Intro

• "The last month has convinced me, that we are going to be heading into a dark place for Counter-Strike esports in 2021."
  • "I think I've seen the scene essentially kill itself."
• "For the past 5 to 6 years, we've basically been in a holding pattern of people coming into our game wanting to run it, wanting to run all of the esports and wanting to profiteer and its been sort of a concerted effort to drive them off and push them away."
  • "We're spread way too thin."
• "If Riot don't get involved and stop the scumbags that have moved over to Valorant from getting their feet under the table, Valorant is going to have real problems."
• RL thinks too much has happened all at once for us to do anything except watch it play out, like:
  • Recent CSPPA strike against BLAST
  • ESIC failures and them not being supported enough
  • Teams cheating i.e. coaches/bugs
  • Widespread match fixing
  • The Pandemic
    • "People who try to hold bubble events are so incompetent and fuck up and people get the 'rona and its their fault."
    • "People who say Flashpoint is a bubble is full of shit and is a lie and people are now suffering for that lie."
      • "To save money they let people go home and break the bubble for a week."
      • "Not just Flashpoint peoples decision, they have a partner that handles the production." (hinting FACEIT)
      • "People are trapped in hotels essentially under house arrest because of COVID restrictions and has fucked peoples lives up."
• "It's all too much, all of this incompetence, all of this greed, maybe we ride it out."
  • RL says he has talked to the Riot devs (the ones working on Valorant) and says, "They are so cognizant of all the fuck ups and all the problems we have in Counter-Strike."
    • He continues to say that this is factored into their business plan and that we never had a competitor, but just so happens to have one coincide, when we are at our worst.

CSPPA - Counter-Strike Professional Players' Association

"Who does this union really fucking serve?"

• RL believes that the CSPPA is a mockery.
  
  • He points out the hypocrisy that they wouldn't strike for the pros who were kicked out of ESL Pro League, or for Jamppi or dream3r.
    • He also says ESL paid CSPPA and are racketeering and many other TOs have to pay them to get their "seal of approval"
      • He says they would strong-arm TOs saying "well if you don't give us the money, these guys are so we'll just have to commit to playing their event."
    • Also points out that they will strike against a competitor they are not in agreement with (Flashpoint)
    • RL: "It's what it says about every other time you haven't done it and it's about every time you don't do it now moving forward." "The issues they've chosen to ignore this year alone are embarrassing."
    • Then he points out that there was no strike for Valve qualifiers even if we have no major but Jamppi and dream3r can't play in them.
      • "and Valve have said 'Oh yeah we know actually their stories are accurate, Jamppi didn't cheat, now in a legally binding document. Yep dream3r did have his account hacked in a LAN café', but they still can't play. Where is the fucking solidarity? Gone. Doesn't exist. It's not important [because] it doesn't affect you." "That's what the union does right now, it looks after all the tier 1 people."
• He says the CSPPA doesn't represent all players all the time and has driven a divide where you have the haves and have-nots
  
  • "We have a tier of players that operate with impunity and do not help their tier 2 or tier 3 players out at all." "If you are not a tier 1 player you do not matter, they don't event ask your opinion."
  • He tells chrisJ to admit and own the fact that the reason he didn't speak up during the ESL Pro League debacle is because it didn't affect him
  • "They are looking after some players at the expense of other players. How the fuck is that a union?"
• He says the BLAST situation is a reasonable dispute and supports the players but is not the right time for a strike and have not even identified the correct enemy
  
  • He thinks players are lashing out now due to previous incidents and are upset that BLAST are working with ESIC
    • He stated that CSPPA shouldn't beefing with ESIC and they should be working in harmony
  • He says what they need to do is talk with the teams/organizations that have sold that right to BLAST
    • RL: "Your employers, the people who pay you that massive exorbitant salaries, when you don't stream and you don't do interviews and you offer no value beyond your ability to click heads and you get 25k dollars a month." "Why don't you talk to them about it? Oh right. You're happy to take away BLAST's paper, but you don't want to risk your own."
  • "I am seeing such unbelievable cowardice from the players here with the battles you choose."
  • "Where was the strike action when in the qualifiers for the world championship, there were teams and players engaged in huge conflicts of interest?" "Where was the strike action when your image rights were taken and sold to every league you've ever been in every union type organization you've ever been associated with like, WESA, to your org every time you sign a contract, to the leagues you play in."
    • "Your image rights are essentially worthless now, there's about 10 fucking separate parties that have them, and how many of them are giving you anything for it? Not much pretty much your org by the way."
    • "That's a big issue. Your image is you, your image is your brand. What are you doing about that? Nothing."
• He is also angry at SirScoots who is "popping off" at people on Twitter who all want the same thing, which is 'A unified Counter-Strike scene for everybody, that works for everybody, that has a sustained ecosystem that nourishes everybody.' "We don't have that now."
  
• He also says their rankings are a joke
  
  • "Just so happened, oh look TACO, that very important prominent member of the board, we pushed his team artificially up when they weren't even in the fucking top 20, not by a long shot."
• He also says the ineptitude of the CSPPA cost Flashpoint a monitor sponsor
  
• "Is it really a player association or is it like a fucking agency at this point"
  

ESIC - Esports Integrity Commission

"They have been put in an impossible position."

