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GUIDES
Simple Radar
© 2026 TLDR Media, All Rights Reserved.
It’s a day of annihilation in Astana.
The action continues in Astana and Atlanta, and the Eastern Front witnessed one of the quickest arena days you’ll ever see as both Falcons and Spirit made light work of their opposition. Over in Atlanta, BetBoom put up a brave fight against NAVI, and our man on the ground Fuffy sat down for a chat with flameZ.
Remember how in yesterday’s edition we said that MOUZ might ruin our excitement by resuming their role as Counter-Strike’s resident bottlers? Well, they even surprised us with how woeful they were against Spirit.
It’s honestly unbelievable how bad they were.
13-3 on Dust2, followed by 13-2 on Nuke. Just completely outmatched in every way.
It’s a tough one, though. Spirit are by far the best team MOUZ have had to play in this event, and the gulf between the two should always have been massive, even if xertioN stayed firing on all cylinders.
Which he didn’t, btw. He managed just 15 kills over the two short maps.
That said, MOUZ could have at least looked competitive. Maybe it was the role clash issue finally rearing its head, or maybe it was the fact that Spirit without hally are actually quite good, but they may as well have not bothered connecting to the server.
Especially if this was how jL was going to look at his monitor.
Surprisingly, magic fared better against Falcons, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a blowout.
A late rally saw the plucky CIS team split the score at 6-6 on Ancient, but karrigan of all people took over when Falcons went onto their T side, recording 10 kills and a 2.27 rating as they wrapped up the map at 13-7.
Wee woo.
karrigan quietened down on the second map, leaving the fragging duties to m0NESY instead.
The baby GOAT took over on Dust2, he was everywhere as he ended the 13-5 win with 26 kills, six deaths, 128 ADR, and a 2.26 rating. Add on another 20 kills from NiKo and 15 for kyousuke, and magic really didn’t stand a chance.
You have to give it to them, though - they were a great addition to the event. Their quarter-final against 9z proved to be anything but a p-ss-break match, and every one of their players proved they have something to say in tier one.
We were particularly impressed by mo0n, who had a few quiet maps, but was a threat all throughout his time in the tournament. His 0.94 rating will reflect poorly on him, but with the added context that they suffered a fair few blowouts, it should be taken with a pinch of salt for anyone with a serious organisation.
Speaking of… HEROIC, you guys still need an AWPer?
Honestly, beating Vitality in the quarters might not feel as liberating to NAVI as we all think. By doing so, they’ve cast a looming shadow over their own performance in the IEM Atlanta playoffs, and created the expectation with everyone that they’ll go all the way.
Any other tournament without Vitality where they would fall before the finish line might still catch them some flak, but here it is quite literally a requirement.
Suffice to say, they do seem like they are going all the way, though. In their semi-final against BetBoom they looked pretty convincing, even though Boombl4’s men managed to make them sweat here and there.
The veto saw Ancient, Nuke, and Dust2 come out of it, and realistically, Ancient was the only map BetBoom actually looked good on. Not that they got to play Dust2…
The first half saw teams go back and forth, and for a second, we thought the match might actually get interesting, but when, after halftime, ESL gave us B1ad3’s words of encouragement to hear - which consisted of “we’ve got five rounds, that’s good enough” - we remembered the flattering look CT side Ancient can give teams and we knew it was over. 13-8 for NAVI on BB’s pick.
On Nuke, things got worse, with NAVI absolutely picking BetBoom apart and them looking kind of lost. It didn’t really help that NAVI got to start on CT there as well, carrying the momentum into their T-side and finishing off BetBoom 13-6 to win the series and grab their spot in the final.
If you wanted some butt-clenching, edge-of-your-seat CS, then you had to tune in to GamerLegion against Legacy.
That series saw us go to Ancient first as well, GL’s pick, where Legacy also benefited from the CT-side looks-boost, along with a won T-side pistol. Didn’t win them the map, however, 13-9.
Up next was Legacy’s pick, Mirage. Honestly, good stuff there from Legacy, no remarks to be had. They made GamerLegion look stupid and stomped them in 13-3 fashion. Easy peasy.
Which brings us to the decider map, which was - oh, God, it’s Inferno, isn’t it? As any decider on Inferno goes, this one was the real eye-catcher.
Both sides had great rounds and beautiful plays, but with some clutches from REZ and a strong AWP from hypex, the proverbial cat was in the proverbial bag.
Again, the first half looked competitive, but GL ran away with it in the second, and mercilessly finished Legacy off 13-6 - marking the first big event final appearance for this GL roster.
What happened against NAVI?
We didn’t practice for a month, we came to this and knew it was gonna be tough. They played well so… yeah.
What does practice look like going into the Major?
It’s gonna be time off for a bit, and then we’re gonna come into a strong time of practice. We have a week chill then we’re gonna go into a bootcamp and step up the time in the game.
What is the best way to prep for a big event like the Cologne Major?
First of all, it’s outside of CS, mental prep a bit. It’s gonna be tough this Major. Second thing is to come with a lot of time in the game. The most focused you can be is in a bootcamp because there’s just CS, no distractions, no friends, nothing. I think bootcamp is the best way to prep for any big tournament.
We saw a split of S-tier teams between Atlanta and Astana. How do you think that affects the scene to have multiple events at once?
I think it’s actually quite healthy because there are actually two tournaments, two things at once and you can look at Astana and see like those great teams playing against each other. Here is a bit more chill in terms of team level, on the other hand it’s also competitive. I think it creates a healthy thing coming to the major where you haven’t played some teams much.
Last year in Dallas, you told us that your goal was to win the Major on your birthday, which you did in Austin. How can you top that?
It’s gonna be tough, huh. Austin was just too good. Cologne the final is one day before my birthday. It’s gonna be good, but I think Austin was just a great experience.
FaZe bullsh-t this, FaZe magic that… has anyone ever considered that maybe it’s karrigan that carries the juice?
We know what FaZe did in Fort Worth, but what karrigan is doing at PGL Astana is much more impressive.
Falcons gave everything they had to take down FURIA, a team they shouldn’t have been close to beating with their relative times together. They then made light work of magic, too.
But even more impressively, he’s managed to transition kyousuke from arena stavn to arena makazze.
They face their toughest test yet in the final, though. A Spirit squad no longer shackled by their coach, and playing with a level of freedom not enjoyed since 1863.
It’s a match that should, without a doubt, go the way of donk and the Funky Bunch, but we’ll be real, we’re really feeling the Falcons win.
Over in IEM Atlanta, NAVI have crept one step closer to winning a tournament that “finally counts”, and considering they play GamerLegion in the grand final, that last hurdle should be pretty easy to get over.
We love Snax, REZ, and the resurgent hypex, but we love Aleksib and makazze just that little bit more, so we really hope they do it.
Both events will also feature a third-place decider match, with PGL Astana’s seeing MOUZ take on magic, and IEM Atlanta’s pitting Legacy against BetBoom.
Perfect example of REZ’ very visible performance on Inferno - 1.92 rated btw - is his clutch for map and series point.
He faces off against three of Legacy’s men, headshots an AWPer before his nade hits, one taps a guy who’s already on 6HP anyways, and has a stupid grin on his face after outsmarting the last man.
