CSGO News
Valve's death penalty for gambling sites now also applies to Twitch streamers streaming gambling content as well under Twitch's ToS
Today Valve released an announcement clarifying the intended use of Steam’s trading system and OpenID API. Valve specifically notes that using “the OpenID API and making the same web calls as Steam users to run a gambling business is not allowed by our API nor our user agreements.”...
OPSkins' Official Statement Regarding Valve's Recent Trading Update
As our community is well aware, OPSkins is not and never has been a gambling website. Some recent media articles concerning the lawsuit against Valve Corporation alleging underage gambling with CS:GO skins have incorrectly labeled OPSkins as a gambling site. That is clearly not correct. OPSkins is a digital item marketplace – a platform that responsibly connects buyers with sellers of in-game virtual items.
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JW's brother & son of legendary Swedish artist to Godsents youth team
Yesterday Godsent announced their youth team and one of the players are Jesper "JW" Wecksells brother and the other is the son of the famous Swedish artist Per Gessle.
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CSGO Community
How I messed my life up not being able to control my addiction for CSGO - by mycsgostory
This post is for me, to remind me when to not go back to being the person that I use to be. This is going to be long. I made a new reddit account to post this because my other account is known to people in my life and I'm embarrassed about this whole situation. I don't even know how to start this, but for anybody whose bothering to read this who may also be going through the same thing, please don't make the same mistakes I made. I have led to a very dark path in my life that I now have to climb from.
First year of university. I made it. My brain turned off. I thought I had been through the hard part. I can finally sit back and relax. Go out, party with my friends and just chill. Yeah, nope. I started to play CSGO again, alot more this time. I started to get in to the gambling scene as well, I had a lot of money to spare so I could say I easily threw $2000 in to CSGOLounge just betting and learning the ins and outs of the competitive scene. I'd be the guy to watch every single CSGO tournament going on. I learned each team pretty well and was a fnatic fanboy, specifically Flusha. Unlike other people, I quickly learned that CSGO gambling was not worth it and shut myself down from it. This didn't stop me watching qualifiers and majors of the top teams. I admired the skills of each player and I suddenly wanted to become really good in CSGO. I started to watch streams and demos of famous players. I even went as far as going on ESEA and downloading pug star demos of players like Brehze, Android, Subroza, etc. I watched GeT_RiGhT, Krimz, Olofmeister and ESPECIALLY Flusha who I find to be an extremely intelligent player out of all the demos I did watch. I bought myself a subscription to DaZeD's NetcodeGuides and watched dozens of videos on tips and tricks of CSGO. I went on Youtube and watched Steel's guides as well. I remember watching Friberg's spray control video. I just couldn't stand myself being bad at the game, there was a competitive drive in me to be the best I could for whatever reason.
I had spent EASILY hundreds of hours on deathmatch servers and aim maps all within one year of university. I bought ESEA and went from a 8 RWS player to a 9 rws to a 10, to an 11, to a 13, maintaining 100 ADR. I went from 500 hours on CSGO to literally 2000 hours in my first year of university, hitting 200 hours every 2 weeks. I had a single room in my residence and even with all this going on, I made a lot of friends in my dorm, a lot that were really cool and people who I could really talk to. I'd have so many weekend nights of people drilling by my room trying to get me to party with them and have fun. Or people who would be concerned about my lack of studying and missing of all my lectures. I think I went to 2-3 lectures total the whole year out of my 10 classes. IT WAS NUTS. I remember wanting to come in to university learning a lot of cool things I've always wanted to learn and instead spent all my time on CSGO. I was 18, recently turned 19. I remember going to all my final exams, studying day before and somehow passing a lot of them, failing some of them. I was easily hitting the 50%-60% average, to my surprise to be honest. These classes were difficult. Nothing felt as shit as when I tried to code for assignments and exams - I felt I couldn't do anything, the logical end of my brain for code was just OFF. I felt pathetic, I lost my touch, my intellect.
The worst part was, I discovered that I was wasting so much time on CSGO, and for what? Aspirations of becoming a pro? No. I knew I was set on wanting to become a computer programmer, it was always what interested me. Always what I wanted to do. But it must have struck my mind, becoming a pro. How cool would that be, right? But I'm an idiot, I'm first year university, my parents, already in the WORST financial situation, busting their ass to put me in university and I'm what, SPENDING ALL THE FUCKING HOURS playing a video game and FOR WHAT...? It got even worse when I was accepted to the university CSGO team and we participated in two leagues. One of which I was in game leader and we made it to playoffs before going out. And another league which I was support and we made to playoffs before going out. This was when I really started to set off the amount of hours played. Before I knew it, I ended my first year of university, failing 4 courses. 2 of which were really important for me to continue. I was on risk of probation and I did everything in my power to keep this hidden from my parents. My parents were really loving, and whenever I called them, I had to lie to them each time telling them how university was going fine for me, that I was studying, that I was doing something with my life. They always told me how they were proud of me for making it this far and doing the best I could. They would always say that if it got too hard, not to feel any pressure, that I could always try again, and they would always keep me compensated in debt, even when they were at such a low point in money. I felt terrible about this, and always had short pathetic bursts of trying to quit CSGO, but I'd always get back to it. Always. Every single fucking time.
