Czech CS:GO Teams Set the Record for the Longest BO3 Counter-Strike Series Ever Played

• Czech CS:GO Teams GUNRUNNERS and eSuba played a total of 137 rounds of Counter-Strike to create a new record.
  
  
• The match which lasted for more than 5 hours was witnessed at the semifinals of Sazka eLEAGUE Spring 2020.
  
  
• The longest game of the series was played on Overpass consisting of a total of 72 rounds.

Recently, there has been an active discussion around the viability of the 'Maximum Round 12' (MR12) format of VALORANT being a used as a replacement for the MR15 format in CS:GO. At the core of this discussion was the fact that Counter-Strike games last for a fairly long time, as Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander recently Tweeted that “Early days CS:GO 30 rounds would last for about 45 minutes, today it is at least an hour I believe.”

However, a recent match played between two Czech teams ‘GUNRUNNERS’ and ‘eSuba’ during a regional tournament took this to the extreme. The match in question was played in the semifinals of the 'Sazke eLEAGUE Spring 2020' and lasted a staggering 137 rounds, taking more than five hours to finish!

While the first two maps Mirage and Train were won by GUNRUNNERS and eSuba respectively, with a scoreline of ‘16-13’ and ‘19-17’. The final game on Overpass witnessed a ruthless onslaught by both the teams as the match went into seven overtimes before eSuba was finally able to attain victory with a ‘37-35’ scoreline.

This is hands down the longest Counter-Strike best-of-three series ever played in the world, overtaking the match between ‘XENEX’ and ‘exceL’ at ESL UK Premiership Season 1 back in April 2015 when a total of 127 rounds were played. Though when it comes to the single longest game, it still dwarfs in comparison to the ‘46-42’ scoreline achieved on Inferno in the XENES-exceL match which came to an end in the 10^th overtime, favouring XENEX.

It was an incredible Counter-Strike series which witnessed three players cross the 100 frag threshold with Martin “Dytor” Handl securing the maximum number of kills with a whooping 123 frags, an ADR of 101.1 and an overall rating of 1.4.

All Players with More than a Hundred Frags

Maybe if the whole series adopted an MR12 format the outcome of the match would have been different, because though it is exciting to watch two teams slog it out in a series as close as this, it really takes a toll on the players. Also, in the long run, to keep the viewers engaged and interested it would be best to keep the total playtime in check. Which raises a clear question as to what the 'maximum rounds' for a match should be?

[Also Read: Gla1ve Supports Pimp's Suggestion to Reduce the Number of Rounds in CS:GO Matches]