Karrigan isn’t a top 3 IGL, Liquid won’t make the Major and more IEM Cologne preview feat. STYKO

With Jack already at IEM Cologne, Sam is joined by former MOUZ player and Major semi-finalist STYKO for this week’s episode of Overtime on Inferno to look back on FISSURE Playground and preview the upcoming Cologne event.There’s the typical jokes about Snax, reasons why TYLOO may not be able to carry this form into bigger events, and a conversation about whether or not karrigan is a top 3 IGL, as well as Sam being happy that someone with actually real Major credentials is his guest for once.Watch STYKO's content:https://www.youtube.com/@UCWkIV8xqWoDEZ15xSBxTr3Q 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/STYKOcsThumbnail Jazz by: https://twitter.com/jameshserpa 📌 Interested in advertising with us? Reach out to crew[a]readtldr.com00:00 - Intro/-STYKO +STYKO05:08 - Fissure Playground recap32:14 Take of the week41:56 - IEM Cologne preview01:12:18 - Outro

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
So Sticko, what would you, what would you do right?
If you're on a team maybe back in say 2018 or so, and it was a
pretty good team and they, they benched you for a legend of the
game. And then they, they wouldn't
have won a tournament. And it was, it was all right,

(00:22):
but they decided that Legend of the game actually wasn't very
good. And then they just brought you
back and you didn't get to have the glory, but at least you were
back on the team. What?
What would you do? So strangely, this might have
had happened. I it's, it's a crazy story and a
weird storyline. But yeah, I was benched.

(00:45):
I came back and I, what I would have done is that I take that
opportunity to kind of show everyone that, you know, getting
rid of me in the 1st place mighthave been a mistake.
But then I realized during my career that I shouldn't be
proving anything to anyone. It's kind of like I'm baiting

(01:07):
myself. So what I should have done
instead is just to fully grasp the, the, the opportunity to
come back on the team that was performing really well and keep
doing that. But we fail to do so.
I feel like those couple of months I was away from the team
didn't really help the team at all, despite them winning.
Like, yes, New York, which is crazy, but yeah, I took it.

(01:31):
I think with my experience rightnow, I would have done things
differently. I kind of want to know, but I
also feel like that's something for you to keep to yourself.
I don't know you can. You can share what you would do
differently if you want. Well, it's, it's a hindsight

(01:53):
2020, right? But I feel like I didn't really
ask the team like during the time when I was away, like, what
were their like problems or whatwas the problem with snacks
being my replacement? Because that would at least let
me know like how they're feelingabout this whole period.

(02:13):
What what they disliked about him.
So I can learn from it, right, to not repeat that mistake
because clearly it didn't work out at all.
I mean, they either won a tournament or they bumped out
last place of every other tournament.
So there was like the consistency issue was huge and I
didn't really care during that time that I was away, I had my

(02:33):
own new kind of team, which I didn't know if I'm going to be
participating with on a lot of tournaments, which was cloud 9.
I had my own problems and I had to redefine myself as player new
roles, and then I had to come back and kind of do what I was
doing before. So it was kind of messy in my
head as well. But yeah, I would definitely be

(02:54):
more like trying to glue the team together and I wasn't doing
enough in my opinion on that. OK, OK.
Well, in that case, then we'll, we'll get into the we'll get
into the podcast. For those of you who are, I
know, either blind, deaf, or maybe just stupid stickos here

(03:16):
this week. Jack's, I think currently flying
to Cologne, so he'll be joining me this week.
We're going to preview Cologne abit, talk about Fisher
Playground a bit. And yeah, it it's nice to have a
player that, or at least a guest, I guess, and a player
who's actually made a major playoffs and not have Jack
pretending like he made a major playoffs because he was a junior

(03:39):
analyst for Nip. Would you would you say that
counts, Martin? Junior analyst, I don't think I
have ever had that kind of position like in my team when
I've played. It just shows how Nip is
probably overstaffed with peoplerunning the team.

(03:59):
But at the same time, I guess whatever he did, it worked.
He was a part of the success, soI will take it.
I will take it. Well, he you didn't want that
you. Didn't.
No I didn't, no I didn't. He literally got paid like £20
to watch like Mother star ridersplay a play a map of vertical or

(04:21):
something, which I guess I thinkthey were quite good at.
Weren't they actually back in like 20?
What would it have been? Stockholm 21.
Spanish team you mean? Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I think they were solid. Yeah, it was, it might have been
like pre COVID, right, I think as well.
No Stockholm so post code. Oh OK.
Well, one of them. Stockholm was during COVID, I

(04:42):
remember us playing from the hotel rooms and you have to be
kind of. Isolated.
Oh yeah, yeah, it wasn't it. Was like on the brink of it, you
know, you had to still get the checkups and everything.
Yeah, well, it counts then. That's annoying.
Run the intro music. OK, so let's let's start with

(05:13):
talking about Fisher Playground then.
Were you surprised when when Tyler won $1,000,000 event?
Oh, yeah, man, I, I saw this tweet the other day from someone
that they put like a top eight playoff brackets of the Fisher
Tournament and then ask a question.
Do you think that Fisher tournament organizer had this,

(05:36):
that kind of teams in mind when they announced the tournament?
And yeah, you look at the $1 million event and then there are
teams that are, let's say, outside the top ten.
Well, obviously Australia is inside the top 10 right now.
But I mean, it's a weird tournament.
It's the start of the season. A lot of changes were happening.

(05:58):
A lot of teams surprised me positively and then obviously
there were some negatives as well.
It's kind of, it was kind of a messy Counter Strike.
I didn't watch it too much because I had to underwent the
surgery. So it was kind of painful for me
to keep sitting and watching Counter Strike and let alone the
bad. I'm not saying it was a bad
counter strike, but it was. Let's say I'm excited more for a

(06:21):
Cologne. So a tournament, A tournament
like this, and I guess it's, it's kind of weird to have one
that's such high profile as whatreally is the season opener.
But from the from the player's perspective as to whether you're
in the tournament or, you know, you're one of the other teams
that declined the invite. Do you look at the field in this

(06:44):
tournament and the amount of newplayers and think this is going
to be a marker for consistent results?
Or is maybe some of this going to be a an anomaly because like
you said, you know a few of the teams you maybe wouldn't have
expected to be in the play offs?I think it's a good stepping
stone to actually start the season strong for a lot of

(07:05):
teams. I think it's like a good testing
ground to see where we're currently standing, especially
in terms of individual power. I guess a lot of teams that
attended Fisher, they've been practicing for at least like 10
days prior to the event and therefore they maybe had to cut
their break a little bit short, which might come and hone

(07:29):
something at the end of the busyseason where there will be major
in Budapest. We will see.
People will be super tired. I can imagine.
Like you don't even know how much those 10 days of a shorter
break could interfere with your mental state as well.
So I, I think it's better to have this kind of an event

(07:49):
compared to Cologne as a first event of the season.
That that scenario we've had I think previous years where
Cologne kind of started the second season.
And in my opinion, it's not thatbad.
It's just that a lot of surprises happened in a lot of
like in a tournament with a lot of prize running.

(08:10):
Therefore, it will affect vRS ranking a lot and some teams
that played well here or played the group stage well, let's say
they got a lot of prize money, which will boost them up and
potentially could even survive awhole season based on invites
thanks to the Fisher Ground play, right?

