Photo credit: Abraham Engelmark for Dreamhack. Click here for the full version.

Although Dota 2's Boston Major and the World Cyber Arena are just around the corner, there’s still plenty to watch, from top-tier CS:GO to the semi-finals of Overwatch’s Challenger Season. We even have further action from this year’s Dota 2 Dream League. All the details on this weekend’s action can be found below. Have a great weekend!

Heroes of the Storm: Gold Club World Championship – European qualifiers

The 2016 Heroes of the Storm Gold Club World Championship, is a premier international invitational tournament jointly hosted by NetEase and Blizzard Entertainment. Between now and December 3rd, battles will be waged by the top Heroes of the Storm teams from around the world as they battle it out for the GCWC title and a share of the $300,000 prize pool.

The Heroes of the Storm GCWC European qualifiers kick off this Saturday at 05:00 PST / 14:00 CET and will continue at the same time on Sunday. The qualifiers serve to determine the second two teams that will qualify for the HGC League starting in January of 2017. Be sure to watch the live broadcast over on Twitch.

Overwatch: DreamHack Winter 2016

Eight teams will compete for the DreamHack Winter trophy in Sweden. Two qualified European teams, two qualified American teams and four teams from the BYOC qualifiers will battle it out to claim glory. There will be a bunch of familiar faces as panel host Soe will be joined by Jason Kaplan, Ubershouts, ZP, MrX and Hexagrams as casters. It’s sure to be an exciting experience that Overwatch fans won’t want to miss. All times and streams can be found over on DreamHack’s official site.

Overwatch: APEX Challengers Season 1

Currently living and competing in South Korea for OGN’s APEX Season 1, EnVyUs are headed to the semi-finals after they created an upset by defeating Rogue on November 21st. The American team is now the only non-Korean group still standing in the tournament and will face KD Uncia today at 02:00 PST / 11:00 CET. You can check out all the action over on Twitch.

Dota 2: Dream League Season 2

Dota 2 fans will be pleased to know that the Dream League Season 2 Winners’ Final is kicking off this Friday. A double-elimination affair will determine who is worthy enough to walk away with the trophy for Season 6. Each match will be best of three, with a best of five grand final. Matches start today at 02:00 / 11:00 CET, while the grand final will be broadcast this Sunday at 07:00 PST / 16:00 CET. All the latest information and links to the streams can be found here.

CSGO: DreamHack ZOWIE Open Winter 2016

Eight CS:GO teams from across the globe will compete at DreamHack Winter in Jönköping, Sweden for their share of a $100,000 prize pool. Both Cloud9 and OpTic Gaming could again mark another big tournament win for North America, but the Swedish team GODSENT are looking to prove they can perform well despite no longer holding a spot in the ELeague Major. More information about the event and its schedule can be found here.  

It s looking to be a quiet weekend as we begin to ready ourselves for the various major events waiting just around the corner. Last weekend saw the lively finals of five of Blizzard s games Hearthstone, Overwatch, StarCraft II, World of Warcraft and Heroes of the Storm. We even had frenzied punch-up at the American Finals in Street Fighter V. However, like all good things, they must come to an end. Don t feel too bad, mind, as we still have a few exciting events to kick-start your weekend.

Rocket League: Championship Series Season 2, North America and Europe

The Rocket League Championship series will come to an exciting end this weekend as both the North American and European teams battle it out. The North American RLCS competition will be broadcast this Saturday from 12:00 PDT / 20:00 PM CET, while the European competition will take place on Sunday from 9:00 PDT / 17:00 CET. On the North American side the top team is currently Orbit, who formed from Team Exodus after the organisation bought them out following the close of RLCS season one. For Europe, Northern Gaming is currently the favourite to win, but last year the team failed to make it to the grand finals last year. Be sure to check out both streams over on Twitch.

CSGO: Northern Arena 2016, Montreal

Eight of the world s best CS:GO teams are headed to Montreal, Quebec in Canada to compete at the Northern Arena CS:GO Montreal LAN Finals presented by Bell for a prize pool of $100,000. The finals will kick off on November 13th at the Bell Centre where fans will get to meet their favourite players and teams. Tickets for the Sunday final can be bought here, or you can watch the stream over on Twitch. To see the event time and schedule click here.

