Turns out we’re not very smart.

In our defence, you asked specifically for Major hot takes, but that doesn’t totally excuse some of our batsh–t insane takes from the start of this process.

In fact, for some of us, it makes it look worse.

AN1MO, who deliberately left his surname off in order to not be associated with this moronic opinion, stated that “HEROIC will make it to playoffs”. Not only did you not really put your neck on the line (come on, that’s half-arsed), you were also wrong by a mile.

Not as wrong as macc, who said HEROIC were going to win the thing, but at least they tried a bit harder on the whole hot take thing. It’s still mental, though.

You might have noticed from the start of this newsletter that the grand final was The MongolZ vs. Vitality. This isn’t news, nor is it wholly surprising to the majority of you with at least a handful of neurons firing in the brain.

For staff writers Ty ‘simba’ Sherback and Elliott ‘aizyesque’ Griffiths, though, it is. simba had Vitality ‘go[ing] out early’ while aizyesque had The MongolZ going 0-3. The MongolZ have lost three maps, in fairness, it’s just they’ve won eight.

Great work, lads.

Logan had Wildcard making playoffs and NRG going 0-3, neither of which really worked out. He was at least guided by blind faith, if nothing else.

We weren’t all completely hopeless. Ethan ‘fl0wz’ Rogersen had Falcons going out in the quarter-finals, which was wrong but at least directionally correct that they would be disappointing. NiKo’s ability to fail at Majors never ceases to amaze.

Logan’s second prediction (slightly cheating, but we’ll let him off) was that “The MongolZ will be in the final against a random Stage 2 team”, before launching into some nonsense about the Krakow Major. Impressive at first, but got less impressive the more he talked.

A bit like the Joe Rogan podcast.

Finally, we’ve got one man (or mouse) who straddles the thin line between genius and insanity like Miley Cyrus straddles that wrecking ball in the most dated pop culture reference we can think of - dickle.

“Chinggis Warriors to make playoffs” was inspired in its level of copium, but he followed it up with “The MongolZ to make the final”. Miles away, then spot on, without even a full stop between them.

Genius. Insane. Flip a coin.

We’ll do better next time, promise.