file updates, which as always, are made possible in part by contributions from Translators Like You – Thank You – “Prototype” is equivalent to the “Self-Made” quality in both TF2 and Dota 2 for community contributors that have their stuff added in-game – Size is close to 200 MB –

CSGO July 27 patch fixes smoke exploit, Swamp and Mutiny changes, more ValveCS:GO has shipped two updates in one week for the first time in quite a while. The July 27 patch doesn’t have any new content, but it does fix some of the exploits introduced in the last update, including a “game-breaking” smoke glitch. Two updates in one week? CS:GO players could be excused for thinking this is Christmas. While there’s no major balance changes and no operation yet, it’s still something to celebrate. The patch isn’t inconsequential either. Valve has taken action on a smoke glitch that was uncovered just 24 hours ago, patching it out. They’ve also optimized the two new maps, Swamp and Mutiny, and changed their layouts somewhat. A number of updates to Mutiny and Swamp have been made. Full Release Notes are here: https://t.co/DXiirrsfMo — CS2 (@CounterStrike) July 28, 2020 “Game-breaking” smoke exploit fixed within 24 hours Just 24 hours after a “game-breaking” smoke exploit went viral thanks to a video from Richard Lewis, the bug has been patched out of the game. The exploit made smokes invisible for players after they threw them, although they’d go off as normal for other players. “It’s been in the game, by my estimation, the last three-four patches, probably longer,” he added. He passed the information to Valve, and in the 24 hours since the video has gone live, the exploit is now out of the game. A miscellaneous fix that “optimized platform shader files and sound configuration files to be packed inside compressed VPK files” has nipped the problem in the bud, and trying to recreate the glitch without VAC detecting it is now impossible. New maps Swamp and Mutiny undergo major changes Swamp and Mutiny are the two new community-made additions to CS:GO. However, since hitting the live servers and undergoing a rigorous trial by fire, the two battlegrounds have had to go back to the drawing board somewhat. Mutiny required a lot of optimization and rendering fixes. Valve also removed some of the map’s foliage to increase visibility in some areas, especially for green agent skins. On Swamp, they changed the layout of the map to help the T-side. On A short, Valve increased the lighting and made it easier to peek angles when entering onto the site. Over on B, Valve added some new box stacks to stop players from hiding on site in pre and post-plant situations. You can find the full patch notes below. CS:GO July 27 patch notes Maps Mutiny Fixed various bird-related bugs – Opened up corner at Dirt Road near CT Spawn – Fixed bomb getting stuck on the small boat – Improved FPS for low/medium shader – Improved optimisation throughout the map – Opened up T to B Upper ceiling to allow for grenade usage – Fixed one way wallbang on B Site – Fixed rendering issue at the top of B Site building – Added fade distance to most small props – Altered some deathmatch spawn positions – Replaced rocks with flowers by the stairs at CT to A – Removed foliage in various locations for improved visibility – Fixed boost spot at elevator near A – Fixed hidden bomb plant underneath stones on A Site – Fixed floating church pillars – Fixed misaligned stone tiles in T Spawn – Fixed misaligned textures on church – Improved clipping at various places – Improved grenade clipping at various places – Updated Overview – Swamp Main changes Performance boost in some areas (2-5%) – Alligator and frog sounds are lower, less disturbing – A-site Made brighter background near fence on A-long (CT side) – Made one of the red plywood covers smaller on A-long (T side) – Made the A-short room brighter and also made it easier for T to peek angles on entrance – Closed gap in CT-spawn where players could boost and peek A-long – Middle Added wood cover under CW so players can’t peek straight down to A-short entrance (T side) – Removed a pallet where a player could jump and get stuck – B-site Improved balance around bombsite – Added clipping on crane – Added clipping on streetlight – Added plywood cover on bombsite – Removed some of the railing around bombsite for easier movement – Added electrical box, fence and plywood close to B-entrance for less hiding spots – Added plywood in corner close to B-entrance for less hiding spots – Added fence and plywood in water around sniper spot on B-long for easier readability (CT side) – Miscellaneous Optimized platform shader files and sound configuration files to be packed inside compressed VPK files. –

CSGO July 23 patch adds new maps Mutiny and Swamp, Decoy changes, more ValveValve are changing things up in CS:GO yet again. The July 23 patch has added two new maps in Mutiny and Swamp, replacing Chlorine and Jungle. They’ve also shipped small changes to Decoy grenades, as well as the controversial Trusted Mode. Hoping for a new operation after the cryptic tweets from the CS:GO account last week? Sadly, it’s not arriving on the July 23 patch. However, there are some things to get excited about. The update has added two new maps to official matchmaking in Mutiny and Swamp. Two maps have also been removed to fit them in. On top of that, Decoy grenades have been reworked, and Trusted Mode has received yet another update. Today we have a number of updates. Chlorine and Jungle have been removed from official matchmaking and Mutiny and Swamp have been added. This and updates to Trusted Mode, Decoy grenades, and more can be found in today’s Release Notes: https://t.co/1TclOYr2d6 — CS2 (@CounterStrike) July 24, 2020 New maps Mutiny and Swamp added to official matchmaking Mutiny and Swamp have entered official matchmaking in CS:GO, replacing Chlorine and Jungle. The two maps will be active in Casual, Deathmatch, and Scrimmage — but not Competitive. Mutiny was a third-place finisher in the Mapcore Exotic Contest in March 2020, which saw winner and runner-up maps Anubis and Chlorine added to the game. Mutiny will now replace the runner-up in matchmaking though, just four months after its inclusion. It’s a very mid-centric map, with routes to A, B, and both spawns coming right through the middle. It also has a large emphasis on verticality, with controlling high and low-ground being a key factor in keeping bomb sites under control. Swamp, on the other hand, is very aptly named. It’s very wet, very flat, and quite open. The map, based on the outskirts of Louisiana, forces players to navigate through open water, ducking and diving for cover. Decoy grenades no longer damage teammates Gameplay-wise, there was a small update to grenades — Decoys specifically. The $50 throwable will no longer do damage to teammates by default. While this seems like a pointless change, it actually has huge impacts on one thing — griefing. Players could intentionally team kill themselves on Decoy grenades thrown by their allies if the griefing player got down to low-enough health. If it happened multiple times, the player who threw the Decoy would be kicked. Making it so the Decoy grenades no longer do damage now removes that method of team killing from CS:GO. Grenades thrown by teammates who disconnect or swap teams have also been adjusted to convey the correct amount of damage. Trusted Mode also received an update to give players a “compatibility” option to allow third party software to launch after the system’s full launch. All previous Trusted Mode launch options have been reset as well. You can find the full CS:GO July 23 patch notes below. CS:GO July 23 patch notes Trusted Mode Trusted Mode is now the default launch mode for CS:GO. Previous Trusted Mode launch options have been deprecated. – Instead, a new compatibility launch option “-allow_third_party_software” is provided to allow third party software to access the CS:GO game process. – – Maps Added Mutiny and Swamp to official matchmaking in Casual, Deathmatch, and Scrimmage game modes. – Chlorine and Jungle have been removed from official matchmaking. – Gameplay Grenades now convey the correct amount of damage to teammates if thrown by another teammate who switched teams or disconnected. – Decoy grenade explosions no longer damage teammates by default. (controlled via convar ff_damage_decoy_explosion) – Misc Fixed bsp-embedded models caching rules to allow for reloading the correct model when transitioning to a different map. – Capped view model backfaces on Desert Eagle. – Fixed workshop workbench texture regeneration on low shader quality GPU configurations. – Minor adjustments to Danger Zone delivery drone behavior for Steam Workshop Danger Zone maps. –

CS:GO July 22 update patch notes brings Skill Groups for Danger Zone ValveThe Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team announced on July 22 that they’ll be adding Skill Groups to the intense battle royale mode Danger Zone, finally giving players something to fight for. Counter-Strike has remained relevant through the decades in part for its solid team-shooting formula mixed with concise mechanics that focuses on the player’s mechanical and tactical prowess. But on December 6, 2018 the popular shooter received a surprising addition with Danger Zone. While players appreciated the new mode, it immediately felt out of sorts since it lacked an element of competitiveness that CS:GO has been known to have for years. Players who initially abandoned the mode might have a huge reason to parachute into the game again with the introduction of skill groups. “The time has come for you to put your Danger Zone skills on display–Danger Zone now has skill groups!” the CS:GO devs said. “… Your skill group is a mark of your recent performance, and players of all skill groups can participate in matches together.” Since players of all skill groups will be in the same game, it seems like Danger Zone will take a more fluid approach to how people progress with their ranks in that “skill groups are driven by your placement in recent matches.” Players will be able to keep up with their latest skill group in the main menu and as they’re spectating a game after they’ve been eliminated. Along with the announcement, players got a full rundown of the name and tiers of the skill groups that they will be competing for. While players might find it challenging to climb through the skill group, there’s going to be tons of motivation to at least break through the first few tiers, less they be known as “Lab Rats” or “Sprinting Hares” by their friends. But the greatest glory will be bestowed on the very best Danger Zone players now that the iconic “Howl” skin has been loosely integrated as a skill group named “The Howling Alpha.” Valve are taking a different approach with ranking in Danger Zone, but this might be plenty to see waves of players hoard the servers to test their mettle in the new skill groups. For a full look at what’s coming in the July 22 update, check out the patch notes below. Release Notes for 7/22/2019 2019.07.22 – [Danger Zone] – Added skill groups to Danger Zone. – Skill groups are visible in the main menu and as a spectator after your match has completed. – Danger Zone skill groups are driven by your placement in recent matches. – Players of all skill groups can participate in matches together.

CS:GO July 16 update patch notes – Workout gets worked on, HE Grenade fix and more ValveValve launched an update to their legendary team-shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive on July 16 to amend issues found throughout the game – especially in one of the newest comp maps of 2019. The CS:GO developers constantly make fine-tune adjustments to their 2012 title to ensure that the game and its air-tight formula doesn’t become compromised with ongoing bugs and the like. While there’s been a number of issues that the devs patched up on their more popular maps and weapons in the past, it seems like they’re now focusing their attention of fixing up other aspects of CS:GO. CS:GO devs workout map’s problems Workout has been a fan-favorite ever since it came back to the CS:GO map rotation on April 25, and while its provided for tons of thrilling matches upon its return there are more than a few kinkds to still iron out. First off, players might appreciate that the pool area has been retextured making the section of the map a lot more bright while also making “movement in the pool area smoother.” Release Notes for today are up. Support for Berlin Minor playoff matches has been added, Workout and Ruby have been updated, and classic Dust 2 has been removed. Release Notes in full here: https://t.co/ufzQwQLIQE pic.twitter.com/HQu7wS8ajw — CS:GO (@CSGO) July 16, 2019 Similarly, the devs made the entire kids zone brighter which will help with distinguishing opponents from across the area a lot better to handle. Furthermore, Counter-terrorists will rejoice now that the Hostage rescue zone has been “pushed further forward,” and even more so now that a CT-sided cover can now be seen situated on the basketball court. 600Grenades are slowing their roll HE Grenades have long been the source of unexpected to downright hysterical rolling effects for a long time, but it seems like the devs are putting a halt to their momentum. The latest update will has adjusted the item’s “collision hull” that will effectively reduce HE Grenades role when being dropped from an eliminated player. While it’s not the biggest change that the devs have introduced to Counter-Strike, the fix will serve as another polish for the long-running shooter. The July 16 patch introduced more quality-of-life updates to CS:GO, as the devs prepare the title for the upcoming StarLadder 2019 Berlin Major to run as smoothly as possible. To get the full break down of what’s in the newest patch for the game, check the patch notes below. Release Notes for 7/16/2019 [ MISC ] – Added support for displaying Berlin 2019 Minor play-off matches in-game. – Fixed the events lister showing two rows for events that were both favorited and featured. – Adjusted HE grenade collision hull to reduce rolling when dropped. [ MAPS ] Workout – Retextured the pool area so its a lot brighter – Made movement in the pool area smoother – Pushed the hostage rescue zone further forward – Added CT sided cover to the basketball court – Made the entire kids zone area much brighter – Updated some textures and meshes throughout the map – Due to customer complaints, homebrew coffee have added some bins – Stopped players being able to slide up the horse at T side stadium entrance – Fixed mesh clipping issue at the ice cream stand Ruby – Overall layout tweaks. Dust 2 – The anniversary celebration has ended.

CSGO star Juliano reveals why women’s CS is so far behind men’s Following some community backlash regarding the Besiktas Esports’ womens CSGO roster’s performance at the DreamHack Rotterdam event, team captain and CSGO veteran Julia ‘juliano’ Kiran took to Twitter to lay out all the reasons why the gap exists between the women’s scene and the men’s scene. Make no mistake about it, the women’s CSGO scene is highly competitive. Teams like Besiktas, CLG Red, the Copenhagen Flames and Dignitas are all consistently battling each other for the top spots at women’s events. Most recently, Besiktas defeated CLG Red at the DreamHack Valencia Showdown, taking home $50,000 and earning a spot at the DreamHack Open Rotterdom tournament. Unfortunately at Rotterdam, the womens’ performance was not nearly as competitive, as Besiktas dropped all three of their maps in one-sided affairs to AVANGAR and Hard Legion Esports. As is tradition, people took to places like reddit and HLTV to criticize and crack jokes at the women’s CSGO scene, so Besiktas’ captain Juliano took to Twitter to weigh in on why there’s still a gap between scenes. She writes, “It is scientifically proven that men’s brain have a better hand-eye coordination and faster decision making so idk why people keep using this ‘it’s not physical’ excuse all the time.” It is scientifically proven that mens brain have a better hand-eye coordination and faster decision making so idk why people keep using this “it’s not physical” excuse all the time. It’s an uphill for us aswell besides being so few trying. Men should support women much more. — juliano (@juliakiran) October 22, 2019 Much like how men and women don’t play in the same leagues in traditional sport, due to differences in size and speed and body type, Juliano argues that men and women’s brains are wired differently, and that the men’s brain is more suited to excelling at a game like Counter-Strike. Numerous studies do in fact back up this claim. According to Columbia University’s “A Brain Divided”, men are better when it comes to hand-eye and spatial coordination, as well as a sense of direction and precise muscle movement. This is not to say that there aren’t women who can compete at the same high level as men, and this is a point that Juliano argues as well. Even the women who compete at the highest pro level aren’t invited to compete alongside men in the top scene, and includes herself in that group. Yeah like i said it doesnt go for everyone and i do think that some of us top female players are above that line, but we are just in need to get the respect when playing. I’ve had many that said to me its like playing with any guy, but still never got asked to join a mixed team. — juliano (@juliakiran) October 23, 2019 Juliano says she’s never been asked to join a mixed team, and even when the opportunity to play with men arose, she was told that there were pro and semi-pro players who didn’t want to play alongside women. Tbh, i have been in this scene for a long time and even at my peek when i could compete with men, i was told from some pro/semi-pro that some guys in a team didnt want to play with a girl. And this is how it was, believe it or not. Ive always said that the key is mixed teams. — juliano (@juliakiran) October 23, 2019 Juliano says another problem is that this lack of respect extends past pro players into the community as well, and that female players are hit with a double-edged sword. They’re challenged to compete against men to prove that they are good enough, and then immediately hit with trash talk when they fail. Whether the solution is a more expanded women’s scene, or the implementation of more mixed teams in CSGO, the women of CSGO still have a long way to go to gain the respect they deserve.

CSGO joins Gamers8 esports lineup with $1 million tournament Gamers8The organizers of the Gamers8 festival have announced CS:GO as its second esports title for this year’s event, with $1 million on offer. The tournament will take place from August 14-20 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as part of Gamers8, a gaming and esports festival that will span over eight weeks. The event will offer a total of $45 million – triple the amount that was up for grabs at last year’s festival – in prize money. CS:GO is the second esports title confirmed for the festival after Dota 2. Valve’s MOBA will have a $15 million tournament with 20 teams called the Riyadh Masters, which will be the crowning moment of the first season of the ESL Pro Tour Dota2. It remains unclear at this point how teams will qualify for this tournament and whether it will have any connection to ESL Pro Tour CS:GO – the open ecosystem that ties all ESL competitions. The $45 million prize pool is “the largest in esports history”, according to Gamers8, which is sponsored by the Saudi Esports Federation (SEF). In addition to esports tournaments, the festival will include concerts, workshops, gaming activations and the Next World Forum conference. Gamers8 is seen as a crucial part of Saudi Arabia’s aspirations to become a major power within the gaming and esports ecosystem by the end of the decade. Last year, the Savvy Games Group, which is an offshoot of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), outlined a SAR 142 billion (~$38 billion) investment plan that is aimed at turning the kingdom into a global gaming hub. In January 2022, the Savvy Games Group acquired ESL and FACEIT for a combined $1.5 billion. The deal has come under criticism due to Saudi Arabia’s record of human rights violations. But despite the backlash, Saudi money keeps pouring into the industry. Only last month, the Savvy Games Group announced a $265 million investment in VSPO, a Chinese tournament operator. And on March 1, the ESL FACEIT Group acquired Vindex, an esports technology and infrastructure company, for an undisclosed fee. As part of the deal, Esports Engine and Vindex Intelligence Platform have come under the ownership of the ESL FACEIT Group.

CSGO January 27 patch notes: Shorthanded Loser Income, Technical Timeouts, more ValveValve’s latest update for CS:GO on January 27 has looked to balance the books after their controversial bot changes earlier in the year. They’ve implemented a Valorant-inspired bonus income for teams in a 4v5, Technical Timeouts, and more. While Valve has been working on improving the Competitive experience for CS:GO players, their most recent changes have only made it worse. The developer faced backlash for removing bots from Competitive, making games even more uneven. However, they’re trying to win back players with a new set of changes — once again inspired by Valorant. A new “shorthanded” income for teams down on players is being implemented, but it’s not exactly what the community was hoping for. Finally, Competitive teams down a player will receive an extra $1000 shorthanded loser income (after exceptions are met) per round loss. This does not apply to teams who kick a player. More on that in today’s Release Notes: https://t.co/fYc12ghQHx — CS:GO (@CSGO) January 27, 2021 New “shorthanded loser income” feature compensates bot change After the removal of bots for AFK players in CS:GO games, games swung very one-sided after a team went a man down. However, Valve are looking at balancing the books somewhat, implementing yet another Valorant feature into the game. The new “Shorthanded Loser Income” will give teams a bonus $1,000 following a round loss after being a man-down for three or more consecutive rounds. This only applies to players who have disconnected or are AFK, and not players who are kicked. It doesn’t entirely compensate for being a player down, but it can help teams potentially claw back a 4v5 from behind with a bit of extra cash. Unlike Valorant’s system though, there won’t be bonuses for teams winning rounds while behind. Technical timeouts also added to Competitive Valve are also adding an extra measure to try and even the playing field in CS:GO Competitive. If a player disconnects, an automatic two-minute Technical Timeout will be called. This timeout can only be used once per team per game — if multiple players disconnect at different times, you won’t get multiple timeouts. It will give time for players to rejoin, but if they abandon the game, the timeout will be canceled. A number of changes were shipped to Elysion, as well as a new sticker capsule commemorating the teams who would have qualified for the Rio Major through the 2020 RMR events. You can find the full CS:GO January 27 patch notes below. CS:GO January 27 patch notes 2020 RMR Stickers Team Stickers featuring the best-performing regional teams from the 2020 Regional Major Ranking events are now available for purchase. 50% of the proceeds go to the teams who participated in the 2020 RMR. – Gameplay In Competitive and Wingman, if your team has fewer players than the opposing team for 3 or more consecutive rounds in the half, each of your team members will receive a $1000 ‘Shorthanded Loser Income’ following a round loss. This does not apply in cases where a player was kicked. – In Competitive and Wingman, each team has one 2 minute technical timeout that will be automatically initiated the first time a teammate disconnects. The timeout will end early if the teammate abandons or reconnects to the match. – Pinging now displays the name of the pinged location. (Thanks, VasaLavTV) – Danger Zone Added client convar to control automatic parachute behavior. Set cl_parachute_autodeploy 0 to disable automatic parachute activation. – Maps Elysion Outside Fixed a boost spot near the entrance to A site. – Fixed a pixel walk on the door hinges (both doors). – Improved the clipping of the roof. – Grenades now bounce more predictably off the wall. – – A site Improved the clipping on the A sign. – Fixed a pixel walk on top of the wall. – Fixed a gap in the center wall on site. – Grenades now bounce more predictably off the A sign, Elysion sign, art on the wall, wall in connector, the wall on site and the poles connecting to the roof. – – Main hall Grenades now bounce more predictably off the art work and painting. – – Middle Fixed a boost spot where players were able to jump on top of the waterfalls. – Fixed a pixel walk on the lower levels of middle. – Fixed a pixel walk on the light fixtures (not sure how you would get up their but you cannot trust anyone). – Grenades now bounce of more predictable of the grey poles inserted in the wall, the wall with the waterfalls and the wall near T spawn. – – CT spawn Fixed a pixel walk on the clock (clock has been made non solid). – Fixed a pixel walk on the glass wall. – – T spawn Fixed a pixel walk on the clock (clock has been made non solid). – It is no longer possible to jump on top of the light above the desk. – – Generally improved the clipping. –

CSGO January 13 patch notes – New in-game store, Studio changes, more Valve have officially revealed the patch notes for the January 13 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive update, which brings a new in-game store that allows players to buy coupons, and a number of changes to the map Studio. Fans of the legendary first-person shooter are always eager to find out about the updates that developers Valve have made to the game, and while the January 13 patch doesn’t include any major changes to weapon balancing or how the economy works in the competitive modes. It does introduce a brand-new way for players to purchase stickers, though, and coupons to make your weapons stand out from the crowd. There are some changes to the map Studio as well, which was introduced to the game in Operation Shattered Web, in attempts to make it more enjoyable for players, and have less frustrating bugs that have plagued it since its release. The biggest change comes to the Coupons tab in the bottom-left of the game’s main menu, where players could previously choose from four randomly selected stickers or capsules to purchase using real money in their Steam account. Following the January 13 update, however, Valve have now added a search bar to this section, allowing players to search for the exact sticker or capsule they are looking for, bypassing the need to use the Steam Marketplace. Before this update, the Marketplace was the only way to purchase specific stickers, but now fans of the game will be able to do some without exiting the client. In the patch notes, Valve stated that this was an experimental feature, and could be the start of Valve moving away from the use of the Marketplace to purchase cosmetics, meaning players could theoretically buy skins, knives, and more, all from inside the game. Studio also sees some changes in the new update, with Valve introducing the updates made to the map in the Steam Workshop. The middle of the map has been completely reworked to make it less cluttered, while streets on both the CT and T sides have been reduced in size, alongside with the upper portion of the B bomb site. Some annoying bugs have also been addressed in this patch, with the ability to throw items into “unintended areas or out of the map” now gone, while issues with clipping in locations across the map have also been improved. You can view the full patch notes below. Full CS:GO patch notes for the January 13 update MISC Fixed Operation Shattered Web sometimes not appearing on main menu player profiles. – Added an experimental search bar allowing users to find and purchase any specific coupon item in game. – Guardian encouragement voice radio lines will no longer play when there are enemies still alive. – Fixed a regression with Storage Units in Perfect World version of the game. – Fixed a UI bug when activating some Bonus Rank XP items. – MAPS Studio has been updated with the latest changes from Steam Workshop: – Middle has had a complete re-design. – CT / T streets have been reduced in size. – CT Spawn have been reduced in size. – B Upper have been reduced in size. – T Spawn alley has been removed. – B connectors to middle have been updated. – 3D Skybox has been updated. – T spawn geometry has received minor update. – B Site catwalk has been widened and updated for smoother gameplay when dropping into site. – B site cover has been changed to give player better colour callouts. – Updated soundscapes. – Removed the ability to throw weapons into unintended areas / out of map. – Fixed many community bug reports. – Improved clipping across the map. –