CSGO: iBUYPOWER Masters 2016

iBUYPOWER Masters (Formerly known as iBUYPOWER Cup) is a premier Counter-Strike:Global Offensive tournament located in Southern California, where the best teams from all over the world will battle for a chance at securing their portion of the $400,000 combined prize pool. Cloud 9, Team SoloMid and FaZeClan are just a few of the eight teams competing at the event this weekend. Doors will open this Saturday at 9:00 PDT / 18:00 CET and entry is completely free. Find out more about the event here.

StarCraft II: World Cyber Arena StarCraft 2016 American Qualifiers

The online three day tournament organised by the Brazilian eSports National League (LNEe) will be taking place this weekend. The goal of the qualifiers is to send the two of the best players to the World Cyber Arena 2016 StarCraft Finals in China. The eight players will compete for $13,900 Prize Pool, and the top two players will be invited to the offline finals in China. More information about the event can be found over on the official website.

There s plenty to watch this weekend from the explosive action of CSGO to the exciting finals of four of Blizzard s games Hearthstone, Overwatch, World of Warcraft and Heroes of The Storm. Meanwhile, the Capcom Pro Tour: North American Finals stand to pack a punch as players gear up to unleash some deadly combos in Street Fighter V.

CSGO: ELEAGUE Season 2

CSGO s Friday night league will bring more explosive action to our screens as teams from each group try to secure a place within the elimination playoffs. Group B including Virtus.pro, Ninjas in Pyjamas, G2 Esports and Echo Fox will play tonight from 18:00 PDT / 23:00 CET. If you don't have TBS, you can also catch the games on Twitch.

Hearthstone: World Championship Global Finals

The finals of the Hearthstone World Championship take place at BlizzCon November 5th with $250,000 going to winner. Four groups of four players will compete in a dual-tournament format until only eight remain, at which point the competition will shift to a single-elimination bracket. The quarterfinals start 4th November at 12:15 PDT / 20:15 CET, while the semi-finals commence the following day at 10:30 PDT / 18:30 CET, ending with the finals at 14:00 PDT / 22:00 CET. Catch all the action on the PlayHearthstone Twitch channel.

Overwatch: World Cup 2016

Overwatch s first ever World Cup concludes this Saturday with the top eight countries in the world duking it out to claim worldwide recognition. There's no prize pool for this exhibition, but the top teams competing at BlizzCon will receive an appearance bonus and a free trip to BlizzCon. The quarterfinals kick off today at 12:15 PDT / 20:15 CET and the finals will begin at 11:30 PDT / 19:30 CET. You can watch the stream here when it s live.

World of Warcraft: Arena World Championship group stage

The Group Eliminations are taking place today at BlizzCon 2016, but the finals are taking place tomorrow at 10:00 PDT / 18:00 CET. Watch Blizzard s esports streams here.

Heroes of the Storm Fall Global Championship

The HoTS Fall Championship will conclude this Saturday as four teams battle it out to win the $1,000,000 prize pool. You can watch the elimination rounds today at 16:00 PDT and midnight CET. The South Korean lineups MVP Black and Ballistix are considered to be the favourites of the competition, with the edge going to MVP Black. The semifinals will start the following day at 12:00 PDT / 20:00 CET, while the finals begin at 16:00 PDT / midnight CET. You can watch the livestream over on Twitch.

StarCraft II: WCS Global Finals

The StarCraft II: WCS quarterfinals start today at 12:00 PDT / 20:00 CET, while the semifinals and grand finals start tomorrow at 12:30 PDT / 20:30 CET. Find the live streams here.

Capcom Pro Tour: North American Finals

The North American Regional Final event takes place at the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall today. Be sure to check out the full weekend schedule and find the livestreams here.

A few years ago, Valve rolled out a community-run tool for judging unwanted player behavior for the online FPS Counter-Strike: Global Offensive called Overwatch. Unrelated to the Blizzard FPS of the same name, Valve's Overwatch system gives select players the ability to watch replays of bad behavior reported by other players and impose penalties "proportional to" the offense: "Suspects who are convicted of griefing are given a moderate cooldown, whereas cheaters are removed from the game entirely," the CS:GO Overwatch FAQ explains. But the update released yesterday takes some of that discretion out of the hands of judges, and imposes significantly harsher penalties on repeat offenders.

Along with a small number of fixes, tweaks, and a wish for a happy Halloween, the October 25 patch notes states, "A temporary griefing conviction assigned by Overwatch will now be elevated to a permanent conviction if the suspect had a previous temporary griefing conviction." Two strikes and you're out, in other words, and even as someone who enjoys watching cheaters eat a hard swing of the banhammer, that seems a bit harsh.

