#677: Born to win... (AMERICAS)

Match highlights

• phzy is the AWPer that sh1ro wishes he was.

Reader survey

We've got a tiny favour to ask

We're trying to get to know you better (in a non-creepy way, promise) so we can make TLDR even more relevant to your world.

Bonus: it also helps us bring in new sponsors you'll actually like, instead of ones that make you hit unsubscribe.

TAKE THE SURVEY HERE

(1.5 min to complete)

EPL S23 playoffs recap

The least-favourite favourites

MOUZ… Spirit… what the f-ck are you both playing at?

In the last edition, we said that, without a doubt, it would be one of you two taking home the trophy - so how did you both fail to even make it out of the quarter-finals?

And, more importantly, how do you both continue with these teams after this disappointment?

We’re not even sure which one had the easiest go of it, so we’ll just start with MOUZ.

At one point in time, MOUZ were the kings of the inexperienced gimmick. We were told to just wait, that they were almost there, and that soon they would be winning trophies. Well, at this point, we’re sick of waiting.

MOUZ played FUT, an actually inexperienced team. The result? A close victory for FUT where they, the aforementioned inexperienced team, managed to be the team to hold its composure and claim the victory.

Spirit also had a vast experience gap in their game, coming up against an Astralis team that was putting both phzy and ryu into positions they’d never been in before. Of course, that meant phzy wiped the floor with them.

13-6. 13-7. Spirit didn’t even win a map. phzy got 41 kills. donk got 21.

This was it. This was the event to win. No Vitality, no Falcons, a weakened FURIA, a PARIVISION that bottled it in Stage 1. And still, neither team could do it.

Truly unforgivable.

In the remaining quarter-finals, NAVI overcame The MongolZ in a relatively comfortable 2-0, thanks to makazze’s 1.87 domination, while Aurora got the better of Legacy in a frankly strange game that saw Aurora win 19 rounds in a row, followed by Legacy winning 12 in a row, and culminating in Aurora coasting on Inferno.

Weird.

Those two teams then also managed to beat down their semi-final opponents, with NAVI (fortunately for them) staying ahead of their former academy team, FUT, and Aurora - mostly thanks to Wicadia - actually not bottling it for once.

Also, weird.

All of that to set up a grand final clash that we would never have predicted, but are honestly quite excited for.

It feels like it’s makazze’s time to ascend.

Words by AN1MO

Liquid and G2 make a trade

Win-win situation

Hey, at least Liquid and G2 won something this week.

A little over two months into the 2026 spring season, Liquid and G2 have made a historic swap. And we think this might, at least on paper, be a winning situation for both.

malbsMd has been struggling to fill NiKo’s shoes since the Bosnian superstar left for the greener (as in dollar dollar bills) pastures in Falcons. A 1.02 rating across 2026, somehow putting him behind SunPayus, has had people screaming for his removal all year.

G2 have listened, and the replacement is Liquid’s underwhelming star signing of 2025, NertZ. Granted, his 2026 started slightly better individually - improving from a 1.05 to a 1.09 thus far in 2026 - but the team has been absolutely in the dumps since the season started.

What’s interesting is that malbsMd is moving the other way into siuhy and flashie’s open arms, looking to ruin his career by joining Liquid. The true destiny for all North American players.

On paper, we’re not huge fans of this move for Liquid considering the Guatemalan’s consistent performances - that is, pretty sh-t ones - in the past few months with G2. That being said, we also remember the last time he played on a North American team, and good golly, miss Molly, that was glorious.

Because yes, as of this transfer, Liquid are once again a North American team. That’s not just appeasing the fans - some of them anyway - but also has some pretty wide-reaching consequences in the scene.

Speaking of…

Words by quacke

The Major race

The latest VRS exploit

How did no one foresee this?

Like, we get it, there’s only a select number of teams that could change their region on a dime, but how was there not something in place to prevent this from happening?

Oh yeah, it’s the VRS system we’re dealing with. Of course there wasn’t.

