We heard a lot of news about people in yellow and purple jerseys being eliminated from playoffs this week, but we’re confused. We literally just saw magic make playoffs in Astana?

Must be an American thing.

Anyway, an exciting Swiss group has wrapped up in Kazakhstan and the stage is set for eight non-Vitality teams to battle it out for eternal glory. Here’s how it went down.

First to grab a spot in the arena were 9z, continuing their unexpectedly strong form to take down MOUZ in a 2-1 affair. Alongside them in the undefeated pool are Spirit, finally getting a bit of a break in 2026 after a season with very few highs.

Falcons were next to break through The MongolZ in a thrilling three-mapper - despite having the first Falcons radar moment with karrigan at the helm - alongside MOUZ and FURIA getting past Aurora and Gentle Mates.

The Spaniards had their best ever chance at a big event playoff spot after beating HEROIC, but after a close first two maps against FURIA they got demolished on the third map. To add insult to injury - they couldn’t even get past magic in the final game.

In fact, the Russian squad managed the comeback from being down 0-2 after two rounds, sending the orgless squad into their first ever big event playoffs - in their first big event ever. That’s actually impressive.

Their countrymen weren’t so lucky - and we’re not talking about K27.

We’ll admit that there are easier draws than facing Aurora and G2, but PARIVISION going out way too early is starting to get tiring.

The haters will say that this slump was well overdue, and it seems Jame is one of the haters. He says they’ve been expecting the team to dip eventually and isn’t surprised it happens now.

Seems Jame is as much a hater of his own team as dastan is.

But really, if even you were expecting the slump to come, were you ever even the real deal? We’re not sure, but BLAST Bounty and that event is starting to look more and more fluke-shaped when we look back.

Challengers to the throne of PARIVISION are 9z, of course, but we’re not convinced. All three teams they took down on the way to playoffs are strong, yes, but they all have asterisks of roster changes or supposedly expected slumps.

It smells like max will be expecting a slump some time in September, if he’s anything like Jame.

Ugh.