CS2

Team Liquid finally took home a Tier-1 trophy at IEM Sydney, but have they broke their finals curse? For a long time, Team Liquid shone during group stages and in matches that ended up meaning almost nothing simply because they often failed in Grand Finals. Due to this, the squad had a tendency to “throw” […]

Heroic has signed Niels-Christian “NaToSaphiX” Sillassen to replace Daniel “mertz” Mertz who the organization announced they released earlier this morning. Heroic announced that they benched Daniel “mertz” Mertz earlier this morning. Soon after, Heroic announced the signing of his replacement, ex-Sprout free agent Niels-Christian “NaToSaphiX” Sillassen. Daniel "mertz" Mertz will from today move to the […]

Cloud9 Valens will transition back to the Cloud9’s CS: GO Head Coach role just a month after vacating the position. Cloud9 has switched back to Soham “Valens” Chowdhury as the C9 Counterstrike: Global Offensive Head Coach. Ronald “Rambo” Kim is leaving the position after a short trial period starting in January ended in him becoming […]

In a surprise move, Valve set the dates for the 2020 and 2021 Counterstrike: Global Offensive Major tournaments last night. Valve has announced the dates for the 2020 and 2021 CS: GO Majors last night. The Majors are the ultimate tournaments in the Counterstrike: Global Offensive landscape, and have traditionally taken place in early September […]

Reports indicate that the players of the Kinguin-owned Counterstrike: Global Offensive team devils.one will not sign new contracts. A report from Jared “DeKay” Lewis this morning indicates that the players from devils.one, the rebranded Kinguin team, will not sign new contracts with the organization. DeKay cites that the players “disagreed on many terms of the […]

Ex-Space Soldiers players Buğra “Calyx” Arkin and Yaman “yam” Ergenekon have announced that they are currently open to offers from other Counterstrike: Global Offensive squads. Two Ex-Space Soldiers players, Buğra “Calyx” Arkin and Yaman “yam” Ergenekon, announced today that they are free agents and open to offers from other teams. This morning, Calyx posted a […]

CS_Summit returns in its fourth iteration this May. The tournament is a fan favorite due to the relaxed atmosphere and unparalleled access to teams. Beyond the Summit is returning to the Counterstrike: Global Offensive scene with CS_Summit IV. Additionally, like past events, CS_Summit will take place in the Beyond the Summit house in Los Angeles, […]

FaZe Clan unexpectedly took home the trophy from BLAST Pro Series Miami, defeating Team Liquid 2-0. BLAST Pro Series’ format can be a little unpredictable, but there are still insights in these matches if you know where to look form them. Let’s break some things down and see what we can find! FaZe picked the […]

Yesterday’s BLAST Pro Series match between Natus Vincere and Astralis was definitely one the community was excited about. Na`Vi recently stomped the competition at StarSeries Season 7 in Shanghai, and we’ve only seen the indomitable Astralis in Sao Paulo since their win at the IEM Katowice Major. So, let’s take a look at how they […]

The Counterstrike Blast Pro Series has revealed that the BLAST Global Finals will take place in December and feature a $500,000 prize pool. RFRSH Entertainment, the tournament organizer of the Counterstrike BLAST Pro Series, has announced that the Global Finals for the league will take place in December. The location and venue have yet to […]

Blast Pro Series is a fun set of BO1’s, but we shouldn’t treat them as an actual competitive tournament. Opinion By Slava Britvin, ESTNN.com BLAST Pro Series put on its first tournament in Copenhagen in 2017. 2018 saw three more. And, at the end of last year, Counter-Strike fans were hit by a flurry of […]

Blast Pro Series Miami kicks off tomorrow with Rounds One and Two of the Group Stage. Earlier this morning, teams vetoed for their maps, and we’ve got a first-hand look at the first two rounds. With a little under 24 hours to go until the first match of Blast Pro Series Miami, let’s jump right […]

