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Thank you.
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good morning, good afternoon or
good evening depending on where
you are in the world. It's
counter strike time once again.
It is the Blast Premier bounty
presented by Polymarket. I'm one
of your hosts across today,
James Banks, and I've got the
legendary the man who makes some
of the craziest takes. He tries
to believe in NACS, but I don't
think I even believe in many
more. It's food. How you do,
mate? I'm great. Excuse me.
I have to that liquid game and you're gonna say you're questioning NACS. Okay, we brought in JT the
NACO and we've taken down vitality. Yes, you did take down vitality. And that is a crazy thing
considering how I'll just say this liquid have been terrible for 10 plus months, maybe two years
almost right. Just a non factor of making any deep runs anywhere. This is a statement victory.
This is one they can be proud of. And yes, it's online. I'm going to say the same thing that
we shouldn't overreact to it, but it does mean a lot for liquid. And it's a very good side with
a lease playing like that back under JT. Okay, in mid 2025, James, we had back to back tournaments.
I think it was the bounty season two and 2025 where liquid played vitality and they made it
it look really good. They got in the overtime, really close games and they did it, but they
got too old both times. I'm pretty sure. Oh my liquid could be good again. And this is
this feels similar, but so much better because that was like, you know, they can get it close.
They can be competitive. Maybe they can beat the other teams here. They actually closed
the door on vitality. They actually managed to take them down. So comparative to what
we saw in 2025 that looked positive and then went straight down a cliff off of a cliff
down the hill. A crash didn't burn. I am much more hopeful for this one.
Well, you know, who also crashed and burnt. It was the pamphas of fury. Remember I said
the ball is stronger than the pampha and you weren't sure where I was going with it. Well,
I just proved it to you in counter strike terms. Yeah, this was, this was impressive
from Dendeley. I mean, fury at warrant that their peak form, I think we have to say, Molotov
I've really struggled, but you have to be a great team. You have to have your players
hitting their shots. Max score was picking Furia apart once they got to the decider.
And you know, despite winning many of the pistols, I think they won both pistols on
cash. Once it gets into OT, that's where you're thinking. Furia, especially with the experience
of a fall in, they're going to manage to close it out. Dandelion was just the better team
there by far. And you know, I'm glad you mentioned this Max core guy because he's not normally
the player who's popping off the page for this team. And yet against Furia, he was just a new man
reinvigorated by all dominating. So we'll see if we can do that later on because we'll get to see
them in just a little bit of time. They're in for a wild ride today, that's for sure. But look at
this, the favorites are out. One, two and three in the VRS, all eliminated in the opening round.
That means this opens up the tournament massively, maybe just for a spirit, but spirit also needs
to get past 100 feet. So looking at this, right, let's do a bit of our look at the games we've got
happening. This is what you can see. That's what's left in the bounty hunters versus the most
wanted. Obviously people targeted Mongols and that didn't work out for a right. Mongols actually
looked pretty strong in this. Hundred thieves. Obviously the big win over Falcons gives us some
hope for the future with some legendary names on the team. But you know yesterday I was so good
at higher and lower. IC market said please don't let banks ever do this again. Yeah that's not what
we want to see. We want to see it be harder for more of a challenge. So they've told me I can do
a tier list today, Voo. Are you ready for a tier list of the eight matchups we saw from
back on the draft?
Let's get it going, James. Let's get it going. Okay, here we have it. The blast, Premier,
Bounty, presented by Polymark, tier listed. And here we have it. So first game to look
at Mongols versus Wildcard. I don't rate Mongols versus Wildcard as a intensely good game,
even because like I just don't have that much faith in Wildcard doing too much going forward.
Yeah, I mean, I think this was an obvious choice for them and Mongols. They had a great map three, but they did look beatable, I would say. But at the same time, this is Mongols is just going to be a better team. They're just, they have the individuals, they have the team. I, I agree with you. I don't see too much coming from this wildcard team. This is going to have to be, I mean, I don't think we, we necessarily keep it there forever.
a D minus for me. There's a D
minus for me. Okay, I was going
to put it at a B, but I'll let
you have the D minus. We're
starting off strong. We've just
a non-belief in what wildcard
we have to do here. And
obviously, Darkmeister does
exist. You know, he can do it
all. He can even all. He had a
memorable game. Who can't throw
up on that roster? Yeah. Oh,
five. Everyone going to play
a card. All right. Next, we got
foot taking on 3D Max. That's
match two that was in the order
of the drafts coming in. So for
this one, obviously 3D Max
the game. I mean, I think
there's a little bit of
overlap between why they played
magic and why they want to play
foot and you you know they did
have the upset against magic,
but when magic was firing on all
cylinders for the first map and
the majority of map two up until
they were about to win, it was
clear that that three Max just
couldn't stand up individually
and foot is just better like
they're going to be able to
and foot is just better like foot is just a better team than magic right so I think 3D max
have something to it when it comes to you know the the play style I think they're going to get
blown out of the water but at least it'll be entertaining when they get 13 nodes so we got
to put that one in a be 13 oh my god he's calling out the 13 oh already okay be for 3D max and foot
we got to quickly move on through these as well so a little bit faster from us on the mouse versus
focus focus showed up. They did beat Aurora mouse. However, two rookies coming in quite
an exciting team. I believe in Academy players. I believe in PR as well as the IGL. I will
give this is a potential of an A game myself. But what do you think?
I, I am somewhere between a B and an A. I'm concerned that mouse are just better. Similar
to 3d max foot. I think mouse are just better. But I, I, I do have a little more faith in
focus and there's some players I like to watch that I want to see some interesting things
from them. Okay so we'll stick him in A for now and we'll see how it shapes up at the end. After
that we're looking at Payne versus Nip. Now I'll say this, Stown sold me on the last game of his
AWP abilities which makes me more excited to see Nip. I didn't think I'd be saying that but I also
really like Payne. I just thought Payne was in a really bad spot. I didn't even expect him to win
their first game but maybe they can level up. So this has a potential of being a good game but I
don't know what tier to put at him. Yeah that's the problem. We're not rating the level of the
teams here. We're not rating
the the individuals were rating
the excitement of the matchup.
Okay, and NIP pain. That's at
least an A here because that
should be a closer matchup. And
there are some players there. I
want to see more from I have never
let down when I watch some ex
Kaspersky, except for the last
three months. He's really been
strongly, but usually not let
down when I watch some Kaspersky.
I think that's gonna be a great
game. All right, next up, this
is what I would put straight away
the S plus spirit versus a hundred thieves spirit struggled against OG they can say it's the first
game back but I mean they did struggle hundred thieves gonna be better prepared they have gizmy
he is british that's all you need to know yeah I mean one of these teams is you know one of the
best teams in the world they've taken down major champions they've consistently performed at a very
high level and the other team doesn't even have their coach with them all the time uh you know I
I think I think hundred thieves are clearly going to dominate this spirit have no chance,
but it you know, it'll be entertaining when we see Don't get absolutely humbled by rain
just like just like Nico was only a few days ago.
I think I'm worried about the spirit. Honestly, in this matchup, it's just like the individuals
that are not Duncan Shirah, because a lot of the hundred fees players we saw from Sierra
as well. Right. They look very sharp and they could do some damage and make some problems
here for them. But going that
is spirit in the nutshell, James.
Yeah, I'm always concerned for every player that is not talking.
Next, we've got a Stralis taking on Hottu.
This, I think is a rematch, by the way, like they played each other.
I got a pretty checklist. It was it was a very close.
Oh, I mean, it was a very close game.
So we're talking about exciting matchups.
I think this is one that that should actually be at least a I
I would put this at the top of it. I'm not going to make production reorder it, but if I was if I was doing it
This would be number one mental notes top of a number one pay. There we go. All right, this one G2 liquid
Malibu's going up against his old team
I love this and I want to put this in s plus because I actually think this is going to be the banger game of the whole thing
I think this is going to be the best match that we have in this round
I'm on I'm on the same page with you other than hundred thieves destroying spirit
This is going to be the most competitive game that we're going to have here. It's got the legacy. It's got the history. It's got the, you know, yeah, they're saying mobs versus old team, nerds versus old team. And there's so many things we want to see. We want to see
Wrinkle. Remember how to play the game and we want to see liquid. Remember how to make it to a playoff. You know, that's for sure. Yeah, definitely. I'm going to review. And then the last game, also our first game of today is phase taking on then delay. So the balls have taken down a
They're going to go up against their phase with a fake amount of stars from other titles that are not counter strike. So where do we put this because then delay is exciting. They have faced off against each other not too long ago and phase beat him even with Brokey.
I put this maybe on B because I'm not so like I think phase will just win, but I do think then delay have improved.
the way it definitely improves
but the problem is phase have
also improved so looking at it
because the last time they
played that was shortly after
Karrigan left and they had to
play with like 75 year old on a
walking stroller broke II but
wheeled him out from from the
home so that he could click mouse
one a few times inaccurately
by the way, missing all of those
to be able to do it again. Yeah
I hate lists to just stack
everything in eight year. So
we got to put this one to be
there. I can't believe you just
did my boy broke it like that,
man. That is that is awful. You
you killed broke in this one. I
don't think it's that bad. I
mean, he can he can put the
wheels back on. He can he can
get back to his level. I'm
complimenting my boy. Put the
wheels on the stroller back on
so they can get rolled out of
back on. They can get rolled out again. I think even broke. You might be like, you know what,
you have a point. I need to get it back together. You can tell I'm having a feeling better today
after being sick a little bit because I'm definitely bringing the heat today. I'm definitely
bringing the energy up and the game is going to bring the energy up for us as well. It's
the schedule for the day coming your way for best of threes as always here at the blast premiere
bounty. And here we have it right now, ending the day with mouse focus. We've got hot to a
the first game coming up. It's
just around the corner. And I'll
just say this right. Then they
have got a tough time on their
hands because they just played.
They had adrenaline. They were
hyped up into it all where
phase. Okay, they got the time
of when their match was the same
time as then delay. But I mean,
phase have been chilling. They've
been able to reset. You know,
they didn't have such a crazy
game that's going to blow him
out there. Oh man, but what do
we look at when we come to phase
right now as being they are
they such a heavy player. They
have a lot of time to play
hours being like, are they such a heavy favorite or do they maybe don't come in as that much
because of what then that I did yesterday. I think on paper phase is a pretty heavy favorite,
but the reality is it's phase and it's, you know, it's the first tournament of the season.
So offsets are definitely possible, especially if then delay can replicate the form individually
that they showed yesterday. All right. Well, let's find out if they can. But before that,
we need to make sure we speak to NKJ and get some updates on some of the roster news going
on how he's working with FaZe and Jacob that a lot of people are always criticizing.
NKJ, I wanted to see first of all, where is FaZe at right now with Nature, because we
know Jaboen's on loan, but there hasn't been any official update on his status in the team.
Can you tell me?
I don't think I can tell you.
I mean, it's not up to me, but there's going to be some new sooner, hopefully.
Okay, positive, positive.
All right, that's good.
I just keep going on the page and I'm like, just as they go for members, I never know
he's playing and then he just turns up, he's on the server, he'll just go along with us,
you know, he'll just go with the flow. He's just having a good time, man. And it does look like
you guys are having a good time. And I've also heard from your team about the structure you're
bringing, the ability you have to point out the mistakes that maybe they're not noticing. So I
wanted to get it from you first hand. Can you elaborate a bit more on your style of coaching
for getting phased back on track?
Yeah, I mean, I obviously do have some sort of technical background as well, but those
players, they have somewhat better understanding sometimes of the game than myself, right?
So for me, it's important to have a specific coaching philosophy that enables the players
to give their best at any time, meaning like we need to be putting players into their comfort
positions, comfort roles, and strategy-wise, but also outside of the server, and I like
to just get the most out of the players from a different kind of perspective than just from the
in-game part. And besides that, I mean, pointing out the mistakes is one thing, but there's a lot
more work to be done with the individuals as well and also preparation-wise and always just
being by example, bringing a good mood, making sure that the environment is really good,
that everybody's having a good time within the atmosphere or within the environment that we are
creating and yeah that's pretty much it I guess. That's hugely positive as well and very needed across
all teams and there's a member of the team in Jacob who obviously gets constantly criticized by the
community right since it's time on a team but you see him every day more than me right so what is
being done to unlock him and bring the consistency and see his potential actually live up to the
expectations because we do see glimmers of it. Yeah I mean one thing has to be said that there's
a bit unfair for Jason, I'm sorry, I'm for Jason for Kuba.
The position that he is playing, right?
Because he's not playing the positions that he would like to be playing,
that he's not, he grew up playing, you know, like he is kind of a role
player, more or less, especially on the CT side.
So for CT side, he is getting a lot of help from me doing individual
reviews with him, going over specific things that he's doing really well,
going over things that he still needs to be improving on, working on his
individual playbook, making sure that he understands that he's doing a good
job, that he's on the right track, that he's constantly improving, even if it is just like
by the slightest margin, right, but he's constantly improving, I can see it on day to day in practice.
And on T side, he's doing a phenomenal job for us in creating space, going in this first,
playing space taking roles on pretty much every map. And I think he's doing a really
good job there. And you can see that on T side, he's a lot of times feeling more comfortable
than on CT side because he is more in his element, you know, like a bit more aggressive at times.
And on CT side, unfortunately, like I said before, he should be doing the role part,
doing a lot of times anchor positions. And yeah, if you're, if you're never used to,
or if you never have played it in the past and you have to get used to it, this is a, yeah,
unfortunately, long-term process.
Long-term process, a lot of words to say about how NKJ is running the team right,
But also what's going on with some of their pieces there Vue? What did you make of that?
I think calling Jacob a long-term process is pretty accurate because it's been a long time and the process is clearly still ongoing
Do you have faith in it though? Do you believe in like with some of that because we see I said this you last time we see
Glimmers of what Jacob can do right and there is a reason why he was picked for this team
Yeah, I mean
I completely agree there. There's a clear reason he was picked from this game. When you see him activate, he can be extremely difficult for other teams to deal with.
I do give him some credit as NKJ is talking there on T side. You often see him activated a little more than on CT side where he has to pick up these alternative roles.
We honestly, we saw this with the mobs when he went to G2 where he's playing those anchor positions and then you're questioning, you know, is that how he should be used?
and he adapt to that. Is that working as well as possible for him? But at the end of the day, he just, he has to be better or more consistent.
Like he, he, he doesn't hit these peaks nearly as often as I need from a player that that is as in, you know, as inconsistent as him.
You know, you call all the way back to a config, you know, config was extremely inconsistent. But man, he hit those peaks like insanely highly and a lot more often than Jacob has been recently.
Jacob has been recently. So if we're talking about FaZe, I do think that he just, look,
we saw the first game, we saw the first game of this, of this tournament. He looked amazing.
If he could keep that up for, you know, one out of three best of threes, then that's what
you're looking for from that, that style of player. I think before I let you talk anymore
about then delay and we move into them, I'm going to just play out the interview straightaway.
Let's hear from koala. You do win this game. You will be going to Malta. You'll be qualified
into the LAN finals, how important is that for you guys
who are right now at least, right?
Trying to grind your way into more of the bigger events?
Yeah, like when we qualified to the major,
we are just us and Senors, I think that was like five players
that didn't play the major before, the qualifying.
So for us, like we are a new team.
So to be in the playoffs of the TARIS event
growing up as a team, as a player, to get more experience for me, for example.
I think that what separates us from 90-Z right now, when we were playing against them in South America,
if they weren't there, it was going to be us to win a lot of games, get some serious invites.
We lost to them like three finals, something like that. It's the experience.
It's the experience, they have more experienced players.
So when we get to the finals of the tournaments
or some close rounds, they play better.
And this makes the difference.
So I think when we, if we qualify to the playoffs
of the Blast Bounty, we'll get more experience
and play better for the next term.
It's gonna be really good for us.
You win this game, right?
You'll make another playoffs, you did it at XPL,
this obviously potentially a bigger setup for you guys to do. How important is that right now for
where FaZe is at and trying to grind back up this VRS?
It's immensely important obviously. Every tournament that, especially in the T1 region,
that you can make playoffs where you can just attend and do some upsets, farm some points,
is immensely important. I mean you can see a lot of times teams dropping out of the top 20,
grinding their way back up like Nines you've did for example over the past six months.
So every tournament that you're attending is really, really fucking important.
And so with this one, obviously everybody wants to be on Malta,
be playing the playoffs of a tier one tournament.
And I've been a bit longer, you know, last time for us was Blast again in Fort Worth.
So hopefully that is a good omen.
But yeah, let's see how it goes.
I'm excited.
Are you excited, James?
Because we got some kind of strike this wonderful morning.
I mean, the internet is in
absolute shambles, but we'll
see if then they could make it
even worse. With a potential
upset versus the likes of
phase. So what are you looking
forward to in this matchup
specifically? Are you looking
looking for some Jabo in
superstar before the
matchup? Yeah, I'm
looking forward to the matchup.
I'm looking forward to the
the game. I mean, you know,
you're not going to go in.
Super star performances. You
know what was drawing your
attention? Well first and
foremost, then they need to
answer the call once again. A
late night for them in early
morning. Um I mean, gamers. I'm
sure they'll be fine. You know,
the famous should be winning
this. I think the panel is
confident in their expectation
from phase. So yeah, we're going
to see some explosive stuff from
Ok, used to this brand switch up.
Ok, well, Jabon will be outside with the USP, looking to snipe.
The bomb outside as well here, so it will be cautious.
Very cautious, and it's a feeling that Jacob pushing Lobby to kick things off it.
Nice initial control, that's going to force that action outside.
Down into secret, they go.
We'll see what's Gendale can do.
We do have Twister, of course, on this lower site, ready to deliver the defence.
In fact, the rest of the CTs also getting in there as well.
N2 is actually just crushing it, making it a non-issue.
R-DN, finally taking control of the lobby.
That has a lot more to do than that.
Two pistols, can be better than one.
Three plays to find.
Maybe that'll be a help.
Two on the ramp.
Something about some kind of triangle of doom for him.
It's been a favorable angle for an A2
We'll see if things finish off there as well there's a bomb that needs to be rescued 45 seconds to do it. What is
Audien thinking about here
There's no no Kevlar to save
So is he
Saving Julie's he's getting the morning sunlight James
I mean it's a very long rotation.
I guess he thought he was an
impossible situation, so try to
use the time afforded to him. But
that will be denied. Maybe
then delays an evolution of, you
know, coming out of the water
now you're on land, although they
came from being a shock. So I
guess not. You know, I'm a big
fan of sharks. So I did I did
like the old team name, but I
can accept the name. Yeah, I
So I did like the old team name, but I can accept the new one.
Yeah, that's fair.
Ooh, careful where they're my balls.
That logo does look like someone's fed him something dodgy.
You know, he looks a bit crazy that ball.
I agree with Banks' comments about all the stars on FaZe, which are non-CS related.
There should be a rule against that.
I think Valvidy to put the hammer down and say no stars unless they are from Counter-Strike.
I was also looking at the jersey and I'm like, hmm, this seems...
Yeah, it's like, we don't live in a world beyond CS. I don't want to see these stars.
What is it from, you know, I don't care what they're from. It's not from CS.
Call of duty perhaps?
They should be tape on those stars!
Get your call of duty stars away from me.
We do have the force fight from Dendele.
I wonder where they're going to go with this one. Obviously...
this is a map that has all these close ranges if you can just get through the
choke point so that's really the main issue of course perhaps ramp is to be
the selected position you can see that the forward space around ramp has
actually been largely given by phase not playing too too close to burn the
closest player there that MP9 it's gonna be playing off the contact of frozen
They're going to put a star on their jersey for that.
They're going to put a star for Mindsweeper.
Dude, Mindsweeper. I haven't played Mindsweeper in a long time.
I bet there are actually tournaments for that.
If there are like spreadsheet tournaments,
like Excel spreadsheet tournaments,
I thought there should be Mindsweeper tournaments.
Yeah, where do you stop with the stars? This is already out of control.
Well, save now for Dandelion. They're going to get taken advantage of.
So, Jabon, already with the AWP out, that's gonna be fun to see.
Yeah, I guess he was printing money, wasn't he?
Cause he got like four kills with the MP9 last round, so that's actually so nice to him.
Swimming in cash on those rounds.
Jabon would be a good demo for like people at home.
I think this CT half of Nuke, just to see how he keeps the surprise playing different
positions.
That's a really nice spot to catch players parking towards that red box.
But yeah, you got some inspiration onto how to play AWP on CT nuke.
I think Gibbon will be good there, MotorWatch.
Don't delay able to drop the twist at least.
Second one would always be good.
I think on an eco like that, two kills is a great round for the eco inside,
but it won't get that far against FaZe.
So I'm curious what Jaburn's going to do in this game. How much rotation will we see?
You know, we're going to see like a very active rotation between ramp outside.
Maybe you can do some of those lobby pushes with the AWP sometimes.
You know, there's ways to mix it up. I'm curious, you know, some teams really will approach it differently in terms of how much freedom the AWP will choose to have.
But to begin with, Jabon still the sentinel outside with the AWP, some fast movement, so take that outside space.
You got RDN dropping already very quickly and he's going to get shot in the back, very good position from Jabon there.
But drop down the vent and look at him go, Dendeley, rushing to the lower site.
A monotope will be collected before the CT is looking to rotate, but Twist gets decapitated immediately.
Dendeley looking dangerous as they did yesterday.
Great position so far, trying to fit the numbers yet further before hitting that bomb plant, but a trade to be good enough, go follow with two.
Leaving Frozen and Jabo in a tricky spot.
Two on three. There is a kit near the bomb site.
They will not pursue rounds, can get expensive quickly, twist with just over a thousand dollars.
sort of look to hold on to what they have as Dendeley gets on the get on the
scoreboard early he's sensible choice I think it's fair to say yeah very nice
explosive quick play from Dendeley that's really cool to see this is a
catch phase off guard largely speaking that pace so we'll see if phase will be
more ready for such things I wonder if Dendeley would try to hit that pace
again. I'd be really curious to see what their choice is.
Yeah, go follow with all the frags in that round. I think two of them are still on zero
so far for them to aim and choose a weird stat when you see them charging. You get the
frags there. Two after planting the bomb as well, so go follow doing the heavy lifting.
Of course, he needs his teammates to create space as well, or just about the stats. We'll
see how things continue. I'd love to see a third map of Cache here. I was watching
The series yesterday.
And there were some really interesting plays around the A bomb site on the cache.
Which I'd love more time to talk about.
We'll focus on you for now.
So you're asking about Jaboen and potential rotation for now.
Still opening on the outside, but I do see him moving around on the radar.
So we'll see if he can keep the surprise if he announces presence outside.
I feel like they're threatening an upper split again, Dandelion, they're going to try to drop vents, they've got some outside control now as well, so it does feel uncomfortable, I feel like for phase at the moment, we'll see if they can find some initial shots on the defense or not.
I'd be in a nice position that potentially to burn how
It's gonna be native getting caught off guard immediately by koala. Let's trade though to keep this bomb sites
Good stead here for face
info for the T side. I think they're trying to the run distraction go follow again in that
Anti-lobby crunch position who has lost the bomb this timing not working up a dendulate
I think the lobby guys were trying to distract what Ardien got into position
He saw the rotation from Jabo in earlier on.
How much value can he get, though?
Not enough, because Jake hits what is back.
And now Max-Core is the only one standing.
22 seconds.
Time to squeeze out what else he can from this one.
Get that bombs in the lobby, so there isn't a round.
We're on the cards here.
No more damage to be done.
So unfortunate timing for Dendeley.
Again, they saw Jabo in.
I mean, Ardien was very, very patient.
Saw Jabo in rotating towards Hell.
So they've got great opportunity.
as you see the NAVES flying into the A1 site, just running distraction.
But then losing the bomb carrier in the aggression from FaZe in the lobby is a huge problem.
And he just couldn't get here fast enough.
Yeah, that was really good from FaZe to find that timing to go active,
to, as you say, get that action started in the lobby position.
Because they were slowing down because they were trying to make sure that they could get everybody in position from the outside.
do they have that flying through heaven as well?
So there's a lot of danger points for FaZe,
but FaZe made that hit happen.
They took the initiative away in the perfect moment.
So massive credit to FaZe and good experience
to kind of hold that, find that timing.
And now they're rewarded, you know, four one up.
And their economy is still in good shape for the most part.
And it's gonna be interesting though,
because then they'll be, I imagine,
pulling out a different opening in this round.
They do have the AWP on Max-Core.
It's going to be a round with less utility
than maybe they would like.
So we'll see if they opt to go either fast
or be more pick-oriented.
While a dog in Max-Core still have only one frag a piece
as we move into round six.
So there's not a lot going their way
in these rounds, it feels.
Again, even in the late stage
where they're trying to make it expensive
He's lost now outside for Dendeley. They've got to figure out a recovery, but they don't have really much utility left
Sishing lower looking for that lower bonsai plant frozen. It's on the other end of it
Maybe Dendeley were able to take some extra steps there if doc realized that there were essentially three people
He was engaging one shooting to his left
and two up top
There's a lot more to do here and again
Not enough fragging at the moment with these AKs for them to late
Frozen's got a difficult angle to deal with and time is on their side phase
Basically the place that comes through down goes to follow
Are the ends able to trade and we've got rotation into that ramp position maybe awkward for jupo in
12 seconds to get the bomb planted
This feels so difficult for for them to late
Looking for one more
They two will trades and RDN is in no man's land
Brutal brutal brutal brutal brutal some position there again, there's some position for then delay, but they're not
Making it too hard for phase
Yeah
Yeah, like the they need to drop more players
Yeah
One of the two, you know, the area you see I think that
They just get the pressure on before the bombs got down.
And that's kind of the problem because you can see how exposed the planter is and how
little time there is.
I mean, there's no time to get post-plant positioning.
So, it seems like they get in close, but just missing that last step to being in a spot
that they can contest more effectively.
And it's time to get away from them, five to one advantage for FaZe as the economy is
still looking pretty healthy for FaZe as well on the CT side.
So then they're going to be up against multiple gun rounds and what are they going to be able
to cobble together with the pistols?
I've got to give credit to Twitch for giving his teammates space to trade through the double
doors on the B bomb site there.
the leads to help the team succeed.
Did a lot many...
I'm just for this team, Jaboen, 8-1 now.
The struggle is real for Dendeley.
I know someone's creeping somewhere.
I'm not the end of the bomb trying to trade, but...
Not today, says Jaboen.
This is dry, man.
to enable them to have a good post-plant, and in that particular case, it was the timing that made the difference.
And see if they look to get a faster timing here, we will see the NAZM adorning and a smoke kick.
Not only do they then dive straight into the upper pop site instead looking for the entries,
with the Max 10, where are these CTs though? They can't quite see the climb them,
and it's a rather elated effort, and one in which Faze are having every luck with.
Yeah, they are really being
stifled by studies changing the
pace. High urgency. Just can't
find anyone to shoot. That's
so awful. You're running around
and you can't even find them to
take the door. Yeah, and then
again, it's a scenario where
it's a question of damage for
koala. Just trying to get some
more frags to keep the CT
spending, but there's only
Again, this must feel really surreal and bizarre for Dendele and how this T side is going for them at the moment.
Looking at their history, they had a five-game win streak on Nuke between May to June recently.
They've got plenty of experience. I mean, they're playing a ton of Counter-Strike.
They've got plenty of experience on this of late, plenty of successful experience,
but FaZe may be posing a difficult prospect for them at the moment.
None of their games on you were against phase of late.
So learning some expensive lessons.
Yeah, because again, just just winning jewels and sometimes finding them
as we saw on that rush towards eight has been the challenge for then delay.
And we're going back in again. Nice opening, though.
Of course, man, you'll see this more to go from that.
Again, this round is good, but then look how fast the phase players are to the defense.
Now, just Gifolli left, it is a 1 versus 2 with loads of time on the clock,
but no weapon and no bomb, more importantly, the CTs are going to be on top of that.
It's stuck on the upper bomb site and Gifolli will at least be repositioning.
So that will enable maybe some potential for a timing that could work.
But look where the bomb is.
Jabon right on top of it.
I do believe...
Oh, actually, no, he swapped angle. So closing the distance. He's found a blind spot. He's found a blind spot. Oh, it doesn't matter if Jaboans ready.
Is that 11 for 1 for Jaboan?
It is.
This is the pick of, of Dendeley.
And again, you know, sometimes on your T side, it's about shifting away that economy until you can break the CTs.
But Frozen's got $12,500.
Gibbon's got $12,500.
So what more needs to be said?
And that's why I do highlight the fracks
at the end of the round.
They're losing as well.
Like everything's just lacking at the moment.
They're not giving them room for success by any measure.
Yeah, back on the AKs.
And there's been so many different approaches
that have been tried so far by Dendele,
which none have really worked except that one rush
to dive down into the lower and they haven't,
I think they've tried it more than that one time.
That was, I believe, their first gun round.
They've not planted a bomb in any of the eight rounds
they've lost, which, again, max loss bonus
will just give you more tools with which to execute,
and we see how important the wall of smokes are outside
amongst other things, but, again, situations like that
Let's make things a little easier for your opponents.
this. They're going pretty deep frozen. Understands exactly what's going on. That is definitely
some experience.
There must be someone here. There's too many people online able to solve that. And again,
they have the money. They can choose to play for the exit and just keep those teams spending.
A much needed round coming the way of Dendeley. Again, this is their pick and you don't need
to accrue as many of these last rounds as they can in this half.
FaZe have previously beat Dendele, 13 to 8 on Mirage.
I think that was in May.
Currently, 88% victories on Mirage for FaZe.
Ryze is 40% for Dendele.
We've seen teams win each other's match before.
They can have some confidence in Dendele's performance
yesterday, whether they win NewCon or not.
but they are learning painful lessons so far in this half.
Yeah, are they able to repeat the success there?
You know, you might see some changes for phases set up as well
in how they will defend the upper bomb site.
Two doors broken.
It's going to find an early one on to Koala.
That's really nice to find.
Taking that line through Squeaky into lobby
and it's a much better defense.
Getting out here is very difficult though.
Doc is providing some excellent work to entries, and they're in.
Yeah, a really good spot for the squad.
I say as Doc is dropped by Twist, that will change a fair amount.
There are pop flashes here.
I think Jabon is lined up to pop flash his teammate in to that heaven position.
Here we go then.
There'll be a burst.
One drops to run distraction.
Frozen so quick to look to the left after looking for more time.
I'm not sure if you've seen
a lot of players in the red here
for plays though, but they will
be able to find a successful
retake. Simple fundamentals.
They're part flash and swing
one drops one stays high. They
win the jewels that they often
as they often have in this half.
And they will deny then delay
an extra round. Finally a bomb
plant for them. But at this
point, it's not enough.
Especially after they just
So, come down, we'll help you.
Hopefully it'll be nice to get some extra stuff
into this final round of the first half.
Faze looking to secure 10-2.
They have looked indomitable, like you say.
The lack of bomb blasts really does tell the tale.
Jabon back outside looking for the garage peek.
He has been really quick this game so far,
still only on one death.
Love to see that.
Two is gonna kick things off,
taking the silo player down immediately.
I'm not sure. I'm not sure.
Dandelion were. Deleted on
mirage by fury yesterday.
Some food for thoughts. Maybe
just just climb through lobby
onto the roof and just killed
someone. Got traded by us.
That's just brazen bold. I
love it. That's a great thing
to do going into the in the
showing no respect to your opponent.
And this also just, like, just ruins the timing.
Then delayed a standing here at the mercy of FaZe's aggression and utility.
Down to Doc to try and make a difference.
He doesn't have the bomb though.
It may be a challenge for him to pull rotation or find an impactful flank.
Yes, he's downstairs, but...
Oh, he's going to break the window as well.
Okay, so there's some sound acutely face. How do they respond to this?
Yeah, they got this nice lobby set up
for now and there's the
Attempts at moving in
The in goes down and they know exactly what the follow is. Oh wow, what a great
Second kill from the follow to make this one look doable, but not ready for twist there in the hearts now dog 16 HP
It needs even less time on the clock
He just has to charge forwards. There's no time to do anything other than this.
He has to be so quick to the shots, and Twist is a bit quicker, 10-2 at the end of the first half for FaZe.
And now the club is dead! They've started!
They've started!
They've made their dreams come true!
The first day to see the way it's done, they will hurry up!
Any vision closer than they've ever been?
To the top 16!
A seven year hiatus for China in the top 60s of the major.
Lin's vision to break it.
Eight round hiatus, or rather eight years it's been, they take it.
Lin's vision, all the way from stage one.
Stand up, jump up, Emilia can't quite believe it.
They're trying to get closer towards that exit out for Squeaky.
Cybers ahead of the pack.
He's going to drop us into the open, but he won't get punished.
Able to go back down against the cover.
Tri-spin second serving.
This has got him bested. It's pressure on Alexi with 18 health.
One on the line. And it's Rops figures this one out.
It's an active desperation left for Bit.
Do you really want to push that with an off?
He has no time. He has to run this in.
Navi's thought, once upon a time, they had this.
And with fire at the feet of the player on the right,
it doesn't go deep.
Messi's able to just walk in this spot,
and patience pays off.
Vitality, rip, footwork, heart's out.
It's kind of a little bit hungry.
See if there's anyone that wants to flash him in,
if you want to take a further peek, that might be necessary.
But, oh, never mind.
Don't need a flashbang at all.
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
The old-fashioned break.
Three, two, three, round for Simon before Nico.
Go.
Had to get it warmed up, but he's very fine, LP.
He still gets one more head shot.
Give him a chance.
It might be possible he's definitely spotted it out.
One of the few players in the world
that could win around like this one.
15 seconds.
He's actually so deep in.
Nezzy doesn't see it.
He's not aware.
Mike is three, two, three, head shot.
And now it is on.
This man is a demon.
I don't know what he did to become this good of the game,
but there's hardly ever been anyone like it.
And now he's hiding.
I bet the pressure was on Apex.
He knows he has to walk into Nico's domain.
Can he find him all the time?
He's nearly there.
Nico ready and waiting, just hiding.
Waiting to step up.
Footsteps being heard on the other side.
I'm not sure yet.
Renee, no, he's not up in the hallway either.
Oh, this is the shot!
It's so close!
I can't believe it.
Shall we have a look? Shall we have a quick look?
Nico, you might need to start going to the gym.
Yeah, I mean, I don't think this was the gym. This was just the anger, you know.
He's even more ripped now than he was when he made that hole in the desk.
I mean, I don't know if you
know that. I mean, you know,
you're not going to be able to
go through the game. You might
be, you might be going
straight through next time, but
back into our series here first
series of the day, then delay.
On the I mean. I wanted to say
on the struggle bus versus
phase, but I don't even think
that really. Describes it well
enough. It's rough. It's been
rough out there in that first
time. It really has, but it's
over now. Of course, they'll be
again the numbers don't look great on them for them on mirage so I think they need a miracle here in this first map
Well, there's a Jacob with the opening on Sega follow the player hidden though
Koala as a good spots the crossfire as well potentially
Playing the bait while it now springing out from a hidden spots finds Jacob
But the bomber goes down on the lower side four versus four in the afterplots
to be made that way. No bonus
money to be had for doc. So this
is a rough situation in the
deed for then delay. Like how
Japan gets the three K in the
pistol there. I was wondering
you know how long is he going
to be able to hold on to this
one dead stat line? Well, he's
managed to survive three
pistol doles and, uh, and yeah,
Japan 15 in one at the moment,
so that's that's a fun stat
We are 11th to 2nd here. It's a phase looking at a very fast first map in this series against Enderle.
We haven't really been able to find too much success and you can see that the predictors of predictorizing that phase indeed are quite good for this one.
Yeah, perhaps those numbers made sense then.
At the beginning of this one, heavily favoured phase.
And I think if the whole series is to play out in such fashion, then people may lament
the loss of Shuria over time on the last map, but did not win the right rounds.
a perfect storm for FaZe, really good nice for Moron in this series and again, there's
nothing with the historical numbers to give you confidence and then delay going into Mirage.
Ain't looking good, Brov. Ain't looking good at all. So they'll do what they can in what
It's possibly the last round of the match.
They've barely got grenades with a minute 40 on the clock due to Dendeley.
They'll really need something to go wrong here.
Twist made beat expendable one in this round, the MP7.
Creeping outside looking for CT aggression.
FaZe can feel...
I don't know if there's a place to be made. I think they make yourself to wait for face
to show their hands.
Yeah, it's really hard. Like you say, with no needs, you can't. It's hard to set stuff
up.
MP7 in secret is less than ideal.
I can't see a bank set up here but I mean if you're gonna lose personal during this
Go follow mechestep
Chris needs to do a 180 bogey at six o'clock
Oh he hasn't seen him
For the team I've been formation again
He's expendable man, they can come through now and bleach the floors and finish off the job here
Very very tough indeed equal other all the hope at dope
the game. I'm not sure if
that's the right thing to do.
They might take that's gone
to Bowen gets himself at 3 of
the end of 19 and one. What a
score line to finish the game
with. My goodness. That was a
fast one. Fast one. Indeed an
absolute domination coming out
from phase. This looked almost
too easy. I can understand the
you can't do anything. Nothing
is working from start to finish.
It's a lot of pain, but I mean,
sometimes it just be like that,
boo. I mean, that was I was like
ripping a bandaid off, you know,
just get it over with quickly.
Don't put them through even more
pain to have to make this one
last all that long. I mean,
things just had their number
from the start. I think they
had an idea of what they wanted
to do in this game. The problem
game. The problem is their idea went horrifically wrong. You know, they continually tried for
like these little outer prods. They were trying to take straight up engagements. It wasn't
until they finally later on in the half went for a couple of upper executes that it looked
like they had any opportunity of winning. But I mean, when you have Jay Bowen playing
like he is there and you're trying to prod outside, he's just going to be taking you
down. And then Nate, you and Jacob are going to push into lobby and kill your whole team
at the same time. I mean that was just a textbook from FaZe really just like picking them apart.
Dude, he was just owning. Jabon was just living the dream at 19 and 1. That is crazy work. That
is crazy work. And this is why we've been hyping this guy up a lot, right? You can give it to
a dandelion that like, oh, we obviously didn't have as much time to rest, to reset for it. But
when I spoke to Qualer on the interview, he was saying like, this is not an excuse,
We've played worse situations than this. We need to be ready for it
But you might not be ready for this new level of phase you mentioned about the broken difference while the jabon difference is huge
Yeah, I mean when you're looking at what happened with fury and dendal a yesterday
Mollidoi had a very tough game J bowen here had the most comfortable game of his life
And it's not even like he you know, of course 19-1 you played well
But you look at the the shots. He's hitting he's hitting a lot of kind of easy shots
It's nothing really all that complicated all that challenging. He's in the right place at the right time not missing and
Dandelion just kind of made it easy for him in a lot of these just walking in walking around elder not a lot of utility not a lot of trading
It just as much as I want to credit J bowen for a 19-1 a performance great game. Broke. He could never at least not the last
I mean, it's like, I'm just
hitting the shots. You know,
I'm just making it all work. I
will say this continues to go
from the I know it's only the
second event he's had for the
team, but like he just doesn't
have these crazy negative
downward performances. These
matches right? He's been able to
stand strong in his own and it's
got to be hard for being a rookie
coming into phase, you know, but
he's got some kind of a
little bit of a little bit of a
little bit of a little bit of a
little bit of a little bit of a
little bit of a little bit of a
coming into phase, you know, but he's got some confidence with it as well. And I will
say this now, a little bit worried about then delays confidence, man, because I know we
can hype up them beating Furia. You mentioned right, Molotov not being able to perform in
it. But like if you are not on your A game, when you've got twists, when you've got frozen,
when you've got your bone on the server, they will eat you up and punish every mistake that's
going to be shown.
Yeah. And the crazy thing is they didn't really need twists and frozen. It was, it was everyone
else on the server, you know, that was, that was popping off. And I would say I'm more
than a little bit concerned. I'm extremely concerned, especially you look at, you know,
the performance you had from MaxCorp. When you're looking at that fury again, he was
doing exceptionally well.
Normally that, yeah, he pushed them over the edge for that one. That's not normally his
performance level. He usually struggles a little bit more. He was able to isolate some
duels against Molotoway. Molotoway loves those 1v1s, but MaxCorp was winning them. Now he's
really struggling on the bright side. T side new very tough to deal with very, very hard
map. And now we're going into the easier in theory, the easier Mirage and cash problem
being Mirage is obviously phases pick. Yeah. And that's going to mean more problems
for him as well. If you're then delay, right? What is the thing you're looking at here is
how you brush this one off? Because the thing is for me, they're still such an inexperienced
You know that all of these events in this current time is about getting this experience going for it
And I'm pretty sure this is like something they haven't had to deal with before
Yeah, one of the things that I noticed on nuke we we actually have a round we can pull up here. We have round 10
By the time they got to this round, it's too late in the game
But they do see something here
They do the exact same exact a couple similar eggs that a couple rounds later and it similar to those quite well where they can have very clean very
coordinated executes. When they actually pulled these off, they did show that FaZe had something,
some crack in the armor that they could actually attack. The problem was that they didn't pivot
into this until too late. They came into this seemingly with a very similar game plan to
what I saw that they ran against Furia. They were looking to isolate some of those duels
and against Furia that worked really well. Maybe they're seeing against FaZe. We have
to run a bit more exec heavy. Of course, Nuke very different map than Mirage, but at least
maybe they've seen something. Okay, our exits are effective. Let's let's pin it into those
a little earlier in the game if things are going wrong. And Koala told me in the interview
as well, right, that they do all of their own preparation, right? They each play has
to look at themselves and be ready for it. So maybe this was just a bit of learning
for out it that came too late, you know, not understanding what was happening and where
they would have an opportunity in there. But that could be expected for a less experienced team.
100%. I mean, this is like, this is a Dandelion team that they, they're playing against one
of the most experienced teams out there. They're playing against a team that had a little more
time to prepare, I think, or at least calm down from their last series. This is a, this
is a phase that came into this one prime then ready. And I think Dandelion just need, they
just need a mental reset at this point. Let's see if they can get themselves the mental reset
and we'll have a bit of a reset here on the desk. We're going for a few minute break and
Then we come back and we'll be discussing all things Mirage between Dandelion and Trace.
I'm not sure what the
is not looking good for then
delay after an impressive win
over fury at just last night.
Now they're going up against
the phase going into Maraj,
which is phases pick, and this
is one where we've seen good
So confident and their confidence, especially even for players like Jacob is gonna be riding higher from what we heard of from NKJ during the break
Right or doing into you. Sorry. Yeah, and this is one of the maps where Jacob
I think has had his better performances, you know, I think this is a map he was comfortable on some of the other maps
Especially overpass. I felt like Jacob was really struggling on when it was still in the map pool
Nuke is a map he's had his struggles on there
There's a lot of maps where he's a lot less comfortable than Mirage
So going into Mirage, you're seeing a map where he already dominated eyeballers on it
in this very tournament.
He already had a really strong nuke.
He's probably going to have a really strong Mirage as well.
And that's what you want to see, right?
If you're facing building this confidence and building this ability to see Jacob get
comfortable.
I think that was a big talking point from NKJ, right?
That they need to start seeing these improvements from him.
They understand what he can do.
And I feel like at least the criticism he's been given has been fair. But I think everyone,
including phase no, now that like you've had your time, now it's time to put up some of these
numbers. And here this is the, this is kind of teams he farms against man. This is no problem at
all. Right? I think you've put it exactly right. This is the type of teams he farms against. This
is the type of team, you know, the way I saw a dendal a play, especially it's Furia, they're going
to give him the engagements that he wants to be taking. They're going to give him those straight
up aim duels and you know they didn't put pressure on him on new kids. It's not like
he had a tough performance and he comes into this one. You might be feeling the pressure.
I really do honestly believe that Jacob is a player that struggles under the pressure.
So he's going to do better. These types of online games. He's going to do better when
teams give him all the room to work with and he can make comfortable decisions and take
his own engagements and at his own pace. So this is really just kind of like the dream
scenario for a player like him to warm up into a tournament before he inevitably will
go to the land after this map. Exactly right. That's what it's about after
this map. So you're going straight in for the two zero here. So let's look at them.
The way I know they're struggling on this map against Furia. But when I look at some
of the individuals and I look at the players, they should be better at Mirage than this.
Right. Like what do we see? How can they be this bad at Mirage? I think they really struggle
on their CT side when they played against Fury, which is unfortunately, I believe where
they're likely going to be starting here, given its faces pick and they couldn't deal
with a lot of the group that plays fury was going for. They had a really clean be exact
and they just had a solid mid hit, right? It is like fairly straightforward plays from
fury. I think they didn't over complicate things, but what they did on Mirage compared
to cash is they didn't leave openings for Max core to find picks onto them on cash and
on a new bus. There were so many times they just didn't have a flash. Max or Max or just
holds an angle. Furio walks into him and fees. They're a little looser of a team. They, they,
their utility usage isn't perfect. They might leave those sorts of openings, but I'm expecting
them to have seen the Furio game and be very quickly able to pivot into that plan B if
things are going wrong. Well, you've seen it, right? So I'm sure NKJ has seen it as
well. So your prediction is two O phrase, but give me a score prediction for you. That's
I want the last word from you. Give me some numbers. Thirteen five. Thirteen five. That's what he predicts part of the DDK. Do you agree?
Very possible if Dendeley don't get enough pistol rounds here. I think that's a score that is absolutely achievable for FaZe.
I think stylistically this is a very favorable environment for them. That was certainly true on Nuke and I, I mean, how could you think otherwise moving into Mirage?
Everything is in their favor. Yeah, everything is in their favor. But I mean, maybe that's maybe that's the moment when eight
You know, it's kind of straight James, you know, unpredictable things can happen. And I mean, honestly, it's such a
That was such a failure for Dendeley that you know, maybe that's liberating.
I don't know how to make sense. You're trying to find the angle.
Almost 110. There's no angle.
This is a straight line to victory for phase on paper. Again, it's not impossible.
And like we said in a previous in the 3D Max game, perhaps the worst is over.
I mean, it has to be they can't get worse than that unless it was a you know, like they don't get any rounds but I
Don't I don't project it being that bad
I think they'll learn many lessons from the things that went wrong of course
It's a different map about how they're being engaged how they're engaging their opponent may count for something
Moving into Mirage, but if they need to adjust or have to adjust quickly. Otherwise, they may find themselves
ejected from the situation
Yes, FaZe on the T side here on Mirage to start things off with, and it is undeniable,
I think the quality that FaZe do have on this roster, even though of course the roster is
a little bit more fresh, still so much quality in the players, and they're going to get to
start off here dictating the pace, and then they're waiting patiently.
I'm going to shut up.
playing retake on a and it may
be a retake situation on a.
We'll see what phase opts to do,
but right now, they're not
giving anything to face, so
face will really just get to go
wherever they want.
Showing presence on shorts and
connector at the same time.
The bomb asked Dendeley, the follow will drop native, he'll be traded by Jacob, and the beep is there, Twist with a good angle, bomb safely planted with that smoke and connector.
Very mysterious opening for Dendeley to deal with, but they've got a 4 on 3.
It's going to be a tough one for FaZe, they've got to connect all the shots, Dendeley, they have numbers, they are encroaching upon the position, and they force any of these FaZe players to peek.
Well that's, Mommys going to do a lot of work, and Froze is going to go down.
potential it's got potential for sure but they've got to get to the they've got
to get to the land first
kind of it's kind of reminds you of the Vindaloo child a little bit you know the
Vindaloo song yeah yeah anyway you've got to put your back into it down come on
yeah I'm not really committing to it I sound like you're on dialysis yeah well I
mean then they're getting the start they needed okay but the force flies from
that bomb block. Good. Definitely
play skill and that's a problem.
Tech nine onto R. D. M. Causing
problems into the B site. They
go. Really rough. That's second
player coming through from the
short position. They two
compromising where the CTs can
stand. That works very nicely.
Indeed, the puzzle following
Dock in a nasty situation. Jacob
of an important trade down to
that on the pistol versus the
galil able to secure the round
surviving by a thread. But as
long as they do survive, they
keep the clean sheet for the
time being plenty opportunity
and things to think about for
phase with a bomb plant and
only one CT surviving. That was
a scary one though. But as that
push comes through again. The
CT think they've dealt with
that short play, which allows
them to stand in the middle of
the site. But hey ho, another
one comes around the corner and
that really causes huge issues
Yeah, the bright side of the phase is, you know, they are getting some serious damage
in there, and in fact, what we're about to see on our screens is that phase are deciding,
despite not getting the bomb down there, to go for a four-star.
Did they get the bomb down?
Did they get the bomb down?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm crazy.
It was beeping.
Well, the beats were beeping.
I'm making the beeping noise.
I did not acknowledge it.
Quick boost in the window, nothing doing.
Two SMGs and three rifles for the clan of FaZe.
Gervoin on Nuke was the first one-death map performance in Tier 1
since Wonderful went 11-to-1 against Bait at IEM Rio.
They could have had it to production, pulling up these stats, that is amazing.
Reading it for the mobile phone users.
What is this?
Incredible stuff.
Well, A's about to be under attack here, Jameson.
The utility for the retake is not going to be there for Dendeley.
I love this choice from FaZe.
It's going to be really important to hold CT,
which only Doc is in currently.
So it'll be interesting to see what he chooses to do.
Holding your fangirls for the time being.
Trying to play anti-flash, able to deliver as well.
Doc dropping N2, so good hold so far.
from where the cities want to hold from indeed it will be retake territory but
they're making life easier with two people dropped smokes are up but the
bombs not planted just yet and that will be nervous for days in the three on
three big frags for Jacob finding R the end but doc will collect two on the site
leaving Jacob in the clutch now
doesn't know where the second player is this is a very very special for Jacob
great stuff there though on the first one
well and this spray through the smoke down 92 health koala is in a lot of
really well. And that's another
test survives for them. Again,
the bomb has been planted. All
right. That's about it in. So
we'll see. We'll see what phase
choose to do again. They're
keeping them delay on the edge,
but can't quite break them.
Yeah, the stress. Stress
with them delay. It's got to be
selected by FaZe, but what's really cool, I think, to see as a contrast from Nuke, is that the players
individuals dock especially, heading really hard right now, and you've got to turn up like this
so far, so good. FaZe can keep flying, they keep planting the bomb, and they will do exactly that,
just the one AK. The AK versus M4 battle can sometimes decide the fate of a round, so four
four glills on deck.
We'll make things somewhat even for the 4M4s of Dendelight.
One AK per side.
One presence in B-Ax4 phase.
Just will be on a solo mission in mid.
Smoke for top connector.
It's a nice angle from that bench position,
but just re-positioning as the main starts to stream in.
While it eats a huge flash, it can't help his teammate.
He'll have to overdeliver now as they come out the window!
Two might be enough, he makes it doable, two on three.
