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GUIDES
Simple Radar
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“Grand Slam? Completed it, mate” - mezii (probably)
Just as soon as the crown was placed on Vitality’s head, the usurpers are already showing their faces. Falcons looked almost-unstoppable at IEM Melbourne, and that only being “almost” is all on Magisk.
BLAST is kicking off their “new” Rivals format this Wednesday, featuring a BO3 GSL format and a BO5 grand final.
Vitality, Spirit, MOUZ, and FaZe will be joined by wildcard teams from each region: Falcons (EU), paiN (SA), FlyQuest (Asia), and Wildcard (NA).
So, yeah, not much has changed - it’s pretty much the same setup as the old BLAST events.
Originally, the event was set to take place in Monterrey, Mexico, but BLAST later moved it to their studio in Copenhagen, citing “unforeseen logistical challenges”.
With such a packed schedule, it’s probably just too tough for BLAST to make it happen in Mexico, but it’s still a bummer for the LATAM fans who were excited to have an event of this scale in their region.
As for the team lineup, it’s hard to get super excited about a tournament that has FlyQuest and Wildcard as 2 of its 8 teams, especially with a lot of the big names missing.
Nevertheless, there are still a couple of things we’ll be keeping an eye on.
Group A is looking like the most exciting one, with Vitality, Wildcard, MOUZ, and paiN.
For starters, we’re excited to see revamped paiN, now at full strength after playing in Melbourne with two stand-ins. They’ll have a tough first test, facing MOUZ in the opening round. We all know what dgt was capable of with 9z, but the big question is whether he can bring that form to his new team and take an already solid squad to the next level.
With Vitality facing Wildcard in the opening round, Group A’s upper final is shaping up to be a rematch of the BLAST Open Lisbon final. With Vitality coming in hot, this potential matchup is looking like another banger.
On the other side, Group B features Spirit, FlyQuest, FaZe and Falcons.
We’re not quite sure how FlyQuest keeps showing up in pretty much every tier 1 event, despite being consistently bad in all of them. Seriously, someone, please help us understand - the best reply to this email gets featured.
That said, the donk show shouldn’t have much trouble taking down the Aussies (and the Romanian) in the opening round.
That also applies to the other opening round matchup, where Falcons shouldn’t have much trouble taking down FaZe, considering the recent performances of both teams - especially if broky keeps up his decoy AWPing masterclass.
Spirit, Falcons, MOUZ, Harry Potter, the Avengers, Jesus Christ himself… Vitality in 3.
After a few surprises during the Group Stage of IEM Melbourne 2025, the Rod Laver Arena finally filled up with the Aussie crowd - and among them, the mate himself - all ready to enjoy some Counter-Strike.
Quarter-final Friday kicked off with stage newcomers GamerLegion taking on Falcons in a series that couldn’t have gone better for m0NESY and the team.
They absolutely dismantled GL with dominant 13-3 and 13-4 victories on Train and Nuke, respectively, with the AWPer showing he’s adapted quickly to his new environment, dropping highlight after highlight.
The truth is, the studio and stage are two very different beasts, but shoutout to GL for bouncing back after a disheartening MRQ and go all the way in Melbourne. Something tells us this won’t be the last time we see them on the big stage.
The other quarter-final between The MongolZ and Liquid was a lot more exciting, with pretty much everyone expecting The MongolZ to win relatively easily. Well, they did in fact defeat Liquid, but it was way tougher than most people thought.
Liquid came out swinging on Anubis, smashing the Mongolian squad 13-4 with Twistzz leading the charge. But on Ancient it was a whole different story, as Liquid looked completely lost, and The MongolZ fired back.
In the Inferno decider, Twistzz once again tried to take matters into his own hands, but the Mongolian firepower was just too much, and The MongolZ closed it out 13-10 to punch their ticket to the semifinals.
If there were any doubts that Twistzz should’ve never picked up the IGL mantle, well, consider them confirmed.
As for the semis, which had all the potential to be two great matches, couldn’t have been more anti-climactic.
Falcons kicked off the day by demolishing MOUZ on Dust 2 and Nuke, with MOUZ only managing to win 9 rounds in the entire series. Not surprisingly, NiKo and m0NESY were on fire, giving MOUZ zero chances, and the ratings prove it. MOUZ are never beating the stage allegations, are they?
As for Falcons, this is their second final in a row, and now the big question is whether they’re just riding a honeymoon phase or if they’re legit contenders for the top 3.
Semifinal Saturday ended with yet another blowout, and believe it or not, this one was even worse than the last.
While MOUZ managed to scrape together 9 rounds, The MongolZ could only muster 6 against Vitality. Seriously, we've never seen them look so outclassed. It honestly felt like someone threw a random FACEIT level 5 stack onto the stage.
Just to give you an idea of how bad the beatdown was, bLitz and Techno were The MongolZ's best performers, with a pitiful 0.61 rating performance.
In the end, the Falcons were out for revenge and to stop Vitality from claiming the Grand Slam, setting the stage for an absolute banger of a rematch…
Vitality are ESL Grand Slam champions. A title that feels a little overdue given how strong they were in 2023, they’ve been dominant in their run in 2025, even if Falcons may have pushed them a little closer than they would have liked in the IEM Melbourne grand final.
A run that saw Vitality win every map they played up to the final, Falcons didn’t disappoint in terms of changing that. They helped put on one of the greatest CS2 finals yet, and dare we say it, one of the greatest Counter-Strike finals of all time.
Clutches, spraydowns, comebacks, apEX flexing, the final had it all, and as we entered the third overtime on Nuke, it’s safe to say that none of us wanted it to end. What a lovely way to start a Sunday.
A genuinely back-and-forth BO5, we were concerned Vitality would run away with it after opening Inferno with a 13-2 scoreline, but they didn’t. So, while we could harp on about how great they are, because seriously, they’re fucking incredible, we’d rather talk about what this event means for Falcons.
We’ve made it no secret here at tl;dr that we aren’t too big on dominance. It sounds good on paper, but in practice, it gets boring fast. Based on what Falcons showed us in this game, we’re now sure this dominance isn’t set to last.
Written off before PGL Bucharest and the report of the m0NESY signing, if Falcons didn’t establish themselves as a top team in Romania, their ascension to the top of the Counter-Strike world is now undeniable.
With or without kyousuke, the signing of m0NESY has elevated Falcons to new heights. They’re now ready to fight for every trophy they compete in. We couldn’t be happier to see another team enter the S-tier.
But it wasn’t even m0NESY who was the star in the final. No, it was TeSeS. That once unassuming supportive element from HEROIC has transformed into a demon in the last year. And we’re here for it.
So it’s just a shame they’re on about booting him.
TeSeS put up 105 kills across the five maps of the final, only bested by ZywOo’s 110, if it wasn’t for him, Falcons wouldn’t have made it so close, and the concept of removing him after that is frankly mental. Especially when on the other end of the scoreboard you have Magisk.
Iconic veteran or not, Magisk was embarrassing in the final at times. A key component for Vitality in their comeback on map five, the four-time Major winner was caught out multiple times, and all that Major-winning experience now looks like it counts for very little.
0.83 rated when it was all said and done, we’ve all come to expect to find Magisk at the bottom of the scoreboard, especially because kyxsan happens to be quite handy with his, er, hands.
And look, we get it, kyousuke is great. But so is TeSeS, so shout out to him for his performance in the final, and as new Overtime on Inferno host Jack said😀
If TeSeS gets benched we riot.
Full final scoreline - Vitality 3-2 Falcons