(08:30):
I mean, trick Fisher playground,right?
Right. Is it playground ground?
Playground. Playground.
Yeah, Playground. Do you think that's a problem?
Do you think that's like an issue that vRS still needs to
address? Because it is like, it is this
weird thing, right? Where like this tournament kind
of is a Tier 2 tournament, but it has a very, very good Tier 1

(08:53):
prize pool that it does kind of manipulate vRS of it.
Is that an issue that still needs to be addressed within it
that just hasn't been tested yet?
I don't know if I would name it an issue.
I think it's just how it is. It's it's a new system, new way
of thinking about points. And it's not an issue because

(09:16):
everyone is like part of it. Everyone has equal kind of terms
how to deal with it and some people or like some organization
decided to skip the tournament for the purpose of training more
for Cologne for example. You know, everyone has different
strategy. I wouldn't call it an issue, but
I would definitely call it like a change of vision.

(09:38):
What do you want to do? Either grind 4 points from the
get go, attend as many tournaments or are you going to
just pick your tournaments carefully and hope that you over
perform in those. And soon we will see which teams
are did the correct decision andwhich did poor decision
depending on their movement in the rankings.

(09:58):
Because vRS. Ultimately, this was the first
season of VR full vRS in effect,and we've already seen some
breakthrough performances, let'ssay from Nip going from unranked
to top 25 EU. And then we've seen not a lot of
teams like crash out completely.But I think the Liquid is, for
example, on the brink of it, thanks to the way they're

(10:20):
dealing with the season. Yeah, I'm we'll have some fun
talking about them soon, I'm sure, or at least at least I
will. We'll see how unhinged you get.
But let's let's talk about a couple of the, the, the teams
from Visa Playground then. And we'll, we'll, we'll start
with Chinese CSI guess because you know, a strong major

(10:43):
performance for them and now winning this here.
Do you think the tide has kind of turned for Chinese CS maybe
somewhat off the back of the Mongols as well?
Or do you think we're just seeing because they're actually
kind of consistently at events? Again, maybe we're seeing
something that might soon get, you know, anti anti started out
in terms of their performances. It always happens here and there

(11:07):
throughout even my career that there is a certain period in
time where certain Chinese team,usually it was Tailu that they
just over perform for a couple of events, not even in the row.
But like there is a certain period where they just win and
get like deep runs and then they're going to like crash out

(11:27):
for a year or two, right, Not barely attending any events.
And I think there's been a drought for a long, long time
now that the Chinese team just didn't go that far.
Obviously Mongols is an Asian team and that could have
influenced the quality of practice as well in the overall
region. But I'm I'm surprised that two

(11:50):
Chinese teams actually topped the group in in Fisher.
Tyler made it all the way to thefinal.
It's not that they played bad, but I honestly think if you're
playing with a coach as a standing, you should not be
topping the group against teams like Australia's MIBR and versus
Pro. But they did and well, I'm just

(12:10):
kind of impressed. Did they actually even the first
quarter final was with a coach which is 3D Max and that to me
like these wins to me makes no sense.
So, yeah, so I kind of get this from like, I know their coach
was a pro. Yeah, not not too long ago,
right? Like when did Zoe King retire?

(12:31):
I think it was, I don't follow the scene too much, but I think
it was a couple of years ago. He was definitely a player and a
good one. Yeah, yeah.
But I think it was like it was part of this style of roller
coaster, you know, like one or two times they were good and
then for two years they were kind of like just a filler team
at the events. So I didn't expect too much from

(12:52):
him and not that he like over delivered, but at the same time
like the the wins that they've gotten.
Pretty convincing right? 3D Max didn't even get the
double digits against them on 2 mats.
That's the one that that like blows my mind the most, like
because I'm not listen, I'm, I'mEnglish, man.
There's, you know, there's, there's issues with the French

(13:14):
there. They've they're like centuries
old. So I'm not a massive fan of 3D
Max, so I don't hide from that, but I consider them to be a, you
know, pretty, a pretty stable team.
I do respect them and Mac is oneof the only all IG LS left so
I'm actually like a a big fan ofhim.
Reluctantly. I I just I don't know how 3D

(13:37):
Macs lose that game ever like that.
For me, that's the most disappointing loss of all.
I think it's it's unfortunate turn of events because if I
think about it, I think the three best teams before the
Fisher actually started, I wouldsay that they are 3D Max,

(13:57):
Australis and gamer Legion. Out of these three two teams,
which is Australis and 3D Max. They play well against like tier
one teams, like top five to top ten, you know, like like
opposition, that kind of you know, their reactions, they what
they do they it makes sense and it's easy to prepare for them.
They're from the region, etcetera, etcetera, but they

(14:19):
always struggle against weaker position and ironically in this
tournament, like on the paper, there was only weaker opposition
than that. For game religion, it's a little
bit different. I think this was their
tournament to win and they fumble completely on the stage.
But I don't want to discredit them too much because they
really need some of the stage experience 1st and I was still

(14:43):
impressed with a couple of players, but you can see the
contrast like their best performer was PR in the group
stage. He was just absolutely abusing.
Everyone. He was.
He had 100 ADR, which is second to behind Chain Young on the on
the tournament. Which he won.
A ridiculous player. Yeah, he he won an MVP, so

(15:05):
Pierre was right behind him, buthe completely shed a bet in the
playoff in the quarter final game against bad Boom.
And you know, that's just part of the processing of a young
player. I think this was first stage
game for him or something like that, or the first one maybe.
But it's an experience. It's a growth period for game
Religion. Even though I feel like if this

(15:26):
was an online tournament, I think game religion is winning
it. Yeah, almost definitely right.
And game Legion is a team I wanted to touch up on because
obviously they've, you know, replaced their offer recently.
Did you, I know you said you, you didn't manage to watch too
much, but did you manage to, to watch a game, Legion game and

(15:47):
and see Kersey in action? Do you think his performance is
something that he can consistently build upon?
Yeah, I think so. The thing is with Kersey, I, I
knew about him before he joined Game Religion.
I wasn't even that surprised that he was the one that came to
game Religion. We've played them a lot in the
first season of the year again when I was IG link inner circle

(16:10):
and we often found ourselves in like same bracket of open
qualifiers and and we practice each other a lot as well.
And they beat us a lot of times.And cursive was probably The X
Factor in a lot of those games. Like he was surprisingly good.
And as I said, one of the first stage games for him on a on a
really big stage, if not the first.

(16:31):
So for both of these players, PRand Cursive, who are kind of
like star players in this team besides rest, but they still
need a lot of growth and I thinkAsh is very good at facilitating
it and game relation in general.I think they have like a pretty
big staff, which is super helpful for whenever the young
player comes into the team. I would say they over perform

(16:55):
and they're doing something right behind the scenes.
But like how? Because obviously Slende looked
pretty solid when he came in andthen he, he dropped off the face
of the Earth, which was really disappointing.
Like how do game Legion change so they can prevent that from

(17:17):
happening again? Because it's, it's a thing that
often happens with warpers anyway, right?
When they come up from tier two or three, they they eventually
struggle after like 3 months. Like what?
What can I guess Ash do to to stop that from happening this
time? It's hard to say without seeing
inside of the team the reasons why Iceland is not there.

