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BLAST Rivals Fort Worth 2026, Playoffs, Day 4 - Natus Vincere vs. FaZe Clan
05-02-2026 · 6h 02m
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We gather here today to bear witness to the next generation of gunslayers.
Yesterday proved that Fort Worth is for the bold.
After all, this is the land of opportunity.
We have brought you the very best of our prize stock, and only the strongest will be branded
as the Rivals Champion.
Fourth Word is about risk, it's about breaking that frontier.
The only way you win this game is to own it.
It's not enough to just alive here, it's about survival.
I won't. Our teams are here and they're calling you out.
You can't tame the arena. You hold on for dear life.
You want to fight, but it came to the right place.
Welcome back to the Dickies Arena for day two of Blast Premier Rivals, Fort Worth.
Day one was something special. Let's just talk about it for a second.
They had twists and turns, fireworks and fumbles.
Two teams locked in their semi-finals, Fort and the other two headed to Fort Worth airport to check in their bags.
their bags and head home. Now it's semi-finals Saturday and it truly is
Dreamers vs the Giants. Let's take a look at our top four teams.
Gamer Legion, the outlaws of this bracket punching above their weight.
Navi dominant in the groups straight here into the semis looking for that
number one spot. Bayes clan the home crowd favorites looking very much like
their old selves and team vitality the number one team in the world looking
to break some more hearts and break some more records.
So when today is all said and done,
two teams will gallop into our grand final.
The other will ride off into the sunset.
Let's get day two started.
Let's get started indeed, Miami Shocks.
I'm joined here by my favorite analyst in the world for now, at least, Dust and Molly.
Double it, Fat.
But hey, what a day we had yesterday.
It was so much fun in the arena.
I know it wasn't perfectly filled out, but the better phase did.
You could just hear the tickets getting bought for today and possibly for tomorrow with us,
but the atmosphere was insane and the underdogs reigned supreme.
Yeah, we have had a lot of surprises already in Fort Worth.
More than I anticipated if I'm being 100% honest,
but I'm down for some messy kind of strike.
I'm down to get down dirty, so good stuff.
I think we're all a little bit shocked
that it is in Furia in one of these semifinal positions,
but I don't think anybody's complaining.
Everybody in Texas loves a good underdog story,
and we're getting one unfolding,
maybe even two before our very eyes.
Yes, let's take a look at the playoff bracket
and how it updated after the upsets of yesterday.
Both Astralis and G2 were set aside by FaZe
and Gamer Legion respectively,
giving us a FaZe Navi semifinal,
and later on the gamer legion vitality semi-final.
Now, of course, you would be inclined to say,
well, obviously that Navi vitality final
was the one that was promised beforehand,
but maybe there's something about, maybe FaZe
can let the magic grow a little, little, little bigger.
What day is it today?
Saturday.
It's Saturday, unfortunately.
So what would that be in comparison to a Baroque Friday?
Not quite as good.
We solved the numbers.
We solved the numbers.
The magic really lives and dies on Fridays.
Well, here's the thing, you know,
Twist got to set it himself in the interview.
Anything else is a cherry on top now.
They've already done so much better
than probably most people would have anticipated.
Being able to get a couple of big wins over teams
that should have toppled them,
they found a way to rise to the occasion,
make a semi-final, and that does wonders for this squad.
We don't know what the long-term future phase
is gonna be, but at least they're building
the whatever foundation that's gonna be required
for whoever that might be.
Well, I do know that right here right now.
You are backing phase.
No, but I am excited for phase phase arrived in Fort Worth in free fall an
organization long known as a force to be reckoned with on one of the biggest
stages was now failing to make it there phase was indeed on their bullshit at
Budapest they made the major final after a season disappointment yet they became
one of only three teams in the history of our game to miss the major after the
finals of the previous one that then lost their captain how much further
further can they really go?
We will find out today in short order.
Twist as you can see,
phase plans not just here,
but around the world are absolutely loving.
Seeing this version of you guys play.
How much fun is it to be performing
for the phase fans worldwide like this?
It's exciting.
I mean, it's been a rough year for us.
We've kind of put all then the past and now, you know,
we're looking to a bright future right now.
You've overcome some tough tests to get to this point right now.
Today you're up against World Number Two, feelings about them?
It's a rematch, so I'm pretty positive about it.
I say if we were playing a team that was soft 5 and we didn't play them yet,
that would say, you know, maybe it's 50-50.
I feel like, you know, there's more footage and more for us to go off of in this game now.
Any words that you want to say to the Texas crowd that'll be watching this interview back
and FaZe fans around Worlds today?
FaZe up, and I want to hear you be loud.
Best of luck.
Thank you.
Let's go. It's a rematch indeed.
FaZe up. I did it wrong with like Wonders, but it's like this.
You're crushing it. Yeah.
We're doing well now.
Yeah, but you can't be doing that because you want to tell us about Navi.
That's true. Yeah.
That is true, in fact.
FaZe, they might have the fans on their side,
but Navi has proof of concept.
It's been under 50 days since they last lifted a trophy in an S tier event.
You've got Bit, Wonderful, Ema, Alexi B.
That's the core of the team of 2024.
FaZe, yeah, they're reaching for the stars,
but Navi have already proven that they are indeed one of the most dominant forces that we have in Counter-Strike.
They're destined for a Grand Final here in Fort Worth.
Alexi, here you are again pulling up to another blast semi-final.
I get the impression that anything but the trophy this weekend would be a failure.
Yeah, I mean we're here to to battle for the trophy obviously and the last Grand Final,
I think we left this dissatisfied.
to get to that grand final you've got to get through phase kind once again did you
catch any of their gameplay yesterday and what do you make of them yeah I
think they played well they showed a bit of the face magic that we were used to
before but we are prepared for sure what have you been up to in the last
couple of days just been prepping and obviously playing our games and our
opponents that we faced it's a rematch against face I know they want to
revenge but we're gonna be ready your experience that you're not gonna let
this phase crowd get to you are you it's gonna be nice it's gonna be
us. Good luck. Thank you. Alexi has fans everywhere as well. What do you what do you make of that?
Right? Because I feel like when you look at a team like Navi, maybe other teams would say,
oh, we've beat them one so it'll be comfortable. I don't think they leave anything up the chance.
Yeah, Navi is a team that has solidified themselves as the second best team in the
world, which is a big accomplishment when the GOAT is ahead of you, right? We saw them win
an EPL earlier. We saw them make the finals of Rotterdam only losing to Vitality along
on the way. They are the only team in this tournament that has not dropped a
bat. They have dominated so far the competition they've been up against to
make it straight to the semifinals. And as we've already kind of talked about,
they are destined to be that grand finalist next to Vitality. We'll have
to see a face with the rank limit. They're very, very comfortable in their
map pool as well. So let's talk a little bit about the Vito. I think
we're about a minute away from seeing how it actually plays out. Something
that I found interesting from FaZe yesterday is that they went for
Dust 2 versus G2, which is a very, very good map for G2. Still, they
better because they had the confidence that does show me that they might have a little bit more in the
tank that we may have thought because they also had that nuke for instance versus furia which is
not necessarily something you think they would go for so maybe there's a spanner in the works. Yeah I
think they buy gopher dust 2 again I am assuming Navi is going to pick ancient that's been kind
of their permapick we're not going to see inferno or overpass we kind of know what the bands
are I'm kind of curious what the third map is going to be though because that's kind of the
variable that can often change in a rematch situation. It is and the video is about ready so
So let's kick it down to the Vito.
We knew what maps it kind of roughly going to be.
Yeah, Navi is a very prep heavy team.
Yeah, I mean, Vito was expected.
I think, I mean, as I said, if we show up better than we
did the first day against them, I mean,
the rest is going to be probably different, you know?
Not to zero.
I don't think they have wide map pool.
So I'm pretty sure like the overpass is not so good,
but we cannot pick it.
And, yeah, they should not, like, very fresh squad.
It's normal, they don't have, like, a wide map pool.
And I think we just try to play something comfortable
that was last time.
I think the maps are gonna be similar.
We got some preparation coming to Ancient, especially,
so we'll see.
All right, it's Maui Bania on the main stage here as we get set to reveal picks and fans
for this first semi-final.
Maui, I don't know about you, but I'm seeing Bayes' conjeses a lot as the fans are filling
up this arena.
I gotta make sure.
Do we have any Bayes fans here?
We got some.
We have, and it is still only early.
the fans are filling this place out and we have got an epic semi-final to kick things
off it. It should be a banger. Let's get into the picks and fans.
Phase, Van. Inferna.
It's what they've been going with the entire time since Twist took it over.
Let's move on.
Navi Van. Overpass.
We heard Blade right there.
As much as they'd want to pick it as a punish, they don't play it.
Let's move on to picks.
Base picked just two.
Oh, they've been powering up on this one.
We saw what they did at G2 yesterday, but that was Brokey Friday.
That was Brokey Friday.
It's out here now.
Navi.
Ancients.
Great map.
This is where Mikaze is just a whirling dervish in the middle.
A little bit of a surprise, we saw some success on that from them lately, but we'll see where
it goes.
And Navi-ban.
Damn, I thought they would want to flex into their map pool a little bit more.
Nuke's one of the more tactical ones.
And Nubis will be the deciding map.
Okay, a bit of a surprise, but Navi, they took down FaZe on the map earlier comfortably.
They think they can do it again.
Are we going three?
It's going all three.
It's going all three.
All right, let's go.
Thanks, Alex.
Yesterday, the fans were rallying behind you guys.
What does that do for you?
I think it furries me up a bit.
I think it's cool to have the crowd, of course, with you.
And it brings me some good pressure, I would say,
pressure but like good like I don't know like translating into positive energy so
it's pretty nice. I like to play versus fans so if it's gonna be a lot of fans I
think I would be more excited and I think I will play better let's see. So
ready to be a bit of the villain today? Yeah. This is what we worked for you
know we we've been in the rough spot and we're just trying our best to
get back and yeah I'm just happy that we're showing a good results you know.
I hope so. Let's see what's gonna happen. We already know the map since Dust Ancient
and Lost Mafia Sanobis. It's a good map for us and let's see what's gonna happen.
Let's see, indeed it's gonna be one hell of a banger here with Navi versus
FaZe. Are they gonna be the villains and are they gonna kick out FaZe? We'll
see. What did we think about the veto and that Anubis coming out as
the sider guys? Yeah I think that was kind of the one thing that maybe
We went the way we didn't think we knew what the bands were going to be.
We knew what the likely picks were going to be as well.
So that will be an interesting wrinkle if we want to get in there, but I'm not so sure
we will.
Oh, you don't think so?
I mean, here's the thing, like, ancients up first, the 14 games Navi have played this
year, they won 11 of those, so I'm going to give them ancient.
I like them on ancient.
I think their Dust2 has also been really improving this year, in my opinion.
As much as I think Navi are favorites in this one, they barely ever win their
map pick.
That's the one concern I have.
All right.
They won their own map pick less than 50% of the time despite the fact that they're the number two team in the world.
So they just like making a series entertaining.
But how many times was it ancient?
Quite actually a few.
It was actually a few times.
It does happen.
We don't need to worry about it. Let's look a little bit closer at this matchup.
Of course, we saw it play out earlier in the play and stage here in Fort Worth.
And it was 2-0 for Navi.
We saw some good things though.
This was the very first time though that we saw face.
And I do want to draw those comparisons to literal or setting that context because the phase we saw yesterday is not at all the phase that we saw on the first day of the tournament here does right they had so much to contend with so many changes so many question marks for their team but they're really growing in front of our eyes.
Yeah I mean they entered this tournament at rock bottom and they needed just anything to cling on to to give hope the fans have not had much to cheer for for phase and quite some time and phase have not had much to celebrate about themselves.
been quite a while and they've been put in a dire situation. Their captain gone,
considered the goat to ever be in that in-game leading chair twist now taking his second stint
at leadership in an organization at FaZe and you know they've done so well already. I mean I think
that even a loss here they've done so much on the way that it's fine right but if they can
really throw a spare in the works and keep this one going that would be quite the incredible
story. FaZe are playing with house money at this point. They've already gotten so much out
of this tournament. I think they've jumped at least 15 spots in the VRS. So their chances
of at least getting into more invites is already ever so more likely. So I think they're already
quite happy. It's going to be difficult against this level of Navi.
It will be. If there's some interesting chats that were made or quotes that were made by
NKJ, I think you were talking to him, right? And he said, okay, maybe I'm a little
bit the Lulu, but I actually think we could have won that match versus Navi 2 to 0.
How the Lulu is he?
I would agree with him.
I do think he's a little bit delirious on that one.
Look, when you freaking only get one CT round,
the first half of the newbis, and you're down 11-1,
I don't really expect you to pull that one back.
Maybe now you'll prove me wrong with some of his analysis.
And then on ancient, I do think they had a chance there.
I think that phase got off to a cold start.
They did really rally well on their CT side.
They had a hot start on their T-star as well
with three rounds, so they got themselves
into contention on that one for sure.
I'll agree with that one,
but they just weren't really able
to get it across the line.
So I don't think a 2-0 was ever possible,
but I'm willing to be proven wrong.
I like that he believes in himself
because he understands that some of the ways
that the round started on Anubis especially were great.
We have a couple rounds to show just how Jacob
was actually a beast in this one.
He got a double opening kill in this round five early on.
And this would have been a great moment for Faze
to pick up some momentum.
Of course, the Molly finds the trade there,
but then you kind of have Faze players
that they just don't really know what's happening next.
You have Twizz kind of walking out in middle.
You have a lot of space given up from nature
towards a and some of the ways that they played the mid late round situations in this game left to a lot to be desired.
And I think that's always going to be the case when you have a brand new team where they don't really know who's the next point of contact after their initial entry player and Jacob falls.
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. But as said, they have a lot to work with and it feels like they have a lot of things that they can use that are in their toolboxes now.
We have a twist to stepping into this role again.
we have all of a sudden different configuration or openings for Jacob where he could step up,
maybe he didn't feel like that in the past. We know that they are really facilitating nature,
right? And then there's NKJ who's coming in as we heard from the players as this really German,
like very, very controlled style. He makes sure that the schedule outside of the server is
pinpointed, that they don't have to worry about anything. And apparently he anti-struts a
lot as well. And I think there's just a lot of unquantifiable. For me, for today, it's
all about how much is that gonna come together already now. Yeah they took a
crippling blow but they found a sense of direction in the aftermath right I
mean like you said in KJ bringing a schedule bringing a practice regimen
bringing in some of those things he knows Nate you these coach them in the
past that's also a nice linkage to have in a situation like this twist he's
done this before as far as being an in-game leader so he kind of has a
vibe for it and you have a lot of talent on this roster right you know
frozen is the pillar of this spot twist can still flag very highly in the
IGS I was also given this place a lot of freedom to be comfortable and
I think he stepped up to the occasion well.
He's been kind of a quote unquote
fragging upgrade for Kerrigan
in some of the anchor roles defensively,
but he also has just kind of held his own
going from playing tier two events to studio environments
to now playing on a big stage like this
when he's looked up to it.
So there are some positives for Faze.
There are.
I would also just say the eye test of calling for Twist
is already better than it was
when he was back on Liquid.
We remember that time, not all too fondly.
Obviously he didn't capture any trophies
when he was with that team,
but he did have a major playoff birth
And he also in terms of me in terms of what I'm seeing from the tactics
He's willing to play with pace a little bit more like slow rounds down a little bit more more creative finishers as well
They can hurt us there they left out daddy ocean SKDC on that team history list
Because that it is kind of crazy how twist came from playing like in a very small environment
You know playing on the SKDC
I'm talking about where ocean was kind of bringing up in a talented players and you know
He was on that misfit squad with John Gare's company for a bit.
But yeah, he really has been kind of a two-franchise guy, right?
You know, FaZe and Liquid bouncing back and forth, but doing big things with both.
Yeah, people might not be aware if they haven't been paying that much attention,
as we all are, right?
This isn't locked in as like he's going to be the IGL forever now.
The team has been very communicative about that.
But he did say yesterday on stage in the interview,
I feel like this is where I belong.
This is where I'm always supposed to be at the end of the road.
It's now up to how this all works, how my management works,
and trust me how my players around me trust me for this to last. I don't want
twist or phase to second guess himself as the captain of this team. I think he's
already shown improvements on the tactical side. Last time when he was with
Liquid he was a great fragging in-game leader. If you want to buy into it then
go for it. Go all in because there aren't that many great in-game leaders
that we have right now in CS. A lot of them are already on the elite teams
and so if you're actually gonna mold yourself in the shape of a captain
then why not just try to be the best version of yourself there?
I think he's got a great coach to work with right now,
but he can work hand in hand.
He's worked with some of the best in-game leaders of all time already,
so he can pick and choose what he liked from those guys in the past
and bring it to the future.
It is the nature of the situation that the Karrigan departure
was so kind of out of pocket, right?
That I think makes them say,
well, this is just our temporary solution,
but do you both agree that they should just say right now,
no, we're going with you for the long run
because you are phased through and through
and you will put everything behind this.
Because who else is there?
I think you make a valid point on the sense of he was kind of thrown into this
out of reaction. I don't think this is like an intended thing. I'm sure that he
was hoping he was going to get to rebuild this project with Kerrigan, perhaps, right?
I think that the one pause I have about him becoming the in-game leaders, I just know
how good he could be as a star player. You know what I mean? And I think that
that's always the debate you have to have internally about, are you ready to kind of
give up that part of yourself and become a leader? I think he could be the captain
of this team. I think he could be the emotional heartbeat of the team. I think that
he can do a lot of things through the face of phase now, right?
Rain was the face for so long.
Kerrigan became the face of the organization.
And now it's twist turn to do that.
I don't know if he should be the tactician all the time.
I think that's something that needs to be assessed
after this event and what options are out there.
But I do think it's possible.
Yeah, I follow you, yeah.
But because if you're fragging so hard,
then why would you try to neuter that in a way?
Now someone who was fragging very hard yesterday as well
when it came to that last map was frozen.
We've talked so much about frozen.
He talked to us on the desk as well.
They're all auditioning for him to stay.
But I gotta say, when you look at this guy,
the impact he has four phase away plays with the camera and he's through it through phase as well, right?
Frozen Friday stole a little bit of Brokey's thunder there. I mean, both players played really well,
but Frozen was just a beast on Mirage. The retakes that he pulled off, the precision that he has
into so many of these moments where even in the way that they qualified for the playoffs,
going back to the fury of victory, it was him and Brokey in that nail biter situation.
This guy is just ice cold, it's in the name, and there's a reason that he is one of the most wanted players in all of Tier 1.
Yeah, he is a fantastic defender in my opinion, one of the better rotators out there, but also can anchor if need be.
So very, you know, wide spectrum of talent in that regard.
Offensively, this is a good trade fragger, good late round specialist, but they actually have used him now because of the situation they're in, in more active positions.
You know, because they're kind of moving Nakey into some of the one of the lurker roles that he's used to playing.
It's kind of put frozen more on the pack on a couple of maps.
And I think that's where his fire park actually still really shot in kind of a different way.
He's such a versatile talent.
Absolutely is. And before we move over to Navi, they have so much aura phase.
Like the way they walked in here with the track suits, glow in the dark slo-mo.
I mean, what's that?
Even the audience is in awe of the aura enough to try to help them too.
They said, I must give my energy to this team whenever I possibly can.
Yeah, but we're going to head over to Navi.
of course you know it's it's nice to talk about phase and their their home
crowned advantage but Navi won't let that bother them they are the second best
team in the world they're gunning for that trophy ideally they go through
vitality their goals are very clear right dust so
do they stumble here i don't think so they have yet to stumble at this
tournament they are the only team that has gone undefeated and maps played
their town is looking ferocious right now macazes leading the event in
raiding and virtually every other metric you do think of individually
wonderfuls having one of his big events. We kind of know that there's kind of two versions of wonderful.
There's the one that we saw at Cologne at the Budapest major that can pop off and be a top five
opera in the world. But then there's been events where he's been kind of slacking it for 100%
honest. This event, we're getting the wonderful that can be one of the best.
And also I think that he's shown his rifle prowess at this event too. That's one thing
that a lot of the operas who sometimes are a little bit slow starters. I'm looking at Molladoy
in this one where they can't always rely on the other primary weapon. But at wonderfuls,
clutch moments. I think he had on ancient at least a 1v2 in this tournament or at least the last
one where it's just he is so clean that if he didn't have the AWP in this game he would still be
on Navi. I have full faith in his ability when he has to be on the T side as well where he's not
just hamstrung trying to play a system hoping he's getting set up or anything like that. He can
create his own fate because when he has rifle the rifle he has a little bit more autonomy
and I feel like he knows exactly what to do with it in the blade system. Yeah some tournaments
everything just goes correctly, right? When I'm wonderful is the second highest rated player at
the event that Mikasa is the first. You almost think how can this go wrong because their fundamentals
are also extremely crisp dust. Is there anything you can point to that you're like this is something
that I need to see out of Navi when we're thinking not just about this semi-final,
but perhaps a final tomorrow against Vitality. Yeah, I mean I think I just looked at some
of the supporting cast members we haven't mentioned yet to see what they do. Bit was
was once the best anchor in the world.
You know, I think that 2024 stretch that he had,
everyone was talking about how good he was there.
And I think throughout 2025, he had his ups and his downs.
But I think this year, he's actually kind of been on track,
kind of fulfilling that role in a really strong way.
And I think also, Ema,
Ema often kind of gets slept on in my opinion.
You know, obviously he's not the star of the squad.
Other people are going to overshadow him,
but he's actually one of the better secondary entries
on the market right now.
Like his actual conversion stats on opening duels
on T-Side are really high
for a guy who actually goes for quite a lot of them.
Yeah, McCarthy takes the brunt of it, but he still does a fair amount and he's able to do it at a high level
He had to kind of sacrifice his roles to kind of facilitate Mikaze last season
And he's found a way to still gel into this team to perform at a very high level
So I think they actually have pretty well distributed talent in my opinion
One player that I would actually relate to how Ima's career is shaping is a little bit like rain actually
I wear I feel like they're these rocks of the team that aren't necessarily popping off on a regular basis
He's just top-ragging against the best teams in the world, but he's totally reliable against anybody that's not a top-five team.
And that's, and Ima's also just such a great contributor when it comes to communication for Navi.
Anytime we bring up their comms or they release videos on it, he's always secondary calling, coming up with ideas to aid Alexi B.
And he's one of the guys that is definitely a pillar of the team.
I 100% agree. And I think the other cool thing that we're seeing is just the development of Mikaze over Tom.
You're a huge fan of Mikaze.
I'm sure you're going to wax the roof
in the moment, but I want to get my two cents
if you don't mind as well.
There's a guy that when he first on the team,
I felt he got overshadowed by the other rookie entry
fragger that year, which was Kiyosuke,
because of how good that guy's mechanics were,
how flashy he looked, how he was converting opening
goals on the T side so effectively.
Mikaze, I feel like he was always a strong CT player.
I think his T side development is something
that has really been notable this year.
I think that at this tournament,
he's winning 62% of his opening goals on the T side.
That's insane.
Like, you just don't see that very often.
I know that's a smaller sample size of four mats. That's still really good
But the bigger thing for me is in the background. It's getting better on average every month
Yes, I think that's been the biggest kind of twist for now
That's allowed them to go number two is the fact that his entry frag on t-stop is actually now up to standard with all the best out there
The difference for me between Kyosuke Mikaze is that I think a lot of people were blinded by the fact that Kyosuke's
Mechanics are probably better than Mikaze's
I think if you put him in an aim server today Kyosuke might score higher
But that's not everything in Counter-Strike.
And what Mikasa is, is he is a triumph of Blade's coaching.
He is a prime example, once again, of what it means to be under a head figure
who can give you direction and tell you when you should be doing some things
and when you shouldn't.
Because that's the difference still, actually, even when I look at Kiyosuke,
that maybe somebody like Sonic could reel him in a little bit more often.
But Blade, he knows when to lay down the law.
Oh, absolutely so. He's done it to so many players in the development over time.
only scaling is what we can assume,
we just saw the battle cry from Faze,
really putting it all out there.
Yeah, I'm really actually curious more than anything
because we saw this match already play out,
how Faze is gonna have leveled up,
because it seems to me that we're getting something
fundamentally different than we did
when they were playing with Kerrigan,
with Nio behind them.
I think that duel of NKJ and Twists
have something for us.
So the question is always,
is it too early on a stage like this, right?
In a best of three against the best team,
the second best team in the world.
But you have to dream just because it's phase.
I think phase have to look back to what they've already
done against this squad, right?
They've been the underdog virtually every time
they've played Navi in recent history.
Yet they were able to crush them at Blast Open London 2-0.
Then we go to the Budapest Major,
an opportunity for Navi to really
solidify themselves as one of the best in the world.
However, they fell short in the semifinals
against none other than your boys at phase.
And that was after a season where phase were dire.
It was so grim.
The fact that they were able to make it to the finals through Navi was that phase magic.
And so, if they can find that magic in here today, as they did yesterday, I think they
can maybe mix the magic out.
We'll see, indeed, and we're just about ready to meet the team, so take it away, Ian.
The sound and gun in here now.
And of course two semifinals lie ahead as we look to lock in which two teams will compete
in the grand final tomorrow.
The process starts right now.
Let's welcome our first two teams.
Vase Crabby!
If they use the tortures, anything is this.
How dare you take them for granted.
How dare you cut them out.
We've had them down for too long.
But with the rebuild snapping into the air is officially
We know these squads can not only meet the expectations of Navi's legacy, but they can exceed it.
They have shown us that they are distinguished players in their own right.
Truly worthy of kicking off the next era of Navi Nation.
The fire red warpath continues and the yellow lightning is ready to strike.
These heavyweights of Counter-Strike are back for round two.
with the fans behind them, Bayes burned through the quarterfinals and as red-hot as they are,
Frozen has been ice-holed. However, the world number two is here to put a stop to this Bayes' bullshit.
And with Alexi V leading the charge, Navi wants another crack at a trophy.
There's a fire below the line here and a chance to show the world who you are
Opportunities for both of these squads of phase that was down in the dumps for so long
left by their ITL and now twists at the helm and a Navi who it's never just this
Navi that plays right now they have the memories of all the Navi success in the
past they can see that trophy they just want to step up and take it indeed as
you said the world number two but fourth what are you ready for some
phase bullshit that's what I thought I suspected as much what does it look like
phase bullshit well phase bullshit is like this right even though they have
But yet to an ancient in this tournament, which is what we got up first.
They have looked ferocious in all of their games.
Their mid aggression has been so potent on both sides of the map.
Nate Yuvi embedded in positions he's comfortable playing on that A side.
He's been stable for them.
And then they move frozen into more of an active role taking B control and trade
fragging and they're getting good performances out of all their players.
I think they're going to bring a nice pace to Navi, but they're up against
one of the goats with middle on ancient and that's your boy Mikaze.
Oh, yeah, it's gonna be difficult to unseat him the phase bullshit
It's gonna have to come down to crunch time because you know Navi themselves also like to play down the clock a lot of these rounds
We're gonna end in the last 15 seconds gonna end in the post plans and that's where I just give the edge to Navi
They've been doing it for way longer and they look way more polished doing it
I feel like all of their protocols are so well outlined every piece of utility is sailing exactly to wherever phase is lining up
And that's because of the prep.
That's because of what Alexey brought in.
That's because of what Blade has brought in.
Yeah, it's going to be control and protocols
against utter chaos.
That is the type of game that we're going to get.
We always want to slobberknot here
in the ring in the center of the stage.
And the days have already provided so much.
As your boy, Frozen, has been so electric for this squad,
he has more responsibilities now he's delivering.
But again, I really do think that Navi
are going to be very well prepared here.
I think this should be a close game.
but you'd be crazy not to call mouth of the favorite.
Yeah, it's true, but I always hear that Navi's so prepared
and we know when they got their protocols,
but can you really say that it's only phase bullshit,
that it's only those crazy rounds on the side of phase
because I don't necessarily agree with that.
I actually think they look pretty organized
in the two ancient games.
I think people may look and resolve to say,
oh, they've lost both their games,
they must not be doing well,
but when I watch back the tape
and I kind of see in the limited amount of time
that they have together,
the adjustments that they have made to how they play,
They actually do look pretty well constructed,
and we've actually seen some pretty good team play.
But they also do throw out those just wild haymakers.
They push four people down mid and they
try to run you down.
So it's going to be a really flashy style
to watch on the server today from FaZe.
But one that has planning behind it.
That's what's so difficult here for Navi,
where obviously they're going to be playing against a FaZe
that's improvising a lot.
When Navi can just get a download of the team
that they're playing, then they
can anti-strat them to Kingdom come, both with FaZe.
So frequently, you see them just
kind of throw the rulebook out the window. I've seen four man pushes towards middle
when they're getting stumped and those kinds of rounds can be the difference maker in a
close one like this. The question for me is when do FaZe decide to hit the panic button
in a half? Are they going to throw it after the first two gun rounds or is Twist going
to actually take it right away after the first failure and say, okay, we need to
completely change everything? Because if he does do it early enough, then I don't
think Blade is going to have as much of an impact in terms of the preparation.
In many ways, this is a defining game for Twist, right, because of that, right?
They won't get that many chances to be on these stages and show that, and it seems like with
all the pressure on him, he almost needs to have a good performance.
Twist right now is trying to right the wrongs of his past.
He's trying to dispel the narrative that he was not a great in-game leader.
Again, the fact that he made it to a major playoffs with Ultimates is crazy enough
to me.
I'm still in shock about that kind of performance.
Also a reminder, he lost to the eventual champions
at that major.
It was Spirit that defeated them there.
So I think that there's a lot in store
and I think that when you walk away from the role
as Twizz has in this case and come back to it,
you're fresh with brand new ideas
and ways to make amends.
Absolutely.
And I think that he just also has the full buy-in
from his whole entire team.
He's got a brand new coach who comes in
who has the same philosophy
as trying to instore order in a system
that had failed them, right?
We're talking about a team that went
from major finals to not even making the major.
Everything was going against them.
They are down and beaten, but they've shown up
to Fort Worth with bigger and looking
to try to make it all with the grand finals
and we'll see if they can get it done.
With that, I think the players are just about ready.
It's gonna be a feast to watch for us.
Navi, the second best team in the world.
They want that bout versus vitality,
but Faze, they are ready.
They're ready to fight down in the dirt here
in Fort Worth.
On this stage today we have two of the most storied organizations in Counter-Strike history.
On one side FaZe led by the in-game leader Twist, North America's most decorated ever
player, and his challenge today is to call against a major winning veteran in-game leader
in LXCB.
The odds are stacked against FaZe Clan, but they have been every single step of
the way.
We have been coming to this great state for over two decades.
Counter-Strike lives and breathes in Texas.
So forward!
Let it hear what Counter-Strike comes to get to us!
And the semifinals are live.
Dust here, and we've already got a little bit of aggression.
Wonderful up middle.
Nabi's gonna be starting on this CT side.
And they attempt to quell this incredible push from FaZe into these playoffs.
Out towards Long and they're not slowing down.
They're coming in quick. Long has already smoked.
The cross is already up.
Alexi and Ima playing in behind it.
Broke, he throw in support utility.
Shuffling in.
And no one providing resistance just yet,
but now they found themselves in the A-bomb site.
All over the site.
Bump like they'd be coming through.
Alexi be slipped away, back into a CT spawn,
and they're just going to wait all it down to a CT.
So because they're setting up for the utility,
I'm gonna go in towards the site
Time to start this retake for now. It's a bit Jason's first kill. You might cast a side and move in
It's the beam of cause a finally enter the kill. He did here for now
Exactly what phase needed is the hot start and again you get this kid
Nate you coming into this lineup. How impressive is he been delivering important kills big clutches for phase through this run
With this new line of play
We saw yesterday long plan with momentum. It's a great strength of bears and you've got started in a positive note
Great season pistol here for a phase but the issue is they've still got to go with that another buy up against you
The force flies came in here for Navi, it's got a rightful here for Emma.
Scout for wonderful.
And we know what the likes of Bit and Mikaze can do on these Deagles.
