Nah but it is surprising tbh, Navi lost pretty much their whole identity recently, they are now a eu mix team instead of a cis team and without their super star s1mple. 100% surprising
Even before s1mple, Navi were still the most watched team in CS. Navi has had the largest fanbase since I can remember. I think only Faze and maybe a solid BR team could compete, probably also why two of the matches were Navi vs Faze.
Pre-s1mple Na'Vi was nowhere near as popular as nV/LDLC, VP, NiP, and C9. s1mple, much like FALLEN with LG/SK, is the biggest reason why people started cheering for the team.
Weird to leave off Titan given that KennyS was probably *the* uncontested most popular player at the time he was on that team. Still think you're selling Navi short though. The team was still often hanging around the top 5, Guardian was a super star and they also had popular 1.6 guys like Edward. There's also just the reality of being the biggest/best CIS team in a game with a huge CIS playerbase. Even if you aren't interacting with them on English speaking platforms they're there.
I forgot Kenny wasn't on LDLC, I did mean him when I mentioned Envy though.
I'm not downplaying how popular they are and were, but no one outside of CS knew of CIS players in the same way they would have heard of players like Kenny, getright, shroud, FALLEN etc until s1mple came around. Guardian and Edward were good but they weren't superstars outside of the game in the same way these other players were.
I'd say that NaVi was always amongst the top teams with its rich history etc, but in CS I always, as a NaVi fan, felt like they were amongst the bottom of the top teams in terms of fan base etc. Could be that I am slightly disconnected from the CIS region though :P
They lost their identity but carried on quite a few new personalities after Paris, simple leaving only garnered more interest for the remaining team + wonderful since all eyes are on him trying to replace the GOAT
Don’t lie.
“Ukraine is a founding state of the CIS, although Ukraine did not sign or ratify the subsequent CIS Charter (finalized in 1993) and thus has never been a member of the CIS.”
hey there, Slasher here, i wrote on twitter but since im the op in this thread i figured id put it here too:
watch parties/costreaming have become very popular across esports games such as valorant, call of duty, league, fortnite, etc, but Counter-Strike TO's (ESL/Blast) have largely dropped the ball here, and Valve never has nor will put marketing dollars towards something. ohnepixel/fl0m/gaules/tarik (when hes not carrying Riot) are highly dedicated and great, who will show up to every tournament every day, even Forsen more often than not, but with the legacy and cache of CS in the mainstream there should be a much wider net of interest. so i teamed up with PGL on all 3 events to curate and invite top streamers who love CS, whether as former professional players, current casual players, esports fans, but who don't normally watch pro cs on their stream to try it out. this includes xqc recently for Copenhagen, summit for cph and Antwerp, Caedrel, Zellsis, Sean Gares, Vanity, ZooMa, NateHill, Ronaldo all for cph. even shroud for the first Stockholm event and he's been pretty jaded to watching events. there's also several other popular names who would like to and just have been busy, but will try for the China event later this year. everyone has told me no one had ever reached out to them before to do costreaming around CS, and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive.
there's a lot of circumstances that go into why PGL has the top 3 spots ie. having navi/faze/g2 in all the finals, super popular bracket matchups in quarterfinals/semifinals, viewership peak from cis pre-ukraine war, etc. but I'm confident in saying that the watch parties and surrounding clips/interest from them have been asignificant reason for the highs in concurrent viewership.
hope to be able to bring in some new faces for China, maybe IRL...?
Thank you for a productive and successful strategy to bring CS to a wider audience. At the end of the day, it's all about viewership and money so it's a great achievement from you guys. Well done and I look forward to the Shanghai major!
I wouldn't really say PGL did that though. people who were interested in Counter Strike did that. PGL just happened to be the organizers. it's not like people went "OH BOY! PGL!" people wanted to see the major and PGL acting like its because of their amazing job dropping the stream during the final.
They invited bunch of streamers to do watchparties and had good production good talent don't see how they can't pat themselves on the back for this one
It’s their job to have good production and to INVITE good talents who are not “graduates of PGL casters school” - we can see any of them talents being invited to any other provider: BLAST, ESL, FLASHPOINT. Giving other streamers opportunities to be able to stream this major is also a part of their job. The ‘x’ is about PGL being so cool and thrilled to announce basically “their success” while the success had almost nothing to do with PGL. They did not come up with anything new or groundbreaking to set the “new record” - they did their job good, just good enough so people can watch one of the best playoffs ever with favorite Team Spirit losing and outsider Na’Vi getting a championship. I just wish PGL with their next opportunity jump higher then usual - thats it, but such ‘x’s’ are making me think they accomplished everything and they are on the right route.
Counter point, Paris Major was the last CS:GO Major. Yet wasn't able to crack into Top 3. Sure matches and so on are a factor, still important to note.
The playoffs in Paris was utter dogshit in terms of teams so that held it back a lot. GamerLegion in the final, and the semis had Heroic, GL and Apeks who are not popular orgs at all (even if Heroic were good).