(17:38):
Could have been external, could have been internal, could have
been both. Probably the visa issue, which
was kind of hovering around his replacement by Acre during the
during the tournament in the US could have had one factor.
But you know, most of the times what is the like super hard to
teach Oprah is that you need to be more vocal, you need to be

(17:59):
more aggressive, you need to make more plays for us.
And some players are either not comfortable doing that or they
don't have that creativity or confidence to keep doing that.
Or sometimes even the team doesn't allow him to do that
because of there's there's too many like rifle space takers
that space taking with hope can be kind of dangerous or flat,

(18:21):
flat out impossible. So for for this not to happen,
what happened to Slend? I just wish that Kirsty will be
just much more versatile and if Ash needs him to out OP the
other Oprah as a game game plan because you you see the weakness
in their Oprah, then Courtesy isjust going to pick up an OP and

(18:43):
just go do and go for the flat like row duels against an Oprah.
Which might have been problem for Slant because I think for my
liking he was a little bit too passive.
I'm not sure if that's what he wanted to do or he was forced to
do, but versatility is always something like super untingible
equality in an opera which will make you stay on the team if you

(19:03):
communicate well and you are able to switch off the play
style between supportive opera and aggressive opening opera.
That is super super valuable right now in modern CS.
OK, well, there's a couple more teams I want to talk about
before we move on. So one of them is the defeated

(19:26):
finalists Australis right? Because you, you mentioned PR
shitting the bed earlier. And I just, I, I just can't
decide if I think Australia shutthe bed in the final or not.
Because for, for those that didn't watch and and haven't
looked on HLTV, Huxi top fraggedin the final for Australis and a

(19:49):
big fan of Huxi. The bloke should never be top
fragging except for the random game where he decides that he
actually can aim and does know where his hands are located on
his body. But they also lost to Tyloo in
the group stage. So is it a bad stylistic
matchup? Is it Australis shitting the bed

(20:10):
because Jam Young also just rolled them over and fucked them
like he went 1956? The next highest kills was 67 in
the server. So like what's your thoughts
because I really just can't tell.
It might be the map pool is playing a big role in in favor
of Tyloo. I'm I'm not sure like hooksy top

(20:33):
fragging in the best of five final is something that well,
none of us really expected, but I don't even like for sure.
That's a bad thing to like flat out loose in the best of five
like that. But the the group stage loss is
even more concerning for me. Like I keep I keep seeing that

(20:55):
that's a bigger problem, you know, like it shouldn't be
happening. Sure, it was the first game.
Actually, it wasn't. It was a winner's match that
they were playing. So it wasn't even the first
game. And even in those moments where
Hooks is already in the playoffs, it's been kind of
shown before where like some of the star players fell off a

(21:16):
little bit whenever under Hooks his leadership.
I think Hooks is playing much more better individually
compared to his previous stands in in for example, G2, but I
think it's coming at the cost ofhis star players.
Not sure where if it's like Hooks is putting himself in like
a little bit favorable positionswhich are pushing away the star

(21:40):
players, but I quite kind. I still cannot like point a
finger where the problem is. I just like that hooks is
performing. That's a one of the must factors
for Australia is to contend for trophies, but it cannot mean
that three other players are going to be just a little bit
silent, especially during the best of five final.
You you can't afford to have like 1 bad bad map that but not

(22:02):
like two or three of them. So I also, I also realized like
you know, because of the prize money, at least according to
HLTV, Australis will move up to 6th and vRS Tyler will move up
to 7th. Feel like we probably both
expect both of those teams to drop off a bit, but how far do

(22:24):
you think Australis will drop off because I kind of have a
feeling it might not be that far.
I don't know. I will take, I will take it from
the position where I feel Australis is in terms of power
ranking right now. And I think they're like, let's
say top 12 team in the world, like 12th, OK, I obviously give

(22:48):
or take two positions, but I would give them like this top 10
to top 15 range. And I think that's where they
deserve to be right now. They're playing super well.
Obviously 2 consecutive finals might seem like, OK, like I'm
trolling a little bit with the with the power ranking thing.
But I, when I, when I look at how they play and who they play
against, that's how I envisionedthem.

(23:10):
And as I said before, I think Australia is extremely good.
Like they rarely blow out against like a Tier 1
opposition, like a top five team.
They're always make it a bit competitive.
They, they know how to play against really, really strong
players, but they always struggle.
You know, like Australia's 3D Max, I would even favor 3D Max
to win, even though they're botharound the same same level.

(23:31):
But Australia's, let's say Australia's G2.
I think Australia's can win thatgame and you know, even though I
haven't seen the new G2, but allI'm saying is that they are like
playing differently and better against tier one the position.
Yeah, I can see that. We'll we'll talk about G2 in a

(23:53):
little bit, but I think that wasthe the wrong team to use there.
I've got, I've got, I've got good feelings about about G2.
But yeah, there's one more team that I want to bring up, right?
Because honestly, this tournament was our fucking
travesty for them. And I am so sick of this fucking
team still. Virtus Probe.

(24:14):
They tricked me during the major.
They they looked like a legit team again.
I was like, all right, maybe I've been wrong for the past
couple of years about electronicand these abilities to IGL and
then they come here and they absolutely stink again.
They lose to Tyler with a coach,but this is also, you know, this
is the the first group stage game and they just they just

(24:38):
look so hopeless again. It's like, do you think this
team can ever, ever pull anything out at this point or do
you think they still like, I even know like 2 changes away
from actually? Yeah, that's what I wanted.
To say like. If you, if you ask me about the
roster move, I would say even like this is like 2 roster moves

(24:59):
away from like being competitive.
But again, first they've made a change.
First tournament of a season might have been an anomaly, but
it's been happening consistentlythat they are so like they're so
good players. Like individually they're
insanely good, all of them and to see them perform this, it

(25:19):
pains me as I'm not even like their fan.
I obviously like how they're playing, I like the players, but
I understand how hard and difficult it must be for fans to
like feel about this team because I cannot even point a
finger like this has to change. This has should it be IGL?
Should it be? Should it be like I don't even
want to replace players because I know that at their peak, their

(25:42):
firepower is fine, but to find this peak so infrequently and
rarely throughout the year is honestly like that's that should
be an achievement to play this bad for that period of time.
It's it's I I honestly think like fame when, for example,
they they were the major in in the Rio as outsiders fleet as

(26:05):
well. Like those were one of the most
instant players ever like they they just delete you from the
server electronic I've played with against him like 20 times.
I don't think I've ever won likeback when he was on still flip
side etcetera. I don't doubt these IGL
qualities, but you know I. Certainly do.
I I honestly think that whateverElectronic learned throughout

(26:29):
his career, it's mostly from Blade.
And I don't know if he's trying to form his own like a route,
but it's like it feels like tactically he doesn't know how
to use the players correctly because everyone is just playing
bad. Yeah, I mean, I I certainly
doubt electronics ability to IGL, but I've I've I've ranted

(26:51):
about that way too much. OK, the one that I just think he
you know, like even with even with Navi, the second he took
over and I know there's adapting, but you know, he he
never managed to or he might have won blast spring final, but
he was he was behind phase in that entire time.

(27:12):
But the the thing that really baffles me though, right, is I
feel like electronic pretty muchhas to go.
He he doesn't have the same level of firepower and I I'm not
convinced why he was Nigel. But then you have those reports
over the player break that there's these these two players
in fame and flip who both want to leave and they're both still

(27:33):
on the team. Surely that's not something that
gets turned around, but maybe you can tell me otherwise from.
I didn't. I didn't even see this remote
actually. I didn't even see honestly.
Maybe yeah. It might have been some
OverDrive bullshit but yeah likeapparently they both wanted to
go to Paravision to be with Jameand then VP blocked it or
something. OK.

