A full-BO3 Swiss group stage? Are we watching the Major?

Well, no, because Valve are sh-t. But that’s a topic for another day.

No, instead, we’ve been watching FISSURE Playground 2, which we’d love to clown on but we actually just can’t. It’s honestly just been a really good time.

Falcons and Aurora breezed through the group stage, with Falcons having a particularly easy time of it as they didn’t drop a map and opened their account with a 26-3 win over Virtus.pro. Of course, at the time we weren’t sure as to whether that was down to VP being rubbish or Falcons actually being good again, but later results told us it might actually be both.

We then saw The MongolZ, G2, and FURIA all go through, with all three of the teams living up to the expectations that have been placed on them by their impressive recent form.

We were slightly worried by The MongolZ getting beaten by 3DMAX, and by FURIA losing their 2-0 game against Aurora, but it’s okay, even the teams we like are allowed to lose sometimes.

Rounding out the playoffs are Astralis, paiN, and Liquid. Which is good, really. Not because we wanted any of the three teams to make it through, we honestly couldn’t care if they did or didn’t, but the potential conflict of interest in the FaZe vs Liquid 2-2 game is a conversation we’re glad will now be avoided.

On the complete other end of the spectrum, HEROIC and Lynn Vision both crashed out of the event 0-3. We’d say this should be considered a disappointment, but looking at the field, we think it’s probably about right. A bit of a shame, seeing how we like both teams, but that’s just the way life goes sometimes, we guess.

TYLOO were the big disappointment for us, especially because their elimination was at the hands of an actually dead Liquid team. A poor showing from Jee in particularly, it seems the Chinese team still has a long way to go before they can truly put themselves on the same level as The MongolZ.

3DMAX also went out 1-3, which is really funny considering they beat The MongolZ in their opening game. Losing to both GamerLegion and VP on that run wasn’t exactly a good look for the Frenchies, but for this unfriendly English TLDR writer, it was bloody fun to watch.

Both GamerLegion and VP then exited the competition in the 2-2 bracket, losing to Astralis and paiN respectively. We’d like to make a joke about this, but considering they’re both dead teams - well, VP should be a dead team - it’s probably a decent result all things considered.

Still, Jame is right there, guys.

They were joined by FaZe in narrowly missing out on playoffs, who coincidentally are also a dead team.

A bit of a shame if it is to be rain’s last event for the organisation, we’re now pretty excited to see who will be making way for the returning Twistzz.

And hoping to God that it’s not going to be karrigan.