Valve Corporation’s Counter-Strike series began life in 1999 as a fan-made mod for the company’s Half-Life series, but has since become one of the most iconic first person shooters in the world of gaming. Including the various spin offs and third party releases, the series is currently up to eight releases and has established itself as one of the big three Esports along with League of Legends and Dota 2.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was released as the latest instalment to the competitive Esports scene back in 2012, and has seen its popularity surge following its switch to a free to play model in 2018.
With the game showing no signs of slowing down even this year, here’s a beginner’s guide to understanding and eventually mastering Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
What Is Counter-Strike: Global Offensive?
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) is a multiplayer FPS game that features two teams of five taking on the roles of Terrorist forces, who win a round by either killing the entire enemy team or planting a bomb and seeing out the timer until it explodes, or Counter-Terrorist forces who win rounds by either seeing out the round timer without the bomb denoting, killing the enemy team without the bomb being planted, or defusing the bomb once it has been put down.
There is a wide selection of guns and utility that each side can purchase per round, however winning rounds rewards a side with more money to spend on the more higher quality items. Games are made up of thirty rounds, with the winner being the first one to win 16 of those.
Who Is The World’s Best Counter-Strike Player?
According to HLTV’s official rankings, Team Vitality’s Zywhoo is the world’s best CS:GO player. The young Frenchman has competitively played 667 maps at the time of writing, and is sat with a rating of 1.35 against a player-wide average of 1.00. His average damage dished out per round is 90.6, he averages 0.86 kills per round and contributes either a kill, assist, trade or a round survival just under 75% of the time.
However, Zywhoo faces some stiff competition from Natus Vincere’s talisman S1mple. The Ukrainean superstar has played significantly more maps at 1200, despite only being 22, and averages 1.24, 0.65 damage per round and contributes positively to just under 74% of Na’Vi’s rounds played.
Who Is The World’s Best Counter-Strike Team?
Plenty of sides have had their time in the limelight, creating legendary legacies within the game after winning some of the game’s most prestigious events. Ninjas in Pyjamas and Fnatic were the game’s two earlier leaders, before the Brazilian orgs of Luminosity Gaming and SK Gaming won both Major Championships in 2016.
However since then there’s only been one dominant force in the game: Astralis. The Danes won their first Major Championship back in 2017 and suddenly found themselves catapulted to the top of the CSGO odds everywhere.
This early triumph was followed up by three consecutive Major Championship wins on the bounce, with their latest win at StarLadder Berlin last summer crowning them as the first side in history to win four Majors in history.
