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GUIDES
Simple Radar
© 2026 TLDR Media, All Rights Reserved.
How do you like your Steam account hacked, pro players?
We didn’t have high hopes for this XSE Pro League event over in China, but Christ, this event is messy.
Speaking of messy, the Monte divorce didn’t seem to be too clean, jcobbb’s still stinking up the gaff, and Turkish CS has officially died a sudden death.
They came. They SAW. They came back.
Just a few days after after I spent the last newsletter daydreaming about the Portuguese Avengers reuniting, we got the confirmation that something is, in fact, cooking.
It might not be Endgame Avengers, though… but hey, it’s something.
As I speculated, the core trio of MUTiRiS, story, and ewjerkz are reportedly in advanced talks to reunite under the SAW banner. And, honestly, if you couldn’t get those three back together, there wouldn’t have been much point in building a roster at all. They were the heart of the project that took Portuguese CS to new heights in 2024, and returning to an organization they know inside out should make for a seamless transition.
On a side note: SAW’s GM is a genius. Sell your roster for God knows how much, then bring them back just six months later for pennies.
Rounding out the rumoured roster are krazy and NOPEEj. You’ve most likely heard of the former already, but the latter might be a first. Unless you’re Portuguese, that is. Around these parts, NOPEEj is a solid, well-established name who has now earned the biggest opportunity of his career, and the chance to prove himself on a team with bigger ambitions.
Still, I would’ve loved to see Ag1l and arrozdoce get the call as well. But if they aren’t involved, it’s because it simply wasn’t possible. Not yet, at least.
Speaking of ambitions, what are we actually aiming for with this roster?
My delusional ass would immediately say the Singapore Major and the LANXESS Arena, but it sure as hell won’t be a smooth ride to the top. It wasn’t the first time around, and it certainly won’t be this time either… or it wouldn’t be Portuguese CS we’re talking about.
But that’s not really the point. What we’ve always wanted is a team with real potential - one we can watch grind its way up and pour ourselves into along the journey. To feel that same ride again: coming from nothing to standing on Counter-Strike’s biggest stages with the flag on our backs. And with this roster, we finally get the chance to chase that feeling once more.
Estamos tão de volta.
After a truly horrible start to XSE Pro League, FaZe (1.48) are in the 0-2 bracket.
To avoid being sent home, they’ll need to beat Sinners (2.48) in an elimination game. For any other team this wouldn’t be a tall order, but jcobbb is a player that truly makes the possible impossible.
There are already plenty of reasons to root against FaZe, but if you want one more, sign up to Razed and play now.
Note: Odds at time of writing.
The fall season officially (kinda) kicked off this week with XSE Pro League in Guangzhou, China, and there are some really interesting teams coming out to play. Major attendees get challenged by many of the teams that just about missed out, and the pressure sits on teams like 9z and BetBoom to repeat their Major performances.
The Argentinian squad were immediately upset by EYEBALLERS, off the back of a red-hot JW rolling back the clock as he once again steps back into tier one.
FaZe, NIP and new-look Luminosity had horrible starts to their campaigns, finding themselves on 0-2 after two days, as the aforementioned Swedes and home-favourites TYLOO soared into the 2-0 pool as we head into today’s fixtures.
That’s all we’re going to say about the games, because frankly, they’re the least interesting part of this event.
Most of the drama in Guangzhou has actually come off the server, and not in a good way. We’re almost ready to call it already - this might be the worst-run event of the year, and maybe ever.
Trouble started even before the games began, as Luminosity had their jerseys confiscated in customs just ahead of their return to Counter-Strike. Though, as it would turn out.
In fact, the PCs used in the tournament in some cases seem to have had keyloggers and several viruses installed, leading to Magnojez having his Steam account broken into just before their first match. In fact, CS seems to have been the only thing not installed on the tournament PCs.
Those who avoided having their accounts stolen on game day still had to wait hours to even get on a server. The early games on day one were marred by hours of tech delays, and several were delayed by as much as three or four hours.
Supposedly frozen was given a broken desk, which took the admins a whole hour to fix, and the RAM in his PC had to be switched out four times before FaZe’s match could even start.
