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GUIDES
Simple Radar
© 2026 TLDR Media, All Rights Reserved.
Allez, allez, allez ZywOo!
The Golden Hornets have some of the catchiest songs of all time, and we’ve caught a case of ZywOo-fever. Catch our Grand Final summary with links to loads of clip highlights.
Plus, we're looking ahead to the Shanghai Major RMR's that begin this Wednesday. Get the overview below.
The atmosphere was electrifying as the final approached - the moment everyone had been waiting for had finally arrived.
After all, this is the Cathedral of Counter-Strike.
“You work every day for a year to play the two weeks of Cologne”, apEX said in the pre-game interview. That just about sums it up.
The first map gave us a taste of what the Cathedral had in store.
With Nuke going back and forth, Spinx stepped up to keep control, delivering a series of crucial frags. Meanwhile, b1t appeared to be on a quest to tank his MVP chances, wrapping up the first half with an uncharacteristic 3-14 K-D.
Despite Vitality building a solid 10-4 lead, NAVI fought back with impressive resilience, winning 8 of the next 10 rounds to push the game into OT. Determined to silence his haters, (h)iM fueled NAVI’s late-game comeback with clean B site holds.
However, ZywOo had other plans, and the NAVI boys ultimately fell short, losing the map 16-14.
After a shaky first map from both teams, Dust 2 made it clear this was going to be a battle for the ages. Despite a rough start, Vitality stung their way back to a competitive first half, largely thanks to the wOo’s standout 4K on a low-economy round.
The AWPer kept up his relentless performance in the second half, but it wasn’t enough to fend off NAVI’s might. Behind a rock-solid A site defense from w0nderful, NAVI closed out the map 13-10, leveling the series.
Fortunately for us, the final was just warming up…
Now that the RMRs have changed, we’ve found ourselves scratching our heads trying to understand them sometimes. That gave us the idea: Why not make a guide to help you figure out what’s going on? So here we go!
Let’s start with a few notable changes:
With that out of the way, let’s dive into what’s going on in each region:
Europe starts its qualifiers first on the 21st with two groups, creatively named A & B.
Group A is headlined by ENCE. While B is headlined by BIG and Cologne sweethearts SAW. They’ll be playing simultaneously, so you have to pick and choose what to watch.
These EU qualifiers run through Friday and send teams to the next stage of EU RMRs in November.
Now, let’s switch to the (arguably) second-best CS region: The Americas. Sorry Asian CS fans. This region kicks off with individual qualifiers starting next Monday, and qualifies teams for one big qualifier in November.
One thing to note is that there are SA teams in the NA qualifier. But they have to because they’re bootcamping in NA. That’s both a problem for these online games and for equality because richer teams could go to NA and get better practice, then play SA qualifiers and stomp.
And finally, a region that really should be called “Rest of the World”: Asia-Pacific.
It’s one broooaad region. Oceania, China, East Asia, and Southeast Asia all have their own qualifiers here. Oceania and China run from the 23rd-24th, which gets followed right up by South and SE Asia from the 25th-26th. And finally it also contains the “Middle East” qualifier which consists of an Arabian, Levantine & North African, and South African qualifier. We have a name for this, it's MESA.
These qualifiers also takes place over two days this week, from the 21st to the 22nd. The qualified teams then play each other, online, for a single Asia-Pacific RMR spot from on 28th to the 30th.
Does that make any sense? If it doesn’t, complain to Valve. Don’t shoot the messenger. That said, if you have questions, 📥 reply to this email and ask.
Counter-Strike. Bloody hell.
This final continued to deliver in spades, with Mirage, Inferno and Anubis still left to play - in theory. What followed was one of the best maps ever played in the LANXESS - and if you missed it, you have to rewatch it.
Map three might just have been the pick of the bunch - it was wall-to-wall action, a rollercoaster of emotions, great moments, terrible moments, embarrassing moments, clutches, wild lurks and at the end of it all, a breaking of NAVI’s 12 map Mirage winning streak.
ZywOo was at the forefront in truth, and when Vitality were bad it was largely because he wasn’t involved. This was the quintessential ZywOo game, the game you can point to to show someone how good he is. He was near-perfection.
The story on the other side was w0nderful, who for large swathes of the game certainly wasn’t. He was struggling to find impact positionally and once he found those spots, he was missing. Two whiffed shots on ZywOo that allowed him to clutch were a testament to that - but he had his redemption, 1v2’ing in a crucial round to send us to second OT.
Honestly, there were too many moments to talk about in this map. It was f–ing brilliant. Watch the whole thing. If you already have, rewatch it.
Not every map can be great, though - and sadly, this one ended on probably its weakest. Vitality raced into a massive lead on Inferno, and drilled two nails through the NAVI coffin as Spinx deleted the entire A defence with one clip, and then apEX did the same on B.
The apEX one, by the way. Phwoar. That set the building alight, and the ridiculously loud Vitality fans went up another decibel level.
NAVI started a T side comeback, but it was merely cosmetic - from 11-2 down they got themselves up to a respectable score, getting up to nine, but mezii held down the A site to bring Vitality to match point and FlameZ sealed the deal.
Team Vitality are IEM Cologne champions - and ZywOo and apEX are the first French winners, interestingly.
Final standings:
1st 🇪🇺 Vitality – $400.000 & IEM Katowice Invitation
2nd 🇪🇺 Natus Vincere – $180.000
3-4th 🇪🇺 MOUZ – $80.000
3-4th 🇵🇹 SAW – $80.000
5-6th 🇪🇺 G2 Esports – $40.000
5-6th 🇪🇺 FaZe – $40.000
7-8th 🏴 Liquid – $24.000
7-8th 🇧🇷 paiN – $24.000
In less surprising news, mezii is the first Englishman to win one. Obviously.
Two world wars, one World Cup, and one IEM Cologne. Lovely.
ZywOo was, obviously, MVP, and rightfully so. He was absolutely masterful all series - never caught out of position, never looking away, never missing. It was like watching a robot play the game at times, just with a little bit of that French flair. A little Eric Cantona alongside a lot of Deep Blue.
With questions about who the best player in the world is right now, ZywOo put up a pretty good argument in Cologne.
Allez ZywOo, Allez ZywOo!
