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GUIDES
Simple Radar
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What do you do when the GOAT is washed?
So… s1mple is the lowest-rated player in the Major playoffs - it really is over, isn’t it?
FaZe were entirely limp-dicked in their game against The MongolZ, and didn’t look like winning at all after the first five rounds of Mirage.
But hey, at least Vitality are still really good.
If you did… well, you shouldn’t have.
The BLAST.tv Austin Major quarter-final between NAVI and Vitality was a brutal reminder that, in real life, David doesn’t win.
When you're up against a team on a record-breaking win streak, there’s only so much you can do – and on Counter-Strike’s biggest stage, NAVI found that out the hard way.
The series kicked off on Mirage, a comfort pick for both sides, and it showed early on. The first half was tightly contested, with NAVI and Vitality trading rounds back and forth. mezzi and iM delivered some key highlights along the way, but the half ended in a deadlock at 6-6.
One notable lowlight, though, was flameZ’ painfully quiet half, managing just three kills before the switch.
His struggles continued in the second half, but apEX made sure to show him some love. Fortunately for him, they’ve got ZywOo, and when he starts pulling stuff like this, there’s not much anyone can do. Riding on his brilliance – and with flameZ redeeming himself in the final round – Vitality managed to close out Mirage on a 13-9 win.
Next up was Nuke, one of NAVI’s weak spots, with just one win in four maps this year.
Starting on the CT side gave them a glimmer of hope, but Vitality’s attack proved too much to handle. The half ended 7-5 for The Bees, still within reach for NAVI – and it even featured some AWPer-on-AWPer knife action.
The second half looked all but over once Vitality took control of the buy rounds. But just when it seemed like the series was wrapped up, NAVI dug deep and rallied, pushing it all the way to the final round of regulation.
That’s when they came for the king… and tragically missed.
mezii stepped up with a crucial hold on the A-site, shutting down the final push and punching Vitality’s ticket to the semis.
While the series didn’t reach the same blockbuster levels as Thursday’s Spirit vs. MOUZ, a clash between NAVI and Vitality is always worth tuning in for - especially with a Major on the line. The result may have been expected, but NAVI didn’t go down without a fight.
Still, with the 2-0 loss and the team falling short once again, it wouldn’t be a shock to see roster changes in the off-season. This B1ad3 interview kind of says it all…
But now, in Austin, the only thing standing between Goliath and the Major final is his toughest challenge yet. Their potential David, the seemingly lowly yet deceptively mighty, MOUZ.
And you better believe we’ll be watching.
It’s everything we could dream of: s1mple back on the Major playoffs stage in 2025, led by the shepherd of stand-ins, and an American on home soil.
Well, that was until s1mple threw FaZe’s comeback on Mirage by going for a no-scope.
FaZe started the series like lightning, giving The MongolZ no chance as they attempted to burst onto the A site of Mirage in the opening round. Soon finding themselves with a 4-1 advantage, FaZe were looking good, but The MongolZ started shooting back. And that’s where it got messy.
As the second half of Mirage opened with the scoreline squared at 6-6, The MongolZ took six rounds in a row to secure a 12-6 lead. mzinho had A-site locked down, 910 carried B, and no amount of crowd noise got to them.
FaZe looked like they were fighting back, getting three rounds and pushing maaRaa to use every second of his time. Then s1mple did this.
s1mple opened the second map of Anubis by buying several XM1014s as a way to afford more AWPs, which didn’t pan out as he got a grand total of eight kills in a 7-5 CT side.
frozen and rain did the heavy lifting on the extremities and opening duels, with EliGE delivering a chaotic clutch to close their 7-5 half. But that wasn’t enough to stop the Mongolians as they truly ascended to greatness.
Anubis went to the end of regulation, with Senzu finally overcoming his stage fright as he posted a 1.45 rating to secure the 2-0 win over the crowd favorites.
910 also remained impossible to dislodge as time and again FaZe walked right into his traps. FaZe kept running into triple-stacked sites and getting caught off by lurks as the rounds slipped away.
Clearly, s1mple wasn’t the piece FaZe needed to get their stride back, and there’s no telling if they win this match with broky instead, but the GOAT ended up looking more like SIXER than his old self.
Questions loom for FaZe, if they feel they should make changes over the break is yet to be known, but one thing is for certain: The MongolZ are gaining power in strides and they’re showing it in Austin.
It may not be the Grand Final yet, but today’s first semi is the unofficial final between the world’s number one and number two.
MOUZ face Vitality for a chance at the trophy, and it’s bound to get good.
MOUZ haven’t had it easy so far. Some might say placing yourself in Stage 3 right away is an advantage, but coming in cold against opponents who’ve had more games to play meant they had to climb all the way back up from 0-2 in said stage to the final bracket.
They’ve also already taken down donk and co, which wasn’t an easy task either – especially with Brollan struggling to rack up kills. Yet, what he lacked in frags, he made up for in calling. And here he is, in a role no one expected him to do well in, one Franco-International mix away from the Grand Final.
Vitality didn’t, and won’t, have it easy either. Their main issue? They have apEX, and Austin does not like apEX.
However, they also have ZywOo, ropz, flameZ, and mezii – all of whom absolutely showed up at different times to carry the team this far. Vitality stumbled early on against Brazilian surprise Legacy, but after that, it’s been easy pickings to the playoffs.
They dispatched of NAVI in two maps, but if you wanted to know more about that, you should read our piece further up. Honestly, if you’ve gotten to this point in the newsletter you should have already read it anyways - so good on you.
Both of these teams – being the best CS has to offer right now – seem to have their engines on full blast, which should make for an amazing matchup later tonight.
It’s just a shame it had to be a semi-final and not the final.
Welcome to the PGL Banana Cup Austin 2025, an incredible tournament in which such legends of the game as dav1deuS, dgt, and snow of paiN-fame will take on plucky Asian underdogs The MongolZ in the semi-finals.
Wait, no, this is a Major semi-final, isn’t it? Christ, BLAST do not have any luck with good Major playoff brackets, do they?
This is a match between two teams that everyone expected to lose their respective quarter-finals. Both have already made history, and both will already be thrilled to have made it as far as they have.
For The MongolZ, this game marks a landmark moment not just for them after all of their stage struggles but also for their entire continent – no Asian team has ever gone this far in a Major.
For paiN, a team with five Major playoff debutants, it marks something of a passing of the torch within South American CS.
A team that has highlighted the talent that resides outside of Brazil, they also had to beat FalleN’s FURIA in order to get here. And considering snow genuinely was FalleN’s student, that’s honestly pretty f–cking cool.
Maybe we did dog on this game a little bit at the start of this piece, but we’re actually pretty excited for it.
MOUZ vs Vitality should obviously be the better game, but when two teams meet in a situation like this, it’s often the basis for magic.
We expect The MongolZ to win – and that will probably be the best case scenario if we want an actually competitive final. But both these teams have already surprised us at this event, so we’d be foolish to count paiN out entirely.
Either way, we consider ourselves to be winners. In one instance, The MongolZ (a TLDR favourite) get to a Major final, and in the other, snow (a TLDR favourite) gets to a Major final.
We really do always stay winning.
