Top moments from the Indian Counter-Strike scene - 2024

As 2024 comes to an end, it also marks the end of a tumultuous and turbulent year for Indian Counter-Strike community, which had its fair share of ups and downs. While there were some high highs, the lows were pretty bad as well and the year rounded out with lack of investments once again.

To sign off the year, we take a look at the major moments in the Indian Counter-Strike scene from 2024.

A promise and hope to start off with

The year, 2024, started with a lot of promise for India. We had a host of organisation with CS2 rosters including the likes of Gods Reign, Marcos Gaming, True Rippers, Carnival Gaming, 2EZ Gaming and Grayfox Esports. With multiple organisations willing to invest in the scene, it had given the players a sense of security about their future with the title and also painted a picture for the young players that there can be a future for them in the title.

With orgs investing, multiple tournament organisers also took an initiative to host events, which was directly related to organisations willing to enter the sport. Skyesports laid out a six-event plan for 2025, BLAST entered the Indian scene, hosting The Draft Season 1, which was an India-Pakistan series held in Malaysia.

Inches away from a Major milestone

2024 also saw the first-ever CS2 Major take place, which was the PGL CS2 Major Copenhagen 2024. It was also a decade since an Indian team was at a Counter-Strike Major (ESL One Cologne 2014) and the Indian teams were back at it, grinding it out to make the Major.

Gods Reign and 2EZ Gaming, were two of the big names, who had a stellar run in the PGL CS2 Major Copenhagen 2024 Asia RMR Open Qualifier, with Gods Reign topping the Open Qualifier, dropping just one map and 2EZ Gaming also moved into the Closed Qualifier with Gods Reign.

Gods Reign started the Copenhagen Major 2024Asia RMR Closed Qualifier with a dominant win over RESILIENCE and held on against SR Nacague to move into the Asia RMR Closed Qualifier upper bracket final. An agonising 11-13 loss to MAG saw them drop to the Consolidation Final, where they controversially lost to Trouble makers, who eventually went on to qualify for the Asia RMR. 2EZ Gaming on the other hand exited in the lower bracket round 1 but for Gods Reign, they finished the Asia RMR Closed Qualifier in 3rd Place, putting up strong performances and making the APAC region once again take note of them.

The second Major of the year was a historic one, especially for Asia, as Counter-Strike came to Asia for the very first time to host a Major, which was held in Shanghai, China. Regularly grinding it out in ECL and ESEA Leagues meant that Gods Reign and True Rippers both got direct invites to the Shanghai Major 2024 Asia RMR Closed Qualifier, while a mixed Indian team, Niory, also qualified.

Gods Reign started the RMR Closed Qualifier once again in dominant fashion, running through ONi and Forward to move into the upper bracket final against BnTeT and XigN's Alter Ego. Alter Ego demolished the Indian team 13-1 to drop them to the lower bracket.

True Rippers on the other hand went down to Niory in their opening game, before taking down DEWA United and ONi in the lower bracket to set up a date with Gods Reign in the Consolidation Final. Gods Reign eliminated their fellow country-men to set up a rematch against Alter Ego in the Asia RMR Closed Qualifier Grand Final but it was Alter Ego once again brushing aside Gods Reign at the final hurdle, taking a comfortable 2-0 win to qualify for the Asia RMR.

While the Indian teams did not make the Asia RMRs for either Major, both times they came inches close to making it.

Marcos Gaming creates history

The start of 2024 also saw prominent tournament organiser BLAST enter the Asian scene, particularly the sub-continent as they announced The Draft, which was an India-Pakistan $50,000 tournament. The tournament started with Group Stages in India and Pakistan with the top three teams from both countries booking a LAN finals spot, which was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Each of the teams were given a Counter-Strike legend in their team to spice up things. India had Gods Reign, True Rippers and Marcos Gaming represent the country while Pak Boyz, WahWah and Come Mid were the Pakistani representatives.

Gods Reign, Marcos Gaming both started with wins but Gods Reign went down to True Rippers in the upper bracket semi-final while Marcos Gaming went flawless into the upper bracket final, without dropping a single map across the opening two BO3s.

Gods Reign were eliminated in the lower bracket semi-final by Pak Boyz, while True Rippers were the first to make the Grand Finals, taking down Marcos Gaming in the upper bracket final. Marcos fought back in style against Pak Boyz through the Consolidation Final before shox stepped up in the BO5 final for Marcos to see them deny True Rippers a comeback from being 0-2 down to hand them the title.