CSGO Jan 29 update makes changes to Mirage, Dust2, Train – patch notes ValveCounter-Strike: Global Offensive’s January 29 patch brought updates to five different maps, some of which opened up crucial areas for popular locales in Dust2 and Train. Valve is fine-tuning their legendary shooter to fix some issues that have been cropping up in places like Mirage, and improving other newer maps like Studio. This time around, there’s been changes that will open up more tactical approaches for both sides of the server. That’s mainly because the devs have added elements that will make some areas more readily accessible to some players, while taking out obstructions that will open up site takes and other tactical moves in the popular FPS. Dust2’s B site This one seems pretty straightforward but is actually a major map update for the classic CSGO map. Dust2’s B site has largely been the target of infamous rushes or splits, with little other options to actually set up the site. But now that the skyboxes from the B halls have been opened up, players can now figure ways to safely execute onto the site. This will also be a godsend for CTs looking to take back control of B which many have called one of the hardest sites in the game to retake. It didn’t take long for players to start taking advantage of the new skyboxes, with various community members, like u/Pat2424 on Reddit, already sharing interesting new tricks and grenade spots. Train improvements Meanwhile, Train will be getting “various visibility improvements” along with minor bug fixes throughout the map. Similar to Dust2, the playbook is only going to get longer for T’s looking to take the outside site now that the devs “opened up [the] skybox over [the] building separating Ivy/A site.” That will give players more tactical options to set up a site, or to look for ways to wrap around it and go B through CT spawn. Release Notes for today are up. We’ve made some changes to Mirage, Dust 2, and Train. Mirage has a new bench mid, Dust 2’s Tunnels skybox has been opened up as has Train’s skybox from Ivy. This and more here: https://t.co/ExZAjaCyYu pic.twitter.com/ZTPwNCkgIP — CS2 (@CounterStrike) January 30, 2020 Mirage changes in new update Most of the changes in the update have been made to Mirage, touching both sites as well as adding new elements to mid. There’s a new AWP wall bang from Palace to the scaffolding closer corner at A, giving teams a new way of clearing that spot. Meanwhile, there’s a new bench in mid that not only gives players a chance to self-boost into Window, but can be helpful to get a peek into Cat. The sly jump-peek spot from the center of B site to Cat has been covered, so players won’t be able to take advantage of that any longer. Get a full look at all of the changes coming to CSGO in the January 29 update below, courtesy of Valve: Release Notes for 1/29/2020 2020.01.29 [ MAPS ] – Cache: — Various visibility improvements — Optimizations — Various minor bug fixes — Updated radar – Studio: — Fixed players not taking damage from bomb detonation — Clipping improvements — Improved visuals of CT / T streets — Various minor bug fixes – Train: — Opened up skybox over building separating Ivy/A site — Various visibility improvements — Various minor bug fixes – Dust2: — Opened up skybox from B halls towards site – Mirage: — Added AWP wallbang spot from palace to scaffolding close corner, A site — Added bench in mid allowing jump up to window boost spot/peek towards cat — Widened T entrance to mid — Lowered trim around B site balcony — Blocked a jump-peek from middle of B site towards cat [ MISC ] – Increased the size of HLTV broadcast server info message, controlled by a new setting “tv_broadcast_server_info_message_size_kb”. – Added a setting spec_xray_dropped_defusers to show xray outlines on dropped defuse kits. – Added a setting spec_xray_dropped_unoccluded to always xray dropped C4 and defuse kits. – Game state integration now allows to control precision of reported floating point values using an additional configuration section: “output” { “precision_time” “1” “precision_position” “2” “precision_vector” “2” }

CS:GO: INTZ reveal thoughts behind kNg’s potential MiBR transfer L: ESL / R: MIBRGustavo ‘yeL’ Knittel of INTZ spoke about the team’s thoughts on Marcelo ‘kNgV-‘ Cespedes’ potential transfer to Made in Brazil. MiBR are the most famous Brazilian Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team, having been the first Brazilian team to make it on the international stage. Their performance has fallen off in 2019, leading to their star player Marcelo ‘coldzera‘ David asking to be benched. While no replacement has been confirmed, rumors suggest that kNgV- may be the one to replace him, and yeL has given insight into how that has affected the INTZ squad. In an interview at the StarLadder Minor, the Brazilian said: “That situation doesn’t affect us at all, we all love each other and if it’s the best for him to go, nobody is going to be mad.” “We’re like a family in INTZ, all the players and the coach, and we want to win together” he later added. It would seem that the rumors of a transfer haven’t affected the squad at all and that the team is very happy and supportive of each other. YeL also stated: “He said that his dream is to put INTZ in the Major and we are really close to that.” It looks like there is mutual respect and that kNgV- decided not to abandon his teammates for the more popular team, but is sticking it out with them until after the Major at least. The interview ended with yeL confirming that the team is happy for kNgV- to leave if he wants to and that all the players just want the best for each other.

CS:GO: Intel Grand Slam rules changed after Astralis and Liquid wins The Intel Grand Slam has altered its rules, after the feat – previously thought almost impossible in CS:GO esports – was achieved by Astralis and Team Liquid back-to-back. As one of the major partners of ESL’s CS:GO circuit, Intel added extra value to major tournaments by either ESL or DreamHack Masters, putting up a $1 million prize purse – if a team could display dominance over a span of ten events. In season 1 and 2 of the Intel Grand Slam – won by Danish side Astralis and North America’s Liquid respectively – a team was required to win four top tier events out of ten consecutive tournaments. Thanks to Astralis and Team Liquid both claiming the prize within the same twelve months, some fans even feared that there would be no third season at all. But, season 3 has been confirmed to begin with IEM Chicago on July 18, and IEM boss Michal Blicharz has revealed that there have been some tweaks to winning criteria, if another team wishes to secure the $1 million bonus. Read More: Cloud9 just jumped 281 CS:GO world ranking spots and some community members are seriously unimpressed – Although a team can still win the Grand Slam with four wins in ten, to do so one of these wins would need to be either: IEM Katowice; ESL One Cologne; a major held by either DreamHack or ESL. If a team does not win one of these four events, then they are required to rack up six wins in ten instead. We’ve altered the rules of the #IntelGrandSlam: 1) #IEM Chicago is the first event of the new season. 2) You can win the IGS inside 4/10 events but it would have to include #IEM Katowice or #ESLOne Cologne or an ESL/DH Major. 3) You can win the IGS inside 6/10 events otherwise.— Michal Blicharz (@mbCARMAC) July 16, 2019 Although some see this move as an attempt to lower Intel’s chance of having to pay out yet another $1 million anytime soon (and Liquid are showing no signs of slowing down), Blicharz clarifies that even had this stricter criteria been in place, both Astralis and Liquid still would have secure the grand slam title. This rule set would have seen @astralisgg and @teamliquid win. The Danes would have completed it when they won #IEM Katowice and Liquid did it on their first run. — Michal Blicharz (@mbCARMAC) July 16, 2019 Blicharz explains that one of the motivations behind the Grand Slam is to recognize teams who display complete dominance in the esport, and that these new rules should help bolster that. “Are you undisputed if you don’t prove yourself in Cologne or Katowice along the way?” Blicharz asks, signalling the importance that both players and fans place on these annual events. The team thought that IGS is for the undisputed best team that marks an era. Are you undisputed if you don’t prove yourself in Cologne or Katowice along the way? — Michal Blicharz (@mbCARMAC) July 16, 2019 Team Liquid kept the ball rolling following their Grand Slam victory at ESL One Cologne, with a win at the BLAST Pro Series Los Angeles invitational. :first_place_medal: The #IntelGrandSlam Season 3 kicks-off at #IEM Chicago with new conditions to win the coveted $1,000,000 prize! Full details :point_right: https://t.co/lo0PrLbAFp pic.twitter.com/rT5SY5ULbx — ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) July 16, 2019 Of course, their primary rival and reigning IEM Chicago champions Astralis was not in attendance then, and will also not be at IEM Chicago 2019, meaning the North American’s have a chance at a headstart for the third season of the Grand Slam – or will another team upset the balance?

CSGO insider allegedly leaks next Major host and location ESLCounter-Strike: Global Offensive insider ‘Polish Leaks’ has apparently revealed information about the upcoming Majors, notably the location and hosts. Majors are the biggest events on the CSGO calendar, where the best teams in the world battle it out in events akin to other game’s World Championships. The winner is usually crowned as the best team in the world at the time, and forever keeps the honor of lifting one of the most prestigious trophies in Counter-Strike. As such, the atmosphere is always electric, with players and fans alike looking forward to the events more than any others. Fans especially are left in the dark about upcoming Majors, with key information such as location, or the tournament organizer, sometimes being revealed just a few months before the event. However, things may have changed as Polish Leaks claims to have revealed the detail for the next two Majors. “Perfect World (+PGL) to host autumn Major. Originally they planned China as a location, but due to 2019-nCoV there’s a probability of moving it to a different country and even changing the host to BLAST, which for now is in advanced talks about covering the first Major in 2021,” the leaker claimed in a February 7 Tweet. Of course, nothing is confirmed quite yet, but the claims do make sense. PGL is a huge CSGO event organizer and haven’t hosted a Major since 2017. Meanwhile, BLAST has been putting up high-quality tournaments since 2017 and have yet to host a Major. ??Perfect World (+PGL) to host autumn Major. Originally they planned China as a location, but due to 2019-nCoV there’s a probability of moving it to a different country and even changing the host to BLAST, which for now is in advanced talks about covering the first Major in 2021. — polish leaks (@PolishLeaks) February 7, 2020 No location has been revealed for the alleged BLAST Major but many fans assume it will be in Europe as the first Major of 2020 will be held in Brazil and, if the claims are to be believed, the second one would be held in China. It would make sense for the Major to then return to Europe, with Denmark being a possible location as it is the home of both RFRSH Entertainment, the parent company of BLAST, and current champions Astralis. Dexerto has reached out to both PGL and RFRESH for comments and will keep you updated with any new information.

CSGO Inferno update allows players to actually play tic-tac-toe in-game ValveArguably the most game-breaking CS:GO change of the June 10 patch was left out of the notes. No, it’s not some hidden balance update — Valve has made the tic-tac-toe board in Inferno’s T spawn completely functional. We are truly in the 21st century, and the technology has finally arrived. The tic-tac-toe board in Inferno’s T spawn was once just a feature players could stare at while waiting for each round to start. However, Valve has added extra functionality into CS:GO that now allows players to use the board for its intended purpose. Yes, that’s right — you can now play tic-tac-toe. If you wanted to use the tic-tac-toe board properly on Inferno, you’d have to spend a whole magazine carving out naughts and crosses. You could use sprays, however then you’d have less to use to BM your opponent. However, the update has made it a simple process needing just one bullet to play. The game recognizes when two players are playing, and automatically assigns them a side. They then shoot on the tile they wish to play on, and a naught or a cross will appear. Once the game finishes, the board will reset after a short timer. It’s unclear as to whether you need to be on opposite sides for it to work, however it’s a fun little game you can play with friends when mucking around. The clip shared by CS:GO Twitter fan-favorite ‘DonHaci’ has gone viral since the release of the update, garnering thousands of likes and retweets. The most important part of today’s update wasn’t mentioned in the Patch notes… You can now play Tic-Tac-Toe with a teammate on Inferno in T-spawn by shooting the tiles pic.twitter.com/QbVbGow88u — Hac1 (@DonHaci) June 11, 2020 While it’s probably not advisable to play on the board during a competitive game, maybe winning a cheeky game could help boost your confidence before setting out into the round. The changes weren’t listed in the official patch notes, although Inferno did actually receive some proper changes in the June 10 update. Some visual clutter was removed, and some lighting changes were made in mid. Five other maps also received major changes in the latest update to help boost contrast and clarity, including Dust 2 and Mirage. A new “Boost Player Contrast” setting was also added, helping you spot out your enemies more easily.

CSGO: Classic wallbang returns with Cache remake ValveA classic wallbang seems to have made a return to Cache following the map’s remake, allowing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players to hit an incredibly long ranged shot. A new version of the classic Counter-Strike map Cache was released on October 10, bringing numerous changes to the fan-favorite map. Since its release, players have been testing out the map in unofficial matches and have found various creative angles, grenades, and even some easter eggs. One player has now managed to find an all too familiar wallbang. Dubbed as the “bodyy wallbang”, a shot on the original version of Cache quickly became famous as it allowed the Terrorist side to get a kill in the first few seconds while staying in their spawn. It was removed from the map shortly after being discovered. Read More: CSGO: How to play the new Cache rework – Reddit user Zelli0n seems to have found a way to do a very similar version of the shot, now that the map has seen changes in middle, where the shot first traveled through. The shot starts off the same as the original, with the T player needing to use an AWP and climb up onto the metal container at the spawn. From there, aim just above the lower wooden panel on the window of the warehouse, and it’s possible to hit a CT looking through the window in Z-connector. This very tricky shot can be used to gain an advantage at almost no risk and is definitely one that can catch your opponent’s off guard. Ex G2 player Alexandre ‘bodyy’ Pianaro was the one to popularize the original shot, using it in a match against Astralis in the ESL Pro League in 2017. The community was absolutely stunned by the shot when it first happened, and fans will no doubt be itching to try out the newest version for themselves.

CSGO in Source 2 seemingly just leaked through new Dota 2 update ValveThrough a new Dota 2 update, a new leak has seemingly shown fresh evidence of CS:GO being ported into Source 2 amidst a wave of speculation. News of a Source 2 version of CSGO 2 has run rampant over the past week. One of the first rumors surfaced when an NVIDIA driver update showed a “csgo2” executable app, naturally sparking massive speculation for a potential sequel or update to the now decade-old game. And then came a report from Richard Lewis that there is allegedly a Beta version of Counter-Strike in Source 2 which is already playable. According to Lewis’ sources, multiple pro players have already tested the game in Valve’s headquarters, and a public build may be going live in a matter of weeks. Now, in a March 6 update of Dota 2, further information of CSGO being ported into Source 2 has just been discovered. Valve leaker Gabe Follower uncovered multiple references in the game’s code referring to CSGO and its potential jump to the new engine. This data includes case keys, spray kits, maps, player models, and even a new operation. The leak is particularly credible as Dota 2 uses Source 2 as its engine, as it was the first game made in Valve’s cutting-edge system. Although this new leak is not concrete proof CSGO’s Source 2 port is about to come out for Beta testing, it at least shows evidence of the existence of a port. Until official confirmation arrives, perhaps imminently, it may be the best proof we’ll get. The timing of the leak is quite intriguing as well, given it was reported the beta version might release sometime near the end of March 2023, or April 1 2023 at the latest. As we seemingly know, the port will not be rebranded as a completely new game, as many may have speculated an official sequel. Rather, according to Gabe Follower and Lewis, it will just be CSGO running on Source 2. As of now, Dota 2 is the only legacy title Valve has ported into Source 2, though CSGO seems to be the next in line. However, there are other projects currently aiming to port other titles such as Team Fortress 2, Portal 2, and Half-Life into Source 2.

CSGO: Images of apEX comforting former teammate kennyS after G2’s Berlin Major exit go viral StarLadderBeing eliminated from a CS:GO Major can be some of the worst emotions felt by a professional player. Yet, when trying to bounce back, it helps when you have someone like Dan ‘apEX’ Mdesclaire on hand – especially if you’re former teammate Kenny ‘KennyS’ Schrub. The StarLadder Berlin Major is building towards its epic climax as the final eight teams have secured their places in the Champions Stage. Of course, there has been plenty of heartbreak along the way – with teams like Mousesports and CR4ZY coming ever-so-close to progressing, but falling short at the final hurdle. Another team, fan favorites G2 Esports also exited the competition at the hands of Renegades, prompting disappointment from their players, fans, and even pundits who backed to them to progress further than they did. That full emotion was on show after their elimination, as legendary AWPer KennyS broke down into tears before being comforted by former longtime teammate apEX. Heartwarming images from StarLadder photographer and commentator Igor Bezborodov showed an incredibly uplifting change in Kenny with apEX consoling him while he’s in tears before eventually helping him return back to a smile despite the clearly painful heartache. Bless and thank the people who support you and make you smile in the most difficult moments of life. @Vitality_apEX @NiaK #BerlinMajor pic.twitter.com/NYkh4YIo9S — Igor Bezborodov :camera::studio_microphone:️ #BerlinMajor (@borodasltv) September 1, 2019 While the two sides may be seen as French rivals because they’re competing for top spot and bragging rights in their own country, apEX’s love towards KennyS wasn’t the only backing that Team Vitality gave to their compatriots. During their all-important elimination match-up with Renegades, G2 round wins were continually cheered by the Vitality line-up who were in the arena to watch them play – with their celebrations even being given a bit of airtime on the StarLadder broadcast. Of course, Vitality could do so because they secured their spot in the Champions Stage prior to G2’s elimination – as they overcame Mousesports in a 2-1 record match-up. The French hotshots, who are currently ranked #2 in the world, will be looking to cement themselves in CSGO history with a Major victory. However, it won’t be an easy prospect, as they face AVANGAR in the quarter-finals, and could face the winner of ENCE vs Renegades in the semi-finals.

All CS:GO roster changes ahead of the IEM Katowice Major roster lock The countdown to Counter-Strike’s IEM Katowice Major is on, but before fans can settle down to watch one of the most prestigious events of the CS:GO season, there is a small window in which teams can make roster changes. This will be the third time a major event has been held in the Polish city but there will be no home representatives this time around. As is common leading up to an event of this magnitude, some teams will make a move that they see giving them the best chance at securing a title. Other teams, however, will choose to stick it out and make a move after their Major run. The roster lock for this event has been set for January 1. The date is two weeks before the first Minor events – the CIS and European Minors – giving teams who want to make a move enough team to get to grips with their changes. FaZe don’t have long to find a replacement for the recently-benched Karrigan However, a slight alteration has made to this event’s rulebook that will allow teams to make an emergency transfer due to in a serious and short notice emergency – i.e. injury or cancelled transport to the event. This would, in theory, prevent teams from having to field their coach as a stand-in as previously seen with Space Soldiers during the FACEIT London Major. Things could get hectic once a number of roster moves are made, but this handy hub will keep you up to date with any changes as soon as they happen! Rumored and confirmed Roster changes timeline December 31st Team Envy add karrigan (Confirmed) – OpTic Gaming add refrezh (Confirmed) – Gambit Esports add bondik, bench dimasick (Confirmed) – ex-Space Soliders add yam (Confirmed) – December 29th Cloud9 add Zellsis (Confirmed) – compLexity adds n0thing, Rickeh (Confirmed) – December 28th Vitality replace Happy with ALEX (Confirmed) – December 23rd compLexity benches Android (Confirmed) – December 22nd XANTARES joins BIG for Nex (Rumor) – December 21st Stewie2K joins Team Liquid, Taco and Zews return to MIBR (Confirmed) – December 20th Tarik to miss IEM Katowice Major (Rumor) – compLexity benches Yay, coach Rambo departs (Confirmed) – December 18th MIBR to add Felps from INTZ (Rumor) – December 16th FaZe Clan benches Karrigan (Confirmed) – December 12th Boltz replaces Yel on Luminosity Gaming (Confirmed) – December 11th Made in Brazil (MIBR) to add Taco, Zews to join as coach (Rumor) – Stewie2K to leave MIBR for Team Liquid (Rumor) – Tarik benched by MIBR – December 10th waterfALLZ leaves Winstrike as a free agent (Confirmed) –

CSGO icon pashaBiceps to make MMA debut: “May the headshots be with me” @paszaBiceps/TwitterPolish influencer and former CS:GO player Jarosław ‘pashaBiceps’ Jarząbkowski has revealed that he will participate in his first MMA fight soon. The former CS:GO professional is slated to make his MMA debut on March 18 as part of the HIGH League freak fight gala, which sees a slew of Polish celebrities and influencers take part in combat sports fights. It remains unclear who pashaBiceps’ opponent for this fight will be. In February 2022, he beat Michal ‘OwcaWK’ Owczarzak, a Polish influencer and body-builder, in just two rounds in another HIGH League event. It was a “dirty boxing” fight, which means that fighters were not using standard boxing gloves. The upcoming HIGH League gala will take place at Spodek Arena, the iconic venue that stages every year the playoffs of IEM Katowice. It was in this arena where pashaBiceps won the ESL Major Series One Katowice 2014 Major after his team, Virtus.pro, beat Ninjas in Pyjamas in the final. pashaBiceps was one of the best AWPers during the early years of CS:GO, making HLTV.org’s top 20 player of the year ranking in 2013 (No.19) and 2014 (No.3). He also attracted a huge following because of his impressive physical form, which helped break the stereotypes normally associated with gamers, and his joyful personality. In 2020, he officially retired as a player and joined Team Liquid a streamer, representing the North American organization until August 2022. He won $577,382 throughout his CS:GO career, according to Esports Earnings, which makes him 45th on the game’s list of all-time earners.

CS:GO: How to watch ESL Pro League Season 8 finals – Stream, Groups and more The ESL Pro League Season 8 finals kick off in Odense, Denmark this week. If you are not lucky enough to be attending, we’ve got you covered on how you can watch from home. The current kings of Counter-Strike, Astralis, enter the Pro League finals as the overwhelming favourites after scooping up eight tournament wins from their last 11 events. They recently claimed ECS Season 6 Finals glory in Texas and are in red-hot form. This home event represents one of their two final chances to claim the additional $1,000,000 prize money on offer from the Intel Grand Slam. If they fail to win in Odense, they would have to score a victory at the IEM Katowice Major to complete the Grand Slam. Here’s everything you need to know. How can I watch? If you’re not in the arena, you’ll have to watch via Facebook or ESL’s Gaming TV website. With multiple games happening at once, the main and secondary streams will both be in action. Additional language streams will be available via Twitch and Mixer. ESL Pro League Season 8 Stream A: When is it? The 16-team event, which boasts a prize pool of $750,000 kicks off on Tuesday, December 4 and runs until December 9. The tournament begins with two groups of eight teams, battling it out with double-elimination. All eight opening games will be a best of one, with the following matchups moving to a best-of-three. Where is it? Odense, Denmark at the Sparekassen Fyn Arena. The arena will be open to the capacity crowd from Friday onwards but fans can also watch the Group Stages from inside the arena. Can I buy tickets? Tickets went on sale a couple of weeks ago so there isn’t a wide selection left. Tickets for the group stage games on December 5-6 are still available but not as a package deal. There are only limited tickets left for Friday and an even smaller amount of 3-day premium tickets remaining. If you move quick, you can buy them from ESL, here. What is the format? As already mentioned, teams will play a best-of-one game to open the tournament, with the following games being played as best-of-three maps. Top three teams will move into the playoffs where they will then play a best-of-three series in the quarter and semi-finals. Group winners will advance to the semi-finals, second-placed teams in the quarter-finals as high seeds and third-placed teams as quarter-finals low seeds. The Grand Finals will be a best-of-five series to decide the overall winner of this year’s Pro League. What are the groups? The groups were decided based on seeding from the relative European and North American Pro League standing. Astralis finished as Europe’s top seed with MiBR taking the top spot in North America. The groups are as follows:

CS:GO: How to watch ESL One Cologne 2019 – multistream, groups, schedule and more ESLCS:GO teams will be heading to Germany in a bid to claim the prestigious Cologne crown, a slice of the $300,000 prize pool and a notch on the IEM Grand Slam. While the annual Cologne event may not be one of Valve’s official Major event, the ever-raucous crowd certainly makes it feel like one and with the line-up of teams promising an explosive event, this year should be no different. So, here’s what you need to know about ESL One Cologne 2019. How to watch ESL One Cologne 2019 Whether you’re making the pilgrimage to the Cathedral of Counter-Strike or watching from home, ESL will have every angle covered. There are still a few general weekend and single-day tickets available on the ESL website at the time of writing, but if you aren’t quick enough to get there, it’s easy to kick back with your feet up and watch the action from wherever you are. With group stage games running in tandem, you’ll have to have more than one Twitch stream open if you don’t want to miss a moment any of the matches, but we’ve got both embedded here for your convenience. Additional language broadcasts will, of course, be available too. Stream A What is the format? The teams will play a best-of-one group game to open the tournament, with the following games being played as best-of-three maps. These opening matchups have already been decided and can be found below. After that, the top three teams will move into the playoffs where they will then play a best-of-three series in the quarter and semi-finals. Group winners will advance to the semi-finals, second-placed teams in the quarter-finals as high seeds, and third-place teams as a low seed. The Grand Finals, which take place on Sunday July 7, will be a best-of-five series to decide the overall winner of ESL One Cologne 2019. What are the groups? The groups for the event were unveiled on June 28 with Group A largely dominated by North American teams and Group B playing host to some of Europe’s best. The groups are as follows: ESL One Cologne 2019 Group A ESL One Cologne 2019 Group B What is the schedule? As previously mentioned, the five-day event kicks off on July 2 and runs through July 7. The first set of matches will begin at 11 AM GMT/ 7 AM EST/ 4 AM PST as Team Liquid battle MVP PK and Natus Vincere take on Mousesports. Games will kick off at those times until the play-off stages when fans can enjoy a later start time of 2 PM GMT/10 AM EST/7 AM PST. The full schedule can be found below: Tuesday, July 2 Wednesday, July 3 Thursday, July 4 Friday, July 5 Saturday, July 6 Sunday, July 7 – Grand Final This post was last updated on Sunday, July 7 at 12:07 pm EST.

