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Huge butt-tapes!
He's been so butt for this game!
It is Lotto to come up huge!
This is gonna be a solid hit, though.
Carver-8!
You cluckled to his damn right!
I got a honesty bending bullets over boxes!
Active new here from Falcons.
Those go go ahead and take the quad kill.
Searching for the arms!
A massive punch for this new AWP!
If any of you touches me, you cannot avoid Cybert for long.
Yes, I'm doing everything for Valhallaians.
We'll bite up once again.
I will collect!
It's been a couple of days since we last saw you all,
and now we are in Porto, Portugal,
and it has been an amazing time so far,
but we still have a lot of camouflage to get into,
and joining me here in Porto is a view
and a Maui. How are you both feeling being in Portugal?
It's great. Last year was excellent in Lisbon.
Everybody in Lisbon told me,
Porto, it's better, okay?
And are you ready?
I get it. All right?
The food here, it's great.
The views, no matter where you are in the city, beautiful.
And I'm sure the best views
are going to be right in that arena.
I have to say, having not been to Lisbon,
Porto, it's better.
I'm just saying, it goes to my best time in Portugal.
It's not going to be tough.
No, it feels insane to think about it.
And we already had such an amazing group stage
as well, right? We had that one in Copenhagen and it's crazy to see our top six teams who made it, who didn't. A lot of people, I think, placed higher expectations on Navi and Aurora to make it here.
We did get some ultra elite teams to qualify, but you're right. There were a couple of favorites who didn't quite hit the mark, but at least in their stead, we got a couple plucky underdogs, teams that are familiar in terms of their name value, but a couple new faces here in the arena.
Yeah, I don't think you can complain about the teams that did make it. I mean, I think Navi and Aurora just weren't at the same level as you have from a G2, a Vitality, a Fury.
These teams that did make it, I think, are just playing better counter-strike.
Yeah, look, I totally get it. And there's been a lot of fun content that came from it, not just the Counter-Strike we saw, but also the comms, because you're talking about Vitality.
Well, we had seen so much in group stages with JL standing with them, just the chaoticness that I think came from them, and then infected everyone else around them, too.
We also have the Navi no laughing.
There's no laughing.
The infamous blade saying that there is no laughing allowed on the team that got blown out of proportion completely.
Come on guys, I'm one of the sensationalized things, but that was blade just trying to focus the team who desperately needed a little bit of focus.
Look, I'm going to focus up right now for you guys at top 16s in playoffs.
The only thing second to that I feel like is our fantasy team, right?
We have to do our gaming multi fantasy team and we're going to go through it.
We're going to have a look at all of the players that you guys pick.
I know that it's different than other games, the Blast Run, when it comes to fantasy.
You can pick up to two from each team.
So it feels like the board is yours.
I think we all know that we're picking at least one player from one team.
It's going to be Dawn from Spirit.
I don't think, I think, you may as well just lock that one in before, but don't
even make a choice.
It's just Dawn from Spirit.
In the Diamond tier, there was really no question there unless, okay, there's going
to be some miracle run out of one of the other teams.
being said, moving on to the next category, a handful of players there. I liked a guy who
probably isn't going to have the easiest run to the grand finals, but heavy God for me just needed
to happen. Okay, that guy is contesting for anchor of the year. He is a stalwart defender,
and I'm sure we're going to be talking about him a lot today. I love how you're like the run to
the grand finals. Like it's good. He's going to get there. It's just going to be a tough
battle. It's going to be incredibly tough for heavy God, but I think it's still a good
and going into the gold tier, I think he's the one you have to go for is Spinks.
I think he's the most solid fragger in that tier.
I think he's the most likely to show up as long as Maus go team.
Concur with that statement because he has been a big game player for them.
That's kind of why he was brought onto the scene to be that difference maker.
Once you hit these sort of playoff stages where some of the guys were a little gun-shy
when the lights were bright, Spinks has never had a problem with that.
And then when we go into the lost tier tier,
is you guys looking to repeat, double up on any teams?
are you looking still up what we haven't yet looked towards how we haven't
picked a vitality and picked anyone from thousands yet. I think the classic if
you're trying to win you're supposed to go two and two but we wanted to go for
the best players in each category. Okay. Which means you gotta go for Tessa's in
this one I think he's the most obvious choice. Yeah I like Tessa's I have too
many good things to say about this guy I love that he does so much with so
little and off of the major win come on he's gonna have a little bit
more confidence a little bit more flair hope to see that in the
Superboc. Yeah, does that trend continue then? Are we still going to be going one in that's the best of each category?
One from each team? Are you ready to double up? I think if you look at the last category, it's a whole bunch of IGLs and then Zontics.
And I'm not saying Zontics doesn't belong in this category. Body shot merchant. He's my guy. You still got to pick him.
I think of this category is the most obvious, most likely choice to actually hit some shots.
Definitely agree with that. I mean the consistency is generally there for him, especially on his CT sides.
maybe his T sides have had some lows, but versus a lot of IGLs who are going to be using
half of their brain to try to come up with the next strategy, Zontics should just be
fully focused on killing the guy in front of them.
I feel like it was only three days ago, Maui, you were being like, Apex, oh my gosh, this
is my guy, and now you guys haven't picked anyone from Vitality on our fantasy team.
I like Apex, there's nothing wrong with Apex, but every other player in their category,
you're going to pick Zywoo over Dawn, no shot.
Not really.
Not this tournament.
the game. We've got a lot of
things to do. We've got a lot
of things to do. We've got eight
pecs over Zontics. Small shot,
but not actually a chance. There
was a chance there, actually
being a vitality just with the
stand in. We have seen that
they have tripped over their
own feet early on in the
tournament, and that just
makes you worry a little
bit. Not that they're
necessarily going to bring
those sort of woes to the
big stage. They've actually
powered up quite well, but it
was I feel like that first
match might even do too
hard for them. Okay Well,
But more importantly the fans that we have here in Portugal
I have a feeling all of these are going to vote on the same team. Who's gonna win?
Karak
Vitality no no no fucking no
So obviously G2
Not you do at all probably last place
Urea
Everybody tell me the big win the big name
Vitality!
Apex!
Okay, I wanna know who's gonna win, tell me that name.
Falcons.
Of course.
Okay, who's gonna win the entire tournament?
VDO!
The Portuguese way.
I have a suspicion, but who's gonna win?
G2!
Say it loud!
Falcons!
Nice!
The teams have all gathered here in Porto in the Superbook Arena for the love of one thing,
Counter-Strike. The vibes are great and the best of the best are waiting to be able to compete.
And they might have started that journey with different motivations and goals, the VRS points, the money, the glory, the experience.
But at the end of the day, they're all fighting for the same thing, to lift that trophy.
This is Counter-Strike, and this is Blast Premier Open Porter.
for centuries the sea has carried the brave to these shores glory treasure
Those who came were tested by the journey, tested by the storm, by what awaited them.
But some are built to endure it.
Here, legend doesn't belong to those who arrive.
It belongs to those who leave their mark.
Generation after generation have come to Porto, daring to challenge, daring to conquer.
But Porto remains...
Invictus.
Welcome to Blast Open Porto.
Oh
Portugal we are back
Hello, Porto!
It sounds real good.
And you know, we couldn't do an event
within this country without my main man,
Arch-Rum, to take us through all of this.
But I've got a question for you, mate.
Invictus, what is this all about?
Why are we talking about this all the time?
Because this city has been...
Like, everybody tried to conquer Porto,
and they never got a chance.
They stood up against everything.
That's why they are the undefeated city.
But the cool thing is, it's not the city itself, it's the people that live within the city.
A pronuncia do north, who sang the north, and that's why Porto is Invictus and defeated.
I like that. And also, we have some teams that are in the same state.
Our teams already in the semi-finals, mouths and spirits, they are undefeated so far.
And to have a chance of lifting this trophy and winning this tournament,
you must now be undefeated in playoffs.
And when we look at our teams, we've got some great games coming your way.
Later today, Vitality taking on.
Maybe it's a fan favourite, Furia!
Where's Furia?
A few moves in there, but I was still hearing it.
But ultimately, right, when we look at this and everyone's trying their best,
new team stepping up, standing players, it's wide open for that trophy.
And that's where the public is.
Beautiful one. You told me, like, these teams,
this is the second tournament, anybody can win.
And that's the cool aspect about it.
But now, something about the Porto, let's try to see where they are.
Let's go, I'm here, the city.
Everybody has been talking about Porto, come to Porto.
Can we get a feeling of how loud you are, okay?
Let's do a test. Are you ready, James?
Let's do it.
Okay, I'll pick the left side just to see how you are.
So, so, I'll be with you.
You'll be with me at the same time.
And then James, you take the right side.
Left side.
Faço Barona!
OK, OK, that's pretty good, but I'm pretty sure my right side can do better.
Everyone get ready. Make some noise!
I was kind of cooking. Wait, they have instruments?
I heard something.
Give me a second then. Come on, left side. You got this in here.
Three, two, one.
Faça Barola!
All right, one more time, everyone on this side of the room, let me hear you!
Let's get everybody together then.
All right, every single one of you, this is just a start, we're getting ready for
our opening game, so I need all of you right now, MEDICS OF NOOOOOO!
This is the 219th battle of the year!
Ohhhh!
Deluxe walks it down with another Iron Man!
Oh!
Filthy!
Ohhhh!
Ohhhh!
Ohhhh!
Ohhhh!
Ohhhh!
Ohhhh!
Ohhhh!
Ohhhh!
Ohhhh!
Ohhhh!
Ohhhh!
Ohhhh!
Ohhhh!
Ohhhh!
Ohhhh!
Ohhhh!
Ohhhh!
Ohhhh!
Ohhhh!
the game. As beautiful as it
is outside there being inside
the Superbock Arena right now
in Porto is just next level
the volume of the crowd and
the energy they're giving us
right now. Now I just next
level. I have no experience
this. It's not often that you
like that. But our trauma banks
did a great job to get them fired
up early on. Yeah, I can't believe
how loud it was for before the first
game on the first day of the event.
Everyone really hyped up. Plus,
we got the instruments going.
This is incredible. I mean,
speaking of the first game, right?
We're looking towards Falcons coming
up against G2. This is an insane
matter for a quarter finals. It's
star studded. I mean, you have
the Falcons organization fresh off
of winning the Cologne Major.
You've got G2 who have retooled,
They're set up their roster and now they're looking fierce as well.
I mean, this is going to be fireworks.
Both teams looking to come into this one and prove themselves in the playoffs.
You know, you've had some struggles for Falcons.
You've had some struggles for G2.
But this is the moment where they prove that they can make it happen this season,
regardless of how the first couple of events went.
Well, they're looking at Falcons, though.
What is it about this roster that's bringing them into these quarterfinals?
Yeah, Falcons, they, I mean, they have the incredible major performance,
but then they come in a bounty.
They really struggle at bounty.
They go into EWC and they fall short of what they're hoping for.
This is a team where anything short of a grand final or a trophy is going to be failure for them.
You have Niko, you have Kerrigan, they've tasted defeat more than anyone else.
Seeing them lose in the quarterfinals, in the semi-finals, that is unacceptable for a roster with this much talent on it.
You've got Niko, you've got Montessy, you've got Kyosuke, you have everything you need
And you have Terragon making the great calls from behind them the greatest IGL of all time this team needs to win
So give me a vibe check on just what the energy is like in the team right now the mood and stuff coming into this quarter finals game
We're enjoying enjoying Porto. I'm enjoying Portugal. Yes
Very much enjoying Portugal. That's a good thing. But now talk to me about the group stage keep it real with me
How stressful was that for you guys?
It was not stressful until the last game
until the mouse game and after we get destroyed, but we leave and learn.
When you're living and learning, do we now get the best version of Falcons when it comes to playoffs
and how do you make that possible?
Yeah, today we play to win.
That's it? Okay, good luck.
Playing to win, that's the motto right now for Falcons for today.
It feels like, Maui, that there is no hesitation when it comes up against their former team of G2
when we're talking about Monosie.
I mean, Monacy is not worried one bit.
I don't think Nico is either.
I mean, the history that Monacy and Nico have behind him,
you then have these excellent players stepping up.
You have Hunter now donning the IGL mantle
and reminder that this is a G2 team
that has had their struggles.
They have had their difficulties,
but they are coming up on the one year anniversary
of that blast open London trophy
and they're gonna try to repeat that here.
And I'm going to say, Rinkle, he has made a huge difference in how you should treat this G2.
Yeah, this G2 team is looking completely different coming into this one.
Mattis, give me a vibe check on the team today. How locked in a G2 ahead of this quarterfinals game?
I mean, it's finally, I think, fucking time to beat them, right?
We lost four times, I think, against them since I'm in the roster.
So I think it's finally the time. So we are looking forward to the game.
Not just beating Falcons though, but also your quarterfinals curse.
You believe in curses at this point?
I think I started to listen to it, to be honest, honestly.
I think yeah, but yeah, I think we are very confident. Obviously, they're a good thing. They have good individuals, but we have the same
And we know we can't force you beat them no matter what. So yeah
What's the most important thing that you need to focus on within this game as a team to get that win?
Believe in each other. I think and patience. That's gonna be the most important. Love you. Have you got it today, mate? Thank you very much
It's always about the confidence that both of these teams are gonna bring for themselves coming into it
And whilst we had a little bit of a teaser there now talking about, you know, monestee Niko
that used to be on the G2 roster.
We're also looking towards the amount of matchups
they've had since they've left, right?
Is this in their favor?
Is this something that actually kind of
leans towards this G2 that is ramping up now?
Generally speaking, this has been Falcons
written all over the wind columns there.
Other than when still, I think it was Monosie
still being on G2 after Niko left,
that G2 were able to best the Falcons.
But all in all, I mean, it's what you more or less
expect. It's a rookie in-game leader and hunter
who is still trying to get his legs underneath him
and trying to captain some of those squads
which admittedly they have weaker firepower than when they had Niko and Monacy.
That was the one-two punch that the G2 roster had,
which then Falcons literally stole from them.
Yeah, so often they bought it from them. They bought it.
Yeah, so often you have these teams where you think about the players leaving,
they know how the system works, they know how everything goes.
But when Niko and Monacy left, it was a complete retool for G2, right?
They moved to Hunter calling, but Niko knows him better than anyone.
and Falcons just have had better firepower,
almost the entire duration of this.
I think the wrinkle addition is the move
that you maybe think maybe now G2
have the firepower actually compete
against the Falcons roster.
It's this star stud.
When we look at the different parts of the bug
these guys took though through groups
and now into the playoffs, is this a little bit?
Oh, actually we will probably see history repeat themselves.
We do still give that slight advantage to Falcons.
I think I have to still give
the slight advantage to Falcons.
The way they came into this one,
they look a little shaky,
but G2 still to me looked even shakier,
needing Grinkle to bail them out quite often.
With Falcons, they're a team that I am just
results agnostic of when I am trying to make predictions
regarding them because it's more about
is the team gonna be stepping up in the moment
versus let's see what their last three results are,
let's try to find out what their round win percentage is
because we know that they can just turn up
really anytime that they're motivated.
Well, let's see how motivated they are.
There were questions around this ancient pick
they kept going back for in the group stage
Is it going to come out here at playoffs?
Well, we're going to see exactly what Vito plays out for Falcons and G2.
And here we have it. This is where the Vito comes into play,
but we are going to involve all of you guys in the crowd.
By the end of this event, I want to know what maps Porto hates, what maps you guys love.
So cheer and boo as you like on the map choices.
You have a feeling about Mirage that people like Mirage.
Yeah, it's mirage man. It's classic. We love that hopefully I don't know
I thinking further more D2 might be the pig. I don't know what we'll see okay
Make the noise as we go and as we see the veto shall we start it? Let's get it started bring it up
So okay expected it's Jesus instaban nothing too crazy here you guys happy to see no nuke
Okay nuke enjoys next band
Oh my god, you guys really want cash?
They hate it, don't they? They love it. But show the first pick. Where are we going? Inferno!
It's kind of mixed. It's kind of mixed but there is more cheers for the Inferno. All right, and what we're getting next?
Dust 2 Enjoyers! Okay, Porto!
So let's move on on to the next band to see what the decided goodbye our movies
Kind of mix next bound. Let's roll it straight up
And that means with this out of the way. What do we get him for the last one?
Not convinced yet. I'm not convinced yet my mirage enjoyers. I appreciate you that was the veto
Let's get closer to Falcon's taking on she too
I think the only thing is that Ringel has more place than Sönpijastet.
I think so as a coach has always had a good structure on how to execute and how to play.
It is two different styles of how we are playing and how they approach the game and we have
to make sure that we are doing our things good and we are ready for what they bring
and the progress that we are bringing so in the end I think we just need to be
aware and read the game good as a team and then paint the picture with communication.
Ah, nothing really special to Vienna.
Obviously it's hard to play in playoffs game where a loser is going out, it's easier to play in group stage, so you can both stay in one event.
But yeah, this is the game, we don't fight in real life against each other, so yeah, I just hope that the better team will win and I hope that better team will be us today.
It's never fun to go up against them in particular, but I obviously want to beat them every time I go up against them.
And you know, there has been some comments about me leaving the G2 that I made a mistake and some comments also from the CEO.
It is a bit spicy and I always want to make sure that I have a good game or I try to have a good game against them
and that I really come energised and
really prepared and hopefully
this time
It will be the same. Yeah, I think in the end it comes as always against the top teams in the small
the small things the the small details and
If we're gonna be better than them in these small details and we're gonna do less mistakes than them
Then I think we have a good chance to win
I think it's a good idea to
take out drugs. It feels like
it's all mapped out for them,
but I said this before and I'll
say it again at any point,
Nico could take out drugs
because bro is adding on extra
spice that we don't even have
to. He goes. There's a lot of
comments flying around there,
and so it's always a little
extra spice. You know, an
extra sweet when they do get
the best of them. I mean,
we should have brought that
to the table, I suppose
things the CEO has said about
him that they could have kept
Nico if they really wanted to.
I'm going to say, though.
Yes, we get some spice from
doesn't really materialize in the veto. They don't go back to ancient despite
picking it three times in a row. They're losing it every single time. And even in
the second phase veto, they had a chance to ban out Mirage, but they don't want to
play ancient because they've seen that they they suck at it. They suck at it.
Bare not bar none. I am thanking heavy god if I'm a Falcons fan for this veto
for them getting rid of ancient that ancient pick. I think that we're
trying something they wanted to actually show that they have a map pull
because otherwise you end up in a spot like this where you're playing
and in front of those are two of G2's favorite maps and you're forced into it because you don't have a deep enough map. Let's talk about inferno a little bit more here right not necessarily on the back of the
but you're saying G2 love it for themselves when we're looking back at the group stage now when you're looking at there inferno does that sort of bring true still still does yeah I would say that Hunter has been a lot of under a
a lot of scrutiny lately because it has been a long time since they've had a
deep run at an event like this but in rounds like this you can see why G2 and
why Hunter are such fans of this map. It's because of their mid-round
capabilities. They're going for this B-split strat where they're smoking off
Arch, smoking off Library. They lose the first kill but they get a trade right
here and Matt is I'd say this is great individual brilliance coming out from
him to swing back out through the smoke to go for the double peek there
and what do they do? They don't continue with the plan. They actually
reroute wrinkle back from banana. They make him move back towards the A bombsite
and even though nerds gives up a kill towards that B site, they are in a prime
position to lock down with five seconds left getting this bomb planted. It's just
pristine. It's exactly what you want to see from a G2 team who has been
struggling in the mid-round. They've been looking more kind of like they're
just gonna go for the calls out of spawn. But this was an example where
they can actually have a trick up their sleeve. I think they definitely do
when you look at Inferno. That's why I'm concerned to see Inferno in
you can't get the chance to
get that chance to get into the
midfield. There's a limited map
pool, I think here for G two.
They don't have the depth that
you want with hunter I jelling
in the mid round, but on
inferno, certainly that's why
they picked it. That's why
they have 100% win rate on it.
On inferno, their midrounding
is great. I would even say it
might be pristine. Wow,
pristine. I feel like they
could approve themselves when
it comes to being on a stage
though of an inferno, and
then maybe we can coin them
with the pristine badge at
that point. But a name that
you mentioned them now, we
I mean, where my Wrinkler's at, right?
This guy has been a flamethrower for G2.
The way that he's taking the initiative in the early rounds was a huge shot in the arm that this team desperately needed.
Sun Pius was great on the AWP when he had it in hand,
but the other facet of Wrinkle that's spectacular is that his rifling is totally up to par when it comes to playing against top 10 teams in the world.
Falcons is going to be a completely different beast when Wrinkle's on that AK and you're facing the likes of Kyosuke and Niko,
But Wrinkle has just shown that he can be the X factor and in a sort of marketplace for G2 where they were wondering, what kind of move do we make next.
There weren't the most options. They couldn't find a better rifle necessarily for any of the pieces they already had.
So this was one of the most practical ones and I think that it's been a very slept on move, but it's already paying off for G2.
Yeah, the move was considered to be a side grid.
I think when you look at Wrinkle for Sunpias where you just see a slightly different play style,
But watching how the team plays now that they have wrinkled there, I agree with the right fling.
When you see him with the AWP, he adds a different dimension to their play.
He's got nearly 30% opening attempts on the CPC side.
He gives them the re-aggression.
He gives them something else that they didn't have before.
And even if during a bad period, during a bad game, he might be missing some shots,
maybe Sun Pius would hit, you win tournaments on your A game.
And I think they sacrifice the bit of their floor to raise their ceiling a little bit higher.
And when you're a G2 that you want to win championships,
that's the type of sacrifice I think you're willing to make.
I was gonna say, is it enough though to push them over the line that we've seen them draw in the last couple of tier one, I say couple, the last 14 tier one tournaments that they've done for themselves?
Quarterfinals is the limit. They've never made it to a semi-finals and now you're coming up against Falcons, a couple of G2 alumni on the other side as well.
And whilst that roster changes happen, isn't enough though? Is the ceiling high enough?
This is the change. This is the moment where you really decide whether this change was good enough or not.
Partially you have wrinkle if you raise their ceiling then you have heavy God that is their floor that has sometimes fallen out beneath them in the quarter finals
At least a couple of times that has been concerning
But this is certainly an event where I think they can prove that the wrinkle trade made sense
It obviously looks bad for g2 to win an event and to win in a b05 grand finals
Uh a trophy over vitality when they were really in the midst of their era
And so for them to not even reach a semi-finals in 14 tournaments that looks like a disaster
So I'm just glad that they made this move to try to change it up because really what is a floor that gets you to the quarterfinals?
Half of the time is that really enough that you want to stick with that?
No
G2 is an organization that wants to be lifting the biggest trophies and as they are one of the prestige e-sports orgs in the space
These are all valid points and I love the information you guys are giving us
But there's one thing I love more than just being here in Porto and getting to watch Counter-Strike
It's knowing that our teams are just moments away from being able to take to that stage and give us the action we want.
Counter-Strike is built on moments.
Moments of loss.
Moments of madness.
Moments that define eras and that change history.
For centuries, empires tried to take this city.
None of them broke it.
Porto would not fall.
In this moment, you stand on the land of warriors.
Careers aren't forever.
So make what happens here a moment that can stand the test of time.
Make sure we never forget who you are and what it is you do.
Decide what player you're going to be.
The fearless leader.
The unstoppable force.
The Titan Slayer.
In those moments, there is no team, no tournament or trophy.
It's just you and them.
This city is faced with its would-be conquerors and outlasted them all.
Now, it's asking the same of you.
A moment can change everything.
Empires built on a decision.
The test may be temporary, but your story is forever.
Stand today as Porto stands.
Unbroken, undefeated.
Make this your moment.
I
History has been written with major glory early on for this roster
But it hasn't been playing sailing since then
now it's about bouncing back bringing chaos in and out of the server it's
time to show the world what they've got to show the world how scary they can be
again. This is Team Fogo!
London isn't far from Porto, but G2 has been miles away from being able to secure victory
on the big stage.
Now they switch things up, adding aggression to their team,
hoping that the way of the samurai will guide them to greatness once more.
This is G2!
What a way to start our quarterfinals here. Falcons are against G2. It's single elimination.
This is where the pressure applies and everything comes down to it now. When we're looking
at these two teams, one of the biggest changes that they've had for themselves is
of course, IGLs. Who's going to be able to step up in these moments and on these
maps?
Well, of course, on one side or in one corner,
you've got Hunter, who has lifted a blast trophy.
But that's it.
There's been a lot of L's he's taken since then.
Kerrigan, on the other hand, he's been completely humbled.
So hopefully, he's going to be bringing something to the table
in terms of that T side win rate, that individual practice
that he talked about.
I want to see all of that manifested in the server.
Yeah, they've really struggled, I think,
to find the consistency.
But when you get into the playoffs consistency,
no longer matters.
It doesn't matter.
drop the map in the group stage if you looked questionable this Falcons team
especially coming into playoffs they can be a completely different piece. I'm
also looking at on the side of G2 here all of them huddled together and whilst
there were another a number of names that were throwing into the ring
wrinkle someone you love Hunter as well there still is that question about
heavy god and the fact that he has been showing up time and time again for
me he's probably my best anchor of the year the best anchor in the
world right now. I put him overwrapped drops because I don't think drops is
necessarily a hard anchor the way heavy God is. No matter what map you're going
to, what site you're going to, heavy God is going to be the anchor there, not
getting all that much support, all that many resources at times, and he's still
going to be that rock that makes the G2 floor so high. I mean heavy God, I
mean you could just call him an unmovable deity. The way that he's
able to lock down every bomb site where he doesn't even need all of that
help where he can just be on an island by himself. I mean this dude, he's like Tom Hanks
trying to get off that island. But instead of having a volleyball, he's just got an AK
that's pointed at your face.
It feels like it's going to get the job done there and on the side of Falcons there have
been these question marks about maps, about players who are going to show up for themselves.
Niku, here's the other two that we're also looking towards where it's like how hit
and miss are they? Are they going to be on today? Are they going to be one of
those maps? Are they going to be one of those days that we question mark did they
really show up to a playoffs.
When Falcon came into this roster,
when he came into Falcons,
one of the things he did that allowed this team
to win a major was activate Kiyosuke.
He was making him consistent in playoffs
where he used to fail,
but we come into this season
and Kiyosuke is again questionable.
He's had games where he's been a bit of a liability
even in this event.
And we need to see a bit more consistency from him,
more so than Niko in my eyes
in order for this team to make a deeper run.
If they want to take inferno in this first map,
it's got to come down to both of them.
Koske on the CT side who has taken strides in order
to positively affect their win rate on that defensive half.
And also Niko, we saw him get completely snuffed out
by Maus on that offensive effort towards banana.
Today he's got to be a lot better,
but G2 just have their tricks.
They do their prep.
I think they have one of the best coaches in the space
who can game plan for these two stars.
And my concern coming into this one
is how badly Niko was taken down
on that game against Maus.
The T side, he was completely invisible.
And from a macro perspective,
the team didn't have the right approach.
Maus has really given a game plan to G2,
free of charge on how to deal with this team,
at least on the CT side.
Thing is, how closely can they emulate that?
How closely is G2 in terms of being able to hit
the strides that we saw were the floors of Falcons?
I would say that saw is right there
for the best coach in the world along with Cycro.
So I know that they have the guidance
to come up with the game plan in order
to thwart Falcons here on this map.
But that's why I want to see if Zonic from the other corner
can actually chime in and say, this
is what we were defeated on and this is what we
need to improve upon.
Because if he is the coach, which I don't think
there's really any question anymore whether he is or isn't,
you would think that he should have a game plan that
could counter whatever went wrong last time.
Zonic is a coach that he's talked about trying
to balance going in with some Astralis style
coordinated plays, but still giving growth,
still giving leeway to Kerrigan to make the calls
in the mid game.
I think Inferno's a map that's quite tough in that regard,
especially when you look at Niko,
he's got plenty of tape out there available.
He's got plenty known about him
to actually continue to counter on the same way
Maus did.
And when you have a G2, I think their banana
is the scariest part of this team.
That's really where the head to head
is going to be that decides this map.
Well, you've given us plenty of information
to be able to look towards these two teams,
but more specifically, look towards our map one of Inferna.
Porto, let me hear you!
CHEERING
Oh, yeah!
It's time for the quarterfinals here at Blast Premier Open.
On one side, the current major champions,
a star stud at roster to say the least.
We're talking Niko, we're talking Monosia,
I'm talking Falcons, maybe,
a team looking for another trophy,
And yet another championship, they're standing in their way.
It's a new look G2, the underdogs,
an organization searching for their former glory
and they're ready to cause a huge upset here in Porto.
And let me tell you, this one is a family matter.
Niko versus Hunter, cousin be cousin.
One of them moves on and one of them is going home.
The winner earns himself a place against Team Spirit
in the semifinals.
So Porto, I need everything you've got.
This one should go the distance.
This one should be a banger.
Anders, are you ready?
Already?
You better believe Henry, I'm more than ready.
We've got a banging game coming up here.
Falcons versus G2, and we've got some great maps as well
to start on with Inferno and Dust 2 Mirage
as the final one.
I'm glad you've laid in the foundation
for the hype here, Henry,
because I'm more than ready for this one.
It should be a generational game here in Porto,
a city that has never surrendered,
And we've got Falcons starting it.
They won the Major, they won more than that.
That was just this first step, Henry.
But G2, it's been a long time since we've seen a new victory.
What are your expectations coming into this game for them?
I think with the addition of Wrinkle, they're looking different.
They're looking like they've actually got a bit of bite to them now.
They've got the aggressive maneuvers,
and they should be able to catch Falcons by surprise.
The thing is though, you're going up against Molossi.
If you're Wrinkle on the big stage here,
he hasn't got a ton of experience up there.
We know that his ceiling is relatively close to Molossi,
but it's the floor that's a lot lower.
If G2 don't turn up today, that will be the main factor.
I can't wait to see what Rinkle can do on the big stage today.
I think we go three map sanders
and I think G2 will be taking Inferno.
They're one of the very best on this map.
And you know what, Squirrel?
Maybe Rinkle wasn't that studied as an AWPer
when he was an NIP, but you better believe,
based on the last couple of maps
that we've seen out of him, he will have been studied
now, they're going to be looking into it.
They want to know how to shut him down.
I think the countdown is ready to go, Henry.
a couple of seconds away now from headed into the game here it's Falcons versus G-tosser one more time.
Porto are you ready?
We know they like to favor this A bomb site.
Two smokes available, a couple of flashes.
Molotov as well and indeed they're heading over towards second middle.
Monocene are wasting any time hunting for information here.
Spots a couple, you can see and communicate to that information over.
I'll be aware of it though. Normally going for the silent boost, that's what we see here, Mattis.
Set up in towards a bedroom.
I'm honestly looking to send him packing. Jewel Elite in hand as well.
He's got that Kevlar that works, that's Frank Immanent.
Not dissuaded from the engagement, but does eventually relinquish control.
Still a five on five, no damage inflicted just yet, but some good space taken by G2 here.
Just to back that up four out of five times that they play pistol on the T side of Inferno with this lineup
They've gone for the a bomb site, but they know that Falcons know that so doing it again feels very very risky Falcons are gonna be ready
And in fact, they are Henry you're even more right. It's that for people at the a bomb site
So they've done the homework. They know about this a tendency
Let's see if you took any chance to break it through deep Molotov right onto that
Yeah, but look at the return kills and easy defense.
Can you see that it's three shots?
And in spite of all the utility,
they've definitely done their homework here, Falcons.
Yeah, you're dead right there.
If we're aware of it, Anders, I'm sure the Falcons are as well.
They think that a bomb signed a T-side pistol once again.
It's a smoke down towards D'Art, on towards Mota.
A few flashes over, but nothing but lead received in return.
Easy does it. That is a great deal.
Look at that, it's like a sweat there.
No bomb planted, of course.
And G2, with a flat star there, not even close, I'm afraid.
They will be bringing a force by into round number two here.
It's technized across the board, and a bit of pace here towards middle.
Molotov should take the vision away, but, honestly,
it looks like he's more than ready for it.
Go to Flashbang though, take Smoke the angle,
and they're making their way towards Arch.
Kind of like that, they've already smoked it off, in fact,
and they're revealing this to Claire on the other side.
Molotov's leading, but with the M4A1, he's gonna get up to...
Tess is down in the pit. You gotta do a little bit more.
That is the kind of lock down that they needed because those tech lines are running out of control on that site
Now this is an inferno specialist mark my words on that one especially on the CT side
Is there anything he can do in this one versus three? He has the M4
No, you tell if they're round to throw at this stage. It doesn't really need to challenge Amanda's the bombs down towards quad
Yes, no real way. He can actually do anything with this one. We'll see whether there's any opportunities whatsoever
However, one minute remaining and they're playing it well.
Making sure they present some discipline here.
Carrigan looking to close things out.
He's got a nice, nice low ball.
They're giving too much away.
Really nice card of strike.
2-0, should be the full eco coming up next.
G2 can't get anything done in these initial couple of rounds.
A good idea that the fast friend of D.C. is going through the run.
Smoke, it's a monastery off guard with MTSS.
The final boss of the E-bomb site stepping up massively
with this famas.
I think they're headshots, baby.
Has to be the eco now.
Should be 3-0.
Oh my, Falcons. Historically.
And there's a team that struggles in Inferno.
Especially with that B-bomb side, they seem to
can't find their rhythm between being
2-passive, 2-passive.
Monosy rarely goes over there.
And they can sort that out.
It could be more of the same as momentum,
looking very, very promising for them.
Monosy with the opening kill.
Will find Hunter.
Probably 0-3.
And this is the aggression.
We mentioned here, asserting dominance against the pistol with no Kevlar conditioning them to know they are going to fight for this. They're not going to let you have banana for free.
And one of the teams where we control our Falcons on this map is their lack of control. Like being able to push down the way the nerfs will do it to really prevent that control.
We don't see Falcons doing it all that much, but maybe something will have changed.
If, somehow, Falcons can walk away with this early map victory, that's gonna throw this whole
battle three into chaos because, I think most people at home, gotta be thinking that G2,
they are one of the best teams in the world right now on Inferno, so they should be winning
this one.
This means it's a must when math them.
It must be, right?
Well, so far, it's not really gone according to plan.
Monacy expecting some kind of a peek to come through.
It hasn't really happened yet.
40 seconds still on the clock here.
The kind of utility started to come out.
Midas well, Niko in the corner.
You know he's not gonna get Molotov out of this one.
And he's got Monosy with him.
So this should be a bit of a lockdown.
Should be Anders.
Time will tell.
Nice win for Niko, gets the timing.
He will be finding three, Tess S defines.
Happy go towards the end there, 3-0.
Madi's starting to swell here.
Not even a bonus situation for the Falcons.
They've got rifles and all across the board here. AK has finally brought out a G2.
Not known to do terribly well on the stage of G2.
They get to go to finals, sure, but never seem to get much further.
They're going to change that now with the addition of Wrinkle.
Much more aggressive than some pious. Much better with the rifles in general.
But doesn't have as much experience. Will he crumble on the big stage that is yet to be seen?
I feel like there's something about this that makes me believe that they can turn it around.
I feel like Ricox expected his style.
It could be just enough, and I honestly am very impressed
by Matt's recently.
So I've got some faith in him if nothing else.
And that Mad Dog will have to be leveled with the leash.
They're going to stand a chance here today.
Nurtz, as I mentioned, Inferno specialist.
Banana is his stomping ground,
one of the best CT players on that particular area.
Smoke going down.
We take utility deployed.
Karagin gets the information.
No one's home.
The double grenades down towards the bottom, no damage done.
G2, look they are waiting for that, they are aware of the tendencies here.
And just going to be waiting out the initial bombardment of utility.
Most of their manpower over towards B, they drop a smoke down towards the outside.
We've got heavy god lurking towards the apartment, just trying to create a fog of war.
Ted, we're back in the middle.
It's really going through all of the default stuff that we would want to see out of the C side.
They're trying to posture a little bit towards top mid as well, making sure that Falcons don't have too much information and they honestly don't.
And now we're back in this more passive setup over at B, which is one of the concerns we've had all along.
Absolutely. It's Karagun and Kyosuke.
The former sometimes struggling to have massive input here.
You've seen that before. Hold on.
Karagun, he's inside of the smoke. He wants to come through and help Kyosuke. There's a good spread down.
I know! Maybe too long and not for the double entry.
It is exactly the picture that you painted and the start of it.
Just that B defense, it's been a problem all along.
It always has been really, even when Kicksam was in the team, it felt like the banana area was always up at the bait and this time it collapsed once again.
Nothing too spectacular there from G2, a pretty standard execution.
Kiyosuke as well, pretty woeful spray on the person counter by his standards.
You're hoping he gets that kill? No, probably. He wasn't really flashed at all, and it's just going to fumble the initial 10 bullets
Just about get the kill over and then like we said, Karrigan not going to have a massive amount of output in that position
One will not do and it will be a pretty comprehensive roundup from G2. Pretty textbook as well
Going with that mid control pushing the CTs back towards the A bomb site keeping them guessing
They have no real information that stage. The execution, you know they've got no control outside of the map. Yeah, that easy does it
That's very promising now for G2, their first round of the board.
And it's a bit of a doozy.
This is a spray we're talking about.
He was like 20% blind I think, but yeah, he knows he should be getting a quick kill there.
And potentially a double, but nuts.
Like we said, the master.
At the B-bombside, he steps up massively, create movement, bolts up and towards first oranges.
And we'll find G2 their first round.
End of the day, Counter Strike is a game of really, really fine margins.
So the difference between getting that kill instantly and waiting for the second and a half. It really does make all the difference in the world
You see came respect more than me is a really really high rated player at the top of that banana position
So we know that he can do it. Yeah, it's just that this particular duo of players haven't really seemed to make it work quite properly yet
It will be it has got better. It used to be quite alarming. I will say that is true slight improvement
Let's say that's going to be a focus if you G2 you want to keep hammering a home trying to bully Garaghan
Once again more of the same here
Taking that vision away
Another fine mod is the out of the round smoke off flashes deployed Molotov towards quad as well exact same maneuver here and is
CT's need information here
They can't hold three towards their Niko taking matters into his own hands Kiyosuke as well
He wants to be on the front lines or trying to get some damage off early does get a little tag on towards wrinkle
And this one won't be such a foregone conclusion.
