NiKo FINALLY Wins a Major! Falcons Dominate Cologne 2026

[BanKs] Cologne has finished and we are back with another episode of the All About Counter-Strike podcast.

[BanKs] It is episode 72.

[BanKs] I'm going to get this out the way nice and fast very early on.

[BanKs] It is the 23rd of June, 2026.

[BanKs] For me, it is 8.56 in the evening, which means it's 9.56 in the evening for DevWalk.

[BanKs] I didn't have internet since I came back from Cologne because...

[BanKs] Portugal, they're all focused on the World Cup.

[BanKs] Just like this side away from me, they've actually built a massive stand.

[BanKs] They've taken up all the free parking spots that were around our house.

[BanKs] and they have turned it into like a massive celebration obviously for people to watch on a huge screen and see the football buy beers and stuff like that but what it also means is that someone cut my internet cable or something went horribly wrong so

[BanKs] I am currently 4G tethering to my computer so we can get this episode done and we can make some magic happen here.

[BanKs] But I had an awesome time at Cologne.

[BanKs] There's so much for us to get into.

[BanKs] There's so much for us to cover.

[BanKs] Dead Walk, obviously you were watching online from home, but how's the deadlock going?

[BanKs] What else have you been up to?

[BanKs] You're even looking after a dog.

[Devilwalk] Yes, yes, we do have a dog.

[Devilwalk] So it's my girlfriend's dog, but she kind of let him move into the house with her parents.

[Devilwalk] So they have a yard and all that stuff.

[Devilwalk] Let him run free, have a little bit more of

[Devilwalk] Better free time than being in an apartment all day.

[BanKs] Yep.

[Devilwalk] So they're on a trip.

[Devilwalk] So we're taking care of the dog.

[Devilwalk] So every morning I wake up much earlier than I normally do.

[Devilwalk] So go walk the dog.

[Devilwalk] Do all that kind of stuff.

[Devilwalk] Because obviously Rebecca works as normal.

[Devilwalk] And she works from like 4 till 3.

[BanKs] Mm hmm.

[Devilwalk] That's a weird time to say.

[BanKs] Yeah, yeah.

[Devilwalk] But 4 in the morning.

[Devilwalk] She wakes up and leaves for work.

[BanKs] Yep.

[Devilwalk] And yeah.

[BanKs] That's a crazy song.

[Devilwalk] so yeah i'm playing around with the dog throwing some balls out on the on the fields and

[BanKs] Half asleep, you're like this.

[BanKs] Just limp froze.

[Devilwalk] Well, I do force myself a coffee and then I go straight out because I just want to get it done with so I get my time to sit down, chill, you know, all that kind of stuff.

[BanKs] Yeah, of course.

[Devilwalk] So it's better to just get it over with.

[BanKs] Dude, this is so funny.

[Devilwalk] But it's a good time.

[BanKs] I'm just going to tell you, this is now getting you ready for a baby.

[BanKs] I told Moses this, yeah?

[BanKs] He first got dogs, then he had his child.

[BanKs] I then also first had, well, I didn't have a dog before Harvey, but before Leo came along, we had a dog.

[BanKs] Then you get a child.

[BanKs] This is just the way it goes.

[Devilwalk] It's a test.

[BanKs] This is your missus preparing you for she is going to say to you, I'm pregnant.

[BanKs] Or a test to see if you're not going to mess it all up.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] But it's been good.

[BanKs] Well, I'm glad you're enjoying it.

[BanKs] Get ready for the rest of it all.

[BanKs] Counter-Strike-wise, oh my, we hit storylines, we hit crazy viewership.

[BanKs] There is so much for us to discuss.

[BanKs] Now, there's a lot of roster mania that's already happening.

[BanKs] Some I have information that I can confirm.

[BanKs] Some of what HRTV reported on are pretty damn accurate as well.

[BanKs] We were hearing about a lot of this at Cologne from different people, but we're going to get into that in another episode when we also cover XSE Pro League that is happening next week.

[BanKs] But this is going to be like our final episode to cover everything from the Cologne Major.

[BanKs] So strap yourselves in, get ready for it.

[BanKs] You know, the first thing we're going to look at DevWalk before we look at the teams is just...

[BanKs] What it was to have Cologne back as a major, obviously iconic.

[BanKs] Obviously, I'm in the arena, right?

[BanKs] I got to be there and watch more as a fan.

[BanKs] I was making content, right, for a couple of sponsors.

[BanKs] But I was there as a fan, and I had a great spot.

[BanKs] I was mainly with the Argentinian streamers.

[BanKs] Forgy and his partners, which is like his crew of people.

[BanKs] And, um, bro, you've got, you've got like the amazing suites.

[BanKs] You can see the whole view from like, it's,

[BanKs] luxury viewing experience for sure.

[BanKs] So even on the Thursday, first game, remember the first games were not super exciting, right?

[BanKs] Not like the big name teams coming in there.

[BanKs] We saw Vitality, Falcon Spirit, you know, and it was still full.

[BanKs] Like, I was... Every time, even when it's Cologne, even when it's some of the biggest events, it's normally not full.

[BanKs] But everyone was there.

[Devilwalk] Yep.

[BanKs] Like, it was... I just knew it was going to be a crazy good vibe.

[BanKs] And...

[BanKs] I don't know, for other people who were there who paid for their tickets, I'm sure you had a great time.

[BanKs] A lot of people I spoke to said it as well.

[BanKs] But this just took Cologne to like a new level because obviously it's four days as well and people are taking that time off.

[BanKs] I met people, by the way,

[BanKs] who traveled from Australia, from Canada, from America, from China.

[BanKs] Some, obviously, they're studying.

[BanKs] They told me they were studying in Europe.

[BanKs] So one of the guys I met was also from Hong Kong, and he showed me a photo of where he saw me last time from Hong Kong, and I'm like...

[BanKs] Okay, that's like, that's actually crazy.

[BanKs] You traveled all this way.

[BanKs] So obviously, this happens a lot of majors, but it still surprises me, you know, because it's not cheap.

[Devilwalk] yeah it's not shape but there is a huge

[BanKs] Like the flights are not cheap.

[BanKs] The hotels are not cheap when you're looking at Cologne anyway.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] And people people are booked out.

[BanKs] It was crazy.

[Devilwalk] I mean, the amount of people that you kind of like frequently see at events that make this their kind of vacation trip for the year, it's kind of unbelievable for Counter-Strike because you... I think we all kind of started off thinking, okay, we'll get some, you know...

[BanKs] Mhm.

[BanKs] Yep.

[Devilwalk] esports enjoyers from the local area kind of join in and it's grown more and more into you know people actually planning for these trips in adult life and it's awesome to see

[BanKs] Definitely.

[BanKs] looking at that by the way I just pause for a moment because you know I said about that stadium thing they've made in the middle of the parking lot like just by our house where normally all the cars park I can hear it even over you talking I can hear whoever is shouting now on a microphone at

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] 9 o'clock at night for whatever this thing is that they're doing and celebrating the World Cup.

[BanKs] Obviously, they did win today as well, so congratulations to Portugal.

[BanKs] It wasn't a hard game.

[BanKs] The England game is just starting now as well, so hopefully we're going to beat Ghana.

[BanKs] Fingers crossed.

[BanKs] We did start off strong.

[BanKs] Another thing I wanted to say as well, production-wise of what we saw from ESL,

[BanKs] It was like the same kind of stage with some visual differences.

[BanKs] But I felt like the visual videos, the content that was thrown up, the...

[BanKs] storytelling was done beautifully.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] Um, I think having two trophy bearers, one being cold Zara and one being Olaf was like, Oh, absolutely amazing.

[BanKs] perfect you know it's good they didn't try and overcook it or get it for like four days of people doing it you know like this was great two of the guys who won the trophies before when it was majors made perfect sense um both also with a graffiti but i can't remember if cold graffiti was from the cologne or not i don't think it was right was his from columbus

[Devilwalk] Yep.

[Devilwalk] It might have been Columbus.

[Devilwalk] I'm not 100% sure.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] I never remember which one it was.

[BanKs] I just remember, obviously, the iconic play.

[BanKs] But when Olaf did it, right, they were obviously showing his graffiti.

[BanKs] And then also, because I'm watching from really high up and down, but I've got a perfect view of the whole thing.

[BanKs] And you just see the fire, you know, obviously, because he did the diffuse in the fire.

[BanKs] And you see it all around him.

[Devilwalk] I was the...

[BanKs] And I...

[BanKs] yeah you were there obviously but i mean i'm watching this and i'm like this is every little detail like that was really cool i will say and this isn't this has nothing to do because it was me or not me but i mean a little bit of hype was missing a little bit of um

[BanKs] energy was missing but the commentators turned it up massively um we'll get onto some of the specific games when we talk about it but i feel like you know i'm such a big fan of scrawny and launders i'm always like i would always say they are the best ones at the moment the oh which game was it i think it was the falcon spirit game from harry and hugo

[BanKs] My God, it was absolutely like some of the best commentary I'd heard in so long.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] All that energy, everything they gave to it.

[BanKs] I almost thought that that would swing them getting the grand final because it was just so perfectly called from start to finish.

[Devilwalk] Yeah, I mean, it probably helped.

[Devilwalk] I don't know.

[Devilwalk] It probably helped the atmosphere in the arena and for all the viewers that we had such banger games from the G2 Spirit game, Falcon's Fatality, to kind of

[BanKs] Yep.

[Devilwalk] hype things up and I think there was a pretty good hype around Aurora as well making it through I'm not sure how it was through the arena but from the the imagery it definitely looked like you know people were hyped about that uh how was it from yeah how was it from your side on on that part

[BanKs] Turkish flags were everywhere in Germany.

[BanKs] I felt like the energy the whole weekend was so good.

[BanKs] I'll tell you this.

[BanKs] I'll happy.

[BanKs] I have no problem saying this.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] When I saw the opening day intro on the Thursday, right?

[BanKs] And I'm watching it and I saw OJ go out there and he's doing his first like initial beat, you know, the same stuff he usually does.

[BanKs] I actually had like,

[BanKs] I wouldn't say I cried, but I almost cried from the emotions because I had that kind of fear of missing out, even though I was there more like not, it should have been me, but I want it to be me, you know?

[BanKs] Because I had that feeling of just remembering how awesome Budapest was and when we were doing the stuff on stage there.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] And that reaffirmed to me my passion and love for the game and wanting to keep doing this.

[BanKs] Because when you're watching it from the outside perspective, I'm like...

[BanKs] oh man, this is really like the cologne major.

[BanKs] And I got pretty choked up by that.

[BanKs] And I'll also say that...

[BanKs] When I was looking at just the crowd's energy through the matches, I never even got a sense of the crowd cheating.

[BanKs] Some of the times in the arena, we had x-ray turned off, which obviously normally happens to avoid that anyway.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] but it felt like we didn't have any of those moments where it was just natural reactions.

[BanKs] Like some of the, some of the plays, dude, I'm like banging on the side of like, I've got this railing in front of me.

[BanKs] Right.

[BanKs] Just so I can see straight into the rear.

[BanKs] I'm like banging on the side of the thing.

[BanKs] I think I almost spilled my energy drink.

[BanKs] I'm not going to just name the brand.

[BanKs] My energy drink off the side because I was hanging it on the side and then the magic play happened and I just started hitting the thing and I'm like, whoop, nope.

[Devilwalk] I was wondering, it probably was the Magix play, right?

[BanKs] yeah it was the magic's play because i remember touching it i can't remember who it was next to me it's one of the 9z players and i just said to him you don't get four from here it's like you get two at best you don't get four like it doesn't happen this way you know yeah definitely definitely

[Devilwalk] But, I mean, it's the pressure of the major.

[Devilwalk] We'll probably talk more in depth about that a little bit later.

[Devilwalk] But, I mean, overall, I think playoff-wise, one of the best majors I've ever watched, even from a viewer's perspective from home.

[BanKs] Yep.

[Devilwalk] amazing you know as you mentioned storylines the feeling of everything it felt great loved the desk as well I thought they did a great job throughout the event was really really good and yeah

[BanKs] Mm hmm.

[BanKs] I'll say this on the desk a little bit, though.

[BanKs] I just wish Ash was there.

[BanKs] Nothing against anyone that was doing it, but because he did such a good job.

[Devilwalk] Yeah, I think... Yep.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] By the way, Stico absolutely nailed doing some of the death segments that he was on.

[Devilwalk] Yep.

[BanKs] He obviously came with such energy.

[BanKs] He's already said he's tweeted it himself.

[BanKs] This is what he wants to do.

[BanKs] He wants to be in that role, not doing the interviews, right?

[BanKs] And so now he got the chance and it's at a major and he's in the crowd.

[BanKs] He didn't suffer from that.

[BanKs] He just...

[BanKs] He went from it.

[BanKs] He came very planned, prepared, ready as well.

[BanKs] We know Stiko, right?

[BanKs] That's exactly what he does.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] But I do just feel like... Obviously, Moses went from commentating into doing the analyst desk.

[BanKs] And Moses can do everything, bro.

[BanKs] Moses can even host.

[BanKs] Like, he can do everything.

[BanKs] He's an insane talent.

[BanKs] But I just wish Ash stuck around because...

[BanKs] I was so high on him there and it felt like some of his input was missing when we got into the playoff.

[BanKs] That was my only negative on that side.

[Devilwalk] I would agree with you.

[Devilwalk] I think Ash was a great addition.

[Devilwalk] He did a great job and he was definitely missed, but I still think overall the desk was good.

[Devilwalk] But yeah, should we dive into some of these games?

[BanKs] The only other thing I was going to quickly touch on is just the crowd problems of where we had a couple of people rush on stage.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] I think, right, it's only fair because we've criticized it when it happened at PGL, when it happened at Copenhagen and other events, right?

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] that people need to remember yes esl will take some blame for it but the people who are security don't work for esl they work for the venue the problem we have in a lot of these venues is like they're just kind of stood there and then they don't react so fast and and i think what happens to some of these security people this is just my opinion

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] is that they get put into a false sense of security in their minds.

[BanKs] They're like, oh, look, nothing's happening.

[BanKs] These guys are so chill, even when they're drunk, because they're gamers, yeah?

[BanKs] And then...

[BanKs] I think something happened three times.

[BanKs] It was only reported that two times happened.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] But on the second one, on the Sunday during the grand final, the guy was so close.

[Devilwalk] Yep.

[BanKs] to um nico like he was so close to that falcons desk and he was wearing similar outfit to the guys that done it before obviously they boosted security but i know we're not in america people aren't having guns and stuff like that

[BanKs] But it is a little bit crazy that we still are in a situation for all events, by the way.

[BanKs] This isn't just going to be a selfie where we are not fencing off more, you know?

[BanKs] I know people want to be close and high-five the players and stuff, but...

[BanKs] We can't keep letting this risk happen.

[BanKs] I'm putting some barrier there.

[Devilwalk] We need to hire Messi's old bodyguard into these events.

[BanKs] Yeah, yeah, exactly.

[Devilwalk] If you've seen clips of that guy.

[Devilwalk] Just tackle people before it even happens.

[BanKs] The guy that did get on the stage obviously did get tackled down there, eventually jumped on him, right?

[BanKs] There's the video out there, but everyone wants to go searching for it.

[BanKs] But it is getting a little bit too scary and a little bit too close to comfort for my liking that this stuff keeps on happening, you know?

[BanKs] And it is becoming a regular recurrence of some blunders and...

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] we're not already forward thinking.

[BanKs] Because, you know, like if you go to PGL or if you're in Bucharest, right?

[BanKs] Sorry, Bucharest, Budapest for the major.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] Those 360 stages, you can't have fans on the ground.

[Devilwalk] Now, you can't even

[BanKs] So for them to... Yeah, you can't get there.

[BanKs] But if someone did get there and they tried to rush it, you're going to see them before they can get anywhere close to the players.

[Devilwalk] You can't get there.

[BanKs] Yeah?

[Devilwalk] Dude, the ramp that they need to run up to was massive.

[BanKs] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Devilwalk] Like, there's no way they'll reach a player.

[BanKs] Exactly.

[BanKs] But...

[BanKs] But for any of the other events, right, that don't have that aspect being used, they need to be aware that this can be a problem and be more ready for it, more on point, because I don't want something to happen to a player.

[BanKs] I don't want that to be something that happens in CS news and we're talking about it, right?

[Devilwalk] So how close were people actually sitting?

[BanKs] And

[Devilwalk] Because, I mean... Yeah?

[BanKs] Vet Bro in Cologne, it's the same as always.

[BanKs] It's like, you're here, yeah?

[BanKs] And...

[BanKs] It's maybe like if you put four people in a line, then you could go onto the stage.

[BanKs] The stage is still higher, but you know the long walkway that comes out?

[Devilwalk] damn yeah yeah okay

[BanKs] That is easier to get onto because there's stairs that go up from the side.

[BanKs] Now, it is sectioned off.

[BanKs] There's the rope, yeah?

[BanKs] But that rope ain't stopping anyone, bro.

[BanKs] I could jump the rope.

[BanKs] Yeah, you can just go under it real quick, you know?

[BanKs] So we're at a point now, especially with how famous these players are, how much people want to see them and get close to them, right?

[BanKs] And whoever the people are who are designed to do this, obviously they're a bit lunatics.

[BanKs] But we are at that point now where it's just...

[BanKs] I don't want that to be the thing that ruins an event that was so amazing.

[BanKs] You know, any event, not just this one, anything that could happen on it, because it's such a, it's such a scary thing for players to be worried about as well.

[Devilwalk] No, I get you.

[BanKs] Imagine as we had it before, like where it then froze players off their games.

[BanKs] You know, you don't want to have that in the back of your minds and be worried about that.

[Devilwalk] I mean, obviously if you see someone rushing in front of you in real life...

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] It's going to throw some people off and you want to have the best prepared people when you're watching the major.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] They should not get any distractions, obviously the audience.

[Devilwalk] always going to be distracting to some degree.

[Devilwalk] But you don't want that kind of stuff interfering, the same as you don't want crashes of PCs and that sort of stuff happening.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] But one more avoidable than the other.

[BanKs] Exactly.

[BanKs] Also, one thing that was amazing... Obviously, you've been to Cologne before.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] Normally...

[BanKs] The entrance and the barriers to get into the venue is like when you're actually in the arena.

[BanKs] This time they did the checks way before and the area was open more.

[BanKs] So there was multiple tents.

[Devilwalk] Okay.

[BanKs] Yes, there was multiple tents where there was like sponsor tents and then there was

[BanKs] the ESL shop and then there was the partner tent where like the colex shop was where I did a signing session and stuff yes but like this this there was so much more room that once you were in it was easy to go in and out without having a problem and it definitely felt better from the fans like for example I could go out between every map

[Devilwalk] They have done pet tents before, right?

[Devilwalk] But...

[BanKs] And walk around, see some fans, take pictures, talk to people, go stop here.

[BanKs] You were not just locked in the concourse.

[BanKs] And by the way, I'll say this.

[BanKs] Having a cologne at this time of year, dude, it was 35 degrees on some days.

[BanKs] And you know the length of this is like glass.

[BanKs] So 35 degrees, the whole arena's heating up.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] By the way, I need to check this.

[BanKs] I should have checked this before.

