Opinion: North American CS:GO Isn’t Dying
Ever since the downfall of Team Liquid and Cloud9, the public has formed an agreement on North America’s decline in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO). Before bashing on the region’s most recent upsets, think about the impact that Chaos Esports Club and Triumph have had on A-Tier CS:GO. They’ve outperformed the people they once looked up to, and are now destroying them in online events. As for Asian CS:GO, things haven’t improved since TYLOO made a return to the top thirty. New teams, including NG Esports, still haven’t managed to rise above their previous results and are still in the shadows of TYLOO and ViCi Gaming. Asia’s number one contender might look good in their own region, but they also have terrible world rankings.
WORLD RANKINGS
ViCi Gaming is currently ranked first in all of Asia and is just three points ahead of TYLOO. When you compare their stats with the rest of the world, ViCi Gaming is only ranked #64 across all regions. The main issue is the number of tournaments they’ve played throughout this year alone. ViCi Gaming has only participated in a total of ten tournaments which have all been B-Tier events. It’s almost impossible for these teams to look good financially when their prize pools are significantly lower than in other regions. Take the Intel Extreme Masters, for example, the event which was hosted in Beijing.
All four regions, including Europe, North America, Oceania, and Asia, have drastically different prize pools. ViCi Gaming finished first after winning a total of three sets but only won eight thousand dollars. North America’s very own Chaos EC earned thirty-five thousand dollars along with a spot in the IEM Global Challenger - an event that is strictly made up of North American and European teams from multiple world rankings. Saying it’s hard to succeed as an Asian CS:GO team is an understatement these days, especially with the potential earnings. TYLOO has recently been hit with the same issues facing ViCi Gaming and other top tier Asian teams.
While TYLOO has a great list of sponsors and talented players, they haven’t seen the top fifteen since 2016. It’s been a long year for the legendary roster, but they’ve still managed to hit six figures in earnings with multiple wins. The only thing is that it’s just not enough to thrive in the cutthroat environment of esports, especially in CS:GO. Every time they play against teams outside of their region, it’s usually disappointing. TYLOO most recently got swept by 100Thieves in February before they left competitive CS:GO. On top of that, TYLOO always slips up in every Major when they finally receive the chance to show off their talents as a team.
NEW TEAMS
Formed in 2018, Bren Esports was designed by Bernard Chong in an attempt to rebuild Asia’s CS:GO fanbase. They're the fifth best team in Asia, but aren’t even in the top hundred throughout world rankings. After two years of participating in events, Bren has earned nearly forty thousand dollars but still lacks pro points for major tournaments. Eventually, they were forced to merge with a division called Fallen5 and transfer their entire roster to an amateur league. If both well-known teams and independent rosters can’t make it into the top twenty-five; then who will?
Click to enlargeTIME FOR A REVAMP
NG Esports are on track to creating a team capable of dominating outside of their region. Since September of this year, they’ve been compiling a championship roster for their 2021 season. After Big Time Regal Gaming was called out by Hyun-pyo “XigN” Lee for underpaying their players, NG took the time to contact their free-agent list. Team captain Anthony “ImpressioN” Lee plans on leading his team to victory while helping his org conquer Asian CS:GO. NG is still getting the hang of things, but managed to place second at the 188Esports Thailand Championship against Nine Esports. Since then it’s all been scrims and practice, but NG could be the team that puts Asia in the top ten someday.
While Renegades hasn’t earned nearly the same amount of TYLOO in 2020, they’re still always being talked about within forums and in the media; most likely because they’re making the best of their situation and promoting their team every second of each day. North American teams have also had great success within the past two years. It’s only overlooked because the championship teams are new and have small fan bases or social media followings. Viewers should steer away from the pioneers of CS:GO and look towards a new light of teams that are keeping the game alive. This is the exact issue with Asia’s downfalls in viewers, sponsors, and overall really talented orgs.
Unless TYLOO or NG can step up to the plate, who knows what will happen next.
Images via TYLOO | NG Esports