Oleksandr ‘S1mple’ Kostyliev, arguably one of the best CS:GO players in the world, was banned on October 30 for saying a Russian slur. The leading player of Natus Vincere's CS:GO squad, S1mple has been banned for aggressive behavior and the use of slurs before, as recently as July 30. Some fans are concerned that S1mple's fourth strike-out will put him at risk of incurring a permanent

The war in Ukraine continues to make a distinct impact on many industries across the spectrum, including the gaming sector. Over the course of 2022, companies ranging from Take-Two and Ubisoft to Sony have restricted Russia from its services with others like Riot Games, Microsoft, and Epic even going on to raise funds for Ukraine. In one of the latest developments, one community is reportedly utilizing a CS:GO map in an effort to reach the Russian masses to report on the present circumstances of the

However, this isn't the first time a Valve product or service was indirectly involved in the war efforts. It was recently reported that the Ukrainian military is using the Steam Deck to remotely control turrets . Here, the Steam Deck runs a custom UI that allows the operator to be up to 500 meters (1,640 feet) away from the turret. The custom version is reportedly capable of installing any anti-personnel or anti-tank weapon as w

This has been a big year for high-profile bans. Dozens of high profile accounts have been hit with temporary and permanent bans in 2020 for inappropriate behavior including the use of sexist, homophobic, and racist slurs. For example, the extremely popular German Twitch Partner and YouTuber MontanaBlack88 was banned for posting videos of himself harassing women last mo

In any case, even though the Finnish newspaper's de_voyna map was launched in line with World Press Freedom Day to reach the millions of Russians playing Counter-Strike , it's worth noting that Valve wasn't consulted prior to the community-made map going online. So it will be interesting to see how long the downloadable map will remain online, should the company take any act

The map creator, ZelezoBeton, notes that the map is not a perfect, 1:1 replica, but a specific transformation made with CS:GO in mind. The map requires the Trouble in Terrorist Town plugin to run, which is an alternate game mode where terrorist forces have secret traitors seeded in their ranks. Despite this requirement, the map supports the standard, classic multiplayer modes as well as other custom modes. The map will likely never be featured in official competitive play, but it seems to stack up solidly against CS:GO 's official roster of ma

Valve, the developers of the iconic and long-running first-person shooter game, Counter-Strike 2 weapons|https://counterstrike2zone.com/: Global Offensive , has revealed that the upcoming Paris Major 2023 will be the final Major Championship event ever held on the current version of the game, signaling the end of an era and the start of a new one as Valve moves forward with the development of its highly anticipated successor Counter-Strike 2 . This news has sparked a mix of emotions in the CS:GO community, ranging from excitement for the future to nostalgia.For those who may not know, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Majors are some of the most highly anticipated events in the competitive gaming scene. These tournaments bring together the best players and teams from around the world to battle it out for the championship title and a share of the massive prize pool. The tournaments feature intense gameplay, high-level strategies, and stunning displays of skill, making for an exciting viewing experience. RELATED: Counter Strike 2 Beta Files Leaked Online According to Valve, the upcoming Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Paris Major 2023 will be held at the Accor Arena in Paris from May 8 to May 21, 2023. With a prize pool of $1.25 million, this event promises to be an exciting and highly competitive gathering for CS:GO enthusiasts worldwide. In addition, Valve announced that the following major event will take place in March 2024 and will be the first in the new version of the game, Counter-Strike

Counter-Strike players have often found creative means of using the game's community map aspect with some CS:GO players recreating popular locations from franchises like The Witcher . Now, a Finnish newspaper called Helsingin Sanomat is using the same feature to share details about the war in Ukraine among Russian gamers owing to the title's popularity within the community. A custom-made map dubbed "de_voyna," a fictionalized Slavic city, was released today that aims to echo some of the cities that have been destroyed over the course of the war. More interestingly, the map contains images and voice recordings captured by the newspaper's journalists on the ground situation, all of which players can interact with in-g

A new CS:GO patch details the removal of bots that would otherwise replace players who are disconnected or kicked out of "classic competitive and wingman modes." Whenever an entire team leaves any given match, they will now be replaced by a single bot that idles in the team's original spawn location. However, they still appear in Warmup arenas, as patch notes posted to the official Counter-Strike Blog outline a fix to bot navigation in this part of the g