As Stage 3 of the BLAST.tv Austin Major concluded, the reality of where teams were competitively placed became evident. For some, an unexpected and unprecedented playoff berth. For others, bitter disappointment. Darragh Harbinson looks at the major emerging storylines and provides a round-up from the BLAST.tv Austin Major.
BLAST.tv Austin Major Stage 3: s1mple gives FaZe get their aura back
As FaZe were eliminated from BLAST Rivals in May, they were unrecognisable and honestly had been for a while. Gone were the days of winning impossible rounds, rolling over teams on low-buys, or dominating in imperious fashion. If you removed the names of the players, you simply wouldn’t know it was FaZe by watching them.
karrigan described the addition of Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyljev as a “Hail Mary” for the major. Despite some messy Counter-Strike at times, FaZe’s Hail Mary seems to have the right trajectory so far. It has at least got them to where FaZe have traditionally done their best work — arenas.
While FaZe’s play hasn’t been picture perfect, having had very little time together, they are playing with noticeably more themselves, playing with swagger and ruthless aggression. The team has also been noticeably more vocal with opposition, emphasising their improved morale since BLAST.
The elephant in the room prior to the move was s1mple’s potential personality clash with former Liquid teammate, Jonathan ‘EliGE’ Jablonowski. Yet EliGE was quick to complement their in-game dynamic in an interview with HLTV stating, “I love playing with Sasha, I think we have a really good chemistry together and play off of each other well.”
Winning the major is a lofty ambition, and perhaps may be a bridge too far, but regardless of the playoff outcome, FaZe look much more recognisably FaZe Clan in Austin and long may that continue.
Legacy’s fairytale run comes to an end
Legacy were only in attendance in Austin due to BESTIA’s Visa issues, but to say they made the most of it would be a severe understatement. Starting in Stage 1, and ending with a 2-3 record in Stage 3, the Brazilians showed some of the best CS at the event.
Eduardo ‘dumau’ Wolkmer especially shone, having outlandish impact as the tip of Legacy’s aggressive spear. Average a 1.24 rating over the three stages of the major, dumau finally displayed his domestically evident potential at the highest level of CS.
While they didn’t make playoffs, Legacy’s legacy will forever be intact having ended Vitality’s 30-match winstreak with a 13-3 victory on Inferno. Additionally, the major run has drastically lifted their standing in the Valve Global Rankings, meaning we may be seeing dumau and co. much more in the second half of the year, hopefully displaying similar form to at this major.
hades leaves an unfortunate last impression
Prior to G2’s promotion/elimination game against The MongolZ, Olek ‘hades’ Miskiewicz was sitting at an adequate 1.10 HLTV rating over six maps at the major, with the Polish AWPer having shown glimpses of form that would justify a return to the tier one table. The former ENCE sharpshooter had especially shone in a 20-9 performance on Anubis against Na’Vi, which gave G2 control of the map before the international roster lost the third map in excruciating fashion.
Sadly for the Pole, his performance severely regressed against The MongolZ, as pressure seemed to rob him of the composure for bread-and-butter shots that make up the responsibility of AWPing at such a level.
hades recorded a 0.82 overall rating for the series, with only four kills on Ancient and struggled to find impact on the traditional AWPer’s paradise of Dust II.
After the match, hades posted a self-deprecating message on X stating “The haters said I couldn’t do it. And they were correct. Honestly, great call from the haters 0-2. Absolute disasterclass from me. Sorry.”
Having been on loan from Monte, where Brit Jack ‘Gizmy’ von Spreckelsen is currently IGLing, it remains to be seen whether the G2 loan is hades’ last cameo in tier one, or whether the Pole will be given a chance to bounce back from Austin’s bitter ending.
For G2, they can now look forward to the additions of Álvaro ‘SunPayus’ García and coach Eetu “sAw” Saha. Despite losing Ilya ‘m0NESY’ Osipov, the roster showed positive signs at the major in the performance of their rifling core of Mario ’malbsMd’ Samayoa, Nemanja ‘huNter-’ Kovač, and Nikita ‘HeavyGod’ Martynenko.
Liquid’s disastrous exit
Liquid’s 0-3 record not only underlined their own struggles but also reflected NA’s abject event, which saw every NA team exit the event at the stage they began it.
Hours before the beginning of their campaign, Liquid gave IGL Kamil ‘siuhy’ Szkaradeka vote of confidence by announcing his permanent addition to the roster, yet their faith was repaid with zero victories.
Most confoundingly of all, both NAF and twistzz confirmed the team was “exhausted” after their bootcamp. To put it mildly, something is going deeply wrong if the bootcamp meant to prepare you for a major is leaving you depleted for that very event.
NAF, struggling throughout the event and looking deeply uncomfortable in his spots, confided that he didn’t know his Liquid future after the event.
Liquid may have secured a promising IGL, but there is little sign of how their game can develop from this point, and they will have to do so formally as a European team after changes to Valve’s Regional Standings.
As for the teams that did win matches and make the playoffs, you can find the best odds at our recommended CS2 betting sites.
Darragh Harbinson is an esports writer specialising in Counter-Strike. He has written for Esports News UK, Esports Insider, UKCSGO, Dexerto, and Rush B Media.
