The case for alternative events

BetBoom Dacha 2023 tried and failed to provide an alternative spin on a CS2 event. We take a look at what they did well and what they did poorly.

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Editor's note: This is a creative editorial of the author and does not reflect the opinions of HLTV.

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Boulders. Boulders are gravity. Boulders are boredom. Boulders are monopoly manifest.

Everybody loves a good boulder: solid, predictable, unmoving. A boulder will always be there for you, putting on the same visual appearance day-in and day-out, like an online league. A boulder cannot upset you nor harm you. Boulder is good, boulder is safe. Boulder will never roll downhill.

In the corporate world in fact, boulders seem to roll uphill, dragged along by invisible currents of money. What were once bands of fertile earth, gravel, and dirt coagulate and slide up the slope of acquisitions and mergers, until tall boulders of uniformity dot the ridgeline and competition among rocks is just another memory of landslides gone by.

So it is with tournament organizers (TOs). This wasn’t really about boulders.

When a new tournament organizer comes along in 2023 like FISSURE, after years of enough esports mergers to make the head spin, and announces the $300,000 BetBoom Dacha event, one is first inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps the format will be exciting and fresh. Perhaps the production value will raise the bar to a more telegenic and professional level. Perhaps alternative media will be shown between games: funny pieces, movement map challenges, slice of life material, and such. Perhaps no boulder.

Perhaps not.

There is a lot of possibility for fun when hosting a tournament, a lot of possibility to not only celebrate the competitive aspect of CS but to breathe color and life into the ecosystem with other media. Think of Joshua "⁠steel⁠" Nissan’s phenomenal “Don’t Match Fix” commercial for the cs_summit tournament, a core piece of CS:GO lore. Every tournament is a celebration of CS after all, and its continuing vibrancy as an ongoing esport. It is much the same in televised sports; the broadcast professionals are always trying something new. Some ideas stick, others don’t, like the FOX Sports dancing football robot. Ideas are sort of like jokes: a try was made.

Thus, it was natural to want to give BetBoom Dacha 2023 a chance as the tournament kicked off, despite the obvious and glaring sticking point of online gambling ties being woven into the name of the event. This is no defense of dodgy tournaments sponsored by oligarchs or bookies, mainly a reminder of the value of novelty. Viewers who were weaned on the open circuit of CS:GO’s early days would be the first to tell you that half of the allure of a tournament was its cropping up suddenly: a new city, a new arena, a new format, etc.

But back to the gambling. To make matters even more risque, BetBoom had also invited their own sponsored team to the event as one of the six invites, with BetBoom not even making their way through the closed qualifier. No, that well-fought space was reserved for Spirit and MIBR. More on them later.

But let’s talk about what BetBoom did well, and what they didn’t do so well.

THE CONS

1. The Gamba

For a game like CS:GO/CS2 that, if we’re being brutally honest, has probably awoken tens of thousands of teenage boys to a latent gambling addiction through its own internal loot box opening mechanic, a close association to the sin of gambling seems like par for the course. And yet BetBoom Dacha furthered this trend by being particularly intense with its over-the-top gambling advertisements mid-stream, including an endless cacophony of gambling callouts and ads mid-round. With teens in particular not having fully developed frontal lobes and not entirely in control of their irresponsible vices and rash decision-making, this isn’t a great look for the professionalization of CS2.

And the gambling ads mid-round truly crossed into the realm of the ludicrous with ad slogans for BetBoom and gambling odds being spammed incessantly by the casters, and turning the experience of watching the game into something akin to a moment highlighted in the film Idiocracy.

Nevertheless, we still wanted to believe. DraftKings and other online sports betting bookies are all pervasive throughout professional sports leagues after all. Sometimes the thin line between legalized gambling and advertising it to teens (cough RobinHood options trading and /r/wallstreetbets cough) and illegal gambling is how much money an industry has at hand to pay off American financial regulators.

And pop-up tournaments are woven into the fabric of the grassroots early nature of esports. If you’ve been to a local LAN event, you know the intoxicating, non-replicable feeling of the passionate attendees gathered therein: the paradoxical brash, yet shushed nature of a socially antisocial thing; a digital opium den beset with tech issues and admin malfeasance.

But most of those events were financially carried by the goodwill of some beneficial patron whose love of the game overrode any financial burden imposed on them. Players met and played, and good times and memories were made. We get the feeling this event was purely to billboard a gambling company to the forefront of the CS2 economy.

2. The Sands of Time and Money

This is a contentious topic so we will endeavor to be brief. The location for BetBoom Dacha 2023 (paired with the aforementioned gambling) wasn’t great. Sure, it wasn’t taking place in Riyadh or the fledgling Neom, the cruxes of the sportswashing controversy that has so inflamed online discourse, but Dubai itself is not exactly scot-free from similar ethical quandaries either. The terrible working conditions endured there by migrant laborers, some under duress and without the ability to leave, immediately spring to mind.

