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Sleep is for the weak, they said, and it seems that David ‘Parker” Nicho Flores has some assessment to work on his game as he suddenly fell asleep during Mosquito Clan’s push for a big campaign in the FISSURE Special for Dota 2. So far, it has been a trending topic in the esports world, and many people are even calling it “the Parker incident” as of the time of writing. Online tournaments mean being at home and playing the game you love. However, that isn’t the case for Parker as he unceremoniously fell asleep right even before the match began. This was one of the rare incidents in the game, and one can say that this is indeed an isolated case that may not ever happen again – at least for now. So far, Mosquito Clan ended up with a promising run in the tournament, but it seems that it will be starting to make some second thoughts on playing Parker again at the very least. After all, you can’t actually expect someone to win big games if they keep on falling asleep in key games, let alone before it even begins. The Parker Incident Coming in as a substitute player for Mosquito Clan’s Dota 2 esports team after he had to replace Yheremi ‘payk’ Arroyo, Parker was expected to be a boost for the team with a crucial showdown versus OG brewing hot in the third day of the FISSURE Special. However, the game admins would later initiate a 10-minute pause after Parker was reported to be AFK. Estimated to be around the time of the draft phase in which players get to select their heroes and ban potential opponent picks, Parker was not responding and Mosquito Clan claimed that they could not contact him at the time. After 41 seconds of in-game run time, MC would go on to forfeit the match, forcing to hand OG an easy 2-0 win without any blood spilled. Mosquito Clan released a statement later regarding the incident. “By the time of the match against OG, it was already around 5 AM in Peru, and Parker wasn’t prepared in advance to play Dota all night,” Mosquito said in the social media platform X. “Unfortunately, at the most crucial moment, he simply didn’t have the energy to finish the game – the human factor is always unpredictable. We would also like to apologize to the organizers of Fissure Special for this accidental technical loss, as well as to the fans who were looking forward to the match.” Who is Parker? Unfortunately, Parker has a reputation of not being able to compete well at a high level. Formerly a player for HEROIC, Parker was benched last year after the team claimed that he showed a lack of desire to win when they played in the grand finals of the South American regional qualifier for ESL One Bangkok 2024. It was reported that Parker argued with the strategy that the team employed in the middle of the game against beastcoast, which was a pivotal part that proved to be the defining moment of the championship. After that incident, Parker would eventually leave HEROIC as he did not take the benching move lightly. It can also be remembered that he left Infinity by his own decision after the team opted to designate him as a substitute after he displayed “a lack of commitment to his teammates and staff."

Entering his 16th year in the pro Counter-Strike scene, Nikola “NiKo” Kovac has been one of the most prolific players that fans have seen over the years. He has established his dominance in the game and has been hailed as the legendary player that many fans have loved to watch dominate the game on the big stage. At the age of 28, the Bosnian star has been one of the reputable players in the Counter-Strike franchise – being one of the few players who have gone through playing the first generation Counter-Strike, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and now CS2. NiKo has shined bright in all three games, showing how great he has been over the decades. But despite all of those great feats at an individual level, NiKo has been eluded from winning a single Major in the game – in all games. Sure, there’s a lot of great games played by the star, but that has all led to zero Major championships, and not being able to win a single massive tournament at the top of the Counter-Strike scene is not a good look at his legacy. NiKo and the Chase for Majors NiKo isn’t a winless star. He is known for being able to carry a lot of powerhouse teams to success – winning 13 S-Tier tournaments with the likes of G2 Esports and FaZe Clan. At this point, one can say that the Bosnian star is really a great player in his own right. But not being able to win the most prestigious of all tournaments in Counter-Strike is really a tough break – even for the so-called best rifler in the game. After all these years, NiKo has not managed to get a single Major to himself, and now that he’s at the helm with Team Falcons, the star believes that he can still come up with a win and finally end that nightmarish drought that has haunted his legendary Counter-Strike career for years. “I consider myself one of the best riflers in the game, but still there are some things that I need to achieve in order to consider myself even higher. So, yeah it's all about the work and the results eventually.” said NiKo about his chase for greatness in the game. “We obviously know that success is going to take time – it just requires time – but we have a clear goal and a clear plan. And obviously the better results and the sooner they come, the better it is; but our goal is to reach our full potential by the end of the season for the Austin Major that is happening in May.” NiKo and the Falcons Team Falcons, unfortunately, hasn’t enjoyed all the rainbows and sunshine to start 2025. For what it is worth, it has been a roller coaster one so far – but there’s at least potential in their chances of winning. NiKo’s initial outing hasn’t been fun – losing out at the 9th-16th place in the BLAST Bounty Spring 2025. That’s not a good finish for a team that has the best rifler in CS history. They did improve in the later runs – finishing second in PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025 after they finished in 13th-16th place in IEM Katowice 2025. There are high expectations when you have the best player in the game, and this new project with the Falcons could well be the chance for NiKo to come up with a promising chance to win his first Major in a very long while.

