Arriving on site, stepping out from the cool, air conditioned uber to the sweltering 90 degree heat, where I’d be waiting with a gaggle of other press for the next thirty minutes. They were a friendly and jocular group that quickly put my amateur anxieties at ease – I’d been to e-sport events before, but never as a member of the press. Our heat-induced bonding was interrupted when Havi, our charming, wonderful escort, got us inside to shelter from the temperature. Thankfully the press passes came quickly after that, and then, it was inside to the main event. 

There’s an incomparable energy that suffuses eSports events, an aura of palpable excitement that hits you when you walk in the doors. Here, you’re not a nerd – you’re one of the herd. A nerd herd, admittedly, but the sense of joining something shared and exciting is unmissable for nerds of any stripe. It’s a silent feeling of welcoming, of belonging, of being with and surrounded by your people. 

I’m a newcomer to CS:GO, an extreme newbie with minimal shooter skills and terrible hitscanning. I came with the most basic understanding of how the game works, and a readiness to carry over my support for Team Liquid from League to CS:GO, but having spent the past week watching match’s from previous majors, I was excited to watch some quality play – you don’t need to be intimately familiar with CS:GO or shooters to pick up how the game is played. 

And I didn’t need much background experience to grasp the nature of the first event, a grudge match exhibition between two irregular teams composed of NA and EU players and personalities. After a friendly bout of casual mocking, over the top introductions (one player came out wielding Captain America’s shield!), and more good natured ribbing from the casters, it was time for the first battle to begin. Chants of “USA! USA! USA!” soon filled the stadium, echoed by the rapid-clatter of thunder stucks and the intermittent howls of excited fans – there was definitely some home nation favoritism going on. 

Another fun thing I noticed – the AT&T armbands that were handed out flashed colors in accordance with things happening on screen – light blue glow during the prematch, flashing red in synch with the bomb timers, or whenever a shot rings out. How cool is that? 

Like every first round, the match started with only pistols and knives. In what seemed like the blink of an eye, Team NA went from huddling through the cloud of a smoke to lying dead on the floor! Then Smoya started the second round with a clean knife kill into two more frags, leaving NA dead on the dusty floor again. Its part of what makes CS:GO such a fun eSport to watch, the lightning quick rounds and pinpoint fire leaving a watcher breathless. Team EU’s ruthless assault snatched them the first three matches and left the casting talent feeling a little awkward about their trash talk, until NA snatched back victory with a quick blitz in the 4th! Even for a newcomer like me, the match’s were easy to follow and extremely fun to watch. Smoya consistently terrorized team NA with the AWP as the rounds went on, and things started to look grim as we approached the 10th – EU had two AWPS to NA’s none, and the headshots were coming in hard and fast – but a miracle jumpshot save clinched the round and kept NA in the fight. The rally carried on into the next match, with NA quickly dismantling their seemingly flustered opponents in a flurry of quick shots and rapid maneuvers, but EU seemed to regain control after and tighten up their play. In the end the best of one exhibition match went to the Europeans, but a great deal of fun was had by all, including this amateur audience member!

The First Semifinal 

ENCE vs MIBR 

The energy here was totally different. There was real tension and roaring, and the arena itself filled up almost to full capacity. This would be a serious Best of 3 between the Finnish and Brazilian teams. It seemed like gasps and cries followed every burst of gunfire and thrown grenade. Moments of tense silence punctuated deafening cries and arena-filling gasps. The first five rounds went by in a flurry of violence and swift movement, with MIBR taking a 4 round lead to ENCE’s 1. The sixth round was tense and slow, until it exploded into action in a flurry of frags and outmaneuvering that saw ENCEtake its due. Then they took another – and another! – and brought the first match to a tie at 4-4. The tension began to rise as the beep of the bomb lined up with the flashing red wristbands of the crowd, before MIBR snatched a kill and broke the tension with a clutch shot, the opening and closing frags secured by Lukas. MIBR continued to extend their lead with pin-point accuracy and a fast style of play that saw ENCE pushed backed and corralled. 

Standout moment – blind AWP kill through smoke by Sergej, but it wasn’t enough to stop MIBR from taking a 4 round lead. At the halfway point of the first match MIBR still had the lead but ENCE was gaining momentum with a swift, one sided win in round 15. CS:GO rounds go by so quickly – under two minutes each – that the tide can turn in the blink of an eye. And in the span of several blinks and rapid-flash rounds, MIBR retained the lead and grew their advantage. A crowd-roaring moment occurred in round 20 when one of the ENCE players took Fer to 5 HP in a smoke cloud but couldn’t finish him off despite standing right next to him – the entire crowd lost it, then freaked again when the round ended with a clutch 1-2 AWP kill to secure MIBR the round. While ENCE did claw back another three games, MIBR continued to hold a six round lead to a victorious first match win, though the rounds leading up to the clincher became increasingly frenetic and close. 

Then came the second match! With a different map, and time to recharge and rethink, ENCE took a five round lead over their Brazilian opponents, then continued to grow it – in match two, the momentum was clearly with ENCE. Their AWP plays and manuevoring consistently saw them gaining the edge over MIBR, and would secure them victory in the match, and lock them into the finals on Sunday. 