And whether it’s the Saudi buy-out of professional golf, tennis, or esports, or Qatar fattening FIFA’s pockets, it is simply impossible to escape that feeling in the back of one’s mind when a large prize purse tournament pops up in the Arabian peninsula. And one that is run by a Russian gambling company to boot.

Here is something that not many have considered in the endless debates that perambulate about this issue. Many people who work in esports in the West have had to confront an uncomfortable reality that has struck many other non-profit generating industries, particularly in entertainment. That is: the West is all dried up of free capital. The COVID-19 crisis, and the money-printing antics of central banks across the West, papered over this issue for a few years with lots of newly printed money, low interest rates, and extremely idiotic venture capital conmen, but the glory days are over.

And there is truly a feeling that pervades throughout the West that most pockets have been emptied. The middle class has been squeezed. NFTs and cryptocurrency were probably the last bell of fool’s money being spent with largesse. It is only natural then, as all things move in cycles, that we will see more and more events shift to the Middle East and to the rising economic powers of other regions such as Southwest Asia. Whether Westerners are ethically okay with this shift in the context of non-Western values is a decision many have had to personally make recently.

3. The Oopsie Daisy Tournament Moments

The previous two points could have been anticipated by anyone understanding the scene and the way it is trending before BetBoom Dacha even commenced. However, the numerous and unnecessary integrity issues and awkwardly created moments during the tournament were entirely unanticipated. And they stacked up fairly quickly. Here are just a few that are top of mind:

1. Players were allowed to go backstage mid-match and were even spotted on their phones during tech pauses. The TO later confirmed the phone occurrence was due to a player needing to use Steam Authenticator. But by then the damage had been done in terms of public perception. In addition, the admins involved in not moderating the players’ movements were fined and reprimanded.

2. Team staff other than coaches were seen on stage talking to their players during a tech pause before the controversy erupted.

3. Steam was ostensibly being allowed during the event in some form, allegedly to load skins, which Aleksandr "⁠zorte⁠" Zagodyrenko alluded to on Telegram. For those who have been around since the infamous Hovik "⁠KQLY⁠" Tovmassian and Gordon "⁠Sf⁠" Giry VAC ban era, this is an immediate integrity issue considering that ways were found to inject malicious software through the Steam workshop all the way back then. Not to mention the issue with Steam chat potentially being exploited to provide players with information about the enemy team they might not know otherwise.

4. Overall HUD, art direction, and vibe of the event were simply not up to a Tier 1 standard. We did like the Overpass Friends reference to be fair. This one comes down to whether a viewer prefers a very clean-cut professional show à la ESL or BLAST or something with a more laidback, easy-going vibe. The latter will always come across as amateurish to a degree when professional gaming is involved.

5. The endless chicken advertisement

6. This Power Rangers intro

But most glaringly, for a tournament with its own invited team in the form of BetBoom, we noticed an alarming hyper fixation on the all-Russian squad at moments that seemed inappropriate. For example, the camera crew and tournament staff would surround BetBoom when they were up against match point and about to lose to the opposing team. This kind of behavior is comical at best, and bafflingly insincere at worst. And with BetBoom going only 4-4 in maps and finishing in 3-4th place, there really is no reason for this kind of preferential treatment other than a TO-owned team bias, which should have no place in competitive esports.

That being said, we do enjoy being the devil's advocate in this editorial corner of the CS world, even if it may earn us the scorn of the entire readership community. So let us at least try and see the silver lining in BetBoom Dacha to make the case why more TOs is better than the same two.

THE PROS

1. Ranks 9-20 Melee

The BetBoom invite aside, we got to see a combination of eight teams that likely wouldn’t have been possible in the narrow ESL-BLAST circuit for the prize money that was involved ($300,000). It’s not every day you get to watch eight teams all almost ranked outside the Top 10 (FURIA was admittedly #9) but within the Top 20 duel it out for such substantial prize money. Thus, new permutations of play were on show and new strats and talents were allowed to rise to the fore.

We saw the continued rise of Russian dominance on that borderland that is the periphery between Tiers 1 and 2, as well as the refreshing and continual breaths of fresh air that Brazilian teams are bringing to Counter-Strike. Special accolades are reserved for wizened doyen Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo for continuing to lead the competitively viable FURIA, although admittedly they were picked apart twice by tournament winners Spirit and outperformed by fellow countrymen MIBR. MIBR likewise impressed by defeating Kirill "⁠Boombl4⁠" Mikhailov’s Cloud9 in the Group A winners’ match but also ultimately fell to Spirit in the semifinals.