This season has been quite up and down for Team Liquid and they haven’t seen impressive strides in the last three years, putting more pressure on the squad to come up with a needed win. However, after being knocked out of the BLAST Open Spring 2025 in what has been a tough loss, the team now enters the month of April without its head coach Torbjørn ‘mithR‘ Nyborg. 2025 has been a year of struggle for the team, and it cannot be denied that there are still expectations from the squad considering how Team Liquid’s reputation of being a league-leading team is really profound all over the world. This says a lot about how their poor stretch as of late has been really tough to watch, and mithR moving on from the team also means that they will have to endure some tough sets moving forward. Celebrating its 25th year anniversary, it seems that Team Liquid is motivated to come up with bigger success in CS2 – a game where they have been known to be dominant over the last two decades. This just says a lot about how they are seeking to deliver impressive strides and for now – they will have to deal with the fact that mithR isn’t going to be a part of that campaign moving forward. MithR and Team Liquid After spending a decade-long run of coaching multiple rosters through the CS:GO and CS2 world, mithR now moves on from Team Liquid after a brief stint that saw him lead them through some rough stretches in 2024. MithR also coached for various organizations such as Apeks, Mousesports, and North all the way back to 2016, showing his vast experience in leading a team. “2025 did not go as we wanted it to,” mithR said of his decision to move on from Team Liquid three months into the 2025 campaign. “I am incredibly disappointed and sad that it turned out this way, but I will reflect and learn from this, as I always have, and improve for my next team. At the end of the day I believe this is the best decision for both parties. And even though I would have preferred to stay on board and fight through the tough times together, I fully understand their decision and were I in their shoes, I would probably have done the same.” Liquid started out with mithR back in August 2024 with his first tournament, and it led the coach place among the top four in the BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2024. However, the team’s struggles didn’t get any better as they ended up sixth in the BLAST Premier: Fall Final 2024. Moving Forward It's unclear who Liquid will sign as their new head coach, but the roster is expected to be set up with Kamil "⁠siuhy⁠" Szkaradek arriving into the lineup. Team Liquid CS2 2025 Lineup: Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken Roland "⁠ultimate⁠" Tomkowiak Guy "NertZ" Iluz Kamil "⁠siuhy⁠" Szkaradek Liquid saw a group stage exit back at the IEM Katowice 2025, and it got even worse when the team only won one of its three games to open up the early stages of the BLAST Open Spring 2025, with tough losses at the hands of Eternal fire (0-2) and MongolZ (0-2). For now, Analyst Jay ‘Demars DeRover’ Li is set to serve as the team’s interim head coach while they are still seeking out a suitable replacement for mithR.