Absolutely. Bit and Mikaze, they're going to have a huge, huge role to play throughout this series.
Mikaze, such a strong player. He's become inside this Navi lineup.
The impact he's able to have for this team.
Now it brings up an interesting part of the desk of the structure of Navi
and the ability of FaZe to kind of break out in the way that they kind of approach things differently.
There's going to be moments in this game where Navi are going to have to meet that kind of improv,
That kind of disorder like that individual cell, you're going to have to be aggressive.
Break out of your own foundations to fight fire with fire.
Phase at the moment now, just relaxing in middle. They've got complete control, no pressure.
Now be content to sit back and wait.
I'm going to use a smoke to slow them down, block them out, so they'll face no-thrupped
against something at least on the other side, W tall, Tegels out for a spin in mid.
Let's see if they can break through.
Two smokes have gone through, one towards CT and one for that B ramp cross.
All right, around the edge, this is a dangerous point, but God's aid drops!
Good reaction from Swiss. Now it's big. The last hope. The fast scene of defence.
Some of you have all the sides of the course.
Everybody get ready, big.
Lisa Kil coming through the smoke from Mimama.
At this point for Navi, it's truly just the save. You can't go for this.
You get a back away. You're going to save these weapons.
And Faze is going to go up to 2-0.
I think they've been pricing to try to find that AK-47, but it backed all the way off.
You know, like Navy Faze is going to push forward to protect it.
So three saved weapons will come into the next round for Navi's defence.
Nice easy round from Faze. Nothing too crazy. Grouped up with mid control.
And you march on in and yeah, I mean, you know all the new lineup in all the kind of disorganization in the rough run that
Phase of Ben on coming into Dallas
I think it's easy to kind of like forget that this team of this core of so much experience
Yeah, they're gonna they're still gonna have the basic ideas on maps, right?
It's not they're gonna be completely lost with everything coming into this. It's gonna be the protocols
It's gonna be the details. It's gonna be if Navi can be disruptive enough to make them kind of make decisions that they haven't planned out before
forward and that'll be the big question throughout this half throughout this
series so far so good for phase up two to nothing
at least with noffi saving some of the weapons to sell the chance in this next
round but this is such an important kill you see in the left direction and
twist slowly creeping around the side of the smoke you think that's the
opening for the Deagle because he might just pick him off and from that point on
words who knows what would happen. Well now what do you want to do with the M4
if you're EMA? If you're not EMA do you want to actually challenge? Do you want to see if
he can get you an early kill? Yep that's the answer. Yeah just set him up top middle
try and get him involved in some fights early on here. Yeah he's still sticking
with it despite here in the AWP so now pushed up towards middle. He might be
in trouble without even realizing it and EMA is going to keep up the
aggression. Now the, excuse me, face split across the map. Two players out
long. Two players in the B tunnels. Brokey, you're looking like a wretch, huh?
Brokey not ready for this, not ready for this.
Oh, and Mike can be so disappointed. Brokey gets away with that one, and Brokey's even
got a little smile on his face for checking it.
He's going to hold as well. Mike hit another one on this top mid push.
Ooh, close.
The legs show.
But that one kill on Ema negates really any chance that Navi had of turning this round,
especially spotting this follow-up aggression.
Still nobody's moved from phase.
They recognize that Navi's trying to pull something off, trying to be a little bit sneaky, a little bit crazy.
One of those can add a kill on the twist, that's up middle with the scouts,
and things get a little bit more difficult than now with trade in tunnels.
Yeah, 5-7 coming through, and now we have the next one.
It's gonna be brokey, dropping the Karzai towards suicide.
We got 40 seconds, what?
That's what I should wrap things up, the Lexi D.
Yes, the bomb is isolated, but he's stuck inside the tunnels.
He's got plenty of players to get over here now for things.
You know, Fresen's probably only going to have this one kill in the round,
but what an important one.
When you have a one on two,
essentially a player in the bomb site, a player flanking you nowhere to go,
huge kill to grab.
Wonderful, maybe just a quarter of a second too slow.
So, Lexi with a Galil.
Not really a chance to go for this, so probably going to back off,
looking if he can find one more.
He wants that AWP, but Broke, he's not going to give it to him.
So three to nothing start for FaZe.
And if you followed the descent of FaZe in the fall that they've had over the past few months,
the conversations they've been having, releasing into FaZe content,
statements and interviews, conversations after departures of teammates,
it's been a lack of trust, it's been a breakdown of the trust and faith that the players of the team have in each other.
All of that in this event seems to be switching.
It's building back up now with Twists early on in this new in-game leadership role,
coming back into it, new players entering the roster,
but now that all of them are delivering, performing on the stage,
that trust in that faith is growing.
And that's what's making Faze such a scary team now,
a scary prospect in these playoffs.
See another factor yesterday,
which is Perky's start on Dust2.
Good one here, two kills so far.
Now AWP is going to be, say, passive at the moment.
It's going to be the long players moving out here for Faze.
and Jacob.
Got a reaction for Navi.
They're going to start taking some of the tunnels control away,
but nature's waiting.
They're going to come in towards him and block the steps
from it too quickly, and in fact, he gets two.
Frozen status one. That's the bomb down in the tunnel.
So disaster here for space.
The round's pretty much blown wide open.
It looks very tough to recover from this point.
Yeah, that's a huge push.
I mean, I wonder if Navi maybe felt like there were
going to be more bodies out long,
and they wanted to kind of close the map off.
That's the classic reaction.
But finding the ball is just a cherry on top. This round feels not done, but it's just brutal for FaZe if you want to try and come back into this.
You got a minute to address the situation. Maybe you can get lucky enough to clean this up without taking too many losses.
The problem is wonderful and even now pushed in the middle. So much information for Navi.
the last hope is to throw the
smoke on the bomb, see if you can sneak in and shake it.
They've got plenty of utility just to take you off and now they realize there's no way
of getting back into this round. Well, Navi just realized they don't have
to do anything. They installed out. You can actually back off and there's such a small chance.
You know they're likely going to have to come to this B bomb site. They're going to back away, takes a fight.
That's a good kill on the Jacob and that's the round sealed.
No more even attempts of an idea for FaZe.
So three to one, Navi's on the board
for the first time in these semifinals.
And seeing some aggression mixed into the early
Navi game plan, the emo push with the M4 in round three.
Yeah, that was great to see the push up.
And then Mikaze's success taking both players
in the college, you think maybe gets the one,
but the fact that Frozum is there,
you think he gets that trade,
but Mikaze, you want to get both.
There's an overperformance in all of it.
to be very happy about getting into the tunnel as far as you're most distracted.
That kind of production out of a macaza is the number one rated player of the event.
He's the highest rated.
He's been the best player statistically at the event so far.
Wonderful.
Actually, a Navi is second as well.
So two very important players critical to Navi's success performing
extremely well this past week in Texas.
Yeah.
And we're going to perform a pro.
Combination is all right.
Wonderful McCarty that made the look so deadly.
It's great to see that recipe coming together for Navi.
Broke you with a quick shot actually attacks mid on the cross.
So he's tagged down to 19 HP for the remainder of the round.
A little bit frustrating.
We'll see how he chooses to play.
Feels like they want to slide him over to the 8-ball side
to hide him, maybe park him out towards long and pit.
He's going to slide over and shift his changed positions.
Yeah, frozen.
He gets his way through the mid to a strong position
to get all ready.
See if he can activate right away.
He will.
I'm a dead first, so Navi have the advantage on another face and now, at the moment,
Wanderville's going to try and change that fact, so he's moved out to his line,
you'll get the scope up and have to push forward with Alexi Bid.
There's always a reaction for Navi's defense so far.
Oh, here we go, pop, left peek in.
Okay, he's actually vacated. Good call from Nature to just back out.
All it's off to make sure the push can't come.
Now, Alexi now knows the position.
Wonderful, has everything on his shoulders.
Yeah, just waiting with this off.
They've already caught Pai's cross, sir.
They've already got Pai.
And he's missed the shot, but now he has the information,
But the utility as well, wonderful looking,
a little nervous in his spot right now.
15 minutes coming over to trying to leave you
at some of that pressure.
Shadow passing against the wall.
Wonderful, trying to get the throw with a twist
and Borsig freeges, with a twist again.
That's the kind of performance you want to see
out of twist here on the semi-final.
Good start here on Dust2.
A very confident measured hit from FaZe.
They didn't get everything they wanted
on the initial utility on the initial peeks.
They couldn't find wonderful for some time,
but they don't panic.
They maintain composure through this hit, slowly progressing and reacting to all the information, all the pushes from Navi.
I'll tell you what too, one of the issues that Faze felt like they had in the first time they played Navi, back in the group stage where they lost 0-2.
Right.
Twist had mentioned specifically, he felt like they were nervous, they had some first event jitters as this lineup.
Players weren't making plays and being proactive the way they had been in practice.
That play from Frozen, that's him being proactive.
Those are the moves that Twist wants to see his players make.
Frozen sliding out sensing a gap sensing a weakness and then exploiting it to give them an advantage
Well timeout coming in and boy looking very vocal during it as well
He knows his team are coming into this next one
They'll still have a good buy available and you're gonna have wonderful on the off everybody on the rifles
But late not gonna be too happy about what he's seeing at the moment
I mean there has been positive signs for nobby. He's just not fully together right now in faith
Definitely franking harder at the moment. Fantastic to see that level of firepower coming out
Let's talk to our boy Flam before the match.
I think Navi is an extremely upset-able team.
I think this is still a team sometimes that feels like they can be very varied in their performances.
I think it upset isn't as unlikely as you might expect coming into this considering things.
Especially with FaZe playing with this confidence after winning some big games.
The fact that you've taken down Chiu, you've taken down Chiu too on the path.
Navi aren't a team that are going to really make you feel a level of fear that is...
Conquerable.
Nobody gonna go towards wonderful, making him step back a little bit.
He's got plenty of teammates here as well for Navi at short.
Sliding back into the angle as the Molotov subsides.
I like it. Wonderful. Not wanting to give an inch here.
Oh, they're gonna be aggressive. Here's the pusher on the corner.
Yep, it's good. It might go into it.
Twins could be taken away. Good shot back from Brokey.
That's exciting with Navi.
His wonderful descents down towards CT.
He chases in and from frozen, but he hasn't been able to get past that smoke.
That smoke, slow for the utility, but the release valve is up for the bomb and wonderful realizes he needs to jump up and take that 1v1 fight against Brody.
So it's all in Jacob. The tour is the end of the day yesterday. Really started to commit to his own.
He was the closer of that series in overtime for sure. Let's see what he's got now. Problem is the bomb is just so far away.
Yeah, 30 seconds is one huge amount of time to make this work for Jacob.
No utility. I think if you had a smoke to block off Cowwalk to go get that bomb with some safety it might be, you might be able to make an argument for it, but now that this flank is coming in,
flank is coming in. Yeah, there's no real options here.
Pitt comes up, he's headed for the headspot.
It's the time that's worrying me.
Fifteen seconds he can plant.
He actually can't get away to the plant.
He's worried about the short peak coming in,
but he has to commit to this now.
He has to think about the plant.
And here he goes.
So just enough time to get that ball down
so they run him forward.
Because Macausee coming in from short,
he's being wrapped around on the wrap as well.
And Macausee will take the head shot
to confirm their own victory for Darby.
I think if they lose that one,
Glenn is going to be extremely, extremely upset.
Yeah, frustrated.
Well, Bitt's going to be frustrated with that missed shot.
Obviously, we know him to be just a mechanical genius
in the game.
That one he misses, fluffed his line a little bit.
Like the pressure put on by Wonderful in the 2v1,
forcing Jacob to take the peek out towards Short,
forcing his move into Mikaze's waiting arms.
Timeout taken by FaZe to talk things over.
Four to two.
And Kay's going to try and get his boys fired up
to put a stop to this.
They haven't yet let Nabi get a streak of rounds
together.
haven't yet let them build any momentum into this game.
They've stopped them in their tracks after each and every win.
But Monty's gonna start getting sketchy for FaZe.
Full investment into this round seven, but after this, Monty's gone.
So critical round if you wanna keep this T-side rolling
and try and bury Navi early on in the semifinals.
Guys, good fucking shit. I like the energy. I like everything that we are showing so far.
Keep it up! Full speed, full gas, the entire fucking round!
Alright, I'm good.
Chris has mentioned, he's just, he makes it so much fun to be an in-game leader and you can see the
infectious energy he's trying to push throughout the team.
Frozen looking for a push and lower at the moment.
And there is one. Mokaze is being aggressive.
So is Ema off short.
You have wonderful out in mid with the AWP ready to react to any contact
That door smoke lands perfectly
Searching for some information because they did a retreat on that. That's a team name
I got that was just great. I mean wonderful was just breaking the smoke as Mikasa was falling back
So a little unfortunate there, but happy to get because they're in a dangerous position when the Molotov comes in
And yet again for phase they take control the middle of the map no pressure being applied
Alexi and Ema starting to slide up short.
Yeah, starting something up here, Navi.
We've seen this a number of times so far in this half.
Impression on different areas of the map.
He's coming in short this time.
He's so flusy.
There's the sign to kill. That's the bomb.
Broke, he keeps his head down as well.
They sure don't have to give it away.
They're kind of bottlenecked right now though. All five players are here.
They don't have a great presence on the map phase.
So, I mean, you're going to be grouped up attacking either out mid to the B bomb set
or you're going up short. 38 seconds left.
Navi trying to run the clock down as much as possible.
slow this play from FaZe, it's all gonna be a fake.
Twist inside of the smoke.
Good maid, he's gonna soften up a lot of FaZe.
Time is limited, 25 seconds left, here comes the play.
Off the workout walk, the left to B, only gets to one.
Emma wins the fight in CT, wonderful.
Chiming in it, okay!
That's more like it, wonderful.
Happy shutting down this attack.
A good bro key, and a one before,
then not letting him get comfortable in.
Never letting him get away with it, wonderful.
Wonderful, continues his good form into the semis.
It's a great shot, Nate.
He'll repeat it, close it through the box as well.
Great recipe for success for Navi as well.
They executed perfectly.
Take away the first initial option
that FaZe is going for.
Stalled it out.
Forced twist to improvise.
Forced FaZe to make a decision as they change up the attack.
All of a sudden, this play they want to make towards
now up turns into a twist.
Trying to look into CT spawn.
They've got to come through a smoke on short.
Everything's disorganized.
Really well done from Navi, and now they've grabbed
a little bit of economic control as well as phase fours back to pistols.
Some breathing room in.
I thought she was going to face a little glocks as well, right?
So it should be free round no problem here at phase taking one off.
Plays a football.
Careful with that here.
Careful with that.
There's only one football in this state.
Right now I think Lloyd's going to be happy to after the timeout.
did not we have been able to get control over game at least for now the
positive turn that's nice he's doing a good job good ball control for sure okay
where we're gonna go with it I guess they just take it along take it all the
way
well they're just gonna wait for the smoke to clear then we'll get the
game back on you know it's going to be fine.
Here we go.
I see it all the time.
He's saying it's up three kills, shutting down all the clocks.
Unless you had a round off.
It's a ball game I guess.
It's not ball game.
Yeah, we'll go with that one right now.
Four to four.
I don't even know what kind of a timeout we're gonna call that one not a French
timeout some some kind of crazy timeout talking things over as they kick the
ball around now we get to see what they bring into the fight on round nine for
AK-47s broke he's not gonna have that AWP last rival Srophy what everyone is
competing for winners move on to the championship game the grand finals
tomorrow they soft against either vitality or gamer legion our second
semi-final of the day.
Smoke in the mid-doors.
If you smoke up short.
Orc smoke, turning that to the side.
Got to start feeling a little bit better if you're not.
You recovered this half very nicely.
It was a never got too far out of your control, but on top of McCauze having some very impactful rounds and pushes
Wonderfuls some very nice shots that one tags twist grenade goes over, but twist is backed away from the danger
Thankfully, yeah, realizing as soon as you take that damage the day. It is very likely to follow gets into cover
One minute left for the doors
He's gonna be setting up the mid to B split utility, coming in the tunnels.
That's in success with it earlier in the anti-eco, the anti-force buy, so I don't think they've
had enough real success in the gun round.
Frozen got that one kill on Ema trying to cross over, but I don't have success on the
mid to B mix.
Make this too nervous, nerve-wracking for Navi.
Right, so you've still got three players defending A, and Mikase, one of them inside
of the pit.
He's trying to hold down and drops himself into the pit.
Another one here as well, but the round feels done.
Just with the early success that Navi had and all kept crashing down.
So that competitive nature to the game, they started to fizzle out.
That round just looked so easy for Navi.
Yeah, well, I wonder if we're going to see Twist now kind of switch things up
and go into a little bit more aggression.
Maybe like this slower grab control of mid,
then sort of spread out and pick a place to hit.
I wonder if now he's going to call something a little bit more on a spawn.
I mean maybe around like this it makes a little bit more sense
It'll probably be a half by with tech 9 so you could be more mobile you can be more fast
You want to get into the engagements when you're swinging hard and quick
But once the guns come out
I want to see it maybe a little bit trickery coming out of phase hit a different timing change the pace a little bit
Because Navi's the one who's now kind of dictating the map and what you're able to do on it
You can take that control back if you throw something a little bit unexpected at them
I don't be in the gun rounds for now. Deagle picked up for Jacob tech 9
The top is now in a four round streak five of the last six in their favor
You're down to pistols again if you're fakes play with the Eagles tech nice
Serving for the next one. I'll be very likely of an easy time of getting six rounds on the board
We go all five players for phase coming to this situation smoke might slow them down they can come through this with these tech 9s if you get the utility break the smoke chuck out a flashbang you can still come through and challenge but I don't know what's on the other side so they're going to chill for now see if there's any kind of a reaction but this is playing out like a lot of the rounds previously all five players grouped up in middle you don't really have a whole lot of map controller map information.
It's wonderful to take contact with this AWP out towards the long corner.
Yimida provides support from the CT ramp.
And Alexi B will hold on the pit and look for a long lurch.
Yeah, wonderful. Ready to go again.
Great shot to me. Again, it's so composed to land that one.
Yimida moves in from CT to help him out.
Wonderful, and gone by.
Couldn't adjust in time.
or actively enough towards Netshu. So the kills come in from face and the bomb plant secured
The round seems so far off. Yeah, and the money's the money's so strong for Nabi
that even kills don't really have any real impact with only two rounds remaining after this in the half
So Netshu's gonna try and pull off a miracle. Yeah, a miracle indeed
They run on him because they know of detecting him
Killed the first time of asking the likes he beat runs him down from long and a lot happier now is Blake
Yeah, things looking good. Things looking cleaner. Wonderful. Still doing good work with the AWP.
6-4 scoreline. Plenty of money to replenish what Navi lost in the round, but the AKs, the rifles come back in for phase, and we'll see what the switch-up is going to be.
Second time I was taking a couple rounds ago to have a little bit of a chitchat. So what have NG and TWICE cooked up to close out this first half of the 7 finals?
Yeah, super-fleeced blade, leaning in.
Here we go, AWP is out again for Brokey.
Full sets of utility for this G-side.
Two rounds left up for Grabs for FaZe on the attacking side.
That's why she's gonna go out towards Long.
Really trying to force the issues forward,
but here comes that aggression that we've been seeing.
All half-long here from Navi,
and it's worked out again, Mikaze,
and Emma both getting the opening kills,
and it's so disruptive,
they're not letting FaZe get into any of these rounds.
Okay, here we go, one kill,
it's traded right back and I mean the question the tunnels as well. Yeah it's
just Navi being aggressive everywhere to abuse the protocols right? They
get him to contact with the lower push, the reaction is for Broke the beat-up
mid to alleviate that but you've already got a player pushing up the swing on
him, you've got a player pushing up and beat-tunnels to push that player when he
tries to address the situation. That's just Navi just beating you
basically on tactics alone. Absolutely brutal. I did, I talked to
Mikaze last night outside the hotel and I was like you guys, you guys
ready for tomorrow you guys going to drop the ball like he's doing a throw-in.
What's the sense that he's just going to be an easy 2-0?
Looks like he's dead in the eye.
Well, definitely.
It looked a little shaky to kick things off.
I mean, a play-timeout really sorted them out very quickly all in this half.
And since then, this streak has been so dominant from Navi.
He's positive spirit, high energy from make that jam truck.
Fizzled out very quickly and deep with me.
Going to get it back at the end of the half here, it's frozen.
Well, the things that got it back yesterday when things got quiet, when things got rough
were the individual heroics were frozen popping off, Broke having some insane rounds, the
clutches from Netshu, the way Jacob closed these things out, the calling from Twists
as well.
But it all started with some individual heroics to save the day, triple kills and quad kills
the name of the game for FaZe.
You got wonderful locking them away, if they're in the lower tunnels, they try
to cross out towards the Xbox, wonderful shot at taking them down.
Also looking out towards the long side now to
The smoke comes in separate office information flow
Break up feels like so much the impact for Navias come from wonderful and because it but alexi he has quietly just been chipping in a
Couple kills here and there consistently. He's leading the way for his team captain at the top of the scoreboard with 11 frags
He might get tested again as he's the soul of the able site because I
Wonderful gets it right back.
Yeah, wonderful right away there with the trade, but phase they have to win this one.
Trying to end the half with at least an extra round to play with.
35 seconds, we got Alexi B starting to move up towards long.
Can he get another frag?
And he has wonderful tally so far in this half.
The answer to that is no, Jake brings him down, opens up long, and
weakens this defense so much as phase move in.
Here's the short flank, just the perfect time to keep wonderful alive.
He must get a shot moving towards CT, he's blocked by utility as well.
So that plant comes in and now it's a 42 post plant favoring Faze.
And they can't get it started until this catwalk smoke fades, so wonderful can be involved.
Everyone from Faze is backed off, hiding in positions inside the bomb site.
Playing the post plant should be unloosable.
Well, in the meantime, him is trying to gain as much ground as he possibly can,
but he goes up against Twist in this fight around the corner and he loses it immediately.
It's wonderful, I'm tapping away into the site,
and he works out down to least a security next to round to play in the first half.
But Navi's streak just about closed at 7-5 lead.
Hello guys, it's Natis, this is Paul.
Hey, I'm Alexi B, and today I'll be reading some bad comments.
Through itself hasn't been looking hard since the major result.
Well, I thought they are so good, that even a single map win for Navi would be a victory itself.
What a classic.
Everyone knows this kid is going to be the next Brokie or Sumpal, Sumpail.
Sumpaipal.
Sumpaipal bro, what are we doing right?
The Hunter was never an enemy, he'll never be a good player.
That's a bullshit, I can never be the only guy who's plus.
Sumpail was like that in 2002, always flicking, constantly getting tech kills, but then he disappeared. Xp.
Xp typical HLTV user. I love it. I love it. You know, worldwide has a bright future ahead of him
He's just starting so you're gonna have to watch a lot of games from all of I hopefully seem to be winning a lot
So I think we're wrong with the cyber king
So guy named insert lame here says not we're gonna get the honor of losing to Vita in finals this event
But yeah, I'm glad that people are thinking that we're gonna reach the finals and it's good for us
I'm gonna sneak off last. I'll go this hill down there.
The previous could be in the odd blast. This iteration will most likely be even less.
I mean, eventually we'll be on the tournament to be honest, after this guy said it.
My mission here is to make you free of super-competiting in the best way I can.
Then leave, low.
Haha, yeah, don't be that dissemple, bro.
You know shit's fucked when Alexi is not his top performer.
It's probably better for the team's future prospects if they lose this much anyway.
Express Patience 9809, okay, like this nickname as well.
Castorato was shit in that video, shit me out in that video.
Shit in Colón Playoffs and shit in Budapest Playoffs.
I am counted shit after Mirage and I actually played with half of his frame
whilst it stays under one candy.
Jesus, what a shit show once again.
That's a nice and supportive comment it says.
Ignore the latest shichu? He's strong, no?
Haha, yeah, my boy.
Nobby has improved a ton.
My prediction is Vitality 3-0.
I'm not gonna lie, that's a funny one.
The first one is a funny one, actually.
So, good as to this guy.
So, Lezzie just bullied his team into being good,
and I'm here for it now.
It's kind of a play to be honest.
Some points, but yeah.
Eredi's seriously hiring a guy from Ankow
through any good players to become champions.
Not this low tier scrubs,
complete here three what a joke pathetic you guys who have thought it
Maladoy coming out the way from Kazakhstan playing on the cybercraft is
no computer at home who have thought it the kid is good and yeah you never know
to you know what I could be wrong my friend. EPL was a clue for Ravi.
I'm trying to win a trophy nowadays without the team ever being a fool.
Thanks guys.
Well, Twist said with the upset wins they've had in this event already, this was a great chance for them to show the real phase.
We haven't seen it yet today.
Navi's come in with their trademark structure, their tactics, their strategy to disrupt phase.
We haven't seen any of those phase pop-offs any of those moments that fire this team up and make everyone get better
We're waiting for that waiting for one of the individuals to provide it
It's a five at seven deficit for phase as they try to continue this miraculous run here in Fort Worth and
Relive into the second half pistol switching sides phase on the defense and Navi attacking into them
the game.
Phase.
Pistols rounds.
We've been pretty good so far at the event, especially the success they get off the back of winning them and both pistol rounds.
We heard that. We looked at that stat yesterday. The fact that their map wins success.
Super high once they get a good start. So let's see if they can continue that momentum.
I feel like it's so important, especially in today's game against Na'Vi.
Oh, can't let them get a good start on this tee side. And this is really helping face out, getting in towards the longhouse.
the position though. Will he be ready for two players there? It's a crazy push. It's a crazy
aggressive push. They're not going to continue it for the moment. How far is he going to move though?
That's the question. They're going to... It's usually around the one minute mark,
but they're going to go a little bit early. No contact mate either. They're going to have such
a fast wrap around. Okay, this is great from Faye's in terms of the position. They're getting
this early into the round. And you're trying to distract. Keep them pinned in middle.
Oh, the players cut round, they're back, three-hands,
throw it up the way, and they're missing the shot too, Faith.
Missing the opportunity, but Least Brosin getting one.
Panic stages, right now that Brosin goes back in again,
but this time he's dead, and Faith's have missed out
on their opportunity to make something of this.
Now, Swizz going back at it, the Drupal Red is rattling away.
Nexu's got it as well, and all of a sudden,
Faith's back in the pistol round again,
and they're coming at Brokey.
All right, Brokey, what you got?
One shot, one shot set, and back in the way,
trying to stay alive, he's got teammates coming,
a short. Well, that might be fall.
Thank you, Jacob. Barely watched, but Faye
have a lot to short already.
Ball not planted, but wonderful.
Great shot out on that P250.
I'll net you. The new guy here in Faye,
the most inexperienced player trying to make it
happen here on the server. The 1v2.
They play together.
And he gives himself a chance.
But Navi will have this pistol round.
Thanks to Alexi B.
Well, we've been pointing at wonderful since he joined
roster and saying the ceiling of Navi can climb so high if you get a consistent
playing wonderful, a top level wonderful and he's delivering it here on Dust2.
Off work in the first half was phenomenal. Now in the pistol round bailing
him out of a chaotic situation. Filthy work with the P250. So the team split the
pistol rounds here on Dust2 and Navi get the advantage in the second half.
Yeah, this is where things can get very worrying for Faze.
You don't have one of those catalyst plays, right?
When you don't have someone popping off in a big clutch that gives you energy.
That was, like you said, the win condition yesterday.
The reason they were able to find so much success
was the clutch moments, the individuals really showing up.
If you let Navi get a great start on this key side
and just start rolling, it's going to be really difficult to disrupt that.
In the same way that Navi were able to disrupt Faze in the first half.
It feels like Faze has been playing much more of like a team game, kind of like more,
trying to like stick to the idea and kind of work together through the whole way.
We haven't seen the individuals necessarily unleashed or feel like they can be unleashed
But that makes me feel like now we want that right there now. We're the kind of team that would like that appreciate
That on the other side of things
It's all good Navi's gonna be fine taking two losses miss with the round win
but the buy coming out now for FaZe.
Off is going to be in the hands of Brokey.
He gets it out real, real quick.
Going to be M4 surrounding it, missing a little pieces
of utility here and there.
Missing diffuse kits as well for the CT side.
But FaZe pick this 15th round to make their stand here
on the CT side for the first time with weapons.
Brokey's off heading out towards Long.
Wonderful is going to be here as well.
They're going to move out quick.
Yeah, they're coming out real fast.
There's gonna be a battle here,
because they winning the first engagement,
he's ready for the second, but he runs out of bullets.
So wonderful, just throws himself through that smoke
and gets the trade back.
And now, picking up the pace a little bit too.
Look at the way Wonderful's challenging already.
Bit and Alexi be arriving late.
He's in the hork in the middle.
He's found Broke.
And that's the A bomb site cracked wide open.
Wonderful adds another for no good reason.
Dude, how good is Wonderful playing right now?
This is great to see, but also like CV.
Like, you highlighted that in the first half.
I don't always see these kind of performances out of Alexi, but when he's showing up, he's just another cherry on top.
I feel like, I feel like too, like, I almost feel like sometimes I wouldn't see Navi, like, wonderful be that aggressive after those kills out towards the long.
I feel like there's got to be a mindset of, let's try and press the issue and take advantage of the fact that this is a new team playing together.
We heard Blade reference it in the pregame interview talking about map pool that it wouldn't be deep.
I feel like they're trying to exploit the lack of, like, protocols, lack of understanding of where you're going to shift,
of the lack of plans of how FaZe is going to move around the map when they lose players.
Everyone just gets knocked out. Double digits for Navi, 10 to 5.
Commanding lead and a stranglehold on this match now with economic advantage as well.
This is FaZe map pick as well and they are just floundering.
Disappearing, fading away.
The worrying thing is, next map up is going to be Ancient, right?
We were really seeing FaZe struggle on that yesterday.
into that first half.
The big stars can come back and be competitive on it, but I mean it's not a map you get to
feel super comfortable about knowing how good Navi are on it.
Yeah, it's gonna be interesting though, because despite the struggles yesterday, we're very,
very real.
They did play Navi 13-11 on it in a loss, but played them close, just looked bad on
it yesterday.
So, which one phase are we gonna get on that second map?
We'll find out.
We gotta finish this one first.
and Nate you got a crossover
one single M4 on frozen other than that
phase waiting for the next buy round to try and get back into things
they tend to two run
since phase one the first half pistol and converted the ensuing two rounds
but once the guns came out for Navi it's been all them
I'm taking the time hitting into position up on catwalk.
No disruption coming in from phase at all.
Oh, I'm going to be shifting this way up for short.
The only player to defend the A-star in the map right now is Jacob on the eagle.
Priority is going to be keeping that M4 alive, and there's no chance of winning the rounds.
Money is such a big issue.
So Jacob, he'll back away when he sees the utility coming in, no reason in him sticking
around.
They're not going to defend this bomb site, so relinquishing it and giving it
Get over to Navi, give me an 11th round over to the T side.
Navi's going to be just two rounds away from taking the opening map in the quarterfinals.
And FaZe need to prioritize playing the long game, although there's not really much of a long game left.
I mean, FaZe have been a team that at this event have just kind of exceeded expectations,
and when you count them out, always found a way, especially even on entry yesterday,
where we thought it was completely over, and they actually came back into the map and made it competitive.
We need another moment like that out of phase. It just feels tough to do against this Navi T side
It's just in the flow state at the moment. Yeah
I mean that's the big thing in the first half was just getting exploited and not able to find any really good options for you
Navi did a great job of making them feel uncomfortable, especially in the opening moves to start rounds out
Backing away from the explosion
11 to 5
the game. Everyone in this
building waiting for phase to
give us something, some sign
that they've got that tenacity
that they can dig deep like they
did yesterday. Looking for that
moment that changes the feeling
of this game. You just look at
the head to head the
disparity in terms of the
in-game leader coach combo,
right? You've had a like CB
in play. Two masterminds of
Counter-Strike playing together
for a long time, right? Being
part of this team together
For FaZe, it's like Toys is stepping into a temporary game leader role.
He did it before for a short set over the Team Liquid.