CS:GO: How to watch BLAST Pro Series Los Angeles – format, schedule and more Blast pro seriesBLAST Pro Series returns with another invitational tournament for fans to enjoy as six of the top CS:GO teams are looking to battle it out in Los Angeles, California. Only two months on from where ENCE claimed victory in Madrid after defeating Astralis in the Grand final, BLAST Pro Series have returned for the latest stop in their BPS Circuit this time gathering six of the top teams to Los Angeles and putting up another $250,000 prize pool. This will be the first of the BLAST Pro Series tournaments without former number one team Astralis in attendance, as news of the tournament organizers severing ties with the esports org has been released following criticism from CS:GO fans. benching of Marcelo ‘coldzera’ David from the Brazilian squad, who will be using head coach Wilton ‘zews’ Prado as a stand-in for the event.So, here’s everything you need to know for BLAST Pro Series Los Angeles. How to Watch BLAST Pro L.A. 2019 For those wanting to attend the event in person, both weekend and day tickets are still available for purchase from BLAST Pro Series official website. If you just want to enjoy the tournament from home, each stage of the event will be streamed on their Twitch channels and additional language streams, such as Russian and German, will also be available as well. BLAST Pro Series Los Angeles main live stream: Watch live video from BLASTProSeries on www.twitch.tvWhat is the format? The event will follow the traditional BLAST Pro series tournament format where a best-of-one round robin will be have each of the teams play each other before moving on to the Playoff bracket. The top four teams from the group stage will go directly into the playoffs stage where all series will be best-of-three matches, starting with the semi-finals. BLAST Pro Series Los Angeles teams: What is the Schedule? The BLAST Pro group stages kicks off on July 13. The first set of matches will begin at 7 PM GMT/ 3 PM EST/ 12 AM PST as MiBR take on Renegades and FaZe Clan battle NRG Esports. The full schedule can be found below:

CSGO: How to play the new Cache rework ValveCS:GO players can finally get their hands on the reworked version of popular competitive map Cache. Map creator FMPONE has been working on an overhaul for Cache since it was removed from the competitive pool and replaced with Vertigo in March, and the new version is finally ready. The reworked map was debuted with a show match at ESL One New York, offering a preview of what was to come. Now, the map has been completed, and is available to play for regular players in-game. DE_CACHE by @FMPONE + @SalGarozzo https://t.co/yIH8TajV8lSteam Workshop: https://t.co/v5f4Z8Wzlj pic.twitter.com/rmPMdqiHV4 — FMPONE :gift: (@FMPONE) October 10, 2019 The map hasn’t yet been added into any of the official playlists by Valve, however. Instead, those that wish to play the map will have to go via the Workshop to get it. Read more: CS:GO: All major changes on the new Cache – To do so, players can select “Workshop Maps” from the dropdown menu in the top left of the Play screen in CS:GO, and then select “Visit Workshop” in the top right. Once you’ve found the map, hit the green “Subscribe” button, and it should be downloaded into your Workshop Maps tab. Given the popularity of the map, it’s likely that it will be visible on the front page of the Workshop for some time, although those struggling to find it can search for “CACHE (NEW)”, with the map creator being FMPONE. While it may not be available through Valve’s matchmaking, players may still be able to find matches on the map by going to community servers. Alternatively, the Mapcore FaceIt Hub announced that they have added new Cache to the map pool, allowing players to search for competitive games on the map using a free FaceIt account. Those familiar with the original Cache will certainly find the new version familiar, with the overall structure remaining largely the same. The map has been given a visual update, however, and subtle changes to the shape and layout of different areas could have significant effects on how the map plays, potentially producing new angles for pre-aims and grenades.

CS:GO: How to boost in Overpass after “Olofboost 2.0” fix The Counter-Strike: Global Offensive community are rediscovering a classic twist to the Overpass boost which lets players peak into the lower levels of the B Bombsite. In the August 19 CS:GO patch, the Valve developers trimmed away some excess elements behind the CT spawn in Overpass which prevented players from performing the “Olofboost 2.0” jump that’s been making the rounds on the internet. Since the trick was cut out of the game in the latest patch, players have been reminding the CS:GO community of another boost angle on the map. But this time, it’s a lot easier to pull off as opposed to how it used to be done. The boost is going to give CT players (and the T-sided team as well if they’re running the map) a look into the B bombsite from short A, or the outdoor alley that runs adjacent to the bathrooms just before connector. Before it used to take the whole five-member team to get a boost with similar effects, but with the help of extra elements near the bushes the load can be managed by just three people to get an eagle-eye view into B, shown in a post by Reddit user ‘FPSHater.’ How to boost in Overpass To pull off the boost, nestle a player into the corner where the half-wall meets the large wall in short A closer to the CT spawn. After that, get another player to jump on their head, then the top player needs to jump while holding the left and back keys so they can essentially stay in that position without needing a player under them. It’s important to note that if the player left on the wall releases their back and left keys, they’ll get unhinged to the wall. Finally, using the person who boosted up the first player, perform a run boost to get another teammate on top to perform a 2-man stack while being boosted by the map’s wall. Doing the boost correctly will give players an incredibly good look at the pathways that funnel into the B bombsite. While the boost is a bit hard to pull off, especially in one try, it could be a pretty useful tactic to pull off every once in a while to take an opposing CS:GO team by surprise.

CS:GO host throws a hilarious jab at Call of Duty esports during IEM Katowice broadcast Activision / ValveThe CS:GO and Call of Duty esports scenes are no slouches when it comes to friendly banter, and one host decided to throw a little jab across competitive divides during the pre-game show for an IEM Katowice Minor match. Hosts throughout esports fill in the time between matches with extensively thought out analysis or futile attempts at integrating memes, but one MC decided to use a bit of wordplay across game titles to get viewers to pay attention. CS:GO desk host Tres ‘Stunna’ Saranthus threw some off-the-cuff ribbing toward Call of Duty when he was hyping up a match that was set on the iconic map Nuke. The host stretched the wordplay just a bit to make an otherwise solid quip after his co hosts gave their predictions for the winner between a match with North and Vitality. “Dropping the nukes, as you will. That’s what we’re gonna be doing on the desk because it’s time to head on down to Nuke town. And I’m not talking about that other FPS, we’re talking about real esports around here,” Stunna said. The relation connects the popular map Nuketown that has been in multiple iterations of Call of Duty, to the CS:GO map. It was a fleeting comment used to transition the stream over to the game’s casters, but not before sending Twitch chat in a roar of laughter. Read more: What’s next for OpTic Gaming after disappointing performance at the IEM Katowice CS:GO EU Minor? – Exchanges between esports go a long way to merge the community if in good fun like this moment most certainly was.

CSGO hits new average player record, breaking two-year old peak More than seven years after its release, CS:GO is still growing, with Valve’s legendary FPS setting a new record for average players at the end of 2019. At the close of the decade, CS:GO is stronger than ever, with stats from Steamcharts revealing that the game ended 2019 with the highest number of average monthly players it has seen since its release in August 2012. Prior to 2019, the highest average players in a single month came in February 2017, which set the bar at 402,385. Since then the game’s popularity has fluctuated, but it wasn’t until August 2019 that a new record was set at 415,097. CS:GO has maintained over 400,000 average players to close out 2019, with the new peak coming in December at 456,701. The new record comes amid the ongoing Operation Shattered Web, which kicked off in November 2019 and introduced a host of new cosmetics, in-game missions, and for the first time allowed players to select their preferred character model. It’s also likely that the game is now seeing the fruits of moving to a free-to-play model. The change, which came in December 2018, saw an initial spike in players and may well have laid the foundation for the new records set towards the end of the following year. 2019 didn’t see a new record for peak concurrent players – that still belongs to April 2016, a month in which both Operation Wildfire and the MLG Columbus Major,which still offered case drops to viewers, took place, with a peak of 850,485. However, from September to December 2019 the game did hit a peak concurrent number of over 700,000, the highest being December with 767,060. This is the first time that the game has hit a peak over 700,000 in consecutive months since January to April of 2017. It’s this consistency, along with the new record for average players, which suggest that at nine years old, CS:GO is in a better place than ever before, with players not only picking up the game but playing it consistently over a period of months.

CS:GO hits massive player milestone after move to free-to-play CS:GO ended 2018 on a high note by hitting a major player milestone in the final month. More than six years after its release, CS:GO is still breaking new ground. In December, the game saw a new record of unique players, with 20,535,709 individuals playing, doubling the previous month. The new record comes in the wake of a major update for CS:GO, which had the game move to free-to-play and added Danger Zone, Valve’s take on the popular Battle Royale game-mode within Counter-Strike. It remains to be seen what proportion of this surge in interest CS:GO can maintain going forward, and whether it can continue to expand by capturing interest in regions such as China and South Korea, where free-to-play games have typically dominated. With the increase in player-base, however, seems to have also come an increase in cheaters. December also saw a record number of bans handed out by Valve Anti-Cheat, with more than 500,000 Steam accounts being hit. Though not all VAC bans necessarily came in CS:GO, the number – which was more than double the previous record for a single month – does correlate with the increase in players after the game became free-to-play. Despite the apparent increase in cheaters, the boost in VAC bans does at least suggest the system is working to some degree, and in the long term an increase in players is likely to be good for the game overall if they can maintain this newfound interest.

CSGO hits 1 million concurrent players for first time ever ValveCounter-Strike: Global Offensive, Valve’s acclaimed FPS, has reached yet another incredible milestone, as the 7-year-old game’s popularity shows no sign of slowing down. Originally released back in 2012, CS:GO has merely strengthened the series’ standing as one of the most dominant forces in the history of FPS titles. Despite a fairly simple formula, it has once again proved effective. This has never been reinforced more than on March 14 2020, when CS:GO hit over 1,000,000 concurrent players for the first time ever. It is thought to average over 11 million players per month, but had not previously hit 1 million players on the game simultaneously. CS:GO’s incredible popularity is highlighted in the consistently high player counts displayed over the week of March 7-14. The concurrent player count rarely falls below 500k and, depending on time of day, tends to sit between the 500,000 and 1 million player marks. Read More: How to watch FLASHPOINT Season 1 – Going free-to-play is undoubtedly a factor in its success, with players not having any barrier to trying the game and so are far more likely to dip their toes in and then stick around. Another likely reason is the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. It has prompted the cancellation of large-scale sporting and esports events on an incredible scale, including all of CS:GO’s ESL Pro League Season 11. In order to ensure the safety of players, fans and our crew in the current global dynamics, Season 11 of #ESLProLeague will be played entirely online and the finals will be moved from Denver to a studio location. Full details: https://t.co/qBdmv0QjSj pic.twitter.com/rhT6awYDEQ — ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) March 11, 2020 As nations across the world strive to delay the virus’ spread, people exhibiting symptoms are being encouraged to self-isolate. This has probably forced a number of people inside, who are playing video games in an effort to entertain themselves as they stay indoors. In response to the news, the official CS:GO account simply tweeted: “Thanks a million”. The record reinforces CS:GO’s standing as one of the most popular games in the world. The idea of having 1 million players on the game, all at the same time, is hard to fathom. While Valve’s response was fairly casual, the unbelievable support from fans of the game over the years is a testament to its staying power.

CS:GO Hitbox and Nuke Changes Go Live in New Patch Along With Updated Bomb Logic – Release Notes for May 21st A new CS:GO update has gone live which implements the hitbox and changes introduced in a recent beta patch as well as some new changes for defusing bombs. A Counter-Strike: Global Offensive update was added to the beta depot on May 18th which brought a solution to some of the problems experienced where shooting players in the back of the head wouldn’t register as headshots. The change added a new hitbox to the back of the neck which would make things more predictable and, after positive community feedback, it has now been added to the game on a permanent basis. Other changes from the pre-release, such as the adjustments to ambient sounds and the various tweaks to Nuke and Overpass, have also been fully implemented in the May 21st patch along with some all-new tweaks to way that bombs work. Read More: Professional CS:GO Players Tested for Performance-Enhancing Drugs at ESL Pro League Finals – These “bomb logic” changes mean that defusing bombs on the last tick will now result in a defuse and not an explosion, with the patch notes claiming “if a bomb would both explode and be defused at the same exact time, it will now be considered defused”. The “Prime” matchmaking experience has also seen a change as players with Prime accounts will now “receive a warning in a Competitive lobby when they enter matchmaking with other Prime accounts whose Trust Factor may impact their matchmaking experience”. 500The full patch notes for the May 21st Counter-Strike: Global Offensive update are as follows: Release Notes for 5/21/2018 MISC – Bomb logic now runs every tick when it is close to exploding or being defused, addressing some rare cases where an extremely close defuse would still result in the bomb exploding. – If a bomb would both explode and be defused at the same exact time, it will now be considered defused. – Prime accounts will now receive a warning in a Competitive lobby when they enter matchmaking with other Prime accounts whose Trust Factor may impact their matchmaking experience. GAMEPLAY – General adjustments to ambient sounds: — Increased resolution and character of reverb effects to better reflect surrounding map geometry — Small mix adjustments – Improved vent destruction sounds and increased audible distance. – Added a new hitbox type for necks and applied it to the existing neck hitbox on character models. Bullets that penetrate the neck into the head will now count as headshots. This should make it more intuitive to tell when an attack from behind will result in a headshot. – Fixed ‘use’ key to more reliably pick up weapons on the ground and to not drop the active weapon if a replacement weapon cannot be picked up. MAPS Nuke: – Optimizations for low settings – Blocked visibility between silos inside A site – Ported over ShortNuke gameplay changes: – Removed Toxic – Vent no longer connects directly to B site, but has another exit close to double doors – Pushed new corner boxes on B site further back to prevent headshot angle towards ramp – Added solid background to yellow crane inside B site – Smoothed out some player movement Overpass: – Lowered volume of ambient sounds in Overpass – Added grenade and player collision to fence cage near construction – Removed spooky shadow fading in when approaching T main entrance to B site

CSGO: HellRaisers bench their entire roster after early Berlin Major exit StarLadderFollowing an early elimination from the StarLadder CS:GO Berlin Major, Hellraisers have decided to go in a completely new direction, benching the entirety of their CIS squad. Sometimes you have to burn it all down to build it back up. The HellRaisers are taking a molotov to their current CS:GO form, after they announced that their entire starting roster is taking a seat on the bench. Read more: How to watch StarLadder Champions stage – The following players are now listed as “inactive” on the HellRaisers roster, as of September 4: Kirill ‘ANGE1‘ Karasiow Issa ‘ISSAA‘ Murad Tomáš ‘oskar‘ Šťastný Christian ‘loWel‘ Garcia Antoran Žygimantas ‘nukkye‘ Chmieliauskas ANGE1 has had one of the longest tenures of a CS:GO player on single team: over five years with HellRaisers. But after poor performances after the new core came in this year, and given that he’ll be turning 30 in just a few days, it’s hard to see a scenario where he continues to start for HR. An emotional HellRaisers squad console each other over their loss at the StarLadder Berlin Major. There’s no assurance that none of these players will ever play for HR again. Virtus.Pro benched their entire roster in late 2018, and brought some of them back just a couple weeks later. For the players who don’t return, there will likely be plenty of opportunities elsewhere after the conclusion of the major. HellRaisers had two players already on the inactive list prior to this announcement, Bence ‘DeadFox‘ Böröcz and former major winner Abay ‘HObbit‘ Khassenov. DeadFox is now out and officially a free agent, while HObbit is still on the transfer list. Hellraisers went home early at the StarLadder Berlin Major. The core of HellRaisers has been active since April, and have little to no success in that half a year. Since making playoffs of the FACEIT London major in late 2018, they were eliminated in the Legends stage of IEM Katowice, and just recently eliminated in the Challengers stage of StarLadder Berlin. CEO Oleksii ‘Magician’ Slabukhin said of the change: “This season hasn’t been easy for anyone who supports and believes in HellRaisers no matter what. All of the guys proved to be true professionals and talented players, but unfortunately we didn’t manage to build a team which every fan of HellRaisers could be proud of. However, a new season means new opportunities. We’ll soon announce an updated CS:GO roster, as well as some other good news!“ You can read the full announcement here: HR Roster Change. :arrow_right:️ https://t.co/dxsRIgHRAx pic.twitter.com/slqHM95Mze — HellRaisers Esports (@HELLRAISERSgg) September 4, 2019 HellRaisers will now have to enter a busy roster transfer season after the Berlin Major, with several other organizations already announcing plans to gut their rosters, including CompLexity, and new organizations like 100 Thieves will be inserting themselves into the scene as well.

CS:GO Halloween update allows players to become Ghosts, adds spooky Cobblestone rework – Patch notes Halloween has arrived in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and a spooky version of Cobblestone has gone live to celebrate that fact. Cobblestone is a fan-favorite map but hasn’t been seen much since it was replaced in the Active Duty map pool by Dust II back in April of 2017. Well now it’s back (if only for a limited time) with a totally revamped look in celebration of Halloween. Changes include a spooky night time setting, the removal of the Danger connect at A long and a new window in Underpass. The Halloween theme doesn’t begin and end with Cobblestone, though. In Casual, Demolition and Flying Scotsman modes, players are now be able to haunt their opponents after dying as ‘Ghosts’. These Ghosts will be able to spray graffiti, interact with props and even turn chickens into zombie chickens! HAPPY HALLOWEEN In Casual, Demolition, and Flying Scoutsman game modes, players now haunt the world as ghosts when they die until the end of the round. Spoooooky! – Ghosts can: – Only be seen by other ghosts and observers. – Apply Graffiti in the world. – Affect interact-able props (soccer balls, glass, potted plants, etc). – Turn chickens into zombie chickens. – Possess Bots by using them. – Two pumpkin soccer balls now spawn in a random places on the map during Halloween. – Improved chickens ability to avoid walking straight into walls. – Chickens now spawn in all non-competitive matches during Halloween. – Chickens have gotten into the spooky Halloween spirit. – Who put all this candy corn in my gun?! – MAPS Biome: Fixed out of map exploit – Fixed several stuck spots – Fixed several incorrect collisions – Updated radar to new style – Subzero: Minor optimizations – Minor readability improvements – Fixed several deathmatch spawns – Fixed clipping texture playing wrong sound at A Pit – T-Water no longer kills players – Updated radar overview – Cbble: Halloween is here, so why not try out some super scary layout changes? Removed connector between Long A and Underpass – Blocked long view angle from Long A CT side towards courtyard – Decreased height of doors in Underpass – Added window in Underpass – Removed slanted door leading into Underpass – Removed a large section of old Bombsite A courtyard – Moved up Bombsite A zone towards ramp – Removed access to most of T spawn area – Moved up T spawn positions – Added climbable props in dropdown – Added cover in corridor leading to Bombsite B platform – Added spooky Halloween theme – UI Added fallback image for unknown workshop maps. – Fixed a case of incorrect player alive record keeping. – Fixed regression in map vote random shuffle. – Fixed voting tab not having initial focus. – Fixed issue with early votes being ignored in some cases. – Fixed case where end of match would flicker on future consecutive matches. – Fixed mouse cursor appearing immediately on end of match. – Fix for a case of bad perf with high maxrounds. – MISC Timeouts are now saved and restored in round backups. –

CS:GO Twitch streamer forgets to disable weapon and bomb cheats L: ValveA Twitch streamer was caught red-handed after forgetting to turn off cheats while streaming CS:GO. While watching Twitch streamer Geezoria playing CS:GO, viewers noticed something wasn’t quite right about his game. Specifically, weapons on the ground and the bomb appeared to be glowing, with a coloured outline indicating where they were that could be seen through the walls on Cache. While it may not be quite so severe as some of the hacks and cheats that can be used in CS:GO, such as aim-bots or outright wallhacks that allow you to see enemies through the walls, but nevertheless it does definitely appear to be a use of third-party software to gain an unfair advantage in the game. This isn’t the only time Geezoria has been connected to cheats, however, as his YouTube channel also features videos of him trying out more powerful hacks in CS:GO, which allowed him to see enemy outlines, health, and other information through walls. If you’re streaming a multiplayer game on Twitch, the broadcasting platform’s community guidelines state that you have to conform to the game’s rules. As a result, getting caught using a cheat or hack like this in a competitive game can have consequences for your Twitch channel even if you manage to get away with it in the game itself. So far, Geezoria doesn’t seem to have suffered any punishment on his Twitch account, which at the time of writing remains active. The clips have been deleted from his channel, but not before they were saved by viewers on alternative platforms. This certainly isn’t the first time that a player has been caught using hacks in CS:GO while streaming. In May, another streamer was banned on Twitch after bringing up a cheat menu in-game, and perhaps the most notorious incident occurred in June 2017 when a streamer was caught using cheats and blamed it on her friend ‘Clara’. While Geezoria seems to have evaded punishment so far, it remains to be seen whether his Twitch account will survive for much longer.

CSGO grenade update introduces hilarious new way to fake a flash Molen via Team Liquid YT / ValveA new tactic has been unlocked in CSGO that’s letting players ‘clear’ multiple angles using a single Flash Grenade – while not exactly having to pop the utility. Players are having a ball in CSGO after the Operation Riptide patch update that introduced the ability to drop grenades, similar to how you would with weapons. While there’s split opinions on the latest changes, there’s certainly enough changes to have an immediate impact on gameplay. That’s what Mythic’s Josiah ‘JoJo’ Jimenez found after testing out a tried-and-true troll tactic against an opponent. Essentially, they did the weapon drop fake that can sometimes fool an AWPer to shoot. But now that you can drop utility in the same fashion as weapons, it opens up the possibility to force seasoned CSGO players to look away from the Flash – even though there’s no chance it’ll actually pop. use 1 flash to clear multiple angles is new meta pic.twitter.com/Kkrz2Gt0iD — JoJo (@JosiahCSGO) September 22, 2021 “Use one flash to clear multiple angles is new meta,” JoJo quipped, showing a clip of their gameplay where they dropped the flash in a way that appeared similar to an underhand toss for grenades. The clip utilized the new drop mechanic to perfection, since the opponent clearly reacted to the fake throw giving JoJo a clear opportunity to exploit. At this point in Counter-Strike’s community, even lower ranked players know they should at least look away when a cylindrical object jumps across your screen. JoJo started the motion of dubbing this tactic the ‘NA Flash,’ which would give a new meaning to the long-running meme. While the new CSGO changes still need to be felt out, there’s plenty of people already planning to experiment with this strat in their own matches. Valve will surely monitor how the Operation Riptide changes will affect CSGO in the long run, so it’ll be interesting to see if this fake Flash could actually work on a consistent basis.

