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GUIDES
Simple Radar
© 2026 TLDR Media, All Rights Reserved.
Sometimes you need to go back to square one.
Twistzz is on FaZe, EliGE is on Liquid, and we’re all still massive virgins. Guess not much changes in the world of Counter-Strike.
And so, in the most obvious move of all time, EliGE has returned home to Team Liquid.
We are so, so shocked by this.
But we’re also pretty f-cking stoked, too. EliGE to Liquid was an absolute no-brainer. They - and particularly NertZ - have been crying out for a true aggro rifler for a seriously long time now, and EliGE is promising to be exactly that.
Seriously, it’s hard to not be excited about this. The team has improved massively since flashie stepped in, and Twistzz himself put a lot of credit on the new coach in his leaving post.
They also have one of the best young IGLs in the game, one of the best anchors to ever play, and two hard-hitting fraggers in NertZ and ultimate. If EliGE can get back to his best, NertZ can find his feet, and ultimate can continue to be refined as a tier one AWPer, there’s no reason this team can’t win trophies.
And yes, we realise we’ve said this about a couple of Liquid rosters now. But we really do feel confident in this one.
Of course, there is the chance that it doesn’t work out. NAF has spoken before about the difficulties of everyone on the team wanting their own space, and it’s not like EliGE isn’t going to want a sizeable share of that space, but if they can figure it out they’ll soon start flying.
If it doesn’t work out, though, you can maybe consider this to be the last chance for a couple of people.
EliGE, after not really achieving much on Complexity and seemingly bringing FaZe to the brink of death, will likely be done in tier one CS. NAF, too, could also see his time at the top come to an end. Even siuhy, whose reputation took a nosedive when MOUZ remained strong and sunk even farther still when Liquid didn’t receive an immediate uplift, could have to rebuild his career à la karrigan post-Boston.
The same is true for Liquid themselves, who, after years of disappointment, will probably find it increasingly difficult to lure top stars to what was once one of the most consistently strong organisations in Counter-Strike.
That said, this looks like a near-perfect team, so surely it doesn’t go bad this time, right guys?
Maybe we’ll finally get the answer to the ultimate question:
“What’s more real? The bald buff, or the bald fraud?”
Season 22 of ESL Pro League is right around the corner.
Twenty-two seasons.
EPL now officially has more seasons than Grey’s Anatomy. Seriously though, how is that show still alive?
To mark the milestone, Stage 1 will feature some very exciting names like the juggernauts Rooster, the iconic Inner Circle, and the infamous HOTU.
Yeah, EPL isn’t exactly known for its jaw-dropping team lineups - at least not at start - but we’ll take all the Swiss formats we can get. God bless Switzerland.
Anyway, that doesn’t mean we can’t take a look and start throwing out some predictions. As always, if by some slim chance you’re using our takes to build your fantasy team, just go in the exact opposite direction of what you’re about to read.
So, for the teams with a nearly guaranteed Stage 2 spot, we’d point to FURIA, G2, and Astralis. They might drop a series - most likely two if it’s Astralis we’re talking about - but they should still make it through.
All three are fresh off Playoff runs at FISSURE Playground 2, where the competition was a bit tougher than what they’ll face in Stockholm. Not to mention FURIA’s championship run.
In the middle of the pack come HEROIC, Legacy, Virtus.Pro, B8, Lynn Vision, GamerLegion, and 3DMAX - teams that could comfortably make it to Stage 2, just scrape through, or crash out entirely. Take your pick.
But that’s the beauty of the Swiss, isn’t it?
In this lot, the spotlight will be on hypex, who will make his debut for GamerLegion. It will be interesting to see how he fares in the new environment.
For 3DMAX, the news isn’t positive at all, as they’ll be playing with Nivera instead of Maka, due to family reasons. This significantly hurts their chances, since Maka is one of the team’s most impactful players. That said, they should still have enough firepower to make it through in one piece.
Lastly, the teams fighting not to go out dead last.
No one expects much from Inner Circle (ex-TNL), Fluxo, HOTU, Rooster, and NRG, but they could still steal a game here and there. And given the usual chaos of Swiss systems, we’d confidently say they probably will.
However, it would take a catastrophe of massive proportions for any of these teams to make it out of Stage 1. Let’s hope that’s not the case.
On a side note, haven’t these Rooster guys been a part of every EPL season since the dawn of time and always end up at the bottom? Hey, huge respect to you guys. You’re the ones with the all-expenses-paid trip to lovely Stockholm, not us.
But don’t worry, dear readers, we just need to be patient. The real teams are coming.
aizyesque. is. back. And if that doesn’t excite you then… well, that’s probably reasonable actually, but look, we’re happy about it.
Join him and the rest of the pod crew on this week’s Overtime on Inferno, and hear about topics like:
Of all of the winners of the first season of Pro League, you’ve got olofmeister - revered, feared, Major MVP, best player in the world at one point, career went on forever. You’ve got flusha, also a Major MVP, recently retired, legendary player, might have been cheating.
You’ve got JW, still playing, got the AWP nerfed, all of that jazz, and you’ve got KRiMZ, who is also still playing, and has been a rock for fnatic for longer than actual rocks have been rocks.
Then you have the man that time forgot: pronax. pronax was the IGL before people really respected IGLs, and he was eventually ousted for more firepower. Many such cases.
He wasn’t the best player ever - in fact he was pretty rubbish - but he had something approaching a tactical mind before many others did.
His first game on 1.6 was… a draw? pronax was at an all-Swedish event (that included fnatic) and he actually dropped 24 kills in the first game of it, just about going positive, all the way back in 2008. That’s at least six years ago.
pronax’s sChEnArEy drew 15-15 with fanboyz. Woke nonsense.
He was playing with BARBARR and pita who you might know, and malaria and xeron who you won’t. He was also still playing with pita when he made his debut in CS:GO, where he - more familiarly - went negative in a win. 30-37 against ImmuNe, a Danish team including TENZKI.
TENZKI topfragged for his team. The early days of CSGO were wild.
He sadly ended his career not playing with pita, but playing with disco doplan, znajder, grux and Plopski. Yeah, we’d retire too.
At least he played a part in the rise of some far more talented players – his team got 2-0’d by Gambit Youngsters back in 2019, with sh1ro going nuclear. 59-28, 17 multikills, 10:1 in opening duels.
At least someone had a good time: pronax went 23-38 and retired.
Fair enough.
