Episode 15 – Austin Major Stage 2 Deep Dive

James: It is the 7th of June, 2025 for Devilwalk.

James: It is still the 6th of June, 2025 for me over here in Austin, Texas.

James: And this is the All About Counter-Strike Podcast, episode 15, live from the Blast TV, Austin Major, Devilwalk.

James: Right now, it is 7:03 p.m.

James: for me, and it is 2:03 a.m.

James: for you the next day.

James: You've had to stay away.

James: The Tyloo game finished like 40 minutes ago.

Jonatan: Well, yeah, something along those lines.

Jonatan: I've been trying to pump myself with caffeine, but you know how it gets when you're tired.

Jonatan: Pump yourself with caffeine.

Jonatan: You kind of get tunnel vision.

Jonatan: You feel a little bit like a zombie, even though you're energized.

Jonatan: So definitely, I'd say I'm hanging in there, and hopefully I'll have enough energy for the entire episode.

Jonatan: But so you'll have to bear with me.

Jonatan: If I'm rambling, I'm doing something wild.

Jonatan: That's why.

James: I might just have to shut up every now and again, to be fair.

Jonatan: Yeah.

James: I'll corner you every now and again.

James: What have you been up to though, mate?

James: Because obviously I've been flat out.

James: It's been nonstop of Counter-Strike major action, all of this stage one stuff.

James: But how's your life been?

Jonatan: It's been good.

Jonatan: I've been trying to obviously have my life together.

Jonatan: I've been, you know, went shopping.

Jonatan: My girlfriend was ashamed of me watching Counter-Strike, driving this cart around when we were grocery shopping.

Jonatan: Were you on the lans?

James: I'm on the mobile.

Jonatan: Yeah.

Jonatan: So I've been trying to fill, you know, pretty much every bit of my life with watching the streams, been watching the content, been trying to follow as many games as I possibly could.

Jonatan: And yeah, just trying to keep up, do everything like that.

Jonatan: But I've done some stuff with my apartment.

Jonatan: So my girlfriend's parents came by.

Jonatan: We've been doing it this morning and throughout the day.

Jonatan: So new lamps, gonna fix my PC setup, do some arms for all my monitors.

Jonatan: So I can kind of...

James: Is it actually running now?

Jonatan: No, it's not.

Jonatan: It's not up yet.

Jonatan: It's up tomorrow.

Jonatan: So tomorrow we'll do that.

Jonatan: We've been doing something with the concrete on my balcony, so we can set up like curtains and stuff like that.

Jonatan: So we've been drilling in that during the day.

James: This is true family life.

Jonatan: Yeah.

Jonatan: So some changes.

Jonatan: And then we've hid everything from this camera angle.

Jonatan: So all the junk is just on the sides.

Jonatan: But yeah, it's been good.

James: It's kind of like what I did.

James: I hid my camera angle as well.

James: You saw this before.

James: We got Lily on one bed.

James: By the way, this is crazy because everything's bigger in Texas.

James: There's two queen size beds.

James: So if my wife ever decides she's pissed off with me, I'm sleeping on my own.

James: And she has her own bed.

James: But also all the snacks and all the food is on one bed.

James: All the mess is there.

James: And we just cleaned up behind me to make a nice camera angle for now.

James: So that's how we're rolling.

James: Bro, this is a crazy situation you put me in as well, because my producer Ivan for today and Devilwalk told us, turn the aircon off.

James: I'm just going to tell you how hot it is outside right now.

James: It is currently 33 degrees here in Austin.

James: And you've told me to turn the AC off.

James: So you're worried about being tired.

James: I'm worried about melting.

James: I am AC-less for the recording, so it sounds good.

Jonatan: Yeah.

Jonatan: Well, we're both going to have to hang in there for a little bit as we run this episode.

Jonatan: Should we actually start going through some of this stuff?

James: Yeah, yeah.

James: I won't keep you too long on this.

James: The first thing we need to do is right looking at some of the recent news that's come out.

James: Obviously Starladder is the next major after the Austin major.

James: And Starladder MRQ is now the MRQ dates are great.

James: All happy about that, right?

James: To a degree does clash with some events, but there's a few problems here.

James: So I'm going to look at Graham Pitts.

James: First tweet that he put here.

James: He said, what an absolute shit show scheduling.

James: This now blocks teams from attending the Thunderpick World Championship, 850k event, CAAC Championship by Perfect World, 400k event, Rubeck Cup, $1 million event, and Mesa Nomadic Masters Fall, 250k event.

James: And teams and their respective TOs will only find out eight the days before if they can play it or have to drop out slash find replacements.

James: That is awful.

James: And obviously the scheduling and stuff is approved by Valve.

James: So someone at some point is approving VRS events, like Thunderpix, CAC, stuff like that.

James: And then they're also putting the MRQs in there because obviously you need to qualify for the major.

James: And then just to add more insult to this, right, Fnatic's community manager, Andreas Samy, he says, very disappointed to see the MRQs will be held online again, both from a viewer and game integrity perspective.

James: The MRQs are among the best tournaments each year from a viewer's point of view.

James: Such big emotions and so much on the line for both players and organizations.

James: We spoke about that as well.

Jonatan: Yeah, we both agree on that.

James: Completely.

James: Then our favorite, Ash, his is quite long, but I'll redraw it out because I'm going to give Ash the flowers he deserves.

James: Online qualifiers are creating circumstances that aren't replicated on LAN, as well as having completely different setups for each teams and every organization responsible for their own technical fixes instead of experienced admins.

James: That doesn't even take into the account the integrity issue of not policing what impacts some coaches are having and if teams are cheating to potentially make millions.

James: Why wouldn't cheaters do this?

James: We spoke about it with them on the podcast, right?

James: It's bloody horrible.

Jonatan: Definitely a valid question.

Jonatan: I mean, people have cheated for a lot less.

Jonatan: Let's just put it that way.

Jonatan: History has shown.

James: Showed us in a terrible way.

James: Then the RMRs were the most emotional, intense events of the entire year, and we've binned them for terrible online streams and to send the best online teams to a LAN environment.

James: Get rid, the game is growing, not shrinking, so let's maybe treat it that way.

James: I had a conversation with someone while I was here at the Austin Major around the MRQs and just qualifying, qualifying online, and nearly every team or player or someone I spoke to qualify for MRQ agreed that they would rather have it on LAN.

James: So that's the sentiment is for even the ones that have already qualified, have gone through this online thing, they would prefer to have it on LAN.

James: And then the other side of it was like, okay, but we understand it's going to cost tournament organizers money.

James: Obviously, I just said Valve should put more money in and Valve should enforce this.

James: Some people don't agree with that because they were saying, well, Valve's very hands off, you know, that they've always been that way with CounterStrike.

James: They don't make these kind of decisions, but they're the only ones that can force it.

James: I understand this from Starladder's and Blast's perspective.

James: It's cost a lot of money if you put it on LAN, but like now I'm worried because I was so pushing and saying if the last MRQs were online, then the next ones have to be on LAN.

James: Obviously, no one's enforcing it, no one's changing anything, so I will bring that conversation up to Valve when they come here to the playoff stage with the Austin Major and see what their perspective is.

James: I'd love to get the info.

Jonatan: Yeah, no, I totally agree on that, but I also think like one of the things that because it's like an MRQ, right, online and not the RMR, it kind of feels like they've wasted the opportunity to make the Major a great, like they've increased the Major, right, the participants.

Jonatan: But right now, it kind of feels like they've pushed the RMRs into stage one.

James: Stage one.

James: No, no, that's exactly...

James: By the way, I almost, when I was hosting, I almost blundered that as well, because I was just sometimes, I think I said at one point, stage one feels like an RMR.

Jonatan: Yeah, it just feels like an RMR.

Jonatan: And it kind of, I don't know, like a global achievement for the teams that make it to stage one, to some degree as well, because it just feels like every other viewer, they've gone through the history, they have this longevity of watching majors and big events.

Jonatan: That for me as a viewer, it just feels like, okay, they haven't quite made it yet.

Jonatan: You know, in a weird way.

Jonatan: That's how your brain kind of connects it.

Jonatan: So I think it's like a bad situation for everyone in that sense.

Jonatan: And you know, I think a lot of people obviously should be proud of making it to stage one.

Jonatan: And it just feels like you're getting tricked into thinking in a weird way.

Jonatan: They didn't.

Jonatan: I don't know how to explain it really.

Jonatan: But that's how I kind of feel like it becomes.

James: Yeah, it's become, I guess, a different style of major obviously with more teams now getting stickers in.

James: And I don't know until we get to the end of this current major and we understand what money's been made from it, how that kind of dilutes, you know, will it take away from sticker sales and stuff like that.

James: But I do think in some ways that it's like, we still have a situation where players who can fight and can make some of the games have been very exciting here.

James: Like, we would have had even more excitement at these MRQs and at these LAN events, which I think would have just benefited the game and benefited everyone.

James: And the big thing, I know Blast took some of the footage where teams have recorded footage of the other team that qualified for MRQs.

James: And it's like, great, we got to see some of that.

James: But we didn't see hardly out of all the teams that were in this stage one.

James: There's what, six teams that had footage like that.

Jonatan: Yeah, it's kind of like you see the videos on repeat, no matter where you go, like, they're just pumping it into your face.

Jonatan: They're talking about, I can't even remember, but I know I've watched broadcasts where they haven't even talked about that team and showed the picture of like heroic and video footage of heroic, just winning and qualifying for the Major.

Jonatan: It doesn't really fit.

Jonatan: They're talking about FlyQuest and all of a sudden you see heroic shouting by their pieces in the broadcast.

Jonatan: Just didn't really make sense.

Jonatan: It's also like you weren't really there watching it.

Jonatan: You don't have that core memory of like, I watched Nemiga qualifying.

James: I saw this live.

Jonatan: Yeah, I saw this live.

Jonatan: I saw the game.

Jonatan: I felt the importance of it.

James: Remember when we used to just like, you get to the Challenger stage of the Major, and you see all the videos and all the excitement moments, the qualification interview, for example, stuff like that.

James: That was all there.

James: And it's story driven.

James: And we are an entertainment product and there are stories and there is so much on the line.

James: And I know we already spoke about it to death on the podcast, but I do want to try and get some answers what I'm hearing, Austin.