The Esports World Cup 2025 returns with a much bigger set of games to be played on the big stage, and it only means that there’s going to be indeed more impressive showdowns and games that will unfold with an expected total of 25 titles coming in. The top esports organizations from all over the world are definitely coming in hot now more than ever. The success of the Esports World Cup 2024 was highly unprecedented. In fact, it featured a whopping total of 1,500 players and 200 clubs from 100 different countries – alluding to 22 tournaments organized on over 21 games that featured a collective prize pool of a whopping $60 million in total. Across eight weeks of action, the EWC 2024 managed to bring in 500 million viewers and 2.6 million attendees overall. Considering how the 2025 edition is being hyped at a grand scale, and with four new games being added to the mix of the original lineup, it does seem that there is indeed going to be a much bigger hype in the coming months as the Esports World Cup 2025 builds its momentum with a lot of teams expected to come up with blazing campaigns in the coming months. Hyping the Big Stage The EWC 2025 has already opened up its Weekly All-Access Passes for the audience, and it means fans can now secure their experience on the Esports World Cup. As with the previous edition, the EWC will be once again held in the Boulevard City in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This will be hosted by the EWCF and ESL FACEIT Group and is set to feature a total of 25 games, with each having its own independent format and prize pool. The Esports World Cup 2025 is expected to include 25 games, but the event organizers have yet to confirm two titles. Here are the confirmed titles for the said event. Honor of Kings Call of Duty Black Ops 6 Call of Duty Warzone Free Fire Street Fighter 6 Dota 2 Rainbow Six Siege Counter-Strike 2 PUBG Mobile EA Sports FC 25 Overwatch 2 Apex Legends Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Mobile Legends: Women Rocket League Chess Rennsport PUBG Battlegrounds Crossfire Fatal Fury League of Legends Teamfight Tactics Valorant For starters, StarCraft II, Fortnite, and Tekken 8 are all not yet determined to be in the mix for the set of games in this year’s edition despite being played in 2024. A total of six games are also added to the game roster, spearheaded by Chess. Impressive Changes in EWC There is still no update on the final set of prize pools for each game, although the likes of Counter-Strike 2 ($1,250,000), Black Ops 6 ($1,800,000), League of Legends ($2,000,000), Rocket League ($1,000,000) and Overwatch ($1,000,000) all have confirmed prize pools as of the time of writing. The string of tournaments also begins with Valorant at the front schedule from July 7-13, along with other titles. There will be at least seven weeks of action, with the final week from August 18-24 featuring FPS Veterans Showdown with Counter-Strike 2 at the helm. All signs point towards an exciting experience in the Esports World Cup 2025, and it cannot be denied that this is going to be one of the biggest esports events in the world in the years to come as the games continue to join the hype while also attracting major sponsors and high viewership rates time and time again.

Aurora Gaming has officially announced its new Dota 2 roster, marking a major step forward for the organization in the highly competitive Eastern European esports scene. The roster, which includes a mix of seasoned veterans and rising stars, will be led by Kirill "Aurus" Vasin, the team’s newly appointed captain. This announcement comes as Aurora looks to establish itself as a strong contender in one of the most competitive regions in Dota 2. The roster features a blend of different playstyles and experiences, from aggressive playmakers to strategic shot-callers, all with the goal of securing high placements in Eastern Europe’s premier Dota 2 tournaments and qualifying for international events. There’s a lot of hype surrounding Aurora Gaming’s new presence in the game as they seek to come up with a massive chance to establish their dominance in the esports world, and it seems that this is the perfect chance to show what they’re worth. The full lineup, as revealed by the organization, includes: Kirill "Aurus" Vasin (Captain) Evgeniy "DAX" Kolesnikov Vladimir "Kira" Kirilov Roman "No Fear" Minenko Dmitriy "Save-" Chernyshev New Hope for Dominance Aurora Gaming’s new Dota 2 lineup aims to build on the region’s historic success, with a focus on synergy, discipline, and consistency. The team’s captain, Aurus, previously gained attention for his outstanding performances in various tier-one events and brings a wealth of knowledge to the table, which he hopes will inspire his teammates to reach new heights. “I’m really excited about the potential of this roster. We’ve got a great mix of experience and raw talent, and I believe we’ll be able to compete with the very best teams in Eastern Europe and beyond,” Aurus said of their team aspirations. “Our primary focus will be on building synergy and working hard together as a unit. We have high expectations, and we’ll take each challenge head-on with determination and a desire to improve.” The Eastern European region has long been home to some of the most skilled and unpredictable teams in Dota 2. The intense rivalry between organizations such as Virtus.pro, HellRaisers, and Team Spirit have kept the region at the forefront of the Dota 2 scene. Aurora Gaming’s new lineup is determined to carve out its own place among these powerhouse organizations. Big Aspirations The team’s goal is not only to dominate the local circuit but also to make a significant impact on the international stage. The upcoming Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) season will serve as the team’s proving ground as they look to secure a spot in the International — Dota 2’s most prestigious event — and demonstrate their prowess against the world’s elite. Aurora Gaming’s Dota 2 roster will begin competing in the Eastern European qualifiers and other regional tournaments in the coming weeks. With their new lineup and ambitious goals, Aurora is poised to make a major impact in the Dota 2 landscape. Fans can expect a team eager to prove themselves and hungry for success. As Aurora Gaming sets its sights on the future, fans and analysts alike will be keeping a close eye on the team’s progress — and one thing is certain: this is just the beginning of what promises to be an exciting journey in the Eastern European Dota 2 scene. A start of a new era in Dota 2 gaming that will definitely ring a lot of bells for many fans to enjoy the high level of competition.