• RL says that Ian Smith, the founder of ESIC and who was done work in mainstream sports, is a good and honorable man who has dedicated his life to integrity and sports. He takes on both sides, ensuring match fixers are punished, but also doing appeals and ensuring those punishments were fair.
• "ESIC is a tiny organization" and are in need of money, "They didn't run a grift like the CSPPA did."
  • "Saying 'you want our support and you want the players to turn up you better pay us.' They don't do that."
  • "Had startup seed money from MTG and since then they've been pecking shit with the hens."
    • Ian Smith made sure that the money given by MTG (Modern Times Group, parent company of ESL, ESEA, DreamHack) was nothing more than startup money and wouldn't be in debt to them
      • Ian Smith sat down with other TO's not part of MTG and wanted to partner with them. They declined and called ESIC "ESL spies and we will never align ourselves with you"
  • "They only were just able to afford, hiring a PR guy on a full time salary to deal with the press and send out those releases you've seen, this year."
    • "They have a tiny group of staff investigating these things and they have taken on the biggest problems in our scene: the cheating, the match fixing."
• ESIC have had "unprecedented levels of cheating to deal with, because there's something wrong with our scene ever since we went online. There's something wrong with it, everyone's lost their fucking pride and self-respect and they got no passion for it anymore, so they think fuck it, what's in it for me?"
  • He calls out coaches who are talking about players rights when they would rob and steal from them.
    • Also says more coaches being banned are coming
    • He also points out flaws in community's reaction to the punishments to coaches bans: "Half of the cunts still have jobs and some of the cunts got new jobs. We didn't even shun the cheating coaches."
• ESIC have "found I think another 2 or 3 exploits like that one and they are investigating them all right now, it's going on right now."
  
  • "I know that there are going to be more names getting banned, again."
  • "So they're doing that on a skeleton crew while, investigating 3 continents worth of match fixing in MDL and semi-pro level CS." "They're doing this with half a dozen people." "They don't have any money or any help. People barely even fucking cooperate with them, they are treated like pariahs. It's ridiculous."
    • "Why are the CSPPA popping off at ESIC on my Twitter timeline, when you should be working together." "because its all about what's in it in for me." "2020, the online era of CS: 'What is in it for me?' How can I cheat, how can I get my paper, how can I bleed this scene one last time before I fuck off and play shooty shooty bang bang Riot Games babys first fps."
• RL says that in the CIS region, teams have gone to tournaments and have been eliminated multiple times by the same team. We found out they were cheating and those players who lost, have been cut from their roster, careers ended because of cheaters.
  

Stream Sniping

"They're all at it in the online era, they're all at it, they're all cheating, they're all using exploits, probably that see through smoke bug got used a bunch of times"

• RL talks about how there is no integrity from dead (the player), always denying when caught doing something
  • On the topic of 'BLAST never said we couldn't stream snipe': "Lies, BLAST never said you could do that, they had to sort of retcon it." "because what happened after that they fucking started snitching and squealing"
    • "Suddenly you had like, 10 of the top 15 teams in the world, staring into the abyss of being banned for 6-12 months in line with ESIC recommendations."
      • He says that ESIC was put in a tough situation and couldn't enforce the bans because it would have resulted in killing CS. What resulted was, BLAST, ESIC, and teams came together and gave them a warning and told them, in RL's words "don't do this again or you're gonna get got."
        • He then says the top teams brushed this off and didn't give a fuck
        • The new MiBR team playing Flashpoint, that wasn't involved in the previous incidents are doing it again (stream sniping). He gave credit to Flashpoint for the quick resolution and punishment and respect for cogu's response to the situation.
        • "ESIC came out and said, once more, 'Guys, zero tolerance from now on.'" RL then got upset at community's reaction calling ESIC "pussies" for their non enforcement and said if we want competitive CS we cant ban the top 10 teams.
• He points out how players have no integrity and will do anything for an edge as long as they won't get detected or banned or it's within a grey area.
• "All of this shit was mad avoidable, even in the pandemic era."
  • He talks about why aren't we filming them. Why aren't there representatives for leagues and tournaments making sure players aren't cheating?

Match Fixing

"How many years have we let our scene be fucking pillaged by these greedy cunts?" "We just let it happen."