James: At least I do know that all the teams that came through the previous MRQ, they agreed that they weren't on LAN as well.

James: And obviously the sentiment was the same on line.

James: From teams, from community managers, from managers, from heads of e-sports.

Jonatan: It kind of just feels like, you know, it's like when you're talking about food, like there's smell, there's taste, there's, you know, how it's presented and all that.

Jonatan: And it feels like you just have one of those ingredients and the rest are just gone.

Jonatan: So it feels like like weak, you know, in a way that you get it.

James: It's like it's missing the extra bit of spices, you know.

Jonatan: Because everything contextualized is what makes it, right?

James: Yeah.

James: All right, let's go on to looking through the stage one and what we saw there, right?

James: So the teams are qualified in the end.

James: Bait and Heroic, they went through 3-0.

James: Heroic, I think that was very much expected.

James: They played like they should, even if they had some moments in maps where they were a bit more shaky.

James: Even if they slowed down, I did an interview with Sumpires.

James: He was saying like in the first map, in the first game they had on the best of ones, Genghis Warriors had a great start on them.

James: They saw the problems of like, it took them a while to wake up.

James: They spoke about what was needed going into the second game.

James: They got that clean 2-0 for the opening day.

James: And this team just, even if they were behind, even if they were not quite there, they were snapping back into it.

James: They were looking so strong.

James: And I even, from the performance I saw there, I have no doubt that they will make it through to stage 3.

Jonatan: No, I think they're looking, or they set themselves up in a really, really good position.

Jonatan: I think one of the teams as well, like Bait, they can definitely surprise and make it through to stage 3.

Jonatan: I think even OG, they surprised me a lot.

Jonatan: I thought they were great.

Jonatan: They showed some great performances.

Jonatan: Krisen was, you know, immense for being an in-game leader.

Jonatan: I think the Swedish guy Spoke was also, you know, obviously Nikodos was amazing.

James: What do you call him?

Jonatan: I call him Spoke, but I...

James: Ah, we've been calling him Spooky.

Jonatan: I know, but like, I don't know what he prefers because I played with him in like Swedish Pro League like a long time ago.

Jonatan: And then everyone called him like Spoke.

James: Okay.

Jonatan: But that in Swedish, Europe, you know.

James: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jonatan: So it's not really the same.

Jonatan: So I don't know exactly what the English caster translation would be or what he's fine with.

Jonatan: But we can keep it to Spokey.

Jonatan: So we have some consistency with the broadcast, but I was impressed with him.

Jonatan: Spokey was like really good with taking space.

Jonatan: He was mature in the way he was taking it.

Jonatan: He wasn't rushing.

Jonatan: There was a lot of maturity in the way they played Counter-Strike.

Jonatan: And I think the whole squad showed glimpses of why they deserve to be there and could even have potential to be in the 3-0 bracket.

James: Oh, definitely.

James: I'm going to say this about Nikodos.

James: Remember I told you on one of the previous episodes, he is a fraud orper.

James: He continues to be a fraud orper.

James: He is better with the rifle than he is the orp.

James: But he did say that this is the first team that's helping him buy into actually, if he wants to use the rifle, use it more, not relying on that orp.

Jonatan: In Sweden, we call it hobby orper.

James: Hobby orpers, yeah, I remember that phrase.

James: A casual orper.

Jonatan: He is definitely a hobby orper, but it's one of those things where a hobby orper is actually the best way to be an orper on some maps.

Jonatan: Because if you look at the Inferno, no, just in general, just some maps are built that way.

Jonatan: If you're starting T-Side on Inferno, for example, it's much better to actually have a hobby orper that's great with rifles.

Jonatan: They can take the space, they can fight that banana and whenever CT is dropped off, you just pick it up and play it from there, but you're not wasting money on actually purchasing it.

Jonatan: Because I think you get into a gun round and you have like, let's say you have like 5.5, you're buying an AWP, you buy armor and that's it.

Jonatan: You know, you don't have any utility.

Jonatan: Utility is so important for both sides on that map.

Jonatan: So it's actually better in a lot of cases to actually play every one rifle if you can't have the full utility.

James: I'm with you, I'm with you.

Jonatan: Because that banana fight and everything is so important, so.

James: To look at some of the other teams we are going through as well.

James: Namiga and Betboom.

James: I think a lot of people from the name value of the Betboom players, we expect them to make it.

James: I think they did better than I expected in some games.

James: It was good to see them make it through.

James: Namiga was a surprise.

James: Yeah.

James: They learned their lessons from Shanghai.

James: They've improved as a team.

James: They found a bit of like a winning formula of how they want to approach things on land.

James: Lear hyping them up has been a big talking point.

James: Like when they beat FlyQuest, Namiga guy Lear stood up and was like, silent.

James: Or silence or something.

James: He was telling them to be quiet because they proved that they were better.

James: They proved that this is a team that...

Jonatan: Yeah.

Jonatan: And I mean, they started with a rocky start as well.

Jonatan: They started 0-1 and they had to fight their way up and won three games in a row.

Jonatan: So, I mean, all credit to them.

Jonatan: It's not an easy path to take.

Jonatan: But yeah, I was super surprised with them.

Jonatan: I didn't think that they would have the stability to kind of make it through.

Jonatan: There were some teams that I definitely thought were stronger, if you look at wildcard or complexity, going into the tournament.

Jonatan: So, definitely well deserved.

Jonatan: And they should have their praises.

James: From there, because we don't need to talk so much about the teams at Qualifier.

James: I'm just going to go through the names on it.

James: Ty Loo's way of doing it at the end, getting beaten on your map pick, and then absolutely destroying FlyQuest for like the third series in just a couple of months of playing.

James: He's played at some events out in Asia as well.

James: Ty Loo just being the dominant force.

James: Jam Young, he's like Chinese John Wick.

James: The way he was playing with that USB was crazy on Anubis.

James: G is just probably the best interview of all time.

Jonatan: Probably go to the interview.

Jonatan: I was watching it here and it was so wholesome.

Jonatan: He had like a three-minute hug with Moses and then just like, you're playing M80 and I was like, who?

Jonatan: Who?

Jonatan: And he just didn't understand who they were talking about.

James: No, he didn't get it.

James: He didn't know what was happening.

James: But I love the fact that he doesn't shy away from English not being so strong for him.

James: And he's trying and he's getting involved and he's showing some of his personality.

James: I saw some people, some people were saying like, oh, it's fake.

James: It's fake.

James: It's like, no, have you seen how he even interacts with his own team?

James: This is him.

James: This is G.

Jonatan: This is GG.

James: That's what I'm calling him now.

James: That's it, because he understands him and a bit of personality.

James: He's trying.

James: He's an easy player to love, you know?

Jonatan: Yeah.

Jonatan: I think it was a great interview.

Jonatan: One of the funniest interviews you'll ever see.

Jonatan: So if you didn't watch it, I'm sure there's like highlight packages.

Jonatan: They're all on Reddit or wherever it is.

Jonatan: It's gonna be posted everywhere.

Jonatan: I'm sure of it.

James: By far.

James: Legacy.

James: Oh, my surprise.

James: Jesus.

James: I, in a million years, didn't think Legacy was gonna have a chance of making it.

James: They were a last minute replacement for Bestia.

Jonatan: But you know, we did our Swiss system, and we put Legacy on the 3-2 bracket when we did it together.

James: Did we?

James: That's because we were following your little simulator.

Jonatan: Yes.

Jonatan: But we had some other ones that were wrong, let me tell you.

Jonatan: But we don't have to mention those.

James: We'll come to that, because LinVision also, that NRG game, NRG just mentally crumbled.

James: That was awkward.

James: I don't know if you caught it, but the Dust 2 was like...

Jonatan: You could see it in their faces when they were playing.

Jonatan: You could see they were almost like they expected to win, and when they got into the second map, they were just getting flustered.

Jonatan: Didn't feel like they had it in them anymore in the same degree.

Jonatan: And they were in such a great position, because I mean, they were in kind of the same, the game before that against OG, they just looked like shell shocked, like they didn't understand what was going on.

Jonatan: So, yeah.

James: And sadly, with NRG and Wildcard, that both happened, because Legacy was the same, right?

James: Like, the problem, Desk, who I was with Moses and Mausnake for a lot of it, they had with Wildcard, was like, Stan's way of calling was adapting as things were happening, but sometimes you were just so behind on rounds before that adaption happened, and they were trying to claw their way back into games, but that clawing wasn't always working.

James: Just one or two rounds could go wrong, and you find yourself at like a 6-1, 7-1 deficit, and it's tough for a team that seems so confident.

Jonatan: It's one of those things where you're going through so many roller coasters in the same map.

Jonatan: When you look at that nuke against Betboom, they were so out of it.

Jonatan: They were completely out.

Jonatan: Betboom had already won.

Jonatan: They're clawing their way back.

Jonatan: I don't know how many rounds in a row it was, but it was like seven or eight or something.

James: 12-4 into overtime.

Jonatan: Yeah.

Jonatan: So eight rounds in a row.

Jonatan: They claw their way back on the CT side.

Jonatan: So a lot of close rounds, a lot of clutches.

Jonatan: And the way they lose it as well, because they had a good read.

Jonatan: They boosted Fousey up on ramp.

Jonatan: He has this like triple lineup as they walk out, and he's just missing all his shots, and everything just crumbles from there.

Jonatan: And it just, yeah, it's such a heartbreaking way to lose that.

Jonatan: Yeah, I don't think they've forgotten it when they go into that kind of decider game against Legacy.

Jonatan: I think it was still haunting them to the core.

James: They had like the easiest match of the day on paper, you know, going up against Legacy, and then they still falter.

James: I think that's a big problem.

James: I know people are going to look at wild card writing, like a big focus on them, and obviously not getting through, but complexity, obviously, they didn't have Halls Urk, which gives them kind of like a pass on, Junior was not playing at this level all year.

James: Junior's just been farming like tier two, tier three NA teams.

James: Yeah, he might know some of the guys, but there was obviously a lot of times he was just saving the orb.