Marcos Gaming's triumph at The Draft also meant they became the first Indian team to win a LAN internationally and Bhavi created history, leading his squad to international glory. The result in Kuala Lumpur helped Bhavi and R2B2 get picked up by Gods Reign shortly after.

Gods Reign's international triumph

Gods Reign might have had a horror run at BLAST's The Draft in Malaysia, following acquisition of Bhavi, reV3nnnn and R2B2, the team found their footing as they qualified as the Indian representatives at the Skyesports Grand Slam 2024 event, which was a LAN tournament held in Pune, India with teams such as Aurora, Bad News Kangaroos and GRDX.

Gods Reign started the LAN final with a 2-0 win against Indonesia's GRDX but dropped to the Lower Bracket after a loss to Aurora. In the Consolidation Final, the Indian team faced Bad News Kangaroos boasting of current TALON players such as hazr and ADDICT and former Enigma Gaming player yourwombat. The match looked all but over after Bad News Kangaroos smashed Gods Reign 13-1 on their pick of Nuke but f1redup led the fight back for the Indian team on Anubis, where Gods Reign picked up a dominant 13-8 win before closing out the series with a stunning 13-9 win on Inferno, which saw Gods Reign reverse sweep the Australian team 2-1 to make the Grand Final.

Although they fell to Aurora in the Grand Final, Gods Reign's win against Bad News Kangaroos showed that the Indian team was not to be taken lightly and are serious contenders in the APAC region.

The butt of all the jokes at the international platform (once again)

Amongst the six announced LAN events from Skyesports, Skyesports Championship 2024, was the third LAN event on their calendar and third event they hosted in the year after the Skyesports Grand Slam 2024 and Skyesports Masters 2024 (which was held online).

Taking place in Mumbai, the event saw mixed reactions initially as the teams landed with the likes of The MongolZ, Eternal Fire, ENCE, BLEED etc. taking part in the event. It was disastrous opening day for the Indian tournament organiser as issues with electricity and internet hit the event, which saw the Day 1 games being rescheduled. Things got from bad to worse as BetBoom, one of the participants, withdrew from the event after the opening day itself, stating that the tournament 'did not have a level playing field for all teams'.

Eternal Fire's star rifler XANTARES also highlighted the poor logistical conditions at the event. After a horrendous opening day, BLEED's coach kassad revealed that the 11 remaining teams decided to play on as Skyesports resolved the opening day issues.

The remainder of the tournament went on without any major hiccups which saw 3DMAX take down favourites The MongolZ in the Grand Final to take home a prize money of $120,000 while Indian representatives, True Rippers, who almost shocked The MongolZ in their opening game, finished last after losing all of their 5 matches.

While barring the opening day, there wasn't any big issues, the magnitude of the mess created on Day 1 of the Skyesports Championship 2024 once again put a negative light on the Indian Counter-Strike globally, as people ridiculed and called out the country for its inability to host a Tier-1 event.

A cold winter

While 2024 started with promise and hope for the Indian Counter-Strike community, it was a sorry and sad end to the year, given the lack of investors in the country.

The year which started with six organisation in the scene (Gods Reign, Marcos Gaming, True Rippers, Enigma Gaming, Grayfox Esports and 2EZ Gaming) and multiple tournament organisers (Skyesports, Nodwin Gaming, Esportz.in etc.) saw almost all investors including organisations and organisers drop or move away from the title.

Marcos Gaming, who had a historic win at Malaysia at BLAST's The Draft, had a controversial small stint and dropped their roster while Grayfox Esports exited the scene quietly, leaving their players hanging while True Rippers, one of the mainstays in the scene, have temporarily closed their Counter-Strike division.

Amongst the organisers, while Esportz.in held the Grand Final of their Esportz Premier Series 2023 in January 2024 and Nodwin took care of BLAST's The Draft, not even one tournament organiser took the initiative of building a circuit barring Skyesports. Skyesports had announced a total of six events across 2024 but they ended up hosting just three and did not provide any official reason or acknowledge not hosting the remaining three (Skyesports Souvenir, Skyesports Global Tour and Skyesports INDIA - PAKSITAN Series).

The organiser has a total of 4 events lined up for 2025, three of them being Tier-1 while one is Tier-2. There is no other confirmed tournaments for the Indian scene with there being only two organisation who have a Counter-Strike team (Gods Reign and VICTORES SUMUS).

What started as a promising year, looking to revive Counter-Strike in India, ends with a whimper as those who gave the hope to the players and fans took it back as well, pulling out from their investments in the scene, leaving the players high and dry.