The level of insight and behind the scenes backstory you recall is remarkable. I'm working night shift right now and very much brightened my day when I saw this video. Thanks Rich!
Oh my god csgolounge, I was like 12 betting skins and maybe doubling 5 dollars and coming home after a long day of being outside with friends. Then finding out the bet won made me so happy. Sadly betting with skins is long gone.
Absolute top tier content Rich, if Duncan's the esports Historian then you must be the esports granddad who sits us down and shares stories about shit that happened in the war. That Taz and Hastr0 story was a banger.
This is one my favourite videos you've ever posted on your channel and I already thought your channel has gotten better and better for years. I love hearing your stories and insight. My parasocial relationship with you brings a lot to my life ❤
my favourite thing is any time there is a redeye impression, Richard starts off with the oiioiinoiinggh grumbling sound before the first sentence hahahaha
Well, yesterday was one of those days where the "watch later" tab was actually useful for once, I dug up this gem and listen to it. I could not stop laughing at the "Me no speaky englando" Its such an epic story.
The hilaarious Redeye impressions, Me no speaky englando, Thorin of all people defusing the situation, Krystal's mom baking you a cake, the (also in my mind) fondly remembered tricast at MLG,... Shit this was absolute God tier content thanks Rich!
Thank you so much for the content Richard been a lurker on your twitch and youtube and on btn patreon for years now. The Romania major stories had me in stitches this is hilarious!
Totally feel you on the "black holes in my memory" bit. I've probably run production for 10.000's of rounds of the game and they all have just blurred into each other. There's entire events that we ran multiday, long work hour sessions that I don't remember because they weren't remarkable or was just too tired. It's the stuff inbetween, the travel, the locations, sometimes the people (even if those blur together as well) that stand out in my memory. But ya, The last Katowice major? Specifically the legends stage? The only thing i remember is that the food was terrible, the rest is just gone.
Reminding you that you look like an up-side down tree, and that this is very manly. And that women digg this 👍 Miss you and Duncan duoing events. It all peaked with semmler & anders, you and him. God dam what golden years.
This is an amazing retrospective piece. Been following you for years, and just want to say how much i've always appreciated your knowledge, insight and perspective on the scene, but also oftentimes just on life in general. What a career you've had, you actual legend.
When I went to MLG Columbus I saw RL for the first time and told him Liquid would win the major and he said “I’ve done a lot of drugs in my day son, but I haven’t done THAT many drugs”. Young adult me loved that this towering dude in a suit could say something like that while being funny and professional. Looked him up on youtube and have been watching since. Then I got to see the Liquid Luminosity game. And think back to that quote and laugh. Definitely my favorite major even though my team had 2 insane comebacks happen against them. Great memories and thanks for all the content since then. Got to follow the scene better through BTN and happy that we met even if you don’t remember it, one of the highlights of going with the context of what happened in the game. Looking forward to seeing the CS2 tierlist next decade 😄
Thank you very much Rich (and Griff for the editing ofc) for putting this out there; as someone who is involved in eSports at the collegiate level right now, I can assure that the lessons and knowledge that can be gathered from these old war stories will be helping me in the way I conduct myself to hopefully get eSports closer to what it should be even if its bit by bit. Dunno how to be warm like a blanket like Puckett is, but I'm sure results will come with experience and time
This series here is quite possibly the most information I've ever learned on whats going on behind the scenes in such a great way to do it. Thank you, genuinely, thank you.
Thanks for this history lesson RL. I started watching pro cs before I even played it in 2016. I only just started playing regularly about a year ago. It's cool to hear all the behind the scenes experience.
Jesus christ this is some reallly great stuff!! ton of context behind so many shit that happened. I really needed a break from some of the stuff i've been going through lately and this was pretty awesome to listen to Thank u rich hope you're having a good time
Absolutely fair about cologne 14, rich's peak into existential hell aside, HOWEVER as a mere pleb a young lad in highschool at the time I have a huge soft spot for this major. It was the first I really watched the entire event of as I was only a year or two into cs at the time. I was a huge nip dickrider and to this DAY the documentary/fragmovie that nip made of this win is one of my favorite eSports videos ever. That iconic anders call on inferno gives me chills every time.
Great content. I remember watching most if not all of these majors as a teen, great trip down memory lane and all the insight on the behind the scenes stuff is super interesting. Looking forward to the other part(s)!
