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GUIDES
Simple Radar
© 2026 TLDR Media, All Rights Reserved.
He’s known for his signature tactic of winning the group.
Edition #400 | sep 18tH, 2023
MOUZ have gone from the top to the bottom in record time, ESL have done something controversial and Asian CS still looks better than NA CS.
MATCH HIGHLIGHTS
9z
2
0
Apeks
NAVI
2
0
FaZe
5yclone
1
2
9z
Liquid
2 Days
VP
MOUZ miss out on BLAST
When you go all-in on youth, you have to take the rough with the smooth.
Last week we saw MOUZ look superb in patches at Pro League having beaten Heroic. We saw them qualify from a group that in previous years we might have seen them lose. We saw siuhy looking like a world class IGL.
Life comes at you fast, though, and this weekend we saw them fail to qualify for BLAST Showdown. They’ve lost to teams with names like ‘Victory Zigzag’ and ‘416Olsk’.
Well, not teams with names like that, but those exact teams.
It was a BO1 qualifier and as such, you can’t take too much from it. You can, however, laugh at them. Both teams they lost to were outside of the top 50 and it’s a hilarious juxtaposition to qualifying over Heroic at Pro League.
How did it happen? The Victory Zigzag game saw an all-timer from mertz (yes, that one) who dropped 37 in 35 rounds to secure a victory, while 416Olsk saw a carry from ‘avid’ who we... need to read up on. And they also have a twist (of former NIP fame) in PlesseN and robiin.
Another team who won’t be there are Team Spirit, but in their defence they lost a BO3 to Cloud9. While it’s always nice to see Cloud9 at the big LANs, we did sort of want to see donk at LAN.
In fact, Cloud9 are about the only team to keep donk quiet. He ‘only’ dropped a 1.09.
We got to see some vintage electroNic on map two, too. Few players at their peak are more destructive than him, and if he’s going to bring that form to Showdown, they’re going to smash everyone.
ESL NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
Counter-Strike is more international than ever - whether it’s your 0-10 Open team or the #1 team in the world, almost everyone is mixing it up.
It didn’t always used to be this way.
Once upon a time, before Kinguin changed the scene, every top team came from a single country. If you were from a scene with less support, too bad; you just don’t have a team to play for. Fortunately, ESL was there to help build up scenes with their National Championships series.
If you’re a bit like Mauisnake and you haven’t ventured out of tier 1 CS in a while, let us explain: ESL used to hold regular smaller tournaments in regions that could use more events. These would give players the opportunity to get their first LAN experience and give smaller scenes something to strive towards, which in theory is great.
Well, it’s dead now. Unlucky. ESL has stalked it across the streets and decided to make National Championships a cost-saving victim.
This affects some regions especially hard. Oceania for example, is already struggling enough as is. At least Oceania has teams at big events, though - BeNeLux on the other hand will basically have nothing left without ESL’s championships.
Name a single team with a Dutch/Belgian core, we’ll wait. Heroic will have won an IEM by the time you answer.
While the effects on players are obvious, something you might not even think about is everyone else.
Casters, production, stage hosts, admins, and anyone else who works behind the scenes will suddenly lose a path to working on the big stages. All of these positions require a lot of practice and or experience, so how will you replace that?
ESL’s plan, according to an interview with HLTV, is to support third parties in hosting events. Well, maybe “plan” is a big word. It’s more of a vague promise.
Is it ESL’s responsibility to keep these scenes alive? No, clearly not, but you’d hope they’d at least make a real plan before ending most of their events instantly. Especially as Oceania, Brazil, Germany, Poland, The UK & Ireland will still have a season to finish the year.
Esports isn’t a charity, though. ESL naturally have to look at their bottom line, and these events were not making money. How do we know? If they did, we bet they’d keep doing them.
So if you’re in any of these scenes, give the event a dead cat bounce, maybe it’ll show other TO’s there is still a viewership. Otherwise we’ll get Danish players invading every team forever .
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NAVI smash FaZe to top EPL Group C
We’re not ones to overreact. But sometimes, it’s hard to resist, isn’t it?
NAVI have gone flawless to top Group C of EPL, 6-0 in maps, and with a 61.6% T side win percentage.
Last event, NAVI’s T sides were frankly shambolic, scoring just two rounds versus Vitality on Mirage in the quarter-final.
But, one lengthy bootcamp later, they were able to come from 13-9 down on the T side of Nuke to complete their 2-0 over FaZe.
b1t has been unlocked, hitting a 2.14 rating in map one versus FaZe and 1.36 overall. s1mple is back in form with a 1.30 rating over the group. iM had more good maps than he had bad. Aleksib is back on TOP!
Maybe. These Pro League groups are hard to judge, and victory over 5yclone, Apeks, and a slumping FaZe should be the bare minimum for those supposedly born to win.
But it’s a good sign, another solid result for a roster that is perhaps underrated. They’ve qualified for Fall Final, were top eight at Cologne and now will be at ESL Pro League at a minimum.
FNATIC and 9z were the last teams to clinch a playoff berth from the group, backing up captain Max’s claim that they are as “good as they have ever been.”
5yclone and Apeks miss out, but the takeaways should be wildly different for the former to the latter: The Chinese squad impressed in a way Apeks have really struggled to since Paris.
That’s good news for jL, who set out for revenge against Apeks not just for himself but for good friend and benched coach kuben too — and leaves Malta laughing.
NAVI are on top, and Apeks had the same placing as EG. It’s all coming up jLegend.
Everything Else
🟦 They were there, so they weren’t square
✨ Skins we absolutely need
🛩 ️Flying under the radar