Not everyone thinks so, though. This guy expressed his displeasure with his cooldown becoming a permaban, but most of the commenters in the follow-up thread, and quite a number of people in the CS:GO subreddit, seem to be in favor of the change and have little apparent sympathy for anyone who falls victim to it. The trouble, at least potentially, is that players who happen to be caught up in a false positive are faced with a real hassle: The "Competitive Cooldowns and Bans" FAQ opens with a stern warning, outlined in red, that "cooldowns and bans are non-negotiable and cannot be removed or reduced by Steam Support."

Watch your step, kids.

Thanks, Kotaku.

Although League of Legends' upcoming semifinals dominate the headlines this weekend, there's plenty to watch from top-tier CS:GO on both sides of the Atlantic to fantastic Street Fighter V to Rocket League and Smite. Have a great weekend!

League of Legends: World Championship Semifinals

Not long now until League of Legends crowns its 2016 world champions. This weekend, the four remaining teams will convene in Madison Square Garden to determine which two Korean teams have what it takes to advance to the grand finals. One of those teams could be European hopefuls H2K, of course, but... yeah. We'll see. Check out Cassandra's preview for more on the semifinalists, and find the livestream via LoLesports.

CSGO: ELEAGUE Season 2

CSGO's Friday night cable TV league starts up again today with $1,100,000 to play for between now and early December. Group A including mousesports, C9, FaZe and Immortals will play tonight from 15:00 PDT/midnight CEST. If you don't have TBS, you can also catch the games on Twitch.

CSGO: Epicenter 2016 Playoffs

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, the best of European and CIS CS:GO clash in Moscow for a share of $500,000. Play begins at 02:00 PDT/11:00 CEST on Saturday and an hour earlier at 01:00 PDT/10:00 CEST on Sunday. Epicenter's Dota 2 finals earlier in the year were fantastic, so the CS:GO community should be in for a treat. Watch the livestream here.

Rocket League: League Play

There's another weekend of Rocket League season 2 play ahead, with NA going at it on Saturday from 12:00 PDT/21:00 CEST. On Sunday, the best of Europe will compete from 09:00 PDT/18:00 CEST. The official Rocket League Twitch account has the stream.

Capcom Pro Tour: ranking events

A relatively modest weekend of fighting games ahead after a busy couple of months. This weekend sees two ranking events: Malaysia's FV Cup and an online event in Asia-Oceania. Many top Asian Street Fighter V players are attending FV Cup, along with the UK's Ryan Hart. Play continues throughout the weekend, starting at 20:00 PDT every evening, which is 05:00 CEST the following day. Here's the livestream.

Overwatch: Alienware Monthly Melee

Despite the Blizzard scene being deep in preparation for the opening week of BlizzCon next week, there's still some Overwatch to be found if you know where to look. Another round of the Alienware Monthly Melee will take place this weekend, with a selection of top NA teams competing for a share of $5,000. Play kicks off at 14:00 PDT/23:00 CEST and you can find the livestream at GosuTV.

Smite: SPL Fall Group C and European Challenger Cup Finals

The Smite schedule is only going to get busier ahead of the Super Regional in November. The two remaining teams in the European Challenger Cup will fight for a spot in the big leagues on Sunday, while group stage play among the top teams continues from today through to Sunday starting at 10:00 PDT/19:00 CEST. Catch the action at HiRezTV.

Update:

Valve has now issued a response to the Washington State Gambling Commission's call for action on the matter of CS:GO skin gambling, saying that it does not "facilitate" gambling through Steam, and that "there is no factual or legal support for these accusations." The company said it is "surprised and disappointed" that the WSGC has chosen to pursue the matter publicly, but added that it has taken steps to discourage skin gambling on third-party websites, and is "open to further cooperation with the Commission."

In the firm but amicable letter, Valve's legal counsel notes that the company has no business relationship with gambling sites, does not promote them, and does not earn any revenues through them. These sites take advantage of two well-used Steam services in order to operate: the ability to purchase and trade skins, and the "ubiquitous" OpenID system of authentication that "allows a Steam customer to identify himself on a third-party website by association with his Steam account, without having to give his Steam credentials to the third party site."

