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GUIDES
Simple Radar
© 2026 TLDR Media, All Rights Reserved.
We already miss Vitality
PARIVISION, you could have saved this event, but instead, you’ve decided to lose to HEROIC and left us with MOUZ and Spirit. Shame on you. Also, shame on Valve, who somehow might have made Inferno even worse.
Have you ever wanted to watch the Major format, but online, with several top teams missing? ESL have you covered.
Jokes aside, ESL Pro League’s first stage has actually been quite exciting. North America has been taking Ls (a fat W for anyone on the right side of the Atlantic), and hatewatching G2 and Liquid has proved incredibly enjoyable. Meanwhile, everyone’s favorite Brazilian IGL-geniuses have taken big wins, and the fun, young international teams have managed to nigh on seal Major qualification.
The big headline story, and perhaps the only blemish on this otherwise perfect Swiss-bracket, is PARIVISION. With the amount of high peaks and low valleys we’re starting to think dastan is a big fan of roller coasters.
We thought an all-BO3 Swiss bracket would make it impossible to go from 2-0 to 2-3, but ever the trailblazer, Jame is once again breaking new ground. Seriously, you couldn’t close against Legacy, Monte, and HEROIC of all teams?
Because yes, the losses were in that order. On his debut as the IGL of the team, arT took Legacy from dire straits to taking down NIP, G2 and PARIVISION on the way to a 3-0 finish. And his compatriot in biguzera didn’t do that badly either, with paiN ending up 3-1 after another Brazilian statement win against G2.
Though at the rate teams are upsetting G2 we have to wonder how big those statements really are.
Alongside the Brazilians, FUT, Monte, HEROIC, G2, 3DMAX, and Astralis round out the advancing teams, and for several of them these matches were important for their hopes of making the Cologne Major later this spring. That was also helped by Liquid looking about as helpless as a beached whale, even losing a map to SemperFi at one point.
You read that right - SemperFi.
Finally, we kept an eye on Passion UA’s debut with their new roster, and it wasn’t great… but we think it could have been a lot worse.
While beating Liquid is a low bar, it is a first step that all teams need to take, and taking maps off of the very in-form FUT and Monte is not bad. Granted, every player except the Mongolian played quite poorly, but Senzu being the only consistent performer on the team at least means he wasn’t slowed down too much by the shift in organisation, teammates, language, and continent.
Now we move on to the exciting second stage of the event, with some big changes compared to the first one. It’s still a Swiss-bracket, played online, but this time Spirit and MOUZ are here. Have fun!
A brand new CS update is out, and Valve has finally decided to address the absolute snooze fest that is Inferno, introducing a couple of significant changes to the A site.
The biggest one is that Graveyard is now inaccessible, as its entrance has been closed off. On top of that, the wall above Pit has been raised, while the Balcony has been extended, replacing the overhang.
So, how does this actually impact how the map is played?
First, Ts now only have to worry about 14 different angles when entering A instead of the usual 17. That’s a win in our book.
On the flip side, CTs will now have one less position to clear during retakes, which should theoretically make them easier. And that’s something the map desperately needs. Inferno has long encouraged instant save calls the moment a site is lost, rather than incentivizing teams to actually play the f-cking game.
That being said, it’s also a trade-off.
You no longer need to worry about Graveyard when retaking, but you also lose the ability to molly Pit from Long, as the added wall height makes it impossible. So rejoice, Pit anchors.
For now, at least. You can be goddamn sure that in a couple of days the utility nerds will have already come up with some walk-three-steps-forward-and-spin-180º-and-eat-a-banana-upside-down throw that somehow lands perfectly anyway.
Overall, it’s a welcome set of changes, but it still might not be enough to truly shift the retake-averse mentality that plagues the map. Still, we’ll take what we can get.
As with any big change, it’ll take some time for players to adapt to the new layout and figure out how to work with it. It’ll be interesting to see how both us mere mortals and the pros approach it. The good news is we won’t have to wait long, since the update is already live in ESL Pro League Season 23.
And it seems like the change already has its first big fan.
Sam must not have been feeling well this week, for once he actually praised PGL for something.
However, Liquid and NIP were on the receiving end of his usual hatred, something Jack was more than happy to get onboard with. Despite NIP’s continued woes making him want to take a bath with a toaster.
Listen to this week’s episode of 🎧 Overtime on Inferno.
ESL Pro League Season 23, just like any player's time on Liquid, you do not count.
Why?
Because Vitality aren’t there.
Yeah, we get it, we’re all a little tired of them winning every event they attend, but what that ultimately means is that every event they skip suddenly isn’t as important as it could be.
Seriously, if MOUZ, Spirit, or FURIA win this event - what changes? Is this trophy going to be the sudden catalyst that gives them the confidence to knock down Vitality the next time they see them? No, because they all know that Vitality are already lurking in the shadows, waiting to make them look like Liquid once again.
Okay, we’ve gone in on Liquid twice now. Maybe we’re beating the dead horse a bit. Do us a favour and read that again with any Astralis roster between 2020-2025 in their place.
In all fairness, it will be nice to see someone else lift a trophy, and if there is one team that could buck the trend off the back of winning one, it’s FURIA. They’ve been out of sorts for a while (while still getting impressive results), so a bit of gold might just be enough to snap them back into form.
As for Spirit and MOUZ - with the former of those feeling like the most likely victors - we know nothing will change. Sorry, lads.
There is plenty of intrigue to be had elsewhere, though. What version of NAVI will turn up? Will The MongolZ be able to replicate their form in Cluj? Will FaZe even win a game?
See, plenty to be excited for.
Then there’s the Stage 1 teams.
FUT have become one of our favourite teams to watch, and they could easily make playoffs here. Astralis, too, if they can stop throwing silly maps away to weaker teams, could also be within a shout. And perhaps even Monte, who continue to impress as a plucky underdog, could surprise and make it through.
paiN and Legacy have also impressed so far, with paiN finally racking up a few wins with their new lineup and Legacy looking revitalised under arT. We’re not convinced either team will win any more games, but look, it’s a start.
They’ll be joined by G2, 3DMAX, and HEROIC, who all advanced on the final day thanks to wins over NIP, Liquid, and PARIVISION, respectively.
Yes, we understand that’s at least the second time you’ve read that, but HEROIC beat PARIVISION.
AWPer-less HEROIC, beat PARIVISION.
Who knows what to expect from any of those teams in Stage 2, but one thing is for certain: it’s yxgnstxr’s world, and we’re all just living in it.
