“I’ve had my grandma watch Counter-Strike and understand it”: Shroud on why Valorant will never overshadow CS:GO in popularity

Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek explained during a recent livestream the reason he believes CS:GO will continue to be a top esports title despite Valorant’s increasing popularity.

CS:GO has seen a huge increase in overall viewership on Twitch recently, with the PGL Major Stockholm 2021 registering over 2.5 million viewers. Shroud believes the game is going to remain the top esports title over Valorant due to an ease of understanding.

Shroud has compared the two games in the past as well, earlier claiming that Valorant is the easier game to understand and play. This time, however, he compared the two games from the perspective of the viewer, stating that viewers require knowledge of the game to understand what is going on in Valorant.

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Shroud explains CS:GO is easier for viewers to understand but gamers find Valorant easier to learn

During a recent livestream, Shroud compared CS:GO and Valorant from the perspective of the viewer. He believes that it is easier to understand what is going on in CS:GO than in Valorant for those who don’t play the games:

“Valorant needs a little bit deeper understanding. That’s the tricky part about it. Like, CS you watch, you understand smoke, molly or grenade. It’s simple, right? [In Valorant] It’s the same concept, but it looks different, so people don’t quite understand it. You have mollies, you have smoke, you have grenades, then you have extra things like walls and s**t. There is just like an extra later of complexity.”

Shroud believes Valorant has an added layer of complexity as players need to know about each individual agent's abilities and how best to use them. He declared that, in the meantime, even his grandmother could understand CS:GO:

“Meanwhile, I’ve had my grandma watch Counter-Strike and understand it. It’s super simple to understand from a watching perspective for the first time.”

Shroud made the above comments from the perspective of the viewers. Recently, in September, the streamer complimented Valorant for being easier to play than CS:GO, since the latter has a range of tactical equipment that needs to be used effectively:

“God, I love how easy this f**king game (Valorant) is. Like, in Counter-Strike, you’ve got to learn every single Flashbang, Smoke, Grenade, and [molotov cocktail] lineup to be an effective player. In this game, you’re relying on your team to be the effective players in those roles, and you’re focused more on your role, and I love that. I love that. It’s so simple. It’s literally so simple yet so elegant.”

Therefore, Shroud appears to believe that CS:GO is more difficult to play and understand for gamers as they need to take stock of and use tactical equipment as well. For viewers, however, CS:GO is easier to understand as the game follows simple concepts. Valorant on the other hand, has added complexity in the form of specific agent abilities, making it more difficult for viewers to understand, especially if they don’t play the game(s) themselves.