CS:GO Tournaments in 2020
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Competition is built into the structure of Counter-Strike franchise as the core game mechanic is two teams scoring points in battles against each other with interchangeable siege-defense dynamics. Even if you were never a full-fling, avid player of CSGO, you might have witnessed people on the basic skill level team up or found clans to strife against each other in LAN matches. It’s no wonder a good network of competitions arose from such a game environment.
Until the franchise’s previous release, competitions were held and sponsored by companies external to the developer. However, with the premiere of CSGO, the tournament world has been endorsed by Valve and provided with an extra spectacle mechanism in the form of CSTV.
With thousands of players worldwide, teams form, challenge each other and compete for the possibility to skirmish in high-profile CSGO tournaments and win money prizes. We’ll look at the current state of this area of esports, type out next noteworthy events and ponder on the possibility to get into such a tournament.
What kind of CSGO tournaments are there?
Basically, by taking into consideration different factors of play and the profile of the competition, you could divide events in terms of the type of connection, ladder importance, and aerial coverage. First of all, when a tournament is online, it means that players sit at their preferred locations and connect with the match via the internet including an anti-cheat system provided by the event’s host. This is the case both with FaceIt skirmishes and China-based World Electronic Sports Games. Offline tourneys, more professionally and precisely called LAN tournaments, are happening without the Internet connection, with players of both teams sitting in one location and playing a game hosted in a singular LAN network.
Events can also be sorted in terms of the area of application. Local tournaments engage local teams. Regional ones would engage contestants from a larger area, like a state in USA, a whole country, or several countries (it’s like that with Northern American championships). When these are international – well, it speaks for itself, it allows teams worldwide to play. These types are interchangeable with online and LAN tournaments, and you’ll find mixtures of all kinds, including regionally hosted plays played online.
There’s also the question of admission. Open events allow all kinds of squads to join, but their selection is then filtered, and these rules for filtering differ by every organizer. Major Championships have a higher status, in that they keep their Legends, meaning previous majors’ finalists, instantly qualified. The Challenger stage clashes newcoming minor champions against with previous major losing teams for the status of Legends. Then new challenger Legends clash old Legends in New Legends stage. Ultimately, 8 teams have their playoffs for the title of Major Champion. Organizations like ESL hold their own ladder of minor championships. When a team progresses in ESL table and can keep its position in the top ranks, it can be invited on the next season of ESL Major Tournaments to participate.
How can I join a CSGO tournament?
This is no small feat, unfortunately, as you cannot just walk in from the street into the world of international competitions. The real competitive play requires you to follow a couple of steps that are basically a route to garnering your fame as a player and joining a team.
Your first step should be to look out for smaller events that you can join as an individual player. You can either look for local LAN tournaments organized by some non-industrial subjects or go to a website like FaceIt that organizes impromptu ladder challenges that are observable by others. If you perform well, these two will give you a chance to be spotted by a team, or a clan.
Once you’re invited to a clan and ground yourself as a vital player, it will be a matter of time for it to enter a greater competition. Usually fresh or not-yet-professional teams can try themselves out in open tournaments, where they are faced with the big task of fighting with other skilled clans.
How can you find a CSGO tournament near you?
Even if you don’t belong to a community of players that is oriented enough to suggest you an event you could attend, you still have the chance as there are numerous online services that offer a convenient, sortable list of CSGO tournaments. What’s more, some of them function as team-finders for practicing skrims. TwoGHub is one such portal. Even without registering, you will be able to preview tournaments and locations. After you register, you get to use a matchfinder and service’s internal marketplace. One other portal providing different types of additional services for players is GyoScore. Not only it holds a database of matches for several different games (including Dota 2 and PUBG), but the website’s team has also created a sort of a guiding program for those players who would like to start a pro career on their own. If those portals are a bit overwhelming to you, it would be advisable that you join a discussion group or a Discord channel with more experienced players that will show you the ropes – at least that’s what I would do if I wanted to find CSGO tournaments near me.
What are the upcoming CSGO tournaments?
In such a widespread sphere with different levels of professionalism and sponsorship, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that every week there is usually more than one CSGO online tournaments happening, and at least one greater offline event. It’s hard to keep track of everything that’s going on, so go to a global esports site like HLTV to check the tournament calendar and preview the details of the event of your interest.
When it comes to the biggest upcoming CSGO tournaments, some of the championships from last year are still having their playoffs. Feb 1st-2nd will see WESG Latin America 2019 final matches in Rio. Then there’s Dreamhack Open Leipzig 2020 on Jan 24-26th, and another Dreamhack Open in Anaheim, USA, on Feb 21st-23rd. IEM Katowice is still hosting it qualifiers, and the finals will take place between Feb 25th – Mar 1st. The next big Major will be ESL One Rio 2020, sometime in May, most probably May 14-16th.
Summary
Competitive Counter-Strike went a long way from local LAN skirmishes to being one of the biggest international esports of today. While online matches held by various services are a good proving ground for those who want to see if their skill is worth anything, major championships can be easily treated as a career path. New teams rise to fame while other deteriorate, and subsequent championships will most likely produce new stars. If you’re thinking of serious competitions, CSGO 2020 tournaments might be a bit too early while starting from the scratch. However, now that you know how to progress through the semi-pro stage, you just might want to start trying. Best of luck!
