To say Cyberpunk 2077 has been a disappointment would be an understatement. The gaming industry’s most eagerly awaited project, Cyberpunk 2077 was largely underwhelming, with several glitches, bugs and errors found in the game, which to many felt rushed and incomplete to an extent.
The game and news surrounding it became a source for memes and like always, the Bengaluru City Police did not lack behind in using the same.
Bengaluru City Police’s Twitter handle has gained notoriety for its ability to combine humour and current affairs to inform the readers of several guidelines and make them aware of the perils of wrongdoing and/or a lackadaisical approach. This time around, Cyberpunk 2077 became the focal point as the Twitter handle used the refund promised by CD Projekt Red to promote awareness towards Cyber Frauds.
#cyberpunk may refund you for buggy gameplay, but cyberfrauds won’t. Your money stolen by online fraudsters is as good as gone. Practice caution. Don’t be an innocent victim. Stay #CyberSafepic.twitter.com/QlKl0Xz08i
— ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು ನಗರ ಪೊಲೀಸ್ BengaluruCityPolice (@BlrCityPolice) December 21, 2020
The biggest hit for Cyberpunk 2077 was felt in the console market, with the old generation consoles seeing choppy graphics and an experience far too inferior compared to what was promised and to what has been delivered on PC. Ultimately, CD Projekt Red promised refunds ‘out of their pockets’ on Xbox and PlayStation.
In what was an unprecedented move, Sony also pulled the game from its PlayStation store, offering full refunds to the aggrieved.
Cyberpunk 2077 may have not been as huge of a success as it was projected to be. However, it can live long in the meme world, as evidenced here.
Valorant being a free-to-play game, the in-game skin economy is the prime way for the developers to earn revenue off their title.
While the weapon skins don’t interfere with the actual gameplay, they generally come with visual effects that can often be considered “distracting” by many players.
While multiple instances of players considering some of the in-game skins to be “pay to win” have surfaced in the past, this time, it seems like the Wasteland Vandal might be a “pay to lose” skin.
As Reddit user u/zhoost has described in his post, the Wasteland Bundle Vandal skin has a longer weapon muzzle than its default (or any other) counterpart.
While the small difference in muzzle length may not seem to be concerning at first, it can easily cost you some crucial rounds in-game. For instance, when turning around corners, your enemies will be able to see your muzzle faster than usual.
In a fast-paced FPS title like Valorant, even the difference of a few seconds can easily be the deciding factor in a game.
While there’s a high possibility that Riot will fix this issue in a future update, a lot of players are opting to not use the Wasteland Vandal till then.
Although Cyberpunk 2077 was the most hyped game of 2020 and crossed the 1 Million concurrent players mark, players didn’t seem to be quite happy with the game because of all the annoying bugs and FPS drops. However, here is a way to boost your FPS using EZ Optimizer for Cyberpunk 2077. Without wasting time, let’s get started.
EZ Optimizer is a one-click optimization software for Cyberpunk 2077 developed by CodeZ1LLa, a programmer and a YouTuber. According to CodeZ1LLa, the software can boost upto 30 FPS. EZ Optimizer basically plays with the “user.ini” file in the game folder.
Are you wondering if it is safe or not for your PC? According to VirusTotal, the software is totally safe. Not only that but numerous players around the world also have downloaded the software and using it. Now let’s check out how to use it.
Valorant being a free-to-play game, the in-game skin economy is the prime way for the developers to earn revenue off their title.
While the weapon skins don’t interfere with the actual gameplay, they generally come with visual effects that can often be considered “distracting” by many players.
While multiple instances of players considering some of the in-game skins to be “pay to win” have surfaced in the past, this time, it seems like the Wasteland Vandal might be a “pay to lose” skin.
As Reddit user u/zhoost has described in his post, the Wasteland Bundle Vandal skin has a longer weapon muzzle than its default (or any other) counterpart.
While the small difference in muzzle length may not seem to be concerning at first, it can easily cost you some crucial rounds in-game. For instance, when turning around corners, your enemies will be able to see your muzzle faster than usual.
In a fast-paced FPS title like Valorant, even the difference of a few seconds can easily be the deciding factor in a game.
While there’s a high possibility that Riot will fix this issue in a future update, a lot of players are opting to not use the Wasteland Vandal till then.
Valve rarely tweet about anything other than about some new features they added to the store or informing about sales. But just recently the company Tweeted revealing Steam’s best-selling games of 2020.
Announcing the Best Games of 2020 – Steam’s Top Sellers, top New Releases, most-played games, top Early Access grads, top VR titles, & top controller games of the year – and most of them are on discount! 👏❄️https://t.co/71XVUy8Eis#SteamWinterSale
The year 2020 was unprecedented for many businesses and many had a hard time cooping up with the changing situation they found themselves in.
