The time to take a look back at last week’s CS:GO going-ons is here again, and as always, we yet again had a fair share of tournaments wrapping up, new ones announced as well as the usual roster moves and announcements. Perhaps the most important bit of CS:GO news of last week was the announcement coming from ESL One New York, according to which, CS:GO will finally be added to this year’s edition of the prestigious event, joining games like Dota and LoL. Through its past editions, the ESL New York visited a number of iconic venues in the Big Apple, including Madison Square Garden. This year, it’ll take place in the Barclays Center, a venue capable of accommodating some 18k fans. The inaugural CS:GO ESL tournament will feature a prize-pool of $250k and there will be 8 teams competing, although an exact lineup is not yet known. The ESL New York is set to kick off on October 1.
In other news: Brazil’s Luminosity Gaming are quite unstoppable this year. They seem to have happened upon the winning formula and for the time being, no one is able to deny them. Their latest success came at the Dreamhack Zowie Austin, which they won, comfortably defeating their fellow countrymen Tempo Storm 2-0 in the finals. The two maps on which the finals’ hostilities unfolded were de_mirage and de_cobblestone. The first round went to Luminosity by a 16-8 margin, which was indeed wholly indicative of the difference in value and experience between the two sides. The second round produced a 7-2 score, leaving again no doubt about who deserved the title more.
In still other news: the North American CS:GO scene saw team compLexity replace their in-game leader, Josh “Shinobi” Abastado, with up-and-coming player Bradley “Androidx23” Fodor, who will doubtlessly inject some much-needed fresh blood into the roster. How he will work out as a leader remains to be seen, one thing is certain though: compLexity are quite delighted to have added him. They believe he has a bright future ahead and they hope he will be keen on taking full advantage of the opportunity they have offered him.
Lounge Gaming have decided to downsize their crew by getting rid of their CS:GO team, which they apparently could no longer financially support. The CSGL team was a rather successful one too, considered the second or third best in Poland. For the time being, the team will keep playing as CSGL in various European minors, after which they will begin looking for a new organization to take them under its wing.
In still other news: ESL is very serious about the Asian expansion of eSports. In an announcement made last week, they painted a rather pretty picture of their upcoming India Premiership, their first ever in the country, set to feature a $64k prize-pool, that will apparently leave all other Indian leagues in the dust. The said prize-pool won’t just go towards CS:GO though: it will also cover games like Hearthstone, Dota 2 and Just Dance – a new eSports entry.
Peter Wassenberg works for Gosugamers, the home of the best eSports coverage.