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that we're going to be playing
tomorrow. We're going to be
playing tomorrow. We're going to
be playing tomorrow. All of our
quarter finals have been so much
fun. But today we look towards
our top four. We look towards
our semifinals and find out who
exactly will be playing it
tomorrow in that grand final
joining me is, of course, view
and Maui here. Who are you
excited? A weekend of
construct still ahead. I am so
excited. I could say boom
chocolate. Just straight in
to go out and malta right now. It's a little humid, a little sticky, and that's kind of
how some of these games have felt, you know, a little messy in some ways, but they're still
good fun. It's been so much fun. I actually think that's the perfect way to do it because
there was so many rounds, so many maps yesterday where I'm like, I really need the guidance
of you guys to get me through this, and maybe those at home watching, maybe they wanted
to spend their Friday a different way, but not this Saturday here. So we're going to
have a look at what was our round three and four quarter finals. It started off with FaZe
up against Mongols. Is that the messy sticky ones now? Not so much. I would have to say so. I feel
like the new comeback was where things got a little bit, yeah, like it's sticking to my skin.
This was a really, really tense game, one that I think Mongols are having a lot of regrets over.
The way 9-10 was reacting there, even though he was trying to wheel his team through that,
there's just a T side that got nothing for them at all. The 13 rounds in a row for FaZe were
in their own way legendary and may say that maybe that magic still is there in phase. Yeah they had
the kind of questionable map pick we wondered why they went for nuke and then we really wondered why
they went for nuke when they were down 12-4 or something along those lines and then they managed
to come back I think the reality is they just said guys are CT side unstoppable just win pistol get
three rounds we're good to go and apparently they were. Well it sounds like you don't have any
questions over their map picks anymore than at least not about yesterday's quarter finals that
that went on for themselves.
We mentioned a lot of plays throughout it.
When you're talking about the stickiness,
is there a player in mind, Maui, that sticks to your brain
when you think about those three maps
on the side of Faze specifically, I'll say?
I would definitely say that J-Bone has shown a lot
in terms of just how he kept Faze in that one.
He was probably the reason for the high humidity
in some of those games where it just said,
like Faze were hard to put away.
And that was a lot of due to J-Bone being active,
both on T-Side and CT-Side.
I think that's one reason I can already get pretty excited about this guy.
He doesn't feel like he needs always the defensive half to get going.
He has actually been a nice standout on the offense.
Yeah, I think one of the things that's tough for operas and CS2 especially,
to find effectiveness on the tee side,
to see an oper on phase, finally,
that can be effective on both sides of the map with the AWP with the rifle in hand,
I think is very impressive.
And he's only continued to impress.
He's really had one bad series so far in a phase jersey.
struggled, but other than that he's been lights out with the off in hand and not
to say that Mongols made it hard for him. You can see a lot of these shots seem
pretty easy, but when he was called upon he did answer very effectively. You say
easy, how many of those would you have hit there? One or two of them. I need some
refrag before I can hit more than one or two of those. The thing is that it's
it's also just that he is putting himself in good position. Sometimes it is
about the easy shots. I mean look at somebody like, say, Zaiwuro. A lot of
easy shots, but always making the game look so easy for himself. And that is actually sometimes
even a better sign than just great flicks all the time. It's not always easy to hit the boring
upshot. That's true. That's true. That's what CS2 has taught us. You're trying to just outshine
a little bit more pizzazz there, and most of the time, you're going to see mongols continue on.
There was so much showing in them, right? 9-10 was doing a lot for his team. But more importantly,
the newcomers were where we were wondering. Doc Maas, I would say Ticklewack definitely
superseded what we were expecting from someone's first time out of land in a T01 environment.
When they were allowed to be in their comfort zone, when FaZe was just giving them
straight-up aim duels, I think Tick-Wack, Darkmeister, both really impressed. When they were
stressed, when they were put under pressure against the Tier 1 execute, they really struggled.
FaZe didn't hit them with enough of those, in my opinion, but when they were in the
looser situations, when they could call their own shot, when they were pushing a lobby,
They weren't when they were defending a site hit with not a lot of utility
I think they were incredibly effective and they are two players that I think both are
Incredible finds given if you've gone back to the drawing board for Mongols now two three times
You keep finding players like this that have the synergy as well on these upper holds
Against the upper splits to work together to this level. I'm really impressed with Tickawak
He's a guy that I think is actually gonna keep on gelling for Mongols from the early signs darkmeister for me
I'd say the jury's a little bit still out.
I'd say it's almost map dependent.
I think some of the maps he gets to play
some more rotator positions,
and some of them he just has to be more of a hard anchor.
The hard anchor stuff, I'm not always loving it.
But I think on rotator,
you can see kind of how he gets a little bit more active.
I think he's even picked up a secondary off before.
So those kinds of moments,
you can see a little bit more flair.
Keeping the conversation moving to our second quarter finals,
you've given us the description of what was our pain,
I'm sorry, our phase in Mongols series,
but what's your description for the paint
and Astralis series now?
Man, the paint Astralis series is like you're,
it's like Sisyphus, you know.
I was just saying, fever dream.
Yeah.
They just kept climbing the mountain
only to have it all roll back down on them.
It was very tough to, you're wincing
because you're realizing that both of these teams
had so many chances to win the series in so many ways.
Like, look how close all three of these maps went.
I think the straws are really feeling
like they could have been better on the defensive side of nuke there.
I think that pain probably would have wanted that inferno back,
even though they were the ones to claw it all back.
And then Mirage two, we were one good period grenade onto Hooksy
from seeing pain be playing here today.
So so many tense moments in this.
Yeah, you saw twist talk about they were at 30% yesterday.
I think Astralis might say they were at 40 or 50%.
You know, they they had some good moments.
They had some great plays.
They had some really good game plans.
They seem like the better team map to map on a lot of the strategies coming into it
But then they just fumbled time and time again
I mean there were eight four up t-side inferno and they managed to let that one slip into overtime
Even allowing that to happen. I think is something you really want back if your Astralis
I'm curious as to how many map points what kind of not necessarily thrown away, but eluded out to teams
I think is the nicer way to put it there because it really did feel like that
You're about to close that and all of a sudden no, it's such a thing as I wouldn't say thrown away. I would say fumbled
Okay, that's why I said eluded I said eluded them, you know, it's no one fault necessarily, but it was yeah
She would you expected that high?
From the the heart test. Yes. Okay. I test probably no I I mean that's a lot
That's like that's probably three times as many as you probably should have to close something out
Yeah, I mean that was a record-breaking day if you include the phase series where they had another eight or nine match points that ended up going
So we have 20 across the day very a very competitive day in a certain way
But certainly one I think both of these teams that are going to the semi-finals from yesterday are going to be regretted
It tested them mentally in bucket loads right spades and spades needed there for themselves when it comes to being able to be resilient
and they didn't really stop there for Astralis in terms of difficult decisions being made because
we moved into our draft show and they had to stand there and decide did they want to go up against
Spirit or do they want to have to go up against Maus in this semi-finals and it feels like the
easy option Maus should have just been taking Maus but there was a genuine disagreement happening
in the Astralis camp about what they wanted. I'm not sure what I can leak. Can I repeat this?
Well they said it on stage. That is true. That is true. No, there was a legitimate disagreement
and within the Astralis camp where Hooksy wanted to take on Spirit.
And also, there was another player on Astralis who had a life game against Spirit
at those ESL Pro League quarterfinals, which we keep, I've kept referring to.
Well, Posey wanted to play him again.
They wanted to run that back.
They wanted to see if they could take on Spirit, you know, get a lot of bounty,
get a lot of VRS points.
And I can't completely blame them.
You know, you have the same exact roster that you had then.
You were able to defeat them.
You probably thought to yourself, yeah, this is legit.
We are sick, but the rest of the team said early game. We don't want that. That was a sad thing
You kind of came down to the early game like the fact that the highest seed has to play first today do it's like well
We had a last series do you really want to run it back with potentially only like eight hours after a draining day?
That is the unfortunate part for for mouse. I think you who actually were saved. I think
Absolutely saved by this one hook seat known as a bit of an over thinker
They're talking about changing their system going to the major and then changing it again. He wanted to big spirit
That would have been a catastrophe
Would be a disaster
I am happy they went for miles at least in terms of their chances to win this one
Well, I want to see what your chances are like in a little mini game as well
You guys can play along at home
Well, you can head on over to blast TV and you can play a game of higher or lower. It's powered by IC market
It's a lot of fun. We've seen it time and time again
But will my analyst do better this time around is the skin on the right valued higher or lower than the skin on the left?
45 I feel like you kind of got to go lower. I
Pretty high I have that I have that a4. I use that a4. I think it's lower, right?
But yeah, I know things have got things have changed higher it's cool. I think you go lower. It's higher, okay, I
Would listen to do I would they both voted lower. Oh
Oh
Defeated in this game
That I think I actually also have this skin I saw that skin in 2012
Yeah, no, it's a really old skin. So I usually would think higher, but the emperor's nicer. It's a way nicer skin
It is so low. I'm gonna take lower lower
It's gonna be higher
Wow, I knew it, oh my god, I'm sitting on gold.
Whoa, it was significantly.
Oh my god.
Now his inventory might be the fossil
period of anyone who's in the store.
Why am I working?
I could retire.
I called that skin ugly in 2015, OK?
That was the ugliest skin.
No, I still have that one equipped.
Well, we'll judge you on your catastricht takes,
not the skins that you're using in the game there.
Let's have a look at our spank tool.
A spring gave it to me, OK.
OK, well then friendship wins at the end of the day.
You go to power through it.
But here we have FaZe up against Spirit.
We've talked about how high a seed going first
that did result in FaZe having to face them.
And then Astralis taking that later series up against Maus here.
Two, I'd say the first one, firm favorite.
Second one could be actually a little bit more interesting
than people expected.
Maus came into the whole tournament
looking at one of the firm top two teams,
but they've shown weaknesses.
The same way I thought Liquid had a very good chance
against Spirit, if Spirit played like they did online,
I think Astralis have a very good chance
against Miles if Miles play like they did in the quarterfinals.
Well, it's been fun getting to run through the start of our day here,
but we want to turn our eyes towards what is going to be our face
and spirit match up just after this break.
We're at the Black County with Team Spirit, with Donk, with Magix.
In your opinion, how did last season go for you guys?
To expectation, beneath expectation, or are you happy with it?
It was pretty expected that we, like the beginning will be a shakiest thug, but you know at some point we just locked in and played much better, so it's like a strong 5 out of 10.
It seems like you put a lot of pressure on yourself to fix things, because before you just got to be, you know, you were at the beginning of the spear, you were just a young player, you got to, you know, you always get to have Kevlar on the pistol rounds, now you're the guy that's dropping guns and things like that.
but uh so now it's uh it's just a changing of roles obviously in perspectives yeah i feel like
this is kind of a life cycle for contract player you begin with being the prospect showing great
stats beating a lot of people you know at some point you are going more to the entry roles
the other day you're dropping your weapon the next day you're throwing utility
The other day, you're in IGL.
If you're a bot, you die in a week.
If you are not a bot, you're winning a couple of tournaments
as IGL.
And after this, you go coaching.
And after this, this is the end.
But broadcast now, let's broadcast.
Yeah, that's the end.
OK, Donk, how do you feel about your individual performance
throughout the years thus far?
Just Rachel, I would say, because I had a bit of a problem with the DM show up as a team, but I enjoyed it, I felt great.
I can say that I was consistent as I was last year, but still I think I'm still pretty solid.
You struggled against Falcons at the Major, what is it that Falcons they seem to perform well against you?
No, I just choked the match and I think it was too important for me to win this major.
Like, basically I won my second major and I have like more, maybe like 10 years of career
and just one major is not enough.
If Spirit do anything other than win the trophy, is it just a failure of a tournament?
Everything is a failure unless you win, because...
Have you been a pro player?
Not at this level, not at that level.
But, it's just an agent.
Yeah, yeah.
An agent in the feeling.
You go to a tournament, you lose it at some group stage, playoff match, doesn't matter.
Next days, you are heading to the airport and shuttle, and you are full of regrets.
It doesn't really always matter how you look, even if it was effective hit, you had all the opportunities, you are still full of regrets.
Do you think that FaZe can challenge you guys in any way?
Because it seems like maybe the gap is very big between the two teams, like skill level, experience wise right now.
Because they have two new players coming in, Twists as a new IGL.
Basically yes, they have like two players, but they didn't have players breakers.
because they were playing these Chinese moments
and after this they play like boss bounty
and they have non-subgrain and it could make difficulties.
We are definitely the other dogs in this game,
so I'm not that big of a pressure.
I'm excited for the game, I'm excited to play Spurs.
I don't really care who we face, I just want to play the game
and I think we still can win the game
I mean if we don't win that just hopefully we play a close game and some good tiers.
I love the eagerness that's coming out of J-Vo in there in the interview where it goes.
We just want to be at least good counter strike because we know how heavily handed we are as the underdogs right now
but I'm hoping maybe a little bit of momentum is on their side.
Even though it was a close and maybe even sticky or messy series
It was enough for them to have confidence that propels them off. We can still take it to spirit
We could do it up against another to one team. We can do it up against someone like spirit
Yeah, if we can do it against Mongols that just changed two players and don't have
These are pretty much the same two things like it's fought the difference Valley as much as you would want to dress it up
Yeah, I'm trying.
But there's some punchers' chance here for FaZe.
I would say that they'd be happy if they just had a competitive map of CS.
If one of the two is competitive, maybe if they steal away and win their map pick,
see if it gets tricky there, then you could be happy walking away from this tournament.
But I think FaZe are already happy.
I think that they already beat Mongols, they already were able to move up in the VRS standings.
They're going to be getting now a handful of invites into tournaments,
which just course-corrects them completely after a disastrous previous season
the Major. Now it looks like
Faze is back and going to be competing more regularly at tier one events.
Yeah, I think it's fair to say that this has been a successful event no matter how this one goes.
Jay Bowen is saying if we can make the maps competitive that would be great.
I think if they could pick up a map win, as you're saying, if they could change it up, you might see cash in this one.
I would love to see it. And then you see them pick up a map.
I think that's a very successful showing for Faze.
Yeah, it's interesting to see their journey through round one, two, and then of course up against Mongols because some of the teams,
the way that they got there. We were seeing them go up against these big names, really
being the underdog and overthrowing what was those expectations. For FaZe, it's been Ivalos,
Dendele, and then Mongols, right? That's the question mark I have where it's like, were
they ever really underdogs or were they on the same footing that just ended up proving
themselves a little bit more?
The Mongols one is definitely the closest. I know the odds on most of those games did
favor phase however the the Mongols one was the biggest coin flip and with even
how nuke went I mean it was it was neck and neck so they're they're very happy
about that I don't mean yes on paper I think phases supposed to be good but
that's also a Mongol team that went I think two and three at stage three of
the major yes they changed some players but now we know that some of the players
are actually pretty decent so that's why I feel like they actually still have
proved themselves at the event yeah I mean this is they didn't have the win
like they played Dendeley, Dendeley beat Furio, right?
You didn't have a win that was popping off the page that way,
but I think just finding consistent victories,
that's already something FaZe has struggled with for quite a while.
So starting with that, I'm happy with it.
So I'm going back to what you briefly mentioned, Maui,
is that they're going to be happy walking away with this
because of what happens in the VRS rankings for themselves, right?
But are they sitting on that cusp? Is it going to put them in a...
Like, where exactly is their trend and trajectory looking for them now?
now. So as far as I know, they're in the running now to get invites for the ESL Pro League,
EWC, I think the Thunderpick World Cup, if a team or two drops out of that one. Yeah,
so they're on the cusp. So that's kind of a scary prospect. So that's why, yes, there
are still a lot of stakes on this game. Yes, they've moved up in the standings because
of the win versus Mongols, but a win versus spirit. Okay, now, yeah, they're going real
They're pretty much a secure and almost all the invites for the remainder of the season, so it is still like a lot up for grabs here for face.
Yeah, when Faze dropped out of the major, I think the average fan thinks to themselves, we'll see them next season.
Actually, if they had failed at this event and a few others, we wouldn't be seeing them this season almost at all.
They'd be at home playing in the dull germs of Tier 2, so the results of this event, although nothing jumps off the page, this is incredibly important, and this would be a huge win if they could find it.
I think the other thing is we jump off the page. You mentioned him in that pre-show as well. Jay Bowen, the way that he was able to
shop against the Mongols, he's also the one that we interviewed beforehand where he's like, we're hoping to make you competitive.
I feel like that does not rest heavily on him, but if he can have a mirroring performance of yesterday, we are going to see those not to be competitive.
And the thing is that Jay Bowen has absolutely passed the test. The eye test, the stats test, whatever test you throw at this guy,
He's been doing a really, really solid job.
I'll bring up again the fact that the T-sides for this guy
are really something that I don't know if FaZe can rely on,
but I've definitely been liking.
I think that his spacing between him and Brokey,
I think the biggest change I'm seeing is that Brokey
was just a little too far back so frequently.
Whereas Jay Bowen, he's kind of almost like shoulder to shoulder
sometimes with riflers as he's moving forward.
And that seems kind of claustrophobic,
but he's hitting a lot of shots.
And if you can, your spacing can look a little bit clustered
But if you're just actually adding to the firepower force moving across the map,
then it actually makes a big difference.
Yeah, I think when you look at Jay Bowen, you also see him as more of a standard operand that he gets early kills.
When he looked at Brokey, he would avoid early duels and then he'd play in the mid-round.
But as you're saying, sometimes he was a little far back.
You see Jay Bowen even comfortable with that.
I think he's a very well-rounded operand for how inexperienced he is,
for the fact that he came from big Academy so recently to see him comfortable in these chaotic
situations. I think is very impressive. And although he had a great tournament coming up
into this one, I think this is a spirit team that's going to make it a little more challenging
than we saw him get challenged by Mongols in terms of utility. We've been getting a lot of good
information out of our free match interviews. James Banks has been doing a great deal of work
there. And so I want to know what exactly sort of information he got out of J bow and just before
they came up against Spirit.
Jabon, after the game against the Mongols, it was clear that Twists wasn't satisfied
with just how the team played despite getting the win.
Did you discuss the reasons why last night this morning?
Yeah, yesterday we talked about our game. It was like not even close to being good.
We only played two good halves in the whole best of three.
That was our, like, debrief only about.
Like, we didn't play as a team, we didn't play together.
So many, like, stupid mistakes.
But, yeah, I mean, if we could win the best of three,
we're only two good halves, so we can step up and we can play better.
What did you discuss exactly? What was it like that you were noticing in the game
and how are you going to make sure it's fixed for today?
I mean, we just didn't listen to each other and we just didn't move together around the map.
We didn't really ping pong and connect really good.
We just need to talk and listen from round one and then it should be better.
be locked in that's what it sounds like to your teammate looking at this it's
your second event for phase right and your both times at least guaranteed
semi-finals now right if I told you this say the beginning of the year that
you'd be in a phase journey two times semi-finals of LAN events this kind of
prize money what would you say? I mean I only joke a bit of my former teammate
widow about it and that I would join phase but and I'm here so it's a bit
bit crazy yeah it is very crazy but it's looking good so far and how much are
you able to learn from each of these officials that you're getting in tier
one level like what does the process for you look like in improvement how you
review your games and make sure you keep growing I mean like the thing I do the
most is like talk with our coach about our games we do what you're good after
the game or the next day after and then we just like look at my mistakes a lot
the team mistakes and yeah I just try to remind myself for like what I do wrong
and what I do better. And looking at some of the things you do wrong I know like
you hit some crazy or shots and you're very well measured of how you take the
or shots sometimes though you're still in positions where you're still in the
open I know you believe you can hit it but then you might get taken down is
that something that starts to be in your mind and how do you deal with not
changing so much that you lose your identity but then you still make the
the correct shots were needed?
I mean, I'm not really sure to be honest.
I think it's a hard question, but yeah, just learning and
maybe still some bad habits from like the
like, what the skill is that I used to play at,
where I could like really abuse these things because
like people didn't like abuse it or like abuse me.
So it's just like I need to adapt more.
That's a big learning lesson and definitely a question Mark
when you come up against a team of a high caliber,
maybe say spirit if you ever ended up in that sort of situation.
that sort of situation. Are they going to be able to take advantage of it in the same way? Or is it going to still be that little bit of
pizzazz that you catch them off guard?
The thing about the Mongols game for Jay Bowen is that he was feasting on players who were not assisted by flashes very frequently.
Even the smoke sometimes didn't even disguise the actions of Mongols very well, whereas Spirit, they're just a much more well-oiled machine.
On top of that, they shoot way harder.
their understanding of where operas are likely to regress,
especially given the fact that they've now seen J. Bowen play in these environments,
so now they can kind of track his habits too.
I don't think Mongols was really thinking about how do we anti-strat J. Bowen.
That is something that Spirit, or at least Holly and Magix have definitely considered coming into today.
Yeah, if we saw anything from their last matchup against Liquid,
they absolutely have been preparing for these games.
They know the opponents they're going against.
They've watched their demos. They're going to be ready for this player.
and as much as I want Jay Bowen to do well,
this is the same stage, the same type of level,
a semi-final on land where I think he had his one bad performance so far.
I do worry about that.
But at the same time, if he could show something,
even one really good map against Spirit,
it just continues to up my confidence in this phase roster
and Jay Bowen as an offer.
But looking more towards Spirit,
something that you brought up last time, we saw them play boo,
is that there is the inevitable.
There will always be dunk.
And I mean he is showing up something he said is this is going to be or could be I don't remember
What was your exact terminology about him being the highest rated getting his highest rating?
I believe what I said was I guarantee
This will be the best event Donk has ever had in the history of Counter Strike and not just for dog
We're comparing dog to dog. This is dog versus the entire world
He is the best and this will be the best. Tell me I'm wrong Maui. I think this is Voo's best hot
I'm really proud of you for
this one. I think that this is
just it's a it was a great
prediction going into this land
that he could actually just one
up his catavita one. Obviously
the events are of different
scales, different magnitudes.
However, even at sometimes
smaller little events like the
little cups with eight teams
and things like that, don't
then put up these kinds of
numbers, but he is on a war
path right now. And I just
think that the level of
competition don't is just like
he's salivating right now.
He's hungry. Yeah, he's hoping
that he is going to make your
make your guaranteed prediction
view correct, but we also wanted to
know how he's feeling tracking so far
in Blast Bounty.
Donk, I'm not sure this is something
that you even look at, but
you have a 1.76
rating so far, just in that game you played
against Liquid. You could
potentially beat your record
of 1.70. Do you
think you could?
Basically, record is
1.75
And I think...
Maybe yes, maybe no.
Maybe it's the case, I don't know,
I don't want to expect to beat my record.
You know, it's weird, to be honest,
to beat your record, but I think no one will pass.
I'm gonna need Donk to take a page out of your book.
He's gonna need to have more confidence in himself.
Yeah, yeah, I'm definitely gonna beat that record.
I mean, he did say, I don't know if I'm going to do it, but nobody else is going to do it.
Nobody else is meeting this record, so it's either me today or me tomorrow.
Donk on these English interviews can be a bit more mellow, a little bit more modest.
As soon as he beats it on Telegram, he's going to just write the craziest thing ever.
Look, I did it again, you know, something like that.
The third thing is we have to keep our eyes peeled for when, as it was guaranteed,
it inevitably happens, but we can also keep our eyes peeled and see what maps we're going to get in this best of three.
three. We're going to have Alvito of coming up here in Fano getting banned out by Spirit.
And I guess before we see the picks and more bands coming up, what are you hoping to see?
Well, I'm not hoping to see that now. I didn't want to see a Meron.
What then banning them? Oh, I wanted them to ban Dust2 because both teams ban Inferno,
FaZe got to ban whatever they wanted. But now look at this. Spirit just picked us
This is what the best map, I don't, I don't,
ah, okay, I'm a little disappointed in FaZe actually.
FaZe with that ban of Mirage, basically, it's the choice.
Do you want to play Spirit on Dust2,
or do you want to play them on Mirage?
You know that's what's coming up.
I love that Spirit, FaZe do pick Cash,
but I'm near your sentiment.
I question the Dust2 spot.
Ah, yeah, no, at least we get to see a Cash here.
You could hear the audience already enjoyed that one.
I, yeah, just go back to that.
I don't know why FaZe, I think FaZe
haven't really looked at Spirit's Mirage.
which has been a lot shakier, I mean, but, okay,
DeSider here, we're gonna be getting
the ancient band coming out from FaZe,
which actually leaves us with a new base.
Okay, we got a couple of different maps in this one
versus some of the other series.
A lot of dusty stuff, but at the same time,
I'm just gonna say the first map there,
you could have gotten this to be Mirage,
and unless FaZe are just totally
unconfident in their own Mirage,
I think you take that risk versus spirits Dust2,
which is world-class.
I'm almost concerned that they're overthinking it,
that they, hey, we've played Mirage a bunch of times.
They're gonna know our Mirage a little better.
Spirit have looked a tiny bit shaky on Dusty.
They lost the OG, but that's their home map.
That's a map spirit.
Since it's been brought back into the pool way back when,
it has been them being one of the best teams
in the world on this map.
I think their Mirage is much shakier.
And I question if this is one of where FaZe is going,
hey, they're gonna be counter-strattling us.
Maybe we wanna go for something different.
Who really knows what that thinking is
the end of the day. That's how
it's played out. Mirage isn't
going to be on the cards. It
is going to be dust to start us
off here, and it is going to be
DDK and bought off. Oh, this is
interesting that full James. I'm
really excited. I mean, is the
underdog power going to pull
through somehow? There's a lot
of work to be done here by
phase and the numbers say the
exact same 5.26 versus 1.22. I
mean, they're underdog that much
is clear. The last time these
It was many moons ago. We've got two different players for both teams, but don't got an ace against them with an AWP
Again like if you go to stats on hLTV, he's one out of a hundred for sniping
So I'm just loving how that story continues and indeed it is a shocker. What is what do they have up their sleeve face?
What do they have in mind going for a
Pick a veto of mirage over dust to it is very curious indeed
There has to be a reason which hopefully we will discover with the coming action. It will be spirit the aggressors to begin the series
Yeah, what to see where they're going with a line up in mid through the doors
They're trying to snipe with the USP's from phase a respectable opening
But the smoke there is going to deny them temporarily
Flash back to a long for spirit as it gets some early control. They discover there's nobody home and in the meantime phase are getting active through tunnels as well
Indeed they are
Quick split of the A bomb site seems to be in action. That's a great start from J-Po and he'll have a lot of work to do
Especially here on Dust2
There is Magix. He's got a good angle to get some trades at least and a 1 versus 2 now
Switching out for another glock plenty of bullets to solve the issue 1 versus 3. Sorry. There is a flank coming in from long as well
Bomb plant secured. Got some extra range, but only two bullets. Oh, that's awkward timing.
He gets the reload and still standing for the time being that we need to urgently find that kill
But it won't happen one plot. Yes round win. No
That's exactly what you want to see again. This is such a huge underdog story here, especially, you know phase against the spirit on
Their best map which just like they said on the best case always been their best map James
They've always been incredibly difficult to deal with here in this map
And I mean just the amount of wins that spirit rack up on any map anyway
I'm so excited to see what
Jay Bowen will look like
versus spirit on dust to
because again coming up to I
mean, this is really coming up
to top flight counter strike
now where. You've got a judge.
Like how far can you go? How
aggressive can you be? Before
being too aggressive and too
risky versus spirit. You can't
be afraid to to take the
you can't be afraid to take risk and play a confident game, but you need to find balance.
This is a dangerous round here because Donk has to hero AK, so forced by anti-spirit, the only rifle, of course, they put it on Donk.
The greatest counter-strike player alive, and that could yield some good results here for them.
They're going to be looking to work. Bruce, on this early counter-gernation of CTs, that pressure it made,
could force rotation or more
needs from. So it's very
trying to bleed phase a little
bit, see if they can find any
early information on the set up.
They've established some good
map control showed presents
towards short and they've got a
quite a good amount of utility
for around such as this do
spirit. Lots of intention as
smokes go towards CT. Keeping
their options open. You can see
facing very defensive
positions on the a bomb site
where the majority are so it
could be trouble. It could be
trouble ahead towards B. Yeah,
this is actually very dangerous
This is actually a very dangerous situation for FaZe, they're going to get split on and
there's no assistance here.
Just two players, a good spread out from Nato, but he's going to have to go for the reload.
Oh my goodness, an instant kill from Donk.
Nato in the back has to deliver more kills.
Nato, he's done exactly what he had to do.
What an absolute disaster.
I've got to say, James, right off the rip in the second round, Nato is in a good position.
There is the anchor.
Yeah, really good delivery from him.
two good rounds, two good confidence building rounds.
If FaZe can keep this momentum early,
I think this will be really good for the psyche of the squad.
Very expectation here from Ney2,
punishing the attempt to get behind that lurk smoke,
really holding his own on that B-bomb site,
stuck in the corner, nowhere to go,
and still the man delivers.
Very key round early for FaZe,
that puts Spirit on the pistols.
Can see if they'll do some damage to that CT economy.
Oh, there's a good flash there,
that. Yeah, he's not. He's not
looking for. Yeah, he's so
scary just seeing him running
out there. Okay. It's gonna be
the one instead to find that
legal headshot. So you thin the
numbers ever so slightly for
phase. But at least you know,
that gun is highly unrecoverable
from phases perspective. They
won't worry about that. But
what's the plan here now? Spirit
will be grouping up looking to
perhaps take over that mid
position and recover recover
that gun could be an option
magics. You can see the bomb making its way over towards B as well. Trist will be looking
to keep Spirit on us in that mid area. So we'll see if there's anything left for Spirit.
Still a dangerous round with some Desert Eagles. We have seen Glock rounds one this week at Bounty.
nice angle from me too lovely tax there as well
Stiko recently did a video a very brief video about me to holding that position
on dust to see if that's something that spirit looked to counter as this game
develops yeah and I think just a very quick note there I think it's kind of a
smart way to play around from spirit because probably thinking the same thing
that I was that's okay. There's a rifle to be collected there waiting out the the mid smoke and that might be pulling player one player out of B
So then you can kind of overwhelm the anchor from the beach on rotation
So you know smart stuff, but so far face delivering individually and that's a good sign for them
Sure on the AWP as is Jay Bowen
Now the real game begins on dust to
through CT spawn so look after the double doors which indicates right now
phase understand this cat control and it's typical of spirit it can mean
absolutely anything and everything so they have to be prepared to it. I think
an important thing to watch on the CT side as well is how phase hold utility
they've done great util damage for all the positions that Dongs been holding but
the late mollies and the late smokes from the CT perspective will be key in
holding down spirits and ruining their timing. The spirits sort of faking the
Mid presence here with the double smoke there in mid and you can see it's pulled the CTs out of B as well
They're expecting that mid play, but it's actually a catwalk play which leaves it up to Jitbo and can he do anything from this position?
The flames are definitely obscuring his vision losing some opportunity for shots there
Doesn't know where to look players all over the place here from spirit, but we're in a 2v2 off the plant
And sure has got an angle but he wonders about the smoke HG's continue doing damage
but can it follow up on the promise of all this Utah damage?
Shiro's got a great angle, scopes in,
swing and a miss, Nathie's been dropped though,
Natalie's frozen in the clutch.
Very awkward position for him now,
running low on bullets down to the USP,
just can't find what he's looking for.
Shiro finish off the job, spirit find their first round.
Again, you can see the Dust 2 mastery there
from Team Spirit again, you know, throwing those smokes,
really making it a convincing argument
that Twist has to stay in CT spawn,
And then as the nays come in from that wall, at least Jay Bohn in a position where he has to connect a shot.
But he also has his crosshair pulled down lower in the chaos, unsure exactly where the T's are positioned in that round.
And I think that encapsulates why Spirit are so difficult to play with.
Once they get cat control, it can be anything.
Immediate money pressures for FaZe.
They'll have a Bible, see how good it looks once everything's come through.
the first some discussion. Again, they see well studied for spirits T side so far. But
I think other teams have been well studied before. If we go back to the liquid match, they spoke
about being a bit too stiff. So we'll see if phase can adjust on the flight if required,
if they can be like liquid, no pun intended. Again, difficult when you've got new members of a squad,
you saw them say that they felt like they were 20% in their previous match. But again,
Again, trying to find that synergy without the longevity may be challenging, but may be necessary for us to seem like SPIRIT!
Oh!
Goodbye, Jaybo, and that's an expensive walk straight in the bin.
Oh man, okay.
Froze is going to collect the AWP here, it's not over just yet, but on the CT side of 5v4 for the T's, it's just so insanely difficult to play against.
Phase will have to take big risks, you know the options that you tend to have is play aggressive somewhere
But I mean of course you have to expect spirit to look for that
So that feels bad or you stack towards a position and try to hold on to the weapons
And just you know if you're wrong you just save that's that's really oftentimes how teams will handle this position
Just can find something that could change the fate somewhat here for the face side, but look at this spirit grouping up in the upper tunnels
That's the end of the round there and they're losing more.
Again 25 matches since Spirit lost to someone other than Falcons or Vitality.
That is the challenge ahead of FaZe in this series.
Very painful way to start around where again they had high money pressures.
They're going straight to eco territory.
They really need to hold on to these two rifles.
Yeah, that sucks. It's a unique feature of DOS too that you can just instantly kill a
CT as ever, so running into position in the first five seconds. And you can see the
Spirit not really wanting them to just be able to have anything into the next round.
They're very, very good starts and the Spirit showing that they can just take over the game
very quickly.
3 rounds at the moment, so we can find it frozen, looking at the family position, always
going to get forced out there tonight with the wall bang as well, so 2 rounds now for
Spirit and the money broken for FaZe.
I think one of the most difficult things here, James in this matchup, for sure it makes
it look so easy, but one of the most difficult things in this matchup is, I think it's very
to play a disruptive style against Spirit before they get to that position on Catwalk, where they then just get to have a massive advantage.
And I think that's the conundrum, there's almost no team in the Wulkan situation.
Yeah, we saw recent challenges as well. CT's playing aggressive in the short position when Spirit were in their staging area.
But even then they were jiggling, avoiding bot flashes and so on. It's just really hard to find the timing against them.
Time for a face to think in rounds such as this
The difficulty starts early versus spirit
Sonic's still looking for his first right, but team are doing just fine
And although it does not hope really here for face to win the round
You do really really feel like you have to get some kills
You don't want to allow this economy to get out of hand here
You do need the capacity that when you win a round you can threaten that that eco from the T side. So
Effort to get a kill grouping up in that mid position, but she like she didn't fish in a barrel for him
Very very easy indeed
through the choke point
They say that able to overwhelm is on ticks as you're actually whiffs a couple of shots
But I don't think they're gonna get too much more than that
Choke hold on this round
They are so surrounded. Okay, we can maybe have a chance to get this AWP, but Donks alone planting the bomb. Everybody else focused on not allowing FaZe anything into the next round.
So indeed it will be difficult. And again, FaZe did a lot of good work with utility in those previous rounds. They will have less than they might like.
I wonder if they will use a HE or something to try and cross those middoors a bit safer now.
So much at risk if they if they don't and indeed she comes fast skill frozen gets tags through the door
One thing I mentioned here is that there's no off for the face side
So that a defense in general will be a little bit weaker because the AKs will outperform the M4s on some of those ranges
And so just not having me off it just makes a
Bit more susceptible to these attacks and so more of a cat focus right now from phase as we do get spirit taking over along control
They have a lot of players who are lacking flashes as well, which can make it awkward
to try and have an aggressive response to what the T side is doing.
So Spirits have established position of that long position, and Fates have fallen off shorts
to some degree.
Maybe they've got a hard read as to what the real game is here from Spirits, as you've
seen them boosting in CT spawn.
Yeah, I like how they're playing is for here
They're trying to be in a position where they can just if there's you know a play anywhere
They can react very quickly as a team if if spirit go to be sex Gigi basically
They know they are in a disadvantageous position on the guns and the utility
So they have to find an advantage elsewhere and they're gambling a bit to be able to react as full players
Spirit holding has made phase exhausts almost all of their utility a
A swing for information. Now what is the play? The bomb's pretty much hard committed in that long area with two in lower tunnel.
So they're going to have to try and clean up this short position. Doc's the man to do it.
You can see Faze holding angles. I didn't know which way to look Faze. It's so awesome for them to try and best Spirit in Dust 2.
15 seconds to get this bomb planted though. Twist has to be dealt with. He will be eventually...
He took some plays with him and that gives Faze a chance now.
He needs a chance now. Seven seconds to get this bomb planted. No one's on the site to do it.
They've got to win by elimination here. They've got to find throws. There's only two seconds to do so!
My word, they still win the round!
The last second, in the last possible second, the kill comes through.
Oh man, FaZe got so close. They delayed for so long there, really making Spirits advance onto the site.
Very challenging, but, God, it feels like...
It feels tough, man. It feels tough to watch that.
I felt like FaZe really made a lot of really good moves in this position.
And they had so much patience in the round as well.
It's very, very difficult.
With the kind of round they were trying to play to be as patient as they were.
But they did let the game come to them, but unfortunately for them,
they're going to be left with just a half-way here.
They did a lot with a little of their FaZe.
This shows promise, but again,
a lot of crap rounds when you've got no money.
and you can see that. And for
that promise soon the half may
be over. So we'll see if there's
anything left for them presumably
after this one. That's a good
type, though. You see the five
sevens already as well. Don't
lucky to escape that scenario.
And you got the A players are
coming into CT spawn to expect
to deliver a defense against
the middoors. See if they can
control it with the spray. Magic's gonna be just the only player there in that
position and not going down. Really a chance of fate. That did not go their way,
Spirit. Full control on the A site now. Very calm and steady from Magic's. Again,
not shy to eliminate the threats. Always good support as well. Calculated
risks we see from Spirit. And again, another clean-outs for them. Nicely done.
the team. They're going to be
able to get into a position of
advantage and sometimes even
the disadvantage like seeing
those side defenses with Nate
from NATO. They're going to be
able to have a good shot at
closing down some of these
rounds. So I have to see what
they're going to be able to do
in the next few years. They're
going to be able to get into a
position of advantage and
sometimes even the disadvantage
So, we'll have to see what can happen now that Jay Bowen is going to be back on AWP.
You'd imagine the Spirit, you know, they could try to pop a site.
But the thing is with Spirit as well, again, when they play that slow round,
they evade all of the disruptive play from the CTs, get to a decent cat timing.
They are so consistent at converting runs from that position,
you almost don't need to play those pop timings as well.
So, we'll see how they decide to handle this Spirit.
See if they can cross the mid-doors phase.
this time they do well that's a good start for them good timing on the money
towards long also with some presence towards short my frozen gets caught by
the middles very early indeed yeah didn't expect this pace switch up from
spirit really really fast good defense there on the catwalk position absolutely
crucial and the nades coming in there getting a little bit of extra damage
four players for spirit and after losing a player cap there they are canceling that
movement. Now, we're rooting to the upper tons. Just expectant. Alfie's going to have a double push here.
Natu is very alone on the... He has an incendiary if he finds the timing to use it, but have a look
at that radar. They are on the way. Here comes that incendiary. Swift needs to start rotating now.
Natu holding his craft. Once again doing fantastic work. Staying alive. Buying time for that rotation
to come through. Zontik's and Shiro remain. Natu finally dealt with, but help is here.
He did everything for the team right now, has given them an opportunity.
A lot of time to work this position for Spirit.
Well, good made there, Zontics barely standing, six points of help.
Flashback comes in, but he understands exactly what to do.
Spraying blind, Zontics stays up here for the two versus one.
Jim Cullen comes in.
Oh my God, gets a lick of flame, so one HP damage, up to the end.
Oh, and Zontics, the fact that he's still alive is a problem.
Five HP or not, and that's another round from Spirit.
I feel like they have come close in some of these rounds, getting things down to a 2 vs 2 and such, but you've got to do more than come close versus spirits.
Spirit feeling, perhaps the aggressive presence here. You've got the pop flash ready to go there for a collapse from middoors as well as the catwalk swing as well.
Just to try to punish the cat take timing from spirit. So spirit might try to bait this.
support fire it's still gonna work out though for phase spirit might be in some
trouble for versus three for phase now can't twist get out position quick up
boots in the middle and to near will collect them nice track from Jacob of
the Desert Eagle still not close to a primary weapon in this round that you and
P and a D goal to try and clutch it versus Taneer and Zontik's with AK's
I mean they can collect a gun but you can see Zontik's really does understand
That would be a pretty big win, but still Jacob, he punishes.
Santex acting the guardian there of the weaponry on the floor.
And now FaZe takes some stuff up, but not before Tanea.
Just a casual couple of bullets on his way across.
Importantly, a smoke collected by Jacob.
Well, Tanea hasn't rotated towards Long.
Standing and fighting then, some Samcutes from Ney to...
Jacob's picked up an AK, but he's heading all the way towards Long.
So let's see how this one plays out, then.
He's going to try to position himself as best he can.
He knows where one player is. That's an A3.
He doesn't know where that second player is coming from,
but he's got a good idea.
Jacob will be able to finish off the job there for FaZe.
He will secure an important fourth round.
It's been a drought for them, six in a row from Spirit,
but they still time to pick up a few more before halftime.
Yeah, like you said, James, two or three of the rounds
in this half so far have been extraordinarily close.
You can see it going face this way with that marginal bit.
What a shot there from Jacob.
Holy, the D-ball coming out in this round looking absolutely phenomenal.
And you can see, Faze, the individuals are here right now, Jakes.
Oh, my word.
They are here.
