Talking Counter
Episode 133: IEM Melbourne, Vitality and Falcons, FURIA changes, who are the true title contenders?
Wed, 30 Apr 2025
moses, YNk, and SPUNJ are basking in the glory of travel from Australia, Talking Counter about all the good times.Join our Discord to discuss the episode with other viewers! Stick around to watch events, ask us questions, and Talk Counter!https://discord.gg/VHSZRSxZ00:00 Intro, travel, catching up w each other12:00 IEM in Australia18:57 Results at IEM Melbourne42:03 Age and older players in CS248:28 FURIA -chelo - skullz, +molodoy +yekindar, fallen IGL as rifle1:11:40 Vitality’s win streak and past historic win streaks
Chapter 1: What are the highlights of IEM Melbourne?
Well, it was a Tuesday after all, and normally we get updates on Tuesdays. So, you know, that does make sense that there's lots of things going on. Where was I going with this?
You found out something last night.
Oh, okay. So I've got back, I've got into my apartment and stuff and I keep hearing this noise and it's like a g'dung dung. And so I think about it's probably like 9, 9.30 at night and outside it's not a super main road, but it's still a pretty busy road and cars will be going up there, you know, maybe every 30 seconds, a minute, something along those lines. That's the level of frequency.
I kept hearing this noise, g'dung dung. And I was like, what the fuck is going on? So I'm walking around checking if all the windows or whatnot are open. Essentially, there's like a construction site going on there and like a metal fencing has fallen over. And instead of someone getting out of their car, and picking up the metal fencing and just placing it back to where it was.
People would just drive over it. So it would create the noise. I thought I was losing my mind that something was falling apart in the apartment. But just nobody would move the sign. And that went on all night until today. Until you walked down and moved the sign. Well, I did investigate because I was like, what's going on here? But that's when all the trades people were starting to get mad.
You're like, all right, fine. 10 hours of this bullshit is enough.
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Chapter 2: Who were the key players and teams at IEM Melbourne?
It was an interesting noise, you know, when I thought there was something wrong with the apartment. But no, there was nothing wrong, just a problem with the street. So... That's my story. Not the strongest story, but it is a real life story.
I can build upon that if we want to go down like inconvenient stories. This is a nice home ownership story. All right. I've had quite a week as a homeowner. We got new carpet down here in the studio, which included some stairs down to the basement. Well, the carpet people got here and they realized that the risers on the stairs were really flimsy, needed to be replaced.
So I had to have a whole new construction crew come in to do that really quick. I had my water heater shit the bed. I have no hot water in the house at the moment except for the kitchen sink.
Oh, dear.
And then we have some clogs going on in our plumbing system, some like mineral buildup deposits. So every day is a new day of which sink isn't going to work. It was Jane's master bathroom sink last night. It was the kitchen bar sink last Yesterday morning, the kitchen sink was before that our shower in the bathroom only has like 30% capacity on water pressure. What else there was one more thing.
Oh, I got a new air conditioner installed as well. So I had a whole new construction crew route for that. And then last night I got home from running errands and I was so excited. I got all my work done. I was going to go play video games for like an hour and a half while I didn't have the baby, while the baby was with the babysitter. So it was like the only hour and a half I had.
And I walked up the stairs to sit down on my gaming PC and the wind had blown a window out of its frame and into my gaming room and it shattered on the ground. So I stepped up and there was just a shattered window all in my gaming room and I had to clean that up. That was my day yesterday.
That sounds exhausting.
That's been three days. Buy a house, they said. It'll be fun, they said. You got scammed, maybe. That's what I feel like.
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Chapter 3: What changes have been made to FURIA's roster?
I don't have anybody to talk about things like I know what the fuck I'm talking about. I've got no idea what I'm saying, mate. I'm not from here. I'm from three and a half hours away on a plane. So, yeah.
yeah lots of content what else did we do there was the show match the final was great like but overall the hotel the hotel was awesome it was really good like had a nice quality of life with it which you know talking about that seems like such um i don't know what the word is it feels like it it shouldn't be such a topic but it is when you're in hotel rooms all the time and you have you know spaces a little bit bigger bigger and you have more amenities and stuff
Yeah, it's amazing how much that shit can change your mentality in an event.