(27:54):
I have a question for you. So do you think electronic has a
space in versus pro? If he wouldn't IGL, let's say he
handed the IGL keys to someone else, someone new, I don't know.
And then would you see him stay on the team?
Maybe out of necessity. OK.
Like if you're, if you're not, if you're trying to keep hold of
a core and you're trying to change dramatically, you keep

(28:15):
electronic and hope you get not pre IGL Navi electronic.
But I'm not being convinced by electronics fragging ability for
a while, which is sad because you know, he was unreal.
I I think the CS2 change didn't help him at all.
Like I I think he never really recovered.

(28:37):
Obviously it was on IGL. Pre CS two though the drop off I
feel like it was it. Was it was it was it was for
sure like ever since Navi kind of fell out and went
international, that was what, 2023?
After Paris Major, right? May 23, yeah.
Yeah, because jail got bought out from Apex from us and that's

(28:59):
when International Navi started.So it's been 2 years, but you
know, shortly after that electronic shortly after that
Paris major actually like 5 months later CS 2 came out.
So you can you, it's, it's somewhere.
There. No, the timeline does make sense
a little bit. Yeah, you kind of forget how

(29:20):
long CS2's been a thing, don't you?
Yeah, dude, I if it wasn't for HLTV timeline game right now,
honestly like so clueless. Like I need to play it every day
to kind of keep reminding littletrivia for myself.
Two years later and I'm still fucking shooting through people
and unable to walk people. If there's a 10 ping difference
in the server, that's really good.

(29:41):
I'm really glad that that happens in this game.
You. Don't play the game for.
I can't imagine, I genuinely cannot imagine what it's like to
be in these online tournaments where money is on the line
because you know, we play in shit tear face it like I'm
fucking level 8 at the moment, like fighting for my fucking

(30:04):
life or whatever. And I I played yesterday.
It was against the Portuguese team.
We had auk server. It was on overpass and they were
just swinging so fast that the peaker's advantage is so unreal
that you know that like angle, if you're like divider and
you're looking up at balloons party, whatever you call it.

(30:26):
If they just like peek that on go you, you could kill them
pretty consistently too. It's just it's so fast, man.
And then like the concept of that, but like with the added
level of like, oh, this is like a 3.5 K ELO pro player who gets
paid to do that. Unreal.
It's so much respect for the people that are like just in
online CS having to try and copewith that.

(30:49):
Sometimes you don't know if you just got deleted in the open
qualifier by a good peak or is he actually cheating and then he
checked his profile. You never know now you know I
seen like in the circle got theywere playing some open qualifier
like yesterday and they played against cheaters and it was kind
of like obvious from one or two clips and you never know.

(31:11):
It's a go on though. It's a weird state the game is
in, but. Admit it, in the back of your
mind you looked at it and you were like Nah fuck you for
benching, you deserve this. Now go on.
It's fine. I, I, I didn't get benched for
on like a bath terms. It was a little bit unexpected
for me because I was supposed tolead the overhaul during the

(31:31):
offseason. I've had also interview with a
new potential player or players and then like 2 days after I was
informed that, OK, we're buying a core.
It's Polish team. They don't speak English well or
like some of them don't speak and there's a captain in that
core and you want to IGL. So we're going to let you go on

(31:51):
the bench and then we will see how it goes and maybe we'll
bring you back, maybe not We'll see.
Yeah, we're going to. We're going to buy a team that
already didn't work out in 2023.Let's let's.
See how the vRS system that played me?
Kind of. If I'm being honest, well, yeah,
fucking this sucks. Like I guess that's the way it

(32:12):
is, though in it. So anyway, let's let's talk
about the the take of the week. And this comes from so so for
context for you for for the takeof the week, typically I, you
know, that counter strike elitist community group.
Thing actually, it's pretty funny there.
I I don't know how to get into community on Twitter.
I'm not that good at social media, but whenever some of the

(32:34):
things pop up, which is usually some banker because it would
never pop up if it was just a community post, I always laugh.
So it's pretty good. Yeah, there's there's, there's
some funny guys in there. There's also a lot of
questionable people because I can't tell right?
A lot of it, some of it is like,all right, that's that's that's
bait. And then some of it is like, no,

(32:56):
no, I, I just, I don't know thistime, And this is this is one of
those times. It comes from a guy called born
to kill. The app looks like it's a it's a
bot account, so I'm not going toread that out.
But it the take has to be real. It has to be real.
And it says Carrigan is closer to snappy than he is to Glaive.

(33:17):
I wouldn't even put him in the top three Igls all time.
Took a decade for a single major.
Glaive won four of them by the way.
So I just wondered what your thoughts are on this take
because I think it's fucking mental.
I'm trying to find a narrative here.
So Kerrigan played whenever he igl Ed.

(33:37):
He was on a really solid team with the solid players and he
didn't need to, like, I don't want to say he didn't need to
develop those players, but they knew their shit, you know, like
they had. They were probably opinionated.
They were very skilled. One time I remember Kerrigan not
being on the such team was was envious.

(33:58):
Yeah. Good team.
That that was that was that was a pain to, to kind of like, I
guess play there or manage in general and IGL.
So and that one, I think he was there for like a couple of
months only and then it disbanded.
So you have to think about it that way where Klave right now

(34:18):
is in the position of Ants wherehe's developing literally
Academy players, where Kerrigan never had to do that.
And when he did, which was envious, it was like a little
bit less skilled players. I'm not saying they were Academy
players, but it was like it was really, really bad.
So I think Kerrigan in a way is a great leader.
I'm not sure how good of a teacher he is, which is which is

(34:41):
like completely different quality to have.
So you you see where I'm going with this.
Like I, I can see the insane take being insane, but at the
same time, Cleve did win a lot of majors.
He had an ERA and Kerrigan was not nowhere near that.
Basically, he was, I don't want to say he was lucky to win one

(35:02):
major, but he was already close.Like let's say in in Boston with
with face and then he finally won one of the last CS GO majors
and it was like ultra carry froma lot of players.
Like rain being MVP is such an anomaly is such an anomaly to be
an MVP if you're rain. But you know, giga chat does it.

(35:24):
I mean, giga chat is the hook. See, so we have two Giga chats
right now. Yeah, rain, rain is a gig chap,
but but top three not in the topthree.
I was I was talking about this with Jack when I found the take
away to get his his approval of it.
And it's like, surely there's noworld that you don't consider
Carrigan a top three IGO becausewho who you put, you know, over

(35:45):
him? You're putting Apex for sure.
Yeah, Apex has to be in the top three at this point.
But like if if if Carrigan isn'twho is fallen?
Like no, sorry, I don't. That's a good question.
Like I don't accept fallen. OK, if you put vitality and

(36:08):
glave, then I understand Kerrigan might be like top 4.
If you have someone biased in the top three, let's say let's
say Alexi B, right? Yeah, I mean, maybe if he
finish. Yeah, OK.
Yeah, it's probably the only wayyou're putting Alexi B in the

(36:29):
top three, surely. No, I'm a big Alexi B fan.
But like at that point I'll I'llaccept fallen and like pro Nax
and that I'm not I'm not sure Alexi BS can be in the
conversation right? Unless you, you do you.
I mean you can. Subscribe heavily to the idea.
Yeah, listen, you can have fallen apex and glave in the top
three. And that's why he said, yeah,

(36:51):
Kerrigan is not even top three. It could have been this way.
I just think like, you know, like Fallen never actually won
kind of that much, did he? I mean, he, he won a lot better.
No, he won a lot. He won a lot.
On SK and LG he had like they had insane run.
Didn't they win like back-to-back colognes as the

(37:13):
only team in the world they won?2 They did they No, they did.
OK, OK, OK. They did.
They did win back-to-back colognes, but they won two
majors and everyone talks about that being like SK.
And he also was doing that whileopening, which was kind of rare
and he was top two in the world behind cold 01 year.
It's it's not only that he's actually was all right.