Tees now will have to be on high alert.
They know there's a chance of CTs to still go for the retake.
45 seconds.
B finished looking very likely as usual.
Heavy God lurking.
The extremities presenting presence over towards A,
but it will be yet another B finished for Monosy.
A rare appearance from him over towards B.
Yeah, you're right.
That's very rare.
We don't normally get to see it.
Let's see if it's going to be enough.
It really should be.
Smoke off for the Minikies, gonna throw the flashbangs, a set of Karigan comes charging in to the fight.
If you see them, they've got a long spray.
Not the immediate kill that we're looking for, so they trade favorably here.
They're gonna get a bomb planted as well, and you'll do this all day.
We have a question right now from Falcons about how much you want to commit to it.
Their economy, it's not that deep yet.
If you throw away this AWP as well, it could be very, very risky.
You can give this a look in your Falcons right now, but the odds are stacked against you.
Thankfully, G2 have no further utility whatsoever.
The three versus three bomb-ticking at some pace.
His flashbang after the everything,
and Hanzo will peek in front of it to find his cousin.
That is sick timing from Hunter.
Yeah, you're right. He took that right up from under them,
and a bomb-ticking where Sunski and Halsey
that kind of killed the ULSC and get Texas with a headshot.
They're back at the very same time,
and he was the only one with the kit as well, monosy,
so he's right on top of the bomb
as soon as he gets that one.
Falcons with a very, very nice retake
in spite of failing that first flashbang.
Wanna see another ridiculous secret, say you thought defeat them, Hunter would be more than enough, but mechanics looking a little bit off the pierce, who's given?
Fair enough, I don't got one kill under such a bare minimum, and then here he comes, the Flash, stepping up the AWP, close range encounter, Tesla to join him, and they match to get back to their winning ways here, 4-1.
huge rampant in the pickup. It looked like a done deal but G2 of other utility forced to challenge go for a face
and it comes down to the last couple of seconds there but Falcons will get that defuse in
money still okay for G2
for AK-47s wrinkle on the Galil
It'll be the first tactical time out as well, but Falcons smooth sailing so far
Presumably not the end of the world not having the orb on the T side
of normal a little bit more relaxed about that. Yeah, and like we said in the pregame
uh ring call very competent on the rifles as well. Yeah, shouldn't be an issue here.
Let's uh we'll see what hunts comes up with here. Round number six.
Feeling themselves now. I mean it's a really really tight rope that they're walking right
now Falcons but the fact that they're four to one is already better than I was expecting so
I'm kind of excited about how this has started out. Round number six and we will see a bit
bit of an aggressive move in the apartments here. That's Montessy and Tessens and they're
going to keep going. Henry, this is so rare. Is anyone going to be ready on the other side?
Not quite. Heavy guard taken out of the mix. And we've talked about him locking towards
his extremities, watching that apartment position, showing presence there. And really
does force their hand now. They don't have any control towards second middle. They don't
know the CTs are progressing through the apartments. Matt is going to have to
check it out right now. Kisuke doesn't want to let them in towards the B-bombside.
wants to take these Jaws now he has the AK-47 in hand. They've got extra utility, over towards B,
Erickon juggling it over and indeed be careful you got the man in advantage you
don't really have to challenge too much for these fights now. Hit the sub one
minima, sounds good. Or G2 have to left work with, they've got a couple of smokes here,
couple of flashes and two Molotovs. I mean you and I have this conversation all throughout
the tournament about overpeaking on the CT side and we've been focusing on
on towers but it's true for everybody else right you're in the 405 you don't
really have to do anything crazy it's up to G2 to find their way back really
nice career this is perfect you can drop this boost once a half on towards those
new boxes not many people to be pre-fying that but can Mattis get
anything done over four days superly target surely modesty will find him just
want to get one forces the hand of car again and nerds will find impression
outcast you get it has to be great and this time the kills are very fast
no long break, no big delay in the kill.
Oh, he's still gonna find the third one.
Set up with the flash bang as well.
That is the kind of swiftness that I want to see out of Kyushu-kei in this game.
And finally he delivered here.
That's a more comprehensive round.
But you alright?
They almost got dragged towards the A-bomb side from that one match's play.
He started here.
Aggressive maneuver.
Contest says, I love it.
Change of the pace.
Sabotage the offense.
And then Kyushu-kei is finally in contact now.
Looks a little bit ropey.
Except for the spray down, that's much more like it.
Should be the partial buy now.
G2.
Will have a single Galil to work with her.
Four pistols, monosie.
He's got a bit of free roam, available to him.
Same story with Karagin as well.
Can we go over the double grenades?
One towards Long, one towards G-Stef.
To do significant damage.
One to go down with nothing.
And there it is, double kill.
They can pull back now.
Surely that's enough boys.
You want to hear what they have three people here. They might just want to kind of stick around and go for some of the retake with aids
But in theory you're right. They could fall back. You've already done more than nothing this round
He's gonna step in front of that half wall
They against I think some of the expectations from G2
If I'm G2, I'm assuming it's one that they're back in the beep on site. Yeah, I like this from Falcons as well
Banana has been a point of contention
of the game. He's got a lot of
attention. Lot of aggro that
side of the map. G2 executing
there a couple of times.
Condition them to realize that
you're going to have to battle
fruit here. Suke, if you want to
get into that B-bomb side now,
he's finding his confidence,
finding his mojo. Five on three
now. Surely, nothing to say
about this one. We know
heavy God's got a deadly
Desert Eagle. Join that
wrinkle and Mattis. He's got
that Hero Galil. We don't
see many of them. See
whether they can make any
any sort of dents here on the A bomb site.
Tiger, honestly, did they try and run him down?
They almost calmed right.
They've got not a lot of time here.
I think they needed a very, very clean pick up.
They knew that he could be there
because they'd already smoked off the other side,
but wrapping around with Tessus still down in the pit.
I don't see this working out for G2.
They need more than just a miracle here.
They will find the one opening,
but you can see Niko was handling everything just fine
inside of the site.
10 seconds on the clock here for heavy folding.
And Tessus, he's not gonna miss a shot like that.
He's been pretty good in the pit as well.
6-1, this one is starting to spiral somewhat.
Maybe a tactical timeout required here.
That's three in a row now for Falcons.
Haven't seen a ton of gun rounds to be fair.
But I'm liking this aggression.
Making the tier of the banana area.
You can't have this with three boys.
Number five available.
Eight years across the board this time.
I mean, it's an essential building,
block of building anything on the seaside of this memory.
No banana and there's no inferno really to be played.
You can't just be marching up the middle every round you have to at least pretend
You have to only show that you can take that part of the map and
He's in his own that's a problem for G2
Once you let him get into it once he finds his confidence very difficult to shut him down
Takes down nerds who he said is gonna be influential here on inferno
He has a slow start might not ever get going
I'm on a seat. Multiple targets in the middle, it's going to be Niko to take the aggro. He doesn't swing on it though.
Great shot. Can he get away? He certainly can, maintaining the advantage here and then some four versus two. Easy pickup.
Is this going to be the heavy God remaining? I'm not sure there's anything he can do and he's got one smoke and a four versus one.
The bomb's down towards the arch. What I'm saying is it looks pretty grim.
pretty quick. You could say that again, Q2K. We spent so much time talking about
this banana position, and I think we saw some of the weakness in that setup
early on, but you are right though. Now that he's hitting the shots and they're
getting those deep grenades, the utility damage alone at the start of that
round against Nurtz and Hunter was really hard to overcome. They're
getting absolutely bullied now. Into World B, especially down towards the
bottom of banana. It seems that the Falcons let them into the bomb site.
That's where they crumble that they take the fight towards them. That's where they shine
Tell you this as well from a stats point of view Henry
Yeah, it's nuts the top player and that banana position in the world on the CT side, but Kisuke is fourth
But they're not that big of a drop and right now
He is playing like he might be maybe even third or second in the world because it's lights up 11 to 2
The beginning is a little bit shaky, but now you start to see what kind of damage you could do if I'm carrying it right now
I know I've got them in the palm of my hand. I'm presenting more aggression here. I'm sabotaging the offense. Okay
They've taken a time out. You know, they're not performing on the big stage right now
They've got inexperienced players in the form of Mattis and Rinko in terms of being in there in an arena in the quarterfinal
They're not showing up is we want to start applying pressure for your foot on the throats
Let's see if they want to change at the pace and setting three players up towards bananas
So they all got to be at least showing a crush in here once again.
Niko presumably to flash them in eventually.
Raker and Aids once more and there's so much damage, they're waiting for the swing here.
Karagun flashed in.
Does he want to commit? He does.
Take him down this time. Into the double kill. It certainly is.
Do they suspect Niko's here?
I only versus three.
Hate the fact that he fired that M4 because you're absolutely right to ask that question.
How would you know that Niko was going to be here?
You get Kyusuke and Karagun, those are the two anchoring to top another position.
when you get them you're not expecting it and you're not expecting this either.
Great intel.
Yeah, Tess is on another mission.
He's sick of being alone in the pit.
He wants to be part of the action over on Banana.
Allowing Monosy to rotate over and they're taking their sweet time on the G2 side as well.
They can't fall back and they have zero information across the map.
They're in the dark themselves.
They don't know what territory they've lost.
They have to commit towards B and they kind of have to go now.
They've allowed Monosy to rotate over.
They have a couple of smokes here but no flashes, no Molotovs.
They need to hit the initial kill.
Can they take down Niko?
It's a big question right now, it's going to be all contact, it's the...
Oh, they're all...
Let's go!
They're going to be a shoot-off to the wall!
Three kills!
They knew where he was up in the croffins, but it was their early grave.
Lookin' too easy, pretty pedestrian stuff right now.
Flammity, RG2, losing this battle, even in the three-on-three shot.
It was an equal situation, but we saw all that information garnered towards the other side of the map.
They had to commit in towards B and look how limp it is.
They've got no pressure they can apply to CTs.
Got a shooting gallery there.
You're feeding Niko this point.
8 and 1.
Where are G2? They are MIA in this quarterfinal.
One round to their name on their map pig.
They're supposed to be the best team in the world on Inferno.
Hey, you're getting none of that right now.
You're not feeling it at all?
Are they going to land again?
It's not bad. You can do a little bit.
Nice in return. Here we go.
We'll blow up Monty C finally.
And what a few times have we seen him start at the top of this position
and he is already exploded.
Yep.
You see, K-Doll, he wants to put some pressure on,
try and see if he keeps him back at least a little while.
If you don't come by this time, just pack it up.
I agree, actually.
We don't like to call these early, but at this stage,
this is one of the best opportunities you're gonna have.
And they are quick to turn it around.
They know that Monty C's not over here.
They're expecting to run into just a double setup.
Let's see what Texas can do though.
Down towards the pit, wrinkled, getting swiftly rid of him.
His third killer this, I'm so fine.
Oh, that's bad.
Jesus, you can't, he can't see a thing.
It's all an eco.
Oh, that's-
Oh!
Oh!
Oh, my God!
Oh, my God!
Oh, my God!
20!
Oh, my God!
Oh, my God!
Oh, my God!
Oh, my God!
He had almost nothing left.
He was alone in the sights.
Carrigan was running away.
And now down to 30 seconds.
He's working on the end here.
And now he's just breaking down, and he's carrying it back through to take on over to Niko.
Saving the day back to backwells.
Another world-class stunning sequence, and one of the best to ever do at Niko.
Sharon's in great form this tournament.
And look, that was more than enough.
And every entry they could possibly ask for,
Veneto, the turret with the AK-47
Gotten's gone down
Pixel, perfect precision
Every single shot
A complete gut punch to G2
We said, we should start packing it up
They don't give that round
But he killed three people
And still had 20 bullets left with that one
I just don't understand how that's even possible
They had him locked in, they did everything right in it
And now it's that 9-1 scoreline
Things have got so much worse for G2.
Look at this madness.
It doesn't get much better than that.
That is counter-strike perfection.
9-1, G2, surely nothing left after that.
The storylines fallen apart here.
We set it up.
G2 should be one of the best in the world
of playing in front of and we're not getting that feel
right now.
This feeling bold.
You said you wanted this out of Falcons, perhaps a little bit more aggression.
Beat them when they're down and they certainly are in the moments.
Hunter onto, heavy guard onto.
They've had no success getting up banana, they keep running into the HEs.
It's Falcons in full control of the CT side.
Let's just see if they can claim all the rest.
They want to fool that Major, it's not just a fluke,
that they can be back and continue their march to victory.
That's another brilliant grenade.
Nothing is working for G2, what are you doing on stage?
Found the coach, you're thinking about the next map.
Haven't had a look in here,
one of the executors worked out for them,
and that's when arguably the mechanics
let the Falcons down.
They wake up cool in that department,
and set them up for a stunning CT side here,
looking for double digits here
in the five and four advantage,
smoked off his Hunter.
Back to the drawing board, I'm afraid 45 seconds,
Once again, Operating was very little there.
One smoke, one flashbang here.
Brinkle with the Galil, three and nine.
Under two and nine.
Heavy got two and nine.
No one really showing up.
Matt is with eight kills.
30 seconds, Anders.
I guess Heavy gots going to try and show presence over
towards B, trying to get a pick.
He goes downward.
Nothing, though.
That's it.
See what's going to work out.
We will get the one.
But again, Nico, back with more mortis.
That's it.
No time.
He took to 17 kills.
And he's found another triple.
This is an outrageous performance,
what we're seeing right here.
Valcons, 10-1 as we go into round number 12.
I mean, this is nothing like the half
that we were expecting.
No, it's not the half we built up in the three game, is it?
We thought this would be neck and neck down to the wire.
Have he gone stepping up?
Nerds dominated Banana.
Hunter, with some perfect mid-round calls going
from C.D. Spawn dropping the fakes and they haven't got going at all. This is very flat.
Desperate times, group of desperate measures. The MP7.
And they just go in for a shred of rush in towards Banana.
And they're going to try and get some fast control.
Matt is certainly one. He finishes off 8 and 12. He's the top frag of their minds.
We're made once again. A massive issue. 126.
Now that's the way that MP7 work.
Here, Janse, a slither of hope.
Already, he goes into position.
They already have three field.
This is such a more dynamic defense on the B-bomb type.
Then what we've seen in the past,
through the smoke as well, they find Hunter.
He's out of the round.
And we see him poking through.
He's too great.
Doesn't matter that it took a minute there.
He's pulled out the side arm.
He's ready if they come through.
G2.
What a shocking first half they've run into here.
Rinkle's practically dead already.
Heavy guard. We know what he can do.
But he's not been doing it in his first half. Three kills so far for him individually.
And with 55 seconds on the clock, they are once again kind of boxed in here on Banana.
They could go back, but I think that's going to make it any easier.
Going back into Monosy at that arch position. I don't know if that's a good idea.
Get the rounds down the half's over.
I don't even know what you do here.
You've got the bomb waiting in towards the Kabiya Banana with 4 HP.
That's a good luck with that. There's another heavy God is going to show some presents over towards Moto
But why would you move anyone over at the discipline is so good as well on Falcons?
They're giving them no fights. No one's peaking no one's doing anything with down to 20 seconds
They threw one smoke at a just to try and pretend maybe maybe we're gonna show up and hit that bomb site
But Nico he's rock solid and ready to go
Steps up and shuts down heavy products monocy with a long range and it's an 11 to 1 first half
in favor of the Falcons.
I don't think there's many people who can do what they can do.
The speed is just unreal.
You have so much confidence because of his understanding of the game
that it might look like he has nothing to lose.
He comes first because he is fast as fuck.
He knows everything. He's always there where you are.
You need to take care of the real because otherwise the one is always there.
You let him do anything he wants.
His game sense is just superb.
He's gonna keep being one of the best for everything.
Watching him play, you just gotta realize he definitely brings some respect to the game.
What in the world?
Lifting the flash and thunder!
Oh, no!
He's got himself a third!
And the plot simply sensational from fantasy!
In other words, who throws the lies online?
No matter what the level of competition is,
the fantasy keeps the real going.
Oh, oh, my god!
When you think it's that, you know he's gone at all.
Lightning strikes twice in the hands of the Flash!
...
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to Blast Open Porto 20-26.
You join us for the first of two quarterfinals,
and you join us for the team of Falcons.
A frag movie, apparently. G2, where are you?
A total 23 kills between them.
And the first half of their map, Pick Anders,
is considered a T-side map as well.
We go 11-1 in favour of team Falcons,
a team that has historically struggled on the CT side of Inferno,
But no struggles here today. Smooth sailing should be a job done.
We'll run it through the usual cliches here and as they need the pistol.
They need to get a few rounds on the board and unlikely they pick this map up.
They need to get into the series at the very least.
Is there anything left in the tank for G2? It looks like we're not live.
So we'll take a moment to catch our breath.
Lord knows G2 has to as well. This has to be a flawless CT side.
Not saying it's impossible, but it's certainly improbable.
If any team in the world could, it maybe would be G2, but man, all the individuals have to come alive.
Now you're right, we have to pull out all the cliches.
They've certainly got a set up for what could be one of the all-time history comebacks, but it has to be for us like you said.
The thing is, there's no individuals online right now.
Yeah, where have they gone? What's going on here?
And they look tilted, frustrated, understandably so.
They're getting caught out by pretty nice aggression from Falcons on the CT side,
But certainly could have been handled wasn't anything too crazy there a
Couple of extremity pushes and tests getting great information towards the apartments, especially
Honestly dynamic is ever but Nico stole the show that 4k to completely shut them down on the A bomb side
Was a thing of beauty one of the plays of the tournament so far
And to be honest as well
We could see the evolution from how they've been defending B from the first couple of times that we saw them in the front
to now, right? The fact that they've now got, honestly, they've got, they've got Niko rotating
over much more, so it's not just Karagin and Kyusuke trying to hold that position alone.
It's a bit more of a dynamic defense. Very cool to see. And something that I don't think G2 maybe
were ready for. Certainly not. Well, Inferno, as I mentioned, this is the pick of G2.
He had Dust2, Nex, and Falcons, one of the most deadly teams on Dust2. They try to bring
They didn't win a single time, three times a run against them.
But yeah, that's what will be played today.
Dust2, their mirage of a quiet, and I've got a feeling it might not be.
The way things are going right now, G2 haven't even warmed up yet.
23 kills, as I said, across the whole team in that first half.
Niko finished with 18. Kiyosuke with 15.
Yeah, how do you justify that? You really can't.
you justify that, you really can't.
So, we'll have a look.
Looks like we've got a small tech issue.
Yeah, been told a couple of minutes
before we're back into it.
I guess we could say there is a bit of a reliance
on the A bomb site for the pistol rounds
for Falcons on this half, right?
When they're on the T side,
they do like hitting that A bomb site.
But again, we know that G2 will know that.
So the question is, are you playing into that same thing
or are you playing against those expectations?
Checking with what Nico is getting up to in that first half.
This is some beautiful counter strike.
Every single round, directly positioned, very disciplined as well.
Fantastic mechanics, and yeah, like I said,
one of the plays of the tournament here.
Considering it's on the fixed stage as well,
it doesn't get much better than that.
Close to the ace as well.
Nico, downing him down.
A vintage performance from him.
The old boy has still got it, let me tell you.
and looks like we're ready to go, ladies and gentlemen.
Second half and last chance for G2,
one round away from map points on their pick.
Hopefully this is where we'll see them at least find a few
and is that the old cliche is like,
even though you know you're not going to win the game,
you have to find five or six rounds
and try and just get warmed up and prostrate your opponent
and trying to just shake off the tilts, the prostration.
And hopefully we'll see that come through
because yeah that was an absolute stink out of the first half. Nothing the coach can do now.
They've been absolutely buried here. That was on the T side as well.
It's going to be a very, very important pistol that goes about saying we'll see
AG2 can sink their heels in because we know they've got great plays here. The CT side of
the first, they did their best work. Heavy got towards a pit, nerds towards banana and
wrinkle being very dynamic. He loves to move around the map and choose his plays at the start
of each and every round, but we'll even get the AWP. I don't think so.
If they win the pistol, they've got to get through the second round, forced by as well.
It'd be a very, very different affair. We're all right about that.
We're going to find out right now. Henry, as we head back into it, Falcons now
on the T side of Inferno. And it seems they could do anything at all.
If they could at least win the pistol, then we've got a conversation to begin with.
Falcons, they look red hot here. It is really warming up in Porto as well.
Unfortunately, only one side of the server is looking really good at the moment.
We do need G2 to have a real party here inside of the Superbock Arena.
And right now, Falcons taking a very slow approach.
They are trying to see if there's any CT aggression whatsoever happening on the map, and there isn't a real comeback.
By himself, we've seen this so many times from G2.
He'll be there alone, popping out his chest, trying to present some sort of defense here.
What utilities even got out of this?
I don't think he has any. Has he got P2000 and just Kevlar?
Well, thankfully it looks like they're going to be changing their approach here.
Back towards middle where you go, and they have got the four man stack.
Flash in the hand of Rinkle.
Smoke for Hunter.
Just playing with the pixel gap right now.
Trying to funnel them up towards quadra.
Two pistols are waiting for them.
He's trying to get that one. Hunter, but he's not successful.
Nice coming, it's still in here.
Trying to hold him back. Headed to the top with the first headshot.
from the pits he's taken down Nico 40 seconds still even while running Mattis
great head shots he's found three of them they can down Tessa's last a much
needed lifeline for G2 as they do pick up the pistol on the second half but man
all of the work is still ahead of them.
The proper world to be done but that's the best round we've seen from them yet.
What a time to arrive. One round away from Matt White's great sequence from
Wrecking, wrinkle, a mattress, working in tandem now.
Brick by brick.
Need to build back into this one.
Shouldn't need a force by here, Anders.
Got no bomb plant.
SMGs will come out on the CT side.
A chance to farm, a chance to get warmed up here
on the server.
Disappointing end for Heavy God.
Not the end of the world, though, as we will see him.
Not the end for, and he'll get picked up quickly though.
get rid of the SMG as well here.
So four and four shouldn't be too much to report here.
Can't imagine a world they lose to Glocks, right?
Now that you said that, I immediately doubt it, but you're of course right.
It should be easy. And you want to win these rounds, even though we don't celebrate them too much,
just try and make sure that the team feels a bit better.
Get somebody clear if they have a kill to kind of come online here.
No, it's just traded out. Still not the end of the world.
Again, not around that you can celebrate hard, not only which you just kind of power through
and hit every headshot, a little bit of a challenge as a moniker trying to reload that block
and doing as much as he can.
Just trying to be annoying here, get under their skin.
Dawson off the jewel, Wrench will take care of business though.
Two in a row for the first time here with G2.
Wow.
Level three, but here come the AK-47s.
and they hold the wolf from the door.
Round 15.
I think right at the start of the tournament
we talked about how good Nurtz is
at that top banana position,
but human maps just combine it.
I feel like they haven't really found the flow yet.
Like it hasn't been working perfectly.
We've seen the failed HGs that bounce off the arch up there.
Like there are a lot of small details
that seem to be not quite working yet,
but I'm ready to be proven wrong once again here
and let's see what they could do.
Deep smoke, courtesy of Hunter down towards the bottom
of the banana.
Let's take advantage of it.
No, no, it's like they get stuck in.
Let's go down towards the locks.
Push the T steps.
Jump into the mincer right now.
Seeing if anyone dares go through the smoke.
A-Ching in hand.
Looking to cause some big damage here towards Niko.
Oh, that goes straight behind them.
Pretty good, A-Ching.
It's Karagin eating most of that.
And actually, the incendiary nearly burns him out,
but it's trying to take his control, Niko.
He at least spots him falling back, you know, if they've escaped from that sandbag's position.
They can take it, they can educate some guests now, that position's clear.
Retake utility being deployed right now, there's a flashbang map,
he's to allow nerds to swing round, double-fight for good measure.
Retaking control here.
This is risky.
You see that Tracer's front in front of his eyes, he could have blown up in the boost,
I'm trying to find him!
The jump!
That is now swinging into the fight!
and he will find of Niko and Kyusuke in return.
That is massive.
If he doesn't do that, then it's a bomb plant
and he's very close to being gave over on inferno.
First real fumble there from the Falcons
over committing to that jaw.
And now called with a flashback in hand.
Honestly, we'll go down.
This is more like it from G2.
A convincing round here.
Was down to that four and four
with a retake with spectacular matters
with three kills up to 15 now.
Delivering the good.
He's playing a stepping up with G2.
Can he keep it going?
He certainly can offer the ace right now.
Bomb down, Tessus, if he had more time, maybe this is an interesting round, about 10 seconds.
4 vs 1, just going to save the AK-47, so at least we're online now for G2.
So I think Tessus was holding the arch for the bomb to rotate back,
and if Maxis hadn't gone in for the third kill, then the bomb would have run away,
and it would have been just a single player in heavy guard down in the pit,
so it's super, super important that they managed to stop the bomb from running away.
Fourth round...
It's a long time before G2 can feel different about this game, but I mean, already they started
to play some of their players into the game here, and this game actually is so sick.
That's the moment of overcommitment.
You got that nice trade back, over the boost, then jumping over it, it was a force of the
time, and short.
Better looked a little bit clumsy.
No real need for it, Niko knows it, and now finding themselves in partial by territory.
does save the AK-47. First time I've required here. Sonic, build these rounds getting a little
bit chaotic now. So they want to invest into this. I'm seeing a couple of Eagles in the mix.
A Tech 9 for Karigan. But every chance to win this one, Tess says, I have to make that AK sing.
And number 16-11-4 here. Speaking of AK's, we've got three of them on the CT side and Rinkle
his first appearance now with the AWP. This is where he does his best work on the CT side.
Very dynamic, very aggressive, different position each and every round.
But CD wants to bring that sort of play style, the first real challenge here with the AWP.
Love the fact that it's carrying him with a Tech 9. He does love to set up his teammates.
That's one of the, I think, the better parts of him as a captain.
He's charging through the smoke, kind of flying through an opening.
He's up, he's going to give it a shot here again.
He's shooting Niko in the farthest.
Got the bottom up and on there.
It's heavy guard.
Sharp, not a try man, but you've got to be careful.
Niko, well known for his eagle.
For years now, for decades now.
So two buzzes four.
Anything they can get.
Anything they can do to slow down the momentum,
the slowly accumulating momentum of you two,
you'll take it here.
Is it too little, too late?
That's the question,
but this is looking quite promising now.
A flawless run. This will be four rounds in a row on the CT side.
I feel like that's the beautiful thing about Counter Strike.
He's really never too late.
There's always some way to kind of get back into a game.
And it's not like Falcons have been playing flawless Counter Strike.
Like they've had their weaknesses as well.
So I am very, very curious about this one.
I feel like if they can start to get heavy God in that pit,
if he's going to have a decent better half here, then
you never know. It's possible still.
40 seconds, Marine Corps could be surprised, but there's a lot of players here, alright, that's a decent little flick, and Niko's already low enough and healthy here, but you've got to keep your rifles, I mean, if you can steal AKs on Banana and AK on the CT side, that is easily the difference between life and death there,
Nierce pushing any stick of weighting, 11 to 5.
And by rounds, finding their form, Mattis leading the charge.
That's for sure.
You'll have the AK.
Nierce will join him.
Those are the two players you want to have those rifles.
Wrinkle, couple of decent shots there.
One connects, got a leg in towards Niko as well,
which is sealed with the heel towards the area.
No HP left in the AK.
Speaking of which, Niko up to 20 now.
That's round number 17.
AK is out in full force.
I say that, it will be Tessus operating with the MP7.
There you go.
Open smoke towards the top of the nine
in the Kitting's office.
Double incendiary from the CT side.
Looking to assert their dominance.
Three players over towards B.
They're boosting on the half wall as well.
Rincourt, we said he likes a challenge.
Rikes to get stuck in,
and this round is no different.
Great opener, running out confidence now.
Great opening pick.
And now they can reset the rounds.
We talked about Nerf getting into a dislodged position
and this time it doesn't work out.
Normally tucks himself away, goes for the intel play.
Doesn't work out for him, back to the foreign forward.
Damage has been done.
It really looked to me like he had that shot dead on.
Smoke going towards that half-warm.
Impressive early peek from Rinkle,
but giving it back now,
even if Niko and Monticello are low on health,
All it takes is one mistake at this B bomb site.
We've seen it time and again.
You slip up even one time and it could be over.
Are they gonna flash their way into what's top banana again?
They're not quite peeking behind it,
but they might try and see
if they can force out some shots.
Molotov to clear the front of the B bomb site.
Here comes one flash,
incendiary as well, and a second flash bang.
And this one is for the peek.
Neeper straight there.
That's really good work.
They're playing just in for the incendiary as well.
Taking a ticket down and sure that they were not ready, but that second flashback to come through Niko
Corp hands on the ankles will be the B commitment now nothing left to do 15 seconds should be a G2 round here all day long
Anders, yeah, that's your outfit could do something disgusting
Good spray down. You gotta remember a match is very low. They might be
Spread out the water from it didn't spread into the corner. There we go. He gets the kill
Oh, I'm always fell down into yellow to be kind of a fountain in time
If he'd have stayed near the fountain, I think he would have had time for the bomb plant.
But they got fooled by the fact that the Molotov, it looked like it had spread all the way into the corner and it didn't.
A leap of faith there to carry them, was hoping the bomb planted, hoping no one else would be on the bomb site.
A rude awakening there as he commits to the plant.
It felt like they might have given that round up with the nerds commitment down towards lobster.
Great reaction, flashback over, Mattis dominating.
This CT side so far keeping the dream alive in this game is back on 11 to 6 has to be the partial here
Honestly, no time to clutch, but he will save the AK47 at the very least
Looking to alleviate all of that pressure with just one round
Give them such a nice buff up to close this game out
but yet to find it
So now with the make-to-desert Eagles and tech 9s once more basic util
Some of which being deployed towards the arch wrinkle finding his individual form now
Sure, he doesn't set 11, but the pigs he's finding, the aggression he's showing, these are his calling cards.
It'll be the Molotov towards squad. We talked about these ideas in the first half, removing that CT vision.
Forcing the crossfires, skibbier, half bomb here, and here comes the pounce, and he gets the first kill.
Tessa certainly can, pressure on Hunter now.
Yeah, he needs a little bit of backup, but the backup's still smoked off.
There's a smoke on the other side, keeping a recall.
He's taking down Karagin and Kusuke before they finally trade him out, so at least he's giving his team a man advantage.
And they relocate for that bomb plant. They did not trust that they were always going to be on the short position.
Let's see what kind of a decoy is Niko going to show up with. It starts with the monosy AK, but matters.
He's been reliable. 19 kills on him. Only one better on Niko as he relocates into the corner.
Eagle and Hander, we're ready to go the first one back.
Oh!
This is round!
That's Keel!
The Niko!
You wanna see Amnico up against their old organization
in a two versus four.
They step up massively.
They get that bomb planted.
And it's the Desert Eagle.
Amnico once again doing it for the Falcons.
They needed that under as if all of this one was unraveling at the seams.
And of course, Corral of Sneak-O.
Binds him by 12, six opportunities now to close it out.
They're like Hunter did more than enough.
That dastardly duo, Monacee and Sneak-O did it over the line
and now they have money back from their side of the server.
Or for Monacee, AK's otherwise.
Sneak-O, the challenge nerds once again.
And he comes through, peeking the elevation there.
He knew that someone was jumping on the other side.
I wish I could have seen that shot.
I think right through the ankles, sprinkle, just barely missing it.
Good information though to work with.
They're not afraid, they know that he's probably going to be falling back.
But this seems to be the safety that you want for Falcons.
Now they're up to 12, worst thing that can happen is to play OT.
And that is still a long ways away.
Yeah.
A little bit early on the HG, no one there on the other side to catch it.
They do have three people this time
Last time it was hunted and ended up alone
Because of that jump down in the pits that worked so flawlessly for Falcons
They're gonna be pushing wrinkle on the side
Already are they gonna be
Molotov to begin with making sure that no one's in that corner smokes a standard land behind him
Is there gonna be a setup from pit? It's hunter and have you got down there?
H-E, he can't see a thing, he peeks into it, it's a wide swing and now it's all on heavy
guard. He might be one of the best fit players, but this time he's been out of the world,
giving Hunter a loan, I think it's all crumbling on Inferno for them. Nurtz and Metis looking
to rotate in, but this was such a clinical take of the A-Bombsite.
They talked about the discipline of Thalcans all day long, they've had some great moments
when they've had the advantages, they haven't given much away. They're going to have
have to present more of that Anders 4 versus 2.
Should be a done deal here, 13 to 6.
Mattis, sure he's being graved but I don't think he's
going to win him.
How does he so either?
He's the team leader of the world.
He's going to see him in the last shot there.
13 to 6.
A great infernal map for Falcons.
You couldn't have asked for anything more.
You couldn't, at all.
It was a really great showing.
11-1 in the first half.
But you have to handle the G2.
They did not give up.
They did find some form in that second half.
And they gave them a run for their money.
Had they set on the CT side,
could have been a very different game.
They are one of the best CT teams on Inferno,
but it wasn't quite enough.
Niko winning out with Monosy in that two versus three
was the back break of their Anders.
And we've got Dust2 coming up next.
It's looking likely that Falcons will find the two-zero,
but maybe we can find some form here
to take us to a third map.
There was still a lot of fight
when it came to G2 in that second half.
I am so surprised at the way that they were able to charge them through.
You look at 11, one half time and you think to yourself, okay,
Pistols and it's over.
They pushed through that.
They put a severe in the end of getting five whole rounds of the second half.
They weren't making me believe it.
I think they were making the crowd believe it.
I think we all believed it there for a second until Falcons.
I mean, patented with the D goal, with the AK picking it up,
Montesey and Nico, who else for Falcons?
You just get those kinds of players on a bomb site and you let them work.
And that's exactly what Kerrigan was able to accomplish in the second
to get it over the line, but Niko was just unbelievable in this one. After a horrible game against
Maus on this very Inferno, he bounces back in a huge way in a way that Falcons really needed.
I thought it was a little bit of talk from him in that pre-match interview where he
to goes, you know, yeah, cheek to, there is a little bit there when I come back and face up
against them. But my goodness, he showed up in this ever and he proved that at the end of
the day, there is no more talk that's required, especially not what it comes to in the
and finally some of their interviews in the past they've talked about it's
bittersweet beating g2 because there's players you know the players on that
team you don't want to take down hunter it's your cousin it didn't feel bittersweet
he's not showing that here I mean it's a little elimination right now at the end
of the day you to make sure that even when it's your opponents not pick
you're still showing up no nico relishes these kinds of moments of
course he wishes that it would be him and hunter to lift that trophy but
not really how the cookie crumbles in terms of where the roster moves lay
But the performance that he put on the a bomb site was superb
But not only the 4k we saw there
But like we said in the second half as well to lock it down in the post plans was excellent stuff
I mean Nico on inferno is just it's one of his home maps
Okay, I mean I would probably say his other home map is cash. Unfortunately Falcons don't play it
So this is the spot where he has found so much mileage for them
I wanted to see even more from him on the T side
But he didn't give his team enough buffer because he did so well on the first half
I think they let they took the mouse lost the heart really
I mean this is just an incredible vintage performance from Nico we talk about him being the third or you know
Yeah, he's the third star on this team and you're questioning how often he's he going to perform if you can perform like that once or twice a
Tournament, I'm happy. Yeah, I mean we had Karen off the mouse lost
And it's like at the end of the day
We all playing from one to see to be asked to play it
But if someone like Nico was gonna show up in a photo show up on the stage like that you go to yourself
Okay, actually, maybe at the end of the day there are a lot of people that we can have faith in that are also stars here for themselves
But we all know that especially looking at the first half right
Let's start off with round number five because this was around where we're thinking
Okay, Falcon finally being tested a bit more. Hey, so it's one where G2 could have
Started building a street together for themselves and you think that they're going to I mean they get this nice
B site hidden after taking the banana control going for two for two a lot of people don't like Inferno because they think that these moments are
are unwinnable for the CTs.
And even as they go for the retake,
Nico gets clothed in the side of his head
by his cousin Hunter.
But then everything just unravels for G2.
Monacy somehow gets the kill here.
I thought Mattis would have been maybe wide enough
to hold the angle for him.
But you could see that the player in water there
just had no clue that Monacy could approach
from that cough inside.
And I think that little lapse in communication
just unraveled all of G2.
Yeah, that's the situation where really you're,
typically you're expecting a save, right?
You're 2v3 there.
After your first player dies,
you're thinking you're gonna back up hold on to your weapons instead I think
they really surprised G2 going for that one G2 maybe mentally was thinking
when are we gonna start exiting the bomb site instead they're there monosy
dropping onto the sandbag to get the kill that is insane and it wasn't just
that round that you know the Falcons individual prowess showed up it was
also the following round with round six where we're seeing them again step up
in another way yeah I thought this was a great call from hunter your 4v5 right
off the beginning of the round by this as has pushed heavy guys even
ready for it if you can't get the frag. So you push Matisse off of balcony, he gets the one kill
and it gets the kill on the Terrigan here. Both B players are looking to rotate so Nertz gets the
free kill but then they fumble with their nades here allowing Kiyosuke to get two kills there
where he should have gotten one and traded and then you have a 2v2 after plant that's very much
winnable. Instead you let Kiyosuke into a winnable situation fumbling for your nades
and you don't even get a single frag in the 3v3. It's almost like they didn't buy how well
that Hunter call was going to work for them that it caught one player off guard and it really almost got Kyosuke off guard as well
Instead Kyosuke just gets them as as they're trying to set up getting into that bomb site there
So I think that that's an example again of Hunter making a pretty solid read of how they want to play
4v5 out but just no one's able to capitalize on the moment
Which is a bit of a shame because I feel like you know one of those rounds is a win for the side of G2
and we don't see an 11 one half
for the side of Falcons right?
Even though there's earlier rounds in that half,
it's enough that the momentum to build again,
maybe just the shakiness,
the faith of G2's T side here,
waivers a little bit too much.
And on the flip side whilst we've highlighted Niko,
we've highlighted many rounds that they've been able
to touch up for themselves.
The other person that we haven't mentioned is Kiyosuke,
right?
He has been able to show up in a way
that playoffs haven't always been favorable for him.
Kiyosuke on Inferno really struggled
when he first joined this roster.
