Loading…
GUIDES
Simple Radar
© 2026 TLDR Media, All Rights Reserved.
As long as they come from NAVI, not MOUZ.
PGL Bucharest we must apologise, we we really weren’t familiar with your game. As much as we love Vitality, the lack of them (and most other “top” teams) in Romania made this tournament pretty special, and seeing that winner crowned was just the icing on the cake.
After a surprisingly fun time at PGL Bucharest - yeah, who knew tier two is actually fun? - it’s time for the big dogs to make their return at IEM Rio.
There’ll be a lot of intrigue around MOUZ, especially given recent rumours about the future of their IGL, Brollan. After getting knocked out of EPL in embarassing fashion, and then 0-2’d at BLAST Open, a result here is very much needed for their confidence ahead of the Major.
Which screams to us that they’re getting grouped again.
Spirit are also an exciting prospect, even though they’ll have S0tF1k behind them instead of hally.
Actually, that might just be a benefit to them.
They’re also in dire need of a win, with EPL also ending in a poor defeat for them, and BLAST going better than MOUZ, but still not great.
Other standouts at the event include NAVI, Falcons, and Aurora, who have all proven they’re good this year… just not quite good enough to take down Vitality. NAVI are probably the closest, but the lack of a cutting edge prevents them from actually getting the job done.
FURIA, though, FURIA are a big prospect to actually beat them. Likely supercharged by the chance to win in front of their home crowd, you’d hope that they’ve taken their time off between events to fix whatever the hell was wrong with them for the past couple of months. If they can come back swinging - and more importantly, stop flashing each other - they could easily be the team to rain of Vitality’s parade.
Because that’s the thing with this event - it really is the precursor to another Vitality parade. The team has the chance to win their second ESL Grand Slam in Rio, something no team has ever done before.
We already know that no team can really match Vitality at the moment, but that extra hit of motivation for them could be truly devastating for any team in attendance.
RED Canids, we feel sorry for you for what’s about to happen, but that’s your fault for getting in the way of destiny.
It seems like KRL may have got something wrong - at least if the CEO of BC.Game is to be believed.
After KRL said that the German organisation is looking to bring in Magisk as their new IGL - something we decided we actually quite liked - the man behind s1mple’s laughably bad team came out and said that Magisk isn’t going there.
Wait… does that mean?
Surely Magisk isn’t doing that to himself?
We’re not sure how else the BCG CEO would know for sure Magisk isn’t going somewhere, though, surely he’d need to have the contract with the Dane himself. In which case - Magisk, you’re in our prayers, mate.
The CEO did then reveal another bit of info regarding roster moves: he tried to buy donk from Spirit.
And yes, it went about as well as you’d expect.
In a terrifying turn of events, after seemingly getting the aforementioned Magisk leak wrong, KRL is now reporting something absolutely terrifying:
Yeah, you read that right.
It’s a rumour so out of the blue that we’re treating it somewhat as bullsh-t, but we couldn’t not mention it.
karrigan’s previously said he would only leave FaZe if he got benched, which feels unlikely, but would it even be wrong to bench him at this point?
In which case, is it even right for Falcons to pick him up? They’ve been sloppier than your high school break up all year, but FaZe have been no better - it doesn’t as much feel like a fix as much as it does a high profile Band-Aid.
Still, the thought of NiKo and karrigan winning a Major together years after Boston is a tantalising one.
Welcome to the 1-3 exits, boys.
[Editor’s note: I wrote this story doubting it, and HLTV have since confirmed it. Wtf are we doing boys? NiKo was meant to be the next IGL. This is no where near as fun. Boo.]
Unlike some of the other, more serious podcasts in the CS space, we like to offer something a little different with Overtime on Inferno. Because who doesn’t want to hear about pros and their necessity to take part in “recreational activities”?
With Sam, Jack, and quacke all saying reprehensibly unhinged things at every opportunity they get, we thought it was a good time to look back on some of the moments, and still somehow not feel shame as we remembered some of the awful things they’ve said.
