Seven years and counting, CS:GO updates are still dropping. In 2019, CS:GO is going strong with map updates, new events, and balancing changes. Last year brought the biggest update to Counter-Strike in recent history, Danger Zone, a surprise battle royale mode for up to 16 players. The most recent CS:GO update called "Shattered Web" brings actual characters to the game for the first time in the form of equippable skins for each Agent.

Here's a log of the most recent CS:GO patches.

The latest CS:GO update: November 18, 2019

Operation Shattered Web

• Introducing Operation Shattered Web, featuring all-new equippable Agents, weapon collections, missions, and more!
• For more details visit www.counter-strike.net/shatteredweb

Gameplay

• Increased price of SG553 to $3000 to bring its price more in line with its value.
• Reduced the price of FAMAS and Galil by $200 (to $2050 and $1800, respectively)
• Improved full-auto spraying accuracy of FAMAS and Galil.

Danger Zone

• Buymenu price adjustments for ssg08 and radar jammer.
• Minor timing adjustments for locked door and safe interaction.
• Automated sentries now fire M249 bullets.
• Added killfeed icon for automated sentry.
• Added more explosive barrels.
• Tablet crate icons now show an above/below annotation if significantly above or below the player.
• Minor change to zone effect visuals.

Misc

• ‘AWP | Hyper Beast’ and ‘P90 | Nostalgia’ updated to correct wear at Factory New

Workshop

Pearlescent coatings:

We have added support for applying a pearlescent coating to weapon finishes. Pearlescent coatings use ceramic crystals to reflect and refract light, splitting it into different colors as the view angle changes. This effect can be used in a number of ways to subtly enhance your weapon finish or make drastic changes. The new Operation Shattered Web collections have some weapons with pearlescent coatings to illustrate some of the ways this new feature can be used. The Workshop Workbench has been updated to include this feature so you can experiment with adding this coating to a weapon finish. Using higher values will make the color bands tighter and more frequent and using negative values will flip the spectrum to start on the opposite end. It should be noted that this coating will shift the hue of your weapon finish so parts with no saturation, and therefore no hue, will have no pearlescent effect. We look forward to seeing what interesting applications you come up with.

Maps

• Added Studio to Scrimmage and Casual Sigma map groups.
• Added Jungle to the Danger Zone rotation.
• Added Lunacy to Flying Scoutsman
• Zoo and Seaside have been removed.

Cache

• Cache has been moved from Scrimmage to Competitive Matchmaking

Vertigo

• Added ramp to final stage of scaffolding on A ramp, no longer need to jump up
• Connected corridor to back of A with CT elevator room
• Widened top of mid
• Offset doors from CT spawn and to CT elevator room
• Made A site CT death funnel shorter, widened site area
• Removed big block in CT spawn
• Moved A ramp sandbags to allow jump up
• Various bug and clipping fixes

CS:GO update: August 14, 2019

Berlin 2019

• The “Berlin 2019 Viewer Pass” and the “Berlin 2019 Viewer Pass + 3 Souvenir Tokens” are now available for purchase. 50% of the proceeds go to the players and organizations taking part in the StarLadder Berlin Major.
• With a Viewer Pass, you’ll get:
• An upgradable Berlin 2019 Event Coin.
• Access to the Berlin Pick’Em Challenge.
• Unlimited team graffiti for the duration of the event.
• Steam.tv team flair.
• Access to Berlin 2019 Souvenir Packages.
• All-new Viewer Pass Missions.
• Ability to purchase additional Souvenir Tokens.
• Team and player autograph stickers are available for purchase.

Misc

• Improved calculation of client packets processing time to account for dedicated server systems where clock can jump backwards.
• Optimized client-side processing when kills are scored with StatTrak weapons.

Maps

• Breach has been updated to the latest Workshop version

CS: GO update: July 22, 2019

Misc

• Added support for displaying Berlin 2019 Minor play-off matches in-game.
• Fixed the events lister showing two rows for events that were both favorited and featured.
• Adjusted HE grenade collision hull to reduce rolling when dropped.

