In Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is the “CIS” region dominant in 2021. Young players from Russia and Eastern Europe dominate the eSports of the shooter CS:GO with a new way of playing, the “CIS” style. A French professional now explains what makes teams from the “CIS” region so strong.
Which region is it exactly? The eSports in CS:GO is divided into 11 regions, with “CIS” standing for the “Commonwealth of Independent States”, the Commonwealth of Independent States. These are the successor states of the Soviet Union.
The states include Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and Russia itself.
Young players from these countries are currently on the rise in CS:GO. In the final of the “Intel Extreme Masters”, only players from the CIS region were in the teams: Russians, Latvians, and Kazakhs (Virtus.pro) faced 5 Russians and one Kazakh (Gambit).
It is noticeable that in Gambit there are no established stars of the CS:GO scene, but rather 18-year-olds and 19-year-olds. On Twitter, a meme from “Malcom in the Middle” is quoted – the future is now, old man.
A professional speaks about the dominance of the teams: The French eSports professional Dan “apEX” Madesclaire (28) plays for the team Vitality. They have contracted one of the best players in the world, “ZywOo”. The team consists solely of French players and is considered one of the few teams that can normally keep up with Eastern Europe.
However, ApEX notes the growing dominance of Eastern Europeans in a conversation with Dexerto:
“We live in a time where the best teams are either really young or just in transition.”
Dan “apEX” Madesclaire
The young teams make it difficult for the established teams. The “CIS” style is increasingly taking hold.
For apEX, it is surprising that young, still unknown teams from the region are striving to rise: A team that has been successful for a long time, like Natus Vincere, surprises no one anymore. But now new, young teams are emerging:
“Gambit surprised me the most. I mean, we played a few practice matches with them before they became so strong. Honestly: They played solid CS:GO, but with this CIS style, they are now really good.”
Dan “apEX” Madesclaire
New CIS style in CS:GO is hyper-aggressive, takes away all the space from opponents
What is the CIS style? A professional from Team Liquid explains the new style of playing CS:GO in a post on Twitter:
- The CIS style is significantly more aggressive than the conventional style
- Teams act super aggressively and give opponents no space
- To succeed against these teams, one is forced to play extra patiently and to punish them for mistakes consistently – if you don’t do that, you are immediately at a disadvantage
For Eastern Europeans, the pro scene of CS:GO is a great opportunity
This is the further advantage of the region: As apEX points out
- many of the Eastern European players are young and hungry. They trained and grinded all the time.
- It would be a great opportunity for the players there to be part of the pro scene, so they would grind endlessly.
- CS:GO is also popular in the CIS region, which gives teams a large player pool from which they can recruit the best.
As a rising team that establishes the trend, Gambit is seen. Gambit E-Sports has 5 Russians and one Kazakh in the team.
The established “star team” from Eastern Europe, Natus Vincere, consists of 4 Russians and three Ukrainians, including superstar s1mple, who keeps having problems streaming on Twitch without being banned:
Twitch bans one of the best CS:GO players in the world – he only mocks now
The title image comes from the Twitter channel of Gambit Esports.
