Loading…
GUIDES
Simple Radar
© 2026 TLDR Media, All Rights Reserved.
There’s a new star on top this Christmas.
Nigma Galaxy lose a battle but not the war, Virtus.pro make unwanted history and BLAST give us the countdown to Christmas.
We don’t cover ESL Impact as much as we’d like, but we bet you could guess the favourites for the 4th ESL Impact Finals in Valencia this weekend: Nigma Galaxy.
After winning six ESL Impact LAN events - the only six ever - would this be the one where they finally took an L?
To everyone’s surprise, that actually seemed like a reasonable question on Friday.
During group play the dominant squad finally suffered their first LAN match loss ever in a BO1 against Fluxo Demons on Vertigo. Yep, you read that right. First LAN loss, ever.
But the shocking start didn’t seem to faze the champs. Nigma went on to best Asia’s HSG fe (spearheaded by Olga) twice in the group stage, and defeat 9 Pandas Fearless before making it to a Grand Final appearance against NAVI Javelins.
Despite having faced Nigma in two other finals this year (Katowice and ESL Impact S3), NAVI couldn’t put up much of a fight. First they lost Inferno 6-13 and then they got wiped out on Nuke 0-13, leaving Nigma Galaxy to raise up their 4th ESL Impact trophy in a row.
To some surprise, Kat was awarded the MVP of the tournament - a recognition expectedly reserved for AWP star ANa - but a 105 ADR in the finals and 1.65 rating made the difference here, with the Slovakian achieving her first ever MVP.
ESL Impact returns with online qualifiers in February as well as a fresh format from ESL that may (or may not) give Nigma more competition in 2024.
Final standings:
1st 🇷🇺 Nigma Galaxy - $50.000
2nd 🇵🇱 NAVI Javelins - $25.000
3-4th 🇧🇷 Fluxo Demons - $13.000
3-4th 🇷🇺 9 Pandas Fearless - $13.000
5-6th 🇧🇷 FURIA fe - $7.000
5-6th 🏳️ HSG fe - $7.000
Christmas has come early. Maybe not early, but 12 days or so.
BLAST’s final swing of the year is taking place in Abu Dhabi, with seven of the best teams in the world, as well as Heroic, descending on one of the sunniest places in December.
Don’t expect much snow on this early Christmas day. BLAST are bringing you some lovely presents, though.
Sliding down the chimney on Wednesday morning is Cloud9 and ENCE, in what promises to be an intriguing match. Both teams have changed IGLs and both are facing interesting challenges. gla1ve has to revive his career while convincing a set of players, all of whom have offers from other teams, to commit to his leadership. On the other side, Boombl4 has to handle a team without a real AWPer while dealing with his own return to the top tier.
Vitality vs NAVI are up next and it barely needs any commentary. This will be a straight up banger.
Finally, FaZe take on the ghost of Heroic in their opening game, before day one closes out with MOUZ vs G2. If you can confidently predict the outcome of that game, you’re smarter than we are.
MOUZ just lost their best player, and G2 just signed one of their weaker ones. This might just be the stoppable force and the moveable object.
It all, most likely, leads to a FaZe vs Vitality final in the end - but there’s a non-zero chance we see the balance disturbed and a new challenger rise to the top. Whatever happens, it’s the last big event this side of 2024, so make sure to enjoy it.
Even if you’re a Heroic fan.
donk has ascended from looking like CIS’ next big star to looking like CS’ new star.
The 16-year-old is now the second youngest player to win a HLTV MVP, and at his first international LAN too.
So what the hell happened at BetBoom Dacha for him to pick that up?
In the semis, Spirit faced MIBR, where a dominant Mirage from Spirit ended MIBR’s hopes. The Brazilians only got 3 rounds, mostly thanks to Spirits rock solid CT-side helped along by donk’s 112 ADR. That’s a kill and change, every round!
On the opposite end of the bracket, VP made light work of nafany’s BetBoom.
Virtus.pro’s signature “bore them to death” style rained all over KaiR0N-’s revenge parade. Jame was so determined to see KaiR0N’s dreams shatter that he dropped a 32-14 K-D – across two maps. It’s almost obsessive how much Jame hates dying on the server.
The tables were now set for an exciting Grand Final with VP being the only team that managed to blunt donk’s impact at this event, giving him his only two non-positive ratings.
And it seemed VP’s donk-dulling strategies kept working.
The series started perfectly for VP with close, but comfortable score-lines winning both Overpass and Ancient. Spirit now had to do the impossible: come back from a 2-0. Their hopes rested on a 16-year-old who was playing a Grand Final in his first ever international LAN.
No way that works out…. But then, it worked out.
We don’t know what happened but Spirit looked like a new team on Vertigo and Mirage, helped along by masterful performances from ArtFr0st and magixx. Spirit was on the cusp of doing the impossible and all that stood in the way was Anubis.
Both teams won their T-side 7-5, sending them into overtime.
This was the opportunity for a knight in shining armor to rise up, and claim the trophy for their team. In comes donk, finding huge entries and winning the OT for Spirit.
A historic throw and the deciding star was, may we remind you, 16 years old.
Final standings:
1st 🇷🇺 Spirit - $180.000
2nd 🇷🇺 Virtus.pro - $60.000
3-4th 🇧🇷 MIBR - $30.000
3-4th 🇷🇺 BetBoom - $30.000
5-6th 🇧🇷 FURIA
5-6th 🇷🇺 Cloud9
7-8th 🇩🇰 Astralis
7-8th 🇪🇺 GamerLegion
