#Counter strike or league of legends pro
#Counter strike or league of legends professional
#Counter strike or league of legends series
#Counter strike or league of legends tv

They’re having to go from one event to another event.'įormer pro player and now caster Joona 'natu' Leppänen says change will need to come to protect players and the sport's integrity. 'There are way too many tournaments, way too many leagues. Rod Breslau is a journalist with ESPN who has been covering esports for more than a decade. You need to keep your eye on the ball and think of the big picture.' 'There are way too many tournaments.' We can’t be asking them to play in every event that comes along just because maybe they’ll make a dollar here or a dollar there. 'There’s such a rush for the Counter-Strike gold mine going on right now. That results in a team not getting enough practice and enough rest at home. 'We’ve seen teams in the past that have traveled to too many events and tried to play in every global LAN. 'I do think there are way too many competitions going on in CS:GO right now,' says Jason Lake, owner of Complexity. They generate revenue by winning or placing high in contests, but also through the sale of branded in-game decorations which fans attach to their weapons. Team owners say they are caught between finding ways to mitigate the grueling schedule, making sure they are competing on a regular basis, staying in the public eye and making money. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices.' Photo credit: MLG / Robert Paul

'It becomes very stressful if you also have to find time to practice, play online matches and general life stuff such as families, girlfriends and friends. 'Sometimes we travel three times a month,' says Andreas 'Xyp9x' Højslet, a player with Astralis. 'Especially if you’re playing a Faceit match, a CEVO match and an ESEA match one after another. 'It consumes your whole night,' says Jablonowski.

#Counter strike or league of legends series

Last week, Twitch partnered with FaceIt to launch a new league, the Esports Championship Series

#Counter strike or league of legends professional

The CS:GO professional calendar is crammed with competing events and leagues, which also demand online playing sessions for qualification. When he's not on the road, he says, 'I’m at my house all day, trying to get better.' Jablonowski says he spends about four hours a day practicing alone, and then another six hours practicing with the team. 'When you're traveling to LAN after LAN, it really takes a toll on you,' says Jonathan Jablonowski, a player with Team Liquid. Unlike mainstream sports, esports players have no union or collective organization. While their lifestyles are seemingly glamorous and their salaries are attractive, their careers are short and their days are long. Its players are engaged in an unforgiving regime of training, travelling and competition in order to keep their teams in the top flight.Īs rival tournament organizations seek to carve out their piece of ballooning revenues, players find their days filled with the rigorous demands of pro-gaming life.

#Counter strike or league of legends tv

TV execs, team managers and sponsors see its simple premise - two teams of five soldiers shooting guns at one another - as more accessible and sellable to esports noobs than the esoteric top-down MOBAs that currently dominate the sector.īut CS:GO's explosive growth also comes with a price. Its revenue has been increased by the sale of in-game items and virtual, random boxes that occasionally yield rare items.ĬS:GO's boosters position the game as a spectacle that can entertain massive mainstream audiences, that can challenge galactic esports success stories like League of Legends and DOTA 2. It recently increased major tournament prize pools from $250K each to $1 million each. Valve does not organize the contests, but it puts up some of the prize money in order to generate interest in the game. 'I’m at my house all day, trying to get better.' Although Counter-Strike was first released 17 years ago, a new influx of sponsors, tournament organizers, betting interests and even mainstream TV is boosting the game's visibility as well as its coffers. Cash generated by the game's publisher Valve from the sale of in-game items is ploughed back to the teams and competitions in the form of prize money. More than 1.5 million people watched the final online, according to MLG.Ĭounter-Strike: Global Offensive's popularity as an esport is growing fast, fueled by highly entertaining competitive events and intense team fandom. In the end, the Brazilians took the title and the $500,000 first-place prize money, providing all the drama this contest had promised. The much fancied Na-Vi took a rapid early lead, only to be outfoxed by Luminosity's tactical nouse and brutal skill. Those fans were soon out of their seats, yelling and cheering at the unfolding drama.