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GUIDES
Simple Radar
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When the anchor was the superstar all along
NIP are back at a (slightly) relevant tournament and they’re already back in playoffs. It’s a shame that they’ll now get battered by Spirit in the quarter-finals, but at least we’ve had our agendas reinforced as sjuush has shown why he was the star man all along.
The warm-up for the Major is almost over.
With the PGL Astana Group Stage behind us, we’re beginning to see where most teams stand heading into the biggest tournament of the season - well, most teams except Astralis, of course.
No surprises in the undefeated pool.
Team Spirit stuck to their usual game plan: donk go kill. Honestly, it was fun at first, but it’s getting boring. Can he just have one bad map, please.
As for The MongolZ, they’re back in the Playoffs after their IEM Melbourne run, this time over slightly tamer opposition in FURIA, MIBR, and NAVI. Still, it’s a solid sign for the Mongolian boys. Now let’s just hope they don’t choke on stage again. We’re looking at you, Senzu.
Here’s where things start to get interesting.
Nothing too shocking with NAVI, Astralis, Aurora, and FURIA making it through. Sure, none of them are exactly in peak form - some are even in the early stages of rebuilding - but even in a rough state, they should still be ahead of teams like current Virtus.pro, 2014 Virtus.pro (a.k.a. G2 without the being good part), ODDIK, and HOTU.
Now, guess who else made it through? That’s right, that “mediocre international lineup” just went from the open qualifier all the way to the Playoffs, carried by sjuush playing the best CS of his life. They called him a madman… and they we’re right.
NIP managed to climb from #169 to #24 in just three months, and they’re not showing signs of slowing down. Their journey shows that the VRS can work as intended – though it definitely helps when you’ve got a big org funding your trips to every event with a few points up for grabs. Still, it’s proof that the ladder can be climbed.
Oh, and MIBR made it too. Don’t ask us how. We have no idea either.
VP and G2 just missed the Playoffs, which checks out. In hades’ debut, TaZ was standing in for huNter-, while VP is… well, still VP.
PGL Astana marks the fifth consecutive event where electronic has posted a 0.95 rating or lower, which is crazy to say considering the player he once was. We’d be concerned if there weren’t changes on the horizon.
HOTU, BIG, and paiN packed their bags after picking up just a single win each. BIG and paiN, in particular, delivered two of the most embarrassing performances of the tournament - BIG got humiliated by a weakened G2, among others, while paiN, finally with their full roster, couldn’t win a single map against anyone other than HOTU.
In the ‘you could’ve just stayed home’ category, GamerLegion and M80 looked like shadows of their former selves.
Both teams looked completely lost on the server, putting up performances they’ll want to forget as quickly as possible. For M80, the focus now shifts to the Major, while GamerLegion set their sights on IEM Dallas, where acoR will be standing in for sl3nd. A sign of changes to come?
The eight teams fighting for the trophy at the Barys Arena, starting today, are:
🇪🇺 NIP
🇷🇺 Spirit
🇧🇷 MIBR
🇧🇷 FURIA
🇩🇰 Astralis
🇪🇺 NAVI
🇹🇷 Aurora
🇲🇳 The MongolZ
Match-fixing bans in CS are a bit like Astralis missing another Major – utterly predictable, and somehow still heartwarming every single time.
This time around, the Mongolian squad ATOX, coaching staff included, has been slapped with bans by ESIC for match-fixing and violating the Commission’s anti-corruption code.
Players Dobu, kabal, and analyst nuka took home the gold (literally), earning lifetime bans for their part in a betting scheme that included more than 70 suspicious wagers between 2024 and 2025. The rest of the team received bans ranging from eight months to three years, based on the severity of their involvement.
According to ESIC, nuka was the mastermind behind most suspicious bets, providing “misleading tactical advice to ensure the on-server events aligned with betting positions”.
But this wasn’t just your average low-effort cash grab. The investigation found ties to organized crime syndicates based in China, which suggests this was high-stakes business involving serious players behind the scenes.
At the end of the day, it’s just depressing to watch a handful of individuals nuke their careers and drag an entire region’s reputation through the mud – especially when Asian CS is finally starting to make noise on the international stage.
On the bright side, this proves ESIC is still alive and even capable of meaningful action when the stars align. Not all hope is lost.
novah’s former team, NIP, are good again, which may or may not have something to do with him no longer being a part of their team.
Also, it turns out all FURIA needed was two Eastern Europeans. Go figure.
Also in this week’s of Overtime on Inferno:
Welcome to the playoffs of ESL Challenger Astana.
Sorry, we mean PGL Astana. It’s a serious event. Seriously. We mean it. For real. On God. No cap. Real talk. Straight up. Deadass… seriously… on God.
Not convinced? Yeah, neither are we. It really is hard to imagine caring that much about an event that’s guaranteed a Brazilian team in the semi-finals. FURIA vs. MIBR is a miserable group stage match. It’s reprehensible as a playoffs game.
Actually, we say that we’ve quite enjoyed FURIA at this event. Maybe it’s not so bad after all. We still have to watch MIBR, though... nevermind.
It’s not all bad. We will at least be getting to see more of NIP, who have been great fun over in Kazakhstan. sjuush is the third-highest rated player at the event, and even ewjerkz and arrozdoce were starting to come alive in their 2-2 game against G2.
It’s just a shame that donk is going to send them back to 2018, 2019, 2020… we could go on. Just pick one, they were all bad.
After dispatching NIP, donk and his disciples will have to face one of the aforementioned Brazilian teams. Both outcomes should be another easy win for the Dragons, so expect a severe crash out if they don’t make it.
The other half of the bracket features the latest edition of The MongolZ vs. Aurora, which we are actually looking forward to. Two of our favourite teams to watch, the results of the matches between the two teams have been pretty one-sided, but the games are always a lot of fun to watch.
We’ve also gotNAVI vs. Astralis to look forward to, which is going to go one of two ways: it will either be the best match of the playoffs… or the worst match we’ve ever seen.
As good as Astralis have looked with HooXi, we don’t have too high hopes for them, we all know what happens to stavn as soon as there’s more than 20 people in front of him. He’s been key for them in Astana so far, so his inevitable disappearance will hit them hard.
NAVI are the team that really need to win it. Their confidence has been low for a while and Astana is a fantastic way to get back on top. They’ve already been playing a lot better, so let’s see if it continues into the playoffs.
Ultimately, a win for NAVI would be a win for Counter-Strike. Sure, we might feel bad for donk, but if NAVI go on to lift the trophy they might actually remember whatever it was that made them so good in 2024. And we won’t ever say no to a higher level of competition.