Ninjas In Pajamas announced the return of rifler Dennis “dennis” Edman to their Counterstrike: Global Offensive lineup today on the team’s official Twitter account. .@denniscsgod returns to the active roster. We would like to thank you for your contribution, @drakenCSGO. It’s always a pleasure watching you perform.https://t.co/Qj6YRJwvsl#GONINJAS #CSGO — Ninjas in Pyjamas (@NIP) April 10, […]

A report from Dexerto’s Jarek “Dekay” Lewis is reporting that Owen ‘smooya’ Butterfield will stand in for Sean ‘Gratisfaction’ Kaiwai at ESL Pro League Season 9. Renegades has decided to have ex-BIG AWPer Owen “Smooya” Butterfield stand in for the team while Sean “Gratisfaction” Kaiwai works out visa issues. The move comes just three days […]

Forge of Masters. WePlay! League will have 3 seasons throughout the year. The first season starts on April 8th and ends up with a LAN-event on May 3-5 in Kyiv. This season’s total prize pool is $50,000. Three seasons of the league will be united by a common mission, while each of them will differ […]

The CIS organization has completed their roster rework with the addition of Dmitriy “Dima” Bandurka as their fifth and final player. Vega Squadron’s Counterstrike: Global Offensive roster is finally finished with the addition of Dmitriy “Dima” Bandurka to the squad. At 24 years old, the young rifler comes by way of Spirit after his former […]

LDLC has revealed that Alexandre “xms” Forté and Christophe “SIXER” Xia will be rejoining the organizations Counterstrike Global Offensive lineup. The team will also trial Rodolphe “roden” Bianco during the ESL Championnat Nation and Charleroi Esports tournaments. Team LDLC has unveiled the majority of their new roster, which looks quite a bit like the old […]

LDLC returns, hinting at a new roster days after releasing their old one. LDLC revealed the first member, Engin “MAJ3R” Kupel, yesterday in a Tweet from the organization’s official Twitter account. Legendary French team LDLC has revealed the beginning of their new lineup. Engin “MAJ3R” Kupel is the first member of the new roster to […]

North American organization Cloud9 has officially announced the addition of René “cajunb” Borg to their Counterstrike: Global Offensive roster. Cloud9 Adds CajunB Following rumors of his addition earlier in the week, Cloud9 has officially added René “cajunb” Borg to their Counterstrike: Global Offensive roster ahead of the team’s appearance at Blast Pro Series Miami. Please […]

French organization Team LDLC has released its Counterstrike: Global Offensive squad, according to a Twitter post from the team’s official account. Team LDLC, a long-running organization in the Counterstrike: Global Offensive scene, announced today the release of its roster.  Judging by the tweet, it does not seem as though LDLC is looking to exit the Counterstrike […]

Vega Squadron officially announced that the team has added Denis “seized” Kostin and Alexander “scoobyxie” Marynych to their Counterstrike: Global Offensive roster. CIS organization Vega Squadron has announced the signings of Denis “seized” Kostin and Alexander “scoobyxie” Marynych to their Counterstrike: Global Offensive roster today. The move comes after a hectic early 2019 for the […]

Cloud9 Overhaul Continues Cloud9 is reportedly in talks with René “cajunb” Borg to replace rifler Fabien “kioShiMa” Fiey according to a report from Dexerto. North American organization Cloud9 is eyeing Danish Rifler and former OpTic Gaming Pro René “cajunb” Borg as a replacement for Fabien “kioShiMa” Fiey, per a report from Dexerto. Surprisingly, the report […]

MiBR lost 2-1 to Renegades today at Star Series i-League Season 7. Previously, MiBR took down Panda Gaming 2-0. For their part, Renegades defeated TYLOO 2-0 earlier in the tournament. Gabriel “Fallen” Toldeo and company’s Counterstrike troubles continued today, as the legendary roster dropped a best of three series against the Australian powerhouse Renegades. While MiBR […]

One of IEM’s flagship tournaments, Intel Extreme Masters Sydney, has finalized the invited list of teams in attendance with the addition of Fnatic. We now know the majority of teams that will attend IEM Sydney. Fnatic joins twelve other teams that have either received invites or qualified for the tournament, including Team Liquid, Mousesports, FaZe, […]

