#687: It’s not just a FaZe (AMERICAS)

Match highlights

• Last chance saloon: After disaster at both BLAST Open Rotterdam and DraculaN, FaZe have one (very slim) shot at making it to the Major. They’ve dropped out of PGL Bucharest and will instead be competing at HLC Belgrade against the likes of BEE and Drama. The only question we have is who the f-ck are BEE and Drama?

• The end of the line: 3DMAX have no chances left, though. Their repeated failings at smaller LANs culminated in back-to-back losses to BESTIA and B8 at Parken Challenger Championship Season 3, ending their hopes of making the Major.

PGL Bucharest preview

CCT Bucharest 2026

After an insanely stacked Cluj-Napoca, PGL returns in Bucharest, featuring a team lineup that’s just a slight downgrade. Barely noticeable.

With IEM Rio kicking off only two days after Bucharest wraps up, many top teams opted for the South American trip instead. Still, it’s not going to be totally sleep-inducing, because any event with FaZe Clan usually guarantees some excit… oh.

After a disastrous DracuLAN S6, FaZe - despite being scheduled for Bucharest - have opted to attend HLC Belgrade PRO 2026 instead, treating it as their Hail Mary for the Major. Great film, by the way.

Looking at the teams that are showing up, PARIVISION, The MongolZ, FUT, and Astralis immediately stand out as the main contenders. These are the only squads inside HLTV’s top-13 to accept the invite, so it would be a genuine surprise to see the trophy go elsewhere. For the first three in particular, this should be relatively smooth sailing.

Behind them come the challengers: Legacy, B8, NRG, EYEBALLERS, BC.Game, and 3DMAX - all fighting for the remaining four Playoffs spots. We’re especially curious to see how BC.Game look after their break, and whether 3DMAX can mentally recover after missing the Major. For both, this event could either confirm the slump or mark the start of a turnaround.

Finally, the don’t-bother-unpacking-your-bags group. MIBR, FOKUS, Voca, Inner Circle, and Wildcard will be looking to steal a map or two and ruin someone else’s run - but realistically, their chances of making it out are slim.

Seriously, what the f-ck is a Voca?

Words by shoko

The VRS race

Watch the pieces fall

We’re in the home stretch, folks. And it’s getting bloody.

Alliance, after quacke so wonderfully predicted in his Deep Dive, have surged up the rankings, with a strong final Major push now putting them in good standing to make the Major. However, with a loss to M80 at DraculaN, their fate is now “up to the gods”.

Just ahead of Alliance is BIG, who have pulled off an incredibly impressive season in their attempts to make it to their home Major. The signings of blameF and faveN were a bit of a gamble, but it’s looking like they’ve paid off, so fair play to them.

The French haven’t fared so well, though. 3DMAX have been up and down all year, with many of their downs coming at the smaller LANs. They recently attended the Parken Challenger Championship -which quacke is actually casting, so hop in their chat and abuse him - and ended their hopes of making the Major with successive defeats to BESTIA and B8.

We won’t pretend we’re not slightly happy about this.

As for the Czech fans, although SINNERS sit in a reasonably healthy position to make the Major, they now have an anxious wait until the 6th as their team’s fate is ultimately out of their hands. Not a fun place to be in.

Speaking of not-fun places and being in them, FaZe find themselves in a nightmare scenario. Their DraculaN gambit failed dramatically, and seemingly ended their Major hopes. It was then worked out that they had a slim chance by skipping PGL Bucharest and heading to HLC Belgrade, but even then, at 14%, the hopes are dire.

If we’re being real here, we hope they f-ck it up monumentally. FaZe have been terrible all year, and they don’t deserve to make the Major because of it. It’s just that simple. To be a tier one organisation, who, and perhaps even more importantly, were ranked seventh in the world at the start of the year and not make it? Well, that’s just abhorrent.

Across the pond (at least for us), Liquid also appear to be in dire straits. They caught a lot of heat for switching regions at the last minute by signing malbsMd, and it seems that the heat was too hot to handle as they’re currently 10th in the Americas ranking and therefore outside of Major invite range.

You get what you deserve, we suppose.

But look on the bright side, FaZe and Liquid, at least with this failure, you might finally realise your teams and rubbish and move on from them. Swings and roundabouts.

Words by AN1MO

Podcast

Revealing the team to take down Vitality

Producer Charlie has finally revealed himself and dropped a bombshell on Jack and Sam: the team to take down Vitality. It’s certainly a team, and certainly a team with firepower, but is it good enough to usurp the kings?