And now, you've got NKJ coming into his biggest coaching role ever.
And it's still very, very early days in this roster.
So in terms of that department, there's really no match.
That's why I'm kind of surprised to see FaZe in the first half play.
Like, it felt like a slower, kind of more strategic style
of trying to kind of move around the map
and sense the gaps and the weaknesses
instead of like mixing in a couple faster pace changing rounds
where you lean on individual production to create those openings, to sense those opportunities.
Especially with the way the individuals played yesterday in the quarter-finals.
Well, we're going to try and end it towards the B-bomb side.
Alexi's going to go towards lower looking for a push, but all five members of Navi here.
So it's Nechi and Broki to defend.
Good flash, at least getting the wonderful off the angle.
If he goes back into it, Broki's ready to punish.
He's got the jump.
The Na'Vi keep coming, yes they do, right into it, decided to hit him up!
He's got both kills, broken, and you both died, and that's the B bomb site, completely taken by Na'Vi.
Yeah, they thought it was just the pick, they thought it was just going to be the off of wonderful peeking into the bomb site,
but then AK-47 turns the corner, never had a deep angle to sense what was coming.
That's your justice best, but good utility work, flashed off the angle, uncomfortable, and that's 12 for Na'Vi.
Ah, just keep coming back to that quote from the toys in the interview we gave with HLTV saying,
He feels like tomorrow we get to show the real us against Nami. I mean, they just haven't shown any glimpses
This is gonna be so
Find themselves
Well at that point, you know, it's always it's kind of it's an interesting quote too
And I when I saw that I was trying to think about like does he even know what this phase is supposed to look like?
They know that this the real them they've been they've been so it's so new together that I don't think they really have that
But that's kind of a cool angle of this event for phases on some level on so many ways
They're trying to prove to themselves
What's the real phase is gonna look like they're trying to prove to frozen that he should stick around and have faith in this project
Trying to prove to twist trying to prove to himself that he can be that IGL again
They have a lot to prove and it's mostly to themselves and we haven't seen that true phase yet
We haven't seen that exciting phase yet in this match
Couple times the first two rounds of the game, but that was it that was about it
Well now it's all stacked up against them. Seven in a row is what FaZe need if they want to force it over time.
Very tough to see it happening. Wonderful. He's going to be heading out long straight away.
Looking to open up and that's exactly what he does. Straight to the chest of Jacob.
Broke you forced away by utility. Naughty, dismantling FaZe.
Yeah, there's an all difference inside the server right now. Wonderful. It's just a monster.
Twist gets one back under Mikaze, but the pressure coming along now.
long now. Navi is just unrelenting. There's just players coming in from all sides. You
know the long flights immediately coming through as soon as you get a kill on short.
You've got to worry about that. And look at the space. Bits got towards the same side.
And because he's the one making the play, Ima's backing off. He turns into the guy
who's got to watch for the lurk. Watch for the shift up. Catwalk wait. Can be a back
stab at the end of the round. He started strong. A blade timeout and then Navi
We take control of the game for the rest.
Broke his wedding to try and punish everybody
to peek out from Goose, but we do not have bit movement.
In fact, we've got Ima taking the next step.
Pulse out, Nade you.
Got the flank coming in now, up short.
Got twist, he's just wedding, has no IT,
so there's utility.
Ima comes round the back,
looking to close out this map himself.
Wonderful in the meantime, getting kills.
The both Broke and Nade shoot at recovery misses.
Now they're coming back into it,
but Alexi B continues his strong map performance.
and puts it all on Bogey who will rock you anything about it.
It's Navi coming in and destroying Bay's clan on the opening map.
A bit of a hot start at the beginning of the game.
They were really no match for Navi who looked absolutely poised,
absolutely prepared and unwavering dust is what I would quote I would call it.
Yeah they dominated that one while Faze were able to get off to a fiery start in those first few rounds
and get the fans a little bit of something to cheer for to get excited about.
It got quickly extinguished. I mean Navi just showing you that sometimes class can beat Flash.
It's true unfortunately for those that came to see Faze and even though Faze at the beginning
at the beginning, like you said, showed something.
I just feel like Navi just showed why they were levels ahead.
Once we got down to a longer any round that just lasted more
than 45 seconds, you could see that Navi
are making rotations faster.
They're finding picks in the default more frequently.
They're making more active plays.
And all of that kind of magic or bullshit
that Faze had, unfortunately, just kind of dried up
in this one because Navi were just one, if not two,
steps ahead in, I'd say, 90% of the round.
It was a mismatch the first time these two played and we were, of course, hopeful that changes could be made.
But you cannot forget that a Navi, if they were already sovereign then with the system that they have and blade behind them in a Lexi beat and whatnot,
thus you were going to have to come with something extraordinary as face.
And I have to say, we heard some comments about that match initially that twist said, we didn't feel like ourselves.
We were like not used to it yet.
We were making mistakes that we usually wouldn't, right?
And I feel the same way here.
Yeah, that sounds nice and all, but now you're in the semifinals and you've got to make things happen, right?
It's one of those situations where, again, I thought they got off to the start that they needed to have a chance in this game.
They just couldn't really find a way to keep piling it on.
I mean, you have a situation with FaZe where, yeah, they can play you at fast pace.
Yeah, they can play the scrappy style and just brawl you with all the skilled players that they have.
But the reality is that they just didn't really have an answer for the protocols that Navi had in place defensively.
Wonderful continues to have a hot hand this tournament with the AWP.
He was having so much impact. Like once the economy was in order, he had a sniper in his hands.
It's like he's silenced them the audience needs to cheat a little harder
That's a bad take but it's one that actually would have it's the only real way that you could have gotten this over the line
I there's very few silver linings here when looking at phase and I feel like
The magic that we saw kind of was so much of it was predicated on these like really great late-round situations
The problem is they aren't even getting themselves into good late-round situations that often
We're not seeing as many 2v2s or 3v3s.
Frequently, Navi were winning rounds fairly convincingly.
They absolutely were. Let's take a look at some of those rounds.
Round 7, I think it was wonderful.
It was a lot of wonderful NLXCV actually at the beginning of that game.
It was them who collected in this one, are wonderful especially,
but also IMA.
There were the criss-cross smokes or the corridor smokes in middle,
but IMA the whole time is just waiting for Twist
to make this little extra pincer play from CT spawn.
Good counter utility was already here from Navi.
That's why Alexi's able to get the one.
Ema, like I said, was getting the next one.
But then, yeah, you get to see Wonderful like this.
And I know we've got more Wonderful coming in store
for everybody.
But when he's playing at this level,
this is one of the reasons that it can just make
Navi so elite, because he's so consistent.
And I love how he's emboldened on that last kill
to just jump up and take the fight directly to him
on site.
Yeah, I mean, in kind of strike,
dealing with the chaos of whether or not
it seems to hit you mid B or they're
going to hit you cat, it's very hard to deal with.
Because once those smokes come out middle and they scale
and they get control of those cat stairs,
you don't know where they're going.
They can kind of ping-pong back and forth, but the fact that Ima had so much faith in his rotator on the B side of the map and
B inside CT spawn and be able to realize that hey the only thing that can beat us here is if someone tries to lurk through spawn
And I'm gonna cover that I'm gonna put my faith in one or fourth the op on the cross
I'm gonna put my faith in Lexi be always tell me to do and they were able to manage what can normally be a very chaotic situation
Yeah game plan worked out perfectly also the fact that they didn't really
Give phase a chance that much to develop a plan on the T side
They were very proactive with it every single time you had Macaza getting an open and kill you had Emma asset being there
And that makes it really hard to kind of troubleshoot when your phase because it's going really quickly and you cannot find solutions
They tried a couple setups Navi themselves, which kind of kept Navi our kept phase off kilter on top of that
They were even killing lurkers
There were times where they would just get the better of nature towards the B side
It would even happen just on the kill feed off the camera entirely so you don't even see these fights
But Navi was winning in ways that you weren't even viscerally feeling you were just starting to see the numbers start to trick trickle down as they're trying to either phase that is or just trying to even set up a play.
So yeah, Navi Navi were just so comprehensively better on that first half, even though phase got off to a good start.
It's true. And sometimes it's like one of those games where you are five in your team, but it feels like they're more because they just have everything covered and everywhere you go.
They have a contingency plan. It was beautiful to watch from a counter strike perspective. It was a little bit sad to watch.
If you're a face fan, of course, dust.
Tell me a little bit more about wonderful,
not only on the off, but also on the rifle, right?
Becoming that complete player in these big stages,
how we have come to know and love him.
That becomes the way we kind of mark offers now.
That is about how good you are at the off.
But can you have with the rifle?
Because there's so often you're called upon to do it.
But in this game, it was really just wonderful doing
with every single up hand.
Scout kill, I guess he was getting good off kills
on the CT side.
But the other big thing was is that
when he gets to AK in his hands,
he can sometimes go ahead
and just make a big play for you.
And I feel like Navi is a team
that we often kind of really pride on all their system base
and have all these protocols.
They have this deep play, but they have this system
that Blade has built.
It lets you be the brain power of the squad.
But they didn't give a shit about any of that
when it was the second half start
because they opened up their first gun round
with them just flying out the gates of Long A.
Wonderful getting a double entry with the AK.
And Ema, we talked about that too,
good secondary entry.
But yeah, this is just wonderful.
Again, just a total Swiss Army knife
with any weapon in his hands.
It's funny because we did talk to Blade at length
after one of those matches and we asked about that.
saying, hey, in this game sometimes you play a little fast and loose.
You took risks that you don't always have to take.
And he went into a long pull-off, we're saying, yeah, but we practice this a lot.
And we actually know what to do in these situations, exactly in these.
We know it's like A, B, or C, those are the executions.
And then we do something else.
I mean, he's like, of course they can do it, as long as they're precise.
They had a clear plan of how they want to take long.
They control on that round, they were talking about wonderful.
But once he catches that first kill on the edge and spoke,
it's just the freedom to know, hey, I can take the extra mile.
I think you can teach.
I just feel like the thing that's so impressive about Blade is that he allows his players to have more freedom than you would expect from a disciplined coach.
I feel like there's other examples in Tier 1.
I always relate it to ParaVision lately because they're a team that just feels like if you step out of line, they're going to just like immediately snap you back into it.
But Blade, on the other hand, the way we talked about it, or when we talked about him in the post game interview with him, he was talking about quality, what it means to just exude quality.
he's not trying to say that everything needs to be disciplined down to a T that
he's writing a textbook and if you just disobey a single word then he's gonna
punish you he's just making sure that the entire play as a whole exuded some
form of quality and that's where it's like really hard to get into his brain
entirely yeah because you're wondering well was that quality to you because
like results based oriented thinking is not how most coaches want to go
about things but I think Blake kind of realizes you got to take the good
with the bad to make the best of a situation yeah absolutely so and he
has the players to back it up.
Now let's talk about FaZe a little bit.
If we are going to see this comeback happen, you know,
right now, it looks very dire.
I am not going to lie because it's not just about kind
of the quality you see on the server.
Of course it always is.
But with FaZe, I always have a, are you fired up?
Are you believing in this?
Are you getting these rounds that are typical for you
that seem like you're in a 1v3 and you still pull it off?
And that invigorizes you and the rest of the team.
The only thing we really saw was the first four rounds
that NKJ hopping in on the comms, saying you got this guys,
let's go, you have so much energy.
But yeah, it kind of seems fabricated as where,
when phase is really rolling, it's not fabricated.
That's just the way they are.
I think it comes down to adversity, right?
It's a situation where when phase took down Firiya,
they kind of just pile dried them.
There wasn't really any resistance on that side.
Yes, they did have some close scratch with G2
to get that win, like fair enough.
But they were also going in the heavy underdall,
the compressors kind of off.
And as much as Twist wants to say that anything else is a cherry on top,
we've already kind of accomplished our mission.
When you're on that stage, you want to win, right?
And if you're getting a good start, but then all of a sudden you keep facing
adversity, you start losing rounds, all of a sudden that energy can start to
drain, the gas can start to expel.
And I just don't think that they necessarily have enough tools to kind
of go to if plan A, B and C fail.
There is no, like, necessarily a plan B, right?
Because it's had limited time together.
Well, phase themselves, I just feel like the truth is they're running on fumes.
We have a very limited playbook against a team like Navi.
This is kind of what you expected.
I was hoping that they would throw a wrench into the works,
that they would find ways to upset that balance.
They tried a couple pacey plays here and there.
Unfortunately, they got stuck.
Just kind of shows how comprehensively strong
Navi is as a team.
Absolutely.
And maybe, you know, we're counting them out for real now.
This is maybe where they punch back on ancient.
We'll see.
We do have a poly market prop that we want to talk about.
It has to do with who's going to win the tournament percentage wise.
as well, no surprise there, that 76% for Vitality.
The crazy thing about this is that I'm pretty sure it was 66
before the tournament even started.
So the needle has barely moved whatsoever.
To me, does it just, I mean, do you even believe in phase
as an underdog here?
That's kind of the only question I feel like
you should be asking.
Yeah, I mean, that is a wild spread right there.
I'm just gonna show you like how good Vitality
at the start of the percent is actually that high.
I think it's merited, though.
I mean, when you see what they've been able to do,
I like how you know snacks is one fan put a vote in there at 2% so shout out to snacks
enjoyer out there for you know really just.
He's right here.
Maui is actually this guy.
Yeah he's the other one.
Yeah absolutely.
Yeah so hey that's nice I mean if you're faced you're only 2% a buck gamerly that's
got to be a couple of times because like you're like 2% less guy or guys really.
Yeah maybe.
It's dire.
Yeah.
It's dire but we're going to talk it up after the break there is a possibility
still for face.
come back right after this and talk ancient.
It's been an unbelievable run already for FaZe here in Fort Worth, but will the fairytale
end here?
It will, if Navi has something to say about it, because they are gunning for that trophy.
We're having a situation, and that is Navi's playground.
I really want someone to make a case for Bayes on this one,
but it's hard.
Well, let's start building the case for Navi first,
and we'll get to that last class, right?
You know, let's show the giant they're actually up against,
right?
It's a team that's played ancient 14 times this year,
11 victories.
They are so well-versed on this map.
They can play it slow.
They can play it fast.
They have a guy like Mikaze, who just
dominates the middle of the map,
and only gets better each match that they play.
They just have such a well-rounded system,
and so that is what they're going to be challenged by.
How many kills Makaze first half?
Ooh.
Ah, man, you're putting me under the bus right here.
I'm going to say 11 kills for Makaze first half.
Less than 15 last time?
It's the stage.
It's the stage.
He gets better on the stage.
I mean, Makaze is just a roaring locomotive on this map.
Unfortunately, for FaZe, they do not
have the man of steel in their midst today.
What's so good about him?
The fact is that his first bullet is already excellent.
His ability to move while shooting is just ridiculous.
It doesn't even look like Counter-Strike sometimes,
the way he's just running and spraying.
Sometimes it looks like when I'm watching Makaaze,
I'm second guessing, I'm blinking,
I'm trying to fix my glasses.
Am I watching a Rambo film,
or am I watching Counter-Strike?
Because he is just going full gung-ho all the time.
Yeah, he lives and breathes this map.
Absolutely loves it so much, muscle memory.
Now, maybe we should be looking at Frozen,
because when they needed him the most yesterday phase,
he stepped up.
He really did.
He has a tall order on his shoulders, but can he do it?
Yeah, I think Frozen has taken even more responsibility now
on this line up, right?
He's kind of changed up how he plays
ancient because of Nate, you coming in,
because of Twizz taking over the in-game leadership.
Now he is the main guy at middle.
He's no longer with Twizz helping him.
He has to kind of set the tone himself.
And also they've moved him to a new T position
as well, where he has to be more responsible for actually
being involved in the fight in early round situations
on that B side.
But he's done very, very well with it.
So I think that they have the right weapons.
They might have lost both their ancient matches so far,
but I saw them be able to bring a nice pace,
bring some good confidence.
They need that more than ever now.
Yeah, come on, Frozen.
Come on, FaZe.
Do it for all the fans here.
At least bring us to a third map.
Or will Na'Vi just finish it on Ancient?
Well, FaZe, every single time we've doubted them
at this event so far, they've
been able to somehow step up and take it to the next level.
Well, this is going to be the tallest task yet.
Coming back into the series on Ancient versus Na'Vi,
you should blue out of the water on Dust2.
It seems like FaZe might be dead.
Yeah, well, they've got the tools to reverse this, right?
I mean, let's not try and sugarcoat it.
They're up against there.
They're gonna have to go really far up the mound
to be able to overtake Dobby on this map,
especially how we saw yesterday.
But they've got the players who can do it.
We just didn't see those players on the first map.
But now on ancient, we're tournament life on the line
with pressure cranked off.
This is where FaZe can thrive.
And they're gonna be starting on the CT side
to his playing in red room behind the smoke
and very fast out middle is Nabi.
throws it. It's not able to connect into the shots off across though.
The factor is the Wifey struggled so much on NTS there was that really slow start right
the economic decision of getting the missed in this hole they had to come back into it.
Yeah I think they're going to be making that same mistake that same mistake with the MP9 by again.
But you're right they did get buried I think down 0 to 7 in that in that first
initial of the ancient game yesterday tried to come back into it.
We'll see if they can hold off that kind of a disaster.
It's going to be an exec towards the B bomb site.
Twist and frozen going to be flanking from middle.
Net you and Jacob have to just survive.
Jacob, going to find the first contact.
That plant is going to be coming through here.
The bomb site moving up towards Jacob.
He's taking him down easily with the block.
Going to get his speed and takes a while,
but gets both kills and that's really no chance.
Now for Faze, they get it back away into the red room
and not be half a bit slower.
G2 are watching this.
If you wish to have these, this kind of thing is yesterday.
What are you having yesterday?
No incident shots at the moment.
Dust two very quiet across the board for Faze.
Now Pistor on, we see a couple of frags not even traded.
Twist and frozen over, and Jaguar can't handle it.
Two on one.
And first pistol on the second map goes the way of Nabi.
They start out one to zero on this T side.
They just go for the full week off, they have to get a trial time, hitting a five-hour as
soon as they can here, rather than get into that scrappy battle with the economy.
We really needed to get the trade here a bit, the fact you let away, let him get away
with that, get that second kill, someone's shocking, you're going to be very happy
about that.
Navi with the pistol, and FaZe do go for the conservative approach, they've only
They got a P250 here for brookie, USPs on the rest, and they'll all be going to get themselves a 2 and 0 lead.
Alright, cool push though.
So they are starting out in that kind of early deficit. The question is going to be when the gun rounds come out, are you actually going to be able to put a stop to things?
Put a stop to this and all the offense.
There's the push spotted at a distance.
Any danger that it elses, as they get mowed down inside of this narrow, narrow choke point, one kill for Frozen to get away with.
and he won, take him away.
So there's that 2-0 lead predicted for Navi.
A very good start into the game here so far.
And we're good to see Faze be disruptive on the CT side.
All right, Twist trying to get some confidence in there.
Telling the boys they could win this round.
Let's see what he's going to be calling.
Let's see what Faze can do.
Can they stop MacAusay coming out middle?
Can they stop this game?
Okay, they're doing it again.
It's not the actual choosing to do this strategy again.
That's the problem.
It's how is it going to pan out at the end of the day?
What's the decision you're going to make at the end?
Remember, last time it was they lost the A.
Ballsite chose not to go for a retake.
It had all these MP9s in the fourth round.
Oh, here we go.
Mactan gets the opening start.
Good track to the aggressive.
Jason's throwing himself into the fight.
Gets traded by Mikaze.
Took a while to get that kill on the likes of B.
You have all the time in the world for Mikaze
to ready himself for the trade kill.
So, Navi a player up now.
4v3.
I'm taking it slow now that they realize there's some weapons on the board.
So a little bit more cautious as they look for any follow-up pushes in this
man advantage situation.
What's the next play that phase is going to want to try and make to even things
out?
Ima's lurked himself very deep in towards middle in red room.
And we're starting to scale up B ramp as well at the moment.
So Mikaze clears out Cape just perfectly.
Steps in, Brokey put against the wall.
Now Mikaze.
Can he get another one in the way?
Amari was talking so much about as well heading into this game.
Mikaze can be such a beast on ancient and young.
He's just being the first step, going 6-0 right now.
So looking like we're going to get that kind of Mikaze performance here on ancient that we've been looking for.
Yeah, I'd mentioned as well, he guaranteed that easy 2-0.
Yesterday, he's right on the money so far.
Twist, not able to do anything through the Molotov.
Taking down my Alexi with the quick angle.
And all that aggression negated.
Mikaze with a triple kill overall in the round.
But the MP9s were just there to set up this next round by full M4s on the board.
For FaZe's defense, plenty of utility.
The biggest thing they're missing is that AWP up-brokey.
And Mikaze's going to challenge...
Look how many plays that go in middle here for FaZe.
Trying to open up, trying to send bodies and dealing with Mikaze.
But you can send players after players and deal with him.
And he will kill every single one of them.
Even get some holotov kill in there as well as they try and push to tank too much damage from the grenade and just burn alive.
Mikaze with a double kill to open things up.
And look at this push, the desperate push to try and get this round back under control.
Last hope, set forward.
Mikaze still in the red room though, there's another one!
Mikaze's falling!
And Mikaze's hand, it's 4th in the route from him and a fourth round for Noffy.
because they dominated face clan inside of the server. Yeah deja vu phase needs
someone to step up right now. You can't wait any longer. Your next young round
has to be a win. Look at all the grenades. There was a barrage of flashbangs down
middle because it was dry for most of the situation but the utility taken up
first player away keeps him alive keeps him alive to grab that second
kill. Nice work from Navian complete control.
Here he goes again, Mikaze out completely blinded this target and taken down by Frozen, but he's up next.
Oh, and the backspace, dad, the lights he peeked off both in that space, eradicated in middle again.
Did we talk about this mid-fight being a 50-50, Jason? It doesn't feel that way.
Like, not when you have Mikaze.
And then him was the second player.
Yeah, who himself was a very, very strong mid-player in his teams over the years as well.
So you have a luxury if you're Navi of two players who are very very strong in the position in the role
Especially up against the team who's strong who has struggled on this map and
Still trying to piece things together as a unit wonderful
Gonna crawl out slowly precise as breaky slides and now it's bit stern to play
He's gonna find the twist lose the fight, but it's all good
I mean it's been great to see the car today growing as an individual player inside this Navi team, right?
Stepping into the squad jail stepping away from Navi and Mikasa coming in
They were wondering what kind of level will he be able to get to it feels like now
He's getting better and better obviously winning a trophy back in stalker a couple months ago at pro league and now coming into this event
He's in great form and looking for a grand final showing it
He really has just become a star here over at Navi. He did. I mean he kind of popped off pretty quickly
I remember his first event as a rookie coming into Cologne
He was like you're surprising how solid he was to start nothing that's gonna blow you away
But after that it seemed like that event of just performing well gave him some confidence
And he's yeah, he's just kept in rising and his importance and impact for this team keeps growing as well
Lovely work from the Navi organization as he was part of the Navi Academy scouting him well enough to bring him into the main squad
And now you're gonna reap the rewards of a risk on a young player with potential
They are taking him out of what is now foot as well.
Our team is going on to do great things.
Not so much at this event, unfortunately, with the standard situation,
but it's only up to Tima.
Once his teammate goes down, Mikaze taking his post-cat formation
and Imaq and Alexi B combining for the other mid-kills.
So, five in a row here from Navi.
We've got to this point very quickly.
And for FaZe Clan,
there just hasn't been any signs of life
since the first five rounds of Dust2.
No, who's going to ignite it?
Which one of you is it going to be?
throws it in the middle, he's going to slide over towards Donut,
Jacob's going to be flying in towards Jaguar and Cave, supported by Brokey.
Twist far back at the B bomb site.
The Navi's not concerned about that at the moment because yet again they've got
complete mid control. Just due to the success earlier they feel like they can
waltz out and take it whenever they want and they're not wrong.
Yeah, they're extremely right. We've got in my post up towards Red.
Faze not having the confidence
to be able to challenge Navi in mid now. They've tried so many times, so many
different variations
And now they just have to give it up, which is giving all the space for Navi to play with and to bully them and force them back to manipulate this map in Navi's favor.
Yeah, now you've got tons of pressure.
Twist is going to have to keep his eyes over toward Red Room for quite some time as that smoke fades.
How does Navi want to readjust this? There is an aggressive push from Netiu in towards...
...Amen. Hiding at the angle. Alexi might come over as a solo player, so he could get taken down and dropped.
Frozen's the one who's got the toughest task headed his way.
Waiting at the big box, can Frozen be the player to deliver here.
He's gonna be pushing an A man of actually, but you've got to get some kills on to his down.
He's got his teammate to fucking make.
Twisted him to the right time and the legs he beat.
Even for man, gets that kill, so at least the trade comes through.
A little wonderful bit, still stand a chance in this round.
35 seconds.
They play, he goes forward, misses his shot, and Noggin pulled this back.
But now it's just bit, and the headshot machine goes back to the AK-47.
Flash out into middle, times one seconds on the clock.
trying to pull it through with a round of victory.
Very good. Big kill from Jacob hustling over to Red Room to close the opportunity,
dropped the bomb and forced Bit to come back.
That was almost Navi salvaging a lost round.
And Faze just maintained the control to the very end.
Off, still back in the hands of the Roegi.
But that's the first, and even with the mistiming, it's really twisted by the stage today,
arriving at the perfect moment to prevent anyone from taking Frozen down too early.
first round is on the board but if your phase the conversation has got to be
about building up and building rounds together stringing them together
you've got a lot of money to burn through after this five to nothing start
seventy seven hundred dollars on email even after the buy seventy six hundred on a lexie
Navi is rich so if your phase you need at least three in the row before you get any kind of reprieve
Round 7 set to begin, both teams with full buys opt out on both sides of the map as well.
They still haven't proven that they can stop the mid control from Navi,
but they did prove that last round they don't necessarily need it each and every time.
I got brokey, wanting to punish any peek on those top boxes. Wonderful is there with
the AWP at the moment. He's also got the bomb on his back.
Oh, he must slide a governor. Okay, there he is. Just went into a drag.
Yo, that's the bomb going down. Got good things up.
He's going to collect it, but they moved in.
He's taking down his own teammate, trying to get in towards the B site, strange to see
if he's so chaotic after a timeout.
We've got Mikaze trying to release this pressure though.
He's going to be pushing towards the A bomb site, round the back here of the FaZe players.
He could still win this round, if he plays it well with Emma, who now has the ball back.
And it's the rookie, it's the newest addition to the FaZe roster, who might have the
responsibility of keeping track of Mikaze.
He's moved into Red Room, so Ima's sliding in, going to have a battle here, CCLs up.
Oh, oh, oh, Jesus, champs!
Naityu stepping up, bombed down,
Mikase's life is just a whole lot more difficult.
They know exactly where he is.
And how does Mikase fight his way out of this one?
45 seconds, running gauge for the AWP,
trying to bait that shot out of Broke,
but he lands right until the right moment.
Broke to take the kill.
Naityu delivers the fight
versus Imak in the second round for Faze.
Okay, they're starting to seize this moment, right?
They're starting to have this opportunity
to go their way. Still so much money for the Na'Vi side is the difficult part,
is you still have to go up against the strongest possible body.
Good opening kill from Brokey, you don't even mind this kind of an idea for Na'Vi,
addicted K-Honesters are trying to exploit the fact that they could get out middle whenever they want.
They think eventually FaZe is going to have to put bodies back there, utility back there,
resources back in middle, and you can slide into that B-Bomb site relatively for free.
That round they would get wrong, and FaZe 3-2 together.
I've been waiting for someone from FaZe to step up and provide resistance.
If it's going to be Broke with the ATV, FaZe is going to love to have that.
See him start dictating the map a little bit, grabbing you some picks here and there.
He's gonna try and find an equalizing kill.
They are naffy, they gotta be trying to finish this on the B-bomb site.
Jacob needs to be careful, post-utility.
Once in front of him.
They're coming at him, they're pushing up.
He must not be killed, he's closer than Jacob anticipated.
And that's a mistake, that's allowed him into the site.
So that advantage is gone, and now FaZe have to play retake on this B-bomb site.
Yeah, especially as the only defender.
Now we're gonna attack Long, right back around Q.
Well they deny the plan, but B, once there is light to mid,
Hit the shot, follow, don't give a damn with him.
The destruction of Faze.
Even Witt, the fight, he pulled the mistake.
Slumped a couple of his people on site,
and lost Navi into the site, and they make the most of it.
Yeah, that's gotta be devastating for Faze.
That round's gonna be really frustrating
if you're one of the Faze players.
They go around that cube one by one by one,
nice and slow, so Bitt can make sure
he can line him up and off, down in sequence.
Very comfortable casual round win by Bitt.
So NKJ trying to get on the mic.
First time out taken by FaZe.
Couldn't get that third in a row.
So Navi back to their winning ways, adding money into their bank.
And FaZe is going to have to line up and try again.
They're out of money after this investment though.
CT side starting to get really heavily punished.
six to two.
This phase happens.
You're all self-abrunged.
Michael's almost...
notably here on twists.
Only with the 5'7".
And Jacob is pushed up towards Jack, because they make it his way through the middle.
They must pull a distraction, pulling those eight players away from going out, which is creating this opening for Novi to start to move through.
When to make clock that this is a possibility?
They've moved up so close.
Mikase versus Netsu into the fight.
It's gonna be bit to win it. Wonderful guys, but they move forward.
Mikase taking space towards the outside.
Bit through the smoke.
The lights are trembling again on this site.
So many players, layer upon layer for Novi.
And the site is taking, that's three from Bit in the round.
Navi's looking real good at the moment,
slowly from Bit.
Triple kill now as he heats up into the game,
because they started things
and he's starting to pick things up.
This retake is gonna be so late, so slow
and they don't have kits.
If Jacob can't provide a kill,
there's no reason for Broke to really consider this.
You know, he blocks out,
in a very position towards the tempo.
got bit still over towards me.
I'd like to be able to really see this happening.
It's a good kill from Jacob.
And then the trade comes in for bit.
It's a 4k in this round for bit.
And Broke keep getting taken down as well.
Back turn worried about getting flanks through red.
So you lose everything if your face.
And bit might have just ripped a heart out of this phase team.
I think phase is just mentally knocked out of this game now.
I mean, bit kind of just wandering away.
The androids turned this back to the ball side
trying to save the end of the year.
I know he's thinking that someone's wrapping around them,
but not getting out of that angle to save the AWP,
which is the most important thing you had in the round.
It would have been a lovely weapon to have
if you want to have any chance of reversing
what's happening right now and winning around like this
where you're back to pistols, back to an MP9 on frozen.
Should be a crushing first half.
Fantastically played here by Navi.
You've got everything you want.
You've got Mikaze popping off.
You've got bit who's having huge impact.
Ima being able to step up when Mikasa gets killed in mid.
Everything going the way of Navi at the moment.
Here goes Faze, down towards the B-Ramp.
One of the players running to fight against Faze.
Faze out, ready to take him away.
They're gonna send a lot of utility towards him, so at least dropping bit for now.
Gotta be careful though, Ima sliding over to fight.
This is a little bit scary.
Bombs hustling back all the way to the A-Bomb site.
Ima wants a little bit of a fight and he gets it.
Two kills and tons of damage onto Faze.
And there goes Wunderbold, that's all on the ground.
So Tom Bacauze, who we talked about, is on a heater.
Looking to try and win himself a 1v2 here with the AK-47.
The phase.
Last spot, it's towards Heaven.
The fallen back.
Sloppiest round we've seen out of Navi on this map.
They're looking for fights way too much in that kind of a scenario.
I think a little bit thirsty knowing it was the pistols on the board.
Everyone wants a good eco kill.
Well, they've left the B site.
