The Worst CS:GO Tournament Ever

One LAN has lived in infamy as the worst event, ever. It was the Fyre Festival of gaming, with missing computers, confiscated passports, and of course, not a cent of prize money paid out.
If you thought iBuyPower Masters or the Shanghai Major had problems, welcome to The Gaming Paradise.
Edited by: Brian Van Huynh (@beevanhuynh)
Written By: Alex Debets (@ajdebets)
Narrated by: Daniel Rosen (@Daniel_Rosen)
Animations by: Christian Pearson (@Chr_Pearson)
Courtesy List: pastebin.com/DCD3EJq2
Music used under license from Associated Production Music LLC (”APM”).
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[@theScoreesports]

Correction: Our map at 3:16 incorrectly labels a country as "Czechnia." In fact, it is Czechia. Sorry about that!

[@vojtechraska5951]

lmao

[@pandito1259]

Well i am from Czech, and i was triggered :D

[@dresdi]

Also there is no border between the Netherlands and Germany

[@plimpyrocks6852]

I mean there isn't a real real border either so

[@totocsgo]

@@dresdi i wish there was no border...would make my trip to amsterdam in a month much more enjoyable

[@youneskasdi]

"how hard is it to organize a CSGO tournament i already have a couple of computers in my backyard and some beer in the fridge let's go call everyone we are doing this"

[@deenster]

Mega Hunter where do u live? I wanna do this?

[@acaperic359]

Deen Squad Bosnia moze

[@neo_child]

That's what we call a local LAN event, not a major tourny. Also nice Megu

[@golgytv]

@@acaperic359 realno bilo je mnogo takvih turnira po cijeloj bih, o sarajevu da ne pricam

[@mhummy7920]

@@golgytv Volio bi da i mene neko pozove da rokamo cs. U sarajevu sam btw

[@petarpecamarkovic4832]

Guys, I would like to thank you all for the support. Four years have passed and we from GamingRS have moved on. We have never got any money owed from the organizers at the end (same as the players), all of the individuals that have been connected or worked with GamingRS have gone through various difficulties after this particular event. However, we learned an important lesson after the event, and we have moved on to new endeavors and challenges. For all of you reading this - be careful about who you work with and who you sign contracts with. Thanks again for the support!

[@Gejmi]

Glad you were manage to pull through after such a shamble. I had a similar experience with my company so I can reallu relate. Frustrating thing.

[@iamf6641]

👍

[@Pipoy_99]

man that must've sucked.

[@Karina-sf7sh]

its like they invited u to a birthday and you must eat and enjoy it, but you paid for the food and fun that sucks

[@markstevenson3218]

Yea there's so many lesson that we could learn from this "tragedy". But still, you did good man 👍

[@krStavrev]

Lol even the name sounds like a scam.. it's like everything with the word paradise in its name is either porn or scam

[@alexb6139]

hahahaha

[@Repudiate]

Emuparadise

[@andymalunes8316]

emuparadise is legit but sadly devs dont like and most roms are not downloadable any more...

[@CaroFDoom]

Andy Malunes Google search emuparadise workaround script. There should be a reddit post about it. It's not *really* taken down, just hidden from nintendo.

[@xdbetyar]

Burnout paradise Car porn maybe?

[@dakoabi]

I am so incredibly sorry for gaming rs because they were also involved and got their reputation damaged even though they did everything they could to help the players and make the best out of it

[@doge5603]

you ok?

[@holdencommodorehdtvhssgrou2170]

@@doge5603 idk he's feeling empathy? Have you heard of it?

[@freerun4370]

@@doge5603 u ok?

[@shouk_o]

yea but empathy for what? it's undeserved?@@holdencommodorehdtvhssgrou2170

[@BinBintheRiceCake]

Calling it now, that driver drove off with the pc's and sold em. Also, ah yes, the good ol file bankruptcy and run off into the wind tactic.

[@TheFrogInYourClosetWatchingYou]

I'm sure the owner was in on it too

[@Epic_Semibold]

Damn i feel bad that they searched it in my country :(

[@tryomama]

It's so bad that it made the Shanghai Major so good

[@johnmartinesteller-enojo8290]

lol

[@goldosprey]

At least from what I read the action made up for the mess

[@re-6440]

ikr

[@ferro1398]

The WCA controversy was worse but it's not as known as the Shanghai Major.

