It has been quite a meme within the Counter-Strike community to poke fun at the game dying. While some are joking, others actually fear for the future of the game. I am here to explain why Counter-Strike hasn’t even hit its stride yet, in terms of the competition level anyways.
Coaching
This is the reason Counter-Strike is only going to be going up. The coaching we currently have in CS:GO is decent. There are a few coaches that are very good tactically, people such as Björn ‘THREAT’ Pers and Chet ‘ImAPet’ Singh. They are few and far between these days though. Very soon, some of our older players will eventually have to retire. While it will be sad to see such legends like Filip ‘NEO’ Kubski and Christopher ‘GeT_RiGhT’ Alesund not playing, their storied work ethics, experience in high-pressure situations and knowledge of CS:GO’s meta specifically, should make them fantastic coaches once they do step away from the mouse and keyboard.
The incoming generation of Counter-Strike players should have some of the best coaching our game has ever seen. This will allow talent influx to be more fundamentally sound, and thus giving us more competitive Counter-Strike from teams deeper in the rankings. A number ten ranked team getting an upset over a number two ranked team in a best of three might be plausible in two years or so. The main point I want to get across is that the coaches that could come will have experience specifically within Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, which I believe will help our scene expand and the competition level grow even further.
What the scene could really use, is a Gregg Popovich or Phil Jackson type coach, and I believe that people like GeT_RiGhT or NEO could get there.
Talent Level
The release of CS:GO for free in Asian countries, specifically China, could be enormous for our scene. Known as some of the best in other esports such as Starcraft and League of Legends, the Asian scene could really raise the bar for CS and bring some phenomenal players into the mix. Call me an optimist, but I believe the Asians will catch up to the Europeans, and bring us more talent. This, of course, is thinking a couple of years in advance; but it is nice to know we have almost an ‘insurance policy’ if you will for the level of talent in our game down the line.
The overall talent level within the Counter-Strike scene is only getting better, and a key detail is that players are starting to really figure out the spray control within the game. Certain players like Jonathon ‘EliGe’ Jablonowski, have nearly perfected the spray. Players will only be getting better as time goes on as well. Other players, of course, are becoming godlike in terms of their first-bullet accuracy. Look at people like Dan ‘apEX’ Madesclaire as an example. Obviously, there are still problems within the game that need to be fixed in order to raise the skill ceiling of the game in general. Nonetheless, the skill of the average pro player is on the up and up.
Decision-making was a problem I used to see a lot of pros face, which has gotten better. Economically, decisions are awful, but I feel we can pin that one on Valve just as much as the teams. In terms of mid-round decision-making, it seems like the average pro is a lot better at being decisive. One key problem within some professionals was indecisiveness; being indecisive is the worst mistake you can make in Counter-Strike. At least, that’s how I see it.
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