28 Jan The growth of Counter-Strike analysis – draft
Journalism Project final draft
This written piece is about the popular and fast-growing e-sport game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, detailing how the game looked when it was initially released in 2012 and comparing it to how it looks now as a popularised respected e-sport title with roughly 5 million yearly views across platforms. This article aims to explain the history, the growth, what makes CS:GO popular and why it’s now appeared into the entertainment mainstream. The intended audience is multiple demographics of e-sport enthusiasts, Counter-Strike and multiplayer shooter fans, and competitive gaming analysts.
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Standfirst and intro paragraph:
One of the world’s most popular Esport titles, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, is bringing in more viewers and revenue every year as it continues to grow rapidly
[Part 1]
The first part to my article will be covering mostly the history and context background needed to understand the Counter-Strike series origin, and how it grew to be such a competitive game showcasing some of the earliest rising stars who produced content (such as skill video showcases) that helped gain initial interest into the series. Beginning the first in the series, CS 1.6, moving onto CS source but most of the history portion will focus on CS:GO as it started out rough and unpolished, and needed to be shaped into what it is today.
Counter-Strike, a now famous competitive multiplayer for its tight game play and high skill ceiling is one of the most recognisable esports viewed in the entirety of gaming, it’s impact netting the esport industry millions of pounds and viewership across the globe in many countries thanks to it’s high profile and broadcasts available to be watched on many sporting channels and online outlets. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive comes from a prestigious background of famous games prior in it’s series and being developed by one of the world’s most renowned game companies, Valve Software which helps to idolise it within the entertainment industry. But such a monolithic icon in all of entertainment had begun from a simple modification to an originally existing game, which then transpired to one of Valve’s rockiest launches of all time – making one of the biggest esport games almost never catching on.
[30 sec audio slideshow with narration over precious counter-strike titles, giving brief context to how the games looked and compare to one another]
[Part 2]
This part will focus on how CS:GO grew with more updates and polishing to become the game it is today – how the advent of youtube and twitch helped to market the game as a fully competitive esport and to entice viewers into watching matches being played in CS:GO, as well as the content such as the iconic map pool that helps define the game.
Professional players and organisers were vocal about the state CS:GO was initially as a competitive game [pro player opinion quotes over 30 sec video of CS:GO in 2012, when it wasn’t very popular]
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive works on its issues, but the main appeal to grab new players are in-game items and valve sponsored tournaments. As interest in the game finally begun to rise – CS:GO devs start to fund major tournaments complete with bigger prize pools than ever before to entice pro players and viewers.
[Part 3]
The next part covers the statistics of viewership of CS:GO tournaments throughout the years and why the numbers grow rapidly still to this day using info graphics and facts to portray the rise to fame CS:GOP achieved. Also explained and detailed is how the production value of events increased popularity in the game and the key role multimedia production plays in broadcasting said events. Most of the research will be presented in this portion.
Numbers and statistics, and how production plays a role in tournaments
Different tournament viewing stats
- Eleague major 2018 – 1,847,542 viewers in total
- FACEIT major 2018 – 1,084,126 viewers in total
- ESL One Cologne 2014 – 409,386 viewers in total
Viewership in CS:GO tournaments has dramatically risen in four years from previous majors, with production value being invested into at a demanding rate which in turn makes the broadcast of these tournaments vastly more professional and appealing to viewers and sponsorships, pulling in more people yearly than ever before.
[30 sec video slideshow comparing ESL One major 2014 to a vastly more populated and higher quality production Eleague minor in 2018]
[Part 4 – conclusion]
In the final part of my article, it will recap the journey CS:GO has been through by briefly mentioning small portions from each previous part of the article. To finish off my piece, I will use interviewee statements and figures to explain what CS:GOs future looks like both as a standalone game and as a esport title, what this will mean for the industry and if the game will remain relevant for years to come (referencing some highly defining updates to the game, such as the recent 2018 choice of making the game free to play)
Interview transcript – Jack Weatherley
Interview with a university student playing for Canturbury Christ Church University’s CS:GO team who talks about their involvement being a member of a team and what they go through as a player, such as how they practice, play and talk to eachother. I also asked him about how his own team compares to professional players and how they practice and train together, and whether or not CS:GO is easier to get into now than it was in the past. Currently my only interviewee, planned interviewee’s include: professional players (any active and any tier CS team), production crew at esport companies FACEIT and ESL.
I chose him as one of my interviewees and helps add to my article because I needed a voice that visualised how the game works from a competitive angle that comes from someone starting out in terms of climbing the professional ladder of the game, a student that plays for a university and competes in recognised tournaments against other university teams.
Interview is done with audio only and raw; yet to be edited. Transcript with some of the best quotes from the interview below;
“If you jump into different twitch streams and different youtube videos from professional games, it’s fairly easy to pick up”
- response when asked if previous knowledge of counter-strike titles is needed to get into CS:GO
“My team use one day a week for about 4-5 hours where we go into a game and practice different techniques and setups to be used in a competitive match”
- speaking as a entry-level player, this showcases the steps taken for up coming teams to how they practice and keep on top of their skill and to get them ready for any tournaments coming up
- insight to how professional players will practice before games and the similarities needed to be emulated by upcoming teams in order to stay ahead of the game
“There’s some similarities to how we practice to how professional teams, such as the process of using utility and practice different grenade placements and setups”
- Context as to what pro’s face when practising and that university leagues also learn and adapt what pro players do
“One thing different that pro teams do is what’s called scrimming, where a pre made team of 5 will go against another pre-made team for the purpose of practising together in the same match, which is something i’d like our team to do in the future”
- definition of scrimming – pre made teams facing off in a recreational match to practice
- helps identify the improvement needed when building your way up the CS:GO ladder
SOURCES
- Interviewee Jack Weatherley – computing student at Canterbury Christ Church University (member of their CS:GO esport team)
- esports marketing blog, ESC.watch
- CS:GO professional player’s profiles (example)
- World Economic Forum
- CS:GO community subreddit, one of the largest CS:GO communities
- Liquidpedia, one of the biggest online wiki’s for the pro scene in CS:GO