1:27:30 Last I heard regarding Troubley was much worse. He ended up homeless in Vejle, Denmark, and got arrested and charged for aggressive behavior towards other citizens. Several news outlet used this as an opportunity to say esports is bad for your children etc. Although IIRC this was in 2019, hopefully things turned out better for him after his charges.
Just breezed through video without even noticing it was 3 hours long lol really liked listening to all the "inside" stories. And one point that stuck with me was about the crowd at these earlier events, you're absolutely right when you said they felt much more supportive in general, kinda saddens me to think about what happened here in Brazil
What a trip down memory lane. I started watching CSGO shortly before cologne 2014 while still at school and vividly remember being totally hyped for NIP. During the final i was apparently shouting so loud, my parents threatened to turn off the internet.
2:56:50 reminds me of CR7 scoring the bicycle kick vs Juventus. The Juventus fans knew they had seen something that was once in a lifetime so they gave a standing ovation even though they had just conceded the goal that would probably put them out of the Champions League.
Richard, that was great listen. NIP vs FNATIC vs VP was absolutely amazing time. I mostly follow Starcraft, but during that time CS quickly became my second fav watch.
Still less than half way through but I love this content. I also loved the time travel lan series. Heartbreaking story about your friend prior to Cologne 2014. Thanks for sharing.
I’m drunk and sentimental. I’m assuming Richard isn’t a stranger to the feeling. I got into esports watching MLG events COD ghosts as a 14 year old. Content like this has genuinely got me back into counter strike and esports as a whole. Love your work.
Just a quick question about boostgate, do you know the admin's thoughts after the first round of them doing it? That seems like the sort of thing where you'd get an admin pause and potentially even a ruling instantly because you clearly aren't SUPPOSED to be able to look over that wall at all. That isn't a thing that was intended for CTs to be able to do.
Dunno if it’s come out in the years since but I’ve always wondered why tf LDLC seemingly refused to switch up what they were doing when olofboost got deployed; iirc they legit just kept making the same approach right into the meat grinder, round after round
If I can remember this right, MLG Columbus 2016 was ever more stacked because even though fnatic had fallen off, they were on an insane winning streak after picking up Dennis. I think I can still remember the analysts discussing who their favorites were and at least one of them saying something along the lines of "fnatic shouldn't win this, but it's hard to say they won't".
Like Taz stopping the booing... In another great sporting event I remember when the crowd was racist and shouted abuse at Ding Junhui in Snooker years ago, resulting in young Ding (18 at the time I think, travelled to play in the UK from China) being taken out the arena live by his opponent the great Ronnie O Sullivan who put his arm round him and had a go at the crowd.
My first and only major attended was 2015 Cluj. I remember there was a small boutique with fridge magnets and shit outside the venue and the cloud9 team passed by and I only knew n0thing, but my little brother knew all of them including shroud 😂 back when he was a poor pro player haha. He shook their hands and that was that.
Today, i think i got it with Anders. He got what we can call the "comedian gene". He was, is just so damn silly and funny but always in a super relevant way. CANNOT FATHOM why people dislike him and Semmler, chalking it up to how people are just jarheads. Exceptionally sad really.
One of the only things I think I disagree with you on is that Dreamhack Winter should be fnatics. All for that fnatic villain era because that CS was such a level of entertainment.
God damn. Had every orange and white skin plastered in vp logos and autos. What a team. Wish they beat brazil haha brazil ruined both the vp story AND the first NA major story. Thank god for boston tho. Never forget.
Deeman totally destroyed that major for me. His casting was so obnoxious and it was so clear he had no idea what he was talking about. Misjudging timing constantly, you just knew he had never played the game or cared for it enough to play it and was just there for the money
I know iBP did the matchfixing. Not you. But you said yourself how RAMPANT it was at the time. It still happens. Why go so hard on this ONE team man? There were 7 to 1, 8 to 1 low tier 1/high 2 teams "losing" to tier fuckin 3/4 teams fairly regularly. Valve couldve easily handled it better, but as an NA fan who loves your content, its one thing I can't get over. Not taking responsibility away from the boys, but everyone was doing it. I dont get it.