[BanKs] Lexus built when?

[BanKs] Because it was built in 2004.

[BanKs] Yeah?

[BanKs] It is old now.

[BanKs] It is definitely old.

[BanKs] So here we go.

[BanKs] The Lanxess... Oh, God.

[BanKs] A Lanxess Arena was built between 96 and 98, officially opening in 1998.

[BanKs] And then it had a...

[BanKs] It was later renamed in 2008.

[BanKs] Okay, there you go.

[BanKs] That's the Google overview.

[BanKs] So actually 1998.

[BanKs] You can tell that because the aircon don't do much.

[BanKs] Once you've got all those bodies in there and it was so hot outside, there was no saving us.

[BanKs] So if you compared it to what we had in Budapest, which was like, you know, super modern and nice, I'll say this is the only thing that's going to stop the Lanxess ever being used.

[Devilwalk] Sweaty gamers don't need to be more sweaty.

[BanKs] It's like, we can't have colognes at this time.

[BanKs] Normally cologne would be later, right?

[BanKs] After the player break.

[BanKs] Bro, this was unbearable.

[BanKs] You know, on the first day, on the first day, I changed my t-shirt three times.

[BanKs] Three times I had different t-shirts on.

[BanKs] It was because I'm outside filming and then going back in, doing some other stuff, watching the game.

[BanKs] It was unbearable heat.

[BanKs] So shout out to everyone that's managed to survive that.

[Devilwalk] Like even in your viewing area, which was like high.

[BanKs] Yep.

[Devilwalk] Okay.

[BanKs] Heat's rising, bro.

[BanKs] Heat's rising.

[BanKs] So it was actually not a good thing

[Devilwalk] Yeah, but maybe it's like betterly equipped with the AC around there or something like that.

[BanKs] No, non-existent, non-existent.

[Devilwalk] I don't know.

[Devilwalk] Non-existent.

[Devilwalk] Okay.

[Devilwalk] Okay.

[BanKs] You had to go outside every time.

[BanKs] Yeah, but obviously that's nothing to do with ESL side.

[BanKs] That's just the arena being old.

[Devilwalk] Yeah, yeah.

[BanKs] And you could really feel it from all sides.

[BanKs] Everyone was saying this, man.

[BanKs] The amount of people that come to take a picture and I was like, I'm so sorry, I am very sweaty.

[BanKs] And they're like, so am I.

[BanKs] I was reminding a lot of people to drink water, not just beer as well.

[BanKs] Cause you have to remember the premium seat holders, they have, um, unlimited drinks, unlimited beer.

[BanKs] So like imagine you paid a lot for the tickets.

[BanKs] Um, a lot of people were complaining about ticket prices.

[BanKs] Obviously I know it's a major, but it's way higher than what we've seen in the past.

[Devilwalk] What was the prices?

[BanKs] Um,

[BanKs] One guy was telling me it was like eight or 900 euros for a premium.

[BanKs] yeah and that's getting a little bit like if you factor in then what we're talking about flights and then the hotels also ramping up their prices because they know this is a big event it's kind of tough and one guy even mentioned like for example it's like you're getting the same kind of goodie bag the price is like doubled or tripled over the last few years um

[Devilwalk] Yeah, that's a lot.

[BanKs] And obviously, yeah, we're getting free drinks the whole time and stuff, but it's not like they're getting food as well.

[BanKs] So there's a bit of a sentiment around some of the fans that I would regularly see.

[BanKs] I mean, these are fans I've seen multiple years again and again and again.

[BanKs] And they obviously love Cologne as a legacy event, but it's like,

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] it's pretty hard, right?

[BanKs] It's pretty hard for them to go through.

[BanKs] But the amount of free drink you can get and take, it's not worth that price point to it as well on top of the seats.

[BanKs] The one thing I think Cologne does really well though is that it doesn't force people to sit in an assigned seat.

[BanKs] I think assigned seating can be really bad, right?

[BanKs] If your friends book all on different days, and if you then go together and you want to sit next to each other, people are able to get into much better spots.

[Devilwalk] I think so.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] I think obviously it gets harder when, say, you don't maybe get there early enough, but that's more on you, you know?

[BanKs] So I think looking at it overall...

[BanKs] overwhelmingly positive.

[BanKs] Obviously, I said I didn't think this major would beat any records of what was already there.

[BanKs] Well, it did, only by having 50,000 or 60,000, but it still beat Stockholm.

[BanKs] Bro, that is crazy.

[BanKs] We didn't even get five maps for the grand final.

[BanKs] So,

[BanKs] with cologne being a legacy event with counter-strike maybe not doing as good numbers as well in terms of people playing it right now because of problems and everything else with the game for cologne to do that and obviously fury of falcons because falcons benefit from not only just name value like carrigan manasi nico but

[BanKs] but also the hate watchers.

[BanKs] And then you've got the furia, Brazilian, South American sides, right?

[BanKs] All supporting them.

[BanKs] It, it did wonders for terms of that.

[Devilwalk] I mean obviously Stockholm had the simple is he going to get the major kind of deal right but here we had kind of two

[BanKs] And that's such a positive sign to see since 2021, it's been five years and we had 2021 that good because obviously it was just after COVID, right?

[BanKs] That was a huge factor.

[BanKs] Yep.

[Devilwalk] incredible storylines you know was it like 10 years from fallen winning it to coming back being in the final with nico never won a major in his career before that point

[BanKs] Mm hmm.

[Devilwalk] Those storylines in itself, you know, like it brings people back.

[BanKs] Yeah, Carraghan to deliver a mitt.

[Devilwalk] They want to watch this.

[Devilwalk] Is he fucking going to do it?

[Devilwalk] You know, whatever way it went, it would have been incredible, right?

[BanKs] We even have Major League Baseball tweeting.

[BanKs] Did you see that?

[Devilwalk] No.

[BanKs] Let me bring it up.

[BanKs] So there's a counter-strike replied to him.

[BanKs] Or like shared it.

[BanKs] Here we go.

[BanKs] MLB on June the 22nd said, still riding the high of Nico winning his first major.

[BanKs] Baseball is here to keep the good vibes going.

[BanKs] And they tweeted the schedule.

[Devilwalk] what the hell that's crazy that's pretty wild

[BanKs] Yeah, and then CS2 like quote retweeted him and said, MLB knows ball and Counter-Strike.

[BanKs] How wild is that, man?

[BanKs] I hope that's a crossover coming.

[BanKs] I hope that's something they've got planned.

[BanKs] Otherwise, we will win baited.

[BanKs] But I mean, just those little things.

[Devilwalk] Maybe we're going back to outdoors arenas again with MLB.

[BanKs] Yeah, yeah, there we go.

[BanKs] So this was, this was like little things like that also just have such a crazy impact of like, they're talking about Niko on MLB.

[BanKs] Like, I don't, how many, how many followers does MLB Twitter have?

[BanKs] 13.2 million.

[BanKs] Like, come on, man.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] Come on.

[BanKs] That is super good.

[BanKs] But let's get into the games.

[BanKs] Let's go and see what we did for playoffs.

[BanKs] First team we'll look at here is Betboom.

[BanKs] Obviously, a fantastic run, right?

[BanKs] All the way from stage one, doing it with a stand-in as well.

[BanKs] This for Betboom and Aurora was looking at, like, the best draw possible.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] Because Betboom, nothing to lose at this stage, right?

[BanKs] Boomish back on a major playoff stage.

[BanKs] But Aurora, with a point to prove, need to keep this going where it's not just heavily relying on Zantaras.

[BanKs] And...

[BanKs] The game didn't really deliver.

[BanKs] There were some moments in it where he felt like maybe Betboom had a chance.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] But I would say it just looked like Aurora had a lot of control.

[BanKs] Everyone was playing really well.

[BanKs] The only one who had, like, I guess you could say a slower game was Soulfly.

[BanKs] But just because I was personally watching him as, like, he played so well.

[BanKs] He looked like he's so back, right?

[BanKs] Let's see what he does on the stage.

[BanKs] But...

[BanKs] This wasn't even a game where I could say, oh, Aurora are getting past their stage fright, you know, because it's not against like a opposition that should be a problem for them.

[BanKs] I think that's the way I framed it in my mind.

[Devilwalk] I think we framed it correctly when we analyzed this game beforehand and said it was basically who is going to shit the bed most.

[Devilwalk] And today it was, or that day, it was Batboom, right?

[Devilwalk] Because you could see, you know, Boomich, you know, obviously, you know, if you look back on that Anubis, you know, he had a terrible showing.

[BanKs] Yep.

[Devilwalk] I think it was 0-15 at one point.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] um and you you could see it they weren't as sharp and i mean what took betboom to this you know playoff in the first place was sharp shooting you know you had boomage you know ending it what was it a 2-2 game with a 187 rating or something like that

[BanKs] Wasn't pretty.

[BanKs] Yep.

[Devilwalk] to bring them to this point so it's like a lot of it

[Devilwalk] kind of got toned down.

[Devilwalk] They looked nervous.

[Devilwalk] They looked edgy.

[Devilwalk] Nothing they did worked, and they couldn't really figure out their nerves.

[Devilwalk] And Aurora, they figured it out more than Batboom at this point.

[Devilwalk] I think that's fair to say.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] Do you know what?

[BanKs] We were so positive also about Flammas.

[BanKs] And I'll just say this is obviously... He's a player when it comes to big events.

[BanKs] He's had only three in his whole career.

[BanKs] Two on Betboom.

[BanKs] Two this year.

[BanKs] And one with Virtus.pro going like big event playoffs.

[BanKs] PGL Bucharest that he had also a bad show.

[BanKs] It wasn't even a...

[BanKs] a stage or an arena.

[BanKs] So in playoffs, he has not performed up to scratch and he definitely had the same problems again, you know?

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] So I will say right now, it's something he needs to overcome.

[BanKs] I'm not going to say that's 100% the reason why they failed.

[BanKs] But I mean, they all had a bit of a downswing in performance and a few more struggles in it.

[BanKs] And I thought they might actually...

[BanKs] Considering like the whole team overall, they're not out of experience, but it's just a major hits different and it's a lot to go through.

[BanKs] And when you start like letting the individuals of Aurora open up to you and not able to shut them down and challenge them head on very early on, then that becomes a problem.

[Devilwalk] And I mean, on the other side, Vikadia does seem to be, you know, getting better and better in this Aurora.

[Devilwalk] Comparatively to, you know, when we first saw him, he's kind of had gradual growth throughout and looks to be, you know, the next superstar from Turkey.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] I mean...

[Devilwalk] I think he's growing into that role.

[BanKs] Has to be.

[Devilwalk] And I think that's great to see.

[Devilwalk] I also think it's great to have Aurora in a semi-final.

[Devilwalk] Even that...

[BanKs] Well, we'll come onto that in a bit, right?

[BanKs] We're still talking bet boom for now.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] Oh, true, true.

[BanKs] You're jumping ahead.

[Devilwalk] Yeah, yeah.

[BanKs] You're, you're, you're going out of our, you're going out of our, from the bottom to the top, you know, moving our way through.

[BanKs] Um,

[Devilwalk] But in this game essentially it was fun to see them winning anyways.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] For, for bedroom though, I think like, let's look at their VRS right now.

[BanKs] 10th in the world.

[BanKs] Tons of invites for next season.

[BanKs] Tell me, tell you this, right?

[BanKs] Do they keep flammers now?

[Devilwalk] I think so.

[BanKs] I hope so.

[BanKs] Like if I'm going to compare flammers to siren.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] Dilla Dez had some good moments.

[BanKs] I'm saying considering he was out for a lot of the games in the past, right?

[BanKs] Wasn't able to travel.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] I think like you just either remove Siren or Dilla Dez and you keep Flammas and you make it work.

[Devilwalk] I think the... The bad thing, I guess, is... So, let's say you don't keep them.

[BanKs] I really think that's a positive.

[Devilwalk] And you don't... You know, you continue with your old lineup and... You know...

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] That's a gamble, right?

[Devilwalk] You know what you can do with this, and you know you can probably improve it and do it better over time as you get used to each other and develop all of that.

[Devilwalk] Whilst if you go back, because they qualified with this major with standards.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] So for me, it just makes no sense for them to revert back to the old, which they trialed for a long time and never really got the ground running or hit the ground running, so to speak.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] I just see it being a massive risk to take the biggest achievement that you've ever done with this team and kind of dissect different parts out of it just to keep your original lineup.

[Devilwalk] That doesn't make sense to me.

[BanKs] You see?

[Devilwalk] I think

[Devilwalk] for them they kind of have to take this you know what they did the the how big this actually was it's it's going from you know is betboom even going to qualify to the major to being ranked 10th in the world they can swing with this it's a huge

[BanKs] Yeah, keep going on it.

[Devilwalk] growth and it's a huge achievement and the way they did it they played good teams they battled good teams they made you know they made a mark on this major and I think they just have to keep going

[BanKs] Yeah, I would like to see it as well.

[BanKs] And I think their name is Betboom, right?

[BanKs] So with that company behind you, you can buy Flammas out of his OG, right?

[BanKs] That's not a problem.

[BanKs] Surely not.

[BanKs] Or is he still on Virtus.pro?

[BanKs] Yeah, he's okay.

[BanKs] He was loaned by Virtus.pro.

[BanKs] So he was even on loan for a little bit at OG.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] I just remember him being on OG.

[BanKs] So yeah, just let him go.

[BanKs] Let him have his time.

[BanKs] Boombl4 can do some work with him.

[BanKs] I want to see that team continue.

[BanKs] Next was 9Z.

[BanKs] Now, I was definitely blindsided in terms of blind confidence, like I always do on some teams.

[BanKs] I really believe that 9Z were going to make a run of it.

[BanKs] They were competitive against Furia.

[Devilwalk] I mean, they were competitive, yes.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] And then it just comes down to somebody's experience again, you know?

[BanKs] When they won that first map and the scoreline that was there, I actually thought, okay, they're kind of cooking.

[BanKs] I don't care that it was their map pick.

[BanKs] I was just thinking...

[BanKs] You know, I was also sat with the Argentinians, right?

[BanKs] I'm in their booth.

[BanKs] And even they were saying like, this is still going to be such a hard game.

[BanKs] But I thought with it being like more of a domestic matchup, there would be a chance.

[BanKs] I just felt like,

[BanKs] Once it got to overpass, it doesn't matter that 90 can play overpass, right?

[BanKs] We've seen them play against good teams many times.

[BanKs] It wasn't one where I felt like they would beat Fury.

[BanKs] I'm just thinking to how good Yuri and Quezada can be on overpass just in general, right?

[BanKs] And it needed to happen on Mirage for them.

[Devilwalk] Yep.

[BanKs] I feel like they actually handled the stage pretty well, considering to what we saw in Astana.

[BanKs] You lost to Magic last time, you know?

[BanKs] Taking a map here, enjoying this whole moment, knowing that, like...

[BanKs] you've hit a big goal for yourselves like my expectations were higher but if we're looking at realistic analytical um thoughts on 9z most people would have predicted furia to win and rightly so yeah that would be the the same pick in there but i feel like

[BanKs] This is a team right now that's just going to be grinding, going to be pushing forward.

[BanKs] Where did they move up to?

[BanKs] I think they're like eighth in the world.

[Devilwalk] Day 12?

[Devilwalk] 12?

[Devilwalk] According to this?

[Devilwalk] Wait.

[Devilwalk] Maybe it's updated.

[BanKs] Oh, it says 12th.

[BanKs] Yeah, it says 12th.

[BanKs] You might be right.

[Devilwalk] It is 12.

[BanKs] 12th, yep, 12th overall.

[Devilwalk] Okay.

[Devilwalk] I'm just checking on the, like,

[BanKs] 12.

[BanKs] 12 is damn good.

[Devilwalk] I'm scrolling down to the VRS ranking based on the event of Cologne.

[Devilwalk] Because there you see the points, for example, 9C plus 35 points from this stage, I presume.

[Devilwalk] There's three in playoffs.

[BanKs] From three in playoffs or just playoffs?

[BanKs] Okay.

[Devilwalk] And I think they jumped up quite massively from stage 2 as well.

[BanKs] That's pretty solid.

[Devilwalk] I mean, I can check real quick.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] This major run is crazy for them.

[Devilwalk] Stage 2, 51 points.

[Devilwalk] Were they in stage 3?

[BanKs] So they peaked at 8, by the way.

[BanKs] They peaked at 8 during the major, and they're already back down to 12.

[Devilwalk] Or I mean stage 1.

[BanKs] So I was right.

[BanKs] On the 15th of June, they were 15th.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] Then they went to 8th on the 22nd, and now they're already 12 here in this predicted one.

[Devilwalk] Obviously, massive buff for them and their season.

[BanKs] Sure.

[Devilwalk] I hope to see them at plenty of more events, because I think we need a kind of diversity in Counter-Strike, and I love when this happens, right?

[Devilwalk] It doesn't matter if it's the Mongols, 9C, whoever it is.

[Devilwalk] that comes in, like Batboom now, and shakes up the pro scene a little bit.

[Devilwalk] New faces, new kind of ways to play Counter-Strike.

[BanKs] Yep.

[Devilwalk] You know, Paravision was a great...

[Devilwalk] an example when they kind of burst into the scene last year.

[Devilwalk] And I love this because it changes things in Counter-Strike and we don't get to see the same teams always play each other.

[Devilwalk] There's some others potentially that could do some damage, you know?

[BanKs] And look at this, right?

[BanKs] Lutrov.

[BanKs] Remember we were hyping him up?

[BanKs] I was talking about him from when we saw him in Astana first time.

[Devilwalk] Yep.

[BanKs] 12th best player of stage three interplayoffs of the major.

[BanKs] The names among him are like Yuri, Bit, Yakinda above him, Kioski, Torzy, Juggs, Quezarato, Rops below him.

[BanKs] You know, that's good company, man, for your first major.

[BanKs] Like, that is actually wild.

[BanKs] And that is something that he shows.

[Devilwalk] It is wild.

[BanKs] It wasn't a one-off thing, what he did in Astana.

[BanKs] He showed he can keep it going.

[BanKs] And now the main thing is how they keep this going.

[Devilwalk] I mean...

[BanKs] Because I spoke to them, by the way.

[BanKs] Guess what they're doing?

[BanKs] They left the major on Monday.

[BanKs] So they stayed the whole time.

[BanKs] They were on the Argentinian stream.

[BanKs] They were watching the games from the arena.

[BanKs] And then Monday, they flew back home to Argentina.

[BanKs] Max has a child and a wife, right?

[BanKs] So he's spending time with them.

[BanKs] And they are going to China for XSE Pro League in a few days.

[Devilwalk] Oh wow.

[BanKs] So that grind don't stop.

[BanKs] And they've got to be like the massive favourites for that whole event.

[Devilwalk] I mean definitely up there.

[Devilwalk] Definitely.

[BanKs] But we'll cover that in another episode.

[BanKs] So after 9Z, the next to fall after them was G2.

[BanKs] And G2, oh, it's got to be crushing.

[Devilwalk] Dude, this one hurts.

[Devilwalk] 100%.

[BanKs] broke because the thing is they could have had this 2-0 you know even if they gave us even if they gave us this amazing amazing mirage afterwards

[Devilwalk] G2 played better Counter-Strike than Spirit did.

