Counter-Strike began life as a fan-made game modification for Half-Life 3 back in the early 1990s before being acquired by the game’s developers, Valve Corporation, and quickly became one of the most hyper-competitive titles in the blossoming world of Esports through the popularity of entries such as 1.6 or Source.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was released in 2012 as the fourth major entry in the Valve series and has seen this popularity explode to dizzying new heights over the past eight years or so. Maps and mechanics have been tweaked to bring the game up to the modern age of gaming, new sponsorships and partnerships have been forged with multinational companies around the world providing the economic foundation for the game to continue on, and the Esports scene for CS:GO is still one of the most richly stacked and lucrative communities to be a part of.
Keeping up with the ins and outs of one of Esports’ most volatile games can be a daunting prospect, however these three sites are on hand to give you everything you need.
HLTV
Half-Life TV was founded in 2002 by Martin “Rosenchef” Rosenbæk and Per “Nomad” Lambæk to cover all the latest goings on in the world of Valve and its two flagship franchises, Half-Life and Counter-Strike.
HLTV has gone onto establish itself as the go-to resource for anyone hoping to keep in the loop with everything going down in the world of CS:GO, with the latest news, tournament previews, fixtures, match reviews and exclusive interviews with players and pros all being available on the site.
The site also houses the most complete collection of statistics for every matchup, every series, tournament, event, map in the pool and forums for fans to hop into and discuss things both inside of the game and outside of it.
There’s also an official podcast for the site, HLTV Confirmed, where hosts and contributors for the site regularly talk through the goings on in the world of Counter-Strike, bringing in insights from interviews with professional players and experts from inside the industry.
Finally, HLTV has become the voice of authority for ranking both players and organisations active within CS. The HLTV World Rankings are a great way of seeing which sides are on top and the ladder goes a long way in choosing which teams are invited to the world’s biggest events. There’s also the official HLTV Ranking for measuring player’s performances, with their 2.0 rating being used as a great measurement to compare pros against each other.
Unikrn
The home of all things Esports, Unikrn are the world’s leading platform for bets and wagers on CS:GO, as well as every other Esport title in the world. Featuring an unbeatable range of season outrights and live in play odds from every single match, series and event in the CS:GO world, the site has embedded livestreams from the matches users are following which ensures there’s only one place they need to be do watch, bet and win.
The site also allows fans and players of CS:GO to make money playing video games through their innovative UMode feature. Utilising a blockchain-powered backend that the site was able to innovate, Unikrn have created a skill gaming mode that synchs up to a player’s personal profile and gives them the opportunity to back themselves in games like CS by wagering on their own performances against challenges the site puts in front of them.
The site also houses its very own Esports Tipster page, where on-site experts provide users with regular content around the best ways of making money from the game through accurate tips and insights. The page is regularly updated to keep up to date with CS:GO’s busy calendar, and is the best resource online for understanding the difference between regular wagering, and those real value bets that will stretch out a user’s winnings to the maximum amount possible.
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