Episode 16 – Austin Major Stage 3 Deep Dive

It is the 11th of June, 2025, and we're back with another episode of the All About Counter-Strike Podcast.

And for me right now, it is 6.22 in the evening here in Austin, Texas.

For Devilwalk, it is 1.22 on a completely different day to what I'm on.

I'm actually on the 10th, you're on the 11th.

But you're still awake, and there's actually still light outside because of where you live in Sweden.

Yeah, it's still light, beautiful.

You know, we have the blackout curtains for a reason over here.

And no, but it's good, man.

It's good.

It's been some actually really kind of sweaty, exciting, kind of drawn in to games on the Majors.

So I've been enjoying a lot of the Counter-Strike, actually.

Well, before we get into the Counter-Strike, I want to ask you, did you get your desk set up?

Do you have your monitor arms now?

We need an update on that.

Yeah, I do.

So you're like in a command center, right?

I have a command center now.

So I have a screen over here, a screen over here, a screen over here, obviously.

So I have a triple screen.

I have two above and one I play with.

The arms, we did this.

So we recorded the last episode for the stage two preview.

That night or that day, I'd worked on some stuff like on the balcony.

You see over here, we put up curtains.

We drilled in the roof of the balcony so we could put them up.

Put some new lamps in the kitchen and stuff like that.

So it's looking a lot fresher in the apartment, looking a lot more complete.

So, yeah, I'm really happy.

And then when we recorded that, I think I probably fell asleep at like six, maybe.

When you record these episodes, you have to have a certain amount of energy.

You can't just be like drowsy sleeping, just barely being awake.

So I was pumping coffee before the episode.

And I remember, Banks, you said you'd be there in 17 minutes, and it took one and a half hour.

So I mistimed my first coffee, obviously, as one does when someone is an hour late.

So I took another one.

So I was fucking pumped with caffeine.

So when I tried to go to bed, Banks, I could not fall asleep instantly.

Well, welcome to podcast life when you're on the other side of the world.

Because I do apologize, but it's also not entirely my fault because I had a job to do.

Yes, that is true.

There is that side of it as well.

I am working.

This time, I wasn't doing the last game, so I was all good.

Everything was fine.

I didn't have to do anything to do.

No media today because media is tomorrow.

For the stage three teams, the ones that have just got here.

So everything is all good in that sense of things.

I actually don't have a headache now.

Both of us are probably going to have more energy.

This episode should deliver and bang.

And also, I'll say this for the amazing people that regularly watch our podcast and listen to our podcast.

There was a lot of people complaining that we didn't get it out fast enough.

Trust me, we tried.

Dude, it's hard.

But literally, now we at least have a chance where there's one day between, right?

So we can pump it out so you guys can watch it or listen to it way before.

So it's not like half an hour before the actual major starts again.

But recording all of that editing, pumping it out in, I don't even know how much time we had before that, less like 12 hours or something.

It was like 12 hours between when we recorded to when the first game went live or something like that when we finished, I think.

And the thing is, right, people were like, oh, we wanted to copy your pick-ems.

Well, hopefully you didn't even copy our pick-ems because they went to shit as well, man.

You could have just randomly, because I had one of those videos where a dog just picks a bowl of food and you would have done better, I think.

Actually, true fact, I don't know anyone that I've spoken to about pick-ems who has a choice of getting a chance, sorry, of getting Diamond Coin.

I don't think it's possible.

I think it's completely off the cards.

And with that being said, right, let's get into the baddest of it all, mate.

So we'll start with a little review of stage two.

We're not going to go over every team and every result.

We're just going to hit on some of the highlights of it.

Here are some of the things that happen.

I'm going to take control of this ship and I'm going to start with Tyloo because I don't know if you see right here, but I am repping the Tyloo show.

I don't often do this.

Yeah.

But look at this.

I know.

Can you see the back?

Yeah.

G number nine.

Oh, yeah.

Boy, My Man G.

First of all, I've done a lot of interviews in my career.

I've done a lot of loser interviews, sad interviews.

That made me emotional.

That made me teary, man, because what people have to remember is for the Chinese audience, the showing of emotion isn't like a normal thing.

Yeah.

And a lot of them give G hate for being so emotional and showing himself and being loud and cheering him on.

Not all of them do.

But we love it over this side of the world, right?

In the Western audience, it's something we're all a big fan of.

We think it's great to see, someone with that much passion, excitement, love for the game, the emotion.

And the way he ended that interview is like, if you love Counter-Strike, I love you.

Which is perfect for a guy who can't even fully speak the language.

He's like Duolingo learning from his manager at the same time.

And then the hug afterwards, he's a hugger.

He hugged Moses so much when they're on the desk on the winner's interview.

Then we gave him ice cream, he hugged us some more.

And then he fed me ice cream.

And by the way, G is absolutely crazy.

He fed me ice cream with that spoon, and then ate more of the ice cream himself, even though the spoon had been in my mouth.

Yeah.

That was something I didn't expect.

And he just exudes charisma, passion.

And I think they honestly believe they had a good chance of making it through to the next stage.

And obviously, what it means for Chinese Counter-Strike as well.

Ji won the hearts of everyone, that even the main Counter-Strike Twitter posted that they love him.

You know?

And so obviously, you guys wouldn't have seen this, because this is off camera.

But me and my wife were talking to him afterwards, and his manager was there, and Mozier was there as well.

And I just said to him, like, you guys have skill.

And I said, also, you have your own passion.

I said, never change.

Just be the way you are.

Doesn't matter what a hater says, doesn't matter what a fan says, keep being you.

And I said, before you come to Cologne, boot camp in Europe.

Because they're just close, you know?

They're close, but they still make some mistakes, but they've got the individual skill that they have a chance to break into, like, a, I'm not going to say maybe top 15, but like a top 20 position, if they were able to get those reps.

Obviously, there's money that comes with all of this, you know, and the opportunity and where they might be able to train, but they can go Serbia pretty easy as Chinese people.

I don't think they got good visa relations.

I don't think top 15 is like that unrealistic at all.

It's unrealistic in the VRS if you think about it, not getting so many events, you know?

Yeah, yeah, that's true, but like, I still could see them being like the 15th best team in the world, even though they might not have the opportunity to get the VRS points.

Over time, I could see them be there.

But they got to keep their foot on it now.

They got to push, right?

They got to keep going.

But also like a little bit about the personality and what he exudes and how it feels for us as like a Western fan watching the games.

You know, I grew up like watching a lot of different esports and you watch StarCraft, for example, you watched Warcraft 3.

And I always thought it was really hard to kind of, there was a few of them, but really hard to kind of know what the personality of some of the like best Koreans or Chinese players were.

It was mostly, you know, you got the Western fans was the same in the StarCraft space.

It was hard.

There was a few of them, but really hard to get to know some of the best players in the world, for who they were as people and players.

And so, and for that reason, you kind of always shifted towards being, you know, a fan of a Westerner and cheering for a Westerner.

There were some, as I said, that you could share for.

But this is like a breath of fresh air for me, with someone that kind of exudes all this personality and charisma, as you mentioned, that you just feel like, man, I want him to win.

I don't, like, he showed so much personal, like, there's more personality in G that I've seen than most, like, even Europeans doing interviews that I've watched for years, you know?

Definitely.

So he has that likeability, that you just...

By far.

You want him to win.

You want him to have success because of that charm.

Yeah, and look at the way they went out, okay?

So they beat M80.

Great game on Train, by the way.

The way they have managed to handle that.

M80 is not a great team, I'll be honest.

We can touch on a little bit.

The M80, I think what we'll do, Devilwalk, is as we're segueing through these, we've got our teams we want to touch on.

But like, just because I'm mentioning M80's result, it's a team without a map pool.

It's a team who told me they were, like had been working on it, but we couldn't really see it as major.

Their season continues to get worse.

I also just heard some rumors that the organization itself, not the players, but the organization is struggling financially.

So it could be a rough ride for them to a potential close their doors unless they get some other investment in, which is that's always sad to hear, especially for a North American organization.

That's probably not easy for the team as players as well.

Just having that in the back of my mind.

Yeah, I don't know if they know that.

I just heard some some outlying rumors of it.

But then Talu go up against FaZe right after getting that win.

So you're like, yeah.

And then you're like, oh damn, there's a video on the FaZe esports Twitter of G about to face them.

Yeah.

And he's doing the FaZe up sign.

I can't.

I'm not going to try to do the FaZe up sign again.

We're doing the FaZe up sign and Carrigan shouts, I'll buy you ice cream after the game.

And I understand them losing to FaZe.

That's not a problem, right?

Yeah.

Like for some of these players like G, these are players he looks up to.

He loves his watching.

But it's the Lin vision game, man.

It's like that's your domestic rival.

You struggled against them in best of threes.

You go into a map Anubis, which you're actually pretty good at, and you get dominated.

And that's the sad one.

You know, I know it's a domestic matchup, but Lin vision had them every step of the way.

Yeah.

But at the same time, you know, looking back at knowing the results of everything.

Lin vision, I don't know what they were on, but they've been fucking cooking this like the whole major.

They've been constantly put in the zero free bracket.

Doesn't even matter what stage we're talking about.

And they're continuously ruining everyone's pick-ems, like killing it.

And you love to see it, you know, this like Emilia guy, another like Asian personality.

I just love watching.

I don't think I've laughed as much as I have.

Watching this guy.

You see him spitting on the interview.

Like, I don't know what he's on, but he is hilarious, man.

He is hilarious.

This is his moment, man.

He's just having his moment.

I just love this like half broken English, like mid round screaming, what are you doing?

When he was playing like the last games.

Yeah, it is so, so good.

I think the Tai Lu story, right, is also why I said about the boot camp thing, because I don't want to do too much time on Tai Lu just because I'm fanboying over G.

I am a fan of G now, just going to say that he is my boy.

I think a lot of people are.

Well, okay, okay, another story, because we like the stories that come out of these things, right, rather than just looking at all the analysis of it.

When he gave me his jersey, he said, oh, Monacy is my favorite player.

Yeah.

And he really like he loves Monacy.

Yeah.

And he's like, but today he got eliminated.

And he was so sad that Monacy got eliminated.

And he's like, I wanted to change jersey with him.

And they had agreed to change jersey.

But obviously, Monacy wasn't thinking it.

And he was sad.

And then he just switched.

And he was like, maybe we can do it in clone.

And he's got this like youthfulness, kid-like way of going through things.

That he understands the heartbreak because they both had heartbreak.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And he was like, okay, I can do it at the next opportunity, you know.

But like, they are like the young Chinese players are mega fans of the current stars of Counter-Strike.

And that's beautiful.

I do love that.

But away from my story, the heroic one, I feel like they were so sad after they lost that mirage and they know they had that mirage, like it would have been their map.

It was just a few real small details.

I think that's what crushed them.

But they never stopped fighting.

So I've got a lot of love and respect now for Tidoo.

Yeah.

I mean, it was close games.

They probably could have picked up any of those maps, if we're going to be fair.

But also Heroic, you know, they're a great team.

We probably expected them to make it through the next stage as well.

But it was kind of a messy brackets.

Like, be honest.

Yeah.

Because everything went topsy-turvy from the very beginning.

Everything went crazy.

It's just crazy.

Like you have Falcons OG in the O2 games.

Like everything's messed up in all kinds of twisted ways.

You're looking at O2.

I'm going to take us to A3-0, because I've got some strong opinions on this.

VP.

Yeah.

VP 3-0.

They destroy OG 13-2.

They destroy bait 13-3.

They don't destroy pain if you look at it like there was a chance for pain to win Dust2.

They're in control.

But it was still a 2-0 victory for VP.

This VP does look great, does look better, but I have been lied to all year.

We have spoken about VP's ups and downs all year.

Yeah.

But you've been riding their wave in every single prediction, in every single tournament that we've talked on this podcast.

It's always one bad tournament then goes into a good tournament.

I always say it's going to be a good tournament after the bad one.

Yeah.

So Astana was bad, meaning this would be good.

Yeah.

That's like the logic chart of VP.

That's the logic VP.

That is it.

That's because once you give up on them, they're like, ha ha, look, we're back.

We're going to do some damage now.

And they did look great.

Obviously, they're coming off the back of a boot camp as well.

Finn's had some more time.

Remember, Finn came as the coach for Astana.

Yeah, after Melba.

And he just had to learn of what they need to fix and all the things they need to do.

He obviously has experience working with electronic, but I'm not going to jump the gun on the hype train of these guys just yet because they didn't struggle.

Now, electronic didn't rage at IC or shout at Flammus or get crazy and angry.

Yeah.

He was enjoying life because everything was going well.

I'm still worried that if he does tilt or if he, because remember he said in this interview on HLTV, like he's seen colossal improvement as an in-game leader.

Well, if you think he was in-game leading, not just on VP, but even at Na'Vi at one point, you've had more than enough time.

I respect you, electronic.

You've done some great things, but you should be improving.

And actually, you've had players where you should have been doing better at times than what you have.

And if they start to struggle, I still want to see supportive, happy, motivating his team version of electronic.

And that's what I'm still doubting.

And especially, as when we go into this stage, that's the real test for them.

Because they were supposed to make it through this stage.

