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GUIDES
Simple Radar
© 2026 TLDR Media, All Rights Reserved.
Life’s easy when you’re fnx and your mate is fer.
There are no big shocks in Cologne thus far; Complexity are crap, FaZe are better than BIG and Astralis are “back” again.
Oh, and we spoke with a Kiwi. Not the fruit, how nutty do you think we are?
After what felt like an eternity of an offseason, the Cathedral reopened its doors to host the upper echelon of Counter-Strike.
Well, except if you’re watching Complexity. Honestly, you can’t have much self-love if you willingly subject yourself to that.
But since we’re already here, let’s start with the disappointments. Or not, because to be disappointed you’d need to have expectations in the first place…
B8, MIBR, and Complexity all exited Cologne without a single win to their names.
MIBR kept up their worrying trend to the start of the season. First missing out on the FISSURE Playground 1 Playoffs, and now crashing out without even hitting double digits on a single map. Someone save insani please, poor guy.
As for B8, expectations were unclear. This was their first showing since the Major, and to be fair, there were a few flashes of promise. But ultimately, a loss to FlyQuest sealed their fate. Losing to FlyQuest in the big 2025…
Then there’s Complexity… Cxzi and nicx looked entirely out of their depth in this kind of environment, and Grim – who’s supposed to be one of their key players – was nowhere to be seen. Don’t worry guys, we’re sure you can win some games in CCT’s Play-ins.
But for every demon that darkens the Cathedral, there’s an angel that brings the light back.
FaZe, GamerLegion, and NIP have all marched into Stage 2 undefeated.
Can you spot the impostor? Yeah, it still feels strange to say NIP made it to anything other than their usual airplane ride back home. That said, they’ve shown flashes that xKacspersky might actually be the Messiah, the missing piece NIP need to finally take the next step. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, they’ve only played two BO3s so far.
broky’s also back, and apparently, the cure for being terrible is just a healthy dose of good old punishment. Please tell us more karrigan… purely for research purposes, of course.
GamerLegion were a solid pick to escape Stage 1 in their own rights, and they’ve lived up to the expectations. Shoutout to kursy, who’s clearly growing more comfortable and confident with every match.
In the middle of the pack we find teams like Liquid, FlyQuest, 3DMAX, TYLOO, Virtus.Pro, HEROIC, Astralis, and FURIA. All just one win away from punching their ticket to Stage 2.
VP got their sweet revenge on TYLOO in the opening round after a humiliating stint in Belgrade, absolutely dismantling them with NAVI Perfecto making a cameo appearance.
And just to remind us that the scriptwriters never rest, we’re set for a Liquid vs. FlyQuest showdown for a Stage 2 spot, in what could be jks’ moment of vindication.
Honestly, that’s pretty much the only reason we’d ever tune into a FlyQuest game.
We sat down with FlyQuest’s rifler nettik, and talked about falling for CS at seven years old, his love for caffeine, and why regali’s not making it onto the lifeboat if things go south.
Why did you start playing CS?
Because it was fun. I can't really remember how I got into it, but I remember being addicted from the start. It was a super fun game.
How old were you?
I played my first version of Counter-Strike, I think it was CS Source, probably when I was seven years old or something around that. I was really young.
If you weren't a CS pro, what job do you think you'd have?
I've got no idea, to be honest. In school and stuff, I had no idea what direction to go. I'd just been all in for Counter-Strike.
What's the strangest reaction you've ever gotten when you told someone what you do for a living?
They're all just kind of surprised and they're like: 'You make money?'. I haven't got any strange reactions.
Do you have any pregame rituals?
Not really, I just try not to overthink anything, you know. Wake up, have a coffee, clear my head a bit, and warm up. Nothing special.
So you'd say that hit of caffeine is important then?
Oh yeah. I just drink coffee every day. So, need to get coffee.
Well, in that case, how much is a can of Monster?
$4.00.
Would you like to know?
Yeah.
It's $3.00. But you’re paid to shoot things, not drink Monsters. It was close enough. Have you got a favorite song to deathmatch to?
There's not a go-to at the moment. Maybe 50 Cent. Many Men. That might be the one at the moment.
From any team you've ever been on, you've got to pick any player you've ever played with to win a 1v1 to save the world. Who are you picking?
TjP from Rooster.
If you were stranded on a deserted island with one of your current teammates, which teammate would you pick?
Maybe erkaSt. I think he's got a lot of good survival skills. He'd keep us alive, for sure.
Who from your team would you least like to be stuck on that desert island with?
Definitely regali. He's gonna have no idea what he's doing, he's just gonna be farting and sh-t.
If you could own a house that was located on any of the Counter-Strike maps, which map would you choose?
Office.
Are you a cat person or a dog person?
I like both, but if I had to really choose one, definitely a dog.
What do you do when one of your podcast hosts has to pretend he has a “real job”? You bring in a Major semi-finalist.
Joining Sam for this week’s episode is STYKO, who brings some of the hottest takes we’ve ever heard on Overtime on Inferno.
Sometimes, life hands you a story in a neat little bow.
fnx’s CSGO career is one of those tidy ones. When we were looking for a first game/last game for the Cologne edition, we figured we had to pick a previous winner, and the circular nature of his story is the stuff Hollywood writers dream of.
Or, well, TheScoreesports scriptwriters dream of, at least.
fnx’s first game was a 2-1 win over ProGaming.TD, a name you’ve probably never heard of. You will, however, know some of the players. boltz, steel (Brazilian, obviously) and zqkS, along with the less notable rkz and fbm.
KaBuM was fnx’s team at the time, and in his first ever game he was playing with fer, FalleN, LUCAS1 and HEN1, which is the equivalent of seeing Foo Fighters for your first concert ever.
Very specific flex.
fnx himself was unremarkable in the game, only managing a positive K/D on the opening map, which KaBuM lost, and ending the series 53-56 and with a 0.91 rating, only beating out HEN1. Fortunately, fer carried them with 79 kills, something he’d probably get used to.
Not just because fer was a phenom, but because he played with him for quite a while - and indeed, ended his career with him.
fnx’s career was bookmarked with fer knocking it out the park while he… didn’t play that well. Which now we say it, isn’t all that exciting, but it’s also largely how he managed to win two Majors.
Sandwiched between those two bookmarks was a career that involved winning two Majors (which SK never did after his departure, as the old adage ‘no fnx no Major’ suggests), including one in Cologne, and a great career that… largely involved being a foil for fer.
His final game was for O PLANO against Dusty Roots, an excellent name. fnx once more found himself fourth on the scoreboard, with fer at the top, though this one was in a pretty disappointing loss.
The only player below him in the scoreboard?
boltz, whom he had beaten in his first CSGO game ever.
Okay, we’ve sort of sold you a dream there. His first ever game on HLTV is all the way back in 2006 where he and MIBR absolutely smashed Ultimo, a Belarussian team, with fnx dropping a 1.54 and cogu going nuclear.
But that’s not much of a story now, is it?
