When Rare Atom released their players, we were pretty confused about how they planned to upgrade China’s already best team. Now we get it, they’re going EU. Sort of.

The roster is looking like it’ll maintain a Chinese core made up of somebody, expro, and Summer. The team will be rounded out by the European additions of phzy and kory, as reported by ayriks. While the roster hasn't been confirmed, Rare Atom just announced the signing of the Finnish coaching duo of Twista and peku, which indicate the rumours might be true.

If all of this sounds a little bit familiar, TYLOO was the first Asian CS team to follow this route, signing LETN1 as their coach and following up with Emi and ROGA as player additions.

You’re probably wondering why they would even bother with EU players, but the short answer is that they’re better than NA players. Usually.

If you want the long answer, it might be because EU players are a dime a dozen, have easier visas for events, and can farm Asian qualifiers. It’s also likely because Rare Atom are following the NA trend of getting EU brains in to develop the scene in the long term, think CadiaN on Rogue but add European coaches.

It’s still odd that the organisation didn’t keep any of the old RA players and blend those in. One can only theorise the former roster wanted to stick together, which we can respect. If true.

The end result however is that RA has made a brand new team with some interesting talent. But was it worth dropping JamYoung? We’re not sure.

Rare Atom’s rumored roster is:

🇨🇳 ⁠Summer⁠

🇨🇳 somebody

🇨🇳 expro⁠

🇭🇺 kory

⁠🇸🇪 phzy⁠

Season four of the Nigma Galax- sorry, the ESL Impact League is upon us, and… it kicked off in familiar fashion in the European division.

The incumbent queens of Counter-Strike strode into the fourth season with eerily familiar swagger, swatting away an NIP Impact team who had been the last (and only) team to beat them at an Impact event as well as besting them in Gamers Without Borders.

The fears that NIP were their Achilles’ heel were alleviated impossibly quickly, as aNa led Nigma to a swift 2-0 win, dropping just nine rounds in the process.

If you’re rooting for a new winner of Impact, the signs are immediately frightening - but you can regain some faith by watching NAVI Javelins smush GUILD in even more dominant fashion.

A 15-0 half in map one, and a 14-1 half in map two, showed the levels between the tip-top and the middle tier.

The old girls’ club at G2 Oya, saw off Let Her Cook - whose logo is charmingly just the emoji of a woman with a wooden spoon in her hand - while 9 Pandas ground out a marathon win over shinigami.

BIG EQUIPA took down VP.Angels and newcomers YeYO just edged out the newest big name entry into Impact, ENCE Athena.

Over in South America, there was a big shock as Divina overcame MIBR fe in two maps.

Divina haven’t really been seen on LAN yet, which is a shame - they have some dope names. Cara de Banana and coldizinha deserve LAN.

North America is headlined by the return of Karma, with names like EMUHLEET and rain for the old heads - but it was business as usual as FlyQuest RED and Shimmer picked up their expected wins in consummate fashion.

Even EG got a win.

"I'm sure we're going to go to Europe and get absolutely spanked," coach dephh told HLTV.org before M80’s LAN debut at EPL. "We expect it, and we're welcoming it at this point.”

The VALORANT org has come to CS before the anticipated CS2 boom, and their roster is promising for an opener: malbsMd deserved another shot after 00NATION, swisher is the best of what is left in NA, and danish maNkz is a smart moneyball pickup for the IGL spot.

But, if dephh was trying to counter-jinx them it didn’t work. M80 have been the whipping boys of Group C, losing to Apeks and 5yclone to put them one loss away from elimination.

There have been flashes of promise, more than we’ve seen from EG this year at least, but they do not seem to be saving NA CS just yet. But, at least they’re trying: That’s more than Liquid can be arsed with these days.

Elsewhere, the favourites largely prevailed. NAVI, despite underperformances from iM, beat off 5yclone and Apeks, and FaZe took down fnatic and 9z.

Making playoffs at the first attempt is a good sign for those two teams that have not always played at the level their nametag implies this season.

NAVI in particular should take stock in some improved team performances, even if it was at the expense of poor old entry-fragger iM sent in to die out of Boiler time and time again.

It’s not trophy-winning form, but it doesn’t need to be — yet. The Aleksib hit pieces remain in aizyesque’s drafts, and we get NAVI vs FaZe on a Sunday.

All is well with the world. See you on Monday with the conclusion.

🔫 More CS2 updates

• If you’re trying to keep up with CS2, there’s a lovely liveblog on HLTV that talks about all that has changed.
• Lag compensation keeps getting updated, and it’s a good job.
• REZ has invented a pretty wicked smoke.

🤠 The best of player twitter

• nawwk absolutely does not want to go back to NIP.
• mOE has come to the conclusion that everyone else came to years ago.
• floppy doesn’t think M80 are very good.

♼ Roster moves and other stuff

• NEOFRAG is back - but on a nearly all-Czech roster. This should be interesting
  
• Swedish CS is alive and well (:D) with a little help from Norwegian org Metizport
• If you peek the king, you best not miss.