• RL says that gambling and skins betting which existed in moderation was "accelerated and blown up by the Call of Duty greedy fucks."
  • "Never forget TmarTn was on the board of EnVyUs." "His website, CSGOLotto, they had a bunch of off-the-books sponsorships." "NBK promoted them. People forget."
• "Those people who had access to the skins, go to the players" "Even people like s1mple, best player in the world, even he scammed knives and skins off fucking fans."
• Owners of skin casino sites would approach pros and lend them skins to use in tournaments and possibly keep them after reaching a deal
  • Players would tip off inside info about matches and teams in exchange for skins. Info such as: roster changes, how they played in scrims
    • They would use this info to bet and subvert the odds on their sites. "That happened religiously, I can't even tell you how many times it happened."
      • "I had access to the biggest database of information, from an inside betting circle in NA, and it would take information and screenshots from other pro players, who were feeding them info in exchange for money or skins."
        • "Some of these players are still playing." "Incredibly, there are players still in the CSPPA today, complaining about the BLAST recordings, that were embroiled in this murky shit back then."
• RL also says that there were tournaments where teams contrived with each other, who should throw, who should win.
• "There's a handful of people that are trying to fucking clean it up, and you think you get something over the line and you see something like the CSPPA and it's run by corrupt fucking chuckle heads, and now you've got another corrupt body you have to fight on a fucking daily basis, it's demoralizing."
  • "It's too far gone. Our entire semi-professional scene is compromised."
• "It's rife guys, I'm not going to lie any more. It's not just China, it's not just Russia, it's here, it's NA, it's Europe, it's Australia, so much more than you think, so much more than we can prove."
  • "I get sent chat logs all the time […] and they're morons, these players, short-sighted, amateur, morons and they're doing it on WhatsApp." People would get cut from the bets because they want to make more money, then they leak the logs. He says, from the chat logs, they spread "little" bets across every site they can (400 to 1k dollars) to prevent shifting odds
• He says the scumbags who've fucked off to Valorant will do the same there if Riot doesn't do something and says Valorant "is an esports scene heading for a very early fall based on the sheer volume of scumbags that are already there."
• "That's tier 2 CS in a nutshell these days. They know they're never going to play in a major, so what's the punishment?"
  • "All of these tier 2 fucks that are fixing games now they are like the fucking mafia compared to iBuyPower" "These guys are working with organized criminals to fix entire seasons worth of games. That's what's going on in your tier 2 CS."
• "I'm literally being told that there are players fixing games at all levels of Chinese esports and motherfuckers with guns are turning up to team houses and stuff."

North America

"Everyone in NA has left we've lost a continents worth of support during this pandemic and Valve haven't said a fucking word."

• RL says the Call of Duty "goblins" that destroyed CS for years are the same people who are now trying to leave CS. "The nerve to treat a game where the fans, and the community, and the TO's were nothing but good to you." "To just kick the players out now and go and leave and say 'It just doesn't make financial sense.' Oh you'll slither back when we have a major though for them stickers won't you."
• There's a cascading effect in NA where people don't bother with CS anymore and people like Chaos suffer.
• He says NA team owners are incompetent for always wanting it easy and always wanting a guarantee on their investment without skill or nuance.
  • RL says he would be able to market a team correctly and would have a good ROI and also points out how TSM wouldn't even be bothered to tweet that their team, which was one of the best in the world, was playing at the Major.
  • He also says not all NA owners are like that, compliments and respects Jason Lake who nearly lost everything to keep Complexity going.
• He then calls out the incompetence in Infinite Esports when they acquired OpTic Gaming and bought an Indian CS team.
  • He says HECZ is not to blame here and that they couldn't tell forsaken was cheating when it was so obvious.
    • They measured his reaction time to the likes of dev1ce and s1mple
    • When an enemy showed up on his screen he won that duel something like 44% of the time
    • "was like the number 1 player in the world statistically"
    • He brought a laptop to their bootcamp and refused to use the high end PCs that hey provided
• He respects Andy Miller (NRG CEO) and HECZ but says that the attitude of not being able to easily monetize their teams is "piss weak" and there needs to be a risk.
  • He says Chaos EC shouldn't be cutting their roster and should be competent enough to be able to figure out how to make money off their team.
• He says there are still opportunities in NA and people are panicking and pulling out, and says Valorant will be the same if not worse.
  • He also says "bums" who couldn't even get out of groups in NA competitions, are making crazy money in Valorant and says it will continue to inflate.
• He also said that he heard rumors that EG (Evil Geniuses) are done.
• He also thinks that the rumors of a Valve franchised league from before was sparked up from "these lazy fabled weak NA fucking team owners basically trying to see if Valve would bite at the hook if it was dangled and they didn't"
  • Slasher says NA team owners are really in favor of franchised leagues because they want to make more money. "Most of the powerful team owners right now are on board with ditching this third party organization structure, or they are trying to play this power politics with all the TOs, and that is contributing to a lot of the problems there"
• RL says that Riot has proved they can run a franchised league (LCS) and will be profitable in 2021 which is what a lot of team owners care about and says the competition will only serve to snatch people away from CS.
• RL continues to say, "I am so sick and tired of what we have done to this scene, I am just exhausted with it." "I think we have legitimately fucked it, I really think we have. I think we're staring into almost like a CGS (Championship Gaming Series) wasteland in NA." "Counter-Strike esports is a fucking joke."

Talent

"TO's have treated CS talent like absolute human garbage for years now."

• RL says that people like Sean Gares and ddk switching over to Valorant isn't for financial reasons because they are making less over there.
• He points out that TO's can't even give talent a 3 month in advance calendar.
• Because of the pandemic TO's won't hire certain people and some people are working more hours for the same money.
• He says we as a community don't respect journalists enough which is why we don't have good journalists.
  • He also says DeKay is leaving the scene soon and that Thorin is close to leaving also
• He says he had to talk a caster down from quitting and was struggling to find reasons.
• He says that DreamHack told Vince they would hire him but not if he wants to stick with dusT and says that this is the norm in esports. "Constant leveraging of people against each other." and says this is why we don't have a talent union.
• New gen casters are getting put into shit situations and the community's reaction to them is adding fuel to the fire
• He says the reason Moses left was because of the terrible conditions
• He says that Anders had to constantly leave his family and kid because someone fucked up or broke promises and had to constantly tell his kid to their face that "daddy can't be home this weekend."
• He says that esports has always been a lie to sell you this dream, "Meanwhile there's about 2% of the cunts getting all the checks."

