"Chopper is NOT a good IGL", Vitality win ESL Pro League, and should FaZe keep rain?

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Guys, is Serbia a real country or not?
Fuck. OK, nowadays, yeah, I think so,
right. It's more real than Kosovo.
Is it more or less? Well, how long do you think it's
been a country for? What's?

(00:21):
Be careful because we. Could get cancelled if you
answer wrong. I actually don't know, but I'm
going to guess the 90s. Yeah, when did Yugoslavia
dissolve? My only favorite reference is is
it's 16 years after the birth ofAbdi who is the Nettie sport
coach former because. Actually.

(00:42):
Former coach because they've claimed that he was Swedish 16
years before Serbia even became a country, which has really
irritated a couple of Serbians in the in the, in the scene in
the and it's all a bit of a bit of a nothing burger really,
isn't it guys? I'm not sure why everyone's

(01:03):
getting so upset. I just love that Serbs love like
are generally quite hard and tough and like they all have
this like will fucking kill you kind of mentality especially.
Which they will. Yeah, exactly.
And then you just say country not real and they just dissolve
and and and just like Qassad seems to be the a very anti

(01:24):
council culture kind of guy. And then he's like, hey idiot,
you're running the Metasport account, you're losing your
salary, ha ha, like he's going full.
And he's like destroy your life type shit.
And he was tweeting organize like sponsors.
Yeah, organization sponsors to get to drop the org, which is.
Exactly what can say, yeah. Just also.

(01:47):
Also, just the statement that Abdi was 16 was 16 was three
years, 16 years before Serbia was a country isn't provocative.
Like, like by every definition of of Serbia existing in the
country today, that is correct. Yeah, like so, you know, so it's
a a such a version of Serbia of whatever.

(02:08):
I don't really. Of of the.
So here we go, a discussion. I've found Serbia's.
History. Serbia's history.
And as you can see, Serbia's barely been a thing for half of
Serbia. I'm older than Serbia.
We're all older than Serbia. That's awesome.

(02:28):
Oh, I mean, Charlie's almost notOh.
I don't like that. Yeah, that's strange.
Yeah, because this is not, this is not what this podcast is
about, but it's just. It could be.
I think we need to give the current chronology.
So Meta Sport, perennial Tier 2 Swedish team kind of fun,
announced that they were releasing their coach Abdi more

(02:51):
rather than not renewing his contract.
And anyone who's somewhat aware of the Swedish Tier 2 scene
knows him. I'm pretty aware of the guy.
Context. He is black but like he's
obviously Swedish. He plays for Swedish team and
speaks Swedish. And a certain Twitter user
Nicholas CS took took issue withthe statement the Metasport

(03:14):
without saying you've got to remind us that he's a Swede in
the first sentence since his name and look really can't get
that message across, which is just like really like low
hanging fruit racism and not even creative so.
My yeah, at least be funny. Like yeah you just got different
colour and all. And then obviously Metasport the

(03:34):
old clap back and said that Abdiwas Swedish 16 years before CB
became a country and now all thecounter strike Serbs are losing
their share. Which is just funny.
Which? Yeah, it's just a couple of it
is Cassad and and Packer really.Just to go back to what we just.
Said that is all of them. Nicholas needing to be funny.
The Meta sport social media guysactually a pretty good, pretty

(03:58):
good. It's a good response.
It is quite a good response, very good.
In this discussion with Ubikis Stanleyevich, which I'm sure
he's probably from Serbia. So is this since the 7th century
of the state, you uneducated deed from Islamic Republic of
Uzistan. And it goes respectfully, we are
Norwegian. Educate yourself.
So he's I think he's had a greatday.

(04:20):
I hope he doesn't lose his job because it's kind of funny.
So yeah, someone can else. Someone else can be Packer,
because I don't really want to lop.
Dear Meta Sport as a team. Do an accent.
Come on, I'm joking. Don't.
As a team aiming to compete in the space where gaming matters,

(04:41):
is that is that the counter strike motto?
You decide to publicly disrespect the whole nation
because of one attention hungry individual?
My warm suggestion would be to educate yourself and learn some
manners about social media and respect if your wish is to
sustain in the world of esports and be respected.
Kind of kind regards and a link.It's a good job.
I use AB there by accident and alink to the history of Serbia on

(05:04):
Wikipedia. Which, as we've seen, is really
long and. Someone needs to TLDR this this
this this. That's that's the deep dive this
week, by the way. Yeah, we'll be deep dive.
It's just. Like.
I do think on. Counter strike.
Pecker's response is at least a little bit more professional.
He's just like saying hey, like this, probably doesn't think

(05:25):
it's going to say whatever, I don't really care.
It's very Valorant though, isn'tit?
It is Valorant, yeah. Like, like, you know, I, I can't
imagine that Pekka has not said bad, bad things in video games
and stuff in, in his life, right?
So let's, let's get real. But the Kassad meltdown is just.

(05:45):
Well, Kassad's just a piss baby,ain't he?
Like. Well, he is and and Charlie, if
you can put up the tweet before IESF hosted an event in Kosovo
like maybe last year and I wasn't really aware, but Serbia
claims Kosovo, I think, but if Iunderstand Kosovo is also
technically within Albania's borders.
So I don't know, I don't get it.I'm not going to pretend to and

(06:08):
then. Kosovo is an independent country
now. It's now recognized as an
independent country. Yeah, no, of course, but.
Used to be, I think shared between Serbia and Albania, but
I'm. Not right.
So controversy, right? And then he was like, you spell
Serbia wrong, which obviously invited people calling him a
fucking idiot and now he's crying about racism or whatever.

(06:30):
Yeah, I feel like it's, I feel like if you want to do this, go
for it. But like, you can't then be
precious when somebody does it back.
Can we talk about something else?
Yeah, please. I'm sorry, can't.
Yeah, let's move on to something.
Real Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
Pick one, Serbia or Albania, we'll move on to something

(06:52):
that's at least. Let's move on to something, as I
was going to say before the intro and interrupted me.
So we've gone to something at least vaguely approaching
Counter Strike, but only just, which is a big clan making some

(07:13):
changes, and they're kind of awful.
My initial issue is that tabs inhis picture and that means he's
still on the team. Well so OK so I'll run through
the news just for the context. So after big recently demoted

(07:34):
can you be you say his fucking name and brought process back
up. They then got rid of Hyped
because he's barely a counter strike player and they brought
in Greeks from Heroic a couple days later.
They then benched Crimbo. Tabson is just a regular player
again and they've promoted Freeze from their Academy team.
Which is interesting because I thought Academy teams were for,

(07:56):
you know, young talents. But Freeze is 27.
Unk Academy. Unk.
Yeah. And also Academy.
Given that Big is already here to a team, their Academy team is
going to be like TF fucking 4. Yeah, no, he's not very.
For audio listeners who are not aware of what we're seeing right

(08:17):
now, Freeze has a .98 rating in the dog tears of fucking ESL
Meister shaft and fucking 99 damage.
That that is only 23 maps worth,but like yes.
Because his normal games aren't aren't even on NHL TV.
Like he did go negative, he did have a below 1.0 rating in every
single map of best of three against a team called Sparta to

(08:39):
make him that way. You will he's he's I don't think
he's I don't think he's being promoted for his ability with
with a gun in his hand, which isa little bit of a worry when big
don't have anyone who will who has ability with a gun in their
hand except their new Orpa, who I've just found out is called
Gleb Griks gave it gazing is a. Good name is a good name.

(09:02):
Gleb Griks Gazing is a sensational name.
So that fucking five times fast.No.
No, don't. No, do do do.
I've got a bit of a lisp. It's a bad idea.
Gleb grix. Gleb grix gazing.
Gleb grix gate. Oh my God.
Gleb grix gazing. Gleb Grix gazing.
Gleb glicks grazing. Oh my God, that's really hard.

(09:22):
Actually, it's actually really hard.
You'll be surprised. Good name.
Yeah, yeah. Phenomenal name, so.
It's a shame, I hope he's looking rubbish because it's
funnier. This new big team then?
So Grix is younger than Serbia but Freeze is older one.
Only one of those came from the Academy team.
So it's quite alarming how how Tabson is allowed to play

(09:46):
Counter Strike anymore. He's.
Respect. Respect Tabson.
We respect Tabson. I mean, he's garbage nowadays,
but like, we respect him. Do we?
Remember like oh Tabson to phasewas not the call like 7 years
ago. It's good that he's no longer
IGL in right, but I really. Just yeah, that's halfway to

(10:08):
retirement, isn't? It I really just don't get the
fucking freeze thing. Like you've brought in Greeks so
you no longer speak in German. Why have you promoted a German
IGL instead of like for an Academy team that does fuck all?
Who? They must have no money.
Korea best. That's the answer.
Well, yeah, they've probably spent it all on Greeks.
They spent it all on Greeks. Yeah, but like that's.

