Asian Counter-Strike is better than North American Counter-Strike.

That’s the word on the street this week from professional hot-taker and agent provocateur TeaTime, and he was quickly proven… well, not right, but more right than the Americans would dare admit.

TheMongolZ went to town in Abu Dhabi and lit a fire under every team who dared test them, proving that they - not Astralis, not fnatic, not Complexity and not NIP - are the next in line to test the best teams in the world. And they took the trophy in YaLLa Compass.

They’ve been noted as scrim gods for a little while, with lots of respectable players actually tipping them to do well in the Major just gone, and we’d seen flashes of greatness from them, but this was the first time we’ve seen real domination from them.

This was a showing that TheMongolZ aren’t just an upset team, they’re actually capable of being domineering, they’re capable of being the best team, at coming from behind against big names and taking over whole events.

Perhaps the biggest difference is in 910's performance. The AWPer seemed to be the weak link that bottlenecked TheMongolZ in big games, but he ended this event as the MVP following a ridiculous carry job against pre-tournament favourites Astralis.

He now has become their biggest player in these games, their key piece in unlocking great teams - but he was backed up by bLitz back on his BS and Techno4k once more, showing glimpses of world-class mechanics and raw aggression.

This is a MongolZ team to be feared - and a team who can genuinely top 4 at some big events.

For NIP, who made it to the final just to lose to MongolZ, there too were encouraging signs. r1nkle looked incredible, and isak and maxster looked as if they’d been playing for NIP for years. This team might finally bring some respect back to the NIP name.

They mightn’t have won, but they fought, at least. More than the NIP of the past.

Final standings:

1st 🇲🇳 The MongolZ – $200.000
2nd 🇸🇪 Ninjas in Pyjamas – $56.000
3-4th 🇧🇷 FURIA – $28.000
3-4th 🇩🇰 Astralis – $28.000
5-6th 🇪🇺 fnatic – $20.000
5-6th 🇷🇺 BetBoom – $20.000