What REALLY happened at Paris Major? Valve had to intervene.

[@arararagi-san]

The thing that valve was afraid of happening happened, the tournaments became non-competitive and focused more on bringing in more money, the result? Top and popular teams became tired and lower tier or less popular teams had lower chance of competing on tournaments.

[@rob-q-]

this comment is a summary of the clip you just watched? what..

[@Goombaki]

@@rob-q-it’s bro’s diary just let him be

[@Simtalnius]

expected stupidity from weeb

[@jenishyy1]

Its becoming boring to see same teams over and over

[@damdegee]

Nice try

[@navdeepsingh3508]

Valve is like that dad who doesn't do much or says much...but when it does, its always something really fucking important

[@he5078]

He's just like my dad (except that last part I guess)

[@VengeanceCore]

Well thats sad :( I hope you get a better dad next time.

[@navdeepsingh3508]

@@VengeanceCore dw that was just analogy. My actual dad was good however long he was alive

[@somefish9147]

​@@VengeanceCorebro said next time

[@KelaBeats]

Yeah. A bad dad.

[@mattbrewerton6884]

This is exactly why I and a lot of people *stopped* watching tournaments. Keeping the same big teams didnt make it more appealing, it made it boring. Watching underdogs fight against legendary teams is exciting, even if they lose you can appreciate the underdog teams skill and effort, and it acted as a beacon for players who aspire to earn their way to a T1 spot. Corporations killed CS a long time ago for many of us. I miss the days where CS tournaments were about CS and not money.

[@pkrent3461]

LAN tournaments 😢

[@ADreamingTraveler]

I used to sometimes tune in to watch comp CSGO a long long time but you're right. It didn't take even the more casual players long to realize that the biggest tournaments were just the same couple people playing against eachother again and again with the same teams participating. It was obvious it was all about connections and the money to these orgs and tournament holders.

[@Azaqa]

Unfortunately, its not viable to just run events for fun. Players need to get paid, the orgs that pay them need to make profit, the companies running events need to make money. You cant just have these massive events losing millions every time, how is that meant to work? Anyone who isnt delusional or blinded by nostalgia will tell you how much more exciting the CS events in 2017-2023 are compared to older events that were often online. Not only was there much less hype and much lower production quality, the actual level of the gameplay was infinitely lower. Some random top 100 team today that nobody even watches would 16-0 the best teams of 2014 over and over. This constant improvement wouldnt be possible without a whole industry supporting the players.

[@Scyborg832]

@@Azaqa I think we can likely find a system where both the needs of the players and the integrity of the sport are both met, can we not? Valve making these guidelines is the first step. The next step is the organizers figuring out how to balance it while maintaining the integrity of the game. In my opinion. The integrity of the game is more important than the furthering of the scene. If the scene dies, so be it. At least it won't be bastardized by corporate interests. The organizers put themselves above the players. We could have a world where the players are supported and the tournaments are fair. But organizers want to be the main benefactor of it. That's the issue. I'm not blaming them for wanting to turn a profit off of it, but the CS scene needs an organizer that's willing to take small profits opposed to big ones in the name of the sport. And if that's unrealistic, and it probably is, then what's the point of even playing the sport to be honest besides selling people a false reality of what professional CS is? It's less than a competition and more of a popularity contest, like the NFL.

[@Azaqa]

@@Scyborg832 I dont think you are living in reality. ESL operates at a loss, probably every TO does.

[@notJsons]

I went into this video thinking you had a couple hundred thousand subs, but I’m surprised to find out that you have less than 4000. It seemed like a video from someone with 500k, keep up the good work! I’d like to see more of this

[@O_79]

exactly what i thought too

[@matheusmonteiro5205]

same here, awesome work, morr of this please

[@Simtalnius]

that's cause you dont realize most of the info is wrong

[@idocare6538]

100% - Hope this channel blows up!

[@kellymicheal7256]

​@@SimtalniusWould be nice if you could back that claim with some pointers on the errors so we could be aware of mistakes

[@PommeTeori]

It still shock me how this channel only had 3k subscribers with this packed content.