But I will say, like, just looking at, like, eye test things, it looks like they are a way more consistent team.

It looks like they're handling situations better.

They're, you know, they're not looking stressed at all, but it might be the case that you're saying that they weren't really pressured to that point where you get all of these emotions caught up into.

And, you know, you get an IC missing easy shots and getting blamed or whatever the case may be.

But to me, it still looks like a different VP, like way different.

I still I'm raising the bar for for for for what we could do.

I think they could actually surprise a couple of big teams in stage three.

So they made you believe.

Yeah.

See that that is already that's part of this VP charm, you know, when they're down.

I'm falling into the trap.

I might be falling into the trap, but we'll see.

Or is it is it like this then?

Okay.

In the VP logic chart, since stage one, two and three are technically separate tournaments on the HLTV page.

Does the logic apply to the stages?

Like if stage two is good, is stage three bad?

Oh, do you know what?

We don't even know about that logic yet.

That's hard to say because they've just been going event to event.

So my logic doesn't actually understand whether this will work.

We will have it answers when we get to the end of stage three, if they make it to playoffs or not.

So I'm not going to follow up on the logic of the VP.

We'll come back to it.

I think that's the best way.

All right.

Another team.

Interesting.

I think a lot of people had heroic going through after what they saw in stage one.

And obviously, they end up falling to Namiga here.

The first thing is, remember we said how spicy that phase game would be?

Well, they met a simple who was back to, yeah, you're going to be shouting at us, you're going to make this into a bit of a banter war.

No, it's not going to happen.

And Carrigan, he even started bantering them hard, because obviously, after the game, they normally kind of leave it, but it was done the opposite way when they played in Dallas.

And, okay, Carrigan tweeted, I should actually bring up the Carrigan tweet, right?

Let me make sure I correctly say this.

This is my lack of preparation.

He says, I don't think shouting after the game, I don't like shouting after the game is over, but had to because of last time, a bit BM, which means bad manners, but got carried away.

GG, well played, heroic and no hard feeling, as I hope.

So yeah, he was just doing it back.

It was funny.

The sirens were going the whole time.

But the ambulance sirens were just for heroic because they didn't stand a chance.

They got absolutely destroyed.

And the thing is they had a chance to bounce back, but then they lost to Bait, who they know very well.

And this is what I don't like afterwards.

They played FaZe, yeah.

Then they played Betboom, Bait, Tyloo, Namiga, all teams from stage one.

So you didn't even have to deal with leveling up teams, so to speak.

The teams that were already in stage two and you still didn't make it.

I felt like they kept a very strong mentality, even with the fact that they know Sumpires and Sora confirmed going to G2.

Sumpires gave me a very good loser interview at the end as well on the exit.

And he was just so sad, right, about the fact that they were dropping the pistols, you know, and he actually enjoys playing CS with these guys.

You know, the one thing I think will actually be in the back of Sumpires' mind, this is just a thought I have, is that if he likes playing with his team so much, there's got to be a bit of worry that like, okay, I'm going to another team.

It's like, uh-oh, because maybe you don't enjoy it on the G2 camp as much.

He's probably going to enjoy it with Saw, but he said, I want to stay with Saw no matter what.

Now that I actually think back, hasn't Sumpires pretty much been the superstar in every team he's performed in?

Because when he was in Falcons, it felt like he kind of dropped off a little bit.

The only drop off, yeah.

Yeah, because in Enz, he was amazing.

He was amazing in what movie star he came from.

Movie star writers, yeah, yeah.

And obviously now, he's obviously the top dog in Heroic.

No one can really say anything about that.

So maybe it's going to be interesting to see how he kind of melts into that G2 once it happens.

Yeah, I'm going to keep a lid on that one a little bit and let it cook for a bit.

And I feel like this Heroic is not the last we see of these players.

It all just depends on they need a really good coach.

And like Ash from Game of Legion, he's just resigned for Game of Legion.

Liquid's looking for a good coach right now.

Like their options are very limited and the options of players they might get, maybe a Degster, for example, comes back to Heroic.

They obviously know him, if they can make sure all his Visa stuff is sorted out and he's good.

I don't know if they'd go the Broky route, but it's like now it's about what's next after this player break for Heroic.

Because getting Europa is one thing, but getting a good coach like you had from Saw and how much he's taught these players, I do this so much because this Sengoku leveled up hugely under him.

Yeah, that's true.

And he's obviously a big loss.

I don't think he's replaceable at all.

I don't think they can...

As you say, like you can find an operator that's young, talented, but who's going to be, you know, the mentor for that?

And who's going to make sure that they play as well as they've done?

Because I think it's hard to be positive about what's going to happen with Heroic in the future.

So, yeah, too much unknown.

There's some good pieces, but they've lost such big roles within there.

This obviously, this will be suck and sad for these guys.

But like, if all doesn't work out, basically most of these players will have a home somewhere else at some point.

That's that's for sure.

Tanya could go to any Russian speaking team, maybe even Namiga and try and level them up.

I'm not saying Namiga needs to make changes, obviously.

NNZ can go to one of the Swedish lineups, Exile could go to Aurora.

There's all these possibilities depending on what happens after the Major and how results go.

For looking at who eliminated Heroic, it was remember it was today's game, 2-2 game and they go up against Namiga, another team similar to Bait where they have the experience of playing a lot online against each other.

For me, Namiga and Heroic were two teams, at least the Sango Corps were the ones that like they raised up together.

And this Namiga, they were pretty bad compared to they weren't, Maui called them and I think he's right, they were onliners when they're coming into the Shanghai RMR.

And here, they've learned, they've grown and stage one, not too bad from them, they come through three to fifth.

Here they come through in last place, but like they lost a pain, they beat MIBR, they almost took down 3D Max, 3D Max could have thrown that one, 2-0 M80, 2-0 Heroic.

They've got some interesting pieces.

And Lear, the Bella Russian kid in-game leader, dude, his trash talk is funny as hell, man.

It's unexpectedly funny.

We asked him about it in the winner's interview, and he's just, you know what, he's like not planning it out, but he's aware of what he wants to try and do and something's just come to him in a moment, but he's nailing it and his young players are enjoying it as well.

No, he was also a pleasure to watch.

Most of the trash talk was in Russian, I believe, or something like that.

He was getting better.

He was mixing it up.

Yeah.

I did like it.

What was it he did at the taxi thing where you just like.

Oh, it's M80.

Yeah.

You'll be at the airport in a few minutes.

We'll have a taxi picking you up from here.

I didn't need a game.

It was good.

No, but I thought they were really impressive.

I watched the entirety of that game, and I think obviously heroic.

They got off to a great start on Mirage.

They were cruising, and all of a sudden, they throw a couple of rounds and they just make it back.

Both from great calling, but also great individual skill.

I was especially impressed with this Khan guy and obviously Sway.

If that's how you...

It's the Sway.

I say Sway, like it's the...

You know, like, imagine saying Way, yeah?

I've been memeing his name into...

Robin saying, it's the Way, you say, it's the Sway.

It's the Sway.

It is the Sway, though, because he was massive, like...

Yeah.

I don't know why, but in some weird way, like, he's so calm and I check some interviews and stuff that, you know, Khan even said that he's, like, becomes motivated by his calmness and impressed by it.

It's the aura that he gives to his other team.

It reminds me of Flusha, you know?

Like, Flusha was always super calm.

He was always, like, nothing bothered him in-game.

It didn't matter if it was, you know, how you queued a competitive in the game, you know, random matchmaking, or if you played, like, a major final, he'll have the same kind of bellow-ness to him and talk the same way and play the same way.

And you can kind of see it on this kid on the camera.

He's just sitting there.

He's just, like, click, click, talking, normal.

It's just super chill.

And it's not easy to do that.

Like, let me tell you, it's really, really hard.

You have to be, like, I don't know, almost weird mentally, checked out in some way.

Well, you know, he was predicted by Donk to be, like, the next rookie to blow up, you know?

Yeah.

You know, in the HLTV top 20s?

And that's huge props if he's getting that from Donk, you know?

Yeah.

So that's a really positive sign of the kid's future, and he's only 17.

And he's pretty good of his English as well.

So I like it.

I respect it.

And by the way, Namiga was the lowest rated team in terms of, like, ranking of anyone on that stage.

And yet they still made it to stage three.

Props to them.

That's a big showing.

That means a lot for these players, for that organization.

From Namiga, I'm going to go to Lin Vision because I know we already touched a bit on Emilia off the back of the G conversation, but Lin Vision, dude, what is like, like you said, some people had him as zero three.

I was one of them.

I'm happy to stand corrected.

Obviously, we know Falcons and we'll come on to Falcons later.

There's so much to unpack there, but Falcons played a bad tournament, but Lin Vision beat them when, like, they're also fans of a lot of these Falcons players.

They then beat Tai Lu.

They fell to FURIA the same as they did in Dallas.

And it didn't, by the way, the way they lost to FURIA, 13-4, that's when I was looking at like, OK, I'm not expecting much from them.

Then they have a qualifying game, you know, so they beat Falcons and they play Tai Lu and they go up to 2-1.

They had to play against Pain.

They didn't really show up against Pain.

Like Pain handled that game as they should.

But then they faced Bait.

And Maui said, I think it was 60-40 favoring to Bait in this one.

I would have said like 70-80.

And that's OK, I've got a bit of Ukrainian bias in there.

But I did that interview with MPL, the pre-match interview, where he said like, we're not feeling pressure, we're confident, we should easily beat these guys.

Like all these buzzwords, you know.

And it felt like to me now afterwards, when I stepped back from doing the interview, because MPL was getting a lot of hate, and I don't think it's fair, he's a young kid.

Bates is not an organization with sports psychologist and mental coach and performance coach and everything else, you know.

It's just five guys, the coach.

There was a manager there, and there was Prince, a video guy.

And I feel like they felt pressure, they were nervous.

And they were just trying to mentally say, no, it's all fine, you know, like, it'll be okay.

And then what ended up happening was, they got rocked on Dust2.

CallMeSue, who is the lowest rated player for Lienvision, of the entire tournament, just came through and went...

He was crazy on the first match.

He had like 15-2 or something, 15-3, and Stats as a rifler, it was unbelievable.

But I will say about that pressure thing, you know, when you say things like, this is, you know, going to be like easy, we're taking a chill, we expect to win.

That's when you actually add pressure, because like you go into this game, every single round you lose is just a massive loss.

It's just like all this look up in the sky, kind of like we should win every single round.

That's the mentality they have.

And it's like taking the win before it has happened, you know?

That's what it felt like.

And then you just, everything, it can only, you can only lose by it, you know?

If you go into a game and say, yes, we're confident, but it's gonna, you know, we have to fight for it, you know?

That's a different thing than saying, you know, we have it, you know?

Because that's not really, that's like kind of lying and putting the expectation really high.

You're lying to yourself as well.

Yeah.

You know?

And the pressure got to them.

Like you could see on the cameras, like they were, if you look, the difference between some of the other games they played, they have all looked super chill.

They've made the plays.

They've consistently been like calm in the chaos to some extent, where everyone just kind of ropes in, pushes through at the same time.

I feel like they obviously stepped up on the ancient, but they couldn't do anything right on Dust 2.

Stepped up on ancient, they almost throw it a little bit there on ancient as well.

Like you could see the shakiness kind of coming back.

They weren't really settled yet.

And then on Anubis, I was watching it and I was like, first five rounds, I said, this is over.

It's absolutely over.

Because the amount of CT rounds, man.

Yeah, Lundvishen had such a great start on CT.

And you can see every single round, every single round, you could see like, I don't know exactly the names, but I think it was like Alex666, he was like full molding on his camera.

I can't believe what's happening, man.

He's not aware.

He doesn't understand.

He's like, wait a second, everything I thought about for this game.

By the way, for everyone to know, any team that would have got LimVision in that 2-2 situation would be like, yes, thank you.

This is the matchup I want to make it through to the next stage.

This is where as long as I do what I'm supposed to do, it should be on paper easy.

And I feel like they were overconfident.

They did have pressure that they were trying to shake off.

And even if they were prepared for the aggression that LimVision can throw at them, the individuals were not mentally ready enough to push them back in that way.

But they're kind of the B&E of this major, let's be honest, LimVision.

I don't think they're actually a really good matchup to play against.

It's the aggression, you know?

One of the things that you can do about aggression, right?

Like you can do a couple of things.

You can do flash plays, kind of catch them in the middle of their movements, so they don't get to safe position.

You can put aggression, like essentially, all the answers is always aggression to counter-aggression, right?

In some way.

And if you don't hit your shot and keep throwing yourself at aggression, essentially, the only option you're left with is falling back, which just gives aggression so much space.

So you will then lose the tactical battle only because you've given up so much space.

Giving up all that map control.

Yeah.

And do you know what I feel is sad is like I spoke to MPL before the pre-match interview, and I said like the stage one version of you and the stage two version of you is different.

And he said like, I don't care.

There's no difference in it.

And I think that's when I probably realized, okay, he's actually very worried about this.

Like he knows he's not performing.

And then the second most, well, the actually probably Patrick's probably more experienced than MPL, because MPL is time on Na'Vi.