Valve

"Anything that Riot does, is better than Valve's inaction"

• Slasher says that the larger aspect of esports as a whole compared to other entertainment mediums and Valve's lack of inattention are the bigger problems. He continues saying that the fact that Valve let their game be ran as an esport, they need to take on the responsibilities of it.
  • Both Slasher and RL wants Valve to take control but not on the level of Riot Games, there needs to be a balance.
• In case it was ever a question: Gabe Newell has been to 0 CSGO Majors.
• RL calls Valve out saying they could have done something during the gambling era.
• He says Valve used to come to the majors, but doesn't think they do anymore.
• RL had met with Valve at the Cluj-Napoca Major and had tried to appeal iBP's indefinite punishment and had also gave Brax's life story:
  • A recent family member passed away, they had lost a lot of income, they had to live in trailer, iBuyPower did not pay any salaries, and was pressured by family to make money who didn't support his career.
  • RL said that Valve told him, "How dare you try and make us feel guilty." "We shouldn't feel bad about enforcing the only thing that matters that we need to make players afraid of: cheating and match fixing"
  • RL also tried to share other info about match fixing and nothing came of it
• RL points out that Source 2 or a new engine is not something you will want based on the experience of transitioning from CS 1.6 to CS:S. "Valve's track record with brand new engines being launched, not fucking great from what I remember."
• Slasher says "If there is anything the community should do, is pressure Valve to hire a community manager."
  • They say that we need a commissioner, a community manager (not the person who runs the Twitter who posts memes all day), then we need to have a circuit
• RL reiterates that Valve doesn't care about CS esports and says they need to change the culture at Valve to make them care about CS esports
  • Slasher says a systemic problem is making it so working on CSGO would be a bad decision for you as an employee for Valve
• He also hasn't talked to Valve in ages and have sent over bugs and cheats and doesn't get emails back anymore
• Slasher says we should be directing attention at the developer leads, pointing out Ido Magal, if he even is still the project lead
  • RL thinks that Ido and Brian are the only people that "vaguely even give a fuck about CS" and were the only people that RL recalled that actually read Reddit and paid attention from time to time
• "It is really fucking precarious. Somebody has got to step the fuck up and start giving a shit"
  • Slasher suggests org owners, with CSPPA, with ESIC, with TOs have a concerted effort against Valve
• "Riot Games are doing better things than Valve in the esports space" which is something RL didn't think he'd say.
• "People who used to be talent, working with unions, arguing with other talent, when the unions fucked them over, can't understand their perspective, TOs fucking over broadcast talent, broadcast talent wanting to leave and go and work for orgs, orgs having no money, Valve might take coaches away because all the coaches are cheating, ESIC has about 4 people in a fucking call doing the investigations, everyone thinks they're spies for ESL, ESL are just the evil fucking overlords wanting to rule the scene and will just somehow, like cockroaches outliving a nuclear bomb, and Valve are in a fucking holiday in Hawaii thinking about the next Dota character because they don't give a fuck about us."

Closing Statements

"We've peaked. If we want to sustain and exist, now is the time to figure it out. No esports lasts as long as this, we've already done 8 years. We've already broke the records. We have got to figure out a way to coexist and drive the negative forces out and we need to do it as a collective and we're not doing that."

• RL compared the Counter-Strike scene to the people on the Titanic who ran around with guns robbing people while the boat was sinking.
• "We have given up on being a respectable esports scene." "We are now a conduit to make money for those who want to just milk it, just have one last ride, one last roll of the dice. It's done." "What a fucking mess. What have we done to our fucking scene?"
• "There's just too much self-interest driving all of this." "I don't see a way we stop the dominoes." "When it's that bad, when there's that many dishonest people that ESIC have to come out and say that if we punish them all there's no one left. What does that tell you?"
• "How many opportunities have we had to clean house? How many times have we said, 'this must never happen again', and another scandal." "The entire skins betting operations was the biggest criminal conspiracy in esports ever executed and no one has been punished for it." "The people who could be driving that don't want to."
• "Right now people are fans of those organizations because the scene has value. It is worth being a fan of Astralis because they are excellent at Counter-Strike. It is worth being a fan of s1mple because he is the best player in Counter-Strike, maybe the exception of ZywOo. If the scene is devalued, if the scene loses its meaning, those things lose its meaning too, and people will leave, people will stop tuning into the games. I have seen it happen in multiple esports, this is not my first time at the rodeo. I am getting big Brood War vibes right now and I don't like it."
• "The role you play in all of this as fans, as viewers, as listeners, as consumers of esports content, it's absolutely imperative that you know who the good guys are. It's absolutely imperative that you use your voice. It's absolutely imperative that when things are bad, you know who, at least, is trying to make them good, and you have to apply your criticism to the right targets."
  • He continues saying it's no good in continuing to attack ESIC and saying how they are bad, ESIC have it hard
• He says CSPPA are on the right side of the argument on BLAST but have been on the wrong side of many arguments many times.
  • "If you are not willing to stand along side the weakest member of the union, with the least amount of influence, and the least amount of power, then it is not a union at all and you shouldn't pose as one." "You wanna serve a bunch of special interest do it, everyone else in esports fucking does, but do not pose as something you are not." "We love the players. I've been fighting for players rights for as long as I've been able to, but the CSPPA is not what we needed."
    • "They are not applying the pressure to the right people, they are not fighting the right battles, they are not helping their weaker members."
• He says what orgs have done by keeping or hiring coaches is bad. "When you give up on holding an appreciable standard, you've lost the scene" "Competition matters, rules matter, punishments matter, achievements matter, excellence matters" "If you start stripping that away, you have nothing" "You guys need to take that knowledge and apply it sensibly."
• "Valve has sold you all down the river, they sold everyone in the esports scene down the river, tournament organizers are selling their talent down the river. Don't hate on them for sounding tired after a 16 hour day. Don't hate on them because the hype for a matchup they've seen for the 20th time in the past 3 months, they can't be as excited or it sounds contrived. Support your guys, they're there for you, these are your people."
• "This community has got to start acting like one for the first fucking time. Just put the petty shit away, let's try and fix this fucking scene while we still have one to save."
• "You can't rely on Valve, you can't rely on ESL, you can't rely on the CSPPA, you can't rely on anyone." "Once again, it's gonna be the likes of us, the amateurs, the people who give a fuck, rolling up our sleeves and grafting." "I'm old and tired and I don't want to have to do it again. People need to pick up the torch and do it."
  • "Like Michal did, like Dudenhoeffer did. You see something wrong, fix it. You see somebody doing something wrong, call it out. If you think something could be better, let people know."
• "Vote with your wallets if you're not happy with the direction Valve goes in. If when we do get to the Major, they serve up another subpar, same old bullshit stickers and signatures package again, do not buy it."
  • "You're a powerful block and if you use it correctly we can fucking avert this disaster."
• "I'm not doing another year in this broken, bust-up fucking scene, where everyone is miserable, everyone is broke, everyone is tired, and everyone is trying to fucking rob everyone else, blind, while the fucking people who are meant to be protecting you, are just fucking enhancing it and lining their own pockets."
  • "I'm not doing it anymore and you shouldn't want to do it either."
• "I stand by every fucking thing I said. I mean it, because this game fucking matters to me, this scene fucking matters to me. I put my life into this, my adult life, and to see it in this state is fucking sad."