[@Satellite-qu3eu]

It is english version of a russian channel, which has lots more subs

[@deeplerg7913]

the channel is well-funded by their servers, so they can afford high quality. I think it's mostly for promotion

[@ThatPianoNoob]

Really? Half these segments are just fucking filler.. But the same can be said about the most popular channels so maybe they should fit right in.

[@ITFNBiteBayKon]

For a start a shirt video that actually manages to talk about nothing we didn't already know for the whole le gth of the video, added to that a shitty click bait title.

[@Yourfeelingsdonotmatter]

They have twice that now, but it's a niche single game channel, those aren't always huge. There's exceptions of course.

[@theeKakashi1337]

It's refreshing to know that a goliath company like Valve cares more about its community than the money they make, When Gabin passes the torch, I hope he picks the best hand to take it.

[@jewels3846]

I was straight up telling my partner the other day when OWL ended that how Valve handled CSGO esport leagues is why it survived and OWL didnt. Owl wanted the success and money from the start. I lost interest when it turned out teams were completely different rosters most of the time each season instead of building a team identity. I havent watched pro CGI in a few years but the last time I did I could still cheer NIP because they held the same identity. Even when players left and newer ones joined (poor Allu got so memed on haha) it wasnt like a team overhaul but a natural moving on.

[@user-nr3nq3ns8j]

Fun fact, they don't really have to please investors since valve is privately owned company. That's why they care about their community.

[@saintient]

Sure Valve is better than other companies however they aren't any good either. You might think they do this thing always when the truth is they're hard to reach and barely communicates with the community. Pros and fans have love/hate relationship with Valve. (csgo/dota2)

[@dxcSOUL]

​@@saintientSeems like they care more about ethics than pleasing anyone. That's fine with me.

[@terrordoidao8931]

​@@user-nr3nq3ns8jYes and no. Valve owns the biggest gaming online Store, Valve convinced Sony to sell their games on it, Valve convinced Microsoft to sell their games on it. Steam Machine is a solid product and is doing well. Apparently Valve doesnt need investors to grow.

[@darylrosal9639]

Valve did a great job on preventing CSGO becoming a bureaucracy of big orgs like ESL and BLAST. Hopefully, CS2 will be just like before in 2014, open qualifiers and minors.

[@xArsVivendi]

let's just hope the inevitable lower price pools of tournaments and lower salaries for players wont push pros away towards valulrant

[@GiantFlamingClasher]

@@xArsVivendi It would never get to that point. All else fails, cs majors can start to crowdfund for larger pools like dota.

[@hoofed3096]

@@GiantFlamingClasherthis and valorant’s scene isn’t much better, thr partnered orgs are currently heavily cutting pay, even EG, which won champions in august, are making players choose between paycuts or being a free agent

[@labsled]

​@hoofed3096 is naw wtf 💀, and valorant players be acting confused wondering why we shit on their game lmfao.

[@babawahle1848]

And then when these smaller teams "overachieve", their players just get poached and ends these small franchises keeping the cycle tier 1 gatekeeping. But tbf blast + esl do put on amazing productions.

[@DjLevisN1]

One thing I noticed in the last years tournament was that the teams competing over the top spots or just present at the tournament were always the same. But I didn't pay much attention into that. Now everything makes sense, thanks for the video!

[@DeWilsKanal]

This is exactly the kind of video that creators fear to make, because it's controversial and niche, and they don't think it'll perform well. However, if they decide to do it anyway, they get rewarded rightfully so. What a banger video - we need more of these!

[@NocturnalPyro]

Dude has less than 10k subs, and the video got more than 300k views, I'm positive that this video wasn't a failure.

[@GuidingOlive]

@@NocturnalPyro That's what he's saying. That videos that creators are scared to make (because they are controversial and niche) often end up being rewarded for doing so. I don't even watch/play CS:GO and yet here I am. Because it's a nice little video essay on how a problem came to be for this competitive sport.

