Counter-Strike 2 has one of the most active scenes of all esports. You have teams playing tournaments every week. On top of that, Valve updates the game a couple of times each month.
Our CS2 section covers everything you need to know about the game and its esports scene all in one place: the latest news, patch notes, insightful guides, pro tricks and roster changes.
Counter-Strike 2 is among the most popular competitive games in the world today, upholding a tradition first set by the release of the original Counter-Strike in 1999. What started as a community-made modification for another game entirely has become one of the best-known franchises in all of gaming, with a particular footprint in the world of esports.
Even though CS2 was released in late 2023, the game follows the same principles of the Half-Life mod created by Minh “Gooseman” Le and Jess Cliffe in 1999. CS2’s most popular mode is bomb-defusal, and it splits 10 players between Terrorists and Counter-Terrorists.
The objective of the Terrorists is to plant the bomb in one of the two bomb sites of the map, or eliminate all the Counter-Terrorists, round after round. As for the Counter-Terrorists, they must defend the bomb sites and prevent the bomb from getting planted. Their win condition is to eliminate every Terrorist, avoid the bomb from being planted, or defuse it in time.
The players switch teams after 12 rounds, and whoever gets to 13 points first wins the game. If the match ties 12-12, it goes to overtime until a team manages to win four out of six rounds in OT.
In CS2 matchmaking, there’s only one overtime, and the game ends if the scoreboard is tied 15-15. In professional matches, the teams keep playing until one of them win four rounds.
There are plenty of official and community-made maps in CS2, however the official map pool features only seven maps. Valve generally changes the map rotation twice a year, after the Majors. The current map pool consists of Mirage, Inferno, Nuke, Dust 2, Ancient, Overpass, and Train.
The CS2 scene is packed with tournaments. The best teams in the world play a different tournament nearly every week, and so do the tier-two or tier-three teams.
Anyone can organize a CS2 tournament, but for it to be ranked and count points to the Valve Regional Standings (VRS), it must follow Valve’s Tournament Operations Requirements (TOR).
The tier-one tournaments are more than often played on a LAN setting, and their playoffs are often played in a big venue or arena. Tier-two or tier-three tournaments, on the other hand, tend to be played online as a way to minimize costs, since they don’t draw as many viewers. But there are exceptions like Fragadelphia events, for example.
Most events are fully run by third-party organizers such as ESL, BLAST, and PGL. But two tournaments per year are directly sponsored by Valve. Those are called the Majors, and they’re the most prestigious of all CS2 tournaments. Betting on Counter-Strike 2 esports match outcomes and players props makes up a large portion of the global esports betting handle.
Counter-Strike Majors currently feature 32 teams. The invites are defined by the VRS rankings ahead of the tournament. Each region — Europe, Americas, and Asia — have a determined number of slots, which change every Major based on how the regions perform.
What makes the Majors special is the fact that every team and player attending gets their logo and autograph, respectively, added to the game. Valve keeps 50% of the revenue from each sticker capsule, and the remaining goes to participating teams and players.
The sticker sales are very lucrative, so teams invest a lot to try to qualify for the Majors. And, depending on where the team is based, it can be life-changing money for the players.
This itself already makes the Majors more important than any other CS2 tournaments, but it’s not all. On top of everything, the players who get top eight earn themselves an in-game trophy that celebrates this achievement. This trophy is sent to all quarterfinalists, semifinalists, runners-up, and winners.
Because there are lots of tournaments and several good teams, the list of the top Counter-strike pro teams is always changing. They also tend to change after significant game updates or when Valve adds a new map to the rotation, too.
However, we have at list of the current best CS2 teams in the world here at Jaxon. Our list is updated regularly, based on the latest developments of the biggest tournaments.
Some of the best CS2 players in the world are undoubtedly Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut, Danil “donk” Kryshkovets, Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov, and Robin “ropz” Kool. They’re by far the most accomplished and influential players in CS2 so far.
Though the list of best CS2 players is less volatile, as the top players perform well regardless of how their team does, it may vary across the year. Likewise, here at Jaxon, we have a list of the best CS2 players that is regularly updated.
Pro players are hands-down some of the best people to configure CS2. They know the best commands, video options, and you can also find out cool stuff like their mouse sensitivity, mouse DPI, and crosshair. At Jaxon.gg find all the latest CS2 pro settings.
Besides all the CS2 tournaments, which are streamed across Twitch, YouTube, and Kick, there are also plenty of top CS2 streamers who co-stream events or simply their own games.
The big streamers also cover tournaments on-site, from time to time, bringing unique content and more laid-back interviews directly from the arena.
Find the latest news and the best guides for CS2 on Jaxon.GG. We cover the game from front to back, whether it’s the results of the latest competitive tournaments, guidance for how best to play the game’s newest maps, or the advice you need on how best to take advantage of the latest patch. If you’re looking for CS2 updates today, we’ve got it covered.
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