Yeah, that's excellent work.
And again, like this, we're a bit in the dark in terms of Faze's plan on Dust 2.
Of course, many expected mirage over Dust 2,
but what is their target for acceptable rounds on the CT side?
What do they have in mind when things switch sides?
What's on that piece of paper?
So many questions.
They definitely came into this one with a plan.
Yeah.
And like you say, it could have been
that the Dusty scrims went really, really well recently.
There's lots of reasons why decisions like this can be made.
And in a series against a team that is such a massive overdog,
you want to probably prioritize your comfort.
And so that's another fact that it goes into decisions
like this.
And now we see the remaining two rounds.
It's going to be a much better buy here for FaZe.
We see Jay Boon back on the AWP.
We'll see if he's able to deliver something.
So far, this game has been quite challenging for him
to get involved.
I bet they watched FaZe watch the match with Spirit Liquid
as well, and were maybe able to absorb some information,
saw some habitual plays.
Again, we saw great detail from FaZe's utility earlier on.
to make everything look like everything so difficult. You guys don't you might be, you know, trying to move his way up, Catwalk stands there, the rest of the team kind of positioned closer to the double doors at the moment, a minute to go, as we're, so that a more normal timing.
who might be trying to move his way up.
Catwalk stands there, the rest of the team
kind of positioned closer to the double doors at the moment.
A minute to go as we're further than more normal timing.
Twisty, plant CT, phase looking after the double doors
aggression.
Smoked off at the moment.
Again, what does it all mean?
You've got the two B anchors there just sitting
on the site at the moment.
It's no, they need to not overreact.
Jaybone might have to fall off to long completely
in comes the attack on Catwalk.
A twist out of HE, but I think he's used it towards mid-doors,
which will certainly help Jacob on the flank now
as the spirit numbers are cut down.
Might have a chance of a tight score at halftime
the way things are going.
Magics versus a 500 HP phase.
Talk about a response.
Getting stronger towards the half-send.
Maybe a good finish could really empower them
moving to the other side.
But let's see what Magics has in mind for them.
He's got a bomb to plant, and there's no one to really contest it.
Two frags now for Magix.
He's forced to go for the bomb, but Jayson swings on through.
Great headshot from him, and I mean, pretty...
The fact that Magix made it feel doable in my heart and mind there,
I was like, okay, this is kind of scary, but 5'6' scoreline is pretty excellent.
Like you say, James, this is a 6'6 right now.
Look at the performance of the details to the A site there.
And, you know, they were operating without information.
They had to give up a long space here,
because they wanted to not overreact and give Spirit something before they committed to a site.
No one to challenge on this occasion.
Sure, going for the B-Play instead.
Any B-Player will be very familiar with the fast peeks from a sniper,
and they're two holding his utility for now.
This time he's got support in the early game, much quieter round from Spirits and frozen to push through long already.
They're going to test N2 again, N2 alone, takes down Doc immediately. We'll see what he can do. Matt just comes in on the mid-doors, while this is all going on.
No way to return here for N2, and he's going to get taken out too, versus Fallen out for the face team, and it's not a good look for then.
Although, back up on Twist, well, Jake is dead, so everything now is on Twist.
You know precisely where he is.
It's going to be an unceremonious exit to this round, unless Twist can do the unthinkable,
but it's not to be 7-5 at the end of the first half here for Spirit.
We have a few multi-words on Flash Cards.
If you did it your best shot, go through these dog by one and try and guess how it's pronounced.
Have a little guess as to what you think it may mean.
I shall pair her...
Huh?
I have no clue. Maybe it's something related to weather, maybe?
What's up, please?
One of the largest places here in Moldova.
Ah, that's my chance.
Okay, then the next word is...
Next one is this.
Zurich.
Zurich.
Zurich.
Zurich.
Zurich, no?
Zurich.
Zurich.
Zurich.
Okay.
It might be a place as well.
It's just sitting here at the sea.
Next word?
Well, it's it's getting tough
Jota, there will be like a little bit. I think like it's probably like some city or like meaning
He's
In current in carrot in carrot
Empire.
Empire. The queue is not...
It's at Earth.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
For me, it seems like it's some like a dish.
It's like a...
It's a pastry.
It's a sweet pastry with...
pastry.
P... p... p... p... p... p... p... p...
Gili Puku.
Gigi?
Gigi Foku, or...
Gigi Foku.
Chivchivoku.
Chivchivoku?
Pok.
I have no chance.
It's fireworks which are pots on the streets.
Fireworks?
Chivchivoku.
Chivchivoku.
Okay.
The last one.
So...
Kicha. Is it right? No.
Well, it'll be like Kuchiya.
Ochiya.
Ochiya.
Ah, ah, ah.
Che is not...
I see.
The doctor said che.
Che.
I think it's some diff, sort of diff.
That's when a baby has his first birthday.
He's got a few things, like a room there, a pencil.
It's like a tradition.
The second tradition.
Okay.
It's crazy to see this one come in the future, check it out.
Can filter, Miles.
Yeah, yeah.
Or can filter.
Faze leave the first half with five rounds on the board,
not too shabby, considering Spirit,
13-0 to 100 thieves,
13-7 liquid on Dust2,
and yet Faze still go to Dust2.
happy to leave it open. And Vito Morage, it's like they picked it themselves then.
And look at this Donkers getting sent up with the doorways.
He will back away behind the safety of the doors, but yes, you know, face, they did win that first
pistol. Winning another pistol here would go a long way, but Tineer able to take down Twist.
There's a lot of problems here. For Face, a deal with, hello, Tineer still there. Absolutely tragic
Here for base, they can't put me on this note, and they've lost three players.
An awkward moment.
On long, that leaves Jay Bo in versus five.
And doesn't seem like they're going to wait around for him.
A minute 14, the road needs to win this duel in quickly though.
Just trying to hide the heads on ticks, unable to do so.
It's going to be a long challenge though, especially with the shadow advantage here for Donk.
Good patience for Jay bow and I
Just can't help it. What do phase have in mind? They have to have a plan for both hearts
They have to have surprises. They have to have hard counters
Maybe spirit reactor a certain way to a smoke or something who knows?
I'm very curious to find out but yeah, this was a bit of a false path
Yes a shame too because they don't even get the bomb down
So with the bomb down you you have options to have a I mean
You should be forced by it. It's for sure if you get a bomb down, but right now it's a harder decision because you don't want to allow
Spirits to, you know, beat you if you have a forced by and then and then just start to really rack up the rounds, get the open to play
early on. Like, I think FaZe want to be able to come out with rifles as soon as possible.
So I would expect to see them, you know, actually having a Glock save here and just kind of giving the round to Spirit.
Trying to maybe get a kill or two and I'll see what they decide to do though.
sometimes teams have very good force buys even without the bomb down and if they feel confident in that maybe they'll go for that choice
but we'll see that's actually the case here is actually yeah they did say all except Twist who's actually got a scout
yeah I think he tagged Vontex as well
will be a challenge to follow up on that but they've made the investments
So, let's see then, losing that second pistol phase will have to do it the hard way, if
they could really change the dynamic, had they been successful there, not the case though,
there's never going to be easy versus spirits.
So, you can see that the scout does force a little bit of respect and there's also a
wild where maybe Twisted is buying a Mach 10 next round and they've got a round for their
first gun which is going to be based around Mach 10 opening, kills like a bee pop or something
So we'll have to keep an eye out on that but you can see the space creator the respect given by spirit
They know that they can just play the sights there and have a really consistent advantage without giving up any cheeky kills
And that's gonna force base to have to make the move and we'll see how they decide to
Make these decisions so they clip this opening position behind the double doors. Do they continue to go further?
Does he maybe look towards the a with the scouts see if someone's towards the car or something?
It'll be be first. I've got the time to do this
I think they need to use this time to try and drop someone somewhere because dust two four glocks in a scout how on earth do you get a bomb plant?
Even if you're running the gauntlets. Just absorbing these bullets, it's going to be so difficult.
Well there goes Jacob at first with that bomb and again this should be relatively easy for Spirit to deal with and indeed it will be.
it will be. No players lost
just about will be absolutely
fine for them. Actually really
like this round from phase with
that you know, one single scout
again, you know, we'll see what
twist decides to buy. And if you
know the expectation is that
they can just throw twist
through a position at choke
point. Maybe it's long with an
SMG and you can pick up a gun.
You know if he survives and
someone said for so it's actually
not very bad at all to have the
we go, we'll see what the plan truly is as we do see the MAK10 on twist.
Shiro, hyper-impressive on short to open the first by-round in the second half.
How long does he hold here for?
He's got plenty of sound cues, rifle supports on the way as well,
long abandoned by the CTs for the time being.
That's a big flash, Ethan, and there is twist with that MAK10,
just forcing the issue, dodging the grenades.
that will pull Donk closer to those mid doors and spirit all over the place. Again, they had long, completely absent and sure has been very compromised.
So what did they choose to do now?
Yeah, there's three smokes here right now for the side of phase. You can see a double smoke coming in there.
That's a really nice use there. Really threatens that play into the B side from mid and they can actually make this a little bit.
Maybe they split into the A side, but there's three players here and without HE kill, this actually makes Spirit looking, I think, quite nice in this position.
But Doc's gonna go through the smoke beyond two players. He has no idea the bombs being somewhat lost in the meantime collected behind a smoke
But Jakes position and survival will be very very key don't able to find me to
Keeping his thoughts open there, but he's caught by frozen two on three
They've got to go quickly before his angles are compromised by that last B player
He's towards the doors, but shiro catches frozen maybe some hesitation from phase a nice idea
but the execution proving more and more difficult.
Japan's in a one versus one now towards the speedbomb site.
But that B player can be anywhere he chooses.
Japan is going to be ready for him in that car position.
Zontics will deliver the final frag, putting spirit on 10.
Yeah, I think a very smart move there from J-Bowman
to go for that.
So smoke made it into B, but yeah,
it seemed like the phase round here,
it had a lot of potential.
You know, we get this opening here from the twist.
With that McTenna just does its job.
And I think the fact that Spirit had so many extra players on A there in that position around Catwalk,
it gives them a good ability to kind of respond and the kind of variance there is don't walk through the smoke.
I think that's really why the round started.
He had decided.
The grenades from Spirit on Short were so impactful.
Basically removing the Dragonfrag, a great flick from Twist, spots an elbow, and Shura is gone.
We'll see how much is left as an AWP that.
Bench.
Maybe they can have a look at later on, because on Six will head in towards that mint position,
have a look towards long. They
still have that scout so there
could be more threats in this
particular round. Perhaps
Swiss has really been putting
the timing on Scouts nice
because they never seen him be
the scout guy for the team.
To me. I mean, there's been
really sharp so far today,
special song position, but
look at him go to sit with the
scout. Okay. And that's a gun
collected as well. This is
time to get very tricky for
I think it's a good idea to
play. Work of a captain. There's
no smoke for the cross though,
James, so they're going to
fall back out.
Frozen have a timing here.
hiding on Xbox, but does he
look at all? Magic says
closing the distance. He does
Oh, magic. How did he find
that one? Oh, there's just no
justice for phase. They've done
so much work. It's going to
try to fake here, though. As
the crosshairs now pointed towards them for two players.
Spirit have to clear this 30 seconds to go to us.
Imagine if you hit that shot.
But now they know it's a fake.
They know right now that it's just all a lie.
But how many lies?
Maybe it's compulsive lying
because the bombs going back towards long.
Twist knows that they've only seen that one player there.
So surely it's a deep on site.
I'd even caught on the rotation though.
It looks like they are again difficult for FaZe
and Twisters asked for more.
Looking low, they're dropped from high.
And it's J-Bone of the Desert Eagles.
So close. They're really fighting to some now, no matter what they have, but ultimately it is spirit on 11.
Oh my goodness. It is so insane. They've faced have made so many rounds.
Oh no, no idea. That's amazing. Obviously that from twist.
But they've made so many rounds really uncomfortable and you almost would love to have seen if they would have just gone past into the A site, James, when they had all their players on long.
Obviously, you know, they didn't have to smoke for the cross, so you understand that we're into the buy again
Hit for phase keep going back on the AWP
Our response from magic on short was unbelievable and very pivotal indeed
Spirit somehow stifling every effort from phase essentially
This is the big round now for phase they've made comebacks before
This may be the hardest challenge of them all though
Yeah, Capix relatively free, the set of the Spiritus was more not focused, although Shiro blind doesn't matter, still hits the shot, every single shot connects from Shiro and FaZe, they can't game the ground, they are trying to scale, but they completely denied.
you can make it work. Wow so so impossible. No angles, nowhere to go and Shiro just you know
showing how incredibly consistent he is with the AWP. 15 and 6 right now is Shiro and and you know
J-Bone not really finding the same level of success but again these positions very hard to find for him.
and then the next one. Oh man.
That is detailed. That is
detailed. That is being a step
ahead. That is being the
Oracle spirit in the matrix.
Oh my goodness. 12 to 5 now,
So they've gotten so many rounds so close, there's been so much potential for them to have way more rounds than this, but they're against Spirit on Dust2.
Yes, plenty of intense, noble intent from FaZe.
It was always going to be difficult.
Magic's U-Tilt damage is big.
I guess T'Niss donating his U-Tilt to his teammates.
Again, so many HEs just fully prepared our spirit, more or less since we learned in that respect.
So what do FaZe have left?
Last chance to loon for them.
Four.
Seed to be fired towards that B-bomb site.
Donk in the window, looking for more.
Collects two.
And not bad resawing.
So I'll take straight through the smoke, try to catch them moving fours into position,
but that's actually gonna result in a three versus three retake now for spirit.
I think one of the first advantageous scenarios we've seen for FaZe,
but there is so much retake utility available for Spirit.
Frozen's got a full stack.
Being deployed at present.
Two CTs coming from the halls.
N2.
So familiar with B.
Just piling his time.
Just gonna look out for that AWP though.
That clock is so flottish already
and Shiro could do with...
saving this AWP.
But it would look to make it expensive as well.
So a late round for FaZe.
Never count them out. I'm sure you've learned that already in this week.
Here at Bloss County.
But again, this one is going to be harder than the one on Nuke.
Yeah, 6 to 12. Yeah, absolutely.
First to spirit.
Got to add that in as well.
I think I heard a call there from Twist.
I think he said, let's play default now.
I think is what he said.
He sees that as being what he's doing, where he's trying to fake us out.
He's playing against multiple opponents right now.
but we're going to be back into the next round. Donk actually has a secondary AWP.
I'm looking for another ACZ. Another AWP versus FaZe on Dust2. Let's see it, Donk. What have you got?
So they hit the AWP in mid-due FaZe. They can't be expecting another one.
Chiris got a relatively defensive position on A for now.
So the threat level in that respect is a little low.
Fast developing round from FaZe.
Again, let's not forget those HGs that they were the recipients of earlier on.
They do continue.
They've been double-naded in that position they're standing in now.
They've been coordinated fighting players on the sites further up as well.
PTSD as far as the A bomb sites concern.
Oh look at this, we did get the pop flashing to long doors to try to understand. Okay, what's this play?
There's no one long doors there or in that position at all
Screw it. This might be what might expect it to be more of a mid to be played potentially
We'll see what happens there because oh
River smoke that's a nice catch from jacob
Now phaser in a four versus four, but there's 40 seconds left
They've got a lurker outside b in nat2. They have smokes they can
use if they want to go for a mid split. That trade is really, really important. They will use no smokes too, encroach towards the A bomb site, but such a common angle for Shiro to be on.
He'll have sitters. There's no flash to really take him off this at all. Here is T'Nin to collect two, which leaves Naito as the last man standing.
It's been a noble effort from FaZe, but I think it's too much to ask today to take that two versus spirit.
13-6, great showing from FaZe, but ultimately they just could not collect the rounds.
Yeah, one of the most exciting 13-6's I think I've seen in recent memory.
I think again you can see some of the ideas playing out for FaZe that made sense.
That looks really good. I think we saw great discipline from them.
I also think Naito was a revelation in this game, so a lot of positives to carry forward.
I mean, this is a great win for spirit there. And yeah, there's come full circle where my analysts were talking about if you want to come up against spirit on any maps. Is it really best to the one that you're going to leave in the pool? And they show you that no, you're not really want to be taking it to spirit on those two.
No, I don't think you do. I mean, this is a spirit team that even with John faltering, we
Consider talking about in the pregame to near. I mean to near showed up in this game
You still have shero you saw you still have so many dangerous pieces
And I think this is one of the maps where spirit are the best at manipulating the rotations in the mid round something
You don't necessarily usually know a spirit team for we saw some we saw several rounds where they actually pushed and pulled phase across the map
And interestingly this is a map where even when they pick it they they prefer to start on T side when it's picked against them
So it's not even a downside to start on that T side for them
Oh, yeah, it just it's the one map where you actually can trust that they're gonna
Work through different pieces of map control that they're gonna actually pressure the opponent in a variety of ways
They keep you guessing in a way and I got I got to bring it up
And we got the scoreboard on here
But one thing that I felt like was a surefire constant for phase that I didn't need to talk about was that frozen was gonna keep delivering
This is a really poor game by a standard some of the ways that he was getting caught by spirit
Wasn't even because they were doing all the push and pulling
I saw him taking some fights that were extremely questionable
And that really kind of hurts because you had Nate you who was popping off on that B bombsite next to him
If frozen just gave him anything else to work with in tandem
This would have been a much varied a very different game
Yeah, some of the reason that they could be pushed up and pulled across the map is because frozen was down because
They're on a 4v4 or 4v5 and phase of team they leave nature alone on the b-site a lot
But he performed his job. He pulled off his job exactly how they want him to it was the rest of the map
That was the problem. I know there was one moment that you guys were describing as an interesting end to around
It was round number seven, but I need you guys to break it down for me. I need to know what makes it so interesting in your eyes
Well, I feel like this is the kind of prime example of just how much pressure spirit exert on the map the fact that
Magic's throwing a mid to B smoke that there's a little bit of a dance between him and the short players here
But he keeps himself alive and then it just exerts so much pressure that the long take is already happening for spirit at the same time
Donk goes in in magic's is dead so that he's able to take this fight with full confidence that he has high HP
And then the crunch comes on it and then to near takes a big risk on the bomb site
He goes for a fight with the bomb, he gets traded out, and you can see, look at the time,
nine seconds left, it is down to the wire here, but Spirit are still able to pick this one up.
I mean, if you look at that, like that is within half a second of the round going in the way of phase,
but it also, I think, kind of speaks to just how even though there was a bit of like,
I'd say a mistake there, that is a mistake from Tenir, he should be just planting the bomb,
getting it down, they still have the contingency plans or the positioning so that they can still
capitalize on the advantage. Yeah, I think the Magix lurk out middle, he's in a perfect position.
as long as the site hit goes well, but you know the site hits going to go well when you
have both short and long. I mean, FaZe just gave them too much map for them to work with.
They knew how that one was going to break down.
Yeah, I'm curious though, you're talking about like, you know, the frozen part was the hard
side when it was stand to the CT. But what about Spirit side on the CT, right? Because
then that's a whole different ball game. Why are they getting advantages in situations
and why are they able to be so strong on not only the T side with pickups, but also holding
strong on their side?
I think Spirit has a more well-rounded side. They've got Shiro there with them.
They finally had Donk activate. We had the stat at some point.
Donk has more 19 kill performances and a half, then 4 kill performances,
which is what he started the first half with.
But you look at FaZe, a lot of what they found success with in the past on Dust 2.
They try and go for some openings. They've got Jay Bo and going in there for some Op picks sometimes.
They weren't able to find that in this game. And then Spirit, they're just an incredibly well-rounded team.
They have Zontics and Donk on B. That's an incredible duo.
And then you try and avoid them.
If you're FaZe, you try and head to the A side.
You're running into Shiro.
You're running into Tener.
There's no good option on this map.
Yeah, exactly.
This is a pick your poison map and one
where to bring it back to the veto,
why we probably thought for FaZe's sake,
they should have just been banning out dust, too.
I don't know.
When you're going into the prep, Voo,
I feel like I don't know how, in any circumstance, any world,
I would choose to get rid of Mirage,
which has been shaky for Spirit instead of a Dust2 that I literally saw them 13-0, 100 Thieves on.
Yeah, I mean, this is a map where if you looked at their Mirage, that's one of Donk's weaker maps in terms of
he's had the most bad performance. It's one of his strongest maps statistically,
but if you look for a map where you can attack Donk, it's usually Mirage,
and he's in a pivotal position where if he has a bad game, they're going to struggle for their defense.
He has a bad game on Dust2. It doesn't seem to matter very much.
There are many people who just pick up the slack.
Yeah.
So I'm looking towards phases all right because I do want to give a little bit of hope to those that are out there watching in support of phase that it is an old doom and gloom right this was this feeling of specifics that you gave spirit something they're incredibly confident on but we could still see people showing up today right.
Was there a phase player of course you're a little bit disappointed and frozen but someone else that did the opposite right that they were able to try and counter balance it for what might have been worth their weight in gold.
It's obviously Nate you but the problem is Nate you isn't he's not playing the same roles as a teneur
He's not playing the same roles as a dog
He's a B site defender and when your B site defender is doing well
The other team they're just gonna go the other direction a lot of the time or you're gonna have to have your rotates as I mentioned like phase
They very often leave Nate you very much alone on the B bomb site
So he has to perform and he does he picks up two kills there
But his team can't even close out that round
He the team in as a whole really struggled around a great native performance that we don't always see from him
Yeah, he's actually shown up in just kind of glimpses
He's not always a super consistent player because of the fact that he is on these extremity spots
I like for example would be something like be mirage for him
And so for him to have as competent of a performance as this and to let it go as a wasted effort
You maybe weren't gonna beat spirit anyways if frozen even kind of played 30% better
but it almost felt sort of, it's just, it's just like he's going to think how much more must I do when you, when you really had one of the best
B side anchoring performances you could have or spirit.
Remember it isn't necessarily beating spirit that phase one and walk away from this series feeling, it's the fact that they wanted maps to be competitive.
Dust2 wasn't, but I'm hoping their map pick of cash after this break will be that competitive map.
Tell me this, are we going to get to see some cash today?
I know you guys are strong on it, everyone's looking at phases cash right now, can you
challenge Spirit on it?
I think so.
Yeah?
Yeah.
So you guys picked it?
Yeah.
Oh hell yeah.
Of course.
Do you think that they will have a good understanding of what you guys do on cash and with that
in mind, did you try to change some stuff?
Did NKJ cook a little bit more?
Yeah, we got some new runs but let's see how it goes.
some new rounds I'm hoping Maui that's new rounds which are going to be like
that's exactly what they needed they needed a little bit of a reinvention
there because you've been hopping up what is being the face cash so long this
tournament I don't think that it's much of a secret right now that phase have
shown the best caches their T side is above a 70% win rate right now on the
map they're bringing so many different ideas to the map and I just think that
this is gonna be a really fun test for spirit and it is what we wanted to see
that they're going to be
going to be going to be
going to be going to be
phase show comfort and
strength on a map that a lot
of people are still just
getting their feet wet on. And
would you just sit in a
similar sort of pocket where
it is like I do want to see
more from them. Are you
already happy that what they've
been able to accept for
themselves on cash is like
that that actually in itself
should be enough to take on
spirit. Not their cash is so
3D Max was worried about their cash because of plays like this. This is something you wouldn't see on old cash
Mostly 90% of the rounds will be exactly like old cash
But not this one where they actually toss smokes on a to allow twist across into z
They don't allow this rotate back because of these smokes
They have someone trying to cover from highway
You can't try and get your way to where it's truck to actually deal with twist
He gets into z he takes down the rotator and then he ends up flanking heaven
and mullying the middle of the site so that his team can actually collapse on the bomb
site from checkers, from B main, and with twists from heaven.
This is the type of new style of play that you don't see very much.
There's limited successfulness, I think, to this.
It's a bit of a gimmick play, but at the same time, it's one of the things you see
Faze pull out.
You don't really see many other teams show off.
That is, it's just imaginative.
It's innovative, and that's what they need versus spirit.
makes spirit at times guest because for a map that seems so so straightforward as cash is I mean
It's one of the most kind of simple figure eight layouts. You could possibly design in the game
Oftentimes called a valorant map because the guy that made it went to valorant
It's it's it does have a little bit more to offer and I'm glad that teams like phase who just kind of need to get jump started on
The season are embracing it
What's really talked about so often though is the fact that they have two coaches one to focus on their macro one to focus on their macro
right and when you look towards a
you're going to have a series
a matchup prep and you're
toying with the idea that
phase are going to pick cash
for themselves. How easy is it
to anti strat something like
that when you have coaches
sort of splitting the
responsibility that spirit
day. I think it's easy to
think that you can anti
strata on cash, especially
you see it doesn't look that
complicated. They're going to
be going for the mid control.
They're going to have some B
execs. They're going to have
some gimmicks, but you really
need to be comfortable on the
map first. So nothing
need to, you can feel like, oh, we know exactly how FaZe are going to play this game, but
they're just going to play it well. They're going to play this map effectively as a team,
and you have Spirit with much less experience actually playing this one, at least in officials.
I think we've only seen it once, and I even would say that somebody like T'Nyr got kind
of bullied on the A-bomb site the last time around. They found themselves on cash, and
so a lot of it came down to, can Donk save him. I think that T'Nyr is probably going
have learned a lot. But if the standard rounds, the standard a hits, which phase also have in spades,
they also have a lot of those just kind of left side smokes that can just kind of
segment the site really well, get to Tenir. I don't know, I mean, Donk weirdly had a pretty
quiet game. I mean, again, trying to hype this up to just be, this is really the only in phase have
in a do or die map. Well, then I would say buckle up and get your butts in those seats,
We're gonna have a lot of fun with a phase cash specifically
Phase enjoyers come they are cracks on cash as you heard from the desk. This is disrespect
What is this? What numbers are these? This is wrong? There are too many zeros here. They have a good chance
This is their best chance
This is this is there has to be now obviously because they're one map down
But I think you know what I think despite the score
I think the efforts they put on dust who will give them a confident feeling that they can do it on cash
Which is again, it's their territory. It's their ground. They are the lion here on the savannah
Yeah, they created chances there were chances and I do agree
I think it definitely would feel a lot better than the score line itself would suggest
But yeah, I mean phase they're gonna the T side as well
So they're gonna be able to kind of put spirit in the vortex assuming that the pistol round goes according to plan
and in terms of what that plan is about to be, we're going to find out right now, right here, on the cash.
Give me a good game of cash, regardless of which way it goes.
I'm sure many teams will be watching FaZe to see what junk they've got to throw at Spirit. They said they had some new rounds.
They will not be respected immediately, though, by Donk. Risks will be taken in this pistol.
It's always nice if you can just post up at an off angle there for later on, but what is the intention from FaZe taking their time?
Spirit will have to have some good HG's in that boost position
So they have such good ones on Dust2, Shiro looking to stand in his ground
Then he's got some help though from Donkeys rotating all the way back to collect the first two. Incredible headshot, Sharon.
It's just over. It's just over. Maybe there was a timing there. You could see it was all about isolating that short player
but I mean the counter flash and then the assistance came so quickly
In the form of two players in the form of this gone getting just a tap tap
And the timing was
Absolutely destroyed in that mid position. So now spirit. They're going to be the one starting with the 1-0 lead and I mean to make matters worse
There was no bomb plant for phase. So they didn't really get the opportunity to put pressure on in this round
I'm not going to read too much into it because it was a fist around of course
you're going to have more freedom to make aggressive
risky plays on the CT side, but don't push all the way through B,
came back to mid.
And you can see, again, Spirit are very proactive.
There's high urgency towards A main.
I think you can't, as a CT side, push it every round,
but I'm very curious to see how proactive Spirit will be at,
taking something away from Faze.
If Faze wants to play a longer round out,
what are going to be posted up,
they're going to be holding in the boost position.
We'll see if that works out because I expect
to come there from the CTs, but
Very curious to see what's the buyouts come through will the spirit take control away from phase be it a main be it through B
And they don't have any util here phase
They're gonna try to rush in get the bomb down you've got the bomb waiting on they too in the door position
So they're gonna have to just run through all the rifles as you can see
With no util. Oh my god. It's a good
Okay, well, they knew he didn't have enough time for that. So it will be denied ultimately
So, okay, nothing from that round is all.
I mean, there's not much you can expect.
It's got to be worth the gamble to commit there.
Who knows?
No wrong decision.
204 Spirit then to begin this series.
So we'll see.
No kills for FaZe just yet.
And again, in terms of measuring the success early
of a CT side, these things are important.
So if Spirit has to be successful here,
again, FaZe need to cut them down
had the very least to build something in this first half of this year.
I'm going to talk over to the top two towards any quick action.
And the CTs will go into position.
And then it's broken, so you know, that sound will be definitely made very clear, I think, for FaZe.
The delayed midtake, you know, the classic here on cash.
You can see that spirit are very cognizant, and it's just waiting, he's ready.
You know, it's go go go. You got to come out to him and if you can get past don't care in mid
I mean the journey's not over there because you also have obviously magic there in for support on the white box position
It's cool. Well, he's got another HG as well magics and long still has a HG also
And I think it's gonna have a big part to play in how this develops
Really trying to do damage in that position not too much done just yet. Really
And this has been the recipient. We'll see how that one develops though because that will be important
What's the next step here for face? They've got a lot of numbers to see
Yeah, just sending us right to the dogs already in position.
However, he'll go down very quickly.
Really nice work there from FaZe.
Jacob, again delivering as we did see on Dust as well.
Now, the TG stuck behind the smoke.
Magics able to take down one.
I think they're in the first steps there.
Can take advantage, but the bomb should be planted momentarily.
But 3v3 retake.
A single smoke here for Spirit on that retake.
I have to see what they can do with it.
The kits on Magics.
Do they risk losing everything?
How confident do they feel about this?
That's the last piece of detail.
Honestly, find something on the way.
Jacob may be giving some sound cues to the player in defense.
Posting up to drop magic.
Guess there's Bell wrong, though.
Teneir fancies that one.
Shiro's picked up the kit that was dropped by magics.
But again, they need to be given something here by play.
He's really giving this thing to this one.
And now it's Nato who needs to stay alive.
He's so good at doing that, but on this occasion, no.
The retake is successful.
Shiro's got the time.
He's got the kit, and they keep that clean sheets.
12 HP, it couldn't have been much closer than that phase.
At least they wiped out all the weapons,
but there's a decent amount of economy left here for Spirit.
So they're not going to be sweating that too too much.
So difficult to stop the team here.
You know, you can see Doncat's such a good reader
to exactly have a position after maybe he was taken away from him.
He instantly rotated off onto the defense.
So it seemed like Spirit had a good read
the game. I think that's a
really rough way to lose that
round. I think that frag through
the smoke was a difference maker
from magics. Again, pay
attention to the H. E usage. I'm
sure the timing will change for
spirit indeed. It does as I say
that's that's going to be a
problem for face to continue to
deal with. But again, one place
surviving for spirit the plant
the plan allows the rifles to come through for phase. If they can keep that
plant then they will surely break them eventually.
And now Spirit have to wonder in what is happening for phase. We still haven't seen any of those mid takes coming on in.
And Spirit are not aggressive anywhere. They don't have A main control. They don't have B main control.
So Spirit are in the dark completely at the moment. As far as they're concerned, this could be a pop to one of the sites.
I wonder if the attitude changes when AWP comes out.
Both sides lacking one for now.
FaZe really have to deliver on this round, after only one player standing for Spirits.
They may still have a buy the next round regardless, but again, they've got to get the engine started now.
Donk able to avoid the flashes, willing to stand his ground as wide, but his own support, but Jacob wins the duel.
Sontics to trade, keeps them up as good for Spirits, and he does one better than that.
on two. Bomb dropped in mid. This round should be dead for Faze.
All frozen though, trying to make a chance here. 20 seconds to go for the bomb to get
planted but it is lost in middle so at this point it's not really all that much that can
be done and you can see Faze really changing the timing of this round. I think really hoping
that Spirit would have gotten aggressive somewhere but the Spirit just seemed also very ready for
the game. I think it's a
game for a pace switch up.
They have to save obviously
here phase. Spirit know that
to this question is just too
much to ask. Oh, you're blowing
off the time. Oh, you got to
tuck in that corner. You know
what's behind him. What a tough
spot for phase. This is a
disastrous start for the squad.
Again, that was a retake. They
the stage weapon on frozen that they kind of have to force by around this they're not getting the
frags here phase yeah jabon and twist frozen and they two between the four of them have got two
frags in the four rounds we've had so far yeah and given that we did have some you know success
getting onto the B site getting an after plot and so on either that's that's a rough situation to be
in maybe they could have converted that round they've got the AKs yeah exactly yes it's problematic
So far it feels like spirit are reading them very effectively. If your spirit preparing for this matchup
This is the one map that you're gonna be preparing for and it's the one map
You're gonna have the most data on against face. So so you can see that so far, you know
The game plan for spirit working out very well on the CT side. I
Don't think they had chain flashes for donks position. I think it was just a one flash that was coming his way
Which he easily avoided and just won the duel because donk
so that might be something that phase can pick up on for future rounds but again
they they can ill afford anything their AWP has got $150 in this round
very tough ask shiro 5 and 0 to near 6 and 1 position is good but you've got to
win those jewels as well
Okay, over the top they go.
Donk on either end again, just hungry.
For the multi-killers here.
And the AK as well.
Oh, no!
You guess you've got to make it a little bit harder for Donk.
It's a full-slag operation.
And now they go.
Flash, easily dodged again by Donk.
Take some damage though.
I know it's an equal rounds and they don't have a drop on for him. They're missing a lot of uterline so one but these flashes onto Donkeys avoiding them so easy that happen to that.
Faze, if you're looking to get a toss of timing on him, they've been pretty slow.
If you get a player down to the venue as well, very quickly, you do that twist.
See where he can do that position. As you say, Donk is out there, ready to go.
Magics rule not to be caught off guard. And now, Twizz taking the fight against Donk.
We'll take him out. So that is something at least with Magics on 9 HP towards B.
Faze do have a lot more to work with in this position, but Teniz getting active.
Yeah, a lot more is turning into a lot less as the seconds continue to tick.
and we did ask questions about this aggression once York came through. That's exactly what's
happening. But Jay Bowen's got that spatial awareness. That's really, really important.
But still, Spirit have got Shiro creeping in this position, scoped in. I'm not sure if any of the
action in A main was heard by Nato in this position. What does it make to play for on FaZe?
There's somewhat surrounding the B bomb site at present. Now does Nato take a risk here?
to the right. We're going to
get it. But if I want sure that
the release Gary angle to hold
versus the north. And there's
that flag we spoke about twist
again. Through the defenses. But
which way does the bomb go? Jay
Bowen's just holding angles over
towards be but heading towards
a now as they look to collapse
on the A bomb sites. Jay Boon
does have a smoke here. You can
put down for the cross. So you
know, sure is on this position
in the composition. It should be
So they'll be good on that one and twist actually takes down. I mean twist is delivering in this round three kills very critical kills as well
Looks like that. We'll see the first round finally going to phase
Yeah, I love this role for his squad
He's really in the trenches for phase
And doing great work great minds to have in that position
So the fights back continue that starts rather for phase a very late start late entrance into this first half on their pick
off cash. We expect so much from them. They've been the one to watch as far as this map is
concerned. They've got a lot of work to do to clear out that CT money. But again, I think
Donk in that short position, as they continue to contest mid, it's going to be an important
one to solve. Nice. Taste of your own medicine.
I think that's an important moment, Jaybo, in winning that frag, so they can win the round,
but also so they can just confirm what the CTs are up to.
They're going to try and take some space away from you.
Next euro again with one of the best boards heading over towards beyond this occasion
Yeah, I got the the Lore out ready to go
Be a cool round. You know, I can imagine them thinking phase would need to switch something up here, but
Phase units are sticking with the the default here. It was up here
You've got a high focus towards a main this time, I'm not sure if they've got players boosted once more phase
perhaps responding to the aggression we saw in A main and the rounds prior they
will be that exchange of grenades.
Yeah, it's keeping the attention in mid here whilst J-Bone gets active in A main like he said.
And he's found it, he's found the opening, the distraction plate, it works out here for them.
Keeping Donk entertained but it is a quick rotation over towards A and he'll get into
position. A lot of players to deal with though and these fights will be so isolated but there's
The second CT, should it be required?
The initial engage of Magix here as well.
Multiple angles for FaZe to deal with.
They've not really made it onto a bomb site
despite the utile.
This needs to make this kill happen.
Great delay from Magix.
Oh no, FaZe.
It looks so good on the entry.
G-Bowin has to deliver against every single player now.
Two or three more to go.
It has to be the ace clutch.
30 seconds to go.
Bomb is lost on the site.
And he's just gonna have to save.
You can't blame him at all.
trying to catch somebody in pursuit, but spirit no better than that, Charlie.
Yeah, Shiro is in position also.
I think he knows he might be being baited, entertained.
It feels like it's very hard to save in many of these rounds on cash.
Magic to put him out of his misery.
A tough one for Faze. Again, they had the U-Till, they had the smokes up
all over the place, but it just didn't cross to the site.
Magic's hard to kill, as he often is.
Really just left him stuck in the choke points in all the worst ways.
Yeah, I mean, it's a great round from Faze, you know.
Building off of that mid-conditioning that they have had so far.
He's been around with G-Bone, gets the AWP,
he's set up a pick for him, he gets the pick.
They try to explode into the site and it just doesn't work out.
Very, very hard for CT side from Spirit right now.
It's tough because you can get you to we can get smokes and other other things on onto magic's position
But it can also telegraph your intentions if you're waiting for that to land and pop
Yeah
Phase able to muster a buy though, but you can see the stress levels are already high frozen one for six so far on that
T side he was a focus
From the desk in that first game. There is magic's delwiz
Four and four minute 20
There are worse positions to be in for phase
Yeah, this is interesting because there's a lot of time to get a reset on the CT rotation and
Again in spots like this the CT either stack or they're gonna push a main or be main for infos
Often times what happens mid often gets given up what timing and
Philippine to mid you could catch donkey and there we go Jacob finds it perfect timing as he rotates back and donkers often times
Rotated off to B. So how do you read whether remaining players are for the spirit side here?
It looks like they'll be walking up the short position.
Is there any one player on the side?
And no idea.
Ten near, completely caught.
And that should be a very, very nice 4v2 after plant
here now for FaZe.
Good spread for the squad.
There is an outside chance of a type score at halftime.
Don't forget, as hard as it has been,
there is still time to write the ship for FaZe
on the T side of cash.
Spirit more encouraged to save on this occasion.
Conceited, Teneur's got bad money, Magix as well.
They weren't behind in plays on this occasion.
So as much of a struggle as it has been for FaZe,
opportunity knocks for them
with what remains in this half.
Something that's interesting too, as well, James,
is that we've seen FaZe not really get many afterplants.
I mean, one of the most successful ones that they had,
that they'd still lost, obviously they didn't have two rounds
now was that's off the plant on B.
And we haven't really seen, you know,
the phosphorus into B for much of the way
of setting B pieces or making control into B.
It only really happened that one time.
And the one time it happened, they did get the bomb down.
So I'm curious if FaZe will switch things up
and see if they get caught in the back there.
I'm curious if FaZe will stop just, you know,
peppering in some B plays now.
Chuggers will see where he chooses to go this time.
Zontik's hitting over towards B, and Shira will be over towards A.
So I do wonder, I'm kind of waiting for that ball to get posted up once again.
Speaking of AWP though, Magix is dropped very, very early.
Focusing on the CT spawn, and Jabo and had one for himself.
Yeah, he had a great timing there.
Just catches this rotate across onto the white box.
Classic, cached up there.
But Donk has gone aggressive under the boost here, so although he's going to be left alone here, so he's not going to get boosted up.
He's going to be able to potentially escape in now, thanks to the smoke.
I don't really like being that forwarded out of the support.
Yeah, this is a tough spot.
Spirit fuel spread very thin at present. Difficult to get into aggressive spots.
We've got a two-man setup over towards B with Xontix and Shiro.
And FaZe can ask questions of them in a 5-on-4. Very strong spot for them.
Minutes on the clock and they get active.
Yeah, the fake here onto the B site.
Long towards A.
And there's only one player towards A. It's already the weak side here, so spirit.
They're going to have those extra players kept entertained for longer.
But Dong seems to have a quick readout of the info he's been given by Tineir, who goes down.
Dong has to do it alone. One versus FaZe's mate here.
Another one for Dong, but twist.
He does seem to be quite the catch beast.
to be lost. They still seem
to be going for it. Those
numbers are doing. Sure may
have heard rotation coming
through from that beat bombs
like he is surrounded or maybe
soon to be lost phase building
now. And again, this is a very
important round for them.
the game on for FaZe. They're
back here. They're definitely
back and a lot of it has come
off the back of creating these
openings. She boneless. He gets
that timing on mid. You'll see
here. This is again casting
moving across the white box. You
got the best spawn. You're able
to do that. And again, this is a
very important round for them.
Spirits are lacking. Every
measure now. Really must hold
onto this a WP, but they won't
do that either. Game on for
FaZe. They're back here. They're
definitely back and a lot of it
And then they're starting to see some of the individuals, especially Twist.
He's been a consistent player here, I think, with these impactful kills in this game so far.
And now it's just a pistol to spirit.
I was going to say, guess what, Dan?
Sure, it's got a great spawn, but guess what, Dan?
He's running like USB.
This is what they've been looking for, building towards.
So they've got a good spread.
They're looking for aggression from the CT side.
They've got every angle covered.
