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GUIDES
Simple Radar
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We can’t give you more context than that. Just open it.
PGL Bucharest is now underway and the results have been really f-cking strange. Spirit losing to BETBOOM, Aurora falling to The MongolZ, Liquid getting one over on MOUZ - what is happening over in Romania?
We’re also counting down the days to the Major with another weekly qualification race update and asking xelex the strangest questions he’s ever been asked.
The last Tier 1 event before the Major invite cutoff is underway, but qualification isn’t much of a worry for most of the field at the stacked PGL Masters Bucharest 2026.
Even without new-dad apEX, Vitality still look like one of the favourites to go all the way. They’ve carried their EPL S24 momentum straight into the 2-0 pool, beating 9z and The MongolZ on the back of the usual ZywOo 1.50-rating shenanigans.
And if for some reason you were still skeptical about Newton’s third law, meet the opposite reaction. r1nkle has been absolutely dreadful, leaving G2 on the brink of elimination after losses to NAVI and Aurora. The guy has been putting up numbers that would embarrass any FACEIT level seven who plays two matches a day after eight hours of hard labour, let alone a supposed Tier 1 AWPer.
Meanwhile, guess who’s been tearing it up as one of the best players of the tournament so far? That’s right, SunPapi has been rubbing salt in G2’s self-inflicted wounds, powering FUT to a perfect start in his debut with the team. But don’t worry, G2 fans, your coach might have just had his epiphany.
As if watching r1nkle’s gameplay wasn’t horrifying enough to get us ready for Halloween, Liquid also gave us quite a fright by beating MOUZ in the opening round. For a second there, we genuinely thought they might be back. False alarm, though, as FUT wiped the floor with them right after. No need to panic guys, they’re still sh-t.
Spirit also gave their fans a scare in the opening round, falling to a BetBoom side that’s been looking incredibly sharp. After a comfortable win over Nemiga in the 1-0 match, they could very well upset NAVI - if we can even call it an upset - and reach the Playoffs without dropping a series.
Speaking of NAVI, it seems the crisis has been averted, with wins over G2 and FURIA locking in their Major spot. Nothing like a good old tax fraud trial to really get you going, ain’t that right Aleksi? Might be worth to look into iM’s returns as well…
Anyway, with Bucharest in full swing, the Major race is anything but settled. Keep reading for our update on it, where we dig through the latest probabilities and scenarios so those of you with actual jobs don’t have to.
You might have seen that we launched our sexy new website recently, and if you haven’t, go check it out.
One of the best new features of the site is our mini-games, and we’re already seeing a whole bunch of you enjoy the Crossword, Wordsearch, and our personal favourite, the TLDR Ten.
But we aren’t the only ones with fun mini-games. Our community server partner Wideswing have launched a mini-game of their own, a genuinely difficult Higher or Lower game that we’ve been addicted to for the last few days.
Try it out and see if you can beat our high score - 19.5 btw - and let us know what your score is in the mini-games channel of our discord.
The doomsday for everyone’s favourite tier 1.5 teams is toe-ticklingly close now, and a clearer picture is starting to emerge. In this latest issue of our Major roundup, we’re ready to call the ball on a few more teams, while others have slipped far out of the running.
While things are more or less unchanged in the Americas, Asia has seen an interesting development. A win at 1win Private Club secured The MongolZ the top spot in Asia, and the invite straight to Stage 2 that comes with it. This means one crucial thing: BC.Game finishing dead last at the Major remains possible.
A surprise run at a local LAN, involving beating rivals Chinggis Warriors twice, has seen Lynn Vision make a surprising run to become second best in their region, while FlyQuest’s “sure thing” of a Major spot now looks more like a “60%” thing. Unfortunately, all this was at the expense of our new favourites in NEXVOID, and the erkaSt return to infamy will have to wait until next year.
Over in Europe, PARIVISION came second at 1win Private Club to secure their ticket, while 1win themselves secured theirs by doing… literally nothing. VRS works in mysterious ways, and your chances can swing wildly just from the results of other teams’ games.
Seriously - last week we counted Alliance out entirely, as did their owners, but even without playing a single game, this week’s results have seen their chances rise to about 3-4%. It’s next to nothing, but it’s enough that Mischief called it a “gauntlet run, but there’s a chance”.
Still fighting in that gauntlet are fnatic, BIG, and magic, who both did their best at 1win Private Club, while Eternal Fire took a surprise win at DraculaN to stay alive with a 7% chance.
Nemesis and K27 both had a big chance at the MPKBK LAN in Moscow, but that’s when non-runners Virtus.pro decided to start moving like prime Astralis, knocking them both down a peg. FaZe also had many big chances at DraculaN, but decided to lose every single game they shouldn’t have, including being eliminated by BC.Game.
Are they the subject of this headline? No, not at all.
Luminosity also had their chances decrease heavily at DraculaN, leading them to sign up to Kettering’s EPIC.LAN as a last resort. As most trips to Kettering are, I’m told.