He's not going to work out for Mikaze. He picks up the bomb and he's got an empty site. He's heading towards
It's all about the confidence he has when he comes to plant the bomb right if he taps it and spends 10 seconds trying to
Pour someone out in the open. He's in trouble. He just dropped his bomb. Oh, yeah
He is so decisive starts running up the ramp puts the bomb down and now the pressure is on phase
Yeah, I'll tell you what this feels like Mikaze has already won this clutch
It's gonna come down to the shots obviously, but the plant the positioning the time away
No kits on the phase players low HP on twist everything lined up for mccase
Semifinals ancient performance feels like mccase's moment
And 1v2 that feels like he's already won it
Let's see if phase can flip that script to get onto the side to try to find the ball
It's camp finders give me a second stick as long time
It's fading away. They've got to hold it
It's gonna be taken off and then Broke has no time to do anything about it
So they were on their way, and Mikase so decisive.
I don't know if he's coming up with a bomb,
but his back is watching, it looks so simple.
Yeah, it handles it so very well.
I wonder what the comms were.
I think what he's doing when he grabs that box,
so decisive.
I wonder if someone told him to just go do it,
but you have to be thinking if you're Mikase at that moment,
most of these skills coming out towards middle,
they're going to want to recover those weapons,
both players going to shift in that direction.
It feels like that's kind of the risk he took,
or that's the educated guess that he went with,
and he was dead right.
Nails it.
1v2 clutch win.
And Navi's still in the driver's seat as they've been since round four on Dust2.
A couple of rounds to watch out for grabs.
Pays his best chance to win another one.
Comes now as the Vi returns to their hands.
Mikaze gonna be heading out in the middle, but look how ready they are to go into the B-Bomb site.
No one from Pays is even in the site.
So Navi's got a free bomb site.
Yes, you may have the advantage in the player's department if you face,
But look how much ground they've got!
Pokey has no idea!
Bit blasted him against the wall.
And the round's pretty much done.
Yeah, I think you can understand too.
If base is just trying to throw anything at the wall and seeing what sticks,
trying to figure out how to stop this Navi attack,
and nothing's working.
Trades at least on this flank.
But still no kit, so the retake has to be quick.
Electric B and B. All of a sudden the 2v3
try to crossfire and hold onto the site
to let that bomb go off.
Here comes Faye, gets you in, and Alexi B had to worry about a fight on multiple fronts.
The Faye do recover the round and get back into it, so they're confused.
Excuse me, they did have two kits, so yeah, nice and easy, well done.
Third round, but you can see no celebration on the faces of Faye's.
They know the task is still insurmountable.
Feeling insurmountable at the moment.
They're very fortunate to get away with this round win, considering how it started,
considering Brokey going down, considering the control Moby had.
But low rework on a fast flank.
A five round lead for Navi.
And finally at the tail end in round 12,
Faze have taken the money away.
Heroic in the hands of...
They're going to B lane.
Navi's just going to go again.
Strings to the B ball side again.
Twist is getting the information.
Going to start calling over.
These folks are the project of the 5B Flash Crips in.
Broke the assistant, Twitch goes in and another one picks up.
Alexi's been fighting him all the way, Broke is right here in the fourth round
and some hope left for Bayer's plan.
Unless, wonderful, get this one, get it?
No!
No way!
Okay, wonderful.
He's gonna head over towards CT spawn and this would destroy them, this would end them.
Bayes' claim would have no chance and it's the inexperienced player up against wonderful
in FaZe's most important round.
I already feels like FaZe has knocked out Walkin'.
Wonderful! So caught!
That's a tie!
It's been wonderful!
It's smooth operation,
and it's Navi heading into the grand final
if they win this one.
Now as you all know, I'm not mad, but I do know a thing or two about Counter-Strike,
so I should be able to absolutely nail these Nova predictions.
The big thing to mention here is this is your last chance to take part in the Nova Shots
app.
The first thing to know is you get a thousand tokens for free, it's a good play.
But the smart money isn't on placing all those tokens on just one team to me.
The key thing to remember about this app is that the price has changed a lot.
That means it's not just before the game, it means during the game.
It means during the live rounds.
These prices can change at all times, which means if you want your best shot at making
some tokens, you need to be watching live, and you need to be moving your tokens accordingly
to make the right play at the right time.
If you see a team lose a round, and if you know their economy is in the dumps
in the next one, you know they're likely to lose it.
So this is a great opportunity for you to consider moving your tokens and make
the appropriate play.
Now I know Pimp and Maui and Dust and some of the other analysts are going to go round by round
breaking things down by detail, going by the book and I know enough about Counter-Strike
and I'm sure you do too to get a sense of how the feel of a game is actually good.
And if you're like me, you know there are some teams you can watch lose for an entire half of Counter-Strike
and know that they're going to bounce back even stronger in the second half and that's an opportunity for a player.
And that's the real way you get ahead of Nova shots.
Playing by the book is going to get you only so far and sometimes you're going to have to trust your gut instinct.
Now we've got eight teams here at Blast Rivals. Upsets happen, and there is an opportunity there if you're brave enough to risk it.
Even if you're the all-in kind of player and you just want to play for your favorite team, fine.
But do yourself a favor, keep tabs on the underdogs and see how they're doing throughout the game.
If you're a Fury fan and you're hedging your bets that they're going to win, that's great.
But they can still lose rounds, their token prices can still go down.
So if you see the round swing and it's a 5v3 or worse, and you don't think they can actually clutch it out,
Then sell your tokens for the round before the price dips.
Then wait for the price to drop.
And pre-buy maybe even for a fine.
How you play is up to you.
But don't miss out on your chance to win some real money
without spending any of your own.
And download the NovaShots app before it's too late.
Well, Alexi B said the other day, I don't think any trophy without beating vitality would
be deserved.
They're waiting in the other semifinal with a great chance to make it to the grand final.
And Alexi B better be careful about what he wishes.
That's a tough task up against him in a B05.
Winning this pistol would lay out the red carpet.
just four rounds away from the Blast Rivals Grand Final here in Fort Worth.
He's completely up against the Rooks. It looks like they've just had everything
knocked out to Mikaze. He's going in for the information here. They just towards Mikaze.
He's at the way with a second. He just couldn't do no wrong today.
Yeah, you're not going to get anything easy against him right now. He's playing so well.
bit forced back by the gush and twists a nice little lurk and wonderful goes down it's wonderful
the shadow realm twist looking for a second as well out towards the light cp back at spawn
twist does snap it into the moment like to be looking to clear him and he'll win the fight so
3v1 after that kill but it's just broke he left and you need to clutch you yeah but the tough thing
is now we're broke he having that kill he can go to either one of the bomb sites and actually
Actually, Navi, they can't really work together any longer.
Bits very, very low.
He's going to have to play in a safe position.
Broke, he's got time as though he see it with a decision-making.
Knows he's got the clock to work with.
He's looking to see if the two Navi players
can play together, wander around the map,
try and find information.
But they're split securing the bomb sites.
The timing of this.
Alexi's just going to miss the piece of information.
How valuable it would have been.
I'm going to be planted.
Blonkey has his health to work with, but he goes back into Donut.
He finds a like CP.
He's the high CP player.
Take him down.
And it would just be the world you want to get.
They needed a little bit of life.
Broke, he's given him some hope.
A spark.
They needed a little bit of life.
Brokki's given them some hope.
A spark.
And now they need to build upon it.
A small chance now to begin this comeback on the T side of Ancient.
Against a team that has had their number all day long.
This is the last gasp of FaZe here in Texas.
Office pissed around victory.
Secure the second, convert it.
Let's see what goes on in the gun rounds.
They've been waiting for someone to give him watches someone to give him some plays nothing too energetic or exciting, but
He's at least kept him alive after the pistol a must win pistol
Yeah, it was a requirement really that broke he got the
Follow-up kills given in here from frozen and Jacob into the site
That's gonna be put down like he'd be in my still standard
Ball especially when you get a dig shot landing through the smoke and the problem is it's delaying the box
Which brings the flight even closer. That's Ema coming all the way from T spawn.
Oh, he's got a free kill and he takes it right away.
Frozen down, twist and Jacob.
The 2v3 here.
The flight through for Twizz is good.
We're already about to play her in the smoke, but there's nine.
And now Ema goes up, Twizz goes, clears him, and now it's a 1v1.
Bit lost the last one.
But can he win it this time?
It's quite a default.
It's a 10-second stick though.
He taps it, Twizz ain't buying it.
He ain't going for it, he ain't peeking just yet.
You got Bit who now gets on it, has to hold it, it's the only way, and Twist moving in.
Bit holds it, comes off time, it's gonna be on the side, off to the, Bit will get the kill.
But the round will go up here, and that will be 3, at least getting one more, it's never easy.
It's never easy.
But it's one split in front of the other right now for a face, just staying alive and forward.
It seems like there are a lot of bays fans inside this arena and you guys are used to
them stressing you out, right?
It's gonna get close, it's gonna be scrappy, it's gonna get hectic, rough around the
edges but twist pulls out a good win.
Back to back, clutch is for Broke and twist.
And now they're gonna sit around back as the gap in the scoreline closes.
Now 9-5.
Here comes a quicker point to FaZe trying to run it down, but again, it's a bit deagle shot.
It always is. Nature able to get the trade, and now they move deeper.
It really shouldn't be anything else, but Ozzy somehow got a USP kill out of it.
Yes, a lot of damage being done right now, and the T side economy is obviously much easier to manage,
but taking these kinds of losses back to back rounds is not going to set you up for anything.
It just puts that first gun round on an edge.
First gun round, very important with the money the way it is for FaZe.
But they're still winning. They're still coming back.
It felt like there's any sort of presence from Faze climbing the server for a very long time.
For both maps of this semifinal.
So just three rounds away.
Dominant first half of that lead has disappeared.
Cut in half.
We're gonna come back and firm up. We're gonna fucking destroy that room.
Now we're talking.
Alright, there's some of that baseball league.
There it is.
It's going to be powerful enough.
They're going to be going heavy towards A this time.
Stats being heard in the rotations.
Trying to come back.
That low drop comes in at a perfect time to slow them down.
They have to go through it.
And they just talk like through the Macaulay!
Thank you Magic!
It happened again!
It's a Macaulay multi.
And to a sweat the load.
Speak of magic.
No one better than Van Dalken.
Can't be magnificent when he gets a clutch going.
There's the first, the most decorated North American player finally playing back on North American soil.
Can he clutch this one up?
1v3 to keep the dream alive for Faze.
Plenty of time with him to play with.
Plenty of time to start making Navi feel a little bit nervous.
Hasn't recovered the bomb yet.
Wants to maintain his ability to be aggressive and move in this 1v2.
Pulling off the unexpected.
Just gonna play it from twists.
Got some time to do it around the back.
Can you get another one?
One does the likes you be considerate.
Now it's 20-0, but take it back here!
And now it's up against Wonderful.
One and last one!
Ah!
Ah!
Ah!
Ah!
Ah!
The game is going to be played and Conor Shrek is back!
And that's the kind of play that can get you back in this game!
We've been waiting for it all day.
Three clutches from FaZe to start this half-out,
but nothing more spectacular than this 1v3.
We're all gonna send it out playing everyone from Na'Vi.
Absolutely gut-wrenching tears their heart out,
and now they're just two rounds back.
We've been waiting all the time.
That's the kind of catalyst that can get you into this game
again for a face.
He's got them on the ropes, Na'Vi a little bit.
broken economically at the moment not completely
But they're taking a smart approach not spending all their money here
Mikaase in middle here they come three players
Jacob straight to the headshot. You can feel it with this team when they build it in the game
Staying composed looking for the reaction from Navi
See if they can thin one more player out before having to make a decision.
Still over a minute on the clock. Plenty of time.
For the first time in these semifinals, FaZe has made Navi scratch their head and say,
oh shit, they're coming back.
They did the same yesterday, they started to come back into it, but the problem was
they didn't have enough rounds in the first half just to survive long enough for this to happen.
And it is 8 rounds on the board, one round separating Bayes from Navi.
And when do we get that time out from Navi? Right now. Blade wants it now.
A chance to talk things over, drop down to SMGs previously full by here. They'll have the AWP back out on Wonderful.
But more than anything, a conversation about how to stand tall against these face players that have ignited and finally showed up inside the server.
It started with just winning clutches, winning 1v1s, then a 1v3, and now they step into a
round where they batter you down coming through smokes, demolish your initial defense.
It's getting worse, and Blade is trying to stop the slide.
The first pressure Na'Vi has felt all day is right now, 9-8, one round lead.
and five in a row for FaZe.
I'll be not making a reckless decision to invest into anything in the previous round.
Tell us, allow them to have these weapons in play.
It's a strong...
A powerful, powerful, wonderful.
Strong buy in terms of weaponry.
You are missing tons of utility.
and you're missing players in the A bomb site.
It's because they have such a diminished by
in terms of that utility, they're just saying,
we're gonna play retake.
If they hit this A bomb site, they get the round.
Then they tie it up and then we get to just replenish our nades
and the next round we can really fight for.
So Wonderful's gonna sense this coming in.
The question becomes, how many can he pick off
on their passage?
And does it open up a chance to go for the retake?
There's one.
Now they can come investigate.
Now they can come see if it's worth it.
And Nalfi are the best if you're running in the pool.
You can get that bomb planted with N2 and Brokey handling that pressure.
They're anticipating that move from Nalfi and they fend them off.
And now you don't have the money.
Now you don't have the resources to think about this.
You have to sit there and really consider, do you want to go all in and attempt this retake?
Smoked out a CT.
Electricity has to do it, the twist is it, you win the headshots, and Bitt has no other decision, but to try and back away, try and get the safety.
But ladies and gentlemen, Fort Worth, we are tied up, Bayes have brought it back all the way!
Incredible, this team just doesn't have a quit in them at this event, it's been so incredible to watch.
And now they get that confidence beneath them, and they even get the last second.
Relentless his twist.
Not only have they tied it up, but they've taken all the advantages.
The momentum is theirs, the economy is theirs.
And Navi on the back foot.
How do they respond?
No money to fight back for Navi's defense here at round 19.
An mp9 upgraded pistols and twist starting to call on his field
Starting to call on momentum, upperclass, base changes, Dominates!
Olima getting one of the 5-7s but twist just right there with the AWP picks up, sends the shot back
FaZe planned about to head into the lead
With a clutch to round out the half, it looked like we were walking in wonderland
Norfie, didn't look like it was any way that we're gonna lose this map.
But that's the magic of having the individuals that FaZe have is so many of them can just keep you alive just barely.
Even if you're just clinging on with your fingernails, they can keep you alive to see if some spark happens.
And FaZe has certainly caught fire now. Wonderful. Some exit kills at the end of the day.
But FaZe take the lead for the first time in a long time.
10 to 9.
He's finally shown up in the semi-finalist.
I mean, just two, first couple of rounds looked great.
They die really quick and they never really get back into it.
And now they finally are showing that version of Faith and Twist.
We'll see what we're going to see today.
Well, he mentioned yesterday it's when he felt like he really took over the game from a strategic level.
It's when he felt like his teammates had faith in his calling.
He could feel that trust.
He said, that's when I took over the game vocally in terms of moving people around.
people around in terms of calling tactics and outplaying g2. He's getting into a similar groove
here with some of these fast plays towards each of the bomb sites. Navi's struggling to contain
and struggling to read what's coming next. Forcing another time out out of this defense
who still can't get a grip. Seven rounds in a row in this second half for FaZe.
time one you do a piece at a time we crawl fucking way back all right follow your fucking
captain boys follow your fucking captain come on let's go
I'll be looking to put an obstacle in their way the Vi has returned to the defensive hands
and they've fought a lot more utility this time.
Slower this time from Faze, but again, heavy in numbers.
It's time towards Elbow.
They're going to be challenging against Mikaze and Ima,
who were so strong in mid in the first half,
hoping that they can replicate that again,
the obnami in the second,
It's got me too, removing Mikaze.
Now Immers on an island on his own inside of Red Room.
It's wild. Sometimes it's almost inexplainable
how this momentum shift can cause individuals to just struggle
or otherwise they've been excellent.
Mikaze's been such a monster throughout this map.
But back-to-back rounds where FaZe have attacked
into him in middle on this T-side during this stretch,
he's just dropped the ball in the first contact.
Five on four for FaZe.
They're gonna group up for that final maneuver
towards an empty site.
And Lavi's leaning towards the B bomb site while FaZe is adjusting towards the A bomb site.
So wrong side of the map so far for the defense, but starting to piece things together.
Ima's pushing mid, it's clear. Wonderful sliding over with his AWP towards CT spawn yet again.
And Frozen for FaZe is lurking outside the B bomb site, just maintaining presence.
This shot from Wonderful makes you gonna be taken out. He's been so impactful, but Ima,
here's the flank! Oh, Twist gets dropped! And that could be a very important kill.
Frozen and bitmitted, oh no, coming back around towards A-Mane. Now he was in trouble.
Yeah, he's preoccupied, he's worried about that fight. Now Frozen's actually wanted
such an important engagement to go in the way of face.
Bombs aren't really planted for Brokie and Jacob though, so they gotta be very careful.
Wonderful's waiting. Frozen, will he give Wonderful the chance here?
Wonderful's off, has to drop back behind the box, but the killer's in.
Now the deep fuse. Wonderful again, but if the stick gets all the way,
And Nabi gonna hold it.
Hi, Jamey, Jarrick, head of peace.
And Nabi come back in on that retake.
Yeah, big mistake in post-plan positioning.
FaZe have given up around there.
Moving into donut when the ball's not planted for you.
That's a rough way to lose a round.
That's why you have to see such an aggressive play from A main in a 3v3.
That's how Navi stopped the streak.
Their first round in this second half.
They stopped Nobby's run at 7 to tie things back up.
The question now is have they prevented that snowball effect?
When Faze was starting to build up that, it was rolling over the top of him.
Faze trying to go right back into the middle.
It's Nature with the first put Hila on the clean up.
Twins trying to get the response.
Taken a while, spraying away, but not connecting the trade kill.
Don't think he wanted to commit to that fight didn't want to have to be the one where he went down
Especially in a four on three so happy to just kind of have the stalemate where he forces him up back
They must have some really important kills the Navi in these two rounds now one of that flight now
What rights to right here inside of middle wonderful is waiting for them to come up this B ramp the scope goes back
spots the hand
Now they move up the likes he be his
The choice made it look easy.
Frozen charging in.
Frozen had some spectacular rounds yesterday in the quarterfinal.
He's been quiet on this map.
But what a time it would be to come alive for Frozen
on a single point of health.
He's trying to tap away, but he cannot connect.
At least stays alive, but look how uncomfortable this is.
They have nowhere to play.
These are horrible post-flat positions.
They are bottled up with nowhere to go.
You have to fight with the missing shots.
And now Narfi's got to swallow them up and him up.
His difference maker right now for Narfi, a 4K in this round,
that might just put an end to the dreams of Faze.
Yeah, what a retake. You're slowly constricting and taking away all the room.
Faze have to work with Frozen and Grogi at some point,
have to make a decision to either get aggressive and break their way out of that cage.
Otherwise, exactly what happens is going to occur.
You just have no safe positions. No way to watch the various choke points and shut down back to back
really really weak post-plants from FaZe
And that might be the cause of their elimination here in the semi-finals a timeout the final timeout for FaZe
We'll get back into the fight 11 to 10 round 22 still in this still money on the face out of things due to that early run
in this half. You can see
Polly Market there, the premier
market for last rivals.
We set up again for the push.
Today's going to open this round slow.
Well, it's not the returning to form in mid, and there's always a risk when you send that many bodies through smokes at elbow into middle face when all in they gambled on this one.
But in Texas, now he will hold them to it and broke.
He is now going to have to be all the way back in spawn with no chance at actually getting into this round.
It'll be a serious point for Nolfi coming up and money in a tough spot for FaZe.
Not everyone having cash.
Some players have a little bit more and actually be able to force out a rightful.
The likes of Nate, you're sitting down on $600.
Important that Broke, he hangs onto this all.
I think, unfortunately, for FaZe at the end of this game,
they're going to be singing the same tune as when they lost in the group stage as well.
It feels like we didn't get the FaZe that we knew we can deliver.
That crazy, that fast run that they had to start this half.
Just comes to a crash and halts.
They do have money still.
So there's still that little bit of hope they can cling to.
Two chances they'll have to force over time.
And I don't know, Fort Worth, do you guys want overtime in here?
Let's see if FaZe can bring us to it.
Need some of that magic back. Not really getting into these clutch situations and help them so well to start this half.
The final chances for FaZe to stay alive in Fort Worth.
And for Navi they're knocking on the door of the Grand Finals.
Quicker and more direct towards the A site from FaZe.
All players over towards main, but we've got wonderful wedding in temple scoped up
He's at a phenomenal series in these semi-finals as well a key to this Navi team
If they commit to this attack phase, he'll be the point man
Macaulay will slide over towards donut, but wonderful is looking to just get one kill before falling away
way. Well they go, flashes are good. That keeps wonderful off the angle for now.
Face plant half the opener. But can they hold on? Navi can be so good. Even the players down,
but frozen impact off of Heaven has removed Mikaze and really any chance of Navi getting
into this. Yeah, and actually they even have frozen set up on the other side of
the map ready to take more weapons out of their hands if they try and retreat.
Money for Navi as well. So last round is going to be a huge clash. 4x4x4x. Good
kill from bit to try and just escape.
The FaZe have done it again, keeping it alive, nurturing that hope.
And we'll go the full distance all 24 rounds
to decide if we've got a grand finalist in Navi or a third map forced by FaZe.
You wouldn't want to any other way.
Every round required here on ancient.
I feel like these extremity hits for Faze have been pretty successful throughout this
half, right?
Like kind of like grouped up.
We saw some pace changes from Twist towards V-Ramp.
But it seems like going attacking directly at the bomb site has been their biggest
point of success.
When we require every single round here of ancient, we'll find out if Faze could
pull this back into overtime or if Na'Vi are going to end their run here and now.
Going into its middle because they tosses you till down towards the elbow.
The phase not toying with a heavy commitment out here just yet.
They have no desire for that because it's heading towards me.
Doing it again. Feel confident in it but this time the defense is going to be a little bit stronger.
Ema is going to be the one sliding over at Donut. Wonderful playing inside the bomb site actually because they shifted away.
Thought he would be a second player for Donut, so Frozen thrown out a little bit of a fake towards the B-Bomb side, but not gonna fool anybody.
Ema tries to play a checkmate position, tough to clear, tough to handle when you've got other players attacking you as well.
I think he's just had away wonderful. No fool will realize the push into his man for them up out with two sweats them away
Faced down a player you can't be landing on the site and here they come marching back in not be trying to end it now
Yeah, but Navi's been so good in these retakes. Alexi being very cautious
So it's gonna be late on him coming over to arrive to help out
They've been slow in calculated and there's a good camp rope. You can only get the one both players in a main
The story has been building for Faze.
Flatter off this event, Canada.
They pull it off one more time.
The unthinkable down in the 2v3 to try and get overtime.
It's now just frozen left.
The deep use being stuck.
They bring it to the final line, but not me.
We'll bring the fourth one, Ferry Joe,
cracking down to reality.
They will be the team heading into the grand final here
in Texas.
Faze give us a good show.
But they give it their good run, but they put on a watch.
Now that's been seen.
of the game.
grand final tomorrow I'm standing by with Mikaze they fought back hard and it was a great recovery
from Navi yeah it was good game problem also an ancient thus it was more easy but we packed up
also mention a bit you have been one of the top players at this tournament so far and now you
are going into one of the biggest games that we could have possibly imagined a grand final against
potentially your rivals in team vitality you will have to continue these superstar performances if
you are to finally get the job done against them do you believe you can do it i mean i believe for
sure most time when we played them like fuck me off i didn't even have chance to kill them so i mean
for tomorrow if we play them i will make sure that i will do the same stuff that they did to
me I will do the lamp.
Kost Gamelitian could beat them here of course and they could make it into the grand final.
Have you got any message beyond Na'Vi fans watching at home right now?
I mean guys thanks for support for everyone and let's see tomorrow who we
cannot play, I will play Vita. It's time to stop them maybe.
Best of luck, thank you.
Yeah, it's not be brought there a game indeed as that Alexi congratulations on that one.
Thank you.
Of course, it was a rematch, right?
She just played them a couple of days ago where you guys were super, super, super convincing
comparatively.
How different was this one?
How much harder did you notice anything that they really improved upon that you
had to contend with?
I mean, I think they can leave this game with one thing at the back of their heads
I feel like once they go to the T side they played completely fearless
They were you know rushing the sides then they were creating a fake from it
I think a lot of it was maybe on the fly cause as well like they were just thinking we have nothing to lose
Let's just play like this. And I think yeah, if they play like that and without
Any fear and any doubts. I think it's gonna do good for them in the future
Yeah, I mean was there anything in particular than the fast-paced play that was kind of throwing you for a loop in that second half?
I mean I know obviously a lot of clutches went twist way for example
You know, what was kind of the talk that was needed to kind of get you back in order to get the close?
Yeah, I feel like, as you mentioned, he won a very important clutch on, I think it was the first gun round probably
And yeah, combined with the fact that I think they were playing
It wasn't that smart. They were just together trading us and we ended up completely failing
the clutch situations. And I think they just caught control and we were a bit annoyed because
we don't usually lose this way. We have decent protocols. So yeah, they caught us off guard
at first, but I'm glad we came back.
Yeah, when it comes to that phase, phase is really really good at clutches particularly
and it's also do you start to feel it in a game like that or they won like seven
eight rounds in a row it was a clutch from broken clutch from twists another
clutch from twist like I can imagine you just start to get really frustrated right
but do you feel like you guys as a team historically are pretty good at making
sure that that doesn't bleed through into the rest of the game I'm glad we
had plenty of rounds first of all I think wonderful first clutch at the
end of T side became hugely important in this game I feel like us it gave
gave us more leverage, but I do think that you can't run away with the game doing the
same stuff every round, so we knew that they have to slow down, they have to start playing
their playbook, and they cannot rush us on the sides, and we were like putting more
effort into making sure they don't rush us, and try to make them play slowly, and that's
where we can play our best.
Yeah, that round where they ran the same play by the end of the game, and Bit was
just waiting still on the site, like was that something you guys had thought about
before like oh most likely this is gonna happen again so let's put him there. Yeah
exactly I think yeah pretty much exactly how you said. Pretty much that. All right.
Kind of zooming out just a little bit look I mean you obviously had some nice
highs in the second season in 2025 the top four finish with the major in the
short by phase actually funnily enough but this year you found like a new
level of consistency I feel like you know this is now going to be another
big final for you you've already been to a couple this year one one of them
obviously what do you think has been the biggest change in the team you
this season compared to last. A lot of teams have made roster changes. I think that's our strength.
We are kind of peaking with this lineup. Our protocols, our playbook and the fact that
Makase can play the way he plays currently are all the reasons why I think we are where we are
right now. And we knew... I felt like we were pretty confident that we are going to reach the
final in this tournament and our big challenge will be tomorrow, highly likely against Vitality.
Yeah, I mean, speaking of Mikaze, I know that you've already sung as crazy as multiple times in interviews.
You've even mentioned how you've had to do that a whole lot.
But what do you think has kind of been the difference in Mikaze?
Because we saw flashes of it last year.
I mean, he was a very good player, but I feel like this year it's a different level.
What do you feel has been the biggest, you know, evolution in his game to get him there?
I think that he got comfortable in the system that we play in.
He understood what he can do, what he cannot do,
and he got way more comfortable in certain maps and the moves that he is making.
Overall I just think that it's the confidence boost that a young guy can get like you play good on the stage
Everybody's praising you the likelihood of you doing it after that is is high
And I think that I hope he's gonna keep the consistency at least it looks like that then outside of the server
He's doing everything he can to improve daily. Yeah, we talked to him in the post game interview
And he said at the end of that he said well, they fucked me basically last time we played
So I want to do that to them this time and I think I mean it's quite obvious from the outsider looking in that that is going to be the deciding factor
Do you believe also that if Makasa plays the way he has this whole tournament?
This should be I'm not want to say like for sure a w for you guys because it's of course incredibly difficult to play
Vitality, but how do you feel about it? It's a different game, but I do think that Makasa is gonna play
Well, I do think that the guys are gonna play a
a bit less without stress, since we understand where we are at, we cannot forget how we got
smashed the last two times, and we understand that we had some rounds, that we had the upper
hand, ended up losing clutches or tight situations, we understand how to fix them, but we just
cannot be nervous tomorrow, that's it.
Okay, thank you very much, congratulations once again, we'll be looking forward of course
to Vitality or Gamer Legion versus Navi, and now we're going to kick it over to
Maui who's standing by with twists. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. First of all twist just want
to say nice try today close fight there on ancient. What are your initial impressions of the matchup
with Navi? First of all thank you. I think we had an extremely slow start on Dust2. Like we had
the momentum in the beginning. We lose this round where we got entry short. We're kind of
waiting for them to retake short and then we mistimed it and they flash peeked and they
they got like an easy, easy entry on us.
And then, yeah, I think I was kind of in my own head
on the T side.
They were making some really good calls.
Macalase's in pit one round.
They're boasting on completely, not respoking.
So I thought off was there.
So yeah, credit to them, they had a really good plan.
And yeah, I think ancient was much better.
What are your overall feelings of the entire tournament?
I feel like, I mean, I already read in your HLTV
interview that you recognize that the first two wins
were upsets in themselves.
But you also thought you had a chance here?
Yeah, for sure.
I still think we could have been on the third map
if we just put together more CT rounds.
I got into a good calling spree on T-side.
I was hitting the right momentum calls.
I was hitting the right third captions.
It's really hard to win default against Navi.
They have a lot of mid control variations, mid traps.
They were very well prepared, especially on their T-side
for what we're doing.
Even though we spent the whole night preparing,
numerous things, it still didn't go our way.
But yeah, Two-Side, I think if we just had more options
in the playbook, everything that I was doing there,
it was not in the playbook.
So a lot of micromanaging and freestiming,
trying to get them to move,
and it was working until, I mean, they adapted
and they put one more number at A last round.
I felt like this was a bit more dynamic than the calling
I remember you doing with Liquid.
Like, I think that's one thing
that when you were working on that team,
some of the complaints I had or criticisms I had of you
as an in-game leader there is that a lot of the finishers,
to me, just felt kind of very simple.
Like, I remember watching a lot of Dust 2 games,
you guys didn't really use that much mid-control
when you were calling for them.
On Inferno, you ran up short side like a lot.
But this version of your calling
just looks so much more developed.
What would you attribute that to?
I do think from when I stopped calling in Liquid
And I started being more of a secondary helper with Shuhei.
That's when I kind of just took a smaller backseat and just focused on developing.
And even when I'm not the captain, I'm still watching.
I'm still trying to learn because this is the role I want to be in in the future.
And if I want to be in this role, I need to prove myself.
And yeah, I mean, I spent the past year and a half learning, focusing on my self
a bit more, coming back to play with Finn.
I also get to learn a bit more there.
And yeah, I have a lot of versatile players in this team.
Maybe in Liquid I felt like, sometimes I flooded them with too much information, there's too
much in the playbook, and some players have limitations.
You have to accept that and be comfortable with that.
That's why I was happy with kind of where we got in Liquid at some point.
And yeah, I have a lot of belief in this lineup.
Okay, we have that one clutch you had on Ancient.
Actually, I think we have a couple of them.
In fact, so I think we can roll those ones.
I mean, these were some great moments.
OK, silver lining, at least.
You got some great individual performances
in these kinds of late round situations.
I know we have the one here on the B site for yourself.
How did you, OK, what's the read here here?
Because obviously, a lot of people watch this and bit
taps the bomb at one point.
When it gets to the 1v1, how are you making the call
to not just charge them down?
I mean, first of all, they force by us.
So chance of kit is like, I don't know, less than 5%
extremely low and yeah, no crowd noise, so yeah, no crowd noise. That's the number one
indicator.
Yeah, how about the 1v3 here though? This one was crazy. How did you play this one out?
Yeah, I went into the CT smoke. There was a small gap in it, so it kind of worked in
my favor to get the initial angle. I heard him step somewhere CT, I wasn't so sure.
