Sent on
September 16, 2022

We have concerns over the state of Danish Counter-Strike, mixed feelings on xertioN and very positive feelings about the Rio Major.

A carnival of Counter-Strike

Source: ESL / @marcwinther

What’s better than being in the arena for a CSGO Major?

Being in the arena for the better part of a fortnight. In Brazil. When Imperial win it.

Alright, that all sounds like a pipedream. Nobody could logistically set up an eleven day event in Rio, all in front of fans, and there’s no way Imperial are ever going to win it.

Well…

ESL are going to do their damnedest. They’ve announced the stadium is open to spectators for every single day of the Major, which is just mind-blowing. You can just pop down for a few group stage games at the arena and chill out.

Well, you might have to book. Very, very quickly.

Tickets for the playoffs sold out in under two hours, in case you were wondering if Brazilian fans were passionate enough.

We doubt you were.

This is massive, though. A full event in front of fans sounds like a hell of a lot of fun, and something we’d love to see somewhere closer to home. Hint hint, BLAST.

There’s going to be one hell of a party down in Brazil.

Now, Imperial, everyone else has held up their side of the bargain…

Author: 
aizyesque

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xertioN dominates on debut

Illustration by ANDYJ Source: mousesports Data: HLTV

You know how we never get anything in one go anymore? Movies have seventeen trailers, TV shows even more, and every album has to have at least five singles.

Well, that basically describes MOUZ’s treatment of their NXT squad, promoting their young guns in dribs and drabs every three months or so.

torzsi was the lead single, the dead-cert success. JDC is the second release, a ‘change in sound’ that scared some fans and excited others.

And xertioN? xertioN’s the banger that the artist has been teasing on tour for six months.

An explosive rifler akin to EliGE or k0nfig, xertioN is deadly in opening duels but far from a one-trick pony — the Israeli pairs his aggression with an uncanny knack for multi-kills.

And if you doubted that xertioN could do the same at the top level, his dismantling of Heroic on debut went some way to shut you up already. A solid 1.11 rating on Mirage gave way to 1.43 on Dust2 in a statement performance, though we should acknowledge a pretty drastic fall-off to 0.71 rating against Astralis a day later.

But there’s still plenty to get excited about. frozen (now in more of Bymas’ old lurk roles) and torzsi should be this team’s stars, leaving xertioN as the explosive third cog that could pop off at any moment.

They’re not gonna challenge NAVI or FaZe but this is a super-young squad. Coach sycrone’s slow deployment of his academy starlets in the main roster is a deliberate one, giving each player his full attention as they bed in.

Even if this season isn’t a success, the recall of ex-NXT IGL siuhy from his GamerLegion loan in place of dexter is a perfect get-out-of-jail-free card to turn these solid singles into a proper chart-topping album.

Should that happen, MOUZ will finally be getting to the conclusion that Gambit reached three years ago: keep an experienced fragger with plenty left to give in HObbit & frozen but unleash the core of an academy squad with their chemistry and ambition intact.

Just two games into Pro League, xertioN has already shown us just how frightening a prospect that could be.

Author: 
NER0

The best team in the world (for the last two days)

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:

  • How Complexity are about to lose to Astralis (XD)
  • Why you should be watching ELiGE demos
  • Heroic’s need for a hero
Author: 

Thanks for the memories, Astralis

Illustration by NovaH. Source: ESL

Unexpectedly, Complexity are not going down-down in the earlier rounds of EPL, as they start 2-0 in Group C.

Grim was a driving force behind Complexity’s victory over Astralis on Wednesday, as the North Americans dealt another blow to the former powerhouse.

Despite Astralis having the players with the first, third, fourth, and fifth highest ratings in the series, Grim and co wouldn’t go down.

It took all three maps, including overtime that took map two to a ridiculous 48 rounds total, but the mostly North American team.

Complexity’s squad pulled off a number of impressive plays on that map, including an ace from FaNg and a 1v3 scout clutch from hallzerk.

And then, in what truly is a miracle for NA fans everywhere, they didn’t immediately throw the next series to a lower-ranked team.

They took a relatively dominant win over HEET on Thursday, which means they’ll head into the weekend’s matches looking like one of the best teams in a pretty mediocre group.

Is it unreasonable to already celebrate that they don’t completely suck? Probably. But we’re NA fans, so we’ll take just about anything worth celebrating. BleedBlue 🥳

Author: 
DarkHorse

We partake in a minuscule amount of trolling

🤡 A little bit of trolling

  • HooXi declared it ‘his job’ to bottom frag and mock the enemy. Probably why he has been described as a ‘willing sacrifice’ by Jaxon.
  • SunPayus had Heccu internally screaming as he pretended not to be able to speak English. An eminently memeable face.
  • Have you ever thought smoke lineups weren’t sexy enough?

👑 Return of the kings

  • Murmurs of device’s return continue, with Jaxon reporting that NIP are negotiating with Astralis for a price close to what NIP paid originally.
  • Boombl4’s return appears to be far less grandiose.
  • Do you miss the Polish VP? Of course you do. We have the cure. Or at least we would have if they weren’t already out. Oops.
  • Team Spirit’s coach, Hally, appears to be unbanned.

🤝 Any other business?

  • New dogs, new tricks. m0NESY with an AWP lesson.
  • NA did win the tournament hosted in, run by, and majority entered by North American teams, thankfully. EG.PA won at Fragadelphia, though they did have two shots at it…
  • A bleak piece from Richard Lewis on why matchfixing is probably never going to stop. As always, however, an absorbing read.
Author: 
aizyesque
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