With IEM Beijing 2026 approaching and the race for the PGL Major Singapore 2026 reaching its final stage, we spoke with experienced Counter-Strike coach Luis “peacemaker” Tadeu about the biggest storylines ahead of the season’s final events. He shared his thoughts on NAVI’s potential roster changes, Falcons’ struggles, jL’s future, the favorites for IEM Beijing, and the teams that have impressed or disappointed him the most during the Major qualification race.
IEM Beijing is one of the last big events before the Singapore Major. How important is it for teams preparing for the Major, and can a strong result give them more confidence?
First of all, it’s the last ESL event of the year, IEM event of the year. Huge prize pool, especially for all the teams participating. The fact that you don’t have Vitality, you don’t have Spirit, which are always the top dogs and heavy favorites. I think it’s very important for those teams. Other than just being a great chance for them to win a title when you have two of the most prestigious teams out of it, you have the Major right around the corner.
It is a great opportunity for you to gain confidence. At the end of the day, it’s important to have practice time, it’s important to be at home as well for some of these teams, to be able to refresh their minds, because there are a lot of events.
There’s always this tight schedule and players complaining about not having free time. Also, Beijing has been great. Last year, the crowd was amazing, the event was fully stacked with all the best teams in the world. I think it’s a great opportunity for these teams to see how they handle pressure. At least last year, the arena was heavily packed and the crowd was really nice. It was a really nice event to watch.
With Vitality and Spirit skipping IEM Beijing, who do you see as the main favorite, and which team could surprise everyone?
I think that if you look at the teams, I would be lying if I didn’t say Falcons. But the problem with Falcons, we all know that it’s a meme at this point. For some reason, even though they have a great roster on paper, they have all it takes to win events like this, but somehow they crumble all the time for multiple reasons.
If you take a look at the situation of the teams right now, I think that FURIA is on the rise. They just won an event, they’re doing great in PGL right now. I think they’re going to arrive in China trying to defend their title from last year. They also have a lot to prove. That’s the last few events with FalleN.
There are a lot of rumors circulating, and nobody knows what’s going to happen with that team. I think that YEKINDAR has been playing better individually in the last few events. molodoy feels more comfortable. It does feel like FURIA is on their way to peaking in performance right at the best moment of the year, right before the Major. If you take Falcons out of the equation, I would say FURIA. FURIA is my favorite to win it.
Which team has the most to prove at IEM Beijing, and who really needs a strong result before the Major?
I think Falcons, actually. It’s been so underwhelming to watch them play. They have a great roster on paper. They have what it takes to win events, but they just keep crumbling. They just keep failing for multiple reasons. I still think that their run at the last Major was… I hate to say it, but it does feel like a fluke.
It was a fluke in the sense that they needed to have all five players playing at their absolute best level, plus karrigan putting up numbers. m0NESY, NiKo had one of his best events. Everything had to click for them to win a Major. The next season after that proves that. They can’t continue their legacy. They can’t win events.
The same problems continue. They have everything. They have great firepower. They have a great IGL. They have a great AWPer. Still, CS is magical. That’s why, no matter how talented your team can be, if things don’t click, if you fail on the server, even if you have superstars, it doesn’t matter. The best team wins. Right now, it doesn’t feel like they are in great shape.
They’re still a very dangerous team because of all the firepower and the individual talent that they have. But once they go up against NAVI, FURIA, or Legacy on a good day, they face challenges. Legacy has also been struggling a little bit right now, but they’ve been Falcons’ kryptonite. They always lose to Legacy.
So I think there are too many challenges for them, and they have a lot to prove in this one if they want to arrive at the Major as one of the potential winners.
Do you think NAVI will make roster changes after the Major, even if they reach the playoffs, or could a strong result be enough to keep the current lineup?
I think that B1ad3 is smart. The management in general from NAVI is really smart in those aspects. I would be lying if I said that I don’t think they should change, because if you look at their season and the year so far, NAVI is the type of team, the type of organization that wants to contend for trophies.
