The State Of Counter-Strike in 2025 | The Four Horsemen (ft messioso)

The Four Horsemen return with their annual State of Counter-Strike special, featuring messioso (now Head of CS Operations at 100 Thieves) to break down the health of North American and global Counter-Strike in 2025. They dive into 100 Thieves’ re-entry into CS with a European-based roster, the impact of betting sponsors, and what Rain, gla1ve, and a rumored device pickup really mean for the scene. They also debate expectations for new “super teams,” the dominance of Vitality, the resurgence of FURIA, and whether this year ranks among the all-time great CS seasons.

The crew takes a hard look at Valve’s VRS ranking system, its strengths, its flaws, and how it affects tier‑1 access, team “clustering,” and the gap between top teams and those ranked 20–30. They discuss the booming tier‑2/open LAN ecosystem, concerns about overlapping events and tournament-operator “turf wars” in 2026–2027, and why Counter-Strike’s future is both bright and dangerously self‑sabotaging. If you care about where CS2 is headed—competitively, economically, and structurally—this episode is your roadmap.

In this episode:
⦁ 100 Thieves’ return to Counter-Strike, European HQ in Belgrade, and sponsorship realities
⦁ Why the new 100T roster (Rain IGL, gla1ve as coach, rumored device) is being misjudged by pundits
⦁ Vitality’s dominant year, FURIA’s late surge, and how close the top 5 teams really are
⦁ MR12, CS2 vs late CS:GO, and why recent Counter-Strike is more entertaining to watch
⦁ How VRS works, its “clustering” problem, invite cycles, and the difficulty of breaking into tier 1
⦁ Valve’s inconsistent rule enforcement, event demotions, and TOs changing formats mid‑cycle
⦁ Tier‑2/open LAN boom (Draculan & others) and how far those events can actually move rankings
Overlapping events, 2026–2027 calendar risks, and the looming “tournament war”

👉 If you enjoy deep, unfiltered Counter-Strike analysis, like the video, subscribe, and turn on notifications so you don’t miss future Four Horsemen episodes. Share this episode with a CS2 friend and let us know your take on VRS, MR12, and 100 Thieves’ project in the comments.

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The Four Horsemen is the premier esports industry show that reacts to important news and critical conversations across all major titles. Esports veterans Duncan "Thorin" Shields, Richard Lewis, and Christopher "MonteCristo" Mykles use their decades of experience to shed light and debate on key esports topics as they emerge. Each episode they are joined by an expert guest to help further provide insider information on the topic at hand.

Season 4 Episode 19 was filmed on December 16th, 2025.

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0:00:00 100 Thieves CS
0:23:10 The competitive scene
0:39:41 donk
0:56:04 The competitive + viewing experience
1:09:42 Major format
1:41:24 The VRS system + overlapping events
1:58:48 Team revenue streams
2:06:57 Skin gambling + more about revenue streams
2:26:33 Final thoughts

#CounterStrike #CS2 #Esports #FourHorsemen #100Thieves #VRS #Vitality #FURIA #Gla1ve