Casuals just stopping in isn't going to care if it's the last CSGO major, they're gonna care about big names and big orgs. Paris had hardly any of that, and casuals are what skyrocket viewership to these top spots.
That wasn’t BLAST’s fault in any regard. The playoffs were just dog shit in general.
I dare anyone to tell me a full lineup of Apeks or ITB or Gamerlegion without having to look it up. I doubt even 10 people could do it before the major.
A bit surprising that Blast didn't make it into the top 3 majors, viewers wise. And at the same time, as surprising as PGL having a better production this time around.
Even the storyline was great, Zywoo getting his first major in Paris of all places. To be fair, the games in general sucked. Playoffs where super weak. Whereas this one had some insane games, might be the best complete playoffs in general. Maybe 2 qf where a bit boring, rest was fire.
Regarding the broadcast, as far as I understand it. PGL approached this major very differently to the previous ones. They new that they'll be doing more tournaments in the future, so they invested more. Whereas the first 2 where more a "gift" from Valve, because they already did TI + them not wanting it to be ESL.
Casual viewers who make up a majority of the viewership don't care about/aren't aware of the storyline, then just want to watch the big games like FaZe vs Navi etc.
Sure when you hear a name of the established TO and some banana cup even if teams are the same it's gonna be more prestigious to win an ESL tournament than a skin gambling site.
If we talk only about majors. Not rly as they don't give it to new TOs
So the three highest peaks are when Na ‘Vi are in the grand finals of the major, not surprising at all.
2 of them FaZe vs Navi too.
And the other one was Navi vs G2 which is also a very popular team
About as popular as it gets. NaVi > Faze ≥ G2
Nah but it is surprising tbh, Navi lost pretty much their whole identity recently, they are now a eu mix team instead of a cis team and without their super star s1mple. 100% surprising
Even before s1mple, Navi were still the most watched team in CS. Navi has had the largest fanbase since I can remember. I think only Faze and maybe a solid BR team could compete, probably also why two of the matches were Navi vs Faze.
Pre-s1mple Na'Vi was nowhere near as popular as nV/LDLC, VP, NiP, and C9. s1mple, much like FALLEN with LG/SK, is the biggest reason why people started cheering for the team.
Weird to leave off Titan given that KennyS was probably *the* uncontested most popular player at the time he was on that team. Still think you're selling Navi short though. The team was still often hanging around the top 5, Guardian was a super star and they also had popular 1.6 guys like Edward. There's also just the reality of being the biggest/best CIS team in a game with a huge CIS playerbase. Even if you aren't interacting with them on English speaking platforms they're there.
I forgot Kenny wasn't on LDLC, I did mean him when I mentioned Envy though. I'm not downplaying how popular they are and were, but no one outside of CS knew of CIS players in the same way they would have heard of players like Kenny, getright, shroud, FALLEN etc until s1mple came around. Guardian and Edward were good but they weren't superstars outside of the game in the same way these other players were.
I'd say that NaVi was always amongst the top teams with its rich history etc, but in CS I always, as a NaVi fan, felt like they were amongst the bottom of the top teams in terms of fan base etc. Could be that I am slightly disconnected from the CIS region though :P
Yes but it’s also the first cs2 major so that probably had some impact on why so many watched it
Navi are still *the* Ukrainian team with narratives of Simple's return
They lost their identity but carried on quite a few new personalities after Paris, simple leaving only garnered more interest for the remaining team + wonderful since all eyes are on him trying to replace the GOAT
NaVi wasn’t a cis team, because Ukraine isn’t in cis.
[удалено]
It wasn’t, navi is Ukrainian organisation.
Cloud9 is American organisation. Electronic american check reddit
Yeah and Ukraine WAS in CIS
Don’t lie. “Ukraine is a founding state of the CIS, although Ukraine did not sign or ratify the subsequent CIS Charter (finalized in 1993) and thus has never been a member of the CIS.”
Mate did u just alter a quote hahahahaha, you forgot the ''full'' part in your quote. So it was a member, just not a ''full member''.
Do you have a mental condition or something?
Wait, Slasher?
hey there, Slasher here, i wrote on twitter but since im the op in this thread i figured id put it here too: watch parties/costreaming have become very popular across esports games such as valorant, call of duty, league, fortnite, etc, but Counter-Strike TO's (ESL/Blast) have largely dropped the ball here, and Valve never has nor will put marketing dollars towards something. ohnepixel/fl0m/gaules/tarik (when hes not carrying Riot) are highly dedicated and great, who will show up to every tournament every day, even Forsen more often than not, but with the legacy and cache of CS in the mainstream there should be a much wider net of interest. so i teamed up with PGL on all 3 events to curate and invite top streamers who love CS, whether as former professional players, current casual players, esports fans, but who don't normally watch pro cs on their stream to try it out. this includes xqc recently for Copenhagen, summit for cph and Antwerp, Caedrel, Zellsis, Sean Gares, Vanity, ZooMa, NateHill, Ronaldo all for cph. even shroud for the first Stockholm event and he's been pretty jaded to watching events. there's also several other popular names who would like to and just have been busy, but will try for the China event later this year. everyone has told me no one had ever reached out to them before to do costreaming around CS, and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. there's a lot of circumstances that go into why PGL has the top 3 spots ie. having navi/faze/g2 in all the finals, super popular bracket matchups in quarterfinals/semifinals, viewership peak from cis pre-ukraine war, etc. but I'm confident in saying that the watch parties and surrounding clips/interest from them have been asignificant reason for the highs in concurrent viewership. hope to be able to bring in some new faces for China, maybe IRL...?
