On the weekend, there was a big tournament in Counterstrike: Global Offensive: The Intel Extreme Masters Season XVII – Cologne: The best teams in the world were competing for a prize pool of one million US dollars. But offstage, a German content creator had his big moment: The audience watched eagerly as he opened loot boxes in CS:GO, and then he drew the big win.
What was it like for your tournament?
- After two years of no live events in CS:GO due to COVID, tournaments are back in 2022, reviving CS:GO.
- The Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) in Cologne was a highly lucrative CS:GO tournament held in the LANXESS Arena, which can accommodate up to 20,000 spectators.
- Ultimately, in the final, FaZe emerged victorious and claimed $400,000 in prize money.
A highlight, however, unfolded off-camera in the audience.
The hall went wild as a German drew the grand prize from the loot box
What happened in the audience? On July 17, the fans in the hall were waiting for the start of the big final between NAVI and FaZe.
Also in the audience was the team from “LPAgents”, a group of German players who have been creating content for Counter-Strike together since 2013. They organize tournaments, host events, and run giveaways. They are relatively small content creators: On Twitch, LPAgents have an average of about 10 viewers, on TikTok their videos reach between 300 and 3000 views.
One of the founders, Daniel, held his laptop high and visibly opened loot boxes from the “Dreams & Nightmares” brand in CS:GO for all fans in the section; these are some of the newest loot boxes.
With each box that opened, the spectators in the section looked at the laptop’s monitor and loudly cheered on the streamer.
The hall literally exploded when the skin “Nightwish AK-47” came out of a loot box, a “Legendary” skin, thus a grand prize in the lottery of CS:GO skins.
Daniel triumphantly held the laptop up in the air and showed it in all directions as the audience cheered him on.
The reaction in the audience was so loud that even the caster on stage looked around in confusion about what the fans were celebrating – since the final hadn’t even started yet.
5.1 million views instead of the usual 300 to 3,000
How successful is the video? The clip of the incident is a massive success for the German team:
- On TikTok, the clip has already garnered 5.1 million views
- A tweet showing the moment has reached over 3 million views.
This is what the streamers say about it: We at MeinMMO spoke with a member of the LPAgents team and asked Tobi what it’s like to make videos for about 300 to 3000 viewers for years and then have a breakthrough like this:
‘Last year, we focused more on organizing tournaments in CS:GO and LoL, which were really well received by the participants, but millions of clicks don’t come from that.
We were very lucky that the crowd celebrated our idea so much and then also that a red item came out.’
Interesting to see how things can happen when you’re back on site at tournaments and not just sitting at home in front of the monitor. The event in Cologne proves how much esports thrives and benefits from the on-site event character.
CS:GO is both a celebrated e-sport title and regarded as a pioneer for loot boxes, which are controversial in gaming:
British government puts pressure on the gaming industry: Regulate loot boxes or else…