[@ballacaust]

very interesting, I'm glad to see some professionally produced content covering the inner workings of competitive cs.

[@marius-oc7ox]

Very good video, explained the situation very well for anyone out of the loop, but was also very informational for someone who already knows about the situation without making the video tedious, great job!

[@DeadPool_StaS]

i like a Valve decision. in Major everyone should have a chance to play even an underdog team.

[@diegodiaz__]

Such an underrated channel keep up the good work

[@patrickwinther]

It's insane. Something will happen about it! So yes keep it up!!

[@xndrvj]

S-Tier Channel, W content, godlike entertainment

[@cybershokeEN]

Thanks bro!

[@Fuzzwah]

First time the mighty algo has raised you to my feed. Great stuff. For someone who witnessed the early days of online gaming and esports, to see the level that these events have grown to (and the money around the business of esports), utterly blows my mind.

[@poika22]

8:54 whenever someone starts using percentages like that, I get the feeling they're up to no good. Percentages of percentages get confusing and non-intuitive really quickly. Use percentages of the total sum, or percentage points. Not "percentages of the remaining". Even worse when the numbers kinda seem to be working up to a 100, but they aren't, because they're cumulatively divided. Triggers my scam alarm. And don't try to tell me I'm paranoid and actually e-sports teams are too organized and good with numbers to fall into a basic trap.

[@lw8882]

This is a great breakdown of the minutiae of what was immediately observable in watching recent tournaments - that the tier 2 teams were just playing more than the tier 1 teams due to the necessity of playing a lot of smaller tournaments for prize money and sponsorship awareness. I really loved this video. Please make more like this. Considering it's 5 times more popular than your next most viewed video, it seems like the audience is responding well, too.

[@Thanir]

As someone who doesn't play CS, nor watch it, I think you did a great job on this video. I am into the esports scene, so I am grateful that you presented this in a well thought out way and understandable to someone not in your scene.

[@hyper_lightning]

Sweet, props to Valve for this. Glad to see them doing something good for the scene

[@mooperi]

a great video! glad you decided to go for it, it's been a significant issue in the scene.

[@davids8127]

Valve sees the bigger picture, the fact that competitiveness is a main part of counter strike and that anyone can make get to a major is more important than some money grabbing org who got lazy. Teams should come and go like the early days and it will be great for CS2 to see some new teams and innovative counter strike.

[@chriskimball4893]

The thing is that the orgs really set themselves up for this. When you have a tournament system like this where the same teams are basically guaranteed a spot due to their visibility and presence, a problem occurs that a lot of people aren't prepared for. These teams are well known and GUARANTEED a spot; which means there's less need for the teams to stay good and stay on top of the latest strategies. It allows for a type of stagnation to occur; you have the same teams facing each other with very similar results, because no one feels a need to really improve. You still get paid, regardless of how well you do or place. And because the teams have, essentially, stagnated and gotten complacent, it allows for a team of underdogs to come in and show them what for. Because said underdogs are going to come in with a specific strategy for every single team they could face. Because these teams are well known and popular, their favorite strategies are, likely, also well known. Said underdogs will be prepared for those teams and have counter strategies to use against them. But because these underdog teams are a lot smaller, it's unlikely the big teams will have even heard of these smaller teams, much less have strategies to beat them. They'll just fall back on their stagnated, complacent strategies, so they fall right into the trap and get humiliated. It shows that when you're guaranteed a spot in the biggest tournaments and a big payout regardless of results, you don't really put a lot more effort into improving your game. Why would you need to? It's not like some team of lesser players is going to come out of nowhere and show the entire world you're a sham. After all, who would possibly care about shaking things up? Well, apparently, Valve cared. And you do NOT want the creators of the game you're making money off of to be staring you down like that. They might just do something to remind you who is the boss here.

[@kolman3178]

well said. business safety breeds complacency and risk aversion.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

Reminds me of the FIFA world cup a couple years back, where 8 teams were placed in advance, one in each of the 8 brackets of the group phase. They were the host and some of the most successful teams. And putting them into different groups means we don't get the super tight record champion vs record champion matches before it even goes into eliminations.