In fact, it was so bad to the point
that their A site looked on paper to be their problem
because they did so much pivoting to support that weak B site
where Kiyosuke couldn't actually get the frags.
It looked like A site was the problem.
Instead, now you've got Kiyosuke really coming into his own
on this map.
He's found a lot of really solid performances.
And he's really got a good read of the timings on this.
I mean, even Ketting kind of caught off guard
on that round six.
He still gets the triple.
And then Banana was really where he shined.
So many times I've seen in the past
where he struggled on Banana, where he's not
been left alone because you know that you can't trust him.
I think he's really come into a position
where he's got trust.
Kerrigan has faith in him on this B site,
and he's proven why.
Kioske famously also, when I looked at his face of games,
only had about a dozen on Inferno
when he first was playing for Falcons.
I'll also say that this is one map
where I have felt Kerrigan helping him a little bit more
than somebody like Kicksand.
Where Kicksand, I'd say his numbers individually
look better than Kerrigan's,
but then Kioske didn't really look as good.
And I think Kerrigan has been doing a better job of setting him up with utility at times
and making sure that Kyosuke just gets fights that are on his terms.
Because a lot of FACED players don't like Inferno because all of the nades,
all of the amount of dodging you have to do, he doesn't feel like you always get a fair fight.
But when Kerrigan's in the back line throwing that artillery to help you out,
then you actually have the nades that are working in your favor.
It's always the small things that you don't necessarily see for themselves
when you look at the scoreboard at the end of the day,
at the end of a map like this one.
But my question is how far do you think Falcons will go after in the front of showing like this?
I mean you're going into Dust 2, very comfortable map for them.
You're going into Mirage after that.
If it gets to a map 3, that's where I'm starting to think G2 have a chance.
But I think this one's ending in one map.
My prediction before the tournament started, Falcons win it.
You did say that!
Doesn't matter how they look through the group stage, they can always turn up
and we're getting that right now in the playoffs.
You've been Falcons for a second.
Yeah, well sometimes I have the question that things you say there.
even if you don't necessarily doubt the players you're backing. But I have another prediction that I
want to throw at you guys. This was coming from Pauli Malkin where we're looking at is an MVP going
to be the first time MVP. And if you're thinking, Maui, the Falcons are going to go all the way,
is that really likely? Is it as high as 49%? It would have to then be, what, Kyosuke at that
point because Niko's won an MVP on HLTV before. Bonnecy has a handful as well. So I don't
I don't really think that the MVP is going to Kosuke and if I think that they're going to win then I would say that this is even more likely to be no.
Yeah I think I agree with you on that one. You have Niles on the other side of the bracket, Spinks just won an MVP. Very likely that they get to the final spirit.
Toziii!
He's won one before too right?
He's won an ESL pro league one I'm pretty sure.
Oh okay.
He won over frozen in 2023 I think.
So I have to go with no on this one.
Look, I feel like it's surmounting then that it is most like, you know, based on the two sides of the bracket, who you guys are favoring.
But of course, we're getting ahead of ourselves.
We're talking all the way down the fact that Falcons is going to be potentially winning this best of three.
We're not really sure though, as there are only one map up here, and we've got to look towards Dust2 after this break.
It's such an important piece of that, everyone spoke for a long time about how you freed
him, how you unlocked him.
Is this where we get the best of him again at playoffs?
Any speech from anything you've told him before to make sure he's in the right mood?
I had the major, he had a bad group stage and I said, now you're a player of demon.
You can't be a group stage demon and player of demon.
So let's see today.
I think he enjoys those big games more than maybe he did in the past.
And that's a big part, but again, to us to get him to play up,
we need to be consistent in group stage.
So let's see how the game goes today.
I think the team is ready.
We are ready and just enjoy playing in the arena again.
From what you're saying about him though, do you feel like he's a player that benefits a lot when you hype him up and gm up during a game?
I think it's everything. I think, you know, he plays a lot of faces. I guess sometimes he can see a official practice game like a face-it, but when the games come, he's really good at finding the balance, went to peak and went not to.
So yeah, I think just the whole team man's up a bit. It's too early to say, like I said, this is my fifth LAN with the team. We've been in play-off in all of them.
So, that's a good start, but let's try to get more Finals appearance again and that's the goal here, but we have a very tough game ahead of us.
An incredibly valid viewpoint coming from Karag in there. The fact that we're looking towards a team that should be making more Finals, they're happy that they've always made a playoff since he's joined the helm of this team, but at the end of the day, they always drive and want more for themselves.
I think that's a good point.
I think that's a good point.
If I had to choose one playoff
demon or group stage demon, I
know which one I'm choosing.
And so far, Kioski has been the
playoff demon. At least one map
deep. That's true. It was a
rocky group stage there to see
and bounce back in that
fashion versus G two in an
arena. That's exactly what
you want from Keregan. I think
that Keregan also knows that
versus lesser opposition.
Well, we're going to see if G2 are able to bounce back for themselves, right?
You're talking about this, Falcons. They've had a couple of days.
It's always been this preparation.
And so they get that 13-6 win over G2 on their map pick.
G2's map pick of Inferno.
And we look towards what Falcons have kind of defolded back to now,
looking toward the Dust 2.
I mean, I say that Falcons have a weak map pool at the moment.
That's because they really only have a couple of maps to choose from,
namely Dust 2.
They're really going to have to pick Dust 2 against almost all opposition
position if they go deeper in this tournament.
And that's the concern for G2.
They're a team that they are really happy on Inferno.
They're really happy on Mirage.
Much less so on Dust2, where both Nurtz and Hunter
fail to perform individually.
And I think the team is just a lot less cohesive
than Falcons is.
Nurtz and Hunter are having troubles.
But the guy that I'm looking at also is Heavy God.
This is his lowest rated map in a G2 jersey
since Rinkle joined their midst.
And that is not acceptable for a Falcons team.
sometimes hammer on to that B bombsite you needed him to be someone that can stand up that can just anchor it by himself
And so I'm asking way too much out of wrinkle this map. I need wrinkle to hard carry their CT site side
I need openers. I need strong rotations. He needs to be the difference maker
It is some mounting for the side of G2 a lot on one player a lot on the team knowing that this is single
Elimination and right now you're one map down going to falcons pick of dust to
Yes, thank you very much guys setting the table nicely for the second map of our first quarter final
It is G2 with their backs to the wall and is the first map simply not good enough 11-1
It was a bit of a non-start there sure they got going in the second
But it felt like the game was already over and it was ultimately Nico proved that what an individual performance
I think Maui's right though
We're gonna have to see a lights up performance from ankle and the rest of the squad
We need a heavy call to beat everybody else here. G2.
They need a comeback. Second map is live.
It's Dust 2 here for the quarterfinals in Porto.
And Falcons, they're going to be starting on the T side.
G2 on the CT side.
They need a pistol round right here.
They certainly do need a bit of confidence,
some wind in their sails.
And it's slow and steady, so far for Falcons.
No one towards B. This will be an A finish.
Like it'd be the split with the Yasuke lurk towards Long.
focusing their efforts towards Short right now.
Smoke down towards Xbox.
CT's rotating over.
Smoke already's going down towards the crossover.
Good opportunity for Mattis and able to find the first pick, though.
They're already from the flashbangs for me.
There we go.
They're out and getting the headshot.
That is very smooth indeed.
I thought he'd overstayed his welcome ring,
called Corkwood would look like a grenade
and I'm not sure what's going on there.
Three versus three and they're back in the mix,
but Hunter out of the smoke,
he comes for the kill.
Onto Monos, he tests it.
He's ready to trade it out on Long, leaving just heavy guard now.
Not a bad player to have in a clutch, but this is tricky.
Out of position, but that's how the element of surprise on his side.
CT smoked down towards Long, he needs a quick kill here,
that gives up his position, and over the 5V, killing blow.
Now a time against a no-kit, no-youtube at 100 HP.
Like you said, the element of surprise gone.
No-kit either to be picked up on the ground,
So things have just got a lot more tricky for him.
They're not giving him much.
One extra bullet.
That's 99 in one.
Leaving it impossible for Headegaard.
He doesn't have any longer vying for the headshots here.
But again, the 10 seconds ahead of him.
And Nico should know all day.
He could count his time here.
He was going wide for it.
It's very impressive for Headegaard.
It's just not enough to win the round.
No bad, good effort.
About all he could do there.
two versus one. A little bit dicey for the Falcons, but as you mentioned, no time
in that defuse. Any opportunities here? Matt is with the hero of G2. The only
player that really turned up on Inferno, 19 kills. No one else getting double
digits. It's two opening frags, but it's no luck near enough in the end. I'm
assuming we'll see the force by considering it's a cool five players
down to get a bit of extra cash. So we are gonna have double scouts.
Okay, that'll keep it interesting if nothing else.
Yeah, and Rinkle.
We talked about he likes to set the tone of each and every round.
Thanks to OpenThingsUp.
Take these big moves that it costs in his life this time,
and it won't be the Desert Eagle to pick things up though.
So a 4 on 4, carry good to get the Mach 10 kill,
but notice that Desert Eagle keeps around the line.
You said it right away that this is a person who's different from someone like Rinkle.
He longs these kind of plays.
Yeah.
I guess when it doesn't work out, it maybe looks like, oh, you're letting the team down a bit, but man, when it works out, we've seen it already in this tournament, it does look amazing.
We just want to see it with the AWP, and he is very good at all-peen CT side on this map, so that could be something that they're going to have to lean on.
Wow. This round is still up for debate. It can have to be one hell of a flashbang.
in this position commonly overlooked where Hunter's set up right now. Doesn't
know that I'd be venturing out just yet though waiting for any sort of CT
reactions to come through. Here comes a flashback. Should absolutely dump stuff.
Hunter's is what they check it. They certainly do. Good job. Nice clean kill
that. Smoked down towards CT spawn to follow things up. No, it'll have to get
some information here. These are cracking one deep. Not gonna find it.
Nothing but headshots, I'm afraid. For the Falcons, it's another damp
Squib, 4G2, managed to trade things out in initial sectors of the round, but overall a very convincing finish here for the Falcons.
Soaring once again, heavy got to save a scout and Kevlar.
Got two kills from the pistol and he should be going down momentarily.
They will certainly hunt it.
A chance to get one more from RC will deny.
Gets himself a double and should be 3-0 here.
Better mind, it is Team Spirits waiting for the victor in the semi-final.
That's going to be Falcons versus Spirits in a semi-final in the arena.
That's going to be a banger around us if we get there.
If we get there, but I can understand your optimism with that prospect at the moment.
They are looking really, really sharp here. Falcons in the playoffs.
Scary thing for them to come alive like this.
Speaking of bangers as well, we do have Vitality playing against Furia.
Any Furia fans in the house?
Yeah, I thought so.
I thought so. That one's going to be wild.
I feel like we're going to have nothing but exciting games throughout the rest of the year.
The second highest rated map of his career in that second, uh, on the first, yeah, on the final, on the opening map.
That's kind of wild. What's that?
Rinkles gone down in the beginning, but this is the round that we care a little bit less about.
We want to see the rifles come out and more than anything, I want to see Rinkles AWP specifically on the C-side.
I think he's higher rated than Monosius on the C-C side of this map.
So there is somebody look forward to there is a reason that could be enough here nuts
It's down to the wrap around for the middle here
Need to be hunters found one more so it's a slightly more expensive round than you want but
Valkyries, I don't think they're worried about losing it
I think you might be right trying to keep the modest
On the seaside here try and find a few kills tonight. I'm taking
Five rifles over released into the next round
different. There are a couple
floating around the map as well,
and that is fine. What have you
got? Look at the container was
desert Eagle. There are minuses
the eco as well, so no care
blast and just gonna be looking
for exits trying post up in
T spawn. Giving getting the
glorious shots at range. P to
fifties and have you got the
eagles or it got to speak of.
That's that. Yeah, so far so
good falcons once again another
great start here. 11. What
in the first half of the
It was an admirable attempt to come back in the second half.
They didn't give up, they didn't just roll over.
Yeah.
But it didn't feel like enough.
Buried by the Niko Deagle.
Oh, he does get the AK.
It's blown into the middle, towards heavy god.
That's kind of a big deal.
That is a big deal.
Heavy god.
Yet to really get going.
First map quite disappointing to him.
Supposed to be one of the star players on G2.
One of the best in his roles.
I think they set it on the desk right they said heavy god is the floor of this
team so when he disappears which he's done in the group stage as well it is a
bit of an issue for them but let's see if anything's gonna change they got a
stolen AK having more importantly they've got the AWP on Ringle I love to
see him find an early kill on this one monosy has one on the opposite
So you can battle his way back into it to round number four. This could easily set the tone for the rest of this half
Now we're going to be flashed up towards short going through the motions here. This is your classic adjust to default
Dissecting the map this via be finished. Oh, and as you can see the bomb in towards us up a tunnels
Well that that AK is gonna really be worth its money at this point. Well, he is not choosing range
change up close to personal is
the heavy gods.
And if you have the heavy
hands.
I don't think you should keep
the gun barrel.
The straight contact.
They're walking right into the
spray down.
That is magnificent.
No flashes thrown.
No smokes to set it up.
They wanted to catch him
unaware.
HG right to the chest of
Tess's.
Well, yeah, that is
perfect.
I think you didn't see the
gun barrel the first time.
There was a chance there that
he would have peaked it
and just got traded out.
Wow, loving that.
His best contribution by Country Milder.
Heavy God with the triple spray down.
Overlips gets three in total.
Thankfully, the All for the N could do nothing about it.
Burst on the boards.
Need to find some momentum now.
Swing a couple of rounds together.
Can't let this go back in favor of Falcons.
And let another 11-1 score like we threw.
Thankfully, the money's pretty low here.
Deagle for Carrigan, Galil for Niko, but Monosy has got the AWP.
Barebones in terms of utility as well. We need to see Wrinkle come online.
It's an all-piz playground. Dust2 is where they have to do their best work.
He's 0-4 right now. Seven kills on Inferno. Has to show.
He can deliver the goods on the big stage.
Wrinkle does the dare challenge, Monosy here.
It's a standoff towards the double doors.
really scary small deal here
but they gave up the AK in the last round to pick up the AWP for Wrinkle.
So really needs to find some kind of an impact with it.
Plenty of noise being made. He wants the peek.
He's taunting him into it saying, come on man.
I know you're on the other side. Give it a shot, why not?
Monacy's not going to be afraid of him on the T side.
I mean, Monacy I think has got the edge of a Wrinkle so I would fear that too.
That too. Fifty seconds on the clock and they could be setting up for a bit of a crisscross smoke towards the middle, really putting the pressure on.
Yeah, that's exactly what they deploy right now. Takes a lot of vision away from the B window and CT spawn, of course.
The price pressure for these B bombsite players. Can't again. Just using it as a ruse, though.
Hoping it cause a rotation or at least Q2 players over towards B. The flashbang's an excellent pressure now on Hunter.
Eastwick's signature small job. The flashbang will come through. Can he fly the initial kill? Yes, he can.
That's massive that'll really slow them down. We're talking 18 seconds on the clock and no one
Check the nerds no Molotovs to get rid of him. I the hunter finally out of the round
But this one is quickly drawing to a second and seconds all right and unfortunately for Falcons
The bomb has dropped no chance even for a bomb plan there
Hunter doing a lot of work in that one by just staying alive like putting out that Molotov making sure that he was
Unusual since setting up nerds to pick up two kills two massive kills as well didn't over connect with the swing from Goose
knew the clock was low forcing their hand low HP on Tessus couldn't go over the
trade and you're absolutely right waiting for the flashbang great teamwork here
from G2. Segregating those jewels, isolating the fights and Hunter just by
staying alive buys enough time runs the clock down has to be the ego now
but Falcons you might have a game on our hands here ladies and gentlemen. We
didn't have much of one on inferno it just never really got into it at all
G2. Huge disappointment if they can bounce back. Oh my god. Hey then! See you later.
He was flashed as well, just doesn't matter. The matter's dead. Great crosshair placement.
Shouldn't be a problem yet. No, they don't go glocks otherwise. Definitely what you'd
call the hero. 8k. That's the super hero at this stage. The round sun to fall apart
though. 3 on 2. Sure damage has been done.
He's 2k with 15 HP but 2 kills to his name, Karrigan will be given the AK.
An unlikely candidate but he's the only one with the HP to work with here.
Has no Kevlar to note. Should be a big spray down from up here.
Oh, it's not enough.
Needed 2. Now the round is up for debate.
This is essentially an eco. Once they take it, have you got to go to the AWP?
Okay, the baddie's got an M4. He probably still wins it.
But it's going to be very difficult. Once that bombs down, they get a long farm down as well.
He will struggle to pull this one off.
Ball the incendiary, touch Tessas.
No.
Back around the corner here, the lack of armor, definitely a big deal.
But they've stolen so much utility, they're putting the pressure on.
They stole the smoke for the cross.
The long plant.
Yeah, they got the incendiaries, well they'll hold him back
and now the flash to try and get him to shoot.
There's the headshot for Tessas.
There was the high health player.
Now the question is, can Karrigan defeat Heavy God in a straight up 1v1?
There is a kitten player here, the taps are not connecting their range
And he has to commit to it. He's got his head.
Oh, Karrigan, he knows that trick.
Three kills for Taps of the Team and a very unlikely round
to be winning for Falcons.
But it's off the back of Kyusuke, finding those two opening kills.
Oh, that one hurts. That's tough.
Opening kill. You can't really blame Mantis for that one.
He said he was blind.
You're dead on. A couple of kills towards middle.
Karrigan, block, no armor, given the AK-47.
a high pressure scenario.
You see plenty of players
toppled that sort of 1v1.
It's a difficult shot.
Have you got played it well?
But it will be Palkins to snatch back
a very, very important round.
1AK, four clocks, gets it over the line.
And money's still decent though.
And we'll have a full buy here.
A wrinkled AWP, he's still yet to get going
in this series, one and five.
Honestly, we'll have his AWP as well.
Huge round here for the finances.
on either side of the server will be indicative
as to where we're going in this first half.
Another white wash for the Falcons
or a competitive first half
where G2 keep their head above water.
Matt is to be tested once again.
He's got the advantage.
Looks like he's got the initial kill, no problem.
Can't find a double advantage back to Falcons here.
You can see the CT scrambling now.
What's the reaction?
They're gonna send three players over towards A.
High alert as well.
Desperate for Intel on the map.
going to leave heavy God alone towards B.
They can still do a lot of different things with this one Falcons.
They're going to throw the smoke for the boss, but yeah,
wrinkles play in front of him, honestly.
Wrinkle has to go big around us.
He must. We've said it all along the hours of opportunity.
Nurtz is dead, so it's all on the shoulders of Wrinkle.
He doesn't get the killers at elbow showing.
Yeah, it's a hard shot, but no dice.
He's to reposition now.
Massive advantage at this point.
Another smoke for the crossover.
30 seconds they will just be committing into a day options will be limited
they've got plenty of flashes of Molotovs to short as well which will lock G2 out of the bomb site
I guess there's no more smokes here on Falcons so that one incendiary on Hunter could really do damage to the bomb plant
Rinkles on top, you can't see them they're slowly crossing on the top
there's a bit of an early incendiary
there we go they're thrown in there's a good shot
8 seconds on the clock and you can see the entire bomb site is on fire so it's a plant in the open
If anyone swings him, it could be over, but he did get the bomb planted.
Good coverage, Niko with the headshot, that is so risky.
Yusuke giving it all for his team to try and get that bomb planted.
And they are both coming in from long.
If they do it this time, G2, they gave up that last round and they did not need to.
They must reclaim it this time. Flash to the reveal monosy.
Now hiding behind the window, oh, and something takes Wrinkle! Clean down!
heavy-guards already running. He's picked up the AWP's. Yeah, make it a run for it.
Might as well try and escape the sight. Five now for Falcons. They are right back in this one in
spite of G2 winning a couple of early rounds in this half-year. Let's keep this heavy guard.
It's not worth it. It's not worth it. He does go down. He's gonna bury himself away
towards T spawn that gives himself an angle to work with.
Honestly, we'll find him.
That's a huge pick up.
It means Rinko and Appi off.
Really nice.
Good effort there from Rinko.
He's only a second kill.
It's the only kill he finds in that round.
Honestly, Publici was going down there, but of course,
stands and delivers from behind the car.
Should be the eco here.
Not even a partial buy.
We've got a few HE grenades to work with.
Some of them are going to pistols with four players
without Kevlar.
Heavy Garden will have the 5-7.
They deployed their early AGs.
Should be a walk in the park here for the Falcons.
Carrigan knows it as well. He's operating with a Mach 10 here.
Happy just to throw himself into the choke points, get the intel.
These teammates need, he can make the call based on that.
Looks like it is be going through the mid-doors here, setting up towards CT spawn.
Smoke goes in.
No one home towards me, it's going to be Heavy Garden alone, a bit of a stack here.
Now to a slight gap over towards long doors but it looks like they're operating very quickly aware of that potential threats.
Confirmed that they are at least partial by and haven't gone into any play with Kevlar actors.
He gives them a nothing at his ground. That is the case.
They really well played. All your estimate is the max 10.
We're going to really adopt it to a high degree. That SMG, IGL combination, we see it over and over again.
There's good reason for it here. Monacee, he's aware that he'll be boosting on the other side.
Not that it matters but he will find Rinkhole.
So 6-2 is going to be the scoreline here. We've got here through a different route
but we're really quickly back in the same kind of atmosphere I feel like for G2
where it feels desperate. It feels like at this stage they need a couple of rounds to bring it back in.
and Falcons are relentless in this game,
not giving them much of an opportunity.
Monosly, Karigan play well and no cash on the CT side
to really make things work either.
Rinkul on two kills and we were highlighting him
and I think for good reason, like you said,
it's an awful paradise.
We want to see more out of him.
And this is the problem.
His floor is quite low.
His ceiling very high, don't get me wrong,
but you see too much of this way.
This doesn't have any impact.
It's not too late.
It's early days here on Dust2, but yeah, it doesn't look great at 2-7 right now.
One AWP kill found so far, I think, in a series for him.
I mean, I think Falcos, though, they've played these very slow defaults
that does make it hard for them to push in.
Like, those crazy pushes that we associate with Rinkle,
they are ready for those at the start of almost every single round here.
They go for very defensive protocols.
They're not throwing the initial smoke from T spawn.
They've got Tess S all the way back, giving it a good 20 seconds
when they smoke the double doors.
They wait till players are in position to take lower.
They have the flashes to the top of the middle.
They have the molotovs to lower.
They systematically dissect the map towards Short and push you back every step of the way.
So it's very difficult to him to find those high-impact kills.
He has options towards lower B, I suppose, and maybe a boost towards Short,
but for reasons I just mentioned, against the Falcon, it's very difficult.
And the problem is now Dust2 being a spawn-based map.
Monacy has the best long spawn right now, and I can guarantee you he's going to take it.
And that's where Mattis has had some good moments,
but also been picked off a couple of times as well.
If he does make it, Monacy will kill him.
100%
The flashes are going over here
Okay
Good flash to make sure he couldn't immediately get the shot
But...
Oh!
Okay
Another 100%
Oh, quiet
Yeah, but you can see how scary that is though
It's by the CT utility
Is he okay?
Is he gonna swing it full?
There should probably be a flash to set this one up
In just in case there's the boost on the other side
But, um, he feels confident
He's gonna go for it
So, first part of the T side protocol kind of done with
nice little molotov to force them back on the corner. Yeah this is what we're talking about just pushing them back
piece by piece CTs now flashback it's spectacular looking for the double easy does it no problem
whatsoever the falcons march forward here Rinko needs to be the turret now his second all-kill of half
keeps the round alive they're coming off. Okay great shot SS the fact that he found the
kill to begin with is kind of insane but great shot yeah he hunted him down that's
unfortunately the round at nuts and heavy god couldn't be further removed
especially the latter I think what's back at esport the double molotov protocol
timed with the flashbang for that short position that is deadly you could see
how the CT defense they had no chance so what we just broke down as well yeah
kind of perfectly encapsulates what we're talking about there slow and steady
great utility and brutal aim to forward up as well. Two kills guys UK up he goes
they were on a silver platter didn't even need precision there they were dead
to right for the moment our flashbang was thrown. An all G2 are thinking when
they see the first molotov it's alright we'll relocate a little bit further
back we'll be alright then another molotov shows up and by the time
they're moving out of that molotov that flashbang and then with the QCK
UK shows up so this is probably we'll see the burst tactical time out for G2 you
save two weapons my knees are a little bit cooked but yeah there's the flash
back just look how blind they were it's just nothing more I can say about it
like party counter strike great job of tests and that was two kills a wrinkle
did what he could there seven to two it seems to be more the same here in
in the second match, the pick of Falcons considered one of the best on Dust2.
Monacee knows that we know all of them against him, but there is a scout.
Smoke goes down, that's from the CT side as well,
suggesting they could be into World's Lower. Nuts loves it down there.
You'll see him down towards Lower being more often than not.
Wrinkle.
Scout in hand.
And a bit of damage inflicted.
Carragane and Monacee tagged somewhat.
But we're at the tournament so far, Henry.
You and I, we've been keeping up this conversation about
Who will step it up to stop team spirits?
And right now Falcons look like a team
that actually could be doing that.
And they will face them at a semi-final
if they win this one.
So they need to be this sharp.
They need to be this good.
You would say Maus as well, right?
That they have a side of the bracket, so.
Yeah.
That could be a great final final.
Maus looking very, very good.
Yeah, we'll not cut them out.
It's a similar kind of setup,
just lacking the flashbang.
They know the economy is low on the CT side, so they are a lot less worried.
Oh, it's heavy, got a loan. It's going to devices once again.
This is not the forced spare of mind bit of a partial investment here.
They've got a single M4. It's like a triple or bust situation.
You must get the multi-spray down and they're going to pee right away.
He's just a demon. He's frying them out there.
Believe they called him a playoff demon at this point.
He's done very well. Really difficult to get too excited about this first half.
It does seem like more of the same as what we saw in Inferno.
Just getting absolutely bested in every factor of the game.
Five on three, let's have to save this M4A1 in the hands of nuts.
Got a scalpel wrinkle.
You don't really want that for the next round.
Can we get any exits here?
It's about as exciting as we'll get for them.
It's going to be eight, two.
It's kind of what we've been reduced to a little bit here.
Looking for scalp exits,
but G2 just haven't given us more.
at this stage.
Falcons, not a lot to criticise at the moment.
These slow defaults at the beginning.
You said nuts, maybe you would want to push into lower.
Maybe Rinkle would want to push with the AWP, but the defaults are slow enough here for Falcons.
They're very, very hard to do that at the moment.
We're going into round number 11 and Falcons look like a near-flawless team so far.
Yeah, just getting our class, our G2.
two rounds to go. I think we all know they need both of these ones. No one's stepping up. Again,
unfortunately, Rinkle had a couple of moments, these four and nine. Mattis, the savior of
Inferno, kept them in it for so long in the second half, he's five and six. You've got Hunter,
top fragging, which is not good news if you're a G2 fan, I'm afraid. He's a great
fragging game leader, but he's not a star player. So, tactical timeout.
I'm not sure what you can say at this stage.
You're getting absolutely walloped out there.
Karagin is going to keep calling defaults.
He doesn't really need to change anything.
They're not getting any resistance from the Internet.
A bomb site each and every time.
A lot of the focus is going to be returned upon that one hero,
AK round.
Monacy's going to drop a decoy here
and try and bait up a shot from Wrinkle.
Check this out.
OK.
This is a cool little trick.
You drop the decoy now, wait for it to shot,
come through and her grinko will take a peek off them I love that all the little
details matter in a game like this one that's cool idea doesn't go to a fight
though so come down to these last two rounds policy let us the leash a little
here. Same protocols, but a lot more aggressive on the peak. AWP, tip of the spear. Two players
behind him as well. Ring call once again. We need you to step up. Smoke goes down towards
the double doors on the CT side. It comes from the A bomb site. They've got middle pretty
much open right now trying to dissuade the T's from going through it.
Could be a bit of a short fake coming out.
The bomb is in the paddock right now, so looking at the minimap, this looks very, very suspicious.
Yeah, it's going to be a mid-speed split.
The only convincing round they've had is when Heavy goes in towards that B bomb cycle.
The triple's right down with the AK.
The problem is right.
The mid-portion of the split is going to take away Nurtz's attention.
So, I think it's going to be very, very hard to defend this one.
Let's see if anyone will rotate in the CT spawn.
Here comes the first part of it.
You throw this double smoke trying to make sure that everyone stays on the other side nice double H in return
Like we said the mid to B splits the real issue is that window and the door into the B bomb side nuts going over the smoke
It's actually immaculate. He's picked up Niko to begin with that should confirm that someone is up here
They know that they're gonna be coming for it. The backup is not there yet
18 seconds on the clock G2 they need this one last heroic stand and nuts and hunter now delivering as well
They can just keep Suke.
He's done a good job training them down.
The Hunts are to the rescue.
They find a third round in spite of some really stacked
odds inside of that defense.
Great work there.
They can feel the pressure coming through.
So Nurtz jumping towards the window.
Didn't buy down on the A-Feg.
They knew the V-Sglip was coming.
Popping open the smoke.
Getting a nice freebie that opened things up.
And setting up heavy guard.
Solid B defense.
But it might be too little to lay once again.
8-3 they test what he needs this last round, but that's not bad at all.
It's a big box out there, it's prevailing once again.
Maybe God hasn't had much time, chance to actually show us what he can do,
but each and every time they come towards B, he knocks him down.
It was one-way go, Mattis, nothing found, and it's disappointing.
Open up to round number 12 here, Pencourt, model top down a position,
has to swing, thankfully the smoke is there, but taking so much damage off-roof,
to be dead here. That's gonna be 93 Anders. No question about it. Nico knows it as well.
For a second I thought he was gonna jump down in the CT spawn and just try and take
the fight to he obviously know what heavy god is. But they'll keep it cool like this.
The counter flashes coming out. The CTs are swinging in to just an endless amount
of fireworks in the sky. Nothing heavy god could do about this one. Nico to knock
him out. Nine to three in the first half. It's better than on Inferno. I'm just
I'm not sure if it's good enough.
Hello, guys! It's Kixxan from Team Aurora.
So, are we from MAD?
Hello, I'm Max.
And I'm going to read some of your bad comments.
And find out if they're based.
First one, why is Jim from this team, hello?
I don't know man, I think he deserves better to be honest.
They made it?
Can you stop disappointing things?
No.
North American, so probably get used to it.
First Stratboot has been commenced down to Don't Go Kill since early 2024.
It's not like to ourselves they leave and die off of his entrance, it's only now that
he's getting some support in the form of Nier.
That's pretty based, so yeah, truth Nier.
So for starting to watch actual tier 2 team, I wish I knew last year was their pick, but
you are writing on internet and I am playing so.
Sorry for that.
Narno here.
And Mady has been the most mid-broster forever.
Well, your vids are getting worse.
Mouse no longer hour-less, but Spirit is Spiritless.
Wow.
This is tough.
This is tough.
But Mouse are hour-less.
Anyway, even Mouse is more hour-less than this team now.
That's questionable.
NIC really have been became a wrecking ball.
You must try to trust on NIC to better put NIC in another place.
Honestly, Amadeus just disbanded. Three years of life came in one tournament to being giga ass for the next four months.
How do you think my life feels?
If this isn't a wake-up call to Ali, I don't know what it is.
A literal stuffed inanimate object has improved his team over whatever he has been doing.
Big Bro needs to just keep his mouth shut and let his players play.
Oh, this one is toxic as fuck.
Archangel underscore in seven.
If there was a championship for blue-balling Amadeus, it would be a tie-in-steam.
Oh, but you have a Cloud9 logo. Makes a little unfunny.
Minus Mayor Wen, never bro. Minus Mayor is my helper, so nice Mayor forever.
They took the serious player they had and made him a...
...Bot 67. Proved him.
Don't worry, they play better. It's stored as an invisible karma.
It doesn't show up in the server now, but NA will win another major in the afterlife.
Probably not, but we'll see.
Kixxan elevated Aurora from tier 2 to tier 3, maybe from tier 1 to tier 2 instead.
Who would have thought that wives and six-seven are not enough to win matches?
This just can't be real. It should be working.
This is reading bad comments.
Thanks for writing these comments.
To be honest, I don't care too much on internet comments.
If you try harder, if you're writing a bad comment, I think you guys can do better.
You better than that. Thank you.
Quarterfinal continues here at last open porto 2026 is being nothing but a one
side of the fair after getting stomped out on Inferno. We move on to Dust2, the pick of Falcons
and unfortunately it's more of the same. This time Kaisuke leaving the charge
and Falcons take the first nine to three. We will see G2 now swung over to the T side
forces where they need to step up. Last chance Saloon earned is and once again
they need the pistol. They're gonna stand a chance of taking us to the third and
final map of Mirage. Let's get into it. It looks very very grim out there.
They've apparently lost their momentum to a hero 8k in the first half. Yeah they
need to win the pistol right now. Let's see what they've got. A flash to set
this one up. I do like this from the CT side. Hold the phone a little bit
to set up his troops to do anything at all here. Niko is quick with the
the USP taking down heavy guard and ready for more.
They've actually already run back.
They're bringing the ball away.
They don't want to fight this any longer.
Nurtz takes one kill.
Oh, Hunter getting some great revenge
against his cousin out on Long.
Oh yeah, monosie.
The family feud continues.
Either this piece still wasn't looking good
for a second there, but being game lead up,
we'll find his 12 kill.
That nice double towards the long corner.
Four players surviving as well.
The down, but no doubts.
Let's go, G2!
side of the map. It's going down double doors. Honestly, hunting Karagin Lawyer is not a bad
idea. The problem is you're going to be running into Monty over there as well. So if you hunt
too much, if you're too aggressive, then you could be running into that AWG on the CT side.
Fencing smoke, trying to buy some time. A little bit of damage output there.
On both sides of the server, Karagin giving a flashbang. They have got full long control
The problem is 4G, 3G, 5 players here. We've talked about these ideas before.
If you have 5 players at one side of the map, you kind of have to commit.
You can't justify falling all the way back and as you have no idea whether you're being backstabbed.
You've got about a 20 second window here before that could be a reality.
They've read it well though the Falcons, they are here. They're stacking towards A.
They have got the Scouts, the Eagles, so if you do want the G2,
let's see if they can pull this round off.
Look at the CT smokes going down here to play around Karrigan
He's taking down heavy guard if the bomb is right there behind them
Unleashed onto the bomb site. He's found a couple of kills
It's hunter doing so much of the work including trying to plant the bomb at the moment
Two versus three and they might have done enough this time to get it through but it doesn't feel like a smooth round
It doesn't feel like they've got any room to relax in this one five seven as Tess's will knock out Matt
Hello, I'm doing so. Yeah. He is a little bit low here finding another one
He's having to do all the work for it. I want to see jumping in. Oh, yeah, he wants to do this
Imagine if that is how they lost it five kills behind tap the only one really delivering the goods
17 and 10, closest to him is Nurtz, 8 and 8, where are his teammates right now? Either way they'll take it, they get through the ram and a skin of their team.
I had to commit it to Orte, the reason we saved it before, but my goal was just scary. Honestly, jumping scout kill, one more shot.
He would seal the deal. They can't really force by a game, even though it comes down to 1v1, they're just going to upgrade their pistols here.
Oh, there is some Kevlar, thank you partner.
I'll pass this in.
I'll pass this in, okay, but we'll be care again to go down first.
Gonna be pushing in towards upper B here.
Pins up.
Mattis gonna be pushing up up.
It was well to get one.
Haintings the advantage.
Spots a couple of players in that round.
Let's just be looking to save that guy a little.
See if Monacee can do anything about it.
I doubt it.
Difficult shots.
Ampitious shot.
No Kevlar as well.
Takes a knee to the base and the 34.
They got the 3-0 star they were looking for.
Yeah, but I feel like that last round, that says so much about how this has been playing out.
Even the rounds where they win, they have to really struggle.
They have to fight to get them on their side.
I don't think G2 have had that many rounds they could celebrate where anything feels good on this team at the moment.
It's just been one long struggle throughout these first two maps.
But maybe this is the turning point here.
Gonna be rifles coming up soon for Falcons, but let's just see.
If G2 can survive that first by-round, then I guess it's a little bit more interesting to get Ripple.
Easy shot there, just to get the follow-up. Not that it has anything to do with the round anymore, but
you want to see Ripple find some confidence and missing some of these shots. I mean, that's not it.
Nico will make it out with a Galileo. 9-6, Henry.
How many rounds here for G2 before you start to feel convinced that they are back in the game?
Hey, they already are, in my opinion. The better you get the 3-0, you get through that difficult round.
This game's on. Okay. Okay. We'll see how this first gun round goes. It's really wall
Set the tone, but yeah
In terms of what they had to do they've already pulled it off a three round game
No reason why they can't get back into this one at all, but what we've seen so far
It's individuals that aren't turning up
That can't be the case going forward here we need to see
similar approach from g2
We saw the falcons in the first half and gone for a long control again. There's no going for the default protocols here
for players
early control of the map
And of course they are meeting their demise as wrinkle bested it by monocle once again
Only five or four here difficult come back into the rounds and you can see the CTs are so active across the map here
pushing in towards upper B
Getting all that inside. This is what we talked about. It's where you have that 20 second window and as you have no idea
Yep, walk in, sell the CTs are down right now, they're committed to it. Like you said they can't really do anything else
They're gonna sneak you through the edge of the smoke for himself here. Oh, that's a great fire
Kills him uprights
Modesty is still here and then send the area with the pressure on the ramp. He sees your eye on top of the box
Clean shots and heavy goddess no more. Matt is tagged up already
ready. They got the long control. They've had that for a long time here G2, but
actually putting them to a bonfire is a very, very different affair. I think
Matt is saying I might be low on health, but if I can get to this back wall, I
might be able to spray them all down. And you know what, you have the right
right here. But Tess is so quick to react and the Niko will follow up on
notes until with the Galileo, no more. Tess takes them out. Falcons, they
look so confident in his defense. They don't care about giving a pit to
the other side. Beautiful shots coming in from Monosid. You'd expect anything else. I'm not sure.
What can Rincord do? Trying to get in towards the pits. They call it a flash for a reason.
