CS:GO: Retirees’ Team In The Record Books In Ukraine

A Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team composed of senior players whose average age is 75 years and 2 months has just entered the record book in Ukraine.

A Look Back at The Success of Counter-Strike

Counter-Strike is a competitive shooting video game series in which two teams compete to carry out or prevent an attack. The first embodies a SWAT team, the anti-terrorists, the second, the terrorists. Depending on the game mode chosen, the missions vary, consisting for example of successfully defusing a bomb, to exfiltrate a freed hostage or eliminate the opposing team in a deathmatch. Regardless of the game mode selected, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive requires tactical skills according to Bwin.com. You have to know how to develop strategies and coordinate to hope to win. Marketed for the first time in 2000 (several years before the first episode of Call of Duty), the game became in December 2018 a free-to-play present on the Steam download platform. If the title is free, however, it offers many in-app purchases. CS:GO is one of the most played titles in esports video game competitions. There are many tournaments that can be followed online.

A World Record for the Oldest Team on Counter-Strike?

While a CS:GO tournament was being held at the Skill cyberclub in the city of Odessa in the southwest of Ukraine, an atypical team called Young Guard decided to take part. The particularity of this team is its average age, 75 years and 2 months, making it the oldest of the whole LAN. For this event, there were no particular restrictions in terms of level, gender or age: a good old-fashioned LAN where everyone could meet to play matches. The only condition to participate was simply to register for the tournament, which was totally free. This total openness gave the idea to a group of retired people to come and play, which allowed them to enter the national register of records in Ukraine.

The youngest player in this unusual team was 66 years old, while the oldest was 78, but this did not prevent them from competing against much younger opponents. Alerted by the arrival of this rather special team, Lana Vetrova, who is in charge of the country's national record register, looked into the matter and decided to include this senior team in the list of the country's outstanding performances. It was the first time the nation had seen a team of such elderly players compete. This historic moment was immortalized by the presentation of certificates to all members of the Young Guard after they had played their first match. Lana Vetrova said:

“This category has recently been actively organized, replenished with new participants, and every time we are surprised at the achievements that people are showing not at 50, not at 60, but for 70 years and more. It is always very valuable for us when people of this age are active. There has never been such a record in Ukraine. This team, demonstrates not only their age indicators, but also shows their cheerfulness, optimism, which is an integral part of their success, their record.”

We already knew about the Silver Snipers, another slightly younger group of retirees from Sweden, but now they have a new Ukrainian competitor who has entered the Counter-Strike adventure of our elders. No marketing hype though in Ukraine, no exhibition matches and no over-the-top communication, the Young Guard was really there to have fun, play some games and enjoy a weekend with friends. So whether you're 12 or 80, the goals in LAN are sometimes the same.

Image By: ESPAT David Doran