• ESL shouldn’t do eight-team playoffs?

• Vitality should sign Aleksib?

• PARIVISION need to make a change?

How much is a can of Monster?

Headline

We sat down with Falcons’ Baby GOAT to discuss his love of “magical” cats, the deadliest animal he could take in a fight, and why he would trust huNter- to save the world.

When did you first start playing Counter-Strike?
I started playing Counter-Strike when I was very, very, small. I was five years old. I started playing 1.6.

Since then, what would you say your favourite moment from your career has been?
Favourite moment? I think my favourite moment was when I joined my first organization. I had a lot of emotions when I joined Natus Vincere and, since then, since that academy, I started playing more and more.

Speaking of that academy, how was it being one of the first talents to come out of an academy with NAVI Junior?
I don't know. I didn't really think about it. I think just understood that this is not going to be an easy road. You have to grind more and more, sacrifice more time. So, my impression was you just need to grind more.

What's the deadliest animal you think you could beat in a fight?
The deadliest animal?

Tough question, I know.
Bear? A bear.

If you could tag anyone in from your team to help you fight this bear, who would it be?
NiKo.

If you weren't a Counter-Strike Pro, what job would you imagine yourself doing?
I think I would be a translator. I started learning English in school. I was going to extra lessons outside of the school just to learn. I wanted to be a translator, or actually, when I wasn't in school, I also wanted to become a doctor, you know, because my whole family are doctors.

Any any more languages besides English that you would want to translate?
No, I think I would maybe learn Chinese, but it's very hard, so I don't even want to spend time on this. It's just a waste of time

Do you have any pre-game rituals? Any superstitions? Something like that.
No, I don't have any. My team, I think they all have them. Like, if you sit in the shuttle one day, then different the second day, you change, you're going to lose. My team thinks like this. I don't think like this, I don’t have any game rituals. Just trying to focus on the game.

What's the weirdest pre-game ritual that one of your teammates has?
They don’t have any… thank God.

How much is a can of monster?
Like $2?

Pretty close. It's $3, actually. Have you got a favourite song to deathmatch to?
I don't have favourite songs. I listen to everything. I'm a music lover, so I just listen to whatever I can. Like, for example, western rap, I like Juice WRLD, I like Linkin Park as well. Also I forgot, 30 seconds to Mars. The last music I listened to, it was the heel I think. Then it was “this is war” or something like this.

From any team that you've ever been on, if you had to pick one player to win a clutch to save the world, who would you pick?
I would pick huNter-. I think he's very experienced in clutches. I remember back then, you know, we played in G2 together with him on the team, and we would always clutch some good round. He would clutch also some insane round as well for us. So I would say huNter-.

If you were stranded on a desert island with one of your current teammates, who would you pick?
NiKo. He's just way too experienced. If you needed to survive on some island or anything, you would pick NiKo just because he would go hunt, or he would cook food for you. He would just chill.

He would do all the tasks for you.
I will just go. I will just sleep and chill. He will do it all.

If you could own a house located on any Counter-Strike map. Which map would you choose?
House on any map? I think I would say Inferno or Overpass. I would maybe go for Inferno. It’s an Italian map. It's good. Good weather, good wine as well. Also. there is a lot of space for the house as well.

It's a good choice. I would say just dodge banana because of all the nades. Would you say you're a cat person or a dog person?
I think both. Can I say both? I mean, I have a cat. I really like cats. I think cats are magical you know, I believe in this. Also, I had a dog only once. It was a very long time ago. I had a husky but he passed away. So, yeah, I like both cats and dogs.

YOU CAN WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE

Words by napz & charlinho

Everything else

🤓 For the nerds

• We really love Elmpauddy here at TLDR, and he’s back with another banger about why NAVI should have been the team to take down Vitality in Rotterdam.

• If you didn’t think HLTV rating, round swing, duel swing, or the swingset in your local beer garden was enough, then FACEIT are introducing FACEIT Rating, a fantastic way to blame your teammates.

🪦 Back from the abyss

• We were all sad when Inferno lost its iconic graveyard and could no longer bait our teammates there, but these lads have brought it back in a very inventive way.

• Old classics are also making their return, you can now get your hands on Assault in CS2. Unlike the UK, we love a golden oldie.

🤡 April Fool’s

• If this happened to us, we would genuinely sh-t ourselves.

• Spirit have finally replaced hally. Okay, not really, but this post got us excited.

Words by AN1MO

This TL;DR was written by aizyesque, shoko, AN1MO and napz.
Welshy coded the email and Crash_ copy edited.

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