Maps

Workout:

• Retextured the pool area so its a lot brighter
• Made movement in the pool area smoother
• Pushed the hostage rescue zone further forward
• Added CT sided cover to the basketball court
• Made the entire kids zone area much brighter
• Updated some textures and meshes throughout the map
• Due to customer complaints, homebrew coffee have added some bins
• Stopped players being able to slide up the horse at T side stadium entrance
• Fixed mesh clipping issue at the ice cream stand

Ruby:

• Overall layout tweaks

Dust 2:

• The anniversary celebration has ended

CS:GO update: June 19, 2019

The latest update has some fixed for Dust 2, the retro map Valve added to CS:GO to celebrate 20 years of Counter-Strike. Full patch notes are below. 

[MISC]

• Fixed in-game blog sometimes not showing the most recent content. 
• Fixed missing CSM on some materials in OpenGL. 
• Fixed grass height bug on Linux. 

[MAPS]

Dust 2

• Fixed spawn priorities. 
• Fixed pixelwalk in retro version. 
• Added navmesh names for retro version. 

CS:GO update log

June 18, 2019

[20TH ANNIVERSARY]

• Celebrate 20 years of Counter-Strike with a retro version of Dust 2, currently available in the Casual Dust II map group. 
• The Chicken Capsule is now available for purchase in-game.

[GAMEPLAY]

• Adjustments to the AUG to bring its utility more in line with other rifles. 
• Slightly reduced rate of fire. 
• Reduced accuracy while unscoped. 

[DANGER ZONE]

• Fixed an exploit involving duplication of items dropped by disarming another player.
• Players in warmup spawn closer to their teammate.  
• Players in warmup now spawn with a random pistol. 

January 24, 2019

[MAPS]

• Added a new version of Vertigo to Wingman official matchmaking.
• Added Zoo and Abbey to Casual and Deathmatch official matchmaking.
• Removed Austria and Subzero from official matchmaking.

Biome:

• Improved performance.
• Removed connector between A short and A long.
• Removed mid lower entry.
• Added ladder to mid upper entry.
• Moved T spawn towards A to give CTs better mid timings.
• Fixed several bomb stuck spots and clipping issues.

[MISC]

• Accounts are now automatically upgraded to Prime by reaching Lieutenant Rank 21.
• Fixed a regression for some Perfect World accounts with completed Identity Verification and restored their Prime Account Status.
• Fixed scoreboard team names truncation in some languages.
• Fixed random map behavior in offline with bots game modes.

[SOUND]

• Adjusted velocity value for when jump ‘step’ sound plays for more consistent behavior.
• Fixed a bug where player fall damage sound wasn’t playing most of the time.
• Fixed a bug where “the bomb has been defused” and “counter-terrorists win” VO lines could overlap each other.

January 14, 2019

• Fixed team names truncation issue in scoreboard in some languages. 
• Fixed snowballs from being purchasable from the console. 
• Fixed snowballs and sensor grenades to not occupy the same grenade slot. 
• Added game server log output for team assignments when game is commencing and after backup reload. 
• Added game server log output for match pause and unpause state changes. 
• Added support for Katowice 2019 in-game streams. 
• Fixed cases where players could get stuck inside each other (or less frequently, world geometry) when jump crouching. 

December 18, 2018

[DANGER ZONE]

• Fixed an exploit resulting in players sometimes getting trapped under the world.
• Fixed security doors sometimes having $0 price tags.
• Fixed automated sentry gun lasers sometimes not disappearing.
• Minor adjustment to the angles of items that come out of crates.

[MISC]

• Movement fix for players getting stuck on each other in competitive modes near ledges.
• Holiday forecast calls for snow on the Menu UI.

December 17, 2018

[WINTER SEASON FUN]

• Chickens are now sporting their festive-wear to celebrate the season.
• Players can now pick up and throw snowballs in all game modes except Danger Zone, Wingman, and Competitive Matchmaking.
• The T’s have gift wrapped their special package for the holiday season.
• Freeze frame holiday borders are back to wish you a happy winter season.
• Take a winter vacation to Militia! Now available in Casual and Deathmatch game modes.

