The State of CS:GO - Topic of the Moment & eSports State - Episode 1

The State of the Game: CS:GO

Topic of the moment:

Valve... Why are there no 128 tick servers?

For casual CS:GO players, this question may not be very important at all. First of all I will say that the current servers on CS:GO are 64-tick servers. 

So what is the difference between 64-tick and 128-tick? 

I think this following video can highlight the differences without me telling you. 

So if you fall into the crowd that follow the competitive eSports scene and wish to practice and play solo or with some friends. You will know that 128 tick servers are generally known to be much better...

CS:GO has come out now for 4 years, and after generating millions and millions of dollars from skins and other ways of revenue, 128 tick servers have yet to be brought into the game. 

When you watch pro's play MM (and take it really... not seriously) they can already point out the flaws of how some shots don't register and the experience is just not worth it to play. EITHER THAT or they run into hackers... but yes.. Hackers... is a topic for another day.

My first hope would be to have them integrate 128 tick servers, they have the money to do so, and it allows for more accurate game play. This is almost a no-brainer, I just hope it happens sooner than later. 

The State of CS:GO eSports 

So recently we had the Starladder Series Lan that ended up with NIP vs G2 eSports. A Swedish team with a stand-in in Maikalelelelelelelel(I'm sorry I had to) Vs a French Team that has been strong since they surprised many in winning ECS Season 1 league. Since then they have been hot and Shox and Scream have been fragging consistently. 

However, the emergence of NIP was really out of no where, #1 they have a stand-in. #2 The home crowd Navi and Virtus Pro would be rated much higher by more analysts. 

G2 on the other hand kept up with their strong play, I like what I see from them but I think their reliance on Scream and Shox making sick individual plays, will not last forever... So if they can do another french shuffle, I am not sure that G2 have quite that potential to win Majors or top tournaments vs other top teams like SK Gaming, Astralis, Navi, Virtus Pro. 

IMO, I would like for them to add another piece to the team to allow them to make it to the next level. Perhaps swapping Smithz out for a more stable AWP-er. 

Nonetheless, congrats to Ninjas in Pyjamas! The only team ever to win a big lan tournament with a stand in. 

eSports Growth - The CSGO Betting Fiasco. CSGO Hacking and CSGO in general.

With the relatively recent CSGO Betting fiasco. I just wanted to share my thoughts on this situation and just go for a bit of a rant.

Here goes.

So eSports is still a very new thing in society but I have seen it grow over the past decade at an immense rate of growth. Fans everywhere, players becoming famous for their skills OR for having great fun twitch channels to watch.

This undoubtedly young scene would also attract some sketch people. In this short article I would mention people like Phantomlord and any others who fixed rolls or betting scams.

As the scene grows, I personally thought betting was a really nice back bone on how CSGO can evolve. Regular sports have betting, why not eSports right? Well now that we know there was a lot of scandals I can only say this seems like a natural thing that would happen, we just need to wipe out the scumbags and start legitimately with valve more involved hopefully.

Ok on to the topic of Phantomlord.

The sly son of a bitch. From the days where he became famous for his dumb Karthus Revive/TP strat and how he acted on stream, I had a disliking for him but I felt he was a necessary evil.

I saw him change drastically when he switched over to CSGO, he slowly began to become an addict and now we know he was scamming outcomes... and becoming even more addicted to a game that could only end with him being caught.

Personally I believe in second chances but after the consequences have been made. I do believe he should face some sort of jail time and I am sure he has a bunch of lawsuits to fight.

His 100K dream donations thing already to be was a huge flag for MONEY LAUNDERING Technique 101???? But I kept quiet.

Now more has come out... I really think there is more investigation to be done and I hope the full extent of the law is enforced on Phantomlord and any associates. This stuff cannot stand and he has to suffer the consequences and hopefully stay the fuck out of the eSports scene. We do not need people like that moving forward.

Now to CSGO in general.

There will be a loss in views but I believe in the growth of the game. Perhaps Valve can do the compendiums that it does got DOTA2. We are going to be taking a step back to take a step forward.

I have not been a fan of the new game gun sounds however... they all sound like they came from the same audio file just tuned differently. I pray to god the AK and M4 sounds remain the same...

The remaining part of the year looks good and the new teams forming look promising for new talents and powerhouse changes in team ranks. SK, G2, VirtusPro, Fnatic, and GODSENT all look pretty decent at this point, we should be in for some good CS.


CS GO Hacking

Now this is something that has come up recently with Thoorin and RL. I have never used hackers before in CS. I have... however seen countless number of people/friends cheat and they get away with it. Some hide it better than others but playing on a CSGO rating of about SMFC (At the moment - I hope to get GE sometime when I get more free time to play), there are hackers everywhere. MM is quite literally a joke sometimes.

