How COVID-19 Has Impacted E-Sports

The ESports industry went into 2020 with extremely high expectations after the development of it within 2019 and looked like it was heading for a long term growth. But later down the timeline a virus came a long and disrupted this entire process.

The COVID-19 Pandemic has affect almost, if not, every industry and is clear to believe that esports would be one affected by it the most, but how true is this? In this article, we are going to look at how esports has been affected by the coronavirus pandemic, and how it is attempted to control it.

ESports Vs COVID-19

As Coronavirus took control of most countries by forcing them into nationwide lockdowns, it caused many issues for competing, thus was moved to online. This, like sports, is a huge and significant difference compared to in person competition. 

The Change In-Game

Just like traditional sport, the lack of crowd extremely kills the entertainment value, it lacks that energy that once made the sport what it was. Being in that environment truly impacts the entertainment value, getting you excited for that next big matchup between the two titans, but matchups like these don’t have that energy around them anymore.

Furthermore, Esports played online actually affects the competition directly itself with ‘latency’. Games where every millisecond counts like CS:GO, Valorant and even Call Of Duty, have a big impact in affecting the outcome of the game.

Adding to this has to be the casters. Casters are one of the top reasons why esports does so well with their booming voice echoing throughout that crowd, effectively communicating that energy. However, with it being online the audio quality had to diminish with it, making some – an example would be ‘machine’ from the CS:GO casting desks – take a break to achieve their motivation back, effectively starting a chain reaction amongst other casters.

To make matters worse, events that were allowed to be hosted in person, the COVID-19 social distancing measures meant that not as many people could be in the same place at once.

An example of how this made a difference would be ESL’s Extreme Masters World Championship tournament in Poland, Katowice. It was altered so much after this event that the Polish government ordered ESL to not allow any audience members within the stadium at all, right before the event was scheduled to start.

The Effect On Brands & Businesses

Since the outbreak, many have focused on repairing the industry revenues and some, like ESL and Dreamhack, merged brands behind the scenes. This is a significant example of how bad the esports revenue tanked and it was all done to reduce operation costs.

Not just that, but similar companies within the Overwatch League (Toronto Defiant and OverActive Media) had to release staff to help reduce salary costs by up to 30%. Some took it worse than others and Team Reciprocity came to the conclusion to release all of their staff.

The industry itself has to completely change its infrastructure as it transitioned online, which you would believe would be simple to move everything online. You see, it was a challenge for all the companies and teams involved in this situation because of the adjustment of how things were monetized, more particularly in terms of sponsorships.

Written By Max Lang-Orsini

How Is CS:GO Still Popular In 2020? – A Retrospective

CS:GO – A Retrospective

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO for short) was released back on the 21st August 2012 by Valve during an extremely competitive time for First Person Shooters. Since this game was released over 8 years ago, and with the previous installments being over 20 years old, what keeps people playing CS:GO?

Going Back In Time

Before we look at how CS:GO began it’s resurgence, let’s understand how it got to its original point.

With CS:S (Counter-Strike: Source) failing to transfer its total player count from the original Counter-Strike game, it meant that part of CS:GO’s purpose was bringing the players to one place. However, the launch of GO did not turn out as Valve expected.

Players that were popular esport competitors or just well known in the community criticised the game for being ‘too easy’ and lacked the skill component when compared to the previous installments. This is a good time to bring up that other shooters (like Call Of Duty) lacked the ‘skill’ element. The Counter-Strike franchise brought skill, smart thinking and intensive quick reactive moments, this is why CS stood out.

As updates rolled out and CS:GO began to age, it’s ‘lack of skill’ developed into a signature title as one of the most skillful games in the scene.

It’s Rising Active Player Count

As more and more updates rolled out and more and more game modes and fun challenges were being released, CS:GO’s popularity really began to climb.

An important factor to note is that during the winter months, CS:GO’s popularity always fell by a proportion. This could be argued that the school holidays had this effect, but another reason was the ‘CS:GO Majors’.

These ‘Majors’ were hosted 3 times a year (now 2), and in simple terms, is the ‘World Cup’ of CS:GO. These majors showcase the eSports scene in a highly advertised amount to the build up of the tournament. These majors consistently grew in popularity gaining way over 20 million hours of total watchtime which led the CS:GO player count to increase.

These eSports tournaments are different when compared with other games. There is something about CS:GO that has great energy to watch, similar to League Of Legends’ big eSports tournaments.

The First Peak

The first peak came around 2016, the same time MLG Columbus 2016 was hosted and is believed to be the reason. MLG brought many fans across from other FPS games, showing what a great attraction to what these games can be. Other popular games started taking notes on how they can incorporate skill into their games like CS:GO did, this is how GO earnt it’s staple.

The energy of CS:GO Majors was like no other, the CS:GO crowd stood out to other games. Maybe the drooling 3 map finals to find that Major eSports title for a team really pulled people in (those who watched Eleague Boston 2018 will know the true greatness of CS:GO Majors).

At this point, the game followed a consistent pattern in its active CS:GO player count. It spiked during the beginning of the year to slowly decline during the winter months. This was the case until the severe decline during 2018, when it was the era of Battle Royale games.

The Era Of Battle Royale Games

2018 saw a huge amount of players playing games within the Battle Royale genre. Games like ‘Player Unknown’s Battle Grounds (PUBG)’ and ‘Fortnite’ began experiencing ridiculous numbers of player counts and because of this, the CSGO players began searching for something new.

During this period, CS:GO entered a state of recession. It’s active player count started dipping below 400,000 players which was the lowest it have ever gone since 2014. Other games started to pop up around, like Apex Legends, also taking these average players of Counter-Strike away.

Everyone knew, however, that these Battle Royale Games would not last, and over time this would prove to be correct. It was a very long decreasing process of the genre, taking over a year to blow over the popularity boom.

During this peak however, Valve had their own trick up their sleeve. Valve announced in late 2018 a new game mode called ‘Danger Zone’, which was CS but battle royale. It was a running joke for many to have a Battle Royale in CS, but this joke became a reality. When players heard the news, they began to try out this new mode which proved itself clearly.

Valve did a tremendous job in the Danger Zone project by somehow taking the skill and intensive gameplay to a completely different genre. With this praise, players began to return to the game after they got that taste of CS:GO with this new and refreshing gamemode.

The Resurgence

The Resurgence of Counter-Strike was like no other. You can argue it also came about at a really good time. For the first time, CS:GO’s active player count did not decrease in late 2019, rather, it grew a lot.

Like I said previously, it did strike a bit of luck on the timing of everything. COVID-19 began happening and when many countries began Locking down, players began turning to Counter-Strike. CS saw it’s biggest peak with over a million concurrent players at one time and further growing to 1.3 million active players at one time.

This brings us to today, where the game sits at a stead 1 million concurrent players and the top game of Steam as of typing. CS has brought many achievements and has been industry changing.

This is how Counter-Strike’s journey led to it being a staple in the gaming community and has brought many games we know today. Players will never let this game dismiss into the darkness for one reason; it’s Counter-Strike.

Written By: Max Lang-Orsini