Thousands gather in Astana arena to watch CS2 championship

The Barys Arena in Astana has brought together the world’s top 16 Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) teams to battle for a $1.25 million prize pool. The first day of playoffs, held in front of a live audience, united fans from around the globe to cheer for their favorites. Kursiv.media reported from the heart of the esports arena.

The entrance to Barys Arena was crowded with fans eager to watch their favorite teams in action.

Sergey from Moscow traveled to Astana with his girlfriend specifically to watch the tournament.

«I’ve been following esports for a long time. I flew to Astana for CS2, since the CIS hasn’t hosted a tournament of this scale in a long while. We arrived in advance to do some sightseeing. We went for a walk yesterday — everything looks so beautiful here,» the fan said.

However, not everything went smoothly. According to Sergey, the section they had bought tickets for was closed, and they had to take different seats.

«That aside, everything is fine. Except they took away cigarettes, which, of course, would be a problem for smokers,» he added.

Thousands of fans arrived at the venue to watch the match between The MongolZ (Mongolia) and Aurora (Turkey). Despite strong support from fans for Mongolian players, they lost to the Turkish team. The next match, between NAVI (Ukraine) and Astralis (Denmark), gathered even more spectators. Both teams received loud cheers, though the crowd’s support leaned more heavily toward the Ukrainian side.

The tournament is being broadcast on Twitch, YouTube and other platforms in various languages.

The heated crowd screamed and applauded as if it were a football match. The corridors were filled with lines of fans waiting to purchase merchandise from their favorite teams.