Loading…
GUIDES
Simple Radar
© 2026 TLDR Media, All Rights Reserved.
It’s a special edish, for the real ones.
Edition #386 | AUG 5th, 2023
We thought it only seemed right to have a special edition for the final CSGO IEM Cologne. Welcome to the Cathedral, one last time (in CSGO)
MATCH HIGHLIGHTS
Vitality
2
0
Cloud9
Astralis
2
0
Heroic
ENCE
Today
Vitality
G2
Today
Astralis
Cloud9’s debut was something of a muted one, as the sheen of the new roster was quickly muddied by the impervious Vitality.
Ax1Le’s presence was useful, but largely immaterial; Vitality were the better team from start to finish on Mirage, and though map two went to overtime, it took a hero play from sh1ro to even make Cloud9 competitive.
Vitality flew out the blocks to make Mirage a pretty quick affair - it might’ve finished with Cloud9 on double digits, but it certainly never felt like they’d do more than make the scoreline much more palatable.
While much of the talk surrounding the game surrounding the incoming Ax1Le, his presence was largely underwhelming. He took a little while to get going, and despite topfragging for Cloud9 on Mirage, it wasn’t the galvanising figurehead they required.
From round one, it felt like Vitality were in their bag. ZywOo quickly clipped off three heads with the USP-S on the pistol, we blinked, and it was 5-0 Vitality. FlameZ ended a B rush with a multifrag, ZywOo decapitated sh1ro with a Scout and even apEX picked up a couple of frags.
sh1ro started to show up on the CT side with a 16-6 half; so it says a lot about his first half that he ended with under 20 kills.
Inferno, though, was much closer. As it often is.
sh1ro chewed through the B defence with two AK headshots, but it was back-and-forth as flameZ and ZywOo took turns multifragging Cloud9 back, leaving the game neck-and-neck at the half.
The second half was a similar pattern; moments of genius from ZywOo interspersed with sh1ro and Ax1Le returning fire - as such, it was only fitting it ended in overtime. Vitality led after their T half, but despite taking a 5v3 lead at 17-16, were ripped open by sh1ro once more.
Gliding through the B smoke, sh1ro picked off apEX in transition and tore the head off of flameZ top open up the site, before chopping off ZywOo’s noggin in CT to secure the round. Cloud9 were back in it, and map three beckoned.
Except… it didn’t.
Winning a 3v5 is fantastic, but it’s not a sustainable way to win rounds, as Cloud9 quickly found out. They were picked off twice more, and left praying at the Cathedral for some more divine intervention that never came.
Buzz takes heroic apart
Astralis are back.
We know. We’re excited as well. We can’t hide it.
Mind you, watching Buzz was one hell of an adrenaline rush. The stage rookie, the kid, the guy who dev1ce played a few PUGs with and decided “yeah, bin Xyp9x off lads”; he decided to take over.
This was his ascension game.
Ancient was a whitewash, as it so often is with Astralis. Their record on the map is untouchable, and you can see why. They didn’t drop a T round, with Buzz the poisoned tip of the spear that ripped Heroic apart.
Admittedly, he had the backing of a dev1ce in superstar form.
Inferno, though, Buzz was unlickable.
He consistently found multikills over and over again, finding impactful rounds out of thin air. Triple kills from inside site on the CT side, backed up with constant doubles on the T side. Seriously - go rewatch the T side. He has far, far too many double kills at big moments.
In the biggest round of the game, he pulled off a flank, killed cadiaN rotating and picked off the remaining two players on the post-plant. And that barely made his top three rounds of the map.
The kid completely took over the whole game, and brought one of the best teams in the world to their knees at the altar of Counter-Strike.
Bow before your newest saint, Saint Buzz.
Tomorrow's games
The weekend is just getting started, lads and lasses.
Two semi-finals await us today, with the first being between arguably the two best teams in the world. That might be hyperbole, but it also… might not be?
ENCE fired their way past Heroic (in a group stage, where Heroic never lose games) to secure a spot here, and have potentially the best T sides in the world. Their CT sides haven’t been anything special, but it just hasn’t mattered at all.
They won in Dallas, and though the Major was pretty disappointing for them, they’ve come back with a vengeance and look once more like the giant they can be.
They face Vitality - the giant who ENCE are trying to become. ZywOo was insatiable yesterday, and Spinx comes up against his old friends with fire in his belly. Vitality are the best team in the world; but ENCE might be second.
That’s if they’re better than G2 and Astralis.
G2’s run to get here has been a breeze - not because they haven’t beaten anyone good, but because they’ve made it look easy. m0NESY and NiKo in the arena is a guaranteed banger, and we’re seeing shades of the Katowice G2.
In fact, the only way that game can’t be crazy is if G2 are just too good.
Astralis have shown themselves to be devastating once more. They say that form is temporary, and class is permanent, but in Astralis they have the hot hand and the history to back them up. Buzz’ form yesterday was electric, and dev1ce knows how to win in an arena.
If you miss a second of these semi-finals, you’re going to regret it.
everything else