tarik States How NA CS:GO Is Losing Traction: Can These New Rosters Change That?

With twelve major titles and million-dollar teams, Europe is known as the most dominant region in Counter-Strike history. Organisations such as Astralis make competitive CS:GO look like a piece of cake. The competitive scene isn’t as natural for North American teams. With only one major title back in 2018 and a long history of defeat, NA CS:GO is once again losing its fanbase. Now despite NA teams still earning top placements that doesn’t mean people are still overly interested in their victories. Evil Geniuses have been fluctuating in the top ten world rankings peaking at first on September 28, 2020. European players are well known for providing big brain plays that the average user would never even think of.

WHO FOUNDED NORTH AMERICAN CS:GO?

Some might argue that Complexity paved the way for NA teams. Founded back in 2003 by Jason Lake, Complexity began their journey in Counter-Strike 1.6. They had a great run but really started to become a household name in 2013 after placing fourth at the DreamHack Winter event. It was a big deal since CS:GO was known for mostly European teams like Fnatic and NiP. The roster at the time consisted of golden players like Hiko, nothing, and swag. Complexity had officially become the first North American team to place in the semifinals at a major tournament. 

Following the ELEAGUE Major in Boston won by Cloud9 back in 2018, Astralis had taken over winning three majors in a row. They had broken multiple records and became the centre of attention for CS:GO. On top of that, they also hold the most major titles at four first-place finishes. The most recent letdown for NA fans was at IEM New York, where Evil Geniuses had lost to Brazil’s Furia placing third behind 100 Thieves' Australian roster. A huge disappointment for fans across Canada and the United States. Halfway through the event, a tweet from EG’s own tarik blew up on Twitter. 

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NA CONTROVERSY

Being the honest, outgoing player tarik is, he tweeted on his main Twitter account about how NA CS:GO was dead. Joking or not, a lot of people actually agreed with him, resulting in seventeen thousand likes and over a thousand retweets. It seems like people are more interested in smaller teams like the New England Whalers and Rugratz, both small teams that were founded in 2019. The tweet quickly made its way to Reddit on r/GlobalOffensive earning multiple awards, six thousand upvotes, and a lot of opinionated comments. One of the biggest issues seems to be the lack of culture and updates around CS:GO.

Unless you started playing years ago, CS:GO is an intimidating game to get into. Known for its smurfs, cheaters, and overall salty players most people get scared off easily. The game hardly changes, allowing people to become almost unstoppable. Whereas titles like Call of Duty go from old school shooting to jetpacking around the map. Recoil is also a realistic feature that most people can’t comprehend. Essentially, the CS:GO fanbase in North America depends on a return rate rather than passive growth.

TIME FOR A COMEBACK 

A team by the name of Rugratz is looking to change the state of North American CS:GO. Currently competing in the ESEA Season 35 Premier Division, the Rugratz squad are experimenting with new players. Within the past year, Rugratz have made roughly twenty roster changes hoping to climb out of C-Tier tournaments. Their newest team includes mada, RZU, FaNg, kobruh, and Infinite. When you’re trying to build a team, it’s important to limit your friendships and know when to drop someone. A lot of teams just don’t have the money to train their players, and instead need to make constant transfers to participate at such a high level.   

Another NA team looking to shake things up with their recent pickups is Vireo.pro. A team that left the scene in 2018 due to a lack of support. Resulting in the disposal of five contracts and a disbanded organisation. Seeing how the NA scene has dropped, Vireo.pro is looking to take advantage of that and help revive their region. The mostly American roster consists of hendy, walker, vein, armen, Ryze, and Bibby - all brand new players looking to learn under their new coach. Originally playing with Warriors International as an independent team, the new Vireo squad want to rebuild the B-Tier NA Scene.

Now, why should North American teams rely on small independent players to help climb the ranks? Simply - because they’re the future of CS:GO and might lack attention due to their issues with team bonding. Experimenting with players is the path to success. When building a team, you need to look at someone who might lack CT skills but have really good entry frag abilities. Or possibly an inconsistent AWPer. A player who lacks consistency but is known to hit the crazy game-winning flicks when under pressure. CS:GO team building is a numbers game which coaches should follow if they want to dominate North American CS:GO. 
 

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