"If Wildcard was a school..." IEM Cologne recap and BC.Game have a terrible team

With Jack still away at IEM Cologne, Elliott is making a return to Overtime on Inferno and learning all about hampus' new unlikely team.Also on this week's episode of Overtime on Inferno, Sam suggests an unfortunate fate for the Wildcard organisation, and the two hosts discuss the biggest winners and loses so far at IEM Cologne.Join the discord:https://discord.gg/X3jU4djxUKCheck out Logan's newsletter:https://thestratbook.gg🎙️ Subscribe to the pod:https://readtldr.gg/podcast🗞️ Join +32K readers of our newsletter:https://readtldr.ggBecome a Counter-Strike demon:https://learncs.ggFollow your host and guests: https://twitter.com/AN1MOCS2https://twitter.com/novaHdesignhttps://x.com/aizyesqueThumbnail Jazz by: https://twitter.com/jameshserpa 📌 Interested in advertising with us? Reach out to crew[a]readtldr.com00:00 Intro3:50 Wildcard roster moves 11:55 take of the week26:08 IEM Cologne Stage 1: VP, coL TYLOO, paiN, 30:31 IEM Cologne Stage 1: FlyQuest, Heroic, NiP41:30 IEM Cologne Stage2: Astralis56:23 IEM Cologne Stage 2: Falcons, NaVi, Spirit, G2 and Liquid 01:07:12 fnatic sign CYPHER1:09:09 Outro

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
So, Elliot, hello. First off, welcome back.
Thank you very. Much.
Secondly. Now normally I'll ask you a
random hypothetical at the startof these episodes.
I'm glad you do. Old age hasn't fucked you up
that much yet. This time I'm just going to ask

(00:21):
you a question because I think you'll enjoy the eventual
answer. You see where Hampus has signed.
I I haven't as a rule, I don't know where hampers is at any
given time. Are you familiar with the
Bulgarian roster 500? Sure.

(00:44):
I'm assuming that's not relevantto this.
No, no, no, that's where he signed.
I thought that was just a weird like, well, they're playing
against, I don't know, some nonsense team.
I wish it was I because I'm I'm quite baffled by this move if
I'm being honest. Yeah.

(01:06):
No, I don't. Yeah, that makes no sense.
So if you'd asked me to guess, Iwould have guessed like in a
circle or some of the team that doesn't really exist.
Well, they're now 92, aren't they?
I've. Known probably worse.
Yeah, yeah, they got like everyone from 9 apart from like
one of them and have Krasnow instead.
Yeah, again, it's just like I, you know, I don't have that much

(01:32):
time to invest into following everything that's going on.
So instead I use the TLDR newsletter.
But like, I'm not investing any energy into finding out who's on
inner circle, let's put it that way.
Yeah, I know. Until they reveal themselves as
like mastermind, the Counter Strike Underworld, yeah, you
know, the the deep state and whatnot.

(01:52):
I'm not asked, but yes. So Hampus is now on a team with
Cirque Red * Rainwaker and a silhouette that is only named by
a question mark. Good name.
Yeah, I assume that's because they have four players signs

(02:12):
their roster and not just HLTV, allowing someone to be very
sneaky. I might be tripping but I felt
Red Star was an OPA but Cirque is also an OPA.
Well, you know. Isn't Red Star just shit?
Well, the six not much fairness.I seem to remember Red Star was
highly rated at one point. Didn't he like almost sign for a

(02:35):
decent enough? Team, yeah, yeah, Like he, there
was a point where he was actually quite highly rated, I
think. And then didn't I think?
He was an opera, but I could. OK, now I've just looked further
down their profile. I know now why hampers are
signed for them. How long have you been at this
team? OK, this month DJL is their
coach. OK, that makes sense.

(02:58):
So I guess 500 an hour international team.
Cool. Well yeah, I didn't actually
have many opinions about this other than it's fucking
horrible. I just wanted to to share it
with you. It's sad because hampers used to
be decent man. Like used to be decent.

(03:19):
What happened? I know this is like, this is a
part. It happens with a lot of Counter
Strike players. The counter is very fickle.
You don't stay good for very long in Counter Strike is what
I've learned. You used to be decent and then
you, you know, got married and had a kid.
You know, I'm probably still notmuch worse, just haven't played
the game in a year. I don't mean it the game.

(03:39):
Oh, I see. Oh yeah.
Yeah, sorry. Anyway, play the music, Charlie.
So there's another there's another roster that we need to
talk about today, Elliot, and that's Wild Card.

(04:03):
Yeah, because we have to. Because Wild Card are still
doing interesting things and honestly, I think I wrote my My
Greatest newsletter line yet talking about it.
Did you see it by any chance? Have you read today's TLDR?
Not yet, I was going to read it in in the morning when I had a
bit more time. So.

(04:25):
When the boy sleeps. I started my story the sending
wild card to the glue factory with.
Given her line of work we probably shouldn't be surprised
to see wild Card co-owner Amaramfucking something.
Still, considering the recent law that was put into place in
the UK, we didn't expect CounterStrike to be where to be where

(04:47):
we found our content now, which I thought was quite good.
Yeah, nice and nice and relevant.
Keep it relevant. Thank you mate.
Sure, that's relevant to everyone outside the UK.
There's no idea what you're. Talking about everyone outside
the UK isn't actually worth my time, it just happens to be the
truth of the matter. Anyway.

(05:08):
Wild Card are doing strange things again.
SUSP understandably, as A decided he doesn't want to be
part of the team anymore. He's going to 500.
Well, which it probably will. Yeah.
Yeah. And they've reinstated
Stanislaw. Yeah.
But no. But there's a book before you

(05:29):
get into it. There's a book.
Did you see what Calla said in aresponse to Striker?
No so Striker posted a tweet where he was you know just
saying what the hell is going onand he replied first they asked
Fusi to IGL as. Well, I could see it.

(05:56):
I I don't know why you would do it over Stannis Law.
But look, I could see I could doing it, but I don't get why
fuzzy. Kind of plays like an off IGL
anyway. If that makes.
Sense but was he not in a horrible way like a just style
wise? But was he going to rifle?
Because friend is an offer. They have an offer.

(06:20):
I mean maybe he's like isn't Sonic already IG Ling or was
Sonic was IG Ling? He was, yeah, but with the idea
that he'd do that while Friend got used to playing against
better teams, which wild card, you know, won't be playing
because they're never going to see European shores again.
Yeah, I, I'll be honest, I I really don't get any of it.

(06:43):
Like I feel like everyone eventually cut Stanislaw
because. Well, it's only right.
Yeah, I think people kind of, I think he has like he has like a
year where his teams just play really well.
And I think after that he seems to plateau.
For what it's worth, I don't think it was deserved this stuff
around. No, of course it wasn't.
Like they disappointed we. Don't know what's going on

(07:06):
behind closed doors, right? Like every other time
Stanislaw's gone, it's always been like.
Drama. I can say what I think is going
on behind closed doors, but thenthis podcast won't be suitable
to go up on YouTube so. We don't want to talk about.
I don't, I don't mean, you know,let's, let's leave her out of

(07:26):
it. Yeah, I mean, I mean, like a
couple of players have have saidsome shit about the management
at this point. So like.
Yeah, like none of these moves make any sense.
Like it's quite clearly a disconnect between reality and
their management. And it's one of those like a lot

(07:48):
of people fall into this trap where like they think they could
do a better job than like management.
Like, you know, happens in real sports, happens in E sports.
A lot of people fall into this trap.
It's like, oh, you know, but then you don't have all the
information. You don't know what's going on
behind closed doors. That said, I think the average
HLTV user probably would have done better than whatever wild

(08:09):
card have just done. I think taken from the TLDR
Discord would have done a betterjob.
I think you're being generous. I'd give taken a better shot.
No, no, I'd give taken a better shot.
But the HLTV degenerates. No, no I don't think so.

