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GUIDES
Simple Radar
© 2026 TLDR Media, All Rights Reserved.
Mickey Mouse has been cancelled.
IEM Cologne playoffs are underway, and that means we’re all suffering from handing out magazines.
There’s some teams suffering, too. With a massive underdog losing after going a map up in their quarter final.
The opener of the Cologne Major playoffs couldn’t have been better, with Aurora and BetBoom facing off and Wicadia dropping a crazy 3k Deagle clutch in round three. Round three!
If anyone in the arena wasn’t paying attention yet, they surely were now.
XANTARES was back to his old ways of decimating enemies with headshots - which apparently he gained back by throwing out his sticky mousepad - Boombl4 looked like he was back in Stage 1 form, and the crowd was roaring already.
Nuke was honestly chock-full of amazing plays from both teams, and even though things seemed pretty one-sided with the eventual 13-6 scoreline in favour of Aurora - it was a fun map to watch.
Which led us to map two, Anubis. Aurora’s pick, and they weren’t going to give it up for free.
d1ledez did his best (no rhyme intended) to get his team back in with some hero plays, but the writing was on the wall (in hieroglyphics), and Aurora closed it out 13-9 to make their way to the semis with a convincing 2-0.
This ends BetBoom’s incredibly long run since Stage 1, with the fifth IGL to manage such a run more than once having to pack up and go home empty handed.
As for Aurora, their opponent awaits them in the semis - but more on that below.
Jame, dastan, you two are on fraud watch. And it’s not even because of how sh-t your team is nowadays.
Instead, you’ve set off our fraud sensors because you’re making the same mistakes we’ve seen you make countless times before, and we can’t keep letting you off for it.
Qikert, n0rb3r7, and now BELCHONOKK. All three were the soldiers necessary for your system to thrive, and all three have been benched for being exactly that. It’s criminal, honestly.
Especially when this time around, you’ve opted for H0bbit as the replacement. In no way is he a firepower upgrade, and he isn’t even particularly the solider you need either, he’s a recycled bum that we’d all but forgotten about in big 2026, and considering nota will still languish at the bottom of scoreboards for you, we just can’t let you off on this one.
In other news, ash is rumoured to be the new coach of Aurora. Yes, Aurora.
We guess that means those international rumours may have been true, and now we’re pretty f-cking excited to see it come to fruition.
try has also been the centre of multiple rumours, with the Argentinean supposedly being eyed up alongside nqz as potential kl1m replacements for MIBR, and is also supposedly set to return to Imperial after his pretty disastrous move to Passion UA.
Wherever he goes, we’re pretty sure it won’t be good enough for him.
But then again, considering we’d rather he and JT go to Liquid together, that’s not exactly a better fate.
We all love to praise structurally intelligent team based Counter-Strike, but even Vitality understand a healthy amount of superstar pug plays are needed.
Even though Falcons succeed more at the latter than the former, one game where multiple superstars go nuclear is all they need to dethrone the current kings of CS.
Everybody loves to take the p-ss out of Falcons and their anti-fragging IGL, but you are kidding yourself if you don’t think Falcons’ odds of 3.00 aren’t great value considering the juggernauts on their team.
If that sounds appetising to you, then sign-up to Razed and play now.
Odds at time of writing
He surprised the casters, surprised the viewers, surprised the arena, but most importantly: even surprised himself. Watch that facecam, now watch that flick.
FURIA were meant to stroll this quarter-final. For a map and a half, 9z didn't get the memo.
On their own pick of Dust2, the #15 side were the better team by a distance, building a 9-3 lead and closing it out 13-8, with max sealing it on a 1v2 in the post-plant. FURIA's firepower misfired across the board - only yuurih (1.36) turned up, while KSCERATO managed a 0.62 and FalleN a dismal 0.59. Not the start FalleN wanted in what's meant to be his final Cologne run.
Then YEKINDAR took over. The Latvian put up a frankly silly 1.87 on Mirage - 21 kills, 103.9 ADR - and dragged FURIA from a 6-6 half to a 13-9 win. yuurih's 1v4 in the pistol and a molodoy AWP 1v3 kept the comeback ticking, but this was the YEKINDAR show.
The decider was a write-off. KSCERATO went nuclear in turn (1.90, 19-7), yuurih backed him with a 1.51, and even FalleN found his feet as FURIA raced to a 9-3 lead and cruised home 13-6 on Overpass. HUASOPEEK's MP9 ace was the only round 9z could really enjoy.
yuurih (1.20) was the one constant across all three maps and takes the MVP for the series in our eyes, and FURIA will now march on to face Aurora. 9z, the #15 team in the world who’d already taken down Vitality earlier in the major, pushed the world's #5 to a decider and have nothing to apologise for.
FURIA spent two maps waiting to be rescued one man at a time before the whole side finally turned up on Overpass. Aurora might forgive the slow start, but a best-of-five final might be a different story.
After FURIA’s win against 9z, we spoke with yuurih regarding the match, the fans, and how they’ll prepare for Aurora.
First of all, congratulations on making the semifinal of the Major. Crazy reverse sweep, and a really good performance from you personally as well. How do you feel right now?
I’m really good, a little bit tired. I’m a little bit sick since yesterday. After winning, I mean, I’m really bad right now, like a little slow,. But I’m very happy because we won. Now we’re going to take a rest, see the game tomorrow, and study against Aurora.
For us watching, it felt like you guys woke up after map one and kind of remembered, “Oh wait, we’re actually a good team.” What went wrong on Dust 2?
I think they made really good calls against our calls, you know. They really deserved to win the map. If we did more rounds on CT side, we would win because we started winning after on CT side, but yeah, they deserved it.
9Z beat Vitality in Stage 3, so they feel like a dangerous team. Did that affect how you looked at this match and how you prepared in any way?
We knew it would be hard, of course. They have been playing really good against top teams, so we knew that we didn’t need to change a lot of stuff in our game. But of course, playing our game, starting to win clutches, playing good situations - we did that, and we won.
Some people would say you got the easier side of the bracket because of BetBoom, Aurora, and 9Z being there. On the other side, you have Falcons, G2, Vitality, and Spirit. Do you think that might have affected you mentally as well, ahead of this 9Z match?
It is easier when we look at the other teams in the top bracket, of course. But we know that if we don’t play our game, if we don’t play like the other days, we’re going to lose. Today we almost lost, so it’s really tough. When you get to playoffs of the Major, of course it will be tough.
There’s a big group of very loud FURIA fans in the arena, as we’ve come to expect. How much of that do you hear and feel during the game?
A lot, actually. A lot. They helped us a lot in the last years. Every time there are a lot of Brazilian fans, like in China sometimes, in Europe a lot as well, so this is very important for us.
You already talked about it a little bit, but of course Aurora is first. How are you preparing for that match?
We’re going to watch our game [from] today, fix some stuff, and see which maps they are picking, which maps we’re going to play. After, we study, we do a prep, and yeah, that’s it.