[Devilwalk] And that's just a fact.

[Devilwalk] That is a fact.

[Devilwalk] They played better.

[Devilwalk] The only thing that bailed them out was the fact that you have a donk going absolutely bonkers.

[Devilwalk] You know...

[BanKs] But, bro, he was getting killed over and over again by Heavy God.

[BanKs] I can't remember if it was Overpass or Dust2, but, like, I just kept seeing the kill feed.

[BanKs] Heavy God kills Dom.

[BanKs] Heavy God kills Dom, you know?

[BanKs] And it was only till Mirage, when Heavy God slowed down a little bit, that those cracks started to show.

[BanKs] But, I mean, up until that point,

[BanKs] Your like anchor, Mr. I can do everything heavy God was just so solid.

[BanKs] It was so damn good.

[Devilwalk] I mean there were so many moments that G2 had to end this game so many moments where they had advantage where you know it just looked like okay G2 have this now they have it um

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] And oh man, the three last rounds.

[Devilwalk] The way that this...

[Devilwalk] ends is just painful I mean obviously at a magical moment for all of Counter-Strike to see but it's I mean I was watching this and I was watching it with Michael Lele and we were talking you know on Discord while watching it

[Devilwalk] And we both just fucking screamed so much when this happened.

[BanKs] Yep.

[Devilwalk] Because you can see, you know, in some sense, what G2 are doing, it's not...

[Devilwalk] It's not like... It's terrible, but it's not terrible.

[Devilwalk] The idea is not terrible to go and trade all four, right?

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] But it's such a... You can see how stressed they are to go into that situation.

[Devilwalk] And, I mean, if just the last, you know...

[Devilwalk] The last two guys just hesitate a little bit, wait for the spray.

[Devilwalk] So he has to kind of change position and get into movement again.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] Because he's not just staying there with like five bullets after.

[Devilwalk] Because he's just holding and praying, right?

[BanKs] Yeah, he's just spraying down them.

[Devilwalk] And they just all move into his crosshair and the bullets.

[Devilwalk] And you can feel the stress when you see G2's players move into that kitchen.

[Devilwalk] Like, he's here!

[Devilwalk] And everyone wants to come chime in and help and it just goes so badly.

[BanKs] Thing is, they had the right idea, right?

[BanKs] Low HP guy goes first.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] And then all Magix did was do great spray control, hold mouse one.

[BanKs] And like you said, if there was just a little bit of waiting or something for it to happen, then it could have been a completely different scenario.

[BanKs] But it's that in the moment, quick second thinking, like, and obviously it's a crushing mental moment for them as well, you know?

[Devilwalk] Yes.

[BanKs] Where you're losing a 1v4 to him like that.

[BanKs] And it's magics.

[BanKs] Nothing against magics, but it's like 1v4 against magics.

[BanKs] It's not like it was Donk.

[BanKs] It's not the Shiro or someone like that, you know, where you can say, okay, it's like, this is one you basically should have.

[Devilwalk] But just put it into perspective.

[BanKs] Could have been a completely different outcome.

[Devilwalk] after the first guy, they did the right thing, jumps, he has to kill him.

[BanKs] Yep.

[Devilwalk] Imagine just putting a 1v3, you know exactly where the last opponent is.

[Devilwalk] Just saying that out loud almost makes it seem impossible.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] But looking at this, right?

[BanKs] So for G2, who had not made major playoffs for the last couple of majors, it was always going out in ninth to 11th.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] This is a positive showing.

[BanKs] But do we hold it against them a little bit that, like, even with Saw being able to chime in, Spirit not having a coach, that you couldn't get it over in these closer games?

[BanKs] We have criticized G2 to losing these close games versus Vitality before, you know?

[BanKs] Is it still they need a little bit more time or do we be a bit harsher on them because this is a similar problem?

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] I get your point, and I think the one thing you can criticize G2 for is closing out a series, being in these advantageous positions and not

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] Finding the right answer when you have so many tries and so many attempts.

[Devilwalk] I think that you can be critical of.

[Devilwalk] But at the same time, I think they are playing teams that are just a little bit above their league.

[Devilwalk] I think this still shows that G2 has progressed.

[BanKs] Mm-hmm.

[Devilwalk] I think it still shows that they are more ready to tackle some of the best in the world.

[Devilwalk] I think we saw that in both the Falcons game.

[Devilwalk] Because remember, they...

[Devilwalk] pushed Falcons, the winners of the major, to overtime on Ancient and couldn't close that one out.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] In a match, I also think they probably paid better CS overall, but this game again, it's the individuals on the other team

[Devilwalk] that overpowers G2 to some extent.

[Devilwalk] At some point, they get overpowered by the other team just having better players.

[Devilwalk] Because I don't think there's a case to be made to say, okay...

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] G2, you play shit CS.

[Devilwalk] This doesn't work.

[Devilwalk] I don't think that's a case you can make because they play great CS.

[Devilwalk] I think they're doing really good with the pieces they have.

[BanKs] Yep.

[Devilwalk] great to see also Mattis having you know a great showing on stage 119 rating for a best of 3 against Spirits probably more of a best of 5 if you look at the rounds but

[BanKs] Yep.

[Devilwalk] I think that's a great sign, because heavy gold doesn't maybe always need to be the guy, and it can't always be the guy, so you know, I still think somehow they lack a little bit of firepower.

[BanKs] Exactly.

[Devilwalk] I don't know how you would upgrade it, but

[BanKs] I think so smart enough to think that they would give this another season and then look to adjust after that.

[Devilwalk] 100%.

[Devilwalk] 100%.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] I don't think you make anything look like crazy change now because it is starting to look more positive.

[BanKs] But I'm just looking down matches.

[BanKs] two overtimes against spirit one overtime against navi um overtime against falcons you know they play a lot of overtime games overtime against mongols and they lost that one as well it's like

[BanKs] It's a regularly occurring theme, but it shows that they can go deep and play like this, you know?

[BanKs] And they can have these chances with it.

[BanKs] So, I think top eight is great.

[BanKs] It hurts because of the way they lost as a competitor and what they had to go through.

[BanKs] But,

[BanKs] This is at least showing that G2 is on the right track.

[BanKs] It's just they're going at their pace for it, I think.

[BanKs] I think that's how I would sum it up.

[Devilwalk] Yeah, I think you sum it up with they had a chance to win the major.

[Devilwalk] And I don't think that

[Devilwalk] Going into this playoff, I would have ever been able to even think in that aspect.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] And for me, that's a great sign for G2, and it's something to build on.

[Devilwalk] It's something to move forward with.

[Devilwalk] So overall, super positive tournament for them, no matter how it ended.

[BanKs] Yep.

[BanKs] And Heavy God, third highest rated player of that whole stage into playoffs, 1.26 rating, only had a bad map against Spirit at the end on Mirage.

[BanKs] Bad by his numbers, right?

[BanKs] I'm not going to say he played bad.

[BanKs] But then anyone else on his team wasn't really close enough.

[BanKs] We spoke about it in stage three, but it stayed the same way.

[BanKs] Someone can have a good map.

[BanKs] But it's always heavy goblins just consistently there.

[BanKs] And he is just so valuable.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] So, so damn valuable.

[BanKs] So from G2, our last team eliminated in the quarter's

[BanKs] Vitality, who I thought was going to somehow bounce back and win it all after losing to 9Z.

[BanKs] They obviously got an incredibly tough game, yeah?

[BanKs] But normally in these kind of games...

[BanKs] This is where vitality overcome the odds.

[BanKs] This is where vitality play really strong, you know?

[BanKs] One thing I'll say this.

[Devilwalk] But you know what the stupidest thing about this game is?

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] You know, I look at Falcons here.

[Devilwalk] Kerrigan has a 0-67 rating in this match.

[BanKs] Mm-hmm.

[Devilwalk] But I still...

[Devilwalk] would say that he was the reason Vitality lost.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] His?

[Devilwalk] Okay, so there's two situations I'm talking about.

[Devilwalk] There's probably plenty more on other maps, but on Dust 2...

[Devilwalk] Vitality have an anti-eco situation or anti-force buy.

[Devilwalk] They flash mid doors.

[Devilwalk] They don't clear Tessus.

[Devilwalk] There's a 5-7 who gets a double kill in that area.

[BanKs] Oh yeah.

[Devilwalk] They lose that round.

[Devilwalk] Completely, you know, money is destroyed.

[Devilwalk] They still find a way back.

[BanKs] Yep.

[Devilwalk] Force Falcons into another eco.

[Devilwalk] And this, my friends, is Kerrigan running through CT smoke on a B-split anti-eco situation again and gets two...

[Devilwalk] With a USP, no armor.

[Devilwalk] Two!

[BanKs] He had a couple of crazy plays.

[BanKs] I remember on Dust2, I can't remember if it was against Vitality or not, but do you remember like they smoke B doors and he just runs through and he like kills the planter and then runs into another one somehow killing someone.

[Devilwalk] It's like...

[Devilwalk] Yes, yes.

[Devilwalk] This was against Spirit.

[BanKs] It's like,

[Devilwalk] This was against Spirit, the next game.

[BanKs] Yeah, tarragon madness.

[BanKs] But looking on the vitality side, right, I'll say this.

[Devilwalk] And... I did...

[BanKs] Flamesy is an incredible player.

[BanKs] We were hyping him up for how he's used in his role, right?

[BanKs] We were even arguing at one point when Spirit were doing badly.

[BanKs] Remember at the beginning of the year?

[BanKs] Flamesy could be the one that actually has a chance to win entry of the year.

[BanKs] But he got shut down in this series.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] He got absolutely shut down in this series.

[Devilwalk] He did.

[BanKs] And it's not he didn't play bad.

[BanKs] It felt like...

[BanKs] The cooling style of Kerrigan, it felt like maybe a bit of the synergy was off, which we don't normally say for Vitality, right?

[Devilwalk] But we saw these cracks.

[BanKs] That under pressure, yeah, yeah.

[Devilwalk] We saw these cracks early on in stage three.

[Devilwalk] They were not themselves.

[Devilwalk] It took longer for them to kind of pick back up because, I mean, that's the thing about vitality, right?

[Devilwalk] They used to make maybe one, two mistakes a game.

[Devilwalk] That's it.

[Devilwalk] That's it.

[Devilwalk] And then, you know, Apex would snap and all of a sudden, you know, they were back in shape, they're back on track and everything worked out and they played beautiful again.

[BanKs] Yep.

[BanKs] Yep.

[Devilwalk] This time around, it felt like it took them not one round to reset and be back on track.

[Devilwalk] It took them several rounds to kind of bounce back and start playing good again.

[Devilwalk] And then another mistake happened.

[Devilwalk] And they were constantly kind of struggling with that bounce back because

[Devilwalk] There's some very uncharacteristic mistakes from Vitality in this series.

[Devilwalk] Very, very uncharacteristic.

[BanKs] Yep.

[Devilwalk] And...

[Devilwalk] Eventually, they are going to look back at this and just say, bro, we won this game.

[Devilwalk] We should have won this game.

[Devilwalk] 100%.

[Devilwalk] And they'll be massively disappointed because there is nothing more that hurts you

[Devilwalk] as a CS competitor than losing anti-ecos it is it does not matter who you're up against you have everything in your arsenal and you still lose it because of

[BanKs] yeah yeah do you know I I I

[Devilwalk] this much of a not clear you know this much I yeah but I still think Kerrigan is the MVP for this match even though he had 0-67 rating

[BanKs] I don't give a damn about his ratings.

[BanKs] I don't give a damn about his ratings at all.

[BanKs] Also, looking at this, I saw Dan afterwards, Apex, and you could see he was lost by this because

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] People could look at it and say, oh, they had this era, they're winning.

[BanKs] And by the way, still, just them losing this major doesn't change anything.

[BanKs] They can just bounce back if they do and come into it.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] That's a whole different thing.

[BanKs] But the way he was hurt by this...

[BanKs] The emotions, the feeling, how he was crushed.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] I've got his tweet here.

[BanKs] He says, still feel empty.

[BanKs] Even if we won so much together, I want to win so much more.

[BanKs] That is a competitor through and through.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] He also thanked the Golden Hornets as well.

[BanKs] I'll say this, by the way, Golden Hornets, you guys might be the luckiest fans in the world because your team lost in that

[BanKs] quarterfinal game the next day they were in the vitality and skin club v-hub yeah which is like an area i was doing the podcasting from the evening like a little i'll say not our podcast but like a little mini podcast right um and all all players came

[BanKs] All players were there the next day to meet fans, to spend time with them, you know?

[BanKs] And he even made another post to say, like, thank you to them and how amazing they are as a cheering squad.

[BanKs] Like, respect to the players for going to go do that when you probably feel like utter shit.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] But they are an incredible support group.

[BanKs] Definitely, definitely.

[BanKs] No matter what the team's going through.

[BanKs] And obviously Apex, he's been here with us, right?

[BanKs] He said it.

[BanKs] They get some hate.

[BanKs] They get some shouting at him and people saying, but like no one can forget what this team has done.

[BanKs] And this major doesn't define it, but it does show that

[BanKs] They're not like you said before, right?

[BanKs] When they lost Atlanta, they showed that they can bleed.

[Devilwalk] yes and this is a problem because I mean they've built up you know such a long time because I mean there's one thing of people saying you know oh vitality is dominant and it gets into your head

[Devilwalk] But they've showcased it against the best teams in the world, making all the changes they want to make to compete with them, and they still can't compete with them.

[BanKs] Mm hmm.

[BanKs] Bracket was kind of scuffed.

[Devilwalk] And now, I think this showcases for a lot of teams.

[Devilwalk] I mean, hell, Aurora finished above Vitality in the Major.

[Devilwalk] you know, bet boom, we're on equal.

[Devilwalk] It doesn't matter.

[Devilwalk] At the end, it doesn't matter.

[Devilwalk] It's still something that you can bring to yourself and say, this is facts.

[BanKs] Yes.

[BanKs] You can see it.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] This is facts.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] If I'm Aurora, I shouldn't be scared to play Vitality because you know what?

[Devilwalk] We finished above them last major.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] No matter if it's false fucking confidence, it's confidence nonetheless.

[BanKs] My trophy's better than theirs, you know?

[BanKs] My major trophy in-game, that is.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] They're probably going to

[Devilwalk] deleted.

[BanKs] I honestly don't think I'm worried about Vitality trying to bounce back.

[BanKs] Definitely won't make any... Okay, I can't say 100%, but I'm almost 99% sure they won't make any changes going into the next season, right?

[Devilwalk] So,

[Devilwalk] I'll say this.

[Devilwalk] I'm not worried about them bouncing back, but they're not going to just bounce back and land on the throne again.

[BanKs] Mm-hmm.

[Devilwalk] There's going to be other people definitely thinking, okay, it's time to go for number one again.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] It's not a number two race anymore.

[Devilwalk] This is exactly what happened with NIP.

[Devilwalk] Back in the days, when they had 8-7-0, someone beat them on LAN, and everyone smelled blood.

[Devilwalk] Everyone came for them, and they weren't bad.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] After, definitely not.

[Devilwalk] But they were never the same.

[BanKs] I think that while we can say they won't be the same, we almost saw that and we almost had that same conversation last year and they then went on to win Budapest, you know?

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] So they know the system and way to bounce back and that harsh talk, the harsh look at each other.

[BanKs] The thing is, I never think that I would say Vitality are tired or overworked or exhausted because they balance and manage their schedule so well.

[BanKs] but maybe this just needs adjusting for them in a different way now going into the rest of 2026 and how we look at it but yeah for the people that are like oh it's over for vitality i need to make changes like it's that's not it's not something i'm even entertaining yeah

[Devilwalk] They made a crucial mistake that they probably never will again.

[Devilwalk] And that's taking a break and playing a tournament without any active practice hours.

[Devilwalk] I think this snowballed into a bad situation for them.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] And I'm sure they are going to adjust it.

[Devilwalk] And I'm most certainly... I'm certain they will win trophies going further into the year.

[Devilwalk] That's just a no-brainer.

[BanKs] Mhm.

[Devilwalk] But will they...

[Devilwalk] From this point onwards, be able to match what they did, you know, the first part of last year?

[Devilwalk] No, I don't think so.

[BanKs] i i like what you said there because i don't know i haven't asked apex but i don't remember seeing any interviews about it but i will try to find out when we go into events next year okay i might just message dan and see like

[BanKs] Why did they go into that?

[BanKs] I know why they attended Atlanta because, for example, if they didn't win Grand Slam in Rio, they need to have that there, right?

[BanKs] We've already covered that.

[BanKs] But, like, why did they want to just have that chill time rather than did they think it was that easy and then they kind of punished them for it?

[BanKs] I'll try to get the answer.

[BanKs] Next, we go into our top four.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] So, semifinals for all of these teams and where they got into it.

[BanKs] So, Aurora.

[BanKs] I was... Okay, it was against Betboom.

[BanKs] We said it was one of the weakest teams possible you could have to go up into quarters.

[BanKs] And they won that game against Betboom.

[BanKs] But I did expect so much more when it came to this Furia game.

[Devilwalk] December.

[BanKs] And yeah, because I thought, oh, they're over their stage fright.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] Let's see them at least put up a fight.

[BanKs] Now, I wouldn't have had Aurora beating Furia.

[BanKs] I would have had them at least getting a map.

[BanKs] The problem is Furia can play of the map pool and just remove Anubis.

[BanKs] And so that instantly holds them back.

[BanKs] But there was a chance on Dust2.

[BanKs] You know, the game wasn't so one-sided, at least the beginning of the CT side starting.

[BanKs] But I mean, once it felt like Fury had their teeth into him, it was just no chance.

[BanKs] And then Nuke was embarrassing.

[BanKs] Nuke was hella embarrassing.

[BanKs] And...

[BanKs] I don't know if it's just because they've gone further than they ever went before and then it all kicked in again.

[BanKs] But it looked like two different Auroras.

[Devilwalk] I think that's very fair to say I mean it is I think probably the most boring game out of the entire playoff bracket yeah

[BanKs] Once again.

[BanKs] Everything, 100%.

[BanKs] This was the worst game of playoffs.

[BanKs] By the way, I was stupid again.

[BanKs] I said exactly this.

[BanKs] I remember saying this to someone who was sat next to me, and I went, watch this.

[BanKs] This is where Aurora shows us.

[BanKs] They have got over their fright, and they're going to give us an action-packed game.

[BanKs] Win or lose.

[BanKs] I did say Fiora would win, but I said win or lose, Aurora's going to put up a fight.

[BanKs] Beginning of Dust 2, they had me.

[BanKs] I was there.

[BanKs] And then after that, I went, ah!

[BanKs] And then Nuke.

[BanKs] The problem with... I'm so mad because the problem with Nuke is like... Aurora can play it.

[BanKs] Yeah?

[BanKs] But Furia would just... Furia were battering them.

[Devilwalk] They like it.

[BanKs] And once I saw some of the heads go down, there was no smiles on any of the players' faces.

[BanKs] I was like, okay.

[BanKs] Ding, ding, ding.

[BanKs] White flag.

[BanKs] Raise it.

[BanKs] Go.

[BanKs] Yep.

[Devilwalk] I think it's like Aurora become a different team when it seems like they're out of answers.

