In case you weren't aware, the most recent CSGO major tournament just finished up this past Sunday. Disappointed with their second place finish at the previous major (ESL One Cologne 2015), the French team EnVyUs came out on top this time around. If you are unfamiliar with CSGO majors, let me fill you in.
A major is the top level of tournament offered to Counter-Strike players. They are officially sponsored by Valve and offer massive prize pools. The top 16 teams in the world competed at Dreamhack Cluj-Napoca. 8 of those teams came in as "legends" meaning that they placed in the top 8 at the previous major. The remaining 8 "challenger" teams had to go through a vigorous series of online and offline qualifiers to gain a spot at the major. Here are the 16 teams which attended Dreamhack Cluj-Napoca:
Each team is placed into one of four groups which consist of two legends and two challengers. From these groups, the group stage rounds are played. Here is the aftermath:
Once again, a North American team has failed to make it into the top 8, not to mention the top 4. There are three native NA teams that attended this major. Counter Logic Gaming, Team Liquid and Cloud9. This really begins to raise some questions regarding the NA Counter-Strike scene. Why are these teams under performing? Or are they just not on the same skill level as top tier European teams? Some people argue that these NA teams should relocate to EU in order to have access to better top tier competition. While I do not think that this is the best answer, I also am unsure as to how NA teams can improve their major results. Feel free to leave some comments voicing your opinion on this matter!
I've seen very similar things occurring in MMOs where it just seems that the Europeans have a better system for building talented teams and individuals. There tend to be more sponsorship opportunities for these teams which leads to more money and therefore more practice and focus time. I have also noticed that European teams (at least in my realm of gaming) hold less bias and are willing to humble themselves to create better teams as opposed to several mediocre teams. I know top raiding and PvP teams in World of Warcraft have created "ultimate teams" of all the best players, while US players like to stick to their core group regardless of skill level. I can definitely see something like this occur in FPS.
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