James: There was some impact he would have, but it was, you could see how vital Halls Urk is for that team, and you can see the disappointment and just the sadness from like Grim, JT, because you have two major rookies, your junior come in, like you're just giving a rough hand, but I know people still thought they might be able to get through this stage, but it just goes to show how important that teamwork is, just to understanding how each other want to play, and the type of orbit a Halls Urk is, and the development Halls Urk's had in probably the last, since last year to this year, of how much he's improved mentally and individually as a player, when he's gone, how bad it can be for them.

Jonatan: Yeah, I agree on that.

Jonatan: At the same time, if you watched their game, you looked at the grim interview at the end.

Jonatan: Some of the things he was saying was like they weren't even on the same page.

Jonatan: And if you look at the game, they weren't.

Jonatan: Like, there was a lot of times they took unnecessary risks.

Jonatan: They were playing as an individual instead of like a team.

Jonatan: And if we look back on why we hyped them up for this tournament, like the runs they had in was Bucharest and Melbourne, they were playing great Counter-Strike.

Jonatan: They were looking way above, you know, the expectations of everything.

Jonatan: And the way they played there was all on like the timing.

Jonatan: They understood each other.

Jonatan: You could see, you know, they were patient in the round.

Jonatan: It felt like they were stressed.

Jonatan: They didn't really know what to go for.

Jonatan: And I know it is stressful.

Jonatan: This is probably like the worst part to play in the Major is stage one, because there's so much pressure.

Jonatan: Like you don't want to lose here.

Jonatan: You know, you want to make it to stage three.

Jonatan: I think stage two is going to be probably the same in some sense to the teams that are already there.

Jonatan: And a little bit easier for the teams that made their way there, because it is stressful.

Jonatan: It's like a group stage, you know, some teams, they love performing in playoffs, and some teams, they're just like, okay, I have no pressure once I get to the playoff, but group stage, this is not where you want to end it, you know, all the pressure is on making the groups.

Jonatan: And I feel like a lot of that came to them, especially being, you know, like a hometown kind of major.

Jonatan: Grim, I think he grew up in Austin, or been living in Austin for a long while, something along those lines.

Jonatan: So there was probably a lot of emotions and pride kind of coming into it, it stressed them out.

James: And one more team I'll touch on here is, actually, there's two more teams I'll touch on.

James: Genghis Warriors, everyone had them a zero free, almost everyone.

James: They got a win, they got a win over Fluxo.

James: That interview of Art that I did, the loser interview, there was tears in his eyes, even though he had three rookies on his team.

James: The fact that he had a chance, he back in the Major, he's grinded his way up from after the Fury of Times.

James: But that was another team who, on the last map, they were checked out.

James: And I think even Art as a leader was checked out, which cost his team as well.

Jonatan: But they should have won that Mirage, like they should have 100% won that Mirage.

Jonatan: They had...

James: But not being able to reset after that is a problem.

Jonatan: It is, but they have an 11-8 lead.

Jonatan: I saw some of the most chaotic rounds I've ever seen in Counter-Strike.

Jonatan: They were all over the place.

James: That's expected with Art as your leader.

Jonatan: Yeah, but it felt like they just lost control and it didn't look nice.

Jonatan: Let's just put it that way.

Jonatan: There was a lot of crazy clutches going in from Genghis Warrior that kind of broke them.

James: And a big one.

Jonatan: Yeah, I think Genghis could have easily gone into the 0-3 bracket there.

James: Now, I've got to ask you about this other team.

Jonatan: Yeah, I'm ready for them.

James: How have you got Isaac, Hampus and Plopski, yeah?

James: Lumi's not a young player, but obviously he's new to this level.

James: How is it this bad?

Jonatan: It's really hard to grasp.

Jonatan: It's really hard to grasp.

James: The fact they qualified, we were so hyped about, right?

James: It was great for Sweden CS, it was great for the scene.

James: And I personally, I like, as a person, I love Hampus, but I spoke to Hampus, I spoke to Abdi, the coach as well.

James: And Abdi was talking to me about the rebuild.

James: Obviously, what happens when you lose a young star like Nilo, obviously went to heroic, but isn't playing there at the moment for whatever reason.

James: Um, this sucks.

James: Like this is, they, they don't look like a team that was practicing together.

James: And yeah, people are going to say, they've only had a few months with like this team, but still the quality that's on that team, they should be in a better situation than what I saw, because, oh, it was painful to watch, man.

James: It was horrendous.

Jonatan: No, it was absolute trash.

Jonatan: And it feels sad.

James: What are you saying there?

Jonatan: No, but it feels sad, because I'm obviously sharing for them, hoping they would be good.

Jonatan: I had worries going into it, one of them not having a home map.

Jonatan: It seems like they just pick and choose randomly at times what map they want to play.

Jonatan: They ban Nuke one day, then they play Nuke the next, and they pick Nuke the next day, essentially.

Jonatan: But it felt like watching it.

Jonatan: Even, I think, they got 20 rounds in four maps.

Jonatan: They got 13 of them on that Nuke, where Imperial, I think, they were up like 7-1, 7-0 or something like that, and then they kind of folded and gave it back to MetaSport.

Jonatan: It almost felt like the reason MetaSport was getting rounds because Imperial were relaxing rather than maybe MetaSport.

Jonatan: Yeah, because if you look at the beginning of these games, it's just a bunch of individuals.

Jonatan: They had zero synergy.

Jonatan: There were some shining moments where multi-kills were happening, but you could see there's a gun round on Nuke in the early stages of the game, and Plopski is just straight up walking from Yard into Main and gets killed by one guy in Garage.

Jonatan: There's zero smokes on Yard from T-side.

Jonatan: It's just like, it looks like a pug in the beginning of that game.

James: How bad did you feel watching that?

Jonatan: I felt pretty bad.

James: Because I felt bad because I just look at it like, I know how good some of these players can be, but I don't see a star player on that team.

James: No, but I don't see someone that can pop off.

Jonatan: I think honestly, the two players that looked decent to me was Plopski and Adam B.

Jonatan: They looked like they were trying, even though I think everyone made mistakes.

Jonatan: Everyone looked nervous.

Jonatan: Everyone looked like they had all the pressure in the world on them.

Jonatan: But the reality was not that they had all the pressure in the world, but they probably put themselves in a spot where, you know, we represent Swedish Counter-Strike and that got a little bit too heavy for them.

James: Well, actually, when you're saying they don't have the pressure, I would say like Hampus, Plopski and Isaac, given the careers they have had, might have that pressure internally on themselves, you know?

Jonatan: Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

Jonatan: But there's no pressure really from the outside of them doing-

James: No, none of us were expecting them to even make it to stage two.

James: But 0-3 and the way they went 0-3 was-

Jonatan: It was horrendous, but at the same way, you know, they should be proud.

Jonatan: They definitely weren't ready for this kind of test.

Jonatan: And by listening to the interview afterwards, they probably had some internal struggles and that they don't even know if this team is going to survive longer.

James: So you caught that right, what Hampus says to me, like, Oh, we're not like other people have offers.

Jonatan: Yeah, it's going out and it feels like they don't want to stay together as a team.

James: And I remember Metasport already sold like ZTR, SAS, Nilo.

James: So like, as it's a Norwegian organization, they're obviously looking to make money from this as well.

James: They got the stickers in the game, so they're probably all happy.

James: But then it's like, okay, so now what other players can we potentially sell?

James: But ultimately, not many of those players have a high stock value.

James: You know, it's not like super interesting to take some of these players, but it does feel like if that team wants to continue, there's got to be at least two player changes.

Jonatan: Yeah, I think, I mean, it's hard.

Jonatan: I don't want to kick on someone who's down.

Jonatan: If they have internal struggles, everything is like shit, you know?

Jonatan: And I know the feeling and it feels like it doesn't matter what happens in this tournament, if things are already decided for the future.

Jonatan: But it definitely looked like five individuals on the server and it didn't look like a team.

Jonatan: That's where I put it.

Jonatan: They got dominated.

Jonatan: They were the worst team at stage one.

Jonatan: That's not even a competition.

James: All right, let's start now going down into stage two.

James: It's starting literally soon tomorrow.

James: I believe I'm waking up at probably 7am tomorrow to get ready.

James: And go through everything and say, like, how this is even going to...

James: It's such a crazy turnaround for teams that have just played as well.

James: But that's the thing of the majors.

James: There's not many days off.

James: There's not much scheduling with it.

James: So let's do a bit of an overview on each team that's coming in.

James: We've already done the eight teams from before.

James: We spoke about what the teams that have already qualified and made it through have done.

James: So let's go through our new eight teams.

James: We'll start with here.

James: We can start with Pain if you want.

Jonatan: All right.

Jonatan: So I wrote something down like, you know, essentially Pain.

Jonatan: They were super, super exciting.

Jonatan: It's one of my favorite teams to start off the year with.

Jonatan: They had that kind of attitude on the server, like they didn't give a fuck what happened.

Jonatan: They're going to do it.

Jonatan: You know, when once action started, they just went kind of a vertus plow kind of mode.

Jonatan: And ever since that kind of first, second tournament, they lost it.

Jonatan: Like it felt like they're, I don't know if they changed their game.

Jonatan: They didn't have belief in something.

Jonatan: They obviously struggled with things in game, made a couple of changes now to kind of bounce back.

Jonatan: They haven't.

Jonatan: So now is kind of the test for them.

Jonatan: They've had some time to get, it's Davideus, right, got in?

James: Well, Davideus has been there for most of this series.

Jonatan: Oh, yes.

James: DGT was the new one in.

Jonatan: DGT, sorry.

Jonatan: I am tired.

James: By the way, no, that's fine.

James: And I'll give you something on that just before you get into DGT.

James: So Davideus, even though he comes from, I might just remember, Chile.

James: Yeah, he comes from Chile.

James: His girlfriend is Brazilian.

James: He speaks the language.

James: So his communication is good.

James: For DGT, he can speak, but it's not great what I've heard.

James: It's not the most perfect communication.

James: So it is going to take a bit longer.

Jonatan: So he's still learning.

James: For them to be ready.

James: He's still learning.

James: Like they have so many similarities in the language, but it's not fluid, smooth communication, which is not a positive sign.

James: Their PGL is starting to result.

James: You can't focus on too much.

James: They played a lot of events with Rix in that.

James: But I think this move, they want a DGT for a reason.

James: He obviously played of NQZ at one point as well.

