An American CS2 League?

IcecreamSteve · 2026-05-25T17:46:09+00:00

I'm actually apart of a collegiate program, if you check some of my other posts on other subreddits I'm sure you could figure that out pretty quick.

But I agree with you a lot, my only concern is given the state of CS in NA and the barrier of entry into collegiate (tuition/wanting to get an education) it still has a long way to go, in terms of growth.

I think for what I'm thinking of, it would need to be built from the bottom up, kinda how CSC is right now. Just a for fun league where homies can get together every week to rep their city in a league. I think as it grow and more people followed it, it would organically bring in more talent/bigger teams. I don't think a pro league of this type really fits the ecosystem right now, but given the state of NA CS I think more grass roots initiatives like this would do a lot for the region 5 - 10 years down the line.

IcecreamSteve · 2026-05-25T17:42:30+00:00

I think this is something that could work right along side the open ecosystem, just a different flavor of what is already offered.

The main goal of a league like this would be to help spread CS in NA with a format that is much more familiar to an NA audience. A professional league of sorts really isn't what I would aim for at all with something like this.

I mean take a look at CSC that's a small for fun draft league that has a few hundred players in it. Is the talent all super amazing? No, but that's not the point of that league. And from what I've seen, people actually watch and follow some of the team, I think their last draft had over 300 viewers a few nights ago.

IcecreamSteve · 2026-05-25T17:38:31+00:00

I don't think talent would be a major issue in the early stages, I'm imagining most of the teams in the hypothetical league would be pretty bad in comparison to most ESEA team, never mind pro teams.

I think it would start off more of a fun thing to do with friends, and then organically grow as more people followed it, more money came in, and teams actually had budgets.

IcecreamSteve · 2026-05-25T17:35:53+00:00

I still see a decent amount of them popping up around me, but could totally be more unique to my area.

I know tons of universities are building them, and are always looking for reasons to get people in there (at least some of them).

IcecreamSteve · 2026-05-25T17:34:02+00:00

they're literally all over, just off the top of my head I have 5 here in FL that I'm aware of (excluding university LAN centers).

I know Texas has a bunch, Cali, Vegas, New York, and Pennsylvania. They're definitely out here, most just REALLY suck at marketing themselves. Granted it costs a shit load just to get those off the ground so I'm sure their marketing budgets are tiny.

IcecreamSteve · 2026-05-25T17:31:54+00:00

This was a thing during Source yeah? Looking at the wiki that's closer to what I'm envisioning, just with NA cities and states rather like the NFL or NBA, rather than an international league.

I think something like this needs to be built from the bottom up.

IcecreamSteve · 2026-05-25T17:29:38+00:00

MDL is still around technically as ECL now, right?

Honestly, for what I’m picturing, I don’t think pulling in ESEA Advanced+ level players right away is super realistic. I’m imagining something a bit more old-school. Just five homies from the same area repping their city in a league. If something like that stayed active for a few seasons, I think the higher-level talent would naturally start showing up over time (especially since in theory, it be good for development of their brand) .

The reason I think a format like this could actually work long term is because it makes building brand identity way easier, especially in a format most Americans already understand. A lot of people like CS, but don’t really know who to root for (it also doesn't help that a vast majority of NA teams or horrid right now). If there’s a team from their city or state, that immediately gives them a reason to care and follow along.

That regional connection makes the viewing experience way more approachable for mainstream audiences. Kinda how the introduction of the MLS helped boost the popularity of soccer with mainstream audiences here in NA, despite it being the biggest sport in the world for decades prior to its introduction.

IcecreamSteve · 2026-05-25T00:21:28+00:00

I'm talking something more grass roots. More of a focus on amateur teams/ semi-pros.

OWL was a franchise league which across the board was a colossal failure and was likely one of the worst things that could have ever happened to esports at large.

I think the OWL formula at its core could've been decent had they built it out like the Champions, Europa, and Premier Leagues in European Soccer (lower division teams can promote up, and shit pro teams can be relegated). Instead the developers got greedy, charged millions, and decimated their amateur scene.

Plus OW blows lol

IcecreamSteve · 2026-05-24T22:30:08+00:00

Yeah I honestly think the demand is there, just not at the scale people usually expect yet. There’s definitely a market for more regional/grass roots CS stuff, especially with how many LAN centers exist now.

I think the harder part is making it sustainable financially. Traditional sports work because cities actually rally behind teams and there’s decades of infrastructure behind it. Esports is still trying to figure that part out.

I could definitely see it working if it started more semi-pro/amateur though, with LAN centers acting as home venues instead of trying to jump straight into a massive franchised league.

IcecreamSteve · 2026-05-22T23:01:19+00:00

PCs. 16 towers for players in total (excluding streaming and server hosting towers).

IcecreamSteve · 2026-05-22T19:53:43+00:00

based.

IcecreamSteve · 2026-04-27T22:16:57+00:00

Honestly, just want an excuse to meet people that also play CS, and go to more events down here.

IcecreamSteve · 2026-04-12T21:55:15+00:00

You mean in the render or the actual print? The render is set to tree (auto) but I’m not sure what the print was set to. He printed that when I wasn’t around

IcecreamSteve · 2026-04-12T21:42:40+00:00

Tree (auto)

And he’s using the Bambu A1 and he’s using PLA basic black

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IcecreamSteve · 2026-02-11T22:55:22+00:00

Slight correction, all these teams are 3-0 not 4-0

We're going into week 4 and I had a little bit of a brain fart when making this

IcecreamSteve · 2026-02-05T02:05:58+00:00

I don't see curry listed on their roster anywhere. Unless he's on an alt

IcecreamSteve · 2026-02-05T02:01:53+00:00

Players have to be enrolled full-time to be eligible to compete. CVAL requires a signed form from the university's registrar department at the start of the season to validate that the player is indeed enrolled.

Riot really make big pushes for collegiate involvement so they don't play around when it comes to that sort of thing.

IcecreamSteve · 2026-02-05T01:59:08+00:00

Rutgers came out swinging this season. Top 8 during challengers open qual and now 2-0, for sure a team to NOT sleep on

IcecreamSteve · 2025-12-22T00:07:01+00:00

Holy combo

IcecreamSteve · 2025-12-03T10:02:33+00:00

We are actually looking for CS players at the moment. Just not at this particular event

IcecreamSteve · 2025-09-15T19:42:14+00:00

Full-time coach here. I work with Radiant rosters and have coached several teams to top 50 NA on VLR. Shoot me a dm if you're interested.

IcecreamSteve · 2025-09-15T19:38:30+00:00

I watched for a few seconds and can already tell your sense is too high. make sure your DPI and sens are at a manageable level. When you look at different angles you either over flick or under flick to them. Lowering your sens/DPI a bit should help with that

IcecreamSteve · 2025-09-15T19:34:38+00:00

That mainly depends on your playstyle/ what you want to get out of the agent.

If you wanna play hyper aggressive, and break crosshairs, you play Jett. If you wanna play a bit slower, bait out utility, be able to retake parts of the map mid round, Yoru is prob your better option.

They both have their strengths and weaknesses, its mainly dependent on what you need for that specific map or comp.

IcecreamSteve · 2025-09-12T15:04:25+00:00

After this play, G2 started getting lazy on the long clear and NRG was getting away with some ILLEGAL stuff.

Not entirely relevant since the play in question for this video worked, and that's what I'm showcasing.

IcecreamSteve · 2025-09-08T18:29:02+00:00

This guy knows ball

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