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GUIDES
Simple Radar
© 2026 TLDR Media, All Rights Reserved.
The Major is heading east, allegedly.
Edition #382 | JUly 24th, 2023
NiKo quite literally cannot do any more than this, forZe make a double change and the church bells are ringing. Counter-Strike is f’ng back!
MATCH HIGHLIGHTS
Vitality
2
0
BIG
NAVI
2
0
G2
MOUZ
2 Days
Mongolz
Astralis
2 Days
Liquid
BLAST FALL FINAL ROUND-UP
Apparently, NiKo has more on his shoulders than ZywOo and s1mple, and is therefore better.
Normally we would mock that statement, but in fairness, we did watch him have to carry four lumps against a surprisingly resilient Evil Geniuses. EG, even in their most glorious moment, managed to not get it over the line.
NiKo picked up 89 kills with a +45 scoreline, 32 kills more than anyone else in the server, over the three maps, and G2 won in overtime of map three. Quite how it got that close is well beyond us.
27 kills on map one and three, and 35 in a regulation loss on Nuke. Genuinely hilarious trolling from G2 to even make it close. HooXi might be in trouble, truthfully. They did still win, before losing in 30 rounds twice to NAVI, despite 100 kills from La Familia.
That’s NiKo and huNter-, in case that wasn’t obvious.
The fact that NiKo has played that well and G2 have squeaked a win over EG and then been 2-0’d by a NAVI team that can barely speak to each other, doesn’t look good for HooXi. Or m0NESY. Or jks, really.
Meanwhile, Astralis 2-0’d both Liquid and Complexity. Liquid went all the way to Europe, became European and still can’t get a map off of the ol’ rivals.
The less said about Complexity, the better.
mantuu put up resistance, but nobody else did, as BIG got smacked by Vitality, but was helped out as BIG outclassed the new-look OG. OG, for what it’s worth, haven’t looked up to snuff at all so far at BLAST.
Final standings & Fall Final qualified:
1-3rd 🇪🇺 FaZe - $27.500
1-3rd 🇩🇰 Heroic - $27.500
1-3rd 🇸🇪 NIP - $27.500
4-6th 🇪🇺 NAVI - $17.500
4-6th 🇪🇺 Vitality - $17.500
4-6th 🇩🇰 Astralis - $17.500
FORZE & RIDERS ROSTER MOVES
Jerry and zorte are the two shinest pieces on FORZE’s books.
So they’ve benched them, obviously.
Both players had been transfer listed since June, but thus far no buyer has been found. zorte has been linked to the nafany BetBoom project but there hasn’t even been as much as a peep about Jerry.
Jerry and FORZE have been partnered since 2017, tutoring players like facecrack, xsepower, FL1T, KENSI and shalfey in that time.
He’s even got himself a bit of a fan club, and there’s an argument he deserves a shot at the tier one scene. Whether he will get that chance remains to be seen — TSM still need an IGL? — but it will still be a bittersweet moment to leave FORZE behind.
Replacing them will be el1an (Entropiq’s old pub-stomping AWPer) and sstiNiX, who we’re not going to pretend to know anything about.
Krad was also benched, but FORZE have not announced his replacement just yet making the “starting four”:
🇷🇺 El1an
🇷🇺 shalfey
🇷🇺 r3salt
🇷🇺 sstiNiX
Movistar Riders have also shuffled late in the silly season. Out goes dav1g, and in comes Romanian (but Spanish speaking) adamS.
The new boy is a bit of a FACEIT grinder, reaching 5700 ELO, and should provide some raw firepower in place of dav1g, who had never convinced the Spanish faithful.
It might not be the move to instantly get the Dragonites sky-borne again but it’s a move in the right direction. After a semi-final run at Cologne last year, the Riders now that anything is possible.
And who wouldn’t root for them?
Movistar Riders are now:
🇪🇸 alex
🇪🇸 mopoz
🇪🇸 Martinez
🇵🇹 JUST
🇷🇴 adamS
IEM Cologne preview
The Cathedral beckons.
One of the biggest events of the year - probably the biggest, given the Major isn’t ‘til 2024 - is upon us this week, beginning with the play-in.
Calling it a play-in is a bit of disservice, though. New MOUZ, FURIA, Liquid, Astralis and a rejuvenated NIP are the pick of the bunch, but there are very few teams not worth at least a cursory watch.
We begin the day of BO1s with MOUZ vs TheMongolz and Into the Breach vs NIP, both of which have upset potential. MOUZ are completely fresh against a very different looking TheMongolz (we’ve no idea if they’re good, yet) and NIP could beat Into the Breach, if everything aligns.
fnatic take on Complexity in a game where SOMEONE is getting meme’d, and OG face the test of 9INE - a test we have no faith in them passing.
Monte begin life without BOROS against Imperial, who begin life without FalleN, while Astralis and Liquid renew their rivalry.
This is not a rivalry. They always kick our ass.
Apeks take aim at BIG, who don’t have their one bright light from BLAST playing, while Grayhound begin their race to 13-16th against FURIA.
That one might have been uncalled for.
Get an overview of the starting Play-In games on Liquipedia.
SECOND 2024 MAJOR
PGL and Perfect World are set to host Asia’s first ever Major, targeting the City of Shanghai as their destination.
If you’ve been a reader since late 2022, this might sound familiar to you. In August last year, rumours had spread that Perfect World wanted to host 2023’s second Major in Asia. With their eyes pointed at China.
But that’s old news. Instead, Valve canceled this year's second major in preparation for CS 2.
And although they might’ve killed the Major, they didn’t kill the idea.
Perfect World is now rumoured to be hosting a Major in Shanghai, this time with PGL giving a helping hand on production. If it holds true, PGL almost monopolises the Major in 2024 as they also are the hosts of the Copenhagen Major at the beginning of the year.
PGL or not, we’re not booking our flights just yet.
Before Valve canned 2023’s second major, it looked like Singapore was actually going to be the destination for an Asia Major. Earlier this year, Formula 1 proved that China still isn’t ready for a big international event when they cancelled their Grand Prix stop due to COVID safety concerns. Compound that with the political optics of China and it’s a tough sell.
But maybe enough time will have passed by the end of 2024 for China to be open to the world again. As much as it ever will be
EVERYTHING ELSE
🧑🎨 Art is timeless
🧠 superiority c0mplex
🤔 “I’ve won, but at what cost?”
