So did Falcons want to change or not? 🤨

Here's what our editor-in-chief said about Falcons' lack of changes on 🎙 HLTV Confirmed:

"There were so many rumours about Falcons just before [they denied making any changes] and it's not just from the random leakers, it's from people that would tell me very accurate things in the past."

✉️ ESL has announced the 24 teams invited to Pro League Season 23, which will feature a new format and kick off with two online stages from February 27 to March 9 before heading to Stockholm, Sweden for the LAN finals from March 13-15.

Reigning Season 22 champions 🇫🇷 Vitality declined their invite, as did 🇸🇦 Falcons, with 🇸🇪 Ninjas in Pyjamas and 🇺🇦 Passion UA next in line to replace them. The two declines also mean 🇷🇺 Aurora and 🇺🇦 B8 will start their run from Stage 2.

You can find the complete team list for ESL Pro League Season 23 on the attached graphics

According to Striker's sources, 🇧🇿 BCGAME was interested in buying out 🐲 Spirit's core 👀

"One thing I heard which was the craziest scenario so far was that [BCGame] tried to go to Spirit to buy the entire team/core"

🇺🇦 Monte eliminate 🇺🇦 NAVI from BLAST Bounty in the first match

🇫🇷 Vitality start their season with confidence

Quick business handled as 🇪🇸 Gentle Mates beat 🇺🇸 M80 2:0

🇪🇺 Inner Circle shock 🇫🇷 3DMAX with a 2:1 victory

̶E̶l̶i̶G̶E̶ 🐴 Liquid knock 🇸🇪 NIP out of BLAST Bounty

🇸🇦 Falcons start the new season with a convincing victory over ECSTATIC

zweih posts 1.99 rating on his debut map with 🇷🇺 PARIVISION 💪

🇷🇺 PARIVISION take the series against 🇫🇮 ENCE after a bloodbath on Anubis

FiReSPORTS will host the first Major of 2027 in 🇦🇷 Buenos Aires, HLTV has learned, and the Argentine organization's Founder and CEO, Rodrigo Figueroa Reyes, confirmed the information.

"We're very excited to host the first Major in the history of our country," he told HLTV when reached for comment. "Fans will be delighted to come to a city like Buenos Aires, a city that blends European and Latin American influences, where they will be surprised by the passion of Counter-Strike fans in Argentina. We are going to give it our all to make this a great Major."

This marks the first time a Major will be played in Argentina, the fourteenth country set to host a Valve-backed Counter-Strike Major, and it will be the first event of this magnitude by the Argentine tournament organizer. It will also mark a return for Majors to South America for the first time since the IEM Rio Major in 2022.

🚨 The second Major of the year will go to Perfect World, Counter-Strike's publisher in China and the hosts of the Perfect World Shanghai Major in 2024, which was voted by the community as the Event of the Year at the HLTV Awards.

The Chinese TO did not wish to comment, but several sources with knowledge of Valve's decision have confirmed to HLTV that China is set to host the second Major of 2027.

🐲 Spirit take their opening game at BLAST Bounty

🇧🇷 paiN make quick work of 🇷🇺 BetBoom

Donk or ZywOo: who is the No. 1? 🧐🥇

We asked this question to people attending the recent HLTV Awards in Belgrade 🎤

🇧🇷 FURIA start the season on a win

🇺🇦 B8 have announced that Mykhailo-Nazarii "segukawa" Bybel has been promoted to the main lineup to replace Daniil "⁠headtr1ck⁠" Valitov as the team's AWPer.

Mykhailo-Nazarii "segukawa" Bybel joins the team from B8's academy, which he joined at the end of October alongside the rest of his teammates.

He played one season of ESEA Advanced in the academy combine, which finished the regular season with a 7-5 record and qualified for the playoffs, where they finished 17-24th.

B8 are now:

🇺🇦 Andrii "⁠npl⁠" Kukharskyi
🇺🇦 Dmytro "⁠esenthial⁠" Tsvir
🇺🇦 Alexey "⁠alex666⁠" Yarmoshchuk
🇺🇦 Artem "⁠kensizor⁠" Kapran
🇺🇦 Mykhailo-Nazarii "segukawa" Bybel
🇷🇺 Ivan "⁠maddened⁠" Iordanidi (coach)

Why is donk 2nd and NiKo 18th? 🧐

Thorin joins the Come Here podcast to go through HLTV Awards and Top 20 specifically to question NER0 and Nohte on all of HLTV's decisions

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