There'll be a close one, it's a nervous one,
but this is where FaZe can finally break down the lane.
Oh, that's a great, great AT, good timing there from MaxCorp.
But, importantly, the bomb did go down,
and MaxCorp position is known.
That smoke does allow them to cross,
but it's a little bit sketchy here.
They still understand exactly what's going on,
takes down Doc, now just comes to MaxCorp,
to take the 1v1, but there's one more to go. The twist with a perfect position coming in from the back.
On the back. And that's going to be the round for Faze. Hanging on to the last man, every round
going on to the last man. But importantly, James, of course, we've been saying how rough the eco has
been for Dendeley and finally, it's broken. Yeah, I think that's a great focus task by Faze.
They've got the talent on the
server to do it with the
rifles. They've got enough
grenades around it as well with
the bomb plot and pays off for
them. Finally putting Dendeley
in the bin. In delay for this
one. You welcome with that. So
we'll get forced by the go have
the solo M for Max core will do
what he can with the scout. But
that's what phase have been
to control all this half. Yeah, quick scale through the
promise. You have to stop it. Just a deal. Just a deal.
Oh, hello. Okay, we're gonna go to team kill, twist up and
Rdn out a little bit there. Take down they too, but the
bombsite's taken four versus three in favor of dendalys.
So somehow this awkward buy is doing some work. Yeah, Rdn
dropped a scout on this place after he killed his teammate.
but the numbers are dwindling dwindle eight
dwindle eight, I knew you were going to do it
let's go forward and find Zip Zop as the last man standing
could still be, well I was going to say could still be dangerous with the 5-7
maybe fishing to collect something some kind of rifle from somewhere
but perhaps he'll save his Kevlar
I'll have a scan in Teespawn for anything
But yeah, that one got a little nervous for the phase plan for a short time.
We'll see where Jacob is safe of his 1 HP.
Run away!
Yeah, I would run away from a 5-7 with how many frags we've seen this week.
It's been highly, highly dangerous.
I think if you were to tweak it you could just slow the fire rate a little just a little bit
Or you could increase the fire rate, but like lower the damage a lot
Um, I'd go
I mean you have to put the the fire command on the mouse wheel to fire it faster, I think
It can make projectiles
That's like way slower, slower velocity, so it takes like time for the bullet to get to them.
Crikey. Turning it into PUBG.
I'm available now for the game design.
So I think Vu said 13.5.
I'm conscious of the three rounds that they have for now, but let's see, I'm curious to see when their full buy comes through then do they...
What they will be like on their CT side
These guys of course, they won't be so concerned about
So Jabra's got more than one death in this one
Not a good stat for someone to achieve against your team that one death in that previous game
team. Yeah Yeah, I agree with
where it's it's unfortunately
an unimpressive. Version of
that stat line. Not because
anything, you know, poor to
say about Japan, but just, uh,
you know, it's what his life
was made somewhat easier than
maybe it could have been. And,
uh, not to take anything away,
although I guess that does
take something away. Well, I
mean, but it's factual like he
You still have to position yourself well and get your shots. Yes. Yes. And you did that. And the rest was
Was pedestrian for him
Yes, absolutely
And I'm just being like a steady pair of hands with the AWP is is I think that the such an important fundamental and the right level
You go to be reliable. It's such a big investment and you know, he proved that reliability
So I mean that's definitely good. I feel like on the first you know game
We saw we got to cast a phase
I felt like to burn you looked it looked fine, but it looked I don't think looked like it did you burn that?
We know that he can be and maybe that was you know some of the more kind of like debuting into the tournament like the the shakiness early on
But we're seeing is a lot more confidence here against them delay as we go into the next round
I think take from them delay come up
The positions for phase I've got three two phase as well and those trades will be
Very nice for them three on three with a minute 30 on the clock for phase is a happy situation
the game. Unfortunately, then
delay that that third man was
there. To help deal with the
matter. And sometimes the timing
just doesn't work out for you
because we've seen previous
rounds where twist has been
alone towards top mid and maybe
in a situation like that they
get a nice advantage and they
can pursue the issue, even if
you hide by that door, but.
A different prospect with
seeing in this round. Instant
to get the kills, but it may to actually be worth it, because Jacob will get the bomb down,
but he's got 9 HP against the QALA who's fast coming to cat. Jacob does have just enough
time to reposition.
That's the clue he needs with less than 10 HP, but he has to try and find an off angle
even in this position, and he'll do exactly that. Just be a little bit unpredictable for
the pre-fire down to the wire again, but this time not in favour of Dendeley, like the initial
Definitely an unfortunate scenario, but into the next round we go.
Do you have a bunch of MP9s? No, you told me you got some smacks, that's about it.
Faze is going for that hit-click again.
Let's catch the RDN, sneaks away as well.
Hello, okay, Twist is going to find him as he fell back to the ladder room.
Now, four versus four, just holding me.
Is there another response? Look how clean the flicks are from NATO!
my goodness again you seeing that individual quality once again from phase
Yeah
Not much of around for then delay
So what is the next play then maybe it's partly spawn dependence
For the CT squad
But it's good. They understand the need to take the fight to
phase
Not allow them to dictate the pace and do whatever they want
And I think FaZe will be expectant of higher risk taking, maybe an AWP in B-Apps, maybe
a play through the underpass, or below the window.
They'll surely expect some kind of shenanigans from CTs who are fighting to get back into
this half.
Yeah, I'm curious because, you know, FaZe have shown quite a lot of mid aggression
now and there's always options for the CTs. You could get a little aggressive on an extremity.
Maybe you expect a number of advantage or maybe you try to challenge mid.
All the other options, you just play really passive. I'm never usually a fan of just playing
really passive as a default way to handle a game where the other team has all the confidence.
But maybe that's an option that they would prefer to choose. But we're about to find out
as we go into the next round and the buy does come in for the den delay side.
and the op is going to be a max
core. So good to see that. You
know, it's been a rough time
economically, but we're back in
with the op there. He looks to
have the best spawn towards me
or be. As well. So we'll see if
what he chooses to do with that.
I think it's difficult for
then delayed to allow phase to
make the place they want because
offering some different looks
around a smoke towards connector.
early 514. All the questions we asked. W2 man swing from short by Dembele. But again,
picking the wrong door in these early round versus phase.
I do like the activity from Koala here going underpass to see if he can catch timing. This
might be a great timing actually. Oh, there we go. Manchester to converts. 4 vs 4. But
get out, though. Looks like he's clean because there's nobody to punish in mid. And you've
got to ask questions. What does this mean? Faze happy setting up here now for an A play.
Yeah, you can see Faze were posted up looking for that aggression. They had everything covered on
the map. But now the timing may go in Dendeley's favor. Again, the peak towards the apartment
when they stopped looking there because they were there with two men, one focused on lower,
one upper. But now there are sound cues rotating towards A. And Gafalo's got a forward position
in B apartment, but surely he starts rotating now with Koala's position. He heard a play
making his way over there and he spots the bomb as well. Gafolo's got to start rotating.
There's only two players on the safe onsite. With play being compromised at the back, they'll
have a quick look in T-Sport. No one there. Surely they must pursue A now. This is tough
for Faze. I mean, they have to commit into this AWP. There is the... Oh my God! Jacob,
that's outrageous. What a pick. The end is close. In the Sam's position, we'll see what
you can find is something has to go the way. Then delay here from this position. Oh, okay.
Twist is going to shut that down just so, so well aware of what's going on. You just can't
challenge these guys. Twist with another one. I don't know how Max core is ever losing that
dual with the jiggles like that. I don't know if he's looking at the radar. I don't know if he's
looking. I just, I just don't know. Like, it looked like there was, there was enough
on the screen. I don't know. Maybe you have to see it again, but that is crazy work. They
again, they had so much info. Nasty, nasty stuff. So satisfying to do that as a right
lover. They can't be losing your bombsite like that. It's crazy again. They lost the
the game, but it's not. It's
not a good time to play early.
Early four on five phase had.
A formation to look for
aggression anywhere. They had
two people in the apartment, one
looking for the other past one
looking for a for an apps push.
Then one fades away and it's good
timing for Dendale to find that
frag. They make the way towards
top mid. They hear the rotation
towards the A bomb site. I think
they could rotate the player
faster, although phase have
previously offered a fake
towards the bomb site, which is
plays in the end committed positions so when the smokes are coming in they're
going to have to just fight all together to the death however the problem is the
the Molotovs and so on around these positions could be it could make the
fights very awkward so we'll have to see if they can find a good timing maybe
try to collapse onto the power spray because of the Molotovs looking to try to get
the kills and it's actually working out RDN taking down Jacob as well so now it's a
Bit awkward here, N2 with 35HP, movement there from party and not quite enough and now some forward space here, four things.
Slowly advancing, that's a really big frag on the N2.
And now Koala's rotating through from that short position. Will they hear him as he approaches as he cut noise fast enough?
the
Shabo in and throw both very heavily tagged
Perfect storm for koala if you can find that last one and indeed he does
Very urgent rounds for Dendeley
With two rounds to go again, it's the kind of rounds
You can't build confidence in but again if this is to be the worst side for them
four rounds of the board
Maybe plenty we shall see I think was interesting
is that every single round, if I'm not mistaken, that Denderly have one, only one player has been alive at the end of the round for their team.
It's all been very, very close, and I think it's only fitting Koalig has to finish that one off after the previous round,
lifting Team Up with the 4v3 conversion, but...
Now I need to convert if they want to try to tie this half up.
Doc is 0-7 since his 7-0 start to this map.
I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Damn.
Way to bring him down.
Way to bring him down.
Twister has been important in many of these rounds, getting dropped early, maybe to Den
Delea favor in that last one.
But again, down to that last man as per for the squad on the CT side.
Max Caw back on the AWP.
to the right. We've got to
give him the benefit of the
doubt. On that CT spot, of
course, we see on the X rate.
It's not always clear exactly
what he may have seen. That's
dodge. 50 seconds to go for
phase. How much so pace round
Twist with the bomb, close to connector.
Looking for the opportunity, this is a great position, but that is a phenomenal shot there from Max-Core.
That starts off the action really nicely here. The dental a much needed round of 5v3 now.
CT is gravitating towards the A-bomb site and with good reason, bomb spotted in connector, leaving Frozen as the only man remaining.
Could we be in for a tight score at halftime?
Could be crazy to think given how much of a struggle the game has felt for then delay
Yeah, we're in a pistol will certainly help in that regard
Happy finish off that round I
Don't know what to expect of them delay in the second half
But again, hey, if they win the pistol, they'll be off to the races.
But let's see if they've got one more in them.
Three AKs and two Orps for them to lay in this last round.
There's Wala here.
Kawala's gonna be inside it, so I was wondering if he was gonna get boosted, but he might
just jump up.
He's got the creep.
Molly.
a lot of players lurking one way or another.
You can see Frozen holding the bomb.
That could be a key moment if he continues to push forward,
but I think he'll be holding such a U-Fan out.
Re-smoking mid, that's going to give expectation for Dendo.
They're basically going to want to move forward with this one.
Into the window they go.
I don't think we've really seen a boost in the window just yet.
Quite a few players here for phase RTN on the other side.
a G. The space. Nice flick.
They two very ready for that one, though.
In comes Gafalo for another trade and back into the window head.
Show that to Gafalo and he's going to fall in the window.
Oh, so frozen was was dropped to carrying the bomb.
He was holding for a while in apartments eventually started pushing forward.
Drops by the AWP being held by Koala and twist hasn't solved that problem just yet.
While all this happened action is happening in the mid position.
I'm not sure if he's back on.
Might be on the van for now, but there are two big stories happening in this round.
Then delay, you know.
Oh, the timing is so punishing for match score.
Bombs collected in the meantime by twist.
I'm not choosing to hold, maybe concerned about an encroachment from that short position,
but indeed that bombs been rescued.
to help us. You make a lot of
trouble. 10 seconds. Faser in
trouble as well. This is
quite the spray will not go
doing damage created the one be
one for koala now coming on in
from the stairs position to
burn those are years is a tag
57 comes out for koala. It's a
distance is now closed.
5-7 in hand, looking for the peek. Choosing the moment, Op comes out. It's desperate right now.
There's the attack. As you can go for the stick, but you're bowing through the box for the 7-5 first half of the phase.
face.
Here on the sun-drenched streets of Mirage, we spot some of nature's most fascinating
creatures.
Counter-strike players in their natural habitat.
Despite the plenipal environments these bellows fit in habit, they seem to always swarm towards
the comfort and safety of the shining paradise. As the sun rises over the stone architecture,
in typical fashion we see this species squabble over their preferred position. Let us discover
where they shall end up. Firstly, we have the so-called A anchor. This fellow is often
seen fighting for his life without a lick of support.
window player. An arrogant and egotistical creature. They can often be seen in the pregame
chat claiming their position in the blink of an eye.
Not all are so luckiest to get their desired position. The B anchor, often times the runts
of the litter, designated to hold this empty site and ward off predators. Forced to survive
on scraps, he can often be found at the bottom of the scoreboard. Here we see the signature
characteristic of this off-forgotten fellow, a key adaptation over millennia. This creature's
legs propel them tirelessly and repeatedly to spot any potential foe. As this defensive
tribe scramble to defend their territory, they realize they are not alone.
Barrage can hold up to as many as nine foes at a single time. As we move across its deserted
We arrive at another group of remarkable characters.
However, these bloodthirsty devils do not look as amicable as our aforementioned defenders.
Their eyes locked on the objective.
These players scurry from their spawn with the exception of one.
Without moving a muscle, we observe one of the players launching a grey metallic canister skyward.
The desired outcome seems not to have been achieved.
A regrettable mistake.
With the new weapon acquired, our CT favors a more aggressive approach.
Meanwhile, with the anticipation in the air, a coordinated attack is incoming.
A breakneck flurry of utility flies overhead attempting to disrupt the defenders.
Stakes could not be higher.
And with nothing he can do, the A anchor is flash banged like a deer in headlights.
decides his best bet is to retreat. No matter how much he cries out for help, support is
nowhere to be found. However, the restless hunter has found its prey. It's one shot,
one kill, such as the life of the opera, precise and deadly.
Five rounds for Dendili. With all of the struggles they had in that first half, I don't think
that is bad at all. And to get
those five rounds, you know, a
lot of individuals had to step
up. It definitely still looks
like they are the underdog in
this one. But a recovery, James,
I believe it's possible as we go
into the second half. Well,
this is where the game ends for
then delay as far as views,
prediction was concerned. So
let's see if they can win this
pistol. This is the beginning of
the long road for them. Jacob and
to blow in off to a good start
on the state bombsite to remain
there right here for then delay.
to the right. Can they secure
CT? You can see phase are
falling back to not give up that
frag. And during the HG for
nature. Try to clear out some
angles. Ultimately, though, it
will be about the headshots here.
Many headshots required for
to sign to close the distance now.
The following of really important position.
This defensive on CT, very important as well.
Koala makes it happen, great 180,
but Jacob Frozen coming into play now.
Koala, last player standing, has to deliver a lot of headshots
right now, very quickly because they're on the diffuse.
Four seconds to go, it has to force the issue,
but Koala simply can't.
Falls back, head hanging in shame.
Just didn't have enough there in that moment,
and that's the round win for FaZe.
got to go for the wide swing man. Yeah, gotta go for the wide swing. They're just forcing
him further and further from the angle on the bomb. But with three of them, and if you
gamble that they don't have a kit, if you can somehow, I mean, he probably doesn't make
it, but if you can somehow make it, then maybe. But yeah, no, no pistol round for Dendeley
in that second half. And it was great that we saw from face plan the retractions in CT
went and they were hunting to hold that position if ever cross fly with CT so much harder for the
retake the face kept their players alive creeping through around the smokes to do the job 92% for
phase now again all the statistics in their favor they are looking to send it onto a force by
see how much damage it can do
he's looking from Jacob but gets utterly denied
oh okay a good right front twist
and the bomb goes down CT is already knocking at the door at the moment
but perhaps a little bit too soon Doc with a good kill on to twist
and it's a three versus three great burst from throw
really shot from me too but things become awkward now
Not spectacular range with the MP9, two to find.
Walking into the sandwich, can he isolate the fight? Max score.
Holding tight at Tetris, running distraction, teasing.
There's no kidding if an A2, and it will be round number six.
The resets coming through for Dendeley.
Forcing after planting that bomb.
And it seems there's a second half to fight for.
Yeah, RDM coming in with two massive D-Ball headshots there.
Boom. Wow, that's an impressive display.
And that made all the difference.
Very laboured, you know, you go to fight not many nades to block vision,
to prevent the CTs from just pushing forward, so...
You've got to hit those pressured shots.
Dendeley showing that they have the resiliency to do so.
Dendeley!
And then we go stack into the B-Site here for phase.
The gamble stack.
to be able to do that. All
then delay go into the stock.
That is a really important
reset when we when we look at
them delay and pistol rounds.
Resetting the city side after
losing the pistol. Also solid
work. But they need to survive
this force by test. So everyone
has a rifle here. There isn't,
you know, only as we've seen
the ball, just find out what's going on, remove some fog of water. They don't really have
that opportunity here. So does that make them more likely to walk into a stack?
Well, twist the route, two smokes at Palace on A. So they're really trying to sell, they're
trying to sell that they should be afraid of A and go to B. But I mean, let's see how
fearful koala is. He saw those two smokes. They're clearing connector. They're like,
not much happening over here. But the bomb is still towards the B site, so they're going to have
to send it over now. Yeah, that's really well done. Good use of molotovs and smokes.
Risking the rifle, but again, really well done by Dendeley. Avoiding the threat.
that's what you want to see.
No accidents. That's going to
be important if they are to be
a threat towards the end of this
map for more for phase. Again,
then delay their numbers. Their
history, especially versus phase.
In terms of win rates. Not
certainly have opportunity to win their opponent's map pick here.
Yeah, they know that it's a stack now too, just trying to get some safe cleanups.
They know how to read the positions, so looking quite good on the cleanup so far.
I wonder if we see another situation like this, if Faze will try to stack B and then smoke the
apartments. You know, just like there's little things. But at the same time, it looked like
the last two games. And so
they're going to be a little
more. They're going to be
more, like, then they had a good
protocol to make sure they
confirmed what's actually going
on. So no gambling from them. We
like to see that. And that's a
seven to eight scoreline now for
then delay as they are close to
tying up to gamemans. CT
economy. Is looking pretty
atrocious here, James, because
yeah, they've all got about $2,000
at the moment. I'm quite
impressed with the job that
almost the entire stack afterwards so despite the the poor recent results in comparison to phase
that was quite handily done so we see a similar if not the same stack from phase but far worse
equipped after what was just done to them following well at the conclusion of that round 88% win
win rate for phase 14 for then delay and this time a stack with less for phase on the b
sites then delay you're gonna know that's phase won't really have anything here so but
interestingly they're not actually getting the information everywhere they're just gonna
move into the stack here but you would like their chances given the lack of weaponry from FaZe.
That's a good start.
I see a hot flash. I see some frags for the CTs.
They too. The one man. The one weapon brought in from that last round, able to do a little extra,
which may alleviate some pressure in the future.
So not too shabby there for FaZe. Got the stack coming their way.
I'm interested if we if we get to cash. As I said earlier, we're getting a little closer. Yeah, but
Yeah, I've got a few things to say about that, but
Here is the buy quite lacking in okay, not as bad
exchanging some uterine CT spawn so they will leave with
That's a good spray from twist. He's been a problem in mid
He certainly wasn't at T side Max called 12 HP hasn't even seen anyone, but he is still standing with that orb
So what going on for the face site here playing aggressive on on teammate on the ramp and they're going to find a kill to koala
They just understand the spot great great aim from Jacob there in the meantime
Jabon actually playing somewhat passively on cat with the AWP
We can't expect him to probably move a lot with the AWP
We'll keep a track of that and you've got now a play also in the B apartments. Doc is trying to potentially find something there
So you got a lot of activity from Dendeley as they also start to gravitate towards this ace out of the map as well with the bomb
Yeah, they have the possibility to show presence on either side as you can see
thought-colding position
Towards me as his teammate is dropped. He feels the urgency to try and make something happen
There's still five players standing for phase
I mean, it's just so fast. But
nothing doing. And my word, the
way Jacob found that entry down
the ramp of a. He looks like a
problem to go up against 16
frags for him. Topping the
charts for phase at presence.
That was such a nasty frag. I
mean, even. Yeah, they were
literally just holding the
angle, but he's just so quick
It's just a clean value from phase. No punish, nothing. And that was just, I mean, chilling
because they can't do anything dendroid. They just really can't. Nice score has an AWP
and it just would not serve them to put it at risk.
But yeah, that was such a nice read from phase. It's really well done and I love how active
they were getting right at the
beginning of the round. Very
disruptive. 98 for them now as
they pick that one up. Then
delay move into the following
round. I mean, they have stuff
to work with it. You know, the
guns that were saved. They get
to play up two more AKs for
you till set from the follow,
even though he's on a good
little so another fall by from
Going towards the apartment so you could make a plane towards be to see if anyone's jumping on the van quickly
There is a timing to catch that player
Long-seam snipers do that
There's a Molly to slow him down in the B apps
Follow moving to top mid in the meantime
Pop flash from a teammate no early frag for either side. Oh
Oh, yeah, I think Max score was maybe going for a
A quick play towards B
Okay, re-smoking mid like this I think it is indicative that you're a little bit further up mid than they actually are at the moment
to the right. We have an
exit. This will be all the CTs
rotating over twist with an
AK on the a bomb. That's going
to be a problem. Before he
starts talking about Jacob, he
will pop doc in that mid
position and then they were to
He will pop doc in that mid position and then there were two max score a koala
It's been a rough few rounds for max score not able to get anything going with this AWP
Koala will be hard trying to save once again
Some timeout wins here as there's just not a lot happening in
Dendeley's favor
this will be the exhaustion of
some money. A lot of money
actually for for then delay
again. They were able to buy
around what they had quite
reasonably. But how do you deal
with twisting Jacob on the A
bombsite, both carrying a case?
Yeah, no, it's tough. It's
really tough. The individual
skill is really, really powerful
and also not just that, but I
think phase have had a good read
In this round, our phase were actually a bit more passive, and it does end up working out.
That picking with Fidget Burn was really, really awesome, obviously.
And then, as you say, you know, running into these setups onto the A site is very, very hard.
Especially when you don't have any players in Connector, they can kind of at least draw fire
from the site players.
I've seen on Cache that people have discovered
what's may or may not be a pixel jump which allows you to hop onto the boost
without being boosted. If you if you jump on the can then there's something on
the wall so you can just hop up but yeah I have not been able to look at that
myself I don't know if it's a pixel jump or not but for the games of cash to come
that is something to look out for.
There we go. So there's
something. Koala's really firing off in this game of Mirage for
then delay boosting doc into the window.
Doc is maneuvering around and the CTs are kind of split now.
Bunch of T's in between them. It's going to be harder for them to
team play and just rotates safely.
This is looking for the kill. But in the meantime, you're born. If he holds this,
around here because the bomb is in the apartments.
That's surely going to pull rotation.
The other players haven't shown.
So Jaboen can post up on short.
Oh, they've made a step.
OK, their teammates on the A bomb site,
so they're going to gamble 27 seconds.
And Jaboen's going to have this all day.
Putting a smoke up towards the top to isolate the fight sip.
They're going wide, though, 20 seconds.
And he's in battle sniper mode.
smoke working against him now as they make their way through it.
Oh, this could be a bait there with the HE, but the HE doesn't land where it wanted to.
And somehow, they've got himself into a round winning situation here.
Three on two.
Jabo in trying to make his way in, that's going to be absolutely free for RDN.
Disaster strikes for Faze, great one-tap for Neetu, he's got a lot more to do though.
He has a kit, he's got a little utility.
Forces RDN to take the shot.
How does he solve this problem though?
There is a smoke.
Two different ways to use it.
He might have enough cover from the AWP.
Oh, hiding in plain sight.
It's going to have to be the light,
but he can't find the angle.
Yes, he can.
Gafoto stops it just in time.
My words.
Very unlikely round for FaZe.
How big of a problem has this caused?
Oh, that got so crazy, that round.
I mean, if you just go back to how it got so weird,
you know, splitting up the CT defense
by taking the mid-window position
and a koala opening up the rounds again as he has so often been doing.
Really crazy stuff there. Good mid-rounding from Dendeley to maximize that round of the opportunities they had.
Still not dead just yet in this game in Mirage. One round behind his phase.
Now Arv buying to the last. If there was this round, they've got nothing left.
Yeah, this is a big moment. A big moment for FaZe.
This surely has to fill Dendeley with encouragement. This is the round. They have to win
That was a huge problem for phase
And sometimes you're gonna lose around like that, but the timing of it so much potential for Dendeley
Hopefully for them they don't choke on this opportunity
Has not been an easy series versus phase
numbers swinging to Bowie, choosing to stand his ground,
swinging to Midson.
This is not the time to not hit those shots.
Three on five and FaZe have to consider
if there's anything left in them for this round.
Make it two.
And we've seen that Dendeley are not shy
to take these weapons away.
Even against fourth-fives and so on.
Oh my word.
What perfect timing to break the FaZe economy
and unlikely round. They deliver on the promise of that round immediately.
Frozen.
I don't know if he's... He might keep this M4.
It looks like he might actually just keep this one.
But yeah, that was kind of... I mean, the pace there from the side of Dendeley was great.
And honestly, I think it was quite punishing to the fact that
FaZe don't really seem to be putting too much emphasis on mid-control themselves.
And so they don't really have much of a way to respond to that.
And the Flash, I think, onto Jabon was really nice. Very well done.
Yeah, that was huge. Jabon choosing to stand his ground.
Not sure if the Pop Flash, if he knew that, there were two players swinging on that position.
By the way, one was enough.
we are in trouble now. we are in trouble now.
Dendeley looking for an A here. This might be a very fast timing and FaZe are nowhere
to be seen. It's a retake on A, but I don't know that A is going to be retakeable given
that there's no retake utility for FaZe. I don't think it matters if they're here
or not to be honest all these usd's even with the prowess of the likes of twist of jacob
they just need more from this scenario so they've got a buy at 1011 and a forced buy at 1012
twist is a a charred a charred remnants of what phase used to be in this half
yeah you can't do anything because of one play you want to make it just
just stuff with so much utility honestly i think i think just use these usp players to
to help frozen save the rifle
because you need everything you can get and that might be trying to secure a weapon
they're having a look frozen does have a kit so you know so many tees on the sights
the game. It's. And they will
lose absolutely everything. So
I mean, hey, if the math works
out anyway and it's low
percentage, but you know, it's
there might as well take it
then go for it didn't work out
though. Unsurprisingly, that's
the percentages are small, very
small. Like 3% I feel like
buy for FaZe before Dendilay are on 12 and then I mean it's just it's kind of
Jova for FaZe on Mirage at that point more or less so FaZe have to have to
put it out of the bag right here right now and I wonder what the change will
be for them. I could see a world where they go aggressive in mid but we just
all from Dendilay that so they're not adverse to just hitting a site now and
so that kind of makes it feel a little bit scary but there's gonna be some
element of gambling I think with the opening from phase because another issue for phase is that
they're not going to have as much utility as Dendeley in this round because of their economy.
And so given that fact as well, you kind of want to take some action earlier because playing a long
drawn out round means that when eventually there's a bomb plant, you just don't have any util for
retake. So there's a few things I think encouraging phase to get aggressive with their opening. We'll
see what they go for. No kits in this round. I'm able to rebuy the one that was lost
towards the ends. We'll see if that has a part to play.
Three smokes left after that one. For this faceclan team.
Very good use of Util. Twist. Never shy to be the point man, having a look to understand
the climates in mid. As we can see there is a very real focus towards the A bombsites
here for Dendeley. Dendeley avoided the mid aggression from FaZe completely, very smart
from them. Alright, so is this just an initial formation
from Dendeley to cover all the options in case of CT aggression? Normally when you start
with two towards A it is quite telling of the intentions, but the bomb is now rotating
So I think they were just keeping the CTs honest who were very much bunched around this mid position
They're not in a all B
Twist not really ready for that
Now what is the move I mean 40 seconds then they have burned some time off the clock
I'll release that is going for face frozen with a catch on to RDN at top mid
That actually poses problems in on to doc as well graced up and frozen the trade from gofollow will even up the numbers
24 seconds the bomb is pretty much committed into the beep on cycle follow perhaps trying to pull plays towards eight
But it'll have to go for the flank
Suddenly this becomes nervous territory for
Dandelion looking for that frag onto the gofollow
Maybe thinking their position towards short now native. They know where the last man is does he hear the beeps?
I'm not sure if he does
that. No kids. As we said
earlier. So it'll be a save of
the AWP. That was a very
curious round there. Phase were
pretty much entirely in that
mid position completely completely
withdrawn from B and a. Losing
the player in the underpass then
pulled from pillar to post and
really important frags in that
short position heading over
towards the B bomb site, but.
with FaZe, it makes a lot of sense. I think what they were trying to do, because like I was talking
about before, you've got all this action in mid from Dendeley that had been so successful,
and FaZe didn't want to just like straight up push mid, because that is really exploitable,
because if Dendeley do have those players closer to a ramp or in the apartments, they can just react
and hit the site, get the bomb down, and that's very painful, and then you're not left with
good options for your FaZe. But FaZe, they wanted to collapse on a play into mid from Dendeley,
that just never came and so it did create I think an awkward situation but they're just like
very well done by Dandelion to open in that passive way.
Kanjabo and Peter difference man here with the big green gun.
You'll be heading over towards B. Are we gonna see a fast boost into the apartments? Indeed we are
and there are okay not into the apartments but he's in front of the van on the rail so you can
crowd to be hit and pop up and cause problems. Deploying the traditional utility deep, maybe
to obscure what is being held over towards being of course the luxury of having your
author there means you can focus your numbers elsewhere for around a heavily committed as
Dendeley will take their time.
Yeah, it's it's hard to face kind of having to gamble a little bit with this setup the one for trusting in juboan on B with the orb and
All down to what the choice is from bender lake do they move into this a sites with the smoke on the connector
Now they've got no eyes on short whatsoever
So they'll have to be an internal clock for juboan on where he starts getting concerned
No, if he was in apps, perhaps he could go a little bit deeper
He has a nice off angle in front of default towards the side, but it's all collapsing.
He's holding down too many jobs and he's been fired from all of them.
Nate who throws in Jacob, three versus five trying to retake B.
It's going to be so hard to get back in though, again, no Utah.
There's a single flash from Jacob.
That's all they've got to get through the window or the door.
Shut down one angle, shut down with a smoke.
going to have to make mistakes here from Dendeley. They have to create openings for FaZe and I don't
think they are interested in doing that. FaZe though, they have to go for it. Maxwell takes
down Frozen, made to showing presence. Now Jacob wrapping around the short position,
these attempts feel absolutely futile from FaZe as finally it is the full comeback made.
Dendeley, I don't know where that came from but they did it, 13-10 for them.
I will tell you where it came from DDK. They lost the pistol. They thought it was all over
and then they got that next round. They managed to force their way through with their Galilean
some pistols and then then they started believing and remembered that, hey, this is our chance
for glory. We're not going to go down without a fight. Nuke was embarrassing, but Mirage
will turn it around and that they did through. I mean, they believed in themselves, James.
I think FaZe really just kind of tossed this one away. If you look at the gun rounds FaZe
have a pretty solid record on gun rounds until the the latter portions where I think Dendeley
really picked themselves up into it, but it was so many anti-ecos. It was so many you're
saying the second round. There's such a huge pivotal round. I was looking up the stats beforehand.
Dendeley has twice the percentage of that second round break. They call it, you know,
losing pistol and winning on the second round. So they win only one pistol in this half.
But they get six rounds out of both halves by winning that second round and put themselves
in such a good economic state that it's really just hard for a face to fight back from there.
Yeah, it really was hard for a face to fight back and it was hard for them to fight in
these anticoes.
We're going to keep focusing on this because this is what was giving Dendelei these chances
in there, right?
I'm breaking faith with it.
Yeah, I think this is like the two most pivotal rounds of the game are round 10 and round 19.
And both of these honestly come down to either preparation or calling because how often do
you go for an A pop against pistols, right?
You go for an A exec maybe.
You go full smokes out.
I don't know what that smoke's doing next to triple.
They got a little unlucky because Frozen's Molly for under balcony hit a player so it
didn't actually pop off.
But at the same time, this is not a play you go for when you know you're against what
is, equates to a force five.
The same thing here, if you want to lose against a half buy or pistol buy, you play off of mid,
in jungle, hiding on the site, you don't put your upper ticket, this is textbook, if you
really want to lose against pistols or against a half buy, you put yourself in these positions
where you give your opponents all the space in the world.
I mean, Dengale started this round specifically with one player with full utility and one
player with a smoke.
If you fight them in middle, they can't use their utility to take mid.
They have to take straight up duels and all of a sudden you have an AWP, you have two
AKs, they have one AK and a bunch of glocks and a deagle, right?
You take the long range fights, you get the kills.
You don't turtle up in connector so that the AK can catch an angle on you.
You don't have no, I mean you put your AWP ticket is what you should be doing so that
they can cover connector.
These are textbook plays that FaZe should know better than this.
are both rounds, just the strats in the round, the setup in the round doesn't make sense.
And those are both rounds where phase, when those rounds, that's six, three on the first
half that that's probably them running away with the game. And the same thing, nine round
19, that's a pivotal round. They win that. They're probably running away with the game.
Instead they toss those rounds and those aren't even the only ones. We didn't show the second
round of the second half, right? Like this is phase on gun rounds doing just fine, but
they just can't convert. And they're just not aware. Maybe they're not tracking the economy
well enough.
Would it be maybe them putting it down to a bit of overconfidence? Cause like, what
I noticed on say, what is it? Round 19, you were just talking about, they were just all
pushing in different locations as well. Right? Like even Japan was far forward and be apartments.
Like they were opening themselves up to this. Could they just be like, we're better than
them. We dominated them in the first map and maybe just too much of that confidence that
kind of punished them.
And I hope that's not it because I think that's just a bad way to think about the game.
Not the way you should be playing CS, even against a team you think you're better than,
even if you've had the confidence from a dominant victory in match one.
I tacked this on to maybe they weren't aware of the economy in these situations, maybe
they thought a better buy was coming out, or maybe they're just communicating, their
communication is setting them up so that in this one, I did see them fiddling around on
that last run in jungle a little bit, as if maybe they had a plan for the round, but because
they're, you know, they change players, they just couldn't get the call out in time. That
happens sometimes, but no matter what the reasoning for it was, that's not a good look
going into a map three that you know, Den Dele is comfortable on as well.
Yeah, for sure. And this is now where it gets a little bit scary for face who felt like they had this one in the bag
We thought they had it in a bag you fought 13 five
Well, we in 13 10 in the other direction and koala is a big reason for that right koala
We had him on the interviews probably got the best name of any pro player and this guy
He had like a good shining moments in key rounds. It wasn't just he was fragging out
He was having huge amounts of impact when they're down and out of rounds
Yeah, you saw him win that 1v1 a second ago, which was almost an ace from Jacob
There was actually quite a few clutches. I saw Dendeley winning against Furia as well often coming off of the back of
Koala having as they're saying impact not just the frags
He's 18 and 10, but the frags he is having are also highly impactful kills
You want a 1v1 you want a 1v2 you're converting rounds in very very tough situations
And this is a map where every single round counted especially when you get down to it
I mean they mentioned on the cast so many of the rounds in that first half came down to one to two players alive
like almost the entire Dendeley team was dead every single time they needed that impact from
Koala. And you see it across the first half, every round he's having impact. It's not, you know,
it's not one round. He gets an ace and then he's disappeared for four rounds. I'll, uh,
you know, Suke at times, you know, this is every round he's having some impact.
Well, you're throwing back seem under the bus.
This conversation, they already got eliminated about him. You're still doubling down on the
the hatred line, but I will talk a bit about Jacob as well. I think even in phases lost,
right? Back to back maps of good performance. We said he performs well against these kind
of tier of opponents, right? He is coming in sharp, but they're going to need him to
be continuing this even on cash. Yeah, I think cash is a map that also plays into his style.
The problem with cash is that he's a newer player. Has he had experience on that map?
Has he been comfortable on that map? But when we're looking at Mirage, this is, that's
I almost tried to call out that that's around where he has to get that kill
But I think outside of that round he's played pretty much lights out for the entirety of this series
If you're expecting him in a situation to get a kill
He's getting that kill
Sometimes getting a second and that's the most you can really ask for of your players in any position
They're holding especially an anchor player like his upper on nuke for example if they can get the one and then sometimes get a second
That's that's an excellent performance from this type of player
I do want to point out as well right because we've been speaking so positively about
Jabo and this was not a great mirage from him which can at times be a map that an
orper's supposed to take over on you know and many times he was getting caught off
guard by things. There is a very I mean sometimes you got to thank the observer
sometimes you got to blame the observer because the observer was on him in a pivotal
right what was it like round 21 or 22 he's on short gets flashed off and then he goes
for the confidence play. The simple ask, walk back up. I'm going to hit this shot and then
he misses and that's and then the B topples and then they have to eat the other next round.
And that's actually where the half actually just falls apart and it's not all on Jbo.
It's just you. That's the most memorable round of the game. In fact, I think is that
that moment from Jbo. And even though he's had, he had a great first map. This isn't
a terrible map for him. I agree with you. I think this is a map where offers typically
do a little better than he did, but I don't think he was outclassed by Maxquart at any
moment.
But when it gets to the end of the game, those are the rounds that you're going to remember,
and we all now remember a J bow and wave.
There we go.
See, we're focused on what we remember in here, and I also do remember a good cash game.
We saw it just yesterday from Penn Delay.
Can they keep this going?
Can they bounce back into this series?
We'll be finding out in just a few moments.
Don't go anywhere.
time.
Fought their way back into this
series. They've got the
momentum and they are running
I have absolutely not been sold on them at all. Okay, they can have as much momentum as they want.
Faze are winning this one.
Okay, well, you just ruined my momentum because some of you guys at home might be working on your momentum movement in here.
We've got a moment with you here from Refrag right now to tell you about one of the game modes that they're rocking with now.
I don't know about you guys, but when it comes to movement and counter tracking, it is also important.
you can help you get around
faster. You can follow the
trails in here. You can learn
exactly how needed to be done,
and it will just take you through
in a rapid way of how you can
learn everything in it. How is
your movement, Voodoo? Do you
need a bit of this in your life?
I wish they didn't remove all
of the skill jumps. You know,
we're seeing some interesting
movement movement place here,
but I don't know how many of
these are as important as I
don't know how many people
remember a nuke silo jump. That
from refrag when we had the nuke silo jump. That one was like the toughest thing in the entire world.
Oh yes, it's certainly not easy, but this is good practice you can get done on there.
So if you are looking to improve your game, not just with movement, but anything else,
from pre-fire, from defender, there's plenty of moes that can help you elevate your counter strike skills within refrag.
One of our partners here fought the Blast of Premi at Bounty, and I will just say this, I use refrag quite a lot.
a lot. I slowly improve each and every day. That is very important. You can try it too.
But who is improving each and every day? It seems to me like Dendele right now. You are
high on phase. You still seem that you are. But we're going into cash, mate. And this is
a cash where both teams actively play the map. Yesterday, Dendele got a win over Fiora
on it. Faze have had some good wins and they've got players that have got a lot of experience
on the map. But I mean, what do you expect them from this game?
The concern I have for Faze is that I think they play a very similar style of cash as
that they play it well, and correctly, and then delay had really great great responses. I think the utility hasn't yet evolved on cash to prevent opposing teams from taking a straight up engagement, catching you off guard as you're as you're trying to take map control, especially on the T side.
And when you look at how how fury of played they actually really struggled with the adjustments that Ben delay was making
So I don't think they have to make too many big change-ups against phase given they play a very similar style
So at the very least that means the the lack of potential
Preparation time given the time difference between these these games from Ben delay isn't gonna come back to bite them
That might help them with the time they've had to prepare and get ready for this one
But two people I know who are definitely experts on cashers
We always seem to be getting it and they did it a lot in the past. It's part of the DDK
Hell yes more cash, that's what we want James
We've we've been you know pulling the strings making sure that we can get because it's accumulate as much cash as possible
And we find ourselves here again, and of course the odds of the predictorizes in the internet's James
They seem to have a favorite phase and I feel like you know phase is the easy choice to make as a team that has a lot of experience
They've shown good results on a map like cash
I mean, it makes sense. It
makes sense. I think it's
then delay who are the one
raising their stock at the
moment and phase. It wants
trying to hold onto it and
raise it in their own way. Also
during the break, I was just
having a look at the openings
again on the game yesterday on
cash with them delay and
furious. More aggressive around
the a bomb site on the CT site
the game. We're going to go
through the door. We'll see if
phase choose to take the game
away from them delay in this
area as we see them doing that
immediately on the pistol round,
but it's the fire and I'm
concerned about Max core trying
to entertain and now he's been
dealt with. This will be a very
interesting push through the
door. CT is not currently
holding the angles. I'm not
again and koala will be somewhat stuck here having some fun with the e button but uh i
guess it replaces the old flashlight we used to have which you can't really toggle anymore
but you can toggle the door while you wait for your untimely demise.
Door stuck James.
I bet Sean Gehrs would have enjoyed that moment but indeed he's put out of his misery.
Well, Dendeley not getting themselves a bomb down does mean that they are poor.
They are impoverished.
They are in need of assistance, James, but there's no assistance.
That boost position was quite active in yesterday's final series.
I think Dendeley will be hyper aware of that.
Moving forward in this one, especially being used already in the pistol round looks like
They fancy themselves as dolemen
heading over towards a once again
bomb in tow no utility, but
The path to a bomb plant is very short indeed. So who goes first and protect the VIP?
Some of us will remember that mode. Who's gonna tank the damage
for the president to bow in a really good angle to make himself some nice money for AWP to come
Not a single player dropped no bomb plant and the arid round for Dendeley
Yeah, very calm there for phase and onto the AK as we go. So yeah, looking
forward to seeing in a what then delay show, you know, do they decide to go for
something a quick something fast? Are they looking to set, you know, start
setting up that defaults expectation where we've seen a lot of key sites, looking
to avoid the initial barrage of CT utility and go for the mid to delayed
midtake. You know, that's does the stuff that we tend to see, I think, in these
quick with the AK, the match should be the round.
Yeah, locked out now. Locked out.
Vendilay, well they survive with fives, that would be pretty sick if they can.
I don't know how to get them to kill us.
I want you to go and we'll take them down.
If the AK's be picked up there in mid, if the CT's don't like their chances.
And we'll bank for you, sir.
Okay, we're just gonna hide in the CT's one.
Yeah, there's not much else to be had in this round four phase. It's an interesting prospect for then delay.
Having the late game.
Seeing the draft who you play and going to sleep waking up the kind of feel like that momentum against Furia.
May still be here.
Coming through onto phase.
Promising start for them.
many opportunities so reliably so great performance from him so far today but
for five now from the CTs.
Jabon is already 7-4-0, of course he had that good anti-eco round on the A-bomb site but just like his stats in this series are shaping up to be somewhat
ridiculous but we are still in the very early rounds here on cash. Now we've seen a
a lot of reverse boosts here from the CT squad, but no challenge in mid. Frozen will go from mid.
Oh, not too shabby. Twistful. On to the back. Indeed. Yeah, it's kind of what we'll get the
delayed mid take coming in now. There's initial nades kind of waning. This is that kind of timing,
really. Either you go for that or the CTs expect something else. They could sort of pop fast play
looking for the info. They're a little bit too quick though. The two-quick stop works out, gets
into a forward position. They're repeat from NATO though. Perhaps overly ambitious and now that
leaves Jaboen alone. That's eight for zero. For Jaboen. Frozen being in the event that entire time,
finally dealt with by a well-placed Gufolo, which maybe opens the door for them. 36 seconds as they
They race over.
About individual skill now.
Jacob can raise the alarm, but Jaboen's not getting there
any time soon.
25 seconds, they'll be in careful.
Utility will buy some time for the CTs.
Jaboen hasn't been sent to you.
He did potentially throw.
Yes, a bomb drop by Max score.
Jacob overperforming.
Such a dangerous play for FaZe.
And that leaves Koala in the clutch.
Surely just a bit too slow there,
telegraphing their intentions of all that U-Till,
going everywhere except for where Jacob is standing.
Yeah, massive performance from him.
Really smart to move into that part of the site.
I was looking at the U-Tilt there on the way in from Denderlay,
and I'm like, oh, wow, I'm really worried for Jacob's chances
because they have full U-Tilt.
And at that time and around, you don't expect every T-player
to have so much U-Tilt left over,
but he perfectly evades everything.
Works around the box.
Very, very impressive performance there,
and that's going to be through on the phase.
Bike comes in though for a dendolate. Enter this next round.
See what they have to do here. Jabo'in has now moved to the white box position in mid.
Wow, cash. It's popularity. I'm not surprised at all, James.
Yeah, he's waiting for this moment fitting like a glove
second or four phase
So change your approach frozen looking for his first right
Again a slow approach from then delay
And maybe
they'll be more willing to
Take a risk and try to trade out in the scenario as we saw in that previous round three of them just
send in the first one a little early so you don't get collected.
You feel the good nades in mid as we reach that 45 second mark.
In a phase 8 they're playing super passive on both sides, they've given up a lot of space.
They still have 3 incendries in phase, which could be ruinous when you're running a block down on the T side.
side. Jippo in though will have
more and more compromise angles
and I may choose to have a really
good performance, but then they
collapse on the side with really
good angles. That will be their
second round, making an expensive
full phase that AWP won't be
retrieved anytime soon, but maybe
frozen can hold on to his one
flicker to miss. And they could
come hunting. We've seen
They are going for it. It makes
a lot of sense. I mean, they
don't have a lot of money
themselves, but the CC is
going to have nothing really.
So this would, I think, be
really worth it. If he was two
players, I think they're happy
if they can get rid of even one
gun for that. They go.
They're both very well done
there by Dendeley. And I think
also a great punish from
phase. Again, another reason why in cash the delayed mid-take is helpful is because when
you're going for the delayed mid-take, usually the CTs are having to evacuate that position
somewhat because the set pieces onto the sites are so powerful that you can't really afford
to have lots of players in mid very late into the round. So normally what CT sites will
do is they'll get info in B-Made, in A-Made, so they know where to position. Phase had
no info at all. They were punished for it. I just remembered from an earlier round, we
saw some aggressive positions around A main for FaZe. I feel like they threw an incendiary
towards the stairs at the entrance while the MP9 was swinging, but I don't think the incendiary
went off. I think they took a smoke. I couldn't see one on the radar, so I'm not really sure
what happened there. Maybe we're probably gonna look that in the demo to see if it was
a bug or something. I do think there's going to be an increasing urgency as more and more
cash is played for the, especially like I'm thinking with the pace that we have from
Den Delay, where they're really going for that sub one minute mark before they get busy.
I do wonder if Faith will try to have some grenades deep in a main entrance to stop
Den Delay from having the threat of going to A or B. Of course, mid is still there,
I think that will be important now. They're on back on the bio. See if what they choose to do in this round of three time
I must maybe there'll be more encouraged to make a play like that. Although
They've got a 131 formation at the beginning. I see more like peaks into a main from jubo and a bit more aggression there with the
Orbit
for the moment is passive on a and B because three players
Faze are in mid right now. So that's what they've decided to have that initial investment for that rush timing
So it blocks that. That's fine here for Dendelade. They can wait out these smokes.
Again, they may very well just go for the same delay retake of mid.
It was very effective in the previous round.
But we'll see if FaZe will put a counter play in somewhere.
Start to press a main to catch a timing with a pot flash.
This is very expected to spot.
Frozen was here forever, just enjoying the dampness of the vents
Foot to be punished by gofollow in the boost in the middle late round
In a prior situation
Faze playing a somewhat reactive game now
Again, we see those I think set up from then delay in mid with similar timing, but will they offer something different this time?
Well
They are throwing the uterine that they're making it seem like a midtake, but right now phase know that it's not
So they have the information and there are the legs shown Koala will lose them and frozen's position now is known
But more time here is being bought for a face to rotate
They're still just the one player on the beep on site itself
So if they circumvent frozen in the fence, they might intended then it's Jacob at the back with a fan mass trying to do what he can
There is utility for the CTs here. They can smoke off both the choke points from the T approach
With their smoke if they know the lineups
So let's see what they choose to do
I think we're going to get
a little bit of time. There's
the first one. Oh, no. It's
a different different setup
entirely looking to create some
space to post up and find some
angles three on four. Four
phases first makes his way in
eats a teammate's grenade,
though, maybe loses his ankle
and phase will lose even more
leaving frozen still in the
vents. All these had his vent
I mean, I mean, honestly, we're
seeing I think really good.
Generally, like good fundamentals
on cash here from Dendeley on
this T side. I totally agree. You
can see the problems it creates
for the CTs where they don't
really know what's going on. It's
hard for them at least to know
what's going on. You could see
that there was doubt, I think,
initially, but I think it's
really important to know what's
going on. You can see that there
was doubt, I think, initially,
but I think it's really important
to know what's going on. You
can see that there was doubt, I
I think initially for phase whether the nades going into mid was you know, is this is this really a
Mid play is it is it a B play? You know there was there was noise in both sides
So I think it was hard for them to read and the previous round that that was the same
Nadeset that cleaned out mid that then turned into like a split onto the A site
so so for phase again, it kind of comes out to them not having enough information and having to
to be able to play. But I
just to play with no time. And
so I do wonder it feels like
there's a lot of pressure games
that face to need to play more
aggressively into into some
position into the mid rounds.
Yeah, we'll see if they've got
setups to do something aggro
towards a Japan will be the
hero of this round for how long
is another question. But no
again, we're seeing a lot of different styles on the CT side from different squads
Some teams happy to post up of York into checkers some teams
I don't know if it was if it was Khan and the meager or a different player who
Was happy to go through the some of the vintage plays we will see with AWP and just take a lot of map control away
That's a great result for Frozer and he sees so much and is still standing at the end some utilities to support
They've kidnapped the bomb
and unlikely run for phase one that would be fantastic if they can convert this
So have to draw all the dendale players over
Twist will get into position
Into catching on the player he needs to stay alive so they have space to rotate
But first have to rescue that bomb to go in from Sardinian
The numbers are really low for dendale and so is the health on the remaining
You're not supposed to work with here for dendale
Oh, he's swinging. I think the second player avoided it, but his angle was just far too
good.
Really nice start from max score. Making it nervous towards the end, but Jacob's that
man you want to deal with the matter.
If they fighting back then, the double ups will continue regardless of how many survive.
And this is one of the setups I was talking about in that round prior, right? For support
and it's a very good choice
as well. And of course, it's
Jacob popping out and they'll
be happy with that. That's an
early five on four. No limit
the risk now for the time being
face. And to move down the four
be five for Ben delay. And I
think you definitely more
comfortable to play passive with
the man advantage for face.
