I dont feel like making a more detailed post, but simply it's Valve being interested in how to make money out of it and putting in the effort and resources. Complete opposite of id basically
And watching these pro games on stream is fucking awesome, enough variety in the players and teams to form favourites wether that be their personalities or game styles, lots of amazing plays, great coverage which is on most evenings now and SKINS.
Timing is everything, quake or some variant will come back once the true e-hipster is born. Quake will be their vintage axe, then everyone will be pissed that all the douchebags ruined the game.
Just because something is popular doesn't make it good. Hundreds of millions around the world consider fast rhyming over a 4/4 drum beat good music. If the top chess player in the world were streamed right now on twitch I doubt many would care. Maybe because there are no hats on the pieces. Perhaps when something is multifaceted and challenging most people lose interest. Quake duel is the best 1v1 FPS experience but the reason why it isn't very popular is because it's too punishing. That isn't going to change but I guarantee you if Quake had gibs, higher resolution textures and Keel had titties casuals would be way more interested regardless of the actual gameplay. Sex, violence and shiny things always grab peoples attention. Advertisement basics.
OP, being a CS guy myself I can tell you the 100% reason why it is so popular...
skins. if it weren't for skins this game would be nowhere near the level it is today, majority of these viewers are in it to get drops.
Also some tid-bit info about how much valve only care about money, during the pro matches if you watch on stream you get some case drops, in this tournament the final map in the veto process is "randomized" by valve. now then I think 90% of the group matches were played on a map called cobblestone...
so you may be asking what does this mean? As I mentioned when watching matching these "tournament crates" are randomly given to people watching, depending on the map so for example "inferno crate" if inferno is being played. The cobblestone crate contains one of the most "rare" skins that everyone wants...so if cobblestone is being played 90% of the time it = more money, more viewers for valve
sorry if it didn't make much sense, but this is the extent they go to for csgo. The game itself is horrible, very linear compared to 1.6 and full of bugs despite making multimillions each month
Quite happy with the fact how big csgo got, it's the only game which will probably be a popular esport title in the shooter scene for the upcoming 5-10 years or so.
Yet I kinda love the salty quakers who think that if it wasn't for LoL/Dota2 or Csgo that it would be Quake which would be played on Dreamhack now with a 250.000$ prize money and 300-500k specs... I won't further explain why this would not be so, instead I will just say: dream on.
I can't even think when Quake was really a popular game. But I assume it was around 1999 - 2004/2005 until painkiller came out, after that it only went downhill with Quake 4 and other arena games coming out which split up the community and therefor the competition + sponsors and prize moneys.
Quake Live was dead (in esport terms) on the day it came out already imho. I mean, who could even life from the prize money in QL, ever? Cypher and Rapha ? While the others had to flip burgers to pay there rent in the meanwhile.
Don't see this as a rant or negative post about Quake itself, I actually love the game, but ID has absolutely no clue what they're doing...while Valve clearly does. Being a pro in Quake means you grind through 1200-1600 Elo players 4 hours a day, while you have tons of competition 24/7 in Csgo ongoing.
Can't see how k1llsen can stream like 3-4 hours straight on how he's beating up trash players 20/1 within 3 minutes...but I assume thats what you call practice in QL nowadays...I get bored 5 min throughout a game when I play a 1200-1300 elo guy cause I can't find a reason to shit a guy into pieces who clearly doesn't stand a chance...
I'd be happy that cs is going to be the biggest title once again if the game was actually good and if the legitimacy of the pro scene hadn't been destroyed.
There have been a few instances of pro teams cheating - from map exploits to bringing wallhacks to LAN tourneys. Probably some match fixing too; those Russians are some crazy fucks.
-People using aimbots on LAN, these aimbots can also be used as WH
-Valve not banning everyone that was cheating because it would destroy the scene
-Pro teams throwing matches for skins
It just further cements valves true motive behind the game which is $$$$$$$$
I didn't elaborate properly, they're making multi-millions each month from csgo but despite that...
-game feels like it's still in pre-alpha
-full of bugs up until this day, if they do fix bugs it takes them a whole year for one little fix
-Lack of good servers, at this rate they could have an option to join 64 tick or 128 tick servers with the amount of money they generate
But I know the type of company that valve are and this game is 100% for monetary gain, sure you'd say "well duh" but there are many companies out there who also want to provide the very best game possible to their users and make money. (a lot of these companies who don't earn a third of what valve do from csgo alone)
Yeah, I mean fuck having pride in something you do for a living and taking a genuine interest in the culture that surrounds what you do... You know, like the way both id and Valve themselves did things at one time. It's not about them wanting to make money, it's about money being the only bottom line they're interested in.
quakelive has had a fair bit of pro players with salarys, though this was mostly during 2009-2011 right up to IEM dropping ql.
The big issue with quakelive is that there have been no advancements in keeping the community invested, matchmaking,ingame stuff like skins etc would all have been something to keep people invested and feeling that they get something out of it.
Just look at what qlranks did, a good portion of the duel and ca community were strictly playing for elo.
People like flashy things like this and the game doesnt even have to be good to attract people as long as you provide said flashy things.