Martin “STYKO” Styk, a legendary Counter-Strike player known for his tenure with teams like HellRaisers, Cloud9, and Apeks, has officially launched his Counter-Strike 2 educational course. Partnering with Gosu Academy, the platform offers a comprehensive learning experience aimed at players of all skill levels who aspire to improve in CS2. In this in-depth article, we explore what makes STYKO Academy unique through direct insights from STYKO himself.
What Inspired the Creation of STYKO Academy?
STYKO's motivation for creating the Academy stems from both passion and necessity. After offering individual coaching for over a year and facing overwhelming demand, he realized a broader platform was needed.
I was inspired to create this Academy project for two reasons. First one being that I offer individual coaching for a year now and I am constantly overbooked. There is so much interest that I simply have to close down my commissions in order to keep up while I am a pro player and doing little bit of content on the side. I wanted to create a platform where I can offer group sessions and take more students at the same time so it loses the individual approach but it is much cheaper, compared to my 1on1 sessions. Second reason is that I want to share my knowledge that is a little bit too niche for something like a YouTube video. I found out through my content that if I go too much in depth on some in-game topics, very few people are interested but I am still getting positive feedback so that means I have to just find the right audience, which the Academy provides me.
Developing the Academy took approximately two months of planning, focusing on creating a flexible, student-driven curriculum:
It took about 2 months of planning. How are we going to launch it and how are we going to run it? I want to make it special but each lesson is not prepared beforehand. I ask my students what they would like me to cover in upcoming lessons and that is what we do. The lessons are based on feedback from students.
A Week at STYKO Academy: What to Expect
The Academy's structure is dynamic, offering far more than standard lessons. Students gain access not only to STYKO's live sessions but also to a broader range of activities through Gosu Academy.
Typical week at STYKO Academy doesn't really exist. STYKO Academy means access to my own weekly lesson + everything else that Gosu Academy offers, which is the platform I use for this. You have different coaches teaching their own lesson, which you can attend . You can attend 1Omans multiple times per week whether you are from NA or EU, you can find teammates in a Discord community and generally share your progress with other, like-minded players.
This comprehensive approach ensures continuous learning through theory-based lessons, team-based practice games, and active community interaction.
Focus Areas and Future Plans
The course covers all essential aspects of CS2, including aim mechanics, utility usage, and game sense development. Lessons adapt based on real-time student feedback.
My lessons cover everything you mentioned. If players feel like they want me to review some of their demos, that is what we do. If the request is to talk about Inferno T side, that is what we focus on... the topics are general and while the lesson gets underway, we dig deeper into specific topics such as Banana control or Mid control etc. I try to pack as much value in a 60 minute lesson as possible and I prepare an outline for the whole lesson, but we often derail depending on what students are interested in.
While specialized modules are not planned, STYKO targets advanced players seeking deeper strategic insight:
No additional modules are planned right now. I think a lot of topics we go over are specifically aimed at advanced players of any role. I think the best target student would be somewhere around 2k+ ELO so you are skilled enough to understand what I talk about but at the same time you are learning a lot of new knowledge.
How Does STYKO Academy Stand Out?
Unlike previous esports learning platforms, STYKO Academy focuses on direct interaction, with pro-level coaching four times per month.
I am not sure how other learning platforms work but I don't think there was ever a Pro player present at these lessons 4 times per month. I am using the fact that I like to teach, explain and forward knowledge to other players - that is why all of this is very natural to me and doesn't require much of my time and yet I am able to deliver lessons that I can be proud of.
STYKO also drew lessons from past esports education failures, such as s1mple's discontinued platform:
Everyone saw what s1mple did and everyone knows why it flopped. I don't want to bring it up again, but my main takeaway from this was to rather charge less money and over-deliver to slowly build up trust and community of students, rather than doing it other way around like s1mple did.
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The Future of Esports Education
Looking ahead, STYKO sees potential for growth in esports education but stresses the importance of delivering engaging, well-structured lessons.
I am not sure, we will have to see, but I know that I build good enough trust and foundation thanks to my YouTube and live streams that it shows the players are interested in listening to me. I think you have to be REALLY good to keep an attention and class engaging enough to make students go "wow, this was great, looking for the next session". I think it is difficult to nail and I am definitely improving day by day, but the fact I have been doing this for a year in the background makes me very experienced in how I want to teach.
STYKO Academy isn’t just a coaching service—it’s a gateway to becoming a better player under the mentorship of a proven professional. With personalized lessons, interactive sessions, and a focus on active learning, the Academy is set to raise the bar in esports education.
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