💩 BetBoom's IEM Cologne Major roster is still open - CEO Pioneer told HLTV it depends on visas.

The org has registered both d1Ledez and VP loanee FL4MUS for the event. zorte already replaced ArtFr0st as the AWPer for the season.

"For any CIS team, visas are always a major challenge."

FL4MUS plays IEM Atlanta on a valid US visa. d1Ledez is the one waiting on the Cologne decision.

👉 https://www.hltv.org/news/44475/betboom-ceo-cologne-roster-open-question-until-all-players-receive-their-visas

#BetBoom #IEMCologne

🔥 Match of the day on paper - 🇺🇦 NAVI (#2) vs 🇪🇺 FaZe (#40)!

🏆 Tournament info
BLAST Rivals 2026 S1 · Group B
Apr 29 · 08:00 PM UTC | BO3

😎 Win chance by VRS model
🇺🇦 NAVI — 93%
🇪🇺 FaZe — 7%

🕹 Worth knowing

1. New-look 🇪🇺 FaZe — karrigan officially left for 🇫🇷 Falcons last week, neityu joined as stand-in for the next 3 events, and Twistzz takes over IGL duties. New head coach enkay J also onboard. This is their debut series with the lineup.

2. The VRS swing is asymmetric: 🇺🇦 NAVI gain only +2.3 if they win, but FaZe pick up +98.4 and jump from #40 to #24 if they pull the upset - the biggest possible single-match move on Day 1.

👉 cs2analytics.com

#BLASTRivals #NAVI #FaZe

🇫🇷 ZywOo makes a quadruple and ties the score

What is this robot doing....🔥

👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_Wwkt6b9GU

#BLASTRivals #Vitality #FUT

🏆 Day 1 closer - defending Rivals champions 🇧🇷 FURIA (#8) vs 🇩🇪 GamerLegion (#22).

🏆 Tournament info
BLAST Rivals 2026 S1 · Group B
Apr 30 · 01:30 AM UTC | BO3

📊 Win chance by VRS model
🇧🇷 FURIA — 80%
🇩🇪 GamerLegion — 20%

🧐 Worth knowing

1. 🇧🇷 FURIA come into Fort Worth as the actual defending Rivals champs — they beat Falcons 3-1 in Hong Kong last November to win 🏆BLAST Rivals Fall 2025. That was the third trophy of a four-event run with the molodoy + YEKINDAR core.

2. 🇧🇷 FURIA's last LAN was 🏆 IEM Rio 2026, where they finished top 4 in front of a home crowd before losing the third-place match to Falcons 0-2.

3. The risk math: FURIA only lose -35.6 pts if they fall — they stay #8. 🇩🇪 GL picking this one up moves them +85.4 pts and three spots up the global table.

👉 cs2analytics.com

#BLASTRivals #FURIA #GamerLegion

🇪🇺 Vitality survive a scare - 2-1 over 🇪🇺FUT!

It was gret open the BLAST Rivals 2026 S1!

🇪🇺 FUT pushed the world #1 to three maps and snapped🇪🇺 Vitality's 16-map LAN win streak on Dust 2 in the process. Nuke decider went 13-11.

🕹 ZywOo 1.38 - dem0n 1.36 right behind him.

👉 cs2analytics.com

#BLASTRivals #Vitality #FUT

🇪🇺 NAVI close out 🇪🇺 FaZe 2-0 to take Group B's opening match.

Anubis went 13-7, Ancient was tighter at 13-11. The 93/7 forecast played out clean - even with FaZe debuting their new Twistzz-led, neityu-stand-in lineup, they couldn't take a map.

🇽🇰 makazze 1.46 — top of the server. frozen 1.07 the lone bright spot for 🇪🇺 FaZe.

NAVI move on through the upper bracket. FaZe head to the lower side.

👉 cs2analytics.com

#BLASTRivals #NAVI #FaZe

🔥 First map for 🇧🇷 FURIA- next Nuke

👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_Wwkt6b9GU

#BLASTRivals #FURIA #GamerLegion

🇩🇪 GamerLegion drag the defending Rivals champs to a decider - Mirage to settle it.

FURIA took Inferno 13-5, but GL flipped it hard on Nuke 13-5. The 80/20 forecast just got a lot tighter.

👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_Wwkt6b9GU

#BLASTRivals #FURIA #GamerLegion

🔥 Upset of Day 1 - 🇩🇪 GamerLegion (#22) take down defending Rivals champs 🇧🇷 FURIA (#8) 2-1!

