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GUIDES
Simple Radar
© 2026 TLDR Media, All Rights Reserved.
Astralis point the finger at the biceps.
EspiranTo is on his way back, FURIA are trying to avoid a whole bunch of banana skins and TheMongolz charge all the way through Asia to Copenhagen.
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If you are from a certain CS vintage, the name EspiranTo might make you feel a little tingly inside. That’s what this feeling is right? Should I call a doctor?
Then 17 year old Lithuanian MVP was playing on teams with Nexa and huNter, and often looked like the most talented player on the server. Yet while his teammates went on to play for big teams, he faded away into nothing. Nobody knew exactly why, although rumours swirled that his off-server manors lacked.
But now, he’s back, and it turns out he left CS to join… the army?
After 1.5 years radio silence, EspiranTo’s explains how he volunteered for the army to face the reality of “how tough life can be.” If that seems like an odd thing to say, it might help you to know that he comes from “old money” and has grown up quite wealthy. This might also explain why he didn’t take practice seriously and just relied on his raw talent.
But now he’s back and ready to tap into that raw talent again with a fresh perspective.
He’s begun a “healthy but hard” training regime to get back into the game. Even going as far as to stream the process on Twitch, a stream that’s gonna be a must-watch for any aspiring pro.
Check out HLTV’s interview if you want to know more about EspiranTo and his comeback. We just gave you the tl;dr.
TheMongolz are the best team in Asia. Hands down.
Obviously, we all knew this; but their run through the Asia RMR was as dominant as one can imagine. Over four maps, they dropped more than four rounds just once, breezing past Lynn Vision 13-8 13-3, after back-to-back 13-4s.
It’s good to see, truthfully.
While we don’t like necessarily one team monopolising, if they’re actually legit, they should just roll through Asia. We’ve seen too many false dawns - of Asian teams doing alright internationally and collapsing domestically afterwards. Now we’ve said all that, they’ll probably go 0-3.
They’ll be joined by a team that, finally, isn’t Grayhound.
There seems to have been an Australian team at every single Major ever (we haven’t factchecked this, this is purely just vibes), but this time around we shan’t have one.
We’d like to pretend we’re disappointed, but it feels like there’s more chance of Lynn Vision doing anything good than Grayhound. Grayhound seem to make it to every international event just to be the whipping boys, and while it’s sad for a region that needs the help, we aren’t too upset as viewers.
Sorry, guys. We’ll call it even for the Ashes.
Lynn Vision making it was a bit of an upset; TYLOO capitulated as they always seem to, and Grayhound fell to them in the last qualifying game. It’s lovely to see some new faces, and some interesting new names for stickers.
The sticker we’ve all been waiting for: Westmelon. Finally.
See all details from the Asia RMR here.
This week on the podcast, we have a totally rational conversation about Astralis and BlameF that doesn’t include any bias. I think.
It was armageddon for Astralis on Sunday, and it’s a circus on Wednesday.
IGL blameF, a four-time top 20 player (and suberb eco fragger) has been benched, which opens the door for a new IGL to come in.
Who could it be? karrigan? Snappi? HooXi? gla1ve? birdfromsky? Patti? maNkz? cadiaN? (lol)
Nope. None of them.
It’s device, with br0 coming in as a selfless map control rifler and anchor.
It’s as crazy as Cloud9 not managing to find a Russian-speaking AWPer they rate. Denmark is spawning a good IGL every six months, and they’ve gone with DEVICE?
There is logic. It restores stavn and jabbi to Heroic roles and Heroic structure, with an AWP IGL. br0 is a great player in the TeSeS mould, and Staehr is doing a decent sjuush cosplay.
Harping on about roles is a bit rich, though. It’s not like it wasn’t obvious. stavn and blameF were cut from the same crouch-spamming zero-headshot baity boy cloth. Giving up after three months is pathetic.
Putting even more eggs in the shabby Stabbi basket just reeks of sunk cost fallacy and sports director, Kasper Straube, giving his old Heroic boys mate rates. Or “prioritising youth,” as Astralis would put it.
Poor old device tweeted about a lack of motivation last week, and is now taking on the most intensive role you can possibly imagine. The guy should be wrapped in cotton wool, not thrown to the wolves.
All in all, it looks like we’ll be hate-maxxing and fraud-watching the Shanghai Major RMR for the next chapter in Astralis’ downfall.
Astralis are now:
🇩🇰 device (IGL)
🇩🇰 jabbi
🇩🇰 stavn
🇩🇰 br0
🇩🇰 Staehr
🇩🇰 Ruggah (coach)
🇩🇰 BlameF (benched)
Welcome to the cement mixer.
The Americas RMR is set to be an absolute bloodbath.
In years gone by there would have been quite a few spots for NA and South America to fight over, but in a post-Covid, post-Stewie2k, post-Shroud-is-better-than-s1mple world, we’re down to five spots.
And personally? We love it.
Not just because it means fewer NA teams, but because we love chaos. Sixteen teams enter and five teams leave. It’s the Swiss system, except if you lose two you’re out, and you still need to win three.
If you tell us you’re confident in FURIA, you are a liar.
FURIA, Liquid and Complexity are the obvious favourites, but FURIA are perennial let-downs and Liquid’s form has been patchy. Complexity, one would think, are sure-fire qualifiers to Copenhagen.
Surely.
M80 still have dephh as their IGL, but are in with a solid shot, but they’ll have to get past a raft of Brazilian teams. paiN, MIBR, Legacy and Imperial all have some big names and solid players to get past, and any one of them - or all of them - could qualify.
We can’t tell you which of those is best, though. That’s asking far too much. That’s what the RMR is for.
BESTIA add some Argentinian flair to the mix and are no pushovers, while NRG and Nouns are underdog NA teams who can be very scary. Nouns especially have some big wins to their name and consistent showings, particularly domestically.
Elevate, BOSS, ODDIK, Wildcard and RED Canids make up the least likely contenders, but you really do never know in Major season.
The games start tonight as you’re reading this (unless you’re reading this after work or school, in which case, do your homework or something), with FURIA vs Nouns as one of the opening games, in a BO1.
Still confident in FURIA?
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