James: But this is going to be like a team where I say they're not ready for the major.

James: They've been in America already.

James: I think they told, where did they tell me?

James: And they're in Miami or Florida, I think, bootcamping.

James: And obviously, all teams are over here, so it's good practice time.

James: So it needs a significant improvement.

James: But I still, to me, the big hole is this communication thing, which is obviously for me, I always say communication is the key to success.

Jonatan: Yeah, that's always going to be a tough, like kind of a bump to hurdle yourself over.

Jonatan: But they've had time enough to kind of incorporate him into the stratbook, everything like that, to this point, at least.

Jonatan: Obviously, the language thing is going to be a little bit of a con in these circumstances.

Jonatan: And you know, most of the games they played, they played against top tier opponents.

Jonatan: But if you actually look down at it, it's they've won, I think, one best of three in the last 13.

Jonatan: That's five maps out of the last 29.

Jonatan: So everything looks pretty shit.

James: One of those events, though, were with stand-ins, with coach playing, you know.

Jonatan: That is true.

Jonatan: But at the same time, you know, they're looking at a 13% win rate the last three months, which is bad even for bad teams.

James: So this is why I'm glad I'm not a stats guy, because like this, I'm glad you look at this stuff.

Jonatan: But at the same time, it's like you say, there's context to it.

Jonatan: There are things like they had a stand in, and then the next event, you know, when they actually get DGT in, they just got him in.

Jonatan: So there are definitely context to it, but if they're gonna be able to win games, you know, now they have to do it.

Jonatan: They should feel lucky to be in the stage two of the major at this point, with the form that they've had.

Jonatan: So they kind of have to show us something, because I thought they were so, so exciting to watch.

Jonatan: They had this style of them to use.

James: Were you really hyped on the beginning of the year, remember?

Jonatan: Yeah, it was super exciting.

Jonatan: Watching snow with the clutches, all that flicky, all that potential, you see, with the kind of high sense X Factor and everyone else around them.

Jonatan: It just feels like, okay, now, please bring it out now, and I want to see it.

Jonatan: But I don't have that big hopes for them.

Jonatan: I just hope to see what I once saw.

James: Next team to look at, I think we should do, is go to Europe on this one, 3D Max.

James: 3D Max, for me, are in a team that's currently spiraling in some ways.

James: There was a small increase, I think, when Bodi joined the team.

James: Yeah.

James: When Bodi came through, I was like, okay, this is going to give Mac a bit of a second voice.

James: This is going to add some experience to the team and help them try and level some things up.

James: But it's not been great, and people might look at the rank of this team.

James: I'm just going to double check it.

James: They're like 13th in the VRS rankings.

James: But it's not a team that plays like a team at that level.

James: And even in this stage too, I'm worried for them.

James: I haven't spoken or seem to remember.

James: The teams just arrived yesterday.

James: So between work and stuff, I've only spoken to a handful of players and teams.

James: I haven't seen anyone from 3D Max yet, but it is a team where I think this is a do or die moment for the next season.

James: This major needs to go well for you.

James: And you need to show me more than what I've seen at recent events.

Jonatan: Yeah, I think in general, when I look at 3D Max, I always think back, it feels like in a weird way, like the same roster from five years ago in the French scene, recycled into new parts.

Jonatan: It's different every time I see it, but it's not enough to make me excited.

Jonatan: They are competitive, that's the thing about them.

Jonatan: They're competitive, but they're always in this middle ground space where they never really have those breakout games, and they're finishing in the same spot every single event.

Jonatan: The one thing going for them, they're always dangerous, they're always surprising with picking up one map, making it close, but never really going above that finish line.

Jonatan: So I think the big part of that is that they kind of lack that superstar player.

Jonatan: They seem to be five decent players playing great team play, understanding each other, but they don't really have that X factor that's gonna push them right over the line against the bigger teams.

Jonatan: They're gonna make it close, but not really all the way.

James: Yeah, and this is the thing for these guys, is that they've had a year where they've been to a lot of tournaments.

James: They're trying to be grind through things, and it just kind of gets worse, you know?

James: If I look down Bucharest when I was there, yeah, they took down Mongolia, they took down a failing Australis, they took down a Roar, the Roar one was a big one.

James: So that's probably their best placement of the year, but in Dallas, they lost the game, Legion still got a map, lost one against Legacy, but got a lost one map, and they lost the G2 with Hades standing in, and this is G2 without a lot of star power, you know?

James: And if that's undoing you, I'm even worried for their opening game here against Betboom.

Jonatan: Yeah, but I feel like every game they play is a 2-1, doesn't even matter if the opponent is lesser tier or higher tier in some way.

Jonatan: So there's still potential in them.

Jonatan: I think in some way we're overly negative towards them, because they are making it competitive.

Jonatan: But it's just like, I don't know what ingredient I'm really finding exciting about them.

Jonatan: That's, I think, the problem I have with them versus like some other teams, like even Pain, where I've seen Snow like kind of pop off to these like monster levels of performances, even though he is very inconsistent as a player in Pain.

Jonatan: I don't really know where I'm putting the X factor in 3D Max, where, okay, is this their ceiling?

Jonatan: Are they just where they're supposed to be?

Jonatan: Or is there anything in the lineup that's going to push them further and actually kind of challenge to be better and challenge for the top 10, top 5 spots?

Jonatan: You know, that's where I'm kind of leading the conversation with 3D Max.

Jonatan: And I don't know where that ingredient is.

James: And they're probably still trying to find it as well.

James: Yeah.

James: From 3D Max, let's have a look over to CIS region.

James: Let's go to Veritas Pro.

James: And I laugh when saying Veritas Pro because I was on a give them time belief in the future with this team.

James: And now I'm on a, okay, I am pretty confident you're going to mess up at some point because there was a moment where it was like a good performance could make it to playoffs, then a drop down, then a good performance.

James: Obviously, they changed coach again.

James: Finn's had some more time.

James: I last saw them in Astana and Finn, who obviously is a new coach, the guy who was previously behind Gambit Youngsters, super experienced coach, very knowledgeable.

James: He, when he saw me in Astana, said, yeah, okay, the results not great.

James: They finished 9th to 11th.

James: They lost to MIBR.

James: I mean, they didn't go to the arena.

James: That was their chance of playoff, especially in Astana would have been huge.

James: Do you know what they had to do after that, by the way?

James: After Astana, they had to go to like a signing session every day in the arena, because obviously it's kind of like a home crowd, you know, CIS region out in Astana.

James: A lot of fans, a lot of love given to them.

James: But that must have been super sad for them all to have to do that.

James: Fair play that they did do it.

James: But Finn said he learned so much of what needs to be worked on.

James: And at least now they've had time.

James: They've had now almost a month since their last official.

James: The problem is their opening game is against OG.

James: And just with what I've seen from OG, I have more confidence in that compared to what I've seen from Virtus.pro in a long time.

James: And there's obviously the rumors at the moment that Virtus.pro already, before this Major, started looking for a new IGL.

James: Well, whether Electronic just goes back to a different position, maybe if they remove him, I'm not sure what the plan is.

James: But look at this team they have.

James: I see there is some inconsistencies there.

James: He definitely is not even the best orperer in Kazakhstan.

James: If I'm looking at Molodoy, for example, who Furia got.

James: Flamus, obviously not the same player we saw at Gameleague, and things have changed for him when he comes into this lineup.

James: Electronic's not going to have the impact he had because he's IGLing.

James: There's still so many strange qualities within this team.

James: But on paper, when you look at the players, you think they should be doing better than what I'm saying.

James: So I don't know, man.

James: It's kind of a team that I can get hyped about, but just because of all the recent results, I'm not hyped.

Jonatan: I wrote them out the rumors.

Jonatan: I wrote in my prep document in a weird way.

Jonatan: Everyone expects a lot of them, and they always almost deliver.

James: That's actually a way, a good way of summing up.

Jonatan: So, and one of the things like I kind of question when I look at this, my general thought is like a lot about it is the leadership and electronic.

Jonatan: You know, has he learned his lessons going into this tournament?

Jonatan: Is it going to be harsh on these players?

Jonatan: Because there could be kind of a viewpoint of like, is electronic kind of making these players more inconsistent with how harsh he's been or as at least it's viewed on camera being harsh on some of these young, inexperienced players like Flamers and Icy, because they've been a lot more inconsistent, you know, going into a line up like this.

James: At the Astana interview, I pushed him on the pre, it was like the pre tournament interview from Media Day.

James: And I said to him about being harsh.

James: And one thing that I thought was very nice and I didn't expect from Electronic was where he said he was reflecting on how he is and how he needs to be as a leader.

James: So it seems to me like he's understanding some of his angst that comes out.

Jonatan: Like the delivery can be positive.

James: Yeah.

James: And everyone's different.

James: This isn't Na'Vi days now where that was like the go-to way of screaming and shouting each other to get the point across.

Jonatan: I mean, if it brings success and you're screaming and shouting, it's not going to be as tremendously bad as when you're struggling to improve.

Jonatan: Then it's going to weigh a lot harder on you.

Jonatan: There's also like back in those days, you know, a lot of these pros like even Electronic has played Majors with Flipside, he's played big tournament games, stage games, he comes in as a new player in Na'Vi and maybe gets into that environment.

Jonatan: It's different compared to having a lot of rookies that are debuting in these kinds of settings.

Jonatan: So there's a lot of my questions actually lie on Electronic, and I'm actually giving passes to Icy and Flamis because to me, it looks like a clash in leadership style to players at this point.

James: Maybe Finn being the new coach can fix some of that.

James: But it's not a positive sign if people already are looking at a new IGL, like who goes from that team.

Jonatan: Definitely not.

James: They paid a lot of money for Electronic.

James: Does he stay anyway?

James: Even not as an IGL?

Jonatan: But even with all these issues, there's still a competitive team.

Jonatan: There's still a team that can be dangerous, that can win against big opponents.

Jonatan: So it's a weird kind of talking point because which Virtus.pro you're going to get?

Jonatan: Are you going to get the kind of tilted, harsh, kind of everyone's looking down VP, or are you going to get that like really tactical and everything just clicks Virtus.pro where the opponents almost has no clue what they're supposed to do?

Jonatan: So there are these two sides where they can upset big teams, they can perform, and they haven't been that terrible.

