Five countries that the CS:GO circuit should visit

The IEM Rio Major was set to break all the records, the Brazilian fanbase is well known for its passion and would be able to cheer on their legendary players such as Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo and Marcelo "coldzera" David. As the Challengers stage was opened up to have a crowd, it was expected that the Brazilian fans would show the Counter-Strike world what they had been missing by skipping over Brazil for big events for years.

Opinions are split on the Rio Major, some criticize the crowd for only cheering heavily for the Brazilian teams and with FURIA losing to Heroic in the semifinal, the grand final was noticeably quiet. On the other hand, the NAVI vs FURIA quarterfinal produced noise and atmosphere the likes the CS scene has never experienced before.

It's understandable that the home crowd cheers for their own teams, it has happened at every country the CS circus has visited over the years. It's only due to just how loud the Brazilian crowd was when a home team were playing that the difference when there wasn't a home team playing was so noticeable.

Brazil has been begging for a big event for years and with the legendary SK/Luminosity team being iconic in modern CS:GO history it's only fair that they eventually got a Major, this got me thinking, what other nations deserve a big LAN event (not necessarily a Major)? For this list, I will only be looking at countries that have not held regular S-Tier LAN events on the circuit and I will be looking at countries as a whole rather than individual cities.

Australia

First, we take a trip down under to the land of Barbeques and Crocodiles, Australia. Australia certainly isn't a historic CS nation like Sweden or France and the Aussies have not had the success that the Brazilian SK did to warrant a Major in their country. However, there has been a number of popular pro figures to come out of the scene most notably the Chad "SPUNJ" Burchill-led Vox Eminor/Renegades teams and more successfully the 100 Thieves team that housed names such as Justin "jks" Savage.

The biggest issue with an S-Tier event down under would be the time differences, with Australia massively ahead of the ROW in the time zones. Having held an IEM event for three years straight in 2017, 2018, and 2019 Australia has yet to hold an S-Tier LAN post-COVID. The only LAN event hosted in Oz since the online era was this year's ESL Challenger Melbourne, hardly a top-tier tournament, but the one thing you are guaranteed with an Australian crowd is interaction with all teams.

The lack of a tier-one Australian team means that there would be much more diverse support within the crowd to keep them loud throughout the duration of a tournament. We have experienced the beach party vibes of Sydney with the IEM tournaments and I think it's overdue for a return. Also Shoeys.

Denmark

Now obviously Denmark has its regular place on the circuit with Copenhagen being a favorite for (in particular) BLAST, therefore it was somewhat of a shock when BLAST announced that their first Major would be held in France instead of Denmark.

Arguably home of the greatest CS:GO team we have seen in 2018 Astralis, the fact that such a historic CS nation as Denmark has never had a Major is a travesty. Denmark boasts the two best IGLs of all time in Finn "Karrigan" Andersen and Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander and with one of the most stable infrastructures in terms of grassroots and education it's only a matter of time before Denmark gets to celebrate CS with a Major.

Unlike Australia there would be no major time zone issues, instead, the potential worry for the TOs would be similar to that of the Brazil crowd. Danish fans have proven at their events that they will passionately get behind Astralis, however, not even Heroic have been able to gather the same kind of support in past events. Regardless, based of in-game success alone Denmark deserves to take the next step from their BLAST events and get a Major.

South Africa

The first of my rogue shouts, South Africa certainly shouldn't have a Major chucked at them straight away however I believe there is a case for giving the country an S-Tier LAN to see how it shakes out.

South Africa doesn't have anywhere near the in-game history of Denmark or even Australia, their most notable team/player is Johnny "JT" Theodosiou IGL for Complexity. However, an S-Tier event in South Africa would give the region a chance to get some more eyeballs on it, pair it with a dedicated invite slot for a South African team and who knows what the turnout could be.

Among the obvious risks of hosting a tournament in a previously untested market South Africa has long been associated as a not-so-safe tourist destination, however, having held the infinitely larger task of hosting a World Cup in 2010 I'm sure that it would provide an exciting new destination for fans and players alike.

China

There are a lot of barriers to being able to hold an S-Tier event in China right now, however it goes without saying it is a massive market for CS to tap into. China is yet to have found the breakthrough into tier-one Counter-Strike with TYLOO having been on the edge for years, but never being able to make a proper inroad.

However, the lack of in-game success is irrelevant when you consider the sheer number of fans that an event in China could bring in. Having hosted IEMs in the past there is already the infrastructure and past events to be able to use, a Chinese crowd would likely be far from the loudest but in terms of the games' reach into that market it could be huge.

Among the many barriers facing an event being held in China would be the fact that they are one of the few countries who still are under some severe COVID protocols, as the rest of the world has begun to free up and get moving China has stayed largely locked down and any event in the country would need to happen after these restrictions have passed.

USA

What kind of American publication would we be if we didn't include the USA in our list. Yes ESL have announced two NA events on their Pro Tour for 2023, however, neither will be a Major. This would mean it could be 2024 before North America gets to celebrate a Major again, a wait of six years since Cloud9's triumph in Boston 2018.

It's not hard to argue why the US deserves a Major, yes the scene has suffered in recent years and there is a current lack of trophy contenders from the region. However, that does not change the fact that Boston was one of the greatest Majors and if anything the recent struggles of the scene should give NA more of a claim to a prestigious Major.

Another benefit of having a Major in the US is the diversity in location, with 50 states and a wide range of cultures and lifestyles across the states there is plenty of variety a TO could exploit to provide a unique experience. Failing the US, which has in fairness already hosted three Majors, why not go for the smaller brother of NA CS, Canada a country steeped in TV/Movie production history surely could provide a great show.

To finish of the list I thought I would put in some honorable mentions. I wanted to avoid making the list EU-centric and as such Portugal, Spain, and the Netherlands all miss out on this basis. France's recent acquisition of the BLAST Major disqualified them from the list. Moving into other parts of the world, Argentina and Canada just missed inclusion and due to the ongoing world events Ukraine was unfortunately not considered.