Many companies reported losses amounting to millions of dollars, many industries went under and had to close their shops down.
But in all this uncertainty one of the only industry to find themselves in a good position was non-other than the Gaming Industry.
In the year 2020, we saw many great game launches as well as some sleeper hits. Even indie games had a great year and some even outmatched sales of large budget AAA games. With games selling like hotcakes, it only means one thing, that the world’s most popular video game storefront, Steam had a lot going on for them the whole year.
This year Steam finally breached past the 24million users mark and is inching ever closer to the 25 million mark daily. With the sudden growth in the number of concurrent users, it is safe to assume the store also witnessed unprecedented game sales. EA and Microsoft also turned to Steam and published their games on the platform.
And of course, the most hyped, Cyberpunk 2077 also launched and broke sales records.
Now that 2020 is almost ending, Valve has finally published a list of the best selling games of 2020.
Steam Best Selling Games (2020)
Starting from the top,
Among Us
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Cyberpunk 2077
Destiny 2
Doom Eternal
Dota 2
Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout
Grand Theft Auto V
Monster Hunter: World
Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds
Red Dead Redemption 2
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege
Shockingly, to everyone’s surprise, the best-selling game of the year was Among Us a game by indie developer InnerSloth which was launched in 2018. Among Us even outsold Cyberpunk 2077, one of the most hyped games of the decade.
Thanks to quarantining at home and an increased interest in casual online games by several popular streamers, Among Us easily garnered a large number of players and outsold everything. Hence for a similar reason, Fall Guys is also on the 7th position of the list outselling AAA games like RDR2, MHW, and GTA5.
On the other hand rival, Epic Games Store also gained a foothold in the PC gaming market and is steadily gaining more users thanks to their constant game giveaways. Next year looks promising for PC gamers and equally promising for these PC video game stores.
COD Mobile is the portable version of famous multiplayer title Call of Duty. As this game was the first mobile title by Activision for the COD franchise, it piqued an interest in the game’s fanbase. COD Mobile grew exponentially since its launch and now is one of the best mobile games in the market. To keep the game at the top, developers have to put in essential efforts and providing fresh content is one of the needs. COD Mobile has added a new outfit named Sleigher Scylla and here is how you can obtain it.
COD Mobile regularly adds new weapons, camos and various other things that balances the multiplayer core of the game but even though the cosmetic side of this game has not been very large, COD Mobile provides its users with ample amount of skins and characters. One of these characters is named and Syclla and in a new in-game event, the developers have tweaked the basic appearance of this character and introduced her in a Christmas themed outfit by the name of Sleigher – Syclla.
The game has added a new event called Fireside Draw. In this event, players basically have to spin the wheel and after an indefinite amount of spins, they can unlock the new Sleigher – Scylla skin. This event is based on luck where there is no certain number of spins specified to unlock this reward.
Steps to unlock Sleigher Scylla in COD Mobile
Players can follow these steps to unlock the character in new outfit. If you already have the character then unlocking it once again may just get you the latest skin. The details about any sort of exchange of existing character to any in-game currency hasnot been specified.
Open COD Mobile and click on ‘Fireside Draw’ event.
The banner will redirect you to the event screen where a spin button will be provided. Click on it and you will get one reward at random.
Use the necessary amount of CP and keep spinning until you unlock Sleigher – Scylla.
Remember that you might need ample amount of CP as the reward will be offered completely randomly and chances of unlocking the character in one go is pretty low. You will have to invest some amount of money in-game to get this skin.
PUBG Mobile has scaled new heights in the last couple of years. From being a big hit from the day of its launch to fully nurturing the esports ecosystem around this title, PUBG Mobile has become one of the biggest mobile esports titles in the world. Who were the top 5 PUBG Mobile players of 2020? Let’s check it out.
With ambitions of being in the same league as League of Legends and CSGO, the growth of PUBG Mobile Esports is evident. Here we take a look at the PUBG Mobile Esports ecosystem and the players who have the highest earnings this year.
PUBG Mobile Esports has grown exponentially and the quality of their event alongside the prize pool has seen huge growth as well.
Several regions have competed on a regular basis and set up their dominance in the esports scene. China is seen as one of the best regions in terms of competitive PUBG Mobile and even though it does not actively participate on a global scale, the regional championships have a glory of their own.
China has their own version of PUBG Mobile which is known as Game for Peace. This game has a huge fanbase in the region and some of the best teams and individuals to ever play PUBG Mobile have made their way to the top in China. Among these teams, one roster particularly stands out and they are known by the name of NOVA XQF.
NOVA Esports or former X-Quest F was once considered the best PUBG Mobile team in the world due to their consistency in the results. Their team made an appearance on the global stage and shook the world with its prowess.