(10:30):
The answer Korea best would be losing 2 Bo freeze at a fucking
IEM Cologne stage 1. But that's that's the highlight
of his career because he was on an attack so surely that
happened at least once. Yeah.
Like is there not even a free agent IGL well?
What what it is is they're promoting him to like tread
water until they sell big man Crimbo and then they'll get an

(10:53):
actual IGL that that's what that's what's.
Happening minus Crimbo is is theis the more addressing move
because not lately, but he's been.
Like the best. Player on big for a long.
Oh no, he's he's still their highest rated player.
Sure. But he was like, he was the
truth for a long time. He was like, really good.
Right. Yeah, so.
Where the hell is he going to go?

(11:13):
Because he's like 2223. He's still pretty young.
Maybe Charlotte pull up the ranking.
He will be their best player in the server without being in the
server. Yeah.
The the crazy thing is about Crimbo is if this Falcons team
existed 2 years ago, yeah or like 18 months ago.
Falcons easy, I don't think. I think Falcons, they go for big

(11:37):
names over great players. Sure, sure.
Navi, I don't mind. I think that was a taking take,
but. He's.
Give him his dues. He he did say that.
He'd be decent for Navi if they were to lose bit.
Does he speak Turkish? That's not a commentary on
Germany, that's just a genuine. Question.
Yeah, I don't know. I think he's thinking.
Is he Kareem? Kareem Moussa?

(11:58):
I think his name like that sounds, yeah, maybe possibly
Turkish. Yeah, that could be fun.
Aurora a bit shit lately so. Yeah, I wouldn't, I wouldn't
condemn him to the annals of Aurora.
Where else game a legion? That feels a bit too big, isn't
it? Liquid, but liquid again on

(12:20):
board of liquid. I don't want anyone to get
liquid. Nip.
Get him on Nip. NIPNIPNIPI don't, I don't.
Even hate that NIP. What thoughts?
NIP. No, I.
Don't want to touch them becausethey, you know, don't don't fuck
with that they've been doing. You Jerks isn't Yeah, heroic.
Decent show. It wouldn't it be shush that

(12:40):
he'd replace but. Yeah, yeah, he'd replace Shush,
which would be bad. Like him?
OK. Fanatic.
Fanatic for Crim's You finally get Crim's gone.
Minus kremes plus krembo, you goand change to that is on the
jersey. OG for John Sweet Rice because
he's actually kind of rubbish. That's not for Crimbo on OG.

(13:00):
No, no, no, no. I know Crimbo's fallen off a
bit, but let's just put him on fucking OG.
He doesn't deserve that. He's, he's paid his dues.
He's paid his dues toiling away in some dog shit big team.
He deserves a better TV. Fucking OG.
I'm not being it's kind of calmer.
Like, why the fuck did he sign that contract extension at this
time? He signed that contract

(13:22):
extension. There was fucking like, links to
G2, to Vitality. There was links to so many
decent teams. Why the fuck did he say I'm big?
He should, like, any smart player should have known that
was fucked. And in fact, I even did an
interview with Tabson at the time where he was like, well, I
hope Crimbo doesn't come to regret it.
Yeah, he's 20. Three, by the way, he's he's

(13:42):
still a little baby. OK, he's an Egyptian descent, so
my Turkish connotation was incorrect, but I'm sure they can
find the language that works. Anyway, don't go to Aurora.
Yeah, don't go to Aurora even ifyou speak Turkish, but.
CC. I forget this time to rig on.

(14:02):
Pull this up just for the sake of the headline.
Like the? Audio Listeners The audio is a
multi year extension with big. No, the headline he wants is
the. I want the blast one.
Fuck HLT. True.
True. Like, I just want to make sure

(14:24):
Crimbo doesn't regret staying with Big.
And if I remember right, it was.Just before.
Just before or just after that they found out they wouldn't be
going to the RMR because they fucked up.
I'm pretty sure it was literallylike a couple days after this
interview they fucked up and then didn't go to the what would

(14:44):
it have been Copenhagen RMR? Copenc RMR.
It won't come up on HLTV becauseit was like the open qualifiers.
It was literally the open qualifiers that they they got
knocked out like all what? We're getting as big suck.
Yeah, everything that's happenedseems Crimbo signed that he's

(15:05):
terrible. He should have just left.
What if it was like a you know, it was like a cursed document or
something. He sold his soul for like a
paycheck but. What if it was like when Gerard
was, when Gerard was going to goto Chelsea and he got threatened
by local, I mean. When when people sell their
soul, typically it's for fame and fortune.

(15:25):
Well, maybe there's. Fortune that much for a bag with
big maybe. That's what he's because he's
just, he's just actually taking all that money.
Yeah, yeah, he's, he's actually bankrupted big.
That was his end goal. Yeah, I'm sure he's been paid
more than Tamsen. Yeah, and well, should be.
Thompson is illegal Thompson. Thompson like at one point

(15:49):
there's like a 1.2 player like somewhat regularly and he's like
playing the same spots now and he's 1.05 and they didn't even
win when he was a 1.2 player. So like how are they going to
win when he can't brag? At least like Crimbo is still
decent enough though. Yeah, Crimbo.
He should. He should.
He should not be on. It's time people, man.

(16:12):
He should not be on OG. He shouldn't.
He shouldn't go to OG is what I'm telling you.
But it's not fair. I mean, can we all?
Can we all make a? Fanatic, then.
Let's take away like the the maybe, like no, let's not be too
logical, but like or make a pickand we'll see where he ends up
and someone wins. Fanatic for Crim's.
I'm I'm going to say Nip. This won't happen, but what

(16:37):
about Australis? I mean, anything better than
that? Fucking classified, wouldn't it?
And I know you're going to say, well, he'd take Majesk role.
Majeski's bad now as well. Kremlu's just following me back
on Twitter, actually. Midfodcast, you know we're
talking about him. Yeah, his ears were burning.

(16:58):
Yeah, where's he going to? Go.
Should be fanatic. They should just give up on
crims finally. Navi.
Is obviously I know there's somefanatic issues we'll get on to
shortly, but obviously the fact they had to play frag with a
stand in because Crims couldn't make it the US for whatever
reason, this is the second time he's not gone to America.

(17:20):
Is this, is this a Holzerk situation where there's
something at play that we're notPrivy to?
Quite possibly he might just notwant to go.
I don't know, like it could be acoincidence, it could be
something like that. It could.
But the two American events in recent memory, they've gone.
They could have gone. They team have gone through.
He hasn't gone. They had Forest and Dallas

(17:40):
before. Yeah.
And obviously then they had Chicasmo in a frag.
Yeah. It's possible there's something
going on, something fishy. Did fanatic play in Austin?
I don't think they did. No, they don't think they did.

(18:03):
They went to the Shanghai Major,but I don't think they went to
the office. Yeah.
No, you are right. Yeah.
Anyway, it might. Be.
I'm sick of talking about big. Let's move on to another
slightly more impact for us to move.
And as we've just brought us up fanatic, I say more impactful.

(18:23):
It's kind of slightly more impactful as we were just
talking about Fanatic. They qualified to the major the
other day and then decided they were going to cut Cypher, who by
all accounts was at worst their second best player in the
deciding tournament for the major.
And they've decided to replace him with Giacasmo for CS Asia

(18:47):
Championships. And the decision has not yet
been made on whether or not he'll play the major, which
means there is a lie. Yes, I do too.
I agree. I don't think that Cypher's
girlfriend would have been kicking off quite so much on
Twitter if that was true. It's it's also just again, like

(19:11):
statistically, like he wasn't like crazy crazy, but like the
way Cypher plays and his role particularly right, like is very
much like true Freiburg school of hard entering right?
Like there's there's not much thought to it and I don't damn
play it. It's doing the same fucking push
every round. You either get 3 kills or you or

(19:31):
you die and get traded, right? It's a self pretty selfless
role. And also, yeah, he replaced
Mattis, which big old shoes to fill since Mattis just went on
10 to win last London with G2, right?
And G2 been really good. But again, like you know, CT
ratings are pretty similar. His TT is is better, but I don't
know it. It seems at best it's poorly

(19:53):
timed and I don't want to go into the thing we had the week
before with the rain move and sentimentality and stuff.
But it's kind of kind of more valid, I would say to have an
issue with stifle being benched because in like, like, you know,
Fraggadelphia was the event thatgot them to the major right?
Also just very. Good in the game.

