Author: Nik Ranger

TimTheTatman baffled after hacker joins Counter-Strike 2 game without beta invite Valve/YouTubeYouTube star TimTheTatman was left absolutely stunned after getting into a Counter-Strike 2 game with a hacker who wasn’t invited to the beta. Counter-Strike 2 has been a hit with players since its reveal with CS:GO even seeing its all-time player record shattered. Suffice to say, the build-up to the game’s official release is off the charts and streamers like TimTheTatman have been taking advantage of the hype by streaming the game. However, things got a bit weird during a recent stream when a hacker infiltrated the lobby without even being invited in. Counter-Strike 2 hacker stuns TimTheTatman According to esports reporter Jake Lucky, the hacking in the game was obvious, leading Tim to accuse the player of cheating. “Is this guy cheating? Like, he’s hacking in the f**king alpha? Imagine I’m playing with an actual cheater? No way!” Tim said. As you can see in the footage, the cheater’s aim was pinpoint and they were able to dodge bullets as if Neo from the Matrix did a fusion dance with Ultra Instinct Goku. “Who’s this guy right here?!” the stunned Tim cried as the cheater secured the last frag. “Is this guy full of sh*t? That’s crazy! I might literally be playing with a hacker in the alpha. A bit later, the hacker claimed that they weren’t invited into the beta and instead bugged their way in somehow. The player later claimed he wasn’t invited into the CS2 Beta but bugged his way in pic.twitter.com/zyayknySn4 — Jake Lucky (@JakeSucky) March 28, 2023 With hackers already in CS2 and a Valorant-style anti-cheat on the way, hopefully, players won’t be plagued by nefarious users for much longer. But for now, it’s something streamers may have to deal with.

Team Vitality plans a decade of CS2 dominance with ZywOo Team VitalityAhead of ZywOo’s confirmed renewal with Team Vitality through 2026, Dexerto sat with him, as well as both the org’s co-founders, to discuss the now-legendary Counter-Strike player’s history and their reasons for re-signing the ‘King of Counter-Strike’. He may be staying with the org even past 2026. Though there are a number of old-school Counter-Strike players who have been dominating for over a decade and have cemented their names in the annals of CS history, the later half of CS:GO’s life cycle was dominated by Mathieu ‘ZywOo‘ Herbaut. So, it should come as no surprise that Team Vitality have decided to renew his contract through 2026, perhaps with plans to keep him for even longer than that. Dexerto caught up with both of Vitality’s co-founders, CEO Nicolas “Nico” Maurer and Chairman Fabien “Neo” Devide, as well as ZywOo himself, to get the story from both sides on why he’s such an important part of Team Vitality. Only as good as your last match Through our time with ZywOo, his focus was made crystal clear. He doesn’t really have any long-term goals or plans, no grand aspirations, and no desire to be put on a pedestal above other players based on achievements alone. Even if he’s being crowned the King of Counter-Strike. That isn’t to say that he lacks motivation, but more that ZywOo focuses solely on the match in front of him. Regardless of what he’s accomplished so far in Counter-Strike, a loss on the day makes him the worse player. “I’ve never actually thought about that, what it feels like to play with me or play against me, anything like that. I’m just living day by day, not thinking about the future or the past and doing my best. Trying to be the best player, be the best version of me, of myself. That’s been working for six years, and I won’t change.” However, there are some things that have changed over the years. ZywOo was, at one point, a rookie on a hot streak. As time went on, though, people began to realize that he just played that well all the time. Every big tournament win and MVP award came with even more expectations being heaped upon him and the team, to a point where the pressure really started getting to him. “[There’s] a bit more pressure. Because, you know, we don’t want to do the same mistakes from 2022.” ZywOo explained. “Something changed about the mentality, about the pressure, because we start to think about, ‘What if you lose against this small team?’ Yeah, we had a bit of pressure. We are the biggest team, and we need to prove it.” That said, the same mentality ZywOo vowed to stick with is what brought Vitality back from their slump. Though they placed among the top teams at Katowice 2023, this finish wasn’t good enough for him. “After we have a good talk about what we need to bring, what we need to put up for our game, for anything, I didn’t feel any pressure. We just play our game, we just think about what Vitality needs to bring to the table to win the game.” ZywOo claimed. “We didn’t want to give anyone the throne.” After talking to team owner Neo, this mentality was just as much a reason for keeping ZywOo with the team as his insanely strong performance in-game. Finding and refining Team Vitality’s approach ZywOo has gone from a rookie to a seasoned veteran during his time on Team Vitality. Both him and apEX have been with the club from the very start, and Vitality co-founder and chairman Neo feels that they’ve chosen the right players to build around. “It didn’t come that quick, to be honest. It took years and years of construction and frustration, especially for [winning] majors.” Neo claimed when reflecting on his years with the club. His approach in taking things game by game closely mirrors ZywOo’s. Winning is only the beginning. “Of course, you will live this moment and pure happiness, and it’s magic. But then, you’re just focused on the next objective. That’s the beauty of Counter-Strike. When you’re lifting a trophy, two weeks after, you have to fight again to show that you deserve it. For us, it’s sometimes like a cycle that never ends. That’s why we needed to address the competitive calendar in an appropriate way.” Neo’s approach is a unique one. He takes a close look at the calendar for the competitive year and determines which tournaments are most important to win, encouraging his team to try new things and build confidence in new strategies to prepare for the battles that matter most. “There is no tournament where we go in saying, ‘Hey, we will lose on purpose,’ but some tournaments will be used to practice certain things or win confidence in certain aspects.” he explained. The concept of “peaking” in esports is hard to nail down. Some of the best underdog runs across every esport have been carried on the backs of a team that really found their stride at the right time. No team is going to be playing at their best all the time, but Neo’s approach gives them the best chance of peaking at majors with strategies other teams don’t know how to respond to. “It’s good sometimes to release a bit of pressure and make sure we can peak at the right tournaments. I think performance and winning is all about communication and having a process where everyone is on board.” Team Vitality’s future rests with ZywOo Team Vitality co-founder and CEO Nico spoke with us a bit about ZywOo as well, particularly about how he feels that his story of starting with the club and going from a rookie to a star is representative of what he feels Team Vitality is all about. Considering Team Vitality’s newfound success in Rocket League is built off of them scouting and developing rookie talent in a similar way to what they did with their first CS roster in 2018, it’s no surprise that Vitality’s CEO is invested in building their organization around their star players. People are just as loyal to players as they are to orgs, if not even more so in favor of players, so holding on to top-tier talent is just as good for winning as it is for building a fandom. And, while Team Vitality has struggled with League of Legends, they’ve managed to make their mark on a number of other esports through their tenure as an organization. “There’s no secret recipe or secret sauce formula to winning. Everyone, at some point, thinks they have found one. But no, it’s not that easy, especially performing well in multiple titles. But we’ve still learned a few things.” Vitality’s CEO mused. “It’s not only about the addition of talent, you need to create that chemistry. You think you’ll be able to do it, but sometimes doesn’t work. And sometimes it works perfectly, as we’ve seen in Counter-Strike, notably. You can try to build the best collective, but you need a special level of talent to elevate your teams.” ZywOo has been the player Team Vitality have rallied behind, and Nico sees him as the perfect example of what they want to do in Counter-Strike 2 and other esports. “ZywOo is not enough to win everything, but he’s a key factor. Our goal and mission is to surround him with the right people that compliment his talent and skills.” When asked further about what it was like when ZywOo got brought into the organization, Nico claims they instantly knew that they had something special on their hands and that they made it their goal to build something around ZywOo. For those hoping that this now-legendary Counter-Strike player is going to stick with Vitality through Counter-Strike 2 and beyond, you’re in luck; Nico sees a future where they keep ZywOo for the next decade. “We instantly knew that we had something special, and then our goal was to make sure [ZywOo] would be able to contribute at the best of his potential, and also be comfortable and find the right home at Vitality. And that means a lot of things. Yes, absolutely, that means that you treat your players well, that you compensate them well, you know, adjust to their market value, but also that there is a special connection that goes beyond having a good contract, all the right coaches, all the right partners. “He needs to feel at home, and I think that’s what we demonstrated. ZywOo is Vitality, Vitality is ZywOo, and we had to build that relationship brick by brick. And there is nothing more satisfying than seeing him being still in the same club after, what, 6 years now? And hopefully for the next 5 to 10 years. That’s our mission, he needs to feel at home, he needs to think that he wants to build his own legacy and story around Vitality and vice-versa.”

Team Liquid round out CS2 roster rebuild with Twistzz and cadiaN Team LiquidTeam Liquid have announced the final addition to its CS2 roster as it rebuilds its roster ahead of the 2024 season. Team Liquid have completed its roster rebuild by adding Felipe ‘skullz’ Medeiros and two blockbuster signings in Russel ‘Twistzz’ Van Dulken and Casper ‘cadiaN’ Møller. The new signings will join the newly added head coach Wilton ‘zews’ Prado as the mixed nationality lineup will look to improve on a lackluster 2023 campaign. Team Liquid did not walk away with any trophies in 2022. The team placed in the top four at IEM Katowice and the BLAST Premier Spring America Showdown and earned a second-place spot at the Fall version of the BLAST event. The team qualified for the BLAST Paris Major and finished in the top eight. With this new roster, Team Liquid is hoping to fight for trophies based on the new additions. Team Liquid builds a star-studded CS2 lineup for 2024 Arguably the biggest signing for this new-look Liquid squad is Twistzz. The Canadian left Liquid in 2021 to join FaZe Clan and was a big part of their incredible run of form over the past two years. With FaZe, Twistzz won eight S-tier events including the PGL Antwerp Major, three IEM tournaments, and two ESL Pro League seasons. The next biggest addition for Team Liquid is the Danish IGL cadiaN. With Heroic, the veteran IGL has racked up numerous trophies, the most recent being the BLAST Premier Spring Final. The player was supposedly forced out of the Heroic lineup and is looking for a fresh start with the North American organization. Fans will see this new roster in action as the CS2 competitive season starts back up in 2024. The team has no upcoming events at the time of writing. Team Liquid’s roster now includes the following: Twistzz – cadiaN – skullz – Keith ‘NAF’ Markovic – Mareks ‘YEKINDAR’ Gaļinskis – zews (coach) –

Team Falcons bomb out of CS2 Copenhagen Major RMR after spending millions PGLTeam Flacons have bombed out of the CS2 Copenhagen Major RMR after losing to AMKAL in an elimination match, a historic low for many players on the roster. Team Falcons were trying to create a super team in the 2023/24 CS2 off-season and have reportedly spent millions on player acquisitions. The organization scooped up former Astralis and Vitality coach, Danny ‘zonic’ Sørensen, and also recruited two Danish players, Emil ‘Magisk’ Reif and Marco ‘Snappi’ Pfeiffer, to join the squad. The Saudi-Arabian esports organization also reportedly tried to recruit G2’s Nikola ‘NiKo’ Kovač and Ilya ‘m0NESY’ Osipov, but failed to bring them on board. Team Falcons eventually settled for a mixed nationalities roster with players from Jordan, Montenegro, and Spain rounding out the squad. Their first big test was IEM Katowice, which saw the squad place top four. But, the Falcons have flopped in a big way during the CS2 Copenhagen Major qualifiers, losing out in the RMRs. Tem Falcons bomb out of CS2 Copenhagen Major qualifiers Team Falcons started the qualifiers strong against the French squad 3DMAX, winning their best-of-one matchup on Nuke in Round 1. However, it was all downhill after that. The team lost to FaZe and Eternal Fire directly after and then lost an elimination best-of-three match 2-1 against the Russian side AMKAL ESPORTS. “Most disappointing moment of my Career. Sorry,” Magisk said on social media after the loss. The PGL Copenhagen Major will be the first Counter-Strike Major to not feature Zonic, who was the architect behind the Astrails CS:GO dynasty. Magisk will also miss his first Major in six years thanks to the loss in the qualifier. Both the player and coach choose to pursue the project with Team Flacons after two years of success with Team Vitality, and lifting the 2023 Paris Major trophy. Team Falcons have more BLAST and ESL events to look forward to, but the team will have to wait for IEM Dallas for another shot at international glory.

tarik tries CS2 and immediately gets destroyed by aimbot cheater: “WTF!?” Twitch: tarik / valveFormer CS:GO pro turned mega-popular Valorant streamer, Tarik ‘tarik’ Celik, was left dumbfounded after going back to his roots to try out Counter-Strike 2 – where he instantly fell victim to one of the game’s many cheaters. CS2’s rocky launch has been so for many reasons, but one of the most serious is the prevalence of cheaters – who at least at higher ranks are said to be far too common. tarik hasn’t dabbled much in CS2, with his main focus being Valorant primarily, but as a Major winner in CS:GO, there is still a large portion of his fanbase who know him from his Counter-Strike days. However, his return to CS was not what he would have hoped, as a cheater using some form of aimbot and wallhack – in a warmup deathmatch lobby no less – made the experience no fun at all. Hackers spoil tarik’s first game back in CS2 Not even in a competitive match, tarik obviously wanted to warm up his aim a bit and get used to CS2’s mechanics first, so he hopped in a deathmatch server. Although it was a custom warmup server, as opposed to Valve’s own deathmatch matchmaking, the server was still VAC secured – which, in theory, should prevent cheaters from playing. Clearly, this wasn’t the case though, as soon as he spawned in, tarik was being instantly headshotted through walls and from across the map. After being shared on social media, people were hardly surprised at the presence of a cheater in a CS2 match. “If I can get every dollar for every cheat [that] exists on cs2, I will be rich enough to hire some company to make new anticheat for valve,” one commenter joked. Another player commented, “Genuinely can’t defend Valve anymore.” The presence of cheaters in CS2, and the apparent lack of an advanced anti-cheat beyond what was used in CS:GO, has angered many players. Premier leaderboards are often taken up by cheaters among the top spots, who have been seen to remain on the leaderboards for weeks at a time too, despite very blatant cheating. The hope now is that Valve is preparing an update to the anti-cheat system, which was leaked prior to the official launch of CS2. But, it looks like we won’t be getting it until at least 2024 now.

stavn & jabbi suggest Heroic’s statement is not the “truth” amid roster drama Michal Konkol/BLASTHeroic CS2 players Martin ‘stavn’ Lund and Jakob ‘jabbi’ Nygaard suggest that Heroic statement about them and their contract status is not true on social media. Danish esports organization Heroic announced on social media that its star players stavn and jabbi have been temporarily removed from its CS2 roster. The org explained in a statement that the move was due to complications around their contracts, the departure of long-time IGL Casper ‘cadiaN’ Møller and Astralis interest. Heroic alleged that stavn and jabbi were the ones who initiated a “push to replace cadiaN” and that the org expected the two to sign new contracts after it acquiesced to their ultimatum. However, the two told the Danish org that they were already in talks to join their rival, Astralis. Now, the org has removed the two players from the roster while its “ambition is to bring stavn and jabbi back” to the starting lineup at some point before their contracts expire. The players have since responded to the statement on social media, suggesting Heroic has not revealed the full truth. stavn & jabbi respond to Heroic’s statement about CS2 roster Neither player addressed the statement directly, however, stanv has made a vague post on social media and jabbi has reposted it on his account. “Gotta love the world we live in. What is the saying? Truth always prevails,” stavn said. This comes after cadiaN revealed during his initial benching that he “wanted some changes and people wanted a different way.” Heroic also just added Danish veteran Peter ‘dupreeh’ Rasmussen to replace cadiaN for the rest of the 2023 season. Both stavn and jabbi missed their debut in CS2 as Heroic played against Aurora in the Roobet cup. MOUZ NXT players Christoffer ‘chr1zn’ Storgaard and William ‘sirah’ Kjærsgaard stood in for the two benched young stars.

Some CSGO pros already prefer Counter-Strike 2 HLTV / Counter-Strike 2Counter-Strike 2 has been receiving positive praise from many players, including pro player Ropz, who has stated that CS2 is greater than CS:GO, despite the game still being in beta testing. Counter-Strike 2’s full release is imminent, and players have been flooding into the beta testing of the highly anticipated CS:GO sequel in order to try it out themselves. Valve first released the Counter-Strike series in 2000 and ever since, the game has been a staple of the FPS scene. Counterstrike: Global Offensive itself has shown no signs of slowing down, as surprisingly even though the game has been out for over 10 years, in May 2023, it achieved its highest peak player count of 1.8 million in May. This has put a lot of pressure on the release of CS2, which has been overhauled by the developers to include fresh features and it is even powered by a brand-new Source 2 engine. Fundamental changes include server tick rates, smoke physics, spray patterns, buy menus, and map upgrades. These of course all impact competitive Counter-Strike in the world of esports and their ranked mode, such as the round length changing from teams having to secure the classic minimum of 16 rounds to win, to just 13 which is the same in esports rival Valorant, which both have 12 round halves. After pro players got their hands on the game, the limited beta version of Counter-Strike 2 has been generally well-received in the pro community, with Ropz even already stating Counter-Strike 2 is better than CS:GO. CSGO pro players have said they prefer Counter-Strike 2 already Many pro players have been expressing their views over social media and within their livestreams as they rack up the hours in the CS2 beta. A leading figure in the scene of Ropz, simply tweeted out on September 2 that CS2 is greater than CSGO. This is a game he went professional in back in 2016 and he has earned over $1 million dollars in prize money from over 90 tournaments. Retired Counter-Strike Legend Taz has also praised the game’s transition compared to previous games in the series. English pro player Smooya and CS personality Launders have further highlighted the game’s potential, with Smooya stating: “It will be INSANE.” Despite, not many major changes coming to the game over the years for CS:GO esports, it has still continued to thrive amassing millions of viewers and prize money to be won each year. Therefore, the complete overhaul of CS2 and its monumental transition will be interesting to see how pros’ opinions shift as the esport enters a whole new era with the release of Counter-Strike 2.

Shroud says Counter-Strike 2 can “take over” Valorant and “everything” if it makes needed changes Shroud / ValveFormer CS:GO pro turned popular streamer Michael ‘shroud’ Grzesiek is back on his old stomping ground with Counter-Strike 2 – and he thinks the game could be “five times” bigger, with some changes to matchmaking. CS:GO, released in 2012, has maintained its position as the most popular PC shooter for over a decade, despite facing stiff competition from newer releases. While games like Valorant have posed serious competition for players’ attention, the CS:GO player count has only continued to increase. But, shroud believes it could be even bigger still if Valve makes necessary changes to matchmaking. In fact, he believes CS2 could average 5 million concurrent players, if Valve can pull it off. Shroud has high hopes for Counter-Strike 2 One of the big improvements hoped for CS2 is an overhaul to the ranked system in matchmaking. Unlike rival games, CSGO doesn’t have leaderboards, or a system to see how far away you are from the next rank. It’s all hidden. As a result, many really competitive players use third-party platforms like Faceit, rather than playing Valve’s official matchmaking, Shroud argues that an improvement to this system could see CS become even more popular. “If CS2 doesn’t work on their matchmaking system and their ranked system, and it’s just the same as [Global Offensive], I’m going to be so upset. “It won’t matter because people are still going to play the game anyway, because it’s Counter-Strike, who cares. But CS is in the spot where it could literally take over. Take over everything and everyone. Engulf everything,” shroud explained. “It could probably have five million players, concurrent, on average,” he concluded. Right now, CS:GO averages around 800,000 concurrent players, and regularly peaks at around 1.4 million. There is no doubt that the release of Counter-Strike 2 will be a boost to the player count. But, how big that boost will be, and how long new players will stick around, might depend on features like matchmaking and anti-cheat. How to play Counter-Strike 2 limited beta test | Is Counter-Strike 2 going to be free to play? | Every game mode in Counter-Strike 2 | Every confirmed map from CSGO in Counter-Strike 2 | Can you play Counter-Strike 2 on console? | What is sub-tick in Counter-Strike 2? | All smoke changes in Counter-Strike 2 | Can you play Counter-Strike 2 on Linux or macOS? | Can banned CS:GO players play Counter-Strike 2? | What will happen to my CSGO skins? | Will Counter-Strike 2 come to Steam Deck? | Everything we know about Counter-Strike 2

shroud praises Counter-Strike 2 for its “smoother” gameplay but raises concerns over smokes YouTube: shroud / ValveFormer CSGO pro turned streaming superstar Michael ‘shroud’ Grzesiek was among the first to compliment Counter-Strike 2 on launch day, highlighting its “smooth” gameplay upgrades. Though he isn’t completely sold on one particular change yet, questioning smokes in the new port. CSGO fans rejoice, Counter-Strike 2 is finally a real thing and it’s already playable, sort of. If you’re among the lucky few with early access to Valve’s limited beta, you can jump in right away and start getting familiar with the new FPS port. For everyone else, however, including some of the biggest names in the scene, waiting patiently is all that can be done. Lumped into the former group, CS legend shroud was straight into the action on March 22 having gained access right away. Instantly checking out all the new features and updates, the veteran was quickly impressed after a few games in the Source 2 engine. Heaping praise on the port for just how much of an upgrade it really is, he was complimentary towards a vast majority of the day one experience. Though not everything was worthy of praise, however, as shroud did highlight a few particular gripes. “So far it is a lot smoother of an engine update than I would have thought,” shroud said early into his all-day broadcast on Twitch. From renovated maps to new server systems, this new version of the game only seeks to improve on CSGO’s foundations, rather than establishing a whole new rhythm. That said, smaller additions across the board certainly caught his eye, including a shiny new visual flair that signifies your kills throughout a match. Say you get a multi-spray, or even an ace, this new element hypes those moments up all the more. “Woah, you guys see this? Valorant?” shroud joked. “I was saying this yesterday, give me some gas when I get an ace. Sometimes you don’t even know you got an ace, now we’re finally getting some f***ing gas.” On the other hand, a few new tweaks did raise eyebrows as shroud got more familiar with the new version of Valve’s iconic FPS title. In particular, he questioned the jump from regular tick-rates as we know them, to a new method completely removing the need as servers look to match your actions quicker than ever before. “They got rid of tick rates completely… have fun,” he joked sarcastically. “The server performance is super interesting. Definitely not as good, but that’s probably because they have a lot of hiccups right now.” Last but not least, he also expressed concern over new smoke grenade systems in the port, admitting the changes “look f***ing dope” in action, but could be detrimental to performance. “Bye bye FPS,” he said. “That’s gonna hurt. Luckily Counter-Strike already runs great so it’s not that big a deal.” After playing for a few hours, he remained hesitant on the new smokes as a whole. While he continued to praise how “awesome” they looked in action, especially when throwing grenades to dissolve the effect, or even when shooting through them, he’s not completely sold over the traditional CS smokes just yet. Obviously, it’s worth taking these early impressions for what they are, early. With thousands of hours pumped into the original version of the game, any slight change is going to be massively noticeable for a player of shroud’s ilk. But over time, there’s every chance those opinions change as he acclimates to the new version of Counter-Strike.

shroud hints Counter-Strike 2 might let players censor blood and change T/CT terms Valve/Twitch/shroudTwitch streamer and former CS:GO pro Michael ‘shroud’ Grzesiek has suggested that Valve could allow for some censorship options pertaining to blood and “terrorists.” Valve finally revealed Counter-Strike 2 on March 22 and the internet has been abuzz with all the new additions coming to the game. Dr Disrespect, for instance, was impressed with what CS2 has to offer, saying it looked “really good” and “so clean.” While going through all the information on stream, however, shroud may have let slip that Valve may allow for some customization options to censor blood and change certain terms. Shroud “says too much” about CS2 on Twitch stream During a broadcast, shroud brought up how some people felt that the terms “terrorist” and “counter-terrorist” would be removed from the game and chimed in with his thoughts. “I don’t think that’s going to happen,” he said. “I doubt they give one f**k about doing that.” After a brief pause, however, the Polish-Canadian suggested that Valve could have something else up their sleeve to please everyone. “But, they might have a setting in the options that would get rid of blood and get rid of…” he stopped himself, seemingly about to suggest that terms including the word “terrorists” could be censored. “Well, eh, I don’t know if they’d get rid of blood. I don’t know, I’ve said too much,” shroud panicked. “All good. It’s fine.” Although it does seem like shroud may have slipped up and said more than he should have, it’s important to note that Valve hasn’t confirmed anything just yet about a possible slider. In any case, be sure to keep it locked to Dexerto for more on Counter-Strike 2 leading up to its release this summer and beyond. For more information about Counter-Strike 2, make sure to check out the links below: How to play Counter-Strike 2 limited beta test | Is Counter-Strike 2 going to be free to play? | What is sub-tick in Counter-Strike 2? | All smoke changes in Counter-Strike 2 | Can you play Counter-Strike 2 on Linux or macOS? | Can banned CS:GO players play Counter-Strike 2? | What will happen to my CSGO skins? | Will Counter-Strike 2 come to Steam Deck? | Valve officially reveals Counter-Strike 2 | Everything we know about Counter-Strike 2

Shroud believes Counter-Strike will “die” with CS2 Twitch star and former CS:GO pro Michael ‘Shroud’ Grzesiek has revealed he believes that Counter-Strike will “die” with CS2. For over a decade, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive remained one of the most popular first-person shooters in the world. Finally, its predecessor arrived on September 27, with Counter-Strike 2 released after it went through months of testing in beta. Improving gameplay across the board with new features, fans have high hopes for the future of the game. However, in a recent live stream, Twitch star shroud, formerly a professional CS:GO player, isn’t optimistic. Shroud thinks Counter-Strike will die with CS2 During his October 1 broadcast, shroud called for some changes to the responsive smokes in the new first-person shooter, before he revealed he believes that Counter-Strike 2 will be the end of the franchise. “They need to delete the smoke effect,” he said. “When you run out of the smoke when you’re f**king Batman. They literally need to delete that from this game. “I think this game dies. CS dies with two. I think it does. I firmly believe that.” However, his teammates could only disagree with the former pro, hitting back and calling him out for being negative. “I feel like you’re a being a little negative,” said his teammate. “It’s just the truth, I think it does,” shroud replied. “I think it’s the end of Counter-Strike with this game. Which I mean, we had a good run no?” The streamer added: “We definitely did. Think about it.” While shroud believes it could be the end of the franchise, it’s clear Counter-Strike 2 shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon, absolutely dominating as the most-played game on Steam currently.

