A Long Night for Australian Counter-Strike

Australian Counter-Strike has suffered some mighty blows in the past 4 years. Ranging from ESIC banning a majority of the Tier 2 Australian scene, Grayhound going 0–3 in the Stockholm major and no ESL Pro League Playoffs for any Australian Team for multiple seasons.

The major blow has only came just recently as Grayhound failed to qualify for the PGL Copenhagen Major 2024 after losing to Lynn Vision in the Asia RMR.

The initial Twitter response from some fans was that Australian Esports was now dead. Quite the over-reaction I’d say. Let’s delve into the history of the Asia RMR/Minors.

The Asia RMR/Minor

The Asia RMR/Minor until the Blast Major was literally which out of the 2 teams would place in the 1 or 2 seed. The other teams were essentially making up the numbers.

Initially, it was Tyloo v Renegades, IHC v Renegades and at PAX, it was Mongolz v Grayhound. The Blast Paris Major Asia RMR was the first Asia RMR where three teams had a realistic shot at it which was Rare Atom, Grayhound and the Mongolz.

At the PGL Copenhagen RMR, there were FIVE teams that had a shot of taking 2 spots. Tyloo, Grayhound, Atox, The Mongolz and Lynn Vision. This was also due to the fact that the Asia RMR had recently increased to 8 teams.

After a load of grueling BO3s between absolute titans in the Asia RMR scene. (after MAG, Jiejiehao and Twisted Minds were cleaned out…) Lynn Vision and Mongolz came out on top. They deserved it as well.

The Aftermath of the PGL Asia RMR 2024

The aftermath was where the impact was truly felt. Grayhound was closing its doors after 7 years of operation. The initial reaction was due to Grayhound not qualifying for the major.

However, the closure was not due to that. They were closing up regardless as people pointed out that the players were not wearing Grayhound Jerseys.

The ex-Grayhound (Jeeves) are now sticking together but they’ve had expressed their complaints about the Australian Scene as a whole.

INS was interviewed at the Blast Major Asia RMRs in 2023. INS had stated that they really only got to practice against 1 team in Australia. This team was heavily implied to be Vertex (Bad News Kangaroos).

They’ve continued to express this as they used their official ESEA Premier against Rooster as a practice match.

It seems that Grayhound had to continously scrim in Asia, Europe and North America to get any meaningful practice.

Scrims in the Australian Scene

This discussion eventually rolled over onto Twitter. Roflko (player for DXA and the happiest man in CS2) had stated that the scrimming scene is quite poor due to people cancelling on the day of the scrim. This was joined in by Crenux and CoachParny who expressed the same sentitment.

No wonder why Grayhound were expressing their disappointment in the lack of practice. In Europe, North America and Asia, there are always teams to scrim against. It is whether they take it seriously or not. But in Australia, you have to have a team to practice against you in the first place.

I’d mention as well that some teams do not take their practice seriously either in Australia.

Monitor303 (Manager/Owner of DXA) mentioned that he had used WeChat and wished for the Guam servers to be used from OneQode. He mentioned that a lot of teams from Asia wished to scrim.

OneQode has previously ran a tournament with LPL (Lets Play Live) called Frontier Grassroots which featured Grayhound, Making History (now Vexx), Gods Reign and various of other teams. A lot of teams did pull out but at least its servers now can be utilised as Scrim servers instead.

This was a welcome sight as having Grayhound, BNK and Rooster practice against Mongolz, Atox, Tyloo, Rare Atom and Lynn Vision would be MASSIVE for all their respective scenes.

Pouring salt onto the wounds

Even thought the solutions were starting to sprout, the next event was the Skyesports Grand Slam 2024 featuring the Number 2 Australian team, BNK.

BNK had to field a stand-in as a coach and as their 5th as Damyo did not receive his passport in time. They looked to YourWombat for their 5th and minnii as their coach.

BNK was expected to place 2nd. However, after a brave reverse sweep from God’s Reign. BNK were sent packing at 3rd place.

A disappointing event for BNK. For Indian CS, this was an amazing achievement. For Australian CS, this was another flesh wound.

You can say that having YourWombat instead of Damyo can impact their side. I’d say it did. However, a more favourable and popular narrative such as Australian CS = dead will often take centre stage.

The Final Ultimatium

In the background, ESEA/FACEIT announced the return of the league format to Oceania after dumping ANZ Champs/Main. They also added a league for South America.