"We do not want to turn off the Steam services, described above, that skin gambling sites have taken advantage of," Valve's response letter says. "In-game items, Steam trading, and OpenID have substantial benefits for Steam customers and Steam game-making partners. We do not believe it is the Commission s intention, nor is it within the Commission's authority, to turn off lawful commercial and communication services that are not directed to gambling in Washington."

Despite expressing doubt that it is in fact breaking any laws in the first place "If there is a specific criminal statute or regulation you believe Valve is violating, please provide a citation," the letter says Valve points out that it has already taken action against more than 40 skin gambling sites so far, first with cease-and-desist letters, and then by shutting down their Steam accounts. In the eyes of Valve's lawyer, though, it isn't realistic to expect Valve to hunt down every item-trading bot created by these websites. "Cleverly designed bots can be indistinguishable from real users," reads the response, "and their methods and techniques are constantly evolving."

"Valve can enforce its user agreements against the Steam accounts of skins gambling sites, where we can identify the site and identify the corresponding account. In fact, we would be happy to cooperate with the Commission, if it is able to identity more skins gambling sites that are illegal in Washington and the Steam accounts through which [they] operate," the letter says. "We welcome the change for further communication with the Commission, if it would like to clarify the legal allegations against Valve, or alternatively to work with Valve to identify offending Steam accounts of gambling sites."

It is in many ways a bold response, although if the commission hasn't identified which laws Valve has broken after 18 months of talks, Valve is probably in a strong position within Washington State. But it also lays bare the complexities of the matter: Can Valve he held responsible for Steam users "cashing out" on third-party sites? Can it be held accountable for the actions of those third-party sites, whether or not it is actively "facilitating" them? Is Valve's sluggishness to police skin gambling an issue? To my non-lawyerly eyes, it would seem unlikely, but that 18 month stretch of negotiations works both ways: The WSGC clearly thinks it has some basis for complaint.

On an unrelated but interesting note, the letter also confirms that Valve's employee headcount is "approximately 360." This is the first updated measure of Valve's size that we've seen in years: Wikipedia lists it as having about 330 employees, but that's based on data from 2013.

Original story:

A couple of weeks ago, the Washington State Gambling Commission gave Valve until October 14 "to respond and explain" how Steam, and specifically the role it plays in skin gambling, is in compliance with the state's gambling laws. Failure to do so, it warned, could lead to "civil or criminal action" begin taken against the company. This was from an official state agency, so unlike our weekly cat gif email, the request could not be ignored. But this is also Valve we're talking about, and so naturally, the response did not arrive on time.

"At the close of business on October 14, 2016, a representative of Valve Corporation notified Commission staff that the company is still working on a reply to the Commission's Letter and a reply will be provided Monday, October 17, 2016," the WSGC said in a press release put out today.

It almost feels like a gag, doesn't it? Valve can't even respond to an inquiry from a powerful state regulator on time. But unless there are some shenanigans afoot that go beyond even the most elaborate Freeman-based hoax, this is all entirely legit: The link to the release is front-and-center on the official WSGC website.

"I am disappointed that Valve Corporation missed Friday's deadline, but encouraged that they have committed to responding today," WSGC director David Trujillo said. "I look forward to reviewing their response in detail."

Protip for Dave: I look forward to playing Half-Life 3 someday, but I'm not penciling anything in on my calendar. You may have legislative clout on your side, but you can't change the tides. All you can do is learn to swim.

I've reached out to Valve for more information and will update if and when I receive a reply.

Thanks, PvPLive.

Although many of you will be glued to the League of Legends Worlds quarter finals this weekend, there's plenty to watch elsewhere in the world of competitive gaming. Get your regular fill of Dota 2 and CS:GO, check in on the Blizzard scene on the eve of BlizzCon, and don't miss some of the best Street Fighter V players in the world fighting for a shot at the Capcom Cup in the EU finals. Plus: Rocket League, Smite, and more!

League of Legends: Worlds Quarter Finals

The month of Worlds continues with the quarter finals in Chicago. You can catch favourites SKT vs. China's RNG tonight from 15:00 PDT/midnight CEST, with ROX vs. EDG at the same time tomorrow and H2K vs. ANX on Sunday. That last one's going to be a heartbreaker, as H2K are the last European team in contention and ANX are the wildcard-done-good. Only one team can advance to the semi-finals and claim the honour of being taken apart by a Korean team as per tradition. More info and the livestream can be found on LoLesports.