Jonatan: It's just that we with the players on paper expect a lot more, especially with someone like Electronic, with all that experience and all of these big game moments as both an individual player and also as an in-game leader in Na'Vi at a certain point, should be able to bring and produce a little bit more than what we've seen.

James: Definitely.

James: Next team to look at, M80 going over to North America with a bit of German flair to them.

James: I'm so checked out on M80, and I know it's going to sound really bad.

James: There was a moment at the beginning of the year where I thought, I see some potential with this team.

James: It's when they lost to G2 with Taz in Astana that I was like, OK, what the hell is going on?

James: Because they've had time together.

James: Lake's been able to get adjusted.

James: Sometimes he can look very sharp, for sure.

James: But they just sometimes lose inexcusable rounds, inexcusable rounds, sorry.

James: They sometimes don't look like they're on the same page.

James: I'm not sure what would need to change in order for this team to work.

James: Sometimes Swisher can be having a couple of good moments, but he's not consistent throughout the games.

James: I think a lot relies on like lake slacks, and then hoping someone else can pick up some of the stuff that's left over and from behind.

James: But in this stage, like, they look like, even if you look stat-wise, they look like a weak team, especially against this field of opposition.

Jonatan: So I haven't revealed any pick-ems for any other team, but I actually put them in my 0-3 for stage two.

Jonatan: I'll try to explain why, but in general, I think last year, I think they were a great team to watch.

Jonatan: They had a lot of potential.

Jonatan: You know, they were real threats to real big teams.

Jonatan: It looked like they were just growing and growing from each tournament.

Jonatan: But this year, I haven't really seen them.

Jonatan: I feel like they've been almost like an easy picking for pretty much every team that they've played in the big events.

Jonatan: They do have one thing like kind of going for them is Ancient.

Jonatan: They can play Ancient to an extremely high level where they can beat, you know, pretty much anyone on it in the world.

Jonatan: But that's kind of their only trump card, you know, is Ancient.

Jonatan: There's a gimmick.

Jonatan: So, yeah, well, it's not really a gimmick.

Jonatan: They have a really strong home map.

Jonatan: But is one map going to be enough?

James: Screws.

James: Yeah.

Jonatan: They're not going to get it in the first two stages, right?

Jonatan: Because it's best to one.

Jonatan: So they're going to get one of their middling maps.

Jonatan: So the one thing or the key for them is trying to figure out, OK, can we?

Jonatan: I hope they've done this.

Jonatan: Can we get a map that everyone's going to pick against us to get really strong going into this major?

Jonatan: If they can do that and get into a best of three scenario where they have ancients and that kind of wrench where they just throw it in, people are picking it against them and they can produce a win, that's their only shot.

Jonatan: But I think it's too big of an ask, but it's my kind of, OK, this is the path they could take.

Jonatan: So, they haven't really left the market this year, they only win ancient consistently and that's pretty much it.

Jonatan: They're going to be really weak in best of ones, and there's just a maybe, if they've done it, potential where I see.

Jonatan: But yeah, last year looked like a great team, this year not so much.

James: Yeah, a bit of a struggle for them.

James: Yeah, this is where I can get it super tough.

James: How many more teams we got to go for?

James: We haven't done Falcons, FaZe, we haven't done MIBR, and we haven't done Furious, just four more left if I'm right?

Jonatan: Let's say that, I can't count right now.

Jonatan: I'm to caffeine pills late at night.

James: We did VB, we did 2D Max, we did Payne, we did Amai.

James: Yeah, I'm right, I'm correct.

James: All right, from here then, let's go and take FaZe.

James: Let's take a look at FaZe.

James: Now, my bias is going to come in 100%, but I've also been hearing really good things behind the scenes.

James: I did some media today with Simple as well.

James: They have been farming NA FaZe, it's not too hard for them.

James: It's...

James: They played Dallas with Simple, yes, but Skulls was there.

James: This event, Rain is back, he's just had his child.

James: So, you know, he's going to be thinking, time to shine, major time, you know, got to go and do one proud for the family back home.

James: I can't be away for this without, you know, having the extra dominance.

James: And also he really wanted to play with Simple.

James: Simple wanted to play with Rain.

James: This is now the Dream Team coming together.

James: Yeah.

James: Simple has been grinding.

James: He has been grinding.

James: I'm going to go and bring up his face again, but they were in a boot camp in Dallas, so not far away from here.

James: They were playing a hell of a lot of matches.

James: People kept finding matches where he had games against Manasi and Nico, for example.

James: Now, not every game was Simple playing out of his mind, was like a superstar, but it's looking a lot better.

James: One game he had a win.

James: He dropped 44 for 19, 123 ADR.

James: Who was in that game?

James: Let's have a look.

James: Simple, Frozen, Rey, Nio, Techno, Mazzinio, so some of the Mongols players.

James: Mixed in with some of the NA as well.

James: This is, it's a good sign he's been on team practice and playing Faces and playing with the team and having positive impact on his teammates around him.

James: I don't know if you saw the quote that came out from Frozen, but it was like he wants to, Frozen himself wants to play good around a player like Simple.

Jonatan: Yeah.

James: And I am biased on the Simple side of things, but this is also Carrigan being the greatest leader of all time.

James: And what he's able to do with rosters, this is where I want to see them of looking a lot better, understanding how they want to play with each other and showing up.

James: Crazy thing is they got heroic, which obviously in the first game, you remember that clip from Simple, like joking around?

Jonatan: Yeah, it's a fun one.

James: Now, this is the best of one, though not the best of three.

James: And obviously heroic are here.

James: They're adjusted.

James: They understand everything.

James: There's going to be no jet lag on the face time because they have stayed in America since Dallas, but it is going to be them getting used to this set up, getting used to this play again.

James: It's a spicy opening game, but I still have a phase in a confident position.

James: Like, Carrigan is someone I trust to have now made this work.

James: He doesn't need so much time to get this together.

Jonatan: So I pretty much kind of wrote down, like, pretty much the same things that you're saying.

Jonatan: You know, I think the first thing is, you know, obviously, Rain, this is the first big event for them together.

Jonatan: Ignore the other one.

Jonatan: I think they showed some potential, even Widskulls there.

Jonatan: But you could see these glimpses of simple, okay, he's back, and then all of a sudden he's not back, he's back, he's not back.

Jonatan: And I feel like him ironing that out, he should have had at least some time to kind of delete some of these he's not back moments.

James: He should be feeling the game more, right?

Jonatan: Yeah, definitely.

Jonatan: And you know, he should be more in tune with what they want to do, and they probably made changes to kind of fit the whole team.

Jonatan: I'm sure s1mple has had, you know, tactical input as well, that makes sense from his Na'Vi days, so they're probably incorporating some different things and getting some new ideas.

Jonatan: And that's probably what's been lacking for FaZe, where they've kind of been a rut, where nothing is working and they don't really know how to fix it.

Jonatan: If you looked at that kind of documentary of how Broky got benched, they didn't really know what the issue was.

Jonatan: And I think someone coming in with that perspective and giving them some new solutions, they can kind of apply it to some of the problems they've had in the past.

Jonatan: So I think that's great.

Jonatan: I think in general, s1mple is obviously the big question.

Jonatan: If they're going to be a real threat in this Major, a lot of it lies on s1mple, because he's going to be the X factor, right?

Jonatan: If we can get rain being consistent, we can get frozen being on the levels where he's been performing, being that kind of high performer essentially, and get s1mple up there with him.

Jonatan: I have no doubt they will make it to stage three.

Jonatan: I think Kerrigan, if anyone...

James: Like you said, no doubt.

Jonatan: No, I don't have them as a Frio.

Jonatan: I have a crazy one as Frio.

Jonatan: But yeah, I think I looked at the games and I was like, okay, FaZe could lose against Heroic.

Jonatan: They could actually do that.

Jonatan: And there would be no shame, and I still would have them go through.

Jonatan: But at the same time, Heroic could lose against FaZe.

Jonatan: Yeah, it's true.

Jonatan: I think Heroic can make this happen.

Jonatan: He's had enough time.

Jonatan: They've talked to each other.

Jonatan: They've grinded the game.

Jonatan: It feels like they have a new hunger for it.

Jonatan: And you can see it on how much they play.

Jonatan: Play with the coach.

Jonatan: They're just filling the spots.

Jonatan: Let's play, play, play at the boot camps.

Jonatan: So I think that's a great sign on exactly what they've been needing for a while now.

Jonatan: So it's a breath of fresh air to see the FaZe guys kind of at least in the public eye in grinding this much.

James: All right.

James: So from FaZe, we're going to look at MIBR.

James: MIBR, it's a team that had a good showing at Astana.

James: Wasn't bad for them.

James: Beating G2 with a coach was expected, but then you beat Pain, you beat VP, and then you lose to Fury in the playoffs when the whole crowd was going from Moldova.

James: Most of MIBR had never played on stage.

Jonatan: Yeah.

James: I think it was...

James: Yeah, only SaFe had ever played on stage, or a big stage, or a big arena.

James: For me, they've got one of the easiest opening games, but it is a domestic matchup, so that makes it a little bit more interesting.

James: This is a team that's always got potential, but I don't like the fact that obviously they've changed the IGL situation so many times.

James: I want to see Insani thrive more, but I feel like the Astana into now having some time to bootcamp and get ready for the Major, we can see them maybe at their fullest potential, you know?

James: And they do have a chance of making it through to stage three.

James: But BRN, Brennan, however you want to say his name, he's the one who is still the one I doubt the most.

James: I want to see the best from Lucalzi, Insani and Safe.

James: And that's the winning recipe, but it all comes under what Exit can do with JNT as the coach to make that happen and use them in the right way.

James: Because the inconsistencies of leadership and things always changing, is probably the biggest downfall of this team.

Jonatan: Yeah.

Jonatan: So, they obviously don't have like a great win rate in the last three months.

Jonatan: They sub around like 33%.

Jonatan: I think, you know, they were considered the best Brazilian team.

Jonatan: They probably still are to some extent, even though they've been inconsistent.

Jonatan: There's probably arguments for other people, or there will be arguments after this tournament for other people to kind of take that spot.

Jonatan: They're not in a very rock solid spot where like, yes, they are the best.

Jonatan: No one can argue that.

