Valve imposed a new rule for Valve-sponsored CS:GO events yesterday that forbids coaches from interacting with players while matches are underway: They may now talk to players only during pregame warm-ups, timeouts, and at halftime. The problem, Valve explained, is that unrestricted access to teams during matches effectively makes coaches a sixth player, and since the goal of our events is to identify the best five-player CS teams that exhibit the best combination of all CS skills, the current participation of coaches in the game is not compatible with that goal.
Not everyone agrees with Valve's assessment of the situation, however. A number of analysts and commentators took to Twitter to express displeasure with the new rule, some saying it's simply unnecessary and others claiming that it's outright damaging to the game.
New coaching rule is pathetic. Valve was never good at pushing CS:GO forward, but why send it rolling back downhill any further?August 17, 2016
It's quite telling that there's not one pro player, journalist, commentator or [of course] coach that agree with this new coaching rule.August 17, 2016
The idea that coaches allow teams to be made of 5 brainless aimers is also dumb, and if that's your opinion it's why you're not good at CSAugust 18, 2016
Let the rest of us continue to grow your mismanaged game for you.August 17, 2016
Nonetheless, Valve seems determined to stick with the change. The ruling won't force the change upon all tournaments, but it will affect the Majors, which as you might expect are the largest tournaments in CS:GO. Valve began awarding $1 million in prize money for each major tournament this year.
Valve clarified its position on the ruling in a follow-up statement in which it said that it has spoken with pro teams about their coaches at past Majors, and had been assured that their focus was "on activities traditionally associated with coaching, such as preparation, support, opponent study, etc.
We were always open with them about our opinion that distributing the work of 5 players (e.g. keeping track of the economy, calling plays and mid-round calls, and general situational awareness) across 6 people was not in line with our goals, one of which was to make it possible for new teams to emerge and compete at the highest levels. We had no concerns with the other coaching responsibilities and at the time any potential harm was hypothetical, the statement says. Since then it has become apparent that teams are, in fact, transitioning away from fielding players that have a wider breadth of skills and instead relying on coaches to handle some of that work.
Ironically, what prompted the new rule was an email from a team coach, sent to an event organizer and forwarded to Valve, seeking a greater level of access to the players during matches. The forwarded email made it clear that despite the conversations we had with them, teams were further investing in coaching in a way that was contrary to the goals of the Majors and the concerns we had expressed. It was important to make a decision before teams further invested in coach IGLs and we decided to rein in the role of coaching in the next Major to exclude player responsibilities, Valve wrote.
We understand that there will be some short term disruption for teams that have made an investment in coach IGLs [In-Game Leader], it concluded. However, we intend the Majors and Minors to be events that can be won by any team of 5 players that demonstrate excellence in all skills of CS and this adjustment is intended to ensure that this remains true.
Short term disruption may be understating things somewhat: As HLTV pointed out, a number of high-profile teams including Natus Vincere, NiP, Liquid, mousesports, and FaZe make use of coaches, and losing access to them so suddenly is bound to have an impact on their performance. It won't take long to find out just how much, and which teams are best able to overcome it: ESL has adopted the rule as well, meaning that the first CSGO Major to operate under this new rule will be ESL One New York, which runs over the weekend of October 1-2.
There's a decent spread of competitive games to watch this weekend, from Street Fighter V to LoL to top-tier CS:GO to one of the biggest Overwatch tournaments yet.
League of Legends: NA and EU LCS Playoffs
After last week's delays, hopefully this week's LCS playoffs will run a little more smoothly. There are two series to be played this weekend in both NA and EU, with EU kicking off at 17:00 CEST/09:00 PDT and NA starting at 21:00 CEST/13:00 PDT. In Europe, catch SPY vs. H2K on Saturday and G2 vs. UOL on Sunday. In NA, catch Immortals vs. Cloud9 on Saturday and TSM vs. CLG on Sunday. More information and the livestream can, as ever, be found on LoLesports.
Overwatch: Atlantic Showdown
There's $100,000 up for grabs in one of the biggest pro Overwatch tournaments to date. The best of the European and North American scenes will go to war to determine who rules the transatlantic Overwatch roost. If you've not watched pro Overwatch before, this is a great opportunity to learn what it looks like when 80% of your team is not Genji. Play begins at 10:00 CEST/01:00 PDT on both Saturday and Sunday and you can find the livestream right here.