It's also why I like the location for a boot camp because it's not hotel rooms that it has. It's like small apartments. So every room has a small kitchen. Some have a living room area separated from the bedroom.
Because, you know, if you're going in between tournaments to do a bootcamp so you don't have to go back to your own continent, it might be helpful to sort of just break the rhythm a little bit. You know, some guys like to make at least their own food in terms of like breakfast or something and just have a slightly different dynamic.
And that would be the ENAT Boop Camp, state-of-the-art esports facility in Belgrade, Serbia, enat.gg. That is E-N-A-T dot G-G.
Nice one, Jason. Appreciate that. Might actually just clip this and use it for promotional purposes. Yeah, there we go. But yeah, I mean, Australia is awesome. It's always a pain in the ass to get there, man. But the vibes are so good once we're down there. It was the first time in Melbourne. You know, I don't want to offend anyone from Melbourne. But it's like pretty much to me, I didn't know.
There's not much difference to Sydney, right? Like it's a cool city, places to go. Sydney has a slightly better beach, it feels like, like when you go to Bondi or something. But yeah. Definitely a lot of cool places outdoors to hang out. Great coffee down there in Melbourne from someone who drinks it very rarely. Chad's been talking about the Australian coffee for years now.
But that's what people ask me there. Hey, how do you like our coffee? They take it as a point of pride. I don't know, man. I drink it for the effect, not for taste. I got to go to KBBQ a couple of times, which for us is a huge deal.
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Chapter 4: How has Vitality's performance been recently?
Chapter 5: What role does age play in competitive CS:GO?
And we're like, well, we're here anyway. So it was miserable weather. But it was like a protected pool. So we went for a swim anyway in the rain. People looking at us like we're a bunch of idiots, which... It was fair enough. It was rain. Not the most lovely of days to be honest.
The judgment is pretty good of those people.
They've got pretty good judgment over there. But no, it's just like when you're down there and Russia's never going to go to a place like that again. It may as well, right? You're making your own fun in the situation because you can't do too much.
This is just Chad saying, even if we had a tournament in Perth, I'm not fucking doing this thing with Russia. This was his first and last time he's going to get to experience this. So might as well.
Well, just so far, it was like a four and a half hour drive to get down there, right? So it wasn't, I wanted to take him to a place called Esperance, but I don't think it would have worked out with the amount of days we had. Plus it was school holidays and going into the Easter weekend. So there was a lot going on.
So, yeah, but most of it was good to be home, good to be in the weather, good to eat the food and then go to Melbourne. So you don't have to worry about jet lag. There's only two hours ahead over there. And then that was good. Everything was nice. Alex had to do a lot of tourism content for Victoria. So we had to go around.
I don't have anybody to talk about things like I know what the fuck I'm talking about. I've got no idea what I'm saying, mate. I'm not from here. I'm from three and a half hours away on a plane. So, yeah.
yeah lots of content what else did we do there was the show match the final was great like but overall the hotel the hotel was awesome it was really good like had a nice quality of life with it which you know talking about that seems like such um i don't know what the word is it feels like it it shouldn't be such a topic but it is when you're in hotel rooms all the time and you have you know spaces a little bit bigger bigger and you have more amenities and stuff
Yeah, it's amazing how much that shit can change your mentality in an event.
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Chapter 6: Who are the true title contenders in CS:GO?
So then like the Mongols and then Eternal Fire slash Aurora would be taking those spots. So like they both had opportunities to, they were doing the right thing. They were getting to the playoffs, but then they just couldn't perform in the playoffs. Yeah, because they don't have the guys.
Yeah, but at the time, when you're talking about the lack of experience that they have and everything, because there's so little experience on the stage for any of these teams, right? It's a whole different way that you have to play Counter-Strike. But it could have gone the other way. Like, they could have gone on stage and Woxic could have been in the form that he was in with Mousesports.
