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GUIDES
Simple Radar
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And it smells like new-IGL bounce
We’re so close to karrigan’s debut. So close to seeing if he is a fraud, or if there’s a little magic left in him yet. We’re also close to a Saudi Arabian season of Pro League, so get your moaning hats on, boys.
There’s never a dull moment in our beautiful game.
Usually, it keeps us entertained with the standard match-fixing scandal, the occasional radar hack, or whatever pointless drama happens to flare up. But this week, the circus gave us a special treat - and by special treat we mean huge integrity issue.
Today’s tale takes us deep into the jungle of online tier-19 CS, specifically a match between home and NEW VISION in the CCT 2026 Challengers Europe Series 2 - a tournament you deserve to be clowned for if you’ve watched a single minute of.
Apparently, in what might be a first, we got a ghost in the server. Player stesso took to Twitter to warn that he wasn’t actually playing the match, despite appearing on the HLTV page under team home.
As one of our favourite VRS nerds quickly pointed out, stesso was apparently a mandatory part of the team’s VRS core in order to retain points, which could explain why someone decided to impersonate him.
The thing is, these home guys don’t exactly have a spotless reputation. They’ve alledgedly already been involved in match-fixing, with what looks like the real stesso this time around.
So was this just a desperate attempt to preserve the VRS core, secure the CCT invite and keep fixing games?
Honestly, who the f-ck knows at this point…
At least HLTV has already invalidated the match, so some form of action has been taken.
Anyway, we can’t wait to see what fresh bullsh-t is lined up for next week.
Not that it should come as a surprise to anyone at this point, but ESL have announced that ESL Pro League Season 25 will be hosted in Saudi Arabia.
People aren’t happy about this, as is to be expected, but ignoring the political aspect of it all - allow us to play devil’s advocate.
We all know that the money in esports is never fantastic, and with Saudi (sorry, Savvy Games Group) owning ESL, running an event in the nation makes it far cheaper than any European country where they’d have to rent an arena for the weekend.
So, while it might not be ideal timezone-wise for many people, and while it might lead to a playoffs played in front of about 200 people who have all been paid to be there…
Is it that much of a bad thing?
Especially when it’s just one event, and also an event that we all typically moan about anyway, we’re willing to give ESL a pass just this once.
Key word: once.
Like Cache, Sam and Jack are back, but are they happy about it? Well, sort of.
They’re also - shockingly - happy to see that FaZe went well. Which, given the fact they refused to even say “FaZe” just a matter of weeks ago, is a big change. Catch this week’s episode of Overtime on Inferno:
Wanna buy some talent? It’s going cheap!
Silly season has kicked off properly in tier one, and tier two doesn’t want to be left out.
Of course, being the lesser tier of competition, they can’t make the same high roller bets as the big dogs, so quite a few quality players and coaches have actually ended up on the free market.
And when we say quality players, we actually mean it. No really, we promise.
Perhaps your team needs a new head coach, why look any further than Major grand finalist ash? He got out of his GamerLegion contract two weeks ago, juuust before HLTV’s big report dropped. We think it’s a coincidence… probably.
Maybe you’re looking for a strong veteran to guide your team to glory? Why not pick up HObbit?
Very funny, we know. But have you seen his stats lately?
He’s getting older at 31 years old - practically a hundred in Counter-Strike years - but he’s not done yet. Unlike other retirees, he embraces the adult diapers, and instead uses them to absolutely sh-t on anything and everything that moves in tier two.
Anyway, remember nicoodoz? He’s free too!
After getting benched along with his three mates, ECSTATIC have agreed to let them go for free. The team sits just one spot behind fnatic on the ranking, and you can get that spot for $0 while picking up some decent tier two players in the process. A bargain, we think, even if nut nut isn’t included in the deal.
Though we’d pay billions just for that nickname.
Of course, not everyone is letting players go free, some are actually picking them up as well. 9INE announced the benching of Poles cej0t and bnox, and are rumoured to be playing with adamS and notineki in their place.
Metizport finally tied the knot with F1KU to complete their roster, although the door isn’t closed on supertalent MaiL09 being brought back to JaiL09 in a near future.
Amid links to dav1deuS, Fluxo benched Mauisnake’s least favorite player, kye, and a guy we assume sneezed when dictating his own nickname, mlhzin.
Finally, Major near-miss SemperFi made the only move we’re actually somewhat excited about. Top Australian prospect on HLTV’s list, sliimey, has joined the team in place of ADDICT.
It seems they were impressed by this… but to be fair, so were we.
We think there’s a good opportunity to build a decent side from those available right now. And that is our proposal. Sharks, we’re seeking a small investment of $1,000,000…
We know a lot of people are worried about catching hantavirus from a cruise ship right about now, but we reckon the teams at PGL Astana will be more concerned about whether or not bullsh-t is contagious.
karrigan is set to make his debut for Falcons during the event, with a pleasant first match against K27 set to kick off his tenure.
There’s a lot of work to do for him, especially when it comes to the consistency of NiKo and kyousuke’s stage fright, but an initial bounce to win Falcons’ first tier one trophy since April 2025?
It just feels right, doesn’t it?
Of course, Spirit will have plenty to say about it. They’ve looked awful at points this year, but surprise, surprise, the absence of hally seemed to free them at IEM Rio. Their painfully flat T sides suddenly had tonnes of energy thanks to tN1R, and they were even throwing flashbangs, too.
Which sounds small and like it should be expected, but Spirit’s flash numbers are typically awful.
FURIA will also be in contention, and keen to bounce back after utter embarrassment at BLAST Rivals, but given how yuurih has been playing this year… we just don’t see it.
It’s starting to feel like they might have to face some harsh realities if they want to get FalleN another trophy before he bows out.
Ignoring PARIVISION, G2, The MongolZ, and Aurora, the final big dog in Astana is MOUZ.
And we have no idea what to expect from them.
They’ve made huge changes, with jL coming in on loan, xelex promoted from NXT, and xertioN taking up IGLing, but will it work? Maybe well enough to get them a playoffs berth at this event, but at an event where the bottom eight teams aren’t quite so weak? It’s doubtful.
Speaking of those bottom eight teams, we’re excited to once again see HEROIC, because yxngstxr AWPing is always fun, but we’ll also have our eyes on Monte. They looked in great form when they won the CCT Global Finals, and we think they could finally do some damage on the tier one stage here.
HEROIC may still be without a full-time AWPer, but that hasn’t stopped them from pulling off multiple upset victories this year.
With Chr1zN and co. set to face Aurora in their opening game, and Aurora being prime for disappointments, HEROIC at 2.46 is looking pretty good to us - $24.60 return on a $10 punt? We’ll take those odds.
Alternatively, if you believe in the karrigan new-IGL bounce, Falcons are 3.25 to win the whole thing.
Let’s see if bullsh-t is tied just to FaZe, or if karrigan carries some magic of his own.
Place your bets at Razed.
Note: Odds at time of writing.