(08:31):
Actually. Here's a question that's like
non related but sort of related.Are we allowed to say the word
mongrel or is that offensive? I would.
I wouldn't use it. Would you know I?
Wouldn't I have a good story about using that word?
Well, it's not even a story. It was a good friend of mine at
uni. We did radio, student radio

(08:52):
together and he, he called me that live on air.
And then we went to a break. I was like, what?
You know, you know what you justsaid?
Yeah, it just means idiot, doesn't it?
Like, no, no, it doesn't. No, no, it doesn't just mean
that. See, I'm aware it doesn't mean
that, but I'm more like can we say it or no?
I would, I would. I would move away from it.

(09:13):
OK, in any sort of professional capacity, I won't say what I
would have said then, but at onepoint it was it was typed out in
that in that wild card story. And then I thought, no, I'll,
I'll delete that and I'll I'll change it to the word
degenerates. So if you go and read the story,
then you'll be able to figure out what I was going to call you

(09:37):
instead people but it. One thing about being a writer,
the people who don't write mightnot know, is that you will write
like some of your funniest stuff, but you can't, you know
you can't publish it. So you just have to like tell
people that you've written it and not actually publish it.
I, I hopefully have an article coming out with HLTV in like the

(10:01):
near future where the intro I'vewritten, there's absolutely no
way Hotv will publish it. But it really made me laugh.
So I had to, you know, I had to screenshot it and said, look,
you're going to take this. You're going to take this intro
out, but I'm still writing it. I mean, I just remember one of
the first stories I ever did forTLDRI was writing about Robson's

(10:22):
IWOO being a deadly duo, and I think we ended up on Fred and
Rose W being who I compared themto, but originally I'd wrote
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. Yeah, I mean.
Which is like probably a bit toofar for a lot of our readers.

(10:43):
Well, I think the The thing is like Americans are more likely
to take offence than the English.
Well, yeah, but if they don't want me to to joke about school
shootings. They should probably just shoot
in schools. Yeah, stop doing.
I know, I know. I don't know, but I don't think
it's that hard to be honest. Like I had some bad days at

(11:03):
school, but I never once thoughta shotgun that'd do the trick
here. Anyway, Speaking of things that
depress us in America, wild card.
Yeah, I mean, wild card actually.
Do you know what if? I was talking about school
shootings. Really does say a lot about what
we think about this wild card move.
If Wild Card was a school, I might consider it.

(11:28):
I might at this point. Somebody needs to put them out
of their misery, this team. Is I just believe in mercy?
I'm a merciful that is not true.That is not true.
You are. You are neither merciful nor a
deity. Both of those things are true
and I definitely not. I just like that you are

(11:51):
speaking against me in such a way.
Smite me? One day, move on.
Yeah, let's move on. I've had enough for wild card.
It's just depressing. We've got to take of the week to
talk about. I've fucking clicked off it
again. I've got it back.
No, I've got it back. I've got it back.
You don't get to read this, you get to react to it.

(12:13):
This is how we do things around here.
OK, so this comes from Anonymousrandomizer.
It's actually for for once it's not in the Counter Strike
elitist group. I'm sure this dickhead is in the
Counter Strike elitist group, but I haven't got it from the
group. So it's it's a reply to a couple

(12:36):
of tweets. So I'll I'll set the I'll set
the scene so far in tweeted. Nico is naive to think this is
2023 and the scene is just weak.In any other year Spirit Mouse
and Falcons would have won a bunch of trophies each.
The problem now is they are facing possibly the best team to
ever play a Counter strike. Famous reply guy born of the
king probably watching this episode.

(12:59):
Hello mate, we mostly appreciatethe fact that you're one of the
few people that still gives us both interactions.
Nobody gives me judge who's doneany tweet anymore.
Well yeah, but when you do you can almost guarantee Ball of the
King will reply. But anyway Ball has said.
Also, I just think the meta is leaning firepower right now and

(13:23):
once the team finds a way to play without five players, the
scene will change. Five star players, the scene
will change. Now, Bola, you're half true.
You've gone a bit too far, whichyou tend to do.
I don't think many teams have five star players.
I think 3 and half 4 is is what they're going for, but 5 is.

(13:45):
It's a step too far anyway. Anonymous randomizer appears and
says something. Do what?
He starts it with the truth. Says Vitality doesn't have five
star players, no. Right.
Stop, stop. Good tweet.
Yeah, good tweet. Good tweet, move on.
We spoke about this before. This is this is good.
This is true. Not sure Apex is a star.

(14:07):
And when when we say 3 1/2 before that, that half in this
team is is probably messy. Is he?
Is he a full star? I think he could really if he
was in a different position, buthe's not in that position, so
he's not really a star. But like, shift things around by
5% on each map. Maybe he is a star.
But he continues, he goes on. And he says, in fact, they don't

(14:31):
even have five players better than the five players on Liquid
2019 in terms of pure star power.
They just have extra stuff that Liquid didn't have.
And he goes even further. Yeah, and he goes even further
and says if you can't see how Stewie and Nitro weren't leagues
ahead of Mesi and Apex in terms of star power, you're not a

(14:53):
serious individual. So I hate to inform you, Elliot,
but As for a man who is 37 yearsof age, has a wife and a child,
don't care. You're not a serious individual.
I really wish I'd planned ahead and and you'd seen this tweet
before because I would have liketried to find like a clown nose
that I could have put on while you were reading that I'm not a

(15:17):
serious. Individual, any thoughts about
it? Would you like to?
Would you like to break down thetake of the week?
So for a start, Liquid's main orpa was Nitro.
Yes we did a lot of Orping. Not really relevant.
Zywe was literally better than both of them Orping at the same
time so it just doesn't matter. How do you view that?

(15:38):
Do they have like 2 hands they now conjoined?
Like no, it's like if it was OrbOrb India and it's Zai Wu versus
Nitro and Stewie. Zai Wu wins like 1610.
That's a slightly unimaginative answer.
I just want you to know that. Carry on.
Yeah, I'm trying to take this tweet seriously.
It deserves a serious dissection.
All right, back, you know, off you go.

(16:02):
Yeah, if you can't see how Stewie was wasn't leagues ahead
of Mesi, you're not serious. I mean, Mesi's just quite a bit
better. And I'll say that as somebody
who I've gone back and forth on Stewie and I've landed on, he's
actually pretty good. Like he's really impactful to a
team. But we're not let's be serious.

