Shaun Clark is currently the Senior Director of Game Ecosystems for Counter-Strike at the ESL FACEIT Group. But he’s been active in the Counter-Strike scene for much longer than that. Now, with the release of Counter-Strike 2, we got the chance to speak with Shaun ahead of IEM Sydney, due to begin next week.
Here, we got to talk all things Counter-Strike 2, ESL tournaments and MR12.
Counter-Strike 2 Brings Changes to the Pro Scene
The release of CS2 has been highly anticipated ever since it was announced. Tournament organizers like ESL have been bracing for the drop for some time now as some would argue that Valve missed their “summer 2023” goal by some time.
“From our standpoint at the moment, we made the transition from Counter-Strike: GO to Counter-Strike 2 in all of our online tournaments pretty much immediately. Our full intent with the game’s release was to switch instantly. I mean, it’s the new shiny game and we’d like to be using it and showcasing it. Obviously, there’s a lot of interest around it so it makes sense.”
Because the game is so new, IEM Sydney will be the first tournament of its calibre to be played on Cs2. This could result in a bit of bumpy ride but it fans will undoubtedly be safe in ESL’s hands. Not only have they been running Intel Extreme Masters tournaments for many years but they’re well known for Dota 2 Majors and more. But a new game means changes and that’s something ESL aren’t shying away from.
“From the perspective of how it can maybe change the landscape of the CS pro scene, I think it’s an exciting time. I think the release of Counter-strike 2 is going to provide us with an abundance of new stories to tell. That’s exciting because that’s what we do, we’re storytellers. The game has been updated so it’s refreshed and improved. We expect to be seeing an influx of new interest from all over, which we are very confident will convert into a new wave of competitive players and teams in time.
Today, while the game is very similar to the naked eye, there are differences to it and we expect that the playing field that the existing professional players are playing on is gonna change. Over time, we may see a new star coming into the game. It’s an unpredictable future but certainly exciting and I think that fuels a lot of our excitement.”
Source: Valve
A New Game Means a New Player Base
Players have been hitting the new CS2 servers hard. This is something Shaun Clark and the team expected. But they’re not about to let CS2 burn short and hot. The current strategy for FACEIT is all about retaining the new players and fostering new talents within the scene.
“I think a lot of our strategy at the moment is based on retention. Because there is a lot of new interest, the question is how do we capture that interest? And not necessarily just from players but from businesses and other tournament organizers that are wanting to get into the space with us.
Counter-Strike is an amazing esport. As a lot of people at the company would say, it’s the perfect esport. It’s so simple but at the same time, it’s so complex and detailed at the highest level. The fact that you’re in a team of 5 and you need to be synergised. Everything is affected at the highest level so we like to hope that Counter-Strike as a game itself is that defining factor and we’re the enabler. We’re here to help provide opportunities to join us on this journey, the path to pro you could say.”
Not only are ESL well known for their IEM tournaments in Dallas and Rio, but there are yet more plans to expand. IEM is set to return to China and Asia in 2024, meaning that they will have tournaments running on 5 separate continents. This is no mean feat and requires a huge team of dedicated people to make it work.
Source: ESL
ESL and Shaun Clark Have Been Preparing for Months
While Valve may have missed the mark on the Summer 2023 release, they didn’t keep fans waiting too long. CS2 officially dropped on September 27th after much speculation online. However, Shaun and the rest of ESL have been preparing for the change for a lot longer.
“From our side, we’ve been preparing for this day for a long time. I’d say 2 months ago, when we first entered into ESL Pro League, that we just finished up a couple of days back, we were on the edge of our seats waiting for CS2 to drop at that point. Once it did drop, it was all hands on deck. Our team has worked so incredibly hard in the background to make sure that we’re able to execute on a similar level of product as we could on CS:GO. We feel comfortable and confident that our tools are working. We feel actually pretty good with the state of the game.”
There have been some vocal critics of the new CS2 game since release. It’s difficult to gauge how this reflects the player base’s actual opinion. But while ESL does expect there to be some bumps in the road going forwards, they’re more than ready to face the challenge.
MR12 Format Changes
MR12 has been front and centre of the CS2 discussion since its release. This format means that players will play a maximum of 24 rounds per game instead of 30. Some have raised concerns that this will negatively affect teams’ ability to make a comeback. But tournament organizers like ESL have welcomed the change.
“The MR12 change is great and very welcome. A lot of that being because I think it addresses one of the tougher parts of Counter-Strike, especially when it comes to the final stages of a tournament, which is the duration that a day can take.
We have 2 tournaments a year in stadiums that are best of 5 finals. They can go between 4-7 hours, which is really long. However, with the MR12 changes, though it’s very fresh and we haven’t had a professional competition on it yet, we’re seeing that the games are operating faster.”
One important thing to remember though is that because CS2 is so new, we’re really in a testing period at the moment. It seems clear that is MR12 affects the pro scene too negatively, fans and players won’t be stuck like that forever.
“I believe that if there is something fundamentally flawed with MR12, that the game isn’t playing out that well, I would imagine that Valve would look to make adjustments on their side rather than the tournaments changing on their side. We’ve seen that before with Valve when they haven’t been super happy with the way that the game is playing out or the way the economy works, they’ve stepped in and made adjustments to iron it out so I’d imagine that’s the most likely scenario looking forward.”
IEM Cologne was the last huge tournament to be played on CS:GO. IEM Sydney will continue the story. The tournament, due to begin on October 16th, marks the dawning of a new era of professional Counter-Strike.
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