Should have the ability to get
vision on short, but the smoke
will deny a little bit. And
making B feel pressured, perhaps.
And Doc's position coming in,
completely unbeknownst to FaZe,
could be very problematic.
Now spotted, though.
Really good internal clock for FaZe,
but Jacob is still caught out, frozen,
good with the flick now.
Play in the headshot position,
dropping on the end, resetting,
repositioning.
Avoiding the pre-fire, frozen,
with a huge round, maybe between the legs
on the last one.
How much has Gafolo have left?
40 seconds, bomb collected.
A. W. P. is posted up. He will not be allowed to go any further. Twist finishing off the job there. Good hold from frozen with the A. W. P.
That kind of hold you want to see when you've got that second door pop. Yeah, looking really nice with it on that one.
I mean, that that killed two from doc. It's really creates so much pressure.
Did doc did like the big damage in that position. But the rest of the teammates, of course, have to deal with frozen on the side.
But frozen makes it actually fairly impossible. I feel like with the shots he's hitting the way he's taking the angles
I don't know how you're supposed to scale on to him when he's doing that
So great work from him and that's gonna be now face taking the advantage five to four
for them
Let's say you continue forwards and
We get new changes in the setups here for them
Looking reasonably passive at the 130 mark is
Then they get someone on the boost
They don't have the guns here, do they, James?
They don't, but they still have similar pacing.
So let's see if they'll do a mini default, if you will, of what we've seen so far.
How weird would it be if we saw a wall of smoke in the middle of mid on cash?
some points. Something hella funky thrown in. Me too, must have been spotted there,
but a lot of targets to find and also avoid. I'm going to be unable to do that.
Very old situation for him. Twist will get traded after collecting a second.
Frozen's here to pick up the slack though. Is there a one plant in this one? Four
then delayed. There might be more than that now with a three on two. Good utility, but there is
someone coming in from the back. That's Koala dropping Jabo in. And this looks like a disaster
on the way for phase up. Let's
Jacob can clutch it. That's a
really good son to koala and
indeed he will pick up the
slack. Stop the bomb from being
planted. That was a scary one,
but he is really playing well
for phase at present. It's such
an interesting run. Honestly,
NATO are getting up into a lot
of position. I feel like he was
filled with regret by continuing
to like scale in and suddenly
very very awkward but Jacob once again you know Jacob proving to be so reliable here for phase
and that does put them up onto six but their economy is stretched if they lose this round
it's going to be an easy one for Dandelion as we go into the next round here
Yep.
I was wondering if the CTs would boost.
They will.
They cheat to look into AMA as far as
RDA tries to run distraction.
Always a strong position on A.
There is a wall of smoke towards the car.
Maybe trying to draw CTs out of position.
But it got a reasonable 2-1-2.
Yeah, the noise, that broken.
Jacob going close, gets punished.
I mean, you like the play, but now he's frozen in the back by himself.
Maybe to take out one player, but there's more for the trades.
And it's looking very laboured now for FaZe.
Twists with 50 HP.
There's the cross, RDN on the other side of the map,
creating options right there for
dendrile. They look incredible
shape twist. It's not a wonder
what is actually happening here.
Here's some of the first steps.
Where are these dendrile players
though? This is so awkward. Was
that a step in? Indeed it was.
That's enough for Joe. They go
into in the numbers. It's got
have to be given something surely to go for this. It's got to say Dendeley a good 20 seconds faster
than their normal midtake they start sending it in towards B which maybe catches them a little
out of position expecting that slower pace to continue used to the rhythm of Dendeley.
They suddenly break it in round 11. It's good self-awareness from them as well when you're
playing a slower pace to throw in surprises towards the end of the half and with great success.
Yeah, and given how low their money was as well as phase is such a key rounds to to make that that good
Opening workout for you and phase now, you know, they'll have the AWP save
I wonder if they'll be tempted to do something crazy with it. It's gonna be the final round
They will not have any money
So the AWP is gonna be by far the best weapon they have into this one. So getting creative could be
Needed for face
I'm not sure I'm winning this round.
As we see the kills coming on through again, new plays.
Enderlei.
Threatening to eliminate FaZe.
I mean, this is map three here, James,
and we're looking at a Enderlei that is still very capable, very strong on cash.
Yeah, it is a massacre out there.
Fan bases in tiers this week.
and maybe more kitchen roll will be required as course as the exit some of these teams
have made at the blast bounty this week.
Japan didn't have a great spawn at all in this particular round, no gifts at the start
for phase. So what do they do with the timing they've established, the timing and the habits
they've established in this half? With one to go, what will they offer phase?
They know that phase aren't going to be happy about a very drawn out round because phases
you till is low. They know the economy is stretched for them. And so, they're looking
to play passively. They don't want to get caught by early timings. It burns the first
minute off the clock. We've often seen them throw the mid detail but not necessarily going
with it. There's the mid smoke. Jaboen still looking. Expectant would be a huge pick to
find. FaZe need something before the Dendoli players hit a site. This could be the moment
there Jaboen. The car doesn't go deep enough for that one and he doesn't get pwners'
with the safe. Two CT spotted in that short position to be hunted with 20 seconds on the clock. Jiggle from RDN.
That'll be enough to drop twist, but Jabon is disappeared on the site. There's close range for him.
Oh no, he's on site. He's by the car. The site has no one left on it now.
But can the bomb get there? Can it get planted?
Five seconds on the clock and just about. Jabon in the clutch again. Surely impossible. One, three, three.
What can he possibly do from this position?
He has a kit. He's got no teammates.
Flank is on the way. Press is on.
It's a matter of time, surely, before Dendeley equalizes the scorer half-time.
Put out of his misery, eventually a dangerous Dendeley tying the score as we change sides.
What you like, man, don't?
Yeah, that's it.
So why?
Names of the f... the fly.
I'm a little bit confused on what to do my script writer is like here,
and I'm a little anxious.
Script writer? What do you mean script writer?
The...
Hmm.
That's good.
That's good.
You could talk about the barbecue.
What do you kind of reference that?
The barbecue?
Um, what do you, what's that?
You know, with the meats.
The brisket?
Mm. Mm.
Mm. You love myself with meat.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
I wouldn't cut that.
It's so intense.
Yeah!
Oh, it's so good.
It's so intense.
You can't... Why are you laughing?
Dude, I know it's coming!
Okay, sorry.
Why is this the hardest line?
Alright.
Needs his abs.
Alright.
I lost.
One shudder to imagine what in human...
Human thoughts, yeah, we're just a b***h.
One sh...
One shudder to imagine what in human...
She said she loves you!
What's she...
You get it, you get it, re-center.
Re-center, re-center.
You're so like that.
I'm sorry, I've never had this stuff before.
You're so intense.
It's fine, you've got a video.
You call a killer.
Kiss you for being a killer.
If X-Cloud is one of the top players in the world,
what number would it be?
Let's just find out if that's your boy or not.
You're not.
All right, listen up, people.
There's a lot the government don't want you to know.
They're ramen, deep state operatives.
It's a very light panacea.
I know, dude, it's not him, but it strikes a chord still.
Now, the government don't want you to know this,
but you can just put in cold water and wait a little longer.
Okay, I'll leave it there for once.
He's so intense.
Dude, it's not.
Yes, exactly.
Just go fast.
He's so intense.
That's good.
This game is intense.
That's is for sure.
6-6 here on the third map
between FaZe and Dendele.
is there another upset brewing here? Because FaZe, they looked like they were getting manhandled
there towards the end of that first half by Dendele. But now FaZe get to take the initiative.
They are on the aggressive side here, James, on the C pistol.
Yeah, hopefully we'll see some more aggression from them.
We're saying during the break they may have not got as much output as they might have liked from
the AWP on short on many of those rounds. I think the only aggro push was through B with frozen
on the Sniper. Jabon still 11 frags though, leading the charge for the squad.
But 6-6 and a half time. Can't feel comfortable.
The old door makes you playing with it. It's creating some noise distraction. They're trying
to hold the attention to the CTs, but most of the players coming up from the short position.
Now this is some good effort onto the site. CT is now looking for these frags, it's always
good. Open up from Jacob. Oh, I've got CTs now answering the call, but it is phase frags for days.
It's now just Doc and Koala left alive, backing away back to car.
What a crazy scenario. Well-placed smoke, just hearing all these players charging at the site.
Your teammate gets instagibbed.
What can you do?
They've both been headshot now.
And they're two versus four with no kit.
So, are you saving the Kevlar?
Looks like perhaps they are or something to that effect.
Because there is nothing else to pursue in this one.
They're securing the pistol round for themselves.
Starting well.
I've seen so many important frags from Jacob.
It's been a super star for
phase of late. We'll see what
role we have to play. In this
half again, so many name
casualties, big name casualties
this week. A blast bounty. Think
the Internet is a little shell
shots. He really is looking like
that sweaty sweaty gamer meme at
the moment. Yes, it is super
6, 2, 7.
Now for Dendeley, as they use that pistol, we'll see if he can convert this, so...
They are pretty good at converting these rounds, I've heard. I've understood.
So...
Quick smoke onto mid.
Torley, not. Okay, yeah, denied. Jaburn takes down Dark there.
For the 5v4, get that mid control. That's really nice to convert that.
And now Dendeley, we know what's the adjustment. They're stacked on B. Completely stacked on B.
Not too unusual to see this.
There's a lot of we just see them just not moving to save, you know, if they go to A.
Makes a lot of sense.
Phases turn to set the pace on their T side.
Saw a very deliberate one from Dendeley in that first half.
produce a lot of problems for FaZe on their CT side and now it's their turn so again relatively
passive in terms of the main approach from FaZe on the CT side and from what I could
I saw a round. I think there was a time out and scrawny launders were singing the music in CT spawn.
I will not judge the quality of the singing, but I may have a go myself.
I will not judge the quality of the singing, but I may have a go myself.
That was Dan.
I thought it was a beautiful
That was a bit
It's not a lot of air
It's not a lot of air
Go on then
I already did, I already did it, didn't I?
Oh no, it was me, it was me
I'm trying to work my way out of that one.
Okay, well, we're back into the action,
although, dendrelating, I know they're saving,
or they're rather working with what they saved
in the previous round.
The, to control the pot shots, the hiberian's headshots.
Faze are wary, they are cautious.
They are looking not to fall victim to the shenanigans.
and slowly working the there
with checkers and he was close positions
flush in the mouth we got that boost
we've got the mid control coming as
well it's all coming together James
the face in this round oh dear so I was
going I was going to say these are the
P grenades people are throwing in mid
That one not quite but twist is in position to fix
Who's going up they can't decide?
Yeah, Ardion makes more sense
And patiently they will wait
Max core has another smoke which he could throw towards a main. I think he may have been spotted there. Yeah
What did he say? 30 seconds on the clock. Are you playing it a little too slow if your
face? Well, I say that, but Twisted flanking the B-bomb site now. They've got the numbers
here. Koala so close with the 5-7, but they're never going to see the bow of the F6 o'clock.
Twisted loses his jewel with the follow though. Doesn't have that time to pull that grenade
out. Now, Netu will entertain it, stop that rotation from coming through. Really nice
the game. It was a very nice
round. Very nice round from
face. Just the construction of
that was really, really, really
awesome. You know, making it
really feel like the to the
dandelion side like it was
going to be an a hits. But in
reality, of course, you see
twists converting that mid
control into the split onto the
B bomb site, so they're hitting
B from multiple angles. Was
keeping the players on a yet.
You can't really ask for too
much better than that. And so
you can't really ask for too
much better than that. And so
And so with that, it's gonna be a 9-6 advantage now for Faze.
So getting closer to avoiding a disastrous third map.
But now the real guns are gonna come out for Dendeley.
Max-Core's gonna be on the AWP.
Four rifles, four U-Till.
And this is where we'll really see
who the better Cache team actually is today.
Full focus now.
That's there is work to be done.
I'm not sure if I can get that.
What if it's two in a row for Dendeley?
Big Scouts, big bounties.
It would be a hell of a run for them.
They must feel like it's in the palm of their hands.
their match to win.
I think we're talking about being a child, watching Fallen, able to get the best of him
yesterday.
It's got to fuel you with confidence, almost a mark of approval.
So is this the easier task?
like FaZe are probably targeting the A side this time, so it makes things up.
But close positions on the CQC side in middle, which does obviously allow them to quickly
flank into the A main position, especially with a boost.
So we'll see how that works out, because FaZe will definitely try to keep them occupied
towards B. And everyone coming out through the door.
So yeah, here's the sort of fake towards B. Try to keep the players there as FaZe set
their sights on A.
They have pulled Max Cora over as well.
So far so good.
But how good will the timing be?
Well done.
Let me get a second one here.
Doing the best he can.
Giving his team a man advantage at the very least.
There are some flashes here for FaZe.
They'll surely have to use them while to try and
thin the numbers as they delay a pressure site.
Massive kill from Frozen.
Twist as well.
And now Frozen does present a problem coming in
from the mid position.
Looking to assist.
Twist there.
Looking to get another kill.
That is fantastic work.
Rdn now in the clutch against two.
Isolates the 1v1s, but looking really, really difficult.
Running out of bullets, running out of chances,
and twists and throws, and both coming out huge in that one,
because it didn't look good when the bomb went down.
Yeah, the body language tells the story on Dendeley as well.
That's an important round.
That's momentum for FaZe,
and the dream may just be collapsing for Dendeley.
I think there is a psychological barrier that is broken.
You're negatively, when you are your opponent, reach that 10 mark, those double figures, very close to the finish line.
Problems are bound for Dendeley now.
Half by 4 then, many an MP9.
With some utility to kill time.
But Faze had been very comfortable with the slower pace, even in the anti-e-granty force-byes we saw in that round where Twist was flanking B.
Completely outmaneuvering Dendeley.
whether he won his duel or not this is being held for quite a while
who has help if he needs it as well and again handily dealt with by FaZe they're very comfortable in this half against Enderley
That's the side looking like it's constructed well.
Colorado last player standing and all the necessary work has been done to enable the
bomb to go down although you can see because Colorado's position yet to be known there's
still some level of caution from phase to avoid anything weird.
Colorado could still away in AK, is there going to be one here?
It's a lot of the timing, kind of strike, and frozen able to prevent any AKs being stolen.
So good work there. 11-6 and indeed the comfort is certainly signed to be created here for
FaZe, just two more rounds to go, but back in with a buy for Dendeley and we'll have
to see if FaZe can continue to get the better of them with how they are building these T-Rounds.
We would tie the halftime, let's us not forget, five rounds in a row for FaZe.
There is nothing that Dendeley have to show for their appearance in the second half of
Cache and you can see the frustration start to be able to be read on the faces of the
Dendeley squad.
No success whatsoever.
Can things be different now?
MaxxCore's turn to hold short is AWP.
and flashes will force him from his position.
Then Delay needs to find a way to find impact in these rounds and take the game away from FaZe.
Knock on an island will be dealt with handily. They've lost position, lost personnel.
Is there a way for them to respond?
It's like really good work with the Util in that rounds there from FaZe with the flashes.
And they have voided the mid position and you can see he looks a little bit but he's
okay, it's Max called, he's really going to confirm that hey they've left mid, where
are they going?
So are they going to be A or B?
But I don't think there's a good way for them to know, they don't have any forward positions
anywhere on the map so there's essentially split two to a bomb site.
So FaZe are going to have advantage into this A push.
They still have presence on B.
So there's an A to do something first indeed.
He's dealt with, but surely that's
got to be rotation towards A quickly.
They're so thin on A, with R, B, AWP, and NARCY crowd speak.
And he is a goner.
Max Court doesn't have position.
Almost finding a second, but the follow will certainly
do that.
The trades continue.
Twist the last man now.
24 seconds on the clock.
Bomb needs to be rescued.
Kawhi will catch him.
Didn't see that one going the way of Dendeley,
the bomb ended up on the floor in an awkward position. It really has been phased with a grip on
many of these rounds, but that is an important pickup for Dendeley. Yeah, I mean, you're going to
give it to Dendeley right there. You know, they made all the right moves, so they lost mid control.
It went quiet and they actually, they did one thing that phased was intending them not to do.
They went and they cleared it. They re-cured it. Nice post order. Hey, everybody's gone from mid,
which then triggered them delayed have to figure out who where are they they pushed in the main and I got them the pig and
I got them in the rotation in time
Faster pace in mid from phase after losing their first round looking to turn the screw further
There's more money for more buys should phase not be successful here
The same cannot be said for Dendele.
Dendele.
Very key that they pull out a consecutive round.
Otherwise, maybe this round
wins the series for FaZe figuratively.
Really nice forward position there from FaZe by the short box.
Timing here. Oh, gets utterly denied from Frozen.
That's a huge one, and this now opens up CT position.
Twizz picks up another one, now Heroics aren't required from Denderlay.
They won't have any chance in equalizing the situation.
And right now, QAL is kind of in the middle of nowhere,
could get caught out from multiple positions.
Jacob is going to make it easy, just take him out of the round forcefully.
And now I mean, saving is really the only option,
but FaZe may very well not allow that to even be the case.
on the bomb site. Not the first
time we've seen twist causing
problems behind the defensive
line. Then delay being out
manoeuvres on this bomb site.
Max called death, probably
looking to say WP, but it's not
going to happen. Match point
for phase just the one round in
in this half, but then delay another one where it's the last man hanging on a familiar story from previous maps
And no one hangs on at the end of that round
Wow, okay, so he was fully blinded. I did wonder
Really nice coverage there from frozen to make it all possible
It's kind of crazy the domino effect so you kind of you kind of see sometimes in Counter Strike
That frag making all the difference like not just saving his teammates
team mates, but allowing his
team mates to continue to press and take advantage from that forward position.
It goes to show James as well. You know, if you're playing the T-Site correctly, you're taking that mid control well.
We've talked about it a lot in the caches we've seen. It really is the difference maker. It makes it very hard for the CTs to have to react some way when they lose mid.
And that's actually, the round that Dindley won, was because they reacted really well to how they lost mid and what they then chose to do as a result.
But here it comes down to this, 12-7 for FaZe.
Looking for an explosive opening towards B it seems.
They've got heavy numbers here.
There they go, past the CT utility. They saw the trajectory.
And they're confident in where these CTs are.
He has never seen it come in Koala.
And his twist, of course,
what a pain in the bum he's been for Dendeley in this half.
Absolute nuisance on Cash.
Thanks for the look.
Able to take some good damage onto the second player as well.
So with a frag, so fitting out the numbers ever so slightly,
but holding this bombsite with all the utility that they still have,
this is horrendous for Dendeley to try to get back in.
More or less walking the plank surely.
Jacob on 5 HP, can they find him though?
HG towards the side and Jaboen will drop down.
Easy initial engage up and the rest is compulsory for FaZe Clan.
A super strong second half.
Just that one round from Dembele.
Just that one round and that is never going to be enough when you're going up against the FaZe Clan.
Solid performance here on Cash from FaZe.
good bounce back after what we can definitely say is a disastrous mirage, but individuals
were able to show up and deliver. And I would say that then delay just didn't have the same
opportunities against phase, right? They were mixing it up on the T side. They were able
to take a lot of control in the second half. And then they didn't have the answers for
it this time around.
That's more what I expected out of Mirage, right? Phase, they had a few rough moments.
Then delay had some nice kind of clutch plays from a couple of players. They had their chances
But phase at the end of the day is just a more experienced team. They've got generally better individuals max core
Unlike against Furia. He's not having you know a pop-off game and phase eventually managed to eke out the victory
Based at least partially around not throwing like four anti-ecos this time
Yeah, you know
That always helps they still had one in that it caused a little bit of problems
But I mean they were able to take it on the chin and roll away from it
they were not losing the important rounds that could have ever caused them some problems
and the back and forth from the first half, it's like, that's actually fine considering,
you know, we're still going through the new map, we're still going for growing pains with
it all. Would you say overall, like in, okay, we expected phase to win this, but across this
series that then they still played to a level which is respectable or just maybe not as
high as what we saw yesterday.
Yeah. I mean, you have to give props to it. Then delay. They, it's kind of a nightmare
situation. You play against Furia, an incredible team. You managed to eke out the victory.
plenty of time to prepare for that. And then by the way, you're playing phase immediately
after, I guess they, they opted into this one potentially, but it's still just kind
of a very rough situation. On the other hand, phase also didn't have time to repair. But
I think when you look at phase that, that, that's to their benefit. I think the more
time you have to prepare as a dent delay, you have more, you're, you're just, you're
going to have more ability to go for an episode.
Well, the Jacob haters are not going to be eating good today because he performed once
again in a very good fashion across this whole series, right? There was no slowing down from
this man. Jacob has had great series. He's had great maps. He's had great events. What
he hasn't had is a great three month period or two month period or year. If he can maintain
the level that we sometimes see out of Jacob, we would be talking about this phase as, you
know, maybe a top 16, you know, a team that can actually contend, get into the playoffs,
maybe make a couple semifinals. This is the J Cobb. We were promised when we were younger,
James,
when we were younger, I've definitely not been young for quite some time, but I will
say this. NKJ gave us the lowdown, right? That like it's about him adjusting to these
roles and feeling comfortable within it against this level of opposition. He definitely is
100%. And the thing about NKJ's comments is that I do respect that he's been slotted
in more recently, right? So that the coach is going to be looking at this in a more positive
light. But at the same time, how long has Jacob been on phase? It's been like a year,
right? You're expecting him. This is where we really want to see him hit his stride.
He's got the new coach. I think I have a lot of respect for NKJ and how he's going to work
together with this player. And we want to see him actually level up this season specifically.
What do you think of NKJ actually just on what he can bring to this team, right? Because
there's so many experienced individuals, but now the new young players coming in, do you
think that's where he's going to be able to do his best work to get the most out of them?
I'm actually thinking more about him working with twists. I think NKJ has a lot of, a lot
of experience and twists is a newer IGL. He's done it in the past, but we've, we've kind
of questioned he, is he, is he a fragger that can call a little bit or is he actually going
to try and grow into the IGL role? I'm still not convinced he's committed to it, but I
And I think he's actually done a really admirable job, especially, I mean, we had him on the
interview last time around. He's talking about himself developing in these younger players.
Maybe that's coming from NKJ, but I think he's got a lot of that, like the, the, the
thoughtfulness about these types of things. I, I'm very happy with the way NKJ is going
to be working specifically with us. Well, we've got Jacob standing by it for
their winners interview. Now, Jacob, a solid individual performance from you. And also
you guys have qualified to the LAN in Malta. Very important for FaZe right now. Just give me
your thoughts and feelings so far on your performance and FaZe's performance so far at the bounty.
Yeah, thank you. It's been going pretty well the last times.
I mean, a few months ago it was going really bad. Almost top 40 VRS. Now we are climbing up,
getting those wins, qualifying to the finals. So, yeah, it's been going nice.
Could I ask you about the differences? I mean, obviously, Twist has been eye-jailing for a little bit now,
but the differences you find with NKJ coming in as the coach,
is he working with you directly, trying to support you in your roles as a player?
Yeah, we have many talks about the game. He's a really hard-working guy.
And he's happy me a lot, I think.
Okay, just a straightforward question about the event.
Like now that, I mean, Vitality's gone, Falcons are gone.
Do you feel like you guys have now a real chance of coming in and taking the trophy?
Whereas, you know, with those guys, maybe you want to win,
but maybe you're happier with like a finals performance in that case.
Yeah, I think we do have a very chance to win the tournament.
and you know, without those top teams, it's it should be easier, but you never know.
Just have to play the game.
We are still kind of a new team.
There is many, many mistakes happening in the game, but yeah, let's see how it goes.
And lastly, Jacob, I want to ask you a bit about you, right?
Because you get a lot of criticism from people online talking about your performance.
But I think I'm starting to see a better version of Jacob coming out in these games.
What is that down to?
What's helping you make that possible?
I mean, there are some changes in a team like position wise and
I was like more comfortable during the game on the new positions.
So it's it's getting better for me.
But it's working better for you.
You're playing more confident.
Yeah, hopefully that continues for you as well, man.
And it's good to see.
Thank you very much for your time, Jacob.
We've got to let you go, but we'll see you in Malta.
Thank you. See you.
There we go. So, FaZe, our first team through to the Blast Premier Bounty, presented by Polymarket.
They will be happy with that. Like he said, they're grinding throughout this VRS, right?
They're trying to make their way up. They don't want to be a team that's regularly fighting to get invites.
They want to be just getting the invites and be back to where FaZe was a long time ago.
I didn't doubt them for a second, James. Not for a second, did I?
Big, the phase we're going to lose this series that they wouldn't make the wouldn't make
the line. I mean, that that is just that it's an impressive showing from phase, especially
from the new players. I'm so impressed with the new players. They've got Jacob, Jay Bowen.
Well, Jacob's not new, but Jay Bowen specifically, we talked a lot about Jacob. I think, I think
Jay Bowen is one for the future.
Well, I've got a player for an interview that's not a new player, but he does have a new idea
and he might be in love with him. Have a listen.
The best win in a long time for Liquid.
How important was this for you after like the past 10 months of everything you've been going through since joining Liquid again?
It was definitely super important just getting it done, getting a big win against, you know,
one of the best teams in the world right now, debatable Falcons Vitality, but Vitality is still for me,
me, my team in the world. And while it might still be online, you know, we are happy for
any win right now. It doesn't matter if it's online or LAN, like just getting a big win
against, you know, a great team is going to be really positive for us going forward.
And Djoko was saying that you were someone he could always reach out to. I was just going
to ask you, like, how much is he asking you questions and wanting to learn?
He's definitely a really good player and he's been in a lot of different positions with
me where we're playing on the same side of the map, so I think it's really important
that we're getting on the same page and we're always talking, and that's one of the things
like I said to him very early on, the quicker that we can get on the same page where when
something happens we're both coming to the same conclusion, the easier it'll be for
us to just focus on shooting and refining our process.
Yeah, like outside of the game, like I told him many times that he wants to like go over like the prac demos or watch something together.
We watched something at the night before yesterday, like some of our practice games back, like coming to some conclusions of like, well, you know, he and we could have done better.
So just leaving it open and I think that he's been great to work with takes a lot of feedback well.
So it's been helpful.
Nice. And I saw yesterday, right?
You spoke to Flom a little bit about the whole situation with Shuhay and things that were not working out there.
What was it just from your perspective of why you couldn't get things working and why it's so easy to just go back to JT for like you personally?
Well, I mean, I'm not gonna speak of like before
You know before I joined because you know they have their their stint with their roster beforehand
I felt like when I came in it was already like
Like a clash like as I guess who's I joined like there already was like some pre-existing like ideas that like
Like, people weren't on the same page, like we weren't like, playing like the, like we
weren't all moving in the same direction, even if like here and there, like, like some
of my interviews even like are very confusing, because even from my perspective, I was a
little bit confused thinking that we were all on the same page, but we actually weren't
and it's like, people are just like doing it just to appease people kind of thing.
That's, that's like how it felt from like my perspective where I'm just like, okay,
I feel like we're on the same page and then we're still getting smashed and things are
absolutely not going well. So yeah, just you need like everyone to you know actually play the
The same CS that they want to and stuff like that and it'd be natural
Like I think that you see that with lots of teams in CS history if you
If everyone's not all moving the same direction or if there's you could have like five great players like on the same team
But if they don't play like the same like CS and it's like not natural then it's not going to work
And I think that's all there's to it. I think that you know, she was like a great player in IGL
And I think that you could still get back on his feet
you know, I think that's a
really good dynamic. Okay and
looking at this with JT coming
in. Obviously you had a good
amount of experience with him,
but how much were you involved
in the decision to get him on
liquid and also how much of a
voice are you having in the
match again like alongside him
to make these plays? Yeah I
mean, I think that we have a
really good dynamic from what
we had on complexity and all
that time together. I think
that we just have like a good
and how we're like playing in the game. I think that we're super on the same page.
So like when the team like wanted to go like a different direction, like IGL wise, I definitely was just like JT's, JT's the guy.
Like I think that he's, you're not going to regret it. Like he's, he's great. Just trust. He's amazing.
I love him. We're going to do good with him. And yeah, I think that answers that.
I can't wait to get into this one and it's honestly so rewarding as someone that's been in Counter Strike forever to you know
And also, you know, we were at least his first land with liquid in the old like forever ago
In the old basic studio with like a LAN finals there and so it's called us in back with liquid
It's called to see him having good performances. Let's see what performance
Can they do that? That's the question. Can they do it? Can they do it? Do you believe? Are you a believer?
Yes good
Can they? They can. But will they?
Is a question to be answered through these maps.
Tees moving together, our safety in numbers is heavy, God.
Keep the players towards B, honest. They had a quick look to see what's going on.
And then we have to have a further look.
G2 looking to cause chaos.
Bouncing around the map at the moment.
Oh, nafla, the first shot is perfect.
Through the smoke there. And then there were three.
Wrinkle someone we're going to be looking for a big performance from in this series.
He'll plant a bomb.
Three on five though.
All of Liquid are still standing.
Four of them moving together as they approach B.
Hunter...
Moving in on the back.
And no, don't do it, sir.
Yow!
Jocko! No!
Oh my God!
He's still going!
Hunter, with the dualies making life even more difficult.
Heavy God taking down Malmst now.
that one up to his burst and
bending around the wall. They're
from that flight. It's very
nice. They're from wrinkle. The
G two and they will pick up the
T pistol. So a knife kill in a
three versus five post plan
from Hansa. I respect it. That
is very brazen indeed. You
I'm not sure if they're still on the high after getting knife and a a five on three retake, but sometimes it'd be like that.
Not buying much of anything in this one.
They're here for the long run.
Oh, my God. He's so quick on that one. The two Jules nasty work. That's a fantastic way to open things up and we'll definitely give a chuckle to the squad.
Awkward for liquid that one.
Not sure if they're still on the high after getting knife and a five on three retake, but sometimes it'd be like that.
They're here for a long run.
Looking to be here for a long time, not a good time.
The stack, the stack on A.
Let's see if he can yield much.
I mean obviously it's just USBs for the most part.
Got a mouse on A.
Not a D-Eagle.
If he do 50H.
Yes, there we go.
No, let's see, he's designed for this.
this. It's got the tool for the job. One kill. I mean, I feel like that's what we're
probably expecting to get. So, you know, it's round as quickly over with and we're going
to get into the buys. The interesting counter strike is about to be upon us.
Good bonus money with those SMGs. Getting most of the kills there. So it's a great situation.
I think everybody wants to see a liquid who are doing good, who are on an upward trajectory.
If anyone's mad in that respect, it was interesting to comment from Elis about the synergy and
you really do need to be on the same page with your teammates. If you're looking at
things differently and you understand things to be one way, but not everybody does, then
even if it's good player separator, again, you have to have the right fit.
Yeah. Yeah, it's also it's also there's a it reduces the cognitive bandwidth you need to make decisions in the in the game because when you're communicating you that yeah you should be communicating but you don't you don't need to be communicating everything you should be able to know how your team is going to respond without thinking it should be automatic and
If you don't have that, it does increase the kind of latency with which your whole team can kind of act and make decisions.
And it's harder to feel confidence in those scenarios, too.
So I completely agree. It's absolutely necessary.
It's good to see that they're finding that.
Rifles are out for liquid.
Now, at the minute 40 mark, they don't have much in the name of smoke grenades.
So, in terms of forcing the patients, maybe an aggressive approach is required.
Nurt's causing problems with that MP7, dropping down to 21 HP,
which makes things even more awkward.
You saw they may have had intentions going through that A bomb site.
That's a lot of damage done early.
A tricky prospect for a first round here for Liquid.
Nice to see you, Captain.
4G2.
H-Mine, I'm going to find a spot with a flashbang!
That is a beautiful result there for Liquid.
5 vs 3 now for them, with the mid-pressence gone,
it's a desperate push from Nurtz.
1v1, that JT will easily deal with.
And now, there's not all that much left here for G2.
They don't want to throw away Rinkle's AWP,
and in a Rinkle storyline will be an interesting one to follow in this match.
I think definitely a lot of focus on Rinkle.
the team. Yeah, there's a
tough spot to simply exist.
Given an option. Okay, heavy
God. Hold on a second.
Allegional. Stay live at 20 HP,
but stop them from advancing and
he'll do exactly that and AWP
if the team wants it. Speaking
of JT earlier on criminally
with JT and without, but again, still flying under the radar to some degree, not getting
his flowers just yet. JT, we'll see what they're running down to his life, but that's a really
important one. And again, we saw the shortcomings in that round for Liquid and that Holden mid
was so strong for them, able to do a lot with a little, cleans your talent on the team.
Now it's G2's turn to do the very same.
trying to work out what's going on right now the walkthrough the smoke in mid for g2 and
the mid position is unknown for liquid so that means g2 we're going to get pretty deep
it before liquid can react on the site but that said now the main push that's going to
give them a lot of information as to what they can kind of deduce and get deep against
to spot the third, but a continuation spray there.
Noses, more players, Hunter delayed his peak,
but doesn't matter against JT.
Now there's just three left for G2,
and Elysse is asking questions as well.
That's a really important track for Rinkle.
Bon spotted.
Three remain.
Was an interesting prospect in mid for Liquid,
but things are not in their favor any longer.
Nathalie on a very slow rotation
as they give G2 some space.
two kits on the three players.
All of liquid.
Sturco looks for a connection.
Not much to be found just yet.
Trying to align everybody. JT really fracking, I think, so far here today.
Sturco now making his presence known on the swing and liquid all day.
It seems like winning all the battles.
And I feel like JT is looking kind of nice with it so far here, James.
He's winning a lot of 1v1s in his key positions.
Yeah, you saw G2 filling the vacuum in mid,
but you have to wonder why there is that vacuum
in the first place.
There'll be an internal clock for the CT,
and some kind of angle, and JT indeed doing great work there.
Another highlight for him in this one.
A good retake, Naflai with a slow approach the whole time
coming through when he needs to.
AWP can be rescued.
In the hands of Jorko. A lot of discussion about the...
About the orb, especially on G2, supplementing the change.
Rincool's got something to prove for sure.
In the eyes of Tintinet at least.
So down to the pistols it is as G2.
Have to wait for those rifles, but this will still be a dangerous round for Liquid.
But again, Liquid are avoiding those close quarters to charge from the T's, but can they solve the puzzle being prevented to them?
It's a great start from JT, falling back to the reload as well, and trouble is on the way.
They're closing down this position, through the E-box, but like you say,
closing down on all this with the rifles looking pretty comfortable so far.
That said, have you got guests close? Peace and alies, and it's time for JT again,
but nuts in with a fast P250 headshot, and that's going to change everything.
That's a good one. That's a
good one. That's a good one.
Wrinkle still on the P 250.
That's the rifle and low health.
That's wrinkled their move and
try and collect it. No, it's
will throw the rifle over. That
makes sense with the HP.
Wrinkle with the prefire nurse
trying to do what they can.
They've made expensive for
liquid a bomb. London three
kills. Can see they felt like
maybe they could have got a bit
more for that. But that was
plenty. I think all things
considered that was an eco
to play later on. Again, two
rounds now where Liquid have chosen not to engage close in mids. We saw a faster reaction
from G2. More mileage on that one for them.
Yeah, very nicely done. I like the faked there, but Liquid are just seemingly quite ready today
so far. Three rounds in a row now for them, but with these bomb blasts, you know, it's
definitely adding some extra money in the bank for G2 to maximize these buys.
And then, it's going to be so interesting to see this kind of wrinkle versus Jor-Ko battle
today. Wrinkle 83 at the moment, obviously not too much orping just yet.
the next round we go. Ops, are
out for both sides. Rink or
leading the charge once a fast
opening towards a fees afforded
one. No aggressive play though
this time as it's not like
posted up with one of two WP's
may have a superior angle. It
doesn't important sound cues
though. He will exchange
from the side, but his teammates are all dead. Three players left on the liquid side for him to worry about, but not only that, the bomb is collected away from Choco and an opportunity for heavy God.
Big flank from Aleige.
But heavy God has got time, so go for a clutch.
And because of that time, you can see Nath has to be concerned.
He could come from mid, he could come from elsewhere,
which means he's got a chance for a 1v1, but that clock is ticking.
Aleige is showing some elbow.
I think he's been hurt now.
the game. I'm not sure what
the game is going to be. I'm
going to be. Point to return
that flight trying to fall back
that gives him a little more
options. You got halfway there.
I thought that might run away
with the time on the clock
there, but the league is able
to trade and that will be the
ace for a leash doing humongous
work in that round. Yeah, I
love how active liquid were in
the beginning of this round.
A bunch of rounds where we saw
the mid open from the G two
And we're very active, which allowed at least to then be later able to work into that position,
because they're so good at collecting information in the middle of these rounds.
So, Liquid doing a lot very well at the moment.
Now, another pace of aggression.
Turning it up, our Liquid through that A bomb site.
That's what Rinko's maybe looking for in the last round.
the way in trying to use these
numbers. Still post up with the
WP and the rifle support is
here. At least good for another
multi frag. He is begging for
them to peak him. He has the
answers. Make it 13 now for four
is a leash. Three K after a five
K. Yeah, stacking and stacking
up the stats. Yeah, looking
as a player, despite I think being in a lot of situations in his career where the teams just didn't work out and that kills a lot of players performance
James and I think you can understand why that would be imagine if you're just in teams after teams where the whole team is not performing and you're a part of that system
It's I think quite the emotional challenge and especially when you have you know as much hunger to be really really good to manage to kind of see it through on the other
that he's going to be able to
see him. He's going to be
able to see the red and keep
getting better. That is
something that at least has
done and it's kind of rewarding.
I think for people to be able
to see him get to perform in a
system that works for him.
It's good to have a course
towel. If you are in a warm
environment or have a clammy
hand, there has to be course
courses better. Yes because I
have I did I shot the Swedish
They were selling these towels which you could put on a key ring which hands off your belt basically so if your hand's getting too warm
And it's affecting your your grip you can just
use a coarse towel
And you'll be back to normal very quickly. So yeah, I would recommend a course one
Finding a headshot onto GT early
It's not the advantage for G2 to play with, it's also early positioning, two mattes,
E-box might actually just push on through.
Opportunity knocks.
Good angles being held, CT's changing their formation, that gets them back into the game
and now Nerts might get one for free, well they even think about mobs in this position,
doesn't look like it, he's playing a trigger discipline, looking for two, Nerts never
The season coming. Wonderful work with the CT formation, but G2 are still in this fight.
Rinkal in the clutch now. Another makes seem very awkward indeed.
Jorko coming in from the back. Fast moving round there.
That's six rounds in a row from Liquid now.
They are dominating. Both, I mean, I think, you know, on the information game, on the, on the fragging.
Overall, they're looking like just such a good team.
I think obviously after that vitality victory that they pulled off very recently. You just have to ask James because it feels like
You know, is it anything but an overperformance or is it is it close to their baseline? What is that performance?
Yeah, you can see the frustration there from G2 absolutely checkmated by the CT formation of liquid
Really unexpected suggested they were stacked elsewhere with NAF's position
full sense of security can lead to disaster certainly did on that one well
done liquid leech 13 for 5 out very dangerous indeed
rifles have been really important in this house
hit presence again the pistols from g2 oh this is very sneaky the boost that is so cheeky
wow
I like the action and urgency we've seen towards the A-bomb site from both teams as well, seeking
opportunity there.
Mal's currently in a very forward position in that respect, but they're being dealt
What's with in mid RG2?
It's cool to see just how active Liquid is being, obviously you're talking about them
a lot, but they are of course playing very well at the moments.
And that's like an interesting balance to find counter strike.
You have to be active to kind of be taking the initiative, getting information, but it carries its own risk.
But there's also moments when you need to not be active.
kind of finding that balance is uh can be difficult this is the moment where it pays off to ensure
really awesome boost perfect timing converting yet another round seven in a row now here from liquids
time out from g2 as they try to salvage something from this half
that's a lot of timeouts they've taken this is a stressful environment for them
and the next one is the
next one is the last one.
Liquid playing really well.
Liquid playing really well.
And again, there is history
And again, there is history
with players in their former
teams.
As you saw in the graphic earlier.
Lots to talk about during this
series.
But they're all focused on being
a unit.
People around them.
My word, what a performance from
a leisure scene so far.
in Counter Strike. You want to
see them do well. I think at
each spoke about the lack of
consistency in terms of team
results over a very long period
of time. Yeah, so this is a
small window just a week, but
it's promising. Yeah, you know,
you can see you can see that
they have pieces that make
sense. And in addition to that,
they've got a team that has
an asshole, but it can be hard to find in Counter-Strike World, and Elyse will finish off the round 15 for 5.
Now that's 8 in a row from Liquid, and they are just shutting down G2 in the most epic of fashions.
Jorko in with two kills here, before the push can even happen there from the G2 side.
Definitely a little bit of luck there, James. You know, of course G2 decided to push that
into the AWP at that time, but Liquid are still capitalizing.
Hey, Liquid are putting themselves in position to win.
So certainly got a chance here with the running tick mine.
Potentially unlikely round, great flashes, so JT collects two,
traded by Mattis, three on three, rifles to be collected by what remains of G2.
Yeah, this is a good opportunity for G2 for sure.
picking up some of these weapons, three versus three, lots of space on the map, lots of time.
It definitely puts some pressure on Liquid. We've seen how good they have been to respond.
Right now we have a Leisure in a deep position on A long, and you want to have someone in a deeper position.
Leisure is that man looking to see where the T is going. Can he find anyone early, or can he just at least have a good rotation?
Timing into the play.
Timing, I think. We'll decide.
He's going to be the last one.
Who takes what in this one? Seize
the last two players. Now if
they fake the kill cam there.
The league was playing in a very
safe fish position outside the
A bomb site. I don't know what
very safe fish means, but he
tried to limit his variance to
limit his risk. Put it that way,
but he's still outside a is
from nerds. But maybe that can galvanize the team for what remains in this half, which
isn't the whole lot, but again, the liquid are just looking really good. They are like
water in this first half, but nerds, excuse me.
What is that? That's like from the perspective of a green mate.
Well, you saw it, at least in his expression. Hang on, hang on, they're going really fast
water. Just time to pace up to
a thousand. Just like you two
are very ready for that boat.
And you know this this has got
to be a conversion here for G2
and heading into halftime
school wise, it will be very
promising versus the run of
so perhaps they've done enough if they secure this one now flies roaming with an AWP
we've seen multi frags many a multi frag in this half already from liquid
now I'm standing close to the health and doesn't matter shut down absolutely shut down
looking very limited death and have 7 HP extraordinarily far away from most of the enemies
and he's got one in mid here, so deciding where to go and there's the finish and it
is a recovery of some extent, 4 to 8 for G2 at the end of the first half
Okay, this is Muffy's, this is Foyne, hey I'm Alexi B and today I'll be reading some
bad comments.
Fui itself hasn't been looking hot since in the major result.
Well, if I tell you they are so good that even a single map win for Nabi would be a
victory himself.
What can I say?
I don't know if this kid is going to be the next Brokey or Sampaiyo.
Sampaiyo.
Sampaiyo bro, what are you doing right?
The Hunter was never an enemy, he'll never be a good player and that's a boss that can
not be done on the Inns guys plus.
Sampaiyo was like that in 2TB, always flicking, constantly getting back kills, but then he
disappeared.
XP.
A typical HLTV user, I love it, I love it.
You know, Mordwai has a bright future ahead of him, he's just starting, so you're going
to have to watch a lot of games from Mordwai, hopefully it's going to give him a lot, so
I think you're one of the best on the side of the game.
So a guy named InsertLame here says,
I'm not going to get the honor of losing to Vita in finals this event.
But yeah, I'm glad that people are thinking that we're going to reach the finals.
And yeah, it's good for us.
My name's Nico Flosser. I used to be a huge down game.
The previous could be in the odd last.
This iteration, new iteration, we are not likely to win 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 the free of super competitive thing in the best way I can.
Then leave.
No.
Haha, I didn't mean that, December bro.
You know shit's fucked when Alex is not his top performer?
It's probably better for the team's future prospects since they lose this much anyway.
Express patience, 9809.
Okay, I like this nickname as well.
Casarato was shitin' at the beat, so shit me out some days.
Shit in Colón playoffs and shit in Budapest playoffs.
I am counting shit after Mirage and I'll keep playing with half of his brain once it stays under 1KD.
Jesus, what a shit show once again. That's a nice and supportive comment it says.
Inar, the latest shit show? He's strong, no?
Get it, my boy. Nobby have improved at all. My prediction is Vitality 3-0.
Not gonna lie, that's a funny one. The first one, funny one actually, so Kudos to Viska.
So, Lege, just bully this team into being good and I'm here for it now.
And yeah, it was kind of good to be honest, at some point, but yeah.
Erd is seriously hiring a guy from Enkow,
freeing the good players to become champions.
Not these low tier scrubs who play tier 3.
What a joke, pathetic, you guys.
Who have thought, eh?
Maladoy, coming all the way from Kazakhstan,
playing on the cybercrafies, no computer at home.
Who have thought, eh? The kid is good.
And yeah, you never know what you know.
Will that put you on, my friend?
EPL was a fluke for Nabi.
God.
Can't win a trophy nowadays without the team ever being a fluke.
Thanks, guys.
Liquid bested Vitality on a new best, 13-10,
and they're showing that strengths versus G2,
who were able to survive with some rounds in that first half.
Four might be enough.
Does it get harder from here, or will it
be a relief to try and get something done now
as they move to the CT side?
Yes, turn the page.
It's a new day, it's a new dawn, and all the rest of it.
G2, can they peek into the water from EBOX,
looking for the info?
Where are the liquid players?
Question mark.
Liquid holding at the moments.
to see if there's any CT aggression.
We'll definitely be looking for a resurgence from Hunter in this half.
Two for 10.
He finishes the first one.
Got to be frustrating for a man of his talent.
But he'll be focused on the round in front of him.
Oh, he's definitely going himself into a good spot here.
Is it Trigger Discipline or is it an execution?
It's the execution style.
They're onto GKT.
Hello, bounce to betrayed that one.
I'm in pain for sure.
You're a bad person.
Five rounds now.
That's a great way to start when, you know, a full round deficits a half time.
Secure yourself the pistol.
Things can be a lot tighter very quickly indeed, but again, liquid are a team with intent.
They've gone for the full spot.
They've got a little utility.
It's not being slacked for their opponent.
CLE's jumping, maybe by the on purpose, maybe not by the way.
You'll create some space for his team.
Your coach will find some kills.
And now G2 have a difficult decision to make.
Is there any way back into this game?
Into this round, sorry.
Looking good there, mouse takes down Wrinkle through the smoke
and now trapped in e-box.
We'll see if there's anything to be done there.
Hunter, can you be able to escape with no mouse?
the jailer keeps him in the prison.
And that's a great couple kills at the end from Amalves.
And so is he, Djoko clapping at the end.
I mean, his entry to the tech mine.
Yeah, yeah.
It's very seal-esque.
Yeah, it's the same passion in those people.
The whole year beats clapping.
But you see a lead putting the crosshair away
one way or another.
So he just creates space.
He'll be the vacuum.
Look at me, look at me.
And his teammates fill that vacuum again.
I thought that we've got quite a quite little util for this force by but it
having a leash be it frags be it put across their way doing strong work for
the squad and it's a bumpy road for G2 immediately we've got one holes everywhere
yeah this is feeling really bad very uncomfortable game of an Ubers for them
nothing going right and the excursion through middle has been chosen for
liquid much like G2 were frequently choosing this path but the weaponry
The disparity is certainly something that Liquid are going to be enjoying here in this round.
Moving as a unit, following the signs to be going around the back.
Really, I mean, this is such a strong way to make the approach.
There is no idea here from G2.
Oh, no.
Oh, this could be a nice approach.
They don't know about that life.
Two K for JT.
They want to clean up as soon as possible.
Wrinkle.
games. Yeah, yes. And it's so funny, too, because obviously, you know, they before
today, you know, they had like a before today was yesterday that that's that's true. They
had like one one map play competitively. Obviously, the team had all the changes and everything.
So it's like no statistics recorded competitively in the last three months really for an Ubers.
And one of the first ones to be recorded is the winner of vitality. And so definitely
looks like, as you say, it's this is a very comfortable territory that people have to
watching out for against liquid.
I say to you, look very strong.
It's not over just yet, though.
10-5 in advantage for liquids.
Yeah, that forced buy was huge for them.
Closing the window on G2.
We find ourselves in dire straits now.
JT has a 1.19 T side, a new best rating.
Playing with a Leech. Best Buds indeed.
Hand in hand. Shoulder to shoulder.
Maybe they have the same key ring, who knows?
Yeah, not much to depend, we was here before, she's still stuck on pistols.
It's a free A-bomb site.
Free entry, free on the weekends.
Gratis.
It's no longer free.
I'm not sure if you can see the
attack from this guy.
Well, it's the other
equipment. Hello,
but should be on the bridge
this still JT presenting the
Mac 10 weapon for the job.
Matt is hiding there, but surely
he's not going to go and
discovered hiding in the
fish.
But not for long. Well,
far seek around is a good one.
And now the
after the pistol reset for G2, he won both pistols, five rounds to show for us in total, 11 to 5 AWP is out for
the game is going to be a
great start for the game, but
it's not going to be a great
start for wrinkle. Hunter will
absolutely be seeking revenge
absolutely be seeking revenge
for being victimized in that
first half.
GT really need to find some
value in this round. You know,
this game's got gone away from
them. There's no real chances
left to this point already.
Liquid have held onto much of their utile.
Comfortable with their pace around that one-minute mark.
Hunter is just keeping a keen eye on the proceedings.
Two one two, that's on remains for G2, repositioning on B which has had no challenge just yet.
See a rotation, maybe to give Hunter some support as Wrinkle's forced from his angle.
Setting up behind the smoke, looking for the challenge here, I feel like this is clean
And it's just a good timing there from Hunzer.
The usual defense now at least, now he's out of the open.
Heavy goes, comes in for the assist,
just doubling down on that position.
Has to fall back though, players weak on both sides.
Mounds taking one in the legs there, closing the distance
by Wrinkle with the USP, but he couldn't get a shot off.
Mattis defends though, on the other side of the map
and the bomb is now down.
Mattis is all on him, but Naph with the tech nine,
able to recover and now Liquid swings to advantage.
was heavy got hurt maybe he was from the peak from Malts down to the 1v1 but Nap is good for it's
fast moving round things looking strong for G2 for a moment in that mid position
dueling with the bomb carrier crazy action on A you see Malts running in towards the
bomb site wrinkle missing the orb shot it's charging back with the USP
I'm not sure what happened there he lagged him so he knows one one shot with the USP will kill him so he's
he's like I could just swing him every time yeah that's unfortunate
the water pistol. Yeah, it
just looks like the pick the
image of it was just like
Rambo with the water pistol.