The Cloud9 carousel continues as the North American organization picks up Daniel “vice” Kim as a trial player. Cloud9 has decided to trial former Ghost Gaming rifler Daniel “vice” Kim for their Counterstrike: Global Offensive Lineup. After the departure of Robin “flusha” Rönnquist and Jordan “Zellsis” Montemurro, the team was left with spots to fill. […]

Engin “MAJ3R” Küpeli has announced that he is leaving the ex-Space Soldiers lineup this morning through a post on Twitter. 28-year-old in-game leader Engin “MAJ3R” Küpeli announced that he was leaving the ex-Space Soldiers roster this morning through a Twitlonger. The long time IGL expressed regret that his time with his teammates was ending: This journey […]

According to a report by Dust2.dk, OpTic Gaming riflers Kristian “K0nfig” Wienecke and Jakob “JUGi” Hansen are on their way to fill out the empty roster spots on Cloud9. At the end of last week, Cloud9 was in trouble. They pulled out of ECS Season 7 citing extenuating circumstances, followed by reports that Fabien “kioShiMa” […]

Bad News Bears will replace Cloud9 in ECS Season 7, according to a report by Dust2.us. The move is reportedly due to Cloud9’s difficulty in finding a fifth player to complete their roster.   Cloud9 has withdrawn from ECS Season 7, reportedly due to their inability to find a fifth player for their roster. According […]

In a  blog post today, NiP announced that Dennis “dennis” Edman would be taking time off from the roster. William “draken” Sundin will replace dennis in the lineup. Ninja’s in Pajamas announced today that William “draken” Sundin will replace Dennis “dennis” Edman in the lineup while Dennis takes time off from professional Counterstrike. The Ninja’s informed fans […]

The Major is over, and thus begins the month or so of roster moves for CSGO squads across the world. Teams are making moves, and reports are being released, so let’s jump right in and see where everyone stands. Mousesports Signs everyone Yesterday news broke that Mousesports was close to inking veteran IGL Finn “karrigan” […]

Cloud9 announced this afternoon, March 4th, that they are releasing Jordan ‘Zellsis’ Montemurro from his trial with the C9 CSGO squad. Cloud9 Zellsis performed admirably during his brief tenure with C9 at the IEM Katowice Major. The move follows the release of Robin “flusha” Rönnquist this past weekend after Cloud9 finished tied for 10th place. […]

Counterstrike Team Cloud9 has announced that Maikil “Golden” Selim will be returning to the roster and Robin “flusha” Rönnquist will be stepping down. CS:GO Roster Update We're thrilled to welcome @goldenmajk back to the starting roster while we bid farewell to @flusha. Thank you for all of your contributions Robin, we wish you the best […]

The IEM Katowice Major has finally come to an end, and it ended with a bang. Astralis took home their third Major victory, dismantling ENCE in two maps and equaling Fnatic’s Major record. The Major, however, is much more than the final. Twenty-four teams played in this Major, and we here at ESTNN thought we […]

Team Envy is courting Finn “Karrigan” Anderson to IGL for the team since his stand-in performance at the Americas Minor earlier this year, according to Dekay. After his departure from FaZe Clan, Karrigan stood in for Team Envy during the Americas Minor. The team narrowly missed a Challenger stage berth. Additionally, Envy was unable to […]

Unconfirmed rumors are pointing towards Team NRG signing Tarik “Tarik” Celek as a replacement for Jacob “Fugly” Medina, according to VPesports.com. The news comes just days after NRG failed to make it out of the group stage of the IEM Katowice Major, going 0-3 in the New Legends stage. Celek has been a free agent […]

Na’Vi become Legends with a 2-0 win over Avangar. With Renegades advancing over Team Vitality, IEM Katowice’s next advancement match featured two CIS teams. Natus Vincere and AVANAGAR would go to 2 maps, with the veteran squad Na’Vi taking the match and Major Legend status off the back of it. Let’s hop into the recap. […]