Patrick had a bit of a longer stint playing for NIP.

And he ends up being the lowest rated player of the team, of the whole game.

And he's your AWPer who you need to step up if other people are struggling as well.

And he couldn't be finding that impact.

I'm not putting it all on him.

I'm thinking it's just a big learning experience.

But it was also some overconfidence into this matchup that kind of slapped them down in many ways.

I'll tell you, we had this learning experience in like summer 2013 when I was playing with the Fnatic boys.

Well, we weren't Fnatic back then, but we were Epsilon playing the finals of DreamHack Summer 2013 just before we got picked up by them.

And one of the biggest things we learned was like how to deal with these kinds of pressure, how to, you know, maybe, you know, not have overly high expectations, but still high enough so that you're still in the game and motivated to play and being shut down in that way.

It felt like we learned the most valuable lesson you could as a competitor as early as you could.

And it was the best thing for us.

Like we learned so much how to deal with games from that experience and I hope they take this and actually talk about it.

Not in a negative way and make it positive, you know, like it's better to go through this now instead of some people don't get this lesson until they're like 25, because there's not that many people that are this young as bait guys are that go through, you know, to a major play against the best teams in the world and perform, right?

So I think for them, if they can make this a valuable lesson where they go into it, they look at it and say like, okay, we actually kind of mind fucked ourselves going into this game, which just made us perform worse.

We had higher expectations every single round.

That's why you tilt by the way, because obviously the result is not what you wanted and you can't take it.

So that's why you tilt.

So you have to like, okay, it's an even game.

That's why everyone goes for this like weird shit, like never underestimate an opponent, because if you underestimate them, then everything is a loss in the game.

Everything.

You lose a pistol, you lose an antique, you lose a weapon round.

Everything tilts you because you're expecting, you put the expectation so high.

So learning that lesson is like insanely valuable.

So I hope they do and come back and just keep grinding.

They're a really, really exciting team to watch.

To segue into phase from here, right?

Simple said, on the winners interview, he sat on the desk with Carrigan as well.

Even he's got pressure.

And they're playing MIBR, you know?

The greatest player of all time.

He's got pressure.

He knows what he's got to do.

And it's a learning point.

And you're right, if they can learn it a bit earlier, that would definitely be positive for him.

So let's turn that into our conversation on phase, because they did also make it.

But just about.

Now, I was on the phase hype train.

Personally, I believe that this was going to be epic.

And I thought they had the easiest run of all time.

Because after they took down Heroic in that best of one, that was the probably harder matchup from what we saw from IM Dallas.

Then they got Tyloo, and you think in, okay, you win Tyloo 13-5.

But it's the way they lost the legacy.

And Carrigan in the interview said like, this way of communicating doesn't work, you know.

He said these were the issues they were facing.

It wasn't the same team that showed up on the day for the best of ones.

Then 3D Max, you know, same story again.

And I'm thinking, oh no, is it all falling apart?

Honestly, MIBR probably deserved to win a map against FaZe.

They probably could have taken Ancient.

It's not pretty, but Carrigan still got this way of winning.

Simple is starting to hit shots.

There was a moment against Legacy, and there was a couple of moments against MIBR, where I saw the amazing AWP shaky aim style of Simple, where he gets one, two, three, and he's feeling the game and he's moving around.

And like what he was doing at the end of this MIBR game, but he was moving around a bit more and not just trying to be a turret.

I was seeing that game sense, great player of Simple.

And if that can just get unlocked a little bit more, it's still a team that can be deadly.

It's still a team that can find success.

I still think, you know, there are some things that I think he does a little bit better, almost to some degree, because he's not this like overly cocky, simple anymore, where he just takes every single duel that exists, to some degree.

I think he plays really smart.

I don't think he's going for all that much, like I'm gonna go kill everyone style.

And as you say, there are glimpses where you see kind of Goat Simple come back and clutch them out of situations.

There was plenty on Ancients that pulled them actually into that victory, where he got like 3k, 1v2s, 1v3s almost, and consistently getting impactful kills while not being a coward, you know.

He's putting himself into risky situations to help his teammates.

And I like what I see.

I think there's a lot of potential in this phase lineup, and it feels like s1mple is kind of what they needed to kind of kickstart everyone's individual ability, because I think before it was pretty much only frozen.

I thought that was even remotely recognizable with the old team.

And I'm starting to see even things, you know, from Kerrigan starting to pop off sometimes.

You know, Reign is doing a great job.

He has different positions and everything.

He's still learning, I feel like.

Some games are a bit rough for him.

Yeah, but there's still moments where I see, you know, if they can just hit the groove, because it feels like they're getting better every game.

And I don't think they have the highest expectations.

They have high expectations to make it.

But I don't think they consider themselves, you know, we're the best team in the world and we're going to smash everyone.

But I think this could be one of the first times when FaZe goes into a stage 3 and actually could be the underdog in most of the games.

I agree with you, do you know why?

Because other teams are not scared of them anymore.

Even these young plucky teams, they don't look at this and go, oh no, it's FaZe, you know, they can always come back, they can always come back.

They don't have that fear factor anymore.

It's actually, oh, it's FaZe, kind of beatable right now.

Oh, it's FaZe.

Yeah, they've got simple.

Yeah, they need a bit more of this.

Like the magic of FaZe is always how they played off each other, that synergy, that chemistry.

And that doesn't exist right now.

Do you think it's a disadvantage or advantage to be in the position they're in right now?

It's a disadvantage for the way Carrigan calls and the way Carrigan likes to play, but it's something I think he is smart enough and capable of to use in his advantage being the underdog now, because when you're the underdog, you should be extra motivated as these players to prove your point, and s1mple himself definitely wants to be on that arena.

He's not been out when was the last arena, jesus.

I actually think it's one of those things where an advantage for them, because people, you know, they're not going to be as easy to prep against.

Everyone doesn't know, everyone doesn't watch all the face games.

Like there's no like story to watch the evolvement of face.

This is a new lineup, essentially.

Yes, there are some things that are similar, but it's essentially a completely new team.

And I think people go into it a little bit more relaxed going into a game against face.

It's not going to be, you know, full try hard counter everything.

They don't really know everything.

So I think they're going to get a better flow of the game in a better situation where simple can do a lot more.

And I think the individual players can do a lot more.

I don't know.

I just feel like them having a little bit more pressure off can get their team play to flow a little bit better rather than everything needs to be perfect right now, right here.

So that's kind of how I'm viewing it.

So I feel like it's an advantage.

Okay, well, we'll see how it goes from when we get into stage three.

It's not too long away from here.

I want to look at legacy.

Maybe the last thing we look at here would be the stage two side of things, because obviously 3D Max obviously better than expected.

I would say.

Fury of Making it Through was positive for sure.

Bet Boom was disappointing, but that's just Axel still up to standard and Siren didn't life series the stage.

So that obviously hinders them a lot.

So, yeah, I think the last one we need to cover is legacy because this is a team.

I'm just going to remind everyone who shouldn't have been at the Major.

They replaced Bestia.

They struggled and came through in the last spots.

They beat Wildcard 2-0.

That was probably the most impressive win that they had, you know, the first stage.

Then they get a domestic matchup against MIBR for the first game.

Now, that's beautiful for them.

We said about that, right?

That could be a bit of 50-50.

They win it 13-10, but then they take down 3D Max.

And then I start to think, oh, oh, legacy, are we actually cooking?

And then they take down FaZe.

And I don't care if Karagen says the team wasn't communicating the right way, you know, and it wasn't what he wants, because legacy were not scared of you.

Dumal was shouting and Simple even told him to shut the fuck up at one point.

And Dumal didn't care.

Dumal's still young, hungry and just madly confident.

And Sads in the Orpah, like, I'm going to look at his stats.

I don't think he had like the most amazing game.

Dude, every one was good.

1.21, but like he's had moments of great plays.

Yeah, but I'm going to give so much credit to Lux, because people might not know this.

I tried to say on the desk as well when we did one of their games.

Lux was like a second caller in pain, but he didn't know he was going to be an IGL.

Yeah, he gets removed from pain.

And I heard the rumors of why he was removed from pain at the time, was that he wasn't fitting with what he was doing with the younger players that were coming into the team.

So it was like you needed him to go to give more space to some of the other players and make them feel more comfortable.

Yeah.

Lux wasn't a bad player.

He wasn't removed because he's just like terrible.

He was more than capable.

But then obviously, he then has a voice.

He's learned a lot from playing on these events.

And he goes to Legacy and you think, oh, you're probably not going to see him for a long time.

They took this golden opportunity and they ran with it.

And you got to respect them.

Now, I'm not going to say they're going to go make it through stage three and get to playoffs.

But I'm going to say this is a dark horse right now for this next stage.

Because they've got something working.

They have like, Tumau and Lato was like, to me, was always really, really good players, even when they were playing in that box and line up with TACO for like, I don't even remember how many years ago was that like 2020?

Yeah, and then they were with Coldzera after that.

And I think some people described it as like, don't meet your heroes because it was like not a good time for them to be playing with Coldzera.

You know, he was on his way down and wasn't the best way.

And do you know what I heard as well?

I think Moses mentioned this on the desk, sorry if I'm wrong, Jason.

But he said like Dimao and Lato had offers to go to other teams, bigger teams for more money and didn't go.

They just stuck it out with all this.

I mean, this is a duo, I think.

And by the way, I'll give a little credit to Dimao as well.

He was a bulky boy and then not fat, but he's going gym.

Yeah, he's loving gym, but he also loves his food.

I was giving him food recommendations at different events.

And now he's like leaning up because Lux is like a gym guy who is a bit leaner, a bit more on the cardio, you know, on that side of things.

And he's one of these people.

He said he's working on mindfulness.

I didn't know what this stuff was.

Mindfulness is where I know I'm going to be present in the.

I've never done that.

The pink thing on my mind works.

That's impossible.

That's where you're present.

Yeah.

In this, in the situation you're in.

Sometimes he goes for walks without his phone and just like thinks about things and goes through it all.

And this guy, he seems to be a person when he's dedicated to something or he wants to do something, he can just do it.

And he also is very confident just in himself, just in how things are.

I'm, yeah, as I'm learning more about this player, it becomes very interesting.

I mean, super impressive.

I think I might be wrong, but I think he's the highest rated player in their team and he's the in-game leader.

I'll check for you.

No, Lux is the in-game leader.

Yeah, Lux.

That's what I just said.

Yeah.

So I think Lux is the highest rated of the whole event, by the way.

Oh, wow.

Lato, 1.37 for the whole of the stage.

I hadn't looked at this.

That's crazy.

Dumau, 1.25.

Sads in 1.23.

Yeah, that's impressive.

But they're all super, super good.

And they're exciting to watch.

They are the kind of team that likes to take risks but still play like smart, you know.

It's not like they're all about riskiness, but they kind of get into these unorthodox situations and they're not afraid to use it even if they're a solo guy.

So, you know, I respect the way they play.

They are...

It's a perfect way to play on LAN because people...

Then you'll end up in this situation where you're kind of bait and you're like, what the hell are they doing?

And you just kind of tilt in yourself and you can never get out of it.

It's so hard because you have to...

When you're playing teams like this, anything is possible.

Usually, you're playing a team and you're like, okay, they could do a B split here and they could execute B and they could do this.

Let's prepare for this.

And all of a sudden someone jumps for a smoke and headshots two guys, you know, like, while you're having this moment of thought, trying to read their game.

And it's so hard, you never get a chance to kind of be in that space of reading the game.

If you're playing players like this, that anything can happen at any point in time.

Yeah.

It's an exciting team.

And I do think they can be a dark horse in some ways.

I'm not predicting them to make playoffs or anything like that, but I've liked what I got to see from them.

We'll move from here to look at our Pick'ems that we did, mate.

Oh, my God.

Okay.

So in our predictions, to start off with, yeah, you...

So let's just do predictions.

Opening game predictions that we had for stage two.

You got two correct or three correct.

Sorry, you got three correct.

You predicted 3D Max to win over Bet Boom, Furia to win over...

Oh, no, I predicted Furia as well.

Legacy to win over MIBR and...

The rest are red.

The rest are red.

We just got everything else wrong.

You predicted Heroic over Phase.

I predicted Phase over Heroic, so I got that one right.

But we suck.

We definitely suck.

And then our Pick'ems we did together.

These are your Pick'ems, by the way.

I think mine are even worse than yours.

You ruined my Pick'ems.

Bro, I ruined my own Pick'ems.

So we had Falcon's Heroic on your Pick'ems to go through.

I had Falcon's Phase.

And then you predicted Phase, Furia, Bait, Bet Boom, OG, Tyloo to go through to the next stage.

By the way, when I look back at this, this isn't because I know the results, but we are fucking dumb, because we put so many Stage 1 teams, like we thought the Stage 1 teams just gonna go through to Stage 3.

Oh boy, we had no clue.

Technically they did.

We just picked the wrong ones.

The wrong ones.

Yeah, but not as many as what we put.

We put 4 going through, right?

VP made it.

Oh yeah, we put Legacy 03 and M80 03 as well.

Yeah, but M80 should have been 03, let's be honest.

That one is half correct.

That one, I wouldn't change it.

