We talked last week about Carlos of G2 being suspended for six weeks, but it seems those six weeks went by incredibly fast.

He’s not back or anything - in fact, he might never be coming back.

He has officially ‘stepped down’ with an emotional video looking back at his time building, directing and growing G2 into the colossus it is right now. It’s a sad video, but one that we probably could have seen coming.

G2 missed out on franchising in VALORANT, which is going to cost the business millions, and it’s largely down to Carlos’… let’s say antics, of the last few weeks.

Whether or not you think that’s correct - and clearly it’s a polarising topic on Twitter - it’s one fueled entirely by the business side. G2 wouldn’t get rid of the guy who built them if there wasn’t a massive business issue, and Riot wouldn’t have changed their mind along the same lines.

Lord knows Riot can’t take a moral stance on anything.

This is unlikely to have too big an effect on their CSGO team - unless Carlos was the one who harnessed the curse that appears to have troubled G2 for years at this point.

Perhaps they might be able to beat a team with a sub, or even not lose a grand final 0-3, for once.

I should preface this by saying I understand that it is not entirely up to Team Liquid if YEKINDAR stays with them, but they should try very very hard.

TL ended their final series of the Pro League groups with a 2-0 win over Cloud9, who had not lost a game until this series.

This was in large part, of course, due to YEKINDAR and the 1.52 he accrued over the two map series. It was a relatively close series, and a good way to close out the month of group play.

Eternal Fire and Evil Geniuses joined Movistar Riders in the “not advancing” column, while Furia, on the back of a truly insane set of games from KSCERATO, made it out as well.

Cloud9 looked pretty solid despite their fumble at the end; they’re still first in the group, and skipping the first round of games next week which is a huge win.

It was nice to see Eternal Fire wake up in time for their last two series, and they genuinely looked pretty decent in both. It’s a pity that didn’t extend to their earlier games.

They get to just sit and wait for whichever of Complexity or FaZe they’ll end up having to battle.

But after four weeks, we finally have the 12 teams who are still in the tournament. And in just one week, we’ll have just one.

TYLOO haven’t really been a thing for a while. They didn’t make it to the Major, coming 3rd in the weakest RMR. They finished last at IEM Winter, and 9th-12th at EPL S16 Conference and Cologne’s play-in.

So it makes sense they’re mixing it up: Attacker and BnTeT are out, replaced by 18-year-old aristo and Freeman, who was actually in Tyloo in 2019 before being benched at the start of the online era.

The big story here is BnTeT’s removal: The long-awaited Prince of Asian CS hasn’t had the career many hoped he would have after posting 1.43 and 1.24 ratings on LAN in 2016 and 2017, even though he was a tad more successful than any other Asian import so far in CS:GO. Sorry Machinegun.

While the Polish Indonesian rifler has actually had a bad 2022 with a 1.00 rating against pretty poor opposition, there is clearly still a player there. There’s a reason Asian CS expert Bleh has tweeted about the guy about three times a month for the past five years.

The problem is finding a destination. And, of course, whether BnTeT wants to leave his home continent again after the whole EXTREMUM debacle.

Judging by this interview from April, though, he’s willing to give Europe and tier one CS another shot. And with a IEM Rio Major-induced rostermania just round the corner, fingers crossed he’ll get that chance.

⚖️ Balanced, as all things should be

• As much as we get your complaint, lacyyycs, we don’t think the intention of DZ’s bump mines ever was to send you flying at death defying speeds across the map.
• Either FaZe got really lucky with their success this year, or their roster has a perfect balance in performance. We’ll go with the latter.

🤢 DISGUSTANG

• It’s probably fair to say s1mple’s not enjoying his stay in Malta so far.
• Disgusting glawk action from torzsi to clutch out a round that looked done and dusted.
• YEKINDAR does his nastiest GeT_RiGhT impression as he nails three and stops the defuse.

😅 Let’s hope no one noticed

• nitr0 hasn’t quite mastered the mid-jump throw yet. It’s okay nitr0, we can’t all be perfect.
• We don’t where that sound came from sadokist, but let’s say we’ll keep the F1 references to a minimum from now on.