In China, the PUBG Mobile tournaments are in a league format. The main league which runs for almost a month is known as Peacekeeper Elite League and teams qualifying from this event move on to a larger event known as Peacekeeper Elite Championship.
Top 5 PUBG Mobile pro players in terms of earnings
NOVA XQF has won many titles under the XQF banner and then after signing with NOVA Esports, they won almost $757,000 through PEC 2020 Grand Finals. This set them up to be the highest-earning roster in the year and its players becoming the highest individual earning PUBG Mobile Pros in 2020. The list of their earnings is as follows:
5. NOVA King
Credits: Liquipedia
King is a Game for Peace pro from Taiwan. He was the new addition to the PUBG Mobile roster of NOVA Esports. This player had represented a different team named JS Gaming before joining NOVA XQF and is a former Crisis Action pro who won HPL Global Championship H3 alongside Jimmy in 2017, according to Liquipedia.
King has an individual earning of $249,291 for participating in PUBG Mobile tournaments in 2020. A massive chunk of this amount comes from their PEC performance, which sets them on an entirely different level than other players in terms of earnings.
4. NOVA Order
Credits: Liquipedia
Order has been the part of NOVA XQF roster since the time it was still known as X-Quest F. He joined the roster in the month of October in 2019 and has been with the team since then. He has played as the supporter for his team in several matches and always kept the name of NOVA XQF alive when the team needed it. Order has pulled some exceptional performances with the stars like Paraboy and Jimmy and has steadily earned a name for himself.
Order has accumulated a total earning of $329,052.92 and is very close to other players from his team who have earned a slightly larger amount than him.
3. NOVA Jimmy
Credits: Liquipedia
Jimmy is another player from Taiwan who has been the core of NOVA XQF since the time they started making a name for themselves. This player joined the team in the summer of 2019 and has been in the limelight with his squad since then. Jimmy is an integral part of this roster and has won a total of $362,622 in 2020.
2. NOVA Coolboy
Credits: Liquipedia
CoolBoy is the oldest player on the team and has been a part of XQF since 2018. He has made several appearances on the global platform and his performance has always surprised the audience. Coolboy is one of the star players of this roster and shares the same amount of earnings as Jimmy. He has also earned $362,622 in 2020 and hence, both of them can be randomly ranked at the second and third spots.
1. NOVA Paraboy
Credits: Liquipedia
Paraboy is the star player of NOVA Esports with a huge fan following all around the world. He joined the roster with Jimmy and has been the most valued player on the team since then. His playstyle has been coordinated aggressive pushing and his accuracy always led to victories by dominating the opponents. He has been the MVP of several tournaments to date and has earned a whopping amount of $365,118.98 in 2020.
Each and every player on this list belongs to the same squad due to the fact that they won one of the biggest PUBG Mobile tournaments that ever took place. The prize money from PEC 2020 added largely to the individual earnings and hence, NOVA Esports is the only team with the highest-earning players in 2020.
That was the list of top 5 PUBG Mobile players of 2020. Keep following TalkEsport for more amazing contents.
The year 2020 has been rough for many Twitch streamers, among random bans by Twitch staff and the threat of DMCA looming over their head, the current influx of fake followers has resulted in another headache for many streamers.
According to the third-party stat-tracking site twitchmetrics.net, a large number of Twitch streamers, have seen their follower numbers suddenly increase to double or more than double in just a day due to what seems to be an infestation of follower bots on the platform. Usually gaining a large number of followers on social media and streaming sites might seem like a great feat but the sudden spike in the number of followers caused due to an influx of bots might result in these streamers getting banned on the platform.
Recently on Twitch, several big streamers have seen their number of followers skyrocket but viewers remaining constant. Chance “Sodapoppin” Morris is one such unlucky streamer whose followers doubled almost instantly. Around December 17-18, Sodapoppin gained almost 3.5 million rocketing him up to nearly 7 million followers overall.
Another streamer, Heelmike also found himself in the same situation. Heelmike gained over 2.5 million followers and just under him, Gonedoc another streamer who gained 2.4 million followers.
Next up was U.S. streamer Shofu who amassed 1.2 million. The strangest of the bunch was streamer Lolnatie who got 890,000 followers taking her follower count from just 10,000 to 900,000 in a day. She gained 89 times more followers than she had before, numbers that are simply unheard of in any situation.
Afterward, many people pointed out this strange behavior everyone came to an agreement that these streamers were just unfortunate and were likely targeted by bots in an attempt to raise suspicion of TOS violation to get their channels permanently banned from the platform.
Maybe those responsible are just some huge fans and just wanted to give some extra followers to their favorite streamers as a holiday gift and accidentally opened flood gates of followers resulting in this situation. Twitch is yet to make any comment on the situation, so the fate of Sodapoppin and others is still unknown.