[10 YEAR COIN]

• The Ten Year Veteran Coin will be awarded to players who have been a member of the Counter-Strike community for over 10 years. To be eligible to receive the coin the player must have a Steam account in good standing owning a game from the Counter-Strike series. The player must have owned the game for ten years and played the game at least once. The coin will be awarded next time Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is launched.

 [2019 SERVICE MEDAL]

• When you become a Global General (Rank 40), you’ll be given the opportunity to reset your Profile Rank. After January 1, 2019 you’ll be able to receive a new 2019 Service Medal, an inspectable display item that will be visible wherever your avatar is shown.

December 14, 2018

[DANGER ZONE]

• Adjusted tablet buymenu drone delivery weapon prices.
• Ammo boxes now dispense a quarter of their contents each time they are used, and can still be shared with squadmates.
• Reduced the duration required to arm explosives on the safe, and added alert to warn the arming player when they remain within the blast radius.
• Removed the parachute from blue tool crates. They will still appear loose in the world.
• Reduced spawn point selection timer duration.
• Added armor to blue tool crates that previously only contained a helmet.
• Slightly increased the number of Shotgun, SMG, and Pistol crates in the world.

December 11, 2018

• Fixed precache error when loading Blacksite map on clients with default settings.
• Fixed Danger Zone exploration money progress HUD indicator from jittering when switching tablets or spectator targets.
• Fixed viewmodel animation interpolation error observed on some high-latency clients.
• Adjusted first-person rappel animation to accommodate widescreen aspect ratios.
• Fixed a regression in weapons equipped by certain community training maps logic.
• Fixed an error model appearing when applying a name tag to inventory items.
• Fixed particle materials for rupturing money bags to match the money stack materials.
• Fixed sv_prime_accounts_only setting not having effect on certain community servers.
• Fixed searching tooltip showing incorrect prime status for lobby.

The CS:GO skin gambling controversy that kicked off in June seemed to come to a head a couple of weeks ago when Valve issued a cease-and-desist letter to more than 20 gambling sites, including CSGO Lounge, one of the first and biggest websites in the questionably legal industry that grew around Valve's game. It was a fairly straightforward proposition: Commercial use of Steam accounts is unlicensed and in violation of the SSA [Steam Subscriber Agreement], Valve wrote, and could lead to penalties of various sorts, including the loss of the account outright.

The general expectation was that gambling sites would be forced to shut down, although once such site, CSGOBig, said the closure was only temporary and vowed to return. But CSGO Lounge has taken a different tack by embracing its gambling heritage, even as it denied that it was ever actually a gambling site at all.

From the very beginning, the lounge service was intended as an entertainment service for the esports community of Dota2 and CS:GO, and we have never considered it as a real money betting. Virtual items in CS:GO and Dota2 have no monetary value and any community interaction with the virtual items is meant only for entertainment, without any profit interest, a recently-posted notice explains. We did not collect any commission or similar until June 2016, where we started doing it in order to improve our items drafting and quality of winnings, compensate items losses due to issues related to our product or issues with Steam community trading, to enable giveaways for the community and add more features to our service in near future.

After all the recent events around virtual items and the official letter by Valve, which we have received as well, we were left out alone without any additional information or communication by Valve on this matter. We had to make a decision on how to proceed with Lounges as community place and entertainment service. The situation is highly confusing we are not offering games of luck, we are not offering any transactions with real money or equivalents. Despite those facts, in order to avoid or reduce the confusion, we have decided to acquire a license to legally operate in most of the countries and be able to accept the esports bets by our community, as if it would be real money, it says.

Gambling laws differ significantly across the world and even within individual countries, and essentially Lounge is only now making an attempt to implement systems that comply with them. As Evan explained in his breakdown of the CSGO skin gambling scene, Lounge itself has been operating for about three years without any meaningful checks against a user's age or location. To me, Lounge's rapid move to implement these systems is a tacit admission of wrongdoing.