(16:26):
Him that's he's better. Let's let's be serious.
Come on, let's come on. Can I pause you for a second?
Yeah. Does Stewie have?
And I agree completely impactfulplayer and without like his
whole mindset. Liquid don't do half the things
they did and he really added a lot to the team because Taco is

(16:48):
just inherently more boring and less versatile.
Does Stewie have any iconic place from that run?
Because Nitro has about 57 and like all the ones that I'm
thinking could be Stewie, I'm quickly remembering were Nitro.
There's a couple from Twist. I remember there's a couple

(17:10):
from. From I think I generally was
quite I was quite checked out and when Liquid and Australis
were going for titles, I was like, I'm just bored of this.
Like I was watching, but I was like, you know, pretty glazed
over. It was not awesome.
I. Were having to deal with North.
Well, yeah, exactly. Which was it's not a fate that I

(17:32):
wish on anyone. Yeah, I mean, what just I didn't
really like Liquid or Australis and every game was just them and
I was like, this is quite boring.
So to me, none of the players are particularly iconic.
But yeah, no, I don't remember any Stewie because like, I don't
remember any Stewie play on Liquid, let's say that.
Nitro had like a few like especially on overpass.
Like, yeah, he hit those like silly ones on Long.

(17:55):
Yeah, yeah. No, he was good at he, he wasn't
terrible. It's just like.
I just don't remember Stewie making any bit.
Like he obviously made like impactful plays, so I don't
think he made he. Was very much a sacrificial lamb
on that team, wasn't he? Like he was, yeah, often thrown
into the walls, like. But come on.

(18:16):
Messi's just like Messi does everything Stewie does, but he
is also like capable of carryingfrom a passive role as well.
Like Mezzi has more games where he outright is the best player
in the server than Stewie does and I think he's just as good if
not better at the going in firstsupportive start.

(18:36):
I know supportive is a bit of a dangerous word of character but
you know the non star roles. I think he's equal to Stewie and
I think he's just miles better when you actually need him to
carry like it. No, I agree it's.
Like and then Nitro versus Apex fine, like OK.
I'll have a conversation about that.
Yeah, like. I think Apex might be marginally
better, but I also don't think Apex could orp on a top team and

(18:58):
be perhaps like decent whereas Nitro did.
So I'll give, I'm fine. I'll give you Nitro.
I think sustained period Apex has been better.
But when you're talking about Liquid 2019, you are really
talking about that run. Yeah.
And Nitro was like, he was pretty fucking good in that run.

(19:18):
Yeah, he was good. Like he he, he was pretty good.
Tactically he was solid and on an individual basis he was he
was doing a lot more than other players.
He was pretty good. Vitality's opera is Zai Wu.
It doesn't matter like. No, I agree.
None of this matters. Vitality's opera was Zai Wu.
They're star players of Rops. Zai who?

(19:41):
They were quite Rops and Flames.Like whatever you think of Nafi
and Robs. Yeah, no, he's not.
And you know he's in flames. Like whatever.
You know, again, that could be either way, but like the
difference between Mezzy and Stewie, the difference between
Zai Wu and literally anyone you want to pick on liquid, and the
difference between rocks and naff is like catastrophic.

(20:03):
Liquid are not winning that. Yeah, no, they're not.
They're not ever. I mean, like the way they played
in a couple of those games, they're probably push them a lot
closer than a lot of teams have this year.
Yeah. But let's be real.
Yeah. Do you think, do you think

(20:24):
liquor OK, If we had Liquor 2019now, where in the world would
they be? Would they be better than Spirit
and Mouse? I think at bare minimum they'd
be top five. Yeah, that, that would be my
sort of, I was thinking like 3rd, 4th.
I don't think they're better. Than yeah, yeah.
No, I don't think they'd be fifth.

(20:45):
Yeah, but I'm not sure whether they'd be 3rd or 4th.
Are they better than mouse and Mongols?
It's probably quite close. I'd say Mongols.
They trade series back and forth.
Just who has a better day. Mouse would probably be like
7030. Mouse.

(21:05):
Yeah, and Vitality is like 9010.Yeah, vitality.
To be everyone. You aren't.
You aren't special. Yeah, so like they're 3rd or
4th? Yeah, OK.
Yeah, that that was kind of my gut feeling as well, because
I'm. I'm not overly high on spirit at
the moment and we'll talk about that in a bit.
No, but like when you're a team who's so reliant on your rifles,

(21:29):
Donkey is going to just sort of,you know, give you some new
intestines. Perhaps, Perhaps.
Like you just need a great orpa to deal with donk most of the
time. Just just because, just before
we move on, because we said about Liquid 2019, Australia's
2018-2019. Yeah.

(21:50):
Where would they be today? Where are Australia's now?
15th. Yeah, I mean, honestly, whilst
that team was amazing for the time, I don't think if you if
you transported them their 2018 form into 2025, I don't think

(22:19):
they do much better. Than nobody.
I know that's insane, but I I. But it's funny, isn't it, right?
Because like I don't think and and the Liquid players will tell
you this themselves, 2019 Liquidwas not better than 2019
Australis even during their run.They just dodged them a lot.
They only ever like beat them once or twice if you include

(22:41):
that. Like what was it?
Was it I by power tournament or something like that?
Didn't Liquid win that one? So Australis were the better
team? Oh.
Yeah, they were. But if you put them into today's
game, Australis are probably a top ten team, whereas Liquid,
we've both said are a top five team.

(23:02):
Yeah, I had some boy Australis I.
Mean maybe? Were about how far ahead of the
meta they were, the meta was caught up.
Yeah, maybe we're underrating some of their star power a bit
like Medus Dupree Device is an incredible star trio.
Like it, it really is. And glaved himself was unreal at

(23:23):
that point. But there's just you.
You just get that like little feeling, don't you, that they
just wouldn't, they wouldn't transfer to another time as
well? You say like oh that's an
amazing star trio. Naff nuts Twist is the trio on
the 18th best team in the world at the moment.
The 8 like teams I saw the top yeah did not have trios like

(23:44):
that back when back then did. You OK?
Yes. But Nuts is being fucking awful.
I'm fine, but like even when nuts was good, this team was no
higher than like 12. So like teams are just like the
problem back then was that nobody knew how to play like

(24:04):
Australis. Everyone plays like Australis
now. And so you just, you sort of
like astronomers stop going headto head with teams who are like
just more gifted than them. I, I really believe that.
Like do you know what if you put2018 Australis into the current
day they'd be 3D Max? No, that's too far for me.

(24:31):
I'm afraid. That is, that is too far for me.
Maybe game of Legion? No, because they'd absolutely be
top five. I'm just not sure.
Like if you look at the current top five, top ten, sorry, they'd
absolutely be top ten. But if you look at the current
top five Vitality Male Spirit Mongols Falcons, I'm not sure

(24:57):
how many times they beat any of them.
They could beat Falcons. They could beat Spirit, OK, They
would win through. Like they've got stylistic
matchups that are advantageous, like against the sort of looser
teams who was reliant on stars, Like Australis were very good at
shutting down stars, but you canshut down Zai Wu and still get
13 forward by Vitality. Like you can shut down, yeah,

(25:19):
like one player on mouth. It just doesn't like they've got
three others who can carry the game.
I think their best chance would be against the Mongols.
No, I think their best chance isagainst Falcons or Spirit.
I think. I think they would probably be
like a real problem for Spirit. Maybe they.
Actually would shut down Donk. The Mongols are a bit limited in

(25:40):
terms of their fundamentals and that's something that Australis
probably would punish. Oh no, I think the Mongols are
being quite handily, to be honest.
Well, fair enough. It is strange though how we just
both agree liquid would be better.
I think they are like some some things even though they weren't

(26:03):
better at the time, just age better.
I mean, this is common in all sorts of things like.
Yeah, should we talk about Cologne?
What cologne's on, apparently. Well, I missed that.
Yeah, me too. But you know, it happened, so
let's talk about it. Let's start with Stage 1.