The 80/20 forecast flipped. After dropping Inferno 5-13, GL ran Nuke 13-5 and closed it on Mirage 13-10 in regulation.

🌟 PR top of the server with 1.31 - KSCERATO led 🇧🇷 FURIA at 1.22 but couldn't carry it alone.

🇩🇪 GL move on through Group B winners' bracket. FURIA's title defense already on the ropes.

👉 cs2analytics.com

#BLASTRivals #GamerLegion #FURIA

🇺🇦 Aleksib drew a clear line ahead of 🇺🇦 NAVI's 🏆 BLAST Rivals run.

"We're contenders for the grand final at every tournament. The real test is always 🇪🇺 Vitality — we can beat any other team, and honestly we already have."

He went further on the trophy question:
"We'd be glad to lift one, but I don't think any trophy without beating Vitality would feel fully deserved. We want to feel we earned it."

🕹 Worth knowing:
1. 🇺🇦 NAVI have faced 🇪🇺 Vitality twice at recent big events — the BLAST Open Rotterdam grand final and the IEM Rio QF — and lost both.

2. NAVI opened BLAST Rivals 2026 S1 with a 2-0 over 🇪🇺 FaZe earlier today.

👉 cs2analytics.com

#NAVI #BLASTRivals #Aleksib

🇺🇦 Cache is back, and someone has been waiting longer than the rest of us.

Among players from 🕹 HLTV's current top-20 teams, 🇫🇷 apEX has played Cache more than anyone — 205 maps. 🇩🇰 Karrigan and 🇧🇷 XANTARES are the closest at 174 and 152.

🕹 Worth knowing:

1. Cache was first added to Active Duty in 2014 as the very first community-made map ever to make the pool. It got cycled out for Vertigo on March 28, 2019 - and stayed out for 7 years.

2. Valve bought the rights from FMPONE in May 2025 and added it back to CS2 on April 28, 2026.

3. So far it's only in Competitive, Casual, DM, and Retakes — not in Active Duty yet.

👉 cs2analytics.com

#CS2 #Cache #apEX

🏆 Day 1 of BLAST Rivals 2026 S1 is in the books - and the brackets shifted hard.

🕹 What happened

🇪🇺 Vitality 2-1 🇹🇷FUT (won the streak-snapper)

🇪🇺G2 2-0 🇩🇰Astralis (one of two clean upsets)

🇺🇦NAVI 2-0 🇪🇺FaZe (form held)

🇩🇪 GamerLegion 2-1 🇧🇷FURIA (Day 1's biggest shock - defending Rivals champs out of the upper bracket)

📅 Today's matches (UTC)
- 18:00 - Vitality vs G2
- 20:30 - FUT vs Astralis
- 23:00 - FURIA vs FaZe
- 01:30 AM (01.05.26) - Navi vs GamerLegion

👉 cs2analytics.com

#BLASTRivals #CS2

🇺🇦 NAVI's 🗺 Ancient strength isn't just 🇽🇰 makazze - 🇺🇦 b1t is the best B-anchor in the world on this map.

He holds B around 6.6% more efficiently than the average anchor in comparable situations — top of the global list for tier - "+1.5" events in 2026.

🕹 Worth knowing:
At the other end of the same metric, xiELO is bottom of the chart at -14.48% - losing the plant or failing to stack damage before it lands far more often than peers.

👉 cs2analytics.com

#NAVI #Ancient

🔥 First match on today - 🇪🇺FUT (#4) vs 🇩🇰 Astralis (#7)!

🏆 Tournament info
BLAST Rivals 2026 S1 · Group A · Lower Bracket Quarter-final
Apr 30 · 18:00 UTC | BO3

📊 Win chance by the VRS model
🇪🇺FUT — 51%
🇩🇰Astralis — 49%

🕹 Worth knowing

1. 🇪🇺FUT come in off pushing world #1 Vitality to three maps yesterday — with their head coach coolio still standing in for IGL lauNX, who's out for health reasons.

2. 🇩🇰 Astralis dropped a clean 0-2 to G2 in their Day 1 opener. Fresh off a deep run at PGL Bucharest 2026, where they reached the grand final before falling 1-3 to FUT.

The risk math: this match is a do-or-die for both — loser is out of BLAST Rivals.

👉 cs2analytics.com

#BLASTRivals #FUT #Astralis

🔥 First map for 🇩🇰 Astralis- next Nuke

👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdktWpFb6C4

#BLASTRivals #FUT #Astralis

🕹 Top 8 by Player VRS - and the leaderboard is dominated by two teams.

