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GUIDES
Simple Radar
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SAW are back and terrifying again.
FlyQuest RED weren’t allowed to play in the Major qualifiers because FlyQuest already have a team in one, while joel isn’t even allowed to cheat anymore? Counter-Strike really is dead.
We were all wrong.
Don’t lie to us, you all wrote SAW off again despite that excellent run at the start of the year. Even though we all saw them be one of the best teams in the world for a bit, we all know they can be among giants and compete, so why did we think they were bad again?
Alright, they didn’t exactly beat the best teams in the world, but a big win over a dangerous MongolZ side and a BIG team that beat… well, FlyQuest, but they won regardless - put SAW straight into the big boy pool at the main event.
They’ll be joined by a Team Liquid roster that is instead proving everyone correct by being pretty good. They weren’t all that explosive, but professional in a double Brazilian takedown of paiN and FURIA. Job done.
Complexity won a nail-biting second map against Eternal Fire to secure a spot in the main stage, having also beaten ALTERNATE aTTaX, who put up one of the worst rounds of all time when they let hallzerk 1v5 with a f***ing Galil.
We don’t normally swear in these newsletters, but there’s really no alternative.
Speaking of terrible rounds, HLTV weren’t big fans of this from Falcons against ALTERNATE aTTaX. Neither are we, to be fair. They still won, mind you, sending the Germans home.
degster returned just in time to save HEROIC from losing to 3DMAX, who got absolutely battered by 9z. FlyQuest were the other team who have gone home already (how does one say ‘quelle surprise’ in Australian) by losing to The MongolZ.
Tomorrow sees MIBR v 9z for qualification (sorry, advancement, for all you ESL-heads out there), though they have one more chance, as well as BIG v Falcons, FURIA v HEROIC, Imperial v paiN, Complexity v The MongolZ and one game that’s TBD (it’s an all-South American clash between two of Imperial, paiN, 9z or MIBR) on their last lives.
You take a male team in Asia, and a women’s team in NA, you put them together and what do you get? That’s right, Conflict of interest!
That’s the situation FlyQuest is in right now, both their men's and women’s teams qualified for their respective RMRs, but the women don’t get to go. This is thanks to Valve’s new conflict of interest rules, and unsurprisingly the org is quite upset about this. They argue that it’s never been a problem before so long the teams aren’t in the same qualifying regions, and the org divests if they both make it to the mixed stages.
The best example we can find for their first argument is 00Nation in 2021, their European “Prospects” team participated in the open qualifiers, and their Brazilian team participated in the SA Qualifier. Aurora did the second point, sort of, in this last Major cycle. Their academy team “left” the org to play the qualifiers, and then suddenly got re-signed to Aurora when their open qualifier run failed. No one noticed lads, well done.
You might notice that both of those examples happened in open qualifiers, which, bar Asia, don’t exist anymore.
These “rules” have never been tested outside of open qualifiers, and even then rules change, just look at the qualifying system this year. It’s a bit silly to base your argument on what’s been okay in the past.
We’re not quite sure what FlyQuest expected, there’s no way they must’ve seriously thought they’d be able to have 2 teams competing. Just imagine the accusations if both teams made it and then played each other, even if FlyQuest Red was playing under no name for the Major.
Is it fair on FlyQuest Red? Absolutely not, it would’ve been awesome to see them compete at an RMR, a whole new crowd of CS fans would be represented on primetime CS. Unfortunately, Valve doesn’t exactly budge on these things, and frankly, they shouldn’t. These rules make sense just… maybe let this slide, just this once, for fun, please.
Elliott is angry at Alternate aTTaX, for some reason, while Logan seems to think FlyQuest are a better team than BIG even though they lost.
Betting on your own matches, match-fixing, and now cheating? Someone’s going back to Santa’s naughty list.
The Swede got banned by Akros Anti-Cheat right as he tried to join the server for his team’s match against B8 in CCT Season 2 Europe Series 7, resulting in BC.Game’s disqualification from the tournament.
Shortly after, the org released a statement announcing the removal of the 19-year-old from their active lineup, as they conducted their own investigation into the matter.
Alright, let’s play devil’s advocate for a moment.
Akros isn’t exactly the gold standard in the anti-cheat game. It certainly beats Valve’s practically non-existent AC, but that’s a discussion for another day.
Could this be a false positive? It’s possible, though unlikely – especially since Akros confirmed to HLTV that they don’t believe it’s a mistake. But hey, innocent until proven guilty, right?
Unless, of course, you’re facing the Reddit tribunal – then you’re instantly guilty of all charges and should be locked up for life.
More recently, joel responded to the allegations in a comment to HLTV, vehemently denying any use of cheats: “I know I heave not cheated or planned to do so. I love to play the game. If I’m not playing CS2, I’m watching it to become better”. No one was expecting a full confession from him anyway.
Looking back, all his inspirational quotes and motivational posts are hilarious.
When the dust settles, whether joel is guilty or not, his career is likely beyond repair.
Job’s pretty much finished.
