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GUIDES
Simple Radar
© 2026 TLDR Media, All Rights Reserved.
That’s one problem solved
So, Astralis made the playoffs of a genuinely tier one event, Spirit got embarrassed, and FaZe absolutely crashed out in China.
Oh, and Valve made one of the best changes to Majors they’ve ever made. Good week, all things considered.
We have a tendency to be a bit negative here at TLDR. We don’t mean to, it’s just so much easier to make jokes at NIP’s expense than it is at Vitality’s.
But the thing is, out mothers told us that if we had nothing nice to say, then say nothing at all. So we are going to say nothing about Team Spirit for now.
The podcast will have more on them next week, if you want some good ol’ hating.
Instead, we’d like to take something positive out of it, and talk instead about how The MongolZ are bloody doing it again. Time after time they’ve made moves that on paper looked very silly, and somehow they stuck around and kept plugging away.
It was they who beat Team Spirit to make playoffs in Chengdu, with wins over paiN and HEROIC to go with it, and despite a loss to Astralis it doesn’t feel like The MongolZ are a million miles away from where they were.
They might have lost their X factor, but they lost him in playoffs most the time anyway.
controlez has been alright - nothing special, but nowhere near as bad as hasteka was, and probably better than we all thought. He isn’t Senzu, but 910 has stepped up to fill that fragging gap beautifully so far.
Falcons won that group by smacking Astralis, and look like they might be a real, genuine contender for best team in the world. Not because they beat Astralis, obviously, but because they have three of the best players in the world all firing at different times.
We’d written off MOUZ as a contender for that title and put FURIA in there instead, but MOUZ toppled Vitality and FURIA in back-to-back bangers and proved that they can be there again.
At least, in group stages.
Vitality managed to make the lower bracket run to make a pretty stacked playoffs, while questions need to be asked of their fellow Frenchies 3DMAX, who are more French, and more bad.
Another last place exit is not a good look.
Speaking of which, FaZe absolutely bottled it and finished last as well. We don’t need to ask questions of them, though; all the answers were in Wednesday’s deep dive.
Illustration by: NovaH
The opening matches for the StarLadder Budapest Major are now confirmed.
fnatic will be making their Major return with a game against Red Canids, whilst NIP’s return will come against NRG. No prizes for guessing which of those teams we want to win, and which we don’t.
The Stage 1 headliners FaZe will begin their road to redemption against Lynn Vision, but you can check out our latest Deep Dive to see why we think that might go badly.
We now know the first games for the StarLadder Budapest Major, but do you know who played the first ever match at a CS2 Major back at PGL Copenhagen?
Scroll down to find the answer!
Do you have the bravery to attack the weak? We do, as Sam, Jack and Elliott go after the worst duos in CS history. Take that, Spiidi and Denis.
The moment we’ve been waiting for is finally here.
The kind of moment that makes you blink twice and wonder if the CS gods actually listened for once.
No adamb, L00m1 still hasn’t hit an AWP shot. Though we’re hopeful he might someday.
We’re talking about the big news of the week: the Majors are finally getting BO5 grand finals, starting with the StarLadder Budapest Major later this month.
Now, we’ve got mixed feelings about this.
Don’t get us wrong, this is a much-needed change that should’ve happened long ago. There’s absolutely no reason why the winner of the most prestigious tournament of the year should be decided in a BO3 series that doesn’t truly test both teams to their limits. We’re clear on that.
But perhaps the even more scandalous part is that, to this day, we still have the atrocities that are BO1s at a Major. Single maps are just far too volatile by nature, and if there’s one thing you want to limit at a Major, it’s randomness - especially when some of those matches are played on the same day, leaving no time for prep.
But hey, we take what we can get, and when it comes to Valve, God knows that’s not much.
Just think of all the banger BO5 finals we’ve had the pleasure of watching over the years. Hell, just remember the PGL Masters Bucharest 2025 grand final from a few days ago. Now imagine something like that on the Major stage.
Okay, maybe not Aurora vs. Legacy in a Major grand final. That’s just foul.
We’re kinda starting to get the feeling that Chengdu is going to point towards a huge shakeup ahead of the Major.
For one, Falcons have looked incredible over in China. Admittedly, we didn’t think this roster would ever be able to find balance, but they’re making it work, and it’s pretty fun to see.
MOUZ also look more dangerous than ever, and their wins over Vitality and FURIA are incredibly reassuring signs for potential damage they can cause in Budapest.
In fact, we think both teams look so good that we’re going to continue our Chengdu predictions by saying it will be the two semi-finalist that make it to the final, and then battle it out in what will be one of the best finals of the year.
Which, of course, will feature at least one unloseable round being lost by Falcons.
As for the quarter-finals, sadly they seem pretty obvious. Astralis have done well to make it to the playoffs, but their run will come to an abrupt end when they meet Vitality. They just don’t have the juice for that fight.
The MongolZ vs FURIA is slightly harder to call, but despite that win over Spirit, The MongolZ aren’t quite what they were with Senzu. FURIA take it, with molodoy making 910 wish he put a few more hours into the game before he became a pro.
All in all, it should be a good weekend of Counter-Strike. Especially because the games will take place during hours Europeans can actually watch them.
Trivia answer: The first two games at the PGL Copenhagen Major were Eternal Fire 13-6 The MongolZ, and Cloud9 13-10 ECSTATIC.
