chopper’s gone and we’d love to say that we think that means 2026 will be Spirit’s year, but we’re not sure about his replacement. Meanwhile, BC.Game are gearing up for some big moves and there’s been some surprise developments in the 100 Thieves camp.

• There’s still some CS being played, and Jesper Larsen has you covered for why it matters to tier one CS. We’re still not going to talk about it, though. F-ck VRS.
• Instead, we’ll give you a little Christmas-themed CS joke, courtesy of aizyesque: Why was Jame disappointed on Christmas? Because he got a new AWP despite already having one saved from last year.

Welcome to the unction

Although we’re still waiting on confirmation of device’s move to 100 Thieves, gla1ve has now officially taken his seat at the unction.

He’ll be joining up with rain to form a brand-new leadership duo, and whilst we’re excited to see how they do, AN1MO already predicted on the podcast that it won’t be long before gla1ve is truly in the driving seat.

The more interesting news coming out of 100 Thieves is that they’re reportedly signing poiii.

“WHO?!” we hear you cry — and honestly? F-ck knows. All we know is that he’s got a 1.21 rating on Alliance, and Swedish people seem to think he’s the second coming of Christ, or Olofmeister.

The face that 100 Thieves are clearly looking to make their franchise boy à la ZywOo, it does raise some questions as to what their strategy will be moving forward.

device, rain, and poiii would mean that 100 Thieves won’t have an active core — so will they be going the NIP route and look to build from the ground up? It’s certainly bold, and considering the question marks already surrounding this team, we’re not exactly confident in it.

There’s also the possibility that they do still sign a core. Although presuming they want device, poii, and rain to be their core, in doing so, they’d have to quickly bench one of the players they bring in.

It would be one of the funniest and worst PR moves in CS history, so we’re all for it. We just want to see what Twitter will be like that day.

Core destabilised

What happens when you add electroNic to a team? The team goes nuclear.

And we mean in the Chernobyl way, not the James Bardolph way.

Not only has s1mple been dreadful since electroNic arrived, the team have now removed their coach as well as two of their players. No, BC.Game, we don’t believe that the decision for nexa to depart was “mutual”.

aNdu remains, but the question is for how long? OverDrive has said that they tried to buy HEROIC’s core, and that almost certainly means the Estonian would be out the door as well.

So it looks like BC.Game are getting serious, but how serious can a team get when they have electroNic?

To make matters worse, it even looks like he might be IGLing again, and we all know how badly that goes.

Freed from the chop

donk has finally been freed from chopper’s disastrous T sides. It should be a cause for celebration, but the replacement isn’t exactly filling us with excitement.

The new IGL of Spirit will be magixx, another likely-hally puppet that will see the same issues continue. He’ll be more willing to go in first, which is nice, but will there be more flash bangs thrown? More emphasis on getting more out of tN1R? Or will it just continue to be a case of throwing donk at the enemy and hoping he kills everyone?

We have an inkling it might be the latter.

zont1x has also returned, which is a benefit for Spirit’s CT sides. The move for zweih really just didn’t work out, and although there’s maybe something to be said about how throwing him to the wolves on T side may have affected his confidence on CT sides, the kid just never did look right in tier one.

Masterclass against Falcons at the Major aside, zweih massively struggled as an anchor. Constantly found in one-and-done spots, even getting his one kill was often too difficult for him, and it’s no surprise to see him out of the team.

He can hold his head high with his IEM Cologne winners medal and Major semi-final appearance, but it’s clear that — at least for now — he’s just not ready for a team of Spirit’s calibre.

Whether he’ll get a move is now anyone’s guess, but Spirit should at least ship him off on loan somewhere. It was clear he was too good for Nemiga, so maybe a step down to tier 1.5 could turn him into the demon he looked like he could be.

🇩🇪 Bringing down the wall

• 2025 was a pretty p-ss poor year for BIG, which they’re apparently trying to combat by bringing in blameF as their new IGL.
• They also are supposedly looking to bring in Ax1Le which is… interesting. The international meta claims another victim.

🚘 Nice one, Volvo

• “We appreciate your attempt to transfer your trophy to Twistzz, rain, however: f-ck you.” Valve, probably.
• ELiGE is cheating. According to Valve at least.

💵 Selling old things for cash

• Fnatic are allegedly looking to sell. We’d be willing to buy, but the 100M pricetag is a little too rich for our blood. Just a little.
• The fact that the fifth best guy on this list - tabseN - doesn’t even crack a 1.0 rating should tell you enough about whether or not it’s worthwhile to keep playing CS after you’re 30.