(26:25):
There's a couple of teams that we're not going to mention at
all without without saying theirname out loud.
I'm I'm sure you can guess one of them.
There's a green and yellow flag next to their name, but but very
quickly that's probably complexity.
Both teams just need to disband I.

(26:48):
Think that's probably need to just sort of bring back Jane and
they might be all right. Well, get rid of ice, so you get
rid of electronic. There's a start.
Yeah, bringing Jane and Norbert.I hate it, I said I don't like
it. Complexity though.
Absolutely atrocious team. What the fuck they?
They need to bring in Jame and Norbert.

(27:09):
Yeah, no, I don't even know whatyou do with complexity, but the
team's just just DOA. Well, I just think like,
considering the money troubles M80 is supposedly having, why
you're not lobbing money at M80 to at least, you know, try with
M80's better players. But.
Yeah. What do I have a go?
Moving a little further up the elimination chain, Tyler.

(27:32):
Pretty sad. Not overly concerned for them
though. I feel like, and this is rare
for me because I don't allow fora lot of things, I feel like I
can allow for some complacency in Cologne considering what they
did at Fisher Playground. Like they just won $1,000,000
event for fuck's sake. And dog Don Australis in the
final, Yeah, they ain't paying to the best their ability.

(27:55):
Yeah, it's a bit after the Lord Mayor's Show.
And also like good teams lose the 3D Max. 3D Max are such a
stylistic. They're particularly difficult
for a team like Ty Liu, who are very individual base.
Like 3D Max are a really difficult team to play against.
You actually have to. They're sort of like the modern

(28:16):
version of Big or VP where it's like a complete you're playing a
different game when you play against them and you have to
really grind them out and actually play the game on their
terms and be better than them. I don't think Tyloo yet are
capable of playing against a team like that.
Yeah, I mean, I still don't think 3D Max are any good, for

(28:36):
what it's worth. I think they're still as good as
they've always. They're in that gatekeeper
position. I don't care for that position.
But yeah, it's a hard game for Tyloo either way.
Yeah, do you want, do you want my +1 next or my -1 next?

(28:56):
I'll let. You Let's get all the negatives
out of the way. Pain bit of a concern for pain.
I don't know if they set the bartoo high in Austin, but this is
too like disappointing exits nowto start the season and.
This is what pain do Pain. Get your hopes up and then dash

(29:18):
them. They do it all the time.
Yeah, but I feel like this is, you know, at least on paper with
their signings, this is the bestpain roster has been and still
it keeps happening. And I just I'm not really sure
what the what the answer for it is.
Yeah, like I think I've stopped getting excited for pain because

(29:42):
this seems to just keep happening.
Yeah. And it frustrates me because I
really want to like pain but they just will keep letting you
down. Yeah, they're a fun team, but
it's just. Yeah, like unfortunately they
don't have the stones to be a really, really good team, that
they just don't have the ball for it and the pressure's on.

(30:04):
They just crumble every time. I wasn't going to mention them
as well B8 going out dead last. I know they had a couple of
difficult games. Well I say yeah no, Australis is
a hard game and they did get battered on map 1.
Yeah, I don't know BB8, they lost the fly quest, but let's

(30:27):
not be around. OK, OK, yeah, but fly quests are
on my positives list. No, no, no, no, no.
They look better with JKS. Like the firepower issue that
was there. I'm not sure it's there anymore.

(30:49):
Like Netec has been a big upgrade to them.
JKS is a huge upgrade over le house.
I wouldn't be surprised to see fly quest.
Like by the time we get to the major they're currently 31st
vRS. They'll be at minimum they'll be
like 20th. I think 15th isn't out the

(31:16):
question. I do and that's a fucking good
place to be for flight quest like that's a very good place.
So you. Just called 3D Max rubbish of
being 12. Yeah, I didn't say them good.
I just said that's a good place to be.
Yeah, I know, but it's like. For them it's a good place to be

(31:37):
for 3D Max on board. I see.
I like, I don't really agree, but then actually I've looked
who's like in the 15th or 20th, reckon is like, yeah, I know all
these teams are beatable. Yeah, that's the thing.
You go to say it and you're like, Nah, surely not.
And then you look at the teams above them.
I mean what the fox are TNL fanatic like?

(31:59):
That was the other thing I wanted to.
Talk about SO for context, before we went live, Sam told me
I've got three things I want to talk about, but I can't remember
what one of them is. He's going to really annoy me
when we get in and he's just, he's just had his epiphany.
I told him it normally happens 45 minutes into a recording, so
I was 12 minutes out. Yeah, no, we'll talk about that

(32:20):
at the end because they've they've actually announced it
since we started recording. But yeah, fanatic like not being
funny. It's fanatic.
Team Iberian Soul. Get a fucking crip ecstatic I
repeat my statement B8. Apparently they're shit so

(32:40):
they've had their one good event.
They'll disappear now. Hell is crazy with AK.
That one of the worst names I'veever seen.
Sorry. Character they signed him and
Aragon from. Aragon Now I don't mind that.
That's fine, Rhino. Apparently MIBR fucking wank bet

(33:01):
Boom fucking wank legacy fuckingwank liquid.
Hang on, listen at the one eventthey went to.
We all liked D'amel but let's let's not fuck about liquid.
We'll see. Complexity.
Shit fly. Quest would be complexity.
Yeah, well, I mean, I, you know,there's, there are very few

(33:23):
teams I wouldn't back against complexity I.
Have four more kids in the next 4 years and there'll be
complexity. Well, with, you know, I'm.
Not, yeah, maybe don't actually do that.
She don't need to go through that.
And then no to the rest of us, Actually, Nip.
And by that you don't mean the pregnancy part.

(33:44):
Carry on, carry on, move on. OK Nip actually would beat them.
Nip look solid. Yeah, Nip obviously bad.
Heroic. I don't know what to think of
Ferrari. We'll talk about them in a
minute. VP.
They're still. Better than fly quest?
VP are fucking useless pain, current pain.

