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Is Twistzz the greatest player of all time? Almost certainly not, but it’s not as ridiculous a statement as it would have seemed a few years ago. He’s very good.
Turns out UK is well represented at the RMR after all
Next week the final RMRs of CS:GO are taking place. Yup, you read that right - read on for more. It will be the last chance for teams to qualify for a major and put themselves in the history books of Global Offensive.
The stakes have never been higher, which leads us to the most important question: Who do we tell to shut up and start game?
It’s a question no more! BLAST have announced the talent list for the RMRs and my god has the UK taken over.
Over at the European RMR we’re wondering if we should reverse Brexit to keep the Brits out of EU. Out of the 9 talent working the EU RMR, 7 are from the UK, 1 is Australian and finally Anders is the singular Dane. God save Anders
You might be assuming the Australian is SpunJ, but you’d be wrong. It’s actually LucyLuce, voice of many Impact casts and part of the Pro League just gone by. We’re glad to see her casting RMR and it’s only partly because she prevented another Brit from joining the list.
The rest of the list includes familiar faces with Harry and Hugo but it also includes: Hawka, Ne0kai, CodyCasts, Dinko and Jacky. Someone grab the UK-Away spray.
As for the Americas RMR, there’s less names but lots of name recognition.
Headlined by Scrawny and Launders, the Canadian duo so good it’d make NAF and Twistzz blush. They’re joined by Mauisnake, Moses, boq and DarfMike.
Last but not least, the Asia RMR. If you listen to our Overtime on Inferno podcast, you might recognise the first two names. YouM3 and TeaTime recently came on to talk all about Asian CS so it seems fitting that they’re working the Asia RMR. They’ll be joined by Australian duo Mac and Elfishguy which means there’s 1 Australian caster per Australian team at the Asia RMR.
Let’s hope the casters don’t fight over who gets to cast Loba’s games.
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Valve cancels the second Major of 2023
Illustration by Crash_ Source: CSGO
The RMRs will be especially important this time round, as they will be awarding spots at the last ever CS:GO Major.
Valve have postponed the second Major of 2023 to March of 2024, and it will of course be played on (a hopefully bug-free) Counter Strike 2.
This makes sense, for them at least. They'll let the other TOs work out the production side of the new game, and have a proper pitch in time for next year.
But it definitely sucks for the teams. In a recession, sticker money could be the difference between life and death for a few orgs.
For players, too. We've only had 3 Majors since StarLadder Berlin 2019, with Paris being the 4th.
That's half as many opportunities a year to write a legacy that truly sticks for the newer school of players.
In a scene that moves as fast as CS:GO, that's a shame. It's why having one Major a year is a terrible idea. Our seasons are half a year long, with seismic shifts every player break. Without a Major to cap each season, new fans are going to be missing some real context.
But that's okay. Valve have some time to get CS2 right, and the Majors can restart with a new game and a refreshed scene. Who knows, maybe we’ll even get some new exciting tournaments in the vacuum?
Regardless, we’re patient. We promise.
Twistzz becomes a legend
When we talk about the greatest players in Counter-Strike history - or at least CSGO history, which will come to a close in not too long of course - Twistzz rarely gets a mention.
It’s understandable; not only is he Canadian and has odd hair, he’s also low on MVPs and his overall rating doesn’t scream GOAT status. But, he does have one thing over every single other person to ever play the game.
Twistzz, yesterday, became the first person to ever wiun wo Intel Grand Slams, and with two separate teams at that. Two eras of dominance over the big IEM events, in two wildly different teams. Nobody else comes close.
As FaZe closed out a convincing win over Cloud9, it ended a lot of debates. It’s hard to suiggest karrigan is anything but the greatest IGL of all time; it’s hard to suggest ropz is a low-impact player for someone with his abiilty, as has been aimed at him before.
But instead, in Twistzz’ case, it started the debate. Can you be one of the greatest of all time, without ever being the best?
Twistzz has rarely been the best on his team, but he clearly has incredible impact and has been a part of two of the best teams. It’s the old Bill Russell vs Wilt Chamberlain, or perhaps Scholes vs Gerrard, debate.
It was actually ropz who ended as the MVP for the event, with an incredibly composed performance in the final and all the way throughout the event, as has become his modus operandi. He’s so consistently good at everything he does, so clean, so few mistakes.
He’s like an AI trained to play for a karrigan team.
While Cloud9 had moments, they were never really in the final. They picked up just seven CT rounds on Overpass and four T rounds on Inferno, and though they pulled a map back, it always felt like a matter of time.
And then the dissection began.
Fingers were, as always, aimed at nafany. He did, after all, go 48-83, and continues to be unable to win big events despite the form of Ax1Le and sh1ro. But sh1ro himself went missing on Inferno, collecting just five kills over the whole map, and buster continues to be a baffling sidegrade.
Alas, worrying about the team who finished second at the event seems a bit silly. Instead, it’s more interesting to look at Twistzz, and whether he truly deserves legendary status.
It’s getting harder and harder to find an argument against him.
At the very least, he’s the best player NA has ever produced. But that’s faint praise.
FaZe Up and Down (but mostly down)
⚰️ The F in FaZe goes in the chat
- That moment when your stickers are worth more than your company’s shares.
- It’s gotten so bad, they’re looking to take their shares off the public market again. Oof.
- Karrigan’s NDA on CS2 really is being tested to its limits, isn’t it?
2️⃣ CS2 infodump
- We’re delighted to report that HooXi is mostly positive about CS2.
- Many things have changed for CS2, but one thing remains: trolling.
- How nice of you FACEIT to remind us that we’re the ones not playing CS2. Valve, pls give access.
☹️ feelsbadman
- Rumour has it nexa’s departure from OG wasn’t as voluntary as we all thought.
- NiKo looks like he’s having a rough time after G2’s loss to ENCE.