The second shot, a thing of beauty as well. Not many snipers can hit that shot. Let me tell you.
Carrigan at least pushed the smoke on Intel. There were multiple players on the other side.
They'd already pushed up a B as well. So, they always knew exactly what was
going up against them here.
Money though, starting to spiral G2 will be operating with a little here and they need to do a lot.
They're going to have two galels, heavy god and a D-Gulp.
Wrinkle does have the AWP but he's haven't seen much from it yet.
He's spawned close to B.
I mean, you can see a world where he tries to get that back-close-o shot.
Just don't see people pick that shot up these days.
No one really takes that challenge on the CT side.
Unless Monacy goes over the AWP, there's no real way to go and challenge the tunnels at the side of the route.
the rounds. There is a he'll probably look for it and there's a certain thing
anyone will give him that opportunity in my opinion. It's been a minute I kind of
agree like I'm trying to recall the last time that I saw someone actually get
these people take this pic all the time but why you would jump on the platform
and this sort of round I couldn't tell you. Especially when you're alone right?
Tessus doesn't have any on him. He holds his angle but yeah nothing at all.
Modesty was looking to the middle right away he was very very fast a great
movement coming up onto the catwalk.
He could slowly fall back.
He's expecting there could be either a boost
or maybe a little bit of a peek for information there.
Not going to be happening so far.
Are they going to fall back?
I mean, the pressure is on G2 for this one.
Absolutely.
I hate to say it.
Spoiler alert.
They lose this round with no bomb plant.
All five players go down.
I don't see this a while.
They get back into it.
The money is $90 in terms of the loss bonus.
So if all five go down with no bomb,
There's been no resources, your eco and then your money's still completely ruined.
So this is a must win round and as we mentioned it's Galilz, 1 AK.
A heavy God Eagle and an underwhelming Winkaw AWP.
They've got some decent space on the map, we're giving them that.
But Monacee as you mentioned, often found over towards that car position, a Karagin.
This is a great play, active once again, Anders.
It's confirming no one's lock.
They can fortify the A-box side now. There's no chance of a backstab. Wow, it's a
grand miss from Monosy. It is, but the timing on the HG was absolutely perfect.
Is he gonna drop down? I think he will, but Niko soon to be ready. He's not at all
flustered by this one. Picks up the kill in the middle as well and here comes
Karrigan. Shooting him with the backhand for real eyes. I think the
silencer made it so that they had no idea where they shot from. 15 seconds
and they go back to do war against Monosy. They have to run. They can't
this one slowly. I mean they're already running out of time. Another missed shot. Surely he won't miss a
third. It's wrinkled to pick up a kill. The double scope is there. That's so scary. The bomb being
planted here. And head of guard should know as soon as he stands up. Oh, you want to see a double kill.
You might have missed a couple of shots but they're still saved around for his team. I mean they
get the plant at least. That's the bare minimum in the round. A couple of nice shots coming
through a chance that a window didn't have the time to work with.
Rico the silverware here, the round should be over earlier.
Carrigan should have got the double on that backstab.
Really great play from him.
Definitely should have got two, but they wouldn't be
going to plant that about it.
And I don't think they can really do much with it.
I think they have to Rico regardless.
I don't think you can force by them.
So yeah, Eagles, no Kevlar.
They're allowing this game essentially to go to series
points.
It hasn't been the historic series we were hoping for and there's the huge upset
but Nailbite, it's the business as usual for the Falcons
No one delivering the goods here, like Hunters had a great dust too, but
unless your stars are showing up, it doesn't really mean too much
There's nothing they can do on the EECA
I think I was really inspired early on in the group stage for the kind of play to the sort of wrinkle
Yeah, we saw some mistakes as well and heavy god disappearing from a couple of games there, but I still felt like there was a good chance that G2 could be very dangerous.
They might have to take a little while longer kind of rebuilding the squad into what they are ultimately looking for because Falcons, I'm going to give them much of an opportunity here.
They have looked rock solid today on Inferno, which is the home sort of map for G2. They never even stood a chance and how on dust to pick my Falcons and you can see exactly why.
We'll see exactly why up towards sure we go.
It's going to be quite a desperate attempt to be present there from nuts.
Nice grenade there towards your significant damage towards wrinkle and Mattis.
Should be nothing to report here. Should be in the operative word.
Anything can and will happen in Counter Strike.
A snowball often can turn into an avalanche.
Adjusts nothing to report. I'm afraid.
Rinkle left in a five versus one that is going to be serious points
Maybe remove the AK out of kai suke sanders about as exciting as it gets but even that seems unlikely
Me kill close things out have a double for him eleven and nine and six opportunities to close this one out in regulation
Don't they will be needing more hours today Anders
Well, you and I we have been the tour mafia also at the group stage
We look like we're back at that same state once again.
I must say this though, I mean, I feel like you should credit Falcons for the discipline that they have, even in these kind of rounds.
But they're not doing anything to throw away this stuff.
They know that it's time to lock in.
They're going to be playing Spirit in the semis if they get one more round on board here.
So yeah, you want to see some flawless counter strike coming out from them.
That's what they've delivered on the two opening maps here today.
G2.
They need six in a row.
I don't know where that's going to be coming from. I don't know if they know either.
Hunter, like you said, he's been playing well, but the rest of the troops, they've let him down for this one.
Carrigan could be a little bit sketchy. Might be time to fall back. There's no one there to grade him.
He's just sticking to the corner.
If Carrigan gets you one, you're okay with that. He got the intel's multiple players there.
Three spots, it takedown. Have you got his Wallachy scout?
And now, is this where it comes crashing down? Or is there a few more rounds left to play?
He seems to push through the smoke and it's now a two versus two, a real chance to close things out.
That may do it, maybe not.
If you would have landed that headshot that might have been around right then in there, now Tess is top performer on the map here for Falkin.
He's trying to see if he can find his way, but a great round for Nurtz controlling that catwalk position, ends up with a triple kill,
and extends the series a little while longer. One down, five to go.
and
That's trade
Looking around here on the T side. Only we had more runway once again. Must be the problem in both maps
It's out coming to life when it's all over
Five in a row required not impossible behind the unlikely the way he faltered the plane today
They can get past this hurdle the money will at least be broken looking for the apron aboard here
Have you got very caution to the wind?
Don't be good for one though
Still gives the team side an advantage here on Dust2, you'll take it.
Back towards middle we go.
Full speed ahead, I think there's going to go through the mid-doors.
Honestly to deal with.
And that's going to be very challenging to stay the least.
Is he going to be playing in front of the smokers? Well, they're right there.
They think they're smoking away.
Great shot.
Great shot.
Great shot.
Falls out of the USP to get the job done, and somehow misses both of them with the AWP there.
Thought that was going to go right through the door.
Hunter and Rinkhole.
to do anything they're both in the middle but you could see they're very
sandwiched in and inside of the bombsite tessers way in the back as long as
he's showing himself but he will wrinkle. Slow walking it. No way. Straight through and a headshot the back of the head.
Hunter to save the day once again up against Nico and Carrigan. Can you really pull off another
clutch here to keep the dream alive to keep the head above water? He borrows
away in the tunnels. He's got an HE to work with here. Surely there's no way he can pull
us off, but he has been playing exceptionally well here on Dust2. G2, need their captain
to deliver the goods. Let's see what he could do. If he could time it when they're walking
in, they're right on top of each other, but that timing is already closed. Now they're
up on the site, a wide swing as he takes down Carrigan, and now he's cousin on the
other side. HE's already defusing right on the site. He knew he was in his head.
21 kills, a triple, and a clutch coming through for Hunter.
Well, there we go.
We said that was the hurdle, the financial one.
That should have been GG all day long.
Hunter somehow keeps him in the game.
Well, I know it's no chance at all.
Kara can overlook in the tunnels, checking out the big box.
Gives them two separate 1v1s.
They have no utility on the retake here.
It has to be the eco now.
Has Hunter really done enough here to take us to overtime?
destroyed the finances here of Falcons 12-9 seems like an absolute lock-in you'd
hate to go down against the pistols but there is a world where they fumble this
one-handers saw that in the first half right even though there was a hero AK you
just never know it feels like you too they are a very brittle team at the
moment anything goes off the rails and they're having a very hard time
recovery in these rounds but you know what they did bring it back from a you know six in a row needed
now we're down to four yeah it's definitely doable hunter has rallied the troops doesn't
light the fire beneath them though his teammates olem at this stage no one has stepped up where
are his stocks he is leading by example 22 and 13 multiple clutches and it could be enough to
to get us to overtime, potentially a third map as well. This anti-eco is clean.
This is the easiest round you're going to get out of the next four.
And it looks like it's a done deal, but they're not giving anything away,
not leaving anything to chance. They missed some wrinkles, still doesn't look super comfortable
out there. Nates up for it on the second encounter, but does go down to the five-seventh.
Round over. Three now to go. Scoreline a little bit more forgiving. The G2 here doesn't tell
the full story. Falcons have been in full control the entire time, but a pistol
victory, a three-zero start, a couple of hunter clutches. I've kept the minutes,
but looking for that knockout blow, a chance to go to the semi-finals where
Falcons will face Team Spirit. Now that will be a great game, but they've got to
get there first. Zonic has been called in to find a
plane, rallying troops, and did everyone's head in the game to close
this one out of regulation. It's not an exaggeration to say that if not for Hunter
they would have lost this 10 maybe 15 minutes ago already. If they did this
wouldn't even be the steep into it. They owe it to him and he'd step up here.
Where is Hebi got? Where is Nurtz? Where's Mattis? Ring call? I'm not sure we
can recover his series.
That's a big step up for Ring call to have joined this team. That looked like the timing was there.
Just trying to catch them instead of jumping across. Not going to happen though.
And Falcons back-writ rifles now, so let's see.
G2 have any more firepower left in them? Anyone going to join Hunter at this stage?
It's still a good round here for G2. There's no kits, no helmets, bare bones, utility on the CT side here.
So they've still got the advantage going through round number 22.
Got a massive one, but you're taking it at this stage of the game.
Going through the protocols now, this is your default.
It's exactly what Falcons are presenting in the first half, slow-paced default.
Later smoke towards those double doors, flushing out the lower B tunnels correctly, there'll
be a flash towards the upper middle.
And now try and get up towards shore, just taking it piece by piece.
The monocie is waiting for them.
Should be dislodged by the molotov here.
Oh, now he's got a gap, that's wild.
So really really big gap.
smoke goes up and actually in the way through!
The ball right into the scope!
Dude, how do you suppose we should predict that?
I don't know, but it seemed like Monosy had a bit of a read that that was going to be happening.
He just sat and still waiting for the nuts.
Finally coming through to take him out.
They are a man down.
The round has gone a little bit off the rails.
That was already good timing for masses though.
Picking up the kill, Nico.
When do you want to activate?
The teammates are not there yet. It's just him alone at the moment.
Did he find anything here?
Oh, they're running with their knives out.
Sprinkle. He wanted to get close to plant that bomb.
It's a bit desperate now.
In just 15 seconds of the clock, Nurtz.
He's pushing into digits. He's inside of the smoke.
And he does have masses at long, so they could try and retreat for it,
just like we saw in the first half here.
Tessas goes down.
He's super good to get the job done.
He's very quick on this one, and Nurtz is low on him.
Oh, no!
Kiyosuke!
He'll kick up the kill and win at the series!
And that means Falcons, they will do battle with spirit in the semi-finals!
What a style.
It's the most big battle you have to connect to.
Once again, they come back from the Gold Rooks.
A terrible first half, and their captain, Hunter, kept the game alive for so long.
But the problem is that there's once again no runway to work with them.
They'll make two little tunes once again.
Not the water shot, but it never felt like they were in full control at any point in the series.
It goes down to 0, but you have to say it's not like G2 had chances in the second half, but that was no near enough.
It just wasn't, unfortunately. I mean, great performance coming out from Falcons. I'm very, very impressed with the style and the tenacity that they brought to this game.
Obviously, they were very well prepared. Their Dust 2B defense finally looks really good.
They look like they're starting to really submit this map pool of theirs, and that makes them a scary team.
Do you feel like Falcons can go all the way here?
Have you seen enough to convince you they can lift the trophy?
Oh, I've seen enough, Henry.
I think they could.
Spirit do look like an almost unstoppable force,
but I think Calcuns are just the team to bring them down.
A great series and entertaining plays.
Shout out to Hunter once again.
They wouldn't even have a chance on Dust2 if it wasn't for him.
Posting 20 plus frags to the in-game leader.
The problem was his stars didn't show up whatsoever today.
And, yeah, Rinko again.
Big stage appearance. Couldn't get the drop down.
Yeah.
I mean, on the other side of things, though, Q-shirt guy, he was the lights out on Nick Frodo.
It was really impressive to see him and Karrigan work together to set up that defense at the beginning.
So you have to appreciate that and honestly looking amazing too.
While his family feud comes to an end, there can only be one winner.
Today it's Nico and the Falcons will throw it down to James.
He's got the winners on stage.
Falcons have done it. They've moved their way forward to the semi-finals.
Porto! Make some noise!
Yeah!
Josuke, when it comes to you now in playoffs, just tell me what difference you feel in this situation within this team, what Karagin tells you and why we now start to get the best out of you.
I don't know, I'm just enjoying the arena, just people who are cheering for us, so thank you guys for cheering for us and give us some sound.
It's really cool to play.
Now this Inferno versus G2, I know you would have expected it, but it looked like you could do anything you wanted.
Was your confidence just that it's maximum and you could just make whatever play you wanted?
On CT side yes, on G side we had trouble, but it went good.
It went very good, and looking at this right, yes you can have some back and forth games, but this was a 2-0.
Have you leveled up, have you powered up to the best Falcons when it comes to playoffs?
We will see, but I think we are in a good shape and yeah, seeing for future.
And looking for that future, the next game you'll play is versus Spirit.
Is that one where you're excited for?
Yeah, I'm excited for this game. It's really good to play against Spirit always. Yeah.
Let's see what happens. Borto, they're through to the semi-finals. It's Falcons in Kiosk!
a phenomenal performance from Falcons here.
Of course, I got to give G2 their flowers the way they were able to at least fight tooth
and nail here, be able to get some semblance of rounds for themselves.
But at the end of the day, a dust two Falcons is too difficult to deal with.
That T side was obviously way too much for G2 to handle there.
Stars were all in alignment for the Falcon side, saw moments from practically everybody
on their squad.
And I'll even give it a little bit of a shout out to Kerrigan.
his highest rated playoff series while wearing a falcons jersey point eight
three can't knock it okay clearly the individual performance led to some
kills I'm actually gonna be real some of the kills that he got did matter okay
like even though he's just getting the one oftentimes traded he was
significantly in the red for that series I actually see a little bit of a
difference when it comes to just getting that first kill in your spot
which sometimes led to defense is crumbling in the past when falcons
couldn't or Kerrigan couldn't find him yeah and we saw in the second half
I mean, at times he did have the confidence to go for a repeat or an individual duel that he might not normally have gone for and 0.83 doesn't sound that amazing.
It sounds pretty mediocre, but that's about what is it a 10% improvement in standard 0.75. I mean, that's respect.
Got to give him respect. Got to respect it.
Hey, you said the num is not jumping off the page there. I think when you look at the history books it really is. Like you said, it's also the kills that are happening.
That's what matters to you.
It isn't necessarily just the numbers,
the way that he's able to finally have
a phenomenal playoffs performance for himself,
but everything that wraps into that one.
When it comes down to it, I mean, the fragging from Terragon
is never what you're looking at him for.
When he came into the roster, his fragging wasn't that great,
but he improved the team around him.
It's just nice to see him hold his spot
a little more consistently.
And look, we do have someone from Falcons
joining us here on the desk.
Tessus, congratulations.
A crazy tour series for you guys.
Yeah, about time.
Yeah, that was one thing during the group stage.
If you could rely on anything,
its Falcons would go to map number three.
Yeah, being paid by the mountains or something.
Okay, we can truly win from face.
Yeah.
Look, I do have to ask as well.
We're talking about you guys going to map number three
in the group stage.
You guys get a 2-0 here.
The biggest thing that jumps out for me
outside of how you guys were playing
is you ban Ancient in the video, okay?
You don't end up going for it.
Dust2 is available and you end up sticking
with that one today.
Yeah, pretty good choice, I guess, but yeah, Dust2 has always been a comfort map for us,
so we kind of tested it in the ancient group stage and didn't work out that well compared
to practice and the amount of times we tried to improve that map. I think with the previous
lineup, it was one of our best maps. But since we got care again, and not in his fault,
of course, but we struggled a little bit on this.
I actually want to ask, okay, I don't think you've been on a team before,
other than maybe like a seeding game once in a while with Heroic where you have a map that you're
almost testing through a group stage like before on some of your other lineups it was just trying
to win at all costs. How does it feel then to be on a team where you can kind of experiment a
little bit more? Oh it's nice I think it gives something extra and we are looking for ways to
improve instead of just going tournament by tournament and it's about the long run and
keep on us that's probably the best possible. Also what do you have to say about the
the fact that I feel like it doesn't matter if you guys really win or lose or
the form because you guys can power up at any time how does that feel internally
with the camp just kind of knowing that we could shake off a loss to
lindvision on any map doesn't matter because we can still win this tournament
yeah I feel great this is the kind of feeling happened at the media it's
like you could not lose and we have to have a really bad off day if we're
gonna be really bad on two out of three maps so it's rare that it
happens and we're just trying to find the stability and improve on these kind of things.
Speaking of stability, I mean you guys obviously in the group stage really struggled to find consistency.
It felt like from half to half we would get a different team.
You know, how much time and effort are you guys putting into finding that stability versus the peaks?
A lot, like we have talks and we're trying to improve game by game and we have this recap after every game
every game and team talks before some games and so on.
So we're always evaluating and reflecting
on what caused these hiccups sometimes.
And I think one of the things that we're working on
is this fighting mentality.
And kind of, one thing is fighting mentality
and one thing is having confidence
in the patients during the game.
Because the last few games,
we have been reacting a lot to different kills
and just taking our first intuition,
which usually is really good,
but when we're not feeling it,
then this is where we might lose some stupid rounds.
So it's all about patience right now and having confidence that we'll find the solution to each round.
Speaking about overpeaking sometimes we see that from Kiyosuke.
Are you involved in trying to get him to be a little more consistent?
I think everyone is kind of involved in someone. Everyone has overpeaking here and there.
But there's always situations where you can play better.
But I think this is mainly the coach and the carry-on and Niko talking about these kind of things
and holding people accountable.
And about Niko, I notice a lot in the team comms.
He seems to be trying to support the team.
He calls you out often, you know, great round
when you make a small play.
Can you speak to his role?
Yeah, he's a big voice in the team, obviously,
and he's kind of highlighting these small things
to every single player.
And it's easy to say, nice Ilya or nice Maxim
when he's doing three case or four case left and right.
And sometimes it's with a lot more
to highlight small things, so as a flash or good spacing
and stuff like this.
And one thing is what you hear in TeamSpeak,
then one thing is what you hear when we're going outside
to talk between the maps and so on.
And he's coming with small compliments or stuff like this.
So he's a great teammate.
Did you give him a nice Niko in Inferno when you got to the 4K?
I think everyone did.
It's sort of hard to look over that one.
I do have one final question before we let you go.
Inferno is the topic I'm sort of talking about here
because you guys are talking about consistency,
how your peaks are high, your lows are low.
Your Inferno against Maus was definitely one of those lows.
So how does it bounce back where you turn it around and you guys end up going 13-6 winning it against G2?
Like, where does that come from?
I actually think Inferna is a very underrated map for us.
We are somehow very comfortable and I think Kyushu Gaea and Karygan has built a great relationship on B now
and it was a bit struggling in the beginning but they fast quickly enough found each other how to play it.
And me and Ilja has also gotten really confident to play just 2A and having Niko in the rotation as a really good rotation player to have.
So yeah. Awesome. Well, Tessa, we will let you go.
I can see that it's quite warm up here for you.
It's warm.
Look, and you've got another matchup to figure out for yourselves
because they are advancing here.
A 2-0, and as Tessa's pointed, finally, for the side of Falcons,
proving what they're able to do as a five-man
plus the absolute brain in Zonic there
to be able to take it over to you too
and advance to that semifinals.
I mean, they're kind of proving what Maui said
before the game, which is Falcons,
more than any other team, their form in a group stage,
their form in any matchup prior to this
doesn't really matter.
They can reset and come back
more than any other team out there.
We saw a better version of Viko than we did in the group stage.
We saw a better version of Kyosuke here
than we did in the group stage.
And for a team that still will have questions
about their map pool as it moves forward,
as long as they're not really hard tested,
which unfortunately for G2's sake,
they couldn't bring that test to them,
then they're gonna do fine.
I mean, my heart does go out to G2 as well.
We talked about this coming into it
whilst we have this head to head
looking at G2 up against Falcons.
I'm also questioning G2 how far they can push themselves
as individuals, as a roster, as an org.
And it's another short,
fallen short of a semi-finals, right?
It's another quarterfinal exit for them.
Yeah, they come into the quarterfinals
and they're looking strong.
Wrenkel's powering up.
Heavy God's having a great tournament.
But yet again, when it gets to the best teams
in the world, G2 consistently falls short,
even with a different look for Wrenkel.
I don't think he was given an opportunity.
You know, we have that offer here that can go for the reaggressions.
They can go for the opening picks.
He wasn't given much of a chance because the rightfulers around him,
which is where you think G-Tour strongest, really fell apart.
Agreed.
Also, I just feel like the monasy and surprisingly at times,
Kerrigan opening force was weirdly good.
I mean, I don't say it's weird about monasy, obviously,
but Kerrigan getting his first kill sometimes is there contesting for long.
Just if they're able to, Falcons or any team that plays G2 able to thin
the numbers. It doesn't give
the sort of runway to get going
in some of these rounds. And so
that's why you see him maybe pop
off or explode in sort of these
late round situations, but they
were so far in few between versus
a Falcons team that just kind of
shredded them before you could
ever even get wrinkled in that nice
post plant position where he
thrives. Yeah, they were
stopping their rounds short. A
lot of early things that they
wanted to get for themselves
and they do stop the run here
of G2 short. They'd end up
exiting at a quarter finals here
out with them before they left the arena.
G2 didn't come into this quarterfinals the way they would have wanted here.
I got soul with me to discuss for it all.
First of all commiserations on the loss when it comes to this one.
What are you seeing where the waiter team enters the server when they enter these games,
when it enters the arena that isn't clicking compared to what we can see in group stage for example?
Well I mean, at the start of Inferno to be honest, it wasn't so bad in a way
because we were fine on the server, like the situations mostly, it was okay situations.
It was more towards the end of T side where we started to lose patience and then it punishes us
like a lot more and then the whole half is basically gone. Like I'm talking after like
five, one, six, one situations where we start to hurry up the situations. So in a way like
those are the issues we need to fix because then CT side it started to roll a bit better
But then it's too late. In Dust2, maybe a similar situation when our CT side starts loppy.
So it starts off the map in a way, at least with the scoreline like that.
And then it's too much to catch up on the second half.
So it was a hard match, obviously. They played very well individually also.
Looking at some of the rounds they had. But some tough moments, yeah, we have
some of these playoff matches we need to figure out, obviously.
I know it's like a thing everyone's talking about in terms of potentially being a curse.
Do you think that is something that's in the minds of your players?
Well, potentially, yes.
But at the same time, I think it's been quite recent since we started to make more playoffs
because it was like end of last season more or less.
So it's been a positive step in that way.
But of course, you want to make it deeper and it's like you get tired of losing to some of the better teams.
You want to take the step or make it more competitive.
Even though there's some competitive matches here and there, but to then close it out when you have the chances.
And yeah, like today we didn't really get the chance even, so yeah, it sucks.
How do you come away from this event and analyze things and then reset to make sure we do continue to see the improvements?
What's the plan for you?
Overall, it was a positive step in the right direction because we always set the tone before
the event, like what we want to focus on, and a lot of those things went correct in terms
of inside the team what we wanted to do, so in that sense it was very positive.
Of course the last match left a bad taste and going out with a lost spot, and overall
you need to look at the big picture and we're going to continue and go to the next tournament,
So we will try to build on that and try to look at this match and fix some of the issues
from there and then take the next step from that.
Well good luck with the next steps.
Thank you very much for all your time.
So we'll see you on the next events.
Still a lot of great takeaways from Søre, the way that he's speaking about it.
And of course there is a little bit of concern where he goes, maybe this quote on quote
curses something on my players minds, but at the end of the day he has a lot
of faith in these individuals to show up, the ways that they are able to take
lessons from this and look towards what is going to be a very prosperous future for this roster.
Yeah, I feel like Saul is one of my top coaches. I mean, he is. I have him in my top three,
minimum top five if I really break it down all the way through. I have a strong feeling that
they're going to bounce back from this. This was Wrenkel's first really big stage debut in a G2
jersey. So I don't really hold this one too much against them. Again, it's against the Falcons
that's powering up. And I'm just going to get ahead of one narrative that a lot of the
Sunpious lovers are probably going to look at this and say look at that wrinkle couldn't show up to the stage here
Sunpious had an abysmal rating versus falcons also
They never won versus them either and so this is just kind of unfortunately for g2's a par for course
From how they've always fared against falcons. The concern for this one is that they couldn't come back into the halves that they were losing
That's an 11 1 half and there's a 9 3 half if either of those halves if you could get a call or a mid-round or
the game, and then they're
going to be able to go back
and get back into the game.
They're going to be able to
go back into the game or a
pause where saw can come in
and change the ties, at least
just a little bit. Get them
one more round on inferno.
Get them one more round on
Dusty. Then these comebacks
that they began actually have
a chance, but there's nobody
there on G two that can
actually turn those haves
around and get them back
into a game that's falling
apart. That's the thing.
They were able to string
rounds together. And often
times that second half, but
at that point, you're already
playing from behind. We
never actually got to see G
the G two. We see going so
much further. Yeah, and you
had saw mentioned in the
interviewees, inches inferno
at the beginning of the first
half. Look pretty solid. You
know, they lose a couple of
very close rounds, but then it
starts getting away from them,
then it snowballs and then.
Where is the leader of men?
You know, where is the person
that can bring the team
back into the game that you
have on certain squads, but
not here on G two at the
moment. Now I would acknowledge
the fact that Hunter hasn't
really shown the best pedigree
that his some of his calling has lightly improved in the mid-round but I don't think that he has that
sort of caragin effect where you're going to believe till your last dying breath in the same way
as playing with some of the elite all-time in-game leaders will bestow you with.
It is going to be really tough then to look towards what is a G2 future everything that
can come from it if this is what other quarter finals ultimately ended for themselves but
our Falcons does continue on we saw it they're going to be coming up against Spirit
later right tomorrow when we do get into the semifinals because right now we
don't even know who's going to be coming up against a mouse in that second
semifinals because we still have fury off against vitality here for our second
quarter finals of the day.
They were asking if you could recreate sounds from the game, just kick it off and we're
going to go with the gun. Can you recreate the M4 A1S?
It's pretty accurate, I like it. Perfect. What noise does it make when you plant the
bomb?
Can you please recreate the sound of a Digo?
Of a Digo?
Yeah.
Cool.
Shoo.
Shoo.
Bum.
Bum.
Shding.
Shding.
Perfect.
Dish.
Dish.
Dish.
Dish.
Party.
Basic.
It's fine it is, but...
Yeah.
I'm not complaining.
In-game chicken.
Can't remember what the chicken sounds like.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Perfect.
But it's so far.
Is there a noise for that?
I don't know.
Okay.
What noise does the AWP make?
Band.
Perfect.
What noise does event breaking make?
sure okay yeah sure pretty good pretty good like you know you had this break and
then you have the last break and when it's event going down
sure there's no like I know I know there's no prizes I can't I just I'm
I'm not a beatboxer, you know, I'm a gore.
What noise does the squeaky door make?
Perfect.
More like a goose mating call.
Hey, let's see him.
Sure, sure, sure.
Keep on, Brad.
Sure, yeah.
Perfect.
Thank you so much.
This has been In Game Voices and Noises.
the next matchup we have here in
arena, looking towards all of the fun. The counter-strike will take place on stage there.
There is just so much action happening and I just got to think about it. A vitality,
a furio, is this really a quarter-final matchup? This feels like something we should be getting
later on in the playoffs. I think near the end of last year, we were seeing this later
on in the playoffs. We were seeing this as a semi, we were seeing this as a grand
final. Now you're looking at these two teams both faltering into this season. Furia
really struggling to find their way to send off fallen correctly and vitality
even without the stand-in even without JL throwing a wrench in the mix they were
still struggling heading into the season in their first couple of events these
are both wounded champions ones that have lifted trophies with the cores of
these rosters and they aren't quite in their prime anymore the vitality era
conversation is something to unpack probably after this major depending on
the result there but we're definitely not at the absolute apex, no pun intended, of their
powers. Fury, you could say the exact same thing, that we haven't really seen that three
tournaments streak, grand final, winner, sort of, Fury this entire year. It's been a far
cry from that and with the whole threat of falling, leaving, it feels like they're
maybe jumping the gun on having some changes in motion already.
I mean we were even just looking right there at the head to head between these
two teams if you're up against Vitality and what's been in the last year for them, right?
Where it's favoring and it's only just slightly favoring Vitality for themselves. And now
you have to factor in, yes, both of these guys are wounded. So does it put them still
in the same playing field? Maybe just at a lower level of Counter Strike? Do you also
factor in the fact that Vitality isn't the same roster as every other time they've
had these interactions? We have to talk about JL coming in for Vitality too.
I think the most impressive thing of the head to head that they have is that
This is the last 12 months for parts of that vitality was clearly the best team in the world
They were running away with it and fury that they had their moments
They had their little stint at the end of last year where they were arguably the best team in the world
But it's really been by all vitality all day in terms of which of these teams is has been better over the last 12 months
Then you come into this one
I think this is a vitality that is bleeding a little bit
You're looking at a vitality with a four-man stack that has struggled in this group stage to some extent as well
You've seen them lose. You've seen them struggle and it's a fury that I think is primed and ready to take them off the throne
Yeah, the vitality we're looking at that as well
Just in the low portion of that run at this event right throughout the group stage where you're questioning on that day number one
I will having the worst performances. He's ever had for himself
It's in a circle
They end up dropping in that low bracket and then you look at it and you're like the low bracket of this group
absolutely stacked about can vitality even persevere and push through it. It was
definitely a telling sign that JL despite the fact that he's a major MVP in
himself did not immediately plug and play with this vitality squad that there
was a lot more to the system that needed to be checked for him to understand
where he needs to go next and so in the first game there were clearly
confusions there was a lack of chemistry whether he could make a move
or not and then as the tournament has progressed I would say vitality has
ramped up. They look a lot more ferocious. They look like they can be contender at this
one in some respects because even though JL can be such a great individual, if he doesn't
really understand the system that he's in, he's not going to know what is even allowed
for him.
Understand, by the way, looking at this team history of JL, we've got Vitality on there.
He's like a stand-in stand. He's learned to mouse. Where was the liquid substitute
stand-in period that he had? And it was here in Porto, by the way. It was in
much this year and he was in
quarter earlier. They ended up
getting fourth. I didn't see that
one there. What's going on? This
man's made for Porter. The liquid
and mouse stints are where he's
played almost every role. If you
go into a skybox and you look at
the spots he's played, it's like
50% of all spots on all maps.
It's actually insane and then
Vitality bring him in and they
just swat him straight into
Messi's roles and as much as I
think Vitality are ramping up
into the playoffs, I don't think
it's thanks to swatting JL
in correctly quite yet. He is
going for a ludicrously low
He's really struggling to find a spot and then you're seeing robs is struggling because he's taking up the slide because he's picking up the spots that jail isn't quite yet slotting into.
So as much as vitality is doing really well, partially thanks to jail having some good individual performances. I don't think it's the system that's going to save them on this one.
We could keep talking about JL how he is as a sub coming into vitality, what they've done well, what they struggled with, but I feel like it's better just to hear from himself.
Jale, second highest rated Vitality player in groups, playing more like you as you kept
telling me throughout, what are your thoughts on just your performance, maybe some of the
struggles you felt you had, because stats don't tell everything.
I mean I'm feeling good, I feel like I could be playing a lot better, I feel like the
last game against FOT, I made a couple of crucial mistakes on this too, I still remember
them, of course I fixed them, but I don't know, I feel like I'm not playing without
mistakes but of course it's impossible to play without mistakes but it's getting
better day by day and that's all that matters. You said getting better day by
day how much are you learning from like not just the officials but each practice
how beneficial is a few more days before playoffs in order to just learn more of
this remember more of this. It is very crucial I feel like having a couple of
days break it was super important because I feel like every single day we
spoke about CS we spoke about the maps that we haven't played officials on
or maybe like some practicing so I mean yeah it's better for us to have a
long break. And we had that funny little clip where you didn't remember one of the
strats or whatever his name is as well have you been researching papers if you're
looking over the notes and more just to make sure it doesn't happen in a crucial
game like this? No I don't know it's the first of all it's a French call out
and second of all it's a French accent like it's sometimes if I even know
the call out the way they say it is different to the way I hear it or
You see it. Yes.
So, oh yeah, but besides that, I'm super happy
the crowd's been very, very supportive.
Ooh, one more here.
It probably means like you're the best team
in the world or something, so.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Now, you also tweeted a bit of fun.
You said, back in playoffs after such a long time,
you've made playoffs with every team you stood in for.
So I know you're joking and meaming around,
but I mean, does it feel different
when it's with Vitality, you're entering Arena?
You know where they're supposed to play even better?
And what's your mentality with that
coming into this game.
I mean, it's feeling good, you know.
They have a lot of experience.
I mean, that has 41 trophies.
I mean, they have grand slams, majors, all you name it.
So I mean, if there's someone like,
there's someone to look at, it's probably Vitality
because they have the most playoffs they have.
Yeah, so there's something to learn there for me.
Look, the team might have the most number of playoffs
in his eyes, but he's been making playoffs
off the playoffs as a stand-in.
So it feels like you're just able to get a mercenary
in your pocket like JL installed.
the game. And I think it's
really exciting to see the
players being banded together
start working towards this. I
honestly question what if you're
going to bring against the
vitality today, a theory that
is also looked just as
shaky. Well, fear you have been
showing a lot of diversification
and that's what's really
exciting about them that you
can teach an old dog new
tricks that they've expanded
to a seven map pool. Now
that you actually have
players taking turns being
the best for them. Case or
auto is that stalwart
really holding his own as in the individual. And I would say just in general the whole
cast can have pop off moments. And of course they're also arena blooded at this point.
So they are a very ferocious team who's made it through this stage. Fury have really they're
really going to test vitality when it comes to their teamwork when it comes to their
protocols things that you know that they're lacking. Fury have come in with all of
the they innovate. They actually are despite being one of the older teams out there.
They absolutely bring in the new stress. They bring in the new utility. They're
always looking for new things and when you look at that as a vitality if you're
trying to figure out your team together as a five-man at the moment and then
Fury would come at you with an exec you've never seen before you're really
gonna be struggling. They like to bring innovation, new things and you were
talking about that map pool. How far and extensive they've been able to
expand it for themselves but you have to narrow it down in the best of
three. You have to be able to pick the best of the best. So let's see what
they picked up for themselves here.
The first quarter final is done and dusted. It's hot in here but the counter strike action
is going to be harder for sure. Archimonde, we're having a good time still.
Oh, so far so good. Showing up Falcons non-stop. G2 still had a little thing showing up on
the stage but at the end of the day Falcons takes it which means we're allowed to go
to the next one where the fans are kind of hyped about of the team.
Alright, let's start the veto. I need everyone to react,
dependent on what is happening, what they like and what they don't like in these maps.
Okay.
They ain't out from vitality, you know?
Christ?
No, they can't, they can't flex with this anymore.
Before it was a bit of fun between these two teams,
but Furious started playing it, so the next ban will be...
Show it.
A new bit.
There it is.
Kind of a cheer.
A little bit of booing.
Does this mean we might have a new map?
Maybe. Let's see what the first pick's gonna be, not from this side.
Okay, obviously.
Yes, okay.
Porto likes Duke.
You're getting that one.
But this could be the big one.
Let's have a look at it.
Show me footie.
Oh!
Yeah, and everyone loves that.
Okay.
A new crowd favorite.
This is making the crowd happy.
Let's see how it continues.
Let's get the next fans out the way.
I like this mixed reactions. Yeah, you're happy mixed reactions. Let's get the next one
So this means
We got us to the cider a dust to decide a porno you like some dust, too
Okay, see they're in phone. I went most that makes us sad. Can I check if we have some food?
Where are you fans? Where are you?
Okay, you've got the winning ingredient here. It's almost like a home crowd for Furia, but I see some vitality jerseys out here.
Vitality fans, make some noise!
There's a few, there's a few.
There's a few, but they're being outdone by the booze.
Can I?
Let's go.
Brazil on the extra bus of Anuna!
Vitality!
Alright, either way, you guys want a fantastic game.
So Porto, are you ready?
After the match is gone, oh, you guys should have picked this one or not this one.
For me, honestly, stepping the server, now it's best of 12, it's MR13.
A lot depends on how we start the games, a lot depends on how you're going to adapt very quickly
because we don't have much time, the game is very quick.
So it's not about the match review, it's about who's going to join the server,
make sure that they're going to be better synced than the other team,
paying more attention to the details and making sure that they're playing our top game.
Whoever can do that better and kind of don't balance out during the pressure is going to win the game.
I think it's for us always happy to play with a lot of friends who support us
And we are always confident to play against a good team and it's vitality, it's always hard to play against them
and they play very good. But it's always hard to start. If you have a good start, who knows.
It was good to see some Frenchies that came to support us. We get used to play against the crowd.
It happened also like in Brazil against Syria, it happens here in the Portuguese like country,
so of course it's like that, but it's okay.
We are making the use to it, we have a few fans here and there and let's see it goes,
but it's just a usual difference.
The fur is on the line, Drogf is later.
I do love just the brutal honesty that always comes out from Apex.
He understands the situation they're in.
I'm not sure if that's what he expected.
I know he's had lost, but it was definitely very heavily
Fury a favorite here.
But would you say the Vita is one way or another?
Vitality won this Vita for me.
Hands down.
You're not even almond and harry about it.
No, I don't think that there is really a big question for me.
