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NIP sign an AWPer with a one…
paiN continue to live up to their name, Preasy find out just how hard it is to make money in esports and PGL and StarLadder give us a juicy 2025 to look forwards to.
NIP finally announced their new AWPer.
No, it’s not s1mple. It’s actually r1nkle. Close enough, right?
The 19-year-old leaves B8 and joins the Swedish organization in a turbulent period for the Ninjas. Let’s just say things did not go very well for them in the RMR. Well, not just the RMR. Honestly, things haven’t been going NIP’s way for a while now.
But fear not NIP fans! The young sniper did not take much time to start cooking.
On the day of his announcement, r1nkle boasted impressive 1.31 rating performances in his first two BO3s with the team, during ESL Jönköping’s Closed Qualifier. Talk about a flying start.
Can he help lead the legendary org back to its rightful place? Colossal task, we know.
The NIP roster is now nearly locked, with the squad missing just an anchor player. Hey, we know of a pretty good Aussie bloke who happens to be available.
In this week’s episode of Overtime on Inferno, Logan and Elliot:
Who did the best? Check out the full episode on YouTube or Spotify to find out!
Listen or Watch Episode
You ever see a cool game on Steam Sale, download the demo, play it, enjoy it and then see that the price has gone back to normal?
No, us neither - because we bother to check when a sale expires. paiN, however, a bit like Manchester United, aren’t as bright it seems.
After waiting to see how n1ssim would perform at the Major, the Brazilians missed out on what would be a very good deal at 20k Euros and are now being held for ransom.
His price has apparently quintupled (4x) since the deal was made, and paiN have to either sh*t or get off the pot now. The 20k buyout ended on February 29 (which isn’t some sort of voodoo trick, it is actually a leap year), but paiN weren’t sure on him then.
Now they’re sure, but so are Sharks. Oops.
n1ssim probably won’t be sticking with paiN despite the team’s impressive run at the Major. €125.000 is a lot of money regardless of how much paiN overachieved, and also just a bit of a mickey-take, given his price was a fifth of that a month ago.
It sucks for the player, and it sucks for paiN, but they really do only have themselves to blame.
You showed the world how good the player is. You can’t then expect to get him on the cheap.
If you really want to feel the sheen and gloss of the inaugural TL;DR magazine, but weren’t in Copenhagen, we've got the second-best thing.
Well, third-best, if you were amongst the lucky few who bought one from our shop this week. They were just sent btw.
Back to the point:
By hitting the button below, you can now browse the digital version of our 48-page magazine in all its glory.
Although it doesn’t hit quite the same, as feeling it between your fingers (not like that, you freak), we hope you’ll love binging all the incredible articles inside.
Help us out by sharing the magazine with a friend. Plus, don’t hesitate to reply to this email and let us know what you think.
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It’s a rough time to be a Danish CS fan. The Major was problematic enough (no Danish teams in playoffs), and now the orgs are going bust.
Preasy’s main roster, featuring the likes of roeJ and refrezh, has been let go. The org says its because the “mothership” couldn’t afford to keep them on. Yeah they actually said that. What is this, a bad sci-fi?
What they’re probably talking about is their mother company.
Preasy was owned by… Preasy a subsidiary of a Danish electric utility company whose website also seems to have folded, at least during the writing of this story.
It's clear the electricity overlords wanted to cut costs for a while, going as far as to list the roster for sale back in January. And the org made it pretty clear on socials this was a corporate decision.
In other words, this isn't the end of the Preasy org. They only said they couldn't afford anyone relevant.Their new roster is their academy team, promoted. And whilst definitely cheaper, doesn't exactly fill us with confidence.
Oh, and why even do a project like this if you're not investing in a team that's going to make you a splash and generate publicity? But what do we know, we just write newsletters.
Franchising is over.
Alright, not just yet. It’ll be in 2025, but the exciting news is that the ESL/BLAST dichotomy might be broken completely.
PGL - and not long after, StarLadder - declared that they’re looking to come back, and the tournament schedule you can find here for 2025 looks CRAZY. Event after event, after event.
It should, of course, be remembered that not every team will be at every event; some of the ESL tournaments will be ESL Challengers, for example, and Vitality won’t be at those.
Unless something goes really, really wrong.
It does seem to suggest that the RMRs might be going, as there’s no space for them. This isn’t something we noticed all by ourselves - we’re not that smart - but once Richard Lewis hinted at it, we put our few brain cells together to recognise they weren’t on the schedule.
Similarly, it might put an end to the five-week ESL Pro League that - frankly - is a bit of a snoozefest. If we’re swapping out Pro League for StarLadder events, RMRs for ranking-based invites, and the same talent for a wider variety, it could be a wonderful time for Counter-Strike.
Richard Lewis himself seems quite likely to come back and play a big part in Counter-Strike after his welcome return to the desk, and Vince and Frankie might find themselves an open door now after ESL’s vice-grip on the scene is loosened.
Hell yeah.