You can see Japan posted up on squeaky door angle towards be mid a main everything covered
Trying to see things like that's that Molly could potentially trigger a push into a main
If the CT's had a setup where they're waiting to see an exec and then try to like basically jump on it before it gets
In this kind of what twist is doing there?
Nice. There we go, Frozen. Where have you been?
This is the perfect timing here for FaZe. You can start to see some of the experience and how they're reading the map here.
Timing to try to check mid. Spirit don't know what's going on.
And FaZe, they've shown a lot of FaZe here, so you can never be super confident.
But it's slightly into position, but this feels dangerous, James.
Bomb is actually going back towards mid now, and maybe it's going to be a B.
FaZe have been so good on these FaZe.
So what you till also an A2 will entertain as the bottom is elsewhere. So again a good mind for what's happening across the map
Rifle will be lost eventually
Could be a good bonus. We'll see what spirits used to do
Rescued by a magic so it's too far away that a cake could certainly come in handy. Oh and AWP as well now that is unfortunate
that is very unfortunate indeed. I like I kind of again it kind of sucks that
you're giving away so much here for to spirit but at the same time you're
picking up the rounds and that's the most important part and I think these
rounds are kind of dangerous because you want to get onto a bomb site but you're
not sure it's hard to kind of figure out where the stack is you can just carpet
bomb everything with nades but let's see if any of these guns actually might be
dealt with I don't know it looks very difficult for frozen can you find the
the head of magic's at least he can't yeah it's a great position there from
magic's completely covered well let's see sure it's got a crap spawn at least
there's that yeah don't cause one from the face point of view just wonder will
there be any impact to be had with these collected weapons we'll see but
again. Very a lifeline for
FaZe the way this one started,
but they have certainly got
themselves back into the action.
So let's see if they can close
things out with a type score up
for halftime then.
It's interesting at the
professional side of the mid
position very, very fast scaling
on in magic in the sandbags
position. Someone surely has
someone has to check with this.
There's no one at all. No one
checking. It's a disaster. Don't
come out the vent. The punish
the game. The only thing that
is going to be the last thing
to finish is astronomical from
spirit. So laser focused on
short. They're always on short
for what timing for magic to
stand by the sandbags.
Crippling around to this. What's
the booster as well? There's
going to be a feeling of
emptiness after that one. A
gifted rounds to spirits of
Oh man. You hate to see moments like that.
Here it is.
No one's fault.
Nothing.
Oh man, it's painful to see the phase after such good work, such diligence, such attention to detail.
One unchecked spot.
J-Bone had a good spawn towards mid there, and was able to get a leg onto thong, jumping over towards Jor.
Just to catch you up.
Good damage. It's gonna make thong feel less...
less, uh, confident to get active in the early stages of this round.
and that would be incredible.
Faze playing another slow one here, and if they could catch a pick in this position for
Jay Bowen, that would be incredible.
All they expect is Sontick's position.
H.E. does land his way there.
Faze, that's a lot on Jay Bowen to get the opening for them in this round.
It would really start to allow them a lot.
Will there be an info play here from the CTs?
Absolutely! And there's the info trapped and punished.
And J-Bones opened up again.
He knows there's got to be some support somewhere.
It's the NA who picks up the slack instead of donking that short position.
He's over towards the A-bombsite at the moment.
Magnets under the vent. Now numbers are dwindling for spirit.
But you know this man can still do something.
Look at him.
Preemptively trying to transfer. Nothing doing in that regard.
And it's Shiro in a 1 vs 3.
Last round of the half has to go for it.
Has a kit.
Can he find the right angle though?
as frozen playing a very awkward one,
looking to secure that fifth round for FaZe at half-time,
and he'll do exactly that.
They are absolutely in the fight in the second map of this series.
We're here with FaZe Clan, we're here with Twiz, J-Bone.
Let's just get into this, okay?
How do you guys think the online portion of this event went for you?
Oh, yeah, on a team level.
The individual performance went pretty good for the players,
and also the team performance was pretty solid.
Our games were relatively very simple and felt good to qualify.
J-Bone, I think when you put on the phase jersey,
changes the pressure from being an academy player.
Have you felt that when you're playing some of these matches?
I feel the pressure is mainly for myself.
I don't feel the pressure from my teammates or the organization
or the fans or something like this.
It's only for me.
What do you think the hardest aspects of the jump-up have been beyond just the pressure?
The enemies are way better than what I'm used to.
Normally I could just abuse people and just re-pick into everything and take some stupid
duels and now I just get punished if I do these stupid decisions maybe.
And yeah, the team level is just way higher.
Let me ask, have you had to take him aside and be like, you know, you can't do that
type of peek at that level type of thing?
He said it himself, like he's finding out.
I think what Nicky and I work on is more fundamental stuff.
Where to be, at what time on the map, where not to show yourself.
You know, how having the AWP is like,
it's a game where you choose where you want the info to be for the enemy.
And I think that's something that he's figuring out,
and NK is doing a good job as well.
How about your journey as in-game leader?
Does it feel more comfortable now than it did the first time around?
Yeah, it felt much more comfortable.
I think I was a lot more ready to take on the rule now,
Whereas back then it was kind of just a band-aid that ended up becoming something a bit longer to last.
It's night and day for me as a captain here versus when I was a captain in the quit.
How is your IGL style in terms of how you want to leave the team?
I think it's a lot more structured. I think our games have displayed that sometimes rounds are a bit more free
and sometimes there's a lot more set pieces into whatever ending per se.
How does it feel when Kerrigan leaves you guys after you just miss the Major and then he goes to win it?
I think I'm allowed to kind of be salty about it, but I can also be happy for him and the players that are there.
I mean winning a Major is a very hard thing to do. A lot of teams, a lot of players only win it one time.
Of course, I'm happy for him.
So I think the situation that we're in when it happened was diabolical.
Yeah, it was diabolical. At the end of the day, it is what it is.
I think taking on the challenge instantly and kind of welcoming the rebuild and looking forward to the future of face
I think it's created a lot of hunger in the team for the bounty. What's your guys team expectation?
I think team expectation is
semi-finals I would say finals and then we can think about what it takes to really get to trophy
So yeah, I think we have realistic expectations for us this event
We definitely want to beat whoever we pick into the game that we play.
Yeah, I think we're hungry as a team.
Bits in off more than they can chew here against Spirits.
A 5-7 scoreline going into the second half, the CT side of Cash,
a map in which Bayes have been so successful with this roster of late.
But here it's the greatest test now as we kick off the pistol.
I think Trace could really do with winning this pistol.
It would be a great stimulus package for them.
Otherwise, things would get even harder.
Jabon starts as he means to proceed. 6-8 at present.
Good average of frags on the face side with that late comeback.
They made him the first half, but there's more work to do.
And they too, such a good anchor here with the USP.
Overwhelming numbers. It's what he's up against.
Can he hold on here with something?
Well, that's something. Takes down Donk as well.
A high value target has been dropped.
three in the retake quest with not just a kid, but he's got the smoke for the retake here phase with some options
Yeah, he's got teammates with him also
Frozen's on a on a late rotation coming through from a main the other three are effectively together
That clock is ticking shiro spotting some from his forklift position just dancing trying to tease Jacob drop three on three now
And things gets worse for phase
We're frozen coming in from the back. He's got to get a lot of what he's running out of bullets though
And now they've got a chase to near round the corner if you've got a shadow advantage, but up top will be twist
He's got the kid as well get off the ball. I've got a kid
He says and that will be the round secured that has got to be a must win for face and they have succeeded
They're graced up from frozen as well who on honestly all alone hasn't been having the best series
So the internet really be the one to step off there
And you could see the urgency because he needed to make sure that his position was unknown the entire time
His team is trying to hold on and by time for him to get this flank off
This was just a such a small margin of timing and then the pilot is a classic way to finish off the 2v1
Base you'd love to see it from them six to seven now
They just have to deal with the force by and would you look at that how much utility and weaponry is being carried?
That is a team with a plan a menacing plan
Two CT's over towards B
It's going to be a longer rotation for the other players from short having to go maybe make a risky play through mid if they head towards the fence.
Spirit closing the distance.
Smoke on our short position as one. Frozen, bin pops. We've got problems. Alarm bells are ringing. Jacob needs help and he needs it fast.
to the site there. Jake does take down Donk at the very least, 3 vs 3 on the retake here.
Not much utility, only an A-cheap in N2. These players aren't very low either, so it's not
going to find a frag. Bomb down, urgency, 10-near. I don't know how that weapon even
works at 2 vs 3 to avoid a catastrophe for FaZe. And I don't even know if they go for
it at this point. They are locked out of position. Smoke is up as well. It doesn't look good
here Jay Bowen he's gonna fall away and twist you know he's gonna be able to
catch anyone who tries to punish the first steps but they give it up you can
see him shaking his head absolutely disastrous many will argue that it's
worse to win the pistol and then lose with a full reset for a CT side on that
second round they avoid that at the very least but it ain't looking good let's
not forget our retake we saw in a similar similar scenario from Spirit in
in the first half, which will probably make that feel even worse.
It's a good second nine, it's just it's immense.
It's a little bit of games.
It's a hard round to lose.
Yeah, that's I feel I feel like everyone I think is feeling that
everyone's played kind of show like is feeling that right now.
It's cross that was looking good.
the game. Oh, heart breaking
moments from that for phase.
They do have the couple safe
rifles. They have forced around
it. Eagles some utility and
spirit. They're going to just go
for a hit onto the A site. Jay
Bowen looking to get pop flashed
in with a teammate there as well
twist into the main position.
Phase might have the read.
Or he gets immediately wrecked, he's carrying utility as well, the bone doesn't have any, trying to hide in plain sight and find the fight if he can.
But there's just nowhere for him to go, Netu needs a miracle, he's got to find a lot of...
He goes, he does, he does! I can't believe it! He's still standing as well!
When he goes into the smoke, he's got more to offer! How is he still alive?
What an over-performance, that's absolutely ridiculous! Superior fabrics, finer designs, that's nasty work!
I'm not sure what he's doing.
He's like, Oh my God, guys, I did enough on dust to it wasn't enough, but we can win this map. And by God, we're going to do it. The Deagle coming in insane stuff there. And that is going to just breathe life into the team right now.
A crowd that started out, it actually disastered.
Little like Spirit had every answer.
The NATO from the forklift, the classic cash stuff right here.
And they get to finish it off too, James.
It wasn't in vain.
My words, exactly what they needed.
Talk about a shot of adrenaline.
We're back. FaZe are back into this match right now, but Spirit certainly has something
to say about it. Donk has the AK-47, the singular AK. Might be a test, might be a headshot.
Ready for Donk. Jay Bowen. He's actually going to dink him as well, so he takes him down
to 4 HP, but look how active FaZe are being right now. They're getting ahead of this push
potentially. So scrappy. So aggressive. Off angle from Zontix is perfect. Back and forth
we go. This always hurts the CT side more in my opinion. That will certainly help. They
only hear frozen footsteps falling back. Do they think there's a window for them to
push B here? Hard to do with the smoke up. Shiro as well, he's in such a good spot to
hear information. This is not look good for FaZe. Right now, I mean, they're going to
need some luck on their side. Not just the three versus four, but frozen best weapon
for HP. He's stuck in vent. And look how cognizant Spirit are of this position.
There is the Molly in the hands of Magix. Oh, dear. Nice to see you, to see you. Nice.
Is that the end of the round then?
Naito and Twist remained.
There's still a fair amount of play remaining in this one.
In this half, which may be a saving graceful phase
who are straight back up against it.
Yeah, the high energy injection from the previous round.
It's all gone in the moment.
Donk hitting that initial head shot onto Jay Bowen.
And you had the right idea.
FaZe had the right idea, pushing B aggressively with the rifles.
I think it was a great reaction.
But the problem is against Team Spirit is that they hit really hard.
You can't be putting a foot wrong on those engagements.
There's no over just yet, James.
We've got a couple rifles saved there for the CT side.
They could absolutely try to force by around it.
I don't know if they would like to do that one more time and they will have a buy but that would be
spirit on 10 rounds. It's tough if you get into the forces because you can often end up just with
never having an optimal buy on your CT side, never having AWP.
So it's a tough choice regardless of which way you go. A timeout from Spirit as they consider their
options. Donk with 13 frags, just one ahead of the likes of Teneir, Magix frozen with
10 for his team. He's had some really important frags, speaking of important NATO and that
Eagle man. Oh yeah. We'll not forget that for a while, but there's more work to be
done. They'll have to think about that later when all is said and done. Just two rounds
behind, but likely to be three with how this buy is looking. They are going to force around
his rifles off the roll. I mean it actually kind of makes a lot of sense because Spirit
don't have that much economy if they get reset now, that is FaZe's way to get momentum back
into this half and to send it all the way to the finish. So it makes a lot of sense to
doing this.
Jay Berlin posted him some extra position, he gets dinged. No. I thought on the hotbed
that his health went away but he's fine. He's fine James.
Not much to work with. Frozen should drop his smoke to his teammate if he's going to
be up in that boost spot.
Son takes. See the very late lurk here in this position? Because all this activity now
mid, that will certainly draw some players attention here from base.
Nice, you need to learn the specific mollies for that position that always
cover the sandbags as well because if you don't throw a good one you can just
stand on the sandbags if you're lucky. Then you've got a sneakier position.
Yeah, Donk was spotted but Donk is still Donk and they too, it's the one who dies.
That's kind of how it works when you go up against Donk.
There's a path in there, I was predicting what Jacob does.
Oh, hello, Jacob!
And twist, both charming in with a frag.
Three versus three, it's being speeded up now for spirit.
Onto the site, twist delivers, again hit the base.
Decent damage, onto magics down to half.
Frozen and Jacob, is there a way?
Is there a wall?
There's another HE where that came from.
And that will help.
That will help, Otter's in incendiary also for Jacob.
And he's got a good angle to throw it.
So let's see now. Frozen in the match is getting this duel.
It's going to be really important to see who wins what.
Okay, just down to Magix now.
One versus two.
He's got the first one up against the rifle of Jacob.
Jacob's been doing great work for FaZe,
and it will be another class 1v1 that is secured by FaZe.
The individuals are standing up for the squad.
We have to remember what Twisted to make that doable in the first place.
They're all delivering when they need to phase in these difficult rounds.
And the pressure's not going to stop it because you can bet Spirit are going to force by off of this.
They've got the bomb down.
No, round is a given.
And there we go, we get the remainder, especially Jacob to finish.
Plistic at the openers and Jacob to close.
And indeed, we're going to see a force by from Spirit.
They've got the bomb down.
They've got a couple, a few rifles here, Mk10, TEC-9, lots of Nades.
This is going to be another very drama-filled round here that FaZe have to contest against.
Did they hear something?
Oh, it's Sculpting Doffers' teammate. Nice setup here.
From FaZe.
And Spirit might wonder, there's a big swing.
And in goes Nade2.
I don't think they were expecting that.
It's a good start.
Always about how you finish. J-Boin's been shrapneled by Azontics.
Switch now, it's his turn at the fourth lift,
Natoos still delivering, what a BTB for his team!
Natoos got so many big impact frags in this series so far,
why did it hold from FaZe towards the end?
Yeah, really great to see and it's also very cool to see that Natoos
able to play the position there as a CT that he is often playing as a T
because we saw him playing at the door spot so often.
Very reliable pair of hands when needed.
Very important initial kills there from FaZe to stall out the momentum.
9 to 9 and it's a full save for Spirit. Phase, they've been up against it. The resiliency
is winning for them though right now at least.
Two Desert Eagles, three Glocks. An extended timeout, not tech timeout, an extended timeout
for spirit to absorb what phase have been doing to think about the buy
rounds to come. What different looks have we shown? How have they responded?
And Zontics with the only deagle now as the mid-play comes in. Twist could be
farming if they decide to go over the top but they're going back into a main.
I think he's going to be able to
get away with his life and get
the key information to see some
players, but they can't ever
react. Three players to defend
G. Bowen with recovery. Definitely
we're going beyond recovery. Two
kills. They're going to make it
three, but there's a support now.
I think the worst is over. Oh,
my God. What is happening? That
is not the type of depressed
a jump key. Oh, and he's able
to get away with his life and
gets the key information to see
some players, but they can't
Oh my god, tinder though. In with precision. Be careful. These eagles really are problematic in this game of Casper J Bowen.
Lucky to get away with that one. I think he fears the prefire. You've got to believe in yourself now.
Yeah, I was going to say that's exactly what I was thinking too. The prefire is the very most dangerous thing that you can possibly think of there.
I mean, once you're in the spot, it's set.
It's set.
It's like an AWPer putting out flashbang or something.
You're the AWPer.
Go do the AWPer.
There is value to surviving though as well because then they fear the re-peak, so you
kind of provide some stall.
He's got a really good spawn here, Jay Bowen.
The only AWP on the server, and he is going to be taking his good spawn over towards
beat.
Maybe there's an engagement with Zontex to be had.
Like how his teammates gone through the smoke as well to keep the options open.
They're going to boost two, they're getting active in this round.
There's an engagement, Dustbind's on, it's going to be Jacob though,
and then boosting up, Twist at the same time.
Spirit might get caught off guard by this.
It feels like, oh, it feels like FaZe are starting to get a stranglehold on this map of cash.
Again, a very dry start, but Spirit now, it's their turn to be pulled.
Pillow to post, their turn to be bullied, their turn to be dictated to by FaZe.
Yeah, you have to see it here from FaZe, you know, recovering themselves back into more defensible positions.
They've got the picks they needed.
They forced Barrett to have to ship it all in
onto one of the two bombsites.
FaZe won't know which one it is,
but they have fast response times
because they still fire up.
Jacob, I was about to say likely to be barbecued.
We can have to move very quickly
if he is to stay standing in this one.
you're there if you're supporting FaZe.
Do you believe in this?
Do you believe in a third map versus Spirit?
A great calling from Twist there.
You need to go aggressive on the CT side
in that very pivotal round, because actually,
no blunt plot this time.
And Spirit, they don't have money, really.
So this is going to be very awkward for Spirit now.
And again, it's brave to, it is courageous
to call the aggressive CT rounds in multiple spots
that once, when your opponent, if they pick up around there,
punish your aggression, it's over.
But it pays off for FaZe.
shows exactly as you said the read that they have the cash now the heads are
really truly in the game right here
the job's not done yet though but they are in a very good position
11 rounds on the board spirit on pistols are half-way
they are dangerous
but again phase must remain focused
the job is not done yet
Still a dangerous round tech, Thine's always high threats.
J-Bo in roaming with the AWP.
A nasty surprise waiting for Spirits.
Pretty good positions on B from the phase actually, there's not much you tell here.
So I'm going to get smoked out of the B site too easily.
As the noise is made in mid, you can see Spirit targeting that B play.
the game. And they're going to
be able to play that. They're
going to be able to play that
really well. The play and face
should have the players in
position to deal with this. But
getting overwhelmed quickly. Is
the biggest danger. Yeah, it's a
good looking read from to
explain closer to that bomb site
with J bow and hold the camera
short position with the AWP. And
they will thin these numbers
out exactly how they need to. That
is perfect stuff from them. So
there was a great setup from
phase again, J bow and on the
make FaZe nervous, but they hold position, they hold their pattern, they don't take the baits and
Wipe out the attempt on B. Game point FaZe. Yeah, they're showing right now. This is why they picked this map
This is why you know teams have been looking at them trying to study how they play this map because they really understand how it works
And I mean just think of how much disruption it took for them to get here as well 12-9 and the buy comes in again from spirit
What is the quality of the FaZe?
It's given up the A bombsite entirely in the opening right now
Just like a very long time since Shiro had an AWP, but yes, in trusting formation we're seeing here from FaZe.
Taking some liberties at the beginning of the round.
Naito, just having a passive spot towards A main from the carpet position.
Waiting for Spirit to make their play.
Froze and got a very good timing onto Zontix.
False sense of security and then there were four standing between FaZe and a third map of a newbis.
What is the new hero from Spirit right now, Faizal?
Pretty good to defend this great play behind the smoke.
Again, now things get more difficult here for Spirit.
They don't have any control on the map at the moment.
Frozen's gone deeper beyond the smoke,
and this off-angle is going to be very difficult,
even when you're looking for a magic skunk's down.
And now Shiro on the other end.
What is Spirit even happy?
A challenge on the A-bomb site.
Netu anchors, of course.
And now Shiro against the world.
Last man for spirit. Such a strong start. I think Faiz and Joyez were worried at the beginning of this one.
But Faiz say if you want to fight, you've got one. As they're so close to forcing that third map now.
30 seconds for Shiro. One versus four. Walking into a potential double peek here.
This is surely the end of the line for spirit. Oh, hold on a second. Able to isolate the fight there.
a good read from him, the flash is up, but that's a wrap!
Jay Boi with the final frag and FaZe will force that third and final map of a new best.
Incredible scenes on Cache, it's why they are feared on this map right now and the fact
that they could go and do it against Spirit, but the fact that they can do it against Spirit,
considering how many things went wrong is truly going to lift their spirits.
So nice a face to give spirit the hope there and map one by giving them dust to and an early elite their own cash
But they do a fantastic job as individuals coming together as a team here to be able to win it 13 and 9 on
A cache and I really truly do see the magic you were talking about of phase on cash here
Yeah, that map one and the first six rounds of this map were just donations
They wish they just wanted to make spirit feel good before they turned it on frozen
showed up and they dominated for the rest of the series such such an excellent showing there for phase
I mean the the fact that they even were off to such a bad start in this one felt like ah, they're just
Spirit's gonna wrap this one up
But no phase just stuck with a lot of their plans their CT side was was excellent
We had heroics from a couple of players too
I think practically everybody on phase had at least one round where they really turn the tides of this one
Which I don't know if I was gonna say that I thought the cool structure of some of the t-side rounds
We're gonna be the wind conditions which definitely aided them
But no the fact that people like Nate you even Jacob on B
I mean I mean Jay bow and finding entries there were a lot of great moments here
And I was definitely getting worried for phase when you saw that spirit especially donk on highway so often
They practiced this map quite a bit there. They're very fluid on dealing with executes
I was worried that this was just gonna be spirit running away with it, but the reality is phase
I have to I have to credit their resiliency. I mean we saw it against 3d
Yeah, we saw in their last series against Mongols. We see it here again. They go down. They go down 5-0 after getting dominated on map 1
And they can still keep it together. They still bring the first half back and then they dominate in the second half
That's extremely impressive for a team with a couple of youngsters on it
Yeah, that was the question that we had coming into this was okay face of show and what they've had on cash
They might allude to it and interviews that there are a couple of more strategies
They have for round so I thought the T side might have been a bit stronger beginning
But of course that's a testament to spirit here. I would say they were so impressed with their CT side
Right that was the part for me where I was like wow, okay, maybe they were the rounds they were talking about
It wasn't new things necessarily being brought to the T side
It was how they were going to hold and withstand what felt like the aggression from spirit. There were just a lot of great looks here from phase
I like how active actually someone that needed to step up from map one and frozen who was maybe being a little too active
Sometimes on dust 2 getting caught off guard
This is one where the activity just paid off when he would double up to help out Jacob towards the B site when he was obviously locking it down in
middle as well. I think his rotations were very much so on point and
Yeah, totally closing this one out leaving no doubt that he is gonna have a bounce back game that it was just kind of a one map
slow start day. Does that make sense? The first half when you're looking at
anti-strouting, if you're spirit you're thinking, okay, what strats are they gonna hit us with?
What are we expecting? How could we defend against it? Then you go into T side. That's where you need to be confident
to be comfortable on the map and we found phase were just better. Let's look at some of those
rounds or at least one specific round in the first half when we saw phase on that T side,
what they were able to get from themselves because whilst there were a lot of plants and
maybe some shaky post plants, there was a round nine that looked really good for them to be able
to execute at hold. Round nine is interesting because this is a strat that phase have run quite
a few times in their tenure on this map. You have the nice entry from Jay Bowen, then you go for the
be faked into this little squeaky play. This is something you've probably seen if you watched
Cash a long time ago. And you have Spirit kind of know it's coming. They have Donk already pivoting
back. They have Tenir on the box. But Tenir has to get one here. That's an isolated duel.
That's one player swinging in ahead of his team trying to get the timing. He doesn't get the one,
which means Donk rotates in. He gets one, but it's not enough. And you topple around for phase.
And that's one. There's six two down there. That's one. If it goes, if it goes Spirit's way,
That's probably them running away with the map.
The J. Bowen entry kill, I feel I cannot go unnoticed
because that's one of a couple that he found.
And again, we're talking about who this guy is
as a T-side AWPer.
It was at least one other round where he picked off T'Nier on an A-side hit
where he just caught him in transition.
And that's just the difference when you have this guy versus Broke.
Broke is in the back ready to throw some good flashes.
And yeah, he got some good utility stats.
But I want kills when I see a guy with AWP.
And J. Bowen is providing that.
He did that on CT side as well switching to there, but at least two really pivotal rounds
He gets that clean opener. Yeah, someone else that really stood out as well for me
And hopefully you guys as well Nate you right he was fantastic in this
We thought is does too gonna be a bit of an anomaly in this series or it felt like good wasn't good enough to get the win
And he's like no, I'm gonna do the same thing again, but on cash and we're gonna get the win
I don't know Maui if I can remember a Nate you round
I don't know if I can remember him with a beagle at forklift picking off several kill
I don't know if I can remember one
I mean the the crazy thing about nature pulling this off is that this is when the game is probably gonna slip away from you
If your face it gets super awkward super clumsy there for a j bowen
But this is just with blistering speed that second killing gets on shiro is just magnificent and I like there's a little
You know there's like a kind of an ounce of overheating here
But like I like how he still stays really tough to hit that he stayed alive very long for the rotations to come in as well
You know when you get that third kill sometimes you just keep on swing any kind of did but as soon as he missed that one shot
On the guy that was front-read he sort of tucks away
And that extra one and a half seconds for guys to rotate into the A site meant that even if he does die as he eventually
Does they were never gonna breach it my gripe with Nate you on this roster has been that he's been generally pretty effective on
he's not going to be able to
make mistakes. He's not going to
make mistakes on his defenses,
but he makes mistakes and he
doesn't have the high highs to
make up for if he loses his team
around. He doesn't have around
like that. Usually to actually
make it back up for his team. This
series so far. I think he's had
that in spades. Okay, so it's
way more like he's actually at
high highs and next to no
mistakes, right? I haven't seen
too many need to mistakes. Although
we did last last map. We got kind
of hitting the face with a 0%
round swing even when I thought
I mean, it's not like they're
not really that good. They're
not really that good. They're
not really that good. They're
like they're lower than what I
felt like the item. Yeah is the
entries that he found the
defense there. I mean, this guy
is kind of proving to be a
spirit killer right now. Well,
it feels like the mood in
spirit. And I mean, sometimes
there are a bit of a hard play
to read, right? They like to
keep their cards close to their
chest. But as a whole, you could
see the frustration coming out
from these play against and it
felt like that wasn't really
any left in spirit in those two
rounds to be able to put up
Oh, where is spirit exactly when they leave their chairs and they look towards a map three in the best off?
I think spirit will look frustrated when they lose a round
They could win a 13-1 game and still look a little bit frustrated a lot of the time when it comes to cash
Cash is a map. I think you know you're gonna have a tough time with against phase. I'm sure they prepared heavily for this one
I'm sure they're disappointed in the loss, but I'm not holding this one as as too indicative of map three
There's no shame in losing to the best cash team in the world
There's no shame in that so spirit you could have your heads up. They're probably going to be able to come back in this series pretty strongly
So I was just trying to see if they were winning the rounds or losing the rounds because sometimes they're actually
You can't tell you can really tell like 90% of time what's happening
You could have a giant wheel with colors and lights on it and you still won't react to it
Oh, trust me. We've all been there. Have a little bit of PTSD from that moment
Basically up there and obviously looking fantastic for themselves there is that though that little bit of worry where it's like
like how do they reset themselves?
There are a lot of veterans,
but that has been the part before
where we've had question marks of,
do they think a little bit too big for themselves?
And do we just see a blowout in a map?
I'm concerned we're going to see a blowout
and that's what we're going to need
in order for Donk to break his record.
If we want to see Donk break his record,
we need a blowout.
Whoa.
I mean, the last two maps have actually not been kind to him.
And with the fact that, what,
there's at most going to be six more maps at play.
I mean, he almost wants it to go all five now.
there. It's a great way to
make sure that they get a
little more tomorrow if they
make the grand finals so that
they could just farm every
single one. Unfortunately I
think if you ask Donk, I
think he'd say it doesn't
matter. 13. Oh get us into the
grand finals. Get this over
with. I mean, if you're signal
on the guarantee to don't
competing is the best rating
there, you would want that. I
mean, we're seeing it here.
Just know what it's not
happening. Do I didn't
guarantee. I need no
I never promise I'm gonna die there alongside you right buddy you and me were in a call life
But right now we're gonna head to a break on the other side
We'll be talking everything a new visit if face have it in them to be able to take this breast for your spirit
is as good as you and this whole situation with spirit having two coaches what do they tell you
to focus on do they just let you play as you are are you the perfect player or do they still give
you don't we need you to do this I think like nothing really changed in terms of like my my game
Only, like, Sothic can notice some stuff that, like, highly focused on the one thing and Sothic focusing on the other things.
So, like, sometimes they just notice what I'm doing wrong and the things that I need to do better.
Can you tell me something that they've told you you need to do better, because I look at you as, like, the perfect player?
It's more about like some team play, I would say, to be more communicative, like even
I do like 100%, I still can do better and they just try to make me more focused on it.
Even don't can escape a little bit of criticism even in the eyes of my analysts here
But we've seen spirit playing on this map a couple of times now in face had the chance you could either ban out a new
Bess you could ban out ancient obviously they left it to the point that we're going to be seeing a new best and I feel like the
Tests that have been before spirit at this event when they beat a hundred thieves when they beat liquid two very distinct tests where
There are 100 thieves, was a lot more about slowing the game down,
trying to outplay Spirit in the mid-round, which Spirit was able to handle.
And then also you had a liquid team that was extremely aggressive on CT side,
which is, I think, really more or less the meta of this map,
and Spirit were able to pass that test.
So I think that Spirit have actually already gone through it
in terms of just having the trial by fire, they passed it,
and so FaZe are not going to always have the answers here,
so Spirit are my firm favorites.
Yeah, you flip around to the other side,
I think FaZe have a really impressive T side.
They've got some individuals.
I think this is one of Netu's best maps,
but you have to get through that CT side eventually,
regardless of which...
Oh, come on.
He took his glasses off.
He's like, bro, you're actually overperforming.
We need to hinder you, all right?
We're going to make this an even fight, the Spirit.
One of your best maps, take those glasses off.
It'll make you stronger.
This is a phase where their T side is strong.
I'm worried about getting them on the CT side
with what we've seen from Spirit,
with how effective they were against Liquid,
against the aggression and this was once upon a time a map where you could try and attack
spirit maybe donk wasn't that comfortable on it but they saw those problems they grew
from them and they are a very dangerous and noobest team now.
Donk rating prediction Vue.
Oh yeah.
Donk rating prediction.
One point four.
That's it.
One point four.
You've lost faith.
I've given up.
I've given up.
I've given up.
I don't know if I can trust you anymore Vue.
I needed a little bit more from you there but it just means that we are going to be installed
for a fun, best of three, a fun map number three,
I should say here for Anubis with DDK and Badoff.
The phase has to be going from strength to strength,
especially after the way that they won cash.
And you can see the numbers.
I feel like our respecting it.
You guys were unreasonable with those numbers earlier,
and now the respects has returned.
This is good.
Now, many are detecting an ominous prognostication
as far as phases, chances in the deciding map of this series.
but I think we have some, I'm not gonna go crazy,
I'm not gonna go overboard that,
but I think we have some interesting ingredients
that Desk alluded to.
I think FaZe will come into this one with confidence,
and confidence just is not going to be enough
to overcome spirit.
I think there are lessons for FaZe to learn
in the example matches that the Desk gave,
that spirit have had recently,
different paces, aggressive sides, and so on.
FaZe can learn from this, but putting that all together,
bringing strats and toppling spirit
in the best of three series is still just something else entirely again to set the scene here 25 matches since spirit lost to not Falcons not vitality. The race is on for face.
Let's see what face can do here on the pistol. I think this T side is going to be so extremely impactful in their chances to win. So.
to start off with a good pistol.
Looking to get into that B bomb site.
Donk in this position.
We often find him in.
On the site close to E-box.
Faze did pick this side as well.
They've been blasted with a knife round of three kills.
3v1 in the knife for them to pick this T side.
Through the smoke, it will have to be.
Donk keeps a flash, but, oh, yeah, he'll
leave some lead as well.
That leaves him here needing some help.
He has some.
Dropping Jacob.
They're going to come into the bomb slot here.
Rounded corner, he goes.
A little spin to win, and FaZe are still in good shape.
Zontics and Shiro, last two, make it one now, as Shiro faces three.
Yeah, they've done enough here. Shiro with the dualies.
He can't underestimate it, and he goes.
So many positions to be teased. They can play the time,
they can play the numbers, the crossfires,
they've got all sorts going for them here, FaZe.
They've done so much work, and helpless is Shiro as FaZe pick up.
Indeed, that much, much needed pistol round.
Yeah, it's a really good way to start their tee side.
They do their best work on what they win James. What if they win? I yeah, why not ask early? It's a good question
They're about there are good. They're north of 60%
round win
They had a very good match recently versus 3d max 13 to 1
On a new this so again, they'll be full of confidence and they've had let's not forget. I mean hey, they haven't
Okay, they're against the USB. They're on a T side
They've had some really rough starts to sides on this series and to have this way to start the third map
Again, it's just it's this encouragement building. You can do this. Yes, you have some belief
And they're ready they're ready for the plays
For the aggression although maybe he was somewhat alone
That's you'll see spiritual back away
kind of like the unit, the homer backing into the bushes.
There are people like that, not wanting to test that position again.
And now, FaZe taking this mid-control, got the max 10 there.
Slowly progressing with their utility, making it all nice and diligent and responsible.
Discipline's counter-strike here, no problems here just yet.
They're moving into the site with four players on a long position.
Maybe something can be done here by spirit.
the game. It's not going to be
the game. Twist the
expendable man USP running
distraction, but the problems
are being solved by phase. See
if they can protect that. Oh,
hold on a second. It's one takes
how do you get to from this?
It's still just us bees, but
it's made to list the wrong
time. It could be a two V two
to V two. Okay, everything's
fine. Everybody calm down.
actually insane. We've seen this tournament. We've seen some ridiculous stuff from him, just casually and
surprisingly getting a lot of more value than you'd expect. But the 2-0 for face,
acceptable losses I think one would say.
Making it look like a T-Eagle.
It's the Golden Gun Jinx.
We've had a real guns are out. No more N64.
the team makes a gun and they're not coming back in this round.
Yeah, and you can see that every time they go into that B site,
Donk just gets instantly killed.
You know, Donk has yet to find sort of value on the defense.
And it's interesting because FaZe are just kind of bulldozing.
You're not really caring about who's on which site.
And so I'm curious, you know, what will be the change, if anything, for Team Spirit?
Because it's got to feel pretty rough for them to get overpowered so simply.
I love the contact play from the side of FaZe then.
I especially love it because there can be quite a bit of movement on the B-side early.
So a nice surprise there from FaZe to get a 3-0 start.
And what's also interesting here, James, when you're on the T-side like this as a caller,
if you've got a lot of experience, you're starting to get into the head of the other team.
You're starting to, as each round passes, show them rounds, openings, timings.
And I think it's something that Fliss could really start to capitalize upon as he plays against the expectation that he's setting.
They know it's not a good start.
This is by no means a free round for FaZe though.
This will be dangerous. Rifles are out, SMGs are out. Bends you a view too, also.
J-Bowen waiting.
I'm waiting. Spirit wondering, is this a trap?
I'm sure FaZe will be laying many of them. Again, so much data.
Rich of information. Or FaZe B?
It's kind of interesting here as well, if you're FaZe, you don't have much information
and there is a variety of things that Spirit could decide to do.
They could actually be in a kind of mid-collapse play, waiting for you to kind of go into that mid.
position at around the one minute mark but phase of playing a little bit slower
than that. Spirit had given up mid but now they're rotating back towards mid here
giving up B and it almost seems like the timing could it be more perfect for
phase because they've pulled out of the B site completely as phase are looking to
go. Only magics there. Yeah Teneir is going to be key in that mid position. 45
seconds may still feel like the utility continues to reign in.
Bombs now trying to hold things down, jumping frozen but unable to stop the
They've got a great fragger, they know J-Bones posted up somewhere as well.
35 seconds, the remainder of spirit rotating over, over three versus four.
They've got a HE with Zontics could maybe find some good timing for it,
he can find an angle, but FaZe are still hunting for these frags,
wanting to thin the numbers.
They've got a CT for here, to go in, trying to thin out these numbers,
but Chris will be the one to do that.
Zontics still standing for now and it's native to trade, 4-0 FaZe.
I got a little bit dicey around the smokes, closing the distance spirit with those dangerous weapons, but
you know, FaZe, making sure that they had all the positions to cover all of the important spots
and they're not gonna care that they lost a few guns there.
You know, they've been winning rounds here pretty well, and so their economy is overall in a very decent spot.
The 4-0 is starting again, like we said.
FaZe, their right now twist is calling a great game.
We're seeing in terms of, again, the timing of that round.
It was perfect if they'd gone into be maybe 10 15 seconds before that point
They would have walked into three players from spirit for zero for phase. It's 0 4 4 spirit magic source is your
Take a guess at how much damage magic system in this game that is a zero game
He has done zero damage so far. He is not having a good deciding map just
Zero damage for magics
Look at that.
Not ideal at all.
The M4s will be out, a little lies on utility, our spirits in this fifth round.
Couldn't ask for a better start for phase, however.
So I'm taking a scene of feeling the burden of being alone in that A long position,
receiving some of those pop flashes,
falls back a little bit,
respects it with a smoke.
Donk on E-Box.
Jacob now creeping closer to that E-Box position, looking to provide pressure there.
But is that the intention? Is that the end of round intention for the phase side?
Nervous stuff here, I think, for Spirit right now as they don't know what's going on.
I wonder if spirit will be encouraged to get aggressive towards a later on in this half.
For now, we head towards that 45 second mark and FaZe are busy in this mid position.
Very defensive spots for Spirits as far as B is concerned.
So really, it's Zontecs who's the early warning system over towards A, Donk being challenged
by Jacob dealing with that one, but what about the rest of FaZe?
It's really unclear as to what's going on for spirit here.
Spirit looking to push to the main position. This would allow them to know what's going on, but pull the nade out there to set up Spirit getting ahead of the play.
Perfect timing now. Two players left here. Four phase against absolutely everyone. Frozen.
Delivered to the first headshot. 20 seconds to go. Now Jay Bowen with an AWP surrounded by Spirit players. Out comes the clock.
10 seconds and Chira will take him down.
and finally James spirit actually get ahead of phase and punish some of the
place they were making yeah really good work proactive over towards a I was
watching them on the radar around the A bombsite spirits earlier on holding
names wondering what's happening the timing of names going on and so on I
thought they would get itchy feet and start to press forward at some point and
they found great timing to do that it's many frustrations for phase but there's
lots of positives for them as well. One that's not a positive for FaZe is Shiro now, wielding
the AWP. Jay Bowen again looking for early aggression, maybe from Donk who'll have to
be careful if it is to be him.
It's very possible that Spirit are very, like just highly aware that they should just never
pick that position. Donk has been some kind of solo holding it. In a previous round, FaZe
was setting it up so that he could get some free position on the E-box. And since mid-aversion,
you might be able to find openings.
Interesting spot towards A.
Magix and Zontek,
so both jiggling A and mid,
holding in tenduries basically.
So they're somewhat turtling in that respect,
trying to buy time where they can.
Not looking to drop a player early versus face.
They really want to punish this E-box peak for info,
but again, Stonk is never giving.
He's never giving it.
This gamble towards A is allowing him
to have the third man over towards B also.
Risking mid being compromised, we'll see.
Well, we may not see in this round.
Then respond to that happening.
This can phase a very interested in having a close personal chat with Donk.
Then he's maybe feeling this one falling off,
looking to get some info on that.
B main position, pop flash comes in,
Delta to be frozen, ready to go,
blind doesn't matter, and away from Chirro,
and suddenly the B site is cracks open,
and the round may just be over for Spirit.
It's another round where Magix has got nothing to do. They're just not coming his way. He's still on zero damage
Minding his own business on the other side of the map
Not gonna focus on it too much because it is CT side and
Position based to some degree but again it's on six and Magix playing to a turtle style over towards a
completely retracted to be allowing spirits to still have three
to have three over towards B and still to no avail.
Still they can't hold against the surge of phase.
I think it's really interesting because it's another round
where Donk's change of position in that more forward spot on B
and going to Investor Day to get info.
Is there something going on outside of B?
That was what created like a vacuum in the E-box position
to allow faces to just barrel in.
And that movement there is just spirit,
thinking that phase are maybe moving
They're a little bit faster than they are, so just these tiny differences in timings have provided a couple massive round victories here for FaZe and for Spirit.
They've got to start feeling like this is getting to be a really big problem.
Keep those voices up, Mulsar. Do not be shy. Great to have an atmosphere in the studio, especially when there's so much on the line here.
A place in the grand final.
Aggressive from Spirit here. They're changing it up.
to the opponent, but here comes a faster play from FaZe as well. In they go, Tracedrag is not necessary.
Donk has gone once more to near his smokes off. How to respond to him? How do you get back into this fight?