I thought that Fury would actually
use their seven map pool to ban out Dust 2, which
is another one of the few maps that this five man with JL
iteration of Vitality have looked competent, especially
on the T side, because that's a nuke
that they have won twice on.
their CT side is just crazy good.
And so there is a little bit of a surprise pick here
for Furia going for cash.
That's actually nice little curveball for Vitality there.
But I don't think it's enough to overcome the fact that they
to me they played into the two maps that I've seen competency
with the JL Vitality.
If we remember the way Vitality played against Legacy,
I believe it was, they did have a completely missing
T side on that new throw.
So as much as their CT side on every map is incredible.
And I think that this does favor Vitality slightly.
I still think fury have more than a good chance on both of these first two maps to get it to a map three
But that's where I'm concerned for fury. I think there's a great map for vitality
We're seeing the veto the maps. They're really looking like they're leaning towards that vitality side there
But we do have to factor in fury are clearly gonna have the crowd buff here fury
Are also still powering up for themselves being able to find a little bit more in the tank outside of that group stage
I think they need the crowd buff here coming into this one.
You're looking at a vitality that, as you mentioned, they're powering up.
You look at Furia, they had a very solid performance against the weaker teams they played against,
but then they didn't really show up at all on the server against Spirit in that seating matchup.
They get taken down 2-0, they get 15 rounds between the two maps,
and Vitality is of the same caliber as a Spirit, even if they're not always playing at that level every day.
I would have wanted just fury to do a little bit more with the veto to have full faith in them coming into this series before seeing the veto
I kind of wanted to pick fury but after seeing it now
This is where things are just really scary and yeah fury
Yeah, they have a lot of great players and they also have a great caller the aspect also that yet Kandar is calling on a couple of
These maps in fact going to to cashier, which is a I'm pretty sure that is a yet Kandar calling map is kind of a
curious prospects
given the fact that you're you're deep in a tournament right now against one of the most elite teams in the world that you're going to suddenly trust this
Yekindar IGL project over going with maybe three consecutive maps because you could have gone for maybe a mirage you could have maybe gone for an inferno here but instead those are out of the picture and you're you're
one pick to Yekendar on that T side.
Say what you want, Maui.
I trust, I trust Yekendar.
I have faith in Yekendar.
I think there's a fury of team.
If Yekendar is playing badly,
they're really going to struggle regardless.
So you put them in a spot on a couch
where I think Vitality, they've looked competent,
but you still see some really good calling performances
from Yekendar.
The only problem, it requires him showing up individually.
If he's struggling as an individual,
I think he really does.
His calling is the first thing to go.
But I do actually trust that if he shows up
in this series, which is what they need.
If they want to win it, then he's going to be calling a great game on cash.
Well, it's not just in the server that we're going to be seeing.
Well, we have been seeing it can to get a little bit more chatty.
It's on the desk, it's on social media as well.
And big conversation point about it was Molladoi, right?
He's been having a couple of issues with these eyes.
We see in the interview that he has new glasses for himself as well.
So I do wonder, is this that slightly new and improved Molladoi?
Could he have ever gotten any better?
He needs to be new and improved because he's really struggled against
a lot of their losses when
they've managed to win. At
least one of those series was
due to a Molotov pop off so
often you see him against
vitality. It doesn't need to
be. You know, Molotov is going
to be going for repeats. He's
so often going to be trying to
attack the other opera. Zywoo
is not going to have any of
that. He will win that duel
against Molotov, the vast
majority of the time, and
oftentimes you see Molotov
especially into playoffs. He'll
miss a couple of shots and he
will go for that old
school repeat style just over
and over trying to hit the
shots. You don't need
You don't need Zywu holding that angle.
Almost pretty much all five players I think from Vitality
can be holding that angle with a rifle and they will get that.
Yeah, that's exactly what I was going to bring up,
that the re-peaks have now gotten to be almost a gimmick
for the Vitality players.
They totally understand that it's coming.
And because Molledoy is set up for some early round kills,
but I don't know, I wouldn't say that their CT side fury
is as much centered around just activating him
every given second because you have to give a little bit
of space to Yackindar to make his moves.
You want your reader and case
or other to sometimes play off
the bomb site too. And so if
they all they don't really put
all their chips out there just
for Moldova and I do think that
sometimes when he's pushed back,
you'll make that one misstep and
a vitality player will totally
capitalize. And so we're talking
then about things that Moldova
going to have to be able to
work on for himself, hoping
that there is that step up
supporting cast of fury being
there for himself. But the
other side of vitality. I know
that we talked a lot on jail
standing in, but we also have
to look at the key pieces
as a five stack, right? We talked about Zai Wu having one of the worst performances
for himself on day number one of groups. Rops is also sort of sitting in that conversation
for me right now where I'm wondering is this going to be a whole new Rops coming into playoffs
that we need to see for Vitality. We hope if you're a Vitality fans that it is a new
Rops. You look at the stats for Rops in this event so far, he's really been struggling,
but if you actually break it down, his CT sides are just a line, they're a straight
line. It's the T side where Rops has really been struggling and that's where
question if the team has in this downtime slotted JL a little bit more into their system. You see
the change in opening attempts on the T side that's allowed JL in the last two series they played to
have a 5% opening attempts on T side. They are not going to his side of the map quite as often
because they trust Robs with the utility, they trust him with the timings and when they are
going for more default plays he's going far more aggressive than usual and it's really
hurting his stats. Usually Robs picks his spot once or twice a half on the T side to just
just kind of mess with the opposing extremity player,
whether that's the other ramp player,
which would come up here in the first map.
But to see him go for it twice as much
just says that in two ways, it's one of two things.
It's either he's getting a little desperate
and knows that the T side needs a little bit
of an injection or they are just calling out that,
hey, Jail's not really gonna cut it
when it comes to these entries.
So Robs, we need you to do a little bit more.
And it's just that it's not sustainable.
You can't keep going for more and more shots,
more and more openers because usually they're just going to be recognizing that
Robs will probably pressure this side of the map.
So then how do you envision JL sitting in a little bit more that they're not having
to overcall for Robs to step up, have to take openings that he doesn't normally
and just right now isn't necessary?
Well I would say that one thing that they could do on Nuke that's very tangible
in the server is that since JL kind of took those mezzy positions, he's throwing a lot
of the support of utility in the backlines, sometimes just group up with Robs and
try to make a play towards the lobby position,
but let Robs beat you a little bit more
because so off, Jail's been LMS,
last man standing a couple too many times for my liking
when you have such pivotal clutch players
like Zywoo and Robs.
I know Jail was a great clutcher on Navi
when he was embedded in the system,
but I'd rather you see that Robs, Zywoo,
tandem in the late round because they could win
any 2vx situation.
I like Jail.
He's a great player.
He's not Robs.
He's just Jail.
Jail's no Robs.
I do agree with you.
I want Robs going in behind JL.
I want JL to have the utility down a little bit more.
And I want him to have more confidence, more killer instinct.
It's really the CTs, or the T side,
rather, where JL has felt at times
like he's afraid to go for a play.
He's afraid to make that move.
And I mentioned it in their last series.
It's not really improved over this event,
I think, to a major extent, where
he has the killer instinct that he really had on Navi
when they put the ball in his hands.
Navi so much was just JL, we're playing through you.
You're oftentimes going to be the player that
needs to make the moves.
And so he felt enabled.
And as you've mentioned many times,
I think he needs to be slotted into a system
and get comfortable.
They've had a couple of days.
I'm hoping he's got comfortable.
Well, the opposite of that, right?
The inverse of how did they necessarily slot in JL
to make sure their props isn't being put in that position?
How to figure out, would it, in a way,
that Rocks feels no other choice?
That Vitality feel that there is no other option
than to continue what was happening at group stage?
Well, one thing that I guess it could zoom out
and respond with is just that Apex,
This would be a great opportunity for him as the crowd just gets lit up for fury.
Yeah, I was gonna say, I really don't know how this is happening.
You just have to be able to guess that it is the fact that a lot of players are getting ready to be able to walk out.
The Blues, Mixed with Motality, with the Chiers, with the Fiverr, and it was good.
It was the interview as well, right?
Look, I am gonna cut you off now, because Boston was a lot of fun to hear and theory-cropped that.
It's gonna be even more joy to get to see our players walk out on stage and bring us the Counter-Strike we're all waiting for.
Counter-Strike is built on moments.
Moments of loss.
Moments of madness.
Moments that define eras and that change history.
For centuries, empires tried to take this city.
None of them broke it.
would not fall. In this moment you stand on the land of warriors. Careers aren't
forever. So make what happens here a moment that can stand the test of time.
Make sure we never forget who you are and what it is you do. Decide what player
you're going to be. The fearless leader. The unstoppable force. The
Titan Slayer. In those moments, there is no team, no tournament, or trophy. It's just you and them.
This city is faced with would-be coppers and outlasted them all.
Now it's asking the same of you. A moment can change everything. Empires built on a decision.
The test may be temporary, but your story is forever
Stand today as Porto stands unbroken
undefeated
Make this your moment
The
beats of the drums follow them wherever they go and here in Porto it's feeling a bit like
home.
The uncertainty of the future might have set them off course but their experience and
The Hopeville responses, we can see the most ferocious version of them today.
This is New York!
They might have added more chaos into the mix, but their sting has gotten stronger with
of vitality. It feels like crazy chaos and a whole lot of unknowns. They're
jailed, flooding in in that enough of a manner to be able to get here to the
quarterfinals for themselves after an early drop to that lower bracket in the
groups. But the question still remains, is it enough for them to be able to
overtake a theory that's also faltering when we look towards you? Yeah, this is
a vitality. I think they're hoping to silence this crowd because I think
it's pretty clear which side this crowd wants to win. But vitality,
absolutely no strangers to that to being the crowd silencers to trying to take
them down and you look at them against Furia you have them as the favorite
knowing I actually get fury of the edge here I mean I like the veto for the
vitality sake but something else is just so romantic about falling
potentially lifting a trophy in front of a Portuguese speaking crowd I mean he's
had 18 notable trophies in his career and he has never won in Brazil this
would be the second best thing in a way. It would be close enough for him that it feels like
there is going to be a little bit of an extra electric energy when it comes to Furia. How they're
going to play today and we've talked about it that clearly the crowd favorites but right now
is that a buff? Is that a hindrance? Is this a team that even practice that in? I actually think
it is a bit of a hindrance. I think sometimes this team does allow it to get to them especially
you tend to our Maladoy sometimes they just can't deal with the pressure and what I want from Furia is going on a solid T side
but it shows where a team has been together for a long time we've got practice just bring the T side home so you can dominate on the CT side
against the Vitality that's really faltered to get anything going on that T side.
I want to see a laugh from Yackindar when it comes to Nuke because he's going to be responsible with trying to catch so many of those Vitality T side plays
And Vitality as we saw in their last matchup on Nuke was
strugglesome on the offense.
If Yackindar has the ideas downloaded,
if he knows the strategies, I've seen him run circles
around offenses that are trying to build themselves up.
Hopefully we get to see a little bit of that Latvian star.
I mean, this is a Friday afternoon, a Friday evening,
right?
And the crowd is already going like that for full,
and it really makes me wonder just how far they
can get, what's going to happen.
And we're seeing the true end of this election, the dichotomy of when you show us all of it.
It's just an apex.
I think they're even louder for apex. I think the tunes are even louder.
I don't know, that was pretty loud right there.
We should have a conversation about it.
Not that the crowd is reacting, but how they are as IGLs.
How fallen and apex for themselves have gotten into resistance.
But they're facing off in a quarter-finals.
That's a cause never gonna stop.
Interruption.
Oh, yeah.
This is actually incredible.
I think it's gonna be an incredible game as well, especially when you see these two legendary now,
ICLs coming up head-to-head.
And even though Fallen is trying to get a trophy in front of a Portuguese-speaking crowd,
I think something that would really add to Dan's legacy, Apex's legacy,
is winning with a standing.
He's played with people like Jax before, who have really...
He felt very comfortable playing with a guy like that.
Once you actually are able to do that AB testing to see is it the system?
Is it just a five-man lineup or couldn't you win with some weaker pieces in theory?
Then that really actually gives you flowers in those all-time great in-game leader conversation
So this would be a huge tournament to really bolster apex's legacy and one of the differences between these
I think they're both great IGLs fallen is a is a solid player
You're not gonna be able to target Jim and find a lot of success
but Apex has kind of dragged his team across the line in this event so far.
The final map of Group Stage, they weren't really struggling.
And despite playing with a stand-in, which all IGLs will tell you,
it's very hard to frag while playing with a stand-in,
Apex, even on the T side, manages to find ways to carry his team individually from time to time.
And that might be what puts them over the edge in this one,
in a, what is a very close series.
Guys, I don't know if we're allowed to show anyone other than Fallon and Apex.
Let's go back to that, please.
It's a pivotal point in the conversation there about the IGLs, what they're able to bring
over the lines for themselves, but we have to look at everything that Furia has on offer
for themselves because we're talking about the stakes of making a deep run in a crowd
like this.
When you're the heavy favorites, it still is the question though, you're the crowd
favorite, but are you really the players favorite?
Are you the tournament favorite?
Are you the specifically not-chub favorite?
Oh, come on!
How can you not root for him?
It's some aspect when he's getting the crowd on his side.
I want I want vitality to be able to push this one, but I think that this is
They're gonna get something out of it. There's a lot of cheese just showing the players
I can only imagine how this arena is gonna sound now that we're getting into our best of three that we're getting into a map number one of new
And what a map number one it could be clearly
We've got fan favorites coming into our matchup today. However, favorites still remain vitality a vitality
that's currently on a run in this city having dispatched of three of the best
upcoming rosters in the groups a team vitality caught off guard so much is on
the line and yet so much isn't it's an interesting matchup where vitality get
to take the edge off a little bit they come into playoffs but it's possible
that they weren't going to make it this far.
And then over on Furia, you know,
it all leads up to Singapore in the end,
but this is the last chance for Fallen
in front of a Portuguese crowd.
I think it's exciting.
I think it's going to bring the best out of both of them,
and I think they're both just happy to be here.
Starts off with a bit of tempo towards ramp.
First player out, but almost untradable.
How far ahead Flamesee got to that pack.
And sure enough, there is no trade there.
Let's go a lot of footwork downstairs.
Met by K. Serato.
He lights out K. Serato as it waits.
And so to clip off their stand-in to the left,
just you're not going to get Kimbar.
Just piece up the follow-up and then he goes to the lead.
For the pistol, you can go up for Philly.
I'm going to kick this one off.
CT side of you for the pistol round victory.
Yeah, round one, and you can't already hear yourself think.
What was the quote K. Serato said?
Here you have, Don.
Here you have me.
Pretty gangster for a guy holding two guns in this pistol.
Yeah.
That's what I'm thinking, you know,
that he's just going to be having fun.
Whole world on his side in this arena.
It's the fall in retirement world tour.
Now, when it comes to vitality on T sides,
we've seen good and bad.
we've seen trouble with JL trying to slot in. I think he's sort of alluded to the
fact that it's hard to change his playstyle and still play well.
This eco will have to be nothing.
Tota no down five up for Fury out.
No call plant in.
The Vitality still have no kills.
But surely between groups and now JL and these T-sights, can be something that he's going to be aware of that.
going to try to slot into remember this is sort of an extended
stand in situation. His job only gets harder, but it does
feel like if you put an effort to try to build towards
something, you'll get things to use it, you know, instead of
it just being one tournament. It has been a constantly
evolving success story since he's on that vitality jersey
16 and three record on the map vitality with a 44% T side
round win. So don't be too surprised if you watch vitality
flail around a little bit here in the face of a fan favorite, Fioria.
Flanksy trades out Mollinoy, done with one.
You already got the backflip, but you can get down.
Just that's the individual moment that should shut down this first gun round.
Zaiwu and Apex, both without frags, have already been in circles.
Bollin's gonna catch them all in one, and what a tempo here from Fioria.
You've even got a player coming in from T spawn at the moment.
Tori!
We have to end this vitality long enough first, but what I would say is nothing but swagger and confidence.
You have to love that on a first gun, like straight up.
That's one kill in three rounds for vitality.
And the best part is for Fury up, the kid who makes the play, then you're not going to make more than two or three times a half at most.
He's blanked outside and they never saw him.
That means they can do it again if they want to.
The piece of that HLTV interview with JL, I found most surprising is when he was talking
about discomfort in roles with his previous stand-ins, he was saying how he's getting
to a place where he's actually more comfortable in his current vitality roles than he was
in mouse.
That sounds fair.
But he also mentioned he was more confident here than in his roles with Navi.
That kind of just took me back to hear him say that.
Man, it's no secret that Navi could be a difficult team to play with him and
And yet he flourished, but I can't understand it.
Wow.
Another complete wipe.
Jail doesn't get a kill.
It's one kill in four rounds for Vitality.
Soak that in, Jail.
Jail apparently known to be popular amongst the fans.
When he's knocking down the Superbock Arena,
when Jail gets his chance to play on Na'Vi,
It does appear as if that should be difficult.
The fact that he flourishes has that major MVP.
He's the only player that even really, truly plays well
in that Copenhagen dream run that Navi made.
You know, the only player who was really
outstanding on Navi overall.
And yet, you think about his personality
and the freedom you would think comes with that.
It wasn't necessary.
He still managed to play in a structured system.
That's how quality he is.
It's not the only one who will be looking to get deep tonight.
It must be like taking the training weights off to come in to a stand-in situation where there's low expectations, more freedom.
Second gun round for vitality, still an entire team with one kill between all five members.
Fall in.
Okay, are you serious?
Oh, fire at his feet!
He crushed it!
What's up, man?
Yeah, this is fire.
See, he got it!
He got nothing.
See, the finish on his face?
What are we seeing?
What are we seeing?
That's a full ball and he runs through.
Bike is signed, by the way.
Reboil it, kill.
If he doesn't catch Flames,
If he doesn't catch Flamesy while he's running away, he's in total jeopardy.
It feels like that's all he took the glasses off.
He's nine and zero. I don't know if I've ever seen him make that play before in my life.
And he saved it for the stage.
They didn't even Mollie behind him on stairs.
He was set up to take 40 to 50 damage.
Like in front of him.
Yes.
And he saw it as an invitation, as a challenge maybe.
Whoa.
It made it seem like they were trying to block that cross into secret just to give
him a slight edge at taking one duel and he made it two.
Okay, Serato hasn't died, Fallen hasn't died, Yaquinder hasn't died, and Fira haven't lost.
Well, the majority of Vitality are still without kills. Five rounds into this half.
And they get to pay their math hit next.
You've seen some monstrous stuff from your kindar's call on cash.
It has really supplemented his individual level there as well.
So we'll leave that on the back burner.
Three course meal potentially queued up tonight with Vitality vs. Viria.
Nuke going down smooth.
Flamesy, dead after the one.
Another single off kill.
The most kills in any round so far for Vitality.
It's not a failure, it's not a failure.
3-2 to CTSide and Vitality still with nothing.
18-0 between K Serrano and Fallen and Vitality.
Looked fresh out of ideas. It's an upper pop that comes in very fast.
Burial have been super prepared for this as we've seen.
They're going to need a new mode of aggression.
It's a t-side that's taken one time out so far potentially also having discussed this first gun round within that
You think surely rifles eventually make a difference oh
Lands on apex for 60. He doesn't even see his opponents
And he's got a call with half HP. Don't let it slow down the idea
Rocks trying to make this move catches a player with a NATO
Nope, doesn't even get damage back for that effort.
Now, Moledoy looking to go on the prowl.
There's been a very aggressive stance taken from Furia
so far on this defense.
A little foray into the trophy room here from Fallen.
The two damage on the chip as they pack,
starts to walk back.
Flavies coming right in for Big Rosh.
All gonna be heard.
Kindar wraps around outside it.
Kcerato's gonna have at least two players
to peek into him.
He doesn't miss right now.
That cross player who they heard about is now also little down low and facing the right thing to deal with.
And it's a full-on situation if that is Furia taking the 7-0 lead.
Energy is unbelievable.
They try to change the pace.
They go for an outside crawl.
Completely stuffed.
Thing is, Furia aren't waiting for them to come to Furia.
They're walking out, they're taking control of the map.
They're playing active outside.
It honestly feels like they're multiplying their players.
They're taking over lobby on some rounds.
They full flanked already this half.
The kinder has $15,000 and an AK.
Zayu set up to be a hero in this one.
If the kinder starts interrupting the execute.
Yeah, big time.
around that's already light on utility here for vitality for Flamzie now also low on health as the bomb carrier
and because there's this gap into the smokes you cannot look into keep his pressure on the challenge goes beyond the red box
able to track that one Flamzie's dead but the bomb spotted in the process so you know they're intended push
Vitality already dealing now with what is a majority of fury having rotated downstairs
It always feels like it's around like this that suddenly turns things back around
round. You're still have to stay sharp. Tough challenge here for Apex. Tech 9
versus AK and a hot-handed 9-in-1 you kindar at the moment.
Two low rotations. Easy. Frag next. Zaiwu wounded. Gives a little back. They're still
that crossfire set and it's still a blood bath upstairs. Zaiwu hears the gunfights
above. His teammates win over one after another. Again, lack of traits. In a round
It's already limited by the utility and guns that they have this one absolutely
fall flat again.
By spanking the Burial on the break of a flawless CT side and when I say flawless I
emphasize it zero and eight zero and eight one and eight one and eight three
and eight those are the kill deaths of Vitality at this moment. Vitality's
top fragger can't even beat out Uria's bottom fragger.
between apex and jail they have as many kills as you do in the crowd and you're having
way more fun this time to the upper floor by tallity trying to change it and they do
this at the right moment because it's a double off setup here for furia they decide to whip
that out of nowhere fall in looking to get this crowd a clip sits up in heaven for a
second his two teammates still remain outdoors but there's a pause in the
action for vitality as they just trickle these utilities up in front of
fallen. Smoke does give him a chance to safely put that bomb down. They're coming
in slow to it but carefully and covering everything.
But there's so much money. Money alone in work. It doesn't even matter if they
think they can win this. Because he has that M4 now it feels like to
retake that much more on and they want to throw two bodies in front of
So he's going to send those flashbangs into K Serato.
Imagine K Serato flashing for Fallen, not vice versa.
Two player push in, Fallen, wild dropping.
Gravity doesn't seem to affect him.
And as K Serato now gets smoked out of Heaven, we have got there.
Give it up for Vitality, they're on the board.
You got the crowd clapping right now. They're in this.
I'm not sure if that's Vitality fans making sound or just Furia fans.
Again, it's not as fun if your opponent doesn't put up a fight.
Finally able to break through again, double off set up. Maybe that changes what's here, ready?
We were definitely at a point in this game where there's only so many different directions you can go.
I mean, the only thing that's truly on tap, I'd say, is ramp in terms of trying to exact take lower that way.
But outside and upper have both been given so much love for vitality already.
Immediately fearing away from the double off, so we never really get to see it weaponized.
Furia maybe thinking, ah, not with this tempo to the game, not with how vitality broke in.
It's gonna give a bit of confidence back to this T side to fight for scraps.
Throwing hands for a four round T side best case, and B Trams brought those poor T side
stats up early.
Oh, it'll get stuck. Okay, that's a good test.
They stopped the process. Three members' downpacks fire behind them, ready to just engulf this B bomb site with bodies.
And Fallen's playing rotate. They can actually take this site, smoke him out.
Robs has already been allowed to progress along the wall. Fallen this time, it gets away from him.
So we've got vitality with a strong positioning downstairs with bomb included, and still wounded members of Furia kept at bay.
I think you're playing defensive now. If you're Furia, you already know you've succeeded too much control
Getting down the fence is insane case rotto is ready to die. You have so much money here still if you're Furia
Feels like they're willing to play with that wealth
Also, why not keep the vitality success as low as you can rock such a great spot to play perfect tuck in
Finds his head shot Yuri's still gonna keep them tempted all the way also close enough
And as Apex shuts down Uri, Molledoy will be found, back turned away from it.
Vitality not wasting this moment. They saw Ador Adjar, the A site aggression, worked out for their first round
and then they slipped three players down that fence to make the most it be.
That's the first bit of individual brilliance out of Furia.
With the way that Rob scaled, took that first kill on Fallen, completely won the round with that alone, turned it into three.
I love the spot that he plays that's only opened up by having control side.
see that if used enough and I think at that point vitality understood that
fury up if they're gonna try it they're gonna try it early that could be a
scary spot to get stuck in but a wonderful spot if you know they're
coming in quick
This would not be the first time we've seen Vitality pushed to their limits through last time you're open Porto
Instrumental comeback versus legacy
Yeah, shouldn't sugarcoat it that's Maladoy
Serving sits on top of that silo he's putting himself in a spot to really find a sequence
Full yard control.
Curious suddenly right back into a great place to try to finish this half with double digits.
And they instantly dropped their own ball. They're not really worried about it.
Smoke's going to fade with K Serrano having vision on the other side, there's bodies there
so he is prepared.
Holding actively for a walkout.
Another smoke down in front of it.
All gats.
There it is.
Yeah, they're going to try to test it.
Oh, a three-action, okay, Serrano.
Expecting the potential third to walk through.
Augsard Vitality wanted to keep that like a unit.
It's a double kill from him.
You were there to put it on ice.
Ninth round from Furious set up wonderfully by their prodigy offer,
connecting those first two off-shots.
Haven't even had to say his name, really.
There's been so many heroes on this team.
But an opening off-dual, instantly won on Zywoo with no trade in sight.
It means that it's a domino effect.
They start to work across what kind of map control you can get for free.
Well nothing's free in this match.
We're already in round 12 and Vitality have two rounds.
They got two in a row.
And they've managed to put together a full buy for this.
There's any hope. We would assume it comes with this round.
Fallen retirement tour though.
Doesn't have to do it, but...
It's too late to just say nevermind.
No.
I'd say he hasn't felt Christmas.
not as much pressure this time CT's giving that gap up
It's actually like awkwardly low utility already here for Furia, down to one smoke, flashes.
Boom, nice shot.
It's gonna find an opening.
Same shot.
Same shot. They want to rotate it down the ramp, but they're worried that somebody's trying to pinch alongside this
It's not the case that bomb still sit back by T spawn. I mean by quality. They're gonna threaten lower
Uncomfortable for both of them here. He's only got one hell and it gets blindsided by the apex pinch in through main
Remember bombs still needs to be retrieved JL starts to peel back for this, but it's not open the door
Yes, it does. Molle do it. He was just away from this angle now sitting pretty on it
He's kind of got a free shot at this. There's no smoke
To re-approach
All the way sits in weights jail is already nervous about this line
But it turns back wide it is bomb dropped in the process. Molle do I not prepared for a peck to take that same round?
Oh, no, and now a peck stomping to fall and gets early
No, he just got a run. They can't even plant.
He's going to get chased down by Flamesee, and would you imagine that?
A Fallen who's spotted harder than you've ever seen is also the guy who puts double digits here for Furia.
Nothing Flamesee can do.
Fallen gets the wrapper, and they wrap the blast CT side.
He's not the player we want to honor us next.
That's what he wants.
That's what he's best.
He gets in your head.
watch your back. He doesn't just represent team, he represents the whole nation.
Never comes to mind. He loves it.
It does it, like no one else does, he always finds a way to be at the top.
The monster is back.
Let's play again.
There are some pairs that are just born differently.
Some try to intimidate you.
He doesn't fight.
Everything he does is deliberate.
You never really feel like, hey, you just feel late.
Where is no pattern?
He doesn't move faster, he doesn't flash.
He makes it look easy and that's the scary part.
He was right for this.
It's not about losing too, it's about arriving at him.
The comic!
Oh, he stops!
Beautiful, what happens, Iwer!
That is ridiculous!
It's just, Saibou doesn't need the help!
Males every single show!
Right here, right now, on Naraage 8.
Ah!
Oh my god!
Ragnarok fights.
Oh my god!
Saibou knows he's going to fight right here, right now!
Most efficient player in Counter-Strike history.
No way to landbelts, no way to move, men.
There's a chance!
There's Saibou here!
You try to, I will catch you.
I was ready to see a lot of different things tonight watching fallen go balls to the walls running through
mallet tops for multi frags at a 10 and zero score wasn't quite what I had in mind now they're looking brand new they're looking sharp I like the
aggressive openers and the fact that they got away with all of them that was one of the poorest halves you could possibly see
I'm not even gonna take a nameplate off, you know from any team in tier one
Multiple players is no frags for so long no rounds for so long
The deck completely stacked against Vitality as we go into the second half
The one out they have is playing aside that they've seen more success on so far that
that might be more fun for JL.
The stats didn't lie. Vitality's T-side has been struggling on this particular map, despite their map records.
So we do still have to put some stock into that CT side.
We got Afroman.
Should have known Fallon would have something up his sleeve for Guardo.
a rocky and I'm kind of surprised that all vitality are getting this treatment
right now now apex we travel the world with apex you get food in every single
arena to prepare is
But actually surprised to see the crowd clapping when Vitality got their two rounds.
Yeah, well again, you know, the Portuguese are a merciful people.
A pretty clap for Vitality's challenge.
And it was not just the one off.
That probably hurt more.
Two rounds in a row, you know?
kind of like oh good for you really good effort right like when parents put
their children's drawings on the fridge
boy so you're ready to get back into this
well you're gonna have to wait
not a bad word can be said about fury up right now
Every day you walk up onto a stage in playoffs and you hike yourself up and you have a few
days of practice and you get used to a new setup and you find out how the crowd's going
to react.
I mean here they certainly could have precipitated it to some extent.
But you try to conjure up everything to make it a good day.
But the thing is vitality to the exact same thing.
And I don't think the crowd going against them is anything that they're surprised
about or anything like you said that they're not used to I'd say that this
exact vitality have survived and if not thrived in more hostile environments
yeah Texas I feel like legacies at home right now kind of beating themselves up
coming up shot I really started to believe in this vitality run when they
beat foot you know I mean that was a two zero foot look absolutely fantastic
leading into that match every reason in the world to you know cast the cast out
on the on the fact there's so much volatility there's a new player everything
for vitality is up in the air they're sort of the right for a upset
essentially is what would have perfect moment for foot to beat them and still
have to prove it again one day but they got 2-0. I mean it wasn't even a three map match.
That's why I was thinking to myself that Vitality were in the middle of this rebound. Again,
you lose to Intercircle in your first game with JL in the server and he even said like,
I'm glad we lost that first game. I don't know if I believe JL but he said,
things got easier when we lost and I think he derived value from the loss because they said
that you could sit there, watch the team operate,
you can practice as much as you want,
but once the hecticness of officials occurs,
that's when you really put pen to paper, and that's true.
He's like, hey, this feels just like Novi.
Yeah, right?
They dispatch at 90.
They've had a huge 2026.
They dispatch of legacy on the up and coming,
and then they get rid of foot, the number one prospect
in terms of up and comers.
It felt like Vitality were starting
to collect a good batch of heads
to kind of dangle in front of Fury right before playoffs
to threaten them with that.
And you're a femoral stand-in experience.
You're trying to collect as many steam achievements
as you can.
Ultimate comeback, bottom-fragging win.
Yes.
All these little things just to give you confidence
for every upcoming situation.
But you're just trying to do it really, really quickly.
And they did manage to cross a lot of those off the list.
But now's the big one.
Stage game.
Yeah, that's what we're looking for.
And part of the reason they come to JL is because he's a stage player.
That part of his game is not something that should or would have been doubted.
And also the pedigree there, it makes sense for Vitality to look for that specifically
when they know that their quota is playoffs.
When they know that, you know, at worst, even when someone's playing badly, it semis.
But none of that changes the fact that Fury of Horror
A piece of the team and they also don't play vitality often played him twice the last time they played him in a final was
That crack out. That's when vitality were at their strongest furia played them again at rio. They lost there, but that's it
A lot's changed
Looks like for the better here for furia
So let's kick off this second half looking to keep things nice and easy
The CT side vitality do stand on. 2-0 on Newt this year after trailing 10-2 will worse than the first half.
That's a great stat line for them to try to remember.
But will it be a stat line that JL can contribute to from a 1-11 first half?
Goporetta is set on top of hot here for Zywoo. Here's the center pattern players down beneath them.
and will shred through the first two.
What felt like a much needed pistol,
truly underway well for Vitality.
You've got Molo doing base rod and a half to handle,
but I don't say that like it's an easy feat.
First instant head shot.
You take down Vitality's kingpin.
Now you start to think maybe I can get this bomb back.
You've convinced the head employer
to even tuck in temporarily.
Oh, they've absolutely increased their chances
of getting a plant.
Winning is a different story, but there's that bone stuff back now
It's the flank they have to figure out like this though apex timing is pretty damn slick Moledoy looking into the corner sitting duck
Apex strikes now quesarato. I mean how many pistol rounds have you sat there with your jaw on the floor?
Because of quesarata. I don't think quesarato is even gonna be afraid of this. He's looking at the flank, but
I think he knows it would be too risky to swing in again
This is a top-performing case or auto versus a bottom of the board JL inside the A site while apex has decided to take the
Long way back around if case or auto can get into the back of this site
Or if he can deal with that heaven player he is golden
It's running out of time to actually fake plant, which is kind of huge
There's contact towards name JL
Goes why gets him off that bomb plant and he's not going to come back after now. He has to die
It's actually kind of dangerous
They find it before bomb gets planted I think that was a weird calculation where they weren't totally sure how much time was left on the clock
You're just kind of staring at him like should I shoot?
Like that we get this from Zai Wu's POV destroys them coming out of hut. Yeah
Look at them fingers play so it is around that is one by a time and with case or auto dying after the clock
$450 for this next one. Oh
They managed to get him out.
Yeah, they did.
Whoa.
Really down to the wire, but it forces his hand soon enough.
Well, it might be time for Vitality to feast then.
They'll try to go for this unexpected pop and a potential bomb plant and deny Matt to
make some money.
Flanzie's will.
Triple mow down as the kindergarten gets bound out behind the fence.
You've got Vitality.
Doubling their rounds.
A pistol of conversion.
But because of this save, we come into the next round.
This is obviously low because of dying after time wouldn't be shocked if somebody gives him an AK
I think genuinely when you turn the half you're just clasping your hands about winning the pistol round
You're like if we do it, it's a totally different story. We know we can't guarantee it
But now that we've got it, mood totally changes
Yes, Firiya have this enormous lead. They will play well this half
The Vitality actually now have a chance
Falling with honor onto the tech dine.
Could the outer have more spokes moments ago.
You reach out the only one that left.
Just trying to shroud whatever the hell was going on out there.
CTs remain with vision.
Molly that doesn't disrupt Robs, but does call his support of Zairu over at least closer.
And then the main swing after all those smokes fade.
That's incredible. What a fake.
Furia have the call to walk a player outside and because of that little bit of ramp pressure off the Molotov
it drew Zairu's attention. Robs asked for help and then the A site crumbles.
Apex dives right back down that vent and Zairu looks to come through.
Needs to start peeling players off if they have any chance of a mistake.
They don't matter last mo goes into blocking off a ramp flank.
They were so confident about those entries.
This is a masterclass in utility out of fury.
They use every single grenade.
They didn't have all the money in the world and falling gets upgraded from
tech nine to an m4.
And it's the ramp fake to allow you kinder into many.
You don't see that often.
I'd love the early ideas that are just so unlikely to happen, you know, you think as a half progresses
you might come out with more complex things, you might try to throw in some fakes, but
Furia in the beginning of this game had a game plan, I don't think Vitality could
have forecast whatsoever.
Now that we're on T side, it's looking like more of the same.
It's too soon to celebrate, but not too early for Quesarotto to give us a smirk.
A rightful round that instantly transitions into Furia's 11th on the board.
And following with that call, you know he's just, he's feeling like he's in the flow state.
Yeah, totally. It's just it's it's amazing for the confidence for your early rifles to work that well and
Conversely for vitality, that's gonna be one of the most frustrating things to happen
If you're a tax in terms of countering everything on the back foot now with the money single kit on Zywoo
He'll be the player to watch. He's got his off all his nades as well
Or will he
They're putting immediate pressure on the utility differential and say, okay, you've got to be worried about an upper head
If you overreacted this we have more nades to spare. We can throw first here exact. This is how you play an economic advantage
And I love that we go from the ramp threat and nothing behind it
What could look like an all-in here versus rops and where's his closest rotate?
If I lose not anywhere nearby this time around a little bit of conditioning from round to round
And no kill just gets pounded when does Rob's not get a kill on round case Serato clean to take that head off
Side who can't even get his off onto the angle to threaten any kind of a hold on the ramp your kinder to the contact outside
There's a lot of pressure flooding down to this lower site and flames
He's gonna have to receive it from a mile away, but believe it or not fury of pause
Here's the moment where they either overcook or it's a perfect dish right here
We've got Vitality who now have to rotate frantically. You know that they're gonna take a risk
Didn't go right away
When he did switch from single-door to control side that could wind up
You know just him being forward then apex can take his old position
So it's a good spot for flamesy to have changed to ambitious apex not gonna help
Ready for the dual still they're able to walk away. You kind of ties the flank to perfection
Executed from behind and now apex is gonna be forced back to try to deal with this
One foot step herd. He is already getting out of town.
Zaiwu was never a part of this retake.
A wall bang for Flazy. From Flazy.
A parting gift. He says, get out of here, kid.
Go ahead. Try to save your M4.
Julia's secure.
Ample. Matt Boyce on their pick of new.
It's another fantastic round with the amount of money they have.
The upper fake, the outside smokes into a ramp play this time.
How do you read it?
How do you build off the point you've seen so far making the decision?
You have to know the team intonately and even then I feel like here you are just bringing in stuff you would have
be able to figure out and raps isn't playing his his favorite side of ramp
and the really surprising part about that playing a spot that has no support
either there's no one rotating in because of the outside smokes they drew
Sairu away from ramp he would be the guy to normally get a kill on the
cross as you're entering ramp and allow raps to go from one kill to
the third after his.
Just keeping enough to fight with vitality.
Look to tap into a comeback once more.
It's really given respect to the fact that it is vitality and they spent two grand just to pull one player away for three seconds so that they can have an easy drag.
Well, that one player still has teeth.
Kindar down to start this one, a 45 to Fury at the base.
Kindar's reaction to getting picked.
