Before we recap who's winning and who's losing at this stage of the Major: holy moly did we like the dev1ce versus Astralis storyline. Praise the seeding gods for that one.

dev1ce decided now would be as good a time as any to trash on some scrubs that used to drop him AWPs. 16-1, the score line read. SIXTEEN to a measly ONE.

And you might think "what's the big deal, I get 16-1'd in matchmaking all the time" and you'd be right - or at least, we would be - but this is almost the same Astralis that have won the last three Majors in a row. Well, except for said player.

And dev1ce didn't even need to top frag to do it. He was just chilling in the middle of the scoreboard, with a 1.75 rating. Some players don't even achieve such a rating in their entire careers.

Anyways, enough about the Danes.

The Winners (so far)

NaVi saved some Diamond coins and qualified to the Champions stage. They convincingly took down VP, had a banging game against Heroic, and saw off NiP in two maps. Will s1mple get his first Major?

G2 joins them, but that story is another castle, reader!

The Losers (so far)

Thanks for coming guys, but party's over - pack your bags. Unfortunately for ENCE, and unsurprisingly for EG, this is the end of their story.

ENCE couldn't keep up with Gambit, Liquid, or MOUZ in any kind of way, and EG had to make way for FaZe and CPH Flames, but did rattle Vitality for a second in their 1-2 loss. Maybe someone will finally pull the plug on them?

The Danger Zone

Although this is the kind you don't want to take a highway to. There's still action to go, as we have to find the remaining six teams for the quarter-finals.

The first three will be found in today's 2-1 matchups, which feature another Danish Derby and possibly the worst seeding error in this event, when the 2nd and 4th best team in the world clash, while FURIA (#17) and Entropiq (#19) battle it out for another spot:

• Heroic vs CPH Flames
• FURIA vs Entropiq
• NiP vs Gambit

On the losers side of the equation, six teams are fighting for their lives, and there are some real bangers.

Could we for example interest you in the world's best player two years in a row, against the winners of the three last Majors, in an elimination BO3? Yup, we're excited as well:

• Vitality vs Astralis
• MOUZ vs Virtus Pro
• Liquid vs FaZe

Dmarket, one of our favorite places to trade skins, just shared a breakdown of the 25 best looking skins that cost less than a Big Mac Meal.

Okay, so you might wanna save your Crown Foil sticker for another drop, but not everything is about flexing the size of your bank account.

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Go to Dmarket and grab those skins now, or check out one of their other 21 recommendations.

And don't snooze, we're sending this email to 30,000+ readers, so the price WILL go up.

Haven't traded skins before?

Here are three reasons why TLDR likes to do it on Dmarket:

1. It's safe and they have a super attentive customer support
2. It's very easy to get started
3. It's way cheaper than buying on the Steam Marketplace

Erm, blameF is out of Complexity, and it seems like it wasn't entirely of his own volition, either. We'd link the Twitch clip of him saying he was kicked instead of leaving, but it's been taken down for some reason. So you have our word, instead.

The big burly beast of a man known as Benjamin 'blameF' Bremer will instead take his bustling biceps and blatant baiting to pastures new, as Complexity announced they were parting ways sort of out of the blue.

A top 20 player last year, blameF is one of the hottest properties on the market right now as a leader and as a player. That is, if you can afford to pay him - rumours are that he was on a $25,000/month contract, which was on the high side even for a team funded by the Dallas Cowboys.

But he's... kinda worth it. A superb clutcher and decent enough caller, blameF has even shown himself to be a worthy entry fragger when needed. There's plenty of teams out there who could do with a cool head with fresh ideas and slick mechanics, permanently.

EG might look to him for a rebuild; Astralis might need a Dane; MOUZ might make a change or two, and uh, South keep trying to recruit players via Twitter despite not really existing, in case he gets really desperate.

Do you remember, like, two weeks ago, when we wrote about what was wrong with G2?

Turns out our article was way too long. It should have just answered 'absolutely nothing'.

NiKo and co move into the playoffs at PGL Stockholm in three games after dusting off Entropiq in two, making us - and loads of other people - looking a bit silly.

While their run wasn't that hard, it was probably trickier than it seemed on paper. Copenhagen Flames have been roasting everyone else, and FaZe look kinda scary. Entropiq beat both Heroic and Astralis, albeit in BO1s.

Turns out the return to LAN has done them a world of good. Maybe it's just being together, maybe it's experience, maybe it's a playstyle thing; but whatever it is, this G2 team is absolutely set to lose in the semi-finals.

The big step-up has been AmaNEk, who has gone from passable to excellent at the Major, and gives G2 a triple threat instead of like, one and a half. huNter- is back to being a threat, but we all knew that anyway.

NiKo, though. Wow. It's not exactly surprising that he's a monster again, but it's nice to watch. He's about two maps away from doing one of those one tap 4k clips he always seems to do, so if anything, it's a real shame he's already through.

Are... are G2 a contender to win the Major? Probably, right?

It's so weird to say given what came before this event, but we think they might be in with a shot. Who else, other than NaVi and Gambit, is better?

• Unfortunately for what looked to be the second best team in CIS, things didn't quite work out, and the org is looking for some fresh faces. TLDR's personal favourite is no more...
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• We know Halloween's already passed by the time you read this - but it's always spooky time when you're playing Counter-Strike, because you never know what's around the next corner.
• dev1ce wasn't the only one to trash Astralis recently...
• Just a regular s1mple highlight, nothing out of the ordinary to see here.
• Speaking of highlights: here's a banger frag movie from NikkyyHD! You know, the maker behind the incredible Clockwork series.
• Finally some honesty in the CS:GO scene. You better bring another pair for TeSeS, CadiaN.
• Only on LAN...