Erm, what?

No, but seriously, what on s1mple’s green Earth has gone on here?

KaiR0N- has left Virtus.pro, having joined Outsiders just after the last Major and having played one event (well, 80% of one event) on VP. For some reason.

Genuinely, we have no idea why. The only thing we’re given is some vague rhetoric about ‘pressure’, and then he’s not just dropped from the team but made into a free agent as well.

You don’t cut someone’s contract short like this because of the way they handle pressure, wethinks.

For the moment, n0rb3r7 is back in - but one imagines that the player who was cut in the past won’t last long this time, either. Never go back to an ex, guys and girls. It almost never works.

All that’s left now is speculation. Why KaiR0N- has left is likely to stay under wraps, not least because the VP players don’t seem the type to spout off. In the meantime, the player was quick to remind us he speaks English, Russian, and German.

If we were him, we wouldn’t mention we speak German, just in case BIG tried to sign us.

• MSL and aizy are back, back again. This time on ‘Sashi’, with three players you’ve almost certainly not heard of before. We’re sure this time; this is the team that MSL will bring back to the top tier. Hey, don’t take that copium canister; we need that.
• SAW have dropped JUST for arrozdoce, making him the third player they’ve signed from FTW in the last year or so. Just buy the org at this point.
• PANIX has replaced phzy on Sangal, leaving the Swede on the bench of the team he’s on loan to. Must be hard being unwanted by two teams at the same time.
• An embarrassing showing at the RMR has left Team oNe needing a change, or indeed, two

The bigger they are, the harder they fall. An old adage, but one that rang true again this week when last month's Pro League finalists C9 and FaZe had to play each other for the final major spot.

Both teams were disappointing in their RMR groups by bottling all their BO3s and going 2-3. Now I can hear some of you thinking: “Wait, but doesn’t that mean they’re out?” which is a valid question. Fortunately for the European teams, the Americas were so poor at the last major that they lost an RMR qualification spot straight to EU. Thus, the last-chance qualifiers were born.

In this last chance bracket, Cloud9 had to fight through B8 and BIG to earn their LCQ Final spot, whilst FaZe benefited from a high seeding and only needed to beat Aurora.

So, now we’ve established the background, we’ll finally talk about the game: and what a game it was. Nafany’s C9 boys started off with some absolute FIRE; the Ax1le & sh1ro combo was cooking harder than Marco Pierre White. They snowballed to a 14-5 lead, and many thought the game was over, which was naive of us. How could anyone forget that we’re dealing with FaZe?

So, in FaZe Clan fashion, they clutched the game completely unFaZed. They turned the tides despite giving C9 map point and carried their clutch into all four OT rounds.

If you’re C9, at this point, your mental must be broken. We already saw sh1ro break during C9’s game against ENCE, so none of this could have helped, which was pretty clear to see on Inferno. FaZe started on the hipster's favourite T-side and didn’t give C9 an inch of space; it was basically over before it started.

FaZe closed the game, won the series 2-0, and still made the major after all. Deserved because this line from Karrigan before the game was ice-cold.

Here’s an overview of all the qualified teams:

Legends stage

1. 🇺🇦 NAVI
2. 🇵🇱 9INE
3. 🇧🇷 FURIA
4. 🇪🇺 fnatic
5. 🇩🇰 Heroic
6. 🇬🇧 Into the Breach
7. 🇪🇺 Vitality
8. 🇽🇰 Bad News Eagles

9-16. based on results from Challengers stage.

Challengers stage

1. 🇺🇦 Monte
2. 🇧🇷 paiN
3. 🇪🇺 G2
4. 🇪🇺 GamerLegion
5. 🇷🇺 FORZE
6. 🇪🇺 Apeks
7. 🇪🇺 Ninjas in Pyjamas
8. 🇪🇺 OG
9. 🇪🇺 ENCE
10. 🇪🇺 MOUZ
11. 🇺🇸 Liquid
12. 🇦🇺 Grayhound
13. 🇺🇸 Complexity
14. 🇲🇳 TheMongolz
15. 🇧🇷 Fluxo
16. 🇪🇺 FaZe

⁉️ Do they know? (what they’re doing)

• What are the guys at VP smoking? We want some.
• Place your bets on the mismanagement major. Smart money’s on EG.
• Although not for their server results.

💣 Players being players

• f0rest is taking our jobs.
• The Sigma Grindset doesn’t stop for NiKo.

🤏 That’s almost everything

• But you didn’t expect us not to talk about MSL’s next team.
• Oh, and Semmler, have some chill.