(20:15):
The games I saw in Factgadelphia, anyway.
Just generally for the rules though, like, like the roster
you qualify with should probablybe the roster you play with.
Yeah, absolutely. And I know there's all the
politics that you can just kind of lie about majority Subs, but
like, I don't know. So here's the thing, right?
Tell me. Within fanatic, Cipher is meant

(20:41):
to be a star, right? Like Jambo, Blame F Cipher are
meant to be the stars. That rating is just not good
enough, especially when you consider that, you know, before
that they had Mattis Cypher, Jambo and Charlie's got up
Mattis's last three months rating here.

(21:03):
So that'll only be G2. But Mattis was slamming for
Fanatic. It was higher when he was on
Fanatic and I get that Cypher isa more selfless player, a more
aggressive player, but that is afirepower deficit that you

(21:25):
probably do have to look to close if you're a fanatic and if
you actually want to grow as a team but like.
Yeah, but. Asmo is not the player to do
that. Yeah, exactly.
Well, it's. Asmo is not great.
It's it's more that you've got craft Yvette Crim still on the
team. Whoa, yeah.

(21:47):
I like it. I'd have a lot of respect for,
but he's got to be like 52, right?
Like he's really old, like. I also just, I also just think
like, and I know they've won an event with Crimson Cipher, but I
think like you just, you just won the event with Jacasmo and
Cipher. Why don't you just run with
Jacasmo and Cipher and? I don't even think it's a role

(22:08):
thing either because they don't play.
Similarly, no they don't. No, I mean, like, you know, you
can look at the fucking stupid little out of 100 things here on
HLTV. They're obviously very different
players. Yeah, and I, I would say fanatic
with how Blame F plays like, youknow, you know how everyone
knows how I feel like you need abattering ram, like you need a

(22:31):
guy who's going to bang his headagainst the wall, win 4846% of
his opening jewels, whatever it is, and be traded by Blame F
like that. You need somebody who's going to
do that. And that is a it is a real skill
to be that fearless, regardless of your rating.
I don't care. Like there's some players who
will just run through a brick wall and betrayed it, and
there's some who just won't. Well, I also think the main

(22:52):
difference between Cipher and Jacasmo is that what you just
said and what that play star means is that Jacasmo's one
point O rating is just because he he plays at a consistent
level like that, whereas Cipher is inconsistent as fuck.
But he's just going to win a game on his own with a 1.9 rate

(23:14):
in every so often or he's going to really struggle.
But it's OK because that's kind of part of the game plan.
You, you you don't have a play like that.
You know it's it's your kindle, right?
You don't have your kindle on your team.
If you if him getting the kill is vital.
If he if he gets those kills to be round, you win, right.

(23:34):
But you know, I don't know. It's just.
The problem is that if you bring, you're essentially taking
that team and putting Crim's in for Cypher.
Crim's I don't think is going todo what Cypher did, which means
you're then bringing Crim's in back to play where Jacasmo was
playing and then putting Jacasmoin where Cypher was playing.
And neither of those players areparticularly come or probably

(23:57):
aren't as comfortable doing whatCypher was doing.
And as you say, like, yeah, Cypher was inconsistent, but
Fanatic are probably the worst team at the major.
You want somebody with a high ceiling.
You want somebody who might, youknow, they were the last one to
qualify. They were like, you know what I
mean? Like.
Red. Red.
Canid Yeah, sorry. Yeah, sorry, I forgot.
The team. Yeah, either way, like then you

(24:21):
know they're not. They're not just trying to make
a run. So yeah, I think having might as
well volatile IP kind. Of thing.
Yeah, yeah, no, I agree. Yeah, let's start.
Why? Let's be consistently the 20th
13 I do. It's part of why ITV got so far,
isn't it? It's like this.
Cypher was playing like Cypher, and Crucial was playing like
Xywu. Isn't Cypher also just awful
online because his computer doesn't work or something?

(24:42):
That was the thing before. I don't know about that, but
maybe I do used to say a. Thing when it was on ITV.
It's been fixed. Yeah, probably.
If this move was planned a whileago, I have more respect for it
because I, I don't think having a great result should like make

(25:02):
you keep a roster that was goingto change, right?
Like if, if phase kept rain after the DPL run, which we'll
get to in a bit. It's important.
Not a smart decision, but very, very much like honeymoon, like
breakup sex, right? So we'll skip back together
then. We're listening to this podcast,

(25:23):
can relate to that. No, no one.
No, no, they got. It's a good analogy though.
If you can imagine. What person in this podcast
can't even relate to that? No comment.
I haven't on a podcast. Yeah, do.

(25:44):
You want to ask them if they canrelate?
No, I'm not asking. My mother if she can relate to
to break up sex. Let's keep that in.
Definitely that's a no. I'd keep it in that's.
The point I wanted to make was for that I could have at least
done the PR thing and maybe saidlike this move was planned prior
to our qualifications to the major.

(26:04):
That's a bit more. Yeah, at, you know.
Like chicken the fucking Dick for.
In all seriousness, in all seriousness, that fanatic
statement is like one of the worst roster announcement
statements that you would just. Close this down.
Yeah, yeah, Kite steps down and it's like we've got Jocasmo on
loan for the rest of the season,but he will he will play CSA

(26:27):
Championship. Yeah.
What about that big tournament that like Cipher just help you
qualify for. What about that?
What we doing with with that onelike and it's just a thing and
it like that statement as well as the timing is just so bad.
And and Charlie if you Scroll down.
They did win the game though. They did win the opening game,
to be fair. Because she deleted it.

(26:50):
I think she must have deleted it.
I was. Oh no, there it is.
Cypher's girlfriend. Just saying.
Stepping in. What, Like Kylie stepped down?
At least have the decency to sayyou benched him two days after
he helped you make the major. Sorry, stepping in doesn't mean
somebody stepped down. I mean.
Somebody's just that it. Was somewhat, yeah, but it means

(27:14):
that it sounds like it was somewhat unplanned and oh, this
wasn't what we intended. Is is how it happened whether
that's correct. Is there is there some Ukrainian
nepotism, cronyism going on here?
Obviously you've got. Well, it's now the passion you
made for. Yeah.
Like so. Right.
Probably. Is is Creme joining next as

(27:34):
well? And somehow Creme's remains.
Yeah, somehow, because. It's actually just unflusable
and. Not get rid of it before before
we move on. Can we just go back 2?
Minutes The tick on binding of ISA.
Elliot, what the fuck are you drinking and why the fuck are
you drinking it from a bowl? Fish water.

(27:55):
So it's a bubble gum flavoured fizzy drink, it's really good
and it's from a gin glass because all of our actual
glasses are not washed. Right.
I like creams. I just want to because it looked
like hold it up. Oh, it looked fucking huge.
It is quite big, yeah. It just really caught me off

(28:19):
guard. Yeah, it's, I mean, it's a very
nice glass of drinking what is essentially cheap pop from.
Yeah. Right.
Well, should we move on? Yeah, I think we've got the
breaknecks. So, you know, probably for the
best because you're clearly outbreak.
I clearly out of ideas. So Jack, do you find it hard to

(28:39):
keep up with all the news and counter strike?
I do, I took a weekend off and Icame back to six new IGL's, 3
retirements and apparently Malvi's waterboy got picked up
by a top 20 team. Right, that's why I've been
relying on the TLDR newsletter. It's a bi weekly e-mail that
keeps you up to speed on everything in the CS scene
without needing scroll. Read it for three hours while

(29:00):
questioning your life choices. Yeah, it's like if HL, LDV, that
baby with your funniest friend who actually watches every game
get quick hits of news, spicy roster moves, upcoming match
schedules, and even some insidergossip.
Old killer, no filler. And let's be honest, some of
these tournament formats you need a guide just to figure out
who's playing who. TLDR breaks it all down so you

(29:22):
actually know what the Hell's going on.
Plus, it's funny. Like actually funny.
It's like reading a group chat between smart CS fans who roast
everything insight but still care deeply about the game.
So if your brain's full but yourheart still beats for Counter
Strike, do yourself a favour, sign up for the TLDR newsletter.
It's free, fast, and guaranteed to make you smarter, or at least

(29:42):
sound smarter in Twitch chat. Check out the link down below
and subscribe, because the only thing more tragic than missing a
major upset is not even knowing it happened.
TLDR you don't have time to readeverything, you still want to
sound like you did. Speaking of fanatic, they are
playing at the CSA Championshipsas we mentioned with Giacasmo,

(30:06):
which led to every single personin the scene with a very
unsuccessful hate watch because they actually won their opening
game, which is mighty unfortunate for all of us.
This event is played at like horrendous times for the Europe
because it's in China as the name suggests.
But there there has been the first round of games and there

(30:27):
has been some pretty spicy things going on.
Obviously fanatic winning not somuch, but.
Sorry, I've just seen the fucking VP score.
What the fuck happened in that game?
I'm sorry, I don't care what youwere going to talk about.
Can you please click on the? Video good, because I'd
forgotten what I was going to say.
No, not the Honeys 1 you won. Stay at the top of your screen.
Oh dear. They got fucking spanked.

