2 hours! Have a great weekend everyone

I watched the whole episode in one sitting. Pita really made this a great trio of varying opinions and analysis. Really enjoyed his takes on how much roles acually matter in Counter-strike for individual and team based performance. Lovely episode cheers!

Bring back pita for more videos😎

it's pretty interesting how G2 has completely slipped out of any conversation about top teams that contend for trophies :DDDD

Yo, I lived in Beijing for 1,5 years and can tell you that csgo was playable in every internet bar that i went to

Weren't you guys flaming Boros in Falcons? Now that he left you kinda think he was a good fit?

Regarding nexa in G2: I think when after winning tournaments and switching later in last year, what niko said in an interview was that they need actually a passive lurker and not a star one just to allow niko and hunter do their things. I know jks was doing great but the actual point of switching him was this one that their lurker should be a passive one. The problem is that even after that, hunter and niko are failing do their things and sometimes here and there they show how they could destroy the defense but they are not able to deliver that consistently. Even in the major, niko was not in his best form and hunter also at times struggles. So theoretically, I don't see nexa as a problem. It's just that they are not able to capitilize even after a passive lurker.

Great guest with some fresh viewpoints

17:24 What is stopping them from installing the game?

Curiously, I did a calculation of Valve's Top 50 & Top 100 teams and what percentage come from each region and the numbers came out quite close the representation we have at Majors.

Maui is so right. Boomer falcons stand still they are old and grumpy. Grandpa Snappi it’s time for bed.

pita has been looksmaxxing

To me and this might sound weird, I wasnt surprised by Dupreeh cause he couldnt be in a top team anymore, I was surprised by Dupreeh because at least in terms of to me he's very similar to Maden. He's not a superstar player, but hes a mega-veteran that has popoff potential. He doesnt really fill the same role in terms of "star player" that someone like Niko, Donk, Xertion etc. does. Frank answer, they can keep either Maden or Dupreeh, but to me they need higher peaks out of SunPayus more often and then they need some consistent fragging power. Doesn't necesarily have to be a superstar, just a star. And if they want to contend and be "the best" well then they need a super-star. Cause they need to contend with superstars. BlameF and others come to mind, but people who have high fraggingpower on particularly the CT side i think is crucial in the current meta.

My hot take for 2024 is that BlameF will have the 3rd highest stat rating in the world by the end of the year. He won't win anything, but his team dying in the first 30 seconds of each round will pad his stats with exit frags while he saves.

F*** XTQQZ and also f*** the Vitality management. You win a major, then ask your coach who built the project to take a paycut because they succeeded. So what if we lose the GOAT coach and the GOAT anchor? Just get another Israeli they're pretty good, also get me that British dood from Fnatic and lets place him in a role he has never had before. Also, let's not help Apex develop into a greater tactical mind and just get him his good ol' pal to act like coach as if he didn't just break G2 and have a track record in recent history of abysmal decisions. Might as well trade mezii for jackz or misutaa while we're at it. Vive le France b***h!

what a horrible "bad point" from maui lol. spirit will literally play every event for the rest of the year with a 95% chance, and that sample size will be more than enough for hltv to give donk number 1. he will literally forget that this take even existed by the ed of the year, just a braindead take honesly.

Good challenge: take a shot everytime pita says uhhh :)

Statistically degster did well, but I watched the entire match....he is so underwhelming. He is mechanically gifted but he plays to bait so freaking hard.

10:50 thorin lol

-noobxa after dallas

Respect to Thorin once again. Doing the last few shows even though he's had a bit of a cough. Hope it's nothing serious and get well soon

Love the content but Thorin is way off on Falcons here. Sure they can improve and certainly become a solid squad, history would say so, but using the "Dupreeh just got here" excuse as to why this team has been terrible is totally disingenuous. The other four members have been together now for FIVE months (49 maps) and three of them are from the original ENCE roster who have been together for YEARS!

Hey everyone, it’s pita here. I wanted to provide some additional thoughts on the topic of Falcons team talk that I missed during the show. (It’s my bad point). When it comes to team discussions, I prefer to limit emotional feedback. I can either do that by letting the emotions cool down a bit (don’t talk right after a game) or I can control the talks and stop people if I realize it’s going too far. I believe rational feedback is generally more constructive. The reason for this is that many individuals in this scene struggle with managing their emotions when giving and receiving feedback. Additionally, it can be difficult for some to apologize if they went too far after their emotions have cooled down, which means the emotional feedback tends to stay more than it should with the receiving end. I’ve experienced some cultures having an easier time dealing with this kind of feedback, for an example Eastern Europeans. While some cultures have a hard time dealing with it, Scandinavian for an example. Now there might even be differences within a culture, so for me it is extremely important to see the individual as an individual, get to know the person and how we works, and then adapt to him until he adapts to you and the group. Coach him with whatever tools you might have. Take help from the leader of your team, if that is a f0rest taking on a big brother role, or take help from a sport psychologist if possible. That being said, its unrealistic to eliminate emotions from discussions entirely. As a coach, its crucial for me to manage these talks and prevent them from escalating unnecessarily. With only five players, maintaining control is essential. You cant sub someone out as in other sports if that guy is mentally out of it due to an emotional team talk. This was my main point regarding the Falcons discussion-they should have intervened before things went too far. Zonics point was valid, there was no need for the others to go down the same road. The coaches shouldve intervened and controlled the situation. When the point is made, move on. Furthermore, if you have a younger, talented player who may lack the same level of confidence as others, it’s important to build their confidence up. As a coach you need to protect the mentally weaker players. If you are surrounded by legends as BOROS wast, you need protection until you become a legend yourself. Acknowledge the talent’s individual skill if that’s what theyre good at. Sometimes, a little white lie can go a long way for a talent. Building up any player’s confidence, especially during a tournament, is vital. At the top level of CS, confidence can make the difference in winning games. Even if that player is stupidly confident. Doing stupid stuff with confidence ironically works in cs. Think about the confidence of players like Donk, Monesy, Zywoo, and S1mple-obviously they are fucking insane players, imagine if you can get 5 or 10% of their confidence to a young talent. You get my point. I respect that others may have different opinions and approaches to team management and discussions. This is just my perspective. I hope you enjoy the show, and I'd love to hear your thoughts! /Pita