Shanghai confirmed as location for second Counter-Strike 2 Major of 2024 StarLadderPerfect World Esports have confirmed that they will be the host and organizer for the second Counter-Strike 2 Major in 2024, which will be held in Shanghai, China. The confirmation comes after rumors that 2024’s second Major would be in Shanghai following reports that Valve would be shaking up the Counter-Strike Majors schedule. Reports that Shangai was being considered as the location were broken by HLTV.org earlier this year, but now those rumors have been confirmed by the official hosts and organizers. Perfect World Esports to host second Counter-Strike 2 Major in 2024 Perfect World Esports confirmed they had been selected for the Major on Twitter, where they posted: “Perfect World Esports will be the host and organizer of the second Counter-Strike 2 Major of 2024, to be held in Shanghai, China. See you there.” The first Major of 2024 will be held on March 17-3, in Copenhagen, Denmark. We don’t yet have a date or venue for the second Major. Valve’s new schedule for Majors comes into play in 2025, when they will be moved to the end of tournament seasons, rather than in the middle, as they will be next year. For 2025, Majors will be held between June 9-22 and December 1-14 in 2025, and between June 8-21 and November 30-December 13 in 2026. For more news and updates on Counter-Strike 2, check out G2’s surprising roster shakeup after they benched jks.

s1mple’s CS2 settings in the beta s1mple / TWITCHCS legend s1mple has revealed the Counter-Strike 2 settings he is using in the beta, which you might want to try out for your own game. s1mple has been enjoying the CS2 beta as he gets used to the new game, while still making his typical crazy plays. However, Navi’s star AWPer has also criticized Valve for adding features to the game that mimic Counter-Strike’s main rival Valorant. s1mple has now shared his Counter-Strike 2 settings for the beta, as he went through his game, audio, mouse and most importantly video settings. s1mple’s CS2 video settings Pro players such as s1mple have some of the best PCs that are capable of running any game’s graphics settings, but they will still lower their settings to make sure they are prioritizing FPS over everything. As he has set the majority of settings at “Low” or “Disabled,” even players with less powerful PCs should be able to adopt these and get the most out of their system too. The only one that sticks out is the refresh rate of 360 HZ, which may not be available depending on the refresh rate of your monitor. Simply select the highest refresh rate possible for you. See below all of s1mple’s Counter-Strike 2 general and advanced video settings: Refresh Rate: 360 HZ – Video Brightness: 100% – Aspect Ratio: 4:3 – Resolution: 1280×960 – Player Contrast: Disabled – Vertical Sync: Disabled – Multisampling Anti-aliasing Mode: 8XMSAA – Global Shadow Quality: Low – Model/Texture Detail: Low – Shader Detail: Low – Particle Detail: Low – Ambiance Occlusion: Disabled – High Dynamic range: Disabled – NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency: Disabled – FidelityFX Super Resolution: Disabled – Interestingly, s1mple has his shadow settings on low. However, based on our testing, we’d suggest either high or medium in order to use shadows in our best settings guide for CS2, as they can give away the position of other players, as well as your own shadow. s1mple’s settings may well change as the beta continues, so we’ll update this page if he does. For more CS2 guides, check out our coverage: CS2 Commands you need to know | How to jump throw in CS2 | Can you play left hand in Counter-Strike 2? | All smoke changes in Counter-Strike 2 | Can you play Counter-Strike 2 on Linux or macOS? | Can banned CS:GO players play Counter-Strike 2? | What will happen to my CSGO skins? | Will Counter-Strike 2 come to Steam Deck?

s1mple’s CS2 settings: Config, resolution, crosshair & more Helena Kristiansson/ESL Gaming via ESPATUkrainian legend Aleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev reigns supreme as the undisputed GOAT of Counter-Strike. So, naturally, you might be inclined to copy some of s1mple’s settings in CS2, to get every possible advantage from his mouse settings, resolution and viewmodel. With so many settings to tinker with in CS2, and so many different ways to play, there are no ‘correct’ settings. It all comes down to preference. However, if these settings are good enough for the best player in the world, with a record 21 MVP medals to his name, they should work well for anyone. Before getting into s1mple’s CS2 settings in full, it’s worth noting that he is an AWPer primarily, which can sometimes have settings less suitable to a rifler. Also, the distance you sit from your monitor, and whether you aim with arm or wrist, can be major factors in determining which settings will work best for you. s1mple’s settings for CS2 in 2024 Contents Mouse settings – Crosshair – Monitor & Resolution – Video settings – Viewmodel – Equipment – Launch options – s1mple cfg – s1mple’s mouse settings S1mple uses a Logitech G Pro X Superlight mouse, with 400 DPI and 3.09 sensitivity. Compared to many pros, this is a fairly high sensitivity, but as an AWPer, this allows s1mple to get those quick flicks. s1mple’s Crosshair The easiest way to copy s1mple’s exact crosshair is to copy these settings into the console, or by pasting the crosshair code in settings. cl_crosshair_drawoutline 0; cl_crosshairalpha 255; cl_crosshaircolor 5; cl_crosshaircolor_b 170; cl_crosshaircolor_g 255; cl_crosshaircolor_r 0; cl_crosshairdot 1; cl_crosshairgap -2; cl_crosshairsize 1; cl_crosshairstyle 5; cl_crosshairthickness 0; cl_crosshair_sniper_width 1; CSGO-OCskf-qjunY-FE6T6-rsTR9-7SVvD s1mple’s monitor and resolution When playing at home, s1mple uses a ZOWIE XL2566K monitor, which boasts a rapid 360hz refresh rate. Read More: ZywOo’s CS2 settings – Like all of his NAVI teammates, s1mple plays on a stretched res. While this isn’t for everyone, it has the benefit of making player models appear wider. They’ll also move faster across your screen though, and reduce your field of view significantly. Video settings S1mple keeps his settings low to get the maximum FPS. There are some exceptions though, such as MSAA, which is high to make the game look smoother on the low res. Viewmodel In CS2, the viewmodel settings will determine the position and movement of your hands, knife and weapons on the screen. Again, the easiest way to copy s1mple’s exact viewmodel is by copying the following commands into the console. viewmodel_fov 68; viewmodel_offset_x 2.5; viewmodel_offset_y 0; viewmodel_offset_z -1.5; viewmodel_presetpos 3; s1mple’s equipment Launch Options These launch options settings are applied in your Steam library, in CS@’s properties tab. Simply copy and paste these launch options to match s1mple’s: -freq 240 -console -novid -tickrate 128 s1mple’s CS2 config If you want to copy all of s1mple’s settings, including his keybinds and more, you can do so by downloading his config. You can download s1mple’s config here. To apply the config, you’ll need to take the .cfg file and add it to your Counter-Strike: Global Offensive folder. This is usually located in Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Counter-Strike Global Offensive\csgo\cfg.

S1mple’s $149 CS2 class refunded after “scam” lessons taken down GG.BETPeople who purchased access to the Play Like S1mple club and educational program for $149 claim they have started receiving refunds for their purchases and the video tutorials are now private. Oleksandr ‘s1mple‘ Kostyljev and ESL FACEIT Group launched the Play Like S1mple project on June 3 as an educational project for Counter-Strike 2. The product featured lessons from the player and other guests, show matches, community tournaments, and “other activities.” “Along with the educational part of the lessons, I want to build a real connection with my people, which means you can look forward to different online and offline activities for the members,” s1mple said on social media. By purchasing the course, players would have access to its over 70 educational videos, monthly tournaments, a private Discord channel, “personal communication” with s1mple “and his friends,” and access to private streams for a year. Just over a month after its launch, though, the project and its courses have all but shuttered. While the courses can still be purchased, buyers have reported receiving refunds and S1mple’s lesson videos are now private. Users in the project’s public Discord server, users mentioned that lesson videos were suddenly private on July 17. The first report of refunds being sent out appeared on July 22. “I got issued a refund, so I think they are just refunding everyone and moving on,” one Discord member said, explaining that they did not submit a request to get their money back. Some users also claimed they never received an invite to the promoted private Discord with s1mple. The project’s social media pages have not posted anything since June 6, and the NAVI player has not said anything about the apparent closing of his course. His latest social media post at the time of writing was on June 15 about the Copa America final. The quality of the courses was criticized during its initial tease in May, as people found the first lessons not worth the $149 price. “No hate but imo it’s a pure scam, I’ve seen better guides for free on YouTube for newbies and semi-advanced players,” one user said in the public Discord. The Ukrainian pro last played a professional Counter-Strike match in June with Team Falcons at the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown. Before that event, s1mple had been away from competitive CS2 since October.

s1mple, Twistzz, more CSGO pros react to Counter-Strike 2 reveal ValveWith Valve finally lifting the veil on Counter-Strike 2, many CS:GO pros have voiced their opinion about some of the changes that the game is bringing. Here’s what they had to say. Valve has officially revealed the first details about Counter-Strike 2, the latest entry in the iconic FPS franchise. A limited test beta will be available later today, with the game due to be released to all players sometime in the summer. In a series of videos, Valve began to lift the veil on the many changes that Counter-Strike 2 will bring, including visual and audio improvements, dynamic smoke grenades and overhauled maps. More details will be released in the weeks and months leading up to the game’s release, with Valve stating that the limited test “only evaluates a subset of Counter-Strike 2’s features”. Still, there is already a lot to process, and the first reactions from professional players have started to come in. CSGO pros react to Counter-Strike 2 reveal Swedish veteran Patrik ‘f0rest’ Lindberg was one of the players and community figures who playtested Counter-Strike 2 in Valve’s Seattle headquarters earlier this year. On Twitter, the former NIP star admitted that it was hard to keep quiet about the changes that the game is introducing. “I did travel to test, with some amazing peeps,” he wrote. “But my poker face game was too strong. This will be beautiful.” CS:GO streamer Erik ‘fl0m’ Flom confirmed that he also tested the new game alongside former pro Christopher “GeT_RiGhT” Alesund and broadcast members Jason “moses” O’Toole, Chad “SPUNJ” Burchill, Alex “Machine” Richardson, Harry “JustHarry” Russell and Hugo Byron. “Outside of the gameplay, most of my experience at Valve HQ goes way against the vision and idea most people have for the devs,” moses wrote. “At one point in the room there were 20+ devs standing behind watching us scrim CS2 throughout the day.” Shortly after NAVI’s victory against Outsiders in the ESL Pro League 17 playoffs, Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev sat down with the tournament’s broadcast talent. As he watched the responsive smoke grenades, the Ukrainian superstar could not hide his astonishment. In a video posted on Twitter, FaZe shared the reactions of their players as they watched the videos released by Valve about Counter-Strike 2. On Twitter, FaZe star Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken could not contain his amazement. “So excited for the future of CS with CS2,” he wrote. Below you can find reactions from other pros and community figures to the big reveal: For more information about Counter-Strike 2, make sure to check out the links below: For more information about Counter-Strike 2, make sure to check out the links below: How to play Counter-Strike 2 limited beta test | Is Counter-Strike 2 going to be free to play? | What is sub-tick in Counter-Strike 2? | All smoke changes in Counter-Strike 2 | Can you play Counter-Strike 2 on Linux or macOS? | Can banned CS:GO players play Counter-Strike 2? | What will happen to my CSGO skins? | Will Counter-Strike 2 come to Steam Deck? | Valve officially reveals Counter-Strike 2 | Everything we know about Counter-Strike 2

s1mple slams Counter-Strike 2 buy menu for being more Valorant than CS:GO PGL / TradeIT.GGCS Legend s1mple has critized the new buy menu in Counter-Strike 2 after the iconic menu has changed to resemble the game’s competitor Valorant. Counter-Strike 2 has proven to be one of the most anticipated games of 2023, following on as a direct sequel to the wildly successful FPS title CS:GO. Valve has pulled out all the stops to overhaul the previous game with enhanced graphics and fundamentals. However, many have made the observation that the developers have brought along features that heavily resemble those found in their direct competitor Valorant. Most notably, the decreasing of the match round length from 16 to the new 12-round halves (MR12), which is the exact same as Valorant. Another similar key change is the buy menu, which has changed from the classic wheel selector that has been in the game since Counter-Strike 1.6, to a brand-new loadout system. With the launch of the CS2 beta in full flow, players have continued to play test the new game, where Counter-Strike legend and pro player s1mple has criticized the buy menu for being way too similar to Valorant. s1mple slams Counter-Strike 2 buy menu for being similar to Valorant While streaming to his fans playing a Counter-Strike 2 match, he made his opinions clear on the buy menu’s likeness to Valorant. “Why did they do it like this man, it’s not Valorant, it’s CS, it should be like before,” he said while showing his viewers him navigating around the menu. Similarities can be seen in the new buy menu with its use of loadouts, which force players to choose a particular loadout and then they are limited by the weapons they can buy for the rest of the match. This change also allows them to refund their guns and utilities to change weapons if they made a mistake, a feature that has long been found in rival Valorant. It will be interesting to see how many more updates to the game resemble a similarity to its FPS rival Valorant, when Counter-Strike 2 releases in 2023.

s1mple says he would never join Cloud9 because of Russian players ESLCounter-Strike legend Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyljev sats he would never join Cloud9 because the team is full of Russian players. s1mple has been absent from the Counter-Strike 2 spotlight as the esports legend is taking a break from competition as Valve continues tending with its newly-released title and he figures out some residency issues. The Ukrainian player gave a timeline for his return during IEM Katowice, saying that he will return to NAVI’s active roster sometime after the PGL Copenhagen Major. In his absence, NAVI have placed top eight at IEM Katowice and top four at the Blast Premier World Final 2023. In an interview with the Ukrainian media company Players after IEM Katowice, s1mple was asked about his free agent prospects and revealed why he would never join Cloud9. s1mple won’t join Cloud9 anytime soon According to a teaser for the interview put out by Players, s1mple said that every Ukrainian understands why he wouldn’t join Cloud9. “I would never move to Cloud9 when there are four Russian players. It seems to me that every Ukrainian should understand this,” he said via a machine translation. Cloud9 acquired Gambit Esports’ mostly Russian Counter-Strike roster in 2022 and has since shuffled around a few other players from the country in its lineup. Currently, only two players on C9 represent Russia, Sergey ‘Ax1Le’ Rykhtorov and Kirill ‘Boombl4’ Mikhaylov. s1mple’s former NAVI teammates Denis ‘electroNic’ Sharipov and Ilya ‘Perfecto’ Zalutskiy requested to no longer represent the country on their Liquipedia profile following its invasion of Ukraine. Cloud9 is also coached by a former Russian Counter-Strike player, Konstantin ‘groove’ Pikiner. s1mple played with electroNic, Perfecto and Boombl4 following the start of the conflict. However, NAVI constructed an international roster in June 2023 and subsequently moved on from the Russian players. The Ukraine-Russia conflict is still ongoing and its seems that s1mple has taken a more hard-lined stance against players from the country as the war has drawn on.

s1mple reveals plan to return to Counter-Strike 2 pro play GG.BETNAVI superstar Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev has revealed his plans to return to Counter-Strike 2 pro play, making a comeback after the Copenhagen Major. IEM Katowice has wrapped up, and it saw Team Spirit dominate the first major LAN tournament to start off 2024, amongst many other surprises. From Team Vitality falling in the Group Stage, to donk’s jaw-dropping Katowice debut performance at just 17 years old, the event was one to remember. Amidst all that, arguably Counter-Strike’s greatest of all time, s1mple, was at the tournament watching the playoffs, even though NAVI fell at the Group Stage. And during an interview, he revealed his plans to return to pro play, giving a potential time frame of when he’ll be stepping back into the mix. Speaking to James Banks on the ESL broadcast of IEM Katowice, s1mple was asked the all-important question of when he was returning from his hiatus. “I hope after Major,” s1mple told Banks. “Because I’m the sixth player for NAVI for this Major, but I hope nothing really happens to the roster because they were practicing really hard after I took my break. I just want them to progress and let’s see what’s gonna happen after the Major. ” The upcoming PGL Copenhagen Major is set to run from March 17 to 31, with the next tournament NAVI slated to compete in after the Major being ESL Pro League Season 19 running from April 23 to May 12. s1mple stepped down from the squad when the team had just gone international from their mostly Ukranian lineup. And to replace him, NAVI picked up w0nderful from Sprout. When s1mple took his step back, it was during the start of CS2’s takeover in the pro scene, of which he was critical of the change from CSGO. However, in the interview, he admitted he was happy with where the game was at now after the recent major update.

s1mple reportedly replaced on NAVI CS2 team by young AWPer amid residency issues Helena Kristiansson/ESL Gaming via ESPATNAVI is reportedly set to sign a replacement for Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyljev as the player is taking a break amid residency issues and change to CS2. NAVI star s1mple has revealed that he is taking a break from esports competition. The player cited needing to fix his documents, but also said he would be interested in seeing offers from other teams to play as a rifler. His announcement comes on the heels of news that NAVI is set to sign a replacement for the sniper. The Ukrainian pro was not able to attend IEM Sydney this past month due to issues around his European residency papers. NAVI’s coach, Andrij ‘B1ad3’ Ghorodensjkyj, filled in for s1mple at the event. s1mple has also shown some discomfort with the new Valve title and has not seemed to click with CS2’s new mechanics. “So what’s next, time to take break as I wanted but that’s only half of story. Need to fix documents and take care of other people in my life,” the star player said. s1mple to take a break from CS2 competition NAVI are signing Sprout sniper Ihor ‘w0nderful’ Zhdanov to replace s1mple for the time being, according to HLTV. Because of his absence from IEM Sydney, and NAVI’s exploration of a replacement, some have linked s1mple with a move to other top teams. However, s1mple has denied those rumors in his post, but he did say he was interested in seeing what was out there. “It but would be interesting to see offers, maybe on rifle since AWP a bit not impactful in new game,” he said. The star still has two years left on his contract with NAVI, however, with CS2’s release, teams seem more willing to bet on younger players than rely on CS:GO veterans. Team Vitality made a change with that in mind earlier this year by benching CS:GO veteran Peter ‘dupreeh’ Rasmussen in favor of the 20-year-old Shahar ‘flameZ’ Shushan. NAVI’s roster isn’t the only one in turmoil. Between Heroic’s roster drama dumpster fire and star players like Twistzz rumored to be swapping teams, there’s no telling what roster moves will happen next.

s1mple ghosted Valve after devs reached out to discuss Counter-Strike 2’s “problems” ESLS1mple revealed he ghosted Valve after the devs reached out to discuss Counter-Strike 2’s “problems” amid vocal complaints. As Counter-Strike 2’s first LAN event goes to its playoffs stage at IEM Sydney, much has been said about the state of the game from pros and casual players alike. Questions surrounding its competitive readiness have been raised, as the new release has faced various issues from false bans and game-breaking bugs which have all been plaguing the experience early on. And amidst the first month of the game’s full release, one the greatest CS players in history, Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyljev, has been perhaps CS2’s biggest critic leading up to its first big event. As s1mple recounted during a recent stream, when asked if Valve ever reached out to him about his opinions of CS2, he confirmed they indeed have. However, he chose not to reply back. He revealed that Valve did reach out regarding one particular tweet he made, telling players not to pursue being a pro in CS2 due to the state of the game and to wait until further updates which would fix the issues. “They sent me the tweet that I wrote… and they were like ‘what’s the issues?” However, s1mple chose not to respond to Valve’s questions. “You know what I did? I never answered them back. How can you ask me what the issues is if the f***ing whole internet, whole Twitter, is writing about the issues? You don’t see the f***ing issue?” At IEM Sydney, s1mple is not present as part of NAVI’s very first CS2 tournament due to Visa issues. Despite that, NAVI still won their very first match, however, would go on to be eliminated at the group stage.

s1mple finally locks in pro Counter-Strike 2 debut but not with NAVI João Ferreira/DexertoCS legend Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev is making his pro Counter-Strike 2 debut with a one-month loan to Team Falcons, leaving NAVI in the interim. s1mple is undoubtedly Counter-Strike’s goat. However, since CS2 came into the pro scene, s1mple has been out of the stage, announcing a hiatus shortly after IEM Sydney 2023, CS2’s first premier LAN tournament. But, he revealed just over a week ago at IEM Katowice 2024 that he was ready to make a return to pro Counter-Strike, revealing he’d be coming back after the Copenhagen Major with NAVI. However, in a surprise move none saw coming, Team Falcons has announced that s1mple will be signing with the team on a loan to replace a benched player. On February 19, Team Falcons announced the benching of Mohammad “BOROS” Malhas after their devastating elimination at the Copenhagen Major RMR Qualifiers, with a loaned player being teased in the announcement. As it would turn out, they got s1mple on loan from NAVI for a month. This is not a permanent move for s1mple, as he would be standing in for the team for just one tournament, the BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown 2024. “[s1mple] will perform for Team Falcons for one month as a stand-in, including at BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown 2024,” announced NAVI. “And try to help the team earn one of two slots at BLAST Spring Final.” This appearance will mark s1mple’s first-ever pro CS2 match as he was not present at IEM Sydney for NAVI’s very first tournament run in the new game. The BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown is slated to begin on March 6 and run through until March 10.

s1mple breaks silence on return to pro Counter-Strike after finally playing CS2 on LAN GG.BETCounter-Strike star Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyljev has broken his silence on a potential return to pro play in CS2 after finally experiencing the changes on LAN. When Valve announced that Counter-Strike: Global Offensive would be making way for CS2, the competitive scene was shaken up. Some rosters were quickly overhauled as some players couldn’t get to grips with the movement and overall gameplay changes. NAVI were also included in that. They saw s1mple – the greatest Counter-Strike player of all-time – decide to take a backseat as he wanted to see Valve make some changes. After s1mple benched himself, the Ukrainain’s team went on to win the first CS2 Major – PGL Copengahen Major – and the Esports World Cup. There has been plenty of talk about him returning, something he “hopes” to do with NAVI. Yet, it might be tough. “Na’Vi doesn’t need S1mple; Sasha needs Na’Vi. There are things that are hard to talk about but the motivation never faded. I’m genuinely very happy with how the guys are playing, but sometimes they lack professional egoism, and that frustrates me,” s1mple said on his official Telegram account following IEM Cologne. The Counter-Strike legend continued, saying he wants to return: “I hope to return someday, I’m tired of doing nothing. And when I come back, I’ll definitely be stronger – it’s just a matter of time.” The 26-year-old said it’s “sad” that he’s not a part of the team he’s been with since 2016 anymore. However, he is pleased by their development and accepted he’s been harsh with criticism. As for his own experiences with CS2, he added: “First time playing on LAN, even though it’s a showmatch – the game feels different, you don’t need to use any extra stuff to help you.” S1mple has competed in CS2 in 2024, when he joined Falcons Esports on loan for a series against Metizport. He didn’t exactly go off as he normally does in that series, having a kill death ratio of 38-49. Though, he’s clearly got a bit more practice under his belt, and now that competitive fire is raging.

FaZe Ropz just hit best 1v5 clutch in Counter-Strike 2 so far FaZe ClanFaZe clan’s ropz just hit his first 1v5 clutch in CS2, and it might be one of the best CS2 clips we’ve seen so far. Counter-Strike 2 is still in its limited test phase. With a release imminent as Valve makes some final tweaks to the game, players have been trying out the new iteration of the notorious Counter-Strike franchise, which was first teased with a surprisingly abrupt series of videos earlier this year. Players with access to the game – which is the majority of players with CS: GO Prime status – have been enjoying the limited test and are excited for the full release of CS2. Despite the game not being fully released yet, that hasn’t stopped Counter-strike pro players like Ropz from hitting some crazy clips. ropz hits his first Counter-Strike 2 1v5 clutch In a Twitter video posted by ESLCS, ropz is extra focused as he streams his first CS2 1v5. In the clip, we see his insane reaction speed and aim on display as he neutralized 3 enemies whilst moving toward the site. Fans reacted to the clip and were immediately reminded of why ropz is the player that he is. No one could deny the skill on display, as Counter-strike fans commented, “bro is just different.” Other fans took it a step further. One fan commented “this kid is a f**king robot,” and another “this guy is born to do this.” Although there is no denying that some of these Counter-Strike pros might just be “built different.” But the right settings in CS2 can help a player get closer to playing like their idol. Dexerto has a guide on which settings to choose in CS2 to take your game to the next level.

Valve shuts down rumors about removing configs in Counter-Strike 2 – Update ValveValve has denied a rumor that they plan to remove config executable files from being used in Counter-Strike 2. With CS:GO now replaced by Counter-Strike 2, the community is coming up against various challenges adjusting to all the changes. One of the obvious focuses from Valve with CS2 has been making the experience for newer players more welcoming, but this has come at the cost of some of the tricks used by experienced players. Notably, options like left-handed ViewModel and cl_bob values are missing, functionality that was previously accessible through the in-game developer console. As frequent updates continue to roll out for CS2, speculation began that configs were on the chopping block, after SPUNJ and ropz both were convinced it was in Valve’s plans. Valve has since squashed these rumors. Ropz says Valve will “99%” remove cfgs – Valve responds During a discussion on HLTV’s Twitch channel, Counter-Strike caster Chad ‘SPUNJ’ Burchill theorized that Valve is planning to remove configs. Configs allow players to retain their settings, command lists, and more, in a file, which can then be implemented with an execute command in-game. This is used by players to transfer their settings between systems, or to execute a set of practice commands at once in a practice server, as well as various other uses. “They [Valve] will do it,” SPUNJ said. “I am almost 100% certain. They want to make it so that when your settings are done when you go to another computer, your settings will carry across.” In the chat, FaZe Clan player Robin ‘ropz’ Cool confirmed he had heard the same. “Yeah they are probably removing cfg’s which is quite f**ked, rumours are out,” he said. Later in the stream, ropz confirmed again, stating “They will do it 99%, there is already “cloud” cfg files.” This would mean that the cfg files, such as settings, would be saved to the cloud, rather than the local system, removing the need for settings configs. Valve denies any plans to remove cfg/execs in CS2 Following the comments from SPUNJ and ropz, the community began to worry – prompting one to simply email a Valve developer, who, somewhat surprisingly, responded. “Hello, there is a rumor going around that Valve will remove autoexec and config and I would like to ask you if this is true,” user @gamersdont asked. The response came, “We don’t have any plans to remove the ability for users to create autoexecs or configs.” The email was verified by reliable data miner and leaker gabefollower. Removing autoexec configs would remove a host of functionality, such as binding keys to certain functions, for things like jump throws, radar zoom changes, and countless other options.

Pro CS2 match goes on so long players needed bathroom break mid-map ValveA pro Counter-Strike 2 match went on for so long players needed a bathroom break mid-map, breaking the record for the longest pro match in the game in the process. Anybody who has been in a particularly intense match knows how long they can last. A classic CS2 match takes around 30 minutes; ones that go into overtime can last for up to 40 to 50 minutes, especially if it’s a close battle. How about one that lasts 2 hours and 50 minutes? One that’s so long that players involved needed to pause mid-map and take a bathroom break? That’s exactly what happened during ESL Pro League Season 20 when M80 and Fnatic met in the group stage, where their first map broke records. The match started on Anubis, and it was instantly obvious both teams were equally matched, ending the first half at 6-6. Eventually, by the end of regulation, both teams were at a stalemate of 12-12. This is where the marathon began. Both M80 and Fnatic began trading overtimes, with no team coming out victorious with every single one that passed. The match went on for so long that in round 64, overtime seven, a solid two hours, and 25 minutes into the match, the players asked each other if anyone else needed to use the toilet. Revealed by the casters, Fnatic’s player, bodyy, asked the lobby if anyone else was bursting to use the toilet, only for the entire lobby to agree. One of M80’s players said they needed the toilet for the past 20 rounds. As the referees allowed the players to stand up to go to the toilet, you could hear the players cheering as they got a well-deserved break from the map. The broadcast team also took a five-minute break. Right after the players returned, the map didn’t finish at overtime seven, rather finishing at overtime eight, where M80 won it at 37-34. M80 would go on to win the match as well in 2-0 fashion, with the second map of Inferno also going into overtime, however it stopped at 16-13.