And as B site has been just locked down time and again now once FaZe are in, there's a problem.
Naito takes down Shira. They've got more problems on the flank here now as well.
This is going to completely disrupt the retake effort. It was already looking grim through that choke on E-Box,
box, but native is going to be found out by his antics. But at this point, all four positions
given, Spirit have to save the rifles. They've got no money.
Faze are just finding every right timing, every right read one step ahead.
I was I was thinking, you know, maybe a storyline coming into this map is like is the is the best of
phase left behind them on cash, but perhaps not. Again, they had some good ingredients
going into this third and deciding map and it's a good start. Spirit had plenty of good
start versus phase in this series. Now it's phase's turn.
And Kaija says, oh James, I think as you pointed out, maybe one of the most important things
here was the fact that it's something that no one saw on the broadcast. Jay Bowen clutched
the knife round and got to pick the T side.
Yeah, and 1v3, 1v3, Jay Bowie came in there, came in there, and claps.
Yeah, we're going to maybe put some respect on this on the analyst test.
It's going to be a part of the overall picture of the match.
Yeah, almost the extended conversation with at least three back and forths between you and Mali Snake talking about the 1v3 and the knife rounds.
Yeah.
Because seriously, I mean, it makes a big difference.
If you can carve out the rounds here, and obviously we understand that in just the overall dynamic of the newbies,
The T side where you can, again if you pick up the pistol, you can put them to use the fighting game term, you can put the CT side in the vortex.
Here, we're now just constantly guessing. You go to these mixtaps, you don't really know what exactly is coming next.
And you're just sucked into the mind games.
Six to one, back on the by spirit.
And again, phase changing the pace, changing the direction, keeping the guesswork constant
for spirits.
And there's so much utility behind phase as well with this early map control they've
taken.
And they can sit on this now, they can absolutely sit on this and force spirit to respond to
get information.
And that's where we are into the territory of Info Traps, and that's what Spirit are
going to be worried about, so they're going to be really, really cautious.
Again, Donk has never peaked for info, this E-Box position, fully respecting that Jay
Bowen's been on it time and again.
Donk, so Desperate's a fine wave for this one, avoiding the flashes and this time holding
his ground.
No one behind it on this occasion, but what other options are face waiting on our spirit?
Surprises to come in this myth position
Japan has his angle now
The late is really good here spirit are getting ahead of the play now
They know what's going on
They were stuck three to be they kind of fell for the you know or accepted that it was probably going to be off the
the box aggression. But now they know what's going on. There's 20 seconds to
plant. Shiro posted on the A long position. You feel like spirit of
everything they need here. Taneh could have a pot of play if he can get close.
Never mind that. Shiro collects two. Bonus for a fit, man. That's really gonna shut down the
round now. Meiko, a question of damage for him. He won't get anything done. Just
lighting up for Shiro. Exactly what a doctor ordered for spirits.
really nice work there. I could see Taneir moving closer to that mid position from B, so maybe he had a part to play, but Gerro's cleanup was prompt.
What's interesting here, James, is that this is the exact same round, rather, way that FaZe lost the previous round on the CT side.
They have the play set up into E-box to keep the B players there. The player attacking into E-box just dies pretty quickly,
Then phase are forced to go into a and then they just get stopped and then as a rotation it comes in
It's exact same route where they lost up to this one
To bow and going for a racy one pick the wrong door though as far as shiro is concerned post it up ready waiting delivering
And now the tide is maybe turning
Back in favor of spirits as the money for phase has disappeared quite a lot with these failures
to essentially where Shiro has been the problem with the AWP on this A-bomb site.
Twist.
And he has a clock.
And Jigs is rotating over from that B position, also feeling relatively comfortable keeping
an eye on things as far as mid is concerned.
Now, Frozen's in a very...
Oh, that's going to save, I think, James.
They don't have money, actually, now that I look at it.
Yeah, Frozen's in a very far away position, which is indicating that.
So they're going to try and hold things together.
Makes sense.
Three with rifles will be, well, maybe plenty, I wouldn't say it will be, we shall see,
but again, spirits are starting to stabilize now.
Not too late either in this first half.
I feel like one of the things for me to be careful of in this next round is a fast contact
into B main or like through B main into B or something like that because you know phase haven't been able to convert now in a
Basically all the rounds in which phase take that mid control and then try to figure out how to pivot onto one of those two sides
They lose their pivot player and then they just they just get trapped into a spot where they're just stalled out
Big risks big gambles
And sometimes you have to take those gambles
Unfortunate timing from the face POV. They've done really well into B with the trade frackers going shoulder to shoulder
Sometimes you've got to throw a different look at different play
Didn't work out on that occasion now the door is open for spirits who walk back into this deciding map
Well spirit fans will be nervous in in how this one has begun
But it's looking a lot better now. Yeah, it does that generally feel like they have the momentum now and
All they have to do is break this by and in a phase they're going to be in trouble
If Faze get a bomb plant, maybe they'll have enough money with the loss bonus and the bomb plant money to keep the pressure up, but for the most part, Spirit are licking them like they've found their comforts.
So let's see what Faze are going to do to open this one up. They don't have that much utility, James, so the contacts could be a good shot. We'll see.
Some early Utah dumping from spirits in mid.
But look at these players coming through.
Are they going to wait for the smoke?
Or are they going to just shoot through?
That could be a quite a scary prospect.
Maybe for both.
I think they'll be happy with that.
Not going to throw it in the meantime,
and Sinir's got really good angles to hold mid.
Two versus four here now.
Please, they're in a bit of trouble.
Twist takes down Zontics.
Maybe opportunity now,
Now, but they're still stuck in this mid position
The containment hit from Jock
And to near no escape at all and they're gonna be closing down a very key rounds and suddenly it feels like face
Not really sure I think how to proceed where to find the weakness or the openings
Three rounds in a row for spirits
So can they have absorbs they have learned they have adjusted
This is where you're in the deep weeds
You've got to write a new page on the fly, but that'll be hard with a few pistols and a few pieces of utility for phase and round 11.
They'll keep money in the hole for a to try and have a leader half time at least.
We'll see what they can do with this.
Don't wait with the century, but he's going to get utterly decapitated.
What position is left for spirits on B looking awkward now, but there is help to players there at least.
Looking awkward now, but there is help. Two players there at least, and they've got some good angles.
Yeah, there's no smoke here. This is a problem right now, full phase.
It allows the Ryfers to get close, open ranges. There has to be trace, N2.
They're going to take down Shiro, but they haven't found the full spot just yet.
And now they've lost space on the site. The lack of smoke, proving problematic.
N2 through the smoke. Inside the smoke, AT&HP able to dodge that one.
He's going for a runner, straight to the other site.
It doesn't look like they know. I don't think Spirit realises that N2's going to A.
way. You never know if he's cutting noise or if he's turntailed and run. And it will
be the latter. Bomplot secured, 18 HP. How much time does he think he has to move into
a different position? Two coming his way. A few angles for them to check. They've got
a smoke. If they figure out the right way to put it, that's going to make life really
hard for Ney too. Even if it is about spraying through the smoke, he can't take a single
bullet with his current health. Smoke onto the bomb may give him options as he takes
the fight to them. Got to be careful. Potential shadows here. One on the bomb. Utility. There
is a blast. It's so much time! He's really waited until the last possible second. I think
it's a robbery. I think it's a robbery from May 2. Oh, they've found a time to defuse it.
Can you believe that? He waited as long as he possibly could to drop that defuser. Great
work from NATO but still not enough. Oh, heartbreak there again, so close, so close and honestly
there's even a chance here as he falls back that he could potentially get a few bullets in there
for the fight but it's just not quite enough, milliseconds of difference, milliseconds of
difference as we go into the final round of the first half here. It's near and shero with an AWP
each be the perfect present to offer to an unwelcome guest again magic's playing a little
closer to a just keeping an eye a passive eye towards mid and that noises come phase
a quiet holding a boat load of utility.
They're going to try to offer a fake into B. I wonder if the bomb is towards A at the
moment three plays there in total for phase, but they're applying or looking to apply pressure
again to the E box position.
It typically has not gone well.
maybe 100% of the time, Donk just wins that battle over that territory.
Five molotovs for FaZe, make it four. They're not trying to go through these smokes, are they?
Donk now. I thought he was going to get out one. Jacobs collected two.
FaZe in such a good spot. Now they spotted that last player.
That last player, second-last player, Shiro, with the other AWP, has got a hell of a prospect
ahead of him.
Last round, one versus four.
To stop Faze taking a lead at halftime.
We asked if they could do it, and I think they've answered that question already.
And the fact that Faze are hitting multiple spots on the map at once, winning all the
Wombie Ones is honestly incredible, especially after the drought of rounds.
And here comes Shiro.
It's that shot off the frozen. Three players left.
Chip Bowen takes him out, and that's a 7-5 finish for FaZe at the end of the first half.
This game is getting really interesting. We'll see what happens after the break.
AWPers 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 Orpas get the credit they do, because not anyone can do it.
A top Orp is the play 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 Orp to perform if you're going to be putting as much resources into the Orp
every single game.
I think the roller has evolved in a few ways when you go all the way back to the start of CSGO
We had super combat all through Kenny S is the best example because he was so mobile with the AWP
The orb got nerfed as a result mainly of players like Kenny S who was so aggressive
Who were always pushing always in the face in the game that got nerfed
We saw offers be more an ecstatic for a while
Device is a great example of that and some of you would pick their spot and stay in it and be like a turret almost
This guy never missed a shot. He was the most reliable author of all time, really.
I think all-by-jelling is not easy.
You're giving space! You'll figure it out every time!
There are very few cases of players who have made that work at the top level.
There's a few factors I think that play into this.
When you're all-picking, you've got to be focused on your crosshairs, 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 orpher,
he's still gonna be alive in those late 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 orping, it's hard to be as involved, feels easier said than done.
But then you have also flashy orcas are a lot of fun to watch people like monocly, 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 plays and that's some of the simplest best moments, dropping in from heaven, getting two no-scope kills, give 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 fact that I was able to find as much impact as he does is impressive considering there are whole 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 hoping, whether they're flashing, whether they're reliable.
They have to perform in the highest impact moment, and there is no room for error.
If you miss a shot on the orb, you're going to die.
You're always going to take attention because there is no room for error.
Polymarket is the prediction partner of Blast Bounty.
And many of you doubted FaZe, especially going into that second map.
Do you doubt them now?
Two round lead for FaZe moving into their CT side.
side. Have they done enough? Now it's their turn to defend and your spirit is just sending
it towards the A bombsite and face might meet them. They've got four players in and around
middle looking down the water. But you can see the vision is going to make it so that
they will not be spotted taking the long way around and also doing so silently. And you
got to us asking questions. Where the hell are they? And they've got to realize at this
point, Jay Bowen rotating back towards a, but it feels like spirit have moved through
the gaps. Smurke execute with him on the coming into the bombsite now. Jekyllone is able to
pop Xlontex, no U2 no kit for the CT side. His position, he needs to stay alive there to give
his CTs a route into the bombsite safely. Donk knows that as well, he's going to try and eliminate him
but Jekyllone stands to his ground. That is a huge trap for this retake. Frozen pots to near,
they're falling one by one, these spirit players. Magix and Churro versus five. It's really tough here,
Nature takes down Shiro Magix against so many players charging his way holding the lines and he's got nothing
We'll get everything five players alive
Unbelievable both pistols in this game
They've set themselves up for an enormous upset here against spirit perfect storm both pistol round secured again
Jay bowing it's not just about the frag but holding this position this jewel as well
the ball. Keeps that door open
for the reinforcements to come
through and the rest is easy
for phase three round lead. They
know how important that is as
well. There is a force by though.
Of course there's a force by
spirit going for the big gamble.
This is a highly dangerous round
for face to deal with. Yeah,
you're totally right. We saw it
on the second map. Where they
did the worst did happen to them
been dropped though does indicate to us that's for spirit. They are looking for
early aggression here. They know that FaZe would love to get a pick before they
can do anything. And FaZe, three players on the B defense right now. Two players
able to play more of a rotate position on A as well that they understand what
they're up against. There's so much util though for spirit. To some degree they're
waiting out the initial util from FaZe. Look at all the junk they've got. They
They could go into an execute again on the A-bomb site as we saw previously, maybe with
some more nooks and crannies.
They've got more tools for it, more mollies, more threats from spirits, but still faith
of past many tests in this map of a newbis.
Yeah, I think they kind of indicate that they are looking to take mid control, but they're
going to wait.
It's a good timing on that smoke. A very forward smoke, very thwarting smoke.
It looks worrisome on the radar, four phase, and now Natu comes through and doesn't see anything.
They can't overreact to this. They already have three over towards B, more or less.
But he's really put himself in a committed position. If he drops it, Jaboen's alone.
He's clicking his famas. That'll surely be hard.
This is a kind of big tough, though, they two collect all three and the four might work.
This guy is having an incredible series versus Spirit.
They called him the Spirit Killer on the desk and honestly, the trend continues.
Magics will take down G-Bowen, but players in position now to defend the site
while it's off there to eliminate some of those positions.
But Magics with everything to do, absolutely can send me spots.
There's no time on the clock either.
Rooks to his death.
And I've got to say, James, with so many players,
You see them close to a bunch of force by force bought pistols with a farm
It's not a famas James, but then you see the name. It's NATO all day all series delivering these multi-kills
The famas the info it doesn't matter what it is
NATO is going to deliver
Man, he's the French gun on NATO as far as I'm concerned. Look at the graveyard there very shallow indeed. That is a big test
very big test passed by FaZe, 9-5 in the driving seat. Spirit in so much trouble. They've got the hero rifle on to Donk. They need a miracle. Donk is a miracle. Day to day on the server. So we'll see what he can provide them. But FaZe are ready. Molly's hate sheets. He's eating so many hate sheets in this entire series, Donk.
down to 28 HP and he might want to I mean does he give the AK up I don't think
anyone else has armor except Zontics very difficult position here looking for
that just singular pick oh look at that what a gentleman he reloads it before he
passes it away to Zontics and they're gonna switch gears moving over towards
the A site and phase getting a little active in mid some four more forward
positions but they have voided that forward space to A they are very
comfortable playing retake A right now if necessary hot flash info no one there
Chaobone alone for now they're pretty deep they are pretty deep no time for the
utor now and again he's got a whole his position the rotation is on the way so
There's no reason to be
so excited. I mean, there's
nothing too concerning there.
Don't have all the utility in
the world. The prime make this
a little more difficult. Jabon
collects to but in so do spirit
to try to get that bomb planted.
Jabon and coming through to
deny that is so good for them.
It's so good. There's no
bomb plot. It's 10 to 5. And
it's an A's for Jay Bowen. The
guys is casual up there by
himself with the M for making it
you to make your own name as
well. Again, rising to tier one
CS delivering on both sides.
Doesn't matter if it's T or C T
for J bow and getting an ace
versus spirit as they're
fighting for a lifeline in a
game in a third map at the
signing series for a grand
final versus a team who you
wrote off not you, but like the
people in general you wrote
everybody wrote off phase
versus spirit. Okay, let's see
These frags here from Japan is what I mean, they're so incredibly important.
You got pistols swarming all over the site. Even below him,
his teammate gets taken down as a rifle to be collected.
Haha!
Frozen can't believe it.
10-5. It's not just a 10-5, James. It's a 10-5 where Spirit haven't been able to test anything on their T side.
They don't know what really works here. They haven't really been able to default.
They've been getting wrecked on their economy.
Donkey 7 for 11, dude. Donkey 7 for 11!
trying times for spirit margin for error is small face have to remain calm and
collected here but they've got to feel that the victory is very close now but
it must not be afraid to play as they want to play to win don't play not to
lose that's how catastrophe happens so the veteran presence on the team becomes
extremely important in these types of spots. Spirit against the ropes. Very little utility
right now. They've got a single smoke grenade with a minute left.
As far as some mouths will be watching this, they are to come after this series.
the timing. Where are you off to? The timing is a smoke! It couldn't be better! Frozen takes down
Zontics, defending E-box position they know, B main is now compromised, but still Magix with
the opening here gives a chance for Spirit, they need that chance. It's the 3 vs 3 and you got
Twizz out of the site, they're playing retake here phase. Yeah he has to fall back to get a reload on
his rifle and away for his teammates. They've got kits up plenty and that is a good grenade but
He's trying to sink up together.
Oh, don't do the pre-fighting.
Absolutely ready to fight back here.
Shiro will connect, leaving Twist alone
to try and do what he can.
That will be a round on the board then
for Spirit in a very high tension game.
Immediately from the get-go after the pistol,
high tension straight back after the break.
Spirit with their first round of their second half
are four behind and there is,
there is some money actually for Faze,
but it's not spectacular.
There is some money actually for FaZe, but it's not spectacular.
And FaZe with the timing there with the E-box aggression, it was near perfect really.
You know, getting that timing where the Tee had just come in,
maybe someone has a nade in their hand.
But the variants, it's a cruel mistress for FaZe in that instance,
but for Spirit, it's maybe giving them a way back in.
Pistols here now, as we get pretty fast moving into the water from Spirit.
and Jay Bowen looking for something with the Diego.
Freyzen also on the Diego and then that's kind of it for Faze in terms of firepower in this round.
Just a USB for me to again a life series for him of my life game really making a name for himself.
Hard not to be a fan of this Faze squad of what they've done so far.
If you're a fan of spirit though, again a hard team to put down even when the going gets tough
See how long they can keep phase on 10 rounds for
Perhaps the worst is over for this squad
But again, who knows what lies in wait what a intel in their recent matches for twist and code to absorb
of the game so far. And in this round, Spirit looks to have evaded them, although Jabo and
Mike are not in position to near too quick. Too quick for Jabo in that particular position.
It's like I don't know for me as a viewer, maybe a few as well. You know, you've got a clear favor on paper, but the way the game is playing out you just don't know what's going to happen from round one.
I know, I know, I know.
It's like, I don't know, for me as a viewer, maybe for you as well.
You know, you've got a clear favourite on paper, but the way the game is playing out,
you just don't know what's going to happen from round to round.
Both teams are in a position to win this one, even a few rounds down, Spirit.
There's still Spirits after all.
Yeah, they're still favourite basically, because they're Team Spirit.
The thing that's really crazy here for me, James, is again, you know, have a couple players
that have a way less experience in this kind of a position. Spirit is one of the most rock
solid teams in professional Counter-Strike, and you're in a position to not just beat
them and scoop up all the VRS points, but you go to the finals, again, with some green
players and like that there's so much on the line for face and so mentally there is there is a lot there
we'll see what they can deliver in this particular round g burn back on the awp
zonestix is the top fragger on this map at the moment
interesting dunk with quick pressure outside a a trying to try to draw out utile but there's no
utile that's being drawn out at all
I don't know if May 2 is the one you want to challenge on this roster, same for J-Bowen
as well though, my word is he delivering in top flight CS, steady pair of hands heading
towards the minute mark, spirits still have a spread across the map but the bomb is heading
towards B. They've been trying to pull FaZe towards A the whole round, but FaZe have largely
just stayed in position. In fact, Twist is more interested in B than anything else.
Chapeurin's posted up though with the AWP to see a mid-cross. Similar to what we saw from
the formation of Magix in that first half, but since he was part of that, maybe he knows
how to detect it, defeat it. They're trying to sell a B split here. It's a fake though.
Zontics will try to start a strong position.
Jaybon takes down Magix.
That's the other piece of the fake.
Oh, Throzen's falling back on A.
Into a rotation position.
Jacob's dropped now, and we've got problems.
Throzen has to deliver, but he's traded by Shiro.
Through that smoke.
Zontics can't have catching that rotation.
And maybe the fake has worked well enough.
Jaybon and twist.
All that remains.
That's a great HG, though.
It's all tied up now.
2 on 2.
Shiro and Zontics left.
I think they were thinking of saving,
but then the HG got the kill there.
You see them suddenly walking together back through.
Shiro, the safest pair of hands.
The kit ready there on the box site as a reward.
But Shiro, it's just too much of a challenge for Twist
and J-Bo and he doesn't want to lose this AWP.
Cannot afford to do so.
There's no money left here for FaZe.
Oh, the timing on that one.
It was a cheeky exit for him to potentially all.
Shiro, for him trying to take it down.
The margins are so slim.
It's big if Jay Bowen can hold on to the AWP at least,
but that lead is dwindling.
And, you know, we've seen so much test,
so many tests for FaZe, their new roster,
their younger players in terms of how long
they've been playing this top flight counter strike.
They've delivered versus Spirit,
but now you have that lead and it's slipping away.
It's a different kind of pressure.
Maybe your hand's a bit clammyer,
and it's another way to test the measure of
how much you can deliver on a stage
facing your opponent like this.
That fake as well from Spirit.
I mean, that is such a devious round
because you are so fussy.
You had, they were presenting you,
tell to kind of say we're trying to clear position
towards a name very early on.
Then you see two players on either side.
That's like a lot of investment into a fake
because again, as we see like J-Boone
getting the kill on Magics, you know,
if it doesn't work, your push is going to be very weak
in the V-Site proper.
So that's a strong, strong round from spirit that they had to pull out of the playbook to ensure that they can close the gap here because they need it.
All right, then it is the Jobo in show.
I said Jobo and Joe Biden.
That's what they call him on the internet.
Anyway, he'll be posted up around at mid position looking to boost off on his teammate, I thought.
But Donk has managed to escape the situation.
So how long does he hold here for?
He needs to find some impact somewhere. His teammates have got Smokes and 5-7s.
A great combo to delay and cause some problems, but again, it's the big gun that I think needs to stamp some authority here.
Yes, and I mean, if J-Bone can't get anything, the game doesn't come to him.
Saving the AWP is, I'm sure, exactly what they're thinking about.
This could be the one to try to get some information or try to play as the partner.
Make sure that J-Bone gets opportunity if something comes to their position,
come to their position, but you're gonna have to be here coming on through now for the side of his team spirit.
Trying to get in the smoke here, trying to cause problems.
Trying to capitalize on the variants.
This is a little bit too much to handle, though.
Too much heat, which is probably imposition, though, but the smokes are really helping spirit.
Can't take too many pot shots through that smoke, that's tight, I'm not sure.
We'll have to get a reload in soon. His teammates are still alive, still scavenging around,
making their way through with that flash, Jacob.
has the space to gamble.
Three and four, Jay Bowen still posted up.
There is a flank on the way from Twist also.
Tanir going to need a reload soon.
You wonder about the timing.
Twist is in that position to punish that one,
but it's a one tap onto Magix.
Now they're really compromised.
They could lose more here.
Maybe, oh, the block is a little bit awkward,
but I think that Spirit will be fine.
Jay Bowen doesn't want to go to the point in a return.
He needs to hold onto that AWP.
So I think Spirit will be OK for this one,
although he might lose a little more.
Then again, maybe not.
OK, that was actually a really sick round from FaZe
in terms of the level of threat.
And just like you pointed out, the block
makes it look really scary because you're like, hang on.
Are they scrambling a bit?
The gaps to be taken advantage of.
But Spirit clawing this game back, absolutely clawing it back,
but still one round behind FaZe, who now positioned to have
the four by with Jay Bowen who has kept that all alive round by rounds four rounds in a
row for spirits which again some of these rounds have been cracked for face they
haven't had the tools to do the job so you've got to take it with them with a
pinch of salt and anyway let's see what face have learned
what they decide to do spirits turn to set the pace as we saw face do in that
first half again phase coming into this one absolutely fearless but a lot of
spirit plays looking to compromise mid yeah this is a completely new you look
here from spirit as well aside to really see that T side playbook from them and
look how hard that feels as a CTs when you lose that ability to have any vision
through to mid and you felt the midtake so they could be there but they're
falling back out going into what looks like it could be a B hit potentially or
And that's the question the CTs have to answer.
The presence in mid has pulled J-Bo in out-of-position,
where he's kind of in CT spawn at the moment, wondering,
which has taken, you know, almost taken the all-out-of-commission.
And he's been a big-game player, four-phase.
So we'll see how that one develops,
but I don't expect he'll stay there for the remainder of the round.
And Dog makes it feel like it's going to be a V-play,
but it's actually a challenging E-box that attracting attention.
And it will fall onto N2.
He's had to pass so many multi-fragging tests.
is a scorecard, it's pretty good, but can it still remain?
If he comes out of this one on top, I couldn't possibly believe it.
That's a really good flash, though, and the trades are there.
How do you rotate now? How do you get into position?
What else is there to do? Two on four.
Maybe the decisions have been taken.
Faze, somewhat opening with, again, a tertiary style in that one.
Far back on B.
Weren't really in position to make aggressive plays on B or A.
And again, Jayburn pulled out of position as Mid was abandoned in that opening from FaZe.
But it makes it hard for them to respond to what spirits are doing.
The engine is... Oh, hello.
I'm trying to keep these weapons alive. Oh, no, this is going to be a tough one.
So much time left here.
You've got to win the battles. Frozen. Take some magics.
Frozen. Also taking down Tongue, so...
Okay.
Those are really important kills. I mean, in the history of this series,
have not allowed phase two
saving such scenarios.
Frozen. That is impressive.
Yeah, it's really impactful.
There's a lot of money for the
teams as well. So. We'll see
if that matters or if it's too
late in terms of how many
rounds are left. The crazy
thing or very difficult thing
right now for phase is that
one all the rounds that they
won on this half have came
off the winning the pistol
winning us the force by
winning us the eco and then
the rest of the actual gun
rounds phase is not claimed
phase has not claimed a single one. So that's that's the first fact. The second fact is again,
they're very close to winning this series and going to the finals. And they're in a situation
where they need to actually, they need to make a read and get aggressive. You know, I think that's
like one of the things we're seeing here. And it's, we saw from Liquid, for example, setting or
showing us how strong in the meta right now playing aggressively in the CT side of the Nubis actually
is. And you can't get scared if your face, you have to take risks if you want to win. And I fear
for them that they are going to not find the right risks to take.
I think when they're out of position on their CT side and rotation is required, that's where
spirit are. Sometimes they're at their most punishing. When it's like, oh god, I've got
to go over to the other bombsite, they're just standing there waiting for you and it's
just free. They're closed down the round in those scenarios. So again, I don't think they
can have their backs to the wall in these rounds if they want to be successful versus
spirit all tied up now all eyes on phase to bring the pendulum back in their favor
yeah it's been very difficult again you can see what the problems are in the mouth
faking it can happen from the t-side if you can allow for them to have this position
dog making noise gets punished okay phase in with the five versus four early on what's the
reaction here from spirit they two need to cape for the work he's doing for phase in this series
I've gone through the T smoke over towards A as well.
They've still got three players heavily committed to this one,
including Jay Bo and he's got half a night on mid.
You've got two players aggressively positioned for FaZe on A long right now.
There's three towards that side of the map in general.
This is the kind of stuff we're talking about.
Get information and that's going to give them a pick.
Nato delivers again.
That's exactly what was missing.
They've learned, they've understood,
they've delayed on the other side of the map as well,
Taking control away from Spirit at a crucial time when it's not too late.
Twister's rotated across as well from A, so FaZe might have position to have a defense here,
but it's going to be hard. It's always tough on the B site.
Limited numbers for Spirit.
Speaking of tough, if they lose by elimination, Spirit, then it's going to be very curious
things develop. With their money starting to disappear, 17 seconds. Snare almost 6k,
Shiro just north of 5. Today we're on in and dying here. They're threatening the push,
but surely they can't commit to this one. Magix comes through then, trying to get something done.
Shiro, chop shaker. Frozen hasn't decided where to stand. Two seconds. Just about making it
extensive then, as Magix and Shiro stand at the end of the round. But there is money for face
the same is true of spirit for
now, but that could be a pain
point in these rounds to come.
Yeah, we see exactly the way that
they were able to make something happen.
It I mean that that kick against
on. It creates opportunity to create
space for more confident to go for
this two man push and going for a
two man push was so smart to see
what is on doing? Is he going? Is he
just making it look, you know, very
loud when in reality it's not much
here and I'll just keep seeing phase
of risks in the middle rounds.
Catch getting dicey to both squads.
Maybe a bit more so for Spirit,
who are absolutely ready for an aggressive play from Jacob.
You can't be afraid to make these plays.
It's really important they try plays,
but now they've got a 4v5 to deal with.
Yeah, very, very bold and unusual timing there.
The Spirit ready.
E-box is looking like it will be taken over very quickly.
Twisk is taken down, spinning around frozen.
Insta-kill on to Domper.
That really might not be enough there.
Two versus four for the remainder of FaZe to try to figure out how to work from it.
I think, again, they're going to put into safe territory.
Jaepoen needs to keep the AWP, the money's now gone for FaZe,
and it finally looks the first time like Spirit have truly taken over the game.
This is a really tough spot for FaZe now.
Again, he raised the money issue, it was true for both squads.
It's FaZe where the problems all lie.
He does not make it out of there alive.
So, yeah, it's a really difficult situation now, four phase and a half where they need
to be aggressive, but they might not necessarily have the money to do so, as well as they would
in a full bite.
Yeah, they got reset here, so there's no money coming from anywhere, it's not coming from
anywhere, there's no stimulus package, nothing getting dropped from the sky, there's no support.
And they have to figure out, do they half buy, do they full buy, you know, it's very, very
challenging they're gonna actually go for the half here. It's a calculated risk of a buy.
Two smokes, a few guns. It really is like the last stand for the squad. They're the only man on
the A bomb site and that will continue to be seized by spirit. What do you even do now? No kits,
no flashes? Yeah there's almost a world I think where you want to save your your Kevlar if you've
bought it. I think well actually two players don't have Kevlar so it's just frozen and
shaking. The flex curator already still just holding positions to potentially hunt and
make things even worse really step on the necks of their opponents. You can see they're
moving through mid and they may be spotted there. It's just a question of how much they
They can take away from FaZe now.
Not that there's that much in the first place.
J-Bo and Roaming, but really it's just about trying to pick up a weapon.
5-7 is dangerous.
Imagine if you had a kit that would be very interesting.
But J-Giff looking to defend his wall.
Maybe some weapons to be collected.
So there's something in this round for FaZe to take away.
There's something in this round for Spirits as well, Dan.
match points. A hard comeback in this game of a new best, but it's them who are facing the finish line first.
It feels like the energy is gone from FaZe, but...
and over time, behind one round, that's all you need.
We see something interesting from FaZe.
What is that?
A second AWP.
A second AWP?
In the hands of Twist. A different look, showing something different for spirits.
How do they post up? How do they avoid these flashes? We've seen flash points through a
aggressive spot for me too and such. So twists will currently be in that mid position. Actually,
they both are.
Very interesting.
And twist.
Double orping mid.
Hey man, you got to get creative. You got to get creative. You got to force the overtime
somehow. Attention here could all be over for FaZe, the spirit they could avoid, the catastrophe
as Donk begins to test the E-Box position showing presence. We've got double orbs for
spirits as well. Okay, Magix is up to some shenanigans. We have four orbs in the last round of regulation
for a spot in the grand final for a moment but one of them's disappeared now.
see the boost attempt there to get that line for shiro very dangerous they're
avoided by twist just us in a minute now to make the move it's been very quiet
the last 20 seconds you tell going to be and it's going to be be it looks like
James yeah James Irwin posted up on that be bombsite that's a great position for
a battle sniper how did they respond the bombs moving away from be all of a
sudden it is made to I'm not going to say just on the a bomb sites in a much
more defensive position. Again, keeping position open in case of rotation is needed, but you
can see that there are spirit plays looking to creep through mid, twist holding that second
door. Can that be expected? There's still presence being shown towards B.
Just to drop that fresh smoke on B, that's going to help them out a lot, and now spirit
have to abandon that completely. But so many players here looking to go for the A site.
Hit in second AWP. There it is, but traded out by Shira. Is it enough from twist?
May 2 has to stay alive here. He has to stay alive, but Shira also has to cross with that bomb
And he's gonna chase them because there isn't time. Has he got a time to do this?
He just about does. What a small win of opportunity. Now two on three, Jeboen creeping through with AWP, but guess it's got one as well!
Shira had two shadows, but still Jeboen stands!
Two players here for Faze. A chance here because of Jeboen. Is it possible to negate aggressive?
He's gonna find that kill all on the shoulders of the youngster. Can he do this for his team?
And it's the revealing, the play is on Dix, locks it in, 13-11 and Spirit avoid the upset.
But what does this mean for the future of Faze? My goodness, Spirit.
We expected the win, but we never expected it to look like this.
What an incredible series.
Unbelievable work by Faze. I think with the time this roster has had together,
you have to be really proud of what they've done.
done, everybody delivering new men on the block making names for themselves, incredible rounds,
incredible comebacks in the first two, wonderful lead from FaZe as well, testing spirit, putting
them to the limit to try and win that one in regulation. That was a nutty series and
a great way to fight for a place in a grand final.
Yeah, they really delivered here in terms of tension. To me, the series had tension
throughout the entirety of cash and the entirety of Anubis and it just never
stopped. Absolutely awesome game from both sides and FaZe. I mean they're gonna
feel gutted. They were so close to defeating Spirit and it's not just
defeating Spirit. It will be breaking that record that you've mentioned. That's
the record of them never losing. Yeah, a hell of a run again. 26 games now where
they've only lost to Falcons or Vitality. That is a hell of a run and the run
continues as spirit make their way to the grand final.
I've got Magix with me here to talk through this one and I'm going to ask you this, is
it a bit of a sigh of relief after that one and how close it got, how bad these half started
for you on a new bus especially?
Well, yeah, this is crazy game, like we were like back against the wall and we were not
like communicating well and it was difficult to play.
We had low amount of energy and ideas,
like in the communication, in the mid-round and whatever,
and props to them, they did great.
You said about the communication,
I've heard that a couple of times now from your players,
and now you also said low energy.
So what are you saying to the team?
What is Halley saying to the team in these moments?
Because after those first, what three rounds of phase
took from you on the second half,
then your T-star starts to come alive
once you had guns in hands,
you start to roll a bit better? I mean you can say a lot of different things to try to get your
team to step up or whatever but you know in the end we are all playing for multiple years and we
are not brain damaged and we have an understanding that unless we walk in and just play better and
communicate better and give that energy, give like everything you have when you're down 10 to 5.
If you are not doing this you are going to end up losing.
And you didn't, you survived it, you got through it. But I want to ask you a little bit about Dust2.
Was it a Magic's life game?
No, it was not a life game. It was just a decent game. I had a few nice kills I guess
and a few gambles which were pretty nice for me.
And yeah, that was a great map for me,
not picking up on another.
And I also want to get your thoughts on cash,
because I know you would have expected Faze to go from it.
They've been very strong at early adopting to this map right,
even from when they first came back from the player break it.
Your T side is where things started to struggle a bit there.
Is this just lack of reps on the map,
lack of understanding of how things need to be done?
Well...
I mean, it was Nature.
Nature made us choke.
Yeah.
He slammed you when you were running into the sights and that's just too hard to deal
with.
Yeah, I mean, he's Diggle 3K.
It was, we didn't expect this to be that way.
Like, you know, if we're winning this round, we are controlling the economy and we have
an idea of how we want to do it.
But once we lose the force buy, we are running out of money and it's kind of difficult and
And we cannot have utility or have an idea and we were just choked.
Well you didn't choke, you got the win, you're through to the grand final, there's a lot
of spirit fans on this side of the room as well.
Anything you want to say to them, Magics?
Thank you.
Thank you very much guys.
Let's get into our bouncy bonanza.
The
Bounty Venenza comes back this time with a big smile on our play, a big smile on our
fan.
Kansai, would you like to introduce yourself and how long you've been following Counter
Strike 4?
I'm Alex.
I'm following Counter Strike since Condition Zero, since I was a kid, 6 years old.
Wow.
I see you're a big spirit fan. I have to ask, how long have you been following the pool?
Not that long, to be honest. I think one and a half years probably now.
Well, look, after this, maybe Tania might be your favorite spirit player, because Tania, you're joining us to spin the wheel.
Are you relieved that this is what you get to do, that you get to spin the wheel and get some prizes for our fans after a stressful series?
Yeah, I will try to catch something good probably. But maybe I have a chance just for two.
He's trying to rig this. There's no rigging it, Tania.
You can spin that wheel when you're ready as hard as you possibly can.
You just have to do better than Bunker, okay?
I will try, right?
Yeah, go for it.
That's a pretty big spin.
The bananas are coming.
The bananas are coming. Do you have a lucky number?
44.
Well, that's unfortunately not the point.
Maybe number four could be your lucky one. It's going.
It's getting close. It's almost bananas.
Oh, I just got tired of it.
It is IC market number three.
Let's see exactly what she is one few. Thank you. I see market you've won a 100 dollars team gift card
And that is for our player. I love the audience member. What if you'd like to guys at home?
Make sure you invest wisely
That has been a great prize banks is bringing them up you also get something in that one to near as well
But the thing is I see market has been so generous already that we're actually going to do an extra spin on top of this one
So Tania, would you like to go for another spin to win some more prizes for Alex?
Wait, I can...
Spin it again!
Yeah, go crazy, harder this time around!
Alright, that's another number that's lucky!
Seven!
Seven!
Alright, we'll see if number seven comes up for you
as we're so close to putting the bananas off.
It's going over it, it's coming back around!
It's actually coming the bananas off!
It's coming the bananas off!
Congratulations!
Oh, the bananas off!
Let's see how good it really is.
It's the Baraka!
Woo!
It starts off without you and him getting a $1,000 skin.
It is the Huntsman Knife Duff Law.
And on top of that, we actually ticket all expensive paid trips to last time we opened Porto.
But not only that, our player is getting a team dinner for the entire squad.
Dude, the bananzer is in St. Tania.
You won a team dinner! You are taking your team to dinner all expenses that you won VIP tickets,
Flights, Accommodation, everything to the next Blast event for Porter.
That's right Alex, I know we're gonna be seeing you again, maybe some more prizes.
And for you guys at home, there is the skin that you can win if you want to enter the giveaway.
You guys can all jump into the Twitch chat there, but the bounty bananas are the extra spin.
Tania man, you're just a big winner today, huh?
F again?
No, no, no, no, we missed too much, but thank you so much for joining us for another iteration of Banny Bonanza, more giveaways to come.
A lot of fun being had on this Saturday. I feel like this is one of the best ways that you can kick off a weekend.
Not only do we get to watch a fun map number three here on Anubis between Spirit and Phase,
but also the bananas are getting hit,
how many bananas are on an extra spin.
It pays to be a spirit fan.
And the server, and out of the server.
Oh, yeah, they paid him back in a couple of ways there.
Taneer with the perfect touch, the golden touch there.
I mean, I have to also, my heart's out to Faze, though.
They played a great series.
At times it felt like they were going to pull this over the line,
but I have to say, I think we're in a little bit of a new dawn
of the spirit era.
This is the first time in CS2 history.
I did a really quick glance through their games.
I've never seen Donk on all three maps have a sub 1.0 KD and they still win the series.
So that's great. That's a crazy great team effort.
Yeah, this is this is a spirit where they rely a lot on Donk even more so than the past.
I think we talked about their utility.
They set Donk up with utility quite often.
So to see him have a bad map, you really need great performances out of the likes of a Tenir,
Azontics. That's the squad though that spirit have set up.
They used to be Donk and Shiro and nobody else really that could pull off a performance like this.
Instead you have Magix pulling off on Dust2, you have Dauntix on Anubis.
You have the pieces where Donk can have an off game and they can still pull it across the line.
I don't think they're going to be able to do it consistently, but certainly at least against FaZe, they managed to do it.
I think seeing the reactions of the FaZe players there really does hit home, like how in control they felt for so long on Anubis.
how even we're sitting there and you're thinking this is it.
FaZe could be doing the upset of what feels like the season already so early on for Spirit
on Lampus.
Spirit showing up, but there are two sides to it.
Amazing that Spirit can pull through with Dunk having such a tough time, but also FaZe
just falling a little bit short there even though our expectations were that they weren't
going to be that competitive.
I don't think that FaZe expected Spirit to have some of the tactical depth on some of
the rounds that they pulled out.
If you watch Spirit through the group stage, or even some of last season, a lot of the rounds are super simplistic.
There's not a lot of moving pieces.
It's very easy to understand what they're doing in a round, but this Anubis was definitely a map where you, as FaZe, were left scratching your head,
wondering, oh, we thought the hit was going one way, and then we're getting caught in transition as it's actually Spirit going another way.
Yeah, I think they did a lot of masking there. They caught it on the cast as well, throwing the same utility set towards the same site,
making it look like a B hits coming up.
The aggression comes through and the Chirros holding the angle,
waiting for you to go for the re-aggress.
You have Donk pushing in with good utility behind him,
still finding in a pivotal round at least,
he found a few kills,
even if he wasn't popping off the scoreboard like he usually does.
It's just insane to see how,
not necessarily just draw it,
maybe I'm being a little bit over exaggerated here,
but Donk really struggled.
And I was wondering,
because time and time again Spirit mentioned in their interviews,
that we struggled to have energy when it comes to series,
and we struggled to keep the energy up.
And when I see someone that has been such a reliable piece
for them, have that energy dip, I do wonder,
who's sitting there bringing it up?
Are they going to be able to do it?
But he himself actually was pretty key in being like,
I know I'm having a rough map, a rough series,
but you could still see, even though there were moments
that he was frustrated, he was celebrating the wins
and the rounds that they got with his team.
I would say Don still had lots of energy for the tilt
when things were going wrong.
He had lots of energy to put his head in his hands,
You know, and to be very unhappy with the way things were going, I mean, some of these were total bogus.
Like, so, this one coming up, this is ridiculous.
