Exploring the Structure of the Pro CS:GO Scene

Delving straight into the Counter Strike: Global Offensive e-sports scene can be a daunting task. When tuning in, you can be met with thousands of screaming fans or a live feed of five players sitting in a row in a nondescript room. This first part in a series of guides will help you to orient yourself, discussing the structure and composition of the scene, its teams, players and competitions. The first part of this series will focus on the structure of the tournament circuit, its advantages and disadvantages, and how to follow the scene.

Different from structures such as the LCS in League of Legends, Counter Strike operates in an open circuit. That means that any tournament organiser, and even your or me, can run a tournament on their own volition. There have been multiple attempts to create private leagues, more similar to traditional American sports or the League of Legends model, but these have all proved unsuccessful for reasons that will be discussed later. Combine an open system with a low barrier for entry and there is an explanation for the hundreds of lower ranked tournaments - including collegiate leagues - that can be viewed online. Valve have taken a hands off approach to policing what happens with their game, with the traditional wisdom being that, similar to DoTA, nobody owns the rights to stream the game. This has, however, come under question after the controversial Starladder major. If anyone can setup a tournament and stream it live, which ones are worth your while watching?

The Majors

Similar to the Grand Slams in tennis, the majors are the crown jewel tournaments of the Counter Strike scene. They are mandated by Valve themselves, and with that comes special supplemental additions to both the stream and the game. Whether it simply be the ability to watch on Valve’s own Steam platform through the SteamTV system or the whole micro economy of weapon skin drops for completing challenges related to the matches. These benefits ensure that the Majors are, for now, the tent pole event of the ecosystem. Valve themselves are not in the business of hosting Counter Strike tournaments, so they tender the contract to the big event companies who, ideally, can leverage their expertise to put on a show that is able to live up to the hype. The variation in tournament organiser, location and the fact that it currently only takes place twice a year mean the look of one major to the next can change directly. So far, Starladder, ESL, FaceIT, Eleague, PGL and Dreamhack have all had a chance to show the world what makes their tournament the best, most compelling option. Since the PGL Major of March/April 2016 the majors have had a total prize purse of $1,000,000 and a percentage of the proceeds of in-game ‘sticker’ items that are sold during the event.

ESL events

So, two majors a year, that doesn’t seem too complicated to follow- why do I need to continue reading? Well, for some, events such as ESL Cologne and ESL Katowice have come become just as, if not more, important than the majors for the growth and health of the scene. ESL have, through sheer dollar expenditure and will power, found themselves at the top of the pile of Counter Strike organisers. Whether its the aforementioned tent-pole events of Cologne and Katowice or smaller national championships or smaller events around the world such as the upcoming IEM Beijing. Their production design, talent staff and the teams on show are often the best available, sometimes more so than the Majors as they are not restricted by the often clunky qualifying processes of those events. “The Cathedral of Counter-Strike” is a fitting moniker for ESL Cologne, an event which, if combined with being selected as a major, will always showcase the best that the game has to offer. The fading sparkle of Virtus Pro’s fairy-tale run at Katowice 2014 still offers a glow to the event, but in recent years it has taken a backseat to Cologne as ESL’s darling.

Dreamhack

Although both are now owned by the same majority shareholder, Modern Times Group, Dreamhack is distinct from ESL in multiple ways. First of all, its main priority is not to put on the best show for viewers at home or to support Counter Strike itself. It is, at its heart, a LAN tournament organiser - and an extremely successful one at that. This slightly changes the look and feel of Dreamhack tournaments, with desk segments often looking less ‘made for television’ and polished as their ESL counterparts, and taking place in a large LAN hall rather than an a studio or an arena. One advantage of Valve’s Laissez-faire attitude towards the game is the ability of ‘the talent’ - hosts, interviewers, casters - to operate on a freelance basis. Although it is often the same 10-15 faces operating at most events, they themselves have the power to negotiate their appearances and are not tied directly to contracts or exclusivity - unless they wish to be in working for a company such as ESL. This leads to relatively unknown figures in the community one or two years ago, such as Vince ‘metuz’ Hill or Harry ‘JustHarry’ Russell coming up in the scene and developing a following quickly.

Starladder

Starladder’s loyalty to the series had finally been rewarded by Valve with the Starladder Major Berlin in August/September 2019. Although that event didn’t, perhaps, go as smoothly as either parties would have liked Starladder are still a big name in the tournament circuit. Although focusing much of their effort on the Russian/CIS/Eastern European market they often still find themselves with top tier talent on stream, a generally good viewing experience and usually a good percentage of top ten level teams attending. Although without the financial and name value clout of ESL or the gaming pedigree of Dreamhack, Starladder can fall back on their 8 seasons of StarSeries experience. A positive of not having the pressure of putting on the best show on the English language stream allows them to make interesting diversions to the norm, for example, hiring Auguste ‘Semmler’ Massonnat, a previous CS:GO commentator and community favourite who had previously retired to pursue casting in Overwatch.

CS_Summit

If all of these seem a bit too formal, try and catch CS_Summit. The Counter Strike itself almost takes a back seat to the shenanigans of the casters and players on stream. An almost Big Brother like set highlights the great chemistry and allows a more human side of both the talent and the players to emerge. With the relaxation in quality of on-air stream, the production of the extras and behind-the-scenes content strengthens - for example, Steel’s legendary Fair play PSA. Although often short and too rare, CS_Summit offers a breath of fresh air when glut of different events start to all blend into one. Although the company seems to dip and dive between games, the format is great for the Counter Strike scene.