Also, they were very much like, I told you I know Sin pretty well from when he was on big, right?

And I like him, but even he mentioned like, I saw you picked a 03, I'm like, I'm sorry, bro, but you haven't given me anything to feel confident with.

I know of a team and a player is thinking about that, it's a bad sign.

If you're thinking about my pick-ems over your game, that's not a positive sign.

That's not a moment we should all be happy about and enjoying, because you shouldn't care that much about the pick-ems as a player.

No, it's tough.

We're not getting diamond coins, mate.

We're definitely not getting diamond coins at all.

No one is getting diamond coins.

Wait a sec.

Wait, we missed the last one.

We missed the last one.

We missed the last team.

I was going to get us on to stage three next.

We missed Falcons.

Guess why?

Because they were missing this whole event.

It was awful.

Everything was terrible about what we saw from this team.

Oh, my God.

Now, I'm going to go backwards.

Geez.

It's like Falcons.

Yeah.

I've got so much to say about this.

You ramble on.

I'm going to prepare something over here.

Oh, yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

You got a nice one for us.

Okay.

So everyone's asking what's up with Falcons.

Niko may be the biggest troker in history.

That doesn't take away from his skill and ability as a player.

Losing to bait in your opening best of one game.

Sure.

I'm not a problem.

Losing to Linnvision, it doesn't matter that Linnvision have made it.

They lost to Linnvision.

I think it was on Nuke.

Was it on Nuke?

It was on Ancient.

It was on Nuke, yeah.

Like, Nuke is a good map for Falcons.

Remember, this is the same Falcons that can challenge a team like Vitality.

They just about beat OG.

When I was watching that OG game, at one point I was like, okay, OG have got this.

Like, this is yours to have.

And then what the hell happened when they played MIBR?

Because in the first half or near towards the end of the whole game before we went to overtime, Niko had five kills.

And I'm not a person to point out players for underperforming or not fragging out, but this is Niko, literal god of banana.

Yeah, we're not talking about kings, we're talking about gods of banana.

And at times, he was like, nothing went his way.

He was getting killed through smoke.

Some of it was really unlucky.

He's killed through smoke, he can't get things done.

He's in the mentality of like, please, just this game has to end, nothing's going my way.

But I have to say, like, I have to say, it does not feel like Niko should be a B player in some weird way.

Am I the only one thinking that?

You need to explain this to me, because I only think of Niko.

Every single event I've watched him play B, he always gets caught off guard against like anti-eco situations to like people just walking into B and he's holding nades or trading nades or whatever they're doing.

I don't know if I remember when he played really well on B.

G2 times.

Maybe G2 times.

CSGO times.

I don't know, I can think of many great moments of it, but I can slightly agree, if I'm looking at recent bias and form, that it's not been great on Banana.

But it's...

Like I understand, okay, CSGO Banana versus CS2 Banana, CT molly, like extremely nerfed Banana takes.

You can't even take Banana CT.

I don't think I've seen a team really take Banana.

You try, and then T's get it anyways.

Like that's essentially what happens.

And you can only fight sandbags, which is just like, okay, they stay double nagers of what to do.

It's a thing here as well where a lot of people are like, oh, you're not giving MIBR any credit.

And I'm like, MIBR wasn't supposed to win that game.

MIBR do deserve some credit for playing very well, especially on that last map and holding their own throughout all of this.

But this is a Falcons who are supposed to be the second best team in the world, the only team that can challenge vitality.

And then we're talking about pressure.

Every single one of these players has won some of the biggest tournaments in the world.

Every single one of them.

Yeah.

Kixxon is the only outlier in this and he wasn't a liability.

But the depth to this Falcons team was missing.

I spoke to Niko on day one of the event.

Yeah.

And they obviously, after Dallas, they stayed in America to boot camp.

I don't think that's the problem why they play badly, but I know they were trying to work on some things outside of the game with Lars, who obviously, famous performance coach for all the success he did with Vitality, when they won the Paris Major and before that, Astralis, bringing all the majors with Zonic and Magisk, these guys know how to work together.

But I've read on YouTube, I've seen it, read on YouTube, watched on YouTube.

He believes about like this, waking up early, having a set time of doing things, getting enough sleep and all this stuff.

Now, Nico said, he didn't tell me exactly what it was, but he said this live on broadcast interview.

Let me just, I got the quote written down.

Because I want to make sure I get this right for you before.

I'm not trying to throw Lars under the bus.

I'm just, I'm worried about the execution here.

Yeah.

And he said, they change things out of the server because of Lars showing the way he wants to do things.

And Lars is super experienced.

But this is a Falcons who have been having success doing what they've been doing before this change.

Changing it before a Major, not slowly integrating it.

I'm not sure how much he changed, what he changed.

But say like Munnessy, a demon of playing, face it, grinding all the time.

We know how much this guy plays.

If you then suddenly change his routine before a Major, and we wonder why he doesn't play so well in the beginning couple of games.

Now I've not spoken to Munnessy other than saying like, I'm sorry to see you lost.

He's very, very sad as if it was all of the Falcons team, right?

So I've got no information here.

But I will say that if there was some significant changes that were trying to have done for the whole team to make things better, I don't think changing a routine like that is a good positive influence.

Even if Lars swears by it, I don't know.

We need to find out because I know Lars didn't agree with the broadcast at one point.

I agree with you if you change all these kinds of routines, especially coming into an event.

I mean, CS players are, we all know they have these little rituals and things.

We talked to Monazzy about the jersey swaps, which is another thing they did.

Oh yeah, by the way, they also changed jersey.

They did change it at Dallas as well.

So it's not changing it for the Major, but that's not great either.

No, and especially if it actually has an impact on players.

Mental superstitions.

Yeah, I think that's a bad thing, but I agree with you.

If they do change these like kind of habits and stuff, I would rather have it be slowly integrated, something you do like, okay, we didn't do well in this major, let's start it now kind of thing and work from there.

But I will say about the actual in-game stuff, when you look at that Inferno, they were getting so out called, like when they were CT side Falcons, I think pretty much every single round, they stacked the wrong sites.

I think they struggled like B the first two rounds, and then all of a sudden, they start rotating a third guy over in the start of the round, and then it just hit A, and then they start rotating to A, and leave like Nico alone on B, they hit B.

You know, every single round, it felt like MIBR just had the right call, and it felt like Falcons were in like, we need rounds now, we need rounds now, and they kind of just dug themselves into a bigger hole, in some sense.

Now, they did play an amazing T-side.

Well, yes, they did.

Considering if they just didn't fuck up their CT side, that would have been a great T-side.

Yeah.

I got some more info here, because for some reason, Striker from HLTV, people know him from HLTV, confirmed as well.

He knows his CS stuff.

He said, I, for one, would like to see performance staff take responsibility for the bad stuff for once, especially when Falcons failed at what the psych staff should be responsible dealing with the pressure.

Now, that's not directly aimed at Lars.

I think the way he worded it a bit, even though he's a journalist, was not clean on the nose.

But Lars even replies to this, by the way, and he says, fair question to raise, Milan.

No doubt that this early exit was not according to the plan.

If it was due to wrong periodization, peak too early, or the weight of the five rings, I don't know what the fuck that is.

That is too early to say at the moment.

That calls for further analysis.

But let's meet, let us meet for a new talk late summer.

Yeah.

So he's open to this conversation, which means I think Lars is happy to take some responsibility for things.

But any performance coach, and there are lots of performance coaches in esports, by the way, that you guys don't hear of, you don't hear their names, and yet they'll take credit for every win.

They'll take credit for every trophy.

They'll be there in all the photos.

But it is true that a lot of them don't take any responsibility when shit goes wrong, when you see them tilting and losing their minds.

And if stuff in game fails, like they're bad tactically or they don't hit their shots, I can give them that.

But some of this psychological stuff, the performance coaches should say, yeah, I need to work with him more.

Yeah, I need to do this right.

I would like them to see that.

I would like to see some responsibility taken, but maybe not as aggressively as like, it's all my fault, you know.

There was just multiple people who take responsibility for it.

But I think within this game, the tilt shown by Falcons, the pressure they're under, you could see.

And if it comes out that like, because remember, Falcons put out these like V-log documentary style things anyway.

If it comes out that they did change a lot of things of rituals and the way they play, like what Nico told me in this opening interview, there's stuff outside the game and then that didn't work for them, then that's a problem.

And that's a problem they need to address of how they implement these things.

Because you can't rush this process.

If someone suddenly told me, Oh Banks, you like to go to bed at one in the morning and you like to have your routine where you go gym in the morning.

Well, actually, no, you're going to go to bed at 10 p.m.

and you're going to gym later in the day and do this, this and this work before.

Yeah.

And if they did that before, like a really big event, say I'm coming to work at the major and they want to change my schedule like that.

Mid-broadcast banks go to gym.

Yeah, it could just throw you off.

Yeah.

And that's what we know.

That's what I'm saying.

There's what that accountability has to come into it because the players will take theirs.

And Nico's getting obviously so much critique on him, but he's still one of the great riflers.

And I'm not.

And also some people try to say, oh, well, Magisk is being kicked, Kielski is coming in and he's going to be, and that's the reason why they didn't do well here.

No, because even if Magisk is going, this is a multiple major champion.

This is a legend of the game.

This is not a person who would just sandbag a team or not be motivated or not play up to standard.

No way.

I'm never in a million years believing that.

I agree on that, but I would still...

You could still post a question.

Is it optimal for Falcons to keep making changes or announcing changes or searching for changes before a major?

I just think like...

Like that question can still be posed.

Yeah, I think it's always the worst case, like when we spoke with Hooksy.

If you have a change that's going to come up to your team, announcing it before an event or the rumors coming out before an event is the worst thing that can happen on a mental side of things, no matter what.

I think we can all agree with that.

But my problem is the journalists that keep leaking this stuff are French, and there's a lot of French people behind this Saudi organization.

So if Falcons are leaking it to control the media in this sense, you're also sandbagging yourself and your own team.

But obviously, this is just pure speculation.

There's a lot of shit that don't make sense here.

There's a lot of shit.

And also, you have, we can segway into this, because I think I've done enough of this bit.

It's just, you've got some fire to add to all this, because we're bringing back Devilwalk through for you guys.

I know how much people have been loving this.

Devilwalk through has taken something from this Falcons MIBR game, because still, when I've watched it six, seven times, I don't understand how this happened.

So Devilwalk, give it to me, brother.

Well, how it happened, we will understand how it happened.

Why?

That's another question.

We might look at this video a couple of times.

It's a little bit of a short one.

We're just going to go through this round, right?

And we kind of have just this video playing.

And one of the most important things, I'm going to just let this one run, so we get to see it, how it actually unfolds.

This is 5v3.

It is, according to some stats I saw online, the only 3v5 victory on the B-site in Tier 1 Counter-Strike this year.

Who was the guy who said that, by the way?

Who was the guy?

I want to just make some credit to that guy.

I do not know his name in the top of my head, but I'm sure it's easy to find.

So, essentially, I'll go through this a couple of times and stop and show.

And one of the key things that I notice is this kind of situation.

Monaz is holding banana.

I'm going to jump a little bit back and forth into this program, where we see an overview instead, kind of run the round.

I think one of the most important things here is, we look at the clock.

We have 34 seconds on the bomb here.

And this is essentially the decision that kind of changes the whole output of the round.

I think just looking at things logically, if you own banana as T or own ruins fully as T, you essentially have a really, really high chance of winning an afterplan.

That's like rule number one, basic of counterstrike.

That's the objective, right?

You want to own one of these spots for the afterplan situation, because it makes it incredibly difficult for CTs if one of these are not controlled, or if both are not controlled essentially.

So, first mistake, Monazee is holding this line, right?

He makes a decision, I'm going to fall back.

And if we look at the movements that actually happen, Monazee goes here, because he wants to hold the coils.

Tess takes over Monazee in banana, and he's in pool.

And Kixxon wants to take the pool position, because of...

So all of these decisions are strung together, right?

Yeah.

And the smoke is fading, Kixxon gets low, trying to get into that position.

Now, obviously, they know Kixxon is there, they know he's low.

It's not going to be a surprise for safe later on.

Let's just play this through.

Here's another mistake, right?

They make a really weird call here, or really weird individual decision, because they're still fine at this point.

They're still fine.

Even though this happened, they're completely fine.

But what you want is obviously Monizy holding the line.

Tess is tucking into this corner and just holding, because you have to remember this line, he can still hold this and be safe from coils because of that little corner in there.

And cover and be in a tradeable position.

But here Tess gets kind of a brain freeze, just pushes out.

Monizy cannot see him in this angle.

And he's forced out into a position where he wanted to help him with that push.

And now he has no cover.

Monizy misses his shot and gets punished again.

They obviously know about Kicksun.

He gets killed from safe.

It's so quick.

And now Niko dies and they pretty much know that Magisk is left in that double spot.

And it's over.

And everything happens because of this one thing, right?

So Monizy letting this go, which there's no need to do, he should keep that line and it's literally impossible for them to lose the round.

That's mistake number one, but they're still fine.

You see Kixxon, they're getting spammed.

He jumps into the pit.

Now you see here better from the angle what happens.

Tessa swings out very wide.