Thanks to the above swap deal, Liquid now hold an Americas slot for the IEM Cologne Major. That means, although they previously looked like they had no shot of making it with NertZ, it would be virtually impossible to miss it with malbsMd.

At least according to Mischief, and he’s rarely wrong.

Now, that’s great for Liquid, but is it really fair?

Liquid, who have been terrible all year, now get a Stage 2 invite in the Americas, despite not even being strong enough to make Stage 1 in Europe, purely on the basis of legacy invites and the Americas being a weaker region?

And what about the team that misses out because of this regional swap?

Honestly, it doesn’t seem particularly fair to us, but that doesn’t mean we’re sure on the fix either.

Should you take a VRS hit, or perhaps even a complete reset, for changing regions? Should there be a regional lock prior to the roster lock? We’re not sure, but if VRS history has taught us anything, it’s this:

Another team won’t get the chance to do what Liquid has just done.

Words by AN1MO

Poll

With the Liquid and G2 swap deal completed, we have one simple question for you:

EPL S23 final day recap

Welcome to the big boy table

Nostalgia for the recent few years seems to be in style recently, but we weren’t expecting to see callbacks to 2024 of all years.

But here we are - jL is playing well, and NAVI have faced Aurora in an EPL grand final.

It’s a strange grand final, especially considering Spirit and MOUZ were playing in this playoff bracket, and even stranger considering neither NAVI nor Aurora faced either of them.

Yet here we were, starting the BO5 with a Mirage opener. We had some question marks around NAVI’s form on their map pick, but w0nderful quickly answered those questions with a 1.95 rating in a 13-7 victory.

With it being NAVI’s weakest map, Aurora winning their usual map pick of Anubis was a foregone conclusion. Despite this, NAVI almost took it over the line, at one point holding the lead with 11-10 before losing in regulation.

This strong fightback set the tone for the upcoming Nuke map, with w0nderful once again living up to his name. This gave NAVI the chance to close out the game in fairy tale fashion - with all the star players holding hands, skipping across the line with near-identical statlines.

How cute.

It’s a first big event trophy since 2024 for NAVI, and a nice breath of fresh air after struggling to make it out of group stages in 2026 so far. For makazze it’s a first tier one trophy, and his excellent performances across the event also net him a career-first MVP - the first player from Kosovo to get one.

For Aurora it’s a silver medal and a first big event grand final appearance since winning PGL Masters Bucharest last year. There are worrying signs, though, as XANTARES’ 0.76 rating is another weak playoff showing this year, perhaps whispering of the end of the star rifler’s prime form.

Third place deciders are usually wholly uninteresting to us, but this one at least had some action. Astralis got the better of FUT in overtime after just barely coming back from 9-12 on the third map of Overpass to secure a third place finish.

Despite the loss, it’s clear to us this FUT team are the future, only further proven by their former teammate making history for his country in the grand final.

Will we see NAVI or Aurora play another grand final this year? Unlikely, if you ask us.

But sometimes you need a little sweet treat to break up the monotony of the everyday.

Words by quacke

Everything else

📝 Put me through to the complaints department please

• For most of us this video is a great deep dive into the different lurkers in pro CS. For some of you - not pointing any fingers - it is a tutorial on how to stop baiting us every f-cking round.

• blameF didn’t seem to happy about bevve’s refusal to be the early bird.

🏃‍♀️ Escape from reality

• List of things NEO’s escaping: the Matrix, and FaZe. The latter might not be as voluntary as the former.

• Cache is never escaping Valve’s slimy little hands, is it? They’re just teasing us with it now.

😓 No regrets?

• b1t be careful… Don’t poke the bear, before you know it apEX’ made it his personal task to ruin every event you go to. Ask MOUZ.

• Krabeni’s probably regretting that quickswitch right about now, and HooXi’s happy his heart’s still beating.

Words by napz

This TL;DR was written by quacke, AN1MO and napz.
Welshy coded the email.

How did you like this edition?
Help us improve by clicking a smiley below.

Give your friend the tl;dr