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GUIDES
Simple Radar
© 2026 TLDR Media, All Rights Reserved.
Outsiders in a different sense
Kraków’s Stage 2 is underway, the big boys have finally clocked in, and the first couple of days already delivered a nice mix of “yeah, of course” and “wait, they won?”
Also, B8 are spinning the AWP carousel again, our new “What if?” show kicks off with device-to-NIP, and Virtus.pro’s ongoing freefall is starting to feel less like a slump and more like a slow-motion demolition.
Stage 2 of IEM Kraków 2026 is officially underway, and with it comes the arrival of the heavy hitters.
None hit harder than Vitality, Spirit, and MOUZ, who began their campaigns on the right foot, dispatching BC.Game, Astralis, and NRG with 2-0 sweeps.
The most hyped matchup of the opening round was the s1mple vs. ZywOo clash, but the series itself went about as you’d expect, as Vitality and flameZ proved far too much to handle.
Carrying over their strong Stage 1 momentum, FUT continued to turn heads with an upset over FURIA. dziugss and dem0n wreaked havoc throughout the series, proving why they were two of the most sought-after talents during the offseason. Although they later fell to G2 in the qualification match, their run is not over yet.
If it wasn’t obvious by now, these kids are the real deal. Something tells us they won’t be wearing the FUT colors for much longer.
On the flip side, cobrazera’s debut in a MongolZ jersey couldn’t have gone much worse. The team bowed out of the tournament in last place after back-to-back losses against G2 and FURIA, with the rookie posting a rough 0.86 rating across both matches. Can’t really put all the blame on him though - 910 was the only who showed any fight.
There can only be one true zera…
The makazze vs. zweih matchup was one of the most exciting clashes of the opening round - for obvious reasons - and it lived up to the hype. The series was an absolute banger, with NAVI eventually edging out PARIVISION after a hard-fought battle. Finally, some proper player-on-player drama.
With Anubis back in the active map pool, Aurora finally have a shot at winning games again. They’ve opened Stage 2 with a solid win over Falcons, as soulfly bounced back from a rough Stage 1 to send Falcons to the lower bracket.
By the end of the first two days, G2 and Spirit had punched their tickets to the TAURON Arena, while PARIVISION were sent packing alongside the Mongolians.
It looks like the door labelled “AWP” in B8’s camp will keep on revolving - after an unsuccessful campaign in IEM Kraków, 16-year-old academy graduate segukawa will return to the junior team.
And isn’t that a relief? It pained our hearts enough to watch npl waste away with headtr1ck last year, and watching them have to drag along the heavy burden of a 0.54 rated AWPer wasn’t much better. Let’s see which exciting new player will pick the gun up for PGL Cluj-Napoca…
Wait, who the f-ck is s1zzi?
Oh… they’ve done it again.
For the second time in 2026 - and we’ll remind you, January just ended - B8 have promoted a no-name 16-year-old Ukrainian AWPer from an academy team, only this time he’s coming in on loan from Spirit. B8’s CEO would also make a statement on Telegram claiming that segukawa was never a real B8 player, and was instead some kind of social experiment, or something. We don’t know, we don’t speak Ukrainian.
But honestly, he might as well have been permanent, because even on paper, s1zzi doesn’t look that much better. He’s virtually unknown, having only played two series covered by HLTV with Spirit Academy’s junior team.
Yeah, you read that right. The academy team’s academy team. Because there isn’t enough cracked Russian 16-year-olds in the world.
Admittedly, his first two official series were better than segukawa’s in Kraków, but they were against significantly worse opposition. So it begs the question: why would this be any different?
On the one hand, Spirit’s academy operations are significantly larger and have produced prodigies like donk and kyousuke. On the other hand, they have also been able to scam large organisations with loan deals for subpar AWPers like Alkaren.
Place your bets on which one s1zzi will turn out to be.
With segukawa’s single-tournament stay on B8 going down as one of the worst big event debuts of all time, we ask you this:
device to NIP should’ve kicked off a new era for NIP, one where the successes of the early days of CS:GO no longer seemed like a distant memory.
Instead, it kicked off an era of misery, one where the team was in a constant state of disrepair as they went from roster to roster with nothing to show for it.
In our new podcast series “Flashbang realities” we’re answering the biggest “What ifs?” in Counter-Strike history - starting with “What if device to NIP had worked out?”
12 years ago, Virtus.pro were on top of the world. Home to a core of legendary Polish players and the two young guns driving them into a new era, they would soon see themselves crowned as CS:GO’s second ever Major champions at their home event, EMS Katowice 2014.
Fast forward 12 years, and Virtus.pro are no longer Polish. Instead, they’re home to a Russian team. A Russian team who are 85th in the world, and losing at local LANs to streamers and unknown sh-tters.
And supra… remember him?
The decline of VP has been nothing short of embarrassing. They brought in electroNic to sacrifice Jame, and the resulting countless failures have led to FL1T and fame - two previously solid riflers - looking awful, and Perfecto for some reason IGLing two players who very clearly weren’t ready to be promoted from their academy team.
And by not ready, we’re talking segukawa levels. Okay, maybe not that bad, but both b1st and tO0RO have 0.85 ratings in the last three months, and although we might excuse the latter for being an anchor in a terrible team, b1st is an AWPer, and that’s just unacceptable.
The organisation, even after sinking so far, is somehow still in nose dive. Part of us wants to say they deserve it, but really, does any of this need to be happening? It’s clear this team is never going to be successful, so why not just blow it all up before there’s nothing to redeem.
FL1T and fame would surely still get a move based on residual reputation, maybe even Perfecto as long as he agrees to never call a round again. But on this team? Together? It’s never going to work again, and at this point it feels like everyone knows it apart from the organisation.
Of course, it’s also partially their fault. They should have never signed electroNic, and they definitely should have never let him decide he’s a better caller than Jame. Following that, well, the less said about the sheer lack of ambition in the existence of tO0RO and b1st the better.
It’s not even like it’s fun to watch them lose. It’s not a disastrous BC.Game online debut, or a Falcons unloseable round. There’s simply no comedy to it. Nor is there even depression, or joy, it’s simply nothing more than apathy.
How utterly pointless.
