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CS:GO tournaments are highly popular among the players and fans of the game all over the world. In 2023, one Major series tournament is planned. Learn more about Counter-Strike.
Counter-Strike in 2023: CS:GO tournaments
CS:GO is one of the most popular esports disciplines all over the world that is proven both by the number of fans and by different esports bookmakers. Regular tournaments gather lots of people who are fascinated to watch the battles between the players.
In 2023, one Major series tournament is planned. It will be held in Paris in May. While we are waiting for it, let us see what happens in current tournaments and if there’s anything interesting going on.
Why Counter-Strike is so popular?
Counter-Strike belongs to the type of games that almost every gamer has tried at least once. Two enthusiasts Minh Li and Jess Cliffe developed this famous shooter in 1999 by creating the Counter-Strike mod in Half-Life. Since that time, CS has of course gained legendary status – and set the trends for the esports industry for decades to come.
Despite the fact that the original mod is more than 20 years old, people continue to choose and enjoy the latest iterations of Counter-Strike now. One reason for this is multiple new versions that appear and provide amazing gameplay with some awesome features.
For instance, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is a multiplayer first-person shooter that was created to deepen and improve the existing team game mechanics. Many Counter-Strike lovers were fascinated by it.
CS:GO included newer maps, characters and weapons, as well as classic iconic maps with a slight makeover. The developers also added several original game modes, a leaderboard, and lobbies for fighters.
Therefore, for now, it stays at the top among esports and gets lots of attention from both players and fans. But with CS2 around the corner, the CS community looks set for more new features and changes too.
CS:GO tournaments and championships
What about current championships and news? While we are waiting for the Paris Major to start, there have been two other finals worth our attention.
IEM Katowice 2023
Sixteen teams took part in the finals of IEM Katowice from January 31 until February 12. G2 and Heroic met during its final.
G2’s international team led by NiKo won the leading team and confirmed this title during the tournament. On the first map (Nuke) G2 did not start well on the offensive side, but afterward, they made a comeback and won. It was similar on Mirage, but here G2 lost to the defense 1-9 but still came back and won 16-13.
Inferno started traditionally, Heroic were again better at the start (leading 6-1) and then allowed the opponent to come back into it.
Nevertheless, Heroic were able to make a breakthrough again and break G2’s streak of 22 consecutive map wins. The match moved to the fourth map that was Ancient. Here, HooXi’s G2 team finally made a good start and won the first half on defense, before pressing forward on offense to win IEM Katowice 2023.
It is worth noting that this IEM title is the second in a row for the Australian player jks in Poland – last year he won it with FaZe.
ESL Pro League Season 17
Another fascinating event took place on Sunday March 26. That was the tournament final of the ESL Pro League Season 17. Cloud9 and FaZe met in this final match and the meeting took place in the best-of-5 format.
The fiercest fight between the two teams was observed on the first map (Overpass), after which FaZe easily took Inferno. On Mirage, the Europeans allowed themselves to relax a bit, allowing Cloud9 to win the round 16-11. However, the luck of this team ended there.
FaZe won on Ancient with the same score and became the winner of the ESL Pro League. For this victory, they earned 200 thousand dollars. It is worth noticing that the team also became the owner of the Intel Grand Slam, winning IEM Katowice 2022, ESL Pro League 15, IEM Cologne 2022 and ESL Pro League 17. For this, FaZe received 1 million. Before this, Intel Grand Slam was won by Astralis, Liquid and NaVi.
In addition, FaZe earned the right to perform at IEM Cologne 2023 and the BLAST World Final 2023.
Altogether, in CS:GO tournaments we observe strong teams and fascinating gameplay. No wonder that interest in CS:GO is rising and bringing new fans who follow the championships. There are many more events in this area planned for 2023, so do not miss them and stay alert when it comes to the most interesting news.