And you see Monizy has no chance to help him.

And now Monizy is exposed in a bad position.

He misses his shot, get punished.

And you see the reaction here from Kixxon.

Here Monizy dies on the screen and you see his reaction.

He needs to do something because he's now going to get pressured from Banana, a rifler, when he's red HP.

So he has to do something.

And he dies.

So three deaths just from this one decision.

And now it's just obviously a great shot from...

I can't even pronounce that name.

BRN.

And then you just cleanly get around.

But what's so goddamn annoying is when the first kill happens here on Banana, there's 25 seconds left.

Yeah.

Like this is unbelievable that it happened.

But it all stems from this one line.

So like, Monacy is not like it's all his blames.

These things happen.

They can still recover it, but they're failing to recover in so many steps and essentially gifting it.

Because even here, let's say Monacy was still tucked in here.

There's 20 seconds on the clock.

Imagine a duel where he jiggles.

He doesn't get killed.

He can buy some time.

He may maybe get kills from the coins guy.

But it also gives security for Kixxon, right?

He doesn't need to swing out.

If Monacy is in a safe position, he can gain some time to make a more accurate decision.

I will just run it through again, just for you guys to watch the madness unfold.

You see the timing is also a little bit wonky here for Monacy.

Whoop, and he shows up on banana.

That's super unlucky.

But why do you think that call was made?

I honestly don't think it's a call at all.

I think it's like a natural response from a player that hears someone, okay, there's one ruins, one coils, one CT, and Monacy feels like, okay, Kixxon got the info that the smoke is disappearing.

He takes a new position.

He wants to hold out for the retake.

That's kind of a setup where the triple guys can trade the coil guys, and he can hold coils for them, make them safe to kind of duel whenever they want.

But it's just done in the wrong timing.

I think if they were actually pressured, this would make sense.

But they were just so stressed.

You can see it from Tess's reaction to Monacy's reaction.

And the game was stressful.

Kicksaw's reaction.

It's all just stress, stress, stress, stress.

Something needs to happen now, now, now.

But if they just took a chill pill, did nothing, they would have won this round.

100 of 100.

It's unbelievable, the timings, and the small decisions that affect each other, right?

Massively.

And then it costs Falcons their opportunity.

There's no guarantee they would have made it through today, but the likelihood that they would have been able to make it through the day.

This seems, this is like, it feels like the biggest choke, right?

And the biggest loss.

But it's because we held them to this point of the only team that could challenge Vitality as well, you know, and what we've seen from them.

I don't care if people say they peeked too early at the server.

I don't think they peeked too early.

It's just, they were not ready for this stage and this pressure.

And the mistakes because of that hit it, all the things we've talked about.

Yeah, and like, it's one of those things where you want to just like, have impact as a player.

I'm pretty sure there's a call, you know, Monacy hears like one call, it's okay, I'll take care of him.

I want to fix it, I want to help.

But that's it, you know, I think there's like over-eagerness to help each other out that causes this, you know, dropping the actual important responsibilities you already have.

And then someone tries to cover for you, someone tries to cover for them to kind of get into probably what they've spoken about, how they want to set up in the after plants.

And they're kind of forcing it instead of it naturally happening or naturally, you know, adapting to it.

So it feels like they're just forcing themselves into positions that they, they know they're comfortable being in, but instead dropping the ball on the responsibilities they've taken over previously.

And then that cost them the Major, they've already left Austin fast.

And we now need to just see when the news is going to come out about Kielski joining Falcons, if it's still going to be Magisk going or does that change anywhere?

There's a lot for them to unpack.

I don't know what content they're going to release afterwards, but we're in for a wild ride after this Major.

Maybe they even just announced it during the Major.

I don't know.

We'll have to see what they go through.

But for Falcons, this is disappointing.

For the levels of players they have, this is disappointing for where they were at since Munnessy joined, which was very high up, constant second places, only losing to Vitality in the semis of Dallas.

It's tough.

It's real tough.

And it changes things massively for the narrative going into stage three.

So we already looked at our pick-ups.

We've already now covered all of this stuff.

We've seen the Falcons fall out.

So now it's stage three of the Blast TV Austin Major.

We're going to go through our pros and cons and thoughts of the new teams coming in to this stage, because we've already spoken about so many of the other teams.

So you guys have a good idea of where they're at.

So let's start over here in the Americas.

The only team that is in the America side, it is Liquid.

And they're not really American, but they got NAF and Twist, you know, two Polish guys, Shuhei and Ultimate, and then the Israeli nerds in there.

I don't know what to think of Liquid still, because Dallas wasn't anything to write home about.

They've now had a few events with Shuhei.

I still think that I'm missing something from this team, especially now Twist is back into not leading, you know, being able to have some more impact.

They only beat FaZe in Dallas.

Ultimate can be a bit more consistent, looks a bit better at times, but they are also still with their analysts as the coach, and they don't have like a full-time coach in their helping, which makes Shuhei's life harder, especially with how close he was with Cyclo and making that work.

So I feel like Liquid is far away from being a safe team coming into this stage.

And I'm hoping they've improved a lot, but it's still just a few weeks after Dallas.

I'm just guessing they've been on hardcore grind mode.

They would need to be.

Yeah, I mean, they have the players to potentially do damage.

They have, you know, Twists seems to be a little bit more back with Shoei taking over the reins of the in-game leading.

And they have, you know, experienced pieces.

They have X-Factor players with obviously NAF and nerds to be able to brunt that kind of skill.

But there's so little we've seen from them, so they do end up looking like probably one of the worst teams going into stage three.

If we exclude the ones qualified, they're probably in the bottom tier of it.

Because they can make games close, but how much have they improved?

They didn't really look ready last time, but now it's time where they've had enough time to actually implement some of the stuff Shoei has brought to the table, probably removing some of the things that was in their playbook from the past.

So I think there's a lot of unknowns for Team Liquid, but looking at things and how they've been in the past and what you can look at, it doesn't look that great.

I don't think they're like playoff ready for the Major.

I think this is still a team that's building.

Unless NAF is coming back.

Yeah.

The NAFers, I mean, that's essentially their hope.

Because NAF can be one of the best players in the world.

Let me ask you this then.

You said that.

You say he's one of the best players in the world, right?

It can go back.

Maybe can be.

I'd go back to say that maybe a year, two years ago.

Now, JKS isn't there.

There's no overlap.

There's no excuses anymore.

He's been on Liquid for I'm going to have to check, but it feels like forever.

I can't even remember.

He joined Liquid.

Oh, I've got it for you.

I'm quick on this since 2018.

Yeah.

Yeah.

If his performance continues to be bad and is bad at this major, do they remove him?

Is he the next to go?

After this major, I don't think they would kick anyone after this major.

I think that really, no, I still think that then you're kind of shooting yourself on the foot and not really giving the project, the time it deserves to some degree.

I think it would be a mistake.

Look at how many young, talented players there are to get, right?

I'm not a NAF hater.

I'd love to see him come back, but how long can he be in this rut of a performance, this slump that he's admitted himself and stay on a top tier team?

How long?

I mean, it all depends how bad that is, you know?

I'd still say that there's potential in the guy to kind of flick the script and do better.

And I wouldn't really...

Yeah, this major.

No, I wouldn't say it's just this major.

I think they're in a really difficult situation.

I think if they had, you know, a stage one or stage two to kind of warm themselves up, it would probably be better for them to some degree for the public eye than going straight into a stage three where you're looking at probably some of the hottest teams right now, obviously.

And I think they're going to struggle personally, because they have zero notable placements this year.

You know, they have good players, but haven't really made it work yet.

There is potential, there has been improvements, but it's not been enough for them to be making any competitive runs.

You're being very nice right now.

I know that's your way, so that's no problem.

I've gone back to all of his HLTV games, since he was on a team called Lunatic and Denial, yeah.

Only at the beginning when he joined Liquid in 2018, yeah, was he having these red ratings.

Other than that, there has never been this amount of poor ratings.

Like he has always had new roles, new positions played on different teams, been on Optic in between of that, right?

And then back to Liquid, it is green, green, green every now and again, obviously, when they may have had one or two bad events, it's in the red, yeah?

But he right now is one, two, three, four, four events in the red and Dallas only just out of it at 0.96 rating.

It's rough, man.

There's only so much you can hang on to that.

There needs to be an improvement.

There has to be a change now.

There's no more JKS, there's no more rollover, there's no more excuses.

That's my take on it.

All right.

But I don't think they're going to do very well here.

I think they are going to struggle.

I think they're going to struggle.

There's nothing really pointing to them, like making playoff or anything.

Yeah, I think the one pro they have kind of for them is they're probably going to be a little bit harder to read.

They're going to be harder to prep against because they're probably changing a lot of their playbook into shoeies, more comfortable stuff.

So I'd say in that sense, they can have a surprise factor into the best of ones, but I would be surprised if they get the best of three.

Okay, let's look from Liquid into Aurora, our Turkish side over here.

We touched on them a lot when it came to Astana.

Third place there was very respectable.

They obviously even had a chance to make it to the Grand Farms over Astralis 100 percent.

Then in Dallas, they came over to Dallas jet-lagged, bounced back defeating NRG after losing to Heroic, then they took down Liquid, then they took down Heroic in the revenge match, and then they lost on the 5th to 6th match.

I think that's on stage against Mongols.

Yeah, because the Mongols had a huge day with a sudden fan favorite.

There's some nerves on this team when they get to the stage.

But I've spoken to Wachtek earlier today in the lift, and he was like, we were in Serbia bootcamping, we feel really good.

He actually was full of life and energy, and this is a team that's pretty much at every single event.

There's very good signs for me of looking at what this team can do.

The only problem is, last time I heard from Maja and haven't spoken to him yet, he was like, yeah, we've reworked things in the playbook.

When I looked at their game, it didn't look like they'd really reworked things.

So if they can come with just a few change-ups here, a little bit of the icing on top of the cake, so to speak, this is an exciting team with all the potential to keep living up to the expectations and the consistency they have this year.

Yeah.

I wrote one thing down, and if there's one thing that is eternal, it's that Aurora make playoffs.

Hey.

I'm happy about that one.

They got the fire to do it as well.

That was good.

I'm impressed.

That was some wordplay coming out from my Swedish brother over here.

You know, my only negative on these guys right now, and I don't know how, like, this depends on which way you look at it, is even when they have Rokadia and Jota in the team, because of Majors, Antares and Woxic, they're quite an old team.

Average age is 26.8.

I know that's not old, but you think how old we are, but, I mean, it's one of these things where sometimes I see Antares go missing, yet he is an absolute beast, and I think he can do amazing.

There's moments where I'm seeing stars need to step up, and they sometimes can't, and they sometimes fall short.

That's a worry for me, and we've seen it multiple times this year.

But if there's one thing that's really, really good, and one thing that should keep you excited about Aurora is Majors, how he changes the playbook for these big tournaments.

I have no doubt in my mind...

So you're believing in them?...

that they will do well.

I think they're going to be one of those teams that's like...

They're popping off, they got some new stuff, and people are going to be caught off, they're going to control the game, play super well.

But the worry becomes once they've played many maps and many reps, that that's when they can become a little bit predictable.

They're kind of using the same stuff, people get to read on them, they understand how to kind of counter them.

So I think they're going to open up very, very hot.

And I think they're going to open up hot enough to make it through.

But I think as always, they're going to struggle in the playoff if they get there.

Yeah.

I want to go to like the team I say is on almost the exact same level as them from here.

It's the Mongols, our favorite Asian team.

Got a bit of personality now, got a hell of a lot of experience.

Don't miss an event.

They say yes to every single event.

I always mention that.

It's just these guys are grinding.

I haven't seen these guys yet.

I've not seen them arrive.

But the Mongols are always ready to fight.

The Mongols are sometimes looking like they rely so heavily on the individuals and they can be a bit predictable.

But even if they are predictable and someone set up for them, they'll shoot you in the face.

They're so exciting to watch.

Yeah, they make Counter-Strike fun.

Sometimes they make me question what they're doing.

I'll say that.

It's still a bit off meta branded craziness at times.

But this is players that fully know how to play with each other.

And I'm just hoping they've come into this with not just a boot camp but also a bit of a refresh, you know, because they went to Dallas.

They've had some time being the fact they're in stage three.

So I would have liked to have seen them.

If I hear this on the opening day, we had like a week break and then we went into hardcore practice mode and change some things.

I'm going to be full of confidence with them.

But it is generally like their way of doing things is not the conventional way or like the way I would say is best, but it seems to work for them.

And they're still a team that you expect to be making playoffs.

It's just, they can beat Aurora on playoffs or Aurora can beat them on playoffs, depending on what it is, Astana or Dallas.

And then when they play the big boys on stage, they get slapped.

They don't win.

They almost didn't have a mouse score.

I'm going to open this off memory.

I've not opened it.

It's 1311, 1311.

Yeah.

So they had chances and they had the crowd on their side, you know, but the Mongols are still not able to take it over the line.

And that's a worry for me.

Yeah, but now we're going into a quiz stage.

I love these guys.

I absolutely love them.

I think they have so many, like I think every player they have, they have these moments in games where it just looks ridiculous.

I love watching Malzino.