Pokemon comes to Counter-Strike 2 with amazing Poke Ball sticker craft Valve / PokemonThanks to the new sticker placement update in CS2, players have been letting their creative juices run wild, with one of the most impressive crafts yet brilliantly depicting a “gotta catch ’em all” Poke Ball on the M4A4. In the first major content update for Counter-Strike 2, Valve shocked everyone in the skins community by allowing five stickers on every weapon, as well as the ability to place stickers anywhere and in any orientation. This immediately opened the floodgates to endless possibilities for creative ‘crafts’ – where players apply stickers in an artistic or clever way. One of the most impressive so far is this Pokemon-inspired creation, using the M4A4 Temukau skin, one of the few anime-style skins in CS2. Pokemon craft in CS2 is perfectly executed The character on the Temukau is already reaching out as if to grab something, making for the perfect template for a “gotta catch ’em all” craft. We’ve already seen people apply other stickers like Burgers or 8Ball here for the same effect. But, thanks to the new sticker update, a combination of five stickers creates a brilliant Poke Ball look, and it’s not even expensive to create. Using any red Katowice 2019 foil, a grey Krakow 2017 paper, and a Cluj-Napoca foil, you can make a simple yet effective Poke Ball look. While you could do this on any skin, it obviously looks like it was made specially for the M4A4 Temukau. It’s not clear who exactly came up with this craft idea first, as there are now a total of at least 10 in existence using the FalleN Krakow sticker, according to skins database CSfloat. Since the sticker update in CS2 is barely even a week old, we’re probably only scratching the surface of what is possible. Unfortunately, this limitless creativity has also led to some players creating offensive words or imagery too, although this was certainly to be expected.

Playing Counter-Strike 2 on Windows 7 could get you banned ValveCounter-Strike 2 fans are being warned not to play on Windows 7 as players are reporting sudden and unexpected game bans. Since the game’s launch on September 27, Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) has stormed to the top of Steam player charts, peaking at over 1.3 million players already. However, despite what seems to be an overwhelming majority of players being able to play the game without issue, there are concerns about what many Counter-Strike veterans feel has been an “underwhelming” release. With key features broken and a game-breaking bug impacting players, it’s clear that CS2 hasn’t had the smoothest of launches. And now, a growing number of players are being banned from the game, seemingly due to playing on the older Windows 7 operating system. Players are sharing their experiences on Reddit and Steam forums, reporting that they are being banned for what appears to be no good reason. The issue seems to be specifically related to CS2, as users playing CS1 on Windows 7 have not reported similar bans. Steam’s latest Hardware and Software Survey reported that just 0.08% of players are using Windows 7, so it’s a relatively small group of players who are affected. However, the impact is anything but small, considering that these longtime players are being restricted from normal gameplay. Many Windows 7 users who have been banned in Counter-Strike 2 have already reached out to Valve seeking clarification on the matter but are yet to receive a response. The community is now urging players with similar cases to come forward and ask Valve to investigate and fix this apparent bug. Until a fix is announced, it is recommended that players using Windows 7 refrain from playing CS2 to avoid their account being unexpectedly banned.

Players furious as ESL Impact removes slots for North and South America ESLESL Impact, the women’s league for CS2 esports, has announced its 2024 schedule and roadmap which includes fewer spots for the Americas. ESL Impact announced its 2024 roadmap on November 30, 2023, which included the schedule for domestic tournaments and international LAN events. The announcement features adjustments in regional slots for season finals to “ensure that the best talent is given the opportunity to compete at top-tier events.” The Tournament Organizer has also reallocated slots to regions with higher participation rates. Consequently, North and South America will have fewer slots at international events next year. At both Season 5 Dallas and Season 6 Stockholm the two regions will only have three slots combined. This has caused much outrage from the North and South American CS2 communities as they have called on ESL to revert the decision. ESL Impact reduced slots for NA and SA in 2024 Multiple prominent North American players and community members have called out ESL for the slot distribution changes, saying the move makes no sense. “In my 14+ years competing in 1.6, CSGO, and now CS2…. this is historically the most NA women teams we have EVER seen. To remove 1 NA slot now when the scene is thriving makes absolutely no sense, and will only hurt it in the future. Please reconsider this decision,” Counter-Strike veteran Emmalee ‘EMUHLEET’ Garrido said on social media. Others said the organizer should’ve kept the same amount of slots for North and South America, and instead just added more slots to Europe. “All for more slots where the strongest teams are, but feel it should just be a larger event rather than taking slots from other regions,” caster Lucy ‘LucyLuce’ Eastwood said. Evil Geniuses Gold player Vanessa “vanessa” Gideon pointed out that this move will further hobble the growth of the women’s scene in CS2, just as it had started to rebound. “Damn, y’all want NA to die in both scenes so bad lol. I was a brand new player who broke into competing for the first time because of Impact, just like many teams/players that exist now. The majority of NA teams are busy playing catch up in skill and experience just to be shut down,” she said. Whether this outrage will change ESL’s mind about its slot distribution has yet to be seen.

PGL to run Counter-Strike 2’s first Major in Copenhagen PGLPGL has announced that it will organize the first Major in Counter-Strike 2 history in the Danish capital of Copenhagen. The tournament will take place from March 17-31, culminating in the playoff stage at the Royal Arena, the same venue that has hosted multiple BLAST CS:GO tournaments since 2017. The announcement comes less than a week after Valve officially announced Counter-Strike 2, which will be released sometime in the summer. The game is currently in a limited test beta phase, with players selected by Valve based on a number of factors, including playtime on official servers, trust factor, and Steam account standing. PGL Major Copenhagen will be the fourth Major in PGL’s history after Kraków 2017, Stockholm 2021 and Antwerp 2022. “One of the greatest games of all time is marching to another chapter, and we couldn’t be happier to host probably the most important Major of the franchise in recent years,” PGL CEO Silviu Stroie said in a statement. “Denmark has a rich esports heritage, and we are excited to bring the world’s best Counter-Strike teams to Copenhagen to compete for the game’s most prestigious title.” The Danish event will take place almost a year after the BLAST.tv Paris Major, the final Major in CS:GO after Valve decided to cancel the Fall Major. Many hoped that there would be an increase in the prize pool as a result, but PGL has confirmed that the tournament will have $1.25 million on offer – the same prize pool as the Paris Major. Stroie added that he hopes the Copenhagen Major will shatter Counter-Strike’s viewership record. The current record of 2.748 million concurrent viewers was set during the Stockholm Major.

Over 100 Counter-Strike streamers on Twitch reportedly breaking TOS with gambling sponsors Twitch/Valve120 Counter-Strike streamers have reportedly broken Twitch’s terms of service by accepting gambling sponsorships which could result in a ban. Over the past few years, Twitch has cracked down on gambling on its platform, updating its rules to prohibit streamers from gambling live or being sponsored by gambling companies. This eventually led to the creation of the Stake-backed streaming platform Kick. Part of the new rules was that the promotion of skin gambling, particularly Counter-Strike skins, was not allowed, with streamers banned from being sponsored by these sites. However, many streamers are reportedly disregarding the rule and are still being sponsored by CS gambling sites, putting them at risk of a ban. In a report by Barron’s on the proliferation of gambling ads on Google and Facebook, they exposed the fact that 120 of the top 300 most-watched Counter-Strike streams on Twitch were sponsored by a gambling site. Twitch’s community guidelines state that no sponsorships for skins gambling are allowed, with the removal of content, demonetization, or a suspension implemented if a streamer was found to have broken the rules. According to Barron’s, they spoke to streamers and YouTubers who said that they received offers of nearly $200,000 a month to promote the gambling sites. Barron’s did a test by reporting a stream to Twitch which was breaking the rules by being sponsored by a gambling site, however, found that the streamer continued streaming live on the platform. If you were to visit the Counter-Strike page on Twitch, it’s not hard to find several streams with sponsors for skin gambling sites, some of them even openly gambling. We reported last year in late 2023 that despite the new rules coming into place, skin gambling sponsorships were rampant, and it looks like it still is over one year into its implementation. Barron’s found that it wasn’t just Twitch, with Google and Meta being implicated in showing skin gambling ads. They found CS gambling sites such as CSGORoll, Key-Drop, and Hellcase were spending the most on advertisements.

Counter-Strike 2 October 6 patch notes: AMD fix, CS Rating changes, more ValveAnother Counter-Strike 2 was rolled out on October 6, addressing a range of issues and bringing further enhancements to the game. Here’s everything you need to know about the CS2 October 6 update and patch notes. Since Counter-Strike 2 was released on September 27, players have been encountering all kinds of unexpected quirks and issues. However, Valve is committed to pushing out constant updates and fixes for Counter-Strike 2 players, ensuring an improved experience over time. The October 6 update features everything from graphics tweaks and map adjustments to crucial and much-requested bug fixes. One of the most “broken” features on launch has now been resolved, as surrender votes require a majority to pass. Kicked players will no longer receive the maximum penalty after being booted from the game. And importantly for AMD users, shader compilation problems can now be resolved with a driver update. Here’s everything that’s included in the Counter-Strike 2 October 6 update and patch notes. Counter-Strike 2 October 6 Patch Notes Graphics Fixed a case where water would appear black in screenshots and video capture – For AMD GPU users, shader compilation hitches can now be fixed with a driver update – Animation Fixed a case where the grenade throw animation would be canceled by holding the inspect key – Adjusted M4A4 and M4A1-S draw animation to start from out-of-frame – Minor animation system performance optimizations – Maps Various bug fixes and tweaks to Nuke, Vertigo, Anubis, and Overpass – Misc All surrender votes now require a majority to pass – Fixed an exploit where players could spam chat during the Premier draft phase – Fixed a bug where kicked players were receiving the maximum CS Rating penalty. Kicked players will now receive CS Rating based on the final outcome of the match instead – Fixed a bug where the first character at the beginning of the terrorist team intro wouldn’t render Configured SDL to prefer X11 over Wayland on Linux – Paris 2023 items are no longer for sale –

Nvidia GPUs get new Reflex update to reduce Counter-Strike 2 input lag by 35% Valve/NvidiaNvidia 40 series GPUs are getting a new Reflex update that reduces your Counter-Strike 2 latency by up to 35%. After half a year of build-up, Counter-Strike 2 has finally released in full to an incredible amount of fanfare as the gaming world checks out the series very first entry into Source 2. And with the wider world now checking out the game after a limited Beta window, Nvidia has seen fit to bring a new update to its Nvidia Reflex feature, working with Valve to help optimize Counter-Strike 2’s latency to keep it as low as possible. Announced right as CS2 was released, owners of RTX 40 series graphics cards will be able to utilize the new Reflex update in CS2 which promises to reduce latency by up to 35%. Nvidia is promising sub-15 milliseconds of input lag with Reflex enabled on the 40 series cards. According to Nvidia’s stats, users of an RTX 4090 can expect to get numbers of at least 545 FPS with five milliseconds of latency, all on max settings. Of course, as you go down the 40 series, its effectiveness decreases, but your FPS and latency still benefit with Reflex enabled. Personal testing will vary from Nvidia’s testing, depending on your CPU, cooling system, etc., which is why you can always test it with Nvidia’s Frameview. Any competitive CS player worth their salt most likely won’t be playing with the max settings, rather turning down their graphics options to gain FPS and lower their latency as much as possible. Which is something Reflex can also help with. With CS2 being a much beefier game than CSGO, it will take more from your system to run it. DLSS may help those with older GPUs to reduce their FPS drops.

NRG Esports returns to Counter-Strike after 4 years with new NA roster NRGNRG Esports has returned to professional Counter-Strike after a four-year hiatus with a new North American roster. On November 4, it was reported by HLTV that NRG was exploring a potential return to CS after a four-year absence from the scene. However, at the time of the report, no player contracts had been signed yet. But now on November 28, NRG has officially returned to CS2 with a new NA roster featuring a couple of former NRG players returning to the organization. In a skit announcement video featuring NRG co-owner Sapnap and CEO Andy Miller, a roster containing a mix of former Team Liquid, Evil Geniuses, and Complexity players was announced. NRG returns to NA Counter-Strike after 4-year hiatus It sees Damian ‘daps’ Steele and Vincent ‘Brehze’ Cayonte making a return to NRG after they sold their CSGO roster to Evil Geniuses in 2019. Joining them is Team Liquid’s former AWPer Joshua ‘oSee’ Ohm, former Complexity player Justin ‘FaNg’ Coakley, and Jadan ‘HexT’ Postma. Most of the players on NRG were dropped by their former teams during the recent off-season, as each player’s former teams sought to rebuild their rosters for the next Major cycle. With the exception of HexT, who announced leaving EG hours before NRG’s announcement. NRG enters the NA CS scene as the region sees major orgs drifting away. Team Liquid made a shock move from NA to EU, and one of NA’s two remaining major orgs, Evil Geniuses, is reportedly planning to exit esports entirely. NRG fielded a CSGO roster from 2016 to 2019, with their last two years being particularly successful. Fielding an all-star NA team with legendary names such as Tarik ‘tarik’ Celik and Ethan ‘Ethan’ Arnold once playing for them. Under NRG, the roster made a fourth-place finish in the 2019 StarLadder Berlin Major, and later with EG won the 2019 ESL One: New York and the StarSeries i-League Season 8. With NRG’s entry into the NA CS scene, there are now three major orgs fielding NA rosters.

NRG Esports reportedly eyeing a return to Valve esport with CS2 team StarLadder (Twitch)NRG Esports is reportedly looking to return to Counter-Strike with a CS2 team after being away from the esport for over four years. NRG is looking to return to the Valve FPS esport with a CS2 team, according to HLTV. The report says NRG Esports confirmed what sources told the publication, and that the organization already has a core of players in mind for its reentry. NRG also stated that it has not agreed to terms with any players as of yet. NRG entered into Counter-Strike in 2016 and eventually sold the team for millions to Evil Geniuses in 2019. During the org’s time in the esport, it won two Americas Minor Championships and placed top four at the StarLadder Berlin Major in 2019. NRG Esports are diving into CS2 esports NRG currently has two big esports teams signed to its brand in Valorant and League of Legends. It recently jumped into League of Legends esports again with the acquisition of CLG’s LCS spot earlier this year. The organization will be jumping into a shuffling CS2 landscape as the professional scene’s transition to the new title has caused players and teams to make massive changes to their lineups. Before offloading its Counter-Strike roster, NRG peaked at No. 3 in the world on HLTV’s ranking. Upon exiting the esport back in 2019, NRG’s CEO said he would like to return to Counter-Strike someday, but the economics around fielding a team in 2019 did not make sense for the org’s structure. There has been no word on whether the team will consist of North American players, or if the organization will lean toward a European roster like other NA-based teams. Cloud9 and Team Liquid have both ditched most of their NA players in favor of a mixed nationality roster, or a full European squad. If NRG decides to stick to the North American region, they should have the pick of the litter in terms of talent as the only org competing for top players in NA at the moment is Complexity Gaming.

NiKo’s CS2 settings: Config, resolution, viewmodel, DPI, sensitivity & more João Ferreira / DexertoG2 Esports talisman Nikola ‘NiKo’ Kovač is reaching his superstar form once again. As one of CS2’s best, those looking to replicate NiKo’s in-game environment will be interested to see everything from his resolution, mouse settings, and viewmodel. There are thousands of ways to fine-tune CS2 settings. While everyone has different preferences, seeing what the top players use can be a big help in finding the right adjustments that fit an individual’s playstyle. Don’t be surprised if CS2 settings from people like s1mple or ZywOo feel odd to use. Every pro finds what works for them, but it should provide a lot of insight on what the top players prefer. NiKo’s settings for CS2 Contents Mouse settings – Crosshair – Monitor & Resolution – Video settings – Viewmodel – Equipment – Launch options – NiKo cfg – NiKo’s mouse settings NiKo uses a Zowie S2 mouse and he has a steady 400 DPI that he accompanies with a 1.51 in-game sensitivity. Whether its with a rifle or an AWP, this sens will give you great control to hit shots with accuracy, if you work on your aim that is. NiKo’s Crosshair NiKo’s crosshair isn’t quite a dot but there’s hardly any room inside of the reticle’s four lines. It’s good for precise shots and the white hue makes it easy to refocus on what lies ahead. For people who want to experiment with NiKo’s crosshair, just copy these settings into the console. CSGO-VV57j-q9feS-vH4mr-NtOzQ-xhZQM NiKo’s monitor and resolution As far as monitors go, NiKo uses a ZOWIE XL2566K that easily pumps out frames with its high refresh rate. Read More: ZywOo’s CS2 settings – Similar to a lot of old-school pros, NiKo plays on a stretched resolution. If you’re going to try it out yourself, then make sure to get a few reps in deathmatch to really get accustomed to the visual and spatial changes it has on your game. Video settings Like most elite CS2 pros, NiKo basically has all of his graphics set to low except for a few. Go to your CS2 video settings to make the proper adjustments. Viewmodel A CS2 Viewmodel gives players the tools to chance the position and settings of different aspects on the screen like your character’s hands and more. Load up the codes below to get NiKo’s viewmodel with a simple tweak inside of the CS2 command prompt. NiKo’s equipment Launch Options To copy all of NiKo’s launch options, take a quick look down below and copy every setting into your CS2 properties tab via the Stream library: -noforcemaccel, -noforcemspd, -noforcemparms, -tickrate 128, -Freq 240, -novid, -console NiKo’s CS2 config To copy all of NiKo’s CS2 config settings, including his keybinds and more, you can do so by downloading his config. You can download NiKo’s config here. For applying the config, you’ll need to take the .cfg file and add it to your Counter-Strike: Global Offensive folder, usually located in Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Counter-Strike Global Offensive\csgo\cfg.

NiKo reportedly joining Falcons as CS2 super team takes shape João Ferreira/DexertoTeam Falcons is building a CS2 super team, and the Saudi Aribian-based organization has reportedly managed to recruit a genuine superstar to its squad in Nikola ‘NiKo’ Kovač. NiKo has signed with Team Falcons, according to 1pv.fr reporter neLendirekt. The Bosnian superstar has been a mainstay on G2 Esports for over three years, where he never recorded a Major win, but did manage to take some IEM and BLAST trophies. NiKo will join a Team Falcons that is rebuilding after the addition of former Team Vitality, and long-time Astralis, head coach Danny ‘zonic’ Sørensen. zonic is reportedly already building his powerhouse new roster with the addition of Team Viality’s Emil ‘Magisk’ Reif, and isn’t stopping at just one star with NiKo. HLTV has linked Team Falcons with NiKo’s G2 Esports teammate Ilya ‘m0NESY’ Osipov and ENCE IGL Marco ‘Snappi’ Pfeiffer. NiKo’s time with G2 Esports reportedly done in CS2 According to the report, Team Falcons bought out NiKo’s contract from G2 Esports with a price in the seven-figure range. A price point that has only been reached a select few times in esports, and could be the biggest buy-out in esports history. 1pv.fr also said m0NESY’s buyout could catch a similar price. NiKo’s run with G2 Esports has seen the team place highly at international events, like a second-place finish at the 2021 PGL Stockholm Major. NiKo and the team, however, never put together a Major win despite promising results in other events and multiple roster changes throughout the years. It was his second runner-up medal at a Major too, after the shock loss to Cloud9 when he was with FaZe Clan, at the ELEAGUE Boston 2018 Major. The squad’s current iteration with teenage AWPer m0NESY and Danish IGL Rasmus ‘HooXi’ Nielsen has looked promising so far this year. G2 won IEM Cologne and placed top four at Gamers8 and IEM Sydney. NiKo will be joining a squad that already boasts a player and coach with some of the most Major wins in CS:GO history, and is looking to garner even more as the game transitions to Counter-Strike 2. With the release of the new Valve title, multiple teams have felt the need to revamp their squads, G2 and Falcons are no different. NiKo has turned down the transfer offer from Falcons as of November 6, 2023, preferring to stay with G2 Esports despite the organization agreeing to the move.

Neymar Jr blasts “rubbish” Counter-Strike 2 amid cheating crisis Instagram: neymarjr/ValveNeymar Jr. has called Counter-Strike 2’s hacking issues “rubbish” and urged the developers to “help” fix the game. While Neymar Jr. may be a soccer star, the Brazilian is no stranger to the world of video games. He is known for being an avid Counter-Strike 2 player, often streaming the game on Twitch or publicly endorsing his favorite esports teams. In saying this, the Brazilian soccer player is also never afraid to share his opinions on the state of his favorite game. In April 2024, Neymar Jr. took to social media platform X to call out the game for being “broken” after sharing a clip of a missed AWP shot he confidently claimed he made. Neymar has now taken to X again, slamming the game for being “rubbish” due to a surplus of hacking he recently encountered in CS2. While playing some CS2 to “relax,” Neymar Jr. felt the exact opposite after being wallbanged on Dust 2 not once but twice, the second explosion also taking out two of his teammates. This moment spurred Neymar Jr. to share the clip online and tag both the official X accounts for Valve and CS2, imploring the devs to “help” fix the game’s state. The soccer star then posted a second message, calling the game “rubbish” given it is filled with hackers. While Valve did crack down on cheaters late in 2023, hacking has once again permeated the game, with multiple Reddit threads slamming the reemergence of cheating in CS2. Counter-Strike 2 has struggled to combat cheaters all year, with the community constantly calling on the developers to implement better countermeasures to minimize hackers’ taking over matches. While the developers have yet to reply to or acknowledge the soccer star’s complaints, the rest of the community is completely behind him in the comments section. One X user stated, “Only Neymar can save us.”

Neymar calls out CS2 developers after clearly missing an AWP shot AFP / DexertoSoccer legend Neymar criticized Counter-Strike 2 developers on his Instagram with over 200 million followers for a missed AWP shot. Over the years, Neymar has immersed himself in the Counter-Strike scene. Whether it’s streaming on Twitch or endorsing esports teams, his passion shines through. However, a recent Instagram post where he called out Valve shows he’s no different from other gamers. Neymar posted a clip on his story where he complained to the developers about a missed AWP shot. The story shows an up-close look at the enemy that Neymar was aiming at when he shot. But while he thought he hit his target, viewers noted that it looked like he simply missed. Neymar went as far as tagging the official Counter-Strike account in his post after saying “CS is broken, look at this… there is no way” through translation. Those within the community weren’t as convinced that Neymar had hit his shot as he claimed. A top comment underneath the post with over a thousand likes showed that most people thought he had simply missed. “Am I tripping or he actually missed there?” Neymar is not the only person to have issues with Counter-Strike 2. A recently discovered bug acted as a cheat code for players and professional player dev1ce even punched his monitor after the game crashed at an international event. It seems like Neymar will have to hone his Counter-Strike 2 skills to hit his opponents in the future.

New CS2 map from Cache creator brings back Santorini: Thera Steam / FMPONEThe map creator behind classics like Cache and Subzero, FMPONE, has released his latest creation, and his first for Counter-Strike 2, called Thera – a revamp of the Operation map Santorini, released in CS:GO in 2016. FMPONE’s map Cache is his most famous, and although it isn’t fully remade for CS2 yet, this is likely because he has been busy working on Thera instead. Thera isn’t technically a brand new map, but rather a remake of Santorini, a beautiful map set in Greece that released with Operation Wildfire for CS:GO. For the latest version though, it has been renamed Thera, which the description explains is the classical name for the Greek island. First look at Thera in CS2 With a vacation feel, this map is brightly lit and spacious in the middle, with some tighter chokepoints and sneaky angles around the sides. Adorned with lots of small props and detailed textures, this does feel like the finished version of a map long in the making, although potentially will still have some iteration to come as players try it out. Released on December 27, the map already has thousands of subscribers, a number sure to climb sharply in the coming days. You can subscribe on the Workshop here. Cache meanwhile is still yet to make an official return in CS2, and with Valve keeping tight-lipped on future content plans, who knows if it ever will. Other classics like Train and Cobblestone are also missing from official servers, and many hope to see them return. Thera will now be on the list of maps for casual and competitive players alike to play with, and if it is well-liked, could make its way into a future active-duty map pool.

New Counter-Strike 2 update marks return of custom maps with workshop revamp ValveCounter-Strike 2 developers Valve just launched a new update that revamps the workshop, signaling the return of custom community-made maps. Arguably one of the most important aspects of any tactical FPS game like Counter-Strike 2 are the maps. They formulate the playing field and dictate what sort of engagements players will take against one another. Oftentimes designers will spend hours on end meticulously crafting maps that offer unique gameplay experiences that also ensure competitive fairness. Counter-Strike takes a slightly different approach to map design, however, inviting the community to come forward and submit maps for others to enjoy. Whether this be a highly competitive map like Anubis or just a CS: Surf map to chill out in, Valve gives players the power to shape the tactical FPS. With the recent release of the CS: GO sequel Counter-Strike 2, Valve is looking to revitalize the community workshop once more so that players can continue creating their beloved maps. The developers announced the return of community maps in a recent update on November 2. Counter-Strike 2 announces return of community maps As revealed in the November 2 update patch notes players will be able to upload CS2 maps onto the workshop, and community servers will be able to host workshop maps moving forward. Alternatively, players can also try out the community maps offline as long as they subscribe to them on the workshop. Unsurprisingly the Counter-Strike 2 player base was absolutely delighted to hear the news of the workshop’s return, many listing the change down as a “W”. Outside of the announcement of the workshop revamp the new update brought about a bunch of bug fixes to Valve’s tactical shooter as the devs continue to fix up the game from its shaky release.

New Counter-Strike 2 update breaks game with unpredictable movement bug ValveCounter-Strike 2’s October 17 update has potentially broken the game as jumps are now more inconsistent after new Command alias changes. As Counter-Strike 2 goes through its first month out in the wild after its closed beta, Valve has been churning out patch after patch to polish the game as much as possible, largely to prepare it for IEM Sydney, the first CS2 LAN event. However, despite their attempts to get it as competition-ready as possible, the game has not been bug-free, with a plethora of glitched hitboxes, weird peeks, and an AMD Anti-lag feature giving out false bans to players using it. Now, Valve has released another patch to try and fix up even more bugs, though the newest update seems to have caused another issue, this time impact the game’s movement. In a recent October 17 update, Valve implemented a new change to command aliases, which now leverages subtick accuracy. What that means is that any command aliases should not be affected by a server’s subtick. Aliases in CS are names for a particular combination of inputs, which can be used to bind a command to the alias to a specific input, and whenever activated, any command under the alias will trigger. However, despite this new update helping players with an alias as jump to make things more consistent, it has seemingly made the default jump key vary in its consistency. As pointed out by launders, a CS commentator and streamer, whenever jumping forwards, there is an inconsistency in the values. As in CS, whenever you jump from a specific place with the same inputs, you should be traveling the same distance every single time without fail. Though as demonstrated, the distance jumped can now vary. Despite being minute differences, it’s these small differences that can decide how a fight plays out, especially at the highest level of competition. But, there is a fix to the problem, albeit a workaround. You’ll need to make an autoexec file, and bind your default jump key to a different new exec, then in the new exec you’ve bound your default jump key to you’ll need to input the following command, +jump:-jump. Due to the bug, ESL has decided day three’s matches won’t be played on the current patch to avoid this issue.

