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GUIDES
Simple Radar
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They miss the Major again.
9 Pandas somehow rose to fill the gap left by GamerLegion and Astralis, meaning seized carped the diem and will be at the first CS2 Major.
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Sometimes, the Last Chance Qualifier can take the sting out of RMRs. It can give undeserving favorites another bite at the cherry.
Not so for Astralis.
They could be forgiven by the kindest of onlookers (if not us) for losing to Spirit and for their mental blocks against Heroic and ENCE.
But their fourth chance was against seized’s 9 Pandas.
The $2 million Danish superteam, against nine fluffy pandas. And you know who wins. The pandas, obviously.
Best part? It wasn’t even close. Astralis were outcalled, outshot, and outbrained. It was embarrassing.
They will now miss their third Major in a row. Astralis stickers haven’t been in the game since Antwerp, when Aleksib was on G2, Boombl4 on NAVI, and NIP was in the top ten.
The first Danish Major, without Astralis, is now a reality.
So what went wrong?
Firstly, the pressure. Astralis looked shell-shocked all week long. jabbi and stavn have crumpled into themselves and you have to be sympathetic, such is the tsunami of hate going their way.
device tweeted saying the game wasn’t fun anymore (which shows), and he and blameF have dropped off of a cliff as well.
Their system (and firepower, somehow) resembles a trashy top-30 international team, not the organisation that once housed the GOAT roster.
Signing ruggah for after the Major, and making poor analyst r0nic stand behind the team here, is also absolutely insane.
The only shining light has been Staehr, who got shafted on the role side and then got sent by blameF and device to do the exit interview with BanKs, too.
The RMR is cruel. But Astralis have zero excuses, they just couldn’t play to the level required for a shot at the Major.
Who’d win: an era-defining organisation with a GOAT candidate AWPer, or a cute panda?
Well, you just read about Astralis losing 2-0 to 9Pandas, so you’re probably not going to be shocked, but we just had to emphasise the gravitas once more.
After taking their win, seized and his boys went into a final decider against GamerLegion, who themselves had just knocked out Guild Eagles. On the one side, last year's Major finalists, on the other a ragtag group of CIS players with a dream.
Despite a close game on the first map, 9 Pandas pulled through 2-1. Not in the least bit thanks to a massively bright game by glowiing, who dropped 112 ADR across the 3 maps.
If you've never heard of glowiing you wouldn’t be blamed for thinking he’s the next CIS player to watch, but in reality he’s 30 years old which disqualifies him from the “new generation” label. Nonetheless, clutches like this one were the deciding factor for 9Pandas, and all thanks to a 30-year-old talent. Maybe we CAN go pro after all.
We can’t help but smile at the fact seized made it to another major seven years after he departed NAVI.
glowiing, seized, and even teammate iDISBALANCE are testaments to how hard work and patience can pay off. Isn’t this much better than having to watch blameF at a major?
Here’s an overview of all qualified (and dropped out) teams from Europe courtesy of u/PicknickTP:
Asian Counter-Strike is exactly as ridiculous outside the server as inside.
15 Average (that’s really their name) have somehow conspired to not assemble a valid line-up for the RMR event, and have been replaced by a team with D0cC on it.
Alright, we’ll cut them a little slack. One of their players was having some issues leaving Ukraine, according to one of their players, and they’ve been told they can’t play with their coach.
Twitter users, who are usually so reasoned and nuanced, were quick to shout at PGL that this is unfair as other teams can play with their coach — forgetting, or ignoring, the important context that 15 Average already had a substitute.
Does that suck for them? Yes, obviously. The whole team bar one player is in the country and supposedly found it via Twitter, but unfortunately, them’s the rules.
Onyx Ravens were supposed to be the replacement as they were the next team in line, but they also couldn’t get visas.
Perhaps China was a brave place to put this RMR.
This isn’t even the first team to drop out and be replaced. Trouble makers faced visa issues and were replaced by MAG, which while again sad, is a big upgrade in name value.
We will be supporting Derek and WasteOfAmmo in their pursuit of stickers.
The Asian RMR will have already started by the time you read this (unless there are some sort of crazy issues), with the opening games beginning at 3 AM Monday EU time.
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