CSGO: ESL Pro League Season 4
The ESL Pro League is your best bet for top-tier CS:GO this weekend, with teams competing for a shot at the $750,000 grand finals in Brazil later in the year. Play begins at 16:30 CEST/08:30 PDT on both Saturday and Sunday and you can find the livestream on ESL's official streaming site.
Capcom Pro Tour: Summer Jam
Summer Jam X in Pennsylvania is the latest stop on the ongoing Capcom Pro Tour, showcasing a wide variety of fighting games. If you're in for Street Fighter V, however, then the top 32 begins on Saturday at 22:00 EDT/19:00 PDT/04:00 CEST (the following day in Europe). Catch the top 8 an hour earlier on Sunday: 21:00 EDT/18:00 PDT/03:00 CEST. This event has a decent spread of livestreams covering different games, and you can find a full list on the official site.
Inferno has always been one of the most iconic maps in Counter-Strike, both in 1.6 and Global Offensive. Many of the biggest tournament finals have ended on the map, along with some of the most memorable plays of all time. Almost every pro team knows exactly how to play it, and as a result Inferno matches were often the closest and most unpredictable.
Earlier this year, Valve dropped the bombshell that Inferno was to be removed from the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive active duty map pool and replaced by an updated version of Nuke. This change would have a major effect on the pro scene, as what felt like an entirely new map was replacing one of the staples of pro CS:GO. Teams would have to adapt quickly and devise new strategies for Nuke while forgetting everything they knew about Inferno.
A few months after the switch, teams have started to play Nuke more and more, with mixed results. Many of the top squads are comfortable on the map, whereas others are still banning it out. It has certainly shaken up the pro scene, but it seems like the top players in the world can t quite agree if this was a good change or not.
I m definitely not a fan of the new Nuke, says Robin "flusha" R nnquist, a former member of Fnatic, who were considered to be one of the best teams in the history of CS:GO. We played it a few times and we tried to get better at it and so on, but it's such a chaotic map, you don't know how well you can actually play it. There is just too many things to hold and the timings, if you have the wrong timing you are going to die. It s just a bad map.
This opinion seemed to be shared by many pro players when the switch first happened, as many players were critical of the map on social media and the majority of teams banned out the new Nuke in any pro matches. However, one team that seemed to be happy about the change was Ninjas in Pyjamas, who were one of the best teams on the old version of Nuke.
We are big fans of Nuke, says Adam "friberg" Friberg from NiP. We played Nuke a lot before it was removed and it was probably our go to map. We are very excited to have it back, but we probably need more time to be the best on it.
The original version of Nuke was a very divisive map. Some teams, such as NiP, would always pick it, while others would avoid it like the plague. This new version seems to have a similar reputation, but even players who were considered to be some of the best in the world on the original version are still not sold on new Nuke, and preferred the Inferno map that it replaced.
I was not a fan when they removed Nuke originally, I think people who didn't play Nuke back then didn't know how to play it properly, says Finn "karrigan" Andersen, captain of Astralis. As for taking out Inferno, I started to like it more and more. In the beginning it was very Counter-Terrorist sided but they made a lot of changes, especially with the new round time, to make it better. I feel sad that they removed it, especially switching it with a Nuke that I don't think is ready yet. What I worry about the most is that Nuke gets updated all the time, and they are making changes all the time on the map. So if I invest time now I am concerned that there will be a big update because something happened that Valve didn't like.
Of course removing Inferno was always going to annoy some people, especially the teams that played the map a lot. But looking at the competitive map pool there aren't all that many other options to take out, as the maps are all pretty settled outside of Nuke. Interestingly it was captain of the current world champions, SK Gaming, who offered up some alternatives that could have been replaced by Nuke.
I don't think Inferno should be gone to be honest, says Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo. If I could remove one map it would be Cobblestone and maybe Dust II, but Dust II is a map that everyone knows CS for, so it is pretty difficult to remove it. But Cobblestone is pretty unbalanced right now. Ultimately it s not up to me, so we will be practising Nuke and we hope to make it a good map for us.
Again it was Ninjas in Pyjamas who provided a vastly different opinion on this matter. Team coach and Counter Strike 1.6 legend Bj rn "THREAT" Pers gave his thoughts on Inferno s removal.
Nuke is still way better than Inferno, which was the worst map in the map pool, says THREAT. It was the least tactical map and the most random map, because you cannot gain any information and you just have to guess. I didn't like that aspect at all.