Jonatan: I think they could easily lose against pretty much three or four other Brazilian teams in a matchup, right?

Jonatan: I feel like that, you know, like they...

James: Yeah.

Jonatan: You know what I mean though?

Jonatan: Like, they've shown, sometimes they're just good.

Jonatan: They look competitive and then they fall flat.

Jonatan: I think as well, if you look at their map pool, it's a little bit troublesome with, if you look at the best of ones, like they could easily be in trouble in the best of ones, having that kind of middle of the pack map of like Nuke and Ancient, where you look at some of the teams that came up from stage one, Heroic and OG, some of their best maps are that Ancient, Nuke, kind of way.

Jonatan: So if they get into that, and then you look at the maps they are bad on, which was Inferno and Train, or at least in the win rate side, it's 25% and 16%.

Jonatan: Are they going to choose?

James: The Inferno one is crazy because it's normally a good map for Brazilian teams.

Jonatan: Yeah.

Jonatan: So it's like the biggest pros you can actually say, they have been really competitive against some of the best teams.

Jonatan: They've taken a map of Vitality.

Jonatan: You know, most of the competition they've actually played against is top tier.

Jonatan: So they're not like the win rates are a bit skewed in that sense.

Jonatan: They're dangerous on anubis against pretty much any opponent.

Jonatan: That's where they've, you know, beaten the top teams.

Jonatan: So I think the only thing is like, yeah, they're really strong on that map, but is it going to be enough if they don't pick up early wins?

Jonatan: To kind of get get themselves that extra life in the Swiss system?

Jonatan: But it's as you mentioned, you need a lot of players to kind of step it up.

Jonatan: Be that hallmark, you know, there's always been a lot of potential in safe.

Jonatan: It's always been a great offer, but, you know, in Sony, always been impactful, has that X factor in them, kind of push games and make them exciting.

Jonatan: But, you know, I don't really know where I have them.

Jonatan: They're in my kind of middle of the pack, maybe could make it, maybe could, you know, not.

Jonatan: I don't know if I'm willing to bet my money that will make it through.

Jonatan: I don't think so.

James: Yeah.

James: It's not a safe bet at any imagination.

Jonatan: No, I think it's very much up in the air, like, because you haven't really seen them that much in the last, you know, we saw them in Astana, but yeah, I don't know.

Jonatan: They lost against a Furia with a completely new lineup.

James: But it was a stage game that, as I said, the experience not of having played on stage for most of the players, and also Molodoy basically being the home crowd for Furia.

Jonatan: Yeah, that's true.

Jonatan: But it was a crowd that cheered for everyone.

Jonatan: Let's be real.

James: Yeah, but in that, they were not cheering for MIBR.

Jonatan: Oh, okay, okay.

Jonatan: That might be true, yeah.

James: That was completely like, there was a cheer for MIBR.

James: It was not booze, but it was Molodoy, it was Furia, it was that's it.

Jonatan: Yeah.

James: That's just the way it went, right?

Jonatan: But it's a team I have a little bit of question marks for as well.

Jonatan: I would probably definitely put them through in stage one if they were there.

Jonatan: That I would, but in stage two, the competition is so much rougher.

Jonatan: You're having the best teams from stage one, you have some of the great teams, you know, I haven't even touched on Falcons, which is like the second best team in the world still being in this stage.

Jonatan: So depending on opponents, they could have a really tough time.

James: Yeah, all right.

James: Let's go from MIBR to another Brazilian team that isn't quite Brazilian anymore.

James: FURIA.

James: Yeah, I'm going to say this.

James: I'm ignoring what happened at Dallas because they had to travel from Astana straight into a game at Dallas with like very little time in between.

James: I forget the exact time, but it was like, Jakinda said they played like six hours after landing.

James: They're in their first game.

James: They lost to the Mongols there.

James: They beat LinVision, then they lost to Game Legion.

James: Obviously, they would have had time to reset after that, but it's also coming over to North America again.

James: Since then, they've just been in North America, practicing bootcamping, playing together, getting more experience, getting Molodoy set in, who obviously he's still going through his learning of English at the same time, as are some of the Brazilian players, you know, Uri and Quesarato.

James: But Yakinda is looking like he's back.

James: We saw how confident he looked in Astana.

James: Nice.

James: And their opening game is against LinVision, who they beat 2-0 in Dallas.

James: That's the best of one.

James: Yeah, sure.

James: But I mean, for me, this, Furia, they have such a good chance here.

James: And I truly believe that Fowlen's way of playing rifle now and just his knowledge of the game and spacing and how to take different areas of the map in control and how him and Yakinda are working is something that I can believe in for a success story.

Jonatan: Yeah, but you could also see it as almost a blessing to some IGLs.

Jonatan: You know, we obviously saw Kadim maybe struggle it a little bit more if you look at the offers that transitioned into riflers IGLing.

Jonatan: Yeah, but it could actually be a blessing in the in the skies to some degree because he'll have more control.

Jonatan: He'll have more ways to put input into the team.

Jonatan: You'll have a better overview because you don't have to always focus on your crosshair and talk at the same time.

Jonatan: You could actually not cover something, talk about needs, look at the delivery, flick around a lot more and see what's going on.

Jonatan: So I think it can be a blessing for a caller.

Jonatan: But I mean, in general, it's like you say, it's I think it's Jakinda is back, looks like his old self, takes entry, plays with confidence again, a completely different look to what he was in Liquid, where it didn't feel like he had a confidence to do anything.

Jonatan: So I think, yeah, and he's enjoying Counter-Strike and he's being that creative, in the moment, creative Jakinda again, which was one of the greatest entries on the server back in the days.

Jonatan: So seeing that, also, it's like, Molodoy, can you have a better mentor going into an awping role?

Jonatan: I don't think so.

Jonatan: You know, like, he's called the Professor.

Jonatan: He's been a star awper his entire career.

Jonatan: People remember a fallen flick.

Jonatan: Let's put it that way.

Jonatan: And, you know, he's so smart, intelligent, and, you know, I don't know what the word is, but, like, like a teacher in the way that he speaks about the game.

Jonatan: So it's very easy to comprehend what he's talking about.

Jonatan: So he's very well spoken.

Jonatan: So in that sense, you know, where's the limit of him developing an awper from the ground up?

Jonatan: A young guy that looks up to him and, you know, has that raw ability and just learning positioning, thinking and all this stuff and having an in-game leader understands the awp role so deeply to just push him to go there.

Jonatan: I think it's the perfect setup for him to develop and feel confident and feel like he has faith from his teammates and in-game leader.

Jonatan: So, I think these obviously are key parts of they need to perform because I think the stability of having Queserato and Jury, I think they've always been stable players.

Jonatan: Queserato a little bit more than Jury, but at the same time, they've always been stable.

Jonatan: So, I think there's a lot of positives to look at this, and not only short-term, but also long-term for the squad.

Jonatan: And I think the only real question, Mark, is was it a honeymoon period or is this going to continuously rise?

Jonatan: You know, they have played the best teams, but are they going to struggle against, let's say, up-and-comers, the teams that are a little bit lower than them?

Jonatan: Is that going to be a different challenge for them?

James: But they probably have been practicing against the lower teams here on bootcamp the whole time as well.

Jonatan: Yeah, but it can always be a little bit more scary going up against a team that you feel like, okay, we have the pressure to perform against them, we should win, and they start gaining rounds.

Jonatan: How do you deal with that?

James: I think it's Molodoy who won't, like he will just, in those kind of games, so I expect him to farm.

Jonatan: All right.

James: Like, this is what he's used to, this is his bread and butter, this is what he'll do his most damage on.

James: Maybe what you're talking about could be on some of the other players.

Jonatan: Yeah.

James: But for Molodoy, I'm not worried about.

James: I just have that feeling, that sense from talking to him.

Jonatan: These are just like, questions that might be valid going into them.

Jonatan: Yeah.

Jonatan: But there's a lot of positives, definitely a lot of positives going for Fury.

Jonatan: I think they're building a competitive team, and it's something that I was negative to the start when they made the changes.

Jonatan: I was like, what the fuck is this?

Jonatan: Yeah, it was the craziest, weirdest move going.

Jonatan: Yeah, and they proved me wrong, you know?

Jonatan: I have to kind of say, okay, you know, fuck my opinion at this point, because they obviously know what they're doing, you know?

James: But we still need to wait.

James: You're right, that there's the potential of looking at the honeymoon period.

Jonatan: Yeah.

James: But I'm just excited to see what they've been able to do with some more time off the back of it.

James: Yeah.

James: All right.

James: One final team to look at here before we go into, like, predictions, then we'll do pick-ups, and then we come towards the end.

James: I'm trying to make sure I keep your energy high and my energy high, because I'm knackered as well.

James: You're actually in the...

James: It's now 3 a.m.

James: for you.

James: Yeah.

James: So sorry for all the viewers out there that this might not be our usual level of competent podcast.

James: It's going to be a long ride this major.

James: So Falcons.

James: Obviously, the addition of Monassey was huge.

James: They fly into Melbourne, you know, and they get second place to another great grand final against Vitality.

James: Then they go to Blast Rivals straight after that.

James: They meet Vitality in the finals again.

James: It once again is 3-2, so they go the full distance with Vitality proving they can go toe to toe.

James: In Dallas, it goes to three maps.

James: There was actually a chance that they probably could have had the win over Vitality to get to the grand final and defeat that streak, but Vitality is kind of invincible.

James: Falcons are the strongest team in this stage, and it's only because their VRS wasn't high at the point of invites for the major that they're not in stage three.

James: I think them being in stage two is actually only a good thing for them, to just get a few more officials in, to get some more games under them and dominate.

James: But the only thing I have is that if Magisk is obviously aware he's going out, Kyosuke, Kyosuke, Kyosuke, whatever you want to call him, he's coming in, that's the only thing that could have a negative.

James: But Magisk is more than a capable enough player to say, my last rodeo, I've been here before, let me do what I got to do.

James: One more major won't hurt my amazing name and what I've built for myself as a legacy.

James: Either way, Falcons is, they should farm in every game no matter who they go up against.

Jonatan: I agree.

Jonatan: I mean, nobody can go into the pickings and say like, I'm not putting Falcons 3-0 at this point in this stage.

