We’re all back in Bucharest for some tier one action. Almost all of us anyway.

It all kicked off before it even kicked off, with FaZe opting to make a last-second dash for the Major in a Belgrade tier two-LAN. This meant that EYEBALLERS got handed a forfeit win in the first round of the Swiss stage.

Nice job, boys, you’re two for two!

Naturally this drew the ire of some parts of the community, who had prematurely celebrated when FaZe were given a 0% chance of making it to the Cologne Major. Even more sh-t got kicked up when Voca announced they’d need to field a sub due to visa issues for Infinite, and opted for notorious Canadian matchfixer retchy, fresh off his five year ESIC-ban.

A very popular move, as you can imagine.

The rest of the round one games would probably be described as business as usual, with the exception of newcomers FOKUS upsetting 3DMAX. If you can really call it an upset, considering how little hope there seems to be for the Frenchmen these days.

The second round saw FUT demolish NRG, Astralis and PARIVISION narrowly beat B8 and FOKUS, and The MongolZ move past EYEBALLERS in the winner’s games. In the loser’s games Wildcard were the lucky winners of another FaZe forfeit, while three map affairs sent Inner Circle and BC.Game to the 0-2 pool for day three.

3DMAX also got past Voca after a triple-overtime third map, despite the aforementioned stand-in situation for the North Americans. Need we remind you that retchy was banned for five years, and thus hasn’t played an official match since early 2021?

That’s how sh-t 3DMAX are right now. There’s just no hope.

Today’s games will see s1mple fight the aforementioned matchfixer to avoid elimination, while FaZe finally arrive - with their first game being an attempt to dodge last place elimination at the hands of Inner Circle.

After just losing the Major spot at the final hurdle… we can’t imagine they’re too keen to immediately start running another elimination game gauntlet.

With the usual suspects in the 2-0 pool, the 1-1 pool might be the most interesting series of games today. This event lacks top opposition to such a degree that one of these teams is guaranteed to make playoffs tomorrow. This writer is, of course, hoping for EYEBALLERS, but we think it’s going to be a very interesting run for the trophy no matter who makes it.

Unless 3DMAX somehow make it to playoffs. That would just be sad.