Counter-Strike has been a constant success for years and brings many active players and money to Steam operator Valve. Recently, the German top streamer MontanaBlack88 has also been playing the game. However, he is less interested in the shooter – he is fascinated by the loot boxes.
The tactical shooter Counter-Strike is a phenomenon in gaming. The graphics are dated, balance adjustments can even take 10 years, and yet the title has over 700,000 players currently online at the time of this article (via steamcharts.com).
In passing, Counter-Strike has also created a large market for cosmetic items. You can earn different loot boxes and buy keys to open them. Some items are worth more than $100,000.
This has apparently attracted the German streamer MontanaBlack. Recently, he has been showing in his stream how he opens hundreds of boxes and hopes for the grand prize.
More about the career of the German top streamer can be found in our video:
“Actually pretty trash, dude”
Which knife costs €5,000? It was the “Butterfly knife | Urban masked” from the loot boxes “Operation Breakout”. The item has a “red” rarity and can be quite valuable.
However, the boxes in Counter-Strike are treacherous. The skins come with different signs of wear in 5 degrees of severity.
Monte has “Battle-scars” on the knife, which lowers the price by about €250. If it were “Factory new”, the item would probably be worth over €800 – his price check shows the market at around €550. “I don’t want to complain, but it’s actually pretty trash, dude,” Monte says about it.
Loot boxes are a controversial topic: For several years now, discussions have been ongoing about whether they should be equated with gambling and, accordingly, regulated. In Austria, FIFA packs were recently classified as “illegal gambling”, but no such regulations currently exist for Germany.
However, he would not have come close to spending €5,000 on the knife. For that, he would have had to open too many of the boxes. Keys and boxes from “Operation Breakout” can be purchased on third-party marketplaces for around €15.
MontanaBlack always makes it clear that he opens the loot boxes for entertainment. It’s real money that he spends for his viewers. There is a risk of addiction, and no one should imitate his behavior.
However, this probably won’t change his content: Already in September 2022, the streamer spoke about loot boxes and explained that everyone is responsible for themselves.
The video featuring the €5,000 knife can be found on his channel “SpontanaBlack” (via YouTube).
Although Counter-Strike is still very successful after many years, the debate over a successor is gaining momentum. Due to data leaks, there are speculations that CS2 could even be launched soon.
You can find out what is known so far about the possible new successor here: Counter-Strike 2 – All Infos, rumors, and leaks about the Source 2 successor of CS:GO