The level of insight and behind the scenes backstory you recall is remarkable. I'm working night shift right now and very much brightened my day when I saw this video. Thanks Rich!
This isn't a tier list, it's a history of the game, from someone who's seen it all.
3 and a half hours and it's only part 1... the content gods have blessed us today
1:23:30 I could never forget penta. Back when I was a small child betting all my money on lounge they had a legendary 26% winrate
Oh my god csgolounge, I was like 12 betting skins and maybe doubling 5 dollars and coming home after a long day of being outside with friends. Then finding out the bet won made me so happy. Sadly betting with skins is long gone.
The Krystal story with his mum baking you a cake got me creasing heavy lmao! Great video once again.
Somehow that's one of the most endearing things I've ever heard. It sounds so beautifully naive to the esports industry.
I watched both livestreams of this. Now I am here to watch it again. Miss you and Thorin on the desk so much.
Cheers, Rich.
Absolute top tier content Rich, if Duncan's the esports Historian then you must be the esports granddad who sits us down and shares stories about shit that happened in the war. That Taz and Hastr0 story was a banger.
This is one my favourite videos you've ever posted on your channel and I already thought your channel has gotten better and better for years. I love hearing your stories and insight. My parasocial relationship with you brings a lot to my life ❤
I would love for you to do deeper dives on certain key events like cluj, that really stand out for you
There is a widespread lack of acknowledgement for Edward at MLG Columbus
Holy shit that dreamhack story really got me. I can't believe his own father betrayed him like that, what a scumfuck that guy must be.
Richard's Major Memoirs was awesome to listen to!
my favourite thing is any time there is a redeye impression, Richard starts off with the oiioiinoiinggh grumbling sound before the first sentence hahahaha
I love hearing all the behind the scenes of these events. Thanks for the video!
Well, yesterday was one of those days where the "watch later" tab was actually useful for once, I dug up this gem and listen to it. I could not stop laughing at the "Me no speaky englando"
Its such an epic story.
The hilaarious Redeye impressions, Me no speaky englando, Thorin of all people defusing the situation, Krystal's mom baking you a cake, the (also in my mind) fondly remembered tricast at MLG,... Shit this was absolute God tier content thanks Rich!
Banger for the ages, definitely. Personal touch added A LOT. Dark times in my life but this stuff helps a bunch.
Thanks, man. Appreciated.
Man this was incredible to listen to! What a throwback and so many interesting stories :))
Thank you so much for the content Richard been a lurker on your twitch and youtube and on btn patreon for years now. The Romania major stories had me in stitches this is hilarious!
Totally feel you on the "black holes in my memory" bit. I've probably run production for 10.000's of rounds of the game and they all have just blurred into each other. There's entire events that we ran multiday, long work hour sessions that I don't remember because they weren't remarkable or was just too tired.
It's the stuff inbetween, the travel, the locations, sometimes the people (even if those blur together as well) that stand out in my memory.
But ya, The last Katowice major? Specifically the legends stage? The only thing i remember is that the food was terrible, the rest is just gone.
Reminding you that you look like an up-side down tree, and that this is very manly. And that women digg this 👍 Miss you and Duncan duoing events. It all peaked with semmler & anders, you and him. God dam what golden years.
YES, i mean the beard.
Holy shit, I forgot about the Norwegian hardcore pc-gamer!
The redeye voice had me in tears hahaha. Great video.
This is an amazing retrospective piece. Been following you for years, and just want to say how much i've always appreciated your knowledge, insight and perspective on the scene, but also oftentimes just on life in general. What a career you've had, you actual legend.
When I went to MLG Columbus I saw RL for the first time and told him Liquid would win the major and he said “I’ve done a lot of drugs in my day son, but I haven’t done THAT many drugs”. Young adult me loved that this towering dude in a suit could say something like that while being funny and professional. Looked him up on youtube and have been watching since. Then I got to see the Liquid Luminosity game. And think back to that quote and laugh. Definitely my favorite major even though my team had 2 insane comebacks happen against them. Great memories and thanks for all the content since then. Got to follow the scene better through BTN and happy that we met even if you don’t remember it, one of the highlights of going with the context of what happened in the game. Looking forward to seeing the CS2 tierlist next decade 😄
Thank you very much Rich (and Griff for the editing ofc) for putting this out there; as someone who is involved in eSports at the collegiate level right now, I can assure that the lessons and knowledge that can be gathered from these old war stories will be helping me in the way I conduct myself to hopefully get eSports closer to what it should be even if its bit by bit. Dunno how to be warm like a blanket like Puckett is, but I'm sure results will come with experience and time
You’re a great story teller mate the whole cluj storey had me in stitches 😂
This series here is quite possibly the most information I've ever learned on whats going on behind the scenes in such a great way to do it. Thank you, genuinely, thank you.