CSGO has a new international team after William “draken” Sundin and Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom combine with other players to create a new international organization in the Counterstrike: Global Offensive scene. Ex-Red Reserve player Hampus “hampus” Poser will join as well, along with his coach Christian “chrille” Lindberg. Draken also played for Red Reserve before the […]

According to Stayinpit.gg, a Counterstrike statistics website, CT’s are buying the AUG almost twice as often as the M4A1-S and M4A4 over the first week of the IEM Katowice Major. Avg. distance* for kills per weapon in #IEM Katowice so far: AWP: 1002AUG: 767Deagle: 752FAMAS: 703AK: 690M4A4: 669USP: 664P250: 592Glock: 566UMP: 516MAC10: 478MP9: 472CZ: 456 […]

Swedish powerhouse fnatic upset many Pick ‘Em players and shocked many fans by falling 1-3 at the IEM Katowice New Challengers’ Stage. Favourites for advancement and top seed, fnatic now find themselves in a dire situation following this travesty. An abhorrent, abrupt exit by losing to two lower-tier teams and a struggling French roster in G2 […]

UPDATE: Team Singularity has signed Ricky “floppy” Kemery. It's official! We would like to welcome @floppyCSGO to our CS:GO team! Over the last months he has proved himself as a great player and we are looking forward to working with him!#SNGARMY pic.twitter.com/DidZiff1ni — Team Singularity ✈️ 🇬🇧 (@SNG_Esports) February 12, 2019 ORGINAL STORY: According to […]

According to a tweet from Joakim “disco doplan” Gidetun, he has terminated his contract with Red Reserve. The former Fnatic rifler will search for a team while he works “to improve inside and outside the game.” Gidetun claims that Red Reserve breached his contract, but no specifics have been released. As of yesterday I officially […]

FACEIT have refined ECS, its CSGO league, for the upcoming season. Changes come after ESL reformed their Pro League. Both tournament organizers have optimized their leagues due to numerous player complaints. The Round-Up   To qualify for ECS S7 Finals, teams must battle through five best-of-three knockout stages. Interestingly, ECS has only included North America and Europe […]

According to a report from Dextero.com, Owen “smooya” Butterfield has been banned from FACEIT Pro League indefinitely after and interaction with Optic Gaming’s Ismail “refrezh” Ali, in which Smooya told the player to “kill himself” in now-deleted tweets. Butterfield has had a troubled CS:GO career, recently leaving BIG citing difficulties fitting into their team system. […]

After crashing out of the Katowice Minor, Mousesports have decided to part ways with Martin “STYKO” Styk and Chris “chrisJ” de Jong according to a post on the team’s website. The organization has said that it will announce a new roster shortly. According to Mousesports, they have also parted ways with coach Sergey “lmbt” Bezhanov. […]

According to a blog post from the organization, North will trial former Alternate Attax coach Torbjørn “mithR” Nyborg during the GG.Bet ICE Challenge. Former Coach, Alexander “ave” Holdt has decided to step down in order to focus on his family after a year with the team. https://twitter.com/TheNorthIsHere/status/1092430884152725504 North’s Director of Esports, Jonas Svendsen, had this […]

Early this morning, the official Twitter of Heroic.gg and its players replaced their profile pictures with a plain black picture and tweeted out a mysterious tweet teasing a makeover of their existing brand. The last time that the team unveiled a new logo was April 2017. pic.twitter.com/wQSwSCOOvU — HEROIC (@heroicgg) February 4, 2019 The tweet, […]

Nikolaj “niko” Kristensen has officially joined the Rogue CS:GO squad according to the team’s official twitter account. Niko replaces fellow Dane Jesper “TENZKI” Plougmann on the squad. The move comes just weeks after Rogue failed to qualify for the IEM Katowice Major Qualifiers. Previously, niko helped his former team, Optic Gaming, place second at cs_summit […]

Even though the parallels between “regular” and esports always seem to imply an uneasy companionship of sorts, the rise of playing video games professionally clearly owes a lot to the models established by existing sporting franchises. Some lessons are learned, many are ignored, and while it’s evident that CS:GO, League of Legends and the like […]