(34:05):
They beat Lin vision. Lin vision will dip and then you
get to 15th and you're like they.
Don't sorry, they don't beat pain.
I think they would right now. No, they don't beat pain.
I think they would right now. I don't think pain's very good
at all right now. I don't think pain of great, but
they're better than fly. It's fly quest lads, It's fly

(34:28):
quest, painless Australis and liquid.
They don't you know, they're notgoing to write them off off that
like OK for focuses for Fury or liquid, neither team are
complete write offs, but like come on.
I don't know man, just got a feeling so heroic though.
Talk about heroic now. Big win bringing in Grix because

(34:54):
he seems more stable than Kersey.
Nylo a little bit disappointed. Yeah, given they had to wait so
long to get him in the teams, like unfortunately, like absence
makes the standards grow higher and yeah, he kind of isn't
living. Up to that, but not not even
just that. I mean like he was really
impressive on Metasport. It was like really disappointing

(35:15):
when he couldn't come into the roster and then they had X
Flowered who was really good forthem and they've benched in for
Nylo and I'm I'm sure they paid a decent sum of money for Nylo.
They did, yeah. But I don't think the way he's
playing right now, I really don't think I'd give him very

(35:36):
long at all before just bringingXL back in.
No. Well, yeah, the same, but they
clearly they they invested in Nylo.
They think he's the guy for them.
He's still very new in this team.
Like he's finding his feet. That's the problem is that like
the rest of the team got to all like grind together for a bit.
He's had to sit on the sidelines.

(35:58):
I think was he had like like problems, right?
He probably hasn't played. That I don't think they've
actually. Said yeah, yeah, sort of like.
I'm not asked anyway. No, no, no.
But my point is it's quite possible he hasn't really been
able to play as much as he wanted to in the last few months
and he's probably still getting up to match speed.
I don't give him a little longer.
It's also one of those things where I don't claim to have

(36:19):
watched a lot of Nilo play because I'm very big on not
watching bad online Counter Strike, but considering that he
was signed and then wasn't in the team and Tania was signed, I
imagine Nilo isn't fully comfortable with his spots.
Yeah, there's also that, right, like.

(36:41):
So maybe that's the thing. But again, right, like from what
I was hearing, there was a lot of interest in Tania over the
break. And I know that Grix only joined
because of Tania. But like would it not be better
off to cash in on Tania while his stock is high and then just

(37:01):
have X Valdin and Nilo? I think actually give Nilo a
fighting chance because I'm not overly cut throat with young
players. I think it's worth giving them
six months to to to improve or whatnot.
But a lot of teams don't actually have someone like X
Flower just sat on the bench doing nothing because he was

(37:25):
legitimately good. And I just don't think,
especially with how vRS is, I don't think it's worth falling
down the ladder. But then you'd make that same
argument about selling to NIA, right?
Like you don't want to fall downthe ladder, so you don't want to
sell him. Yeah, yeah.
But I mean more in terms of likefalling down the ladder just to
see if Nyla works, if it's actually that much of A concern,

(37:47):
just fuck him off somewhere. But for the for the rest of the
year, like just there, there'll be plenty of teams that would
jump at the chance to have him. I'm sure 500 with their new
Swedish IGL would love to have aSwedish star as well.
Just just shipping. I don't know if they've got the
money for that. I don't care.
I think I probably do. You send him to ENT's, they

(38:11):
don't have any money. No, that's the problem.
The one is they spent money on NYLO and they're not going to
get money back for. It well, how much?
How much could they have spent though, really, from a medical
contract? From what I remember, it was
quite, quite a decent fee because they just got the money
from selling that like to Falcons, right?
And it was a last minute deal, so they probably had to overpay
as well. Yeah, I guess.

(38:34):
Like there was, there wouldn't have been any.
They had like an hour. There's no way they would
negotiate. Yeah.
And they couldn't buy an album. OK, well the only other thing I
had left to say in Stage 1, and it's technically stage 2 as well
because they've beaten them today, Nip looked really solid.

(38:56):
Yeah. But really good.
I mean, like it's a shame that John sweet Rice didn't work out
for them. But John McAfee is a it's just
pretty. He's pretty soft.
He's the firepower upgrade that they needed to to probably take
him to the next level. He's one of those players who
sort of came out of FPL and you don't know what to expect.

(39:18):
Like you can go one of two ways.They can either be firepower and
nothing else or there's like, oh, they're just like like a
normal player but with more firepower, which is what he is
like. He's he's more brokey than B
Mass. Yeah, and I mean, like, I think
even we have aristos like they were going to climb anyway, but

(39:39):
their ceiling now is a lot higher than it was before.
He also massively lowers their average age.
That was an old team. He's a kid.
Yeah, but so. Half a snappy's age.
I wouldn't be overly surprised to see Nick break into the top
ten at least one this year. The.

(40:00):
Physically, physically should they have everything in place
and they also have probably a top 10 IGL still.
Yeah, I mean it's. A big, big part of it.
I mean like you look at top 10 vRS right now, Australis will
drop Aurora. I'm still expecting to drop
without Anubis in the mat pool phase.
Let's see how they can do over aconsistent period of time.

(40:22):
Tyler, as much as I love them, you ain't staying in the top 10
for very long. Furia.
I actually think Furia might have some power.
Navi we'll get onto G2 could go up game.
Legion I doubt, and when you look at the other teams around,
Nick is the only ones I really expect to climb.

(40:44):
Yeah. So I think there is a spot for
them in the top 10. Definitely, I do 100% agree they
look like a very good team. They got one of the best Igls
still man for man feels like they can go head to head with
anyone outside the top five. I don't see any reason they
can't be like the 8th best team in the world.
We said that from we said that from inception as well.

(41:06):
It's. It's just taking this.
Long for them to get there because of the vRS system.
Yeah. So I guess we are like kind of
moving into Stage 2 now, but is is there any stage one things
that we haven't spoken about that you'd like to to quickly
touch on? Yeah, stop inviting BIG and MIBR
to events. We weren't meant to say their

(41:26):
names, man, for fuck's sake. Right?
Stage 2, Stage 2. So the actual real teams have
arrived and again, there's a fewI don't want to talk about.
It's not because they're bad like with stage one, it's just
because they're actually quite good.

(41:47):
Mouse Vitality, the Mongols, There's no need to talk about
them, no need. Aurora, pretty much the same
boat. They're not playing with Santa
Reyes. Yeah, like nothing they do here
really makes any difference to how we think about them.
Yeah, I've already said my prediction about how I think
they'll struggle a lot more without Anubis.
Seems reasonable. They've played two maps.

(42:13):
We'll talk about it more in the future.
They're currently 6 nil down to spirit.
Oh, are they? Are they playing right now?
Yeah, they're playing right now.They're six nil down Australis.
I want to talk about Australis. Yeah, rubbish.
Australis look so much better with Hoaxy.
So so much better but their floor is still just so fucking

(42:40):
low. How can?
This is what I still don't understand though because Kadian
has been wanked for a while and maybe it was just Tessa and
shush right? But even that feels like a
degree of a cop out. How do you have like Stan and

(43:01):
Yabby on your team? How do you have device?
How do you have? Hooks in Group stage.
Who's a reasonable a reasonably good IGL?
Like he's actually a pretty goodIGL stare.
I'm not. I've never been high on stare.
I don't get stare. No, he's fine, but I don't.
But how do you have this and have such a such a low flaw that

(43:23):
when it goes badly for you, you are just fucking appalling?
Like they got absolutely fuckingreamed by Furia.
They did get just an asshole. OK, It's just and The thing is,
you can't even blame hoops because this is multiple IG LS,
multiple iterations. That's right.
Like there's there's no individual that you can even
blame because this just happenedover multiple different rosters.

