As always, if you want to see anything more in-depth and find out exactly how everything went down, check out the HLTV page here; we’re just giving you the highlights.
Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy.
Since we last spoke, a whole lot of stuff happened. A whole load of it. Mountains and mountains of stuff. Most of it Counter-Strike related.
The headline news is that four-time Major champions Astralis will not be in the Legends’ Stage, and it was their old foe Liquid that, after all this time, put the final nail in their coffin in the 2-2 game.
Despite a monumental effort from blameF - a 40 bomb in regulation on Vertigo - Astralis were swept 2-0 by the Americans. That made it four maps in a row the Danes lost; after Team Spirit spanked them 2-0 too.
Speaking of Team Spirit - and indeed, blameF - the sculpted-from-marble Dane was the second-highest-rated player at the event despite Astralis going out, but it was degster who took the top spot.
After rebuilding without star rifler Mir, Spirit have come back with a vengeance to ruin a few more Pick’Ems - and degster was at the forefront.
You know who else came back with a vengeance? Only Imperial; whose Last Dance has become more of a rave, and everyone’s invited. fnx has some weird vice grip on Majors, we swear. They dumped out forZe - who started 2-0 - in the 2-2 game to qualify.
G2 and Vitality glided through 3-0, while ENCE were not deterred by losing to the former, and made it through 3-1. Simple stuff.
Outsiders, despite constantly talking about how their team is dead and talking about the CIS shuffle, slipped in with a 3-1 score after beating forZe in their qualifying game. Unlike them to not go to a deciding series.
Liquid, Outsiders, G2, Vitality, Spirit, Imperial, ENCE. That’s everyone, right? Are we forgetting someone?
Oh yeah. The Bad. News. F’ing. Eagles.
After announcing BanKs as their team manager, he made an appearance in their celebrations after muscling past MIBR in a deciding map. The first Kosovan team at a Major are going into the Legends Stage.
If a single one of you picks them to go 0-3...
It. Starts. Tomorrow.
No more building up the hype. No more excuses. No more piss poor teams (sorry Renegades, but we’re still annoyed you didn’t beat IHC for that 0-3 pick). Just quality CS teams and the frauds from BIG.
The seeds are in, and let’s just say that we’ve got ourselves some day-one bangers:
We don’t know about all of you, but it almost feels like Cloud9 and FaZe are destined to get into the Grand Final. Right?
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