[Devilwalk] Then they become... I think they revert into becoming more and more easily read.

[Devilwalk] I don't know if it is that individual players... They might

[BanKs] They stopped making plays.

[Devilwalk] Yeah, they stop and they become stale and robotic.

[Devilwalk] I don't know if it's like a calling issue.

[Devilwalk] I don't think so.

[Devilwalk] I just think this is like nerves.

[Devilwalk] You don't want to make a mistake and that eventually just becomes bad.

[BanKs] But Magic keeps saying this, right?

[Devilwalk] You know, you're scared.

[BanKs] He says, like, my players stop playing the way they play.

[BanKs] Well, you did it against BetBoom, so ignore who you're playing the names on the server, yeah?

[BanKs] Like, we even need to blame the calling or blame the fact that everyone suddenly just becomes a bot once they're against good teams.

[Devilwalk] Okay, I will mention a story.

[Devilwalk] The first time when I was playing, we went to DreamHack Summer 2013, right?

[BanKs] Story time.

[BanKs] Yep.

[BanKs] 13 years ago.

[Devilwalk] At that time, we were Epsilon back then.

[BanKs] Mm-hmm.

[Devilwalk] And we played with a stand-in, a Norwegian guy, and essentially we played with him for like a month or something, maybe.

[BanKs] Mm hmm.

[Devilwalk] And

[Devilwalk] We went on through that tournament playing legendary team after legendary team and we eventually reached the final.

[Devilwalk] It was such a fever dream in our heads that we are going to play a final at DreamHack

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] that we got overwhelmed by this fact.

[Devilwalk] That once we got to the final, we almost played like we were already satisfied.

[Devilwalk] Now, I fear that Aurora might have experienced something similar with them creating history the day before.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] of being the the a Turkish lineup that has gone further than any Turkish team has ever been before in a major the the love and hype all thrown at them that they kind of get overwhelmed by the situation

[BanKs] Because the best they've done is play quarters.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] That they're not in this bubble of competing anymore.

[Devilwalk] It breaks the bubble to some extent... Of what you've achieved and what you've done.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] And I fear that this was what happened to Aurora.

[Devilwalk] They were already satisfied with creating history...

[Devilwalk] And I hope that they learn from it.

[Devilwalk] But it was definitely the most boring game in the major.

[BanKs] Hmm.

[BanKs] hundred percent and you know what so obviously the rumors are though we're not doing roster mania now but this is a rumor that's been spoke about everywhere is that ash will come in as the coach now ash doesn't speak turkish he is british pretty sure he doesn't speak turkish um yeah there you go

[Devilwalk] You can speak Turkish with the English accent and then we have a French accent and English accent.

[BanKs] But look at this.

[BanKs] If you want to keep your eighth in the world ranking right now, you need to keep three of these players.

[BanKs] So let me ask you, which three do you keep?

[BanKs] Because if I'm this team, yeah, especially how high GLS are pretty hard to come by.

[BanKs] Maybe you keep magic.

[BanKs] You keep Acadia.

[Devilwalk] 100% Magia, my Valkadia, and you know, I would say Voxic, yeah.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] And Woxic?

[BanKs] Or do you keep Soulflow?

[BanKs] Yeah?

[Devilwalk] I would say Voxic.

[BanKs] Okay.

[BanKs] And then... Because Orpah's also hard to replace right now.

[BanKs] It's crazy to think of a world without Zantaras, but if it goes international, I can see that happening because of, obviously, the ups and downs and the emotional.

[Devilwalk] Yes.

[BanKs] And also...

[BanKs] If Ashe comes in, you don't give a damn about Zantara's name for this.

[BanKs] He cares about what he's going to get on the server and how people are going to play together and what that mood is like, what that team is looking like together.

[Devilwalk] But OK, so are the rumors that they're going full international?

[Devilwalk] Or are they just getting a coach?

[BanKs] Okay, but don't...

[BanKs] Don't they have to go international, right?

[BanKs] If you bring Ash in, he's a talent scout.

[BanKs] There isn't that much talent in Turkey in terms of, like, the upcoming players, which is why we've had this problem of Aurora going through different players.

[BanKs] Xcloud, by the sounds of it, is not going to go there anytime soon.

[BanKs] Yeah?

[BanKs] So... Surely...

[BanKs] It is that, by the way, another thing, I can confirm this.

[BanKs] I have not heard any rumors of other players being approached by Aurora right now.

[BanKs] So as of right now, it could just be them five players that already got an Ashe.

[Devilwalk] I honestly think that it's just going to be these five players and it's going to... Yeah, and Ashe.

[BanKs] An Ashe.

[Devilwalk] That's what I honestly believe it's going to be.

[BanKs] Crazy.

[Devilwalk] I think they've proven that they...

[Devilwalk] you know, they've gone this far, right?

[Devilwalk] It's obvious there's a little bit of a wall they need to break through, understand there's something they're missing in either the CS understanding or what's unlocking players or how to help these players continuously make plays even when this happens, right?

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] They've just recently gotten the mental coach.

[BanKs] Mental coach.

[BanKs] Yep.

[Devilwalk] They haven't worked that much with her as we spoke with Major about.

[Devilwalk] It's still very new in the process of that.

[BanKs] Yep.

[Devilwalk] I think it would be careless to now change everything.

[Devilwalk] it would be almost a sense where you're going to wake up in a year or two and ask yourself what could have been before you've given it a proper try with enough of these small changes.

[BanKs] True.

[Devilwalk] Because it could be a struggle of...

[BanKs] Hmm.

[Devilwalk] of just majors overwhelmed with calling in Turkish and you know and exactly exactly I think I think that's the key right

[BanKs] Ash can help out with the game plan so much as well, of getting them into a different way, right, and be a different, because remember, Fabra and Maja are so close together, and he spoke about this, right, when we did the interview with him, of their understanding of the game, knowing each other really well, that maybe this outside player

[Devilwalk] It might be too similar.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] But maybe this outside perspective from Ash, a very different way, would be something that could have success.

[BanKs] And obviously, by the way, Ash is hot property.

[BanKs] Ash proved even on the analyst desk that his bull knowledge is crazy.

[BanKs] So that's enough about Aurora.

[BanKs] We'll continue on.

[BanKs] So next team to lose in the semis?

[BanKs] spirit and obviously the g2 game we touched on right and donk was the second highest rated player of the whole major 1.34 rating but this game against falcons

[Devilwalk] Yep.

[BanKs] it looked like it could have been spirits even without them having a coach now there's one thing i want to look at here this is this this is the one i can't answer for you yeah having spirit without a coach

[BanKs] Does that give them a good enough reason as to how far they could go or not go?

[BanKs] It doesn't matter if they lost to eventual winners of the whole tournament and how good Falcons were.

[BanKs] How much does that impact a team like Spirit and

[BanKs] what they could have been able to cook up and do within these timeouts and what they want to do, you know?

[BanKs] Because I feel like it's either a really big thing or I'm overestimating the input from a Sopvic or Halle.

[Devilwalk] I don't think you're overestimating.

[BanKs] You know, you coach.

[Devilwalk] I think these games are where you need a voice in the back of your mind, the back of your head, to remind you what's important when you're playing.

[BanKs] Mm-hmm.

[Devilwalk] You know, sometimes...

[Devilwalk] players can be, you know, when they come up with solutions, it can be a little bit running, you know, let's just execute A, you know, very basic.

[Devilwalk] They don't really think about the move, but like what's actually harming you and getting that explained.

[Devilwalk] Because if you just end up always backing off into running execute after execute after execute,

[Devilwalk] you can kind of like some players are good at it and other players they don't really you don't get to show show the strength of them like i think if you look at tinir for example um when they were playing default and when he was being enabled on the long lurks on dust2 and you know

[Devilwalk] having the freedom to take the duels, even on Mirage, going out A and just popping heads whenever he wants to.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] I think these kind of core strengths, you kind of lack, I think, sometimes when you don't have a coach.

[Devilwalk] who to enable and when, by what.

[Devilwalk] And I think it's really, really hard to be in the game, focus on the round, and make a magical call out of everything, right?

[Devilwalk] That's a skill that we contribute to some of the best in-game leaders of our generation and in history.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] But it's not something every single player can do on the fly with 30 seconds to think about it.

[BanKs] yeah especially yeah

[Devilwalk] A coach perspective is gathering all the information, what the previous rounds, you think about the mistake, you think about how they have adjusted throughout the game, and you make a call based on that.

[Devilwalk] So you're using all of the information.

[Devilwalk] I think

[Devilwalk] that's the thing right and it's also the fact that just having someone come with the answer instantly when you need it it gives you relief as a player

[Devilwalk] Okay, let's do it.

[Devilwalk] And you just focus on the game again.

[Devilwalk] You don't have to spiral into thoughts and thinking about every single detail of the game.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] So I think it's a massive, massive thing.

[Devilwalk] And I think you could see it on the player camps of Spirit.

[Devilwalk] They were frustrated, and they were frustrated not only in this game,

[Devilwalk] They were frustrated in the G2 game for massive amounts of periods.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] They were frustrated in the Falcons games.

[Devilwalk] And it affected them.

[BanKs] And they were saying this, right?

[BanKs] They were saying this, they're like, sometimes a call out, a timeout will happen and Siro's talking or maybe Zontix is talking, right?

[BanKs] Everyone's given a different bit of input.

[BanKs] So then it's also multiple voices where, yeah, but you don't have a Hallie to say like, guys, boom, this is what I'm saying, you know?

[Devilwalk] But then it's more of a debate.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] So yeah, okay.

[BanKs] So it is massive.

[BanKs] So then look at this.

[BanKs] You beat Falcons 13-8 on Mirage.

[BanKs] Obviously, I spoke to Kerrigan about this and he was saying it could have been a lot better, but it was this thing on Mirage.

[BanKs] But on Anubis and Dust2, it's both in overtime they lose.

[BanKs] The fact they were able to push it that way and fight so much.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] With all this that we're talking about, I still think this is a really good result for Spirit, considering the very tough situation they had to go through with not having this coach and everything you just said.

[Devilwalk] Yeah, I mean, I predicted Spirit to win the Major.

[Devilwalk] That was my prediction.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] And I think it's a great prediction.

[Devilwalk] Even looking at this result, looking at how it all ended, I still think it was a good prediction.

[Devilwalk] Because...

[Devilwalk] You know, Falcons, they fought their way through chaos and all of it.

[Devilwalk] And this is kind of what Kerrigan thrives at.

[Devilwalk] He brought them that edge and...

[BanKs] No Yep

[Devilwalk] And they made it over the line every single time because they were not without stumbles going through this major.

[Devilwalk] They played some really tough teams.

[Devilwalk] It was really hard to make a prediction for them to win through this bracket.

[Devilwalk] But whoever won that semifinal, I was certain was going to win the major.

[BanKs] Yeah, yeah.

[BanKs] I said it on the other side thinking it was Vitality that would get through, right?

[BanKs] And obviously Falcons really dealt with them.

[Devilwalk] Yeah, and I mean, it's not a bad prediction.

[BanKs] No, of course.

[Devilwalk] It's just that that lower side of that bracket is so fucking stacked, it's insane.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] And some of the moments, by the way, on these rounds that, like, Falcons were winning was just ludicrous, you know?

[BanKs] Like, some of the calls are only things you could get from... Like, there was moments where I'm looking at this and I'm thinking, Magix is keeping up with calling against Karak... No, no.

[Devilwalk] But Spirit should have won.

[Devilwalk] Dust 2, Spirit should have won.

[BanKs] So, wait.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] But...

[BanKs] Before we get on to that, Magix as a rookie IGL going up against Kerrigan, one of the greatest IGLs of all time.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] And he was going toe to toe with like game plans and trying to stack bomb sites and trying to call off the right things.

[BanKs] Right.

[BanKs] With no coach behind him.

[BanKs] So I have huge amount of respect for what Magix was doing.

[BanKs] While also trying to keep the players in the right way, right?

[BanKs] And it was only when it was getting into the overtimes and some of these crazier rounds and stupid smoke pushes and things, the things were falling apart.

[BanKs] But like,

[BanKs] It felt like Donk was not bad playing, but he was being neutralized in some situations.

[BanKs] I was watching him lose multiple fights to Kerrigan.

[BanKs] They did lose that Mirage where he was losing fights to him.

[BanKs] Do you remember the 4K that Kerrigan got?

[Devilwalk] Yeah, but it's...

[BanKs] And they're all like, what is going on?

[Devilwalk] It's like this, right?

[Devilwalk] I think it was on Spirit on Mirage, I think, against Falcons.

[BanKs] Well, they also don't want to give too much to Zonic, right?

[Devilwalk] I think it was like 8-8 or 9-8 or something like that.

[Devilwalk] And that's when the first time out for Spirit, the whole game was.

[Devilwalk] it's like yeah and that's fair but you know how like it's a lot of perspective they're missing out on by not having a coach and

[BanKs] You're basically giving them an extra time out each time.

[BanKs] There's no overview.

[Devilwalk] Considering all of that, there's no overview.

[Devilwalk] And because of that, I mean, I agree with you.

[Devilwalk] Magix did crazy good.

[Devilwalk] And this is also them losing barely

[Devilwalk] with Donk probably having one of his worst games in playoff in his career.

[Devilwalk] I'm not 100%, but I've seen some Donk numbers, and 0-97 ain't Donk, man.

[BanKs] nah no exactly yeah

[Devilwalk] It ain't Donk.

[Devilwalk] So, I'm just saying, you know, they still put up a fight without coach, with Donk missing in this series.

[Devilwalk] Now, missing is maybe harsh because it's more about what Falcons did against him rather than

[Devilwalk] maybe about Donk but you see that when he plays against Vitality and all of a sudden you get a 4k entry and you know

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] Donk being Donk.

[Devilwalk] But obviously, very, very close game.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] I think, for me, I mean, it's hard to pick, but I was about to say, you know, the G2 game and the Spirit Falcons games, for me, the best games

[BanKs] I'll say this.

[Devilwalk] of this major but the falcons vitality ain't bad ain't bad there was so much extra pressure yeah it is it is a crazy good game

[BanKs] Falcons always had it was good without the overtimes, right?

[BanKs] So it lost a bit of that excitement, but it's still such a crazy good game.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] And then, and then the G2 Spirit one was just amazing because I thought like,

[BanKs] We're breaking some records and viewership.

[Devilwalk] I think that's the best one I think that's the best one

[BanKs] The numbers are going crazy.

[BanKs] But the reason the Falcon Spirit one for me was just a little bit more is because I truly believed that Spirit had dust too.

[BanKs] You know?

[BanKs] Like with the G2 Spirit one,

[BanKs] I was like almost expecting they're going to be trading back and forth, you know?

[BanKs] But then, go on.

[Devilwalk] So like this, I just want to bring up what we talked about before, right?

[BanKs] Mm-hmm.

[Devilwalk] It's almost like, you know how everyone's been memeing on Falcons and it's like screenshots and whatever.

[Devilwalk] And this round, round 20, when Kerrigan pushes through that B smoke without flash, well, it's both smart and dumb.

[BanKs] How smart was this?

[Devilwalk] But it's...

[BanKs] No, but you know, he does it because Magix was flanking long, right?

[BanKs] Magix was like, so they're in B. Magix is flanking long.

[Devilwalk] so the thing is well first of all

[BanKs] Magix thinks he's going to get a couple of easy kills.

[BanKs] Doesn't work out.

[BanKs] And Karakin just goes, well, wait a second.

[BanKs] If one guy is here, like, look at what I can do.

[Devilwalk] you know, they get the entry spirit, right?

[Devilwalk] They go into B, there's 4 in B, you talked about before this recording, this second recording, about Magic's kind of flanking long, and

[BanKs] With a little, yeah.

[Devilwalk] But you know the smoke, it bounces on the edge of the door and bounces backwards for Spirit during the execute.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] Normally you want it to kind of slide on the door and bounce between the doors so you don't give CTs that space.

[Devilwalk] Now it kind of ended up like a retake smoke from CT's perspective, essentially, because of that.

[BanKs] yeah it covers you so you get covered from car and stuff yeah

[Devilwalk] Like the normal, they do it, right?

[Devilwalk] And he sees this

[Devilwalk] But it's not only that.

[Devilwalk] It's the fact that Kerrigan does it without Flash.

[Devilwalk] Sontag is standing against the wall.

[Devilwalk] And he's anti-flash, so he doesn't actually hear it.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] Now an alarm goes off.

[Devilwalk] This is perfect.

[Devilwalk] Either way, he is completely anti-flash.

[Devilwalk] He gets to kill the... And obviously, they have a setup.

[Devilwalk] They have one car, they have one tunnel, they have one anti-flash, they have one planting.

[Devilwalk] But because of this smoke,

[Devilwalk] The car guy can't react.

[Devilwalk] He can't just start spraying the smoke because you know what?

[Devilwalk] Who has 5 HP and is standing anti-flash next to the door in line with Kerrigan is SonTex.

[Devilwalk] If he starts spraying, he's killing SonTex as well.

[BanKs] By the way, I'm just watching the clip just to get it exact, right?

[BanKs] So, Manasi gets tagged down to 56 HP.

[BanKs] Kerrigan goes before the flash, and then a flash goes after he's killed Zontix.

[Devilwalk] And that is pure chaos.

[BanKs] Like, it's pure chaos.

[BanKs] It's even more chaos than I remember.

[BanKs] Oh, God.

[Devilwalk] And what's so amazing about it is we've constantly criticized these screenshot moments on Reddit, on HLTV of Falcons do it again, lose an unwinnable round.

[BanKs] yeah yeah by the way no one screenshotted i didn't see any screenshots on twitter but people are just doing this only to falcons you know but i mean that that's that's just more crazy

[Devilwalk] This time it was the reverse.

[Devilwalk] The spirit who had the screenshot.

[Devilwalk] The spirit who lost the unlosable round.

[Devilwalk] No, no, but... Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Devilwalk] But...

[Devilwalk] The essential part is because of Kerrigan, you know, having the balls to do something that just because he sees this, goes on instinct, finds the gap and understands that he might have an opportunity here.

[BanKs] exactly we've gone into falcons talk rather than spirit

[Devilwalk] And there's not a lot of players in the world that can do that on stage.

[Devilwalk] And I think, you know, to some degree, this is what makes Kerrigan so great on stage games, because he thrives in chaos.

[Devilwalk] He loves chaos.

[Devilwalk] Yes, but either way.

[BanKs] And also, you're throwing chaos at a team that can handle chaos at times, but when you don't have a coach and all the things we spoke about, you know, and that's why I don't look badly on this result for Spirit at all.

[BanKs] I still see this as a positive.

[BanKs] I know that they'll be back next season with a full team and everything they want.

[BanKs] Yeah, Hallie will be there, or Sotvik will be there, or however it's going to work.

[BanKs] And then they'll just continue on riding on through, you know?

[Devilwalk] I think it's a scary prospect that Spirit could have gone through this major without the two coaches they have now.

[BanKs] And potentially have won.

[Devilwalk] and potentially have won the major, right?

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] I think that's a scary prospect, and I think that's why I was so hyped about them, and why I thought also this was a perfect opportunity, which it was for everyone, was because of the cracks we've seen of Vitality.

[Devilwalk] So it's disappointing for Spirit.

