FANation! We are back? OK, maybe not back with Football, or Basketball, or even Baseball, but we got to get in while the getting’ is good, right? With merely no sports to play at the time, it has brought much attention to League of Legends, Rocket League, as well as Counter Strike: Global Offensive. I will admit, I am still new to all of these "sports", however I have found more success and easier means of researching, per say, with Counter Strike: Global Offensive. So, just wanted to write somewhat of an introductory piece for the new ones that have yet to dip their toes in the Counter-Strike pond. Also, we are nearing the end of the FlashPoint-1 playoffs, and even with DK adding the LOOT.BET Season 6, and Clutch Season 2 hopefully in the next day or so, we have a pretty big forth-coming event starting on April 22nd, titled the Road to Rio. This event will start with North American region (12 teams), Europe region (16 teams) both on the 22nd, as well as, the CIS (Online) region (12 teams) on the 27th with other regions to follow at later dates, AND, where most of the big names in Esports will be back in action. So, this is a warm-up piece for those who have yet to take the plunge!
What is Counter Strike?
Counter Strike is a first-person shooter game, much like Call of Duty, for those familiar with said game. The objective is for both teams of five players, to either plant a bomb, or defend a bomb site, with both teams playing both roles for half the map. So, that means one team will play the "T" side, which is the also known as the "Terrorist" side, and if we know anything about terrorists, it is that they usually plant the bomb, right? SO, likewise, the other team will be the "CT" side, or the Counter-Terrorist side, in which their objective is to not allow the bomb to be planted, and in the event that the bomb is planted, their job is to basically do everything possible to defuse the bomb before it goes off.
Most games are either best of three maps, and some intro rounds are just best of one, depending on the format, and most of the latter playoff rounds can be best of five. The objective is to be the first team to 16 total wins on the map, so a game is a 30-round affair (standard without OT). That will clarify a win for the team. When a team reaches the 15th win in a round, this is called "match point", and the team must then win their 16th round game to win the map. If circumstances do not play that way, and they allow their opponents to reach 15 round wins also, resulting in a 15-15 round game, this results in an Over-Time session of six more games. Again, Winning team will have to at least win four of the rounds in OT to win the map, if not, there will be a second OT, and so on and so forth.
So, since we have discussed and introduced how Counter-Strike is played, now let’s get into some specifics.
Scoring & Key Statistics
The scoring for DraftKings more reflects kills (1.5 points), assists (1 point), and then you have your clutch scoring (1v2, 1v3, 1v4, 1v5) or also known as one vs two, meaning one player is left to face two opponents, three opponents, etc., and they must ultimately win the round by terminating multiple opponents to win the round for their team, when they are typically highly against the odds to do so. So, this results in clutch points, and you get 1 point for a 1v2, 2 points, for a 1v3, 3 points for a 1v4, and finally 5 points for a 1v5. Lastly, you also get 3 points for a "quad kill," or killing at least four opponents in a round, and also get 5 points for an "Ace" or killing all five of your opponents in the round. Need to mention, deaths do accrue a -1-point score as well, so paying attention to how often a player dies is important also. IMPORTANT NOTE: Team wins do accrue extra points, and if your team wins the game in the first 2 maps, you also get added bonus points for doing so. I am not going to explain "GLA" here, if you want to learn, ask @DKAssist.
Now, we have discussed the scoring as well, so today we have a two-game semi-finals of the playoffs in FlashPoint 1 slate on DK, where we have HAVU facing off against Cloud9 for the claim to 3rd and 4th place in the event, with fourth getting $50,000 and the winner claiming 3rd place and roughly a $100,000 payday, and we also have MIBR facing off against the MAD Lions, with a chance to secure a Grand Final spot, locked into at least $250,000 pay day as well. Both HAVU and MAD are favorites in their respective matches, and for good reason. HAVU have won four of their last five games, three of those came by 2-0, or winning first two maps. They are a very strong team, and Cloud9 had a bit of a struggle against a much more inferior team yesterday in Orgless. MAD Lions have steam-rolled teams lately, winning their last 5 contests all by 2-0 margins, however, MIBR is not to be just wrote-off. MIBR has faced some tougher opponents as of late, and have won four of their last five contests, with their only loss coming to a pretty damn good FURIA team. So, let’s get to some picks, shall we?
For reference the ANCHOR is my captain pick. Standard stacking in CS:GO goes either 3-3 (three from two separate teams) or 3-2-1 (three from one team, two from another, and a “one-off” from a third squad).
My favorite team and stack is going to be HAVU Gaming and like the following build:
ANCHOR: SloWi
Top stack: SloWi, ZOREE, Hoody/sAw (Doto is value if you want to go there)
If going with Cloud9 I would build it out as followed:
ANCHOR: MOTM or Floppy
Top stack: MOTM, Floppy, OSee
I truly think the MAD/MIBR game is a total toss-up and even with MAD having the favorite as a betting line, I still think MIBR takes this to three maps. So, stacking this game is fine, as there should be more kills, assists, etc.
MIBR Build
ANCHOR: Fallen
Top Stack: Fallen, Fer, kNgV
MAD Build
ANCHOR: Bubzkji
Top Stack: Bubzkji, sjuush, roeJ
Feel free to follow me on Twitter @smitchell17! Give me a shout if you want to discuss CS:GO! Thanks for reading!!