Notes on CS2 players, teams, the meta, and the markets. Updated throughout the week.
It wasn't a walk in the park, but NaVi got the job done in three maps to take home the IEM Atlanta trophy. w0nderful wins his first ever MVP trophy. Check back to the site soon for CS Asia Championships 2026 content. That event has a lot of strong teams attending and starts up in only a couple of days time! Thanks for following along.
NaVi trounced GamerLegion on GL's map pick and is in the process of a comeback on Anubis. w0nderful has looked great throughout this IEM event and I will be bumping him in my player rankings. He's growing in confidence and has been trending the right direction for a while now. On the GamerLegion side, PR and REZ have both had some great individual rounds, yet the team is struggling against Natus Vincere.
Well, I thought Falcons may be a little more competitive in the final, but Spirit really showed up. donk carried hard in the third map en route to a sweep. Nice showing for karrigan in his Falcons' tournament debut, but Spirit was on another level. Wish it would have been a bit closer and more entertaining, but oh well. On to the IEM Atlanta third-place and finals! CARNAGE, MARKET and RANGE have all been updated for the two games. Good luck!
tN1R continues to impress me as I'm watching the PGL Astana Grand Final. Spirit just took the first map on Dust 2 in OT. I've had him lower in my model because he had been struggling since joining up with Spirit. However, he looks a lot more comfortable now and has been fragging at a much higher level. Will be moving him higher on my player rankings going forward.
What is COMMS?
COMMS is the running notebook for Game of Skill. Less polished than the slate posts, more frequent. Some takes, some stats, some things worth writing down.
How is COMMS different from the blog?
The blog is for longer pieces: daily slate posts, market reviews, strategy articles. COMMS is for quick observations that don't need a full post. A stat I noticed, a roster change to flag, a market mispricing worth calling out. Think of it as the working notebook behind the blog.
How does COMMS connect to CARNAGE, MARKET, and RANGE?
CARNAGE is the player ratings page, MARKET is the game prices, RANGE is the series distributions. COMMS is where I write down everything else.
How often does COMMS update?
At least a few times per week, often daily. It will usually depend on how busy the CS2 schedule is.
COMMS is the Game of Skill running notebook for CS2 observations, market reads, and stat tidbits. Longer pieces and slate posts live on the blog.
For player ratings see the CARNAGE page. For game-level fair value vs Kalshi prices see the MARKET scorecard. For series outcome distributions see RANGE. For the full Kalshi picks log see the Kalshi CS2 hub. For longer pieces see the blog.