Welcome!

• JC/Secondary/Poly kids waiting for next year
• "ORD LO" mates waiting for Uni
• University kids with spare time

What will you be doing with this PC? Be as specific as possible, and include specific games or programs you will be using.

What is your maximum budget before rebates/shipping/taxes?

When do you plan on building/buying the PC? Note: beyond a week or two from today means any build you receive will be out of date when you want to buy.

What, exactly, do you need included in the budget?

Which country (and state/province) will you be purchasing the parts in? If you're in US, do you have access to a Microcenter location?

If reusing any parts (including monitor(s)/keyboard/mouse/etc), what parts will you be reusing? Brands and models are appreciated.

Will you be overclocking? If yes, are you interested in overclocking right away, or down the line? CPU and/or GPU?

Are there any specific features or items you want/need in the build? (ex: SSD, large amount of storage or a RAID setup, CUDA or OpenCL support, etc)

Do you have any specific case preferences (Size like ITX/microATX/mid-towefull-tower, styles, colors, window or not, LED lighting, etc), or a particular color theme preference for the components?

Do you need a copy of Windows included in the budget? If you do need one included, do you have a preference?

Extra info or particulars: I understand that GPUs are one of the hardest things to get ahold but I have a preference for an RTX or XT card to get the most performance I can, I don't feel like stalking out any of the new GPUs or CPUs

Build Help/Ready:

• Ryzen 5 1600
• Gigabyte GA-A320-S2H (I bought this because I didn’t have much money to buy a B450M, but in hindsight I should have saved some money for it.)
  
• NZXT Beta Mid Tower (I had this because I had an old mobo from the late 2000’s and swapped the mobo because I had an RX 580 that wouldn’t work otherwise)
  
• Stock AMD cooler (I mainly want to get an AIO)
  

What will you be doing with this PC? Be as specific as possible, and include specific games or programs you will be using.

What is your maximum budget before rebates/shipping/taxes?

When do you plan on building/buying the PC? Note: beyond a week or two from today means any build you receive will be out of date when you want to buy.

What, exactly, do you need included in the budget? (ToweOS/monitokeyboard/mouse/etc)

Which country (and state/province) will you be purchasing the parts in? If you're in US, do you have access to a Microcenter location?

If reusing any parts (including monitor(s)/keyboard/mouse/etc), what parts will you be reusing? Brands and models are appreciated.

Will you be overclocking? If yes, are you interested in overclocking right away, or down the line? CPU and/or GPU?

Are there any specific features or items you want/need in the build? (ex: SSD, large amount of storage or a RAID setup, CUDA or OpenCL support, etc)

Do you have any specific case preferences (Size like ITX/microATX/mid-towefull-tower, styles, colors, window or not, LED lighting, etc), or a particular color theme preference for the components?

Do you need a copy of Windows included in the budget? If you do need one included, do you have a preference?

Extra info or particulars:

What will you be doing with this PC? Be as specific as possible, and include specific games or programs you will be using.

• My ultimate goal with the PC is to edit videos. Music videos with graphic effects maybe not so heavy. For my current PC I use Sony Vegas and Adobe Premiere.

What is your maximum budget before rebates/shipping/taxes?

• $700

When do you plan on building/buying the PC? Note: beyond a week or two from today means any build you receive will be out of date when you want to buy.

• Currently I don't have all the money together. So I'm working and while I'm getting paid, I'm buying components. But let's say the time limit would be January 2022.