Thanks for this history lesson RL. I started watching pro cs before I even played it in 2016. I only just started playing regularly about a year ago. It's cool to hear all the behind the scenes experience.
Jesus christ this is some reallly great stuff!! ton of context behind so many shit that happened.
I really needed a break from some of the stuff i've been going through lately and this was pretty awesome to listen to
Thank u rich hope you're having a good time
Absolutely fair about cologne 14, rich's peak into existential hell aside, HOWEVER as a mere pleb a young lad in highschool at the time I have a huge soft spot for this major. It was the first I really watched the entire event of as I was only a year or two into cs at the time. I was a huge nip dickrider and to this DAY the documentary/fragmovie that nip made of this win is one of my favorite eSports videos ever. That iconic anders call on inferno gives me chills every time.
Wow, this is basically my story aswell. Cant tell you how many times ive watched Tweedays vid.
Great content. I remember watching most if not all of these majors as a teen, great trip down memory lane and all the insight on the behind the scenes stuff is super interesting. Looking forward to the other part(s)!
Thanks for telling your tales from behind the scenes of CS history. Great insight and content.
Cheers, Rich.
I honestly feel privileged to get to hear all these wild stories from the majors, amazing content
This is so awesome man. Basically Richard’s memoirs. Listening to this while I’m at work!
1:27:30 Last I heard regarding Troubley was much worse. He ended up homeless in Vejle, Denmark, and got arrested and charged for aggressive behavior towards other citizens. Several news outlet used this as an opportunity to say esports is bad for your children etc. Although IIRC this was in 2019, hopefully things turned out better for him after his charges.
Just breezed through video without even noticing it was 3 hours long lol really liked listening to all the "inside" stories. And one point that stuck with me was about the crowd at these earlier events, you're absolutely right when you said they felt much more supportive in general, kinda saddens me to think about what happened here in Brazil
Been binge watching your videos after watching rostermania. I always wanted to do journalism but now I want to more than ever.
I can only apologise.
What a trip down memory lane. I started watching CSGO shortly before cologne 2014 while still at school and vividly remember being totally hyped for NIP. During the final i was apparently shouting so loud, my parents threatened to turn off the internet.
what a video, your videos are an instant watch when i get home from work and need to drink
2:56:50 reminds me of CR7 scoring the bicycle kick vs Juventus. The Juventus fans knew they had seen something that was once in a lifetime so they gave a standing ovation even though they had just conceded the goal that would probably put them out of the Champions League.
Richard, that was great listen. NIP vs FNATIC vs VP was absolutely amazing time. I mostly follow Starcraft, but during that time CS quickly became my second fav watch.
3 hours...part 1. Love to see it!
Richard giving compliments to people is one of the most wholesome things on the internet!
The most underrated part of Richard's memoir streams is his Redeye voice and I will not be persuaded otherwise
Thank you for carrying me through my menial summer dishwashing job for probably the next month with this content
so much lore.. this needs to be in a book.
the chronicles of go
Still less than half way through but I love this content. I also loved the time travel lan series. Heartbreaking story about your friend prior to Cologne 2014. Thanks for sharing.
I enjoyed this one a lot. Love from Munich, Rich ❤
Wow, love this! Great stuff
Thank you foe beying around all these year. Hope you do that documentary you talking about
Very insightful, banger of a video
Gives a great insight and told brilliantly!
I’m drunk and sentimental. I’m assuming Richard isn’t a stranger to the feeling. I got into esports watching MLG events COD ghosts as a 14 year old. Content like this has genuinely got me back into counter strike and esports as a whole. Love your work.
so many belter fucking stories. The hours flew by Richard.
“Me no have contracto” hahaha so fucking funny 😂
Your autobiography would be incredible. Appreciate the candour.
