We’re sending a bunch of our most presentable people (and aizyesque) to Antwerp to see Cloud9 beat FaZe Clan in the final one last time, and we’d love to see you there too.

We’ve got a bar by the river, a free round on us (well... on our sponsor, the wonderful GamerPay), and some good vibes ready to go.

You with us, Antwerp?

Sign up here or else we might not know who you are, and we’ll have to assume you’re one of the unsophisticated proles who use HTV or Dxerto to keep up with the news.

What’s the catch?

Well, after a few drinks you’ll have to try and pronounce napz’ real name, and if you get it wrong, your Pick’Ems will be jinxed. We’re only joking.

In the midst of the Major, OG, who failed to qualify for the challenger stage, have announced the benching of valde, who’d played with the team for over two years.

The benching was somewhat surprising, given valde is averaging a 1.13 rating in the last six months according to HLTV, the second-highest on the team behind mantuu, but the team has struggled to get off to a good start this year when they failed to qualify for the major and flunked out of IEM Katowice in last place.

In an interview this week with Dexerto, valde noted that the team’s ambitions and his own differed; “They want to focus on younger players and develop a team from scratch, only keeping a few pieces from the old team,” valde said.

Later in the article he noted, “I feel that I am ready for a different team, one that is able to contend for trophies now and play in all the big tournaments.”

Given valde is open to Danish or international rosters, it wouldn’t be surprising to see a rush of teams looking to buy him after the Major ends, although not in the IGL position; in the same Dexerto interview, he noted that he had no interest whatsoever to step back into that role.

Many are looking at Astralis as a potential home after they flunked out in the Challenger stage 2-3 with a loss to Team Liquid on Thursday. They could be looking for a switch-up in their roster and valde might actually be a good pick for them.

Tune in to this week's episode of Overtime on Inferno where your favorite hosts aizyesque and Logan Ramhap go deep on the biggest news in CS:GO:

• Every single team at the Challengers’ Stage
• Why forZe are locked in for the Legends’ Stage (oops)
• Whether +jks is the perfect fix for literally every team in the world or not

As always, if you want to see anything more in-depth and find out exactly how everything went down, check out the HLTV page here; we’re just giving you the highlights.

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy.

Since we last spoke, a whole lot of stuff happened. A whole load of it. Mountains and mountains of stuff. Most of it Counter-Strike related.

The headline news is that four-time Major champions Astralis will not be in the Legends’ Stage, and it was their old foe Liquid that, after all this time, put the final nail in their coffin in the 2-2 game.

Despite a monumental effort from blameF - a 40 bomb in regulation on Vertigo - Astralis were swept 2-0 by the Americans. That made it four maps in a row the Danes lost; after Team Spirit spanked them 2-0 too.

Speaking of Team Spirit - and indeed, blameF - the sculpted-from-marble Dane was the second-highest-rated player at the event despite Astralis going out, but it was degster who took the top spot.

After rebuilding without star rifler Mir, Spirit have come back with a vengeance to ruin a few more Pick’Ems - and degster was at the forefront.

You know who else came back with a vengeance? Only Imperial; whose Last Dance has become more of a rave, and everyone’s invited. fnx has some weird vice grip on Majors, we swear. They dumped out forZe - who started 2-0 - in the 2-2 game to qualify.

G2 and Vitality glided through 3-0, while ENCE were not deterred by losing to the former, and made it through 3-1. Simple stuff.

Outsiders, despite constantly talking about how their team is dead and talking about the CIS shuffle, slipped in with a 3-1 score after beating forZe in their qualifying game. Unlike them to not go to a deciding series.

Liquid, Outsiders, G2, Vitality, Spirit, Imperial, ENCE. That’s everyone, right? Are we forgetting someone?

Oh yeah. The Bad. News. F’ing. Eagles.

After announcing BanKs as their team manager, he made an appearance in their celebrations after muscling past MIBR in a deciding map. The first Kosovan team at a Major are going into the Legends Stage.

If a single one of you picks them to go 0-3...

The Legends Stage commence

It. Starts. Tomorrow.

No more building up the hype. No more excuses. No more piss poor teams (sorry Renegades, but we’re still annoyed you didn’t beat IHC for that 0-3 pick). Just quality CS teams and the frauds from BIG.

The seeds are in, and let’s just say that we’ve got ourselves some day-one bangers:

• Heroic vs Liquid
• CPH Flames vs Bad News Bears
• NiP vs Vitality
• Cloud9 vs Outsiders
• FaZe vs ENCE
• FURIA vs Spirit
• NAVI vs G2
• BIG vs Imperial

We don’t know about all of you, but it almost feels like Cloud9 and FaZe are destined to get into the Grand Final. Right?

🤫  Don’t talking please

• Thorin woke up and chose violence today, and s1mple was having none of it.
• It also seems like Thorin’s opinion of FalleN really has drastically changed...
• Although we think we may have found the reason for his sudden change of heart. Don’t worry, a gold coin is nice too.

🐶  Who let the dogs out?

• Or rather, put them on a leash... To each their own, we suppose.
• Dignitas tried to go “unfortunately it didn’t work out”, but we all know it’s “help, our players are dog****”. Don’t beat around the bush, Dig.
• Guard dog Banks looks so proud of his puppies. Yes, we’re really stretching the dog narrative.

🌚  Dark and full of secrets

• Title of your se- eh, it’s qikert’s description of the upcoming CIS shuffle.
• We like this fan’s dark humour during his encounter with valde.

🛡️  Check him PC

• There was a time where KennyS didn’t congratulate Patsi, but reported him.
• They might also need to check Peacemaker’s coaching demos.
• We might (or might not) see the return of (not-so) VAC banned Jamppi. Lovely.

New map. New tuscan via catfood: