🕹 Premier players still pick the same maps, no matter who's on top of the pro scene.

Most-played maps in Premier — March 2026 (per Leetify, 5.2M matches):

🕌 Mirage - 25.5%
🌅 Dust 2 - 23.1%
⛪️ Inferno - 14.5%
🎇 Nuke - 12.1%
🏞 Ancient - 12.1%
🏜 Anubis - 7.4%
🚅 Overpass - 5.3%

What this tells us:
- Nearly half of all Premier matches (48.6%) are played on just two maps - Mirage and Dust 2.
- Overpass is now the least-picked map in the active pool - chosen 5x less often than Mirage.
- Despite Cache return to CS2 on April 28 it is not on this chart yet, since its not added to official Map Pool.

🧐 Worth knowing:
At the pro level, Mirage was the most-played series at BLAST Rivals 2026 S1 (8 series). At Premier level, it's the most-played map full stop. The community and the pros agree on Mirage.

👉 cs2analytics.com

#Mirage #Dust2

🕹 CS2 Premier match volume just jumped 38% in one quarter - AND IT'S NOT EVEN RELATED TO THE CACHE!

🕹 Premier match count, per Leetify:
- Q3 2025 - 10.82M matches
- Q4 2025 - 11.16M matches (+3.2%)
- Q1 2026 - 15.39M matches (+37.9%)

🇺🇦 Then Cache returned on April 28:
- That's more than Dust 2 and Mirage combined on the same day
- Cache held above Dust 2 and Mirage for about four days after release, then started settling back toward the pack
- By May 3 it was around 20% — still active, but no longer dominating

🧐 Worth knowing:
Premier volume was already climbing hard before April 28. The Q1 surge happened on the existing seven-map pool. Whatever Q2 looks like, the baseline was already set high.

The +37.9% jump came before Cache existed. cache can affect overall online, returning old players to all modes.

👉 cs2analytics.com

#Premier #Cache #Leetify

🔥 flameZ, ropz, w0nderful & makazze got EVP for 🏆 BLAST Rivals Season 1

📺 EVPs:

🇮🇱 flameZ - (Major EVPs 1, Total EVPs 17)
🇪🇪 ropz - (Major EVPs 4, Total EVPs 37)
🇺🇦 w0nderful - (Major EVPs 3, Total EVPs 8)
🇽🇰 makazze - (Major EVPs 1, Total EVPs 4)


🕹 HLTV's All-Star team for BLAST Rivals 2026 S1 is out. Three Vitality, one NAVI, one G2.

⭐️ The All-Star five:
🇫🇮 Aleksib (NAVI) - IGL
🇫🇷 ZywOo (Vitality) - AWPer
🇮🇱 flameZ (Vitality) - Opener
🇪🇪 ropz (Vitality) - Closer
🇮🇱 HeavyGod (G2) - Anchor

🧐 Worth knowing:
🇪🇺 NAVI placed Aleksib in the All-Star, w0nderful and makazze in the EVPs. Three of NAVI's five made HLTV's individual awards from a tournament they lost 0-3 in the final.
🇺🇦 Aleksib's All-Star spot came with a 90.0% Win After Opening Kill rate at the event.

👉 cs2analytics.com

#BLASTRivals #AllStar #NAVI #Vitality

🇧🇿 BC.Game are bootcamping for 🏆 IEM Atlanta. Their opening match is in 5 days - against the world's #1.

🕹 What's lined up:
- May 11, 18:00 UTC - Vitality vs BC.Game (BO3, IEM Atlanta Group A opener)
- Senzu makes his BC.Game debut on this match
- ScrunK steps in as stand-in IGL for Atlanta and CAC 2026
- BC.Game roster: s1mple, electroNic, krazy, Senzu, ScrunK

🧐 Worth knowing
- For BC.Game, this is the first proper test of the new shape. For Vitality, it's a warm-up before IEM Cologne Major.
- 🇺🇦 s1mple vs 🇫🇷 ZywOo headlines the entire IEM Atlanta opening day. They last met at IEM Kraków in January, where Vitality took the series 2-0 on Dust 2 and Overpass.
- Vitality #1 in VRS, on a five-trophy streak. BC.Game #78. But Vitality is tired and BC Game has been practicing, maybe there are chances

👉 cs2analytics.com

#BCGame #Vitality #IEMAtlanta

🏆 PGL Astana opens with an 18-year age gap between its youngest and oldest players on stage.

👴 The numbers (per Esports Charts, coaches excluded):
- Event average age - 24.1 years old
- Oldest player - 🇩🇰karrigan (🇩🇰Falcons), 36
- Youngest - qw1nk1 (🇷🇺K27), 18

📌 The age stack:
- Oldest team - Aurora at 27.4 average
- Youngest team - K27 sits at 20.6, four more teams under 22(HEROIC, The MongolZ, magic, PARIVISION)
- Monte at 23.9, Fisher College at 24.3 - this is event median

🧐 Worth knowing
1. karrigan is twice as old as qw1nk1. They will meet on opening day -🇩🇰 Falcons vs 🇷🇺K27, May 9.
The 36-year-old player begins his era with Falcons after a record-breaking stay with FaZe. In turn, 18-year-old player qw1nk1 starts his first major event in history.

2. 🇪🇺Vitality, the #1 team in the world that rolled over through every big event in 2026, is skipping PGL Astana. Also, 🇪🇺NaVi, the #2 team in the world, will not be coming - so it's not so obvious who will take the trophy here)

3. Age math reflects the composition of the participants - old squads are mixed with promising academy-level players. This is probably what exactly works - 🇪🇺Vitality is therefore an indicator, Apex drilled young Zaywoo so maybe that work...

📎 Source: Esports Charts - https://x.com/EsportsCharts/status/2052072450851008552

#PGLAstana #karrigan

🕹 Americas Team VRS - May 7, 2026

Teams:

🇧🇷 #1 FURIA (1728 pts) - Global #10
🇧🇷 #2 Legacy (1566 pts) - Global #14
🇧🇷 #3 paiN (1531 pts) - Global #17
🇦🇷 #4 9z (1507 pts) - Global #19
🌎 #5 M80 (1408 pts) - Global #26
🇧🇷 #6 MIBR (1404 pts) - Global #27
🌎 #7 Wildcard (1373 pts) - Global #32
🇺🇸 #8 NRG (1368 pts) - Global #33
🇧🇷 #9 Sharks (1334 pts) - Global #37
🇨🇦 #10 Gaimin Gladiators (1321 pts) - Global #39

🙇‍♂️ The shape of the region:

- FURIA lead by 162 points - a wide margin at the top of the AM region.
- Legacy keep climbing — the arT-led project is the biggest riser, +4 ranks.
- M80 dropped 9 in one update, the steepest fall on the board. NRG followed with −7.
- MIBR sit just 4 points behind M80 — the gap between #5 and #6 is essentially nothing.
- Gaimin Gladiators climb into the top 10 with a refreshed Brazilian core. fer is 34, returning to a Tier-1 LAN after over 2 years away.

🧐 Worth knowing:
1. 🇧🇷 six of the top 10 are Brazilian organizations.
2. 🇦🇷 Argentinian representation comes through 9z.
3. 🇺🇸 North America holds three slots - M80, Wildcard, NRG.

👉 cs2analytics.com

#AmericasVRS #FURIA #Legacy #paiN

🏆 CS Asia Championships 2026 - Day 1 forecast.

Tournament info:
🗓 May 20–24, 2026
📌 Shanghai, China
👥 16 teams
💰 $1M prize pool
The last Big Event before the Cologne Major. Not taking into account 🏆 IEM Atlanta and 🏆 PGL Astana.

📊 Group A - Day 1 matches (win probability by VRS):
Falcons 97% - 3% BC.Game
MOUZ 80% - 20% TYLOO
Legacy 63% - 37% NRG
paiN 57% - 43% M80

📊 Group B - Day 1 matches:
The MongolZ 92% - 8% Lynn Vision
PARIVISION 89% - 11% Liquid
3DMAX 59% - 41% MIBR
B8 58% - 42% NIP

📌 The shape of Day 1:
- Falcons vs BC.Game is the steepest mismatch on the board - karrigan's second LAN with Falcons against s1mple's BC.Game project. The model gives BC.Game a 3% chance.
- paiN vs M80 (57%-43%) and B8 vs NIP (58%-42%) are the two closest matches of the day.
- PARIVISION at 89% vs Liquid is the surprise - Liquid sit at #49, and PARIVISION at #9 globally have built a Tier-1 case in 2026.

🧐 Worth knowing:
Neither Vitality nor NAVI are in this field. The world's top two are chasing IEM Atlanta instead, which means one more trophy is genuinely open. Falcons can be the winners - thay had the highest raet in VRS (#3).

Win probability by VRS on every match!
👉 cs2analytics.com

#CACShanghai

🏆 ESL just paid out the post-IEM Rio Annual Club Incentive!

ESL's Annual Club Incentive - Top 10 (per ESL Pro Tour, May 7):

🇧🇷#1 FURIA - $420,550 (102 pts, 13.4% share)
🇷🇺 #1 Spirit - $420,550 (102 pts, 13.4% share)
🇪🇺 #3 NAVI - $383,442 (93 pts, 12.2%)
🇪🇺 #4 G2 - $333,966 (81 pts, 10.6%)
🇪🇺 #5 MOUZ - $247,382 (60 pts, 7.9%)
🇺🇦 #6 B8 - $204,090 (49.5 pts, 6.5%)
🇩🇰 #7 Falcons - $148,429 (36 pts, 4.7%)
🇪🇺 #7 Vitality - $148,429 (36 pts, 4.7%)
🇫🇷 #9 3DMAX - $129,876 (31.5 pts, 4.1%)
🇷🇺 #10 PARIVISION - $119,568 (29 pts, 3.8%)

🙇‍♂️ The shape of it:

- 🇧🇷 FURIA tied for first despite zero Big Event trophies in 2026 - pure viewership weight from a Brazilian fanbase that travels everywhere.
- 🇪🇺 Vitality, the world #1 with five trophies in a row, sit at #7. They've only attended 2 of 3 ESL events. 🇩🇰 Falcons in the same boat at the same number.
- 🇺🇦B8 at #6 is the standout - a 🇺🇦 Ukrainian org pulling in more incentive money than the team that just won BLAST Rivals.
- 🇪🇺 NAVI third with $383K - top of the Ukrainian-org leaderboard.

🕹 Worth knowing
IEM Rio average concurrent viewers told the underlying story: 🇩🇰Falcons led the event at 372K, 🇪🇺 Vitality second at 365K, 🇧🇷 FURIA third at 317K. The home crowd factor mattered but didn't flip the top of the chart.

📎 Source: ESL Pro Tour — pro.eslgaming.com/tour/2026/05/annual-club-incentive-update-post-iem-rio

👉 cs2analytics.com

#ESL

🇽🇰 makazze played his 10th map of the year in Big Event finals. He's 19!

🇺🇦 NAVI's Kosovan rifler in 2026:
- 10 maps played in S-Tier grand finals
- 5 Big Event and 3 grand finals attended (BLAST Rivals(finals), IEM Rio, BLAST Open Rotterdam(finals), ESL Pro League Season 23 Finals(finals), PGL Cluj-Napoca, IEM Kraków)
- #4 globally in Player VRS at 1,871 points

For context: makazze played more S-Tier final maps in 4 months than most pros do in a full season. NAVI's projection bet looks better with every event.

🕹 Worth knowing:
Aleksib said in his post-MVP interview that makazze "has Ancient as his wallpaper." He plays the map like it's his apartment.

👉 cs2analytics.com

#NAVI #makazze

🕹 Global esports just had its biggest year ever - and CS2 was one of the loudest movers🔥

🕹 Esports Charts 2025 data:
- 3.3 billion hours watched globally — record-breaking
- $272.6 million total prize pool across all titles, +15% YoY
- CS2 grew +33% in hours watched vs 2024 — one of the fastest-rising disciplines on the chart

🧐 Worth knowing:
The pandemic spike in 2021 (+41.9%) was driven by lockdown viewing. The 2025 spike is different - it's structural growth across multiple disciplines, with CS2, Mobile Legends, Rainbow Six, and PUBG leading.

CS2's +33% jump came in a year when the only Major was Austin in June. The Cologne Major in 2026 will land on top of an already-rising audience curve.

📎 Source: Esports Charts - https://x.com/EsportsCharts/status/2052358783280517553?s=20

#EsportsCharts

🇪🇪 ropz cracked the all-time HLTV EVP top 5.

🕹 All-time HLTV EVPs at Big Events (after BLAST Rivals 2026 S1):
- NiKo - 40
- ZywOo - 29
- device - 27
- EliGE - 25
- ropz - 25

🙇‍♂️ Major EVPs:
1. s1mple - 6
2. ropz - 5
3. broky - 4
4. electroNic - 4
5. flamie - 4

ropz overtook Magisk and sh1ro with his 🏆 BLAST Rivals EVP. He's now tied with EliGE - and the only 2 players ahead of him who still can take EVP in 2026 is 🇫🇷 ZywOo and NiKo, one of them his own teammate.

🧐 Worth knowing:
All of the top 5 are still active. device and EliGE play for teams outside the global top 10. ropz is the only player in the top 5(All-time HLTV EVPs at Big Events) currently who had in the top 5 Major EVPs and have #2 place on it!

👉 cs2analytics.com

#ropz #Vitality