2020 was nothing less than a roller-coaster ride for the Counter Strike Global Offensive fans. Add a lot of drama, blend it with ESIC bans, sprinkle a lot of transfer money, and you have the 2020 CSGO esports scene in a nutshell.
In simpler words, a lot happened. Here’s your ultimate CSGO rundown for the year 2020, in case something escaped your eye.
Dignitas re-enters the CSGO arena
The year 2020 began with Dignitas’ heroic entry into the CSGO arena by signing a roster that has made several highlights over the years. The esports organization transitioned into a giant by enlisting the likes of Adam “friberg” Friberg, Richard “Xizt” Landstrom, Christopher “GeT_RiGhT” Alesund, Patrik “f0rest” Lindberg on its payroll.
The quadruple that is still cherished for its unforgettable performance in ESL Cologne 2014 in Ninjas in Pyjamas’ jersey, joined the legendary coach Robin “Fifflaren” Johansson in Dignitas. This was an extraordinary moment for CSGO fans as the legendary team will finally grace the tournaments after a long run of seven years in NiP.
Summit1g wins the title of “Worst Play of the Decade”
The famous streamer Jaryd “summit1g” Lazar won the unofficial title for the “worst play of the decade” in a Twitter poll by ESL production staff member Don Constantin for all the right reasons. It’s not every day you see a player lose a round, and eventually a tournament by dying from his own incendiary grenade.
Summit1g may not have a rip-roaring history in CSGO as a professional player, but he managed to leave a legacy for the players, now known as 1G. His infamous clutch fail against Splyce esports in DreamHack Austin 2016 still haunts the CSGO map Train. Summit may have stepped away from his professional career, but 1G continues to carry on his legacy.
Ban on LAN amid the Global pandemic
The defining event in 2020 was most certainly COVID-19 and its ramifications. The world went online, and so did the CSGO tournaments. The hustle-bustle of glamorous tournaments was muted out amid the travel restrictions due to global health concerns.
The impacts of COVID-19 started to emerge when the Polish government prohibited the on-site attendance in the IEM season XIV Katowice world championship. This was a historic event for CSGO fans as IEM Katowice was one of the most anticipated events in 2020. Things went downhill from there as a significant boost in COVID-19 cases was discovered, resulting in more tournaments’ cancellations.
The transition to online format was initiated in April by ESL when Pro League season 11’s LAN finals were canceled. All the teams competed from the comfort of their gaming chairs, without any audience whatsoever. Other tournaments that went online included ESL One Cologne, Dreamhack, Flashpoint Season 2, and BLAST Premier Fall Series. CSGO esports’ situation went from bad to worse as no Major took place throughout the year. ESL One: Road to Rio Major fell at COVID-19’s claws, which was a massive disappointment for the fans.
ESL
To implement the online format efficiently, teams and events were divided into regions. The winners were selected from each region, and tournament finals were held separately in Europe, North America, Asia, and Oceania.
Valve brings in Regional Major Ranking
Esports devotees were expecting the pandemic to culminate by the end of 2020. Hence the plans for ESL Rio Major brewed in full force. One of the significant changes that Valve made to its major is changing the system which determined the team invites. The developer scrapped the invites and replaced it with Regional Major Ranking. The teams scoring more points throughout the related events will get to play in ESL One Rio Major. However, the plans didn’t pan out well, as the Major for 2020 was canceled as COVID-19 gained traction.
The impacts of COVID-19 were not limited to tournaments only. 2020 was a challenging time, but CSGO players’ struggles had never been so evident as they were this year. The year started off with Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander stepping down from the active roster due to “stress-related” symptoms. Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth soon followed Astralis’ in-game leader and took his leave citing the same reasons. In the month of May, the CSGO prodigy Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer bid farewell to Faze Clan, mentioning “lack of motivation” to be the primary reason. The latter half of the year saw Tim “nawwk” Jonasson and Jere “sergej” Salo move to the benches due to burnout symptoms and lack of motivation, respectively.
It was rather worrying that players were dealing with stress, but the leaves birthed a whole new discussion in the CSGO realm.
gla1ve, Xyp9x, nawwk, sergej, olofmeister
While the world was busy focusing on players’ deteriorating performance in the online era, the burnouts among stalwart players brought attention to mental health issues in esports professionals. More organizations shifted towards considering a six-man roster, which would hopefully reduce pressure on five players to perform and stay present at all times. Teams such as Cloud9 and Furia commented on an extended roster’s efficacy, while Vitality adopted a permanent active six-man roster by signing Nabil “Nivera” Benrlitom.
April registered an iconic rivalry between the two FPS games that will continue to become more prominent in coming months. Riot’s first strike against CSGO was recorded in May, a month after Valorant beta went live.
Riot’s tactical shooter with its colorful graphics and energetic agents quickly gained an edge over CSGO’s realistic battlefields. Consequently, a significant drop in CSGO’s player base was observed. FPS enthusiasts left to experiment with Valorant’s magical universe, resulting in a 10% decrease in average CSGO players. This was the beginning of everything, a comparison thread that will continue for the rest of 2020.