The hype for FISSURE PLAYGROUND Belgrade 2025 is building up at another level, and it seems that BetBoom Team is gaining ground even before the tournament begins as they are set as the favorite to win it all in the coming competition, which will begin this January 24th and will bring some of the best teams in the Dota 2 world. It has been a long month of waiting ever since the last major Dota 2 tournament was held, and that has given the top tier teams the big rest they need to prepare for the next round of games now more than ever. As the FISSURE PLAYGROUND Belgrade 2025 looms all over us, it seems that fans at the Sava Center will be in for a treat with BetBoom Team leading the headlines for this massive clash. Dota 2 fans have waited for quite some time to see the fiery action to begin once more, and it goes without saying that there’s indeed a lot of expectation from all the teams – not just BetBoom, to come up with a strong campaign that will see them to the top of the league now more than ever. BetBoom on the Rise As the FISSURE PLAYGROUND Belgrade 2025 approaches, all eyes are on the teams that are making waves in the competitive scene. Among these, BetBoom stands out as a team that’s steadily rising in prominence. Known for their aggressive yet calculated playstyle, BetBoom has been a force to reckon with in several tournaments, but the question remains: what are their chances of winning this upcoming event? BetBoom's lineup is a combination of experienced players and young talents, which gives them a strong balance of raw mechanical skill and strategic depth. Their roster’s synergy is one of their defining characteristics, making them particularly dangerous in high-stakes matches. Their performance in recent events has been promising, and with a few tweaks and improvements, they could definitely be contenders for the top spot at the FISSURE PLAYGROUND. One of the most exciting things about BetBoom is their adaptability. Unlike teams that often get stuck in one particular style or meta, BetBoom has shown the ability to shift gears and play a variety of strategies depending on what’s needed for the moment. This adaptability is crucial in a tournament as unpredictable as the FISSURE PLAYGROUND, where the ability to outsmart opponents in diverse scenarios often wins matches, not just pure mechanics. What’s In Store for BetBoom? Despite their loss to Team Liquid in the lower bracket final at ESL One Bangkok, I still consider BetBoom Team to be the strongest contender heading into FISSURE Playground Belgrade. Yes, they have a tendency to tilt under pressure, as we’ve seen both in Bangkok and at ESL One Birmingham, and that remains their biggest weakness—just look at their collapse against Team Liquid as a prime example. That said, BetBoom’s understanding of the metagame is unmatched, and when they’re on form, their execution of strategy and individual plays can be absolutely mesmerizing. We've witnessed it time and time again in playoff matches: when they’re rolling, they’re nearly unstoppable. The key for them in Belgrade will be maintaining composure when things aren’t going their way. If they can keep their heads cool during tough moments, they have all the potential to take the title. Who knows, maybe this will be a landmark finish that will set the tone for BetBoom’s massive campaign now more than ever.