Jonatan: I think that would be absolutely ludicrous.

Jonatan: I think if you look at even the Magisk discussion, I feel like he posted a lot better numbers in the last couple of matches, last couple of events.

Jonatan: I think he's grown into the team, even though he's rumored to be booted off the team after the Major and replaced.

Jonatan: I still think they look stronger and stronger, and I think he is contributing to that.

Jonatan: And I mean, it's hard to find cons for this team.

Jonatan: It's just pros to the second best team in the world.

Jonatan: Monuzi, top three player in the world.

Jonatan: Niko, we talked to Hooksy about Niko.

Jonatan: He could be the best in-game leader in the world.

Jonatan: He's controlling CT sides, even though he might not have the best games all the time right now compared to past Niko a few years ago, where he would be topping the charts every single game.

Jonatan: He's still capable of doing that every single game and have all this impact on the server with communication, organizing, all of that stuff.

Jonatan: That's super important to make sure the team clicks and is consistent.

Jonatan: So I think, you know, they have all the ingredients to kind of mess Vitality's major up because that's where the conversation is driving towards them.

Jonatan: Even if it's stage two now, they are the biggest rival to Vitality.

Jonatan: They are the only one that's been looking like they even have a shot at, you know, taking the crown and throwing it to the ground and kind of, you know, saying, you know, it's not that clear.

Jonatan: So, you know, they're just the most obvious team ever to go through this stage.

James: And the only thing I can see as a negative is just that they're changing line up after the Major.

James: That's, it's not even a bad thing because of the player they're changing and his mental, him being, he knows Zonic, Lars, the system, you know.

James: They've had a great bootcamp in America as well.

James: So they've been in bootcamping from Dallas.

James: I spoke to Montessi earlier.

James: He's in very, very good mood and high spirits.

James: He's ready to own.

James: He's just been farming, face it.

James: He's just, he just said, it's crazy.

James: Just queue and face it.

James: Obviously, a lot of the people, he said he's like 4 point something kilo, 46K or 8K kilo.

James: And like he gets matched with 22K kilo because obviously there's such a difference in NA, face it, but he's going to be warmed up.

James: He's going to be ready.

James: He's going to be on his absolute A game.

James: So yeah, that tied to everything else we know about him.

Jonatan: I mean, I don't think anyone, if you're just like, Oh, what could hinder Falcons?

Jonatan: Is anyone going to say anything about that?

Jonatan: Even if you asked all the experts, all the personalities in CounterStrike, I don't think a single one.

James: It's only the rumour.

Jonatan: But it's like a maybe, and like it's obviously not 100% confirmed.

Jonatan: It's probably going to happen.

Jonatan: But it's not that big of a deal, because it would be different if a young player was changed and his mentality would be broken.

Jonatan: But it's different for an experienced guy.

Jonatan: He knows what he needs to do.

Jonatan: This is his job.

Jonatan: He's done it in the past.

Jonatan: He's ready for it.

Jonatan: I don't think it's going to affect him in the same way that would the 20-year-old rookie, you know?

Jonatan: Like, it's not comparable.

Jonatan: So I think it could even boost his performance in a weird way.

Jonatan: So, yeah, I don't even see it as a con.

James: No.

James: And Magisk has been playing better recently as well.

Jonatan: Yeah.

James: So all of that can factor into it.

James: And it's not like he's an old player.

James: We've been talking about him for ages, because he started so young as Magisk boy, but he has grown up and he's still a young player who can hold his own and do his best.

James: But yeah, Falcons are like the clear favorites at this stage by far.

James: Like it's a huge one.

Jonatan: Yeah, it's not even fun.

James: So, all right, that gives us our preview of stage two, and I think everyone needs to know about that, our thoughts, opinions on the teams, what we saw from stage one up until here.

James: So do you want to do pick-ups before we go into predictions, or do you want to do predictions first?

Jonatan: We can do predictions first, right?

James: That would make sense.

Jonatan: We can do predictions first.

James: Let's do predictions first because we can only predict the first opening match-ups, right?

Jonatan: Yeah.

James: So let me get this up, stage two.

Jonatan: Feel bad for Bait.

James: Yeah.

James: First game, Falcon's Bait, Monacy and Hetrick, very close friends from Navi Junior days as well.

James: You know, this, like, it's just going to be a battle of friends, but Bait are probably going to lose like 99% sure, even if it's the best of one, it should be Falcon's winning.

Jonatan: Yeah.

Jonatan: I think, I think the one thing is like, if Bait would have been matched up with any other team in this stage, other than Falcon's, they will have a shot at going 1-0.

James: How does this work, by the way?

James: Like this is because it's the seed one, Falcon's against seed nine, Bait.

Jonatan: I think so.

Jonatan: Yeah.

James: So it was bad for Bait to go through 3-0 because you get a harder match up here, but your next match up should be easy.

James: It's such a messy system.

James: It's so much better if it's 1-16, 2-15.

Jonatan: Obviously, I'm picking Falcon's, but I feel bad for Bait because I think they could win against literally every other team.

James: Yeah, I'd agree with that.

James: Phase versus Heroic second game.

James: This one's tough, man.

Jonatan: I'm picking Heroic.

James: Are you?

Jonatan: Yeah.

James: Why?

James: Why?

James: Yeah, give me your reasons why.

Jonatan: Well, they did win against them.

Jonatan: I don't know about Phase.

Jonatan: It's just guesstimates and hopes at this point.

Jonatan: I've seen Heroic.

Jonatan: Therefore, I'm picking them.

Jonatan: Even though I don't think it's going to be easy.

Jonatan: I don't think it's going to be...

Jonatan: I'll say it like this, okay?

Jonatan: It's going to be a middle of the pack map for both teams.

Jonatan: I think that Phase, it's unrealistic that they're going to have a mega strong map pool.

Jonatan: They're going to have like three, maybe four maps that they're going to be good at.

Jonatan: Heroic, they're an established teams.

Jonatan: They have those middle of the pack maps.

Jonatan: And I think they're going to have a stronger map for them than it's going to be for Phase, in the best of one.

James: Okay.

James: Okay.

James: I, with my heart, are going to say Phase, but I'm worried.

James: For an opening matchup, this is tough.

Jonatan: Yeah.

James: And it's more tough for the Phase side, because of how they're coming in to this, you know.

Jonatan: But also imagine how, you know, energized you want to be as heroic after that video.

Jonatan: Even though it's a troll video, they still call them fucking bots.

James: No, simple, call them fucking bots.

Jonatan: Yeah.

Jonatan: Well, I would take it as everyone, and just let that fuel you.

James: Except Tenir and Sunpires, everyone else is bots on that team.

James: But it was a joke.

James: But there's some truth in it, as he said himself in the video.

James: All right, I'm going with FaZe, because it's my boy, Simple.

James: I got to back him.

James: But I understand why you're going for Horak.

James: I don't blame you on that one.

James: 3D Max, Bet Boom.

James: I'm going Bet Boom, baby.

James: I'm going Bet Boom.

Jonatan: Let's make it spicy.

Jonatan: I'll go 3D Max.

James: Okay, okay.

James: I'm believing in Bet Boom, because they're already here, they're already used to it all.

James: They know what's going on within this system, this setup.

James: And I think 3D Max will just be a bit shaky coming in.

Jonatan: Yeah, that's fair.

Jonatan: It won't be smooth for them.

Jonatan: This is the type of opponent that 3D Max should be able to win against.

Jonatan: If they're not winning against the Bet Boom, like the calibre of teams, they're going 0-3.

Jonatan: That's how I feel.

Jonatan: This is the game they should have.

Jonatan: They should be happy they got Bet Boom.

James: Okay.

James: Next, Veritas Pro OG.

James: I'm believing in the OG hype train, man.

James: Yeah.

James: Double OG.

James: I expected that.

Jonatan: This one is tough.

Jonatan: The next one.

James: Oh, Pain Namiiga.

James: I'm a big fan of the Pain Boys.

James: We have kept praising them, but for the issues that we already outlined, I just think Namiiga is going to be the team adjusted, loud, proud, happy and ready for this fight.

James: This is something that will suit Namiiga.

James: That they've got this loud experience now, that they made it through to the stage too.

Jonatan: I mean, I agree.

Jonatan: I mean, I just love the name Risky Bob.

Jonatan: I have some brilliant name.

Jonatan: I wish I came up with that name.

James: Risky Bob, by the way, who doesn't play that Risky.

Jonatan: Yeah, but it's such a good name.

James: Where are you going though?

James: Who are you picking?

Jonatan: I think it's tough.

Jonatan: I'll go with Namiga.

James: Okay.

Jonatan: Yeah.

James: Namiga.

James: You're going Namiga as well.

James: Furia, Lin Vision.

James: I'm on Furia.

Jonatan: Yeah, I'm going Furia as well.

Jonatan: I think there's a lot of positives.

Jonatan: I think they probably could only go better.

Jonatan: I hope that's the case, but it feels like that's the case.

Jonatan: So, I all respect to Lin Vision for even making it to this stage, you know.

Jonatan: But I'd say they didn't have the strongest opponents on their path there.

Jonatan: And I think they're going to struggle.

Jonatan: Yeah.

Jonatan: I think they're going to struggle in stage two.

Jonatan: And I think Furia is too much.

James: True.

James: Very true.

James: This one, MIBR Legacy is hard, because Legacy have been leveling up, but MIBR, obviously we haven't seen them in action since Astana, but on paper I give it to MIBR.

James: I am going to predict MIBR, but I feel like this is such a coin flip one.

James: I don't have much confidence in who can take this.

Jonatan: I think it is a coin flip, so I'll take Legacy for the spiciness of this content.

Jonatan: And we will finally have a real competition of the predictions, where we are not just following each other.

James: And then the last one, M80 vs Tyloo.

James: Tyloo.

James: I told you I lost confidence in M80, so I just can't see it, man.

James: Even if I like some of the players on that team, it's this.

James: It's a yikes from me.

Jonatan: And how can you not predict Tyloo after that G interview?

Jonatan: I don't know what's...

James: I want more G makes me happy.

James: And more Jam Young onage.

James: I'm all for that.

James: Jam Young.

Jonatan: He did say, who?

James: From China.

Jonatan: Who?

James: Who?