The Danish CS:GO scene is in both its best and worst ever state. Astralis, the gods of Denmark, are ruling CS:GO in their era. The first winners of the Intel Grand Slam, Astralis are set for further glory in 2019. Elsewhere in Denmark, The Green Wall of OpTic Gaming, with an undoubtedly talented roster, have […]

The ELEAGUE Invitational concluded with Faze defeating their rivals Cloud9 2-1 to take home the trophy. Here are a few things we learned from the minor. Optimism surrounding Cloud9 Although Cloud9 didn’t get the result they wanted, falling to Faze in a best of three in the finals, there were plenty of bright spots to […]

Beyond the Anatolia-related puns, the Asia minor always felt like the odd one out of these qualifiers, and this iteration proved no exception. Even with the lack of TyLoo – who have finally managed to crack the code and make it to the New Legends Stage –, the competition still felt like “Renegades and the […]

With the regular minor events complete, we’ve successfully established eighty percent of the Katowice newcomers. While there’s still one last chapter to be written with the third-placed playoffs, we can already decipher most of the interesting storylines of the Americas minor. This tournament has clarified a lot of domestic hierarchies. Established that NRG and karrigan […]

South African CS:GO team Bravado Gaming has cancelled their IndieGoGo campaign and will refund all money raised. Dubbed “Project Destiny,” the campaign seemed to be raising money to allow Bravado Gaming players to stay and compete in America. As of this morning, the campaign had raised $4,268 of its $30,000 goal. At one time they […]

Perhaps the competition with the lowest profile out of the four, the Katowice Asia minor will nevertheless offer an interesting snapshot of the state of play in a part of the world that Valve clearly covets: even though the Asian sides thoroughly failed to make an impact on the big stage so far, TyLoo’s successful […]

With the European and CIS minors out of the way, the spotlight is now turned on the Americas and Asia’s representatives. Just like its EU counterpart, the American minor features a team – and a player – that arguably shouldn’t have to grind through this stage in order to get a ticket to Katowice: all […]

Team Liquid finally defeated Astralis in a grand final, ending the streak of five grand final losses to their Danish kryptonite and took home the trophy at the iBP Masters IV. Liquid played with new addition Jake “Stewie2k” Yip as well a new coach in former TL IGL Eric “adren” Hoag, and beat Astralis 2-1 […]

IEM Katowice 2019 EU Minor Recap While the European minor and its incredible upsets stole the spotlight, the CIS competition also had quite a few interesting storylines to offer: the “usual” suspects will be making a return to the big stage in the form of AVANGAR and Team Spirit as the old guard of the […]

The European minor was littered with fallen giants and upsets in every stage of the event: while no one can say that ENCE or Vitality didn’t deserve their spots, it has to be said that their performances were overshadowed by the failings of those better-known names that failed to show up. Questions will be asked […]

See: S1mple, The Ukranian Superstar Part 1: Origins In this second part of the Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev series, his 2018 comes under the spotlight. To analyze s1mple’s 2018 is to analyze the best a player has performed individually in one year of Counter-Strike, in history. He carried his team, often alone, as he fought hard […]

At around 8PM Eastern time, Ghost Gaming officially welcomed Ryan “freakazoid” Abadir to their roster. After Ghost Gaming rifler Yassine “Subroza” Taoufik stepped down, many outlets reported that freakazoid was a likely replacement. No need for an introduction, welcome to #GhostGang @FreakazoidA. pic.twitter.com/wEQxI4CqHp — Ghost Gaming Esports (@GhostEsports) January 19, 2019 While yet unconfirmed, Ghost […]

The iBUYPOWER Masters IV kicks off this weekend, Saturday, January 19th, and because we are so close to the IEM Katowice Major, we can use this tournament to give us a  preview of what we can expect at Katowice from the top teams in attendance. Understandably, the “saving strats for the Major” meme is alive and well, […]

Unicorns of Love, of EU LCS fame, expand into the CS:GO scene this week as they sign a fully German roster. The move comes after the Unicorns were ousted from the EU LCS by Riot Games, who cited the want for teams with a larger financial backing than UoL could bring to the table. UoL […]

