During 2020, we’ve seen multiple North American organizations stepping away from CS:GO as an esport. In this article we will be going covering the reasoning behind North America’s decline in CS:GO.
North America’s decline in CS:GO – What was the cause?
With the current global health situation, we’ve seen many organizations all-throughout the world suffering in more ways than one. Travel restrictions disallowed offline events to be hosted and esports events had to be moved to an online setting. This meant that events had to be based on regional competition, and for NA, with already having a handful of teams participating, was definitely a difficult period.
Not only that, but with VALORANT on the rise all summer long it was almost confirmed that players that did not manage to make a living out of CS:GO would switch over to try their luck in the new tactical FPS game. Luckily for some, they managed to slot themselves within a solid organization and make a name for themselves, however this meant that CS:GO in North America started declining. With players not being interested in competing in CS:GO, the demand for organizations to get into the esport became harder, and ultimately, most organizations decided to sustain their VALORANT squad instead.
Which teams dropped?
In mid-2019, Ghost Gaming was the first to announce their departure from CS:GO. They did not really state any reasoning, apart from some players having their contracts expiring. Ghost made it also unclear whether they would be signing another roster or leaving the esport entirely, and in the end, we know what happened.
Then, earlier this year we had Riot Squad releasing their CS:GO roster due to ESL’s changes to their ESL Pro League. The changes consisted of less North American teams representing the region, and resorted to Riot Squad participating in ESEA MDL Season 33 instead, which was a literal downgrade.
In the middle of October we had 100 Thieves dropping out due to them favoring their VALORANT roster. The team had found some success at IEM Beijing in 2019 and at this year’s EPL Season 12 in North America, however this was not enough to satisfy the organization. Ever since they got picked up, the team has never placed 1st at any big event.
Recently, we heard news of organizations like Chaos Esports and the New England Whalers departing the esport. According to reports, Chaos will be exiting CS:GO as a result of direction from their investors. The New England Whalers will also be releasing their roster as a result of the global pandemic affecting the organization’s finances.
Here is a list of all teams and organizations that dropped out of North American CS:GO
- 100 Thieves
- Ghost Gaming
- Chaos
- Riot Squad
- eUnited
- Cloud9
- Singularity
- Swole Patrol
- Complexity
Cloud9, Complexity and Singularity are the only exceptions, as they are still participating in CS:GO, but with a European roster instead.
Gen.G have also lost 2 of their core players in Daps and S0m as they decided to pursue a career in VALORANT under NRG. Despite this, the organization is still tied with CS:GO but is desperately looking for replacements.
We’ve also seen key figures like Nicholas “nitr0” Canella and Spencer “Hiko” Martin dropping out of CS to pursue a career in VALORANT. This left many CS:GO teams in NA searching for suitable replacements, and eventually resulted in multiple roster swaps.
Which NA teams remain?
With regards to big organizations, the only North American ones left are: Evil Geniuses and Team Liquid. These 2 have without a doubt been the most successful rosters in North American CS:GO history. Team Liquid had an exceptional 2019, winning the 2nd Season of the Intel Grand Slam, and many other events along the year. However in 2020, with the regional-based events, the team has continuously struggled to get consistent top results.
Evil Geniuses on the other hand didn’t have their roster affected by any VALORANT swaps, so in that regard, they were at a safer position. In terms of results, the team had a pretty good 2020, winning events like BLAST Premier Spring 2020 American Finals and ESL One Cologne North America. In fact, EG were placed as #1 team in the world back in late September.
What have they done to keep NA alive?
One solution that they have done was to travel to Europe. Travelling to Europe will allow the North American teams to compete versus the best in the World, as this completely eliminated the regional events.
North America’s decline in CS:GO What’s next?
Unfortunately, with the pandemic still present in today’s world, it will be very hard to predict what is the best step forward. However, this is a solid solution for the time being, and will hopefully create better storylines for future CS:GO events.
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