Deflated, leans back, leaves this in the hands of his teammate,
explains that he's still worried about that outer wrap around,
and Yuri's gonna pick off their in-game leader.
Wrong Molly here.
This is JL to at least have found this spot.
Never would you anticipate him still being up here on the hut.
here on the hot. But once again, they hit that pause button and they didn't hear any
didn't see anyone in the back of the site. No one up in heaven. Mollidoy was really aggressive
there in the hot. It's actually possible they consider this flames. He's still with
good reason to consider that outer wrap around, but he's just thinking about the timings,
the commitments and when they come as a smoke grenade pops in front of him. He's going
to see that as an invite to try to support JL. We hit 30 seconds here. One mistake.
No mistake and it's over.
Kcerato and Fallen on the single door.
Molledoy looks to split in, pinch in eventually.
So much time has passed.
Somebody could be up on this high.
And he's going to bounce.
Bomb drops in the middle of it and Fallen just skewers
from the two.
JL walks down the site.
Let's Rocks come through with it and Vitality,
not too thin on that A site.
And the cause in the middle of it all really
lets Vitality, I think, cement that defense this round.
I felt like with the game that we've watched so far,
that this was just going to be the cherry on top.
Here you find a 4v5 way to win, and it is a nervous moment upstairs.
And you appreciate JL going into nature.
He checks on Sweet D just as much as I...
They gave ramp over to Zywu.
Zywu had already contributed what he needed to in that round with the opening hop kill.
There could be a lot of CS to be played from this point on, but in terms of game plan we've seen Furia
BA2-sided team so far. Amazing moves early on the CT side. Their first two T round wins have already been pure class.
What I'm wondering is if they continue with this red thread of throwing fakes.
I wouldn't be surprised to see a fury that's willing to just sprinkle in an all-in, all-early
commitment.
Vitality 100% have to keep their fingers on the pulse.
Here we go.
You can go early.
Utility pelts him down to 80.
Same boat. JL with the wider of the angles. He's got a duel versus Kcerato in a moment and a flashbang finds it.
Kcerato gets the kill. Flamesy holds off the first one. Two more emerge from the high. And they are met by Apex's U-Till.
And already Vitality out through that heaven, but they just drop into the waiting hands of Fallen.
It's Molledoy up next. And as he taps away a rock that's forced to drop into the site, Molledoy grabs that bomb.
He gets out of here.
Great escape.
More damage. That's it. And space for him to plant.
He knows lower's open, he's gonna go for this. Suck in the door!
Oh, that kind of messes with his timing. Still commits to the digits.
Apex with another piece of Util. The perfection flushes him out.
And Vitality step up to a more electric pace.
Still, those trades clean.
Feels like that could have gone either way, but Vitality's fight lives on.
Yeah, that means they got the doorman in the site.
Once they had Hut open, like it's complete RNG as to whether or not your players are gonna multi-kill.
So they put the pressure on.
But Vitality passed the task and that's also important.
And it's that ball team, not a Flamesy, that tips the scales in their favor continuously to the end.
This next round it's going to be Mollidoy seeing it off.
And only one other rifle on the board.
They have made fantastic use of utility.
Saw it a little past around for a second because they sold it for extra utility so let's hope they can get value out of those nades.
They have already.
Zywoo's sitting on the mortar. Flash burst. Apex pops up. That's a whole lot of bodies confirmed.
That's an unbelievable amount of info for Apex to get this early in the round.
Tees diagonal. All the smoke, good position for the two in front of the flames.
Zywoo keeps going. He's just going to keep interrupting this.
Those nades aren't for damage. They're for pick offs.
Kindar ready to return the favor. Still just on that four points of health.
points of help very awkward for him so no surprise JL finds it through the
smoke spam. Zywoo feeling mobile fallen Scott his teammate dead to rights already
And then this shot as Kasey Waddle comes through with the camera.
And then he goes to the quickscope, and he backs through everything to do now.
What could have winded up being a wrong front batter instead turns into Furia just chopping through that E-Site beat back.
Furia is running alive. A fantastic match of these.
That had every bit and piece that you could hope for out of Buria. It was amazing from beginning to end.
And that's even vitality with a pistol round in the second half.
Never in my days have I seen a fallen come out swinging right like that.
A fallen willing to step into fire for three bullet-frags, taught silo like a madman.
And that's the version of him we get out of the gate that's the confidence that spills into this nuke
Urias map pick of cash up next
Fury again a dominant win and you told me don't ask how this happened fallen was pushing fallen was fighting
What did you just notice from their comms or their confidence coming into this one?
The energy was just amazing inside the server. We just found Floyd state so fast
Starting from peace around everyone just gave their shots
And I think you just build up on top of that and then everyone's so happy playing the energies are amazing the vibes are crazy
So yeah, just like that. How much of that was game plan and how much of that just became feeling and momentum
15% game plan
85% of feeling and momentum. I like it now going into this though this crowd
They've been on your side anything you want to say to them before we get into the next match
I know you appreciate their energy
The way that game ends is unbelievable you think Molybdenum dying with that off
It's gonna be over for them right vitality should have everything that they want for it and fall and goes
I'm gonna remind you who is the original opera on this team because at the end of the day
Molotoi falls short
Well, it doesn't matter because phones that have pick up every piece that very and needed for vitality's my pick of new
That's a how can you not be romantic about counter strike moment? Yeah, I will gets the initial kill Molotoi goes down then I will
Uncharacteristically misses a shot which leads the door open for fallen no scope close range fallen easy off shot on a
Zai will close out the game in such a pivotal moment in such a pivotal game
I just needed a little bit of chaos for the professor to put an end to this one, a great
excellent performance, even going back to the CT side for falling there.
I mean, the 16 and 6 score line speaks for itself in many ways, but the defense that
Uria put up in that first half, it was active, was able to lock down some of those plays
that Vitality were trying to piece together, and this does not look like the same Vitality,
I will speak on that, that they showed in the end of that group stage.
I think this is really a kind of showcase of what a great IGL can do for you, because I think that CT side made a lot of sense the way they do it.
You don't give the space for vitality. I'm sure they've got some practice plays, but when things start to break down, when you're in the 4v4, 3v3, your players don't have the same cohesion you normally do.
You don't have the ability to pivot out of these and have deep protocol trees to know what you do next, so you just don't let them set up in the way they want, and then they have no fallback option.
I mean, you don't end up half a CT half 10 and 2 like that by pure chance.
Obviously, Furia come here swinging for themselves, but I love hearing it's 15%
gameplay and at the end of the day or prep game plan.
At the end of the day, it's still 85% that is feel that it is running off of the
crowd. It is running off whatever Furia decided to eat today for lunch.
Well, the way that they were able to carry themselves in the mid late round was just
way better. It was like a team that actually was a five man roster that's played together
for over a year now, whereas vitality on the other hand, every time there was any kind of
just disturbance in those beginnings, they were just left scratching their heads.
You saw times when when Robs was just getting desperate, trying to find some in on the round.
He's usually just going zero for one jail. It's just kind of carrying the rear there,
wondering where did everybody go? He's like the what the John Travolta mean,
like just his arms are up in the air, just wondering what's going on guys.
I thought we had a game plan. I thought I was joining the era defining team here.
to call back to group stage this is actually almost exactly what happened with vitality against legacy they lose 10 to on their T side
But then they go into the CT side and they had the likes of Zywul pulling off some
ungodly place to bring them back into it this time. They just didn't have that extra gear
They didn't have a rops clutch moment or a Zywul
Insane 1v3 that pulls them back into it
You can't lose 10 to on your T side of nuke and back to back games and expect to be pulled out of it by
even a very good CT side. I mean that's just even more props to Furia right? You
saw a team be able to come back from that. A team opened the door to vitality
to let that go in and whilst we can sit here and say this isn't the vitality
we're used to something funky is going on in that camp whether it's standing
whether it's individuals whatever you want to say there is still massive
flowers that need to be given to Furia here because I've been so impressed
what they've been able to do and I want to hone in on that first half a
little bit more though looking towards where Furia finally got that snowball
going for them and ran away with the first half.
Yeah, round five is the round where I thought to myself,
I think their game plan here makes a whole lot of sense.
You know, if you have fallen, I think he understands,
look, if there's an opportunity for me to get aggressive
in a way they're not expecting, I'm gonna be doing it.
You go straight through the molly,
but as you catch, you catch,
there's one player off guard
and a second player with Cucadia,
and then they just go kind of for a very slow,
kind of sloppy play out of hot
with the remaining three players.
There's no chance of them winning that round.
Fallen has just welts of experience in terms of knowing how to play against certain types of teams, whether that's anti-stratting, a team that's a little bit more gimmicky, or a team like Vitality that's working with the standard.
And like you said, I mean, stopping them before they even get started in the round is the best way to get a team with the standard to just not know what's coming next.
Even if the core of Vitality remains the same, I think one of the problems that we kind of highlighted in the pregame was that Jail's a late round player, weirdly for them.
If he just died first, I think that Vitality would have their bearings much more frequently
as those rounds progressed, but because he's supposed to pick up the pieces with Flamesey
or Apex dying in the late round, just doesn't know really where he has any opportunity to
strike.
Admittedly, this is the moment in which Vitality, they go outside.
You see Apex, he gives the hard conversation, the harsh words, and the talk that needs
to happen for the team, and I'm not expecting a similar sort of story when it comes
I think that's the first
time I've seen a lot of
players that have been
playing in the first half
of the season. I mean,
I'm not sure if you've
noticed that, but there's
still a lot more to unpack
here for new again, honing
in on the fact that it was
Vitality's pick. They
full short again in that
first half of themselves. But
I think what's like the
little extra cherry on top
for us, his viewers and not
so much the players is just
falling. Getting in a
groove. He comes out there.
It is so evident how much
the crowd loves them, how
much they're all cheering
for him now, but he
closes the half in the
most like or farming
fashion. Anyone could do
just the way that even when the odds are stacked against them how he can keep his
cool under the pressure they lose the early five on four again you see robs
just looking for something there that probably isn't even called for yet
kandar himself being going one-for-one and now in the three-on-three scramble
that Vitaly find themselves in they put they're putting this together this
looks like this is more or less a done deal fallen was even heard going down
lower be there and that's what's really curious about that but fallen was
is jumping just a couple seconds ago on this replay.
And so Apex to go down ramp.
That's when I just saw Vitality capitulate,
where they really had lost complete control of this game
and fallen as the clutch is going on.
This is when the lag is ramped, by the way.
There are five, six seconds left in the round
and he just stuns there.
Like you said, he's Orphar.
He pulls out his notes, is just reading,
what am I gonna do in the next step?
What am I gonna call now?
And because he knows Flamesy is in a hopeless situation.
Is he Kerrigan pulling out the we will we will you got fallen pulling out the tactics strats the paper and he knew he knew
The flames he was nowhere nearby. There was no way to lose that so he styles on it
I mean, it's also the way that he just puts it back, you know, you could have held on to it all the way into the end
But he just goes actually I don't really need to use that break between
Switching sides to actually look at any tactics because they really did have
Vitality's number in every way shape or form and I'm just so impressed Maui that
You're talking about it.
Fulin can do almost anything when it comes to preparing for the opposition,
no matter what it requires.
That's definitely one of the underrated aspects where Fulin has showed improved longevity.
That throughout the years, it's the CT side sometimes of his legendary lineups
that have actually really been kind of where their hallmark or signature moves have been,
whether that's Fulin himself understanding on the macro, how he was supposed to AWP.
Now he's bestowing that wisdom to Mola doi who is so active there and I've just seen over the course of time
Then come up with so many various game plans for their defensive halves that have stumped teams that seem like they're on the rise
There's so many reasons that this fallen team this fallen lead team can actually make so many teams
Stressed that he can get the the win on them. You look at the T sides
He can call a really cohesive T side where he really I use one of the only I gels
I've seen nowadays that isn't just calling kind of stride after stride that just makes sense the right play
He'll call circles around another eye jail. You see it on the T side, which is where I think they have their strengths
They're probably the second best T side team in the world right now
You see it on the CT side where he comes in with such an incredible game plan and he gets nine kills in five rounds
He really I think he put vitality instantly into the backseat into a very stressful spot
And they couldn't recover and that's why I have fury as this kind of dark court like the strongest dark horse
you could really create right now in World Counter-Strike,
whereas certain teams like Spirit and Falcons
have an unbelievable amount of firepower,
whether that's in an individual with Spirit
or across the board with Falcons.
Furia have just so many more tricks.
They have so many more ways
that they can activate a game plan
based off of what Fallen thinks, comes up with,
and they're just really well balanced.
I mean, Fallen himself rarely falls off
in terms of individual output.
I want to put more context right
into what we're talking about
because one of my favorite things
is just adding a little extra
in case there is something lost along the lines
of the narratives we're telling,
the explanations that we have
of just how impressive this nuke really was.
18 kills shared between all of our Vitality players.
It is the worst half Vitality have ever had
in Kiana Strike 2.
You say 18 kills and I think to myself,
side woo, floor line. No.
All of them together, a master 18
and that is the worst half
Vitality have ever had for themself in CS2.
I actually would love if one of our stats guys,
B-Trams, could maybe figure out how many times
has ZywOo himself just gotten 18 more medals in a half.
I'm sure it's at least more than a handful of times.
He has that.
He's cleaned up so often that it's just shocking to see
Vitality be put in the dirt completely like that.
And I think that comes from a great game plan from Fury.
But you have to accept Vitality didn't show up
the way they need to.
Apex is an IGL that will go out in the post game.
And he's going to talk to his players.
He's one that will say, Zywoo, you have to be better.
I don't think it was on Zywoo here,
but he'll tell his players, you have to be better.
We can't be getting 18 kills over 12 rounds.
It's things that need to be said, need to be heard there.
But there's a lot of other things that I'm hearing.
So many cheers.
There's some fun happening in the arena,
but we're going to have fun here as well,
because I bring up that stat, because I want to know,
do you think that their first half in the next map
is going to be higher or lower than 18 kills together?
I think lower.
I'll pop their worst performance ever.
We're bad on cash before, but no.
Yeah, I ask you because it is always one of my favorite ways to go into such a fun segment.
We're going to play some CS higher or lower brought to us by ICMocket here over on BlostaTV
if you guys want to play along. Is the item on the right higher or low market value
than what is shown on the left there?
We're going to take lower for the Chroma case.
Okay.
No doubt about that.
A little closer than I thought though, but I'm going to go lower for Rapture.
We're just gonna keep going lower than whoa gosh. Those are higher. Nothing. It's like $35. No, what I think you might want to take that three off
Bro, it's $5. Uh fire
This could be lower battle scar doesn't look good on this one lower
Lower okay. Yeah, we don't know. Yep. Yeah, I agreed agreed higher higher higher higher higher higher on the gloves
Yeah, this is the gloves
Hiring oh, I don't think so. It's a souvenir case. No, I don't think it's higher. Everybody has Paris lower
You're lower. Okay
Yep
Higher isn't old skin. I think it's I think it's got to be higher. It's old. It's an old one
Because they're actually too good at this. Yeah, you gotta never seen this skin before in my life
It's got to be lower. Yeah, same
the next one. Lower. Alright we're going lower. Oh my gosh, lower. We're doing a lot of fun.
If you think that you can do better than the analyst here, you can do higher or lower in
terms of rounds and make sure you head on over. Have some fun for yourself or stick around
because it's only a short break before we come back and we see the continuation of
about the best of the three between fury and vitality
when it comes to cash.
to utilize their highway players effectively as some other teams and especially when we get to the second half vitality on T side
They've been picked apart by highway players time and time again on this map
I think you're gonna be looking at your kinder to get something done on that second half
What about yourself now? Will you quit prediction as to which way this one could go? Well, it's September over here
And it is a fury a fall. I'm going up 1310 fury
The D10 Furia now he's always putting it on the line just like our play is.
Furia right now is stepping it up. The crowd have been loving it.
Let's see if they have it in them to be able to 2-0 this as we head to Cash.
I can completely see this game being close in the end because Vitality were scared on it so badly.
They got a lot of rounds into it but Furia the only test they filled was against Spirit
who right now are on a totally different level.
So now that we come into cash, it's Furia who are excited by Tality who are scared and we could not have asked for more from Furia.
Across the board, individual level is just unbelievable. Now you can't let them lead his mark, so Porto, a protect! Round two!
It could very easily be the last map tonight. That's what Furia think. That's what they showed us on Nuke.
Now it's just about the execution meeting the prep because you know that they brought the prep.
the crap. There's the execution. I know. Are we sure about that? Yeah, it's just getting
so low killed. It's just so rare to see. It's a tough one for him. Tough series if things
continue like this. You saw him die at ramp empty handed and a critical gun round back
on Nuke. A normal people can afford to miss a spray and have a sight teammate but Robs
He's always alone, and that's why he's so valuable.
I mean, they're looking to spin their heads right now.
They're taking B. They still have two players who could go out mid.
They have two players in squeaky with the bomb.
It's really just not about not fighting on this.
So Zywoo behind Quad, now alone. Alone for a moment longer.
Teammates trying to scramble into the site here to help him.
Zywoo is just willing to let Apex take that next one,
keeping those Berettas ready to go.
He will then swing into Fallen,
man advantage taken back only momentarily.
Molledoy, long range for the JL frags, great.
They know both these players are still,
oh, he got that, don't eat the sight.
Molledoy, they know he was in here.
And Zywoo does great things.
Element of surprise now lost.
Zywoo, another double kill required of him.
It's gotta be headshots, 45 health.
This shot is down to eight bullets in those guns.
They're going to try to split level up and over, wide, wide.
Still you'll find out.
Don't be looking.
Fury's going to get it.
And it is Fury with the two-side pistol.
That's Mollinoy, who keeps the round moving forward
at every step.
Him over towards B by himself.
That P250 towards the A-Site.
A-Punish on A-Packs just for thinking about crossing
into a slightly better position.
is the regret.
Boom.
Boom.
Boom.
Boom.
Boom.
Boom.
Boom.
And I love that it opens up the climb over top, right?
Such a unique bomb sight in that regard to be able to go high and low.
And if you be one and feel like you just really get to flex that advantage, you're not
worried that somebody highway is going to pick you up, you're not worried about that
guy hiding his head over by the truck.
No.
You just go hunting.
And we see the effect on a Zywoo who's just trying to scramble away.
Six bullets in the gun.
It's not often you see Zaywu on the back foot, and it felt like Yuria have been in a state so far this series to put him there
They were playing protect the VIP, you know
He came up with a kill and then apex actually did a lot of good work to get one to make sure he stayed alive
but
They literally were able to kill everyone else first and then take him out last and still have two players left to do it
It's got to be a dire sign for vitality, a pistol here on cash.
They split pistols back on Nuke and still got absolutely mocked.
Jail's like, what map is this?
Where am I?
Nice on Rocks to at least try to recover from a flat pistol with a good starting eagle 5'7".
Damn it, sure, falling half-out before wide pressure into checkers.
Oh, yeah, Trill with that eagle back around. There's so many layers though here.
And because Apex had fallen into tree, just allowed the wraparound to come through from Yuri.
Still, this 5'7 packs a punch.
Whoa, they're taking a run back and they have a fresh smoke.
If Apex wants to try to take advantage, he's gonna hear them take some fast steps.
Feels like he's gearing up for a sudden pounce
Does he just try to play his moment?
He brought us playing a spot where you can keep checking on the bet have to make the way to get out of it
I will drop smack 10-town apex nice split through
Needed a big time to upset after hit the force by
Julia stave off the embarrassment and convert two for two on pure impact out of Molledoy that closing kill
And this is a fall in favor, like you've never even had Apex on this map as a caller.
This is brand new for him in that regard.
Oh yeah, that's right, it's your Tinder.
Yes, who called.
Put together one of the best T-Sites that we've seen on this map.
You had missed the group stage of this event.
Where were you? Two, this is one of the three maps Ykindar fully calls on as we slowly transition to a fallen list
Fyria, and this is exactly what we saw. Aggressive lurks.
Really making himself the pinnacle of these rounds. It feels like Fyria kind of plays
around and behind him.
It's very Ykindar coded the way we've seen Fyria play so far on Cache. And he has stepped it up
up numerically as they played this map as they've made it a pick of theirs.
He's about to find himself an ace if you can just figure out where Apex is off to.
And there have been a lot of aces at this event.
That there has, on the brink of a record, if I'm not mistaken.
This would help.
You can go around the line.
Ah!
Pesky Apex.
Always has to ruin it for everybody else.
He'll do history his own way.
But still, that's 4 alive so far, and Apex, he's only knocked down a Mach 10 that he can't even get back in.
And that's all, he's got a dispatcher.
Not cracking for the team, but slow starts, I'm not sure if we're going to get away with those right now.
And I mean, even if he couldn't expect to win the round just getting killed, that's all they were looking for.
And this is another map where faking is actually an incredible way to build an entire half,
because you have so much time.
It's so easy to get the map control you're looking for.
It's so quick to do so that you can play on both sides of the map, still join up, do
late-knit fakes, and split-say you can't do on other maps.
That's why it feels like it fits very as a playstyle right now so well.
Wow, quite literally their worst marks in CS2.
That's what you just witnessed here in Porto.
Damn.
And of course the caveat, the JL's not a full-time member, but still.
The mixture of them not being good enough and Fyri being way too good.
Obviously, Spirit of the Team to beat at this event, but when you watch Fury play that well,
you wonder if they could have given them a run.
That last performance.
You can see how spread out they are, but they'll still have time to go into this, but wisely,
Vitality are moving into good spots.
They'll be able to come in through the vent if they need to in an emergency.
Two players on the site without one in checkers.
Oh, and the first Molly, they can't come into this, and the exec can take place.
Two players on the site, can you risky?
There goes that vent support you just alluded to.
So now you're going to have to hope that this beacon in the backside can hang on.
JL actually emerging through as the fire gives out Apex quick to his head shot.
And they still don't know about Rock's kill now.
He will swing for a second.
All punch pie.
That's awesome.
And they cut off the JL.
Right now they're feeling like those guys were stranded for a second.
But as the Molotov fizzles, it is indeed a strong defense
out of vitality four rounds in.
It's that having an entire exact rest on the time you have
from Amali is obviously not ideal.
But the fact that Vitality were ready to take event
as soon as it was up was the most important part.
JL understood his assignment right here.
And it's also excellent, again, we see from Rob.
He gets a first kill, his teammate can get an easy second.
You almost always expect him to be along.
Great response here for Vitality.
And it the best part about it is that they clearly knew like that like 70 30 that it was going to be big
I had everyone ready for that mostly
Nothing to the jail position just such a clear indication about it here
I have been doing a great job of covering their footsteps in this last map
for even the tiniest bit foggy today and then you play the most stacked team that do this many fakes
and then they get away with it over and over again you've got a hell of a job as an IGL
it's been cool to put immense pressure on the faculty of a stand in like communication like
all the things you want to be in rhythm with well now suddenly you have to also call out
tons of fakes all that connective tissue that we were just praising for months as vitality
had their era the way that they just gelled and played off one another. Another thing
that JL obviously referenced in the HLTV article just saying how like we're going to realize
I'm not Mezzi in those moments. I don't know when Mezzi would flash, when Mezzi would
smoke and those little supportive pieces that the stars of vitality have been propped
up by thanks to Mezzi. Mezzi is not an easy guy to replace.
No. I mean he got his first shot obviously because of Henry G.
Henry G and and you know wasn't wrong just early and
Nezzi was signed because he had this
Encyclopedic knowledge of grenades. He was super versatile
Every one of his former teammates said you could just put him in any spot
He'll play it and I always thought that that might be his downfall if he just takes on too many supportive roles
Just because no one else wants to do it and but Nezzi obviously
Sean on a team that is stacked to the brim
I think one of the best things about the fury of T-Side on Catholic scene is when you kindar
can get off through middle and start to weave his way into kills like these.
That's so quick to be there.
I am not shocked that Apex gets caught off guard,
but they have to also be ready because this is a known quantity at this point.
Nakim there and his aggressive lurks.
Now, constant looming threat of a potential highway challenge.
It's going to start to compromise what was looking like a high low setup inside A.
Flames he would have loved to just stand on the ladder.
Instead, he's going to come deal with this.
That's so good.
But, oh, Volunt's actually on the inside of the Molotov.
I wonder if that means anything.
Oh, Saewoo goes wider with the angle.
Fallen! Now down to 14 health.
Flames, he's going to deal with both of the players out
middle on his own.
So this is from a 4v5.
They bring this all the way back.
And actually, well, Jail is actually going in the wrong
direction, but it doesn't matter.
Rocks in a good spot.
I was wondering if we'd have checkers finally played this
way.
You'd imagine this is a curtain call for Furia in this
round, but they've been fighting hard for every inch.
Kisarato at least able to retrieve a gun thanks to that smoke grenade. So nice to see a vitality that can rebound from a 5v4 set up by a kindar. But you said it's a known quantity, right? Expecting him to get off into middle on cash.
And it's fair though that the question is when and where and you know
He has been thrown in so much variety and that's what's made him stand out a ton
It really reminds me of when get right was able to pull off lurks every round for the first couple years of CS go
Because it was such an undeveloped meta with cash coming back in everyone sort of trying to forage their own
Style and and find a way to stand out like that's something that would work really well in the beginning
No!
Excuse me.
Um, yeah, but it was also the flash that was coupled with the ball.
Suddenly from this replay POV, great catch, that actual response to middle is way cleaner.
A JL plus white box duo peek off.
The ball is off from Flamesy.
It's a nice indication of vitality.
Aware of and prepared for dealing with those opening deaths out middle.
But this one begins with another challenge. Apex hits that grenade.
It's a bit of a different round. We don't have that many guns here for Furia.
But he gets still a competitive buy.
Once more, your Kindar just so many to pop out onto the white box.
Apex already got back down low.
It's a flash!
His own.
Flash over, Whitebox makes it weird and we've got now Robs boosted up top, top defense to unrook here especially with a tech 9 on the 4th front.
Fallen's trade is good. Jail's just going to keep his head tonned. Blindside's the bomb carrier. That's meant to be picked back up and a great reaction to K. Serato.
Molotov trying to still dive into the site. It's an op on his back now as the Glock connects 1. What's he going to do?
fake plan first three players all around him pressures on up close and done for
it's majority alive for vitality as they tie this cash game early it's looking
excellent I mean also fury at tripping over their own features to touch self
flash over towards highway when apex is out that wide in terms of staging they
do a good job of packing him down low where a tech nine is actually more
scary than the m4 at that range but if you need a flash then it's all
Undone. They call back from a 45 last round. Here they handle the situation extremely well
and that is the last of the money for Fury, a chance for vitality to take a lead.
Fury themselves though still believe in enough. We've got the five Desert Eagle round.
Caps continues with variation as a b-site defender, all of them in great opening.
But Robs taps away at those unarmored heads of Fiorio.
We do have a player having already creeped out, at least the position towards the forklift.
Flames you quick to answer to it.
Katerado goes down to the great grenade of Zywoo.
So a nice queen conversion from a vitality team that finds themselves in the lead
for the first time this series.
It was definitely getting a little worrying.
It'll actually force a timeout for Furia.
This is the moment to do it.
T side to look forward to a full buy coming up once again.
They've managed their money very well.
They've used utility very well.
They have, though, led Vitality back into the game.
And a really cool part for Vitality.
We got a two-op set up with Robs on it.
Cash is very welcoming to a second op on the map over
in B. It's such a good line to have that even
your primary will start there very often.
Add it to the basket of new looks from Rob so far on this B site.
We just got him in that forward checkers position.
Now he's coming back with the sniper rifle.
Yeah, and he's got a spawn to just drop up.
Sure enough.
Quick forward checkers angle.
Vitality of Moldova's toughest opponent since he joined Jurya.
Just looks for that Sun Room Cross.
Actually, Harry times it so that it's just in between.
Such a tempting angle here for Zywoo,
and he can hear that jump spot going on from Fallen.
Obviously, Zywoo remains locked in.
Here's the Fallen approach.
They are not ready for such a forward AWP.
Now Zywoo's gonna wanna get out of here,
and those bullets just sailing by his head.
Yeah, sorry, that was very useless.
And this is Vitality playing CS that will win this game.
Now this is CS that will stand out.
That'll be hard to read.
Perfect to do against an attack pause.
Certain amount of space.
It's just been a lot of the fury
at the beginning of every round.
Oh, it won't make that happen this time.
Yeah, you tiptoe your way through that doorway.
Now it's all about finding out,
damn second off on the field.
There you go.
Now you know it.
So just pull the part by the double-op set up all three kills so far from Zywoo and Robs and now Zywoo supports Robs in this rotation
Yes instant transmission from Zywoo this round both sides of middle into B
Well, I think you'll be in a committed spot early. So landed shot at least on to Moledoy
That'll take the wind out of the sails if there was anything left for fury of thinking
Maybe they get away with a B hit. It's like a sunroom savior out of Moledoy
Okay, I mean this is this is great out of vitality. Maybe they could have seen the cash pick coming. They look good
They're doing interesting things
Most importantly, they're hitting all their shots
You know if there's any chance of that comeback on nuke, which was genuinely real once the pistol was run
Probably starts with robs in the ramp just getting his just getting that one kill clean
I mean this map is weird to see him struggling.
Kassar doesn't feature three kills from vitality across the board in like what the first seven rounds or something
A stronger start, a good game plan, and a proactive decision-making sequence where we've already gotten out of this double-off out here on the field.
The tricky part about cash right now is the faster tempo rounds. It feels like Furia cracked the code a little bit by going for the aggressive lurks.
That seemed to be the best way to get map control without alerting everybody at the same time.
But if you do need a tempo change, which feels like Furia need that right now, what is your option?
Vitality to shift away from the second sniper, leave that one behind them, they extract great value from it for a two-round lead.
They don't punish Vitality right now for getting into these really shoved up spots. I wonder if there'll just be a similar fate awaiting them.
I'm not surprised to see Apex off white box, the amount of frag grenades he's taken to the face.
But it is the position that Zai Wu just found value from around to go, however, now he's
over towards squeaky doors.
So a nice forward positioning from the off.
Another moment here where Vitality bring in a fresh setup.
And they're just kind of going down the checklist, winning rounds all the while from
a 3-0 furious start.
And the way they're getting these off kills is the way that Fallen has gotten off
kills throughout his entire career.
off angles. It helped them avoid that flash. Oops. Pares super well with confidence, because
you're almost always in a spot that you can't fall back from.
As I would, just by scope being scoped up, it's grinding this round to a halt.
Again on top of these boxes extracted value here versus a tech nine push earlier. He's weird
He's got it again good for a double kill. Ross goes one better than the last time bomb carrier chop down as JL swings wide for the head
Shot hold and vitality looking
Solid here in this one. This is the vitality that you've come to know in love
Yeah, and this is a vitality that will force fury it to fight for this tonight
It's much more fun out of them
great rounds, great individual level for props as Zywoo and again you know I wanted to talk about how Zywoo showed us in groups, how flashy he could be especially at this event.
He had a duck half, I mean he had a duck game when he played against Inner Circle but outside of that he showed us some really audacious moves that were both on the watch and samely efficient as well.
16k right now for Zywoo.
I'm still sat here, sitting on my hands, waiting for that tempo change and a furia you called for the need from it.
This could be one of those moments as they group up outside of A, but they get melted by Yuzhu all the way.
That name from Flamesee and he still gets away!
He's still alive! You're kidding!
Covered off by Zywu, who now posts his double.
Flamesee just stares death in the eyes and says, no, not today.
And I'm here in half the crowd loving it.
I feel this half has sort of gotten away from them.
And we're at a point now where it's too late to change up.
And now you're in that kind of thing.
You use a lot of chances.
We see nothing but slow CS out of Buria.
Predictable.
And a little bit predictable.
And I think vitality from the respect of them
by catching off your kinder a couple of times.
Couple of those moves obviously was more about the execution like the flash getting missed then it was
Sort of wasn't a good idea because it was
Now that they sort of conquered the fury at the side just remember this is a pistol and two more rounds that area one
Is it too late and too obvious to change up?
But if you cover each other so well as well
You just have to clap, clap for greatness.
Two rounds to try to salvage your stacks here, now help, a miss shot at a Zyro, don't say
that every day.
The Kindar fighting is opening back towards middle and it feels to me like Furio want
to get ferocious with this split, they're going to double that box, back around main.
Oh, I thought of just no hesitation.
Finder walks who had just picked up Zyrus AWP who thought maybe Furia's approach would be slower. Why?
Probably because all these rounds have been.
I thought they'd be ready for it, but it seems like that's the little bit of medicine that they needed.
A Furia are probably going to be kicking themselves on the head right now. Think of this sooner.
Like a gas to flame.
This room erupts on a tidbit of Furia success.
Trying to hang on to the post-play, all goes down smoothly.
A fourth round.
Wait, wait, wait!
But better late than never.
Here for Furia.
The very sad part for Vitality is they couldn't get more in this half, obviously.
They would have needed the pistol, but with the amount of money that they had,
they could go forever at this point.
Intimate cardio.
You know, we said maybe we think it would become too predictable to move fast like that,
but it still did feel like, you know, it's a lot of rush out to spawn.
It just feels like somebody seizes control of the moment with those kills and on top of it it then catches rocks
I'm prepared for something that quick
Especially that then compromise
So rops down for the count fifth round potentially here for fury other gonna pop open the smoke towards middle
Try to go for this again fighting tooth and nail for control of it
But flames he has been there pain and as rocks emerges once again with a secondary off
It's only a one-and-gun.
Pacerado is waiting for Batz trying to do it.
And sure enough, he's gonna find that up inside of the fence.
Only good for the single frag.
What remains of Furio will be this post-plant on the B site.
It's a winnable post-plant. It's a winnable retake.
This one could absolutely decide the game.
The difference between a good and bad half year for Furio.
JL with a bit of hesitation here, awaiting his teammates.
Trying to figure out who sets up who.
Dropping Nades instead into the heavens.
We've got Zaiwu throwing them out.
Molo-Doi's gonna be taken off his angle.
If Yuri can hang onto the head shot, that'd be great.
And still, Molo-Doi's found a solid line.
Each of them from inside site.
Catch their kills.
JL looking for a clutch for the road.
And as the cover here backsites,
Minimal he cornered on the distance.
Jumped on top of that bomb.
And an eighth round on the other side of it.
JL!
Just a little more wiggle room.
We're at the ASUS ROG Lab, it's Maui Snake and Voo and we're going to be looking at some
clips of pro players from last events and without the name plates we're going to try
to guess who created the highlight.
And this should be easy because we're looking at it in lightning fast refresh rate on pristine
color from ASUS ROG.
We're going to be keeping score, but once you make your guess,
you are locked in.
Keeping score.
I thought this was just for science.
Science and fun.
All right, let's roll the first clip.
I can tell you that this one is phased from 2025.
Who has these gloves?
Yeah, so weird skin combo.
Doesn't broke he has.
This is broken.
It's broken.
Lock it in.
It's broken.
It's like, they're going to lose this map.
Yeah.
He thinks about going to the night kill.
He doesn't.
He walks around a connector, and then he goes to help someone.
I never was like, bro, he's got it.
And then he's right back to take the pump.
All right, this one is the Huns 2025.
I know that it says I can't remember his name.
A score maybe is the only game I can't remember right now.
I don't think there's a score.
Okay, yeah.
Someone else.
Okay, if we can't remember his name,
I'm gonna say that what happens next
is he doesn't get a whole bunch of eagle kills.
And makes one of the best clips that he's here.
I was watching this in my mind,
but I just can't remember the name.
Yeah.
Nine.
Next up, Furia, 2026.
Oh, this is Keisarado.
This is going to be the pistol lace where he flicks right.
Oh, this is such a sick clip.
It's one of the best highlights of the year.
I think it's four kills.
Let's say four.
This is like the bounty, right?
Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's a thing.
Yeah.
Yeah, there's some.
Oh, my god.
Yeah, the next clip is going to be Vitality from 2026.
Yeah, this is the Xywil Flick.
Oh, yeah.
This is the Xywil Flick.
Oh, the one he purposely looks into the wall when he peeks so that he can flick really
hard, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
This is the Xywil Flick.
A gratuitous flick.
This clip is Falcon's 2025.
All right.
I'm taking Kyosuke.
I think it's Killscape 5 kills.
Yeah, I'll give this Killscape 4.
Indecision and the action.
Niko would have already thrown the Nade.
Wouldn't have turned around.
Randomly swinging around shooting.
That's Killscape.
Yeah, just looking for fights all the time.
Well, GG.
At least the highlights were incredibly clear
thanks to this ASUS ROG.
I agree.
The Porto crowd coming to terms with the idea that this might not just be a walk in the park.
Park, Perfurea, Pistol, Conversion, 3-0 start.
Oh, it was high hopes.
And one round towards the tail end of things.
But Vitality proved they are going
to bring fight to playoffs, which, please,
for the sake of counter strike, needs to be the minimum.
Taking it on Cache would be quite a statement.
And I think it's awesome, actually, that Stompy
halves here on Cache and in the first half on Nuke.
Because one team was playing so well,
that was Vitality in the last 15 minutes,
They earned every little bit of that.
But I'm pretty sure Firo would be content
if they got four rounds in a pistol, so.
Let's see it.
Up and over boost goes Flamesy.
A Flamesy who when he was called on
for the CT side of mid control,
actually filled Apex's shoes quite nicely.
Trading kills off of the white box, et cetera.
So let's see what he can do on the attack now.
Set up by Apex.
Look at that smoke up and over for the highway.
And the Kindar decides to just forfeit any mid control.
So now Flamesee, it's space for the taking.
Obviously the extension of this
is it opens up your vents.
Kcerado's gonna have a flood coming his way.
Moretta's perfect gun for the job.
He's under seas.
Oh, and Kcerado goes down
to the pinch. Zywu comes out with the head shot.
Ya'kindar up into heaven.
Claw!
Stop them, but it's that collapse.
Zywu P250.
That was cold.
It was hard enough to get out of the vent.
Now he's up to three kills.
Hard clock and advantage lost to the flanking fallen.
Getting a little too out there, maybe.
This is risky.
Oh, Molochoi!
OK.
Good hit.
Zywu looking for all five.
And right now, as they try to link up, his chance is gone!
Guns down!
He's killing it!
He's killing it!
Pull out!
Bunch pass!
Plus a pistol!
Can you see that?