We saw continuing underwhelming performances for some of the more unfortunate cores of the European shuffle, namely in Astralis and GamerLegion, who bowed out losing both of their BO3s. GamerLegion would go on to play in ESL Challenger Atlanta 2023, and also finish in 7-8th place there, likely starting a slow death spiral for that squad. Meanwhile, Astralis had already been suffering with a 7-8th place finish prior to BetBoom Dacha at the BLAST Premier Fall Finals as well as a lackluster performance at CAC 2023, and were playing their debut with Martin "⁠stavn⁠" Lund and Jakob "⁠jabbi⁠" Nygaard.

And finally, both teams that clawed their way through the qualifier, Spirit and MIBR, did great things this event. This is yet another win for the old-school ways of winning tournaments, via pure bracket domination.

2. Alternative Energy

Yes, the gambling callouts were insufferable. Yes, the stage setup of the event was over the top and felt a bit like living inside the RGB-festooned cage that is your average gamer’s custom-built PC. But we enjoy flare and pizazz over here, even if it may upset some or not suit everyone’s palate. Remember that to step forward and dazzle is to simultaneously make enemies in the simian world of homo sapiens. To peacock is to assert dominance. Better to live life having tried in vainglory than to be minutely liked but never respected.

The opening ceremony with cheerleaders, pom-poms, and a marching band was more American than America itself, a rising trend in other parts of the world as the US increasingly moves away from its erstwhile identity. The stage setup, while a bit cartoonish, was innovative and bold. The backdrop with basketballs and other sports paraphernalia behind the players gave the event a kind of cozy feeling that is increasingly distained by the larger TOs as they move towards a more sterile, cold environment for their on-stage booths. While it did run that line between “Look mom! Esports is so legit!” a little too well, it stopped short of overdoing it and was more in line with a tradition of ornateness that is common to the region.

BetBoom is also to be commended for all of its matches being in the BO3 format, which is an absolute must for CS2 with its MR12 format. It is increasingly untenable to defend BO1s in this day and age, and how cheap they feel to teams that are sent straight to the elimination match. Looking at you, Atlanta.

Finally, the trophy was graceful and unique. And when we say unique, we are avowing our eternal defiance of the “uniqueness” that was the BLAST Paris Major trophy, an eyesore the likes of which have closed the Gates of Heaven to this day.

And of course, the number one reason we are choosing to play devils’ advocate for BetBoom Dacha is:

3. A DONK IS A DONK IS A DONK

Donked. Donktacular. Ridonkculous. Superdonkifragilisticexpialidonkus.

In the world of onliners who come and go, one Russian phenom with freakishly long hands stood above the rest. Enter stage right Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets, easily the hottest name on every CS fan's lips right now.

While donk has been trending up our CS:GO stats page since 2021, BetBoom Dacha would be his breakout LAN event, and showed that he was not just another Joel "⁠jOELZ⁠" Aalto in the ether. His first trophy, and his first HLTV MVP. The kid could play.

Read more

One for the future: donk

And while he was at first humbled in the Group B winners’ match by Dzhami "⁠Jame⁠" Ali’s big-brained Virtus.pro, the 16-year-old wunderkind quickly rallied and was a huge part of his team’s march to the grand final, and subsequent reverse sweep against Virtus.pro after going down two maps therein. For his herculean efforts, donk was named MVP. May it be the first of many.

We cannot understate how excited we are to see donk continue to play and rise in 2024. Enough overhyped stellar European aimers have come through since the Adil "⁠ScreaM⁠" Benrlitom days that we are praying on the roulette wheel to land in our favor for this young prodigy and for him to dazzle crowds and viewers for many years to come. The game needs a new star, especially with Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev so publicly trashing the game's shift to CS2.

With Spirit picking up hapless-benchwarmer-of-the-past-few-months Dmitry "⁠sh1ro⁠" Sokolov, this team is really set to play explosive CS in the coming months. Game on.

Closing Thoughts

Despite naming some pros of BetBoom Dacha, this article was not meant to be a defensive of this event. This tournament will be remembered in history as a bizarro tournament marred by integrity issues and over-the-top gambling advertisements. While not quite the bizarro level of Gaming Paradise 2015, and more like cs_summit's awkward cousin, BetBoom Dacha will definitely be thrown in the pile of bad tournaments in YouTuber tier lists down the road.

But unlike the comfortable ease of anonymity online, which allows people to think within the prism of good vs. evil, we-like vs. we-hate, and other such binary thinking, we are interested in finding redemption where redemption may be found. Any opportunity for CS to be played for prize money and to continue to make an esports pro career a viable choice for the thousands of young men in their twenties who are online, aimless, and dedicating thousands of hours to the craft of being a good video game competitor is a plus in our books.

So while we may laugh at times and ultimately dismiss this event, we are glad it happened. At the end of the day, we felt caught up in the landslide and rush of explosive CS, as opposed to staring down from boulder-strewn heights with frosty propriety.