The Counter-Strike 2 ESL Pro League keeps setting record after record. Donk’s historic 38-kill performance against Wildcard set a new record for the event in Season 20 of the highly prestigious event. And then came the longest-ever CS2 match of all time, which made fans suck to their seats for over three hours.
After 71 rounds of play, M80 defeated Fnatic on Anubis in Group C’s upper bracket semifinal in Season 20 of the ESL Pro League. to set a record for the longest CS2 map ever played. Not only in terms of the length of the match, that semifinal clash also broke many records.
That day Anubis demonstrated how evenly matched the two teams were right from the start. Bo1 began and M80 won with a pistol to begin the first half, and Fnatic responded with gunfire. Then the game was evenly poised with a first-half score of 6–6, but nobody realized what they were getting into. It was quite an accomplishment for M80 to rally from an 8–11 deficit and force overtime.
However, the overtime challenged the limits of professional Counter-Strike, putting the stamina of every player to the test. The match lasted an eternity, with M80 ultimately winning 37–34 after an incredible 71 rounds of play, including eight overtimes.
In terms of the total number of rounds played, the game is by far the longest Counter-Strike 2 game ever broadcast on HLTV. Four players in all—two on each team—crossed 50 frags, with M80 winning the series 2-0 thanks to 58 frags from each of Reck and Slaxz.
The MongolZ and TYLOO set the previous LAN record for the most rounds played in a CS2 game with their eXTREMESLAND 2023 match, which lasted 54 rounds. Five overtimes later, the MongolZ defeated TYLOO 28–26.
Following M80 vs. Fnatic, the concurrent match between MOUZ and Imperial on the other stream for the ESL Pro League got underway. However, the match on Anubis was still going on when the players from MOUZ came out of their own Best-of-Three series, which also included overtime.
The map took more than three hours to complete, and within this, the whole series between MOUZ and Imperial was wrapped up. The possibility of setting a new record for the longest CS2 map was already generating a lot of buzz online at that time.:
Me: “I got an hour I can play one more”
The one more:@Sppokk
You’d think around round 60 they’d just go “knives only?” and settle it that way
@BBBence1111
Imagine finishing the game being like “damn that was a lot, let’s head home” and then they remind you “there’s still potentially 2 more maps….”
@BeenjiCS2
Imagine if instead of playing normal overtime, they just play bo5 1v1s on the warmup version of the map, like football penalties
@luriluras
One of the very few matches that featured a bathroom break in the middle was this one. Breaks are typically set aside for longer intervals between Maps 3 and 4 of the Bo5 or for times in between maps. However, it is uncommon to see one at CS2 map Round 60. Regretfully, despite 71 rounds of play, the two teams still had work ahead of them, possibly with two more maps in the series.
Despite gaining huge popularity, CS2 couldn’t match the legacy of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
Did you watch this historical map live? Then share with us what was going through in your head at that time, in the comment section.
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