Valve's slow burn trolling of Counter-Strike fans continues with reveal of 'CS2' trademark

pcgamer.com:

The Counter-Strike community has, for the last month or so, been convinced that a miracle is on the horizon(opens in new tab). Exactly what that miracle will be is not yet clear, but the belief in a new version of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive using Valve's current Source 2 engine is strong, and equally so is the belief in a whole new version of the game, Counter-Strike 2. I mean, it would actually be Counter-Strike 5 or 6 depending on how you count them, but let's run with it.

Valve certainly seems to be doing so, and it looks like the first piece of hard evidence has dropped. On March 14, 2023 Valve was granted two trademarks for 'CS2' from the U.S. Patents Office. The first(opens in new tab) is for the trademark on CS2 as it relates to «Computer game software, electronic game software, video game software, [and] computer game programs downloadable via the internet.» The second(opens in new tab) is more expansive in its definition, and in the inclusion of things like «competitions» certainly sounds like the real deal:

«Entertainment services, namely, providing online video games; provision of on-line entertainment, namely, on-line computer games; providing on-line computer games and on-line video games; electronic games services provided by means of the Internet; providing information in the fields of computer games and entertainment via the Internet; organization of competitions relating to video games, video game education, and video game entertainment; providing information in the field of on-line computer games and on-line video games and computer games.»

I'm not sure what kind of education Counter-Strike provides but, to be fair, I could probably write a book focusing on my feelings about A long on Dust II