Tier-2 Gambit: Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy

For starters, we want to say that 2020 has made drastic changes in the whole world and in the competitive CS:GO world as well. Now all (almost all) championships of any scale are held online. Trying to abide by new health requirements, organizers place esportsmen away from the online format in a way that it resembles the distance between the professional CS:GO stage and hostage maps. Lots of Tier-1 representatives faced some difficulties after the change since these gamers got used to playing offline and they are morally more adapted to performing in front of an audience which was really disadvantageous for less experienced rosters. Besides, teams that spend time at bootcamps and play offline are not used to Internet delays in a game which only made the situation worse. But it turned out to be fruitful for weaker teams. They are used to playing on the Internet and now the gamers can have an advantage over the rosters that like competing offline. For better or worse, 2020 has turned everything upside down. There are still untouched tendencies like the fight between s1mple and ZyWoo for the right to be called the best CS:GO player in the world and Astralis, Vitality and NAVI still performing at a high level. mousesports, for example, have stopped frightening all enemies even though at the end of the previous year this was what they were doing. And Team Liquid, who won seven champion titles at major events from May till September 2019, lost their position as well. As a reminder, nitr0 gave up his career as a CS:GO player and set off to conquer Valorant. North America is losing its value as a division in the competitive CS:GO world whereas Asia and Oceania got completely wiped out. Even though Europe was mostly ahead, the new conditions have made its status bold. More and more American organizations are moving their rosters to Europe to participate in more considerable championships. 

Completing our introductory lyrical digression, we would like to remind that all spectators are used to keeping an eye on what is happening on the Tier-1 stage and how cruelly the teams are fighting for first places at major championships. Meanwhile, we asked ourselves a question “Is it possible to earn a lot of grabs if you mostly play at Tier-2 tournaments?”. In 2020, Gambit Esports’s performances made it clear that the answer to the question might be positive. Having run a simple analysis, we were surprised when we found out how much you can earn if you perform at not the most respectful tournaments but you do it well and stably. We are sure that you may also get surprised when you take a look at the conclusion. For clarity, we will compare the heroes of our article with the teams that are worldwide famous but whose earnings, to put it mildly, have been far from perfect during the quarantine period.

Attention! We based our calculation on the grabs earned at a tournament. We did not take into account taxes, shares for the club and others. We also want to remind you that we are talking about prize profit, so we ignore their salaries. We calculated only the competitions held in 2020 only, including those that had taken place before the global quarantine. The article was written on 1 December 2020, so all the calculation was relevant at that moment and could be different several days later.

Gambit Esports

Major Achievements

• DreamHack Open November 2020 — win
• Nine to Five #1 — win
• Nine to Five #2 — win
• Nine to Five #4 — win
• Nine to Five #6 — win
• Eden Arena: Malta Vibes: Week 4 — win
• Eden Arena: Malta Vibes: Week 5 — win
• LOOT.BET/CS Season 8

Earned in 2020: $323,374

Before October the team had been performing as the second roster and did not participate in any Tier-1 championships until recently. The team tried themselves at FLASHPOINT Season 2 but failed at the elimination stage while at IEM New York Online CIS the team took fifth place and earned $3,000. After that the team returned to their regular activities and won $60,000 in total for winning LOOT.BET/CS Season 8 and Nine to Five #6.

Astralis

Major Achievements

• ESL Pro League Season 12: Europe — win
• ESL One: Road to Rio: Europe — win
• ESL Pro League Season 12: Europe — 3 place

Earned in 2020: $281,000

The team occasionally got choppy due to the fact that the gamers from the well-known roster lost their motivation, got burnt out but came back to the fight. Their best achievement was a victory at EPL #12 Europe together with es3tag, who was later sold to Cloud9 for $500,000. We included the Danish team in the list to see that the status of the main star of the CS:GO stage does not mean that performing at Tier-1 tournaments will always bring good earnings with prize grabs for the team. Taking into account the level of Astralis as an organization and a CS:GO team and the fact that Gambit did not participate in any tournament with world-class teams, the result of the CIS teams in comparison to Astralis really impresses.

mousesports

Major Achievements

• ICE Challenge 2020 — win
• ESL Pro League Season 11: Europe — 2 place
• BLAST Premier: Fall 2020 Showdown — win

Earned in 2020: $273,500

Except for Bymas who took woxic’s position after he left for Cloud9, the roster of mousesports remained the same as it was in 2019. Then, as we remember, the team got into great shape and showed fantastic results at various championships. Now mousesports’ victories have been rare and the amount of money they earned is behind Gambit Esports’. We may notice that the other teams show the same tendency.

FaZe Clan

Major Achievements

• BLAST Premier: Spring 2020 Regular Season — win
• IEM New York Online: Europe — win

Earned in 2020: $250,350

As well as Astralis, this year has given a hard life to FaZe Clan. At first, olofmeister claimed that he was getting inactive due to his burn-out and loss of motivation to play CS:GO. Bymas took over the position as a substitute player and later moved to mousesports and managed to show his new bright side. After that the club signed Kjaerbye who had become famous as an MVP-player from Astralis at ELEAGUE Major Atlanta 2017. Then NiKo left the team to join his cousin at G2 Esports and YNk also decided to finish his collaboration with FaZe Clan. olofmeister, who had got inactive, came to help the team but his contribution to the game could hardly be called notable. Despite all the difficulties, FaZe Clan have managed to earn a quarter of a million dollars in 2020.

Fnatic

Major Achievements

• ESL Pro League Season 11: Europe — win

Earned in 2020: $221,250

Fnatic have nothing in common with their previous selves. In 2020, they triumphed only at one major championship. After the victory in April, they took 5-6 place in best-case scenario but more often 11-12 and lower. Despite this, they still managed to earn rather good money. 

Ninjas in Pyjamas

Major Achievements

• BLAST Premier Spring Series 2020 European Showdown — 3 place
• ESL One: Cologne 2020 Online: Europe — 3-4 place
• DreamHack Open Fall 2020 — 4 place

Earned in 2020: $150,000

NiP is a great example of the situation that if a world-class esports club has a CS:GO roster that helped them to get acknowledged, it does not guarantee high achievements. The team managed to get to Top Four twice and once to Top Three. At all other tournaments, the team was one of the first to leave the tournament, and if they got to Top Eight, it became a kind of achievement for them.