(30:50):
What the fuck? Let me see.
They are playing with fucking postman IC to be fair.
Oh and then you signing two row has got 4 kills in in the city
in the. Yeah, big fan of.
Assassinate this team. Big fan of Nissim somehow going
negative for the minus with the like -4.9 round wing in a 32.

(31:10):
Win. What are you doing?
You're on the detailed stats. Yeah.
The details don't make it any better.
Don't. They I want to see more about.
One and seven in opening duels. 2 legacy players had 100% cast.
Can we do the one where it showswho killed who?
Is it the the duels I think? Yeah, that ace, scroll up again.

(31:33):
That's a performance, yeah. I just want to see who was going
to row. Oh, we're not human,
unfortunately. Yeah, well, I say fanatic one
anyway, so. Everyone.
Oh my God, look at Sadsing to flit and I see.
Wow. For those of you who can't see,
Sadsing killed flipped 7 times and I see five times and neither

(31:56):
of them killed him. Once he he's 12 and I would
dueled against those two players.
Brilliant, Brilliant. Just just found.
Yes, Latto won and seven in opening duel.
To be fair, Latto went 10 and noagainst Perfecto and Fame.
Just hitting both, both sides that wanted to be killing both
anchors. That's all they've done that
whole series. That's amazing.
At least at least Perfecto had agood time against Lux and Four.

(32:18):
You know, isn't that just good? At least IGL battle I think it
was. Fucking rubbish rubbish too.
Yeah, I mean, time for verse. It's time for the verse pro
experiment to end. Even though they did beat the
Huns. Genuinely, I well done.
Well done, Michael. He's 12.
I don't know what you do with VPother than completely blow up

(32:39):
the roster because I even the author they brought in like
isn't he just their Academy offer?
Isn't icy. The is icy, not orphan.
No, they're not. Icy.
He's a standard. No, not not him.
Charlie go on their team. That guy is, I'm sorry, I know
he's like 6 years old, but just he's.
Really. No go on VP's HLTV page.
Yeah, their actual opera is someother fucking fella.

(33:00):
Yeah, it's, oh, it's still thereat the moment, but they have
signed him. No, there's roster 100%.
Click, click. Click roster.
No roster. Yeah.
What? The fuck Yeah.
They signed an OPA. Yeah, yeah, I'm actually being,
I'm being gasless. So maybe he just didn't play.

(33:21):
I'm going to check the the Twitter but he they did sign an
OPA. Yeah, yeah, 'cause I see.
Had to fly into China late. Yeah.
To play in the event. I'm so confused.
Oh, here we go. Best.
This is why. This is why.
Let me send this to Charlie. It's because the ORPA was going
to trial at this event. Right.

(33:44):
OK. Oh, I thought you.
Can't go because he's in a courttrial.
Brilliant. No, no.
So he was going to, I see hasn'tbeen benched, but Best was going
to trial and then the same thingthat happened with Phase with
Reign at Pro League happened with this because of Perfecto

(34:04):
and Toro presumably. In teams just please read the
rules before they try and make what like what are you doing?
Read the rules. Yeah, I don't want to talk about
game awful. Team yeah, Speaking of awful
teams, yeah, Speaking of wank teams, I think last week or the
week before I turned to you and it was like a game that isn't

(34:26):
just bad now and you weren't ready to say yes, although you
were you were sort of oming and R ING.
I'm really I'm just sad about. That, but they're just.
Bad. I mean OK, so here's the thing.
Is it EPL and CAC are the only two where they've had hypex?
Yes. Yeah, so you can discount the

(34:48):
four before that because they had Kersey and Kersey.
Like I know I called hyped barely ACS player earlier.
Kersey is genuinely one of the worst players I've ever watched
by Counter Strike. He's for those who aren't
watching, by the way, these are the placements of German Legion
in their previous six events, right?
So. Yeah, which is?
The last at Cologne. Dead last.
Dead last. Second to last.

(35:10):
Yeah, second to. Last dead last, dead last within
that group, I guess, right? Yeah, yeah.
Dead last within stage 2. That would be right.
Yeah, and dead last at CAC. Yeah, so anything with Kursi I'm
discounting because like, like Iwas like Kursi fucking horrible
player. Like truly, truly a horrible

(35:31):
player. EPL you can then just do the
whole like, you know, it's theirfirst event.
You either have a honeymoon or you're a bit shit because the
new guy doesn't know what's going on.
CAC though like. In paste the whole.
Timeline Who? Who did they?
Who did they lose to? CAC?
People they should have beaten. Probably let's Let's find.

(35:52):
Out a liquid was one of them. So yeah, liquid in the opener
39, not not not Horan. That's fine, yeah.
Lin vision in the BO3 is poor. What were the maps though?
What were the maps? They were one.
They lost. I clicked.
On it they won Overpass the LostTrain on Inferno 3939.
So there wasn't even a nuke in there.

(36:14):
Amelia Quack went 1.2, Westmeller 1.8 so I mean Towson
sorry. Tyson was good but Hypex didn't
really do anything. I don't know if he got at all
ever, but. Well, this is the thing, Like,
Hypex hasn't been like, great. Yeah, it turns out Orping is

(36:34):
hard, you know. Shouldn't be a OK Lin vision?
They don't throw flashes. Our limb vision are all right.
Man, if Amelia Quack is just just ripping heads, that do you.
Know, but yeah, like I. Don't know.
I know, I know, this is becominga weekly occurrence, but the

(36:56):
game of Legion wouldn't get out of the RMR.
They will be automatically at the major.
They would not get out. Game of Legion would would be
the team who would would win an RMR.
This is the thing. They wouldn't win an RMR.
Maybe not this version. They just lost and envisioned.
But Game Illusion are the type of team that are like really
stupid, whether they'll just be like kind of crap, like kind of

(37:16):
mid for a season and then they'll go to the RMR and just
like Frio the RMR and you're like, oh, OK, Game Illusion
might be good again. Then you get to the major.
And then you put them in your victims, and then, yeah,
exactly. Yeah, yeah, over at the Major.
Why are they even at big events at the moment?
Like they're they're at big events because their ranking is
high and their ranking is high because they're at a big event.
Like they they're becoming great, but this can't get rid of

(37:36):
them. This will fuck them over.
This will really hurt them. Those losses will be will be big
it. Takes so long to get rid of
them. Yeah, yeah.
But the way that it's. The same thing we have a big and
MIBR. But the way that vRS is set up
is so it's like this is like thepeak now and then if you fuck up
now you drop out and you're fucked.

(37:59):
And then. But this is where there's also a
problem, which it might be worthtalking about.
Charlie, can you just go into the events tab real quick?
So at the moment we've got not on game religion like the
overall events. So at the moment we've got CS
Asia Championship, of which the highest ranked team is 3D Max.

(38:24):
And then there's like some of the teams that you think
probably should be higher, like maybe not the teams themselves,
but the organisations that wouldlike phase and Liquid.
Then you've got Thunder pick where?
OK, Mongols, Furia, Aurora, Navi, Decent.
Then there's PGL Bucharest. Go on PGL Bucharest.
Look at that fucking team list, right?

(38:44):
Aurora 3D Max, Liquid, Australisare probably the only team.
There's a couple of climbers in there like gentlemen, it's
fanatic near Bay, whatever, right?
1.25 million prize pool. Think about how much certain
results there could completely fuck up the ranking.
Look at what Fisher Playground one did for Tyler like.

