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GUIDES
Simple Radar
© 2026 TLDR Media, All Rights Reserved.
The idea of degster is very dangerous.
The Counter-Strike season is officially in the swing of things again, because IEM Cologne is starting and six BLAST Fall Finalists have been found. Oh hell yeah.
The qualifier for a qualifier of a qualifier is finally over.
BLAST Premier Fall Groups 2024 has wrapped, and we’ve got the team line-up for the Fall Final and Fall Showdown. Honestly, the BLAST format is a headache, we’re glad it’s getting an overhaul in 2025.
Anyway, it seems Liquid are (finally) good again. Shocker, we know. Remember back in 874 B.C. when they were the #1 team in the world? Yeah well, they might not be there yet, but they’re certainly on the right track. On their undefeated path to the Fall Final they faced Virtus.pro and NAVI, beating the Major Champions twice.
NA is so back. Even when it comes to classic NA antics. CS is healing.
On the flip side, FaZe are looking rough. They managed to scrape by with a dub against revamped Cloud9 in their first series, but couldn’t close it out against G2 and NiP.
Yes, you read that right. FaZe lost 2-0 to NiP. Now that’s something you don’t see very often.
We’re not gonna lie: we had our doubts about G2’s offseason moves. But boy, were we wrong. They tore through the opposition to qualify for the Fall Final, with m0NESY leading the charge, as always.
Turns out, to succeed in CS, you don’t need a deep playbook or a 200 IQ IGL – just an ungodly amount of firepower. Who would’ve thought?
Spirit and Vitality walked a similar path, also sweeping their respective groups with ease. In short: donk donked and ZywOo ZywOoed (though with a bit less flair than usual). Top-tier insights you won’t find elsewhere.
Here are the final standings at a glance:
1-4th 🏳️ Liquid $22,500 (Fall Final)
1-4th 🇪🇺 G2 $22,500 (Fall Final)
1-4th 🇪🇺 Vitality $22,500 (Fall Final)
1-4th 🇷🇺 Spirit $22,500 (Fall Final)
5-6th 🇪🇺 NAVI $12,500 (Fall Final)
5-6th 🇩🇰 Astralis $12,500 (Fall Final)
7-8th 🇺🇸 CoL $10,500 (Fall Showdown)
7-8th 🇸🇪 NiP $10,500 (Fall Showdown)
A wise man once said: “The best ability, is availability” and by that logic, degster is about as good as us.
degster is going to, at the very least, miss the start of IEM Cologne. He’s failed to acquire a visa in time for the second event in a row, which means HEROIC will play with a stand-in again. Coach sAw won’t have to stand-in this time though, as HEROIC has already registered a sub. But no one knows who that is.
This is already the third event degster is going to miss for HEROIC since signing in May. Extra impressive since we’ve had a player break in that time as well.
If you’re HEROIC, surely you have to be wondering if it’s worth keeping him now. What good is a “star’ AWPer if he can’t play? A footballer might be capable of scoring 30 goals a season, but if he’s injured for every game he’s useless.
Of course, this could just be bad luck, but it’s odd that only degster has been affected. Spirit was fine at BLAST, and BetBoom is fine at the Cologne Play-ins.
If degster makes it back for Cologne and puts in a good performance, then all can be forgotten. But if HEROIC flunks out of the Play-ins before he even shows up, and god forbid he misses another event, that has to be all she wrote for degster on this team.
If the latter does happen, and he somehow manages to survive that, we want his contract lawyer's phone number. Or a copy of whatever dirt he has on the org.
The Cathedral awaits.
We’ve made it, lads and lasses and everyone else. We’ve made it through the tumultuous winter, the mind-numbing Spring, the endless ESL Pro League games, the multitude of CCTs, and a whole month of player break.
We’ve made it to IEM Cologne. This is the one that really matters.
The best teams in the world, in the best arena in the world, all playing the best game in the world. If we were any more excited, we would have already wet ourselves.
Wednesday morning is your kick-off point with the Play-ins. There are zero BO1s all tournament long, and the final is in the bloody LANXESS Arena with a 20K capacity, in case you weren’t excited enough. We won’t lie to you, though, the first games could be… a little more exciting.
It’s like the World Cup, though. Sometimes, the World Cup has a terrible opening game that includes minnows like Saudi Arabia or Scotland. But you still watch and get hyped.
FlyQuest open the event against hometown heroes BIG, or you can choose to watch The MongolZ vs. SAW. It’s not great, but HEROIC and MIBR are up next with BetBoom vs. 9z.
We promise you, Cologne gets better.
Eternal Fire vs. Falcons, now that’s a fun one. This one could go either way, and Falcons are perennial fan favourites. Whether you love them or love to hate them, you want to watch them.
Complexity vs Alternate aTTaX, however, can only be fun if Complexity lose.
Thankfully, day one ends on a high note. FURIA vs. Imperial is spicier than good churrasco, and Liquid vs. paiN is not just the name of most NACS fans’ biography but also a lovely ending.
And each day gets progressively better. The final of IEM Cologne is in just 13 days. We’ve got 11 days of German Counter-Strike goodness, and we’ve now officially wet ourselves.
Hate it when that happens.