(43:45):
Like the ship of thesis has beenrebuilt and it's still sinking.
Like they spent so much money and pissed everyone off to build
this team and it's it's not evenbetter than like Heroic who they
sold all the players off like. Would you rather?
Be in a heroic position or australis is right now.
I just don't, I just don't even get it at this point, though,

(44:06):
because sometimes you watch themand it's like, OK, this this is
a team that's starting to form. Like they're actually beginning
to look like they're getting back somewhere.
They should be top ten soon. And then they do this and it's
just like I, I don't know who toblame anymore.
And it's it's like I said earlier, like I think just

(44:28):
saying like, oh, it's because Tesses and Shush were the really
stable ones on heroic, you know,the pieces that you need and all
that bullshit. Sure, fine, OK, that that's
fine. But it does like at this point,
it feels like a cop out because Tesses has evolved into
something he like wasn't back then And and Shush kind of has

(44:49):
on on Nip as well. And even then they were only the
stable pieces because they were in an all Pi GL system, which
fundamentally changes how the riflers work and what riflers
can be on the team. So I think it was.
I just don't get. I think a Heroic was just a
perfect storm. Like it was just they had all

(45:12):
five players playing at their absolute peak.
They had a system that nobody else was playing that hadn't
really been figured out. And it was like at the end of CS
GO as well where like they they didn't really adapt, if I
remember rightly, like Katie andreally struggled to start CS2
and he's never. Really struggled throughout.

(45:32):
Well, yeah, yeah, quite. But like the start CS2, he was
really stinky and I think he just hasn't adapted to CS2 at
all. And he was such a key part of
that system. You say the system only works
with an OP IGL, which you know, they don't have.
Stan only ever looked good in that one team.

(45:52):
Like realistically like he he has never been as good outside
of it. I think fundamentally what we
talked about earlier with anonymous randomizer, like most
teams have like 3 1/2 star players, Australis have like 2
1/2. I think that's generous.
I really do think that's generous.
Yeah, well, I'm, I'm sort of being nice.

(46:13):
I'd say I'd say 2. Two, but that's that's one
player is made-up of two halves.Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, like they don't I I mean in the game they went out
Hoaxie was their highest rated player like that just.
He was also their best player inthe final they lost against Ty
Lue. Yeah.
It shouldn't happen. Like, how do you have Stan in

(46:34):
the avian and you're going out in Group stages?
That's the worry. But it's not even on stage.
If he's on stage, you go, yeah, Stan's always had this problem.
This isn't even on stage like. But it but it's also at the
point where it's like, I don't know what you do to this fucking
team. All right, OK, we all know
Tessa's time on Falcons is running out, so you absolutely
have to get him. Yeah.

(46:56):
Who the fuck do you get rid of Stare?
When Stare is bad he is fucking woeful.
Like he's awful on a bad day. There aren't.
There aren't many players that have a bad day like Stare does.
Borup. Well, Borup has a bad day.
Everything goes like I feel so. But when he has a bad day, it's

(47:18):
like, you know, you just have those days where just nothing
goes for you, like you, you, you, you know, you got to make
cereal. You drop your bowl on the floor.
You got to pick it up. You get a cut on the glass on
the porcelain. Yeah, but when I have those
days, they do not coincide with Borup's bad days.
When Borup has a bad day, the leprechaun just brings me the
pot of gold from the end of the rainbow.

(47:39):
Like he just, he wants me to have it.
It's a fantastic day. And Borup, this isn't even
because I don't like you, mate. You're not listening to this.
I don't know what I'm fucking saying this like this.
I think you're fucking excellent.
You provide humour like no otherCounter Strike professional ever
has. Genuinely, I watched him.
I think was it Cologne a few years ago?

(48:01):
He had probably the most like yeah game I've ever seen.
What was it? Was it a?
Semi final semi final against G2I believe.
Tony Blamef is calling and Blamef just kept sending him to
his death. And then like, he would
occasionally get like a lurk, like a passive lurk role and he
would watch something for a minute, he'd turn around and
three players would walk out. He's like, he was so unlucky.

(48:22):
I've never seen anything like it.
I think that's like we've had a lot of times where we've been in
stitches. That's up there that that
entirely. It was ancient, wasn't it?
Yeah, it was, yeah. Yeah, that entire map was up
there. We were just pissing ourselves
surrounds. It was like blame F would flash
him into cave and like there'd be 3 players there and two of

(48:42):
them would be flash and the third one would just immediately
headshot him and then his teammate would clean up with all
three. You'd like I just feel so bad
for him. Like just getting back to the
point. If you cut Stare for Tessa's,
you probably improves the team, but I don't think it moves the
needle that much. Yeah, but I don't think he's.

(49:03):
I think it's got to be Stan or Yappy and probably Stan.
Stan is the the real disappointment.
He's meant to be you, you know, your 1.2 rated star and what is
it? But like, actually, what is it?
Because it can't be impressive. It's going to be higher than I
think it is, but it can't be. Impressive, like 1.11 or
something? Last month, one point O 6.

(49:28):
They've made a final in the lastmonth.
It's one point O 6, which actually that's about what I
thought it would be. That's not even higher than I
thought it would be. If you look last last three
months, that is 1.11. Good guess from you Stan can't
be going one point O 6. That's that's not OK, no.

(49:49):
No, they they have to be not Danish.
It's the only way forward. They have to go international.
I I agree because like, OK, you saw, you saw in Tesses, you, you
get better from tesses. You've still got a very obvious
ceiling. Yeah.
Where'd where'd you go then? Who?

(50:10):
Who'd you get then? Who isn't a bum and not in your
team? It's absolutely insane that
we're talking about the fact that a national Danish team
can't really break top ten. Look, how did we get here?
What happened? I don't even think it's insane.
No, but it it would have been three years ago.

(50:32):
Four years ago. Five years ago.
No, but like. Certainly seven years ago.
OK, yeah, it it might have been hard to predict back then, but
if you you know, if you if you look at how counter strikers
evolved and and become so firepower heavy, and then you
look at these Danish teams back then, OK, Dupree and Magis, a

(50:56):
great amount of firepower. Were either of them actually
individually the best in their roles?
In their role, you could argue Dupree was definitely up there.
I I. Honestly they were both up
there. Dupree was so, but Dupree was
contending with names like Nico and Electronically.

(51:17):
Yeah. Yeah, and he was up there, but I
think everyone would pretty muchagree.
I know you've got your thing with Dupree, but I think
everyone would pretty much agreethat.
I also have a thing again, so I've never been a massive fan of
electronic and I'm not really sure why.
I kind of, I respect that. Just always.
I didn't know that about it. I like it.
Yeah. Yeah.
If you go back to see some of myreally old tweets as one, like I

(51:40):
remember there was a meme where I was just like, I can't
remember this, but I basically called Electronic a bot.
Now if you've got why do you notrate electronic?
I I could not tell you. I just, there's just something
about him. I just found him a really
frustrating player to watch. No, that is very valid.
But as as a general, like general consensus is that those
two would be higher than Dupree and and Magisk.