(39:06):
I will caveat the team list at this event is basically dictated
by Chengdu though right? A lot of teams declined this to
get a Chengdu. That's fine, but what I'm saying
is, is like, because of how vRS works this event, like if let's
say fanatic win this event, theywill probably like still be in

(39:29):
the top ten at the start of 2026.
Does that mean they're a top tenteam?
Like like even if they bomb out the major, they could still be
there and then they get a ton ofinvites off that.
That's the that's the actual issue with with vRS.
That's why game legion in all these events because like
they've slowly been going down but because of how invites work

(39:50):
where like 3 or 4 tournaments get sent at once because of the
the deadlines for the invites, they just still seem to be in
every event. Because because there's no
qualifiers game Legion never actually have to prove they're
better than B8. They never actually have to
prove they're better than Tier 2teams.
Always been my problem with thissort of thing like that.
So I've always hated the idea ofnot having the RMR or not having

(40:12):
minors because if you're. Actually the 50th.
Idea of not having minors. So I thought if if you're the
15th best team in the world, prove it.
Beat the 30th best team in the world, beat the 40th best team
in the world. But it's so stupid that people

(40:34):
say, oh, this like, oh, they should just be at the maze.
They shouldn't have to prove it.Why not?
But. Why would that ever really been
a thing in Counter Strike Man? When we had open qualifiers.
Yeah, but game Legion for the most.
I'm not doing this again, please.
Wouldn't have been in there anyway that have just been
receiving invites regardless. For most of these tournaments

(40:56):
that have been receiving invitesregardless, they were still in
the range that I didn't. Like that either, but.
Would have been invited to like,tournaments even before the
partner system. Yeah, so.
Again, the issue is, is it's, I think the word you used before
and it was, it was insulating, right?
Like if you get to the big events, you yeah, yeah, getting
to them, which is not good. And.

(41:17):
That's interesting. It's like nipping VP of old,
isn't it? Like, what would that have been?
2017 to 2019? Like around that couple of years
where those two orgs just went to shit, but they were at so
many events when they were dreadful.
And then like, maybe they'd haveone run and you'd be like, oh
fucking hell, like me, Maybe they're back and they're bummed

(41:38):
out to two of the shittest teamsyou've never heard of, like.
At least people cared about VP though I think nobody's a.
Game. Yeah, at least both of those
teams were full of, like, actuallegends of the game.
Yeah. Instead of rez game Legion has
fucking Towson. Respect, Michael.
Yeah, I like how you can't standRez, and I quite like him.
And then I just don't get the point of Towson.

(41:59):
And you're like, ah. Towson's just I was a game.
All I said was I jokingly said you're only as good as your last
game and he was the highest rated in it, therefore he's the
best player. Anyway, we'll move on to a team.
Speaking of Legends of the Game,how about that?
We'll go to Phase, who lost their opening game of the CSA
Championships with their new roster proving that actually

(42:21):
they should have kept Rain all along.
Moving on. No stuff.
Can we, can we actually point out, can we point out how they
lost this game? No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
They weren't just 93 up at the half, they were nine nil up.
How were they OK? Yeah, yeah.
So I see it was 93, they were nine nil or 91 and they lost

(42:44):
1311. I've got someone to blame.
Is the fucking loser going top 17 again?
Did he even get a .7? This game?
This. This is an underperformance when
his baseline is fucking. You know this.
Is. This is crazy though, right?
Because I remember, I think it was Freddie I was speaking to a

(43:10):
while ago because obviously Freddie is cast in a lot of Navy
junior games and whatnot. And like Freddie said at the
time, it was before Kaisuke had gone to Falcons that like
everyone hypes up spirit Academybecause they have guys who can.
They made Duncan some ticks or whatever.
But now the Academy are like theactual good team.
Like they're genuinely really good and will continue to climb.

(43:33):
So I know for a decent right? I get that they're decent but
they've played literally like 1 tier one event before this.
Why the fuck of face ever losingto them even if it's in ABO one?
I think that is going on. Mr. Mr. Dmitry Miroshenko going
1.57 probably has something to do with that.
That's. Ridiculous.

(43:53):
And also like we know Brokie cannot be asked to play the CSA
championships. He'd like he could.
He could barely be asked to playcolour, I mean.
They literally like they they did like lose to Maus fly within
a couple hours to China which isnot a short flight from fucking
Stockholm is it? No, it's not.
I get that. But I'm going to, I'll give them

(44:15):
that caveat for day one games just a little bit.
And they've never played with this roster before.
Yeah. True.
Should we talk about that? Should we talk about the phase
roster? Yeah, we can, I think.
Do you feel like do you want to bleed into EPL while we?
Do yeah, I was going to say I feel like we're done with CSA.
45 minutes. Yeah, well, I'm certainly done
with CSA. So we'll see.

(44:36):
Phase came 4th Pro League after forfeiting their first game and
bring him rein in. I don't think any of the three
of us would say we expected phase to come in the top four,
especially given the fact that they absolutely spanked Spirit

(44:56):
in the quarterfinals like just. Phase just are a team that can
do that though. This right.
They just, they just have their bullshit way sometimes.
Yeah, and I'm not saying they they kind.
Of nearly beat Vitaly as well in.
The I'm not saying they beat madteams outside of that, like they
beat Australis in a circle in Aurora.
We've all got our thoughts on those teams.

(45:17):
But like Vitality, they were really good against Mouse.
I'm not watching a third, fourthplayoff.
Like I'm not doing it. Like if I don't watch it when
England's in it, I'm not watching Nicklin Face and
fucking Mouse are in it. It's not happening.
Yeah, I can't think of a situation where I would watch a
third, fourth player. And it wasn't a good game at

(45:37):
all. But genuinely, phase with rain
or phase with Jacob, which are you taking?
Well, we've seen phase with Jacob for a game.
But you can still like think. About it I've never seen and
play with Dong, but I'd still take donk over rain.
Yeah, I, I think. You know, looking past the the

(46:01):
the recency bias of the tournament that happened last
this weekend, I think we need to, you know, that probably be
better with Jacob in the long run anyway, as long as that
horrible fraud of a player, Carrigan is nowhere near the
team. But how long?
How long is the long run? 25 minutes.
Maybe after the major, maybe they'll do it right at the

(46:21):
major, I don't know. Because I, I think it'll be
longer than that. Like I've not really seen much
from Jacob yet where I'm like, OK, you're definitely.
Well he hasn't been allowed to play then fucking bench.
They kicked him off the team straight away.
He's played multiple events. Yeah, not even.
Yeah, but not with a with a fucked up roster as well.
Yeah, fine. But I just don't like I don't.

(46:41):
This is the first time the phrase the phrase roster they
they wanted to actually have hasplayed is is CAC.
And rain also also hasn't. Is that good?
No rain. If rain was the rain's been good
for months. Ever since the leash has gone,
rain has had a massive uptick. Rain is not bad and I I get the
future proofing of the roster like I completely understand.

(47:03):
That's that's the argument, isn't it?
It's. But I actually, but I actually
think it's maybe like 6 to 12 months too early in Jacob's
case. If if I'm in face I'd probably
look to like dump him out on loan until after the Cologne
major and keep rain is what I'd probably do.

(47:24):
I think it's. Him and he's probably got offers
from teams anyway. Yeah, at this point, I feel like
you. Can't rap on this shit, it's
just fucking silly. No, no.
I just think it was like you. Shouldn't have fucking terrorist
but terrorism Ball carrier on the team still but.
I also, I also disagree what youjust said something because this
is a massive like this is out ofline really with what we've seen

(47:44):
a phase recently. Like I think they were probably
thinking, well, we're not contenders anyway.
We might as well give this guy six months to get up to speed
now rather than like waste time with rain if it's not going to
go anywhere. Like at that point, you're just
delaying his development and also not winning.

(48:04):
I think this is kind of throwinga spanner in the work.
So it's like, oh, actually, no, they were quite good with rain.
They actually were a contenders.Maybe we have messed up now,
didn't they? The spirit, the spirit win is is
just obviously good, right? But that's anonymous.
And the other wins like they probably should have had, but
they've lost the worst teams before, right so.

(48:25):
I think the thing with the EPL run, and I think it would be the
same if it was with Rain or Jacob actually, is that it's
actually the best that you can hope for Phase because it's the
same thing that I think we've said.
We've two of us here and we're three of us here and we've said
it for a very long time with Phase.

(48:45):
The way Phase played worked in Go, it worked in 2022.
It doesn't work now where aggressive riflers are
everything. You can't go back to free V5
clan in CS2. It just doesn't work.
Like it won't work consistently.Well, yeah, I don't know.
If I wasn't going to do if dropsthen frozen would be my next

(49:06):
choice. Yeah, but.
But even Even so, like the levelthey're at, they're like even at
the top, there's, there's, there's difference.
Right. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, presum's great, but he is not rocks.
When Vitality were winning events, like there were like
multiple rocks. I were just before, you know,
when they were the best, like like clearly the best.
You've heard. It's like they they won some

(49:27):
heinous rounds with rocks. Alive, they'd win clean.
And if they didn't win clean, they they would.
Yeah, they'd rise around. Yeah, they'd.
Bullshit here because Rocks is just probably the best late
round rifler in the world. He's a three night late round.
No, he definitely is. I don't think.
Yeah, probably about it. Well, it's because I was going
to say probably the best late round player in the world.
I was like, no, I I think I'd still take you'd still probably

(49:50):
have Zywe, wouldn't you? But Robs is ridiculous.
He he you can't do phase magic without magicians and they have
one of them back in twist. But like you need Robs, Like
Robs is phase bullshit. That's what he wants.
Like. Yeah, I just, I just don't think

(50:14):
Jacob changed anything. I think he probably makes them
worse for a while. I don't think that's a great
assessment. We haven't seen the team that he
was meant to join play properly,right?
Yeah, you can at least speculateabout it though.
Speculations is for fucking, youknow, Wizards and stock traders.