New Counter-Stike 2 knives leaked that aren’t in CSGO: Kukri and Twinblade ValveFollowing the release of the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test, data miners have uncovered two new knives in the game files, potentially set for release in the CS:GO sequel. Knives in CS:GO are among the most coveted items, as they replace the default knives, and you see them very often in-game. Unlike weapons, they also can’t be dropped and picked up by other players, so they are always unique to you. But, they’re also very rare, only available in cases with odds of around 387 to 1 to unbox one. That means if you want to own one, you’ll have to get lucky, or fork out some serious cash on the Steam marketplace. Valve has added different knives over the years, but not since 2019 have any new blades been released. With the release of Counter-Strike 2 in the summer, it looks like two new knives are also on the way. New leaked knives in Counter-Strike 2 Found by Twitter user pDylan002 and confirmed by reliable data miner Gabe Follower, Valve has models for two new knives. Kukri knife in Counter-Strike 2 First is the Kukri. A Kukri is a large curved blade, originating in real life from Nepal and popular in South Asia. They are large knives, similar to the bowie knife already in Counter-Strike, or a machete. Twinblade knife in Counter-Strike 2 The second knife discovered in the game files for CS2 is the ‘Twinblade’. As the name implies, this knife does indeed have two distinct blades, connected at the hilt. This gives it a two-pronged tip, which looks like it could do some serious damage. This knife doesn’t have an obvious real knife counterpart, but stopped CS:GO knives from the past have typically always had an inspiration from a real knife somewhere. It’s unknown when these new knives will release. There hasn’t been a new operation in CS:GO since 2021 though, and there is some hope that a new operation will release alongside CS2’s full release in Summer 2023. Obviously, a new operation would be the perfect time to add new knives to the game, as was the case with the Shattered Web operation in 2019. For more on Counter-Strike 2, check out the rest of our coverage: How to play Counter-Strike 2 limited beta test | Is Counter-Strike 2 going to be free to play? | What is sub-tick in Counter-Strike 2? | All smoke changes in Counter-Strike 2 | Can you play Counter-Strike 2 on Linux or macOS? | Can banned CS:GO players play Counter-Strike 2? | What will happen to my CSGO skins? | Will Counter-Strike 2 come to Steam Deck? | Valve officially reveals Counter-Strike 2 | Everything we know about Counter-Strike 2

NAVI without s1mple still dominates their first pro-Counter-Strike 2 match at IEM Sydney 2023 Stephanie Lindgren/ESLA NAVI without s1mple has dominated their first ever pro-Counter-Strike 2 match at IEM Sydney, with a 30 bomb by Justinas “jL” Lekavicius. IEM Sydney 2023 has kicked off with its first Bo1 matches, with VERTEX and MOUZ alongside NAVI and Apeks making history as the first CS2 pro matches played on LAN. However, NAVI had a few setbacks. Their star AWPer and arguably the best player in the world, Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyljev, was unable to attend due to visa issues. This meant their head coach Andrij “B1ad3” Ghorodensjkyj has to stand in for their matches. Despite the roster complications, the team absolutely dominated their first CS2 pro match against Apeks. The stand-out star of the match was jL, whose contribution was felt in almost every single round in Mirage. The rifler who was brought on in mid-2023 dropped the very first LAN 30 kill bomb in CS2. NAVI’s jL drops the first 30 bomb in a Counter-Strike 2 pro match jL got his 30th kill in the very last round of the map, taking down Damjan “kyxsan” Stoilkovski at A site CT from Palace with a well-placed headshot. The loss was particularly stinging for Apeks, not only because they couldn’t capitalize against a s1mple-less NAVI, but also by the fact jL was an integral player for them last year. Despite B1ad3 having big shoes to fill, who hasn’t played a match since 2018’s FACEIT Major qualifiers with FlipSid3 Tactics, he was able to hold his own. However, his rating left more to be desired as you might expect, with a 0.44 which was the lowest in the server, even picking up the AWP for the team at times. But it was a good enough performance to secure the win, especially considering NAVI was also playing without a coach. However, it wasn’t smooth sailing for NAVI, as they ended the map 13-9 with Apeks threatening a potential comeback to push it through to overtime. NAVI will be playing MOUZ for a qualification spot in the IEM Sydney playoffs on the same day, October 16.

Most popular mice, keyboards, and settings at CS2 Copenhagen Major used by pros Bart Oerbekke for ESLThe Counter-Strike 2 PGL Copenhagen Major is underway as pros use their best gear and most optimal settings to give themselves a fighting chance at the tournament. Counter-Strike is a complicated FPS with players using different settings and gear to try to win their matches. Pro players are the kings of optimizing their setups and CS2 settings to best fit their standards, making themselves feel more comfortable during intense on-stage matches. Casual players can learn a thing or two from how pros set up their menus and what kind of mouse and keyboard setup they have. One of the two CS2 Majors, PGL Copenhagen, is ongoing and features top teams worldwide. Thanks to data compiled by pro guides, fans of CS2 esports and the game in general now know the most popular gear and settings players are running at the top level. These are the most popular mice, keyboards, monitors, and more for pros at the Copenhagen CS2 Major. Contents Most popular mice at CS2 Copenhagen Major Players may see a trend with what mouse brands pros like to use, however, there is a variety of gear that will be used at the event. Most popular keyboards at CS2 Copenhagen Major Keyboards are no different than mice at the CS2 major as players favor Logitech boards, but the most popular brand to click keys with is Razer. Most popular headsets at CS2 Copenhagen Major Most popular monitors at CS2 Copenhagen Major Most popular video stats at CS2 Copenhagen Major The data compiled for this section includes pro’s resolution, scaling mode, and refresh rate. Pros have little choice regarding scaling mode, with most choosing one of three options. The same goes for refresh rate, with most pros opting for 360 or 240 Hz. For specific pro settings, readers should check out Dexerto’s guides for Donk and m0NESY.

11 most expensive CS2 skins in 2024: Knives, AK-47, AWP & more in Counter-Strike 2 CS2 is a game of skill and teamwork – but is also home to various skins with eye-watering prices. These are the most expensive skins in Counter-Strike 2 as of September 2024. Counter-Strike is known for tight gunplay and strategy, and for its expansive market for skins and other cosmetics. From weapons and knives to agents, badges, cases, and stickers, players can flaunt their style – and their wealth. When CS:GO was replaced Counter-Strike 2, all skins carried over to the new game, and the announcement of CS2 made skin prices go even higher. Then, there was a market correction following the full release, and prices have settled again. Most of these skins are too expensive to be traded on the Steam Market, due to the $2,000 price cap, so if you want to buy any, you’ll need to use a third-party site like Skinport. Although we’re only discussing knives and weapon skins here, there is another item in Counter-Strike with eye-popping prices: rare stickers – you can check our list of the most expensive stickers here. With so many skins, this article will also explain what makes each skin valuable, and why people are willing to pay so much. So let’s break it down and look at the most expensive skins in the game as of May 2024. Contents Counter-Strike skins have no inherent value: they are simply worth whatever someone is willing to pay for them – and it just so happens that people are willing to pay a lot. But why? There are several different reasons, but most skins get their value from the following: Rarity, pattern type, wear level, or unique characteristics. Check out the most expensive CS2 skins and knives below, as well as what makes these items so expensive. Most expensive CS2 skins (September 2024) 11. AK-47 Fire Serpent: $400-$6,000 The AK-47 Fire Serpent is one of the classic CS:GO weapon skins, released all the way back in 2013, with the Operation Bravo case. Due to its classic status, and rarity, a StatTrack Factory New version of this skin is likely to cost you around $5,000. In fact, A StatTrack FN Fire Serpent is listed on Skinport for approximately $5,000 right now. 10. AK-47 Gold Arabesque (Souvenir) – $1,500 – $8,000 The Gold Arabesque is clearly one of the flashiest skins in CS2, but its price was often below $2,000 due to oversupply from Souvenir cases. However, since Dust2 was removed from the map pool, the price of Souvenir Gold Arabesques shot up. Now, a souvenir version in Factory New will cost over $6,000 – although this is down from when they peaked at over $10,000. 9. AK-47 Wild Lotus: $2,500-$15,000 Even though it’s a fairly new skin, released in 2019, the Wild Lotus is from the St. Marc collection, and is in very short supply. There are less than 3,000 in total circulation. On top of that, it simply looks amazing, making it very desirable. To get a Factory New version of this skin, you will need to fork out over $10,000. In March 2023, a Wild Lotus with 4 Reason Holo stickers sold for over $160,000. 8. M4A4 Howl: $3,000 – $22,000 The M4A4 Howl is the only ‘Contraband’ grade skin in Counter-Strike, due to the controversy over ownership of the artwork. Because of this, it is exceedingly rare. Although models without stickers can be bought for under $5,000, if it is a Factory New version and StatTrak, it can fetch up to $20,000. And, with the expensive stickers applied, can sell for over $100,000. A StatTrak Factory New Howl with 4 iBuyPower Holo stickers sold for this amount in 2020, and is likely worth even more today, with one on sale now for more than $200,000. 7. Factory New Crimson Web knives: $5,000+ Like Doppler knives, many Crimson Web knives can sell for over $10,000, if they are Factory New, StatTrak, and with the right pattern. As well as Karambits, M9 Bayonet Crimson Webs have sold for over $14,000. However, right now, you can purchase one for around $6,000. The pattern is also important for these skins because of the placement of the webs. Factory New Crimson Webs are very rare too, and mean that very little of the paint is scratched off. 6. AWP Gungnir: $6,000 – $17,000 One of the newer skins on this list, the Gungnir was added to CS:GO in 2019, as part of the Norse collection. There are around 3,300 in total circulation. Even a battle-scarred version of this skin will set you back thousands, but for a Factory New version, it will cost upwards of $10,000, with some listed for over $12,000 at the time of writing. The Gungnir has firmly replaced the Desert Hydra as the second most expensive AWP skin – see below for the number one AWP skin. 5. Karambit / Butterfly / M9 Bayonet: Emerald / Sapphire – $8,000 – $15,000 Due to the different phases of Doppler knives, some will cost around $1,000. But, if you want a Ruby, Emerald or Sapphire version, you’ll need to be prepared to drop some serious cash. Typically Karambit, Butterfly Knives, and M9 Bayonets in Sapphire or Emerald will fetch the highest price tags, right now over $10,000, with Ruby’s a little cheaper. The price of these gems did reach as high as $20,000 in 2023, but have fallen back down. Ruby knives are a few thousand dollars cheaper on average, but will still cost around $9,000 for a Ruby M9 Bayonet. 4. Sport Gloves: Vice / Pandora’s Box (Factory New): $15,000 – $40,000+ Sport Gloves were among the original 17 gloves added to CS:GO in the Glove Case update. In terms of gloves, the most valuable are the colorful Sport Gloves. Pandora’s Box gloves in Factory new will now cost around $50,000, while the cheapest FN Vice gloves are around $20,000. Because it is extremely rare to get these gloves in Factory New, they are cheaper in worse wear. Field-Tested Vice Gloves are around $2,000, for example. There are only 113 FN Vice Gloves and 29 FN Pandora’s Box Gloves in existence. 3. Souvenir AWP Dragon Lore: $50,000 – $200,000+ Although there are many pricey AWP skins, the Dragon Lore is typically the most expensive. The most expensive is the Souvenir version, which can fetch more than $150,000 if it is Factory New. Worse conditions will still likely cost at least $50,000. These Souvenir versions will commemorate a particular esports match, and features gold stickers with the teams and event. There are only 114 Souvenir AWP Dragon Lores in existence. 2. AK-47 Case Hardened (661): $40,000-$1 million+ Similar to Case Hardened knives, Case Hardened AK skins can also sell for exorbitant prices, depending on the pattern. While most AK-47 Case Hardened skins are only a few hundred dollars, pattern 661 has an estimated value of around $50,000-$60,000, depending on the condition. This particular pattern means that much of the visible area of the weapon is that same ‘blue gem’ appearance, making it highly coveted. This website breaks down all the blue gems in CS2 as a handy resource. In January 2024, the first ever 661 Case Hardened in StatTrak Factory New was confirmed to exist. As it is a one-of-one, it is valued at over $1 million. On June 5, it was announced that the skin had been sold. Although a price tag wasn’t disclosed, one of the brokers of the deal, Sam “rofelm0nster” Alexander said that multiple $1 million offers were rejected, meaning it’s at least above it. If this AK also has Titan stickers applied, it can inflate the price a lot. A 661 AK-47 in StatTrak Minimal Wear with four Titan Holos was sold for $400,000. This makes it the most expensive single skin that has actually sold. However, this price was largely due to the stickers applied, not just the 661 AK. What is the most expensive CS2 skin? 1. Karambit Case Hardened (Blue Gem): $1.5 million+ This exact Case Hardened Karambit, Factory New, pattern 387 (blue gem), is an almost mythical skin. It was bought in 2016 for a little over $100,000, but is now valued considerably higher. Although it hasn’t been sold yet, the owner turned down an offer of €1.2m (around $1.5m USD at the time) – suggesting that for someone to be able to acquire it, they would have to pay more than $1.5 million USD. In 2024, the price will have only increased, and it could even be worth more than $2 million now. Part of the reason for this is that the chance of opening the same knife from cases is roughly 1 in 371 million. It is a blue gem Karambit, the best pattern, and is the only one in Factory New condition. In June 2023, a well-worn (not factory new) 387 Karambit sold for over $100,000. Why are CS2 skins so expensive? Skin rarity Whether or not something can be deemed a ‘collector’s item’ or not, initially depends on skin rarity. This is categorized by tiers, of which there are eight levels. The most common grade of skin is ‘Consumer’ and the rarest is ‘Contraband’ (only one skin has been assigned this exclusive grading). Consumer (White) – Indsutrial (Light blue) – Mil-Spec (Blue) – Restricted (Purple) – Classified (Pink) – Covert (Red) – Contraband (Orange) – Extraordinary (Gold) – The only Contraband skin is the M4A4 Howl. It was originally a Covert skin, but after turmoil surrounding the skin’s artwork, or more specifically, theft of someone’s artwork, Valve inadvertently created one of the rarest cosmetics in CS:GO history. The original design was plagiarized by the uploaded. After catching the poacher red-handed, Valve reworked the design and bumped up the rarity to an entirely new classification, which they aptly named Contraband. But what makes this skin even rarer, is that Valve stopped rolling out stock of the skin beyond what was already available in players’ inventories. Meaning that the weapon’s finish became more sought-after than ever before. The total supply of a skin will massively affect its price. With only 114 Souvenir AWP Dragon Lore’s in the world, the price has skyrocketed, for example. Skin float value (wear) Another variable to consider is the wear of a weapon skin, which is measured by its ‘float value’. Floats can range from 0.00-1.00, with 0.00 being the best, most pristine version of a skin, while 1.00 is the most worn version. This is essentially how cosmetics are assessed for their ‘condition.’ The ‘number 1’ lowest or highest float for a skin will also fetch a higher price. So, if you have a skin with the very best condition of any in the game, you will be able to charge ‘overpay’ from collectors. To help, they’re divided into five distinct categories, each representing a certain degree of wear. These are summarized below. Typically, the better (lower) the float, the more expensive the skin will be, because not only is it rarer, but it also looks better in-game, with less scratching, color missing, or faded appearance. Pattern The next aspect to consider is a skin’s exact pattern. In CS2, just because two weapons have the same skin, doesn’t mean that skin will be applied exactly the same. There is up to 999 patterns for various skins, and the type can influence the value. For example, on Fade skins, different patterns will have a higher percentage of Fade – essentially meaning more of the gun or knife is covered with the Fade coloring. Pattern is particularly important for Case Hardened skins, as some Case Hardened patterns will have more blue on them than others – if a Case Hardened skin has a lot of blue, then it is considered a “blue gem” – extremely rare, and extremely expensive. Other specific skin variations can affect the value. For example, the Doppler finish for knives has an abundance of patterns that determine the price. Below are each of the phases that a Doppler knife can have, with Phase 1-4 being the most common (Mythical). Each of the true Sapphire, Ruby and Emerald variations are considered ‘Legendary’ and have 100% marbleized sapphire, ruby or emerald running through their respective patterns. The Black Pearl is the only ‘Ancient’ knife in CS2 and is arguably the rarest knife pattern in the game, with a 100% pure black pattern phase and speckles of purple and blue running through it, rendering it almost impossible to bag one for your inventory. The final variable that tends to bump up price, is a StatTrak™ variation of a specific weapon/knife skin. As you’d assume, a StatTrak™ weapon or knife clocks the number of kills earned by its owner. This can sometimes even double the price compared to the non-StatTrak version. That rounds up the most expensive skins in CS2. But, the market is always changing – and prices are often on the rise, so who knows what these numbers will look like in a few years.

Millions in CS2 skins banned as Valve cracks down on boosters for service medals SteamValve is taking action against Counter-Strike 2 players who have allegedly boosted to achieve ‘red’ service medals, with over $1 million in skins estimated to be banned at this point. While CS2 has been criticized for having a cheater problem, but Valve is also bans for boosters, namely those who have one or more red service medals, achieved illegitimately. Service medals are awarded to all players who reach account level 40 each year, and by reaching level 40 again, they can be leveled up, up to five times. Most players will struggle to rank up their service medal more than once or twice, with the most dedicated players perhaps reaching blue or purple medals. But reaching red medals requires an outrageous amount of XP over the year, making them exceedingly rare. Boosted red service medals banned It’s not uncommon, therefore, for players to use boosting lobbies or simply buy accounts with red service medals – both of which break Valve’s rules. However, until recently, these actions went generally unpunished. At the start of November 2023 though, multiple red service medal accounts have been issued game bans – which also prevents them trading items from the game. Crucially, many of these accounts have expensive inventories. On November 2, an account with over $300,000 worth of skins, including sapphire and ruby knives and an AWP Dragon Lore was banned. Various other accounts with inventories ranging from a few thousand to tens of thousands have also been caught up in the ban wave. When an account is ‘game banned’ they are unable to trade or sell the items in their inventory, making them immediately worthless. It’s unclear if these bans will ever be lifted, although at least one banned user believes they should be. “My red 2022 service medal is from retakes, a lot of retakes. 1000+ extra hours of retakes. It took a long time but it was doable and hard to do but I did it 100% legit,” they said on their profile. CS2 skin prices generally have suffered a crash following the game’s full release, as the player count dropped.

M80 set to enter Counter-Strike esports with “world-class” CS2 roster M80M80 has announced a new Vice President of Esports, Donald ‘SyykoNT’ Muir, who will help the organization expand into other competitive titles, including CS2. M80 is a newer and smaller esports operation compared to some of its contemporaries in the North American market. However, the new kid on the block is looking to expand into other competitive titles following the addition of former Sentinels’ head coach SyykoNT as VP of esports. M80 currently fields competitive teams in Valorant, Rocket League and Rainbow Six: Siege, and supports Street Fighter player ‘EndingWalker.’ When asked about his expected duties as M80’s VP of Esports, SyykoNT said he will support the current rosters to help maintain their status as competitive squads. He specifically pointed out the Valorant squad, which will be fighting for a spot in VCT Americas through the Ascension tournament starting on June 30. He also teased M80’s entrance into another tactical shooter esport. “In addition to supporting these existing rosters, I have sights set on Counter-Strike 2, and plan to build a world-class roster,” he told Dexerto. M80 plans to field a CS2 team in the future SyykoNT did not specify which region M80 will prioritize when attempting to build its CS2 team. The organization’s Valorant and Rocket League rosters have North American players, while the Rainbow Six: Siege team is mostly made up of Brazilian players and rounded out by an American and a Swedish player. It remains unclear when the Counter-Strike esports circuit will start to make the switch from CS:GO to CS2, which has a soft Summer 2023 release date. The Counter-Strike player break officially began on June 12 and will last until July 9, with the BLAST Premier Fall Groups and IEM Cologne 2023 being the first two elite-level tournaments of the new season.

m0NESY’s CS2 settings: Config, resolution, viewmodel, DPI, sensitivity & more ESLIlya ‘m0NESY’ Osipov is a teenage CS2 prodigy who seamlessly slotted into the top-tier lineup of G2 Esports and helped the squad rise to glory. If you want to play like the teenage Russian pro, you might want to start by copying his CS2 settings, from his resolution and viewmodel to his DPI and sensitivity. Although you should always experiment and try to figure out the optimal settings for you, pro player settings can provide a great starting point, by adapting what the best CS2 players in the world use. That being said, using a pro’s settings isn’t an instant fix, as they’ve likely fine-tuned it to their specific preferences and setup. Check out G2 Esports young prodigy m0NESY’s CS2 settings below, and try out what you’d like, before adapting it to your preferences. With these settings, m0NESY has helped G2 win two IEM titles in 2023, Katowice and Cologne, and a top-four placement at Gamers8 in the same year. m0NESY’s CS2 settings Contents m0NESY’s mouse settings m0NESY uses a Logitech G Pro X Superlight mouse with 400 DPI and 2.00 sensitivity. m0NESY’s Crosshair m0NESY uses a small reticle for precise aiming as he often picks up the AWP for his team. The easiest way to copy m0NESY’s exact crosshair is to copy these settings into the console. Take a look at how to open the CS2 console if you don’t know how. cl_crosshair_drawoutline 0; cl_crosshairalpha 253; cl_crosshaircolor 2; cl_crosshaircolor_b 255; cl_crosshaircolor_g 255; cl_crosshaircolor_r 255; cl_crosshairdot 0; cl_crosshairgap -3; cl_crosshairsize 2; cl_crosshairstyle 4; cl_crosshairthickness 0; cl_crosshair_sniper_width 0; – CSGO-H3Qks-UMQUi-YcphO-7Zh8P-AzZkF m0NESY’s monitor and resolution m0NESY uses a ZOWIE XL2566K gaming monitor and like many pros, plays his CS2 matches on stretched resolution. It gives his targets a slightly larger presence onscreen and thus a better view to land his shots. Video settings m0NESY keeps some in-game video settings at their lowest so that he can have the highest maintain maximum FPS. Viewmodel Messing with your viewmodel really tailors CS2 to the individual’s preferences. As such, m0NESY has a specific viewmodel to suit his style during games. To replicate these conditions, simply copy then paste these commands into your CS2 console. viewmodel_fov 68; viewmodel_offset_x 2.5; viewmodel_offset_y 0; viewmodel_offset_z -1.5; viewmodel_presetpos 3; cl_viewmodel_shift_left_amt 1.5; cl_viewmodel_shift_right_amt 0.75; viewmodel_recoil 0; cl_righthand 1; – m0NESY’s equipment Launch Options To apply launch options, go to CS2’s properties tab to apply them via the Steam library. Simply copy and paste these launch options to match m0NESY’s: -freq 240 -novid -tickrate 128 +rate 786432 -console – m0NESY’s CS2 config To get m0NESY’s settings down completely, you’ll want to download his config to get his keybinds, console tweaks and other settings. You can download m0NESY’s config here. To apply the config, you’ll need to take the .cfg file and add it to your Counter-Strike: Global Offensive folder. This is usually located in Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Counter-Strike Global Offensive\csgo\cfg.

M0nesy uncovers insane infinite nades bug in Counter-Strike 2 ValveAn infinite nade bug was found in Counter-Strike 2, by G2 player, Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov, who jumped on Twitter to outline the exploit and tell developers it needed a fix “asap”. Counter-Strike 2 is a popular title, however fans of the game do sometimes share glitches and bugs they encounter while playing through the game. Streamer m0nesy the latest well known figure in the space to reveal one such bug via Twitter.The tweet in question shared by m0nesy tells states, “yo guys, I saw the bug, you can buy infinity nades in the game.” He then went on to explain exactly how the bug could be triggered, with follower reactions a mix of disbelief and amusement. “How do you even find this?” Asked one user, “bro, can you not find a bug faster than the devs for once?” Said another. Shortly after m0nsey’s tweet CS2 devs rushed out a hotfix. It’s not the first crazy bug CS2 has seen this year, in October a bug which left players literally legless emerged, it too required a swift fix from developers at Valve. The infinite nades bug is one more for the list of crazy CS2 bugs which have frustrated and disappointed players. The game’s launch back in September also saw considerable issues, including problems with hitboxes and character models, leading many players to complain it felt unfinished. In fact, back in October it took the title for the lowest rated game in Steam’s history. That said, it’s still sitting comfortably at number one in the top games on Steam Charts, so despite their scruples, CS2 fans are still playing.

Legendary CSGO map designer reveals return of cult classic to Counter-Strike 2 FMPONE/Steam WorkshopShawn “FMPONE” Garozzo, the legendary CSGO map designer, has revealed one of his cult classic maps is making a return to Counter-Strike 2. As CS2’s limited beta chugs along to the game’s eventual summer release for 2023 still a ways off, the lucky few who find themselves checking out CS2 early may soon find themselves increasingly bored. At this point in time, just one playable map is available, Dust 2. Obviously, Valve has plans to bring many CSGO classics into CS2 over time, but many of their original map creators have been reticent on details. However, FMPONE gave players a sneak peek into one of the next maps being revived for CS2. FMPONE tweeted out a few screenshots of one of his maps, Santorini, rendered in Source 2’s incredible lighting. He also revealed to commenters that there will be layout changes made. “Main goal is to give attackers more options and force CT’s to play together as a team,” he said in a response. He even revealed that one of his most beloved maps, Cache, would be in the works for a Source 2 remake after he completes Santorini. Perhaps giving hope that one of CSGO’s most legendary maps might make it into the Active Duty Pool once again. Santorini as a map has reached cult classic, but nothing further. Working alongside fellow mappers Dimitri “Dreamsane” Alexis, Brian “hordeau” Pujals, and Rick “Rf” Forge, it was put in the community workshop in late 2015, and was officially added to the game in early 2016 with Operation Wildfire. The map was in stark contrast to most other bomb defusal maps. With its bright white walls and verticality inspired by Greek cities, it stood out as a new spin on CSGO’s classic map designs. However, it was never played in a major tournament. But it has kept up a status as a cult classic, even when it was eventually removed from the game when Operation Wildfire concluded.

Leaked Counter-Strike 2 models tease brand new animations and skins ValveA leaked Counter Strike 2 model seems to be teasing brand new animations and skins on the way, even with the possibility of transparent skins coming to the port. Counter-Strike 2 certainly had an immense amount of hype leading up to its beta release. And of course, as the godfather of skins, CS has seen a lot of hype to see how the updated engine interacts with CSGO’s already existing skins. This has resulted in a massive increase in the price of skins, stickers, and cases in CSGO of late. Some items which once sold for cents in the past few months are now selling for way more as a result of this peaking interest. In particular, skins, many of which were already revered as legendary, are now skyrocketing in price too. But a new change of skin animations may be coming to the port on top of the existing lineup. In a recent leak by ZooL, the creator of the CS Classic Offensive project and CS dataminer, they revealed CS2 just added fully modeled bullets into certain guns. On the surface, it might not sound like much. But no Counter-Strike game has ever had fully modeled bullets like this before. ZooL argues it might point towards Valve having plans for new animations for your weapons moving forward. He suggests that this could mean the devs might be creating translucent skins to show how many bullets are left. “If modders can do it in Source 1, you can do it on Source 2,” he said. The idea of translucent skins has been around for a long time in CSGO. There have been multiple skins like the X-Ray and Clear Polymer skin lines which were designed to emulate a translucent skin in recent years. There have been plans by Valve to add newer animations to CS2, however, players have not been able to test it out in the closed beta just yet. So players will have to wait and see what actually comes to reality.

