Protestors instructed to rush the stage by the owner of a skin gambling website. Photo credit PGL Esports.
The past two weeks have marked the first Major in Counter-Strike 2 (CS2), taking place in Copenhagen, Denmark. The Quarterfinal matches started today, but a disruption during the match between Mouz and G2 Esports caused chaos on the stage.
Two men can be seen in a video posted by ValorINTEL on X rushing the stage. Security was already on guard, as rumors started to fly of a planned disruption, and were able to apprehend the two men quickly.
While they were being tackled on the stage, the podium holding the trophy collapsed, with the trophy breaking into pieces. A second video in ValorINTEL’s comments shows more men rushing the stage and being taken down by security.
The source of the disruption comes from the owner of a skin gambling website, CSGO Empire. In a post on their website, CSGO Empire owner Monarch states that they were taking a stand against another skin gambling site, CSGORoll, because they were allegedly scamming users out of millions of dollars.
CSGORoll had partnered with G2 Esports in 2023, but the team had temporarily removed the site from their jerseys while the site was being investigated by the German government. Monarch, whose site had users who were previously part of a wave of bans against skin gambling sites (and the skins that were sold there), wanted to show how serious they were about sticking up for members of the Counter-Strike community and the people who were allegedly scammed by CSGORoll, using their partnership with G2 to fuel their cause.
In a post by Zeebe_Csgo on X, Monarch can be found on a live call on the Kick platform with members of his team, threatening that “anyone who doesn’t go all in, full thrust, we will fire.”
After they learned that the men had rushed the stage, Monarch and his team can be seen celebrating their victory, but the stream cuts to offline after Kick banned his stream from the platform. He then took to his partnered Twitch channel to brag about what happened.
When asked how this would affect his product, Monarch said “if this makes Empire, and Roll, and all the scammers shut down, it’s a big W. It’s a big win for the world.”
PGL, the event company who has hosted events for many different games other than Counter-Strike, such as DOTA2, Apex Legends, and Quake, released a brief statement on X, saying “we will be pressing charges against the disruptors.”
Skin trading has been a popular part of the Counter-Strike community, with some skins being worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Gamers can earn in-game or purchase loot boxes that will open to skins for various weapons, and the skins can be traded with other gamers. They can also be traded or sold to third party websites with a key that can be generated by Valve, the game’s parent company and owner of the Steam platform.
Due to a variety of changes Valve made in the past to try and curb scamming by traders, players with high-value skins started to sell them to skin gambling websites. These sites, like CSGORoll and CSGO Empire, allow players to gamble playing in browser games, and even gamble even on pro players, to earn either skins or cryptocurrencies. Many countries have banned the sites due to their own gambling laws.
What started as a way to gain users back to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) when the community was split between three different Counter-Strike games has turned into a full on business.
However, with what happened in Copenhagen on Friday, the options that players had to get paid for their skins may be coming to an end in the future to avoid the potential of gamers being physically hurt or assaulted for the practice of gambling skins.
The Spawn Room 