(37:35):
He. Was.
He was insane and the longevity as well.
He did that in CS 1.6. He was already a legend in 1.6.
But OK, so here's here's the thing that right, OK, 2016,
obviously SKLG win 2 majors. How many tournaments did they
win overall? Because people talk about this
like it's an era. I'm not this kind of a

(37:57):
historian. I don't really know.
I don't remember it. So they were colognes, right?
I'm not sure. If what them was Major Cologne,
Cologne major, Columbus major right?
They won two tournaments for therest of the year. 1 was.
They were was. It beginning of Australia's era
though. No, no, because that was 2018.
Wasn't it two years before? So they were sandwiched by the

(38:22):
majors The two tournaments they won.
One was Pro League season 3 which was a great final between
they were still LG at the time them and G2.
The other one was DreamHack OpenAustin, which was a really bad
tournament where they played Tempo Storm in the final, which

(38:45):
had Henny Lucas, Bolt, Showtime and Phelps.
So this is this is this is my whole thing with fallen, right?
I fucking I love fallen like I Itruly like one of the things
that I'm proudest of as as goingto events and and doing
interviews is that I got to interview fallen because I've

(39:05):
always loved fallen. But I do think there are there
are certain things about it where people maybe maybe do
overrate some of the IG L ING a bit, which is why I find it it
hard to have me in the top three.
I understand your point of view as well.
I, I, I really do. It's just, it's just that I'm

(39:28):
trying to understand the take that you read to me as a health
take. And while I disagree with it
partly, I can see why he's thinking what what he's
thinking. And we're kind of dissecting it
that yes, it might be that Kerrigan is not in top three
when you look at the names of those who won a lot of majors,
which is Apex 1-2, glave one what, 4 and fallen 1/2 as well.

(39:53):
And then when phonetic 1-2, theydidn't really have like a proper
IGL kind of thing. But you could argue pronax could
be there. But you know, back in the day
there it was way different Counter Strike.
It was nowhere near tactical as it is right now.
So I mean, I'm intrigued then before we before we talk about
Cologne to wrap it up, let's let's move past three.
What's your top five IG LS? My top five IG LS of all time or

(40:16):
right now? All time, all time.
Yeah, OK. So it's the ones that we
mentioned, which is Apex. It's Apex, Kerrigan, Glave,
Fallen, Fallen and for #5 this is a good one.
I kind of want to say someone that you don't expect at all,

(40:40):
but I will say him anyway just to be a little.
If you say, if you say. Chris J.
I'm not sure people are a fan ofChristian anymore.
It might be a risky statement. So I, I, I want to say Nitro
because of the Grand Slam with a, with a, with like a team from

(41:01):
a region that was often just shunned away or shunned away.
I don't know how to say. No, I like that.
So Nitro would be like what he achieved in such a short amount
of time in liquid. I mean, not that he was there
for a short amount of time, but winning Gintel Grand Slam within
like what, 5 to 6 events and winning four of them is very

(41:21):
freaking sweet. Yeah, no, I I fully respect that
take and fun, fun lore about me.There used to be an account on
Twitter that was called Captain Nitro.
And because I used to post abouthow great Nitro was all the
time, I had multiple friends that were convinced that I was
Captain Nitro and to this day think I am Captain Nitro.

(41:41):
I'm not. I'm not Captain Nitro.
I wish I. Was.
I wish I was because he was really funny.
But yeah, it's it's it's it's not me.
It's not my alter ego. I am not Captain America
himself. All right, let's talk about
let's talk about Cologne then, because it's the, you know, it's
kind of the real season opener and we we go into the the

(42:04):
playing first. You know, it's teams like phase.
I'm just going to read off the team list.
It's probably the easier one phase big liquid pain, 3D Max
MIBRNIP, heroic game of legion complexity, tyloo VP, australis,
bait, fly quest and furia. So let's let's start with this.

(42:27):
Let's go with three teams that you think are dead certain to go
back. Go through the plane.
You're giving me such a hard question, like honestly really
OK you. Don't think it's free.
I I OK, I will say face because fan of Brokie and they have BIG

(42:48):
in the opening game fan of Brokie coming back in.
So I will say face. Then the second team I want game
religion to bounce back even though they have super hard
bracket of game religion complexity.
And then Tyler VP, anything can happen in those four teams.
Like literally anyone can bomb out and go through in my
opinion, it's crazy. And then the last team, I would

(43:11):
say Australis considering their recent round.
But again, what I said is that in their bracket there are three
other teams which they can have troubles with because I said
before they hate to play againstlike a lesser known opposition.
And I definitely can see like even bait probably could beat
Australis on like I, I would saythere, it's it would be like

(43:34):
4016 in terms of Australis. It's going to easily be an upset
there. But yeah, Australis phase and
camera legion is something that I want to go for.
And I might be completely wrong,but I have other favourites as
well. Like in in the certain matchups
I have different like types of teams that I would like love to
go through. So I think, I think for me like

(43:54):
you, you've got to go with phase, right?
Even if Brokie does end up beingthe wrong decision.
I'm very undecided on that one. Like there's no way they lose
too big if they have to buy liquid for whatever reason.
Liquid are bad, they are bad andI can't see them suddenly.

(44:15):
I hope, I hope they will have a salvage season honestly.
Like there are so many players on Liquid which I generally
like, but what they did during this offseason I dislike.
Absolutely, I it's horrendous decisions in my opinion.
I feel like surely, surely everyone just told them to fuck
off Like they, they must have been making so many calls like

(44:37):
please, please come to our team.Please, there's no dumpster
fire. We're all right.
I, I agree though, like I, I hope they figure it out because
like I've always liked liquid, you know, obviously I, I said
that I was a big fan of nitrogenand NAF Like I'm a massive fan
of NAF. I mean, Naf is just one of the

(45:01):
most incredible players to interview because like, maybe
you've maybe you've spoken to him about this and experienced
it, but he has the most mental memory of anyone.
So I, I did this interview with him and it, it, it sadly never
got made public, but it was about the Grand Slam run.

(45:21):
And I said to him, I was like, yeah, so can you, you know, just
like, take me quickly through the tournaments or whatever.
This motherfucker went map by map for free tournaments.
He spoke in detail about every map.
I didn't speak for 18 minutes. OK, but you have to understand
that for players this is normal,especially like for example, I

(45:46):
wouldn't be able. This is I will tell you my
personal experience. OK, I don't really remember
stuff from the tournaments whichI don't attend myself, but there
was a period last year when I did the talent work for blast at
2 events. I can tell you right now like
the final standings of like bothof these events right?