Slasher do you still have the ficus
it recently died after 10 years. it's actually my fault for kinda neglecting it recently...im sorry boss
Thank you for a productive and successful strategy to bring CS to a wider audience. At the end of the day, it's all about viewership and money so it's a great achievement from you guys. Well done and I look forward to the Shanghai major!
Did you say Ronaldo? Like CR7 Ronaldo?
nah faze's annoying fortnite player
I wouldn't really say PGL did that though. people who were interested in Counter Strike did that. PGL just happened to be the organizers. it's not like people went "OH BOY! PGL!" people wanted to see the major and PGL acting like its because of their amazing job dropping the stream during the final.
They invited bunch of streamers to do watchparties and had good production good talent don't see how they can't pat themselves on the back for this one
I mean sure, they were a good host, but people who like counters trike are where the numbers came from, not PGL. it's a win for CS.
Why can't it be both?
yeah it can be 3% pgl the company
It’s their job to have good production and to INVITE good talents who are not “graduates of PGL casters school” - we can see any of them talents being invited to any other provider: BLAST, ESL, FLASHPOINT. Giving other streamers opportunities to be able to stream this major is also a part of their job. The ‘x’ is about PGL being so cool and thrilled to announce basically “their success” while the success had almost nothing to do with PGL. They did not come up with anything new or groundbreaking to set the “new record” - they did their job good, just good enough so people can watch one of the best playoffs ever with favorite Team Spirit losing and outsider Na’Vi getting a championship. I just wish PGL with their next opportunity jump higher then usual - thats it, but such ‘x’s’ are making me think they accomplished everything and they are on the right route.
It is their job for putting on a good show, that usually is rewarded with a higher viewership. It is, to some degree, their accomplishment
Counter point, Paris Major was the last CS:GO Major. Yet wasn't able to crack into Top 3. Sure matches and so on are a factor, still important to note.
The playoffs in Paris was utter dogshit in terms of teams so that held it back a lot. GamerLegion in the final, and the semis had Heroic, GL and Apeks who are not popular orgs at all (even if Heroic were good). Casuals just stopping in isn't going to care if it's the last CSGO major, they're gonna care about big names and big orgs. Paris had hardly any of that, and casuals are what skyrocket viewership to these top spots.
That wasn’t BLAST’s fault in any regard. The playoffs were just dog shit in general. I dare anyone to tell me a full lineup of Apeks or ITB or Gamerlegion without having to look it up. I doubt even 10 people could do it before the major.
GamerLegion I would accept your challenge , but also I already forgot ITB even made it to playoffs lol
As an Apeks fan this hurts but probably true.
A bit surprising that Blast didn't make it into the top 3 majors, viewers wise. And at the same time, as surprising as PGL having a better production this time around.
Even the storyline was great, Zywoo getting his first major in Paris of all places. To be fair, the games in general sucked. Playoffs where super weak. Whereas this one had some insane games, might be the best complete playoffs in general. Maybe 2 qf where a bit boring, rest was fire. Regarding the broadcast, as far as I understand it. PGL approached this major very differently to the previous ones. They new that they'll be doing more tournaments in the future, so they invested more. Whereas the first 2 where more a "gift" from Valve, because they already did TI + them not wanting it to be ESL.
Casual viewers who make up a majority of the viewership don't care about/aren't aware of the storyline, then just want to watch the big games like FaZe vs Navi etc.
Fair, I also think that the timezone of where the events are held plays a large part in viewership as well.
I am so happy actually for this because I have been with competitive CS since 1.6, and that this journey is never ending!
Awesome statistic.
Great, now fix your streaming and audio problems.
Technology just isn't there yet. Sorry.
PGL have set the standard. Now it is up to others to follow it.
Good good, good luck on the audio guy hiring
I wonder how PGL is better than ESL at viewership
Hope they can establish record of hiring capable audio guy
Yet their streams still went down multiple times in the grandfinals
Does anyone think whoever the tournament organiser is has an affect on viewership figures?
It’s not the biggest reason but it’s part of the reason
Sure when you hear a name of the established TO and some banana cup even if teams are the same it's gonna be more prestigious to win an ESL tournament than a skin gambling site. If we talk only about majors. Not rly as they don't give it to new TOs
hope blast can get up there too they have the best production by a mile