Is Counter-Strike 2 free to play? YouTube: ValveCounter-Strike 2 released but is the game free to play? Here’s everything we know about whether or not you can play CS2 without spending any money. Valve released Counter-Strike 2 on September 27, the sequel to the beloved FPS title. It launched with tonnes of content for new and returning players to enjoy, which includes a handful of gameplay changes, overhauled maps, visual upgrades, and system improvements. Since CS2 dropped it has dominated the Steam charts and the FPS title has held the top spot for the most-played game ever since. If you’re new to the franchise, you might be wondering if the game’s available to play for free, after all, other popular FPS titles, including its rival Valorant and Apex Legends, follow the F2P model. Furthermore, here’s everything you need to know about whether or not Counter-Strike 2 is free to play. Is Counter-Strike 2 free to play? Yes, Counter-Strike 2 is free to play. If you had the original CS:GO, Counter-Strike 2 is a free upgrade to the previous game. Any players who previously owned CS:GO automatically received the free Counter-Strike 2 upgrade when it launched. On top of the free upgrade, all of your weapon skins will transfer immediately over to CS2 as well! If you’re a newcomer, however, who’s interested in getting into the game with Counter-Strike 2, don’t worry, the game is free to download and play on Steam. It’s worth noting that while there is no upfront cost for those who want to pick up Counter-Strike 2 on release, in-game purchases are present within the game. For more information about Counter-Strike 2, make sure to check out the links below: What is sub-tick in Counter-Strike 2? | All smoke changes in Counter-Strike 2 | Can you play Counter-Strike 2 on Linux or macOS? | Can banned CS:GO players play Counter-Strike 2? | What will happen to my CSGO skins? | Will Counter-Strike 2 come to Steam Deck? | CS2 console commands | How to play Counter-Strike 2 | Counter-Strike 2 best settings | Can you play Counter-Strike 2 on console?

FaZe rain brushes off CS2 dynasty rumblings as team is still yet to hit their “peak” ESLFaZe Clan has reached eight Grand Finals in a row, swiftly becoming the most dominant CS2 thus far. But as rain explained to Dexerto, the team is still just finding its footing, with the “peak” still far in the distance. As FaZe Clan comes into ESL Pro League Season 19, they arrive in Malta with a jaw-dropping record of eight Grand Final appearances in a row, just coming off a trophy lift at IEM Chengdu. It’s their first trophy of 2024 and fourth CS2 trophy overall, marking them as the best team in the relatively new game. Though with such an incredible streak, a period of near-dominance, the consistent performance comes with its drawbacks, particularly with how exhausting it is to go deep in every tournament. “It’s been a very good streak, but the streak comes at some cost,” FaZe Clan’s Håvard “rain” Nygaard said. “You go to every final and it’s very little time to rest and reset for the next one. So it’s been a little bit tough on the mental health side.” As rain outlined, in the lead-up to the Major, FaZe “barely had a day off”, going immediately from the Copenhagen Major straight to Chengdu. “Two weeks before the Major, up until Chengdu it was like full crazy mode,” rain said. “So yeah, it’s been pretty hectic. Before [ESL Pro League], we had five days off, we tried to full reset and come into the tournament with a bit of a fresh mind.” But despite the exhaustion, rain isn’t too worried about trying to make yet another Grand Finals in ESL Pro League, nor does he want to call this CS2 streak a dynasty just yet. As he argues, it’s still early days yet with many more competitions to win. “No, not yet,” rain said of the dynasty talks online. “If we won every final then maybe, but at the moment not really.” So what other trophies would rain feel they need to cement this era as a dynasty? “I need at least IEM Cologne, or some bigger ones,” the veteran replied. In fact, rain doesn’t believe this roster has even hit its ceiling just yet. “I don’t think this roster has peaked at all. We only had [frozen] for three, four, months, now. So I feel like this roster hasn’t peaked yet and it’s still a long way to go till we get to the peak.”

Insane Counter-Strike 2 bug leaves players legless and floating Valve CorporationAn absurd Counter-Strike 2 bug has been found by players, one that leaves you legless and floating in the air. As Counter-Strike 2 goes through its first month of full release, early bugs are just continuing to pile up as players dive in. Be it the more serious ones like AMD’s Anti-lag causing false bans to the more fun yet infuriating ones like the “Michael Jackson” peek, bugs have been causing all sorts of problems for the community. And it seems yet another weird issue has now been uncovered by players, with this one leaving you legless and floating in the air. Found by a CS2 player on Twitter, it showed that if you and a teammate stand on a railing (specifically the one on Overpass B site Water), with one of you boosting the other right at the edge of the booster’s hitbox and holding crouch, once the booster leaves, the other player is left floating and legless. Well, technically the boosted player still has legs, but they’re left contorted, twisted in a mess behind the back of their character model. The effect on the legs also varies, some attempts have both legs behind meanwhile some others still have one leg on the railing. “After the Michael Jackson peek, the Shakira peek, here’s the Human Turret Peek,” the player who discovered said of the bug they discovered. “Pretty impressive gymnastics skills to be honest,” a player joked about the newest bug. “Excuse me what?” questioned the ESL CS account. Luckily for players, this bug is not as game-breaking as some of the others, veering more towards the absurd crop of bugs, however, still has the potential to give an advantage by throwing off an opponent’s aim and winning the fight.

IEM Sydney 2023 meant more to Australia than just the first Counter-Strike 2 tournament Helena Kristiansson/ESLIEM Sydney 2023 has wrapped up, and in our talks with Australian players and talents, it’s clear it meant more to the scene than just the first Counter-Strike 2 tournament. IEM hadn’t come back down to Australia since 2019, and in 2023’s IEM Sydney, ESL marketed the event as “The Big Reunion,” complete with a kangaroo hugging a CT. However, leading up to the event, it was more than just any old IEM tournament. IEM Sydney was heralded as the very first Counter-Strike 2 tournament. Leading up to it, CS2 was unexpectedly dropped in the middle of ESL Pro League Season 18, making that the last CSGO tournament, and surprisingly, Australia the host of the first tournament of its kind. However, it was more than that for the Australians sitting in the sold-out 10,000 seater arena for the weekend and, by extension, the scene’s players and talents. IEM Sydney was a chance for local talents to flex their skills at one of Counter-Strike’s biggest events. For local teams and heroes like jks and Dexter, it was a chance to play on home soil, even if they were eliminated early. And for the crowd, it was a chance to live up to the claims of being “the greatest f***ing crowd,” as ESL described the rowdy crowd. In light of this, we talked to Australian players, talents, and fans attending to understand how much IEM Sydney means to the local scene. Australia’s role in Tier 1 Counter-Strike Asian, and by extension Australian, Counter-Strike has always struggled, especially in the era of CSGO. No Australian team has ever won a Premier trophy, and it was only in 2022, nearly ten years since CSGO’s release, that a player from the East won a trophy. That was Justin “jks” Savage with FaZe Clan at IEM Katowice, doing so as a stand-in as well. He would go on to win Katowice again and IEM Cologne with a Blast World Finals under his belt. But he’s the exception, a very exceptionally talented player who was able to break out on the international stage. However, it’s rare that an Australian makes waves at the Tier 1 level. But with IEM Sydney, it means a scene that barely sees the top level of play can finally be part of the top level. As Australian commentator Jordan “Elfishyguy” Mays told Dexerto, “[IEM Sydney] lets us feel like we’re part of the top for a while.” The problem if Australian Counter-Strike wants to go up to the Tier 1 level, however, which was outlined by the players and talents we spoke to, is that the quality of teams needs to increase. And if teams want to increase talent, the scene needs to grow. Would IEM Sydney help with the local growth? Greyhound’s Joshua “INS” Potter said, “I think it definitely helps. Having teams here to practice against overseas teams they don’t get to practice a lot… But I think the main problem with Aussie CS is the lack of players at the moment.” VERTEX’s coach David “Kingfisher” Kingsford also echoed the sentiment about the small talent pool. “It just feels like there’s fewer competitive teams at the top, and it’s always one or two teams taking the top spots. And it feels like there’s not enough for people to play for, for teams to form and try to make it work.” What was made clear in our interviews was that if the Australian scene wanted to elevate, interest in the game, not only in the server but the culture at wide needs more interest and more players. “My biggest concern is trying to make local esports a product people are interested in,” Elfish said. “We can fill out an arena of 9,000 people in the arena tonight watching these Tier 1 games, but if you turn on an AUS Counter-Strike stream, you might be lucky to have 2,000 to 3,000 viewers if it’s a Grayhound vs Roster type game.” “It’s a question of how do you get the fans that are here and translate that to fans that are watching Australian Counter-Strike. Because ultimately, that’s what’s going to keep our industry going domestically.” Interest, as Elfish puts it, would put Australian Counter-Strike on the minds of local players, which would cycle into players getting interested in becoming players. And if there are more players and interest, funding increases. And if the cycle becomes large enough, perhaps Australia can be the Tier 1 region fans want. “Give us the Major” says Australia Interest in a region will obviously be helped by a massive event coming to a home city. The IEM Rio Major in 2022 may have been held well after Brazil’s domination in Counter-Strike, with Fallen leading Luminosity and SK Gaming to back-to-back Major titles in 2016 and 2017. But it would be remiss to say a Major and a subsequent IEM Rio once again in 2023 didn’t at least help the interest in CS rejuvenate once again in the once great region, especially with Valorant nipping at its heels with the success of LOUD. China is reportedly Valve’s next target for a Major. A report by HLTV revealed that Shanghai could be the host of 2024’s second Major and essentially the second Major for CS2. This Major would be organized by Perfect World, the publisher of CS in China, in partnership with PGL, the organizer of the first 2024 Major. If these plans were to go forth, it wouldn’t be too far a stretch to say that interest in CS in China, and by extension, the Asia region, would drum up once again. It has been a while since an Asian team performed well in a Major, with a Tyloo led by Kevin “xccurate” Susanto making it into the New Legends at the 2018 Faceit Major. However, that era is now long gone, with their star moving off to Valorant, and so have many of the region’s rising stars who have pivoted towards Riot’s premier FPS. You can see the rosters of Paper Rex, DRX, and Zeta Division as examples. However, a few talents feel the division between Asian CS and Australia shouldn’t be so wide. As Australian caster and former player Chad “SPUNJ” Burchill said, “We can’t just artificially manufacture a community, right? I think that one of the keys would be having a better relationship with Southeast Asia and China.” He explains, “It’s kind of trying to merge Oceania and Southeast Asia into one bigger playing group. We obviously can’t play online a lot, but to have more events where we can fly people from Southeast Asia to Australia or vice versa or China which will be more accessible, that would be the best way. With our powers combined, we’re not Captain Planet, but we’re definitely a bigger group.” He says this merger between regions would help not only players improve by getting more LAN experience and better overall scrims with overseas teams, but it could also give more exposure to Aussie casters and talents to broadcast their skills to a wider audience. And Elfish too echoed the same opinions, pointing out Australia’s geographical proximity to the Asian region would make things generally easier. “Seeing things like IEMs in China is a positive future because our flights to Asia is the same costs as to Europe, but we don’t have the disadvantage of coming from a region that is on a completely different timezone, and our flights become shorter.” He continues, “I would like to see Asia and ANZ flourishing. I think if Asia and ANZ are flourishing, they’re tied in together as well, and you can kind of combine those audiences, again because we’re in the same timezone.” But Australia still holds a unique love for Counter-Strike unlike any other, and it’s unknown how such a radical shift in combining ecosystems would go with the Aussie crowd. And as the weekend went on at IEM Sydney, it was clear what the rambunctious Aussie crowd wanted, in between all the shoeys and belly rubs. “Give us the Major,” was constantly chanted by the crowd, demanding a Major to finally be brought down under. “A Major would be a dream for us,” a fan told me as I went around talking to members of the audience. “Whoever is in charge of Majors in Valve, I’ll kiss you if you give it to us,” his mate sitting next to him said jokingly.

NAVI crush FaZe Clan at CS2 PGL Major Copenhagen 2024: Recap & full results PGLNAVI have taken home the Counter-Strike 2 PGL Major Copenhagen title with a convincing win over FaZe Clan, one of the best teams in modern CS. Here’s everything you need to know about the event. This was PGL’s first Major since 2022, which saw FaZe Clan lift the trophy and collect the $500,000 top prize, and it’s was the first ever Major to be played on Counter-Strike 2. However, despite their best efforts, FaZe Clan weren’t able to defend that title two years on even though they made it to the Grand Finals. Instead, a NAVI team that was almost completely remade for CS2 made a confident run all the way through the tournament. They didn’t even need s1mple after all. Though FaZe Clan took a 13-9 win on map 2, NAVI’s wins on maps 1 and 3 were extremely one-sided, and they truly played like the best team in Counter-Strike 2 right now. Here’s a full recap of the tournament along with the results. Contents PGL Major Copenhagen 2024: Stream The entire tournament was broadcasted across Twitch, YouTube, and Kick on PGL’s channels, and you can catch up on the VoDs for every match on their YouTube channel. PGL Major Copenhagen 2024: Standings With the Major win, NAVI additionally secured spots in both the BLAST Premier World Final and Esports World Cup. PGL Major Copenhagen 2024: Schedule The event ran over the course of two weeks, with top teams having to fight their way through the opening, elimination, and playoff stages to get a chance at winning it all. Playoff Stage: March 28-31 Past Results Day 9: March 28 Day 10: March 29 Day 11: March 30 Day 12: March 31 Below are the results for the completed Opening Stage: Opening Stage: March 17-20 Day 1: March 17 Day 2: March 18 Day 3: March 19 Day 4: March 20 The opening stage was followed by the elimination stage, the full results are below: Elimination Stage: March 21-24 Day 5: March 21 Day 6: March 22 Day 7: March 23 Day 8: March 24 PGL Major Copenhagen 2024: Format The PGL Copenhagen Major will have the same format as all recent S-tier tournaments, featuring an opening Swiss Stage with 16 to start the action. All matches in the opening stage are best of one except for elimination and advancement matches, which are best of three. The top eight teams from that stage will move on to the Elimination Stage which will also feature eight invited teams that got to skip the first stage. The Elimination Stage is also run in the Swiss style with the same rules for matches. The top eight teams from this stage will then go into a Playoff Stage with a single-elimination bracket where all matches are best of three. The Opening Stage started on March 17 and runs through March 20, while the Elimination Stage will run March 21- 24. The final Playoff Stage will round out the event March 28 – 31. PGL Major Copenhagen 2024: Teams Teams qualify from North and South America, Asia-Pacific, and Europe through open and closed qualifiers. Valve changed how regional slots are distributed in 2022, making certain guarantees for regions and extra slots reliant on previous Major placements. For the PGL Copenhagen Major, Europe and America will always have three spots, with Asia-Pacific always getting two. *9Pandas replaced by GamerLegion.

Team Vitality win IEM Cologne 2024: Recap, schedule, teams & more ESL/ Patrick StrackIEM Cologne 2024 is one of the last big Counter-Strike 2 tournaments before the Perfect World Shanghai Major, and Team Vitality have finally secured their first major trophy of 2024 at the event. The $1 million prize pool event ran through August and was marketed as the “Cathedral of Counter-Strike” by ESL as the organizer promoted the decades-old tournament via iconic moments from past events. That makes it all the more suiting that ZywOo took the MVP award at the event as Team Vitality brought home the IEM Cologne trophy. Dexerto spoke with Zywoo, as well as Team Vitality’s founders, about their plans with ZywOo, and they expressed their desire to hold onto the player for the next decade. Considering his performance at IEM Cologne, that seems to be the right decision. Here’s a full recap of the event’s schedule, standings, and how to catch up on prior matches. How to watch You can watch the action from the ESL Counter-Strike Twitch and YouTube channels to catch up on the VoDs. CS2 streamers like ohnePixel were also be co-streaming the event, and you can watch the VoDs through their channels as well. Format & Bracket IEM Cologne had a slightly different format than the tournaments before it. The event didn’t feature best-of-one matches, as even games in the Play-in stage were best-of-three series. Stage 1 of the tournament, the Play-in stage, featured 16 teams in a double-elimination bracket vying for eight spots in Stage 2. Stage 2 featured a double elimination group stage, with two groups of eight teams with invited squads taking on teams from Stage 1. The event culminated in a Playoff Stage where the top three teams from each group face off in a single elimination bracket to crown the champion. IEM Cologne 2024 Match Schedule You can find the full tournament schedule and results below. Playoffs (August 16-17) Day 8: August 16 Day 9: August 17 Day 8: August 18 Stage 1 (August 7-9) Day 1: August 7 Day 2: August 8 Day 3: August 9 Stage 2 (August 10-13) Day 4: August 10 Day 5: August 11 Day 6: August 12 Day 7: August 13 IEM Cologne 2024 Teams and Players The teams and players who qualified for Stage 2 of the tournament were invited thanks to winning previous IEM events from this season and placing high on the ESL World Rankings. Teams in Stage 1 were invited based on their ESL World Ranking and regional ESL rankings. ALTERNATE aTTaX is the only team that qualified for the tournament through an open qualifier.

FaZe Clan smash MOUZ: IEM Chengdu 2024 recap schedule, past results & more Helena Kristiansson/ESLIEM Chengdu 2024 is the second IEM event of 2024 and the third big international LAN in CS2 esports. Here is everything that happened at the tournament. IEM Chengdu directly followed the Copenhagen Major and was a chance for teams to redeem themselves from the event, or establish themselves as players for the Shanghai. This event was full of entertainment as Team Liquid made its case to be feared at LAN by stamping through the group stage upper bracket and Astralis showcased a return to form by making it to the semifinals. However, FaZe Clan seemed inevitable as it rallied from the lower bracket and did what the team couldn’t do in Copenhagen. The tournament action ended on April 14. The event’s match VODs, format, and match results are below. Contents IEM Chengdu 2024: Stream & VODs The tournament was broadcast across Twitch and YouTube on IEM channels. VODs of all live broadcasts can be viewed on ESL Counter-Strike’s YouTube channel, with individual maps available on ESL Archives. IEM Chengdu 2024: Final Standings IEM Chengdu 2024: Results Playoff Stage (April 12 – 14) Day 6: April 14 Day 5: April 13 Day 4: April 12 Group Stage (April 8 – 10) Day 1: April 8 Day 2: April 9 Day 3: April 10 IEM Chengdu 2024: Format The event will see the 16 teams split into two groups of eight. Those groups will face off in a GSL Group Stage fashion, meaning they will all be seeded into a double-elimination bracket. The opening matches will be best-of-one games with all following matchups being best-of-three series. The top three teams from each group will move on to the playoffs. The No. 1 team from each group will advance to the semifinals while the runners-up will play in the quarterfinals against the third-place squads. The playoffs will be a single elimination bracket were all matches are best-of-three. IEM Chengdu will not have a play-in stage like what was featured at IEM Katowice.

How to show FPS in CS2: Counter-Strike 2 FPS command ValveEnsuring you have the highest possible FPS in Counter-Strike 2 is important to make sure you’re not at a disadvantage. Here’s how to use the show FPS command in CS2, and see your frames per second in real-time as you play. CS2 is here, with CS:GO now totally replaced by the sequel. With gameplay, map changes, and visual improvements, there’s a lot to learn about the new game. One key thing to get right in CS is your FPS. First, you’ll want to optimize for the maximum FPS possible using our best CS2 settings guide. To check how many frames per second you’re getting as you play though, you’ll need to know the show FPS command. Here’s how to activate the FPS counter in Counter-Strike 2. How to see FPS in CS2 To show FPS in CS2, follow these steps: Press ~ to open the in-game console. – Type “cl_showfps 1” and press Enter. – This will enable the in-game FPS count on the left side of the screen. You can disable it again by typing cl_showfps 0. You can also get even more information by using cl_showfps 2, cl_showfps 3, cl_showfps 4, and cl_showfps 5. Another option to see your FPS in CS2, is to use the new HUD telemetry command. This will not only show FPS, but also any latency issues, or major FPS drops: cl_hud_telemetry_serverrecvmargin_graph_show 1 To use the developer console in CS2, you need to enable it in the settings. Then you will be able to enter any commands you know. We have a handy list of the best CS2 commands here. Net graph in CS2 Another option is to use the net graph command, but in CS2, this is not the same as CS:GO. It will also show your connection to the server with a new visual in the top right, so you can see if you are lagging. Press ~ to open the in-game console. – Type “cl_hud_telemetry_serverrecvmargin_graph_show 1” and press Enter. – Again, you can set this from levels 1 – 5, with 5 showing the most information. Setting it to 0 will turn it off. In CS2, almost all the console commands are the same as CS:GO. This means veteran players won’t be having any problem remembering them. However, if you’re new to the game and wondering what are the best console commands for CS2, our guide has everything you need to know, including how to enable the developer console. That’s how you can check the frames per second you’re getting in CS2 in real-time. For more about the game, be sure to check our other guides: How to jump throw in CS2 | Can you play left hand in Counter-Strike 2? | All smoke changes in Counter-Strike 2 | Can you play Counter-Strike 2 on Linux or macOS? | Can banned CS:GO players play Counter-Strike 2? | What will happen to my CSGO skins? | Will Counter-Strike 2 come to Steam Deck?

How to play CSGO after Counter-Strike 2’s release ValveWondering if you can still play CS:GO even though Counter-Strike 2 has now been released? Here’s exactly how you can play the classic FPS. Counter-Strike 2 has finally officially released to massive fanfare. The long-awaited entry into Source 2 has been a long in the making, with rumors starting years ago and finally, the world has access to it in all its glory. However, just because we all have access to CS2 now doesn’t mean there aren’t those who would like to revisit CS:GO. Luckily, Valve has always been good with allowing players to access older versions of CS:GO, and that’s no different now that they’ve switched to CS2. So here is how to access the original FPS moving forward in the CS2-era. How to access CS:GO after Counter-Strike 2’s release Accessing the Legacy version of CS:GO is quite simple, you just need to follow the steps below: Go to your Steam Library and right-click Counter-Strike 2. – Click on “Properties” from the menu. – Select the “Beta” tab. – On the “Beta Participation” menu, select “csgo_legacy”. – Once selected, Steam will auto-download this version of CS:GO. – Once downloaded, when clicking to play CS2, Steam will give the options between CS2 or CS:GO. – Select CS:GO. – As for how long Valve will keep this build of CS:GO downloadable, it’s unknown for now, as this is so far the only way you can access CS:GO. Previous CS games were released as completely separate titles on Steam, however, CS2 was released akin to a big update for CS:GO rather than a separate game, meaning CS:GO could be lost entirely if Valve decides to take down this demo version. Similar to how Blizzard effectively replaced the original Overwatch with its transition to Overwatch 2. However, they’re likely to keep around for the time being as there are still CS tournaments ongoing which are being played in CS:GO. That’s how you can download CS:GO! For more content on the game and it’s sequel, check out our guides below: Best CS2 settings | CS2 Commands you need to know | How to jump throw in CS2 | Can you play left hand in Counter-Strike 2? | All smoke changes in Counter-Strike 2 | Can you play Counter-Strike 2 on Linux or macOS? | Can banned CS:GO players play Counter-Strike 2? | What will happen to my CSGO skins? | Will Counter-Strike 2 come to Steam Deck?

How to play CS2 Competitive: Counter-Strike 2 beta locks Competitive playlist YouTube: ValveIf you are enjoying the CS2 beta right now as Valve gears up for the full release of Counter-Strike 2 this year, you may be slightly confused as to how you can actually play the standard competitive matchmaking mode. The Counter-Strike 2 beta is now being given to anyone who has a rank in CS:GO, Prime Status, and plays in one of the regions where the beta is available. However, as it is still a beta, not everything that you are used to in CS:GO is currently available, such as opening cases, the server browser, and more. Most importantly, you may be eager to try out some competitive matches in CS2, so, how can you do this? CS2 Competitive ‘locked’ Right now, the Competitive mode is greyed out on the Play menu in CS2. This is the same for all players at the moment, not just you. As a result, you are unable to queue for Competitive matches where you pick the maps you want to play. Instead, you can only play competitive matches in Premier Mode. This new and improved Premier Mode is the primary focus of Valve’s testing at the moment, so they want everyone to try this playlist out instead. Premier includes a new CS Rating, map pick & ban phase, and even leaderboards. Is Competitive coming to CS2? Yes, the regular competitive playlist will return to Counter-Strike 2. However, when this will happen is not known. It may return in the beta, or it may not be available until the full release of CS2. What we do know about Competitive is that ranks will work differently. While the ranks themselves will stay the same, for example, Silver, Gold Nova, Master Guardian, Legendary Eagle, and Global Elite, these will now be per-map. This means you will have a different rank on each map, based on your wins, losses and performances on those maps specifically. If you only play one or two maps, you will have a skill group for those maps only. For now, though, the focus is on Premier mode, so jump in and win 10 games to get your placement elo! For more Counter-Strike 2 guides, check out our coverage: Best CS2 settings | CS2 Commands you need to know | How to jump throw in CS2 | Can you play left hand in Counter-Strike 2? | All smoke changes in Counter-Strike 2 | Can you play Counter-Strike 2 on Linux or macOS? | Can banned CS:GO players play Counter-Strike 2? | What will happen to my CSGO skins? | Will Counter-Strike 2 come to Steam Deck?

How to play Counter-Strike 2: CS2 now available for everyone ValveCounter-Strike 2 has finally arrived, and is playable for everyone on PC, so here’s exactly how you can download and start playing the sequel to CS:GO. Counter-Strike 2 is now available for veterans and newcomers alike to download and enjoy. With a number of improvements including better visuals, new maps, and a fresh ratings system, there’s a lot to enjoy in the new FPS. If you’re eager to install the game on your platform of choice, whether that’s Windows or Linux, you may be wondering exactly how to do this, so we’ve got you covered right here. Here’s everything you need to know about playing Counter-Strike 2, including how to install the game and if your CS:GO skins will carry over. How to install Counter-Strike 2 For returning CS:GO players, Counter-Strike 2 will appear as an update to the game in your library. Simply install the update and CS2 will replace CS:GO. On the other hand, if you were not a CS:GO player but are looking to get into Counter-Strike now, you can easily download the game from Steam. CS2 is free to download, so you just need to make sure you have enough free space. Note that only players on Windows or Linux can play CS2. Unfortunately, it is not available for Mac, and never will be. It is also recommended to get Prime status for Counter-Strike 2. If you already had Prime in CS:GO though, you don’t need to buy it again. Prime should reduce the likelihood of cheaters in your matches, and allows you to earn weekly drops and get ranks. Do skins and items transfer from CS:GO to CS2? Valve has confirmed that you will keep all of your existing skins and other items from CS:GO in CS2. Although all skins, stickers, gloves and knives are the same, some of them have a slightly new appearance, especially when impacted by the new lighting. You can also now open cases, do trade-up contracts, apply and remove stickers in CS2. This means that CS:GO is no longer playable, as everyone is now moved over to Counter-Strike 2. For more guides and information on Counter-Strike 2, be sure to check out our other guides: Best CS2 settings | CS2 Commands you need to know | How to jump throw in CS2 | Can you play left hand in Counter-Strike 2? | All smoke changes in Counter-Strike 2 | Can you play Counter-Strike 2 on Linux or macOS? | Can banned CS:GO players play Counter-Strike 2? | What will happen to my CSGO skins? | Will Counter-Strike 2 come to Steam Deck?

