Merry Christmas and Happy New Year for 2024

Top 20 Players of 2024

Above is a photo of who I have for the top 20 players of 2024. I would have Monesy #1, however, Donk’s Major performance, MVP and 30 bomb (MR12!) in the final have him over the edge. It’s unbelievable numbers and impact from a 17 year old entry fragger. A Major (MVP) and Katowice (MVP) with historic numbers for me puts him over my favorite player Monesy.

It has just been announced that Torzi was #20. From this I’m not expecting many correct, other than my top 3. I think you can replace Torzi with any Awper in the world and Mouz would be the exact same. I think Jimphaat, Xertion and Brollan have had a far better year and are more impactful and valuable to their squad.

One person who I have in my top 20, who I don’t think will get in but definitely deserves it is BlameF. This guy is hated by the community because they think he eco-frags only. This dude is a mega superstar especially on CT side. If I’m Faze or G2 and I’m making changes, you have to have this guy at the top of your list for your lurk rifle. He’s a mega superstar on CT side as well, those are incredibly hard to come by.

Other than BlameF, it will be very interesting to see where Elige and Xantares fall. Both of them could easily be bought out by a big Org, and they are just mega players who are held back by their average teams.

Vitality Start Freeagency with a Bang

Christmas eve it was announced that Ropz will be joining Vitality in 2025. With the loss of Spinx, this is a blockbuster move that is a 1-to-1 swap. A great move by Vitality. I think this keeps them in the championship hunt in 2025, after only grabbing Cologne in 2024.

After Faze’s gut-wrenching loss to Spirit at the Shanghai Major Final, I fully believed we would be listening to Karrigan’s retirement announcement, as I watched him ball his heart out on the stage. However, we didn’t get it, and Ropz was an integral member of the Faze lineup in the Major. He reclaimed some of his early Sydney 2023 form. I think Faze along with G2 will be in the running for Spinx, and maybe even Jimphaat.

Again Falcons go Quiet in Freeagency

After G2 announced that Monesy would not be leaving in this player break, it was then reported that Jimphaat would back out of a move to Falcons. Now, it is being reported that Falcons are on the hunt for Ewjerks and Jambo, to sure up their lineup which currently has only Magisk, and potentially Niko. I will reiterate now again, that until I see Niko in a Falcons guernsey at an S tier LAN, I will not believe it. Especially now, with the tournament changes coming in 2025, Falcons need to sign players that have been historically in the top 35 to have enough Valve Ranking Points to be able to be invited to LANs. Niko is hunting for trophies, he will not go to a team where they have to go through cooky online open qualifiers.

This marks the second year the Falcons massive budget hasn’t been used to it’s potential. Last year Niko turned around at the last minute, and Simple didn’t come out of retirement, they were only able to land Magisk, Zonic, and the Snappi Ence core. Underwhelming for their monetary standards, and it looks like again this year their high hopes have failed.

I personally hate Falcons as they are backed by Saudi Arabian State money, and am glad to see them fail again in freeagency.

Astralis Being Terrible, Again

As a last point for this Holiday season let’s talk about Astrlis. They live in my head rent free.

Device has long had extreme stomach problems. But this time it reared it’s ugly head right before the RMR forcing the new Cadian led Astralis to bring Bro back to play in the RMR.

They played terrible and didn’t make the Major for a fifth straight time.

Again, Astralis just abusing their power in the Danish Scene: If I was Bro, I would’ve told them to F right off, however, he didn’t want to be ostracized, so I understand. Again, this is after the debacle at Blast World Final where they said Bro was “sick” and Bro’s agent came out and said he wasn’t. Just an all time fuckup from Astralis management, AGAIN.

Device didn’t even have the decency to wait until the end of the Major to announce his return. If your best player isn’t going to play the biggest tournaments, why even have him on the roster?

I’m starting to think the horrific nature and culture of that organization isn’t from the management, but Device.

Salutaions