What, exactly, do you need included in the budget? (ToweOS/monitokeyboard/mouse/etc)

• Only PC

Which country (and state/province) will you be purchasing the parts in? If you're in US, do you have access to a Microcenter location?

• I live in the Caribbean. Then I would order everything online through Amazon US and eBay US.

Will you be overclocking? If yes, are you interested in overclocking right away, or down the line? CPU and/or GPU?

• I don't know how to overclock, but I'm interested

Are there any specific features or items you want/need in the build? (ex: SSD, large amount of storage or a RAID setup, CUDA or OpenCL support, etc)

• AMD Ryzen

Do you have any specific case preferences (Size like ITX/microATX/mid-towefull-tower, styles, colors, window or not, LED lighting, etc), or a particular color theme preference for the components?

• No

Do you need a copy of Windows included in the budget? If you do need one included, do you have a preference?

• No

Extra *I'm not really sure about my budget, if someone can put together something cheaper (budget $ 450), I would appreciate it.

1. Pre 2011: I had a Pentium 4 or something on those lines. No GPU. Had 1gb of RAM. I had failed my 12th grade so my dad didnt really see a point to give me a better desktop. I ended up learning After Effects and Photoshop on this reaaaaallllyyy slow system. The games I played on this at the time were Minecraft, Command and Conquer and some more retro-ish titles.Just a side note: Minecraft was a lot of fun during this time. I could say that it inspired me to pick up animation/designing.
2. 2011: I finally passed 12th lol. Dad got me a Lenovo Y570. It cost me(him) roughly 70k. This was my first ever computer. It had everything. 8gb RAM, an i7-2630, GT 555M. I absolutely loved and adored it. My main usage was After Effects, PS, AI and gaming. I regret not playing Minecraft on this as it would have been really smooth. From what I remember, I played a lot of CIV 4(?), Portal, L.A. Noire, Saints Row, BattleField 3, Dragon Age 2, etc.Looking back at it, I learnt a lot over here. The laptop was really tight but Ive stopped using laptops for gaming entirely. While they have their benefits but in terms of longevity, it sucked. The Laptop would overheat and sometimes just shut down within a year of usage. Around this time, I had started watching Linus Tech Tips a lot more and started doing basic cleaning and files organization. The reason was to salvage my laptop rather than optimize it. I cant really explain it well but I knew this wasnt the ideal experience I wanted. The laptop eventually breathed its last when I had purchased Watch Dogs after 2 years of waiting since their E3 announcement. Watch Dogs ended it. My laptop died properly. At the time, I remember breaking down and realizing that maybe I sort of abused it? Idk. That baby lasted me 2 years and those 2 years were really good, ignoring the temps.
3. 2013: My first ever desktop purchase. i5-2500k. Something 600 series GPU and 16gb of RAM. Total was somewhere around 30k-40k. I also bought a Logitech G300 Mouse, first ever legit gaming mouse. I cant remember the price on this but I couldnt have been more than 2k. Desktops changed the game for me. My work loads on AE and Premiere Pro were easier to work with. My temps were always lower than what my laptop had. I just had to clean out the dust every month. Games that I played on this were Watch Dogs ( I absolutely hated that game), Skyrim, Wolfenstein, CIV 5, CSGO, Battlefield and what not. My experience from my laptop had ensured that I took care of this. Ensuring my start up was clogged with programs, clean up temp files, stopped using anti viruses entirely, all fans were cleaned regularly, every 6 months I would clean my entire system of dust and cobwebs. This has been a practice I still follow to this day. I bought a blower for ₹300 and I use it for cleaning once a month.I took this desktop with me to all my internships in college as they wanted someone with a laptop. There were times when I was given a laptop but I returned it insisting that my desktop will be faster and it always always was. This set up lasted me till 2016.
4. 2016: This when I started purchasing my own parts rather than ask my parents. I had to upgrade my GPU so I purchased an ASUS 960 XT. For 10k. Off OLX. I also upgraded my case to a Cooler Master HAF XB Evo. For 9k. My older case was some random acrylic shit. Wear and tear made more vent holes than I wanted lol. I am a little dumb but I dont remember a massive significant change(Better thermals for sure), but I dont think I will upgrade my case again as its just that good in handling new components and cable management is a breeze. There is ample storage for new SSDs, HDDs, and a double GPU set up if I ever become rich enough. I also upgraded my PSU to a 600W Corsair or Antec. Cost me another 10k. That brings a total of 30k roughly. I also bought a couple Logitech G102 mice. So add another 2k-3k.The games I bought the GPU for were: Witcher 3, Tomb Raider, Fallout 4, Arkham Series, Wolfenstein, Cities Skyline, COD, DIRT, Dark Souls, Dishonored, BattleField 1, CIV 6, Hitman Series, etc, etc.
5. 2020: This year in March I finally upgraded my CPU, Mobo and RAM. I got Ryzen 3600, MSI B450 Mobo, 2 sticks of 8gb DDR4 RAM, my first ever SSD of 250GB. The total cost here was somewhere between the range of 30k-35k. TBH I only upgraded cause I had to! The projects I got for freelance required me to get faster and the games too were decent but not the best. I also got a G402 mice.I just want to add something here: i5-2500k. What a processor! What an amazing amazing piece of work. It lasted me 8 years! 8 years of going from Adobe CS4 to CC. I dont think I will ever come across something that powerful for so long and for that price!I consulted a few people before buying. Earlier I would do my own research and go for something. Seriously, these days you need to talk to people before purchasing. Talk to someone who knows their shit and ask them to teach you too! I dont mean to say youtubers arent a good resource but I felt like I learnt a lot more when people explain to people rather than a camera. No offense!Games I currently play a lot: CSGO, Minecraft, Frostpunk, and Polytopia. There are others but these are the ones I play regularly. CSGO is like evening chai, Minecraft is once a week ordering outside food, Frostpunk is like eating liver(kaleji) Its really difficult and can drive you nuts but its sooo gooood. Polytopia is like sugar, really sweet but really addictive and harmful in the long run.
6. Current Day: In one corner is my Ship of Theseus. Ryzen 3600 and 960 GT. In the other corner is the chunky boi, Cyberpunk. Now is when I think I will be spending the most on an upgrade. I am planning to purchase at least a 2070 Super. My requirements are that I want RTX for minecraft, faster exports in After Effects and Premiere, decent frames in games. I also need to get a 1TB SSD at least for my work and games. Plus a new 144hz monitor as I am still using my Dell monitor from 2013 lol. Everything else is fine for me right now. So I am looking at investing 1 Lakh in this.