As the new Dota 2 year finally begins, Team Spirit has announced an exciting, yet surprising news as the team revealed the return of its iconic team members for the 2025 roster. Carry player Illya “yatoro” Mulyarchuk, offlaner Magomed “Collapse” Khalilov, and coach Airat “Silent” Gaziev all make a stunning return to the big stage after officially rejoining Spirit’s lineup. It can be remembered that all three members took a break from competitive play in the aftermath of The International 2024, where Team Spirit fell short and finished 9th-12th in the final rankings of the competition. It has been quite a roller coaster ride for the team over the previous year, and it does seem that having back their former stars will be a great help for a resurgent 2025 campaign. The return by Collapse and Silent were both expected as they planned the break until the start of the new year. In their absence, Abdimalik “Malik`” Sailau stepped in for the offlaner while Alexander “Accell” Litvinenko temporarily filled the role of coach. So far, it has been quite a surprise that Yatoro returned, however, and it means that Alan “Satanic” Gallyamov will be moving down to the substitute option instead. Yatoro Slated for Immediate Impact Yatoro’s return was marked by a lot of reception from long-time Team Spirit, as no one expected him to come back after that exit by the end of TI 13. Three months ago, it can be remembered that the young Ukrainian star said that he lost his motivation to play for the game and called it a time to go for an indefinite break. In his stead, Spirit made it a quick move to bring in one of their best prodigies in Satanic, who would emerge as a standout and elite performer for the team. Still, there are many talks of having him as the next star carry for the squad, but Yatoro’s return also means that they will be needing to put Satanic on the bench instead, according to Dmitry “Korb3n” Belov, the manager of Team Spirit. "Yatoro has also returned to us. He didn’t plan it, but it happened. Such a quick return of Yatoro was a surprise for us, and we had to make a hard choice. The choice was made in favor of a more experienced and mature player, in favor of a legend in the organization,” said Belov. “It’s a real shame to part with Satanic — he’s a unique player with youthful enthusiasm who was not given a chance to fully blossom because of Murphy’s Law and various circumstances." A New Chapter Begins With the roster re-arranged, it does seem that Team Spirit will be once again hyped as one of the favorites to look out for. After a lackluster 2024, many fans are now seeking to see more from Team Spirit as the team now hopes to bring bigger performances and deliver massive wins that slipped their hands in the previous year. For now, the roster stands with a complete five-man rotation and a coach: Illya “yatoro” Mulyarchuk Denis “Larl” Sigitov Magomed “Collapse” Khalilov Aleksandr “rue” Filin Yaroslav “Miposhka” Naidenov Airat “Silent” Gaziev (coach) This current roster seems formidable, and it does seem that they will have the chance to begin their games with a bang as they seek to bring bigger strides on DreamLeague and the coming tournaments on the schedule for the next set of weeks.

After winning the PGL Major Copenhagen in March, NAVI was expected to end the year with a bang by winning the second-ever CS2 Major title. However, it seems that there will be a dent on their wonder campaign after losing to HEROIC in the elimination stages of the Shanghai Major, and that is disappointing as it can be now more than ever. NAVI's campaign at the Shanghai Major got off to a shaky start, with a close 13-10 win over Team Liquid followed by a surprising 13-11 loss to MIBR on Inferno. However, their true struggles became apparent in round three, where they suffered a devastating 13-2 defeat to Team Spirit on Mirage, leaving them with a 1-2 record and at risk of missing the Playoffs. Despite this, NAVI bounced back in round four, dominating GamerLegion with 13-6 and 13-9 wins on Nuke and Mirage, respectively. This victory kept their Playoff hopes alive, but they now face a tough challenge in the form of HEROIC, a team determined to secure their first CS2 Major Playoff appearance. At the end of the day, it wasn’t their tournament to win this time around. Falling to HEROIC NAVI’s elimination match at the Shanghai Major began on a discouraging note as HEROIC picked Mirage, the same map where they were steamrolled by Team Spirit. Unfortunately, the pattern repeated itself, and NAVI was crushed 13-3, falling behind in the series. The first map felt like a continuation of NAVI’s earlier struggles, with HEROIC taking control from the start and never letting up. With their backs against the wall, NAVI needed a solid performance in the next map to keep their Playoff hopes alive. On Nuke, NAVI found their footing, thanks in large part to a brilliant display from Igor “w0nderful” Zhdanov, who finished with 19 kills and helped his team secure a dominant 10-2 lead at the half. NAVI kept up the pressure in the second half, closing out the map 13-5 to force a deciding third map. The third map on Ancient started strong for NAVI, with a 5-1 lead, thanks to key plays like w0nderful’s 4K in round 2 and Ivan “iM” Mihai’s clutch defuse in round 5. However, HEROIC mounted a comeback, and by halftime, the score was tied at 6-6. In the second half, HEROIC carried that momentum into the first few rounds, taking the lead. But in round 16, iM’s clutch one-versus-three eco round shifted the momentum back to NAVI, who won three consecutive rounds to tie the game at 9-9, setting the stage for an intense final showdown. The team would then go on to fall in Ancient at 13-9 as they failed t o come up with a clutch finish that mattered most. A Poor Ending NAVI now wraps up 2024 with just a silent exit in the Shanghai Major, settling for the 9th-11th place and at least $20,000 in consolation. Still, NAVI is certainly a team to keep an eye on in CS2 for 2025. With their rich history of success, tactical flexibility, elite roster, and solid organizational backing, they remain a formidable contender in the competitive scene for the long term. Now more than ever, there are high expectations for the team as they seek to make a massive run next year after a promising campaign in 2024. Who knows, maybe they can claim yet another massive major that will give them a better chance to keep on winning in the CS2 scene for years to come.

