Valve update VAC Ban ruling for CS:GO Majors – What does it mean?
The statement that Valve released addresses that players that received a VAC Ban 5 years or more ago, are allowed to participate in Majors. Valve realised that their ruling on VAC Bans affecting majors was too old, and with the scene advancing and developing, they saw it necessary to re-shape how the rules around cheaters should look.
This comes with urgency as many players banned from CS:GO Majors have switched to VALORANT. The most recent example of this was none other than talented youngster, Elias “Jamppi” Olkkonen. He had formerly played for ENCE, but has recently made the switch to VALORANT to play for Team Liquid.
Despite making the switch to VALORANT, Jamppi still took to twitter to address the fact that he is no longer blacklisted from Majors. This means that if he decides to return to CS:GO at some point in the future, he’s able to take part in RMR events and show everyone what he’s truly made of.
What’s next?
With Valve updating the VAC Ban / cheating rule for CS:GO Majors, this will allow players that have done mistakes in the past to come back to the esport and redeem themselves.
With this news, Valve advised the public to feel excited for the upcoming 2021 RMR events. As it stands at the moment, the Stockholm Major is still on schedule to play out this Fall!
So, with the competitiveCS:GOcommunity gearing up for the next event, winning is on everyone’s mind. Accordingly, now that teams are shaping up, Evil Geniuses CS:GO has decided to make some changes. Read on to read about the new roster change – “MICHU” in and “Tarik” out!
Evil Geniuses CS:GO – A Young Gun for a Veteran
Ever since the summer of 2020, Evil Geniuses has not looked the same – suffering in terms of placements. Overall, the recent result of a 21-24th placement at ESL Pro League Season 13 was simply the final push for this roster.
And that’s why, the team made a change. Indeed, they decided to make a move and remove the veteran from the roster, replacing “tarik” with “MICHU“.
Who’s “MICHU” you ask? He’s a young Polish professional, with promising results on the team of Styldunov. What’s more important than results is that he’s hungry and determined to push this roster to victory.
Accordingly, here’s what the final roster looks like:
Specifically, “tarik” did bench himself for the following reson:
Our results as a team have been lackluster and led to the decision of me benching myself.
By no means do I think I was playing well throughout the hardships, but I believe that even with our new lineup that underlying issues had still existed. Ultimately, I had a different approach to our issues however the team didn’t agree with my views.
Guess what’s up next on the competitive CS:GOcalendar? That’s right, another epic event, this time called the DreamHack Masters Spring 2021. Indeed, packing some incredible teams with an equally respectable prize pool, you desperately need to keep reading for all the details!
— DreamHack Counter-Strike (@DreamHackCSGO) March 24, 2021
Credits: DreamHack Counter Strike Twitter
Kicking off on the 29th April, this S tier event will have a GSL format. Indeed, that means that two groups of eight will fight through a separate double elimination. After that’s done, on May 1st, the top three teams from each group then fight through the Playoffs.
Want to know who the participants are> Here they are listed out for you:
Indeed, these are some of the best teams in the world. Accordingly, the community is buzzing with excitement for this event to get underway.
In terms of predictions, the ESL Pro League Season 13 might hold some answers. Concluding very recently, the likes of Heroic as champions definitely puts a tonne of pressure on themselves to perform.
Further on, we’ll be providing a How to Watch for further viewership details!
As you may have seen from one of our recent articles, the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown is underway. To kick things off, the tournament has already undergone 2 upsets, as Astralis and Team Liquid were eliminated from the event. Here is how it all went down:
Astralis and Team Liquid eliminated – What happened?
Astralis vs OG Esports
Heading into this match-up, Astralis were considered as the heavy favourites due to OG’s most recent roster changes. Despite this, the match was totally not in the favour of the Danes this time round. The first map played was Inferno, a classic map for this Astralis lineup, but unfortunately they were playing with Bubzkji instead of Xyp9x for this first map. The map ended with a score of 16-7 in favour of OG, and they went on to play the 2nd map, Dust II. This match was way closer, ax Xyp9x stepped back into the server, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough. The match ended 19-17 favouring OG, winning the series 2-0 and eliminating Astralis from BLAST Premier.
— BLAST Premier Spring Showdown 💥 (@BLASTPremier) April 13, 2021
Team Liquid vs Dignitas
Team Liquid have proven that with this current roster, the team can be a couple of the best teams in the world, but Dignitas have put them back in their place with an astonishing upset! First map played was Nuke, a map which the Swedes have been practicing for quite some time. This was the most impressive map of the series, as Dignitas won it 16-5. Then on Vertigo, which usually falls in favour of the Liquid lineup, the team under performed heavily. The second map finished with a 16-13 scoreline in favour of DIG, and just like that, Team Liquid were out of the event.
