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I
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back to how Katowice, when we got to play,
we just go at Katowice when we played this, you know,
this, like it was like in the gym.
Like gym, yeah, yeah.
We usually did the media day after day.
We did the media day in there,
then like there was like a set up and you know,
and I was like, it was like a square,
you're sitting in a square and someone was playing a game
and then I believe it was in 14 passion,
he opened like a knife and we would see the next of them.
I think our game had just started,
but they were like, ah, I just opened a knife.
And you're like focusing on the major.
We're playing a major here, but Paz is like opening knives, and it was like, oh, everyone's like, oh, you got a knife.
And you could just walk behind pretty much any team and then just watch.
And like, you couldn't back in the old days, I loved doing that back in the days,
because then you could get like an idea of the communication, but nowadays it's much like, if someone walks up behind...
Yeah, they don't watch, they like to watch anymore.
No.
One time I went for a tournament in 2014, I think, and I saw Gatchewide playing Pete on those two.
He was playing like, I won't be three or something, I'll be three.
And I was like, this guy is shooting three people, not saying a single word.
Like, he doesn't communicate as he's shooting.
So maybe I'm talking too much.
I'm taking those insights, right, from watching people.
That's how it's developed and evolved throughout the years, right?
I mean, one thing is, like, all the way from, like, the local ants that we had fun at,
but then also just seeing the tournaments that we are at now, how they were a decade ago.
I think it's changed so much.
That's what I said, like when we went to the PGL stadium for Medellin, in 17, we had the practice where now everything is like built for the groups.
It was the tournament area and the practice room were the same place.
Yes.
So we had the practice room close to each other, like, you know, we were like Vitaly here and behind, maybe we are this guy.
It was Team Krakow.
Yeah, yeah, it was the same as the Arena here.
Like it's so funny that like the pretty I remember Marble in 17. I think was like we were in the run room all together
Yeah, you're in practice room. You don't have your that your run room all together and when you look even before not practice room
So you were at an event better grind before because during the event
You don't have time for any this much your right to use set up you have 20 meter to warm up better play good today
Because if you go back in time and think about it that was just like normal
Yeah, and everyone was fine with it. You know, that's just how it was. It was simp for everyone so everyone's fine with it
Yeah, guys, if you showed up nowadays and people would just like we don't have practice, we'd be like fuck that. We're going home
The catabits are cursed, it's broken, Apex, Zodiac, and Vitality, they make the grand final here in Poland
The dog is still alive!
Kill our trains!
Experience Prince of Darkness!
They're fighting around in this series!
It's a long time waiting.
I miss that trophy so bad.
When we walk into the stage, I'm looking at it.
Two majors. I won the Cologne.
I just miss that one piece.
We just get to be there.
All pressure that we can get, it's from the crowd.
Chirng again.
yet it's from the crowd cheering against us.
It's always funny to win against the crowd
and make everyone silent.
But that trophy, something iconic, is about to happen.
I knew that guy was going to pull off some things, you know, I have some personal vendera
against him, so I had a couple of tricks up my sleeve as well.
Some players know how to win. That guy knows how to win.
He knows how to be good in big games.
It doesn't mean that he will be good at every big game.
When you play with Robin, he gives you confidence just by the way he talks.
How Kami is during the round, etc.
Not by his pitch, but the way he talks during the game, the way he plays.
With FaZe, we had a lot of success. We won those tournaments,
but Vitality is going to be different, so we have to find our own recipe.
I think they're just happy to have me, and I think most of it brings confidence.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10.
1, 2, 3, 4 ,5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.
Let's go!
Euhm, let's go!
Play clearly what we discussed. Listen to Leonid in the middle, everything will work out.
Let's go.
I'm going to go
I'm in, I'm blind
I'm out, I'm out
I'm close to Tetris I think
I see one, I'm in both
It's okay, it's okay
I'm stuck, I'm stuck
I'm out, I'm out
In the absence of others, it's Mezzy, the step-top for Vitality
I must win this doll, converted
On fire, one main, okay
Almost lost for you there
Here's the acceleration, they have to go.
They're coming.
At level, at level.
Scyther reveals him, jumpscare.
Kicks him, gets the bomb down.
On the top of his head, Nika. Goon for stumps.
Scyther.
Inwards, denseth.
Unsecret.
Saving.
Be ready, be ready, be ready.
Nice.
Under, under, get out of the guys.
That guy is going, he's going.
Yeah!
Nice! Nice! Nice boys!
Let's go!
We keep going boys.
Let's go. Let's go.
I'm in the middle of the first lane bro.
Yeah, yeah.
They have shoved all in. The investment.
The FP9. There's a tag.
You need a miracle because that's us.
He's just ripped away the open up.
It's full by probably boys.
There's 2.4 or so.
Just take it slow. Let's go secret.
I have a plan guys.
I'm gonna come with you though
I'm in secret, get one to it
I'm out, I'm under heaven, he might be holding you boys
I tried to go back down
I can try to search main as it'll be easy to go down
I think we're going to be
Yeah, in main
How's that? He's cleared lobby with a scowl.
So much going on from behind, Kixson! Make some nearer that!
What's going on, V?
He doesn't see where the three are.
It's just Flambez on the next. He kicks it off to Rob Shaw.
Flambez in four, with a perfect position!
Oh, it's lucky! Kixson! Kixson! Kixson! Kixson!
Has he got it in him? The bomb will go down a clutch that would have to save Vitality.
Oh, they're not good. I'm going against Vickle, okay?
Niko's low. Kixson's alive. Elevate position through the smoke. It will be about taking reaction.
The action show is over!
The game, the brain, the game saves them!
Maybe talk a little bit about the core file.
Well yeah, but they're playing each other.
Yeah.
What are they going to play?
I don't know.
Awesome.
What do you expect?
Are we playing ancient?
We love, like, I enjoyed yesterday night.
And we can work two days, we can work on it.
So if you both agree, you can both prepare,
and then it might, you know, be an exciting game.
a better game. What do you want to be a little bit? I'll give you my phone to call Fallen.
Well, for me, best case scenario, you guys pick Overpass, and we pick... What do we pick?
I don't know.
No, no, but honestly, it's all going to be dependent on the mind games in terms of the ancient pick or whatever.
There's a chance we're going to ban Anubis, because maybe we don't want to play there,
Or for example, if we practiced Ancient, if we didn't practice Ancient, then we're gonna ban Ancient, then we're gonna play Anubis.
My game is starting now.
Yeah, my game is starting now.
So maybe if the opponent starts sweating and he's already sick.
If they don't ban Ancient, maybe I would not pick Ancient this time.
It's all like...
Flies through, second phase.
Maybe we're gonna leave Ancient open and then they're gonna think like, okay, do we want to play Ancient or do we not want to play Ancient?
When's the last time you guys played against each other?
Malta? Maybe?
Maybe?
Yeah, probably.
Oh, don't have a good memory about that.
Probably? No, Thunder, Thunder pick I think.
Thunder pick? Can I try?
Yeah, Thunder pick, yeah.
And they pick?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That wasn't that long ago.
It was back in October.
Yeah, you guys won, huh?
Yeah, they played Na'Vi in reverse throughout the final.
Yeah, the thing is from the old and new Anubisys,
I've seen many different methods in a way.
Every team has their own understanding of the update
in terms of how to play the map
and how they feel comfortable playing the map.
And until teams kind of play the map and show what they have,
there's not going to be a very obvious meta of how to play this map.
Nobody knows what you created with the gap now, or do you have a push,
do you don't have a push, or how do you stand in game and whatever.
And I feel like, for example, that's why I watched 3D Max.
They played Anubis this tournament.
If we would have played Anubis against them the first game without knowing what
they do, we will get destroyed, honestly, I think, because some of the things they have,
like the midchecks, with the midround, a little flash into the window, just lucky.
Just to check.
Just to check, like, are you trying to come close ball?
Okay, you're not trying to come close ball, okay, we can be not scared of B-split a little
bit, you know, we can save some utility, you know, all of these details, they really matter.
I got lucky playing this map, having an aggressive AWPer, and for example Liquid had Ultimate who was very good on Anubis,
and now I have Daniel who is as well very good on Anubis as an aggressive AWPer.
And in my opinion it's like, for my playstyle it's a lot easier for me to play with an aggressive AWPer in the team,
but I also understand like, for example, Spears or Aurora's way of playing.
Like I don't consider Woxic like a very passive opera, but like in terms of like overall 3-2, kind of style,
then it's all kind of cool.
I'm cast in the other game on the A stream and then I flick over to the B stream game,
and I was thinking about the Vita, I was like, okay Aurora, this is Vitality,
okay so we've seen Vitality float Ancient before, they did it against these guys in a grand final,
they've probably floated again, Force Magid abandoned out, and then you were like, now fuck it.
They're like, let's play Ancient.
Yeah, we play it, to be honest, it's been like maybe two weeks we're playing sometimes.
We try to do what we can do on the map.
And it was a good test yesterday, it was a good test against...
Lots of rounds.
Lots of rounds.
And to be honest, we enjoyed the map, but we also know that, like for me, I think a lot of teams already have a lot of...
I used to play on C and then we...
For years.
Yeah, but it was, it was enjoying the whole play, all players played Ancient, like before, so I mean yeah, for us it's easy because you guys didn't play, like you played, I think you played Ancient at the very start.
Yeah, against Na'Vi also, we did the same, Na'Vi didn't ban, and we played Na'Vi ESL Pro League when we lost the final, initial Pro League at Malta.
I remember we were, first time you guys didn't ban Ancient, and we didn't pick it first time. Then second time, okay, these motherfuckers didn't ban it.
And you pick and you ban each one with play-offs. Yes
You guys banned ancient and I'm like
Why they ban ancient we were in such a mood to play ancient bro in two days. Are you in the mood to play?
Well, I mean, I don't know if we're in the mood to play a movie. So I just said they don't have a map also
At this point, we're gonna play anything bro the big back vertical
Oh my god, thank you.
But that was such a long game, actually.
You guys played, I would drop like 50-something kills.
It was crazy rounds. I'm watching them back on all the highlights.
Is it feel, when you're playing it, because it's a seeding match, right?
Is it just more fun to play a game like that?
It feels less stress or you're still stressed out in a moment?
I gel always stressed.
I'll let him talk a little.
The game started with less pressure.
Also, as you said, it's not like a do or die game, but it's like, of course, a qualification
game for the quarter or semi, so it's important for us.
But when he started to just pop to the heads, killing three, killing four, holding him,
punishing me and stuff, I just said, something is happening now in the game and I cannot
catch it, you know, and he just left and right, left and right, and he's just punishing either
my players either me so I said like I need to do something I'm doing something I'm dying again
like I couldn't even feel anything in an ancient and it's it was too long game and I was like
it started it's ended very long but I felt like it's so quick you know like we instantly
I don't know I don't know how to explain this game was like the ancient map was the my first time
that I felt he's like pressing above my head you know like with his leg this
this was the first time on my career really yes I never felt a game like
this yeah I asked the last group I was like what's what's the sickest you've
ever been like while playing because we had Hunter he was obviously sick in
Chengdu you can play saw how to play but you've seen me sick man yeah I think
yeah I used to get sick a lot now and now I'm better a lot but the Budapest
major for me was very bad, like especially group stage and whatever, I feel like one
of the reasons as well why I want to play.
When we played third map against Navi, Train, I just felt so exhausted at that point because
I feel like I didn't have energy, like I got so exhausted in the group stage because I
was sick and I was like playing and whatever and that it just piles up piles up piles up
and because of the stress during like quarter finals against Navi, like Train, I trolled
hard. Hard, I was missing nades, I was like not realizing what's happening or
whatever so sometimes you know like you cannot control it and you just need to
understand that like you have to be doing the best things that you can do
for your body, gym, vitamins, not going outside in the shirt or
whatever, sleep. Sleep is the hardest, sleep is the big one. The older I get, sleep is harder.
Sleep is probably the most important thing because as soon as you don't
get enough sleep, your immune system drops and then everything goes
shit. Yeah, the kid child, you'll sleep like a baby when you go to bed.
Right, that I know that we saw, we saw him was so unwell that he, he TKs Alexi. That's
how he was shooting Alexi. And then he's like, yeah, like he catches
himself like, yeah, but that's the thing. He's, he's unwell with the focuses and
they're where it needs to be. Have you guys ever been like really sick in an event
and just had to play through it or been unable to play? Probably, probably.
I don't remember.
I'm coughing since three months also.
I have some difficult breath.
And you're just giving the tactic and you just between it.
And I go to the hospital like two days ago.
Yeah, I take some hair also. I have a vantoline.
I don't know what I have exactly, but I think my body with age may be half.
Just stress.
It's not stress. I don't feel stress.
But I feel like with last year, my body was not used with this T1...
Oh, the serve and the travel, yeah.
Yeah, this shit sucks, bro. Like, we're having too much events, so like...
I agree.
Just get three more.
A part of why Vitality let it through again is so they didn't have to show their new Anubis,
because you were talking about how the meta's not set yet.
You think it's a bonus for them to have not played Anubis,
and it might come in the playoffs, and no one knows what they're going to do with their approach?
I think they haven't played.
I think they didn't practice because in Blast they played the old version and we had a practice against a scrim against them on the Blast tournament
and they said, because I'm French, I'm a good relation, they said to me like bro let's not play Anubis, change the map
I think they didn't prepare yet the new Anubis with the old so...
Yeah because there was no time because like we came from, so there was like two days after Bounty
Straight to here and then you're playing already group stage and whatever
And there's like unless you use those two days to do something another way without any material because at that point like there was no like
teams playing that map right yet and
It's just hard because because we only practice the numbers for for like
the last
like
Group like group stage days that we played here and like we didn't have a chance to practice it before and for example
Like we cannot be on the same level for example as 3d max, you know like who have no and much new things
It's now easier of course because you see there's many teams to watch who will already play the map and you can kind of create what you want
I don't think what that is fooling anyone with this ancient now
You know like if we're in a playoffs tomorrow in the semi-final, I don't think they'll play
And be surprised in the city and again especially
Like honestly like we played the game against them it was a B similar that you guys played a game against them
It's a B simulator as I was walking up banana killing one killing two killing cave
It's being like face it bro. Yeah, but that's that's just how the intelligent face it like
That's just how the map is because it's like I didn't like ancient that much before before so I played the map a lot
But it's all about the opening on mid
Do you feel the matchup will be any different because of the fact it's gonna be played on stage
in front of the crowd.
Obviously if I say no, I would lie to you bro,
like I think on stage and on the studio
it's different. I think as a player
everyone is different.
Sometimes players enjoy
being on the sand, playing way
better, enjoy the stress,
embrace this stress,
you know, and sometimes not,
sometimes it's a big pressure
for a young player, extra or
inexperienced player, so it's
depend.
I don't know what's going to happen.
I don't know.
To be honest, it's the first tournament.
It's the first tournament against stronger teams,
and that's a good sign already.
But it's just as scary.
Is it like a big arena?
Toron's twice the biggest product.
But he's not choking, you know?
I think choking is very important in Counter-Strike, you know?
And what I see from him is not the kind of player who will choke.
So I believe he will play good, hopefully.
Bro, you're saying good thing, but just imagine he is 1v3 and he just kills 2 and he hears,
I don't know, 25,000 people just standing up.
Kind of thing and how is it going to be happen?
I don't know, bro, like I don't know, but I believe him, you know, I believe him.
Of course, his first tournament, first on every nice stage, but just experienced, bro.
I think the most important thing is like accepting that you're nervous, like I'm nervous all the fucking time.
Every time I'm walking into Arena, I have butterflies in my stomach, you know?
Until I sit down and the first couple of rounds I'm going to be nervous.
I know myself.
I accept that I'm nervous, I'm fine with that.
And I know that the first couple of rounds I'm going to go by, I'm going to be full in the game
and I don't care anymore at that point.
And it's just how it is.
Everybody's going to be nervous, but that's why, in the end, Arena CS,
Why is it so beautiful? Because all the great individual plays come from the arenas.
Because that's where the nervousness goes into the flow or whatever.
Like the Falcons' new game I had done last.
I don't remember shit I was doing, honestly.
Like if you would ask me after the game what were the rounds and what was I doing, I don't remember shit.
It was just so automatic.
Like what was happening?
What was and it's like when you get to that state that's that's that's like
That that's what you want to accomplish or like that's the beauty of it
But you cannot get to the state unless you accept yourself. Yeah
That's how this I guess it's a fine line as well between being nervous or like you could even just frame it as excitement
What do you reckon we got rookie of the year right here soul fly is he early contender for rookie of the year 2026?
He's playing pretty good. Yeah, it's like in here
So, you guys have to say, I think he thought the first tournament, I think he was stressful I think, it was the first tournament for him and he's the player that he didn't play a lot of LANs, like his first LAN since 3 years, so it's something difficult for him.
But now I think the most interesting thing is on the stage 1, he has like 0-9 rating, but when he goes to stage 2, when there is Maus, Falcon, like top 10 teams, he put 120.
So I think it's a very good thing for him, like playing good against good opponent and that's very good side first
Yeah, I think it's a for me. It's something I like
You talked a bit about you know, you have a play style that you need to suit to your players
Yes, what kind of a player is he a play style wise? He was playing style roles on his laughing, wasn't he?
Yeah, he was on T side. He was sometimes taking a map control
but when I was on terrace and also we came here I can't give him that role, you know, so
In Turkey, you know, we I like since seven years since space soldiers are lack of a lurker like player like crops, you know on T side
and
I just needed a lot like a B plan, you know as a leader when I take map control and I have a guy on my
Other side to give me plan bro. We can do that now some voice. I want him to do that
That's why I'm talking with him, like you have to talk much, extra.
So now his role on T-side is more sometimes like lurking, but not always.
But for now it's just been like two months, so I'm not pretty sure, just seeing.
But the player is really calm, with good mental, and that's very important for us, it's helping
a lot.
Also smart.
Also smart.
He's choosing the smart way to play, like when he's in an entry as well, like killing
Not going for a second trying to like waste some utilities to from to come back to people and nobody told him to do it
If I'm killing one I'm going for the second
The replays
You don't know me, you don't know me, anything at all
Take your little time to just be, you don't know me, you don't know me, anything at all
Should be fine, should be fine, doesn't matter that he has to know that it's a 1v1 that
Niko has to say, FOKER!
IT'S LADY SLEEP!
FONTICS CHIPPING AWAY!
Now they all fade into black now, FONTICS!
Yeah, I'm gonna slow. Have you got Horselines?
Okay, have you got...
There he is.
Spines are moving, nice shot, but first they're all in a line.
For the guest turn, there's a lot more we can't stop.
It's a little loud.
It's loud.
Pull it, but it's done it.
For us, you don't know me.
We're ready to torture your spine.
All time missing bullets.
Exertion button just to control two, three from Exertion.
Let's stop!
Woo!
No time!
We're going to get him for two of the powers he hit.
That quick adjustment.
Oh, my God.
Oh!
And he takes all the tears, and I'm going to get all my tears!
Now, Legend has it, if you believe that sort of thing, that here in the city of Krakow,
which is where we are, was once home to a ferocious dragon that demanded a king's ransom.
And our six teams that have made it through to the play of stage here in this amazing arena,
amazing arena where they're about to embrace that fire as they enter the belly of the beast.
What is on the line? Well first off their names etching to the history book which is big in
its own right but also a notch on the bell that is the ESL Grand Slam. What is coming up for you
today? Well Aurora are taking on Fiora in the not too distant future then G2 face off against
maps. Two massive matchups waiting for them are the past two winners of this championship. We're
We're talking team spirit and we're talking vitality, beasts in their own right.
What are we doing here?
As a tournament has left from Hanover, it's made it to Katowice, now here to Krakow.
Alright guys?
Ready for it?
Oh yes!
This is the Intel Extreme Masters Winter Championship and it starts now!
Come on!
Help me!
Rafa, really making history.
Answer is normal.
The ace is the champion of the NHL Extreme Master World Final.
Storks still not quite done,
FC is gonna take this fight though, three seconds left.
Last two rounds of the match, it's gonna start as he put a three and a second.
Our base is on my super physical, but he's not content with just the Nexus kill.
He's gonna jump out, shoot, and get hit, and it's all done!
I'm throwing quick!
Unbelievable rune, with a 4-0 victory over classes, and they did it again!
Involve that battle!
It's back!
Give it up for your intel, Extreme Masters World Champion!
It's the iconic stairs that we of course brought from Katowice to Krakow and seeing the names
of the giants who have been able to win this trophy before you, it must be impressive.
And the question is, how will Aurora do on this big stage?
So I'm going to grab Woksek for that.
Hello.
How are you doing?
Feeling great.
Feeling ready.
We'll see.
I sense a little bit of nervousness, can that?
No, it just doesn't want to use like big words.
You want to show inside the server, so we'll see.
Tell me a little bit about that, because in the past Aurora,
sometimes maybe you haven't been able to be yourself completely on the biggest stage.
That's what people say.
So what do you want to walk away with today?
Obviously with the win and to go to the final,
But we'll see, we're like a new lineup and we'll see how we will play in front of the
crowd with the pressure, with the new boy.
I believe in them, they believe in me, we'll see.
Okay, and just checking your resolution is still the same?
Yes, same.
Awesome, good luck.
I picked Amino like Spiria versus Aurora.
This is...
And in doing so, I think I'm going to get that opportunity to catch up with you, Kinder.
Good afternoon, Kinder. How are you?
I'm great. I had a little bit of nervousness sleeping, you know, but that's just the excitement before a new event, new arena, quarterfinals. Yeah, happy to be here.
Yeah, so, I mean, you had a couple series here where you really showed some dominance, right?
We talked about that series with the Mongols. You had a stellar series there.
And even against Navi, you map on a Mirage.
How important is it for you guys to get those opening kills, and specifically you?
Yeah, I mean, for me it matters a lot obviously because I feel like that's something that I can excel on and help my team a lot.
And, you know, the good part about this team is when, even if something goes wrong, that I still have the trust that my team is able to win a 4v5 or trade me,
or that I can support them in any other way, like communication or whatever.
But of course the game goes to the next level if I'm getting these opening kills and if the round starts like that.
Let's jump back just a little bit to that nervousness.
Would you say it was your breakfast?
Would you say it was just, you know, everything was a little queasy?
How do you get overcome something like that?
I don't think you really overcome it.
I feel like you just understand it like, hey, I'm excited, I'm nervous a little bit, you know?
And you just live with it, you know?
If you cannot accept yourself, you're not going to be able to kind of overcome it.
And that's my approach.
Thank you very much, Kenner. Good luck.
Thank you.
So we're going to get down to business here with our checks predictions and in doing so
I brought in some of the smartest cats I could find in the green room.
That's JL and Dupri.
They've won majors.
I don't think they need an introduction.
Gentlemen, let's talk about this bracket a little bit.
Yeah, let's hit it.
I mean like on the first side of the bracket, then you're obviously looking at the first
game you're going to have today off of Roa versus Furia and I think, I mean, it's going
to be an interesting game.
comes down to the video, I think it's going to come down to who is actually playing the
chicken game. I have to go with Fiora. I think Fiora has progressed to become better throughout
the tournament and I think looking at the group stage part, sure they did fumble a little,
but they managed to make it to the playoffs and I think it's going to be a whole new team.
I feel like Fiora is a better team on paper, not on paper, just looks wise,
eye-wise. They pass all the checks to beat Aurora, but I feel like Aurora beat Maus,
they beat Falcons, they are on a better trajectory than Furay.
That's the one.
So I don't know, for me, it's a 50-50 game, but Aurora feeling really hot right now.
So I'll probably be picking Aurora for this one.
Well, especially if I look at Aurora and the consideration they've been playing, you know,
they got reps on land here and it looks like they don't want to stop or slow down until
they find some victory on the stage.
So what are we looking at with that one, Peter?
Furay?
Out of Furay and Aurora.
Let's put it, let's put a pin in it.
Who do you got?
Yeah, let's make sure. I want to put it on camera live.
I'll put it on camera live.
So obviously for the Fury Aurora side, you know, I do think that I think Fury is looking way better in the sense of that they had progressed through the tournament.
They are the overall better team. I think they have like a better in terms of their predictions and also the capabilities of teams.
So I think they're looking strong. So Fury is fun.
And JL, you know, everyone wants to know what JL is thinking most of the time.
And in your case, I think you're looking at a 50-50, but you do have to pick one out of Fury Aurora.
I have to pick Aurora. I feel like they've done much better.
much better in Krakow. Fury on paper is a better team for sure, but Aurora taking heads
off Mounds, Falcons, I'm pretty sure Fury is next in the car, so I'll be picking Aurora.
Yeah, who's going to put up that better fight versus Spirit? There's also that on the other
side of it, who goes to meet them in the semi and actually could put work in on Spirit.
That's again, that's the question, and that's why I hope it's going to be Fury. I think
Fury is more of a solid team, but still, Aurora, sure, they have improved and they are now
looking to take the stage and actually show that they can play better. I'm just lifting
in a position where I feel like Fiora will just make it more interesting.
They have a deeper map pool.
They are a team that has won multiple trophies last season.
So I think there's a lot of things that they can still prove and take to
Spirit to make it even more exciting.
So our next quarterfinal, we're looking at G2 versus Maus.
And that's a pretty exciting one, but only because people are saying it's the
Oralist Bowl, like they're saying that, you know, both these teams lack a little
bit of aura. We don't have to dive in all that.
Let's talk about the minutiae.
Let's talk about the game, Peter.
What do you got?
I mean, it's it's one of these games where there's no like super clear
I think that Maus maybe is a slight one. I think that G2 has looked solid this tournament
They almost beat spirit to make to the semifinal and they found in the last couple of seconds
I think that Maus boss is a team that now decided to skip the first tournament of year coming into this one feeling like they are a
New kind of mouse, but that's what they say themselves
They really want to go in and show that what they have worked in practice and why they skip the first term and why it really is supposed to be
paying off and
Of course Maus had the Stravus winning trophies last season
They're trying to make up for that one now, and I think that it's a good start for them to go up against a team like T2.
And usually when mousebooks place these teams where they're kind of similar,
I feel like they usually come out of head because there's no sues asked to determine the result.
JL, what do you got bud?
I've got mouse as well. I'm gonna agree with Peter. I feel like these are very similar teams.
They're both lacking star players. They're focusing on the team aspect like the structure, the strategies.
Yeah, I'll favor mouse because they've just been a team for so much longer and also
So, they just played better CS in my opinion.
But then again, we're going to ask that proverbial question on the other side is, Peter, you
know it, it's Vitality.
Oh yeah.
Yeah, so like, Maus loves playing Vitality, right?
We love that.
Yeah, it's something we've seen before, right?
Maus had their struggles, and then when they finally overcome it, they lose the spirit.
That's what happened in Coral, right?
So for Maus to hopefully, or potentially go up against the likes of Vitality, it's
going to be tough for them.
I think that they hopefully find some sort of a reset, but Vitality is just Vitality.
Team of the year last year, multiple individual prizes won by all the players, except for Flamesee, poor guy.
And then the team is just looking sharp, you know, they had a bit of a fumble at Bounty, but now coming into this one, they've looked super strong.
I think Vitality is trying to replicate what they did last year. And right now, for this tournament specifically, I don't think there's anyone stopping them.
Yeah, well, Apex had to pick it up here last year. So you're saying there's a chance, Jail? Like for Vitality, you just run the whole year back?
Oh, yeah, 100%. Right now they're looking strongest.
If I had to put a percentage on Vitality, we need to determine that,
I'd probably put it above 70%. That's for sure.
That's the best big one. That's quite a lot.
Yeah, but I mean, they're just the best team in the world.
Well, don't forget, Donk. You cannot forget Donk.
Cannot forget Donk. I mean, yeah, let's talk about that Spirit lineup
just a little bit while I got you guys here. Spirit, lethality, it's everywhere.
You look at it in the server, especially when Donk, besides,
he wants to take the game into his own hands.
Yeah, but Spirit is, I wouldn't say there's still a question mark to me,
because they surely have proven that they can play really good Counter-Strike.
They've also shown that they can have some struggles.
It's always this kind of balance between when Dong is showing up
and he's carrying out the game for himself.
All these things, I think that Dong is strong and I think that Spirit
is obviously also looking to hopefully make it to the Grand Final.
JL, do you have any final words for Spirit?
For Spirit, I mean, I for sure believe they're going to make it to the Grand Final,
like with Peter here.
And I feel like the final is going to be vitality, Spirit.
Has Spirit had enough time to work on their five map pools with Magic's being the in-game leader?
I'm not sure. I don't feel like they have. So I'm favoring Vitality here,
if they do make it to the Grand Final, both of them.
Yeah, you're right. It is a best of five Grand Final.
Something to think about the marathons into the sprints.
You guys have both done this before. Tell me about that best of five.
Never really been a fan of best of five, in my opinion. I think best of five was always
sort of too much sometimes, but I've actually, I'm starting to like it a little bit better.
And so it's it all comes down to the map will come down to the resilience of the team
But I've only done it so many times and I don't see they should find this one
Let's find out. This has been our checks predictions now. Thank you very much gentlemen. Let's have a hurry you go where they got
We're here ahead of the quarter finals if I am crack oven
We're talking about our colex fantasy teams here Harry. I heard you've drafted one of the room is true
Yes, and my team is maybe the goat team
I'm calling it Falcons 2 or Falcons Heavy. I haven't decided which yet.
But yeah, I'm just going to start taking you through my team list. Probably a good place to start.
So my opening two, kind of a phenomenal double pickup in my opinion. I have Flames as the first
guy. He's been lights out. He's been fantastic. So I'll side him as a heavy hitter. I have Donk.
I'm thinking Flames right now might be playing the best out of anyone in Vitality. And Donk,
He's just he's don't you know why I picked him you know why he's on the list kind of a phenomenal place to start
Those guys are getting their head started their heads in the game for the games tomorrow, right?
So excited to see what they can do there and then I went for a little bit of I was gonna say Brazilian persuasion
But Molotow in Brazilian. He's just in the Brazilian team. He's my all star. He's gonna light up the server man
I have a really good feeling about him today heading into this match versus Aurora my next guy also an offer also
Also my orb star, there's two orb stars,
you can have two of them, it's whatever.
In falcons, falcons two, falcons heavy,
whatever I've decided to name my roster,
Mollidoy, Zywoo, they're gonna hit hard on the HIKI.
And rounding it out, the British backbone,
I have Mezzi, how could I not have a Brit in the lineup,
especially one as impactful as Merriman himself.
Okay, hard to compete with here,
but I'll throw my team out this year,
see if I have a chance, I've gone for a very different angle,
So you're all heavy with three orcas if you count Donk.
I've gone for Flames as well.
Respect.
Donk as well.
Firepower.
And my team is called Plus W, Harry.
And you'll see why.
Following up, Yukinda as well.
About to play Aurora in this first game.
Okay, solid pick.
It's not too bad.
Maus for G2.
I've got high hopes I'm going to be able to finally.
Okay, coin toss pick, I would say.
Coin toss.
We're trying it out there.
Could be really good.
Cheap will pay off, I think.
And then finishing off with Tenea.
So I'm kind of spreading.
I'm going to need you to explain that one to me, Cheap.
You didn't just skirt over the Teneir pig.
I tried.
I'm spreading my forces thin, Harry.
I'm going across the entire bracket.
I'm a plus W team.
I'm looking for firepower.
I'm looking for entries.
I think I've got it.
All right, so you're just kind of all about pace.
And I'm all about star power.
And no in-game leader.
Who's calling?
Donk.
Donk.
That makes sense.
That makes sense.
He's loving it.
Yeah, well, I think my firepower is going to be,
you're going to have to check in and see
how that does across the rest of the event.
You're certainly holding out for the Vitality Final there.
Yeah, safe to say.
I've gone very vitality heavy.
I literally cannot afford for them to lose.
They have to go far.
What could go wrong?
Well, we'll check in with more of this.
Colex Fantasy.
And you can make your own fantasy team at colex.gg.
So see you later.
It
It starts with a dream, with a team you barely know,
in an amateur official that feels like the grand final,
where practice becomes progress,
and every loss feels like a lesson.
When will your journey begin?
I'm Henry, Henry G. Greer,
new general manager for Team Falcons.
And today, I'm gonna give you a peek behind the curtain
as I build a colossus on Colossus' new fantasy mode.
We're going to kick things off with a triple pickup.
Kisuke, Monosie, Niko, my boys.
Welcome to the team.
And I'm biased.
Sue me.
So Daniel is a personal friend of mine.
Love our lab.
Seems the site has a technical error.
Cut!
Right.
You've gone over budget.
What do you mean gone over budget?
It's fantasy, right?
The idea is you build a team within your means.
Well, that's not very realistic, is it?
Look, it's classic fantasy.
You can pick any player within reason.
And you can build your roster.
The best part with Colex, you can win actual prizes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's all great, but one question.
This budget thing.
If I'm maxed out, how am I going to afford S-Attack?
What? Can't build a Colossus without S-Attack?
What do you reckon? We've got Rookie of the Year right here.
Sol Fly, is he early contender for Rookie of the Year 2026? He's playing pretty good.
Yeah, he's writing, yeah.
You guys have to say, I think he started the first tournament.
I think he was stressful, I think. It was the first tournament for him.
He's the player that he didn't play a lot of lines, like his first line since three years, so it's something difficult for him.
But now I think the most interesting thing is on the Stage 1, he has like 0-9 rating, but when he goes to Stage 2,
when there is Maus, Falton, like top 10 teams, he put 120, so I think it's a very good thing for him,
like playing good against a good opponent and that's very good science for us.
I think it's for me, it's something I like as a player.
You talked a bit about, you know, you have a playstyle that you need to suit to your players.
Yes.
What kind of a player is he, playstyle-wise?
He was playing style roles on his last game, wasn't he?
Yeah, he was on T side.
He was sometimes taking map control, but when I was on Teres and also Wikipedia, I can't give him that role, you know?
So, in Turkey, you know, I like, since seven years since Space Soldiers, I like of Lurker,
like player like Robs, you know, on T-Site.
And I just needed a lot like a B-plan, you know,
as a leader when I take map control
and I have a guy on my other side to give me plan.
Bro, we can do that now, some voice.
I want him to do that.
That's why I'm talking with him,
like you have to talk merch, extra.
So now his role on T-Site is more sometimes like lurking,
but not always.
But for now it's just been like two months, so I'm not pretty sure, just seeing, but
the player is really calm, with good mental, and that's very important for us.
He's helping a lot.
Also smart.
He's choosing the smart way to play, like when he's in an entry as well, killing one,
not going for a second, trying to waste some utilities to come back to people, and nobody
told him to do it.
If I'm killing one, I'm going for the second.
I think for me it's all like teams have a different way to second strike and even though
it's again it's pretty similar but a bit different at the same time because like what they did
for example with Astralis nowadays it's way more difficult to do like to create something
new why because like you can play like one system nowadays because people are watching
you so if you play like that's why even no provision with Jim play faster
because before they were playing only slow you keep your nades they finish
you put pressure you smoke and you behind and it's over and H is your work
out since years ago and so for me it just like we know like Navi style is like
with Bladesoul the system is like playing a lot of like map control
never being sure why they will finish doing stuff really well that even though
do you know what they're doing? They're doing it so well that it's tough to counter.
For example, for me, that's the main system of the way they play. When you look at them,
when you look at, I mean, on my outside perspective, always it's always a bit different than what's,
it's actually true, but that's the way. Same with Fallen, always played like for example
Overpass, playing super slow, never know where they will finish, putting a bit of pressure
sometimes they're two there, but they will be three at the other time, other places.
The system is just for me like a bit, that's just a bit different on the way you play.
But I can say that in a great English.
But yeah, the way you build the rounds, like the build the rounds, like when I read stuff
like about yeah Vitality are not like the best tactical team, but is it like the, is
it my way to play?
No, I just want my way to play is that if my players, because I also have really insane
players individually. If they play really well, if they make them happy and do the thing they
want and the way they feel stuff, they will be good. And if they all good at the same time,
good luck to everyone. But some others just prefer to play with them more like, I think like,
Navi a bit more, maybe sometime a bit more tactical than us. And that's the way they think,
but they're just not mine. And I think that's too small, it's tough to explain exactly,
But that's small like changes that small key points that yes that people have different 20% 80% pretty much the same for everyone
But there's like this 15 20% when you look at spirit in us like we have like way more or maybe not
We have way more flash assist than some other teams
Because we I mean I didn't believe that it's nice to kill people blind
I know it's nice for the entry fragger to keep people blind and that's also like when you saw the flash assist on top teams
Sometimes they really change from a team like spirit
or a team like us for example, or three, I think it's maybe doubled, so it's also like the way you think there's some people, me I believe in the trades.
Sometimes you think, am I flashing too much?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly, like, yeah, don't need a flash to kill, because he likes to just to pick and just to fuck up people.
And I think, yeah, that's like some, something small like things for me that's changed from system.
Who do you want to be as a player?
And I will have one like three different roles, okay. You like the scout blade suggesting all of us. Yeah, like Niko
Didn't go well
That quarterfinals here and it is just about time to get in that server so furia the aurora
I've got Yuri here Yuri eight month or excuse me eight years two months
1500 maps played with furia
Let's talk about it man, quite a journey.
Really? Actually, it's a long time.
And you know, I'm so happy right now because right now we have a good team, we have a team that fights ever met.
And we won a lot of some tournaments last year, so yeah, I love this organization, I love this team.
and now I'm so happy about playing just started because I'm playing since I
started playing concert strike I never got into playoffs so it's first time
here and so happy. Which is crazy considering I did say eight years in
two months with the same team mind you let's let's jump back just a little
bit because in your own words since you've been here that long how has
How has FURIA evolved, since you joined?
About my personal as a person, I grew up a lot as a person.
And knowing a lot of people, and we've experienced some people like Fallen,
so these guys helped me a lot since I started playing.
Hey guys, Akari, Jaime Pado, the owner of Furia, they help me a lot, so they show a new word
for me since I started playing, and this has been amazing for me, so I need you to keep
growing, so this will be helpful for me.
So since Molo and Yukinder have joined, what's changed for you both inside and outside the
server?
There's a lot of things that change when you bring in new players, but sometimes things
change outside of the server as well.
What do you think?
Outside didn't change too much.
Like the guys, it's like Brazilians sometimes, Aikinder and Molodoy.
So outside has been the same thing for us.
But inside the game changed a lot.
We changed positions.
Aikinder is a smart guy.
He thinks different than Fallen.
So they always try to mix the style inside the game.
