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On November 8th, 2024, as we approach the ever-incumbent Perfect World Shanghai Major European RMR, we look back on one of the most enigmatic teams we’ve seen this year: Astralis. The Norwegian team found themselves embroiled in controversy earlier in the year over the induction of Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller well past a deadline. However, even by acquiring their new IGL through questionable circumstances, the team lost several best-of-threes in a row before finally showing some results at BLAST Premiere World Final.

Finding the best CS2 settings can improve your gameplay experience and, in turn, lead you to win more games. However, there are numerous game settings to choose from, and not all players have the time to tinker with them one by one. I’ve taken the time to experiment with the different and find the best optimized ones, so you don’t have to. Here are my best CS2 video settings to help you increase your FPS and game quality.

On December 6th 2024, G2 Esports cemented itself as the top seed at the Shanghai Major with a stellar performance across multiple matches. Despite having a small hiccup on day one of the Elimination Stage when they lost their first best-of-one 13-10 to The MongolZ, one could call it “getting used to the tournament setting” because they have been undefeated ever since. Since then, G2 Esports has crushed BIG 13-5 and beaten 3DMAX 13-8, putting them at the top of the seeds for now, something that Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipo spoke to HLTV about.

On November 6th, 2024, PARAVISION moved their head coach, Ivan "⁠F_1N⁠" Kochugov, to their inactive roster. Given that the Perfect World Shanghai Major Europe RMR is just a few weeks away, coupled with F_1N’s recent controversy, the reason seems a bit too obvious. Some speculate, including Russian insider Alexey "⁠OverDrive⁠" Birukov, that part of the reason pertains to the fact that former Virtus.pro skipper Dastan "⁠dastan⁠" Akbayev is now available. Even though F_1N was registered as the team’s coach for the RMR, dastan would still be able to assist the team outside of matches.

On December 20th 2024, FlyQuest announced that they would be benching their AWPer Alistair "⁠aliStair⁠" Johnston. This constitutes the first-ever roster change to come to the Oceanic team since they joined the North American organization in March 2024. Now, it’s expected that the team will step into the international market to look for new replacements.

On November 12th, 2024, fans tuned in as the Perfect World Shanghai Major Americas RMR was in full swing, with the best of the best facing off for a chance to compete in this year’s final Major. Amongst these teams, we saw Team Complexity facing the Argentinian powerhouse, BESTIA. Although the match started off in BESTIA’s favour, leading 1-3 with a pistol round win, 5 rounds were all that Complexity was willing to concede. Complexity took back the lead in the ninth round, leading 5-4 before running away with it, closing out the best-of-one with a 13-5. While a part of Complexity celebrated the win, they know it’s far from what they want to achieve.

On November 2nd, 2024, Team Vitality faced off MOUZ in the quarter-finals at BLAST Premier World Final and bested them 2-0 without breaking a sweat. The best part is that they did all this with Audric "⁠JACKZ⁠" Jug standing in for William "⁠mezii⁠" Merriman, with the former having played only two practice games before the tournament. Astonishingly, Team Vitality has been blowing past the tournament with the 32 year-old, beating Team Spirit and Liquid before their match with MOUZ.

On October 28th, 2024, fans had mixed feelings as s1mple’s run for the year ended as Team Falcon was eliminated from ESL Challenger’s Katowice at the hands of Eternal Fire, a top-tier powerhouse. Thus far, s1mple has been their best-performing player at a rating of 1.12, with 0.84 being the team’s second-best rating. Despite there being a clear team disparity, s1mple, in an interview with HLTV, is confident he’ll be able to rise up from the ashes and perform at his peak level soon.

On November 19th, 2024, Vitality became the 12th team to qualify for the Perfect World Shanghai Major set to kick off in December towards the end of this year. The team, led by Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire, looks in great form as they practically blew past the Europe RMR. The best part is that it’s not just Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut who’s been shooting back, but props to Shahar "⁠flameZ⁠" Shushan and William "⁠mezii⁠" Merriman for their performance against FaZe.

On December 2nd, 2024, Team Liquid fans rejoiced as their favourite team became the first out of sixteen teams to break out of the Opening Stage and make it to the Elimination Stage. While many were expecting Liquid to put up such a performance, given the teams they had been matched up with, they, nonetheless, delivered on those expectations. They beat Wildcard in their opening best-of-one game 13-10 and then went on to beat Cloud9 with the same scoreline (although they were down 3-9).

Samet “jottAAA” Köklü has joined Eternal Fire’s roster for the 2025 season, replacing Buğra "Calyx" Arkın, as announced by the Turkish organization on January 2nd, 2025.

On October 31th, 2024, the CS2 community was shaken to its core as one of the biggest upsets of the year unfolded on day 1 of Blast Premiere World Final. Amongst the many matchups scheduled for the day, many expected Astralis versus Natus Vincere to play out one-sidedly in favor of NAVI. On the one hand, you had the #1 team in the world, and on the other hand, you had a team that has struggled to win a single best-of-three lately.

On December 24rd 2024, it came to light that Vitality have reached a verbal agreement with one of FaZe’s star players, Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool. The Estonian has been on FaZe for the past three years, indicating this decision to be the next chapter of his professional career. This information comes from a reliable independent reporter Guillaume 'neL' Rathier.

On October 24th, Andrey "⁠Xoma⁠" Mironenko, former coach on Virtus.pro sat down with HLTV to give an interview on his time at the team, what he learnt, and what he felt were its biggest shortcomings. For those unaware, Xoma coached Virtus.pro from June to September, partaking in many tournaments like IEM Rio 2024, ESL Pro League Season 20, all of which we have covered on our website. Xoma left the team recently and joined Aurora as their assistant coach, working alongside head coach Stepan "⁠brain⁠" Sivoronov to make the team into the best version of itself.

On December 9th 2024, FaZe and FURIA faced off for the very last spot out of the Elimination Stage and straight to the Playoffs at the Perfect World Shanghai Major. FURIA was off to a great start as they comfortably closed out their map pick of Inferno with a 13-6 scoreline. FaZe, however, locked in for the second map, Dust2, equalizing at 13-9 with Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard leading the charge.