Dota 2: The Summit 6 qualifiers

Qualifiers for November's $100,000 Dota 2 tournament are taking place all over the world this weekend. It's a great chance to take the pulse of new lineups like Team NP and remember that Dota 2 is a videogame and not just a deep reservoir of esports drama (though Valve have got you sorted on that account.) There's play happening more or less all day over the weekend, so just check out the livestream for the latest action.

CSGO: ECS Season 2

Lots of top-tier CS:GO this weekend in both EU and NA as ECS Season 2 rolls on. There are games happening right now (here's the stream) and play will continue through the weekend. Thanks to matches taking place in both EU and NA, you should find something to watch whenever you tune in. Failing that, the full schedule is visible on Gosugamers.

Hearthstone: Americas Last Call Invitational

BlizzCon is very, very close, and the majority of the studio's games have wrapped up their qualification processes for the biggest event in the Blizzard calendar. Not so Hearthstone, which is providing players in the Americas with one last chance to qualify for the forthcoming World Championship. Tune into the official Hearthstone stream tomorrow from 09:00 PDT/18:00 CEST to catch the action.

Heroes of the Storm: Nexus Games North America

These one-off Heroes of the Storm tournaments are intended to give teams a shot at competitive play on the latest patch ahead of the Fall Championship at BlizzCon. This weekend sees the finals of the NA schedule, with games on Saturday and Sunday starting at 15:00 PDT, which is midnight CEST. Watch them on the official HotS stream.

Overwatch: MGA 2016 Championship Regional Finals

Regional finals for this international Overwatch competition began today and continue through to next week on a region by region basis. Today and tomorrow sees play in the Americas starting at 18:00 PDT (02:00 CEST the following morning.) One team from each region will earn a spot at the grand finals in London in December, with a $40,000 grand prize on the line. Here's the stream.

Rocket League: Season 2 League Play

With the Mid-Season Classic behind us, there's another two weekends of regular league play ahead in Rocket League's pro scene. NA plays on Saturday, as usual, with EU following on Sunday. Expect games throughout the day and check out Rocket League on Twitch for the livestream.

Smite: Pro League Fall Split

Group play is ongoing in the biggest event of the Smite season. Tune in from 10:00 PDT/19:00 CEST from today until Sunday to watch some of the best teams in NA go at it. As ever, you can find the stream on HiRezTV.

Capcom Pro Tour: EU Regional Finals and SoCal Regionals

A relatively modest week for the CPT this weekend with only two premier events. How will you cope? You can catch the SoCal Regionals on west coast time from today until Saturday click here for the stream schedule and here for the stream itself.

As Andi notes in this week's column, the EU Regional Finals at Milan Games Week represent many players' last shot at qualifying for this year's Capcom Cup so expect drama. Loads of top talent are attending, with the livestream starting at 03:00 and 04:00 PDT on Saturday and Sunday respectively (noon and 13:00 CEST). Find the livestream on CapcomFighters.

Another packed weekend coming up as both League of Legends and all of Blizzard's games close in on their respective World Championships. That's not all, however: there's also top-level Dota 2 in China, loads of CS:GO in Europe, the culmination of the Smite season, the first big event of this season of Rocket League, and Capcom Pro Tour stops all over the world. Enjoy!

League of Legends: Worlds 2016

After a dramatic start to the group stage, this is becoming the most competitive Worlds to date. There's loads more group stage play taking place this weekend, with games starting this evening and continuing through until Monday. Catch games starting at 13:00 PDT/22:00 CEST every day. As ever, your best resource for team info and the livestream is LoLesports.

Hearthstone: Europe/Asia-Pacific Last Call Invitational

These Last Call invitationals offer one last chance for top Hearthstone players to qualify for the World Championship at Blizzcon. This weekend, the tournaments will take place in Europe on Saturday beginning at 14:00 CEST/05:00 PDT and in Asia-Pacific on Sunday starting at 21:00 PDT, which is 06:00 Monday morning in CEST. Find the livestreams for both here.

World of Warcraft: Americas Regionals

Although not given the prominance afforded to Blizzard's other esports, WoW Arena still has many fans. This weekend, the best players in the Americas will fight for the chance to represent their region at the World Championship at Blizzcon. Play begins on both days at 12:00 PDT/21:00 CEST. Here's the stream.

StarCraft II: WESG 2016 Europe & CIS Qualifier

After a run of dramatic recent upsets, now is a great time to start watching top-level StarCraft II. This weekend, players in Europe and CIS will fight for a spot at the WESG 2016 main event, with a $27,000 prize on the line. Play begins at 10:00 CEST/01:00 PDT on Saturday and 16:00 CEST/07:00 PDT on Sunday. Here's the stream.

