OPINION
A healthier Counter-Strike scene for all
AUTHOR Pablo Monti @PabloMMonti
fter an incredible 2018 for Astralis in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, I interviewed Kasper Hvidt, Sports Director of the oft-dominant Danish team. Hearing him describe how he brought elements from traditional sports to esports was mind-blowing.
training and yoga classes. He also brought in a team composed of a physiotherapist, nutritionist, sports psychologist, and others. But what impacted me the most was what he thought about players’ performance and the importance of eating well… and even more importantly, resting well.
Hvidt played for his National Handball Team in more than 200 matches and also played for top handball clubs around Europe, such as Barcelona from Spain, Lemgo from Germany, and Copenhagen from Denmark, amongst others. He told me that esports needed to copy traditional sports in terms of improving players’ performance by adding healthy activities - and removing the unhealthy ones.
Indeed, rest is something of a rarity for top CS:GO professionals. The CounterStrike Professional Players’ Association (CSPPA) spoke out loudly against the huge amount of tournaments, and how players spent the whole year travelling without much rest. Last year, the CSPPA released a statement in which they wrote: “There is a need to create stability and sustainability in the CS:GO ecosystem to the benefit of all stakeholders. We require an agreement that strikes a fair balance with respect to exclusivity, scheduling of
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He introduced limited times of training and playing on the computer, and complemented that with physical
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tournaments, financial sharing amongst the stakeholders, event standards and contract standards, and other fundamental terms.” Both ESL and BLAST understood that stance and modified their formats and schedules accordingly to help better organise the CS:GO landscape. ESL joined efforts with sister company DreamHack (through shared parent company MTG) and presented the combined ESL Pro Tour. Meanwhile, BLAST moved to a circuit format with BLAST Premier. The same weekend that news was announced, pro players shared their thoughts with me. Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski, who has played as rifler of Team Liquid since 2015 and won many tournaments in 2019, said: “There are no storylines that come from going to events