Initially, the players and professionals tried to dismiss the comparisons and similarities between the game, but an exodus of CSGO professional players to Valorant proved otherwise. We dug up and found that 200 players retired from CSGO to pursue different careers in 2020, and a large chunk of these players chose Valorant as their new career. CSGO professionals like Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom, Nicholas “nitr0” Cannella, Sam “s0m” Oh, and many others wrapped up their journey in CSGO as Riot presented new opportunities.
A lot had happened in the first few months of 2020 to tarnish Valve’s creation. Despite all that could take CSGO down, the game rose above it all and made a new record by hitting 1 Million concurrent players mark for the first time since 2012. The joy didn’t last for long. Valorant’s official release in June thrashed CSGO off the seven-digit mark within a matter of days. That was the time when half of the FPS community was convinced that CSGO would never get back up from the flat back bump.
CSGO Steam Charts
Valve’s FPS proved that its prowess knows no end. The game surpassed the 1 Million concurrent players’ mark once again in November that continued to increase in December. Valve’s realistic shooter continues to grow despite the several hurdles that came its way in the second half of 2020.
The organizers and organizations successfully controlled the damage for the first half of the year, but COVID-19 lasted longer than anyone had anticipated. One may think that esports should grow more in the online era. However, LAN became the identity of CSGO after years of prestigious tournaments that filled stadiums and podiums. Cancellations of events marred CSGO organizations to an extent where damage control became impossible.
As most of the significant CSGO tournaments took place in European regions, travel restrictions stagnated North American players and teams. The inability to participate was not only wasting their talent but damaging the economy of organizations as well.
As a result, teams like 100 Thieves, Chaos Esports, New England Whalers, and Team Secret removed their CSGO divisions from esports’ face. Gen.G was next to place its stalwart roster featuring Hansel “BnTeT” Ferdinand on the transfer list.
In the CSGO realm, If there’s one thing 2020 would be remembered by other than COVID-19, it’s the coach bug drama; a fiasco that shook the esports ecosystem to the core. Esports referee Michal Slowanksi unveiled the simple yet significant bug in the game which allowed coaches to have a bird’s eye view over the map. The referee revealed that the bug has existed since 2016 and dozens of coaches have exploited it to win important tournaments. His claims weren’t wrong.
A double down on his research by ESL saw 37 coaches banned from playing all ESIC affiliated events such as Dreamhack, ESL, BLAST, Nodwin, WePlay, and others. While many teams accepted their mistakes, OG, Heroic, Boom, Hard Legion, ENCE, and AGO showed support for their coaches by moving them to different postings within the organization.
The controversy continued for months and still haunts the affected organizations like Heroic who had recently gained some ground in esports.
ESIC reinforces strict policies after stream-sniping issues
2020 was the year when CSGO integrity issues ran rampant. The mega coaching bug abuse was followed by the stream-sniping fiasco. ESIC revealed that “widespread” use of stream sniping damages the in-game integrity and some changes and investigations are underway. Just when CSGO players had their hopes up, ESIC announced that previous cases won’t be evaluated.
Instead of punishing and evaluating previous cases, the Esports watchdog came up with a strict “zero-tolerance” policy. ESIC stated that previous issues required more evidence which was almost impossible to gather, resulting in new approaches that are much severe and strict.
The primary reason behind not taking action was to stabilize the CSGO scene that had recently gained momentum after the coaching bug exploits and COVID-19 repercussions.
Cloud9’s colossal overhaul
CSGO’s veteran caster Henrgy “HenryG” Greer was off to a bad start in 2020. After being accused of sexual abuse, the caster went through a lot of trouble to clean his slate with proof and reliable evidence. The brief slump left a lasting impact on HenryG as the fans saw their favorite caster drop the mic. However, this was not the end for HenryG.
Cloud9 colossus
The mid of the year marked his mega re-entry into esports as Cloud9’s CSGO general manager. The North American organization’s CSGO division that had been struggling to remain relevant for some time now, found a savior in HenryG.
The newly appointed general manager took control of the operations right away and created a new roster led by Alex “ALEX” McMeekin. The esports enthusiasts saw some of the biggest transfers being made with Patrick “es3tag” Hansen joining the colossus in a $2.1 Million deal. The rest of the player deals totaled up to $3.8 Million.
Biggest signing in CSGO history
G2 Esports NiKo
Nikola “NiKo” Kovač’s move overshadowed the money business at Cloud9 back office. This was the year when NiKo decided that his time at FaZe was over. FaZe had become a home for CSGO veteran NiKo after the Bosnian prodigy joined the organization in 2017. However, the IGL issues in the team led him to make a massive move to G2 Esports after playing for the American esports organization for four years.
