Loading…
GUIDES
Simple Radar
© 2026 TLDR Media, All Rights Reserved.
Taking psychedelics is often how I do my Pick’Ems
We thought we knew a lot about CS, but this Major is telling us otherwise.
Genuinely. What is going on? Are we on drugs? Did Anders take some before setting up the simulation?
We don’t know, bloody hell, we love Major Counter-Strike. Also, Valve are killing CS and zonic is a bald fraud, it’s time to just say it.
Look, we know this may stir up some trauma and painful memories, but it has to be done.
Stage 3 is already underway, but we’re looking back at how Stage 2 ended - full of upsets and chaotic outcomes that crushed 99.9% of dreams for the Diamond Coin.
We’ve already discussed the madness that unfolded in the 3-0 group during Stage 2, so if you're curious, go check it out.
But here’s the main takeaway: If you actually picked those teams correctly in your Pick’em, you either hit the randomize button and forgot to change it, or you’re clinically insane.
Either way, the reality is that VP and Legacy somehow made it to Stage 3 undefeated, and we’re left asking ourselves whether a team that wasn’t even supposed to play the Major might end up being its dark horse.
You might call that insanity - and normally, you’d be correct - but no one had Legacy even reaching Stage 3 in the first place. At this point, who even knows what’s going on.
If there was anything remotely normal about Stage 2, it was seeing paiN, FURIA, 3DMAX, and FaZe make it through to Stage 3 – teams we trusted to qualify even on an off day, though some looked sharper than others.
Shoutout to Nemiga and Lynn Vision as well, who fought their way through with 3-2 records, knocking out HEROIC and B8 in their respective deciding BO3s.
Also, here’s hoping Lynn Vision go all the way. We need more Emilia in our lives.
The list of teams that didn’t go home empty-handed includes HEROIC, B8, MIBR, TYLOO, and M80, all squads we could reasonably see making it through. Okay, maybe everyone except M80. They’re not very good.
And no, we didn’t forget about the craziest of them all. We just saved the best for last.
In what can only be described as a historic meltdown, Falcons crashed out of the Austin Major with a 1-3 record. Two BO1 losses to B8 and Lynn Vision were bad enough, but the elimination BO3 against MIBR was a disaster of its own kind.
Seriously, we’re still trying to make sense of how they managed to lose that 5v3 scenario. A squad of 11-year-olds who just installed CS would win that round 11 times out of 10. Pure madness.
And of course, only a Falcons disaster-class could unite CS Twitter the way it did. People of all values and beliefs came together to completely sht on this team. Emotional stuff.*
For the 0-3 teams, just apply the same reasoning we used for the 3-0 group - and head to the same place for more takeaways on them.
Sure, BetBoom and OG aren’t exactly tier-1 powerhouses, but no one expected them to lose every single game.
How is this team not able to win at least a single map in Stage 2 of a Major against this level of competition?
God, we need a break after all this mayhem.
Surely Stage 3 will be more predictable now that stronger teams are joining the fight… right?
We made some predictions for Stage 3 and they’ve all aged absolutely in an appalling fashion.
The milk is so spoiled. We’re not knowers. Someone help us and our diamond dreams. Please. That said, we get into loads of other things of substance on this weeks Overtime on Inferno:
You don’t know you’re in the golden days ‘til one day, they’re over, and you look back fondly.
God, we miss Bad News Eagles.
The RMRs were perfect. Alright, not perfect. Nothing is perfect, save for a good quality sandwich, The Fratellis’ first album, the sunset and Team Vitality’s record for the last few months.
Fratellis’ second album was a bit crap, though. Just like Team Vita- ah, we’ll get to that.
Valve already eliminated the best events of the year and replaced them with MRQs, and now we don’t even have those anymore.
Going forward, at least for the next Major, it’s all invites based on VRS.
You know, like every other event in the system that has had massive flaws all season long, and that we’re still closing loopholes in.
The whole fun of the Major was that anyone could join. It’s created amazing stories, life-changing career jump-off points, and the best moments in Counter-Strike history.
Instead, we’re going to have the teams that have played the most events all season play at this one. It’s impossibly hard to get invites without already having a high VRS (just ask NIP), and it’s impossibly easy to maintain one when you have one.
We wouldn’t like the invite system if VRS worked properly, but it’s egregiously bad right now. It insulates mediocre teams from the consequences of their banality and limits the fun teams who might actually beat someone.
Don’t believe us? Lynn Vision would have missed out on this Major under this system. BIG and Astralis would have made it.
If that’s not an indictment…
It’s a shame that what used to be the most exciting tournament of the year has been reduced to an administrative decision, and we think the Major is made worse by it.