With donk the would've been #1 is all on them if they don't ay as much then he doesn't get #1 look at Monesy he plays almost every tournament there's a big difference

20:42 Maui doing some lines

I can tell u so easily who's shit in Falcons 😂 Maden and Snappi..

The point about Donk not having enough maps seems rather ill-informed. Firstly, Spirit weren’t turning down any tournaments, they didn’t play EPL because they couldn’t get visas on such a short notice. Secondly, Donk currently still has more maps against Top 5 opposition than Zywoo, and after BB Dacha will have more maps against Top 10, and about the same number of maps against Top 20 and Top 30. Spirit are scheduled to appear at pretty much all the same tournaments as Vitality after BB Dacha, so unless Zywoo manages to significantly outperform Donk in the majority of them or/and get significantly more maps from them, Donk should easily get HLTV #1 this year.

Thorin got 1 thing wrong though. Unlike Valorant were big tournaments are gated and only franchised clubs can get into it. In CS, its not the case. Recently there was a small boom of CS in India after Nordiwn and Blast did their Draft series. Counter strike came back into conversation despite Valorant had a bigger market. If people will they have an opportunity go big in an eSport, they will come to it. When PubG went out in India. People switched to CoD-M. People are just looking opportunities to make big. The eSport that will provide them the opportunity will get the crowd.

BlameF for Floppy would have been 🔥

Does PITAs time on NiP count?

Pita in his bag on the BlameF, Fnatic analysis...!

recorded before cadian news?

hot

2 mins ago and 1 comment, y'all fell off 😂🧢

1st

I love y'all's last point about short term / surface level analysis. Maniac says it so well at the very end about how a player changing teams and having poor results after a month leads to unfair criticism from the community. Thanks so much to both of you for doing these detailed, in-depth analysis pieces to help us understand the game better.

lol my therapist mentioned learned helplessness when I was talking about someone else. Nj maniac but not actual maniac :)

Magisk is my favorite player ngl other than the two goats of modern era. I don’t dislike the Zywoo take but I just do not like the term egotistical because it is not egotistical for a player like Zywoo

These two have really hit their stride. Watching their last couple - the chemistry keeps getting better!!

vita need to ditch their bum coach.

I like the play on words in the title.

Love it when thorin is on beatbox mode 34:13

I read from some comments something in the line of mouz faze vita being rock paper scissors, vita lose to mouz, mouz lose to faze, faze lose to vita. Kinda fun comparison ngl

Here is my 2 cents on BlameF. BlameF made his entire team worse. I won't say he baited his entire team. But the way he played it made his entire team worse and 1st person who became the fodder for him was the guy you interviewed on Reflection recently...Xyp9x. I was actually waiting for you to ask him about role clashes with BlameF. but the topic was briefly touched as drop in stat to which he did say he could have done better if there wasn't role issue and he could/should have gone to different team instead of sticking with astralis.(paraphrasing). Another reason why Pros and Big org gave up on him. They saw what happened in Kato and RMR especially after Astralis performance in Chengdu and EPL. Probably they thought bringing him in would also mean some of their stars will get wasted like Stavn and Jabbi did. Then there was another reflection with Freiberg where he shared his thought on BlameF. Every thing just worked against him. I understand just like Aleksi ... K0nfig and BlameF are 2 other players you look after. But he really has a lot of soul searching to do. Is going to be a player who will in be in HLTV 20 10 years in a row player with no trophies or he wants to win those trophies ! cause something was inherently wrong with how he played in Astralis and like Xyp9x said your future contract reflects your past performance and BlameF's was hollow stats.

"He has poor English and has trouble expressing himself" describes most native English speaking gamers, to be fair. What a wack albatross to have tied around your neck.

F*** XTQQZ. Terrible coach. He chose jackz over amanek and ruined g2. Now, he's failing to develop Apex as an IGL the way Zonic did on their run to the major. Vitality has definitely regressed.

Mezii is the biggest weakness of Vitality. Flamez for Dupreeh was an upgrade. Although Flamez lacks Dupreeh's experience and mental fortitude, he is a sharper and more explosive young player. On the other hand, Mezii was a significant downgrade. Magisk is more experienced, with greater tactical and fragging output, despite being almost the same age. I like Mezii; he performed quite well with Fnatic, but he isn't on the level of Jimphat, Naf, or other tier 1 anchors . Apex still deserves to play Shanghai with Vitality .

I can tell thorin is watching the nba playoffs right now with all these basketball references 🤣

the bit about s1mple and zywoo was straight fire, one of the finest theory segments i've ever heard on a podcast

Why oh why does no one ever place blame on xtqzzz?