[@LaidbackLukee]

how would/did it get stagnant with qualifiers, 8 random teams had their chance multiple times each year. the top 10 we know were the top 10 for a reason, they were simply the best, maybe t1 csgo in general got stagnant but they were still playing current "metas" or whatever the teams thought was best. however much its all about money, the teams are at the top because of skill, cant buy skill

[@Zombie1Boy]

I am absolutely shocked, shocked (!!!) that a game that only has a small rotation of maps, of which people tend to play the same 3-4 maps for the past... 20 years (?) -- that they could possibly get complacent

[@chriskimball4893]

@@Zombie1Boy It's not like there isn't reason to consider this and there hasn't been other tournament scenes that had similar things happen. When you have everyone playing in a certain way, with no real changes, things can happen that make everyone look like fools. Consider when Hungrybox started becoming huge in Smash Bros Melee. Until he started playing, the preferred playstyle in Melee was hit it hard, hit it fast. This means the most used characters and stages allowed for this playstyle, with people rushing each other down and the game became an almost metagame of 'who can out-prioritize the other', so the most used characters would be Fox and Marth, since their priority was so much higher than most characters. Then along comes Hungrybox, playing as an aerial character who slowed the pace of combat, playing off of people's impatience to draw them into traps. And he proceeded to school just about everyone. From there, people started messing around with other characters, forcing the meta to change more and more as new playstyles suddenly were preferable to just rushing each other down.

[@xxshotxx1]

Valve actually did something right for once. Not only is it not fair for smaller teams, but it’s embarrassing at a major when tier 2 teams are crushing everyone. Good move all around 👍

[@Dominus_Potatus]

what do you mean for once? I might be living under the rock because I rarely hear negative news about valve.

[@thomasshelby5454]

put that tier 2 teams on the same circuit with faze,g2,navi,vitality tier1 team, im pretty sure they will get crush 8/10, major or not its just 1 tournament, and 1 tournament doesnt determine that they are "consistent" enough to challenge tier1 team. facts is after major they all tier2 team back to their habitat getting crush with tier1 team or even no namer team.

[@semafreak]

"Valve actually did something right for once" stop smoking all that crack,Valve are one of the few companies that don't shaft their fan-base every chase they get to milk money.This dude.

[@xxshotxx1]

@@semafreak relax my guy. I just meant smaller orgs are getting their chance:

[@vexed2558]

@@thomasshelby5454 i agree. This kind of thing makes unfair for the tier 1 teams since they dont have much data against tier 2 team while tier 2 teams have years of data and time to prepare for those team. Thats why we see a lot of upsets in major, especially on bo1s between tier 1 and tier 2 teams

[@Handzupisgeil]

Short Feedback: This is top content. way better than most videos about CS.

[@nomal1872]

To put esl and blast in the same bucket is so naive, blast is fully franchised with just one open qual slot but esl events had many open qual spots

[@DjAkho]

thats too complicated, just blast them all in same bracket ezpz

[@Doflaminguard]

They still do the same though, being partners through contracts vs underdogs that arent partners without a spot.

[@FieryDawn]

Excellent video. I didn't really understand that all of this was as connected as it apparently is.

[@mckwin23]

Great work by Valve by calling out financial gate keeping!

[@tristinacsgo]

Dang… I didn’t know any of that… also your video is so well put together. I’m sorry you presume you won’t get as many views on this because it’s such a good video.

[@timeimp]

This was randomly suggested and WOW - I cannot believe how much content was packed into it! Well done CYBERSHOKE - +1 subscriber!

[@lukiux1000]

You can't have full franchise in majority of sports as it creates it's own bubble in the end where you get sucked into it too much. Having 50/50 (half teams in franchise and half not) system in my mind is the best what you can have. You still can develop a business model and revenue from the franchise aspect as you are guarantee that big names are always going to be present and you will always get pure talent and still to your biggest tournament from non franchise teams. And it ensures that the franchised teams have to push themself to the limit.