All the big teams are just going to keep smashing all the little ones, it seems.
(coughs)
Is getting a diamond coin just really hard nowadays? Maybe, but it would be nice if a favoured team could win a BO1.
If you’ve been keeping up over on our Twitter account, you’ll know by now that none of us have done particularly well in our Pick’Ems. So really, none of us should be surprised by how this Stage is going so far.
Anyway, here’s the rundown.
We couldn’t wait for Vitality to enter the competition. Finally, a good team, we can eat now. And then they decided to just go and get 13-3’d by Legacy. Legacy. A team that shouldn’t even be in Austin.
MOUZ also started poorly, they failed to complete a comeback against a Virtus.pro team that have thus far looked ridiculously strong at the Major. At least if they win this one they’ll actually get to say they won it.
The MongolZ also lost, they fell 13-11 on Inferno to a FURIA team that we continue to be impressed by. molodoy dropped 22 kills, YEKINDAR added a further 18. It turns out that all FURIA needed to be good again was just less Brazilians.
And it wouldn’t be 2025 Liquid without also looking entirely abysmal. They lost to our new favourite team, Lynn Vision, so we’re not exactly disappointed, but Christ, lads. At least make it look like you actually want to play together.
It wasn’t all bad for the teams entering in Stage 3, though, Aurora got off to a flying start against FaZe. FaZe, for some reason, allowed the Turks to play Anubis in their BO1, XANTARES and Wicadia were in their element, they made s1mple look like SmithZz as they took FaZe down 13-5.
NAVI and Spirit also both picked up wins in their opening games. Spirit absolutely bodied paiN on Dust2, while NAVI’s stars looked like their old selves as they took down Nemiga on Train.
So does that mean this Major is Krakow, Rio, or Copenhagen? As long as it’s not London, we’re okay with any of these options.
After handily beating G2 in the first round, 3DMAX were part of the game of the day in the second round, and they were beaten 16-14 by NAVI on Inferno. Have that, French people.
Disdain for French people aside, this was a great game. You should watch it—at least for the fact that NAVI really might be back.
Spirit, FURIA, and Virtus.pro will join NAVI in the 2-0 games, Spirit and FURIA trounced Lynn Vision and Aurora, respectively, while Virtus.pro narrowly clinched a victory against Legacy.
Seriously, what is it with these Brazilians? They weren’t even meant to be there ffs.
On the other end of things, FaZe and MOUZ were pitted against each other in a 0-1 game that felt like a return to the status quo for Counter-Strike. FaZe are meant to be lil bro-ing MOUZ at every opportunity they get, so it does just feel right to see them get the win.
MOUZ will now be facing Liquid in what is a very tasty looking 0-2 game, Liquid lost 13-6 to The MongolZ after starting the match with a 5-0 lead. We could make a joke about that, but it’s just sad at this point.
paiN and Nemiga will also be battling it out in the 0-2 bracket. Nemiga were the unfortunate recipients of Vitality after their shock defeat, while paiN lost to a completely, utterly dead G2 team. It’s good to see some Brazilians are still doing Brazilian things.
Danny "zonic" Sørensen - CS legend, coaching mastermind? Or perhaps just a glorified babysitter for some of the greatest Counter-Strike players to ever touch a mouse.
Let’s be real, when your résumé reads Astralis era, Vitality, and now Falcons with a gazillion-dollar-roster, expectations are sky-high.
Five Majors is no doubt impressive, but when your lineup has a Danish cheat code or the CS messiah, you’re not coaching, you’re in the cuck-chair watching a highlight reel. That fifth major doesn’t count in my head-canon btw. They beat GamerLegion in the final for God’s sake.
zonic sits in the pantheon of great coaches along with names like sAw and B1ad3, but these comparisons are undeserved.
Let’s look at B1ad3. The Architect of numerous NAVI Major-winning rosters, a true system builder, the man who turned jL into a Major MVP, who lost s1mple and still built a championship squad. That’s my GOAT candidate.
Likewise, sAw has had success with 80% of Falcons’ previous rosters, and has done far better than zonic did with the same pieces. Even now, having just rescued HEROIC from potential Falcons-enforced obscurity, he’s off to fix G2, with players half as good as those the Dane had his greasy paws on.
His trophy cabinet may be far smaller than zonic’s, but those are still achievements I doubt the big man could have ever been able to produce.
At the end of the day, Falcons are out of the Major, NiKo choked his 15th, but the blame is never on the big fraud behind him. He’s got superstars, an unlimited budget, and full control… and still, nothing close to the dominance we saw under Astralis or even the single year of success with Vitality.
It’s time to address the elephant in the room, and send him to the Glue Factory.