They pay high salaries. They have a great roster. They have probably one of the best coaches, if not the best coach in the world. And when you see that team struggling as they did throughout pretty much the whole year, once in a while they do well. They always make it to the playoffs, sure. But they are out of the question when we have to talk about who should win events. We’re always talking Spirit, even FURIA, Legacy, Falcons, Vitality, obviously.
And NAVI is always out of that question. So if you look at it from that perspective, looking to 2027, even if they do great at the Major, unless they win the Major, it’s really hard to justify not changing a roster just because of one of the most important events of the season.
But if not, making it to the playoffs, for me, is just more of the same. They already made playoffs in big tournaments. It doesn’t matter. As long as they continue to lose to the top dogs, they need to make a change. And I think it’s been way too long.
Personally, I think that iM, looking at his numbers so far, even in the last few matches, is just way too inconsistent. I think NAVI needs more consistency in that team. They need more firepower.
Maybe then they will be a contender for titles again. But for now, I think they are way too inconsistent.
jL recently stood in for apEX at PGL Masters Bucharest. What do you think of his performance, and did he fit well into Vitality’s system?
At a basic level, I think so. He’s a very smart player, a great player, very experienced. At this point, I think that he proved himself already.
It is really hard for a player to step into a team with so much talent, so much expected from them. And for you to deliver decent to good numbers, for you to bring energy, for you to be able to not feel pressured, that’s already a massive thing in my eyes.
A lot of young players would crumble under the pressure. It is just hard to step into a team with so many tactics already, so much stuff that they have discussed about the game already.
And then you hop in and you have to fill the shoes of an IGL. I can’t imagine how hard it is. So the fact that they are still extremely competitive with him, without the IGL, proves how good their system is, the way that they like to play, the fundamentals they have, the protocols they have in that team.
And I think that also works because of jL. Maybe with another stand-in, it wouldn’t. jL is an all-around player, plays really well in many different roles. So it is actually shocking for me that he still hasn’t joined a team permanently.
jL said he might retire at the end of the year if he doesn’t find a team. Do you think he’ll find a permanent spot in tier-one CS, and which team would be the best fit?
I was taking a look at the rankings yesterday, and there are so many opportunities for him. I think for him, obviously, it would need to be an English-speaking team. Towards the end of the season, I think many of these teams will certainly make changes. If Falcons continue to struggle, we don’t know what type of changes they might make. I don’t think that he would be a good fit for Falcons. I think there would be other players that Falcons would try to get before jL.
But for teams like G2, FaZe maybe, even Astralis, if they continue to struggle and if they turn international now with all the problems they have, maybe Astralis. I don’t know what type of team he’s looking for. But even Aurora, maybe if they change anything.
I think there are certainly good opportunities for him. But if he doesn’t get any of those offers, for him to stay out of competition for another six months, I think it would be way too difficult for him to stay motivated and stay up to date with the meta, not practicing for a long time. I think then it would be a smart decision to maybe go and seek something else.
Still, obviously, he’s going to stream, or I don’t know what he’s going to do, but he’s going to still be involved for sure. He’s a smart guy. Very charismatic as well. He’s a funny guy.
Has this Major qualification race been more exciting than the previous one, and what made it different?
Not really. I think teams are getting more used to how to use the VRS. And I think the last Major qualification was a bit more exciting because until the very end, in the Americas region and the European region, there were more teams fighting for the last remaining spots, having to play really difficult LANs.
So I think it was more exciting because there were more top dogs, teams that everybody expected would be at the Major, having to fight for spots until the very last moment. I think that’s why it was more exciting the last time. But overall, I would say that teams just got better at understanding how the VRS works. I don’t see that excitement.
For example, now this week we have so many events happening all around the world on LAN. It is great, it is a nice opportunity for fans to watch Counter-Strike, and for these teams as well to compete in smaller LANs. But I don’t feel the same excitement now.
