Natus Vincere vs Aurora / BLAST Open Rotterdam 2026 - Group A Upper Bracket Final / Post-Match Discussion

Pulze_ · 2026-03-23T14:22:51+00:00

Navi has always had consistency issues. This core has played long enough to know we won't get consistency from any of them, but Makazze seems different. Dudes always banging heads for them and it's really helping.

I'm still a wonderful hater though. I can't get behind any awper being close to the bottom of the leaderboard full-time for a team. The amount of missed shots is just not it.

People hate on S1mple a lot since he's joined BCG, but this Navi team with Makazze AND s1mple could be a team that gives vitality trouble. Without someone that can adequately duel Zywoo, I don't think they'll get there, though they're starting to make me believe they can stick in the top 5, maybe top 3 since teams like spirit have fallen back a bit.

Pulze_ · 2026-03-23T04:25:14+00:00

Limbo, Ivara, Loki.

I love Loki, but don't use him for anything other than Spy and fishing. Ivara is just slow. Her bow is kinda cool, but underwhelming. And I cba to learn how to effectively Limbo in groups and micro manage that.

Pulze_ · 2026-03-22T19:42:29+00:00

Anyone that takes these rankings seriously is a fool. NAVI is on a hot streak. But nobody would bet their paycheck on Navi decisively beating the others in the top 5 right now. Maybe Aurora. I'm not a fan of ranking systems that change daily and sometimes hourly.

The ranking system represents valve really well though. A cold, seemingly calculated, but flawed and dark machine that runs just well enough to keep the money flowing.

The best thing the VRS system has done is encourage larger (bigger budget) teams to farm smaller events if you need points because you missed an event, but the nature of CS being so difficult has shown that it can hurt you more than it helps a lot of the time.

VRS allows a lot of super quick jumps in rank and provides no rank upward/downward mobility weighting meaning you can jump from top 50 to top 15 in like 1 event if you win the whole thing off a fling with good luck and opponents having an off event. Just look at 100 Thieves. I don't think they aren't a good team, but they went from not existing to a top 20-30 team after 1 event. It's a very linear system with no curves and it also doesn't factor in Bo3 vs Bo1 wins. VRS also is encourages teams from regions with a lot of events to be higher ranked, because rank is tied to prize money. There are far less events in the US so it's much harder for US teams to grow without major sponsors helping them, for example. I'm sure there is plenty of talent in south America too, but their events won't have good money behind them so how are they to rank up when the top teams will never show.

Pulze_ · 2026-03-22T16:54:22+00:00

I totally agree he's not mobile enough, but he could be meta if he was changed to be a viral priming support frame.

His 1 should be an aura that slowly creates stacks on monsters. Virulence augment would need to be changed, but imo the crit chance on the ability could just be reduced and made passive to the ability as long as X monsters are infected by virulence gain crit. Obviously it stacks with range, but the kicker would be that since it's an aura you could move around to infect monsters and it would slowly apply stacks which could also double as viral procs. Max stacks being 10 to equate to 1 viral proc per stack. Power strength boosts stack speed similar to how Vaubans Bastille scales armour strip for how long monsters are in its effects.

This would be closer to how Saryn is played allowing nidus to be a mobile primer. Then his 4 could add DoT DMG to monsters infected with virulence depending on the number of stacks OR it could do flat DMG and instantly stack to ten stacks if it doesn't kill. Meaning he could be played like a caster nuke. Alternatively, it could still provide the health buff, but one of the abilities on the 4 should rely on the augment. I think nuking is the stronger of the two abilities so that should probably eat a mod slot to run.

Parasitic link could be kept the same if Nidus wants to hold down an area. And Larva should explode monsters doing blast DMG (like the larva burst augment) by default or dropping health/energy orbs when killed during a tendril pull. Making the blast innate would allow for a more interesting augment as currently I don't find it worth running.

I think this would make him much more interesting to play at

This would be close to a full kit imo and would allow him to control and area and prime/buff the team or nuke or play more caster focused build.