I love watching Senzu pop off sometimes, 910 with the AWP is amazing.

You know, and you know, Blitz coming in with the smart plays is usually like more consistent, stable, can be aggressive as well.

I think all of them are great, honestly.

And they play a different brand of Counter-Strike.

And it's not dumb Counter-Strike, but it's very like high pressure, very explosive.

The one thing that I do have for them sometimes, when they get a bad start, it seems like they have a hard time kind of adapting into how to grind around in.

But very momentum based, fun to watch.

So the changing things up, they're lacking the same.

Yeah.

But I think once they hit that run of momentum, just keep going.

You know, they're a hard team to stop once they get going.

And I think that's for pretty much every team out there, except probably Vitality, because they're just so good at kind of breaking and you know, cutting the oxygen from teams.

But I think, yeah, I'm just super excited to see what they're cooking up.

The one thing I have for them, as you mentioned, is like, how much stamina do they have left?

They've been grinding so freaking much that it's just, is this something that will make them better by grinding this much?

And they will just crash at the end of the event?

Or do they have, you know, not enough stamina and they'll eventually crash, you know?

Imagine they're playing an MIBR versus Falcons game.

Stamina, my Swedish friend.

I will educate you.

Oh, it's not stamina.

Okay.

No, it's not stamina.

Stamina.

Stamina.

But I'll keep with my stamina.

If they have enough stamina here, left in the tank.

Stamina, it sounds like some drug you'll be taking.

This is probably from me playing RPG games or something when I was a little kid and I was just like, Stamina.

I've got the stamina buff.

Okay, stamina.

If they have enough stamina.

Yep.

Because if they play one of these MIBR Falcons games, they're getting in long overtime.

No one knows what's going on.

They're not playing Falcons.

And you know, how are they recuperating?

Because we could see even in the MIBR game, like the MIBR guys were exhausted.

They looked a little bit deflated even in the game against FaZe.

So it does affect you.

It is a mental strain, like nothing else.

And this is, you know, this is easy mode compared to CSGO and it was like MR15.

This is MR12, man.

Supposedly easy mode, yeah.

Yeah.

The game is just a bit more crazy.

No longer five hour best of threes.

No, thank God for that.

Thank God for that.

I'm going to open my curtains a bit more because the sun's going down.

Yeah.

But yeah, I think they are one of the teams to watch.

I love them.

Go Asia.

Let's go.

Go Asia, go Mongols.

Devilwalk is number one fan.

Next episode, he'll be over Mongols Jersey on the screen.

I'll speak to them for you from Mongols.

Let's go to G2 because I don't know, man.

I don't know what we say anymore about these guys because Hades is in, which changes everything.

Yeah.

They had a run of it at Dallas.

And we know that although this might be a test for Hades, he now knows he's not staying in this team.

So it's not even like he can be, oh yeah, this is an audition.

I'm going to do my best and maybe I get to join G2.

No, it's like, actually, we're going to replace you with some pious, no matter what you do.

And Taz also knows he's being replaced.

And I heard that they didn't bootcamp.

It was online practice.

It was online moments.

But I heard there was no bootcamp before because it is a dead team.

I'll be very surprised if this team makes it to playoffs.

And I just feel sorry for players like Malves, Hunter and Heavy God, for example.

I don't even know what's going to happen with Snax.

Like if Taz goes, does Snax stay?

Is that another one that's going to come and go out the way?

There are so many questions to be answered here around this G2 lineup.

Because I feel like without Taz there, they might also remove Snax and put somewhere else in.

Do you think Saw keeps him?

I honestly have no clue.

If I think that Saw would like to build his own team, he seems to be that guy.

Kind of wants to do his own scouting and kind of fit the pieces.

And that's probably why G2 should hire him, keep some of the pieces and build and change some of the stuff around it.

But it's...

I mean, I wrote down on the prep with G2, it's like, where do you even put them in the conversation?

Like, what am I supposed to say even?

Like, they're playing with a standard, everyone knows there's changes coming in.

Coach isn't even there, it's gonna be there.

Like, how much motivation do you have as a coach?

Like, yeah, we're gonna fix everything.

And then just like getting booted in a week.

It's my last paycheck, boys.

I think there are some pros.

I think Malbz seemed to be returning to form a little bit.

I think Hunter stepped up massively from looking like a really almost NAF level player to getting back to his old.

I wasn't that down on Malbz.

I'm...

No, but Hunter.

You're really pushing it.

Hunter.

Oh, okay.

Hunter.

Hunter.

Yeah.

So Hunter was on NAF levels and stepped it up massively.

There's still some stuff in that.

All right.

Comparing NAF and Hunter, you're hurting me.

We're not that bad yet.

I'm just trying.

I'm just trying.

Either way, Hunter has been amazing.

Now...

Do you know what?

There's not even this story, by the way.

You know, sometimes when we get a team like this, we say, dead team walk in, they can do something crazy or magical, because it's not even a full five and it is Hayley standing in.

I have zero belief that that's even going to happen.

There is none.

There's no belief for me.

I'm just giving you something.

Maybe there's a G2 fanboy listening to this podcast and like, please make me believe.

Give me some hope.

I need it in my life.

I'm just trying to give something, man.

But yes, it's a dead team.

It's a shut case.

If they do, I think if they even, if they win the best of three, I'd be super surprised.

I don't know what the matchups are right now.

They are outright.

Yeah, we're gonna do that later.

Don't jump into that now.

Don't jump into that yet.

We'll wait and do our predictions and pick them up.

Okay, I'll wait.

I'll wait.

But I'll be surprised if they get more than the best of one in this.

Yep.

I think I'm on the same boat as you.

So before we get to the big three that doesn't include Falcons, we're gonna have to jump into the fourth, which is Na'Vi.

I was wondering where you put the big three.

Yeah, I would love to put the big three as Vitality, Na'Vi, Spirit.

But I'm gonna be realistic.

I gotta keep it real.

Na'Vi are not in the big five right now, let alone the big three.

And for me, take it this way, Astana was embarrassing.

Astana should have never happened.

You should have been in the final.

And even if you lost to Spirit, you should have been able to put up a more fight.

I actually think if they got the best of five final against Spirit, the Spirit would have won even easier than what they won against Astralis.

So Astralis actually did better than what Na'Vi could have done.

And that pains me to say it.

I will also say this.

There was an interview not so long ago or maybe a few months ago where Blade said like if we make semis like this next Major, which is the Austin Major now, that would be a good sign for us, blah, blah, blah.

Right now, no matter, unless they win the Major, this team is making changes.

I guarantee it.

I am 99.9% sure unless they win the Major, there is changes coming to this team because it has been not just down, it has been out.

And I believe in the Blade system.

I also believe in Alexi B.

I think he's going to be safe in this whole moving thing.

BIT was even horrendous in Astana, and that's normally a shining light for the team.

I'll tell you this, after Astana, I went to Romania to do a visa, and me and my wife went for dinner with Emma, and obviously he gave me some insight of like, they're going to go on boot camp.

They have been on a boot camp.

They nearly haven't played Counter-Strike as an official for a month.

Now for a lot of teams, you go, oh, maybe it's not so good or whatever.

This is perfect for Blade, Alexi and Na'Vi.

They haven't had a boot camp since the start of the year.

If this doesn't show at least playoff semis, it's an absolute failure once again.

This team need to believe in each other, trust in each other, drop the fucking egos, because I believe there are egos, and play some goddamn Counter-Strike, because it is right now a team that has hit the highest heights, six grand finals in a row, a major championship that no one ever expected, the first big win for most of these players, yeah, other than B.

And then it was an ultimate crash out from Singapore into Shanghai, into all of this year, and that's not good enough for an organization like Na'Vi, and the fact that these players know we can do better, just get on the same page, guys.

Believe in that like Blade system works, when everyone's believing in it, and all the pieces are moving the right way, when there's doubt, when there's not knowing what's going to happen, it all falls apart, and that's what's been happening.

Yeah, I mean, you described it, I think, best couple of episodes ago.

You know, it seems whenever we see them, like, they, you see a problem in an event, they fix it, but there's like one or two more problems arise that are just like as bad or worse.

You put your hole in the bucket, but the water comes out the other side.

Yeah, and then there's this in your face.

You keep plugging stuff in and...

Yep.

I don't know, like, it seems to me it's not only like...

It's not only that they're playing bad Counter-Strike, the vibe check, terrible.

It seems like they are, you know, arguing, struggling with each other, almost like they're sick of each other in some sense, which, by the way, it's not an absolutely un-normal thing to happen in CS teams.

Let me tell you that.

I've been sick of plenty of players in my career, and they've probably been sick of me too.

Yeah.

But it's the way, you know...

I'll never get sick of you.

Just you wait.

We might be talking about Navi for more episodes.

For more episodes.

The Devilwalk's gone missing.

No, but...

I think it's a weird one, because they have everything.

They have the structure.

They have the players with X Factor.

You know, JL, Bit, IM, Alexi B, you know, super seasoned in-game leader should be able to, you know, even if they're on the back foot, be able to find a call and call them out of it.

I just feel like they kind of lost the joy in some sense.

They probably put their...

Lost their mojo.

Yeah.

But, as you say, if there's anyone that can kind of get them out of a rut, make sure the structure is working again, it's Blade, right?

It's his tactical brilliance.

It's making sure that they're gonna be super, super, super ready for whatever is coming their way.

But I'm still worried.

I'm extreme, like, I don't even know where I put them.

They're probably, if I'm honest, they're probably just above G2 in my tier list, or above Liquid, somewhere along there.

Devilwalk is dead.

Change your opinion.

Change your opinion now.

Next episode on All About Counter-Strike with Host Banks.

I'm getting a new host, if anyone needs it.

There's a job opening.

Yeah, advertise your own job at this point.

Jesus.

Jesus.

Now, you're not far away from the truth, if I'm being honest, but I'm not kicking them that far down the curb.

You've been...

You've put us at the bottom of the barrel.

Okay.

But am I really...

You two have a stand in a team that's completely folding.

Yeah, but I'm telling you, I'm putting them above them.

Yeah, but only just.

Yeah, but who would you put below?

Okay.

Are you putting Mongols below?

Yes.

Below Na'Vi?

Yeah, and Aurora.

What?

Of course, because they don't choke on a stage.

Yeah, but this is not the stage.

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay.

They can lose to these two teams in a group stage.

You are correct.

But they probably won't have to face these teams.

They'll face these other lower down teams, then they'll work their way through.

They're going to go through 3-1 or some magic.

Come on, man.

I'm in my fantasy world.

What is this copian?

Full cope.

Full cope.

Well, I know you're a big fan, but there's more things than just tactical things that needs to be fixed for them.

The vibe check, everything, they need to start working together.

That's up to their performance manager.

Have you seen their new blog?

They did a new blog.

By the way, Navi, I love the quality of the new blog and the new way of doing things, but it was very short for a team to do a boot camp for a week.

Like 15 minutes was not enough to give me enough information of what's going on.

The other thing is that, like, if they can't get the mental fix this event, then obviously they're definitely mega screwed.

That has to be.

So, yeah, the mentality, yeah.

We'll see once they take their first loss, if they take a loss, that'll tell us a big thing.

It's not like, OK, I will rephrase some things.

I don't think they're going to just shit the bed and go 0-3.

That's not what I'm saying.

OK, thank god.

I'm saying they will be in that struggling phase of, you know, 1-2, maybe 2-2.

Will they make playoffs in your opinion?

I think they will barely, barely.

That's fine, it's running.

With the right copium, barely.

With the right copium, barely.

All right, so let's get on to our big three.

And I'm going to do the big three in my personal order.

You can correct me if I'm wrong.

In third place for the big three is Spirit.

Yeah.

Good.

Because, yes, they lose to Vitality, but there was a world in Astana where they could have maybe dropped another map to Astralis.

And I still think this team is not falling apart in some ways, but is disconnected in some ways.

In the sense that Donk wants to play every single event, yeah.

He wants to grind like crazy.

The other players or the Orc, whoever is deciding, wants to skip events.

Like, they're doing this.

And obviously Donk's frustration has come out in interviews, in moments where he's communicating of like, guys, we got to start winning.

And when you've got someone who was the best player in the world and was an unstoppable force, who's now not able to show his stuff like that, obviously, he's going to be a bit tilted.

There's nothing I can fault them on, other than the mentality can somehow, sometimes go.

I think Halle is the one leading in a similar way to a blade, but with like, less room for, like I think Alexei has more room to make decisions compared to Chopper.

But that's like, just from what I'm viewing, it's not so much what I can say, yeah, I'm talking facts right now.

It's just the style.

And when you see these behind-the-scenes videos of like ESL released it right, Field of View, where it shows you the whole grand final, they played against Vitality and Katowice, you hear like the things that Halle is saying and what he's going through sometimes.

It's a frustrating time for Spirit.

You're the previous major champions, but I don't think we're even going to see him in the grand final.

Because Mouz have been kryptonite to them, and Vitality definitely are.

Yep, I mean, I agree.

I think the one thing, you know, they have going for them is Donk.

I think you need Magix, you need Sontix.

I think Sheero has been consistent enough to, you know, make sense.

I don't think he needs to like up his performance or anything.

