Esports Coordinators Work Around The Clock To Revive North American CS:GO
The competitive aspect of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) has grown exponentially since the release of the game. While the title has gained a majority of its traction from Europe, North Americans have also leaned towards the popular online shooter. At one point, organisations such as Cloud9 and Team Liquid used to be at the top of the food chain in esports. They were earning back to back titles and continued to sponsor some of the best players in the world. That all died off after Cloud9 won the ELEAGUE Major back in 2018, an event that sparked a flame across multiple regions.
Within the past year or two, independent orgs have attempted to bring light to their hometowns once again. Chaos Esports Club went from dominating some of the best teams in the world to dropping their roster due to a lack of funding. The same thing went for the New England Whalers who were on a humble path to victory in CS:GO. Nowadays, a large group of esports specialists are working nonstop to recreate a scene that was once a constant back in 2016.
WELL-KNOWN TEAMS LOOK FOR REDEMPTION
One of the biggest issues is the barrier between independent teams and publicly traded rosters. Cloud9 hasn’t been a threat since their run in 2018 but still owns a roster worth millions of dollars. In 2019 they had a terrible performance at the IEM Major in Katowice which led to a series of losses. They began earning less than ten thousand dollars per event, which was a huge shock to their fanbase. People had high hopes for Cloud9 to make a comeback this year, but it just didn’t happen.
Instead, people took to Twitter and couldn’t help but notice the amount of money that Cloud9 was throwing at their players. Keep in mind it was a roster full of individuals that had talent, just not as a team. Cloud9 could’ve saved a boatload of money by exiting from CS:GO, but instead, they chose to revive the North American scene. They even went through two different rosters which cost the org a lot of money. To this day, they are spending their days networking with investors while attempting to become one of the best teams in the world.
Team Liquid has taken a different route by holding onto their original roster. While it hasn’t exactly paid off, they’ve earned trust and appreciation from their lineup. Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski has been with the team since 2015 and has given his life to the org. Besides Michael “Grim” Wince, the rest of the roster began their journeys with Team Liquid around 2017 and 2018. Team Liquid had an insane run in 2019 earning a majority of their lifetime achievements with the help of their North American roster. To this day, Team Liquid understands the importance of earning titles for their region and hopefully it will pay off someday.
INDEPENDENT ORGS TAKE THEIR SHOT AT THE TITLE
Chaos Esports Club began their run in 2018 against some strong competitors. They originally started out competing in Europe but later switched regions with a plan set aside. Chaos EC even gave a player from the NA scene one last chance to compete before changing careers. Joshua "steel" Nissan went from a highly opinionated individual to helping Chaos EC dominate in North America. Steel went from being recognised for his Valve ban to helping reshape the game he once loved.
Click to enlargeINVESTORS ARE LOOKING TO HELP
Even though a bunch of talented players have been dropped due to a lack of funding, that doesn’t mean investors aren’t interested in them. Optic Gaming’s owner Hector "H3CZ" Rodriguez has hinted at a possible investment into CS:GO. He’s acknowledged Chaos EC and Triumph for their success, and he might want a taste of it. While his scouting incident with Optic India didn’t turn out too well, that hasn’t completely turned H3CZ away from the game.
On December 7, another esports personality known as Launders made an interesting series of tweets regarding his views on growing North American teams. He made a post talking about the ex-Chaos EC roster and his hopes to fund the roster. While the tweet gained a lot of traction, Launders followed up by clarifying he was completely serious about owning a team. Launders has funded independent players in the past and plans on doing the same thing with ex-Chaos EC.
TOURNAMENT MANAGERS SAVE THE DAY
With COVID-19 forcing people to quarantine away from their ordinary working quarters, tournament organisers have been hard at work by providing players with their usual events. They’ve dedicated countless hours to producing some of the best online tournaments along with casters, interviewers, and anti-cheating software. These setups have helped teams that lack LAN experience fight their way to the top in an online platform. Some talented lineups lack funding and can only compete in online events. Most of these lineups are located in North America and need all the help they can get. Pillars in the CS:GO community won't go down without a fight before the North American scene possibly drifts away.
Images via ESL