Starting from Monday, 1st August 2016, we will start limiting the access to the betting functionality for users visiting us from countries and regions, where online esports betting is forbidden. We will add additional registration and verification process and we require you to comply with our new Terms of Service if you want to keep using our service. We also remind that our service is only for users who are at least 18 years old, it continues. We will be operating according to the new terms and any transactions related to the items betting functionality will be handled accordingly to the new terms of service, and only on the territories, which do not forbid it by law.

The betting feature will be disabled in the following countries and regions, although users will still be able to withdraw any existing winnings and deposits:

• United Kingdom
• United States
• Belgium
• France
• French Guiana
• Guernsey
• Gibraltar
• Ireland
• Isle of Man
• Jersey
• Martinique
• French Polynesia
• Reunion
• Mayotte
• Turkey
• Spain
• Scotland
• Israel

The ban on betting from the US, UK, and parts of Europe in particular should severely impact the number of CS:GO items that are bet on the site. CSGO Lounge said it is trying to come up with ways for people in those regions to stay engaged with its site, although it also warned that it can't guarantee the safety or sanctity of items on the site if and when Valve decides to drop the hammer.

That's the big question mark hanging over this whole thing. CSGO Lounge appears to be making moves toward legitimacy, but Valve's C&D specifically cites the unlicensed commercial use of Steam as the problem here not that these are gambling sites, but that Steam and Steam services are licensed for personal, non-commercial use only. Even if the Lounge gets squared away as a proper, up-front gambling site, in other words, if it's still making use of Steam, it will presumably still be in violation of the SSA. Theoretically, it could disentangle itself from Steam and operate independently, but given how tightly integrated it, that seems unlikely or at the very least, unlikely to succeed.

I've reached out to both Valve and CSGO Lounge for comment.

Last week we talked about how to best use HE grenades and firebombs. Knowing how to deal damage and control areas of the map is great, but before you can make use of that knowledge you need to know how to take control in the first place. That s where smoke grenades and flashbangs come in.

One-way smokes

Is there anything more annoying than to get killed by someone you can t see? A well placed smoke screen will result in what s called a one-way smoke which basically means you can see through it but no one can see you. Spread across the maps are a few known one-way smoke-spots. If you see a smoke in one of those spots it can be a good idea to fire a few shots just to be sure no one s hiding behind it. Here are a couple of examples of one-way smokes:

Pop flashes

A flashbang that pops as it enter a player s field of vision is called a pop flash. The purpose of pop flashes is to give your opponent as small window to turn around as possible. Often you want to stand just behind a corner and call for a teammate to flash you in. By doing this you ll either find your enemy completely flashed or with his back facing you if you time it right.There are also a few really good pop flashes that can be used without the help of a teammate. A lot of those flashes are used to take control over areas on the map. This flash on Cache is a basic one but really effective as you don t have to turn around: you can just push.

Another spot that can be hard to push without using at least one flashbang is short on Dust2. Aim at the slope right next to the stairs and run in a straight line as you throw it. If you succeed it doesn t matter where they re peeking from they re gonna think it s Christmas.

Play around on empty servers and try to find flashes like these two. Watching pro matches is probably one of the best ways to find new throws that you didn t know about. HLTV.org is a great resource when it comes to pro demos.

 Smoke grenades and timing

It takes 15 seconds from when a smoke grenade detonates until it has completely evaporated. Knowing this is key when you want to time plays or just want to delay your opponent s attack.

Let s say you re defending B on Dust2 and you ve saved your smoke. They have 40 seconds left on the clock and your teammate on long just saw an enemy. You know the terrorists need four seconds on the clock to plant the bomb. In this scenario you have to make a decision. Do you hold on to the smoke for a few more seconds or do you use it? I d say you should wait and see what happens. If it turns out the terrorist over on the other side of the map didn t fake, you still have your smoke. If it on the other hand was a fake, it s highly unlikely that the rest of their team will push at the exact same time. You can also use firebombs or flashbangs in order to delay the push even further. There are no right answers to these questions. Play the game and eventually you ll find what works for you. Just make sure to pay attention to what usually happens when you do a certain thing and try to learn from it.