James: If I do that first interview with M80, I'm going to say, what is your reaction to Tyloo asking who you guys are?

Jonatan: Have you introduced yourself?

James: Have you yet told him who you are?

James: Yeah.

James: Do you know?

Jonatan: And I don't think G meant any disrespect whatsoever.

Jonatan: I literally think he just didn't understand either how they were pronouncing it, because they probably pronounce it way different.

James: Yeah.

Jonatan: So he just didn't...

Jonatan: There was a language barrier for sure.

Jonatan: But yeah, that's it.

James: Funny as hell.

James: All right.

James: Then lastly, we need to do our pick-ems.

James: All right.

James: As always, we're doing our All About Counter-Strike pick-ems for stage two.

James: We're doing our together pick-ems on this one.

James: It's a bit more crazy.

Jonatan: Without me changing from the first stage, we did get the silver one.

James: Five.

James: Okay.

James: That's good.

James: We got through.

James: I got through my own personal ones as well like this.

Jonatan: And that is with Meta Sports, I think, predicted as, wait.

James: Zero three?

Jonatan: Can you see them?

Jonatan: Yes.

Jonatan: But they're not shown here, but we do have Meta Sports there.

Jonatan: Yeah.

James: You can click back and see it.

Jonatan: No?

James: Stage one.

Jonatan: Well, now it's just resolved.

James: One, two, three, four, five.

James: Yeah.

James: So five we had there.

Jonatan: Yeah.

James: Didn't get any zero frees correctly.

Jonatan: No.

James: That's all right.

James: At least the bait three zero.

James: That's what I did as well.

James: Okay.

James: So Falcons, you said a beating bait.

James: Are we putting heroic or faze to win?

Jonatan: Heroic or faze to win?

James: Yeah.

Jonatan: The simulator.

James: You want heroic, right?

Jonatan: I want heroic.

James: Okay.

Jonatan: You can put faze to win.

James: 3D Max Bat Boom.

James: No, no.

James: I'm putting heroic.

James: I'm going with you.

James: You're the bigger brain.

James: Then we got 3D Max Bat Boom.

Jonatan: This one, whatever.

Jonatan: This one, I think it's a little bit of a flip.

James: Bat Boom.

James: OG over VP.

Jonatan: Yeah.

James: Namiga over pain or pain over Namiga?

James: Namiga, right?

Jonatan: Yeah.

James: Yep.

James: Furia over LinVision.

James: Legacy, MRBR, still MRBR.

Jonatan: Let's pick MRBR for this one.

James: Yep.

James: Okay.

James: Then Falcons beat Tyloo.

James: Furia beat Namiga or Namiga beat Furia?

Jonatan: Furia.

James: Furia.

James: MRBR, OG.

James: OG.

Jonatan: Yes.

James: Heroic, Bat Boom, heroic.

Jonatan: Agreed.

James: Phase, legacy, phase.

James: 3D Max, LinVision, 3D Max.

James: VP, Bait.

James: Oof.

James: Bait.

Jonatan: Bait, yes.

James: Yep.

James: Pain, M80.

James: Pain.

Jonatan: Pain.

Jonatan: Cool.

James: Three O's then.

James: So Falcons over OG.

Jonatan: Falcons.

James: Heroic over Furia.

James: So our two three O's would be Falcons, Heroic.

James: Yep.

James: Then our zero threes.

James: VP over Legacy.

James: VP wins.

James: LinVision M80.

Jonatan: Ooh.

Jonatan: Ooh.

Jonatan: Ooh.

Jonatan: I don't know.

Jonatan: Is that an answer I can get?

James: That's so hard.

James: Because I was going to put in my personal zero threes.

James: I was going to put both M80 and LinVision.

Jonatan: Yeah, me too.

Jonatan: No, wait.

Jonatan: I had M80 and...

Jonatan: I have to check my screenshot.

James: With what we're doing on the simulator, it would be Legacy, M80 or LinVision.

Jonatan: In my personal one, I had M80 and LinVision as well.

James: So who's going to...

James: If they have to play each other, how do we get them to play in each other?

James: Something's...

James: Yeah, okay.

James: This is what it is.

James: LinVision M80, LinVision M80.

James: Where?

Jonatan: Well, let's say LinVision wins.

James: Okay, then M80 is out.

James: Other games, 1-1, BetBoon Pain, best of one.

Jonatan: BetBoon Pain.

Jonatan: I think BetBoon, yeah.

James: Namiga 3D Max, on map, 3D Max?

Jonatan: Yes.

James: Okay.

Jonatan: Phase.

James: Fate MIBR.

Jonatan: Fate.

James: Fate.

James: Good.

James: Okay, two ones.

James: BetBoon Phase.

James: Good.

James: Furia 3D Max.

Jonatan: Furia?

James: Cool.

James: Bait OG.

James: They played each other once already.

James: What was the score?

Jonatan: It was pretty stumpy from Bait.

Jonatan: It was on Inferno, I remember.

James: It was just one map, right?

Jonatan: Yeah.

Jonatan: I think Bait won pretty big.

James: 39.

Jonatan: But it was a big lead, I think.

James: Yeah.

James: Let's put Bait going through.

James: Namiga, LinVision.

Jonatan: Namiga, LinVision.

Jonatan: Namiga.

James: Tai Lu Pain.

Jonatan: Tai Lu Pain.

Jonatan: Tai Lu Pain.

Jonatan: Tai Lu.

James: VP, MIBR.

James: Oh, didn't they play against each other?

James: They played against each other recently.

James: Am I crazy?

Jonatan: I don't know.

Jonatan: I'm not so, I'm not peeled on anyone here.

Jonatan: Maybe I'll say MIBR, based on nothing.

James: Okay, based on nothing.

James: Then the last games would be Bat Boom, MIBR, Bat Boom.

Jonatan: I think it's a tight one, but we can take Bat Boom.

James: OG Namiga, OG.

Jonatan: OG.

James: 3D Max Tai Lu.

Jonatan: 3D Max Tai Lu.

James: Personally, I'd pull Tai Lu.

Jonatan: Tai Lu, let's go G.

James: Let's go G.

James: Okay.

James: So our three O's on this would then be Falcons of Oryk.

James: Our 3132 would be FaZe, Furia, Bait, BB Team, or Bat Boom Team, sorry.

James: OG Tai Lu.

James: And our zero threes would be-

Jonatan: I'm way too tired to go through it that fast.

Jonatan: FaZe.

James: Okay.

James: 3132, FaZe, Furia, Bait.

Jonatan: FaZe, Furia, Bait.

James: And then Bat Boom, OG, Tai Lu.

Jonatan: Bat Boom, OG, Tai Lu.

James: And then zero three would be Legacy M80.

Jonatan: Legacy M80.

Jonatan: So this would be our picks.

Jonatan: Yeah.

Jonatan: It seems pretty reasonable.

Jonatan: No.

James: A lot depends on that FaZe.

James: FaZe.

Jonatan: FaZe Heroic start.

James: He's like, let me just reset.

James: Change if it.

James: If FaZe win, how much does this change?

Jonatan: Probably a lot.

Jonatan: Yeah.

James: Just doing it all again.

Jonatan: Just waiting for the results of Banks here, going through the Swiss.

James: I'm doing it all myself.

James: I can skip through things on this.

Jonatan: Are you just going through the entire bracket?

Jonatan: You always get M80.

James: You always get M80 vision, even with the heroic one changes.

Jonatan: All right.

James: So M80 seems like a safe zero three.

Jonatan: It was the first.

Jonatan: I'd put Falcons in my free zero, personally, first, and then I put M80 on zero three.

James: Basically, phase or heroic will be three zero.

James: From what I'm doing anyway, from how I'm pissed down with this.

James: Well, I like what we've done, though.

Jonatan: All right.

Jonatan: So then this would be it.

James: Yeah.

Jonatan: Save all picks.

James: That takes us to the end of it all.

Jonatan: Yeah.

James: Save all picks.

James: See if you want to believe in that, mate.

James: Wait and watch the magic unfold.

James: It all kicks off tomorrow.

James: Blast TV Austin Major Stage 2.

James: Again, for everyone watching, the energy was not as high as our normal podcast level.

James: We're trying to crank this out no matter what for you guys, even though we're literally starting the major again in 12 hours from now, my time.

Jonatan: Yeah.

Jonatan: I think it's the highest amount of energy I could possibly have.

Jonatan: I tried to drink as much coffee, caffeine and stuff to really make sure I was even awake.

James: Well, I need to go prepare for my interview questions for tomorrow as well and get ready for that.

James: I'm starting on the morning shift with all the opening best of ones.

James: It'll be fun.

Jonatan: I'll do some housework in the morning and then I'll tune in to the major at night.

James: Yeah, you actually got good timing.

James: It's nice timing.

James: You only missed like maybe the last couple of games.

Jonatan: I mean, I think I've watched, I've actually stayed up every single night until the last game has ended.

Jonatan: But it hasn't been, I think the first day was the worst because with the best of ones and they redrawing it, it became a much later...

James: In the break in between.

Jonatan: Yeah.

James: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jonatan: It became much, much later than the best of three.

Jonatan: It has not been as bad for the best of three series.

Jonatan: I think most of the last games have started around like 23.

Jonatan: So, most of them have ended at around one or something like that.

James: Do we have any viewer questions in the Discord?

Jonatan: Let me have a look.

James: No, none.

Jonatan: Hooksy, how much do you bench?

James: That's a good thing all the time.

James: That's a late one.

James: That's a wrong one.

James: All right.

James: Well, with that, we are done and dusted.

James: We are out of here.

James: Episode 15.

James: Again, we apologize for the less energy than normal.

James: We'll be back at full strength for the next one between stage two and three because you get a day break in between all of that.

James: And we're trying to crank out as much as possible.

James: Hopefully, I'll be able to grab us a guest at that point as well.

James: Maybe one of the ones that went from the three zeros or something like that.

James: We'll get chatting to people.

James: But either way, thanks for watching.

James: Thank you for supporting.

James: Make sure you like, subscribe, comment.

James: By the way, we're always reading the comments on YouTube, for example.

James: So, if you do want to talk to us there, do that.

James: If not, head to allaboutcs.gg/discord, join Discord as well.

James: And enjoy the major.

James: Have fun and stay safe.