(50:37):
Stock traders and other heinous professions.
I'm a stock trader of counter strike teams use that shit app
Blast wanted you to use for Blast Open London.
No, we talk. About team No one fucking did
it. Should we talk about a team?
That's not a phase? Let's talk about vitality.

(50:58):
Pick a team. Let's.
Talk about vitality now they finally won again.
Well, I think the issue is fatally, but never bad.
They just like went at their peak, right?
And Apex. And what is an interview like,
oh, we know we played like, I think it's like 16 weeks on the
road or some shit, right? Something like that.
Like, yeah, of course, right. Like that's going to affect the
performance over time. My issue with the final was

(51:23):
generally also there's been a major thing with BO5 finals just
having three maps like like justbeing blown out lately.
I think at least in the ESL calendar, everything other than.
Melon, Oh, maybe on ESL? Has been a 30.
No, Blast hasn't that. I think Blast had one.
Not a real, not a real company. Falcons were really, really bad.
Oh, they. Were in the final.

(51:45):
Falcons were atrocious. Yeah, yeah.
Not. Good in Kyosuke, have like a
massive drop off in the final. He did, yeah.
He's also just like the the issue is, and I'm going to
speculate, and This is why Spirit wanted to sell him and
stuff is like he's really good, but he's not Donk and yeah,

(52:06):
nobody is. Well, exactly, but you can sell
him as Donk too, right, to someone else, someone like
Falcon just probably doesn't fucking know ball.
He's good. He's obviously fucking good at
the game, but but I don't, I don't know if he's like, he's
also like fucking 12, so I shouldn't really even.

(52:26):
Yeah, but but his age, he's actually insane.
It's just we all did. We've seen.
Yeah, we've seen dope now and it's like, Oh yeah.
Odyssey didn't exist on this event though, which was.
Good. Can I?
He was good. Again, I like that.
Can I just can I just say you? So I've just looked at all the
ESL events this year. There has been 4 frios in Grand

(52:51):
finals, all won by Vitality, three of them mouse.
Yeah. But they just get shit on.
Just under the bright lights. Mouse of mouse low key of ruined
this year just by bottling everyfinal they just.
Really. How do you not learn?
How do you get the four finals in a row?

(53:11):
And you, you don't. Fuck with a mouse They did.
They did have a. Scum.
They did have one banger final against Vitality, that was the
Lisbon one. That one was really good.
Did they win? No.
Ruin the year. No, but if it was the best of
three they would have after losing map 113 in the.

(53:34):
Next week I feel like, I feel like when when mouse sports the
organization finally like. It's closed, it's like MR1.
I'd win more games if I. Went on their great stone.
It would say if X we would have won.
Yeah. They're just, they're just
nearly men. They just, they always have
been. They've probably.
Always no mouse. Mouse is another team like, you

(53:55):
know, we've started dogging on Aurora recently.
Yeah, recent. Recent for you guys.
This has been my stunts for a long time.
Yeah, I just. I find Waitrose at Aurora.
They're just never like they're never going to be good enough.
Like even now when like they're consistently the 3rd or 4th best
team in the world, you still just you're just waiting for

(54:16):
their players to go to better teams.
Yeah, or make another org you can take seriously better.
I'm I'm going to say on the on the Falcon topic though, then
making the final with like 1 pistol round in the whole event.
I checked the stats but it was something stupid like that.

(54:36):
It's both like, impressive and fucking terrifying and.
Also. How are you not winning pistols
at all? Like, yeah, not even going 5050
or like like 30% of them they won.
They definitely, I think they won one pissed around in the
entire final. I think in the playoffs they

(54:57):
maybe won two, including that one.
I'm going to look at it. I guess that means that pistol
rounds can't actually be RNG. They're not.
Anyone who says they are is coping.
Yeah, they're definitely not RNG.
Look at the look at the pistol round win rates of great teams.
Yeah, yeah, no, interesting. I think like he obviously says a

(55:17):
lot about Falcons is strength infull by which is you know, well,
yeah, what you really. Want is you've got models.
When it's what you really want, but you can't keep throwing away
those kind of those kind of advantages so to start games.

(55:38):
Over the event, Falcons were 11 and 19 and pissed around, but I
don't know how to check. It's way right?
Really. Yeah.
I mean that's including group stage.
Yeah, it's a lot of pistol rounds to only pick up 1 Jack.
Yeah, if I will say inner circlewent 3 and 15 and pistol.

(55:59):
Rounds maybe? It's playoffs then, not R&G.
The the teams who were bad at pistol rounds were Inner Circle
Game, Legion gentlemates, Australis and then Falcons.
They're not R&G. Which, by the way, is still way
too low for a team that finishedsecond.
Oh yeah, I mean, right. Like.

(56:20):
Yeah. Yeah Vitality 61.8%, phase 62.5%
Mouse 75% and also notably Falcons round two break is very
very low. Only three teams broke with a
worse like ratio than them and they all didn't break at all
which is in the circle game, Legion and strata.

(56:41):
So again the three of the worst team at the event.
Falcons really didn't break backafter losing pissed around
phase. If they lost the pissed around
there was a one in three chance they broke you back.
Which I mean, if they you can't quantify phase bullshit, but if
you could, that's a good one. There were a few rounds where
like, I think there's like A twist eagle round, like like a

(57:02):
second round buyer and he just just railed.
It was quite nice. Yeah.
Like Vitality winning, I just don't really care about which is
like, they're obviously very good.
They play very good CS but like.I think it.
Was kind of kind of the the worst outcome for me.
I think after London, it's nice to see them win again because

(57:25):
London was a choke like it was achoke.
But the the main thing I wanted to say about Vitality is I know
last week I said I think Spirit will be the best team in the
world, but we've we've tenure. I think they will.
I think if they had Zontix over this way would happen sooner.
Sway is just a bum on that spirit team unfortunately.

(57:48):
And also if they maybe had a better IGL than Chopper.
Respect, but tanish. I like, I like, I like Chopper,
but he's not a. Great.
Yeah, why don't they have a Unicorn instead of Tenir as
well? Idiot.
Yeah, he's not a great IGL. He just has a very good team.
I'm vetoing this. You could IGL them I.
Could. I'm a very good IGL chopper.

(58:09):
Has. Oh no, they'd be.
Numerous, numerous spirit teams to the major playoffs.
Like, like, you can't just say it's it's just the players.
So you're wrong. Sorry.
Yeah. QBF got to major playoffs.
Yeah, one it's. Not fuck about here.
Spirit then like back-to-back toback-to-back playoffs.
Yeah, with magics. Magics and wonderful.
I'm sure you called both of themdreadful.

(58:30):
Yeah, I'm not. It's not as bad.
As people so. This is not no different.
Having Chopper is a good idea. No.
Do you want? No, you can.
You can. Say no, but you're wrong.
Like your truth might be different, but like you.
Are no. I was saying no to you, saying
it's not a conversation we have and I was agreeing, but by
saying no. I've I've, I've got, I've got an

(58:52):
interesting number for you. And you talk about spirit versus
vitality, something like, I was just looking through the stats
because I was looking at the pistol rounds, something that
really stands out. Vitality by far the highest
flash assist rate at the event. So like over 1/3 of rounds they
played and they had a flash assist.
Spirit had like one of the lowest at the event and also one

(59:13):
of the lowest utility ADR with vitality third behind mouse and
the strike. But this is.
You try and get. This is my point, but no, but
this is my point about this is my point about spirit.
Like they don't play good Counter Strike the system.
The system is crap. Their system is crap.

(59:34):
If they played better counter strike they would win more
events. This is the use of you being an.
Idiot. That's true of everyone.
Chopper is good enough. Chopper is good enough for the
team that they have right he. Like the team they have with
Shiro a donk. 2 of the best players ever are just saying oh
that's good. Yeah, and he does.
No, he's good enough in the sense that he doesn't.
He's good enough in the sense that he doesn't tank them like

(59:56):
Carrigan tanks phase right now. But if they had a better IGO if
there was 1 available, which I'mnot sure there is.
By the way, I'll also. So then you're just fucking
silly. So I just let's say you've just
said chopper is best Nick Harrigan and there's no better
IGL available. So I'm I'm actually.
Quite sad Russian. I'm quite sad.
If Apex speaks Russian he'd shitall over Chopper.