Another thing that s important when it comes to using grenades is that you don t want to stand out in the open when you throw them. If you peek a spot and want to smoke off that spot you should always back off a bit before you throw it. Most of the times I ve died with a grenade in my hand could ve been avoided and it s really frustrating when it happens. Try to stay focused when you practice. Sloppy play during practice will result in sloppy play in those games that really matter. After all, we are creatures of habit.

Strategic use of utility grenades on attack

The true beauty of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is found in how well a team coordinates their plays. Watching teams like fnatic or SK Gaming execute their attacks is like standing before the Mona Lisa. If you ve played CS:GO in a team environment you know just how difficult it is to time your smokes and pop flashes perfectly with your teammates. Even if you ve planned all the grenades you re going to use you still need timing and move like a single organism to make the most out of your strategy.

Spend some time with your team tightening up your timings. If you don t already have a team I strongly recommend you to try it out if you want to take your game to the next level. You can either try to join an existing team or form one with friends. Both are super rewarding in their own way. Here s a great example of how to execute a strategy as a unit:

Na Vi not only shows us the strategy as a whole, but you also get to see what each player does from their point of view. Watch and learn.

Find all of our other Counter-Strike: Global Offensive guides here:

Inferno Counter-Terrorist guideInferno Terrorist guideCache Counter-Terrorist guideCache Terrorist guideOverpass Counter-Terrorist guideOverpass Terrorist guideCobblestone Counter-Terrorist guideCobblestone Terrorist guideTrain Counter-Terrorist guideTrain Terrorist guideMirage Counter-Terrorist guideMirage Terrorist guideDust2 Counter-Terrorist guideDust2 Terrorist guideSupport role guideEntry fragger role guideLurker role guideAWPer role guideTeam leader guideSMGs guideSniper rifles guideAssault rifles guidePistols guideWorst weapons guideHE grenades and firebombs guide

An Australian senator has announced that he intends to introduce a bill defining Counter-Strike: Counter Offensive as gambling, thanks to its weapon skin trading system. In what looks to be a world first, independent senator Nick Xenophon will introduce the bill when the Australian federal parliament resumes next month.

Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald, the senator said that Counter-Strike and similar games "purport to be one thing" while they're actually "morphing into full-on gambling and that itself is incredibly misleading and deceptive.

"This is the Wild West of online gambling that is actually targeting kids," Xenophon said.

According to the report, the legislation could make it illegal for Valve to solicit payments in exchange for items with different, or random, value. Or else, there could be legislated age requirements to play any game featuring a similar economy, or the requirement to warn of gambling related content.

Valve has only recently made meaningful steps to curb the fledgling but already very prolific skin gambling market. In a statement issued earlier this month, Valve made clear that it has no connection with any of the skin gambling sites that have emerged since they introduced in-game item trading.

"A number of gambling sites started leveraging the Steam trading system, and there's been some false assumptions about our involvement with these sites," the statement read. "We'd like to clarify that we have no business relationships with any of these sites. We have never received any revenue from them. And Steam does not have a system for turning in-game items into real world currency."

This statement was prompted by this month's CSGO Lotto scandal, which involved two high profile streamers failing to disclose their direct connection with the gambling site they were promoting. Valve sent cease and desist letters to over 20 skin gambling sites last month.

There's a run of great finals and season climaxes to catch this weekend, from CS:GO to StarCraft II, LoL and all the fighting games you could want. You'll have to wait if you're after some Dota 2, however: the International starts next week, making this a quiet weekend of training and contemplation for the world's best Dota teams.

CSGO: ELEAGUE Season 1 Finals

While the bulk of the ELEAGUE Season 1 playoffs will be over by the time you read this, you've still got the grand final itself to look forward to tomorrow. Starting at 13:00 PDT/16:00 EDT/22:00 CEST, months of competition will come to an end in a clash of some of the best CSGO teams in the world. You can watch on Twitch and find loads more information on the official ELEAGUE site.

