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This CSGO trivia quiz has 70 free questions with answers covering the whole life of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, from its 2012 launch on PC and consoles to the day Counter-Strike 2 replaced it on Steam in 2023. It covers the game itself (modes, weapons, ranks, the Arms Deal update that created the skin economy), the esports scene (every era of Majors from DreamHack Winter 2013 to the last CS:GO Major in Paris), the players and teams that defined it, and the scandals: iBUYPOWER, the coaching bug, skin gambling and Valve's money-laundering crackdown on keys. It is written for people who actually played and watched, so expect questions about the 87-0 streak, the Boston Major, Danger Zone, Trust Factor and Dust II's 2017 makeover, with difficulty running from things every player knows to a few that only Major obsessives will remember. There is also a short section on where the series came from and where it went next. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia and its cited sources before publishing. Play it, share your score, and find out whether your teammates were paying attention or just baiting.
30 of 70 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which studio co-developed Counter-Strike: Global Offensive with Valve, having begun by porting its predecessor?
Hidden Path Entertainment
The console port of Counter-Strike: Source grew into a full sequel once Valve saw the opportunity.
Q 02In which month and year was CS:GO first released for Windows, OS X, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360?
August 2012
CS:GO launched in August 2012 (21 August) on Windows, OS X, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, priced at $14.99, after a closed beta that had started the previous November.
Q 03In CS:GO's Arms Race mode, a kill with which weapon wins the match?
Golden knife
Arms Race hands players a new weapon after each kill; the final tier is the golden knife, and the first player to score a kill with it wins the match.
Q 04A full CS:GO Competitive match is a best-of how many rounds?
30
A full CS:GO Competitive match is best of 30 rounds: the first team to 16 round wins takes it, with sides swapping after the first 15 rounds; pro play added overtime when a match reached 15-15.
Q 05CS:GO's Competitive skill ranks were based on which rating system?
Glicko
CS:GO's skill groups were based on the Glicko rating system (a modified Glicko-2), which tracks a rating plus a confidence interval rather than a single Elo number; Valve never published the exact formula.
Q 06Which mode equips everyone with only an SSG 08 and a knife on a low-gravity map?
Flying Scoutsman
Flying Scoutsman gives every player only an SSG 08 sniper rifle, nicknamed the Scout, and a knife, with gravity lowered so players float through long jumps.
Q 07In Retakes mode, how many Terrorists defend the planted bomb against four Counter-Terrorists?
Three
Players pick a loadout card at the start of each round instead of buying weapons.
Q 08Which equipment new to CS:GO kills an enemy in one shot at close range?
The taser (Zeus x27)
The taser (Zeus x27), new to the series in CS:GO, kills any enemy in a single hit within a few metres; it held one shot and was discarded after firing.
Q 09Which popular community mod has players complete obstacle courses with advanced strafing and jumping?
Kreedz Climbing
Kreedz Climbing, usually shortened to KZ, is a community mod in which players race through obstacle courses using advanced strafing and jumping; it began on Counter-Strike 1.6 climb maps before moving to CS:GO servers.
Q 10What was the name of the August 2013 update that introduced weapon skins and cases to CS:GO?
Arms Deal
The Arms Deal update of August 2013 introduced weapon skins, weapon cases and keys; the skin economy it created helped push CS:GO's player count past every earlier Counter-Strike.
Q 11Which purchasable events, accessed via passes, gave players objectives and an upgradeable coin?
Operations
Operations were time-limited events bought via an operation pass; each gave players missions and a coin that upgraded from bronze toward diamond as objectives were completed, with some revenue going to the community map makers.
Q 12What did the October 2014 update add that plays the round MVP's own soundtrack for everyone?
Music kits
Music kits, added in October 2014, replace the default soundtrack, and the round MVP's kit plays for everyone; kits can be borrowed from teammates, sold and traded on the Steam Community Market.
Q 13Which classic map was remade and re-released in February 2016 as part of Operation Wildfire?
Nuke
Q 21CS:GO source code leaked in April 2020 alongside the code for which other Valve game?
Team Fortress 2
Valve confirmed the leak was genuine but said current builds were not at risk.
Q 22How much per month did the "CS:GO 360 Stats" subscription cost when it launched in May 2021?
