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GUIDES
Simple Radar
© 2026 TLDR Media, All Rights Reserved.
Sometimes bands should stay broken up
BLAST Open London is finally a real event now its in an arena, and we’ll be on site to cover it all.
We’ll also be covering some interesting roster moves, with one of those moves giving us flashbacks to Counter-Strike’s darkest days…
Just last week, we heard the news that electronic was getting the boot and VP’s management would be looking in-house for his replacement.
If you’re curious about our take, check out our last edition.
Spoiler: it was long overdue.
Now, we finally know who’s stepping into his spot.
The lucky (or unlucky) winner of the golden ticket is tO0RO, who now graduates into the anchor role on the main roster. As is often the case with academy call-ups, this might be a name you’ve probably never heard before.
But don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.
tO0RO is a 17-year-old Russian rifler from VP.Prodigy who’s been making waves over the past few months, putting up a 1.12 rating across his last 33 maps.
Alongside b1st, he’s been one of the standout names in a VP.Prodigy squad that’s been on a hot streak recently. They’ve won a couple of tournaments and, most notably, took down Liquid and FUT in BLAST Premier Rising. Then again, beating Liquid these days isn’t much of an achievement.
So, basically, VP just added a rising young talent to a squad led by a seasoned veteran, who’s about to step into one of the most impactful roles in the game for the first time. Sounds oddly familiar…
Doubling down feels like a bold, if not reckless, move from VP. And judging by their recent track record, it’s hard to imagine these changes being enough to push them to where they want to be.
But as always, here at TLDR we’re a fair bunch who believe in equal opportunities for all - well, all except Astralis, they’ve had enough. So, we’re eager to see how this whole situation unfolds.
That said, with VP walking on thin ice, another failure would put them dangerously close to EG and BIG levels of trainwreck.
With Sam and his antics gone this week, novah and dickle assemble in Overtime on Inferno to engage in some civil and polite NAVI doomposting, as well as a three year late play-by-play breakdown of the Will Smith slap incident.
Nostalgia used to be a lot better, man.
The halcyon days are always bittersweet; because while they’re the best days of your life, they’re explicitly characterised by being in the past. Trying to cling on to, or worse, traverse back to, them, is instead called ‘sad’ or ‘a mid-life crisis’.
Astralis have just bought a Harley Davidson, a leather jacket, and Ray-Bans. And they look ridiculous. Shave your chest hair, lads.
That is to say, Magisk is back.
Look, when they brought device back, we got it. That was the cool kind of retro, like listening to Biggie, playing a Game Boy Advance or collecting YuGiOh cards. He still might have had it, and even looked half decent on NIP.
But even that didn’t work - and device is on his way down now too. So why on donk’s green Earth would you then decide to double down and go super retro?
Bringing back Magisk is like bringing back the Walkman. Or disco. Or asbestos in the walls. Or flared trousers. Or The Rock. That’s not to say Magisk wasn’t great at one point - the Walkman was impressive tech back then - but man, the ship has sailed guys.
Let the past rest in peace and stop trying to recapture a glory that has been and gone.
Or… don’t. It’s not like Astralis were going to do anything anyway. They might as well play the hits and at least get some fan service in. The rest of us get to finally see Magisk and device lose a bunch of games together. It’ll be cathartic.
Alright, enough messing around. Is there some serious merit to this? Is there something we’re missing? stavn has been a major disappointment, and Astralis are not going to start overpowering people with firepower, so going back to a structure and method they know sort of makes sense.
That’s how international teams usually win games anyway. It’s not completely ridiculous to think this could be an upgrade teamwise, it’s just… wholly uninspiring.
It’s just sad to see the Danish scene, of all scenes, reduced to building teams like the French used to. No new talent, just replaying the same old has beens until the legacy is fully ruined.
It’s all gone to pot since MSL retired.
Just sayin’.
We sat down with TLDR’s favourite player and G2 star malbsMd to discuss G2’s rebuild, huNter-’s first steps as an IGL, and where G2 need to focus as they look to frag their way back to the top of the Counter-Strike pyramid.
How are you feeling coming into this event?
I'm feeling good. I feel like I finally just had a good group stage, so I'm feeling good.