Rawr. And earlier now they
will sacrifice one to Malb so
liquid with early advantage
with the secret against the
aggression, but G2 doubling
down back into the water and
liquid still cognizant of
potential. What is the
Still cognizant of potential for these deep positions.
Liquid at the finish line.
Desperate times for G2.
Sub one minutes.
It's so hard to understand
what Liquid's intentions might be.
Elyse lurking for a potential push. Good timing on the CT smoke on B.
How many footsteps were heard?
Nertz is going to be real careful. Elyse shifting away. No sound cues for free.
Standing on the stairs for now.
Some really important dual.
Now Nertz losing. That opens up the A bomb site. 25 seconds on the clock.
Still, noise completely cuts on B.
He's coming down there, and then pressure is felt.
He's in the back here, even a fine mob, so that's a good opener.
With defense, more work needs to be done, though.
Still not as advanced as the Liquid.
As he starts to move forward, Jorco takes down Hunter.
Out with a foul mass, quick, well, gets active with the foul mass,
and it's enough there.
Takes down Jorco, and there we go.
The first victory coming on through for G2.
Right at the last moment, keeping themselves alive,
but it's a long recovery.
They need six in a row.
So stressful to deal with the pace of these rounds, if you're the team on the CT side. So stressful indeed, especially when Nerf loses his dual of the lead as well.
Battles around the smoke, very small margins, Winkle collecting with the FAMAS, really important frag for him. He'll take an AWP back, and I see G2 can turn things around.
Again liquidive plenty of utile throwing something unexpected in its g2's turn to disengage from
that mid position and you could have to figure out what this means but can they expect this
pace you've got your internal clock where you have to start looking at mid but is this
too early for them very nice for a position they can do a lot with this mid now the bomb
is towards a long at the moment but it's not committed just yet we do get a lead falling
back out of mid with JT and they might be joining the A long side. I'm curious right now there's a
push from B main from G2. Liquid if they catch that push they're in such a good spot but G2 at
the same time that push is everything for them and here's Rinkle waiting for the A long movement.
Liquid gathering up first before the peak but that flank is still
looking to get active. Rinkle gets a whiff there has to fall off.
I think he's shot JT through the wall.
He has to be careful about grenades.
Have you got avoiding the angle to wrinkle?
Stuck on the side now.
Still standing for the moment,
but the frags are all coming the way of Liquid
as they almost completely wipe out G2.
Mattis, the last man to stop a wonderful charge from Liquid.
They beat Vitality and they'll do the same to G2 on a new bit.
that. It's a very, very
powerful performance from
Liquid, bringing that
consistency from that first
match into this one as well.
Bringing that consistency that
only a loving relationship
between JT and a leash can do,
and that's why I want to start
off with this view because this
is a crazy situation that G2. Okay,
they didn't play well last time. We
saw them do a new best, but they
won both pistols and the only
It's it's not great from a team with the caliber of players. They do have on the roster
Yeah, I'm concerned for the rest of the world because I leave his back
Liquid is this damn good James. They're this good North America's back James. We're back
Okay, I'll let you have it from now because I'm liking what I'm seeing and Alicia's very happy
Yeah, but it is very early days. This is just two matches, right?
that is what you need to win.
And a leash, by the way, is
lighting up the scoreboard,
playing like the elite, you know,
and love, you know, I started to
worry about a leash that, like,
his career was going to be
wasted because he's always been
so skilled and good.
But now I'm starting to think
maybe there's a shot.
Maybe he's going to get what he
wants.
Honestly, his career did feel
like it was being wasted,
especially with the amount of
blame he was getting for the
phase situation.
Despite that phase team, you see
him leave.
what happened after that right they fell off completely but still he it was almost like
his reputation was tarnished but coming back to liquid he he really was struggling for a little
bit i don't think him and shuhei mixed very well now he's got jt i don't think he needs jt he did
well with carrigan but with jt i think he he's really active it i think jt understands how to
use him on both sides of the map he's become this almost t-side specialist on a lot of maps
especially under Kerrigan. He was incredible on T-Side. He really struggled on CT. With JT here,
you're seeing incredible performances on CT side as well. And I think he got that out of him on
complexity too. And also letting him have the voice fight, which is very important for a player
like Elise who wants to have a say in how things are going, wants to be able to have some input,
because people might forget like, Elise is so experienced man, one of the greatest players
ever from North America, maybe the greatest player from North America. Yeah. And one of the things
about a leash that we know is that he's an incredibly hard worker. And I think that's
part of it. He was talking in his interview about working together, going over scrims.
I think he was talking about going over scrims with JT before that vitality game. He wants
to put in the work and put in the effort that, you know, hate to say a lot of North American
players don't want to do that. He wants to put in that work and he now has a player that
he trusts and that will work together with him. So they have a flow chart of around.
He knows how rounds are going to play out. And when he knows how a round is going to
play out. He can make the plays within those rounds that are going to highlight his skills
and pop him to the top of the scoreboard. Well, when he knows how a round is going
to play out like this round, he'll pull off a perfect flank and he'll find himself getting
an ace. Yeah, we had a wrinkle whiff coming out there that actually could have changed
the round, but it's a liege going for the flank here. What we didn't catch at the beginning
of the round, they actually went for a four man mid push. Partially G2, I think they leave
they go for a lot of stacked up
plays, so they went for a four
man been pushed, then Elish
re aggresses into mid alone
later on in the round and finds
the perfect timing. One of the
things we're noticing with
liquid is that they're working
together really effectively with
the cross map consistency will
call it. You know, he's going
for that flank. They're delaying
on the other side of the map.
They're making sure that that
push is going to be as effective
as possible. If there is backing
up, you might just have someone
sitting there waiting for
waiting for a leash, waiting for that aggression, and he just gets taken down immediately. When
you have the entire team working and functioning as a team, all on the same page, you're really
seeing Liquid perform to a level we haven't seen in a very long time.
You know, I asked a leash about like how much of a voice did he have in JT joining the team,
and just look at the quote from this. JT is the guy. You're not going to regret it. He
is great, trust me. He is amazing. I love him. We're going to do good with him. This,
You know, like that is if you want to sell someone that is selling them and they bought him and it's so far so good
And this has been a long time coming really like you look at the the performances JT has had with subpar rosters
I mean look at that. Yes. No money to do it
Exactly they have that complexity roster had a lesion JT and you know it had some
I mean the team wasn't terrible
But they weren't nearly as good as the performances the finishes that they managed to pull out and you see it in their map pool
to. Now they're an Anubis specialty team almost overnight. I mean, they were good on Anubis
before, but JT can can push the map pool bigger. He can push the players to have their best
performances. I think JT has been an underrated IGL for years now.
We'll have to see where he is on Maui's IGL list. You know, maybe he's not giving him
enough credit either at this point. But when we're talking about IGL's, we got to compare
just the IGL difference at the moment. I know it's just within this map, but Hunters
had a year of it, JT's doing it for a lot longer, but it was quite interesting, right?
Because Hunter had a strugglesome game and actually I was talking to Hunter in the pre-match
interview and I was asking him like, what's going on with your new best because obviously
it lost it to an Amiga. He said actually, he wasn't really worried too much on it.
So just have a listen on this because I am worried.
We worked on it a lot lately. We know that it was not the best map for us for the last
season, yeah, and yeah, it was a bit shaky start, but I think it's normal because it's
the beginning of the season, first event for us, first time for Rinka to play as well in
G2, so there was some pressure and we didn't start that well on that Anubis, but I think
Namiga played pretty well.
Now, I get it, right?
Rinka is fitting in, it's not so easy, but I mean, if it's one of the maps you've been
working on and it's gone this badly now twice in a row. Something's not working, surely.
I think G2 has struggled on Anubis for a while. It's a map they've wanted to put into their
map pool, but consistently they play it and they find that they can't beat the top teams.
They find that they're inconsistent on the map and maybe Anubis is a bit of an inconsistent
map in general, but you're also playing against the Liquid team that I think will find themselves
to be incredible on a new bus. So as much as I, it looks really bad. And this is not
the performance. They're not the showing you want this G2. I do give them some, a little
bit of credit that this is a liquid team that I think is just incredible on this map. And
JT's calling on this map, the, the reaggressions, the map pressure, the control that they go
for is, it's very hard to deal with.
Well, it is hard to deal with, but we'll have to see how he can deal with things when it
comes to Mirage. That is what's coming up next. So I would say strap yourself in for
wild ride between Liquid and G2. Get yourself a drink, get yourself some snacks, but make
sure you're back in just about 3 minutes.
and they want to deliver the
one to zero punch into this one
and not have a chance for you to
battle back on this mirage, but
we're all plays into more of the
strength of what we know G2 have
the question I got viewed straight
straight away though, there is like JT Mirage. Can he get some more magic done like what you're
talking about here on Anubis?
I don't think JT is quite as good on a Mirage as he is on Anubis, but I respect JT's calling
in general. I respect the Liquid team. The problem is they haven't played this map as
a team yet, as far as we know. You know, they haven't played it in this season. I'm interested
to see how they change things up, how they change up the roles, but this is a G2 map
through and through. This is the map where I talked about, you know, Matisse plays often at like
a top player level, like an incredible level on this map specifically. I think it works into
their play styles. And as much as I want to support Liquid, I think this is going to be going to map
three. By the way, I was just seeing some of these camera reactions from Jawcoat. He is loving
life right now. You know, for a young player, rookie coming in, not only is he performing well,
but he's like getting involved. He's being animated and stuff. He's like he's been there
a long time, man. It's like he's not new to this. And we got his reaction when nerds have that little jiggle one tap on him in the clutch and he was like, okay, I guess that's the game we're playing. That's the level we're playing at now. Yeah, I think Jorco has been really impressive for liquid, especially in the way he performs.
He doesn't need too many gimmicky plays. He's not getting triple boosted to get a kill or whatever, you know
He's he's in the right position at the right time. He's making a lot of smart reads smart decisions
It's gonna be harder to see him have the same drop off
We saw from ultimate where teams started to recognize his playstyle. I think he might maintain it a little more consistently
Well, that'll be great for liquid especially how well they're playing right now
But I always want to take a look at our poly market predictions for this match because I'm pretty sure things were favored right for G2
was it at the beginning? That's quite a while ago, but it's look out. Look out. This has
changed. This is a big swap around boo. Yeah. I mean, that's what happens when you, uh,
when you win map one, especially like we said, I mean, you get 13, six, then you won both
pistols, right? Like this is like 9am. This is before this is before. Yeah. Oh boy. Obviously
just started to wake up and saw. Wait a second. Liquid actually beat vitality. G2 stock down.
That's it. I'm buying all the liquid stocks right now. Yeah. I'm to be fair makes perfect sense. You see liquid drop vitality. You expect them to have something going into the following. I think these are some pretty good odds. I think I'm buying liquid here, James. I'm buying all in.
You are from North America, but thank you very much. Poly market for all of our odds. You're delivering across the game. We can keep track of it as we go for it as well as some important lines on some hot topics from utility damage and what can be done within the game and who will be the
eventual winner of the blast premier bounty presented by Poly market. But tell me this food. Who is favored realistically when it comes to this marriage because obviously we didn't say see this liquid play Mirage yesterday.
It has to be G2. This is this is a really comfortable map for them. As I mentioned, I mean Matisse is just incredible on this map
It's a map where you don't necessarily need too much. I'm gonna harp on it mid-round polling. I don't think Hunter's
Best performances is mid-round calling they can fall back into some execs some hard a hits where Matisse is just gonna run out and
Dome a few people, you know, you have the right fling on the side of liquid
I think their their rotations on CT side have been really impressive
especially on a Nubis, which it kind of plays like a different map, but they're consistently moving around on the map in a really effective way.
Certainly they have a solid chance here, but this is well into G2's wheelhouse.
And also, I don't think we didn't really talk about too much within this, but like, Nertz and Malves were the ones that swapped positions on the teams here.
Malves dropped a 1.63 rating, did better even than Alicia, we were hyping up like crazy, right?
And he had a 6.9% round swing.
Malbs was saying hey G2 forget about it. That's it. I'm the I'm the best. I'm gonna show you what's up right now
I'm having a ring of mouths because he's someone that I really hope that JT can work with you know
We've talked about the JT a leash connection
But if you look back at Malbs when he was on M80
He was like a T side specialist his CT sides really struggled and he joins G2 and it was a very similar
Experience he he was really great on T sides
and then he comes over to
Liquid and it's actually
completely inverted. His T
sides are. He's been a little
like a little bit of a liability
recently, but his CT sides are
quite strong, and I think you
put him with JT. I think JT is
a player that knows how to
utilize that type of fragger
the mob style player, and I
think we're going to see some
really big uptick in
performance from a mobs,
especially on the T side
working together with with
with Elysia I've always felt like that should be going better than it was under Shuhay on
Liquid.
And let me try and understand all of this correctly right so we know JT other than when
he had Elysia on Complexity he didn't have like cream of the crop, top tier next generational
potential talent you know.
Now for Elysia they're going to bring the experience and people he can rely on.
Elysia is a star right for sure but having Jorco and Malps do you feel this is like where
he can help elevate them in their own game from based on what you were saying about
and also, but maybe deliver the best performances. He's ever had in his whole career where like
we can finally see him live up to the calling ability people have always focused on James.
Are you saying Hallsirk isn't a world class off talent? One game every now and again.
I think he's got I think he's got the talent he needs to actually showcase himself as an
IGL. You know, this is it's gonna it's gonna it'll really make the difference on his legacy
because coming into this team, he's been talked about for a long time, someone that gets the better out of his players.
But sometimes we see eye jails like that. I mean, help.
We would talk about Shuhei like that if he had never come into Liquid and really, really struggled, right?
So how he can perform with this team and how he can elevate, especially a mulch,
who we know can be a top 20 player in the world if he's activated correctly,
is going to define his legacy for the years to come.
Well, let's put JT to the ultimate test. He's going up against G2 on Mirage.
will be going to a third map.
We're about to find out now with
Bartle from DDK. Take the baton
from views comments about T side
CT side performance on Mirage
specifically of late liquid win
25.7% of their tea halves. They
are very reliant on that CT
side. You can see they are a
heavy favorite as far as the
numbers are concerned right now,
but it doesn't look that way
historically on Mirage. Well,
it's a new chapter, I think
It's a new chapter, I think, here for Liquid, which I'm super excited to be able to bear witness to.
Again, just the history here is really awesome to see.
And G2, I think, are up against it right now because all of the momentum is really truly with Liquid.
And we don't know what the ceiling is for Liquid, either.
And they're definitely in a really good spot at the moment.
Coming up with that win with Vitality, that Anubis showing was incredible.
And they have the skill to really make this a hard game for G2.
So we'll see what you do can do to stand up to the test as they start things off here on Mirage on their T side
66.7% the pistol round win percentage for liquid on
Mirage for the time being and that's a great way to
Continue in such fashion to quick kills it can turn around quickly though
But no flights got angles on the bomb carrier in the apartment
You can see help coming away from short, but they'll be denied JT catching two as well
the game. I'm going to be
going to be the last one.
Hunter on an island. And those
stats stay really good. And
those could be important for
this map. So we'll see if
they are again the lion share
in recent matches for Mirage
have come on the city side. So
all these rounds may be urgent.
But as you said, it is a new
day. It is a new dawn. And a
new liquid. So I'm also very
should it be required lies and
wait. See if G2 can force that
third map. No bomb plant for
them. This will be a crap round
that. Yeah, it's never run. Run
at a head for the best closer
eyes. See what happens is
essentially where G2 will be
now. They could actually
isolate. So he is going to be
having a great time with the
And that's going to be the round converted by liquid and I see James
This is great for us because you know we'll get into the actual action here very very quickly
None this kind of drawn out so you know multiple leak around situation going on
Jocko pulling out the op immediately and for the EGT side
It's gonna be the full AKs full maids pretty much and we're gonna see you know what liquids the CT side will look like
Are they gonna get aggressive to begin with are they gonna be middle of the road?
Let's find out
around 3 AWP. Very easily for Jorko, JT having a look in the window.
So what did G2 have to offer this squad?
Not sure yet what the climate is all the way around Mizz.
Allegedly with some well-timed incendiary, he looks to create a nuisance.
Minute 25, just a few grenades left for G2.
These initial engagements will be important.
Elish here is a player full behind him.
His back is covered.
And he could be a surprise, playing in this position.
G2 off the map already.
Hunter just fast enough to stop Elish.
Yeah, that's really nice from Hunter.
Elish definitely having the advantage into that fight.
Huge, huge kill to get, and that's going to even out the numbers.
Moving into this B play.
the back of the side with the
orb. It's going to be a very
big challenge for him. Oh, I
look at the spot of a Choco
sunny will find heavy God needs
the assistance right away.
Doesn't have a smoking. He's
going to have to go battle
sniper mode. Not quick enough
for that one, though. Rinkle
takes him down and that falls
also into liquid running at a
chance to see a retake, although
mouse will keep the dream alive.
Hunter trying to take more
control away from that liquid
squad. JT is just behind the
to win. Again, they want to
get on the school board early.
Looking difficult to start
with with the AWP fry coming
out from liquid, but able to
turn things around and find
a way in that. I think that
Frank takes everything there.
Hunter needs to be quick.
Otherwise that round is crushed.
Yes. Yeah, at least had a very
good play there. Also liquid
shut down the mid middle
would shut down the mid, the middle position really effectively too. So incredible. I come
back there from G2 at that stage. JT's passion UA was the worst team in the top 30 this year
in terms of Mirage round win percentages, 38%. Maybe liquid changes that's maybe in
the deeds. Again, liquid find an early five on four as they did in the round prior. Heavy
God still looking for his first. We'll have to wait for that one. Alleged or surviving
of the five HP. My God, we're still on fire in that last game. JT dropped something a
bomb site. Elyse still standing in Palace. Could have a part of playing a retake later
on mobs playing around this smoke. Can he catch them? Yes, he can. A lot of teams coming
his way, though, spots the bomb, but can't find another one.
They're getting activated. Oh, so close. AWP is going to win. That should be an opportunity.
There we go. Jorko finds the AWP, able to pick that one up. And this actually gets interesting
Now 3 vs 2 to Liquid, what a shot though, Jorko, as the smoke dissipates, catches Nurtz.
And now suddenly Hunter has decisions to make, but the bomb is very far away in CT spawn.
And we'll see what he's able to do here, play it in Palace.
Oh he's blind spot, you can knife people from there.
I'm not going to check that
position. Back on the bomb site.
He goes. Elise can communicate
the information. There's nowhere
for him to plant the bomb. They
don't even need to use that part.
At least you have some really good
timing. We'll finish off the job.
Again, a big problem for G2 in
that first map, and he continues
to be in again. G2 had so much
opportunity for a good start
early, but the body language tells
the story opportunities have been
here. Oh yeah, I mean this this round, you know, you got wrinkled getting completely caught there.
Isolated to no one to help him out. It's a series of very unfortunate events there for G2 and
their economy gets reset really early on. It's a perfect storm of the AWP being dropped by the
5-7, Elysian Palace that entire time.
Liquid, looking to stay active in mid as well, and it's, again, something that I always appreciate.
I think CT is being active and being able to get more information, being able to disrupt and challenge
the T's as they are developing their default, I think is always beneficial, miss always.
G2 having a conversation in the apartments.
Extended tactical time-outs is this for G2, that's all it can serve while they wait for
utility to go.
Again, this is where historically Liquid have done the heavy lifting on their CT side,
So to turn things around after that round win from G2.
It's very promising for them.
What they can do now, the easier things are on that T side.
Yeah, I think you're right about the extended time now,
I think, burning the clock.
Getting to have a chat.
A couple of grenades get wasted, perhaps from the CT side,
But he runs over 4-1-4, the liquids.
Once again, just find themselves pretty quickly
in a commanding position in this game against G2.
Liquid seemingly on a crazy upward trajectory,
potentially, depending on how this tournament goes
overall for them, but starts out with a bang,
with a victory against Vitality.
Say 2-0 G2 here as well.
It's gonna be crazy.
The socks are gonna be really surging.
No one in mid to challenge for liquid.
G2 opening once again, but you can see where Liquid have chosen to take some real estates.
Now, Pop Flash, of course, will be heard by the T's.
Have you got in Palace?
Know that there is an incursion into that round area.
But again, you've really got to count the 514s in this half for Liquid
because they are getting the first frag time and again.
And it's just completely cripples G2 at three on five and the rounds just starting. Yeah, what do you do at this position?
It's just untradable kills. You are unable to
Throw bodies to win position now. You've got to find ways to challenge and you're into an AWP without much success
Taking the duals hunter give JT a head cut
and a wrinkle, a lot of pressure, a wrinkle right now to find a pick, but I mean why would
Lick would ever give anything up in this position, 4 vs 2 you don't have to fight for position.
So it's dry round, another dry round.
Yeah, off angle from NAV, the time to look to his left or does he look to his right?
Actually ready somewhat for NAF position, but again
Just G2 of all the luxuries
And wrinkle has just got to try and hold on to this
Have you got no wrinkle combined $50 in the bank
Honestly, it's a rip roaring start from from liquid a
Number of rounds with the opening frag and
going to go into an actual eco round from G2. So, you know, liquid looking at getting a 6-1 as we
hear the music. You know what that means? It's the timeouts. And of course, it's the timeout of G2.
It would be pretty awesome if liquid did a timeout after this.
It's like, what's the timeout on the G2? Even though they're crashing at the moment.
You can see them trying to keep the spirits up.
Yeah, this is not looking, the energy is gone.
Yeah, sometimes it's hard out there, but you know the body language will be absorbed by the people by your side as well.
So you've got to try and keep it positive. You're losing, but you haven't lost.
So pistols around the AWP.
Wrinkle, maybe headed towards A ramp for something early.
There we go six zero in opening jewels. That is a colossal statistic and I do not say that ingest
So the hunters on they know there's an AWP they know that this exact thing will be happening and a leash aka the problem
continues to be exactly that
Chance one denied
Yeah, there is a genuine problem, just an emotional problem, and that's I think forming in this game for G2, it just feels like they're up against a wall, both, you know, externally against liquid and also, you know, the confidence is starting to get really hit very hard, I think, for G2.
And they need to find, you know, some rounds where, you know, even if you're losing rounds, you know, getting close and finding some success somewhere is going to be very helpful.
I love that liquid and not giving all the room for a G2 to work with and try and fish for something
It just makes these rounds so slow and plodding for a G2 who are trailing by quite a bit now
35 seconds
Do we see a second save of the AWP?
I
Mean around like this really you just think about the
the the wider overarching story and situation.
Just one by one. Time to save.
A noble effort to plant the bomb from heavy gods.
But you know, this is how it should go.
But again, I do like, again, just looking at the overall form and feel of liquid.
Not allowing G2 to just fish around constantly with AWP here.
Dropping your point ramp, pushing up in mid afterwards, then around like this is good.
good. They are choosing to
control the round. Yeah, it's
something that I think is
really important for teams to
always practice is just
dominating their opposition
and doing so by not giving the
opposition chances when you're
ahead because the easiest
thing, the most natural human
tendency is that when you're
when you're confident, you know,
you get you get a little loose
and you take some risks. Maybe
that you don't need to might
still be winning, but it kind
of gives psychological in for
the team that's losing a little
right now it doesn't feel possible for GT but this this gun round could change that
oh they continue being active don't they liquid mate is what that 7-0 then 8-0
8-0 in opening jewels every round they are there first they've got a skates on
with the big guns. That smoke will soon be gone. Matt is alone in this scenario, so he must be careful.
Help is not on the way. He doesn't know what is around the corner, but he's repositioned well.
Ease of flash but still standing for a time being a lead. Running destruction now. Pepping
in some shots. Connecting two. Matt is with two HP. He'll be able to squeeze something more out of it
and wrinkles never really had much opportunity with the AWP I feel in this in this series just yet
Liquid in that first map of a new this such a fact of so many multi frags fast moving rounds with the m4s on liquid CT side
alish was
more than a nuisance
And now again
four on five every round basically one way or another for g2
They are being given absolutely nothing. There is no charity here
in this game of Mirage.
It's another round that kind of feels like an eco again,
where you're not really winning these trades,
again losing those duels, and you're left in a position
where you've got zero map control very early on.
After the pick in underpass, there was zero map control for G2.
It seemed like they wanted to go for a pop into that B site,
but again, it's very gambling to play that way,
but maybe that's part of the lack of confidence
that might be happening for G2 right now,
because oftentimes teams will try to solve a drought of rounds
by having a very fast pop into a site.
Because at least popping into a site
means that maybe you can play an after-plan.
You keep things simple.
And that can be helpful to get everyone's heads back
into the game.
But once that pick happens, everyone's just stuck
in the apartments.
It just, there's no round to play.
There's no decisions.
There's no outplay.
That point, that area under the window between there and connector has been a point of strength for G2 in, sorry, for Liquid in many a round.
We've seen Aleige working there. We've seen AWP working there. We've seen them go there early.
We've seen them go there a little later through a smoke in connector when the G2 side have been busy towards top mid.
The last three rounds have been won by timeouts for Liquid. I can't remember the last time I saw that.
holding on to the AWP one person after another but again every single round
they have been 4v5. Yeah yeah there's there's only been one round really I
think was it the round GT1 where yeah no I think they ended up losing a round
essentially you know they kind of won the battle in mid against Liquid there's
an exchange there and that was because Hunter had to snap down them to a leash
so actually they lost me but you know enough about that for the moment let's
I'll see if there's something to this round.
If you can hand, there we go.
Wrinkle activates.
Takes down Jorko, an early five versus four,
and that might be the first opening dual mount one.
Operage, Elise though, makes it a short lived advantage.
He really is the hot potato.
No one is able to handle him in this series.
Great timing to peek just before the smoke goes.
That's unfortunate for him, and guess who? It's Elysia again. He's the bogeyman!
He's under the bed.
Oh no, Nerska's caught Malph's there, deep on the site.
Covering Elysia, great coverage on all the gaps. Just really good team awareness, team positioning awareness.
And now again, just looking for picks and individual plays.
Up collected Hunter time up question mark. Yeah, I was gonna say there's been a few of these
Nice shot there onto a leash
Now positions known for 30 seconds does have a control the bomb
But any 20 health to work
So there is a gamble. I mean if he chooses to make a plan, I'm not sure if he's gonna
save it, but there is a gamble. You just have to hope that you go to the bomb site that
has the one player on. You see mobs holding down two jobs, but there is someone on the
ramp who may be able to deal with this. Oh, he's not going for the default plant either.
they won't even get that. It's
a miserable home. Yeah. The
issue is that that wall is a
lot of issues, but one of the
issues is that there there's
not really any energy because
it's not any action really,
you know, because G2 any
sports that they're not really
able to win this, but I'll
split one of the first times
they've gone to mid and had
some level of success, but
they're not going to pretty
get into a split. They're not
able to get onto a site with
and like get into a post plant you know that there's no back and forth in these
ways they just kind of get untradable there's untradable kills that keep
happening to them very desperate it's gonna be an APOP I suppose here for them
and that was as close you could play spoiler he could indeed and you may need
to as his teammates don't have the best position to help him there can be flashes
towards that bench position once that smoke goes he is on such an island no
one close to CT. Matt is with
Rob Moles and if it's going to be around for G2 surely.
Again, just not the position they would like it.
Liquid, G2 looking sharp with these AKs.
And again, as ugly as the half looks,
there are still a few rounds left in it.
I'll just call the U-Tool.
There, that won't get used in this one.
with 13, 400. Happy to hold the AK. If they come his way, you can keep them spending for what remains.
But yeah, there's, you know, again, it's another very ugly half, which can still have some growth towards the end.
Yeah, this is the exact type of round I was referring to earlier when I was saying, you know, sometimes teams, when they're in a place where their confidence is getting kind of hurt and the defaults,
So just go for like a fast pop like this and and this is how you kind of want it to work out because you simplify the decision making
You just have to go, you know, just do the correct part thing the correct nades
And so everything's kind of you know, or all the decisions are kind of made for you
So you know how many to do this outplay in the middle of the round really nice shooting there from Mattis
Well, you know, we've seen some great moments from him
It's actually G2 who are the team that you and I have witnessed lean into
this option, when things have been a bit difficult in the series that we've seen this week, where
they've just combined in abuse and numbers to have another taste of success. A possible
4-8 score and a half time. But a league may have something to say about that. And again,
under the windows been such a big issue for them. So there'll be some urgency from Nerts
to not give Liquid those positions.
Yeah, there's so much money on Liquid actually, so...
It's a pretty hard road here for G2, but that's a great way to get it started.
So, you know, winning some of this mid-control now.
Now, at 5v4, they've got some stuff to work with.
Liquid getting a little bit active here, JT repositions to ladder room.
In the meantime, G2 themselves looking to go for the B finish.
Now that the defenders are a little bit weaker in terms of overall coverage,
But look how active Liquid are, they pushed Palace, they're trying to work out what's going on.
Yeah, but Jorko's fallen back from his position.
He could have had a one-and-done spot, but maybe with some concerns towards Short, he's exit to beat entirely.
They see no one in the Palace whatsoever, Matt is creeping in mid, but they've got no angles really on this B bomb site.
Yeah, despite the Palace push, Liquid may be a little bit slow overall on figuring out what's going on.
They have money to buy up into the last round so you know it's kind of worth the shake
Very curious one
You know it could there is a reason why they wouldn't go for it
Even if they had the money to do it
I think which is is like trying to win the psychological game a little bit try to keep the pressure on
Don't allow the opponents to have any easy frags on you
just make it so that every single frag that they get feels really uncomfortable.
And then even when you're winning the round, you're dying.
You know, there is something to that.
A pincer movement from Liquid.
Perhaps with the wrong reads.
Maybe talk some unfortunate timing from Jorka moving away from the apartments.
Damn. They kill almost all the players.
That is very psychological.
Yeah, you're not getting annihilated.
imagine if at the any time you see the opponent you die even when you win the
round
right it's it's a
and even when you don't see them last round of the first half then
double orbs coming out for liquid perhaps there's a rifle in CT sport should it be required later I'm not sure if
there's enough money for that or there is your close got 5k anyway double orbs it's
It's it's it's not gonna be the one heading over towards me with his one
And again, he's looking for a more simplified approach to secure around versus liquid
Those presents under the window this time
Just gonna send it send their way in one makes it onto the bombsite
I think Bob's can rate you long on that one the flashes continue if it goes for a second absolutely
These kills, getting that extra one, squeezing it out, definitely creates a good situation
for Liquid.
And right now, G2, somebody needs to step up and pull their team.
They're stuck on the side here.
They're going to be having problems.
Rinkle with the defense.
Heavy God looking good as well.
And that's where the trade puts it into a two versus one in favor of Liquid.
But without the bomb down, Rinkle's in a hell of a lot of trouble.
to the bomb plants. Three shots
in the magazine for wrinkle.
That's plenty for this scenario,
but he's got to take a gamble and
it will be the wrong one this
time, so it will be a ninth round
for liquids towards the end of
the half G2 facing all kinds of
oppression from liquid, but
maybe they've got enough for a
chance in the second half.
Here on the sun dredged streets of Mirage, we spot some of nature's most fascinating
creatures.
Counter-strike players in their natural habitat.
Despite the plenical environments these fellows could inhabit, they seem to always swarm towards
the comfort and safety of this shining paradise.
As the sun rises over the stone architecture, in typical fashion we see this species squabble
over their preferred position.
Let us discover where they shall end up.
From a breakneck flurry of utility flies overhead attempting to disrupt the defenders.
Stakes could not be higher, and with nothing he can do, the A anchor is flash banged like
a deer in headlights.
He decides his best bet is to retreat.
No matter how much he cries out for help, support is nowhere to be found.
However, the restless hunter has found his prey.
It's one shot, one kill, such as the life of the opera, precise and deadly.
On the opposite side of the erupting battlefield, our Biancher is as cool as a cucumber.
Having the time of his life with a spring in his step, returning to the chaos, this
perfectly executed attack has a problem.
a noob. Fresh accounts and less than 20 hours played, dueling the season with a veteran.
Blinded by one of their own, it seems as if their fate is sealed.
The hunter is now the hunted. Revenge is a dish best served with a carambin.
Huddled like penguins, their plan has failed. Now it's only a matter of time before they are
are spotted and the round is over. Through all of this havoc and turmoil, our Biancher
continues the kangaroo jump. Finally, after many hops, they hear a faint cry in the distance.
He decides to abandon his post and regroup with the herd to claim what little glory
may still be available. But, he is not alone. The teas are nothing if not sneaky. This tea's
patience has been rewarded. The unfortunate anchor never stood a chance, and to make matters worse,
the A attack was a ruse. Our A player's defense was a waste of time.
The alarm sounded, the CTs must now migrate to the B site. This one stalking predator is now the
prey. As a final solution, CT has one last trick in its arsenal. The smoke defuse. And
as the famous saying goes to the native people of Mirage, pros do not fake.
Bomb has been defused. Get on our tourists' win.
the team. They're going to be
going to the next opportunity
ahead of liquid. They've got a
chance to take the pick of G2
and book their place in Malta
for the land finals. The T side
again. Historically is where the
challenge has been about 26%
but can JT change those for the
squad again liquid. Historically
also good pistol round wins. They
won the first one. The second
Yeah, G2 in the doldrums right now, clicking to get some confidence going into the second half.
With the breach into the mid position.
Naf holding down the apartments, needs to make sure no one's pushing. Here comes the split onto the B site.
It's bounty that we've seen, that we've been casting at least.
Not like this at least.
The rise of liquid.
They back.
Maybe.
But the job's not done yet.
Set wrinkle.
It's a really good start and it's very good to be collected there.
G2 with a side advantage, they're going for some information on the ramp.
Did they hear anything?
Was there a sound cue from NAFSA to tip them off with the bomb and the rest of the liquid
members are making their way across now to the ace night?
And two players in that deep T-Round position could cause problems.
Three Molotovs, four liquid.
But I don't think one's going to solve this problem.
Classic setup on Mirage.
Everyone knows to check the other side.
Oh, oh, this is with the tunnel vision!
The bait is humongous.
It's such a good time to do it.
Thirty-four seconds.
Surely they don't go through this mode.
We could have the AKs and Galils.
It's a very difficult spot for them.
I think they might have to just save in Palace.
Otherwise, they're just throwing rifles at the opponent, surely?
Yeah, I think you're totally right.
There's not really any options for Liquid
that are any good here.
G2 doing a great job in shutting down the initial play connector,
then shutting down the initial play here.
T-Ramp is a forward initiative taking moments for G2.
It's exactly what they need to get themselves
back into the game, get the heads in the game, start feeling it again because they have incredibly
good players. That first half was, I think, uncharacteristically bad. You know, we had
to stop there. You know, that was, I think, statistically, had the worst T-side ever
in this level of the event. Sorry.
That's all. You guys are knife out as well. There's nothing else to look at when the
smoke goes up. There's nothing else to look at but that point. An expensive lesson learned
by mobs.
10-4 as we go into the next round and G2. They've been in these spots, but then they
get reset on the next round. So we'll have to see if they can find a way to make a consecutive
round would happen. Conserve the momentum.
Windows smoke.
Whoa.
Excuse me.
I mean, I do not at all understand this trajectory of that.
I throw that smoke. You just hold left and jump through.
I don't know. That's crazy. No impacts on this round, though.
But that is an odd one.
Let's see if it happens again later on.
Oh, my words.
Look at the positions of the rest of G2.
That's it, that's the round.
Yeah.
Jumping headshot recipients, not the award he was looking for,
but that is the round.
Yeah, and I'm not sure if G2 had a read to Stack Mall A heavy
or if they were gambling.
Either way, unlucky, I suppose.
Really nice shot from the leash.
Again, I don't think that they were going to stop.
to that one player even if there was like a kill or something like that.
So just based off the positions, you'd imagine that this would be the result to this round anyway.
But not a good one for G2. Again, we just said like they
they really need to convert a second one and not just you know win around lose around.
But at the very least, you know, they're not losing that much money.
I mean, it's I got to say, this has to be one of the most uncomfortable games due to
have had in recent memory. Yeah, there's there's not much. You always try to find the positives
in something. What did we do well? Not really being allowed to do much. That is an insane
shot to be fair. It is. There's a lot of talent on the server. Just got to accept that one
be like well nice shots liquid have made two straight blast bounty land finals can they make
it three in a row a late question be hard for duty to turn it around hard but not impossible
passport drawer is getting closer and closer
a lead gets another in mid in the meantime. This is falling apart for G2.
Heavy God has got a lot of problems wrinkled doing as much as he can with the scouts.
And again, what is left in this round for G2? The way that they're losing rounds,
the way that they're losing Jaws has got to be so frustrating. Just tags through the smoke,
liquid asking all the right questions with their guns. Heavy God 2 for 13. How often do you say that?
It's really, really tough. It
looks like one of the scenarios
where one team is just in the
mental doldrums. It's just very,
very hard to get anything going.
It could very well be the case
that players are getting quiet.
It's one of those moments as we
see the magic 4K tribute.
But it's very hard to come back
from that. If the team ever gets
gets into that kind of states mentally it's very hard to come back from during a series if he gets
to that you know that's like full-blown shut-down mode but g2 just nothing nothing is working
look at that leaves go fully confident what do you what do you do when that guy's running at you
yeah pika lesia is a hell of a problem fantastic work we're seeing from the bald man
And again, G2, last chance to loon for the squad, Malta is getting further and further
into the distance.
Just like another day in the office for the liquids.
It's having a good time.
At least it looks like he has really good air handling in his room.
Was that an ionizer? Air ionizer?
Yeah, like an ionizer.
Dehumidifier, ionizer.
That's the key. That's the key to all these frags.
Purify your air.
Matchpoint, liquid, many of them.
Series point, land points.
Airport lounge points.
Fencing smoke for delay.
has popped it quite early though before the push is happening so you can just
kind of wait that one out if they want to. It's head went sideways. Go with plush.
Yeah so that that defensive smoke is kind of unfortunately now just been
burned 15 frags for liege 15 for Jorko something the G2
expect not to come through well able to escape by the way at the bottom but maybe
not at the top hunter dropped by Jorko bomb moving over towards a liquid happy
to engage in these duels, wrinkle.
That's a brave move, catching that.
A man advantage for G2.
JT moving in, smokes down, flashes up, trades there.
Will be, Torco and Elige remain.
Now, it's just down to Elige.
Stuck in Palace versus three, 24 seconds,
and Nerts will shut him down.
Much needed rounds.
Come off, what's the least, a single round obviously,
but but in a g2 you know finding some really good timings you know good good
just good jills in general and that's gonna bring them back a little bit here
catching and timing on to that super nice it'll start over the wrinkle getting
out if I think I'm now stand me in the past
Choco on the AWP, going to mid.
Choco could be a problem here.
Oh, there's a spot, but just a little bit too late to that one.
Loves the aggressive angles, liquid are holding, just waiting for the CTs to be a little too
curious for their own good.
They don't know the climate towards B-Apps though, we can see that Mattis is boosted
by a smoke at the moment.
G2 not shy to take some info.
So it's good for him G2, staying active.
I'm not sure if MOLB saw two players there, he saw one fall back, but Mattis is still
to be able to get the game
back into the game. They're
still in position. So liquid
can't provide that threat
towards the be to stop more
numbers being towards a for G
two. They could falling back
into. A positions. And there's
the investigation. Have you got
wanting to know what's up and
that's enough to take it down
more players behind that JT
reveals himself. Tastes down
the ball. They have a lot of
play. They want to leave better
angle much quicker. Now
suddenly one by one. They fall.
They can hear the rotation
liquid of that last player in
over towards a nurse with two
really nice again from nurse,
but does he have enough to clutch
this round? Flashy frags. Is
it too little too late, though?
They know a flank is coming in
ramp. They know where both
DCT's are the liquid. Now for
the headshot, leaving everything
for this one. This one goes for the Pete and leaves you all to shut it down. And indeed
booking the ticket to land two Malta Liquid on the up 16, 6, 16, 5. That is how Liquid
will get it done against G2 yesterday, taking down Vitality and now taking down G2. This
is one hell of a way to qualify across, right? Not easy games, not easy opponents, liquid.
Well, I want to say that pretty much back for now, Vue.
Yeah, if that game ended one round earlier, I was going to say it was the most appropriate
ending because we saw at the beginning of it, Hunter missed the jump onto Cat three
times in a row. And it was just like, yeah, liquid are playing great. And I'm super happy
for liquid. Elish looks like his old self. G2 did not look like themselves there. They
where they were fumbling that one heavy got three and 14. That's not normally James. Yeah,
that was looking like some stress and some pressure coming out for them. I know we're
looking at some leave moment right now, but I also want to talk a bit about Jorco in this one
because he's had another good series. He's a rookie to this level. What are you making of it so far?
He's just so smooth. I mean, when it comes to newer offers at the tier one level, you expect
them to have some nerves. You expect them to miss some shots. We did catch him zoom in to inspect
someone on short on that last round for a second instead of shooting, but he just seems so calm
with the shots he's hitting. He's not pulling a, pulling a wrinkle and missing really easy shots
and hitting the hard ones. He's hitting seemingly every shot, every player in front of him, and he
doesn't need, I mentioned before, he doesn't need gimmicks to do it. He's in the right position
to the right time. I could not be more impressed with Jarca. We're just looking up as well,
trying to grab his, he's 17 years old, gets to go on liquid. He looks like he's enjoying every
moment of this as well. Why we go to his cameras, he's clapping away, he's cheering on the team.
He feels like he's just in his element. And yeah, okay, it's only just two games. But I mean,
if he can do this when he gets to the land on Malta as well and keep this same vibe going,
he's also got a lot of support from a leash for what he was saying in the interview of
Natomaui yesterday. This is a much more positive showing that I was expecting from a 17 year old
coming into Team Liquid, especially considering where Liquid was at before this. Yeah. And I
think that he's got the right players around him. You know, I was saying in the green room,
the game. It's really
really. I'm just saying this
kid needs this kid needs to be
protected at all costs. Nobody
yell at him. Okay, so excited
to play the game. Let him play
the game the way he wants to
play it. He's playing so well.
He's got so much excitement for
the game. It's actually really
endearing to watch him between
every round. Go for a little
clout every single time. He's
like, I'm getting these wins.
I'm getting these kills against
big name players, man. It's
level opposition for some time. It's JT who's joining us for the interview. JT, first outing
in that liquid jersey and what a way to get it done man. Vitality and G2, no easy game.
Just tell me about the preparation, how you were getting ready for this tournament, for
these games, the time you had and how you made this work because this is a liquid that
North Americans have been wanting to see for a long, long time.
Yeah, I mean it's been a really hard two weeks we've been working well as a team
we've been working for a lot of hours every day but me and myself and Flash
have been working 12 to 14 hours every day and it's been a lot of work. I didn't
expect us to play so well just straight from the start even though the
practices were going pretty good but you never know what's gonna happen against
these big teams and yeah I mean it feels really good to actually play well
and have a good first scoring.
And what's that relationship like that you've got a moment with flashy and how that's working with like the idea in the vision you've got
It's working pretty well. He's
He's just helping me out. Let me put my structure in from the start and he's making his own small adjustments that are I think helping a lot
Especially on the like analytical side. I think he's doing a really great job
He's also keeping keeping the guys understanding exactly what what I want to put into the team in terms of structure
And I think in general it's really good that we've been the amount of hours that we've been putting in for the team
And it's really showing on the server
Yeah, you're obviously playing with we were talking about you're playing with
Essentially more experienced higher level players than you've really ever played with before
What's the difference in feeling with the way you can call around the type of talent you have on the roster now?
I think in terms of understanding straight from the beginning it's been really easy
I think since day one of practice, Elise obviously is really used to my system.
NAF, I think everything I've brought, it's been very easy for him to slot himself in,
even in strategies that I haven't included him.
He knows exactly what to do.
And then Malbze and Jorka have just been soldiers listening to what I have to say, just hitting
their shots.
I mean, I think Jorka is playing amazing for his age.
And I think just like full trust right now from the team is it's been working.
you. Awesome. Well, JT, we've
got to let you go. But thank
you very much for your time
and congratulations on making
it through to the land finals
in multiple C and a little
at a time. Thank you very much
to you that. We had to get
through that nice and fast
because there's plenty more
action coming our way today
here at the blast premier
bounty season two for 2026
presented by Polymarket and
Vue. Well, I do not I just
thought maybe this had
potential of like going very
close three maps or something I never could have predicted this. I'm pretty sure this was in our S plus
tier for for game and as much as it was one side okay maybe it's maybe it's biased I was an S plus
tier game okay I loved every moment of it every moment every wrinkle whiff I was cheering.
That's just because you're a hater but that's how it is and from one hater to another we're going
to Maui Snake who's going to be replacing you and then you get the overly positive and happy
that to replace my depressing moody self.
You guys over in Australia have been showing a lot of potential in your wins, but it feels
like right now your floor is still pretty low.
What do you think is holding you back from gaining consistency?
I'm not sure, to be honest.
If I or any of the other guys would know the answer, then I don't think we would be in the spot right now.
So yeah, I'm still trying to figure it out.
Yeah, I mean, I do also want to ask you about Hoeksy's IG Elling.
We've heard multiple times from a lot of different people that he runs a tight ship.
Do you think it is like all we have to follow him or is there still a lot of space for you as an individual to
You know make your plays and have your say as well. I
Mean, it's a bit of both. Obviously you have to to follow what the the leader says
We can always always come up with suggestions or or stuff, but he always has the final word of course
And what are your views on what could be potentially a really difficult hurdle in your series coming up against Hota today?
I don't know, I think they're a tough team, they change a bit how they play and they do, they have a lot of like gimmick moves, and playing a bit unorthodox as well as time I'd say, especially when we played them last time on cash they had a lot of gimmicks that we weren't really aware of that it existed so hopefully they didn't find any more of those, cause now at least we know the ones they used versus before.
I mean you guys had a pretty good cache when we saw you play in round number one
So do you feel like yourselves have gotten better at cache and are almost happy to be playing it in the first map?
Yeah, I mean, I think
I think we're decent at it. I think we're getting getting better each time we play it, of course
there's still a lot of new things to learn on the map and
Yeah, I think we're getting more and more comfortable on it
Your first map is going to be Cache. The last time you guys went up against each other it required overtime.
Astralis ended up winning Cache earlier in round 1 of Blast Bounty.
You weren't afraid at all that maybe they've got more in the tank for Cache and that they might be able to take it to you this time?
The last time we played against them they chose T-Site on our pick. It was kind of a surprise for us.
But right now, we don't really care what they will prepare or what they will do, we will just play our game.
And I hope we will not troll on this side like we trolled last time again.
And it will go to the other side.
Some fun little insights there already from Hutu and Astralis.
I got Malli here joining me to be able to break it all down to all the numbers and the facts there
And I just got to quickly defend you. I think you're a hater Malli. I just think you're setting the record straight
Many people may consider what I do to be hate
But in reality what I wish above all else is that the right teams get the right players
And if the right players or the wrong players are preventing the right players from getting on their proper team
team, then yeah, maybe I'm a
little salty sometimes because
teams, right? Whether it's
whoever comes out on top of
playoffs and I talked to t
it in the entry because I
between Astralis and Hojoo
and it did require overtime
14 but it was it was a tough one and so I wonder like the confidence to go back onto
cash after really only peeking at a win after getting that Astralis on cash up against Nemesis
and seeing them kind of decimate them 13-7 I do wonder why your confidence has to be
strong to go back there.
It's a map that it definitely looks like Houttu's put a lot of work into.
I mean, Fosie in the interview you conducted with him talked about how they had a lot of
and I almost use Houttu as my blueprint for how teams should play cash in looking at demos already so far in the early season.
Just the instant smokes that they have, the different varieties of executes they have on bomb sites, the amount of CT aggression that they put on their opponents.
There's so many aspects to like about Houttu on the map that Astralis, when they played the first time, it was a close scoreline, but I think tactically Houttu did look a level ahead.
ahead. Then we saw, you know,
the results of Astralis after
not only beating Nemesis, but yeah, we
saw it in that qualified that they
went on to be focused and then lost to
Houttu and Heroic. And so kind of to get
this revenge or this potential matchup,
I don't know, it's two sides, right?
A revenge for Astralis, but maybe an
easy win for Houttu. And you're saying
the more strategic team there, but
I do wonder, Astralis feels like
an ever-growing team. It feels like just
when you don't want to give them the benefit of the doubt,
they make you realize that there is still so much more.
This would be the first great test to see
were Astralis' off-season moves worthwhile,
because Astralis didn't go and change up a player
in their roster despite the sort of floundering results.
They just went and said,
we're just going to change our coach.
We're going to add a performance coach.
And so Neo, now their new head coach, and Ursula,
with performance in the mental aspect of the game.
I feel like a lot of this should come down to them
because if Hooxie is gonna already be a solid IGL,
I have no doubt about that.
But I want, this kind of win right here
would just already prove to me, okay,
there's some value in Neo because I'm sure
that he would have wanted to collaborate with Hooxie
on coming up with a superior game plan,
you know, in regards to their previous.
And hopefully that can bolster them
to take Ho2 down on that rematch.
Yeah, I was hoping to get a little bit more out of fusing that interview where I asked him, like, why is the consistency struggling?
And I mean, it's one of two answers. Sometimes teams just say like, we're just not a team that is able to be consistent.
Like, there isn't an ulterior motive around, like, why we're struggling with that.
But his seem to be, we just don't know the answer to it.
Like, we are still searching for it and we believe there is an answer there.
And so it's a catch 22 of, I understand from his point of view, if they knew that they would have fixed it.
But if you are going to bring in a new coach,
I feel like you should be taking steps
to have somewhat more of an answer or an outside perspective
that can give you an answer.
Well, I'm talking about Fosey's consistency in particular,
just zooming in on him.
He definitely tapered off at the middle of last season.
And I think that consistency can be found or even discovered
for Fosey in the form of just setting him up a little bit
more.
That's how he really hit the ground running.
With the Sastralis team, there was so much setup
for him at the beginning of round.
So many boosts, so many smoke breaks.
Oftentimes they would devote at least one other guy
to minimum boost him, but sometimes even a third guy
to break the most common smoke
that he's gonna be facing off against.
And I just feel like they started dedicating
some lesser resources towards him.
I don't know how they're gonna get him involved on cash,
but as a team, yeah, Strahle as a whole,
I think they really kind of fizzled out
and almost felt like they got burnt out
at the end of last season.
So that's again, you just want a little bit
of an atmosphere change, which hopefully the staff behind them can provide.
I mean, they've already taken one step towards a little bit more success and, you know, how
they looked against Nemesis there.
But we're going to take two plays, one from Astralis, one from Ho Chi here.
We're going to have Stare.