When we have a Molotov, it's a player that every team needs to have, like a player like him.
And yeah, everyone is playing well, so when we have five players playing well, you're gonna win some tournaments, so...
Yuri, Vamos?
Vamos, Vamos.
Let's go.
What a huge day for Soulfly and Aurora as they try and fight their way to the semifinals.
I gotta ask first off, what do you think of all of this?
I mean, it's really impressive what I dream of.
Like when I was kid, I was dreaming to play on the stage,
and now I'm 21 and I did it, I can say.
And I hope I can achieve more than this.
Absolutely. I think it is only the beginning.
You've done tremendous already this tournament.
You said this is something you've been dreaming of.
I also heard that you've been dreaming of playing these with these guys.
You grew up watching them.
What has that been like?
What is the reality like?
I mean, you know, it's always weird to like play, I grow with them, you know, so I don't know how their personality and stuff,
but they're really kind, they're really like hard worker, so I was a little bit accepting this,
but that much I didn't know, that like Woxic playing all the time deathmatch after this game,
we lost against Vitality and the rest of them, like when I come to practice, I see four players straight working out,
One of them playing that match, aimboats, other one like skyboats and stuff.
So it's really good feeling to play with them.
And as you said, it was my dream as well to play with this team.
It's lovely. I mean, you see it when you're playing those matches, that your confidence is growing.
But what do you want to prove now that you've made part of your dream come true?
But there's of course a long road still to go.
I think I want to prove many things.
It's just my first tournament on LAN.
so I was not expecting for myself as well like I'm really confident and I my
team likes and I like my confident as well so I hope I can lift the trophy it's
gonna be really great if I do it you know into my first time tournament I
really want to do it and I hope we can do it the best of luck yeah thank you so
The Intel Extreme Masters Crack-On 2026 brought to you by ESL partnership with Intel
Acer Predator, DHL, Zowl, Chax, and City of Frackle.
a legacy started in Hanover
forged for over a decade in
Cadovita to now arrive in its
brand new home in Krakow. The
same says that so many greats
have walked before now leads to
the tour and arena for the very
first time. We get to welcome
you to the Intel Extreme Masters
2026 playoffs. My name is
Ferris Beers. It is my absolute
honor to be up on this analyst
desk with firstly jail over on
the far side. You've not only
How does it feel to be on the desk for the first time here?
It is amazing. When they cue the intro, I felt the trembles of the stage.
Just an amazing feeling and it brings me back.
We've also got a Dupree as well, of course, a two-time champion formally in Katowice.
What memories are you experiencing right now?
So many memories. I mean, just the atmosphere in this arena,
also getting to be a little bit backstage watching, you know,
we've all seen the stand while the trophy throughout the years,
getting to feel like the intense moment also of the players coming in.
They can feel this is something special, right?
sitting here you know all suited up ready for some great house like you know it
feels absolutely nice. And last but by no means least we've of course got Yanko.
Now I was doing a bit of digging on you didn't take too long to read through your
trophies but you're broadcasting history that runs deep. Ten years ago you were
encouraging your very first desk for the Intellect Stream Masters 11 years prior
to that observing as well. Is it amazing to be part of history once again here?
Yeah absolutely it's been a long journey and you'll never forget first time
going into the spotter or going into the Lancest and I hope we can continue
this tradition here in Krakow as well but I thought Freya what you're going to talk about is
you know me and Dupree and our performances in this arena we won the same amount of games
in this arena the major nine nine years ago. I kind of black one out but none of you bring it up.
There's a feature of mine maybe you blacked out one out Dupree and that was just a very
similar feature okay. Let's talk about two teams though that ever struggled to put their name
on this very tricky one. We're talking about the winter championships that is indeed Aurora versus
Furia. Both of them going to be gracing this very stage. And I want to start off the conversation.
We're talking a little bit about Furia because tail end of 2025 on so many people's radar,
very much the favorites coming into the major. Just tell me about what happened at that very stage.
Well, I think Furia went into the major number one in the world, right? The main favorite to live
the trophy in Budapest, because they beat all the other contenders along the way.
You felt like step by step, they won first the smaller ones at Fisher and TWC,
then the big ones in Chengdu and that rival.
So you're going into the major with a lot of confidence,
but perhaps the moment got a little bit too big for them, right?
Going up against Na'Vi in that quarterfinal,
and it seemed like they were a bit outplayed in that game.
You know, some of the weaknesses, some of the gaps in their game were definitely exploited,
must have been a learning experience because you're coming into this year
with making some changes within the team to sort of long-term ensure that they
can stay competitive and play at a high level. I think everyone impressed us, like
they impressed us with how they you know transition become an international team,
sure it takes some time for them to kind of get get going but you know the the
last part of last season really showcased what they can actually bring
to the table and yeah the major maybe didn't really go the way you know we
did also see a period that I got to experience when they won in rivals you
know, they were exhausted, you know, they'd come up from back winning both and change
you and then in rivals, you know, they maybe they peaked a little bit too early in terms
of how they wanted to play at the major. And you know, sometimes that's a little bit out
of your hands. I mean, if you look back, they probably wouldn't, you know, take those trophies
away. But peaking at the major was probably what they had hoped for.
Yeah, it's definitely an issue that you don't know exactly how does the same repeat when
it's happening and keep it running for that long. In terms of what we have seen from Furria,
they obviously turned their fate around by managing to make it to playoffs. But were
Are there any kind of, I guess, standout issues for you, Jail, in terms of the
furrier of End of 25 versus how they kind of opened the year?
I mean, right here in Krakow, they beat the Mongols, who have a new player coming in.
They beat Na'Vi, of course, for me, that's the only real team that they've
beat in coming up to the playoffs because they lost to FOOT.
And then for the game to qualify to playoffs, they beat Astralis.
That is also a new lineup.
So that really shows me that they're not on their best performance right now.
They are still looking to come back to their old vibes in 2025 and I've been there before and there is no clear solution of how to do that.
So best of luck.
I feel like Fury reached towards the end of 2025.
They reached that status of teams where their performance is the one that decides who comes out on top, barring a couple of other opponents.
They may run into, you know, lights of vitality, for example.
And Fury has been really shaky to start the year.
I mean, even some of the wins that they've been able to get have been labored.
They're losing maps every series that they come out on top, but you can see in this tournament
They're playing back into their form like every game. They're looking a little bit better
We talked about their mirage and how it's been an issue
They end up picking it in the last series against the Stralis and are able to win it
So it seems like they are finding themselves again
Which is obviously the way you wanted to go in the tournament
You want to get better with every game and I feel like in this series, too
It will be up to them who comes out on top if they play up to their abilities
I think they booked their semi-final spot.
I think looking at the Fiora also with how they played last year, they also, they've said themselves in the interviews that they wanted to be a little bit more proactive.
Like, they knew that they were not playing perfect counter.
Like, I don't think anyone can ever get to a point where you play perfect counter, but they try to analyze, where can we actually improve?
And if you go to a map like Rosh, you know, you've seen that they've swapped angers, they've swapped positions in terms of the playmaker on the CT,
having now you cannot go back to playing short and kids rattle back into connector.
They've tried to make these kind of adjustments now early in the season to try and become better as a team.
And sometimes if you had like a winning recipe and then you just think like hey
We can get better by doing this, but then things actually change around
You know they look very uncomfortable in garage for a long time and for few to try and be quite to the skip
But it's also put some in a place where they don't necessarily know what is actually going to change the future for them
On the flip side though for Aurora
I'm very impressive stage two run at the very least of course starting in stage one here at the Intel Extreme Masters crack-off
But the caliber of teams that they managed to beat Yango in stage two. That's nothing to be snuffed at
Absolutely, I mean, they're in a group with three out of the top five teams and they managed to beat two of them.
Rora hasn't had a run like that in ages and what's impressed me the most is their demeanor during these games.
Right? Like, they felt a lot more stable mentally. There hasn't been as many frustrations seeping through, you know, players getting tilted,
communication shutting down. Actually, it's been the opposite. They've been encouraging each other.
They've been getting hyped, you know, when they have great individual moments
they didn't fall to when they would lose a map or lose a silly round
and that's been the issue for Aurora's throughout last year, right?
It's been their mental, they had a choking issue when it came to the stage
but even more so just frustration and tilt has been the problem
and if they have really turned the corner
that will just make them a much more dangerous thing going into 2026.
Was this the group that you were going to be excited about
if someone actually made an apartment?
Yeah, Falcons, so you're excited it was gonna be, I thought it was a lock, vitality mouse, Falcons, right?
Anyone else would be shocking, but I guess Falcons never cease to disappoint you.
I guess the question when we talk about Aurora, though, because throughout 2025,
they were consistently making it to playoffs, right? Looking good in the group stage.
The question is what they were going to do when they make it to playoffs.
And I don't know whether I'm sold, but it's going to be any different this time around.
It's always this big question when you go to the stage,
How are you going to be feeling? How's the emotions going to be?
How are you actually going to be able to convert that game point you've set up in your practice with them,
bring that to the stage? Because all of a sudden you have a variety of new emotions coming to the stage.
There's like the crowd putting in extra pressure, that's pressure from you within yourself,
because you want to be showing that you can perform.
And it's also for them now as a team, having to be playing so well in the group stage,
and then they want to convert. And if that really doesn't click off the bat,
that can be really hard to get back in the right shape.
And I think for Rourou they did have multiple occasions last year where they would go to the playoffs
and they would just look like a team that kind of in some sort didn't really deserve to be there
because they couldn't get their game playing flowing. I think the win at Bucharest did something to them.
I think they've slowly like progressed into a team that can now at least make it more interesting,
they can make it more competitive, but it's still a team now that is still trying to get
on top and play as good as the two groups and that's a very high one today.
I mean, do you have any inkling that it might be different for Aurora as versus 20-25?
I don't think I'm sold on that prospect just yet.
The problem is when you look at the contender teams and then sort of the caliber of players that they have
and what they've been able to achieve so far, it's difficult seeing Aurora break through that, right?
I'm not saying it's impossible, but they would have to play their A-game a lot of,
in a lot of these tournaments to be able to surpass the likes of Vitality, the likes of Spirit,
you know, Maus, even Furia in this particular game, and they've had issues with other things,
you know, their map pool, for example, granted, okay, Anubis is back now, but before that,
they would pick five different maps in one tournament, you know, like, there's just no identity
and no map pool that's set there where, you know, okay, this is what they'll use to punish teams,
this is what they can be very good on at the moment.
I feel like their individuals are very credible right now.
Zantarus is finally helping the help, getting the help from Becquod, yeah?
Soulfly is now, of course, we don't know how he's going to be in an arena, this is the first one, but
Xantharis has always been the pillar of the team, everyone always talked about Aurora,
old Xantharis and Co, but now they're actually boxing the sitting shots,
Vika that is doing amazing plays, Soulfly that hasn't crumbled under pressure,
Soulfly has been 1-19 in Stage 2, almost 1.2 rating as his first event, for me that's crazy,
and I feel like they do have the recipe to win the game against Purea now.
I do just want to talk about what's going to be going into this recipe, as you mentioned,
the maps. The video is going to be so interesting in this one. Tell me why it's a little bit more complicated than some of the other games.
I think, as you can see, both teams share their perma-ban of Ancient, and they both actually played at one time. That's against Vitality.
Who also has Ancient as their perma-ban, and we've seen that game of chicken develop, but Anubis is the big one here, right?
It only played a couple of times for both of these teams, but the last iteration of the map when it was in the pool, Aurora, probably the best team in the world on the map,
map despite not being a top five team right so that's the big question mark in this one
that some what does furia decide to do here and this is where it gets interesting because we had
three days off or two days off to really prepare and practice anubis if you want to or ancient in
case that your opponents let it go through for me personally i think both teams let ancient go
through in the first phase but no one picks it and someone ends up featuring it in the second
second phase, probably Fury. I think it would be a mistake if someone goes for the Asian
pick. I think for a team like Fury it's a bit unnecessary and also both teams will still
have options, right? If Fury goes for the Anubis ban on the side of Aurora you can maybe get
rid of something like Overpass if that's what you're worried about at the moment, but you'll
still be left with option in terms of the pick, right? You can still have Dust 2 in there.
For the likes of Fury you'll still have Mirage if that's what you want to go for now or maybe
do you want to make it throw a curveball with something like a nuke as well?
I really want to step into the shoes of Fjord, because I think Fjord right now is the one
to make like they have the ace of their sleeve and they can pretty much determine what they
want to be going for, because Fjord in my book is the clear favorite, probably the experience
with the players and all the history of the team.
I feel like if they don't remove Ancient, if they floated too long, I think that there
could be a case that Oral wants to try and pick it.
I don't think that Fjord wants to allow them to have that opportunity.
There would be a case where you also want to be looking against your opponent thinking like if we can actually move their best
Cup which is clearly a new is the one that they always want to be going for that could also be a strong approach
But I still feel like furious is feeling like the favorite here
So as a favorite I wouldn't gamble on allowing ancient to go through so I would just get it off the bat from the beginning
really eventually go for the fight on a new is and
Fallen said that they can play a new is right like they're probably not like looking so good at it
Yeah, but they did mention that they can play it right, but that's probably just a you know a way of speaking for the meeting
The interesting part is also, I mean, Ikinne was trying to do the same thing in the podcast, but the reality is there are changes to the map, and you had two days, three days off, where you don't need to be really good on Anubis, you have to be good enough for this one game.
And depending on what the approach from Aurora is, what can they even prep on the map, how much can they be ready for, and if you're not expecting it, do they go for it if it's open? I think they would.
I just really want Furia to play their favorite card here.
Like, just go in with the player, like, the favorite card, go in, remove Ancient.
Yeah, sure, play Anubis. You know they're probably going to pick it.
You can prep heavy for it, and then if you end up losing Anubis,
you still have two maps that you'll feel extremely comfortable playing.
I just want Furia to play with the content card because they need to have an ability.
I don't know. What makes a favorite a favorite is their map pool.
Like, Furia has a deep map pool, so if they can just get rid of Anubis,
they can play whichever other map that Aurora likes to pick,
and we see the Overpass and the Anubis ban actually come through.
So, I think here for Aurora, potentially Dust2, we've seen them pick it against Maus in that sort of a scenario.
Inferno has been a map, they've had decent success with Soulfly early on.
Dust2 maybe gives you a bit of a better chance if you have to start on T-Side, but Fury actually picks T-Side themselves, wanting to dictate the pace of the game.
And now for them, how much do they like their Mirage after it's been rough to start off 20-26?
Again, you look at the sides, I think they really like their Nuke, but you don't want to start T-Side Nuke potentially.
Potentially, and we see those two maps come in, I think Aurora gets rid of Nuke here,
ancient ban for the likes of Fury and Inferno as the decider.
We hope so. It would be crazy to have potential decider, right?
Oh, we don't. So, you hit a spot on. You actually, you made that one.
I think they played a couple of times, and we've seen this scenario unfold before.
We've seen both teams let the ancient two and then Fury abandoned the second phase.
We've seen Aurora get rid of it in the first phase, but it just feels like
If you were to ban it in the first phase, you're letting your opponents get away with one.
I think they understood where they're both at.
No one's going to ban it, no one's going to pick it either.
Furia, you were right.
And when it comes to that point in the end, they don't want it as the sider.
They are perfectly fine with playing Inferno at that point in time.
And I don't think there's any shockers here for either of these teams.
Can you tell me a little bit about the mirage of Furia just a couple of weeks ago
versus what we've seen and the changes that they've made?
Why does it kind of make sense that they would go with this in this situation?
Sometimes it's you know they need a time to get used to the role swap back again
You know Yuri was B for a little while on CT side now is back on A
They pretty touched on your kinder in case you're out of swapping too
So players individually getting used to the new environment
And sometimes it's we talked about is getting reps
You know when someone targets you on a map you play it so often that you're sort of learning real quickly
As the tournament progresses what you need to work on what are your weaknesses?
what are your strengths, and now they seem to have come to a good situation where they
need to be proactive on the CT side, they can't give team space, and T side, like being
good at polishing that same aggression has been key for them.
I'll try this a minute sometime.
Have you ever been in a position where you swap positions and practice and then you go
to officials and things just go to hell and then we were back to the CT all the same?
Yes, it's a completely different thing.
I mean, practice on best to be is very easy.
Like, you can chill, you can take a coffee, nobody's gonna come to you.
But on official, they're like, oh, him? I'm gonna come to him.
It is very different, that's for sure.
Speaking of getting used to a new environment,
we got to hear a couple of words from Sulfly coming into his first arena game of this caliber.
You know, you can't underestimate the stage,
and I feel like he was being pretty honest there,
and Maja's also been very honest about,
we don't know how he's gonna react to scenes like a calm guy,
but we're preparing for any situation.
If you could give him some words of advice, JL,
what would you say to Sulfly prior to this?
I'd probably tell them to just focus on the game.
No matter the arena, of course, you have to embrace the arena, you have to embrace the crowd,
you have to embrace the noises, but the main reason you're here is because you play the game really good.
And you should just focus on that, just play your own game and kind of limit the noise out, and just play your own game.
I think it's also important to note Aurora, for me, they're playing with house money right now.
You know, they've exceeded expectations, they beat two very good teams in the groups.
I have zero expectations for them in this game, and they should have the same.
Obviously you in it you're gonna try to win and everything but they should embrace the fact that it's the first arena for soulfly like I
Think boxic made a great point in that podcast
It's like what happens if he's in a 1v3 and gets two kills and you know what and you know the hype starts
You know, it's the first time we're going through that. I mean, there's nothing like it. This is what you play for
This is what you put your all those hours in right?
So you don't know how he's going to act is probably going to be some mistake. That's all normal. That's all fine
So I think for Aurora, it's about what they've been talking about themselves, having fun, embracing the moment,
you know, just continue to support each other, continue to live in the moment really and try to make the most out of this opportunity.
Spot on. I mean, the word you just embraced, I just wanted to go on stage and just get the feeling, get all the impressions, soak that in.
And this is a dream coming true for him. One thing is playing on this stage, another thing is playing with the Aurora guys.
You know he's been looking up to that team for so long and now he's finally here
You know, he's finally made that the grind all these hours put into the game now
He's finally here. He's kind of living the dream, you know, that is that is that's what we try and achieve as players
You know, you want to play in the big stage and now he's finally here
So embrace it and accept that you will be nervous because all the players like even I have you probably experienced all the players
Entering that stage they will be nervous
They will have butterflies
But it's about the faster you can control it the better you'll be playing and it might be more difficult for him
since it's his first time, right? But as long as he can embrace it and get a good feeling about it,
then I think he's in a good spot. And that's the thing, stages are never guaranteed in your career,
which is where I think have fallen in this particular situation, right? He never knew that
this very opportunity was going to come and be potentially, you know, the last team he's
he's a part of. The fact that they hit such high highs, do you feel like the pressure is more on
them in this first quarter final? I think there is pressure definitely, but seeing how we're early
in the season, they are looking more long term and then they want to just make sure that they're
they're progressing and playing with Counter-Strike.
And I mean, spot on, if Furia doesn't have
the end of the year that they have,
maybe Fallen hangs it up, right?
But you don't want to retire
when you're on one of the best teams in the world.
So I think that has sort of given us some more time
to enjoy him in that Furia jersey.
And they'll be looking to regain some of that form
and sort of affirm their contender status in 2026 too.
Well, either way, as we do find ourselves
in a brand new city,
in order to officially open this new chapter,
It's time to welcome to the stage the father of the Intel Extreme Masters.
Wow. Hi there, Shema.
Guys, I'd like to, on behalf of everybody at ESL, welcome you to Intellectual Masters Krakow.
We're delighted to have you here.
When this tournament started in 2007 in Hanover, we had no idea how old it would become.
We had no idea that the trophy representing this tournament would become the oldest trophy
in all of eSports.
After a few years in Hanover we went to Katowice.
The tournament became bigger than we ever dreamed.
Now it's in Krakow and it's bigger than it's ever been.
The story of the trophy is very long.
It's going to be the 20th time this year that we give it out.
And with that, if you do a little bit of research,
there are 30 players in the playoffs of this tournament.
And only three of them have any right to be,
to have been old enough to remember PGS Gaming win that trophy in 2007.
The others, there's no chance that they remember the first champions.
Just think about it. Zywall was four years old. Donk was a baby, just a few weeks old.
So it is our job here at ESL to make sure that the stories of the champions whose
legacy
built this tournament and built the value of the trophy, that those stories are remembered and that the champions get
the respect at this tournament that they deserve.
one of ways that we do this is in the group stage we put the flags of the
champions above the players that compete for the playoffs so that they know they
understand the pressure of winning here above anywhere else when they do get to
the playoffs backstage over there there are the steps that have every champion
and every other champion won a trophy in Hanover or in Katowice so that
the players understand whose footsteps they follow into and for the last 12
years we had the tradition that not only is the trophy engraved with the
previous names of the winners but also we invite the previous champion to the
stage to bring it out for the new generation to win it and I have a
request for everybody here in the building I have a request for you I
I think the champion bringing out the trophy this year is very special, not because he's
the most decorated CS player of all time, not because he won this trophy two times, but
because of what happened in 2019, where he came here with Astralis two weeks after the
the death of his father, and he chose his team mates above his own grief.
He came here in one, and he gave us all one hell of a moment.
And I think we owe to him one hell of a moment.
So if I could ask you when the players start walking out to get your flashlights up, so
So when Dupree walks out with a trophy, it's as memorable as it can be, just as a thank
you from us to him.
Now also a thank you from everybody at ESL for the fact that you gave your time to come
here and be with us and have a wonderful, amazing weekend.
Thanks very much.
The emotions I feel when I stand in the tunnel is always uncertainty, doubts, confidence.
I think it's just human, it's like how we are, like everyone will get nervous at some point.
If I didn't feel nervous, it would mean that I don't care, I would say.
I feel even more nervous when you're favorites.
I think what's on my mind can change from time to time.
There have been times when I was completely super false
and nothing really touched me.
You're going and like people like boo,
you want to silence all of these people.
I need to watch them in the eyes.
You know, it's important to watch them in the eyes
and to show them that I'm here, you're gonna face me.
In 2017 I believe I was a kid that tried to find a place where I kind of fit in and I
feel like Counter Strike was that place for me.
So obviously finding a place like that and going on stage and playing the video game
that I love and being with the team that I love and then lifting the trophy was
amazing and that's what kind of sparked everything for me you know. I set out to
go and put my name on as many cups as I wanted to and now I am so lucky and
happy that I can have my name on that cup twice. There's no doubt that the 2019
was like the standout tournament for me. You know I've kind of lost my role
model just too rich prize for that. The only thing I could think of when I listed that
Chovy was just thinking up my father. The history of the Chovy is just something that
is very remarkable and something that you really want to put your name on because it
has such a big legacy and if you go back in history you can see that that is where the
career is bound for a lot of players and if you can put your name on that cup then you
know your history.
Reading all these names give me a lot of memories, you know, 25 years of my life.
Trophy symbolizes legacy that you're starting to build or already built before.
You realize the impact that it has on your life and your career in general because it's
a very special trophy and it's a very prestigious trophy.
remember the past and how in the present you see your names in the same way in these legends.
The king is dead. Long live the king. From Hanover, the Gadavitz, to here and right now.
Welcome to the Intellect Stream Masters Winter Championship. Welcome to Krakow!
Here come your teams to this bare pit of a stadium.
The Samba, led by the man who epitomizes the word re-aventure, is Fiora!
The kings of Anubis coming off the back of their most successful year ever.
out for the tugs. It's Aurora! You surprised about G2 making it here? Well done V, led by Hunter, it's G2!
Oh we know they're good, but can they win on a big stage? It's Mouse!
Oh beware the donk! As soon as you talk about this team not hitting the highs, they do exactly that.
It's SPIRITS!
We know they're the best there is. The question now is, can they become the best there ever was?
The reigning champions of this event, please welcome VITALITY!
When it comes to notions, obviously this trophy has like a special place in my heart.
I feel like I'm looking at my dad, you know, it's like that trophy I won just when he passed
away.
Obviously that makes me happy, but it also makes me very proud of what we achieved and
what I achieved and that I could go and do all these things that I knew he wanted me to
go.
tournament and just do what I loved and I did that. My only option and only hope
was to go and win that trophy and now that I look at it it's it's like he's
looking back at me.
Almost two decades' worth of legends carved into that very
trophy and by the end of this weekend, one more will be inscribing their name in history.
Aurora and Furria will begin battling for that very accolade.
And JL, I mean, you can tell us first hand the emotions you feel how they manifest in
your body when you walk out on stage.
Tell me what it's like to be experiencing an arena of this magnitude.
I mean, in this moment, if you're a player, there are two different types of thoughts
you can be having right now.
The positive, you lock in, you don't think about the outcome of the game, you just focus
on what is in front of you. You look at your teammates and you trust that all of the hard
work you put in practice and throughout the tournament will get you over the line today.
They're negative. They're complete opposite of what you should be on your mind right
now. You start doubting yourself. Maybe you haven't prepared enough. Maybe you're not
ready yet. Or just maybe you don't deserve to be here at all. Those are all forces that
you cannot allow yourself to have as a player right now in the arena.
100%. I mean, if you're SoulFly, your first experience up here on an IEM stage, you think
about the parallels of who else was up there with you. We're talking about Maja playing
his first IEM 17 years ago, fallen 14 years ago. We're actually played against Maja as
well. The different paradigms of experience up on this stage, it's wonderful to witness.
Absolutely, and if we've seen anything is that you can't take it for granted. Whether
it's your first time or your 20th time, right? It takes a lot to sacrifice to get to this
stage, and this is what you put all those hours in. This is why you spend half of the
year on the plane and in hotels for just the opportunity just a chance to fight
for that trophy and I love for what the turnaround has been for Aurora this year
right they seem to have found that realization that you don't get these
moments often and if you don't have that togetherness the chances of actually
being able to lift a trophy like this one they are going to diminish
significantly. And Fallen I feel like he knows that sacrifice more than most as
right? Absolutely and for someone who's had such an illustrious career, the
godfather of Brazilian Counter-Strike, I think it's not surprising for anyone
that it's towards the twilight and you want to win as many trophies as
possible, you want to go out with a bang. A feat attempted by so many but mastered
by so few, it is time to kick off the quarter-finals here in Krakow.
24 teams came to Krakow. Only six remain. Counter-Strike's best features legends of the sport and young
players taking their first steps onto the biggest stage. Furia found their success last year in
in the form of international imports.
Aurora chose to stay true to Turkey.
They brought in another fresh rookie.
Aurora have been here before in a quarter final
just one year ago.
Is their fate predetermined?
Or can they overcome the sharpened fangs of fury today?
From all the beginnings, all the way out in Hanover.
And then on to Katowice, and now here in Krakow, it's our first time in the tournament.
So let's test the acoustics.
Krakow, make some noise!
to be able to do that. We're
going to have to go back to the
bottom of the pitch and up for
debate. Need to take it. They
fall back on what they know and
love, and we know we loved us
too.
Stage this big, and I think
perfectly natural to have some
jitters. You would love to get
those out the way early by
walking through with the clean
pistol and you see Furia setting
up over here towards be this
one's about to be very chaotic.
It's a deep down rage. So fly
right now. The block to leave his mark in this pistol round is still some of this
Dory away from the door, Barrettas, but he'll get run through.
And Sefuria have the sight. It's down as Antares and Woxic. This duo to try and
change the fortune of Aurora in the pistol. Nothing to lose. Can you come in
with a bang here to this quarterfinal? Are you going to walk away in a sad save?
Aurora eye it up, out through the door, into a crossfire, but without clearing
in close. This is a dead sentence for Aurora. Yuri comes to them, them and Fallen find all five
to take the first in this quarter final. And I love how you mentioned Soulfly, right? This is a
guy who only had eight land maps on record coming into this very event. So to see him on a stage,
to see him on an arena, no surprise to perhaps have some nerves and taken down by the godfather
himself fallen in that pistol. Couldn't have two more Polo opposite players.
Fury at Confident coming in hot.
They're looking for another B-Play. They really want to try and get in Soul Flies. Have to start this one off.
Still hanging out of the car, but living on borrowed time.
And so no issues out of the gate for Fury. Even a punishing hunt into the close.
There's one thing we know about Molotov, he's going to re-peak and then he's going to re-peak again.
Chastise is why his team are doing so, but this young player, Eager as ever, comes in with a punish and Furia take guns away from Aurora.
After Furia, it feels like you're trying to build a bit of doubt in the minds of Aurora early on, right?
You've hit them with back-to-back B site rushes to open up this game, just setting a hell of an aggressive tone.
and he played in front of his
home crowd in his home country
and took to it like he'd been
doing it his whole career. All
the players and even jail. That's
talking about how how many
players come in and that nervous
and of course that nervous in
this kind of environment.
All of the way on the other side
of the game, you know, I'm not
going to say I'm not going to
say I'm not going to say I'm not
going to say I'm not going to say
I'm not going to say I'm not going
to say I'm not going to say I'm not
on the other side he says the opposite right Astana was a bit of a shape for
him ever since he's found it very cool in these arena games he hasn't seemed to
being too upset by the pressure
let's see if that appears today a new stage new title all six teams are
believing in their run
Furious just seems closer the most.
This is an audacious start for Xantara's in an eco around just sitting in the middle of mid.
Calling there Bluff, you won't clear me.
I mean Oliver has been championing this and it's just missed him on every one of these timings.
I wonder if when he stands up you get that spot and Xantara just gets out of there.
gets out of there. Mid smoke reveals that they're coming in from top mid, so shot in the back.
He's not going to risk it.
Oh, manager, he's getting hot in here.
They are running close to having a play into this stack. Three players here for Aurora.
You've got 40 seconds left if you wanted to change your mind.
Well, that option is quickly getting away from you.
Bow out towards the long side.
Work six followed up on the scout,
and something might be cooking here for Aurora.
Gonna need a little bit more of that.
Work six scout has put the fear in them.
That's a fury, it's time to leave.
Alright, Solfly, they targeted you from round one of this game.
5-7 up close.
Does the dirty on a Uri.
Even though K-Sorado's holding back the rotate,
Solfly could still win this round.
Oh, and land a shot, Molodoy breaks through, and now Cacerato becomes a big problem indeed.
Just keeping you boxed in.
Santares and Woxic ready to face off against him.
And LTR Woxic for the trade.
No, no, no.
Smoke push out of Molodoy.
Surely Woxic isn't ready for this.
Swing on out, and Molodoy takes him down a peg.
That round was getting nerve-wracking, while Molodoy answers in the clutch.
He answers everything we've already said coming into this game. He doesn't know when to quit
It's not just repeats. He walks through his own smoke in the 1v1 talk about cocky
Pays off for now furious scary third round get rid of those pistols in comes the 4-by from Aurora
This is a match where we're gonna see those orbs duel in the cross or at least monodoy will be on the T side
Poking his head right down middle.
Gotta be very careful with how you cross that B bomb site.
Smoke, snades, whatever you use, you can't do it dry.
With the success of that last round, good chance for Aurora to try and make this interesting from the get-go.
You've softened up Furia a little bit.
Having it come down at the Moledoy clutch was something the Furia just didn't see coming.
So you can really capitalize on all that damage here and now, especially if they go in a Zantara.
So you want to believe that this is the guy for the job and he's going to catch Moledoy as he searches out through short.
Slows down now for Furia as they weigh up their options, back down into middle.
and they might once more look for a bit of abuse out towards the B site.
Wakardia at least gets the spot, so you know it's coming.
Doesn't that make dealing with any easier for Aurora?
There's no way to stop this mid to B smoke so they're coming in together.
40 seconds flying through the door, two in the site.
You feel like traitor and necessity here.
Wakardia delivers a second cutting this down to a four on two.
KSorato getting toyed with in the middle and with no kill presenting,
the round might just die in mid.
Falling on an AWP.
Nothing to lose. They're giving this one a go.
Oh, Molledoy's fallen rather forces him out with the molly.
Can't survive the crossing.
Woxic's got his number.
And so you thought you were going to get one of those fallen, you know,
Grandfather forward AWP rounds.
Feels like he's good for one of them per game,
but Woxic just too fast on the cross.
Nice to see it for Woxic, right?
At times I feel like I always want more from him
because we know how good this player can be,
but on T-Side, it's often stuck at the back, throwing utility,
Constricted sometimes by the calling. I want to see Woxic go for a tear.
CT halves, he does his best work.
Fast as lightning on that cross shot, Fallen doesn't make it in.
So no bomb plant, raises questions for Furia.
Money thrown to the wayside early in this game.
Lots of focus on getting out mid. Are they going to do it again?
Oh, by Santaris, he's ahead of that flash.
No problem, it falls Santaris!
Just crazy to think for this guy, you know, Korea spanning over a decade and you still
look to him to have the biggest output when you think Turkish CS.
Backstab for Magyar could have really just ended the round there and then only gets out
with one.
You just hope that doesn't become a problem.
It's a 4v2, still comfortable for Aurora, but the defences split here.
He lets them down, but still a very difficult position for Fury to do anything with.
Less Riccati gives them more.
Timing missed. A high-risk maneuver by Riccati.
He just heard that reload. He is still going in for the throat.
Oh, really? They're just going to miss that timing on Yuri.
It's information. He knows they can't be out mid. The timing isn't there.
For now, you're just hoping that Zantares can stop this from ever being a problem.
Riccati is closing in, and so with no fight to the site itself,
they'll get to feast on that cap play.
Pincet by Aurora and Zantara is off to a flying start.
A strong opening position, playing the mid smoke fury with low money, he reads it well as they just try to pop through.
Tech pause coming in early. Better to just get him out the way.
I said earlier Aurora have been here before. It was a quarter final last year. They fell
to the Mongols. That was a common matchup in 2025. Yeah, one that always felt like it
reared its head at high pressure moments. It finally got broken. It finally got broken
back for Aurora's back, you might remember, in Kazakhstan, the birthplace of Molo doi
in his first tournament with Furia, where we even got this head-to-head as well. Furia
since that point have gone strength to strength and if you ignore the major playoff fumbles,
have been solid in arenas so far, still looking for the biggest of trophies but adding to the
in the last season of last year.
I think you know the major
conversation around this furious
squad is pretty interesting,
right? Because we always save
from all the way. Oh, he's taken
to the high pressure environments
really well. It doesn't seem to
phase him. I think majors are the
one place where that pressure has
showing. It catches up with him a
little bit. And so maybe not as
immune, not as infallible to the
pressure as you once thought.
I have to see how he copes with
this series and with the good
start from Aurora, they bring
Aurora. They bring those guns out. They get on the board very early. Right now, you're
liking the trio that have emerged up towards top of the board. Woxic on the AWP, Santares
is the star rifler, and Mokadir is their right-hand man. Anti-long round here from
Aurora, and wouldn't you know it? That's exactly where Furia were heading. It's great grenade.
It's just a one-deagle buy here for Furia
Should have no way to get this going
One back for Yuri just gonna keep this being a feel-good round don't let it be expensive Aurora
Santarez tries to step up and contain it they decide why bother fighting they've got Woxic here ready to play support from car
Oh, no.
He'll run the jump across.
Okay, Seraphos even clawed another back.
Shouldn't feel nervous here.
Woxic really can't afford to miss this next shot.
And he won't.
Okay.
And so, Wellhandle, well-contained,
certainly ends up getting a lot more stressful for Aurora
than they were anticipating.
Honestly, way too close for comfort, right?
That's a little bit scary.
I think Madges' aim has led him down
in a couple of these rounds
when he could just shut the door on Furious Face.
Instead of getting three kills,
They set themselves up well, coming into their next 4-by.
Even Gain, Mikari pulls out the second AWP,
no to do so on this B-bomb site.
Oh, and there's the attack!
They got the cross!
So, the off-line was a little late.
Mikari crossed the loan.
And that's what I was saying earlier.
You've got to be perfect on these crosses.
Molotoy will punish.
Let's see in this boost, giving off a lot of attention.
Flash there!
Keisarato doesn't even need it!
He's softened up, there's a bombsite even further, now there's just one man here.
And here's the problem, Fury don't even have to commit this direction.
Even as Wakadia responds, your best bet might be trying to save.
You do wonder if that's going to leave them out in the open here because Fury are going
back.
Flash through these mid-doors and Soulfly, so blind, nothing they could do.
to keep it clean. It's going to
be nice to save Molotov is all
fallen will do that later. I
love that call to pull back for
fallen. They got full on control.
They got a 5v3. You just expect
them to commit, but they realize
Aurora are all there. Why give
them the chance? B site open for
business.
Terrier look to keep it clean be nice to save Molotov is all fallen will do that
later but we're cardiac might have to fight for it
yeah for now not thinking about what they can save it's what they can gain
hoping to knock this AWP out of play and they'll find it in an instant no all as
that gets dropped out of the round so does the prospect of really putting much
on the line here for Aurora. It's gonna get rough pretty quickly. You're feeling the burnout
from that eco round coming in with three kills from Furia. If Madge is just cleaned up on Long,
they might have been able to feasibly buy here. Instead, Aurora have to hand one over to Furia.
It's a perfect storm for Furia.
And free long control on the anti-Eco.
I'm looking like they want to try and fight for long and Scout Tag will open.
Follow-up!
Wall blind!
You've done big damage and you've scared Fury out of this long position.
This is also Aurora getting used to the idea that just because they've taken long doesn't
mean they're going to look to do much with it.
Been a bit of a go-to for Fury in these rifle rounds.
I know they've scared them. Wow, what a heavy rotate. Even Wakati is leaving.
Funnily enough, it's a recommit that might do Furia best.
Scoutshot in middle and back to long. Furia hear that.
I think that adds a bit of pressure here. Isn't just the tag on Fallen, isn't just being a man
down, but you've only got one smoke for the cross. And so once that's out, there is a real
Pressure to try and move in. Molodoy, that's certainly going to help.
It's past the scout as Antares tries to close in on that gun only to get denied.
And so it looks like Furia doing enough here to break through.
Woxic on the P2K is no match.
The Kcerato taking control away.
Furia used that piece. It's too perfection.
They're low player on flank.
Great cover from Molodoy on the repeat.
Absolutely no problem finding that fifth.
Oh, what a terrorist swim.
Done with ease.
They don't doubt themselves.
They just recommit back into the stack.
And it's Aurora to call the first time out of the map
here on Dust2.
An integral gun round coming down.
Without it, this could be a stomp.
Time to try and problem solve.
I think that round, I mean, a bunch of these early rounds
kind of speaking of the fact that Fallon is the one in control of the game.
