This video is adverting Red Bull Flick 2021; a massive on-going CS:GO tournament,
hosted on a custom gamemode and arenas. And if you’re looking for something a bit different,
it might be just the thing. Think 2v2, changing control points, respawns, faster movement, and
shorter match lengths than the conventional CS:GO defuse gamemode, and you’ve got the premise behind
Red Bull Flick. I talked more about the game mode and maps in my first video, released earlier in
the year. The focus of this video will be on the tournament, which is just about to have its last
international qualifier, and then it’s onto the closed qualifier and ultimately, the Grand Final,
which is being hosted this November in Helsinki in front of an audience of 1,000, and it sports a
prize pool of €50,000. Tickets available in the link in this video’s description- there you’ll
also find links to streams of past qualifiers to get a taste of what Red Bull Flick is all about.
So let’s take a look at who the 16 finalists, making their way to the
arena in Helsinki later this year, will be. 6 of these teams will comprise of pro players,
invited along from Team Spirit, ENCE, G2, OG, FURIA and BIG Academy.
And the other 10 spots will all be amateur players who have proven themselves by winning
the various national, international, and closed qualifier events leading up to this final stage.
Many of these have been completed already, but there is still time for you and a friend to
compete in the 4th and final EU qualifier, taking place on the 16th of October. You’ll find a link
to that as well in this video’s description. Delving into the specifics, the 8 International
Qualifiers comprise of 4 EU events, 2 CIS events, and 2 special Niko and Hunter qualifiers,
which operate the same way as the EU ones do, but the winners of these also get to
play a show-match with these two pro players before heading on to the Closed Qualifier.
The winner of the Finnish event, and the winner of the Nordic playoffs will go straight to
the Helsinki Invitational, but the rest of the national and international winners will battle
it out in the closed qualifiers at the end of October until there are 8 teams remaining.
Thus, making up the final 16 teams who will then be heading to Helsinki for
a shot at the grand prize this November. In keeping with the theme, the teams have
already had to battle up the five arenas of Planet Bu-11, from the depths of the Digital Archives,
right up to the Lobby of the Orbital Station. Having proven themselves there, they now need
to compete in the 3 playoff maps, which are all based around the WinG Orbital Station itself.
Tophattwaffle has given the station’s Lobby map a visual and gameplay make-over,
more in keeping with the style of the rest of the playoff maps. I guess, if I had to describe
the old map, it felt like the entirety of a small station, whereas the new one feels like just the
lobby area of a much bigger one, sporting a grand scale and barred gates preventing the combat from
spilling out into the rest of the station. Which really feels like it’s a place with purpose.
I asked him: won’t swapping the map out for a new one confuse players? To which Tophattwaffle
responded with: ‘yes, everyone equally’! So to ensure you have the edge, be sure to check out
the new version of the Wing:5 Lobby map, which has been released today- and can be played over
on their community hubs right now, and you might even win yourself some faceit points by doing so!
On the surface, it is a simple arena layout. But if you look at the radar image,
you can see where all of its teleports lead to, allowing you to quickly navigate to the
furthest regions of this map. And it isn’t just the players who can use these- lob a grenade
into one of these and they’ll be whisked off to another point in the level, adding yet more
strategy and depth to the gameplay for the teams who take the time to study it. Imagine flashing
through a teleport -waiting for it to explode- and then transporting yourself through to deal
with any blinded enemies on the other side! But let’s take a step back for a moment and have
a look at what this tournament means for Counter Strike. Red Bull has created and is hosting the
largest custom game mode that Global Offensive has ever seen. It comes complete with professional
players, commentators and a production quality that’s reserved for the greatest of events.
Very few custom maps get as much competitive game time as the ones for Red Bull Flick have received.
And seldom do community members get a chance to prove themselves against pro teams in an
event such as this! While Niko and Hunter still ended up winning their show matches,
they didn’t win it by a land-slide- proving that mastery of this gamemode can help give
you a fighting chance, even when up against the greatest CS:GO players of all time.
‘They are more warmed up I think…’
When asked about the Red Bull Flick gamemode last year, James Bardolph was enthusiastic,
stating that he loved the pace and non-stop action, believing it to be more interesting
than Wingman, and was even up for matches of the Red Bull Flick gamemode to be hosted at majors.
And pro player, Fox, stated that the gamemode sported more strategy than he had expected.
Evidently, it will be some time before a team exhausts the possibilities of this gamemode.
The final rounds of this UK qualifying event were hosted at the Red Bull Gaming Sphere in London.
Winner of this national qualifier was Team ThrowPogChamp, comprising of players Fredfishoil
and Wolfie. Fredfishoil told me it was his first time ever, competing on LAN. But he and Wolfie
both had extensive experience online on both ESEA and Faceit, where they’ve gained experience
playing with -and against- the best players in the scene. He says that raw aim is obviously
very important to have, but that mastering Red Bull Flick requires other qualities as well,
like learning smooth movement and utility usage, especially in conjunction with the jump pads and
teleports dotted around these maps. There have been some sick plays from players zooming about
the map from launch ramp to launch ramp. Utilising these features helped the UK team
to hold their ground and to gain a positional advantage over their foes- as well as studying
my previous video about the maps, which of course contributed greatly to their success!
Sound cues also helped Fredfishoil to score a few extra points against the opposition,
and that he really enjoyed the interactive map elements, like the ability to close doors,
which he felt made the experience feel completely new and original. Sadly, as we all know, chances
to attend events in person have been few and far between in recent years, but they can’t wait to
fight their way through the closed qualifiers and hopefully onto the event in Finland!
And there’s still time for YOU to participate in the final EU qualifier on October 16th!
If you and a friend are keen then sign up using the Faceit link down in this video’s description.
And if you’re happy just watching the teams battling it out, tune in for the
Grand Final in Helsinki over the weekend spanning the 19th to the 21st of November.