IEM Cologne 2025 was incredible. Vitality finally lost, Spirit completed the trilogy, and Liquid embarrassed themselves. Again.

An event that never fails to be one of the best every year, it really is the best way to start a new season, so it’s a shame we now have to follow it up with a BLAST event.

And look, it’s not that we dislike BLAST, because we really don’t. We just really hate online events.

BLAST Bounty might be somewhat saved due to the fact that it has a mildly interesting format, but just look at the opening matches. When it’s put into practice, teams don’t play up to said format because VRS is simply too important. So now we’re forced to watch a week of (likely) terrible Counter-Strike.

Well, maybe we aren’t forced to, but it’s us, we’re addicted.

To make matters worse, when Bounty finally does reach its LAN stage, it will take place in Malta. If you were reading this newsletter during every Pro League season that took place in that country, you’d understand why we look like this every time the thought of returning there crosses our minds.

Oh well, at least BIG won’t be there. There may be a million teams involved, but that’s just how awful they are nowadays.

Oh? They are involved? F-ck.