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GUIDES
Simple Radar
© 2026 TLDR Media, All Rights Reserved.
NA gets reinvigorated just as it seems to die.
They need a new team to get behind if Complexity keep choking, ESIC have a need for speed and fnatic finally have a team.
Drain the swamp.
While the top of Counter-Strike is a magical place full of fantastic individuals and other… lies, below the tip of the iceberg is a festering hellhole beneath the water.
Nobody will be surprised by this, and neither will they be surprised by ESIC’s slow, frustrating and occasionally bizarre rulings.
Few will be upset by the banning of former Akuma player SENSEi, who was a controversial figure even before this. He was a suspected cheater on Akuma, who has actually been banned for offences that occurred before he rose to prominence in 2021.
Timely ban as ever, ESIC.
THRONE, DarkS1DE (terrible name by the way) and nat1ve were the other of his teammates banned. We don’t know who they are, and we couldn’t really care any less. You get what you fu…
All of them were caught for attempting to engage in match-fixing activities at “several LAN events”, and have been banned for two years. Good riddance.
So why, pray tell, has joel not been banned for as long?
The Swede was suspended provisionally, and ‘failed to provide evidence to the contrary’ of the charges levelled against him, but apparently he’s a nice lad and helped them investigate his cheating, so it’s all good.
He still got banned, though. All the way ‘til the 6th of January. 2024. A whole month. Oh, and five days.
He’s basically been given Christmas off. He’s done the classic Kevin Nolan fifth yellow on the 19th December to get Boxing Day off.
In the pursuit of fairness, you should read joel’s full confession and explanation, instead of only our classically sardonic spiel.
North American Counter-Strike never ceases to amuse.
Complexity have been fantastic so far in CS2. ELiGE has been ridiculous, and he’s dragged his teammates into relevance with him. Big wins over great teams, consistently impressive results. NACS is back.
There’s just… one thing. They are still North American.
A BO1 loss to FURIA is fine, it happens. Honestly, losing a BO3 to MOUZ isn’t that bad either - unless you choke a massive lead while 1-0 up.
Complexity put up a nine round T side on Inferno before winning - and converting - the pistol to go 11-3 up, after winning Overpass comfortably. Then they did the funny thing.
MOUZ won in regulation, and then took Ancient to knock Complexity out of Elisa Masters Espoo.
FURIA, meanwhile, dropped down to face MOUZ after losing to Apeks. Personally, we’re really happy to see Apeks thriving again after a rocky period post-Major.
On the other side, gla1ve’s beginning to life on ENCE was mixed. A loss to HAVU preceded his career-worst performance (1-15) in map one against a new-look fnatic (more on that later), before he rolled back the years and went sicko mode on map two.
Do the kids still say that? Did they ever?
He went 18-5 on Vertigo as ENCE stomped fnatic, and then stepped aside and watched Maden and dycha destroy them on Overpass.
HAVU, meanwhile, then went on to beat GamerLegion to top the group and put themselves in the semi-finals. At least Finnish Counter-Strike remains on top.
You could learn something, NA.
Roster season is ever-changing and never-ending, like Jesus of Suburbia.
Thankfully, our podcast DOES end in time, and packs in everything that has ever happened in under an hour. Just like Jesus of Suburbia.
They’ve finally done it!
fnatic announced a complete roster, and put an end to their stream of news about players who got kicked. We almost lost our hope there.
Besides the tier 2 starlet MATYS, fnatic have signed another player you might’ve never heard of: kyuubii. He’s silently been balling out under the Sangal banner and is averaging a 1.10 for the year, with 85 ADR and 0.75 Kills per round. That’s well above what autimatic, Kyojin and Lucaozy are managing to give you some context.
MATYS and kyuubii join the remaining players KRIMZ and afro. So who’s 5th?
The final piece is veteran french player bodyy, who will be taking the IGL mantle. He’s played for a bunch of well known teams, but is probably best known for his 3-year stint with G2 back in there all-French, kennyS era.
We’re excited to see how this mix of new and old will play out for fnatic who’s been hard stuck at the bottom of Top 15 most of the year.
fnatic’s new lineup is:
🇸🇪 KRIMZ
🇫🇷 afro
🇫🇷 bodyy (IGL)
🇭🇷 MATYS
🇩🇪 kyuubii
🇬🇧 keita (coach)
🇦🇺 dexter (benched)
fnatic isn’t the only team to dip into the market this week. So in the spirit of tl;dr, we’ve condensed it down for you:
Liquid are nearly full international. Evil Geniuses are dead, or dying. Complexity bottled a 10-round lead vs MOUZ. ESL (plus ESL Impact) and BLAST have reduced NA spots at their events.
All in all, North America has had better days.
Enter, NRG.
The heavyweight organization have re-entered Counter-Strike with the signing of daps, oSee, Brehze, FaNg, and HexT.
They might not set the world alight — but is a solid starting point for a squad that can compete at international events, and do slightly better than EG were doing.
Brehze has re-found some motivation with the new game — he must have heard the scoped guns are good again — and should form a star trio with oSee and coL old boy FaNg.
HexT will be the supportive element, reportedly thanks to autimatic wanting some time off, and in a region devoid of elective anchor players he has a role to play.
Leading it all is daps, who has a fantastic track record of unlocking talent and building a solid system. He even had a podcast called Peeker’s Advantage; he’s perfect for CS2!
NRG have assembled some lost souls and put a roof above their heads. Whatever the results, that is a positive.
Just don’t be surprised when they sign stanislaw in three months.
NRG’s starting five:
🇺🇸 Brehze
🇺🇸 oSee
🇨🇦 daps (IGL)
🇨🇦 HexT
🇨🇦 FaNg