Dota 2: Shanghai Dota 2 Open

The best Dota 2 teams in China (with a few exceptions, like TI6 champions Wings) are about to reach the end of this $90,000 tournament. There's only the lower bracket final and grand final left to play, with only four teams left in contention Newbee, CDEC, and the winner of LGD.FY vs. EHOME, which is ongoing at the time of writing. BeyondTheSummit have the English language livestream.

CSGO: The World Championships 2016

There's $100,000 to be won in this contest between national CS:GO teams. The final eight qualified nations France, Sweden, Denmark, Turkey, Singapore, Tunisia, Canada and Argentina will do battle in the Kombank Arena in Belgrade. Play begins at 10:00 CEST/01:00 PDT on both Saturday and Sunday and you can find the stream on Azubu.

CSGO: World Electronic Sports Games 2016

Meanwhile, in Kiev, loads more European CS:GO talent is going to war. There's about $75,000 on the line, and an unusual spread of teams that includes traditional powerhouses like Virtus.pro and EnVyUs alongside newly-qualified hopefuls and national teams for the Ukraine, Russia, and Norway. Games run throughout the weekend. Here's the stream.

Rocket League: Mid-Season Classic

There's $10,000 on the line as Rocket League Season 2 reaches its midway point. There's no specific start time listed, but the tournament is due to run over Saturday and Sunday. Find out more information about Rocket League's esports scene here and catch the livestream on Twitch.

Capcom Pro Tour: South East Asia Major 2016 and more

The latest CPT Premier event takes place in Singapore this weekend, joined by three Ranking events running concurrently in Dubai, Barcelona, and Raleigh, NC. In Singapore, expect top tier Guilty Gear, Street Fighter, King of Fighters and more running from 10:00 SGT, which is 04:00 CEST or 19:00 PDT the previous night. The final stages of the Street Fighter tournament are scheduled for Sunday at 10:00 CEST/01:00 PDT. Check out the Street Fighter V section on Twitch for streams of both the amateur and pro aspects of the event.

Smite: SPL Fall Group A

Qualification begins for next month's Smite Super Regionals, a vital step along the road to the Smite World Championship in January. This weekend, two teams will survive the battle for Group A a clash between Team eLevate, Sanguine Esports, Dignitas, and OrbitGG. Games started today and continue throughout the weekend starting at 17:00 CEST/08:00 PDT. Check out the livestream here.

After years of player-led lobbying, Valve has reintroduced graffiti sprays to Counter-Strike. There is, however, a catch.

Absent since Counter-Strike: Source, graffiti sprays have now been added to Counter Strike: Global Offensive as consumable patterns which means players can obtain them in one of three ways: purchasing individual patterns from the Steam Market; purchasing Graffiti Boxes which "feature art created by Steam Community Artists"; or collecting patterns via free weekly drops as rewards for ranking up.

Now, while modern Counter-Strikers are pretty accustomed to monetisation a process which inadvertently facilitated the recent skin betting scandals Valve has also applied restrictions to the use of the sprays in-game.

As outlined in this Steam Community Q&A update, once players unseal graffiti, they can apply the pattern 50 times (players who unseal a graffiti pattern already housed in their inventory will receive an additional 50 charges to their existing supply). Players can only apply graffiti once per round, however or every 45 seconds if matches run longer and one application of graffiti lasts just seven minutes and "degrades over time until it is no longer visible."

Check out the Q&A in its entirety for the minutiae of the matter. A few threads have popped up on the CS:GO subreddit, where some players don't seem best pleased with Valve's decision see here and here many of whom consider it a cash-grabbing exercise.

I've not played CS:GO for a long time myself, so I'd like to put this one to you guys: how do you feel about the return of graffiti sprays in this guise?

Over the last few months Valve have released a steady stream of updates for CS:GO, replacing the audio for every gun and tweaking many other aspects of the game. Behind the scenes they ve also been hard at work fixing some of CS:GO s longstanding bugs and peculiarities. By tying the camera to the player model, hitboxes have been improved significantly, leaving no more excuses for those missed headshots at least until the next issue is found. Also gone are bizarre aerial exploits in which a player could land precise midair shots by counter-strafing or weapon swapping, as shown below.