Look at him compared to Mizu here, Maui, and of course, you're the numbers guy, so you're
going to break them all down for me, and then tell me what this head-to-head sort of narrates.
Well, this is the fight you're going to get on map one.
I mean, you have two guys that are the same age that are both kind of coming up in the scene right now
I'd say that stare has proved it against better opposition
But mizu's numbers are I'd say just a smidgen a smidgen better versus lesser opposition
And so these are definitely the two guys who are just going to be battling out
They duped so many times in the last engagement there on cash
And I feel like a lot of what this game is is going to come down to who gets the better of whom in this first round or first half matchup
Okay, well, if it's just as simple as that, it means that we shouldn't spend any more
time yapping on this matchup instead.
We should just get straight into its groaning and launders.
Thank you, Nat.
Thank you, Maui.
That's right.
We dive back into this one, Mo.
A little middle of the pack type environment here between Astralis and Houttu.
And Houttu looking, well, prospectful because they are the team with the major champion.
I've been hyping up Norbert in his last couple of days.
It's cool to see Norbert making a run back towards these big events.
And it's hopefully fingers crossed
another chance for Houttu to show their promise
as they look to rebound from the highs of 2025.
Astralisle, they've got Hooksy, and you know,
as a Cologne champion, a Cato champion.
Yeah.
That's pretty good, too.
Not a major champion.
Not a major champion.
That's true.
That they are not.
Astralisle, they're in a very weird spot.
Overall, not great, obviously.
Even playing the Star Ladder, Qualifier,
I've already lost the Ho-2, lost the Heroic.
I feel like the mood is just extremely down.
For a bit, it's also like coming into events,
winning one big match, and really falling really early,
not making any deep moves.
I don't know what to say about this game.
I mean, at least they have a very recent
Vesta 3 versus Ho-2.
That'll be instant lessons given right there.
Just match agnostic note.
It's been nice to see how much cash has actually been in the map pools.
As of late, you know, usually there's such a slow uptake of new maps, but, man, we're right back at it, huh?
And actually both their maps versus Houttu, overtime games, that they lost.
Okay.
Well, settle in then, folks. We may have a close affair.
This pistol, not so close. Astralis slaying across the map.
KDO and Dushka.
Into the two versus five.
Now bomb inches closer to the A site at least. You could get that like sudden sprint across if for ever reason the truck player misses some shots
Maybe bombs planted and we talk about some money for Houttu's early T side
But the longer they wait
The creepier these Astralis players get finally one of them drops. Oh, okay. Nice kill by Houttu
Houttu's gonna catch that kill. Dushka again could have played for the site to try to get the plant
Wanted to try to get a kill instead. Ultimately no extra money here for the Houttu T side pistol
It's a strawless to strike first pretty good awareness there from hook see if not otherwise
It's it's definitely a bomb plant and it could even be him dying with the bomb plant
I just could open up this
round for hoto
And hoto on the other hand I mean they win this game in this other qualifier versus a strawless
They look very good here. They're just winning the fast majority of their series versus almost everybody. Yeah, good on hoto
Yeah, and um
We definitely just haven't seen like how to get a peek yet, you know, felt like they were about to become one of that like, you know, Paris Monty or something like that or like a passion away or something with how good they played at one point and you could see it in the quality of the rounds and just like the actual star player potential.
Mezzy was the most interesting one. He had like that very fast start, terrible second half from map 1.
Yeah.
But then followed up with a great map 2.
It's a good place to finish, you know?
Yeah.
A reminder, you can always live trade the game on Poly Market.
I didn't take note of the predictions before the game went live, but it looks like a strolless.
At this point, slight edge.
That's what it's good to know what the people think.
All that is factoring in the pistol.
That can honestly tip the scales a little bit.
Here it is. Should be a little farma.
Three's not bad for the A4, but a couple Glock kills makes it curious.
Only, Adio had that bomb.
He'll eat an explosive, but not the one he really wanted.
Frag grenade, pop wasn't down to 8 HP, Stair cleans up to keep majority alive, so nice little attempt there for Houtu, but they're going to come up empty handed in round 2 as well.
Nostralis went international for this lineup.
Can you believe it?
And first it actually did seem pretty cool.
Oh man, they went international.
They're giving up.
Yeah, it's over.
Yeah, it's over.
But then they kind of had a cool energy, like Fuzi was getting really consistent, and he's one of those guys who's played like in like every country, CS, you know, every country in the world basically where there's a CS team.
Fuzi was on a rare atom. Fuzi was on a rare atom. Let that sink in.
I actually also know the number of teams for Fuzi. I remember we had crucial as the kind of like best journeyman
What was 29 teams when he dawned the gentleman's jersey as a stand in this event? Yeah, so I'm curious where Fuzi's at behind him
It's yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, it's not that many but you know if we're talking about Fuzi another six years from now
I feel like you'll you know, he's almost the crucial of
What year would that be 2032?
But also you hope that Astralis is like one of the final stops sure you know, yeah, I hope it slows down now because
Because Astralis they didn't just go international. They went Swedish
Does that mean they barely went international or no that means of all the nations they're sworn enemies. Oh true. Okay. Yeah, and
yet loving neighbors
Now it is
First Guns for Houttu and Mizu, he was watching for this pop-up, but he also wants to go to the highway duel and yeah, he kind of lets his guard down as Stare takes his sweet time to pop up from behind the spindle.
Front tails now suddenly finds himself alone and Stare's gonna hone in on that kill, so nice 5 vs 3 established versus Houttu's first gun round.
It's a well-placed Molotov to make Javi's position uncomfortable, and while he does lose his support in Fusey,
he's also given a chance to reposition and stay alive.
What can Norbert and Dushka do?
It's a 2v5 turned 1v4, and Dushka may have scooped up the bomb, but he's got a player up above him,
one at long range, and then always that patient Javi ready for the swing.
So first gun round goes as poorly for Houttu as the previous two.
It's a 3-0, a strawless start.
That's a very good start. I totally see Gabby being an excellent A-player, the way that he plays angles, especially with fence.
Not surprised to see Stair B's being in mid either.
I'm actually kind of curious about...
Cash's map balance so far. Yeah, it was 9-3, both halves CT side.
Okay.
I'm really sensing in the early days here of cash that it's going to be the T side struggles.
I would actually like to know what the round counts are across bounty so far on cash.
Just in general, because again, there's been a lot of cash.
That's true.
It's kind of nice, man.
I don't know.
I don't want to get too excited about this map too quickly.
Actually, as a North American, I was already excited about cash.
But I'm digging the uptake.
And maybe it's just popular because it's new.
Maybe people are thinking, ah, we can, you know, get an advantage over some upsets with
this fresh map.
Some of the big dogs haven't practiced or aren't ready yet, but I'm lovin' cash in
the sheer amount of it.
Great grenade damage on Mizzou, easy 2k for real.
Norbert's gonna go deep swingin' into tree and damn near catching the offer, but Fuzzi's
got teammates to give cover.
This time they do get the bomb down.
So there's at least that for Houttu, slight improvement in that regard, a little bit of
extra money, but it's still not kills.
You're not totally chipping away at a Stralis and a comfortable 4-0 start.
You kind of hear in the interview before the game started that like, the crew just didn't
even really know what to say about what was wrong with the team right now.
Like it's so early that they haven't really, you know, they didn't have a moment where
they got super good and then they slowed down.
They just kind of open up all these events very well, and then immediately.
Right.
And so you don't know exactly what it is.
Also, Ryu, you know, another underrated pick who, again, at first, was like,
okay, they actually did some really cool scouting here.
But with questions of consistency, they can be so hard to answer sometimes.
Dushka has played...
Ah, I wasn't fast enough.
Dushka has played.
Dushka has played 221 official maps in 205 days this year over one official map per day.
Damn.
What's your excuse?
Why aren't you grinding like Dushka?
That's crazy numbers.
That's like Monty in 2023 numbers.
I'm saying.
I mean proven path to the top.
Yeah, top.
Really?
Not the very top, but towards the top.
That'd be it.
Monty got to the top.
I mean, they got top 8 at Paris.
top ish
that's not the top i mean like
they got eight
at a major yeah
that's tier one
your swings and jabby insta kill
you play all the games in the world
Javi's time to kill right now is nasty.
He'll spray down into Mizzou as well, so multi-kill earned by Javi.
KD is going to get stuck with nothing.
One of the most convincing rounds yet out of Astralis,
and it's versus rifles.
This is a rock-solid CT half so far.
Just got to go day by day with these guys.
Everything's looking right.
It seems like it's feeling good here for Astralis.
Got to love these Javi plays.
You know, sometimes online Counter-Strike really is day by day.
Look at 100 thieves.
You're beating Falcons in one day and losing to who the next?
They're daggers the next, yeah.
It's, it really is a rollercoaster, so.
Feeling like a fantastic day for Astralis.
CTs have won 54% of the cash rounds.
This bounty, only Nuke has been more CT sided.
Mohan, your early premonition has been correct.
I like it, B chance is quick today.
He was sassy last night and he's quick this morning.
5PM by the way.
He's walking back.
Norbert finds an upgrade for his efforts into checkers.
Just walk peek out with like maximum conviction.
Major champion.
There we go.
He knows what's next.
Hooks, he just kind of slow rolls into him.
Oh, Norbert's doing this all alone.
That's a side take.
Triple kill so far for Norbert.
The best individual moment we've had out of the Houttu squad so far this map, Mizu's
going to look to find the back of the AWPer turned and sure enough executes Fusey.
So yeah, Norbert, you earned this one damn near single-handedly.
Yeah, they were just in the middle of a default.
Norbert cleared everything out beautifully.
Just expected this game to be a lot closer all the way through.
I feel like you don't even come in with that much prep because you've got still fresh
memories of all the rounds you played against each other same map as well.
Sure.
Once you played all the rounds.
Okay, is this the round that he dies because he still hasn't died yet?
There it is.
Finally.
He can bleed.
I'd like to use this chance, Mohan, to submit an official complaint to Blast.
Okay, alright.
I'm a little raffling in here.
Our HUD is outdated.
At the current moment on the HUD, it shows how many bullets are in your magazine and how many bullets you have extra.
It should be how many bullets are in the magazine and how many reloads you have left.
It should be the number of mags now.
This HUD is outdated.
Complaint ignored.
Dammit!
Go to hell.
Linda will be in contact.
But that's really all I've got to complain about. So, back to the action.
Yeah, nothing else?
No, really just... I'm having a great time. I'm treated very well here.
Good.
Got my sparkling water and a nice coffee and matches of Counter-Strike ahead.
All I want's one small change. You know, that's... I'm not asking for much.
I know Duceco's got some complaints.
It's not like this T side cash so far. 0-6.
All he gets in for the fence, that's gonna force Hooksy out.
Doesn't get caught though on the exit. Oh, he's just waiting for that off upgrade. And that's why Hooksy swaps out for Fuzzi.
He lands the shot. He's got Norbert staring into the abyss.
Only momentarily, as Norbert tries to chase down the opera up, close, Ryu's got cover.
So really nice tethering here between the CTs this round.
Yeah, they look like they've learned it very quickly.
Hooksie with absolutely no leads.
And Astral still playing for info.
I mean, Hooksy, he's just got a mess.
He's got positions here on the B site with lots of noise.
Another good kill for him.
Mewsy drops right in front of him.
Time to get out of there.
KD is running for the hills.
Will Jaby find him?
No, Jaby goes back towards mid instead.
That opens the door for the save at least.
So an AWP for his efforts, but another round for Astralis, I still think it's hilarious
Hooksy's just watching that AWP, waiting for his chance to use it, and sure enough delivered
a really nice shot in the AWP versus AWP fight towards main.
And give me that, let me show you how it's done.
Quick reaction into front tails.
And also it wasn't even front tails that got that kill, it was Norbert in front of him.
So for Hooksy to be ready for the Sun Room Octool, props.
Seven rounds in, it's a 6-1 Asterolus lead, and it's Cady to turn away from middle.
Try to take that off the spawn for the mid-pick, but it'll find itself back into Frontale Tanks where it belongs.
of
just me do this time, no
I'm just gonna say they were waiting so long. Oh, that is hilarious another one
Someone in there was like, I don't know. I don't know if we should do this right now
And it's just that you kill them on top of the boost so the intention is already
Now it goes a little deep which goes lucky to be alive. It's any one zero and 75 HP. Yeah, actually is 15 health lucky to be alive
Or would he rather the sweet comfort of death to bowl it away?
Me they're running out of time to actually pull this yeah, and that happens Norbert tries to get tricky
Didn't realize Jaby was up to some antics and foosie was ready to lock douche good to that corner the entire time another
Absolute stomp of a round to Astralis's favor. Do not swing that door wide brother. You don't want that smoke. Oh boy
I'd be careful with getting the skill too late as well. Oh my goodness, I'll just keep it up here. Nice one.
Yeah, just don't die after the clock. So you wanted it a little bit of action. You gave it over to KD.
He'll double his kills, but no chance at the round. It's still a strawless winning.
Okay, I'd be definitely impressing over here on A plus there.
Controlling mid to timing. It's like a one minute
second and then a third made that game over also direct hit.
Actually, if it didn't go as far, it would have straight up killed him.
Wow!
For the first time in six years of Counter-Strike last night, we had
three players get a frag grenade kill in the same round from the same team.
Wasn't it 2022 was the last one?
Thought it was six years ago
2022 was coming up in all the other so maybe you may if you're actually maybe I am incorrect
In at least the last four years
It has never happened
But I feel like cash with the amount of kills we've been watching people get on the boost up
Maybe happening more and more often
The one round post you have to spend him getting a kill from this checker's position, but Stair's
got other ideas. Very swiftly in for the response. Norbert put to rest, and 4v3 secured for
Astralis. Now Stair got a better score than Yabbi now. Ten and one after that. Yeah, quietly,
eh? Just kind of collecting his impact. They're all migrating over towards A, exactly where
Hodes you want to go? No noise made off the flash. It's a great Danish migration.
And now they got an op on this line.
Oh, did he see that?
Now he's not going to see anything.
Just so confident.
They've got this mid pinch set up too, so they're really reading that there's going
to be an additional layer, that it's not all A main.
Every duel is just going Astralis' way.
Frontales has 25 seconds to figure this one out, and once he shoots the player top ladder,
they're going to swing that truck, but they swing individually, and they've given him
a chance.
Nice read by Frontales, and enough time to plant.
situation even with 18 health. Yeah. There's a frag on Hooksy, there it goes. It came out
late and he was very low but he's got an AWP. Oh, it's good front tails, it's so good.
What a valiant effort in the 1 vs 4. I thought he was dead to right the moment he got the
up close kill but he is so ready for that truck swing and the straws will walk away with one
player left after he damn near wins the 1v4. It's really nice to get that damage in but
I hope he just need the rounds right now.
Yeah, we have really hit that critical point at the half.
He just doesn't feel like a strawless lose.
I love the way he hugs the wall and crouches to make himself the smallest target possible.
Yeah.
And considering he was 1-6 when that started.
Got to dig deep for those moments.
Big push from Buzka, finds Hooksy,
looking the wrong direction, but White Box.
The support from Starr has been so good.
Ryu with a lot of responsibility is the only B player.
Pushing through a smoke to Robb Norbert of his kill.
It's been this pretty constant activity from Norbert
to try to pressure checkers, and this time he gets found out.
Astralis again, man, advantage in the 10th round of play.
I really don't mind them trying to do something fast,
and actually we just take a walking contact out B.
It's a very confusing looking round,
but the straws are pushing everything.
That's there, we'll see that.
Another flash.
Front tail's playing anti.
This'll give up checker control, which is nice.
Fuzzi wants to play ahead of the smoke. You've locked two players into the B site now.
They have enough time for Mizu to actually fully wrap B.
We just watched Fuzzi go for the headshot control, so no eyes over here towards Tree to catch this flank.
Oh, Jabby kind of looking down there now. It's...
Oh my goodness.
It feels like while Astralis have missed the timing on the flank, they get active instead.
Instead, he's watching for it.
Fozie now aware of the timing.
Mizu's going to strike one down.
But with Fuzi that ready for it,
and you know that front tails has been tagged low
towards this main position, you'll
go for the quiet cross in the site.
And Yabi's coming up into heaven, too.
So he wouldn't even have to watch right side.
He doesn't want to.
Oh, but it'll still peek.
Nice trades out of a straw.
It's every step of the way.
There was definitely a window there for Mizu.
I think Yabi saw him when he came to truck.
Did he?
Because Fuzi turned around and Mizu didn't make noise.
So how do you know he's there?
I thought maybe their internal clock just kind of hit that critical moment.
That's possible too.
For a second it didn't feel like they were considering it, but you are right that it
felt very sudden.
I could have still been a good duel for Muzu, but FoZi hits the shot up close, makes sure
his flank is only worth the one, and it's a strollist up 9-1 here on the map pick of
Houttu not quite as competitive as the last outing between these two teams. It actually was
Houttu got three T rounds last time. Oh, so could still be. Oh, okay. Yeah, it was just very CT sided
Right now. I think mentally they're just like just get a get these last couple bite
They're down to a galeel an AK
Okay, not the grenade you were looking for it's a failure to launch on that one
If he underhands that smoke as well, we've got problems.
Trying to go into a set piece for the A site.
Mizu ahead of the pack, untradable first run out.
Defense happy to just start dropping that utility.
Trying to deter this follow through from Houttu.
I like that they try to take that smoke pack around.
It was burning, but they still found a pocket back there for some impact.
It's a dou- a douche?
A douche-ka!
I mean, K.D.O. gets pulled apart with the triple sequence here in the middle of the hecticness,
double digits secured by Astralis in the CT side alone.
Now it's a little less competitive.
Gouche on douche-ka!
Yeah, that was a douche-y.
Whoa!
That was a douche-y.
I don't really have the answers here for Ho-Too, like, as Trolls are playing pretty flawlessly.
So it's just one excellent round for Norbert Lurking and me to get the kills.
I can understand not wanting to do, like, full execs or even set splits on necessarily on this map.
on this map, it's so comfortable to default sometimes, especially when the player's like
Ho too, but it's not working.
You think you would have felt like that error, that it's not working earlier and maybe just
tried to change gears, but we haven't really had that neither out of time.
It's like sometimes you pull exactly on this map and you get the site, you get the plant,
but you need your names to the post plant more than you even need for the site take.
Right.
Down to a smoke and a Molotov, Rho 2 now, and they don't have a sight.
They're going to collect themselves outside of B. Hooksy wins the duel to Dushka.
He is 2 and 12 on the half, not having a good day.
Not having much fun.
Stair keeps his head tucked down.
That's just going to bait them into the open, where he strikes Norbert off the round.
Empty handed Norbert.
Not a comfortable place for Rho 2 to B. Another challenge out through the smoke, and Raiu's
He's got it from the back, site held strong.
He has been rock solid in these site take attempts,
a strolless with a damn near flawless CT side, go up 11-1.
Orphas use a gun that nobody else uses.
It's the biggest resource in the game.
It's a one-shot gun.
So it's bound to have high impact.
Top Orphas get the credit they do,
because not anyone can do it.
A top AWP is the player you're going to remember
because they're going to get the best highlights.
They're going to be really, really fast.
You need your AWPer to perform
if you're going to be putting as much resources
into the AWP every single game.
I think the role has evolved in a few ways.
When you go all the way back to the start of CSGO,
super combat AWP. Kenny S is the best example because he was so mobile with the AWP.
The AWP got nerfed as a result, mainly of players like Kenny S, who were so aggressive
and who were always pushing, always in your face. In the game that got nerfed and we saw
AWPers be more ecstatic for a while. Devices have read example of that, someone who would
pick their spot and stay in it and be like a turret for them. This guy never missed the
shot. He was the most reliable AWP of all time really.
I think all by gelling is not easy.
Yeah, give him space.
He'll figure it out every time.
There are very few cases of players
who have made that work on the top level.
There's a few factors, I think, that play into this.
When you're orping, you've got to be focused
on your cost areas, basic as that sounds.
I think you have to have a lot more trust for your team
in order to actually be capable to all.
It's interesting to see James still be able to do it,
considering the whole narrative around his team
is how he has very inexperienced players
that he needs to put in the right place.
But he's someone who is so passive on the off
that he's still really alive in those night rounds.
He's more so playing for the clutch
while his team open up the round.
You typically just see an in-game leader be the first guy in.
I think if you're all pink, it's hard to be as involved.
Feels easier said than done.
But then you have also flashy orcas
that are a lot of fun to watch, people like Monosie,
Extremely exciting player in your face pushing through utility and of course simple doing the same thing
Absolutely able to take over games with high risk players and that's on the simplest best moments
Dropping in from heaven getting two nosecode kills with the craziest stuff and got away with it time after time
When you're a top up as well, you're getting studied. You're getting game planned for
The factors I was able to find as much impact as he does is impressive considering there are old
analyst teams trying to figure out how to not let this guy pop on. A guy that never makes mistakes,
a guy that is extremely hard to punish. There's different levels of walking, whether they're
flashy, whether they're reliable, they have to perform in the highest impact moments and there
is no room for error. If you miss a shot on the orb, you're gonna die. You're always gonna take
attention because there is no roof arrow.
Quick day in the office for Astralis so far in this best of three, Houttu taking the challenge
to them and coming up short, an 11-1 CT side, but you did allude to it.
Three rounds on the T side last time they met, game still got close.
So let's see if the defense here of Houttu can step up to the plate again.
They've left themselves such a non-existent margin of error. They lose this pistol, and they're probably cooked.
Yeah, it's just like, that's all they've got. They need to grab this pistol.
Use those CT advantages.
Alright, we get some shots.
Molotov's not gonna do much.
The exchange kills at the B site. We get this scramble out of the three A defenders. They are sprinting their way over to try to save old Norby.
He's sitting back site, he's getting away from him and he's gone down so Astralis have the edge
But there's a push through the headshot that gets caught. Jaby was ready for that
devilish move at a Dujka and
Now it is all on Mizu. Oh, he could ace man. Yeah, he's already got four kills
And he's got a USP. Jaby has been out of his mind so far this evening
Nasty performance so far on map one
I mean before this round start as you know, we have 13-5 Gabby 14-3 14-4 for stair. Yep
Really three hard hitters. Oh, are you real? Wow. He stole that. Okay stair stole that. All right. You think you're funny guy
I'll remember that
Greedy bastard
That could have been a Red Bull ace.
But you took it from him.
Jaby catching this headshot push.
Yeah, that's the awkward moment to like it.
It felt like Bushko was actually making a good move.
There would have been value in that kill.
A good bit of, you know, sight defense from it,
but Jaby fast to the reaction.
Jaby will get four kills and one assist.
And Astralis have earned themselves 11 map points.
one day you can go to a 16-13 overtime game and then the next day here you are 12-1 versus
your nemesis. Same map. Every day is a new chance to be the man you want to be. Think
Think about it.
I'm letting that ruminate.
If you're not here, you're not living.
Yesterday, you said tomorrow.
Oh, now we're talking.
I
Lila you are so insane
I shot I fucking shot
Meesoo's mp9 versus the world
Flashing a full-blown execute comes over just find a little pocket
It's taken from him, from the monster that is Jaby.
This man is on the brink of 20 kills in a 14 round game.
And that's with teammates that are also popping off.
So Houttu have been effectively dismantled.
I mean like pulled apart limb from limb, boiled down in acid,
spread throughout the Rocky Mountains, never to be found.
On a cellular level, Houttu have been pulled apart.
This one is a wreck. 13-1 Astralis on cash.
Houttu is going to be regretting this map pick and wondering how the hell did we get stomped by the same team that we took the overtime mere moments ago.
So the series not over, but Houttu's life at Bounty now rests on Nuke.
It's not like they had a lot of options when it came to the drop show,
but Astralis was a team that they were pretty eager to get their hands on. I mean, the last time
they matched up against each other whilst it wasn't in Blast Bounty. Mali, it was a 2-0
for the side of Hoto, and so you're expecting to see them go back to cash, have a stronger performance,
but somehow it's the inverse. It's so much of a stumping you kind of forget that they even
went to overtime last time that they went up on this map. I tell the same story over and over again
and that when two teams face off against each other,
the team that lost, they want revenge.
They are gonna go back to the drawing board.
They're gonna try to figure out why things went awry,
even in a narrow loss.
And you can see that Astralis,
they have improved leaps and bounds,
the variety of setups that they decided to run,
the individuals that were aware of the Houttu
sort of plays that they go for,
the little two-man games on bomb sites,
all of it was just so much more well ironed out
an Astralis team that is no longer flying in the dark against Houttu. In fact, they're leading the way.
Yeah, they called that bluff, right? Houttu had so many tricks up their sleeves. That's what
Astralis got called off guard with last time. And they go, we don't think they have anymore. Now,
they don't know that for sure, but it is very obvious that they didn't. And so Astralis being
able to come back fully swinging in the way that they did. Massive props to them. And just a testament
to that change that they had in their supporting staff in their coach, right? There are questions
about is that enough for them? Well clearly it is because if you're only given three days from the
last time you were forced to overtime at cash and now you're taking it 13-1, yeah I'd say your
coaching staff is doing more than what they're supposed to be doing. I mean the first pass,
the first test is pass here and able to show such a better face here. Yeah of course that was my
narrative going into it. If they don't improve versus Houttu, then what is anybody doing over there?
So to see them have such a demonstrative victory over, well, I was going to say Mizzou, but really
all of Houttu this time around is just a testament to the fact that they clearly are doing something
there in the camp. And weirdly enough with Astralis last year, they kind of got worse as the season
season went on. It almost was like they didn't know what to improve on, but in the short
little few days we've seen of them thus far in the season, that's not the case.
Yeah, well, let's go ahead and have a look at, I'm going to say, just the first half
right because that wasn't really a second half when it came to cash. Yeah. So we can
have a look at the first half earlier on as well. Some of the things that you talked
about is the 2v2 is how they didn't necessarily pan out the same way for the side of Ho-Tube.
But the side defenses coming out from Astralis, they go, we already know just how weak the
the T side is for hope two
and they were really able to capitalize on it.
I think it was the first time you really noted it.
Maui was in round four.
Yeah, exactly.
I feel like the, the opening smokes
that hope two loves to throw,
they have all of these instas, you know,
you see all of this B lurk smoke that comes out,
but Hooksy and Ryu just had the perfect counter for it.
I mean, Hooksy is able to tag one,
but the instant smoke break to set up Ryu
so he can peek around the edge of the smoke,
keeping himself alive in checkers.
And yeah, I think Norbert kind of went
for a Hail Mary play pushing into tree room right there.
But you could just see that the defensive setup
from the get-go here between Hooksy and Rio was rock solid.
They were never gonna lose to that kind of play
that Houttu had conditioned them
that they might run from the previous series.
And didn't just stop there, it kept going.
I mean, we saw it right the way that they were able
to dominate the side of Houttu on cash.
But round seven was another one where we're seeing
Hooksy have quite a good beginning
and opening as well, being able to aid his team
to get off to a good start.
Something that Astralis never did
in the previous series is play vents.
And even though he's Molly out of this position, Hooksy,
you can see that he has a great reaction.
So again, the variety of setups
have varied this time as now he's in a new spot.
They couldn't quite take him down as he falls there.
Stairs able to get one.
But the fact that he picks up the AWP,
stays alive in checkers,
it's just that there was a very obvious contingency plan here
as he uses some great counter utility.
But even then, even when he's pressured from a Molly,
from a guy close to him, Ryu's able to support him once again.
And there was just a great moment here for Astralis,
where they were able to kind of,
for the whole rest of the round,
they get that man advantage,
they cleanly played for information,
and then they're able to just know exactly what's coming next.
It was a much more composed defense.
They weren't scrambling,
you didn't see hooks he'd go for or a wide swing there
at the checkers, even when he's mullied out,
he understood where his teammate was.
And that's just what repetition is gonna do for a team
that I think should be competing more regularly
in tier one, like Astralis.
It's nice to see that time and time again
that we get to see the praises of Astralis
after how their season ended for themselves there.
But it wasn't just Hooksy and Ryu
and the way that they were able to work with each other,
the composure that Astralis had had for themselves.
But, Yabi, it felt like time and time again,
Scorodian lauders were seeing his praises,
just how much he was able to get done.
There was no stopping him.
I actually don't know if you're on the side of Hotsu,
how you can even deal with him,
no matter what map you wanna go up against him on.
is I could have tried breaking down some of his rounds,
especially on site defenses,
but I think the highlights really just do the talking.
I mean, he was just so, so substantial on that A bomb site.
The thing about Yavi is I still will make the claim.
I really think he has the best individual mechanics
of anybody on the team.
When you pair that with an A bomb site
that allows him to work from multiple but clean angles,
you just give him all the tools he needs to work with
in order to just be a solid force that was really unbreakable when Houttu tried to execute
on like three deaths and they tried to go A a handful of times is simply absurd.
Yeah, and we're also seeing that it wasn't just cash. It's not just this series against
Houttu that he's been showing up, but he was also the highest rated player in the server
when they went up against Nemesis a couple of days ago as well. So to get to see him
also have consistency, that's what's nice.
That seems to be the big question mark
around Astralis as a team, as individuals,
but Yabi really having that.
And maybe an element is that repetition
you're talking about, Maui.
The fact that they're also playing another tournament
or online qualifier at the same time as this,
it's just like they get to learn so much more.
A team that clearly learns a lot more from mistakes
rather than being a bit more proactive.
And there's nothing wrong with that
if you are gonna be able to be reactive
and show up the way that they have.
I also imagine that for Yabbi it was probably a bit difficult in the previous season when
Astral's made the switch from Danish to English.
As far as I know that was the first time that Yabbi ever had to go to an international roster.
So obviously his consistency was a little going to be a bit more fluctuating in nature
now that he's having to communicate in his second language.
I know Danes are good at English, okay?
Everybody knows that.
But it's very different.
He's coming for you.
Yeah, no.
They all can speak English just fine, don't get me wrong.
I think that's a that's commonplace in Denmark, but it's it's obviously different to just play the game
And I'm sure some of the guys in production when they play with other people in production
They're probably speaking in Danish for some of their thoughts. Okay, correct me if I'm wrong though
I'm sure they definitely will but we've heard it before right just how like it's not necessarily a difference in player or
I yelling right no matter who you want to talk about but getting to do it in your mother tongue in your native language
language will always be
quicker. It will always be
more efficient. And so it is
that element that's added to
it. But maybe Yabi's like,
well, just because I have to
communicate in a different
language doesn't mean I can't
let my individual performance
still shine. And I think that
it's also just going to be it's
a work in progress. Like even
Zywoo was a little bit shaky
for the first few months that
he had to play on an English
speaking roster. So I think
that the skill has always been
there for Yabi. The highs have
sometimes peaked out despite
He's had to swap on over.
And in a weird way, even adding more context to this,
this is why I think he was always such a good individual lurker
on maps like Nuke or Overpass lurking out B there,
where he doesn't have to really worry
about what anybody's saying.
He can kind of just do his own thing.
And I think he gets a little bit of that
when he's playing especially towards A on Cash,
where he's just trying to defend a whole exec by himself.
Well, do we have a similar sort of theory for Houttu
why they weren't really able to show up
on their map pick of Cash?
Well, I don't think that they actually changed that much up.
I think that I saw the same utility sets that I saw the first time around.
They used the same three opening smokes in most of the rounds that they did.
The first time they played against Astralis.
And at that point, you know, a handful of days ago, it was new, it was cool.
It was very, they were always basically dictating how the battlefield looked every round.
But if you give Astralis the same exact sort of repetitive,
nade combos, then they're going to find out the solutions.
And that's exactly what happened.
you know, it's like, you know,
it's like, you know, it's like
that. Yeah, that was the
unfortunate part of talking to
know it because I said like how
do you feel right because they've
been showing off a lot when it
comes to these online games and
heading into the season. He said,
Oh, some days are really good
for us. And some days are really
bad. And so I asked him, does it
feel like there's more good days
than bad and he didn't really
feel that confident on it. He
said, Yeah, maybe. And so
unfortunately, I feel like that
has translated into it right
there. There isn't a new play
for them. And unfortunately, it feels like it is today, Maui.
I think that they are sometimes at the mercy of just going through the online qualifier gauntlet
as we're seeing again today. It's very difficult when you have as many officials as they do
to go back and try to rework things. And so Norbert, you know, he talked about it. That is one off day.
He wanted to take a break, step away from the game. Those kind of moments of reflection allow you to
perhaps find improvements, especially in practice, but instead he just, what did he do? Just played
eight face-to-games or something like that? Yeah, I think it was something like that. It was like
five or eight. Yeah, that's not going to actually change how you feel about yourself or the team
or really help you innovate. Yeah, that's the thing, right? It's the innovation, because I would have
thought with not necessarily knowing who their opponent was, but they played on day number two.
So theoretically, they had two full days outside of Blastbound, and yes, they also had other online
you can kind of narrow down
looking at where you are in the
picking order to these are
probably the teams that are
left over, but also just the
broader thing of focusing on
yourself coming up with a little
bit more plays. And you know, I
personally haven't gotten to see
them play on on nuke yet, but
that is what they're going to be
going on to just after the break.
And so any anything to leave us
on the hook here, Maui, for what
you think Houttu could do right
for that?
I think that's going to be a
tall order. I think I just think
just think that this is gonna be cash felt like a map that you needed in your back pocket
for this sort of series because now I do think the veto actually favored Astralis that they
got a couple of the maps and they kind of swapped the order of the veto and the fact
that they went now Astralis to what was Houttu second phase ban last time they faced against
each other on a map that Astralis are comfortable against. I don't feel great about Houttu's
chances now all right well we're gonna head to a break we'll come back I'm
hoping for a more positive note but either way maybe we might just see
The Astralis coming out, slinging it again.
back to the action with the strollers of versus ho to the polymarket predictions has a strollers
skewed pretty heavily now they had a slight advantage coming into map one obviously with
the how do I put it politely domination that they had back on cash you know just a little
Just a little domination to start O2's day.
Again, kind of to start my days, sort of you and me both.
It's kind of a bleak situation for O2,
but hey, unexpected things can happen.
We've been watching that happen all week long.
So somehow they've just got to dig themselves out
of this big old hole they're left in and pull it out
of the hat on Nuke.
For their sake, they do get to begin on the CT side.
So there's a silver lining.
Another silver lining is they've been winning on Nuke
Stralis coming to kind of kind of nowhere with this thing. They have a 13-1 win on it, but also a lost streak after that, so
They've clearly made some changes really recently the one thing that'll kind of go against them is having to
Kick off on T side, but they have a plan two silver linings called out a reason to believe
Can Houttu stave off a very hot looking Stralis. Oh, hello
Take damage
They're going to go into the execute because the games are already committed to the process.
Oh, that could have ruined everything and instead it's perfectly fine.
Yeah.
And look, see?
Oh!
He acts to the player dropping behind him.
Norbert still gets going though with the Berettas to take man advantage into Houttu's hands.
Jaby trying to dodge that cut threat.
Oh, but Norbert's going hunting.
Wow, Norbert.
Wow, Norbert.
With the quad kill.
At this point, the two rounds that Houttu have won in this entire series are single-hand
because of Norbert. Yeah, quite literally. 3k sequence back on the T side of cash for the one round they win and then the pistol here on the CT side. Yeah, like last map was a bit of an aberration, just like how poorly they played. But the last series had to played Norbert was excellent throughout very, very impactful rounds.
Not totally surprised to see him being able to pull these out.
I mean, the people refer to him as Norbert Major Champion for good reason.
Life game, Javi's Cash this series was the second highest rated map in his entire career.
Damn, 2.52 rating. It showed.
And that was with teammates actually having strong performances too.
You know, sometimes you get one of those like calamity games.
And it's just you've eaten up all the impact, but no stair was solid rear was solid and still jabby had a second highest
Career rated map. Yeah, no can get lower, but they're gonna drop that
An interesting smoke I mean
He's used very low HP
It's a bit of ambiguity as to what side he'll play, but it doesn't smoke off either of the doors
So he'll have to use the silo as physical cover
Oh, we could have had it.
Right into the single door.
The old bait and switch by Mizu feeds him to Dushka instead, and Houttu convert their
pistol with still majority players alive.
Yeah, the plant would have been awesome for Astralis.
And so Houttu just kind of have to come into this map and hope the new things that Astralis
in don't matter right because they they actually do have a competent new they
have one they just really haven't played a lot of a very good European teams on
it so far but oh dude just kind of play everybody and as we've seen from them
they're all about volume right now high reps high reps and very frequent
victory in the online realm of Counter-Strike so I cash really did feel
It's hard to make sense of it. Is it a sign that today is just going to be a bad day for Ho2 and they fall flat, or is it just a one map affair?
The interesting part about the pick is they just played Ancient vs Astralis. They won that. Obviously it was a 2-0 series, but it was also an overtime game.
game and the straws could have looked at cash and they're like, all right, you know how to win cash
and you know what, we were very close to winning the game. Jim, if we have the answers there too,
let them go for a map that on paper could be worse, a little bit harder.
But it's a straw less and new, I mean those, it's basically synonymous.
So you'd think it works out in the end, you'd think.
But the numbers don't lie, so we'll watch with hesitations
First gun round comes out for a straw list that it will take to the rooftops
And Mizzou down beneath the silo setup. Oh, Rio gets the- oh, he missed the jump. So fed to Mizzou made all the easier
And man advantage disappears just like that
Run tails and he eats the flashbang in front of it huge and really good timing on the Astralis pop
But now me zoo getting frisky looking to test this smoke. I don't think you can't know if anyone's okay draw a distraction
Fuzzi to hold the flank, he's got a nice isolated 1v1, Molotov deals with Cadeo's timing, they're not even gonna try it, it looks like.
Mizu wants the AWP, and now that he's got it, he can walk away from here.
So looking to save majority Houttu, but it's a Stralis first gun round, and it's on the scoreboard.
It's an excellent tactic to get that kill on the upper site, and I mean, once you get down to a lot of maps,
Very CT-sided, 5v5, when CTs have weapons and utility.
And I don't know what the numbers say, but I think a lot of the times you take a good team on T-side, you're happy to go one-for-one.
You bring it to a 4v4, I feel like the thinner the map is, the more it feels like you can control things on T-side.
More opportunities to create gaps where CTs have to rotate, they have to overfill positions.
This is a map that feels like you could have 6 CTs and use them all very, very efficiently,
efficiently because there's so much room for it.
You can see just with that one kill there's not even a floor player that they have to
go through.
Not awesome.
Hooksy, 0.65 is a better rating on T side nuke than Fuzzi at 0.6 in the last three months.
The AWPer has 0.33 KPR on T side over that time period.
That's not good.
You didn't see that.
And it did not awesome.
Stare and jabby just tear apart the A-floor.
Rapid though.
Straight through.
No chance for Ho to offer the save.
I mean, Fuzi's stats out the window.
It don't matter when he's set up by right floors like that.
Astralis saw blood in the water on that A-floor
and slam it home.
Yeah, that's pretty sweet.
I also love that B-Trams hit Hoxie with the stray there.
That was a Fuzi's bad stat pop in.
But he contrasted it and really cemented how bad the stats were by comparing the hooksy!
Yeah.
What the hell?
Thought we were done beating up on hooksy.
B-tramps.
Flasty.
And it's only 5.30pm.
I won't forget, he came for RDN yesterday.
I don't know where, dude.
I kinda like sassy B-tramps, though.
But it did feel like this map pick was a shot trying to kind of like defy the numbers
Yeah, they have a lost rake in the 13-1. So they're just recently getting very good
So let's defy the numbers shall we?
That was a pretty vicious APOP that O2 just had to go through, especially after just losing
the round on an upper pop.
Back-to-back situations, Dushka comes out with a kill here on Ryu.
Oh, Javi almost kills Mizzou.
Caught him with a NATO.
Lucky we've gotten away with that one.
That's your teammate, brother.
That's why I have foosie stats are so low.
Doesn't help.
These Danes are trying really hard to work with a sweep.
Old habits die hard.
There's a bunch of utility trickle into this upper floor, but it's just Jaby getting through
through the smokes into main.
Oh, he's gone. Oh, he jumps.
Okay. Trying to make it feel like he came from over the roof, I guess.
I don't even know why I...
Not a hell.
Maybe to make you think there was two of them? I don't know.
He ends up finding Cadio, at least.
Jabby's trying some experimental stuff this round.
If you can kill the AWPer, it'll get picked up by a teammate, but every death worth it.
Yeah, baited in.
Well done by Mizu to make sure four players stand tall for Houttu.
They get Javi into main, but nothing really comes of it as the ramp room gets locked down
at the same time.
I wonder what the endgame was for that little pop through the smoke.
I mean, it wasn't a full exec behind it.
If you got into many...
Did they have started to come out off of the hill, or was he meant to go in the vent?
I'm not having a perfect time at all, he jumps right into the ceiling.
He's shot by dudes and making sure you don't get away with it.
They keep the frag grenades on the smoke, so a second casualty for Astralis.
Ready for the single hole.
But Mizzu's not ready for Ryo to shoot back like that.
This should be a Ho-24B2.
It's a hard fought battle back and forth
that still gives the man advantage.
Bomb dropped outer as well in the process.
I thought he was dead, but you can scoop that up.
A vent drop, yeah.
And now what?
I mean, it's a tentative rotate here actually, like...
Ho-24B2 don't have vent controls, I don't have secret,
and Norbert hasn't dropped immediately
from the ramp, so there is a chance.
We even have a smoke for this.
Two in fact.
Might be a little risky to play this way for Houttu,
we'll see how it goes.
Yeah.
That's the risky one, having a ret-
Oh no, yeah, after all that,
Norbert could have made the preemptive rotate instead of ran through a smoke.
And Kadyo's gonna throw away the element of surprise, sprint in before they can get off-site, he thought, but already tucked into that ramp door.
And he has no Molly either. Yeah.
Smoke suit to fade. Oh! Catches Ryu though, that's a good kill, as he closes the door.
But caught on the crossback, Jabbi the hero in this one gets himself two critical kills and they claw back from a man disadvantaged,
Looping a bomb back as well that was dropped outside in the middle of all that.
So there's definitely moments Houttu could have held control of a bit more of the round
and instead they offer up Astralis a chance.
This is unfortunate.
Jumping away into that and dying.
It didn't feel like it mattered but Mitsu really messed this greyout.
Now there was a series of missed opportunities this round for Houttu.
And the biggest unfortunate one I think was the rotation.
Three guys upstairs.
Bomb was about to go lower in the first place.
They didn't have vision of it when it got picked up, and they just didn't think that
this was where Astralis may go.
Because if you put Norbert in a spot where he only gets one kill, and still a 2v1, it's
basically impossible to plant from there on out, that's all you need.
But if he plays a retake spot like he did, suddenly all the advantages are to the T side.
The last timing in front tails, Clips, Guzy in the backdrop.
Oh, this is a 3v5 coming together, but Frontails hangs onto Main, and Dushka's right there
to support him, so trying to throw the Hail Mary out and getting caught each step of the
way.
Good on Houttu to step up to the challenge on that one.
Stralis try to get a fast tempo out of nowhere.
Do they miss a smoke or do they just bomb flashes in a mini I mean if they had smoked mini instead that probably would have
Yeah, no problem in the easy. Yeah
They're really good at entering upper, but oh too kept up this round
It's a tough one to lose for a straw it's because it sends you into majority pistols
Really banking on that hit happening.
Smokes go yonder with stair playing behind the red box, so you're getting the frag grenades
out of the outer players now. Three sets of eyes over towards outer when really it's all about the
ramp hit. Norbert eats the flash. Front tail is not willing to risk the wide peek.
Again majority pistols here for a strawless. Rotation looking very good here.
They're not hiding it.
Norbert picking up kills left, right and center.
And it's going to be an easy to shut it all down.
So one casualty on the side of Hotu.
It's a Norbert 3K as they approached him towards ramp.
All's good.
Hotu leading 6-3.
Bit rough for Astralis that maybe it is a missed mini-smoker.
Maybe it's just a faulty game plan on the upper hit,
but with that, it's saved into another.
and for how too well a lot better than cash true yeah that really is the that's
the bar set in the series isn't it
but you see the lower you set you at the bar the easier it is to then push it
like to do even worse no no no to you know they set a low bar and now they've
improved already it's only 6-3 they could lose 13-6 and we'd say well it was
better than cash yep but what if they only got seven rounds on the desider
Well, he's got our nuke, Dushka holds off the pistols, and never meant to do much in this one,
Astralis, the economy starting to play against them. This round, nothing but a collection of
kills for Houttu, up 7-3. Money in their back pocket, looking like a great way to try to end off this half.
I wonder if Astralis would have switched back to Ancient after they saw how well they played
Cache in the Vito before.
Could have been just a matter of form on that day.
Yeah, still feels like this Vito could have been them making their jobs harder than it
had to be.
They'll still have Ancient to play up next if they lose this.
not the world of hurt, they had O2 in on cash.
Little variation in their smokes, they've very constantly been going for the standard
wall, this time they throw in the diagonal alternative, but Dushka still keeps the damage
up and man advantage earned, Oxy, Hail Mary jumped down into secret, trying to get ahead
of any rotate, but Misu's here on vent.
Now we watched him absolutely with previously.
Don't let that happen twice.
Oh, damn, whoopsie.
Laser beams him.
Javi's going to lurk out through the squeaky door,
pings the head shot on Kadyo, but dies to the front tails
off that side.
Galil push out through Hutt, denied.
Dushka is having a half now.
Two kills to his name this round, an 11-3 score,
and bomb possession up on that A site to boot.
Another person happy to be off of the cache.
We only got a chance to frag back then.
Yeah, finished cache 3 and 14.
It's the bomb, technically, in a spot that he could plant back site.
No, no, I mean, Dushka.
Dushka leaves.
He's rolling, yeah.
Time doesn't silent drop.
gets the bomb off shot and missed.
Ooh, 18 HP though. Surely they're just gonna fall down.
Yeah, all's good. He gets a little bit of money for his efforts,
so Hooksy makes that happen at least, but round 11 also belongs to Houttu.
Still only a three round T side for Astralis, but they had an advantage in
this one when Hooksy gets that headshot downstairs on single.
They still wanted to just creep out onto the A floor, but you met your maker,
In Dushka, there's one thing for sure, Houttu have been excellent at picking people off on crossing outside.
Like, they've been blowing the smoke open consistently, getting spam damage on the cross,
and even when there's a trade on the other side of the map, they only get one shot there.
Nice shot.
You hit some hard ones, man.
Not gonna happen, Ryu.
Hate to break it to you.
Your point remains true.
Outer belongs to Houttu.
I don't take any damage in return.
It was really just a shooting gallery.
But what you doing there, Jaby?
Hanging out on the 8th floor.
Oh man, Houttu just robbing Astralis
of even a chance it kills here in round 12.
So stellar stuff from the CT side of Houttu at the end, looking like a 9-3-1 half.
The Stralis, they didn't win the pistol, they didn't force buy successfully.
Oh, hey there.
Now let's take a little bit of money, a little insult to injury, but he paints the peak, gets
a second.
He has two kills into this 1v5.
He's got a lot of HP too.
Man, he started this with a knife kill unnecessarily.
All three players jumbled up towards the double doors,
and they'll find his head.
Hell of an effort there, Hooksy, in a 1v5 attempt.
But sure enough, 9-3 the CT side.
Ho-2 hold up at their end of the bargain
in a chance to reclaim this best of three.
Lumi remains posted.
Now no support.
And with the deep information, if they don't disrespect this,
or if they come forward, well, it's actually
come to the point now where his smoke can take over.
He doesn't have to put himself in jeopardy.
through this. Oh my god they're actually gonna come, yeah.
Oh no way!
Double no scope collage!
Oh my god!
Oh my god!
Easy pick up for Navi.
I mean they lapped in the face of this attack.
Fifth player in, it's the only one that gets a kill.
He'll double down, monosy, but he's already down to a quarter HP.
But old habits die hard it looks like.
That's three.
Man, but he only has three health left.
That should be the end of him.
It was only two guys. Yeah, he's gonna use the smoker need to cut off a lexie
Could they mess this up 25 seconds and monasy is seeing red
Must make it happen. Oh my god. Oh, no way, dude
This is a one versus five straight up and he has read it. He's he should have this red with another smoke. Oh
My monasy one fake the nade doesn't come through now
Now he's got enough space to commit to this.
Monacy, a pure 1v5.
And as Ema tries to get out through that smoke,
Monacy's just dodging all these bullets.
He's terrified.
Ema's looking behind him for a push through,
times taking away.
I mean, how could you not be horrified?
Monacy, the prodigy, his piece together,
four frags in this 1v5 ace clutch.
And Ema is on a savor potter, a miracle,
from the magnificent Monacy.
Flames and Dijkster, getting this bomb down is scary. Flames is taking real estate but ends up getting punished.
Liquid hold and they win these fights. Just Dijkster left to get past but he's an iron wall at the back of the site.
Moving around! Kill number three!
Oh! Dijkster!
Make some noise for him! That is incredible!
And you've got JL in wonderful.
It's this fight, JL and one, excuse me.
Very key, fame slips up, getting ever closer.
JL thinking about going to help is wonderful.
Puts that up over to the corner.
That could come back to haunt him.
Tough spot to get the multi-frag.
But the CT's sitting and waiting for a little longer.
Molotov goes to Cade.
The fame waits this long.
This might come back to bite him.
He's got the kit, and that kit could be so key.
You gotta go, VP.
He needs to move.
Bones, Bones, Bones!
Oh, welcome to Wonderland.
They locked down that post plant like it's nothing.
...
...
...
...
...
Rock solid rebuttal from the Houttu camp in the face of domination back on cash.
Astralis and their T side made this job hard for themselves and you know Btramp's brought up
foes and stats fair to bring them up. He winds up being 1 and 10 on the attack and total turn
around from Dushka so that's nice to see from the individual levels of Houttu. Astralis wanted
to play Nuke over a map they win more often in ancient so let's see if this CT side can show
improvements or whether they're going to have to beat O2 on ancient at the end of the day.
It's got to be insane now.
The three T rounds they won were really good attacks that kind of got money screwed after
that one upper rush.
Lost any chances to play back.
Stair gets away with it.
Hides in the corner of main momentarily, executes Mizu and KDO.
Norbert has been stellar.
Let's see if he's got another multi-frag in him.
way through the 1v4 and he dives down towards lower, but it's pre-occupied by Riu.
He's about to get past the site. This is free now. Yeah, Sparedas as well. Riu can just
let it rip, and we've got Astralis successful in step one.
Win the pistol, keep Ho2 at bay, and we'll see how quickly this lead could actually
fizzle out.
Sometimes stairs pistols are terrifying. That is true.
You speak truce.
It's also always scary in that position as a CT when you just want to tuck in.
Yeah, it's like, if the T's clear you, you're a sitting duck.
If you get away with it, you've got to shoot multiple players in the back of the head.
