Blogs
on January 20, 2026
It's currently unclear why Valve moved forward with these changes in France, in particular. So far France has not enacted any new regulations to account for loot boxes in video games, though French courts did recently rule that Steam has to allow users to resell their digital games . In 2018, the French online gambling regulatory body even assessed that loot boxes were not gambling under the country's current regulation. Perhaps Valve is using France as a testing bed or perhaps the decision is intended to shift discourse within the country or Europe. Either way, Valve certainly appears to be taking steps to protect the profits it receives from loot boxes amid the growing international controve
Players will not be able to know how many competitive matches it will take before seeing a rank change, and it is possible to continue staying within a rank if performance is steady and does not change. However, players who take an extended break from playing ranked matches will have their rank suspended until they win a specific number of matches to be placed ag
CS:GO is a staple title in the competitive shooting scene, but like any long-running game, the game's standard levels eventually wear thin. Modders help keep the game fresh for casual play by injecting extra mechanics, weapons, models, and arenas into the popular tactical shooter. Homage maps that port settings from other titles into the game are especially popu
Counter-Strike 2 missions|https://counterstrike2zone.com/: Global Offensive has been on the market for over 8 years, and during that time it has accrued a truly impressive variety of custom maps, including a number of levels adapted from earlier iterations of the series. But modders are still contributing fresh arenas to the game, including an impressive recent rendering of one of The Witcher 3 's most famous Loca
New players to the Competitive playlist will first have to win 10 games before they get ranked. This will place them in one of the ranks listed above, and many will most likely skip the first couple of low ra
While many CS:GO players were frustrated to hear that Valve has seemingly halted work on the Source 2 engine, the long-standing tenure of the original Source engine has allowed modders to grow comfortable with the game's framework, and produce a staggering breadth of content. However, if the Source 2 is implemented into CS:GO after all , custom maps like Kaer Morhen will likely need to be redone after the upgr
S1mple referred to the ban as "funny," and said that he used the slur in response to another player who used the word on his stream. S1mple does not necessarily depend on Twitch for income given his CS:GO winnings, and a permanent ban would likely not lead to the end of his fanbase or viewership. Dr. Disrespect recently announced plans to start streaming on YouTube , which is also an option that is also readily available to S1m
In what appears to be bizarre effort to avoid oversight for its loot boxes, the developers of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive have added a controversial new feature. The new feature is exclusive to France, where lawmakers are currently evaluating new regulations regarding loot boxes and gambling in video games. The feature, in an extremely limited fashion, allows players to look inside of a loot box prior to spending money to unlock it. And Valve clearly believes it will help CS:GO avoid additional scrut
Twitch continues its streak of cracking down on streamers who violate their community guidelines, this time dropping the hammer on one of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive 's popular players. Unlike the platform's recent DMCA-inspired content culling, "aggression" earned this streamer his fourth temporary
Players who would like to participate in the Competitive playlist in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive will first have to play unranked matches of Arms Race, Casual, Deathmatch, or Demolition until reaching level two. Then, they will be placed in one of several ranks to climb the competitive ladder. This guide will help players identify how many ranks there are in total and how the ranking system works in CS:
In theory, there's a chance he simply never unboxes the knife, even with thousands upon thousands of cases opened. Despite all of these knives costing tens of thousands of dollars, it speaks to the impossibility of this challenge that it would still be cheaper to simply buy them. However, that takes the fun out of the hunt here. If Trainwreckstv is successful in his endeavor, he'll become the first-ever player to publicly unbox the knife trinity. It's possible it has been done before, but if it has, said player never came forward with their achievement. Once he has all three knives, it's unclear what he plans to do with them. With the future of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive skin gambling uncertain at the moment, that seems to rule out that avenue, at le
Even though S1mple draws impressive viewership numbers, no Twitch celebrity is above the law of the platform's community guidelines. Twitch famously banned the streaming mega-star, Dr. Disrespect , after controversial violations. That said, S1mple seems bothered more by the hypocrisy in his most recent ban, offering an explanation on Twit