Counter Strike 2 was released last September and has already made its presence known in the Esports world. Succeeding Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), students around the world have shown their excitement for the newest edition in the franchise. Less than a month after the game’s release, it has become a popular choice for students in the school’s Esports club. 

Student Admin and Valorant Captain, Jackson Trotman, was among the first to express excitement, though it has been tough to get a team together.

“The biggest thing is that there has to be leagues for it. It’s been really rough since the game just dropped. We needed to have a plan and we needed to have player interest and I had to bring it up with the higher ups. We got it approved but it has been tough. When CS:GO was around, we had brought up the idea of having a CS:GO team, and nobody showed interest,” Trotman said. 

With there being little interest for people to join the CS2 team, students who are a part of other teams have stepped up to play the game. Student Admin, Harlie Ferguson, is a member of the Counter Strike team, but also plays Valorant for BVU. 

“It kind of helped that Valorant is really similar to CS2. Valorant is a game that has been established really well at BV for a bit. No one that plays CS2 only plays CS2 right now,” Ferguson said. 

Counter Strike is a first-person shooter multiplayer game, much like Valorant. With both games being similar, it persuaded members of the Valorant team to do double duty in joining the Counter Strike 2 team. Even players who played Rainbow Six Siege, another first-person shooter game, joined the CS2 team. 

The first week of Counter Strike 2 competitions were on Oct. 25. With players that don’t just play Counter Strike at the moment, there are hopes that members will join to focus solely on Counter Strike. 

“Given enough time, I think Counter Strike is and has been one of the biggest Esports for 20 years. Give it enough time and I think the CS2 team will have people that are dedicated to the team,” Trotman said. 

Only time will tell if Buena Vista will have students dedicated to the game. It seems as though there are students on the come up at the high school level who may be interested when their college days arrive. 

“These students who are now in high school are picking up CS2. If BVU advertises that they offer it, it’s going to have a lot more interest than us trying to scramble to get a team together right now,” Trotman said. 

Ferguson spoke more about how Counter Strike 2 is different from other games, marketing-wise. 

“Counter Strike has always marketed itself as an Esport rather than a video game. That’s kind of the difference between Counter Strike and a lot of other games,” Ferguson said. 

With competitions approaching, the BVU Esports team hopes to gain members with a passion for Counter Strike 2. They plan on spreading the word via social media, garnering a bigger audience. You can follow their journey @bvuesports.