Like, yeah, that's a very close angle.
That's very true.
If you're the guy with the Beretta, it's okay, sure, but he did that with the USP.
So extra respect on stairs name in that.
Now he's going to flex his advantage on the A4 kill Norbert nice and early.
It's really Norbert and Dushka, the driving force of Houttu's lead at the moment.
You know, we didn't get to fleece.
Oh, my god.
We really didn't get to see Ysraos's T-side get tested on Cache.
And that's where they've had some of just the most terrible games, really.
Nice work with the FAMAS, Jabby.
FAMAS Spitfire.
Quite a rare treat to see one of those in the wild.
and it keeps the majority of live Astralis, 4 round game, pistol plus conversion, 4 round
game on the CT side of Nuke, I'm sure they've all been in worse positions than this.
selling jerseys back there
yeah he's uh... damn what's it called
drop shipping
on the side of business yeah
now it's all his fan mail
that mines in there
yeah he never answers though
you know what he love letters i've said this guy is
can't bog them down
Guns in the third round of the T-side here for Houttu.
Haha, that Javi Fommis peak has got them concerned about secret, but there's no defender back there this time.
They'll put up a straight wall of smokes and play two players in front of it.
Just as the main smokes fade, Javi into the action for the one and done.
Nice shot from Kujka on to Hooksy, vent player toppled by Norbert.
And those are the two stars of the show for Houttu coming together yet again.
Fuzzi able to slide into back-site though, welcomes the challenge.
Norbert closes that gap. Flash comes wide and he eats it.
Norbert, blinded by his own teammate, gives Fuzzi a little more time to live.
But Dushka keeps these shots clean.
And he goes to the left. He'll pick that up as well.
Quad kill for Dushka. What a recovery from him from map one to map two.
They were in a spot to easily get all those trades after Gabby's first kill.
skill. That is just an example of individual skill on display for Drushka. How much can
change map to map, man? He was 0 and 8 back on Cache.
He had more kills in the last round of Nuke than all of Cache combined. Thanks, B-Trans.
I don't believe that that Fuzi sign actually lights up.
It doesn't look very...
Usually they're like neon lights, like Robs has one.
Maybe it takes Grand Slam money.
Multiple Grand Slam.
That puts a wrench in the works felt like a pretty big chance there for us draw us. Yeah, especially now that they find themselves limited
economically very low utility
Subpar guns who a triple wall smoke outside into garage
Really gonna have a head scratcher
Fuzzy concerned people are gonna come walking in on him, but
And they use kind of wild because there's two more smokes for the alternative wall there are just no smokes left over now for Hoto
Or take
distraction for Javi's
Norbert exits out through squeaky and constantly on this A site is Norbert
threatening them each step of the way but Hooksies SMG from the top of Hutt's
gonna make the difference this time being able to drop nades is kind of hard
to count them sometimes like on certain maps but here on T side they used at
these five smokes yeah yeah three for the the like kind of walk up into
garage and then two for the standard wall and so like at that point in the
round if you haven't gotten someone into the bench like you can't really go
lower you know like there's just no way to get that plant safely and that kind
reveals your plans, but they weren't just trying to bust down the doors upstairs really
quickly and this is a bounce background for Astralis.
Makes all their money back.
What through your library?
You can pick up a better gun?
I don't think they mind that much if Frontail saves this AK.
It's just a real chance for Astralis to rebound. Remember what they came in with, right?
Pistols, SMGs, or FAMAS. So you leave with three AK-47s? It's not a bad day.
Not a bad day at all.
I like that stare actually started shooting before he had a target it really drew the attention of how to
Yeah, it's up the unbreakable swing. How does something he's very good at a pre firing it just like use a demo
Like if it's through a smoke or whatever just a sense
Smart guy that stare
There it is again
No for the taps finding a
Pitch of damage. Nice control.
Headshots on both of those.
Not able to stop Mizu though from getting into main and that's going to cost Jaby his head.
Stare looking to continue his reign of terror outside.
It's almost got Mizu dead. There we have it.
Dushka has picked up the gun though from that one kill A site.
Hooksie is able to hunt him down.
Unexpectedly pops up off of the hut and we are back to watching Kadyo in a potential safe situation.
And Bomb is in T spawn, so he'd have to go all the way back from where he came.
He'll take the garage duel instead and just offers Astralis a chance at another.
And does Fuzi find an AK?
He's got an M4?
He's got an M4.
But it could have been four guys with AKs on CT side.
Fuzi does not like playing Nuke.
He's 2-13 and averages a 0.6 rating in the last three months.
a pretty bad average. Usually you like maps that you're good at. Yeah. Like if that's
the average, what's his worst map? I'm gonna go look just to kick him while he's down.
With love. Nice guy. Just with love. Very nice guy that Connor's hunting down right
now. I think he's you know he's good at laughing at himself. It's a great way to be. Yeah he's got a
couple point fours in there. Eight watching. 1.46 rating versus focus so he's on the uptrend that
That was his most recent map of Nuke.
13-1.
Until today.
Well, it's not over.
For a foosie it is.
You can't laugh at your own jokes like that.
I thought it was really funny.
Ugh.
Ooh, stair this time.
Empty-handed.
Katie, who's been stuck in the saves,
hacking into dual early,
but not allowed to cross for free.
Hooksie just keeps on clawing these back.
Foosie makes contact versus two players outer, so he's going to see this approach towards him.
What do Ho-2 want to do now that they know they've been spotted in the process?
I do think waiting out this smoke is a good step one.
Well, they won't expect us to die in here, but oh, actually, it doesn't matter.
Hello.
Norbert from the top row, whoosh, got from inside the A site.
20 and 7, Norbert. These guys are monsters. 20 and 7, Norbert. 21 and 7, D'ushka.
Two animals on the side of Houttu.
Trying to push them into victory lane on the second map of the series.
And it's Kadyo who gets exposed on the cross, but he wins the duel regardless.
A little messy from Astros. They let a hot walk out take place and they doubled up the venue behind a smoke.
Not really watching everything.
We will see that.
Last time for Stare to come up.
It's a good peek, but Kyo kills him again.
Nice maid. Interesting spot here.
Oh, okay. Yeah, Norbert figures it out, and four versus twos, where Hoots who find themselves now with plenty of time to slow roll this one.
Not the newt, they thought they had figured out.
Straussler looking like they'll have to dust themselves off and prepare for another ancient outing.
It's a map, they just played Houttu on, another overtime loss.
Gonna hope for their sake they can show improvements.
Hooksy executed from the back end at its five map points on Nuke for Norbert and Ko.
And Norbert and Duska are really just playing their own little mini-game here going back and forth for the top-performing Houttu player.
They've effectively left everybody else in their dust.
I mean, I'm not huge on how many geeks are just, like, individual here for Astralis.
There's no flash over secret for them to peek from there.
There's no head stairs die just solo in the both of the last rounds.
They're allowing clerks out, even though they're taking all these individual fights, so yeah.
I'm gonna have to remember this is Astralis' map deck, but it's looking pretty dysfunctional.
Because you're on T side, you're walking around that side, you're happy if you keep your
gun at 50-55, that's what you're looking for.
not making great use of utility.
Over on the entry, catching you in the corner.
Absolutely on the tear, 24th frag secured by Norbert, but he's also barely standing here.
Dushka is going to take his place and try to surpass him in the dying moments of Astralis' new.
The vent player gets stuffed and at best now it's a tie for Dushka.
Two kills into the round, opens up the A site, hooks these 5-7 vs. 3, gets clocked.
And so a world class out of Norbert and Dushka, absolute beasts that Astralis simply can't
keep up with.
They will have to try and enact revenge on Ancient as the decider of the series or Houttu
eliminate Astralis.
It was uncharted territory between these two teams coming up against each other in Nuke.
And I thought just how strong Astralis looked on Cache, how they were able to come back
bouncing and have answers towards what was such an unprecedented playbook from Houttu.
I was expecting a little bit more now, and I'm not to say that they disappointed, but
I was really thinking that Astralis in the second half or when they got onto it, they
were going to be able to deliver more.
I want to give first credit to Houttu, although it does raise concern for Astralis because
Nuke started really escaping them as last season progressed.
It was one of their, I'd say, home maps for the first couple months, but then as time
went on, their T side win rate began to really fall off.
It was definitely part of the sort of disaster that befell them at Cologne, where they had
one of the worst T side win rates of any team, bar none, even including Stage 1 teams.
So that just doesn't seem like it's been alleviated, sadly.
I think there are some good ideas in mid rounds for Astralis, but I guess it's just that they're
not really as punchy as you would want.
Like one of the only rounds they won was just an A rush, for example.
So you kind of want them to be able to bleed the clock out and have that classic Astralis
feel for the map where they can make things happen.
Yeah, but it didn't even really necessarily feel like their CT side was super strong either.
was still just so much more coming out from Houttu there. And something that has been showing time
and time again is how quick and how aggressive Houttu is. That was something that you really
liked last time we saw them play. And so the fact that it just works wonders in breaking open
Astralis and Nuke is like, okay, this is great. We get to see you guys turn up after winning
literally one round on cash. I do like the aspect of Houttu where they had a variety of setups to
kick off the round. Sometimes I think it was Dushka that would push towards secret early on.
I think Mizu got aggressive outside as well. They still maintain an active defense with people
going up and down the vents and just kind of making it not ever obvious. I think if Houttu played
an extremely standard game where people would just be in the most default spots, Charles has been
around. We probably have worked out, but because you see Houttu decide to sometimes to gamble to
it ramp, like put the off there, put the guy at an off angle, then they can just double
up on those sort of contingency plans after the first pick goes their way.
Yeah, well, I heard too that's what called them, you know, Astralis Soft Guard before
when they played up against and this time around, they're bringing it to Nuke there.
But someone who really showed up that wasn't really showing any presence on the server
beforehand was Dushka, right?
They wanted to know a play.
He was looking fantastic for them and it's nice to see that it wasn't just a one hit wonder
that happened a couple of days ago when we did see Houttu come up against Game of Legion.
He is going to show up again today.
It just took a little bit more time than what we wanted.
Dushka has definitely unlocked the new element for Houttu, especially on their defenses.
The way that he is so mobile around the map, that he takes such a variety of fights and
just sort of has an explosive nature in pockets is, it's really kind of changed the dynamic
for this team.
I'm glad that they decided to try to pick up this up-and-coming talent because he was
not on my radar.
I don't really know or act like I know the tier three Eastern European scene, but if you're going to find gems like this, it does feel at times like Eastern Europe produces these guys on trees, but they're able to find one that is really panning out for them because it's just it's just the dynamism that he brings.
that. Yeah, they're going to
different analogy there like a
diamond in the rough or
something like that. But you're
like, No, there's so many of
them. It's almost what is going
to end up being the juiciest
pair off of that tree because
there are many of pairs that
you get to pick. Exactly. And
I like that they set him up or
allow him to go for so many
different plays. If you were
just a, you know, one trick
just playing the same spot over
swappers positions in mid
with a teammate go for a r
kind of aspects show that
more seasoned than you ge
those just face it demon
they climb in ego is a li
having favorite spot that
in only those. I'm having
as well because they brought
stats and I'm just like y
daddy now. We know he didn
guys, going production.
I mean, the thing is that, yes, he was poor on that cash,
but in the previous matchup on cash,
when they beat Astralis, he was an instrumental factor,
his aggressive nature, and how, that's what,
I mean, oh, we have to look at it again, come on.
Yeah, we get it.
They anti-stratted him a little better this time, okay?
But this Hanuk, it was, again, a display of how
his aggression, his precision in mechanical engagements,
all of that can go toe-to-toe,
at least in an online match versus Astralis.
I mean, someone who was rivaling him,
someone who was also really trying to show up was Norbert.
I mean, this man shows up in interviews.
He's always said he gave us the content
and now he's showing up in the server as well.
It's great to see just what he was able to bring
for the team on Nuke too.
I can't get enough Norbert.
I'm so glad that he has been so...
It's kind of crazy that when watching Houttu,
I think last season, before they got Dushka especially,
It was sort of him and Mizu kind of battling it out
for who's going to be the top fragger.
And Norbert was definitely a specialist
on a couple of maps, overpass being one of them.
So that's probably why he's going to taper off a bit
as an individual.
But you can still see that the experience speaks volumes.
And so many, especially as a situation plays out,
especially in the mid-late round,
just feel like he's the most reliable player
for this Houttu team.
On top of that, I also think that when
he's contested in early mid round sort of engagements,
he's been thriving.
I think that was maybe the one detracting factor
when he finally was benched from Virtus Pro
even after winning the major with them
was that early rounds he sometimes just gets caught off.
I don't see that.
I just don't see that nearly as much for Norbert anymore.
So I'm glad, like that sort of humbling
has given you this second resurgence of Norbert
which is new and improved.
I mean, I saw who also deserves a little bit of a shout out from her to because we've been dropping a little place names
We've been impressed with them time and time again
But someone that we didn't even really talk about the last time too much when they played was front tails
I feel like he was another really like secret hidden piece as well for the side of her to and what they were able to do for the aggression
Yeah, front tails have heard from tall is he's been I'd say in this series
It's been a little bit more of the the Dushka Norbert show, but in the prep that I had going into
Houttu in their earlier matchup in this one, he can he definitely can help run some of the setups
Just making sure that he's reliable actually a surprising amount of clutch factor
But we I haven't really seen that in this series yet or or today
But hopefully in map 3 you get to see just a another glimpse of this guy because
It's not like it's not like there aren't other
other operas from Eastern Europe that are probably going to pop off the page a little
harder than frontalis, but he's just, I think he's just a, he's just a necessary factor
for the team that is probably a little bit more spearheaded by their riflers.
Yeah.
Well, things went working out on cash for them, but things were looking significantly
better on Nuke.
That's how we end up in this position that we're treated to a map number three.
It's going to be ancient just after this break.
We have a map three. We have
ancient Maui and there's a lot
more to go on for this map. You
know, we had that one
interaction between Hoto and
Astralis previously for cash.
We hadn't seen them in recent
times go up against each other
in nuke, but for ancient, not
only have they gone up against
each other three days ago on
this map, but we did see a
Hoto again win it in overtime,
but they have both played it
in David like against other
opponents in Blast Bounty two,
so it seems like a map there,
both significantly comfortable
significantly comfortable on. I would say the win rates aren't really that different either when
you look at how many maps have been played. No you wouldn't really. So how many times the map has
been played. Right. Now I don't think you would really glean too much off of that because even
though Astralis' win rate is worse, usually they're playing slightly higher opposition because
they're at some of the tier one tournaments. So I'd call it a draw, but where it wasn't a draw
was the last time they faced off against each other where Houttu eked it out just like they did
cash, but we saw how the table turns when Astralis are able to download some of that
information.
They're able to figure out more about Houttu, because Houttu have a couple sort of weird
tendencies on this map that I don't think other tier one teams always go for, and they
did catch Astralis off guard.
But one in particular that I noticed when looking back at the footage was how Mizu will
frequently just kind of walk out middle through smokes.
sort of it's sort of a weird sort of gambling play. And I think if Astralis just keep their
eyes trained on that position, then he's going to be in for a world of hurt. But I don't think
there's I think it's going to start on CT actually for Houttu. Yeah, it's a little bit confused
there. I was like, Oh, did I just like miss the cold to go into game? Like this is it. Now,
this is not that you were new costume go. But yeah, that was that was the knife thing. And
Houttu is going to be starting on CT. So does that change a little bit in your mind,
what you feel like it's going to land by half time and who could potentially be
eking out the win if it goes to overtime. So what's concerning about how this game went last
time around was that a lot of the CT side work was done by Cato, a guy we really haven't talked
about for Houttu and he was the highest rated player and he's their B anchor. So that's,
I don't really know if he's going to be able to replicate that kind of stuff. Maybe you get a
a little bit more from some of the other guys, but I personally, personally, I feel like this
is Astralis favorite because of that reason. If I, if I see an in-game leader being the
top fragger in a matchup, that's even more reason for me to believe that the team that
barely, barely lost is probably going to overcome that sort of deficit. Cause I just, you don't
expect the IGLs to frag two, two times in a row. It just, it just doesn't happen very
often unless the name is exertion, I guess.
only what does it like never strikes the same place twice. Maybe it does this time around,
but they couldn't find the magic work for them in the repeat of cash, but maybe the repeat of
ancient is just what Ho Chi need. It could be the solution that it could be. I think just on an
individual level playing like they did back on Nuke. The fact that you've got Norbert and Dushka
putting up as they did, that bodes well. Moving into this next one at least our prediction market
partner in polymarket. Prediction here still skewed Astralis' way, so looks like the people believe
the mostly Dain roster will still be able to pull this series off.
Provided the series is close, I'm always going to go for the team who lost in the rematch.
Very few exceptions, you know, some like super teams, maybe not, but in this situation I think
Astralis learned a ton. I think they're the ones who have the longer conversations following that
series they wouldn't have known that this would be the matchup at that time
when they played it and seeing this map again I mean maybe the veto kind of
works out and strong confidence they'd be able to do better on cash and they
didn't technically win this one last time either but they have a safety net at
the end of the series so maybe not too bad I'm sure they're a little
disappointed in exactly how poor they played nuke because it really didn't show
Is that good of a T side or CT side? Right, but that doesn't change the fact that they know they have the chops on ancient
He opens up
Jaby follows suits man advantage momentarily earned here by the Astralis T side attack and it's an A site with an execute
That was ready to go smoke on the CT lane. Oh, we didn't see that they're right into it
No problem in terms of the bomb plant being contested. We'll stay on board with hook see for a second. That's why me zoo
I love the just extra second of delay there now
He's gonna be able to link up with front tails and try to get through on the donut retake
It's working. Well, they get Ryu dead. Javi's got the answer
But now he finds himself alone versus a one HP me zoo got a kit, but no smoke would have loved that
that. Okay, steps into the duel first. Javi's taken a ton of damage on the reload and they've
got this. Okay, Houttu, I see you. CT pistol retake happens. Love the redirection from
the One Health Mizu all the way back around the bomb site.
They kind of just drained the mag, right? They didn't realize that that would be the
place. I'm scaling up the left side of Donut while he's sort of taking shots. That was
It was very tricky out of Ho, too, and definitely relied on a couple of shots getting missed from Yabi, but this was a tough retake.
And is it the 1HP Mizu on the stick? Ah, I get that. Yeah, he's the push.
Oh, he's the push, right.
1HP headshot execution.
Nah, Mizu's getting chased down by the Maktan, but he'll hold his ground.
And that was a nice distraction from the Red Room player to just send bullets through.
You see it kind of disrupt the Mach 10 chase for a moment.
And I think that helps Mizzou regain vision just slightly more.
So there's been some really nice tethering between the Houttu pieces.
I think that's another small example of it.
In a round where they already have an advantage, now they go up 5v3.
You see Astralis try to get away with the bomb plant, but disrupted every step of the
way.
Can't even find free space nowadays.
Totu aren't given anything over for free. All five members up. That is the most perfect conversion you could have asked for.
Absolutely perfect. That one.
And now you play with Teagles.
How much of a game plan goes into one HE grenade on T side?
Sometimes I think you just buy it out of habit
Where'd it go? You reckon? I tried to chuck it out to catch a
jump out middle
I feel like I don't even tell my IGL I'm buying the frag grenade. I just gonna do it
It's the prettiest office of you could be an AK one day could be
But think of the damage
It's only emotional so far.
I feel like you should only be allowed to buy the frag grenade if you only get a 5-7,
but if you get a Desert Eagle and the frag grenade, that's a little greedy.
I'm saying that the HE grenade is one for the team.
It's one for the team.
You never really do that for yourself.
Unless you want to pad your damage stats.
You know.
I've said no one ever.
Look, he's winning the utility damage fight.
The Deagle's like, alright, I won't my kill.
Yeah, the Nade is, I'm not gonna hit the headshot.
Not everyone should be pro.
They get to their gun round.
It's a bit light on Nades, funnily enough.
And Norbert, a one in Doniz, he tries to extend up through cave.
You sign up for the fights against Jaby, you're gonna pay the price.
He gets Mizu and Norbert this round, big scalps, and even though two of the three Astralis
players are down by half health, we've got this exploration by Kato, going aggressive
through A-Main.
Three on the walk-up, comes down to fake clear, and Kato is actually thinking about burying
himself.
That'll cost him his life.
And there is just an AWP left over and the one on three, I mean.
I'm gonna give this a 0% chance Connor.
Oh, 0 huh?
I give it a 0% chance they just use all their nades correctly.
Oh, they're planning.
He's gonna walk up.
I know, in the open.
Honestly, that's crazy.
What are you covering?
He's holding a more depressed angle for the bomb plant and the only way that that op could
have got the kill and now...
1v3!
There was no way.
Front tails!
I mean, what's Jaby watching?
That was really silly.
I mean, what's jabby watching? That was really silly. That's bad. All you have to do that's naughty
I mean if you're going to take the angle that's less deep sure you bait the op into the shop
But then you have to instant. Yeah, it's an op with nowhere to fall. I
Mean that had to be close to a 0% chance on paper an op and doughnut 1v3
You're always really good at that
You know when you call it when Mohan calls a round over it's usually over. I'm the caster curse
He is pretty rock solid. No, I'd say tongue-in-cheek though because it's like yeah. Oh, yeah, but that one found a way to do that
I mean that one
That's a gut wrenching way for a Charleston throw a 3v1 advantage after jabby puts in all this workout middle
I mean if you did nothing this round besides just playing cup of this
Which, by the way, they don't have to swing donut to even cover that plant.
Front tails doesn't even go for it, right?
Yeah, that jabby knows.
That'll make it feel really silly.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a head puncher.
What about a nice early T-side round win for the Astralis squad?
Instead, they're back to majority pistols down 0-4.
Get an M4 contact from Red Room, player up close gets covered off by front tails.
He's going pistol out for the boozy duel and he's almost got him.
Norbert will come around and secure the kill with the bomb as well out middle so this one
really drying up fast for Astralis.
Yeah, you can have A&B no problem.
you will end up dying as well
is lee royer jankins could be
got to be done to jump into that smoke
do people still know lee royer jankins
i would hope so
i feel like uh... pc gamers should
but it is outdated.
It's our history.
It's our history, you know?
Us, we, the people, the PC players.
Even I, as a console kid who switched over to PC,
went back and found out that lore, you know?
Yeah, like it was like a right of passage.
Yeah, it's like when you discover Counter-Strike
for the first time and you go back
and you watch all the old tournaments.
Like, Ninjas and Pajamas did what?
And you get to bask in the glory of the history of our game.
But it's like the history of PC gaming
is even greater than the history of Counter Strike.
So you better know, believe me,
wow, what a turnaround there from there.
Even in the midst of all those flashbangs.
Rocks Mezhu's world.
Frontales doesn't get vision on his counterpart.
He's right there with his AWP.
He's kept his hidden.
So, you could expect somebody to maybe step into it unexpectedly, but they disengage from that red room contact.
There's actually a lot of space here for Astralis to take over mid with no resistance.
Let's move by Houttu to try to reclaim elsewhere.
We get this push into A main, we get Norbert spamming cave wallbangs, but, I mean, it's not...
It is active enough map, I think.
just because they have this lead on a main plus the op in a barricade spot, but what a shot
by Fousey.
Mm, twice.
Oh man, okay, he's angry from Nuke.
4v2 advanced, I think he's angry from that 1v3.
Yeah, that too, actually.
He says, if you won't cover me, I'll just kill everybody myself.
Javi dead, Fozy trades, that's three kills for the AWP of Astralis, and Dvushka out middle.
Let's him know where he's coming in from, but miss chance here by Ryu, he's going to get chased down.
Wins the duel, they'll fire at his feet, Astralis find their first in the sixth round of play, and they do it thanks to their AWP's triple kill sequence.
I was looking like the bloodshed was not going to end.
I bet some good looks from some new operative, MaxCore, obviously, um,
he had a rough day today, but, yeah, he did have a rough day today, yesterday was great!
probably shouldn't have grabbed a matchup, that was the first one, yeah, he had a 0.59
rating versus phase today, damn, but yesterday,
You know, Counter-Strike, they actually picked a patch up.
It gives it takes and so does mid-control as Mizu walks down and Posi goes from a 3k last round to nothing in this one.
Hmm, in the game of who you would rather be, Frontale's got a line on cave where it basically
doesn't have to move forever.
And it's hooksy this time, not foosy.
Sensing an unbelievable free fire, my goodness.
Two flashes, both doing nothing at all.
Yeah, Frontale's plays in front of it real close and personal with that off.
The lurk is happening though.
That works.
Bomb's on the other side of the map though, but Rio gets the two headshots.
Does that draw everybody? Yes, and they're running. They're running the departure, but they do pause momentarily. Frontail doesn't totally buy it.
Oh, he could walk into the check. Oh my goodness, headshots actually. It's because they threw two flashbangs, right? So if you knew somebody else was there, Ryu ends up fighting a third kill in this round alone.
One man army as he walks out onto the A site. Damn, you're killing everybody. He gives Jaby a health advantage for this 1v1 and so much time.
If Kato is going to get for this retake, I mean, Javi could be anywhere by the time he arrives at this B site.
He's going to give himself one chance to peek, and then now...
How are you going to find Javi?
He repositions to the bomb itself. Javi hears the stomp.
It's bounce, swings wide for the kill.
Javi with excellent shooting into the off of front tails.
Yeah, that was crazy.
Yep. I mean...
Insta-kill.
It's like he said, with the double flash, he wasn't... he was totally ready for it.
The front tails has got a couple of untimely deaths now, that pre-fired boozy in the previous round, and this one.
It's a ballsy walkout from Ryu.
Oh, they had just lost.
Yep.
They just lost a player, so how did he do something?
Makes his move, and it pays off for Astralis, they'll secure a second round.
From a disadvantage, and look what it earns them.
Houttu Stratford Cash, triple pistol, aggressive looking start to the round for Astralis.
And Norbert gives himself a smoke to play around, but the Maktan's spray comes through.
It's all coming up with strollers right now.
I think it's eventually he just gets this kill, plays it kind of perfectly here.
Let's them take over CT spawn.
Yep.
Finds front tails as the smoke fades.
Still within the realm of possibility for a Stralis.
There's nothing too risky.
It's a scout in the backdrop, low HP Mizzou.
Ryu steps into it.
The scout gets the job done and it falls on Javi 1 vs 2 and he didn't even get the plant
off.
And there he's actually, he might get spammed, it depends if he, he's probably going to plant defaults.
Clears out Cave first and foremost, but they gave him a lot of space to get away with this.
Davushka decides not to go with the wall bank.
He will take over Cave silently, has Mizu come and join him, AK in hand, so two rifles from Cave.
I think you almost send him out one at a time in this position, because how would you expect to double up on Cave? I don't know.
He let Mizu go first, low HP, yes.
They pause, wait long enough, and send him outwards.
They've lost track of Jaby, stopping around in the site.
A bit of attention towards this ramp.
They banks on the swing, and Boushka gets his a third kill
in the round.
Houttu pull that off, and it was looking like a straw
is that everything they needed.
But then there's just that sudden decision from Houttu
to run the risk.
They step up into the duels, and they will find a 6-2 CT lead.
The control is so key. It's a 4v5, but I mean this also is just crazy.
He's also got a default and when you have elbow, you can just peek this freely.
I had a chance all the way to the very end. Even the way they played this QG1 was a slow
second peek at a douche guy. If Jabby just decided to talk, it would have been a very
Winning 1v1 for him.
Great timing on this smoke break.
Strauss is making too many mistakes on T side straight up.
And mistakes means that you had a chance, which is kind of the worst part, because you've seen the same pattern from them on Nuke.
And it sort of goes back to that uncertainty Fuzi had in the interview about why things aren't working.
Again, if you have chances...
...letting them all slip by, letting Houttu take this lead and another man advantage in the ninth round of the CT side.
Utility comes over top, but Frontale's ready for the ramp contact. You'll get blinded in the process.
Nice spam through from Norbert. Oh, keeps that out put up, but the quick push from Ryu, that'll catch him off guard.
Kato's position from inside of K, finds one with a Nade out.
While the other player is planting, Jaby sticks around towards cave control. He's got another 1v1 incoming.
There's two separate duels from both sides of cave, and a stroll is coming out on top only momentarily.
Kato's trade back, opened a door for Fuzi to reposition, gets back off short.
And you can see the CT uncertain as to where this last terrorist got off to.
Bomb is planted for long side.
Fuzi doesn't show his hand.
He's got a peek long as well, Kato.
Five second defuse down to the last second!
Oh, he got it!
What, he got it?
Lucy comes in late, but it's a round win for Ho-Too!
Oh, no.
Just a straight-up miscalculation on a five-second stick.
I mean, the players, they're losing these rounds.
Let another one slip wide, aren't you?
Like, how many chances are you supposed to get, really?
That's another clutch that could have been in the bag.
Some gut wrenching round losses coming out of the Astralis squad and they're running
out of chances on the attack.
Boost outside of the B site, something fresh for Fuzi.
They've had front tails looking for the duel on ramp last round.
This time they need Kato with the rifle.
He'll be the first casualty, but it's immense amounts of damage for Astralis to have to handle.
They've actually done such a good job of killing Kato in this game, who's put himself in good spots.
They're getting 5v4s a lot, those 5v4s haven't been very meaningful.
They've shown they can actually lose any position.
Single A site defender right now inside of Donut, it's all co2- oh my goodness.
And remember all that early damage from the B site?
Yeah.
What's left of a shawless is barely standing.
Even if you put a smoke up, you'd think a spam throw could cost you.
Sure enough, front tails, clips, jabby in the backdrop, foosie.
This is a 1v3 asked of him.
As rounds are whittling away here, he'll attempt it at the CT Laney, knows you're there!
Fuzi with the headshots!
A single player left at Mizzou!
He gets them all!
Fuzi with the smirk as he clutches a critical, much-needed round in a sea of missed opportunities.
He doesn't let that one slide by.
I almost want to call that one a lose-ball for a Houttu, but it's so crispy out of Fuzi.
He had nowhere to strafe, I mean.
I mean, mentally, Astralis needed this after the amount of rounds that have skated by.
It's only a third for them here on T side, but it also puts Houttu in a very compromised
spot.
This opens up a real opportunity to still finish with five.
Back into the simple beat execute number strong 5-7 in the smoke gets denied hooks. He's able to catch that jump up
Last time it was Drushka with the jump up from middle that caught bodies on the lane and cost the strollers the round this time
They just go through forcibly
Find those five sevens and keep all five members up for the time being they'll pause
Watch smokes, make sure things don't get weird with only two players left for Houttu.
I have a 60 damage deagle shot.
Look, Frontale's not giving it a chance to leave. Nice shot from Stare, a good close from Astralis,
and a real chance now to make something happen at the very, very end of this T side.
What was a 5-0 start for Houttu could still wind up being a 5-round half for Astralis.
I don't know if that makes you even more upset, like the only thing that can walk away at the salt now at this point is just winning the map because, my goodness, they left a lot on the table here on T side.
Oh yeah, they're trying to make amends, getting five, be the best they can do, but again, you look at the money and they set it up off that foosy clutch.
I'm going to channel the power of positivity right now.
Mr. Consistent, Stare hasn't had a tournament rated worse than 1.0 since IAM Chengdu 2025.
Can he step it up to preserve the streak?
Oh, now you're asking questions, Antrim.
I thought you were a statement guy.
But it's a valid question.
I mean, Vitality did just miss their first playoff since adding rops.
I think they lost to the best team at the event.
You know, you beat Vitality, we're all shocked.
You can just follow up the floor with G2, after their clone.
Call me a fan. JT, be a liege, whisperer.
I feel like your everyday be exact now.
You know you're dressed up against this wall, that pump, a part of the action, Javi?
Ooh, only a one and done.
Davushka gets man advantage secured but barely look at the health that's left of
Houttu's B site man they have a flank on elbow and alert that could potentially
die and they hear the drop oh you catch the player in the background also
unprepared stairs gonna have to create space here for that bomb to move towards
a barely any time left over but a shrawl is get away with the plant
over trying to chase it down stairs up those two B players Davushka is working
with 5 points of health and a 1 vs 2, and Fuzzi's off, hard on the line, misses his chance and
so this 5 HP clutch starts to come together, but blindsided by Stare, who finds his impact
in the very dying moments of this half. 3k in the last round, 2 in the prior, only 6
kills for his T side, Astralis underway with their recovery.
I don't feel like I'm annoyed by anyone, anything and anyone kind of in my life so I would say
that there's nothing at all.
Yeah, I wish I could teleport, you know, so I don't have to travel all the places, you
know, it'll be nice to trip teleport, you know.
My mask on when someone is touching it, I feel like, let's say, glass of water or something,
and even my cat is jumping on it, I don't like it.
Currently in life, it just makes me just people, I just hate people.
What makes me really grumpy and annoyed is when people are in the plane, they'd be
I knew they want to exit quicker than you so they just push you obviously people
in a hurry all the time and I thought then you're such a stand in the middle
of nowhere looking at your phone doing nothing again that kind of stuff you
will be out of the plane in five seconds more but stop pushing everyone like
everyone just stands up and are just so focused on getting out of the plane
while they still have to wait anywhere a bit so it's not like they're gonna be
just ten seconds gonna make you wait in life so just chill me if I have like
The early fight, like 6am or something, I tried to go to sleep but I had to wake up at 3am
and the whole day feels like ruined because you have to wake up early and then you're
like in the zombie mode the whole day pretty much.
Some of the most annoying is obviously losing your luggage.
I think more than I have fingers on my hand to be honest, I think I have lost it too many times in my career.
Definitely haven't been delayed like for media days and stuff and then I didn't have like
curses and stuff with me so I actually used the same curses for like 6 days and it becomes
very nice scene. So I would rather travel to a place that is too hot. I hate cold.
If it's a little bit colder I usually don't mind it but if it's plus extra wind then I don't like it.
I think the coldest location so far has been Sweden compared to Denmark. It's like pretty much the
same but that doesn't mean that I like it. So I stay inside because I became good at playing video games.
It's pretty cold with the variety already so unless it's summer then there's not that warm
So I like to travel where it's warm, right?
So when it's two o'clock, when we've been, for example,
to, like, a rehab for EWC, like, it's hovered outside.
It's like 45 degrees minimum.
It's not possible to breathe or whatever.
I've been to places at minus 10, minus 20, minus 25.
That was not a pleasure to be there,
but that was a bit easier if you have good clothing for that.
So I would say, let's be honest, many days are really annoying.
I had seven times that I went for three hours of media and then I was doing only things for maybe 20 minutes.
It's not like media is making me mad, I feel like this wasting of time is maybe taking me a little bit of the edge, you know, there.
It's normal, you have to ask busy questions, but it's always the same question.
How do you feel about the game? Why did you win this map? Why do you feel like that's wrong? Why do you want from events?
You know, blah blah blah blah. It's always the same question, so sometimes it's been a bit boring.
After you've done it like 50 times, it's kinda like, yeah, okay, let me just do it again, you know, like, crush your arms, take a photo, yeah, like, so, yeah.
And then he's like, come on, please, leave me alone. You know everything about me now. It's over.
We were worried there'd be no lifeline, but a small blip on the radar from Astralis at the end of that attack, a sequence of round wins that could lead you to believe...
They might still do this. They'll switch over to the CT side, but Houttu have been hot-handed,
and the majority of their team contributing to this third map potential wins. So, let's
see what happens with the two-round difference. Now, Houttu's T-side under question, opening
Gambit by Fusey towards a main. Signing up for the fight versus Duska, he disengages
with nothing but a health advantage. I mean, still getting these five rounds has got to
be something positive. Okay, back to struggles. It's a pretty fair-looking map.
O2 just holding onto elbow control for now.
The CTs will win in mid and that's not a small victory.
Let's open up some very good rotations over to Wurthby.
Some more good info.
I don't know if they're just going to push them forward into the exact butt.
I kind of know they've given up a lot.
Now with the utility here, but it looks he falls back into the fire, still that smoke
on the ramp. They're going to wait down to the dying moments, or at least just let those
Cade players take first contact. They're taking a ton of damage on the approach. Here we go.
Ho-two through, but Nizu's head gets popped. Norbert's dead. Clean shooting from the defense
out of Astralis. They get that info with the Fuzi climb up, so everybody's on high alert,
and Astralis quickly cut that lead down to one round.
Really good round from Fuzi in terms of his timings, and didn't even have to finish off
any kills just knew that it was be eventually got over there that certainly
made the difference I thought that a straws given up all those clutches and
great-looking rounds and still can tie this game up and put themselves in a
winning spot is it's pretty massive it's looking to the future of this event for
them that just they gotta clean up those two sides and it's like it's really
fundamental. It really has nothing to do with the maps. That 3v1 versus the op? Oh my goodness.
I mean you can see from the reactions of Jaby and Fuzi who were both left in that moment,
like they were both beating themselves up.
Professional players, it's like that. It's just crazy.
No one likes to feel like an idiot. It's the kind of situation that you just earcrush.
See ya! MP9's make a ton of cash. It's the two criminals in Fuzi and Jaby that go ahead and
mop up so game tied at seven rounds all I don't know I called them criminals
yeah I was wondering how it's cuz they were the two guys they messed up in that
slant attempts yeah but as far as I know they don't have crooks as far as I
know they are law-abiding citizens so I take it back and Astral is gonna call a
timeout after the round win just to make sure things are ironed out before this
This game gets back underway, really burning through them.
That kind of makes sense after that first half.
Yeah.
It's fun though, because obviously at Bounty, coaches are allowed to talk all the time,
not just in the timeouts.
You think that would help the team to have world-classed coaches?
But Hoaxie wants a little extra second here, so you can have it, Hoaxie.
So we anticipate Houttu's first gun round.
The odds started, or the likelihood, started with the Charlottes as the favorites.
They hang on to that slight edge as we are tied up map three.
Wild push.
MP9 is actually making a massive amount of space.
3MP9s at...ooh, this is a disaster.
Could be recovered.
Kato playing around the block.
And I like that Jabby gets friskied.
But look at this, player top red.
Almost catches Steroff.
Oh, he will.
Mizu rips it back around.
Oh, what's happened here?
Astralis have just unraveled out middle as Jabby thought he had mid control under wraps
and Mizu from out of nowhere finds the multi-kill.
Look at the HP bars. Very low here for Houttu.
B site's gonna be found totally vacant.
I can't believe he gets away with those two kills and still able to escape over towards Elbow.
Find a nice launch point to get out of there.
Oh, and just like that, it's like, do you even try the retake?
I wonder if they just needed to double down the aggression instead of falling out of that, but...
Maybe Javi wasn't in the spot to close it on Elbow as quickly.
It was ultimately 3 MP9s for Astralis and I think that's why we have players who are
just low and not dead.
Fair.
A little bonus round moment, but they did let a situation go where I think it was Houtu
who are scared. This explains why the last one went to overtime.
There's a brave A main push that gets traded back instantly. This means you turn though
towards bottom middle. Oh, just enough. And yeah, that really is a battle of two weapons
on uneven ground.
Maybe the rifle in that spot should just be wider, you know.
But also AK bests the MP9, Javi can't get the trade frag at that distance. And Ho-2
pull ahead off of it. But it was a bonus round for Astralis as they still had all those SMGs.
So they will bounce back with real guns in this one.
Fuzi's AWP included.
Oh, two, one step closer to victory.
to
get a second break this open forum but it will create a good opportunity
out of Fuzi and it had to be two-spotted.
Excellent map now, slowly racking it up.
He is 17 and 9.
Leaps and bounds better than he was able to perform back on Nuke.
Javi slips out.
I see these nades now.
I call in some support.
Trying to get back out of Temple off that teammate's blast.
But the fire keeps him in there.
Fuzi picks up the angle so they're not
able to take that corner of the bomb site.
O2 instead, left to just fall back through Donut.
You gotta believe in this retake.
Y'all, if you're a Stralis,
they've just dumped all their utility.
It's real with the one kit.
We'll keep an eye on that if it comes down to the wire,
but it is a lot of players in position early.
They don't have a smoke either, just that Molly.
Fire doesn't quite reach Norbert.
Flash finds front tails.
That turns him from the engagement.
Norbert's just looking to keep his head down.
Fuzi's his first victim and is only victim at that.
Hooks, he trades from the back of site.
Kato's drawing attention up into Donut
And it is a very good retake from Astralis.
They'll stick that 10-second defuse to tie the game at 8.
They got themselves collected on the perimeter of the site
very quickly, and then everybody's
coming through with conviction for Astralis.
I mean, you've got to believe they make that much progress,
that early in the retake.
Plus, they get their kill, like, you should be winning that.
Honestly, on CT side.
And that shot is absolutely ridiculous.
That a foosie.
Saved enough on the previous to get another buy-in, Ho-2.
Try to jump on Mizzou with the double headshot, rips through the utility, finds CT is trying
to take forward positions and 5v3 for Ho-2 instantly this round.
Twice now he's gotten multi kills out of these early mid plays.
Once was it sneaky, this time it's brave.
Stop and get approached though, Hooksy trying to avoid getting too locked in with what he
knows to be an outnumbered position.
He's just straight up infowin' three players.
Mizo gets cleared out of Red Room, that opens the door for Fuzzi to rotate back over to
to try to help Hooksy as needed.
And Jaby slots in bottom middle.
Hooksy left a long time before.
It doesn't make sense to go here again.
Let's just want to go right away.
Missed off shot.
Jaby, however, drops the bomb.
Hooksy picks up a headshot.
Now it's man advantage Astralis.
But a ton of damage stomach in the middle of all those tools
means Dushka is able to even it out,
and front tails catches that mid-lurk.
The climb up gets punished.
Fuzzi sent back into a clutch, 65 HP V2.
He should just try to run the bomb down.
He knows one's going to be super late here.
Trying to close that distance, but doesn't
want to give away his position.
Front tails off of the box.
Oh, finds the headshot over the site box.
And we go Houttu to the lead, 9-8.
Man, it didn't feel like Houttu were going to win that round
trying to go B. They had shown Hooksy three players
outside of it, even though they had
man advantage, the rotations were there.
Two more mistakes out of the strongest,
the way they approach from mid, the player dead through a cave dual, one on one in the
back of the site.
This might be oversimplifying it, but I feel like getting into good positions is Hooksy's job.
Converting winning positions is like more of his team's job in terms of their chemistry.
Because that's when it just becomes so fundamental, you know, like, don't make mistakes.
Fair way to frame it.
They're finding all kinds of good starts.
The
big red bull.
only six rounds left
went over time last time actually
fair that is totally fair he's preparing
for the time beyond regulation
got angry
who's he is eighteen and seven since the a-site incident
in around four out of the
you can use the one planting right
Yes, yeah, he was one planting, Jaby was one, not covering.
Brave move, Hooksy.
I thought he was going to get away with it, but Norbert senses the positioning and establishes a Ho-2 man advantage.
Teeside already in the lead.
Fuzi very much locked in to cut out in middle, anticipating this elbow approach.
No reason to approach elbow though. You're just kind of waiting until you, yeah like you might have to trade a position right there.
There it is.
Oh man.
He gives up the angle it looks like.
Still reveal inside of middle. Kind of depends how Ho too want to play this, but that's, you know, good info.
They at least doubled up to retake mid control.
And so they'll actually speed up towards B, which is looking correct.
Yeah, bomb possession's always been on the brink of the site, so just moving it forward.
Stair goes wide with damage, but Norbert wins the duel, his second of the round.
11 HP, the difference here for Houttu's advantage, but bomb planted.
Fozzie trying to cross over quickly, back to the off.
Oh, nice quick scope onto Norbert.
Finishes the job, but Frontales wins the off battle from back site.
And now Ryu on the other side of the map's got to run on over.
If he is going to even chance this retake attempt.
Houttu losing bodies to that climb up from middle, but they still just moving in.
blindside's front tails. There's time to win this but he's got to go. It's going to be a hail
Mary sprint into the bomb site if he really thinks he can. And he's not. He touched tail with that
off instead, saves the sniper and allows for Houttu to go up to double digits. Just so easy to play
time there. And Houttu earned that one but it was again off of info. They sped up towards B after
seeing the duel inside of mid and yeah like Misa goes one for one and teammate dies but that sort
Sort of still just a checkmate maneuver.
Fast jump into the B site, simplifying this one, 0-2 hoping to get away with it, but it's costly already, now a 3v5.
Norbert's SMG collects, there's damage done from Pisco's low health on everybody, and Jaby and Stare collect.
You try to skip the protocols, rush the process, you pay the piper, it's a straw-less back to a one-round game.
game. Look like some great counter you tell there. The Flash has worked out very well
versus that oncoming B attack. They wanted that one to be quick and easy. They ran right
into a stack. Yeah, what you want and what you get. Two different things in the face
of this B site. Utility in the middle of that is Stare blows Mizu out of the round. Tough
kill to swallow if you're Houttu, but that was your decision. And look where it leaves
the majority pistols back for the T side. We talked about how much Astralis
missed in the first half, the chances that slipped by. Well here's another one
where they've got the advantage. Seize the moment, Astralis. They'll pick up
man advantage to start off, Stare, looking to tether off with a cave player.
It's gonna be Hooksy to swing through, trade out Stare as he is the victim of
the Desert Eagle, but a comfortable position now over top of Houttu, so
Astralis just start to peel back very composed play. They're not over swinging from stair, but off the little
HE made
Going for another peak
24 HP left here for Houtzu.
Jabby not blinded by the flash, so he'll give the cover needed.
Kato just looking to scoop up extra tools for the job.
That's a hell of a headshot.
He can run to the A site.
It's a Hail Mary moment as the Stralis comes sprinting over to try to interrupt him.
10 HP.
Yep.
This would be a 24 health, 2v4.
Kato, it's going to have to be magical, he's already there, he hits the dink.
If only it was an AK, not the Galil, Jabby will survive it and Stralis tie this game
up off of Houttu trying to rush that B site hit a couple of rounds ago.
It has opened the door for a tied game once again.
I wonder if Norbert's were getting that call, obviously doing it versus an anti-eco could have been a game-closer.
I think when you play all these drawn-out T rounds, you just want to take a break at some point, throw in a sast one.
Just didn't want to risk it when there were full guns.
Extra issue here for Houttu is it's left them on pistols losing this round.
So you really presented a strawless, a golden ticket to try to take this lead back.
It just feels like though, a strawless, they only start playing well as soon as they start losing again.
Then they catch up, then they kind of blow their position. It feels very mental.
It's all up here, which we like to say.
It's all up here.
I'm trying to leave it all out there.
Houttu sprints out into the mid-play, Mizu dead first and foremost.
He has gotten value out of these aggressive mid openings,
but in a round where he has so little, no surprise to see him get locked up.
Excuse me, I got the hiccups.
Again, Jabby and Stare just piecing together an easy a-hold in the face of an ill-equipped Houttu.
That's the last one, beauty of a round out of stare, they're on the hold, no bomb plant
to worry about, and again, it's all up here.
If you're a straws in the spot normally, give you 11-10 CT side all the money, an extra
chance to lose. But just with some of the scar tissue in the series, you know, you're
thinking, you're also thinking you're worried about mistakes. But Norbert's got his own
troubles. He is losing. He is on T side. And even though they have played some good rounds
here on T side, that's never easy on each end. It feels kind of, I feel like in their
mind, it feels kind of gambling to go for mid control. They haven't consistently wanted.
can bring them a lot of success.
I think no matter what he does mentally here,
it's gonna feel like a big risk.
It'll be the default towards taking a Dave control again, which has been one of their
better rounds.
Ouch.
Good Nate damage to kick this off into elbow. They're trying to boost up to get vision on the jump and they pay the price for it
It's not a casualty, but it's also not a comfortable start for Houttu now little jiggle in the cave
Hooks he sees what he has to drops his smoke in response
It's three CT smokes burned by a minute 20
Oh, Jaby, though, deep push, the turn, and he cleans up what the grenades got started.
Great cover to the top of the ledge, too.
Astralis flexing it with the rifles.
Front tails on the recovery.
He gets the upgrade, but they're not going to anticipate an off-down ramp at all.
Fuzzi's got a lot of map control to his name.
Norbert with a massive task, 1v4 to stave off Astralis' 12.
Not going to happen.
And Astralis can sense these chances and do not want to let any more of them slip by.
That was them taking control of the round on their terms from the very beginning with
those smokes, the early frag grenade damage.
It is two map and match points earned by Astralis.
Take a look at the kills here.
Javi's on 25, Boozie's on 21.
Like they, stairs actually had some really strong rounds.
I mean, everywhere they're playing as well, extremely active positions.
This is the round they were hoping for with the double HEs, the push down mid.
Late mid control take from Ho2, doesn't work out, and you can see that, like, that was
really torturing Norbert to think about what do we do next.
That idea doesn't work, the last time that will be used.
And this could be a curtain call for a team that has really impressed us at this event
so far.
And a team that's been doing great in the online realms of Counter Strike.
Yeah.
You think this first stage...
Yep, for sure.
Yep.
And beating Astralis.
This first stage of bounty would have bowed real well for Houttu.
And when you see them get dismantled on cash at the start of the series,
you think they wouldn't have had a fight, but they did bring it back to the brink of this decider.
But truly, you go back into this game and Astralis should have won a long time ago if they could get to 12 now.
So now all they've got to do is actually close and there's a first kill.
That helps.
Yet again, an opening move for Astralis out in the middle that Nets man advantage.
Boozie's just looking to lock down the ramp.
He'll hit his shot onto Kato.
Maktan's trying to close that gap.
AK here for Riu.
Ready for the site swing.
Flash finds his target.
Tooks, he sets them up to try to close this.
It's a Mizu clutch demanded of him.
And as he swaps out guns, they'll know exactly what he's up to.
Sends a shot through the smoke, and Astralis
earn a spot in the playoffs.
Sure, a smashing affair back on cash.
But new catch you worried for this Danish core.
An excellent recovery on an ancient game that like you said could have ended far sooner.
Still, Astralis survived it and make top 8 at Mountie.
A top 8 for Astralis, it feels like they're back where they belong, Maui.
And I mean, there might have been gathers out there, but you were not one of them.
You had full faith you said Astralis should have the edge in ancient,
and they did. They were able to win the two maps on the run back that they had previously lost against Houttuyn.
