Tag: Counter Strike Global Offensive

CS:GO shatters its all-time concurrent player count on Steam – again

Valve Software’s seminal shooter is still smashing records 11 years after release.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) has passed its all-time concurrent player peak on PC yet again – mere months before the sequel comes out.

According to SteamDB, more than 1.8 million people were playing CS:GO simultaneously this past Saturday (thanks, Eurogamer). Not only does that staggering number shatter the game’s previous record, but it’s also the second-highest concurrent player record in Steam’s history – coming in behind PUBG: Battlegrounds, which still holds the platform record at 3.2 million concurrent players set five years ago. We probably won’t see that number toppled anytime soon, frankly.

CS:GO came out way back on August 21, 2012 – so for it to be setting records 11 years after release is borderline unprecedented. For context: other popular multiplayer games released in 2012 include Borderlands 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, and Diablo 3 – none of which have had anywhere close to the staying power of CS:GO.

It’s particularly impressive since Counter-Strike 2 is just around the corner. The sequel’s sudden announcement gave us only a few details, but developer Valve Software did state that it’ll launch sometime this summer. Counter-Strike 2 will be a free upgrade to CS:GO – allowing players the opportunity to bring all their skins and cosmetics to the sequel.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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Na’Vi crowned champions at record-breaking ‘Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’ tournament

The world watched as S1mple took home his first Major win.

Na’Vi won the 2021 PGL Major Stockholm Championships in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive  on Sunday.

After competing in 15 Majors over the past several years only to come up every time, team Na’Vi finally came out on top at a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive  Major. Not only did Na’Vi take home $1 million in winnings, they set were part of what might go down in history as one of the biggest esports tournaments to date. The 2021 PGL Major Stockholm finals reached a staggering new peak concurrent viewer number for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive  at 2.7 million, Esports Charts  reported Sunday.

Check out the live audience reaction to Na’Vi taking home the gold for yourself below.

Arguably the biggest reason for the staggering viewer numbers is due to Na’Vi’s own Aleksandr ‘S1mple’ Kostyliev winning his first Major. Kostyliev is widely known as the best Counter-Strike: Global Offensive  pro despite never winning a championship of this caliber. Well, no longer! Kostyliev even came out as MVP of the tournament, HLTV  reported Sunday. That’s quite an achievement, especially considering Na’Vi went undefeated the 2021 PGL Major Stockholm championships.

Kostyliev recently made headlines with S1mple Formula, a documentary about his life and rise to esports fame. Many are speculating that he will jump over to Valorant  in the coming months.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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5 tips from ‘CS:GO’ pros to make you better, right now

A few tips from the pros to up your game.

Since its birth as a mod for Half-Life in *checks notes* the late 1700s, Counter-Strike has undergone many a facelift, engine migration, and mechanical revamp. But the proposition has always been the same: a team shooter with an eco metagame and a huge emphasis on raw shooting skill. 

It’s not lightning-fast like Quake, it’s not as rigorous about simulating reality as Escape From Tarkov, but modern-day CS:GO is considered one of the purest tests of a player’s aim and strategic nous out there. See also: incredible nades. 

Rookies don’t have an easy time picking up a game that’s been out there in various forms since 2000, and even those who’ve lapsed – or never got all that great in the first place – can find themselves overwhelmed by cryptic playcalls, improbable headshots, or barbed deployments of the letters ‘E’ and ‘Z’. 

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Lucky it has such a competitive and established esports scene. So let’s steal all the pro gamers’ habits and *clears throat* git gud. In list format, because the internet.

An AI imagines what ‘Destiny’, ‘Zelda’, and Hideo Kojima look like with terrifying results

You’ll never look at your favorite video games the same way again.

Ever wonder what your favorite video games would look like through an AI-generated lens? Well, thanks to  ai_curio_bot  from Bearsharktopus Studios, there’s a Twitter bot more than capable of showing you the nightmare-inducing results.

All you have to do is tweet at ai_curio_bot with a specific prompt followed by whatever you would like to see horrifically recreated by the bot. For example, I sent it “botprompt: Link from The Legend of Zelda on an air mattress” because why not.

I doubted that ai_curio_bot could yield anything recognizable from this request, despite the heaps of evidence suggesting otherwise. Several hours later, a rather disturbing notification popped up in my mentions that you can check out below. 

There’s definitely an air mattress in the artwork, but I’m unsure how that twisting eldritch horror qualifies as Link. Is that his blue tunic off to the left? Maybe. I think his hairline is in the center, too. Either way, I wasn’t planning on sleeping tonight anyway — never using a Nintendo Switch again, for that matter.

Naturally, gamers are having a ball with ai_curio_bot. From Destiny’s Traveler to  Hideo Kojima himself, the bot successfully makes me question if humanity officially has too much sway over the universe. Check out some of the, uh, more creative results for yourself below. 

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF. 

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‘Counter-Strike’ pro Aleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev gets his own documentary

S1imple Formula chronicles the rise and career of arguably CS:GO’s biggest star.

Aleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev is one of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s most decorated players, and a new documentary just came out highlighting his career.

S1mple Formula, produced by Kostyliev’s team NAVI, is a documentary chronicling his path towards professional Counter-Strike and what sets him apart from other players. It includes interviews with former and current teammates, coaches, friends, commentators, analysts, and Kostyliev’s family. Clocking in at just shy of two hours, S1mple Formula is a staggeringly thorough look at one of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s biggest stars.

“I remember the time when we just signed a contract in 2016,” Yevhen Zolotarov, СЕО of NAVI, said via Dot Esports. “Honestly, now it’s hard to believe that it was already five years ago. For the esports industry, five years is quite a long period of time.”

Check out the teaser for S1imple Formula for yourself below.

The full documentary is on YouTube for those willing to learn all about the life and trials of this legendary player.

We don’t see profiles for esports stars all that often, so here’s to hoping this is just the first of many.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF. 

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