It turns out they weren’t just keeping all the stickers to themselves. Who knew?

Anyone with a brain, or with NIP staff muted on Twitter, obviously.

They’re out and they’re wonderful, as ever. Not a whole lot of ‘noise’ in the background, just clean logos and sexy names. Some of our favourites:

• cadiaN somehow made a 2d side-on image of himself look like him, which is remarkably impressive, and the way the AWP bleeds into his name is wicked. We like.
• The authentically childish handwriting with the lightning bolt and the messily drawn scope, combined with the fact he’s one of the best in the world, make this a sticker we’re desperate for.
• Super creative effort from ropz, if a little emo. Quite how someone looked at the letters O and P and thought “two halves of a broken heart” we’re not entirely sure.

There’s some really interesting stickers this time around, go poke around and see what you like. Or open some capsules and gaslight yourself into thinking they were the ones you wanted all along.

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:

• The Major
• Oh my god the Major is starting
• Holy f*** the final Major is here

The bloody Major is here.

Not the RMR, not just another major trophy, not even just another Major. The final CSGO Major ever. No ifs, no buts. Do or die.

The Major is here.

This is what ten years of Counter-Strike has been building up to. It’s been building up to FaZe vs Monte in a BO1 at 11:30AM (CEST). To paiN vs Fluxo at a time basically unwatchable for Brazilians.

No, but seriously.

The opening games of the Major are the two we just discussed, but both are interesting for very different reasons. FaZe were… unconvincing in qualification, while Monte were surprisingly robust. On paper it’s a FaZe win, but it’s not that simple.

BOROS is the man to watch - he lit up the server in every game he played, more or less, at the RMR and is the one person Monte can look to to upset the odds.

paiN vs Fluxo, meanwhile, was an absolute feast for paiN in qualification. They battered Fluxo black and blue, but Major magic is strong and your pick’ems are destined for failure. Who knows?

Following that we have GamerLegion vs Complexity, in which we get to see quite where the second best team in NA would fit in European tier two, while G2 take on TheMongolz in another game that your pick’ems probably hinge on.

TheMongolz upset a bunch of teams last time out, but this would be a crazy scalp to take. Mind you, G2 are prone to it.

FORZE meet Grayhound in possibly the most ‘B-stream’ sounding game of all time, during which Apeks get to try and ruin the American dream too, as they meet Team Liquid. jL is their star, and Apeks revolve around him, so look out for him.

ENCE and OG square off in an international clash, and as ever we have no idea what to expect of OG. They might be absolutely awful, or they might be the… 11th best team in the world, or something. We’re a bit bored of them.

Finally, the first round ends with NIP vs MOUZ at the same time, which is another unpredictable game. MOUZ are serial choke artists, but NIP couldn’t perform a Heimlich manoeuvre if their life de- actually, never mind.

And then we go all the way back around again.

And THEN there’s three more rounds, then the Legends Stage and… ah man, Christmas doesn’t have a patch on the Major.

Don’t let the headline fool you, we’re not talking politics. We’re discussing something infinitely more important: Who’s winning the BLAST Paris Major?

For this, we’ll go down some favorites whilst telling you why they will or won't win the Major. Sorry if we left your “No trust me bro” pick out, we can’t cover everyone.

Heroic

Heroic should, in theory, be the favourite for this major. No other team has been as consistent as they have since their Final appearance in Rio last year. Which is exactly why they won’t win this Major. With one notable exception against FaZe, they’ve lost every final they’ve played since the last Major, and not for a lack of trying.

They’re very good at making it to the late stages of events, which might work in their favour if Major Magic comes back and leaves other favourites behind in Swiss. Still, history shows us that if they make it to the final, they’ll lose.

FaZe

The team Heroic will lose to if you believe Pimp. We’re not so sure, not because we don’t think they can do it though. To be clear, they definitely can, but we haven’t seen that FaZe recently. Pro League was the best showing we’ve seen from this FaZe roster in a long time and that has the caveat of being Pro League.

It doesn’t spark hope then that their immediate results after EPL were a struggle in LCQ to make it to the major and failure at IEM Rio. In their defense, Twistzz finally got his rest and we’re sure the rest of the team took some time off as well. So we might see an entirely new well-oiled version of FaZe. Might

Vitality and G2

You might wonder why we lumped these two together, and it’s simple. Both of these teams have a great of the game with no major yet. Zywoo and NiKo both need the crown jewel of CSGO to solidify themselves as more than just very good shooters, but actual immortal legends.

For Vitality, it looks good. They just won IEM Rio 2023 and are coming into this with the home-field advantage. But being IGL’d by Apex might just be a hurdle too big to overcome when the big boys are bringing their A-game.

As for G2, they’re the opposite. Recent form suggests they might as well not be mentioned but let's not forget how they started this year off. The crowd might be a bit upset with the fact they kicked all their favourite Frenchies, but surely NiKo can handle some pressure… right?

The Winner

That can only leave us with one thing, who’s going to win it: We have no idea. Which is exactly why we can't wait for this major to get going. Sit back, relax, and watch the fireworks one last time before CS2.

🔀 Post- uh.. Pre-Major roster mania?

• Falcons have benched KennyS and Python as they seek international replacements. According to Kenny, it’s all part of the plan.
• imoRR’s eternal fire wasn’t that eternal after all, as he’s out of - you guessed it: Eternal Fire. They do get woxic in return though, let’s hope he brings the fire.
• ATK is down two players, as the Swede b0denmaster and the Canuck djay have both decided to look for other options.

💥 BLASTOFF: Enjoy these before you watch

• First we’ve got an amazing write up for you about paiN’s road to (hopefully) greatness. Really making Brazilians proud.
• Then we’ve got a sorta kinda but not really in house production from the one and only aizyesque about your favourite CIS player: Jerry of course.
• And finally, straight from the cesspools of reddit: facts, numbers, and trivia about this year’s edition of the Major.

🤦 Cheating and gambling is bad, mkay?

• MIBR trying to manipulate pings to get a better server doesn’t surprise us honestly. Play fair or don’t play at all.
• Yes, we agree, gambling in CS is too big. Every single player and their mum’s got a sponsorship these days.