(46:07):
Because I was there and I had towatch and analyze every single
game. It's the same with playing the
game. You go there, you play it, you
don't remember much after the game finished, but then you re
watch it with a team and the whole game kind of is embraced
inside of your head because I know you did a lot of mistakes
which you don't want to repeat either.
You did some good plays against certain which you want to repeat

(46:29):
and you just kind of memorize itinternally as a map that this
happened. Avoid this.
Do this more and it's for even if you interview like or listen
to like chess players, they can give you a move by move
analyzing of a game that was played 20 years ago.
I think it I think it's more like the ability to like recall

(46:52):
it and like tell the story of the maps.
It is, is the thing that impresses me so much because
I've I've tried to do it with with other players, like I tried
to for the for the same like interviews.
I tried to do the the Boston major of automatic and and bless
him, he could not because because it was after it was

(47:12):
after NAF. So I was like, oh, this would be
really good if I can get automatic to do the same thing.
No, no, a few of them. He was just.
Probably enough just told you and he made-up the stories as he
went there and he was like how far can I push this?
I had. It, it was crazy, man.
Like I had it up the whole time because there was a couple games
I wanted to speak and I was like, Oh my God.
He's like, he's actually got thecorrect score line.

(47:36):
Like for all of them. Like, yeah.
That's actually pretty crazy. The ability to recall it, the
the and and tell it in an entertaining story the way you
did, it's just very impressive. But yeah, Liquid are shit to go
back to the point, they aren't very good.
Let's hope that's changed. I think Nip are guaranteed to go

(47:59):
through, to be honest, I've got a I've got a really good feeling
about this Nip team and we'll focus on them very quickly in a
minute. And I also think, and I know
this is cheating because I said free, but I really think
whichever team wins out of fly quest and Furia will win the

(48:19):
winners game as well. And I think whichever 1 loses
will win the lower bracket game.I think Australis and Bait both
go out in the plane. OK, that's Fairpoint.
I would actually say out of those four teams, Australis and
Bait would have the biggest chance of making it through,
meaning that if they would be split up and they would have to

(48:40):
play like a spur respectively, Iwould say one of them will make
it through. So we have completely opposite
like a take on this part of the bracket.
But I think Heroic and an IP is also the game where I think
Heroic can easily win like 5050 a game.
I would say that's why I wasn't comfortable putting an IP.
And then again, like the winner of that will probably have to

(49:01):
face 3D Max, which on paper great team or was last season
very consistent. But Fisher result is not giving
me too much, you know, hope. Well, that's kind of my thing
with with heroic in in that match.
But what is your what is your thoughts on on niplin?

(49:22):
Because I think what they did last season is really
impressive. And I think, you know, obviously
we don't know what they're goingto be like with this change.
I feel like it's a change that should make them a lot better
because Arrows Dos or or John Sweet Rice, as we like to call
him on this podcast here, he never really adapted to this
team. So I feel like they should be

(49:42):
better and I kind of expect themto get into the the top 15
pretty quickly. I also think that they upgraded,
that's true. And what NIPD did first season
was, I spoke about it on the other podcast the other day, but
what they did in the first half of the season or like first half
of 2025, it was done only by twoteams.

(50:05):
Nip went from being unranked to top 25 in vRS Europe, which is
super, super rare nowadays with the vRS ranking.
I hate it, by the way, that onlyone or two teams kind of
breakthrough this way. I think it should be more like
fluid, but it is what it is. Nip did it.
And even though they did it, it was, I don't want to say

(50:26):
incredibly lucky, but unlikely. Extremely unlikely because they
had to go from open qualifier ofPGL.
Was it Astana and they made it all the way to a playoff and you
know, great, they played great at the event in the close
qualifier. They they fought for it really,
but it they they almost lost, I believe in that open qualifier

(50:48):
like one of the games were pretty like very close.
And you know, if they haven't done that run, maybe an IP would
still be like battling in for CCD invites.
We don't know. We don't know genuinely don't
know. So I think it's Nip and TNL that
only did these kind of runs, which I respect them for credit
to them, but I think it's incredibly bad.

(51:10):
That's only two teams kind of can breakthrough and stir the
port of Tier 1 slash Tier 1 1/2 slash Tier 2 from going
completely unranked, which is unlucky, but with the Kaspersky
coming in, I think it's an upgrade specifically against
Heroic though I think Heroic upgraded as well with well, they

(51:34):
didn't really upgrade. I don't know about coaching
department, but Greg's is prettypromising I would say so I don't
know about Nilo, he didn't play well yet in online games so.
Yeah, I just I just have my concerns for heroic and then,
you know, in the in my extra prediction, I feel like Fury are
going to bounce back from a pretty disappointing show that

(51:57):
Fisher playground and with fly quest, like I think they
upgraded a lot with Netec and I also think they've upgraded a
lot now with JKS. And I kind of feel like if they
do well here, get themselves a couple more invites, I wouldn't
be surprised to see them hovering around 15th in vRS
Global by the Major, to be honest, because I do expect a

(52:19):
couple teams to to drop off overthe second-half of the year.
I've just no man. I've I've got a good feeling
about them, I think. That's it.
That's enough. Like having a gut feeling about
something else. Usually when I have gut feeling,
it's completely the opposite. So whatever I say on this
podcast, I think you should go with the opposite.

(52:40):
I think the phase will bomb out in play insurance last place.
OK, yeah, I support it. I support it.
But so you brought you brought bomb out then.
So three teams and we won't talkabout them that much because if
they're going to bomb out, they're not worth talking about.
Three teams you think will not get through the plane stand no
chance. All right.

(53:02):
I think that will be a little bit easier, but I do think it's
unfortunately going to be liquid.
I think they're gonna have incredibly tough time and I
think a lot of pressure on themselves to perform because if
they don't, I think they will lose a lot of vRS points and

(53:24):
potential invites for a second part.
Basically, if Liquid doesn't perform here, they cannot attend
major in my opinion. Like I don't think
mathematically that's going to be possible.
Maybe I'm wrong, I don't know. They're like barely top 30.
If they bomb out here, they're going to be out of top thirty EU
and then another team, which I'mnot too.

(53:46):
Not too sure about this MIBR andthe third one.
Dude, you're putting me on the spot again.
Tyler Vertis Pro Yeah, I think Iwill go with Flyquest as an as a
third team that will not go through.
We are very different on that one then, aren't we?
Yeah, I think for for me it feels like cheating to say big

(54:08):
and liquid, but but big and liquid but scratch off one of
them MIBR 100% and then VP. I I don't think VP are going to
recover. I think they will definitely
depart Cologne. I honestly think that if VP I'm
not sure was their position in the vRS all things considered,

(54:32):
but if VP about last place in inthis, do you think do you think
they're going to make a change mid season?
I ain't got to right? That's 17th.
That's that's not that bad. That's still on the brink of
invite to the star leader Major,so they might push it for it,
but if they don't qualify for itmajor, it's definitely
happening. Yeah, yeah, definitely.

