Thoughts on cs_summit

Beyond the Summit’s first ever CS:GO event concluded this past Sunday, with SK Gaming securing first place as well as the better part of the $150,000 prize pool ($63,750 to be precise). Whilst that’s a very formidable achievement and they demonstrated some high-level Counter-Strike over the course of the event, that’s not what we’re talking about in this feature. This feature is exclusively dedicated to the authenticity and sheer genius inherent in the format of the event.

I’d like for you to ask yourself the following question: When was the last time you connected with any of the professional players you love in quite the same way as you did over the weekend? For many fans, the answer is more than likely never. Unless you’ve encountered any of the professional players that participated at cs_summit in everyday life you would simply not have ever experienced this level of insight into the players as people, rather than fragging machines. This is the case for a plethora of reasons – packed schedules, the sheer number of fans, geographical restrictions, limited resources for teams, the list goes on.

I’d like for you to ask yourself the following question: When was the last time you connected with any of the professional players you love in quite the same way as you did over the weekend?

Whilst the concept of the format is nothing new, stemming from the early days of TakeTV streams that saw even more outrageous content, it is definitely something that the scene is largely missing. The current obsession of tournament organisers is the “professionalisation” of the scene, a movement that exists in an attempt to cater to as wide an audience as possible. This is understandable as they’re trying to tap into the wider non-endemic audience that, perhaps, has a different understanding of entertainment, and is vital to the long term growth of the sector. The effort is highly appreciated and as a community we owe a whole lot to tournament organisers that constantly push the boundaries of the industry that we love and cherish, like ELEAGUE, ESL and others have tried to do. However I can’t help but feel that somewhere down the line, there is a danger that in an attempt to become as professional as possible we will lose this unique, weird, quirky, nerdy identity. With it could go this gem of a community, to see Counter-Strike morph into just another eSport that will be viewed the traditional way and will adhere to traditional standards.

What Beyond the Summit brings to the CS:GO scene is special in more ways than one. It presented us, the viewers, with a peek behind the normally professional mask of every player, turning them into human beings rather than the killing machines we watch tournament after tournament. Whether it’s the casting line-up talking about various random drivel including scat, Thorin’s horse stroking joke and how James Bardolph flew a drone into the side of the mansion where the tournament was held, or Ninjas in Pyjamas, SK Gaming, OpTic Gaming and others getting together to commentate matches of their opponents, it felt like you were experiencing something that’s quite rare by nature of viewing events remotely – a human interaction.

Video courtesy of Beyond the Summit - CSGO YouTube Channel

This largely unedited, raw display of personality was in stark contrast to the way players are conventionally portrayed in a very much professional manner, a method mainly created by the need to adhere to strict broadcasting standards and the desire to not alienate a single paying customer. These concepts were thrown out the window over the course of the event and it was glorious to say the very least. I can wholeheartedly say that it was by far the most entertaining CS:GO stream that I have viewed in my years of professionally working within the scene. In times where the narrative of “professionalisation” is thrown around liberally it was refreshing to see an organiser bold enough to go against the flow and absolutely smash it while doing so.

Having said all of the above, the idea of expanding the horizons of eSports is not inherently bad and it is naïve to assume anything can be done to prevent it. We are already seeing incredible exponential growth within the industry by almost any metric you care to use, and events like the ELEAGUE Major are redefining what fans should expect from eSports. Amongst all this, cs_summit stands as a missing link, bringing the professional production modern fans expect alongside the LAN-party atmosphere that allows players to express themselves on camera beyond just shooting and planting, and connect with the stars of tomorrow.

To conclude, this is not a suggestion that Beyond the Summit should run majors, or that we don’t appreciate the work ELEAGUE and others are doing to bring eSports toward the light. The plain facts are that in terms of making eSports grow, and bringing new fans into the community we need to break barriers like being on terrestrial television. However, it’s important for the long term health of the scene that eSports also maintains a unique identity, rather than trying to ape the current leaders, and the mix of polish and pure entertaining lunacy that the cs_summit offers is the perfect combination of the old and the new, at least for this writer.

Images courtesy of Beyond the Summit Flickr / Robert Paul (1, 2, 3)