You know, using these early b-hits, the conditioning of them not really using long all that much in
these early rounds and now starting to use that against Aurora, they rotated out of position
in that last round. And this is going to be our match, they're trying to piece this one together
in time. And this is where also you look at Sol fly, those early attempts to bully the guy,
getting doubting himself in this quarterfinal as it only has a handful of land games let alone
matches in front of crowds like this this is his first time taking such a step
I think he's got more to show but it's not going to be on the CT side of dust too
when you're forced into a B anchor so obviously had to fill some gaps here left by Jota's departure
I'd say, you know, while his CT sides are better rated than his T sides, he's actually
the 10th rated player of the event.
He's had a really good event, strong and pistol rounds as well.
This is one of those positions that can feel very, very punishing.
Some unfamiliar positions for this inexperienced player.
They're going to offer him support in this gun round.
Three players B, four-pond long, Maga in the site.
a lot to do for Maja in this position.
He's in a couple of these spots where he could have massive impact,
but his aim's let him down. Can't afford to be the case here.
As Furia are making a move up through the catwalk.
Woxic arrives in time, gets involved on that AWP.
The Southcore steps up, but can't get out with a third.
They'd like to think he's done his part, maybe left Aurora in a spot
where they feel like they can give this a go.
Softly will link up with Wakadia and Santarez.
Flank is super late here for Fiora. I don't think it's even going to benefit them.
I'm sure you can clear out Spawn, but Aurora might just make contact on Catwalk first.
Three players coming in without a kit.
So you've got to move quickly here.
Got to try and uproot Fallen fast as possible, and even then,
Molotoy still lurks his head up from the rampside.
Good luck on the save. So much time is elapsed that Aurora don't see a world,
but they can win this. They also don't know where Yori is in and it's all this quiet.
So even a save feels stressful.
You're re-giving chase.
You've seen some punishing moves trying to hunt these saving players, looking to punish.
Keep Aurora slow off the roll. He won't find anything here, so they get out with those guns at least.
I'm sure it's a team game, but it does feel like Madge has let them down in three integral rounds here on this CT side.
He throws two great HE grenades, he does 100 plus damage with them, and then he goes on to get zero kills on low players.
low players. It's such an important position there to take someone with you. Wax it makes
it even. If magic can go one-for-one, the Aurora are advantaged into that post-part.
All is having fun. Fury are feeling it. Again, they're grenades at least help.
You can't get ahead of yourselves here if you're Furia.
Might be winning on the half, but you don't want to fall down or a buy like this, and
you're dead on about those Nades doing damage.
You're softening them up for Woxic on his scout.
And it's left Furia feeling boxed in to a B-play.
Oh, it's Wacar.
You're going to block in time in this position.
Don't want to fumble with Nades.
They're going to walk right in.
One kill on SoulFlight.
He's hoping to change that now, Furious slowly moving in through the tunnels, bit of a put
on that spray, hoping it baits them into a cardio.
There's the one-two punch in this setup.
And so it's left to the old master, Fallen at 1v3.
How nervous are Aurora?
How much room did they give Fallen?
Best year is meant to be behind him.
Let's see what he can do in this clutch.
Holds for that first bit of contact.
Nails the shot on Madger. Are you twitching?
He'll give you a way out.
Stop, stop from ever feeling too stressful.
Send Madger in first. That's a protocol here for Aurora.
Gets the info, gets the damage.
Well closed. Very important round in the grand scheme.
in. Also, advantageous positions for Aurora squandered already. Can't afford to fall short
around like that. Even with the round, imagine that he's not feeling it. Fury with a timeout.
I like that. You know, you've set pretty high standards for yourselves right off the top
of the game, and you don't want to give Aurora away back in at the end of this first half.
You know, you're in a position where you could feel like you crushed them in the first half of Dust 2.
But it all hinges on finding this one.
Definitely want to see Molotov go back for that pick in middle right.
He's been getting damage on the cross, stops any lower control, stops Aurora from making moves on this CT side.
Not that they're known to do so.
And I mean, in this event, Fury, they've been the second best team of finding these opening kills.
54% of rounds with a 5v4.
This guy is a huge reason for that.
Are we going to give them the boost?
They're made to cross, no chance given to Molodoy on the AWP.
And again with the long setup.
Fiora is showing that they really do want this long control, it's justifiable for Aurora
here when they don't get contact, they're going to break it apart.
More quicker map control here, Fiora already down mid at the doors of 130.
Aurora have reached their final setup, they go back for it again, it's matter of the
sight, walks across and three in B. It's going to be hard for Fiora to figure it out.
Early staging for Furia looked like this was going to be a B-split, but I wonder if they changed their mind on that. Fallen was still hanging out at the long doors.
Andrew with the belt as well, he's got everything.
Key is forced them back into the B-play, utilize everything you can.
Molly after Molly, Nade after Nade. Furia, feeling locked out of his position, might just go into the trap.
And this is exactly what Aurora wanted.
You feel like you've got to hold on now.
They're finally playing into a triple stacked bombsite.
For once you're the ones directing the flow of traffic here on Dust2.
Kcerato, first man throwing in out towards middle but here's the support from the tunnel
side.
You're kind of with an opening.
There's the surprise of Zantares but it was only good for one.
He might get to play, he might get to play save simulator because they're coming for him right now. Can he fight his way out of his box?
This is the only way to get an AWP in that last round of the half.
Woxic has been hitting hard, but they have not come near him, and it might be over.
It might be too late.
Fallen out long, that smoked by seconds.
Oh, dear.
Your attempt to be denied, it's still in damage.
It's dealt by a thousand cuts.
Oh, dear.
AWP saved the night, and you've got nothing to battle against Furia with in this final
round.
Fallen's looked like a superstar right now.
Pray this guy never retires. What a sick trade onto Xantara's in that triple B setup.
Wakatu's baiting them in. Xantara's gets an easy kill and Fallen hits such a hard and important shot
to break down that triple stack. Fury go in blind. They get out easily. Four alive.
It's a pressure to try and fight for mid and that's exactly what Molotov has been wanting all
half long. Dagger to Woxic because that's scared him off the angle.
Looking like he wants to try it again and that's his biggest mistake you give
Molotovic two chances down there for him in he's not gonna miss him.
5v4 and a chance of their super punishing half from Furia.
Oh that's a bit of a nightmare for your kinder couldn't quite get out and so a
A nice active move for Aurora has netted them something.
A gun for Madge.
A hope, a chance in this final round of CT side.
Soulfly getting pressured, but he can't call for resources.
There's no time.
Furia are walking up.
Santar is on the jump-up.
Madge just came and juggled in this AK,
giving their rightful star his weapon of choice.
And Aurora, low econ round in the 4v5.
They might be able to claw on back after all.
SoulFlight gonna get past Fury in the tunnels buying you precious seconds now
He hears the footsteps. He knows the challenge is coming his way
Molodoy 1v4 this will be far from easy as the rotates already arrive got to pull that AWP
And that's what they're waiting for
Clawed out in the open, Aurora, Ressault one back from Furia
It's far from comfortable here not their lights out start
You were promised when you saw Zantares and Woxic stepping up early on
But it's something for Aurora to hold on to on their map pig
Fiora come in to this with a clear game plan and they get under the skin of Aurora very
early in the game.
Now Saprity at a 7-5 scoreline, they could run away with Aurora's pick of Dust 2 here
and now.
There's one thing Aurora have its pistol rounds, it's been impeccable on their run to the
playoffs the most pistol wins of any team tend to fall in those groups 90% conversion in the second
round so even the first pistol in this map was an anomaly so much that has come from soulfly here's
the fourth best player in the event on pistols to put that in perspective zantara's a seventh
so can Aurora get back to their winning ways in what some call the most important round of the game
He saw his reaction on the camera there, he knows he had that killed him to rights and
he hope it isn't the one that gets away, that undoes the round, they'll make up for it.
And again it's that tag team.
Woxic and Zantares, a killer piece and the advantage for Aurora, they don't jump the
gun, they know that Furia would start staggering around, changing the setup, looking to fill
the gap that opens up at B. And they're hoping that in the downtime that's where they can
catch fury at making a mistake.
The map is quiet. Fallen's not falling for that.
He tucks in at long.
Look at the two IGLs, man.
Who's more patient?
Let's find out.
It's a more dangerous move for Maja with the shadow.
Holodoye.
Smoked at middle.
They jump off the cowl.
Maja can play very late.
That does just leave the A site open.
So Fallen feels like he has to make a play.
And Maja waiting for exactly that move.
4v2.
This feels set in stone.
Oh, they've given a tiny bit of room here.
Maladoy crosses out, but very quickly, map starts to shrink on down.
Now you're vulnerable to the side peek, even though it's your two heavy hitters here for
Furia in this 2v4, I don't think they want to stick around and figure out if they're
up for the task.
So you said, you know, Aurora, they've been good all tournament long in these pistols.
They've also had, next to no issues, in the conversions.
If that holds true, well and truly, back in it does too.
They're winning every stat right now. They're winning pistols, they're winning conversions,
they're winning second round force buys, although with a smaller sample size.
But yeah, to convert nine of your 10 pistols in your run to the playoffs is a very admirable stat indeed.
So, expectation that Aurora will make this game even very quickly.
keep in mind in this run Aurora beat both mouse and falcons and mouse heavy
handedly as well as magic popping off in that game and made it look easy for
Aurora. Give them a taste of their own medicine with just a B-pop second round.
Shills a little more later than that, two players top mid, Dave are not in a hurry just
clearing lower first making sure fury aren't up to any tricks
Moldoi has multiple HGs to break the smoke
but no one is fighting her vision
Molotov burns them forward and now Zatarez gets to give chase
It wasn't even his intended target, it was Keisarato burning in that molotov, but getting rid of Molotov or getting rid of that scout makes life a lot easier for Aurora.
Looking Denise to pick a position on this fade, vulnerable. Aurora looking to execute.
So fly lurking long.
Two players in at the site. Molly's divided the push as well. It's only Madra at the front.
Supply's gonna fall as well, it emits all this madness and they never cleared.
Kcerato is not the type of man you can afford to overlook.
They'll finally get rid of him, but at what cost? Two for one on that land fight and Woxic dead out in the open.
Disasterous for Aurora, absolutely.
just as we're singing their praises on pistols and non-conversions, they fumble.
And we've fallen into this playoff match with a bit of a point to prove.
It's been years waiting to see him back in the arena at this tournament.
In many, many ways, birthplace of.
Brazilian CS at the full and lead squads.
Yeah, I can't forget 2015.
The crowdfunding that led to see Fallen's previous team attend a major qualifier, they
went on, they qualified to that major, made it to the playoffs in 2015 Katowice.
Truly is the birthplace of Brazilian CS, at least in Go.
and has been back many a time, been to a final, back in the playoffs still with a point to prove.
Oh, good flashes, oh so you'd think, but that duo defies the Furia, they tear through the Aurora,
be here. Boxing just another round where he's left with really nothing to do, nothing to hold
on to here, 1v5, bomb away from him, and as he goes down in the lower, even that is overrun.
No map control, no LF to hide, and now an eco rolled out before them.
This is rapidly getting away from Aurora.
It feels like worst case scenario right now.
You get the feeling that you can succeed,
and then you get it all ripped away from you with a four-spy.
Now a flawless round, now a full eco.
We're talking double digits for Furia and Aurora in the dirt.
There's been minimal output from SoulFlight or Madger in this game.
And Woxig who is 12 and 5, there's only so much he could have done in that half, mostly avoided by Furia.
Doesn't feel like it's getting better for Aurora on their map pig.
They're gonna have just one or two proper buys in this half.
Calla-toy, eager.
Commencing shut down, no damage done, Furia looking for a clean sweep to find double digits.
And it's fallen with a big ol' hatch-trick, he's just been full of multi-kills to open up this quarterfinal.
Time out for Aurora ahead of their most important round yet.
A fumble here, and the map is all but over.
Your pick, gone.
And that's one of the things about these stage games.
It feels like it runs on a different timeline.
It feels like the games can pass by so quickly.
I bet that's what SoulFly is experiencing right now, you know?
Just Browns ago felt like he was at the beginning of a huge milestone
that he'd been waiting this whole time to achieve,
getting a play on the big stage.
And suddenly it's stripped away from you. It's gone. Yeah, Boxer even talked about it in the ancient game against Vitality to make it to semis or quarters
Playing ancient a map that neither of those squads play. He said it was it was a multiple overtime game
But it disappeared before he knew
So can Aurora prolong and survive in this T side or is it just simply
Furious day today
Cross the board, Aferia looking solid and Molodo has been missing plenty of shots and
none of them have cost Aferia any rounds it's felt like.
It's been the experience pieces here of Aferia doing all the work, falling in front of the
The pack drops Antares just like that.
Fighting out in the open showcases the mindset,
balling, feeling it right now.
Going for this ace split.
You're kinder than Kasurato against the world.
Kasurato has just been so reliable.
Even when he's put in tough positions,
tricky ones to try and get round.
They've been able to get mileage out of their little flash play potentially over the Ward
Shore, but that flash never arrives.
It's a double entry out of Maga.
Four, they can even get themselves set up for it.
One back from Mollidoy.
But you are at a position here.
You are a man down.
I feel you're really feeling like they can give this a go.
Mollidoy seems to think so.
Has Nick Sattley been a game dominated by this Kazakh AWP just yet?
Yuri waits out on short and they're gonna go fishing here see if they're given that
reason to believe that reason to go for this the most unlikely of retakes.
There's the swing, damage done on a Wakadia, Yuri's now invested, he's out in the open
but time is quickly getting away from Fury and I think they do just write this one off.
So down to go looking, they were hungry for it, Aurora never gave them the kills to make
It happened, chance for Molotoy to punish on the save at least.
Felt like a fury, it felt like they were on the clock there.
They had all these nades, they could have kept blocking short, fight long two together,
but feeling like Aurora were about to just pounce on them.
They decide to make an aggressive move.
It's one they'll live to regret.
No kills on that A site.
Big double for Maja, just as we've been saying,
he's been having trouble with converting at times simple engagements.
This delivers Aurora the most important round yet.
Hanging onto hope.
hastily assembled here. Not something that Aurora have had to concern themselves with yet.
Santarra is dead first as he tries to take space down in Lola.
It's lazy. There's no flash. You know that's an awful line. Santarra is trying to, Santarra's
beat him, right? But yeah, it just feels like a bit of a jump with a gun there for Aurora.
You can use that. You still have a player top mid. Santarra can sell flash.
These things cost you in the long run. I mean, now you've got to try and play this round without
your big space creator. There's responsibility, he's gonna have to fall to someone else.
Cardo smokes deployed out here in mid. Flash through the doors, they are looking for this space.
Triple B stack in play for Furia.
And Aurora just might play right into their hands. Push on the smoke, that's so optimistic,
it's too easy for Kcerato. He thanks them for this push as he does so much damage. Now those
smokes fade and gives way to chaos out here in middle. There should be no winning this for
Woxic. He is pincid on either side of it. Guys who want nothing more than a see and lose.
Beautiful position for Kcerato. Beautiful punish. Aurora just walk their way into economic
devastation and no surprise to see a final pause as their lifeline on their map pick dangling
in front of them they can't reach it it's a desperate force we see the effort that furia
go to to set up monodoy for these pics especially on ct side and last year alone he was
the second most successful AWPer at finding those opening kills on CT. Only second is
Ai Wu. He won 71% of his first fights, beating out Shiro, beating out Monosy. And a lot
of that does come down to Furia. They give him the tools to succeed. They buy him AWPs
when they have no money. They put him in positions, but he hits those shots and he takes another
That boost no longer in play, but the short push just as punishing.
It's big knee damage out of your kinder.
And if the AWP isn't cat, well then where is it?
Flash play out in the middle.
Okay, Serato's got his back.
Attempted the chase.
Doesn't come through for Aurora.
They would've loved that trade.
Fury just refused to give it to them.
Nice shot from Molodoy, catching the cross as well.
Now they know the game plan.
Back up Cat, he's seen another.
Oh, goes a little early.
Pull on the tech nine, it's damage exchange with Woxic.
They saw, won't stop them getting up through shore.
So the bomb is in tow, right in to your kingdom.
He can't control the spray, but he's got support every step of the way from Fallen out here on Long.
And it's a real team effort here, trying to put a stop to Woxic in the clutch, they'll charge him down.
Never letting him get comfortable.
And this might just be domination from Fury to open up their quarterfinal.
Yeah, Malzoy came in cold, he's defrosting now.
It's Fallen, okay, Serato, who are red-heart.
Compare the captains, compare the output right now.
Fallen is just multi-killing gun rounds like it's nobody's business and Aurora just can't get clean trades
starting every round from a disadvantage
Winning the pistol loose into the force all the unlikely that's happening at once
This is not a group stage Aurora
This is a different game
And Furia will find a plan.
Oh!
You came down a quick double.
Hoping to end it now and end it in style.
Done a lot of damage.
Now you're just kind of ambling around out here in mid.
Whole rounds and shambles as there's gaps everywhere for Aurora.
And these are gaps that Furia are keen to explore.
Uri with aggression through the tunnels.
You start to get a very clear picture of where Aurora can be.
If you take too long trying to weigh up your options here, take too long trying to weigh
up where you want this to end, well, Yuri might just end it for you.
Zatara's going back to hold for this, still can't deal with the backstab.
And so it might all end with a whimper here, this final four-spy on his last legs.
link up together over on catwalk but you're telling me that your best possible option
is to try and get past Molodoy on this AWP.
If you gave them the choice they would never put themselves in this position.
It's a limp run boost and it's far too easy for Molodoy.
Furia, they're already thinking about that second round.
They're already thinking about Mirage because Dust2 was no challenge to start their quarter
final run from top to bottom they dominate they outclass Aurora and even
though that Mirage had been a problem for Furia heading into this event their
confidence their fortunes have changed on the map and they're ready for it as
their pick in this series
I'm on HP right now, I want to kill him
Go B, go B, go B Marek, go B Marek
Side out
Nice
Okay maybe
Oh, side, CQ side
CQ up, CQ up
I can flash yard for you, squad rotation to one
Yeah
Care for you, watch me, I'm gonna come
Flash yard
Right side, mid, mid, mid
Copy, copy, take over here
I'm going, I'm going, don't see a ramp
I think he's side
I'm running
Side, nice, I'm going
Hold on, hold on
Come on, come on, come on, come on.
Nice.
Nice skills, guys.
I see them.
Nice comedy.
I'm walking.
I'm sitting by hand, OK?
Get ready to fight.
Fly that.
I'm going to sit here, I have flank.
I have a flash, get side, you want?
Go flash.
Flash, I'm in control.
Go flash, guys, go flash, go flash.
Flash, flash, flash.
Move.
One top, get flank, I'm killing after.
On side, I've got set up.
You forgot the other side.
Get it, get it, get it.
I didn't.
Get it, get it.
Get it, get it.
That.
Well, you guys get us?
I'll clear again after.
Either CC close maybe or...
I'm playing CT now, I'm playing CT now.
I'm playing CT now.
Watch one, please.
Elevator, elevator.
Nice! Nice guys.
Nice come.
Good job.
Furious Fangs raise a shot and Aurora feel the full wrath.
Any moment where the Turkish side thought they found momentum,
Furuya were even swifter to silence it.
That is a rough way to start on your own, Matt Pick-Yanko,
but Furuya really putting up a great case to show us
that they are capable of returning to the form we saw at the tail end of 2025.
Yeah, and it was great to get a listen in to their comms, right?
You could see how calm they were composed, very much in control.
Even that round 3-3, there were 3-0 up,
and Aurora won three rounds in a row,
So to see them not getting flustered and the stay calm is crucial on a stage like this
Spreads out to the team. You know, they make them comfortable. He makes sure that everything's under control
You know the way he's communicating in a normal voice
He's not stressing anything and it just spreads the rest of the team
But they also highlight any of the things they need to highlight that monitor he he's expressing like if you want to flash
Tim the way to flash, you know, they have things under control and pure is looking as a team that is slowly getting back to how they were looking in
in the later stage of last season. It's good to see they simply just play a little bit outside
the box. That's what I call a little bit of that. They're not afraid of trying to make plays, you know,
play the extra small, trying to be a little bit more crazy about the plays. They're not,
they don't have to play by the rules. They're making the rules. Yeah, a little bit cheeky with
that. I love to see that classic style coming back. When we got to hear those, those comms, JL,
how would you rate that considering you've been in the team more recently than most of us up here on
this desk? I mean, I probably rate it 10 out of 10. Really good. There's no, no extra forms needed.
They're straight to the point, let's do this, let's do that, they're hyping each other up and
there's not much more you need to play good CS, to have good comps.
This is all it takes to win the game and yeah.
Well let's get straight to the point then, we've got round 11, JL and Yanko are great minds think alike.
Apparently you both requested to be looking at this one, JL, from your perspective,
what did you notice about this round?
I mean this is Aurora's map pick and I see they've got long control
and they're slowly putting this round to be a 3v7.
Bikadi is going to stamp some middle, then he's going to show some presents and then
they spent all of the util on Magyr to block short to kind of not allow Fioria to go out short
and look at this freebase that Santaris is hiding. Bikadi is supposed to be taking the contact
off of him and then focus on detail with Soulfly. But as we see here Bikadi messes up his jump a
little bit, gets surprised by Yakindar. Santaris gets betrayed on Soulfly, he didn't even peek on
and Vikadia's contact and I feel like this is really unacceptable on the side of Aurora.
If you pick them up, you prepare the setup exactly for this round and then Vikadia and
Soflai cannot give the beatdowns and this is just the whole game.
I think this is where we see the nerves come in a little bit, right?
Because, okay, someone has to bait for Zantare, Soflai and Vikadia are the beat players, but
if Vikadia is going to bait for him and sort of show himself a door and Soflai isn't jumping,
Windo then Soflai has to take care of the tunnels, right?
But the key has to be the guy who will then have a crossfire with Vickadian.
But then what happens is, you know, Vickadian gets sort of surprised by people coming out
of tunnels and Taraz only gets one for one and then who's alive?
Well, the B player.
So you know, he's somewhere in there, he's not going to surprise anyone at that point
in time.
And Furia does just a good job of sort of being aware and taking care of Soulfly in the end.
So really a big round to lose at that point in time because they would have been able
maybe to get fury on an eco or a half-eye or something along those lines, regain some momentum,
but it always sucks also mentally, like you have the correct read, you're there, and then you're
not even close to winning the round, like those really stink. I obviously don't want to dunk on
the new guy on the side of Aurora, but just because you played the same position, right,
on Aduster, you played B-Site, so I played didn't... Best B-Site in the world, him and Bit, according
to JL. Oh, you got the pace. Yes. What did you, what were some of the issues that then stood out for
So maybe some of the, obviously it was a great game,
kind of a rear on the T side of course,
but some of the issues that Aurora had
and maybe not spending it to the best of their ability.
I really liked some confidence on the B side of Aurora.
I feel like Sulfly is a very good shooter
and he didn't use any of it.
I feel like he had the chance to push pitels
on a certain timing or maybe just stand your ground
and shoot with the detail player.
But what he did was just hide on site
and try to survive for the rest of his teammates
to kind of pick up the slack that he's left.
There's definitely was a couple of situations
you could feel he was a little bit inexperienced. I think that already started when he was up close with
the 5-7 I believe that was either round 2 or 3. He decides to talk a little bit like you know
that situation the only like the best thing you can do is literally just try and swing at a time
to try and get that kill off and it's fine you know we're not going to be gonging on the new guy.
He's still that's a hard thing it's when you come into team and when you get to play in your stage
for the first time and when you don't get to play that many games on stage it's very limited the
amount of reps you actually get and that's what takes a long time for him to get into so I'm all
fine with it you know there's definitely a learning curve and it's very steep for
him but just use your ability of being a strength aimer that's that's what I
would give him. Well then we move into the second half in a war they do indeed win the
pistol. Welcome to the next. Yeah I think it's a bit unfortunate and you know we
don't want to pile on so fly but here it's a couple of examples of how stress
attributes you know two mistakes on the server so fear with the force by right
here this is a great molly where his entire compete behind it catches more
So in a 5v4, they're gonna group up for short execute, but look at that dot towards long.
That's going to be Soulfly, so keep one eye on that as they're setting up,
getting everyone there, the smokes, the flashes.
Keisirato leaving over as the B player.
They're running out, they're going to do a good job here of finding the first kill.
Soulfly dies first on long, and they get to Kinder, they don't expect Keisirato,
and this is a mistake when no one is watching slope.
Like you just have to have one guy watching out for that.
K-Sirato gets a massive double in the end,
Voxicid 1v2 won't be able to clutch,
but so fly as the lurk on Long, he doesn't need to play that early.
He's also running out Long, right?
Like so your teammates are going in, you should be a bit more patient.
See if they run into opposition, if they don't,
if they get the entry kills and path to Long,
you still can keep on waiting, right?
So this is just sometimes feeling,
okay, I don't want to let my team down,
I don't want to just play scared
and you end up making a mistake.
some of those nerds really showing on this first map.
Sure, I mean, even if he dies, the situation is still manageable, they would actually still be able to win it.
One thing is that he dies a lot because it feels stress to go out and help the team,
but for me it's more so all the players, like, they're just playing too naive, like, they do get the kill onto the guy, right? That's fine.
But they're just like both running back to Cat, but they already have a guy sitting on Cat, but they have everything under control.
They could have one guy watching CT, but they actually now catch a round, swing, get a double, and then I think even gets the third one,
and that just piles out and they've already won that very all-important
Pizarro for them to make the comeback. They didn't convert it and that just put
them in a situation where they couldn't sell the situation.
I love that you get to bring up a Pizarro at a moment here as well because back in stage two when we were welcoming Furia to Krakow
we were noting that it was the kind of the Brazilians that had a rough start to the year, let's say.
I think if Pizarro has put any of those issues to bed right now.
Yeah, I mean he's been a guy that's just been the rock for Furia even when they were struggling.
I mean, the best Brazilian player by a nice margin and for a very long time.
And I think we can all be in agreement that we were just happy that he finally has a team around him
where he can thrive in and doesn't have to put the team on his back and just focus on his role
and what he does best has a great space creators on the team now in Iquindar and Molodoy.
And these are the games where he can really showcase his talent, right?
where you showed that to boys, you showed the patients, obviously the mechanics too.
I mean, in some of that B-defense, he was absolutely lights out.
And it's been around for so long. I mean, I remember, I think I remember my first game against
Keshe Rattabank the day when he was, that was like at the face of Launder or something.
He's a talent from that time, you know, and also he's becoming this
sort of star player that we always want to be praising. And for good reasoning,
one thing is that he's an incredible aimer, but I think what makes him one of the strongest is
that he's so good at positioning himself, reading the situation, and always putting himself in
favorable duels. That takes, that takes something. That's not something you learn by day by day.
So, Keisarato being a very instrumental player throughout last season, but also in this time,
it's good to see that he's stepping up. Yeah, it feels like it's just in Keisarato's DNA at this
point. Let's talk about the second map though, because you might have been fooled to thinking
that was very his pick. No, that's coming up right now. It's Mirage. Why do you feel like
they may have gone with this map amongst others? I think they see it as somewhat of a punish,
against Aurora and also on the other side of things, they've played it so many times already this year and it's been rough
the first few times but they end up picking it against Astralis in the decider and
That gets them here in the playoffs
So I think just the amount of repetitions that they've had on the map the understanding of okay
They have a good grasp now
How they need to play to be successful on Mirage and it's been the case from from Iraq throughout the event for them
You know they did I think they entered the event by being down zero five or at least throughout the event
They entered a bit of deficit like that and now they've turned it around now
It's like they had to remind themselves like how do we actually play Marash back in the days like and it has been this shifting back
Of what the urian and fallen China swap but also case rattle and you can that has right created a little bit of new uncertainty and seem
Maybe the ideas and you know that the team play between the sides was really functioning to shoot anymore now
They kind of got back to it
They kept the whole situation with Jakinda and Kacarado's walking positions.
And so far looking good and I think they just want to try and build upon this
because they've actually turned it around to a strength.
And then also Aurora is a team that is very easy to play against in Manmuraj
because they're very passive and you kind of know what they're going to do.
And now Fjord are going to be starting on the T side.
This is Dyrmapec. They for sure prepared a lot of things towards Connect.
They're sure to kind of bullies and towers in the connector area
because he's very predictable. Although he shoots very well,
Fury, I don't know what he's doing and I feel like that's gonna be the main focus point
It's gonna be the ace blitz and the connector control
Well, things looking incredibly tough for Aurora here at the Intel Extreme Master's cracker of losing out on their magic
And now their opponent lays in wait. It's Mirage going down after the short break
No chance at all, dog!
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For me at least it has to be Donk. I think that despite the achievements of Zywoo, obviously
it's the number two, no doubt. I think that Donk, those things that maybe in some way
no one else does, the statistics he puts, when they lose, when they win, I think that
this year at least I was not being that Zywoo in my opinion. I feel like he had a lot of
tough games and a lot of...
and on the rest of the season.
I think Dong's numbers are obviously insane,
but Zybel has one more, more MVP as well.
Zybel deserved it more,
but I think if Dong manages to maintain the level
that he had for the first part of the year
and this Cologne for the second part,
and they managed to win maybe an event or a major,
I think Dong might overtake him.
I think Monasi will gain the number three.
We represent the future.
And our imagination scares us.
An OP IGL hasn't won a major since 2016.
In a time of simple, zealot, now Monasi, it will not happen again.
Kelly is planning for three months.
Six months.
How do you even know that?
We need a strong roster.
I'll gather you better and better.
They won't be afraid of that bad style.
Until they understand him.
And they won't understand him.
Until they meet him.
Consequences of this success could be catastrophic.
Okay, now we're done.
James the Redeemer, in Rio!
Are you telling me that if they make playoffs, there's a chance it could destroy the entire crowd?
Now I am become death, destroyer of crowds.
Furia have come in red hot to this quarterfinal and Aurora crumbling under the pressure.
The bright lights of this stage, too much for this Turkish team, a team that has only
only won two crowd matches ever, two games of arena counter strike across the years as
this call. Can they break that streak today? Yeah, it's a team that have already struggled
dealing with the pressures, dealing with the crowds, and now they have a new addition.
SoulFly had to be the key to everything. As we just saw the pressure kind of got to him,
to ever get going on map one he's got his first big crowd match under his belt
this is where you've got to hope you can catch lightning in a bottle because on
the other side a man that was unfazed at the first dawn of his arenas in
moledoy and an in form furia fallen case Serato hitting hard the Brazilians
showing up and they've got spirit waiting for them in the semis they want
that rematch. It all comes down it is. It all comes down to Mirage.
They've been here plenty of times. Same story, same result, same struggles for Aurora. It
There was a lifeless T side. Mirage has to be different.
Last season alone, Furia took four trophies, three top events.
Three massive crowds.
Aurora sinking into their seats. Pistol round could change everything. Reignite the fire.
Group stage, pistol success. Can it translate?
I'm going to open things up, but a couple of missed shots from Moxick and your chance to punish.
Oh no! They're playing with their food!
I don't mean you don't get more of a literal middle finger than that in pistol rounds.
Oh, chase down that last man.
Full faith there in your kinder and Cacerato.
He wasn't even ready. He was not ready. Cacerato's just hopping around the corner.
The kinder's late, but no punish, no pistol, no connection for Aurora.
Despicable.
I own so hard, bro.
Did you see this on replay and you don't say nice marix?
Yeah.
Nice marix.
Not bad.
I mean look it feels like they've really tried to stack the deck right on dust to they started the game off with a bang
They played for the back-to-back be rushes super quick game
They've
Hit you with a jump check in the pistol just to try and slow the roll getting ahead even more
But this shutdown is coming in as the stack will withstand the be here. All right miss smoke miss utility bit of it
Don't want to forgo this. Yeah, right like it's 5v3 a huge chance to upset early
on. And if you can stomach it, you can bring the fight on Mirage.
They get past Molledoy, it's going to be left to a low HP Ykindar and Yuri.
They're already worlds apart, split up in this round.
I did say they had the highest round break in that second.
It's just, it only happened two of the four times.
Too much success in pistols to even attempt these rounds.
Aurora putting their best foot forward in the second here.
Always a bit of cause for concern, but it does look like Furia are holding out.
Will they commit is still under question.
The kinder is so low.
Rather have an AK than give it away.
This was Aurora, Grave Robbing, Furia save what they've got.
just not feeling desperate enough yet to attempt around like this. You're
mentioning soul fly coming into this game right obviously has a lot to do in
terms of filling Jota's roles playing difficult positions coming from being a
bit of a space staker on his previous team. I think this is one of the maps
where it might lend better to him. Change positions on Dust 2, change positions on
a few maps but Mirage back in Firefox played as an anchor for some time so
keeping that roll here on the CT side of Mirage, hopefully going to be a lot
more comfortable as a result in range of Aurora's firepower, not entirely alone.
So now may be a time for him to show what he's truly got.
He was extremely stable on CT side, back in the groups.
and he'll get siphoned from play.
Santar is up next and thrust in with crossfire.
It's all good and there's no way to save himself.
Quick as you are ready to start to believe in Aurora,
it's all stripped away.
Fury respond with a forced by a round win of their own.
Yikindal gets the ball rolling and the rest of them there
just to follow through on this play.
That's why Santar is frustrating to watch Santar's play
because we know how good he is,
he's just been kind of jumping the gun in this series that round and lower on dust to where he
just swings the orper doesn't flash doesn't you know jiggle just goes for the fight right there
his team is setting up so flies a wrapping cat and zantares just jumps through the window on
his own no one's ready no one can trade or support just throws himself in sure if you win the round
or for your individual ability it's going to look great but fury have man advantage tucked into
crossfires he's fed to the wolves so these early frustrations again rear their
head for Aurora they win the hard around on that force by it gets dealt right
back to them that's safe for your kinder worth its weight in gold and that's the
vibe you're competing with right now fury up the having fury they've always
It's been a very collected squad.
The one that seemed to get bested by the emotions easily.
Same can't be said for this Aurora team.
Now they have secured the 5v4 here.
Once again, Yakinda tries to run it down through mid,
and Wakadia is able to deal with it.
So left in the man advantage, left in a good spot,
and they're even trying to extend this with a cheeky boost
play up in the apartments.
OK, Sarato is watching for regression.
They shouldn't go any further with the smoke down.
Rest of Fury are waiting outside of A.
And so Cacerato is just going to be left playing Joker in this round.
So replay is here for Aurora, stack in the right place.
And Albin and Lurka this far out, wonder how Fury are going to use Cacerato.
Kill might just come to him once Exe gets rolled out on A.
Cacerato find a B entry, this bomb could back up.
They have the time, but the kills are right there on Furia's plate.
They tuck in.
Woxic pushed back.
Harass behind his box.
Nowhere to go.
Warbang might just finish the job.
All in the meantime, Kastorato not required.
Furia have picked their positions.
They're not going out without a fight.
to go for some last second retake you needed that opener. When it doesn't come through,
you're just left with the save here. As they're running away, it's Furia off to a good start.
For those forced by wars back and forth, now taking two in a row.
Karma heads prevailing right now.
And around like this, it forces you to think outside of the box, right?
You've got one rifle on Santarez, scout for Woxic.
They've been giving some flashes as well. These three players certainly going to be feeling a bit of a burden to try and fight and be involved early on these guns.
See what the idea is. They gave Salflife flashes out towards A, so a bit of a mid-fight brewing.
First flash finds nothing. Next one's got to be better if they want to get a kill from it.
Might be down on ramp. Might be the right call.
Furia with numbers here. Xanthar is peering into middle. He's been spotted. He doesn't
know it. Yakinda's got that easy entry and now his A-hit is so tempting. Flash will never
even come through, not till it's too late. 2v4 as Furia knock Aurora out of this round.
There are only pistols remaining.
Upgrades disallowed.
Softly is going to go unclear, but this is going to take something truly special. He's the only man left.
Oh no! Had the element of surprise, had the drop on them, but...
To teammate, to Furia, with all his said and done.
And even now on there you're talking about Zantara is trying to force these fights do a lot on his own
They bought the flashes specifically for the mid-fight and he goes out swinging ahead of it
So fly was still there with the flash in hand the entire time ready to throw it
Yeah, he's searching. I think he's also holding the flash from magic close ramp hoping Furia
Maybe throw an executing give the element a surprise away give the info to Aurora. They don't do that
They just walk out ramp and find a double entry
So Aurora just can't get a grip on what's going on right now and
To add to that none of the individuals are saving them in either of these maps. Waxic started strong on dust too
It's a very different day now
So Furia out calling and outfragging
Knowing no bounds to this lead 4-1 starts
Even here, this rifle round has some concessions for Aurora,
a little light on the util, and it's util, they will feel pressure to burn early.
You're always uncertain as to when Fallen's gonna call for a pace change,
when he's gonna try and just bring the fight to you quickly,
and that's what they get on this wrapping towards B.
Maga, they're coming towards your site, you gotta hold on.
First kill goes his way, another one from Maga,
as Fallen burns.
Zatara's playing it forward, playing aggressive,
and he gets ahead of the park ahead of that retake catching them before they're ready.
Baby steps here for Aurora, but a shutdown off that pace change round they were waiting for.
A bit of chaos and driving in it here for Aurora, better sign. These pacey B hits for Furia calling
from the front, finally gets stopped. It's a reassuring look if nothing more the magic can
get out with damage and Santaris who we've said has been playing pretty quick on it, it finally pays off.
Realizing he has a solo plan to punish him fallen.
Ah, it's nice!
I did it!
And so let's see if Aurora can seize that.
Where's Mr. Widow smoking with Santarez down here in Lower?
Could cause you big issues. He's now going to smoke four labor hikes.
Stamkin X doesn't even get to go!
Zantares doesn't see who finishes the job.
The Akinda has just stolen away a 5v4 for Furia.
So worst-case scenario, start here for Aurora.
Furia gets a reset as well, leaving mid, putting Molotov in position, Perch.
Where does AW?
Fallen even the Scorcher now gets his Util, Fury again a chance to run and execute.
Move your kinder, late lurking on low health.
Even a power move might give away his position.
How do I go probing on his orb?
Flash for Soulfly, can't find a thing, Molly forces him out into the open.
Wakardia's reclaimed one, you're hoping that that takes the tension away from Woxic.
The bomb is leaving, it's no longer even committed, this is just one hell of a fate getting leveled
against Aurora right now, his gaps open up, Yakindar at 2 HP takes the space out towards
the B site. Here the AWP fire, he's got a man trapped. The other two try and get ahead
of this for the Aurora squad. 1v1 from Moledoy and he's got that number.