I would be in the same mentality at the same time.
Frozen is full-weight there. He's full-weight.
At full-clash.
I mean, yeah, no, I think that the body language on Donk was obviously a frustration,
because the pressure for this game is, it's very different than, say, a major,
where a major is just everything's mounting, you think that you need to add this to your legacy.
this tournament is supposed to be, in many ways, a gimme for spirit, so for it to get
that difficult for his rating to not even be a 1.0. I mean, it puts up for grabs, actually.
I gotta look at how everybody else performed in there, but it's kind of crazy. I mean,
could someone else take the MVP from him there? I didn't see the stats yet for this box score.
I don't think the problem is that it was kind of a team effort. You had Zothix on a new base,
you had Magix on Dust2. There's nobody that really popped off in every single map that I think was
consistently showing themselves to be their second star in this one.
Taneer, I think, was alongside him at the bottom of the scoreboard.
So it's tough to say they're going to take the MVP just off of that.
I still think Donk has it in the bag.
Yeah, yeah.
And when you look at the performance there, I think Donk understands this team relies on him.
That's why I think he gets so tilted.
The team needs him to be fragging.
And at some point, he was getting destroyed by, get it?
Jacob.
Jacob was 6-2 in the head-to-head against Donk at some point.
Not Jacob.
Jacob.
Not Jacob.
Not even Jay Bowen, Jay Cough.
Not even Jay Bowen, not even Jay Cough.
I don't want to make your day anyways.
I don't know if you saw it, that was a lowest set there
talking about your prediction.
What prediction?
You're guaranteed.
Don't get a 1.2, is that 3?
Rating this week on page 3's
42nd best career event.
That's what you meant when you said best, right?
42nd best.
42nd best.
I said, I believe my prediction was Phaze pick up a map.
I think that's what I said, okay? Look at where it was pretty close there
I can't give it to you too much
We obviously had a lot of fade this felt like a little bit of a one off there
But there's more to this map right where we're talking about phase being in control for what felt like most of it just before
We saw the first half concluded round number 11. That was something worth noting as well for you
Yeah, we had we had a few in this one that just kind of went the way of
of FaZe, I think, and honestly, I feel like
throughout so much of this game,
I actually felt like FaZe were doing a good job
of catching Spirit off guard.
But actually, you know what, this...
Wait, Voo, did you request this one?
This is the one where this ends up being a 1v2 for Nathieu.
He meds his way over to the A site and he gets the bomb plant,
but he, oh, you're gonna see a hesitation here.
You think with 18 health, he's one bullet away from death.
He plants for main, he's ready here, he doesn't spot out Zontics, he gets his kill, looks to hesitation for half a second, he's ready for the play.
It almost feels like if he just pulled his knife out and just jumped around the corner immediately, he would have got away.
But at the same time, I mean that's incredible to get to that position, really smart play to make the rotate, the spirit was not there, and that came down to milliseconds for Zontics on the defuse as well.
And it used to be a guy you've been critical of.
I have been a little critical of it.
I actually think Nate to you has done a pretty admirable job on phase. He's been put into an uncomfortable spot again
They're talking about contract situation. I'm not even sure if they're gonna keep playing with them
I think on the bomb site holds. He does a really good job. It's just the two or three times a game
He'll have a mistake. We saw it in the second half as well. He doesn't dodge a flash on an a hit
He just has a couple of mistakes that you remember you remember after the game even though we had in this series
What was a great series, even if statistically it wasn't that impressive?
Yeah, statistically, I feel like it lied. The box score lied.
I thought Neyuu at many times looked like the best player,
oftentimes the most impactful one for FaZe.
Thus, two his holds were magnificent on B, even when left alone.
On cash, obviously, the deagle highlight was crazy.
And on Noobus, the almost clutch there.
If you got it over the line, maybe the stats,
maybe the round swing says something different.
Either way, FaZe has given us something to remember,
something notable here for themselves.
Unfortunately, it wasn't a win. It wasn't a spot in the grand final. Their journey at Blast Foundry is over, but NKJ giving us some final thoughts before we say goodbye to them.
Faze put up one crazy fight and they had Spirit in the palm of their hands and that's what I need to talk with you about here NKJ because it looked like you had him on a new visc, right?
And I know it's a tough team to go up against, but what were you noticing as the reasons
where you couldn't get these little details going, what were you seeing that enabled Spirit
to get this comeback and in the end get the win?
Yeah, we were falling into a trap of being too complacent, being a bit too lazy on the
map, giving them a lot of map control for free basically, and then just not having the
balls to go for repushes or potentially like taking the initiative into our own hands
and just being more proactive on the map, being a bit more aggressive.
And then we were also not patient enough, unfortunately, not all rounds,
over rotating too soon, even though there was still time on the clock.
Communication was also getting a bit too hectic, unfortunately.
But most notably, probably the complacency by us,
that we are just like, just lazy on the map, unfortunately.
Overall though, right, if you look at this series,
do you still see a lot more positives in it, right,
when you've gone up against a team that's been together a long time,
it's an elite team, and you're able to push them that way?
Yeah, definitely a lot of positives to take away, but at the end of the day it still feels
a bit sad right now, but if we go back to the drawing board tomorrow and review together
before we head to boot camp, we'll very likely take a lot of positives away and then also
a lot of head scratches in the reviews where we are thinking like why are we doing this,
why are we, even though I adjusted a thing almost every time that I took that we need
to be more proactive, we need to do things on the map actually instead of just holding
back and waiting for them to come. Yeah it's a bit sad now but I think overall
like you said can be somewhat proud or happy about the fact that we were able
to take him the distance almost could have even I mean could have won it but
yeah I think definitely definitely proud. I also want to ask a bit about the
Vito for this matchup right obviously you kind of have Vito advantage in it
overall was there a reason you guys went for the Mirage band over the Dust2
because I know like Dust2 has been a bit of a struggle for you at Mirage I know
you didn't win it last time, but it's a pretty good map for you.
Yeah, I mean, it was probably my decision more so than the team's decision.
I felt like the last two officials that we played on Mirage, we didn't look comfortable
whatsoever on the CT side, and we did play actually a practice against them, like right
before for Blast, which was quite convincingly going off ever, but there was Frozen popping
off like and he had like 17-0 skills with KD right so if there's like there's a lot of
ifs like a lot of things needs to be going our way and the last officials that I saw
both against Dendale but also against Mongols was not convincing by us we were just like
really really bad in our rotations really bad in our team play in our communications
and it was just my gut feeling that okay you know we've been talking all about us too we
We had a really decent game plan, overall in my opinion, coming into this matchup.
We're not executing it properly, unfortunately, and here and there are some rounds where maybe
a bit unfortunate on the CT side of Dust2.
But yeah, I think that's probably the main reason why I just saw our Mirage, the last
two officials, not being as good as it needed to be in order to actually beat them.
So that was the reason why we went with Dust2.
And you told me earlier, you're going on bootcamp next as well, so the grind's going
to continue.
You didn't have much practice from when the new players came together, then you went to China, so how important is this bootcamp going to be, how long is it going to be, give me some insight and then obviously it's on Twitter we'll see after that.
Yeah, I mean we're flying Monday to France doing a bootcamp there, it's probably going to be around a week, unfortunately there's obviously going to be some content to be shot again as per usual, you know, it's needed, right?
So overall, I think around five days, definitely trying to look into also some team bonding activity,
like outside stuff that we need to be doing.
But around five to six days of solid work that we can be doing.
Finally, because the work that we've been doing so far is just like very superficial.
Like we're not really in depth still on protocols.
Exactly. You need to be kind of like, what is the like a short fix or a shortcut that we can be taking
And now we can dive maybe a bit more into depth on playbook, on the map pool protocols and all these kind of little things.
Very important, which is the best of luck. Thank you very much, man.
Thank you very much.
A lot of important things mentioned by NKJ there, and I liked at the end where he's like,
we're going to just do some team building things, some team bonding stuff.
If you could suggest one activity, Maui, that they have to go and do.
IMAX 70mm.
Honestly?
Just talk about it out there.
I was going to say, team breakfast.
I think you need to be happy.
You're making a great team.
I feel like that's two great examples there.
But yeah, it's it's feels like there's a bright future there
for FaZe.
And I like that they're investing in the longevity
for themselves as well.
So again, not going to get to see them at Blast Bound
it is going to be Spirit taking it, but a great fight that
was put up from FaZe.
Spirit making it into the grand finals there.
But that's a prediction a lot of people
could get on board with.
It almost felt like it was inevitable.
But over at Polymarket, there's so many more predictions
that you guys can have a say in,
one that only has a 7% chance right now,
that is very little belief,
is we'll see us two at a shootout over time
by December 31st.
I'm surprised it's this high.
The 7%-
Yes, four!
If you look where it was,
this is coming back to reality.
I think someone told me CS2 deleted this tweet
because it was getting so much traction.
They did delete it, I'm pretty sure, yeah.
This is not happening.
I mean, this was a joke around the time of the World Cup
and in the case of penalty kicks,
if it goes after extra time.
I mean, I think that they were just sort of trolling and then they realized oh wait
This is the official CS2 Twitter account
Maybe I shouldn't be putting the thoughts into everybody's head that we're gonna be adding something like this
So you're actually gonna put it down to 1% I'm gonna give it a zero percent. I would sell this immediately
Yeah, by December 31st zero by April 1st 2027 1%
24 hours and it's put up that what would you give a percentage for
Astralis taking the series up with mouse 35% great your your default is 35 isn't it?
It's not right. All right, really? 38 38?
Okay, I feel like these two are just probably the...
38.1
Yeah, these two are just probably at the end of the day
We'll go to a break and when we come back then we're gonna deep dive into it and convince you guys
As if we think Astralis or mouse are gonna be the next grand finalist
Alright, we're at the Blast Bounty with Maus, who made it through the online portion at PR.
You play with a lot of different in-game leaders, you play with Snacks recently, you play with ETR,
you even play with Crisen before. How does Xersion compare?
With Xersion, it's not that set, and I would have more responsibility, you know,
but he's still calling like very well, and I would say it fits me a lot,
that I still have my like, Aria, like in my way, how I would prefer, so it's a nice balance.
Let me swap that over to Zerfin. How is it slotting in PR?
Yeah, I mean it was a bit tough. We definitely had a period now with a lot of new players, a lot of work
To be honest to integrate all of them to the system that we had. The easiest was Brolin because he knew a lot of the call-outs and stuff
But with him I had to basically every day sit an hour or an hour and a half after practice or before practice and show him the thing
So I would say with all that was it was a bit easier because he's obviously younger. So he has less of
vision, then for example let's say JL when he joined us for those two tournaments, but
I think that he slowly brings a bit more of his own identity also for the team.
You worked with Ash for a pretty long time, now you're working with the Psycrone, they're
two coaches that the scene really respects and we say they're kind of some of the best
coaches in the space in general.
What does it mean to be able to work with two guys like that?
It's a very good experience obviously, with Ash I felt like he was the first guy I met
any sports that I felt like he really understands me, you know. So it was super easy after a few
months to like play my own game and I really like to work with Cyclone as well. He gave me a lot of
different view on things, you know. So yeah, I think I'm so far I'm super happy.
Looking at your team as a whole, I mean, I look at PR and what some of your highs were last year,
even Torsi being a top 20, you being a top 20, Spanx as well. The only guy that I'm not quite
I'm not quite sure about his Zellix right now, but do you think this is the most firepower that Maus has ever had?
It's a good question, if it's the most firepower we ever had. If you compare Role to Role, probably yes.
I think that Spinks is not in his prime at the moment, Dorje is not in his prime at the moment.
We are yet to see with all that energy on what is their prime, in my opinion at least, but I think in terms of Role skill and individual art,
like how good we are when we are on fire, I would say yes, yeah.
So what does that make the expectations for the season?
Well, at the moment, we don't really have much expectations.
We're just trying to build a new mouse,
trying to build a new mentality,
trying to build all the time progressing
and having that outlook more for the further future
at the moment because we are still a very young team.
So, yeah, we're just going to see how it goes this tournament,
how goes the next one
and probably try to do our best for the major.
Okay, I guess my last question would just be,
what would be, doesn't have to be a result or a placing,
but what does a successful land portion of the bounty
look like to you?
I have no expectations. As he said, we have no expectations since the teams like Vitality,
Flurya and Falcons are not here in Na'Vi as well. I think we have the best chance maybe to win,
but as I said, we take it step by step and game by game, so that's what I think.
We feel really prepared. I think we like what we saw from them. We are really confident.
I think we are coming to this game really hot, we are coming to this game, we know what we will do, what we think they might do.
So yeah, I'm confident, also back at the V2.
And yeah, let's see how it goes.
I think it's not the easiest match at first to be honest.
I think they have a good mix of experienced players and young ones.
Also, they're well structured, so it's always harder to play against these kinds of teams.
But I think overall they do have a completely new player, and as Alex said, they've also
not played for the longest time with, so it's kind of an advantage, as you say, that we
stick together for the season.
And when you get in the game, in the server, what is the thing that you guys as Astralis
have that is better than what Maus have?
I think we have a little bit more x-factor in some situations, I'd say.
I mean, yeah.
I feel like one of the most interesting aspects going into this matchup between
Maus and Astralis is actually what happened at the draft show last night.
After Astralis won their series, they only had a small amount of time
to get to discuss together as a roster who they were going to pick.
And there were talks on that stage about how there was some slight disagreement.
And you can, to some degree, see that carried over in those pre-match interviews
of, yeah, I think there are some things that we do better than them in the server, but
also they're a new roster and I don't know if that really benefits us. And I am wondering
how divided the team is coming into this one now, knowing you can't go back on your choice.
I wonder what the reaction was watching that last series. If Hooksy's just sitting there
rubbing his hands together like, I told you so, I told you we should have picked these
guys. Donk, bum. Wow.
He's a sub 1.73 rating scrub.
Just predicted him to have the best event of all time.
I'm saying he's a bot.
Watching that Ryu interview, he's
not the guy that always does all the interviews.
So I don't always expect him to be super fast on his feet
with those questions.
But the delay between what do we do better than Maus and X
Factor did not instill me with any confidence.
Unfortunately, when I look at this as Rawless Team,
I almost feel like they're funnily enough budget
mouse. This is just, mouse is just a better Astralis from every single player down the
line. I just think mouse is just better. Okay, then go down the line. Hooksy, nowhere near
as good as Urshan. Okay. Fozy, do I even need to say that? Okay, all right, that was fair,
yeah. Yabbi, Spinks, okay. We can have a discussion about that one later. When they're like hitting
their stride sometimes. Yeah. But no, Spinks has been a little bit weaker lately. So that's
a little bit more even than I would have said maybe three months ago. Okay, Jamal, keep
I'm not sure I'm going to be
able to play. I'm not sure
I'm going to be able to play.
What are you going to be doing?
PR. Yeah, this one's obvious.
Oh, yeah, first real. Yeah,
okay, Zelex is maybe it depends
who you compare compare Zelex
do, but Zelex is the only one
questionable, but I still think
this is five for five. I would
give it to mouse every time with
a couple of arguments put in
there in between. All right. It's
and we can talk about them. We're looking at the line up there even though you already went down the list.
And we're hoping that yesterday was just one of those warm-up days where, yeah, you lose about 12
map points that you could have closed out on and you just weren't able to. But at the end of the day,
you're coming up against Mazz now and you've learned from those mistakes.
It's just one of those days, 12 match points. No problem. We have, we all have those. We all,
we all have those. It just sort of just wakes up and it happens.
I mean, it was a struggle, it was a struggle session for Astralis, but I think they can reset Astralis especially, I think as a team, that day-to-day match-to-match sometimes you get a different version of them.
And certainly what we saw from Maus in their, in their quarterfinal wasn't perfect either. We saw flaws, we saw them have trouble getting it across the line.
I think if you look at Maus, if they show up the same way they did against 3D Max and Astralis, just give us another 10-20%. It could be a very close game and Astralis have chances in this one.
in this one.
Without a doubt, I mean, I feel like the way that Astral's
play, I think they get more out of their pieces
than maybe a mouse do, which are maybe lightly more reliant.
Like when mouse closed the series,
verse 3D Max, a lot of it, in my eyes,
was them just kind of imposing themselves,
the individuals just saying, I'm going
to take a fight that I like here.
But that's why we're so concerned about the head-to-head
player-to-head player matchup.
Because if push comes to shove and mouse are in a tight spot,
I think those guys on the team will just step up
like exertion and spanks.
What's the look at the diving into some of our Astralis players, those stairs, one of
those ones that we want to look towards where we go, okay, yesterday's performance, where
are we putting it?
Is this just an anomaly?
Is this something that we're expecting over time and time again?
I expect Stair to perform at a very high level, the majority of the time, until he plays against
the top, top teams.
And when I'm thinking top teams, I'm thinking of Falcons, a Vitality, a Spirit, and mouse
that was typically would be in
that list of names. But mouse.
I think they struggled quite a
bit against 3D Max. I think
they've struggled to insert
these these new players into
the roster, and I saw a lot of
flaws in the way they're
playing that I think a stare
could certainly attack in this
matchup. That stare is actually
kind of a sneakily strong
mechanical player. I don't
think that was always what he
was raved about before when he
was taking up some of the weaker
roles. But now that he is
actually in sort of those
you see that that Chris Petschop
percentage actually come into play much
more actively. And I think actually one
of the reasons that exertion sort of had
to dawn the mantle of being the in game
leaders because his mechanics actually didn't always
go head to head with some of those best
riflers in the world. And so that is one of
the 50 50s that I think can actually
maybe sway in the direction on a good
day for a straws and stare. Some of the
information you've been bringing to me now that I really enjoyed
is the utility usage out of teams.
You've been very critical when teams are a
a little bit slow to it when they're sometimes able to have really fast mullies sometimes flashes as well.
Where would you put astrologers on the eye test compared when they came up against pain yesterday?
Eye test? Fantastic.
Stats test? Even better.
I mean, they were flashing off pain in so many situations that if you took how well astrologers flash per round against pain on this T side,
it would be twice as good as Vitality last year.
It was like 0.73 flash assist per round.
Every single time they're taking these opening fights
and opening map control, it's just not a fair fight.
Snow can't get, he can't see anything.
You have people that are in the bomb sites
that can't see anything.
There were legitimate rounds that Astral's had
in this matchup with Payne,
where four of their entry kills
are all sequentially flash assisted.
It's absurd how good Hooksy is,
because you'll see teams who can throw
a couple of good flash assists
to get some space on these rounds.
But Hooksy just puts it all together every round.
It's not that he's throwing new flashes I've never seen before,
but it's just he has the presence of mind
to throw them so sequentially so well.
I think the number we had with Snow was flashed for 107 seconds.
108.
108.
108.
108.
108.
You've got to go to the eye doctor
after getting white screened that many times in one game.
And I mean, Hooksy, before the series
was talking about changing up the play style a little bit,
they still have great utility.
They still have great finishers, especially and snow was given no chance in so many of these
You should just be using the low blue light filter on your monitor
He's just don't play with full brightness. So guys there. So guys are he's unhappy, but he's just like that's how it is
Like what am I just again? This is on sitting in smoke full white full white full white dead
I don't think Snow played CS, actually he was looking at Snow, that's what he was doing
that whole time.
Just a Snow wall paper, he was going to have a lanch.
Yeah, it was a tough one for them, but Estral is doing so well for that, we're hoping that's
another thing that they bring in here, and when you were going down the list it felt
like you both agreed that there was one pairing, that you felt could have an argument for either
side, right?
And so looking at this one now, you guys get your time to talk about it, Sphinx up against
Yavi.
What do you really truly said?
You're kind of saying on the best days.
I'm talking about what's being shown right now at Bloss Bounty.
Unfortunately, Spinks has really been struggling,
given his positions, given his role in the team,
and given how dominant he was when he first came in.
You saw that Shuhei Brolin transfer,
and I attribute it to a lot of their success.
Two Spinks, they would have these tough rounds
where they would lose a player, lose two players,
and then Spinks would just double enter
around to the bomb site like it was no problem.
We've been wanting to see that again for Maus.
If we want to see them hit the top level again,
we need a Spinks that can perform better
than he's been performing.
Yabi, I think we accept it a little bit more.
We need more for Astralis to do better,
but I think it's a more acceptable underperformance
from Yabi than it is from Spinks.
The thing about Yabi that really hurts
is moving into the new season.
One of the maps that he actually had great stats on
was Overpass, and now that that's out of the pool,
you're not going to be seeing it in this series.
So really, I think that's one of his kind of win conditions
as an individual, whereas for Spinks,
We saw him on particular rounds on Nuke, where he's able to lurk out through smokes and find timings.
On Inferno, where he's able to take duels through the apartments.
All of that can play into his favor, whereas Yabbi, I feel like it's just kind of in doses.
In fact, I almost feel like on his CT side, I'm getting more multi-frag potential than his T side.
Okay, well, it's not just us talking about Sphinx and Yabbi, but it's also banks getting to speak to both of them.
Yabbi, you had a tough game versus Payne. What was causing you maybe to struggle just individually in that series?
I think it was a really chaotic game, just overall, especially in Fenno and Mirage, but
I think we talked about some of the things that we need to do better today for making
it more calm and easy to play, so yeah, I think in terms of that it was a bit hard,
but overall I just think I didn't play the best and wasn't that sharp.
Looking at obviously the conversation around the strikers for being a bit looser at the
beginning of the year then becoming more structured or change around it. What style suits you better
personally? Not the structure. We tried something to see if that would be better because we were
in a kind of big slump to be honest so it's better to do something than just try the same thing all
the time but I think we talk things through now and I think everyone is on the same page how we
want to play CS so now we just need to be good at that.
With PR and ZLX coming into the team, how does it affect your own game? How much does
it change for you in terms of like new voices and the plays you're able to make and also
maybe helping the new players out a bit?
Mm-hmm. Time to help the new players and depends on the positions. If you are playing together
or whatever, time to work with each other out. What do you like to do? What I like to do?
Let's combine it and have the synergy going.
For me and the team, I'm now in the more passive role in a way, like I've been in the past, which is fine.
I think it's a suited role for me.
I need to get back to it 100%, but it's okay.
And yeah, new voices in the team.
I'm now the experienced guy in a way.
I need to get into the role, but yeah, two new guns and it's good so far.
When you say about going back to some of your other roles, is it a big adjustment for you or does it fit you more naturally?
Tell me how it feels from your side to slip back into it.
It depends on the role and the map, but I need to be helpful for the round.
I want to do stuff.
When I get to a corner and I just hit for one minute, I don't think it's good.
and you need to fill the game and stuff like this.
So there is the balance to it.
Of course, sometimes you need to be in a corner
and hold the position for a certain amount of time
because it's just the position.
But still to make sure you help the team support,
getting the space, doing the crutches,
whatever needed in the moment,
but helping to win the round in some way.
In terms of that, is it you who makes that decision?
Is it what Zershin tells you?
How does it work?
It's a combination.
It's a combination.
I think in a 32 it depends on the positions, like for example if you play an ancient you
really dependant on the mid stuff, what do you do and if you play inferno you will be
really passive because you are house, there is not much to do, you can help taking mid
control and stuff like this or maybe do a move, a move one or two rounds but in general
you will take your time, clear your angle, clear your area, build up on the idea of the
team and stuff like this. So it depends on the position, but it's okay. As long as the
team is winning, it's fine.
I'm not really sure what to make of that part of the Sphinx interview there, because he
obviously does have somewhat strong opinions about how he likes to play, and he says that
he does have that freedom, but at the same time, he's still adjusting to being the experienced
voice now in the team with new players coming in. And after having not seen Mavs for a couple
days just a lot of question marks hover around me of what has changed and will we be seeing
a different sphinx are they going to be able to have him in a position of being more comfortable?
I'm hoping we see a different sphinx than we've seen for much of this last three four months. He's
really been a player that often leaves his team, leaves his teammates out to drive. I think when
we look at PR we look at the Dust 2 game where he was constantly away from the B site PR struggles.
It's really hard for some players to adjust to that and sphinx he has lots of potential
He has lots of freedom depending on the map, of course, but you need to see him deliver a 1.0 rating over the last three months
That's not nearly good enough. If he's not going to be supporting his teammates if he's gonna play for himself
He has to deliver on the frag count the
clear
Difficult part of sphinx coming into this roster is that he's never really been the veteran guy on this team
He's been an individual who has helped mouths get over the line in some big games in the past year
But when he was on vitality and was the secondary star, he had so much freedom that I don't think he was always thinking about
How to set up his teammates how to actually play off of them how to make their lives easier
They were actually oftentimes funneling resources to him so that he could just go off and do whatever it is that he thinks is best in the round
I think that that led to a lot of tension with vitality which kind of led to his eventual outing of the team
But I think that when it when it comes to what he's got to do with this team
He needs to just understand that he can't let zelecs or PR or whoever's next to just play on their own because they can't handle all of these
Tier one executes that are coming their way now
I would agree with you except for the caveat of tozzy right because he has been showing up for mouse
It feels like he's on a whole nother level and when I look at him what he's delivering for mouse as an offer compared to
I'm going to be talking about
the team that is the biggest
differential in this team. One
OPA that can essentially be in
a one before and really clutch
it up for your team. Give it to
someone who was sort of
witnessing. Struggle that's the
only way that I'm going to be
able to describe it when we had
our talk with PR and Zershin in
the media day, we talked about
Torji and Zershin mentioned
Torji and Spinks both under
top level is what he showed in their last series. I'm happy with that. If he can perform to that
level because not only was he fragging, we can see the rating there, he was taking over the game.
And that's what I think we want to see from Maus. Whereas on the other side, I'm actually
fairly happy with what we saw from Astralis in their last series. We saw them give Fosy
opportunities to go for openings. Problem is, he still didn't deliver consistently.
Torsi is currently the front runner for MVP at this event after Donk just fell off in the semifinals.
So if Torsi just keeps his head above water or even doubles up on what he did yesterday,
then he actually can run away with this in an individual award sense. That is something that
Maus just desperately need as the two extremity anchor youngsters are finding their footing on
the team. They've been showing up for themselves, but at the end of the day, Maus, Astralis, I'm
not really sure what sort of form they're looking to be in today. And so I do wonder as well whilst
We had some words leading into this one about the veto. What exactly is our veto going to be?
It's rolling out here, and we will be seeing ancient mirage and dust too.
I'm actually really interested to see Astralis banning nuke.
This is they both share the same ban and typically you would expect them to have banned dust too,
but they would know that mouse would go straight to nuke.
There's tons of data on their nuke. They had a very long game on that map, and I think they've struggled a lot on nuke.
They have I'm gonna give you a stat from nuke. They have a 6% 4v5 win rate in the last six months. Oh
6% Yikes, so see the team of band that even if it means
I'm gonna struggle on sorry could you sugarcoat the 6% for me? It's terrible
No sugarcoating that that is historically bad
So I'm happy to see them ban a nuke that they were almost certainly gonna lose on mm. Okay. Yeah
I mean I feel like the well the the ancient to come out first though
also is is a straws who we didn't see yesterday have the chance to pick it
versus pain going back to their comfort map. The one that they really get to
set up stair. They love their layered flashes in towards middle. Hooksy has a
great understanding of how he wants to mid-round based off of the chaotic
action that happens on that side of the map. So I feel like this is a really,
really strong way to try to just get off on the right foot versus mouse who have
looked more vulnerable. I divided the straws on the pick of what they wanted
between spirit or mass at the end of the day though. It feels like a lot more is
at stake for Maus, we're going to get into our first map of Egypt with scrawny inlaunders.
Yes.
I love stake.
Oh, do you?
I'm not surprised.
What was it?
Caffeine, nicotine, protein, not a stake.
Yeah, that's wonderful.
Matt, I like that you touched on the fact that we had this divided Astralis on the pick
and also, you know, they end up leaning for the later game.
They literally mentioned that in their pick that like, you know, you get the later slot
at going up against Maus as opposed to Spirit.
So, let's hope that for Astralis' sake, they've got a little preparation due to that window
of time that they've had to get ready for this matchup.
We saw our holly market prediction on screen a moment ago, and it feels like since we got
to Malta, the conversation was Spirit vs. Mouse Grand Final, we are one best of three from
that reality.
I don't think it holds the same weight to say Spirit vs. Mouse Grand Final as it did
a year ago.
Sure.
Looking at Maus at the moment, like they're very close to being able to just get to that final, but if I look at this lineup, there's still some stuff that's clearly not that great right now.
PR can have very strong maps, but it feels like in terms of chemistry and cohesion, I'm not seeing a lot of it honestly.
Seeing Zershin play better than normal, but Zershin's interview already said Torsi's not in his prime right now, and Spinks is in his prime right now.
I think partly Zershin as a caller, there's got to be some element of I'm putting my team in a place where they all prosper a little bit more.
Right.
PR is not fitting in perfectly at the moment when it comes to anchoring with Spinks.
We've seen that a couple of times now, and at first in those games when we casted, we didn't really flag it as a problem.
But now that we're getting this close to Grand Finals, if we want to talk about Mouses as a great team making a great run,
well, if they want to stand a chance versus Spirit tomorrow, I mean,
Those are going to be some of the biggest issues.
And you'd actually, even though it's kind of fast to ask for it,
like to see them get ironed out in a game like this to some degree.
Yeah, this would be the perfect time to fix that issue.
I think as well you talk about Zershin in the interview,
and he says like, you know, Torgie's not quite in his prime.
Well, if that was done when they landed in Malta,
that last best of three, like Maui Snake mentioned,
Torgie has officially surpassed Donk in raiding
because of Donk's most recent game.
And we'll see if he can hang on to that top spot.
What they didn't mention on the desk going into this,
I don't think, excuse me if I'm wrong,
but Stair is now tied with Donk
as the second highest rated player.
So if there's somebody who's having a pop off best of three
to get into semis, we do kind of have this TorGi
versus Stair potential setup.
And Stair, he was given more and more time
versus paying the Mac game yesterday.
And as those games went on,
found his consistency with impact.
So we'll see who delivers tonight.
We are talking about a fresh roster on Maus
where potential's not met.
We're talking about an Astralis that was on a downtrend
looking to recover a chance to swing it.
Mauser to rob that grand final spot.
Rio will not waste his time with the opening blow
towards this cave.
PR off.
Oh, never mind.
To hell with PR.
It's Zellex with a climb up from middle to pull.
It's two headshots and a man advantage earned.
It's been like three instant headshots
to kick this series off.
And Zellex doesn't seem to have a reason to move.
Not worried about anyone flanking an elbow.
It was very clear the B split was coming.
And I kind of like that he's just checking himself.
He is opening up chances for a turn around.
Good flash.
And with no one there to trade it,
there is a moment now where if Astralis are patient,
the CTs have to get a little worried.
That was a long pause from Astralis.
Into the flash, into the equalizing kill.
Mouses sat here the whole time as well,
obviously smoked off from their angles.
Doesn't feel like that Hail Mary USP headshot will connect.
So post plant earned by Astralis.
Fuzzi slips back down the ramp.
They're not sure if somebody else would have come at this
from middle, or whether Zelex was truly
operating alone.
No kit here for Maus.
Javi picks up the responsibility of holding the flank
so that Hooksy can have Fuzzi to play off of, or vice versa.
Fuzzi fires first.
Insta kill here from Hooksy.
Trade's good out of PR, but there's Fuzzi off that ramp.
Spinks into the 1v2.
You mentioned it, no kits.
Gotta get the cross going.
It's a double for Fusey in the post plant and Astralis just hitting the breaks, staying
calm and then walking forward with their initial plan despite Zelex's efforts for the pistol
round victory.
It's kind of a fierce pistol from both sides so not one that you maybe want to read that
much into.
Ryu hits a great shot, they just hit with a great shot.
But Astralis, they sealed the deal.
It's very good the way their patient to get Zelex's frag.
They use one flash to do it.
They still have everything they need for an exact.
There's mouse who don't have a kit in that 3v3 retake, so Strawl's coming a little bit more prepared.
And I'm pretty prescient about what's gonna happen next.
Force by threat always looms.
We saw some sketchy rough patches from Astralis and pistol conversions yesterday.
We'll be looking to upend that.
Spinks with an open angle, eats the flashbang, it's down and trying to serve up a distraction,
but it just doesn't connect for Spinks.
Worried that somebody's pushed into the smoke, not the case.
Jaby holding flanks, gonna find contact? No, turns away.
Will recover it, but that is good damage dealt.
Do you want to try to keep this Fommus for the next round?
Because it feels like this one is too far gone already.
Zelex putting distance between him and all the Strahlus.
Hang on to that thing.
Yeah, it's like if you stick around too long, you might lose this, brother.
So, I'd say run for the hills.
We've watched both these games now.
Have to kind of learn a lot of lessons as the games have gone on.
And both run into Jeopardy, obviously.
Strahlus, maybe even a little bit more.
Who do you think is going to...
Who do you think is going to blow more match points in this series?
Numerically, with the number that Astralis did yesterday, I think I just kind of have to pick them again.
Not in total, but just if it's...
Yeah.
It was those two all over again, you think?
Yeah.
I would hope not, because again, you'd hope that after a situation like that unfolds yesterday,
that it is one of the big conversations you'd be having going into the game today.
But fixes don't always happen in 24 hours.
hours. You could also argue there wasn't much choking per se versus in the pain game. Pain started
playing really well. Yeah, they did level up. We didn't really feel like, ooh, Astralis are
throwing this one away. It kind of felt like pain. Ooh, their rounds are looking pretty good.
Right. They were the ones who, it felt like more of a conversation of pain. They started both halves,
down six. That they did. Played terribly. There was obviously those awkward post plants on A site
mirage that were a talking point and the five match points that could have been as well
yeah but that was um
was that on map point no that wasn't on map yes yeah it was 12-7 i'm pretty sure
when they were planning i thought they changed up their planning as the game went on
those weren't the rounds they started this is not the last five rounds but yeah this
12-7 score. That part felt like a N'Sharlas joke to me.
When you get to 12 without even giving up a bomb plant and then all of a sudden pain come back in.
An ability to close. Always a scary thought.
Hey
Yeah, that's right. Good good work admin. Good work. Good work. I'm talking in a tech pause. Yeah, honestly though
Don't laughing. Let's see the tech pause. No smiling
You like psych run
Walked in at all times and ready for a tack pause. That's what I love about
Cyclone. Always ready for those inevitable tack timers.
I kind of had to read between the lines in the Spinks interview but there were
some weird things. Now I kind of pointed to that end of vitality, where things like sort
of mysteriously stopped working. I mean, he got the IEM Rio win in the Paris, obviously,
such a great moment in time for early vitality with Spinks as well. And he kind of turned
the team into like the best team at the time by virtue of him joining. But there was a
weird finish there. We didn't get a I think a complete picture as to what exactly happened.
And I feel like you almost get early signs of that here with mouse, which is
some of what feels like the natural chemistry that's missing. It almost feels like they have one
too many anchors. I wonder if the actual issue could end up being that they, you can call PR
and Alex explosive and
But you don't necessarily call them aggressive I think and I think
Yeah, we saw him dust to for example where Spinks would be you know
Playing rotator and PR would be anchoring and it just felt like as a round went on in the half
Spinks is next round playing a little bit farther away from B. So those are played for you
You know, there's one round he was literally over at long.
I mean, when you're a player in that situation,
there is a lot of frustration when your anchor mate
can't put up because then you both look bad.
One guy dies without a kill, you both die,
you both lose the round.
And there is actually only so much saving you can do,
like saving the situation if you're a player like Spinks.
Besides literally just like replacing PR in that spot
because he knows how to deal with the execs.
But that's not going to happen.
You're not going to change your anchor out just because in that match,
you're not playing that well.
You've got to work around it.
That's why I started bringing in the off, changing the set up a little bit more.
But definitely as a player, that's when you get frustrated.
And I wonder if we're going to see any more of that today.
Can't blame him, though.
I wouldn't want to stand next to a guy if he stinks and some of those B holds.
Spank okay. Okay. That was some kind of spanks pun. No, no, no, no just
Just throwing PR under the bus for some of those holds
All right get that issue sorted early he was smelling like an a-hole
Little late, but I'll still give it to you. I'll still give it to you
Big Fragger, Zershin has a 1.07 KPR on CT side agent since he became the Maus IGL.
I feel like so many of these ridiculous stats have that tag at the end of them since he
became the Maus IGL.
Oh, all his numbers have increased since he's become the Maus IGL.
Really is impressive to watch that evolution.
It'd be even more impressive if you can get his other players back to their tip top form.
Zellex, the one-famous, hits the ground as there's not one, not two, but three Astralis players pushed me on the red room.
Stare tries to sign up to just whittle away this backline at the B site, but that costs him a lot of health.
And if Tors you can put the second weapon he's working with into this bomb carrier...
Oh, Xyx does have any smokes. Just throw a smoke. Keep this gun out. It's good.
very ready for it that confirms their intention explains of course why stairs
trying to peel a player off the back of the b-side PRs forced forward and we'll
find nothing so good on Astralis you know you lose foosie at the start of this
one once you're getting up into red room push and they have a very fresh wound
losing to four spies so three zero start nice fresh-looking Astralis
tonight
there's a lot to be discovered in this game for sure but a lot of over times in
general here at the bounty which I feel like I've genuinely been so productive
for some of the new lineups. Or as Xuxi said, not new, but not old, something like that.
Still fresh, I think he said not new, but still fresh.
Mmm.
That's what most teams try to do.
Sometimes when he says stuff, I think he's like someone standing in the crowd trying to get up in the tent.
Right, right.
Guys!
Talking about someone on stage or something, it's like...
You have a capital just looking to make friends
And then all of a sudden he's like dead serious. Yeah
These four teammates of yours are paid to listen to you. You have the authority hook see
Let's see if you can wield it. Well, let's make a mistake. You definitely exercise sick
Okay, hook see why not fast headshot onto spanks. That'll be a zero and four start for spanks
Torsi's AWP preoccupied with A main, but as Jaby throws out that utility from up close,
he pretty quickly transitions back towards an elbow play.
And all his teammates, all three other Astralis players, heading up this ramp into what is just PR, very passively back on this site.
There's quite a bit of real estate to take over here if you're Astralis.
Oh, and Stare reacts with the lesser weapons.
This finds the headshot off the Galil at 50 HP.
Molly prevents Surtian from running in and really doing anything about this site.
This is really good if they keep you happy out here.
I mean they have the whole flank covered.
They're even pushed.
It's real... I don't even... Yeah, it doesn't really make sense for...
...Mouse to try this.
But they don't want to also... They don't know where everyone is.
And they'll step away, so just off of those two kills.
Crazy quick find out of Hooksy as he flies out middle.
Man, we've got had to be no-armor, no-had armor on Spinks.
Those are the money.
Zero kills on Spinks, Torji, and Zershin, four rounds into the game.
At least Alex is in his prime.
Man, we're on the brink of seeing Astralis have their third consecutive 6-0 start.
I
Twice versus pain yesterday, I mean even if I
Even if I couldn't close out in regulation every single one of those starts I'd still take them
Mm-hmm. Yeah, and now that they know they can win in OT having done so twice
They also know not to take those leads for granted now. Yeah
Hang on for later. Why are you sure?
the
Let's get into it.
That's not trademarked.
Not yet.
We have high praise usually for Cyclone off these timeouts and Maus's ability to convert
rounds right after.
So let's see if they can indeed stop Astralis from that potential 6-0 start.
Zellex's got the line around the smoke.
Bit of a tease with that flashbang, so CC's strong maids to cut off Astralis, threatening
the potential climb up, and Zellex may look to actually weaponize it.
Smoke outside of cave for the time being.
Oh, PR.
Damn, near kills Fuzi through the doorway.
Surtian gets popped by Hooksy and another!
trying to get back into that trade, looking to avenge the IGL.
Javi into the cave play actually dies out to PR, who has already softened up, but...
Hey, lucky they got that after those two hooks he kills.
Fast to the A-play, bombs a little bit far back, but hey, at the same time,
Maus do still have this rotate into spawn already.
Stair has a smoke, that gets used for CT. That's kind of huge.
It also creates a moment where Spinks could try to push out.
gets through into the cover, torsion dead with nothing, spades get removed by the green boost,
damage on three of the four here but a strawless double kill thanks to hooksy.
Now I wouldn't blame our replay ops if they didn't have a hooksy 2k ready to go,
because that is unexpected, but by God I want to see it.
it. Once that smoke faded, Maus wanted to sign up for that duel. Didn't anticipate
Hooksy shredding their heads off. How about that, Voo? Zershin to Hooksy. Zershin's obviously
better who says you have not seen it yet.
Voo.
Terrorists win.
Just kidding.
Boo's been awesome.
Yeah.
If only that could step it up.
Also great shirt, Maui. Love the shirt, actually.
How'd you lick a dick?
6-0 coming in for Astralis. That's the game plan.
Hang on to it, but it's guns and guns and more guns for Maus.
So none of these made it easy.
That instant cave smoke once more out of Astralis for their B-side approach.
Not playing A whatsoever this time around.
Also, again, just kind of not really threatening that elbow play.
It affords the climb up four mouths. They'll get away with it.
They got a smoke on a fast bounce right there on PR.
Now he's gonna murder the protocol and explode on it.
So little help to play with Zerzhino, who's wrapped up from middle, through cave, into the site.
And he'll get himself a second kill.
Zelex, catching a headshot. Stairs answers back.
Ooh, he's got every kill so far.
Finds himself alone, however. That's the problem.
17 health, 1v2, into the op, you'll go.
You know, it's crazy, but it's actually calling for it.
Oh, there's a chance now at the same thing is we.