I think he plays that kind of passive opera role really, really well.

He's moving a lot more lately.

He started to show a bit more aggression.

Yeah.

He's moving around a little bit more.

So I think a lot of it is in Chopper is like weirdly, weirdly, he always has impacts in some way, you know, like, I don't know.

He's got some reads, man.

Yeah.

He's got some reads and some timing moments where you go, that's a Chopper round.

That's actually a Chopper round.

He has clutches in him.

He has clutch ability.

Like, it doesn't always look the prettiest, but he gets the job done.

I need the Nose Strip to come back this major.

Nose Strip Chopper was the buffed up one.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

I actually bought some Nose Strips for myself.

Oh, we're going to be cooking on Faceit when you get back then?

You're going to be cooking.

Okay.

Mate, carry me.

Let's go.

Yeah.

But yeah, I think everything pretty much, obviously, it lands on Donk, but Donk is going to deliver.

So it's Sontic and Magix.

They need to step up.

We need to see this individual brilliance of them and needs to be consistent.

It can't just be one map, two maps, and then all of a sudden someone takes over.

Both of them needs to be on top level at the same time as Donk, with Shiro and Chopper to make this even remotely competitive.

They're going to make playoff.

I'll give you.

I'm 100% sure they're going to make playoff, but I'm talking like someone needs to fucking take the crown of Apex and slam it into the ground of some sorts, you know?

Yeah.

I'll give you this, right?

I'll give you two things I learned.

So when we were in Astana, I was doing these 1v1s, Don't Play This Amazing 1v1 Against Ontarius for Content Peace, and Don't told me Magix would actually be better to do this 1v1, because he thinks that Magix has amazing aim, better than what we actually currently think.

So whenever I get to do a 1v1 piece of content again, I'm going to put Magix to the test because he may be a troll, but Don't is a big believer and pusher of him saying that Magix is going to be good, and then Don't has been reading the Kobe Bryant book Mamba Mentality.

It was in his backpack, he showed me it, and he said he hasn't read it yet, but he was starting to go for it.

If he's read that before the Major, I'm expecting Godmode Don't to be back in full force.

If he can have a slight improvement in psychology aspect, that's going to be a win for the whole team.

That's going to be a win for everyone.

That's glorious, right?

Also, when you look at this spirit conversation, it's so weird.

Now we'll get a highlight of your favorite team here.

The last loss they had against anyone outside of the top four is February 3rd.

IEM Katowice versus Na'Vi.

Na'Vi.

Group stage.

Group stage warrior game.

Yeah.

So they're only losing games against Vitality, Mouse and Falcons.

Yep.

Which is all respectable when Falcons aren't here.

By the way, when Falcons got eliminated, Vitality, Mouse and Spirit all went, hehehehe.

Oh, Vitality.

Money can't buy you happiness.

You know, like they were just sat there laughing.

Yeah, because I think-

That's just giving us one easier spot.

The weird thing is, the same thing, uh...

Mouse, I don't think they haven't lost to Spirit.

No, I don't think so.

I think Mouse has only lost to Falcons and Vitality.

It's one of these weird things where, like, Vitality are not losing against anyone.

They have Falcons, they're losing against, well, now everyone, but before they didn't.

Yeah.

So, kind of like, just in a ladder step for these top four teams, which is kind of incredible that they are that consistent, these top teams.

It's just small, small things.

Very small.

All right.

So, from Spirit, from Spirit, we go to Mouz.

Number two.

Yeah.

We can all agree of that.

Mouz have been really solid.

Mouz, okay, they can lose to a Falcons.

They can lose to a Vitality.

Falcons are no longer here.

That de facto puts them in a fantastic position.

Mouz, since having Spinks, have leveled up.

Um, Torzi is the star of this team.

Xershan sometimes can be a bit hit and miss for my liking.

Yim Fat, he may be gooning all the time, but he can be solid.

I gotta just look through Yim Fat's stats a bit here.

Because I feel like we're starting to see a better Yimmy again.

Because there was a moment where he didn't look as sharp as he was.

And he was only a little bit in the middle of this, or the start of this year, sorry.

And now he's kind of found his footing again.

He's back to it.

He's back in a nice spot rating-wise.

Spinks, I feel like was the perfect player for this team.

And a lot of things are connecting.

This was the right move in so many ways.

And they've been in Germany at the Maus facility on the boot camp.

I saw they got some little buffed up laptops from one of their sponsors.

Lucky guys.

They're fully ready.

They're flying business right now.

They're coming in cool.

They're being looked after.

Mentally, this is going to be a strong team.

And your Swedish boy, Broland, has proven me wrong by being a more than capable in-game leader.

But I want to understand this, and it'll take some time for us to really figure it out, is the fact that Cykrone has leveled up two very young in-game leaders.

Shuhei first and now Broland.

Broland just taking over.

Cykrone definitely has got to be eating up a lot of credit in here.

No, I 100% agree.

I mean, they are probably playing a lot within the...

Yes, yes, you are.

I was about to mention it, but I didn't want to disrupt you.

But no, I think there's a lot of credit to go to him.

I think he seems like the kind of guy he wants is his way.

And he's really, you know, pushing it in that direction and working and people believe in him.

They've, you know, obviously, he's gained their trust.

I can't really focus while Banks is running around.

I know, but I can see you the whole time.

I'm just running around.

No, but Mouse, you know, they look super solid.

I think the one thing that I could put on like kind of con list for them was it's...

This is from where I've watched them play like Falcons.

When Falcons have kind of slowed the game down, Mouse doesn't really get this rhythm of moving pieces very fast to kind of secure areas.

And they're kind of just biding their time until Mouse does eventually make a mistake.

Because Mouse, they are very fast moving.

They like to take space.

They like to be aggressive, take duels and overflow areas.

Kind of a little bit heroic-esque style of the old.

But not to that extreme.

Yeah, exactly.

With KD and Staven and those guys.

Very good at helping each other and very fast to rotate to help each other.

And that does give moments where they make these wrong rotations and over rotations, leave space and a slow team that can kind of find the holes and use the information that Mouse kind of give them.

That's, I think, when they struggle the most.

Otherwise, I think they're incredibly well-rounded.

You say, you know, Torch is their like star player.

I don't actually think they have that a star player per se.

I think they're just very well-rounded.

I think they have a good balance of aggressive players and people who can take that more passive role in like Spinks and Gimpat, who can kind of, they can both be explosive, get a lot of multi-kills, hold the sides very well, and kind of keep that cool map control type with Sersh and Brawlung kind of leading the charge and trying to get the aggressive plays and early spacing.

So I just think they're a very, very well-rounded team.

And they have good team play.

And I think they're going to be, you know, obviously one of the better teams.

They're going to make it.

They're going to make it tough for anyone they're playing against.

I think they're even going to make it tough for a vitality to some degree.

Even though I hold vitality very highly, I still think Mouz have improved in the way they have approached vitality.

I'm not saying it's like record stuff, but I think that in the best case scenario where they win kind of double pistol, they have a chance to break them.

I think that that's where they're at.

Yeah, I mean, that's a good summary of Mouz.

And then that leaves us for the obvious potential major winners of the Blast TV Austin Major, two Blast Majors for vitality if everything works out.

But you know what, with this major, nothing's guaranteed.

So don't even expect vitality to go 3-0.

No, you should expect vitality to go 3-0.

You should envision vitality breaks them.

Yeah, there we go.

Vitality are on 100% win rate in the last three months.

They're on a 30-match win streak right now.

They are dominating.

They have won Dallas, Blast Rivals, Melbourne, Open Lisbon, Katowice, like this team is unstoppable right now.

And someone sent me a link just the other day.

The Zywoo has released his own mouse now.

Zywoo is the only player, I will say, could change his mouse one day before the tournament and it won't matter.

I've watched this guy sit down, not use a convict, plug in, use any equipment, change mouse if he's like, he's not affected.

This is robotic Zywoo.

This is Zywoo in his element and he's got Rops to back him up now.

So even if he's using this new mouse or not or whatever it is, yeah, I have zero worries about this team.

Apex Calling is on fire.

Rops is elevated as we keep saying, players around him.

He's made Mezi an even better player.

Everyone has a good mood.

Everyone's working so hard.

Yes, there's going to be probably more pressure than even on the Grand Slam for these guys.

For Mezi and Flames, right?

It would be the first Major they could win and have a chance of.

But the rest of the players around them know exactly how to get it done.

They've got a huge amount of good capable support staff around them.

I like their performance manager is a beast, by the way.

He's not just ace as a performance manager in terms of the physical aspect, by the way, he's also in the gym with Apex and Flames a lot.

But he's also a great friend, I feel, and a mental person around them at the same time.

And I don't even know if he does any of the mental aspects for these guys.

But at the moment, they've cracked the code for things.

And they know when to do it all.

It's just anything can happen with a major.

It can get a bit crazy.

It is some best of ones in there.

But like, where do you...

Did you even find a negative?

Did you even find a con?

I did.

What, they won too much?

Well, partly.

Okay.

No, but I'll say this.

Like, they are so incredibly disciplined and good at what they do, but they do show occasional weakness in rounds.

I'll just take that GMPAT 1v5 as an example, right?

They're super disciplined.

They're winning the round because they're disciplined.

They're showing some individual skill.

Now it's all of a sudden, they're overwhelmingly in favor of winning the round.

These are the moments where they kind of relax sometimes as individual players, not as a team, but they make decisions to take duels just to end it.

And that's essentially the weakness is they can be a bit sloppy with that discipline all the way through in the round, which is extremely hard to be disciplined in that sense.

Yeah.

But, you know, then they have the incredible leadership from Apex, who kind of shuts that down instantly.

They have an insane mappool to a degree, you know, I think if I put like Saevo, Ropz, Flames, Messi and even Apex to some degree, in any other team in the world, they would be the fucking star player.

Yeah.

In any team in the world.

It's unbelievable.

They could be in 1v5 situations.

I wouldn't, you know, say it's over.

Their adaptability, the way they approach rounds to counter individual players, the way they shift up their patterns in rounds, they're hard to prep against because of that.

Like they have everything.

And they are a level above on pretty much everything.

Like I, the guys that are next best to them, they're still, you know, that this is their specialty.

They're still better than them at it.

It feels like they have everything.

You know, they have good calls, they have gimmick calls when they need it.

They have, you know, I don't know, like insane reads.

They trick the opponent.

They consistently find entries.

They, I don't know.

There's so much to talk about, about vitality.

That's good.

And it's honestly really hard to find the cons.

And the cons, it's not really like con.

This is like human behavior to some extent.

It's not even, you know.

Everyone does what they're doing.

Yeah.

Everyone's going to be doing that.

They just lose serious.

And vitality probably do it less to some sense.

So it was, it was tough to even think about a con because they've been so good.

And the only example that really came out was that they sometimes, they start the game, it goes so easy for them, that they just hit the snooze button in their discipline, and the other team starts coming back.

Yep.

It's a stretch.

But still don't win the series.

Yes.

You know what, we don't need to touch on vitality anymore.

They are expected to win this major.

So we can take it from here, mate, to first of all our predictions before ruining your pick'ems further.

Down for that?

Yeah.

For the first part, at least.

All right.

Predictions.

It's best of ones.

We've got our opening games here.

Vitality take on the 3-0 team legacy.

Yeah.

This is why I still, we said this last time, I don't like this VRC thing.

It should be first against 16th, not first against 9th, but.

It's stupid that Vitality get a 3-0 team.

Yeah.

But could legacy win a game here?

No.

It's true.

It should be Vitality.

There's nothing that indicates that legacy could do this, other than the fact they went 3-0 and proved this wrong last time.

But this is a whole different level of opposition that they've never faced before.

Beating phase is one thing.

This is like taking on the titans.

But it's like also what map is legacy going to go for?

They're not going to get their best map.

They're going to go into like a good map for both.

Inferno.

You want to go against Vitality on Inferno?

You know, be my guest.

You got to take a shot at the king every now and again, see what happens.

All right, that one's nice and easy.

So Vitality are going to win against Legacy in our predictions.

Mouz taking on VP.

I'm just going to say, best of one Mouz coming in.

I've got a hunch.

My feeling again, might be being stupid here.

The favorites are Mouz, but I'm predicting VP.

OK, I'll take Mouz, but I see where you're going.

I'm trying my new logic of last stage was good for VP, so this new tournament is bad.

OK, so you'll do it Mouz.

I think there's definitely a chance for VP.

If they play the way they've done and keep that consistency, I think they definitely can go into a Mouz force, which is probably a little bit over eager or over confident to some extent going into the matchup.

Yeah.

With VP.

You know, it's not like they showed like they are that much of an improved team considering the opponents they played against, but they could be a lot better than you expect.

OK, so who are you picking?

I'm picking Mouz.

OK, so you're still picking Mouz?

Yeah.

I thought you were going to go on a ramble and give me a, you're joining me on VP, but I get you.

I get you.

All right.

Spirit versus Pain.

I'm going with Spirit.

Yeah, I'll do Spirit as well.

It's Pain has looked a lot better, but it's just that they that Pain don't have enough in it to stop someone like Don, if he gets on a tear and he's going to be so hungry to play again.

