Throughout the years of TLDR, we’ve been to many great cities for events: Antwerp, Stockholm, Cologne, Katowice, London, even Paris – which is a horrible place, but still warrants a mention – but none of those come close to Budapest.

The drive over from the airport makes it seem like you’re entering a Soviet hellhole, but then you reach the city itself, and man, it is beautiful. The architecture, the history, the fun risk of food poisoning any time you eat anything. It’s the perfect venue for Counter-Strike.

Then we got to the MVM Dome itself. Although it was only half-full for the first couple of days, the atmosphere was electric. torzsi will probably be wishing the home crowd was actually cheering for him, but we couldn’t help but crack a smile as the FaZe-loving fans were chanting “send them home.”

With that said, the weekend was a different story, securing Budapest’s standing as one of the best cities to watch Counter-Strike in.

It hasn’t been without its faults, the 360 stage has our Irish photographer wanting to return to some “traditional” 80s Irish behaviour, but we can’t complain too much — it’s made the viewing experience f-cking phenomenal.

It didn’t even matter that three of the quarter-finals were crap, the crowd made them a treat. And by the time we finally got some good Counter, they were warmed up and hungry for it, ready to make every moment iconic. They even kept quiet during frozen’s 1v1 Nuke defuse; where have you ever seen that?

We’re writing this before the final, and honestly, it could be a f-cking blowout. But, no matter what, we know it will be incredible.

Long live Counter-Strike.