After that, I knew Wonderful was up in temple. I threw lurk smoke into site to try to
block vision from Donut and Temple and then I used the smoke to try to flank
wonderful but people people are fucking disappearing all over the place. Crowd
kind of gave away that Alexia was close to me. I had no idea what wonderful was
because I just came from Temple so we actually had a good position on me but yeah
that's kind of how I piece together in the moment. Okay one last question I have
is that kind of has been a little bit of a conversation online about like
crowd cheating. How much how much are you able to hear? I mean of course
you can hear. I mean it's a loud arena. This is even the biggest arena that we play in. Imagine
the bigger ones. It's inevitable sometimes. And you know if these companies use noise
canceling or this like ringing noise, it messes with the game too much. So I think there's
only so much that they can really do. And yeah it's kind of up to the crowd to be
respectful but it's kind of like it's exciting.
You hear the murmur ring and the roar sometimes start to build. Like I think yesterday
there was a lot of like smoke interactions I guess where you're kind everybody's just
yeah my notes was in window it's just like yeah like it's like both players know
something's gonna happen and that's just the excitement of land and arena
counter strike okay well either way I want to just say I'd say great job
actually even though I know that you want it would have wanted to go further
at this tournament I think the performance you in phase has had was
incredibly commendable and I'm really looking forward to more of what's to
come with you at the helm.
Thank you.
I appreciate that.
I just want to say something to the fans.
Thank you guys for being here in person, supporting.
Thank you to the people online that kept believing.
I have a lot of fans in my own personal discord.
Big believers.
It makes a huge difference.
And yeah, this is my objective and the team's
objective is to get this team back on the map
and the organization back in this top echelon
of Counter-Strike teams.
So, yeah, and of course, always just a shout out to my wife, you know?
Or it's got to give a shout out to the wifey.
All right, thanks so much, Twist.
Good luck in the future.
Thank you.
Awesome, amazing shout outs there as well.
It's something that Twist set out and said before.
He started this tournament and with everything
that's happened this week, I want to make the face fans happy again.
I want to give them something to look forward to between this and Atlanta
and just being in the US in front of these crowds.
And for me, he's definitely started to do that.
It was an overperformance.
I think we can be fair about that,
but nevertheless, building blocks for what now,
all of a sudden, is much more hopeful of a story.
Yeah, it's one of those situations where no one truly
knows what the long-term future of phase is.
Is Twisk going to remain the IGL going
forward past Atlanta going into the next season?
Is Frozen going to stay, or is he
going to field offers from perhaps teams?
He feels that he can accelerate his career at.
You know, those are questions that we
won't be able to answer for some time,
What can be done now is to leave at least some foundation behind for whoever it is that will take the reins next for phase.
Or if they stay like this, this is still your building block to get you involved in the tier one tournaments next season.
Yeah, this major is out of reach, obviously. That was, you know, such a rough run.
But you can at least try to give yourself something to look forward to next season.
It's true. It was interesting in the conversations as well. Come in, Maui. I don't know which heads that you're going to put on.
Yeah, that he said I was basically coming up with the stuff in freeze time
My playbook was completely run out knows particularly hard against a team like Navi because playing default is just impossible versus them
That gives me hope that like okay
Well, you only had a week and we already saw really really good t-sites against
Ferdominal teams, right? We saw it versus Furia
We saw it almost pieced together a little bit versus Navi here
So those are all things that make me quite excited if twist were to stay at the helm
I think he understood the objective. It's hey, I have limited time with this team
There's no way I'm going to be able to master a default where everyone's gonna kind of understand what protocols to put in place
How to react to certain situations how to communicate intense moments?
It's like hey, I gotta do what I can with what I've got and so there was a lot of scrappier faster pace plays
It was a lot of set stuff out of spawn and I think at least he understood that was gonna be his limitation
But he found a way to maximize it
I mean making it to a semi-final considering all the failures that phase has found this season
That is a pretty incredible result when it's all said and done. It is Maui
Do you believe that we have building blocks here because a lot of people talked about honeymoon period, which is obviously
Normal, but also they're not necessarily going to have to play Navi
immediately again in every single match they play right so I
Have a couple truth nukes here. Okay. Okay. Oh one truth nuke
Twist looks better than ever as an in-game leader in terms of the calling side for me as a fragging IGL
Unfortunately not seeing the same, but that's probably because he's calling better now
I feel like there's only so much brain capacity that most people have when they play this game and
Twist is dedicating more of it towards that side
So you're gonna have to make up that lack of output with other players and the other and second and more ridiculous truth nuke
Brokey Friday is really a one day a week thing
Okay, this is kind of the regression to the mean that unfortunately we've seen from him
and I feel like this is maybe more of what's to expect because against top
opposition it's been strugglesome this year for him. He pops off for these like
singular games here and there which is great but I feel like if FaZe start to
do some more scouting look around a little bit more then then they might be
able to actually improve this roster even more. But a great Alper and a
great ITL. Things that are hard to find. It is indeed tough right but I mean
And the fact of the matter is, is I'm not here to rewrite history.
I think Broke he had some incredible years on Phaser's no if ands or buts about that,
particularly in CS go and even early in CS two, he was phenomenal.
He was a playmaker.
He was a difference maker.
But I mean, they call it phase bullshit magic for a reason because it only happens
every so often.
And that's just not something that you can have in such an important role.
And I do think eventually they are going to have to explore that option.
And the same with Jacob, man, like unfortunately, I think that maybe the call up came
a little too soon.
You know, I definitely see talent in the player.
I definitely see mechanical ability.
We see flashes of it, but I almost feel like this call came a little too early.
You know, I think maybe later in his career would have made more sense.
So we'll have to see how that plays out too.
Yes. Any final notes?
I like Jacob in a handful of the rounds here.
I think when they're playing a paceier style, I think he's really a great tip
of the spear in a lot of the types of strategies that Twist actually ran here.
So I'm going to give Jacob a little bit more leash, even though I was ready
to say he should be out of the lineup.
But at this tournament in particular, I saw more glimpses than I expected.
So I'm pleasantly surprised with what he's bringing in this new iteration of face.
I'm surprised about phase overall, I would say that's the way we can definitely summarize it.
But of course, the action is over yet for today because vitality is going to be taken to the stage to play gamer legion.
This isn't the Paris Major 2023 playoff bracket.
It is in fact, Blast Rivals for 2026.
We'll be seeing that in just a little bit.
Players heading into the arena and I know that the face fans are probably a bit disappointed
But if you can see Xi will play in an arena, I mean it's such a treat, right?
I mean here you get the witness greatness
You know it's not too often that we get the best teams the world in North America and fatalities doing something just truly great
They are let's see if they can be stopped by snacks and game religion when we come back
Welcome back to the ROG laboratory.
Today we have on hand the ROG HARP 2 and the ROG FALCHIN.
Now back in Hong Kong we used these launders when we were testing the OLED monitors.
And well today I was thinking we've got to find some kind of way to put them head to
head.
Yeah.
There's only some kind of scientific way to try this out.
You think what I'm thinking?
Gives on keyboard
All right, Launders pregame talk what are your thoughts on the falchion I have lowered the actuation point
So that I feel like xantharis right now. I've got two sets of WASD
It feels like I've got like an n64 controller. Okay spacebar helps me shoot
It's a new wave of minimalism that we've got for counter strike players keeping it very simple here
I'm doing a Formula One driver right now.
Okay, so that's one thumb, six fingers.
Oh!
What, what, what?
That's a lot of mouse pad you got there.
That's because, Mohan, I plan on hitting you with the flick
whenever I need to, you know, that this harp is so light
that I think that's going to play to my advantage today.
Well, what are you doing for your keyboard buttons?
Well, I have gone A and D on mouse four and five, okay,
because it's all about the strafe.
Left click, still shoot.
Right click is forward, just in case
to close the gap and then M-Wheel up and down both jumps
so that I can hit some B-Hops while I style on you.
Now I'm Mohan, you ready?
I'm ready.
I'm ready.
And the inaugural ROG Cup is underway.
Oh my gosh, a head shot.
That was a good shot.
Thank you.
Here it's on.
I'm gonna, you know what, mercy.
It's hard to aim.
It's a bit of a twist.
With just the mouse.
Oh!
Oh, no, the switch.
That is it.
You're gonna be jumping right now?
No.
Wait, I can't jump at all.
I'm closing the distance, dude.
Like a shark in the water.
Whoa.
The one thing I have to remember
is I can't actually pull down my recoil.
I can see you doing this, I just can't stop.
Winner takes all.
All right, winner takes all.
All right, congratulations off that round, you win.
Thank you, I am the big winner.
And to be honest, I had a hunch.
I had a hunch that the mouse would be Victor here.
This might seem like mice are more important,
but I've honestly been impressed by the utility
of just using a keyboard.
And they didn't even know I could do all that.
Yeah.
And so at the end of the day, we've
learned two things, firstly, that I am always humble
in victory.
And secondly, that when it comes to Counter-Strike,
aim remains king.
Can you play with just a keyboard?
I guess.
Should you?
No.
Probably not.
Thank you guys for stopping by the ROG Labs one more time and, well, crazy idea.
How about next time we just combined it?
Welcome back everybody to the Dickies Arena as we're about to head in to our
second semi-final of the day.
Game religion up on the docket and they'll be going up against no one else.
then vitality as you can see behind me.
It's filling up.
They all woke up.
They already missed that phase got knocked out,
but it's fine.
They're here now.
Yeah, and of course, who doesn't want to miss Zai Wu,
a guy that's actually going to have a testament
to be the greatest of all time when all is said and done.
You only get so many opportunities on American soil
to see that happen.
It's like watching Messi or Ronaldo play.
Indeed it is.
I mean, it's a situation where right now we no longer
talk about Vitaliy and who they're playing against.
They're kind of playing against themselves.
You know, they've already become, in my opinion,
the greatest team of all time.
And I think that every time they can add another trophy
to the cabinet, another achievement, another record set,
it's just another way to extend their resume
to keep it furloughed out of reach
through whoever comes next after them.
And so people may think it's dull
that we keep talking about how amazing Vitaliy is.
But enjoy this moment while it's here,
because this is truly something great
that will remember forever.
Absolutely so.
When you said there about sometimes maybe playing themselves
or losing to themselves, that's something
I want to talk about later a little bit
But I do also want to shine a light on gamer Legion because absolutely no one had expected them to be here
They were down in the VRS
Circuit playing tier 2 opposition trying to make it work and trying to get as many points together to make it for that
Qualification for the major and then they stepped up on this stage and immediately beat fioria
And then they're now in a semi-final
It's ridiculous at this gamer Legion team was forged in just the tier 2 land circuit
where nobody was really watching too closely,
but now they're forcing you to pay attention.
The way that PR has been playing,
the way that Rez has seemingly rolled it back,
snacks himself also rolling it back,
it's really just hard to completely understand.
It's true, but guys,
Astralis yesterday versus Gamer Legion.
I mean, I don't often like to say
that a team threw it away over like a team winning
because that's also definitely not the case.
Gamer Legion won that game, but oh my God.
A show of show. Let's just call it a spade a spade.
It's the same shit that we've been seeing the last couple of
tournaments. Look, I think people got a little bit too excited
about a Shouse because they saw the resorts on the board.
They saw, oh, they came second at Bluecrest.
Oh, they came third at EPL.
The Crats have been there for a bit.
You know, this is a team that has some talent,
but unfortunately lacks some consistency,
but particularly in how they approach some of their game
plans and how they deal with some of those mid-round
chaotic moments. There's so much sloppiness taking place.
Even, you know, Hooks, he said his grandma could have
won that game yesterday and he's probably right,
to be honest, the way they were playing.
but they need to figure out a way to turn things around quickly.
Yeah, and I believe we do have some words from Gamer Legion.
Speaking about the game last night, right?
Crazy comeback win in front of a crowd like this.
Does that give you guys some momentum coming into today?
I mean, for sure, we should feel more comfortable.
I mean, it was my first stage game yesterday, so yeah.
But I felt fine. I think it's going to be even better today.
And then, yeah, I think we're ready.
What did you learn about yourself playing that first stage game?
I mean it's crazy how much your body shuts everything down. Every now and again you can
feel like the stage shaking and everything so it's pretty cool. You can hear the fans
also at some points but yeah I mean it's pretty cool experience.
Now talking about that comeback last night might be needing another one of those. What
was going through your mind as a coach when you were tearing back those rounds?
I mean I was very confident in our city side I just tried to make sure that we
We don't give up, but we're going to like till the last round, like we're going to try our best.
And as soon as it like started to work, I think we got the momentum and yeah, we finished them to the end, Khanda.
So I don't know, we will make 18 euros, 9 euros, something like this.
So as soon as we got it going, I knew we're going to win this.
Nothing short of impressive what IMD and Snacks have been able to do with this team, right?
Especially since when you're playing that tier 2 opposition, everyone wants to see you lose.
you never really know what to expect and in all that you have to build up a
system that is strong enough to step back into tier one. I think that deserves
some kudos. Yeah, I mean we give a lot of credit to FaZe for making the most out
of a tough situation by coming here and getting some upsets and putting some
BRS points on the board. Game religion kind of a similar situation, right? This
is a team that got people excited the first season of last year and they
were actually getting some big finishes but they really tapered off
towards the end and even this year Astralis fully enough is a team that
knocked them out of the playing of their first tier one event of the year in
Cracow they get the revenge yesterday and they have gone further than anyone probably could have anticipated
I mean being in a semi-final in a tier one event. That's something that game which hasn't been a long time indeed
But the raid boss is arriving vitality is in the building
They're looking to put another notch on their belt here in Fort Worth indeed 22 events attended 21
Semifinals appearances in a row the consistency from vitality is on
on parallel their era began with seven titles in a row last year they look to
continue to submit the legacy of being the greatest all time by winning a fifth
in a row for 2026 here after coming fresh off the second Grand Slam and back
to back majors I mean the athletes are unreal now totally it's gonna be
difficult for anybody to catch this team eventually that's what really we've
been talking about the fact that they're trying to create a further and
greater buffer zone between them and whoever that next team to have a
true era is I feel like Astralis themselves are probably looking at the
that it ended for them in 2020 when the pandemic started and a lot of players lost motivation
and they wish they could redo everything. I bet they wish they could have made the vaccine
actually. I feel like Vitality, they're gonna do anything in their powers to make sure that they
can keep this error for as long as they can. It's actually funny that you bring up the Strauss
because that's obviously the error they're gonna get compared to, right? Because they're the
former coach of Counter-Strike and then that way. And I think if you look at the first
year for both teams and the first two majors, they're eerily similar as far as like the
the numbers, the trophies, the consistent finishes.
But what really happened to us, Travis, in the end,
is even though they got that third major,
the gap between the second and the third,
they really kind of faltered, if we're honest.
Meanwhile, by Tauley, they've already won four tournaments
in a row this year.
They're beating the best of the best on an in-and-out basis.
So there's a level of dominance we're seeing at this stretch
that we didn't see from that,
as Travis, in my opinion.
A lot of people also bring it up the fact
that the one thing that Astralis has over them
is that they rewrote the book on CS.
I feel like when you're seeing perfection day in,
day out this regularly, along with individuals who are able to have star moments.
This might be a new chapter in what perfect Counter Strike really is, because Astralis
did it in a win by committee sort of format, where they're able to feel out the map, just
play off of teammates so well.
But the individuals on Vitality always seem to know when they need to create a win condition,
which I don't know if I necessarily would say Astralis had.
They knew how to call a great strategy to get to the next part of the round.
Sometimes you'd have Zip Mix with a crazy clutch here and there, but you have
Mezzie, Flamesy, Robs, at any given time, saying to themselves,
I know I need to go for a non-flash assisted swing
to try to get a multi-frag, and they are pulling it off
with relatively ridiculous consistency.
It's definitely on their mind as well, Flames said.
No, I want to make it abundantly clear that there are no doubts whatsoever
that we were the stronger era, that we are the stronger era.
They're working towards that, and we also got to catch up.
What a few of the Vitality players.
Let's get into the group stage a little bit, right?
because by your standards, just a little bit rougher than perhaps we're seeing.
What do you think was going into that?
I mean, it's a mix of playing bad and not having the hours.
Obviously, we came into this event.
We didn't prepare as much because we have different different, you know,
goals to reach and Grand森 was that.
And now we have a bit of a, I would say, you know, it's not
it's not fully a rest time, but we have a period where we can take some days
off and recover before the major.
And that was the case.
And and yeah, it's just a mix of not playing that much,
but also probably didn't play as good
and we're never happy with that.
And we won, but we're always going to discuss
like what went wrong and we just take it really serious.
We don't want to lose those kinds of matches.
Zayuul coming in here,
playing in front of an American crowd.
Good memories of that?
Always good memories.
I mean, last time we played it was really amazing.
So we're ready for two A4QA picks
or all this kind of stuff.
So yeah, we are really happy to be here
and to play in front of this crowd.
And for you guys in general, obviously, you know, when we think of the standard you hold yourselves to weren't all too happy with some of those maps in the groups?
What do you think was going on there?
Obviously, like people said, like we didn't really play practice.
We didn't really play individually before coming to the tournament.
So obviously we were a bit shaky.
We need to make our marks during the tournaments.
So obviously group stage was a bit like this for us.
But we know like doing playoff, we always a different team in a way.
Like we bring even more energy, motivation into it.
So, of course, being group stage is always different for us.
And we just want to enjoy the playoff and enjoy the stagia.
Little twinkle in his eye when he thought back to Austin last year.
That was a wonderful occasion for all of them,
winning the Major, but also all the animosity
between them and the crowd and coming out victorious.
Yeah, he touches on it there, right?
Group stage matches are just that.
We can talk about it a bit after the video,
but it hasn't always been as clean as before.
And I think maybe that's necessary
because it can't always be like that, right?
You need to be able to peek in the playoffs
in these most important moments.
I don't think it's much of a secret anymore
that Vitality knows how to ramp up into a season
to target specific events.
This event for them, they wanted to just be a footnote.
A trophy collected, an extra one in the win column
for them in terms of tournaments.
I don't think they're necessarily playing 100%
A plus Counter Strike in their eyes,
but they hope that it helps get them into that
with the kickoff of the new Grand Slam season and the major to come as well.
Yeah, and I'm lost behind us. I do believe that the Vito is ready, so let's get over to the Vito.
I mean, we expected the Vito. We are prepared. We exactly know how we're going to approach them,
so matter of whether it's going to work out or not.
We have a plan and I think the Vito will be expected.
But other than that, I think for our own maps,
There's a lot of stuff to say. Of course we've had like 100% on many of the maps, but I mean if we lose a map and it ends we're gonna be sad, but we have to keep going and you know that's just the end of the three cuts. We'll start another one.
I mean I like the maps that we're playing, so hopefully I'll be doing better today. A little bit of slump for the past two days, so I think it's fine. I think I'm gonna bounce back.
The map pool, I don't even know what you're going to play.
I mean, we have very prepared some maps, but we don't know what they're going to pick.
We don't know what we're going to pick, so I'm just going to be focused on what I need to bring during this game,
like the N.A.G., the good mood, all this kind of stuff.
So I'm just going to bring that and let's see what map we're going to play.
I mean, I'm happy to play any map on this game, so I'm fine.
It is arena how you do it?
Standing by with Dustin Bossman right now big D in the building because we're about to
reveal picks and bands for our second semi-final before we do sorry about FaZe for this crowd
right?
I mean what do you think about FaZe?
know that they are fans but who likes a little bit of snacks? You got any snacks and join us up?
What's up? That's what I thought. You're right. We do love some snacks. Now of course we got Navi
in the grand final. Who will face off against them? Let's get into the picks and bands. The
Gamer Legion versus Team Vitality. Gamer Legion band does two. If I just watched the team play
I probably wouldn't play in there either.
Vitality.
Ancient.
And the day that ends in Y, Vitality picked their
permanent hand of Ancient.
Back onto Gamer Legion.
They take Mirage.
I think it's about them just trying to put their best foot forward.
We all know how good Vitality is here, but Gamer Legion feels this is their best chance to make something happen.
Vitality.
They think overpass.
One of the best teams in the world on overpass are on an incredible hot streak right now.
I am not surprised at all.
Back to bands.
Inferno for Gave Elysian.
That is one that you want to stay away from as well, from Vitality.
It's kind of hard in the pick-band, right? You're up against the goats, but that's a nice band.
Vitality.
They ban a new bus.
Very solid track record but it is one of their lesser played maps so I understand
they just want to stick with the comfort on what will be a nice finish for you to get there on Nuke.
Everyone loves a little bit of Nuke. That would be a nice barn burner if we're able to make it there.
It's going to be tough for them to get there.
the game, but it's not going to
be a good game. Maybe if we get
there, I certainly hope so.
Gamer Legion has surprises in the
past. Maybe they can do it
again. But if we dive straight
into the story of Gamer
Legion, obviously they're
underdogs here, but they have
on the server, but nonetheless we start great individual moments.
We see a great cohesive system from Snacks and IMD,
a lot to be hopeful for, but it does really all have to go right here today.
Well, what we've been seeing from Gamer Legion is a team that just looks renewed.
It's a team that, with Snacks having to work with IMD as Ash's,
as Gamer Legion themselves are just in the wake of Ash leaving,
you kind of have to hope that these guys can pick up the scraps,
and they definitely have.
I feel like PR has actually a renewed faith in the lineup.
Everybody that we talked to from gamer Legion always talks about the buy-in the fact that
Understacks how hard of a worker he is how much he's bringing to the table
Yeah, this is by no means a guy that is I think at times
Maybe a couple years ago wrongly labeled sort of a guy that doesn't belong. This is the perfect perfect team for him
This is a team where he has the buy-in right?
I mean I think when he was on g2 and you got legends playing around you like Niko and such like you're not gonna
Have as much agency as you have on a team like this one who has seen the highs
But they've also really had the lows as well and they need someone to help leave them back to a path of victory
And we saw PR and rest playing really good counter-strike so far this tournament. Hell even snacks was up to his bullshit yesterday
I mean, this is a guy who's predicated on how well he just sneaks on you lurks through smoke
Stozy's crazy plays and look they get to team like vitality
That's so picture perfect when it comes to protocols and systems
You got to throw something in there to try to throw them off and stacks if they're right got to do that
Yeah, it seems so indeed Dave they've played on this stage before just yesterday, right? Maybe surprise themself a little bit
high-pitched in an interview. Well yeah it's funny like maybe you beat them but
like what if we actually do because who knows and I think it's so cool that it's
unquantifiable because we from vitality we know kind of exactly what to expect
because they're gonna hit that top level no matter what. From game religion I
feel like we still have a ways to go for for people that could step up. I
would feel like a high-pitched probably felt like he left something on the
table yesterday. He didn't really have his best performance. I've seen him
play better in a game or legion jersey even against I'd say some pretty tested
tier two rosters out there so I'd like to see him show a little bit more because
to me a lot of this show has been in their rifle trio PR resin tossing and
what's weird about it is that on the stage though snacks was the one that
rolled it back like you said I mean they needed a curveball there and I
almost want to relate it to the fact that vitality this season they always
lose teams that just have stand-ins or kind of dead rosters I think snacks
This is the player that can kind of evoke that sort of feeling by just having so many
different ideas that he can fall on the fly that kind of brings out that sort of, it's
not that they're a dead team, but dead teams play loose and Snacks knows when to loosen
things up.
Yesterday they were yelling, you're losing the Snacks and maybe Hook's be hurt and who
knows but that is kind of, it is unfair to him because Snacks is a great player
right, but it's kind of that, you can't be losing to the hero AK that Snacks is
buying in this round, remember yesterday he gets three kills, his team doesn't finish
it for him.
I think you've got some kind of joker moves also that they're willing to play which dust I feel like are integral when you're playing vitali because their fundamentals are good.
Their mechanics are good. Their contingencies are good. Like where do you even go. Yeah I think it's about them playing that punchy style CS that they've been playing for a while.
But I call it like organized chaos in the sense that there is definitely a lot of scrappiness a lot of you know mud slinging a lot of you know hay makers thrown but it's in a way where everyone's on the same page.
on the same page. The timings are pretty good and they scale very well. They also play
with confidence. What you need against Vitaly more than anything is to play your style and
don't let them rattle you.
Talking about vitality then, here we are. Another playoffs for them looking to get that
title tomorrow, but they've shown cracks. There's been cracks in the surface and
of course it's happened in the past. In play-ins and in group stages, it didn't
necessarily parlay its way into the playoffs, but is there reason for concern?
I don't think so.
I think they look shaky in the sense
that they dropped some mats, sure.
But the reality is this.
They played 25 series this year.
They've only lost two.
All right, that's the reality.
They get the job done.
Maybe five teams you want to be,
but that just allows them to show
that they also have some great resilience.
Even if things go tough,
even if they don't get on the same page,
hey, that's what's in back in the shape real quick.
Vitality's floor is just way too high.
It's definitely, it's the highest
that I've ever seen in a roster.
And that's probably even one of the aspects
that kind of keeps them in contention
They're probably even higher than a strawson that go conversation where even last year when vitality was losing tournaments
They were still making it to the semi-finals on bad days
So I think that they have achieved the bare minimum in their own eyes
And even if vitality come into this one with less than optimal levels of focus less less than optimal levels of precision
They have the individuals that are also just gonna carry them even if they're messing up a plan by apex
It's the X factor from players like Flamesy and Robs that have carried them through some of these series when the game plans are more in a 50-50 battle.
Yeah, also playing here on Texas grounds, of course, there is a lot of history with Austin and we missed it.
We didn't have it on camera, but Apex was walking back to behind the stage where they're going to do the walk-ons and they are just screaming, cheering at him from the side, all the, you know what they're yelling from last year.
He's playing around with it. He loves it. They love the fire. And I think when you talk about vitality
You have to talk about that context as well
They are one of the best teams that as taking in that energy parlaying it into rounds
Apex doesn't give a shit what anybody in this crowd has to say to him
All he cares about is the trophy that's sitting on the other end of the stage from us and put in his cabinet
That's what I have to say about that without a doubt. I mean, there's nothing that's gonna rattle vitality anymore
They've been the heroes. They've been the villains doesn't matter
They're just here to just beat the players in the server against them.
All right, let's get them on stage.
But we're Texas, are we ready for our second semi-final?
I thought so, let me just do a quick temperature check in the Dickies Arena right now.
Who's taking this next series? Will it be Gamer Legion?
Or will it be Team Vitality?
With Navi already waiting in the grand final, let's bring out our next two contenders.
Demons are here, this is the real deal.
I guess they're gonna be able to get the game back.
They're gonna get it back.
Here we go.
Game of League!
Game of League!
Game of League!
Game of League!
Game of League!
Game of League!
Game of League!
Game of League!
Game of League!
Now they weren't invited to the dance for their crust, the party anywhere.
Through blood, sweat and tears, they'll fight through every round until the final bell.
Here they stand once again, ready for another Slugfest.
I
But like a butterfly, staying like a bee, is a rush that it needs no introduction, synonymous
with the word dominance, their strength fear into every opponent they face.
On the terror of the generation, vitality is showing no signs of stopping.
Everyone wants a shot at the champs.
Well, Gamer Legion, you got it.
This is sheer will to win.
There's is the insurmountable mountain.
Team Vitality with an insatiable appetite for domination
and a complete refusal to lose.
Well, Gamer Legion didn't come this far,
just bow to the kings.
They want the crown.
Apex is here to walk the familiar path.
Snatch is here to carve a new one.
It's David versus Goliath, and someone's getting knocked out!
Out!
Out!
Out!
Out!
Out!
Out!
Out!
Out!
Out!
Out!
Out!
Out!
Out!
Out!
Out!
Out!
Out!
2 up versus the underdog supreme snacks versus apex what a juxtaposition in
career highlights or snacks is still trying to prove that he can also be
that captain what year is it again we've got stacks versus apex in a playoff
match in front of the big stage it's a hostile crowd for the great tour of
itality because we got a lot of people out there who are some game
I've got some stacks and joyous out there.
What I thought.
I feel like this is a game that is just taking me back down memory lane.
And I feel like the thing is that snacks.
That's why he believes in this kind of matchup.
He's been an apex before in his career.
This won't be the first time.
It doesn't matter if the author stacked against him in this one.
And I'm going to even say in the server he has all the reasons to beat him.
He knows when to make case changes.
He knows the kind of game that vitality's played.
They have the most footage of any team you could possibly have out there.
And so the supporters of Gamble Legion have definitely come in with some ideas to take down the champ.
Indeed. There you go. Yeah, Mirage coming up first.
And this is Gamble Legion's best chance to put a good foot forward.
I think for them, they have overqualified anchors in my opinion.
I think Kallsen as a B anchor, defensively is fantastic.
I think that PR has been doing his job.
Rez has been activated in a big, big way.
big, big way. And as you said,
snatch is the kind of guy who's going to throw a wrench in the plans.
He's going to do some kind of weird lurk in the middle or some type of big
play that you can anticipate sometimes.
And if he can try to rattle the cage that is vitality,
there's a chance he might knock out something he needs.
Yeah. If I'm going to key anybody into one aspect of this game to focus in
on, it's watch what snacks calls after the dust is settled,
after the first 30 seconds, when there's a minute left on the clock,
what kind of finishers is he going for?
because he doesn't call the most simple A execs every single time gathering
everybody back up at a ramp. Sometimes he's having guys slithered through
ladder room through window up connector. And sometimes he's just adding in
lurkers that you wouldn't expect to be there. So there are a lot of
wrinkles here that vitality are gonna have to try to figure out. You're
putting a lot of trust into snacks being able to out call apex is
looking for anything for that. Anything is just crappy. We have the
brass patch straws, right? Because even though I would say of all the
matters that vitality play, this is one of the few matters they don't
have some kind of crazy streak going on where they've won like the last 12 in a row
or the last seven out of eight or whatever it is that you see on other maps.
There's been a bit more shaking this year, particularly on some of the T sides.
And we've even seen at this tournament where it's just for whatever reason,
they don't have the level to focus that you usually see on some other attacks.
But their defense is just so damn good.
Zewu's so amazing.
I think the big thing that Vitality has if no one else has is an offer.
That's just as good as an entry fragger.
Right.
I mean, when he has a naked in his hands, he's just as good as anyone else
creating openings.
So they just have so many weapons.
All right, Chocks, if you want me to snap back to reality on this one,
Vitality indeed, heavy favorites.
I would be surprised in this game
if game religion get more than seven rounds on this map.
And that's because of what Dust mentioned, Zewoo.
This guy, every time he has a nade in his hands,
he's breaking open a smoke, he's getting a kill,
and he's getting away like nobody even noticed.
It's ridiculous, it's insulting.
I feel like Snacks is gonna be left scratching his head,
like, how is he predicting our timings
every single time?
But that's because Zywoo is just
the smartest player we've ever seen in Counter Strike.
He always knows what the opponents are doing.
Slowly so, and no matter if Snacks is calling really good
and maybe those late rounds are finished fantastically,
you have so much to contend with.
And I think it's gonna be really hard
because you need every single member of that team
to go above and beyond.
Yes, they were convincing versus Furia.
Yes, they were good versus Astralis,
but this is a completely different beast.
It is indeed.
This is the final boss, as we've always said.
The one that's up at the top,
not just the best team,
but the greatest of all damn time.
And they've been doing it for a long while.
Again, we talked about it.
This is 21 semi-final experiences in a row.
They're looking at another grand final here though.
Yes, I hear the players are ready.
Gamer Legion, an underdog of a life term,
but also a shot of a lifetime to take down the kings of CS2.
Vitality, let's see if they can.
Vitality versus Gamer Legion.
It's the best versus the brave.
Because the challenge at hand tonight for Gamer Legion
feels insurmountable from every single angle.
and that is exactly why we'll cheer.
Fort Worth, it's time to witness greatness,
either via vitality or the upset of the year.
It's the year!
Get into it, as Connor just said.
Potentially would have to be the upset of the year.
Something we would never expect the full Russian to be.
They're not here to waste time, and either aside, we'll all rock.
Couple of headshots quickly as Hypex decides to get that opening, but suddenly everybody's gone.
White to the board our game religion and this is a perfect hold a simple strategy that gets shut down
The B play and the B side is closed
Well, no that one felt like yeah, it did I mean I
Already like the idea that game really they're gonna try to do things quickly and try to keep things super simple
I think after that match we saw yesterday like they're they're very lucky to even have this chance to play against Vitality
Astralis knows they really fumbled that game, whether it was map one or map two.
