Can Australian CS:GO compete with NA and EU?

Australian organization Grayhound Gaming finished sixth at ESL Challenger at DreamHack Melbourne 2022 last week and took home $3,000 in prize money. Although they didn’t make it all the way to the top, they still showed Australian potential.

Just a few weeks before the start of the ESL Challenger Melbourne 2022, ORDER went into voluntary administration, leaving their rosters without organization and being offered to other potential buyers. In Melbourne, the former ORDER CS:GO line-up ended up playing under the Grayhound banner, and fans were happy to see them still together.

Australia needs more opportunities to compete with EU teams

Grayhound Gaming were victorious against regional rivals VERTEX, but failed to prevail against international opponents. In an interview after the event’s conclusion, Grayhound AWPer Alistair “aliStair” Johnston offered his opinion on Australia’s prospects on the international CS:GO scene. He said that despite Grayhound struggling in Melbourne, Australia can easily compete with North American CS:GO teams. However, he also admitted that Europe is too good for him and his team.

AliStair is confident that Grayhound and his compatriots can eventually take on the EU heavyweights, but there’s still a lot of training to do before then. The 24-year-old Australian explained that Europe is a lot tougher and that the team didn’t have the opportunity to test their full line-up against EU teams and let their rifler Declan “Vexite” Portelli gain experience.

“As long as Australian teams get the opportunity to play against European teams, the whole scene will grow,” said AliStair and added that the top teams in Australia compete against American teams, which has a strong impact on the Oceanic CS:GO scene and its development.

Gaining experience

AliStair also pointed out that it’s very good that international teams also come to his country and train against Australian teams because AU teams need that experience and it makes the scene better known. “It’s good for the whole scene that these events are coming to Australia.”