I am now in the process of taking summer school and my parents had to give up a huge business deal they had that could change their whole financial situation to pay for my summer school fees. I have literally nobody in my life right now because I distanced all of them. Every person that tried to comfort me or help me, or tried to get to know me, I've distanced all of them. I've disappointed all my professors who thought I was going to be a great student. My parents think I did bad first year because of the pressure that got to me, completely unaware of my addiction to CSGO, tell me that it's okay. That they'll help me get through it and pay for my summer school fees. I can't face them and tell them the truth; to disappoint my parents. I've disappointed myself especially. I am in the risk of getting kicked out of university and absolutely failing everything I've always wanted to do for myself. I cannot tell you how many people had tried to help me, all the great friends I made, all I basically told to fuck off. I honestly don't know what it was, I was always such an analytical and logical person, a healthy person. I am now diagnosed with a heart condition related to me gaining alot of weight through the year and other conditions, and all the stress followed by it afterwards - my parents don't know. I feel like a slob, I was always a fit guy, went to the gym, took care of my body. I'm disgusting. There are many people there doing well for themselves and have the self control that I didn't, to stop playing when you need to stop playing. I didn't have that self control and that cost me. That's why the only way to end this for myself is to quit CSGO or I won't have another opportunity to climb from this dark path I've created for myself.
tl;dr: Became addicted to CSGO, failed 4 of my 10 university courses, diagnosed with heart condition for unhealthy life style, distanced from any relationships I had and overall in the lowest point of my life right now.
EDIT: Hey guys, thanks so much for all the great feedback and response. It has honestly given me hope in being able to revitalize myself and to become a much better version of myself. I've decided to quit CSGO. It was a great run, great game. But unlike a lot of you guys, I'm the type of person that can only focus on things one at a time. I won't be able to play another game of CS without feeling that competitive drive to get better again, the same addiction. Instead, I'm hoping to divert my addiction for the strife of working harder in school and doing better for myself in health. Again, thanks for the kind comments - it really has helped.
Does this change make Valve hypocritical in the eyes of iBP? - by razebyte
One of Valve's recent statements that they have released is the following:
"Using the OpenID API and making the same web calls as Steam users to run a gambling business is not allowed by our API nor our user agreements."
Source: http://store.steampowered.com/news/22883/
This form of the rule has been in place for a while and I know because I am a developer myself and had read through their TOS about creating automated bots for my own purposes - which is illegal to do in accordance with Valve's rules.
As we know, CSGOLounge is a website that does match betting, and although some don't characterize match betting as gambling, it is a technique of gambling and is even emphasized under the US Law. Since CSGOLounge uses bots and such to run their business, they could possibly be under the crosshair of Valve. Now Valve specifically pointed out that these gambling sites don't bring in any revenue for them which is funny because they technically and indirectly do - this is the same for CSGOLounge, making it a viable asset that Valve clearly didn't mind keeping around. When drama and attention starts stirring up around the CSGO Gambling drama, Valve decide to finally make a stand.
Going back to the original iBuyPower ban post, Valve states:
"Professional players, their managers, and teams’ organization staff, should under no circumstances gamble on CS:GO matches, associate with high volume CS:GO gamblers, or deliver information to others that might influence their CS:GO bets."
Source: http://blog.counter-strike.net/index.php/2015/01/11261/
This statement implies that Valve clearly knew what CSGOLounge was categorized as (gambling), the very thing they are claiming they are completely against now and were. Valve made it clear they were disassociated with these gambling sites as well. It just makes them hypocritical in their statements and discredits any judgement they were allowed to make in this case. There definitely should have been a more open and public trial allowed for the iBP members and makes the severity of the punishment questionable and therefore revised. Now that all gambling sites are to cease operations, CSGOLounge SHOULD technically be part of this movement implying that no other teams can ever match-fix the same way it was done.
If CSGOLounge was not a legal Valve approved website to begin with and now that Valve has emphasized that gambling businesses can't be run using their API, which was already defined in their TOS in another form; does this not set some sort of precedent for the iBP players using the services of CSGOLounge?
The iBP players did a terrible thing but how does that come under jurisdiction of Valve's authority when the site that links them to the match fixing isn't even allowed to exist.