NiKo is considered one of the most mechanically-abled players in the CSGO realm, so when the transfer was announced, it was given that doughs of cash were involved. G2 labeled this transfer as the “biggest CSGO signing in history.” This claim was hard to contest as NiKo’s earlier transfer from mousesports cost FaZe $500,000 thousand. The player’s worth has only increased over time.
Roster swaps shake big CSGO organizations
The end of the year marked the downfall of several influential organizations in CSGO. While the teams were battling against external factors such as the online format’s impacts, MiBr and ENCE struggled to maintain synergy within the team.
MiBr lost its Brazilian core and coach Ricardo “dead” Sinigaglia following the coaching bug abuse controversy. The sub-par performance from the team led the organization to cut Fernando “fer” Alvarenga and Epitácio “TACO” de Melo from its active roster. Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo decided to stay with the duo and requested to be benched from the lineup.
These changes left MiBr with no coach and two players. However, the organization quickly found three Brazilians in Leonardo “leo_drk” Oliveira, Vinicius “v$m” Moreira, and Lucas “LUCAS1” Teles to fill up the empty slots.
While MiBr successfully took control of a situation that could easily damage the Brazilian legacy, ENCE continued to be in a tough spot. Jani “Aerial” Jussila and Sergej stepped down from their posts citing motivational issues. However, a fiery interview of Aleksi “allu” Jalli revealed that internal issues at ENCE might be to blame. A huge fiasco that followed allu’s interview resulted in IGL Miikka “suNny” Kemppi moving to the ENCE’s bench, leaving the organization with three players.
CSGO gets a new Operation Broken Fang
Valve culminated 2020 on a bright note by adding a new Operation Broken Fang to the dire year. The annual operation streak continued as this operation had all the right ingredients to bring CSGO fans back into the game. Apart from new agents, skins, and missions, the operation introduced new features and maps into the game. The players can now ping one another in the middle of the match and relive the CS 1.6 experience in map Ancient.
All in all, 2020 was a rough year for esports. The dark clouds of pandemic choked the fun out of video games. It was an extreme sport for players and organizations to remain stable in these difficult times. Despite the hurdles, CSGO achieved many milestones. The year has finally come to an end, and from their sofas and gaming chairs, the players only hope for 2021 to bring normality and CSGO LANs along with it.
2020 was nothing less than a roller-coaster ride for the Counter Strike Global Offensive fans. Add a lot of drama, blend it with ESIC bans, sprinkle a lot of transfer money, and you have the 2020 CSGO esports scene in a nutshell.
In simpler words, a lot happened. Here’s your ultimate CSGO rundown for the year 2020, in case something escaped your eye.
Dignitas re-enters the CSGO arena
The year 2020 began with Dignitas’ heroic entry into the CSGO arena by signing a roster that has made several highlights over the years. The esports organization transitioned into a giant by enlisting the likes of Adam “friberg” Friberg, Richard “Xizt” Landstrom, Christopher “GeT_RiGhT” Alesund, Patrik “f0rest” Lindberg on its payroll.
The quadruple that is still cherished for its unforgettable performance in ESL Cologne 2014 in Ninjas in Pyjamas’ jersey, joined the legendary coach Robin “Fifflaren” Johansson in Dignitas. This was an extraordinary moment for CSGO fans as the legendary team will finally grace the tournaments after a long run of seven years in NiP.
Summit1g wins the title of “Worst Play of the Decade”
The famous streamer Jaryd “summit1g” Lazar won the unofficial title for the “worst play of the decade” in a Twitter poll by ESL production staff member Don Constantin for all the right reasons. It’s not every day you see a player lose a round, and eventually a tournament by dying from his own incendiary grenade.
Summit1g may not have a rip-roaring history in CSGO as a professional player, but he managed to leave a legacy for the players, now known as 1G. His infamous clutch fail against Splyce esports in DreamHack Austin 2016 still haunts the CSGO map Train. Summit may have stepped away from his professional career, but 1G continues to carry on his legacy.
Ban on LAN amid the Global pandemic
The defining event in 2020 was most certainly COVID-19 and its ramifications. The world went online, and so did the CSGO tournaments. The hustle-bustle of glamorous tournaments was muted out amid the travel restrictions due to global health concerns.
The impacts of COVID-19 started to emerge when the Polish government prohibited the on-site attendance in the IEM season XIV Katowice world championship. This was a historic event for CSGO fans as IEM Katowice was one of the most anticipated events in 2020. Things went downhill from there as a significant boost in COVID-19 cases was discovered, resulting in more tournaments’ cancellations.