Which team has surprised you the most during this Major qualification race, and which one has disappointed you the most?
From the teams that surprised me the most, I’m going to say one from each region. From America, I would say Imperial, the Brazilian team. I think they have been improving a lot lately. And they had way smaller chances before. Now they have an 84% chance.
I don’t see them out, to be honest. I think they’re playing great. They will clinch their spot and they have a great chance. So I think Imperial has been surprising me a lot. And I think they deserve the spot. They earned their spot.NRG was ahead of them not even a month ago, and now NRG is pretty much out.
From Europe, there’s a couple, actually. Nemiga, certainly. I have to mention them. It’s been really impressive what they’ve been able to do. And now I think not only have they secured their spot at the Major, but what they’re doing at PGL right now, beating the teams that they are and being competitive the way they do, I think that’s really impressive. And they did that in the playoffs as well. I still think that when it comes to Majors, they might feel a little bit more pressure and maybe they could disappoint. But so far, it’s been great.
Also, I have to say NIP. After the changes they made, after the IGL changes, bringing in a new IGL and changing the way they worked, I think that also impressed me a lot. And then I also have to mention 1WIN. What they did as well with the roster. Another Russian-speaking team, another big surprise, what they’ve been able to do on LAN.
So I think the region itself just always delivers. Nemiga, 1WIN, I think it is great. And I’m happy to see some older faces from 1WIN qualifying. I really like nafany. I think nafany did a tremendously good job with the past rosters. And it is just great to see that his ideas are working once again and he’s back at the top. So I’m going to be cheering for them, actually. I hope they do great.
There’s an unusual situation involving FUT, Astralis, and cmtry, where one team’s results could affect another team’s Major qualification. Should Valve try to prevent situations like this in the future?
To be honest, I don’t think that has much to do with Valve. I think it has more to do with the moment that you are Astralis and you decide to bring in a player like that, and you know the situation, how it is. It is kind of their responsibility to handle those situations. It is a risk-reward kind of thing. And unfortunately, it is what it is right now, and they have to use a stand-in. But nobody expected FUT to lose to Nemiga and this situation to evolve.
So I think it is just one of those very unfortunate circumstances, situations that could happen again. But it is what it is. I don’t think it’s something that Valve should take a look at.
I think the team just needs to organize themselves better, make changes earlier. Everybody knows the dates of the events right now because of how the system works. Everybody knows when the Major cutoff date is.
If you haven’t been able to make your roster competitive until the very last moment and you have to go through roster changes like this, for example, then you’re already at risk of not doing great at the Major because of whatever reason. So it is just another risk in my eyes. It’s just unfortunate.
Finally, which team deserved to qualify for the Singapore Major but didn’t make it, and why?
To be honest, from the Americas, I don’t think there is a single team that I would say didn’t deserve it. But I’m going to tell you one that I certainly think doesn’t deserve it, and I’m glad that they are not there, which is paiN Gaming. I think paiN has been extremely underwhelming to watch. And I’m glad that they didn’t make it because it would be just a wasted spot.
They still have a 19% chance by the time we’re doing this interview. I hope they don’t make it. But from the Americas, no surprises. I think all the teams that are possibly qualifying deserve it. From Europe, though, I would say, by the way that they are playing right now, I think Eternal Fire has been doing great lately in the smaller tournaments.
It would be refreshing to have another team that people didn’t expect. I wouldn’t be sad or disappointed if they actually made it. Virtus.pro is underwhelming just because it’s a big organization. They are kind of like NAVI in the sense that they need to build championship rosters. And seeing them out of the Major is disappointing.
And then BIG. BIG has a great roster as well on paper. Great players and great investment as well. They play a lot of LANs. They have everything to be able to qualify for the Major. And for them to fail with 18 spots on the line and lose to teams like fnatic, HEROIC, NIP, who just went through roster changes as well, I think it is disappointing.
I think those three teams. The one that disappointed me the most, I would say, is probably BIG. I think BIG should definitely have one of the spots.