(01:00:17):
Apex is a far better in game. Leader Oh yeah, because because
Vitality don't have a great teamto work with.
Be still a better in game leader.
Probably slightly, yeah, But Apex is one of like, no,
comfortably Apex is like. I I made it.
I made a better. One of them.
With with fucking Wagyu steak than fucking Aldeon brand
surprise. Is 1 of it's.

(01:00:39):
Is comfortably a better IGL. You're actually on on drugs.
You're you're. By far a better IGL than
chocolate. Let's not be sick.
Yeah, yeah. Fuck.
Off chopper is not a good IGL. He's just an idiot.
This is ridiculous. The spirit system is crap.
It barely changes the spirit season.
Is calling a fucking mirage a rush an overtime round in a

(01:01:01):
major quarterfinal and winning it with Matt 10s?
That's spirit system fucking shut up you're.
Fantastic snappy calls that shitall the time like Glade.
Called that another great in game leader.
Another great in game leader. Yeah, OK.
No but I'm saying every IGL calls a fucking a rush.
I'm not saying chain chopper as bad is just is wrong.

(01:01:21):
It's wrong and stupid and evil and perverse.
And yeah, just because you like him because he stuck his thumb
up once, mate. That's Elliot's bit, I like it
because he fucking he's a good. He's a good IGL.
He faced fun CS. No.
You're wrong. You're wrong.
Dong plays from CS and you attribute it to Chopper.
No, no, it's obviously you couldhave because Dong was good

(01:01:45):
individually. What does Chopper do?
What makes Chopper a good idea? What makes Russian No you
fucking? No, I I've given you reasons as
to why Chopper is a bad IGL but then not a great he's.
A bad I know bad IGL because hisplayers are good.
OK, no, it's team. It's not a bad idea, Charlotte.
It's not a bad IGL. He's just that's a great IGL.

(01:02:06):
You don't need. Every great IGL have great.
Players and this is like you don't there's a great sister.
Around them. Name a great IGL who had shit
players other than. MSL, that's fun, but Chopper
would be like quite far down thepile of those great Igls.
Like he's he's good, he's not great.
Here's my point. Pick someone better.

(01:02:29):
Apex LXCB and Prime Glave Prime Carrigan.
Like Alexi, Alexi B is is. Is LXCB, is a.
Better. I don't think Alexi.
I don't think Alexi B is a better.
IGLLXCB is a better. He's a more structured IGL.
He is a better idea because. He has to micromanage idiot
players. I know he's had a bad word.
Then he micromanagers fucking JLand Emma who you know can't do

(01:02:50):
fuck all bits just fucking sitting in the corner doing what
he normally does. That's not what I'm also not
going to. Say any any micro.
Manager Team. Team He.
Micromanaged them. He micromanaged them to a better
year than Chopper could handle with Shiro and Donk who were.
Better than those things. A fluke.
A fluke manager? I was the.
Best player at the major beforehand as well.
Right, let let's talk about the fact that Navi were the best

(01:03:13):
team actually. Sui took Emma to a major final.
Oh, how's he doing? Oh yeah, he's sticking it up on
the quid. And Sui, at least at one point,
looked like he was a better thanChopper.
Not really sure. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, I'm sure he looked like it.
And Reyna are the best player inthe world during.
The one grand final? What do you mean complete IGL
deficit? At the moment Fallen's a better

(01:03:34):
IGL than Chopper. There's not that I'll accept.
Yeah. Yeah, Major.
Major. Major certainly isn't Major's
crap. Foolin might be the best player
ever though, so there is. Gravity.
But actually, genuinely, gravitymight be the better.
Idea Shut up, shut up. Freedom is Rushmore, Foolin is
the mountain. Yeah, yeah, fine.

(01:03:55):
Of all players ever. No, fine, fine, I like.
I'll accept that one. I'm I'm.
I'm. You just overrate Chopper.
Where's both of you over 8 chopper?
Where's your wings, Chuck? This is ridiculous.
Both of you, just over 8 chopper, that's fine.
Oh I I were at the guy who's made multiple teams win stuff.

(01:04:18):
My bad. He hasn't made multiple teams
win stuff. He has.
No, neither is Alexi B though. What did spirit?
No, Alexi B actually has. No he had he.
No, Alexi B has had one team that won something.
No, I seem to remember ENT's winning as well.
Not really. Was that after they benched him?
No, he was so good that he got into a major final than they

(01:04:39):
benched him. Awesome player.
But did they win anything the meant?
Yeah, yeah. And no, Elliot, you remember
this. Because.
You remember this because we hada very drawing Finnish mange
that we were winding up saying that that tournament meant
nothing, but they did win something in Paris.
It was like Blast Pro Series Madrid or some shit.

(01:05:00):
Oh yeah, that's not that's not real of it.
It was like best of ones and then they played one best of
three to win it. It's not real.
It's that actually isn't a real one.
No, no, no, no, no. Get real.
Pro series. I'm I'm fucking.
It's actually not, but Chopper is an IGL.
He was overrated because of an IGL.
Like drought hooks. He's a better IGL.

(01:05:20):
Oh, water's overrated because I live in the desert.
Shut up. You just no you.
Prefer. You're talking fucking rubbish.
No, you're talking you prefer you.
You prefer structured Igls and that's fine, but I don't think
it's fair to just completely discount like Igls who don't
play in a structured way, especially when it quite clearly
no. But there is structure.
Honestly. Because just just because, it's

(01:05:40):
not micromanaging fucking moronsto.
Do there is structures? Right now because.
There's something less. Structured than like, it's
obviously less structured than something like what Alexi B
would play, and that's fine. But then there were like.
Why? Why was Spirit basically playing
exactly the same maps of CounterStrike that they were playing at

(01:06:01):
like Cato 24 very late into lastyear?
Not broke. Don't fix it, obviously.
Is that they barely won all yearafter winning Cato.
Yeah, that rookie to tournament with Dong's debut and oh, they
barely won it. What?
No, after Cato Jack. Yeah, it doesn't matter.
You've won one of the biggest votes of the year.

(01:06:21):
Chill out. Yeah, do the butter.
Oh, so OK, so just don't prack for the rest of the year.
Don't come up with anything new like. 1.
Other one. Yeah, no sound.
Sound. We've just, we've just been
talking about how Vitality have done anything new all year.
Vitality. If nobody does anything new for
most of the year. Only when they actually started,
they changed how they played, they won again.

(01:06:42):
So. You can't confuse magics by
telling him there's more than one play.
Chopper and Apex are the best thing.
I mean, is in the world right now, without doubt.
You can't confuse Sherer by saying, you know, actually you
don't have to be like stood in acorner for the entire round.
Fallen's better than Chopper right now.
Yeah. Fallen is Fallen is like maybe

(01:07:03):
the best player ever. Yeah, saying that actually is
better than Chopper is is ludicrous though.
And I, I'm not, I'm not having it.
I'm sorry. I'm not just any further.
I don't want to because I'm fed up of being.
Around he is better. He is better.
Let's let's wrap up EPL by talking about the Kaosuke thing
because we need to clip far. So we're going.
To do that, I don't, I don't. I don't know what this is.

(01:07:24):
I don't really care. So.
See ESLI don't know if Blast do it, but they do second place
medals for the team that come second place.
I don't think blast do it. No blast do 3D printed ones
right? Yeah, yeah, they look really
ugly. Sorry and Miss Jackson Wolf was
giving the medals out to Falconsand Jessica was like no thank
you, I didn't put it on, just held it instead.

(01:07:46):
That's it. That's not a new thing.
I don't think it's it's particularly crazy to to to not
want to celebrate mediocrity, right?
I'm sure he has high expectations for himself, but
he's not happy with second place.
It's not a big deal. It doesn't matter.
Yeah, but obviously a lot of people on Twitter were like, oh,
he's just a prick. He's ungrateful for the medal.