“Game breaking” graphics glitch in CS:GO gives player the ultimate wallhack ValveCounter-Strike: Global Offensive fans have been left bamboozled by a wallhack-like error that allows them to see players, even if they are behind cover, for a brief few moments. Valve’s popular shooter has stood the test of time since it’s release in August 2012, going from strength to strength while other franchises have tried their best to knock it off its perch. While the title may not be completely flawless, it remains a fan favorite and a hugely successful competitive esport title. Yet, that might be somewhat challenged by a new graphical problem that’s allowing some players to see through surfaces, despite them not having any sort of exploit enabled. What is this new glitch? One Reddit user, AleksanderBuljo, uploaded a clip to the CS:GO subreddit, showing off a glitch that allowed them to temporarily see through a smoke grenade. Maneuvering into the A bombsite on Overpass from long, the player checked plenty of necessary corners before peering into the site. Once there, the graphics bug allowed them to see through a bloomed smoke grenade that had been placed towards the Truck position – spotting an enemy counter-terrorist repositioning themselves. While AleksanderBuljo seemingly tried to use the strange error to their advantage, their search for a kill was halted as the opposing player gunned them down within moments of them exiting the fading smoke. Other users offer up their insight A number of fellow Redditors tried to explain the issue that the original poster described as “game breaking”, while others took shots at the user for potentially using exploits and trying to mask it as an error. One plausible explanation, from user m1serablist, stated that it appeared as if the players GPU inside their PC was beginning to fail, causing errors in-game. The gamer also used a previous post from AleksanderBuljo that showcased another glitch, where their teammates had become invisible, as proof. Others, including zestlemon, backed-up the GPU theory by adding that they had witnessed a similar error where parts of the map had become transparent – giving them a wallhack-like glitch. Yet, a few rounds into the game their GPU would fail and cause the PC to crash. Will Valve respond with a fix? Valve has yet to confirm how the bug actually occurred, so it’s not yet known if the error was on the side of the user or the game – even though it may seem like a cut and dry answer that it stems from the player’s end. If it was to do with the game itself, then Valve would clearly have to recreate the error before sending out a fix to prevent it from appearing regularly moving forward as it could have major implications on matches – seeing as it appears to be a wallhack-lite.

CS:GO goes free-to-play, announces battle royale mode called ‘Danger Zone’ Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is the latest game to hop on the battle royale train with the release of the brand-new mode entitled ‘Danger Zone.’ Over the last few days, the CS:GO community has been buzzing with rumors centered around the possibility of a new battle royale mode for the classic title. On December 6, those rumors were confirmed with the unveiling of the new mode called ‘Danger Zone’ that will put a unique CS:GO spin on the popular genre. Unlike most battle royale titles, this mode will feature just 18 players (16 players for Solos), but will still feature the same concept of a constantly shrinking zone that players will need to navigate around. Another major difference is the exclusion of the typical four-player squad variant, with Danger Zone featuring Solos, Duos, and Trios modes at launch. Read More: Black Ops 4 Battle Edition announced for PC – Instead of simply looking for weapons spread throughout the map, players will earn money from completely different tasks and contracts each round that will allow the opportunity to purchase weapons and equipment prior to the start of each round. And CS:GO is now free to play! More information about the differences between non-Prime and Prime can be found here: https://t.co/OkFBi6jP3c — CS:GO (@csgo_dev) December 6, 2018 In addition to the announcement of Danger Zone, it was also announced that the game has gone free-to-play, with anyone being able to pick up the game with all game modes immediately. Players who already own the game will be given “Prime Status” that comes with special perks such as souvenir items, item drops, and weapons cases. Those looking to gain Prime Status can either reach Rank 21 by earning experience points and adding an eligible phone number or purchasing the Prime Status upgrade for $14.99 in the Steam store or in-game. That Prime Status will come in handy for players wanting to unlock the new souvenir weapon ‘MP5-SD | Lab Rats’ before it goes away January 9, 2019. Danger Zone Frequently Asked Questions How many players are in a match? If you queue as a solo player, you’ll enter a 16 player match. If you queue as a squad of two or three, your match will have up to 18 players. How do I play as a squad? You can play with friends by joining their lobby in the main menu. Play Danger Zone as a two or three-player squad, and you’ll be matched against other squads. How long do matches last? Danger Zone matches typically last about 10 minutes. Do weapons behave the same as they do in other CS:GO game modes? Yes. CS:GO’s guns have the same behavior and damage in Danger Zone as in other CS:GO game modes. However, since Danger Zone players can have up to 120HP, they may survive encounters that would otherwise be deadly. How is XP earned? You can earn XP in Danger Zone by looting your environment, killing enemies and trying your best to survive. How do I get the Souvenir MP5-SD | Lab Rats? To earn a Souvenir MP5-SD | Lab Rats, you need to have Prime Status and earn 250 XP in Danger Zone. The souvenir is available for all players until 2019-01-09

CSGO: gla1ve criticizes DreamHack Malmo following communication issues StarLadderAstralis’ in-game leader Lukas ‘gla1ve’ Rossander has stated that the conditions for DreamHack Masters Malmo were less than ideal as the Danish CS:GO squad could hear the casters during matches. Like a number of esports, Counter-Strike events have to find a balance between making sure teams are in the optimal conditions to perform, while also making the fans feel like they’re not cut out of the in-arena action. Many tournament organizers have moved away from using the full, soundproof booths of the past and opting for open set-ups with noise-canceling headphones. However, despite some best precautions, Astralis ran into some issues at DreamHack Masters Malmo where they could hear the in-arena commentary during matches. Speaking to Danish broadcaster TV2 in the wake of their Malmo exit, gla1ve claimed that the overall situation was a “mess” in Astralis’ Teamspeak and became “confusing” when the team could hear the casters both while talking between themselves and even cutting off all conversations. Of course, wanting to call-out tactics, positions, and other key information has been a major part of the Danes’ success, but it was seemingly difficult to pull off in front of the Swedish crowd. The in-game leader also added the situation was “a different form of unrest and stress” compared to when they play ESL tournaments as “the sound is completely shut out” and the Danes can only hear each other, and not anything else. While he may have been positive about ESL events, the team did run into problems at ESL One New York with the crowd calling out positions for Team Liquid during their barnburner of a match-up – as Peter ‘dupreeh’ Rasmussen labeled it as a “disgrace.” However, gla1ve also noted that the disruption at Malmo wasn’t an excuse for their disappointing result, adding that “it’s the same conditions for the other teams,” so it doesn’t help any cause for change when eventual winners Fnatic can perform in the same environment. In the past, DreamHack events have used a number of soundproof booths – following in the path of some CS:GO tournaments organizers – but have followed suit with others in moving to the more open stage plan and apparent noise-canceling headsets. Whether or not they’ll find a way to rectify their apparent problem remains to be seen, but at least, for now, Astralis aren’t entirely happy with the way things are.

CS:GO: GeT_RiGhT reveals future plans after NiP’s strong start at ESL One Cologne DreamHackCS:GO legend Christopher ‘GeT_RiGhT’ Alesund gave an update on his future intentions after NiP’s strong start at ESL One Cologne. There has been some uncertainty about GeT_RiGhT’s future after Ninjas in Pyjamas announced that they would be looking for a long-term replacement for him after the StarLadder Berlin Major. Having spent nearly seven years competing for NiP, GeT_RiGhT’s departure from the team will mark the end of an era. He is one of the organization’s most iconic players, and alongside Patrik ‘f0rest’ Lindberg also one of the only remaining members of the legendary line-up that dominated the first years of CS:GO. Considering how veteran a player GeT_RiGhT is, many fans speculated that being cut from the team he’s spent the entirety of CS:GO’s lifespan playing for might mean the end of his career as a player. It seems, however, that GeT_RiGht isn’t done yet. In an interview at ESL One Cologne, where NiP is currently competing, GeT_RiGhT stated that while his future with NiP remains uncertain, the one thing he’s sure of is that he’s not ready to retire. “It’s kind of very emotional for me to even talk about it because I don’t know what my future is in the team. I know that I’m helping out until after the Major when they’re going to decide what’s going to happen with me, and I’m open to stepping down if that’s the possibility. I feel personally I don’t want to give up on playing, I feel like I’m not even done as a player. I want to show everyone once again that I want to keep playing. We’ll have to see what happens, I haven’t made any decisions, the only thing is I’m not retiring at least.” The statement comes after a strong showing for Ninjas in Pyjamas in the opening rounds of ESL One Cologne. They won their first match against Vitality, who are entering off of a big victory at the ECS Season 7 Finals, and then cruised past Heroic with a 2-0 win to guarantee a playoff spot. They’re now due to face Astralis to determine whether they advance to the semi-finals or quarter-finals. Regardless of the outcome for NiP at ESL One Cologne, fans will still get at least one more chance to see GeT_RiGhT compete for the Ninjas at the StarLadder Berlin Major, taking place August 23 to September 8. Exactly how long after that it will take for NiP to find a suitable replacement for GeT_RiGhT, however, remains to be seen.

CSGO gambler glues hand to skin slot machine at Paris Major to protest “scam” site YouTube: Sh1nCSAn attendee at the BLAST Paris Major staged a protest against CS:GO gambling site CSGORoll by gluing his hand to a skin slot machine that was available at the G2 Esports booth. Shortly before the Paris Major began, G2, one of the favorites going into the event, announced a partnership with CSGORoll. The announcement was met with some backlash, both because of the nature of CSGORoll’s business, and for using Ilya ‘m0NESY’ Osipov in a promotional video, the day after he turned 18. CSGORoll was emblazoned on the team’s jersey at the event, where they crashed out in 12-14th place, and featured at the team’s booth in the arena. As part of the promotion, a physical slot machine was available for passers-by to use, with skins as the prizes. CS:GO fan stages anti-CSGORoll protest A viral clip shared by G2 even showed a lucky fan winning an AWP Dragon Lore – one of the most expensive skins in Counter-Strike – using the slot machine. However, not everyone was happy about the booth. In another video, a protester glued his hand to the machine, and while security took steps to remove him, he shouted that CSGORoll was a “scam” and had “no license.” At one point, the protester also claims that he lost his house “to this f**king company.” A crowd of onlookers booed at some points and asked how long he would take so others could play. After a few minutes, a total of five security staff surrounded the protester and removed him from the machine, to cheers from the waiting crowd. On Twitter, in now-deleted Tweets, CSGORoll alleged that the protester was actually set up by a rival skin gambling site, CS:GO Empire. “This person was paid by a competitor as part of their defamation and sabotage campaign,” they claimed. They also alleged that the individual was supplied with “defamatory leaflets” criticizing CSGRoll that were handed out to members of the crowd. CS:GO Empire responded, and did not deny involvement in the incident directly. Instead, they used the opportunity to question CSGORoll’s business practices. What is CSGORoll? CSGORoll is one of the best-known skins gambling sites, although it describes itself as the “Largest CSGO P2P Skins Marketplace” in its Twitter bio. On May 17, the Australian government banned the site and deemed it to be illegal, issuing a warning to its owner, Feral Holdings Limited. All CS:GO gambling exists in a grey area of sorts. Steam’s Subscriber Agreement prohibits the use of skins and other items for commercial use, with gambling listed as one example. However, the practice has existed in one form or another for years, and the value of CS:GO skins has continued to increase over that time. Despite the wave of cease and desists issued by Valve against 23 gambling sites in 2016, there are still a number of places to wager items.

G2 Esports CSGO coach explains bomb defuse fail at Berlin Major StarladderCS:GO G2 Esports coach Damien ‘maLeK’ Marcel provided a hilarious excuse as to why his team didn’t defuse the bomb in their StarLadder Berlin best-of-one match against Astralis on August 29. As we reported, G2 pretty much gifted their opponents a victory in their Nuke matchup. Even after they were able to kill each member of Astralis, the bomb still went off. The failure was so epic, even G2’s CEO and founder, Carlos ‘ocelote’ Rodríguez chimed in by parodying compLexity owner Jason Lake. “I love our players but not defusing the bomb won’t be tolerated,” he joked. “If you’re a Tier 1 player looking for a fresh start at the best facility in the world, HMU. I’ll pay your buyout and give you the world’s best salaries and defuse kits.” Now, G2’s coach has revealed what was going on to lead to such a brutal mistake. Interviewer Sue ‘Smix’ Lee asked maLeK what was going on with that “defuse situation or lack of a defuse”. “I heard that you cannot find it on G2/shop,” the coach replied, joking plugging his team’s store. “It happens. It’s an exotic,” the French 33-year-old added, explaining how the team’s communication wasn’t so good. Clearly for no one to defuse the bomb, the team was lacking both awareness and proper comms. How else could such a thing ever happen? Well, as the coach continued, he explained. “We were like in the middle of a dark place. Not communicating well. Not applying the game plan as according. And all those things and I don’t know, you just, I don’t know,” he shrugged. “We were just not so focused for some reason, having many things in our minds probably. Nothing else to say actually.” G2 Esports currently sits at 2-1 while ENCE and NRG sit atop of the rankings at 3-0. The team managed to come back from their embarrassing loss to Astralis with a 16-4 win against MiBR. Their next match is against AVANGAR on August 31. For all the StarLadder action, schedule and latest results check out our CS:GO Berlin Major results hub.

CSGO: Freakazoid slams Complexity CEO for “stupid” Berlin Major tweet L: ESL / R: Facebook – Jason LakeCounter-Strike: Global Offensive pro Ryan ‘freakazoid’ Abadir had a lot to say about Complexity CEO Jason Lake’s tweet following his team’s exit from the StarLadder Berlin Major. Freakazoid is a veteran Counter-Strike player that has been playing professionally since 2010. He is best known for his time at Cloud9 in 2015-2016, where the team was the only American squad that could compete with the rest of the world. In June 2019 his team, Ghost Gaming, broke up and he has been focusing on streaming CS:GO, as well as being an active member of the community. On August 26 the American spoke about Jason Lake’s tweet, in which the Complexity CEO announced he is looking to build a new team, just minutes after the current squads’ elimination from the StarLadder Berlin Major. “You’re never fucking going to get tier one players because they see a tweet like that and think, what would make me want to go and play for an owner that’s going to talk shit to somebody losing” said Freakazoid. He then shook his head and added: “That’s embarrassing man. Aint anybody good playing for you… you’re silly man.” Ryan was not impressed with Jason’s tweet and the way he treated his team, later adding “I think it’s fucking stupid. I think it’s silly you did the shit you did, you should never treat your players like that.” Freakazoid also touched on Jason saying that he had talked to the team beforehand, and claimed it was “doubtful” he did, as the ex-Cloud9 star believes Jason does not respect his players. Complexity’s future is uncertain as it has not yet been confirmed if the entire squad will be leaving or just a selection of players. However, they may be able to create an amazing squad, as players like Marcelo ‘coldzera’ David, Robin ‘flusha’ Rönnquist, and Aleksi ‘Aleksib’ Virolainen are all currently looking for a new home.

CSGO: Freakazoid reacts hilariously after bizarre listen-in at ESL Pro League ESLViewers got the chance to listen in to eUnited’s comms during their series against Evil Geniuses at the ESL Pro League Season 10, and it’s safe to say they were not expecting what they got to hear. The tenth season of the American ESL Pro League got underway on October 8 with 16 of the top teams from North and South America battling it out for their place in the global finals against the best teams in the world. Among the first games played at the Pro League, saw ESL One New York champions Evil Geniuses matching up against eUnited to kick off Group B of the event. During the second map of the series, the camera panned to some of the eUnited players as they were buying their weapons and discussing strategies for the round ahead. eUnited’s AWPer Austin ‘Cooper-’ Abadir was communicating with his team, which was faintly picked up by the camera before he questioned which of his fellow CS:GO pros had been farting near him. “Dude, I don’t know who the f**k is farting but this is unbelievable,” He said, unaware that he could be heard on stream, as the casters to burst into laughter, questioning if everyone at home had heard it too. Another clip from one of the previous rounds saw Cooper’s brother Ryan ‘freakazoid’ Abadir reacting to the smell by covering his nose with his jersey during the timeout. After waiting a short while, the former Cloud9 star sat back up again only to find that the smell was still lingering, and began to fan the air in front of him, making hilarious faces in the process. Many fans were suspecting that the eUnited rifler, Vanity, was to blame as he sat directly in-between the eUnited brothers who were both unimpressed by the odor. But, we’ll never know for sure. Unfortunately for eUnited, they ended up falling 2-1 to Evil Geniuses in the series, however, their chances to make it to the ESL Pro League finals are still alive.

CS:GO: Former Cloud9 star Freakazoid linked with high profile move DreamhackGhost Gaming are set to make a change to their Counter-Strike: Global Offensive with Yassine ‘Subroza’ Taoufik expected to leave the roster. The North-American squad have improved significantly in recent months under the leadership of in-game leader Joshua ‘Steel’ Nissan. The team qualified for the recent ESL Pro League Season 8 finals in Odense, after finishing the online portion of the league in second-place. However, they look set to lose one of their most long-tenured players in Subroza, as the Canadian is set to step away from the roster. In a report from VPEsports’s DeKay, With Subroza expected to step down from the roster, he is likely to be replaced by current Swole Patrol player Ryan ‘Freakazoid’ Abadir. Freakazoid, who played on the iconic Cloud9 summer of 2015 roster, has built his reputation in CS:GO back up after leaving his former organisation. After a stint with Echo Fox under former C9 teammate Sean ‘SeanG@res’ Gares, the rifler made the move to Swole Patrol to play alongside his brother – Austin ‘Cooper-‘ Abadir. However, Cooper- left his brother’s roster for eUnited on November 1. The move comes just as a number of North American roster shuffle has started to take place. It was reported on December .. that former Major winner Jake ‘Stewie2K’ Yip is set to depart Made in Brazil (MIBR) and join Team Liquid with Epitácio ‘TACO’ de Melo headed the other way. However, Stewie’s departure doesn’t conclude MIBR’s roster moves. The majority Brazilian team is also set to remove their other American player, Tarik ‘Tarik’ Celik, after signing João ‘felps’ Vasconcellos from INTZ for around $ 150,000.

CS:GO: Former Cloud9 star loads up Danger Zone, immediately blows himself up The newly released battle royale mode for CS:GO, Danger Zone, brings an entirely new spin on the Counter-Strike formula and even longtime pros are having a hard time adjusting. Danger Zone follows the same basic formula as other games of its genre with a notable size difference in the number of players that occupy a server while also keeping elements from traditional CS:GO matches. Former Cloud9 pro Jordan ‘n0thing’ Gilbert had just loaded up Danger Zone when he and his stream got an explosive lesson that will come in handy for other players. The latest mode for Valve’s longtime shooter, Danger Zone. N0thing was in a party with Michael ‘Shroud’ Grzesiek and Tyler ‘Skadoodle’ Latham when he was experimenting on opening a Reinforced Crate. After not being able to get into the crate, n0thing got the idea of planting C4 and it wasn’t long before he ended up dead. “I just died! I just blew myself up,” n0thing said in disbelief. “What?! That’s a normal bomb radius?!” Sitting at 118 health and being relatively far away from the bomb, n0thing clearly felt as though he was safe, having survived many blast radiuses during his pro career. Turns out the radius of C4 in Danger Zone is a bit different than he’s used to and he was instantly deleted off the map. It looks like it will take some time for community members and pros alike to get used to Danger Zone, but Valve has said they are looking to update the game based on community feedback. Along with the update, Valve has adopted a free-to-play model for CS:GO, letting anyone pick up the game and drop into the Danger Zone.

CSGO: Fnatic reveal potential roster moves and future plans StarLadderFnatic’s Jesper ‘JW’ Wecksell and team director Andreas Samuelsson hosted an AMA on Reddit, where they shared a few interesting details about the CS:GO team’s future. Fnatic is one of the biggest organizations in Counter-Strike, having fielded teams since as far back as 2005. They are a household name in CS:GO having won three Majors and dominating most events in 2015. The team has been struggling since late 2016, and recently fell to their lowest level as they failed to qualify for the 2019 StarLadder Berlin Major. Fnatic took drastic action by removing two of their players on August 21 and hosted an Ask Me Anything on Reddit to answer fan’s questions about the future. The AMA was run by one of the team’s veteran players, JW, and the team director. They answered many questions from the community, including topics like their future, new players, and in-depth details about the inner workings of the team. “Will we see JW or Krimz step up to the IGL or will we be seeing a new IGL? Also, is Brollan staying? Will JW be going back to main Awper?” Asked one Reddit user. Fnatic were able to confirm that Ludvig ‘Brollan’ Brolin would be staying on the team and that while they are looking for a new IGL, it’s also possible their current players could take the role, depending on who they are able to sign. The Swedes also commented about the squad’s play style and the type of players they are looking for. The most notable response was that the team plays a loose style as it is the strength of the roster, and that’s why they haven’t played similarly to Astralis and Team Liquids structured style. Meanwhile, when it comes to players, they are looking for two young talents, as they are aiming for long term success. Finally, the team confirmed that they have not chosen any players yet and that they are open to both an international and Swedish team, however, a Swedish lineup would “make more sense right now.” Fnatic’s next official match is still uncertain, although they are confirmed to be attending DreamHack Masters Malmo at the start of October, so we may see players join the team by then.

CSGO: Fnatic reportedly practicing with former star ESLFnatic are reportedly targeting former player Robin ‘flusha’ Rönnquist and Maikil ‘Golden’ Semil for a potential return to their CS:GO squad. According to a report by 1pv, the team has been practicing with flusha and Golden as potential replacements for Richard ‘Xizt’ Landström and Simon ‘twist’ Eliasson. Fnatic is currently looking to replace Xizt and twist, who were benched after the team was eliminated from the European Minor ahead of the StarLadder Berlin Major, marking the first time that the organization failed to compete at a CS:GO Major Fnatic stated during an AMA after benching the two players that they were looking for “at least one young player” and that they “won’t take in two old players since we want to be a stable top team long term”. According to reports, that young player might have been Tim ‘nawwk’ Jonasson, but it seems that negotiations with GamerLegion may have fallen through and as such Fnatic are looking to two former players who departed the team in 2018. If the move does go through, it would see flusha reunited with former teammates Jesper ‘JW’ Wecksell and Freddy ‘krimz’ Johansson, with whom he competed through various iterations of Fnatic over five years, winning three Majors with JW and two with krimz. Fnatic’s new line-up would closely resemble that of much of 2018, with young star Ludvig ‘Brollan’ Brolin in place of Jonas ‘Lekr0’ Olofsson. During Golden’s original time as in-game leader for Fnatic, the team were able to claim IEM Katowice 2018 and WESG. Golden and flusha most recently competed together on Cloud9, although flusha has been absent from professional play since the IEM Katowice Major in February 2019, taking a break from competing after his mother suddenly passed away during the event. Golden also played as a stand-in for Ninjas in Pyjamas during the Berlin Major. Fnatic’s potential new line-up: Jesper ‘JW’ Wecksell – Freddy ‘krimz’ Johansson – Ludvig ‘Brollan’ Brolin – Robin ‘Flusha’ Rönnquist – Maikil ‘Golden’ Selim –

CS:GO: FMPONE shares new update on Cache rework The creator of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s Cache map, FMPONE, has shared another update on their rework and it appears that significant progress has been made. Competitive CS:GO received a major shake-up on March 29, when long-standing Active Duty map Cache was removed from the pool and replaced by Vertigo. It may have been a long time coming for the previous version of Cache, considering its use in competitive play had seen quite the decline. Even at that point, a brand new look was already in the works. The Cache rework has been hinted at by its creator FMPONE for quite some time, with their update on May 21 showing that some sweeping changes still needed to be made, and finally a new look from June 24 shows things are nearing completion. According to the new update from FMPONE, it doesn’t look like there is too much left to be reworked. Since the last progress photo, key parts of the map like A Main, Squeaky door, and T Spawn have received a makeover. However, there are still some changes to be made to the other side. Aside from all the positive updates around the A site, the map creator has still yet to finish off the changes to Heaven, Sun Room, and B Halls. Considering these are vital parts of the B bombsite, it may take sometime before they are finished. When will the new Cache be released? Now, as FMPONE only shares updates with ticks and not new photos of the map, it remains to be seen as to what changes have been made and how they will impact matches. In previous updates to the game, maps like Inferno and Mirage have been reworked quite a bit to allow for things like new grenade spots, as well as better takes and holds on bombsites. Despite not having a confirmed time frame on when fans and pro players can expect to jump back into the map, it’s likely that they will have to wait until the end of this current Major cycle, which wraps up on September 8, before Valve changes the map pool again.