[@trackpadpro]

Fantastic video. Not entirely what I expected to learn when I read the title, but very glad I clicked.

[@wbrucesimpson]

Terrific insight into the Counterstrike community. Excellent footage and well paced. Definitely a win.

[@HamiltonPike]

First time seeing your channel - this was great info and I appreciate videos like this! Some deep dives on teams would be cool also! thanks

[@Kagedamage]

Really awesome video! So interesting to hear the details and analysis of the situation! I had noticed these changing things about which teams were qualifying and had only a vague understanding of why. Thank you for explaininh the full picture! Subbed.

[@CapybaraEnjoyer123]

S-tier video from an obscure S-tier channel, will start watching all your videos and keep up the great work!

[@qa1e2r4]

Big props to valve. For understanding competition and not letting corporate take advantage of their labor and players, by sucking them dry to the bones for profits.

[@phamnhat2925]

However, it's not like ESL doesn't invite Tier 2-3 teams. They have a qualifier/play-in system for their Katowice and Cologne events. But the tier 2-3 teams keep flunking out. The double elimination Bo3 format is still a very good filter.

[@theolen]

"we suspect this one might not get a lot of views" yea that didn't go as planned

[@StickPlayer_StickWar]

So valve gave time to esl until 2025 to kill it and gave only few weeks for opskins to close, most of dopplers and og knives are stuck there, thats why they went up in price a lot. Valve was strict with opskins and not the shitty esl .

[@qlum]

I think in general, having a level playing field brings the best results. Eventually things will cement either way, with the best players playing for the best teams, which will be and stay well known. In fact it could very well increase the pay for the players as a team is only worth something if they win.

[@cs_mns]

Gonna be super interesting to see how the events go and who will play in the coming years. Glad they stepped it.

[@Chaelsonen]

the beta for cs 2 released before the major. The top tier teams and players were basically guaranteed access to this, and probably spent some amount of time getting a head start on the version of the game that will impact them for years down the line.

[@idocare6538]

I've been busy and it makes me very much appreciate the summary in this video with great editing. Please do more of this!

[@oifwarveteran]

Making a "heart" with your hands earns you a free throat punch. Love the vid

[@conrie0110]

Very nice video! Great script and narration!

[@Elexirtrike]

Glad to hear Valve is putting their foot down on the situation in a way that would allow everybody to adjust and fulfil their current commitments. As for this content, I could agree, broad audience may not find this interesting, but to a TO like me, I appreciate this so much. It's not common to me to watch a 10min + video about something that happened half way across the world for a game that's been already yeaaars since i got involved to, i just don't have the attention span for that, + the esports here in SEA pretty much shifted to Mobile Games @.@ so yeah there's that. lmao. You already have my sub, liked the vid and also hit that bell. Keep the good stuff coming :)

[@cybershokeEN]

Thanks a lot brother! Glad you liked it

[@x3wildcard]

This was a fascinating video; please make more of these!

[@sauceinmyface9302]

This emphasis on fairness puts a spotlight on the best of 1s we have in the major right now, results in really random knockouts, I feel.

[@babyfaec]

YES! More best of 3s for sure!

[@Chexsum]

Good little rundown of the changes unknown soldier

[@fondbeebboop9705]

this is a good video keep this quality and you will have tons of subs before you know it

[@StrongFreeLovin]

I needed video like this, I didn't know what was going on at all behind the scenes. It was weird to see the same players over and over. They seemed like gods but in reality even better players than them were locked behind paywall.

[@jachymecek]

More importatnt question is. Who was in paris?

[@Tze52]

This is the kind of video that is enticing, Relevant and informative. Especially with the release oc CS2, this is needed more than ever to understand the next few majors and it's increase or decline

[@Otacanthus]

Would be cool if valve lessened the legacy qualifier system too, just to see if any of the franchise teams just don't get to play

[@ahmadalwadi9156]

Oh you were so wrong about the video interest. Really enjoyed it, seemed well researched, and digestible for people who don't follow the scene very closely.

