The first e-sports tournament has just taken place in the CS2 beta. The ESL thus subjected the new Counter-Strike to a real endurance test.
Valve is only allowing a few players to try out Counter-Strike 2 the extensive upgrade that will eventually replace CS:GO completely in the summer. The select few include professional gamers, after all Counter-Strike is not only one of the biggest e-sports titles – it founded professional, competitive gaming as we know it today.
The e-sports organisers from the Electronic Sports League (ESL) have been among the industry’s heavyweights since 1997. And at the ESL, the first CS2 show match between professionals took place. It became clear how well the new tactical shooter already works in the beta.
Great fun for players and spectators
A show match in Counter-Strike 2 took place between two specially assembled international professional teams. The teams involved were called The Beta Boys
and 27015
Professionals from various teams were used, including players from Heroic and Virtus Pro, but also the well-known commentator Harry JustHarry
Russell played in a team himself.
The match on the beta version of de_dust2
not only turned out to be damn entertaining and close, but also impressively shows what (professional) Counter-Strike will look like in the future:
Good omens, but questions remain unanswered
In particular, the new, physical smoke grenades of the Source 2 engine have brought to light numerous worried voices since the Reveal of CS2. The smoke grenades are among the most important tactical elements in the game, so fundamental changes are viewed with particular suspicion.
Here you can see the new technique in action:
Both possible gameplay changes and effects on performance are currently being hotly debated. In the first pro match, the hard practice of the smoke grenades finally showed. And they were convincing, just like the rest of the beta version. There were no major technical or game-related problems. There was one disconnect, but that is not unusual for a beta.
Players were already effectively using the option of briefly chasing away the smoke by throwing a frag to gain information about player positions behind it. However, this massively weakens the smoke walls in terms of being used as a concealment tactic for advances and protection from snipers.
We will see in the summer at the latest whether the smoke grenades will remain in their current form or still need to be balanced. But these would be comparatively small construction sites. The biggest unanswered questions hover over the changes on the remaining maps and the sub-tick system for input recognition.
What do you think of the e-sports match in Counter-Strike 2? Are you critical of the smoke grenades or are you looking forward to the changes in Source 2? Feel free to write it in the comments.