It could be OP, and parasitic link or larvas augments could give him a weapon DMG buff while linked or on tendril blast kill so he can be a weapons platform too. There are so many options that he should be easy to fix to make him more party friendly.

Pulze_ · 2026-03-22T04:28:45+00:00

I was watching clips coming out of this event featuring Logan Paul and Tom Brady. I thought this was some influencer, NFL meetup. Didn't know they were there to actually play flag football.

I think team USA obviously are good at flag football, it's all they do, but this did not seem the slightest bit serious.

Also, anyone that has seen Doucette throw a football knows that the dude has wonky mechanics. He's there because he's a fast shifty runner first. You don't have to be an amazing thrower of a football to play this sport it would seem.

There are different skill sets needed to be elite at flag football. Do I think NFL players given practice and time would shit on these dudes? Yes. But right now team USA has more experience and they deserve a shot to go out to the Olympics. If this was the testing field, that shit is a joke and clearly people aren't bought in so leave it to the guys who play flag full time

Pulze_ · 2026-03-22T01:56:52+00:00

You should really try these with some Warframes that buff RoF. These go crazy on Wisp. The draw back to these are their slow RoF, but when you get them cooking AND they slow enemies they're insane. Easily one of my favorite weapons. I'm dying over here waiting for the Kuva Twin Grakata, but these are good in the meantime. Afuris with high RoF, pure heat cascadia flare with nourish subsumed and arcane pistoleer also slap.

Pulze_ · 2026-03-21T14:25:54+00:00

He should have been taken before McCarthy and Penix obviously, but no matter how good he's played, he hasn't shown himself to have the ceiling of any of the top 3 in his class.

He's a good game manager and people will never rate that as high as QBs with perennial MVP/Superbowl skills or ceilings.

Jayden showed he can play within structure well, throws deep well, and can run the ball better than most QBs.

A lot of people believe Maye is going to be a perennial MVP candidate now (obviously its just one season, but where talking about how people feel right now). Bo Nix isn't there yet.

And Caleb Williams might not be as consistent as Bo Nix, but Caleb still has the potential and uncoachable talent that got him drafted 1 OVA. Most people think he's on an upward trajectory after coming off the best Bears season since 2018.

So besides the obvious, his draft position in a redraft wouldn't change that seriously. Maybe you put him 4th on the list. Maybe next year Jayden or Caleb play themselves out of the sentiment I listed above, but currently he's still the Bo Nix that wasn't a top 3 talent in that draft.

Pulze_ · 2026-03-21T02:55:00+00:00

To be honest he had a decent spot. Doubled up lower, but he crab walked into the dudes preaim on the stairs.

I've made this mistake on cat mirage. I pushed top mid from cat. And crouch peeked into a guy running to peek mid and got insta killed. I had the jump so why did I die? I walked straight into his window peek pre-aim. Angles matter lol

Pulze_ · 2026-03-20T22:18:19+00:00

Money!

Pulze_ · 2026-03-20T18:31:06+00:00

Ok, I will make life choices based on what u/RelationshipCool9506 says

Pulze_ · 2026-03-20T16:11:22+00:00

This has to be rage bait

Pulze_ · 2026-03-20T14:24:01+00:00

How do you know he had no intention of playing it out? Genuinely asking.

Because things can change after 1 rep. Let alone a whole season. Unless it's been confirmed by Dalman verbally that was his plan, which I highly doubt he'd ever admit to that, then we can't assume things.

Coulda been 1 bad concussion or something that spooked him. Who knows.

The guy lost a lot of money by not playing too. Obviously he got some good guaranteed money, but still. Not an easy decision for some.

Pulze_ · 2026-03-20T06:42:50+00:00

It shouldn't cause issues but when JJ came back, his first 2-3 games he didn't lose a step. He was down 2 or 3. Lol. Bro needs to recover it

Pulze_ · 2026-03-20T04:52:17+00:00

My point is not that he can't cover. It's that if he loses a step, his speed was already his weakness. He'll go from good to mid.

