Video: Players talk about new summer off-season dates

21-7-2022 14:03

Many pros didn't react very well when they first heard about the new summer off-season dates for 2023, and we asked a few more about their thoughts while at IEM Cologne.

Earlier this month, the Counter-Strike Professional Players' Association (CSPPA) announced that in 2023 the official summer tournament break would take place from June 12-July 9. The association explained that the change was made in order to split the year into two more even seasons, each lasting around five months.

It was a distinct departure from the status quo, with the break having typically run from mid-July to mid-August in previous years, and it was met with disagreement and confusion from many in the pro community, some of whom said that they had had no indication that the change was even going to be made.

We had the chance to bring up the issue with several teams and players while at IEM Cologne, asking them about their thoughts about the new dates for the upcoming year.

Players such as Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard, Mareks "⁠YEKINDAR⁠" Gaļinskis, and Andrei "⁠arT⁠" Piovezan talked to HLTV.org on the topic in the video that you can watch above or on our YouTube channel, where you can also browse more videos such as player highlights, episodes of the HLTV Confirmed podcast, the HLTV Peek news show, the Counter-Quiz, and more.

FaZe have been among the biggest critics of the new dates

I want to know how CSPPA talked to before making these changes that nobody asked for

2022-07-21 14:04

4 replies

tournament organizers sucked CSPPAs small pp and then got what they wanted

2022-07-21 14:10

According to hooxi, most tier 1 have contact with CSPPA and were notified but very few responded. They had the ability to make their opinion known and they chose not to.

2022-07-22 00:44

2 replies

Interesting that the faze guys all said it came out of the blue if that is true

2022-07-22 01:13

1 reply

Because they all chose to not be part of the whatsappgroup, so they could not see it. This us on them, and they have to stop bitching after the fact.

2022-07-22 09:57

cool

3rd

I love arT

2022-07-21 14:06

6 replies

who is your favourite artist?

2022-07-21 15:30

Andrei Piovezan

2022-07-21 16:25

Me too bro

2022-07-21 16:24

chad arT enjoyer

2022-07-21 17:00

2022-07-21 20:50

I love sporT

2022-07-25 12:46

I wanna know the 5 players who said yes on whatsapp lol

2022-07-21 14:07

Imagine having 5 players deciding over whole t1 scene????? Kinda funny

2022-07-21 16:22

Elige and his lawyers

since when do csgo players get any dates?

underrated

2022-07-21 20:17

Still think it's a good change to have a break after the major

2022-07-21 14:08

Based CSPPA looking out for viewers, many freeloading pros collecting paycheck during 2 month break Also Chad NA Yekindar saying he dgaf

2022-07-21 14:21

In my opinion it would be better to have Cologne as one of the first tournaments of the second part of the season. If you think about it, the first part has Katowice, Major and Cologne, while the second part - only Major. Blast World Finals or whatever is uncomparable

2022-07-21 14:18

7 replies

+1 beginning of august would be perfect

2022-07-21 14:23

5 replies

There was actually ESL One Cologne in the end of august in 2020, online obviously But rain said that 1st of july as a start of player break would be ok, so they can have 1-30 of july and then IEM Cologne maybe since 20-25th of August

2022-07-21 14:26

would be also fine for me the first half of the year is, like u said, always the most exciting one

Rain thinks moon is a planet

2022-07-21 18:47

ok braindead

2022-07-22 00:11

pluto is a planet

2022-07-22 09:20

+111

2022-07-21 15:02

only western europeans complaining lol.

2022-07-21 14:20

so you mean the relevant teams / players

2022-07-21 14:42

and BIG is certainly not among them lol

2022-07-21 15:04

bruh, flag&flair. You really shouldn't make those kinda jokes :(

2022-07-21 16:13

Where is BR CS? Down the drain lmaoooo

2022-07-21 19:20

roflmao, hunagry omegaLUL

2022-07-22 20:38

Ok 💀

2022-07-29 15:31

Funny that the only relevant player in CSPPA is apEX

and even he was shocked

2022-07-21 22:43

Their job is to literally play videogames all day, why are they even mad about vacation changing dates lmao

2022-07-21 15:17

8 replies

-1

You should've really kept it inside your pants, that was the most useless comment i've read whole week.