Straight in. Long way away, you might feel the pressure to play it forward right in to
the waiting Yokinda. And Wakabi has a lot to do here. Double swung. The foundations are
there for Furia and everyone's firing. They're not making mistakes and they're leaving nothing
the chance in these rounds. It's a beautiful call. I mean that bombers leaving from the get-go is never going to go there.
Yakinda, here's Maja fall out of apps and run that rotation. That's all the warning fury I need in a 5v4.
They don't have the resources to spread on both bomb sites.
Amago still punishes the exit. We see this contagious retaking again from Aurora.
Maja going ahead of Wakadia just by a few seconds. They're just not making it easy for themselves in these positions.
punishment after punishment it's furia making less mistakes nice shot and
attempted an opener here for a war and they need to get that gun out of there
oh you can't try the jump again magic
he doesn't want to let them take it
I mean, can now we get you.
Oh, can't hear that as well.
Match has just been brought down to within striking distance.
I might not even come to matter as Furia is setting the sights on this A-play.
Kindar down a connector is going to get over Ranz.
Antares gets away with one on the MP9.
Salfly is yet to get a kill here in defensive A, reposition into Palace.
And freeze up players to rotate around. You tell yourselves that Salfly can let them know the info.
He can play around the bomb plant. And so you feel like you've got yourselves a bit more room,
but it doesn't let players out of position. He drops on down, and only gets out with one.
That's the site giving up. Now Cacerato in position to deny these rotates,
and it all starts to come unravelled for Aurora.
This is just basic overreactions from Aurora, one guy throwing a flash and a smoke into the B site, everyone panics, everyone runs, the site is open, mid is taken, Kaserato feasts at the bottom of middle.
Aurora getting ahead of themselves and Kaserato buries him deep.
Triple kill on the lurk while Molotoy sells that fake. And you know, it's a mistake from Soulfly, but it's also communication.
What's being said is it Aurora panicking said definitely be rotate he runs out of palace because of a smoke and a flash
I think that was always gonna be one of the big challenges for this Aurora squad right you have an
Inexperienced player who would love to draw on some of your experience. How do you get through these high importance crowd matches?
Don't Aurora don't have the answer to that if they did
They might have more trophies. They might have more deep runs
They might not have had Soulfly.
Split out towards the A site, and Furia aren't playing with any respect right now. That is a collapse upon A.
Here, there, and everywhere.
In window before you know it.
And I want to reiterate what we said coming in. This is an Aurora who even under Eternal Fire
only have won two matches in arenas ever. One of them was a third place
insider. Both games were in Astana, win over Mongols in the quarterfinals and the
third place matchup. That's if you're counting stages with thousands of people.
Sure, they've won in studios, they've won in front of smaller crowds, but in the
biggest stages, in the biggest arenas, in front of the most important trophies in
counter strike. Aurora have no success.
Doesn't look like it will change today.
If we want to change the conversation over just how great it is seeing
Fury a play like this. You know, after really, you know, what could have been
a fantastic ending to 2025, even being the favourites in at the major, but then
having that that that wall hit them the run cut short and unexpected loss taken
from a squad that were meant to be feeling red hot and so the question
coming into 2026 for me was you know how much does that loss of the major how
much is falling short hurt this squad does it slow the roll of furia or can
they once more rise to the challenge and look to make this their year yes
especially surprising when you know you look at all the trophies they took of
the wins they took but then you remember the two majors are two beast events that
You want to succeed in all times.
You absolutely drop the ball.
You lose in the opening round.
They got revenge against Navi here in Krakow.
A very prep heavy team that they learned in Budapest.
And Sofuria putting their best foot forward,
storming towards a semi-final against a team spirit.
A team spirit they haven't played on LAN in nine months.
Who knows what that game could have in store?
So Furia, job is not done yet, but it's all about making it convincing here.
Yeah, that's what you want for yourselves. You don't want to ever feel like you really got put through your paces in any capacity,
capacity that this was just, you know, one step on the journey to the greatness
that a squad like Furia are trying to tap into.
Faker be fallen, keeping the stack there.
All his team set their sights on this A bomb site.
It's another one of the ugly engagements out through connector for your kinder.
He's lost that opening fight, but these man advantages haven't proven to matter
a hell of a lot. Walked it in again, contact the entire way.
20 seconds lads. No one knows.
They've got the spot in con. They've got the spot on short.
They know where two of these five players are.
They just caught Magia on that swing.
Comes together beautifully.
Drop down for Zantares.
Need this cover up towards the sport.
And Molodoy's got their back.
Zantares being asked up to clutch.
It's almost a shame to say that this might have been one
of the closest rounds of the game for Aurora.
And still, Furia walking into an MTA bomb site with 20 seconds, nobody even looking.
Locked out his Santaras, AK save, an 8 round half staring them dead in the face.
Gonna have a Wax and KWP coming in, but don't think his name has even left my lips in this
the second map.
Fury with eight rounds while falling is on two kills because the system in place is working perfectly.
Every player doing their job.
the game. And we're going to
get to the top. You know, this
is where I think having fallen
at the helm is a huge help. Not
only is he incredibly
frustrating in terms of his
pace change calls how suddenly
he'll just completely change the
way the game feels based on, you
know, running these faster
explosive rounds, but on top of
that, you know, he can tell
what's happening with Aurora. This
guy's been around the block to
say the very least, he knows
that they're fumbling on the
fundamentals that the basics
The basics are letting them down and so it's nothing convoluted. It's nothing crazy here from Furia
They've lost too early on in this one
It's given way to a three on five if you're Aurora you don't recover if you let this one slip through your fingers
They've already lost out on Woxic soul fly run in the risk of getting overran buys him a few more seconds
Santaras now joins the fight nades reign in and Santaras has to deliver come find a thing
3d5 dangerously closely coming through
Fallen even going back this wrap round from magic. It's going to be heard
It's being considered fallen caught on the aggression and now magic has got this bomb
Can their captain deliver salvation to Aurora?
Serato a shot from death
Picks up the package. You have a lot of space. He walks right back in
Aurora all I wanted them to play together in this 2v1. That's the only thing they need to do
It should be impossible for case Serato if trades are played for
and wikardia. No health. You're
up against the top performer
for fury of this entire tournament.
He's 12 in three. Hot hands on
K serato, but one bullet ends
his round. One bullet stops
this from ever being a reality.
He's going to go and give it a
chance at the first major. You
You could never come back if this one gets away from them, and so narrowly, Maja, will hold on.
A glimmer of hope here in this CT side for Aurora, that's all it's going to be.
A final couple of chances at rounds in an extremely dominant game, where even 8-3 doesn't feel like it's told the story.
Nice to see them set-walking up in this round, that was still a 5v3 that comes down to the 1v1.
But Fury have a rebuying him.
I felt like Fallen didn't hear Maja there, actually jumped the gun, just swinging in.
Nice!
And so Maja keeps a minute, if just for one more round.
Boxing again, trying to be active on his AWP, it's a welcome sign, but that flash, that
means he's dead.
Yikindar has been such a nuisance out here in middle.
As you go and try and deal with Yikindar, you learn about the boost, you learn that
the AWP was there providing overwatch.
And now there's a backstab closing in very, very quickly on the short side.
and SoulFly be the man to plug this hole.
Watching for a con spillover, but that is not the end destination.
And so it's down to this B-hole.
It's down to these two.
Wokadia and Maget, top of the board for Aurora.
Struggling just to get by.
They've spotted Wokadia out in the open
and he's living on borrowed time.
SoulFly left in an unwinnable 1B3
in case the Rato wants to close this one with style.
There it is, Keisarato takes it in, and that's nine rounds.
They are so close to those semis.
They can practically feel it.
Furia dominating Aurora.
I'll be right back.
In
a flash this quarter final might just pass us by a nine round T side by Furia on their
map pick and a 2-0 hanging in the balance semi-final against Spirit up for the task
and Furia certainly looked like they're informed to fight them.
Yeah, Furia basically said this was never about Aurora. This is about us. They've been
in full control of this series from the get-go, hoping that some miracle would transpire here
They're on Mirage, but they don't happen every day.
And so now, Furiah very much in the driver's seat,
looking for Semis here and now.
They will get shut down on the first turn of these pistols.
You've not been able to write them off.
No advantages fell safe with Furiah in shots like that.
Furiah right back in the conversation.
Blank is quick.
Pissarato, he's got the spot off.
Nose, he's got players right there.
Tapped down range to find Santar as the Woxics get
It's sandwiched, all you have to try doesn't know where to look.
Now knows about the man back in market, but as he makes his move, so does Keisarato.
Those fangs are deadly as ever, sinking their teeth into this series.
Aurora came into this with the best pistols in the group stage,
and Furia had just taken them all away.
Insanity.
I mean, this game serving as a testament to the idea that there's levels to this game, right?
It's one thing to go and dominate your way through groups.
But it's when you get to those high pressure, the big stage games, the big matches that really matter.
It's a whole different beast.
Furia winning three of the four pistols, and the one they lose, they find a force by.
They've even gone for an instant AWP.
Molodoy knows it's time to get to Dom one is very, very limited in this quarter finals.
So he wants to bring it out straight away.
Pure ego here for Furia, and can you blame them?
Impeccable form.
K-Sorato, another incredible map from him.
17 and 4.
All he has to do is click.
This might be good if it still hasn't stopped K-Sorato,
and now that AWP given a chance.
What's the takedown range?
Moxig will best him in the head to head.
Still, you're far from comfort here in this 4v4.
You tell going down that's to try and bring you a bomb plant get you some ground
In this four spy
Spam could be your worst nightmare major
Try and assist him with a bit of pressure, but still wounded battle-hardened Aurora
You're just never gonna get to feel comfortable both in the matchup
But especially in this post plan major tries to provide a bit of levity there with the boost
Oh, no by Fallon and now they know a player out towards sandwich falling comes gunning for him
that all put into his hands whenever he's given the chance to use it Fallen takes the challenge head-on
Soulfly clutch needed and shut down at the door. It's not happening
No one's here to save you. You're in this game all alone that Furia
Have never let up Fallen is on fire right now. He had like four kills coming into this half
Hot shots with the picked up AWP, it was never meant to be MOLIDOIS.
more could you want. Nice, you guys.
Aurora just buying back in. They don't have the room to play for an eco at this point.
back to back force buys same situation one AK on Zantares. No player on double digits.
Moldov tries his hand at the window once again.
Oh, come on, the smoke break. Nice way to find the advantage. Zantares makes it a double
play through connector forward. Cardia jumps the gun a little and goes right in a case
Serato 5v3 they're fine, right?
Usually you'd say yes
But in this game that has not been the case man advantages haven't really mattered for Aurora
She had a tee up Zantara is good to see a bit of synergy just to make sure that this one doesn't get away from you
So fly has provided the opener out towards a and so now you're moving in. Oh
Don't give this guy a chance though don't give fallen the opportunity to ruin your day
some cold clutches from Fallon as of late on this A site. He's low on health,
a lot of players would just be thinking about saving here. This is Molodoy,
Fallon knows he has to set up his star and so the safe decision. The showman in him
wants to go for it but the captain in him knows that saving is the right call.
If you have so many rounds you'd rather run this AWP into the next and hope that
it can just win you that match point. Nice triple out as Antares, high impact here, wide
and mid, catches Molotov on the late break, goes on to get three kills. And you mentioned
that flash, another nice detail. Aurora having completely thrown in the towel, still communicating
in these hectic moments because absolutely like a 3v5 was brewing. Aurora will not let
time out here for Furia. 11-4, no stress. They know this round they're gonna have a little less to work with.
It's also just nice like to have that moment like a little reminder, you know, sure
frustrating that you've let them win a round, frustrating that this wasn't just a clean sweep all the way to the finish line
but you're still a long way from having to be nervous and you can still lay this one to rest very very quickly with next to no
challenge out of your opponent.
Remind them of the game plan of the move you want to make and make it decisively furrier.
Trying to finish strong.
You can get close on ramp.
This is a dangerous setup to run into.
Yeah, even Yuri here, right? Playing as that second pit piece.
Playing in tandem with the SMG.
You can now fall blind, still good for his.
They'll borrow him through to find Yuri.
You can now still get away with murder.
It's down to Zantara's now.
Throw it into a clutch, throw it into the 1B2.
And all series long, this guy's been trying to make big plays on his lonesome.
Well, this would be the time to live up to that.
All in swung the smoke, so he saw he didn't come out ramp.
Are they going to realize this in time?
Zantara has given room, rotates all the way, fallen too late to this check.
Yeah, it was very decisive in his move, right?
Didn't hang around, hasn't tried to overthink this,
just went on a whim straight away out towards the B site.
And so Fallon's hoping he catches him on a cross.
Well, now you realize you've missed that timing
and you're on for this retake.
It's the student and the master here for Furia.
And Fallon, contact first, out towards short,
shuts down any hope of a clutch.
Zantara's bested and that 2v1 never even gets interesting.
It's the right smile for Fallon
because man, he has been informed today, right?
He's had numerous important high impact kills,
not always the flashiest moments,
but just showing up when they need him.
A reassuring factor here for Furia,
from top to bottom, taking this win as a team.
12-4.
Nice team, bro, nice team, bro.
And a prospect of a matchup that we've not seen in months.
Not throughout all of Furia's rise.
They have not played Spirit Online since their debut event with this roster, even then they took a map up with them.
I knew your final round of play, you started at 50 health,
Nade out through the window, Wakadia now wounded.
Now after you.
No one's itching to be the guy boosted up into the window.
Oh, everything just feeling a little rough around the edges for Aurora.
Do you think they know?
Okay, Serato firing off.
That's going to tempt them in.
Catch for your kinder.
He sees that positioning.
He knows they've just done the window boost.
Okay, Serato is not going to move a muscle.
Just holed in on dealing with Madge.
And so this is it, the beginning of the end,
as Aurora snuffed out towards middle.
It all comes down to their rookie.
And in a game that you never felt controlling,
it's the least safe pair of hands to try and carry that torch,
keep it burning for just one round longer.
Furia have been oppressive.
They have been active.
They have played their counter-strike,
and that's what gets them through.
Semi-finals await for Furia,
and they do not break a sweat.
You want to believe it requires some insane step-up.
You've got to tap into the next level.
That wasn't required of Furia here today.
That was a walk in the park.
And now a rematch looming with Spirit, a team they faced
at Molotoy's first event in the Furia jersey.
Yeah, for Aurora, it's just another stumble,
another crumble swallowed on this stage
in front of the bright lights.
Again, struggling to convert anything they've done in a group stage into a big arena counter-strike.
And the new rookie has a reality check on this top team at his first big event.
It's back to the drawing board for Aurora. And try again. Furia, fire in their belly,
ferocity, semi-final secured, and looking for yet another trophy.
It's a type of win that you can't help but feel it pumps you up, right? Gets you excited for the
the games to come. I think you're still waiting for that true challenge. Let's hear from Fulin
who's waiting there. Semi-finalist down on the stage.
You heard the man of semi-finalists. There's no such thing I would say as an easy match.
But everything went to plan there.
Hello everyone. Yes, everything went good. We had a lot of preparation time for this
game. It did help us here. The team played super well. I'm very happy with the way we
We entered the match and there were some insane key moments that went our way.
Some first buys, that seed called, a lot of contribution from everyone.
Yeah, on that, there were times where we thought you're out of this,
Fury are out of this round, it can't happen.
And just those moments you brought back, is that the secret to Fury at the moment?
That never say die attitude.
I mean every round is not over until it's over, I think it's obvious.
But you need to have this mindset if you want to go very deep, if you want to play well.
And we had the mentality that we can drift every round of this matchup.
And on Mirage it happened a lot, like we knew they were rotating somewhere.
So we're just pausing a little bit, let them overthink.
And sometimes they were also giving us some audio kills on what we're doing, which helped too.
Spirit in the next round, in the semi-finals. How are you going to prepare?
We're going to have now a few hours of preparation.
The Spirit has been with the new Interationals, it's going to be a great matchup.
It's been a while since we've done play then.
And yeah, it's basically watching what they have been doing and trying to come up with a plan.
As long as you don't mind me saying, you've been around a little while now, around this, around this game.
And we heard from Carmack earlier on, he said you were one of three players who would have remembered the first iteration of this, the IEM, right back in Hanover 20 years ago.
What keeps you motivated?
What keeps me motivated is working on myself as I am progressing on my athlete career.
That there's so much I have learned about myself and about the challenges of life through competition and through playing Counter-Strike.
so it motivates me. I'm learning something new, new iteration of a team,
I have a new phase of my life and it just gets me going.
You've been amazing when it comes to this tournament, whatever the city has been.
It's a new place now, it's a new arena, it's a new stage.
Anything that you feel differently approaching this?
No, it's amazing to be here in Poland. I was here for the major as well
when Gambit beat my mortals, right? My Brazilian fellas.
It was amazing too, so it's great to be in Poland.
I remember back on the VP days when Pasha knew, Taz, all those guys were playing.
I remember a lot of Polish fans here, so you guys are making a great show today. Thanks for coming
Anything you want to say to mother than thanks for coming because they love you whenever you walk out there's so many cheers
Just appreciate all the support all during all this time
I hope I can give you guys a great match tomorrow against spirit and I go
I hope you guys gonna have memories to cherish for life with this weekend here
And are you gonna be lifting that cup in two days time that trophy? That's not on my control, but it's definitely my wish
Let's see what it goes. He's a man. He's a legend
We love him. He suits the semi-finals to go out tomorrow.
Put your hands together for this man here,
Fallen and Furious semi-finalists.
And now we'll hand it to Freya.
What have you got for us?
From his very first IAM appearance back in 2012,
14 years later, Fallen still got it,
and he is back in the semi-finals.
I love how Ojo put it.
There's no such thing as an easy match,
but it did look pretty easy for Furia in this one versus Aurora.
We do have another champion up there joining us.
Cacerado, congratulations!
Yeah, tell me that from your perspective, did it feel as easy as it looked on the outset?
Not really, really, on the outset it was key rounds, like economic ones, so I'm really
happy that we converted them, because it's really hard doing this game right now.
The year started a little bit rough for you guys, but this was one of those games, especially
on stage, where it felt like Fallen was really in the zone, like that he was in full control,
sort of just thinking he knows what they're going to do before they even know it. Like how was it
playing on the server today? It was really good, the following was going really good as well and I
think everyone was calling something different during the round. Like it has around them under
pads and here their rotations all these things. So I think everyone helps following thoughts a bit.
Just individually as well. You looked lights out in those maps, right? Can you tell me a little
bit about what you're up to in the past two days and just for you to be getting back to that form
because if you're honest, start of 2025, was it a little bit rocky for you?
What does it mean for you to be back in the highest of heights?
I mean, it feels great actually because we started losing the glass bounty.
So I'm pretty great right now because I don't know, it's just hitting hard.
I don't know what's happening. I think that helps a lot that my wife and my dog is here,
so I can reset a lot during these matches.
I mean, 46 kills in 37 rounds, they did not look too hard at all for you, you had it under control and I'm super proud of you. Thank you so much, man.
Janko, I believe you've put up a moment, you've picked out something that you would like to share with Keisarana, what have we got?
Yeah, this is where we're going to get him to reveal all the secrets, you know, one by one.
So some of the early gun rounds, Fury just with the top mid smoke and the first secret, is this intentional or not?
Is this to bait this guy to get into Bench and to spam him or did someone just miss the window smoke?
I mean, somebody's me. I missed the win.
I hear myself.
You'll miss the win, Oswo.
Yeah, I thought it was.
So, Yekinder helped you out here. He's going to just random spam Zantares.
And in this fight before, I'm also wondering, right, we now see Yekinder with low HP.
He's in B-Apps. Is this like him saying, giving the mid-round call,
hey, maybe I can go B-Apps if you guys want to go back to A,
or is this fall and still at this point, like calling the mid-round?
Actually, Marek said he called this round that he's going to go B.
to go B, he changed the positions because we already had the A rotation. We caught this
Aston so he just decided to go B and I gave him a Molly because I know that it's important to
B and Molly market to delay the rotations. So I think he was a pretty good cow and also he took
a lot of space in the round because we did a lot of contacts only and also I went back with from
A to B and then we won the round. Yeah, we'll show it to the people at home now. If you're going back
with the bomb, the kinder just chilling here, the execute comes in, what's important at this point
in time, keep an eye on the radar, right, that's major over there, so as this hit is coming in
for the side of Firiya, he's going to start flying, this is where your kinder makes the call,
the decide is clearing, it doesn't really matter, this was a set call regardless, you can see C4
already in spawn, so whether he heard something or not, the bomb is going to always come back
here Fallen can really connect on the final kill but so much space being
created by this fake, the kinder with the deep molly even though Aurora now knows
what's going on still can't do anything about it. Molodeu sticks around to kill
the rotator and then just the kinder and Kcerado take care of it and it's this
seemed to be the theme for a lot of T side on Mirage was throwing a lot of
fakes and Aurora really couldn't get a good grasp on where you were or what
you were trying to do? Yeah, I think that we pushed some rounds that we did some
gimmick shifts and also it's hard to understand what's happening, what is
the fake or is not the fake because in this match we repressed some new stuff
so it's really hard for them. We heard you kinder and fallen also talk a bit about
how you guys were changing some stuff coming into this year and despite
having a really good end of the year knowing you have to keep changing to
stay on top. I mean it's kind of crazy your mirage to start the year wasn't
very good, and now you're picking it, Big Navi on it was a really, really strong Mirage team, so
what's really flipped, like what changed for you guys?
I think the position changed a lot because when Maddox was the con player, he used to call and
also he needs to focus a lot. Who play cons knows that this is really like about aim, not about
talking dying talking so now we changed that now he goes short and go conk so
that really helped because I just focus on man and it's any hand and also he
calls in mid-round so sometimes as me calling as well I don't know how
involved you are in the kind of map veto discussion but we had quite an extended
discussion about it just because obviously a new bus coming back in very
good map for Aurora we did see you guys ban me out was there ever any discussion
of maybe leading it? I mean it's kind of funny because every time you play against Aurora we
do the same veto so it's ancient so every time it's like you're gonna pick or you're gonna pick
it's like a but they had to prepare for sure. And just looking at your next opponent in the
semi-finals it's gonna be Spirit. I believe you haven't faced him since last time from London,
right? It's been a bit obviously new composition a little bit for Spirit as well. How's it
What's threatening do they look in your eyes?
I think it's not about them, it's about us I think.
I think we had to focus up and also prepare for them because they are a really good team
right now and also we cannot do mistakes against them because otherwise don't us.
I asked JL the other day how do you avoid donkey, he just said just don't peeking, just don't
give me a...is that the same strap that you guys have?
No of course, as I can see, as you guys can see, don't be still hurt.
Well, Keisarado is the only thing you'd like to say to all the FURIA fans out there supporting you in this course.
Keisarado, thank you so much for joining us.
massive congratulations once more. That does mean it is time to be checking in for our DHL MVP.
Will be the DHL MVP? You decide. You can participate in the DHL MVP vote as it happens.
Make sure to be tuned into the Twitch stream and be ready to have your say.
You don't see that often. Sometimes you see a very good game on map 1, but on map 2 they
fall off, but K-Sat was so consistent on both maps, I don't even know who else to give it all to.
He was in the zone, it was just crazy to see individually, he was sharp, but as a team,
Fury was one step ahead, so he had a lot of good situations, was in a lot of good positions,
and they are always a joy to watch these closers when they're having a good game,
just how much impact they can have.
Yukindo is our final option for your DHL MVP.
I love getting to hear the insight from the other team-mates of Furia, right?
Because Yukindo, of course, has had so many ups and downs in his career.
The fact that he's just so intertwined in this team, right?
You hear so regularly, he's timing in with ideas,
kind of separately falling in some aspects.
We can't underrate how hard that is to be
trying to get so many options, but also shooting this hard as well, right, Jim?
Oh, it's very hard.
Like Freud is over here, he has been doing that, being the second voice in the team,
and there's been some struggles in 23-24, but he still continued doing it.
Even though he didn't have the best performances, I feel like he's still stuck to himself,
he's taken true to his game, and now you can see a research from him,
he's coming back and has some really good performances.
But I think what you mentioned was key, I think he got a bit humble in that period,
when he also took over the in-game leader mantle for Liquid for a while,
It's like just trying to do maybe too much right instead of taking a step step back
I think always he's going to be a vocal player and always going to be that second voice, but
Really, you know revived his career to some extent here in
Fury are just fit so well together with the rest of the guys in and out of the server and that's what
Had this fury a team rolling at the end of last year
What about fury is that they actually get the love and respect to you can don't they really appreciate whatever inputs he has and
And that's what a team needs to actually succeed.
Yeah, you can tell he's a, I guess, a confidence place player.
We can say just in terms of your takeaways from what was a very quick first quarter final
decree.
Did you expect Virja to be handling Aurora as well as they did on both maps?
Both yes and no.
I think it's the first where it kind of comes to my mind when I'm looking at Aurora.
It's obviously disappointment.
One thing is that from the perspective of the viewers and us watching the game, but
I mean, from themselves as well, you know, it's still the same, right?
They still haven't figured out how to perform on the stage and it's a steep learning curve for them.
On the bright side, Furia is really a team that's picking up patience, they're looking hot.
Sure, Aurora maybe didn't play their best game, that's for sure right, but I still...
I qualify for what they look this dominant and where you can see the individuals really get to shine and they just seem calm.
That's a good setting for a semi-final.
I don't know, I'm not disappointed in Aurora whatsoever.
I think Fury have played incredibly well today, I think they just outplayed Aurora on so many levels
and of course there were moments, especially on Dust2 where Aurora maybe made some small mistakes
and lost some key rounds that made the game more difficult, but I think as I already said they exceeded expectations for this tournament.
It was always going to be nearly impossible to go deeper than this with SoulFly's first game on stage.
We made a few mistakes here and there. I don't think he had as bad of a game as the stats show, a lot of rounds, especially on Mirage.
Rounds were ending on B, he couldn't really do all that much and so forth.
So I think for Aurora, the one bad thing is sometimes maybe seeing Zantara still sort of get frustrated, but I wouldn't read too much into that.
It was a frustrating map for him, sometimes getting smoke spammed and everything.
Aurora just needs to continue in this way, right?
They need to continue to have the same attitude that they did
throughout the tournament and just keep improving with time.
There's no doubt that Fiora played well, but when I'm mentioning disappointment,
it's the fashion that Aurora loses in like that.
Now you can just see that the mistakes, just piling on top, you know,
there's most of the times they have like the right grip,
they had the right gamble, they had to set up, but they're just not aware.
Like on Mirage, they would have a situation where they would go for it,
like they were actually having a three guys on B,
but they're not aware of what's happening in mid, they're not communicating.
On those two, they would smoke double those three times because they're not aware of where they have each other.
And sure, that's mistakes that can happen, but when it's happening in these type of games, and it's happening too often,
that's the red flag, and that's why they really gotta start earning the respect.
I would just put the blame on Stage Pressure, to be honest, because Aurora is not a bad team.
They have good game plans, they have good strategies, they have good players.
You see, they took Maus, they took Falcons.
You can see that they can play really poorly to CS, but once they get on Stage, it's a completely different story.
Is that fair though, with only one player being unfamiliar with the stage?
I don't know, not to parlor, but I don't know whether that's an okay take considering last year and what Ororov did manage to achieve making it to the stages and still crumbling this year, right?
You think within a year, having had that experience, you'd get used to it, no?
I feel like the core four players for Aurora right now should be taking the responsibility of performing like that on stage.
Maybe Salfly is having some dead zones. He cannot think about the whole game clearly because he has the stage fright.
But the other members of Aurora have to calm him down and put him on the right track of,
we're going to do this now. You should expect this stuff.
And I feel like, yeah, that's a feeling from Aurora players.
And I guess maybe people can be a bit too harsh about the overall of a system, even when you're disintegrating one new player.
player, right? I mean, you've been in that situation before, Yanko. How much does have
to shift up when you're welcoming a new man to you, Oster?
I think in the case of SoulFly, not too much. I mean, that's your anchor on CT side, lurker
on T side, right? The rest of the team is there. I think Major is definitely honest
about how sometimes they have to play in a one-dimensional way because they're not great
at taking map control and he doesn't have necessarily a lurker that he could really
trust to work on its own so perhaps with time and SoulFly getting more adjusted to the rest of the
team that's another element of their game that they could expand on something else that they
could add to the playbook. What do you think the spells for the rest of 2022 then for obviously the
map or when they can play new this is massively helpful in their situation right now but do you
think they're going to be a consistent contender do you think making it deeper than quarterfinals
is kind of on the console?
I hope so.
I mean, it's a team that time and time again shows that when they go to the
booths, they can play really high colors.
Like they proved it here as well, even with a new guy.
But if they ever, every time they get into arenas and they can't get that flow
going, if they can't convert that performance, then they will never really
improve, you know, it's all about the reps.
And obviously, the first step for them is to be more consistent by making
the playoffs and then they need to get reps inside the arena games.
And I think that is like the past four for them.
I definitely feel like for the Aurora side also talking with the stage experience we have here
We see that, you know, Boxic and Santaras are major. They're like supposed to be the experienced guy
But I didn't really feel today that they were the one trying to be there for the team
It felt like they were a lot more focused on, okay
I know I'm not playing like the greatest game Santaras had a bit of a tiller, but KD are sort of new still, right?
But it just felt like the atmosphere in the team didn't really seem like the experienced guys were trying to pull up the rest of the team
And that's that's not fun. I guess when you're soul fly when you've never been in a state before and you have the ones that you
Look up to and the one that's supposed to be pulling you pulling things together
And then you kind of feel a little bit left down
Well for the first appearance for measure and I am being 17 years ago
Unfortunately, this does mean the end of the road here in Krakow. So let's get a few final thoughts
Aurora doesn't get past the quarterfinals that I am Krakow and I'm here with measure and yeah measure what happened I
I think overall really really bad, like off day of the teams, like I think individually
we all play bad as a team also, me includes.
It's okay, like I think a bad day.
We didn't fight yet, we had a very good opportunity to be honest, like the pistol on Cityside
on B, one time we all gained free time on B but I think nothing very green today, not
like the group stage but it's okay.
Can you look back on Soulfly and the start that he was able to give in the group stage
and the very hopeful things we saw from Aurora there as the building blocks?
Yeah, I want to come with him for the big pictures.
He played really well for his first tournaments now.
Obviously, on playoff, it's the first time for him in his carry, so it was not easy for
him to deal it.
So we had four people in the team who tried to help us, but to help him.
but it was us also, we very play poorly, so it's not his fault, I want to thanks to him
because when you see the big pictures, it's give up for the future.
Yes, you did. What does it look like now for you? You're such a leader for the team, I know.
They all look up to you so much, so how did this first hour after this match
look like, wanting to make sure that you lay the groundwork for building from that point?
Yeah, I think everything was ready. I think we played really well as a team and you can't
say much when it's like this. We just need now to rest and talk after some hours together
like what's happened. But we have three days, next we have a tournament, so I think we just
focus on the next tournament right now and that's all. And I'm very sorry for the fun
and Turkey because today was a really sad day in Turkey because three years ago the
6th February there was a bigger earthquake in Turkey and we lost so many lives there
so it was really important for us today to play good and show some love and show some
good things but very separated and yeah I saw that that was something that played on
your mind as well so is there anything you'd like to say in Turkish?
Friends, today is an important day, 6th of February, you know, 3 years ago, our country was very bad.
Today was important for us, but sorry, we couldn't show it again.
But we will try to show something better in the stage, I think, for the first time in our tour.
Thank you, Aslan Defnek, I love you.
Thank you, Major.
Very mature words as always coming from Maja even in the face of defeat something
I do want to touch upon from that interview though, and I don't know how you feel about this yanko
I think last year Aurora were victims of their own kind of set up if you will they attended literally every single event
They could get their hands on and we saw the repercussions of that
They were so burnt out just prior to the Austin Major
I don't know what their plan is in terms of event attendance this year, but I hope they've learned that's it
Yeah, I think it depends a lot on the team. Some teams like to play as many
tournaments because that's the best practice for them, right? Obviously you
need to balance it out at some point because of the travel, but I wouldn't
put it on the schedule. You know, they had a decent break before the Budapest
Major after lifting a trophy in Bucharest and you know they still fumbled over
there. So I think it's some of the internal things that they need to work
on. Obviously the first iteration, first tournament, big one with Soulfly, so let's
give them a couple of more before we can really place them and see where they're at.
I think it's a great positive for Roto, they've gotten so far and so far coming into the team
and being that piece, that major, maybe I feel like he's been lacking in the Turkish team for a while,
right? So for them to move forward and now feel like the roles is a more set and they're actually
leaving the tournament regardless of the disappointment and maybe not showing up today,
but they're leaving with an idea of that we've got this team that we want to be working with right
now, we have that play that we've gotten and the guy that fits into the system and the role that
we needed that we didn't get out of Jota. So it's got to be looking forward for them, but sure,
it's also about making sure that you don't fall into the same kind of trap that you felt that was
a trap as of last year. Yeah, and just a very pointed words from Maja in terms of SoulFly's
performance. Sure, he said, of course, he struggled on the stage, but we all did today. This was a
failure as a team. And I imagine that's what you want to hear from your ingame leader coming out
under defeat like that. Oh, yeah, 100%. This is very honest from Maja. That's why a lot of people
respect him. He's a role model in Turkey and for his team as well. And I really love the way he
put it. He didn't put it on Sofi at all because Sofi right now is probably feeling that he was the
mistake. He was the problem in this team but this is not it. It was a peak team performance
and he just focused on the team performance. Don't put himself into the picture.
Just a final thought on Aurora. Give me an emotion to kind of wrap up what we saw from them here in
and crackle. Optimistic. Okay, that's good. I guess. Yeah, you don't because you're positive.
That's yeah, I mean, they beat mouse in Falcons. You can't forget that, right? They had a very
close ancient against vitality. And that's what they should focus on. And perhaps today is a day
to forget. Yeah, I think that's a very active looking forward to tomorrow though, Peter,
for real versus spirit. Haven't seen that for a long time. How do you feel about for his prospects
I think if you can show up the way they did today, we have a very interesting game on our hands
That's that's for sure
I mean it is obviously a very different kind of team that they're gonna go against and now they also have to deal with someone called
Dongba on the other side of the server, right?
It's a it's a good time of year
I really really love that how they have progressed since the start of this year to now where they are it felt a lot more
Comfortable today for them. It was it was good to hear there was very calm
But it's it's gonna be a whole different story tomorrow and it's gonna be it's gonna be ones for the history books
We do have another game on our hands. That is our second quarterfinal between G2 and
Miles. Of course G2 of 2023 fame, foisting the trophy right here. Miles though, on their
quest to claim some silverware. It's going to be going down after the short break.
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the arena now. The Toron itself about to host another quarterfinal G2 versus Mouses and
these guys are unruly, unhinged a little bit. Get out the way man, get out of the way, I'm
trying to talk to this man, what's going on Speaks? Good, good, how are you doing alright?
Just a couple questions, want to get a good vibe feel for how you guys are going into today.
What was on your music playlist?
What was on my music playlist?
Actually, now I listen to some random TikTok songs.
It's a bit weird, but yeah.
Okay, you want to tell into the class?
Or you just say that for later?
Can you sing it to us?
No, it's just like music that's put in the zone.
I don't know how to explain it, it's just music.
It's not water or anything, yeah.
What time did you guys start activities today as a team?
Eleven.
Did you guys watch the Furio Roar game?
I did a bit, yeah.
And will this arena be for or against Maus today?
Probably against.
Anything you want to say to them?
Lavas, hey Taz. You're still coming to Diana to watch us, so that's it.
Thank you very much, thanks.
Thank you.
Hello Matze, it's nice to see you. How are you feeling ahead of your very first time in the Winter? I am Winter Playhouse.
playoffs. Yeah hello we are feeling amazing I think all of us obviously last
season towards the end we lost I think we didn't manage to go to play out three
times in a row I think not even in Chengdu ATCR so we are very happy we know we
can play good we showed it finally at the start of the season as for our first
tournament I will hopefully manage to do the same here against Maus. Thank you for
mentioning it it's true you hadn't made those playoffs as much as you would have
wanted is that a hunger that you have that you really want to show like hey
people may say maybe we can't do it on a big stage what do you say about that?
I think the most important is that we know a bit between each other to be honest
We don't really much care about what others say to be honest
And I think we can do even better if we show it in Blast when we won the tournament that we can play even better in play
So that's why we are here and we will try to go for the match 2-0 against mouse
What do you think about the stylistic matchup versus mouse people say you're similar?
I guess people can say but I don't agree that these teams ask and then we don't have star players or anything like that
I think that's not true. It's only people who are thinking who don't know how the game usually works to be honest
Are you going to be the star player today then?
We'll see, maybe in some positions, yeah.
Thank you, good luck.
That nerd hit with really clicking heads, while seeming to have a great chemistry already.
I mean I agree.
They just hit all their shots on train.
G2 finds a witness to one map era.
Exited in.
The G2 map is still super thin.
G2 just dropped the veto.
Inferno was free.
Mongols have a terrible Inferno.
We should ask boss man about that.
G2 whenever in advantage round, they panic and start
jumping like idiots, like.
Yeah, I mean.
They're a bit for check.
Sometimes this, sometimes it happens probably.
Every time I went all in with G2, they shit the bed.
Unlucky.
Only man with balls on high, you know G2 will win this.
Minus balls, Paz win. G2 strat book.
Hunter might be the best Kovac currently.
I said it, better Kovac Insta after first clutch when we played off.
So, looks like he missed the final boss right here.
Okay.
How can heavy god and matthews be so consistent?
Those two are truly elite players.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Manga will eat heavy god for breakfast as bra.
Nobody except heavy god can eat that much.
I agree.
Is he correctist?
I agree. I agree.
Hellywood is so overrated.
He has one type of kiosk, crouch and spray.
I agree.
You know where Hellywood is because he just missed some bullets.
But you don't know this comment.
Hellywood saved us. True, true.
Dai Wu Matisse is a fucking machine.
I can't believe Matisse stuck on Fnatic for years.
Matisse tried to help, but ended up cosplaying as a sandbag with 617.
Yeah, I don't even remember this mix up. Thank you.
I had 617.
He was used to only playing online banana caps for fronting, so I get it traveling is tiresome at first.
He can take a man out of CCT, but he can't take CCT out of him.