[@alienxhris7206]

heard about the major but i didn’t really pay attention to it. thx for the video to give me a recap about it

[@julius4858]

Good video, stock footage was a bit too flashy for my taste.

[@ADreamingTraveler]

14:35 is the most important part if you don't want to watch the rest of the video. I'm so glad Valve stepped in to make things better and more fair.

[@augustsbautra]

A free market with clear and strong private property rights is the system that produces most wealth. In the context of CS, there's an interesting, sub-ideal interplay between Valve as the rights-holder, and TOs. Tragedy of the Commons, poaching in kings forests etc. scenarios come to mind. A solution would need to align the business and openness incentives for TOs, and possibly the players. For example, have TOs pay license fees to Valve for the freedom to organise however they see fit.

[@yungstaq198]

What the hell, I didn’t know LockPickingLawyer was so invested in CS.

[@contessa420]

Hahaha I can’t unhear it now

[@piotrhrybkowski6360]

Fully agree. Especially at the end of the season is super boring watching the same teams playing each other. In Blast even format is created in the way you can't be eliminated and team very often plays against each other couple of times at the same tournament. It is silly.

[@chrisdonahue]

Thanks for the video! I read the most recent update and felt it was going to change everything but never knew the whole context and now I do :D

[@jonasnk5817]

Most underrated Channel on KZbin. Keep it up guys!

[@alexmercer5539]

Glad to see you growing

[@gabrielattano]

This video deserves some recognition!

[@oppenz3723]

Franchise / close circuit system is the worst thing that can happen to any competition, esports or not.

[@YeehawCowboy]

Man I hope y’all make more videos like this, I really enjoyed it!

[@rogerjlbanfield]

Awesome quality video! Can't wait to see the next one!

[@btarg1]

I didn't know about contracts / the Louvre agreement, makes sense now why so many terrible no-name teams appear out of nowhere and good players confusingly just falling off in skill

[@TotallydubbedHD]

Great video, thanks for sharing!

[@b43e]

Bad News Eagles were one of the teams hit the hardest by the ESL agreement, being orgless so they weren't invited to any ESL tournaments while being in the top 15 teams at the time.

[@draconidmike]

this needs to be compared with the LCS case, and there is still a big problem on how ORGs earn money

[@TheFloufi]

Thanks for the analysis ! I'm a bit conflicted over Valve's decision. On one hand, it will surely make CS more competitive. On the other hand, the franchise model enabled sustainability for orgs and players at the top. I also believe that the broader audience is more attracted to promoted content, star players and teams rather than just gameplay. I'm curious as to what business model will emerge for CS orgs in the future. Hopefully you will be covering this by 2025. :D Anyways good work and thanks.

[@kataro100]

When organizational focus compertition there is no competition is just marketing, most of the time. That why valorant/league weak team never get better cause there is no risk of not getting to play in tournament.

[@kolsark]

very interesting analysis of the situation, thx !

[@victorwallec2534]

i didnt understand what you explained. So the underdogs (weaker) ones won against pros bc they had to grind to the top while the pro got in bc of paternships but the also got burnout bc they are forced to play in patership events ... both "grind" and can get a burn out/exhaustion of overplaying, so why are the underdogs better?

[@donolaf3414]

Since top teams had no issue getting into the tournaments, they trained and played against the same groups. They played less too and had way less motivation to improve the gameplay. Understandable i feel. Meanwhile the underdogs had to work way more to get to that tournament. Essentially playing 24/7 against all kinds of teams. Thats why they were ready and the big ones werent. Thats how you improve your team.

[@wooviee]

Great video, amazing production work.

[@Greatest_Scott]

This video is fantastic absolutely you deserve more views. This is AAA quality!!!!

