TL;DRon Counter-Strike
~5 min read
What happens in Vegas...
Will all get leaked by this very naughty newsletter
BLAST Rivals Hong Kong is 13-0 central, apparently, and we have no clue if any of them mean anything or nothing at all.
Elsewhere, Fluxo have left CS, PGL have mogged BLAST, and North America’s next Major looks to be getting a very exciting location…
- FUT and FURIA 13-0’d Spirit and Vitality. Seriously, we aren’t joking. FUT did it while playing with their coach, too, which makes it even more egregious in the case of Spirit.
- MOUZ confuse the f-ck out of us. Why is it that everytime they look good, they go and lose to some absolute dogsh-t team in the next event? Losing to G2? Almost losing to FUT with coolio? Go back to aura classes.
The panther mauled the bee
There's always a first time for everything. And, sometimes, first times hurt. Right, Vitality?
The best team in the world - well, not at the moment because MOUZ are number one, God knows how - just lost 13-0 for the first time in their glorious history to none other than FURIA.
The match started looking like it was gonna be another stomp by apEX's squad and, in the first map, it was. But on Dust2, FURIA turned the tides and started off strong, building a lead that even Vitality could not overcome - especially with ZywOo's 0.68 rating.
By that time, around 3am in the land of samba and picanha, every Brazilian was asking themselves: will it be worth going to work in zombie mode for this? And the almost forty thousand who stayed for Mirage were well rewarded. 13-0 with everyone putting up a show. molodoy's 4k was a hell of a play to deny one of the few rounds that seemed to go Vitality's way.
YEKINDAR mentioned that it wasn't as easy as it looked, and although closer analysis shows it wasn’t a fluke either, not being an elimination match certainly had something to do with the result.
Now, Vitality will face MOUZ in the quarter-final and we can say that this matchup is a matter of honour for both teams.
MOUZ is trying to prove they're indeed #1 after losing to G2 in the first match of the event. It's okay if that was just a champions' hangover - look at Falcons, they haven't recovered from June yet - but you CANNOT be the number one and lose a match where r1nkle is the best player on the server. That’s just unforgiveable.
Anyway…
The deadly playoffs are set and we can expect exciting matches in MOUZ vs Vitality and G2 vs Falcons. Spirit and FURIA will be waiting in the semis for their opponents, and given the ungodly time these games are on, we’ll be grabbing a cup of coffee to watch.
Or perhaps something stronger, if FURIA decide to sh-t the bed again.
Hold on tight, TLDR enjoyers, just one more day and boring work won't get in the way of an early morning CS watch.
Are you smarter than a Valve enjoyer?
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Another one bites the dust
Fluxo aren’t usually worth caring about, but seeing as they’ve decided to pause their CS division this week, we’ve decided to give them a minute of our time.
Fluxo aren’t a team that have ever captured our hearts at all, nor are they a team that have even made us hate them (outside of emplying WOOD7), but the reason for their departure from the scene is just sad.
It’s not like ENCE who found themselves riddled with debt, nor is it like Complexity, who just had no reason to go on. It’s not even like Evil Geniuses and their mismanagement, it’s just the horrible reality of the CS scene in 2026 that has caused them to say their goodbyes.
They didn’t qualify for the Major this time around, but even if they had, the reality of the situation probably means it wouldn’t have made a difference. Sticker money is down to the point of a legitimate existentional crisis for a lot of these teams who relied on it, and although some smart pr-ck will say that clearly means they have poor financial management - you have to understand that the Major stickers were a massive reason for being invovled in CS in the first place.
Without sticker money, and with the recent changes regarding gambling laws that have taken place in Brazil, there really is just no point in many of these teams being involved at all.
The fact is, unless Valve changes something regarding gambling sponsors or revert stickers to their previous form, the scene will be in crisis. Sponsor money is down, sticker revenue is down, the ROI is shrinking to next to nothing.
You might say now that “It’s only Fluxo”, but very soon it won’t only be Fluxo, and then you’ll find yourself caring long past when it’s already too late.
The “I told you so” episode
This week on Overtime on Inferno, Sam and Quacke are here to say “I told you so”. It turns out FURIA winning two events in a studio didn’t make them consistent title contenders, who could’ve seen that one coming.
FURIA were not the only team our hosts saw the future of though, as long time listeners will remember when Sam pleaded for Falcons to make a roster change after winning Cologne.
- FURIA winning two trophies didn’t matter
- Falcons hit an all time low
- MOUZ are favourites to win the Major
PGL 2-0 BLAST
If the entirety of tier one choosing PGL Bucharest over BLAST Bounty Seasson 1 wasn’t enough, PGL have now decided to steal BLAST’s “First TO to host a tier one event in Mongolia” crown.
Tallest midget, but still.
Given the fact that BLAST were marketing their entire BLAST Open Ulaanbaatar event around being the first, PGL moving their Chinese event there is a real kicker for them in a race that was already long lost for the Danish company.
Way to kick them whilst they’re down, PGL.
Now, we don’t have the best view of PGL - they paint media as entirely unnecessary when it is a fundamental part of an economically succesful ecosystem and don’t have a PR department - but doing this is just really f-cking funny. Seriously, it’s a level of hating that even we couldn’t dream of achieving, and we salute them for doing it.
BLAST must be absolutely sh-tting themselves right now.
Between the allegations of people going unpaid, the horrible teamlist they’ll likely end up with at Bounty, and the fact that it looks like tier one has turned their back on them - nothing is going right for them right now.
Maybe they’ll be able to turn it around, but when fewer people watch the streams and the sponsor money goes down…. well, you could be seeing BLAST events coming to a CCT stream near you soon.
Sin City beckons
Las Vegas, Nevada. The home of gambling in North America, and perhaps even the world. A place that is so jampacked with alcohol, strippers, and general debauchery that the Counter-Strike world would be surprised it isn’t just Maniac’s house.
It’s a place that we never expected to see tier one CS go to again, but if reports are true, we’ll be heading there in 2028 for BLAST and North America’s next Major.
It feels like a very weird, highly manufactured place to hold a CS event, we couldn’t be more excited for it. New cities are always fun, and new cities with loads to do in them makes us want to go no matter the cost, so we can guarantee you now that we will be there, no matter what.
There are some funny things about Vegas, though. Funny things that might actually make it a borderline ridiculous place to host a Major.
This edition has spoken a lot about sponsors and gambling, so it sounds perfect, right? Wrong. The Nevada Gaming Comission is an absolute b-stard to deal with, and are bound to make a whole lot of teams very miserable when they dive into their sponsors and see the random islands that we can assure you you’ve never heard of are registered to.
It could, however, mean that those teams and sponsors get very creative with their interactions, and we end up with one of the most engaging, interactive Majors of all time.
But let’s be real, that isn’t happening. As usual, we’ll have to make our own fun.
You’ll find us in the nearest casino.
🤨 Didn’t expect that
- HLTV picking a 29 year-old as a potential rookie of the year has us getting our hopes up for our own soon-to-take-off careers.
- Yeah yeah, when you win it’s due to skill and you lose it’s you being unluck- wait, YEKINDAR said what?
🙂 DID expect that
- Turns out randomising the map veto in Premier has reduced the amount of times Dust II and Mirage are being played. Mind blowing stuff, we know.
- You knew it was coming, we knew it was coming, but we can’t just not share it: apEX’ highlights against FURIA.
🐱🐔 Old CS2 had a farm…
- Even the cats are trying to take down NA CS (we know Cooper isn’t relevant in the pro scene anymore, just work with us for the joke please).
- The chicken did a flip.