G2 versus 3D Max here.

OK.

I'm picking 3D Max.

I'm going 3D Max.

We're really down and out on G2 here.

Jesus.

Mongols, Furia.

This is a spicy one.

Because there is so much history between these guys and Furia never wins.

I need to actually look at the match up head to head.

But I'm just the feeling.

I think it's a close game.

I'll pick Mongols, but I think Furia, they could actually snatch this one.

OK.

So you're going Mongols with me.

Aurora phase.

I'm taking Aurora, because I'm believing in the boot camp, and we've obviously seen FaZe, but FaZe in a best of one is making me think that FaZe could 2-0 to start off with.

I'm just putting it out there.

Have a feeling that FaZe might 2-0 again in the best of ones, and come with that energy.

I have to pick Aurora.

I don't know a single player other than Major that would get on the craziness, you know?

Like, it might start to affect some of the Aurora players.

But I do...

You're taking Aurora, I'll take FaZe.

All right.

All right, Navi Namiga.

Obviously, I'm going for Navi.

Should I?

You can do what you want.

Tell me, I need your honest prediction.

I don't need you just to troll me.

I need your honest prediction.

Well, maybe my trolling is my honesty.

Go on then.

I'll pick Navi.

Okay, smart man.

If you still like your job, this is a good thing.

Clearly, I have a lot of power in this podcast.

No, everything's 50-50.

There's none of this.

There's none of my ultimate power in this.

All right, LiquidLinVision.

Unless Navi pops off, LinVision is taking this.

I'm all in with LinVision.

I also want to pick LinVision.

Is it?

Well, we're really aligned on this today.

This is unexpected, mate.

Well, last time when we were disagreeing, our pickups went to shit.

If it gets any darker in our room, but in my room, but I'm screwed.

We're just going to have a pitch black thing.

So you go in LimbVision?

Yeah.

Let's get ourselves closer towards the end of all this.

So there are predictions, guys.

Hopefully, you've enjoyed that.

Hopefully, you've also enjoyed the breakdown of the teams.

Both me and Devilwalk, it's impossible for us to get Diamond coin right now.

So Devil, open it up, go through the madness with us, share your screen and give me your pickups.

Three zero, vitality.

There's no way they're not getting three zero.

All right.

Second three zero.

Oh, this is so hard.

It's like a mouse or spirit potential.

I mean, okay, let's go to our spirit.

You want to give it to spirit?

I can give it to spirit.

Zero frees, like, honestly, liquid is on my list, okay?

But this one is tough.

LinVision.

LinVision can win over liquid, you see?

This is, yeah.

But if we're predicting LinVision should win against liquid, we can't put the, we have to put liquid here then.

Okay.

So then do you put legacy in zero three, which has failed us multiple times now across multiple stages?

We're just picking the same.

Well, they're gonna go zero three at one point.

No, they don't, actually.

But who do you think here is most likely to go zero free?

It's not mouse, it's not mongoose, it's not Navi, it's not Aurora.

Could be G2.

G2?

We're putting G2 there?

We got nothing to lose, right?

Yeah.

Let's do it.

It's pretty BM.

Let's be crazy.

G2 is liquid, but let's just go wild with it.

All right.

So making it through.

Navi, yeah, good.

Oh, wow, screw you.

Yeah, most like this.

I think Aurora.

Yep.

So here, two spots left.

You want VP?

Yeah.

Do I believe in some phase magic?

Phase or Furia?

I think it's the...

Phase or Furia?

Not a 3D max.

You don't believe in 3D max.

I think you can make it, but...

It's your choice.

I, in person, probably gonna put phase in.

Okay, I'll put phase in.

Easy.

We got nothing to lose.

Hopefully, we can get a gold coin at least.

And there's still a whole other playoff spot of doing this as well.

I'm not...

You know what?

Our 0-3s, I'm the least confident with.

One of these two will upset us.

I've done no simulator even.

Shall I simulate?

Shall I simulate based on our predictions?

Okay, simulate based on our predictions.

HLTV's got our simulator in here, okay?

So we said Vitality will win.

We said Mouz will win.

We said Spirit will win.

We said 3D Max will beat G2, right?

Yeah.

Yep.

We said Mongols will win over Furia.

We said Aurora over Phage.

We said Na'Vi over Namiga.

We both said LinVision over Liquid, didn't we?

Yeah.

That's why I put Liquid there.

Then 1-0 will be Vitality, LinVision, so Vitality.

Mouz, 3D Max, Mouz, Spirit, Na'Vi in a best of one.

Group stage, not on stage.

Spirit still probably, right?

Who are you talking about?

What was the main game now?

Spirit versus Na'Vi.

Spirit, I think.

Best of one.

Spirit.

Mongols versus Aurora, best of one.

Mongols.

G2 versus Namiga.

Oh, well, I have to say Namiga.

Okay.

Liquid versus FaZe.

FaZe.

Legacy versus Furia.

Furia, I think.

VP versus Pain.

Oh, they already played each other, so VP again.

Then the 2-0 matchups.

Mouz Spirit.

Mongols, Vitality.

So Vitality win over Mongols.

Spirit.

So Mouz could go 3-0 over Spirit here.

Should we put them in 3-0?

Yeah, go for that.

Go for that.

Go for that.

And on your 0-3s, Liquid, Legacy.

I think Liquid lose, man.

Okay.

And then Pain G2.

Yeah, I believe in 0-3 picks.

You might actually be cooking.

Okay.

So put the 3-0 Mouz Vitality.

This simulates nuts.

Yeah.

And then, okay, Aurora Namiga.

Aurora Namiga.

Aurora.

Na'Vi FaZe, best of one.

Oh, so 50-50.

Na'Vi.

What do you mean 50-50?

Okay.

Okay, we can go Na'Vi.

Don't let my bias influence you.

Okay.

VP LinVision.

VP.

VP.

3D Max Furia.

Oh.

Furia?

Yeah.

I guess.

We're very insecure about that one.

Yeah, that was like Furia.

Then we get Mongols Na'Vi.

Qualification.

Mongols Na'Vi.

Mongols.

Holy Mongols.

Spirit Furia.

Spirit.

VP Aurora.

VP Aurora.

Aurora.

Kind of hard, you know?

Aurora.

Legacy Namiga.

Legacy.

3D Max Phase.

Phase already lost the 3D Max Phase, okay.

LinVision Pain.

Pain.

Pain.

Then you've got Virtus.Pro Phase.

Virtus.Pro Phase?

In 2-2 game?

Yep.

Oh.

Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

Which one?

You pick this one.

Logic.

Logic would say VP, but I'm going to be with my heart.

Phase Magic, baby.

Okay.

So we remove VP.

The Navi Leg.

Yeah.

Navi Legacy.

Navi.

Navi.

Furia Pain.

Furia.

Pain won it last time.

I believe in Professor.

You want Pain?

Okay.

No, that's your pick-ems, man.

It's your pick-ems.

Yeah.

I'll remove my pick-ems.

So 3-0, Mal's Vitality.

3-1, Mongol Spirit Aurora.

Phase Navi, Furia.

And then 0-3, Liquid and G2.

Boom.

We are done.

Oh my God.

I'm satisfied.

I think my 0-3 pick-ems are the greatest.

Yeah.

I might just take them myself, man.

I might have to.

All right.

Let's quickly do Q&A because the time is running on.

And I am hungry.

My wife has messaged me.

She said, sent us food.

I am sleepy.

Yeah, you must be sleepy.

It's 3.30, 8 in the morning for you.

Okay, Skorga, long time viewer, always sending in questions.

Why do the Falcons, a team renowned for mechanical skill, frequently choose to play Nuke considering it's one of the most tactical maps?

Wouldn't it be advantageous for them to avoid it, especially in a best of one against teams that are theoretically less mechanically skilled?

That's a question for you, Devilwalk.

Yeah, but okay.

Just because a map is tactical, doesn't mean that it negates mechanical skill.

I think there are some maps, for example, if you look at Anubis, I can take as a good example, where it's like very, very tactical.

But I actually think that it's very chaotic and it's hard to kind of get the mechanical skill.

You're going to have a lot of nades in your face, a lot of Molotov smokes.

It's a lot about like snappy decision making when you're in CT.

I mean, you can imagine playing like A site being super mechanically skilled, and there's flying eight flashes through the window that you are blind of, the T's running towards you.

Doesn't really matter how mechanically skilled you are to a certain extent, because you don't have the time to execute that mechanical skill in those scenarios.

Where Nuke, I think it's more about positioning tactically, rather than everything just being tactical.

It's a very slow paced tactical map, where mechanical skill is shining a lot more than these very fast pops, where like on Anubis, right, you're popping B main, you're popping through con.

It's very fast paced, chaotic.

Then I think mechanical skill actually shines a little bit less, and it's a little bit more about small timings, and getting the most out of a very small window of opportunity, where Nuke is more slowly creeping forward.

Doesn't mean that there isn't pops, and these things happen, but I think it's more, you know, you want to get someone into lower, he's holding, you're taking warehouse control, garage, moving people around the map.

And it's not as intense and close combat as you'd think.

So I'd say it doesn't negate mechanical skill to play a map like Nuke.

While I understand why you're thinking goes that way, they're not opposites.

They are, you know, you're going to have a very open and you know, open map like Dust 2, that isn't like super tactical, or at least very fought out tactically.

There's not much of new stuff coming into it.

It's very standard.

Like the movements of the map are essentially the same as they were 20 years ago, where you can have a lot more gambling, fast paced skill shine through there, even though it's not a very tactical map.

But on the opposite, you have it on Nuke as well, where the mechanical skill will shine through.

But yeah, I hope that answers the question.

I think it did.

Definitely gave a lot in that.

And I also think why people play it is, if you're the better team, you're always going to be better on Nuke than teams that are worse than you.

If you have that mechanical skill with the tactical prowess of a map like Nuke, it's a great home map to have against lesser teams.

I agree.

One other question for today.

It says, Leonida from YouTube.

He says, most tactical...

Oh, we took one from YouTube.

Actually, we broke the thing.

We shouldn't take his question.

Actually, no, Leonida, I'll be nice to you.

But just next time, you need to join the Discord.

This is the last one we'll take from YouTube.

It says, most tactical shooters have an unranked mode that mirrors competitive experience, allowing new players to learn maps and mechanics before jumping into ranked play.

Why doesn't Counter-Strike have a similar 5v5 unranked queue?

Casual mode is often a chaotic 10v10, which doesn't effectively prepare players for the more strategic premier and competitive modes.

Wouldn't a dedicated unranked queue help with onboarding new players and provide a better warm up environment?

He's actually making a good point, because he mentions competitive, but obviously that still has like ranked gold, silver, elite, global league, whatever.

Yeah, it's per map.

But like, I just take comp as things you fuck around in.

Like I just go in there and just even use it as a warm up or just have some fun with friends.

So I kind of take that as the unranked queue, but it would be cool to have a premier mode.

Yeah, without it being premier, just do like unranked prem, where you can just go through the exact same simulation, learn how you're doing all the veto stuff, you know.

And so it's for the people who are a bit more casual.

I actually agree with him.

It would be cool.

This would actually be a good idea for getting players into it, because some players just literally play casual, like random deathmatch maps and fun stuff with their friends.

Others jump into comp, but like there is a big skill gap between comp and prem when you go through it all and then from prem to face it as well.

No, I agree.

I think it's like a kind of a skewed system.

It would probably like in this weird sense in Counter-Strike, where we're in between several systems incorporated into each other with prem and comp, because comp was like prem before, and then they introduced prem.

And I think back then you had casual 5v5 queues, but it was different rules.

I think it was just like you always had armor, but you could still play 5v5.

I'm not really sure, but it's...

You spawned with armor, didn't you?

Yeah, you spawned with armor.

So yeah, really weird.

Anyways, I think it makes sense to have that.

I think that's a good idea.

I think it's weird we don't have it.

That's why I mentioned it's Valve here at the Major.

They'll come here for playoffs.

Let me see if I remember that.

I've got a list of things.

It's also this thing sometimes you can't even play with friends who are not the same level or same ranking as you if you're playing the premier or competitive modes.

So it does make a lot of sense to have it.

I don't know why that isn't the case.

It's a good idea, Leon.

A good idea.

Very good idea.

Well, there we are, Devilwalk.

It's late for you.

We're at the very end of it all.

Episode 16 is done and dusted of the All About Counter-Strike Podcast.

We'll be back between stage 3 ending and playoffs.

If there's some more madness, if there's some more absolute craziness going on.

Good luck with your pick-ems.

If anyone still has a chance of getting Diamond Coin done, tweet it at us, send it to us.

Let us know.

I need to see physical proof of this.

Don't expose yourself.

You will be sent straight to the mental hospital.

You will need help in the crazy lab.

But hopefully you've enjoyed the breakdown.

Hopefully you've learned something from this.

Hopefully it's given you some different perspectives.

You've enjoyed our opinions.

Another Devilwalk through that I know everyone enjoys as well.

As always, thank you very much for watching.

Big love to you all.

Make sure you like, subscribe, review us on the audio platforms.

It helps everything with where we're growing and going from here.

And stay safe, look after yourself, enjoy the major.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.