When is the major in cs go. Two majors and a tournament cart from DreamHack: what events will take place in CS:GO this year
The largest cyber tournament in the gaming discipline starts on July 16 CS:GO– PGL Major Kraków 2017. Like the last two years, the prize fund will be $1 million, for which 16 teams will compete. Especially for the site, the editors of StarLadder prepared a history of the “majors” according to CS:GO and explains how the tournaments achieved popularity among spectators and players.
fb messenger
Release Counter-Strike: Global Offensive took place on August 21, 2012. The online shooter, well known to a large number of gamers, was released on the Steam platform, and its cost was $10. Besides, CS:GO I also looked at the previous generation consoles - Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Actually, due to the fact that the new game from the Counter-Strike series was originally conceived as a multi-platform, CS:GO so different from CS 1.6 And CS:Source who at that time were living out their last days. Fortunately, Valve later came to its senses and focused on the development and development of the PC version of the game.
It is not surprising that the community of hardcore PC gamers received the semi-console game without much enthusiasm. Old players from the 1.6 era could not get used to the new unusual mechanics, as a result of which many eSports players ended their careers and never returned to this game. The new ones, spoiled by casual shooters, like Call of Duty, there was simply nothing to surprise.
As a result of this, the game's audience was quite low, and the pro scene hardly developed. A turning point was the announcement of DreamHack Winter 2013, which took place a year after the game’s release. This event was personally sponsored by Valve and received “major” status. The first Major event in history CS:GO.
To collect a then-record prize fund for a competitive CS:GO in the amount of $250,000, Valve decided to a little trick. The game developers have released an update called The Arms Deal Update, which was added to CS:GO cosmetic items, or to be more precise, weapon skins that can be obtained from chests. So at that moment C.S. followed in the footsteps Dota 2 and, despite the initial disapproval from the oldfags, she raised the hype around herself that she so needed at that time.
Having built the foundation, Valve later specially released the Esports 2013 Case for DreamHack Winter 2013, part of the sales of which went to the tournament prize fund. Audience CS:GO she quickly got used to the chests and began to seriously spend money on them, and Valve quickly collected the amount she needed for the first major. This crowdfunding scheme continued to operate in 2014.
After the first eSports chests, Valve went even further and added souvenir sets with items to the game CS:GO, which could be obtained by watching matches at DreamHack Winter 2013. Thanks to this, the tournament received a noticeable boost in terms of the number of viewers. To this day, Valve actively uses this trick, which has more than once allowed it to gather more than one million viewers in front of the monitor screen during broadcasts.
As a result, professionals expectedly became interested in the discipline, seeing such rapid progress and prospects, just like ordinary players who laid the foundation for the revival of the CS community. This is how the so-called “first era” of major tournaments began.
First era
The initial stage of the development of majors began with DreamHack Winter 2013 and ended with the same tournament, only in 2014. Major events took place at small venues, the gaming community was still beginning to form, and broadcasts CS:GO were just gaining momentum. Valve continued to work with the crowdfunding system, releasing two more cases after that - Esports 2013 Winter Case and Esports 2014 Summer Case, but the prize pool remained at the same level - $250,000.
| Tournament | Prize fund | Winners |
| DreamHack Winter 2013 | $250.000 | fnatic (Devilwalk, pronax, JW, znajder, flusha) |
| EMS One Katowice 2014 | $250.000 | Virtus.pro (Snax, byali, pashaBiceps, NEO, TaZ) |
| ESL One Cologne 2014 | $250.000 | NiP (Fifflaren, GeT_RiGhT, Xizt, friberg, f0rest) |
| DreamHack Winter 2014 | $250.000 | Team LDLC (shox, NBK, Happy, kioShiMa, SmithZz) |
At the very start of this era, the best team in the world was Ninjas in Pajamas. While a small part of the community still believed in CS 1.6, the Swedish team was one of the first to begin seriously training in CS:GO and was preparing to perform on the then still emerging pro scene. Because of this, NiP faced minimal competition at first, as those who came to new game the squads could not do anything against the Swedes due to their inexperience. As a result, all this resulted in a streak of eighty-seven LAN victories in a row for Ninjas in Pajamas. Virtus.pro (kUcher, Dosia, AdreN, Fox, ANGE1) was able to interrupt this victorious march at the SLTV StarSeries V Finals, but even after that, it took the teams a long time to knock NiP off the CS:GO championship podium.