League of Legends: NA Championship Series

The final weekend of the NCA LCS season is underway. Play continues both Saturday and Sunday beginning at 12:00 PDT/21:00 CEST. If you're reading this on Friday, however, be sure to check out Immortals vs. TSM at 15:00 PDT/midnight CEST: both teams have an incredible 15-1 record in the split so far, so this'll be a clash you won't want to miss. As ever, you can find more information and the livestream at LoLesports.

StarCraft II: IEM Season XI Shanghai

The first event of Intel Extreme Masters Season XI pulls together a lineup of international StarCraft II talent. Games have been underway for a couple of days, but you've still got time to catch the quarter and semifinals on Saturday starting at 07:15 CEST/22:15 PDT on Friday night. The final two players will face off on Sunday for the lion's share of $50,000 along with the KeSPA Proleague Final. The final day broadcast begins at 03:00 CEST/18:00 PDT on Saturday night. Watch via the official stream.

Capcom Pro Tour: Defend The North 2016

New York hosts the Capcom Pro Tour this weekend, so expect another packed schedule of Street Fighter V, Guilty Gear Xrd, Skullgirls, Mortal Kombat, Hearthstone, and more besides. You can find the full schedule here. The SFV top 32 is due to begin at noon local time, which is 09:00 PDT/18:00 CEST. Keep an eye on the event's Twitter feed for stream details: it's sponsored by Twitch, so you'd expect there to be one. If there's no official coverage, it looks like TeamSp00ky is planning on picking up the slack.

Header image courtesy of Faith&Fear on Steam.

In order to be successful in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive you need to be able to take control over the map and deal damage. High explosive grenades (HE) and the two firebombs (incendiary grenade and Molotovs) serve both purposes. A well timed HE can slow your enemy s movement enough for you to pick up an easy kill. They can also be used in combination with either a Molotov or another HE to do even more damage and potentially kill an opponent without ever putting yourself at risk.

The difference between a good grenade user and a really good one is how well you coordinate with your teammates. Therefore it s important to know how, why and when to use grenades if you want to improve your game.

Updates to incendiary grenades and Molotovs

In recent (and not so recent) updates Valve have gradually tuned the two firebombs to the point where they re almost the same. That said, they differ in price. The Molotov costs the terrorists $400 whereas the incendiary grenade costs the counter-terrorists $600. Another difference is that when you hold down either primary fire, secondary fire or both with the Molotov it makes noise that the other team can hear if they re close enough. Moral of the story: you might catch a bullet to your head if you run around ready to throw your Molotov if you opponent hears that it s safe to come around the corner. They do however both deal the same amount of damage and don t damage armor anymore.

 NIP’s creative firebomb round

Richard xizt Landstr m, Jacob pyth Mouruj rvi and Christopher GeT_RiGhT Alesund predicted that the former Luminosity (now SK-Gaming) players would push B-long once again, so they decided to do something creative with their incendiary grenades. They flashed, smoked, lined the grenades up and threw them at the same time.

Unfortunately for them the flashbang kept the Luminosity players from pushing further. Imagine what could have happened without that flashbang. At the same time they kind of had to use the flashbang in case their opponents decided to rush. But you get the point: if you find the right spots and the right timing you can do some really cool things with firebombs in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Spend some time on empty servers and experiment with approaches. Not only is it fun when you actually come across a useful place to lock down with firebombs, you ll also figure out what doesn t work.

 Combining Molotovs and HE grenades

Here s another example of a NiP play, this time against the French team G2 eSports:

It s always risky to move out in the open when you throw a grenade. Unless it s at the beginning of a round or you ve received information telling you that it s safe, you should avoid doing so. Most of the time it s better to bounce grenades off walls from a safe spot.