Spending his entire career with T1 and scoring two Worlds titles, it seems that Zeus was slated to have the rest of his career with the team. But then he shocked the rest of the League of Legends community by deciding to leave T1, and now the team has opted to have Doran take over his spot in the roster moving forward. In case you didn’t know, T1 is the most decorated esports team in the competitive scene of League of Legends. They have been prominent for as long as one can remember, but with Zeus moving on from the team, it does seem that the odds are going to be quite on a shift this time around after having one of their best players move on. If you are not really shocked – the news just came after T1 managed to score its fifth Worlds title, beating Bilibili Gaming in five games just two weeks ago. Now that is a complete shock considering how successful they have been so far, and this just means a lot to the overall hype that T1 will have in the next set of games moving forward. End of an Era The legendary ZOFGK roster finally comes to an end after Zeus himself breaks away from the group. This squad has been a prominent lineup in the game and has been seen as one of the staple standards in the game over the years. That lineup consisted of Choi “Zeus” Woo-je, Mun "Oner" Hyeon-jun, Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok, Lee “Gumayusi” Minhyeong, and Ryu "Keria" Min-seok. This squad spent four years together and won two LOL World Championship titles together, and it cannot be denied that the expectations were for them to sit together and come up with more wins in the coming seasons. Instead the group has broken up with Zeus out of the picture. Zeus is one of the highly-praised players in LOL. He is seen as the best top laner in the world and was even seen as a trendsetter in the game with the way he plays with finesse and smart tactics. This marks the first time that Zeus will now explore various options in his team aside from T1. It can be remembered that the star has already received options from China’s LOL Pro League back in 2023, but no reports has been made yet regarding his future in the game. The New Top Laner on the Rise With Zeus out of the picture, T1 has opted to bring in Choi "Doran" Hyeon-joon to replace the former top laner, who previously played for Hanwha Life Esports (HLE). Doran was one of the key figures for HLE in the 2024 LCK Summer Championship victory and helped them finish third in Spring 2024. Prior to his campaign with HLE, Doran has also played for Gen.G, where he led them to win three regional titles. Joining T1 marks the star’s eighth team overall after nearly moving from one team after another almost yearly. His valuable experience in playing for top-tier teams such as DRX, KT Rolster, and Griffin will come in handy to help T1 continue putting up a lot of winning runs in the future. At the age of 24, Doran is still yet to actually reach the peak of his game, and one can say that he is going to have the best chance to prove his worth on the big stage in the coming months.

