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GUIDES
Simple Radar
© 2026 TLDR Media, All Rights Reserved.
Leave the game before the game leaves you.
Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, Falcons are still sh-tting the bed. It’s at a point we can’t comprehend anymore, and so is karrigan’s fragging, so sit back, relax, and enjoy as AN1MO sends the GOAT IGL off to the glue factory.
If we told you two Brazilian teams would be facing off in a tier one semifinal in 2026, and neither of them was FURIA, would you believe us?
Probably not. Honestly, neither would we.
Yet, after a clean group stage at CAC 2026 that sent them straight into the semis, MIBR look like they’ve successfully tapped into the FURIA formula. They’ve quietly become one of the surprise stories of the last few months, now stacking back-to-back Playoff runs ahead of the Cologne Major.
Their run, however, came to an end at the hands of their Legacy countrymen, who have also been turning heads lately. They’d just survived a brutal scrap against The MongolZ in the quarters and looked intent on repeating their championship run from a year ago.
Since the addition of arT, Legacy have been playing some genuinely entertaining CS, and powered by their stars in dumau and latto, they proved too much for MIBR to handle.
Switching to the boring side of the bracket, MOUZ were dragged into deep waters by B8 in the quarters, needing triple OT on Ancient to seal the sweep. B8 looked overwhelmed by the stage pressure as mistakes pilled up, but MOUZ weren’t exactly convincing either. Even with the roster instability excuse, this level still feels below expectations… but then again, it’s MOUZ we’re talking about.
And then came the semifinal nobody in full possession of their mental faculties willingly set an alarm for: Falcons vs MOUZ - the Atlético x Arsenal of Counter-Strike.
Since it wasn’t a final, NiKo showed up in full force, carrying Falcons over the line despite MOUZ drawing first blood on Mirage. From there, MOUZ struggled to find any real impact on Dust2 and Nuke, with Spinx and xertioN nowhere to be seen.
If you’re a MOUZ fan, first and foremost, our condolences. Second, there is a sliver of hope to cling to, and his name is xelex. The kid looks surprisingly comfortable stepping into tier one competition for the first time, and with more time to settle, he’s shaping up to be another success story for the best academy pipeline out there.
See, we can also be nice every now and then - it’s just that there hasn’t been much to be nice about lately.
So, Legacy vs Falcons for the trophy, huh…
Surely they’re not about to find a way to botch the seventh in a row, right?
Wrong.
They say history tends to repeat itself, and the final day of CAC 2026 was undeniable proof.
Falcons bottled their seventh consecutive grand final, Legacy went back-to-back in Shanghai, and MOUZ once again settled for bronze. Everything is exactly as it should be.
As for the series itself, there was barely any excitement. In many ways, it felt like a rerun of last week’s PGL Astana final, only with Legacy in place of Spirit.
Falcons started by looking ready to really fight for the trophy this time, but after a hard-earned win on Nuke, it all fell apart. Legacy took over completely, cruising through the next three maps on the back of massive performances from latto and dumau, who stacked highlight after highlight - with the former, in particular, capping it off by securing back-to-back MVP medals in China.
Once again, just like in Astana, kyousuke stood out as the lone bright spot for Falcons throughout the series, with early signs suggesting karrigan may already be positively influencing the youngster’s tendency to go missing when Playoffs roll around. Unfortunately for Falcons, however, that remains the only noticeable impact so far. CAC marks the second consecutive grand final under karrigan where the team crashes out against an opponent not named Vitality, marked by dreadful performances from the IGL.
It also doesn’t help when you have the perennial grand final choker in the roster, as NiKo sh-t the bed once again, finishing on a 0.85 rating and adding yet another whiff to our meme folder. At least it wasn’t all bad.
We’re sorry for focusing so much on the losers instead of praising the winners, but this is a bit like that car crash you pass by on the road. You know you shouldn’t stare, but it’s too catastrophic and intriguing to ignore - especially when the cars in question are Lamborghinis and Ferraris.
And MOUZ… what can we say? As usual, when the stakes are non-existent, they play like prime Barça. Another third-place finish added to the tally, powered once again by a supernova performance from xertioN. Give him a few more third-place deciders, and he might just force his way into the conversation for best fragging IGLs of all-time.
This might be a TLDR record for how many times “once again” gets used in a single story.
HEROIC are set to clash with NIP on the 27th at the Stake Ranked LAN in Barcelona, and what could be more delightful than a sunny holiday in Spain before the Major? Well, probably a layup victory against NIP.
We would call NIP fallen giants, but as evidenced by their recent results, they’re actually still falling.
With the odds favourite HEROIC (1.71) looking to build confidence before Cologne, betting on them to smash NIP (2.04) is looking pretty tasty. Feel the same? Sign-up to Razed and play now.
Odds at time of writing.
Tired of watching a bunch of serious interviews with the same old questions? If your answer is yes, then you’re in luck, if you’re answer was no, then get back to doom-scrolling LinkedIn, you ghoul.
Anyway, we were lucky enough to sit down with some pros at IEM Atlanta and get their thoughts on all sorts of nonsense. We promise it’ll be the best six minutes of your day, so give it a listen.
Watch it here
If you ask me who the GOAT IGL is, until another year of dominance from apEX, I’ll say karrigan.
Sure, he doesn’t have the two Grand Slams or the three (or four in gla1ve’s case) Majors, but what he has done twice with FaZe and with MOUZ? That’s a cheat code in the debate.
But, man, it’s just so f-cking over for him now.
He probably is still a top class caller, and he hasn’t been a great fragger historically, but he always had stars to bail him out for that.
That should still be the case on Falcons, but it just isn’t. kyousuke has massivel yimproved since his arrival, sure, but TeSeS has been hurt by the role swaps to facilitate karrigan, and NiKo is a shadow of his former self is his current lurking roles.
Even if the TeSeS and NiKo issues weren’t the case, karrigan’s fragging would still be atrocious.
In his first two events with the team - where they finished as runners up in both - karrigan has averaged a 0.73 rating.
0.73.
And it’s not like they’ve only played elite level opposition, either. That includes a 0.77 rating against K27, a 0.57 rating against 9z, and a 0.79 rating against Monte. And that’s just three of the games in Astana.
In CAC, where they were beaten 3-1 by Legacy - which, again, is unacceptable for a team of Falcons’ stature - karrigan slumped to a 0.59 rating.
The value added by karrigan’s calling is now entirely washed away by his complete inability to frag. He has become a target easily abused by even average players, and now resembles something closer to HUNDEN or kRYSTAL than the man we know and love.
The fact is, karrigan should never have been the IGL of Falcons. Nor should he really have been the IGL of FaZe anymore. In fact, I’d go as far to say that he shouldn’t even be IGLing for some tier two Danish sh-tters you’ve never heard of at this point.
The game has well and truly left him now, and it’s just sad to see. karrigan, just do yourself a favour and retire with whatever dignity you have left.
Let NiKo kick yet another IGL and become what he was always meant to be.
