Goliath is felled

They say that getting to the top is much harder than staying there. Just ask Man City this year (please ignore the past three years for the sake of this).

NAVI might have won the Major in Copenhagen, and they might have been the best team in the world for a while after that, but all reigns eventually end; and NAVI’s ends quicker than anyone would have imagined.

NAVI got absolutely tonked by Spirit to drop to the 1-2 bracket, but quickly reacted to end GamerLegion’s dreams and put themselves in a 2-2 game, but they came up against a HEROIC side who… well, also lost to Spirit, but put up a much better fight.

HEROIC had fallen to both The MongolZ and the aforementioned Spirit, but looked more than competitive in both of those games, and they continued their impressive form in their final Swiss system game to topple the incumbent champs.

This is something of a proof of concept for HEROIC. This team has had a lot of doubters, but when you look at it, it’s… kind of full of really good players.

kyxsan is probably the one you’d be most unsure about, but his calling throughout this event has been sublime. He probably outcalled chopper despite the loss, and he outcalled Aleksib in the final series.

In the meantime, NertZ has proven once more why he was a hot commodity last Christmas. He gave HEROIC his heart, and he’s been brilliant for quite a while now. He was far and away the best player on the server on the deciding map, including a naughty pistol hold on A.

For NAVI, it’s hard to know where to go from here. Nothing seemed obviously wrong in terms of personnel, but their Mirage was absolutely awful, and Aleksi went missing in the biggest games.

It’s way, way too early to talk about changes for the best team in the world.

But… that was not the NAVI we expected. Not making playoffs when all of the other big teams have roster doubts?

Not good enough.

FaZe battles back from the brink

Yesterday, the elimination stage concluded in Shanghai, and with it, teams fought over the final playoff spots.

Fans of Spirit, Liquid, and G2 were elated as their teams made it through cleanly 3-1, meaning they were safe yesterday. No one wants to play 2-2 games, they’re the CS version of a cage fight with no rules; it’s sink or swim. However, that doesn’t mean each fight gets bloody.

MOUZ kept it clean against MIBR, only dropping 11 rounds across two maps. Siuhy’s men threw their weight around and made it look comfortable in the end.

But If these games are cage fights, FaZe vs. Furia was WWE Hell in a Cell.

You couldn’t have scripted it better. On the verge of elimination, the great procrastinators of FaZe Clan came out… dull. They looked second-best throughout their own map pick of Inferno, and it looked bad for what could be the last outing of this FaZe roster. They didn’t look much better on Dust 2 either, basically stumbling into their 5 CT rounds on accident.

But what would happen next is why we love a good FaZe side.

Powered by Karrigan magic, Faze went on a run. They started abusing FURIA’s nerves by taking map space with disregard for what they left behind, counting on FURIA to be afraid of pushing into the unknown. And they were right. They got momentum, and with that the lead. Positively ending all of FURIA’s hopes with this 2v5 by broky and ropz.

That momentum carried into the deciding map, Mirage.

FaZe quickly and confidently grabbed a 10-2 lead after the first half, converting into 12-2 quickly. But FURIA slowly climbed back up, 12-3, 12-4, 12-6. Suddenly it was FURIA’s turn for bullshit clutches, with Skullz winning an outrageous 1v4 on the post-plant. The lead got cut all the way to 12-10, but it wasn’t meant to be for the Brazilians.

In the end, FaZe closed off 13-10, giving this roster a chance to fight another day in the playoffs, and eliminating FalleN and FURIA. The Mongolz vs. FaZe finals anyone?

The early bird gets the worm

The moment we've all been waiting for.

The top 8 teams of the Shanghai Major are set, and we're looking at one of the most stacked and unpredictable Major Playoffs in recent memory.

The Playoffs are set to kick off with a clash between The Mongolz and MOUZ, and honestly, it could go either way. The Mongol squad’s run this Major has been nothing short of impressive - every team they’ve beaten to go 3-0 in the Elimination Stage has made it to the Playoffs, proving they’re a serious contender.

As for MOUZ, the recurring joke about their big stage struggles carries more weight than many might admit - and the stage doesn’t get any bigger than this.

The second matchup pits Spirit against Liquid, and all eyes are on two key players for Spirit: donk and sh1ro. If either – or, ideally, both – are in top form, their firepower will be too much for Liquid to handle, leaving them with slim chances of making it to the semis.

On the other side of the bracket, G2 and HEROIC will kick things off on Friday, and it’s hard to see this as anything but the end of the road for HEROIC.

They started strong with a 2-0 record but had to scrap for their Playoff spot in the 2-2 elimination game. Unfortunately for them, G2 is looking unstoppable - and no, the first round BO1 upset doesn’t really count.

The last quarter-final sees Vitality take on FaZe, and despite the infamous FaZe Playoffs buff we’ve come to expect, we’re not buying into it this time.

The team has looked disjointed against tougher opponents, and it doesn’t get much tougher than Vitality. While they may have had one of the easier paths, their dominance has been clear.

As if the Major Playoffs weren’t exciting enough, the player of the year race is still wide open - and it all comes down to how these Playoffs unfold.

Time to start setting those alarms.

👀 The talent is out there, you just gotta snatch it

📺 Clips you need to see

💪👩 Women’s CS not doing so great rn

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

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