We have a tendency to be a bit negative here at TLDR. We don’t mean to, it’s just so much easier to make jokes at NIP’s expense than it is at Vitality’s.

But the thing is, out mothers told us that if we had nothing nice to say, then say nothing at all. So we are going to say nothing about Team Spirit for now.

The podcast will have more on them next week, if you want some good ol’ hating.

Instead, we’d like to take something positive out of it, and talk instead about how The MongolZ are bloody doing it again. Time after time they’ve made moves that on paper looked very silly, and somehow they stuck around and kept plugging away.

It was they who beat Team Spirit to make playoffs in Chengdu, with wins over paiN and HEROIC to go with it, and despite a loss to Astralis it doesn’t feel like The MongolZ are a million miles away from where they were.

They might have lost their X factor, but they lost him in playoffs most the time anyway.

controlez has been alright - nothing special, but nowhere near as bad as hasteka was, and probably better than we all thought. He isn’t Senzu, but 910 has stepped up to fill that fragging gap beautifully so far.

Falcons won that group by smacking Astralis, and look like they might be a real, genuine contender for best team in the world. Not because they beat Astralis, obviously, but because they have three of the best players in the world all firing at different times.

We’d written off MOUZ as a contender for that title and put FURIA in there instead, but MOUZ toppled Vitality and FURIA in back-to-back bangers and proved that they can be there again.

At least, in group stages.

Vitality managed to make the lower bracket run to make a pretty stacked playoffs, while questions need to be asked of their fellow Frenchies 3DMAX, who are more French, and more bad.

Another last place exit is not a good look.

Speaking of which, FaZe absolutely bottled it and finished last as well. We don’t need to ask questions of them, though; all the answers were in Wednesday’s deep dive.