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GUIDES
Simple Radar
© 2026 TLDR Media, All Rights Reserved.
Because two stars really isn’t enough anymore
HEROIC are selling a player again… wasn’t there a recent off-season where that was meant to happen? Meanwhile, TO CEOs are busy trying to sell crypto scams, you know, instead of actually paying their staff and the teams that participated in their events.
The paradisiacal capital of esports has opened its doors once again to receive another edition of ESL Pro Lea… oh sorry, it’s the BLAST Bounty now.
After years of hosting ESL’s format, Malta switched things up, now serving as the stage for the BLAST Bounty Season 2 Finals.
Honestly, we couldn’t care less where it’s happening - unless it’s in some godforsaken timezone. We just want tier 1 CS on LAN. God, online CS is absolute garbage.
Now, if you’ve forgotten how this format works, here’s a refresher: the draft system lets teams pick their opponents, with cash on the line, opening the door for mind games and cheeky moves. That is, if the VRS points didn’t kill half the drama…
Anyway, the lower seeded teams made their choices, and the Stage 1 matchups were set: Aurora picked The MongolZ, Astralis picked MOUZ, Virtus.Pro picked Spirit, and Liquid picked Vitality. We wouldn’t wish this on our worst enemy…
In the first of day one’s two games, MOUZ took on Astralis, and despite some flashes of resistance from the Danes, MOUZ closed it out with a clean 2-0. The bright spot for Astralis came on Nuke, where Staehr - now in star roles since HooXi’s arrival - looked semi-comfortable.
But then came Mirage… and that’s where things fell apart. If you’re an Astralis fan, it was rough. Luckily, we’re not, so it was actually kind of fun watching torszi and the boys tear them apart.
Okay, before anyone accuses us of being ugly haters, we’ll say this: Astralis needs time. This wasn’t a great look - especially that Mirage T-side - but given its MOUZ, we’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. Just start cooking soon, please. Or not, we don’t actually care.
But the best was yet to come.
The second series of the day saw Aurora face The MongolZ, and after a tight Dust2 that went MongolZ’ way, the real show started on Mirage.
Aurora stormed out to an 11-0 CT lead… and then proceeded to put on a monumental choke that would make G2 proud, only winning a single round in the T-side. Overall, it just looks like Mirage T-sides aren’t really their thing…
In OT, The MongolZ kept the momentum going with the help of this sick bLitz spray transfer, sealing the comeback and sending the Turks home.
And just like that, the trip to Malta was over. Astralis and Aurora didn’t even get to enjoy the sunny shores, as they were already booked on the next flight home.
They’re gamers, after all. It’s not like their skin’s seen a meaningful dose of vitamin D in the past decade anyway.
We can’t lie - we’re disappointed we ever thought ‘YaLLa Esports’ might ever be legitimate.
It just doesn’t pass the sniff test in retrospect.
For a start, Ninjas in Pyjamas were in the final of the first event - that should have been a sign it wasn’t a real tournament. Just to prove that the Lord has a sense of humour, too, they probably didn’t get their owed prize money.
They had Nothing in Paypal ‘cause YaLLa never sent it.
According to this long article on little known website Half-Life Television, YaLLa owe over $1m in unpaid debts as they close down operations midway through what was supposed to be a big year for the blossoming TO.
They had a few events planned in the calendar, but still just pulled the plug without really telling us what would happen with those events.
We can guess, mind.
They had apparently struggled to pay staff, and as the organisation was forced to declare bankruptcy, the owner apparently went on a bit of a selfish tirade about how badly it had affected him… not being able to pay people?
How do you think they felt, mate?
One staff member was owed well over 100 grand. You’d be absolutely livid.
They haven’t paid prize money to teams, they haven’t paid casters, hiring agencies, betting companies or… us. They don’t owe us, we just feel left out.
There’s loads and loads of details and anecdotes about how screwed up they were in that article, but basically, they just didn’t have any money and didn’t pay anyone.
Supposedly this is not an isolated story as well, with every TO struggling to pay on time right now. That sounds great!
We love esports, man. It’s a good job we do, because sh*t like this really takes the shine off.
Jack’s back and despite his dislike of the French, he seems very fond of calling for peoples’ heads within this week’s episode of the podcast.
Typically teams don’t make roster moves after winning one of the biggest events of the year, but it looks like Spirit are planning to do just that. According to HLTV, they’ll be bringing in tN1R from HEROIC after EWC concludes.
Sadly, though, that does mean that zont1x will be losing his spot on the team. So let’s pay our respects to one of Counter-Strike’s greatest body-shotting pscyhopaths.
And the milions of Chinese girls crying over his departure…
… Okay, that’s enough of that.
Coming with an alleged $1.5M price tag, the Belarusian looks set to be an expensive signing for Spirit should the move happen, and with a hefty cost like that, expectations will be high. But honestly? We think he’ll be worth every penny.
You might think we’re mental for saying this, but donk - and sh1ro, we guess - really just aren’t enough for Spirit to win consistently. They’ll still win the odd event, of course, donk is too good for them to not, but they need more firepower if they want to consistently see themselves lifting trophies.
And given the fact that they managed to dodge Vitality in Cologne, this move shows that they’re very aware of that fact.
It’s also one of the best moves they could make, too. With zweih and tN1R, they’ve (sort of) perfectly replaced zont1x and magixx, all whilst bringing in two exceptional fraggers that should allow them to become more consistent against the likes of Falcons, MOUZ, and Vitality.
And G2, who we think they were lucky beat in BLAST Bounty and who we’re going to keep saying won the player break until they prove us right.
It might be a slightly oddly timed move, well no, it’s a very oddly timed move. We can’t figure out why it’s happening now and not prior to Cologne, but it’s also a very good one.
zont1x might be a top player, but he’s not tN1R, who has been one of the most impressive players in the world this year after not even originally being intended to be on the HEROIC team he’s impressed for.
So, although it might take a little time for tN1R and Spirit, we think they’ll be just fine.
And even though we might be sad to see zont1x inevitably fade from tier one for a little while, we have to admit, we’re really excited to see this move come to fruition.