As you may have seen in recent events, Gambit Esports have been a very clear dominant team when it comes to European CS:GO. In the past few events the team has exceeded everyone’s expectations, winning the IEM XV World Championship, and eliminating multiple tier 1 teams in big events. Now the team has recently had another successful performance as they placed 2nd in the ESL Pro League Season 13. This heavily contributed towards their ranking points, and if they keep this up, they just might stay there for quite a while.
Credits: HLTV
Gambit reach #1 on HLTV Rankings – Gambit’s Origins
The core members of the team originally joined in April of 2019. After a couple of months they made some changes, and the team started to win solid Tier 2 events. Then in 2020, the team brought on veteran player Abay “Hobbit” Khassenov to the team, and it immensely improved their team chemistry. They tried to make it work with a 6-man roster but it just didn’t click. They parted ways with 1 of their players (Supra) and the team was promoted as the main Gambit Esports lineup.
What’s next?
The next event for the team is the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown, which will determine which teams will make it to the main event. A top 2 placing is necessary for the team to make it to the BLAST Premier Spring Finals. And we’re sure they’ll manage to do so, if they continue playing like they are at the moment.
French Team Vitality have announced that they are benching long-time player RpK from the team. Here is their announcement:
After @BLASTPremier Spring Showdown, @RpKTANKK will step back from his active player position. It's not an easy decision for the team, and we'll support him as much as possible in his future challenges.
In the statement above, Vitality do not reveal the true reason behind the benching of RpK. However, the recent disappointing results the team has been achieving might have been the reason. In their past 3 events, the team placed 13-16th in ESL Pro League Season 13, 9th-12th in IEM XV, and 10th-12th at BLAST Premier Spring Groups. Certainly not promising results for the all-french team.
Who is replacing him?
Coming in as a replacement is up and coming player 22-year-old Jayson “Kyojin” Nguyen Van. He hasn’t had much experience as a professional, only playing for a handful of teams in the past 2 years. Now he’s gotten an excellent opportunity to play with some of the best in the country.
Stepping in after the @BLASTPremier Spring Showdown as our new 5th man, please allow us to introduce the young and extremely talented @KyojinCSGO!
Here are some words from Vitality coach Rémy “XTQZZZ” Quoniam:
“Kyojin is a unique player with great untapped talent and tremendous potential, who will help us build the future of Team Vitality around a younger roster. We have great expectations for him and we’ll make sure, together with the group, to help him grow in the steps of his predecessor.”
With these recent changes, this is how Vitality’s lineup will look:
Players:
Dan “apEX” Madesclaire
Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut
Richard “shox” Papillon
Kévin “misutaaa” Rabier
Jayson “Kyojin” Nguyen Van
Coach:
Rémy “XTQZZZ” Quoniam
Inactive:
Nabil “Nivera” Benrlitom
Cédric “RpK” Guipouy
The team is currently taking part in the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown. Whether they qualify or get eliminated, RpK will be transferring to the bench and Kyojin will be coming into the main lineup.
In the play-ins they took on the swedes on both Inferno and Nuke, two very tactical maps for these teams. Heroic started the series with a bang winning the first map 16-13. Then NiP were trying to grab back a comeback on their CT-side, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough. Heroic won the 2nd map 16-9 and got a spot in the semifinals.
Play-offs
Their first match-up in the Semis was against FURIA, which they beat 2-0 on both Mirage and Dust II. With this win they got into the grand finals versus the underdog team… Gambit.
Grand Finals
This Grand Finals was probably one of the longest series in CS:GO history. The finals started at 3:30pm, and the tournament concluded about 7 hours later, around 10:30pm. Heroic won Inferno 19-17, and Gambit replied with a dominating win 16-3. Then came Train, which went into a very long overtime, but Heroic came on top 28-26. Then, Gambit won Overpass 16-10, and Heroic won the final map 16-6. Here is the insane clutch that CadiaN pulled off, for Heroic to win ESL Pro League 13:
This next week we’re going to witness some of the best Counter-Strike that Europe has to offer. This is because the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown 2021 is playing out, starting next Tuesday. Here’s your full tournament guide of the event:
The Spring Showdown 2021 is a tournament which is part of BLAST’s Premier program. This tournament is connected to the prior event, which was the BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2021. The bottom 6 teams of that tournament got invited to this event and are now playing alongside a couple of other teams that qualified, to reach the Spring Finals.
