The Cathedral of Counter-Strike.

What does it mean?

It’s the awe-inspiring walk up the hill to the LANXESS. It’s the energy in the room during each and every round. It’s MACHINE conducting a fragmovie, it’s OJ Borg yelling ‘Let’s get it on!’, it’s DarfMike leading the crowd with his infectious charisma.

It’s the jaw-dropping view of the mighty Cologne Cathedral, where many a pious man and woman would go to speak to their deity, to our own cathedral, where we go to watch ours.

It’s the kebab shop that almost certainly doesn’t pass a health inspection, but tastes better than anything nutritious ever could. It’s the heart, the soul, and the passion poured into it by everyone behind and in front of the scenes.

It’s bloody magical.

Cologne is a quiet, unassuming city with two of the world’s greatest cathedrals within a mile of each other. Unfortunately, for CS:GO, one of them is now closed, and with it, a chapter of history goes too.

IEM Cologne, it’s been wonderful.

Here’s to ten more years.

Erm… this is a strange one.

NEOFRAG has been released by Into the Breach having just signed in the shuffle about two weeks ago. Is it for his subpar stats? Well, no, because otherwise they wouldn’t have signed him in the first place.

Both sides have been somewhat coy with the reasoning, but both essentially agree it’s an irretrievable difference in beliefs and opinions. Or as NEOFRAG calls it, “poor decision making”, because he was making “distasteful jokes” that he “didn’t expect to get taken seriously”.

Come on, what was it? Did he say the ITB run was a fluke? Mock beans on toast? Make his tea with the milk before the water? Say that the French “weren’t that bad”?

Sadly (or maybe for the best), we’ll never really know. But speculation is fun.

ITB will need to get creative to find a replacement given the shuffle has already ended - but something tells us they’ll do something interesting.

We didn’t expect Bymas or NEOFRAG, after all.

So the prophecy foretold, all must bow before NiKo, huNter, m0NESY, jks and yes, HooXi, in the Cathedral.

It was, at least from map one, a prophecy that never looked in jeopardy. G2 were absurdly dominant on map one, and commanding on map two and four.

Even on map three, they weren’t bad.

G2 Esports stake their claim on the #1 title; and what a claim it is.

ENCE never showed up on Nuke.

It was their pick, their best map. It was supposed to be the one they could hang their hat on, the certainty. It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

G2 ran over them, cutting down the T side with consummate ease. NiKo was stood on top of garage fighting over the outside smokes, m0NESY was waltzing out heaven to collect doubles with the sniper, huNter was the snake in the grass.

Even HooXi was… there.

G2 romped to a 16-4 victory, and from there, it felt inevitable.

Those fears weren’t assuaged when m0NESY picked off SunPayus a couple of times on Mirage - the sun that had shined so brightly yesterday was eclipsed by a flash of lightning quite a few times, and huNter was once again lurking in the shadows.

Even when things went right for ENCE - SunPayus’ double Dualies kills against a full buy, Snappi’s big boy clutch - it felt like the cracks were being held together by sellotape. G2 were taking and winning every duel they could find, and it was only when ENCE joined in the brawl and won, they had a chance.

G2 coasted to a second victory, and victory was oh so close.

They’d be forced to wait, though. Snappi forced a win on Anubis by sheer force of will, taking it upon himself to do what his stars weren’t. He dropped a 19-kill half on the T side to drag ENCE to a five round lead.

They nearly blundered it when huNter added a masterful 1v3 to his highlight reel, but held out to close out Anubis and give themselves hope.

They say it’s the hope that kills you. They lied.

It’s m0NESY.

After a close first half where NiKo and m0NESY forged a three round lead for G2, ENCE equalised with what felt like an important pistol.

It, perhaps sadly, never worked out that way. m0NESY took over the whole map, picking up eleven kills in just the ten rounds of the half, with three different massive holds in the biggest moment.

G2 had done it. Crowned heroes in the Hall of Heroes, and given deity status in the Cathedral.

The immortal G2 Esports.

1st 🇪🇺 G2 Esports - $400.000

2nd 🇪🇺 ENCE - $180.000

3-4th 🇩🇰 Astralis - $80.000

3-4th 🇪🇺 Vitality - $80.000

5-6th 🇩🇰 Heroic - $40.000

5-6th 🇷🇺 Cloud9 - $40.000

7-8th 🇪🇺 NAVI - $24.000

7-8th 🇪🇺 GamerLegion - $24.000

🔫 CS2:

• Premier mode has apparently been leaked, with a bunch of cool bells and whistles on it.
• Ancient and Anubis are now in the game, and the water physics are gorgeous.

🗣️ Interviews and stuff

• A gigachad speaks to the haters.
• G2 all but confirmed they were going to kick HooXi, before having a change of heart. Phew!
• device “really enjoyed the eye contact”. Oo-er. We would too.

🤡 Fun stuff

• Good to see Heccu has found a loyal friend who will never leave her.
• Kassad almost complimented HooXi. You can still he had to grit his teeth for this one.
• Love AWPers? Us neither, but ESL do. This five minute masterpiece is worth watching.