G2 Esports takes center stage as they pulled off a promising victory over Natus Vincere in the final of the BLAST Premier Fall Finals, 3-1. The team now enters the next tournament at hand, the IEM Rio 2024, with a much better pace in their games thanks to this impressive victory. After coming up with a poor stretch in the IEM Cologne and in the ESL Pro League Season 20, it seems that G2 Esports is finally back on track on the winning path after the German squad scored an impressive victory in the BLAST Premier Fall Final 2024. The team also managed to avenge its loss in the recent Esports World Cup, where they were defeated by NAVI as well. G2 now takes on the next phase of the CS2 calendar as they seek to keep a winning pace all the way to the final tournaments of the campaign. This win at the BLAST Premier Fall Final proved to be a statement as they hope to rain down impressive performances on the final stretch. G2’s Dominance  G2 lost only a single game in the Group Stages and had to settle for a lower-bracket run in the playoffs. They did manage to beat FaZe Clan at 2-1 in the opening matches of the group stages, before bowing down in an 0-2 loss to NAVI. G2 would then go on to take on Team Spirit and score a 2-0 sweep in the quarterfinals to begin their playoff campaign. The team’s winning pace did not stop there, as they managed to beat Team Vitality, who emerged as a favorite to win after knocking out Astralis and Team Liquid in the earlier stages of the competition. G2 scored a tight 2-1 victory in that semis clash, coming back from a 0-1 deficit and winning the last two maps. G2 would then go on to settle a best-of-three showdown with their rivals in NAVI at the Grand Final. G2 took the lead at 2-0 after winning Ancient and Dust II on back-to-back runs. However, NAVI would respond and take a 13-11 win at Mirage, cutting the deficit to 2-1 by the end of the third map. However, G2 did not want to extend the final any longer, winning Nuke at 13-7 to close out the competiton for good. A Contender Reborn G2 instantly earns its qualification to the BLAST Premier World Final, which will take place this October 30th in Singapore as they seek to claim a lion’s share of the $1,000,000 prize pool. For this win, however, G2 takes home the 1st-place prize of $200,000 and ends up securing a promising slot to the next BLAST tournament at hand. NiKo’s elite performances for G2 has significantly increased their chances further this season, and it is believed that his confidence continues to grow at this point with the team seeking to complete the year with a bang. "It feels amazing. It's been a very very tough event, we beat the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the world, and No. 3 or 4, I don't know what Spirit is right now,” said NiKo. “But, I'm super happy with how we played, and how composed we were after losing Mirage as well. The feeling is amazing, we're still a young team and we already managed to lift a trophy and have a couple of deep runs. I'm super happy."

The BLAST Premier Fall Finals 2024 was shocked with a massive news with Astralis coming up with an emergency substitution to bring in Casper "cadiaN" Møller into their roster as their in-game leader staring out in the latter tournament and en route to the IEM Rio this October. Fans were speculating move for so long, but were left confused as to with the timing of execution considering that they pulled it off hours before the Fall Finals began. cadiaN, who is seen as one of the best and elite players in CS2, has come to join the Danish squad in the hopes of engineering their chances of winning over the final set of tournaments left to play in the CS2 calendar. At this point, it cannot be denied that cadiaN is a massive boost to the team, and naming him as an in-game leader moving forward can be quite a shock for many fans and even players. With the BLAST Premier Fall Finals underway, it is hard to comprehend why Astralis would come up with this push to bring in an elite star in cadiaN to boost their chances. At this point, one can say that this is a signing that will either lead them to impressive victories, or to a humiliating loss. A Surprising Move Astralis signed cadiaN to complement the recent needs of their squad to have a massive addition in the coming months. It is worth noting that cadiaN has quite an unceremonial split with the likes of Martin "stavn" Lund and Jakob "jabbi" Nygaard back then, but he remained to be one of the best picks who can help them win big. The drama has been set aside, and now it seems that they will try not to struggle with each other as it has already sent waves through the game’s competitive scene at this point. The timing was impeccable, but only the tournament’s result will tell if this was indeed a winning move, or just another waste of hype among the players. Astralis now fields a roster composed of dev1ce, Staehr, stavn, jabbi, and now, cadiaN. This reflects well after the departure of br0 in the event, after reports claimed that the star had a medical emergency. However, his agent Fabian Broich claimed that the star was in full health and is ready to take on the challenge but unfortunately got benched. A Complaint from the Stars In the eve of the BLAST Premier’s media day, a number of star players such as Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire, Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken, Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen, and Marco "⁠Snappi⁠" Pfeiffer all made identically-worded messages on their social media platforms, saying that "I might be unfit for Blast Media tomorrow." Organizations came into the game with a letter of complaint, addressing that the game must uphold its commitment to integrity and consistency, with the issues taking a firm stance on the teams competing with coaches and even the issue of using mental or physical health as a means to come up with an emergency substitute. It remains to be seen if BLAST will actually come up with a ruling that will prevent cadiaN from playing with Astralis to begin their campaign. However, it is worth noting that this is not going to be a one-timer run with the star as they also seek to bring him over to IEM Rio, where there are going to be bigger stakes as they seek to continue their dominance in the coming games as well.