I think we saw him on his screen.
What's wild is I don't think stair realized it and yet he's
moving to catch Spinks's rotation.
Always considering this off at this distance.
It's so hard to catch Spinks off guard in this type of situation,
but.
Let that clock burn and Spinks walks forward another marginal
Marginal miss here for stare Indiana Jones. He's going to be trying to scale every time he comes to check this
Spinks could be in a new location could be turned around
They're starting to forget about each other though backs up. Whoa
Wait, Spinks considers a
Stairs gonna walk right into them. I mean the only way this works Spinks could randomly be looking the wrong way
So there we go. Yeah, yeah stair loses his nerve first
What a clutch it could have been. 17 HP, damn near pulls off the ace.
Finally, Maus will win a round denying the 6-0 start.
It's funny how this smoke landed in a totally wrong spot in the ER,
but it made it very confusing to try to scale into the site.
Just in a spot where you wouldn't expect and the CTs are actually shooting back through it.
There's new headshot angles that show up.
First couple of kills for Zershin as well, within that carnage on site.
Back to middle, goes Stairb, dead first.
Zellex ready for the smoke swing.
Spinks presses the SMG into the close proximity.
That bomb's already heading up towards a main.
Torgie's gonna have a chance to just outright deny this.
Donut supports inbound for him.
Anticipating his shot, but they tease him first.
Spinks will collect on Fuzi, as Spinks actually extends into elbow to collect that.
5 vs 3 earned here by Maus.
Almost totally out of the round.
They do have time and they do have middle.
It shows me the CTs are guessing a bit.
Spinks though is making the info move.
And MP9 on an adventure.
Yeah, why not stay on this?
5v3 advantage.
Lots of map control for Spinks as he also takes a quick look at mid.
That's an AWP approaching from the ledge.
doesn't clear it
Spinks misses this but it'll work out beautifully for him. Yeah timing working on Spinks
This a freebie on the offer
Hooks you down and that's a gut wrenching moment for a strawless 20 seconds
You just know that mouse know you are here and still they're gonna try to get Javi into it
But surrounded sharks in the water circling that sight and mouse win too consecutive not losing a body
body here in round 7. Kind of ridiculous how much money Astralis will have.
Very few kills for anyone to kick off this game.
But it's exactly how Hain found their way back into both halves.
And this will be the last of it if Malus can win this round.
One more full buy.
Now, storming out of middle for control early on and that threat has Jaby tucked back into
the doorway.
Small window for this, they let him have mid control, Mouse had been trying to take it
a lot so I got a lot of resources tied up there no one's watching a main towards
the in the back yeah not beating forward means nobody sees those shadows so
this boost definitely catch you huh oops yep passive line held by mouse allows
for a straw list to creep out as they did man advantage earn you're gonna see
all the strollers are jumping those nades Ryu comes through with a headshot and
And Spinks still with some open lines here, but not able to get into that bomb planter. Very comfortable spot now for Astralis.
Again, hyper passive out of Maus allows all of that to unravel as easily as it did.
It's the perfect approach. It's also the perfect call here for Astralis to be like, let's throw our same Nadesets in the middle.
Like, let them have it, but also have them have two players tied up in middle.
because they've been winning a lot there.
They got away with five players alive so far
and a chance to punish even more.
For as much praise for a shawless that we had yesterday
about those convincing starts to so many halves in the series,
they did always feature pain being able to fight back
into them. So Vistralis are going to have an answer of their own right here. Just perfect
call for that situation. Obviously, that's something they'll be looking to improve on
from last night's match. Yeah, it'll be frustrating because even if he's just a little farther
back from the wall, he doesn't get spotted as the same angle. And to be fair, Ryu, I
can't believe you've even got a headshot. Yeah, could barely see him. I like that though.
The replay over the shoulder says towards you saw how angry he was when he died, but
he also just kind of smacks his table a few moments later as well.
Two waves of frustration as he knows that round definitely hinges on his opening death.
This isn't a 5v3, so wait later.
Let it out.
Yeah, we'll just find you afterwards.
Bottle up, emotions create broken men!
And mouths are going to need to be at full force to try to reclaim this half.
What are you, a philosopher now?
Yeah, I'm working on it, side hustle.
You've got golf, I've got motivational speaking.
I think that's our future.
That's good combo, I think.
You need a lot of effort for golf.
We're motivational golfers.
All right.
Spinks is by himself.
He's got the perfect angle on donut.
Again, they get away with this.
Yeah, you give a lot of space back.
There's not going to be Torsi moving in on a line
with an AWP here.
So utility obviously lets Spinks know
that this threat looms near.
Oh, here's the drop.
The lineup's good.
Oh, yeah.
Let them come to him.
Easy shooting for Spinks.
To hell with the UTile, that flashbang doesn't make him anywhere.
I'd love to know why they're not even mullying the amount of donut, they're not even smoking it.
And sometimes you smoke it, you know, someone will stand in it and bomb down, and they want to swing, but it looks extremely risky.
Trying to fight back into this with the two players out in the middle.
The mouths are moving over.
Certain that they don't have to be concerned about that B site. Sure enough Spinks continues to collect these kills
I wonder if it has something to do with how easily they caught Torchy off guard and were able to take a
Maybe they didn't have to use all that utile even in that round
I was surprised they just really like wide swung donut and didn't see
Anyone until right he got to the end of the that's like die. He could have got caught clipped on the cross and
I think almost a little lucky there to be honest, so I
I totally understand it not overdoing it with donut utility because sometimes again like if someone just stands halfway up
Don't if they have a line on every single bomb plant you can just get spam
So it's nice to get the kills, but they don't have a flank coming in from elbow either
So there's not really that much pressure on going on this line. It's great
If you're one flash at him the second one's too late
Mm-hmm
And that signpost line is what the rifle is fighting for now for some slightly depressed line where they're gonna get eat the flash
They would fully fall back or they'd play aggressive like that
So I think when it's not that much space, I think it's like let's just go to the full flat face
We'll see if they evolve in any way stare right now dodging flashes out middle collect so fight me for oh
Nice spam back from zelex obviously gonna have to run over to the A site
Just to make sure that a strollers don't keep up that threat on the other side. They've lost jabby in between these smokes. Oh
Oh, he presses right into Xerxion, who shoots first?
Xerxion makes his move happen, Xerxion could even get a second, but PR won't let him escape from this corner.
Another equalizing kill as we shift back to the 3v3.
No doughnut control.
You're going to swing that.
Yeah, dangerous game to play.
risky knowing Fuzzi's up that that off is somewhere out there he tiptoes into
his own demise towards he hoping to be the guy that can bring this back but a
huge ask of him here from temple and they are not gonna let him peek out not
allowing him to skim a player off of the push forward bomb plant covered all's
good deep donut also allowing Fuzzi to double back make sure there's no flank
here man a lot of grenades here on Thursday it's it's unlikely given enough
time passes he'll just get out of here but for the time being definitely give
it a look. It's a flash to try. PR goes down which means A main can never get
smoked. That's what he needed. He needed Fruzzi to step up and give over the
position. Now he can start dumping his utility again. You'd think this pinch
inside of the site's always gonna be his death but they are still giving him
threats to pull on. He'll just take the backdoor exit now and hope to save off
this off, but Hooksy could still fight him for it. Hooksy stomping the entire time, gives
Torji early notice, and so, yes, Astralis collect a seventh, but at least Maus can save
that Sniper.
Moment like that with Zellix. He has actually, sometimes numbers up, you actually notice
he'll just take a fight that's maybe a little un-oriented. Not sure if it was a comp for
him to try to look for space or something like that, but yeah, this...
he was told to. Yeah, but that just 3v3 looked a little too risky, obviously. Obvious when
there's an off waiting for you, but. Flying out mid, Stare wants more blood, and this
time he gets LX, who's been getting value out of that cubby, but smoke in front of him
when he tries to get vision instead of bullet between the eyes.
Spinks and Zellex remaining the top performing players for Maus, numerically.
Oh boy.
Yeah, tough ask of Zershin here, outnumbered 1 to 3, no support nearby.
And he gets caught off guard by the timing.
Hooksie quick to the headshot.
But Spinks's patience in this corner
is rewarded to keep the numbers even.
Torshee hoping that somebody steps into him.
Now that he's been smoked off,
really doesn't have a way back into this retake immediately,
so they would have to burn a lot of time waiting.
Tons, I mean, they're forced to go on the bigger flank.
This is a bomb.
Well, that helps.
Okay, Fuzi.
So already a deep smoke in CT spawn.
They're inviting a chance in now for Maus.
Especially as we get this support system for Spinks.
PR starts shooting.
That's gonna be a second player known.
Oh, Torshee picks his up.
Now all of a sudden it's on Javi, time's low, just plays into the corner, they've got to come to him, and he will deal damage.
I think he's got, it's gonna blow up.
Down to the second.
Yeah, this one eludes them losing both their players for this final round.
There is tons of money, oh I say tons.
A bit of extra for Spinks and Torchy to help out Zelex and PR.
Scary though when Astralis start losing bodies with no impact.
It's like you did that de-smoking CT.
You have all of that to post plant for, like Fuzi doesn't really need more space than that.
You play through to the second half cave, you know they're going to come in on the flank.
Instead they kind of, they want to put pressure on every single choke point, so you don't need to do that.
So a chance there for Maus to actually pick it up.
But as Strah is now to put on an overall phenomenal half with eight rounds.
Go for it. A rush to end the half.
Off up close, towards you hitting the first, gun down to half HP as he gets back into Donut and sure, you've got Maus' players choked up on one another, but they are quick to the response.
The call to action to just defend this A site. Best of luck hanging on here, Astralis.
That was a really good in these retakes.
Just Boosie trying to wrap all the way back around Donut.
I think that's the only way if they do something like this. That's the only way they can win.
They're too good at their A-Retakes.
A little awkward on the jump-up.
Stair gets into position.
For the time being, you've got two players in Donut,
but I don't think anybody's considering this.
And you're going to cast the offer of blindside.
And now Donut's under question.
Spinks will clean that up.
Stair cleared off green.
And they will find it with time.
So a fourth CT round win secured here by Maus.
Hooksy tries to call the all-out aggression,
but Torji hangs on with the first kill,
and his team there to support.
It's not a lot, but is it enough?
mouse four rounds.
All right, we're at the blast bounty with Astralis,
who've obviously qualified through the online portion,
now making it to the LAN.
First things first, I just kind of want to get it out of the way.
I feel like the way you guys bowed out of Cologne
and some of the comms that sort of came out there
showed some tension, that there was some frustrations
about maybe a lack of communication
or people taking responsibility in those moments.
How is that going to be avoided in the season?
I think the tension, or whatever you want to call it, is just from us not being happy about how we performed.
And I think that is something we all agree with on the team.
In terms of the engine and stuff, I think we try to change style a little bit now,
going a bit more back to what we did in the start of the year.
I think it will suit people better.
Yeah, hopefully it will fix something.
I mean, I agree.
Y'all said it was the end of the season.
And as you said, after a couple of rough tournaments, of course,
it gets tough to know what the solution should be.
And then we just tried to fix the only pass, which was not the best solution we found out.
And now we're kind of starting on a fresh one with a good long break, you know?
So the mental is refreshed and we're not like too much thinking about the soft turns we had before the break.
Now it's like a new season and we've got some new people as well in the organization too.
So that's also the meaning.
Yeah, I mean, when you're looking at specifically players not a real infosy, it seemed like they,
when they first joined Astralis, they seemed to have some pop-off games, some good events.
Now they've really been struggling.
You think specifically you're chained up in playstyle is going to help them?
We were playing like this kind of more loose freestyle in the style of the year and then
we gradually got more and more structured to a point where it was like way too structured for
for people to feel comfortable. We kind of had to make the mistake to realize that
people were not feeling comfortable enough to like show their full potential and hopefully
like I don't expect us to you know just snap back into like what we what we did when we were the
list but you know that we will see some signs of improvement and then get there. I'm actually
curious more about your positions there because now you've had some time playing all most of
pretty much all the good spots. So how does it feel now going toe-to-toe with all the best players
in all those best positions? I mean it feels good as my positions I like the most. I also think I
thrive the most in those. I mean I don't know if you can say I like toe-toe with the best because
I think our competition hasn't been as good as the others like sometimes we've had some tough
tournaments and like went up kind of fast so we didn't meet like vitality and spirit as much
as much as the other teams maybe did, but I definitely like it and feel very comfortable
in my positions now.
Two-part question, what are your guys' expectations for this part of the bounty and then afterwards,
what are the expectations for the season or what are the goals?
I mean, we haven't really talked about result-based expectations.
I think it's kind of, even though we didn't change line-up, it's still very new and we
just want to do better and better and of course for the whole VRS thing, it's important to
get some random wins under the belt, not necessarily winning an event, but get some
wins and play better than we have been doing and get people comfortable.
I think it's just what we have been talking a lot about that we want to
feel good playing again because we're not feeling good to the feelings of the last few years.
Not feeling good these last few events has been a common topic with
Astralis and their interviews. Well, feeling good about this half, no doubt.
8 rounds on the T side of their map pick, pushing Maus to the limits, and causing them
to have to scramble back into this.
So what does the T side have in store for us?
We'll find out.
It's an early shuffle towards this B site, where Astralis start with majority.
Two sets of Berettas, two sets of Util.
Ah, but it's Zershin with the opening kill and the jumping block.
He then kills him.
That's a little awkward.
Yeah, it does make it a 4v3, actually.
Yeah, hell of a wait for Astralis to get back into this pistol.
You'd hope for PR's sake.
That doesn't happen.
They'll smoke off the Rotate, but Instantly Stair just comes through that smoke, so it's null.
I'm hoping towards the Bites of it.
It's holding a little safe angle.
Looks he delivers!
Careful!
Oh, twice!
Now the bomb, gonna feel a little alone in sight.
Up the ramp comes Spinks.
CT's have got the numbers, just trying to flush Torsi off the bomb plant, Spinks has been found, Jaby gets the headshot, he's gotta get the clutch and it's gonna come up at game, see with the big triple kill and assisted by PR.
Yeah, that's a exertion with the jumping Glock kill, a first frag before that and well an instant trade unfortunately out of PR, who was just trying to help.
I'm lucky there.
Oops.
Obviously, the team kill is not ideal, but it still boils down to a phenomenal sequence of headshots out of Hooksy.
Yeah.
Yeah, it totally does.
A reminder that you can always live-trade the game on poly market prediction.
Damn near, split down the middle.
Force by rebound attempt here for Maus.
Looking to go right back to that B bomb site where they came up short.
Three players into cave, three players on the defense.
Looking to smoke off the cave exit, tech nine barrels through, stairs eating flashes here,
but they've lost him in the middle of all these smokes, re-activates from the back of
site.
No distraction for Stare, but there's too many targets.
Torji with the ramp control, here comes Spoozy.
His retake already costing him half of his HP.
No second gun picked up by Zellex just yet.
A limitation inside of the bomb site.
He'll spot him, he grabs the gun, that gives him an edge.
He'll hit the damage.
Spoozy still fighting on.
Torji, one kill from the clutch and he's gonna nail it.
Maus just stampede and storm that B site back to back rounds this time robbing it from Astralis
Torsi with another big play and he's had some very strong clutches at this event
A very unique eco strap pushing up short through the smoke
They're all running up cave. I'm like how are they not gonna get mowed down here?
But just use their smokes to their advantage to close the distance and make a mess of things really
I think that was the main idea and the CT smoke that goes in front of the cave
That's the defense it almost makes their strategy that much better three spokes chained together
Great route from mouse forced by instantly back out of a straw list doesn't feature a single primary weapon
Well, well well
I thought a Stralis were lifting back curse of not converting pistols, but changes hands thoroughly in the second half
Ryu nice Desert Eagle headshot. He's got another player low and torching back by the doors
But because the pistols kind of come at this a bit scrambly it is just one after one
denied. Can you have me really win this on just a raw peek?
Oh now he's hand back!
Oh no way.
Dammit, the last guy you lost!
Okay, you know what I was thinking?
Will he even win the one duel versus the guy behind the door?
Well, he saves him for last.
How in the world is that the outcome?
All about that first pickup because the second player on the lane is looking the other direction.
And Fuzzi just got that kill towards middle moments before Jaby strikes, which is really
a great distraction to catch that second player in PR and looking the wrong way.
Who needs a second round conversion?
Damn, it's like that.
Seismic shifts back and forth here between these teams.
That's a massive rating. Okay.
Let's tell that stat comes in just in time, is that 3k?
A lot of players here though, would get weird.
Spick's catching the 1, and 4 is being dropped in the process.
The will to PR, and they'll get those trades back.
Bomb in their possession, Zershin on the flank, they're sort of watching this.
Whenever the bomb's in it, it presents just like a creative problem, you know, because you're like, okay, how do you protect the bomb in this exact position?
Do we protect the bomb?
And they are gonna do it by going down that, which is nice because they do two things. They clear up mid at the same time.
Yep.
They know Zershin has to take some time to clear things out.
And we'll find out if they're a little slow or not. Zershin also has no idea where they've gone.
So it creates a good timing for trade potential, which is what got them this far into the round.
Always having a player nearby. There was a lot of one kills insta-deaths for the side of a shrawlis.
It's a great mid-round call though. It's a great high five clutch too by Jaby.
Nice.
Yeah, short body dropping. A price tag comes with this round.
But it's gonna be damn well worth it.
Oh, it's just as he sort of turns back, makes it a little weird and forks there too.
Horrible situation for Miles, they're broke, they're at that point, but they've had their
chances.
Oh boy.
The chemistry's really off, you know.
It's off, I'm saying.
Send them back to basic training.
Oh, what they would do for better weapons.
But it's not that kind of round for mouse.
Senders lean back and this time makes them extra money, giving themselves just the best
chance to close out their map picks.
And then map points earned by Astralis.
Five weren't enough in their last map versus Payne.
And Maus at least with a full buy next up.
Don't have an op on the field, but neither do Astralis.
And if anything, Maus are, you know,
step up from Payne when it comes to coming back into matches.
They've made their fair, fair comebacks.
how to do this. I feel like the worry is in so much of the ability right now. Oh, Stair goes right to it. The Strawlers have so many chances that you might as well get hyper-aggressive in the first one.
Catchmouse off. This is pretty full-on actually. Oh, did you get hurt? I don't think so. Fuzi has not considered it. In fact, he's going to get jumped while he's on the reload.
Nobody there to help out foosie, but he kind of made his own bed.
Whoa, I peek him with a nade.
He's jumping right into that.
Javi's also fast running the flank.
Azershin sits back.
They just think they're not watching anything.
Straul is a little too excited to win this round.
You know, you start it with the two kills out of stare, down middle, and then a couple
players start stomping.
So the first of seven failed.
Mows keep majority alive as well as they try to claw back this first map of the series.
And obviously Mows have survived their fair share of scares in Bounty.
They were down four to eight and a map versus 3D Max ends up giving us one of the most entertaining
maps of Bounty. So they can and will attempt to dig deep here. It's a shooting gallery
for Stare to start it off. It's just giving a meaningful amount of information. He hasn't
Reloaded as magazines dry. Javi can't believe that somebody would be holding the flank at that point
PR took space on a really quickly that's what won them the round overall
Scary part about ancient as any given around one inside of middle just the right side of you tell
one multi
But Mouser's gonna finish this game without taking it sometimes.
This is wild.
They're pressing up an elbow, there's no window smoke, and they're starting to clear things out, but Fuzzi has full vision.
Oh, spotted. Second CT here.
Javi doesn't jump in. Oh, missed chance for the AWPer. At least Javi returns to favor
back on A, but simultaneous fifth push. Oh, they're still going, but all the CTs are
coming. Javi's already back through A main, trying to be a distraction as now the CT lane
push comes out. Spink shuts down Hooksy as the front runner. Bomb's still emerging.
It's a redirection at a Ryu.
They don't know about this either.
Aw.
Just that constant pot almost kills the donut player.
This is going to leave.
Torji stranded in the back of this bomb site.
Head tucked down.
Two CTs trying to flush him out of here.
They don't have any utility not to block off the donut angle,
not to get Torji out of this position.
But is PR holding?
Yeah, OK.
Passive.
Very far back.
Working with the millimeters.
CTs walk up they at least trade the player site, but how do you get him out of donut?
low health PR
Chucks out a Nate that doesn't go deep enough tap on the bombs gonna force him to swing
Oh, yeah, he passed him out five second deep use down to the wire a straw
They still try to press their luck on that a site and Javi was ready to deal with it. It's an ace to finish
Oh my goodness, that's not the way you want to go.
PR peeking from the other side?
He's really blown that situation.
That's unfortunate.
But we're going to have to go to the desk and revisit that map.
Utterly speechless is how I put this one to know
that at the end of the day, that's how Ancient is closed out.
The fact that we can see this clutch up from Astralis,
well, maybe do a slight misstep from Maus.
I mean, I would say that was almost a misstep from Yabbi.
He dropped his AK to pick up something better.
He picked up another gun, three bullets in it.
So I thought it was over as soon as he did that.
Still manages to close it out in the 1v1 with almost no time on the clock.
I do question the call going back to A when you know you're going to have that trouble,
but still a great closeout from Astralis.
Yabbi, once again, just showing the multi-kill potential on the CT side.
I mean, V-Traps brought up the stat mid-game,
just how ancient's been his best playground thus far this year and who I think he had the ace there.
I think he had a 3k in another pivotal round. He's so explosive on a map like this where it's just a
lot of flat angles where he can just kind of also weasel his way through so many situations just
catching people off with little a main pushes and great late round play. It was just a reminder
that when he was listening in hearing us go down the lineup of the mouse and the Astralis play
saying which side you leaned to, that you had to remember Yabi who was there at the end of the day
just kind of beat at his catapult. Yeah, I think that was great from Yabi especially. You have
Astralis coming in with I think a very effective game plan. It is their whole map. It is a map
they're very comfortable on, but when you come in with a good macro plan, you know how mouse play
this map. It makes it even easier for the individuals to perform to their best level as well.
They're having a long talk, by the way. I'm not going to exertion that, just sitting down, just the
Why aren't you running my system better?
No, I'm sorry.
That's obviously going to happen a lot for a new IGL
and with a coach that is really so actually systematic
like Cyclone.
I feel like there's a lot that they would have wanted back
in that game, but I actually want to kind of bring up again
what Vu is saying with the system.
I think a lot of teams make their bed so frequently
on the middle of ancient, but in this game actually,
Astralis was very good on the extremities.
We saw them prodding A quite frequently,
a lot of action towards the banana and ramps sort of space towards B
They didn't really leave things up to chance when so many teams just kind of say
Ah, we'll just see if we get the better of them in mid of this game
Yeah, and really I think the few times Astralis attack made it didn't go all that well for them
They were trying to kind of keep them honest with the mid aggression from time to time
But they really wanted to hit those extremities
They hit the A several times which is usually the kind of left alone
Ignored bomb site in a lot of games where you only go there if you're going there through mid as well
They had the attacks on B that I think were incredibly effective
This was just a great Astralis game from start to finish as much as you can say mouse or you know
I called them I called the strawless budget mouse for a second
You know I expected mouse to be the better team
But I'm really impressed with the the approach to this game from Astralis
That's and that's the one thing that I feel like when we were doing the head-to-head down all five players or all ten really with their
Counter parts the one thing is that hooks he has to have over exertion is game planning and strategizing because he is a more tenured
IGL and yes exertion will have the better individual HLTV rating after this game
But if it hooks he can win with better calls, then that's all the more impressive. That's what keregan has taught us
We're gonna start us anything bottom frag
If but if you make the calls that are needed, that's all that matters
I mean hook see is also giving us another lesson though that whilst you can be very good in calling as an IGL and how pivotal those
Planning moments are you can't also still show up. I mean he showed up a lot in round five getting some good opening kills
but it was a showing from him as well.
This is just disgusting.
But this is just disgusting.
If Hooksy can get double kills like this,
just kind of jiggle people, jiggle peaking people out
as he's moving up the rampside.
That's just too impressive.
And also the mid-rounding here was perfect.
Yabbi actually made a play towards Cave
after Hooksy found these two frags,
trying to find some sort of space.
But there was a contingency plan.
There was a release valve.
Even though Yabbi died moving through Cave there,
it was just that they had enough space towards A
that they were able to pivot on back and hook see even though we got two kills a lot of ideals think okay
We're just gonna send it right there
He held his ground and waited for the situation to sort of settle before he made that final call
We don't need hook see fragging out top fragging. We don't need anything special
Give us a round or two like that a map and I think I'm happy with hook see because this calling is exceptional
I was expecting is maybe some more kind of play from mouse coming at the end
Maybe some more of the macro as well view that we could have been seeing from them of knowing the tendencies of Astralis
Yeah, I think it's Astralis that really got the better of them in terms of tendencies you're looking at round five
They attack the A bomb site round seven round eight
They attack the a bomb say back to back and we had scrawny and lauders actually question it for a second
I think the reality is you look at the way mouse play. They don't like to play a player on a at all
They don't play the box. They don't really play in towards church or temple
They play off the site
They have the mid player rotate back into a and cover the angle long range and Spinks is usually committed mid
So they walk out to a they boost up time and time again
They're constantly looking for that exit that looks a little puggy
It looks like they're not throwing a ton of utility because they know there's no what there's no worry about the box
There's no general worry about
Towards the offing you down from from inside of the cave
You know you're just looking at a CT side where mouths are very consistently in similar positions now
They did make adjustments you have sphinx rotated over here
You did have some rounds where Torsi was on that A site, but if you look at their historic A site defenses
They're almost never on the bomb site. So these sorts of plays can work really effectively
Well, it took until one of the final one or two rounds in regulation there of that first half where they actually finally put
Torsi to just guard that aim aim because they were just getting stumped over and over again by that
So that's just that's what great anti-stradding looks like that you can on a map that you don't really see that as an in for most teams
using that as an effective opener, it just kind of shows the prep that Astralis has done here.
And when you're looking at Astralis, they have abysmal T-sides.
They're like third worst in the top 30 in the last six months or something.
It was the worst at Cologne, the worst team at all of Cologne for T-sides.
Extremely questionable T-sides. Extremely questionable as sugar coating it for their T-sides.
So you get up to 6-2, that's all you need on your T-side to close it out on CT.
Well, I'll bring it back and make it feel a little bit more light-hearted for Astralis
because while we were all caught up in that diffuse the clutch up of what it was to get them a win there
Everyone kind of overlooked the fact that it was a yabby red bull ace for himself there as well
So it was a phenomenal showing not only did he clutch it up, but he got an ace too. So it feels like the double decker for him
Delicious delicious that's what victory is that's where he drops his AK and then
little excited with it. I thought it was over doesn't even hit him in the head. Body
no, he doesn't. Yeah, just body shot. I mean, this was this was pristine though from him.
Again, the macro play at the beginning and on top of that, when you pair just solid macro
plays with a guy who I would say is just one of the sharpest shooters that came out of,
I would even say the whole Nordic region for the last handful of years. That's what you
get 7.2 round swing, 7.2. Incredible. That's actually disgusting. That's better than Zywoo.
It's actually better than what
Kerrigan was minus in the major.
That's hard. It's hard to get
better than Kerrigan was bad,
Maui. It's like they gave them a
Yabi every game. They're just
one offering themselves. The
next question is, does it
continue the right Astralis?
It was that map pick. They
should have the comfort for
them. It necessarily should be
a win. But then when we look
towards what is going to be
our second map here, we've got
a question. Are they going to
have it in the back for
I think that's a good thing.
Astralis winning their map pick.
They're on ancient and we're shifting towards Mirage.
Mouses pick here, but why exactly do they pick it up for themselves, Maui?
What has been looking so good for Mouses?
They should be able to push this to a 1-1 in the series.
One thing that's really surprising about Mouses is that for the past three months on the map,
and T side and CT side in terms of round percentage win rate.
On top of that, I think the duo that they're trying to push forward
as their primary space takers and Xelix and Xershin
get to work with each other again on another map.
They do it on yard outside on Nuke, for example.
They do it here as well.
And I think that because they've just been working
with that pairing now for some time,
it's one that they're finding a little bit more comfort with.
And also I just think Xershin is really, really fine
when he just works through middle.
He knows what the options are of the CTs
and he doesn't really get caught off too easily.
I think this is the map where I've been most impressed
with Xershanon as an individual before he became an IGL,
but as he swapped into IGL,
this one felt the most natural.
He gets his way into connector quite often.
He can make the mid-round feel
for how the defense is pivoting around the map
and where they can go for an aggressive play.
He can find holes in the defense.
He can find openings that they can then attack.
And this is one where I think PR and Zellix
are also quite comfortable, comparative to other maps.
Where we're looking at the numbers there,
a lot less officials on the side of Astralis for playing this map.
So where exactly would you put their chances, their comfort as well?
I think the problem I see with Astralis is what we saw from them yesterday.
I don't think it was a complete game of Mirage.
They had a good T side, which they've struggled with so much recently,
but they couldn't get both halves together.
And their CT side, I'm sure, Mows have seen that demo
and they've seen some gaps in the defense,
whereas Astralis were really struggling to find consistency.
I feel like one question for me with Astralis is,
Riu did serviceably yesterday, for sure.
Actually, I think he had some great moments,
but he's been sort of hot and cold.
And I feel like with how Maus are going to pressure,
as opposed to what Payne did,
Payne do those kind of surprise plays.
That doesn't always catch off somebody like Riu,
who's just kind of locked into his positions,
but when there's all these angles that he has to juggle,
that's not something in my eyes
that he really had to handle as much
when he was on Monty before he got to Astralis,
because the lower level teams weren't really taking con away.
They weren't always just pincering from three,
sometimes even four angles.
Do you feel like it's gonna be this close back and forth affair
or with what you're talking about,
Maus having essentially two complete halves in CT and T
and Maus, sorry, Maus having that complete two halves
and Astralis struggling with one of their halves.
It could just be this blowout in the first half
that's an easy closeout.
I don't think Astralis are pushovers on this map,
but there's a reason the last time they played Maus 13, one of them.
I don't think it's going to be that bad, but it's not going to be close.
Alright, maybe not that bad, but close.
That means you've got to play aggressive.
You've got to have some oomph to you.
You're not allowed to play like Cowards when it comes to Mirage.
Now, no time for Cowards here on this one.
Mao is looking to step it up at Nachmo.
It felt like chemistry was a bit off, individual level was a bit off.
Our polymarket prediction has Astralis to win the semifinal.
An Astralis versus Spirit Grand Final.
We're one map from it.
It feels like everything Astralis did was you know a lot of the good stuff
We saw yesterday with basically none of the bad they closed out that game extremely fast
They put up a lot of opening moves ever aggressive and playing to win the whole time
They punished mouse and a very awkward round of decision-making going back to a letting Abby close with that ace obviously and
And for mouse. Yeah, just it's it's it's it's far from perfect at the moment. So
This is my concerns coming into this series. I don't think this one was black and white by any means.
Now the straws are somehow in a position where you could reasonably see a chance at a 2-0,
which that seemed like the furthest result possible before we started the day.
I do feel like mouths are feeling a heat now, and there will be some questions for them if things don't go a little bit better.
Strawl is happy to test the waters in middle.
Man, if somebody were to wrap up Catwalk right now for a Strawl, that could be helpful for Fuzzi.
Who drops his smoke and puts the Berettas right up against them.
I think this is a fun position for Berettas, also makes it very easy to drop off and cap him.
No, but he doesn't get there.
No kill out of Fuzzi despite point blank on a smoke with two pistols in hand.
And advantage for Maus looking for their first pistol victory tonight.
Ooh, nice find.
And it's looking comfortable now with a 5v3 on top of that bomb being down.
Zellex also swift headshot.
And so really nothing to pull on here if you're a Stralis.
No chance you get back into this retake, surely, is nobody on Maus is willing to die.
I think you had it right.
Foosie was in a great spot.
That's good. You could have they didn't even see him. He got you know five shots off
Yeah, he six shots off before they even turned in his direction. Just missed him off
So I was it the one bad thing about going for the windows that if players push out in the smoke path that they did
You've got to track him right to left and that doesn't really ever give you a chance to line up bodies
Where it's true when you see the brightest play on the door, obviously, it does just feel like you're shooting down range
That's the one weird thing, but hey if it's an instant kill you catch them off guard here
You can what?
You can defenestrate.
Sorry, there's a lot of shots and you're saying a word I don't understand.
You can defenestrate from there.
What does that mean?
Jump out of the window.
Oh.
Defenestrate.
The French word for window is fenêtre.
So I should have known that.
Oh yeah? I think Shakespeare invented it.
Did he?
My guy.
Defenestrate.
I thought it was like to shed your skin or something.
Hair regrow formula.
They can even use my mic, I'm sure.
Uh-uh.
Don't mind me, just talking to all my friends.
I
Deagle for real that's all
I do can
Hmm that goes about as exactly how you'd expect it even hear it and we are off to the two zero start
Looking to see cohesion from Maus, an uptick in that department will look real good on
them considering we saw a bit of disjointedness back on the first map.
I think this is though the map where like the anchor setup is actually one where it's
looked the best.
Where it was PR in spanks, they PR done great playing B on Mirage.
So seemingly a really good pick here for Maus where everything could look right.
I think Dostu was one where we've seen two tries not looking the best.
We used a little spray to see through side mirage player this year, all year, about 10.
How will the Mac10s get scrappy when there's this many bodies with rifles leaning middle?
Zershin feels like he's not long for this world, but you can also just burn the clock
down, serve up a distraction, and your top middle with a Mac10 crosses back before the
smoke pops but he does get away with the reposition. This is obviously through underpass that Astralis
make their opening moves. This will free up the B player to depart.
Hooksy's trying to get the hell out of there as it is going to be Maus.
Toys to take over Palace with three. Were you burning? Oh, what? That's sick.
He actually gets the jump on Zershin and the line towards the site. Almost finishes PR but
doesn't quite kill him. That's 20 health for PR to take over Ticket. Hooksy's got support behind him
And we saw some a while a site retakes out of the Charlottes just last night PR with another kill
Despite how little healthy had jabby makes up for it. Don't mess with jabby right now
Oh, well there quietly gets this flank in a position player down to his left
He's gonna look to clear this but horse. He's gone unnoticed and as Torsi still sits back here
He's gonna blindside the attempted diffuser stairs got a free kill on that one at least but he's got a read
Zelex survives the press down into him and Maus will get away with the 3-0 start just barely.
Really nice there from Thorgy. Just out of the line of view.
Try to get too comfortable there and firebox it would have been over.
Side take overall is great.
I don't know if we'll use a little move because even if he gets that kill,
if he didn't get spotted in the first place, he's standing on top of the smoke inside of Connector.
It's hard to see.
But it's a good trade from Spinks.
Sorry, Hoaxy.
Your toast.
Ah, maybe Voo was right about Zershina Hoaxy in the end.
Voo always finds a way to be right, you know?
wrong just early. God forbid you misquote the guy. Every single tail or swift song. Hold
Disography not surprised
Leaning on the deagle and jabby has been lights out at times
That's not gonna help
Stacked in the right position so it is a good call in terms of
placement
Yeah, a little bit labor this one frag. That's it. That's all very happy our mouths to convert that one with minimal
the losses, 4-0, T-side, one of the roughest starts that we've seen for Astralis so far.
Yeah, these guys never start slow, doesn't always end well, but they always kick off
on the right note.
Won't be the gays this time in, honestly, very few kills here for Astralis.
We're talking about op-to-op at the moment.
Double up in the window.
It's a fast meat plate cooking, and CTs are really like lost to a flame working on middle.
Hooksy's not going to see anything for the time being. T's are coming at this.
Fast dive, Hooksy. Blinded. Tries to just go unnoticed and does cash PR off guard.
Torsche, that's a quick trade out through the window sill.
Javi's got his, but trying to cheat out through the market
to stare, almost able to catch it with grenades in hand,
and 40 will get whittled down through that wall.
That's a massive fright.
Player up in the B apps with an off.
Watch Ryu now try to strike silently, crawling it up.
Catwalk sees the barrel.
He's so locked in.
Oh, but from the site, Spinks with the awareness.
And Fuzzi, having already been dropped down to 70 health,
they're going to think that he's out through market,
but they just kind of gave him a smoke to work around.
And also, Spinks got shot in the head.
He is on 17 HP.
That search and smoke does get Fuzi a route back site,
but it also gives a way for Spinks
to get back over towards Catwalk.
And I love that they never planted.
Get the hell out of here.
Head back over to the A site.
You know, you can feel that Fuzi was lingering.
And so they put a distance between them
and Astralis' last player.
So here's where you know they've come up connector.
Here's where you know they're probably
protecting the jungle rotation.
Come thinkfully aware as the time takes down, you've got not to say if you haven't won a round yet, money's tight. How much do you commit to this?
I mean, he's got miles to go for a 10 second retake. There's no point in even trying.
Yeah, get out of here.
Unfortunately, Fuzzi having to tuck tail. If he catches somebody positioned and ticket, then maybe.
But no, sir. Mous.
It looked like it was going better than it ended up.
It was nice to see Astralis be able to claw some kills out there.
I like that Stair gets away with that wall bang on a torgy in the window.
I think with the first kill, the hole definitely could have been better.
They had a faster rotate from Kat.
They stayed alive for quite some time.
And that'll be the op coming forward into round six here for Astralis.
They're kind of an interesting spot because they have an op.
They can get some kind of Frankenstein by, but it feels like they're probably just gonna
try to stay behind it, just a half by maybe.
Alright, there we go. Kevlar pistols and a couple SMGs, that's what is going to surround
Fuzi in this next round. Probably makes the most sense, considering
they're just yet to get around. I risk it all right away.
I want to see Foozie looking loose this round.
On the hunt for his first.
Never a good feeling when you are already halfway through Mauser's T side.
There it comes.
Delays.
Kept him hidden because he never fired off, but middle suddenly becomes Torji's playground.
It feels like right now, unfortunately that off moves away from a position where it could have been valuable.
It's just going to be anchoring the B site instead.
There is a ramp expedition here for Astralis though, so they are taking over pieces of
this map, and again, it's not just the AWP, these pistols, MP9s could still be the lethal
element.
Well, I've got the ability to scale, look at the waterfall smoke coming down if you get
across the triple.
There's active spots on the CTs, but it still should be fine.
In their sweet time though, down to 25 seconds, still the 5v5.
And now Torsi barely alive.
Oh, great knee.
Desert Eagle comes wide, doesn't find anything,
but Fuzi's still close enough to the call to action.
Uh-oh.
He's got Zershin from inside the site.
Bomb now onto the ground as Spinks tries to tear back in.
Ten seconds, and he scoops up the bomb under threat from the stairs.
Fuzi's gonna run him down, and he's done it.
An ace from Fuzi.
Why'd he got all five?
What and how after rotating B the saved up they don't fall by behind he gets every single kill
Is this just because they don't smoke connector behind them
Wow the distance on that name you got a main kill at usd. Joe and then three op shots
Man they came up connector but mind you this is think uh this is mouths winning the last round
They have lots of money. They don't molly cat. They don't smoke connector behind them. They leave that open
It doesn't just cost him to kill a cost of five
From zero and four to the ace
First one's the hardest
Was last time I had a feature ends
I'm not really sure what that was
of
it's crazy me that that made gets the kill but the need last night the bounced off the fall didn't
finish off hook see
still can't believe that happened to have
the other night a campaign
to stop old happy fun time gaming
Interesting lurker from PR.
A lot of chance to... oh, PR just gets decapitated.
That was quick and easy out of Hoopsy.
Not quite getting vision by trying to open those smokes.
There's a Torji coverage in the middle of all that.
Bomb still on, mouse is off.
That's fine, they've got a little bit of extra time.
They want Zershin to press in as those smoke grenades fade,
but was he never anticipating a challenge from top stairs?
Zershin dies, but that queues up the ticket peek,
and Zelex doesn't get away with it,
doesn't fully commit on his nine health,
so a little worried about it, but luckily for him,
Torji from behind can give that deep angle into ticket,
And that's enough to convince Astralis that they have to walk away.
So it is Maus right back to winning ways as it's all in on the A site.
And Torji's coverage worth its weight in gold.
Yeah, a couple of sketchy moments there. They took a long time to plant.
They were split between trying to fight for CT, plant for it, and also watch every other part.
But honestly, Zershin got a really important kill. Torji's been solid.
And that's six, but Astralis, they won that last round off of Fuzzi's ace, kept a couple alive,
were saving in the first place, still have enough money to put together another buy.
After this kill, it felt like it was going to be honestly a smooth sailing for Astralis.
I think that the fact that we get part of Astralis' game that was the trading,
the amount of kills that get isolated, no instant response.
I would cosign that statement.
If not for what?
I mean, I do cosign your statement.
I'm just messing with you.
Oh.
That makes my job way easier.
I'm so comfortable and confident.
Say anything.
See what happens.
who's eat from an ace and now this opening kill sets up that second opt to thrive
mouse now know about it the best part about it to offset up is the first round
you use it mm-hmm I just have no idea especially when your primary opera gets
the opening kill yes you just it just feels like that is such a an alley you
for the secondary off and in this case we see it on full display now right now
bomb is outside of the tea apartments I know they're pretending to take a
But yeah, I'm not gonna be much to write home about here for mouse unfortunately just falling victim to an opening upshot and
The unexpected unexpected secondary. They're saving in the
Never heard that word that's cool word actually
expect
Just how you're saving in the most threatening spots that will soon become scary for them
But he didn't expect that one
Let's blast policy on bullying in the workplace. I'm just repeating somebody get me HR
So this one concludes with a whimper a
A couple saves though look good on Maus, considering they've got PR, Zelex, and Zershin with no
cash really left over.