As for professional's hacking, I do believe there are enough suspicious clips to warrant that valve and tournament runners to take greater measures in tracking input and output from the players and their gear.

As a Programmer by trade (also a junior one) I know Valve will always be a step behind and I think they have done a great job so far of VAC-ing people. Its just hiring programmers to try to catch the private cheats... lets hope they can do it cause seirously... some of these clips I've seen scream sketchy to me....

eSports, you've come a long way... My eSports Journey.

This is my eSports Journey

Before we start I should give a brief intro to my insight in eSports and what I've done in this industry. I was an eSports Journalist for over 2 years for Fomos.kr when they had their Global section and I have worked at companies that had held Official Tournaments for the WCS (StarCraft 2), Street Fighter IV (Capcom Pro Tour), Hearthstone (BlizzCon), and League of Legends (feat. Invictus Gaming and Hong Kong eSports.) 

I was a Masters SC2 player, a Diamond 4 LoL player, Rank 3 (highest rank) in Hearthstone, and SMFC (B4 Rank Nerf)  in CSGO. At one point I was rank 19 on dota.hk ladder for DOTA1.

I've been following the eSports scene for as long as I can remember, back when there were OSL and MSLs for StarCraft Broodwar, when we had the legends of JulyZerg, Saviour, iloveoov, Jaedong, an God himself Flash... I remember the WCG, that catch theme song and the Korean dominance in Starcraft BW.

I recall the moments that Blizzard took the stag in South Korea when they announced StarCraft 2, "Hell, It's About Time..." 

I've seen the rise of a custom map game called Defence Of The Ancients... I recall playing the Hong Kong ladder (dota.hk) which had close to 20,000 players/accounts alone (of which I peaked at #19).

At those times I really asked myself, can these games go big? Starcraft 2 seemed to be a great kick-off and I believe it is what started this boom we have seen since its release.

Starcraft Broodwar, Starcraft 2, Quake, CS 1.6 

As StarCraft Broodwar, Quake, and CS 1.6 kicked off the foundation of what we call eSports, we have certainly come a long way...

When Starcraft 2 Wings of Liberty came out, it was almost another reboot of eSports and it became the biggest eSports game, companies like MLG, Dreamhack, Redbull Battlegrounds, NASL, etc... All wanted in and the scene was flourishing. 

LoL

A small game company called Riot had a game really explode into the eSports scene in the form of League of Legends. I recall hearing about their Season 1 championship with a decent viewship (100k viewers I think??). But no one could have seen far this game has come. 

In 2011/2012, eSports took another step forward in the right direction. Bravo to Riot and how they were able to push eSports to where it is currently today. The viewership grew, the production level was and is amazing... and year by year viewership has been stable, reporting millions of viewers at the World Championships.  

DOTA 2.

Parallel to the success of LoL was DOTA2, with the acquisition into Valve, DOTA2 has had quite the impressive run themselves. The game has a long history, and I really respect the way Valve have handled DOTA2, HOWEVER, not many games... If any, have their own IceFrog. Their idea of community funded prize pool was ingenious and really pushed the popular of this game, even making news lines of how massive their International Tournament was. 

Counter Strike.

This game, along with StarCraft means a lot to me as they were my first gaming experiences in general, I've grown up hoping one day t
hat these games grow to a stage where we can have a popular game where it's like sports where there are Pro Teams competing. 

Now CS 1.6 was and still is a great game.`Global Offensive has had its time to mature and now has taken off since the end of 2014. I must say I never followed the NIP 86-0 era but I certainly knew about it. Now we see teams like Fnatic dominating with other great teams like EnvyUS and Astralis.

I see great things for CSGO's future, and the announcement of the Turner E-League is a good step forward. This should definitely spark interest in bigger investors to jump into this industry which I feel can only be a good thing to grow. 

General eSports.

eSports has come a long way, and I feel it still has a long way to go yet. We see in South Korea, they have a proper system with grass roots into how to become a pro. We then look over to the rest of the world and I can see that they are playing catch up. HOWEVER, the production level, the casters, maybe not all the game play... has improved.

2016 is going to be a good year I feel for eSports. We have matured scenes in CSGO, LoL, SC2, and DOTA2, now it is about taking the right steps forward to grow the industry and it starts with the details; and I am confident we will get there. 

Now its about taking the next few, but important steps forward. Hopefully as I work on more topics to talk about I'll touch on certain issues and concerns I have with the industry and also some of the positives. I am no Thoorin... but I enjoy giving my opinions.  

by: Michael "DexVitality" Chow