Even on day two, when delays were somewhat reduced, issues persisted. 9z and SINNERS had their match interrupted by a transformer exploding, cutting power in the entire venue. During the outage, fans were reportedly shouting for a refund, upon which they were promised a free mousepad as compensation.
Turns out, it was just a 50% discount.
We’re only two days into this sh-tshow, but we doubt it’s going to get better. If it keeps going like this, we’re ready to call this the worst-run Counter-Strike event of all time.
And there’s a million dollars on the line. Splendid.
Falcons did recently win the IEM Cologne Major, but we think they can do even better. All it takes is spending a couple million on b1t and kicking TeSeS to the curb. You might think this is a pretty agreeable take, but as you’ll find out in the intro of this week’s episode, it ruffled a few feathers on socials…
Imagine you’re the general manager of a CS team. You’ve been given the opportunity to sign one of the best teams in tier two, who have a solid position within the VRS standings. Even better yet, half of the team are already out of contract and can be signed for free.
Now, do you:
A) Sign all five players from this roster, and ride their wave of momentum.
Or:
B) Sign four players from the roster, but don’t bother with their highly-rated IGL because you’ve already signed a Brazilian bloke that got kicked from his team at the start of the year.
If your answer was B, then congratulations, you’re now qualified to lead Luminosity’s re-entry into CS.
A honestly baffling decision made worse by Gizmy saying it was a decision made before the Cologne Major even began, the organisation already seems to be paying the price for it, because the group of misfits that made up Monte now look pretty pants after two games under lux.
13-10 loss to Nemesis. 13-8 loss to Lynn Vision. Ouch.
If only Luminosity had actually done their research and realised who the real prospect at Monte was.
Ladies and gentlemen, Turkish CS has fallen.
After months of speculation, Aurora have officially moved away from their Turkish roster today, opening the doors to the long-awaited international transition.
It began with MAJ3R stepping back from the team - which was almost certainly just a more ceremonious way of benching him - which was swiftly followed by the benching of soulfly, just six months after he joined the team.
Although it’s somewhat sad to see another of the last bastions of national-team CS fall, we can’t say we blame Aurora for doing so. The Turkish team plateaued a while ago, and swapping the fifth player once a year wasn’t going to change that, especially as woxic and XANTARES continue to get older.
Wicadia is ready to win trophies now, and he should be given a fighting chance to do so.
As for their incomings, we’ll talk about them more properly once they’re announced, but if the rumours are to be believed, ash, kyxsan, and Jimpphat will revolutionise this team.
Is it enough to see them win a trophy when Spirit, Falcons, or Vitality are in attendance? Probably not. But any other tournament? Well, if we were NAVI or FURIA, we’d be very worried.
Turkish fans should probably also be worried, though. If previous rumours around woxic were true, this first step in international waters could soon be the catalyst to seeing Turkish CS drown.
At one point in time, we absolutely would’ve been excited for Magisk’s IGL transition.
He’s got absolutely rock-solid mentality when it comes to winning and staying focused, and as a former Astralis era man, there’s no doubt in our minds he knows the right way to play CS. Given that meant he also played under zonic and gla1ve, we reckon he knows a thing about leadership already, too.
The thought of him taking the reins at MOUZ was pretty exciting, but now it’s been announced that his first official IGL job will be with BC.Game, consider us firmly disappointed.
BC.Game, even with Senzu, are simply not a team to be taken seriously. They have all the money in the world, sure, but it’s become impossible not to question the motivation of their stars, and the fact that a couple of those stars are already past their best, there’s a real question about what any leader could get out of them.
We know Magisk doesn’t have any pedigree as an IGL yet, but is this really the best he could do?
Were there really no teams higher with a shred of interest in him?
Or is the BCG bag just so great that it completely offsets the high chance of catastrophic failure?
We thought he may have learned after Falcons, but we guess he’s not as smart as he thought.
There is one slight positive at least: BCG’s CEO is suggesting that the final piece of the puzzle might be an exciting prospect. Seeing as Jimpphat looks set for Aurora, our money is on lauNX, in which case, we’ll ask him the same question we’re asking Magisk:
Why?
In any case, we still just don’t think this team will ever work. Not with Senzu (who seems like he may have some attitude issues). Not with past-it electroNic. Not with DOTA player s1mple. And certainly not with worms-for-brains TaZ coaching them.
At least they’re fun to watch fail.