Regardless, the iBP players did THROW a match which does give Valve every right to serve some punishment, but is this verdict to the iBP player's punishment justifiable with all the outlined factors in mind and for a first encounter offence?
Note: I know absolutely nothing about how the law works with this sort of thing, which is why this thread is phrased as a question; can someone elaborate on this?
This is simply for intellectual curiosity for myself and for anyone thinking about this.
@EL brazilian streaming drops from 5,000/2,000 average viewers to 200 viewers - by Gabrielmvfx
A Brazilian caster mentioned one Tweet where a poll says that 79% of people are not watching the tournament anymore after SK drama changes and said that this is detrimental for eSports on Brazilian TV, which is streaming the tournament in the Brazilian channel "Esporte Interativo". He also said that the brazilian channel is using the tournament as a temperature gauge to know whether it is worth to broadcast next season or not.
ESL Cologne didn't have 14.000 spectators in the arena. Problem with current pin-system - by PABuzz
The majors, and its attendees had always had sole privilege to collecting the collectable pins. Or so was the plan, at least. Due to some flaws in the planning and the location of the shops, plenty of people without actual tickets for the major could stand in the line and buy the pins, with as result much longer lines than initially anticipated. This was incredibly unfair for the Counter-Strike fans who bought tickets, as they had to stand in the same 1-to-2-hour long line.
Things changed however, a couple of months before the ESL Cologne 2016 major, Valve announced the series 2 pins and the new method of collecting them. Instead of everyone being able to buy them (3 at a time), pins were now given away per ticket. Every attendee that showed their ticket at the entrance of the arena got a bracelet which granted passage to the venue. To collect the pin, one had to go to the shop and show their bracelet which would then be colored in (there were some ink removal issues with that as well but they sort of took care of that problem.). Everything seemed to have been taken care of, and it all looked like a great plan. The only thing Valve didn't think of was that pins are worth too much money, especially a newly released series, which instead of everyone being able to buy a few, only one was handed out per ticket. So of course some people had the brilliant idea of buying one or two extra lower tier tickets (€30) to claim an extra pin (€50 +). Which literally always nets you a profit. I have seen people standing at the end of the pin line willing to pay €50 for an unopened pack. They were literally following people to ask them for their pin. And of course if you were to open them and you got a bit lucky, you could easily sell them for over €100. So, it actually was a pretty smart business plan.
Now you might think that I'm talking about a few dozen tickets being used this way. But I actually met a guy who bought FUCKING 100 EXTRA LOWER TIER TICKETS... Like what the fuck. I actually saw him take a handful of approximately 20 green bracelets out of his backpack. The worst part was that I couldn't actually blame him. Even though it was a dick move by him, taking tickets away from possible spectators, it was all within the realm of smart and legal moneymaking.
So, obviously, this is something that valve and probably the other Major hosts (ESL, Dreamhack, MLG) should take a look at, because I can assure you that this will happen again if nothing is done about it. It results in smaller crowds, and people having to miss the event because the tickets will have been snatched away. Let me know what you guys think about this, and what could be a possible solution. I hope I have informed you all well enough and hope that you also see this as a big issue.
Prime MM has been great for me - by Gerbelelele
I stopped playing matchmaking some months ago, because of the constant shady <100 hours accounts and spinbotters. However I felt the level in MM was way higher than ESEA if you got matched up with clean teammates/enemies, and that results in more fun for me.
Luckily Valve introduced Prime MM and I have not seen any obvious hackers, althought my teammates are not always good. It is still much more fun to play MM now than 2 months earlier, especially with pre-mades. I've got my supreme rank back and it's fun to play against good enemies.
Thanks Valve!
CSGO Highlights
Gifs and Pic
It's a beautiful day
One of the first official shutdown statements I've seen
CSGO DOUBLE OWNER: Foobar will buy more skins if needed so that everyone can Withdraw skins
Sometimes this game makes me crazy....
Moses with hair?.... (2006)
SK's new team house
Picture taken on my phone from ESL Cologne, SK Gaming lifting the trophy!
Fuks has changed his nickname to Simon for ELEAGUE to avoid confusion
Teammate had to reconnect, but the BOT stayed, for 1 round it was 6v5
E-League's RpK vs Fuks graphic
koosta SAVED by turok (request by god bardolph)
Found this overlay in hammer, is this by chance hidden in the original map?
Videos
I have never been more tilted in my life
You mean these are finally going to go away?
Mantrousse Interviews The Public On The CS GO Gambling Ban
The Richard Lewis Show #18 w/ SirScoots
ELEAGUE Behind the Scenes - An ideal Observer's work station
Gambling for Kids Song by Hot Dad
Oversaturation vs Repetition of Content: Are People Getting Bored of the Same CS Event?
Great Fake/re-take smoke for Dust 2 B site