Probably Betty, yes.
I agree, I agree.
Mati's first time ever on Overpass, the guy is a totally cool as almost every round.
I don't think he's like extremely cute or something, it's probably his face.
Yeah, that's true.
That's true, that's my face, I'm angry.
Miles and Mati is farming donk.
Did we actually?
On Ancient, at least probably.
Mab's heavy god Matush is a cracked core.
Matush and heavy god shows Niko, I'm honestly, how to beat Vitality.
Niko to Jitu, I miss you so much baby, I just want to get back together with you.
Jitu, I don't think about you at all.
Let's go Jitu.
Heavy god and Hanta will humble Messi and Boltpix.
Messi and Boltpix.
Jitu means give two rounds max to Vitality.
Jitu back to reality, honeymoon is over.
Jitu suddenly forgot how to play pistol rounds though.
Vitality brought guns, Jitu brought water pistols.
Yeah, that's true.
I don't rushing be with no dorsum. I'm I watching swir's play alone. I mean sometimes you have to play face-to-prime
No, I guess for check imagine getting out front by left hand
That's in the kept in the kept back to the reality for G2 this line up is worst fluke tournament. Thank you very much. We appreciate it
Yeah, classic G2 choke
I'm here with Saw, Coach G2, and today we're looking at Ancient, the blue ones CTs, the
yellow ones T's. These are Molotovs, I know they look like players, but I need you to
pretend they're Molotovs. Flashes and smokes. Ancient is a map that has been in the pool
for a while now. You've been coaching teams on this for a decent chunk of time. How do
What do you find ancient?
Generally I like the map, but I think more recently it's gone a bit more in more like
the random direction I feel like.
Okay.
Like teams are having good solutions both sides to like fight middle and that's kind
of the key where...
But it can decide a lot of rounds like really fast and it can be chaotic and no matter how
much you try to look at it, it can be a bit tough to make like the perfect mistakes in
a way even though you have many and then it's kind of clash of freeze time calls in many
situations which can be like K or A can random in that way. So yeah, I think that's the direction
it's been going more and more. Let's present like a scenario and then I'll get your theory
on what the solutions would be, right? Obviously, some of it needs to be premeditated from spawn,
otherwise you're not in a position to do anything. But a standard setup on the T side is one
player heading towards B lane to try and make it to heaven, right? You've then got probably
player ready to pounce on elbow and maybe there's somebody with him and you're going to go two guys,
you've got somebody who's throwing the red smoke and the donut smoke and the flashes sitting back
and then this last guy could be anywhere really right like you could have a second guy ready to
throw another wave of flashes you can have him watching the B ramp as the heaven guy goes but
let's just say in this example he's watching B ramp this guy's trying to take the heaven control
you've got one player smokes red, smokes donut like we've shown here there's a cave smoke and then
and then this guy's ready with flashes, right?
They're not gonna go on first timing,
they're gonna throw them, they're gonna pop.
Somewhere there, above there.
Right, so they're gonna go on first timing,
they allow the CTs,
the whole concept of the T-Play here is,
we're gonna molly close so they can't scale and fight.
We're gonna give,
like we kind of want to channel them up heaven
because we want to catch them with flashes
and catch them on timing.
The CTs are playing close A in case of a rush
and they're playing too mid.
So CT side, Ventsmoot lands, Donutsmoot lands, what would, right, and you were saying out of spawn, let's fight Nid, but then Donutsmoot comes in.
Yeah, then I mean there's, if it's a spawn call to actually commit to the mid fight, then you're gonna commit no matter the Donutsmoot.
Okay.
As an example, but yeah, it can be, again, where was your though for it.
I put him here, but let's say that, like, let's say, even if he started A, he could flash over mid right and help.
Yeah.
It's probably not the best flashes if you would have these kind of positions if the mid guys are committing like the two cities
And you don't really have like early supportive flashes early on in the mid. So you're risking
Let's put it in a tiny bit. He's watching in there now. Yeah. I mean, this is more
Like normal where you will commit and you will either you will fully send this then the question is gonna be like are you gonna
Do like a run boost heaven or something like that?
Then again it might be also instead of op you might have a third rifle in middle
Pression is more like if you are gonna do a run boost to heaven you can cut off the
P who are is running also there. Yes, but you will get there before you run boost or if you're gonna commit more like just to
Fight on the elbow side
So both of the cities would go down and then you would charge that maybe the cave guy can get out
But if that it depends also on the T spawn like if the T spawn is playing with a good spawn
he can maybe cross it and then it becomes these small fights where the game
guy can try to get behind him after it and things like that.
So yeah, I mean there's many fights but as a CT like if the question would be
was the safest or the best way to get middle or the second?
Well it's just because everything that happened in the games that we're
spectating is we don't know what you said in spawn and we don't know what they said in spawn.
We can only just talk about the openings that we see right?
The conversation right now is to explore reactions to things because there's standard
ways of operating that people do. The way that I look at it is the tease, you want to be able
to pressure the CTs from mid-control. You don't want them to have this full lane control for free.
You want them to feel scared, to get naded, to be molly, to be uncomfortable. But you want them
to want to fight for it because if they give it to you, you're going to punish them. And then,
once they have to go heavy mid, like this setup, you're able to do an A-pop. You're able to pounce
on to A and punish that type of stuff so like the flow to the game like what you just expanded upon
here is if this guy has the the good spawn and you're doing this for mid and this guy let's say
it's the one that lands in the doorway so it's a clear channel or it's the one that lands here
it doesn't really matter this guy can pop through that smoke this guy's screaming they can cross
heaven what's the protocol for these two they're committed to the mid-fight it's just yeah that's
the luck no that's the thing that you should uh try to stick your ssvp in a way that if you okay you
You know these guys are committed to the fight, so then it means the big guys, the cave and the big guy probably want to stop this guy from getting heaven
which could be right on Mollys here and then
double HE for the best one meaning that if this guy runs the fastest way just close to the wall
Yep, he will get double HE or he needs to take more of a way close to here
does say H is and smoke it which gives one two seconds for these guys in
middle if this guy needs to slow it down and then it does depend on the smoke as
well because if they do this cave smoke then obviously you can like bounce a
molly from cave here as well and this guy usually like he would have one smoke
for this molly but then he can stop this molly and if there's double H again it
slows him down but then that's something you can't really plan from or you can
You can plan it from spawn but then it's reactive, which smoke it will be.
So that's just the theory though, like if we see this we react like this.
Yeah, and then it can be okay if they did this smoke that's more outside here.
It gives you a tiny bit more space to play a CT and then you can use that smoke to get out as well if needed.
Or potentially like also instead of smoking like if the T's do this normal curve smoke you just do like you extend the smoke with your arm and stuff like that.
But the cave guys should be ready to support them, help them meet guys in that way, I think.
You know you're against the lighter buy, maybe there's like a hero AK or there's like a
Tec-9 purchase.
You're probably not going to play this type of setup because you can get capitalised on
middle right.
You're probably going to jump like, one guy out to donut, we'll get rid of some of these
pieces of you too.
They said they still smoke red.
You're all just going to start a temple, whatever.
You have one guy who can stay behind, he can break it with a HE, he's just going to molly
you're gonna do your elbow smoke, you're gonna do your B door smoke.
For the B players though, in this type of situation, when you don't have people fighting for me,
is there a rule in your team or do you think there should be a rule
where the cave guy doesn't extend to this point?
It depends on a lot of things, but this is more where you can play reactive,
like instead of comparing when two guys to see this are running down mid,
then you don't have so much time to react, so you need to know beforehand
beforehand how you can be helped and what flashes you are getting, how you can be on
the flash.
But in this kind of like default starter you can react more, you can say like you said
this window guy can break the window smoke, get some info from there.
The cave guy can listen for this molly, are they gonna smoke it or not.
If they are not smoking it you have this space basically for the seven seconds.
The bee guy as well like well he doesn't have a lot of support unless the window guy can
have time to flash for him like backlines here. Same maybe if the A guy
depending where he starts. If he starts like let's say somewhere on site he
can flash for mid for the donut guy or for the window guy if they break the
smoke. But this info obviously should be connected with the heaven as well. Or if
he starts more close to CT he will have time to flash for against a B rush. If
there's a B rush and your B guy just doesn't instantly die and stuff like that.
So you can play more reactions from this like depending what happens if the
window guy sees them a lot in mid maybe the big guys can connect to do some
banana pushes down here and things like that or anything really based on info.
Can I ask this question I'm gonna do a setup right now so this guy's gonna be
boosted tree this guy's close man this guy's in tone up this guy's long side
This guy's cave.
Everyone has a smoke.
You're playing a block everywhere.
Is this a you creation?
Do you remember this one?
I love this one.
This is one of my favourite ancient force rounds I've seen in a while.
Because you're not all in.
You're not playing just to catch people on a timing.
You're playing a block and channel them into miserable situations.
Did you make this?
I don't remember who made it exactly because we...
But it might have been me. We probably were from Heroic.
Oh, okay.
But yeah, the point is to block with the smokes and to just slow down the round, because as a key, like, when you're playing antique also,
make sure you can risk it and do an A rush or a B rush or whatever, but then you're just flipping a coin basically.
And that's where you kinda need to make sure that this is not the only force play you do, because obviously B is a tiny bit weaker.
I've seen you try different variations with this as like a similar, like some similar spot, but with some people cheated elsewhere and stuff.
I just think one of the things, you don't put anyone, like obviously he's watching the red cross, right?
And he's gonna block it.
It's because I don't think people on the anti-force are gonna go red.
That's like less likely that people use Windows so much.
And even if they do, it's still like a somewhat far away from A and B side.
Like it would be a bit weird to do anti-ecoverages, put numbers in Windows and split A or B.
It's not so common.
And then even if you get to the window, then possibly we can have reactions where we can double up and push A.
The big guys can also double up and just cover somewhere and get them up.
Whether it's like trying to hold inside cave or if you somehow know they are like numbers in
window blocking like these backlines areas and things like that.
So that's not the biggest risk and can you also trust the tiny bit in the factor that
it's hard for them to get all the smokes out at the same time.
Like if they want to do it, they would need like one guy at the same time trying to
bully you inside cave, one guy trying to do the same endowment.
One quarterfinal down, one to go, the Touran Arena, our debut in it, it feels special already.
I can hear the roars of the crowd just after that game has concluded.
Chad and I have the luxury of bringing you the next one.
We've already locked in Fiora vs Spirit, the question is, what's going to happen in our second quarterfinal?
This one right now is an interesting one.
There's not a whole lot of data between these two teams, especially since the changes on G2.
You go back to last year, they played against each other just once with this roster in head to head.
So it's not saying that we can take too much data from it's a bit of a special match in that
It's not the mind games that you traditionally expect
I think what is interesting is the winner of this will take on vitality and we know how that went for mouse in
2025 they had 11 head to heads that only came out on top of two as a two to nine losing record and the G2
They were one of two teams who beat vitality in a best of five final
So with those matchups the potential for our semi and now's have done it
Not in the grand final, G2 have and they're back on a bit of a rise.
So as we look at this one, these are teams without household names, without superstars
trying to vie for a spot to take Vitali on in Nassemi.
Maybe it's a new year, new mouths, G2, also a bit of a sleeper pick.
I'm excited because we're going to be bringing you all of the action from the commentary booth.
So do stay tuned, can't wait to raise the roof with this one.
Pretty much time and we're going to catch up with Torsi for the jump in that server versus G2.
We're going to run it into the Falcons game just the other day, it was a thriller, you
guys had all the rounds, all the maps.
Talk to me about that series, what did you guys pick up from it?
Yeah, I think that was a really close game, 2-0 with two overtime, multiple overtime.
Our take, we took a lot of things from that game, I think it was really nice to see that
On the overtime, we could close it out and even though maybe we lost some runs, what we shouldn't lose,
we also won some runs, what we should have lost, and I think it's always nice to be on both sides of the plate.
I think mentally, we were really in the game and we were pushing all the time.
We were winning those 3 on 5s and 2 on 5s and I think that's what we take out of the game.
You split pistols, you end up in OT. Why was that Falcon CT side troubling?
I think Monasi had some really good runs especially in banana.
I think he was punishing us a little bit and I think our banana fights were not the best.
I think in families of MF where maybe if you don't control the run at the best, you will lose a lot of runs on T-Sights,
so I think that was a key point in that game and I think that's why we struggled maybe a little bit.
No pistols on Dust2, still going OT. What games like that on those long days, what do they teach Malz as a group?
I think it teaches us that we need to start the game better because we like to start the half really loosely
We lose and we don't like to lose the pistol runs but we lose the pistol runs a lot of
times lately I would say and when we get to the buy runs we always bring it back and bring
it back but sometimes if you play as a better team they will punish you you know and maybe
that you start with 5-0 on a half they can just run away but maybe sometimes we can come
back so I think it teaches us that we need to start better in the beginning of the maps
and we need to be focused from the get-go and win some pistol rounds.
Last question, Gunford, you're this.
Rather, just wanted to get your big picture opinion on the current G2 project
across the way over there.
What do you think?
I think they are a good team.
I think they are a little bit similar to Maus.
I think they have a great coach, just like we do, and some upcoming players
that they are really talented.
And I think we have a lot of similarity in this matchup.
I just feel like personally,
I think it's going to be a good game, but I know Hunter has really experienced IGN, and I'm excited to go up against him to Bernest.
Anything you want to say to the arena?
I just want to say cheers for Maus and let's go!
Va Maus, thank you very much.
Va Maus, Va Maus.
It's time to see G2 and heavy god on the big stage show.
So my first question is, how does it feel sitting here, seeing all those people?
I mean, it looks good. I just want to feel it more in the game and I'm excited for the match.
How was it walking up the iconic stairs actually, because you guys did that earlier? That must have been bucket list moments.
Yeah, I mean it's nice to see it from close point of view. I never saw it. It was my first time seeing the stairs and it looked really nice.
I hope one day my team will also be there.
We'll see how you guys start today.
Now, I wanted to ask you about how the group stage ended,
because you had such a phenomenal streak,
but then that match versus spirit
just felt like such a hard breaker, right?
How did you guys contextualize that
into good info for the playoffs?
I mean, we just, I think,
didn't close a lot of rounds for ourselves,
and we didn't play to our best, I would say.
We started like the map one,
not on the level we wanted,
and then we converted map two,
and it was a bit difficult I would say, they were better in the end because they won obviously
but it wasn't like a heart breaking, obviously it was like another quarter final for us,
that's how we set it and it was a really nice game to play against and we learned a lot from the game.
Did it change your map fito at all? Did you learn things because you of course won their map pick of
Overpass? No, we didn't change anything, we just played to our strengths and we always tried to do
it like to play to our strengths and to see like what we can do the best as a
team. What about your strengths you have to play towards to beat Maus because
it's not a team that you've had the best results against? I mean we just need to
be ourselves I would say like have a good communication help each other me
mid rounds I don't frustrate a lot and be supportive teammate and obviously be
good individually. From all of your answers I'm gathering mental fortitude
make sure that throughout no matter how many maps we see here that you all
keep the same focus, is that correct? Yeah it is, it is indeed. Thank you, good luck.
be understated. Mows need titles, and they need them fast. On the other side, familiar
with this very trophy are indeed G2, but only Hunter remains from their 2023 championship
run. Fast forward to a new era in Krakow, and new composition of G2 is his leadership
enough to bring G2 back to the top. Those are the questions we are going to be answering
over here on the analyst desk with JL, Dupree, and YNK. I just want to get straight down
to business because Janko, it's been a while since you've seen G2 and Maus go toe to toe, right?
Yeah, it's been since that great run the G2 had in London and I put in the trophy, but they did lose to Maus along the way.
That's why they started in the quarterfinals and I think a known and an unknown quantity, right?
In this quarterfinal because on one side we have Maus was a very, very, very good team that will never win an event.
And then we have G2, who struggles to make playoffs of events, but they actually already have a trophy in their cabinet, right?
So I think for G2 the problem has been getting to this stage of the tournament, you know, at the Major they fall at their last hurdle at the hands of the Falcons.
Unfortunately, in Chengdu, you know, Hunter can't play the decider game, he falls ill, so just getting to the stage again since London has been the main problem for G2, and I'm excited to see how they'll perform now that they're back here.
Are you going to take that, Peter? I know you're a secret mouse fan. Will never win a trophy.
Who was it, Mouse Fan?
I've never won a trophy. Like, did you misspeak the outcome?
I've never been a closet mouse fan. I've been straight honest about it multiple times.
You know, the thing is for Mouse, I've lost a little bit of faith.
I'm not going to be completely honest. I've lost a little bit of faith over the time because
you're right. They haven't won a trophy and they're still looking to, you know, get over the hurdle of, you know,
playing in superstars and they can actually still play their game and also, you know,
just be the team that they want to be right but it's been a struggle for them for a while and
I lost a little bit of faith because when is it when it's enough enough right when are they
actually gonna be coming to the conclusion that okay we need to do something different right now
we can see on the positive side they decided to sleep with the squad they didn't make any
changes in the offseason that clearly paints a picture that they are still looking at in a
positive way saying that we have more to give for this team we still believe that it's going to be
a possibility do you believe that do you believe like that's their decision or that someone made
the decision for them in the sense of there was changes that it could have happened but
it never really came through so then it was like...
Do you know something?
Do you know something?
I know something.
If I speak I'm in big trouble.
Yeah, I think it's a valid question.
Do you think this was a situation of circumstance or a situation of choice?
It could have been.
I mean, we're like let a little bit in the shadow.
Some people apparently know something that I don't but it's obviously for the mouse side
It's what we know, that we've got to be looking on the positive side, that it's still going to be a possibility.
They keep saying that we're supposed to be like a new mouse now, we have a little bit of a different approach.
That's what all players say when they come into a new season, we've been working on all these kind of things,
but they did manage to or decided to skip not going to Bounty, so they do come into this as the first event of the year.
Maybe not looking super solid, but it had a big scalp by eliminating Falcons in the elimination game in the group stage.
So, I think for the likes of Maus, if they don't get off to a good start this year,
then I do believe that it's due to a change.
I actually love that they stayed together as a team.
I feel like they've played great CS,
they've been great teammates to each other, the vibes are good, the chemistry is there.
It's just that the last hurdle of getting over maybe the stage pressure or
just putting the last bit of effort of actually overcoming the obstacles and getting to the trophy,
maybe they'll find it this year because they've been very close last year.
But do you buy that? Because on the other side, Mouses keeping the same roster throughout the year.
Other teams are making changes to become better. Falcons made it last year, Spirit is making it coming into this year.
Fury made those changes and ended up rising in the ranks towards the end of last year. They are staying the same while everyone else is making moves to improve.
I want to pose a question to you, because you did mention that the Falcons side, you know, you didn't, you actually liked that they didn't make a change, right?
The fact that, you know, that they actually had a good, like, results last season, they just didn't really close the finals.
Why is this a different case for the Lysimov? Because that's kind of the same thing.
I think because Falcons made much more significant changes when they did.
I think that Brolin coming in for Shui and becoming an IGL is a big change, but I don't think that the reason why they lost some of these games and didn't win a tournament
win a tournament was because Brolin doesn't have enough experience as an IGL or that he
let them down or anything related to the roster change.
In the second half of the year they lost to so many different teams as well and so many
other teams went on to win a tournament, G2 being one of them, the Mongols, Furia won
multiple in a row, right?
And they still struggled to get over that hurdle which leads you to believe that a roster
change is necessary for that to change because different players just go missing in these
key moments.
do you think it's because they're lagging like you talked about the stage pressure like I don't think it's
I don't think stage pressure actually is a matter of mouthfuls anymore. I think they've been in multiple situations now to show that they can play on the stage.
I don't think that is the issue. I want to go back to what Spain said that, you know, they had to find those two, three percent to actually perform better and they believe they could find that.
Then they would be in the case of win trophies. That's where I want to be seen in and that is why I hope that with the new mouths that they've been talking about, you know,
exertion talked about taking a bit of stick back allowing the rest of the guys to also have more
sing in the round be more aggressive have have more cards to play and always just relying on
having exertion to be a big playmaker that's why i want to be seeing if they can find more
percent if that's going to make it in the long run i don't know they still have struggles when
they come to superstars but that's why they it's good to play g2 now right i have most roster
changes and i feel like maus if you change a player on maus i feel like that there's going to come
like short-term success if you know what I mean like a short honeymoon that
makes you play a little bit better maybe you've maybe you feel like you play
better but you don't actually play better because the playbook you sacrifice
your playbook just for that honeymoon and I don't think that's the correct way to go
Philip I kind of split down the middle of the desk here because I'm kind of for
once in my life. Siding with you Yanke you seem to be putting through the logical
conclusion that when we look at the second half of 25 everybody else was able
to take the final percentages off of vitality obviously Maus managed to do
that in Cologne, that absolutely collapsed in the Grand Final versus Spirit.
Is that not something that we should be slightly concerned about?
I think you definitely should be concerned about it.
I mean, you guys talk about the 2-3%, why didn't they find them last season?
What's going to change now, coming in to figure out what it is yet?
Also, it's just time.
All these losses and all these tournaments to all these different teams, haven't been
enough for them to find 3%?
In your opinion, what is the extra 2-3% that they lack?
I think their players just don't show up in the big moments.
I think different guys take turns going missing, making mistakes, breakdowns in some rounds as well,
a la Falcons, right, like in the big moment they would go and lose a 4v2 against Vitality on a 4-spy,
right, that would turn it around.
There was that final or a game against Vitality where they're up like 11-3, 12-3 on T side,
Nuke, they can't win the game like at that point in time.
It's just finding new ways to lose games, really,
where the pressure just gets too big for them.
I don't think it's the stage or not stage,
but they just can't handle the pressure of those moments.
Yeah, I really agree with you, though,
on the fact that they cannot afford to have multiple players
go missing.
That is the core issue, I think, that is for mouse bots,
because they don't have a super start to pull the motor
finish line and win these crazy rounds
by just thinking of individual play, right?
But it also feels like mouse is aware of that.
It's also a team that they know the need.
They need everyone to be there, but the thing is, they're getting it done.
You see, you activate in my trap card, especially with JL here, right?
Because now in 2024, we're the best team in the world, right?
JL played like a superstar in key moments.
That's why he has the major MVP.
That's why he was the top five player in the world as well.
You wouldn't think of him as a superstar player, right?
But in key moments, when they would go on to win tournaments,
whether it was him, whether it was Bit, whether it was someone third,
would step up, you know?
They were a team that also has a great coach
and had a high floor and a good IGL, right?
But in those key moments, you have to have guys deliver.
And for Maus, it's been the opposite.
Like, it's just no one is sort of stepping.
And when someone does, someone else, you know,
drags the team back so much where it sort of balances out.
That is obviously an issue.
But I do still think that there's players inside this Maus team
that is actually capable of doing the things
that you just mentioned, Jail, can do like maybe that being searched and maybe that being
told here. I also think Spinks can do it. Sure, it is about finding that perfect balance
where you don't have a guy that falls so deep into a hole that he will drag the entire
team back. Sorry, that is exactly where you are.
I like that we're getting so impassioned here. Maybe something that we can agree on
though is the trajectory for G2 because obviously during the middle portion of last year there
was a huge roster changes for G2, Hunter takes over the In-Game Leadership mantle. In terms
of the VRS ranking, Janko, what we've seen, of course, a massive high getting to win Blast London,
which nobody really expected. First team that can take down Vitality and the best of five as well.
Story since then. What's it been for your perspective? Just struggle to replicate that success, right?
We talked about how they were struggling to even make playoffs of some of these big events. Sure,
and here's the thing. This can be a bit deceiving because you look at the teams that they've been
losing at these events. I mean, it's very good teams. It's the likes of Furia, the likes of Vitality,
like so the Mongols and so on and so on right but that's just it you have to be
able to beat those teams that that was the next step for them and you know they
kind of I mean they did beat the Mongols to get to this stage of the
tournament who seemed to be shaky at the moment but for G2 they'll just be happy
to be at this stage of the tournament and this is a great opportunity for them
to sort of show us what they've been working on how good they actually are
when it comes to these high-stake environments. I think it's interesting
both teams, you know, respectively decided to skip the first tournament of the year,
then move into this one. And now both teams are in the playoffs, and they go up against
in the quarter. So now it's about showing who has worked the hardest, I guess, in some sense, right?
I am also just going to be looking towards G2 as this team that needed time to settle in. And,
you know, that maybe let's be honest, it was a bit of a fluke that they won back in London, right?
And so also said that they, they didn't win off playing great Counter Strike in like tactic-wise
and having a lot of ideas and you know playing off each other it was more
like the individual firepower really excelled in that tournament for them so
it's gonna be interesting to see if they can now mix those things to be playing
even better and that's that's where I'm curious to see somebody once called
your major in a fluke jail anything about that I'm gonna be honest I really hate
the word fluke not because no surprise I mean I'm not because I think it
personal they did a little bit the main problem is it's not a fluke if other
other teams failed to close out, like, as Navi at the age of we played as heavy underdogs
to win the trophy, but then we beat every single opponent that we faced, and people
call us a fluke, like, call the other teams bad or whatever.
It's not their problem.
Just in terms of map expectation here as well, obviously the first series was very interesting
in terms of the new best conversation, I feel like Maus are one of the teams that have got
the most burned by this new iteration of the map.
Yeah, they really got.
I can't remember the last time a team was this hard done by the roster change, by the map pool change, right?
Because it's not just that, you know, their previous perma-ban is being introduced back, it's like their best map was taken away.
They really felt like they became the best train team in the world towards the end of the year, so that gets taken away.
You bring back anubis that they have never played, like in previous, when it was in the map pool previously.
So now you have to sort of pick up Dust2 again, which was your perma-ban during this train era.
And towards the end of their dust too, they actually were improving on it.
Again, teams were picking it against them a lot, so they were learning a lot.
But obviously a map that they're not going to be most comfortable on as they've been banning it for a while now.
It's clearly a little of a double trouble in this one.
And it is actually, it's kind of scary sometimes how much valid implications and how they can, you know,
affect the game by deciding what maps should go in and go out.
You know, they actually can change and have a huge deal for teams.
As you just mentioned now the fact that that that new business back, you know, it's it's that's gonna be interesting
But it's it's also just put you in a place where you just need to that's just how it is
Right, you need to be start working your way out that you can't really just sit back and cry about that
That's like the whole idea about I think I've been pretty lucky in my career that we've always
Been a little bit lucky with how they'll decide to change that map that helped us tremendously and and it's sometimes people felt that was a bit
Unfair but not about me anymore
JL, do you feel like you might have been a burns in the past by a map will change?
No, I feel like mouse are kind of struggling to close out the tournaments
They kind of have a chance to win but then valve comes in and removes their worst
Did you move to their permit band and bring up the worst map and for me?
I just I don't know it feels like a lot of things are going wrong for them
But like for my eyes, I feel like they should be really really good. Well, maybe we should see exactly how they're gonna be playing this one
Let's roll the veto. I suspect we will be sick dust you in this one
It's very very possible for G2 to go for it, right? I think for Maus on the other side
It's interesting because the punish pick would be overpassed
But that's really risky to pick, you know having to start on the T side and Maus doesn't feel a team that's there quite yet
In terms of comfort level is on the map. It's more going to be Mirage
Which hasn't been great for them statistically lately
But going back into last year has been a staple for Maus and their map pick a lot of times
either that or another one could be Inferno, which is their most played map,
but also something that G2 has had success on, especially during that run in London.
Really those prizes here in the fact of mouse, they do get rid of Anubis and G2 as their permanent getting rid of Nuke.
I think that on mouse port side, I would be looking towards Inferno.
That's been their like new go-to map. They really enjoy playing it,
so it wouldn't be a big surprise to me if that one comes through.
Ooh, actually, that is quite interesting.
But I saw the T side as well.
That can be a ball, so that's always going to be an answer to C.
So for the G2 side, I think there was multiple options.
I feel like it could go either in direction of ancient or map,
that the mouse balls hasn't been playing that much.
They played it twice since they were at the major or something.
So it looks like a map that they had their issues with.
Okay, they actually go for the 2.
Everything's just turning into a little bit of a curveball here.
I think if they pick Dust2, they can still get the Ancient as the decider here.
I think that's what they're thinking.
if they don't pick Dust2, it's not going to be in the pool for the last map.
Mouse gets rid of it, so between Inferno and Mirage,
we see Mirage as the decider for G2.
Is there a clear winner in this region?
I think this map who leans a little bit towards G2, in my opinion.
I think it all depends on the overpass pick.
It all depends on how Mouse will do an overpass.
It will either turn out to be a brilliant call or a disaster for Mouse,
because always there's the danger of G2 getting rolling on the CT side.
They were able to beat Team Spirit on it in that upper bracket game,
so I think for Maus, if they don't win Overpass,
I think they're in a lot of trouble and then G2 will probably close out the series.
No doubt about it. That's got to be something they've spotted to be utilizing,
the Spirit game is the most recent one that they played against them,
so obviously there's stuff to be looking at,
and maybe they found something they can abuse,
That is what we see sometimes, you know, you also got to surprise your opponents a little bit in the video
So maybe a curveball here, but as I meant as you mentioned, yeah
I think it really comes down to how mouse comes rolling onto the 2d to overpass and starting in the T side
You know, we've seen that a call times throughout the event that that can that can cause some trouble
So yeah, I think we are in for a banger. It's just funny hearing Torjie talk about how I get into the games too slow
I mean we pick it up in 10 rounds, but we need to have better starts and then you decide to start
These side overpass, you know, on the stage, bro, you really need to turn it around.
If there ever was a time to turn it around, it's now.
Let's talk about some of the individuals then, because when we were, you know, discussing
their tutorial about the theme for this matchup, but I think the one that really stands out
is there's no clear start on either side of the equation, which does mean you have to
look at some of the individuals to be bringing an array game, and I think we should start
by talking about exertion, right?
I caught up with him on a media day.
He's taken it very personally in terms of his level, dropping off coming into these crucial
games. He's said to me multiple times, I am taking this on full force. It's my responsibility
to show up in the playoffs here.
He's like this player that really has understood that how important it is to have your group
stage confidence, bringing that into play, but actually not really converting it. And
he took it a lot on himself. And I think he feels a lot of responsibility in terms of
not making better results because he is the playmaker, the playmaker on the
mouse side and he has been a very important piece for them in a long
time both when it comes to making plays but also coming up with ideas hyping up
the team but also just the way that you know he creates space for the rest of the
team and exertion is alongside Ronald probably two most aggressive players
they have in that team. You're not gonna be seeing Spinks and Jim Fett doing crazy shit, right?
That's what I mean, right? That is also what I think I hope that they have
kind of realized and he said in his interview that he needed to take a step back to allow the rest
of the team to also feel that they could make plays the one because you need to have more cards
you need to be able to have more plays that can do this because otherwise your opponent's not going
to know exactly what's bad because every time they would eliminate the exertional boundary thinking
oh they would just have to deal with the flanks right it's like looking at spear on shiwei if he
doesn't go for the openings with the orb then he's really going to be you know just red and we know
exactly where he's going to put it so i hope that this new look or at least the realization of the
of the new look we think Mouseport is in right now, that it actually shows in this game
because one thing is mentioning it, one thing is then you need to show it as well.
I think it's also a matter of, you could see him throughout last year trying different
things, right, when it comes to some of these stage games, there was definitely a period
where he was trying to do too much to sort of prove that he's going to play exactly the
same like he does in groups, you know, doing sometimes silly things like pushing through
the bottom banana smoke, you know, on the CT side against 4, his body just to show he's
He's not scared and things like that where now it's doing more harm than good.
So it's been a case of finding that balance and seeing what works and understanding how
to approach these stage games.
Exactly the issue as you mentioned.
Like he wants it too much sometimes, at least he keeps up with what he's doing in group
stage, right?
But also about realizing when do I have to taste that fact?
When is it doing more harm than good?
And that is the thing that I need, he needs to learn.
I hope that this is a year that he might do that give us your take on that jail
Do you agree with that sentiment? Oh, yeah, a hundred percent. I feel like
No, I don't know we are hundred percent
I feel like some of the some of the times when players come to the playoffs they feel stressed
They feel like they need to they need to do something extra and I feel like that's a complete opposite work session because he values playoffs too much
You just continue playing the way you played in the elimination games in group stage games and just be yourself
Don't try to be anyone extra you don't have to carry the whole team on your back
You just have to do your own job and your teammates will ping Pekong off of you.
But this might sound counter-intuitive.
It's not always that we have to look inside the server for the kind of star, right?
And I think that's very adequate for G2.
We're looking at the supporting staff around them.
Who else stands out for your money on the G2 side, Peter?
I mean, I think I'm mentioning if you look a little bit outside the team,
I think Sao is going to be extremely important when you look at the team.
If you look inside the team, I do think that also Matt is the one to look after.
I think he's proven a lot.
Saul you know was his history and ends what he created with that team then he was brought into heroic what he did with that
Team and now picking it into G2 and I mean sure they won a trophy last season right but they're still most approved
But if there's one guy if I could like a pick a coach that I think would actually do really good inside of this type of team
I think Saul could be that for it right here. He's a guy that likes the system
He's a he's mentioned as bus man in all his teams like people they you know
They really respect him and he has an idea and he wants to follow that that you to the door
or he wants to make sure the players know exactly how much he wants to play.
But he also is, I hope, good at allowing the players to have that freedom that they also need.
Why are we doing him dirty with that trophy count, though?
My man's like, the whole point is he's doing more with less, right?
Look at the teams that he's had, the players that he's had on Ants on Heroic.
He's always been able to get those teams to outperform the expectations, really, right?
And now on G2, he probably has the best team that he's ever had in terms of talent
and already leading to a trophy win.
So, I think he's just great at making the team more than the sum of their parts.
Great for Hunter, who's a first-time IGL,
to play in that sort of a structure, to have a lot of tools
to be able to in-game lead on a high level.
And as we said, these teams emulate each other a lot.
They're very similar.
So, the same questions we have for Miles,
those are the same questions we, to some extent, have for G2.
When it comes to these games,
who are going to be the guys that are going to carry a bit more of the load?
I think Hunter absolutely is a player who's proving himself on the big stage.
How much space is there still for him though, now becoming the IGL?
That's what we'll have to see.
I really hope that we get to see Hunter being this big gameplayer that he's kind of always been like.
That he still has this in him even though he's in the leading.
Sure, it's going to be way different, right?
But if he can feel that the team is still so young, right?
Some of the players haven't really been making this kind of runs at big tournaments yet.
He's still looking to have that much he's been.
I hope that really shines through. I hope that he will go in and if he can feel that there's any like doubts or any hesitation from the players
And he will be the fun figure to go leading them
I think that's that's that's gonna be very very important to you too just in terms of that
You know you're talking about the openers in terms of aggression his impact
What about more for your role than jail the closers on both sides of the equations?
What do you what do you make of those there you go with one of my favorite players like he's so versatile
He can go aggressively he can be in your face
he can be pushing you, he can stay back and just hold angles and you never know what to expect of him.
And to compare him to Yimha, I think Heavy Goat is gonna come out on top here.
I mean, I'm just a big fan of this, I'm honest.
We all love a little bit of Heavy God, right?
I really think that him coming into the team being such a solid Ankh has also just been very, very important for G2.
I think Heavy God has just proven over the last couple of months that he's here to stay, right?
And I'm even in the consideration that if the heavy-guard
continued delivering that he is,
that other teams might be interesting, right?
He's playing positions that is so hard
to recreate what he's doing.
So he's also gonna be very important.
And he puts a lot of, I wouldn't say
put a lot of pressure on himself,
but he puts expectations on himself.
But I feel like he's doing it in a way
that he kind of looks up to it.
And I think that's very important.
Yeah, I think absolutely.
I mean, definitely Rob, the top 20, you know,
this year, I don't know how a guy can be top three
his position in a final is for Closer of the Year or Anchor of the Year and not be a top 20 player,
but I think for G2, they're actually a player of this tournament. It's some pious. We have
all this conversation about everyone else, but everyone's been close to each other. Hunter had
a great tournament outside of a stinker against Spirit in that final game, and I think this is
just going to be an awesome series for G2 to prove themselves and to show what they've been working
on and for some of these players individually you know Malb's had a great year when Iqo
and Monace were there sort of finding ways to get back to that level to some extent but
Matus too I think he's been a revelation bringing him in from Fnatic the thing about G2 they're
all of their rifles are so versatile like they had to play so many different roles before
and that's perfect for a coach like so on his system because you don't really need to
depend on, you know, a certain player doing one thing, like, anyone can do anything depending
on the situation. Oh, now, have you got needs to run in first? No problem. He's done that
before. Ah, Hunter's gonna have to be a bit more lurky this round. Great. He's done that
many times. So, I think it just gives them a lot of options in building the game and
when game planning against some of these teams.
Given that you have so many tools there, as you're illustrating on G2, is there a necessity
for them to have that clear start? Or is it okay that they've gone with this composition
and maybe don't have one person you can rely on always popping off?
The thing is on paper it's fine, you know, you don't need it. But like we mentioned in the
Navi case, someone within those guys needs to sort of have their moments, right? Like when was the
last time you saw a team win a tournament with, you know, no highlight plays from the players,
no crazy clutches, nothing like that. It just doesn't happen. You don't outplay your opponents,
you know in 5v5s the whole tournament long and they've had different guys step up at different times
and I think we just haven't seen them as much in playoffs so that we can really so they can really
get tested and we can get some of those answers if there's a one thing that could pitch me in a way
of of being a little bit worried is that we just get another mouse 2o right a team that is no no no
a mouse 2o that will you know go far close to winning trophies but never really put this in
I'll give anything to avoid another vitality mouse semi-final honestly.
Just say fit or spirit on the other side.
I'd be fine with mouse.
I just want to watch other of my talent's mouse so I can show you that.
You don't want the 344th iteration if that hits Hedyanko's shocker.
In terms of your perspective on this JL, do you agree that it is okay to have a composition where maybe one player pops off one game, another can pop off in another scenario?
Is that alright to be building a team like that?
Oh, yeah, 100% I think it's completely acceptable. We've seen many teams succeed like that, but
talking about the Vitality Maus in the semifinals, if Maus somehow managed to win Dust2,
they deserve to play Vitality in the semifinal, because then they're a great team, because
I don't see a world where Maus can win Dust2 against G2.
Okay.
Tell me about this overpass. That's the first map we're going to be starting on, though.
What do Maus need to do on that T-side to make sure that they're not starting off slowly as a
tool he really specified that he wanted to avoid?
