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GUIDES
Simple Radar
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The Major isn’t perfect but Christ it’s good
Typically we like to crack a few jokes in these lead ins, but today, we’re not going to do any of that.
We’ve just watched one of the greatest days of Counter-Strike we’ve ever witnessed, and we’d just like to remind everyone that it really is the greatest game of all time.
Of course, that won’t stop us from moaning a little bit still, but what do you expect? This is TLDR for God’s sake.
Now that the group stage (all three of them) of the Major has come to a close, it’s time for us to say something: this needs to be the last time we see BO1s at a Major.
Seriously, we know they provided a lot of fun, but they just have to go.
We’ll never lament getting to laugh at a team with the reputation of Falcons going 0-2 because of losses to B8 and Lynn Vision - who would we be if we did? - and we know they didn’t rescue themselves in the BO3s like MOUZ did a stage later. But would they have ever been in that place if they didn’t have to play a BO1 at all?
We’ll never know, and that’s the problem.
There’s also the fact that Vitality, who have been on an incredible winning streak this year, saw that streak unceremoniously come to an end at the hands of Legacy.
That would be fine if it took place in a BO3, but that’s not what happened. It happened in a BO1. On Inferno. Where half of the rounds were decided by a single important kill that happened through a smoke.
Okay, maybe there’s two issues there.
Still, Vitality’s streak should have ended in a BO3 or BO5. A game that truly represented the skill and willpower it took for a team to overcome them, not the potential fortune they may have had on one map. Would Legacy have beaten Vitality in a BO3? We highly doubt it, and we reckon you do, too.
The fact is that the current format of the Major makes it entirely outdated within the Counter-Strike calendar. Every other event scrapped BO1s long ago, they simply just do not make sense in an era where Counter-Strike is played with MR12. The games are too short, the opportunities for adaptation are too few, and the economy too punishing.
We’re also yet to see the second problem with the Major: The fact that the final will be a BO3. Another thing long abandoned by tier one TOs.
We’ve grown accustomed to BO5 finals in CS2, and it’s unavoidable that they represent a far better display of who is truly the best team when a winner is crowned. A true battle of the mind and of skill on the server, BO5 finals are far superior, and it’s a shame that we’ll be losing that in the biggest tournament of the year.
Sure, the best team often still wins, and there’s perhaps only one surprising team in the playoff, but that doesn’t stop this BO1/BO3 format from being outdated, nor does it prevent the way we got here from also feeling like it isn’t truly representative of what we’ve seen for the rest of the year.
BO3s just feel more legit. There’s no quarrel when someone wins one, the rest of the CS world acknowledges this, and Valve should too.
Making the change won’t make the Major magic cease to exist – it will simply be all the better for it.
Strap in.
Trying to find a lead story in this stage was like trying to find hay in a haystack. There are more teams worthy of being a main story than not.
Should we talk about the map of the stage, Dust 2 between The MongolZ and G2? Senzu dropped 35 in regulation and malbsMd won two miracle clutches to keep that one going for what felt like hours, and it was a riot.
How about paiN going from 0-2 to 3-2, knocking out Virtus.pro who started off 2-0 in a deciding series? Once more, Dust 2 was remarkably entertaining, with FL1T’s over 100 ADR game being met with the twin beams of dgt and dav1deuS.
Should we talk about Team Liquid going 0-3? Though it was slightly predictable, and they put up an excellent fight against MOUZ, it’s still 0-3. They lost to Lynn Vision to kick it off, man.
Should we talk about FURIA’s new international roster going 3-0, with YEKINDAR getting to laugh at his old teammates going 0-3?
We could mention MOUZ surviving an 0-2 start with losses to VP and FaZe before sneaking through 3-2 despite getting massively outfragged by Legacy. We could talk about Legacy kicking it with the best teams in the world. We could talk about Aurora going 1-3 completely under the radar.
We could mention Spirit looking back to their best just in time for back-to-back Majors, or Vitality losing a map against Legacy. We could talk about how FaZe with s1mple are flying high in the 3-1 and now get to play on a stage again.
NAVI, too, seem much better than the last few months.
These playoffs are looking spicy. Spirit and FURIA went through 3-0, Vitality, FaZe and NAVI 3-1 and The MongolZ, MOUZ and paiN 3-2. The last team there slightly lets it down, but only slightly.
You could throw a dart at the list of games in this stage and you’re nearly guaranteed to hit a banger. MOUZ vs. Liquid was excellent, The MongolZ vs. G2 was super fun, NAVI vs. G2 was a good one too. This was a real joy to watch.
Man, we love Counter-Strike.
Onto the playoffs. We could not be more excited.
All times in CET. See your local time here.
Isn’t it always sad to see a home crowd not have a team to support on stage?
No, it isn’t. Not when it’s Americans we’re talking about. Then it’s f–cking hilarious (again, sorry to all our US readers).
Autopsies are rarely fun. That’s something we learned from medical school. And by medical school, we mean ‘going graverobbing’. They’re necessary, though - it’s important to know why someone died so we can avoid it in the future.
Or in this case, make sure it happens again.
North American Counter-Strike has been committing slow-motion suicide ever since VALORANT came out, and not just because they had to play it. They lost a lot of players, both current stars and, perhaps more pertinently for this discussion, their future talents.
This, though, is a new low.
Team Liquid dropping out 0-3 was pretty embarrassing, and they’re barely even NA. They have two Canadians and no Americans, and that they were the last hope of the Americans says it all.
And they still let them down.
NAF was also the weakest player and apparently might be on his way out. Fortunately, he’ll have his pick of NA teams to go to if he fancies it because they were all proper tosh.
M80 managed the loss of malbsMd well at first, but it seems to have caught up with them now. That’s not to say Lake has been bad – in fact, if Liquid wanted more NA players, he’d be first choice – but they have other problems. Namely, slaxz-.
slaxz- isn’t very good. He wasn’t very good in Europe, and he’s still not very good in NA. Do you know how bad you have to be to go to NA as a European and not stand out? With the AWP?
smooya dominated NA, for crying out loud.
slaxz- isn’t American, which means that either this is a positive (the European let them down) or a negative (the NA AWPers are even worse). Either way, M80 desperately need an upgrade.
They aren’t doomed, at least, like Complexity.
Complexity went 1-3 in the first stage. This is a team who were in grand finals at the start of CS2. This is a team who spent millions chasing a dream trying to be the best in the world. This is a team that had ELiGE not long ago. They did worse than FlyQuest.
They need a major overhaul. You can perhaps keep Grim and hallzerk (who didn’t play at the Major at least), but the rest of them are not good enough. junior was their highest rated player at the event. Better than slaxz- at least.
We didn’t expect too much of NRG, who weren’t really disappointing, but Wildcard going 2-3 wasn’t great either. The worrying thing for NA fans is that you can combine these three teams and still barely come up with a good NA team.
Grim, junior/oSee, stanislaw, JBa and… erm…
You’re starting to see the issue.
How did NA get so bad? They simply do not have enough good players. M80 have a couple, Liquid have two good Canadians (as long as NAF isn’t permanently crippled) and the others simply can’t compete with the Asian and Brazilian teams.
Now that’s an indictment.