(01:08:08):
Like, oh, I don't like it when people do this because they
should be happy that they came second.
It's like, shut the fuck up. Like you sit in your fucking
bedroom and you get happy when you win a pug, but you you can't
even begin to relate even remotely to being someone

(01:08:30):
actually at an event playing professionally.
But you're an idiot. You have no similarity like.
It's just like because he's like, you know, a prodigy or a
rookie, whatever you want to sayabout him, right, like because
he came out of nowhere supposedly and like is on a good
team. People just want an issue to
call for his head, right. Oh, he's not he's not even that

(01:08:52):
good. Oh, he's ungrateful.
Are we vapes like shut the fuck up.
He does. He does have a serious vape
issue like give him that. But like.
I think you just completely madethat up.
That would be really funny. Oh, he vapes.
It's just, I don't, I don't. It's just.
Doesn't fucking matter. Yeah, he's.
Stupid anyone who moans about itis a fucking bell end.

(01:09:14):
Speaking of bell ends, PGL had to cancel a tournament for next
year because the Esports World Cup have announced a new format.
And Elliot, I know you wrote about it in the newsletter,
which is the second ad for the newsletter that you're getting.

(01:09:34):
Hashtag. In this episode.
#Glad. The EWC format is fucking
fantastic. It's the best idea, Yeah, I
mean. It's very good juice ads.
Yeah, he searched EWC. It's esports World Cup.
What it's worth, Charlie, it's just EWC.
And what came up with a player called Juice Apps.
That's that's amazing. You need the 2026 on Charlie.

(01:09:57):
You're not going to get it from 2025, but there might be news
somewhere there. Yeah.
So it's now a 32 team event. Right. 32 teams that are split
into four groups of eight that play a double elimination
bracket. Unfortunately the first game of
that is best of one, but the allbest are free after that and the

(01:10:22):
top four teams from each group goes through to a 16 team
playoffs which is best of freezeuntil the best of five final.
That is maybe the best formatting counter strike, even
with the best of 1. It's not better than Swiss
system, but it's pretty close. It's pretty fun.

(01:10:43):
Like it's not 16 playoffs, whichimmediately puts it in the top
half. Four groups of eight.
It should. It should have been.
With deep pockets like this thatyou actually can't afford to,
you know, all the costs that come with making your tournament
longer and have more games. So don't get used to it, but
it's fucking fun and it's makingthe NBC one of the biggest

(01:11:03):
events of the year. I mean, as most people will.
Oh yeah, used to believe that and say it's not a big event and
all the shit it obviously is especially.
It's also got a $2 million prizepool now as well, doesn't it?
Which is. Bigger than the major, it's
actually. Bigger than the major, that's
the event of the year, but I would rather if if the major's
32 teams. I would rather the major be this
format with best of free first round than free fucking

(01:11:24):
consecutive. Swiss stage is one of which has
the shittiest teams imaginable. Yeah.
I'd much rather. Start till stage 3 really like
at least you're like, we'll get good games on day one.
Yeah. I prefer Swiss system to double
elim personally, especially double elim where one of the
losses or wins is a BO1. Yeah, the BO1.
But I don't. Know double elim I find to be

(01:11:48):
less dramatic than the Swiss system, but 16 teams playoffs
absolutely great. That's that's real World Cup
shit. Protects the BO1 issue right?
Like like. But it doesn't.
Swiss system would protect the BO1 issue better.
I know how the Swiss. I think Swiss system provably

(01:12:10):
hasn't protected BO1 issues particularly well.
But double elim is the same but.No, no.
I'm. Not saying it's not the same,
it's exactly the same. The point is that BO1 shouldn't
exist. They were fine with MR15 MOS.
Yeah, they they were fine. Anyway, they're just crap.

(01:12:31):
I'd much rather know which is the better team over free maps
than over 1. Yeah.
They got BO1's. Always just just need to go,
don't they? But but I think it's in this
sense it's pretty necessary evilconsidering they'd be running
like 25 other games as well. I mean, they could have, they
could have just done 32 Team Swiss.
Yeah, they could have. I was going to say 32 Team

(01:12:52):
Swiss, six wins or six losses. Well, because like Swiss is
designed for more than 16 anyway, right?
But I think it actually works perfectly with 16.
I think it works fine, but like I didn't Harry once write an
article about this like. I don't know.
I'm sure he did, or he had a rant about it on a podcast at

(01:13:12):
some point. But yeah, it's like it's
original intention is for what, chess, which they use it for.
Like much, much bigger. Don't they even use it for like
128 or something like that? Yeah, probably, yeah.
But by the way, just a really good format.
It's a shame that it's at the EWC not for anything to do with

(01:13:32):
the Saudis, just for the fact that this would have been cool
if it ended in an actual arena. Which it won't.
Or I could go to it. Well, I could, but people aren't
really going to go to it so. But I'm looking forward to it
and hope that I have EWC work again because it's nice amounts
of money. Right, we've got to Jack's got

(01:13:53):
to get out of here. So we're going to be quickly.
We're going to go end on the taken of the week.
We mentioned him earlier becausehe had a half decent thing to
say, but he was also trying to tell us how to play nuke the
other day, which involved him saying like he's telling us that
Minnie or either Minnie or Main whatever you call it, it's
called mouth, but you know, that's whatever.

(01:14:17):
The the the worst thing he says was Minnie is faster than saying
heart. And as you can see, he was asked
how how are you saying heart to where it's slower than Minnie,
and he said British accent. Three things wrong with that
one, he's not British. Two, even if he was, even if he

(01:14:43):
was, we would say Heart and Minnie.
Three, he's not fucking British.And then his his explanation is
she says Heart and Minnie, whichby the way is not quicker.
That's the same. Amount.
That's not the same number even.Even if you speak like a fucking
moron, it's the same amount of syllables.

(01:15:04):
Do you know what the fingers though as well?
Right. So the British accent isn't
fucking real. There isn't a British accent.
I'm not. Sure what the British is.
Meant to be. Ha ha, British.
Oh yeah, British like thanks take and now face the wall.
But I'm pretty shit at accents so I'm not going to do any right
now. But just play all the accents in

(01:15:26):
your head. There is none of them in which
Hut ever comes out faster than Minnie.
No, unless you're like really slow and you.
Yeah, unless you're fucking likeLenny from Of Mice and Men.
Is that the right one? I've never read it but like
unless you're in like. One of the ones one one of the
mice. Gets Lenny, yeah.

(01:15:47):
As I said, to taken this entire conversation was both terrifying
and enlightening. Yeah, he he basically suggested
you have to play a Heaven playerevery round because they can
help outside that day. So yeah, they could also do that
if they're a rotator, which is what it actually.
Is all we found out from that conversation is that South
African CS plays Nuke like it's 2018 before Glave decided that

(01:16:10):
he wanted to be everywhere and anywhere at all points in time.
Yeah, one very enlightening thing in this conversation was
when he said he doesn't waste the smoke just across outside.
So he died, yeah. And and Andy J asks are you not
throwing the glaive smoke and his is a waste of a smoke early
into the round? I just, I think we need to stop

(01:16:33):
like. Did you smoke?
Properly playing like a face at Level 3 in South Africa.
And no, I think he's like, isn'the OK?
I don't know. I feel like.
He's not if he's thinks the. Guy he might have wasted in the
nicest way, like what is OK in South Africa actually going?
To well, I don't know, it's like, I have no idea because of
like. Having a the player pool must be
so diabolical like. Look, we have a friend who was

(01:16:55):
level 10 and he like he didn't know any nades.
Because I saw, I saw a tweet theprotest.
It was me. No Oscar.
Oh, it was Oscar. Yeah, Yeah.
He's not African. I saw a tweet the other day
you're not the top 5K in NA. It's something like not even top

(01:17:16):
100K in EU probably. It's like the player count is so
crazy. Like you could probably be top
1000 in South Africa as a level 5.
Probably something like that, like it might even be a lower,
like your top 500 or something. So even if he's a level 10 in

(01:17:39):
South Africa, he might be like alevel 4 in Europe and that's
just the reality of it. All right, Well, yeah, Jack's
got to get out of here so. But don't do it again.
Yeah, that was really that not nice.
That is apparently how to take and talk, so I thought we'd give
him a shout out. I've been Elliot AZ esque.

(01:18:03):
You've also got Jack and Sam, who are.
Hi. Sort of there.
On screen. Regret we have twitters and
stuff. We have twitters.
They might appear, they might not.
They know that means, I reckon, just just follow Charlie
instead. Yeah, because I think that I
think that would annoy him. Yeah, Frown, swing, whatever the

(01:18:24):
account was called. Thank you for watching
everybody. See.
You.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark

Dateline NBC

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}"Chopper is NOT a good IGL", Vitality win ESL Pro League, and should FaZe keep rain?

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Stuff You Should Know

My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark

Dateline NBC

All Episodes

"Chopper is NOT a good IGL", Vitality win ESL Pro League, and should FaZe keep rain?

Stuff You Should Know