CS:GO Bags ‘Labor of Love Award’ Ahead of Among Us and The Witcher 3 Despite a Rocky Year

Despite having a pretty rocky year, Valve’s CS: GO won a prize in the 2020 Steam Awards. Steam dubbed the game as the 2020 “Labor of Love” winner. The other titles nominated alongside the FPS indicate how far the title has come. CS: GO competed with titles like Among Us,  The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and No Man’s Sky.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive rolled out in 2012 but crossed one million concurrent players for the first time in 2020 and continued to top the charts on Steam, beating DOTA 2.

The other titles nominated are recent entries on the scene. But CS: GO’s loyal player base toppled all other nominees in the path, helping the FPS bag the title.

Steam, too, had an astounding year with over 40,000 titles. Sadly, not all could get shortlisted as they announced only 10 categories with 5 nominees each.

CS: GO has had a rollercoaster year

2020 was a phenomenal year for video games, but CS: GO faced several issues. The competitive scene in one of the finest FPS has been on the decline for a few months now. The ongoing pandemic only added fuel to fire as the tournaments witnessed an unprecedented shift. Not just that, the arrival of Valorant, too, hurt CS: GO a lot.

True, Valorant increased the number of alternatives in the FPS sphere and grew exponentially. Sadly, several CS: GO pros found Valorant to be a more lucrative space and didn’t hesitate in making a move.

The community was still recovering from this transition when the game was hit by another setback. The ‘coach bug’ made headlines which led to the banning of several eminent players from the competitive scene.

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Moving on, the pandemic also called for an unprecedented shift in the competitive sphere. True, CS: GO was among the first to shift its operations to an online platform. But competition shifted to Europe and teams in the NA region over the last few weeks have been completely neglected.

Additionally, teams like 100 Thieves and Chaos left the competitive scene to look for greener pastures. A lack of tournaments also means no income for the players. Unsurprisingly, many pros found solace in Valorant as the Riot Games shooter has seen heavy investment from across the world since it came out earlier this year.

Despite all this, the community hopes that 2021 will be a complete turnaround for the FPS. With how things are shaping up, it is safe to assume CS: GO is on the right track.

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