With that massive comeback they let through.
But Gamer Legion proved themselves on stage.
They're the ones who didn't get nervous. They're the ones who found the punishes.
You know, a lot of the conversation we had with Gamer Legion yesterday was just kind of them playing backwards,
letting, you know, things come to them and being reactive.
I think if they have that same taste today versus Vitality, no chance it works.
it works right vitality are going to trounce you in those kinds of moments so
I'm right there with you it's nice to see him playing quicker it's nice to see
them get into the action if you're on your best form today then maybe just maybe
you can make a game of this but round two with nothing invested into it falls
absolutely flat even flatter than the fiscal so let's go to zero vitality for
this kickoff yeah we might have to start playing some weird games or just
see what kind of records they can break in terms of how few deaths they
have how much money they can make how quickly they can because we already see
that vitality are gonna be super prepared to play this we know it'd be
difficult for anybody but
This truly is David in the line.
Early gun rounds are going to feel like a do or die for game religion in this matchup.
A vitality that I think is looking to kind of grow and form from some shakier results earlier this week.
I mean, all the players on vitality have said the same thing about it.
A lot of focus, attention, practice and energy into the Grand Slam from now, let off the
pedal, try to recollect.
Well, this is still a team that holds themselves to such a high standard that losses are unacceptable.
And a playoff exit?
I don't think so.
Not in their minds.
And they're just so good.
They can't go on cruise control for a game like this and still pick it up.
That's PR down.
Hoping that it was just one guy who maybe wasn't watching properly.
It's not going to be the case.
It's a little bit awkward with that death.
It's not really anybody else ready to move.
There was no A site plant, and now Flamesy is taking the push.
Now this flank is just impending doom now for GameRelation, to be honest.
Time by Apex, tries to get a second one out of that.
But in the moment, opens the door for Apex to try to move this forward.
The bandit's advantage, bomb possession within him,
and Towson taking a look towards this B site.
I mean, you know
It might be a matter of seeing red. It's hard to say tells him he's out
But he's gonna have to make some noise and it is an empty night on the flank
Very awkward here for flames. He's still just whittling away at the house. It's gonna activate rocks
Confidence come wide with flames. He keeping these numbers low for gamer legion
forcing the pressure to just amount as they finally get closer to this beat
Totally in zealot by zaiwu. He takes those duels on his terms
3-0 as the first gun round falls flat also.
That's Hypex is the only one that even get killed so far this game.
For game religion they get shut down totally in their default.
They're gonna need PR to stay alive a little longer for sure.
He dropped into this, there was no flash on the A ramp.
There was no actual pressure yet in mid.
This only happened afterwards.
So none of them sure exactly what the lead was for him in his mind as to why he needed to jump on that.
on that, but PR is one guy who we could see him kind of getting
poached or going to a better team in tier one and maybe
getting that chance.
It's going to be games like this where we kind of see what
kind of quality he could bring.
So go ahead and bait a little bit.
Question of players outside of the A-Side.
So we'll see Vitality's defense tested now with the
execute.
Flashes find their mark.
So a PR, Wings is gone unnoticed.
Vim and Zywoo collecting a kill of Beast.
All of a sudden, I take the wind out of the sails
and then they'll both find their double kill
is what's left of Gamer Legion tries to exit out that ramp.
I don't think so.
This is flat.
Four rounds in, three kills here for Gamer Legion.
Quick ones, an A-play shutdown,
two fast B-pops shut down,
mid B-fall, completely picked apart.
No progress, no ball plays.
No hope.
Counter-terrorists win.
Swift reminders that Pauly Market is our official
prediction market of last premiere.
Vitality to the 5-0 if they can get through the second gun
round.
No off and play.
All their money spent again.
Again, they just really at least want to get some
bomb plants going.
They will try to keep it super simple.
Stay off those frag grenades, that was the goal, but it's ultimately PR tickled by it.
Rocks up from Catwalk, fast eats the flashes, those have been clean in the parts of the execute.
Gamer Legion tried to get out with a couple of movement, timing gets awkward and it's going to be
the old docks to bring it back with a kill apiece here. Snacks and res with frags,
and Apex blindsided by his counterpart. By God, we've got a Gamer Legion man advantage.
Now we're talking. Three kills already. They get that bomb down, doesn't go down.
Two seconds earlier, there will be a chance to take a poke at this.
A snake would need to happen though.
Nice to place Nade, that's res down by 50.
And are they gonna swing on E-box, and are they gonna protect E-box when he gets swung?
I mean that 50 damage makes him susceptible to the bomb pop.
We'll see how long Saewoo decides to keep everybody around here, rack up costs perhaps.
Well, he can actually go for it.
Second AK swapping, he's got high packs in his head, it's just snacks to deal with.
You know, Snacks will play it patiently,
and patience is what's gonna win this 1v1.
Snacks waits a few more seconds, catches sidewall,
and he'll collect himself a quad kill in this one.
More kills this round for Snacks,
than the rest of the team combined
at this point for GamerLegion.
So big moment for him to put himself back up in the lights,
where Launders, he's alive last night.
He did, yeah, he was awesome.
He definitely saw him putting his team on his back.
Lovely that he gets some shine on this.
So, a third play into B.
He likes to do a little bit differently on aferno.
They always go A where everyone else goes B here.
There's a lot of B site takes.
There is no easy place to go.
Say that much for sure.
But again, that's where I think simplicity is paramount for any chance of success on a T side.
It's our first moment of X factor from Game of Legends 2.
We want to say, like, you know, keeping it clean is paramount,
But I mean that awkward like jump out through the window that kind of catches just slows them down that millisecond
But you're actually with vitality you're dealing in half seconds all the time. Hey, you actually can't you can't miss the window jump
I mean that's normally you'd say oh it's the window jump the cat
No, it's just getting out of the second window in one jump like that is actually really important
Luckily for them snacks will recover that bit of slack that was out there
Can we just find a round win five rounds into this semi-final?
We can sing his praise all day long, but you've got Zywu off to an 8-1 start.
Robson 6-1.
It's a bit of a soundbate.
They're trying to get their attention inside of Middles.
Razorook takes it that step forward, but they made this push.
They might now make a mistake of trying to walk too much.
We're just run by this.
Yeah.
Not ready for a messy push-up.
Dude, you got three.
On top of it.
And Robs killed it.
Yeah.
It's a forced team kill as well for Raz versus PR.
So a team kill, a piece here, for each of the teams.
4v2 is where Vitality find themselves after the fact,
after the fire burns out, and the push absolutely fizzles.
I bet they're not going to happen, buddy.
Robs finds the headshot Vitality right back
into their winning ways.
It's so crazy that Mezzie finds that move
to make the push into B apps, but it looks like there's
going to be some mid control.
They think they can pull Robs away
or maybe drop the guard in the B player,
but no, it comes forward.
Oof, PR's gonna keep this one clean. Deagle shot to Apex over top of steps.
They got this for E2.
Oh, nice shot!
That's hot out of PR.
Max is packed down low though, actually, so...
This isn't a done deal. PR down to 17L, but...
It's so good on those Deagles.
are they just going to wander a bit too much?
Yeah, get stringy.
And unfortunately, this is one of the criticisms
you sort of had yesterday.
Yeah.
And you're not going to just entirely fix that
in less than 24 hours, either.
So here they want some contacts and high tech
so that they can make this exact happen.
Robs is on cleanup duty.
Oh, he took a fast step.
Ooh, that's a mistake.
Yeah, dropped right into it.
That snacks on set of health.
something but and this should be messy to lock down the b-site every day of the week here's the
audio carrier and little labored but still gets snacks dead to rights as the immersion with half
health steps wide gets himself a second headshot cleans up the rifle play and cleans up in the
easy sixth round win it's quick just flying through this game already um and up coming in for
high-fax. You can get Deagle kills on a round like this is nice but it is a
situation where you can almost think about winning and I don't think they
kind of put themselves in that mindset. I think there are more so like how do we
actually get even more just free Deagle shots.
nine and one, Zywu nine and one, Nezzy nine and two.
People really think about vitality as the singularity right now nobody nobody really cares who takes it down
They just want someone to deal with it. Yep, just if they're getting too scary
Take the problem with this vitality is that they're starting to prove they can thrive on it, right?
Victory in Austin last year at the major despite the whole crowd hating apex
You go down to Brazil play fury on stage and still walk away with your own chance by the end of the weekend
You can hate it all you want, but by the time that trophy is lifted, you can't help but respect it.
Game of Legion meant to be the hero today, but for the time being, it's a dose of reality, still trailing five rounds.
You get the 35 seconds, and as he's freed up from the cat play, and it's going to be first blood of Reds in step.
Playing these shots down Palace, so now it's going to just be a two directional split into this A site.
Zaru's sitting within the bomb site and so all of these kills
will come in before Zaru has to activate our grade.
He's on top of Tetris.
Makes his job all the easier.
He'll swap out to the 5-7, riddle down Hypex.
There's some small fire and that is the 7th collected by Vitality.
He's playing on top of Tetris defending the A-Ram.
Just because he got his Palace kill,
he sort of runes second player out there.
They had connector as well.
This is the spot.
You're not going to come out of that smoke clearing.
And we have seen Gamerlidgen run through that A-Ram smoke a lot.
So he was ready for it
Now to one time out now already in this game. It was like we started about five minutes ago
It's just not easy
Snacks got all his kills in one round and gave him a rounds off those kills. That's nice
Tried to give it credit
As it happened just because you didn't know if we're gonna get another hero moment so far haven't
Single quad kill that translates to a round win as all gamer Legion have had so far on this attack
And we haven't even seen Browns that really get into the nitty gritty it's
Stomps on the attempt of gamer Legion and yet another round where they will be limited the tools for the job
So singular Galil upgraded pistols in utility
It's not that front-facing Flamesey at the moment over towards connector with Apex.
Zywu not inside site, but leaning back and still just safe enough to peel two players off of the execute.
Make it a third! Zywu absolutely farming.
A little too zoomed in as PR pops him back with that one rifle.
It reveals itself, but it can't get picked up by Snacks for now.
He's going to go looking for that Zywu off instead.
All the time in the world for snacks to be the hero
No one up at CT, smoke on his waistband he can you know almost certainly get a plant here if he's fast enough
Box is going to be walking in
Wallbang? No, money made, one position known
Cash in your pockets, but there's that flank, broccoli to feed time
Each time comes out from behind it,
and that is going to be still majority of life for Vitality
as they clean up quick.
It's going to be fully autopilot until game
religion can push them.
And then they're going to have to start sweating in.
It's not as if you can't win rounds versus Vitality.
They're beatable in any given round.
They just take so much resilience when games get close,
when games go to overtime.
It's really closing the deal.
That's the hardest part.
But I don't even know if we're
going to get to that point right now with game
one now. We've seen him try to exit through that palace, but
Hypex helping out could bode well. It's at least an equalizing
kill to the 3v3. It's gonna get Flames into reposition within
A. Thing is, bomb was stopped on that ramp, so it's not even
like the Palace players could really fly out. Oh, they don't
want to have to give this. Hypex is turned around to
break on shut down of the exit here by Hypex. Again, you
remember that the bomb was inside of ramp. You know
there's at least one player Palace. This is a comfortable
3v2 for Vitality. Hypex also holding the flank from the
P-Push as he dies. Now they all know it's going to be a even if the bombs here on a ramp
They know there's not even a lurk really
Going back to check just in case but
That's how it is just so quick to respond to piece things together
They continue to play the map apex back towards top middle. They actually just haven't seen
That bomb again on the ramp. They saw it earlier, but
When he remains tucked in Towson's exiting
Ah, the Flames are so clean with it.
There's his ninth frag, third of this round alone,
and yet another duel for PR into this A site.
The Flames is not really giving him much to work with.
The utility supportive from the teammates comes flying over,
and that draws PR's attention instead.
He knows Flames is in there waiting for a chance to strike,
and it's all to distraction for Apex to hit the ramp again.
These ramp flanks have been the end of gamer legions clutch attempts
on this A site, back to back rounds between snacks,
and now PR being shut out of it.
And we have only two rounds left in this T side.
Yeah, it's brilliant.
Send it's ease, to be honest.
Flash tactics are good.
It's not as if they're just driving everything,
like they are setting themselves up,
and obviously Flamesy's just reaching new heights in the 1.26.
Better than he's ever been.
It's really the last thing every team that's not
vitality wanted.
It's for them to get a consistent Flamesy
to this whole new level.
Yeah, I said, if there's even conversations where I'm getting compared to Duncan any way
I'm happy.
I shot top middle, but it's rops with contact.
Oh, didn't bounce far enough, Res lucky to be alive for this one.
We'll see what his measly eight points of health can get done.
It's got teammates all around him here in middle, but also enemies, vitality on
the prowl within middle. Still stuck behind smokes for the time being but here's a flash
for them to try to get active. Flamesy hit a cat, a player on the bench. That's a fight
before and on top of it the 92 damage for Rez to have to stomach. Everything left for
Gamer Legion headsay. And it's snacks at the bottom of connector. There's no one
top mid, no one on cat pushing. So for the time being, this is the site they're
going to be more worried about. They won't even have enough smokes for full exact.
So they might have to just walk out into this.
And he's instant with it yet again.
He's got some headshots, just keep on coming through.
PR has been trying to break out in this T side, round after round,
taking these attempts to the A site.
He'll be shut out by Zywin who's got that support over Apex's shoulder
and then Rez, the guy who's lucky to be alive,
is unlucky enough to have to try to clutch that.
health never gonna happen 10 rounds secured on the CT side of vitality
I thought it was pretty gracious but now I'd even say that I think you get seven so far
This is the biggest mismatch that we've seen on stage and I can't even remember how long
And unfortunately it's playing out as we expect
So we're gonna have to get a check in before this game ends with
at kill count to see if any record gets broken.
Was it 20 kills?
I think it was 20 kills.
Okay.
They're at 17.
Yeah, I think they might break the record unless they have a big round here.
Yeah.
The PR is trying to stop that.
Well time boost catches Reza again down low.
Nate catches Snax who's trying to be a part of this boost.
Fires gonna force their hands. There's still two players here.
And the mid vitality does just to cancel this final attempt at a gamer legion.
And so it's another 3 vs 5 with no footing, no momentum, no hope
at stopping vitality from having their way with this first half.
And so the bottom mid players still spotted out.
PR will find open space towards the A site.
Ooh, what a gift.
Back turn to Zaiwu, who's gonna hit him through the box.
And that should be the 5-7 to close out.
Rez running through the hills.
Last man left, and a vitality with a commandeering 11-round CT side.
If you don't laugh, you'll cry.
I have it on the E. I need to plant the bomb with E. I'm not fighting.
Checking angles of the canary was a good time you know
I like your
There you go
That's a sight, a sight
Yeah
Do it in official
I cannot hear you, hello
I'll check up, ok
smoke long and molly
smoke? not cause
i'm on the detroit
they are so fast, i don't know
they are in me
i never played wingrun in my life
Oh
What's up?
Up, up, up
See Sam?
Come on, come on
Nice
He's hiding somewhere, he's not even taking a keyboard.
They heard us hiding.
Doodle.
He's not turning, no less.
Nice, so easy.
Nice!
How was the position, Collar?
Top-ro!
Oh, Blank, bro, you're in the flash!
Side, side, side.
White dog shake?
A singular round for Gamer Legion in that first half of play,
and it comes by way of snacks with a 4k and a 1v1,
The only round snacks even got kills in.
Launders, if that doesn't paint a bleak picture of the half we just got out of Gamer Legion,
I don't know what does.
Yeah, so 4, 8, 12, 14, 15 kills across that half.
We don't know what's going to happen.
Nothing's promised at this point, but okay, the record for least kills is now 17.
Gamer Legion have broken a record for the least kills in a half.
right give it up I told you guys witness greatness in the wrong direction
gonna have something to say about that that is the third multi-kill of this game
so far for gamer legions camp and now Zywu and Mezzi are going to try to claw
back this 2v4 but the snacks clutch could still be a factor here him and
high-packs coming in side-by-side to take a challenge towards Zywu and him
and Mezzi are gonna be confident to just lock this in together themselves
High trade potential for both ends of this post-plant, but Xayu breaks away slightly.
And so will Snacks. Getting forward onto that bombsite, 8 HP dealt with. Xayu's gonna put him to bed with the headshot.
And the USP got a back that doesn't even get a chance to shoot back.
Three multi-kills for everybody on Gamer Legion in an entire game of Mirage.
I should say. Ouch.
Wouldn't happen probably versus any other team. Let's be fair and honest about this.
But it didn't happen.
It's out of two res for a very nice 2K right there.
For what it's worth.
Is this the last round of the game?
1,000 on the mag 7.
Oh.
Oh, Zywu and Apex with the entries.
Res dead.
Both robs blinded by 7, August got a lot of them.
And so another record, the least amount of kills in an arena game.
Towson still alive.
Unless Towson won V4 Mag 7.
Breaking all the wrong records here in Fort Worth.
Met by a smoke on top of that one.
And if there were any questions about a vitality that everybody said was looking a little shaky
in the group stage coming off the hangover of the Rio win.
Well, it feels like those doubts have been put to rest.
Not just defeating, but dismantling gamer legion throughout this map of Mirage.
Vitality have not skipped a beat.
They have not had a single miss down.
And so, gamer legion falters full and has no chance to recover that Mirage whatsoever.
Unfortunately for them, the battle doesn't end here.
It'll be Vitality's pick of Overpass up next.
Well, that was quick.
You guys are cleaning up very rapidly here. It feels like after what was a tumultuous and
tough group stage, you're back at your absolute best here.
We had those halves, but we drew the second half, sometimes, so this time not.
Do you feel like confident as ever, and you're going to wrap this up pretty quickly here?
Is this going to be a two and done, and is it going to be another 12-1?
I mean, we're confident, but we're not going to say that.
Obviously, we're going to come in firing,
but you know, they're a good team still.
You know, we have to watch out.
We're not going to underestimate them.
So let's see how it goes.
Respect given.
Thank you very much.
Best of luck.
Thank you.
finishes now just gonna go ahead and dumpster a team as far as let them get
nothing. They're just making new records every single day. The fact that that's
the the least kills that any team has had in a half of arena CS2 that's so
funny that's just so funny. I can hear the leaking park music now. What do I
what do I stand to gain from watching a 13-5 of a similar quality but instead
they up the ante with the new record being set.
You're just laughing at that.
You want to see him.
You're laughing at that.
Do you not want to be witness to history every single day,
Shox?
Yes, but maybe they should be celebrated.
They should be celebrated.
They're going to celebrate their other better.
Oh, my gosh.
Yeah, I just feel like this is the only way you can approach
it.
And I feel like that's also what Game Religion will do.
They were walking past here, going back there, just like.
Yeah.
You thought we were done, Doc.
We've got some more.
Look, you can actually make a highlight,
real of all the kills gave religion got in that game actually wouldn't last that
long we got the PR kills were good yeah I remember a pistol I remember that
I remember that one that's a good ones yeah it's like it's yesterday I was
like yesterday production thought it was too much okay all right so what is
Vitality do so well. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I got every single play was just discovered immediately
Okay, I think we do have one round though. Oh, I think we do
Okay, some context here. Okay, obviously snacks one of the things I used to really rag on him for when he was on G2
Repeat calls. Okay. He loves a repeat call. So what did he do in this one?
He won the first round of B wants to go back to be vitality say we know you snacks
We know what you like to do.
We're not going to let you go B once again.
And so, as he stops it right in its tracks there,
at the mouth of the B apartments,
and then everybody else just piles on, okay?
That's really what I had to say, that vitality.
They had to make one adaptation in this game.
They did just that, and they did it fantastic.
You're telling me snacks regressed.
I'm seeing signs of that.
But let's celebrate the journey, right?
Yeah, let's all be, you know, thankful as analysts.
You know, we cover a lot of games.
a lot of games. We've been through a lot of counter strike games. But when do we get the
bear witness to one of the worst performances of all time?
That is actually, we're going to look back on this when we have our grandkids and we
got the photo. I was like, there I was right there on the back.
Right there in Twitch chat. Yes, I'm going to stop the fun because I hate fun. But
I do, I do want to talk just like a little, these players are thrust into that position
I mean they've been working so hard for so many months right to get a shot at this not necessarily shot of vitality
But general to tier one competition and that the buck stops here. It's of course the numbers look a little funny or whatever
But it is also completely understandable, right? Sometimes you just show up and you ain't got it, right?
I mean, here's the thing like I I could fully see game
Well, you can bouncing back and have a better game on the next map, right? Even though
Your all it could be actually
Possibly a new record could be set
Anyway, no, what I will say is this,
it's like obviously, my father came in a heavy favorite.
They played that hand.
I think if we're trying to pick at any cool story,
at least Rops, I think had a shaky start this tournament.
He had a couple of games.
He was even kind of talking some interviews
about how he's having to adjust
a new anagraph update and things of that nature.
He actually did play really well this game.
Obviously, it's just nice to see him
at least kind of wake up a little bit here on the stage
and kind of get back to the Rops that we,
no one loved.
Without a doubt, I also just think that
If I want to zoom out to Vitality as a whole,
I really like the way that they were mixing up their setups
pretty regularly.
It's another reason why it's just so difficult to play
against them if you're a game religion.
You're trying to catch up to what happened last round.
Vitality's already got that in the rear view mirror
themselves.
They're working on a new strategy.
They have another setup.
They have so many ways to disrupt.
You could not take middle if you're a game religion
without losing one to two, three players.
Sometimes all of your players actually, every single time,
because even if you smoke Windows, smoke connector,
They're just using all of their HEs to break all of that space, and there practically is no fog of war when it comes to vitality flying Mirage.
They knew everything that was happening almost every single round.
Why are you so far away, man?
That's my marker.
No way.
Yeah, yeah.
It is.
Really?
We're listening to production.
Take it up to production, not me, okay?
Alright, people can tell us at home, like, does it look like you're allowed to move in position assuming that that isn't your position.
Is this better?
This is it.
Okay, alright.
I can move to the far end of my position.
Sheesh. There we go. Okay. Yeah. She said is there an argument to be made here for you know
I'm not that no
You didn't know what I was gonna say for game religion. No, okay
No, I can't even made here for that naffi actually had better practice earlier versus phase and vitality
Like it's almost like going into the finals without trying anything. I
Guess you could actually spin it like that. Uh-huh that this gives because this was so rudimentary for vitality to take care of
of game religion in this fashion,
they might almost kind of have,
it's like when we say the stage one buff at the major,
where you played in the arena a little,
or you played in that kind of setting already
and then you kind of come in a little bit cold.
If the game is this easy for vitality,
sometimes you're just not in that competitive mindset
in the way that a nobby that got pushed
a little bit more would be.
Yeah, I mean, I think I kind of see the value
what you're saying there, but what I feel is like
what we already saw on the group stages
that Apex is not gonna let this team
waver too much, right?
Even whenever they were having that comeback happen against them on Mirage on G2 and some pious was ripping them apart and they were looking like they were going to lose the game.
Eventually, Epic's like, alright guys, like, we are vitality.
Because here's the thing, as much as we track the records his team has and all the stats and all the trophies, so does Apex.
Apex will sometimes say he's had the unit he didn't even know about his life.
Because he's thinking that far ahead.
Like, he's thinking about the legacy that he's going to leave behind.
He knows already that he is on the best team in the world.
He knows that they are very likely the greatest team of all time.
He knows that he wants to prove to everyone else that there's no defeat
There's no longer a conversation to be had he wants to leave that gap behind that no one else is able to pass through
So you better believe that apex wants everything. Yeah, they are a bit nerdy about that, right?
Then rightfully so it's we're talking about the legacy here
I'm also the fact that their play wasn't that clean in the plans
It hasn't been always in the group stages these last couple of weeks. They were always going to turn it up
What's our next match when you were going to have
Overpass but first
Maybe gamer legions should hop on refrag. Yeah, they should try it out
They should get their aim under control
They can play any of the game modes that they would like to play and gets a practice
Without a doubt
I think that this is something that I could use a little bit more help with is nader this kind of mode actually allows you to
Learn tons of different lineups. I like the feature with refrag also where I think they have a system where you can also kind of
coordinate where you want to need to land face off of position and if it's
possible it'll show you the lineup too but of course I mean all of the preset
lineups that are here this is what this is what we need dust like I mean like
every time man I got to bring it up with us we got to step up our game does
yeah we got to get our need utility knowledge a little bit better and refrag
would be the perfect tool for you and myself well you know what happens
get the knowledge listen the end of graph update ruined all my lineups right
but what a better way to get him back hope you think hope hope you had
They're the whole time, man.
You have to refrag the whole time.
Get back in the server.
Someone who's been trying to get more reps in CS
and just gets bullied out of the server
because I don't know the lineups.
It's perfect.
I'm going to hop on a refrag.
They don't know what's coming.
Needs your instas.
Get your instas in.
Even if you stop everything else,
if you learn some names, it'll help your team out a little.
Exactly.
So I'm going to hop on that.
We're going to take a quick break.
But while we come back, we have a special guest
to talk about Overpass.
What are y'all doing, we have an event to go to!
No chickens were harmed in that, oh you guys didn't see it in the arena, but no chickens
were harmed, so just so you know, we've got FLOCKED!
There's a lot to see here!
There it is, there it is.
We ran out of things to say because it was that much of a stomp.
Do you have any thoughts about Overpass?
About game religions?
No, this is, I'm making dinner reservations.
They were like, you want to go on in between map 2, I was like, this is terrible.
I was like, can I do a different game?
like, I have two of games, so I was like, any other game?
What are your thoughts on vitality, though?
Do you think they're the goats?
Yes.
I mean, they're like.
Not Astralis?
When did you give it up?
I gave it up a long time ago.
I think the game is harder now.
So at the end of the day, I always
feel like what they're doing is more impressive.
That doesn't invalidate Astralis.
So you think 2019 liquid were plumbers?
I mean, no.
No, but also it was two months that was a good ride and then that was it
Do you think mythic would have got more kills in that game than the game region Cooper alone would have humbled Zywoo
Oh, there you go
Truck lover would have had a highlight better than PRs. Yeah. Yeah highlight. Yeah
It can't go any worse analyst then maybe Maui come on
But Pee-Pee picks it because we're not Flaming Gamerly, that's not right.
Snacks, Snacks has always loved Overpass, okay?
Back on the last time that he was playing with them, he loved the Nate breaks, okay?
He doesn't see a smoke that he can't go through because he has an HE lineup
that's gonna land right dead in the center of it so his troops can file on through.
I mean, this is a team that's won while they're last to get Overpassed,
but like I tell you, he's not.
You know, there's Overpassed and we just saw that I'm not even close.
I know we're trying to, you know,
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm trying to do the reality check here.
We're not doing that. We're not doing that the greatest thing going on right now is you right now with all this
The beard the whole event like I haven't noticed although you did power down a little bit so you can elevate for tomorrow
I say I'm catching up to do but I'm working my way there. Yeah, you'll get there
Yeah, we're combining actually we got the flow and the beard. We get if we put our faces together
We can get you one day
See this is exactly what happens when vitality plays
Listen, we were shot in the fond reel of Alstead, who's not only had to come down here and talk to you, man.
Like I said, they were like, yeah, just stall for like a few minutes before the game.
I was like, okay, so we're going to just talk about where I'm going.
What would you talk about to your stream right now?
I could talk about dinner.
Where are we going to dinner?
Magic the Gathering. I don't know.
Magic the Gathering. As you saw, we had to run some games last night.
Moses is a rat, just so everybody knows.
He's right there.
Is he really?
Yeah.
Yeah, he's around.
Now, can we get five gifted?
Can we get five gifted for Flum right now?
Whoa!
20 seconds.
I'll get five gifted.
There you go.
Wait, wait, what's the crowd here like?
Because I'm getting, yay, and I'm getting booze.
What's going on?
What do you mean?
With who?
To you.
To me.
No, I don't know.
They all like me, right?
It was like Flum, guys, I don't know.
What's been your favorite moment so far?
The other one.
Babe, wait, one more time?
Your favorite personal moment
posturing me here at the event.
Oh, this course?
What the hell?
I mean, honestly, the setup is pretty cool.
I was like a little,
I was like, I'm where?
I'm like, um, no, it's been really fun.
Like I like the arena setup.
I like how just like how close I am to everything.
It's fun too, because you don't see everything
on the cameras and I can just like look up
and see what's going on, you know?
So I'd say the actual setup itself
has been the coolest moment, I guess.
Okay, cool.
This is awesome.
Thank you for your insight.
We'll go and let you get back to your chatters.
Thank you for having me.
And we're gonna head into Overpass.
You know what, you know what,
Apex and Flom have in common.
What, Hunters?
Fuck up.
And that's the energy in the arena
that might give us some fun rounds.
I think everybody's waiting for game religion.
This show is something that we can get behind.
I mean, we got the one round
that stopped them from getting 13 out
was a great 4K out of snacks.
It's only four kills on the map.
I think the best thing about game religion
is they eliminated Astralis.
Isn't that right forward?
Get back into it. Let's see if they have any hope, because honestly, yesterday versus the
Strawl, as they showed us their ability to win the map, but that was again in a moment
where we just kind of watched the Strawlists play all around, unfortunately. So, listen,
map one's not going to leave gamer legion confident. Can they reset in between maps
without a wealth of experience? You'd think not. Are they able to topple the
the best team. Well, again, you'd think not. The longer this
could still be the best upset. So it gets greater by the round,
to be honest. Everything that happens in favor of vitality
only makes the potential more amazing. So I would get this
trade going.
And then be trapped, you've got to get an update on you know,
oh, these sales on series on stage. Oh, fine. Res is gonna
say if you guys here loses bomb, it's gonna force vitality
to move back up. That is exactly what they're looking for. An additional kill, a second player
off the A site. Bomb freed up to move into the enemy's man advantage and drops instant
with the block headshot onto PR. So Towson hiding in the bush with the bomb and catches
the player in a jump up. That isn't even enough to collect a kill. And so that one
frag versus Flamesee seems to be all gamer legion will have to work with.
Nice, that was the bomb so go ahead and plant in. It's overpass which is great
for vitality overall but you'd think because they start on P side that maybe game
really you can get a few rounds. We'll see about daddy man like there's this
muffin that Vitality can't do at this point.
The snacks saved this. It will only increase the odds that they get the
least kills in a stage match in a series ever. God I'm afraid to go down
that road but it does sort of feel the direction we're headed.
It wasn't for the Snacks 4k, that's a 13-0.
I made a grave error when he lets Daewoo get his hands on Coretta's.
Stealing that off in the first kill for as long, he weaponizes it for an additional
two kills, three frags in the pistol.
I'm really found the best five gamers, huh?
Sometimes they are doing those frag movies from four people when they have like one or two frags, yeah?
That's right, someone's getting Linkin' Parked for sure.
Okay, the B site needs no resistance either, so it's gonna be an inevitable bonk plant.
Towson burned away from getting his hands on anything and connector is still yet to be
swung.
Quick little boost up into the heaven, still pulling out all the tricks.
So that's one of the cool things about Vitality in recent times, even in games
where they're not losing per se, they've still been pulling out like that triple
boost on Anubis.
the boosens here on overpass to catch the barrels picked.
It's not straight disrespect.
No, and there's also this sort of willingness to just kind of pull out
tricks that it feels like in the history of Counter-Trike,
when you save strats for the Major,
that's kind of less and less with this team.
Like they're just pulling it out on an average weekday,
just showing you that they're, you know,
if that's what they're willing to show us in a group stage.
What the hell do they have saved for Klum?
That's a great question.
I mean, they want to be geared up
and going in the right direction for that.
I mean, the losses thing more definitely when you're winning that much, so I think apex just knows because he's just been around forever
It's not even like his first time at the top. It's not his first time at the top in this capacity
And to do it in this position as Nigel to understand that he's playing with sideways in the peak of his career
That they continue to speak that never seems to end ever
This feels like they're in such good hands with a player like him that can turn around and be like listen
This is going to end one day.