Fnatic CSGO announce return of Flusha and Golden L: ESL / R: DreamHack / DBLTAPCounter-Strike: Global Offensive titans Fnatic have announced the return of Robin ‘flusha’ Rönnquist and Maikil ‘Golden’ Kunda Selim. Fnatic have announced the final two players for their renewed CSGO roster, with veteran player flusha and ex-In Game Leader Golden returning to the squad after their time with Cloud9. Both players left Fnatic in late 2018 and joined an international Cloud9 experiment which never really took off and fell apart after just a few months. They have both been inactive for a large part of 2019 and after rumors of the pair practicing with the squad, they are finally set to make their return. Fnatic announced the arrival of the two players on September 16, with flusha joining permanently after taking a break from the game while Golden arrives on loan from the Cloud9 bench until the end of 2019. Both flusha and Golden have expressed their excitement at returning to the team, “I am extremely excited to return to where it all began for me. I’m happy to be back with the guys and lead this team” said the young IGL. Meanwhile, Robin stated “It feels great to be back in Fnatic, where most of my fondest CS:GO memories were created – and, hopefully, there will be even more in the future.” A story of two men who return home. Robin ‘@flusha’ Rönnquist and Maikil ‘@goldenmajk’ Selim star in… “”The Fnatic Story”” READ MORE :newspaper: https://t.co/Ywbl4Bk4Zd pic.twitter.com/HtbXFryDnM — FNATIC (@FNATIC) September 16, 2019 Flusha also spoke about his break from CSGO and future hopes. He said that he reflected on his career and aims to come back to the top, while highlighting his excitement to play with up and coming players such as Fnatic’s Ludvig ‘Brollan’ Brolin. The new squad will be in action almost immediately, with an ECS Season 8 match against Heretics scheduled to take place on September 16, just a few hours after the initial announcement. Fnatic’s roster is now: Jesper ‘JW’ Wecksell – Freddy ‘KRIMZ’ Johansson – Ludvig ‘Brollan’ Brolin – Robin ‘flusha’ Rönnquist – Maikil ‘Golden’ Selim (loan) – Andreas ‘Samuelsson’ Samuelsson (coach) –

CSGO: Find all of the hidden easter eggs on updated Cache ValveCounter-Strike: Global Offensive players are finding tons of easter eggs on the newest iteration of longtime fan-favorite map Cache. Here’s where you can find them. Valve isn’t known for making large, imposing changes to their legendary shooter, but every once in a while they’ll come out with a huge update that completely changes the dynamic of a particular aspect in CSGO. Cache has been a solid map for casual and competitive matches, but the devs felt it was time to revamp the classic locale with ‘Volcano’ and ‘FMPONE’ once again heading up the design for the new version. Cache’s ghost dog easter egg But it seems like the team hid various easter eggs tucked away in the strangest corners of Cache for players to hunt down. Starting with one of the more stranger instances: there’s a portrait of a dog in the inaccessible room immediately to the left when going to the B site from T spawn. However, this dog is only viewable in higher graphic settings. Lowering the graphics obviously clears up the extra flair in the game so it runs smoother, but this was an odd change to make when turning down the settings. T-side easter eggs on Cache Moving into sunroom just a bit further ahead, the silhouette of a chicken can be seen broken into the right side of the window used to throw grenades into B. Then in T-spawn, there’s a sign that reads “No Camping,” a nod to the last-ditch effort of a losing team to stay alive. New Cache’s CT side easter eggs In CT spawn, there are two easter eggs in the Van next to the starting position for the defending side. The vehicles odometer reads “42069,” nice. Meanwhile in the backseat, players can see a magazine, but scoping in reveals a cover with the faded image of a woman with a title of “Hey Boy,” a play on the iconic adult literature. Going toward Squeaky, there’s an abandoned teddy bear propped up on one of the windows. Shooting it doesn’t seem to have an effect, but knifing it will make it sound off. With the map not even officially released, there are bound to be more easter eggs hidden throughout CSGO’s new Cache map.

CSGO finally fixes footstep bug after help from Reddit ValveAn audio bug that has been pestering CSGO players for years has finally been fixed, thanks to the work of the Global Offensive subreddit. The October 15 update to CSGO finally fixed an audio bug that had been around the game for quite some time. This glitch allowed players to hear enemy footsteps when they ran through water, when they otherwise shouldn’t have been able to. It was an issue on a number of maps including Inferno, Overpass, but most of all, Ancient. Now it should be a thing of the past according to Valve’s latest patch, and it’s all thanks to the work of several dedicated Redditors. This bug has been an issue for awhile, but things really came to a head since Ancient was added in May 2021, as the map features water all around the Terrorist spawn point. On October 13, Valve reached out to the Global Offensive subreddit asking for help to fix the issue once and for all. Read More: CSGO AWPer smooya joins Fnatic on trial – It didn’t take long for users to start replying with examples and it only took Reddit user birkir less than a day to find proof of the actual cause. “It originates from a dead player’s body, who is currently spectating a live teammate running in water,” they posted, along with evidence. The fix couldn’t come at a better time, as the sound bug will be long gone by the start of the PGL Major in Stockholm, which gets going on October 26. It may have taken a few years, but Valve has finally fixed this annoying and confusing glitch, all thanks to some dedicated players on Reddit.

CS:GO: Fifflaren slams NiP CEO and HeatoN as “liars, cheaters, and crooks” L: Twitter @Fifflaren / R: Esports Hall of FameEx-Ninjas in Pyjamas player Robin ‘Fifflaren’ Johansson has hit out at former NiP player Emil ‘HeatoN’ Christensen in a series of tweets, claiming he is a “liar, cheater and crook”, alongside CEO Hicham Chahine. Fifflaren is a former Counter-Strike pro that played under NiP for most of his career, but on July 24, the Swede accused NiP of player mistreatment, including missing prize money, unfair contract clauses, and more. On August 17, the Fifflarne returned with more accusations, this time targeted at HeatoN, a Counter-Strike veteran and once manager at the organization. “We thought you were different… @Real_HeatoN, but you and @ChahnineHicham are just the same. Liars, cheaters and crooks,” said Robin at the start of a long series of tweets, where he accused Emil of lying and mistreating the organisation’s finances. He claimed that HeatoN used the player’s prize money to pay for his lawyer, as well as hire his girlfriend, paying her “20,000 kr a month when the players were scrambling, earning 10,500 kr to 14,500 kr a month (Swedish Krona).” We thought you were different, we thought since you used to be a player yourself and have been screwed by orgs before that you would understand @Real_HeatoN but you and @ChahineHicham are just the same. Liars, cheaters and crooks. 1/6 — Robin Johansson (@Fifflaren) August 17, 2019 nothing. You used our prize money to pay for your lawyer, you hired your girlfriend(ex now) and paid her 20k month when the PLAYERS were scrambling ( Maikelele got paid 10.5k after tax at this time the others 14.5k ) Pita got 7k.. (SEK) 3/6 — Robin Johansson (@Fifflaren) August 17, 2019 The Swede went on to accuse Emil of “lying in court” about having access to bank accounts, as well as transferring the organization’s money into new accounts. Finally, Robin added some proof to back up his statements, attaching two photos of emails that show HeatoN attempting to get out of paying taxes and considering withholding the players’ sticker money. The only difference is that you were dumb enough not to try and cover your tracks. You LIED in court and said you didn’t have access to the bank accounts but you DID. You used our money for your own gain and made millions when the people that were working their asses off 2/6 — Robin Johansson (@Fifflaren) August 17, 2019 For someone that was supposed to be on our side I find it appaling that you’re trying to get out of even paying our taxes- Not like that’s the only thing you’ve done.. The truth will come out. Don’t worry, I got everything. 6/6 pic.twitter.com/Spbgk1lkTV— Robin Johansson (@Fifflaren) August 17, 2019 “It’s important that we hold back the sticker money and make that part of the new contracts” wrote Emil. Meanwhile, the other email calls the players “cocky” for trying to negotiate new contracts. Neither NiP nor HeatoN have responded to Fifflarens latest accusations.

CS:GO: MiBR crash out of StarSeries as terrible LAN record continues DreamHackMiBR’s CS:GO team have crashed out of StarSeries i-League Season 7, extending their poor run of form to one match win in their last eleven matches. Since moving back to an all Brazilian roster, reuniting the former Luminosity and SK Gaming line-up which was previously so dominant, the team has performed well below expectations. A 3rd-4th finish at IEM Katowice 2019 was a promising start, but was followed by a 5-8th at the WESG World Finals and a last-place finish at Blast Pro Series in front of a home crowd in São Paulo, where they failed to win a match. They bounced back with a win over Panda at StarSeries i-League Season 7, but since facing tougher opposition, lost to Renegades, NRG and finally, North, to solidify their exit in 12-14th. After the loss to North, fer seemed to confirm his previous assertion that he would leave the team after the event was not, in fact, an April Fool’s joke as many believed. “As I said, this was my last tournament with the guys. Will make a post soon explaining. May God bless and protect us!” Como eu tinha dito, esse foi meu último campeonato com a galera. Em breve posto explicando certinho. Que Deus nos abençoe e nos proteja! :pray: — Fernando Alvarenga (@fer) April 2, 2019 Shortly after however, he revealed that he was up to his old tricks again, and despite the roster’s struggles, would be staying with MiBR for the upcoming Blast Pro Series Miami. “This was the last tournament I played with the guys… before we travel to the next. In Blast Pro Series Miami. See you there.” Não entendi o porque de acharem que estou saindo do time ou algo parecido. Este foi o último campeonato que joguei com a galera.. antes de viajarmos pro próximo. No caso Blast Miami. Nos vemos lá :raising_hand:♂️ — Fernando Alvarenga (@fer) April 2, 2019 Following their elimination, other members also posted on social media, accepting responsibility for their poor performances, with leader Gabriel ‘FalleN‘ Toledo explaining that there are “several things going on”. “Ggwp North, several things going on, teams playing better than us, individually far below our potential, many consecutive tournaments. All these problems are unique and exclusive to us and our choices. That’s why we’ll get out of this.” Ggwp North, diversas coisas acontecendo, times jogando melhor que nos, individual muito abaixo da possibilidade, muitos campeonatos consecutivos. Todos esses problemas são único e exclusivos nosso e por escolhas nossas. Justamente por isso com outras escolhas sairemos dessa. — Gabriel Toledo (@FalleNCS) April 2, 2019 Epitácio ‘TACO‘ de Melo, who rejoined the roster from Team Liquid in February, said the team must ‘work double’ to reinvent their game plan. “Now it’s time to rest our minds a little, identify problems, work double to reinvent ourselves in-game and regain confidence. I believe we can get there. We did not forget how to play CS.” Agora é hora de descansarmos um pouco a mente, identificar os problemas, trabalhar o dobro para nos reinventarmos in-game e recuperar a confiança. Eu acredito que ainda chegaremos lá. Não desaprendemos a jogar CS. Obrigado pelo apoio, carinho e confiança intermináveis! — Epitácio (@TACOCS) April 2, 2019 What’s next for MiBR? Next up for the team is a trip to the East Coast of the United States, for Blast Pro Series Miami, where they will first match up against Na’Vi on April 12 – a team they have not faced since forming the new line-up. With under two weeks until the tournament, however, there is little time for them to lick their wounds, as the team will know they need a drastic turnaround. Update: This article was updated to confirm that fer’s departure post was an elaborate April fool’s joke.

CSGO star fer to play despite scooter accident injury ELEAGUE/ MiBRBrazilian CS:GO veteran and MIBR member Fernando ‘fer’ Alvarenga broke his clavicle and his wrist in a scooter accident, according to the star’s Instagram live story. MIBR have been dealt another blow going forward, as they’ll be playing with an injured star operating below peak efficiency. Fer posted two images to his Instagram story on October 2nd, showing the Brazilian star in a sling. A rough translation by reddit user /u/_Xertz reveals what happened to fer: “I had a scooter accident on Saturday. I fell at over 70km/h and I thought I could handle the pain and it was just the impact of the crash. Yesterday I couldn’t stand the pain and went to the hospital. Result: broken left collarbone + wrist/right hand fracture.” The news of fer’s accident is not ideal for a team trying to build momentum. The team recently parted ways with Marcelo ‘coldzera’ David after he asked to be benched, and recently he was transferred away to FaZe Clan. Without coldzera, the team competed with coach zews for a period of time before finalizing their acquisition of kng. In their first appearance with kng, MiBR were eliminated from the StarLadder Berlin major in the New Legends stage, with a 1-3 record. Just before the accident, MiBR suffered an embarrassing loss to ATK, a challenger team in the ECS North American series. Read more: Top 20 highest earning CSGO pros – But fer will continue playing despite the injury, according to the MiBR team manager. Fer esta jogando normal, e jogará a pro largue normalmente para quem esta em duvida. — Ricardo Sinigaglia (@ricsini) October 2, 2019 The tweet roughly translates to “Fer is playing normal, and will play the pro league normally for those in doubt.” We’ll see how the injury affects him going forward.

CSGO February 3 patch notes: Shorthanded Income, timeout changes ValveValve are changing up how CS:GO’s Shorthanded Loser Income and timeouts work in the February 3 patch. The changes come to help improve the competitive experience for teams who are down a man. CS:GO has been in a bit of a rut since Valve made the drastic call to remove bots from Competitive. The controversial decision has been met by tons of resistance, despite Valve extending an olive branch of changes. Extra timeouts and the Shorthanded Loser Income system have somewhat bridged the gap, but not by enough. Valve is now altering the two systems to try and help teams who are a man down remain competitive without being able to jump between bots. Release Notes for today are up. Short-handed income is now given after every round regardless of a win or loss and Broken Fang Premier team timeouts have changed from 4x 30 second timeouts to 2x one minute timeouts: https://t.co/iNsDo8dvbw — CS2 (@CounterStrike) February 4, 2021 Shorthanded Loser Income handed out more frequently Shorthanded Loser Income is one addition Valve has made to CS:GO to help rebalance Competitive queues after removing bots. If someone disconnects, after three rounds, you’ll get bonus money to spend. While it used to only work on losses, the recent update is now giving it out every round, regardless of win or loss. This means that teams who are down 4v5 aren’t punished for winning after the three-round buffer, which is still in place. Tactical timeouts changed after tech pauses addition The addition of Technical Timeouts in the January 27 patch has made CS:GO games run a little slower than normal. Given they activate automatically when someone disconnects, it’s an unavoidable consequence. However, Valve is changing how Tactical Timeouts work within CS:GO to accommodate tech pauses. Tactical Timeouts will be changed from four 30-second timeouts to two one-minute timeouts. The changes are being tested in the Broken Fang Premier queue. Read More: How to call a CS:GO Technical Timeout – While it’s the same length of time overall, having less pauses makes the game flow a bit better. Instead of the potential of stopping six times over the course of a game, that has been cut to four. You can find the full CS:GO February 3 patch notes below. CSGO February 3 patch notes Gameplay Short-handed income is now given after every round regardless of a win or loss. – Broken Fang Premier team timeouts have changed from 4x half-minute timeouts to 2x one minute timeouts. –

CSGO February 17 patch notes: Ping changes, Apollo update, more ValveValve has released a new update for CS:GO on February 17, patching multiple maps including Anubis and Apollo, as well as changing the new ping and short-handed bonus systems. Valve ended 2020 — and started 2021 — by implementing a number of features to improve the quality of life of players. Pings, bonuses for teams who have an AFK, and more have made the game somewhat better despite the controversial removal of bots. However, these systems are slowly being stripped back. Valve has nerfed the ping system in the February 17 update, and also fixed a few bugs with the bonus system. Pings no longer highlight enemies The Ping system in CS:GO acts similarly to that in Valorant and Rainbow Six: Siege. However, it has one distinct advantage — it highlighted guns and enemies. Now, it won’t do the latter. Valve has nerfed pings to no longer highlight enemies to “eliminate any instance of being able to reveal a hidden enemy.” People could spam pings through smokes and other utility to try and find enemies, and that’s not in the spirit of the game according to the developers. Read More: Six players to watch at IEM Katowice 2021 – This comes after an earlier change to pings, making them linger even if a weapon was picked up, rather than disappear immediately and give away intel. Apollo, Anubis, Engage, and Frostbite exploits removed A number of exploits on some of the game’s newer maps have also been removed as part of the February 17 update. Anubis has had a wallbang removed, Engage’s boost spots have been taken down, and a number of exploits on Apollo were also deleted. Frostbite got a general clean-up, improving clipping and removing glass from buildings “to improve gameplay.” Read More: IEM Katowice 2021 hub – A bug which saw the short-handed bonus being given out in unintended game modes, as well as an audio glitch with footsteps, have also been fixed. You can find the full CS:GO February 17 patch notes below. CSGO February 17 patch notes Maps Anubis Reskinned the signs and information boards – Fixed the wallbang through the trim on the mid building between double door and the CT house – Added some grenade clips to prevent weird grenade bouncing on A heaven – Apollo Multiple exploits, clipping faults and boosts etc. fix based on the feedback of Oliv1er and timure of the MapInk Discord – Fixed spawn boost exploit (thanks Marius) – Blocked guns going out of CT spawn so much with a big sign. (thanks Fnugz) – Engage Fixed several visual issues – Removed boost spots – Updated Bot NAV (Thanks Ham) – Frostbite Removed window glass from buildings to improve gameplay – Fixed exploit in Town – Fixed stuck spots – Fixed certain visual errors – Adjusted border clipping – Fixed floating exploding barrel/turret spawns – Adjusted prop fade distance in the bunker – Added drone clips to buildings at Tourist and Radio – Misc Pings no longer highlight players. This eliminates any instances of being able to reveal a hidden enemy. – Fixed a bug which caused the incorrect footstep sounds to be played on some surfaces. – Fixed short-handed bonus being given in Guardian mode. – Fixed visual shuffle in map vote at end of match. –

CSGO Feb 11 update brings new punishments for chat abuse – patch notes ValveThe latest update to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive on February 11 brings in new measures to deal with players who abuse the in-game communication systems. Valve recently announced that they would be taking measures to more effectively target those who are abusing communication in CS:GO, and it seems these measures are now being rolled out. Following the update, those who receive significantly more reports for communication abuse than average will receive a warning. If they continue to be reported after this warning, they’ll be automatically muted by default when they join games – although teammates can still chose to unmute them. Those who are automatically muted will have to work off the punishment by earning XP. Valve is also adjusting the mute function so that it’s more thorough. In addition to voice and in-game chat being muted, players who are muted will also have their name and avatar hidden, effectively hiding any identifying features of the player in the game. In addition, the update also makes it so that reporting someone for abusive communication will automatically mute the player being reported, saving you an extra step if you come across someone abusing the chat. Read more: Stuchiu: What does impact mean in CS:GO? – As well as the changes to communication, the patch fixes the Ballistic Shield so that it blocks all melee attacks, and includes a visual update for the Mac 10 ‘Classic Crate’ skin. The full patch notes for the February 11 update can be read below. CS:GO February 11 patch notes [ COMMUNICATIONS ] – Players who receive significantly more communication abuse reports than others will receive a warning. If they continue to receive significantly more reports they will be muted by default. Other players can unmute them through the scoreboard as usual. – Muting a player will now also hide their name and avatar. – Reporting a player for abusive communications will now automatically mute them. [ MISC ] – Ballistic Shield will now block all melee attacks (knife, axe, fists, etc.) – Texture and normal updates to the MAC-10 | Classic Crate to match new MAC-10 UV from Kai123

CS:GO: FaZe targeting former Major winner and MVP to replace Karrigan DexertoFaZe Clan are reportedly targeting a former Major winner and MVP to join their all-star roster ahead of the IEM Katowice Major roster lock on January 1. The all-star European team is looking for a fifth player after they benched long-time Danish in-game leader Finn ‘Karrigan’ Andersen. The team have been linked with all number of players, including Natus Vincere prodigy Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev. However, they have been unable to find a replacement in the week since benching Karrigan. Now though, they may have found their answer in the form of a free agent. According to a report from VPEsports insider Jarek ‘DeKay’ Lewis, the team are considering former Major winner Dauren ‘AdreN’ Kystaubayev who most recently played for Gambit. AdreN was a key cog in the Eastern European team’s success at the PGL Krakow 2017 Major where he won the MVP. However, the organisation announced on December 1 that AdreN was to become a free agent after spending more than two years with the team. DeKay also reports that there is no word on whether AdreN would join the FaZe roster as a full-time or short-term player if the deal goes through. Despite a number of notable Counter-Strike pundits being unable to name a solution for the roster, it looks as if FaZe team had already came close to filling their gap. VPEsports also revealed that Turkish star Ismailcan ‘XANTARES’ Dörtkardeş turned down the chance to join the team, instead, opting to talk with BIG. With the IEM Katowice roster lock set for January 1, teams do not have long left if they want to make a change. You can keep up with all the news and moves with our dedicated transfer hub here.

CS:GO: FaZe Clan’s NiKo responds to Coldzera rumors after Berlin Major Epicenter / ESLPopular CSGO star, Nikola ‘NiKo’ Kovač, has responded to rumors of Brazilian coldzera joining the FaZe Clan line-up. Following a disappointing performance at the StarLadder Berlin Major, many fans quickly questioned what changes would be the next for FaZe Clan’s CS:GO team. After it was revealed that Broky would be stepping in on trial following the departure of GuardiaN and NEO, many suspected that the Brazilian star, coldzera, would be one of the more viable options to complete the team after he moved to MiBR’s bench ahead of the Berlin Major. The Bosnian pro, NiKo, recently revealed his thoughts on the Brazilian and responded to the possibility of coldzera joining them on the FaZe roster in an interview with HLTV ahead of ESL ONE New York. When asked about his thoughts on coldzera’s CS:GO talent, NiKo revealed that he shared a similar mindset to the benched MiBR player, “I feel like we are on the same page when it comes to CS and even outside of CS, so it’d definitely be great to play with him.” As for the rumors of cold joining FaZe, NiKo explained: “I talk to him and Janko and he’s just a very close friend to us, that’s why we are posting on social media together. We don’t care if people think he is joining us or not because we are just super close friends and I think most people realize it.” Although Kovač was unsure on the possibility of coldzera joining him, he also expressed that even if the rumored pick-up doesn’t end up happening, he would like to play with the Brazilian star at some point in the future. “We will still talk about everything on both our teams to try and find ways of improvement for our teams even though we aren’t on the same roster,” NiKo admitted, “As I’ve said many times, I would like to play with him on a team and I don’t know if it’ll be possible but I hope it will at some point.” After missing out on the recent Major, it is likely that coldzera will be anxious to return to competition following his benching from MiBR and a move to FaZe Clan could be what he needs to bring the roster to the top. With FaZe Clan’s latest addition of Broky on trial for the upcoming ESL ONE event in New York, many CS:GO fans are also hoping to see coldzera on the roster, although with the tournament only days away from kicking offit may take a bit longer for their wish to come true.