[BanKs] Definitely.

[Devilwalk] I'm sure it hurts them that they re-watched that final and said, this could have been us.

[Devilwalk] But I mean, this is what happens on the major stage.

[Devilwalk] This is what happens in playoffs.

[Devilwalk] It is chaos.

[BanKs] Definitely.

[Devilwalk] And whoever...

[Devilwalk] tackles it the best is going to win and this time it was Falcons.

[BanKs] So now we move on to our second place and our first beginning part of talking about the grand final, the viewership breaking grand final, making history as the most viewed Counter-Strike event of all time.

[BanKs] As of today, I cannot wait until we get to the 3 million viewer point.

[BanKs] No, like it'll happen soon.

[BanKs] I believe so much in this game, but I'm furious.

[BanKs] Now, Furious Run, they didn't really face any tough opposition until the final.

[BanKs] Let's just be honest, yeah?

[BanKs] They faced some good teams, but they didn't face an elite team.

[BanKs] That is just a fact.

[BanKs] They beat Bait, Mouz, Betboom, 9Z, Aurora.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] They were the what?

[Devilwalk] I mean, they were the best team on their side of the bracket.

[BanKs] No.

[Devilwalk] I think that's fair to say.

[BanKs] It was just hard to put them somewhere.

[Devilwalk] And you know,

[Devilwalk] The problem I have with Furious Run, you can't really take anything away from them either.

[Devilwalk] They did what they had to do in the playoff situation, but

[Devilwalk] I also can't not tinker with the idea of what would have happened if Furia went on the other side of the bracket.

[Devilwalk] How far would they have gone through the teams that were eliminated in quarters and semis on the other side?

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] And I think the unfortunate answer for me is considering what we saw in the grand final.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] no no but I'm just saying just overall what I saw from Fury at this event didn't look like a major finalist in some sense unfortunately

[BanKs] But let's not get into the grand final just yet.

[BanKs] Mm-hmm.

[BanKs] But at that point, it's not their fault.

[Devilwalk] It's not their fault.

[BanKs] What I want to get onto with it is so many of these positive signs that I had were around Yuri coming back to form.

[BanKs] I tweeted a picture.

[BanKs] I'll bring it up.

[BanKs] But Yuri was at all events this year.

[BanKs] Either red or just okay.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] And then he was coming into playoffs looking much better in stage three.

[BanKs] So look at this.

[BanKs] This year, 1.03 at Blast Bounty, 0.81 at the finals, 0.96 in Krakow, 0.91 in Cluj, slight uptick in Rio, but I hit fourth, 1.17.

[BanKs] But when they won all those tournaments like Blast Rivals Season 2, Chengdu, Thunderpick, 1.19, 1.13,

[BanKs] 1.17.

[BanKs] So, Cologne Major.

[Devilwalk] I mean, he was the best rated Furia player in playoff.

[BanKs] Which, you know, for an anchor.

[BanKs] In playoffs, or Stage 3 and playoffs, right?

[BanKs] And they also went 3-0 through Stage 3 at the beginning.

[Devilwalk] I'm looking only playoff right now.

[BanKs] You're only looking at playoffs.

[BanKs] Ooh, okay.

[Devilwalk] Yes.

[BanKs] So...

[Devilwalk] So Juri 114 rated.

[Devilwalk] Molde also 114, but Juri is above.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] So he was on a heater, right?

[BanKs] Which is exactly what you want to see.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] That's where a lot of their success was coming from, that he was always good for a multi-killer, being in the right position, doing really well.

[BanKs] He continued that against 9Z, right?

[BanKs] On Aurora, he absolutely dominated, but like we said, one of the worst games of the major playoffs.

[BanKs] And then...

[BanKs] It felt like he just wasn't the same player, didn't have the same belief, right?

[BanKs] When you went into this grand final.

[BanKs] And I was the most worried about Molodoy.

[BanKs] Because Molodoy's major record was...

[BanKs] Still performing okay, but not to what you expect from him, you know?

[BanKs] And I think you had a point on this, right?

[BanKs] That he was probably the only one making, like, his usual plays.

[Devilwalk] On what?

[Devilwalk] Molodoy?

[BanKs] Yeah, Molodoy.

[Devilwalk] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Devilwalk] 100%.

[Devilwalk] I thought you were on Yuri for some weird reason.

[Devilwalk] I had zoned out.

[BanKs] No, no, sorry.

[BanKs] I went from Yuri just onto Molodoy's like normally was bad at majors.

[BanKs] And then at least in this final was really good.

[BanKs] And he actually, even in nine Z, he was just okay, but he, he stepped up.

[BanKs] So he was the positive alongside your kinder, but

[Devilwalk] Yep.

[BanKs] I just didn't, I didn't see, I didn't see the same fight from Fury.

[BanKs] And maybe it's just because they went up against an elite team.

[BanKs] Maybe it was the pressure of playing a major grand final, which they're not used to.

[BanKs] But I mean, it wasn't pretty, you know, it wasn't pretty at all.

[Devilwalk] You know, I don't know.

[Devilwalk] I mean, I re-watched the final a little bit today.

[Devilwalk] If I'm honest, you know, Fury, it didn't look that sharp aim-wise.

[Devilwalk] Like, they didn't look... You know, it wasn't...

[BanKs] Mm.

[Devilwalk] I never felt like we got a moment.

[Devilwalk] Like you know.

[Devilwalk] I can't remember when this was.

[Devilwalk] You know.

[Devilwalk] Highlight on the B site.

[Devilwalk] Inferno where it just clicks for people.

[Devilwalk] I never got this like.

[Devilwalk] super crazy case of auto moments which i feel like i've gotten used to to some degree that he's always going to be you know that second star showing up every single game

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] I felt like he was a little bit lackluster this major.

[Devilwalk] Is that fair to say?

[Devilwalk] Comparably, you know, obviously he set high standards.

[BanKs] Compared to his normal level.

[Devilwalk] Yeah, like he set high standards for it.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] Like incredibly high standards.

[Devilwalk] And I'm used to more from him.

[Devilwalk] I don't know.

[Devilwalk] I have a feeling that

[BanKs] Even in their bad events, he's way above what he showed.

[BanKs] Yeah, I can agree with that.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] So it's,

[Devilwalk] I don't know.

[Devilwalk] I felt like he wasn't as crisp and he's always crisp.

[Devilwalk] And uncharacteristically, I've re-watched some of the games and some of the duels, it just looked a little bit stressed.

[BanKs] Hmm.

[Devilwalk] Didn't look as confident as I normally see him.

[BanKs] And also, I think that when like, I don't know what it was, I think it was Anubis, there was just like, the parthing and the confidence to go for the same fights, they were making moves as a team, they had the right idea.

[BanKs] But like,

[BanKs] Then they were just getting blown up or banged out by Kyosuke or Niko, you know, like, and they, they didn't, it didn't come together for him, you know?

[Devilwalk] Yeah, but I don't think it's all on Kisarato either.

[Devilwalk] I think all players, maybe except Molodoy, kind of had a tick down in performance where you normally see...

[BanKs] Mm-hmm.

[Devilwalk] You know, the great thing about Furia is the way they create chaos, right?

[Devilwalk] Now, Falcons, they seem to be getting better at it and more used to it with Kerrigan being their caller, but...

[Devilwalk] They're so good at creating movement around the map and capitalizing on that with, you know, Jekindar doing a quick entry or getting a flank kill or, you know, Kiserato solo lurking into a site.

[Devilwalk] And there's so many small things constantly happening.

[Devilwalk] But I think they maybe even got caught a little bit off guard by how Falcons approached this game.

[Devilwalk] They were constantly in movement, constantly aggressive.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] They wanted to trade down.

[Devilwalk] And these are usually a situation Furia play really, really well when it's 3v3s or 4v4s.

[Devilwalk] There's a bit more space on the map.

[Devilwalk] And it felt like, yeah, they never got into the groove.

[Devilwalk] It didn't feel like they were in control like they normally were.

[BanKs] Yeah, and even how, okay, it starts off, you're 8-0 down on Mirage in a major.

[BanKs] Yeah, but you claw back those last four.

[Devilwalk] Terrible, terrible start.

[BanKs] Yeah, it's really rough.

[BanKs] But then you claw back the four rounds at the end.

[BanKs] And you think, okay, there's some signs of life.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] But then it quickly comes undone, right?

[BanKs] I don't know what it was with Falcons, but pistol rounds were fantastic.

[BanKs] But a lot of these rounds weren't even coming down to clutches or anything, yeah?

[BanKs] I think what there was, was there one pistol round that Furio won?

[Devilwalk] One pistol round and they got eco the day straight after on Inferno.

[BanKs] Yeah, 1%.

[BanKs] And then they... Oh, yeah.

[BanKs] Yeah, you see, like... That's always going to be tough as well, right?

[Devilwalk] Yeah, yeah.

[BanKs] And...

[BanKs] When you say they were not as sharp, it might have just been, I don't know, could this be a reason?

[BanKs] Could they maybe not have been as sharp when you didn't play up against the sharpest opponents and then it's the quick getting back used to it?

[BanKs] Because you've got to remember, a lot of teams have gone home there.

[BanKs] Your practice is not going to be, you know, you're not practicing to get Falcons before the finals, you know?

[Devilwalk] Okay, but this is a sign of Furia since way back, even when we were so hyped about them.

[Devilwalk] The thing is, they have bad starts.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] It's always been their thing.

[Devilwalk] They claw their way back.

[Devilwalk] They finally get your grasp of the game.

[Devilwalk] But I think when you play a Falcons who get eight rounds in a row and you never get a good start on the map.

[Devilwalk] You never... I feel like

[Devilwalk] It's too little too late if you don't win a second pistol.

[Devilwalk] I think this game probably could have looked a lot, you know, these maps could have looked a lot more different.

[Devilwalk] Like Mirage, if they could have taken a pistol and converted.

[Devilwalk] But the fact is also they were bad in anti-ecos.

[Devilwalk] Falcons were overpowering them when they had pistols.

[Devilwalk] falcons were you know constantly getting them back when they instantly and you know you look at

[BanKs] No.

[Devilwalk] You know, obviously they won the pistol in Inferno, Falcons take three in a row, they win two in a row, and then it's just Falcons running them over.

[Devilwalk] They never really got a grasp of the game, I felt like.

[Devilwalk] I mean, on Mirage, they could have.

[BanKs] I was going to say that it, I would say that they never had, they never had a control, which made me believe they were going to win a map.

[Devilwalk] It looked like they could have.

[BanKs] You know, there was never a moment where it looked like they had

[Devilwalk] No, no, no.

[BanKs] falcons pushed on the edge or you know they were the better and i honestly thought anubis even though like it was the pick of falcons yeah but then josuke's t-side entries bro we'll get on to that when we talk falcons but oh there was like

[Devilwalk] Anubis 7.5 half, it looked a bit shaky.

[BanKs] glimmers of hope, and then quickly ripped away.

[BanKs] There was never a chance of this back and forth game and it looking like there was a fight on their hands.

[Devilwalk] It never really stabilized for Furia's favor, I think.

[Devilwalk] Yeah, I don't know.

[Devilwalk] I agree with you.

[Devilwalk] Whenever I looked at this match, I was almost certain that Falcons were going to win no matter what.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] I didn't expect a 3-0.

[BanKs] And I even fought on the Anubis, which remember, there was a time where Furia was very strong on Anubis, like a really key map for them.

[BanKs] Maybe they had a trick up their sleeve here.

[BanKs] Maybe they've been practicing it and just not playing some officials on it.

[BanKs] But no, it just all quickly fell apart for them.

[BanKs] And I still think this is a positive for Furia, considering the year they had.

[BanKs] It's still second place at a major.

[Devilwalk] So huge positive, huge positive.

[Devilwalk] The expectations going into this major were not making a grand final.

[BanKs] But it still shows there's... No.

[Devilwalk] There's...

[BanKs] It was just making playoffs.

[BanKs] Just playoffs was going to be positive for them.

[Devilwalk] I don't think Furia were in contention or in the conversation of who is going to win the major.

[Devilwalk] I think it was very much a vitality spirit question.

[BanKs] No.

[BanKs] Vitality, Spirit, Na'Vi, and people like me, remember I said it here, like, oh, Kerrigan can do some magic, but that was just my blind belief in Kerrigan.

[Devilwalk] I didn't think Falcons could win the major.

[Devilwalk] I'll be honest.

[BanKs] I said Falcons could win a tournament with Kerrigan before this ends, but I thought it was going to be CAC, not the major.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] I did not think it was going to be the major.

[BanKs] Um,

[BanKs] But let's get into it.

[BanKs] Let's get on to Falcons from there.

[BanKs] I think for Furia, let me just look quickly at their first half of this season.

[BanKs] So I'm on my 4G.

[BanKs] I'm just trying to load it all up and see.

[BanKs] This will be slow, of course.

[Devilwalk] Just events.

[BanKs] Yeah, events.

[Devilwalk] Well, I mean, they had a second place in Krakow.

[BanKs] Yep, at the beginning.

[Devilwalk] Let me see here.

[Devilwalk] Klush was 5th to 8th.

[Devilwalk] EPL, they got 9th to 11th.

[BanKs] don't count EPL it's not a big event so like Rotterdam 7-8 Rio 4 7-8 from rivals which is last place which was a crazy one then they had to bounce back for Astana to at least be in playoffs and then second so like it's a lot of up and downs a lot of inconsistency but I will say this right for Fulham 10 years later to be in the grand final

[Devilwalk] Okay, Rotterdam, yeah.

[BanKs] when he probably was talking about retirement ages ago and didn't happen and now he's on his retirement run it doesn't end the story the golden way you would hope and he lifts the trophy 10 years later but just the fact he's still doing it with a international lineup is incredible yeah

[Devilwalk] It's still incredible.

[Devilwalk] Still incredible.

[Devilwalk] No matter what.

[BanKs] And I think that and I think they still just keep rocking what this team won't change.

[BanKs] It's going to keep going until falling goes and then we'll see what happens after that.

[BanKs] And it's about just trying to make the most of this journey and keep the experience going, try and get a couple more trophies under Fulham if possible.

[BanKs] But I still think they're way off where we were at the end of last year.

[BanKs] I still think that's still huge.

[Devilwalk] A way off.

[BanKs] Even with the second place, it's just not even close in the conversation.

[BanKs] And that comes from a lot of these position changes.

[BanKs] Did you watch the Molodoy player profile?

[BanKs] By the way, I knew about all these player profiles except for Apex.

[BanKs] Because I saw Freya in Kazakhstan.

[BanKs] She posted a story.

[BanKs] So I was like, okay, Molodoy has to be getting a player profile.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] And then obviously I knew from Munnessy that he was doing his one.

[BanKs] So I thought, okay.

[BanKs] Like, I'm not going to leak it, right?

[BanKs] It's an amazing piece of content.

[BanKs] We'll let that happen and run out.

[BanKs] But when you saw that Molodoy one and how much of a father figure Fallen is and stuff, it makes me more worried about what's going to happen when he goes.

[BanKs] Like, I'm more concerned for this team than I was before.

[Devilwalk] Well,

[Devilwalk] Well, I think it all depends in what case he leaves, you know.

[Devilwalk] I have imagined that Fallen stays within the organization.

[Devilwalk] And perhaps does more of an overview kind of thing and helps the team that way.

[BanKs] Yep.

[Devilwalk] I'm not sure, but I think it would be weird if you just cut it all.

[Devilwalk] So I think he will still be there, be around the team, help the team kind of transition without him.

[Devilwalk] So I don't think it's going to be daddy left and is never coming back kind of thing.

[BanKs] Yeah, okay, okay.

[BanKs] But I'm thinking he's got to have some time off properly.

[BanKs] And the baby question as well.

[Devilwalk] Oh, for sure.

[Devilwalk] It's not going to be there every event and all that kind of stuff, but I don't think he's going to be out of reach.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] Yeah, true, true, true.

[BanKs] And he'll definitely always pick up the phone to Molodoy.

[BanKs] That's without a doubt.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] so the unlikely winners of im clone 2026 major falcons look just all these storylines that go into this by the way kiosk game you know a playoff choker nope that's not even a thing anymore um

[BanKs] Kerrigan shouldn't even have been at the major.

[BanKs] Didn't qualify with face.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] Historically, some of the worst performances possible, but I don't give a damn about that.

[BanKs] Nico supposedly choking all the time.

[BanKs] Can't make it work.

[BanKs] Performing incredibly well across the whole event.

[BanKs] zonic fraud coach can't his team can't lift another trophy doesn't matter he's done five times the majors which no one else has done by the way now he's done it six times you know he actually he's in a complete league of his own even dupree's not catching him you know it's only apex that can try at this point um and robs um but

[BanKs] This run, I want to touch on it player by player with you, okay?

[BanKs] So group stage, they play G2, Betboom, Monty, Na'Vi.

[BanKs] And Kiyosuke is not up to standards.

[BanKs] He's not playing as good as, you know, what is expected of him.

[BanKs] They even lose to Betboom, you know?

[BanKs] Then we get into the playoffs and he's playing like a beast.

[BanKs] And do you know what?

[BanKs] It's so sad that I'll say this.

[BanKs] This is the biggest gripe I have with what I saw for Cologne.

[BanKs] And people are just going to go like, oh, it's because you weren't there.

[BanKs] It's because you weren't hired.

[BanKs] But for a major, when the team wins, every player and the coach needs to be interviewed.

[BanKs] Even if they just answer one question, everyone has to be spoken to because this is a historic moment of their careers.

[BanKs] They might never win a major again.

[BanKs] Let them have that enjoyment of the crowd, not just the feeling of winning, but saying something.

[BanKs] Even if it's just like what Broky did to me.

[BanKs] He's like, I fucking did it.

[BanKs] Yeah, that was it.

[BanKs] That's all I needed from Broky.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] That's all I'll take.

[BanKs] That's it.

[BanKs] There we go.

[BanKs] It doesn't have to be a masterpiece of words, but give them that moment.

[BanKs] And guess what?

[BanKs] Kioski didn't get it that moment.

[BanKs] And, oh, I'll give you a fun story.

[BanKs] So, obviously, being a talent is amazing, yeah?

[BanKs] I request the player.

[BanKs] I get the player I want pretty much nine times out of ten.

[BanKs] Sometimes they're sick or something happens, you don't get them.

[BanKs] So...

[BanKs] When I'm working like as just a content creator and I'm on the media side for this Argentinian broadcast, right, I go down and there's just

[BanKs] All these press, bro, it's a sweaty, horrible mess room.

[BanKs] Like what I entered into was nothing like I expected people would stand.

[BanKs] I've seen them right when I'm at events, but you stand by the wall, they set up their cameras.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] At a major, I've worked all the last majors since 2019.

[BanKs] So I've not seen how bad, like there is more press than ever before, right?

[BanKs] Because it's a major.

[BanKs] There's no room.

[BanKs] Like you're just all like this, trying to talk and get in to do an interview.

[BanKs] And the players walk through, you know, and you have to ask them and they can obviously say no.

[BanKs] So, Kiyosuke comes.

[BanKs] He doesn't expect to see me there.

[BanKs] And I'm like, brother, please, can you chat to me in the Argentinian stream?

[BanKs] And he goes, only for you.

[BanKs] And I was like...