The transition to online format was initiated in April by ESL when Pro League season 11’s LAN finals were canceled. All the teams competed from the comfort of their gaming chairs, without any audience whatsoever. Other tournaments that went online included ESL One Cologne, Dreamhack, Flashpoint Season 2, and BLAST Premier Fall Series. CSGO esports’ situation went from bad to worse as no Major took place throughout the year. ESL One: Road to Rio Major fell at COVID-19’s claws, which was a massive disappointment for the fans.
ESL
To implement the online format efficiently, teams and events were divided into regions. The winners were selected from each region, and tournament finals were held separately in Europe, North America, Asia, and Oceania.
Valve brings in Regional Major Ranking
Esports devotees were expecting the pandemic to culminate by the end of 2020. Hence the plans for ESL Rio Major brewed in full force. One of the significant changes that Valve made to its major is changing the system which determined the team invites. The developer scrapped the invites and replaced it with Regional Major Ranking. The teams scoring more points throughout the related events will get to play in ESL One Rio Major. However, the plans didn’t pan out well, as the Major for 2020 was canceled as COVID-19 gained traction.
The impacts of COVID-19 were not limited to tournaments only. 2020 was a challenging time, but CSGO players’ struggles had never been so evident as they were this year. The year started off with Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander stepping down from the active roster due to “stress-related” symptoms. Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth soon followed Astralis’ in-game leader and took his leave citing the same reasons. In the month of May, the CSGO prodigy Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer bid farewell to Faze Clan, mentioning “lack of motivation” to be the primary reason. The latter half of the year saw Tim “nawwk” Jonasson and Jere “sergej” Salo move to the benches due to burnout symptoms and lack of motivation, respectively.
It was rather worrying that players were dealing with stress, but the leaves birthed a whole new discussion in the CSGO realm.
gla1ve, Xyp9x, nawwk, sergej, olofmeister
While the world was busy focusing on players’ deteriorating performance in the online era, the burnouts among stalwart players brought attention to mental health issues in esports professionals. More organizations shifted towards considering a six-man roster, which would hopefully reduce pressure on five players to perform and stay present at all times. Teams such as Cloud9 and Furia commented on an extended roster’s efficacy, while Vitality adopted a permanent active six-man roster by signing Nabil “Nivera” Benrlitom.
April registered an iconic rivalry between the two FPS games that will continue to become more prominent in coming months. Riot’s first strike against CSGO was recorded in May, a month after Valorant beta went live.
Riot’s tactical shooter with its colorful graphics and energetic agents quickly gained an edge over CSGO’s realistic battlefields. Consequently, a significant drop in CSGO’s player base was observed. FPS enthusiasts left to experiment with Valorant’s magical universe, resulting in a 10% decrease in average CSGO players. This was the beginning of everything, a comparison thread that will continue for the rest of 2020.
Initially, the players and professionals tried to dismiss the comparisons and similarities between the game, but an exodus of CSGO professional players to Valorant proved otherwise. We dug up and found that 200 players retired from CSGO to pursue different careers in 2020, and a large chunk of these players chose Valorant as their new career. CSGO professionals like Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom, Nicholas “nitr0” Cannella, Sam “s0m” Oh, and many others wrapped up their journey in CSGO as Riot presented new opportunities.
A lot had happened in the first few months of 2020 to tarnish Valve’s creation. Despite all that could take CSGO down, the game rose above it all and made a new record by hitting 1 Million concurrent players mark for the first time since 2012. The joy didn’t last for long. Valorant’s official release in June thrashed CSGO off the seven-digit mark within a matter of days. That was the time when half of the FPS community was convinced that CSGO would never get back up from the flat back bump.
CSGO Steam Charts
Valve’s FPS proved that its prowess knows no end. The game surpassed the 1 Million concurrent players’ mark once again in November that continued to increase in December. Valve’s realistic shooter continues to grow despite the several hurdles that came its way in the second half of 2020.
The organizers and organizations successfully controlled the damage for the first half of the year, but COVID-19 lasted longer than anyone had anticipated. One may think that esports should grow more in the online era. However, LAN became the identity of CSGO after years of prestigious tournaments that filled stadiums and podiums. Cancellations of events marred CSGO organizations to an extent where damage control became impossible.
As most of the significant CSGO tournaments took place in European regions, travel restrictions stagnated North American players and teams. The inability to participate was not only wasting their talent but damaging the economy of organizations as well.
As a result, teams like 100 Thieves, Chaos Esports, New England Whalers, and Team Secret removed their CSGO divisions from esports’ face. Gen.G was next to place its stalwart roster featuring Hansel “BnTeT” Ferdinand on the transfer list.
In the CSGO realm, If there’s one thing 2020 would be remembered by other than COVID-19, it’s the coach bug drama; a fiasco that shook the esports ecosystem to the core. Esports referee Michal Slowanksi unveiled the simple yet significant bug in the game which allowed coaches to have a bird’s eye view over the map. The referee revealed that the bug has existed since 2016 and dozens of coaches have exploited it to win important tournaments. His claims weren’t wrong.