What will you be doing with this PC? Be as specific as possible, and include specific games or programs you will be using.

What is your maximum budget before rebates/shipping/taxes?

When do you plan on building/buying the PC? Note: beyond a week or two from today means any build you receive will be out of date when you want to buy.

What, exactly, do you need included in the budget? (ToweOS/monitokeyboard/mouse/etc)

Which country (and state/province) will you be purchasing the parts in? If you're in US, do you have access to a Microcenter location?

If reusing any parts (including monitor(s)/keyboard/mouse/etc), what parts will you be reusing? Brands and models are appreciated.

Will you be overclocking? If yes, are you interested in overclocking right away, or down the line? CPU and/or GPU?

Are there any specific features or items you want/need in the build? (ex: SSD, large amount of storage or a RAID setup, CUDA or OpenCL support, etc)

Do you have any specific case preferences (Size like ITX/microATX/mid-towefull-tower, styles, colors, window or not, LED lighting, etc), or a particular color theme preference for the components?

Do you need a copy of Windows included in the budget? If you do need one included, do you have a preference?

Extra info or particulars:

• Feel free to leave a comment here and dm/add me to talk.
  
• I am open to any kind of offer, just make a reasonable one
  
• I take any game/DLC I don’t have already (STEAM ONLY)
  
• Also taking any Steam Items (Cards, CSGO, etc) & PayPal offers
  
• I will always go first on keys that are already revealed to ensure the key is still working for you.
  
• All other keys are unrevealed & safe keys. Humble Bundle keys will be send to you as a gift link if wanted.
  
• Games are in alphabetical order. Importan Links
  
• My Steam Wishlist
  
• My Steam Games
  
• My IGSRep Page
  
• My SGS Flair
  

• FULL December Humble Bundle (14 Games)
• 198X (Unused HG)
• 2Dark
• Action Henk
• AER Memories of Old
• Age of Wonders III
• Alan Wake's American Nightmare
• Anomaly 2
• Anomaly Defenders
• Anomaly Korea
• Anomaly Warzone Earth Mobile Campaign
• Anomaly: Warzone Earth
• Armello
• Batman - The Telltale Series
• Battle Chef Brigade
• Beat Cop
• Beholder
• BioShock™ Remastered
• Black The Fall
• Broken Age
• Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
• Brutal Legend
• Butcher
• Children of Morta
• Company of Heroes 2
• Crowntakers
• Crusader Kings II
• Crusader Kings II The Old Gods DLC
• Darksiders II Deathinitive Edition
• Darksiders Warmastered Edition
• Day of the Tentacle Remastered
• Deep Dungeons of Doom
• Eastside Hockey Manager
• Endless Space® - Collection
• Everything
• Evoland Legendary Edition
• Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy Remastered
• Frog Detective 2: The Case of the Invisible Wizard
• Full Throttle Remastered
• Galactic Civilizations Ultimate Edition
• GNOG
• Grim Fandango Remastered
• Guns of Icarus Alliance Collector's Edition
• Hacknet
• HackyZack
• Headlander
• HIVESWAP: Act 1
• Hotline Miami
• Hotline Miami 2: (RL in AU)
• How to Survive 1 (Unused HG)
• Hyper Light Drifter
• Hyperdrive Massacre
• I'm not a Monster
• Indivisible
• Interplanetary: Enhanced Edition
• Kerbal Space Program
• Killing Floor 1
• Killing Floor 2
• Killing Floor Incursion
• Kingdom Classic
• Lakeview Cabin Collection
• Layers of Fear
• LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham
• Mega Man Legacy Collection (RL in some countries)
• MINIT
• Multiplicity
• No Time to Explain Remastered
• No Time To Explain Remastered
• Observer
• One Step From Eden
• Orwell: Keeping an Eye on You
• Overcooked! 2
• Overcooked! 2 - Surf 'n' Turf Pack
• Overcooked! 2 - Too Many Cooks
• Overgrowth
• Oxenfree
• PAC-MAN™ CHAMPIONSHIP EDITION 2 (Key accidently revealed)
• Path of Giants
• Pinstripe
• Portal Knights
• Psychonauts
• Purrfect Date - Visual Novel/Dating Simulator
• Rebuild 3: Gangs of Deadsville
• Regular Human Basketball
• Resident Evil Revelations 2 - Episode 1: Penal Colony
• Rime
• Road to Ballhalla
• Serial Cleaner
• Shining Resonance Refrain
• Silence
• Sonic & SEGA All Stars Racing
• Sonic Adventure 2
• Space Pilgrim Episode 1: Alpha Centauri
• Spec Ops: The Line (RL in some countries)
• State of Mind
• Still There
• STRIDER™ (RL in some countries)
• Stronghold Crusader 2:
• Struggling
• Styx: Master of Shadows
• Sunrider Academy
• SUPERHOT
• Surviving Mars
• System Shock 2
• Tabletop Playground
• Talisman: Digital Edition
• The Beast Inside
• The Haunted Island, a Frog Detective Game
• The Walking Dead
• The Walking Dead: 400 Days
• The Walking Dead: Michonne
• The Walking Dead: Season Two
• The Wolf Among Us
• Titan Quest Anniversary Edition
• Tower 57
• Tropico 4
• Void Bastards
• Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide
• Westerado: Double Barreled
• Wizard of Legend
• Yooka-Laylee (RL in some countries)
• Zwei: The Arges Adventure
• Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection *Darkwood