[BanKs] Praise the Lord.

[BanKs] Because I was like, bro, we stood there for ages, by the way, like 30 minutes.

[BanKs] And I'll tell you this.

[BanKs] I have so much respect for this press and media people to do this because depending on when you get there and set up, that's the space you get and you just got to work within it.

[BanKs] Like I'm bumping shoulders with next man over here that I don't know and some other guy from...

[BanKs] Hungarian press into Polish TV and the Serbian guys who I do know.

[Devilwalk] I'm just imagining how you would be standing there in a sweaty hall.

[BanKs] I'm so big as well.

[Devilwalk] And I know, I know, I know how pissed you get at waiting.

[BanKs] You can see sweat on my shirt.

[Devilwalk] I can just imagine how tilted you are in those circumstances.

[BanKs] Do you know the last time I had this, this like this role?

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] When I did this press stuff, 2018 face it major.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] That's the last time I did this kind of activity, right?

[BanKs] Obviously the HLTV guys do amazing interviews, amazing work.

[BanKs] Some of my friends as well from the Polish thing,

[Devilwalk] Am I going to see other interviews from other platforms and I just hear banks in the background?

[Devilwalk] Fucking hell.

[BanKs] No, bro, I was being so careful.

[BanKs] I literally, I saw Prof, yeah?

[BanKs] I saw Prof from HRTV.

[BanKs] He was like over here.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] And I'm like, I look at him and I go,

[BanKs] this like what the fuck are we doing and he bro he's like this he's shaking off his t-shirt i can see sweat stains i'm wearing a black t-shirt and i can see sweat through it you know and everyone's just hoping to get it obviously i'm super lucky because all the players know me right so i'm

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] I got Molodoy, I got Manassi, I got Karaghan, and I got Kiyosuke.

[BanKs] No other media, and ESL didn't get it for the stage, got Kiyosuke.

[BanKs] Only me.

[BanKs] Just because he goes, right, actually.

[Devilwalk] I mean, we did interview him.

[BanKs] Yeah, yeah.

[BanKs] But look at this, right?

[Devilwalk] Together.

[BanKs] Back when he did the 2v2, he goes, he goes, thank you.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] You are amazing.

[BanKs] Love to give you interviews because you have nice energy.

[BanKs] Have a nice night.

[BanKs] He said that to me after he won the major, bro.

[BanKs] After he won the major.

[BanKs] And by the way, Chinese social media took that interview.

[BanKs] Obviously, they just steal the content, by the way.

[BanKs] Shout out to the Chinese guys just literally stealing anything they see on Twitter and Instagram.

[BanKs] But it got like 500,000 views.

[BanKs] Because it was the only one and they love him, right?

[BanKs] Because they've got all these people they're obsessed with and they compare him to and stuff.

[BanKs] So I get to do this epic interview with him.

[BanKs] And his English is like, dude, his English might actually be better than Monacy.

[Devilwalk] Really?

[BanKs] He might have actually... Bro, he's...

[Devilwalk] But it was pretty decent when we did it, even back then.

[Devilwalk] But he didn't understand every... Yeah.

[BanKs] It was good, but he needed Munnessy's help.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] Didn't get every word.

[BanKs] Obviously, he just won a major.

[BanKs] He's very hyped about it, yeah?

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] So he's telling me, he's like, my manager, Kerrigan, everyone told me that it didn't matter what happened in groups.

[BanKs] And he said, Kerrigan told him that now you're a playoffs player.

[BanKs] You know, but now that's where you shine.

[BanKs] Can you bring up his playoff stats for me?

[BanKs] Because his overall stats, I think he was 13th.

[Devilwalk] Yes.

[Devilwalk] He is the highest rated playoff player with a 130 rating, 9 maps, plus 17, 111 KD, but he's obviously had a lot of impact with opening the rounds up, etc.

[BanKs] Yep.

[Devilwalk] So he's the highest rated player of the entire major playoff.

[BanKs] So then let me just give you some more stats because Kerrigan has unleashed this beast.

[BanKs] This is Kerrigan's doing because what I'm watching, look, anyone who's watching the games, look on the cameras and see how they're interacting every time between rounds.

[BanKs] If it's a bad round or a good round,

[BanKs] kiosky's smiling during stupid rounds carrigan's laughing with him at something things are happening here that obviously we can't hear so kiosky yeah he's been crazy his ct side rating went up 0.30 from the group stage to the playoffs and his t side kd went from 0.93 to 1.11

[BanKs] Those are astronomical improvements.

[Devilwalk] But you know his T-side rating of the playoff.

[Devilwalk] 145.

[BanKs] What?

[BanKs] Because he was just opening.

[BanKs] Bro, it was so dirty on Anubis.

[BanKs] I was wishing I could ever hit a shot like he hit.

[Devilwalk] 145 rating on T-side.

[BanKs] Who was closest to him?

[Devilwalk] There was one better.

[BanKs] Who?

[BanKs] Donk.

[Devilwalk] Dillides.

[BanKs] In one game.

[BanKs] In one game where you lost 0-2.

[Devilwalk] Yeah, in one game.

[BanKs] We're not counting that.

[Devilwalk] 150.

[Devilwalk] And then it was MattisG2 and RopsVitality.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] Yeah, yeah.

[BanKs] So I'll let you talk because I know I've rambled on for a bit about this, but I'm saying fuck any of you

[BanKs] that say Kerrigan is a bot and has a bad rating because he has enabled this.

[BanKs] He has made this possible.

[BanKs] He helped to deliver Nico the Major.

[BanKs] He also, by the way, if you look at some of these rounds, while Kiyosuke is the entry, Tessa's going first.

[BanKs] Kiyosuke is instant trading if Tessa dies.

[BanKs] Tarragon sometimes goes first and Kiosk gets into trading every day, but it was crazy.

[Devilwalk] Yeah, I mean they looked really, really crisp.

[Devilwalk] They all believed in it.

[Devilwalk] I think you know

[Devilwalk] I think some of this is just the fact that you walked through the run of Falcons, right?

[BanKs] Mm hmm.

[Devilwalk] The amount of games that they played that were close, that was clutch time, it went into very, very close.

[Devilwalk] G2 Falcons.

[Devilwalk] 13-10 win for G2 first map, then 13-8 and 16-13 overtime win the first map or match of stage 3, right?

[BanKs] Mm hmm.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] We move on to the second one.

[Devilwalk] They lose to Betboom 13-11 and 13-10, right?

[Devilwalk] They then go and play Monty.

[Devilwalk] 13-9, 13-11, 13-10.

[Devilwalk] They play Na'Vi the next game.

[Devilwalk] 13-3 obviously won the map, then Na'Vi won 13-7 and won in overtime 19-16 against Na'Vi to make

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] But this is, they used to lose all these overtimes.

[Devilwalk] and you look at the fucking playoff 13-11 11-11 you know all maps 13-11 against Vitality crazy overtime victories against Spirit on both overtimes there I think

[BanKs] Fatality, yeah.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] the amount of belief

[Devilwalk] Plus the fact that I don't think they had an extraordinary amount of pressure going into this major.

[Devilwalk] Considering that Kerrigan... Yeah.

[BanKs] They were focused on Singapore.

[Devilwalk] Like, zero pressure.

[Devilwalk] Because Kerrigan just moved in.

[Devilwalk] No one expected them to do so well.

[Devilwalk] Just instantly on the go.

[Devilwalk] uh they've obviously showed stumble they stumbled their way through stage three and they just grew better and better and better and had more belief every single time um and it's an unbelievable run because at any point in this stage

[BanKs] Mm-hmm.

[BanKs] One mess up.

[Devilwalk] They could have messed up.

[BanKs] One.

[Devilwalk] They could have messed up and this never happened.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] And it's almost to the fact where it's so similar to Faze's run last major with Kerrigan

[Devilwalk] it's actually incredible how similar it is because it is one round in so many games that probably should have gotten them, you know, on the other side.

[BanKs] In some ways.

[BanKs] yeah and look at this when we focus a bit more on carrigan all right we're done kiosk i hyped all that up carrigan so i said about this ratings what he's doing for his teammates right i don't give a damn about his ratings so i did interview with him right so i'm getting by the way

[BanKs] I may not be hired for the major, but I'll still be delivering the best interviews possible.

[BanKs] Kerrigan tells me, yeah, on interview, I said, you going on vacation?

[BanKs] He said, might take a week break.

[BanKs] Guess what he's doing?

[BanKs] Straight to grind.

[BanKs] He's great.

[BanKs] He's going to grind his individual level now because he knows it's beyond, like, acceptable.

[BanKs] He's done all these team things, done all that.

[BanKs] Now when they're breaking, when they're having vacation, I'm going to be grinding.

[BanKs] I'm going to be on my death match.

[BanKs] I'm going to be pushing my time into the game.

[BanKs] He's always been a hard worker, but that's crazy.

[BanKs] After the year he's had,

[BanKs] Heartbreaking disappointment back into this, yeah?

[BanKs] And then look at the revenge run he had.

[BanKs] Na'Vi beat him in Copenhagen for the Major.

[BanKs] He beats them 2-1.

[BanKs] Vitality beat him in Budapest at the Major.

[BanKs] He beats them 2-1.

[BanKs] Spirit beat him for the Major in Shanghai.

[BanKs] He beats them 2-1.

[BanKs] Not only did you cook up a storm, but you got revenge for yourself, for the heartbreaks, for the man who has, let's look at this, one, two, three, four second places, starting all the way back at E-League Major 2018.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] Eight years ago.

[BanKs] And then on top of it, you lost that major with Nico and you probably should have won it like nine times out of 10.

[BanKs] And then you deliver him his first major.

[Devilwalk] Probably 99 out of 100.

[Devilwalk] 60 days.

[BanKs] 99.9 um but yeah eight years later you join back up with nico and in less what it's less than three months it's 60 63 days or six when he said right you you deliver nico the major that he's been looking for for so long and everyone said was missing from his cabinet you know

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] Ever since that moment, they were playing together.

[BanKs] Oh, I missed one thing with Kiyosuke.

[BanKs] I'm so sorry.

[BanKs] Let me just go backtrack a little bit.

[Devilwalk] Yeah, we can go back a little bit.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] Because I'm so hyped about this because you may have not got it from the interview on the stage, but I've got so much information by just talking to the guys afterwards that Kiyosuke, right?

[BanKs] If he, so let's look at this.

[BanKs] If he had probably, and I'm guessing this, this is a guess.

[BanKs] But look how people who played really well in the finals and playoffs won MVPs, yeah?

[BanKs] So against Furia, Niko went 1.43%.

[BanKs] Kyosuke, 1.34%.

[BanKs] Manassi, 1.31%.

[BanKs] Then you said the playoff performance for Kiyosuke was 1.30, where for Manassi it was 1.24.

[BanKs] I think if Kiyosuke hit the same performance as Nico in that grand final, if you swapped their ratings, right, and it was Kiyosuke dominating like that, he probably would have been MVP as well.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] Probably.

[BanKs] I'm just thinking of how they've been.

[BanKs] He could have, he could have certainly been a looking for it, right?

[BanKs] Could have made that conversation harder and with the role he's playing, right?

[BanKs] And, and what he has to do is the, the, you got to look at it.

[Devilwalk] A hundred percent.

[Devilwalk] A hundred percent.

[BanKs] Um,

[Devilwalk] But I mean, even, you know, Kerrigan going into that conversation, I think it ties into Kyosuke.

[Devilwalk] You know, you talked about him kind of

[Devilwalk] you know, how he's kind of with him, next to him and all of that.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] But it's also the matter of the fact is when you have someone

[Devilwalk] that is willing to do whatever, and I mean whatever.

[Devilwalk] It doesn't matter if it's hiding in smokes, if it's pushing smokes, if it's doing something absolutely bonkers.

[Devilwalk] Kerrigan will do it he doesn't shy away from doing it just because he is technically individually worse

[BanKs] No.

[BanKs] No ego.

[Devilwalk] Which some players can do, you know, we can talk about when you go up against a Dong or whatever.

[Devilwalk] Maybe an AWPer who goes up against Monacy thinks, you know,

[BanKs] Mm hmm.

[Devilwalk] maybe it's not smart to go up and take a duel against this kid because he's so skilled kargan has none of that and i think that also influences the rest of the team in a way you know okay if he's willing to do it i'm like at least three times better aim wise

[BanKs] Definitely.

[Devilwalk] then I should be able to do it and get impact as well, right?

[Devilwalk] And I think it pushes the whole team in a direction where they're more willing to do stuff and they're willing to make mistakes that you find more success by having that mentality.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] I think that lines in with Kioski as well.

[Devilwalk] Willing to make a mistake when it goes into playoff.

[Devilwalk] When he's playing these big games.

[Devilwalk] He's not scared to make a mistake.

[Devilwalk] Because you know what?

[Devilwalk] I have a guy on 0-60 rating.

[Devilwalk] Who keeps trying.

[Devilwalk] Keeps doing what is needed for the team.

[Devilwalk] And keeps pushing.

[BanKs] Keeps making moves.

[Devilwalk] When there's an opportunity.

[Devilwalk] He takes it.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] Of course I should.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] Next, I want to talk about Manassi.

[BanKs] Obviously, he was the MVP of the event.

[BanKs] But for me, while it wasn't some record-breaking MVP numbers...

[BanKs] It was so beautifully done that before the playoffs, 1.27 rating, yeah?

[BanKs] In playoffs, 1.24.

[BanKs] Incredibly consistent.

[BanKs] He only had like, the Inferno, they still won 13-8, but he dropped to 5 for 12.

[BanKs] You know, maybe it was a bit of like, obviously it's Inferno.

[BanKs] It's hard anyway.

[Devilwalk] It's a tough hoping map.

[BanKs] How many terrorist rounds did it play?

[BanKs] um yeah he went two for six on the t side didn't play many t rounds and ct side anyway he got outplayed by molodoy quite a few times i saw it um

[BanKs] But still, still, the consistency he showed across all of it was crazy.

[BanKs] The clutches, the work he was able to put up there, you know, like,

[BanKs] And also he kept on his promise.

[BanKs] There was people that looked at him when he left G2 and went to follow Nico.

[BanKs] Why are you following Nico?

[BanKs] This is a guy that was with him from when he was like, remember,

[BanKs] When he first joined G2, it was always Nico on the far end and Manassi.

[BanKs] Same positions they sit on the tables now.

[BanKs] They even were living in the same city, right?

[BanKs] When he went to Serbia, you know?

[BanKs] And,

[BanKs] you even see this there's moments where Nico's posting pictures with his fiance they're out for dinner and Manassi's there as well this is like a partnership more than a friendship it's like some brotherhood for real yeah and Manassi said this I will deliver Nico his first major

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] and he kept that promise and this is a young guy who is still humble incredibly well spoken super respectful whenever i talk to him when i talk to and when he talks to my wife for example right when we're there all together and we're spending time together outside of the game um his brother was there his brother's wife was there family cheering him on supporting him in the crowd

[BanKs] Like, this guy went from speaking Russian on Na'Vi Junior, which was Ukrainian and Russian team, to then going international, being bought out for 600k as a rookie, which was crazy, and then been through hell and back, lost eight finals, eight finals in a row with no trophy.

[Devilwalk] They put a record, right?

[Devilwalk] There was some kind of record of longest... You know, record... Yeah.

[BanKs] drought of it and even he even got two MVPs while losing these finals because of his insanely good performance yeah and you look at the video that's his player profile you hear from his grandma and his mum you know

[BanKs] His brother, all the way they're talking about him and all he's done.

[BanKs] He deserves this major win and the MVP by far.

[BanKs] And he still has so much more to give to the game.

[BanKs] He is someone that I think

[BanKs] Other players, because of how humble and how respectful he is and how smart he is with what he's doing and how he's putting his career, other young players should 100% look up to.

[Devilwalk] 100% I think you know he's incredible in the way that he's such a superstar but incredibly kind well-spoken respectful no matter who he's speaking with I completely agree with you I mean yes

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] Look at how he was for us for hours, for hours when he did that interview with us.

[Devilwalk] I mean, incredibly good person, and it shines through.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] So yeah, I agree.

[Devilwalk] Well-earned.

[Devilwalk] the one thing i'll say is this was wasn't just a monitor show i think it wasn't just you know um like some teams they have like a mvp and you see obviously he's mvp yeah

[BanKs] No.

[BanKs] 100%.

[BanKs] Definitely ZywOo.

[BanKs] Definitely Donk.

[BanKs] Yeah, you know.

[BanKs] It's got to be harder for ZywOo.

[Devilwalk] This was.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] But this was a crazy performance.

[Devilwalk] You know from everyone.

[Devilwalk] Nico you know he showed up.

[Devilwalk] And he really wanted this.

[Devilwalk] You could see it on him.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] Well, I wanted to save Nico till last because I wanted to do a little bit more on Tess's criminally underrated.

[Devilwalk] He pushed that extra.

[Devilwalk] Okay.

[Devilwalk] Okay.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] Also been in a major final before and lost it.

[Devilwalk] 100%.

[BanKs] Didn't get a chance to interview as well, right?

[Devilwalk] Was it heroic?

[BanKs] Didn't get a chance to be spoken to.

[BanKs] Tess says has been the one everyone said should be cut.

[BanKs] He's the next to go.

[BanKs] And guess what?

[BanKs] Kerrigan's also unlocked him to be used correctly.

[BanKs] Tess says, if you, so the good thing is when we were doing that, you know, I said I was in that media press zone.

[BanKs] Lots of people then after, especially some Danish media, wanted to interview Tess.

[BanKs] So he did get to do interviews as well.

[BanKs] I couldn't grab him because at the time I was interviewing Kiosuke.

[BanKs] But Tess says,

[BanKs] Bro, the clutches, the great utility.

[BanKs] Can you bring up clutch stats?

[BanKs] Can you see that?

[Devilwalk] Oh, let me see here.

[BanKs] I know I'm asking you on the fly.

[Devilwalk] One of four.

[BanKs] I'll keep glazing testers, but I don't care if his rating isn't what everyone's going to be like.

[BanKs] Oh, wow.

[BanKs] It's so amazing.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] Let's have a look at how did he do in group stage.

[BanKs] So group stage, 1.10.

[BanKs] And then if we go overall for the stage, embarrassment.

[Devilwalk] Yeah, the 104 in, no, no, wait, what?

[Devilwalk] What am I looking at here?

[BanKs] We have 1.04 overall, if you put both the group stage and playoffs together.

[BanKs] And then for playoffs, he was 0.96.

[BanKs] In his role, with those teammates all around him, taking a lot of the kills away, right?

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] He is holding his own.

[BanKs] He is sometimes just going out there to die with Kyosuke trading him off, right?

[BanKs] That we saw many times on the T side.

[BanKs] This is a player who has a hundred.

[Devilwalk] I mean, he has zero space to play the game.

[Devilwalk] Like, you have Niko.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] And.

[Devilwalk] Obviously, Kerrigan is a very active in-game leader as well in rounds, which obviously leaves even less space for Galateses.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] He's in the corner like this.

[Devilwalk] But on your point, there's so many moments where

[Devilwalk] You know, even on Mirage, he gets a double kill when Fury pushes Palace, right?

[Devilwalk] Because he's incredibly, you know, almost ROPS-like in the way that he takes that first duel.