A double down on his research by ESL saw 37 coaches banned from playing all ESIC affiliated events such as Dreamhack, ESL, BLAST, Nodwin, WePlay, and others. While many teams accepted their mistakes, OG, Heroic, Boom, Hard Legion, ENCE, and AGO showed support for their coaches by moving them to different postings within the organization.
The controversy continued for months and still haunts the affected organizations like Heroic who had recently gained some ground in esports.
ESIC reinforces strict policies after stream-sniping issues
2020 was the year when CSGO integrity issues ran rampant. The mega coaching bug abuse was followed by the stream-sniping fiasco. ESIC revealed that “widespread” use of stream sniping damages the in-game integrity and some changes and investigations are underway. Just when CSGO players had their hopes up, ESIC announced that previous cases won’t be evaluated.
Instead of punishing and evaluating previous cases, the Esports watchdog came up with a strict “zero-tolerance” policy. ESIC stated that previous issues required more evidence which was almost impossible to gather, resulting in new approaches that are much severe and strict.
The primary reason behind not taking action was to stabilize the CSGO scene that had recently gained momentum after the coaching bug exploits and COVID-19 repercussions.
Cloud9’s colossal overhaul
CSGO’s veteran caster Henrgy “HenryG” Greer was off to a bad start in 2020. After being accused of sexual abuse, the caster went through a lot of trouble to clean his slate with proof and reliable evidence. The brief slump left a lasting impact on HenryG as the fans saw their favorite caster drop the mic. However, this was not the end for HenryG.
Cloud9 colossus
The mid of the year marked his mega re-entry into esports as Cloud9’s CSGO general manager. The North American organization’s CSGO division that had been struggling to remain relevant for some time now, found a savior in HenryG.
The newly appointed general manager took control of the operations right away and created a new roster led by Alex “ALEX” McMeekin. The esports enthusiasts saw some of the biggest transfers being made with Patrick “es3tag” Hansen joining the colossus in a $2.1 Million deal. The rest of the player deals totaled up to $3.8 Million.
Biggest signing in CSGO history
G2 Esports NiKo
Nikola “NiKo” Kovač’s move overshadowed the money business at Cloud9 back office. This was the year when NiKo decided that his time at FaZe was over. FaZe had become a home for CSGO veteran NiKo after the Bosnian prodigy joined the organization in 2017. However, the IGL issues in the team led him to make a massive move to G2 Esports after playing for the American esports organization for four years.
NiKo is considered one of the most mechanically-abled players in the CSGO realm, so when the transfer was announced, it was given that doughs of cash were involved. G2 labeled this transfer as the “biggest CSGO signing in history.” This claim was hard to contest as NiKo’s earlier transfer from mousesports cost FaZe $500,000 thousand. The player’s worth has only increased over time.
Roster swaps shake big CSGO organizations
The end of the year marked the downfall of several influential organizations in CSGO. While the teams were battling against external factors such as the online format’s impacts, MiBr and ENCE struggled to maintain synergy within the team.
MiBr lost its Brazilian core and coach Ricardo “dead” Sinigaglia following the coaching bug abuse controversy. The sub-par performance from the team led the organization to cut Fernando “fer” Alvarenga and Epitácio “TACO” de Melo from its active roster. Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo decided to stay with the duo and requested to be benched from the lineup.
These changes left MiBr with no coach and two players. However, the organization quickly found three Brazilians in Leonardo “leo_drk” Oliveira, Vinicius “v$m” Moreira, and Lucas “LUCAS1” Teles to fill up the empty slots.
While MiBr successfully took control of a situation that could easily damage the Brazilian legacy, ENCE continued to be in a tough spot. Jani “Aerial” Jussila and Sergej stepped down from their posts citing motivational issues. However, a fiery interview of Aleksi “allu” Jalli revealed that internal issues at ENCE might be to blame. A huge fiasco that followed allu’s interview resulted in IGL Miikka “suNny” Kemppi moving to the ENCE’s bench, leaving the organization with three players.
CSGO gets a new Operation Broken Fang
Valve culminated 2020 on a bright note by adding a new Operation Broken Fang to the dire year. The annual operation streak continued as this operation had all the right ingredients to bring CSGO fans back into the game. Apart from new agents, skins, and missions, the operation introduced new features and maps into the game. The players can now ping one another in the middle of the match and relive the CS 1.6 experience in map Ancient.
All in all, 2020 was a rough year for esports. The dark clouds of pandemic choked the fun out of video games. It was an extreme sport for players and organizations to remain stable in these difficult times. Despite the hurdles, CSGO achieved many milestones. The year has finally come to an end, and from their sofas and gaming chairs, the players only hope for 2021 to bring normality and CSGO LANs along with it.