Let's see if the straws can really fight back into a game.
We had so much to praise about their strong starts in the last 24 hours.
Even on an ancient, an 8-4 first half.
And he's actually able to blow up the smoke at top mid, doesn't even blow it up, and he still gets to kill. And that's a nice play.
Nobody dedicated inside the A side at the moments.
And there's a whole lot of malice looking to get going. Good damage, but Boozy survives.
And an up on 6 HP can still very much be lethal.
He's trying to drop his utility before he potentially gets cleared.
Reused up scope for the connector kill, and that opens the door for this 40 walkout.
Hell of a trade back from Hooksy off the catwalk.
And Fuzi's been freed up to go towards Ticket, but remember all that early damage puts him in a bad spot.
Crazy.
He takes Spinks off the site.
Torsi and Zershin with a kill apiece out middle though.
Also, all those duels that Astralis signed up for in their mid-hold...
Oh, he's gonna see this!
Oh!
Wallbang, never mind, Zellex survives through the boxes, Javi's gonna try to clear him,
he knows he's stuck on bench, and now if they all of a sudden smoke-off connector, it's
gonna be a tough job for Xersion to get into this.
Molotov in front of Torsi towards the ramp, but he will circumvent that.
Misses!
And Fuzi on a 10-second defuse!
What?
I mean, this still comes close, but they pull that off!
the strollers with another mind-melting A site retake.
Look at the hell up.
There is no way they won that retake.
And even in the retake, there are moments
that it feels like they've missed their chances.
Zelex surviving the wallbang.
Yes.
But Javi actually smoked connector
and put a Molly on a ramp.
The two spots they were retaking from read it perfectly.
And that Molly.
And Fuzi actually hit everything.
Dude, the Molotov, it's not wide enough to stop Torji,
but he misses.
He missed, yeah.
Yeah.
These are the kinds of things that were happening to Astralis.
Not for them.
That wallbang is well.
I can't believe we got that killed in the first place.
He was already so low.
So that's all great coverage from jabby and you know what?
It's funny that at the beginning of bounding we have this incredibly embarrassing moment for jabby couldn't cover foosie
Eastside ancient moment
Well, it's the same two players
In a high octane to vx on a and this time jabby over delivers
Stralis, who's he? I don't know, who's here? Four got his A's, right? Yeah. Yeah, it was a rocky start.
Come back, story.
Stralis has been in some positions that they definitely don't want to be in,
and yet still pull off the round wins.
What if they could just have a nice comfortable round for once?
True, guys, it's a great distraction.
Jabby's got that op cover secured.
The secondary op's still been very good for Astralis,
and finally versus pretty much a full buy.
There were some limits here for Maus,
but definitely threatening in this one,
and it's helping nice and clean.
That's kind of the big thing,
not going to next round without any.
I mean PR can hang on to this, and they still really wouldn't be buying.
It's going to be for you wrapping around to look for PR as well.
Feels like it's worth a light chase.
They still do have to think about the next couple of rounds.
Two rounds of loss bonus for this one.
That's kind of perfect here for Ryu.
He's got three kills on the round.
There's that little bait set up inside the A ramp.
I mean, the Nade off the wall just to sell it.
Who would throw a Nade at their teammate?
Yep.
These sickos.
It bounces beyond.
So what was a 6-1 lead for Maus?
Now, three rounds straight out of Astralis.
Pistols in this one, but they do come through
with the full five Desert Eagles.
Maus will be looking to shock us in this one
and buy in their final round on the attack.
Miss Desert Eagle shot that could have been a head shot.
Yeah, that was close.
That was a large melon.
In the middle of Zershin's screen, but...
Bit of an accuracy betrays him.
Okay.
I like that he gets ahead of this.
I mean, again, five Desert Eagles, no utility for all of Maus.
Hooksy's gonna walk up and clear you, though,
So, you thought Hooksy would fall for your tricks.
But Hooksy, there was all the tricks in the game.
You reckon?
Most of them.
He's running from the follow up A-cheap.
A lot towards the ramp.
Nothing tricky about this round out of mouse.
Just hoping to have these Deagles connect.
That's one.
Untradable kills has been a big problem for Astralis.
More to go. Just four.
It's going to be tough for Spinks to ever get into the action, so it will hang on to Palace.
That's a drive-by headshot on Stair. He survives with Majority HP, low health here for Orbsy still, and PR's got Stair.
The bomb, that's an awkward spot. They have to go get it.
The active desperation that remains here for Zellex, missed off shot though and remember
Hooksy dangerously low HP.
Zellex has an off.
Flash to get the bomb down, extra money.
Only 14 damage off that nade, they try to close the gap, the CTs, I mean they can't
trade this.
Oof, we've already criticized them for sometimes a lack of trade ability and Jaby just takes
it into his own hands to go for that.
But why wasn't Hooksy a little faster?
I mean, Javi doesn't have eyes on the back of his head.
Hooksy can see him. Do we know that?
Go...
Don't... Not for sure, but...
I think he should have... I think he should have tried to help out sooner, right?
I think Javi had the right idea.
While he's still on default, while he's still compromised before he's caught,
he's off getting on an angle.
Maybe Javi's play was to just get to the opposite side of the box
and then stop and let Hooksy catch up.
At least that way he would have cover or the T's gotta go wide.
Felt like a scary situation considering again it started with Deagle so props the mouse for
even getting it close and here we go the 12th with Astralis having a chance to tie after
mouse's 6-1 start.
Really don't mind mouse trying a full A. It's been pretty good.
Most of the time on their trades.
TP's wide open.
Flash to their X-Wet.
Run down, run down, Zershin just flies into the duel, but don't feel like hitting him
with a wall bang.
You got mouse and a post plant, they're looking to take over ticket, two players strong,
expending utility to just make any approach difficult.
Shralas, all the nades in the world to try to make this happen.
They've got still a bit of stairs control, but nobody else looking to link up immediately.
Kind of taking their time here with this CT approach.
Hooksy and the backdrops are going to pop open the smoke, Zelex exposed, Jaby's got a double, and Spinks has already been spotted in this back-site.
There goes Hooksy's Molotov to plush him wide. They're working their way forward. He got that second headshot. It's on PR, but he's not here for the bomb.
It's what is it, Default? Defuse comes through, Astralis with a hell of a rebound, are actually testing Maus and posting a threat of a 2-0 in this semi-finals.
I'm telling you now, I predict Vitality would take this whole thing.
Wow, you're very confident.
Well, you know, I've done my research.
Um, I don't know what you're saying.
Did you?
I mean, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, there's more to predictions than that.
It's not just wins and losses.
There's map pool, there's their hunger.
Hunger.
You mean, you mean they're hunger to win?
No, I do mean they're literal hunger.
I've been following them around.
I'm watching them at dinner.
I'm making sure they eat breakfast together.
All of that.
You've been, you've been what?
I'm making informed predictions, okay?
And plus, I know a guy.
You know a guy? Who?
That being said, the next game will be better.
You know I need a strong one.
Hello?
Hey Kenny.
It's me.
Who?
Maui.
Maui Snack.
The analyst.
I'm the guy that made the Zayu lack of cultural impact between all of France and Lauderdale.
So who do you have to win the event?
I don't know, Vaita Duchi, whatever.
See, I told you, he agrees.
Did you just hang up on Kenny S?
The first two zero versus vitality in quite some time.
time.
Make a mouse to work for it, a Stralis with a hell of an answer after looking as flat
as they did in those opening seven rounds it was great for mouse they won
their first pistol they converted it and they had a 6-1 lead that disappeared
before our eyes. Astralis now to the attack themselves though not the easiest
place to find yourself up versus mouse on Mirage but hey ooh no one in the back
of the site they're playing solid. It's been good counter strike out of
Astralis this evening and as you mentioned a little vacancy at this
B site will bode well for their pistol likelihood
This chance is from Spinks doesn't cut down on its lights. Okay
Queue up the retake with PR's kits and no utility here for mouse just a good old 5v5 blood bath
Ryu and Jaby to press in for market three CT's on the approach
Two heads pop by Ryu, Stair gets the trade.
That's massive control of the bomb site now.
And that's the kit that they can't get back with four players to get through first.
Astralis' game plan on their T side was the extremity hits.
Remember that from Hooksy?
We already get this B plate early.
They were really foregoing the middle of the map.
It was working so well versus Payne.
pain and then it was pain who kept reinvesting and trying to hold on to
mid in the first minute or so with no targets really and as soon as Astralis
did eventually start going mid pain started succeeding but it but again I'm
kind of surprised about this pistol set up out of mouse given what Astralis's
most recent tendency is even on the premise that if you're playing one site
light on this map. It should be A most of the time. Unless you got a really good read,
but you kind of want to treat a pistol like an anti-eco. You would never want to have to retake
B if you don't need to. What? We haven't had a player ace after starting 0-4 or worse since
Bad News kangaroos has a at EPL 19 against Maus on Mirage. Oh, that was a great setup. I didn't
Crazy.
Going with that one, B-Trams.
The bad news, kangaroos.
Well, Fuzi gave him a dropkick, too.
0-4 to the ace, and then finishes the half, 10-6.
It's wild to think that Fuzi only died two times after that ace.
But it does make sense with the Gley Astralis got back in the game.
You are dead to a scouts on the approach
Javi's gotten far forward, but all that does is donate a potential galil over bomb is going to panic move into the A site
This one's on zelex suddenly
Jungle player preoccupied
Fuzi's the bomb, but he's also the guy sitting on 13 health. They've got a cover site. Oh
And he gets both headshots
Astralis astralis astralis
Damn, that's a really good setup off cat
First scout shot in, and honestly I feel like they're lucky you didn't get the bomb back in this direction.
Fairly no more for Stare.
Resurvive for Maus. That scout looking lethal.
The fact Jaby gets so far in means he's hard committed to trying to get those trades back out.
Because by the time these guys get popped, Jaby's already working up the wall.
Right here.
Very smooth.
Yeah
Little late to the cover
Does anything feel worse
Failing to convert the pistol. Well, it's just like ancient in them. They won the
True found after that. Let's keep an eye glued to a shrawl is then
But they're gonna force down would have loved to have that bomb plant money
Double smoke, exec flashes over the top-deep angle here for Ryu. He's already over to the triple stack.
Done for though.
Zellex nicely done. Here's it coming, holds his nerve, keeps it calm, and the accuracy off the SMG just melts.
Astralis.
Oh, that's a lot of headshots. Wait, Torsi has 1 health. Alright, Speaks has 1 health, Torsi has 12.
And an MP9 to work with, but...
Reload's gonna activate Torgy, who even on his 12 HP will not shy away from cleaning up
four players alive for Maus as they are back into the lead.
So we're quite happy to be here, CT side Mirage.
Now we know Astralis have absolutely nothing.
Lovely donations, huh? Triple-Galil for Maus with nothing but pistols on Astralis?
Broken again. Astralis are now three for seven in terms of converting their pistol rounds to this tournament.
I don't know. What a horrible stat. I mean, being able to pick up that many pistols is
usually such a good thing.
It's a crazy stat considering they've not been eliminated yet.
So they can endure
And they ought not to come in with much in this follow-up. We said last time they were able to force by back
No bomb plant even offered by torsion. He's really not feeling
generous in this defense
Looks he dead at the top of it
They just decide to take a knee give a freebie over would have hoped for the bomb plant and brought it damn near close
But look at the money that has been made on mouse's side for a half on a map that we know they are capable on
I said in their last series it took them into map 3 to really show what they could do,
but still more doubts, still more discomfort, even though they know they can get there in
the end.
It's very possible they're best CS.
You have to come.
The straws look to draw some early A utility.
It looks like they're drawing out the, what is the retake utility.
Let's see how hard they go and sell this thing.
all the utility on this side of the map.
They're gonna hear a re-running away.
Lovely pop-up. PR though still. Clips hook-seat. Spits unable to keep his end of the bargain up.
And so PR almost does it all on his own. Bomb is hesitant though. If it jumps out,
it's gonna find itself alone versus two.
Risky.
So BOMB is right from stair.
It's so risky. He knows he has the bomb, but it also gives his chance of team to actually win.
They know that Rio was probably only halfway towards B.
And Zellix was extremely careful.
The last time he was left alone.
There's enough time to walk all these angles, which makes it a little trickier for Zellix.
But he's playing a fine spot to catch things.
Oh, it's damage.
Ooh, not finishing the kill.
There we go.
Finishes Ryu with a headshot.
Stare.
Just gonna close that distance into the bomb plant.
Fix it once.
That's both players.
No!
Oh my goodness.
And Zelex on 14 HP counters stairs 3K with a triple of his own.
You think Ryu would actually wait for Stare to now come over top before they swing on defaults
or take that second peek.
But either way, Zelex probably,
I'm lucky to not have finished the kill when he jumped out of regional 8.
People don't fake that much in general, but I feel like a straw for sure.
Use it more consistently throughout all their matches,
and it seemed like in this round, Malphyr was ready for that eventually.
They opt not to fall for it whatsoever.
They have the 2B players fully committed.
And now they're through on the timeouts.
But entering with another half by his mouse, inch their way ever closer to victory.
That T side pistol would have had you believe, but we haven't even seen a bomb plant since
out of Astralis.
Close a couple times.
But that is just how quick Maus are to stomp on the embers
that this attack has had.
Tility up and over.
Just going to look to swarm and overwhelm.
And the damage out of Spinks's nade is great.
But he is spilled down without a kill.
And if all the players PR could have battled, it's the one with the more HP.
Oh, whoa!
Jaby, test nine! Strikes down two!
Look how low they are!
On the brink of death!
I think they, you know, right now, Mow's know that players are low.
There's a lot of responsibility on Zell X.
And a single bullet, you'd think, would have killed anybody here, but Ryu still survives more damage.
Can no longer play behind that bench wall.
He has to get into the corner. Even a wall bang would be lethal.
They don't know about the one on E-Box, but surely they got to clear it.
There we go. Torshe's got his.
Zelex is going to have to reload in a moment, but they've already cleared out Javi as well.
Falls on stair from the back of van.
Time ticking and they will get each of those three kills on their way in.
There was 48 health for them to work with across three players.
Ryu takes wallbang damage, doesn't die, and that is just trying to burn time off the clock,
but Maus, they know they cannot waste it.
wasted they will sprint in to the 2v3 reset. It's a miracle yeah we got those
kills. Insane couple of tech died shots.
Can't be too frustrated about losing it it's crazy it came that close.
Charles have had to wait to get back into their guns.
Money's been thin throughout this attack.
The tortugist made himself.
Where's that from underpass?
That'd make more sense.
Oh, he needed himself.
Oops.
that's half the damage for a self-naid too
this is kind of massive walking right over top of the bomb
what do you do with this info though
I mean if the bomb is left back here no one is coming to clear it because they assume
a hundred percent it's safe otherwise they know they're screwed
Alex wants more.
Wow. How much can he milk this for?
Missed the player bottom mid decides enough's enough
and will just tap Fuzi out of this.
I mean, now the straws know that the bomb's been seen in everything.
So, it's continuing to walk this flank.
Like, is he going to die doing this?
The others have done a really good job of dodging him.
Yeah, Blinder player's going to take it up.
So, considering it's only one kill from that spot.
I feel like just continuing to walk doesn't mean they don't know where you are.
Zershin finds a freebie.
Jaby walks out to his death and that bomb still needs to be scooped back up by the time they recover it
It is down to the two versus four
Mows with a golden opportunity to secure their 12th and five map points with it
That's looking like smooth sailing here for miles in this map
There have been some close shapes, but it feels like miles are very in control
just to win
I got basically infinite money to buy
It's not the first map we've seen, now it's switch sides and take over, but it doesn't
mean a strollers are done for.
Not when they've got nothing to lose in these final five, so a run at overtime made easy
with two opening kills out top mid.
A step up to the plate.
Torgy and Zershin, slain.
Maus will try to cheat these numbers into the A site instead. That smoke at the halfway point.
They do not have an additional smoke to try to buy it further time.
The question remains is will Astralis just go into their execute in a moment because
if they do, without this commitment out of stare into B first.
He's going to see everything so there's no reason to exec A.
We'll throw him out there.
He'll find it totally vacant.
Bomb starts to leave.
So Astralis putting themselves in a place where they could have pounced the A site but
But also, obviously, you take the MTB.
So, kind of an interesting commitment there.
PR will go for the flank.
They're probably not expecting someone to also be in halls.
But Hooksy's a little slow to stop him.
Now, Mao's also kind of getting confused from the departure.
The Spinks know someone's in...
Palace is still here waiting.
I mean, Hooksie's putting himself in a kind of awkward spot if there's any chance that
Maus wins this round.
Could bank on PR also clearing out Ryu, tough duel to win on this approach, but now PR's
just going to wait, let the market player get closer, and he just gets his head ripped
clean off and that's enough to call it quits.
Maus want to save too, and Hooksie's taking a sweet time to try to deny this, looking
to make it awkward to clean out some of these guns. There is so much money still for Maus.
These two saves will make sure that cash remains available. So it starts with a good clash
off top middle for Astralis. Their first terrorist round win since the pistol. I'm
just willing to go for the search. Little aggressive, good play at the end. You didn't
have to exec out of the most fun round that you can win as an attacker.
using the nades to pop open smoke, expecting maybe some kind of presence like last round,
but it is just utility through those top mid smokes, and no real chance at catching kills here for Hooksie.
He wants to keep him busy, he wants to keep this A defense light, and Jaby's just gonna play the timing,
and he just hits the headshot instantly on Zellax. Good activation out of Jaby.
As Spinks gets blinded on the staircase, would love to cut a body down, but he just knows there's going to be eyes all over this peak.
This time they have CT control. They got that bomb planted. They're pretty spread out, but they also have Palace. They have one late mid.
And Hooksy, again, he's thinking about the rest of this game. He's not just playing for this round win. He's looking to make sure this hurts financially, not just one kill and win the round.
Binks might clear him. Nice shot, Oxy.
Good upgrade for Oxy as well.
Won't be able to whittle down those numbers any further himself.
Sertian deciding to just take another look.
I guess they still feel like they have the money to play with, but I don't know.
Getting nearer to this bomb site.
At no point are Astralis gonna give up this site.
But hey, you got a little more money taken off of the save here for Astralis.
He lives on one HP because the HUD indicates how much health he would have left.
Great quality of life update.
So three rounds to go. It's a vicious entry out of Yabbi, and their last round was that mid explode between him and Ryu.
I don't know if the straws feel that they're close to solving the puzzle, or if they feel
like it's just a constant battle uphill, but those were kind of two in-spirited tries.
I see those rounds and I might be a little scared if I'm mouse.
the old tech paws on map point.
Yarr, Yarr, everybody's favorite.
Just comes in late.
Alright, this guy.
He's like, don't even talk to me, bro.
got a problem. Hey, hey.
Ah, okay. Cyclone, it's a coach tech pause. The rarest kind.
Cyclone was trying to talk during an attack, it was the last attack.
And he was muted.
Or, it wasn't working.
And so that's why he was allowed to talk during the attack, because the attack was actually
the replacement for the attack.
Somewhere in there, there's a toe.
Two of the first five, map points survived.
Let's see what else the Shrallas have in store for us.
They were capable of stringing five CT round wins in a row in the first half to close out
the half.
They'd have to do it in back to back halves showing some real decent resilience in the
face of this mouse mirage win, but a very active looking mouse as they take over Palace.
I mean, Yabi is holding this flank and this flank specifically.
How hard is this for Eid?
He's got to keep considering ramp though and he gives up that timing 113. I mean you might turn around though if you're yabby
Yeah, these flanks take time.
Zellex don't?
You'd think if something you'd already held you'd go back and hold it but still very worried about ramp instead
So it is first blood to mouse good push by Zellex to net them this
You get a window boost out of Ryu
Trying to open up connector
Maybe hoping to give Fuzi a line.
A little awkward losing your extremity player.
Okay, simple shot.
Try to hit it out of the flash.
Jumps right into his death.
3 vs 5 now.
Huge ask of Astralis.
Zershin's gonna collect his, and this one is a sinking ship.
Unfortunately for Astralis, no 2-0 tonight.
as they have to face a strong start from Maus in each of these habs on Mirage.
And then it is just a matter of getting there.
Sure, things get a little wonky as they are able to break into that second half,
but at the end of the day a 13-9 victory out of Maus as now all roads lead to Dust2.
Looking forward to what Dust2 will bring us when we do get there,
but for now we're going to break down Mirage and have a look at everything that went right
we're going to go back to
the drawing boards and go
straight to mouse here sure
Astralis were able to
show a couple of rounds
together for themselves.
Essentially what feels like
stuff off of what was going
to always be a mouse victory
there and it's a little bit
of back to the drawing board
for them, but a great showing
on Mirage. For mouse. What is
always consistent for Astralis
at this tournament. At least
is they almost universally
start with a pretty solid lead
five, six, one up this time
around. They start five zero
And I think looking at the way Maus entered this one, they had a really solid game plan from the very beginning they attacked the extremities
They did a very solid job of finding good timings and then you get into it
And Astralis can make a bit of a comeback happen off the back of some insane A retakes
The likes of which we saw in their last matchup as well, but it was just too little too late
Also when I give some credit here to the rookie on Maus, this was one of the better, I guess against better opposition performances from Zelex
I like that he was taking the game into his own hands on the on the extremities himself towards the A side towards the end
We got him, but yeah, like you're saying
I mean it was kind of just down to heroics for Astralis in what was primarily mouse
Not only just even the hitting the bomb sets really well with some B and A hits
But I think they also had Astralis guessing in a lot of rounds like the rotations weren't always on the bomb sets because
Astralis weren't really sure until maybe later in the half of what was going on in the middle
I think Astralis spent a little too much energy fighting for middle, whereas Mao's really in the first few gun rounds at least they were very happy to give it up, play a little, you know, prod, get, throw some utility, make Astralis fight from it and then hit the extremity where there's one, maybe zero players on the bomb site.
It feels like it's almost been complete inverse kind of ancient where it felt like you were seeing the praises of
Astralis is macro the fact that they were able to bring something new something different and always have some counter argument to mouse
But this time around it was mouse that was doing that to Astralis
I think mouse had a commendable T side what we were talking about from Astralis was often their T side their T side was very strong
There they get out of the T side here and they they fumble a little bit. We saw the Zellex
We saw a few rounds where they just couldn't cover the bomb planter once they get guns in hand
I think they had a pretty solid job, but it was a little too late for them as I'm saying
I mean UN 13 9 they had they had some strong showings, but it was the CT side that was the problem
Round number three. I think paints that picture right do where you're talking about it
Oh, is this what you know? You're like, I just want to jump on the mouse hype train
I yeah, this this just felt like such a great way to win an opening round that you get this great timing that you're
You're causing this misdirection in middle, but then you're able to swing out Palace.
You get the kill on Fozy as he's trying to relocate.
This way to get an opening kill is just going to keep Astralis guessing for the rest of
the half.
There was so much utility for Maus expended towards middle to kick off that round that
it really, Astralis was trying to kind of center their defense thinking that it was
going to be some kind of ace split.
But the fact that it was just that pure dry through smoke Palace pop with three guys is,
I mean that kind of set the tone and it was even though in some ways Astralis
recovered that half it was more just kind of because they were kind of getting
themselves out of really tough situations which mouse we're usually in control of.
Yeah I think it was the very following gun round that you had Astralis stacked
towards the mid and you had mouse hitting B very similar way just on the
opposite side of the map and at that point from Astralis you're kind of
floundering you managed to recover the half but you're down in a bad
situation on a CT side where they usually find very consistent results.
Talking about how they ended the first half in that 6-6, right?
That's what the scoreline was at the end of it,
despite how phenomenal of an effort and a start Maus got to.
And I feel like the pivotal part for that one is something I'm surprised I might even hear you say right now, Vu.
It is down to Fosy.
It's a Fosy Red Bull ace.
I believe he can't win off.
They know he has to be off.
5-0 down.
And they don't smoke off short because they're expecting Porsche to hold that angle,
but he gets lagged for 97 through the wall.
That means he has to fall off of those angles.
Fozie hits a nade that Peria Jr wishes he hit yesterday,
and then he manages to rotate around and find the rest of the kills.
I thought this was going to be a vintage sphinx moment for a second,
but it's actually Fozie rotating around with the AWP.
He actually started the round in connector with the AWP,
rotating way back around to short to actually position himself correctly.
And then you have to criticize Malus for not recovering this
after they knew that Fozie had the AWP on short.
At least to some extent, you have to try and not make these shots so easy.
It felt like there had to have been more utility on Maus to flash him off the angle,
or at least just native Molly at anything to slow him down.
But no, he was just unperturbed as he's just kind of moving like the terminator up,
like from short up con, and you just couldn't stop him at any point.
No, there was no stopping the steamroll of Astralis when they got there, though.
But it wasn't so easy for them to be able to get to that point, right?
Again, Maus being able to start really strong for themselves.
and even in some of the rounds they ended up losing Maui, there was still that highlight of Torsi.
Again, he was a player that we highlighted coming into this series and he has across it all.
I've been so impressed with his consistency across the multiple weeks of last bounding.
I didn't see this coming into this season that Torsi would just suddenly be an excellent T-side
offer. That's something that he has struggled with for so much of his career. I think that one
aspect of it is that they're getting him into great sort of mid-late-round positions where
offers do thrive on the T side, such as post plans.
But also, when taking space, I just
feel like he's positioning himself a little bit more
aggressively, just kind of hitting the shot.
I think there were times before where he would just
hold static lines, kind of shiro-esque.
But now, I think he's moving a little bit more with the pack
forward.
And it's just giving him more opportunities
instead of thinking, I'm going to hold for this re-swing.
But then sometimes, in other games, the re-swing never came.
It's kind of reminiscent of the change
that 9-10 has had on Mongols, where the T side has been
a little more focused on 9-10.
I don't think the T side is necessarily too much more focused on
torgy, but he certainly understands what a pivotal piece he can be in the attack.
And he's not, he's not worried about making a round about himself to make the
aggressive play to try and go for a pick and say, hey, if we, if I lose this,
we're going to lose the round, but I'm going to win it.
I want to know how he sort of made this growth over the player break, right?
When you talk about it, you're like,
you wouldn't have expected coming into this season, which means something
changed over that timeframe of when we lost or in playing in the major into now.
And maybe we'll never get those answers.
We could only hope.
But there at least is a substitute
if you guys want to be able to do a similar thing at home.
It is a refrag.
There is a coach mode.
It is tailored to you.
It is very great on being able to pinpoint exactly what you
might need as a player.
And I think one of the hardest things is knowing
how to get started, Maui.
This could be one of those easy tools for you to use just
to get a training regime up.
A lot of people just do sort of senseless aim training.
And they don't really actually focus
on one aspect of the game, but with a tool like Refrag's
coaching tool, I mean, you're just
going to know immediately what it
is that you're lacking, whether that's crosshair placements,
whether that's utility usage, or just not using it fast enough.
And so it just directs how you want to improve next.
I mean, a lot of people are going
to want to pay for some kind of coach or anything like that.
But you could just go to Refrag.gg.com slash blasts,
and you could just try it.
So why not get on it?
Yeah, we're telling you here, death matching for five hours
a day into your five plugs with zero reflection
in between probably a bad idea.
Take a look at the coach if you want to actually improve.
I don't know.
I'm kind of liking what you're talking about.
What if I found a balance of it?
Five hours of death match into one hour of coaching.
Unfortunately, five hours of coach.
Unfortunately, it's been maybe a decade of North America
trying that.
And it hasn't really worked, OK?
So maybe some NA pros could get on refrag.gg
and actually get some other aspects of the game down.
We want name names or we will say refrag would be a great tool if you wanted to go and use it for yourself
Whatever sort of level you're on amateur or pro there, but we're going to see some more pros take you to the stage
Just after this break for dust to
We get Dust2 beating the side, I saw sometimes PR was a bit uncomfortable, you're obviously
playing towards B with him on the CT side as well, have you guys tried to iron things
out there?
Yeah, yeah, in the first game I think someone wrote in the comments, they went to B five
times and they won five of them or something like this, and it's two, they went to B and
every time they came B we lost the round, so in the game we tried to find the answer
for it we put even the we said okay let's put a VP on B it did work out as well but
of course after the game me and the PR we watch the game back we watch another
team is what they do we talked about some better protocols what is good what is
not good timings and stuff like this so if you go just to third I believe the
B side will be fine it's not been looking so good for you guys but there's a
reason you left it open so how much of a change up have you had on that map
I mean, I think we just do to play that because they have a really strong nuke and I think they have always been a good nuke team
also with the last roster they had. So, yeah, we choose Dust because we are feeling way more comfortable playing against them there.
It's also not their best map, so yeah, it's a clash of trash on Dust.
I mean, I wasn't going to get all into the negatives straight away from it, but, yeah,
Spinks also talked about it, what they've been struggling with.
They couldn't change it in the map.
Hopefully now they've had more time to reflect, but as Charles is also knowing, hey man, hopefully
we're just the less shit team when it comes to Duster.
Hey, I'm not going to say Maus have a trashed us too.
I'm going to say their B site holds were trashed in the last game.
I mean, Spinks even brings it up.
I like that he talked about it.
He talked about it in the pregame,
trying to be a veteran in a roster.
Being a veteran means you have that bad game, 3D Max.
Hit dust two, five times.
You lose every time.
You left PR out on an island.
PR uncomfortable on the B site in a lot of these new roles.
This is time for Spinks to be a veteran
and showcase how you can improve across a tournament.
I feel like, though, for Astralis,
this is about as good as it gets
because they recognize their own shortcomings on a nuke
that mouse have been a very, very comfortable on.
And so I think it's actually a very wise choice in Avito
to just say, let's just get a little bit scrappier with things.
One guy though that I want to just improve his scrappiness
is obviously Fozy.
I mean, we've been talking about him.
He's a big theme of just kind of the shortcomings
of Astralis as a whole,
and a very worrying stat about Fozy on Dust2 on CT side.
He takes, in the last three months,
over 30% of his team's opening duels,
and he wins under half.
That's so unacceptable as an offer.
That is actually really just gonna grief your entire team
if you're that active, but also have that many failures.
Yeah, for reference, a standard offer is in the mid-60s
to 70% on a CT side, but a below 50 is almost unheard of.
Well, I'm gonna take it from the negatives
and I'm gonna move it along to something way more positive
and that's how cost is scrawny and lauders.
Oh, smooth, Matt.
Look at those analysts.
Those stats are pretty bad, though.
I'm loving that.
I'm loving that.
Intando.
I know.
We're going to stats together.
These guys are cute.
These guys are cute, man.
Call that Caster Synergy.
Moe, we've got the Polymarket Prediction now skewed back to Maus.
It's the recovery that goes down on Mirage that I think really has the people convinced
that Maus are indeed going to keep up their end of the bargain of moving into those grand
finals.
Again, strong starts out of Maus, each of those halves, and Astralis just couldn't fight
back on Mirage.
You know, they're so accustomed to in the last day or so getting, you know, pistol victories
and getting strong beginnings to each of these halves that an uncharacteristic map start costs them.
We move to Dust 2 and we have got another problem and the desk just highlighted it.
Fuzi's inability to find opening kills on this map.
Yeah, specifically taking the chances. You know, if you have a low
success rate but you're not taking a lot of duels, I mean, maybe there's someone else on your team that
is, but we know Fuzi is aggressive. That's kind of one of the reasons that we're, uh,
it's sort of a terminate of a deer man when we talk about what Fuzi has brought to Astralis,
who have historically never played with, um, an aggressive offer. So it's something where
you don't want the 30% to change, but you do want the success rate to change. The attempts
can be there, but he's got to get his form back online and nail those chances.
It's a jabby tap first, and with that, he just sulks back in.
Oh!
Boy.
And this split is definitely coming on.
Gabby is going to have a lot to deal with here.
Game helper looking for anything.
No, they'll swarm him from below with the smoke in place.
It's impossible for Astralis to stop this bomb from getting planted.
Coming up, Kat. Three players running at this. There is no kit available on these three.
So Fuzi scours, looks for the contact, doesn't get his kill. Everybody just staying tucked in.
Not wanting to be the first to fall, and as they pop up, it's an instant headshot onto Fuzi.
Cleaned up by PR. Easy does it here for Maus as they will just take over this A site and show no room back to the Astralis retake.
Well, that's not the best start. Again, here for Astralis, I feel that, yeah, Maus and
Amaraj controlled both halves to a good degree. I mean, yes, Astralis started to make some
rounds in the end, but, like, with the way they lost, it's kind of re-affirmed that
Maus. We're still in a pretty good spot, I think. They had a good grasp on things. It
wasn't like some kind of eco, lucky victory. They just had a strong call. They closed it.
We know with mouse when you get the map the reads all reset.
It's not like a strawsword.
It might be a test all the way to the very last round.
Mouses could absolutely just get a lot better all of a sudden.
But it does come back to the original conversations
around the chemistry, PR, spinks.
That's something that has not been solved so far
in our officials.
Watch them play dust, too.
It actually makes for a very curious finish to this series,
considering we're back to the map where you've already
highlighted so well.
And I can't remember who it was that was like challenging them, but then they just started going B like ever.
Right, right.
Surely it would have had to been 3D Max.
3D Max, yes. They took advantage of that.
And it worked.
Yes, it did.
A lot of the round success from that one side of the map, so it'll be a problem once we get there, and that's only a maybe...
For now, mounds remain on the offensive as a unit with advantages here.
Boozy burned down to the very brink as the rifles will excel, catch an open sight in
the 5V3, and force Astralis to just tiptoe away from this one.
If you can keep these three pistols in Kevlar for the next round, then maybe you can do
something there because this one belongs to Maus.
Let's do the map on CT side where your starting position for an attack might be a car.
You missed that first chance, you might not get a second.
Generating two and three chances is extremely difficult and if the utility is going to be good
like we know it will be out of Maus then there will be problems for Fuzzi.
He will be highlighted when it comes to A defenses.
That's something they'll need to get under wraps early.
I wonder what's on his mind.
Hopefully not getting nervous about the thought of having to go for those entry attempts.
What did the deaths say?
30% of the time it is Fuzi involved with opening duels?
Yeah.
And he's going for them.
Again, that can be a very good thing when it works.
Love lost.
Fuzi averages a 0.64 CT side Dust 2 rating in his last six maps.
Oh man, we are just beating on him.
Deep cut obviously, his name's Love, which is really cool.
First victim, insertion, smack 10 hits the ground.
Again, we're looking for silver linings this round for Astralis.
These are pistols saved from the last.
A bonus attempt to throw a wrench in Maus's works.
Back up some damage right on the edge of that smoke can get a little scary for the exit of Maus
but they do get through pretty much unscathed and Zellax under pressure from both sides,
picks up all three of these kills.
He'll be happy with that one.
Denying them, his death means his Kevlar moves in.
got cash overflowing for mouse already on top of this three zero start
Alex is someone who I think is quite good playing on Dust2 so far
adapting well within this new lineup
not meant to be the start of the show
If you are with a fast tempo this time, at Jaby's first blood,
having lost over tunnels, you think Maus would love to get something for this long efforts,
but instead you've got two players 50 health already for what is this first attempt to kill Astralis on guns.
Oh, Zellex though!
Nasty.
Pounces on Hooksy with a Nade out,
insta-transition into Fuzi up a bucket.
And now, a responsibility for this Astralis squad.
to recover at a Mantis advantage.
They'll do that in equalizing into the 3v3 gap on that smoke.
And so if you challenge why,
Javi's gonna get a chance to shoot you.
He can't just contact to the car.
Can't kill the guy on the corner
as Torsi's cover goes over the top.
And we have Mant advantage earned by Maus by a single HP.
And Ryu almost threw a little piece of utility.
That would have been a smoke.
Wouldn't have wanted that to be landing on the cross.
It's Maus who don't know where he is.
One HP and Ryu's looking to take it back.
And this will not work out my goodness. Oh, yeah runs too far surely they will peek back in and that's close
Wow beyond Spinks imagine that spinks surviving the first spray down on one point of health covered off by torsie only to get
The trade back and finish the round
crazy trades at a torsie and
Crazy entries out of cell X catching a guy with a name
That's one thing all he sees is who's he's had trying to get the trade and it is instant
Good on Sphinx, one HP AWP clutch, and that'll send Astralis spiraling back down into pistols
this time.
Looks like they can't believe that they stood back at long enough with a great play.
Obviously, not much to challenge with.
The Stralis have to forego the mid-play, and that's just going to let Maus leak out through
those mid-doors.
In anticipation of what you'd set up with a buy like this, Stair's not going to get
away with any antics. Javi wants them to extend wide, but as they just get closer to that
doorway, he now knows his B site very much under threat. His teammate turns back. Real
nice double. Won't be able to hang on though, unfortunately, and Javi now alongside Hooksy,
who's back towards CT spawn. Oh, he's got his! They're gonna know about him on 59 health
and the bomb is inside of the doorway.
Yeah, they have to come at this.
Or reload first, a flash overtop,
and Javi just trying to deny them the trade frag.
If he can finish off one first, that'd be great,
but they will just pin him to the wall.
That wide swing out through the doors means Maus.
It's costly considering just pistols,
but a 5-0 start nonetheless.
That's full control.
I mean, if not for Ryu getting a 2k with that 5-7,
I mean, there's really no chance.
So it's a good try from Astralis,
but coming to the point where it just needs to convert,
They can't do that yet.
Just does really well, just making noise,
holding Jaby in place, assuming the window peek
will eventually come.
But it's intending doom, knowing towards
you can get out that door.
I actually like the way the two defenders
gelled on B site.
You know, they kind of, they weren't both.
They have good spots to cover everything.
Right?
To just really kind of crunch in on that door.
Because first player, if you want to clear Jaby
from under the window, you see how wide he is.
Ryu comes back at it just keeping their bodies behind solid cover both sides
it's just all dependent on the tunnel smoke yeah like if they had it oh yeah
waited for that it would have been a little bit easier
almost able to genuinely steal that it's a kind of round that'll keep
mouths on their toes also chips away at the money so it's not an outlandish
amount left over so very comfortable mouse 5-0 extra cash for a few other
rounds but up against full weapons once more early boost nets them an opening
zelex dead this time he will not be getting off to those wild 2k shadow
advantage for hooksy to take advantage of and he's gone and zershin's here with a
bomb he really wants to call this out he sees the bomb hooksy actually leaving
Oh, and the timing window might be here.
Up, getting into position.
No, just in time.
There we go.
Fuzzi able to overcome the numbers in this opening attempt this round, catches Zellex
lower tunnels.
You mentioned those flashes, not making him uncomfortable whatsoever.
And from Fuzzi's first frag, it's smooth sailing onwards.
They were both just a bit sloppy.
flash went far enough.
And he would have been hooded from anything coming from the top and middle, but it's just
You're free kill
The good read on the pulse of the round getting that up over towards long doors to hold back as well
We saw when hooks he departed. Maybe there'd be a timing for the Zershin chase, but not with these scope
Locked on that doorway
Two saves here for mouse gonna keep that money healthy
Totally different set of circumstances than what Astralis have been becoming used to.
Some other slow start this time.
Sixth round is their first.
Torsi going for the long spawn off this round start, so right to a chance at pulling a player
off, but he just tries to sandbag the flashbang, sends PR out, and that will work well for
for Maus. Folks who try to dodge the sniper takes an AK shot to the face. Man, advantage
for Maus earned instantly. They'll try to follow up with a bit of utility here, just
putting pressure on both sites, in fact. That lurk smoke lands on the end of the tunnel
simultaneous and they're also flashing down to the lower. So a lot of activity here for
Maus means the strollers are trying to make decisions and rotate while the whole site
It feels pressured, or whole map rather.
And they'd love to take back some control.
Oh no, that smoke does not work for them.
That's a CT attempt at reclaiming space,
getting out towards car, totally denied.
Now they're all to the round shoot way down.
Because anything simple, up too long,
should be able to just try to stall us down.
Flash for the peek and ugh, no one there even.
Stare eats it.
They announced themselves with sudden utility, oh, Stare's still in a good spot, but it's
no multi-frag because Torji's got that cover yet again, and Fuzi flushed back into Zellex,
still hanging on for dear life, working entirely alone as Ryu's on the other side of the map.
in the middle of a safe.
Yeah, little stylistic, underhanded flash here for Zalex.
Poor Fuzi just gets outdone,
and it is a mouse right back to a victorious round win.
Pretty much so that they can do it.
You lose two opening kills in that fashion.
You're holding it with two guys.
You're split on the map.
I mean, Ryu maybe just wants to come over, lean towards A.
Maybe they have a chance of trying to stop this,
but with all the utility in place,
you still have such low odds of picking anything up.
That's off of spawn move.
You really optimize that, even just stare playing with Fuzi in a position where they
can trade their way out and actually save those guns or play together to fight lawns
and really commit.
But I think the lack of commitment is definitely something that Astralis have to work on.
They just always have too many one-on-one duels on the map.
Feeling like Long's getting away from him.
Torgie spawn gives him the early angle and he lets PR slide out.
You get the Zershin flash over, so synergistically, really nice kind of setup out of Maus when
you don't get the duel for the AWP, just send that AK out to take the free space and PR
even delivering in the first two bullets, catching Hooksy's head.
Feels like you couldn't have had that gone better towards Long if you were Maus.
And from there, the round slips out of Astralis' hands.
So they will get back to what started to work as Mirage went on.
We've got a double-op evolution for the CTs.
Jaby back to the big green.
