Sent on
March 10, 2023

There’s loads of news in the women’s game this week, a little bit of news in Asia and some big news in Australia. (They actually won a game)

The world flipped upside down

A lot has happened in the women’s game in just one week.

With the start of a new series of Impact, comes roster drama and seemingly, the biggest result the women’s game has seen, probably, since juliano and zAAz played which… we’ll get to that, actually.

The seemingly infallible, immortal Nigma Galaxy were finally felled for the first time since Impact started, ending a - frankly absurd - 38 series win streak at Impact, that lasted over a year.

NIP Impact were the victors - in two maps too - leaving Nigma 1-1 in their group, a position they have quite literally never been in before. We know it’s obvious, but we really want to underline how insane it is that they hadn’t lost a series in Impact until now.

They’d come close a few times, of course, largely to FURIA in the last year who had been the de facto second best team for so long - but their spot at the top table might have been usurped by the biggest transfer Impact has ever seen.

Superstar Olga, who had been the only player to come close to the ubiquitous aNa, stepped away from the team with whom she had so much success to gamble it all - and join HSG.

FURIA had come close, but with a distinct lack of cigars on the horizon, it was time for a new horizon. Quite how the language is going to work is beyond us, and thankfully it’s not our issue to solve.

HSG for those who are unaware are a full Asian team, so there is a decent chance they all speak English, but even then it’s an adjustment.

Between Nigma’s immortality being pierced and FURIA’s star being poached, Impact just got a whole lot more open. Oh, and there’s a new potential challenger, too.

GUILD have entered the game with a Norwegian-majority team headlined by KiKi (who stood in for Saints in Katowice), but perhaps the more pertinent news was G2’s entrance; because it includes juliano and zAAz.

The former women’s champions return from VALORANT to try their hand at the new-fangled Impact league, but the game has moved on; they were instantly shown how far they had to climb back as they were toppled by NAVI Javelins.

Oh, and team is called G2 Oya. Like the… noise that samurais make?

Finally, if you want to learn a bit more about the biggest names in Impact, TLDR’s own NER0 ran the numbers to tell you who they play like that you might be more familiar with.

No blameF just yet, thankfully.

Author: 
aizyesque

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Author: 

sk0r-ched earth

Illustration by NovaH. Source: IHC Esports

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful land team called IHC. By beating C9 they sold us a dream and made us fall in love. Then they beat Liquid and we were all in an IHC wonderland.

Until Pro League, when no more wonders were left. IHC had to retreat, on their way back they might have misunderstood scorched earth as “sk0r-ched earth”.

At least, that’s our theory. Because we have no idea why else they announced sk0r would be leaving IHC all of a sudden through a tweet.

You might think that maybe sk0r decided to move on to try and find pastures new in a different region. But no, on his Instagram story, he revealed it wasn’t his choice to leave the team. Which leaves us with no real answers.

We tried to find some in his replacement, kabal. He was already a part of IHC, but took paternity leave. It seemed inevitable he’d come back, but we expected him to take Bart4k’s spot. Maybe he was kept for his name?

Maybe we’ll find out why sk0r really left at some point, until then we’re left guessing. For now, this is the end of chapter 1 of the IHC fairy-tale, it’s up to them to write the next.

Author: 
Horizzon

OYAAAAAA!

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:

  • What noise does a samurai make?
  • Why caring about Source 2 is a zero-sum game
  • FURIA’s dodgy gameplay

A lot of you followed our podcast after we opened the giveaway in our last edition - thank you!

It will help us secure amazing guests this year.

For those of you who didn't participate yet the giveaway is still open. Until Sunday, March 19 to be exact. So help us and you might win a headset while you're at it.For a chance to win a SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless all you gotta do is this:

  1. Follow our pod on Spotify
  2. Take a screenshot when you’ve followed
  3. Send your screenshot in a reply to this email for a chance to win

Don’t snooze. The winner will be drawn in about a week, on Sunday March 19.

Author: 

JACKZ of all trades

Illustration by ANDYJ. Source: PGL | Luc Bouchon

Group C is the most EPL-y of all the EPL groups. The 32-team format has brought with it an easy route to the playoffs for all but the very worst of the ‘big’ teams, and it’s no different here.

Three teams have even turned up with stand-ins: niko for OG, n9xtz for 00NATION, and JACKZ for Vitality. If EPL had any prestige left (spoiler: it doesn't) this group might have killed it off.

We know that not every event can be a Cologne, and there are positives to EPL’s format. More teams means more opportunities to help smaller scenes, with this group shining a light on Australia in particular.

Rooster are unsalaried, and paid for their own bootcamp in Europe to get ready for this group. Grayhound are the best in the region so probably deserve a slot in a 32-team event.

But god damn does it make the games boring. There’s been 7 2-0s so far, with only 00NATION’s 2-1 defeat by Grayhound offering a truly close affair.

ESL’s talent are carrying the show, make no mistake. But there has been a new champion, something to keep us entertained between the desk segments and shoulder content: JACKZ.

Cut from G2, cut from HEET, the sun looked to have set on the 30-year-old entry fragger’s career.

But apEX and Vitality have thrown him a bone, probably purely so Vitality could rock the French flag again.

So JACKZ getting a 1.37 rating wasn't really in the script.

Somehow, someway, the Frenchman — who recorded lower than a 1.00 rating for the last three years straight — has re-ignited. He’s in the shop window and he’s sparkling.

It may be against Grayhound and a rudderless OG but it’s not like there’s anything else interesting happening in this group.

Now the opening fixtures are out of the way, watchability might improve. Vitality face FaZe on Sunday, and OG and NIP are in a lower bracket battle with paiN for the last two playoff slots.

But, we doubt there’s gonna be any classics. You'll probably be fine just reading the TL;DR.

Author: 
NER0

We keep it short and suggest you do too

You’ve just about reached the end of this tl;dr and as per usual we kept it short to your liking.

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It’s all GUCCI, baby

📺 Good Game Legends

  • GUCCI is taking off where Valve left us with Player Profiles, diving deep on ZywOo’s background.
  • But also, taking a look at Dota 2 talent with Sheever. It’s not CS, but it’s still esports.

😮 I’m sorry, what?!

📊🤓 Stats for nerds

  • It’s nice to see we’ve finally achieved being able to quantify Liquid’s choking abilities.
  • Hm hm, yes, indeed. A subtickrate for CS:GO Source 2. We know what that means.
  • Wake up baby, another NER0 döppelganger banger dropped!
Author: 
napz
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