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GUIDES
Simple Radar
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Good news for people who love Bad News.
We got NiKo vs G2 on day two of IEM Katowice. That was for sure in the upper bracket. Right? Right?
The IEM Katowice Play-in has been played out, and the final teams have made their way.
In our last newsletter, we mentioned that HEROIC looked good. That aged pretty poorly – they’re out of the event now. They got clobbered by BIG, winning six rounds across TWO MAPS. Sunpayus had a rough series himself, managing a blistering… 0.58 rating.
At least some of the other new teams did make it.
In the “We swear we’re NA” derby, Liquid put down Wildcard. Map 1 got tight, requiring OT, but map 2 was a 13-0 Anubis stomp from Liquid. When the players are all firing, this Liquid team makes for a pretty scary prospect. Maybe if they sign just one more lurker, they can win an event.
This game was set up by FURIA beating Wildcard. Thank the Lord for that.
If not for FURIA, this would be a rough Katowice to swallow for Brazillian fans. MIBR and paiN both got bounced out at the final hurdle. Both teams got handled 2-0, in MIBR’s case by a fresh-looking VP. As for paiN, they lost to Astralis, who haven't convinced us yet.
They won this game, but dav1deuS struggled, and for this paiN roster that’s a death sentence against “top” EU teams.
With the Play-ins over, we can get on with the kinds of things we love this esport for, like Astralis getting 2-0’d by Spirit. You know, quality content.
Ultimately, these were the teams that made it through to the main event:
1-4th 🇧🇷 FURIA
1-4th 🇹🇷 Eternal Fire
1-4th 🇪🇺 GamerLegion
1-4th 🇫🇷 3DMAX
5-8th 🇩🇰 Astralis
5-8th 🏳️ Liquid
5-8th 🇷🇺 Virtus.pro
5-8th 🇩🇪 BIG
Group play is already about halfway through, and one of the teams above is already out. But more on that further down.
The world is looking bleak.
CS2 isn’t quite the same as CS:GO. Open Qualifiers are dead. The politician you don’t like is enacting a policy you don’t like (insert your own bogeyman here). Liverpool are probably going to win the league. Coca-Cola doesn’t taste as good as it used to.
Thankfully, there’s a glimmer of hope at the end of the tunnel. A little tinge of excitement permeates a wall of grey, like Jack Nicholson in The Shining.
The Bad News F–ing Eagles are back. Swears not included.
And unlike when Take That reunited, every single original player is there, too. This might not be a reuniting that takes the world by storm, but it’s one we’re personally happy to see. The Counter-Strike world has been much less interesting without BNE.
This is big for Kosovar fans, and to be honest, Counter-Strike fans. The way BNE play was a joy to watch, even if it wasn’t the most structurally sound. We’re being kind here.
There’s… just one problem.
Bad News Eagles were never actually consistently any good.
This didn’t really matter before, where you could break into a big event by playing well in the qualifier, but now you have to consistently beat the tier 2/3 teams to even get a sniff at breaking into the top 30 VRS rankings.
That’s a long path, and consistently beating teams outside of the top 30 is harder than it sounds. Imagine having to beat other teams like Bad News Eagles every single day. Just imagine. FaZe couldn’t beat one BNE.
It’s a shame that we probably won’t see a miracle story like BNE qualifying for the Majors again, but if they do somehow manage to overcome the odds and make it to the big stage again… we will be there. We will be there so hard!
Bad News Eagles forever.
Their lineup, in case you forgot:
🇽🇰 gxx-
🇽🇰 juanflatroo
🇽🇰 SENER1
🇽🇰 sinnopsyy
🇨🇭 rigoN
It is never going to be easy for Falcons, is it?
Even now when they’ve signed a team with a real star, and younger players, and don’t have BOROS, they just can’t win.
Already out of IEM Katowice after a timid performance against Eternal Fire and a 2-1 defeat at the hands of G2, Falcons exit their second tournament of 2025 in disappointing fashion once again — Is it time we start pointing the finger at zonic?
Elsewhere we had a highly entertaining game between Vitality and 3DMAX - which Vitality won 2-0 — but the entertainment value most came from apEX and Graviti being on top form.
It’s a little strange that apEX’ mom was on the server, though.
Vitality also had a very enjoyable game against FaZe, with their victory sending Vitality through to the playoffs.
2-1 in the end, the first map went 13-3 in favour of Vitality, which we think says a lot more about FaZe than them. Something isn’t clicking just yet, but we know they’ll pull off some bullshit and win an event in the next few months anyway.
Somehow, Virtus.pro are also in the playoffs, they’ve got there with wins over G2 and Eternal Fire. Obviously, we’re quite sad that they beat the Turks, but anyone beating Snax’ G2 is just quite enjoyable.
In other news, GamerLegion got revenge for the man who put them on the map, they got one over on MOUZ in a surprisingly close game considering MOUZ were playing with a stand-in.
They put it best themselves on Twitter: That one is for siuhy.
And finally, BIG are already out of the competition. We’re sorry you, our german readers.
