Summer holidays – who doesn't love them? Especially children who spend the majority of their time in school and eagerly await the start of their holidays. It's a time to finally relax, spend quality moments with friends and family, or embark on exciting trips. However, some people prefer to spend their summer holidays at home, engrossed in playing games. Despite being the season when most people go on vacation, it's worth noting that the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) scene remained highly active.

A lot unfolded in July 2023 in the realm of CS:GO, and we believe that many of these news stories will pique your interest. We would like to reiterate that we value your feedback on this type of content. So, without further ado, let's delve into the news.

News 1: Counter Strike 2: What we know so far about the new Valve project

In general, Valve has already confirmed that the release window for Counter-Strike 2 is set for summer 2023. Therefore, the game should debut on the market between now and September 30th. There were many rumors about this topic. Not too long ago, data miners had suggested that the game would be released on June 14th. However, as we now know, this information was incorrect. Nonetheless, the anticipation for the game is so high that there are new rumors circulating regarding the potential release date of CS2. The most interesting one (with the highest probability of being true) is August 21st. Why? Simply because Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was released 11 years ago, on August 21st, 2012. Therefore, if CS2 were to be released on August 21st, it would be a nice gesture to the fans of this game. Furthermore, we also know that Counter-Strike 2 will be a free-to-play game. The game will essentially launch as an upgrade to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. However, it should be noted that players who held Prime status in CS:GO will retain it (along with the associated bonuses) in CS2.

Additionally, we are aware that all the equipment, primarily referring to weapon skins, will be transferred to CS2. Surprisingly, this is causing the most concern among players. Some argue that certain skins may lose their appeal and original monetary value due to the different graphics. Moreover, the current list of confirmed maps for CS2 includes:

• Dust 2,
• Italy,
• Overpass,
• Train,
• Nuke,
• Mirage,
• Aztec

This is not a complete list of maps yet. However, the game will be released soon, so we won't have to wait much longer for everything to be revealed. We discussed the new graphics engine and smoke grenade changes in our previous CS2 article, so we won't explain them again. If you are interested, you can check out our other articles.

News 2: The luckiest CSGO player alive

Many CS:GO players enjoy both the game itself and the loot boxes. Is there anything better than opening a case and finding a rare skin or knife inside? Probably not. However, not many players can claim to be as lucky as the protagonist of this story. Yurr69 is a player with less than 40 hours of playtime in CS:GO. Most of us, after playing for such a short amount of time, would only find a few blue and maybe one or two purple skins. However, yurr69 hit the jackpot. He managed to find a perfect Blue Gem Karambit knife in one of his cases. The chances of finding this knife are around 0.001%, so we can say that yurr69 won the lottery. It is not surprising that the unboxing received a lot of attention, and many CSGO skin experts, like ohnePixel, reached out to the player to offer tips on what he should do with the skin. After all, our lucky newbie was shocked by what happened. He spent a whole week contemplating his options and finally decided to sell the skin for an astonishing price of $169,000. In a brief statement, he mentioned that he plans to save the majority of this money for his future. Well, we must say that such a sum of money significantly boosts most people's income. The entire transaction was confirmed by a player named Jake Lucky through his social media.

According to the player himself, in his short career in CSGO, he opened around 200 cases before finally obtaining his Blue Gem Karambit. It's even more remarkable when considering that this was the first knife he had ever received. As a result, the knife has been affectionately nicknamed 'The Noob Blue Gem.' However, while many in the community are happy for the player, there are others who are quite envious of his luck. They argue that it is unfair for a novice player to obtain a rare knife like the Blue Gem Karambit when they have opened thousands of cases without receiving a single knife, let alone one as rare as the Karambit. But that's just how life works, isn't it? Some of us are simply lucky. The pattern 387 dropped by the player is the 12th perfect Karambit ever dropped in the history of CSGO. Some players claim that the knife is worth at least $1 million and believe the player made a mistake by selling it at a lower price. However, it should be noted that the mentioned price of $1.5 million was merely an example and no actual transaction took place. The player himself has stated that he is happy with what he received from the sale, and that is what matters most. We are happy for him.

