CS:GO

Whether you're into Counter Strike or not, the latest ELEAGUE win from Astralis should make any eSports fan happy.

The story behind Astralis' win is a very big one. Despite being a top performing team, the Astralis players, who had previously played under other names, such as TSM and Dignatas, had never managed to break out of their 'semi-finals' curse.

It seemed as if every major CS:GO tournament that the Danish lads entered would see them with a loss in the semi-finals. This time, things were different. The Atlanta ELEAGUE major, which was televised on North American channel TBS, saw Astralis take the win in an incredibly close battle between them and the Polish team, Virtus Pro.

After a scary loss on the first map, Nuke, and an unsettlingly close half on the second map, a win for Astralis almost seemed out of the question. Fortunately for Astralis though, they managed to pull it back, taking the second and third maps, although not without hardship.

With over

Steve Aoki, the famous DJ, has announced that he now owns an eSports team. It's becoming more popular for adults with a large amount of wealth behind them to put funding into an eSports team. We've seen it with NBA star Shaq, Rick Fox and NFL players too.

Now, we're seeing the first DJ get in on the eSports action. Steve Aoki has put funding into the eSports organization called Rogue. The Rogue organization currently has a team in Overwatch that has seen recent success and a fairly new CS:GO lineup.

Steve Aoki has mentioned that he has a huge life-long passion for gaming, so this new part ownership of Rogue eSports makes sense.

"During his performance at TwitchCon Party 2016 on Saturday, STEVE AOKI announced his ownership in the Las Vegas eSports organization, ROGUE. Having been a life-long gamer, STEVE AOKI became determined to build an eSports team after his experience at PAX East in April of this year, where he was invited to participate in a Street Fighter V exhibition

For those that don't know, the big Shaq from NBA fame has started to invest in a North American eSports team named NRG. Shaq recently shared some of his feelings for eSports and shared why he has such a passion for it.

The biggest reason Shaq has a soft spot for eSports can be summed up in one simple word. "Teamwork." It's clear that this is something that Shaq knows well, "Five guys working together, practicing together, trusting your brother. That's what makes a winner. It's a grind. It takes big time dedication to be the best and build a winner."

It's not just the teamwork side of things that both eSports and NBA share, though.

"The fans did it for me," Shaq mentioned. "The fan base is huge and so passionate about their favorite games, teams and players. We have seen this movie before with the NBA and other traditional sports leagues. Sponsors and distribution always follow."

"I got to witness first-hand at CES this year how exciting the CS:GO world had become

Rick Fox has been a well known personality in the sports world for a long time but recently he has been venturing into the eSports world too. Rick Fox is the owner of the Echo Fox eSports organisation, which in recent news has acquired Ryan "Freakazoid" Abadir for their professional Counter Strike: Global Offensive team.

Soon Rick Fox will be creating an unscripted documentary on eSports. Echo Fox "Will be teaming with Propagate and INE Entertainment to develop and produce a non-scripted series about the growing eSports phenomenon. Three-time NBA champion Los Angeles Laker Rick Fox and veteran TV producer Mark Koops will executive produce."

Rick Fox's love for eSports sprouted out of a bonding activity with his son. Rick mentioned that his interest in eSports started "several years ago as a bonding activity with my son, I would have never dreamed that it would have taken off the way it has. The level of engagement between fans and athletes in the eSports community is far more

Whilst Counter Strike: Global Offensive is a PC-only title, we have some news about the game that should be heard by eSports fans alike. Recently a new TV show started on TBS called E-League. Supported by the same guys who give Shaq airtime, the E-League is perhaps the biggest thing that has happened to Counter Strike eSports yet.

The new show has put some of the biggest teams in the Counter Strike scene onto live television for the first time in years. By doing so, new attention has been brought to the world of eSports and people are finally seeing how big the world of competitive gaming has become.

Whilst Turner has chosen Counter Strike as it's focus game on E-League, it's clear that they are working hard to make something out of the eSports scene and they truly believe that it has a space alongside traditional sports. Whatever eSports games you enjoy to watch or play, the
E-League is big news for your own community because it shows that there's still room for even

Could you imagine eSports being played alongside the Olympics? It seems like a far-fetched idea that couldn't possibly ever make it's way into reality, but recently the British government backed an international committee that has been designed to bring eGames to the world, an event that will be treated similarly to the olympics.

The first eGames event will be held this year in Rio De Janeiro alongside the 2016 Summer Olympics. Following on from that, future Olympics events will have coinciding eGames events too.

Like the Olympics, there will be no cash prizes given out for players - instead, bronze, silver and gold medals will be awarded. The first event will have players from Brazil, Britain, Canada and the U.S.A but future events are planned to host more countries.

So far, besides the medals there are no other incentives to attend the eGames events, so it's going to be hard to get a busy team like OpTic From COD/Halo or Fnatic from Counter Strike/League of Legends