It comes as no surprise to fans of esports that most of the dominant teams in the scene hail from Europe, with the same being true for players. Europeans have such a tight grip on the CS2 space, with the rest of the world still playing catch up. But why is this so? It can’t be an issue of hardware or anything technical, so what could the reason be for this massive presence actually be?
If you were to look at the Counter-Strike world ranking, you would find the following teams making up the top 10 as of writing.
- Natus Vincere
- Vitality
- Spirit
- G2
- Mouz
- Faze
- Liquid
- pro
- SAW
- Eternal Fire
Just looking at the top 5 alone, you will immediately notice that all of the teams on the list are European. Further down the list, the only team that is not European in the entire top 10 is Faze, which has its headquarters in Los Angeles. In as much as we thought foreign teams had eventually closed the gap, this just goes to show that we still have a long way before European dominance becomes a thing of the past. To better understand the reason for this, let’s look at why CS2 is so popular in Europe in the first place.
Small barrier of entry
For a lot of people who initially got into Counter-Strike, they never had the best of the best hardware at the time and so had to make do. Luckily for them, before Counter-Strike 2, every other previous iteration of Counter-Strike never had very demanding requirements, making it very accessible from most people’s home computers. If you look at the history of most players, you will see this come up a lot, as they initially began with very basic hardware before pivoting to a career in CS.
Introduction at an early age
Another great reason behind the European dominance of CS is the fact that most people got introduced to the game at a very young age. If you look back at the history of a number of current pro players, one common thing you’ll hear is that they picked up Counter-Strike either from an older sibling or a parent who used to constantly play the game before quitting.
Larger potential for a career
One major reason for Counter-Strikes prevalence in Europe is the amount of opportunities available to players to etch out careers owing to Counter-Strikes massive popularity in the region. Unlike any other region in the world, Europe has created a very healthy community for CS2 through massive support in the form of consistent tournaments and high-profile events that are a perfect breeding ground for breakout stars.
Tactical appeal
Although being a general reason for Counter-Strike’s popularity, its tactical approach to gameplay is one of, if not its strongest, which Europeans seem to take a massive liking to. Unlike Call of Duty, Battlefield, or any military shooter out there, CS has a lot of stakes riding on every match with very deep gameplay mechanics and a strict system where death forces you to wait out an entire round, making it weightier.
Of course, these are just a few reasons for Counter-Strike’s prevalence in European markets and are nowhere near the actual number, but it helps give fans a brief understanding why Europeans currently dominate the CS space and may possibly continue to do so unless the Asian space has anything to say about it.