News 3: Ninjas in Pyjamas are the first team to qualify from Blast Premier Fall Groups 2023

Based on the information provided about a week ago, Ninjas in Pyjamas became the first team to qualify from Blast Premier Fall Groups 2023. They achieved this by defeating Vitality with a score of 2:0. As NIP finished at the top of Group A, they secured their spot in the Blast Premier Fall Finals 2023, which will be held at Copenhagen's Royal Arena in November. We are eagerly anticipating the start of this tournament. However, the most exciting news is the outstanding performance of a young player named Headtr1ck. This 19-year-old Ukrainian player is a protege of Navi, but he had struggled to perform at a high level of competition for a long time. Therefore, it is surprising that many people have been questioning his ability to perform at such a high level. Ninjas in Pyjamas decided to give this young AWPer an opportunity, and he proved himself with an impressive performance. In the first match against Vitality, he achieved 23 kills, 5 assists, and 15 deaths, resulting in a performance rating of 1.26 out of 2. In the second match, his stats were 18 kills, 1 assist, and 14 deaths, with a performance ratio of 0.99 out of 2. He is fast, aggressive, and accurate with his AWP shots. He has dispelled all doubts about his skills, and we are curious to see how he will perform in the Blast Premier Fall Finals 2023. Regardless, we wish him the best of luck."

News 4: The largest ban wave in CSGO has occurred

Valve has taken action against gambling sites, and as a result, the CSGO skin trading market is experiencing a significant ban wave. It is undeniable that this is a highly profitable business, but Valve has the authority to ban users without warning. Despite being aware of these websites for many years, Valve has been relatively passive. However, the company has now decided to take action. The ban wave began in May 2023, but the largest wave occurred on June 28, 2023. Valve banned 82 accounts worth $5,885,195 in just 24 hours. This information was shared in a tweet by the skin trader Pickle.

Our data shows that the ban wave is not slowing down. You may be wondering why Valve suddenly decided to take action against skin gambling websites. The answer is quite simple. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, there is a growing global opposition to gambling, with many countries completely banning all forms of it. If Valve doesn't react, CSGO could be blocked in these countries. Secondly, CSGO gambling sites are being widely used for money laundering and tax evasion. It's not surprising that Valve wants to distance themselves from this. Even the biggest traders and YouTubers are not exempt from the ban. Valve has announced that they will ban anyone connected to these websites or who promotes them. Therefore, it is advisable to avoid CS:GO gambling websites.

Most important CSGO July 2023 news

Here are the most important news from the world of CS:GO in July 2023:

• CS2, the sequel to CS:GO, is set to be released this summer, possibly on August 21, the same date CS:GO was released in 2012.
• A player named yurr69 obtained a rare "Noob Karambit Blue Gem" skin by opening only 200 weapon cases and having less than 40 hours of playtime. They sold it to a collector for $169,000.
• Ninjas in Pyjamas qualified for the Blast Premier Fall Groups 2023, thanks to the impressive performance of Headtr1ck.
• Valve took action against players who promote or use gambling sites for weapon skins, issuing a large ban wave.
• Navi team announced significant roster changes for the 2023 season.
• Twitch also started banning sponsorships related to CS:GO skin gambling.
• Valve confirmed schedule changes for Counter-Strike Majors, which will take effect in 2025.
• During a CS:GO case opening stream, ohnePixel lost over $100,000 in just one hour, making it one of the unluckiest streams in their history.
• Valve continues to make fixes and add minor details to CS2, indicating that the game will be released soon.
• Several updates were made to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, with a focus on the Overpass map. These are the highlights from July 2023. We will bring you more news next month, as we approach the release of CS2. Enjoy your summer holidays and stay tuned.