TEAM LIQUID VS VITALITY 

1st map: Dust 2

The arena vibrates with the collective chants of “LETS GO LI-QUID” and the home crowd is fiercely into this match. With Vitality stealing a fast win in the first round, it was up to Liquid to volley back with a sudden sweep in the second. Five rounds and with the frag tally in their favor, the crowd was feeling it for the home team. Team Liquid demonstrated clean and controlled play, with NAF and Nitr0 demonstrated great shot control in the first five rounds. 

The fast pace of play seemed to slow down a little around the seventh round, giving Vitality the opening they needed to turn the tables on their American nemeses – that was, until NAF pulled off a ferocious 1v2, planting the bomb before eliminating the two Vitality members that came in for the defuse in a seriously sick demonstration of skill. After that, Team Liquid seemed firmly in control, routinely establishing frag leads and man advantages that kept Vitality from establishing a presence in these rounds. 

Team Vitality switched to a double AWP setup in the nineth round and in under thirty seconds demolished Liquid, earning a much needed respite from the American’s Assault, but it wasn’t a rally – Liquid kept their boot firmly planted against the European’s throats and refused to give an inch in the subsequent rounds. There is an eerie observer effect to watching the games – the audience can see the forms of the players on either team silhouetted in blue and yellow, while the players themselves cannot; a helpful tool for an audience to discern action in the midst of frenetic firefights, but also a good way to build tension – we know someone is around the corner, but the player doesn’t. 

Vitality showed signs of life again the 12th round when Liquid held a 7 round lead, mostly due to RpK and his three secured fraggs, but insane AWP play from Stewie2k in a 1v2  prevented the French from clinching the win. Even with a win for the continentals in the 13th round, Vitality was still facing an economic deficit and a 7 round disadvantage that would grow to nine after two rounds of fierce blitzing from Liquid. But there came a break, a fifteen minute breather for the teams to collect their thoughts, wits, and will, and it appeared to be the reprieve Vitality needed – until it wasn’t! After a strong opening where they fragged two members, they found themselves swept by clean pistol work by the surviving members of Team Liquid. Vitality would finally find a win in the 17th round, securing much needed breathing room and cash to allow them to hang in the first match of the best of three. Twistzz almost stole victory from the jaws of defeat in a 1v3 against Vitality in the eighteenth, but was tragically cut down before he could disarm the bomb.

The rally continued into the 21st round, with Vitality chipping away at Liquid’s economy and lead. The French team seemed to be growing in confidence and coordination with each of these victories, and they succeeded in slowing the pace of the game and taking control away from Liquid. Vitality at this point won six rounds in a row, and the sheen of invincibility that Liquid had built up in their initial blitz was fading away. By round 24 there was only a three round lead for Liquid, but EliGe clinched the win by outshooting Zyw00, but in the next round with only 20 seconds to spare, Liquid managed to sweep Vitality and secure the win. 

It should be obvious by now to an experienced reader that this author is extremely new to CS:GO, but my amateurish grasp of the game didn’t diminish my enjoyment of the matches – they’re fast paced, varied, easy to follow, and extremely fun to watch. I found myself screaming “LETS GO LIQUID” with the rest of the crowd, totally discarding my journalistic detachment in the thrill of the moment. This is an fantastic spectator sport; the concept of defending a site or looking for an enemy team is fairly easily grasped, and the 

Stewie2k literally secures the win by running away! Incredible. “Usually matches don’t with competitors chasing after each other,” Sean, a longtime liquid to my right told me.

Match 2 – Overpass 

Liquid has (apparently) performed strongly on this map – if Vitality wants to win this semi-final, they need to rally hard here, and prevent Liquid from washing over them like they did in the first match. The first round starts with a bang, with Liquid’s Twist securing a series of rapid close-quarter pistol kills. But somehow, Vitality, armed only with pistols, rallied in the second round to kill three members of Liquid, steal the rifles, and take the initiative. Despite a valiant rally attempt by Team Liquid, the round was clinehd, and Team Vitality – looking a lot more comfortable  than they did on Dust 2- began to move ahead with a 2 round lead by the 5th round. 

Snap shots and smoke screens were the norm in Overpass’s tight corridors and narrow hallways. Intense, high-tension firefights dominated as the team’s numbers were whittled down and NAF and RpK stalked each other around the empty map, though the latter clinched the frag and the round with careful positioning and prediction. By the ninth round, Liquid’s invincibility seemed in question as they lagged behind at a 4 match disadvantage. But then hope flared in the 10th, as Nitr0, with only 13 hp remaining, secured a cross-map shot and won the round in a high octane, nerve wracking play. 

This game is lightning fast, with so many blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moments. Whip fast shots and tense, high octane firefights play out in seconds or less. Sometimes the round goes on for the full two minutes – other times its resolved in thirty or twenty seconds. Players preform in ways i can’t imagine, launching blind shots and corner attacks that seemed to me to require prescience to execute. 

The score was tied in the 13th round at 6-6, and the tension was fast becoming palpable. Twistzz was the standout liquid performer so far, with 17 kills inside 13 rounds. Demonstrating map superiority and tighter play, Team Liquid would win the match and the series, and move on to face ENCE in the finals on Sunday. 

Related: Interview: James Merk, Senior Director of Brand Management for Newegg at IEM Chicago