• Dead Space
• Crysis 2 Maximum Edition
• Medal of Honor
• Mirror's Edge
• Populous

• Elite Dangerous - Cobra Mk III ship skin (Frontier Key)
• Race The Sun (Flippfly Key)
• Rooster Teeth FIRST Subscription - 1 Month Free (Rooster Teeth Key)
• Starfinder: Pact Worlds Campaign Setting (Paizo Key)
• Starfinder Core Rulebook (Paizo Key)

• 16bit Trader
• 35MM
• Asteroid Bounty Hunter
• Castle of no Escape 2
• Drill Arena
• Er-Spectro
• Fairy Lands: Rinka and the Fairy Gems
• Galactic Lords
• Nogibator: Way Of Legs
• OutDrive
• Overcast - Walden and the Werewolf
• Particula
• Pony Island
• Red Risk
• ShipLord
• Sparkle 3 Genesis
• Timberman
• W4RR-i/o-RS
• Walhall
• Wick
• ШП – ShP
• Marco Polo

• Action Indie Bundle (RIP - Trilogy™, RIP 2 Strike Back, RIP 3: The Last Hero, Space Trader: Merchant Marine, Penguins Arena: Sedna's World, Larva Mortus, Tank Universal)
• Alpha Prime
• Bad Bots
• Battlepillars Gold Edition
• Bloody Trapland
• Bombernauts
• Camera Obscura
• Chaos on Deponia
• Chicken Shoot Gold
• Commandos 2: Men of Courage
• Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor
• Crash Time 2
• Cthulhu Saves the World & Breath of Death VII Double Pack (RL in some Countries)
• Dead Bits (Soundtrack)
• Dead Bits Collector's Edition
• Dead Island: Epidemic
• Defy Gravity Extended (RL in some Countries)
• Deponia
• Despair
• DETOUR (RL in some Countries)
• Dungeon Defenders New Heroes DLC
• Earth 2160
• God Mode
• Gumboy Tournament
• Gun Monkeys
• Guns of Icarus Online
• Iron Warriors: T - 72 Tank Command
• Just Cause
• Just Cause 2
• Killing Floor
• Legendary
• Lilly and Sasha: Curse of the Immortals
• Medieval Engineers
• Metro 2033
• Minion Masters
• ORION: Prelude
• Overcast - Walden and the Werewolf
• PAYDAY 2: A Merry Payday Christmas Soundtrack
• Portal
• POSTAL 2
• Praetorians
• Razor2: Hidden Skies
• Red Faction®: Armageddon™
• Revenge of the Titans
• Roogoo
• Space Farmers
• SpellForce 2 - Faith in Destiny Scenario 3: The Last Stand
• Super Monday Night Combat
• System Shock 2
• Trine 2: Complete Story
• Uncrowded

• Overwatch Digital Extras [Collectors Edition Retail Key: World of Warcraft Winston, Hearthstone Cardback, Starcraft 2 Portraits, Heroes of the Storm Tracer, Diablo 3 Mercy Wings (+ XBOX One Mercy Wings)]
• Overwatch Widowmaker Noire Skin (XBOX ONE Code)

• AI War: Fleet Command
• Guns of Icarus Online
• HackyZack
• Journey Down: Chapter Two
• Kingdom: New Lands
• Layers of Fear
• Magicka 2
• Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee
• Satellite Reign
• Spec Ops: The Line
• Tesla Effect: A Tex Murphy Adventure
• The Flame in the Flood
• The Walking Dead: Season 1
• Throne of Lies® The Online Game of Deceit
• Sleeping Dogs
• LARA CROFT AND THE TEMPLE OF OSIRIS™
• Bioshock 2
• State of Mind
• State of Mind Soundtrack

• Rayman® Origins
• Watch_Dogs™
• Watch_Dogs™ DEDSEC Edition Content

• Nano Assault EX (UR)
• Retro City Rampage: Nintendo 3DS Theme (UR)

• Freedom Planet
• Shantae and the Pirate's Curse

• XBOX Game Pass 14 Days