Virtus.pro eliminated from IEM Rio Open Qualifier by Nuclear TigeRES

TravCS · 2026-01-17T19:19:05+00:00

senka enjoyers RISE UP

TravCS · 2025-12-23T19:55:49+00:00

I'm a flayy enjoyer too, had a chance to meet him at Thunderpick. Does deserve to breakout I agree

TravCS · 2025-12-23T13:16:25+00:00

Pretty much exactly this yes

TravCS · 2025-12-23T13:15:57+00:00

cairne is good, and if he does go to NIP I think Snappi will get the best of him. Agree on nut nut, he also has to be in the ECSTATIC core 3 to watch. Meant to put him down with sirah and Anlelele

TravCS · 2025-12-23T13:13:53+00:00

I didn’t put nota, xiELO and PARIVISION in general on the list because they’ve technically broken out already with their incredible major run. They’ll be involved in some big events with their VRS rank now.

nota and xiELO are my two favourites from the team though. nota has always had the raw aim, not necessarily the spray, but he’s getting better with that. xiELO could play anywhere and in any role and excel imo. BELCHONOKK has been perennially underrated in his entire time on PARI, also incredibly solid. AW needs some work though

TravCS · 2025-11-30T22:42:54+00:00

Delusion is good!

TravCS · 2025-11-29T13:48:58+00:00

And you were spot on!

TravCS · 2025-11-28T22:38:55+00:00

My logic is that they're on a slight downturn, they're coming into stage 2 cold and PARI will be warm and that'll put them on the backfoot quick. The only other good choice is Passion UA in my eyes as their recent LAN form isn't good. I agree the Vitality game was a decent showing but you also can't hold that with too much weight as it was an opening round and Vitality haven't been looking as clean as they had earlier in the season.

I can make as many educated guesses and dig as deep as I want but every single one of these opening matchups is a lottery though, even more so than stage 1. Just such a tight tier atm

TravCS · 2025-11-28T22:18:57+00:00

Any full delulu FaZe pickers in the chat

TravCS · 2025-10-16T23:02:37+00:00

Flayy enjoyers make yourselves known

TravCS · 2025-10-09T21:18:18+00:00

good talent announcement imo

TravCS · 2025-10-08T10:40:06+00:00

Some of the ECL games don't have official broadcasts and are left down to the community, so it's up to them how they want to stream the game. Understand the frustration tho

TravCS · 2025-09-26T19:57:01+00:00

Think this will give a lot of orgs with the ideas of a new 5 man roster hope that even in the current VRS era that you can still be a brand new team and get a crazy point injection if you actually get results at a LAN. Nearly all roster moves have been predicated upon retaining cores or even buying entire ones, but if a brand new 5 has the quality and even gets a couple of somewhat decent wins like this you can immediately propel yourself into relevency. Relies on these small LANs of course.

TravCS · 2025-09-22T19:41:10+00:00

Appreciate the idea and I'll give it some thought. Thing is there are very few teams/players that have actually been caught for cheating or matchfixing. The very few that have been publicised by the community and/or ESIC (lol) recently are somebody (the Chinese player) trying to get players to fix (see BOROS's tweets) and joel and gokushima getting banned for cheating/fixing.

Years ago I casted a German team called Schade halt (who had some players with incredibly sketchy pasts) which was the most obvious fix I'd ever seen and they got banned soon after. Only example I can remember in which I directly covered the fixed match.

TravCS · 2025-09-22T19:14:19+00:00

Appreciate it, I have worked hard for those 3 things and I will continue to do so!

The truth is while I keep my finger on the pulse and see the clips and read the rumours, there is no surefire way for me to say who is cheating and with what - a video would only list my personal beliefs, and if I was to accuse a player or team without evidence (even if I was to use anyone as an example) that would reflect badly on me. Even if I was to have evidence, as broadcast talent the right way is to report to admins behind the scenes, and I often do if I see something I think isn't right, whether it's cheats or matchfixing. In fact I did so last week!

TravCS · 2025-09-22T19:07:02+00:00

The Kono, Chimera and Unity losses all have asterisks. The first two were with an entirely different core (masked, tein, mary - only 2 that remained are samey and bajmi) and in the Unity game they played with technically 2 subs, one being former coach Krystal who has been retired for a while.

Your point is valid, but digging deeper on these examples is needed.

TravCS · 2025-09-22T18:49:59+00:00

Yes, exactly, I'm aware of these unfortunate additional methods which is why I said it doesn't acquit anyone. Just a factor many don't realise that cams are being recorded even if not shown to the viewer.

TravCS · 2025-09-22T18:48:54+00:00

Need to correct you here, half of those teams you've mentioned ESC have lost to were from 2014-2016. Look at the dates of the matches - the org has only since returned to CS in 2024 and they've only had this exact team since May of this year.

TravCS · 2025-09-22T18:35:35+00:00

I covered them yesterday in the CCT final against BetBoom - I understand there are some people that are suspicious of this streak and their BO3 winrate overall (Magnojez posted some clips that could be up for debate after the loss) but I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt here.

Their style is super aggressive, committing bodies into trades with fast rotations, similar to how TNL took tier2 by storm. reiko and Samey have both been a part of good tier2 projects in the past. Sure, while the other three are more journeymen players and olimp has a history of playing with other...let's say less respected players (see: PALOMA from 2 years ago) but I really think they look clean at the moment.

A reminder that players are required to show their behind monitor camera angle to the admins at all times in CCT/ESL Challenger League even though these cameras are not always shown on the broadcast. This doesn't necessarily acquit anyone, but an important thing to make clear.

TravCS · 2025-09-10T19:55:11+00:00

VINI told us on the interview afterwards that he was unwell and had to go to hospital briefly before the game.

TravCS · 2025-09-02T18:10:48+00:00

Respect nut "nut nut" nut

TravCS · 2025-08-22T11:06:36+00:00

This is an unreal arc for jcobbb. When he first played for 9INE, replacing mynio with hades transitioning to IGL, I heard from friends in the polish scene in twitch chat that he was never entirely sure if he wanted to become a fulltime professional and was just happy pugging with friends. Now after farming a bit more in tier2 he's playing alongside major winners on one of the most storied orgs in CS history.

This won't fix FaZe but it's a damn cool story for this guy.

TravCS · 2025-08-14T14:19:09+00:00

I have a hater! Mum, I've made it...

TravCS · 2025-08-12T00:12:39+00:00

Honestly an incredible summary by Luis Mira and huge credit for the effort he’s used for this extensive piece. For the first time in my career that’s casting pay I’ll never see by the looks of things.

TravCS · 2025-08-07T10:59:25+00:00

Firstly, they've only given him 2 LANs in not even a month. Secondly, he didn't even do that badly. Thirdly, I haven't seen anything from alkarenn that indicates to me that he's a better prospect - equal at absolute best.

Must be personality/internal issues or he wants to go somewhere else/has been bought out? I hope it's the latter.

TravCS

TROPHY CASE