Along with development CS:GO The power of Ninjas in Pajamas began to fade. The new teams already knew what to expect from NiP, and beating the legendary Swedes was no longer an impossible task. This is what led to the fact that, despite its early dominance, NiP won the major - ESL One Cologne 2014 - only on its third attempt.
During the same period of time, Valve took another important step towards increasing the popularity of its brainchild. Especially for EMS Katowice 2014 (and then for all subsequent majors), the game developers released stickers with the logos of the sixteen teams participating in the tournament. And everyone was happy: ordinary users were happy to decorate their weapons with a sticker, the players received good financial support (50% of sticker sales went to the team), and Valve created a new way of earning money out of the blue.
Today, stickers from EMS One Katowice 2014 are among the most expensive items in CS:GO. For example, a Reason Gaming holographic sticker costs about $1,800 per trading platform Steam. And this despite the fact that during the major in Katowice, such items could be obtained from a capsule that cost only $1 ($0.25 on sale).
The last word was said at DreamHack Winter 2014, where it all began just a year ago. However, this was not without scandals. Players of the Titan and Epsilon Esports teams - KQLY and Sf - received a VAC ban on their Steam account right before DHW, as they were caught using cheats. As a result, the organizers disqualified these teams from the fourth Major tournament in history CS:GO.
Such a sensational discovery did not go unnoticed by the community. Ordinary viewers began to doubt the honesty of top players and theorized that cheating at LAN tournaments was quite real (and this was later confirmed by player emilio). The players who received the most hate were JW, flusha and shox, but there were no facts confirming their involvement in using the software. Similar witch hunts continue to this day on the HLTV forums and subreddits /r/GlobalOffensive or /r/VACsucks, but there has never been any definitive confirmation that such things are actually happening.
There were plenty of suspicious moments in the matches involving Sf and KQLY
The second scandal of DH Winter 2014 happened rather due to the fault of Valve employees. They were well aware that there was a problem, which we will now talk about, but did not take any preventative measures before DHW. Adding to the accusations of cheating against fnatic was the way they played in the quarterfinals against Team LDLC. The Swedes made an incredible comeback from a score of 3-13 to 16-13, using an illegal boost on Overpass. The amount of hate fnatic received was immeasurable. Because of this, the Swedish team later lost their slot in the semi-finals, refusing to replay the decisive map in favor of their opponents. And, as it turned out, not in vain. Team LDLC won DH Winter, beating NiP in the grand final and earning the first major title for the French scene.
Team LDLC with the DH Winter 2014 championship cup. Photo: GosuGamers
Due to the growth of discipline, the number of tournaments from third-party organizers has increased. So CS:GO received great support in the development of its pro scene thanks to the organizations FACEIT, StarLadder, ESEA, ESL, DreamHack and several others. Their influence especially increased in the second era of major tournaments, which took place during 2015.
Second era
Following a proven path, Valve continued its cooperation with ESL and DreamHack in 2015, hosting three majors with them - ESL One Katowice, ESL One Cologne and DreamHack Cluj-Napoca. It's worth noting that no Esports Cases have been released since DHW. Apparently, at that moment Valve decided to personally allocate money for Major events.
