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We’re coming up to Christmas, and the player break that comes with it, but we’re not on holiday just yet. In this edition we cover Anubis’ debut, oskar talking smack about MSL and G2’s woes continue.
The sandy map is dead. Long live the sandy map
Source: BLAST Premier
Despite the invisible walls, VALORANTesque connectors, and it clearly being worse than Train, Anubis has been deemed worthy of competitive play. First by Valve and now BLAST, who will debut the new map pool at BLAST World Finals in Abu Dhabi.
But who can blame them? It’s been added to Refrag, the ultimate sign that it is ready to go.
Look, we don’t really know what to make of the map yet. It’s been in the game for two years but has generated as little buzz as a Heroic signing session in Copenhagen.
The main source of Anubis’ excitement is that it’s just something different. Anything that pushes pros out of their comfort zone is fun for us at home, it doesn’t matter if it’s any good.
It means we don’t have to see BIG lose their pick of Dust2 every best of three. It means new magic molotovs, new specialists — shoutout to early Ancient k0nfig — and exceptionally entertaining tweets from pros who wished their permaban got removed.
Change is good, folks. But, the best change to the game for this event has nothing to do with Anubis: It’s the nerfed M4A1-S (and the not really nerfed AWP) which will also debut here.
All those frauds who abused the silenced WMD for the past twelve months will finally be exposed. A now-suspended prophet told us months ago that we’d look back on this era like we look back on the Krieg and AUG metas, and he might be right.
Mauisnake reckons that the “rifler skill ceiling” might have been hit in this meta, the type of talk that terrifies a CS:GO community that (correctly) prides itself on its superiority over other games.
Hopefully, this change should go a good way to reverse both that and the unsatisfying CT meta the M4A1-S fuelled.
That’s more than enough to get us excited. Roll on, BLAST World Finals — the best sporting event happening in the Middle East this year.
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oskar fires a shot, for some reason
For a man who hasn’t been anywhere near the top level for about four years, oskar sure talks a lot.
A week after his HLTV interview where he talked about wasting a year of his life - even though it was his choice to leave SINNERS for TITANS - he’s given another interview talking about the time there.
We’re not saying that suggesting MSL is ‘stuck in the past’ is entirely unfair, it’s just very much a case of the pot calling the kettle black. We knew MSL was stuck in the past when he relied on oskar to be a star AWPer, to be fair mate.
Apparently, MSL ‘didn’t understand’ that he had aggressive players on his team, and wanted to call set strats all the time. Now, we’re not the most intelligent, knowledgeable people in the world but oskar mate, what were you expecting?
MSL is famous for this. It’s the only thing people know about him.
It’d be like signing Cristiano Ronaldo and expecting him to be respectful and happy to come off the bench.
In fairness, we can’t blame oskar too much for being a bit salty. TITANS didn’t really pay him for seven months, and it can’t be easy to stay motivated. Luckily for him, he’s re-found home.
The prodigal son is now back at SINNERS, where he will hopefully get paid. Quite fitting that oskar called it a waste of a year just to end up back where he started; it truly was a waste of a year.
But one that oskar brought upon himself when he chose to leave a promising young team to join a guy he said was stuck in the past.
Hard to feel too much sympathy, isn’t it.
Anubis is here, and it’s beautiful
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:
- Why the fanfest was a bad execution of a fun idea
- Why Anubis is better than Dust 2
- Why Heroic will win BLAST
Sad in Rio, a Blast in Copenhagen
Illustration by ANDY. Source: FaZe, Liquid, G2 Esports
It feels like months ago we watched the big dogs falter at the Rio Major, yet somehow it has only been 15 days since Jame was named the king of Brazil. So enter Blast Copenhagen, the first “real” event post-major. Sorry Elisa Masters Espoo.
FaZe, NAVI, and Liquid have arrived at the Danish Capital with a shared goal: Prove that what happened in Brazil was just a fluke.
For the European mix of FaZe, that has gone as well as they could’ve hoped. The Danish-led side destroyed OG and Heroic across four maps in two series to seal a spot on stage at the Royal Arena.
Having the three highest-rated players at the event so far, FaZe is showing what they didn’t in Brazil.
As for NAVI and Liquid, they both won their opening games 2-0 against Fluxo and G2 respectively, which against tier-two opposition, was only expected.
Their wins sealed a date in the Finals of their group, one qualifying for the Arena, and one qualifying for a showdown against Heroic. In their duel, NAVI blinked first, as Liquid solidified into ice-cold killers.
nitr0 specifically showed up on Inferno, reminding us all that Captain America can still do it, even after being frozen in a block of something called “Valorant”.
Let’s see if that super-IGL serum will carry him over the line on the Royal Arena stage.
This brings us to the teams that didn’t make Rio, or simply didn’t show up in Rio.
Unsurprisingly, OG once again failed to make any impact. They won 9 full rounds in two maps against FaZe, and took NiP to overtime on Ancient, but that was about it? They’re supposedly the 16th best team in the world, but it somehow doesn’t really feel like it.
And NiP? Sort of a mixed bag. The Scandinavian mix managed a 16-13 victory against Heroic on Inferno, and then got 10 rounds in total on Ancient and Overpass. Yikes. At least they made it to the Arena by showing they were the better Red Bull sponsored team against OG.
Hopefully, for them, those wings sprout quickly, as they’ll try to fly over the deep pit of NAVI in the quarters.
For G2 the fact that they made it to the Arena must be feel more like a relief than an achievement. They lost against Liquid, but made it relatively close, so we guess that’s kind of alright? And then they squeezed past Fluxo to set up a match versus cadiaN. In a Danish arena. That’ll be fun.
This weekend we’ll find out, who is the best of the Major underperformers: May the playoffs begin.
Quarter final 1:
- Heroic vs G2
Quarter final 2:
- NIP vs Na’Vi
Semi final 1:
- FaZe vs Q2 Winner
Semi final 2:
- Liquid vs Q1 Winner
Counter-Strike or World Cup… What are we watching?
⚽ Football stole our whole flow…
- The World Cup in Qatar is copying the script of the Rio Major in terms of upsets. The only difference is that Brazil actually has a legitimate shot at winning this time on the pitch and on the server.
- Imagine Poland having a defence consisting only of the old Virtus.Pro players. They’d never have to worry about conceding a goal again.
🤔 Where is the problem?
- There should be a call for going after “blameF kills” instead of eco frags at this point.
- Nifty had his say about what to change on Liquid. I wanna know what needs to change for Envy to stop letting him stay on their payroll.
- Some dreams die young. For sdy that was staying on NAVI.
🧠 Big Brain Small Aim
- OG just activated karrigan’s trap card.
- NIP decided to join in on bullying OG as well.
- Speaking of trap card, gonna tell everyone the M4A1-S is still superior. Never losing a mid-range duel to it again.