[BanKs] Yep.

[Devilwalk] He doesn't even look all the way into apps.

[Devilwalk] He takes it, waits four to five seconds, and he's full ready that they are there.

[Devilwalk] Like 100% ready that they're going to be there and get the double kill and they win the round.

[Devilwalk] He's not going to get amazed like a lot of kills, but as you say, he's criminally underrated.

[Devilwalk] He's often left alone on bomb sites with minimal coverage, minimal support, and still gets enough.

[Devilwalk] for the superstars to kind of bite in and grab the whole round for them.

[BanKs] Yep.

[Devilwalk] You know, I can tell you it is incredibly hard to be that kind of like

[Devilwalk] you know a b-anchor or something like that and your short player is out fighting every single round you probably felt it in faces and you're just sighing and thinking where the fuck is my guy you're never there with me

[BanKs] Yep.

[Devilwalk] I'm not saying that is the case, but I'm just saying he doesn't get an overwhelming amount of support and it does really, really well.

[BanKs] Yep.

[BanKs] No.

[BanKs] And this is like, to come back a little bit to Kerrigan just to compliment testers in this is Kerrigan in just a short amount of time understands how to use every piece of this team, which wasn't done in the past.

[BanKs] And I think even Zonic will be able to say like he didn't see how this could be used, you know, because

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] This way of playing.

[BanKs] Munnessy said, I think on the HLTV MVP award interview, right?

[BanKs] That like, I don't want to misquote it, but my internet doesn't load anything fast here.

[BanKs] On Kerrigan.

[BanKs] The things we are doing, all the rotations, the chaos we are building on the server, this is me.

[BanKs] This is who I am.

[BanKs] And he's done that for Kyosuke as well.

[BanKs] You know?

[BanKs] And also, Niko, let's just... So, have we done on testers?

[BanKs] The final testers?

[Devilwalk] I'm fine with testers, yeah.

[BanKs] Actually, I'll do one more thing.

[BanKs] Let's just, I'm just going to look quickly because I think Tesla should be glazed a bit more than even what I've tried to do that because I'm, I'm so impressed with him.

[BanKs] Right.

[BanKs] Then I'm going to look down all his big events.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] From his time on Heroic, where they're supposed to have been doing well and all these things, right?

[BanKs] And all these trophies to their names.

[BanKs] So on Heroic, they had last Premier Spring Final win.

[BanKs] Last Premier, full final 2022.

[BanKs] They then had tons of second places, right?

[BanKs] Including a major second place as well.

[BanKs] Yeah?

[BanKs] Rio 2023.

[BanKs] This guy has gone through it all for such a long portion of his career.

[Devilwalk] Yep.

[BanKs] His career...

[BanKs] Like if we go back to it from optic heroic, yeah.

[BanKs] Now to Falcons, the unlikely Falcon who has now helped be part of this, getting his major glory and doing what no one else and probably no one else who was part of that heroic lineup could do.

[BanKs] I don't think anyone else from the old heroic will have a chance of winning a major.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] I could say that quite confidently.

[BanKs] If you look at where they all are right now.

[Devilwalk] I think.

[Devilwalk] I think you're right, but I also think that we have to also appreciate the way that he's been thrown around in this team.

[BanKs] Yep.

[Devilwalk] You know, his shift roles multiple times and it's all to cater to his teammates, make sure that they...

[Devilwalk] are utilized even more he's had to step back further and further back into this team and he's taken it with a stride and he's done incredible work you know there was at one point

[BanKs] Yep.

[Devilwalk] That if I would look back at all kind of heroic Tessas and say, like, there's not a chance in hell Tessas is going to be an anchor, you know?

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] Dude, I remember the great spray controls, the multiple modems he would have.

[Devilwalk] Yes.

[BanKs] And dude, I'm just, I just looked at him to see he's played nine majors.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] Yep.

[BanKs] And there was, so the legends for Copenhagen major.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] That was his worst placing.

[BanKs] And then other than that, third to fourth, Stockholm.

[Devilwalk] Yep.

[BanKs] Quarterfinal, Antwerp.

[BanKs] Second place, Rio.

[BanKs] Third to fourth, Paris.

[BanKs] Quarterfinal, Perfect World, Shanghai Major.

[BanKs] austin or austin was the worst place to stage two they fell out of then quarterfinal again budapest and now first place people can't just keep looking at stats and criminally underrating

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] great players like this, who also you don't think, they just think he's in this role now, but what you said, what he's gone through, what he's changed at the same time.

[Devilwalk] Because this is a huge change.

[BanKs] It's so cool.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] We were hyping up someone like Heavygold who stepped into that role and took it brilliantly.

[BanKs] Yep.

[BanKs] Same thing here without the numbers.

[Devilwalk] But same thing here.

[Devilwalk] Tess has done it probably more times, you know, changed position.

[Devilwalk] At one point, you know, he was the support on the outside, then he became the inner lurker.

[Devilwalk] All of a sudden, you know, it's a huge shift in what you're doing in the roundabout pacing.

[Devilwalk] It takes a lot of games to get that going with...

[Devilwalk] Not only how to play the position in isolation, how to play the position in context of what your team is doing.

[Devilwalk] So, yeah, huge amount of respect for what is done.

[BanKs] Definitely.

[BanKs] And then before we get to Niko, we need to talk about Zonic a bit.

[BanKs] Because...

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] For a long time, with how it went after Vitality, I'm even to blame on this.

[BanKs] I was saying Blade is the goat coach, right?

[BanKs] Because, yeah, Zonic won more majors, but look at the stuff that Blade had to work with.

[BanKs] A lot less on the player material.

[BanKs] But this bounce back, right, of obviously having a voice and being able to say, I'm going to take Kerrigan, which also was a risk to do mid-season and then pull off this major.

[BanKs] People can't say that it's all Kerrigan.

[BanKs] And I'm sure Kerrigan won't say it's all Kerrigan with how much Zonic's experience is in there, right?

[BanKs] But he definitely gave the keys to Kerrigan to allow him to do the things he wanted to do and then backed him up and supported him with it.

[BanKs] And this is a Zonic who is now 39, was a champion in 1.6,

[BanKs] Yeah, has the six majors to his name that no one else has across a full Danish lineup into an international vitality and now a very international Falcons as well.

[BanKs] It is wild the journey he's been on.

[BanKs] And just when you thought he might be down and out on it, he kicks back in.

[BanKs] And did you read his tweet earlier?

[BanKs] Did you see that?

[Devilwalk] Yep.

[Devilwalk] Yeah, I did.

[BanKs] So he wanted to clear up some of the conversation that people were saying about like potentially him retiring.

[BanKs] And he says, just for clarification, yes, I am tired as any other coach and player is after a long season.

[BanKs] I've been doing this for 10 years straight with the expectation to win the biggest trophies.

[BanKs] And I love this life deep down to the bottom of my heart.

[BanKs] In the landscape of VRS, no Louvre agreement, et cetera, means there is a lot of tournaments.

[BanKs] Last year, I did some statistics on the spring season of 2025.

[BanKs] Total calendar days from the 3rd of January to the end of our season, 11th of June, when we lost in Stage 2, 161 days.

[BanKs] Yeah?

[BanKs] Days traveling, 126.

[BanKs] Days off, 24.

[BanKs] Days at home, 35.

[BanKs] And he has two kids and a wife and his kids are older and older.

[BanKs] I remember when they won the first gold bars of Astralis and his kid was on stage as I was giving out the gold bars to them.

[BanKs] Like,

[Devilwalk] Hell.

[BanKs] it's it's gonna it's very hard right to be able to do this life and obviously i love the fact that he's saying he's discussing it all with his wife and what he's working on and them all agreeing it to go forward but he's definitely he's definitely shot a lot of haters up now and you know you you can't

[BanKs] You can't not say that he is the GOAT coach now.

[BanKs] No one can argue that now.

[BanKs] But people will still argue and just say, oh, Kerrigan does it all because some people are stupid.

[Devilwalk] No, I think

[Devilwalk] I think sometimes, you know, as a coach, you have to realize, you know, okay, there are some things that I, as a coach, am either not good at or am not good enough at for this team to function in the way that I envision it to function.

[BanKs] Mm hmm.

[Devilwalk] And that doesn't mean that you're any worse of a coach because you cannot do these things or can't make it work.

[Devilwalk] But it's your ultimate responsibility

[Devilwalk] to give out the tasks for the people around you to make sure that it works or get those aspects that you want into a team.

[Devilwalk] And he's most certainly done that.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] And I think that's where you, you know,

[Devilwalk] I think you can criticize sometimes the journey of what has happened throughout.

[Devilwalk] But it's gone to this period.

[Devilwalk] He's won another major.

[Devilwalk] He's done it with three separate teams, if I'm not mistaken.

[Devilwalk] And no other coach has done this.

[BanKs] Yep, Astralis vitality.

[BanKs] Falcons.

[Devilwalk] And no other coach has done that.

[BanKs] Yes.

[Devilwalk] No other coach has been in three different teams and won a major.

[BanKs] It's bonkers.

[Devilwalk] That is an unbelievable achievement.

[BanKs] Now, there's one thing that I can't explain and I need you to explain.

[BanKs] So

[Devilwalk] Okay.

[BanKs] Nico.

[BanKs] An almost MVP level-like performance, especially in playoffs, dominating as well, right?

[Devilwalk] Yep.

[BanKs] But...

[BanKs] How has Carrigan activated him as well as the others?

[BanKs] Because that's the bit I can't put my foot on.

[BanKs] Because I want to... Maybe I'll look at some stats as well.

[BanKs] There was a time where we said about...

[BanKs] um nico calling too much you know talking too much and it like hindering him and then him struggling in playoffs it's not the most like huge jump up but if we just look at it and compare it to a lot of events this year this major run was definitely better and we know he's still calling the ct sides right

[BanKs] Is this just synergy with Kerrigan, or is this just what he was able to pull off because it was the major and the desire for it and the run the team was having?

[BanKs] Where do we put this now?

[BanKs] Because this was not prime Nikko, but this was dominant Nikko.

[Devilwalk] I put it on the fact that he doesn't have to be the leader.

[Devilwalk] I put it on the fact that he doesn't have to be the one to take that leadership mantle.

[BanKs] Mm hmm.

[Devilwalk] He can chime in, he can do it when he feels like it, but he's not forced to do it when it takes the most amount of energy to do it.

[Devilwalk] I think Kerrigan alleviates him some of that responsibility and gives him more focus on the game and what he needs to do and what he needs to produce.

[Devilwalk] as he once were you know when he was younger and he didn't mantle this leadership role within a team like he he did in g2 like he um did in um in falcons before kerrigan came because no matter what you know kickson is a great in-game leader

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] But to lead a team of this amount of talent and expectation

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] There's not that many people that can do, and I think that Kerrigan has alleviated him of responsibilities, maybe, or how should I phrase it?

[Devilwalk] He doesn't always have to be the guy that everyone leans on, because now he has Kerrigan to back him up in the server.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] i think it's something along those lines that that's you know because i mean most of the great play has been you know vintage nico it's been city size that he's been great on you can look at this um play of statistics

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] let's just put it up here stats players and then playoff let's see here so

[Devilwalk] Niko obviously ended on 121 rating.

[Devilwalk] You look at his T-side.

[Devilwalk] Still significantly nerfed T-sides.

[Devilwalk] 105 rating with a 0.90 KD.

[BanKs] yeah when he's calling as well yeah and that read of the game you know the read of the game the knowledge of what people are doing

[Devilwalk] on T sides but his CT side is the best player of the entire event it's a 135 rating and 146 KD in 9 maps yeah and I think it

[Devilwalk] I think he gets more time to focus on what he needs to focus on while he gets alleviated from the leadership things that we talked with Major about.

[Devilwalk] balancing people's moods making sure that other people play great and are in the zone now he gets to focus on his zone and that's when we see him performing the best

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] And this is a thing, right?

[BanKs] We went from being able to always say Niko was the greatest rifler of all time, but then Donk took that because he got the major MVP and the major trophy.

[BanKs] But now Niko probably is the greatest rifler of...

[BanKs] Like, a long time.

[BanKs] Donk still beats him, you know, in the numbers and stuff like that.

[Devilwalk] what a title what a title deco you're a great the greatest rifler of a long time a long time yes but it just sounds terrible man

[BanKs] But, you know what I mean?

[BanKs] Like, the longevity of it.

[BanKs] The longevity of it.

[BanKs] Donk exists, right?

[BanKs] There's not much we can do about that.

[BanKs] Okay, I'll workshop the name.

[BanKs] I won't tell Nico this.

[BanKs] Nico, if you're watching, I apologize.

[BanKs] I'm so sorry.

[BanKs] But then looking at this, right, it's also this redemption.

[BanKs] So E-League Major, second place with Kerrigan.

[BanKs] Like we said, should have won.

[BanKs] And then the rumors are he kicks Kerrigan, all that stuff.

[Devilwalk] Yep.

[BanKs] And then after that,

[BanKs] They get quarterfinals, legends, Stockholm.

[BanKs] They get a second place.

[BanKs] So another second place.

[BanKs] That was 2021.

[BanKs] That was the last time he was in a final of a major.

[BanKs] Then Antwerp, they don't even make it to playoffs and Faye's going to win it with Carrigan.

[BanKs] Paris Major, legends again.

[BanKs] That crazy event they were supposed to win because they were dominating so well, right?

[BanKs] Didn't happen.

[BanKs] Copenhagen, top four.

[BanKs] Shanghai Major, top four.

[BanKs] And everyone almost thought they were going to win Shanghai.

[BanKs] Then the early parts of Falcons was a struggle in Austin where it was failure in stage two.

[BanKs] Budapest, just a quarters game.

[BanKs] And now you're back with Carrigan eight years later.

[BanKs] Do you know what the only cherry on top would have been if he managed to get MVP?

[BanKs] you know that would have been the golden thing but i think it doesn't matter because did you see those photos did you see him jumping up did you see how like how much it meant for him and because he remember he's already lifted the cologne trophy before he knew exactly how to lift it perfectly for that great moment and i loved i got a video over my phone because obviously i had that great bird's eye view

[Devilwalk] yeah but.

[BanKs] that they all let him lift it first, you know?

[BanKs] Because he was still the greatest player to do it without a major trophy.

[BanKs] And now he's just going to be the greatest player to ever do it without a major MVP.

[Devilwalk] Yeah, I mean, he did...

[BanKs] That's it.

[BanKs] Now that's what he has to get now.

[BanKs] The goalpost continues to move.

[Devilwalk] He definitely had like an MVP-like performance, especially in that finals.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] So I think no one can really... It's almost like in the same aspect of saying, you know, Messi...

[Devilwalk] You didn't win on MVP.

[Devilwalk] Or Flamese.

[Devilwalk] You didn't win on MVP.

[Devilwalk] But you have Saivoo in the team.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] I think to some degree.

[Devilwalk] It's the same.

[Devilwalk] For Aniko.

[Devilwalk] You have Kyosuke.

[Devilwalk] You have Modesty.

[Devilwalk] He's obviously always going to put up numbers.

[Devilwalk] It's going to be incredibly tough throughout like a nine map playoff to match that.

[Devilwalk] And he almost did.

[Devilwalk] So you gotta give props to him for that.

[BanKs] But people always do it.

[Devilwalk] And I think that no one can really say it in that way.

[Devilwalk] You know, he didn't win the MVP.

[Devilwalk] I think that's kind of just finding ways to hate.

[BanKs] That's what I was saying.

[BanKs] I just read a few of those comments and people always do it.

[Devilwalk] Yeah, but it's...

[Devilwalk] I think people are going to shut it down pretty easy with a... What did they have?

[BanKs] exactly a pretty good MVP level performance dude I was trying to find someone commented on one of our so we have a short from Manassi ages ago yeah

[Devilwalk] 145 major final rating?

[Devilwalk] They're going to shut them down pretty quick.

[BanKs] where we had him on the podcast and we made a short out of it.

[BanKs] And it says, um, like we, we pushed him about our will Falcons get kiosk, you know?

[BanKs] And one is he's like, yeah, he's pretty good, but like, you know, he's just scurrying around.

[BanKs] It doesn't know if it's going to happen.

[BanKs] Blah, blah, blah.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] Obviously, he probably had a good idea it was going to happen, but he couldn't leak it to us.

[BanKs] And then someone commented after all this time and said, this aged well.

[BanKs] Because there's so many comments of people like, it won't change anything, oil money, blah, blah, blah.

[Devilwalk] I mean he's not Donk he's different and he's special but he's he's Kiosk that's it you know we don't need to say more

[BanKs] The kid won't be like, don't, da, da, da.

[BanKs] And it's like, look how this has all worked out.

[BanKs] Look how this has all come together, you know?

[BanKs] And it's come together in a crazy way.

[BanKs] No.

[BanKs] Yep.

[BanKs] And he's been unlocked.

[BanKs] That's the main thing.

[BanKs] And also, by the way, the biggest flex is like you go on Kiosko's profile.

[BanKs] All right.

[BanKs] And you click on it.

[Devilwalk] The only trophy.

[BanKs] And there's just, the only trophy is a major trophy.

[BanKs] Like, I don't, has that been done many times?

[BanKs] I guess it's done a few times.

[BanKs] The Outsiders guys, for example.

[BanKs] But I mean, maybe even they won a smaller trophy before that, but like 18 years old, first trophy.

[BanKs] That's another thing.

[BanKs] When I did the interview with him, he was like, for some of my teammates, it took 12 years, but here I am.

[BanKs] And it's my first trophy.

[Devilwalk] My first trophy was DreamHack Winter 2013.

[BanKs] So yours is major first trophy as well.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] See, there you go.

[BanKs] He's in good company, you and him.

[BanKs] We are going to have to get Kiosko on the podcast.

[BanKs] We're going to have to make it happen.

[BanKs] If he says he'll only talk to me, I'll have to say, can you also talk to Devwalk?

[BanKs] And then we'll be fine.

[BanKs] Everything will be good.

[BanKs] That'll be a crazy one.

[Devilwalk] We've already had one.

[Devilwalk] We've had the icebreaker interview.

[BanKs] No, but I mean, yeah, exactly.

[BanKs] So, I mean, to get him on and do the proper, the full one would be crazy.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] Also, two majors and it's just quarterfinal first place.

[BanKs] I want to see how much further this goes as well with more time and what they can do.

[BanKs] It definitely makes the beginning of next season super more exciting, especially if Kerrigan is going to grind out like crazy on it.

[Devilwalk] We'll see what kind of beast Vitality has awoken with.

[BanKs] But... Yeah.

[Devilwalk] If this brings some hunger back to everyone and all of that, it's going to be interesting.

[BanKs] So that's it.

[BanKs] That was the cologne major 2026, 10 years later, record breaking viewership, a Falcons win.

[BanKs] We got our Q and a, I know that.

[BanKs] And that's what you're going to say next.

[Devilwalk] Q and a M. Yep.

[BanKs] It can't miss the Q and a, there's a lot of questions in the chat, but, um,

[BanKs] What a crazy good major.

[BanKs] Like I said, I was choked up and emotional and sad I wasn't there, but I still got to do some interviews of some sort that got posted online.