According to a report by Jarek “DeKay” Lewis, Swole Patrol is currently in discussions with Jørgen “cromen” Robertsen to join the team citing several sources. Swole Patrol has had a rough go of it lately, losing three of its core players to other teams. Main-AWPer Austin “Cooper” Abadir famously left Swole Patrol as the team […]

Heroic announced the signing of Benjamin “blameF” Bremer to the active roster from Epsilon eSports, replacing Andreas “MODDII” Fridh. The move comes after Heroic failed to qualify for the IEM Katowice 2019 Minor in early December, losing BO3s to OpTic Gaming and ENCE. During that time, Fridh never posted an HLTV rating of higher than […]

IEM Katowice 2019 EU Minor Storylines For many Western viewers, the CIS region is the CS:GO equivalent of the twilight zone. And yet, there are quite a few familiar faces amid all the shadows and the confusion, and it turns out that some of the most interesting storylines of this minor cycle will come from […]

IEM Katowice 2019 CIS Minor Storylines It’s always the darkest before dawn, and the long buildup to the Katowice major is finally starting to reach its conclusion. London’s incredible upsets, subtle rule changes, injuries and other drama all came together to set up perhaps the most exciting minor cycle in CS:GO history – but perhaps […]

Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev is the AWPer for CIS powerhouse Natus Vincere. The 21-year-old is lauded by most as the best in the world and by some as the best of all time. In just five short years of professional play, he has worked his way up the rankings into one of the best teams in […]

Former FaZe in-game leader Finn “karrigan” Andersen lost his leadership role to NiKo at the FACEIT Major, and never regained it. His performance while in an unfamiliar position on the roster eventually resulted in him getting benched. FaZe has loaned the Dane to Envy so that he could compete at the upcoming Minor, and he […]

Rarely is a coaching move considered a high-profile transfer in the world of CS:GO, but Janko “YNk” Paunović’s decision to exchange broadcast desks and fancy suits for a MiBR jersey grabbed the attention of the community. However, it’s worth taking a critical look at his tenure with the Brazilian-American side. No matter how many times […]

LDLC and Complexity are not bad teams, but they are fragile. Both sides have earned their namesakes through big single tournament results; LDLC, at IEM Chicago; Complexity, at the FACEIT London Major. While these two events come months apart, the manner in which they both earned their victories is the same. They both found momentum […]

ECS Season 6 Finals begin on November 22 in Arlington Texas and will feature 8 of Counter-Strike’s top teams battling for a $660,000 prize pool. Here are some story lines to keep an eye on heading into the tournament. Team Liquid can’t beat Astralis Easily the most promising North American team, Liquid have been turning […]

It’s easy to be baited by FaZe. They are a team who show their strengths in the reflection of their trophies. From ESL One New York 2017, to EPICENTER 2018 over a year later, the ‘feel’ of a FaZe win is impossible to replicate. It’s as explosive as it is clinical; as overwhelming as it […]

The French Powerhouse Team Vitality has come under the eye of players and admins due to a very shady looking play enacted during their match against Team Valiance at the Loot.Bet Cup 3. The team boasts popular players such as NBK-, apEX, and Happy, all known for having played with the best of the best […]

Optic Gaming India is making rounds on the internet after a rather hilarious hacking scandal. They were competing in the eXTREMESLAND Asia tournament against the Vietnamese team Revolution. The game was heating up and it looked like the pressure got to team optic’s member Nikhil “forsaken” Kumawat as he turned on hacks mid game. The […]

What looked to be a one-sided map 1 on Mirage in favor of Team Liquid, started to turn towards Hell-Raisers as they started showing signs of life nearing the end of the first half with a score of 3-12. After taking the game to 6-12 and a nearly perfect clutch from woxic, the game tilted […]

The Faceit London Major is in full swing. A strong showing in the group stages of the Major set BIG to be the team to look out for. Gob b especially demonstrated exceptional site holding skills, he would routinely be able to hold his own against Tier 1 players. The underdog run, however, came to […]