Journey

To start with I want to clarify one thing. I am not too good with investment ideas. In the past, I have invested in things like Paytm IPO(purchased per stock at 2100 INR but it fell 700) and OCX stocks(purchased per stock at 1.5USD but it fell to 0.25USD). However, recently, I have developed a new field of investments. E-Sports. And particularly in Counter Strike. In this post, I want to capture my current state of mind on why I think the investments I am making in counter strike is a good idea. I might review this post again in a year’s time to reflect back on. So, let’s capture this.

1. The upgrades in the game will just keep on happening

Recently, Valve launched the new Beta version of Counter Strike called Counter Strike 2. The new game is built on a new engine which will allow many upgrades to the game which were simply not possible with previous engine. The new game is also visually stunning with some of the skins look. By skins, I mean the pattern and design on a regular weapon which does not upgrade it’s capabilities but gives a confidence boost to the person playing with it. All professional counter strike players play with sick skin weapons. And all regular players want to play with one, even if it is a cheaper skin.

2. The number of new players

Counter Strike is a beloved game. It is one the major games in India which a popular with a group of people in college. In other countries, the adoption of the game happens at a very young age. The reason why most Counter Strike professionals start their career at a young age and retire or leave the highest level scene by age of 25. With the access to computers getting easier every day, the number of new players will keep on increasing and yeah they would want skins. Let’s compare the numbers from last year. In April 2022, the average number of players playing it was 568,983 with peak number going to 1,013,237, In comparison, In April 2023, the average number of players has risen to 918,085 with peak number up to 1,802,853.

3. A History of Good Investment

Some of the investments in Counter Strike are known to be quite profitable. For example, one of the best AWP skins in the game is called “DragonLore”. It was part of CobbleStone map collection. Since CobbleStone is no longer an active map in Counter Strike, this skin is no longer dropped. The only way to get this apart from buying it is crafting which in itself is very very costly with incredible low odds. At the time it was release in July 2014, it costed around 300USD. But now, it costs around 15000USD with very low availability. Titan Katowice 2014 Holo sold initially at 25USD. The current price for it is 79000 USD which is just insane.

I am not sure if I can explain all the things you can invest in. There are skins and stickers but there are also things like cases, capsules, agents, music kits which can be purchased. However, while I do not have much interest in how real world trade works for better investments there, I am more interested in Counter Strike and the trading world there is hopefully profitable even though they are just PIXELS!