$0.99
CS:GO 360 Stats launched in May 2021 at $0.99 a month, offering round-by-round match stats that had previously come with an operation pass; players noted free third-party sites already offered similar data.
Q 23In 2019 Valve made new keys untradeable after concluding key trading was being used for what?
Money laundering by fraud networks
Nuke was rebuilt and re-released on 17 February 2016 alongside Operation Wildfire; Valve said the goals were to balance the map and make it more visually appealing.
Q 14What did a player need to link to their account for CS:GO Prime matchmaking in 2016?
A verified phone number
Prime matchmaking launched in April 2016 and required linking a verified phone number to the Steam account, aiming to keep legitimate players away from cheaters and from high-skill players smurfing on alternate accounts.
Q 15In October 2016 consumable "graffiti" items replaced which older customisable feature?
Sprays
Sprays, the series' older paint-on-wall feature, were replaced in October 2016 by consumable graffiti items that can be bought, traded and applied a limited number of times; glove skins followed a month later.
Q 16Which publisher released a censored version of CS:GO in mainland China in September 2017?
Perfect World
Perfect World published the censored mainland Chinese version of CS:GO in September 2017; skulls were censored and the hammer and sickle was removed from Cache and Train.
Q 17What was CS:GO's hidden matchmaking score, introduced in November 2017, called?
Trust Factor
Trust Factor, introduced in November 2017, is a hidden matchmaking score built from a player's behaviour across Steam and CS:GO; Valve has never shown players the number or the full list of what feeds it.
Q 18In which month and year did CS:GO become fully free to play?
December 2018
CS:GO went fully free to play on 6 December 2018; anyone who had already bought the game was upgraded to Prime status automatically, while new free accounts had to earn or buy Prime.
Q 19What was the name of the battle-royale mode added to CS:GO in late 2018?
Danger Zone
The same update replaced the old Scaleform interface with the Panorama UI.
Q 20Operation Shattered Web (November 2019) was notable for introducing what to CS:GO?
New character models and a battle pass
Operation Shattered Web (November 2019) brought new character models and a battle pass: purchasable agent skins replaced the default player models, and weekly missions earned stars to unlock rewards.
In October 2019 Valve said key trading had become money laundering by fraud networks, stating 'nearly all' key purchases that ended up traded on the marketplace were fraud-sourced, so newly bought keys became untradeable.
Q 24In July 2018 Valve disabled case opening in which two countries over their gambling laws?
Belgium and the Netherlands
Valve disabled case opening for players in Belgium and the Netherlands in July 2018 after regulators in both countries ruled that tradeable loot boxes broke their gambling laws.
Q 25In the 2014 match-fixing scandal, iBUYPOWER deliberately lost to which team?
NetCodeGuides.com
iBUYPOWER deliberately lost a CEVO Professional match to NetCodeGuides.com in August 2014; seven people were permanently banned from Valve Majors, though other organisers later let them compete.
Q 26Which iBUYPOWER player escaped the Major ban because he took no payment, and later won a Major?
Skadoodle
Tyler 'Skadoodle' Latham escaped the ban because he had taken no payment for the thrown match; he went on to win a Major in January 2018 as his team's AWPer, while the bans ended two top in-game leaders' careers.
Q 27The 2020 coaching scandal involved coaches exploiting a bug to do what?
See parts of the map they should not have
Coaches exploited a spectator bug that froze their camera at a chosen spot, letting them see parts of the map they should not have and relay enemy positions; the Esports Integrity Commission sanctioned dozens of coaches.
Q 28How much does the AWP sniper rifle cost in the Counter-Strike buy menu?
$4,750
The AWP costs $4,750 in the buy menu; a single shot to the chest or head kills an opponent even through full armour, which is why teams save up for it on full-buy rounds.
Q 29The first significant TV rights deal for CS:GO put the ELEAGUE Major 2017 on which US cable network?
TBS
Turner followed up with Esports 101: CSGO and a docu-series in 2018.
Q 30CS:GO won an eSports title-of-the-year prize at which awards ceremony in 2015?
The Game Awards
CS:GO took the eSports Game of the Year prize at The Game Awards 2015, and was nominated for Best Esports Game at the same show in 2017 and from 2019 to 2022.