whatarnuthinks

[whatarnuthinks]

Does Online Play Ruin Pro CS:GO Tournaments?

Does online play ruin Counter Strike Global Offence tournaments? Online play is a whole different ball game than playing in person at an arena. Looking at ESL Pro League Season 11 and Flash Point Season 1 both leagues have had some upsets that were not expected. One to be exact was Navi’s loss to North and Astralis getting mopped by Fnatic, the two best teams in the world. These could have happened at a LAN event but it’s far less likely, and it shows. 

LAN is when you play a computer without the need for the internet. LAN games have smoother connections and no ping problems, this feature can affect how pros play their games. Online play greatly affects one game’s outcome as their skill gaps can be closed in on with ping or the lack of an audience in physical form. To say that these online qualifiers and tier 1 teams losing to lower-ranked teams is a “showing they’re falling off” or “a bad team” is an arrogant statement. 

Road to Rio is a great thing for us at home right now, but it really sucks that huge upsets can happen online because it’s online. Teams wouldn’t lose these huge games to lower-ranked teams if the games were on LAN, and it really sucks to see some of your favorite teams get eliminated because they lost a few online games. This is just my opinion, and these a very fair argument against what I have stated and a great amount of reason as to why its this way, it still sucks at the end of the day. 

[whatarnuthinks]

Just imagine this, 100T winning Rio. 

[whatarnuthinks]

Thoughts On The Rio Major Situation

The Rio Major has been moved to November due to the Covid-19. While I do think that this is a smart move from Valve and ESL to move Rio to November since all other tournaments have been moved or canceled. This was a smart move on ESL for many reasons I will explain. Covid-19 has spread rapidly and having a major with tens of thousands of people would not help the situation, it would increase it. While everyone including myself is sad that we will have to wait a few more months, the prize pool was doubled to 2 million dollars. 

One thing I am a bit annoyed about is how teams will have more time to prepare and fix their problems before November. Many teams had a big chance at winning this major and the date being chanced probably reduced their chances, drastically. Navi would be the best example, starting 2020 out with a win at Katowice, and the major less than a month and a half away they looked to be the biggest problem for other teams. With this long wait for Rio, Navi could lose their drive, motivation, momentum, or flame that they had going into Katowice. 

There are many teams working on taking down these bigger targets to claim the championship. When the enemy has more time to prepare it usually doesn’t work in your favor. I think that the change in the majors’ date will spice up the major when we come around to it. I think Navi will play well but won’t go far, G2 the same and Liquid/EG is a wild card as NA always is. Astralis looks to take their 5th major win with 6 players, and Mouse, FaZe, and Fnatic looks to be in really good shape as of recently. 

Some good things about the Major moving dates that are good are that the story lines and the competition. I think Astralis has the biggest chance of winning the major again, especially with the news that they have a six-man roster. The hype for Rio in November will be insane and I can’t wait to watch it with friends. 

[whatarnuthinks]

Will FaZe win Rio? I doubt it but there's a chance!

[whatarnuthinks]

About GODSENT

With the ESL Pro League Season 11 just starting this week, GODSENT was set to play Vitality in a best of three. How I feel about this match watching it live last night made me a little annoyed with GODSENT. With some really good talent on the new roster that just came about around sin months ago, it was a little disappointing. The team looked good going into the match and had a lot of hype around them after their upset win with OG just a few weeks before.

GODSENT is a great EU team skill and talent-wise compared to many other teams. The question is can they use that talent and skill to win something major such as ESL pro league or a major. To be honest, I don’t think they can win a major right now but they can win some other major tournaments to put their name on the map even more. This GODSENT we see is not the same as it was three years ago with the Fnatic trade. This roster can put up some numbers and do some big upsets as we saw with OG a few weeks ago. Do I think they will take down any tier 1 teams such as FaZe, G2, MouseSports, Liquid, and Navi? Maybe, if they keep playing as good as they are.  

All I can say is looking as an outsider and a fan of the team they have made progress and I have my hopes up for them in the Rio major. Maden has been playing really well recently and looks to be an upcoming Star in Europe and on lan. kRYSTAL has some work to do as igl but he’s doing good so far. and Maikelele has been an outstanding player overall, can’t wait to see what he does next. People need to wake up and notice the next EU team that’s around the corner.

[whatarnuthinks]

Will Tyloo keep its top 30 placings, they are #29 rn.

[whatarnuthinks]

Team Liquids Silent Problem

Team Liquid has had a great past year with their very fast run to the grand slam to take the number one spot from Astralis. Great team communication all around the board during the run they had for a few months. They played good, smart, consistent and they had that drive of momentum after winning and winning back to back. Team Liquid went from a team that choked at every opportunity they had, to be a big major contender.

When Team Liquid Signed Stewie2k from MIBR in exchange for TACO and Zews, Team liquid started to look way better than when they had Taco playing for them. I would argue they had the rawest talent ever on a team. With EliGE as the superstar of the team, Twistzz, and Naf as stars making major plays in times of need. Nitr0 as the Igl (In-game leader) being more or a support player and less of a playmaker, and then Stewie2k who was a superstar for Cloud9 during their major run in 2018 against the superteam that was FaZe. They looked really good on paper, and they proved it with an upset win at iBUYPOWER Masters IV against Astralis. For the next few months they would show that they were a top tier team and that NA could keep up with Europe. 