I think good start is a must because too prong not just because it's overpass and it's your map pick and it's t-side overpass and
What not it's because g2 as we mentioned hasn't played on the stage with this team too many times
And if they get rolling early, you know get that momentum
I think they'll be very very hard to stop. They might just snowball the whole series get the pistol
That's like get the pistol get the conversion get that 3-0 start and I think it must be rolling
You're agreeing with that sentiment jail. You've been in the situation more than most right now
What is the key to having those hot starts?
Yes, I mean going for a punish pick, it could turn out like a really wrong way for you
because if you don't get the piss loading, you kind of look at the force or the antiforce
and then you lose the map somehow and then you have to go on to Dust2.
I hate my win.
That's dangerous.
So is there a clear favor for your money or is there a clear expectation, Yankei, for what we should be seeing?
No, I think it's going to be a very, very close series.
mouse has the experience on their side but g2 just feels like the more exciting
team at the moment what yeah I'm going mouse just say we got a couple of
minutes share with us your shock why are you so shocked at that statement I
mean like I it's exciting about I tell me what's exciting about mouse that the
resource last year there was still second place is an exciting we're so close
again in your trophy still right you know you can't overlook how they how
how exciting or how difficult it is to get to that part, right?
They just need to get it over the things that I still believe.
And I know you just picked G2, but I'm going to keep my hands on mouse.
Same here.
Yeah, it all depends on the overpass.
That's my vote goes from us.
I think, I don't know.
I think you bring up an out point, but second place, when it consistently
happens, or even third to fourth, right, we can't deny that it did have
a bit of a drop for miles in the tail end of 2025, even on home soil for Torsi,
right? He had everybody cheering against it.
It was a sight to behold.
He's done the unthinkable.
It's pretty menacing.
But it doesn't breathe that same excitement of, okay, maybe this time we see the run,
because I feel like we've invaded into that situation so many times before, right?
Leslie, if anything, that's the best example of why, you know, I have no faith in Maus.
As you could have lost to, I don't know who it was, you lose to FaZe Clan.
Have you seen FaZe Clan at this tournament?
Have you seen them at any other tournament, except for that major?
They made them look good.
Like that those are the sort of unforgiving losses really for mouse, you know
Like if they ended up and lost us the semi finals to vitality again, you wouldn't be surprised
But that was just felt like final nail in the coffin for that lineup, but
Alas look at us
I don't know. I just I just love that we that we pyro such notice like we're going over again to show that's fun
Right, it's a but and I don't see it anywhere that that mouse is not supposed to be the favorite in this one
sell me very shortly on G2 then. It's all well and good, pounding on mouse. Give me a really
shorter elevator pitch as to why you should be starting with G2. I think they're just
very excited, excited to be here at the moment as well and they've lifted the trophy before.
They know what they're capable of. They don't have that emotional baggage and everything behind
them, right? They've had six months with this lineup. Now is the moment where they sort of
start wrecking some results up and show us how far this roster can go. Well, either way,
We're going to need every single individual firing on all cylinders if they want to submit their place in IM legacy.
and
That's the main thing about music
We are smart, let's play
All righty then here we go welcome to the Intel Extreme Masters Winter
Championships. Crackle, how we feeling? Oh man I am feeling viby, I know that a new
city a new era the same trophy but this is what it's about now what we need to
know ahead of this second quarter final is is we louder than the last place so
My friends over here, let me hear you!
Not bad!
My friends over here, let me hear you!
That was good!
My friends at the back in the belly of the beast, let me hear you!
That is what it's about.
This great arena about to witness a second semi-final.
The teams, well one of them, they got it all.
They got the players, they got the skills,
they got the plays what they don't have according to one man who may well be in
this building is attitude that is what they need who they take on as a team if
you looked at this trophy you look at 2023 you will see a team's name of that
team that lifted this beautiful iconic oldest trophy in all of eSports only
one remains he's gone from superstar to Greenhorn IGL is it enough we're about
to find out. Are you ready to meet the teams? I said are you ready to meet the teams? Please
Please welcome XG2!
They were one round off making it straight through to this stage instead they're playing
every moment of this tournament here in Krakow.
Does that make them battle-hardened or does it make them tired?
We are about to find out.
It is time to meet their opponents.
Scrako, let me hear you!
It's mouse!
Last year, 2025, they were a bright maze in 2026.
It's time to see that you're one better.
I put a ring on my finger.
This is what it's about.
This is why we are here.
This is what it is going to become, a place in the semifinal.
But who's going to win it?
I want to hear from you.
Is it G2?
is a mouse! One more time, is it G2? Is it mouse? It's time to get it on!
a trophy built only for the best hunter knows exactly what it takes to hoist it but this
is an entirely different ball game this is an entirely different G2 to that of 2023
and to pre he needs every weapon in his arsenal to be razor sharp.
It really looks like the crowd has made their decision who they are going to be cheering
I want to see a mouse that fights a mouse that puts the word to the test
They will go into the server and show that new new look mouse that we can bring things into perspective
Show that they want to show that they can find these last two three percent to make them owe that finishing line on the other side
G2 a team that has now been together for quite a while now
It's time for them to show that what they have been working on really comes to fruition
Maybe they change, maybe they got a paint job Freya, but it's the same old busted up engine inside
I think this crowd is booing them for a reason
I'm not sure mouse has what it takes to turn things around for them G2 might not be the biggest of opponents for them
But they might just have enough in the tank to take them down
But Dupree you can't deny there have been chances after chances after chances for mouse to win us over and prove
Exactly that they are capable of lifting trophies. Are those chances not running out for you?
I mean of course you could say that it's running out
But still there is some belief in the team the team has stuck together
They know that they have what it takes now they need to prove they need to prove that they are still built for greatness
And that they can still find success with this roster before it's too late
You know Hunter better than most Gianko
What do you think he's saying to the guys in that huddle before getting into the first map?
No fear. Just play your game. Don't be afraid to go for moves, talk, help your teammates
have good energy, cheer each other up, right, and just believe in yourself.
And I feel like that's what Hunter brings, right?
It's not only the leadership he's able to impose, but the fact that he's able to lead
by example.
We've seen him popping off in the group stage.
Absolutely.
He's a guy who's not going to be afraid to call his own number, right?
If he sees that the players are a little bit quiet, that they're maybe struggling,
the nerves are getting to them, he's going to be the first one to go in.
He's going to create the space for his players to thrive in.
The next Chronicle in this epic is Poise to be Written.
It's quarterfinal time here at the Intel Extreme Masters Crack-Off.
It's G2 vs. Nowes.
Good evening, Crack-Off!
2nd quarter final, about to commence.
The Intel Extreme Masters, playoffs, counter strike.
This is where that pressure gets amped up a whole lot.
The Desk has set the scene.
On this stage, we separate the boys from the men.
On this stage, we separate the good from the great.
Under the bright lights, in front of Counter-Strike's
biggest fans, and mouths of chosen
to take us to overpass the start,
the Desk say it's a must win.
Let's find out if they've got it.
Overpass, map one.
Second quarter final crack off, let's go!
Well, temper expectations early.
to the left. Not only do we have
a tech pause, but this is
overpass. It's going to be a
slow roll out the gate, so we'll
get this one sorted. And it
kind of falls into that similar
conversation about the risk of
picking a map like this is you
start on the unfavorite side.
You're picking this and you're
forced to start on nobody's
favorite tea side overpass. That
comes down to a punish. We
It's not a concern anymore for
miles. It's the big ones. It's the
grand finals where this team can go
missing.
Yeah, typically the quarterfinals
somewhat of a shoe in for miles. You
expect to see them on semi-final
Saturday. You're talking about shoe
wins traditionally. They go straight
through the groups at no issue, no
need to play two best of three's in
the same day. That is the difference
make out for miles this time around.
It's the first time they haven't
against Falcons, both being overtime affairs. They've got that taste of pressure before they've
stepped out on the stage. I see. There's already a difference on that path here.
This is icing out the start to this, isn't it? Everyone walks out, they get the cheers of the
crowd, they're ready to go, they take their seats down this beach, and now you sit in quiet.
to get. Yeah, but this is
when the mind can wonder.
Sometimes it's better to just
get straight in a new venue for
these gentlemen to digest. It's
bigger. Sold out stadium. As
these guys put on a show playing
their very favorite game. All
to get the ball. Both of these
teams skip bounty for going to
warm up focus on preparation for
a hot start in crack off.
Pistols to throughout stage one
stage so it's a bit more 5050 for
now as it's in about 35% and
they're heavy over towards be
the molly smokes and flashes a boatload of those
As it would just be a three-man B defense
So they want to take this short control first off of Brawlin's flashes
Then they will have that staging area of short get a bounce molly in smoke over to what's heaven in a way you go
Gonna take it silently
It's all about his jump spot. How many numbers does he get here's the commitment surprises?
Target heavy got loose his vision the flashes the flames could it be too much to handle masses has done well gets one
Dips away, but look at Jimmy push it through the Molotov nothing from him
Rollin and Spinks have given them the advantage
Mowbs needs that clean headshot and he does provide it takes down brawl and the bomb now down and erecting a boost could be good
Not gonna be able to spot anyone out. That's info now for Spinks two kills deep into the pistol from him
Torgy with the reroute.
Plenty of time. 45 seconds on the clock.
No need to rush this situation for either side.
Maus need to get that bomb and start the plant.
Maus has got another opportunity. Spots out Torgy's short.
Pursh nice from Spinks, a third kill.
In form to start off.
Anticipates Maus' position as well.
It's all Spinks!
Stunning start, wow.
Yeah, he's the player in this team that knows what it takes to win.
Obviously done in that vitality jersey once upon a time.
Wasn't so happy there, but definitely picked up some silver wet.
He can rock up in the quarterfinal.
Might be going to push them over the line with a bit more ease,
but good trade work on the way in.
Sping some sharp shooting there.
This one's massive, Olivier had so much pressure
that he could turn the attention towards heaven
while the bomb's going to go down
and then Mavs has so much to worry about.
Nice, Lothan, good job, bro.
And Casual with that one, our mouse.
We talk about the T-Side being a tough start,
especially with an arena game, but they're breaching this, they're going to fight.
There's a big brawl coming, 5-7 to MP9, swinging in to potentially their demise.
He's got an AK, he's got Brawlin in support as well.
Mattis is going to be blinded off, doesn't happen.
Ooh, the tracking, not there, Brawlin's nailed it.
Already this force by looks to fall flat, some pirates are already catching flak,
And that Mk10 will finish off the job, chased down by the Galil.
Hunter hoping for an overstep here, but they're just going to let that smoke fade,
and Tertian will find him eventually.
Wow, this has been a flawless second round.
Can they keep it that way?
Only Malphite could put a little blemish on the record.
Not going to happen!
You're going to have to be careful with that moment. The pistol was tough, but this one a whole lot easier. Now you are up against the eco, but picking over past knowing that you're going to start on this T side to map where you really get to control the tempo. You have this and you have inferno two maps that play very, very slow.
picking over past knowing that you're going to start this T side to map where you really get to control the tempo.
You have this and you have Inferno, two maps that play very, very slow.
We do advert tech, so not live.
Two of those in the first two rounds of play. So one before we even got going, but
we're going to expand the conversations. G2.
Sure, they won London last year, but this is a team that has very limited stage experience with the five-man roster.
You've got your punters and your sympiasis of the world who have tasted it a little bit more.
Firmatus alongside of Heavy God,
those are names that are hoping to become some of the future if you're G2.
And both have had great output, both are very good pieces.
This time the tech is with Torgy, so bear with us.
Well, on the topic of Heavy God, I've just found his gameplay very inspiring.
He's winning impossible rounds, he seems like a very valuable member of any team.
I think it's a good thing. It's
a good thing. And just
consistency. You know, that's
typically one of those hard
things to have and master.
It's got it. Yeah, it's not an
easy position to play whatsoever.
But it did sound like there was
a very clear crowd favorite
when OJ was doing a temperature
check. Was it mouse booze? It
sounded like booze. These guys
trophy on Polish soil. That might do some convincing.
Alright, looks like things are all sorted now.
Back under where we go, and hopefully no more of those.
Couple of light investments coming into this. A few pistols upgraded.
Some key pieces of utility, Hunter.
With a monster smoke lobbed out early.
That's with a HE and Hunter with a flash.
So there's always an idea for G2, the same for Maus.
Both of these teams play very good team counter-strike, but we know what mouse can offer on this stage.
Remember, it's just the grand finals that are the problem.
G2 are still learning.
Talking of still learning both teams with relatively new captaincies.
Roland and Hunter both developing that skill live before our eyes, and it does look like Sphinx could be padding some stats here.
Exertions there, they're joking already.
How many's he got?
Just the double, Jimmy and Zershin sweep the rest under the rug.
Okay, we need to reflect upon the match the other day against Spirit for G2.
Malm's was the fire starter, right?
He was very aggressive, taking fights in connector, aggressive towards A.
He has the support of St. Pius.
Have you got to be dealing with monster?
You're going to have matters to deal with short,
and then you're rotating in-game leader of Hunter between the sides.
But they need to get going and early.
So, do I have any fight in them?
If I tell them the awaits in that semi-final.
to get the ball in the back.
There we go again. I heard the
type in and, uh, third times the
charm they say. One more time.
This is not what you want. If you
G2, you really want to start
getting stuck in and the fact
has been so stopped. So this is
with Torgy the headset is off. We
won't talk about what the buys
were starting to reflect. Make
sure we hold off that
information as we do have a
mic problem with Torgy. We need
to get that sorted. You're
getting with your team in
Counter Strike. I've been
playing a lot of plugs lately.
Not something you all do, but
You know, start talking to one another.
Certainly a good start.
See, I have no trouble with the talking.
It's the shooting I struggle with.
I struggle with both, but OK.
A lot of limited data to go off in this one
between the two teams.
Now, not only to start the year, both to skipping bouncy,
but the head to head.
We have these matches and playoffs
that we are constantly seeing throughout 2025.
This one we only caught once with these two rosters.
you were talking about, yeah, the short tenure of Brawland as an in-game leader. Well, it's been a year now, right?
It was literally this event, the IEM winner championship back in Katowice, where the change was made, right?
They had a bad start to the year, Shuri goes out, they wanted to bring in Spinks,
they had to use one of their Academy players, Zellex. They have a terrible placement there, but from that point, with these five players in the server,
it's been a pretty damn good run from Maus. They were the most consistent team outside of Vitality in 2025,
making playoffs of every event that they attended most of the time especially in the format offered up at IEM events going straight through whether that be the quarter or the semi but having no issues having to play two best of three's in a day.
So it's 14 events, five grand finals, one trophy that was at Cluj, seven top four placements and two fifth to eighths.
Well that's consistency in another way.
So this roster, we know that they can definitely deliver deep runs. They play class counter strike. It's a very solid set of players.
For whatever reason, they don't seem to resonate with the audience.
G2 have that highlight of London we previously mentioned and outside of that.
Well, not a lot.
No, it's been a long time between drinks for G2.
I think it's one of those scenarios where maybe it came a bit early.
That was the potential of the team that we got to sight in that moment
being the first to beat Vitality in a best of five grand final.
That's something to take with you to know that there is the chance that this team can deliver.
There's some really strong pieces on G2 as well.
And, you know, this is just the first step, only having to overcome the big bad,
waiting in those semi-finals or waiting the victor.
Yeah, that's the. Big issue for
mouse. Yeah. That's some more
numbers to throw your way. I
love them. What do you got as a
two to nine losing record in
series throughout 2025 for
mouse versus vitality. It flipped
in the second season. It's two
two. If you look at the second
season, I think they prefer and
I prefer that framing. Okay, and
you got a cologne. Mounds be
vitality in the semifinal there.
That's a massive win. So I think
that record, team versus team.
31 maps played, 22 lost maps, only 9-1.
If it isn't a win, it's a lesson.
Well, they've been doing an awful lot of learning.
This is where you want to see an attitude era
start to develop for Maus.
So, going to test his microphone now.
Hope everything is working and we are back live again.
Hold your breath.
Not making any promises around here,
but freestyle is starting to tick down.
So, we can get this one underway.
Rifle round number one, had the pistol came down to a 2v2.
Forced by nothing for G2.
The eco, a few ideas, but still nothing to note.
Now we get into the gun rounds,
where Sampias and Torgie both bring out the AWPs.
I'm going to try and get him out of the way, but I'm going to try and get him out of the way.
Very reserved early. First wave from Malz, they block bathrooms that's road divided but they are doing a second wave
That's just been deployed now and landed. Malz has called the rotation back over, some pirates will join him and
in tow will be Hunter
So not being risky at all, Malz. I don't want to give over an opening pick to an aggressive Malz
It does look like a test is coming Malz and some pirates is set up way
And they've got all the map control they'd like. The only thing to add extra for Maus right now would be short control
They need to start working on bathrooms and they've just grabbed long. This is looking very likely to be an A finish
Now I'm just searching
Can he disrupt this?
He certainly found the fight he wanted. No trade as well. Manages to dip away on that low HP. Some pyros on high alert
Bronnan was tucked with the bomb there, hoping for an overextension from his rival AWPer.
Torji throwing out the nades, some pyres hoping to catch him on the punish.
Neither of them connects the initial shot. It spinks the finish off the job, pulls them level with 15 seconds in Mattis.
Golden opportunity on this blank. He takes his time, finds the headshot. Awkward for Maus.
Just Torji and Spinks and there's just simply no time. They're not going for it.
Back in the way, G2's first opportunity on the guns. And it will be theirs.
the game. It's going to be a
little bit of a loss. It's going
to be a little bit of a loss. It
goes down to Spinks that
finances are going to be a
problem for the CT short. That's
their round. But the fact
there is three players drops
going to be a little bit more
difficult right now. Hunter
and heavy God can drop some
guns across, but someone will
be operating with a little bit
lighter and considering maps
just found you the open up. You
don't want him on an MP nine,
but I've got bad news for G2
fans.
So maps causes the chaos a
So Malmstall will actually be into a Famous. Still not the best weapon for the job,
but better than the MP9 he had previously equipped. Both Orbs out again, short aggression this time.
Seems like a clear game plan, doesn't it? G2 wanting to fight for this territory early.
So on that second round... Oh, they break! Opportunity squandered! Sunpire set up to succeed and doesn't.
He's going to be a weird fight, Torchy's ready for it, oh the fan mass does connect!
Close already. Yeah, there is a way he can turn this on its head, but it's gonna require some mechanical brilliance
They're aware of this. I think maps just heard him bombed down very deep
Ginny and Zershin need to find their way out of this. There's no way to get the bomb it needs to be frags
G2 give them opportunities
Looks like maps will straight from on out the bubble big left and right and good night
That's clean massive push there by heavy God very impactful throws the round into disarray and it's a sharp shot from Mattis
That's what you need energy to. We know these players can shoot. That's not the conversation.
It's feeling more comfortable in this environment. They play class Counter-Strike. These are the type of shots
that you would love to see some pines hitting on a consistent basis. Right, here's a supportive
AWP. He throws a lot of U2, but we know in the big-stage matches, remember him in an
Enns jersey, he is a beast. And that Ramadis is massive as Heavy God lets out a raw tactical
time out called. Cyclo on the mic. It's always you knew how important that fighting
against Maus would have been. Cyclo wanting to get on with a quick chit chat before they
run out of finances. They already have three on the T side. If they're able to get four
or five, neither the money is still right where they want it for G2. So this is a very
important roundup next. G2 win this, roll tied up, but then it will have to be Maus
going into an eco, and that lost bonus starting to build. So how can they insert themselves
into a bomb site to get that down to keep more buys flowing, keep the threats, keep G2 on high alert.
Now he had to be here for some pies.
It does not look like Malus is going to be in more aggressive stance.
He's beating the timing on the torch.
He mollied out.
Mollied out.
Mollied arrives. He slips off.
He forced wide.
Malus is in trouble, but a missed shot.
He gets away with his life once more.
Supported flash to their good team play.
Some pice making sure that's a possibility to get out, but Malm's is very low, down to 32 points of health, and he hasn't even seen anybody just yet.
So he's gonna feel like a bit more pressure for Ginny if Skinks doesn't have short water control.
He has to worry about a little bit more as he goes to the motions.
Seems a task 4, have you got imminent?
on the fade of the smoke, Torgie's going to be hoping to catch them exposed toes.
Hunter's not with them right now either.
Reblocked.
So we're going to come down to the timing of these flashes.
Are they anti? Do they get caught?
The infamous nose flash, Heavy God is going to be eating that.
Yeah, gets vision back.
Sprays some more.
What's going to save both of them?
His match is good for it, but now eats the flashbang of his own.
Still gets vision in time.
Puts down another.
He's in every damn shot.
Three kills from Mattis.
And sending Torji tailed between his legs for the orbs save.
Now this kid's class, right?
He's got some kind of good aim.
He also very good with the decision making.
Maybe a newer name for most, but I think people definitely
noted his performances when he was wearing that fanatic jersey.
And his aim is sharp.
So shuts them down together.
A little bit sketchy there for heavy copper.
He did his job.
Slows them to choke point.
Mattis then activates rotation, comes in, and at Torgie looking to hold onto this AWP.
I think they need to get to him in time, and as Mattis starts flying up and...
He is on a lift.
Ah, he's gonna run at a time on this one.
Three, two, one...
Torgie survives.
Okay, so there's still a weapon into the next. The bomb doesn't go down.
There's 2,900 losses, but a big smile on the face of Mattis right there.
That's so far, I think.
That leads to Heavy got into Mattis with a cleanup crew.
This is what we're talking about when Heavy got to the server,
the understanding of the situations he needs to play and the output that he's able to provide.
Jale saying that he feels a player like Heavy got breaks the matter of the positions he plays,
always with an answer.
So the hot hand for Maddox is, the bunny is broken, but it's all throughout the problem.
Now if they don't save this again into the next, the all will be limited for Maus.
There's a chance he gets the fight here.
This is the first round, Mubs has decided to start Connen.
East Weeks on house, flash for success!
Hunter, eight mobs and a double kill to start things off, and that all is gone.
Teamplay is singing right now for G2, and that is key.
Shows that they're not feeling the nerves, the comms aren't chaotic,
they're playing off of each other, the ideas are there.
This is really nice signs early for G2.
And now you get the info on exertion's position.
No reason to give him the fight, he's so desperately once.
Brolin has managed to at least retrieve that sniper from Torji's corpse.
The mission change is a bit right now.
Maus, how many kills can you get?
And G2, how clean can you keep it?
Start building that bank, you know?
This is the save-dote with the eco.
Deal with this one, there's a few casualties as possible.
Oh, you're back, and oh, an AWP does sound off on long side.
Maus, lucky to get away with that.
It's a wrap so far in Krakow for G2, 14 maps in total, this is number 15. Stage 1, stage
2, now the playoffs. Here and that.
You hunt for that and all the timing from
He was just looking at it
Spinks turns away Matt is peace on two and it's five aligned for G2
I'm beautiful. They've got the AWP
That's a pick down up we throw it over to some pious and they'll keep that one flowing now
There will not be a towards you AWP the finances went up there on his teammates and because he can get me lost bonus
He'll be having to operate with something a whole lot lighter, but this is beautiful. This is the counter strike that you like
It's not a dry swing, it's not just a player running in, YOLO, this is teamwork.
And you can see this from Torch's beard, the solar-blind white screen, then dead.
The saved AWP gets nothing.
So now one's gonna start breeding some frustrations.
But remember, three rounds T side overpass already because of the pistol with conversions.
This is Aggie.
Hyper aggressive.
And no, they're not against an AWP, so they can take these liberties.
Yeah, Torch, yeah, he was unprepared for that.
There's no way you're expecting to see two CTs in the playground.
Might as well force your hand to look and do a pick for B.
Spinks will start searching. He's so proficient at these kind of jewels.
That's the fight he's waiting for, Mattis loses his head.
Heavy God, got a lot of work to do considering the block smoke hasn't thrown it out yet.
Now get run down. Spinks is going to spin down.
He's not ready. Collins found him. They're into the site.
Needed that. Can't hit the shot. Hunter just the one.
Malus of C's control of the bombsite now losing another surprise.
Oh, to the Crest, Malus however.
He pushes through, makes a 1v3, look a little more manageable.
This is still very tough, has to wait for the smoke to fade.
Has a kit, has a smoke of his own.
If they don't play the bomb and he can get into the side, he does have an opportunity now.
Spinks will stay at the pillar.
Starts his investigations.
Not being given anything.
Audible to spinks.
Set to collect now.
That smoke on the bomb looking to force the fight.
He gets what he's looking for, but now that 18 HP,
five seconds of views. How would it possibly go wrong?
Sasha's not letting that go.
You were saying three's pretty good. How about four?
Problem, again, and we had the same thing happen for G2
in one of their earlier rounds, but for Maus,
they lost everybody.
Exertion goes down with the ship in that situation,
So the literal high end is 3.9k.
That is gonna make this next rifle round very, very difficult.
So yeah, you feel like you lost even though you won.
That's why Cycrans taking this time out.
They need to work out what type of a round
that they're able to piece together.
There will have to be emissions, right?
You're not gonna be able to go firepower heavy.
Your players with 3.9k, they can go AK flash.
But do you want Galil with full U2?
You know it's very difficult to take map control without it.
So looking like they are going to get a little heavy.
Yeah, it makes sense. It's just going to be up against the, you know,
bells and whistles fully bought up G2.
Yeah, so it could have been a whole lot worse for G2.
They do get this opportunity now as we are getting play back underway.
What's the opening move?
Some bias had a little look towards the fountain and he has to hit one.
He's going to have to hit this shot. Tickle down, hits the leg shot.
Roland walking with a limb. Jimmy again. Oh, the first play works out.
Different player, same result for Malbs.
Needs a way out. Needs to try and par that short here.
The support from his teammates is great,
but surging towards long immediately is exertion.
Trying to buy them another way out.
They were great with their response last round.
They knew that Hunter was aggressive with Malbs
and they just took their time going for B,
knowing the rotations in that Madison heavy goal
would be left on a bit of an island.
Malmstang and Connector does limit the opportunities of Malmstang and Connector to rotate easily.
That's a key fight to be winning out consistently.
It might not seem like much.
Okay, they get the opening kill, but it means that you're not able to transition as easily
as you would hope for.
And he will be able to bail out now, so he can reset the round.
Limited U-Till over to this B bombsite.
It's just Malmstang with a flash.
Have you got absolutely nothing?
Yeah, we've seen heavy-god handle these flashbangs before.
Mattis as well with a supportive one to try and get some answers.
He'll swing one out, spots nothing.
A confirmation of presence.
It's in the walk.
Have to come down.
Flash is surely dead.
Howdy managed to do some damage.
Spinks does find an equalizing frag.
It's Malbs however ready, ready to receive.
Mattis will swing off as well,
and it is just gonna be a feast for G2.
Comfortable frags for Malb.
Sprays of down, exertions whereabouts.
Now noted.
And 20 seconds left, that bomb on the other side of Monster.
Do you really want to save this Galil?
Try and grab that rifle if you can
and give yourself something better going into the next.
They are having a look, trying to hunt him down.
Looks like his urchin will be getting away with this.
Another round with the rifle saved, but still financial issues.
Five to four.
Malzah be happy with this half, right?
The biggest issue they have is losing momentum.
But the Flash working team play from G2, it's stunning so far.
This is Team CS that you want to see and then with a nice little flare on top of some
good aim-based moments, but again, you see the alley-oop, thank you very much, Malbs.
This is that multi-kill to secure the round from Malbs, very composed.
He's doing exactly what he did against Skirret, right?
He was aggressive, he was taking fights, finding a lot of openings.
And this is a terrible type of round to have to save,
and put the Molotov here for Senpais.
This is also a similar scenario as to what Spirit found themselves in, right?
On their T-half, they kept saving an AWP in an AK,
so they're like, well, we'll just keep buying behind this,
and you never really got to play out an awful lot of gun rounds.
I think the padding, though, puts Maus in a stronger position.
We haven't seen them play this map in their Krakow run.
Last time was back in the Major in Budapest.
I've only played four maps so this one we can add to the mix is their fifth in terms of different maps so far
How much value can they get out of this saved gun
I'm just in this forward position just facilitated by some prizes you tell
My catch brawling the exit does so nice fine now looking to run him down just
Deagles though that rifle doesn't need to find the opening because Jimmy's just
got a double Deagle entry okay Jimmy now the bomb can be planted now there's an
opportunity for more not just a couple of kills how about around golden
opportunity here can't let this one go to waste or she always let this the shot
hunter doesn't nails the headshot nose exertions long side have you got on this
flank has got a lot of work to do. Spinks both lanes down, it's a free frag on to Jimmy.
Spinks at exertion, still alive, still kicking, that clock is ticking.
He's walking straight into it. Oh Spinks manages it perfectly. Matt is in the clutch. What's
your play? What's your move? There's no way you stick it. He's got to go down to Spinks.
Maus, steal the way around and it's to Jimmy, double D to start.
That's tasty isn't it? I can show you just how thick are these setups are. You're giving
in the space and that's what you want to do against the pistols right you don't
want to be pressing up taking the fights giving you any kills giving them the
map to work they get the first frag again that's opening number four for
mouse but this is it from Jimmy massive on the suppliers the awkward goes down
the second he has poise because the teammates made the space and this is a
tough retake the man is trying every trick in the book there to see if he can
just try and steal this one from under their nose but they lose this they might
even lose the half seven five mouse they're in a strong position right now
as the money to Windows.
No surprises, Spinks is short.
Gets past the boost.
Participating the flash, he is just so dialed in.
He's a really good artist in this 1v1 pillar to show before.
Fine margins for Malibs, he's under a lot of pressure here.
Yeah, he's gonna be sandwiched in, he hears the long players.
Party occupies, he's surrounded, and yeah, he's gonna get blindsided.
Exertion catches him, staring at the bricks.
And Sampias' reaction is to actually fight forward.
A lot of misses so far. This would have to be his moment if they want to salvage this round.
Salvage this half?
Now he's making a strong case. How do you handle this?
Sampias is gonna have a lot of work to do.
Some combat orping required of Sampias, but again, back turn.
majority of Malzah's frags, their opponent's not even looking at him.
It didn't have a good read of the situation right there, G2.
Sampias is actually late with the flash for Malzah,
and that's because he is throwing a monster smoke at the same time.
So he's throwing the monster smoke to help that B defence trying to do too much.
Malzah needs support, the flash is late, Malzah is in between two fights,
and then look at the save on MP9 alongside of this M4.
This is going to be miserable for round number 12 coming up next.
because of the streak of rounds never really building any loss bonus and that's fortunate
but it is going to be a real scrapper right now for them just to walk away 6-6 to be tired
but the half. This is Mous with a pistol, big 4k thanks to Spinks and then the Jimmy
double dig that's the back breaker that'll be book ending this half. That's going to
make a big difference. We've got Dusty coming up next Mirage, he's the third and the sider
if we need to get there. I think fortunately for G2, Dust2 has been a little bit of a weakness for Maus.
They've moved to banning Anuba since his return to the pool.
This team stunned the hardest by the removal of Train.
And too easy for exertion. Just those steps baited in.
Maus having a worry about an awful lot.
And good trade work from Jimmy.
Surprise, you know, when we have seen him have chances for shots, it's been tough.
And that situation didn't even get a moment.
Right now it's just going to be Deagle, 2 MP9s, the M4 and a 5-7.
Something special here G2.
We're saying there's no superstars in these teams,
but this is where someone might need to stand up and be counted.
Mattis has had a couple of moments, 11 and 6.
Malibu's 12 and 7.
Can you really keep trying this trick over towards connector?
Deagle up close, good luck, Malbs.
They're gonna give it a try.
Give it his time, Tarx.
Doesn't stop Malbs from hitting the bullet.
Oh!
Oh, yep!
He's nailed it.
Okay, you can scale, eh, though?
He's down.
That's what I'm showing.
Oh!
Malbs, Deagle!
Gets two!
And it's down from Malbs!
Just what G2 needed!
That's the aim on this fight.
And that's an individual stepping up!
Unbelievable haul!
Don't tell the Torah on Megan's noise, but it's a 2v5.
Torjian Spinks, as we call this in the replay.
Nate's no good, bounces back his way, but the bullet is perfect, straight between the eyes.
Torbottomizer!
Well, here's open, there's a bit of a gap right now.
This runway, it's still gonna be tough.
Spinks and Torjian, can they clutch this one up?
Surely, surely not. Not the 2v5.
Not with this little time left.
Torji just... hearing one bank worried about...
Close-up side-spinks, finding some pious. 9 seconds.
He knows he's got a plant, now sound heard.
Hunter, do you want to play for to stop this plant?
Mattis is thinking about the same, covering fire from space!
He's doing damage! Getting weird now!
It's all up to the bait!
A 7HP clutch.
I put the bomb.
Surely not.
Have you got to just run at him? The pistol, the MP9, it's the perfect weapon!
Okay, a little bit of something for G2 to hold onto, they've got Mouses back!
It's 6-6, but that's T-Side overpass! Pistol gonna be necessary!
Class map of this quarterfinal delivers!
A couple of stirring Deagle shots has enabled G2 to end the half 6-6, Mao's feasting good
with a T side pistol on their map pick of overpass.
You mentioned Diego Jimmy had a couple to that rack their back breaker late could have been the difference maker
But G2 with a recovery
6x6 doesn't feel at the bar
With a pistol they can put themselves in the lead
Madness and Mal was delivering
The T half is gonna get a whole lot harder. You're gonna get past this towards the exertion a defense
to the left. It's. Oh, Jimmy's
B defense looking pretty solid
to nails the initial headshot.
Heavy God. Watching from the
sidelines for around 13 and
already G2 after operate at this
disadvantage. Sixies half and
really up against the cheats. So this one is going to be a character build up.
Just want to make the frame it.
I've got a staging area. I'm just trying to get them some room. If he could draw one
back and turn into a 4v4. Sounds like that's his plan. He has got the head-to-head
duel with Torji. Torji is just going to back off so currently three man
ace stance very limited answers over towards this side of the map and the
thing I've noticed hey we've been pushed back from an offensive line.
Speaking of line Spinks is on it for this next fight.
Steps hard forces out some blocky itself. Time's going to be the issue right now.
If they're trying to get tricky show the bomb and rotate this is going to be so
tough and they've lost it now that lost matters a clean headshot now what you're
just going to run into the dual barrettas and hope that first bullet out of
mouths or some pyres his pistol hits Jimmy hasn't second times the charm though
he's down on the cross they can't even get across mouths lock them down both
pistols on their mad pig trying to get a bit tricky with it there with you to
try to string them out in that 4v5 situation show them stuff over the
words out they see the ball maybe the over rotate that's going to open the
to sneak in towards the B site.
When you're hitting a couple of Chris ones,
it's good to see Maus in this form.
It's one of the keys throughout their group stage run
that you have to admire.
Short, they lost to Aurora.
But big wins over FaZe, that was dominant.
And then one that has given them the taste of pressure
before the stage.
Two over Falcons, overtime affairs,
absolute bomb-burner of the series.
Glock, Eco, 4G2, just want to be a farm fest.
It's not as efficient as you would have liked.
Toji, however, for the 4 kills with the MP9, the better.
For the AWPer.
From what's the leg?
Toji playing for his 4th.
and he got kicked up a fuss. Denies the quad kill.
Thank you all, Brolin.
He's going to be able to pick up that M4 from Exertion's corpse.
They should be able to get out of this torchy AWP.
He'll just have some questions regarding glass cannon or not.
No AWP available because the bi-pattern decided to bomb by G2.
Again, some passes out a couple of moments.
He was their highest rate of play from stage two,
but overall, Mattis has been with stage one, stage two combined.
He needs some passes in some form with the AWP,
and he was missing too many shots in that first half.
Nice, no damage done, but unconfirmed.
Hunter looking to take some space, though.
Holding back balloons and getting cheeky with the boost drive now,
seeing if they could find on the scale.
Oh, Sampias, his game's just gone from bad to worse.
An opening death, but he can't really explain.
And this was the way to start getting back into the game for G2.
If Maus go 3-0 again and next to be a partial.
And Hunters just fall into spings, goes running into the crosshairs.
Seems obvious now, doesn't it?
So this one, not...
Well, too much pep for G2.
We knew with Overpass, there was going to be a slow roll at points,
and this is one of those scenarios, especially when those kills are coming in one by one.
Oh, they hit them both.
Wow, what have they been turned around there?
Sympires, no Hunter, no problem.
They've done very well there.
That's set up.
Sphinx is clearing out A throughout all of that.
She's left torsion exertion over towards the side.
The two B defenders, they just get pipped on a timing.
So both teams being able to pull up a little bit like that
on their T-harps.
They're just juggling nades. They have no idea.
The whole squad's just rocking up to their bombsite for sure.
Yeah, but no issues with any wobbles regarding their aim
for the G2 players.
besides the supplier. So everybody else has been looking relatively sharp there.
So it's a very important shot. So they will get back and that's a 3v5 and I was going to feel like that
should be there around every day of the week. And they're going to be tough in this buy department.
Speaks to be able to drop one. Jimmy can buy himself. So two players are going to be lighter on.
It's 5-7 or SMG territory. This is the cheeky boost used early. Satoshi on the head.
I think that's why you see Hunter surging into toilets, thinking he has a gap that he's able to work with.
Very important, right? Have you got playing that last piece, covering?
Brolin tries to play forward, offers himself up, and then Malves with a bang out, there is no way in.
That's going to be the first real test for Malves on the CT side. You don't get everything you want.
3v5.
Maybe there is more to be said about this second half than I thought.
They could break the money here and then they could take the lead.
They're just gonna get past this.
If by this you need Spinks with an AK-47, I wouldn't say it's a guarantee.
Here's some Tappos.
There you go.
There's a Senpai shot.
Just a couple of pixels of Torji's hair.
That's all he needs. Spinks gets nothing either.
You might be considering the save right now. I understand. It's not a lot. It's just a pistol, an MP9 and that M4.
But with both going down with these, you know that you're going to be rotating into a lost site.
Now the util starts to get laden and there would just be no way in. You have to thrive in chaos with these type of weapons.
So hold on to this to give yourself at least something because next round we'll need to be the eco.
Stinks has been having a game, 18 and 7 at this point, second man to go down, but it's a great opening kill there from St. Pius.
Yes, an orthodox fight, you rarely see.
Orp is clash on that line, we'll see it again.
This is his first opening kill of the map so far, and it's a key one, right, because this is the type of round that if you lose,
you're back down in squalor, now he's going to start running away with a bit of momentum, so that is a massive fight to find.