| Tournament | Prize fund | Winners |
| ESL One Katowice 2015 | $250.000 | |
| ESL One Cologne 2015 | $250.000 | fnatic (olofmeister, KRIMZ, flusha, JW, pronax) |
| DreamHack Cluj-Napoca 2015 | $250.000 | Team EnVyUs (kennyS, kioShiMa, apEX, Happy, |
Knowing that a fairly large number of players are interested in CS:GO, the organizers of majors began to hold them at large venues. This, for example, was the Lanxess Arena, which can accommodate up to 20,000 people. It is not surprising that the ESL Cologne series tournaments have become some of the most attended and iconic in history CS:GO. People from all over the world came to Cologne to personally see how the Major event took place: this added to its atmosphere
Lanxess Arena from inside
And just this year there was another increase in the number of viewers for CS:GO majors. Valve released souvenir packs for the new Overpass and Cobblestone maps, containing some of the most expensive skins in the game. Wanting to get AWP | Dragon Lore or M4A1-S | Masterpiece, viewers watched every match on these cards. However, other, less popular sets also received attention, so many viewers watched all the matches to earn at least some skins.
In addition, Valve made an interesting innovation related to stickers. In addition to team logos, starting from ESL One Cologne 2015, developers began releasing stickers with autographs of each player from the list of participants in the Major tournament. The 50% rule for Valve remained in force, but now the money went personally into the pockets of esports players. Over time, some esports organizations began to regulate these relationships. Having noticed how much money stickers brought in, they began to write down special clauses in contracts with players, according to which even deductions from autographs would go to the club. However, some teams managed to get 100% for themselves (not counting Valve’s share).
In 2015, we witnessed the formation of many teams, among which are Team SoloMid (today's Astralis), Luminosity Gaming (SK Gaming) and Team Kinguin (FaZe Clan). However special attention deserves fnatic, which has won two majors in a row. Having signed the duo KRIMZ and olofmeister from LGB Esports (and later dennis), the Swedish team won on almost all fronts. Given fnatic's success, they will undoubtedly go down in CS:GO history as one of the greatest teams in the pro scene.
Gambling sites like CSGOLounge also made a significant contribution to the development and expansion of the spectator sector of Major tournaments. The skins mania only grew stronger over time, with players starting to bid their items on professional matches. By watching whether the bet would go through or not, bettors increased the number of views of matches at third-party tournaments and especially Major events. We can say that sites with bets using skins also had a positive impact on the development of the CS:GO scene and the game in general.
Therefore, it is not surprising when Valve banned the existence of such sites, tournaments CS:GO lost most of the audience. But this happened already during the third era of the majors.
Third era
The current era includes three past Major events and one upcoming one - PGL Major Krakow 2017. It all started with MLG Columbus 2016. Unexpectedly for the community, Valve for the first time gave the rights to host a major not to ESL and DreamHack, but to Major League Gaming. And at the same time, the prize fund was increased to $1,000,000, which subsequently became common practice.
| Tournament | Prize fund | Winners |
| MLG Columbus 2016 | $1.000.000 | Luminosity Gaming (FalleN, fnx, TACO, coldzera, fer) |
| ESL One Cologne 2016 | $1.000.000 | SK Gaming (FalleN, fnx, TACO, coldzera, fer) |
| ELEAGUE Major 2017 | $1.000.000 | Astralis (gla1ve, device, dupreeh, Xyp9x, Kjaerbye) |
| PGL Major Krakow 2017 | $1.000.000 | –//–//– |
From here, a new era also began because, starting with MLG, Columbus Valve introduced a system of regional Minors, in which teams from Europe, the CIS, America and Asia without legend status and qualifying slots could compete for a slot in the LAN qualifiers for the major.
Participants in the final LAN qualification for majors:
- 8 teams that did not qualify from the group at the last major;
- 2 teams from EU Minor;
- 2 teams from CIS Minor;
- 2 teams from Asia Minor;
- 2 teams from Americas Minor.
This system has proven to be successful and is consistently applied to all Major events. Many believe that it has its drawbacks, such as the questionable distribution of slots among regions, but it seems that Valve is completely satisfied with this situation and the company does not intend to change anything in this regard.
