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GUIDES
Simple Radar
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m0NESY is the best player in the world, again.
Stewart 2000 and his friends somehow won IEM Dallas, Imperial’s chokehold on women’s Counter-Strike continues and fairytales have sad endings, this week.
No, we’re not trying to start a beef with Disney here.
We’re just trying to understand the recent changes to the Major rulebook, which will impact the Perfect World Shangai Major scheduled for the end of the year.
Staying true to our name, here’s a brief rundown of the most significant changes:
In our humble opinion, this change only makes sense with the end of partnered events. In theory, without guaranteed invites, a team’s performance will be the sole determinant of their position in Valve’s ranking. Until then, this change crushes the dreams of smaller teams and their Cinderella runs.
Take ECSTATIC, for instance. The Danish sensation wouldn’t have made it all the way to the Copenhagen Major’s Elimination Stage if not for the open qualifiers.
Now, as expected, the community didn’t like this change. No, really, everyone hated it.
From team managers and players to casters and memers, everyone bashed Valve for their decision. The sentiment is unanimous: open qualifiers offer a chance for a random 5 stack to chase their dreams and make it to the Major stage, and that path to glory shouldn’t be taken away from us.
If you are among the fans who oppose the change, you can express your disagreement by signing this petition, which has already amassed nearly seven thousand signatures.
Let’s see if all this uproar persuades Valve to rethink their decision.
While the tier 1 top dogs fought it out at IEM Dallas, Counter-Strike kept being played elsewhere.
Over in Mongolia, the not-quite tier-1 teams like TheMongolz and Aurora duked it out at MESA Nomadic Masters Spring.
The event being in Mongolia was quite fun, as it meant we got to see a few local teams in action, which, among others, led to Chinggis Warriors beating OG.
It even had a perfect ending: The Mongolians won the trophy for the home crowd, beating a new-look BLEED in the finals. Oh, and ngl, this BLEED team looks promising.
Over in Dallas, there was even more CS to be had.
ESL Impact S5 was happening at the same time as IEM Dallas, and it was cool to see that only one team was orgless. A big milestone for women’s pro CS.
The orgless team was Let Her Cook, and they went all the way to the finals. There, they faced Imperial fe (previous Nigma Galaxy roster) and ANa, the queen of Impact. Her reign continued at the expense of Let Her Cook, as Imperial won 2-0 despite one of their players, zAAz, being sick in the final.
It’s wild how much CS goes on these days, the crew here now all have 10 monitors so we can follow every game. Just don't tell the bosses.
What the hell did we just watch?
Stewie2k just won an IEM trophy in his home country. In 2024. How? Why? Who let this happen?
We’re not sure on the why, but the how and who is all m0NESY. The teenager - yes, he’s still a teenager - just absolutely obliterated the entire Counter-Strike world with swagger, poise and consummate ease.
42-16 against FaZe and 83-50 against Team Vitality, on stage. The kid is ridiculous, and almost inarguably the best player in the world. donk faltered against ZywOo, and ZywOo went missing in map three of the grand final.
m0NESY never did. He was sensational from the first round of IEM Dallas to the last - and while Stewie2k was the centre of attention, he faded into the background as m0NESY shined through.
For Vitality, the story was just how good mezii was in playoffs. The Brummie has had his critics on this line-up, but he was undoubtable in Dallas - his one-mag ace is maybe the best clip of the year, and one of the best ever. It’s seriously sexy.
And yet, it didn’t matter. ZywOo wasn’t his usual self in map three, while flameZ and Spinx’s impact was dampened throughout. For all the talk of mezii’s shortcomings, he was the one who stood tallest when the lights were brightest.
m0NESY though, man, what a player. Shakespeare could write a 100 sonnets about his AWPing and still not cover the basics. The best player in the world.
He even dragged Stewie2k to a trophy. In 2024.
Final standings at IEM Dallas:
1st 🇪🇺 G2 Esports – $100.000
2nd 🇪🇺 Vitality – $42.000
3-4th 🏳️ 9z – $20.000
3-4th 🇷🇺 Spirit – $20.000
5-6th 🇪🇺 FaZe – $10.000
5-6th 🇩🇰 HEROIC – $10.000
