Gods Reign's departure from CS marks the end of an era

The date was 1st May 2023, exactly two years ago; Indian Counter-Strike was limping on its last legs and suddenly there was this ray of light, lighting up everyone's eyes with hope towards the Indian Counter-Strike scene. Renown tournament organizer across multiple esports titles, Skyesports came out with the announcement of Skyesports Masters 2023.

The community blew up and rejoiced over the return of big LAN events for Indian Counter-Strike. The major driving force of the event was it's prize and franchise system which allowed Skyesports to rope in big orgs into picking up Counter-Strike teams. The event also featured café tournaments allowing orgs to pick up talent from the grassroots level.

Set to be India's first franchised league with the biggest prize pool ever seen in Indian Counter-Strike by a mile's length, Skyesports Masters was the point of discussion everywhere with the organizer announcing teams in fragments. The tournament ran for over a month starting with a laborious double-round robin group stage. The teams already started taking shape with Marcos Gaming thriving with DEFAULTER at the helm early in the tournament.

Teams like Medal and Velocity struggled to put up a single win until the halfway mark when both these teams met. All in all, the phase was an unofficial revival era of the Indian Counter-Strike scene with teams like Marcos Gaming, Gods Reign, 7Sea and Revenant going a cut above the rest, showing the right combinations.

However, the Skyesports Masters 2023 legacy was tainted with allegations a while after it's completion. Teams like Velocity, Medal and 7Sea quickly disbanded after the event and Reckoning followed suit a while after. Enigma stuck around for a while experimenting with different rosters before stepping back in February 2024. Revenant tried their hand at an international roster before shutting shop last year and Marcos Gaming released their roster in July last year.

Gods Reign was the only Counter-Strike roster left standing from the revival era and the team had been through various iterations. It's most recent one, led by Bhavi, took Indian Counter-Strike to new heights, recording the first Indian representation at a Major qualifier. While dominant in the Indian scene, Gods Reign failed to create impact in the Asian scene, often struggling against small teams in ESEA games.

The final iteration of Gods Reign and their initial teams

Gods Reign recently announced their departure from the Counter-Strike and with that, all teams that took part in the Skyesports Masters 2023 have now gone inactive. Only a handful of Indian teams are left standing and VICTORES SUMUS is the only functioning org in Indian Counter-Strike. Indian Counter-Strike has hit the snooze button but with the core of Gods Reign still in search of a new home, things have not gone bleak for the scene yet.