The French revolution

Amid all the chaos at Skyesports, there was apparently also a tournament going on.

And somehow, 3DMAX won it all?

Fair play to them, though. They powered past ENCE 2-0, with Maka going wild, ending with a 40-22 K-D across both. They also outlasted the notoriously tough-to-beat Aurora in the semi-final with Maka, again, taking over (54-38 K-D).

Against them in the final was The MongolZ, who knocked out AMKAL and sent Eternal Fire for a hot dog in the semi-final. Seriously, they battered Eternal Fire, dropping 12 rounds in two maps and making Wicadia look like a make-a-wish kid.

Mind you, that’s nothing compared to how badly 3DMAX schooled The MongolZ.

3DMAX dropped just nine rounds in two maps and left three MongolZ’ players on double-figure negative scorelines - including Senzu being -20.

This time Maka didn’t have much space to shine because his delightfully-named team mate Graviti took over with a 1.64 rating and +100 ADR over the two maps. It was a complete team performance, though, with all five massively outperforming their counterparts.

Maybe, just maybe, French Counter-Strike is back.

The French have been waiting for years and years for the true return, with many a false dawn coming before this, but at no point have they had a team capable of taking down multiple top 20-30 teams and winning a trophy.

It might be another false dawn, but it might also be the dawn the cheese-eating surrender monkeys have been waiting for.

Final standings at Skyesports:

1st 🇫🇷 3DMAX – $120.000
2nd 🇲🇳 The MongolZ – $70.000
3-4th 🇷🇺 Aurora – $35.000
3-4th 🇹🇷 Eternal Fire – $35.000
5-6th 🇪🇺 ENCE – $15.000
5-6th 🇷🇺 AMKAL – $15.000

Deja BLAST

Another season, another BLAST group stage, does anyone else have deja vu?

The BLAST selection process re-starts on Monday when Spirit and OG open Fall Groups. Like in previous installments, six teams, two for each group, will make it straight to fall finals. The remaining teams are sent down to hell BLAST Showdown to try to earn their spot.

Some of these groups are pretty tight as well.

Spirit will probably make it through easily, but Complexity and HEROIC will have to fight it out for their leftover spot. Astralis, Vitality, and Falcons are also all in the same group, which feels like a failed polycule meeting 2 years after their breakup. Poor GamerLegion is caught in their crossfire.

Group C is an interesting group to watch for one specific reason. It’s the reappearance of Cloud9, who hasn’t played since April 20th(!) after their roster… let’s say imploded. ICY and HeavyGod have a lot to prove in their new blue jerseys, and it’s going to be really interesting to see how they develop.

Combine that with G2 and FaZe inclusion in this group with C9, and we’ve got prime-time entertainment. Oh, and NIP is also there.

That just leaves us with Group D, paradoxically the least interesting group here. Just look at the teams: VP, NAVI, BIG, and Liquid. On the one hand, who cares? On the other hand, NAVI just won EWC, Liquid has jks and a new promising AWPer, BIG added rigoN, and VP is VP. The people who want to see these teams play know who they are.

Place your bets, who will be the biggest flop, and who will be a positive surprise? We’re saying Team Liquid for both, somehow.

Group D for Death

Planning on keeping up with the BetBoom Dacha S2 EU Quali? We’ll try, for you, our dear reader.

Jokes aside, there are some interesting teams to watch. Cloud9 is fielding a new-look roster and will play this event on the same day as their BLAST debut. They got a tough draw at BetBoom Dacaha, though, as their Group D also features AMKAL, BLEED, and 3DMAX.

The average HLTV ranking of Group D is 34 - sans Cloud9 as they don’t have a ranking, yet. The average rank for the entire event is 47, minus NOM as they are an extreme outlier at 136th.

Also featuring in this Closed Qualifier is the blameF-led fnatic who plays in Group C with Imperial and Nemiga.

The games have already begun, but you haven’t missed much except TSM losing to H0bbit’s 1WIN. The qualifier continues today and every day of the week through next Monday.

We suggest tuning in for fnatic vs. Imperial tomorrow (tuesday) to see if blameF will rise to the occasion as well as new-look Cloud9 vs 3DMAX.

🗣️📰 Extra extra, read all about it!

🪄 Like magic

😲 Surprises can come from the weirdest places

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

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