2022-07-21 16:23

theres literally 1 or more tournaments every month in different countries, they travel ALOT. theres probably months when they wont be @home and when they are @home theres team pracc, media stuff etc. so they wont be seeing their friends and family that much..

2022-07-21 16:33

3 replies

even basketball players has less vacation sometimes than pro gamers... :D and actually would kinda cool to see, how many players would sacrifice their vacation, for play to their national teams, like in normal sport..

2022-07-21 19:53

wdym basketball players have less vacation? NBA season takes like 8 months + playoffs then theres like 2 month break b4 the next season. ofc they pracc offseason but its not like they pracc 6 to 8 hours everyday. they have much more free time than professional CS players, and they dont travel across the world like CS players do they just travel in US. "actually would kinda cool to see, how many players would sacrifice their vacation, for play to their national teams, like in normal sport.." i dont see why esports should be like "normal sport." its not the same at all and there is "world championship" tournaments for nations but no one rly cares about them because most of the teams are from 1 country. like who would give af to watch astralis vs big as denmark vs germany in a "world cup" or what ever when u see it already all the time over the year.

2022-07-25 04:05

i from Lithuania, this year my local team season ends at june 6,then at july 1 with national team u play two games at world cup , in august 1 u start friendly game marathon and september u play at euro champ and season starts differently in every country, but my local team first meet up begin like in at the end of august. of course i am speaks only about best basketball players which plays for national teams, but sometimes they have like 2 weeks or less vacation.

2022-07-25 04:46

Yikes…. When you put 40+ hours into anything a week it’s not a hobby my friend. It’s not just playing video games for them. There’s a clear difference.

2022-07-21 19:37

literal idiot, it's competition, high level and high money for winners, it's on par with any sport

2022-07-22 00:17

ultimately it seems 50/50. however the younger players seem to be more in favour of it (Yekindar and Frozen) i think younger players are not bothered because they wont have as strong relationships, like wives and children.

2022-07-21 15:29

They'll switch it back next year maybe or push it to start of July

2022-07-21 15:40

The new player break is really stupid, almost none of the pros agrees with it, its outsite their families summer break, meaning its a summer break alone.

2022-07-21 16:09

Can you please explain when is normal Western European summer break? Why is July better than June? In CIS summer holidays were aligned with school summer holidays and it was all 3 summer months unless something changed recently.

2022-07-22 04:51

Yeah in other countries we dont have 3 months summer, thats waaaay too much, we have 3 weeks usually in july

2022-07-22 12:58

I would be pissed as well if i couldnt go on vacation with my family. CSPAA again has proven their incompetency

2022-07-21 16:18

i mean i get it, but u signed a contract worth thousands of dollars where u agreed to those terms and possible changes.

2022-07-21 16:36

Damn they are privileged…. Deal it it like everyone else does

2022-07-21 16:56

The new change is perfect, it aligns with the typical summer holiday where I live and isn’t unusual at all. Now we will have a more balanced second part of the year too. I dont see any issue this is objectively better for the cs scene in the long run anyways

2022-07-21 17:32

I mean, who cars?

2022-07-21 18:38

2022-07-21 18:55

whoever decided these new dates should get fired/replaced from their positions asap and make the player break actually benefit the fucking players lol. wtf is this

2022-07-21 19:00

what the fuck is the CSPPA?

2022-07-21 19:03

ClownStupidPlayersPutedAside

2022-07-21 19:46

Sounds like a good clan tag for me and the boys

2022-07-21 21:58

I am here to just say that s0mple should give back Twistzz his MVP

2022-07-21 20:13

makes sense major being the last tournament of the season presumably ESL won't budge with their dates, so they have to start the break in the middle of june players: boo hoo me no like change

2022-07-21 20:27

I think that's great, everyone is preparing for final exams throughout June, and adjusting the offseason is a good option. When the exams are over, it's a wonderful thing to welcome a whole summer of competition. At this moment, we have to wait bored for the game at the end of August

2022-07-21 20:29