Pro League’s Pro Teams

The first EPL using Valve’s ranking system has its invites announced. With a notable exception.

With events this year requiring TOs to do invites using VRS, we’ve been really curious to see the invites come through for long running events like EPL. So far, it’s not really made much of a difference.

The only team that might be a surprise is probably 3DMAX. Unless you’re a delusional Frenchman, like neL.

The usual suspects are all there, G2, MOUZ, Spirit, etc. The only notable exception is FaZe Clan, who refused the invite to this event. Something we’re probably going to need to get used to with 2025 having more events than ever before, all using the same invite pool.

We suppose it’s just what CS is going to be in 2025, we’re not complaining. Maybe some teams who wouldn’t have been given a shot get to prove what they’re capable of and climb the VRS ladder.

Unless Vitality and Spirit decide to only attend events the other doesn’t. We might be cooked.

In any case, EPL will continue to be one of the CS events of all time, regardless of if the invites are done by VRS, ESL ranking, or by setting a wild pig free onto a field with random teams’ logos on it. It’ll still be EPL, and we love it for that.

Falcons begin to soar

The first tournament of the year has begun and it started with… FlyQuest vs. MIBR and HEROIC vs 3DMAX. Great.

FlyQuest and HEROIC won those two matches, and that’s all we can really be bothered to say about that.

Oh, HEROIC took 3DMAX’s bounty, which was a fun realisation of the concept, but let’s be fair, no one really had any clue if they were the underdog or not in that game.

Elsewhere, NertZ looked great in his Liquid debut against 9 Pandas, so it looks like kicking YEKINDAR was the right play. Who knew?

fnatic then had to contend with donk, which, as you would expect, didn’t go well for them. That match also saw the return of Train to tier 1 CS, and we’re happy to announce that Train has already had more watchable games than Vertigo as a result.

On day two, we got to see the return of device after he missed the Shanghai Major. He made light work of Wildcard in a 2-0 Astralis victory. BIG then took down SAW 2-0, the second bounty-snatch of the event.

We also got our first taste of ropz on Vitality. He and ZywOo put on a display against Metizport to show that they might just be the deadliest duo since Fred and Rose West.

Don’t look them up.

But the real main event happened one game earlier, when NiKo finally made his debut for Falcons going up against ENCE.

TeSeS and NiKo cooked, and we’re actually excited for the future of this Falcons roster as they showed composure in two overtime maps. It’s also worth giving ENCE their flowers for that game. gla1ve kept Falcons on their toes with some exceptional calling and their young stars all showed their potential.

BLAST Bounty continues today and through the weekend, but more on that in our preview below.

One man, nine pandas

Could you beat 9pandas in a fight? If you can’t, you’re less confident than Elliott, who thinks he can. No, we don’t know either. Catch AN1MO and aizyesque going deep on the biggest stories of the week in this episode of Overtime on Inferno.

Four more games ‘til the payoff

Clearly, the most exciting part of BLAST Bounty is waiting to see who the teams pick to play against. Unfortunately, we have to suffer through four more games to get there. The horror.

In fairness, today’s games are alright, and they get better the later they go on.

It starts with a pretty forgettable one - you would actually have to pay for this newsletter for a breakdown of paiN vs. GamerLegion - while FURIA vs. Nemiga has a chance of being fun.

Nemiga have been touted by those in-the-know as something of a team to watch, but were pretty poor during the Major. FURIA are more reliable now than they ever were under arT, but they aren’t anything special just yet. They should win, but Nemiga have a shot.

It gets better, though. MOUZ have the unenviable task of playing BetBoom, who are wildly inconsistent, but have a bunch of players who can go crazy every so often. Ax1Le, as we all know, can be brilliant. Magnojez is exceedingly talented. zorte is as quick an AWPer as you’ll see.

They don’t even have nafany to bring them down any more, either. It’s Boombl4 now, who… well, he won a Major once. Don’t check what happened since then.

The final game today is probably the best one, though. B8 are always capable of an upset, and G2 are always liable to be upset. It’s almost too perfect an upset game. G2 have a new player and malbs likely moving into new roles, but B8 also made a change.

We’re not happy to see the back of cptkurtka023, but apparently, kensizor is better. We doubt it. We loved the Captain.

After today, we get to the fun bit. We want to see some spicy matchups! Give us Liquid vs. Astralis so cadiaN can back up his talk would be nice.

Who is going to gamble their bounty? Who is going to take aim at NAVI, or Spirit? Sometimes, the spice behind the matches is genuinely better than the games. Especially Astralis ones.

New week, new moves

While this roundup isn't as exciting as the last, there are still a few moves worth highlighting.

First, and arguably the most unexpected move of the offseason, NRG has announced the signing of br0 to replace Brehze.

Honestly, this looks like a smart move for the North American side, as br0 has proven he can be a consistent selfless anchor capable of playing in tough positions, something Brehze clearly lacked. The move feels long overdue, as the North American player has consistently failed to meet expectations, going from a top-8 player in 2019 to struggling to find consistency in NA’s tier 2 scene. Does HLTV have a ‘Downfall of the Year’ award?

Over in Europe, PARIVISION has shaken things up with some major roster changes, adding Jame, TRAVIS, and nota to a lineup that already features Q1kert and BELCHONOKK. This is a move we’re especially curious about, as it reunites Q1kert, Jame, and coach Dastan – three members of the AVANGAR team that made a deep run to the Major final at StarLadder Berlin in 2019.

NIP has also confirmed their lineup, surprising absolutely no one. If you’re curious about our take on NIP’s 58th rebuild attempt, check out edition #526 (spoiler: they might have actually gotten it right this time).

This week’s musical chairs also saw:

🔍🕵️ Inspector Gadget

🗣️ Confessions

🔟 Top ten top tens

This TL;DR was written by aizyesque, shoko, AN1MO, Horizzon and napz.
Welshy coded the email and Crash_ copy edited.

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