I'm going to make sure it doesn't end for as long as possible.
You guys are young.
Yeah.
You guys are young.
You might just think, OK, well, we've done everything.
What else is there?
Keep finding new records to break.
Keep finding new heights to reach.
Yeah.
Because eventually it does stop.
It's really nice to have a player who has had to go
into the depths of Counter-Strike
and then come back and say, I think, have that mentality.
A guy like Blainzy's just had a generally
upwards trajectory his whole career.
And maybe it plateaued at times.
and you know, maybe a small tic back.
But hey, as far as, you know,
with the Zuma on a guy like Flamesy is,
well, yeah, life just keeps getting better.
Hey, Bex has had those lows.
BOOM!
Valuable insight.
And a great quality for a captain.
BOOM!
BOOM!
Drops is still...
One more.
Come on, third time's the charm.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
There we go.
BOOM!
One more!
Hey!
It's a little win.
It took four grenades to kill Rocks.
It's the little win.
And then they immediately get a trade.
All that effort.
Four HE grenades to kill one Vitality player.
Who wasn't even really moving.
Sometimes it really does feel like that when you're playing Vitality.
I don't know if I've ever seen that before.
They still find the open site.
The bomb plant and the equalizing kill.
Unfortunately, Gamer Legion not keeping up to the vitality rotate up towards A site.
They had all kinds of problems on this map when they're planning to get to Strawl.
It's like they're playing too passive on A.
They weren't supporting high-packs when he was op-ing on CT side.
They're gonna go for this.
This is no kit.
They're just trying to get the kills and the exits.
But inside a bank, even exiting B is gonna take forever.
So there's a real risk of this one economically for gamer legions.
What are they going for really?
They keep the pressure on the bomb site, and as he's just going to slay you as you'd expect,
offering a smoke up.
And at best, two players survive here for gamer legions, so trying to keep the economy
honest and vitality, I suppose.
We'll see if that flushes anybody into Towson.
Low HP, no sir.
He's also toppled.
You're also coming to take out like back tens and stuff, right?
Yeah.
Like you didn't get the kills in the last round, so a little bit weird.
One, two.
I can't believe he survives the third one.
And four.
Hey, can't say Gamer Legion aren't determined.
That's right.
First gun round of map two for Gamer Legion.
Off for highpacks as well.
A lot of times yesterday we saw highpacks at time
floating around at the A site on his own.
And just being given that space, it feels like vitality
will always come take it from you.
you so he's gonna have to be on his absolute a-game but I think that goes
to the thing on his a-game when you're up against the side-pallity
yeah there's kind of they kind of need a light game out of someone
I'm getting you want to see
the great flash. It took a little bit too much time, but
high-packs was behind this. Good secondary layer.
We've got numbers high on this. Be careful, high-packs. Spots one and wants to fight.
Oh. The apex is Galil. And yes, okay, the rotation's already on site. Snacks is
not for Junko. It's Optimus. PR right behind him. That's going to be two players
Confirmed inside of the A site will Robbs
Evacuate towards B. No sticks around lingers. I would looks to get active
Swolting this off on the on the bank for the scale
Molly lands in front of the truck so I can stand here. We go small mistake
So rock looking for a trade frag finally puts an end to PR
But he's been dinked down to 11
So PR is going to be the MVP of this round a double kill from inside of the site helping out snacks
who was made awkward by the utility,
and then even this dink to what should pushrops out of the round.
I say should, just go sprinting back at it,
but Snacks has got to clean up.
First come round, Intelligent Black.
They're on the board.
There's a lot of pressure there from Vitality,
and that's kind of like, that's going to be kind of
the first tier of Vitality.
They don't play it super aggrat.
They don't go in for a rush.
They're here in a deep ball.
They've got two Mack Nents to work with.
They're finding their trades along the way.
Apex is taking a risk because they want
to get an advantage back.
It's nothing crazy so far, but it is a test that gets faster for game religion.
Right now they're going to take this next round a little bit more seriously.
They've got the money to buy better guns than they had before.
Confident move by PR, but that'll cost them 40 health.
You want this dual? Oh, and even at that disadvantage on the U-Tilt, you'll find 5B4.
Snack goes for the wallbang, making Mezzi's position onward.
Worried about that top connector peeking down, nothing's there.
Apex trying to get a chase here into the short play,
and he's not gonna let PR get away.
So that kill does come back thanks to Apex.
It's a nice fast stuff, and that's actually another moment
where they even have PR go out and do aggressive things.
They don't have a way to get them back safely.
That's not the first time that's happened.
They really do lack the protocols in that regard.
Keepin' players fully separated, two per bomb site, and Vitality will have the numbers strong
with the utility.
Just overwhelmed as B site, Towson whittled down to 60 as well, that's gonna get the
utility flowing from GamerLegion a little too early, 40 on the clock still, Vitality
could decide to wait, but they'll throw Nate to their own, try to go for the wide
angle on short.
And within that, Cousin's popped.
Snacks trying to do it all on his own now.
Desperate, but that rotates.
Come down from the A site, but Hypek's unable to hit his target
with the one shot he's afforded out through Heaven.
Nade will land.
Zywu turns back now.
Had a health disadvantage versus Rez.
But he'll play it patient, tuck into the corner, and bomb goes down.
Interesting moment for Rez.
I mean, he reveals his presence, so maybe that means
he's going to be more careful about how he swings this.
We'll see.
I would trust to find timing.
Rez worried about somebody up close, and he'll pick up the kill.
And he does so without taking any damage.
Suddenly the retakes on.
Both CTs play with Kits.
There's a flash to try to disrupt something,
but down in the mud remains vitality.
Lifex just keeps it dry, hits the shot.
Apex, he's the guy.
He's the last one to fall.
We've got two rounds for Gamer Legion.
First two rounds, one consecutively
in the series for Gamer Legion today.
Those are very hard shots for Lifex.
And I'm gonna appreciate the patience here.
I think they get the first kill.
Need another good against GR, home safely.
It was still a very nice close to the ground.
Res played that so well with the time left on that retake.
I bet he uses Nate perfectly to peek off everything.
Excellent.
And they chewed through that by,
And looks like Vitality will still have another.
Almost gets Vitality in Melbourne.
Oh, okay.
Damn, it's 70.
Still feeling like a lot.
It seems like a lot, especially when we start at 20.
Yeah.
Good luck, gamer legion.
No laws when you're drinking flasks.
It's funny to see this limitation already for Vitality, just dying on drops.
That's fine though.
Flames he's dead.
That'll be a gun to pick up.
Although he is just stuck out towards B site for the time being, so that'll remain
on the ground.
who tries to get the fallback.
Apex sends a rifle in front of him.
Snacks decides to pick up responsibility
with the smoke blooming.
45 seconds, Robs remains still on the other side of the map.
So we've got three members of Vitality group behind this one.
Robs starts to pull away, trying
to keep this win streak going at Gamer Legion.
All the wallbang, it does find Snacks.
He's able to survive it, and now he looks to strike.
Nades a hit from Apex.
Perfectly timed by snacks and he's gonna try to push his luck, but Robbs has got that cover. We hit 20 seconds
He's in position early. Not keeps on coming and it's gonna fall on the high pecs now
It's time to run at this 10 to the clock
Two players in front of the bathroom.
Hypex shakes off one of the three, seven seconds,
and it's all on Hypex now.
Plotting behind the top of the top of the top of the top.
Oh!
And the back-to-back instances of double-lock kills
out of Hypex.
That is a massive shot from Hypex.
An amazing clutch.
Time pressure.
The approach from on top of default
was the absolute best move.
Hardest shot he could have had to hit,
He delivered it.
Oh, he was so dead in the spot.
Wow.
The individual player of the game so far.
Comes at a critical moment.
Down a map, trying to string rounds together finally.
Coming to terms with the reality that is, vitality stomping you on Mirage.
You got nowhere else to be
It's only flam with dinner reservations
Still though there's a threat this losing sight of AK-47 on the field to be set up by flames these grenades
Let's have to take the first duel and take down. There's the confirmation on the players and the gun right now
Now that 8K has at least been revealed,
Stax wants to get access into the engagement,
finding a double kill of his own,
still trying to chew through the pistols.
That's gonna draw the rifle down
and PR's assistance is excellent.
Off pressure on top of Flamesy,
and this is a much needed,
maturity alive moment here for Gamer Legion.
A CT side has been born.
Gonna have to stoke the Flames as it goes on.
What, he got that kill?
Okay, he really doesn't matter.
Snacks is going to respect that though.
Yeah, he's the kind of guy he's done that before.
Fine.
Gamer legioner in the lead.
Paris rematch.
Another Polish IGL.
I mean, it's not like things get all too easy for gamer legion.
I mean they've dropped the bomb back. They're still in default. They weren't planning on having so much success so fast
Just sort of came to that just happened
Blank, can you miss it resin hypex both down in round 8 vitality want that lead right back?
These can be those concerning moments we can't really just end up looking kind of a step behind
playing in the darkness no map control and really no leeway in a 3v5 yeah
like go ahead and take a rest here cuz I mean this is actually a situation where
you you don't have a lot of money do you have good guns and also likely you
outweighed a team with five players and map control stuff but if you do go for a
stack which they are leaning towards be at least they can save if it's not
not coming here.
Oh, it's on it with the Util.
Uh, that's huge on it, okay.
Doesn't get info on the third, but that's enough to go at.
Yeah, great distraction.
It lasts very long, and that buys ample time for Vitality to find footing inside the opposite
offside.
Gotta go save.
Yep.
Off to the save you go.
This round very much ends with Rez and Hypex dying early on, and like you said,
I just felt like game religion and vitality were kind of surprised with the way they just
Happened into those frags
Yeah, they jumped up for it's kind of the furthest press that we've seen from game religion with height backs and with any other
Rifler that they've tried so far on a and well looks like they immediately regret it must be so daunting
It's like you finally have the confidence in this series to extend that far
It is instantly shut down in the opening 15 seconds. You lose the round because of it and you're no longer in the lead
There's a quick dose of reality for you
does make sense they have to they have to keep trying new things they aren't
going to be able to win rounds up sitting back on a hoping the high facts
can pull up clutch off shots like that
somehow vitality managed to have some kind of buy every single round no matter
what
When totally abandoned the idea of getting aggressive over on A, they know PR is comfortable
pushing out of short.
They still, they don't like it's hot right now, I mean, they could try to go for their
long flank timings.
I think they still want to be aggressive.
The only time I'm really worried about them is when it just gets too crowded when
they're playing in front of bathrooms.
They're playing on a dice box too early.
But I don't like how they're using res.
Scott said, high-packs has broken him.
Just set him up for more chances because the farther
he starts forward in the beginning,
the more chances he has to fall back to good spots
and do for free.
Yep.
The only risk is when you die on that first challenge,
like we saw last round.
all the space that came with it.
It's gonna be another push off on the bomb site here for Gamer Legion.
It's Rez as the tip of the spear,
so rifle in the front of high-pack, hiding in the bathrooms.
Waiting for that playground boost
that doesn't seem to be coming forward just yet.
We're looking to connect there instead.
Snacks his responsibility.
Shipped away out by the Nade, and...
They're gonna get on the boost, right?
It feels like Rez wants to go check it himself
to see whether there's anybody there,
or if maybe it's just one player waiting.
I think if he steps forward, there's an off holding it.
Yeah, this is interesting because they don't have any blue control, but they're still staying here.
Oh, so good!
He just got the headshot, but...
Sones him right back, and Snacks will get his.
Surprising, Messi turns his back around.
It was a crazy risk for Snacks. He could have got swung from balloons.
Shot from Kassan as he finds himself exposed out of barrels.
There's gonna be a scramble downstairs from the defense.
PR, in the meantime, has to do this on his own.
I mean, they're low.
He's got high-faxed, sprenzing down.
He's got his off over top of the head and legs,
but he has allowed this cross over,
and then almost kills PR.
Still, PR survives 2HP.
Auber starting to miss some shots now,
but it flames him on 14 with the bomb,
and with Zywoo behind him in 30 seconds to this clock.
You know they're worried about this off.
The short player, I mean, the CTs have a good situation.
Snacks will get this plant off without the peek.
Snacks holds back as the fire burns,
looks to blindside the planter, but now it's the planter caught out by the offer.
Zywoo is going to be distracted up and he has it, but then,
Saks gives him the fight, battle of the off.
And Hypex wins it!
Oh my goodness, he hit him.
65 damage, not enough.
Hypex finds his impact this round, again.
Another clutch.
Able to cover as PR was under pressure with low HP.
A 3K here for Hypex as he finds double digits on Overpass
and it is Gamer Legion back to the lead.
The way they started out too, I do appreciate a lot of risks they're getting taken.
One snacks goes up at the top of stairs to peek down into it, even when they lose balloons
control.
Just because they don't mess, it's going to try to scale.
They're going to try to approach the A site in a certain way.
You understand that this is a necessary risk to take.
I'm still in my valley of a bike.
Wow, some dangerous, but it gets away with that.
Insane.
You don't really get away with moves like that versus a guy like Rocks, but just
off timing. I like that. I think the smoke had him covered, but if you tried to push out on the left or
whatever, obviously be spotted. But just hoping that props already be in short or they had taken
control of it. It's good map control for Towson. Does he think that they've cleared monster
entirely? I mean, he can watch this obviously. He hears it surely, right? There's a couple
fast steps there for Vitality. It feels like Towson's still considering the connector split
at the same time, but it's very strong from Monster.
They have to know this could have been pushed by this point, so Vitality don't carelessly
step through it.
Oh, he spotted that.
Of course, Hypec's not able to punish the jump from Flamesy, who goes into the duel
and finds the bathroom frag, but it's all about Towson on the solo hold. And unfortunately
for him, it's a singular kill. That's all.
Vitality finds space here with a bomb in their possession. Snacks comes running down
to try to stop it with Flames and with an Oper up in Heaven yet again.
Hypex was critical from this position one round ago.
Snacks instead to take the duel and Mezzy's gonna best him.
Four versus two advantage.
Hypex could still be the hero yet again.
But his supportive elements have gone down, so it's all him at 10 seconds.
To get that Nade out, we're off to solo.
It's gonna bang onto the plant. Flames the 44 health.
Oper trying to find a space to push that the Rocks had shot collected.
Hypex doing it all looking for his 14th frag alone with this push off the bomb site from Flamesey
It's a big one and as he scours the field Flamesey repositions down beneath and
That's insane what a move from Flamesey speaking off of the site nice try from Hypex, but how much can he do by himself?
13 and 4 having one hell of a match
This is such a difficult round just to figure out how to read a main title of their spotting.
He doesn't get that first kill and rock drop that's killing him in the end because he peeled back and they still walk monster.
That's what they think. Oh, it's like an entire monster crawl. They're still a bathroom slurker from Vitality, so they aren't forgetting about anything.
You know, we were critical at game religion CT sides yesterday, but I felt like that round is an improvement.
Much better.
improvement. The only problem is that their opponent is infinitely better than the Astralis
game we had yesterday. As a tough round to figure out, Hypex still tries to be the hero
on an individual level. Damn near does it. Same push. Same timing. As soon as Robs feels
back, but it's the clear out shore where there's nobody here. And unfortunately so
little to work with here in the final couple rounds for Gamer Legion, they'll come through
the FAMAS scout by this time.
Unfortunate for Hypex.
He's going to feel kind of neutered
being down on the scout instead of the AWP.
Towson can't even really hold the line.
He's got to hope that they walk out of shore
at this time around.
At least they're going for the lead.
Let's him go, and that's going to put contact
into Rez's hands.
And Towson can now flank whenever he wants to.
A lot of bodies out there, though.
It'll be hard for him to flank this monster play.
All it's gonna do is make sure it doesn't happen.
Cybler's gonna lock it on that FOMS before it even fires back.
And PR is at 5'7 in the smokes.
It's a looming threat.
The Vitality can just kind of pause here.
Once you've hit the 5B3,
you know there's some lighter guns on the field.
Just get that FOMS button.
Answer back to the 5'7 fan.
Confirming your concern,
knowing somebody was up close,
ready to try to dive a bomb planter.
And so, Hypex lets them know the scout's on the field,
It's not going to have anything to stop the vitality from finding A6.
Getting those kills through the smoke a minute.
You know, you're watching Xayu and you're like,
oh, is he going to continue this spray all the way into the corner
and that just speaks to the beast that he is right now in Overpass.
That's exactly where you're going to try to hide.
Pick up a kill, which could be an upgrade to the last round.
It can even get away, but that seems unlikely now.
He just has a scout, unfortunately, will not be able to see an Op-Dex round, which is where
he's shown us the best rounds from anyone so far.
He's coming for your efforts, brother.
Best of luck.
Yeah, nice kill, but down he goes.
Majority Alive Vitality 6-5 lead secured.
And even though they had that economic pressure on them
for a handful of these rounds, we've really not
seen them all too limited.
Vitality are in the lead.
Not quite the same.
I'm not sure what's going on here.
Holy markets, last premier's prediction market partner.
Last round of the half, three, four deagles, and Towson on a UMP.
Good luck with this.
Oh, well, that's a good start.
That's Blue Control, an upgrade to an AK.
still kept his utile.
This might be a crazy move out of snacks.
I mean, we last saw him inside a blue taking map control,
and now he's readying a flank.
after this you know 50 seconds or so we can
No one that's really gonna watch this
The a commitment's gonna come in. Well, Zaheemu actually gets shot in the back. Oh, he'll get spotted
Haven't seen Zaheemu caught off by a timing. Yeah, I'm tired now rops is kind of watching this
But he's not looking at bathroom
No way he turned around for that horsey did perfect after having had players cross and I pass down there to be
two players that slip, Rops gets away.
No way, Rops gets off the set.
No way, Rops gets off the set.
He's just got all these timings down to perfection.
That's disgusting.
Ninth frag collected here for Rops, and it's looking like Vitality's leads not going anywhere.
Townsend's ump yet to get into the action.
The PR Deagle met by a smoke, and that is going to be the crushing reality that
starts to sink in.
Gamer Legion will know that they at least have their hands on this second map.
Much more so than they did on Mirage.
longer setting all the negative records but unfortunately for them it's still
just a mountain of a challenge that lies ahead in the second half. Vitality's T
side recovers, it stayed omnipresent with buy after buy and gamer legion
tried but it still doesn't feel like enough.
You have to be on a team where all of your teammates can die and yet be good enough to
turn that back on.
I'm not from Macaulay.
I'm Oz.
Yeah.
I don't think it's likely.
But I don't think any of it's likely.
No.
Well, at least 1%.
Oh!
It's not happening.
They can just get an ace as tough.
A 1v5.
Yeah.
A true 1v5.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Okay, percentage chance of it.
7, 7, it happens like one out of every 20 games.
Robs is the most prolific Zoucer I know.
I'm feeling like who else can do it?
Snacks is here.
For them, why would Snacks be Zoucing and Pile of Sweat?
It's all on my mind.
Because they're getting 13 out and he wants to have a good time.
I am going well though.
I'm thinking 22% for me.
Earlier in CS2, we were seeing them at the time.
The range on it was really long.
people even try. I'm just not seeing it as much nowadays. I'm probably more so
leading to maybe 10% personally.
This was like 50-50 even for the best teams in the world and over the top. It's like sub 60% win rate.
So we're saying not happening. I mean I would give it like a 7.6%.
I think those are generous odds. Generous odds. 7.6%. Not happening. We don't think it's happening.
To bank on this one properly, you'd have to pick the team that's getting a little late in the group stage.
This is phase. To me, this is phase we're in all over it.
I would say still the chance that it happens is sub 10%.
In fact, I'm not even going to lower it, go like 3%, 4%.
Do you think this is actually more rare than a 1v5 flush though?
Yes, I actually do.
Mollidoy has had some struggles in playoffs recently.
Zai was more of a hybrid. He was fine with the vice-faults.
He won all up every round.
I'm just gonna be 17%
Molotov. The thing is, like,
he was still has that hybrid
nature about it. What model
it does is what I offer as well.
Just possible. Exactly. One
thing that's working also
against I will hear is that
they might win so many games
so quickly. Doesn't even have
to bust out the off. Why
couldn't you just rifle his
way through a match versus.
Foot in the inner if I were
to like put a number on it,
I would be like 60 40 a
favor. Molotov getting more
outfields. I think it's
going to be a good idea.
like 60 40 a favor, Molotov getting more op deals.
So now to create our own predictions,
we have seen how desperate apex is
to get an EVP award from HLTV.
This might be his best chance yet on top of the fact
that he's showing great individual form.
Apex is so good in grand files.
That's the one that only gets me.
I would put the percentage of him getting an EVP
from HLTV around 25% of the sweat.
David Legion makes the playoffs.
They need to beat Furia or they need to beat
lose of Saze Navi.
No, it's very reasonable.
It's like a 52-48 kind of situation.
But it's 40.
So far, it's walking in.
40% for game religion.
We never doubted you game religion.
Couple of off highlights out of high-packs here and there,
sprinkled into a game that has otherwise been just
bit of a beating out of vitality. Temperature check, Nicky Zorino. They're still
Kaleemur Legion believers in the house.
That's actually a lot of healthy amount. Everyone's here to see the upset.
It would be the upset of the year. They got the life game though. They do have
Hypex having a life game is probably his best map so far of the event. He's
doing it versus vitality. I mean now we're on T side so it's not gonna be
Easy kill tracker. Gamerleague currently at 58 kills.
The number they're looking for to beat, or at least amount of kills in Arena Series, is 7B.
Looks like they're not going to be able to pass that with the help of Hypebacks.
I'll see.
Tall to go.
Keep counting.
As you see the whole lot, Trakka finds Rez a second maid. Perfectly placed.
I mean that is a massacre.
Oh come on.
Well, the first kills is what Gamerleague and me, they want to avoid the series record.
You don't even have to look him in the eye.
Never do, Moe.
Perfect grenades.
That kind of sucks the life out of the room.
GameReluj, you're going to have to do this without a pistol.
That's second frag.
It's just the first one only rez hit,
and then everybody was kind of ready to swarm,
but the second frag hit.
OK, shot, smoke, headshot, smoke, wallbang, one headshot.
I mean.
Ah!
I think he lost his mind a long time ago.
Thing with Apex is he's hurt a lot worse.
guys coming off beating Furia in Brazil.
We're going to do an FU Apex. You guys can do a little better than that, no?
Okay, looking like zero kills in this round as well, but this kind of insane.
two rounds of the rose hero kill that's healthy
now do flaunt for absolutely no reason there's enough reasons
come out game religion your pistol was absolutely flat the follow-up had no
investment it is now or it's grand finals vitality
hey so it's perfect every single day snacks will recover for the
mistake towards bathrooms with a kill on flames he threw smoke five before
advantage gamer legion you come walking through that door it's I would does not
have support here on his m4 not at all this is nice double kill from him that's
enough we're gonna get a scramble out of the bank
that is still just enough time for robs to get out and it over catches the
bomb carrier awkwardly apex is able to sideline PR and that is vitality
Stepping up to a gunfight confidently, all they have to work with really, that spam on flamesy towards the B site,
and what felt like an inevitable trade on Zywoo after he still manages to stop him.
Snacks with the clutch efforts have been valiant.
Oh, and he turns it on to Apex, but there's that mezzy wide-beak and vitality.
Ten rounds secured.
Come safe, you up that snacks, 4k once again.
All the kills on the half so far for game religion.
This really is just the ninth layer of palli. You've got a speed side of overpass, you've got the best team of all time here.
You've got three rounds to get the game closed already, ended with the record close amount of kills in that previous map.
I mean there is just nothing in your body that's being like, okay, we're actually going to be able to win this.
We're gonna get you!
Look at this thing!
You can't even get in here!
Four Deagles here for game religion.
That's what he does.
He's got a lot of damage.
He's got a lot of damage.
He just confirms there's not a lot to work with here for GamerLegion.
Still PR's headshot on Apex.
It's got vitality.
Shaking slightly off that one.
Mezzi locks into the monster wall.
You'll find the recovery show on PR.
Taliesin's got a D.G.L. as well.
They are all out there on the field for GamerLegion.
Smoking to the short side.
Oh, snap!
That was stylish.
Three eagle headshots from three separate pieces
of the gamer legion.
Yet still.
And here's the timing, God.
Couple of boss fights still left to get through in Robs
and Zairu being in the perfect timing.
Robs catching the back of your leg.
He knows the back moving towards the site.
He won't waste the moment.
Snacks is down.
Two more in front of the back.
Oh, right!
This got his!
Four players with a desert eagle headshot
across the board.
It is only Hypex who hasn't collected his.
And as he plays over towards long,
he may be tagged in for the clutch.
Someone got a Glock.
Zywoo taps Taos and Inever lower, 3 HP now.
All that remains for this one.
It's crazy because he kind of knows
exactly how they're playing it.
Now these pieces get together,
they're playing it a little bit scared.
You'd understand why.
Trying to stir up Dicebox first,
it's a little bit labor.
Rifle down to 11 bullets.
Ball it's all on top of the bomb.
And Hypex can't finish the kill.
Sairu swaps back over, but it's really that burning bomb that's problematic and his single HP won't be enough.
Clocked Deagle headshots into a post-plant close.
Gamer Legion's T-Side has hope.
Maybe the clock in at the end. Sairu doesn't get away with that.
And Gamer Legion are on the board, very unlikely to wrap them to win.
They didn't have any utility whatsoever for Deagle's. That's raw firepower.
Every kill was insane.
Sometimes it's aimed like that, it reminds us why gamer Legion can get here, why they
can separate themselves from the other up-and-comers and that pack.
You know, just all the other elements of Counter-Strike with Vitality, best of them
His name is X-Nas.
Slightly limited here with MP9s on the field for vitality.
The chance 99%
Again it doesn't sway vitality for pulling out a bot
Flash makes it awkward, but at least the smoke is right there to hide behind and there's teammates to support the play
They've actually scared him away, perfect utility
Just get Flamesy out of dodge
Nice team play to just make sure you don't lose man advantage
The first skill for what it's worth, but that's also an upgrade here for Vitality.
Possible for Gamer Legion to control that AK, so it will be found.
MP9 swapped out in Apex's hands.
Time to move, given a tease.
Then he can reroute exactly to where they're watching him, but Taos is still wins that duel.
Extra aggro from Taos in.
Janker right around the corner makes it awkward for Zywoo.
We've got one set of eyes holding for that potential connector push.
The AK slips up into the Molotov pool.
Epex is, ah, he's got to offer up more damage.
And that's going to allow them to know exactly where he is as well.
The gamer region sliced right through this forced back front vitality.
They thought they could make this happen with majority MP9s.
But instead gamer legions T side with an even further opening
Clear of the bank they're walking by okay, they see now he goes down
It's this big a board white here beautiful stuff out of gamer legion. It's well handled
Finally forced to save our vitality in this next round as well
It's a clean shot for Towson, the tap for the damage, make it awkward for Daibou to clean up.
For a second Daibou was scared, the defense was going to find something from that deep corner, but...
You could see that Daibou had entertained the thought that he was going to reroute the balloons,
but didn't believe that he would actually peek that quickly.
Debuty 1 kills this series, so they will not be breaking the record.
They'll take a win over the record, I'm sure.
Congratulations. The Mongols. Your record remains.
That's a big snack. Easy for Red.
He just came into this round with five kills to his name.
He gets to feast on some easy clothes as snacks will find that triple as well.
This is now a two-round game. Sure, T side of Overpass.
You were absolutely slammed back on Mirage.
But Gamer Legion are within touching distance of this vitality now.
backs up to 18 frags off these Ecos.
Highpacks did everything in his power
to get the rounds for GamerLegion in that first half.
Challenging a short, fast move from GamerLegion,
putting Highpacks to the tip of the spear.
and it's normally enough you can't know made the ticket from Zywoo actually so
it's a free one
something you want to spend too much money on T side overpass
Apex perched looking for movement outside connector they're all keeping their heads
Let's talk for the time being.
It's been real quiet this round.
Totally normal positions here over in B.
It's going to flash clear, not see anything.
Repeat on the inside of bathrooms.
Obviously, as you're watching, man, again, timing.
God strikes again.
Somehow it gets out of there.
Back to this shadow advantage position.
Smoke in front of 40 seconds.
Fire burns inside of the bathrooms.
And they walk it.
Play on top of the bench.
The game really didn't strike well, but through a quick spam, drops down to 40 HP.
Still sitting up first though, he will find that bomb plant.
Denied for now as it gets scooped back up in Saewoo.
Oh, it's a weird smoke.
Yeah, it is again. The same pocket, right?
We almost saw Apex get away with a moment like this from the same place.
Like, he's gonna draw attention over towards the Duster.
Good single kill from Saewoo.
He's getting his spike. It's covered.
He already got the double. Rez has got the response.
Seven seconds. He's gonna have to grab that bomb from the other side.
Oh, he's killed the claw.
But he's gonna miss the time. He's got to go for the frag. Zywoo can't run. No, he does.
Back, back around, having practiced the throw.
Hight, forces an 11th on the scoreboard.
That's ridiculous. Zywoo even hung out a little bit.
I know he knew about the clock, but still stood there just to stall him out
and then got away perfectly. There was no counter play available.
Had to hit him inside that smoke, couldn't find damage, and it's an 11th for Vitality.
Last time out, it's getting called here for Gamer Legion.
But it is actually a close game.
and the Alps coming back out for high-packs and that was also a close
round. I wonder if they're gonna try to game a lot on some kind of fast beat. We
know that they've thrown that out but it was early on in the half. It obviously
didn't work out that well. I'm kind of liking their slow plays right now
towards the A site all you need to do
hell of an effort from PR with that
multi-kill in the middle of all the
chaos it's a high-pressure situation
unfolding on the bomb site in a matter
of seconds PR is the guy that tried to
step up to make a difference close but
no cigar. Man, they forego everything, right? But this is with that double bathroom set-up
out of vitality.
They could really screw up vitality's money, though, if they pulled this out. They've got
it better by than they do. One kit on Apex.
Down here towards this B site, clearly, Gamer Legion's intended target. Robs never
took a look down into connector, either. Just kind of positions in bathrooms for
now.
You have an AWP on Zywoo.
It's a grand chance here for Gamer Legion.
It's a whiff of a bad shot.
It's good damage.
But what it's worth?
Double maid, nobody home.
Flamesy in the mud.
MP9 at hand.
Amaro's player to try to support him.
And here comes that commitment.
Gamer Legion in thick.
Short side stays off for now.
Fire at their feet.
That's going to chip away at Towson.
Zywoo's on the scene.
Yo-Yo, Gamer Legion's waiting for now.
Meze strikes off to the barrels, and that's for sure going to draw attention.
And over towards short, we've got another fight.
Snax picks that one on.
Bad advantage, Gamer Legion, despite the lower health on a few.
Zywu's still yet to get into this engagement.
That's the key moment.
Give me a stab.
She's got to get the bomb planted.
Clock is starting to bleed down.
While it's off, Hypex, smoke grenade Zywu.
Kit on Apex needs to be picked up, and it has been now.
Meze retrieves it.
And it's this cover on the walk up is temporary.
That SMG is thinking about going for the dive,
but now it's in the 1v3.
All the more awkward here for Mezzi.
Gamer Legion get what they want.
Plants on the bomb site.
And with a reload off the FD9, they'll jump in.
Neutrity alive.
Gamer Legion trail by two.
And that was an all in moment.
They have nothing to play for but the B bomb site,
and they make it happen.
Those are legitimate entries right there.
That looks super solid from Gamer Legion.
They ate a lot of the counter flashes, but to be honest, I thought it was a little long money
to put that full defense together.
They've had an MV9, that heavy switch, no, dude, probably just grabbed the gun and hoped it was an M4.
Had a few bullets left over. Oh, an excellent shot, Fred.
And this actually cues up a chance.
He's getting into double digits. Like, there is no buy right now for Vitality.
You know, Snax was the unsuspecting hero yesterday versus the Scrawl as he is now the top performer
on this critical map for Gamer Legion's tournament life.
He bests rocks in a lurk play one round ago and earns them this anti-eco.