In fact, MLG Columbus can be called one of the best, if not the best Major event in history CS:GO. Here there was another peak in viewership, because at that time gambling sites were still alive, the end of the era of dominance of fnatic (caused by a failure in the quarterfinals and the subsequent injury of olofmeister), which increased competition in the pro scene, and the rise of the Brazilians from Luminosity Gaming, who came out of nowhere and are still at the top level to this day.
Luminosity are the champions of MLG Columbus 2016. Photo: Major League Gaming
The problems began precisely with ESL One Cologne 2016. Valve was dissatisfied with this event, since it was watched by much fewer viewers than at the previous major, which indicated an unacceptable step back in development. ESL officials said the Cologne event had one million viewers, while MLG Columbus had 1.6 million viewers. As a result of this, Valve refused to hold a third Major tournament in 2016 in order to drum up spectator interest.
In addition, online viewers were dissatisfied with the quality of the broadcast from ESL, constant delays and a number of other minor technical problems. In turn, visitors to the LAN finals in Lanxess Arena did not complain about anything. It is unknown whether the relationship between Valve and ESL actually worsened after this, but from that moment on the company no longer received the rights to host the major. In addition, the situation began to gain new momentum and ESL went against the interests of Valve. For example, ESL allowed VAC-banned players to play in its leagues after the ban expired. At Valve, cheaters and players who deliberately lost a match, whose guilt was subsequently proven (examples - iBuyPower and Epsilon Esports), receive a lifelong ban from participating in Major events.
Instead, Valve turned its attention to ELEAGUE, which had two great seasons of its CS:GO event. The quality of EL tournaments was excellent, as a result of which ELEAGUE Major 2017 was announced.
And although the organizers held this championship at the highest level, they still failed to break the spectator record. The numbers remained the same - one million at the peak of broadcast and 670,000 people on average. However, there was also positive side- ELEAGUE Major was watched by almost three times more people than The International 2016, and twice as many compared to the World Championship League of Legends(excluding Chinese audience). At the same time, the prize fund of the tournament was twenty times less than that of The International.
In March 2017, PGL announced to the whole world that it would organize the next CS:GO major. On this moment PGL managed to conduct all Minor qualifications and closed LAN qualifiers, while receiving only positive feedback from the CS:GO community. For example, we can cite the user UI (user interface), which became a breath of something new for the field of professional broadcasting. CS:GO.
Demonstration of User Interface for CS:GO client from PGL
CS:GO is growing as an eSports discipline, increasing its prize money and the number of prestigious tournaments. The online shooter beloved by millions needs a boost in development, and PGL can provide just that. For Valve CS:GO facebook
fb messenger
Major 2019 – 13th edition of the international cyber tournament popular game Counter-Strike Global Offensive. The best gaming teams in the world will gather under the banner of the competition: FaZe Clan, Natus Vincere, mousesports, SK Gaming. Which of the championship participants will achieve success, and will there be Russian cyber teams among the contenders for victory? Let's be patient. The first matches of the new championship are just around the corner!
Where and when will the 2019 CS:GO Major take place?
The new edition of ELEAGUE Major will take place in January 2019. Exact date and the venue are unknown. The last edition of the tournament took place from January 12 to January 28, 2018.
The ELEAGUE Major 2019 schedule will consist of several large rounds:
- applicants stage;
- stage of legends;
- champions stage.
During the first round, 16 teams will play against each other: the 8 worst participants of the Major 2018 and the 8 qualifying winners, who will be determined in October - November 2018.
In the second stage, the eight winners of the first round and the 8 best teams participating in Major 2018 will compete.
Finally, in the last round, 8 cyber teams will compete for the main prizes of the competition using a playoff system. The crown of the final part will be the finale.
There is no information yet where the final part of the cyber championship will take place. The last draw of the competition was hosted by the USA. The Legends and Challengers rounds took place in Atlanta, and the Championship round took place in Boston.