Regardless of the players opinions on the Nuke and Inferno switch, they will have to get used to playing the new version of Nuke. Having a map that you just cannot play gives a team a serious disadvantage at the pro level. However from the pros that we have spoken to it certainly seems that this may not have been the right time to make the switch. There are still a lot of issues with Nuke, which really need to be sorted out quickly, while the classic Inferno map remains one of the best CS:GO maps of all time. What the future holds for these two maps is unclear, but right now it seems that Valve may have acted too hastily on this one.
Deemed to give certain teams greater advantage over others, Valve has introduced new rules which limit coach communication during Valve-sponsored esports matches.
Although still permitted to converse with players during pre-game warm ups, 30-second timeouts, and during halftime, the new rules which have been endorsed by the ESL state coaches are now banned from interacting with their teams when actual rounds are underway.
Posted by HLTV, the email signed by Valve s Ido Magal reads as follows:
"With unrestricted communication with their players, coaches can currently function as a sixth player, and not solely as a source of guidance or training. Activities such as keeping track of the economy, calling plays, and general situational awareness are important components of CS gameplay. If a person is performing these actions, we consider them a player.
Since the goal of our events is to identify the best five-player CS teams that exhibit the best combination of all CS skills, the current participation of coaches in the game is not compatible with that goal. To address this problem, future Valve sponsored events will enforce the following coaching rules:
During a match, the coach may only communicate with the players during warm up, half-time, or during one of four 30 second timeouts that the coach or player can call. Obviously, third party events can use whatever rules they want but if you want to align your events with ours then we recommend using this coaching rule."
According to HLTV, the first major event to implement the new rules will be ESL One New York which kicks off towards the end of September. In light of the ruleset change, there s already murmurs among top players of inter-squad discussions on how to proceed, strike action and even union formations.
In what feels like the end of an era, Swedish side Fnatic have announced a huge change to their CS:GO roster, releasing three players, JW, flusha and KRIMZ from their lineup. While some teams in CS are known for regular changes, there are also the stalwarts, NiP, Virtus Pro and Fnatic, who have maintained (roughly) the same core team for many years. It therefore holds significant weight when these mighty bastions finally crumble.
Rather than fully disband, the three players will be moving to join their former teammate, pronax, in team GODSENT, of which they will become co-owners and shareholders. This surprise announcement (released just fifteen minutes before GODSENT were scheduled to play a match) follows in the footsteps of Danish side Astralis, who left the TeamSoloMid organisation to form their own.To fill the void left behind, Fnatic have welcomed GODSENT players twist and Lekr0, both Swedish players of talent. The final slot has been taken by wenton, who will be looking to prove himself after Fnatic s lacklustre performance during his time substituting olofmeister.
It would be hard for onlookers not to see this change as a downgrade for Fnatic, given that they re losing two of their most experienced players in the form of JW and flusha. Both of these players were present at every Major victory during Fnatic s reign. However, the acquisition of GODSENT players gives Fnatic a real chance to revitalise themselves. Twist should acclimatise quickly, holding previous experience with olof and dennis under LGB. Lekr0, fairly new to the upper echelons of competition, could offer a fresh perspective and will be one to watch closely as he establishes himself in the coming months.
The swap to GODSENT represents a return to old ways for JW and Flusha, who competed with both pronax and znajder under the Fnatic banner back in 2013. Departing messages from each player hint at ideological differences within the team. This combined with the move to become co-owners of GODSENT indicates that the players rather than the organisation may have been behind the split.
Perhaps the most surprising change comes in the separation of olofmeister and KRIMZ, who were renowned as one of CS:GO s most efficient and dangerous pairings. The question for GODSENT will therefore be who can provide the star-player performance in their lineup. Having struggled to perform during olof s downtime, it will be up to KRIMZ to excel once more without his teammate to rely on. In addition, there s a real chance that the move to GODSENT will see JW return to primary AWPing, an opportunity for him to reassert himself through the quick-firing, aggressive play that brought him to fame in the first place.
Fnatic s core of olof, KRIMZ, flusha and JW will surely be remembered as one of the strongest forces in Global Offensive s history, producing a staggering display of dominance throughout 2014-15. In 2015 alone, Fnatic won no less than five $100,000 prize tournaments, including both Katowice and Cologne Majors. Few beyond NiP can rival their past success and it may be some time before we see another side in charge for so long. In contrast to NiP s slow decline, Fnatic ran into trouble when olofmeister suffered from significant wrist problems and was forced to take a break for his own health in April. Competing with wenton as a substitute, the swedes seemed to fall into disarray, never quite recovering even upon olof s return. Despite this, Fnatic hold a superb legacy in CS and their success will likely be remembered for years to come.