[@flak4438]

People seem to forget that some teams got food poisoning at gaming paradise, on top of all the other problems.

[@badnewsbruner]

As a Slovenian, this hurts me deeply.

[@tomazstrelec7270]

Jebiga se je blo 4 lete nazej XD

[@justpotatt5595]

@robotrip M actually the event hosted serbians or croatians (im not sure)... so the Slovenia isnt the main reason

[@Z3ROisHere]

uh same.

[@doooodeh]

@robotrip M Im not Slovenian but unfortunately nowadays most countries are trash and police is corrupt literally everywhere lmao shit and scams like these happen in all countries its not exclusive.

[@klemenck794]

elgam bruner hmm why you lie

[@spoods860]

Idk that sounds pretty lit. Like imagine going to a CS:GO tournament and then not getting paid for winning and getting stuck in a foreign country with nothing. Honestly sounds like a very good time. I’m jealous.

[@TheGudStuffs]

Sounds like paradise to me

[@linuschristensen6181]

@@44848 Who cares?

[@spoods860]

rodrigo leonardo gonzalez. I truly appreciate you, the backbone of society

[@bengixd]

imagine having your passport confiscated tho. my anxiety would eat me alive

[@mmcgear4376]

not when you have another tournament to attend to

[@null5697]

"this is the best tournament by far, hail Satan"

[@tappajaav]

I like that greeting.

[@jibranzulti3780]

Why tf you everywhere

[@jwwwun]

I like how they even animated the “uhh”s because that makes it feel more natural

[@PopCross]

As the person who animated them, I'm glad you like that bit! It was probably my favourite part of the animations for this video :D

[@azael2078]

@@PopCross Good job on the animation!

[@PopCross]

@@azael2078 Thanks so much!

[@antonpoleksic3966]

I feel bad for Marković,looks like a decent guy...

[@gordonlin8629]

yea he commented on this video. its the top comment i think

[@gwester6217]

*FYRE FESTIVAL BUT IN GAMING?*

[@jitlikelias]

gWesTer Broooo i remember that

[@tubewoodycool]

This happened way before fyre festival.

[@user-vo8qx1pz9v]

The organizers didn't get jail for scamming this time though

[@azael2078]

Y E S

[@zenny8877]

Slovenian Bitcoin Miners is one of the shadiest phrases ever.

[@igiwarcraft]

I just want to weight in to say one thing that you should include: The guy responsible, Saša Bulić is not Slovenian. The only Slovenian staff there were volunteers that wanted to help the tournament - much like gaming.rs, that also wanted to see it work. The whole thing was a disaster for Slovenian esports scene and as a result of one stupid fuck that has nothing to do with the country, we will probably never see an esports event again.

[@parikshitrao4208]

Nah man don't worry yes it's a setback but with time reports will comeback. Love from India

[@chipskylark5500]

I hope you get the chance to see another event in the future brother

[@Perc1000]

balkan esports in general tbh

[@timresek8194]

Sand desert here lol

[@krenzzie7290]

It's gonna be gaming paradise *100%*

[@DarukaEon]

Should've been titled, "The Worst Dota 2 Tournament That Never Happened."

[@azael2078]

@@Tatchanan-kx6xv no the worst esports tournament that never happened

[@WaLApA117]

I've been watching a series called "The Worst" over at another channel where they talk about the worst moments of "traditional" sports, and I thought to myself, "what if theScore Esports did a series like this?" Then this pops up. You guys need to make more of these, make this a series.

[@colajwhat]

“Gaming Paradise” the irony🤣

[@tenej6992]

I was 15 at the time and I remember me and my friensd talking about. We joked about playing in it, since we were just kids. I didn't know it was that bad and it's such a shame everything went so badly. Kind of shameful really

[@kaPaURL]

Lol I live in Slovenia and didn't even hear about it, I wish I was there

[@tutteturunen6822]

2015

[@justpotatt5595]

yea same

[@ClassicDura]

Makes me sad that this basically ruined the eSports scene in my home country

[@jurajhabek2782]

Zao mi je

[@STOREpappa]

*starts raining and winds pick up speed* writer at thescore esport: A LITERAL ACT OF GOD

[@freerun4370]

Major props to Petar Markovic. He was left to clean up the most ungodly mess possible and did so in the best way he could. Absolute mad respect to this man. Most people would have vanished as well and just rebranded or something. The amount of stress and hell to pay for the fuck up of someone else is big burden to fix later. This be the equivalent of that guy set an entire neighbourhood on fire, ran away and left the gas and lighter under your feet.