(52:03):
God, that was many years ago andI can't really remember at the
time maybe Magisk was consideredto be the best in in his roles.
Yeah, I think. I think he was.
He he. He probably was.
He probably he was also coming off the back of that absolute
like scorching he did to NA Optic.
Which is like, yeah. I I genuinely don't think I've

(52:23):
ever seen a player be so he was on opposite.
Well like device was obviously atop 2 Opera as well and outside
of Australia Glebe was good. Zip.
Nick, like Glebe, was fantastic.Yeah, yeah, yeah, You know
that's not but outside of Australis.
Yeah. Valde and config yeah, AZI like

(52:46):
do we do we find that we no, butOK, like azi is a great example,
right. I was going to say GAED or.
Azi was better than GAED. Yeah, no, he was.
Yeah. But what I mean is, is that
there are players below Config and Valde outside of Australis
that clearly had like mechanicalskill but for someone like Gade

(53:09):
AZ a little different. But for someone like Gade, it's
like mechanical skill on the same level as keto where
occasionally you're going to have one of these games you just
shit on people because you're hitting heads all the time.
You're not actually. Good.
I think Gade was actually cursedwith being Danish, but he I
think he was on north and big itdoesn't it almost like it's like

(53:33):
I think he was actually really gift, like he was really gifted,
but you're never going to see a player like that flourish when
he plays for. North and then well, maybe,
maybe anyway, my my point being Denmark never really was gifted
with the firepower of like othernations.

(53:54):
And I know a lot of it's been like these smaller nations that
has one gifted player going intoa team and, and all that, but I
don't think and, and it, it goes, it goes lower down the
chain, right? Like I've, I've spoken about
this in interviews with Pimp andwith Bobsky.
And like all these Danish high level Danish figures, they know
it as well. They don't have the firepower in

(54:16):
their nation that the other nations have.
They just have fucking solid fundamental counter strike that
everyone wants to play that ain't suitable to modern counter
strike. My take is that they do and have
always had that firepower. They just don't know what to do
with those sort of players. Like they didn't know what to do
with a player like Config. They don't know what to do with

(54:39):
these sort of like what I would call mercurial talents.
Like they, because of the way Danes play Counter Strike, they
sort of morph these otherwise talented players into system
players and that ends up sort ofneutering them as a player, but
makes the team better, I think. I think there's a lot loads of
really incredibly talented Danish players.

(54:59):
I think just culturally the way they play the game sort of
rounds off those edges, as it were.
Like simple wouldn't come out ofDenmark.
They would. They would turn them into
device. Yeah, like.
It's it's no, I I agree with that, but this is what I mean.
Like we've we've how counter strikers gone.
I just don't think Denmark is suited for it and I'm not sure.

(55:25):
Which is just wild to think. And I'm not sure that will
change either because a face it game against a Danish stack, you
get a couple more people that rely more on their aim.
Now there are a couple, but theystill play exactly the same.
You have a hard time on the CT side?
Maybe, yeah. But like you always have a hard

(55:46):
time on the CT, on the CT side against the Danish stat because
you know they've got 1,000,001 executes that they've practised
in the after school club and that's hard to deal with.
It's not even a joke they actually have after.
Schools and sports clubs in Denmark, it's not even a joke.
But then you go onto the T side,you don't even need your
executes. You shit on them because you aim
better than them. But it's it's it's just it's

(56:06):
just the way it is. Yeah, but yeah, Australis.
Go back to after school class. Yeah, because I don't know where
you're going to be in six monthstime, but you will not be sick,
which is where you are right now.
Yeah. Let's talk about Falcons.
Let's rattle off the last few teams.

(56:27):
With nearly an hour in and. There's some new ones, Falcons,
Kaos UK. Predictably, it's just really
good. The team itself, not so good.
It's almost like they are missing a player.
Monos is the worry though isn't it?
Like he's just doesn't look the same player as he did this time

(56:47):
last year. Are you still good?
Don't get me wrong, but like. No, I agree.
He, he, there's something off about him.
I agree, but at the same time like the Falcons are just so far
doing exactly what I thought Falcons would do.
But you can't bring Kaisuke intothis team without making another

(57:07):
change. It's just not.
It's not doable, it's not something that will ever work.
So until Tessa goes, I just don't think Falcons are going to
be very good at all. Yeah, I mean, which is again, I,
I again seems weird to say because it feels like Tessa
should be a really good piece tohave around these stars, but it

(57:30):
just doesn't work at all. But it's just, it's just too
much aggression, isn't it? They need a gym fat or a bit or
everyone. Needs a gym fast, you know.
Sure, but they need that kind ofplayer just to balance their
team back out. Yeah, they do.
Yeah, talking quickly about the other two young stars that have

(57:51):
come into teams, Makazi, he seems decent enough.
Yeah. No, I think themselves are a bit
odd though, aren't they? Because there was a game before
we went. Live, I said it doesn't feel
like every like it feels like every map Navi plays has

(58:12):
absolutely no bearing on the next or the previous one.
They're like sitcom episodes. Yeah, 'cause like, I mean, so
for context, when we just, when we started recording this
episode, it was just after map 1of Navi Mouse.
Now, if you didn't watch that oryou haven't seen the scoreboard,

(58:34):
the mouse scoreboard looks perfectly normal.
We'll get we'll get Charlie to put it up on screen.
The mouse scoreboard looks fine.It looks normal.
You know Torsi's on top and Fatsragging.
Everyone else is doing their shit.
The Navi scoreboard, Emma has 30kills, 20 deaths and a 1.9
rating. And if you add up the kills from

(58:55):
the rest of the team, you do notequal 30.
Do you know what the insane thing is?
Emma has the most deaths. Like he's not he's not baiting.
But yeah, how do you get how do you get 30 and 20 and everyone
else has died less than you and doesn't even add up to your
kills? Like what is everyone else
doing? Genuinely like how I don't

(59:20):
understand how you can be aggressive and have a 1.9
rating. No, I know.
Nobody else frags. I know that games like these,
you know, they tend to typicallybe anomalies.
Like if you look at the the nextmap, wonderful top fragged IMA
was still good. The other three didn't do as
well. Mouse were mouse things.

(59:41):
And I know you meant to generally discard anomalies, but
this is a fucking worrying one, ain't it?
Like this is one that's hard to to look past.
And I said it a couple weeks agowhen me and Jack did the the
roster Mania recap. It still feels like this Navy
team is just like it's a walkingcorpse.

(01:00:02):
Do you want a good start from that that map?
Go on. If you take any round at random,
there's over a one in three chance that Emma got the opening
kill in it. There were 23 rounds.
Emma got eight first kills. That's quite good.
Novi lost 1310. Like he literally he can't do

(01:00:23):
any more than this. What is he supposed to do?
This is a unbelievable performance.
This is this should be a carry job and nobody else has even
even closed. It's a ridiculous performance
and everyone else has shit the bed.

(01:00:43):
Speaking of shitting the bed, Zwei Zwei, I don't know how you
want to say it, how it's meant to be said.
I prefer swy. I feel like it sounds better.
It's probably. Zvoi really, but.
He started a bit slow, hasn't he?
Yeah, but I don't know how he's doing in their game currently.
I'll have a quick look. He's 7 and 8, Donkey's 10 and 9.

