Return of the king (and the repentant)

It seems like India is going all-in on CS.

After 5W Gaming’s lineup reveal, Revenant has decided to go full international as well, signing several well-known names in the community, spearheaded by an absolute legend.

We’re talking about NBK-, who has found a new home with the org after a rather unsuccessful stint with Team Falcons. Joining the experienced two-time Major winner are younger talents like reiko, lauNX, adeX, and Nivera.

Yes, you read that right. Following a two-year hiatus competing in Valorant, Nivera has finally come to his senses and chosen the superior game. With a promising track record at Team Vitality, let's see if ScreaM's little brother can make a triumphant return.

And if you’re already a fan of this lineup, we’ve got great news.

You won’t have to wait long to see them in action at LAN. Just a day after announcing the roster, Revenant was invited to the Skyesports Championship.

The event is taking place in the org’s home country, where the team will compete alongside heavyweights like FURIA, TheMongolz, and Eternal Fire for a share of the $200,000 prize pool.

Alright, calling FURIA a heavyweight might be a stretch.

Anyways, it’s a great opportunity for the boys to kick things off on the right note.

Into the return

UKCS fans, congratulations, you get another semi-positive story!

Into the Breach is back, more powerful than ever. Last time they ran out of funding, leading them to disband after a bad RMR run. This time, armed with the power of gambling money, nothing is going to stop them. If you believe their statement, and we do, they will have a salary budget of up to 1 million USD a year.

For context, you can afford 1.6 NiKo’s a month if you believe Smooya’s estimations from 2022.

Speaking of Smooya, he’s this team's first puzzle piece. The British sharpshooter had a five-month stint on ITB a few years ago and will be hoping for a long ride this time. For a UK organisation, we’re fine with this as a starting point, but now the question is, who do you surround him with?

There’s lots of talent around the scene, but who’s available and willing to sign? There’s the ex-Guild boys, but then you have to figure out who you’re taking. JKS is still available, but god knows if he’d settle for ITB or if he wants to wait for another contender. Most importantly, who do you sign as your IGL?

The bottom line is that gambling money is cool and all, but who are you able to sign, and will they work out on the first try? Many men have tried this path, but not many have returned victorious. Some end up like TSM.

TheMongolZ rise to the top

Asian Counter-Strike is better than North American Counter-Strike.

That’s the word on the street this week from professional hot-taker and agent provocateur TeaTime, and he was quickly proven… well, not right, but more right than the Americans would dare admit.

TheMongolZ went to town in Abu Dhabi and lit a fire under every team who dared test them, proving that they - not Astralis, not fnatic, not Complexity and not NIP - are the next in line to test the best teams in the world. And they took the trophy in YaLLa Compass.

They’ve been noted as scrim gods for a little while, with lots of respectable players actually tipping them to do well in the Major just gone, and we’d seen flashes of greatness from them, but this was the first time we’ve seen real domination from them.

This was a showing that TheMongolZ aren’t just an upset team, they’re actually capable of being domineering, they’re capable of being the best team, at coming from behind against big names and taking over whole events.

Perhaps the biggest difference is in 910's performance. The AWPer seemed to be the weak link that bottlenecked TheMongolZ in big games, but he ended this event as the MVP following a ridiculous carry job against pre-tournament favourites Astralis.

He now has become their biggest player in these games, their key piece in unlocking great teams - but he was backed up by bLitz back on his BS and Techno4k once more, showing glimpses of world-class mechanics and raw aggression.

This is a MongolZ team to be feared - and a team who can genuinely top 4 at some big events.

For NIP, who made it to the final just to lose to MongolZ, there too were encouraging signs. r1nkle looked incredible, and isak and maxster looked as if they’d been playing for NIP for years. This team might finally bring some respect back to the NIP name.

They mightn’t have won, but they fought, at least. More than the NIP of the past.

Final standings:

1st 🇲🇳 The MongolZ – $200.000
2nd 🇸🇪 Ninjas in Pyjamas – $56.000
3-4th 🇧🇷 FURIA – $28.000
3-4th 🇩🇰 Astralis – $28.000
5-6th 🇪🇺 fnatic – $20.000
5-6th 🇷🇺 BetBoom – $20.000

🔁 Gotta switch things up

🤡 What a joke

🫶 Mistakes happen

This TL;DR was written by aizyesque, shoko, Horizzon and napz.
Welshy coded the email and Incipiens copy edited.

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