[@Zioau]

Probably the best tournament ever

[@chastitywhiterose]

I watched this video for an Esports Production course and it scares me from ever wanting to make an event.

[@millerwhale]

You know an overseas venue's gonna be a disaster when the airport shuttles arrive at 3:00 am XD

[@lukegtm3942]

The Fyre Festival of CS:GO

[@th00perman_]

@8:03 You can use this excuse for literally anything. *Did you set up & oversee the first manned mission to Mars where all of the astronauts died while landing? Well, it was your first time, and you did better than anyone around, so it's fine.*

[@randyvanjr23]

This is literally the story of FYRE Festival but in CSGO.

[@TheFrogInYourClosetWatchingYou]

Fye festival almost turned into survivor lol

[@TilinNN]

Also from Slovenia and I am proud to say that a few of us students hosted a better LAN Party this year than that one. 14 CSGO teams playing at once in the start.

[@smaugisrich3920]

They unironically said "Epic Gaming" in the description for the event so that shouldraise a red flag

[@henridupascal2184]

Nice one. Special mention to Wipeout LAN in 2003 in Switzerland xd

[@ChillImBeast]

I'm so glad I found this channel! It's like news for Gaming lol

[@Xsoneras]

ez4ence

[@alkank9004]

freakin' everywhere....

[@fordgalaxie3695]

ence ecne dens putted upperbelt putted upperbelt

[@rizzcs6018]

I still remember twitter blowing up those couple of days during the tournament, was hilarious. At least the accommodation looked good, if i remember correctly there's a pic of the old VP team chilling in a hot tub drinking champagne after their game got delayed.

[@mcbadrobotvoice8155]

“The fyre festival of gaming” most accurate description of all time

[@ThouArtOfWar0724]

Not really this was just a failure that was set with good intentions. The fyre festival was a straight scam

[@johnyonghwang6112]

Who tf chooses monitor over the pc. Monitors could literally be bought anywhere.

[@koiidva4522]

They should’ve played on MacBooks

[@coptor4232]

UnknownDarkDragon you do know a Mac s basically a pc right

[@pixiesv256]

@Ben better than Office Computers though?

[@betoh7140]

Well, from my experience, normal PCs are much better for gaming than macs.

[@crashbandikewt5672]

I used to play on a 2015 or something MacBook that got 200 fps on low graphics lmao

[@MrTriple3D]

@@crashbandikewt5672 yeah no.

[@laqmaestro5336]

ive been waiting this since i subbed you

[@ytgc-royalewarex5190]

Nothing worse than Cyber X Games, Indian Gaming Carnival and Championship Gaming Series, IMO. In a general sense, any tournament that doesn't pay a prize money are the worst!

[@ineedc3477]

CGS is actually great if they just follow the WCG & ESWC route in establishing the proper tournament with no franchising system. Joke aside, CGS had a great setup for player, sponsorship and a live stream broadcast with TV deal. Tbh, the concept were ahead of its time but the execution, format and the rules of the ownership were really bad and kinda forcing the over dramatic session into the event which weren't a good interruption for every team that used to competed in there

[@ytgc-royalewarex5190]

@@ineedc3477 Exactly, could've had been great. The production, commercial and TV broadcast deal were technically a cool idea of esports investment attempted compared to that event at the time but the organizer completely messed up on the term of competitiveness focus with the cringy session they brought into. They're all unnecessary including the countdown lady, oh my God! It was embarrassing to watch, to be honest 🤣. Also, they started the CS round with $16K money instead of $800 which should be a pistol round first. Plus, they never spectated in FPP but went full spectated in TPP instead. No wonder why CGS was a shitshow despite the cool production they attempted to made, when I looking back 🤦🏻‍♂️🤣. Other event on the other hand seemed to do better when it come to pure competitive scene.