It's just the just the law that keeps on proving self-evidence
The rematch is gonna favor the team that barely lost it
Astralis though, I'm gonna say this was a pretty gritty map of CS a lot of rounds came down to some pretty fine
margins close moments, but gosh
I mean Yabbi is stealing the show in this season so far
I can't believe every time this guy is tasked with a 50-50 fight
He's coming out on top and he's even bailing out a straws in numerous situations
Yeah, I feel like if you put him in a 50-50 it's actually more like an 80-20 in his favor there
But I do have a couple of questions about the T side of both of these teams where it felt like sorry
Fusey just give me a jump scare there
But yeah T side for both these teams like why he felt it was weak
It was that just a props to how strong they see T side or why weren't they able to get a little bit more going?
so I always feel like
Ancient kind of works in a mysterious ways where one key piece of utility can sort of shift the balance to CT or T
I didn't really see any of the T teams take other than I well
There were a couple moments for both teams, but it was mostly CT favored in mid
that's kind of the the main point of emphasis of course for the map and
We even saw how desperate
Mizzou and Houttu were to get into that action towards middle that they took a totally blind risk on round 22
to just jump through maybe 23 actually where they just jump through the elbow smoke with practically no setup
That was something I was really worried about because they got away with it in that matchup for the other close
qualifier that these teams played against each other and
That's what I said like you you've got to be worried about their little tricks. Astralis definitely were they kept their eyes completely trained
I think it was yabby who was actually the beneficiary when they press him through that smoke
he just got two easy kills and they just aren't going to get caught by the same tricks twice.
That's what Astralis proved today. Is there any unsung hero on the side of Astralis? Because
you have to be someone that we have propped up and rightly so. You know, he's looked fantastic
across all the maps, even Nuke when they didn't end up winning their map pick there. But for
Ancient specifically, is there another player that you loved that they were able to bring back for
Astralis? Stare had a lot of impactful moments, even though I don't think by the end of it,
scoreline was that great. A lot of the future of Astralis really depends on him to be an impactful
player. I don't know what kind of voodoo sorcery magic this guy produces, but his round swing is
always ridiculously good, even though he doesn't always put up the most, I would say the highest
quantity of frags. And that just kind of is a testament to the sort of soldier he's been for
Astralis for years now, where he does the dirty jobs, he did them so well that he got the call-ups
to all the star positions, and he's not necessarily going to put up 110 ADR or some
donk type numbers, but in terms of impact, he needs to be that guy for them, and he frequently is.
I mean, you don't have to put up those numbers if you're still able to get those wins. If you're
still able to look like a solid team there and hurt you for a while, they were looking strong
on ancient, unfortunately, not able to close it out. So that running blast bounty ends here.
We could talk about them in a moment because right now what's ready and waiting for us is,
is of course the new coach of Australia, someone who's making this magic work.
Nia, thank you so much for joining us and congratulations.
How proud are you of not only yourself, but the boys as well to make it to Molta?
Thank you. I mean, I'm very proud.
We just lost to these guys a couple of days ago.
So it's really nice that we managed to learn on some of the mistakes that we've made in the past and we won the game.
What's up?
Oh, you go.
No, no.
Okay.
I wanted to say, yeah, online broadcasts.
I mean, okay.
So, you know, I wanted to say that when you joined Faze,
I remember you were kind of, it was your first time really getting a big coaching gig.
You sat back a little bit more, saw what needed to be changed,
and then you were able to find ways to have your influence.
How quickly with Astralis did you jump in and recognize
or just leave your impressions with the teams
or leave your fingerprints on it.
I mean, it's kind of a similar situation
when you join the team with already full lineup.
It's the same kind of thing.
They have their own ways of playing the game.
I think it takes time to understand a lot of it
and then you can jump in
and have some more impact to it.
I mean, I've been trying to study them as fast
as possible as the season just started
and it's quite intense.
So yeah, there's plenty of work for sure,
but it's always been, and that's just part of the game.
Another question I have is then just,
how it is working with somebody like Hooksy
come compared to Kerrigan?
I mean, I know they're both Danish,
but did the comparison stop there?
I would say so.
Every IGL, every person is different to some degree.
they work in different ways. So, yeah, getting onto the same page with Fuxi and, you know,
trying to work on our workflow, everything takes time. But yeah, for sure, it's different
personalities.
I do also need to just quickly follow up. You're saying that, you know, you lost to
Houttu just a couple of days ago. I want to know, you didn't know that you were going
up against them until what was it like less than 24 hours ago? So then what was the prep
that was specifically focused on Houttu? So you didn't fall into that trap of cash and
ancient again?
I think we expected that they felt confident after winning against us. So we knew most
likely what it's going to be. So they seem to have a pretty tight schedule themselves.
So we knew there's not many things that can change in their game, and we're still learning
the map, talking about cash, obviously.
So it's easier for us to implement new things on the fly, as it's work in progress.
So not gonna lie, we got kind of scared that we're gonna play them again.
It's uncomfortable enemies, but yeah, it is what it is.
I mean, I feel you don't have to be scared anymore. We'll see you guys in Maltenia. Congratulations, and thank you for joining us.
Thank you.
I like it. There was a little bit of worry. They knew, yeah, it's most likely gonna happen, but are we gonna come out on top?
Bro, 13-1 on cash. You're able to close it out strongly on ancient. You're not needing overtime.
Either time on those two map run backs. I feel like that's gonna learn a lot from Nuke as well.
So if anything, this is just overall massive growth for Astralis coming into, you know, at minimum a top 8 finish.
I don't think they would have wanted anything different to happen regarding the recent performance and how it then matriculated into them really winning here where they actually are able to secure a spot on land.
I feel like the stakes in this game in some ways can be seen as higher.
So that's really nice for them.
And I like that I like I like news responses.
I like I like that he's a way he's just finding little bits of impact
and how he kind of read the match up as a whole.
Yeah, a lot of insight coming out from near the coach of Astralis there.
But we're going to get some more insight leaning into our next matchup.
I got to speak to exertion from Maaz just before they came up against focus.
Excession, I want to know how Sacron and Zipnix sort of influence your calling or if they don't influence your calling at all?
It's a good question. I would say my philosophy in CS even before I became an IGL is a lot based on my coach, Sacron.
Of course Zipnix helped me a lot when he joined, but I think he is more focused on the micro details, some small things.
But my overall vision of CS is a lot down to Cyclone, as I've known him for so long.
He basically taught me how to play proper CS, I like to call it.
And I think I adjust my flashiness and my fast thinking in the game.
But I would definitely say that Cyclone has by far the highest impact on how I play and how I call as a player.
And how much has changed your approach bringing in new players?
Do you feel like there has to be a different way in which you call?
or things actually feeling quite natural?
Well, I would say that since I took over the IGL role, I've always been very micromanaging if needed.
I make sure everyone understands the strategy first so that they can also add their own flair to their own, I like to call it.
But at the same time, if I feel like it's not done, I will also call for them.
So having new players is difficult because basically every one or two weeks I've had to spend, I don't know, five, six hours with the player.
if it was Brolan, JL, and now PR as well, and of course Alex when we brought him in to actually
get him to understand the system, so I've been putting a lot of work. Definitely it's not easy,
I think this time was a bit harder because it was the third time with PR that I have to go over
the same things on the same positions with a different player, but I think he's doing a really
good job at adapting to the system we have, so I would say that definitely it's a bit different
now to call them when we had the problem or jail for example but I think that it's a good thing
to have a mix up it means that PR gives us something that the others didn't probably.
I mean you're first showing as a team with really great against nuclear tigers so do you
feel that you finally have the right balance of experience in young talent?
Oh I see it's too early to say if we have the right balance but I think our team right now is
operating the best it had in the last seven months. I think the beginning of
2026 was rough, which is why we decided to make the roster change as well. So we
are feeling really good right now how the team is, the vibe. I think we're all
putting in a lot of hours in the game right now. So definitely it is showing
off, but as you can see with other teams there is definitely the early season
rust, like Vitality losing or Falcons. I think Spirit almost lost to OG. So for
lost yesterday, there is a lot of things going on. It was to be anticipated. Of course I didn't
expect all of these teams to lose already but at the same time you can never underestimate
opponents online. These players we play with basically play online all the time so you really
need to be sharp and understand that it's a little bit of a different game and hopefully
we'll be ready to take on also Focus today.
Another big name organization looking to not get eliminated early here at the bounty presented by Polymarket, where the predictions have Maus as the favorite in this one. Understandably again, big name going into this game, but focus of Look Sharp, and they're looking to eliminate every single one of their ex teammates here, so you better be careful because ZTR is at the helm of another promising project.
Definitely. I am a big banjo guy.
Yeah, banjo Academy League banjo. Name one banjo player.
Damn it. Gotcha.
Damn it. Can you? No.
No, I can't actually. Anyone. Someone can. My grandpa used to play the banjo.
But that's because I'm from the sticks.
I
Feel like banjo isn't and I wonder where
I'd love to know the etymology of his name, but either way probably Kazooie
To jump for that I think oh that oh my god
Yeah, that I guess I gotta be player maybe not if you had an older brother though. Okay. Yeah, you know what I'm thinking
It's the classic Counter Strike players tail. They all have older brothers or else
They don't play Counter Strike to begin with that's right
You remember is watching his brother play that old banjo kawatsis on the n60 who ha
and well now here he is professional counter strike player in the hopes of
eliminating mouse but I like mouse in their first outing those are pretty
serious looking team I like PR mouse I like the level of aggression that they
started to tap into here you know in a way it's kind of like I find like a
parallel at the moment between mouse and liquid where math lie has been looking
good because he's got all these aggressive players in the front that
him kind of do his thing and that formula you could apply now to Spinks as
Well, in mouse, he's very clearly, you know, given, I would hope, a little more of his lurky style that he used to get up into.
That's how I picture this mouse formula working as time goes on.
It's a fast and explosive team, definitely, and, yeah, PR, I mean, you reckon this would be a fun day for him, right?
I would think so.
Yeah, no, I think, I do think mouse win this. I don't think they get upset by focus.
I think that CTR might put the pencil to the paper and on, you know, in a strategic way,
maybe kind of test mouse here and there, but I think on an individual level, mouse or confidence
squad at the moment.
CTR, someone who's also grown so much over the years, his style and had to bounce around
on teams absolutely, but has improved a ton.
And I feel like we'll bring an exciting game plan to like a mismatch to playing a very
strong team that they wouldn't normally see.
But you couldn't tell from exertion.
Like they're thinking, they're very taking focus very seriously.
I think they take everything very seriously, to be honest.
Yup.
All the interviews from him, it's like, there's no banter whatsoever, it's just, here's
what we're working on, here's what we're good at.
to the team PR.
I think anybody who kind of takes the reins over at Maus
nowadays has a big chip on their shoulder.
We're talking about a team that was in how many semi-finals,
grand finals, deep playoff runs, you know,
there was a real accomplishment in that year.
And obviously over like
stuck in the shadows of vitality at the time.
It's like that Maus team in a different year
could have actually been the team winning all the trophies.
But you had that version of vitality in front of you.
It's a shame, however, for them that nowadays, very different-looking Maus.
You know, you get a vitality that's tapering off.
You get an open door where there's inconsistencies in the top teams, like Falcons and Furia.
It should be a great time for Maus to be in that conversation again, but obviously a lot of moving parts,
and they're not there yet.
It almost feels like this team could end up being, like, more popular than their last iterations,
but also weaker in terms of, like, what players they have.
like they then agree they shared a tournament window with vitality that's a curse yes everyone's
going to be trying to be as good as they can as fast they possibly can and falcons in spirit and
mouset everyone was trying to do it but vitality were the king so they just they took everything
and but since they missed that window it's not like they've made bad moves i think
you know it's weird it's because we're both excited about these moves but they also look like
moves you have to be patient with and you pretty much have to see PR become now like
maybe a top 15 player for this year or something for like mouse to get some crazy results out
of it.
Right.
And it's asking a lot from him.
It's something you could definitely see in his future.
Absolutely.
PR has the capability from what we've seen.
Never make him see like, you never see him make like a silly move.
He's so good at multis.
He's sharp mechanically, but also, it's not like a scream situation, you know, like he's got the brains behind it.
He's got the composure as well.
And you know what, maybe they have the support structure, the perfect team in terms of Cyclone and ZipX.
That's what I'm thinking, to bring it out of them.
To let him take it to the next level, because PR was just better than his teammates back on Gamer Legion.
You got hard hitting mouse players that can maybe give him a run for the number one on
this team.
And like you said, the support staff at mouse, I believe in it.
Very good structure over there.
They brought PR home.
So here we go.
Mouse vs. Focus begins on Dust 2 and it begins with the Catwalk contact for Matthias.
Opening kill into the Barrettas, but he never hits the ground
and Zelex and Torsi are going to tap players out of this.
Oh, quad kill for Zelex.
Take a quick bow, buddy.
And first I was like, oh my goodness, he's already shooting.
But then he instantly dies.
Shreds heads on the catwalk approach,
and that's a five versus four for focus that goes up in smoke.
Very clean round for Zelex, no run.
And you know, of all the bigger organizations, Mao's actually one of the few that went for
the boot camp situation.
Falcons went for it, didn't work, Vitality were all separate, Furio were divided.
Oh, well, hey there.
That's gonna have you glued to your screen for the next 30 seconds, just in case Zershin
does overstep, but he's already falling back to site.
But you gave him he'll be patient. Yeah, you gave him a little
tease. I mean, he's gonna wait. He thinks maybe you're still
there, at least until the lower player can jump up and
confirm.
the
Zeter
Zeter and Banjo
Matthew Zeter Banjo Jacob
and Pate
Oh, they'd be horrified to hear that.
Yeah, they would.
It's a pretty European bunch.
Oh, try it again.
Not going to happen.
Zershin and Torsi just, oh, now I'm going to say everybody.
Zershin and Torsi.
Zershin and Torsi go ahead and light it up.
And obviously, Focus had a little hope of anything.
So we'll see their AKs come out round three.
Quick and easy, that one.
Tough with all the bomb plants, Potty comes into this, he's still only got a scout.
And sometimes you look at a bonus round and you go, well, the other team has a better buy, but it's a bonus round and here's not really the case.
They both are on a bonus round and still have a stronger looking buy.
I'm only coming through with one kit.
I'm trying to be very careful about it.
P.R. with a fire bomb in hand, sees the utility, delays an extra second, but that lets them
out.
Yeah, now it's a little awkward.
He's not able to hold anybody back.
Xershin and Spinks are the two to catch kills.
Get this 4v3 advantage in the gun round.
The utility flies out of open smoke.
And now potty.
Swapping guns.
Disappating the boost.
Surtian's gonna try to go back at this gap, but ah, it just slides off the head.
Still gets the wallbang damage out at least.
That sets them up nicely for a retake, but they're met by a fresh smoke.
I mean, you're gonna run at this. They haven't made for it.
Mm-hmm. Pop it open.
They don't.
They actually send the Nade into the car,
so they're just going to try to go for window instead.
Zershin, quick trade.
Pottie low in sight, hoping Banjo can cover off.
And he does some damage, but they'll still
get onto that bomb with time.
So it's costly for Maus, sure.
But considering there was a fresh smoke
and they didn't open it, it was pretty awkward
to try to get them all through the window.
They stick the landing and go up 3-0.
Yeah, that's a very close call.
That was just one bullet away from really locking that down,
Especially with the amount of time left over.
Unfortunate loss there for focus, but...
Tough retake.
Especially after this happened.
Because you have like a...
You have like a lurk smoke on the other side of the...
So PR is just really not anticipating something quick like that.
Look at you the towards you take over.
Towards NATO.
Yeah, sometimes you forget about his ability to dominate a map, but he'll remind you.
Obviously, when Zershin took the reins, he's going to argue about whether it would be him
or Monacy.
Yeah.
He's the best player to come out of the Academy League.
It's much like a device in simple situation, though.
He was the best opera on the best team, but Monacy was just clearly like a next-generation
talent.
You are not a... not a frequenter of the Dust 2.
Not in the gamer legion, Jersey.
For all we know, he loves this map and finally gets to play it.
You think a guy like him would like this map?
Do you think?
Yeah.
Mr. Multi-Kill.
Is that smoke from the A site?
Bops in the door as Spinks just tucks into the corner.
They're going to drop a body down to the CT spawn.
Good flashbangs here to interrupt.
Or actually, a T flash in the middle of that.
So made awkward.
Ready for the long duel.
Oh, that Spinks to help out from mid at least.
Two versus two we go.
Bombs scooped up off of the ramp.
Banjo to try and just wait for this walk up.
They obviously know Spinks is on the approach, but now they don't know how close he is because they lost vision with that flash
Cat player announces himself with the incendiary and looks to test the waters here
They don't have a smoke they're down to the last flash PR
Chucks that out to just allow for Spinks to try to get closer in this retake so slow Spinks has taken a sweet time with this bombs
Pass the halfway point Banjo still just gun in hand ready for the contact and both go down
Focus will find their first round win, four rounds into play, overwhelming an A site that was really banking on Zershin going big.
Totally, and he really did do a great job there on the ramp. They got two players in the CT spawn, and one missed the drop.
And that's the great part about the mid B smoke when you're attacking A, it just opens up like a very overwhelming attack with slow rotations, which is what they got out of it.
of
has to minus one of the few
$60,000 bounties still floating
around at the event.
happen to upset tonight.
A third one in two days, that'd be too much for my heart.
You need a fourth one.
Is it?
Hortality, Falcons and Furia.
Oh yeah.
How the mighty have fallen.
All week long.
Well, that is the point of the event, so that's actually pretty great.
Torsi gets into the angle off the right time, but it's a great shot for Matthews a second as well in fact
Surgeon just actually be decent. Yeah, trying to keep himself tucked in. He lets the first one cross back to him
Oh, it's a little bit labored. He still has a chance still alive shouldn't have been but a little extra left on that attempt
CTR doesn't take much damage whatsoever and so he'll get that bomb plant down. Oh
That could have been real sketchy imagine exertion had a better gun any other gun
of the step away from this
of the step away from this
That's that extra half-sign, because it doesn't, not only do you take a little too long on
the first kill, but that's what allows the ramp player to just jump into the cover.
You don't even get to go for body shots.
Double M4 setup here for mouse, thanks to the save, USP's around it.
coming in with a couple pieces of utility. Let's see if PR or Spinks can really be the hero.
I'm trying to pound some CTR while he uses his nades, and sure enough they catch him.
Spinks has got his M4 positioned on the door.
This is starting to go south for focus, 5v3 earned by Maus.
Mateos answers as he tries to climb up and over this cartucket and can catch him off
guard.
Nice headshot, sure. Banjo collects, Zershin's gone unnoticed.
It's free for him. Oh, just a big good shot.
Just a USP.
Oh, man.
It's been cleared, maybe.
Bomb player is underneath the window, and as he goes for the tap, he gets executed.
Great kill from Zershin, and PR's M4 comes through.
They actually pull it off with only two rifles.
Man, I feel like he thought he got spotted and then got really nervous, but they had no idea that he was there.
It's when the plat player turned and looked towards him.
I feel like that's those moments where usually you pop up on the radar
And then obviously even if you are just like a sliver on the screen people notice on the radar, but no
He goes unchecked
Pops up with the headshot
And now with a robbery go up 4-2
Humble beginnings
8 of the 10 players in the server came up through Academy Team
I was just thinking that only speaks of Ateos
I think the loss of the we play Academy League really is one of the great tragedies.
Oh, definitely.
Counter strike.
Just look at the top 10.
You know, it kind of feels like that pipeline changes over time once, you know, it's like
the FPL circuit was that thing once upon a time.
And then we transition into actual full fledged Academy rosters.
But to be fair, we still have some of those that are actually still yielding talent.
Yep.
Just note the lead itself.
Yeah, exactly.
Scary though with the loss of sticker revenue.
Already seen Academy teams close their doors.
Not that the grinders will stop grinding.
Xersion slides back into the ramp play.
53 earned in this one is mouse look to topple the cash that's left in focus's hands. You do get a player out B site
Jokab trying to jump around here and go unnoticed obvious stomps. That's gonna cost you
oops
Hello the mistake to make is now the op falls back on 50 health versus five you'll be lucky if you get to save this focus
Mouses have blood in the water
Collecting round 7 for the 5-2 lead.
Can't really make a bad footstep when you're playing against a team like Maus.
No, no you can't. Or if you do, you see the price you pay.
Maus' team in the, you know, place in the top 10 is always being able to punish even great teams.
Right.
Well, not being able to match up one-to-one with superstars, that's sort of their brand.
And so, always very good at punching down.
Focus will have to be perfect and then some steal this one away.
some time to think. As the greatest thinkers do, take your sweet times, ETR.
Well, bomb stopped. Clean control out of spanks. Whittling away at unarmored glocks. All in
of the day's work.
Really just making the most of this distance between him and his opponents, the M4 obviously.
Gonna mow down four players, sphinx on for an anti-eco ace, yes sir, all five for sphinx.
Run it Red Bull, mouse up six two.
And run it.
I said run it Red Bull.
There we go.
Yes sir.
I love getting unarmored Glock kills
Spinks a little padding of the stats
See if using an m4a4 you wouldn't have had to fall back or reload. Yeah, it would have been a satisfying
Guns back out for focus, and they'll send ZTR down middle.
This is Torsi floating around solo on the catwalk, doesn't want to be that victim that
gets jumped on, and you can kind of feel the rumblings of their approach.
So he feels back to Long instead.
Yeah, looks like Mousa's just heading to any early mid-b potential and then pull.
Bye-bye.
That's a little too free.
Midwalk out though.
Could catch Spinks.
Ooh, gives himself a flash deploy.
Threatens that he's gonna swing that corner.
But he knows better now.
That's an obvious avoidant.
You know, Taurus, you're catching the long kills freed up to try and help
unless they smoke CT, which I believe they just did.
And we got Zershin playing Goose, so...
Could actually...
Oh, well, maybe we go with this push.
Yeah, that's always so active.
45 seconds of timing.
Goes for it.
Collects his ZTR.
Will be recovered back by the off-out middle. Spinks in an awkward duel, is going to lose his head.
And so PR is going to give a chance to shine in a moment, as he is still yet to pop up from that platform back B site.
Tunnel smoked, there's a climb up. You can take that peek anytime. CT player offers a distraction.
PR, oh, loses his head. Jokab collects it. And now Torsi is going to be attacked into the 1v2.
This is a tough one for him if he actually wants to take the chance, but he swaps over to the AK at least that could definitely help
Joe Cab will close left. Might be able to steal a peek here. It really depends if potty's gonna be holding and he actually is
Towards you looking for utility first, but this door angle being held towards his position confirmed
He's got the frag to bounce off the backboard
Riddles out potty somewhat
Joe Cap's still along the close wall and Torsi keeps on threatening but they're ready to hold him off.
Focus will nab a third round win on this T side, just slowly but surely slicing their way through middle to that B site.
And PR actually comes up with nothing.
He does. He was just kind of sitting there, wasn't testing any of the smokes.
I mean, it was also a great shot on him from Joe Cap.
He was in that boost up position, which is fairly vulnerable, but instant that is.
First bullet, so that's usually what PR does to people.
I think Xelix could have been more of a problem.
On the flank, I think Kill took the extra peek.
I think he kind of fell like, ooh, we've got this round
in the bag.
Right.
But it's rare that Spinks doesn't grab his.
Yeah, you could really tell there was that all-in moment
where Focus kind of swing into Spinks together,
made awkward for him.
He'll take over lower tunnels this round.
He's got three players walking down behind him,
And that certainly helps.
Thor's he getting a freebie?
Yo-Kab dealt with from lower, and Spitz has already
got the exit route he thought.
However, another player from top Xbox just turns this back
to the 3v3 instead.
Focus and a 3v5 recovery.
Losing mid control, but taking over the B site.
Bombs in tow.
And this is looking like a mouse retake queued up
in a moment.
Very awkward without a smoke.
And the T's will have one for a door cross.
Nice pause button here by Focus.
Yeah.
They just let Mao's make the mistake.
They'll interrupt the first bomb plant, but peel back.
Focus.
3v5, folks.
It was a very nice pause.
I mean, they might have been frantic if they had just thought, okay, now we're winning
again like let's get this done but they really didn't have to move. ZTR was very comfortable
on the site, had door guarded, had a smoke there on the cross. Not giving up these post
plant positions.
That's that first pick off and sphinx blindsides, Mateos, a break here.
I think he had a fresh door smoke for a second to run through, but it expired by the time
he got there, and we're over top of him on Cat.
I'm just going to give Mouse something to think about.
The funds remain high here for the CTs.
So definitely a real chance to deny focus tied half, sure, but taking the extra time
trying to stave off this attack.
It's always commendable when you see a team with less experience led by a guy like ZTR
to hit that pause button in the middle of the round, you know, just never panic.
You don't want to see panic because panic is what will make sure that 3v5s can't come together.
So, keeps them on the same page, they steal back an unlikely round win
and put Mouson notice.
just going through the motions and trying to break me down and overreactive CT side
but those are holding on to the grenades quite well I think this is the round that
mouse have been kind of waiting for anything you know that isn't actually a
mid-b because they've been trying to use goose to their advantage
He's got long on lock down.
A little distraction from the Nade and Xelix activates within that moment.
But the recovery is good again from Focus.
Ready for those next duels.
ZTR getting whittled down by Spinks, taking him out of the legs.
Yo-Kab out middle doesn't go for the instant trade, but is just going to look to blindside
the mouse players as they look to be concerned about the door and knock this corner.
Sure enough.
He waits that extra second, and it's worth it.
Really takes it out from underneath Maus
and closes that gap to just one round.
A real chance for Focus to tie this up.
And it was the setup that Maus were hoping for
to deal with that cat play.
That CT's in position, but they did impression them
right when they were on the bricks.
They didn't get any pre-nade damage
while they were setting up on Cat.
And once you've let them cross, well,
it's not so easy anymore.
Also, they have Torzino long long
You know, it's very calcified into a spot
I can't really move from there when he's got the up on long doors
He's on the right side of it as well. There was no lurk coming that direction. So I kind of just rendered him useless
To catch the cross.
Ooh, it doesn't pull the trigger.
Just counts the numbers.
Pick getter.
Torji, 5-in-1 in opening duels this map.
Half of his kills.
First blood.
Ooh, careful.
Oh, that flash.
Yeah.
Yeah, I kind of catch his sphinx off guard, but it turns back quick enough and has Zershin to work with. Here comes the
Operor, check tolin' in!
The shot, potty hits the headshot.
Man advantage, taken back. We're even at the 3v3. Zellex to test the waters with another long push. This time with an MP9 though
That is awkward. They're kind of keeping an eye on it.
But if he wants to stay there, might actually work out.
Does the AWP come all the way back? Aw, they right off the threat.
Selleck's just gonna tuck in here, make them come to him if they want to clear that flank.
They could also just avoid him, go and slam themselves against this A site for an attempt
to tie in the half.
And Torsi will be sat here waiting for his moment.
Molotov announces the intention.
He drops the first one.
Yo-Kab 35 seconds, flies into the CT spawn.
That's gonna have Torsi on the chase.
Yeah, they've got him stuck in this corner now.
It's gonna be real tough to fight his way out of this.
They know exactly where he is.
Sure enough, blindside and pinched from both directions.
Maus not only maintaining their lead,
but extending it to a 7-5 CT side.
It doesn't really get much better than this.
That's the other problem.
If you're talking about don't win this round,
I mean, are you gonna get better chances
than this one to try and do anything later on?
Probably not.
Niko's deep on the site.
Actually, again, probably should be dead already.
He's gonna get the one kill there.
No double for Bieri, and might as well have been a triple there, and Vonici is in a lot of trouble.
He no slopes one of them, he keeps going, ten seconds, he fakes the bomb, spins around, takes down Woody,
and now he's at the hut running out close and personal.
Oh, what a flick!
He doesn't have the time for the time.
Surely.
No, he can't do anything.
Yes!
How is that possible?
What an absolutely god-like sequence from Vonici.
He doesn't have to move so much, now there is a Molotov on Turtle, he's gonna throw it,
It's not deep enough, honestly, still could have the shot, oh, and there it is.
What are the best touches we've seen in a long, long time?
That is something special.
The flames in Degster.
This bomb down is scary.
Flames is taking real estate, but ends up getting punished.
Liquid hold, and they win these fights.
Just Degster left to get past, but he's an iron wall at the back of the site.
Moving around, kill number three.
Oh, that's down!
Makes some noise for it, and that is incredible!
Nitro slots into the corner on Arch, simple catches.
Oh, see, immediately, and Electronic also shines.
Nitro, it's a good chance!
Oh, and he gets three on Arch!
Oh, he gets them all!
But what about that flash from SDY?
How about this hold from Perfecto?
Incendiary to the right.
Sumdai young turns his attention
Lamef gotta be careful
Listen to the shot. It's just broke. He talked into the vent behind the smoke
Yeah, I'm brokeie. He's
Wondering what's going on inside of the smoke. He's gonna find one finds a second. Absolutely not
He's already done this so many times and now he's looking for an ace clutch instead
It should be impossible, but we said that many many times already go straight for the bomb plant
They open the door in front all gotta be careful. He gets one more surely not on the other side
Lava's ready and waiting bro. He's
And Jks goes down for essentially free three
CTs meant to work this forward utilities off of the mark can hunter sell this can Nico clutch it
Will he be needed because that tech nine drops and here comes Nico's rifle its head shots galore
All three dead and Nico's gonna keep it back in board. Fuck them in son
Relatively straightforward electronic with the opening kill over the top of the smoke. Oh gee falling back
That's precisely gets another over the top got them filthy
Absolutely filthy
Maus with 9 of the opening kills throughout that half, 7 of the round wins, and most of
that coming by way of Torzzi, the AWP opening house more often than not.
Unfortunately for Maus, there was also a couple of missed opportunities, so good on focus
to fight back in that 3v5, open the door to at least close the gap, but it'll be now Maus's
T side, and we have seen Maus already in this event switch sides and never lose a round
from that point on. So let's see what their attack has in store for us.
Yeah, very reliable. Could easily be the best T-side so far today.
Oh, damn. Quick headshot.
Oh, it gets both the Berettas to dive in. But it's retake over here on B.
Yeah, Maus just kind of avoid the problem of lower tunnels, sprint into the bombsite instead.
They'll say, thank you, we'll plant. And they'll look to stave off the focus pistol retake.
This is a retake that has no flashbangs, no kits.
So they're just gonna be banking on headshots in a moment.
The Molly I just throw that out now big piece of utile to have but the thing is now they're in front of the stairs
So they'll drop it on tunnels. They'll try to duel out middle
They'll find a big open portion of the map and banjos throws caution to the wind already ahead of the utility
It's kind of awkwardly placed
CT's looking for frags, but they are too elusive
Yo-Kai back to the mid-wrap comes in a bit too late to ever consider the defuse
And so Mouser gonna have that bomb pop take an eighth round win and secure the T side pistol
Kind of shows how they're always playing so well
Even though Zershin's getting pushed back in the Mali could have got it out on the stairs and the CT start to run through it
They're ready to push window at the same time when he falls back right so they get something where they lose something else
So I have a good team
That's a hefty tag on Zersion.
Make do with what you've got, Scout MP9 FOMAS.
I wonder if PR was like T side more than playing B. That is like the least interesting spot
that he could be in, huh?
Mm-hmm.
It is kind of relegated to something pretty boring.
And when the chances to shine came his way, did not deliver.
PR is not used to being the lowest rated player on the team.
or dust too.
Down to 45 seconds, Maus collect themselves on Catwalk.
Looking to go numbers strong into this A play, but they're met by ZTR Smoke.
He drops out at 40 seconds and presses in next to it.
They have a frag grenade to pop it open if they want, but they'll just throw flashes and
Trust that to work.
Oh, it's costly.
ZTR doubles his kills right then and there.
But it is still an opening for Maus thanks to Zellex.
They'll find this A site vacant after those two kills come
their way.
A smoke grenades to guarantee the plant just in case
things get crazy.
But it's a long road for focus as they all go long.
Playing it kind of safe here, but they're right.
It's not going to be a cat retake.
Now's in a very solid spot. They're going to hold all the CT information for so long
when the smoke comes up. They can reorganize themselves towards long.
Flash announces the intention. Zellex, four kills! Another quad kill for Zellex in this
map alone. And that's a great recovery for a mouse that we're nearly stuffed by a 5-7
alone. That second shot was killer. Great scope so far, score so far this game.
I'm just gonna go to the top right here.
Check pause.
Gotta fix your hair real quick.
CTR came out as a Swedish high GL when you look back at the old school Swedish high
GL and it was just like, we didn't really have a name for the style.
It was just defaulting basically.
Okay.
And so he didn't really have anyone to like copy.
Right.
Yeah.
Not regionally.
Old fanatic because how do you do that? You need the players. Yep, couldn't really copy nip because that wasn't really knowing
Who the ideal was back then? Yep
So put in a position where he had to kind of carve out his own lane
But since then there's been some more
Lot of Swedish IGLs also one of those players that's been passed around regions
You know, yeah kind of explored the world in search of his identity
Came back to Europe
And now tries to lead for focus.
Ah, sorry Banjo, you just don't have the tools for the job, now do you?
Staving off any wild moments here.
PR slowly leaning back.
This guy is kinda, I mean, he's gone from having to play Plat on B to now just, oh yeah, hold the long push, would you?
Pretty frickin' boring map for PR, but-
I guess you gotta climb the ladder, maybe just start playing stuff.
Yes, do you?
I guess also, yeah, that's the thing, right?
No, I was just about to bring that up, like, we just mentioned he'd never played it on Gamer Legion, so...
Don't you dare.
Whoa.
Matt Taylor plays a 10 second defense towards you, he's gonna run in, he's got time to stop it, for sure.
All's good.
Yeah, I mean-
You really thought it should not even have been close, but hey, I think you get from a rush of dust two in ten seconds
Settle down now if you had a kid
Yeah, if you had a kid you'd have problems, but they had nothing to work with that round. So even with hands on the bomb
You know, it's the same number every time you'd think you'd be able to punch it in in five seconds every time, but
That's not how the game works
If you didn't know, but you have to do the cable then put it on the right.
I suppose that's true.
Fucking $400 bear of scissors.
Everyone wants a piece.
Oh, caught in between the scopes, potty just loses to a galil.
That's not even an AK tearing your head off.
It is a galil to blow your opera out of the round.
And to give mouse a real chance at again a clean sweep of a T side as one really will destroy the economy here for focus
It's not the first time again
Mouses have switched to T sides and gone flawless at the bounty look at it do it again
And sharing the responsibility as all pieces find their impact
even PR. Over the Xbox,
Elix is, you see, thinking
about walking out middle.
That smoke on CT is halfway
gone. They've got plenty to
replace it, but as Spinks leaves
tunnels, it's actually focused
to push into upper tunnels at
the same time to pull one back.
I mean, they think this looks
like a fake, essentially.
They're not going through spawn,
so they are nervous about this,
but this just ends up not
working out that well.
working out that well. I mean, it can be a flank on mid, but...
The first kill, Mateos disengages, keeps half his health up. CTs are going to try to scramble
for some kind of a midhold, but by the time they get there, all of Maus are now inside
of the bomb site, so it's a man advantage and a retake inbound. Did that smoke go too
deep through doors? No, it's alright.
Sphinx just dump in the utility in anticipation of the retake, opens the smoke accidentally
and then jumps over.
Fresh smoke for the doors.
Going to make this one a little more difficult for focus.
They go through the window and find Spinks uncovered.
Zellex wrapping around, gets a 2k.
Oh, and then Torzi holds off on the tunnels play.
It's going to be another moment here for Zellex
if he can just find Yo-Kap over the top.
Goes Yo-Kap.
No kit.
10-second defuse needed.
So be it.
Focus play it down to the final moments,
but they will find a sixth round win.
I was ready to feel bad for them with the way that retake.
started off so very nice catch here from yokab makes it a four-round game I
guess it's kind of a tough situation to read when you see the lurk smoke but
then you don't see anyone in tunnels everyone walking out midfield like
that's a very unlikely situation so they wanted to believe that it was maybe
gonna be an a-play probably would have been better off just having banjo come
back through tunnels with the amount of time it took to go for the flank in the
first place, but they still grab it in the end and actually focus who have
maintained all their timeouts.
Now's we'll use another.
So it's not the flawless T side for mouse, but it's still a daunting
task for focus.
Now's had a lot of real estate taking over that B bomb site with very little
resistance.
And
Mateos doubles back and goes for that climb up. There's a world. He doesn't get that kill definitely
And then it's just you're looking like a bunch of chumps ultimately in the round
So scary place for focus to be but they hang on
And chip away at that mouse lead
Instant lower tunnel takeover for players for mouse in upper tunnels
That's a CT name.
It's like perfect on him.
It's the windowsill.
Yeah, but now they'll never expect us to have pushed Top Mid into our own grenade.
I think Zershin's warning them about this mid push right now, so...
It's also Zershin about to get a dual.
Okay. All of you setting up his own smoke.
Uh-huh.
Op misses its chance at extending man advantage.
Flash finds its target.
The takeouts go as if it was dual,
and it's a great trade from Zellex.
They deal with the player top middle on the fallback,
but Zellex tries to get away with one extra,
and Banjo's gonna hear this stop coming over.
They are not ready for this corner.
They're flushed into the M4,
and focus come out.
Majority alive.
Great interruption of Maus's approach.
It's a real bullet dodged after the start
with the push-up, Kat,
but ends up working out very well and I mean I think Zershin just thought at some point no one's actually going to be pushing through mid
It's kind of a lucky time. He literally just switched to a smoke
But this place is good positioning
Sometimes you see someone all outside of tunnels are playing Hummer and they you know your CT's don't have mid control there
They had full mid control
of
the sun
Not that they're a real threat this round.
Torsi at least survives the op shot.
He'll have a chance to make that deagle happen.
PR gets a couple grenades out of focus.
Yeah.
Sendiery as well, so burning through the utility.
if you're looking for silver linings.
the
CTR deserves some Ecos. All is good here for focus. Closing the gap to two rounds, making
sure things don't get weird with Maus's save. So buy back instantly here for the T side.
No op though for Torzi.
I think the one Potty has was off of that Yo-Kab clutch and B. They took that from Torgy back
then.
I feel like it's good to try to steal it back when you're playing T-Side anyway, because
you have a fine round otherwise.
Haven't really seen PR weaponized throughout this T-Side.
Yeah.
Yeah, he's got a chance at the longspawn this round, but they don't take that duel.
Potty allowed to post up lower tunnels, but starting to feel uncomfortable.
Utility trickles down, and it's going to be a big reposition here from the CT AWP,
all the way back over to the A site. He's going to join up on the catwalk play,
where it's actually focused to press forward.
Now that Molotov's gonna keep them locked in so there's a fight coming whether they want it or not.
Yo-Kaz opens up more where the first one came from and an untradable spot as ZTR is behind the smoke.
So 4v4 earned here by Maus at a minute.
Another very good trade out of Zelex and just enough time to still make it to the long.
Oh, the flash caught ETR a little bit as well.
I could have been a kill.
And Spinks takes a jump away over towards the B site just to try to help out.
Actually, just that one sound has dropped the oper in his ET spawn.
Damn, that's a huge find that they could have grabbed it.
Even though they take Spinks, it'll be the site, a plant here, most no way to smoke on
that side.
I was wondering.
And he's facing forward, so they have to go grab that.
Lucky to nab the bomb back, but you find yourself in a two versus four post plant suddenly and in
Off-timed long flank clips towards it. He said we haven't really seen PR activated. Well, here's a clutch attempt for the guy
newest mouse member with the instant headshot. That's what he brings to the table aim like that
three more to rock
Catches contact to the player long, but it is indeed another one for focus on a four round streak now as they interrupt
the mouse mid-set up the instructions unclear focus full defuse and a one-round game
doing an awesome job of keeping up with mouse at the moment
they finally grab spank as well and then they could you know put all their questions to rest
it's good good first kill here from yokab but delix made it very very difficult to trade him out
that was just a mistake
Those are the ones who are supposed to make fewer mistakes.
I should pass that utility up.
Hey, I was worried that there's somebody behind this play, but it's going to be Maus.
Just forces strong up the catwalk once more.
It's this close door position versus Spinks that's going to secure long for quite some
time.
And eventually, Pawty on the AWP is going to be freed up to come and help out with this
cat hold.
35 seconds, Maus ready for the execute.
Plenty of flashbangs to try to close that cap, and CTR just looks to dump him.
And this goes into CT.
Dives in, misses his first chances, but does recover.
And Zellex dead, giving himself a flash up and over, Spinks dies over towards that long play.
And so neither entry route going swimmingly, but Zershin starts to claw it back.
Torsi's P250 to try to stave off the CT retake, and he gets there.
Him and Zershin making this work in 8 seconds.
Bomb scooped up, they could go for the plant.
They haven't been able to grab guns in the middle of all of this, and now Banjo's caught out in full display, the Tech9 collects another!
Oh!
So close with just pistols!
Zershin damn near does it all with just the Tech9 alone, but eventually focus regained control of the site, regained control of this game, tied at 10 rounds all.
Yeah, that's a good clutch from Focus, a good clutch from Banjo, and a tied scoreline.
That's even off the Miss Molly, which goes into CT spawn late and slow down the CT retaking
to even come to help out CTR.
But he stays alive for a while longer than maybe he should have.
Scare is avoided.
First a couple of golels back there for Maus, now the full by, Torgie back on his op.
Scary for a second, like you mentioned with that incendiary missing, it's made easier
for Maus to close the distance.
survive the scare, tie the game, and have Maus sweating.
This feels like a really long game, doesn't it?
Yes.
It's like the pauses in the mid-round.
Both of them on T side.
I think we've also just been less trying fast openers.
Yeah, no.
We've had some pretty electric tempos as well with liquid in the server lately.
And it's like but if you never throw in a fast round, yeah, I'm just gonna hold grenades the whole time
That's why you gotta have some variety
It's true. We haven't had that like typical just like sudden change of yeah that like catch you off guard all-in rush moment
Where's that as a tee? Why would you?
Allow a CT to get that comfortable
Well, there's still time to sprinkle it in
As this key side goes on longer
Maybe it starts to become more predictable that eventually you're gonna try the Hail Mary.
And there's been no nades into CT, or into Cat, as anyone's set up.
And if you're giving all this space to your mouse, I'm not surprised they're gonna try
to make an exec out of it.
This looks like the freest plant ever, to be honest.
No one's here to guard this.
Resursion down into the drop.
Still finds nothing to shoot at but takes damage just for holding off on the corner,
so we go 5v5 post plank.
Crazy.
At 15 seconds.
These are weird long rounds.
They're longer by the bomb and a little bit of long control here for focus, so they're
Q'ing up for the retake, Torsi looking to peek into Cat to interrupt it, takes man advantage to start this.
And still, Focusser on the approach, flashbangs looking for their target, Surtian peels one off.
5v3 made all the more difficult here for Focuss, and they are going to find no footing in this retake whatsoever.
It's kind of silly. You know, Cat was just so open. There was no movement from the CT side, and even though that was just a slow pace out of mouse,
They were on Cat, they don't have to worry about anyone grenade-ing it.
There's never been someone going fast Cat with a cheese from the cash in spawn and putting pressure on them,
chipping them down as they go there.
No off on Car either to actually get something out of the cross.
They really said, if this is a Cat play, I'm gonna close my eyes.
I feel like this is a chance for Maus to now actually speed up a bit, right?
I think focus could be critical of the communication right there.
I find it so surprising that they left Catwalk so open just because it feels like mouse have had that like...
They're going cat.
Yeah, they've had the affinity for it. It shouldn't have surprised you that...
Oh my god, they're going cat.
What?
Why would they do that?
They just almost won on that Tech 9 round.
So the 5 round streak on Focuss's CT side comes to a close.
This is an awkwardly close game considering Maus have both pistols and full conversions
at the start of each half.
So credit where it's due, Focuss are bringing the fight, but Maus could just slip this over
the finish line.
If you're not going to defend Catwalk, Maus will find the gaps in the game plan.
So Potty goes aggressive, and Zershin blasts him out of the round, not the first time that
Zershin has bested Focus's AWPer with a rifle in hand.
It's uncomfortable because it's Molly mess too, and Potty's like, okay, I got a free
shot.
And he did, but it wasn't easy.
You just talked about that close tech 9 round.
That was Zershin coming through with all the tech 9 frags,
three of them to his name.
So he has found his moments and this game goes on.
PR is going to clear out close as Zershin starts
to help with the Util.
And if we wanted to talk about vacant portions of the map,
long free for the taking this time, as is Catwalk.
But now he's not going to go look at it.
Like at this point, they've helped.
OK, the thing is, they have full vision on the cross.
Yep.
They just killed a cat player and a long player.
Yep.
The CTs, if they don't move, will go away.
They have to either re-smoke this door, fake a cross,
fight in the mid, do something, because they
have guaranteed info.
Well, what if they do nothing and just hold their positions
instead?
Did you ever consider that?
Yeah, they could save.
You ever just think about sitting here doing nothing?
I guess they're just going to save.
Yeah, focus.
Full focus.
This one go.
So that's search into best and offer
that we really thought had the advantage.
Like you said, Miss Molotov, takes it on his terms, but Zershin with the instant headshot
will give him his credit.
He is a key part to Maus setting up the advantage at the start of this.
And I think yeah, Maus goes set up to try to kill him to be honest.
It's so clear exactly where they are.
Spinks is already clearing out tunnels too.
And they don't have an op.
You know, Focus put up a solid fight, but it's just kind of lacked a bit of killer instinct.
And they've actually set up a spot where they have enough utility for full exact B.
Which is sometimes kind of fun.
You want to do it near the bomb explosion where it covers all your footsteps.
Yeah, this is going to get awkward here for focus.
Use all of these guns in the next one, but here we go.
Now this is a test to clear out the three remaining players.
There's one, still two to save, all dying seconds!
And it's going to be one rifle cap, a single M4 for Banjo.
Maus put the squeeze on in the dying moments, 12-10 the Maus lead.
His focus has just kind of shelled up a little bit in these last couple of rounds,
and it's really opened a door for Maus to win out on Dust2.
Yeah, they look a little bit scared, unless the round comes to them.
I don't think Maus are giving this away.
One starts out with an early 3B setup and Cat Lean, but now's actually already found
long control out of this for free then Spinks is playing back. Ready for a push.
push.
We know kind of abandon this early and Spinks didn't see anyone push through.
I love that exertion didn't commit the bomb to longies.
waiting to see if Torji is going to present a kill.
It's pretty strong. If you take out, you know there's no one on the ramp.
Here, stop, though. Oh, can't stop it.
CTR tries to press down in, and Maus Killer Instinct starts to kick in.
Yocap down to 13 health. His teammates falling like flies all around him.
There was a world here where focus string together five CT rounds with some impressive
retakes in the middle of all that. But as we get to the tail end of things,
Mao's just kicking to gear and focus lose that killer instinct.
And so this one shut down. Dust2 survived by Mao's. The map pick of focus dries up as the game goes on and
Mao's will have a chance to 2-0 the series with Mirage up next.
that. Definitely one of the
slower dust twos we've been
seeing here now because more
often than not, these higher
tier teams. They love that slow
pace. They feel like that's
where they're going to get the
tactical advantage and the
lower seated teams will they
come in with a hunger and a
desire to just tear that
apart, but focused on a really
different strategy and
unfortunately doesn't pay off,
but there are was still a lot
in theory, looked really well ironed out that focus knew how they wanted to approach it,
but then it was the minor details and we'll get into some of the specifics, so it's not
all just generalizations coming out of me, but yeah, I think the experience, which sounds
big now, but trust me, we'll get into what the experience looks like, okay?
I mean it is always an important part and all the timeouts essentially being used, I
I would say that there was just an or an atmosphere around this being so much slow paced.
And so I do have to ask you how often are you seeing a dust to get pushed to the extremes
this way for each round to essentially feel like it comes down to the last second?
It's another reason that I think that ZTR is probably a little bit beyond his years
is that he's willing to kind of stretch these rounds out.
Whereas if you see most 22 year old IGLs, it would be that paceier style of play, which
unfortunately though, when it came down to the fine margins in the last 20 seconds of the round,
that's where Mao's frequently, but not always in this map so far, were able to find out the
edges or at least make things closer than they should have been, which in turn helped them as
they finally get around break the money. Well, let's get into those details that you wanted to
talk about. We can start with round number six. I know that that one was when you were super
inspired by from mouse the way they were able to play the CT side. It was when you when talking about
how the game's pace was a little bit slower this is one where mouse knew how to turn it up they had
only a couple save weapons they played this really heavy mid stack here but they sort of kept eyes
towards B and as they were able to cut off one pincer of the attack towards middle as ETRs taking
space there you just saw the floodgates open at B and at window where everybody from mouse just
just jumped on in. So m
they even lost track focu
getting in and slipping i
able to take one scalp in
here. And then of course,
the last as well. So I jis
in very tricky rounds lik
you know, sometimes you j
or just stand apart in di
the rifles find something
outline goal for playing
often see teams have a very clear cut structure for. They did kind of lose their touch a little bit,
right, where they're able to have this explosive nature, slow it down after that mid-round,
know how to sort of turn it up when they need to, because then it felt like all of the rounds
started being stretched out a little bit more elongated. I know another round that you wanted
to look at was round 10, and this wasn't necessarily in favor of Maus, but just one that really stuck
out for you as to why it was such a close start to. One thing that is really exciting about Focus
is how they can play late rounds even with the deficit. And this is something that I would say for
mouse fans be a little bit worried about that you can lose 3v5s like this because we see the
instant trades it was PR that actually re-swung mid doors trying to help sphinx get out of lower
there but then as soon as focus and ZTR recognize that oh we just got two kills on the B players
and PR and sphinx they high-tailed it towards B they sped up and they got a free bomb plant
post plant, and at that point, Mouse had no in on the round. I think that it was really
just great mid-rounding from ZTR, first of all. But second of all, you could kind of see the
disconnect between Spinks and PR in this round that despite the man advantage, the double man
advantage, I think PR kind of goes through what a lot of people in CS go through, where you see
these kills happen, and then you think to yourself, oh, I should help him get out of there. I should
help help help my teammate out. But it's like, just just run away with what you're ahead with. Even
even if sphinx dies and lower right there, that's, that's, he sealed his fate. Okay.
You're easy. He's got what he came for. Now it's on everybody to play the awkward,
probably four V three.
But if you double up on the losses like PR did in that circumstance,
then it can all tumble out of order.
That's what we call the save your buddy syndrome. You fold for way too often.
Trust me. Especially when you got that teammate in the mic and like, guys,
please help, help. Uh, you fold for a time and time again.
So Mao's being able to do great in crucial situations,
and then almost throwing away what feels
like an advantageous situation.
But then we also had some rounds,
Maui, that almost felt like a stalemate, right?
When no one's really getting that opening pick,
the biggest one that stood out to you was round 21.
When Mao's were able to get the plant, still in a 5v5.
And they were able to do this because of the lack of cap
pressure.
But look at how ZTR here, who's usually the A-rifler that
kind of let this happen, tries to get in a little bit too early.
And this is what I mean by experience.
You have to recognize that you already kind of
mess up the ground in the macro.
You don't need to make it up in the micro
and you still need to play the round out all the way through.
The bulk of the retake is gonna come from long
and it's gonna come from CT.
What ZTR needs to be in that retake is the final stroke.