This did net them some rounds of a CT side on Mirage.
Enough so that they could have had a chance switching over to the attack.
It's going to be the same scenes here for map 3.
But in Mirage's success, no guarantee that this plan will pull them out of what has been a tailspin on Dust 2.
Two main situations you pull the double off when things are going really well or when they're going really badly.
If you have a lot of money, you invest into it, or you use it to try to bail you out of a bad half, but you've got to streak with it now.
That's one off to ring out, and Zershin doesn't feel too worried about it.
There's the second, and it would have been lovely had Javi been able to collect a 5v4 off of it.
Now Maus know exactly what they're up against, and it's still in the 5v5.
We saw the situation of Maragi, except there was two kills for Astralis.
Now it's just two chances, lost and the full attention of Maus who realized that they shouldn't walk peek anything.
Gonna try to set up an explosive split to the B site by the looks of things.
things. You like to lean here from stair. At least that piece defense inside B and last
time the approach to this bomb site, even with the pistols, Astralis were able to whittle
down Maus's numbers. So now that they're back on guns, Jaby goes outside of the window
to play a scaffold hold on smoke. They're not prepared to peek off this from the door.
They're almost knowing he's going to die. Remy's going to have to move while in the
reload. Stair that third piece has been found and it's successful across the board. Zershyn's
Got Jaby dead towards middle, Stair wanted that fight, and Torgie winds up winning it.
Just enough here for Maus, as now they will go into the bomb plant and try to stave off this 2v2.
Split up Astralis retake, one from Window, one from Tunnels, Hooksy playing the slow burn, but it's being watched by Torgie.
And as he remains locked in on this flank, Flash finds its mark, perfect team play so far.
Gets the trade back, but Fuzzi finds the back turn and we've got a successful endeavor out of Astralis
Great team play in the 2v2 to at least get a second CT round win. It's a very nice read
That mouse would go into that B-split, it's their full commitment into B site instead of just slightly leaning over
Yeah, he's playing outside the window, multiple scary at first, but he got his first kill
Don't know how he ended up dying, but he had the op
Killed enough time on the clock and there was a real chance to win this 2v2 retake
So I was looking like maybe too many isolated fights again to allow us back into it
But Astralis on the retake covered each other very well
That's a quick adjustment from Fuzi to looking for the car fight knowing that if Zershin gets around that corner
Retake becomes all the more complicated. It will reinvest into the double-op
Putting all the money back on the line lots of players on the other side of this door here tough stuff to handle
put your hook seat and PR is going to lock onto that head again.
He's just manhandling long.
Trying to go for the challenge may overstep into Fuzzi,
but in a 5v4 like this, with the potential reinvestment
to the double lock, Maus peal back.
Spinks is looking like he's about to get challenged,
but what a clear this would have to be for Jaby.
As all of Maus come over, so if he just sits on this, sure,
maybe he plucks one player off, but if he kills somebody
in the back, you just know Spinks is going to swing
right into that off while it's on cycle.
This could cost Zerchie, but Spink should have it.
He's too far from the trade.
A little too far back.
Jaby actually winds up playing in the great spot.
Rio eats a flash, and he dives down the window.
Top place for Jaby to get anything of value,
as it is sure a bit delayed, but right back
into the full committee.
Maus will not lose another body on the attack.
It is a clean 2K out of Zellix.
As here on map, the third map, he is shining.
Yeah, definitely.
Explosive rounds.
At PR, every time they send him out long, I mean, it's like he's barely losing any health.
He didn't lose any health at all on this round.
Just instant shot right into Hooksy, killed him two or three times already this half.
But with the amount of opening long attempts, it is surprising it's always just one player here to hold.
Yeah, X is probably feeling real small at the moment.
That's tough.
We'll see if they end up throwing the second player in his way.
Best time to hold that back was when he was able to push into the doors, get his one,
and then they replaced him with Fuzi.
But yeah, let's talk about Zellex for a second.
11 and 3 right now.
Oh yeah.
his aim is insane sometimes, yep.
You know, while we sit here and maybe wait for Torgy
and Spinks to get back to their best versions of themselves
and while PR maybe hasn't gelled into this roster just yet,
I was worried that Zellex would also be a part
of that problem, but he continues to trend upwards.
Strong finish to the series, now he's down a player,
they're letting Fuzzi off the leash.
It's another round where it's just him and Stare with weapons, right?
The saves from the last one.
Trying to make up for lost time, for lost ground.
Off an unlikely round win, they hear that drop into the CT spawn,
but that just feeds Fuzzi another.
Two kills from the AWP.
Saved from the last round, puts Maus in a tight spot.
She's going to lean back as they do arrive and he keeps it as clean as he has to.
Pistol and cars looking to just distract. We'll see what Stare does next.
PR can feel that threat of another player but he deals with it swiftly, reused dead.
And he vents bullets into Stare. This 2 vs 5, suddenly it feels real.
Man, it feels like the communication just died for a second. Everybody was so split up.
They wanted the pistol from Carr to get into the mix to try to set up Stare,
but that second one from PR as clean as you could ask.
And now, kid on Fuzi, gun picked up by Hooksy.
At least they've got the Kevlar to play off of.
Last time we saw this flash come through.
Hooksy was able to kill Torzji, scoped in on E-Box.
This time, different positions.
Maus opt to go car heavy.
Fuzi's gonna send in that flashbang.
Hooksy's not gonna see anything.
And on top of that, the off-shot misses.
They're not gonna think the PR's in this position.
Hoopsy, Dire Straight has to attempt to run in and find that contact and Maus just clean up this 2v5 as they work their way through the B site.
That's 3v5 to start and then they get that info off of one death, but at the end it's only two players in the site.
And even though one of them has a good gun, the other doesn't. None of them have utility.
Hoopsy finds a flash in the end, it just feels like they invited a way for Maus to win this.
It looks silly that they could have walked this round, but when you take a snapshot of the map,
they're all playing spots that you'd play maybe at a minute thirty seconds, and with way better guns and more utility.
They're just so quick to play by themselves.
Zellex happy to jump, Fuzzi recovers, but loses a teammate in front of him.
He wasn't shying away from letting them know he was here, and Zellex didn't seem to give
it down.
Understandable at his stat line, stairs going to go for the cat challenge and lose.
a chance he wins that. A big space with it. Hooksy at least recovering one end of this A site
and Fuzi's just gonna clamber over the boxes, trying to take the fight into Kat, missing his
chance through smoke and Hooksy caught with a knife in hand by Torsi. And the ball. Who's now
just gonna look to take the challenge. Let's Fuzi walk into his own demise. Perfect play from
Torsi, catching the IGL of Astralis off guard and letting their AWPer walk into his own death
on his own terms.
Yeah, just perfect patience.
There was nowhere else he could run unless there was going to be CT spawn.
Just had to have a teammate come up to the site and clear along with him.
Now one falls into his laps of really nice play.
Somehow an even better score line than Xelix in this half.
That's just brutal if you want to try to count the amount of untreated deaths
for Astralis and the amount of isolated fights for Astralis and, you know, I'm not really
understanding how that's happening.
Every time you look at the map, it's just one guy and one choke point, and even if the
first guy were to die, and then you get the kill after, at least you get a trade to keep
up.
Feels like you can see this one visibly falling apart for Astralis, unfortunately, and they
They will use all three of their time-outs on this CT side.
Torji keeps this up, and he will indeed finish the semifinals as the front-runner for the Bounty MVP.
Yeah, if you missed it earlier, Donk had a very human series, doesn't...
There's a sort of strange very three maps in a row just very average to poor performance overall negative Katie in the end
Point nine four rating or something like that. It's not something you you really ever see what that many rounds played
And yet victorious and nonetheless
Yes, shout out Shiro for being the pillar of Team Spirit yet again.
Tenir as well as also doing well.
Sure.
Final attempt, off of the time note, for Astralis to get a third.
They are playing at four scraps on this first half.
Fusy hard committed to that A site doesn't have an op this round either so...
Surtain should be all the more confident.
Utility trajectory is a great distraction but it's...
Scare who is so close. I mean not peeking that but there's just no Ryu over here by himself.
Huge gap out middle as well. It's Hooksy tucked into the mid doors. If they just walk this forward
Nice first shot, but he oversteps it. Torsi collects the trade frag and
Zershin may have just lost in his walkout middle, but with the doors not smoked, CT is very quick to take up this position
And no, they don't
Double ball the outside of the doorway, but it's gonna be a daunting cross over. They will jump and that cost Torsi damn near all
his health. Nobody else wants to try to cross those doors. I wish they had made
you to finish him off. Now it's three players jumbled up on the retake attempt.
Zellex from the corner just the one and Fuzzi slides immediately into it. Spinks
let that wide swing go out and now has to just deal with Javi on the brink of a
1v3. Bomb at the halfway point. Javi's gonna have to tap that to try to get
Spinks to panic. Doesn't budge. My goodness. Doesn't move. Now off that attempt. Oh
Oh my goodness, no way.
How dare you finally go back at this?
Seize that there's no DQs, and of course he will.
Spinks with one for the road.
A 1v3 to give Maus a 10 to lead.
Into the sniper, out from heaven.
Hypex yet again with impact.
And now it has to be a clutch.
The bomb, can it get planted?
Yeah, Snax is gonna try to go for the spray,
but it's off the mark.
Now Flings, he's on for it.
1v2 offers his first target and it's beautiful!
Oh, it's Day Saved by Flainty!
More pressure from G2 coming out long.
Yeah, and his teammates were just kind of shifting
very, very far away.
So reinforcements a long way off for Hooksney,
but who needs it?
Yeah, great flashback.
Hooksney with a triple kill.
Heavy guard Mattis and Hunter all dead.
And Hooksney's hand is he goes again.
Hooksney shutting them down.
Long is completely closed by the Dane.
and his face about to fall.
The clash is gonna come at the CC series.
Now they're gonna play for it behind this smoke
with the pistols close off.
They don't wanna back off and give the rifles an advantage.
Oh, again, it's heavy guard again.
The attack nine enters the kill feed
and that all familiar sting,
face clan are gonna lose the pistols
unless frozen and twist the OGs for face clan.
Looking to deliver some light for the P250.
Oh, oh, that's frozen.
are in the game with the opera covered you need to get the strongest weapons out
next to it they came from understaffing in the lion's dead oh how has he done
that hunter that is something special on the AK that is just unreal feasting on
his prey they break the smoke and fuller still have a strong position this
could still get really good this will kill for fall and gets the upgrade and
and they still case Arato down and pit, they try to clear Yuri.
One help is all the difference and it does make a difference.
1v3 for Torson as he takes the first kill.
Might have another body in store.
Fallen falls for information.
And Torson waits for Molotoy to make a move.
So now that's the bomb down.
This 1v4 ace for Torson is on the line.
He came to plays and Torson finds B-Finds all five.
What a monster.
Alexi B fighting him all up at Brokeys right here and a fourth round and some
hope left for FaZe Clan. Unless, Wonderful can just rip it out.
No way! And it's the inexperienced player up against Wonderful in FaZe's most important round.
I already feels like FaZe is knocked out walking.
Wonderful! So confident! Of course he's got it!
Yeah, trying to just be sneaky hoping maybe that one that one opening kill moved the defense away did didn't
He's actually gotten all four flames he backs him up and steals every single kill zai woo
And it's gonna fall on the high pecs now
It's time to run at this ten to the clock two players in front of the bathroom tight back shades off one of the three
Seconds
I sure wouldn't want to be a strawless. Unfortunately, this one's a tough spot to be in.
Two rounds to Maus's 10 and some hard fought moments, but Maus really just in the driver's
seat with huge performances from Zellex and Portigy. The tentative, blast bounty MVP.
First kills here. Yeah, a 3v5 that could be tournament life for a strawless. Oh
You're dead, buddy. Daniel Banks just taps through he knows how clean that is and he knows how little is left in this semifinals
From 3k to 3k boy. Oh boy. I
Mean that straws have really melted here like everything that we've seen that sort of
Is em at their worst has came out of his first half and
And, and, and, I don't know, they're just born it on thick.
This is rough to watch.
So many closed maps at the bounty.
Also a few duds like this, unfortunately.
I'm looking rough to begin the season, absolutely.
Oh, you mean like the fact that Vitality, Furia, Falcons
didn't even win their opening games?
And then even the teams that qualified through.
Yeah.
Well, at least I got a little more experience.
Let's hope our top dogs just needed a little more time off.
Some at home R&R.
But I will sacrifice the quality of this third map
if it means that Maus are actually ready
to take a swing at Spirit tomorrow.
Cause we've got a best of five and a trophy on the line.
Spirit's track record, barring the major playoffs were phenomenal last season.
I don't know if they've played their best CS to start the season, but not many have, so we can put them in that pot.
Maus gonna bank on Spinks again for another multi-frag, third one in a row, as he will confidently go back at middle.
PR actually dropped before he can get his hands on the round, but luckily here for mouse
It's the mid rotation that cut a strollers down to size
Right here ask of Ryu to go and grab that bomb
He will be found out along the wall 10 map match and grand finals points. I got too many players stepping up
I mean, it's just an overwhelming presence here from everyone on mouse
Then we have to crank the dial and teamwork, you know, I mean make it escape to a finish here easily
The daunting ask for the scout and Galil for Astralis.
We're even going to get to see the CT side tested.
P.R. with a moment to maybe rack up some frags for the road, will deal with Ryu.
Gun goes dry and he'll burn out, but you already have a fast scramble out of Maus.
They can see the finish line.
Oh yeah, Spinks are gonna dunk it on you, Fuzi and Jaby.
Hard hitters at times throughout Bouncy, but it feels like the road has come to an end
for a shrawlless unless Fuzi from backplats got a little more left in him.
48 HP to work with, Jaby down beneath the window.
These are nice scout shots.
A 2v4 post plant, halfway there.
But Spinks has been a monster, and so has Zellex,
who now finds himself a roam.
They'll do it!
A full house between Fuzzi and Jaby
to deny Maus the match for now.
Okay, that one gets the money back online.
Grace post plant there, couple of great scout shots.
Good cohesion between him and Jaby.
Another moment, I'm looking at this,
It's like, okay, maybe PR immediately just starts farming this round.
There's only like a 10-9 other gun coming at him.
But clearly, it's still a little bit of discomfort when it comes to him playing the sight.
It's a kill and a little bit.
It speaks outside the sight. They're not really playing off each other.
Long control to comprise for the taking is the limited mouse.
Enter this one.
With a Scout Beague and MP9.
But leave it to Maus to remain active. They've got so much counter strike in their favor. Left to play.
They'll take over the tunnels and that's just gonna free up full rotation.
Ah, look at that heart. So close. Satisfying. Big gap.
Man, Stralis hoping that they haven't been boxed in already, but...
Torsi gets tagged, he will find damage on Fuzi.
Another smoke to deal with that gap and sure enough they'll deny vision until Zershin gets boosted up and over.
They're so close to the smoke though, they will go under unnoticed.
He'll pop up, heals a headshot to Jaby, and it is Stair to alleviate the pressure on that Vonsight.
Scary. Sure. For a moment there for Astralis taking all the damage they did. But stairs
trying to dig them out of a dark place and Maus will just look to move these M4s into
the next round where they are forced to save. You know I'm shaving your head if they make
Let's come back. My head? Yeah. Oh.
You look like Mads Mickelson in Push-er.
I'll take it.
Respect.
Stralis already, 20% of the way through this comeback.
And the crowd goes wild.
They're going crazy.
Our believers in Malta...
We did have a bonanza today.
Yeah, that's got the crowd rowdy.
I just hope the guy who won the trip to Porto has some days he can take off.
Spinks to the top mid-push.
You know, Maus still sensing blood in the water in this moment, could just bank on a
spinks or Zellex threat, and sure enough, that's a gun earned if you want it, but unfortunately
for Maus, his B bomb site belongs to Astralis.
All four players ready to just take it over.
So it's not even as though you catch a second player back there trying to deal with Sphinx's push?
No.
Everybody else was ready to just vacuum seal that B-bomb site.
I feel like if you need the days off you can show your boss the clip.
Come on boss, it's the bonanza!
get fired for liking video games
i'd quit my job to go to porto
it's a good idea it is a very cool place
or can i never want to try that
what we might job will bring me to porto
icehooksy tapping the screen like it's a las vegas slot machine
Because they're going to need to get some luck going to make this full comeback.
Good calls alone won't do it.
Especially with Mavs right there on the brink threatening that they are
confident enough to push up top middle.
And they still have so much margin of error.
So, Stralis' free run of the playground comes to an end. Back up with weapons or mouse.
Oh, missed the first opportunity out of Buzy. Luckily, at least for him and his team, he
doesn't die, because he could have two of those Zershin shots.
That's just one of those shots, those golden opportunities that he needs to nail.
Zershin's happy to try to test the waters on the mid-walkout. Now this B site looking
a bit sketchy and remember this was the weak point of the map even versus 3d max
Spinks trying to hold this back as they do emerge out through that tunnel push
re-clearing PR with only the one and Spinks can't keep up his end of the
bargain not one frag from him there is a weakness I think on this map for mouse
and it remains that B bomb site I love that they just it's no frills they go
right into that mid-beat they don't really bother trying to down that up or
push anything back.
I think that was the only detail for the setup
that they really wanted to know.
It's no secret that Mauser's struggling over there.
Strahler surely saying to themselves
that 3D Max can do it, so can we.
Torsi's just asking to hang on to the AWP. They're gonna think he's in the smoke.
Oh, he died. Hooks, he got him.
There we go.
That's tricky though. Drop the smoke, don't play inside it.
Stuff, he didn't have many other good options.
Torji, 20 and 6 by the way.
Clearly the most impactful op on Dust2.
And remember the Shaws did burn all those timeouts in the first half so it's only when
Cycro calls the pause to the game that Neo can get back in and they can try to continue with this comeback.
Oh my goodness, it's the last bullet. Beautiful.
Not a comfortable look for Mouses, either. 2M4s, 2SMGs.
Looking to build back up the bank accounts, but one misstep from a str-
Okay, of course.
That's one burst fire.
I don't understand that.
I think he wanted to hit him in the head through that guy first.
Okay, that makes more sense.
I got a collateral headshot.
And then...
How'd he die so fast?
If not for a headshot.
Never had the makings of a varsity athlete that one.
Well, here's some good headway from Astral.
This makes the game more fun.
I mean, they're gonna clean this up because there's no way Maus went a 3v5 in this position
It's not without a kit not without nades. This is Astralis 50% of the way through this comeback
You're like that Twitter account that goes like throughout the year or 33% of the way. Oh, yeah
Year progress yeah, yeah 50% though. I mean come on. Yeah
up. That's halfway. They're on the other side now. Thumbs up. And this game plan is
like kind of so obvious. They use this and you go towards A. Oh, wow. And then what's
coming up. They gonna do another mid-b? When Maus get back on guns? Yeah, okay. That's
exactly what it is. Headshot through your teammate. Bodyshot closes. But that again
was with limitations. Now, Maus fully equips. That B bomb site's got a third
player immediately. Zershin's here to help out. Yeah. Trying to stem. Oh, yeah, they're
just coming for it. Oh, they actually changed their plans. I mean, met by a smoke like that.
Done. Okay. Would have loved for it to be that simple. Was it worth leaving now? You're down a man.
Let's see if they can find a way to wiggle back in, but Maus with one of the better positions
to just legit finish this match.
Long doors uncontested, Jaby looks to come join up alongside the bomb and Stare walking
up middle.
Torji got the first kill on Hooksy.
Oh, but the fade up close!
Get some to step into Fuzi and then Stare hits the headshot.
Very nice approach from Astralis.
Well, they still seem like they could actually go back to B as well, thinking ahead.
That is a slippery way to set up the duel between Fuzi and Torji.
I know one rotation's been full.
I'd love to see the pressure come back to PR.
Let's see what he can do. Three players ahead of him, up up front.
Fuzi dead, bomb thrown forward. He goes wide.
And then the other CTs continue to spam through the smoke, but it is stair-sitting pretty on 30 health as bombs gonna go down safely
That's kind of the perfect idea. It's the deep CT smoke. It's not a mid-B smoke. So they're still threatening. They're still ready to go mid-B
It's a fortunate spam to come back and
No, I don't want PR to be thrown under the bus. He's alone in that spot
I was actually wondering if you would just suddenly come up huge in any one of these rounds because that's I think he knows coming into this map that
There are going to be attempts on him.
We saw how well he played on T side,
but just how uncomfortable he can be
when he's defending.
And it feels like he's always been getting one
on the attacks.
Yeah, today it's been him getting his one or so.
But it's not the multi-kills.
He's got two multi-kills this entire game so far.
Yeah, it's not Maltes,
and it's also never playing off of Spinks.
And I almost put that on Spinks as well.
They're never actually
tagging off.
And the inaccuracy on the off that the bomb introduces is wild
But I love that stare with the jump out into the corner just to get for you to try to jump on him as
Fuzi holds the line
They don't realize it, but they cut off the initial B attack, they got an opening kill
very easily another untrated death for Astralis, but when it came back in to Cat, that's all
that mattered.
Fuzi on the line just before Torsi.
That's the difference.
Torsi wants into the action early, goes wide on Catwalk.
Kamalatov meets him and takes him down to sub 40 HP.
Here comes two players on the walk-up,
Mischance from Torzie, they're chasing him.
And he's got to just dive into CT spawn.
Down to 25 after all that.
They pelt him with grenades, stormed their way up Catwalk,
and he knows that he was just chased to the bitter end.
But he's not dead.
Spinks departs that B bomb site to try to help out on middle,
where Torzie is going to be sitting behind smokes.
PR just killed Ryu through smoke.
OK.
Deep inside of tunnels.
This is a tough place for Torji once this smoke fades.
It's dwindling.
I feel like even getting one is fine,
but he'll float back now, there's three here.
Pulls back into the boxes.
That smoke kinda indicates the intentions here
of Astralis, three players to walk out mid.
We've got the three player B site lean
that this side of the map may need.
But as this round goes on,
Torji continues to miss his opportunities.
They know damn well PR is in here,
so Spinks is gonna try to play the bait and switch.
Look to go unnoticed, punch up, miss chance!
All on PR, he's also dead, and a stroll is due at once more!
Oh, we talked about nervousness, we talked about choking.
I think this is sort of what it looks like actually,
right now, for Maus.
Look at Torsi's scoreline.
It's about to not be quite as handsome.
He suffers another death.
That was a great series of opportunities
for him to get kills.
Those shots missed. I'd love to set up. I love the fallback position. I love the lean towards mid
Positionally everything was sound there for mouse. They even got that lucky kill from PR. Yep on a spray through a smoke
And after that frag not one more until these exit kills for Zellex
Insane to think the chances towards you had on those fallbacks
Zellex is gonna make it costly, but that's fine. Money for days for a shawless after they have this deep in the comeback
What an adjustment at a jabby
They crumbled
Starting to get away from Torji
About nonchalant hooks he can be
This is the problem with longer comebacks that you've got to dig for more ideas.
You know, in position where now you're trying to build off of what you've seen already.
Well out of prep, you want to keep the ingenuity up.
You know it's still vulnerable for Maus, but you can't make it obvious that that's what
you're trying to attack and you can't always go there.
Now we have seen Astralis push the envelope, but they've really tried to just make it be
every single rifle round.
And that previous example was one where Maus actually called it out totally, had the full
three-ling, in fact, probably should have won.
I'm sure Astralis feel and know that that was a close shave.
I was bordering on 3D to try to make that happen as quickly as they did.
They went up that, they threw this exact that and made everybody pushed into CC spawn and
yet they still mid-beat right after that.
It's like they almost skipped like sort of the conditioning up that round.
Just be like, we just wanna, we just know we'll win if we do this.
And they were right, but will that happen again?
That's Torgie's up on ramp at the moment, smoking off Hooksy's approach.
Final boss for them very much could be Zellex.
Which they are looking to go test this round, seemingly.
Three players gearing up to take over Long, and if there's been struggles at the B site,
there has not been problems for Zellex.
He's just been kind of patiently awaiting his chance at impact.
They'll burn him away from the setup, but they're at 30 seconds, and they have yet to exit doors,
where Torgie's gonna cut down the first, give himself a flash to re-engage,
and this is gonna cause Astralis to scramble.
20 on the clock, as Bomb is back in middle, three players strong to move this out mid.
It is going to be Spinks and PR, not on the site, but right here for the mid lockdown,
and this time, defense layered!
A valiant comeback attempt!
But once you meet Zellax and Borges off, connects on Long,
Borges will indeed find another chance to shine,
finishing this decider map 23 and 9.
Thus making him the highest rated player at Bounty,
as both teams have now kept up their ends of the bargain.
We will get what we expected, Spirit vs. Maus.
And at times both those squads maybe leave a little to be desired,
but they've geared up for a grand finals,
where we have a potential five maps of action
to decide who lifts this season's first trophy.
It's poetic that it ends that way with Spinks and PR
working together to get that spray down.
But it also is poetic that it's a straw
that's showing their cards very quickly.
Lose one kill, immediately go into that mid-B.
It's 20 seconds.
It's almost unwarranted.
But that's the only thing that really worked for them
in this match.
Uncut gems on this team, still rough around the edges,
don't have the excuse of making a Ross remove that recently.
So definitely have to have some self-awareness and address some issues that are clearly long-standing at this point.
They made it far at this event, but they could have made it even farther, I want to say.
Now on the other end, while we still talk about the peaks of some of these mouse players with Torzi finding the impact that he has,
we're just also looking to see whether they can continue to gel.
Teamplay and chemistry under question for mouse as they have earned at this grand final spot.
They certainly have earned it, and it was a fight at this. You were 12-2 up just now on Dust2, then on to CT side, some more struggles on the B side.
I saw frustration from you as well on short. Just tell me what was going through your mind when these rounds started to get racked up against you.
Yeah, I think it was getting close, and that's why I got a little bit frustrated, but also I think we had really good reads, where they are going, like for example on the B-speed.
I missed my shot, we are 3B, we lose a round.
I also had the opportunity to get an entry on that round on the short, they ran into me
and just felt like we know what they are doing but we didn't convert the rounds
after such a good half on the east side and it was just fascinating a little bit but we
kept our head calm. Sometimes you have to let some frustration out but we won the game so that's
what matters. It does matter and you're now in the grand final because of it but I also want to
ask you what happens with you guys? Are you saving some energy until the third map because
we get these dominant sides come out for you when you finally get to the third map in this series so far?
Ah, maybe we are saving some energy. I don't know, it's a good question. I think we
we are just trusting our game, you know, I think we are a really good team. We have really good ideas
all the time and I think on Ascent it was a little bit of my bad in the beginning that they won many
runs. I got caught like the first three runs, gun runs I think, they boosted me and things like
and I'm a little bit through the game, so I took responsibility after the game as well.
But yeah, I don't think it was a big deal, it was just some mistakes I did.
I'm glad you mentioned this ancient, because it did seem right,
like they had a good game plan that you guys didn't react to so fast, right?
You gave them quite a lot of space on it, so were you aware of what was going on,
but it was almost too late to fight back in?
I think they had a decent game plan, but at the same time I felt like
we knew what's going on but we were really slow at reacting like this runs
very push a main and or they rush a main the fake a rush I have the line and I'm
not reacting I'm not rotating and it's just sometimes it's so obvious but I
was I didn't get into my zone in the beginning and I was a little bit in my
head and yeah and lastly you're into the grand final we seem to be getting the
best of Torsi right now and your face in spirit tomorrow can you keep this up
Yeah, it's always a nice game to go versus Spirit.
I think they are a really good team, playing versus players like Shiro and Donk.
I think they are amazing players, so yeah, it's going to be a good game.
We will just see how good we are versus them, and we will see what happens.
I look forward to seeing if we will see what happens.
Guys, make some noise for Torsi and Miles!
It's time for our bounty bonanza.
It's a great way to end our Saturday, of course, we have a lovely mouse player, Sphinx, how
How are you feeling off that one?
Good, good.
It was a bit too close on Dust2, but we're good to win.
And that was important.
Yeah, you get the fun of joining us
with the Bounty Venetians, but of course, so does our fan.
Would you kindly introduce yourself?
And let me know, who's your favorite team?
I'm from Israel.
My name is Lior.
We came all the way to see Spinks and Zemchin.
I wish they win.
They're the best players, guys.
Let's play, man.
I fucking win.
You're the best.
You're the best.
All right, there's so many different prizes.
You can win, there's some peripherals, there's some gift cards.
Is there anything specific you want?
There's skins as well?
Wow, actually I don't really know what are the prices, but I wish...
You want the bonanza, that's what you want.
The bonanza, yeah, that's what you gotta get for him, alright?
He blew it out of here.
What's the bonanza?
The bonanza, it means he'll be a porter.
He'll be at the next event, alright, so you gotta spin that wheel.
You gotta give it everything.
It was tough for you to close that dust too, but you gotta have even more energy to spin
in this will when you're ready.
We just have it all set in real life.
So we wanted them to have some rounds
and that's it for us, Hallease.
That's all.
All right, go for it.
Go for the spin.
Oh my God.
He's going for it.
We know you want the bonanza.
There's so many different things.
There's peripherals you can win as well.
Skins, it's going around.
It's coming up to the bonanza.
It might actually, oh!
It's a scum, it's a scum, boys.
No, I see Mark and you almost have the bonanza.
Now I'm going through.
We're going to see exactly what's things one for you.
I see market you've won a 100 dollar steam gift card and that is for our player a lovely audience member
What if you look the guys at home?
Make sure you invest wisely
Look, I know how close you were to the bananas there and you still get you get yourself a hundred dollars team gift card
Our fan I've got a hundred here in the audience someone online as well out viewer in chat
It's gonna get one, but I see market again. It's been so generous
would you do us a favor of doing another spin and extra spin potentially getting the bonanza?
Go harder! Go harder! Another one!
You had so many chances on Dust, you got another chance to spin the wheel here.
You spun it harder than before. There's a chance that we could be hitting the bonanza.
It's gone a little bit too far, it's gonna land on!
Republic are gaming number 17, a new prize! Let's see exactly what this prize is for you.
We've been feeding the big hard weapon now.
Two monitors!
High refresh rate, but very smooth.
One for our lucky audience member, and one for someone of her.
We'll finally see that guy who's been destroying it.
We call that festival growth.
Yo!
It's our monitor!
You also want a monitor here coming out,
a suit and Republic of Gaming here.
You ready? Oh, thanks!
It's heavy, it's probably very heavy.
Yeah, you're gonna need two hands and a hand.
I hope you can take it back home as you are.
Yeah, you're gonna have to buy another luggage
I'll get you for that one.
Wow, I'm so excited.
Thank you, Sphinx.
Thank you so much.
Oh, thank you.
Look, great prizes to be had.
I'm gonna probably give away these to my viewers.
Oh, that's so sweet as well.
Can I give him the steam gift card as well?
You want to give him another $100?
Yeah, you can give another $100.
I'll put this one on top.
You're too sweet.
Give it to some of the guys.
All right.
You can share the love around with your friends as well,
but that's what Bounty Bananas is about.
Thank you, Sphinx, for joining us.
I hope you guys are having so much fun.
Now, take the Bounty Bananas up now.
Thank you guys
I'm telling you those
Respins that's exactly what mouse needs for themselves because they had a couple of chances on
Dust to it was getting a little bit nerve-wracking there
I wasn't sure that things was gonna get the fun of spinning the wheel
I'm glad that he was able to spin it obviously the game got tense hence the the worry because that was a pretty mighty comeback though
the straws were actually putting on right there.
Yeah, nothing's going to be able to top Zonfix's spin,
but that was a pretty impressive one from Spinks,
almost winning the Mananza after what was a very tense game.
I think we called on Spinks to perform a bit better
on the CT side on this map.
Oh, they're going to take the wheel.
And he needed to perform a bit better on the wheel.
He's been so close to the Mananza.
I know.
He's been so close.
But still, in the game, he struggled a bit on the CT side.
But eventually, they did close it out.
I feel like Spinks also kind of, he had a lot of moments where he probably was also thinking,
I think the pressure of spinning the wheel and getting to him, those B defenses were
looking pretty shaky and I would be a little bit worried too because if I want to give
a fan a little bit more to love and get that spin off, then I think it's almost like the
pressure of a real arena game, you know?
There's two layers of pressure here when it comes to the final map, they have a master
really well for themselves and what's a bit of shakiness that's happening there but also on the
other side massive props to Astralis to bring it back to a point that we are kind of you know
questioning maybe some of the mouse fans shaking in their boots a little bit because you're wondering
could Astralis have gotten it over the line if they had it just gone for a slight change in that
final round play. I mean there's only so much that you can hit the B bomb site and find success
when mouse clearly and I think towards we said it in the interview with banks mouse clearly had a
good idea of what they were doing round after round. You saw Torsche on short, he dismissed
the shot, you see the triple up on B, him and Spinks both missed shots, you see him go to long,
Zellex lights out on long, actually managed to hit a shot, Torsche can follow up and then you
finally close it out. It took him quite a few tries but that's kind of the whole that Astral
stuck for themselves unfortunately, just couldn't really get enough on the CT side early enough.
I feel like Fosy gains powers though when he has a hero off. Like when he's in a normal gun round
situation. I feel like I'm like, Oh, is this going to work out? Hero up. This guy's getting
two kills on almost every entry. As soon as there's nothing to lose, he plays incredibly.
It's when he has something to lose that he's struggling a little bit. Well, that's why I'm
wondering, like with the longevity of them bringing in a mental coach, like, is this now just an
upward trajectory for them? Because whilst they did get themselves into a hole, it's like, we can
see the light at the end of the tunnel. We know what is still there. And I still think that that
is something really positive that you can't take away. Because if you're down that hard and there's
I mean, I think that's the
most important thing. I mean,
there's no way of getting back
in and I go, Well, unfortunately,
you're just that costs and
you're outmatched. I mean, the
yesterday we saw them lose 12
match points this time we saw
them almost do it right back. I
actually do really respect the
mental fortitude down that
heavily. You're playing a mouse
team. You're not expected to
beat. You're playing on a map
that you're really uncomfortable
on to begin with to still make
it such a battle. The problem,
as you said, it's just they
because they even kicked it off, well first they beat Focus, then they beat Hoto,
which is a team they lost to in another qualifier prior to this event, then they
beat Payne, who they lost to at the major. That's two teams that they lost to
recently that they're then able to overcome and so you would hope that
that's partially due to the mental coach or the fact that they made a head coach
change in Nio. So I think there is something to look forward to for the
future of this Astralis team. I feel like they understand their style a bit more
that they want to be working with moving forward after having to really reckon
with how much of a disaster the major was for them.
So there is a little bit of a slight upward trajectory for sure.
It feels like a much more complete picture for them, right?
The pieces of the puzzle are flooding in a little bit better.
But at the end of the day, you have to break it down
that when you lose a round like around 10,
where you're 2v5, you are the 5, and you lose it,
then you have to be questioning, OK,
what's going on here without individual performance.
Listen, I can be very critical of Astralis,
but at the same time, this is a fake,
This is a foe 2v5 because they do get a kill there. It's a 3v5. I'm giving this one a 3v5.
Okay, alright. Okay, show us, show us, show us.
My question with it is why couldn't PR and TORZ play this well on B on the CT side?
I mean, it was, yeah, this was a pretty backbreaking moment for Astralis.
We saw how tense that second half actually got once they got rolling on the T side.
Rounds like that and maybe closing out the half, say, 5-7 would have been a, just a world of difference mentally.
And that was the foezy hero off that you're talking about.
He managed to get an entry.
You have the rifle on the B site.
But it's a tough sight to defend,
as we saw in the second half, very tough to defend.
If you're not there with full utility,
with enough players, ready to go.
And I would call that a backbreaking loss.
That is one where if they had that one,
we might be still seeing them play right now.
And uphill battle for Astralis,
and they almost reached the peak.
We almost got to see them standing at the top of that mountain.
But unfortunately, it took see with some words
before they exited.
Charlotte showed up good form from the online stages until now, but they're full short here just there on Dust2.
Hopefully I want to start with the Dust2 within this one. Obviously, it's never easy to go so far down in the opening half,
but then the comeback does start there.
Just talking about some of the problems you were having in the first half and what changed going into your T side.
Well, what changed is that we play teams in the T side.
It's obviously a big change. I think CT is a lot my fault. I did a lot of stupid moves and they got long, got a free round here and there.
So, you know, that caused a bit. Obviously, we don't know how to win any pistols, which is also a problem.
Yeah, it's a bit weird because we have struggled a lot on T-Sights lately and now the T-Sights are fine, but the CTs are struggling.
So, yeah, we'll go back and see. I'm not 100% sure what happened, but yeah, at least I know I have my part in it.
It works that way sometimes, right? You put some more focus on one side than the other
can drop off a little bit. One thing that was real positive was your game plan going
into ancient I would say, right? It seemed like they were not ready for how you were
taking the extra space from them when you were going to charge on forward. So this worked
out really well. Are you looking at this as like a positive step in the direction you
want to go for the team?
Yeah, definitely. I think that the main issue was the T-Sites before and statistically we
We have talked a lot about changing stuff and I think it's working out.
We're getting a more back to the way we were playing and I think CT side is a lot about
confidence and maybe we still don't have enough, but it's getting better.
So hopefully we will do better next time.
An overall just looking at the event and what you're seeing in your players.
Are you seeing better highs from your players?
You're seeing some more moments from them communicating the way you wanted using the
time where you're giving them that freedom to do the things correctly.
I know it's very small sample size, but does it feel like, okay, we're back on the right track in some degree?
Yeah, I definitely think not only myself, but everyone feels like it's going better.
There's, you know, way more room to make the right decision in the moment and people feel more comfortable with it.
So, you know,
it's trade-off. Sometimes you win around because you do take a risk and sometimes you lose it,
but I think in the end we got way more out of it than we lost and
and we'll just keep on grinding.
And I know you had a bootcamp to start off the season,
but what's next for you before you go into EWC?
I think just some online practice now,
and then we look forward to some time in Paris.
See what you can do there, mate.
Thank you very much.
Good luck going forward.
They're acknowledging the process,
that they're making there,
the progress that is coming out as well.
And I do wonder if,
who's he standing there saying,
man, really fucking sucks to lose to Maaz,
I'm sure he was wishing that he
picked it at the same time. This
is a great showing for Astralis
based on what you would have
expected coming into this one. I
think there's definitely things
they could take away that are
positives and I don't think you
can look back too negatively
about how this one turned out.
No, it's a it's a it's a big
learning experience and I just
kind of want to see after a
tournament like this where you
sort of I don't think that the
what they did in this tournament
is a great show. I think that
sort of I don't think that the what they did in this tournament is all too
dissimilar from what they would look like the best for Astralis last season
when they were in like the PGL Bucharest or the ESL Pro League type of tournaments
but they have deep runs don't quite get it over the line once they face a more
elite team so if Neo can actually get his hands a little dirty can he figure
something out because now he's watched them for that whole tournament he was
talking in the interviews that he's just kind of standing back letting letting it
see you know seeing what's happening here and what's the fix now it's been a
I do want to go back because
there was that chance we could
have had a Charlottes going up
against spirit.
And like we said, maybe they
wanted to.
The history is already done,
though.
But Spirit were looking pretty
shaky themselves.
I mean, don't necessarily putting
up the performance we expect
about the end of the day.
Spirit got it over the line, and
that is what is really impressive
and also some amount of growth
from this team, despite how close
it was in their semi-finals
against FaZe.
Yeah, I mean, both favorites
looked really shaky in both games.
You see it from Spirit.
from Spirit. They looked like they were incapable of winning and you get the interview from
Magix afterwards down 10-5 on map 3. He's talking about they have to have the experience
to understand. We have to give it everything to actually get it across the line here or
we're going to lose. And he gave props to FaZe because I think FaZe played some really
great CS as much as Spirit had their problems. Donk wasn't fragging. I think FaZe really
have to look at that as a very positive outcome even if they can't win.
I don't think it's really a hot take to say of the two semi finalists that lost.
I have higher expectations for phase now.
I think the ceiling is way higher.
I think that J-Bone looks like a really serious prospect.
We already know that Frozen could be a top 10 player in the world.
So they have a lot of pieces that they could definitely work with.
Whereas Astralis, I think that there's almost too much ground to gain in a couple of the aspects.
It might have been a stumbling journey in which our two teams took to get to the grand finals,
but it is the two expected teams, right?
spirit and amounts after three four different rounds of the blast bounty for themselves. They have made it all the way there
They'll be facing off against each other tomorrow
12 30 is when the grand final starts our desk will start a little bit earlier than there
And that's what you don't want to miss because that's where all the hot takes and all the fun comes out before you get to see the
Counter-Strike I think we're gonna have a lot of fun predicting some
Really realistic things that will definitely happen in this final. I
I mean, we're really realistic
as the chance for a tour ZMVP
haven't seen one of those in CS2.
So I'm yeah, no, I'm super excited for this one.
He's playing out of his mind right now.
I feel like this is actually if this was just how I thought
spirit should play versus how I mouse probably should play
with two new guys and be kind of worried for mouse,
but with spirits, vulnerabilities right now,
I think this is a bit more open.
Yeah, and seeing seeing mouse on map three,
I feel like they were really powering up into the form
this tournament, Zellex PR showing some incredible showings, showing they can actually perform
at this level that we were questioning as we saw them online.
Well, maybe a vulnerable spirit of how it all mows. I'm not really sure which one is
going to take the grand finals tomorrow, but that just means we're going to head on out
for today and make sure you guys tune in to get all the action beforehand during and after
for our Bloss Bounty season two presented by Pauli Mockin.