How to optimize your PC for Counter-Strike 2: Eliminate CS2 lag Valve / NZXTLooking to optimize your PC for Counter-Strike 2? We’ve got all the details you need to destroy any pesky CS2 lag you might encounter in the game. Counter-Strike 2 has finally been released to much fan fervor, and as with every major game launch, you might encounter some technical issues. But, since CS2 is a huge competitive title, you might also want to make sure that your PC is fully optimized to play the game and ensure that you do not encounter any pesky lag during a match. Latency, whether it be input latency, network latency, or display latency can make or break your experience in the game, but we’re here to tell you how to get set up in the best way possible. 1. Use an Ethernet cable This might not be what you want to hear, but the easiest way of eliminating lag from CS2 is to wire yourself up with a good internet connection. While WiFi has gotten faster than ever before, the technology can still be prone to something named Packet Loss. This occurs when some elements of the data are lost when data is being sent and received by the server you’re trying to send information to, your router, and your PC. This can increase your ping in matches, and lead to higher network latency, therefore causing lag. Any good gaming PC or Laptop will have an ethernet cable, and the best thing to do is to wire yourself up with a Cat5e cable or better. We’ve assembled a list of the best ethernet cables here. Remember, your internet connection speed also matters here, so make sure that you are on a plan with enough bandwidth to play online games reliably. 2. Get a high-refresh-rate monitor Ever wonder how other people in matches seem to have inhuman aim? If they’re not using hacks, it’s likely that your opponents are using high-refresh-rate gaming monitors. The best gaming monitors for CS2 will also support Nvidia Reflex, which can analyze latency data, and also shave their display latency down to one millisecond or even less. This allows you to react quickly to any situation, and when paired with a high-refresh rate, gives you a distinct advantage when playing in actual matches. We’ve assembled a list of the best CS2 monitors here, so you can invest in your setup and get a fantastic experience playing the game. But remember, you will also need a powerful PC to drive the number of frames that a high-refresh-rate monitor demands. 3. Upgrade your PC with a new CPU or GPU Counter-Strike 2 is a title that runs extremely well on most PC gaming hardware. However, when playing games at a high frame rate, in order to drive a high-refresh-rate monitor, you will also need to make sure that your PC is up to the task. If too many frames are sent to your PC at once, it can create a CPU bottleneck. The inverse is also true, when your CPU can handle every task, and your GPU might be underpowered, meaning that you might not be making the best use of your hardware. This means that you might want to invest in a new prebuilt PC or upgrade your GPU for Counter-Strike 2. Having a faster GPU will also cut down on your system’s render latency, meaning that there will be less time needed for your PC to generate frames than before. Paired with Nvidia Reflex, this number gets even smaller. That’s why our top picks for the best Counter-Strike 2 GPUs are both from Nvidia. Alternatively, many laptops are also equipped to handle Counter-Strike 2, and we’ve listed our top picks here. 4. Use a low-latency mouse Getting a new gaming mouse for Counter-Strike 2 isn’t too difficult, with the market flooded with excellent options across the board. One thing to note is that your mouse should have a polling rate of at least 1000Hz to be considered competitive. Many Bluetooth mice do not meet this requirement and are therefore not suitable for gaming. If you want to get the most out of your gaming experience, look for gaming mice that have a polling rate of over 1000Hz, with several options available from Razer, Logitech, and more. Just be sure to note that if your PC is older, running a peripheral with a high polling rate can affect your performance. You can check out all of our recommended mice for Counter-Strike 2 here. 5. Close background processes If you are really looking to get the most out of your PC and eliminate lag, then the best thing to do (for free) would be to close any background tasks running on your PC, this means no Google Chrome, no Spotify, or other applications that could take up precious resources that your PC uses to run Counter-Strike 2. This might seem obvious, but make sure that you are not wasting precious bandwidth too. This means halting all downloads that are going out from your PC. This can result in unwanted lag spikes and terrible ping. 6. Use Nvidia Reflex One of the best things about CS2’s release is the use of the Source 2 engine, which means that the game now has support for features like Nvidia Reflex. We’ve already talked extensively about how Nvidia Reflex is able to shave your system’s latency significantly, you just might need the GPU, Monitor, and Peripherals to take full advantage of the cutting-edge new feature. Do I need to get a new PC for CS2? Counter-Strike 2’s system requirements are incredibly low, which means that it’s likely that your PC will be able to run the title. However, if you wish to play competitively, you will need to afford yourself every advantage possible. A huge part of that lies in your PC’s capabilities. So, if you feel like you cannot run the game in your selected resolution at 60FPS reliably, then you might want to look into upgrading your PC as a whole. All of these suggestions should ensure that you have a fantastic, lag-less CS2 experience. Just remember, once you have made all these changes, you won’t be able to blame lag for poor play. Want to sharpen up your skills? Check out our other CS2 content. Counter-Strike 2 competitive changes | Counter-Strike 2 best settings | What is sub-tick in Counter-Strike 2? | All smoke changes in Counter-Strike 2 | Can you play Counter-Strike 2 on Linux or macOS? | Can banned CS:GO players play Counter-Strike 2? | What will happen to my CSGO skins? | Will Counter-Strike 2 come to Steam Deck? | Everything we know about Counter-Strike 2

How to fix CS2 update error: “An error occurred while updating Counter-Strike 2” Counter-Strike 2 / SteamWant to fix the “An error occurred while updating Counter-Strike 2” error when installing or updating to CS2? Here is our guide on how to try and fix the issue. With millions trying to install Counter-Strike 2 and update from CSGO to CS2, frustrating errors were bound to happen for some unlucky gamers. Whether you are updating or doing a fresh installation of CS2, the same error has been popping up after trying to access the game through the Steam installer. During the process of executing the new Counter-Strike 2 files, many players have experienced a pop-up window that appears stating: “An error occurred while updating Counter-Strike 2 (missing executable),” as shown below. Here is our complete guide on how to fix the error if it appears when you try to install or update to Counter-Strike 2. CS2 error fix: “An error occurred while updating Counter-Strike 2” Reboot Steam and run as administrator The first and easiest way to try that has proven to resolve the issue for players is to fully exit Steam, making sure it does not run in the background. Then, proceed to open Steam by right-clicking on the shortcut and instead selecting “Run as administrator”. This has been the most common fix for this CS2 error. Uninstall CS:GO/CS2 If you are updating your game from either CS:GO or the CS2 beta to the full version of Counter-Strike 2 and experiencing the error, then try this. Go into your Steam library, and completely uninstall the game files. Then, try a fresh install of CS2, making sure to run as administrator as shown in the first method, to stop the error from appearing. These two ways have proven to be the most easiest and effective ways of solving the problems, but if not you can try the other simple fixes below. Change Steam download region Another way to fix the “missing executable” file error is to just change your download region within Steam. To do this, click on the “Steam” tab in the top left corner of the program and navigate your way to the settings page and then the “Downloads” tab. Here you will be able to change the region to something different, e.g. from the United States to the United Kingdom. Although it might seem bizarre, if you then restart the Steam application and try to download CS2, it will work. Clear Steam download cache A common fix for multiple errors, such as when using web browsers is to simply clear your download cache. In this instance, you would need to clear your Steam download cache, which can be completed by going to the “Downloads” tab within your Steam settings and clicking on “Clear Cache”. Then, restart Steam, and begin to download Counter-Strike 2 again. Contact Steam Support If all the above steps fail and you are still left with the error message, your next best option would be to contact Steam Support directly and report the issue. As you wait for a response from Valve’s support team for Steam, we would suggest occasionally trying to install the game again and repeat the above steps. For more guides and information on Counter-Strike 2, be sure to check out our other guides: What will happen to skins in Counter-Strike 2? | Will Counter-Strike 2 be on Steam Deck? | Everything we know about Counter-Strike 2 | Pros react to Counter-Strike 2 | What is Follow Recoil in Counter-Strike 2? | Every game mode in Counter-Strike 2 | Counter-Strike 2: Every confirmed map from CSGO in Source 2 update | CS2 commands: Best console commands for Counter-Strike 2

How to change bob in CS2: New bob settings and commands explained ValveCounter-Strike 2 has finally addressed the bob complaints since the switch from CS:GO, with a new bob animation, but it’s not exactly what everyone was hoping for. Here is how you can change the bob settings in CS2. First of all, if you are unsure what bob even is, it simply refers to the movement animation in first-person view. When you walk forwards, backwards, or strafe side to side, your hands and weapon model will ‘bob’ up and down to imitate walking movement. However, in CS:GO, many players altered or even disabled this animation entirely because it could be distracting. When CS2 was released, the command to change bob values no longer worked, sticking everyone to the default. In an update, Valve has added a new bob animation, but some feel it is worse than the old one. Thankfully, you can revert to the previous style with a command. How to change new bob in CS2 If you find the new bob animations annoying or distracting, you can turn them off with a simple console command. To enter console commands, you first need to enable the developer console in-game settings. Then, open the console and enter the following command: cl_usenewbob 0 This will revert the bob animation to the classic CS:GO style. Unfortunately, however, there is still no way to reduce the amount of bob or disable it entirely. Perhaps in time, everyone will get used to the weapon bob to the point that it no longer matters, but there is still a vocal section of the player base demanding Valve bring back the ability to get rid of it.

Best CS2 cases to open: How to buy, best ROI cases and case odds ValveIf you’re tempted to buy and open cases in CS2, here’s everything you need to know about them, including the best ROI cases, how to open them, and the case odds. While CS2, is best known for its competitive gameplay and thriving esports scene, it also supports an in-game economy worth billions. This economy largely originates from in-game cases that players can open at a cost, and may result in obtaining a rare expensive item. Case openings had a resurgence with the launch of Counter-Strike 2, so new and returning players alike may be wondering if they’re still worth opening. Here’s everything you need to know about CS2 cases. Best CS2 cases to open: Case ROI If you can’t resist the urge to try your luck on some cases, despite the bad odds (see the exact odds below), then you should at least try to open cases with the best return possible. Based on the average price of skins in the case, compared to the price of the case & key, these are the best CS2 cases to open based on their ROI, as of September 2024: Even with these “best” cases to open though, you can see that you will still, on average, lose almost half of your money opening these. If you are looking for the “most profitable” CS2 cases – just know that there aren’t any. In order to profit from opening cases, you would simply need to get very lucky. How to get cases in CS2 There are two ways to get a case in Counter-Strike 2: Case drops and buying cases. Case drops The first method is free, and requires you to simply play the game. The first time you rank up your account level in a week, you will receive a weekly drop – you can then choose a case as one of your rewards. The case you get will be entirely random, but there is a 99% chance it comes from the ‘active drop pool’. These are currently: Revolution Case, Recoil Case, Dreams & Nightmares Case, Snakebite Case, and Fracture Case. There is a 1% chance you will receive a ‘rare’ case drop, which will typically be a more expensive case. We will explain case prices later. Buying cases The second method to get cases, and the one you will need to use if you want to open more than one case, is to buy them. You can buy cases from the Steam Market or from third-party websites. Third-party websites will typically have cases for cheaper than the Steam Market, so if you want to buy cases in bulk, you should use a site like Skinport, or others, where players will list their cases typically in bulk. Once you buy a case, or multiple, they will be added to your inventory, ready to be opened. You can buy any case you want this way, and see what skins and knives are available in each one. You can also resell the cases back on the market, if you decide against opening them – but remember there is a 15% fee on the Steam Market, so you won’t get the full purchase price back, unless the price of the case has increased. How to open cases in CS2 Once you have a case or cases that you want to open, there is one more thing you need before you can open them: a key. Each case will require a single key, specific to that case. You can buy the key from Steam directly, just prior to opening the case. But note: Keys cannot be refunded or sold on the Steam market – so don’t buy them unless you plan to use them. How much do CS2 case keys cost? Case keys cost a flat price of $2.49, or the equivalent in your currency. Do not buy keys from the Steam Market – they will be much more expensive! Buy them directly from the in-game store instead. If you do buy a key from the Steam Market, it means it is tradeable, because it is from before an update when Valve made all keys untradeable. You should simply sell it on the Steam Market again to recoup your cost. CS2 case odds The odds of opening cases and getting a rare item, such as a covert skin, knife, or gloves, are of course, not very high. Most cases you open, you will receive a ‘Mil-Spec’ (blue rarity) item, and sometimes a Restricted (purple) or Classified (pink). You can see the case odds in CS2 here: Every item in a case has a 10% chance to be ‘StatTrak’. This adds a kill counter to the weapon or knife (but not gloves, because you can’t kill enemies with gloves!). Are cases worth it? As you can see, 95% of cases that you open will give you a Blue or Purple skin, and more often, it will be a Blue. Blue and Purple skins are always the cheapest, typically ranging from a few cents to a few dollars at most, unless they’re from a very expensive case. Given the price of the case and the key, you lose, on average, 60-70% of your money with any case. So, with average luck, if you spent $100 on cases, you will receive approximately $30-$40 in value. Of course, it’s possible for you get very lucky, and open a Knife with your first case, making a massive profit. But, the odds of this are very low. If you want a particular skin or knife, you should simply buy what you want from the Steam Market or third-party sites, rather than spending money on cases. It will almost certainly be cheaper. Knives in CS2 cases The biggest appeal about opening cases is, obviously, the knives. On average, you will get a knife (or gloves) from every 400 or so cases, with a 0.26% chance. However, not all knives are available in every case. For example, the coveted Butterfly Knife, the most expensive type of knife, is only in three specific cases. Here are some of the most desired knives in CS2, and which cases they are in. Butterfly Knife cases Operation Breakout Case – Dreams & Nightmares Case – Operation Riptide Case – Karambit cases Gamma Case – Gamma 2 Case – Chroma Case – Chroma 2 Case – Chroma 3 Case – Revolver Case – Operation Vanguard Weapon Case – Operation Pheonix Weapon Case – eSports 2014 Summer Case – Winter Offensive Weapon Case – CS:GO Weapon Case 3 – eSports 2013 Winter Case – CS:GO Weapon Case 2 – eSports 2013 Case – Operation Bravo Case – CS:GO Weapon Case – M9 Bayonet cases Gamma Case – Gamma 2 Case – Chroma Case – Chroma 2 Case – Chroma 3 Case – Revolver Case – Operation Vanguard Weapon Case – Operation Pheonix Weapon Case – eSports 2014 Summer Case – Winter Offensive Weapon Case – CS:GO Weapon Case 3 – eSports 2013 Winter Case – CS:GO Weapon Case 2 – eSports 2013 Case – Operation Bravo Case – CS:GO Weapon Case – Skeleton Knife cases Fracture Case – Shattered Web Case – Pandora’s Box Gloves cases Glove Case – Operation Hydra Case – Vice Gloves cases Clutch Case – Revolution Case – Kukri Knife cases Kilowatt Case – Most expensive CS2 cases CS:GO Weapon Case: $108.47 – Operation Bravo Case: $54.51 – eSports 2013 Case: $50.14 – Operation Hydra Case: $23.40 – CS:GO Weapon Case 2: $16.49 – Huntsman Weapon Case: $11.45 – eSports 2013 Winter Case: $10.83 – eSports 2014 Summer Case: $9.47 – CS:GO Weapon Case 3: $9.20 – Operation Breakout Case: $8.14 – The most expensive CS2 cases are typically so because they are old, rare, or even discontinued. This means that every time one is opened, there are fewer in supply. Cheapest CS2 Cases Recoil Case: $0.15 – Snakebite Case: $0.20 – Fracture Case: $0.25 – Revolution Case: $0.30 – Clutch Case: $0.43 – Prisma Case: $0.61 – CS20 Case: $0.63 – Danger Zone Case: $0.74 – Prisma 2 Case: $0.75 – Kilowatt Case: $0.77 – The cheapest cases usually include less desirable skins, or are in abundance, meaning they are not very rare at all. These prices will fluctuate on the Steam Market, but are generally around this price, as of September 2024. Hopefully, though, it is clear that opening cases will not be a profitable endeavor. If you see friends or big streamers getting lucky and opening knives and gloves, it is still likely that they have made a loss overall due to the number of cases opened. You may see stories like a new player opening a knife worth over $150,000, but remember the odds of this are in the millions, and you would be just as well playing the lottery. With Counter-Strike 2 replacing CS:GO, case openings are likely to continue to increase, but remember the golden rule: just buy the skin you want, instead of buying the case. That’s everything you need to know about cases in CS2. For more content on the game, check out our guides below: Best CS2 settings | CS2 Commands you need to know | How to jump throw in CS2 | Can you play left hand in Counter-Strike 2? If you click on a product link on this page we may earn a small affiliate commission.

How many people play CS2? Counter-Strike 2 Player count in 2023 ValveNow that Counter-Stirke 2 has launched, replacing CS:GO, we’ll be keeping track of CS2’s player count right here. As more players of the iconic FPS switch over to the new game, can it eclipse CS:GO’s popularity? Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was not only one of the most popular first-person shooters to date, but also one of Valve’s most lucrative properties thanks to its expansive skin market. The game’s popularity only increased since its release back in 2012, as it beat its all-time player count record more than a decade later. Now, CS2 has replaced CS:GO, meaning the player count continues to track within the same game on Steam. To keep track of CS2’s popularity, here is the average and peak player count for Counter-Strike 2. Contents How many people play CS2 In total, 31.4 million unique players have jumped into CS2 in the past month. Counter-Strike 2’s average live player count ranges from 800,000 to 900,000 players at any time. As of October 31, CS:GO has averaged 791,479 concurrent players in the past 30 days. This makes it the most popular game on Steam by far, almost double the second most popular, Dota2. However, this is a decline from the previous 30 days, before CS2 launched, when the average was 976,000, in September 2023. These are accurate figures taken from Steam’s API. Overall, CS:GO has seen a steady increase in active players since November 2022. CSGO player count record CSGO broke its all-time record player count on May 6, 2023, reaching 1,802,853 concurrent players according to SteamCharts.com. This was a few months before the release of CS2. This comes off the heels of the tactical shooter breaking its previous record on February 11, 2023, when it hit 1,320,219 at once. The highest player count CS2 has reached so far is 1,364,902. Considering the FPS has once again surpassed its previous record by a respectable margin, CS2 could very well reach another player count record in the coming months and years. CS2 player count vs other games Using the data available for other multiplayer games, one can compare CS2’s player count numbers to similar games like Valorant and Rainbow Six Seige. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege reaches an average of around 45,000 active players, with around 75,000 concurrent players during peak hours. Apex Legends averages about 173,000 players on Steam, but is also very popular on consoles. Unfortunately, one of the game’s more comparable rivals, Valorant, is not available on Steam. The website Tracker Network reported that the tactical hero shooter reached a peak of 6,627,830 total players in May 2023, but this figure is not official and cannot be verified. And that’s everything fans need to know about how many people play CSGO in 2023. For more CSGO guides check out the articles listed below: All Dust 2 map callouts | Top 20 highest earning CSGO pros of all time | Most expensive CSGO skins in 2022 | Best CS:GO weapon skins | Best smoke spots

Hooxi calls for nerf to Counter-Strike 2’s new smoke feature: “I am not a fan” ValveCounter-Strike 2 has been in limited beta testing for only a few days and some pros already have some thoughts on what should be changed, like G2 IGL Rasmus ‘HooXi’ Nielsen who has called for a nerf to the game’s new smoke feature. Counter-Strike 2 has introduced revamped smoke grenades to the FPS genre as Valve has now made them volumetric, as well as interactable with bullets and grenades. With only a few games in the game’s limited beta period, G2 IGL HooXi is already calling for a nerf, and changes in general, to the new mechanic. In a Twitlonger about his thoughts on the new game, the veteran CS:GO pro ranked the game in a number of categories, map design, sound, and utility. For utility, the pro specifically mentioned smoke grenades and said that the change is “a bit too much.” “It will change the way CS is played forever and you have to be very careful when changing fundamental parts of CS that have been there since the beginning,” HooXi said. “I am not a fan and I hope they come up with something else or just remove this completely and this is not just me being your typical CS player that hates change I put a lot of thought into it, I tried and I am coming to the same conclusion over and over.” Counter-Strike 2 smoke changes might be a little controversial HooXi explains that he likes the idea of carving out windows of vision with gunfire, and that it is a good way to remove one-way smokes and other smoke-related bugs from CS:GO, but that the mechanic makes the smoke disappear too quickly. He says it takes “3-4 seconds” to clear the new smokes. While HooXi had problems with smokes in Counter-Strike 2, he overall liked the new game and the other updates. He gave the new title, which is still in its beta period, an overall 8/10. Keep up to date with Dexerto’s coverage of Counter-Strike 2.

Hiko to make Counter-Strike return when CS2 is out: “The community is better” Colin Young-Wolff / Riot GamesFormer CS:GO and Valorant pro Hiko has revealed that he will start streaming Counter-Strike 2 frequently when the game is released later this year. Spencer ‘Hiko’ Martin retired as a professional player in April 2022 after a decade-long career competing at the highest level in CS 1.6, CS:GO and Valorant. With Counter-Strike 2 set for a summer release, Hiko has revealed that he will join the list of streamers and content creators who will be playing the game on a regular basis. “I do kind of miss this game,” he admitted in a recent livestream while playing CS:GO. “I think I’ll make a comeback to CS when CS2 comes out,” he said. “I’ll probably start streaming the game a lot.” After being part of the Valorant community for three years, Hiko confessed that he has grown disillusioned with the game’s player base. “The [Counter-Strike] community in general is just better,” he said. “The Valorant community is a little cringe to me, probably because I’m just older. I think the average age in most of the CS people is higher than [in] the Valorant people.” Hiko’s esports résumé Hiko’s return to the Counter-Strike space would be greatly welcomed by the community, which continues to lack big-name streamers and content creators who can cater to a casual audience. He also has experience as a member of a tournament’s broadcast team, having worked as an analyst at ESL One Katowice 2015. During his CS:GO career, Hiko notably played for Complexity, Cloud9 and Team Liquid. His biggest career achievements include a grand final appearance at ESL One Cologne 2016 and semi-final runs at DreamHack Winter 2013 and MLG Columbus 2016. With career opportunities extremely limited in North America, Hiko decided to give Valorant a try and landed a spot on 100 Thieves. He helped that team to a top-four finish at VCT 2021: Stage 3 Masters Berlin, but the year ended in disappointment as they failed to qualify for Valorant Champions. In April 2022, after a 9th-10th place in VCT NA Stage 1 Challengers, Hiko left the team and shifted to a streaming role within 100 Thieves.

Top 20 highest-earning Counter-Strike pros of all time: CS2 and CSGO ESLOne of the longest-running esports of all time, Counter-Strike has a storied history of legendary players. After countless majors and big-money event, some of these players have earned millions in prize money. These are the highest-earning CS pros of all time, in both CSGO and CS2. Back in 2018, Astralis stars Nicolai ‘dev1ce’ Reedtz, Peter ‘dupreeh’ Rasmussen and Andreas ‘Xyp9x’ Højsleth became the first CS:GO stars to break the $1 million threshold in prize money won. Since then, they have been joined by a handful of players in the millionaires’ club, which now features as many as 24 names. Since CS2 has replaced CS:GO, the CS:GO list will no longer change, but we will update CS2 after each big event. Astralis have given up their stranglehold on every tournament, and their dominant lineup is no longer around. However, those five players still dominate the list of the highest-earning stars in the game. CS2 starts a new era With the release of CS2 in 2023, there is a split in the history of CS again, as we look to a new era of young stars who will aim to dominate the new game. To keep track of it all, we will include separate earnings for CS:GO and CS2 in the rankings below, so we can see the kings of the respective eras. Top 20 highest-earning CS2 players (February 2024) This list will be updated after each major CS2 event. CS:GO rich list Estonian star Robin ‘ropz’ Kool was the latest addition to CS:GO’s millionaires’ club following FaZe’s triumph in ESL Pro League 17, which also netted the team the $1 million Intel Grand Slam prize. Each member on FaZe won $240,000 as a result, propelling Håvard ‘rain’ Nygaard into the top 10 and putting in-game leader Finn ‘karrigan’ Andersen closer to the top 5. In October 2022, dupreeh became the first CS:GO player to break the $2 million mark in tournament winnings when he won ESL Pro League 16 in Malta. The top 20 highest-earning CS:GO pros of all time, via esportsearnings.com, can be found below. Top 20 richest CS:GO players in prize money Who is the richest CS player of all time? dupreeh is the highest-earning CS:GO player of all time – taking over his former Astralis teammate Xyp9x. The 30-year-old tightened his grip on the top spot by winning IEM Rio and the BLAST Paris Major, which put him over $150,000 clear of his closest suitors. s1mple broke into the top 5 thanks to NAVI’s success in 2021, but he dropped down to sixth following Vitality’s win at the Paris Major, which saw Magisk reclaim his fifth spot on the list.

Heroic remove stavn & jabbi amid CS2 contract drama and Astralis links Stefan Petrescu/PGLDanish esports organization Heroic have announced that star players stavn and jabbi are “temporarily” removed from their Counter-Strike 2 roster, following complications with a contract situation, an approach from rival org Astralis, and the kicking of cadiaN. It came as a shock to the entire Counter-Strike scene when in-game leader and de facto face of the organization, Casper ‘cadiaN’ Møller, parted ways with Heroic. It later became apparent that while the split was amicable, it was not cadiaN’s decision entirely. “I wanted some changes and some people wanted a different way,” cadiaN told Dexerto. It was presumed that Heroic would move forward with their existing roster and a new IGL, and dupreeh joined the team on a temporary basis on October 23. Only a couple days later, the roster has imploded. Heroic bench stavn and jabbi On October 25, Heroic revealed on X/Twitter, that stavn and jabbi were the driving force behind cadiaN’s removal, offering an ultimatum that cadiaN must leave or they would not renew their contracts, which have 10 months remaining. However, Heroic states that when the contract renewals were presented, they were surprised by the response: stavn and jabbi had made “future plans with Astralis” – Heroic’s primary Danish rivals. While both players still have contracts with Heroic for ten months, and the org hopes to resolve the matter and bring both of them back into the fold, they close out their statement by inviting offers. “We are open to discussing transfers to organizations with a professional approach and an understanding of our players’ market value.” Complicating matters, Heroic has a match against Aurora in the Roobet cup. Filling for stavn and jabbi were MOUZ NXT players Christoffer ‘chr1zn’ Storgaard and William ‘sirah’ Kjærsgaard. TeSeS, sjuush, and dupreeh are currently the only confirmed members of the lineup, at the time of writing.