Mid-2019 they would see major success as they would beat Astralis’s Grand slam record. The team was on fire and was beating the best teams in the league and looked like the next major champions. This never happened though, Team Liquid never won the Berlin major. They were not playing the same as they were two months prior and they never got back to that prime that they had just a few months before. Stewie2k was not playing up to expectations, EliGE was off and the whole team suffered. Team Liquid is a momentum-based team, meaning they just need that one win at a tournament and it’s a domino effect. The two-month break before the Berlin major Liquid didn’t have anything to play for or any Tier 1 teams, meaning they lost their momentum.

 The Berlin Major didn’t make their luck any better either, they would get eliminated by Astralis in the Quarter Finals, and would go on to win their 4th major. When a Team is based on momentum and mood, losing to your rival you were expected to beat really messes with you. Team Liquid wouldn’t win anything internationally but would win two titles domestically. As the owner of Team Liquid and the manager of the cs:go side of things this really looks bad for an organization and loses some respect form a lot of people. 

After the Berlin major Team liquid never got back into the move and hasn’t played the same since. The team's communication was off after Berlin and adreN haven’t succeeded in fixing that problem as the coach. There have been rumors that egos play a big role in how the team plays and jet lag is a factor as well. If Team Liquid doesn’t win anything soon, then adreN (coach) will be removed as coach and someone new will step in to help fix the problems. 

They have a problem that needs to be addressed and it seems recently they have started to play more team-based tiles rather than their individual playmaking style. With the Rio Major around the corner and Navi winning Katowice, Liquid’s “Era” looks to be an old memory. Many fans such as I still hope they can pull themselves together, and win a major with their roster. With more and more teams getting better and better, Liquid has started to lose what they once were, a superteam. 

[whatarnuthinks]

Machine and Twistzz are my idols! 

[whatarnuthinks]

Will Esports Over Take Traditional Sports?

eSports will overtake and rise above traditional sports in the future. There are multiple facts showing why eSports is getting more popular and becoming mainstream. Why it makes as much money as it does, and why people invest in the scene. How the media portrays eSports as a whole and their problems with it. Along with the social change that newer and younger generations are watching and supporting eSports.

eSports is becoming more popular and mainstream because of its viewer base increase and player base increase. When we look at the average viewer base “In 2017, the number of frequent eSports viewers and enthusiasts amounted to 143 million” (eSports Audience Size and Growth, 2018) with it only growing these numbers are high. The rise of viewers keeps growing “The global eSports audience will reach 380 million this year, made up of 165 million dedicated eSports fans and 215 million occasional viewers” (Gray, 2018).

 The reason these numbers are so big and keep getting bigger is not luck. New games and game-changing updates are made every year and it keeps people coming back. Everyone wants to try out that cool looking first-person shooter game. A good example is Counter-Strike Global Offence which was released in 2012 but became free to play in early 2019. This decision by Valve the game developer and publisher boosted the game to the top of steam charts for most of 2019 with 900,000 players daily (SteamCharts, 2020). With a large influx of players coming to the game they were also introduced to counter strikes in the eSports scene. 

Games and their players are not the only reason people get into eSports. Streaming platforms are one of the biggest ways to get an understanding and interest in eSports. Twitch is the biggest streaming platform for people to broadcast them playing video games or chatting. Twitch is one of the biggest contributors to eSports without actually contributing, it’s like bees to humans. They let eSport sponsors stream pro matches on Twitch and people come and watch, this helps Esports grow and Twitch. We can tell that companies take notice of eSports when “Amazon was one such company to see that competitive gaming was about to go big, snapping up Twitch for itself in 2014 for nearly $1 billion” (Miggy, 2017). 

Investing in eSports is now a common thing for big-name brands such as Monster Energy Drink, iBUYPOWER, Toyota, Intel, and many more. Most of the individual people who invest a lot of money are wealthy people such as Rick Fox, who was a former three-time NBA champion for the Los Angeles Lakers. He owned a League Of Legends Team called Echo Fox, who plays in the League Of Legends Pro Series. "I see the way that the eSports world is growing and I know we are on the verge of something massive," (Rick, 2015). So needless to say that people do take this seriously and do have a lot of money involved. 

Besides Twitch and major companies contributing or investing, the media still doesn’t understand it all that well. A lot of ESPN talk show hosts and sports hosts, in general, don't support it and laugh at the idea of professional gaming, they are vultures waiting to pick at a dead eSport. ESPN as a company has stepped in the eSports scene as of late reporting on games and tournaments on their website. Social media can and has played a big role in how people perceive eSports. 

Mark Cuban a Dallas Billionaire said in an interview with Fox Sports 1 “In aggregate, it’s a good business,” Cuban said. “Is it growing? Yes. But domestically here in the United States, it’s an awful business” (Don, 2019). Esports is not for every country or region of the world. But it is a growing business in Asia and Europe and they know that. They market and use social media to their advantage in Europe and Asia to get more followers and sell millions of dollars worth of merch. 

Most people who use Social media are millennials or Generation Z teenagers and young adults. There are some older people online, but the majority are young men and women. As times change so does entertainment and how people make money. eSports is aimed more at the younger people because they are more knowledgeable and open-minded to new things, unlike older generations. That’s why you will never see anyone older than 40 at these events or playing like a pro. It’s easy for companies to advertise to these new young people trying to watch their favorite player with Monster energy Drink on his jersey. 

Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-AHgYxxk01aSofg02h_4q17MrBMgPlyxhdSmz8fog0c/edit?usp=sharing