Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s significant achievement this year was buried under the fiasco of coaching bug exploits, tournament cancellations, ESIC bans, and all that went south in 2020. The year 2020 registered a whirlwind of bizarre events in esports. But for CSGO, the year was revolutionary as Valve’s first-person shooter game passed the 1 Million concurrent players mark for the first time since its release.
Despite a colossal player-base, it seems Valve is still sleeping on its legendary creation.
Also Read | CSGO PLAYER BASE REACHES AN ALL TIME HIGH WITH OVER 1,000,000 PLAYERS
Esports historian and CSGO warrior Duncan “Thorin” Shields’ interesting anecdote on Richard Lewis’ podcast “By The Numbers” puts a gigantic question mark over the developer’s attitude towards the game. The esports aficionado narrated a story from 2011 when the father of all Valve Gabe L Newell compared Navi’s stalwart roster to random players on the internet and thought that there could be a fair competition between Navi players and CSGO fans.
WHAT WE WOULD LOVE TO SEE IS LIKE ONE OF THESE TEAMS TAKING ON THE INTERNET AND SEE HOW MANY PEOPLE WOULD HAVE TO COME HERE AND TAKE THEM DOWN
Gaben Said
It’s not only saddening but disappointing for the fans that the co-founder of the company lacks in-depth knowledge of the professional scene. While the video snippet still infuriates the players, it raises many questions for esports intelligentsia; does the developer care about CSGO?
Also Read | Is CSGO really dying?
In 2012, Valve rekindled a battle showdown between Terrorists and Counter-terrorists in the form of CSGO. Since then, the game has continued to make and break records. This progress is attributed to the tournament organizers, CSGO talent, and the players, while the developer itself had little to contribute. It’s not as if GabeN is entirely benighted; stats show that the developer is well invested on its MOBA side.
Valve’s bank is heavily invested on Dota2 side
A recent statistics revealed by esportsearning show how Valve has showered Dota2 with love. The prize money beats esports giants like League of Legends and CSGO. Despite having fewer tournaments as compared to its FPS cousin, Dota2’s prize pool is more than two hundred million dollars, double the prize money in CSGO.
As opposed to CSGO, where third party organizers are actively investing in tournaments, such events in Dota 2 are scarce, as majority of Dota 2 tournaments are funded by the developer itself. Valve’s MOBA currently has a total of 21 Majors sponsored by the developers, whereas CSGO lags behind at 15. It’s important to note here that Dota 2 majors kicked off two years later than CSGO majors in 2015. GabeN’s MOBA became an early bloomer despite being a little late to the party.
Dota 2 tournaments sponsored by Valve easily outnumber the few Majors in CSGO. Apart from these tournaments, The International brings in most of the Dota 2’s viewers base. TI’s 25% funding comes from the compendium that players buy in-game.
This is technically Valve’s income that goes into the financing of TI. This funding added to the initial prize pool surpasses CSGO’s prize money by a massive scale. For instance, The International 2018’s winner took $11,000,000+ home, taking these numbers into account, CSGO 2018 Boston Major winner took $10.7M less than the TI winner.
Valve’s attitude towards community issues
Numbers and stats aside, the community is not happy with GabeN, the creator in general. Recurring controversies in 2020 and developers’ silence testify that Gabe Newell and team may not care about the game as much.
Coaching bug exploit is a significant example of Valve’s indifference. The bug, which enabled the coaches to have a birds-eye-view of the map, has existed since 2016. Not only did Valve fail to fix this, but the developer also ignored a complaint filed by Ninjas in pyjamas’ ex-coach Faruk “pita” Pita as soon as he discovered the bug in 2018.
Valve took four years to fix a game-breaking bug that resulted in the termination of many careers and a huge fiasco in esports. ESIC resolved the matter, but only after the damage had already been done.
Also Read | CSGO COACHING BUG EXPLAINED
Most recently, the BLAST voice comms issue caused a massive mess in the community, and it seems as if there’s no one to keep an eye on the community leaders as organizations conflict. CSPPA’s discord with BLAST and organizations has caused an air of confusion among the fans and players as to who could possibly fix this; a mess that includes community leaders as primary participants.
Many would argue that esports drama shouldn’t concern the developer, but that’s not the case. Esports journalist Richard Lewis on his podcast By The Numbers chose Valve as a conciliator to take some action and put the drama to rest.
IT’S A MESS, IT’S A F**KING MESS. AND UNFORTUNATELY, FOR ONCE VALVE, YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE TO COME IN AND CLEAN UP THE MESS…
Richard Lewis
However, it’s unlikely that anything can wake up the developer from a deep slumber.
Also Read | CSPPA REFUSE COMMUNICATION AND VIDEO ACCESS FOR CSGO BLAST PREMIER FALL FINALS
Gaben’s undying love for Dota 2
Father of all Valve has not restricted his expression of love for Dota 2 to money business only. The CEO has frequently made an appearance at The International events to greet the crowd. His regular visits to Dota 2 events have reduced CSGO to nothing, but an unwanted child in the eyes of Valve as the CSGO crowd has never had the courtesy of watching GabeN live.
The creator and maker has successfully avoided all events in CGSO history. In words of esports insider Rod Breslu, “Faceit ran an ad” at the CSGO majors.
Does CSGO need Gaben’s attention?
The almighty dollar may not be as mighty. In 2020, CSGO made new records in terms of viewer base. The breakthrough of one million concurrent players testifies the strength of Valve’s FPS.
On the other hand, Dota 2’s player base declined consequently for five months in a row in October, reducing it to 723,280 concurrent players, according to steamcharts. The numbers tell a different tale; while Dota 2 may thrive in the money department, CSGO continues to set new records without GabeN’s love.
Whether CSGO needs Father GabeN’s credit card or not, has well been explained by Thorin in the podcast mentioned earlier. The International makes Dota 2 grand, but Majors of MOBA might not be as great.
Thorin made clear how Tier-2 tournaments such as Flashpoints have prize money just as much as a Dota 2 major does, i.e. $1M. In this case, CSGO doesn’t necessarily require monetary support from Valve. The wealth in CSGO tournaments on its own proves the thriving health of CSGO esports.
However, an absent father is still a father. The bug issues in CSGO, delayed updates, lack of interesting developments, and silence on community issues require a higher authority or developers’ intervention.
The fact that the game continues to grow, albeit the developer’s indifference only proves that CSGO has so much more to offer if Valve paid more attention.
For now, CSGO operations make up for the yearlong absence of Valve and players seem content with a scrap of attention. Tournament organizers’ interest and understanding of Valve’s FPS is a glimmer of hope for those who still believe in the legend of CSGO, while the player exodus caused by Riot’s Valorant continues.
For the time being, CSGO is content with whatever blood it can squeeze out of the turnip that Valve is, while GabeN graces more stages of The International.
Also Read | CS:GO PROS WHO SWITCHED TO VALORANT