Growing up in Swedish Counter-Strike during the mid-2010s, naturally, I was an NIP fan. For a long time, it was almost my primary identity in the scene.
You ever see those annoying superfans that do nothing but tweet about their own team? I was that guy.
In an alternate timeline that would have landed me a job in their social media department - since apparently that’s how esports job hunting works. But today I’m quite happy that’s not how it went.
Non-Swedish readers might not know this, but NIP have long been one of very few esports organisations that are actually known in the broader culture outside our little esports bubble. Non-gamers will ask me about the infamous Ninjas in Pyjamas when I mention what I do.
But as bubbles often do, even that one has popped.
Swedish news outlet Expressen reported last week that all employees in Sweden will be reevaluated (ergo, laid off), and the work done from their Stockholm offices will move to their global headquarters in Abu Dhabi.
Of course, that work has also changed a lot since the days of Potti and HeatoN. These days the NIP Group seem to move more and more away from being an esports team, and closer and closer to being some sort of Bitcoin mining operation.
At least I think that’s what it is - my brain switches off every time I read the words “NIP” and “Bitcoin” in the same sentence.
I’m sad the organisation doesn’t see the same value in what they do as I do. How many other esports teams can you think of that have had their own chocolate bar sold across the nation, their own menu item at McDonalds, and not one but two official theme songs?
I’ve even previously defended NIP in their moving outside of Swedish Counter-Strike rosters into the international market, holding their brand and identity as an example of how brands can stay in touch with their domestic fan base while expanding internationally.
All that, over twenty years of legacy in the most beautiful nation on Earth, thrown out of the window. NIP used to be the Ferrari of esports, but even they are still headquartered in Maranello, Italy.
They have been dying for a while, but last week, the last embers of my NIP fandom left my heart, and NIP got millions of dollars in the process.
It’s been a while since we asked you to use your brains, so here’s a simple one:
TL;DR once made a magazine, which was handed out for free at a big event. Which tournament was it?
Find the answer at the end of the “Everything else” section.
Sorry, we had to.
PGL Bucharest 2026 has wrapped up, and with it all the foot jokes (for now). Against all odds, it actually turned out to be a pretty fun event to follow.
The quarter-finals were, for the most part, tightly contested, and the semis kept the trend going. Neither Astralis nor FUT had it easy against 3DMAX and The MongolZ, respectively.
For Astralis, things looked shaky on Overpass, but when it mattered most, the gigachad stepped up and took over, posting a 1.71 rating to close the series decisively. With Staehr having an unusually quiet game and phzy unable to carry the load alone, the captain rose to the occasion in a big way.
On the other side, The MongolZ were ultimately undone by their inability to convert anti-ecos and man-advantage situations. It was a close series overall, but the impact of the young star-trio of lauNX, dem0n, and dziugss pushed FUT over the line and into the grand final.
Before that, however, the third-place decider. It was as one-sided as it gets. The MongolZ completely steamrolled 3DMAX - with bLitz adding insult to injury - conceding just seven rounds across the entire series. At least it was over quickly.
And so, it was time for the grand final: international Astralis and ex-NAVI Junior battling it out for an S-tier title. Foot vs ass. The El Clásico of 2026.
If there’s one way to sum it up… it was truly one of the grand finals of all time.
FUT completely overwhelmed Astralis across almost the entire four-map BO5. The only response from Astralis came via an OT win on Nuke, but beyond that, it was one-way traffic. Despite HooXi’s best efforts, Astralis managed just thirteen rounds combined across the remaining three maps. Thirteen rounds in three maps. Yeah, it was rough.
Full credit to FUT, though. They were exceptional throughout the tournament and fully deserved their first trophy. With this win, they draw level with Falcons in total S-tier titles - curiously, at the very same event.
As for the MVP, if you watched FUT’s EPL S23 vlog, you already knew who it was going to be.
Trivia answer: PGL Major Copenhagen 2024