[@ineedc3477]

@@ytgc-royalewarex5190 And oh.. I forgot to mentioned that CGS wasn't only the 1st attempted of esports partnership franchise event but they also signed an exclusivity deal within an esports ORG team at the time. Iirc the organization cannot joined other tourney after being a partner with CGS. Shit was so depressing and all the money that was thrown by the owner, Scott Valencia, only to make the situation been worse and the ORG crashed and burned in only a couple of season lmfao

[@TryHardCentral]

I'm sad this nightmare happened in my country..

[@ineedc3477]

Now we got Flashpoint season 3 being Gaming Paradise all over again. Then the ORG immediately folded lmfao

[@overdin]

Everyone blames our country for this, but no one knows that Croatians were the one who hosted it. Also I was there to stream the match since I got "sponsored" by one of the staff members, to host the Stream. I got turned down while I was setting up the stream by the Croatian production team, even tho their stream was offline and they did not want me to stream it anyway.

[@martinjez1]

I'm pretty sure that .rs is a serbian domain and those names also sound Serbian/Croatian. I'm also pretty sure that a few of those hotels in Portorož are owned by some serbian rich guy, so there you go.

[@martinjez1]

@Mr BuzzKill Yeah, I'm pretty sure that the hotel has all the right to keep your documents if you don't pay them, so there was probably nothing wrong on their part there.

[@SuperTurhake]

@@martinjez1 I would never give my passport to any hotel reception ever. That's the most valuable thing you have on you while traveling why would you give it to hotel reception? I've never been asked to leave my passport at the reception and i never would ..

[@stick4250]

A "literal act of god". I mean I'm sure meteorologists could've warned them about the fucking weather.

[@Ego_au]

This is like the gaming version of that big island party where everyone was stranded on that island and started acting like savages lmao

[@Oscar_Armstrong]

"the Fyre Fest of gaming" lol.

[@bdemps999]

it’s literally the FYRE FESTIVAL of csgo hahahaha that’s perfect

[@peathyyy]

Damn I remember when that happened. This puts the FaceIt Major in a completely different perspective.

[@pfitz9346]

On paper "good beer, live music, and high level gaming" seems like an absolute banger. They'd have gotten my money unfortunately.

[@WolfersHD]

Man do I love this channel

[@jessejohn7406]

The CEO of gaming paradise he wasn’t getting away he would have been hunted and found he wasn’t running away from death

[@valdemarjrgensen8072]

"At least we are not as bad as gaming paradise" - Organisers of the iBuyPower tournament, probably.

[@Jmvars]

Man...I saw the iBP Master IV tournament live. As much as a disaster as that was it is nothing compared to this.

[@zzdev1]

I thought it was the Hong Kong Zotac Master one lmao The tournaments got delayed and they start forcing the audience to leave the venue. They even put Windows Movie Maker edited hotel ads with default templates at the event like wtf? just not like other esport events i expected. Even it was the final, half seats are empty. btw I live in Hong Kong We are just not prepared for the esports hype imo

[@STFwrinkle]

Great video as always 👌

[@mikea5793]

those animations are gold! @5:30

[@NovocaineTV]

I dunno. I am still waiting on $$ from CPL events dating from 2001-2004. lol. When I finally got a hold of Angel Munoz he said go take it up with the people i sold the CPL right too. So great :/

[@user-iw3gj3cj1m]

What CPL event did u attend to and with what team? It was fine from 97 to 03. But they needed to send them the proper paperwork in order to get paid

[@ytgc-royalewarex5190]

@@user-iw3gj3cj1m Didn't CPL still managed to paid the prize money in 2004 ? Team NoA, that won CPL Winter 2004 had actually received their prize money but I heard a story that it went to NoA owner and he ran off all of their money. I thought CPL lost its value, status and credibility as a "Major gaming tournament in the world" started in 2006 and the unpaid prize money issue started from those year as well.

[@DomiiPlaysYT]

I am apologizing to everyone from Slovenia! 🇸🇮 Sry guys

[@azbehocevar2051]

I accept your apologiez

[@ArdVon2]

D3monPlays you dont need to apologize! the one who need to apologize is the CEO

[@DomiiPlaysYT]

@@ArdVon2 One has to do it tho

[@johnvandam5507]

@@DomiiPlaysYT shut up

[@adplusgaming4023]

Not your fault it's the ceo

[@mo1ya938]

4:38 This was supposed to have been Team Secret's debut LAN?