CS:GO: FaZe Clan set to use stand-ins at IEM Sydney following visa issues Counter-Strike: Global Offensive squad will play with two stand-ins, Janko ‘YNk’ Paunović and Karlo ‘USTILO’ Pivac, during their first day at IEM Sydney. The FaZe CS:GO team has been on a path to rediscover their form after parting ways with former in-game leader Finn ‘Karrigan’ Andersen back in December of 2018. The European all-star squad has not fallen to a defeat since their opening BLAST Pro Series: Miami match against Team Liquid – bouncing back from the loss to secure the tournament victory. However, they’ll need some help to just be able to field a team at IEM Sydney. What is happening with FaZe? On April 28, FaZe Clan announced that both Dauren ‘AdreN’ Kystaubayev and Nikola ‘NiKo’ Kovač had been facing visa issues in getting to Australia and that the team would have to play with two temporary stand-ins for the first day of competition. Those two stand-ins have now been confirmed as current FaZe coach Janko ‘YNk’ Paunović and former Renegades star Karlo ‘USTILO’ Pivac. However, it’s not completely bad news for the FaZe squad as they’ll only be without NiKo and AdreN for their first match in which they take on Australian team Chiefs in a game that they’ll be expected to win without breaking a sweat, regardless of who joins the server. YNk: FaZe Clan coach and stand-in It also won’t be the first time that YNk has had to stand-in for the team. Back at StarSeries i-League Season 7, the former analyst-turned coach took the place of Ladislav ‘GuardiaN’ Kovács for the opening day. While having YNk as a part of the temporary line-up instead of a second alien stand-in player may provide some sort of normality for the FaZe boys, they’d probably prefer to have NiKo and AdreN by their side as they go in search of capturing a highly-coveted title. Read More: Top 20 highest earning CS:GO pro players – IEM Sydney kicks off on April 30, with FaZe set to be in action against Chiefs at 5:20 AM BST/00:20 AM EDT/21:20 PM PDT [April 29] and 14:20 PM AEST.

CSGO: FaZe Clan make first roster change after Berlin Major DreamhackNorth American esports organization FaZe Clan have released substitute player Filip ‘NEO’ Kubski from their CS:GO roster, following their disappointing placing at the StarLadder Berlin Major. After releasing Finn ‘Karrigan’ Andersen in late 2018, FaZe Clan have been in a tricky spot, unable to find a set lineup to achieve success, with leader Håvard ‘rain’ Nygaard even revealing they regretted dropping the Danish star. Polish veteran NEO came into the roster as a substitute in May, having left his long-term home of Virtus.Pro in December, but despite his experience, NEO’s addition never looked like a permanent solution to FaZe’s problems. On September 11, FaZe announced that he would no longer be part of the CS:GO team as a substitute, thanking him for his efforts. Although some may consider NEO to be in the twilight years of his long career, he still displayed flashes of excellence, showing he still has time left at the top, if he chooses. CS:GO Update: NEO will no longer be a substitute for our roster. We want to thank him for his efforts and contribution to the team. It’s been a pleasure working with such a legend and we wish him the best of luck for future endeavors. pic.twitter.com/wbhsPvAtvt — #FaZeUp (@FaZeUpdate) September 11, 2019 It now leaves FaZe back at square one, with the four-man roster that has been together for over three years, but missing the key building block that was, for a time, Karrigan. It remains to be seen if these four players will stick, as rumors have already surfaced that one or more of the team are being tapped up for moves elsewhere, which would signal the complete end of the FaZe roster which many touted for greatness, but never truly realized it to their full potential. Their 12-14th placing at the Berlin Major could well be the nail in the coffin, but nothing is confirmed yet, and with a busy roster shuffle period now in full swing, anything could happen. FaZe Clan CS:GO roster Håvard ‘rain‘ Nygaard – Ladislav ‘GuardiaN‘ Kovács – Nikola ‘NiKo‘ Kovač – Olof ‘olofmeister‘ Kajbjer Janko ‘YNk‘ Paunović (coach) – –

CS:GO: FaZe Clan announce benching of long-time star player After a difficult year for FaZe Clan’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster, the team has finally announced that a change will be made. The all-star roster, which briefly fell outside of the HLTV Top 5 rankings earlier this year, has gone through a difficult past 12 months. Rifler Olof ‘Olofmeister’ Kajbjer Gustafsson took some time away from Counter-Strike for personal reasons and the team also handed IGL responsibilities over to star player Nikola ‘NiKo’ Kovac for a brief period. However, a change has finally been made with FaZe Clan announcing that in-game leader Finn ‘Karrigan’ Andersen is now seeking other opportunities after being benched. Karrigan, 28, had been one of FaZe’s longest-tenured members after joining the roster in 2016 from Astralis. Since then, the high-powered squad has won multiple titles including ESL One New York 2017 and ESL One Belo Horizonte 2018 but has fallen short at Major events. The former TSM captain took to Twitter to announce the news of the change, tweeting: “Benched. Will write a longer statement at another point. if any orgs are interested contact FaZe.” Benched. Will write a longer statement at another point. :heart:️ if any orgs are interested contact FaZe. pic.twitter.com/wsQVp5Q3kp — FaZe karrigan (@karriganCSGO) December 16, 2018 The move, which has been rumoured for some time, finally comes just after the team finished 5th at Blast Pro Series Lisbon. The fifth-placed finish was yet another disappointing placing for the all-star roster ahead of the upcoming IEM Katowice Major in early 2019. More: Astralis trio become first CS:GO players to break $1 million prize money mark – Top 20 highest earning players – With plenty of high expectations around FaZe’s roster, whoever replaces Karrigan will have to help them get over their Major troubles. The team found some success this year when Jørgen ‘cromen’ Robertsen played as a stand-in, however, they are likely to target a star player.

PGL changes CSGO Major setup for Legends Stage following backlash PGLPGL has announced that all matches of PGL Major Stockholm’s Legends Stage stage will be played in a studio setup following backlash from the CS:GO community. The PGL Major Stockholm field will be whittled down to its final 16 teams on October 29 as the New Challengers Stage will come to an end after four days of nonstop action. The Legends Stage will be the final phase of the Major that will be played without an audience as the tournament will then head over to the Avicii Arena, where the eight-team playoff matches will be held in front of a crowd. Excitement is building as teams like NAVI, Gambit and NIP enter the fray in the Legends Stage, but the CS:GO community was left angered after learning that the tournament conditions for the next stage would not be improved. PGL changes setup after backlash PGL had announced that during the first three days of the Legends Stage, when there will be two matches being played simultaneously, only the main-stream encounters would be played in a studio setup. As for the secondary stream matches, they would continue to be played from the practice rooms. To clarify things. During Legends Stage, Stream A matches will be played in the studio setup. The Stream B duels will be played from practice rooms. #PGLMAJOR — PGL (@pglesports) October 29, 2021 The announcement sparked outrage in the CS:GO scene, with many pointing to the advantage that playing from a practice room, where there’s less pressure than on stage, gives underdog teams that are not used to playing high stakes tournaments and games. Copenhagen Flames, the surprise package of the Challengers Stage, booked a spot in the last-16 after winning three straight matches – all of which were played from practice rooms. Veteran in-game leader Mathias ‘MSL’ Lauridsen and OG coach Casper ‘ruggah’ Due were among those who voiced concern on Twitter that the conditions were not the same for all teams. Astralis captain Lukas ‘gla1ve’ Rossander had told TV2.dk that it was “ridiculous” to play Major matches from a hotel room. “We might as well have been sitting at home,” he added. Read more: Tarik slams PGL CSGO Major watch party rules – Following backlash from the CS:GO community, PGL has announced that all Legends stage matches will be played in a studio setup. This means that there will be no more matches played from the practice rooms. Meanwhile, Copenhagen Flames co-owner Daniel Vorborg, who is coaching the Danish team at Major, poked fun at the insinuation that his side have been winning because of the practice room setup. When Heroic loses it’s because they are onliners When we win it’s because it’s not a real LAN 🤔🤨 — Daniel Vorborg (@dvorborg) October 29, 2021 The PGL Major is currently in the Challengers Stage – you can keep up with all the action from Sweden on our event hub.

CSGO fans criticize “disappointing” 20th anniversary content Some Counter-Strike fans aren’t keen on the idea that all of the released content celebrating the 20th anniversary of Counter-Strike is community-created, and costly. A new weapons case and the official return of a remade map aren’t enough to celebrate 20 years of Counter-Strike, say fans of the series online. Players say that the lack of content on the Valve side of things is disappointing, as all of the content released in the October 18th update comes directly from the community. FMPONE and Volcano, who are community members and not Valve employees, are responsible for the creation and remaking of Cache. And all of the stickers and weapons in the new capsule and case are all community-created as well, with experienced, talented creators designing them. D R A G O N L O R E #CS20 @CSGO https://t.co/6oidWB4OGC pic.twitter.com/ocb1xCDwCX — Daniel D. Lucanu (@TheDanidem) October 11, 2019 The new skins and stickers are certainly appreciated by fans, as they always are whenever a new case is released, but some fans just expected more for an anniversary this important. In a Reddit post titled “Are you happy with CS20? I’m not and here’s why!”, user AutumnZH expressed why they think the amount of content isn’t enough, and why it’s not ideal for gamers who don’t want to spend more money. “So far from what I’ve seen, the only new free content for CS:GO released will be the reworked Cache, primarily done by FMPONE,” AutumnZH wrote. “Other than that, there’s really nothing else that I can think of. I won’t lie, the new skins are hella nice but for most players who don’t have a larger budget will never see these skins in their hands.” Today we’re releasing the CS20 Weapon Case and Sticker Capsule. Additionally, old Cache has been replaced by new Cache in Casual, Deathmatch, and Scrimmage. Full details in today’s Blog Post; Cache and Release: https://t.co/UQrlzABNr3 pic.twitter.com/Z7SLvFCmR8 — CS:GO (@CSGO) October 18, 2019 They described the return of the 1.6 classic knife as a “cash grab” and made comparisons against other popular games celebrating their anniversaries, such as Runescape and the ongoing League of Legends 10th anniversary celebration that give away significantly more content and rewards to its player base. Read more: How to earn LoL anniversary gifts – Other users replied in agreement, with one user calling it “the most underwhelming anniversary” they’d seen playing online games for 15 years. Another commented that “most of the stuff done by the community” perfectly sums up CSGO, but that the anniversary event compared to the legacy of Counter-Strike is “underwhelming.” All is not lost, however, as Valve may have some surprises waiting. The official 20th anniversary is in November, a few weeks away, and certain game files and in-game coding might have revealed some major updates and changes coming to CSGO. These leaks reveal the possibility of new maps, new missions, and new game modes among other things, and potentially these could all be released as part of the first Operation in two and half years, since Operation Hydra in 2017.

CSGO fans amazed by s1mple’s insane total hours played StarLadderOleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev is dubbed to be one of the best CS:GO players of all-time, and his total hours in Valve’s flagship FPS proves that it takes more than just natural talent. It’s no secret that if you want to master something, you have to do it over and over — the old saying ‘practice makes perfect’ is a mantra plenty of esports pros live by. S1mple is right at the top of his craft and is widely considered the most mechanically gifted Counter-Strike player ever. The 22-year-old Counter-Strike sensation can do everything to an exceptionally high standard. Be it an AWP or Rifle in-hand, s1mple is capable of changing the course of a match in the blink of an eye. After joining Natus Vincere, s1mple has found his groove. Under the NaVi banner, the Ukranian has led his team to multiple LAN wins, including an upset at the ongoing Blast Premier — where both s1mple and electronic single-handedly sent Astralis packing. It was during the Blast Premier stream that one eagle-eyed fan spotted the total hours Kostyliev has clocked in CS:GO alone. As the stream panned across s1mple, a screengrab of the stream revealed that he has invested a staggering 16,122 hours into Valve’s FPS — that’s almost two calendar years! Of course, Counter-Strike demands a regimented practice schedule to stay one step ahead of the competition. Factor this with the fact that Kostyliev frequently streams his POV to his Twitch channel, and it’s no wonder why well on his way to 20,000 hours. While s1mple is yet to reach the absolute pinnacle of CS:GO and claim his first Major title, there’s no doubting his dedication to the cause. Add to the mix that the NaVi prodigy has likely dabbled with alternate accounts (considering his previous VAC ban in 2014), the total across all of his accounts is probably much higher. With NaVi locked in to compete at the ESL One Rio Major this coming summer, s1mple will most definitely be racking up more hours in the coming months.

CSGO fan concerned BLAST Premier Spring Final venue is in “the hood” Viktor Funch Beck/BLASTA CS:GO fan took to Reddit to warn people about traveling to the BLAST Premier Spring Final, which is being held in Washington, D.C. at the Entertainment & Sports Arena, calling the area “the hood.” The BLAST Premier Spring Final is set to start on June 7 and will see the eight teams that qualified through the group stage, and the Spring EU and AME Showdowns, battle it out for the top prize pool share and a spot at the 2023 World Final. Tickets for the event went on sale recently and one CS:GO fan took to Reddit to warn those who are planning on attending the tournament how bad the surrounding area is in terms of crime rate. “If you’re not familiar with the area, you should know that it is the hood – I’m talking dilapidated houses with yards full of junkers and shops with bars on the windows just 450 meters away from the venue,” the post said. CS:GO fan calls area around BLAST Premier Spring Final venue “the hood” The post cites multiple websites that give crime statistics to one of the surrounding areas near the venue, where some fans might choose to stay if they are attending the tournament. One fan responded to the post on Reddit and said he is not going to the event because of the rise in crime in the city. The building and surrounding area in which the event is set to take place in Washington D.C is in the middle of the metropolitan city and is a short car ride away from the White House, the National Mall and Capitol Hill. The venue, the Entertainment & Sports Arena, is located in Mount Vernon Square and does have a crime rate above the national average for some offenses, according to Niche. Washington D.C has seen an increase in crime in 2023, with the specific area around the venue seeing an increase in robberies and theft compared to this team last year, according to the Metropolitan Police Department. However, these early statistics come after the city saw a steep reduction in crime rate from 2021 to 2022. BLAST Premier Spring Finals attendees will see whether the area lives up to the Reddit poster’s concerns as the event kicks off on the first weekend of June with international powerhouses FaZe Clan, NAVI and G2 Esports all in attendance.

FalleN to Team Liquid? First to 16 CSGO with Richard Lewis & OnFireVince In this week’s show, we’re discussing everything from Russel ‘Twistzz’ Van Dulken’s upcoming future away from Team Liquid, and whether Brazilian Counter-Strike sensation Gabriel ‘FalleN’ Toledo will be replacing him. Cloud9’s kassad has also revealed that they’re parting ways after just a few short months, and what it means for the future of CSGO’s landscape. While FalleN coming in and replacing Twistzz effectively kills two birds with one stone, Hill stated that “there’s another element to it: he’s not playing with a Brazilian team anymore. This is a completely different ball game for him, and maybe with the way that MIBR kind of went out with a bit of whimper rather than a bang, he has a point to prove, maybe he has that hunger, he wants to come out all guns blazing here.” Cloud9 parting ways with kassad showcased that he’s unwilling to settle for anything that doesn’t feel right; with the star previously leaving 100 Thieves after only just a few months before moving to Cloud9. Going forward, 2021 is sure to shake things up for the player as he finds his footing into a new landscape of the competitive scene. For all CSGO news, make sure to check out our dedicated video and CSGO hubs.

CS:GO: FalleN delivers insane 1v3 clutch to lift MIBR over Team Envy ESL/Adela SznajderLegendary Counter-Strike: Global Offensive pro Gabriel ‘FalleN’ Toledo proved that he very much still has his game-winning ability – clutching up an insane last-round 1v3 with only his pistol in-hand. The Brazilian AWPer has destroyed the hopes of CS:GO teams for almost a decade alongside his compatriots – despite a bit of a wobble in the last years. However, he proved that MIBR still have that terrifying game-changing ability that has seen them win two majors as FalleN put his team on his back and willed them to a victory against upstarts Team Envy in their ESL Pro League Season 9 meeting. FalleN wrecks Envy AWPers Instead of his trusty AWP, FalleN switched to his sidearm due to the close-range nature of the fight. It proved to be a smart move as he gunned down Noah ‘Nifty’ Francis with a crisp headshot and turned the situation into a one-on-one. Read More: DeKay on CS:GO: Top five inactive players – Despite having low health, the legendary Brazilian pro quickly tried to move and pick up the bomb as the seconds ticked down on the round end timer – keeping his eyes firmly on the smoked off crossing position just under the balcony. Again, that proved to be the best play possible as Envy’s Josh ‘jdm64’ Marzano went storming through the smoke with his pistol in hand. He suffered the same fate as his teammate Nifty as FalleN gunned him down with a single bullet – securing the vital 16th round, and ultimately the map, for his team. MIBR search for Pro League success The play helped MIBR pick up Cache after an extremely tense first map, which they ultimately used as momentum to win Train – securing a comfortable 2-0 series victory for the day. The Brazilian squad has one more chance to pick up automatic progression to the ESL Pro League Season 9 LAN Finals – taking on North American Group C leaders Cloud9 on April 21. Both NRG Esports and Team Liquid have already guaranteed their places at the finals, joining European powerhouses FaZe Clan, Mousesports and G2 esports in Montpellier, France at the end of June.

CSGO exploit reportedly leaks players’ IP addresses ValveIt’s been reported that a CSGO exploit is plaguing competitive matches, one that allows opposing players to steal their enemies’ IP addresses. CSGO has truly stood the test of time. It’s been on the top of the competitive gaming world for over a decade, with the game gaining more and more traction as the years have gone on rather than losing players. However, the game is built on an old framework that needs updating. Enter Counter-Strike 2, Valve’s effort to port the gameplay people know and love from CSGO over to a shiny new engine they can continue to build upon. Though its gameplay has held up, CSGO has started showing its age in some other ways. Though it’s this far into its life cycle, players have reported that an exploit’s been discovered that allows people’s IP addresses to be stolen via competitive matches. CSGO flaw reportedly leaves players’ IP addresses at risk The fight to keep online multiplayer games secure is an everlasting one, with hackers and cheaters always hanging around to try and find ways to overcome the barriers devs put in place on purpose. However, these security risks often come in the form of players hacking to gain an unfair advantage over their opponents, thus the infamous VAC ban. But a greater risk has been uncovered in CSGO, according to reports. There seems to be an exploit that allows players to steal IP addresses from their opponents, leaving players’ security at risk if true. According to Aquarius, a known Counter-Strike data miner, there’s an exploit specifically plaguing comp games that allows opposing players to gain access to your IP address. Though anything outside of the competitive mode seems to be safe, the amount of CS players who almost exclusively play competitive matches leaves a massive playerbase at potential risk if Aquarius’ claims are true. Additionally, Aquarius claims to have gotten in contact with the dev team behind Counter Strike and posted a screenshot of a DM saying that the team is looking into it. It isn’t yet clear what this exploit is or how it works, but until it’s investigated further, staying out of competitive matches may be in your best interest.

CS:GO exploit appears to crash out players in any gamemode ValveAn exploit is being reported by CS:GO players that can kick them from games remotely and can even result in cooldowns in matchmaking. Bugs are nothing new to CS:GO players but this latest exploit is even causing some people to stay away from matchmaking all together. According to CS:GO insider Don Haci, the bug has been popping up for a few days at the time of writing, but seems to be happening to more people as time goes on. Someone tested it on me yesterday and it just shut down my CSGO client without me even doing anything, you don’t get a pop up or something it just instantly closes your game and you have to restart CS again. “”cl_invites_only_friends”” can help but isn’t a permanent fix. — Haci (@DonHaci) August 20, 2019 Where is the bug/exploit happening? The exploit seems to work in all game modes, including Danger Zone, Casual, Matchmaking and even during FACEIT matches, according to Jake Lucky of Esports Talk on YouTube. The channel also posted video evidence of the glitch happening in a Danger Zone match that saw one player after the other dropped and disconnected. We won’t be explaining how the exploit works, but it doesn’t seem that difficult to pull off – based on the clips that are circulating of it in action. “@CS:GO, your game seems to be a bit broken after the new update,” Finnish CSGO player Olli ‘sLowi‘ Pitkänen said on Twitter. “The game suddenly freezes for like 1-5 guys on the server, they are unable to move and can’t reconnect to the server for a while after the “crash.” It’s not clear if the bug sLowi is refering to is the same one mentioned by Haci and on Esports Talk, but it does seem to be very similar and reoccurring. hello mr. @CSGO your game seems to be a bit broken after the new update, the game suddenly freezes for like 1-5 guys on the server, they are unable to move and cant reconnect to the server for a while after the “”crash”” has happened like 5 times in two days plz fix — Olli Pitkänen (@sLowiCSGO) August 20, 2019 When will we see a fix? Valve has yet to respond to the reports from players, but with such a game-breaking bug apparently running rampant, the hope is that a fix will be coming soon. Read More: Esports Talk shared a potential fix for the exploit in their video as well, but warned that it was only a temporary fix. “That command cl_invites_only_friends turn that to one instead of zero,” Lucky said. “I must warn you though, this is not a permanent fix for this.” With such a major exploit being reported by this many people, it’s probably in Valve’s best interest to get a fix out as soon as possible.

CSGO exploit allows hackers to steal passwords, and Valve hasn’t fixed it ValveCSGO players have been warned about a problematic exploit that allows hackers to steal passwords. Valve has apparently known about it for months and still not fixed it. The Secret Club, a not-for-profit reverse-engineering group, discovered the exploit more than two years ago. They claim to have brought it to Valve’s attention back then. However, it has never been acknowledged, let alone fixed. Now, they’ve decided to finally open up about it after claiming Valve has prevented them from publicly disclosing it for years. The first post pointed out the exploit allows hackers to access a user’s data using Steam invites. It’s tied to a remote code execution flaw that affects all source engine games, including CSGO. Read More: How to fix CSGO sensitivity bug – “Two years ago, secret club member @floesen_ reported a remote code execution flaw affecting all source engine games. It can be triggered through a Steam invite. This has yet to be patched, and Valve is preventing us from publicly disclosing it.” Two years ago, secret club member @floesen_ reported a remote code execution flaw affecting all source engine games. It can be triggered through a Steam invite. This has yet to be patched, and Valve is preventing us from publicly disclosing it. pic.twitter.com/0FWRvEVuUX — secret club (@the_secret_club) April 10, 2021 Unfortunately, that’s only the beginning. A hacker can use the remote code execution flaw to practically do anything they want on a user’s system, including accessing data and running programs. “On the topic of our previous thread, we have @brymko @cffsmith @scannell_simon showcasing their remote code execution 0-day for CSGO. This has been reported to Valve months ago, but they have neither paid them nor acknowledged the exploit.” On the topic of our previous thread, we have @brymko @cffsmith @scannell_simon showcasing their remote code execution 0-day for CS:GO. This has been reported to Valve months ago, but they have neither paid them nor acknowledged the exploit. pic.twitter.com/yGUJTZZzrO — secret club (@the_secret_club) April 10, 2021 Last but not least, they revealed the scariest news of all. Hackers can also host community servers, send remote code executions to everyone in the lobby, and run a script to steal their passwords and skins, and even infect their hard drive with malware. “Third times a charm; @the_secret_club member mev showcases their remote code execution 0-day for CSGO. This has been reported to Valve 5 months ago with no response from Valve.” Third times a charm; @the_secret_club member mev showcases their remote code execution 0-day for CS:GO. This has been reported to Valve 5 months ago with no response from Valve. pic.twitter.com/Jw8icRPh3j — secret club (@the_secret_club) April 10, 2021 It’s bad enough that the exploit exists. Players will have to think twice about playing CSGO if they care about their data. However, it’s more concerning that Valve has supposedly known about it for a while now and not fixed it, let alone swept it under the rug. They are yet to issue a statement on the matter. If you are concerned about giving away your precious data booting up CS:GO, you might have stay away from the game for now.