Apart from the fact that Richard xizt Landstr m died, then, this was a really good play. First the Molotov comes in and covers the chokepoint at double doors, forcing the G2 players to move in one of two directions. After that HE grenade explodes: you can see how it slows the terrorists down so that they take even more damage from the fire. Firebomb damage increases over time, so if you can make your enemy stay in it for a longer duration they re going to take massive damage. As you can see, C dric RpK Guipoy and Edouard SmithZz Dubourdeaux are left with 13 and 21 hp respectively.

 Grenades and vision

You can use both firebombs and HE grenades to briefly hide. If you stand really close to a molotov in a tight space you can see your enemy without a problem. Here s how it looks:

Note how it s almost impossible to see your opponent from the other side. This is something you can and should use to your advantage if your opponent tries to fry you. Punish them for every mistake they make. That s how you win games in CS:GO.

The thick smoke from the HE grenade provides a perfect screen for you to run behind to cross various parts of maps. This example from double doors at Dust2 is probably the most common example:

This allows you to save your precious smoke grenades they can come in handy later in the round.

Bonus clip

Here, Robin flusha R nnquist from fnatic shows us how to use the HE grenade creatively and in the process he picks up an ace against Team Dignitas.

First he hides behind the smoke and tries to spot enemy players on the A site. After a while he throws a grenade towards them. If a HE grenade explodes close enough you can t hear anything for a brief moment. Flusha uses that fact to drop down to CT spawn without the Danish players hearing him land. From then on he uses his incredible gamesense and nerve to take them down one by one.

Find all of our other Counter-Strike: Global Offensive guides here:

Inferno Counter-Terrorist guideInferno Terrorist guideCache Counter-Terrorist guideCache Terrorist guideOverpass Counter-Terrorist guideOverpass Terrorist guideCobblestone Counter-Terrorist guideCobblestone Terrorist guideTrain Counter-Terrorist guideTrain Terrorist guideMirage Counter-Terrorist guideMirage Terrorist guideDust2 Counter-Terrorist guideDust2 Terrorist guideSupport role guideEntry fragger role guideLurker role guideAWPer role guideTeam leader guideSMGs guideSniper rifles guideAssault rifles guidePistols guideWorst weapons guide

Photo credit: TaKeTV Media.

This might not be the busiest weekend in the esports calendar, but there's still enough to keep you occupied until Monday rolls around including CS:GO finals in China, the ongoing spectacle of the North American League of Legends scene, and StarLadder's Dota debut in Los Angeles. If you're into Hearthstone or enjoyed the HomeStory StarCraft series, you'll definitely want to be tuning in to SeatStory Cup V.

League of Legends: NA Championship Series

LoL's regular season play steps it up to cover for what is otherwise a quiet weekend. You can catch top-tier play in North America starting at 21:00 CEST/12:00 PDT on both Saturday and Sunday, with four best-of-threes being played on each day. You can find more information on the matchups, schedule and livestream on lolesports.com.

Dota 2: StarLadder i-League StarSeries

The first StarSeries LAN in the USA takes place in Los Angeles this weekend with $300,000 on the line. This is a good chance to see a slate of top Dota 2 teams play ahead of the International in a couple of weeks. Play is ongoing today, and continues on Saturday starting at 09:30 PDT/18:30 CEST. The action starts on Sunday at 14:00 PDT/23:00 CEST with the grand final beginning at 17:00 PDT (or 02:00 CEST the following day in Europe). Find the livestream here.

Hearthstone: SeatStory Cup V

There are a number of top players taking part in SeatStory Cup V this weekend. It's the Hearthstone version of the legendary HomeStory series: a serious competition in relaxed surroundings, giving you a chance to see pro players in a different light. Play begins every day at 14:00 CEST/05:00PDT and you can find the livestream here.

CSGO: Pro Gamer League 2016 Summer

This weekend is a little short on CS:GO, but you can still catch the finals of PGL 2016 in Wuhan on Sunday. The roster is primarily composed of Chinese teams with a handful of almost-top-tier western squads. The finals begin at 05:20 CEST on Sunday, which is 20:20 on Saturday night in the USA. Sadly there's no English stream for this event, but you can find the Chinese one on each match's HLTV.org page. Here's the final.