[@joerad4722]

Yep, that definitely out did CyberXGames in 2004 -- I was there and ran a tournament there and thought THAT was bad, but this definitely exceeds that by far. No-one lost their passport and no acts of god.

[@ineedc3477]

CXG "exceeds by far" ? Lol not only that tournament was a disaster but it was horribly anti climatic too when the rest of the competition stage was cancelled and ended just like that after the showmatch. Total half arsed and incomplete event XD

[@dannyzero692]

Imagine this situation like you get to a foreign country and go to the Hotel at 3:00 am, wake up 2:00 pm in the afternoon. Decided to go outside and take a tour of the city but you failed because there was a god damn storm and you have to go back to the hotel. Next day you got robbed and all out have left was just a few coins left. Useless, you decided to go back to your country but your Passport got robbed along with your bag and boarding ticket for the plane. So you are trapped, with no money to pay for the hotel, food and water. You're stuck, you decided to sit in the street begging for money in English but the people doesn't understand English. You could have just killed yourself .

[@lonelyheartproductions5237]

The Interenet Historian needs to make a video about this

[@RussyPopDnD]

So GamingResorts didn't pay the venue, didn't pay the prizes...what did they pay for? And how in the hell did Bulic not get sued?

[@shortcat]

Keep spending most our lives Livin' in a gaming paradise

[@SweetJP.]

apparently, nobody in slovenia has pc's strong enough to run csgo, so they had to pick up pc's from belgium? that's crazy xD

[@fica1137]

There were definitely but for some reason they chose not to, maybe because PC shops couldn't deliver like 50 same PCs

[@rawqo]

another frustating csgo event was TWC 2016 (The World Championship 2016) in that tournament any team received money from the prize pool, and e-frag is still working as an organization after been declared broken im from Argentina, and nobody from the Argentina team received money, the same goes with the turkey team or any of the teams

[@neo-zamato]

When you said fyre festival. I knew this was gonna be bad.

[@CYBORGGAMINGYouTube]

Back when this video came out, I immediately clicked it thinking it's about IGC(Indian Gaming Carnival) 😅

[@MrBerndderboss]

I don't know man... the current major doesn't really hype me either.

[@Paco1337]

I hosted smaller size LAN tournament for CoD2 and League of Legends few years ago I was admin for League but also helping for CoD and dayum it's hard people ask you only about how to do something good thing it was supported by Riot (they gave RP prices) and money was given too.But we choose CoD because most of big clans are from our and countries around and every PC can run it same for League,I always wanted CS:GO Lan but you need really good PCs.Good thing it was just one day CoD second day League and people could go home.

[@IsomerSoma]

You dont need a better for csgo than for lol.

[@tappajaav]

How did it go? I would be curious to hear about your adventures with hosting.

[@Liam-jy7yi]

The thing is the tornoument was actually going to be great but the tornoument was just cursed everything was cursed.

[@willn8664]

They could have played the original Counterstrike with those low end computers though and still have somewhat of a tournament.....

[@__MuthawaliAlzahrowi]

The missing computer part got me laugh, this is hilarious,

[@sodiacTV]