Ty for making such amazing content
could listen to rich talk all day, thank for the content
this is absolutely wonderful
Just a quick question about boostgate, do you know the admin's thoughts after the first round of them doing it? That seems like the sort of thing where you'd get an admin pause and potentially even a ruling instantly because you clearly aren't SUPPOSED to be able to look over that wall at all. That isn't a thing that was intended for CTs to be able to do.
ELeague majors were different class completely imo by far the best ones
I was so not ready for the "cock n' ball torture" comment AT ALL! 🤣🤣🤣🤣
The Redeye voice cracks me up every time.
Dunno if it’s come out in the years since but I’ve always wondered why tf LDLC seemingly refused to switch up what they were doing when olofboost got deployed; iirc they legit just kept making the same approach right into the meat grinder, round after round
If I can remember this right, MLG Columbus 2016 was ever more stacked because even though fnatic had fallen off, they were on an insane winning streak after picking up Dennis. I think I can still remember the analysts discussing who their favorites were and at least one of them saying something along the lines of "fnatic shouldn't win this, but it's hard to say they won't".
Super cool that Rich knows Opie and Anthony.
That showmatch for MLG Columbus was great.
Aw man, poor Gareth and his mum. That's heartbreaking.
The story of Robert Oland (not sure on spelling apologies) and dreamhack is such a sad story
Awesome Richard ;)
Fox had a belter of a map on inferno at cluj napoca, like 40+ kills carried g2 to overtime on that map
14:50 looking at you LEC broadcast
Listening to your stories over these hours I think this could be re-done with Duncan if that’s something you’d like?
absolute GOAT!
God damm i didnt know i could like taz more than i already did, but that NV story is the best thing ive ever heard. not a oz of bullshit in that guy
Like Taz stopping the booing... In another great sporting event I remember when the crowd was racist and shouted abuse at Ding Junhui in Snooker years ago, resulting in young Ding (18 at the time I think, travelled to play in the UK from China) being taken out the arena live by his opponent the great Ronnie O Sullivan who put his arm round him and had a go at the crowd.
what happened with scoots?
The CSPPA
If anyone knows their Melee history, the Cluj Major is the CS:GO equivalent of Apex 2015
My first and only major attended was 2015 Cluj. I remember there was a small boutique with fridge magnets and shit outside the venue and the cloud9 team passed by and I only knew n0thing, but my little brother knew all of them including shroud 😂 back when he was a poor pro player haha. He shook their hands and that was that.
Today, i think i got it with Anders. He got what we can call the "comedian gene". He was, is just so damn silly and funny but always in a super relevant way. CANNOT FATHOM why people dislike him and Semmler, chalking it up to how people are just jarheads. Exceptionally sad really.
RedEye is a menace lol
:0 no shot cobble is great, personal opinion ofc
2:31:40 - Somehow, the sausage gets made, in a way, and the sausage is delicious and tasty. Even though its all assholes and testicles.
LETS GO!!!
This is so much better than Oppenheimer
16:19 was this a bit or what
What?
"My time in e-sports is rapidly coming to an end" - and e-sports is worse for it
I can mow the lawn to this
Robert's story is depressing... I might be spending the rest of my life in prison if I was in his shoes
One of the only things I think I disagree with you on is that Dreamhack Winter should be fnatics. All for that fnatic villain era because that CS was such a level of entertainment.
Nice
Biblical content from the lord
God damn. Had every orange and white skin plastered in vp logos and autos. What a team. Wish they beat brazil haha brazil ruined both the vp story AND the first NA major story. Thank god for boston tho. Never forget.
21:45 LEAKED
Deeman totally destroyed that major for me. His casting was so obnoxious and it was so clear he had no idea what he was talking about. Misjudging timing constantly, you just knew he had never played the game or cared for it enough to play it and was just there for the money
2:43:53 😆
great stories lol
Part 1
1:48:00 no fucking way lol
I know iBP did the matchfixing. Not you. But you said yourself how RAMPANT it was at the time. It still happens. Why go so hard on this ONE team man? There were 7 to 1, 8 to 1 low tier 1/high 2 teams "losing" to tier fuckin 3/4 teams fairly regularly. Valve couldve easily handled it better, but as an NA fan who loves your content, its one thing I can't get over. Not taking responsibility away from the boys, but everyone was doing it. I dont get it.
me no speaky englando
gold