Fallen sweat off the brow.
Pressured situation where he's got to find that flank skill.
Molledoy, that's it.
Gimmy.
Rob's trying to push off site like that.
And I'm even surprised they didn't catch Molledoy.
And also Apex floating around a little bit too much.
He was also one of the reasons that I want to put it all on him, that they lost the pistol
in the first round.
It was Mollidoy to catch him, re-peaking on default, right?
When he had the safety of Zywu right beside him.
He's also walk-peaking into a lot of kills instead of full-committed swings, which
just tells you it's not actually super prepared for someone to be peeking there.
Round two off.
Wow. Well cautious because there's rifles on this field for vitality as well.
He doesn't seem that.
It's no AK but you miss your off shot under pressure.
Hell if that single-door swings you'd think Mollidoy is gonna feel compromised
and I could even create a distraction for Robb to jump on.
Mishat, there we go!
Gets away somehow, but he'll die now.
Of course!
JL contested, swinging wide.
Pressure suddenly here for Fallen has everything to do!
And Zyberu's gonna catch him from that highway.
Yikindar in the thick of all of it.
And it slows things down if only for a moment.
Players spotted outside Z.
Yikindar wants the duel to come his way.
JL down to the half-elf.
Fletch!
Yikindar's running through Fletch!
Yeah, the crowd erupts.
He's a bad for the job.
Take it over.
Robs has got the recovery off of Josephus Guac,
And now he finds himself in a clutch with an op on his back.
Where will he post up?
Highway.
It's contact.
You take that, opens the door for a glock to finish the job.
And it's all about now this redirection.
Gaserotto layered alongside Uri.
Both creep forward.
Oh, it's Uri!
Yes!
Oh, he missed it!
By the hair!
21 out.
One or two shots anywhere, one head shot would have done it with that clock.
And instead, they win the anti-ego after this, calamity of a start.
The universe not far from ours, where that off shot down highway is lethal.
This right here, ladder, is what keeps K-sur-arrow.
I was just thinking, how does this not kill them?
The latter is what denies vitality scores by, but they will come right back into this
next round with another purchase, which could be another electric tempo, which could be
something that yet again catches Furia off guard.
The latter.
on the ladders turned against rocks.
He knows his way around them.
He just doesn't know how to get through them.
I don't think I could hit that shot
into the ladder on purpose.
We're not on his side.
And BK smoked off, but not a ton of
pheasants really behind this.
Sairu is the only guy that's been inside
A-Mane just tucked in case maybe there's
another push.
But now a second piece of utility
trickles down into this A-bomb site
and Fallen will tuck into the
corners themselves.
into the corners themselves.
Maladoy could be presented a chance here.
We're at 45 seconds, and the closest rotate
is now Yikindar inbound.
Now this bomb site is blanketed by smoke.
And Bala will actually have to get out of it.
Feels like they're going to have to force
the control of things.
Bala is getting whittled down to 6 health all while.
Robs is going to emerge for the backstab.
Perfect execution of Yikindar.
Wow, look who can lurk to a taste of his own medicine.
and it rocks on 17 frags.
They have very little on this round.
They managed to take the whole site frictionless,
pushing everybody off, getting the smoke kill from Zywoo.
And the rest was easy.
Not a position where Vitality want to hunt down
all the remaining Fury of players.
Just a spot where they want to be happy that they won.
When we watched Vitality play the first half, they didn't let anything happen to the Psycat.
They were playing aggressive, up close, and taking the early portions of the round into
their own control.
And this is the symptom of playing back.
They don't come out with that audacious team plan that we saw on CT nuke
But how quickly will they learn their lesson back in the first half it took them to the very end to do one fast round and that was the cure
Another nice piece of util set
That's case or auto on the rocks to open up that's over towards the B site. What a fine
And again, Robb's operating on his own means there's nothing there for the taking, but
the Spruley mid-presence from Vitality will be spotted, Maloudoy mobile.
Yeah, just to ensure the jump spot, he threw that knee to draw that retention, Ler comes
in, nice position.
The Kindar is in the lead with the promise.
Back to back, that shot's for him, Apex.
Out wide with Galil and a kill, pretty swiftly.
Is it 2 vs 5? Demanded a vitality as they're gonna fight for couple digits up close versus the off another missed shot!
They didn't kill him!
Apex knows the danger!
No way!
And the second round of the game is close!
Enough's enough!
Line in the sand, can John on site!
Curia responds!
He just duffed underneath those bullets!
Scary to see him missing, opening off shot though!
I mean the fact that they let him go on the first move.
Now JL could have finished that one off easily.
I mean, this is great for Molledoy,
but he also missed a couple of shots.
I'm just going to skip all that one, my goodness.
The last round was scary, but they bounced back immediately.
There's also that rop's check that happened early days
with K. Serato getting active.
Now suddenly early emergence from vitality towards that site,
But all while bombs correspond, a real chance for a guy like Yikindar, who loves to get aggressive,
loves to test your back lines, what if he cuts off a potential carrier,
Zywu looking wary of exactly this, and he's going to catch it.
Yep, Yikindar caught off by a Zywu tuck straight down beneath.
It's one risk that will be met with another falling up close in a main
Tzaiwu who already punished the last time won't see anything but also doesn't
know that fallen just checked it if he did I think the play would be a little
bit different this is interesting because what's crazy is the clear
didn't see anything and yet they're still making the right rotation to
B.
Molo do I puts that off in a critical position?
We saw good value out of vitality's defense
from the same position.
If Jail doesn't make noise early,
I mean, Fallen might not even be around to hear it.
They've got three committed on the site.
30 seconds.
Bomb in the middle of this pack.
Flash by, flanks, it's marked.
Straction offered up from Kate Serrano.
And there's Molo doys off active.
They know about all these bodies now.
But there is no way to get this bomb to the other side.
JL late plate versus an empty nine huge advantage.
Now this carled up defense and Vitality want this, go get it.
They gotta run at the problem now.
Fight for this, seven seconds.
You gotta cut that down.
And Furia, fight Fyre with Fyre,
peek into the fray and take their eight.
They knew they weren't gonna be able to get a plant.
They tried to make sure that they coordinated to have
the best chance, but the advantage
was always gonna be to Furia.
This is actually an unbelievably unlucky moment for Vitality.
Zairu comes in and standing behind the box
that could punish Balin for peeking,
but because neither of them see each other,
Balin sees an entirely clear A-name,
and they all stack B.
Vitality did not know they had any info at all.
And that rotation earns them this.
eagles for a vitality that may damn well have to bend and give that tight game at nine all
over to their opposition.
Between the latter shot and this last round vitality are going up against it all.
stuff here for your kinder gonna try to give zaiwu a taste of his own medicine
revenge right there for the taking
you kidding
ooh zaiwu's got you again he's hit some hard shots with that eagle oh that was scary for a second
all while the mid walkup is evolving from a desert eagle to the mp9 but still trusting the
the sidearm. You can see Zaiwu emphatic calling for moves.
And if they emerge out through the A main,
Paulin holds up his end to the bargain.
Molotow is trying to cut down A side close.
It's excellent for Molotow.
I mean, he knows when to, when he gets spotted,
when to still be aggressive.
That was one of those moments they had
born with the entire time.
My goodness, Robs.
From downtown.
These legal shots really just a flash
in the pan of possibility.
Hold on!
Rod's trying his damnedest!
And yet, Furia, hang on to that AWP for Fallen, a Fallen who establishes a quad kill, under pressure.
You could see Zaiwut felt like very energetic in that mid-round.
Probably calling to get that split-going, wanted to create a distraction or some kind of a door, a jar for him.
Wines up just being Fallen holding on.
One real scare this half out of Vitality.
Other than that, Feria are back to comfortable.
Now, they did do considerable damage with those two extra
deagle shots, which means they're not building the economy
in the same way that Vitality did versus them on their CT.
It's a great time for X-Taz to get involved.
Vitality still have odds.
But even with shots like that, the setups are what end up winning the round.
You know sometimes you see a player frustrated with the way they die and it's like buddy
But in this case I mean you kind of how he doesn't get the better of Zywoo the timing on that one is
There's a Rob's carry on the line case or auto back to early B-Play this time traded out by Rob's
He's not gonna get away with it for free
Fallen best Zywoo JL tucked in ready for this Malva do I walk up a little bit too far
But A-Main belongs to Furiel, so it did!
Apex is gonna keep them honest, and maybe one move too far.
And this one comes down to the read.
It's actually kind of tricky here for Apex.
He has a bomb. He's between two very take-able sites right now,
but Jail's already up on A.
The question is, do the CTs go there first?
Apex is gonna make his way over. A-Main gets smoked.
This is a little awkward.
Can Jail create the space necessary for Apex to get out cleanly?
You are also blindsided. That should be it.
Ykindar reveals himself, takes 60 damage in the process, Apex now knows bomb clear for the plant.
Both teams playing dangerous games this round, and Vitality emerge on top.
Yeah, they'll-
I say that like Ykindar is not about to catch-
You are going!
Okay.
JL!
Goes wide.
That was a little r-
I mean, Ykindar going all the way back through B, and then even giving that a shot is already crazy.
Now that that's Ykindar, he's a little crazy.
So this rop trade is so key and then this push that JL caught because he heard it.
Saw that door swing open earlier.
That was one for Fray.
And Fallen also.
He just walks through the main smoke.
That round is still alive.
It's not like they need to go total desperation mode.
I'm thinking with how JL was so committed in the corner, it's almost as if JL was
worried about an A main flying.
Too holding.
Maybe that's why Fallen sees the opening.
Absolutely.
watching a smoke, you know.
So good presence of mind for vitality to take this lead.
I think it was just, it's been good karma for vitality
who are playing well to just have something go their way
after a couple of really inexplicable losses.
It's been a fair bit of action, evolving over towards the main against Robs.
This is going to be his last few rounds with Kiddar.
He's dying.
Kills, dying in trades now.
Molotov is going to pick it up with the AWP instead,
and that's going to free him up to now be the only V player.
So, Yuri to go support elsewhere.
They have bent control, so this is a great spot for Molotov to be in.
I mean, they should be totally aware of this.
I don't see Robs is suddenly taking a risk.
And you know, very quietly, we check that scoreboard.
Look at Rob's 21 and 14.
A real problem for Furia.
Furia has to, where this round goes,
is do Furia protect mid and vent?
And if not, where does Molledoy move?
Still not going to happen.
That smoke's coming out.
OK.
There's a shallow one.
Little rock fight on it.
He dies.
Wow.
That actually speeds things up badly
in the favor of Muria.
And no vision on what is indeed a real pack of vitality
players.
Would they believe that vitality would go back to the well?
They're trying the B split once again.
I mean, Fallen's making a move in A main,
and that's going to, I think, free up your kindar
to maybe just get a little closer.
They have you till for a full exact.
Dangerous to stay in the site.
Smoke canister, bounces off the motherboard.
So well supported but still a star.
Maladoy alley-ooped into his first frag with a little bait smoke that made it feel like
the CTs didn't have techer control.
It's a hard job to trick Roth, but they pulled it off.
And it was so late that Vitality were already
committed to the B idea.
A fallen who gets caught pushing a main smoke last round
does, I think, also give a bit more timing to his team
by trying it again this time.
Bollower hit that smoke with his head
and created a pocket for himself to jump up on headshot.
Bang.
Look at the impact.
Moledoy trying to prime this porto crab to roar
It got a little quiet in here for a while
Even flamethrower
Surely this place wouldn't
They'd never lost though, right?
No, they would never boot rocks
Even Robson's in safe.
He's out for a get on the server.
Saifu and Gettendar.
A Vitality that still sits on two additional timeouts as Sid uses his last.
This game is so close and Vitality, I want to say, could have already won it with the amount of things they ought to monkey with,
which is kind of crazy because you almost never say that.
The three rounds that he made clear, the latter shot and Molledoy bumping the smoke with his head by accident, by the way.
way. And yet the game is still tied. It's not too pretty either, huh? Yeah, after all
of that, I mean, we're coming into AKs. We're going to need a hero. No AK for rocks. Well,
Now of course, four event, no semi-final streak.
And we can always put the asterisks next to it,
the JLs now in their ranks.
But these are things we never said about this team.
Their reputation slowly chipped away at.
Miss chance for Molledoy, could have been a kill.
AC, all these guys have children.
Fallen brought his into the server.
Found him, all the way in Kossage stand.
trying to set him up for success.
It's a good answer back though, catching a kindar in that corner.
Molledoy dancing with danger.
Oh, he actually knows it.
A chance. Good flash to actually allow for a chance to get out,
but Molledoy will always go for info.
Oh, but you're up against Zywoo. You take one to the face.
This is a crazy round of win for Vitality, man.
They're actually peeling out into the B site.
It's going to be an eight play for once.
Taiwu may have just won this round.
The help of him and JL's kill.
Just need to not let anything crazy happen right now.
Off of the back of a 4v5, no less.
Bombs getting implanted, CTs are getting that info
as late as possible.
Taiwu's got an upgrade and they're going to take the knee.
Man, you just talked about how vitality
we're getting unlucky,
how they could have already won this game perhaps.
Well, this moment comes through back for the lead.
That's going to be a dampening on the mood of Furia's camp
as much as it is this arena.
Absolutely.
That's supposed to be the free route to victory.
And instead now, they still are still going to have a buy.
Because Molotow has lost his office,
actually kind of a tenuous spot.
The sort of vitality jumping out of their chairs
off of this result.
It's a vitality that look fully locked in.
We go down the line picture in picture.
Oh boy, they are struggling right now.
It's going to be an investment here.
You get a gun for your kinder as a question.
Yes.
No offense play this round for Viria.
This one's for Matt Point.
A chance to steal cash here for vitality.
Oh, it's an adjustment to do that.
And we saw your kinder even getting
the first shot on JL in mid.
Doesn't pick up that frag.
opens the possibility of the Zywoo walkout and we saw what he gets from there.
As much as he had that offer, there's still a bold game to play.
Zywoo taking an off here towards the B main.
On the other end of it, it's Yuri and Yuri alone, close to support Kaserato outside of the vents.
Look at that radar, those spread fields on the 1.
89, wait, so much on that spray through the wall. Apex won't know about it yet.
80 something or other
These are auto dive site a low health support
You know, this is a moment or a fury or we're on the T side it would have a lot of fake utility ready to go
They picked their site it'd be hard to pick
They spread the map in the right way to have the amount of resources needed to pull up any round they want
Let's see how far they take it
The B splits already starting to take shape though.
Oh, Amy Push.
On it again.
JL's coming to clear this.
He's done it again.
It could be the miracle moment.
Oh my god, JL didn't see that.
No, and falling.
JL's still able to clear that corner.
But this is scary now for Vitality.
They got to make a game time decision.
A Push was just killed.
Do they go B?
I mean, with this deep smoke, it'd be a hell of an ask.
Rob puts a bottle on top of Yuri who's able to fall back into his site.
Feels like that alien's happening.
Nobody knows what's happening.
happening. Everybody's scrambling around. K-Toronto so low after that spam earlier in the round.
Sprinting to try to support this truck. The top ladder climb at maybe just the right moment.
No way he gets hit!
Get a great distraction!
Oh, Volodoy!
Up on top of the burn!
What a tremendous truck!
And Abzaiwu gives Spiria a fantastic moment to rebound.
Fallen goes deep into A main and as he doesn't come away with a kill,
K-Toronto has vitality's mind in racing.
Oh, he's out of that time!
Apex! Money swept out from beneath him!
Tide game 11 all!
Oh, he's half-strung. 3,500 instead of having lost bonus.
And there's no luck about this round.
In fact, it's JL who just barely catches this push.
Very good awareness.
But it's playing for Info, like Mola-Doy's two kills.
kills.
Here to play this Florida defense, very active.
Just to say, Pete Serrano, who looked like he was alone on an island.
Sub-20 HP.
Just enough of a distraction, and Molotov keeps it clean.
Limitations yet again, but a fiery tempo out middle.
The Kindar blown away.
Can this AD fence stand another test?
Will Vitality instantly transition into it? No.
A pause for a second.
Look how coloneled up both ends of this defense
is they have no stake in middle.
You're risking it entirely if you stay like this.
You put yourself in a great spot for rotators
because you're not consuming space from them.
You still leave heaven open.
Checkers, anyone in CTs?
The CTs are solid right now.
They aren't moving.
Calcified over on the A site.
Dropping utility in response to the Nade usage.
This would be a one minute commitment here
from Vitality with Robs as the fourth front apex
bomb right behind him.
It's Checkers compromised.
Oh, they've got this site! Can it stand?
K-Syronto! Flashing from both ends!
Yeah, right!
Still, he fights on!
No more.
He for further damage, he's got these health bars low.
He's making this rotation possible,
but because of the money, are they even going to be able to get here?
They're not even going to go for it.
The CTs never moved.
Wow!
They had the hold you needed.
They created space for the rotations.
There was just no one to do it.
That was a half committed hold and a moment for vitality where they turn the temperature
up.
They go a lot faster.
They take mid control.
Three players running out of a smoke with the boost to get their kill.
It's a perfect call for them.
And that'll be OT locked in for vitality.
to think that bombsite falls when you got so much output out of K Serrano.
In so many different setups, with the defense leaning anywhere closer,
straight shots coming through, tree smoke even.
I'm squeezing water from Ston in that position. I have no idea how he pulls it off.
Nobody close enough for it.
But right now it's only Molledoy with a positive KD over on Furia.
Quick little in and outs, I was screened.
Four rounds of a tee side had us wondering how much of a fight Furia could bring.
They had a genuine chance at going for that retake.
But ironically, because they believe in themselves, they're waiting for the last round.
They have the most money to buy.
Their best competitive advantage.
It's going to be crystal clear to them in Vitality what everybody's got to work with.
Molodoy had saved that up.
Last six rounds of this game have rested on a knife's edge.
Back and forth no consecutive victories for either team.
This game is definitely less close than it appears if you ask me Vitality again.
Multiple rounds.
so much that they've had to go up against in terms of just luck of the
timings that ladder shot that push and yet here they stand still on 12 rounds
first the very least one opportunity to close
but how often are you gonna get away with a mid move like that so quick to
that's why Furia just split the difference stayed solidified on sites.
You kind of shows us any more survivability. You can gather any more info, maybe Furia
willing to make moves in that moment. And we know one player move closer to that
B site could have been a world of difference when K Serato had the output that he did.
I mean with the front side smoke it was so late to determine whether or not it was
actually the B play coming up. As we saw in the last game,
it was just a little bit of a loss.
It was so late to determine whether or not it was actually
the B play coming up.
As we saw Apex's diet head shot with the bomb,
that was the only confirmation that the exact actually
happened there.
They didn't have anyone in checkers, no early vision.
And unlike in previous situations,
Firae were quicker to rotate to A,
and we saw them come over towards B.
Cid just called for a timeout, but Firae
don't have any left. Although have to hope they get over time then for that to replenish.
Hopefully they can read his mind. Well, well, well.
224 between fan favorites and world beaters
And rops again looking to extract value from being on his own over towards B main
He could absolutely be either Molledoy to simply win the rounds or be the reason that they go to aggressive
He's been the most active player. He's made the best rotation so far
But sometimes he does put too much bonus on himself if he's not well supported really we haven't seen a move like this a push
They've only been opposite side of Sunroom.
This could be a grand chance for Rops.
I mean, Rops is the top performer here for Vitality.
Yuri pops with ease. He steps into his death.
You can't really approach him safely.
Even if Yuri's here, his best chance is maybe to fall back if they can hold out.
Gonna try to scramble his way out of here.
You can't do a good position.
Suddenly, Beemane compromised yet again.
And although Vitality creeped their way out middle,
what's the late game move? 40 seconds.
Sales on the squeaky alert site smoke up blocks their vision on highway
K serato yet again from this spot doesn't have balladoy top ladder to save him this time around
It's gonna be falling from for coping nobody comes from Maine
There's a later rival from JL
Who comes through with impact out of the smoke and so him and Zywoo peel apart the defense for the bomb plant
Smoke in front of it a little bit of risk
Could you imagine if that frag grenade had been lethal?
31 HP here for Zywoo and Apex.
He came to her molotov.
He called into the 2v3.
It all falls on the young offer.
Peek from the goal.
The reality.
Fight on.
And a hell of a battle with that back and forth.
So many non-consecutive round wins.
If Uriel want to find victory here in the Superbog arena,
they're gonna have to dig deep for Dust 2.
Yeah, they were chewing on granite that entire map.
entire map. It's a miracle that they pulled it off in 24. Amazing, all the same. And it
sets the stage for a grand third map.
Shove fuel is apex as he walks off stage. Looking deflated after that first outing on
Nuke. A whole different vibe in the Nuke camp now for Vitality. What do they have
in store for map three?
We'll try and find that out.
Remi, just give me the low down of what it took to come back into this series and fight
like that.
You're losing both pistols and Casper still managed to take it right to the wire.
Yeah.
I think we played better, but it's still we are a bit in-between, so it's a bit annoying.
So if we want to do it in this game, we need to step up again on the map.
What is it that you're noticing?
What isn't working the same way as you would want it to do?
I think it's also the extra communication, sometimes we want to go or not,
and we need to say it physically, especially on the side, on the city,
we trust what we want you to do today, so it's good.
But on the city, yeah, we absolutely need, because a team like that,
on the city, they move everywhere, and if you are not clear, it can be like nuke.
Dost, too, the last time you played against Führer is 2024.
Are you ready for that challenge now?
I don't remember, we've been in 2024, but let's see.
Let's see, mate, thank you very much.
That does to match up so long ago, something that we get to look forward to in the very
near future for all of us, not only in Porto, but of course watching it home.
But right now, we get to talk about cash, the fact that Vitality taking it all the
way to the wire to spy what felt like a very tumultuous second half.
I mean, losing both pistols, you go into the second half, you have a very solid
but again, the T side for Vitality struggles to find consistency.
Still, with the way that half went, it felt like at any moment their economy was collapsing,
they couldn't get good buys. To actually bring it over the line is still very impressive.
I feel like Viria played right into the hands of what Vitality wanted.
For a Vitality team that were having difficulty sometimes reaching into bomb sites
or getting really clean rounds for themselves from a set 5v5 or 4 on 4,
Furia's activity which really was their trump card on nuke sometimes came back to bite them on a cash where at
Vitality was looking for answers
I think the word I would go for is overactive at times especially on the 9 9 10 10 at the very close score lines
Sometimes it seemed like they were trying to go for exactly as he said the nuke style play don't let them set up
But vitality clearly had a good read on that
They would just be holding waiting for the initial or the inevitable it feels like aggression from Furia to
really get to get them the round loss when it comes down to it. I mean we see
here in Molledoy he's got the angle he gets flashed off he goes for the shot
that puts him on one bullet and that puts him off the angle. Zai Wu knows it
and then he just repeats over and over and over. We talked about this in the pre-game.
You can't do that against the Zai Wu. No that's just insane it's exactly how
we said it in the pre-game that Molledoy has been struggling versus
vitality historically and that's just a case in point example of the way
that he loves to go for those
re peaks and maybe online those
feel great or versus lesser
opposition because the lesser
opposition doesn't expect you to
actually do it. But vitality
they're just prime to ready you
want to you want to swing into
that angle. But I was cross
errors right there. And if you're
looking at it's one kill but it's
also one kill and a 44 against
two AKs and two pistols and
you're playing retake on a that
the round is basically over from
there. And what is a pivotal I
think that was 10 10 a pivotal
round. I mean they win that
they're probably talking about
I mean, you're saying the rounds were 10, 10. If you count including the jiggles, it was 10 repeats. That one's going to see a
Beatrice. Shout out for the countdown on that one. Yeah, 10 times. Well too many.
Calm it down just a notch, but that's the problem with Mollidoy in some of these games, especially versus Vitality where we know that he can be so active and that has been his strength in the past.
that's what allowed him to hit the scene
and just catch fire immediately.
That the pros don't expect that all the time,
but on cash there are ways to reroute.
You could fall back,
you could take another angle somewhere else on the map,
but instead he just welcomes a fight when Vitality,
they wanted that fight.
And remember we're always talking about Vitality as a team,
that even the smallest of doors that open for them,
they will put their foot in it,
they will take it,
and that's exactly what you're doing every time
you've repeat in that way.
But we should also talk about everything
they did right in that first half.
We're talking about how solid of a CT side it was for them.
8-4 is the halftime score there, and closing it out
is around that Vitality really speaks to their strength
and how they've improved from that.
Yeah, I think what separates good and great teams on Tash
so far is how you deal with and how you utilize
your highway player.
And here we see so much of this halftime,
their highway player for Vitality, got things done.
They were very effective, got them into great positions.
They get the double entry there with JL,
or it was Robs, I believe, in checkers
with the off-plane, the old school 1-3-1,
one off on each side, three riflers in the middle,
then you end up in a 3D2 retake.
The CT Molly almost allows Molotovic into this round,
but then you have JL pick up the initial kill on the Uri.
He ends up in a good position,
and this is a very uncomfortable fight from both sides,
but he does manage to win it.
And when I will look at the CT side from Vitality,
I really like JL in this position
where he's playing the rotator,
he's making the decision, and they have trust in him.
He was in the right bomb site time after time,
and despite what was,
I think he ended that half with not that many kills.
He might have had a negative KD.
I think it was actually a major difference maker for the rotations being in the right
side at the right time.
Definitely just like the aspect that you got to see him in the clutch when he just knows
that there's nothing really on the line other than trying to win the round because that's
when he really stood up for Navi too.
I was gonna say there's always that back and forth right the balance of in our first
map that was actually hindrance to Vitaly to the fact that it was JL that was left
alone so many times to be able to have to clutch it up.
This time in cash it's actually the saving grace right that's what puts them in such
an advantageous position.
The rest of the team really able to capitalize on that,
give him something that is just that little bit better
for him to be able to show.
This is the JL that everyone loves to bring up
as a substitute.
I think X-Tas highlighted it in the interview.
I mean, their CT sides, they look good.
When they have the initiative,
the players know that they need to be making plays.
When JL knows I have the decision-making here,
I'm playing Z, I can rotate B, I can rotate A,
they're doing really well.
But you still see a CT side, 8-4 CT side catch.
That's a very solid half.
You go into the T side,
They still barely pull it over the line.
They still have the same problem that they had in map one.
They still have the same problem they had all group stage.
Yeah, T sides have been pretty difficult for them.
But on Dust 2, which is coming up later,
we'll talk about it more.
That's where it feels like Vitality
have actually got rolling a little bit more.
So it's such a simplified map that even
if they're having some trouble finding the finishers,
understanding where to go in mid rounds,
Dust 2, it's a common language, even for a mixed team.
Breaking down that T side, though,
of vitality here on cash, just everything that went wrong for them, all the things that
went right. We've talked about so many times where it is chaos that is this new extra factor
that's being brought into vitality now with JL, whether it's personalities, the way they
come, the way they like to play. Sometimes the chaos comes from the side of Furia, and
again, it's an opening that is strong enough for vitality to be able to go, hey, actually
chaos is our name of the game now.
We could see the overarching game plan continue from Nuke onto cash in the way that Furia
wanted to stay extremely active aggressive but this is where you could
probably say you should have hit the brakes because they go one for one
early on in fact even Fallon gets a kill on a Zywoo and this was a brief
4v3 but instead of just holding on to that position MolaDoy pushes on forward
and then Fallon because now it's a three on three he thinks he needs to
push on forward to try to get a kill through this moment making an
unexpected play and that's when JL is able to strike and this is where you
know that on Nuke they said to themselves if we let Vitality go for
that full clean exec, then they're going to be able to string some rounds together.
But if we keep them on their toes, we should be able to upset the balance.
But you had the scales in your favor at that point.
It was already tipping towards your side, and you just kept on going.
And that's where I'd say MOLADO is inexperienced on cash also rings true because a lot of
oppers in that exact situation in 2016, they hold on to door.
It's such a prime position to just have an A side defense.
Yes, you have to swivel occasionally looking towards T spawn, but really over peaking right there costs them everything.
And if you've watched Vitality's map cash recently, I mean, JL just sits door the entire time.
That's one of the problems I had with their cash.
He plays very passive. He sits in that spot almost the entire round.
They don't, he just throws utility and then they don't really seem to know how to utilize him very effectively.
So you could really expect him to be there.
I think pushing into door there, pushing further is a rookie mistake, to be honest.
And it costs them the round.
I'm not saying that you're
not going to be able to
play it on even more when we're
seeing some of these rounds
play out. It really rings true
to what you were saying coming
into this series after we saw
the video Maui. How and why you
favored vitality a bit more
because you're saying there was
up for grabs on the side of
Furia instead of picking cash
here going for something that
fallen is I yelling on right
something that he's very
comfortable and confident and
the team knows a little bit
better in terms of reps and
instead we're seeing it and
I'm not saying, Oh, this is
bad I yelling or shot calling
from your kinder at all.
and tested for them and you're in a position coming up against the vitality. You're not sure what to
expect here. And so when you see some of those rounds play out, I'm just remembering what you're
saying that this is something that could have been the maple break in a best of three. Definitely
I'd say that what a point that Voo made earlier about the fact that when yet Kandar's
fragging falls off to then sometimes the calling gets bad too. He was having a really
difficult time in mid. He got a couple kills early on around the white box area. But then
They weren't always able to snowball that or parlay it into any kind of further
advantage. In fact, sometimes they were in pretty decent mid-round positions,
but then you just see lurkers or players playing on the extremities that just kind
of start walking forward. There was a time when Yuri just gave up a man,
sort of even state situation by just walking towards B and just giving up
his life for free and said, and that's what I feel like I see with
the Jechegar mid-round, late-round, when he's the IGL,
that things get a little too stringy. Yeah, and when you look at the way
the rounds broke down when they did get together as well. Jail had a really good read on that.
He was in the B side. A lot of teams are going to play doubled up in B. We saw from
from Furia on their CPC side to play doubled up in B very often and bought a third player.
You really have lost kind of on his own in B quite often and Jail would make it there
as the solo rotator, which like the rest of the map feel very comfortable to have
overwhelming forces to deal with these sorts of stringy, you know, lurker pushes on
on the extremities, it just wasn't gonna happen
when you have that type of setup,
which is not the standard, I think,
CT setup coming from Vitality.
We should also look at other things
that went so well for the side of Vitality.
Again, we weren't really sure how Robs
was gonna fall into this,
because we didn't know how integrated JL
was gonna feel coming into this playoffs,
and whilst map one was shaky,
it was a Robs that we get to sit here
and say, holy shit, he showed up.
You also saw on the T side when we get there,
he was going for a lot of opening plays.
It still did the hallmark of this squad with JL,
But on the CT side, incredibly effective, as I mentioned,
there's a reason they can have Robs
alone on B site so often, but just jail rotating in.
It's because of how effective he is as a defender.
I would love to just see the heat map of Robs
when he was on the CT side, though,
because I feel like he painted the entirety of the B bomb
site, checkers, B main, behind the box, red.
The whole thing was red.
He was in so many various positions,
and it showed his versatility as a defender.
If you think he could be there, he was there.
And that's why it is the position that we're at, right?
We get to see a Dust2 from both of these teams.
We get to see a map number three,
something that they haven't met on since September in 2024.
It's insane to think that it's here
in the evening of Friday at Porto
that we're gonna get the joy of a Dust2 map three
between Vitality and Furio.
a
Domination of map 1 of 4 furia and a absolute nail by the wind for vitality on cash
It really does beg the question now
We were exactly will dust to fall for these two teams
Well, I'm really worried about furia for this one because I felt like it needed to get done in some way on cash
Vitality have looked good on dust to with JL in their matchup versus foot
They had a nine round T side and that's really been where their Achilles heel has been in the JL iteration of this team
It's been those offensive have so if they've already got all of their plans in order the couple of
Misdirection starters that they use against foot for example the obvious firepower that they have with a couple of their name brand players
This is gonna be an uphill battle for Viria. I'm gonna pick out a most interesting spot on the map
I think the jail fallen dual on long a will be very interesting jail even on this map has seemed hesitant at times fallen
We've talked about him as an IGL for a CT side. He does very well for himself. I want to see jail if vitality
There might be the most amount of cheese we've gotten for a vitality player so far today is for JL the stand in there
I think I hear about 25 people whereas when they're falling when they're cherry for fallen
it's about 100 or two or 300.
The only thing I'm worried about is
I feel like JL is activated now.
Fallen biting his nails into the other seat right there.
That is not what I want from the leader of Fury,
who is really just stunting on Vitality in map one.
Like Vu said, I mean, this is the worst,
almost the worst possible condition
you could be facing here now,
where it's that JL is playing with now utter freedom
whereas Fallen is feeling the moment
and the pressure of it.
I disagree with your arm chair psychology.
Fallen is, he's locked in, he's chilling,
He's meditative. He's got his eyes closed, leaning back.
He's chilling.
I don't care which way these teams are feeling for themselves,
whether your reads are right or wrong,
I just want to get into it because it's
a single elimination of playoffs.
The loser here goes home.
The winner advances on to the semifinals
and it all falls down to what happens on Dust 2.
Feria once upon a time riding in the high
of this Superbock Arena.
And I have to agree with Bowie's stake.
Fallen laughing making faces in the face of vitality who just couldn't stand up to his early opposition now
The pressure really starts to sink in this entire room
Wants to see you in those semi-finals and you have given vitality another taste of a comeback another taste of their
ability to make these moments happen
Is the vitality that took over the world trying to keep their embers burning
to do it again now on dust to where JL has shown us his second career highest ever raiding already at this event
Good luck fury. Yeah, it's spotty versus clean vitality have no marks on the record so far
At Porto, it's three wins on dust to and they've all been convincing
It's a committed setup right out of the gate here for Furia.
There will not be an easy V rotation and there's some nades to make him scared about it.
You can't punish this but he also doesn't see anybody else running out.
I feel like falling nose.
Oh but they're not hitting their shots.
Miss chance for Molledoy.
Second volley of bullets also has JL Spill out.
Molledoy finally gets his long while
Bolton comes out wide to his death.
Apex now just looking for the bomb plant
by the looks of things.
He'll be finished off by a Molledoy
freed up from long.
Flamesy twisting in between these duels
as the mid guy just tucks in hiding from him.
Fresh magazine for Flamesy whittled down to 31.
He knows he kicked ours off in this corner
but by the time he steps up to it
It's Urion to strike hot with another pistol victory.
They organized so well right there.
Like, even despite the missed shots,
they used their flash on long to make sure Moldova had
a real chance of that flight time perfectly.
If he got pushed at the wrong time,
this would have done nothing.
Instead, it made the difference between him dying
and him getting the kill.
He threw it nice and shallow too.
That was actually perfect.
I mean, if you look like you were in trouble.
But you'd love to see the team bail themselves out
with utility and that has been a common story with Furia.
He was gonna use that as a palm flash, right?
He was up there at Goose.
To be that malleable at that moment was key.
Furia have not beaten an opponent ranked
in the HLTV top five in a playoff game
since Fallen announced his retirement.
Whoa.
Ooh.
Well, Fatality's number four.
And then you have to minus because of JL, but then you have to act because it's his best map.
It's very hard.
Okay, so they rank like 4.75?
Yeah.
Just there on the brink.
That's true.
It is wild how a team that was lifting multiple trophies a year ago announces fallen's retirement,
and it's almost like there's, I mean, A, a real time crunch in terms of knowing you're going to have to replace him.
You see this evolution in Yukindar, new responsibilities and roles for him.
But it also does feel like everybody wants to give Fallen that send-off moment.
And look, if it had been Cologne, my god.
The world would have celebrated that one as much as Niko's victory.
Over towards B site, we get them whittling through.
Flamesee, the only guy to burst back.
And there we go, pull her up.
But now, as the season goes on, Cologne missed opportunity.
You can see Singapore knowing that is it the final stop and there's not a lot of events Mohan
We're falling to touch another Counter-Strike trophy between now and then I still think they've ramped up quite well
I think that there are a lot of threats out there right now
But that's just been the case for the last couple years the amount of top dogs
I mean Furia were the reason we started see like sort of an expansion of tournament threats in the first place and
I actually feel like they're in a good position
You know, I think you know, Vitality are the ones who are gonna come into that major
Okay
Part clear there from olidoy to the top of mid and
They did not see a kid there funny
Lazy does it Yuri returns the favor with a burst through and a quick pop into the B bomb site
Now bomb itself still sits top middle, but Yuri knows there's two sets of feet inside B
That's problematic here for Furia obviously smoked off Mollied off etc and apex still gonna try his hand
Had a little bit of an eight play so Zaiwuz with options open
Just has to not die to one of the two remaining quick pieces here Furia
We'll have every little bit of the map a one round. I mean you've got you've got no word. Hi actually
Okay, what's actually apex peeling back off of gas, but they're worried about you know
Where he last was?
Is apex running back off towards long to catch them?
It would be a good chance early on to just stop Furia from having two extra rifles in
the next one.
Like you said, there's no word to say.
Flash for this, Rops is ready.
Oh yeah, Vitality as well.
Get into that site with ease, so little despair and despair on the side of the feet.
Executed along the wall.
It is Vitality to come through. Four players up, first gun round.
Bears fruit for Vitality's D-side.
It's super solid. I mean, the fact that they punished Molledoy first.
Going a little bit deeper than he expected.
And he came up for the clear. Easy for Apex.
And that was fortunate for Flamesy, because his teammate jumps up.
Doesn't see anything when they flash here at mid.
He could very easily not watch that as well and just look up Kat.
Hit an adjustment.
Batch moves towards Long, flames these out and there is not a lot of opposition here in furious hands.
As far as bodies go, by all means.
Stacked up position, could mean the defiance is crazy.
You'll chew through two of these players, you'll see that bomb immediately evacuate and it be led towards this vacant B bomb site.
They're doing this like going fishing over on B, they've done this already a few times.
I love how it looks, honestly they're finding a vulnerable site really quickly.
Don't have to overthink the anti-eco
Although he will conversely happily save this AK for the next round
Here we'll have to try again
Crazy to be a team of the stand-in and have a map like dust to just like ready for you
Yeah, you know like where you're just winning every time. I
Mean it was shocking to see JL's output
Again, not just one of his best maps ever in Vitality, no, one of his best maps ever
full stop.
Don't ask yourself what you can do for Vitality.
Ask yourself what Vitality can do for you.
