Author: Benjamin "esk1mo" Esgate

Sprout had a strong 2022. They have never been a world-beating organization in Counter-Strike but they have created some competitive lineups in their time in the Valve game. This was the case again in 2022 and towards the end of the year, their roster was a stable top thirty in the world rankings. Heading into 2023, the German organization is looking to push on and achieve even more. Romanian sniper Adrian “XELLOW” Guță is their newest recruit and with him in the Sprout camp, what are Sprout’s prospects for 2023?Sprout is a German organization that first entered the Counter-Strike: Global…

Our predictions continue with a closer look at the Panel Awards. You’ll find the rest of our predictions in Predicting the Awards at the HLTV Award Show 2022 — Part 1. Panel AwardsIGL of the Year – karriganNominations -Casper “cadiaN” MøllerFinn “karrigan” AndersenDzhami “Jame” AliCasper “cadiaN” MøllerFinn “karrigan” AndersenDzhami “Jame” AliStatistics are not of much use when it comes to IGL of the Year. For me, it comes down to success, and Finn “karrigan” Andersen has the trophies to back it up, winning four big events in 2022 – IEM Katowice 2022, magically with Justin “jks” Savage standing in for…

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive website, HLTV.org, has had a Top-20 Players list since 2010, where they rated the Top-20 Players playing Counter-Strike 1.6. In 2022, they expanded their culmination of the year of Counter-Strike into an entire award show. The HLTV Award Show will take place on the January 14 in the Space Arena in Stockholm, Sweden. The show will be presented in front of a live audience as well as on Twitch and will feature guests from the Counter-Strike scene, such as Kenny “kennyS” Schrub, Patrik “f0rest” Lindberg, and Filip “NEO” Kubski. There are lots of different awards ranging from…

Funspark ULTI 2021 – Gambit (Online)Funspark ULTI 2021 strangely took place between January 18th and January the 24th of 2022 for a prize pool of $150,000. Funspark ULTI 2021 took place Online and saw Gambit continue its strong form into the new year. Other notable teams attending Funspark were Astralis with Philip “Lucky” Ewald, Fnatic with Owen “smooya” Butterfield, and BIG. Vladislav “nafany” Gorshkov’s men stormed to the trophy at this event, losing just two maps on the road to Funspark glory over Entropiq in the Grand final. Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov topped the statistics at Funspark ULTI, which netted him…

October is upon us and as the nights grow longer and the days get ever shorter, you can feel that Spooky Season is approaching. Halloween is celebrated on the 31st of October and as a Counter-Strike fan there is no better way to honour such an occasion than getting some new skins, theming your inventory and embracing the creepy atmosphere. Below are some skins to fill up your Halloween themed inventory, that may or may not scare away your opponents!Rifles and Sniper RiflesAK-47 | NightwishThe AK-47 | Nightwish was added in January of 2021 as part of the Dreams &…

Here are the final eleven of the twenty-two CS:GO players making their first Major appearance in Rio de Janeiro…Part 1 of the articleFollowing the conclusion of the RMRs, all the twenty-four teams attending the upcoming IEM Rio Major 2022 have been decided. The Rio Major is set to begin on the 31st of October with the Grand Final taking place on the 13th of November. A CS:GO Major in Brazil has been long-awaited for the Counter-Strike community following the original cancellation due to COVID-19 in 2022 but the world’s best teams are finally heading to South America. An event of…

Knife & Glove CombinationMoto Gloves | Blood PressureThe Moto Gloves | Blood Pressure were added to the game in late 2020. These were introduced through the Operation Broken Fang Case which was added in Operation Broken Fang. The Moto Gloves | Blood Pressure are made entirely of black leather and throughout the gloves blood vessels pulsate akin to real blood vessels in the human body. Read more: Halloween Themed CS:GO Inventory – Guns and PistolsThe blood vessels which span the leather gloves have depth giving the impression that blood is moving through them — and that is incredibly disturbing and…

Here are eleven of the twenty-two CS:GO players making their first Major appearance in Rio de Janeiro.Part OneFollowing the conclusion of the RMRs, all the twenty-four teams attending the upcoming IEM Rio Major 2022 have been decided. The Rio Major is set to begin on the 31st of October with the Grand Final taking place on the 13th of November. A CS:GO Major in Brazil has been long-awaited for the Counter-Strike community following the original cancellation due to COVID-19 in 2022 but the world’s best teams are finally heading to South America. An event of this magnitude comes with heaps…

Bad News Eagles are a self-made organization from Kosovo. The team features all the members from the ex-BLINK team – star riflers Flatron “juanflatroo” Halimi and Rigon “rigoN” Gashi, sniper Genc “gxx-” Kolgeci, support player Sener “SENER1” Mahmuti who all play under the leadership of In-Game leader Dionis “sinnopsyy” Budeci and coach Klesti “stikle-” Kola. Following their exit from under the BLINK banner, the Kosovan side existed without an organization for six months in 2022 and it was during that time that the Eagles had their breakout event at the PGL Antwerp Major.The story begins in the second European open…

Following the first group of ESL Pro League Season 16, Group B had much to live up to. Despite sub-par teams, Group B is full of highly contested games between the top three. Playoff positions were up for grabs heading into the final day, and some fan-favorite teams looked strong. We’ve picked five takeaways from Group B of ESL Pro League Season 16.New-look G2 looks very improved and topped the group flawlesslyOver the Summer break, there was movement inside the G2 camp. French rifler Audric “⁠JACKZ⁠” Jug and Finish leader Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen made way for two new additions, Rasmus…