So Valve wanted to make CS grow in NA

http://blog.counter-strike.net/index.php/2015/01/11261/

Yeah...

It's Valve's fault, with their marketing model and gambling setup... the game definitely doesn't need that!

They're not VAC banned (yet?), but it's pretty much game over for those players...

They were in cahoots with the manager of the team they were playing against, and with a well-known gambler and skin trader of Vietnamese origin...

So swag, steel and dazed are toast... (AZK was obviously also guilty, which is something I have to say I found surprising, I hadn't expected that)... on top of that C9 is a hopeless mess... Hiko was right to leave, but he won't be able to count on steel and swag any longer to rebuild the NA CS scene... so for the time being, CS is yet again an all-Euro thing, while everybody has to wait for the next generation of NA CS players to get to a decent level...

I hope a big enough sponsor gives carte blanche to Hiko to make a new NA all-star team. It's just not good for the game to have all those big NA tournaments won by Euro invites, even if they invite only one Euro team, they know it's going to win. MLG Aspen, invite only, all NA teams except two Euro teams, guess who played the final, and guess who won? It's just not good for the game, and the game desperately needs an NA scene. All that NA MLG CS players seem to do (except for the female CS players maybe, but there's not the same level of marketing dollars involved in the female NA CS MLG scene) is open boxes on twitch and cash in donations and do marketing gigs for Intel and Microsoft... that's why they are not at the same level as the Euro CS players, they're not in it for the game, they're in it for the money...

So sad, much shameful!

This is why I pretty much quit CS. Even the non-pro comp scene sucks fucksack.

The entire CS system is broken in too many ways to count. Skin trading needs to be completely removed imo, but Valve will never do that.

Hey, eSports has now become a legitimate sport! Celebration! We finally have our own gambling scandal, fuck you baseball!

I'm glad I'm not the only one who instantly thought of Pete Rose.

As an American counter strike fan this is horribly saddening. Titan is my favorite EU team and that is kind of disgraced after KQLY and now the US scene is in shambles. GG Valve I'm about to tap out. 

Come play TF2, we have hats.

I think crates might actually be worse then Pre-Orders. I knew as soon as they released crates for TF2 that shit was going to start rolling downhill. Fanatics earn that title for a reason.