Guild to expand Counter-Strike footprint with men’s team Guild EsportsUK-based organization Guild Esports has announced that it will be unveiling a men’s Counter-Strike team soon. In a press release issued on August 21, Guild stated that the necessary funds to support the team have been provided by “multiple sources”, including an unnamed esports federation. The announcement follows Guild’s signing of a women’s roster in March featuring players from Norway, Sweden, and Latvia. The team placed 7th-8th in ESL Impact League Season 3’s European Division. According to Guild, the upcoming release of Counter-Strike 2 “has reinvigorated community interest in both the game and its esports ecosystem.” At the same time, Valve’s decision to ban closed circuit leagues in 2025 is “expected to significantly reduce the entry costs associated with some of the top tier men’s tournaments,” according to the British organization. “Following these announcements from Valve, and the positive reception of Guild’s all-female Counter-Strike team, the Directors of the Company believe now is an opportune moment for Guild to enter men’s Counter-Strike, to capitalize on the increasing audience engagement and lower barriers to entry,” Guild stated. Guild said that it has already “identified multiple sponsorship and revenue-generation opportunities” because of the new team, noting that Counter-Strike “has more permissive policies on advertising compared with other esports.” This could be interpreted as a reference to Valorant, a game in which Guild hasn’t fielded a men’s roster since 2022 (Guild currently fields a women’s Valorant roster, called Guild X). Betting and gambling companies (including bookmakers and betting sites) are among the prohibited sponsors of the Valorant Champions Tour. According to Guild, the announcement of the men’s Counter-Strike team will be made “in due course”, with the roster including five players and coaching staff. Founded in 2019, Guild Esports PLC is a publicly-traded company that is notably co-owned by former football star David Beckham. In addition to CS:GO and Valorant, Guild competes in FIFA, Fortnite, and Rocket League.

Gear up for Counter-Strike 2 with these killer gaming mouse & keyboard deals ValveCounter-Strike 2‘s release could be right around the corner, and what better way to start playing the game than with the best gear for the job. We’ve scoured the web for the best peripheral deals right now. The Counter-Strike series is known for its high skill ceiling, tough learning curve, and realistic handling of its weaponry, and Counter-Strike 2 appears to be no different. Building off the perennially popular CS:GO, that’s still a major eSports title over 10 years after its release, you’ll need a contender for the best gaming mouse and one of the best gaming keyboards to be ready. Fortunately, you won’t have to spend too much to have the right equipment for the job. That’s because the Razer Viper 8KHz is selling for one of its lowest prices to date, at only $49.99 (down from $80) for a total of 38% off the sticker price. This mouse has garnered a ton of critical success since its release for its 8000Hz polling rate and 20K DPI, which means it’s sensitive and fast enough for the precision required in Counter-Strike 2. Maybe you’re after further customization and programming options than what the Razer Viper 8KHz can deliver, though, and that’s where the Logitech G502 HERO comes in with a discount, too. While usually retailing for $80, you can now score this highly adaptable pointer for just $39.99 at 50% off. It’s one of the lowest prices seen on this model, which features a 25,600 DPI, a 25K Sensor, 11 programmable buttons, and even weights to change the drag and feel. Get equipped with a new keyboard Finally, you’re going to need a keyboard that’s up to the task of delivering precise movements and weapon switching, and that’s why the Razer BlackWidow V3 mechanical keyboard is an easy recommendation. Despite its $130 sticker price, you can now score this mechanical keyboard, complete with green mechanical switches and programmable macro functionality, for only $99.21. It’s one of the cheapest prices seen yet and an excellent investment at less than $100. If you click on a product link on this page we may earn a small affiliate commission.

Game-breaking Counter-Strike 2 bug sees random elements invade CS2 maps X: Rade1gxCounter-Strike 2 players are experiencing a game-breaking bug that sees elements from the popular Mirage map spawn inside other maps, obscuring vision and impacting gameplay. Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) by Valve has had its fair share of bugs and issues since its release on September 27. Despite the massive graphical improvements and a complete overhaul of some maps, the game has been criticized for an “underwhelming” launch, with many veterans feeling that it lacks essential features that were found in CS:GO. And now, one particularly concerning game-breaking bug has emerged, causing elements of the Mirage map to spawn inside other maps like Ancient, Anubis, and Inferno, impacting visibility and gameplay. While the elements are not solid objects — and players can simply walk through them — they are still obscuring vision and making rounds unplayable. The community is puzzled about what’s causing the bug to surface. No one seems to have a decent answer, and yet the replies are filled with other players sharing footage of similar issues. And it’s not the first bug to pop up since launch, either, as players reported being unable to surrender matches unless all five team members are present. This bug treated players who had left as if they abstained from voting, refusing to let the team surrender. This has since been patched in CS2’s September 29 update. Earlier, another surrender-related bug would end the game immediately and count as a loss if only one player voted to surrender, regardless of the majority voting not to surrender. Many longtime CS:GO players have slammed CS2 for being worse in many aspects compared to CS:GO. Counter-Strike content creator Anomaly criticized Valve for CS2’s release state, pointing out the missing maps, modes, and other features that CS:GO had. Anomaly’s thoughts were echoed by many in the community, calling the game’s release “underwhelming.” Some players feel as if they were forced into testing CS2 rather than being able to choose to play a beta, discovering niche gameplay issues with mechanics like boosting not working properly. While CS2 has already achieved remarkable success, peaking at over 1.3 million players, the community has been left baffled by the presence of game-breaking bugs and the absence of key features.

Game-breaking Counter-Strike 2 bug gives every player cheats ValveA massive Counter-Strike 2 bug is turning the game’s Premier mode upside down as players discover how to enable wallhacks and other cheats. Anyone can use cheats by entering one console command. Counter-Strike 2‘s reception has been mixed, with the new and improved graphics and game updates coming alongside a whole host of issues like poor optimization and game crashes. Not to mention cheaters running rampant. However, a newly discovered bug takes the cake; players have discovered how to enable console commands via an actual cheat code, allowing them to enable things like wallhacks and anti-gravity without having to use external cheat software. It’s as simple as the sort of cheat codes you’d put into GTA 5 to entirely change the rules of the game and turn the world upside down, except players can do it in a competitive setting via console commands. The cheat code is being kept under wraps for obvious reasons to try and keep things somewhat civil in Premier mode while this is patched out of the game, but for now it’s absolute bedlam. Anyone could be cheating. This works even in FaceIt lobbies, meaning any player could be cheating without even having to install software. It’s just a really, really nasty bug. These console commands are only intended to be used in practice modes where you aren’t playing for actual rating, but the ability to use them universally is sure to cause havoc on the ranked ladder. This comes on the same day that Counter-Strike 2 hit its all-time player record of over 1.6 million players, just 200,000 down from its all time peak with CS:GO. There are clearly still a ton of players who love CS, but the game also has its fair share of issues that still need to be ironed out.

G2 Esports slammed after reportedly ghosting jks for weeks before shock CS2 benching BLASTG2 Esports’ management has been slammed after reportedly ghosting jks for weeks before his surprise benching amid CS2 roster moves. Amid the Counter-Strike 2 roster shuffles which have been happening throughout November, G2 was making headlines as many of their star players were reportedly fielding offers from other teams, notably their star player Nikola ‘NiKo’ Kovač was set for a blockbuster move to Team Falcons. And amid the roster shuffles, it was reported by HLTV that fan favorite Justin ‘jks’ Savage was getting benched, in favor of bringing back their former IGL Nemanja “nexa” Isaković. However, the benching wasn’t as smooth as most would like, as according to CS caster and former teammate of jks, Chad “SPUNJ” Burchill, jks was allegedly ghosted for weeks before his eventual ousting from the roster. Clip starts at 55:50 G2 Esports’ management reportedly ghosted jks before his benching Speaking on the Talking Counter podcast, SPUNJ criticized G2’s handling of jks’ benching, saying, “The leaks comes out about [jks] getting benched, G2 don’t announce anything for two weeks, I guess at that point the news is already out there, but then they wrap the f***ing announcement of him getting benched the same time nexa joined the team. “Put it out early so the kid can at least explore some of his prospects and options before everyone starts batting down the hatches with the Major cycle,” he said. SPUNJ went on to detail the supposed behind-the-scenes of the benching, saying, “They weren’t even f***ing talking to [jks] for weeks after IEM Sydney. He was messaging the management of the team, and nobody was f***ing replying to him. “He’s in Australia right now, and he was trying to work out how to get back to Europe for practice, and his manager was ghosting for weeks at a time. That’s what I think is f***ing bulls***.” G2 is slated to play in the CCT Online Finals #5 with their newly updated roster, and there has been no announcement as to where jks will end up next.

G2 Esports reportedly bench jks in surprise CS2 roster change Stephanie Lieske/ESLG2 Esports have reportedly benched Justin ‘jks’ Savage as roster rumors have swirled around the CS2 lineup. G2 Esports has reportedly made a change to its CS2 roster and is sending jks to the bench, according to HLTV and 1pv.fr. The moves comes in the wake of reporting that jks’s teammate, Nikola ‘NiKo’ Kovač, was set for a blockbuster move to Team Falcons. The player declined the move to a potential super team and decided to continue playing with the G2 Esports squad. However, that hasn’t seemed to stop the esports organization from making changes to its lineup. jks joined G2 in 2022 and has been a solid anchor for the team ever since. G2 Esports hit a good run of form after acquiring the Australian player from Complexity, winning the Blast Premier World Final in 2022 and winning IEM Katowice and IEM Cologne in 2023. G2 Esports makes shocking change to CS2 roster The move has come as a shock to fans, and jks has been a consistent player for G2, often asked to play on an island without much support. According to the report, G2 was at one point considering bringing back its former IGL Nemanja ‘nexa’ Isaković to fill jks’s role. G2 has seemingly been caught up in the post-CS2 change roster shuffle. Multiple teams across the esport have begun making moves to bring in younger players, or they have shuffled around stars in order to mold their rosters for the new title. Falcons, who reportedly had already agreed to terms with G2 for NiKo, is an example of this mentality. The Saudi Arabian organization is looking to build a superteam under the guidance of former Astralis and Team Vitality coach Danny ‘zonic’ Sørensen. G2 has not revealed who will be taking jks’s place on the starting lineup, or what the roster will look like for next year as the 2023 season draws to a close.

Former CSGO pro gets Counter-Strike 2 access on VAC banned account ValveWhile players around the world have been trying to get an invite to the limited beta for Counter-Strike 2, former pro player Hovik ‘KQLY’ Tovmassian was granted access on his VAC banned account. Players have been scrambling to get Counter-Strike 2 beta access as play-testing for the new game is underway. While some have put hours into CS:GO to see if the system will let them into the closed beta, former French pro player KQLY got access on his account that was banned from competitive play. The former Titan player revealed on Twitter that the account he used to compete under has been given access to Counter-Strike 2 despite receiving a VAC ban in 2014. Before the ban, the French player was on the come up in the European scene on teams like Team LDLC and Titan. After his ban, KQLY was benched and eventually released. He returned to pro play in 2017 for Vexed Gaming and eventually eFrog. The former pro now works in the rental car business and has not competed in competitive Counter-Strike since 2019. VAC-banned player gained access to Counter-Strike 2 beta Valve has said through its Counter-Strike 2 Twitter account that players are selected for the beta through multiple factors. Those include recent playtime, trust factor and players’ Steam account standings. On Reddit, Ido Magal, the project lead for CS:GO, explained that every player who has attended a CS:GO Major was automatically granted access to Counter-Strike 2. He added that players on teams who appear in Valve’s Regional Standings were also selected to play the limited beta. KQLY played at three Majors before his ban (DreamHack Winter 2013, EMS One Katowice 2014 and ESL One Cologne 2014). The hunt for beta access will continue for other players, however, with some having even resorted to idling in CS:GO servers, though Valve has said that such a tactic is essentially a waste of time.

Female CS2 pros claim Valve is ‘supporting sexism’ with male-only default characters Astralis / ValveThe female Counter-Strike 2 team representing Astralis has penned an open latter to Valve, requesting that they add female character models that can be used for free in CS2. They argue that having only male characters available for free discourages women from playing. CS2 replaced CS:GO in September 2023, and as part of the transition, all default T and CT agents were made uniform across every map. Both of the default agents are male, and while there are female agents available to purchase, there are no default (free) female agents. On February 28, Astralis player Josefine ‘Josefine’ Jensen published a letter signed by herself and her four teammates, explaining it was a follow-up to a message they had previously sent privately on January 24. The players say that while they love the game, “Unfortunately, we currently feel we are only guests at the party. “Using a female agent skin costs extra, while default skins are all male. We don’t know why it is so, but we know that it strikes us as being both unfair and a bit unwelcoming. It certainly feels that way and in some way it supports the sexism that we unfortunately still encounter. “There should be no difference between agents. There should be as many free female agents as free male agents,” the letter states. The players also argue that this change would encourage more women to play Counter-Strike 2. However, the response to the open letter on social media has been mixed. Dona, a female Counter-Strike streamer, responded that she “couldn’t care less about female default skins,” and would prefer Valve to prioritize other issues. She also suggested that a live support function that would punish toxic and sexist players would be more beneficial, as it is the main reason for “many girls to not play CS.” Others argued that “nothing bad can come out of this idea,” so “why not?”. Another explained: “It doesn’t matter how good you are compared to male teams like some people seem to be eager to point out. It’s about the message and the importance of equality.” Esports host and interviewer Frankie Ward backed the letter, stating: “I honestly think having access to a variety of playable characters in video games encourages a wider variety of people to play those games. “I used to be sceptical and now I’m a believer so totally support this letter about @CounterStrike agents.” At the time of writing, there has been no public response from Valve to the letter.

FaZe star Twistzz explains why rejected Falcons CS2 offer over “moral” differences Helena Kristiansson/ESLFaZe Clan’s star player Twistzz has explained why he rejected an offer from Team Falcons over “moral” differences with the team. Team Falcons has been making waves in the Counter-Strike scene throughout 2023 as the org has reportedly been offering some of CS2’s biggest names contracts to build a superteam. From G2’s star rifler Nikola “NiKo” Kovač to Vitality’s four-time major-winning Emil “Magisk” Reif, and the star signings of Vitality’s former head coach Dann “zonic” Sørensen, it seems no stone has been left unturned. Another player who was also rumored to have received an offer was FaZe Clan’s Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken, however, nothing ever came of this particular deal. Now, he has explained why he turned it down. Topic starts at 6:30 In an interview at the BLAST Fall Final in Copenhagen, speaking with Pley, Twistzz was asked why he turned down the offer from Falcons. In his eyes, “It wasn’t really an offer, they just contacted me, and I turned it down fast.” He continued to explain, “Obviously, if I wanted the bag and I didn’t care about my career then I would go to Falcons, but I do care about my career and I have morals, and it’s not about the money.” Twistzz further listed his other reasons for not joining the org, namely the added struggle of not being a partnered team with ESL or Blast which would mean easier qualification into IEM and BLAST tournaments. “You go to Falcons, you have no partner spots. You have to qualify for everything, which is like a privilege these partner teams have,” Twistzz said. “It’s also important to state because these big events make a big difference to the Valve Ranking, and obviously in 2025 it will be the main leaderboard.” However, Twistzz reasserted that he ultimately rejected offers from Falcons over his own personal morals. “Mainly for me, it’s morals. Money is not the incentive for me. You can say whatever you want but I just don’t want to be affiliated with that stuff at all.”

FaZe ropz claims cheaters are ruining Counter-Strike 2 already ValveProfessional Counter-Strike player Robin ‘ropz’ Kool has claimed cheaters are already running CS2 just days after its official launch. Counter-Strike 2 was finally released on September 27 after months of being in beta testing. With CS2, Valve completely overhauled the competitive ranked mode, renaming it and giving it the title ‘Premier’ while introducing a brand-new rating system, a global leaderboard, and adjusting match length to 12 rounds. Despite engine updates, and a ton of new features improving gameplay, the game is already seeing its fair share of issues when it comes to cheaters. Immediately after Premier’s release in beta, the leaderboard was being dominated by cheaters. Nevertheless, Counter-Strike player Robin ‘ropz’ Kool has claimed CS2’s biggest issue is cheaters, and is even going as far as to say the game is being ruined. Ropz says cheaters are ruining Counter-Strike 2 In an October 2 tweet, the FaZe Clan star claimed cheating is currently a huge problem, and suggested that Valve release a more invasive anti-cheat to combat the issue. “Cheating is a big problem in Premier games currently,” he wrote. “I would be so down for an invasive AC for any kind of Ranked matches.” “Volvo pls I can give you my car, my house, access to my bank details, please just do it,” the pro pleaded. While many agreed and would be open to an ‘invasive anti-cheat’, CS content creator Thour isn’t optimistic that Valve will introduce a new anti-cheat, noting how the developers have spent years “I don’t think so they would get rid of their AI-based Anticheat on which they spent years however if its going to be useless after 100+ million data files, nothing can save CS,” Thour said. Hitting back, ropz said the problem needs to be resolved as soon as possible before players begin to quit the game. “Yeah, I completely understand. But this needs to be fixed ASAP like actual ASAP. This will drive away players and make the game miserable for everyone,” ropz replied. Instead of just improving the anti-cheat for Counter-Strike, Twitch star Lirik called on Valve to add an anti-cheat to the entirety of Steam — which would hopefully put a stop to cheaters once and for all.

Fans call esports org ad with Eva Elfie “misogynistic” Aurora GamingAurora Gaming, a Serbian esports organization, has been called out for its partnership and ad campaign on social media with adult film star Yulia ‘Eva Elfie’ Romanova. Aurora Gaming has been called out for its “misogynistic” ad campaign and partnership with Russian adult film star Eva Elfie. The actress has been involved with esports before, she infamously asked esports pros whether they would rather give up their game of choice, or sex. She has also been a vocal supporter of NAVI and other Eastern European esports organizations and has even appeared at big tournaments to cheer on her favorite teams. However, her new collaboration with Aurora has not been a hit with fans as many are either shocked at the collaboration or angry that the organization is leaning into misogynistic rhetoric in its advertisements. The campaign started with a post about Elfie choosing between the Aurora Counter-Strike 2 lineup and included a follow-up video of the actress walking into a bar and choosing one of the players to walk out with. “Which MAN decided this was a good marketing campaign? And people wonder why esports has the ridiculously misogynistic reputation it does…,” one social media user said. “This is disgusting marketing,” another user said. The campaign seems to be a crossover campaign between one of Aurora’s and Elfie’s main sponsors, 1xBet, a controversial betting company. Esports org ad with Eva Elfie hit with criticism Aurora’s other post also includes a link to a raffle where people can win a meeting with the actress. The campaign is to advertise Elfie’s game, Evaginarium, which involves sexual interactive scenarios with the actress. One of Aurora’s Counter-Strike players can be seen playing the game in the video advertisement. The marketing seems to be a bizarre choice for a small esports organization that only has a presence in Counter-Strike and Apex Legends esports, and many fans seem off-put by the campaign.

Falcons CS2 super team set to start with Magisk signing Michal Konkol/BLASTTeam Falcons are reportedly signing Emil ‘Magisk’ Reif, formerly of Team Vitality and Astralis, to kick off its rumored CS2 super team. Magisk is joining Team Falcons, following in the footsteps of his long-time coach Danny ‘zonic’ Sørensen, according to HLTV. Before joining Falcons, Magisk was a multi-Major winning member of Astralis and spent the last two years on Team Vitality. With the French organization, Magisk won the BLAST Paris Major earlier this year – the final one of the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive era. zonic and Vitality’s former Head of Performance, Lars Robl, confirmed their move to the Suadi Arabian-backed esports organization on October 3. Now, one of the most decorated coaches in CS:GO is rumored to be building a super team, with Magisk as the first step. According to the report, Falcons are also currently linked with Nikola ‘NiKo’ Kovač, and his G2 Esports teammate, Ilya ‘m0NESY’ Osipov, and Marco ‘Snappi’ Pfeiffer. Team Falcons bring in Magisk in CS2 rebuild The Falcons rebuild is also another in a string of roster rumors and changes as the transition to CS2 impacts teams, like NAVI and Heroic, and the current economic climate around esports in general. Team Falcons currently has an international lineup of players, led by French IGL Nathan ‘NBK-‘ Schmitt. The organization has not qualified for a Major since its entrance into the esport in 2021. The team’s most notable recent achievement is a top-16 finish at Gamers8. Under zonic, the squad will probably look much different as he should have his pick of the litter as his rebuild comes just as other teams are hemorrhaging players, or showing them the door. One of the best players ever, Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev, is even entertaining offers from other squads at the moment. Magisk is the second former Astralis player to exit Vitality this month. His long-time teammate Peter ‘dupreeh’ Rasmussen joined Heroic less than a week ago. The player was previously benched by the organization as it brought in younger players for the new Valve title. More changes are set to come to rosters around the world as the CS2 landscape continues to shift.

Ex-Valorant pro trolls Counter-Strike 2 broadcast with hilarious analysis ValveEx-Valorant pro, Steel, trolled an IEM Counter-Strike 2 broadcast with a hilarious analysis of a site exec, mixing up both games. 2024’s IEM Katowice has kicked off its Play-In stage, and it has seen some big surprises already. From Team Spirit’s nasty 13-0 of Apeks, to the surprise appearance of NA CS and Valorant IGL legend Joshua “steel” Nissan on the desk as an analyst. After his disastrous 2023 in Valorant Challengers, he branched out to do analysis for CS broadcasts, but it seems the Valorant side of him hasn’t really left yet. During an analysis of a site exec during the M80 vs Rooster match, steel seemed to mixing up both games, much to the chagrin of his fellow desk analyst. “For those of you that are new to Counter-Strike, what we’re about to see here is called a really heavy defense setup,” steel started off his analysis before all hell broke loose. “When you see the exec happening, and you see all these mollies landing, and you see this big exec happening, what you want to do… is put up an Omen smoke in the middle of site, get the Viper wall going up,” steel then added, looping his Valorant experience into the CS2 broadcast. “And what we’re gonna see here is the entry, this is actually Jett right here up drafting over and landing,” steel said as he tried to hold back his laughter. Despite the trolling, steel did point out that the reason M80 was able to win the round was because of their smoke placements on the site allowing them to take favorable fights, albeit told with some Valorant allegory. “Don’t worry folks, we’re still working on deprogramming him. We’ll get him back,” desk analyst DarfMike jokingly said of steel. As of now, IEM Katowice 2024 will be going into its third day of Play-ins to determine the last four teams who will be making it to the Group Stage on February 2.

Evil Geniuses reportedly dropping CS2 teams and selling LCS slot Robert Paul/Riot GamesEvil Geniuses are reportedly dropping their CS2 teams and are in the process of selling its LCS spot as the organization limps along following multiple layoffs. Evil Geniuses is still chugging along as an esports company as the organization is running with a skeleton-crew staff, according to Dot Esports. The company announced its third round of layoffs last week and has since dropped its DOTA 2 team following its run at the 2023 edition of The International. The organization has seen multiple controversies following its acquisition by Peak6 Capital. The company reportedly was complicit in the abuse of one of its star League of Legends players, is reportedly holding its championship-winning Valorant team in contract jail, and has alienated itself from the Rocket League community. Now, a new report from Richard Lewis details how the organization is set to drop its Counter-Strike 2 rosters and how it is well on its way to selling its franchise slot in the North American League of Legends league, the LCS. Evil Geniuses set to drop CS2 teams as it continues to bleed squads The report claims that one source has said that Evil Geniuses is going to cut its men’s CS2 team after December, and will likely let go of its women’s teams before then. The organization currently has three CS2 rosters, its main men’s roster, its academy team called EG Black and its women’s team called EG Gold. The organization also has a women’s Valorant squad that is set to play at the Game Changers Championship in November. Evil Geniuses downsized from its four-team Counter-Strike experiment in April. The organization reentered into the esport in 2019 with the acquisition of the NRG Esports roster. The report also says that EG is deep in the process of selling its LCS slot, with Enthusiast Gaming as the most likely buyer at the moment. Enthusiast owns the Luminosity Gaming brand and also operates the Vancouver Titans in the Overwatch League.

Evil Geniuses drop out of ESL as they likely depart Counter-Strike entirely ESLEvil Geniuses have been rapidly leaving every esport that isn’t Valorant, specifically VCT. And, though their departure from BLAST Premier didn’t bode well for their future in Counter-Strike, them leaving the ESL signals that they’re likely leaving the esport entirely. Between company-wide layoffs, alleged poor working conditions, and a mass exodus from almost every esport they were involved in, it’s been a tough time to be an EG fan. Considering they’ve been one of the most iconic organizations in esports since 1999, seeing them make such a large-scale exit from esports as a whole has been discouraging for long-time supporters of the org. In a matter of months, Evil Geniuses have left almost every esport other than Valorant. Considering they just won an international VCT title, that spot and their name still holds a lot of value within the partnership circuit. Outside of that, EG seems uninterested in the prospect of continuing their esports operations. Though Evil Geniuses already left the BLAST Premier circuit, them leaving ESL means they’ve essentially left Counter-Strike as a whole right as Counter-Strike 2 is kicking into gear. Evil Geniuses departs ESL amid org’s mass esports exodus Evil Geniuses have technically been in Counter-Strike since 2001, meaning their exit from the scene brings an over 20-year-long run in the esport to an end. Back in the glory days of CS 1.6, Evil Geniuses were playing for thousands of dollars rather than millions. It can be humbling to look back on the infancy of esports, when it felt like players were driven by passion over all else. And, though EG had an unmistakable presence in Counter-Strike’s early days, the NA based organization, like many other teams from the region, always paled in comparison to Europe’s strongest teams. After a series of mediocre finishes domestically, EG has decided to pull out of ESL right after leaving BLAST, and it likely signals their exit from Counter-Strike as a whole. While this leaves a slot open for another team to jump in, it leaves a void where one of the esports OG’s used to be represented. It remains to be seen if Evil Geniuses can find a way to claw their way back into the esports they’ve left over the past few months, or if they’re preparing for a formal exit in the near future.