ELEAGUE Major 2018 CS GO teams
In the last edition, the organizers increased the number of participating teams to 24. How many teams will compete for awards in the upcoming edition of the championship is an open question.
It is almost certain that the 8 best teams of Major 2018 will take part in the 13th edition. Here is their list:
- Cloud9;
- FaZe Clan;
- Natus Vincere;
- SK Gaming;
- Fnatic;
- G2 Esports;
- mousesports;
- Quantum Bellator Fire.
Results of the Major 2018 Counter-Strike finals
Counter-Strike Global Offensive is one of the most popular network games, based on the legendary "contra". The CS:GO audience numbers millions of gamers around the world. At the same time, the most talented Counter-Strike amateurs united into professional teams. Every year the best of them fight for victory in the Major.
The strongest cyber teams of our time include Cloud9, Gambit Esports, FaZe Clan, Mousesports, SK Gaming. They have achieved success at the largest cyber tournaments more than once. Experts expect that one of the listed teams will claim the main prize of the ELEAGUE Major 2019 prize fund.
So far the current champion is Cloud9. American gamers excelled at the home tournament in 2018. In the final series of matches, they confidently defeated the Europeans from FaZe Clan with a score of 2:1.
Gamer associations from the CIS are very widely represented in Majora. The most famous teams include Natus Vincere (Ukraine) and Gambit Esports (Kazakhstan). Ukrainian and Kazakh Counter-Strike masters have excelled at major cyber competitions more than once. Gambit Esports is a recent winner of the Major. Kazakhstani professionals became the best in 2017.
Russia is represented at the Major by such teams as Quantum Bellator Fire, Virtus.pro and Vega Squadron. These are worthy teams. They are able to fight for the highest places.
In the last edition of the championship, the best cyber team was the guys from Quantum Bellator Fire. The Russians were able to reach the final stage of the competition. But in the quarterfinals, gamers from Natus Vincere stood in their way as an insurmountable barrier.
2018-01-06T22:13:32+03:00
Two majors and a tournament cart from DreamHack: what events will take place in CS:GO this year
In just over a week, the first and one of the main CS:GO tournaments of this year will begin - ELEAGUE Major 2018. But besides it, there will be many interesting events that cannot be missed. It is also worth noting that this is not the entire list of events - over time it may be supplemented with new tournaments.
ELEAGUE Major 2018
Prize fund: $1,000,000
Number of participants: 16
The main event in the world of CS:GO for players and fans will return in the middle of this month. 16 worthy teams from around the world will play each other for the championship title, as well as the main cash prize of $500,000.
From January 12 to 15, qualifications between 16 teams will take place, of which 8 teams will make it to the group stage of the major. The strongest 8 teams will advance to the playoffs,
Among the teams participating in the qualifications are FaZe Clan, Natus Vincere and Vega Squadron.
“Legend” teams: 100 Thieves, Astralis, Gambit, Virtus.pro, BIG, SK Gaming, fnatic and North.
cs_summit 2
Prize fund: unknown
Number of participants: 8
One of the famous organizers of Dota 2 tournaments announced the return of cs_summit. The event will traditionally take place in the gaming house. Like last year, 8 teams will take part in the most informal tournament.
Among them are Cloud9, mousesports, SK Gaming and North. The other 4 teams will be announced later.
StarSeries i-League Season 4
Prize fund: $300,000
Number of participants: 16
The fourth season of the StarSeries i-League tournament will take place in Kyiv in mid-February.
Over the course of 9 days, 16 teams will compete for a prize fund of $300,000. 11 teams will receive a direct invitation, the other 5 will be determined in regional qualifications. The first two slots in the qualifications were given to two Asian teams - TyLoo and MVP.
IEM Katowice 2018
Prize fund: $500,000
Number of participants: 16
Literally two days after the tournament in Ukraine, the Intel Extreme Masters event will begin in Katowice (Poland).