(54:55):
I think that'll be a big change at that point, but so let's take
a quick look at the Domain Sage teams then before.
We let's do that. Before we leave, so already
through to the mainstage is Vitality, G2 Falcons, the
Mongols, Mouse, Navi, Aurora andSpirit.
And I don't want to talk about every team here, but there's a,

(55:17):
there's a, there's a few teams I'd like to talk about.
And I, I want to start with Aurora because here on this
podcast, we are really big fans of Aurora.
We've kind of had to reluctantlyaccept the level that they were
actually at rather than the level we thought they may be
able to climb to. But what I want to know from you
is how much, because maybe you've had this at some point in

(55:40):
your career. Obviously, Anubis was a really,
really smart, strong map for Aurora and Anubis is now gone.
How much does losing that like kind of guaranteed map win
affect you when you're when you're in that position going
into the new season? So The thing is, whenever it

(56:02):
happened to me or to us, it we cannot let it affect us because
it's essentially out of our control, right?
If you go on social media and cry about the change, we're just
losing time of what we can like put into the new map.
So I always hated it when peopledo it.

(56:22):
But in my opinion, map veto wise, they're going to be in a
lot of disadvantage because it can happen that Overpass is not
going to be suited for them at all for whatever reason.
And I know that it's in a certain parts, it's a heavy AMA
map, which Aurora honestly likesand loves and actually seeks out

(56:45):
these fights for. The main guy who seeks for them
is not going to be present in inCologne and that is Suntaris and
they have X fault coming in as astandard.
So even though you are a fan of Aurora, I think that's one of
the teams that will not have an easy time.
I don't think they will make a playoffs depending on who they

(57:06):
draw in the first round. Maybe they won't even win a game
in the in the mainstage. Depends.
Yeah, the. No, I, I I fully could see that
happen. Yeah, unfortunately I just see
Navi, Spirit Mouse in their group.
Obviously we don't know four teams which will join them, but
that's already an incredibly tough group when it comes to map
veto. Spirit also disliked Anubis.

(57:29):
I know Dong specifically disliked Anubis.
Every time he could chance he could have a chance to talk shit
about Anubis, he did it in blocks.
So Spirit is going to feed off this change the most, Aurora the
least. They might end up on the same
side of the bracket if they win or lose.
So yeah, I think, I think it's not that great.

(57:51):
Yeah. I mean, with Aurora, like I
think it's I think Aurora were beginning to drop off anyway,
maybe from the the fatigue or maybe because, you know,
tactically they're not as strongas a lot of the other teams in
in that position. But I really am concerned that
this this this map pool change could kill them.

(58:12):
I think they'll be fine on overpass, but I don't think
they'll be able to rely on it inthe way that they could rely on
a new business. It's why I asked about Australis
vRS ranking earlier, right, because I was going to, I'm
always going to come back to it now.
And that when I look at Australis and their chances of
dropping off, I also see like team like Aurora that I expect

(58:34):
to drop off kind of quite heavily compared to where they
were last season. So I'm like, maybe as Australis
can hold a place over, then maybe they do stay top 10 for
the entire season. Because I think we said last
week, Aurora, I think we predicted they would just drop
out of the the top ten this season.

(58:56):
It might be, it might happen andit also can happen with team
like Mongols. I think people will hold them to
an incredible standard after Austin Major, but I eventually
it might happen that they just over performed and that's why
they made the final and we have to be a little bit more
realistic. I don't know if it's feasible

(59:17):
for Mongols to keep having that kind of a run in the second-half
of the season with where they consistently make playoffs.
It's just it's going to be incredibly tough.
And if they start the season notthat strong here in Cologne, I
think it might snowball into them.
Yeah, OK. Maybe they will secure the major

(59:38):
because of the Asian slot, but at the same time, I don't think
they will be that dangerous to others as they were in the first
half of the year. Yeah.
I mean, I also think I'm also not expecting much out of Navi.
I know a lot of people like to doubt OverDrive, but I think,

(01:00:01):
you know, the entire time there was reports about Emma being the
one to be cut and then JL decides he's leaving and then a
report comes out that Navi triedto tried to sign frozen or
whatever. And I just feel like Navi is
still coming into this season with a, with a dead team or a
team that, you know, they, they do already.

(01:00:24):
Kind of one out of do you, do you get the same impression?
Do you think that's something that can be recovered from?
If so and you, you can play for.You you mean for which team?
For for Navi. Yeah, I, I, I think so.
I, I, I think Navi is the team that I want to like, look out

(01:00:45):
for the most. The change that they have made
is kind of unprecedent, you know, with player taking a break
at this kind of stage and as well he had tremendous impact
and they're essentially promoting a guy from the Academy
team, which is having obviously 6 stats and amazing numbers.

(01:01:09):
But is he going to? I don't think he's going to fill
the shoes for Jail one for one. And a lot of team things have to
happen in Navi to facilitate everyone.
So there's going to be moving pieces.
Someone will take less space, someone will have to be more
vocal and more of a cheerleader,you know, to cover up for the

(01:01:31):
things that Jail was providing for a team and to be able for
rookie to do all of that is going to be borderline
impossible. I don't know my cousin, but it
doesn't strike me so so I wonderhow Blade and everyone in Navi
is going to like fill this hole with restructuring people's
responsibilities. That's why I want to see their
actual game, not only from replay today.

(01:01:53):
Just replay the game on demo or Sky Books.
I want to see the live and honestly, I want to take a look
during the freeze times, who is talking the most during the tech
poses, who is talking the most, how they behave?
Was there like body language? All these things to me are
incredibly important, incrediblyimportant right now.
It's first of all interests me. Second of all, it really gives

(01:02:14):
you like a perspective what's going on in Navi because right
now it's all clouded, you know, like, yeah, the guy got
replaced. And if it wasn't for jail
turning into content side, therewould have been, there would
have not been much transparency in this kind of a move.
That kind of jail brought it, but not the ORC.
And that's why I want to see howthey're gonna deal with it.

(01:02:34):
Yeah, I'm looking forward to it.I really am.
I don't have the highest hopes though if I'm being honest
specifically. For this event or the season
overall? It's season overall, honestly, I
feel like they maybe try and make another change halfway
through the season or if not, they're like they they will be
making a change at the end of the year.

(01:02:56):
And I considered that to be like95%.
But yeah, I wanted to I wanted to also ask you quickly about
Falcons and then quickly glazed G2 myself and then leave off
with a question. So Falcons, obviously, they now
have a lot of naturally aggressive players.
Do you subscribe to roles mattering?

(01:03:17):
How do you think that they can succeed with this team?
Or are they still, you know, a roster move away from OK, this
is the Falcons team that can do what they want.
Yeah, I like, I wonder what is the idea behind Falcons?
Like obviously we know that theywant to win the major, right?
They want the content for trophies.

(01:03:39):
Ironically, only trophy was it happened in Bucharest when it
was kind of a debt team, right And they knew that Dexter is
going out and he just had an MVPlike performance.
But if they want to win the majors, they are going the route
of firepower and that is going to put a lot of pressure on
kickstand, not necessarily from calling's perspective, but from

(01:04:02):
him having to fill in a lot of defensive slash supportive
elements of the game, which I think he's perfectly capable of.
But I also see that maybe, maybeplayers like Tessa's is going to
have to sacrifice a lot and thatcan affect his overall
performance, which people will then start naturally pointing

(01:04:24):
the fingers towards those with bad numbers.
And Tessa's is just maybe inevitably going to have those
more than more, more than beforewith Majesk and the team.
So it's it's hard to say becausethey're trying to push for
something unprecedent. Having three players of caliber,
Nico, Kiyosuka and Molesi, it's going to take balls to make it

(01:04:49):
work. Hixon does have a balls, I know
it from my own perspective. But how it's going to affect the
whole team when they don't perform, who's going to pick up
the pieces when two of the players are not feeling it?
That's going to be the real question because I just don't
know how it's going to play out.It's, it's a one big question
mark, I guess. I love the move, but at the same

(01:05:12):
time, such a risky move at the same time, you know?
Yeah, I mean it, it's exciting. I I don't think it's going to
work out how they think it might.
I think Tess says. It's going to be, like you say,
scapegoated for it. But if it does work, we could
enter a very funny error in Counter Strike.