CS:GO exploit allegedly gives players access to the game’s in-built wallhack ValveA CS:GO exploit has apparently been uncovered that would allow players to turn on the game’s built-in wallhack in competitive matches. G2 Esports Apex Legends player onscreen shared a recently-discovered bug that would allegedly allow players to turn on the built-in cheat functions, such as wall-hacking, that are supposed to be locked behind the sv_cheats command in online games. What is sv_cheats 1? Though any form of wall-hacking or other modification to the game’s fundamental rules is prohibited in matchmaking, CS:GO does have a series of “cheat” functions that are built into the game which allow for settings like unlimited-ammo, tracking the trajectory of grenades, and seeing enemies through walls. Read more: Top 20 highest earning CS:GO pro players – These “cheats” can be turned on and off using the sv_cheats command, but this is only enabled in private matches, as it’s intended for use in custom game modes and practice tools. New CS:GO bug made public a few hours ago allowing you to run JS code in the game without hooking the process at all. For example GameInterfaceAPI.SetSettingString(“”r_drawothermodels”

CS:GO: Ex-OpTic roster bring back former star, give update on org search DreamhackThe ex-OpTic Gaming Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster has made a line-up switch and also provided an update on their status on finding a new home. OpTic Gaming’s CS:GO line-up has been back on the rise after making a switch of in-game leaders, with Mathias ‘MSL’ Lauridsen replacing Marco ‘Snappi’ Pfeiffer back in March. The team immediately saw LAN success at ESL Pro League action and DreamhHack Open Summer 2019, but online struggles meant they ultimately didn’t qualify for the upcoming StarLadder Berlin Major. Yet, despite qualifying for ESL One New York through the GGBET Invitational, the team will be making a change. On August 10, MSL revealed that the team would be bringing back Rene ‘Cajunb’ Borg in place of Ismail ‘refrezh’ Ali. Cajunb, who spent over a year as a part of the OpTic organization departed in April for Cloud9 but has found himself as a free agent since the North American team floundered. The Dane stepped in for the Greenwall as refrezh missed the GGBET Invantional after being holiday. OpTic swept to success in that online qualifier, taking down BPro, Winstrike, BIG Clan and Forze. I am super excited to be back on a team! I will from now on play with the @OpTicGaming guys. We are in search of an organisation so if interested, feel free to contact us at casdueh@gmail.com — René Borg (@cajunbCS) August 10, 2019 In a Twitlonger statement, MSL revealed the reason behind the switch, saying: “After 4 months with ups and downs, we have decided to make a roster change. It was clear to me that we needed experience and stability to make us a more consistent team. “After having played with cajunb in the past and during the qualifier, we felt he was the guy we needed. He brings a lot of experience, stability, doesn’t make many mistakes (which is rare these days) and is really good individually.” Ex-OpTic’s org search continues The Danish in-game leader also revealed a little insight into the search for a new organization to represent. “We’re still searching for an organization to represent. We have received some offers but want to make it clear we’re not interested in moving to the US,” he added. MSL continued by noting that there are only three players on the roster that need to be bought out from contracts, with Cajunb and René ‘teses’ Madsen currently unattached despite being a part of the team. The ex-OpTic recently qualified for Dreamhack Masters Malmo through their success at Dreamhack Open Summer and also hold spots in both the ESL Pro League and FACEIT Season 8’s European section.

CSGO: Evil Geniuses confirm acquisition of NRG roster North American esports organization Evil Geniuses have officially confirmed their return to Counter-Strike esports by acquiring their first-ever CS:GO lineup, the Major semi-finalists from NRG. As first reported by Dexerto’s own DeKay on September 25, the now-former NRG lineup will represent Evil Geniuses at ESL One New York, starting September 26. EG confirmed the acquisition on Twitter, thanking NRG for making it happen in time for New York. Home is where the :blue_heart: is. After seven long years, Evil Geniuses will be returning to our Counter-Strike roots. A big thanks to @NRGgg for helping it happen in time for #ESLOne NYC this weekend. Full details, presented in partnership with @Xfinity: https://t.co/zoYXEQXTQh pic.twitter.com/Vjdpqzq0bx — Evil Geniuses (@EvilGeniuses) September 26, 2019 EG will face off against a new look FaZe Clan in their first-round match-up, who now have Brazilian star coldzera in their ranks. Considering FaZe are a new lineup, it could be an opening for EG to get an early win under their belts in their first-ever CS:GO match as an organization. “After extensive negotiations with NRG Esports, Evil Geniuses is happy to announce that we’re acquiring both their Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster”, EG said in their announcement, also confirming that they have secured the teams ESL Pro League spot. The organization explains that they spent the last several months exploring opportunities, including building a team from scratch and even venturing outside of NA, but when NRG’s lineup “began assessing their options”, they knew they would be the perfect fit. EG’s CEO, Nicole Lapointe Jameson, explained that it is fitting to re-enter CS in the organization’s 20th year. “CS is one of the spaces our fans have asked us to re-enter the most, and we’re happy to bring a touch of Evil back to the scene and its supporters,” she said. One of North America’s most legendary organizations, it’s an honor to wear this jersey. Let’s represent it well. We might be wearing new colors, but the dream to be the best has never changed. #BleedBlue https://t.co/VEVpF6PO2R pic.twitter.com/YuBDUEIfFv — tarik (@tarik) September 26, 2019 Evil Geniuses CS:GO roster Peter “stanislaw” Jarguz – Vincent “Brehze” Cayonte – Cvetelin “CeRq” Dimitrov – Ethan “Ethan” Arnold – Tarik “tarik” Celik Chet “ImAPet” Singh (Coach) – –

CS:GO: ESL Pro League is moving to an all LAN format in 2019 ESLMajor CS:GO event organizer ESL has announced a new format for its upcoming slate of 2019 competitions that will vastly transform how the teams and players compete in the new season. ESL and the World Esports Association (WESA) have agreed to take the games away from the online ecosystem to deliver the action live in an all new format that will change the face of Season 9 of the ESL Pro League. In a complete change of pace for the league, all matches for the Americas and EU regions will be played on LAN in a studio setting to bring the action of the season in front of a live audience, while the Asian Pacific region will still play the regular season online. Moreover, the league’s new format is making comprehensive changes to how teams qualify for the playoffs, while combating what they believe is oversaturation of events for CS:GO teams. The 2019 season for the ESL Pro League will be set up with three regions: the Americas, EU and APAC. Each region will have four groups of four teams seeded based on ESL’s World Ranking, with 16 teams in every region and 48 teams total vying for the World Finals. The winners of each group in the Americas and EU will secure their spot at the Finals. There will be a second round of groups composed of the second and third place teams from Round 1. :raised_hands: The #ESLProLeague will return for Season 9 on April 12, 2019 with more teams and a brand new format that replaces online play with studio matches for the EU and AM regions! Full details :point_right: https://t.co/EvQ3Zim8hs pic.twitter.com/ivG25gVkze — ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) December 18, 2018 In the EU the top two in Round 2 of groups move onto the finals, in the Americas only the top one from each group moves on. The APAC gets less finalists, however. Each group will play to advance to the next round of eight teams in two groups, and the winners of those groups get the only two spots for the Finals. The new season of the ESL Pro League will begin April 12, and will span four weeks to determine who goes onto the World Finals.

CSGO: ESL New York winners Evil Geniuses finish last at DreamHack Malmo ESLESL One New York champions Evil Geniuses have been eliminated from DreamHack Masters Malmo in last place after consecutive losses in the group stage. Mere days after a triumphant victory in New York that saw Evil Geniuses claim their first major title, and with it a place among the legitimate contenders for the world number one ranking over the coming months, they have crashed out of DreamHack Masters Malmo without a single map win. A slow start to the tournament cost EG in their opening match against Australian squad Grayhound, suffering a major upset that sent them to the lower bracket of the group. There, they met the formidable Mousesports, who themselves had suffered something of an upset at the hands of Ninjas in Pyjamas. In the first round of the lower bracket it was Mousesports who drew first blood with a Mirage win, closing the game out convincingly on their CT half. Train got out to an even more dominant start for Mouz, but EG were able to hold on to force double overtime before eventually conceding. The result makes for a rollercoaster of a debut week under Evil Geniuses for the CS:GO squad. Their transfer from NRG Esports was only announced on September 26, the first day of ESL One New York, and less than a week later they have both a major championship and a last-place finish under their belt. Falling short at DreamHack Malmo doesn’t just hurt EG’s pursuit of the number one ranking, however, is also a missed opportunity to gain ground in the Intel Grand Slam. Having secured their first win toward the $1 million prize, Malmo might have offered a chance to carry their momentum into a quick second step forward, but now the team will have to look to their remaining eight chances for the minimum three further contributing wins they’ll need. For Mousesports, the danger certainly isn’t over despite the victory. They will still need to win two more matches to reach the playoffs, one of which could well be reigning world number one Team Liquid, who themselves were sent to the lower bracket after their opening game.

CSGO: ESL and DreamHack announce $5 million ESL Pro Tour – full details ESL/Helena-KristianssonCounter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament organizers ESL and Dreamhack have partnered up to offer a new ESL Pro Tour with a $5 million prize pool. When it comes to competitive CS:GO, the open circuit allows teams from across the world to grind their way through qualifiers to take on some of the best teams that they may not be able to face. While franchising has been rumored, with CR4ZY CEO Antonio Meic claiming that he’s heard about negotiations, it is still an open pool for teams to jump into. Yet, there is a new type of event circuit coming to town – and it’s combining two of the biggest tournament organizers in the game in ESL and Dreamhack. On September 3, the pair revealed that they will be combining their events into “one narrative” that will build towards two grand events in ESL One Cologne and IEM Katowice. Teams who partake in the circuit will play across two categories – Challengers and Masters. The challenger events will encompass Dreamhack Opens, Mountain Dew League, and ESL’s National Champions. Masters, as the name might suggest, will include Dreamhack Masters, ESL One events, and Intel Extreme Masters. Essentially, the two organizer’s big arena events will now fall under the ‘Masters’ umbrella once the new tour kicks off in 2020. Cologne and Katowice, however, will become Masters Championships. One Tour. One Story. One open circuit connecting all of ESL and @DreamHack’s competitions. Announcing ESL Pro Tour; our vision for esports.https://t.co/I6324o5cAC pic.twitter.com/cCryA0kzlC — ESL (@ESL) September 3, 2019 There aren’t just cash prizes on offer, either, as teams will begin racking up ranking points that will add up to an ESL Pro Tour ranking. The top teams, which is currently an undefined amount, in this ranking will then make it to ESL One Cologne and IEM Katowice and compete for some of the most prestigious prizes in CSGO history. Of course, this annoucement has a knock-on effect to ESL’s Intel Grand Slam as the rules for which will now change. VP of Pro Gaming at ESL, Michal ‘Carmac’ Blicharz tweeted that teams will secure the bonus $1 million prize if they Win 6 ESL Pro Tour Masters events or 4 Masters events that include a Masters Champions or a CSGO Major hosted by ESL or Dreamhack. And the good news now is that the #IntelGrandSlam rules are now simpler. You win $1,000,000 it if you: a) Win 6 #ESLProTour Masters events. b) Win 4 #ESLProTour Masters events inclusive of a Masters Championship (or a Major Championship by ESL/DH).— Michal Blicharz (@mbCARMAC) September 3, 2019 More details about this new system are set to be announced at ESL One New York, which kicks off on September 26 and runs through to September 29.

CSGO: EPICENTER 2019 stream, schedule and results Eight of the world’s best Counter-Strike: Global Offensive teams will be heading to Moscow, Russia to try and grab the glory of becoming EPICENTER 2019 champions. Here are all the details. With the calendar year quickly drawing to a close, CSGO squads from around the world are finishing up their last few events and heading for a player break in preparation for the new season. One of the last tournaments of the year comes from Moscow, with teams taking part in the $500,000 EPICENTER event that runs from Tuesday, December 17 to Sunday, December 22. So, here’s what you need to know. EPICENTER 2019 CSGO stream Wheter you’ve managed to scoop up a ticket and are heading to the event, or you’re sticking it out and watching from home, EPICENTER have got you covered with their broadcast. With group stage matches running one after another, you don’t have to worry about getting two streams going at once. Instead, you kick back with your feet up and just watch the main broadcast. Of course, additional language broadcasts are available – including Russian, Brazilian, Fench, Japanese, and Spanish speaking streams. Watch live video from epicenter_en1 on www.twitch.tv What is the format for EPICENTER 2019? The group stage games will be decided in best-of-three, with the winners of the games heading to a winners match-up while the losers head to an elimination game. The losers of those will be sent home, while the winners will take on the losers of the winners match up to decide their seeding for the playoffs. Once there, the bracket becomes a single-elimination format, while the game stay as a best-of-three. The grand final will also be contested under a best-of-three, where the winning squad will take home $250,000. EPICENTER 2019 groups The groups for the event were determined ahead of time, with a seemingly reasonable split between the real contenders and those teams who might just spark an upset. The groups are as follows: EPICENTER 2019 Group A Team Vitality – Natus Vincere – Heroic – EHOME (eliminated) – EPICENTER 2019 Group B Evil Geniuses – Mousesports – Virtus.Pro (eliminated) – forZe – EPICENTER 2019 schedule As noted earlier, the event runs from December 17 to December 22, with games kicking off pretty early in the day for those viewers in Europe. Both mousesports and Team Vitality have advanced directly to the semifinals. Evil Geniuses and Na’Vi will square off in one quarterfinals match, while forZe and Heroic will face off in the other. The forZe/Heroic winner will face Vitality, and the EG/NaVi winner will face mousesports. Saturday matches start at 11AM GMT / 6AM EST / 3AM PST. Tuesday, December 17 Wednesday, December 18 Thursday, December 19 Saturday, December 21 Sunday, December 22 Semi-finals Grand Final

CSGO: EliGE explains why so many pros struggle with the Krieg L: Team Liquid /R: Valve / RJ MaurerTeam Liquid star Jonathan ‘EliGE’ Jablonowski has explained why he thinks other professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players “aren’t good” with SG 553, also known as the Krieg. EliGE is one of the best players in the world and has helped Team Liquid rise to the top spot in the CS:GO world rankings, and was named MVP at multiple events in 2019 and is an expert rifle player. Particularly effiecent with the weapon, he was asked about the Krieg and explained how he was able to use it so effectively, while other players struggle. “I’ve watched pros and it looks like when they want to start practicing the Krieg they go into Aim_Botz and start tapping with it. You don’t need to learn how to tap, you already know how to put your crosshair on them and shoot” said the Team Liquid star. He was disappointed with most pro player’s practice, saying it’s practically the same as practicing the AK-47, as they’re only shooting the gun one bullet at a time. EliGE later said what players should be doing: “You should be practicing your spray control. You already know how to put your crosshair on their head, that’s not going to help you get better with the Krieg. That’s why there are so many pros that aren’t good at the Krieg.” If recent experience is anything to go by, then players should be listening to the American, as he has been in red-hot form and is an avid user of the scoped weapon. The reason some pro players are still struggling with the Krieg is due to how underused it was until late 2018. The weapon is only available on the Terrorist side, and players found the AK-47 to be vastly superior until a patch in October 2018. This patch reduced the cost of the weapon, making it more affordable and thus giving the Terrorist side a viable scoped alternative to the AK-47. Many players were hesitant to try it at first as they had already put thousands of hours into practicing the AK, but some are now making the switch after realizing how powerful it can be.

CSGO ECS Qualifier stream delayed after bomb threat at venue [UPDATED] Valve / Tony Hisgett, FlickrUpdate, 8:47 PM EST, September 16: The Santa Monica Police Department has announced there is “no threat to the public” after their investigation, and confirmed the area is planned to be reopened before 10pm. The Counter-Strike ECS NA Qualifiers stream was put on hold after the FACEIT production crew were forced to evacuate their building following a potential bomb threat located by the Santa Monica Police Department. Team Liquid and eUnited were preparing to play their 19th round when the FACEIT casters were given the news that the police were shutting down the street outside their studio due to a “suspicious package”. Minutes later, the September 16 stream was temporarily paused. “The SMPD is investigating a suspicious package left in a trash can in the 1400 block of the 3rd Street Promenade. We are asking everyone to stay out of the 1400 block of the Promenade while we wait for investigators to arrive on scene. Updates will be given in 45 minutes,” the SMPD announced on Twitter. FACEIT commentator James Bardolph was the first to update viewers, revealing on Twitch the casters were being told they were potentially going to have to exit their building due to the unknown nature of the package. Read more: PashaBiceps calls out AGO after tryouts – “So the police think there’s potentially a bomb outside, so our building might get evacuated, they’ve closed off the street outside. There’s a bomb squad on the way,” he said on-stream. “I’d be surprised if it was a bomb, but they might come and tell us to go away.” Soon after the FACEIT production staff, which included Bardolph and a handful of other casters and observers, were asked to evacuate the building, leaving just the SMPD announcement live on the stream. “So indeed we had to evacuate the building as there is potentially a bomb on the promenade immediately outside our office, fingers crossed nobody gets injured,” the caster confirmed on Twitter following the team leaving their studio. So indeed we had to evacuate the building as there is potentially a bomb on the promenade immediately outside our office, fingers crossed nobody gets injured. — James Bardolph (@jamesbardolph) September 17, 2019 While FACEIT’s coverage of the match was delayed due to police removing people from nearby buildings, the contest continued off-stream. Team Liquid was victorious on Nuke 16-13, and claimed the series over eUnited 2-1. Read more: Fnatic announce return of Flusha and Golden – Qualifiers observer Connor ‘Sliggy’ Blomfield also saw the humorous side of things despite the potential for a dangerous situation, using the moment for a personal announcement: “Well, now I have some unexpected free time. I can announce I’m observing this season of @ecs.” Well now I have some unexpected free time. I can announce I’m observing this season of @ecs. Just been evacuated from our building while they sort out this bomb scare — Sliggy (@Sliggycsgo) September 17, 2019 The FACEIT TV stream has now returned with live footage of the Cloud9 vs ex-Luminosity match, with the message: “Due to unforeseen circumstances ECS will be without commentary until the situation resolves.” There has not been any further updates from the Santa Monica Police Department about the contents of the suspicious package, and the situation is believed to be ongoing. This story will be updated as more information is revealed.

CSGO new Revolution Case, Denzel Curry collab, and sticker capsule released ValveValve just dropped a surprise CSGO update on February 9, releasing a new collab with Denzel Curry, while also adding a new skin case and a sticker capsule. The last CSGO case to release was the Recoil case back in July, and the last music kit was in September to celebrate the 5th anniversary of CSGO being released in China. And now Valve is back with a new case, sticker capsule, and another high-profile music kit collab with Denzel Curry. CSGO is no stranger to collaborations with big-name artists for their music kits, as names such as bbno$ and AWOLNATION have been gracing the ears of players for a long time. For those out of the loop, music kits are an in-game item a player can purchase to change the music in CS. This includes the music heard in the Main Menu, Round Start and End, and Death Camera. Valve has traditionally not only used Music Kits as a form of promotion for the artists, but to also acknowledge inside jokes and the community’s favorite songs. Such as when EZ4ENCE by The Vekkars, a song celebrating Ence’s performance in Katowice 2019, was added as a nod of approval. And one of the Denzel Curry songs added, Ultimate, has had its time in the meme spotlight, so it’s only fitting in the game. In addition to the new music kit, players have received a new case in the form of the Revolution case. As per usual with these cases, it includes 17 weapon skins made by community artists, with a rare chance to get a knife or glove. This time, the Revolution case will drop gloves. Every new case has an aesthetic it generally follows, and the new case seems to be inspired by the aesthetics of cyberpunk and anime. With its bright neon colors, futuristic designs, and anime stylings. And included in the update is a new sticker capsule, the Espionage Sticker Capsule. And as per usual, the capsule includes 21 stickers, all made by community artists. Stickers in CSGO is generally more tongue-in-cheek than other cosmetic items available. As community artists are allowed to make references to memes, inside jokes, and even poke fun at Valve. Thus, Espionage is no different with references to Jojo Bizzare Adventure, Adventure Time, and MLG compilations to name a few.

CSGO Dreams & Nightmares Skins revealed: AK, USP, more ValveCSGO has officially revealed the full list of skins coming to Dreams & Nightmares cases as part of the new collection. There are 17 new skins coming to CSGO as part of the Dreams & Nightmares collection instead of the originally planned 10. This means, what started out as a $1,000,000 contest ended up paying out $1,700,000 to artists. On November 22, 2021 the CSGO team revealed every new skin that would be getting added in the coming weeks. Whether you plan on picking up a Dreams & Nightmares case or not, there are definitely some great-looking new weapon finishes. Here are all the winners of CSGO’s Dreams & Nightmares contest. Dreams & Nightmares CSGO skin contest winners Nightwish AK-47 Starlight MP9 Fear MP7 Beware of Sleeping Dual Berettas Rapid Eyes FAMAS Zombie Offensive XM-1014 Space Cat PP-Bizon Dream Glade G3SG1 Insomnia M4A1-S Ticket to Hell USP-S Alpha and Omega Five-SeveN Chickenfight SCAR-20 Predictor MAG-7 Flying in a Dream P-2000 Ouija Sawed-Off Pixies MAC-10 Kid’s Necronomicon MP5-SD There you have it, all 17 of the new skins coming to CSGO in Dreams & Nightmares Cases. You can check out each one in more detail on the official contest page here. Read More: S1mple calls out Esports Awards over ‘dubbed’ acceptance speech: “What don’t you understand?” – We don’t know exactly when this new collection will be made available, but it should be sometime before the end of 2021.

Dr DisRespect offered to help shroud’s IEM Katowice team and even the CS:GO devs have responded Twitch streamer Dr DisRespect has made an enticing offer to Michael ‘shroud’ Grzesiek’s Old Guys Club team – should they qualify for the Americas Minor in January. Shroud has partnered up with former teammates Sean ‘SeanG@res’ Gares, Jordan ‘n0thing’ Gilbert, Sam ‘Silent’ Portillo and Tyler ‘Skadoodle’ Latham to form the Old Guys Club, a moniker that the former pros use when competing in CS:GO tournaments. The squad have already qualified for the Mountain Dew League playoffs, and on Tuesday, November 27, advanced through a 99-team single-elimination bracket to qualify for the 16-team closed qualifier, with the top six from that event heading to the Americas Minor in Katowice, Poland. The team are hoping to make it to the Americas Minor and then qualify for the IEM Katowice Major, and The Doc may be there with them if they can achieve their goals. “I want to stop you guys for a second,” said shroud on stream, interrupting his teammates as they attempted to talk strategy. “If we go to Poland, Doc offered to be our coach. Who’s down?” “I don’t really know what the maps or the x or the y or the z,” joked n0thing, pretending to be The Doc. “But I want high speed, full momentum out of the gates!” Gares seemed to be taken by the idea, saying: “That would be so sick dude. He could do his dance coming out of the smoke during the introductions, he could literally take over the host” It’s not just the Old Guys Club who seem to like the idea of The Doc coaching the squad, with the official Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Twitter account posting that “the real challenge will be getting a pod that’s 6’8” tall,” referencing the two-time Blockbuster video gaming champion’s large frame. The real challenge will be getting a pod that’s 6’8″” tall… Cc: @shroud @drdisrespect https://t.co/xwqqcilzhK — CS:GO (@csgo_dev) November 28, 2018 Old Guys Club is just one step away from making the trip to Poland for the Americas Minor, however they will face some tough competition in the closed qualifiers, with pro teams like Rogue and NRG all vying for a spot in the January 22 tournament.

