HLTV | Counter-Strike News

🐲 Spirit return to HLTV Top 3 and reduce the gap to 🇫🇷 Vitality to 27 points after qualifying for the BLAST Bounty Finals in Malta 🖥 Full Rankings

📣 Nordic Network Ltd has announced the launch of Nordic Partners Gaming (NPG), a Malta-based esports organization, and the acquisition of the core that played for AM, currently ranked 79th in the global VRS. AM was established by Fabian Broich, the founder of the Achieve Minds agency, with the goal of keeping its teamless players sharp. The team notably reached the Red Bull GIBAWAY JOURNEY 2025 semi-finals and came in second place at Parken Challenger Championship Season 2.

"Organizations and creators need more than visibility," said Broich, who has been appointed director of NPG. "They need dependable revenue, professional commercial structures, and partners who understand the industry. "Our immediate priority is to stabilize the roster and provide the professional structure the players need," added Håvard Lehn, Group CEO of Nordic Network Ltd. "From there, the objective is to continue improving and climb further in the world rankings."

🇩🇪 Nils "⁠k1to⁠" Gruhne 🇱🇺 Max "⁠Marix⁠" Kugener 🇫🇮 Ville "⁠myltsi⁠" Vilkman 🇩🇰 Mikkel "⁠Maze⁠" Sparvath 🇵🇱 Maciej "⁠Muciek⁠" Mordal 🇪🇸 Jonathan "⁠MusambaN1⁠" Torrent (coach) 🇪🇸 David "⁠Kairi⁠" de Miguel (assistant coach)

Another season, another strong start for donk 🫡

🇷🇺 Aurora and 🇪🇺 magic have booked their spots at StarLadder StarSeries Fall 2026, making their way through the Europe closed qualifier to join the likes of Vitality and FURIA at the $500,000 LAN event in September. With the conclusion of the Europe closed qualifier, six of the eight teams set to compete at StarLadder StarSeries Fall are now known, with two left to be decided. Those two teams will come from the North America and South America closed qualifiers, which are set to run July 28-August 2.

The team list for the first notable LAN of the new season is complete ✅ BLAST Bounty 2026 Season 2 Finals will take place in Malta from July 30 to August 2

Unplayable 🤯 donk drops his best-ever rating to take Spirit to the BLAST Bounty LAN Finals

🐲 Spirit beat 🇺🇸 100 Thieves after 13-0 decider and progress to the BLAST Bounty LAN Finals

🇲🇳 The MongolZ beat 🌎 Wildcard and advance to the BLAST Bounty LAN Finals

🇫🇷 3DMAX defeat 🇹🇷 FUT to secure a spot at the BLAST Bounty LAN Finals

🇧🇷 paiN beat 🇸🇪 NIP 2-0 for a spot at the BLAST Bounty LAN finals

🐭 MOUZ best 🇪🇺 FOKUS in two maps and advance to BLAST Bounty playoffs

🇩🇰 Astralis claim a spot at the BLAST Bounty Finals with a victory over 🇷🇺 HOTU

❌ Dmitry "⁠sh1ro⁠" Sokolov has insisted that he has no plans to retire anytime soon after Denis "⁠deko⁠" Zhukov claimed in January that he might hang up his mouse and keyboard at the end of the year if Spirit failed to win any silverware.

"deko and I just talked about that topic, but he said it as a joke, basically," sh1ro said on the 'RightClick' podcast. "That was back in winter, and for some reason it's being pushed again now. It was a while ago; we talked about it at the Shanghai Major or something like that. It was he who brought up retiring as a joke, actually. "So no, overall, I look at my career, I want to play, I want to continue, I like the work, I want to develop, and so I'll keep going, and then it's up to the team."

New IGL, good old EliGE 😎

🐴 Liquid continue to impress as they destroy 🗡 G2 and qualify for the BLAST Bounty LAN Finals

Captain Twistzz carries FaZe to victory on the decider 🔥🇨🇦

🇪🇺 FaZe beat DENDELE and book a spot at the BLAST Bounty LAN Finals

FaZe and DENDELE require a decider on Cache 👀

19 kills, 1 death: near-flawless first map from JBOEN 😳

🇧🇿 BCGAME's coach Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas has shared his short and long-term expectations in a recent interview for the team's YouTube channel:

"Short-term goal is definitely to make everyone comfortable on the server. I want players to just enjoy playing time, enjoy when they play practice, when they play officials. I don't want anything to be against how they would see the game, so definitely we want to find a good feeling and good chemistry inside and outside the server. Long-term expectations, I definitely want to qualify for the Major, which I also believe is kind of short-term ambition. But long-term, I want this team to be Top 5 team in the world and constant contender."