And apparently for JL, that's damn near break records.
Terrorists win.
Glad to see this game getting serious nice and early.
But it will be Furia the ones to feel the pressure.
Such an extremely different tone in the server than the start of Nuke when Furia were catching Vitality off guard.
The round one of Nuke. Before he went on the crazy tear he did.
did. You had fallen, locked the hell in, having fun. Now immediately, Zaiwu takes to the suicide
sprint and nobody's sticking around through the mid-doors to duel with him.
Alps have actually started on a passive liner, gearing up just to see if they had to catch
some really aggressive play towards Long.
I'm hoping the spades to a duel, and he's right there ready about this.
Yes, that's a great catch, man.
As he's chucking out the nades.
That was tricky because he was always aggressive, like where are they going to use it?
And in this way, he was just keeping his off under wraps.
But he had a way to make the opening kill happen.
See the B-Lean take formation once again.
Vitality have taken to the site so much.
They have to get through Uri.
They're going to just pop this.
They've come through pretty damn unannounced before.
Oh, Uri, it's perfect.
That's up to me for him.
Keeps his head down just wrong enough.
Can we talk about those flash dodges?
Three frags for Uri.
He is alone for a second.
Could have easily been blind.
They threw the right amount of utility at him. He dodged every single thing.
I was worried that with Yutindar trying to clear out around the smokes in middle,
he wouldn't be there to help out Yuri.
But after Yuri dodges flashes, he gets some from his own teammates
and look at Vitality blind along the wall.
That's just, it's all Yuri.
It's not even the counter support necessarily.
They come in to make that, you know, an unwinnable situation.
But this is Yuri in the back of the site.
They throw the splash. The T's are scaling across the site.
Look what Yuri has to avoid.
Even getting the better of Apex while he's out chucking nades.
Yep, that's where that round ended.
That is such an insane win for the confidence tier because this full map so far has come towards his site in the end.
He's constantly trying to play retakes so that they can make the rest of the map fortified.
A couple of these times, it's meant that they can just simply walk in.
This time it would have been a full frontal attack.
It would have been three sort of losses that for Yuri feel like it's all because of him.
And yet the hardest one, he stands to test.
I think, add to that, the nice back molotov gets away with his perimeter of the map as well.
Hell, Nikes timing on the peek in with the AWP.
just giving a problem over the vitality on both sides of this map great read from
Molledoy great execution out of Yuri
JLC the meta evolved right before his eyes
He's got the bomb on his back.
I already knew something quickly up Kat.
And then Katnade is like, it's cute to start mating themselves.
About Molly, excuse me, kind of take a damage.
I would have loved more value out of that one.
Keisarado, I was worried for a moment, could have got kind of jumped on with an awkward place,
but now he's over towards the ramp with Moledoy alongside him,
and all of this bolstered with Fallen and Long.
Fallen's in Long, he doesn't see anybody and he won't.
So it's crazy they're actually making this hard rotate to A when he doesn't have any info.
I think a part of them strongly believes they just wouldn't try to go B again.
Not right, right away. This is going to be alert from Apex right into CT.
Damn, the fire's behind her here.
Apex comes through. Big move to make.
Oh, Apex.
Malvadoy. Short sighted. Locked in on top of the cap.
K. Salado, can you do that?
JL emerging over boxes gets the better of him and it's gonna call Fallen back in you already versus
You try to pull on over Rob's eyes you get slammed shut and you have vitality folks tying this game at three apiece Sam apex
What a call right there?
Instead of doing the fry bird drop gets up through CT into spawn with the flash to catch a kinder so that he could lurk
through safely
Makes it in for that second kill and you see the real value of the play there getting underneath the off
That's trying to hold the cross on cat
Rendering Molotov useless
The closest of the three maps so far in terms of the start in terms of how good both teams look right now
now brutal timing supported with the flash as well yeah excellent timing yeah
all by design
I guess that adjective depends on who you ask
gut wrenching dismantling of a defense from furia
get away with their cross unscathed
Another moment where Yuri plays the B site from outside of it for now.
Must be hard to try to keep your finger on the pulse, but Vitality have proven they are willing to just pop in and take it.
You can get ready for the push.
Goes into the tunnels, wings his door versus Flamesee. That's a big pick up here for Furia.
Bearing their teeth, showing a willingness to fight, but there's no clear fallback here for Yikindar until that smoke comes down and he's not going to take it as an exit.
Yeah, he will stick around and he could have very easily left.
Maybe expecting it to stand, so just trying to find a quiet way out.
Yeah, they also give him a smoke, right? This one from the T's in the door,
so it really just bolsters that nobody can find it over smoke. Apex uses that as a route up catwalk.
Will they go into the thick site again, or will they find a way to make this an easier round?
We're seeing the activity from Furia right now that you can see the communication is
really strong, but the same can be said for vitality.
This one to tip the scales.
We've seen setups where Furia would play out of the site.
This time now it's a double up within it.
Molley. Last bit of utility here, your Kimber is HE, the flash is gonna come out, it better come out quick.
Frag your nade to find real damage. Oh, he's even needed. And an HE. There we go. It sails on beyond, hits JL in the back drop.
Oh, he got it. Bill with that headshot entry. Now you've got the off inside.
We can have the cover of the board as K Serato snipped off this one.
He has to stick this plant, because Iwis gotta cover it. They're not going to find it. Oh, what? Blindside.
And now JL tasked with what would need to be the 4K.
He's gonna push on Zai! He's a hot-ass upward!
Jeff, barely!
And you find Zai Wu looking the wrong direction
slammed by the semi through those doors.
You know, I really think that was Zai Wu showing off his IQ
in a sense that he was really expecting with that bomb going down
that they were gonna try to rush it.
They knocked it off. He goes one player.
They would have won, but Ballin was actually holding the door cross,
Playing it slow, waiting for his teammate, and that patient's definitely paid off.
I was fully expecting someone to be barreling through that window.
Fallen was one step ahead of that moment. That'll be a lead for Furia.
But it doesn't take out the money. Vitality have another by coming in.
Still, Zywuz, watchful gaze on the doorway. One kill so far on this map.
That little added bonus of pulling off Cacerado, something that could have convinced you to not really hold.
I'm pretty confident about one player crossing at the moment.
I'm just gonna go tunnels.
What's the cover of the HE, but you can already see the preset.
Lean.
Feeling like another tough-ass pluriori.
He's had his hands full so far this map.
The way that they're just running out onto the side.
The kind of move that you just never really see coming, so it's going to mean that Yuri has to stay on his toes every second that this round takes by win.
All the do it doesn't see anything and that's only going to make him more suspicious and again weak in the b-side. Again we have Yuri playing rotation. His aura over here isn't going to last for all these rounds.
Vitality know that they can eventually win.
Smoke out but they have gone through these smokes in the past.
in the past. And it's deep. It's gonna be hard to watch. The push from Kat is actually
great. Yeah, try to cut off the second end of this. Bomb is not gonna be stopped for
taking tunnels, missed champs of a case. Serato and he loses Fallen. This is gonna keep them
busy. Yikindar starts to flank, but as we said, it's all on Yuri. Waiting for them
to emerge. They're doing it quietly. Slowly. No rocks. It's that quick to the headshot.
Yikindar, the only one to post the frag in the process of losing this B site.
Zirado tucked into his spawn is hoping somebody over steps make a mistake and they will punish you for this
There comes
Vitality bounce right back as rocks crash
With that headshot on Yuri another understaffed B bomb site the furious simply can't hang on to you want to say
He's holding the smoke. He's waiting. He's not falling for all the other pressure across the map
I feel like this is a round period you could have won because they made the right push
And he's again watching the corner of the smoke. See that shot in the rocks?
No way to go up against that.
And if you get one guy, the first guy coming out of the smoke, the second guy is really screwed.
How's he gonna trick you?
Your whole cover's been blown.
That was entry power bringing it around to vitality and a messed up situation on cat that
could have resulted in two kills in the CTs immediately.
That's what Furia have to stand on. Deagles and MP9s.
Going one for one on rounds on CT Dust2 will not be enough.
You know, it's really great for Rops to get that entry because his T-side stats, as of late, have been falling off a cliff.
It's been one of the pain points that Vitality struggles.
Big moment walkout through that smoke while Yuri has had the output that he does.
But not this round.
That one is all about Robs.
Early signals that Vitality have taken over this catwalk.
Flashbangs, constant, the approach, imminent.
Okay. But Mollardoy's over there on the ramp.
It's like, how likely are they going to run into the site without any scout?
They're not going to see anybody crossing mid at all.
It's going to take a hero here for Furia.
A symmetric position here for Furia.
And that smoke is so big, actually.
This is the only thing that is blocked vitality from knowing whether or not someone's crossed
There's Maladoy throw his too late. Will they pounce this?
Yes, you're jumping you've got a player down at CT scrambling
He allows for them to get so far into the site that the shots get away from him
And there is where the Mac 10 will thrive so vitality they stepped into the trap
I managed to hang on, but look at the health here for Flamesee, J.L. and Apex.
I'm still going to call it a great round for Furia.
Even though they didn't have the odds of winning, it's the entry power again that wins it for Vitality,
even though Furia have the right map control, they influence the site take.
Even though Apex wins this round, he knows in his mind he's just made a bad call,
or his team were too confident about the wrong thing overall.
They get out of it, it doesn't matter. We're in map 3 now.
They get a lead off of it. It's not really about the brownie points. It's just about learning and moving forward and making it even worse.
Just stack it on while you can because it's nothing but the USVs in the next one.
Once that good beast mode came in, I thought for sure this was going to be it.
But they're chewing through it.
terrible situation for Furia. I mean I feel like sometimes you see a buy like that have a worse start
and still they'll rob the roundaways but I mean Volodoy unfortunately under that quick aggression
out of Flamesey he closed the gap so fast that he even had the 5-7 that rotates into the ramp
scrambled and we sing the praise of Flamesey for those sorts of moments right it's just kind
A carnage on the run.
Started this year with some phenomenal stats.
You are kidding.
Fallen, double USP kill.
Oh, OK.
This is with nothing to work with, by the way.
This is the full save.
Double USP kill off the catwalk.
Apex and Flamesy died to an unarmored vanilla pistol.
It should be absolutely no problem,
except for the fact that Yuri's already pushed into tunnels.
He's going for the shot, but he doesn't know they're up on passes yet, now we'll find out.
He's coming down cat as well
This unit makes its way up through the doorway. They just have to make sure they don't get flank
Don't get pelted by some random USB
Okay, they seem to be getting away with that now
Fakins to the B site's gonna be the end of fury in this one
But a hell of an effort out of fallen just getting that entrance 60 as well through the doorway keeps you on your toes
But it will be Zai Wu J. Ellen Ross to clean up and keep still majority alive for vitality
You know that one thing if he gets a shot off it gets away, but then you wonder if he took that to the end
degree made the full plank
What that really could have meant
Leave that info for someone else
Get the kill up on
Gary situations at vitality are surviving
trying to press off this b-site yet again you got a guy like raps waiting on
the other end makes the first one look way harder than the second straight shot
between Yuri's eyes jl holding his flank off just as easily k serato with the
world on his shoulders now as it is four players running towards him. What can you do here?
Ross is dead. Nobody else. Flames he's there to trade that one out swiftly. We've got Vitality
up by three. Two rounds, excuse me, one left in this half. Eight-four best case now for
Vitality.
Damn, Vitality have survived it all. There's been a lot of creativity for Furia, but
it's firepower that's deep right now. Look at Ross go. Just more of what he showed
us on cash already. Looks like you woke up too late after what happened on Nuke, but
now that feels like years ago. Vitality are well in the lead. Scout versus JL on and off.
And this would have otherwise been a save. They're forced to buy. They get MP9. You
catch that second off of Zybel in the front of lower tunnels. A little bit of value
out of Yukindar, set up for another double tunnel push. Kasurado Yuri trying to
Blood interrupts this time. They will get the trade that alluded them last round made thrown deep flames
He dropped us up 40 help JL's coming in as case or auto trying to push and he'll get that kill with the ball
Jumping around the cross like that just feeds JL the headshot
JL up to his eighth frag scout now from all adoy task to hold them back from the B exit and apex is gonna remain
Constant on this pressure vitality taking this
T-Side, a backstab! Putting Furia to the fire!
A T-Side demanded a bend,
where they're outing here in the Superbock Arena's cut short.
I have a little friend with me which is going to deliver a few gifts.
Let's do some things, okay? It's a giveaway, but it's express, okay? Let's do an express delivery.
I think this kind of firepower vitality maybe could have used, but I think right now, this car's been pretty loud.
Can we hear how loud you can get? Who wants a t-shirt?
Here we go, make some noise! Make some noise!
Oh!
Oh! Wow!
That, um, that got a little altitude, folks.
Let me know what you got!
Whoo-hoo-hoo!
I can't even track these things!
This is crazy!
Ready? Ready?
Oh!
Oh, my God!
Oh, God!
That was a nosebleed shot.
It's way too good! This is way too good!
Come on, boss. You got a few on you.
And...
Badoof!
That was extremely high.
We are not even allowed to point it forward, by the way.
It's illegal.
Look at these.
Be careful.
We're lowering the strength on this.
Let's see if we can get it a little lower.
Badoof!
Yep.
That sounds safe.
That sounds safe
That's that's a great state for it. We have a lot of more giveaways. Don't worry about it
We're gonna keep giving away things and we have okay on the right side
Oh, we were able to I think you gotta do the honors here
I think you're gonna give us a couple more over here over here next to the stage
You know, I bet we could hit the desk from here
Way up high. You're hitting the nosebleeds up in the rafters. Let's hear you
Where you going?
All the way up. He's giving it the beans. He's giving it the juice. I don't know. Let's find out
Oh
Almost almost I think we kind of empty. So this is actually the last shot the last shot
should be safe on the floor should be safe where do you go you're surrounded by
that was if you by the way don't worry guys we have a lot more treats to give
you a non-sickle but now is it vitality
Is it Furia?
I guess we're gonna have to...
Despite heroic moments there for Yuri on the B-side, vitality hold their nerve.
They find their openings and the pressure now sinks in for Fallen and Ko.
Completely up against the wall now.
Four rounds here on T-side.
Sorry, four rounds and now they have to play to the side.
Let's try to defend some PQA to the team one more.
Let's go.
Yeah, a lot of creativity has absolutely been there.
You'll get to show more of that when it comes to T-Side.
That's what we're looking for now.
But honestly, they showed a lot of that in the first half.
They just couldn't keep up on the frags.
To blow the doors down on a B site,
the JL holds from the back flat.
Perettas in front of him with rocks.
Oh, it's him and Apex for the first two.
You kind of get through now that window challenge dead. You've got
Yuri finally puts him down so much impact in the first half wide swing
Dangerously close considering fury a had footing on that bomb site, but it's gonna be vitality with a four-round lead extending to five off the pistol
Well, their best chance have been on cash.
Oh, no!
What is the bullet there for Flamesy as well?
He was about to be in Yuri's position.
If he didn't end it then.
You see how good a roll that is for Maypex because that's the ticket to victory.
All in charge to the B site this time.
A little to work with.
Not a ton of noise out of furia as bodies drop inside be the kinder crosses the door at least
But does need to double back for bomb
Obviously vitality hot to the trot. He would love to get away with the bomb plant a little bit of money for his efforts
Yeah, yes, sir at least that secured by you kinder
They'll have everything they need in the follow-up around three by for furia trailing by six. Yeah, that's critical
But you'd still rather be
Vitality every day of the week 10 rounds
For apex this could be a massive feather in the cap an ideal that gets compared to care again to do a run like this
With a stand-in even with JL stature for the amount that he's even played this year
This is quite an achievement is very fair to doubt them. We saw moments in which we could
But on dust 2 it's been absolutely flawless
Just simply match to match this vitality with JL amidst it
Stepping up to the challenges
I mean they were on the brink of elimination at the hands of legacy and it was apex himself to be the driving force as the
Top performing player on this very map.
What a fight.
You want to talk about the feather in this cap?
He'll do it, can damn sell if he has to.
Now we got a smoke in front of what could have been an execute.
Gilia, again, has to call this off for now.
Oh, boy.
Not seeing the belief.
They don't even get away with that easy first move.
In a 5v5, you've got to make a sacrifice
somewhere on the map, like that's the only T advantage
that you have.
There's going to be one extra choke point that you can't cover.
But now it's 5v4.
This is where it was really difficult.
All you have is tunnels control.
They need that entry tower that Vitality showed them.
Yeah, they do.
Instead, they're met by another smoke.
You can just see that was the one idea.
That was just it, what they were going to try to do.
They have gotten Vitality into this weird place
where now it's incendiaries left.
And as you'd anticipate, eventually CTs get active.
This top mid flank.
And this could be disastrous if they find an angle here.
Flamzy will he be given a yes?
What was the trigger instantly though?
Doesn't line up a shot, just starts firing off.
And now two defenders inside B, half to yield results.
JL wants the door challenge, they can squeeze that up.
He's blind, blind.
He gets the better out of Uri, man advantage here,
still for vitality, Molledoy needs cover.
And Ykinder's gonna try to do that
by playing outside the doorway.
It feels like Zywu considers the spot.
Flamzy on the approach, flash goes over, they find it.
And they deal with it swiftly enough.
It is all on Molledoy now.
No nades for the retakes, smoke in front of their faces.
They want to trade off this low health Zywoo.
Molledoy, what are you made of?
Under threat!
It's Apex!
And Apex!
And Apex again by Talon.
He takes their 11.
And they pull over another crushing blow.
JL with two kills in the round,
12 and 7 here on Dust2.
Complementing his last performance with another good one.
A blind spray.
Unbelievable energy coming out of the Vitality Camp.
Laferia, unfortunately they look like they've shrunk down a bit.
that round a little one-dimensional one attempt at a v-take once it smoked no second plan
didn't have anyone to catch the long push in that round because they weren't thinking on multiple levels
Which is again not something that we've set for them on any other T side so far
Now you're down a man already
A case or auto who simply has not had impact in this third map
Drop by Zywoo in an opening move early on in a critical round to secure this 12th
Divitality. Flamesy feels away from Long, they show face though. He's gonna confirm this
challenge out of Furia. Waiting for a flash. Being set up to go in and sure enough,
Dive it off to support from A-Pack, but he had quite managed to spray while midair.
And so to no surprise, we've got Flamesy dead. Still, crazy spawning for Zywoo.
I mean, if they exact through the shore.
Poladoit.
Gets a chance to jump it, but now Apex back along that wall.
Oh, that's so.
And he does not waste his moments.
Apex has been so sharp on this map, particularly
with the JL stand-in.
Uri, rock solid on B. Would have
to be a guy to pull this off.
The pressure ever mounting.
Eight, match match, semi-finals points.
They're absolutely crushing Furia.
And again, with the last map, with a close scoreline,
but truly, I feel like Vitality went up against all
the bad luck in the world, still close that out to get here.
And do not take the opportunity for granted.
Having to keep calm under the pressure that was cash,
six rounds back and forth between these teams
for Vitality to fight and push us to Dust2.
A Vitality that had, what, one kill
in the first five rounds of Nuke for the entire team?
This is so deflating.
They saw Flating Cross, didn't they?
No.
He's gonna milk this.
Oh, he's not the case.
And just like that, the sinking feeling
and furious heart grows ever stronger.
Forced to fight back off the back foot,
Kasarado does not want to leave this map empty-handed.
Leave your mark.
But caught on the fallback through the mid-doors
by one of the best.
Zaiwu finds his moment, goes positive off that pick-off.
Bomb scooped up by Gabriel Toledo,
who was just running off the mark on map one.
A fallen who blessed this arena
with a hell of a performance map one,
we could barely recognize him in all of that aggression.
Time to quatch, or your run is done.
And chances at glory, fewer and fewer in front of Fioria, if not right here and now.
And it looked like they left, but they were just finding another way in.
The flank to seal the deal.
It's being watched at least, but can he deliver?
No, sir.
Zai Wu wide with the tech nine.
And sadly poetic that Fallen himself is the last one to face him Fallen's elusive capstone.
But he gets to die by the repressing team Vitality now on their pursuit of gold again.
Looked absolutely indomitable to kick this series off.
It looked impossible.
That vitality could be here now with a 13-4 victory
on that three.
Undefeated on Dust 2 here in Porto.
This isn't just a run with a stand-in.
Now we wonder how much they could stand as a tournament
threat for real.
The 2-0 was a good sign.
But there's nothing more solid than this victory.
They fought against this crowd, they fought against themselves, and despite getting off
to a bad start, you're able to come back into this and fight through it.
Just tell me what it took, what it was needed from you and the rest of the team to make
that possible, because it looked rough at the beginning, man.
My new mate, we got a bit of a play, nothing worth for us.
That was really difficult, that one, probably one of the worst T side we ever done.
I think after the 6 rounds we had like 5 kills combined.
So that was really rough, but then we...
I had the guy that we play Cache if it was 0-0.
And we started to play well.
We lost both pistol and Cache, but still managed to win it with like a OK T side
and Dust2 is back, motherfuckers.
In terms of that Dust 2 being back, you had to do a little heavy lifting within that yourself as well.
I asked you before, you got into this series if you can keep this up.
You seem to be like in this good shape again, you seem to be back hitting when it comes to it.
How much is that helping your calling in these moments?
I can play a bit more ballsy because I know that I can win my duels
and that's something that a lot of IGL do right now.
Mostly the young ones like Traveney or whatever, they are a bit crazy
And it's been a while since I haven't done it because the last four months for me were terrible
And now that I get a bit more confidence. Yeah, we're rolling back stuff and yeah, it works
Actually the first two months were not the greatest for me, but I finish it well on on on the store
I'm looking at that right in terms of where you're at right now your face mouths tomorrow
Does it feel like you guys have got some momentum? You're gaining some steam for this
Do you feel like you're seeing someone out by talent in fighting spirit where you could potentially go for another trophy again?
Yeah, you know when you win as much as we did like not many people can understand what's happening in our heads
And I feel like sometimes you get a bit complacent do stuff
That's you don't do the same way that you were usually doing it
And and then you start losing with less energy less power and now we
We know that's and we just want to get back to our best level
It's not there yet, but it's coming.
It's coming, and we look forward to seeing Apex.
Thank you very much for your time.
They've made it through to the semifinals,
so please give it up for Apex and Vitality!
Whatever advantage you think you can get over Vitality,
at the end of the day, you have to keep on delivering.
you have to push through it because this team will bounce back. They will prove that they have
always something in their back pocket, a little bit more left in the tank. And after that nuke,
it showed, right? A vitality that is just showing up in different ways, persevering even with a
stand in here. And you can tell A-dice isn't even necessarily fully happy with how the series
went down after that. Talking about the cash key side, not perfect, but they're very happy with
the outcome of the game at the very least that they move on to the semifinal.
the semifinals, looking towards what will happen tomorrow, but not before we talk about
what happened today for them, the way that so many people were able to deliver, but more
importantly than anything else, JL coming in as a stand-in, making it know that he
is a player that can play for any team at this point, it feels.
Back on the desk.
I was going to say, is that a hero down there?
There.
How is the walkout by the way because obviously vitality in itself has a bit of a name you're coming up against Furia crowd favorites
Did it really shake you that much having that welcome? No, but with Navi we're used to always having the crowd favorite
Yeah, whether we're playing against spirit wherever matters doesn't matter worlds account favorite
But here I mean it's nice to experience it. Of course. You see yeah
You have to experience everything and you see teams who get booed and then they smash their opponent to zero like okay
their mental is good. I wanted to test my mental well, but not that.
Yeah, I mean Nuke was a little bit shaky for you, was it a mix of walking out, Nuke just
not familiar with something, are you coming in and joining Vitality?
I don't know to be honest, I'll have to review the game, but of course I didn't feel good.
I mean like it's not like I'm first contact, I'm more of the later contact and yeah just
didn't hit the shots even though I had a couple moments where I could heal and
there I'm going to change but yeah, it should happen.
What's it like coming into Vitality?
And I feel like you've been on the receiving end of kind
of what they're feeling right now where, I'd say,
when the downturn for Navi happened,
it just kind of felt like nothing was working,
that you've experienced such success,
but then you couldn't recapture those sorts of feelings.
And that's kind of what Vitality
is sort of going through right now.
How are you able to instill some of your experience
or impart any wisdom through that?
Instill some experience in Vitality songs,
it's a bit very funny.
I don't know, I just try to be myself, I try to make a couple of jokes here and there, which is natural to me and
I don't know, like, the fact that they are struggling right now and they have me, they kind of go back to the basics of how the game is played, trading, you know, those early rounds and
sometimes some things have to be agreed before, so I feel like I don't want to be too realistic here, but having a stand-in might help them in the future because they're going back to the basics and
And of course, that's natural for you to happen because you win so many tournaments in a row.
You kind of, you don't focus on the basics because basics are for the teams that are not winning.
And sometimes you take it for granted.
How about working with Apex? Because, I mean, Alexi B is also one of the top leaders we have in the space.
Apex is a completely different type in terms of just the emotions he brings to the space.
So how does it feel?
I love it. I love a captain who can call me out on stuff because I missed the Nade once
and he's like, why are you doing, you know?
Okay.
It brings me back instantly, and I love it, I don't know, he never lies, he always tells you the truth, you know, sometimes it's a little bit aggressive, but who cares, the main point is that you fucked up and you have to come back, and simple as.
I notice a lot of this group stage especially, but it's been improving as you go along, you feel very hesitant, you know, do you feel like you're lacking the killer instinct on your T side specifically?
Me or the team individually?
You specifically.
I know sometimes I'm trying to think what's the best play here and sometimes the best page is to give a headshot
Like even if you make a mistake if you headshot the guy, that's a good play
But that doesn't work that way you have to think about the picture big picture
It might be a little bit asked to say but I don't want to be the guy that makes the mistake
But if you don't go with the mindset that you don't care about mistakes
You're not gonna go for the plays or you're not gonna go for something that is needed at some point
So, yeah, it's a balance. Sometimes I go for it, sometimes I vote, and sometimes I watch the game
and be like, oh, you should have went there. So the next game I go.
One of the stats we pulled up in the pre-game is Robs is going for double the T side entries that he's normally going for.
He's going for like 26% or something. Has he just kind of stepped into that role and been more aggressive?
Or is that something you kind of coordinated as a team?
I feel like it's him individually, and how well he's feeling.
And he wants to go for the plays because, I mean, to be honest, he wasn't having the best past three months or past six months.
I don't know what's the exact date but I feel like what he's doing now is the recipe to come back
because you need to take more and then you'll find the balance but I love what he's doing now.
I'm curious in your just honest opinion of being the crowd favorite and being
the enemy that's being booed by the crowd what do you prefer?
I mean I'm gonna be honest it feels very ass to lose as a crowd favorite it feels like
you let so many people down and when you're the not the crowd favorite it feels good to win
But at the end they were cheering for us. I was so surprised.
During the half-time of the third map, they were like,
Let's go, Vita.
And we're typing the chat, guys, they're cheering for us.
Like, what the hell happened?
I made a joke there, but I'm not gonna say it at the level.
So you win the game, do you look down at the fans and go,
We beat your favorites?
I mean, towards the end of the game, it felt like our fans.
So we were kind of missing that of,
Yeah, we beat their home favorites.
I felt like we were the home favorites at last.
I saw them change their jerseys, actually.
I was going to say, I feel like the takeaway is that you could win over anyone with some
good Counter-Strike, right?
Yes!
Good Counter-Strike are the basics.
You keep saying, going back to the basics, what does that really look like, right?
When you strip it all down, when it comes back to it, like what is basics training?
What is building up from the basics?
Communication, spacing, trading, just aiming.
I don't know, just focusing on the correct things.
You don't think about the big picture, oh, we're going to fake it and we're going
to be.
you have to communicate it, then you have to get good distance between it, and then you only execute the plan so...
One question about the way the teams prepare for games, compared to the other teams you've played with, how does Vitality prepare for a series?
As a standard, I cannot reveal this. If I was not on the team, I would say there are problems, but as a standard, I don't feel like it's my grounds to...
All right, that's valid.
I guess the last thing I would ask is a little off topic, but I'm sure you're looking at Navi a little bit and you're saying how they're having a lot of difficulty.
I already see you smiling.
I know what you're going to ask, so I already know the answer.
Okay, what is it? What is it? What's going on?
I don't leave to join it back.
What?
Wait, what?
Wait, what is going on? What do you think is going on?
What are you going to say? Oh, Navi's having some difficulties. Do you want to come back or something?
Oh yeah, yeah, sure.
That's what I said. I didn't leave to come back.
Okay, okay, so we're just going to, we're just waiting for the comeback now.
We're on Navi. Yeah, I said no. He didn't leave to come back. He's done with it
No, I
I heard you I heard you're saying Navi's the exit you're never gonna go back to there's no booty call at 2 a.m.
When Navi needs in the most unless some crucial things change
He doesn't want to play with those bombs. No
Just something different. Well, what do you think's going on with them right now?
They're focused on two perfect CS and I feel like they need to go back to the bases and start to
enjoyed the game a little bit more because when I watched their games they're a little bit too
static a little bit too in their place and afraid to commit a mistake and yeah you can't play CS
okay what's your comment on the blade no laughing comment I asked them about it actually oh okay
yeah they said it was a little bit out of context a little bit yeah out of context not a lot
much out of context they can laugh sometimes like once per day okay that's the token spend
an hour on Navi it's once per day we'll look jail it's always such a pleasure you're always
I don't know where he's such a
lot of time to have you on the
desk there. We'll see you
tomorrow, though. We'll let you
go. Okay? Because you do have a
whole other series. That's for
the fans out there. Not where
he's asked that doesn't want to
call. That's really him. That's
really why he's done and dusted
for vitality. Whilst it's not a
permanent home. It's definitely
a cozy one for him right now.
He's suiting in so well, and
whilst we can look at map one
and think about all the things
that fell apart for vitality,
it's always how you pick
yourself up. How you get on
and how you come on to a desk like this and have so much fun like JL.
I mean, JL is just a ball of energy, even pre-firing the questions.
That's not what I was going to ask, by the way.
Yeah, I knew it wasn't.
No, I think that the way that he was able to impose himself on maps two and three
was much more felt. I would even say in the foot series, he was a much better player.
Whatever's going on on Nuke, that's just setting him up for failure.
I don't think that they should be having him as the last guy on some of these rounds,
and that's something that I think Vitality will probably retool if we see them play Nuke
again in these playoffs.
I think that's that that new game is just Furia coming in with a perfect game plan.
Furia coming in with really on point players and Vitality falling flat.
I think they forget that one.
They go into the next series and you're still seeing them grow.
You're still seeing growth from game to game map to map even.
You're seeing this team perform better as a team as a unit and they understand the
roles more and more as time goes on.
Look, unfortunately the crowd favorites of Furia are eliminated here vitality getting their hands dirty there
But before we say goodbye to them in the tournament completely
Fallen was able to catch up with us and give us some words on what happened here today
Furia with the crowd on their side put up an explosive first map pushed them on cash
But couldn't come back into this series Gabriel just talked to me about your perspective on all of this because I'll say this on
Nuke you were doing things where it felt like you could do whatever you guys wanted
Yeah, I think we played very well on the first map confidence was a good moment
We're winning a lot of things things are going very well
Including back for my side like I was getting many packs cues on city side
So I was a great first map and I think cash we could have won as well. It was very close. I think ended up 1311
Of course, we're gonna be able to watch it. Maybe we could have done this differently or that differently
But it's just how the game goes and that's true
We didn't have enough to come back to this match
We needed a piece on the T side to have a chance and maybe we'd have a superb T side half
and start many rounds with the win, but it didn't happen.
So props to Vitality was great to play today.
Looking at that Dust2 in particular, was there something that was different than what you expected?
Because one thing we noted was you guys in all the series you played against each other,
you haven't played it since 2024.
Honestly, the two wasn't quite different from anything we would expect or play against
other teams. I think we had a couple more chances to make more rounds on the T side.
Some unlucky moments, there's a round where they're pushing short, they don't know, they're like throwing nades on mid
and I think I left Apex with 1 HP on that round, like we are going to complete different
so there's a couple moments here and there that we could have controlled the game much better
but in the end we're playing against a team that plays this map very well as well, like they are very well known for this verse too
and you just gotta give it to them.
And on the next you're going off to China right, so it's another tournament to try and get a deeper run out
you're still consistently making playoffs even with all the in-game leadership, changes on maps, Molotoway
trying to come back into form with his eyes as well
How confident are you just with the team's energy going forward that you can be well there?
Potentially win the trophy like many people are expecting.
Well, I mean, we go for every tournament with the hopes and with the desire of winning it.
And we know that many teams were coming here. They are on the same shape and they have the same desires.
So it ends up with who's going to be able to perform better, manage pressure better.
So we're going to go to Hong Kong and I feel like we have to reset from here, take some lessons from this game.
Tactically, mentally and just go and try it again.
There's no other way for any athlete in the world.
You've got to go try it out lose some wins some and hope for the best
You know better than most and also obviously the Portuguese fans home the Brazilian fans around the world as well
The guys in the arena that love you any final words to send them off with
Just like to say obrigado big thanks for the Portuguese fans here
They really do it make like we feel like we're in Brazil. I love being here like I'm having a great time
I only here for two days now three days, but it's already amazing. So thanks for showing up guys
a lot of Brazilians who came as well. So to all the Portuguese brothers, thank you so
much. It was amazing to play here. Thanks for the energy. I had a great time, especially
Winner Winnie, but just to be here around you guys is a blessing for me. Thank you so much.
Thank you very much for the next events.
It's unfortunate that not only us, but the crowd here in Porto won't get to see
Fury again because that map one was just impeccable from them. The energy that
was given from the crowd, it was just top notch. Next level above the Counter
that was being displayed in that map on,
but the mental is the part that I really focus on
and that Fallen talks about there.
That's a big learning lesson.
I think a big key takeaway that they're going to be looking at
going forward at tier one events.
I would even say the CS on Nuke was pristine,
but the comeback on a cache and Dust 2
was a little less pristine.
Obviously, they struggled a lot more
on those last two maps.
Vitality really started to pick up speed,
and I do like the mentality shout out.
You know, it really does matter to come into every event
feeling like you have a chance to win,
even when you've been struggling as a Furious Squad?
I still see this Furious Squad as a tournament favorite
for the upcoming Fisher events.
I also think that they have a great chance
to sneak one more trophy in there
before Fallen's inevitable retirements.
The individual level from Fallen is surprising me
on a consistent basis, like he did on Nuke,
like he did during the group stage.
I would also, I still wouldn't even hold it against him
if he decides he doesn't want to retire
because I feel like there aren't many IGLs
that can still shoot at that level that he's shooting at,
that can call and game plan at his level.
And if it is the end, as he has outlined that it will be,
then it will be a very sad day
for these Portuguese fans and Brazilians alike.
In terms of like true old school IGL,
somehow fallen after swapping from Octo Rifle
is probably, he's a top two fragging IGL
from the old school, you know, bandwidth, right?
You have a carrigan really struggling,
Apex has his times, but you think of like a hook,
see a snap, like the old school IGLs
that are true IGLs and not kind of you.
Look at the new school with
Corbenny whether fracking and yeah,
these these are a different style of IGL fallen.
It's a shame he's retiring because
he's still so solid,
fracking wise and you still see so
many tea sides.
He carries his team with the calls.
Look, I fully agree with you guys here.
Everything about the sentiments
between if he does retire,
if it decides not to retire,
what he's bringing,
what the new generation is as well.
But one thing I love that
whilst we can break it all down
and we can look at everything
that happens here,
that is just naturally ingrained
in so many of these players or
something that they've been able
to do for themselves time and
time again. Leading to a lot of
multiple kills in around is
the spray transfer. If you guys
want to head on over to refry,
that is one of the most that you
can practice. I mean, we were
looking at so many players today,
be able to get three case
for case for themselves, and it's
all about what refried really
offers right being able to
have recoil control being able
to go into the competitive maps
and run against some bots that
that feel more competitive than normal.
I don't want to single them out.
Yekendar, it's time to get on the refrag.
Go to refrag.gg slash blast to check it out.
And just use the Titan mode, okay?
That's, I think, the most difficult level of this.
I've tried to beginner one myself,
and I should have tried the Titan mode
because it really tests you on those long-range sprays,
the transfers where they're peaking from multiple angles.
That is a more realistic setting,
and it's one where I remember around on Cache,
If he had practiced on that a little bit more,
we might be out of here an hour and a half early,
and Fury would have been in the semifinals.
Hot take, Mallie.
I think you should be using the level of the spray accuracy
that you are at as a player.
So I think for you, Kindari probably should be using
the beginner setting for you, maybe the Titan setting.
Oh gosh, that's low blow for him.
No, it's a, but Refrag still is
and then has been the best tool to get your game up as an individual.
It's really been so, so imperative to just being able to just practice situations in the wee hours of the night when you're really probably too tired to play a game that you shouldn't probably be queuing up for.
But refrag is the way that you're actually just going to get some real reps in and build that muscle memory.
When you're still playing and it's 5am guys, just refrag it.
I get it. I just know you know the other way we're gonna go on is vitality keep talking about basics
Refrag is one of the best way to be able to learn those basics at the end of the day
Maybe outside of comes that but look it's a lot of fun refrag day
It's also a lot of fun just getting to be here in Porto getting to have the energy of it
And what once was six now becomes four
We have to say goodbye to G2 and fury here today
And it does leave a falcons coming up against a spirit in the semi-finals followed by males and vitality
This is our top four of glass open port.
That's crazy to think about.
You couldn't ask for a better top four.
I mean, this is the best four teams
that you can have in this slot.
Falcon spirit also, when you look at the matchups,
either side of the bracket, so scary,
so many storylines,
gonna be very interesting tomorrow.
Without a doubt, I mean, this,
we were so blessed with, I would consider,
the six best teams in the world
coming into the playoffs,
and now we really have now
the best four teams in the world.
So this couldn't be any better
and the Porto audience should really be thankful for what Counter-Strike is blessing them with here.
From quarter-finals to semi-finals, 6-4 here. It is going to be a joy when we get into more of that action,
but for now we are going to say goodbye because it has already been such an amazing day here in
Porto at the Superbuck Arena and I look forward to what Saturday brings us as we continue on with our Blast Premiere open Porto.