So I watched this video a little late but I'd like to share my story as I was there at the event: I went to the event because I wrote to them that I want to come and film for my youtube. So they said that they'll get me a hotel room and food and drinks for free. And I said heck yeah, free beer and a bed + a chance to see pasha, rain, guardian and more. The lan was supposed to start at 9am. I got the address of the event on their website, which was wrong. I was walking around searching for it for like 2 hours, I went up the hill like a crazy person in 35 degrees Celsius, but there was nothing there. Finally, I managed to contact the organizers and they gave me the correct address. I came there 4 hours late and the place didn't even open yet. And this place was basically just a giant hangar for old boats at a shipyard. When they opened the place looked exactly like an inside of the old hangar would look like. They had PCs for the viewers where you could wait and play your own csgo matches or so they said you could. The PC's had 30fps +, of course, a trackball mouse at the table that was put together for a picnic. Let''s just say I had to wait from 9am till 10pm for the first game to start. So I drank free beer. A lot of it. Players were going in and out in their swimsuits. I remember that we were smoking a joint and Neo came to our group, said if he can have a puff. He inhaled twice, took the joint, threw it on the ground, stepped on it and said that drugs are bad for us. Then he went inside. We got the news that the players got food poisoning from the hotel. It was all just such a shit fest but I enjoyed it because I was shitfaced. By the time the first game started I was so piss-drunk, I fell asleep watching the game... And then I woke up. No one was around me, it was pitch dark. I looked at the phone and the battery was dead. When my eyes finally adjusted to the dark, I found out I was alone in the fucking hangar at 3am probably. I was locked inside. They just fucking left me there... I climbed through the window and somehow got free. I then found some crazy group of people that lent me a phone so I could find a bus home, because I had to work the next day. I never talked to the organizers after that and I think I still have some footage of the event on a disk somewhere, but I need to find it. I was really mad at the time because my country held the worst lan in the history of cs and no one working there was even from my country.

[@chocoberryvanillacake4297]

DUDE WHAT THE HELL?! Why did they left u alone?!

[@violetdobra3636]

It was the literal Fyre Festival of gaming

[@sketch3744]

This plays awkwardly, similarly to the fyre festival.

[@yeah5874]

Oh man i remember TobiWan went there for the event he was so dissapointed

[@maticsega3311]

Well I live in Slovenia and haven't heard of the event -_- I wish I was there.

[@kavoo0]

2:54 - out boy scREAM

[@mare5814]

memories

[@liveyourlifenerd]

I never knew this happened in Slovenia and i moved to the country 5 years ago. . .

[@bryans3402]

love esports stories!!! LIT!!!

[@adhuaadharchaudhary]

They spent all the money on the name itself 'gaming paradise'

[@GutsyTv69]

From today the worst tournaments or close enough should be called "gaming paradise" thank you

[@SoniComi]

Even Kinguin exclaimed immediately that their tournament win meant nothing.

[@cl8804]

Pro tip: Never deposit your ID with any corporation.

[@azbehocevar2051]

They are talking about our country of Slovenija like we are the bad country. #feelsbadman

[@thebaws7289]

Varapes Planica is a fucking dope Ski Jumping hill though

[@jboogy697]

yall should make a vid rankin every csgo major

[@danremirosenvinge3592]

i watched the tournament and it seems like you are forgetting to mention how delayed the finals was. if i remember correctly i was waiting 4-5 HOURS for it to start. and if that weren't bad enough they decided to play the finals as BO1 instead of BO3...

[@Lazariez]

I remember watching this event, sad story.

[@trippleseven3863]

Im getting anxiety from watching this

[@MinecraftGuid]

Remember sitting for hours waiting for the tournament.....

[@wooooshbait6171]

I’ve never seen a KZbin video say 119 minutes ago

[@scorch7239]

Lmao I love the way u said “Portorož Slovenia” only Slovenians are gonna know the correct way of saying jt

[@justpotatt5595]

yes Xd

[@jureclovek7130]

jep... prvič ku sm slišu je blu v monopoly

[@Fr1ender]

Dont know much information about it, but there was a cs 1.6 tournament in india that tops this, The first team that arrived in the hotel (M5 Dosia-ed1k-fox and 2 other russian players) got mugged inside the hotel! The tournament after a couple of days never actually took place and there was no prize money whatsoever from the very start

[@ytgc-royalewarex5190]

IGC (Indian Gaming Carnival)

[@GoldGraffitiKing]

You gave your passport to the hotel front desk? pardon ?

[@matejkmatejk3951]

I can confirm in Slovenia all the buses ore late

[@daichi7796]

2:20 i feel like, just maybe, they could have checked the forecast beforehand... just a suggestion

[@ashurad_fox5991]

"It was my first event, and I still did much better than anybody around" My school esport did better than this event, only i3 with hd 620 and 8GB ram. Game is lagging a bit, but atleast we have a decent meal. And even though the 3k php prize pool for the winner and 1k php for both semi and quarter finalist was delayed 1 week. (The game is LoL, and our team only went as far as quarter finals)