(01:05:33):
But yeah, so I said I wanted to talk about G2.
I really feel like G2 kind of won the the roster mania.
I mean, like some pious great orpa saw one of the best coaches
in the world. And I also think Mattis is a
good pick up. I know like I got told and there

(01:05:56):
was reports that they wanted nuts and that would have also
been great for them. But I think people are probably
underrating how good of a pickupMattis is.
Like yes, their performances maybe still leverage a bit on
whether Hunter can adapt to being a full time IGL, but I
just think they've built a really good team.
Like I really, they're apparently 11th at the moment.

(01:06:17):
I expect them to be the team that rounds out the top five.
Yeah, that's what I feel like aswell.
Like if they're going to have a good season, they want to aim
for top five and if they're going to have like an OK ish
season, like this team is a better G2 than it was before.
I will get to that later. But I think they will enter top
ten and be there be like a stable top ten team.

(01:06:40):
If they want to over perform, then that's going to be top
five. But I don't see them as a like a
title contender just yet. Throughout the season.
I think that this team got 3 upgrades in the in the
offseason. Sometimes is obviously coming in
and replacing Hades which was like a stand in situation.
That one is a little bit obvious.
I think Hunter can be much better IGL than Snacks was.

(01:07:04):
Obviously he's never done that before, but I'm assuming mostly
I tweeted about this from the voice comms of G2 that they're
releasing. I think a lot of like hidden
qualities that Hunter has that Inoticed from these voice comms
videos are going to enable him to be really, really smart and
good IGL. He's very creative and he's also

(01:07:25):
having like a calm like soothingeffect on the team, which I
think is super, super helpful inan international team and
especially with a rookie like Mathis because for him, this
will be the first big test on the big stages.
And then also Mathis is I think improvement over Hunter in his
roles. Obviously, it's not going to be

(01:07:45):
a role for a role because it doesn't really fit like that.
I think Malps is going to get some different roles, Mathis is
going to have to adapt on some maps and then Hunter is
obviously replacing all snacks roles in my opinion.
So it's going to be, I'm curioushow it's going to look at the
specific maps like dust too. Who is going to be this B

(01:08:07):
anchor? Because it might be Mathis or
Hunter or both of them. Just like when snacks and Hunter
was defending B side before. Well, they weren't.
Really defended it. I would I would love Mathis to
be more flexible and don't put him in an anchor spot where he
doesn't. He's not allowed to move.
So in fanatic he used to play this B rotation outside outside

(01:08:30):
B as ACT on dust 2. But Hunter played it as well and
he played it pretty well. So I think Hunter might be going
that route where he is going to be stuck and glued to the side
how snacks was before and noted this kind of like all around
caller like Apex that is in the part of the action, like Galaxy
B that is inside of the action rotation roles.

(01:08:51):
So they have a couple of things how to figure it out.
And I really, really look forward how to do this, how they
do this because so again, I think it's incredible working
with the rookies, which Maltese in my eyes still is.
So I think it's a great pick up on three fronts.
So Maltese is an upgrade, Hunteris an upgrade.
Sometimes it's an upgrade and also so is an upgrade over task.
So for upgrades in the in the offseason, I think this is great

(01:09:13):
change. It's not going to make them win
the major in my opinion, but good step forward for G2.
Yeah, I mean, I think they could.
I think there's a small chance they could go and they're kind
of like that Cloud 9 Boston starand you know, they get
themselves to 5th over the course of the season and then

(01:09:34):
the majors there. But we'll we'll see.
So I said I had a question to leave this off on.
I guess it technically needs to be too because of wise you'll
ruin the second-half of the question.
But just quickly, one word, yes or no?
You expect Vitality to not do this season what they did last

(01:09:55):
season, right? That is in winning every
tournament. Yes, I expect them not to win
every single. Event.
OK, cool. Cool.
Is it because then this season, do you expect someone to
dislodge them and or at least bein the process of dislodging

(01:10:15):
them? Like, you know, maybe a spirit
come in and beat them in a couple of finals, but you'd
still say vitality are the best team in the world?
Or do you think just how counterstrike maybe naturally is as a
player, especially when you're you're you're at the level
vitality is that they drop off, they drop off more than a team
rises to their level. Which do you think it will be?

(01:10:38):
I think Vitality is always focusing on this and they speak
about it in a lot of their podcasts.
Different players that they are playing for peaking at the right
time. They want to peek during the
majors, they want to peek their,their, their.
I think that they peeked kind oflike at a perfect timings

(01:11:00):
throughout the first season where I think it's so hard
almost. I don't want to say impossible
because that will I don't see inside of the team, but to
maintain that kind of a performance throughout the
second-half. And then other teams will
naturally pick up like now we had the terrible first part of
the season. Maybe they will wake up.
Maybe it will be faced with brokie coming in.

(01:11:21):
Maybe it will be spirit with a huge change.
You know, it's a huge change to change magics for it's why or
this way or how do you how do you set?
So I think these changes that were done in a top five, top
six, top seven teams where indirectly attempts to push

(01:11:42):
vitality off of top 1. And I think all of these teams
made a dangerous change that it's going to be very unlikely
that none of them stick and actually Vitality will overcome
all of these threats. Even the Falcons change is
designed to decrown vitality. It might not be the best and
it's it's certainly a bold decision, but I'd love to see it

(01:12:05):
play out. OK, Then one final yes or no?
Will Vitality be the number one team at the end of the year?
Awesome. Well, with that, thank you very
much for joining me. It's been a lot of fun and I've,
I've really appreciated getting to hear your thoughts on all the
teams. I don't know if there's anything

(01:12:26):
you want to to plug before we depart.
Any other podcasts you've been doing that maybe you had fun
doing? I mean, I, I have my share of
free time right now, so I'm trying to do a lot of things
that's at the same time also focusing on content a little
bit, but I don't have any plugs in.
I I just generally want to thankyou for reaching out, agreeing

(01:12:48):
for me to talk here and for the viewers and listeners to
hopefully they had a good time and see you sometime soon.
Yeah, man, it was, it was a pleasure.
I've had a great time and you know you you brought up your
content there, so I'll make sureour editor puts you a link to
your YouTube somewhere because you do make some some pretty
good content over there. But with that, I've been Sam.

(01:13:13):
My Twitter is the same bollocks.It always is, and I'm not being
funny. If you don't know sickos Twitter
on YouTube, like what are you doing?
This is this is your error. Fix it, fix it immediately.
Other than that, we've got a neweditor now.
Charlie's edited it. James is still doing his.
I don't know what it James does things.

(01:13:34):
I don't know what he does. But I guess I'll see you next
week and and Sticko I'll, I'll see you when I see you mate.
Yeah, thank you for having me. Bye.
Bye. Thank you.