[@HundreadD]

Damn great video. Definitely make more of these analyses, just wish this video had a less corporate feel

[@heartdex]

just played kz on your server for first time and youre top of my youtuber recommended. crazy

[@eriksahlin8853]

Is it published how valve's own ranking system will be constructed? Will it be something similar to the ranking system in tennis or will it be more similar to the existing ranking systems of hltv/esl?

[@cybershokeEN]

No info yet, they promise to reveal it all "later"

[@KEROVSKI_]

You are wrong about money thing. Valve is giving few millions of dollars to TO. So they already have money for tournament, everything else is just extra for the pocket. Before, Valve would give money before tournament, so organizers can use that money and prepare everything. Now, Valve is giving money after you show where you spent it. There were some TOs that stole the money, made terrible tournaments.

[@maxthompson3213]

Thanks for breaking this down so well, great video!

[@LambdaTheos]

Valve is a blessing, in a world where big game companies only trust money they step up and push entertainment first.

[@_mati0054]

the video is high quality and entertaining, picked topic is also interesting. well done

[@brandonvernet]

How the hell this channel only have 3.5k viewers?!

[@theouts1der]

This channel should have atleast a 250K sub...high effort content!

[@tonikauko]

inb4 "Maybe this kind of content won't get a ton from the broader audience..." :D 132k views after 3 days. But not for giggles, this was a quality content and opened up the issue I've heard just in some news titles! Thanks!

[@SacrosanctMD]

Well researched and well paced vid. You earned a sub dude. Good job.

[@KCOCGOD-SKCUSLRIG6669]

Subbed because of this video. Explained and presented very well!

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

Instead of qualifying tournaments they could also just adopt a league system. Each region gets a league, every team plays every other team a certain amount of time. Wins give points, the team with the most points goes to the tournament. Or the best 3 or however many they need.

[@aa4a-a4]

Hi is this voice AI generated or was it just writen and narrated by different people?

[@berni2905]

1:47 _"We suspect that this one might not get a lot of views"_ *Literally the most viewed video on the channel, by far, within a few days*

[@tudorpavel6200]

Really good info! you deserve more subscribers

[@the_pootisborn]

Today the youtube algorithm recommended me a good video. Nice.

[@Seraph201088]

Fantastic video, and great insights! A massive part missed however, In my opinion, is the impact that counter-stratting plays in pro matches. Because the partnered teams were locked into the blast and esl matches, the players of those teams were repeatedly forced into playing within a small pool of player strats, timings, and habits. In effect a micro-meta environment, as opposed to the macro meta of a game. The only way these teams were able to win out against each other, therefore, was for the analysts, coaches, and IGL’s to hyper focus on that micro-meta in order to eek out a one or two percent higher win rate per round based on the team they were up against next. For example Karrigan would need to dive deep into exactly how Cadian was setting up his strats in a specific round in order to find a crack which he could use to his advantage. This might give Faze a chance to steal a round and hopefully a few more if momentum can be gained. You can go even deeper on that concept to target one specific player in an opposing team based on a habit they were showing over the past handful of matches, to be able to crack open a lane of the map until the opposing team come up with a fix on the fly. You can only imagine what will happen to that crazy high level of counterstratting in a tiny pool of players when suddenly one, or more unknown teams enter the tournament and you get sideswiped by strats or meta that is completely unexpected. To be clear I don’t think this is a bad thing, infact I think it is a huge benefit to the sport, but it can’t be denied that this introduction of new teams in which partnered teams have not had enough time to develop counterstrats against disrupts tournaments

[@Kdn_cs]

So happy that cs will stay unfranchised, always my favourite part of watching cs

[@arc-sd8sk]

this is your best vid yet !

[@itzst4r173]

The analysis became valid to the point that "Tier-2 teams could have been on Tier-1 if they kept the same format". No, never. Even if the same format is kept you'd see them nowhere but BLAST Paris. Apart from GamerLegion who actually proved their worth, none of the rosters of Monte, Apeks, ITB, etc. managed to keep up their form during the play-ins against those "Undeserved Tier-1 teams".

[@itzst4r173]

Let's just say, even the Ex-IHC or The Mongolz played better than them