(01:01:08):
The only player above him. He was really impressive at the
Major, yeah. You've got to give him time.
He's. So young and you've got to give
him time. I agree you've got to give him
time, but I'm starting to get a feeling, and I don't think it's
necessarily because of Donk. I don't think it's necessarily
because of Shiro. I'd be more willing to put the

(01:01:31):
blame on Chopper or Halle. Bit of a cursed chalice.
Yeah, I'm feeling there might only be room for two players on
Spirit, and I think that might be what ultimately ends up
holding Spirit back. Yeah, I don't think that's
unfair. Of course, it you know, it could
be a thing. You get rid of Choppy, you get

(01:01:51):
rid of Halle, and it happens anyway because Donkey's just
dunk and Shiro's also require. A lot of space I think.
But very good. But I feel like other teams
manage just a little bit better.Like I feel like if you go back
to like G2, like PG 2 or whatever, which is probably the
only team you can compare because you have Nico and Malps

(01:02:15):
and and even even before Malps, but you, you know, you have
money cities or you have these players that have space.
Feels like that should be the model, and it feels like it
proves that the model is doable.Yeah, no I do agree like it
should be doable, but then it may be this is a different like

(01:02:35):
maybe Don can share are just uniquely difficult player.
I mean, I feel like Gambit had similar problems where like with
Shiro, it's like they had Shiro in exile, but they never really
had that third star. Like they never really had a
consistent third man. Like they always felt like I
think Duncan Shearer do take up a lot of space.

(01:02:55):
And I know that other teams haveplayers who also take up a lot
of space. But I think with Donkey, you
have to give him as much space as he needs because he's so
destructive that you just have to like, almost Hail Mary, like,
just give him what he wants. Yeah.
But as we've seen, that isn't actually conducive to, you know,
being the best team in the worldconsistently, is it?

(01:03:17):
No, but they did win a major. They did, but I also, you know,
I'm always strike my spirit thatone isn't enough.
I don't. I've said for a while, I don't
think Dunk will have a long career.
No, I really don't. Like I think by 23 he's fucking
out of here if that just won't be asked anymore, but that.

(01:03:41):
I mean that is like 7 years. Yeah, but when you compare, it's
quite like Nico. But yeah, I just, I don't know,
I think it's something to keep an eye on with Spirit because
I've I'm already thinking that we won't see them back on top,
at least this year. Not without a crazy like peak

(01:04:04):
performance coming out of ZontixChopper or or Oz.
Why like 1 where they are just completely overshooting all
their metrics? Just some?
Magics. Yeah, just just quickly before
we leave Cologne then and we quickly talk about the fanatic
thing, G2 looks solid enough. I I've said before, I think they
won Roster Mania and I really think they did good business.

(01:04:28):
I think it's going to take some time though for for it to
actually be like noticeable in terms of that's a result you're
impressed by. Yeah, yeah.
I mean, they've, they've only lost the vitality so far.
It's really hard to criticize atall.
Yeah, exactly. But I think, you know, there was
rumours they were going to get nuts or X Kaspersky.

(01:04:54):
What the fuck? You actually say his name
because I dodged it earlier to make the antivirus joke.
Yeah. Kaspersky I would assume but.
Yeah, and and Mattis, I think they probably landed on the best
one for their team. Mattis was a nice pick up.
I was a clever one. I like that a lot.
Yeah, I think nuts could have been very good, but if you got
liquid nuts, it would have been fucking horrible.

(01:05:16):
Yeah. So.
It's a gamble, but it's like onewith high upside.
Mattis, I think is weirdly like more reliable and I kind of
think G2 needed that a little bit.
But also, like any concern aboutHunter IG Ellen, when you
remember that he's stepping intothat role we've saw as his
coach, you do just worry about it a lot less.

(01:05:38):
Yeah, it saw as well. And the previous one, the
previous one was snacks with taz.
So it's like, you know. Yeah, I mean, it ain't going to
take me to be better than. That it's fine.
It's going to be fine. And finally, then liquid, maybe
marginally better, still entirely underwhelming.
Yeah, that's yeah, essentially. How long before we're back in

(01:06:02):
the same place? Like we're already in.
The same place they're probably going.
To go out O2 here because they're playing phase of them,
you know? Well.
They're in trouble. Yeah, but I think a couple
months ago wouldn't have had them to make it out of the play

(01:06:23):
in. Yeah, there, yeah.
OK, so as as an actual thing to to leave Cologne on, I guess we
both think Vitality are winning it.
Yeah, it's like, it is the boring choice, but who the hell

(01:06:43):
else you're going to pick? Who plays them in the final?
Mouse again, boring but like. Actually, do you know what?
Now I've looked at it, I'm changing my mouse.
Are going to win Cologne, changemy mind.

(01:07:05):
Mortality. No, no mouse are going to win.
At some point it's going to be in Cologne and and and finally.
Then, because I don't want to explain it any further, Cypher
has joined Fanatic. Yeah, I mean like.
Any thoughts? Cypher to make like you get you

(01:07:28):
get a brief window in Counter strike when you have a good you
have like you know you want likelightning in a bottle
performance. You have a brief window to
capitalize and you have to do itlike you have to make that
choice and not join doomed Tier 2 mix rosters, which he sadly
did not do and it's probably torpedoed his career to the
point where he has to join Fanatic.
Yeah, I mean, it's been a stringof questionable things

(01:07:53):
deciphering. Not all of them are his fault,
to be fair to him, and I actually think this fanatic team
has a mild chance. I interviewed Blame F the other
day and I did say to him then like he's kind of a perfect
player for Blame F. Yeah, he's pretty selfless and
pretty aggressive. So that that could be really
good. But again, I just don't see,

(01:08:16):
sadly, I just don't see fanatic climbing in the same way Nip
has. It just it doesn't feel
realistic to me. No size has done that gauntlet
run of like team she'd expect like ships to join do you know
what I mean? Like he's on TSM and bleed
back-to-back it's like. BC game?

(01:08:37):
BC game? I'm still confused what ABC game
even is. The only reason I know who they
were is because Guardian was their coach and then they signed
a bunch of like actually cool players.
They're like Lecro and Nork for a.
Bit and they also got Guardian out of retirement for a little.
Yeah, which is also cool. You know, I'm ABC game fan

(01:08:58):
putting it out there. Well, currently.
The Nexus Assanito Prime tab, soI've taken it back.
It's not unlike you to support ashit team.
Anyway, that's it for this week.It's been nice having you around
again, Elliot. We don't.
We don't get to speak with wordsvery often anymore.

(01:09:21):
Normally it's just imitating grunts on discord.
And even that's rare. Yeah, I, you know, I'm, I'm very
busy at the moment, job searching and looking after the
little boy. Have you considered selling your
ass? I don't have one left, I already

(01:09:46):
sold it. On that, on that note, I'm I'm
Sam at Animo CS2. There's A1 and A2 he's Elliot at
ADS yeah, RCS, or rather lack ofRCS, my favorite Pokémon, by the
way, and cringe pick. I'll be back next week.

(01:10:11):
It's not actually, but anyway, I'll be back next week.
Elliot will. I don't know.
Not. But who knows what he'll be
doing? Perhaps on a street corner with
his his his breasts flapping in the wind.
Yeah, I'll be talking about whoever won Cologne.

(01:10:32):
I imagine so. Vitality.
Probably see you in the next onein.
A bit.