You did really well to beat Team Spirit. They might not be in peak form with another looming roster change being likely but they're still a huge team to beat. Are you confident that you can beat every top team at this event?
I think we're playing really good, hopefully more teams have visa problems as some guys said so we can beat them. We're playing well and just putting a lot of effort into trying to fix our mistakes and everything, the game against Spirit was a good win so I think we can beat good teams.
What's it been like playing under huNter-'s leadership in this G2 rebuild?
It's been good. I've always said either NiKo or huNter- can be good IGL's, I feel like they have this voice of being good leaders, I think they both have a gift when it comes to being good team captains.
Do you have an idea of how good G2 can become under huNter-'s leadership? Have any goals been set internally?
The goal is to lift trophies of course, we're just going step by step and know we've only been together two months or so. It's a long road but I think huNter- and SAW work really well together, they make for a good duo alongside our analysts. I believe we have really good coaching staff and they're helping a lot with huNter- becoming a good IGL. I think things are going really good.
FaZe have made a roster move recently and look to have improved a lot, how difficult will that opening game be for you guys now?
It's gonna be tough because broky is back. They just removed a big voice so I don't know how much that will impact them and I don't know how much karrigan will be taking care of CT and everything. Nobody really knows how good they'll be, we just have to take things step by step and focus on ourselves.
Have you looked into jcobbb yet, what do you think of him as a player?
Not really, I haven't really watched much of him so I'm not sure what to expect.
Now that the narrative of you being NiKo's replacement has died down a bit, do you feel any pressure to be the teams main source of firepower?
Not really, I feel like we have really good individuals on the team, anyone can shine depending on the day. I don't really think about being NiKo or anything, in the beginning of the year it really hit me and I had high expectations of myself. I feel like that's what brought me down, I knew I was not being myself and I knew I was not meeting those set expectations.
Where do you rank your team as whole in terms of raw firepower?
For pure firepower I think we are really high up there. Depending on the day we can hit really hard but I think our mistakes punish us a lot. If I had to rank our firepower I would say we're maybe third or fourth.
What do you think the team needs to focus on to reach the level you want to?
I think we need to improve a little bit on our CT side and some of that is my responsibility in terms of calling more and mid-rounding on CT. Both team decisions and my individual decisions could be better but we're on a good path, I'm working with SAW to fix these issues and it's going really good. I think I'm only getting better and better at it.
It may have taken a week of online - read: not real - CS, but BLAST Open London has finally made it to LAN.
Three days in Wembley Arena await us, and with Coldplay set to play at Wembley Stadium next door, we hope there’s plenty of bombs going off and gunfire to drown their sh-te music out.
In the game, of course.
So, who will be relying on to save our ear drums? First up, we have MOUZ vs. M80, a game that really does scream two 13-4s and an easy MOUZ win, but Counter-Strike is never that simple, is it?
M80 have looked really strong so far in this event, and although the LAN and especially stage environment could reduce them back to their NA roots (sorry NA readers) somehow we have a lot of faith in Lake and HexT to continue their group stage form into the playoffs.
HexT. What is the world coming to?
The other quarter-final is the one we’re really looking forward to. FaZe vs. G2. One of the shouts for the Counter-Strike El Classico. A historic rivalry between two teams that have always been fighting for trophies on the absolute biggest stages.
Well, except maybe this year.
Still, even though both teams have struggled in 2025, recent showings are providing us with a lot of faith in them. We’ve always been fond of what G2 got up to in the player break, and their win over Spirit to qualify for playoffs only served to validate us in being correct in our thinking - But there’s no surprise there.
As for FaZe, now that they’re without their bald fraud, they finally look like a real team again. And it helps that broky has remembered where his hands are, too. It’s all looking good for them right now, but it might still be a while until they’re back where we expect them to be.
Either way, two teams with a lot of firepower and an upwards trajectory suggest we should get a banger game, so we’re well up for the lates edition of their rivalry. And who knows? Maybe it will be in a grand final again soon.
For one of those two teams to make it to the final, they’ll then have to take down FURIA, who are honestly our favourite team right now. So we kinda hope that they don’t.
As for MOUZ and M80, well, they have to face Vitality. So we feel a bit sorry for whoever wins that game. The hornets won’t stay down for long, and when they do get back to their best, they’re going to sting.