All game modes in Counter-Strike 2 Valve CorporationCounter-Strike 2, the sequel to CS:GO, includes only a limited selection of modes at launch. Here are all the confirmed modes in CS2 so far. 2023 is the year of many new AAA games, but few could’ve predicted that Counter-Strike 2 was going to be on the agenda. The long-awaited sequel to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive looks to tweak and refine every element of CS:GO – a game that remained immensely popular for over a decade. Valve have been experts when it comes to making well-designed Counter-Strike maps in the past, as well as taking submissions from the community, but it’s also the game’s core modes that are the foundation of its popularity. So, let’s run through every game mode that is confirmed for Counter-Strike 2. All Counter-Strike 2 game modes Only a handful of game modes are going to be available for Counter-Strike 2’s initial beta, with testing being at the forefront of the devs’ priorities. Once Valve start to pull back the curtain on more modes we’ll update this list. Premier Premier is the main game mode of Counter-Strike 2. This is the competitive 5v5 matches made famous in CS:GO, with a pick/ban phase for maps, and an ELO system to show how you stack up against other players. Premier has now taken over from competitive as the most popular mode, as competitive now has ranks per map, as opposed to one rank for your whole account. Learn all about how Premier mode and ratings in CS2 work here. Competitive Competitive play comes with set rules implemented by the devs that are supposed to mimic the real-life conditions of tournament play between professionals. This mode is first to 13 rounds, with a 12-12 ending in a draw. Friendly Fire is enabled, and the economy is present like it was in CS:GO. You will need to win 10 games on a map before you recieve a rank. Each rank is now per-map, rather than an overall rank for all maps like in CS:GO. Casual Casual is similar to competitive in some ways: there are still two teams, one attacking the bombsites and the other defending. The main difference here is that it is 10v10, and the economy is a bit different. You will also get killcams and be able to spectate anyone, including enemies. Casual is good if you are new to the CS and want to get a feel for things before jumping into competitive. Deathmatch A staple of first-person shooters and a classic game mode that never gets old, Deathmatch is the quintessential FPS experience. In CS, it’s mostly used for warming up and checking out your new skins. You will be placed in a match lasting 10 minutes, and all weapons are free. All players are equipped with head and body armor. A kill with a gun is worth 11 points, unless you have the bonus weapon, which will give you an extra 5 points per kill. The player with the most points at the end of the match is crowned victorious. Workshop The workshop is where anything goes. Here, you can subscribe to community-made maps and play your own custom games on them. This includes old versions of maps from CS:GO, remakes of Call of Duty maps like Raid, or practice maps like Recoil Master and aim_botz. That’s all the Counter-Strike 2 game modes so far, with more likely to be added. There is no Danger Zone yet, and it remains unclear what Valve’s plans are for it yet. In the meantime, check out even more of our CS2 guides: Counter-Strike 2: Every confirmed map | Can you play Counter-Strike 2 on console? | Can you play Counter-Strike 2 on Linux or macOS? | All smoke changes in Counter-Strike 2 | What is sub-tick in Counter-Strike 2? | Is Counter-Strike 2 going to be free to play? | Can banned CSGO players play Counter-Strike 2?

Esports caster Semmler under fire for ‘transphobic’ comments on ESL Impact post Auguste “Semmler” Massonnat has come under fire on social media for posting comments that the community has called transphobic on an ESL Impact post. ESL Impact, a CS2 women’s league, put out a post on December 3 highlighting its best players from the Season 4 regular season. Lucy ’empathy’ Verkaik, a transwoman was the highest-rated player from the season. Semmler, a multi-esports caster best known for his work in Counter-Strike, pounced on the post, saying “In this case, I think it would be best if we lacked empathy. Didn’t take long, did it?” Now, the esports community, other broadcast professionals, and players have again called him out for the post. Esports community calls Semmler ‘transphobic’ One day after this comment, another X (formerly Twitter) user commented on his original post with a photo of comments that empathy received on social media after Semmler’s original post. Semmler doubled down on those comments, saying “Good. The men competing in this female league should feel deeply ashamed for taking opportunities away from the women striving to compete in it. Considering the backlash one gets when commenting on this topic, it isn’t surprising to see no pushback from the women in the league.” empathy responded to Semmler’s post by talking about her experience competing as a trans person in esports. “I come out and everyone makes fun of me every game, my ex-teammates block me and call me slurs, I can’t play without random people throwing and making fun of me. I play ESL Impact and I’m the enemy and ‘I should be ashamed and kill myself’ for it. It doesn’t matter what I do the problem is I’m ugly and trans. Like genuinely what do people want me to do? Maybe if ‘mixed teams’ wouldn’t call me a “f****t” when I ask to play with them things would be different,” she said. Former Cloud9 White Valorant player, and now full-time streamer, Annie ‘Annie’ Roberts also commented on Semmler’s post claiming the caster doesn’t care about women’s leagues in the first place. “Esport Transphobes love to parrot this idea as if they ever cared about women’s esports. They don’t, they just hate trans people more,” she said. Other esports casters and broadcast professionals have also commented on Semmler’s post. Jennifer ‘LemonKiwi’ Pichette, a multi-esports caster, said she would be cleaning up her follow list and that “Transphobia does not belong in esports.” Frankie Ward, a long-time Counter-Strike interviewer and presenter, said in a post that Semmler is feigning concern for the league over the wrong issues. “Every so often someone who doesn’t care about ESL Impact decides to use feigned concern to make trans women feel unwelcome rather than actually focusing on the important issues like regional slots and the removal of Katowice from the Impact calendar,” she said. This is not the first time the caster has been accused of being transphobic and he has pushed forward the idea that transwomen are stealing spots in women’s esports leagues about a year ago. While industry professionals have called out the caster, he still has fans who support his position on the issue and his comments on transwomen in women’s esports events. The esports caster has not worked on a Counter-Strike broadcast in some time according to his Liqupedia page with the 2021 Blast Premier Fall Finals as his last gig listed. He is currently a member of the podcast network Last Free Nation and appears on their streams and shows.

Early Twitch update all but locks in Counter-Strike 2’s imminent launch ValveAn early Twitch update to the platform’s stream categories has seemingly all but locked in Counter-Strike 2’s imminent launch, but will it really be on Wednesday? The window for CS2’s launch during the Summer season has already passed, but despite the lack of an official release, Valve has nonetheless ramped up access to the closed beta. Allowing a solid chunk of the player base access to the closed test, just as long you have the right criteria. Valve never announced an official launch date for the full build, leaving many players speculating for months on end. However, after a cryptic tweet on September 21 by the CS Twitter account reading, “What are you doing next Wednesday?”, many believe it to be coming on September 27. But once again, it wasn’t an official launch date. Though now, a new Twitch update has potentially doubled down and teased CS2’s imminent release. Announced by Twitch through their Twitter account on September 25, they wrote, “To celebrate the next decade of Counter-Strike, we’ve updated the name of the category.” Game devs can request name changes for their games on the platform, the same as how Blizzard eventually consolidated the Overwatch and Overwatch 2 Twitch categories once the sequel came out in 2022. Now, it appears Valve is following suit. It seems Twitch has decided to preemptively change the category name from CSGO to CS2, perhaps as a confirmation that the game is close to some sort of official launch. They even kept the “Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test” category. This category change comes as the devs added a new stealth update, adding a “csgo_demo_viewer” which allows players to watch Source 1 demos. Many players suspect that this is Valve making sure we can access our old CSGO demos as the sequel is seemingly about to release. Of course, all this does not mean CS2 really is officially launching on September 27, as Valve has been quiet on launch details. But we’re sure to find out one way or the other in just a matter of hours.

Dr Disrespect reveals his first verdict on Counter-Strike 2 and he’s impressed Dr Disrespect / ValveDr Disrespect revealed his first thoughts on Counter-Strike 2 during a stream where he was showing off his own game, DEADROP, and it’s fair to say he is impressed. Just like many others interested in Counter-Strike, Dr Disrespect was watching a selection of explainer videos and promotional material for the CS sequel on March 22. Fans now know the first Counter-Strke 2 limited test will include both deathmatch and unranked competitive matchmaking on Dust2. Other modes are expected to roll out in the future, including maps, other modes, and additional features. So, what does Doc make of everything released so far? Dr Disrespect reveals early verdict on Counter-Strike 2 During a live stream on March 22, Doc decided to take a break from DEADROP for a moment to check out the latest industry news. Valve dropped more information about Counter-Strike 2, with the limited-beta test starting up that same day. In a blog post, they announced changes to combat with a “game-changing” responsive smoke coming in the sequel, on top of other differences. Watching along with members of the Champions Club, Doc said: “The game looks really good, it’s so clean looking, y’know.” He later started spitballing about ideas for upcoming events, saying he would love to see a Grand Final in Brazil someday, as part of the live audience. Dr Disrespect added: “I wouldn’t mind going to a Counter-Strike competition… Who would be a grand final right now? Is Astralis still at the top? “I’d like to go like a Grand Final in Brazil, Astralis versus the top Brazilian team for the Grand Final championship, yknow. Just to be in the crowd, in Brazil, at some massive stadium… If I was Counter-Strike right now, I’d be planning that. I’d try to get that lined up.” Whether or not Dr Disrespect will end up playing Counter-Strike 2 on stream regularly remains to be seen. Those looking to get hands-on with the game early can check out more details here, to get involved with the limited beta test. It has no official end date just yet – and kicked off on March 22. For more information about Counter-Strike 2, make sure to check out the links below: How to play Counter-Strike 2 limited beta test | Is Counter-Strike 2 going to be free to play? | What is sub-tick in Counter-Strike 2? | All smoke changes in Counter-Strike 2 | Can you play Counter-Strike 2 on Linux or macOS? | Can banned CS:GO players play Counter-Strike 2? | What will happen to my CSGO skins? | Will Counter-Strike 2 come to Steam Deck? | Valve officially reveals Counter-Strike 2 | Everything we know about Counter-Strike 2

Dr Disrespect explains why Valorant shouldn’t be worried about Counter-Strike 2 Dr Disrespect/Valve/Riot GamesDr Disrespect believes that Riot Games shouldn’t be too concerned by the changes made in Counter-Strike 2 as he’s not sure it’s incredibly groundbreaking. After weeks of teasing and hype built up by the Counter-Strike community, Valve set the internet alight on March 22 when they finally revealed Counter-Strike 2. Counter-Strike 2, which is currently in a limited test beta, is an upgrade on the current CS:GO mechanics and engine, moving things over to Source 2. That allows for visual improvements, an upgrade in server ticks to counteract lag, and new grenade mechanics. It’s the latter that has caused a stir in the community, especially given that players can come up with new tactics to make smokes disappear with frag grenades. While Dr Disrespect is impressed, he doesn’t believe Riot Games should be fearing for Valorant’s future. Dr Disrespect says Valorant shouldn’t be concerned about CS2 The Doc, who has yet to get his hands on the beta, talked about how impressed he is by Valve’s work during his March 24 stream, complementing the devs on their changes. However, when he made the natural comparisons to Valorant – which has taken plenty of players from Counter-Strike – he stated that there are still enough differences between the two rivals to not have Riot worried. “If I was Valorant, I’d be ok, we don’t have to be too concerned,” Doc added. “Like, CSGO could have gone super crazy and tried to do something with the smokes. Is that just one little feature they’re teasing? Are they eventually going to tease out a whole bunch of different things that are groundbreaking from a super-high-level FPS standpoint? “If I was Valorant I’d be like ok, cool, let’s just keep a focus on what we do.” Timestamp of 2:28:50 The Two-Time noted that he thinks the changes are “cool” but don’t get him “super duper excited” to revisit Counter-Strike as he’s all about the new games. “It will be interesting to see how it affects the pro scene. That might be fun to watch,” he concluded. So, even if we don’t see Doc spending too much time on Dust 2 or Mirage come the summer, we might him giving the tournaments a watch.

Donk’s CS2 settings: Config, resolution, crosshair & more YouTube: Team SpiritThe hottest new prospect in all of Counter-Strike is the young star donk. After his monster debut performance, naturally, you might want to copy donk’s settings in CS2 to see if his mouse settings, resolution or ViewModel are really the difference makers. When 17-year-old donk made his big event debut at IEM Katowice 2024, there was already a buzz of hype around his name from smaller tournaments and online matches. But, no one could have predicted the frankly outrageous performance he pulled off. In fact, he set a new record for the highest rating at IEM Katowice in the event’s history, while going on to win the event with Team Spirit, essentially hard carrying his team every single map. So, while you almost certainly won’t be as good as donk, you might as well try out some of his CS2 settings for yourself. donk’s settings for CS2 Contents donk’s mouse settings donk uses a Logitech G Pro X Superlight mouse, with 800 DPI and 1.25 sensitivity. donk’s Crosshair The easiest way to copy donk’s exact crosshair is to copy these settings into the console, or by pasting the crosshair code in settings. CSGO-jU4eP-8wSj8-EZVsB-HcJZs-iyNQC Style: Classic Static – Follow recoil: No – Dot: No – Length: 1 – Thickness: 0 – Gap: -4 – Outline: No – Color: Green – T-Style: No – Deployed Weapon Gap: No – Sniper Width: 0 – donk’s monitor and resolution When playing at home, donk plays on a ZOWIE XL2546K monitor, which has a 240Hz refresh rate. Read More: ZywOo’s CS2 settings – Like most pros, donk plays on a stretched res. While this isn’t for everyone, it has the benefit of making player models appear wider. They’ll also move faster across your screen though, and reduce your field of view significantly. Video settings donk keeps his settings low to get the maximum FPS. There are some exceptions though, such as MSAA, and Shadows. Viewmodel In CS2, the viewmodel settings will determine the position and movement of your hands, knife, and weapons on the screen. Again, the easiest way to copy donk’s viewmodel is by copying the following commands into the console. viewmodel_fov 68; viewmodel_offset_x 2.5; viewmodel_offset_y 0; viewmodel_offset_z -1.5; viewmodel_presetpos 3; donk’s equipment donk’s CS2 config If you want to copy all of donk’s settings, including his keybinds and more, you can do so by downloading his config. You can download donk’s config here. To apply the config, you’ll need to take the .cfg file and add it to your Counter-Strike 2 folder. This is usually located in Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Counter-Strike Global Offensive\csgo\cfg.

donk makes Counter-Strike history with best IEM Katowice performance ever ESLCS | TwitchIEM Katowice is one of Counter-Strike’s longest-standing and iconic tournaments, and many a CS legend has been made in this arena. donk, however, has outdone every Counter-Strike player that has set foot on the Katowice stage with the best overall stats in the tournament’s history. donk’s story is one that many Counter-Strike 2 fans have been following going into IEM Katowice, with him and the rest of Team Spirit taking the esteemed esports club to their very first IEM Katowice final. Not only did he take them there, though; 17-year-old donk carried Team Spirit to a decisive 3-0 win against FaZe Clan, the most dominant org in modern Counter-Strike. Team Spirit’s run alone and his role on the team would have been enough to make IEM Katowice 2024 worth talking about for years to come, but donk individually set a record for the highest rating in the history of the tournament, cementing himself as a Counter-Strike 2 legend. donk demolishes FaZe Clan & breaks IEM Katowice record Stats aside, donk was consistently on the top of the kill charts for every match Team Spirit played at IEM Katowice. He just makes magic happen in 1v3s and 1v4s as one of the world’s best Riflers, and his spray control has allowed him to act like a one-man army as an entry fragger. donk’s performance has turned heads, and he almost instantly cemented himself as the next big star in Counter-Strike 2. This set wasn’t even close. donk’s scores in the final three maps were as follows: Nuke: 32/14 – Mirage: 24/18 – Overpass: 26/8 – With these scores in mind, donk’s overall K/D ratio was 2.05. On average, he took at least two people down with him in each round through the Grand Final, and that doesn’t even include assists. He was pulling his weight on the team and then some. At the end of this one-sided win for Team Spirit, donk did more than just win the MVP award; he broke records. He cleared all the best Counter-Strike players in one go with a hard-carry performance that’ll be remembered for years, right at the start of Counter-Strike 2’s life as an esport. With Team Spirit running through the tournament and only losing one map through the entire run, they’re set up to create a dynasty for themselves. Especially considering this win instantly qualifies them for IEM Cologne and BLAST Premier 2024. With how young donk is, he’s got a long career ahead of him. Those who have become fans of donk as a result of his historic win this year are surely waiting with bated breath to see what this young phenom does next.

Devastating CS2 crash costs Virtus Pro playoffs spot at PGL Copenhagen Major PGLA devastating CS2 crash cost Virtus.pro a playoff spot at the PGL Copenhagen Major after their IGL’s game crashed, booting them from the server. As the PGL Copenhagen Major wrapped up its final day of the Elimination Stage, sending its last teams into the Playoffs, it saw Virtus.pro eliminated from the Major under devastating circumstances. In map two between Virtus.pro and G2 Esports, at round 23 on Inferno, with the scoreline tied up at 11-11, VP was given a chance to win the round with a bomb plant. However, VP’s Dzhami “Jame” Ali found himself with a crashed game in the middle of the site hold. Jame had the AWP and was ready to take an angle to stop G2’s retake, however, because his game crashed, it forced him out into the open with G2 capitalizing on the mishap to go up a round at regulation and win the map and series. Following the match, PGL made a statement on the crash, outlining where it stemmed from. “We wish to clarify the situation involving Jame during the second map, Inferno, in the series against G2. “A technical malfunction occurred due to an NVIDIA driver crash, resulting in a game crash. We are continuing our investigation into the matter.” Despite winning, G2’s Nikola “NiKo” Kovač pinned the blame not on PGL, but on the game itself. “It’s f***ing embarrassing to have a Major with so many issues and bugs in the game and not to even mention Bo1s MR12 with the current economy. It sucks, hearts out to Virtus.pro.” As for what Jame had to say about the bug, he didn’t pin the team’s loss on the bug as he said they could have closed it out at map three of Anubis. “Many wonder what happened with the bug and so on, many are tilted because of this. Right now after the defeat, I feel empty, no emotions. But in my head, I understand that it’s not worth paying attention to because the level of play we showed on Anubis where there were no bugs doesn’t correspond to the team,” Jame said in a video posted by Virtus.pro. The playoff stage of PGL Copenhagen begins on March 28.

Damaging Counter-Strike 2 error is losing Premier players thousands of Elo ValveA Counter-Strike 2 error is losing players thousands of Elo per Premier game at times due to no fault of their own. In the weeks leading up to Counter-Strike 2’s full release, Valve showed off its new competitive mode, Premier. Meant to be an in-game replacement for FACEIT, it pits the best CS players in your region against one another and puts them on a leaderboard. Designed to be more competitive than regular matchmaking, with map bans and a climbable global and regional leaderboard, with future plans of integrations with the wider esports scene, it’s an exciting new mode. However, players are pointing out a devastating flaw with Premier. Every time you abandon a match, you could be deducted 800 to 1000 Elo, and sometimes even through no fault of your own. Several posts on the CSGO subreddit are reporting that if you abandon a match, players can expect to take a 1000 Elo deduction. This is in comparison to a 100 to 200 elo lost from a defeat. The reasons for abandoning a game are several. Most times, it’s due to players leaving the game, which is debatable if such a high Elo loss is justified as a fair punishment. However, many players can abandon for several reasons, be it disconnecting due to internet problems, other players ganging up in groups and kicking the lone player, or due to CS2’s many bugs which sometimes even hand out bans. All of the above reasons are out of a player’s control, and many CS2 Premier players are asking Valve to revert the massive Elo punishments which was introduced in the new matchmaking system. When CS2 was released, many players criticized the game’s lack of game modes and features, bugs that bordered on game-breaking which at times could result in bans, and the still ongoing problems of hackers in lobbies. Valve has yet to respond to the community’s plead to lower Elo punishments for abandoning a Premier game.

CSGOEmpire Cup abandoned as teams condemn CS2 Major chaos CSGOEmpire/Counter-Strike 2Several Counter-Strike 2 organizations have spoken out against CSGOEmpire following the chaos caused by their stunt at CS2’s Copenhagen Major, with teams, casters, and even the tournament organizer itself abandoning the event. The feud between CSGOEmpire and CSGORoll, two gambling sites oriented around Counter-Strike 2 skins, has been very long and very public at this point. CSGOEmpire’s owner and founder, Monarch, has been vocal about his distaste for their competitor. He took things a step further by paying people at Counter-Strike 2’s PGL Major Copenhagen to rush the stage at G2 (an organization sponsored by CSGORoll), claiming that his employees at the event would be fired if they didn’t cause chaos at the event. This resulted in the CS2 Copenhagen Major’s trophy getting smashed. Following this event and CSGOEmpire’s involvement, most of the major organizations that initially signed up to participate have pulled out entirely. ENCE, GamerLegion, and many more teams have publicly announced that they won’t participate in the tournament. ENCE’s CEO had this to say of the situation: “We refuse to work with idiots.” Additionally, several casters who were invited to work the event have distanced themselves from it, and even the event organizer has cut all ties with CSGOEmpire. Even if there were still enough teams willing to play in the tournament, organizer Fortuna isn’t willing to help put the show on. Additionally, CSGOEmpire owner Monarch has been banned from Kick following the events of that evening and his goading his employees on to rush the stage. That said, the trophy has since been fixed, and the PGL Copenhagen Major show will go on. CS legend paszaBiceps brought the new trophy on stage after biking across the Baltic Sea for 10 hours straight to get to the Major. The PGL has also made some changes to the PGL Major stage to provide more security to the players.

CS:GO vets slam Counter-Strike 2’s “underwhelming” launch ValveCounter-Strike 2 quickly became one of the year’s most anticipated releases after its surprise reveal midway through 2023, but the game’s full launch has left some CS:GO vets wanting. Counter-Strike 2 isn’t exactly the biggest switch-up from the CS:GO formula, with much of the game remaining intact between releases. However, changes to smokes, the physics engine, massive graphical improvements, and other small yet noticeable adjustments had players excited for the release. However, this comes with the caveat that Counter-Strike 2 is entirely replacing CS:GO. As of right now, public CS:GO matches aren’t playable, and many believe CS2 is missing some essential features from its predecessor. This has led to some longtime fans of the series bashing Counter-Strike 2 for being, in many ways, worse than CS:GO without the option to go back to the game they love. Counter-Strike 2 slammed by longtime CS:GO players Counter-Strike 2’s arrival has re-ignited the player base and gotten new players to hop into the series. Considering it’s one of the most popular esports titles in the world, those who have heard of it but never played took this as the perfect opportunity to jump in. However, those who already had access to the beta and wanted some features that were missing from CSGO didn’t find them in CS2’s launch. And, with the game they’ve been playing for over a decade unavailable, there’s nothing to go back to. CS content creator Anomaly put Valve on blast for the game’s release state for missing maps, modes, and other features that CS:GO had. Many others agreed with him, calling the game’s release “underwhelming.” While this is the official launch, many players feel as if they were forced into testing CS2 rather than being able to choose to play a beta. Additionally, some players have discovered niche gameplay issues with mechanics like boosting not working properly. CS2 may be a bit rougher around the edges than initially thought. Valve got in on the commiserations as CS:GO’s final servers went down ahead of launch. The deep history of the title has placed it amongst the best competitive gaming has to offer. However, this doesn’t mean players aren’t happy with Counter-Strike 2 and its release’s wealth of new issues. Love it or hate it, we’re stuck with CS2 now.

CSGO star s1mple makes request to Valve for Counter-Strike 2 ahead of full release Helena Kristiansson/ESL Gaming via ESPATNAVI CS:GO superstar Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev has made a plea to Valve with regards to the release of Counter-Strike 2. s1mple and the CS:GO community at large got to see Counter-Strike 2 for the first time on March 22 as Valve officially announced the newest entry in its iconic FPS franchise. Sitting alongside ESL’s broadcast talent after his team’s match against Outsiders, the Ukrainian prodigy, the best player in CS:GO history, was left in awe as he learned about the introduction of responsive smokes, one of Counter-Strike 2’s most talked about features. After seeing just how much the game might change once Counter-Strike 2 is officially released, s1mple couldn’t help but make a plea to Valve. “Valve, if you’re listening to me, let us finish the tournaments so that we will have the same amount of time to prepare after the player break,” he said on the ESL broadcast. Counter-Strike 2’s release date remains a mystery, with Valve stating only that the game is coming out in the summer of 2023. The 2023 summer tournament break will run from June 12 to July 9, as determined last year by the Counter-Strike Professional Players’ Association (CSPPA) after consulting with tournament organizers. The BLAST Premier Fall Groups (July 13-23) and IEM Cologne (July 25-August 6) are the first tournaments after the break, but it’s unclear at this point if either event will be played in Counter-Strike 2 – or even if the game will be out by then. Dexerto has reached out to ESL and BLAST for comment. For more information about Counter-Strike 2, make sure to check out the links below: How to play Counter-Strike 2 limited beta test | Is Counter-Strike 2 going to be free to play? | Every game mode in Counter-Strike 2 | Every confirmed map from CSGO in Counter-Strike 2 | Can you play Counter-Strike 2 on console? | What is sub-tick in Counter-Strike 2? | All smoke changes in Counter-Strike 2 | Can you play Counter-Strike 2 on Linux or macOS? | Can banned CS:GO players play Counter-Strike 2? | What will happen to my CSGO skins? | Will Counter-Strike 2 come to Steam Deck? | Valve officially reveals Counter-Strike 2 | Everything we know about Counter-Strike 2

CSGO star m0NESY unimpressed by Counter-Strike 2’s smokes ESLCounter-Strike 2’s dynamic smoke grenades are one of the most talked about changes in the CS:GO sequel. But not everyone seems to be excited about this new feature. Valve is slowly lifting the veil on Counter-Strike 2, the new entry in the iconic FPS franchise that will be released in the summer. The introduction of responsive smoke grenades is one of the new features that the community has been passionately discussing since the first details came out. In Counter-Strike 2, smoke grenades will fill the space naturally and will react to lighting, resulting in more realistic effects. But more importantly, they will interact with other gameplay events, such as bullets and HE grenades, which can be used to temporarily clear sightlines while the smoke is still active. This will fundamentally change the way that smokes are used in the game, providing “even more tactical opportunities”, according to Valve. m0NESY shares his thoughts on Counter-Strike 2’s grenades But not everyone seems to be on board with the changes. In a message posted to his Telegram channel after G2’s defeat to ENCE in the ESL Pro League Season 17 playoffs, Ilya ‘m0NESY’ Osipov appeared to scoff at the smoke changes. “So I watched the new CS video, it’s LOL,” he wrote. “Throwing the HE and shooting the smoke give you visibility through it. In fact, why even use a smoke, then?” m0NESY went on to say that Counter-Strike 2’s maps and textures “look really cool” and that a lot of things will be fixed before the game is released. “So what do we have: New grenade mechanics, maybe even shooting, improved sounds, also tickrate,” he said. “Sounds good on paper, but need to try and play it first.” m0NESY burst onto the international scene in January 2022, when he signed for G2 Esports after coming through NAVI’s academy system. He was named the seventh-best player of 2022 by HLTV.org. Former CS:GO pro and popular content creator Mike ‘shroud’ Grzesiek is also skeptical about Counter-Strike 2’s dynamic smokes but for a different reason. According to him, the volumetric smokes “look f***ing dope” but could have a major impact on players’ framerate. “Bye-bye, FPS,” he said. “That is going to hurt. Luckily, Counter-Strike already runs great, so it’s not that big of a deal. It just kind of blows that if you’re already struggling, you’re going to struggle harder.” For more information about Counter-Strike 2, make sure to check out the links below: How to play Counter-Strike 2 limited beta test | Is Counter-Strike 2 going to be free to play? | What is sub-tick in Counter-Strike 2? | All smoke changes in Counter-Strike 2 | Can you play Counter-Strike 2 on Linux or macOS? | Can banned CS:GO players play Counter-Strike 2? | What will happen to my CSGO skins? | Will Counter-Strike 2 come to Steam Deck? | Valve officially reveals Counter-Strike 2 | Everything we know about Counter-Strike 2