How CS:GO tournaments have gained monetary power and popularity amongst eSports players

On May 14, one of the most anticipated CS:GO tournaments, the PGL Major Antwerp 2022, will start. This year the prize pool is $13,000 and the top 24 teams will be competing for it. The very first championship was held back in 2013 and every year the majors attract more and more players and spectators.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive itself was released in August 2012. The shooter appeared on the Steam platform and cost $10. What is interesting, CS:GO appeared not only on the PC, but also on the Xbox360 and PS3 consoles. This is due to the fact that even at the development stage it was decided to make the game multiplatform. Because of that, CS:GO was very different from previous CS 1.6 and CS: Source titles that were already outdated and needed an upgrade. But then Valve realized, that multiplatform is not the best solution and focused on the development of the PC version.

However, at first, the semi-console game did not appeal to true hardcore PC gamers. Those who are used to the standard mechanics of CS 1.6 could not get used to the new features of the shooter. All this led to the fact that many experienced cyber-players decided to stop playing and finished their careers. CS:GO also did not particularly surprise those who are already used to casual shooters. For them there was nothing new in the game.

All this led to the expected result. The game’s audience remained low for a long time. And it could have gone on like this for a long time, had it not been for the announcement of the DreamHack Winter event in 2013. It was sponsored by Valve and became the first Major event for CS:GO.

Prize fund

The prize pool at the first tournament was $250,000 and Valve decided on a rather controversial move to raise this amount. First, the developers released The Arms Deal Update. It allowed players to open the chests and receive unique skins for weapons. This was reminiscent of the actions of the Dota 2 creators. Although oldfags took the update negatively, the game got the much needed hype.

After that Valve has already specifically released Esports 2013 Case add-on. A certain percentage of the sales of this add-on was donated to the prize fund of the new tournament. Players were already used to opening chests and were constantly spending on them. As a result the prize pool was collected rather quickly. In the same way, the necessary amount was also collected for the 2014 tournament.

However, the chests alone were not enough for Valve. Subsequently, special souvenir sets were added to the game, which could only be obtained by those who watched DreamHack Winter 2013. This led to a noticeable increase in the tournament’s audience, and the company itself is still using this trick. Thanks to this, the broadcasts often attracted more than a million viewers.

As a result, predictably, experienced players were interested in the new discipline, which contributed to the rapid development of the CS community. Thus began the “first era” of Major tournaments.

What was the first era of Major tournaments?

It started with DreamHack Winter 2013 and a total of four tournaments were held. All major events were held at small venues, because at that time the CS:GO community was just being formed and gaining popularity. Although Valve continued to release cases, the prize pool remained unchanged at $250,000.

At the time, the best team was the Swedish Ninjas in Pyjamas. It was largely due to low competition, as the other strong teams stayed true to CS 1.6. Because of that, no one could beat the Swedes for a long time. However, as time went on, the CS:GO community evolved and beating NiP was no longer seen as something incredible.

Second and Third Era

CS:GO grew in popularity and tournaments began to be staged at major venues. This era saw the introduction of sticker-related innovations. At first, Valve only released stickers with team logos, but now started selling autographed stickers. In doing so, part of the money from the sale went to the players themselves. This led to companies regulating relations with organizers and concluding contracts. The second era saw the emergence of many young teams, among whom stands out the Swedes of Fnatic who won two major tournaments in a row.

The third era is still underway. It was marked by a significant increase in the prize pool, which is now one million dollars. In addition, a qualification tournament system was introduced, which allowed teams without legendary status to compete for the right to participate in the majors.

This has resulted in CS:GO tournaments attracting more and more spectators and professional players each year. The previous tournament had a prize pool of $2 million. Of course, this is less than at The International Championship. However, CS:GO’s viewership has overtaken the Dote 2 tournament. It is therefore safe to say that Valve will develop this cyber discipline and implement an effective solution to increase the prize pool.