USP is trying to push the issue into the short side and it's first blood Gamer Legion
as you'd expect with a measly buy like this.
That's all the humility they had.
You missed your one chance to really catch Gamer Legion off guard.
Nothing to blind them from here on out.
A one-round lead, the T side.
Performance here from Gamer Legion.
Unexpected to say the least, when they lost the pistol in the second half,
that was fully confirmed by Vitality for 3-0 CT side start.
We think this one was gone.
instead five of the last six rounds now racked up by gamer legions offense and
again we had that same one we went from I will we still won't have enough money
for enough didn't have one last round either that's a distinct advantage going
over to gamer legion and even though it was the bee attack that they had it
done in a while it wasn't one straight out of spawn there was some thought
behind it they made sure to try to soften up the woodwall with your
They're really playing, they're believing in themselves.
It's not too scrimmy right now, it's a lot better than the CS we got for them yesterday versus Astralis.
And I'd say even beyond that, even once they got into the B bomb site, they hit the pause button perfectly in the 3 versus 2.
Catch the dual versus Iwu, win it out from there, so that entire round, like you were saying from GamerLegion,
the initial setup and the mid round moment, all clean CS.
Now you've got these guns back at Vitality's hands, demons in overtime Vitality themselves.
Three chances to with the very least secure OT.
Zairu takes a quick glance over top of connector and res doesn't see it big kill time inside of a blue right here
You gotta look at that robs time
We'll see this but he'll die long be come back with a kill, but this will actually speed up Robb's yelling
He could still be the hero of this round
Hi Octane dual through high packs that he picks up mad advantage gamer legion tie is on the line here
And they're watching for this but they're peeling back the wrong direction
Apex jump spot we saw something that's what he needed a glimpse of any kind of presence
He calls everyone back. They're gonna want to move fast now game religion frag grenade on plainz
Apex is gonna find the kill apex. It's gonna need more than just that one
And it's another handball!
Head shot down with a high bang, folks!
An 11th for Gamer Legion off this T side.
And another moment where Hypex,
we thought that flank from Rocks,
could have been killer for Gamer Legion's mid-walkup.
Yeah, he spent it up, but they didn't get tunneled.
That was really nice.
Survives this dink.
Excellent shooting again.
Now they really threaten overtime.
Half-investment will come because actually vitality lost considerable amount of rounds now
It's a bit better than just USBs, but not by much
Try to get tricky the jumping MP9. Oh, you're gonna jump again. You think not
Surely not
You try to change up the boost but looks like that predicted high-packs missed chance to strike one down
Gotta be careful man. It's overpass
Third time's the charm.
Three different months. Yes, sir. Eventually it works. They don't know about a guy.
Dangerous to play that game. You know the offer was already waiting for something like that.
Just reconfirms.
Oh yeah, okay. And then rinse and repeat.
It's going to open the door for
Robs to get a move on.
Contacting connector, counting down to 30.
Nice, right.
Finds the head shot.
Hard one to track, right through that wall.
It's going to burn it back even.
You've still got Mezzi low HP.
You've still got Apex's MP9.
35 to this clock.
And Gamer Legion, we've seen them hit the pause button,
take their time and come out on top.
down to the wire, lethally.
Snacks clears out Flamesy, that low health of Mezzi, still problematic.
He's gonna be the next contact.
Five-seven, trot with nothing to show for it.
Here's Apex and Zeph Zeph G. Double kill, suddenly!
Oh!
Oh!
Oh!
Oh!
Kaver leads it!
Kaver leaves it, or in the lead.
That is OT secured.
Incredibly makes his comeback on T side.
After the work performance we see it on stage in a map.
They bounce back, first the best team in the world on overpass.
T side to lock in overtime.
There's a vitality playing for overtime though.
Back with the pistols and now in with the guns.
For some time, we've been watching Saibu play with an M4 out towards bathrooms, losing duels to Rez, et cetera, on the party play.
This time AWP for the final round of regulation.
This is where Saibu's had his best impact on the AWP.
And it's going to be the final hurdle for Gamer Legion to close this out in the 24th round.
Those boosts, such a nuisance.
One round to go, and Apex tries to keep vision, this time passively up for Heaven.
Facility over the top, Camerlegan know what they want.
That is a win here on this B site right now.
Blainezy has cover, he's having a rarely made check.
Someone over the wall, he's dragging, he's gonna list out magazine dump.
Blainezy's got his 12 health still to try to play.
Last two players for Camerlegan, bending down by the pillar.
Zywoo's got it over the lip of the ledge.
Must be Hivex.
And it's behind Hivex one more time.
Doesn't have his off needs to suss this out.
He can separate them down with me.
Ah! Vitality in round 24. Hang on to that B bomb site critically.
And now it gets really scary because obviously Vitality and overtime, they don't lose here.
They get pushed overtime sometimes but they don't lose here.
Apex really bolstering this defense in a couple of these rounds.
I mean bigger than he is.
Taking those fights and this time setting up his teammate to perfection.
That was actually another very nice looking exact from the team
Getting that first kill messy at the barrels flashes were working perfectly mollies were zoning
Ten and one in the last 11 overtime just to paint the picture here gamer leave in they're gonna know damn well
Look at challenges of foot high-packs back in for an entry back on an off as well
He always tests this look.
He hasn't really seen anybody walk into his scope.
Vitality do a good job of dodging that regularly.
Will this round be different?
Simultaneous multi-push out towards long side.
PR is going to look to take his chance in through monster.
Messi's played this spot before.
He's already for it.
Flames is going to reveal himself.
And if he tries to ever leave, this off
is trained on his angle.
A little bit of a flash is perfect.
And Roxx is actually an aggressive line.
This is the perfect setup versus the long play.
Why are they going to lose focus?
He's raiding.
He's still back there.
Robson the corner with multiple players to lock for him.
He finds the first one clean.
And the ops on the line.
What are you going to do?
You're going to have to fall back and hope that third piece joins you from the B site.
Trying to keep this pressure on Robson.
You're dead.
You're dead.
Who do you think you are to push Robson out of the long corner?
Not this round, Gamer Legion.
Vitality with a lead off of the back of this one.
A triple from Robson Long, set up with the trade frags back on Monster.
Gamer Legion tried to test the waters on both sides of the map, and it dries up on each end.
I am so impressed again by another good look here from Gamer Legion to start off.
It's just obviously the power of a player like Robson to deny all of this,
and the setup has long for vitality to counter this play to worth Long,
but Flamesy taking his pride, not getting tunnel visioned,
keeping an eye on short the flash to support him when they trade PR to get
him out of there there are a lot of things in place to make sure they didn't
get caught off guard by one guy on the other side of the map
when can you miss it my quality are back in the lead
It's not such a wealth of ideas.
Oh, that'll stay.
Yeah.
He's not hiding from the fight, but rather taking it on his terms.
Thrust vitality back to another man advantage in OT.
I mean the rumblings inside of this B site very obvious, so Gamer Legion try to isolate
those positions with nades.
Flashbang makes it awkward as well.
Suddenly you've given up a lot of those opening spots you wanted and you're just stuck down
in the dirt.
Oh, the rest has got to die!
There are some jumps on that!
So much movement within the B site.
It feels like Gamer Legion sensed what they wanted.
But look at the damage that's been done here.
This retake on no one on default. Nade comes up short any kind of a monster
Clicker from Zaiwuz he unscopes his Nade can't finish it either because high pecs is the one that had full HP
They don't babies walking up on this so quickly past tense now also walking wounded this 5-7 ready to clear
It'll find the first on res high pecs down in the same position smoke goes over top
This is going to open the door for rocks to cross into the site graffiti peak holds them back
And Tidegain again from Gamer Legion!
I love that from Snacks.
Taking that fight, even though it looks like if he dies, it's a weird 1v1.
He was not in a great spot to come in if his teammate died.
Excellent to draw attention away.
A response for Gamer Legion.
And a 4v5 one attack.
They got some freeze entry fraggers.
You're going to fight fire with Flamesy, throw him into the dual pop open connector, you've
got a player tucked in and robs as well, you're fighting, dining, oh no, he's into the react.
It's the view model that blocks that corner when you first pop up and it's still being
able to react to the charge, beautiful recovery.
in this one from gamer y'all.
Max is on messy out of this with the counter pick down through monster.
Sick double off turnaround and Snacks now sits 26 and 17
on the elimination map that gamer Legion shouldn't have had a chance in.
Oh, this becomes entirely real now.
One round PC overtime.
Is that gonna be enough?
That's off the snacks for this performance.
After the round that Rops just had towards Long, not getting that kill on the first beat.
And sir, Towson getting his 10th frag in this map.
Heavy hands from Snacks and PR, and PR has shown us in playoffs already his ability to recover within abs.
Got this one to the tally.
Rest's positive and rest's on top, his teammate here with vision, blocked temporarily by that smoke.
They're going to open it up, try to catch contact,
as Mezzi plays this passively for now.
Oh, he's going to flash. That's going to confirm the presence.
You've got this Rez versus Mezzi fight.
Shoot up. Yeah, Rez is going to find the headshot.
Now he wants to get out of here, but that's not a luxury afforded over.
Robson is going to maintain the pressure bottom door.
That's that flash for Maypax. It's perfect.
Ball went to position where they're going to actually have to collect this.
Regardless, it doesn't seem like they've picked the site just yet.
They play the field at the start of this round, they find that dual back and forth towards
Khan.
Now it's about grouping up, but to do so with what Max 2 smokes, that last Molotov thrown
a singular flash as well for Zywil.
It's gonna come down to the monster, dual for Talus, and he eats that flash bang,
but it does come back the other way.
It's gonna at least slow it down momentarily.
And then that shadow is answering PR, they clocked the gunfire,
he tracks in Snacks, trading back and forth.
And it's 2v2 once more, short peek comes through.
Bomb on the other side of that pillar, trying to keep his head cut down.
The bomb is snatched into the sniper out from heaven.
Hypex yet again with impact.
And now it has to be a clutch, the bomb, can it get planted?
Yeah, Snacks is gonna try to go through the spray, but it's off the mark.
Now Flamesy's on for it.
1v2, off on the first target.
AHHHHH!
Oh, it stays safe by Flainzy!
Absolutely jumped on the duels the moment his hands no longer busy!
They got a little too excited.
Snacks, SOTI had a line on that bomb plate. It wasn't flat against the wall.
You can't make mistakes at 5-0.
Yeah, the high-packs I think dropped one shot from him.
Oh my goodness.
The finest margins, great transfer, oh my goodness.
Just to keep them on us, and then same clutch goes back the other direction.
Game really decided not to overreact, game's not finished.
We want to!
Let's see if that's affected their mental.
Great chance to use the timeout.
Res delivered that first kill last round.
They could have moved tip of the spear.
Talks about us this game's going on.
Game religion impressed their plot further and further, but this time it's going to get punished.
That's their own. They blew that smoke open themselves.
And Messi's gotten further through connector this time around.
We saw him cooling down towards the ladder instead.
It's an instant kill from him.
So Rez and Snack with nothing to say in around five of overtime.
And now in a 3v5, it feels like somebody's
gone to put the squeeze back on Vitality.
So a great time kill for PR.
And Hypex on the brink of getting a chance
to equalize 3v3, but it doesn't walk out.
They purposely avoided him.
And now Towson from the bottom of the board
needs a heroic effort here.
Oh, it's cold.
On the pillar.
Great first kill clean one and if he jumped back down dodges that threat out from the monster
That's two of the three confirmed big commitment from vitality and they've got a huge numbers advantage
Towson's got to go above and beyond and his rocks comes down to clear the trade potentials there
But it's not even needed for vitality
The smokes come in it's a double retake here from the stairs. They're gonna hear people jumping
It might be both confirmed high pecs is off spin hot
They can push this up in heaven if they wanted to if they know they're both here flames to the back of pillar
but it doesn't quite do anything.
Flosch and Sozaiwu peeks into that duel, doesn't find it yet.
Hypek's trying to play both sides.
Where does the fight come from?
He can't figure this out just yet.
Tries to play the timing.
Double off retake.
Oh, crazy.
PR's switching over at 100 HP.
And the CT's right up to the bomb site.
Zaiwu's gonna bounce within that moment,
and PR's meant to be doomed.
But he will still take a swing at this with that M4.
And Sozaiwu taps the bomb,
and now it's a desperation.
It's Mezzi's denial, vitality, with one round to go.
Yeah, you can feel the pressure now from the one on two to this round couple of mistakes being made
PR with an excellent trade back after that opener
that's iWoo trapped
Punishing this broken smoke
And it looks like snacks can finally be better than a one-on-one duel
You can get vitality incredibly hard time
This is where we're reminded you can get close
Many have the records and the wins and in one and over time are vitality.
Finishing the job seems close to impossible.
Trying to chump through, Ross with the trade on Towson.
At his score line, if he killed just at least have gotten his one.
A wild opening duel for vitality and then they fall silent.
Look at the score line with any other team you think I already got there two CT rounds,
but
Drops trying to jump into the site and Messi's got the entry to really get this going.
It's number strong vitality res single kill heaven all that remains of that B defense
and snacks with Hail Mary utilities and just try to slow it down.
He's going through it because it's snacks with a hell of an effort, but unfortunately this one dries up
Legends they bend but they're not meant to break and high-packs will put that to the test as
Forced to reposition with that fresh smoke in front of him
This feels like time is against him be the most incredible feat yet for high-packs, but no reason not to try it
Over time is where vitality make their money. There's kids on the site
No utility often play life on the line grab that kit by Pillar maybe but with this huge reposition out of Mezzi
There's at least free space, but now hi-fax the sprint has gotten to occur
You've got to go time is of the essence and he's already let it slide
Who could have seen it coming?
But a little too short in the end.
I think it's very rare in esports when you can book yourself into a grand final and seem
a bit, I guess, frustrated and pissed off about the performance.
It's not very vitality what we've just seen there despite the fact that you were a victorious
Apex.
What was the score of the first map?
Good point.
We know we changed the tournament without much practice, like zero practice.
We preferred to rest, and obviously there are some moments we're shaking,
and that was the case on the other part of the city side.
But what this team is all about is the composure, staying composed in the hard moments.
They were 12-11, we come back and we win another time, so that's what matters for us is focusing on them.
Were you quite impressed with your opponents here? Did they give more than you expected them to?
No, I think they have a great team. They've been improving a lot lately,
but yeah, even without practice, we beat them. So overall, I think they're improving, but we're
still better, to be honest. But yeah, I think it was a great game to play. I enjoyed at least
that Overpass because Mirage was a bit too quick.
All right, so you go into another Blast Grand Final back to back once again against
Navi, you have their number as a recent form, but they are desperate to beat you.
How are you feeling going into this one?
Well, as I said before, I think we might maybe struggle a bit more.
We haven't practiced that much, but we're here to win the trophy.
We're here to find nothing else.
So it's going to be a great one for sure.
They really want to beat us.
We really want to not let them beat us.
So I think it's going to be a good one, and I hope it's going to be a great show for here.
Appreciate that. Thank you.
Thank you.
I
the world. It's mine. I tell
you, we'll step up and take it
indeed booking into another
grand final tomorrow. We've got
coach Exocas here with us. So,
um, yeah, that wasn't too happy
about being said that it wasn't
that clean. He said, Well, what
was the score on the first
map? But I think it's an
honest question, right? That
perspective what made it so yeah hard to play? I think the T-Side should have been better. We had
good situations. After that was 10-5 I think but it and I don't know for me we stopped to play,
we didn't have informed, we didn't use flash flashes from short etc. So basically I think
they did well as well but it was not pretty. I don't know we were hesitating to do some moves
It was not the best Vitality version on CT for sure.
Well, we know that you guys have been focusing a little more on making sure that,
I mean, the major is very, very important, right?
And you've been playing all these tournaments, you get to all these players.
I know how busy it is, how much the travel is,
and some of the members have been vocal about,
yeah, it's not as much super hard practice as always,
because we need to get through this.
Do you think that this is just a side effect for now
that's going to net a more rested team
and a more complete team when the day does come?
Yeah, I mean we have to at some point to make some favorites, but I also think it's not
only the excuse right now, the lack of practice.
I think I don't know, sometimes I feel like we took things a bit too easy in my opinion,
especially on the city side or when we lost one to one on the city side, we went down,
down, down.
I mean, I meant group stage.
So it's okay, we cannot be at 100% of the time, right?
But I don't want to use it as an excuse.
We have to improve.
No, absolutely not.
But when we talk about Vitality Floor,
that floor is extremely high.
And I guess you would be afraid if that floor gets lowered,
right?
Because that means then you're in the danger zone.
But you're not there yet.
I think that's why we are the best in the world.
When we are not at 100%, we can still beat not everyone,
but almost everyone.
I guess I would just kind of continue on with that idea that yeah group stage you guys lost a map or a couple maps actually
I think so what do you think is I mean
What do you think is the reason for that? Is it just is it just the practice stuff or what?
No, I'm a group stage on this. Yeah, I feel like we were really tired the energy was that there
especially the
The second game, you know, we won the first one against G2. It was a miracle. It's tough for me remember and
We were outside, I was like, wow, they are really tired right now.
We have to fight, guys, because it's going to be tough otherwise.
I think it's the problem, I think we...
The advantage last year, remember, when we won the Grand Slam,
we had a blast all of a sudden.
Instantly, I think it was a couple of lags.
This time, I think we did have time to digest a bit the Grand Slam.
It was better last year, at least.
We have to play in this time right now.
I think it's a bit harder.
Yeah?
Your opinion.
because I'd say like the grand slam it's I mean it is super super important but in itself it's just
that moment right it happens to be that tournament that you win it but is it mentally kind of a
big step because it's like oh this has been in the back of our heads for so long now we get it
is that what you're talking about in terms of it's hard to reset after that yeah because it's
still an amazing achievement right and as I said a couple of time on different interview for me
to win Cracow was the key because I do believe right now with our situation it's not easy for
us when it's not a grand slammer major to make sure we are still motivated to win another
trophy. Of course, a trophy is still a trophy, but it's tough to explain that, but that's
not easy for sure.
Okay, I have a question about on the good side, because obviously you've had some
close ones, but I think people are still trying to find ways to define your guys'
era and what you guys are so good at. In your perspective, because you've been
with teams before that didn't always have the most success, like other iterations
Vitality G2 and whatnot, but what makes this vitality so ascendant transcendent to the sport
For me, it's it's tough to explain but it's all about the balance
I think apex then improve a lot about giving more space to the other to bring their own ideas first of all
They accept every everyone accept to make more sacrifices for example Robin has to send more utilities with your muscle
You know, it's not like acting as a star player, so basically when we have a prep, for example,
I cannot say every game we have one room for one player or for every player, but almost.
And that's something that's really good. We try to, as soon as someone doesn't feel
comfortable on the map, he doesn't hesitate to figure out how he can improve injury,
and of course, we just have to be behind and done. So it's a lot of things in general.
So the confidence we have right now, we know we can win everything.
We know we can win the Major, we know we can win the Grand Slam,
we know we can step up, we can pop off at any time.
Last question for me is just about your grand final opponent in Na'Vi.
Third time you're facing them in pretty recent memory here.
What do you think they have in store for you?
Because they want to finally take a map at least.
I don't know because honestly, at Blastor Term, I felt like they were really good
and I thought it was, it could have been a tough game.
And I thought, I don't know, maybe they didn't show up
or so I think they would want it so bad,
the grandstand, so it was insane.
But yeah, it's definitely tough opponent,
as you said, three times in last three months, I think.
Yeah, right now.
And I feel like we are really comfortable against them.
We had the advantage last time,
we had more time to prep the grand final
I can rotate them. This time it's them. Let's see if it's different or not.
Let's see if it pays off. Thank you so much. Always a pleasure.
And we'll see you in the grand final. And we're going to kick it over to Dust, who's standing by with Flamesy.
Thank you so much indeed. I am here with Flamesy after...
What was a rollercoaster out of a series, if we're honest?
Because we'll start with the first map, Mirage.
You kind of just tore him up, if we're honest.
In fact, I don't know if you know this or not, but you actually set a record in that game.
Another record. I know Vitaly has plenty of them at this point.
But that was the least amount of kills we ever saw in an arena game from a pona.
Oh yeah?
Yeah, absolutely.
So what was kind of your thoughts going through your head as you guys were just kind of bulldozing on Mirage?
I think the the prep was pretty good.
I think we just knew what they were going to do and also we did the plays the correct time.
The individuals were sharp, but I think it's been a while since I saw all five of us above like eight kills.
Because usually you know it splits apart to one side like let's say they come A and I have a good game then the B is pretty quiet.
Everybody this game was pretty on point on that city side.
And then obviously I was exceptional as he always is and I think it was it was just tough for them because they I think whenever they had a plan
We we had the we did the correct answer against that so that that caused them to have
Basically zero opportunities and then these are just pistol and anti-ecos. Oh, yeah
Yeah, so we get to overpass and obviously you guys have a great start 70 rounds
You open up three zero second half ten five or like, okay
We're about to see a similar story at what point did you guys start to feel a shift in the game where things are starting to get a
a little bit scary?
Well, I think they played pretty well.
Obviously, a lot of rounds they won in the city
was because of crazy clutches, crazy good shots,
like two retreats, the 1v2 by Hypex was crazy.
And then they got a lot of rounds on the board,
and we had our momentum a lot of times
stopped due to a crazy play.
And then when we got to the city,
I think we had a correct idea.
But when they came, we didn't hit our bullets,
and we were not that prepared like the timing they
popped beyond the last round.
They're not in the last round before the last one, you know, we just make the plan,
I'm going to somewhere and then they flash, they come out short, they come out monster.
So it was a bit tough on that side and they had really good timings when they popped and their
executes were kind of good. And I would say like I didn't feel like we played better,
just like I think they played well and we didn't do the move we wanted to do as soon
as we could. And then it caused them to have a pretty big advantage. But once we get to
Over time the world seems like paradise nowadays.
So before overtime, what was the pivot to get you there?
What do you feel was the tone shift of the mentality
to make sure that you're able to drag this into extra rounds
and have an opportunity to do two other series?
Well, we always try to adapt.
We always try to see what's the reason we lose,
and then we try to do that against that.
And I think we just did that, and people
We played some good shots and we kind of clinched the last three rounds and that put us there.
But I think we just adapted to them, we tried to find the solutions, but we were not consistent in that sense.
We won the first round of overtime, then we lost the second round of overtime, but we were in a big advantage.
We were 5-4 and we knew they were coming B, so I think we had the answers in mind,
a bit too sloppy with the way we executed our plan on that city side and that's it, yeah.
Yeah, so what I'm gonna do now is actually gonna bring up around that you actually clutched overtime,
which was absolutely massive by the way.
Yeah, the best clutch of the day.
I'm just gonna play the clip and I actually just want you to just kind of talk me through this process
and what you're thinking as this round plays out.
To be honest, I knew we have a good situation there because when they killed the first one
And then we knew that the guy is Bars.
I think we had a good situation, but when we killed the Apex, I was a bit worried because now it...
I don't know, the offer could be here, anyone could be here.
But in this sense, I didn't know the time was so down, but my teammates were like,
you have 10 seconds, 10 seconds, and there I knew that if I plant in a different spot, you might spam.
And then here, I just... because Apex spammed and the other guy spammed, I knew they were not ready for me to just insta swing.
They might think I'm just at the back.
So this is a big inspiration from Xayah, just to go pick them and see if it's better in shooting.
So that was the case there.
I just thought, you know, because they both shot, I know where they are.
I don't think they would expect me to just swing on both of them.
They would expect me to take it easy, maybe play a bit back while I was there.
Fuck it. Bring the trouble.
Well, speaking of that, I was obviously a big moment for you.
But I feel like you've had a really big year, right?
I mean, I feel like you were definitely a very strong player the first half of 25.
I think, obviously, you have a couple other players in your team who kind of take, you know,
kind of the star role of the squad so to speak but I feel like this year I've
really seen you kind of reignited in a way. No pun intended into your name Flamesee
of course but it seems like we've seen some really really strong individual
play out of you. What has been kind of the shift in your mind kind of this
year to kind of get you to that point? I think there was many many
opportunities for me to to improve on last year last season and also the
first season even though we won everything I felt like I could have
done better individually and could have been more for the team.
I think the few things is that how I approach some of the games,
how I approach the preparation, my individual prep.
And the second thing, I think obviously the team
is doing pretty well.
And if the case is that the team is doing well on the entry,
it's obviously going to be my side to shine
and these kind of things.
And I also think that this year has
been, like my communication has improved a lot. And I think that helps a lot because
you, even if you have a shit game, even for the I am real, I play the 0-11 in the half.
As long as you keep the communication, keep the mindset that everything is fine, like you
just didn't kill, I don't care. Things are going to go your way and you're going
to connect eventually. Even in the beginning of Overpass, I think it was like 1-6 or
1-5. But I was so sure that I'm going to have opportunity if I do the things
I know that they're good and and at some point, you know, you get an entry, you get another entry, you get a you get a round here and there
so I think it's just about like
Trying to maximize
everything out of every round and out of every game and obviously focusing like even if it's you know
game religion are playing good, but even if it's game religion you're gonna prep as if it was a
Spirit Falcons like Navi all those times team because it's just you know you
You want to do your best in every game, and that's what I'm kind of approached in.
In last year, I wasn't the same, I would say with the same mindset.
I was just running around and hoping that H2 will connect.
So obviously Vitality is a team that is putting together crazy records as the greatest team
of all time in my opinion.
And I'm sure you'll have your feelings about that as well.
You're about to play your 15th best of five grand final for a chance at a 14th
trophy.
It's kind of just crazy to save.
Only lost two series all year.
I'm kind of curious, because when I talk to Apex, he knows those numbers too,
right?
that it's all about when in the grand slant spot one in the major spot winning trophies
But how much the little goals matter for you individually like these other like little records that you're setting like how much those mean
alongside the bigger ones I think in the end it's it's we want to build a legacy
We want to pass Astralis and have no debate on that
and then the second approach is that you know
eventually in
Years to come there will be another team who comes and they will be better than us and they will break every record and everybody
We will talk about them and they'll be the new trouble in Counter-Strike and we just
want to make it harder for them and we want to make those records a bit more extended.
And I think those records they matter but in the end you kind of don't care because
as long as you win trophies, as long as you win the big ones nobody gives a fuck.
If you win the Major, if you win Cologne, Krakow, Katowice, whatever and then you
can get a Grand Slam and you win like a few big blast trophies and I think it's
pretty good.
Obviously it's not going to be easy to win as many trophies as we can. I think this one for example like you know
We're in the final but we had a week that we didn't practice and and you know
You came back from Brazil back to Europe
and then you got like reset the jet lag then you go back to America and you get the jet like again and
It's it's not easy and you could see it in the group stage like how we struggle and some of the maps that were our best
You know we we start losing and we're losing our records
But we know that the main thing that matters is those major this cologne that is right around the corner because that's what we
we're coming for, but obviously, I would love to win as many trophies as I can, I would love
to get this one, but also we're kind of realistic with the expectations that we just want to
come to this tournament and give our best and see where we can get to and we're in
the finals, maybe we play at Sloppy Counter-Strike, but in the end if we get this trophy tomorrow
nobody's going to remember that and for us it was never about the recorders game
by game and and focusing on the process gives you the the records. Well thank
you so much by the way for sitting with me here and giving me such great
insights we appreciate that oh so much we're gonna let you go have a good one
we'll be back with another second here soon thank you. Thank you very much great
to hear from Flamesy I love hearing him talk a lot of inside that we're gonna
talk about tomorrow as well in terms of their form and their jet lag and
how maybe isn't that confident tomorrow which maybe is a good thing as
as well. That means on the other side of the coin though, we have game religion, we are just I think in the process of recording an
exit interview with Hypex, but before we do I've got another poly market prop for ya.
Let's go!
And this one is will the Blast, Rivals, Forth, Worth, Grand Final be a sweep, so a 3-0 right?
No. No. At Rotterdam I predicted that Navi was gonna get a map there. They didn't.
I was hoping that they would get one in Rio. They didn't.
Yum.
times the charm. I think it's five games for sure. Five maps for sure. I know that I at
least one. Okay. My analyst career on the line. At least one at least one for Navi tomorrow.
Games that League of Legends won't suck in there. Maps. Uh huh. Five maps. Five maps.
Yeah. That's how they do it here. Wow. Even crazier. Yeah. Okay. Anyway, I think the
interview is ready, so we would love to hear it from Hypex.
Hypex, so close to taking that to map three.
Yeah, it was very close. We forgot about Mirage, we went into Overpass looking into it as it's a new game.
Learning experience as well, and I mean they got closer than we expected and then we just didn't pull through.
It was your first ever time on a grand stage like this yesterday and you performed a level above here today.
How proud are you of your own performance here?
I mean, over the past I started off good and T-Side was a bit slow for me but the guys
were carrying through there and then yeah, over time could have gone either way I guess
we threw on CT the first round, I think it would have looked different then.
But yeah, I was happy with how I performed.
You mentioned it was like a bit of a learning experience, just going through a little
bit of detail about what you feel like you've learned there going up against the
best team in the world.
I mean, obviously yesterday was my first time on stage.
Today was my second and for the team, it's a new thing as well.
First win on stage in playoffs in this lineup.
So I mean, for everyone, it's amazing.
Like feeling the pressure, feeling the nerves kick in
and playing in the performing under the pressure.
It's good.
That's personally why I learned it's just like shutting down
and not listening to the noises around you.
Well, great performance from you
and congratulations on your debut on a main stage.
Thank you. Thank you very much. Cheers.
It was a pleasure, really.
They did so well throughout this tournament.
Hypex also has a couple of rounds
he might want to look back at.
He was very impressive in some of those,
so we'll be excited to see.
And yeah, Gamer Legion made a fan out of me.
Just going to say it.
I really wanted them to get new.
The crowd definitely had their back today.
Yeah.
This was a very hostile to Vitality.
But on the flip side, I do think that Gamer Legion came
here, they had a mission, find an upset here or there.
They did just that.
And that's already extremely impressive to me.
Let's take a look at the bracket because it is finalized. We get the final that we were promised
I think a lot of people will say in Navi up versus Vitality a but it is a best of five, right?
Yes. Yes, okay, because you I said five maps and you were like, what are you saying?
All best of five now in the CS world for Grand Files. Yeah, right?
Yeah, I was just saying that is it gonna get to the fifth map. Yes, absolutely
You think it's gonna go all the full distance. We can talk about it ton tomorrow
tomorrow because then we're going to be really breaking it down.
Oops, we're supposed to do something, but we're not doing it.
Okay, then warm us up for the final tomorrow then before we go at dinner.
Ooh, I mean, we got a shaky vitality, you know, wavering just a little bit.
I thought maybe that might just be a studio group stage thing,
but it even happened to him here on the stage against game release on Overpass a bit.
So I do think while there's a little blood in the water,
I think, you know, Navi might be able to shock a couple of moments
maybe even get a map, but you know, obviously if I tell you always going to be the favorite
going any game they play.
At least some map for Navi tomorrow.
Bold.
That's all I'm going to get.
Hey, you are the biggest Navi fan ever.
Because they love her.
Tux.
Come on.
There's no ancient in the pool, okay?
I mean, I'm a realist at the same time, okay?
If ancient were in this BO5 Grand Finals, two maps for Navi.
But without it, I'm getting one.
Okay.
Let's get Mirage, Navi. You heard me, Navi Nation.
Yeah, I'm avoiding it. No one.
I was looking for somebody here.
There's somebody here also. They kicked me over there.
Hey, chat.
Chat. Any Maui Snakers in the chat? Is that what you call it?
Press one in the chat. Press one in the chat if you're still here.
Ah, listen. I always wanted to be...
It's the snake pit, by the way. It's the snake pit.
It's the snake pit? I always wanted to be a co-streamer.
That's why I'm so good at that, apparently.
Thank you so much. This was a great day.
Some great semi-finals. Maybe you would expect it a little bit more
a little bit more out of some of the games, but hopefully that sets us up for a fantastic
grand final tomorrow here at Blast Rivals Fort Worth, so get some sleep and we'll see you
tomorrow for Navi vs Vitality.