And it's the...
And Mada Slaks, that one.
Spinks, Toshih, Ajiwak falls.
They're going to keep all five alive off the back of that, so this time the wall on overpass will continue.
So you don't know what the other three hand, you know it has to be relatively limited.
You're going to assume there's probably an M4 in the mix and as far as AWP is concerned, that's not going to be a worry.
How does that change your approach?
Well, they could go for the same type of play over towards A.
Play heavy through long, once you get that staging area,
you can set up a very strong execute on towards the site.
I feel like if you're going towards B and Connector,
you're going to be playing more up close and personal.
Oh, miss Smoke, that's got a massive gap,
so they're going to be able to scout quicker than Maus are ready for.
Just a couple of testles on the other side of the mix.
A nice reaction from some players, quite quick to it.
Again, with a kill on to Torgy, no less.
Set-up still looked hot-hot, that speaks.
Yep, nice combination with Brolan.
Catches Hunter in between the two of them.
Eyes on Jimmy.
Oh yeah, if he catches the bomb carrier as well.
Look, Sampias is looking the wrong way.
Covered for now, but a timing.
Off to his teammates.
That's big from Jimmy.
Anticipates the swing.
A one, two, three.
Both peek in, Alps finds it.
It's the M4 dealt with.
Now they don't know exactly what lies on the other side,
Things have gotten a whole lot easier, Sampias.
Low on HP, but Spinks continues to move.
He's got some real confidence.
He's locked the door.
There's no rotation back.
Sampias holding this, but Spinks.
Wise man playing to contain.
They do get into A. He can also activate and find one
of these dropped rifles.
Brons stuck around as well.
If he gets another, real problems, 40 seconds now.
He just wouldn't expect it.
Oh, nice adjustment.
Important frag, Rollins gone.
How's Smith's activates?
You haven't got time to hold the flank,
Sampyce is going to have to give this up,
and Spinks is just going to pip that timing.
With 25 seconds, exertion's forward position,
he's hoping to be overlooked.
How diligent will Malbs' clears be?
So good! Ready for the headshot!
Spinks last piece, and Malbs secures!
All right, that is a stressful moment.
It's a lighter bar, you know it should be a gimme,
and it turns itself into a 3v3.
So that's a tough one to get past, but G2, they take the lead.
Especially considering that first pistol bullet did find some biases here.
He does well to pull down onto Torji.
So two rounds in a row with the openers.
Now this is the easy one.
He's even worried about that boost coming into play again.
Not this time.
And this time there will be no Torji AWP.
Logically sound the setup as well between Spinks and Prolan.
Monga spotted, Taksin, the other reacts.
Is this coming together nicely now for G2?
They don't know it, but know all that they have to deal with.
Ooh, they've got a top-deck.
Completely nullifies the boost and enables some pyres to adopt a very aggressive forward line into the site.
Have you guys watching this?
He is holding for this exact maneuver.
He knows what they're up to.
The flash comes through perfectly timed.
On the upcrash of exertion.
Oh, the spam actually borts them away. They can't stick and weather that spray.
Under a lot of pressure, this piece after that spam, the pyre still has this line.
He's making sure they can't transition between monster and the side.
So this made the B execute a little bit easier.
Nice name, more damage done.
Some pyres will finish off the job onto one.
Opening kill provided, he's having a half.
A non-issue.
The first half of play.
Spinks is making another move.
to be able to get to the end of
the game.
So
pines peaked by Brawland audacious
to be peeking into the sniper,
but the Swede finds the equalizer
43 and blocked on Monster for 20.
Go back towards that. There's so
many questions right now. I'm just
clear at least front bathroom
spinks being pushed forward. They
know that this timing is always
going to be open. But do you want
to go into the stack or do you
want to try and read out? It will
come down to the timing 30 seconds,
Even the way Heavy got behind him, Mattis just throwing U2 on B, he'll be the last piece of this.
Spinks is once again looking like he could have backs turned and profit greatly.
Mattis going down, Spinks to adjust the duel, he can't win, important from Heavy God.
Puts us into a 3 on 3 bomb, will be planted and an uncomfortable retake for Miles.
They really want to go for this right now.
No kit in play on the three of these and another nade.
It's time softening up Torji.
Well it feels like Heavy God isn't favoured in this duel, maybe the off angle catches.
Brawler! Oh, he adjusts!
Important kill.
Two nades. Malphz knows where the rest of them coming from.
Hunter wants to take a fight.
Try and find the equalizer. Now he's been spotted.
Malphz can't do anything. Hunter in the clutch.
Brawler! Not ready for his position.
The first is found, but Jimmy's ready for the swing.
Important conversion of the 3v3.
Retake, Malphz could be happy with.
Not only the one killed, but Spinks, he gets the info.
enables the early rotate, more impact from Spinks.
It's labeled on that trade as well.
Have he gots low, then it makes it a whole lot easier
for Brolin coming out of connector.
So this is it, the timing.
And I said, you're going to have to worry about a lot.
In fact, he's able to do so much damage.
You just see here, have he got broke down to 22.
Brolin comes out, crosshand, not in the right place.
So that adjusts because of low HP.
Malmst thinks he needs to win out of fight
because they're under pressure from both sides.
Steps forward, doesn't play the time.
And time could have been on their side.
They didn't know it, but there was no kit in play
between those three.
So they're all tied up again 9-9, but Maus have been made to work for this.
They want to pick up their map choice and book yet another semi-final against Vitality.
They're doing the world tour of Austin, Cologne, London, Chengdu.
Now hoping to do the same here in Krakow.
This is just map number one.
Both teams with 1900 loss going into the next.
between the top position down the stretch whoever loses this one finances
low on both sides and starting heavy towards a this time with the defense
aggression from Spinks like now there's a trouble yeah he's ahead to head he can't
win Spinks brings aggression into the mix round 19 he's having a great game
And Mattis has gone away with this once, shorting on again, and ours have he got adjusted!
Two heads roll, hiding in the smoke, they'll find him, Xershin gets brought down low,
how's he still alive, they're spamming everybody, Xershin still gets two!
What is that?!
Spring sideline, important kill from Hunter, still not a guarantee, Torgie!
on the site, but no commitment reveals his position shooting corpses
Only the rotation is gonna go through this
That's all about the fakery does he think they're really rotating back towards a
Toshi looks like him in the right place. He could win this following his gut instinct
Considered as the potential of the flank some pious and hunter
You've talked about how important this round is
Torgie wants to equalize. He finds the head to head, removes Hunter,
Sumpias, a high pressure clutch. G2 need this now.
Smoke break, puts him low. Torgie can win this.
Damage exchange, puts him on half health. Still the pressure to block.
Ah! Ha ha ha!
Pass it from Torgie!
Outrageous! Doesn't give him a moment to breathe.
A moment to plant.
Constantly pesters and isolates the 1v2.
That is a huge round there from Torgie, but really for me it's this exertion double
It's the heavy-gold double first will catch that from his PRV
The flick of the second that transfer is huge and then in the smoke over to what's monster some pious with with exertion
They knew that the players were into the spamming the Glocks
They were even doing team damage and exertion comes out and still gets the double
That's what keeps this round alive without exertion pulling that off which looks so unlikely considering the circumstances
Torgie is able to pull it together
I thought he was a dead man.
Well, I think they thought he was stuck behind going to be later on that rotation, right?
They dropped that molly, they scale into the side, I think they think they have the timing on him.
And then offering up the 1v1, Sampias, he knows that's a miserable swamp to be in.
He's been doing a good job in this second half finding opening picks.
But left in the 1v1, the AWP up against that rifle was never going to be easy, both teams still.
He's tough around the edges of this buy. Told you he did pick up that AWP.
Still four rifles in Tech 9 for Hunts up.
P7 for Jimmy.
And Spinks once again facilitated with aggression.
Head to head.
Heavy God vs Exertion looks good for the CT side.
No, held on!
Heavy God getting away with just a scrap of health.
Bit one back as well, Mattis.
Brings the fight. Double available.
He just takes another head. Spinks unprepared.
Are they really now need to hit the brakes and gather themself unless the call has been made just to hit that W key
Have you got spots there's damage done. They know what Brolin is that the orbs still in play
How do we get past or she this needs to be a collective effort?
Yeah, but orbs can do magical things in this position a miss shot all it takes
It's one up and up the A site
I might be heading for the hills right now
Remember that loss bonus situation in the last round was 1900 for either now
It's just 1400 for now and it was only towards you staying alive fair play to Mattis
It's just these impactful multi kills
Yeah, the bravery to run through that smoke as well right heavy got planned on the Caspi wins at the dual exertion hero in the
Last this time giving up that opener right there then matters just launches through knowing that the trade potential is against heavy
Go comes through the smoke it's a labored spray show but turning around and finding another frag
Weenies round with that double
So have you got narrowly wins that first duel?
Now this is straight through the smoke.
The spurts of aggression there for Mattis.
Trying to go toe to toe with the output of Sphinx right now.
Bombs is up there as well.
And this is just going to be so stressful down the stretch.
This is forced by territory because of the 1400 loss.
You have to go all in on this.
So who's going to take the AK?
Do you give it to Spinks who's got the hot hand right now?
So as you can bring in the scout,
fallen with the Famous,
there's going to be a pistol upgrade for Jimmy
and exertion in with the MP9.
So the best of the bad situation.
But will there be a pace change?
This would be a good time for it from G2.
They missed that smoke again.
Yeah, it's not landing.
Maybe that's exactly what he wants.
He had a head-to-head duel, but now he's happy to take it.
That's the gun.
Well, problem solved. That's already removed immediately from the plate.
An opening kill, Spinks goes down.
Tantalizing for G2 to take the lead.
If they can convert.
I don't know, that has to be Maus Ego into the next.
Oh, perfect!
Placement of that scout bullet right between the eyes of Malbs.
Gonna keep moving there, it's Torchy.
So, Malbs down.
4v4 settles in and grouping now over towards B.
The last blocks weren't used towards monsters. The flash of them HE left is now they start to search short just in time as well
obscured by the smoke
close angles
They know where it's her she is it catches him off guard. He was not prepared. They collapse just that scout now from Torchy
That's cool. They have to get past in the diligence to throw the Molotov
of. Half of least resistance
secured for that 11th. Good
points right there. Looks like
you're gonna head for the hills
and see if they can find that
AK that was over towards party.
It'll be another upgrade, so it
is going to stop and up, but do
you start to hunt, right, G2? Do
you really want to let the dogs
have to leash and see if you can
take these guns away? You don't
have the finances of your own,
so that would be a risk to take.
They're investigating. Are they
able to find these upgrades?
Well, that's one for Brolin, and there's one for Torji.
They're going to put them in a much better position than they would have been.
Or not wiped. 11-10.
Remember G2's record on this map.
It's been a punish pick against them throughout the iteration of this roster.
We've heard analysts desks. We've even heard you discuss that over time that map that keeps getting picked against you
You do get more reps on it
Maybe G2 are starting to feel a bit more at home on overpass after all and you can't be a distance most like this
All right, that is twice now
We've seen it for miles just go missing and that's a key especially when you send your rifle up for a dual
It's a three to seven record ten games played only three wins seven losses and their biggest in that seeding match against
It's a b-rush. This is the knockout blow. They work number 12.
Yeah, running into one, an unarmed USP.
Just one rifle at the back of the side, it's Brawler, and he only gets the one.
Insufficient!
Massive spray from Malbs.
Wins the round in one magazine of the MP7.
That was always going to be the standard of the nation right there.
I mean, you've got to try. Brawler still gets himself the one that he needed a whole lot more.
So up to 12.
With Dust 2 up next?
I thought like a 6 round T side was set in the bar too high for that one.
Yeah, this is a great comeback from G2 in the second half and that is with losing both pistols.
They have had to do this on hard mode right now.
Crazy!
And this is a team that we know can play Counter Strike at the top level.
It's just about the consistency of what we saw in London.
Otherwise it's been a bit more missed and hit.
But in terms of the pieces, there's no doubt that these boys are able to deliver
and they're doing it against Maus right now.
This is a team that forged themselves in 2025.
It was once upon a time, the studio merchants,
that wasn't the case last year.
Winning games in the playoffs, getting to finals,
just not able to convert trophies when it mattered.
And this is suppressive.
I like the pace change, the call straight into this B play
and then just farming them up.
MP7 on display, Maus continues to be that
opening incision that G2 desire.
And he's been under the spotlight for all the wrong reasons in recent times.
Smoke break, hoping to expose one, and it's going to Jimmy.
Sits and duck, hoping in to the jaws, exertion will punish.
That's it, so at least claws one back and noses another across.
important jewels one out mouse have that man advantage
does exertion dare try and cross back to the monster side it would be a death
sentence.
The Alps get forced forward, hoping to catch a turn.
Yes he does!
Oh!
Xashin gets caught with Maitre's hands, in for one problem towards Graffiti, but this
one's still up for debate.
Some players from Malbs are 2-1-3 to take their opponent's map pick away from them.
The problem swings out.
It's only one bullet to the head, but it doesn't connect.
Spinks to close the gap from the short side
Smoke enables him to hold the angle nice from some fire sweeps into brawler pulls us level
Okay, they're gonna have to make big
He wasn't ready for Spinks! Just like that, Maus extend play!
Okay, fortunate there, Maus not ready, this block smoke comes in, Spinks just playing behind it gets it another important frag gets him up to 21, we go again
Could be touching, go Maus, can they push us into overtime?
Malbs goes for the round the world and he's surprised to find Spinks on the sandbags
I think he's gonna be really frustrated about that one
Oh, this is desperate as well, isn't it?
So the Nade comes in, Hunter does an awful lot of damage here and must be saying yet one HP, one HP
Have you got runs in straight into the den, the belly of the beast of this beast site?
The timing is there. This is labored from Malbs
Still gets the job done and once they're in
The smokes from that are gonna be enough, but Malbs just so worried about a late flank
There's no sound juice giving away, Torji putts it in and away we go
round 24 we've made it this is what we're looking for crack off the game that
delivers it's gonna continue to do oh toji blind but succeeds Matt is gone
uncomfortable now for this G2T side you're gonna operate at a disadvantage
and already those CT pieces are moving toji and spanks partner up for an
adventure on the long side it's gonna get boosted up now it's gonna be in the
line spot won't be able to see him. He's hurt that. We'll relay the new home of
the sniper. Spinks will use that to make moves. Hick said too easy the flash didn't
do its work. Okay fine v3 situation right now.
Now's if they don't enough to go this overtime. Looking good for it. Now Spinks
gonna walk about again he's just gonna take so much space we're gonna be in
uses on the flank time and time again and off the flash. Told you. Keeps on
delivering. Mao's they're cornered but they fight fiercely. As Hunter short a clawback
headshot onto the sniper but the damage is done. Toji's three kills still reverberate
around the Toron arena. And this must win over Pass. They pull it to overtime. Mao's
not going down without a fight. Gotta be frustrating. Two map points squandered from
G2. It just is the importance of the AWP there. That first one being fully blind over towards
connector. They wait out the U2. The flash comes in. Toji still gets it fully blind but
just keeps on moving. That's showing you the AWP on this map. If it is making moves, it
is going to make your life a living hell on this T side. G2 are going to be feeling like
they've let this one slip. That cross smoke towards you through as well, serving two purposes.
He still has an angle to peek down, Banana.
All the back underway.
12.5k.
Kenji to reset.
Solid day connection.
Spinks wants a fight.
He's going to have Mattius and Hunter on his plate.
As they're clear, he pre-fies there.
One and done.
Connect to control for the T side.
Can't say the same about short water. Exertion occupies.
Jimmy's just spammed out heavy god damn on the monster smoke, so that's a massive find.
And now Hunter's position confirmed he's still there.
Little bit of a team play, but he's got the vision, he's got the kill!
G2 just getting picked apart.
Well, they had to find hard to put themselves in this situation.
They were able to win out some really tough rounds earlier,
but right now, Mous, they found themselves,
and they should just be able to grab another shadow spotted.
Roland, I don't like it.
Should have been easier as you like,
but Torji's still the thorn in between these two.
Yeah, and that AK vs. M4 difference.
That's going to be tough for some players clearing the bathrooms.
Can he catch this?
Does catch a whiff.
Torji's hit the shot, though.
Can't say the same for some players.
the no scope connecting but there's exertion loses his teammate loses his partner in crime for a one-on-two clutch
A longer supplies tanks that flank will be in position right now Jimmy gonna be up through connector supplies gonna punch in the digits Jimmy stalking
His prey starts to accelerate on the sound cue some fire it's gone mouse take round one
Our magic number we're looking for right now is 16 15 15 we do it all again
the
game.
And prioritize those a case.
The funds to get another adb in the mix.
Those a case.
We worth their weight in gold.
This is that spam through monster you were talking about. Just
heavy God. So he's going to be feeling
pretty hard done by with that one.
At this moment, you think, okay, problem was this round
though, but nothing some bias can do.
Still difficult to get into
this one. So a nice shot from some bias.
But I think so far, Torgie's had him
on the AWP. Yeah, I can't argue with that.
Nice, guys!
There'll be no getting in control of the finances in overtime.
So he's got the polish with the rifle rounds, everything you need, everything you desire.
It's a go time and time again. We're going to see...
...the better approach on Overpass. So, take it to the mic.
I mean, for miles with both pistols, they probably feel like they shouldn't have even needed overtime to get it across the line.
Testimony to the tenacity from G2 with all the bells and whistles.
Surely, mouths have the polish.
This team comes in as the favorite of the matchup.
I think those paying attention know that G2 are a team who can take it to the top dogs.
G2, I can either way, statuary one of these.
They're starting to all be connector again wanting to take another heads up fight.
Okay, Mattis.
Oh, he's led once more!
Now some confidence has told you he's gonna keep on going.
That's respectable.
Hyper-aggressive Sniper completely removes Connector,
and now some pyres could be caught out.
He's in so much trouble, Spinks just close-fights in.
Heavy damage inflicted onto the box,
and the Nadell finished the job!
Blink, did you miss that? This round was damn quick, Maas.
Enjoying this now.
It's not too hard. Not to where everything's going your way.
Well, they know where the gap is probably coming back over to deal with this, but, Hunter,
this would be a 1v5 for the ages.
This would be a 1v5.
Hunter's career.
So one last chance to get that T-Round on the board.
Yeah, Matt is going down earlier, Starfrapp, because it's been him and Malm's with a couple
A couple of key moments, key frags. The fact that he's given away these opening deaths and back to back rounds in OT, that's tough and then Spinks just activates.
Playing on balloons, gets two, the nade is good. Torsche just a real nuisance.
Could be better.
I don't think you're going to be able to play through Connector in the same way. You've lost that pick two times in a row.
Do you gamble? Alright, well, he can't come here again. No, you bring the AWP.
You might. Torsche considers it, hoping to listen out for any sound cues, any indications of numbers.
You haven't changed your playwright, this means you're going to be slower on your default towards A.
It's just Hunter having to worry about pushes long, which we've seen before,
and aggressive moves, this means he's spams away from the Heavens.
Worrying about everything right now as we're on board with Sampias.
And I'm sure, controlling now, just starting to slink into what is going to be a timing play on A.
No B presence, they're thinking let's group up, let's be direct, let's not lose these picks.
Make sure we're in positions to trade off with one another.
Spinks has arrived just in time. He gets across the sight line now, some pious on it.
Just swing off. Good flash. Perfect flashbang. Enables Mattis for the opening, but Toshi's off on the back of Dice.
It's hard to overcome the sniper. He gives up the space. One missed shot and now access to the bomb site granted.
How's the scam bring over? Big rotation from B right now. They'll be suppressed by the U2 for now.
Just enough to get the bomb planted, taking in their favor. A boost directed. Rare to see this one work.
Oh, it does for exertion!
Quick adjustment removes the head of Malm's now operating with the advantage.
Not playing side, there could be a smoke for the bomb, this is gonna be so tough. Malm's in a strong position.
He don't want to step up with that multi.
Mattis, not the opening death this time, maybe he can close, maybe he can continue to find impact.
G2 needed.
Last of the nades, Swing comes out, nice headshot provided, but not the second.
Perhaps after looking another, yeah, heavy guard, the bait and switch for the first.
Now 1v3, he kicks on in, removing Torchy, it's just Jimmy, and he holds on to no time!
G2 get that one, that necessary one on the team side.
Alright, well the change of approach there, turn it into that Wolfpack, group up, spur onto the side,
trade out, not just getting picked apart at the seams. A good call to keep them in it.
Cycran, he'll take the tactical time out.
Think about how they got here.
It was a pistol with the conversions, and it was a Jimmy D to bring finances into question.
The reassuring hand to the coach on the shoulder there of the in-game leader.
This is going to be his shots to call once the timeout is transpired.
Yeah, is it lessons learned and regulation? Is it a page from the strap book we have yet to see?
However, now he's over the stage, right for G2, in regulation, battling back in.
He did the hard work now and over time.
You know you should have closed it in regulation.
Do you have it in you? To make the right moves.
Spinks has him back down from a single fight. He's been aggressive.
He's been a tempo set up, and we are back into play.
Now I'm starting in con again.
Think about the amount of times there was this flash pick play in con.
Surely he can't get away with it again.
I might find some pious there. No, this time the Spaniards actually hit the bullet Malbs' position to try and punish an overextension.
Mid-control, Util. Malbs forced forward.
Problems and pious. This parving into upper bathrooms.
bathrooms.
Malms were likely warned into possibility.
So Gamble you have to take as some pice right now. Malms has been pinched in these toilets before.
It's not acting like he was clearing.
Illegently, perfect from exertion. Reveals his position but removes the sniper.
That had to have been known. There was no way that you haven't communicated the possibility.
I think he's just such an exertion move, and he's doing it now on those big stages.
There's his team in advantage now, stands and bangs, loses out, can't finish a meal.
Two of them low, spinches whereabouts, Katerina, keep and curtail the rotation.
It's one man versus mouse.
Hunter cleared by Jimmy, surely that's 15.
So much damage and not a single kill, have you got...
...staring at smokes?
There's nothing for them here. Matt is in heavy god.
Up against the full roster.
Around you gotta give it a go.
Right?
Matt just tries to fake it out. Hope they ever make a mistake, but they're not giving this up.
Don't go down with this shit. This is their 15th round.
They get nothing here, G2. Just one is all they want. Look at the health on Maus.
So much damage. Finally, a kill comes through.
Constellation prize. A couple of kills.
But 15 for Maus first. Two map points.
I look a little bit odd there, but that's the power of Spinks.
They're just trying to draw his flank, knowing that he can be such a nuisance.
He could have been really sad. He could have gone all the way around to Ava.
on Pete. Really trying to bait him into this type of a fighter. Yeah, okay, missed utility.
Speedwarp will start in a show and Sympyce with a couple of mezzes and this one just barrel
first into exertion, opening kill. Ceci side where it's felt like Sympyce has done the better of
the work. Ceci side where he had chances with the AWP. There's a gamble he's taken.
Just one more of those and now's will have converted
Out from that flash play once more it does connect and he removes not one potential to exertion denies
That early skirmish
Setting miles up with the advantage
Haven't got flustered
Stayed poised
Just having someone anti to trade it works out so wonderfully
This is class carbon strike from ours. They are being put through their paces, but they're not showing signs of stress.
They're taking this one in their stride.
Forced away and now 30 seconds, the time will become a factor, but have an execute come in from the long side?
Hunter's going to be.
Oh, it speaks! Oh, he's taken down! Have you got the only man that was on the scene? Hunter just rounds the corner in time!
We're going to go A now into the AWP, you have to.
At some pious moment, Sink or Swin is going to be nothing to report.
Hunter's over-rotated, they are just playing with their food.
Had a position.
They've got no idea. Now the penny drops.
Evan smoked.
And through. It's the only option. You just need to try and deny!
Pluck from the sky! Brawler hits it!
Oh, not far off on the wall. Banging some fires.
A rough day in the office on Overpass.
Hail Mary bullets through the wall.
As Maus set to collect the first map of this quarterfinal.
Set to succeed. The orb spotted.
I can't connect anything through the wall, Torsey Well, now it's map one, a must win
converted.
Looking to pick up where they left off in a 20-25, just one more map to get them there
and now they have that safety net.
This is the same mouse that we remember, but is it a different look?
Are they able to pick up the win in a 2-0 fashion and keep the ball rolling?
One is already up, look at him.
Over the left side, over the left side.
I'm gonna be close to you guys and need fast for long.
I'm back in the map, let's go back.
I'm gonna be one banana, I'm rotating now.
They can be close guys.
Can you fast over, I wanna push side.
No, no, no.
Come and fight Niko with me now.
3, 2, 1, take him.
Get a headshot hiding.
He's headshot right, get him.
I'm taking problem.
He's...
Ok, I'm gonna pick you up
I'm gonna use the Jigger Picks, ok?
Water?
What?
Water?
Fine
I'm gonna shoot
Nice!
Nice!
Nice!
Nice boys
exactly why we love Counter-Strike so much.
With this high type of octane game,
that was absolutely incredible.
Like with both teams,
looking sometimes they were falling flat
and losing unloosable situations,
and they came down to the clutches,
they came down to the individuals.
It was a game that really got our heart racing,
and you know, to mousebots picking up all pass,
that's something we touch upon being very important
for them moving forward,
because moving into those two,
it's gonna be different, but first of all, overpass.
Yeah, I think a nice change of pace
after that first quarter final,
getting a close game and we touched on having a good start for Maus and I mean
they won both pistols without that I think G2 wins this game really comfortably
when it came to the gun rounds you could see that they were very well prepared
you know they had a lot of different opening moves they were playing together
they were decisive and some of their individuals did a lot of work early on
yeah I think that fact you just goes to show how competitive this first map was
right Jail this is a really counter strike that we know love oh yes I mean
G2 even without some pie even with sometimes having a very bad game
They made the game really competitive and to show us how when you have a team of five team players
You don't really need a star player people are gonna compensate for each other of course just because the lost two pistols
I think that's the only reason they lost the game
But I feel like G2 were just a little bit better and overpassed and I was were let's immediately dive into some of those close
Situations who were talking about this one kind of reminded me of Tauzy in the group stage saying you know
There were rounds
We weren't supposed to win that we did manage to go over the line because in this front and yanko mouse
coming in with less than an ideal in terms of weaponry. What's the story here?
Yeah, I mean outside of the pistol round they were really struggling to get rounds on this T side
and gun rounds, G2 was shutting them down so now they have an E, we're gonna save them for for
exertion right but you can see a mob still pretty deep considering this buy gets the first kill.
Some pious here, double zoom, gets owned by Jimmy who gets the second kill on mobs too and just
completely this defense falls apart. The problem is that no hunter can't even do anything to
to delay them, to deny them the bomb site.
Maus can take good positions and just
stealing around the way, really, from G2.
And it seems like all of the momentum was on G2's side.
It's just this rounds that, again, G2 just can't really
afford to lose, you know, and it comes down
to the individual mistake.
I think we highlighted the double soon for some pass
in this situation that really did put him in a position
where he actually didn't catch the kill.
He would catch in between the suits.
And that just allowed, obviously, Jimmy hitting
a really good shot, and then getting the second one as well.
It just allows them to get the out-of-plan situation, pick up the weapon and then outplay the situation and when you see this guy rotating back having a flash and the guy needs to find a guy playing long but also a guy bathroom, it's just an impossibility situation to sell us and you can see on the faces of G2 that it was just, oh we could not afford to lose that one you know and it's so hard guarding to be sitting in on this stage, losing these rounds when you feel like we were actually about to hit a really good stride inside the game.
You're nodding there JL have you been in those situations would that be how you were feeling if you were on the side of G2 miles getting away with that one?
that one? Oh yeah 100% they've been on the side of giving out the eagle headshots and
also receiving the eagle headshots. When you give them out it's really nice but when you
get those headshots oh that kind of ruins the mood for a couple of next rounds for sure.
There were so many moments during this map where you know decide that maybe weren't meant
to get it over the line, managed to convert it in their favor. Round 15, another example.
Second half this time from the side of G2. Yeah but G2 is less than now in a situation
where I think it's just getting extremely out of control like if they don't win this
this one then I think Marsman will run away with it and we do see that the classic utility
usage here to get control over to the A bomb site.
This booster from Torsi is what really catches my eyes you know, they seem prepared, they
were ready for some tires going for this one once again losing out the trade frag.
And G2 is less than a decision to where they can only do one thing and that is pretty much
searching up short.
They catch a super good timing right here, seeing exertion drops of water and then from
here on it's literally bringing them back into the game by having a 3v3 situation.
This is extremely crucial.
G2 is not doing anything tactically genius, they're just hitting their shots,
catching a good timing, and from there on, the game just keeps delivering.
And G2, they needed this round to stay in the game, because if not,
Mousesports would have run away with it.
Honestly, good timing was gifted to them by Mouses.
Like, why are they playing 2B in a 5E3 where Spinks has gotten to play ground?
Why are two guys still on A? What are you worried about?
Like, and I think that's the face form exertion when he dies,
it's like, yeah, he gets wrecked, but I think he's sort of questioning,
like why are we only 2B when we've gotten so much information and yeah absolutely should
have just been mouse converting that first gun round but this gave some life to G2.
Is that the correct analogy in this moment?
Were you also questioning maybe why they made that certain call?
I could have even said it better because on Overpass late run scenario is 3B5, 3B4, you're
easy way out is to go with B trade to go in a 2B3, 3B3 but mouse given that the person
that Sparex scenario of not killing anyone and then SF3 vs.3 with people out of position
there towards A, there towards Heaven and G2 just came on top.
This was pretty much the only thing that G2 could actually have done in that situation
because if they would have gone to the A bomb side, they would have faced obviously more
players, Spinks had a really good position.
The thing is if you want to approach the A bomb side, the only way to actually get there
without getting spotted because jump spotting on the A bomb side is very crucial to get
a lot of information.
They would probably have been seen, they would have had to come to the toilets and probably
run into a crossfire because they wouldn't be put down the utility, yada, yada, yada.
So for them to go for short was like that one thing they needed to do.
They got it right and on the mouse side, surely it was pretty much a mistake that Spinks
had that much space, didn't go chase the guy coming over to help me, but obviously the
read was different.
And when we come into the tail end of what was regulation, we've got to talk about some
of those high-octane moments because the clutch factor, it was very over a couple of these
guys, right?
Really unfortunate for G2 that they couldn't just do a little bit better in these rounds.
I mean, look at this, it's 3v3 and they have deep control of the bombsite too.
We were thinking, Miles for a second looked like they were going to save, but they changed their minds.
Maybe because of the economy, you know, having got low HP loses the fight to Brolan.
Miles is deep, they're trying to play off of each other, but it's not easy.
He goes for the peek, gets spotted right like maybe a bit of nerves kicking in,
unable to stay in one spot and wanting to be the one that peeks.
So losing this 3v3 was really painful, and then after that they end up in another 2v1.
Hunter doesn't even connect on one single bullet.
I guess they're worried for, I don't know what they're worried about, because Torchy could not have come from behind them.
So you just need to make sure he doesn't go out to kill some pious planning, right?
He has a smoke, you don't need to be pushing before that smoke blooms.
Some questionable decision-making in key moments in these back-to-back clutches.
If G2 just wins one of them, I think they close out the game in regulation.
Just honing them, specifically that 1v2 against Torchy, I think that's the grim one.
The other one if have you got just gets the flank you that is pretty much over but the 1v2 conversion was just fully played
That was like as you mentioned, maybe they were like hesitating too much
they were not just getting the bomb down you had a guy like playing a little bit too too like in front of the bomb and
Sometimes not getting the bomb down obviously just doesn't put him in a good situation
Then he's left in a 1v1 where there's a smoke where you never know if he's gonna go through the smoke
And when he's planning or he gets like a timing it puts the pressure on him instead of just getting the bomb down and working the round together
And you don't want an AWP in that situation, right?
Because it's playing around the smoke.
That's another, why, it's a mistake from Hunter.
If you just let Sampaias plant, Sampaias can run all the way back in second half
and play AWP, how are you going to win that round if you're Tory?
So I think it's going to be really frustrated about that one.
You obviously touched upon maybe the lack of impact really early on from Sampaias.
It wasn't really a great map for him.
Would you put that as the only symptom of G2 suffering on this map?
Or were there other things that you feel like they are?
They struggled with throughout the duration of this one.
I feel that there were more things, it's not just the Sumpaios off, because on the CS side, you didn't have much off, you didn't have a lot of opportunities to play because mouse play, they're really good T side and I feel like the combination of G2 not having enough knowledge of the map, that doesn't allow Sumpaios to play his own game, or maybe he just doesn't like the map at all, we never know.
They do know a thing or two about Dust2, though, I do want to focus a little bit of attention
on this because obviously it's been a little bit, you know, check it all out for Maus because
it came in back, you know, nine months ago and then obviously the map were changing.
Now with Train being removed, they have to leave this as an option.
We saw them take on Falcons, that was a very high octane overtime affair.
What did you take away from Maus?
Another team that threw some crotchet, it was 6-0 for Maus in that game.
Listen, I said these things are very similar, so I expect Maus to be very well prepared for this map.
That's why I'm curious to see what their approach is going to be, what is the game plan to sort of break G2 on this map.
I think they could have expected this pick to come through as well, right?
Like it was labored, but the most important thing is they managed to win on their own map pick.
And G2, they have to show that they're able to mentally reset because they'll definitely feel like they had that game in their hands.
That's the true story, I should really be looking at like the mental reset.
Is that going to be there for G2 and are they capable of doing it?
And I really think that the game against Falcons at mouse played in the group stage
It's got to be very instrumental to how they may be approached
You know, it's one of these games that are sure it's different because it's it's a different time team
But I think that mouse but now gets the point to where they've actually had that really strong a really close game of those two
That's gonna pay into their favor to how they want approach it
I think it's important for G2 to deny mouse a good start not just because the rounds
Mouses may be even the best team out there at controlling the economy and playing the macro game and saving
and giving themselves opportunities, well, maybe outside James teams, giving themselves as many
opportunities as possible, right? So we'll save a gun here, save a gun there, there'll always be
maybe an all-pontorgy, there'll be something to deal with, so if you can deny them that
good early start, you know, win the pistol or just get an early reset, take control of the economy,
you're really putting them on the back foot. By the way, Miles finding themselves 1-0 up in this
quarterfinal, but I don't think this is going to be an easy run to the semi, it's a complicated
relationship with Dust2, that is what is going to be creating them on the other side of this break.
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If you're seeing this, it's up.
It's available on the ESL shop.
Had a first go at a jacket, really proud of it.
I've always had an interest in clothes,
but seeing behind the scenes how the sausage is made
is a bit of a lot of fun.
And if you like the clothes, tell me.
If you hate the clothes, tell me,
but try them before you slag them off.
I think they're really comfy.
So yeah, that's my advert.
I'm gonna try again.
I'm gonna record another one.
The dispatch is back and looking better than ever.
Oi! Get some of it!
It's on you now, Leo!
This season, it's bigger deliveries.
Come on, you go.
Bigger personalities.
Emission, weight, not working.
And bigger problems.
Trace!
Featuring special guests.
What the hell?
Alex, what the hell is happening?
And of course, the team you know and love.
Is this really necessary?
There it is!
A hundred thousand dollars!
I'm not in the field!
The Dispatch. The all-new season.
Premieres February.
The End
Bro, look at him. Just look at him.
Yeah, it's losing from him.
Yeah bro, losing.
What is your secret?
Is it the hell?
If we can only unlock that one key ingredient, that aura, if we find that missing piece,
the trophies will start flying in.
Okay, okay. Detecting a little bit over here.
He's faded, but he got it.
Oh yeah, there we go. Aren't you just a snack?
Yeah, I can deny it. He got it.
Look at the size of him.
He is a big guy for you.
Imagine him just slowly choking.
Your bones are with utility.
And then just plowing it.
Bro, what?
The old school VP, the plow.
Know your history, bro.
Sorry, just got PTSD.
Able, when it locked in, I wasn't even the crowd's favorite in my hometown, like, I was
looking for my family and even they were cheering for us.
We are in the mud.
How even this guy has more aura than us.
He used to literally have zero.
Yeah, so did most of these fucking butts.
Until...
Wait.
They've won an actual fucking tournament.
Shit.
Fuck.
An overtime affair on Overpass.
G2 to turn it around on their map pick.
A must-win map if they want to be seeing semi-final Saturday.
Vitality awaiting the victor.
How we doing, Krakow? You having a good evening?
Very good, very nice.
And what about map three? You think this one goes to a third?
Optimistic.
Key two to turn it on.
force us the distance Mirage if required.
Or will Maus once again find themselves
locking horns with their nemesis tomorrow.
G2, you came this far.
Is it really going to end in a whimper?
Or will you put up a fight?
Play your game your way!
And decided on Mirage, let's find out together.
a T-Star for G2.
Now's on the defence.
This is the third map in the G2 spirit seeding game.
And this one went the distance and delivered mid-speed smoke lined up.
Have you got taken contact along with the P250?
Ward's rolling off.
That's a mid-door smoke, excuse me, lands X-Box.
of the Xbox, denying vision and now have he got a contain some space to open off that
block speed.
Cancel plans for now.
Oh my God, and Torgie gonna have a little bit of a fight.
Torgie wise to the potential for the jump up around the Xbox.
Smokey sticks around, happy for a duel.
Now, that's all the smoke and flashes.
Is he going back to do the mid to be?
Yes, he is.
But we're a problem with this setup right now.
I mean, yeah, if that smoke lands, it's just Jimmy versus the world.
Xerxion has a flash to trickle in.
They'll play across. They're looking to fight this.
They're giving them nothing. What is the Q? Mattis still has that smoke.
So I know they're investigating long now, so how to position the rotators.
They just got that info back. Surely you have to go now.
is the smoke. At least exertion
realizes he's going to have to
lend a hand. Not just Jimmy
exertions there turns away gets
away. Jimmy ready to farm up
starts clicking as fast as he
can eating flashbacks Hunter
sets up his boys to breach the
site. This would be the first
pistol for G two in the series
and again it's these flashes.
Brilliant speaks go back to map
number one. This guy was a
Looking for a bit more damage with Brolin, he doesn't need to carry through to the next.
Torgie and Spinks, as long as they don't take any damage they're going to get that cheaper
upgrade into the head armour, so that's going to be tidy for them.
Brolin can stand around, try and move a couple of bodies, see what he can add to the bank
balance.
So the slow methodical approach, it does bash through.
Brolin sticking around gets nothing.