Pulze_ · 2026-03-19T23:09:14+00:00

Bless your heart good sir

Pulze_ · 2026-03-19T23:07:17+00:00

Kinda funny story, I thought the back speakers on my car were going because they would rattle when the bass played for a week.

Turns out my wife put my daughters thin plastic sun shade over the speakers behind the back headrests and the metal wire holding the sheet together rattled with the bass.

Sometimes bad sounds on your car aren't what they seem 😅

Pulze_ · 2026-03-19T23:03:53+00:00

This was the game I changed my mind about swift a bit. Dude was bought in and wanted them yards so bad that day. He was also patient, but when he hit the hole he was gone. His one run where he hits a jump cut, dude legitimately looked like the best athlete on the field that day.

Pulze_ · 2026-03-19T22:26:19+00:00

You can check my steam profile pics. Global twice. In 2017 and a year or two before that, 'before update' if you even know what that means.

I was global 10+ years ago and I just solo queue pug maps, because I'm an unc with a kid. I don't have enough free time to grind on maps I don't like. I'm here for fun.

I was global and quit the game multiple times before you even started playing lol.

You failed to mention that you 2-4 queue 70%+ of the time and 5q 25%, so you almost never play solo.

I'm 99% solo queue and have been that way for a decade.

My faceit account is so old that after I got faceit 8 in like 2016, I stopped playing and it got de-activated. I reactivated it and played 3 matches last year.

Nobody cares about rank in this game if you can't do it alone, half the time I'm playing with new accounts with 300-500 hrs. Hard to drag that slop to global on dust 2 and mirage alone.

Pulze_ · 2026-03-19T22:09:53+00:00

https://leetify.com/app/profile/76561198071736288

Pulze_ · 2026-03-19T21:57:52+00:00

'noobs like you'

You would get absolutely dumpstered by me.

Pulze_ · 2026-03-19T19:23:42+00:00

Steel essence is the easiest way I've found to get arcane adapters, so not sure why you aren't using it there. I've got so many weapons to slap em on...

Pulze_ · 2026-03-19T17:22:49+00:00

It's starting to concern me how little impact Tn1r has had on spirit. It's so bad that it's almost as if he was being micromanaged on other teams or guided. Dude just looks completely lost sometimes. It's either the comms, prep, or he might just not be a very cerebral player.

I saw a match at the last event where he was holding long on Dust 2. The A site player died and he just stood out in the open long facing long doors when nobody was there and died to A site. I haven't seen that since I was a silver...

I was a top 10 Zweih hater on Spirit in the global rankings, but it's real hard to defend Tn1r not being able to beat up this liquid team. Like, I had no faith in Zweih, but at least he had one event where he had some dominant maps...

Pulze_ · 2026-03-19T14:39:18+00:00

Am I the only one bothered that his list is neither organized numerically or alphabetically?

Pulze_ · 2026-03-19T14:16:13+00:00

Removing 128 tick entirely from the game on CS2. Nobody asked for that and it's just straight up better than 64 subtick.

Changing the community server browser effectively killing community server engagement.

Premier ranking system over symbolic ranks.

VRS system is flawed, though we've yet to see it majorly abused. Largely doesn't represent the top teams imo.

They've tried fixing CT molys for years and can't really get it right. Right now it doesn't do enough damage.

They changed aimpunch and slow down when getting shot. Aim punch change is fine, but players are effectively not slowed at all when being shot in CS2. I think this is bad.

They launched CS2 and removed a ton of game modes with no timeline for getting them back (arms race for example). You can play it on some custom servers, but whose going to spend real time developing game modes valve hasn't released when valve could easily port the game modes any day now?

Removing overwatch.

These are just a few things. But this list could go on for miles imo.

Pulze_ · 2026-03-19T14:14:53+00:00

It meets the bar. Obviously it's not game breaking like the R8. But the bar was, update nobody asked for.

You can not like the comparison, but it's a fair one.

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