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GUIDES
Simple Radar
© 2026 TLDR Media, All Rights Reserved.
When’s it gonna end Robbie?
The danger must be growing, for the rowers keep on rowing, and they’re certainly not showing any signs that they are slowing!
Yeah, Vitality won, again.
Some players are born for the spotlight, thriving under pressure, when everyone’s watching and the stakes couldn’t be higher.
Others only seem to pop off in showma… sorry, third-place deciders.
In Kraków, during the series that replaced the soul-crushing boredom of showmatches, sh1ro delivered the performance of a lifetime - a 1.88 rating to secure his team a whopping 39 VRS points and some extra cash.
Spirit demolished MOUZ in a 2-0 sweep no one seemed to care about - well, no one except sh1ro. Most players looked like they’d rather be anywhere else, which is understandable after being denied a fight for the trophy the day before and treated like an appetizer the day after.
MOUZ, meanwhile, could’ve at least tried to save some dignity. We admire their consistency, but watching them fail to accomplish anything meaningful again and again - and now not even take third place in Kraków - is just painful. Hats off to anyone still sane enough to call themselves a MOUZ fan.
But this third-place decider wasn’t completely pointless. Spirit discovered the secret to Vitality-level dominance: just convince sh1ro that every match is a third-place decider. They’ll become unstoppable.
We’re sorry, ESL, but the move to Krakow might’ve killed the magic. Or at least lost it, in the real Hall of Heroes, some 80km away.
It might not be a feeling we get in the years to come, but this being the first year of the move to Krakow for “IEM Winter” really hurt the prestige feel of this event. Where Katowice used to feel like one of the high points of the CS calendar, Krakow felt like a regular IEM that just had better team attendance and an opening stage, and no iconic trophy could prevent that.
The fact is, the history of this event - even if it began in Hannover - lies in Katowice. Kato, Cologne, Majors. It’s a simple tier list of importance, and one that will take a while to be shaken up so that we now say “Krakow” instead. Especially with everyone constantly referring to the previous host city.
But maybe there’s a way to stop that. Maybe there’s a way to make Krakowice (and Cologne by extension) feel like the most special tournaments on your calendar for a reason greater than the history that lies in the locations they’re held.
And yes, we’re talking about eight-team playoffs.
The IEM format is good, we’re not saying it isn’t, but it will always suffer from those sh-t seeding matches and the fact that the playoffs feature just six teams. And there’s an easy fix for that.
You could follow PGL and do four games on the Friday, or charge even more money and just add on an extra day. We know the financials of having that extra day in the arena may hurt to look at initially, but it’s worth it for the long-term prestige gain that you’ve now sacrificed by changing cities.
You could even switch to Swiss for groups, too, just to set it even further apart from the other IEMs.
This isn’t to say that Krakow wasn’t still enjoyable, we had a blast watching it, but in a calendar that is now filled with tournaments every week, we feel like you can do something to make your premium events bigger and better than ever before.
Just think about it.
We could’ve gone for either one of ZywOo’s tournament-winning 4Ks on Overpass, but there’s something that’s just a little bit better about this one.
This doesn’t feel like regular old ZywOo, boring, hold-an-angle ZywOo. This is a new ZywOo. A ZywOo with a point to prove.
And, mate. He might’ve already proven it.
The first half of 2025 belonged entirely to Vitality, and in the second half, only FURIA managed to challenge that dominance, denying them two trophies and putting rare stains on an otherwise undefeated run.
Heading into the IEM Kraków 2026 grand final, the question was simple: could FURIA do it again and start the year by toppling the reigning champions?
The series kicked off on Mirage, where captain apEX took matters into his own hands, with a string of high-impact rounds that set the tone early. flameZ said ‘hey, I can do that too’ and joined the party with a couple of highlights of his own, sealing a dominant 9-3 CT half.
After the switch, FURIA finally came alive. yuurih and YEKINDAR sparked resistance, and as the Brazilian side looked more and more confident, Vitality began to sweat. Despite a quiet map up to that point, molodoy delivered when it mattered most, pulling off a sick clutch that pushed FURIA to complete the comeback from 2-9 down.
The boringness of Saveferno almost put us to sleep in the second map, but we were able to fight the urge to see Vitality once again start strong. YEKINDAR’s confidence was not enough to turn it around, as he didn’t account for flameZ and ZywOo stepping up in the clutch, with Vitality closing the half 7-5.
There was little drama from then on. Vitality’s defense held firm, and a blazing hot wOo powered them to a comfortable 13-8 win, finishing the map with a ridiculous 27-10 scoreline.
On the final map of Overpass, ZywOo kept his supernova form, opening the pistol round with a 4K. It looked like the series might end quickly, but FURIA fought back and tied the half.
They carried that momentum into the early rounds of their T-side, but once the buy rounds began, Vitality slammed the door on the comeback. flameZ turned up the heat, and ZywOo delivered back-to-back 4Ks to seal FURIA’s fate.
They had us in the first map, not gonna lie.
If there’s ony guy Vitality should thank, it’s ZywOo. Whether you think we should’ve been named the best player of the year or not, one thing is undeniable: he is truly one of a kind. He finished the event with a 1.59 rating across 12 maps, including a 1.66 rating in the grand-final - his best arena performance ever. Simply unbelievable.
In 2025, Vitality lost BLAST Bounty and then went on to win everything, starting with Katowice. In 2026, they lost BLAST Bounty again and followed it up with the Kraków title.
Ready for round two?
Final standings:
1st 🇪🇺 Vitality – €400.000
2nd 🇧🇷 FURIA – €180.000
3rd 🇷🇺 Spirit – €100.000
4th 🇪🇺 MOUZ – €60.000
5-6th 🇪🇺 G2 – €40.000
5-6th 🇹🇷 Aurora – €40.000
7-8th 🇪🇺 Falcons – €24.000
7-8th 🇩🇰 Astralis – €24.000