3× 🇪🇺 Vitality: ZywOo (#1, 2024 pts) - flameZ (#2, 1900 pts) - ropz (#4, 1898 pts)
3× 🇺🇦 NAVI: makazze (#3, 1903 pts) - iM (#6, 1872 pts) - b1t (#8, 1827 pts)

mONESY (#5, Falcons) and donk (#7, Spirit) are the only two players in the top 8 not from those two rosters.

🕹 Worth knowing:

1. Player VRS decomposes a team's rating into individual contributions — so a top-8 player isn't just a fragger, it's someone whose impact across maps and rounds lifts the whole team's VRS.

2. ZywOo at 2024 pts is currently the only player above 2000.

👉 cs2analytics.com

#VRS

🇪🇺 G2 (#12) vs 🇪🇺 Vitality (#1)!

🏆 Tournament info
BLAST Rivals 2026 S1 · Group A · UB SF
Apr 30 · 20:00 UTC | BO3

📊 Win chance by VRS model
Vitality - 79%
G2 - 21%

🕹 Worth knowing

1. 🇪🇺 Vitality's three-Big-Event streak in 2026 is on the line - Kraków, Cluj-Napoca, Rotterdam. They opened the tournament with a tight 2-1 over FUT, surviving a Dust 2 streak break in the process.
2. 🇪🇺 G2 took down Astralis 2-0 to even reach this match - the same Astralis core that pushed FUT to a 5-map grand final at PGL Bucharest 2026. Last trophy lifted at BLAST Open Fall 2025 with the current core (huNter, malbsMd, MATYS, HeavyGod, SunPayus).

A win for G2 moves them up to #11 — and books the upper-bracket final against the Group B winner.

👉 cs2analytics.com

#BLASTRivals #Vitality #G2

🇩🇰 Astralis bounce back hard - 2-0 over 🇪🇺 FUT to send the Bucharest grand finalists out of 🏆 BLAST Rivals.

The 51/49 forecast played out clean. Astralis took Mirage 13-5 and closed it on Nuke 13-11 - Ancient never came up.

📊 VRS impact
🇩🇰 Astralis +34.7, jumping #7 → #4.
🇪🇺 FUT drop -11.5, falling #4 → #6.

🕹 Worth knowing

- This is Astralis's revenge for the 1-3 PGL Bucharest 2026 grand final loss to FUT - same matchup, opposite result.

- FUT exit Fort Worth without lauNX (out for health reasons), with head coach coolio still IGL stand-in.

👉 cs2analytics.com

#BLASTRivals #Astralis #FUT

🔥 First map for 🇪🇺 Vitality - next Overpass

👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdktWpFb6C4

#BLASTRivals #Vitality #G2

🇪🇺 FaZe (#38) vs defending Rivals champs 🇧🇷 FURIA (#8)

🏆 Tournament info
BLAST Rivals 2026 S1 · Group B · LB QF
Apr 30 · 23:00 UTC | BO3

📊 Win chance by VRS model
🇪🇺 FaZe — 14%
🇧🇷 FURIA — 86%

🕹 Worth knowing

1. 🇧🇷 FURIA come in stinging — they were tournament favourites in Group B and got upset 2-1 by GamerLegion in their opener. KSCERATO led the team with a 1.22 rating, but couldn't carry it alone. Their title defence is on the brink.

2. 🇪🇺 FaZe lost their opener to NAVI 0-2 — debut series with the new Twistzz-led, neityu-stand-in lineup. New head coach enkay J onboard. frozen at 1.07 was the only player above 1.00 across the match.

👉 cs2analytics.com

#BLASTRivals #FURIA #FaZe

🇺🇦 NAVI (#2) vs 🇩🇪 GamerLegion (#19)

🏆 Tournament info
BLAST Rivals 2026 S1 · Group B · UB SF
Apr 30 · 23:00 UTC | BO3

📊 Win chance by VRS model
🇺🇦 NAVI — 80%
🇩🇪 GamerLegion — 20%

🕹 Worth knowing

1. 🇺🇦 NAVI rolled FaZe 2-0 in their opener with makazze on a 1.46 rating — currently #3 globally by Player VRS. They're chasing the trophy that, by Aleksib's own words, would still feel "not fully deserved" without beating 🇪🇺 Vitality.

2. 🇩🇪 GamerLegion just took out defending Rivals champs 🇧🇷 FURIA 2-1 — the upset of Day 1. PR led the server with a 1.31 rating in that match.

👉 cs2analytics.com

#BLASTRivals #NAVI #GamerLegion