Will CS2 be included in the 2025 Esports Olympics?

With the Esports Olympics set to officially start next year, CS2 players will want to know if their game of choice will be included.

The International Olympic Committee decided to create what it’s calling the Olympic Esports Games on July 23. The event is scheduled to debut in 2025 in Saudi Arabia, which is hosting the currently ongoing Esports World Cup. The game selection is not confirmed, though the IOC is certainly spoilt for choice as there are plenty of major esports titles that have dedicated competitive scenes, from Street Fighter 6 to League of Legends. However, few esports can claim the rich heritage and international popularity of Counter-Strike.

The IOC has already revealed if CS2 will appear at the inaugural Esports Olympics, and the answer is sadly disappointing.

Will CS2 appear at the Esports Olympics?

No, CS2 will not appear at the 2025 Olympic Esports Games.

This is according to a statement the IOC made in July 2023. At the time, it had organized an Olympic Esports Week in Singapore as a prototype for an official event. It explicitly banned certain games from ever appearing at future prospective Olympic esports events. According to The Jarkata Post, IOC head of esports Vincent Pereira claimed that the IOC would not host first-person shooters for any Olympic events.

“First-person shooting, for us, will never be part of Olympic Esports because it’s not reflecting the values that we have,” explained Pereira, pointing out how first-person shooters typically involve killing people, be it with guns or physical violence,” said Pereira.

CS2’s genre as a tactical first-person shooter effectively disbars it from appearing at any official Olympics esports competition. This isn’t the end of the world, though, since the aforementioned Esports World Cup did run a CS2 tournament earlier this month. The IOC could also change its mind in the future and host games featuring violent content. The committee is happy to welcome combat sports such as boxing and martial arts.

Which country is the best at CS2?

Should the IOC ever allow CS2 at the Esports Olympics, Russia and Denmark would be the two countries with the best shot at winning gold.

According to Valve’s own rankings, Russian squad Team Spirit is the top CS2 team at the moment, though several European teams are also performing well such as Danish team Astralis. Both countries field plenty of players in international rosters.

During the recent CS2 tournament for the Esports World Cup, the winning team wound up being Ukraine organization Natus Vincere, which pushed it to the top of the HLTV rankings. G2 Esports, which fields two Bosnian players, earned second while international team MOUZ and Russian roster Virtus.pro flanked it on the podium.