Contending for the 18th and final spot is still 100 Thieves, and their race looks like it’ll go down to the wire. As the Gizzler and co. will be playing their final event in Buenos Aires, Mischief put forward the likely scenario that a different team will nab the 18th spot, before 100T then have a chance to retake it late on the final day of play.
He called this a “Tour de France 2023 Jonas time trial situation”. We have no clue either.
This leaves us with the final clinched team, and the subject of today’s headline. Thanks to two… infuriating wins in Bucharest, NAVI have unfortunately locked in their ticket to Singapore. What makes it worse is, as mentioned previously in this edition, they did it in spite of fixing whatever is wrong with iM.
One of the hardest falls from grace, from being a top five contender to being outside the top thirty in just a few short months, and all it took was r1nkle being himself - and molodoy being like r1nkle - for NAVI to forget it all and book a ticket to Singapore.
We hope they go 0-3. They deserve it.
You know what pro players do? Play a lot of CS. You know where they do it? Community servers.
At least we think they do. They don’t really talk to us.
Either way, we play on them a lot over at Wideswing, and we’re all A) cracked at the game and B) so incredibly knowledgeable at the game that you spend your time reading our opinions on it. So, if you’d like to at least be like us, get on Wideswing for Deathmatch, Retakes, 1v1s, and stop playing on whatever sh-t you currently use.
You trust us for everything else, so trust us with this, too.
So what's your first memory of playing Counter-Strike?
First memory? Probably in 2018 or 2017 and playing on a community server. I hit four one-taps with a USP and my brother was watching me from the back, that's the first time that came to mind.
Was that close to when you started playing the game?
I wouldn't say so. It was my first time trying out the game, but then I didn't play it. I started playing around 2020.
If you weren't a professional player, what would you be doing with your life right now?
I actually have no clue, probably would be chilling in school. I don't think I have any specific thing that I would do. Maybe I would try to do some karting, I was doing it before CS and that was fun, so I probably would do that.
Since you became a pro, what's been your favourite memory?
Winning my first tier-one event with MOUZ at BLAST Bounty in Malta. For now that's the favourite one.
If you had to pick one person on the team to win a 1v1 clutch to save the world, which of the teammates would you be picking?
I think I would go with Spinx because he's the closer for us and he's staying in the clutches. He's pretty good at it, so I would go with him.
You and one of your teammates are stranded on a deserted island. Which teammate do you have the best chance of surviving with, and why?
That's funny, we were actually talking about this a month ago. I would go with xertioN, he has a good understanding of things, and I think he's thinking really well. He could probably help me out in the desert with some good ideas.
Which one do you have the worst chance of surviving with, and why?
I would say myself, if I wouldn't have to choose my teammates. To be honest, if I have to live on an island I'm just jumping off a cliff. There is no way I'm trying to be alive, it's not for me. Though for the worst chance, maybe it's me and torzsi, I don't think we would have a good chance. We would probably die in three days or four days. Maybe we can stay alive for a week.
If you and the boys are listening to music, who's picking the music?
It might sound a bit cocky if I say myself, but the thing is, we didn't really share an opinion. Everybody didn't say who has the best music. but I think I could put some good music on that everybody might like. I would just say myself.
What's your favourite block in Minecraft?
Dark oak probably, it's really nice to build houses with so that's the one that I would choose.
If you could live on any map in Counter-Strike, which map would you choose to live on?
Maybe I go with Ancient, there's a lot of green stuff, and it's a nice vibe being out in the nature.
Who are the top five hardest players you've played against in your career?
Number one should be donk, second would be ZywOo, and third is m0NESY. Other than that maybe I'd say sh1ro, I think he's pretty good too. Then as a fifth guy I'll just go with XANTARES.
What's one update you would make to Counter-Strike 2?
I'd just fix the anti-cheat so I can queue Premier. I wanted to grind XP but they are cheating man, it's not possible. That would be one thing that I would really appreciate if they would do.
If you could play with one retired pro in their prime, who would that retired pro be?
I'll just go with flusha, everybody was saying that he's cheating, and he was hitting some crazy shots. I'll just go with him in his prime.
You want to find out if he was cheating, don't you?
Yeah, I would want to see how that was going. I think that's a good one to pick.
The last two questions are the most important two. Are you a dog person or a cat person?
I'm kind of both. My mom and my brother have two cats, and we had dogs before too, so I like both. I don't have an issue with any of them. I think both of them are cute.
If you were turned into any animal, what animal would you want to be?
I would want to fly. Now the thing is, I don't know who has the best chance out of those flying birds to stay alive for the longest period. But yeah, something that is flying, some kind of a bird.
Well, bad news: you've been turned into a goldfish. What are you going to do now?
I'm pretty cooked I would say. I don't even know where they live, of course in the water, but I don't know if it's in the ocean or in the sea. So yeah, just swimming I guess, in the water and chilling.
