Could Mongolia be the New Zealand of Counter-Strike?

Darragh Harbinson, Senior Editor

Last Updated: 28/08/2025

Following the announcement of the Esports National Cup, Counter-Strike fans racked their brains imagining the composition of every nation’s optimal roster for the potential Counter-Strike 2 competition. For one nation, the answer was pretty obvious – Mongolia should field The MongolZ, a rare national roster in an international era.

Not only that, but the majority of online pundits listed Mongolia as the favourites for the competition, owing to their existing teamwork and synergy.

That stands despite potential rivals such as Russia or France having much larger populations than Mongolia’s 3.5 million residents. Even with a population disadvantage, Mongolia’s culture and The MongolZ’s newfound success may lead to Mongolia becoming the New Zealand of Counter-Strike – consistently punching above its manpower weight.

Could Mongolia be CS2’s New Zealand?

New Zealand has a population of only 5.3 million. It is dwarfed both in population by its regional rivals in Australia (28m), South Africa (63m), and Argentina (47m).

Yet the All Blacks dominate their regional competition, The Rugby Championship (Formerly Tri-Nations). The Southern-Hemisphere equivalent of the Six Nations, New Zealand have claimed the title 20 times out of 29 total times the competition has been contested since 1996.

While South Africa now holds more Rugby World Cup titles (four titles to New Zealand’s three), no nation is so synonymous with Rugby.

The All Blacks have become the national brand of the country, with tours to Britain, Ireland, and France selling out consistently as fans eagerly await the famous Haka, New Zealand’s traditional Māori chant and dance.

Nothing means more to a rugby team than defeating the All Blacks, I should know as an Irishman, as it took 111 years of trying for Ireland to achieve that feat.

New Zealand’s consistent ability to dominate world rugby despite its population has put New Zealand on the map and into the minds of all sports fans.

So how did these geographic minnows become so consistently great at Rugby? In one word: Culture.

Rugby is the national sport of New Zealand; they are obsessed with it and have created structures to consistently get the best out of their small talent pool.

Kids play from a young age, are coached from a young age, and grow up dreaming of emulating national team heroes like Beauden Barrett, Ardie Savea, or Rieko Ioane.

In Mongolia, for the first time in history, a nation’s sporting heroes may be esports players.

Mongolia’s LAN culture

Mongolia’s national sport is Bokh, also known as Mongolian wrestling, followed by football, but football supporters primarily support foreign teams such as Premier League players, and interest in Bokh does not extend much past Mongolia’s borders.

Mongolian Counter-Strike viewership reached a high of 179,637 peak viewers, according to esports viewership aggregator Esports Charts. The number represents over 5% of Mongolia’s entire population. For reference, if the UK population watched an event with the same ratio, that would mean 13.8m people tuning in to watch Counter-Strike.

The number, however, does not account for the vast watch parties, with multiple big screens displaying the Esports World Cup Grand Final in both open-air spaces. Following The MongolZ victory at EWC, where they defeated esports betting sites favourites, Vitality, the crowd was seen in rapturous celebration on social media.

There is no overestimating the notoriety of The MongolZ in their home nation. The MongolZ players are prominently featured not only on the big screen but in local advertising, with players appearing on billboards. Even the Prime Minister of Mongolia, Gombojavyn Zandanshatar, was shown celebrating The MongolZ’s EWC victory on social media.

The MongolZ have brought recognition to Mongolia, rarely seen in the remote region.

Despite Mongolia’s vast size, making it one of the least densely populated nations on Earth, its population is largely concentrated in its capital city of Ulaanbaatar, with approximately half of the country living there (1.7m).

The urban conditions make Ulaanbaatar a perfect breeding ground for Mongolia’s internet cafe culture.

Even prior to the esports boom, which saw prize money explode and professional organisations emerging, LAN cafes were popular hangout spots amongst Ulaanbaatar’s urban youth, with competitive for-money tournaments existing from the Counter-Strike 1.6 days.

Now, young Mongolian players can look at CS not only as a hobby, but as a legitimate professional path that leads to international and domestic acclaim.

The MongolZ provide a pathway to Tier 1 for Mongolia

When IHC qualified for Antwerp 2022, it was an exciting moment for Mongolian Counter-Strike, but there was a general consensus that the roster couldn’t climb much further. After all, in such a small nation, how do you iterate on a roster, how do you improve your pieces? There was a prevailing sentiment that the talent simply wasn’t there.

The Mongolian roster proved us all wrong. Of the Antwerp roster, only Sodbayar ‘Techno4K’ Munkhbold and IGL Garidmagnai ‘bLitz’ Byambasuren remain, yet the roster has only gotten better and better, with the latest addition to the roster being Azbayar ‘Senzu’ Munkhbold in 2023 at the age of only 17.

The MongolZ have already displayed that a depth of talent does exist at home, and now that The MongolZ organisation is pulling in both regular prize money and sponsorship, they have an increased capacity to both find and support that talent.

That support was formally announced in June with the establishment of MongolZ Academy, which can now act as that bridge between Mongolian local competition and Tier 1 Counter-Strike and allow young players to be coached with principles that will make their young talents competitive when they make that step up.

Counter-Strike may not be the most popular sport in Mongolia yet, but more than any nation on Earth, Mongolia has a chance of being the first nation where esports do eclipse traditional sports.

While South Korea has a prominent esports culture, it is eclipsed in viewership and cultural support by Baseball, with Taekwondo considered the national sport.

At the very least, The MongolZ consistently represent Mongolia on the world stage in a way that is not replicated elsewhere, inspiring generations to come with the organisation of The MongolZ, giving Mongolia’s dreamers are framework to make it to the top of Counter-Strike.

Darragh Harbinson, Senior Editor

Darragh Harbinson is an esports writer specialising in Counter-Strike. He has written for Esports News UK, Esports Insider, UKCSGO, Dexerto, and Rush B Media.

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