These changes have been long-awaited, and it s great to see a renewed interest from Valve in fine-tuning the game. However, CS:GO is no stranger to bugs, and plenty have haunted it for a long time. Collected below are some of the strangest ones that you can still find in the game today.

Ethereal ‘nades

The inclusion of bouncing projectiles in hitscan shooters is always going to cause trouble, but grenades still provide more than their fair share. Clip a teammate when throwing any grenade, and you ll find it no longer collides with doors. Used on Cache s A-bombsite, defenders can be caught by an unexpected flashbang.

Line up the angle just right and the grenade will skim your teammate without slowing, allowing you to set up useful smokes and Molotovs from a position of relative safety.

Highlighted as far back as 2013, Valve don t seem in any rush to release a fix. Fortunately doors are far from common in competitive maps, reducing this bug s impact.

Invisible Molotovs

There s no questioning how dangerous molotovs can be, with even the best falling victim from time to time. Despite the large visual warning, It s easy enough to step accidentally into the hotzone during a firefight. A risk which becomes all the more deadly when the fire itself is invisible.

If a Molotov or incendiary detonates just as it hits a player s feet, they will appear to smother the flames, spawning no fire around them. This won t stop the damage or audio, however. Moving will cause the flames to reappear, and few will stick around when a Molotov comes their way, making this bug unlikely to offer much of an advantage.

Run boosting

Like bunnyhopping, run boosts offer players an alternative method of movement with which to catch opponents off guard. While Valve has done much to curb use of the former, run boosting remains an effective strategy. By standing one player on top of another and running in tandem, the boost-ee is flung forward at high speed when jumping. Most often put to use in reaching unconventional spots on the map, it can also be used to take a waiting AWPer by surprise.

Requiring two players to work in synchronisation, run boosting necessitates a high degree of risk in it s setup, making it a situational option at best. Popular with pros and fans alike, however, it s unlikely to disappear anytime soon. Watch Virtus.Pro put this to use against G2 here.

Venting frustration

Valve s approach to updating maps is far from consistent. Levels are chosen here and there for revamps. It s great to see older maps receive a bit of polish, but it can also lead to some unusual differences worth knowing. For an AWPer, it s crucial to land that single-shot kill, an advantage removed when firing through any object. Shoot through a vent on Cache, Nuke or Mirage, and you ll find your damage drop below 90, even when aiming through the gaps. Repeat the exercise on Cobblestone however, and you can shoot through without breaking the vent itself.

Vents have proven an interesting testbed in CS:GO, behaving differently on each map, and even made open and closable in Nuke s revamp (a change since revoked). An AWP failing to kill in one hit can be a matter of life and death for the shooter, making it well worth learning each map s individual quirks.

Smoke bomb

Counter-Strike s terrorists have tried as hard as possible to make their bomb noticeable, attaching a huge blinking light to the front. This might make it easy to find should you leave it lying around, but can also lead to some unintended downsides. Try to sneak through a smoke grenade while carrying the bomb, and you may find yourself an easy target. Those with a careful eye can also take advantage of this to spot when a dropped bomb is picked up inside smoke.

Visibility of the bomb through smoke grenades is wildly inconsistent, but seems dependent on the bomb's position relative to the grenade. To reduce the chances of showing up, try to make sure you stick to the centre of the smoke or the far side of your opponent. When trying to recover the bomb, make sure the smoke overshoots the bomb s position slightly.

Assorted oddities: stairs, swaps and sound

Beyond vents, GO s maps exhibit some further irregularities in design, including smaller but noticeable differences in the way stairs behave. While some act as smooth ramps, others cause the player s viewpoint to bump up and down as you traverse them. Youtuber 3kliksphilip does a fantastic job of explaining the differences here.

If you ve ever had trouble picking up a gun at a crucial time, you re not alone. GO contains a 'press E to swap weapon' feature which proves unreliable at best. Should the gun lie anywhere near a grenade, the bomb or even another weapon, you may be unable to retrieve it, a problem which even causes the pros some consternation. Given the option, swap by dropping your original gun instead.

Far from a bug but still an issue, CS:GO s surround sound leaves a lot to the imagination. While Horizontal audio is acceptable, verticality is all but indistinguishable, made most dangerously evident on Nuke s overlapping bombsites. A remedy would likely require an overhaul of the map, and that's unlikely to happen any time soon. CS:GO may have a long life ahead of it, but it s likely that many of these bugs will be along for the ride.