CS:GO, Dota 2 and other games now have extra hurdles to go through in Steam Workshop ValveThe addition of new content through the Steam Workshop now has to undergo an approval process which means games like CS:GO and Dota 2 will potentially be hurt due to the reliance on the workshop. As pointed out by eagle-eyed fans on Reddit, and first reported by PCGamesN, the Steam Workshop is undergoing some changes that require an approval process before things go live. CS:GO heavily relies on user-made content on the Workshop and this could end up being very detrimental to the game as we know as things can be slowed down significantly now. Valve, the owners of Steam, say the new policy has been put in place to put an end to the free skins phishing scandal that has been plaguing the platform. The approval process will usually take less than an hour but could end up taking up to a day according to the Steam Support page. While it will be an extra burden for creators and modders, it will help create a better platform overall for the Workshop. This change will significantly cut back on scams that are found across Valve games like CS:GO, Team Fortress 2 and Dota 2. According to PCGN, there will be some exceptions for who this affects and doesn’t affect. Submissions from creators who have a large number of voters of subscribers will not require approval so their content will not be hurt. However, those who have relied on the platform for scams will now find it much harder to do so. From the sounds of things, it seems like the new approval process has already been finalized so scammers already have an extra step to get through. While this has the chance to be annoying for normal creators early on, it’s an important step towards providing a better platform for everyone else.

CS:GO Devs Reveal New Horizon Case Including 17 New Weapon Skins and 4 Brand New Knives CS:GOThe developers of CounterStrike: Global Offensive have revealed the brand new Horizon Case on August 2. The new case comes as part of the game’s recent updates, which also includes the removal of the Panorama UI out of Beta mode. The new Horizon Case includes 17 new weapon finishes and four brand new knives, called the ‘Stilleto, Ursus, Navaja, and Talon.’ The developers published images of all of these new items, with the weapon finishes all credited to their respective designers. In addition to the Horizon Case, there has been a substantial amount of in-game changes and updates pushed through, at the head of which is the removal of the Panorama UI from Beta. The UI, which is now active by default for all players on supported operating systems, was the biggest overhaul to the visual look and feel of CS:GO since its release. This visual overhaul is the most substantial change to the look and feel of CS:GO since the game was released in 2012. From the Main Menu to the Scoreboard, the entire experience of interacting with the game has been updated. The full Release Notes for the August 2 game update can be viewed below: – Release Notes for 8/2/2018 2018.08.02 [UI] – Panorama UI is now active by default for users on all supported operating systems. – For a limited transition time users can opt into backwards compatibility mode by adding -scaleform launch option. [GAMEPLAY] – Planted C4 will now emit a different beeping sound when planted at bombsite B. – Molotovs and incendiary grenades will now consistently deal impact damage to match other grenades. [PERFECT WORLD] – Players using the CS:GO Perfect World launcher now have fully localized voice audio. – Community servers now allow connections from players using the CS:GO Perfect World launcher and other launchers. [HORIZON CASE] – Added the Horizon Case, featuring 17 new community weapon finishes and 4 brand new knives. [PANORAMA] – Fixed halftime and team selection music to respect main menu music volume settings. – Lobby voice chat will now duck main menu music volume for the duration of voice chat. – Fixed ability to borrow music kits and added a button to stop borrowing music kits. – Fixed a bug that caused old invites to be re-sent when returning to lobby from a competitive match. – Friends rich presence in-game now displays the competitive match score first. – Added chat messages for players receiving competitive cooldowns, reports, and commendations. – Multiple fixes for IME support and text entry focus with IME. – Updated lobby chat to show more messages. – Fixed Lobby chat layouts for 4×3 and 5×4 aspect ratios. – Fixed end of match rank display showing incorrect text for 40+ level ranks. – Fixed reconnect panel layouts for 4×3 and 5×4 aspect ratios. – Fixed scoreboard layout in war game modes. – Improved visual separation of observers in the scoreboard. – Fixed the spectator round timer sometimes getting stuck red. – Fixed missing kill feed icons. – Fixed radar and map overviews for workshop maps that don’t have a manifest file with radar data. – Fixed workshop maps selection screen in Wingman mode. – Impact kills with molotovs and incendiary grenades now display an icon in the kill feed. – Fixed various mistakes on the new radar map overviews (thanks Yesber). [MISC] – Added fallback parameters to Overpass water material to fix stale reflection data. – Added rare inspect animation to Desert Eagle. – Miscellaneous stability and security fixes. Source – CS:GO

CS:GO devs respond to Karrigan’s appeal to nerf Astralis ELEAGUE/BLAST ProMousesports in-game leader Finn Counter-Strike: Global offensive event. The Danish squad, once again, swept to BLAST Pro Series glory as they comfortably secured the Sao Paulo event on March 23 without a single defeat. They bested Team Liquid by a 2-1 scoreline in the grand finals, completing the reverse sweep with a 16-2 third-map win – despite losing a close 16-13 battle on Dust II to start the series. With 12 trophies secured from LAN events in the past year, the reign of dominance has begun to wear on some fans and players, including Mouseports’ Finn ‘Karrigan’ Andersen who is seeking intervention from the highest power in the CS:GO world – Valve. The former FaZe Clan in-game leader jokingly asked the CS:GO developers via Twitter to bring the dominant Danes down a notch. Karrigan tweeted: “@csgo_dev can you nerf @astralisgg somehow? Maybe removing utility or something, just to see if it changes anything.” It took a few hours, but Karrigan got his response. “Try this: sv_allow_astralis_utility 0,” read the reply, making reference to a possible in-game command that would take utility away from Astralis. With the CS:GO devs discussing their success, members of the Astralis squad weighed in. Both Lukas ‘gla1ve’ Rossander and Emil ‘Mag1sk’ Reif responded with gifs of their squad celebrating – clearly poking fun at Karrigan’s request. Sadly, for CS:GO teams, however, the command was purely a joke as typing it into the game’s console would bring up an error – so there’s no way it’ll work at Astralis’ next event, which they’d probably win regardless. Both Vega Squadron and PRO100 tried to get in on the act by responding with joking tweets of their own about how the command didn’t work for them. Astralis’ reign of dominance does not look like it’ll slow down any time soon as they continue to pick up tournament win after tournament win. While it’s close to impossible that Valve would impose rule changes based solely on how good the Danes perform, their constant updates to the game may change the competitive meta – and it’s up to teams to improve in their bids to bring down Astralis.

CSGO devs announce new plan to punish players abusing voice comms ValvePlayers who clog up in-game voice communications in CS:GO will now be punished under a new initiative by Valve, as the developers look to improve the experience of the 20-year old franchise for all. In games Counter-Strike, communicating with teammates, especially in competitive matches, is a big key to success. However, some players go out of their way to abuse the voice system, which can make the game unenjoyable. While players have been able to mute, report, and move on, Valve are taking actions to make sure chronic abusers of the system will receive proper punishment for clogging up comms and devaluing the valuable CSGO tool. In a February 6 blog post, Valve mentioned that they are going to start tackling voice communication abusers more proactively, instead of players having to do all the work themselves. “We’ve been working on a new system that will work more precisely [at targeting abusers],” they said. “When the new system is fully deployed, players will receive a warning if they receive significantly more abuse reports than other players. “If they ignore that feedback and continue to receive abuse reports, they’ll receive a penalty: they’ll be muted by all other players by default. “This ‘default mute’ state will remain until the player earns enough XP to remove the penalty, but other players can choose to manually unmute the user.” Instead of Valve policing the issue with their own guidelines, they want the community to “establish their own standards for communication and ensure that their fellow players receive anonymous feedback when they’re out of line.” While the system still relies on user reports as a whole, there will now be a chain where abusers of the in-game voice function will be more harshly punished. Valve haven’t announced any further penalties on the way for users who get muted multiple times, although there’s a chance that a more harsh permanent mute could be added for repeat offenders. The new feedback system is currently live, with Valve urging players to “get into the habit” of reporting players in-game instead of just letting them get away with it. So, in the future, you won’t have to even hear all those music bots and mic screamers in-game before they’re dealt with in your games, making for a more peaceful and enjoyable experience.

CSGO devs break silence & tease fans amid Source 2 leaks ValveCSGO devs have broken their silence in their own cheeky way amidst the sea of Source 2 leaks and rumors, teasing fans with a possible release. CSGO 2 has been hyped to infinity, to the point of meme-ing. But despite the jokes, there is a lot of evidence to back it up. From leaks in new NVIDIA drivers, reports from Richard Lewis, and even evidence showing files for Source 2 has been uploaded to the game’s pre-release branch, we’ve seen plenty that indicates a release is imminent. Of course, CSGO 2 is a misnomer, as it is just a port of CSGO into the Source 2 engine, and not a full sequel. But despite the immense hype, the devs have been silent on the rumors and speculations. That is, until now, however, as they have finally broken their radio silence on the rumors and leaks. During the currently ongoing ESL Pro League Season 17, the casters and commentators have made many content segments joking about the rabid hunt for CSGO 2. With even players like Karrigan playing along with the joke. And when ESL tweeted out one of their segments poking fun at the hype-train, the CSGO Twitter account replied to the tweet. They replied with a simple reaction gif of Micahel Scott from The Office. Naturally, just this was alone to enough to go viral and send fans into overdrive. By all accounts, this is Valve’s first and so far only official response to the existence of CSGO’s port. They received replies from the teams such as Heroic, BIG, and NIP demanding they release it now. And various other personalities in the CSGO scene such as Karrigan, Launders and ohnePixel piled onto the mountain of memes. In fact, this one comment has gotten more likes, retweets, and comments than ESL’s original tweet, showing just how hyped CSGO fans are for the port. As of writing this, there has been no official updates revealing the CSGO’s port into Source 2. And the only Valve title to receive the treatment was Dota 2 in 2015.

CS:GO Developers Respond to Neymar’s World Cup Flashbang Celebration @FalleNCSThe Counter-Strike: Global Offensive developers have responded to Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior’s flashbang celebration at the 2018 Football World Cup. The Brazilian striker became the world’s most expensive football player in August of 2017 when he was transferred from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain for an incredible $263 million. The 26 year old is widely regarded as one of the best players on the planet and helped Brazil to reach the quarter-final stage of the 2018 World Cup on July 2nd with a goal and assist against Mexico in the round of 16. The star player has received some criticism so far in the tournament for his theatrical reactions when being tackled or fouled, but the PSG man believes that he is being singled out by opponents that are trying to put him off his game. Read More: Qualification for the FACEIT London Major is Heating Up as All Minor Teams Have Been Decided – If his acting skills after a tackle are questionable, his flashbang dance skills are significantly more impressive. As a fan and player of CS:GO, the Brazilian has often incorporated Counter-Strike into his goal celebrations and this has not changed on football’s biggest stage at the World Cup. One Neymar celebration saw him imitating the flashbang animation with his teammates and he even got a response from the game’s developers, who reminded him to “call out your flashes”. Make sure to call out your flashes, @neymarjr!! https://t.co/pYpDi7AhI5 — CS:GO (@csgo_dev) July 2, 2018 While winning the World Cup would be fun, we personally think that Neymar will be more excited about getting a rare response from the CS:GO twitter! Neymar and Brazil will take on a scary Belgian side on Friday, June 6th, for a spot in the World Cup semi-finals.

CS:GO devs tease release date for major update as rumors of a new mode intensify Rumors of a major update coming to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive have once again popped up after the game’s developers dropped hints on Twitter and fans leaked images of a new survival mode. First to grab the attention of the CS:GO community on November 3 was an image of the developers apparently testing an unreleased ‘survival’ mode – a mode that some believe will be battle royale – on a map called ‘Blacksite’. While there is no evidence to support the theory that this mode will be a typical battle royale, there are a number of community members that believe it will be something similar. Speculation about this new ‘survival’ mode coming CS:GO first reared its head in November when a number of leaks seemed to show the developers testing it out. While nobody was sure exactly what the mode would involve, there was a general feeling within the community that it could be Valve’s answer to the current battle royale craze. Okay I post hiding the name Indeed this is Survival Mode https://t.co/JuRYKeKyHN pic.twitter.com/EZvtAYbU4u — Nors3 (@Nors3) November 13, 2018 The image of the test server alone may have been brushed aside rather quickly if it was not for the fact that CS:GO developers followed it up with a few teasers of their own. The first suggestion that something big was one the way came in the form a new Twitter profile image, showing a silhouette of a character on a red background. 500 This may not sound like anything spectacular, but the silhouette appears to be different to any character model currently in the game and the CS:GO devs aren’t known for regularly updating their Twitter account. It was also followed by a cryptic Tweet from the developers that seemed to confirm that something big will be announced or released on Wednesday, December 5: “What are you doing Wednesday?” A number of fans and community members thought that this Twitter post was confirmation of a new Operation finally coming to the game, while others said it could be anything from the release of the new mode to a Christmas theme! Whatever this survival mode turns out to be, we’re expecting to find out more on December 5! Stay tuned for more information by following @Dexerto on Twitter.

CS:GO Developers Engage in Hilarious Twitter Conversation With Player @Ab_AeternoSwan / TwitterA Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player has taken part in one of the most bizarre Twitter conversations with the game’s official Twitter account that we’ve ever seen, but it’s comedy gold. The CS:GO developers haven’t always been known for their interaction with the Counter-Strike community, but that no longer seems to be the case. A recent improvement in communication has been greatly appreciated by the loyal player base, but this particular discussion with @Ab_AeternoSwan on Twitter took things to a whole new level! AeternoSwan sent an image to the @csgo_dev account, saying “I got B. Can you cover A”, clearly referring to the Canals map that was added in 2017: Bro, @csgo_dev I got B. Can you cover A? #CSGO pic.twitter.com/EfhS4pTR1i — Áyax (@Ab_AeternoSwan) July 22, 2018 To the surprise of some, the developers responded with “On A site now and there’s a bunch of utility being thrown – can you rotate?”, and a lengthy conversation with images soon followed: On A site now and there’s a bunch of utility being thrown — can you rotate? — CS:GO (@csgo_dev) July 23, 2018 One my way, No one balcony so far man. pic.twitter.com/w8qxy51dy1 — Áyax (@Ab_AeternoSwan) July 23, 2018 How long ago did you take this picture? I was just there and you weren’t… pic.twitter.com/RavAtq9EMl — CS:GO (@csgo_dev) July 23, 2018 Covering arch because you let them pass. Smoke site. pic.twitter.com/23EB2mFCmU — Áyax (@Ab_AeternoSwan) July 23, 2018 Oh, so I let them pass?? Fine — it’s smoked: pic.twitter.com/N3vQ2VVJGw — CS:GO (@csgo_dev) July 23, 2018 Sorry, AFK. They haven’t planted yet I think. pic.twitter.com/7kqovMLlkC — Áyax (@Ab_AeternoSwan) July 23, 2018 Yeah, I know you’re AFK — my smoke ran out and there wasn’t anyone on A. Just got back to B site and I’ve got some bad news… pic.twitter.com/WzzPz0LFiu — CS:GO (@csgo_dev) July 23, 2018 Sh*t dude, I’m still connector. Go by CT. pic.twitter.com/qSWih1pUol — Áyax (@Ab_AeternoSwan) July 23, 2018 It’s fine, it’s fine, I got it — I bought a defuse kit. What a round that was… pic.twitter.com/d4F0dKm0Sj — CS:GO (@csgo_dev) July 23, 2018 Dude, thank you much. I just ranked up! pic.twitter.com/KnHBhK6sJD — Áyax (@Ab_AeternoSwan) July 23, 2018 The conversation quickly made its way to the /r/GlobalOffensive subreddit and has already received over 5,500 upvotes. One user, Revve, exclaimed “that last ‘I ranked up’ picture, that guy is a legend lmao”, while another said “Who ever is running that account nowadays, he deserves a raise.” Sometimes it’s the simple things that count!

CSGO: dev1ce breaks trophy at Berlin Major and his reaction is priceless Twitch/StarladderAs Astralis took down major hopefuls Avangar in a dominant 2-0 victory at the StarLadder Berlin Major, the Danish squad made history with a three major-winning streak – but star player Nicolai ‘dev1ce’ Reedtz made sure they also continued their trophy breaking streak too. The Danish squad crushed Kazakhstan’s AVANGAR in a record-setting performance for their third straight Major and fourth overall, winning in cruise control in Berlin. After a dominating 16-6 win on Inferno, Astralis kept up the pressure with an even better 16-5 performance on Dust II. Astralis looked back to their best at the Berlin Major. AVANGAR was left disappointed after a trouncing in the grand final, although can certainly be proud of their journey there, as Astralis were always going to lift the trophy, barring an unthinkable upset. The Danes may be making a tradition of lifting trophies over the past two years, but are also making a habit of breaking them too, and device unintentionally kept the meme alive once again. As the MVP hoisted the trophy above his head, part of its bottom came loose, causing a bunch of wires to become exposed – and dev1ce’s face says it all. The CS:GO star could do nothing but had to grin to bear it, as a crew member stepped in to salvage the situation. It would seem like not even the trophy wanted anything to do with Astralis, considering they’ve been crushing everyone in their path. The year of trophy fails? Of course, this is far from Astralis’ first trophy mishap. Back at IEM Chicago, the trophy fell apart after being shaken on stage by the Danish squad. At least in that situation, the team tried to save face and acted like there were two trophies with the broken piece serving as a second. It’s not just Astralis though – back in January, at Overwatch Contenders Season 3 in Korea, RunAway got a bit too excited after defeating Element Mystic. As all the players lifted the trophy, a handle split right off, leading to yet another embarrassing moment. It would seem like successful teams have a habit of breaking trophies. Maybe it’s good luck to do so? Although you would think all those tournament wins would give them some trophy-lifting practice. In any case, with how dominant Astralis has been, there could be many more championships to come. And with those championships, there could be many more trophy fails too.

CS:GO: Dev1ce and Stewie2k slam Coldzera over controversial interview ESL / MiBR / DreamHackCounter-Strike: Global Offensive pro Marcelo ‘coldzera’ David recently took part in a lengthy interview where he shared details of his career, but some fellow players were not impressed with a selection of his answers. Coldzera is one of the most successful Brazilian CS:GO players in the world, having won a Major and multiple premier tournaments during his time with the MiBR core. On August 13, he took part in a lengthy interview where he shared details of his career, including sharing his thoughts and experiences with other professional players. Following his interview, multiple players hit out at the Brazilian due to his comments. One of the first players to be aggravated by Marcelo’s comments was his ex-teammate Gustavo ‘SHOOWTiME’ Gonçalves, who quickly responded in a series of tweets. The Brazilian denied Coldzera’s claims that he preferred to play other games over CS:GO and that he never accepted help and coaching. He also said that the ex-MiBR star should “be ashamed and stop talking shit” and that he was left “forever negatively marked” following his time with the squad. Eu tenho todo respeito ao coldzera pelo jogador que ele é e foi. Um dos melhores que ja vi. Mas ele falar em entrevista publicamente que eu ficava jogando BF na época de completei pro SK so pode ser piada. — Gustavo Gonçalves (@gushoowtime) August 13, 2019 Acho que voce deveria ter um pouco de vergonha na sua cara e parar de falar tanta merda assim, pois querendo ou nao voce me deixou marcado eternamente pelo lado negativo, e detalhe, fui fazer um favor pro seu time E NUNCA recebi nada pra isso. Acho que entendo o mibr feliz agora. — Gustavo Gonçalves (@gushoowtime) August 13, 2019 Other players started chiming in with their responses soon after. Jake “Stewie2k” Yip commented on the Brazilians interview where he claimed that Stewie was the one who convinced him to stay in MiBR. “That’s not even the whole story, what Cold said what stupid as shit. I don’t even know why he’s saying these things, he’s just hurting himself” said the American. Astralis’ Nicolai ‘dev1ce’ Reedtz also chimed in. “I remember no tears, but I remember not wanting to talk to you. Thanks for reminding me why” said the Dane. This was in response to Coldzera’s statement that “device’s ego skyrocketed and he became a snob” and that the Brazilian confronted him about it, which resulted in the Danish player “crying and apologizing”. I remember no tears, but I remember not wanting to talk to you. Thanks for reminding me why. — Nicolai Reedtz (@dev1ce) August 14, 2019 Coldzera also spoke about Gabriel ‘FalleN’ Toledo, João ‘felps’ Vasconcellos, Lincoln ‘fnx’ Lau, and his time at MiBR, however, they are yet to respond to his statements.

CSGO December Christmas update patch notes revealed Valve have revealed official details on this year’s Christmas update for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and fans will be delighted to know that some of their favorite festive features are returning. Those wanting to bask in the Christmas celebrations early in the multiplayer first-person shooter will be given that opportunity once again as it has started snowing in-game. A number of festive features are also set for a comeback, adding to the gameplay, but that’s not all. There’s also been a fix implemented for a frustrating sound issue players have flagged for developers in recent weeks. There’s a little bit to unpack from the update, so let’s jump right into it. Previous Christmas patches have seen the introduction of snowballs, festive chickens, as well as freeze frame holiday borders, and this update is no different – bringing back some fan-favorite features to mix up online play. It was all revealed in a blog post from developers on December 9. Being hit by a snowball might be annoying in real life but anybody that’s been struck by one in CSGO will know that it’s just as frustrating in-game as well, temporarily covering the screen with the cold white stuff. Don’t let that put that you off playing during the Christmas period, though, as it’s always great fun. After all, who doesn’t want to plant the bomb with wrapping paper around it? CS:GO December full patch details Miscellaneous It started snowing and the winter season fun begins which includes snowballs, festive chickens, and freeze frame holiday borders. – Added 2020 Service Medal to be awarded for outstanding service and achievement starting from January 1, 2020 GMT. – Adjusted weights on several end of match accolades. – Removed a sound debug command. – Maps Updated nav mesh for Office to prevent bots sometimes getting stuck. – Updated Jungle. – Noticeably, there isn’t an awful lot included in these patch notes and fans may have potentially been expecting slightly more from the holiday season update – despite it coming off the back of Operation Shattered Web. With just a handful of major updates landing each year in CSGO, however, absence of major changes here may rule out any more incoming tweaks before the year is up. Whether or not there’s more to come following this December update remains unclear at the time of writing, but some changes to specific maps and the current economy meta wouldn’t have gone amiss.

CS:GO December 7 update contains important Danger Zone improvements – Full patch notes Just a day after releasing the new battle royale mode for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Valve has dropped an update that solves a few important issues that cropped up with the December 6 update. After much speculation, Valve dropped a bomb on the CS:GO community in the form of a huge December 6 update that not only introduced the new battle royale mode, Danger Zone, but also made the game free-to-play. Along with that update, though, a few issues popped up that needed immediate addressing, which led to the December 7 update to clean things up a bit. While the patch isn’t very long, it nonetheless was important for Valve to get ahead of some of these issues as soon as they could. One of the most important issues addressed centers around bullet penetration, as it was found that it was behaving as it should. This update fixes and regression that was occurring, allowing gunplay to get back to normal. Read more: CS:GO viewership on Twitch sees a huge increase after release of Danger Zone battle royale mode – For non-Danger Zone players, the molotov received a small adjustment to fix an issue that was causing it to not detonate in mid-air in other game modes. In addition to these fixes, Valve included a number of other minor UI adjustments for Danger Zone and fix crashing on Intel GPUs. You can find the full patch notes for the December 7 update below: Release Notes for 12/7/2018 [ RENDERING ] – Fixed graphics regression that caused smoke and molotov particle effects to appear fully transparent. – Fixed client crash on startup on Intel GPUs. – New users now default to Borderless Windowed mode. [ GAMEPLAY ] – Fixed ‘self-boost’ movement regression. – Fixed players not respawning on round restart if they were in the middle of jumping up onto a platform that would force them to duck. – Fixed bullet penetration damage regression. – Fixed molotov not detonating in mid air in non DZ modes. [ CS:GODZ ] – The winner of the match now watches their victory from the perspective of the runner up. – In duo and trio matches teammates are now notified with an onscreen alert if one of them dies. – Adjusted–and added volume slider for–winner music. – Recent Teammates now shows teammates from Danger Zone matches. – Players searching count now shows correct number of people searching for Danger Zone matches.