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GUIDES
Simple Radar
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Sashi and M80 are on top of the world.
We love a good underdog, so it’s been a good week for us. It’s not been as good a week for Newhappy, and it’s been a mixed week for paiN, in the meantime.
We don’t know, man.
There’s so much drama around this event that barely seems to matter. OG crying ‘cause they couldn’t print their strats out (maybe you could just practice them, idk), paiN complaining they had to play at 4AM (you’re gamers, man, that’s prime time) and day two lasting 19 hours.
Alright, fine, those are reasonable. But this is a lot of drama for an event most only had a passing interest in.
biguzera was off tweeting about how disappointed he was in Imperial for playing the game in the early hours of the morning, because they’d knocked them out of an online tournament in the same day. He seemed to think it was revenge for that, but…
Well, the day is just as long for them, mate. They probably just wanted it over and done with. Not everything is a personal attack.
We wouldn’t mind, but paiN won anyway. What are you even complaining about?
paiN have played 20 maps in three days, which is about half of the amount the average Danish 16 year old plays from Monday to Wednesday, and culminated in them winning GET Rio, but losing the EWC qualifier at the same time.
You won an event, lads. Be happy about it.
nqz was the best player in the final, and one of the best players at the event, which is a very good sign for paiN who needed a second star alongside biguzera. Imperial continued to look very solid, but not quite good enough at 4AM.
Real gamers are better at 4AM.
It’s not Esports if there aren’t any visa issues.
On the 18th of April, visa issues caused Newhappy to be replaced by KZG at ESL Challenger Melbourn. So far, non-story, but then the 19th of April rolls around, and Newhappy get granted the visa’s they they didn’t have. So, they go public saying they repeatedly told ESL they’d receive the visa on the 19th, and were replaced on the 18th anyway.
Which is just outrageous, why would ESL do that? Well, they didn’t.
Turns out, ESL checked in with Newhappy on the 18th, and they said they had no update or idea of when they’d find out.
That’s in stark contrast to what the team said happened, and it’s especially bad when you consider ESL had set the initial deadline on the 11th.
Before anyone asks, this information isn’t just “trust me bro” it comes straight from the ESL Senior Vice President.
The team doesn’t even refute it.
HLTV asked Newhappy’s coach to corroborate and he admitted that they only found out about the exact date of their visa, after they were replaced. Although he does say ESL never informed them of the April 18 deadline.
You do have to feel a bit bad for Newhappy, who had a chance to put their name on the map by playing teams like Apeks, MIBR, Aurora. But they didn’t exactly go about this the best way either.
We should just organize all events on an island owned by ESL, no visa problems! The UFC did what?
If you’re a football fan, this won’t come as a surprise.
Whether we like it or not, it appears that Saudi influence in the sports world is not only here to stay but also growing stronger.
While we got a glimpse of the scale at Gamers8, Saudi Arabia has now cemented itself in the Esports scene, and their pockets are deeper than ever. Across 19 competitive titles, the Esports World Cup is set to feature a $60M+ total prize pool, with $1M reserved solely for Counter-Strike.
But in order to acquire the bag, you have to beat some of the best, which is no easy task.
Well, it seems like this time it wasn’t that hard.
In the EU Closed Qualifier, Sashi, Eternal Fire, Cloud9 and BetBoom battled it out for a spot in Riyadh. Led by coach HUNDEN, the Sashi squad managed to surprise everyone and upset the two heavy favorites, beating both Cloud9 and EF in BO3 series. No spectating bug this time, right?
Despite playing with alpha as a stand-in, expectations were higher for Cloud9. m0NESY can’t come soon enough.
Anyways, what beats one upset? Exactly. Two upsets.
Team Liquid got crushed by M80 in the final series of the NA Closed Qualifier, featuring a 1.59 rating performance from malbsMd. Despite seeming to have finally found their form in Chengdu, the Liquid boys stumbled in this qualifier. Let’s see if they can bounce back one more time.
FlyQuest, MIBR, and TheMongolz are also headed to Riyadh, managing to secure their spots through the Oceania, South America, and Asia Closed Qualifiers, respectively.