[BanKs] And actually, the fact I got to shed some light on someone like Kyosuke who didn't even get a chance to do it makes me happy.

[BanKs] I just can't wait to be back.

[BanKs] I'm going to XSE Pro League next and next majors I'm not too worried about.

[BanKs] They should be fine.

[BanKs] It's going to be good, man.

[BanKs] Actually, I messaged Kerrigan.

[BanKs] I'm just leaking all my DMs.

[BanKs] Look at this.

[BanKs] Where is it?

[BanKs] Kerrigan.

[BanKs] So Kerrigan put a story up, yeah?

[BanKs] And he said, the comeback is always greater than the setback.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] And I said, this is me after not working the clone major.

[BanKs] I said, this is the motivation I'm going to use for the rest of the events, you know?

[BanKs] Because the comeback is always going to be greater.

[BanKs] Even on the interviews I did at the end.

[BanKs] That comeback is going to be greater.

[BanKs] I promise.

[BanKs] Even at XSE, I might have to deliver the most crazy hype.

[BanKs] Like it's a major.

[BanKs] Just for that event.

[BanKs] I might have to go full on.

[Devilwalk] Sometimes, when we did the Budapest Major, for example, when you did your stage intros for the day in the arena,

[BanKs] Maybe I can.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] Like, I kid you not, guys.

[Devilwalk] Like, this man is almost fainting when he comes back into the green room.

[Devilwalk] This motherfucker needs to breathe for like 10 minutes.

[BanKs] Dude, I'm so, like, thing is, people don't see it, right?

[BanKs] So, like, as soon as that lights go off, I'm trying to walk off the stage.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] Some people are like, take a picture inside.

[BanKs] And I'm like, I can't breathe.

[BanKs] It's like, I got no energy left.

[BanKs] Because I literally just, I want to push it all out and give it to everyone.

[BanKs] And then you end up so sweaty and crazy.

[BanKs] I just sit down, and I sit down, take the jacket off, and I'm like, I die here for a little bit.

[BanKs] So, yeah, bro, I got so much motivation, so much energy.

[BanKs] The comeback will be stronger.

[BanKs] That is 100% than a setback.

[BanKs] I have learned from Kerrigan.

[Devilwalk] Should I start?

[BanKs] Where are the questions?

[BanKs] Pfft.

[Devilwalk] In the document.

[BanKs] Okay, they're in the document.

[BanKs] Here we go.

[BanKs] Yeah, you can start.

[BanKs] Ooh.

[Devilwalk] Okay, so this is from Masaru.

[Devilwalk] With Falcons finally winning the major trophy, will this boost their mentality and start an era?

[Devilwalk] I think, personally, I don't think it's era-defining moment for Falcons.

[Devilwalk] I think this just

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] might break a little bit of Vitality's era.

[Devilwalk] I think it's going to be a super competitive season coming up.

[Devilwalk] Obviously, cash comes into the map pool.

[Devilwalk] Falcons, their vetoed map of Overpass is removed.

[Devilwalk] A lot of things pushes Falcons up a little bit of a step, but I still don't think that we saw them dominate their way to a major win.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] I didn't think, you know, they played amazing.

[Devilwalk] Don't get me wrong.

[Devilwalk] But it wasn't demolition.

[Devilwalk] It was close and they grinded their way through it and they won an amazing major.

[Devilwalk] Probably the best major I've ever seen as a spectator.

[Devilwalk] but I think it's going to be an open more open at least season coming up but I don't think it's sparking an error yet but I might be a pessimist

[BanKs] We can't start even like the way I'd look at it is yes.

[BanKs] It will boost their mentality.

[BanKs] Yes.

[BanKs] They're going to come in super confident, but they can just as easily go in like vitality did and lose the blast bounty or something like that.

[Devilwalk] Yes, yes, yes.

[BanKs] I'm not even sure if Falcons are going blast bounty, but I mean that.

[Devilwalk] They played without expectations now and now they're gonna have all the expectations.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] Everything changes.

[BanKs] Everyone's going to understand some of the craziness that can happen, right?

[BanKs] And start to look at it more because this was a bit of like a shock.

[BanKs] People were thinking they second place at CAC.

[BanKs] They were second place at Astana.

[BanKs] By the way, Kerrigan actually said to me another thing from my interview with Kerrigan.

[BanKs] Um, he said that like the second places and what they were able to take from that helped them so much knowing that they could lose to a legacy.

[BanKs] You know, that was like that CAC one was really important for him.

[Devilwalk] Bit early.

[BanKs] But yeah, I think it will definitely boost their mentality.

[BanKs] But starting an era, you have to wait and see.

[BanKs] You never know who else is going to... Their setback is going to make their comeback.

[BanKs] All right, next question is Aska.

[BanKs] By the way, I met Aska's friend at the event.

[BanKs] They said Aska was like a huge fan of the podcast, always sending in questions.

[Devilwalk] Oh yeah.

[BanKs] So I signed something for them to go back to them.

[BanKs] So yeah, Aska, we know you.

[BanKs] We know all the questions you're sending in.

[BanKs] So they said, I know that Banks was in Cologne, but not sure about Devil.

[BanKs] No, he was at home.

[Devilwalk] I was at home.

[BanKs] I was sending him voice notes from fans who watched the podcast.

[Devilwalk] I didn't answer the question back with a voice note.

[Devilwalk] I didn't assume that he would get the answer instantly.

[BanKs] No, no, that was already gone by then.

[Devilwalk] But he asked me why I put my pants down at the major.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] We've told this story though.

[Devilwalk] Yeah, we have.

[Devilwalk] Many times.

[BanKs] Okay, you can answer it quickly.

[BanKs] Do a quick summary of why you pulled your pants down when you won the major for this one guy.

[Devilwalk] I made a bet with Thorin when I think we won the quarterfinal or something like that.

[Devilwalk] And we had an interview after the game.

[Devilwalk] And he asked me if I would take my shirt off because one of the panelists or analysts were a Norwegian player who'd done it in the past.

[Devilwalk] I said no, but I'll take my pants off.

[BanKs] obviously it's foreign getting introduced in madness like this like being the mastermind behind some of this was perfect absolutely perfect

[Devilwalk] And so I did.

[Devilwalk] If I win the major.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] But the question...

[BanKs] So Aska's question is, was this the greatest major in the history of CS, in your opinion?

[BanKs] From a crowd perspective, no, because there's only 15,000 in Cologne.

[BanKs] But if ESL went to a 360 stage like they're doing in Krakow, it could be 20,000.

[BanKs] And that would have been amazing.

[BanKs] Budapest still is the number one of all majors in terms of crowd.

[BanKs] and energy and hype and feeling.

[BanKs] And I've seen the majority of them when we're big.

[BanKs] But it was the greatest major in the history of CS in terms of games and excitement and storylines.

[Devilwalk] 100%.

[Devilwalk] 100%.

[Devilwalk] 100%.

[BanKs] And it's...

[BanKs] I don't think it's that close because we normally get scuffed in the majors so hard.

[BanKs] But I thought that playoff bracket was going to screw us and we got bangers.

[Devilwalk] We got some really good games and it's almost like it made it more exciting because we had so many good games early on and they just kept delivering and kept delivering.

[Devilwalk] And I think it was from a viewer's perspective.

[Devilwalk] The greatest major.

[Devilwalk] For me, watching from home, it was the greatest major in the history of CS.

[Devilwalk] I can't compare anything else with it because I've

[Devilwalk] It's just the fact that there's so little that could have changed the entire story of this event through multiple games.

[BanKs] yeah oh the big NRG one that stands out straight away even though it's like no them teams didn't get that far

[Devilwalk] And it's not even only about playoff.

[Devilwalk] There were some

[Devilwalk] amazing games in the group stage of Stage 3.

[Devilwalk] There was incredible games in Stage 2.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] I think there was so many incredible storylines throughout the entire major.

[Devilwalk] I wasn't even, you know, obviously there's a step down in stage one when you look at the game quality and stuff like that.

[Devilwalk] But I still think that stage one delivered more

[Devilwalk] This time around, comparably to other stage ones that I've seen.

[Devilwalk] And I think that the whole journey of this major was great from start to end.

[Devilwalk] And that is why I think this was the greatest major in CS history.

[BanKs] only thing i disagree with what you said is that stage one stage one for me was still you know it's still like i wasn't super proud about it

[Devilwalk] Yeah, but it was still better.

[Devilwalk] I've seen worse.

[BanKs] true very true alright next question is from Zapple he says is Niko now the greatest rifler of all time top of the scene for 10 years devil move your fucking cursor I can't read the question if your name is over the top of it

[BanKs] You, Belen.

[BanKs] And now also the major people used to say he couldn't be the greatest because he didn't have a major.

[Devilwalk] He's the greatest rifler of long time!

[BanKs] I did coin that phrase.

[BanKs] It's a terrible phrase.

[BanKs] Devil hates it, but he's still going to be about it.

[BanKs] I just don't think he can be the greatest rifle of all time because of Donk's crazy success so young.

[BanKs] If Donk fell off a cliff, not in real life, but if he dropped off in performance massively and we didn't see him come back, then

[BanKs] Yeah, probably Nico would be hard to overtake.

[BanKs] But people are even questioning the difference between Nico and Rops, right?

[BanKs] So, yeah, I think it still sits as Donk.

[Devilwalk] No, I don't think he's the greatest rifler of all time.

[Devilwalk] But it sounds so bad when you say it, but I don't mean any disrespect to him because he's still in that category of a top three.

[Devilwalk] He's still in this discussion of it.

[BanKs] At 29 years old.

[Devilwalk] yeah and you know obviously everyone's gonna have their preferences uh either or the other way but i feel like you know as you mentioned drops there is um donk and i think there's

[BanKs] Stop clicking and start talking.

[BanKs] I'm watching him on the document.

[BanKs] Click a million places.

[Devilwalk] But you don't have to say that.

[Devilwalk] It's my concentration method.

[BanKs] This guy is like just this.

[Devilwalk] You don't need to.

[Devilwalk] You need to look at me.

[BanKs] You're just going like this.

[Devilwalk] Look at me.

[Devilwalk] Don't look.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] I'm doing this all the time.

[Devilwalk] But either way.

[BanKs] I'll give my top three I think personally

[Devilwalk] I don't think, I think there's many cases, but he's 100% in the top five for me of greatest riflers of all time.

[Devilwalk] But I don't think that he is number one.

[Devilwalk] Yeah, you could argue that.

[BanKs] Alright, next question is yours.

[BanKs] Now you can actually do some reading.

[Devilwalk] Casper unpopular opinion do you think it would be incorrect to say that although Falcons performed really well at the major their run wasn't as hard as it seems

[BanKs] Oh.

[Devilwalk] My key points would be that they went up against a navi that isn't in their best form, a vitality that is burnt out, a coachless spirit and a furia that had an extremely easy stage 3 run.

[BanKs] Okay, let me start.

[BanKs] Because I'm glad you said we can flame you.

[BanKs] No, I'm not going to flame you.

[BanKs] Don't worry, Kasper.

[BanKs] But I'll look at this.

[BanKs] They did perform really well.

[BanKs] But their run was as hard as it seems.

[BanKs] So look at Navi.

[BanKs] Navi was in really good form before this major.

[BanKs] So just because they got eliminated doesn't take anything away from that.

[BanKs] Vitality were not burnt out.

[BanKs] because they've been through longer, crazier runs and they managed this.

[Devilwalk] They've been resting it too much.

[BanKs] Yeah, they've been managing their schedule so well.

[BanKs] So they're not the coach of spirit one.

[BanKs] That is an argument you can take.

[BanKs] That's definitely a point.

[BanKs] Maybe with Hallie, it changes, right?

[BanKs] And then the Furio one, they did have an extremely easy stage three.

[BanKs] But there's still a fury with very skilled individuals, with players that can dominate at any time, that know how to play, maybe not in a major final, but across majors.

[BanKs] Fulham definitely does in terms of all of it.

[BanKs] So I don't think it is...

[BanKs] Fair to say their run wasn't as hard as it seems because I think every game except Furia was incredibly hard for them.

[BanKs] And it's just the only one I can look at with you is the Spirit one because of the coach thing, which we touched on earlier in the show.

[Devilwalk] Yeah, I mean, no matter what, I mean, these are still like... Even though small things, especially in the high competitive world, have some major impact,

[Devilwalk] I think no matter when you look through history, everyone has issues they deal with.

[Devilwalk] Every team has problems.

[Devilwalk] It's not sunshine and everything for any run at the major, for any team that has done it.

[Devilwalk] You know, you need some luck with you and you need some

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] circumstances to just be in your favor.

[Devilwalk] Falcons had it, but they played the absolute best teams in the tournament.

[Devilwalk] They played the absolute best teams in the world.

[Devilwalk] It doesn't matter if they are not up to par that day compared to the other day.

[Devilwalk] They played the hardest teams.

[Devilwalk] They did the hardest route.

[Devilwalk] And I don't think there's been a harder route to a major win than Falcons ever.

[Devilwalk] Because normally we don't get every single good team or every potential winner of the tournament in their side of the bracket.

[Devilwalk] And they went through it.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] they went through it you could make that argument in my opinion if Furia would have won the major

[BanKs] Yes.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] Same as like a Paris run for Vitality, right?

[BanKs] The same kind of conversation.

[Devilwalk] yeah but i don't think it's relevant uh with falcons in this case

[BanKs] And we didn't flame you for it.

[BanKs] We just explained it.

[BanKs] Um, add down one says is crims moving to eyeball as a straight up upgrade, or is it more of an experienced upgrade?

[BanKs] Bob XD was their best player, by the way.

[BanKs] I love Bob XD, JW and crims equals goo.

[BanKs] I don't know what that means.

[BanKs] Maybe that's something you understand.

[Devilwalk] Gua Gua Bar.

[BanKs] okay you understand you said it very swedish um the thing is right when i look down this move i would have removed someone like roy for decks and kept bob xd but do you know anything as to why

[Devilwalk] Bob XT was taken by Alliance.

[Devilwalk] So Bob XT got poached from Eyeballers to Alliance.

[BanKs] Ah, so they lost.

[BanKs] Okay, okay.

[Devilwalk] So Bob XT is the male 09 replacement in Alliance.

[BanKs] Where's mail now?

[Devilwalk] But he has always been a meta sports player.

[Devilwalk] He was on loan to Alliance after Alliance lost Poi to 100 Thieves.

[BanKs] Oh, and he's

[BanKs] But they couldn't buy him, right?

[BanKs] I remember reading it.

[BanKs] They couldn't buy mail.

[BanKs] Offer.

[Devilwalk] No, so it was something along the lines of they did their highest transfer sum offer to Metasports, but it wasn't accepted in the end.

[BanKs] Yeah, yeah.

[Devilwalk] And they couldn't go further with the offer, right?

[Devilwalk] So they made an effort.

[BanKs] Feels him.

[Devilwalk] but just couldn't agree on the pricing so it was reasonable for both parties and then they went to bobxt and he joined alliance and now crims obviously being removed from fnatic is now going to eyeballers um

[BanKs] Okay, now that makes sense.

[Devilwalk] I don't think... It's a weird one because obviously Crimps is still very, very capable on a very, very high level.

[Devilwalk] We've seen that.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] It's not

[BanKs] I get to see both of them in XSPE Pro League.

[BanKs] I can't wait.

[Devilwalk] Yeah, and they obviously have a great amount of synergy, JW and Krimz.

[Devilwalk] They played with each other for a very, very long time.

[BanKs] What does that mean?

[Devilwalk] There's definitely some Goa-Gobar vibes with that.

[Devilwalk] well directly well it just means like good uh how do i how do i phrase this in english it's it's hard because it's it's uh well it's like

[BanKs] OK.

[Devilwalk] Good buddy is like old men, you know?

[BanKs] OK, I got it.

[Devilwalk] And good way is just like good vibes, you know?

[Devilwalk] In some sense, that's how I would explain it.

[BanKs] I get it.

[Devilwalk] I don't know if that's like 100% accurate, but it's close, yeah.

[BanKs] It's your Swedish accurate, we'll take him.

[Devilwalk] Yeah, but I don't

[BanKs] But yeah, I'll let Devwalk answer that question because I've got no ideas on this.

[BanKs] I just looked at it as it's an experience thing and JW and Krimz get to play together again.

[BanKs] And as it was a free purchase, they didn't have to pay anything for him, you know?

[BanKs] Krimz gets to keep playing, reunite with JW, win-win.

[Devilwalk] I don't see it as an upgrade or a downgrade.

[Devilwalk] I just see it as Crim's probably, in some sense of the word, is going to be maybe a little bit higher than BobXD's start.

[Devilwalk] But I think BobXD has higher potential if we add time.

[BanKs] Bro, he was so good.

[BanKs] One of the bounties when we saw him, he was so good.

[Devilwalk] He's incredibly good.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[Devilwalk] But it's going to be a little bit of shift in roles because Krimz and BobXD are not the same player at all.

[BanKs] Yeah.

[BanKs] So there's some moving around.

[Devilwalk] So we'll see.

[BanKs] Am I reading the next one or are you?

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] Oh, yeah.

[Devilwalk] Me, from Kanareka.

[Devilwalk] after the major there were rumors about some decoration items gone missing fans went too enthusiastic to get souvenirs did you see anything like that happening and honestly what do you think about it maybe it's just to give the arena staff less work to clean i don't know what this means at all

[BanKs] Hmm.

[BanKs] yeah i so i didn't see it because obviously like i said i was up high and then i went to that media room um but i did hear about it's one of my other friends who was down in the premium seats was talking about it like

[BanKs] They're trying to take anything like decorations, stuff off the sides, anything they can get their hands onto.

[BanKs] I don't know if anyone got onto the stage to take it.

[BanKs] Personally, I always take some of the gold confetti that falls down from the events I have.

[BanKs] I've got a collection of that from different events at home.

[Devilwalk] Oh, so people take things from the stage or what?

[BanKs] But that's fine to take.

[BanKs] I just heard they were trying to take anything that was like banners and things that were placed around.

[BanKs] But that was more on the concourse.

[BanKs] I don't know if it happened on the stage.

[Devilwalk] OK.

[BanKs] This guy says stage decorations, which would mean like

[Devilwalk] Maybe it's just to give the arena staff less work to clean up.

[BanKs] Well, I don't know what happens to this stuff afterwards.

[BanKs] I'm pretty sure most of it can't be used anyway.

[BanKs] I don't think it's good if anyone takes anything that isn't theirs and just steals it, right?

[Devilwalk] Probably goes into storage to some degree, right?

[BanKs] If anything, you should go and ask like someone who works at ESL or one of the people there and say, I saw this.

[BanKs] Can I have it?

[BanKs] You know, I've done this before in a video game store when I saw they had a big banner.

[BanKs] of World of Warcraft, I asked them, I said, when you're done selling it and the promotion's over, can I come back to your store and take it?

[BanKs] And they're like, yeah, you can have it, you know?

[BanKs] So I got some of them big cardboard cutouts.

[BanKs] That's, asking's no problem.

[BanKs] But just stealing it would be pretty disrespectful.

[Devilwalk] Yeah.

[BanKs] Like, I'm not a fan of that.

[BanKs] Take some of the glittery stuff that falls from the ceiling when they win.

[BanKs] Do that.

[BanKs] All right, next one.