An ode to the loveable, horrible, wonderful Counter-Strike community and my first tournament experience

"It sounds like you need to find some sense of belonging, a group you can call your own and feel at home with."

Those words, or words to that effect, are ones my therapist recently spoke to me. I think she probably had in mind something a little more traditional—church, or one of those manly men groups, something like that—but last week I found a glimpse of a solution amidst an industrial estate in Warsaw, Poland.

There, Logitech G Play 2026 was being held, including a Counter-Strike 2 tournament with a $100,000 prize pool. As I sat on a bleacher seat surrounded by Poles, despite not understanding a lick of what was being said around me or by the Polish commentators over the speakers, I felt at home.

The stage housed both teams—the Canadian team Luminosity Gaming and the French team 3DMax —facing each other, and the audience lining all four sides, with big screens above the stage on all …