But they were never going to beat Vitality or Spirit. Like, Eternal Fire's best chance was Pro League that one time against Na'Vi, and they had them. But that was in Malta, in a studio, you know? Like, it didn't have all the pressure around it. We saw them crumble against, actually, the Mongols in Katowice. The Mongols crumbled against Mousesports in Shanghai, right? Like...
It just sort of keeps – and, yeah, they can get better with that. My point being probably their A game is not good enough to beat, let's say, Vitality's B game. They have to catch them on a really bad day.
I think they could beat Spirit. I don't think they could beat Vitality, and I'm not convinced any longer that they could beat Falcons. But I think if you have the – I mean – I don't know. I don't think we necessarily lied to ourselves. I think you guys just outlined it perfectly. Start of the year, a lot of the teams that we expected to be strong were weak.
So these guys got to kind of take advantage of that and climb the rankings. But I mean, they made finals. They made semifinals. And in that field at the moment, I think we had them kind of accurately written as they've got to get over this inexperience hump. But the opportunity to win a trophy is certainly there. Moving forward, I mean, I think they're going to be good for closing now.
yeah they're gonna yeah that that opportunity is certainly probably fully closed now yeah but it's still a team that can do damage and depending on how the bracket plays out right like you never know if vitality gets matched up with spirit in a quarterfinal vitality gets taken out and and then you know all of a sudden you have kind of this weird road where where it's much more doable yeah but that's all you know that's all yeah that's all it's upon asterix upon asterix i'm just saying i'm just like you know it's my job and all but
I am getting aroused. Oh, shucks. It's my job, sir. No, no, no. But I'm getting aroused only for like Falcons Vitality, Spirit Vitality, Spirit Falcons potentially, right? Like those are the games that I want to see. Maus is the one that's like up there.
But did you want to watch Falcons versus those names before this tournament?
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Chapter 7: What can we expect from the upcoming major tournaments?
Yeah, I know. I'm pretty sure it was play, but I could be wrong. But yeah, I mean, we've heard those little rumblings of, you know, yeah, we're looking at younger players. And by the way, I think that's a smart way to go about it, especially during a game change. You know, you give me two or three more years and I'd say kind of look for some veteran presence in certain scenarios.
But I think at the change of a game, going younger to me feels like it's always like a smarter long-term decision.
No, don't get me wrong. Like, I don't think now you should be looking for 27-year-old guys out there. It's, of course, and one of the reasons, again, is because we've literally had a game change where it's just sometimes hard to get rid of old habits. You know, like you've been doing something one way for five years, seven years. Now it's a different game. And that way is no good anymore.
Like, you have to change your mindset. And that takes time. Not everyone is able to do it.
right and you know for someone like not even donk but whoever is the the next kid that show up shows up cs2 is going to be the first game he touches right and the mechanics are going to be natural to him and all these little things and of course like it anything else it's the newer generation that will always be better than the previous one but for me it's just when people talk about longevity and and you know oh if this guy anyone past 30 can only be an igl
I don't believe that. And I think like you pointed out, Jason, the main, one of the main reasons for that is like, it just wasn't, there wasn't an opportunity for guys before. It didn't make sense. It didn't compute. I think it does now. And I think five years from now, actually, yeah, let's do it for the 1000th episode of Talking Converse. We'll look back. Still looking for sponsors by then.
We'll look back and we'll see how many 30 plus year old star players we have.
Hey, can I throw a little spice into the mix? Because I've been excited all week when you guys were at to hear your guys' thoughts on this. The furia changes. The furia changes. They've dropped Cello. They've brought in Molodoy, an AWPer from Kazakhstan. They've dropped Skulls. They've brought in Yakinder. They've taken Fallen off the AWP and made him a rifle IGL.
And there's a lot to unpack there. And, I mean, I'll start this by just saying... I guess this felt like a fucking desperate scattershot to begin with, but then when the report came out that they were talking to Fur and moving forward with Fur until Yakinder's plans with Perfecto and Simple fell through, so then they got Yakinder, it just makes it seem even more like we're just rolling with it.
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