However, there was a key caveat under the Australian scene that everybody had missed. They would re-assess whether they would provide a league for Australia in December 2024.

If the penny hasn’t dropped yet, it should have by now. With no Grayhound, no Vertex and Rooster is essentially a bedroom org. What organisations do we have in Australia left?

Vox Eminor have expressed an interest to return to the scene. Team Bliss (merged with Chiefs) are seemingly uninterested currently. Team PWR in the same boat as Bliss.

Mindfreak, KZG, DXA, RKON, VEXX, Vantage and other lower tier Australian Bedroom organisations are beginning to earn their stripes. Will this be enough to keep a league within Australia?

With the failures of Grayhound and BNK at their respective events, it only allows the peanut gallery crow louder about why Australia gets spots at any tournament.

And how can you argue with them? Our international results for the last 2–3 years have been pretty lackluster.

Our tournament results have been just all early exits in the last 3 years other than Grayhound run in ESL Pro League Season 17, IEM Cologne 2021 (as Renegades) and Dreamhack Challenger Melbourne 2023.

I am not looking confident when looking at Dreamhack Challenger Melbourne 2024 or ESL Pro League Season 19 either.

The ESL Challenger League and ESL/FACEIT is a major International Pathway to international tournaments for Australia. I would say our only consistent source of it.

It is always the darkest before dawn

The previous section was slanted with a lot of the negatives against the Australian scene. However, this section will make you feel a bit better inside.

I am confident that we’ll be able to keep our league with ESEA/FACEIT for the December 2024 re-assessment.

Why? We are providing sufficient community coverage outside of the dedicated stream in the league. This is many thanks to Viridian, KZG, Vantage, DXA, HazDaddySlim, Flamboyant, Benikage (mainly to the FE scene) and many others.

This coverage has continued in both the open qualifiers (to an extent), Brisvegas, LPL and Karath’s recent LAN event with ANZ Circuit.

I should also thank Man On Camera (MOC) as he has tried to fill in holes with games that haven’t been casted.

Community Coverage is massive for all organisations that this avenue is their main exposure. People will only get to know their organisation because of this avenue. Monitor303 (DXA), Hoackz (CEO of Vantage) and Tito (Community Relations — KZG) understand this greatly.

Another step is that teams are showing renewed vigour to scrim, practice and to dream bigger. We’ve seen a lot of upcoming talent in the T2 scene such as DPR, Pain, Drox, Bebest, Lucas and Mingovi.

Even our previous prospects such as ADDICT, Vexite, Hazr, Savage, nettik, asap and Danger are still performing quite well. This list isn’t exhaustive.

Our massive weakness has been in IGLs. It isn’t easy being a leader when not only do you have the pressure of your own performance but managing others as well.

To add on further pressure, some of the players on your team with are in high school. You can sometimes feel like that you’re babysitting rather than leading a team.

Having others believe in your system and your philosophy is incredibly difficult. A coach who can manage that helps immensely but that is an extreme luxury in the Australian scene.

With Dexter and Tucks returning, this has helped immensely. Also, with the help of cheeseball and yellow at the lower tiers guiding players onwards with their years of experience.

We also have Mingovi coming in as an IGL who caused quite an entry with Vantage’s initial Overpass success.

Viridian (Bowser0) has been incredibly important not as an IGL but as a coach especially related to his success in his content and coaching (coached Bibiahn at Mindfreak).

With a lot of younger players ready to take up the mantle, it is very encouraging looking into the future.

Lastly, we’ve seen a resurgence and a lot of ESIC bans expiring for players who are still grinding out despite being banned.

We’ve also seen some returning players from Valorant and players from Fortnite making a team (RKON).

Not to mention that they have been having moderate success in the current ESL Challenger League which is just adding further stocks to our talent pool.

We’ve also had some older players from the Team Immunity days to test their mettle as well.

When the iron strikes hot…

I believe that the Australian CS2 Scene can grow immensely and challenge international tournaments once again back to the heights of Renegades in the 2019 Berlin Major.

However, this comes with a lot of hard work at nurturing and growing the ecosystem rather than scoring cheap points or lining your own pockets.

It has to be a cooperative effort between Organisations, Tournament Organisations, Talent, Players and Coaches alike.

You have to lead by example. You don’t say you will do things, you just do them. An outsider’s perspective.

If any of these key foundations falter, the rest will come tumbling down after it.

“With great power comes great responsibility” has never rung more truer.