How to qualify for the main event
All of the teams that are participating in the Spring Showdown 2021 have either qualified through Spring Groups, or been invited or passed through some sort of qualification tournament. These qualifiers consist of the Fantasyexpo Cup, Nordi Masters, LVP Unity Cup, Winstrike CIS Cup, VENN Invitational, FiReLEAGUE Latin Power, and Calyx Dune Cup
Credits: BLAST
Prize distribution
A total of $162,500 is up for grabs for all 16 teams participating. Alongside the prize money, the top 2 teams at the event get a spot in the Spring Finals tournament. The Spring Finals will play out between the 16th at 20th of June.This is how the prize money will be distributed:
1st-2nd – $30,000 + Seed at Spring Finals
3rd-4th – $16,250
5th-8th – $10,000
9th-16th – $3,750
Tournament Format
The Spring Showdown 2021 format is extremely simple. It will play out in a Playoffs single-elimination bracket, where all matches are in a best of 3. The tournament will progress through the Round of 16 and Round of 8 and the winner of Round of 4 wins a seed in the Spring Finals.
Teams Participating at BLAST Premier Spring Showdown 2021
A total of 16 teams are participating in this event, and as mentioned above, they have qualified through a variety of options. Here is the full team list for the event:
Astralis
G2 Esports
Team Liquid
OG
Team Vitality
MiBR
FURIA
Gambit Esports
Heroic
Endpoint
Dignitas
SAW
Team Spirit
Extra Salt
9z Team
NASR Esports
Schedule list
The event is starting this Tuesday, on the 13th and will keep on going till the 18th of April. Here’s a quick run down of the first few matches:
Watch the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown 2021 stream on esportsguide.com
You can also watch the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown 2021 live stream via our very own website. Providing an extensive list of the biggest esports together with streams for each esports match live today or upcoming matches.
Predictions for the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown 2021
With so many talented teams involved in this tournament, predicting the outcome is always a difficult task. Ofcourse, there’s many teams that we did not expect to be brought down to the Spring Showdown, especially Astralis and Vitality. Nevertheless, we think that they have the highest odds of making it out as eventual winners and qualifiers for the Spring Finals!
Be sure to keep yourself updated with www.esportsguide.com for all your esports news!
The Heroic vs Ninjas In Pyjamas match-up was extremely heated, with rounds going back and forth. Heroic won the first map (Inferno) with a 16-13 scoreline, and went on to win the 2nd map as well, (Nuke) with a 16-9 score.
This match heavily favoured the Danish lineup. But as we’ve seen recently, this Gambit squad has shown tremendous improvement, and is looking to take another major title in 2021. The first map was Overpass, and Gambit got a lead on the T-side which got them the eventual win (16-7). Next map was Inferno, where historically Astralis would be better. Unfortunately for them, this match both sides of Gambit were strong and Astralis could not keep up, losing the game 16-12.
Credits: ESL
Heroic and Gambit win EPL 13 Play-ins – What’s next?
With this loss, Astralis and Ninjas In Pyjamas were dropped to the Quarterfinals versus Furia and Complexity respectively. On the other hand, Heroic and Gambit have automatically placed into the Semifinals. This means that they will be facing one of the winners from the Quarterfinals.
With both play-ins concluded we have our quarter-finalists for tomorrow!
ESL Pro League has shown to be very hectic so far, and we just can’t wait to see how it continues to play out. Who knows, maybe Gambit can pull off another great performance and take down some of the best teams in Europe.
FlameZ can be looked at as one of Europe’s best up and coming players of the 2020 and 2021 season. He’s been extremely successful with the Team Endpoint squad, and is looking to replicate that success with this talented European roster of OG.
This is what Shahar “flameZ” Shushan, OG’s newest player, said about the move:
“I’m really excited and ready for this great opportunity to play with such great leadership and experienced players. I will do my very best every day to show I deserve it. One of the most important things is to get some trophies! Really excited and let’s make it wild! #DreamOG”
With this addition, the OG main lineup is as follows:
Players:
Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen
Valdemar “valde” Bjørn Vangså
Mateusz “mantuu” Wilczewski
Nikolaj “niko” Kristensen
Shahar “flameZ” Shushan
Coach:
Casper “ruggah” Due
Manager:
Vladyslava “Vladyslava” Zakhliebina
OG have never managed to hit it off and win big tier 1 tournaments. They’ve had a couple of solid performances but never challenged one of the top dogs in the CS:GO scene. Now with a new and reformed roster, the team has new goals set and is aiming to have a better opportunity this time round.