In addition to the doubling of the prize pool - from $250,000 to $500,000 - the number of participating teams has increased: from 12 to 16. All participants are still unknown, but there is a possibility that among them will be last year's champions Astralis, the second finalists of the FaZe Clan tournament, as well as the best Polish team Virtus .pro and top 1 team SK Gaming.
WESG 2017
Prize fund: $1,500,000
Number of participants: 32
The largest international tournament of the year - World Electronic Sports Games 2017 - will take place in Changzhou (China).
32 teams of different nationalities, from Brazil to China, will compete for a record prize pool of $1,500,000.
Currently, 16 participants in the event are known, including Team Ukraine, Team Russia, as well as fnatic and last year’s champions EnVyUs.
ESL Pro League Finals
the date of the:
Prize fund: unknown
Number of participants: 16
This year will not be complete without the annual tournaments from ESL as part of the Pro League. The seventh season will take place in mid-May, the eighth in mid-December.
The prize fund has not yet been announced, but 16 teams will once again take part in the event.
ECS S5 Finals
Prize fund: unknown
Number of participants: unknown
The final of the fifth season of the tournament from the ECS organization will return to London. Unfortunately, only the date of the event is known. Perhaps the organizers will stick to the old rules, that is, 8 teams will advance to the finals and compete for a prize fund of $660,000. But everything can change.
ESL One Cologne 2018
Prize fund: $300,000
Number of participants: 16
For the fifth year in a row, a tournament from ESL has been held in Cologne. The number of participants has not changed, but the prize fund has increased: from $250,000 to $300,000.
There is a high probability that two-time ESL One champions Cologne SK Gaming, last year's second finalists Cloud9, as well as FaZe Clan and Ninja in Pajamas will receive an invitation.
DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018
Prize fund: $250,000
Number of participants: 16
So far, DreamHack has announced only one tournament as part of the Masters, which will take place in late summer - early autumn. It is also known that the organizers offered this tournament to Valve as a second major.
DreamHack Open tournament series
Prize fund: $100,000
Number of participants: 8
Venues DreamHack Open:
Tour in France;
Austin in the USA;
Jonkoping in Sweden;
Valencia in Spain;
Atlanta in the USA;
Jonkoping in Sweden.
As before, the tournament organizer retained the prize fund and the number of participating teams. The tournament series will begin in May and end in December.
Many fans of tournaments, and just CS:GO players, are interested in: “When is the next CS:GO Major?” The detailed answer will be below. A guide to this major can be found at .
The place (grand final and group stage), as you understand from the name, was chosen Krakow (TAURON Arena), this city is located not far from the well-known Katowice. The organizers are PGLesprots, together with Valve. The total prize fund is $1,000,000. The entire tournament will be held in the summer, from June 1 to July 23. Why is it taking so long, you ask? And all because everything will happen in stages. Below we will describe in more detail all the stages with a schedule.
1. Regional tour.
It all starts on June 1, with a regional minor championship in Asia, then in North and South America ( June 8), CIS ( June 8) and Europe ( June 15). At each Minor, eight teams will compete for a chance to win $50,000 in prize money and earn their way to the Major itself.
2. LAN Qualifier.
WITH June 29 to July 4, the top two teams from the regional tour will each play in the lan qualifiers, where they will face the bottom eight teams that competed in the previous major (Atlanta). Over the course of four days, these teams will battle to determine who will make it to the group stage of the Major.
3. Final stage.
WITH July 16 to July 19, all sixteen teams will compete in the group stage to advance to the knockout stage. 21 July, new legends will take to the main stage of the Tauron Arena for the playoffs! The grand final will take place July 23!
So, in short:
PGL 2017 Krakow CS:GO Major Championship Series:
June 1-4 — Asian Regional Minor Championship
June 8-11 — CIS regional Minor championship
June 8-11 — North and South American Regional Minor Championship
June 15-18 — European Regional Minor Championship
June 29 - July 2 - LAN Qualifications.
July 16 — 19 — Championship Major-Group stage
July 21 - 23 - playoffs and grand finals!