He needs to be the final guy that's kinda just chime in
once all of the pressure is already being exerted
from those two other retake positions.
But him dying first just completely cleans things up
that he's not the only one
that's going to be the
most important thing for
Mous. They can full focus on
now that that four man push
from long from CT spawn, and
then you just can't get back
into the round. So those are
the fine margins I was talking
about. And I think if ZTR
maybe just, you know, had the
composure, the experience, the
wherewithal to recognize that
he wouldn't have just fully
sent it at cat. He would have
valued his life a little bit
more, and then he could have
sprung into action as the
retake was on with the other
players. That's more
it is just a matter of experience. And sometimes it's actually not a massive amount to be able to
get over that hurdle. Sometimes it is just falling for one time like this. That's what
experience you need to not be falling into it again. So it feels like focus, whether it's
going to be in the series and future series for them, whatever it may be, it's going to be leaps
and bounds ahead of what they were already amazing performance they were able to put up here.
Of course, there is still more to come now, but Exertion was one of those players that you're
like Bertrand's into IGL, starts fragging even better, and it is shocking again to see it. He
likes to be an anomaly, whether it's, you know, as an individual or as a team.
I thought it was going to stop by now. I thought we'd be done with this, that we'd be done talking
about exertion as a fragging IGL, because he just keeps it up. It's seriously otherworldly to see
a player to still maintain their fragging prowess, let alone improving from what he was before.
That's what makes Maus a sneaky contender for the season to find some upsets, to punch occasionally into the elite teams.
I'm not going to say there are too many trophies or anything.
Like the competition at the very top end with Vitality Falcons, Furia, that's extremely stiff.
That's extremely stiff.
But when exertion can play at this level, then it's seriously, you're right, right, right?
The fact that a few of you are in the top.
You know, I was like, you literally listed the only top team teams that got eliminated.
it's not down he just throws
in there. We'll see. We'll see
how it goes. I mean for them
throughout the rest of the
season, but with how those
teams click, it's hard to see
them actually punching up into
the elite and being a top four
finish team occasionally, but
sometimes because exertion just
gives them that win condition
where he still performs at such
an elite individual level while
We had his rating just pop up there. Do you think is that from map number two?
Maui's accession rating is going to be higher or lower than what it just was
Wait, I actually didn't see his
1.22 I believe
Only 1.22
Whoa, I don't say it like that
No, he had it been higher. He had to have been higher. I swear he had to have been higher like the amount of damage
He did maybe that was for the whole blast bounty. I didn't read the contact. I just saw the numbers
Gotcha
It was since becoming IGL.
Oh, since becoming.
Thank you, thank you production.
That makes way more sense.
For 1.22 since becoming an IGL, I don't even know
that if there needs to be a further story even told there.
No one's doing that.
I try to hesitate a little bit when
I say the word fragging IGL just because they keep up,
say, 6880R, 7280R.
But exertion is legitimately putting up star numbers.
Better than what he had before as a caller.
If everybody does their job, even just does their job to a sufficient level, and he keeps putting up that,
like, let the averages play out, and you're gonna see Maus make a couple deep runs in tournaments
that are going to upset teams that look like they should be better.
Feels like the only hopeful thing that you're not doubting when you tell me a story here, Maus,
but I need a one-word answer. Will it be his rating higher or lower on map two than map one?
I'm going to go into the
minigames and have a lot of
fun with the CS higher low
powered by IC market. I've been
playing this one almost non
stuff. I'm kind of ashamed to
admit it, but it is so much
fun. Do you think the seal
gives us terminal is higher or
lower market value? I've been
playing this one almost non
stuff. I'm kind of ashamed to
admit it, but it is so much
a low market value. I legitimately never looked up the market value of a seal Genesis terminal.
I open on one time. Okay. All right. There you go. You know, you know it.
Everything will be higher than that. I'd be shocked. Whatever's next, just go straight
higher. Yeah. Yeah. Easily, easily lower. This is for sure lower. Yeah, it's a case.
Yeah. It's an awkward number. Oh, a case v case. I think this is lower though. Yeah, I think
No.
What was it?
It was so close.
Yeah, so close.
Oh, what a shame.
That was like a coin flip.
That one could have been either way then, Maui.
I guess it's spectrum one and not spectrum three.
I guess some skin cell will tell me.
I don't know.
I don't know what I'm doing on those things, OK?
I just judge the skin and how it looks.
Don't ask me the price.
You better go brush up, right?
Because you're going to be my IGL next time we play the higher
lower game.
But an IGL is renewing it so well,
and also share a little bit of info on how he's doing so well is exertion.
Seeing you move into the IGL role, we normally expect players to kind of
start becoming bottom fraggers, right? Struggling a little bit more on their own individual performance.
But for you, you've almost gotten better, I would say. How is that even possible?
What is it of value as an individual that can balance both IGL and fragging?
Well, I would say I definitely feel better now than I did as a player.
I think that I've always been a player that needs a lot of control.
I also have a very high level of output, also input, so now as an IGL I can actually take
things to my own hands when I feel like we're not playing our greatest.
I also don't really, I don't want to follow a stereotype, so most IGLs, yes they follow
off or they are a bit of a burden to their team in my opinion.
I want to become an IGL that has never been done before, which means that I want to perform
in my roles, I want to do a good job individually, but of course the most important thing is
I was to lead the team and to also I need to learn a bit more how to be an actual captain of men
Captain of be a good leader for the guys. It's something that I'm learning right now
But in terms of the individual I definitely feel more comfortable than I did in the past in the last seven months
So I think that we're heading the right direction and with the guys I have right now
I'm really confident I can also keep up my individual level throughout the season. I
Want to go back to something you said earlier in this interview as well sort of like
explaining the system, bringing the guys in, spending a lot more time doing that.
I want to know what a normal day at bootcamp looks like for you guys, like
how many scrims are you doing, what time are you meeting as a team, and sort of
when are you leaving the prep room? Yeah, I mean right now our schedule at least
is four pranks, one hour, one and a half hours of theory, but to put it more into
detail we started at 10.30, you're expected to play a little bit of
individual warm-up beforehand and eat breakfast usually. After that we have an
an hour and a half of theory, where usually me and the coach will go over some things
that we want to take care of for the practices. Then we play two practices. We usually try
to play two maps, like two different maps, for example, I don't know, Inferno and Dust2
for the day, and then we play two of each. We play two practices. We have an hour break
where we eat lunch. Obviously, the facility here in Maus, it's really amazing to be here.
I think the highest level there is a facility in the e-sports scene, just they're taking
really good care of us so it's really nice with the lunch.
We have a private chef actually making food for us which is amazing.
So we are getting treated really well.
After that follows up with two more practices and probably a small evaluation of the games,
not too deep, we don't dive too much into details unless there is something that is
a bit of a red line or maybe a small alarm that we need to make sure we are getting ahead
of.
The evening is usually, I don't know, one or two hours of theory talking between players, teammates.
Usually I spend it maybe giving some feedback or trying to understand why we played good or not during our practices with the guys.
And yeah, I mean everyone else says their own bedtime and stuff. I usually stay up until 12 or 1 playing CS.
If right now I'm in a bit of a routine where I play a lot of deathmatch in the evening to try to maintain my form.
Because I felt in the first official game of the season I was not the most sharp individually.
So right now I'm putting a bit of focus on that, but of course, a lot of time of theory.
I think I've definitely, for us, it was the best start of the season in terms of work we have put in.
So we are really putting in the work right now.
I, it's crazy that he's like, oh, my individual performance for the first, you know,
showing as a team wasn't that sharp. We're still at a 1.15 rating.
like he was still like, I'm sorry. But like third overall in the server, he's like so critical of
himself. And I guess that that is something that's just going to push you to strive to be better
and never really stopping there right now. I think the exertion still has a lot to achieve in his
career for a team that's been perennial contenders practically ever since he joined to not have
lifted more than I want to say four S tier land trophies, something like that. Roughly. I think
it was two EPLs, a bet boom and a Cluj. That's that's not good enough for exertion. I like that he's
a little bit more hungry. He doesn't just look at the top dogs and say they're they're set to win more
like I did actually in the post game of the last map. I want to see him usher in this new era of
fragging in game leaders because it's just it's it just hasn't been done to this level for a
rifler for a very long time. I mean it's looking great not only for himself as an individual
just the numbers that he's putting up there but for this debut of the new mouse roster as well
right to achieve a potential
trophy lift. I mean, they might even be making it
to the first potential tier one
lan here for the new season of Counter-Strike
if they're able to get it over the line on Mirage.
And it is their map pick as well now.
So it feels like it should be significantly easier
for them, maybe not losing
silly rounds like we do or happen in Dust2.
I also don't think that Focus
are going to have the best time here because
they've swapped out a couple of players in the off season
with Jokab coming in.
I just don't think that he's really naturally
the spots that vault played
like Joe cab used to play
short B for Mirage CT side and
vault was kind of around
hovering around different
parts of a. That's a pretty
big shift. And you're if you're
going to do you're going to
play against mouse who are
going to be super well ironed
in terms of taking all of that
space. Any sort of position
swap is going to feel even
exponentially more difficult.
I mean, we heard what a day at
the mouse boot camp sounded
like it was very rigorous. I'm
We're practicing intently there looking at everything they can do right for but we'll see if it translates into an official and if they're able to close this out to oh
It's weird that Matt's talking about mouse maybe winning this event because I guess you didn't get the memo
It's a liquid with phase clan grand finals Matt and Maui. All right to hell with all the analysis
I guess our partners over at poly market also didn't get the memo doesn't matter if mouse win this mode
It's liquid or face clan pick your winner now. Yeah
Yeah, it's gonna be a great final one of them will be there, okay?
They'll both be there both maybe the people get what they want. These Connor. What about a hundred thieves?
What about them those guys that lose to give me that I guess those guys?
Yeah, true. No, we're talking about the Falcon slayers. Okay. Okay. Okay. Maybe it's not liquid in phase
Maybe mounds if they can keep it up
I mean
There was a moment in that game kind of like a lull in the action where focus we're able to fight back
It just felt like mouse were kind of giving them room to do so we get that was very
Yes, yeah, one will remember no one will remember. I don't think mouse will I'll think Mokis will
it was
The job was finished. I think that's all they're really thinking about
Okay on for the ace get it
They run out he reloads spinks you just got to die to banjo. It's really that simple give them and the ace
So far, run out of.
Give him the ace.
Play us out, Banjo.
Riddling ding ding ding ding ding ding ding.
Red down down down down down down down.
Yeah.
All five for Banjo on the hold of the B-side apartments.
And yeah, he's got a little grin because he knows
five frags to his name.
Little Red Bull ace.
His focus, take the pistol.
They made it a little harder for themselves there, and I think that's an understatement.
But you take what is in front of you, can't blame Banjo.
He lets the Beretta's rip.
We get an ace in the first round of Mirage.
We get SMGs.
Honestly, actually, it's just straight up into the M4s for the most part.
Except it's struggling.
Mirage is the only map on which Spinks is above a 1.05 rating in the last three months.
Yeah, he's actually not bowed too well since Zertian's in-game leadership.
They're talking about, you know, Zertian's ridiculous stats since becoming the IGL
and how impressive that is.
And I think we've seen, like, you know, Torsi with somebody else who I thought kind of tapered off
with Zertian at the helmet first, but he's kind of gotten to his own.
We've seen him improve, etc.
I think Spinks still has some recovering to do.
Clearly, B-Trams feels the same.
Don't kind of make sense, that might not be true at all.
That Zershin, as an entry fragger, caller, calls really good, faster paced, rifle-based
attacks, and that's like the opposite of just leaves spanks behind.
Calls Bane was kind of like in a part of it for himself.
Yeah, and it really has been a lot of his entry work and very good numbers for Zershin.
Extremely impressive.
For a while we thought like, oh, there's no way he can keep this up.
But it will require other pieces of the mouse squad to also pick and choose their moments.
And we've slowly gotten there.
Slowly.
First gun round out of mouse, third round of the attack.
You're gonna lose his nades today, no.
Kershin's got a little stalk pile here.
They'll execute up and over the top, flash in a moment for them to pop out with the
stairs and cross smokes, and they burn Yokub out of a sandwich.
So, Matheus from underneath, also empty-handed.
This is going swimmingly for the mouse squad.
They throw their grenades uninterrupted.
They walk out for the double entry.
There's nobody for focus that can slow them down.
And PR gets this lurk going.
So he'll find his head shot on Banjo,
get into the action this round.
Just to kind of feel the game a little.
You know, I feel like PR has been so far removed
from the action.
Yeah, well, he got put, it was,
I think it was Celix, who was in B.
Now it's PR on Dust2.
And it's like, he's got all the new guys in there.
And so, which kind of makes sense.
But it's boring, it's boring.
super boring. I bet if you asked for more space he demanded it they would have given it to him.
I want to play mid B. Zershin.
He's like bro have you seen my stats? Yeah I don't think you can get that one.
Well it wouldn't make too much sense anyway. Now's will be content with that one. They didn't
waste any time this round. Just straight to it. Get that cash of utility on Zershin's feet.
He sets up the team. They walk through with the double entry. The early Molly sandwich.
Yep.
Cause like, who's playing sandwich on the first rifle in the first 10 seconds?
These guys.
Focus.
I don't know how they called that out, but they were right.
Spinks locks in on the headshot, same as Zellex, really not wasting bullets here for the first three kills.
It's a rebuy made possible for Focus.
But I think Maus will be happy with how easy that first gun round went down the pipe.
Now these swing outs on middle to catch your window drops.
PR signs up to the duel and beats Spinks to it.
That grenade's going to announce Surtian's intentions.
Oh, that's an unfortunate bounce.
Little flash trying to help here.
There we go, recovering from a 3 versus 5 as they lost Torji as well.
That's two players dead towards those top mid boxes.
Bomb didn't get dropped in the process.
And Focus could just peel back if they want to maintain man advantage,
while PR has already exited Ramp.
So funny, because you get a guy like PR in the spot,
And, oh, I think he's both, he's been spotted, right?
Yeah, they saw each other.
And he's not ready for the slow, never mind, he reacts.
Not ready for the stairs peek though, having POTY so close.
Now Zershin taking the sniff to the B site, Banjo's MP9.
It's a liability.
Zershin's gonna close that distance, chase you down
and take a ton of space for that bomb's arrival.
Catwalk player could have caught Zershin.
Instead, they've seen one another.
They know about each other.
And they want to get this bomb out in a moment.
Ooh, and Zershin got to a new position.
They'll have to think about this.
He'll even sneak over towards E-Box.
But is E-Box that good when there's someone on the big flank?
Smoke in front of the cat approach.
The counter's Yo-Cab for the time being.
It's a little awkward.
Zellix moving into the spot where they're going to clear,
and then know that Zershin was there.
Potty's going to have to make sound.
Yep, not able to react quick enough, Zelex.
It draws Zershin out of the market.
He'll cut down the cat player.
He couldn't play time here, but no!
Potty finds the headshot with the MP9,
has the defuse with the 5-second kit.
That is focus up 3-1.
I think that was a weird move from Zelex.
After that, you know, Zershin had been spotted,
put in so much effort into getting into a new position,
and then he moved into the first spot that they would clear.
Yeah.
Obviously, neither of them were totally
ready about someone coming in from halls.
And as this was going down, I thought it was a really
unmonkey molly bounce, where it went into that,
that like little stop and underpass,
and then Zershin got the kill,
but while that was happening, people went down.
But you can just see right here where Zershin's soaked up.
He gets his damage through the wall,
already thinks about jumping into a window to finish off,
you know, banjo, jumping off instead of just trying
to get the spam damage.
Play there PR space is invaded
VR rate to the top mid-play as the op collects exertion
5v3 here focus nice for back spanks for the instant shot
Is there still something to stand on for mouse here? They're getting wrapped in these on the sphinx is going back with us
Yeah, sphinx is getting me here. Yeah, he's stomping all the while and he'll get that back to the 3v3
we go Spinks at half health they're out into the site but Spinks is actually
going all the way around and I think for the CTs at a certain point in this
round they have to respect the flank that Spinks has pulled off here
there's no choice and with no info inside of B it's really awkward so them
it's gonna feel like a big gamble to stay towards the A site CTR did he get
He's spotted. Oh, he'll get killed as they're waiting, and he doesn't get in full on two players.
And now Spinks becomes a new problem.
You've got two of these mouse members down on half health.
One molly for Jungle, and I guarantee they just start scaling, because they have Spinks ready to come out of connector, but they don't have that.
Oh, they have a smoke though.
Those land as needed.
Guns in hand now for mouse.
Spinks crawling forward, gives way to the body. Oh my goodness.
Oh, nice spam back from Zellex. Banjo could still be the hero. It's covered by Torsi.
He goes to interrupt the bomb plant and Torsi finds the headshot.
Maus go into the slow roll. Zellex sigh a relief there.
But what a shot through that smoke to get the trade back on Spinks' killer.
And then the flank kill as well, but a bit of a mistake running that long.
I suppose, I mean, he wasn't thinking someone would come back at a palace and try to clear himself. Fair enough.
enough. Yeah, Sphinx last spotted about to exit Palace into the site entry. 3v5 they
win this. Wow, I don't think you saw anything. Zellex threw the smoke here, entry is instant,
but right back to the plate, exertion quick to it. So fast he catches all of us off-guard.
to top middle for the opening kill versus what his majority pistols focus.
So Maus have been given a real chance at taking control of this T-side, just don't have to
die to Banjo.
5-7 behind, the Arch will drop empty-handed, ZTR eating a flash in his attempt to exit.
They saw him take up this position.
This will be Maus fully cautious.
They'll come wide and clear him, PR gets Team Jill.
She's having the worst time today.
Yeah, this new team of mine, really, just everybody wants me dead.
Gotta play B site, Dust2, gotta watch long flanks on the attack, getting team killed.
As Alex said, Spinks, kill him.
He's like, do you want me on this team?
And I could just leave, guys.
Like, game religion would take him back into heartbeat.
Contractually obligated bullying.
They have it in writing.
Gotta read the fine print
Cyclones just allowed to give you noogies whenever he walks through
Everyone else just gets back
Come over here flicks his ear welcome to the club little guy
Sure
There's been some pretty bologna hillster smoke so far. Yeah
Yeah, you gotta you gotta maintain focus looks like young Lena bit. Can I just say yeah?
Love the McGill it up
At the pause button and throw a boost up to the ladder room this is us peas now
now. USP is in one M4. Oh yeah. Alright. It's a trippy perspective to look up. Yeah.
Right in the flash. Yeah, it's a knife, not a longsword. They figure out where the M4
is at, they topple it, and they'll swarm it in their sights. What's up? That's what
a craps is. What a craps is? Yeah. Yeah, but you know what? I respect craps because they're
They're very brave.
Why did they evolve to only walk sideways?
They always try to put up a fight, you know?
Yeah.
Like imagine if, I don't know, if something a hundred times my size was suddenly floating
above me, I think I'd run.
He'd move, yeah.
Crabs?
Nah, man.
No.
They'd sit there swinging their arms around.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's true.
So yeah, I respect crabs.
Crustaceans!
Bust up the scene!
Mr. Krabs entrepreneur oh money money money money
Flip them crappy patties my boy. Yeah. Oh, he's not a pirate, but our spike plankton to games game plankton
Plankton's a scam artist
And a bit of a crybaby
That's right. He's a little bit of a victim such a victim complex. You're the bad guy, bro
Guns back up for focus as they try to tail, Maus, one round in the lead.
to press forward on this A site. They've got the palace control of one and this deep ramp
peak so making the most of the five seven I like that they're trying to throw it forward
for map control. They actually forego ramp and fall back fully. Spinks has the clock
though. He's going to randomly turn around. Didn't catch it unless he goes all the way
Oh, yeah, you know for a second. Wait, he's this crowd made noise. We might not get spotted. Oh my goodness
You're kidding
He didn't see it. Wait, how do you get 4-3 on the top of your screen? Nobody saw any. Oh and now Spinks made noise
He still gets of course he still gets the kill of course he still gets the kill
God this game is just like no other and then it is my only push ramp. Yeah, nice ramp push
That's insane, Spinks won't know till he watches it back and they're just gonna try to slice through into the A site in 20 seconds
It is a very stacked bomb site here for focus, but well covered by Torgie
Bomb plant attempt number two sticks the landing and even with body catching a kill here
They're just trying to save these two M4s left over that is a zany sequence of events
Yeah, I mean how do you not see somebody at the top of your screen?
What resolution's that?
That's a head scratcher.
You would be missing some of the top of your screen for no reason.
I actually don't know.
I've never even thought about that, but I don't know what anything else looks like.
Yeah, you would be.
Wouldn't you?
I don't know what the numbers mean.
I just think bigger picture better.
It's a great idea for focus.
Little unlucky. Little unlucky. And unfortunately for them, still shrap for cash in this next one, so economy's really playing a factor in this, letting Maus start to run away with the half. Look at all the cash tours he still has in his back pocket.
And this time there is a player up in Palace, they're still going to try to set it up for
the ramp swing and it works out for the opening kill.
Down goes PR.
That's an extra weapon earned.
Nice upgrade here for Focus.
He's been getting bodied dead every round.
And this push, obviously, Spinks is just gonna get the perfect line of the lowdown.
Okay, no.
One for one, and...
He's super worried about this, yeah.
Why not?
You get revenge for the...
missed opportunity of the last round.
Keep it simple, press into Maus, catch them off guard.
Stinks is thinking there's no way they'll push ramp two rounds in a row.
Yeah.
Yeah, it works.
Sir, shouldn't get cut down to size and focus.
It's just that one round lead that Maus are able to hang on to.
Good majority alive moment for focus.
Remaining adamant on this forward A setup.
Potty's yapping right now. He's got some ideas.
It's coming your way again, Spinks.
This time he'll win his duel.
AWPer looking a bit timid to try to go for the trade, peels back with the utility instead.
Yeah, he doesn't even catch him trying to jump back. Nope.
Just gets out of there.
So 5v4 earned by Maus in the opening moments.
Spinks got kind of the scary aura right now that he's just gonna get the next one too.
Yeah, it's like PR wasn't able to hold back an MP9 on ramp, so you send Spinks back at it and all's good.
He's kind of dominating on that hold.
of the
the site is the site
to call here for version
focus get a little too
you know static sometimes right
up
I think maybe we should go search after this kill.
Torzina should die here.
Oh man, it's too quiet.
It's too quiet. Good reaction.
Here comes the execute as Banjo goes aggressive onto the catwalk,
tries to swap guns by the- Oh nice!
Headshot onto Zershin, but Spinks is going to line it right back up.
Keep that man advantage in hand for Maus, and as he holds onto the flag,
ZTR will find the kill without taking damage,
but a deep push from PR into the market.
That's what catches focus off guard next.
And Zellex, keeping his head tucked down,
is it's the new pieces of Maus to close the 2v1.
They'll do exactly that, each finding a kill of their own,
and putting Maus to the 6-4 lead.
That's the thing about these calcified positions.
When it's too quiet, even the rare angles
start getting cleared, because it's really,
you can just approach so carefully.
You've got to put a little pressure on sometimes
some distractions in
plenty of time
Oh, it's kind of a big steal here out of Zershin.
Just gonna try to pop out, Zershin makes it through, alleviates some of the pressure with
the cap presence early and mounts.
They were missing a little bit of this on Dust2.
Yeah, yeah they were.
They really were, right?
Because they had it.
They really missed the punch.
I don't know, I don't know, maybe Focus's map pick kind of catches them off guard or
something or it's like PR because he's new.
That was maybe a reason to hold back on these kinds of moves.
to cement the slow play first, you know, walk before you run, but now that we're back on
Mirage, we're sprinting and Mao's look far better for it.
In Counter-Strike, even if you're a baby, you have to run though.
Yeah, in this day and age.
Yeah, in this day and age, yeah, true.
has been sprinting since adolescence.
Hopefully.
That's a long time.
Please.
Is it? Isn't adolescence like 5 to 7?
Is it like 12 or something?
That's like your...
Oh, 10 to 19.
Yeah, it started running when you was 10.
What was I thinking?
Child?
What is ages 5 to 9 called?
What is ages 5 to 9?
Oh, childhood.
What is ages 5 to 9?
Just putting it in the 5 to 9.
I actually don't want this.
I'm good to think I'm not signed into this computer.
There's been some crazy questions this week.
Including why does the focus logo look like Gran Turismo?
I'm so stupid though. I just realized it's an F. I thought it was just like a feather
or something full focus all right chance to get a fifth round on the CT side it's
been a very impressive t-side from mouse it's kind of what I think we were
expecting you know Maui snake set focus we're gonna have their hands full now
this is just so capable on this map and they are showing that comfort so she's
gonna tear these last couple of rounds he's getting into that groove where he's
like I'm gonna call my way play my rounds and an unfortunate missed chance
That's there, means Zelex still alive.
And the bomb to be planted.
It's just all the right calls.
I mean, there is no one in CT.
Correct.
It's all the right calls, and all the best individual delivery across the board for Maus.
We haven't really had any big heroic moments from the focus players,
but the first of the four needed for the retakes underway,
now suddenly Focus have something to stand on,
and Banjo catching a second kill in this.
PR's chance to shot, full bar of health, two headshots earned, bomb already on the brink of popping, PR keeps his head down, and he plays that quote to perfection.
Dishes out the headshots, a nice clean 3k for the road out of the newest piece of the mouse squad, an 8-4 T-side on their map pick.
I don't want to bully too much. Fishpuncher is not an issue.
Oh, God! I killed you there!
Back!
Ahead of us, we have Inhuman Reactions by Hiko.
You remember this well, don't you?
I do remember it. I can't escape it, in some sense.
It's become part of my life.
Four out of five attack members of the RTSD in the Sermon,
representing the relation between them.
Apex is not included.
Because bees have short life spans and don't usually leave early.
I haven't been delayed like for media days and stuff and then I didn't have like
jerseys and stuff with me so I have to use the same jerseys for like six days and
it becomes a pretty nasty in here so.
Ah bro, this new generation, I can't.
Back in my days you stop and then you shoot.
Not like now.
Now, that time, I have those teenagers fucking Mercedes beating me.
Here's the view from section 111 on the day before.
And this is what it looks like day one!
Well, and at the T-Fellas, I think we all get one ravioli each.
You know what? I'm grabbing two.
Usually at the start of the round, you want to pay attention to the spawns.
That's because only the best spawn for the CTs gets past this corner before the best T spawn peeks.
So the best use of this spawn is to try to get a Molotov down at the doors right away
to stop it from trying to rush.
This is the incredible electricity in the air.
Can you let me hear you roar?
They have to.
What are you supposed to do with this?
Buckle up.
This is going to be very hard to see what's happening inside.
Some say years of practice are required.
They're wrong.
I will teach you good habits, such as smoking, flashing, and of course, winning.
Bro, how can I play with this game team?
What did he ask? Just advice, emotional support, chat GBT has helped.
What's the point in having Jack up for our schedule when you have chat GBT?
I think he did a great job with Flamesy.
That's kind of scary. I know about that.
about that.
My question for Eimei is bro, are you him?
Every time when I see him everywhere he is shouting to me, you are him, you are him and
I mean he is so funny but I don't know, maybe, maybe not.
in the glory of PR, Maus' newest member.
Cheeky 1v3 close to the last half,
and I mean, this is why they sign him, man.
It is headshots with this guy.
Killing someone before they do the reverse ninja boost.
He was getting his control and space in order.
Yeah.
Doesn't even get a chance to jump up.
So PR, who has been kind of removed from the action
back on Dust2.
He died like the first nine rounds of Mirage 2.
Like, this is the first most fun round he's had.
And it's right as Maus start to gear up for a close.
an eight round T side on a map that we know Maus love to win.
Tough stuff for Focus to face next,
but we'll give him the benefit of the doubt
because they have brought competition back on Dust2.
So let's see what happens.
Let's all learn together.
Oh, another doolies ace.
Yeah, Spinks is going to give him a taste of their own medicine.
Banjo's ace from this spot last half.
He'll shut Spinks down.
He says, only me, buddy.
Banjo looking for back-to-back pistol round aces
PR is low
Banjo put down after three eight kills of ten in the two pistol rounds
Good job by Banjo to set his team up for success at the start of another half
Focus will be given a chance early to rack up some rounds
I'm glad we get to see some Banjo rounds because I could talk about Banjo from the Academy League
Yeah, he was just a very good anchor like he'll never be some kind of like all a superstar prospector whatever
But we can already see some of his ability even from the limited space that he'd get normally
I think you'll be on a
I don't want to say anything about focus, but I think you'll get that call up eventually
Which they did joke about that in the draft show actually
Slow starts Mauser 1 and 8 and CQ side cross pistols under version is the IGL
Guns obviously the advantage for focus they don't like how many players they
just saw though so you don't want to be the guys that just lose to a 3v5 when
it's only deagles so disengage but in that disengagement mouse also decide to
head elsewhere and this is another one of those actual pause moments out of
focus that we sang their praise for on dust two in that 3vx.
Well, they do it again here.
And if they regress to be, they'll find it free for the taking.
I find it really satisfying how the audio changes when he peaks.
Everybody listen.
Oh, God, you're kidding me.
I was stimming, it would have loved to just get that kill.
Then be sure that they should go B, but I'm still probably pretty confident.
Still too committed up through the apartments, so here we go.
And you know Yoko has a view of the team, he's had some good shots for sure.
here in dust too.
Yeah, that feels about right.
But for now, we wait.
Focus take the pistol.
Focus take the conversion.
And mouse aren't going to buy this round, so another chance to close that distance to
a one round lead.
How many fans are out there this late at night, I wonder?
It's just a mirror.
late. That'd be the way to do it, like reflective glass like in an investigation room. So, Mouth
don't know how many fans are out there or not. They don't feel the pressure of it.
And they have the complexity, crowd noise, they take the speed in. Simulator.
Man, that'll be an evolution in eSports when we have crowd simulators at the team's headquarters.
It did. The complexity did have that. Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, damn. Didn't work, but...
Oh, okay. I think it made him more nervous.
It's got to simulate, like, the speakers shaking the stage a little.
Yeah. You know, every once in a while, you just, you know, I have a fan rush the stage, train them for that.
Okay
Let's not encourage that I I mean
I'm not encouraging it. I'm encouraging you to be prepared for it fair enough
Why don't you rush the stage one day
Be the change be the change you want to see in the world
I'll play by play it
You think I get fired?
I tell someone to fire you, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, I probably get fired.
But people would be really confused because they would see it was me and they'd be like,
is this part of the show?
Yeah, right.
You know?
Yeah.
I'd have, I mean, the security won't know who I am.
You get very far up there, I think, yeah.
But.
Poor Peck, I close the lines of you.
HAHAHAHAHAHA
Let's screw those people. Let's get into the gun rounds. Now's about to wait.
Here comes the rush through, ZTR missed his movement actually, didn't land a jump into
the window so it has to go back at it.
Ooh, nice couple of kills.
Turns it back into the double kill, he has two HP as he collects that second one.
Xershin wanted to try to flex but here comes that MAK 10.
Yeah, ZTR slides right through, caught out by Torji and so still winnable for Mount.
Oh, he hit that!
Sick adjustment from Torji.
Oh, plus you off of the post and that's the bomb drop. No and you can get on the cat. I think it was
Yeah, and that was already possibly has a crazy shot replay operators fingers are flying on the keyboard right now underneath the window
That is such an incredible moment for torgy. That is painful for focus brings this round to a grinding halt
Okay, banjo approaching carefully
Where do they want to end?
After you till they have options, but I mean like yo cabs already up on cat
You're starting to walk away with he's got a nice angle though to catch this
Very nice. Yeah gets the advantage and that was 2 HP to deal with so very easy pick up banjo into the clutch attempt
Really can't be ready for Torsi on the ramp. You'd think not hoping and Torsi
Here's you running over so he's gonna pick his time to interrupt it sitting duck Torsey
Triple kill round, but I mean monster shot. Let's just let's just enjoy this moment cuz there's right to left flicks, but an upflick
And drop the bomb as well right?
Get that trade, you know like
Here's the first not easy there
Oh, that's good. Oh, that's crazy fast. Yeah, that's good stuff
Not even a wall bang and just right above the legs yep onto the bomb
Slow down the entire round
I mean that part he can't really take into consideration, you know, that's just the bonus he earns
Yeah, with a shot that good you deserve a bonus
Hell yeah
Like, I- It's like you didn't really see it.
Here's the Cyclops over top of that smoke.
Zoomed in.
Into the 5v4.
Focus position for the A site take and looks like they're gonna do this unannounced
Walk up into Zelex. Oh nice shot. Okay. Yo cap sends an AK bullet back. Zelex will return the favor onto the palace hold
We've got a late underpass play coming through balance
He's freed up with a player right beneath him
They try to delay here and slowly but surely that underpass flank is getting into position
You can feel like mouths are starting to consider it and as they swing out into banjo
It's going to cost Zelex.
Nice time to kill coming through from the focus players,
but an advantage maintained by Maus.
Here's that connector pop up, but he misses his chance.
Will still collect on PR.
And Zershin, huge health advantage in a moment.
Nino Spinks is here.
He's got to be somewhere on the site, right?
He got the kill from default.
Yep, they're considering him.
ZTR just wants to blink up.
Oh, he reacts with a headshot.
Zershin slides through, and we've
got Focus hitting headshot after headshot.
Despite man disadvantage focus rebound and again just the one round lead
Yeah, and just a series of great shots in yo cabs kill on torzy. I feel like was everything
From a 4v5
From the 3v4 from the 2v3
And from that point they shut it down.
Maus very much limited, have to pull out pistols in this one, so focus with that round right
there.
Have suddenly made this second half interesting.
You get the pistol, you convert fully, you then break Maus' economy.
You're creeping back into this game despite the comfort we expect for Mao Zanmurage.
Those are always liable to win around like this, though.
Have to be very careful.
Look at him going over towards B.
And when it's a B-split with that involved, okay, that's hard to stop, but if they come
all through apartments, that's where sometimes you can get stuck.
If you can't get a guy out of the second window, fast enough, this is where egos can
happen for sure.
Will they put a smoke down in the middle? No, they give themselves one to play behind.
Oh, and it happens!
First Deagle shot connects, and now they're concerned about the Deagle, but the 5-7's gonna strike!
PR1 and done!
3v3, a bit of damage dealt.
Trying to figure out where Maus's members remain.
Trying to wait these smokes out.
Not an idea.
Yeah, they back up into Banjo, gives the edge back, Torgie responds with his 5-7.
Oh, he gets another!
Torsche is the first to collect a couple of kills, not just one, four mouths.
Yo-Kaw tries to close the distance, he's got 10 seconds, and as he sprints in, he's got no idea where Zershin's at.
And the gun is grabbed, they pull this off with just pistols, it is Torsche to make the difference.
They waited about 40 seconds, didn't see an A attack inside.
Based on our pattern recognition, all the demos we watched and all the preparation we've done with Cyclone and Zipix,
Insertion is gonna make the call we're gonna move over to be and they're gonna run right into us
And it's so good that the road to involve up if you're gonna do the cat split make it mostly cap honestly lights. Yep
When the rotator and the deagle gets the first kill you just know PR is gonna get one right sitting underneath the window
He starts to get closer. You can see all the teeth scrambling over the smoke a little that they realized
There was a shark in the water with them
And it still banks on somebody doing something special, but that round it's Torgy and it's
not the first time either.
He's up to a 13-8 scoreline with a couple of critical, unexpected moments.
Spinks is such a good distraction.
ZTR gets the trade back, but that's as PR pushes in.
in headshot still majority AKs for focus but suddenly it's their economy under
question Zershin takes a glance towards top middle that's a lot info and peels
back I'll have a quick change of heart
It's both a force down here for focus and a really important moment to win.
towards you can sense the attack inbound.
No support inside sight.
Oh, good.
Good adjustment onto Banjo.
First blood found.
Flash goes through.
Zelex opts not to dive site.
They'll give the space over to focus.
Mateo's trying to make this mid-play happen,
but he just missed timing on the player top mid.
Will catch the cap player unprepared.
That brings Spinks back towards middle, though.
You can start to peel back.
They still have Spinks to make sure
a connector can't get flanked.
So Zelex, you can stand here.
Yeah, they can't be worried about it, but he's not.
Yeah, nice shots.
Full focus forward, like you said, because Spinks is just simply back there.
Zelex doesn't have to be concerned about the flank,
and there's nothing Mateos could do with 15 seconds here,
so it is going to be Maus up to an 11-8 scoreline.
Easy-peasy, and it's tough, again, because Focus,
they lost that last, they lost to an eco, then have nothing, but...
just enough to get a couple of guns.
Magic sauce
We got a graffiti
Yeah
Kinda kinda. Yeah, you think it's gonna be like always things now. I think it's cooler that way
I do think it's kind of insane that it literally
Yeah
Like would that play have happened right if the tomato sauce was there. It's yeah
Whereas the graffiti literally just, you know, blends into a surface and it's totally cosmetic.
But we got something. That's what matters. For the first time in a long time.
Call it content.
Hey there. What you up to?
Catching that AK trying to get frisky.
You can feel Mao's sensing blood in the water. They want to sign up for this fight.
Feels like they know they have a huge advantage and with these pistols in hand for focus, they're right.
life of a B player. Oh yeah PR you like playing B guest too? Well here you can play B on Mirage
as well buddy. In a grand old time. Here comes the run out and it spanks who's just going
to collect all the freebies. PR trying to deny the plant bomb, eventually getting into
position. PR still hanging onto the site. He gets one kill for his patients. Imagine
that being the B anchor, full eco towards B. That's why you gotta not tell anyone they're
coming B. You only get one. You know what I mean? Get all the glory. Save it for yourself.
Yeah, tell them three seconds too late. 12th round secured from that one by Maus. Their
comfort zone clearly this CT side of Mirage.
Again, things were made a little shaky with the fact that T side pistol gets picked up by focus,
but that's them with both the pistols converting them both and still sitting uncomfortably on
these eight rounds. So I think, you know, Maui Snake painted a really clean picture of Maui's
just how comfortable they would be on Mirage and how the veto in this sense kind of spelled disaster
after the Dust 2 loss from Focus, it's feeling that way, certainly is, and a great outing
for Torgy here on map 2.
Great series for him in fact, being the second highest rated player after Dust 2, behind Zershin.
Now looking to surpass him in the best of three overall.
And Mao's proving to be one of the top bounties that won't get upset on their way to playoffs
in an event that does not feature Vitality, Falcons, or Furia.
I feel like Mao's starting to realize, wait a second, we're slowly becoming favorites.
Or at least in the conversation.
Spirit with like a word.
Surtian's gonna catch contact top middle, doesn't take a ton of damage considering
how many bullets he missed after getting his first kill.
ZTR shut down on his attempted exit out through that ramp,
so Focus's T-side just continues to hit
what is a brick wall of defenders.
Yo-Kav answers, but so will Zellex.
And so for every step forward, they're losing bodies.
Pottie in an attempt to break through on the cap plate,
bomb belongs to the banjo,
but Zershyn's been queued up for this slow burn out middle
and he knows what you're up to.
GG.
Maus, make sure to keep things clean.
And maybe it wasn't the most inspiring electric affair
back on Dust2.
But this is a roster that's also still
trying to integrate PR.
And a slow affair still turned into a map win.
On Mirage, we see them with their flair, their style,
and even a pistol forced by win for a comfortable 2-0
tonight over Focus.
It might be comfortable from our point of view,
I'm sure the mouse boys were sweating a little bit in some of those rounds now because again when we see it on Mirage
There were moments of brilliance from focus that we thought mouse wouldn't really let happen
We thought this was going to be a massive walk in the park for them
I was definitely pleasantly surprised by people like Banjo who were able to at least punch their name into these kinds of
Conversations about who deserves a call up, but as a whole unfortunately, you didn't really get the same fight from his teammates
Yeah, they put a couple nice rounds together, but a lot of their success on this map was predicated off of winning pistol and conversions
so
I'd say fairly expectably mouths are able to walk away with the series, but at least D2 is competitive too
Yeah, I mean we'll talk about mouths a lot more because we're gonna get to see them continue in Blast bounty
But I do also want to have a look at focus a little bit more and like how impressed were you now?
What are your expectations and where do you place them now looking at what they could achieve throughout the season?
That's a, that's a great question because I didn't really have joe cab on my radar.
I still don't exactly have a strong beat on what this sort of player is going to become.
If I maybe had heard some more rumblings or scouted in a little more seen more of Johnny
speeds in the lead up to this, I probably would have given you a more solid answer here.
But I think as long as focus hang around the top 25, they'll, they'll definitely be happy,
But they they probably need to win a couple of those smaller lands to make sure they stay in that conversation
Oh, I like it
We could still dabble in that conversation with them see them hanging around and it's nice that you sort of set this
Goal that you're gonna be looking a lot more at them if they can maintain that consistency for themselves
Unfortunately and blast bounty journeys over but it is gonna be miles making at least a minimum of top eight for themselves
One of the favorites here value that is not getting upset
definitely not gonna be joining you know the rest of the the favorites there on
that elongated break. Yeah, I mean thankfully for for mouse they were able
to withstand the fact that they went through a roster change to things could
have got messy certain ways maybe on some of the rounds they would say that
they did in fact get messy but too much quality on the server too many pieces on
the team that are able to hold their own in such a variety of circumstances even
win the rounds are a little trickier. I mean one of those pieces being able to hold his
own but also a new adjustment for Maaz is PR joining us here. PR congratulations on making
it to Malta. How excited are you for the LAN? Thank you, I mean I'm excited a lot. Sorry,
Sorry, this thing is saying some weird stuff here.
Yeah, I'm excited. It's been the last time I qualified with Gameligen as well, and we dropped out, I think, in the first round, so this time I'll try, and we will try all to make a longer run, hopefully.
Yeah, try and best that. And speaking of Gameligen, you came up against your ex-teammate in ZTR. He was kind of coining himself as the ex-teammate Grim Reaper, but you took victory over him.
Is it a little bit, you know, is it a great victory coming up against the next teammate or almost sad?
I mean, I didn't really think about it.
I saw yesterday when he was speaking, what he was saying, but I didn't care that much.
And yeah, I mean, it was it was not against him.
One thing that I always talk about with Maus is how I rate Cycrown incredibly highly.
How's it been working with him so early on after you joined the team?
I mean, it's good. Obviously he's very experienced and he has a lot of... yeah, he just... all
the time he's helping me a lot. He's giving me a lot of info. I have some new new positions
so yeah, I really need help and I would say he's helping me a lot. So it's nice.
What do you think of Xerxion? I mean, that's another big story with watching Maus ever
ever since he became in-game leader that he just frags at such a ridiculous level.
How does it feel for him to both call and to just shoot so hard?
I mean, for example, on Dust, I didn't have much action, so I was just quiet kind of,
and I was just enjoying my time, and they did the work for me, so it was pretty nice.
How does that feel, by the way, when you're kind of playing a map and no one ever wants
to come to your side are you like almost itching and being like please guys let me change it
up just a little bit I don't want to be a soldier anymore I mean sometimes it's good
that I can you know you can have a little bit of chill but sometimes they're like yeah
I hope this time maybe they will come now can you make a setup or something so yeah it
depends all right well PR thank you so much for joining us congratulations again on qualifying
to the playoffs. Look forward to seeing you soon. Yeah, thank you guys. See you. Yeah,
it's gonna be nice to have PR. I'm excited to see like he said it, right? They qualified
to the LAN part before when he was a game religion, he's hoping to make a deeper run
a longer run of it there. But I'm just excited to see what mouse can do on LAN. If this is
going to transition into a cleaner sort of mouse for themselves, if it's just still going
to be that consistent. Yeah,
eating out wins, but still
having a couple of close and
messy rounds. I feel like
either way, Maui, I'm going
to be very impressed for the
first two and one tournament
of their showing and of their
caliber. Uh, they've yet to
drop a map. Yeah, some of
the games have gotten a
little bit dicey or more so
the rounds have gotten a
little bit dicey and they're
probably losing in a couple
ways that are frustrating
them. But I'd say the fact
that they've weathered the
storm of these opening couple
rounds, whereas orgs like and
teams such as G2 and Vitality Falcons.
So many teams crashed out, but even with their own roster
move, you still saw so much of the individuals,
the teamwork on display.
I'd say that they never really doubted themselves
in the game plan, whereas some of these teams,
when the rounds are getting really tight,
around 22, 23, they change things up.
They tweak too much, and it leads to mistakes.
I thought mouths were very centered in their approach.
It's great to see him. Paul PR, you know, he talked about it too, where he's like,
I don't know, man, Dust2 was kind of like whatever. I wasn't really doing much,
but I got to tell you, in Mirage, he really showed up. In fact,
there is a very specific round that we wanted to have a look at, a little bit slower,
because he clutched in. These are the rounds that we're talking about. Like, they shouldn't be
getting this close for Maus, but the fact you can rely on someone like PR now, that's a godsend for them.
Totally. Late round situations for PR are so fun to watch, because once he gets a beat on the
just the positions of these guys, you can see just how accurate he is, how quick his decision
making is so solid. I think that it goes without saying, but maybe I'll bring this up for people
who haven't been watching PR, that he's a low-sense warrior. So if he just, as soon as this guy has
his finger on the pulse of where the next fight is coming from, his hit rate is so extremely high.
Like look at his sensitivity if you're at home right now. It's it's like Niko levels of really really slow. I
Mean just that second kill that he gets for himself. I'm like that's dirty. That's nasty, man
You should not be getting shit like that
No, and like that you're seeing a pixel over the box if you miss that guy around the box there is gonna crouch
He's gonna wait for his teammate because he knows he got spotted
They're gonna play the situations out differently if he just misses even that first one or two bullets
But that's what you get with PR. You get a guy that's just pristine when it when he's locked in
Well, I felt like you know the cherry on top of the cake that has been such an amazing start to our round number two of
Blast Bounty
But we're gonna recap the whole day for you guys because it was four best of threes in which you had to
Consume all of the action around it. It started off with then delay up against phase and in the draft show
We were you know not aware if they knew that they would be essentially be playing from the last series to the first series
But they were still able to bring it to phase it went to all three maps
Unfortunately, it felt like they sort of ran out of steam or at least maybe needed to warm up a little bit more than Maui
Well, I'm happy that phase made it. Okay
You can cry some tears from then delay over there, but I'm gonna bet you're celebrating with phase over here
Look, that's super valid
I everyone wants to see the resurgence of phase and another team people are loving the resurgence of right now is
is liquid, they were our second best of three. They also qualified themselves a minimum of
top eight all the way to the multiplayer stand by getting a 2-0 over G2. So right now they
are also another team that hasn't dropped a single map, a 2-0 over Vitality and then
a 2-0 over G2.
I am super happy about this iteration of Liquid, how they have as well just gone 4-0 throughout
the opening series and against such stiff opposition. It's fair to think that after
they beat Vitality, was that a fluke? Are they just overperforming? But when you beat G2 as well,
who also made it to the most recent major playoffs, you have to take them seriously.
Another seriously interesting matchup was Astralis up against Houttu, where after seeing what
Astralis were able to do to Houttu on their map pick of cash, I was thinking this one's going to be
a case closed on their map pick of Duke, but unfortunately they let that one slip to the wayside.
And a lot of lessons went from their last matchup. So to be able to take the two maps
in which they lost to her to previously as their wins on cash and ancient.
Hopefully these are signs for a brighter time for Astralis
as they can learn from their mistakes more actively.
Don't think we really got all of the insight necessarily from Neo.
How much of it is his responsibility or how much of that was hooksy learning?
But either way, I think that it's good for them to kick things off like this
because they kind of held their ground as an orc.
They didn't they didn't change players. They just changed the coach.
Yeah, who did talk a little bit about like how much effort he's putting into learning their system and said to find a balance
Oh, I have to learn your system, but you also have to get used to mine
I do just wonder if it's only gonna get better in the time that they have between now and when we see them at land in
Multi there, but we can have a look at what our most wanted and our bounty hunters are shaping up to be because run one delivered us
So many upsets. Unfortunately today out of our four series that we've seen
I don't know, maybe I should be happy. There's at least being a one right round two could have gone the same way now
We just see the favorites win but liquid at that point
I actually kind of think they almost by the favorites even though they sit the batting on a call
Feeling some people are looking at this tournament right now, and they're just seeing a free win for spirit, but nah
I I don't know something is definitely a foot even the way that og puts push spirit in their opening series
I don't think anybody's safe here and that's that's what the bounty is provided. It's like reminder
We had para vision winning it last time. Okay, this tournament
It doesn't get any easier for anybody even if Falcons probably thought that grand final was a cakewalk. It wasn't
No, it's not easy at all. So when you look at it, yes
Sure, mouse might have easily been able to get a 2-0 over focus
But I do wonder exactly how spirit are gonna shape up against a hundred thieves because liquid a wildcard team was able to get there
to win against G2 as well.
100 thieves could potentially
continue their run as well.
And so we're going to have a look
at our schedule for tomorrow.
We're going to see exactly when
they play what matchups are
happening.
So you guys can make sure you're
going to enjoy all of the final
iterations of our round number
two four Blast bounty.
It starts off with NIP up against
Payne.
We've got 3D Max and Foot.
We're going to see Mongols and
Wildcard, which was, Mongols
was picked up very early on in
the draft show.
And then of course we end it with
the absolute banger of the top
seed spirit going up against that
up against that bottom seat of 100 thieves. So so intrigued by that final
theories. I feel like some people might write it off for a free spirit win. I want to see 100 thieves
once again play to the level of their opposition. I want to see them push spirit.
I want to see that 100%. I am also intrigued by the Mongols one right where everyone sold them in
the last round. Number one of
the draft show as this potential
easy win because of what they
had lost and not necessarily
the equivalent being gained.
They were able to continue on
in round one, but people didn't
necessarily change their viewpoint.
Their mindset was still the same
there, so it feels like we've got
two absolute bangers to cover
there, but it's for great matches
for great best of threes for you
guys in our final day of round
number two for blast about it,
starting off at midday. Make
sure you guys enjoy that and
spend just under properly.
A new, bold counter-strike format where every round raises the stakes.
Here's how it works.
The prize pool isn't just this at the end. It's distributed as bounties.
Each team starts with a bounty based on their seed.
Lower seeds begin with zero, but can still strike it big by hunting bounties from higher ranked teams.
Win a match and you secure 50% of your opponent's bounty as a guaranteed payout.
The other 50%? It carries forward, growing the stakes for the next round.
After each round, the lower-seeded teams pick their opponents from the higher-seeded pool.
This happens during the live draft shows, taking place before the tournament first begins,
and after each round of play, bounty hunters can choose from the most wanted teams,
deciding if they want to choose their opponent based on strategy, past history,
or simply going for the biggest prize available.
This is Counter-Strike like never before. Are you ready to go bounty hunting?