Listen, BLAST, we’ve had fun these past two weeks, but step aside now. It’s time to get serious.

BC.Game, you should probably read that last sentence, too. Your debut was frankly terrible, but you can turn it all around in Poland, and it’s only Legacy in your opening game.

Only Legacy? They’re going to lose, aren’t they?

Honestly, it feels likely. Especially given what we saw versus the titans of “Ursa” and “Nemesis”. Actually, considering how bad they were there, they’ll probably not win a map here either. FUT or 3DMAX in a loser’s game doesn’t exactly spell success for s1mple and co. Oh well.

Elsewhere in Stage 1, PARIVISION look to continue their strong start to 2026 against another team hot out of the gates, HEROIC. The Europeans looked solid even with yxngstxr in Bounty, but we have a feeling they won’t fare so well here.

We’re also getting two Bounty rematches in the opening games, with both Aurora vs GamerLegion and Liquid vs NIP to look forward to. We anticipate the former of those will go the same way, but Liquid vs NIP should see the result flipped, and we’re pretty confident we’d be saying that with or without NAF, given that it took a rare EliGE 30-bomb to get Liquid over the line the first time.

Other games include Astralis vs paiN, which could go either way based on their Bounty showings, NRG vs B8, which will mostly be interesting due to the debut of B8’s regen AWPer, and Passion UA vs G2, which should be a good marker as to whether G2 used their time efficiently after passing up on Bounty.

All in all, it’s a decent first round of matches. Every game has a little bit of intrigue, and BCG’s horrible roster looks set to make a fool of themselves once more. Better yet, it’s online, so there won’t even be any excuses this time.

Time to work on those agendas, everyone. You’re going to need them.