This is the map we've seen G2 play. Fair amount of their own crack-offs so far.
How's it been going for?
3-1 in the department with the only loss to spirits. Not bad at all, but now they've been tested on this as well.
2-1, so they've played it three times. They at least have reps on this in Poland,
whereas Overpass was the first time we had seen it since the Major for Maus.
Look at that flash, you can just see how suppressive it is. Beautiful work supplies getting the opener there and even flicking into the next.
He had a rough go of things on the CT side of Overpass.
Look down about that, that's a big conversation online right now.
It's going to be the force, the full bounce behind the scout of Torji.
They're going to path through middle late. Now, because of the suppressive Molotov mid-doors, it means they're going to be late to this.
Hunter's already a lower.
Yeah, they could do too much, Hunterbot can be able to tend to the potential walker.
Say that, as actually the smoke will completely block his vision, a two-man forward set-up,
having to disrupt if they try to pop mid.
At least they stopped them from getting into lowland.
This will make things simpler as the Molly flash combo and then the second wave.
They know it's a possibility, slip into the mid-door smoke, which is fading now.
And Torj is found in the right position with this scout.
If it is a full AXEQ with the hangar smokes, it's still going to be tough.
We're going to snap into action towards the mid-doors.
Mattis looks like he'll be the man having to deal with that lurk at any given moment.
That's that A-U-Tilt throw.
Spinks calls away, Mattis will activate.
Ooh, damn it! The Elytraps buzz into both of them.
Heavy God finds Spinks as well, and it's a cheeky pivot.
It looks pretty when they're able to pull that off even with the drop in what CT spawn so keep it a tricky against the force
Scout sounds often if they can move these two
Upgrades they'll be going into a very easy eco in the next orgy. It's under at the post
What gun did he have says to Georgie?
MP7 the problem might be a big of his hands on
Really nice
I mean the fact that they had this set up doors and you managed to force a reaction get spinks turning tail then you activate
I mean, that's just worked out exactly to the G2 game plan.
Yeah, there was never to stand up to do with it, right?
So, Sphinx is dropping back, you've got that close piece and still no casualties on the mid-to-be.
Just Hunter going down there on the hunt.
I'll find around the mid-doors, dip on through, might be a Famous on the ground that he could find.
Just going to walk away with an extra flash to his name.
So handling that one RG2, but the plows for Maus to start 2026 another arena
Another opportunity for them to try and make some fans because again
Just feels like they are always up against it felt like Spix was the one catching this kind of timing on
Overpass gonna feel good for Mattis to be getting one back over him
This might be either a B pop or a fast B plate. It's the mid doors that could be fast
They've got SMGs and they've already smoked the B doors towards you out of position
And there's no one in the site. Perfect call.
And you get one of those opportunities to watch.
He fires off a shot.
Goes for a jumping nose scope for good measure.
And now it's about damage for Maus.
You know that you'll be buying into the next round,
but how much can you limit G2?
How many guns can you take away?
Oh, that's nice for Maus.
Not playing too scared.
He knows he's got the weaponry advantage
in the firepower department.
and burst from some pious and necessary kill onto Spinks.
Okay, well, starting to pile up a little bit of extra cash.
These SMGs liberated right now as Hunter will have to swing into Jimmy.
We've seen what his D could do on Overpass.
Pretty key multi-kill from him. There's the shot, there's the shot.
Second one even through the doors.
Fines have he got a little bit of damage.
And actually trying to get away with that.
G'lil mounts have an absolutely none of it.
So a couple of kills on the way out.
Okay, two, three, miles nil.
Yeah, they won't be able to get that
cool on the ground out of there.
Some pass was too far away,
but either way, they don't have any issues
in this by department.
Couple of okay long spawns to work with now for Jitsu
if they want to keep things a little bit pacey.
But Toshi will bring out his orbs,
so Pai's the same.
Now he's sold back, so this could be telling a pace.
And if you want to use the orbs, boost him up.
Okay, they want to try and condition this B bomb site early.
They're going to be fighting themself going into
what is likely a B-POP or a B-TIB moment.
She being the only one with head armor, Hunter.
Calls with that back 10.
Spinks, fully flashed off of the line, turns around with a boost, is perfect, exertion.
He knew what was up, one has slipped the net though and it's going to be picked up by
Spinks all the same.
Kind of great Alper first, Garnet could be flawless looking to do so, sometimes just
the one, no bullets, and a pistol from Spinks to finish.
Solid Alper, you can't keep him down.
It's not the quad kill in the pistol we saw map one but immediately finds impact on the
first one.
Impact is the key word there, right?
He's actually playing some selfless counter shot right now.
I think one of the things in the past where people can be a little bit critical is Sphinx
being baity at times, but this is a move that he has to make.
Now, boost for exertion, he takes the contact, then they're not expecting Sphinx to be coming
through the smoke.
They impromptu, Chris Cross catches the timing as they're trying to scale maps, not thinking
that was possible at all.
Already past the sight line and then it's just the B site as well.
Fuck pick it right now. Suppliers can't stay in the flames.
Backs off.
It's very early short pressure as well. You've already got full control of short.
How's it giving it to you? Not fighting for anything early lower.
No short peeks.
And their space taken is... I want to try and grab this back.
It's a really clear out the left or you can stay focused on this right side.
Exertion with a flash at the ready, if you get blind and want to peek back into this, actually he's going to play flash second, so here comes...
This shot, you lease a life from Albs.
And applying some real pressure here, trying to get infos, one up close, he's got a drastic exertion.
Great trade, great trade from Hunter.
Have you got opening his hands on a gun, but not right now?
Spinks is hearing all of that.
2-2 split.
His lurksmoke on B is currently up.
Jimmy's not even going to play close to it.
He's going to play for the min-2-B right now.
He deploys his.
Now, they might have to brave this.
If they call the cancel,
it's going to give Maus enough time to rejig the setup.
Hunter's out middle.
Two members of Maus.
He's about to be screamed at.
He's going to be screaming, getting to B.
Okay, did he spot them both?
I don't think so.
Jimmy, the unknown entity,
but he won't find a fight.
And Spinks wins it out.
In the site.
Some pyres, a must-hit shot if they dare.
flapping around with his nades as Brolin is found,
towards you on the wall bang.
He was great from heavy guard, he profits.
And through, just like that, charges them down from Jimmy.
Oh, you thought you had a moment?
You thought you had a chance to get that bomb down
and take a breath?
Jimmy strips that out of your lungs with a double push.
You spewed up his supplies, you got the bomber, right?
Well, I need to now drop this in the site
and be out of position.
I was in a strong spot.
If we had had the bomb in the site, it was planted.
He can actually sit up and deliver.
He didn't have a great map number one, but you can see in some of these situations
He's just being left to have to do it all. It's an important trade hunter gets the information
But Jimmy off the back of the flash confidence stuff, but it continues to float for mouse
It's so frustrating for suppliers. He's having to do so much
He's gonna lot of plates spinning. Oh, have you got so blind team play on display big one back from malbs
It's crazy that he needs to need a trade at least because exertions in every shot
He takes pops two of them on the long side these unarmored pistols have not got far
Quick one to tie things up
Have you got will be reporting that he did get out long though
Well with the time for setups, you know, you're gonna be expecting the long-dose mode the blue bin Molley
Otherwise if you think they come in fast, you're probably getting the double nades in there's gonna be different combinations
And so what's they're trying to
Set on the top of the list they need to worry about
about. At the moment is pretty standard, right? You knew this was going to be the
lighter buy. You don't need to do anything too crazy. But once they start to take some
more liberties, they're aggressive short, they're playing into lower, they're breaking
the mid-smokes with all the HEs. When the cash is starting to stack, that's where
mouse can become a whole different beast on this CT side.
This one feels completely in vain right now. Matters with the P250 about to walk
to an orp gives in the warning show as well does pull Jimmy away so the
suppliers does get to profit but only the one towards you on that cross how
could he holding it misses his opportunity maybe some fires can
plot that's a maybe the story wants to deny or just in time have you got a
little of that extra 600 bucks in the bank for him it's just gonna be 3100
after the AK in the last and it is gonna be so we'll take the tactical
Now, overpass, it still lingers in the memory.
It's an app that you had a great shot on.
You could have done it in regulation.
You flunked the lines in the last two rounds.
There were also some 3v3s and other scenarios
that you fought hard to be in, but you were unable to convert.
Mouses aren't wavering.
They're playing that same style of counter-strike
that we know and love.
They run to this point, a win over NIG,
lost to Aurora, that threw them to the lower bracket.
They owned a phase, and then the overtime game against Falcons.
That's the difference with this mouse.
The taste of the pressure on Elimination's door.
Another embrace in the occasion, which, again, this isn't new.
Seeing Mouses make it to a quarter-final, a semi-final, even a grand final.
It's just about lifting the trophy, and we're still two days away from that.
Crowning the Crack-off Champion here at the Intel Extreme Masters,
so there's a whole lot more counter-strike that they have to play.
Here you go. This is the aggression. It's just against the partial.
That might have been expecting him to come through with a full buy, but this is Pistols.
Pinks is calling for that flash, he wants to bring the fight up top mid.
He's done well.
Removes one before Malzahz deeks his two in.
I think he had enough damage to get exertion out of the short side, gives them a bit more
room to maneuver on these armored Pistols.
So whatever the spawn call was, we'll change now.
You've lost the play out, and you've also responded to the space that the CTs had.
Grouping up, congregating now.
Torgie out of position, and Brolin plays behind the smokes.
He'll be in a strong spot to lock this down, but no smokes just yet.
Yeah, they're being lined up now.
Brolin has Util to respond.
They're ahead of the Ascendiary, confirms commitment.
It's good.
Harbing close now, up and close.
Impersonal, big shots being hit.
I just called the save off that.
No points drawn away this AWP and M4.
still a lot of rounds to be played on this first half and you can see the difference there.
But if you throw those smokes in the traditional pattern, right, you throw the first, the second comes in,
you wait, the CT pass behind it, he locks you down in that corridor of smoke.
They are wrapped on the first with the flashes, catches you off guard with the timing,
and then Mavs hitting two bang-a-deagle shots. That hasn't changed.
Mavs and Mavs have some very strong moments within that overpass game. Heavy God as well.
Again, this is a map where Cheetah are going to feel a whole lot more comfortable.
It's not the punished pick anymore. This is home turf.
That one's going to inspire confidence.
So thanks for the timeout, they get the round and
now they can bludgeon Maus and the Finances on the other side.
Torres is all set up with a lot of cash.
He could even drop two M4s if required.
I think he's just going to have to do the one
and the rest of them have the money to make this one work.
So here it is, that scaling so quick.
The flashes are coming, the rally of them and Maus.
Bang.
What if yours likes to play against some helps desert eagle
Long corner smoking the mix immediately from G2, so you're gonna have to worry about that if you're brawling and you're on your own
Well into lower aggressive setup time to clear this thanks ready
Raring to go a second available to him as well. He's getting chased down need support. He's going up mid
He wants to fight and mobs welcomes it
Back to back, he's one out of the dual versus Spinks, and he pulls G2 into a four on four.
He's in his gear shift for a mouse in two rounds now where they want to take these fights.
Hunter, unforced error there, didn't upgrade into head armour.
Could have given him an extra lease on life against that fire lower, but still not prepared for it.
He's pivoting into a two-two set up. Bron has long.
Torgie's all for the power position.
Exertion will join at Jimmy on B to batten down the hatches.
Locked with a minute on the clock.
You know that Maus are feeling the pressure. Worst case, you start leering out one at a
time and give a kill away for free. You want to stay turtled, but you want to be vigilant
right now.
Going to keep the comms flowing for Maus. Gigi threw out a mid to B smoke. They just
have to stick to their guns, and they've actually changed the setup on A. Brawlin
into Goose, Torgie does not have a flash to help him. Torgie gets one, Brolin
my go, not cleared on the first fight, he gets a potential for a multi. Here comes
the smokes this time, the double. That's the gap, Torgie's hoping to profit off, flash
doesn't quite catch the sniper but you've got 20 seconds boys and it's all
too easy, mobs goes down, bumps sneaking across, still a player on Goose but it's
Torgie that's just reaping the rewards piece by piece G2 4 court put out the bomb. It falls perfectly into place
Some great open from Torgie
But the late stages of overpass. He really came alive
He found that confidence required and he's continued from there seven and one right now on dust hoop
Two maps back to back where Opus can have huge impact and only one of them has
Yeah, well in the spirit game for G2
Sheerah had a huge first off on the CT side that surprised at the same thing
That's true. So unless you're being set up as an AWPer, you're constantly getting the boosts. You're using the long spawns, which
I'm not always guaranteed to get.
It is gonna be hard to find those early fights.
Surprise has out the AWP. Another time out taken from Saw. Last time he took one of these,
it was a lighter fire, at least he forced them into it, and they were able to convert the round. This time,
They have a few more key pieces to work with two AKs tag 9 deagle and the AWP freeze time with about 10 seconds left is
Handed on the goodies here in the arena, but all eyes
To dust to us. We're still tied up 4-4 near the team really being able to capitalize just yet
It's gonna be tough calling into a B play right now with this AWP
They go last to get the molly, well there is not one, in play.
Just a flash, Jito, onto his, as Torgie's aggression continues.
Successful!
Not for spings on the quick switch!
B site falls!
Exertion, perhaps, ready for Sumpias.
Doesn't quite track him over the smoke.
Jito have gone what they wanted.
A post plant scenario.
Even numbers.
Sampias needs to get in a stronger position with this ult.
It's going to be very much BRAM centric, all three coming in from the door side.
Lots of uter for the retar, they can smoke tunnels, they can molly car, they can flash and they can go up.
Another door smoke now in.
How do you breach?
Still come down to the wire.
Torji's got the flashbang lined up.
Exertion of Brawler going to parve in together.
Window of the A, nice shot from Sampias.
Flash connects but so does his sniper.
They're getting out of there, Mattis tries to hunt him down.
and down, but Prolonga Torgie will preserve, and G2 will pick themselves up a fifth.
It's like a war in this, right? You get that explosive moment, that's the intensity.
Then in the retake, they have that spurt, they give it a look right there,
but some pirates hit a necessary shot, two for him in the round,
and so with another conversion off the back of the timeout, we'll make that two for two of the map.
So I can turn again. This is relatively uncharted borders between the two. Only one head to
head with these two rosters last year. So one of those games where you have the residual
mind games in play. It's wonderful you see the tape. What's happened in practice and
And what are they bringing to the server today, right here, right now?
Do we continue to go back and forth down the stretch?
It's the timing, right? No, Molly in tunnels early.
Some of them are asking for it, but they want to hold on to those nades later in the piece.
Huge opener from Hunter, important trend for some players.
And this one shuts the door on the retake of the B site.
Got just enough info between the two flashbangs to hit that flick taking off the woes map number one
We're gonna boost him up, but no they're gonna start for heavy long right now. So playing for the long
Do you do a posturing for potential pop right now the fact they have four players congregated outside the long doors
They will go for a pop it's just brawling here
Rest of his teammates have evacuated Brawland.
They're not even flashing.
Ready to receive a little bit of sound cues.
All he gets is an indication of commitment.
He's done very well.
Still alive and kicking.
Playing around the smoke on the pitside.
Notice he's going to be hunted down.
A second from Brawland.
Magnificent work. Mattis drops in.
Oh no! Oh no! Another from Brawland!
Some pyre's going to be red-faced after that one.
rings around him. Not out of the woods yet, a mouse.
Things to provide support, never mind exertion. Just in that off-aggle hunter was unprepared for it, and Matt is whereabouts, they know where he was.
This is so tough for Matt, it doesn't know it yet, but if he tries to return to B, Jimmy's already 4-5 the upper tunnels for him, and it's gonna have to be the finish through long.
And that was a contact outlaw, they didn't even throw a flash. They've gone dry onto Brolin, who's gotten huge output. The in-game leader, three massive frags.
I can't believe he gets three.
Like, a one kill and surviving for a couple of seconds is supposed to be enough.
He gets so much more.
Addis is going to have to take dry fights again.
There's no smoke for the cross right here, so heads up fight into what CT spawn.
Nobody's looking. Jiggle out.
Sphinx gets that info.
Exertion to react off of it.
Jumping up doesn't hit that initial point.
He might do it.
It could very well.
Seven points above that of jumping M4.
I think that smoke on the face says it all. That is a wild round for him to get away with, right?
This defensive smoke coming in. So this is dry. Have you got going first?
Okay, well, Brolin survives, drops this smoke, then now he's spamming.
He's using that corner smoke as a wall and he gets caught.
And the fact he's been able to dip out like this looks absolutely ridiculous.
G2 have let that one slip. They had a player pinned in the pit and he gets three kills.
kills you're not expected to get that output and now you have G2 on eco and
supplies has gone just like that.
It's a new nightmare for you all.
Anyone else wants to try their luck?
The scout connects the decal does not initially.
Okay, have you got removing the AWP?
These are the kind of rounds where Spinks will play a little bit more brazen counter strike.
out a strike he's not afraid. Hunter frowning the corner into Brolin's cross set, a comfortable
collection. And as far as best case scenario for this round goes you're just looking for
A kill. You're looking for a plant if you could dream it.
But how does a glock get past an armoured M4?
Now there should be a moe down. Casual work right now for Brolin.
And court jumping up as well. There's a little bit of an opportunity.
And all three for Brolin.
Quad killing the round. He's really padded the stats nicely,
but the impact in the previous...
has put Malz in the lead, an opportunity to end their CT half with the 7-5.
That's not a perfect buy for G2 going into the final round of the half.
Come on, they used these long spawns with a bit of pace right now. Have you got...
They could try and force the issue of supplies.
They missed the ability to push in the lower tunnels, you can see on the radar.
Yeah, two players want to give that a go, so they go the extinguish.
Oh, and again, Torgie happy to take these fights.
Some pirates are open in death, again, Torgie sits him on his ass, and a two-man set up
in Lauer.
If Hunter tries to do this on his own, the odds are stacked against him.
Oh, they flash it.
Well, it does nothing.
They're still here.
I guess someone high alert. They know they're coming and down goes Hunter. Where's the trade Mattis? Wow. How's he got both of them?
impeccable
Still at least the conversation. Oh Jimmy's coming the audacity from Jimmy. Come on now
You've got the advantage, but you're in the end of angle and he's still good for it
Another situation such confidence in another. Yeah 1v3
And you only got three opening kills in your entire T half of your map choices dust to this is where you're meant to be able
to be aggressive, be in their face, find fights that favor you, and now it's Heavy God.
He will have a won-be-pon.
It's on Jimmy.
The opposition.
Oop, Brawland was on guard.
Now Jimmy next, oh, next victim found!
Heavy God making a case.
Thought he, ooh, doesn't quite find it.
Now with that bomb planted, it's surely famous Heavy God finding that impact.
On this quarter final stage, Torgie trying to fake him out hoping he hasn't played around the smokes.
Bit of a showstop up from heavy god onto the rifle.
Torgie swings in at the top of the UK. That gets the crown up. That wakes us all up.
G2-6, miles of the same.
It's our final quarter final.
Looking to end on a high.
We'll find out if G2 can take us the distance or if this is going to be mouse securing just
a two map passage into that semi-final vitality awaiting and we're ready for the swap of sides.
Good spawns for Spinks.
Yeah, maybe a bit of long play here as Freestime does conclude and 2-0, that's been named
at the game for now so far, so there have been wins or losses in that department, never
minds.
I'm going to take their spawns, they're still going to take that long pick and call nobody
home, this is good information, get it for free.
There's a mid-smoke in the air, that's what will be removed from the play.
Hunter, that's not machinity, but look at that, he's just jigging and wiggling, Spinks just manipulating his model to be as hard to hit as possible.
They're in a box, they don't have long control and they're worried about short, you have to win this fight and now.
Okay, maybe Malmst and the dual barrettas can at least relieve some of that pressure, not if Spinks just perfectly clears him into the HG, doesn't matter!
Spinks has managed to find two, G2 collapse!
missed the cross smoke. Mattis could delete a couple here but the bomb will still get planted.
Jimmy's well trained. He ain't crossing that smoke. Just holding for that jump up on the
new box. Confirmation that Mattis still occupies CT. Outlook is bleak. No way in as Mattis punishes
tortoise over extension. And Havner. Jimmy just hiding out on the car as well with a crouched on
contact from his teammate exertion and just like that the round is there secured.
Okay, heavy got holding onto the brettas, the armour and the smoke so we got the full package
here to block B but that wasn't the case at all. Spinks keeping up his impact.
Multi for him securing the pistol and that'll be three out of the four plates so far in this series
and G2 other than the 12 to 10 score line they had on Overpass. I feel like they've been playing
behind this entire series. Like Cotch is a great, they add a little bit of excitement but they're
They're not the ones who are setting the tone in this series.
Not whatsoever.
Loved the way Spinks did this, running down,
wiggling and jiggling, making it as hard as Hunter
to get that clean headshot.
And this one, to Malves, I mean, just a perfect little
crouch peak headshot in AHG.
And he still finds the precision necessary.
I mean, what a frustrating player to play against.
Feels like he knows what to expect every time.
This is where the game can get away from G2.
They force bomb, two scouts and supplies running up mid.
Okay, and spot one, info flows.
They're out long.
Already borrowed into Bluebin.
Now there's a lot of HGs remaining.
Only a handful of smokes, so they can play to block.
I try and choke them out.
Now should have a response to this, right?
Do they try and boost over?
Do they have the HG of their own?
Do they want to break to Skyward timing?
Do you have to hit some scout tags?
There's the smoke, first smoke on the cross. They've got one more currently with Spinks and there's a block smoke.
Oh, there's a tag.
There's a tag. Yeah, Xersha gets softened up and he couldn't move.
Finishes off the 1-2 punch with one scout shot.
Aren't overplay it now. You need to play the man advantage. You have warded them away. You see they're not ahead of the smoke.
Alps gets across to Kavis. This is a great position to be in to stop the Navi long as Bron coming short, another smoke lands. That's it. You're going to have to use this one to cross now.
They start to activate sticks to clear though. Overlooks to position for a moment. Alps does not get a chance to pull the trigger. It's all just falling into place once more. Pressure from the short side. Hunter gets spotted. They know where you are.
Oh, Jimmy finds it, Maus.
They get past those scout bullets.
Sure, a couple lodged in there.
Kavlam, but mission accomplished.
That's going to be 6 to 8.
Squallon doesn't tell it right now,
but Maus look a level above.
He do.
And look, that's the situation where
G2 getting the opening kill, and you have the key pieces.
Hunters playing to block on short.
He blocks there.
There's nowhere.
Brolin's taking contact.
He's, you know, the rest of them
have to be coming through long.
They had no smokes left, and everybody blink and you missed it.
Nams gets blindsided, not ready for that.
Strange, that's the only thing he needs to be ready for in that position,
and everybody else in the league of the night dies, top eight.
It's not the GC1 putting up a fight, that's not good enough.
Now, it will be the eco, so we'll call that eight for miles,
then very well likely nine speaks does go down with the shit,
but with how good things have been going,
I don't think he's going to be too worried about that.
That's one of very few opening kills that they get on that force by still unable to
convert.
Time to watch when you see them putting themselves in strong positions, but not being able to
find the finish.
This is the team that we're talking about on Overpass, it looked like the comms were flowing,
everything was there, a lot of flashing fridge under the teamwork, they weren't playing individual
Counter-Strike, how's this for individual Counter-Strike, get straight past the HGs.
Exertion ahead of the play, but they've already completely vacated.
You do the same again, and this time you have to have them all right, you're not worried about getting blocked.
You know there's not going to be any scouts in the mix, they have to take the eco,
otherwise they'll just be flushing the game down the drain.
There's one smoke for Heavy God, he's going to lob that out, but at one minute that'll be gone.
They're going to have to pound behind this, so take the gamble right now.
There's B-bullets. Do connect a little onto Jimmy.
Two of them a little low, but absolutely nothing to celebrate here for G2R. Here you go.
They have to be very sloppy on the finish. Still that minute on the clock, that smoke is now gone.
I haven't really seen any of that sloppiness from Maus.
The other ones who have been winning out the scenario, especially on Overpass, that maybe they shouldn't.
that toji clutch that 2v2 late on towards the b-bombside
just hoping to catch something
looking rather effortless
you boys will be seeing them tomorrow
Yeah, winner of this. Takes on vitality. Already locked in spirit versus Furia.
Panther vs the dragon. Tomorrow we'll see what form Don can the boys are in.
Furia looked great today against Aurora who had those stage jitters no surprise.
Need for the cross? Yeah, get it. To want to be safely short.
Okay, you know there's a player up close long. He's just spammed through the long doors. Perfect.
And Karin, that right there, mid-door smoke and X-Box denying the ability for Short to really cause any chaos.
You could jump up through this as you can see.
Exertion ready to play off Brolin.
Little look of damage done as they're taking Short control for free.
Now they start to work through the nade. They have so much for the finish and we're not even at that point just yet, some pious.
Yes.
Hogan's nose in the middle wants to catch somebody sleeping.
You block short, you know it's a possibility now.
Staying till the John the searcher, HE lands.
Damage done.
Yeah, that one leaves a mark.
Some bias and opportunity here with that all pegged to head,
towards you anticipating the reclear.
Not going to meet each other just yet.
So Leading B is heavy god, they're gonna play for mid to B right now.
If it is a B split, timing of the spink's lurk for the difference maker.
Now they're gonna drop Exersion into spawn.
His positions do so surprise though.
He's ahead of it! Oh, can't hit it!
Exersion can!
Hunter don't store war on the site, maintains control.
They're running out of time.
They gotta move!
Bron and trying to lead the charge.
Trying to fight away in.
Hunter's still there, you've gotta get past Hunter.
passed Hunter, 10 seconds ahead, shot angle, gets them both on the spray.
He blew CT.
Nothing they can do.
G2, thanks to a massive double out of Mattis, Hunter as well just constantly blocking on the short side.
G2 get their first round in the second half.
I think as soon as the AWP goes down the call changes, alright, let's go away.
We don't have to get past this big green, we know that it's not towards bitter,
we're just going to be able to take some liberties out short.
And yeah, you mentioned the time, that was a bit of a problem.
so I'm going to take second tactical timeout. No issues in the bite for Maus.
Three staying alive for G2, they can drop guns, they'll be all good in the hood as well.
And it becomes a two round game, but you need to win consecutive to break the finances of Maus.
Now one felt dicey. A lot of these rounds, especially the ones finishing late on a knifes edge.
Otherwise, it feels like it's over in the opening exchanges. One kill comes in, the suddenness is another,
and then it falls apart for one team.
Small detail that may not matter, but Torji unable to afford an upgrade of his cavies.
only got five armor left potentially could fall foul to a one bullet headshot.
This looks sketchy for a matter of fact, right?
Some great moments as well on overpass with the aim.
Wasn't enough to get them across the line.
Toji, is he going to take this long spawn for a peek? He is.
He's going to meet three of them on the other side of that. Peaks in.
Wow! Okay!
Wow! Quick flick onto malbs.
G2 got to operate a disadvantage right out of the gate.
And this is those other type of rounds I was talking about.
Not the ones who are finishing late, the ones that feel like they're over early.
This is where G2 aren't playing from behind.
So St. Pius needs to find something on these brakes.
He has another HG.
He sees nobody scaling up short. That's information.
That helps out Hunter.
He can stay assisting that. Have you got over to what's long for now?
long for now, but with the repos. Unless Maus go walking in one at a time, they group up,
they find the finish. They can trade out effectively.
Oh no, if he wants to go pick that up, we could have caught, or been caught by Spenx.
Confirmation is there though. We have to push off the back of that, or do something, but
right now, it's a mid to B smoke. That B site feels even smaller, even more disconnected.
It's Walter Hunter and heavy-god Arne.
Throws it down.
If it's a bit to be, St Pius and Amatus, between them, we need three kills.
Without it, it's just going to be a save.
And it's certainly looking that way with the X-Action line and up with CT Smoke.
St Pius to be tested.
He's just not found the lethality he needed. Electron to exert. How many more chances will he get? Nice angle.
Adopted Matt is with empty hands!
Dave.
An empty bomb site.
Eastside taken 10 to read the top of the tables upon the explosion of that bomb.
So you might lose more here. Showing yourself towards CT. You need to hold onto these guns.
Money is going to be a problem for G2.
And the 2400 lost bonus going into the next you've got
1.8 on some parts of the high end
Malms and matters will get that cash injection. They're just the one K marks themselves. So
There'll be a conversation to have
That just came so a little too easy
There's no we're not getting drawn into a countergamer counter strike
This is all macro especially when the only pick comes in right there's a strong finish
The details are there now. Maus are looking great. You can't argue with the counter strike
You see him right now.
Might not be the crowd favourite.
They never are, and they continue to make deep runs.
That's the thing that they're used to now.
And this was what hell of an opening.
Just half a second flash of malbs.
That's all it takes.
Not even in the round.
You're just trying to stop the long play.
You're throwing the molly, you're not doing the smoke.
With the blue bin molly, you're playing heavy for long.
You're actually wanting to take the Jules and take the space off the rip and there for matters jumping up
He's in such a tough position
knows that there is gonna be a lot coming through upper tunnels has me to be to deal with and
As he elects to jump up eats the flashback. It's just brutal
The choice right now is to be forced by behind these two M4s or do we go for the save and then we can all buy into the next
Well, I think we can see which decision that's gonna be based off that heads up display right there
So took that time out to have this conversation and we have just lost exertion from the server so one moment, please
Yeah, if anything I think I'd use that as fuel if I'm mouse you say you notice the same scenario they find themselves in the playoffs
They are the librarians the only way it's gonna change is when they start lifting trophies and then at that point
It's undeniable right at this point
I think a lot of people sit and they look at these results and go these kids are playing spoilers
So what could be maybe more exciting games? Are they big vitality now that in the final arcade?
They lose to spirit that was cologne. That was yeah, I mean there was definitely this
Excitement there was this buzz in the air after the win in the semi-final as the breakthrough
Okay, listen to me if we're gonna do what's we're gonna do something special, okay? Oh
Oh, you tease.
We'll have to wait until we're back underway before we can start with a chit chat about that.
But it is good that Maus are picking up where they left off.
One of the things that I thought could become a bit of an issue is it didn't work in 2025.
There were murmurs about roster changes, nothing changed.
It's the same team.
They're in interviews saying, you know, okay, we still have faith in one another, the team
is still the team.
This is a very mature squad.
especially for young men, the way that they're talking about, they understand the process, you talk to Sankrant.
It's about those last few percent, what can they get out of this team?
Because maybe, just maybe, the dialogue will never shift, even if they are lifting trophies.
They might not become those household names, those superstars, but you cannot argue with results.
That's what this is about.
And the results are damn good.
14 events in 2025, 5 grand finals, 1 trophy, 7 top 4 placements, 2 fifths to 8s.
Just a wardrobe full of Bridesmaid's outfits.
Never the bride.
So we've actually got exertion back. It seems Hunter's having issues now. It does feel
that this is starting to slip out of their grasp.
Again, they've been playing from behind in so many of these situations, right? Have you
got, okay, awesome 1v3.
It was.
You know, but there's just not enough. And in a lot of these situations, now's the one
with dictated in the tone. Run on the CT side, they're playing aggressive, they're pushing
up middle, they're pushing to lower, they're taking the fights. And Jigsaw are opening
these rounds and they're understanding these things are possible, but then the ones connecting
the dots in the opens, they get three opening kills in the whole first half on the T side,
their map choice. This is home turf, you were so close on overpass. You win now, you think
you get this done in two. Trying to return to the form we saw in London last year.
Crown seems a long way
the game. We're going to be
away from G2 in this current
moment. Their map pick and as
always, as Chad has already
highlighted playing from
behind. What's special? The
blondes got installed. Take
issues sorted. Under where we
go. Toji boost up, making sure
they can't take that space into
time. Out of space, just stretching his legs up mid. One minute thirty-seven, he's peeking
into the A site. Some pice on the ramp, he's going to get caught off guard with the timings
here. Yeah, you'd expect so right. A single sound cue, just walking out. Okay. Oh, got
the info, but they're still out. Yeah, and that summons the long response. Malph's trying
to hit some shots. We know he's getting for it on that Desert Eagle, but not happening.
Shredded upon arrival, just malbed his deagle here.
Have you got disconnected from the short side?
He's going to be the last arrival.
It's just perfect.
So easy.
Jimmy's ready for you.
Flowing nicely.
Kind of outrageous from exertion as well.
I wonder if that was the something special.
You just stroll straight up.
Yeah, right. This is kind of a tone setter as well.
Right, you catch them off guard.
I think they've been looking at the strap,
but we're looking for the tendencies.
We're just gonna waltz on out because I think that mouse but back in the aim against G2
That's the to begin the tides of this one
Both these teams have very strong fundamental approaches both these teams have players who can shoot down hard the difference is mouse are extremely
Experienced in this environment, especially when you compare that to G2 must win round for G2
And some passes not afraid to play with some aggression the smoke's gonna deny him the line towards lower
of
the
death
of
death
of
Friends haven't given up yet.
Perfect flashbang.
D-Fat is to activate. You can't find it.
Important from some pious.
Puts down exertion, keeps him to one.
There's another though. Spinks takes his place, does better.
Finds another headshot, and now they know.
Heavy God is likely to get low.
Oh, she's activating.
Yeah.
Ooh!
Get spotted at the back of the site.
You peek into an orphan.
You crazy!
He's gone on down.
Beast side open for business.
and mouse to C's 12 this is college the reactions are there the comms are flowing
understanding of the situation everything mouse is doing you can't
argue with it you just can't but even that like staggered one two out mid
perfect flashbang comes through the door some pirates forced off the line
Mattis M4 versus AK, brutal. And this is great right, Torji knows just has to hold the line
because he has a teammate coming with you two and heavy god knows that. I can't sit in the
side, I'm gonna get mollied, I'm gonna get naded, they're gonna scale on me, I have to take the fight.
And a level of frustration now for G2. Their run, looking to come to a close in just one
round's time. Starting in stage one, win over passion, win over liquid. Those are the three mappers.
to the players. Son off with a
two over Mongols. Fresh with
Cobra zero in the jersey. Take
on foot who upset fury up and
that was their ticket to the
playoffs. It was the spirit
game. I think it gave people
some hope that G2 have what it
takes to go toe to toe with
some of the world's best, but
at lower pressure game. And a
spirit who is still going
through their motions. Just
It could be just Malph's here.
They're already coming on out.
Chow to flash, Malph gives the space.
Malph just takes some.
Gonna try and trade territory.
They need to do this.
Otherwise, you're gonna regret this, Malph.
You never made moves, but they boosted over.
Now, Malph's closer than you think, Sam.
Very close, sir.
He's expecting nothing.
Some fires.
Oh, swap into his nades.
He's lost him.
Teammate, Malph's just gone down.
How convincing can you make it, Maus?
It's supposed to be G2's map pick.
Look at this, Brolin just slinks in to B.
They have the entire map.
Wherever they want to finish right now, they can.
60 seconds and more to work with Braver the full power.
Now he's going to catch heavy gone off guard.
Yeah, they're going to make this agonizing.
They're going to use every second on that clock.
First strike on long and the final knockout blow.
on that B bomb site.
didn't get too much in the way of answers.
This isn't even the conversation though, is it?
No, the conversation is that B site is already lost.
Oh, and there's Bron and revealing his hand.
B site's gone, boys. Heavy God relays that info.
Exertion versus Mattis.
He's pre-A minute. He's ready.
mouse sailing to the semifinals. Making it look near effortless, a hail Mary through the smoke,
last man to fall. Hunter will do what he can, but that is mouse's map, that is mouse series,
a knockout blow to G2 and they get one round on the CT side of their map. And that's some
class Counter Strike from mouse, everything clicking right now that is team Counter Strike on display,
but Spinks, he came in as a tone setter. It was a team effort here on Dust2.
Toji on the AWP was just picking him apart, but Maus have teed up their 12th head-to-head
with Vitality. This will be the fifth semi-final against the bane of their existence. It's the
world tour. Austin, Cologne, London, Chengdu now crack on. But the form that they're in,
looking to start 20-26 with a bang. Something's got to give, change is mandatory.
And is this the form that could see a repeat of Cologne?
G2 on the other side.
Back to the drawing board, the fact that they made the playoffs.
It's going to be a tough pill to swallow.
Especially with the overpass.
The overpass gave them, gave us all hope
that this was going to be truly, you know, G2's coming of age,
coming onto that playoff stage, but not to be.
Now's with such polish.
And for G2, there was gaps and they were exploited by the more developed team.
Many more reps required for G2.
They were contended with some of Counter-Strike's best.
And that is now we have OJ down the sidelines with Spinks.
Thank you, Jen. I'm here with my man, Spinks.
We just had a little chat.
I said, how did you find it? Big smile on your face.
playing on this stage here in Krakow, first time ever in this building. How did you find it?
I'm super enjoying. I think the crowd might not be super towards us, but
I'm just enjoying to be on the stage. I don't care if the crowd is with me or against me. I'm just enjoying the moment.
Well, you should enjoy it as well. You took on a G2 who, you know, they did what they did,
they looked how they looked, but you guys did it in two.
What do you think the secret was of playing up here because we talk about you as a team that's got everything
But sometimes you feel the pressure
Yeah, I think at this game we won 2-0, but we had a lot of moments
We were not focused and it was a bit chaotic for us
So I'm happy we managed to win but maybe against a better team
We don't come back from this one. So we still need to do better for tomorrow. Well, let's talk about tomorrow vitality
They have a look strong. They have looked good
They have been the team to be over the last 12 to 18 months. How do you approach that matchup?
Same like any match. Vitality of course was the best team for 2025. We don't know still what we expect from them for 2026
But uh, same like any match. We just need to be a bit better and uh, I'm sure we can win
You the man. Thank you so much. Appreciate your time. He's here tomorrow with mouse, but he hands together for Spinks and mouse
running through
To the semi-finals
Freya, what you got for us?
Yeah, Maus once again locks and loaded into the semi-finals and making midst meet of G2
on Dust2.
We thought this one was going to be a competitive affair, but Maus clearly had other ideas.
First event coming into the 2026 season and looking very good up on this very stage.
Zersun joined the Zoker on the desk.
First of all, congratulations.
This must be a nice start to 2026, right?
Yeah, feels good to get our first stage win.
Also our first game on stage in 2026, also against a pretty scary team, they can have a lot of momentum and yeah, I think we did really well.
Do you think people underestimate your DOS2, they're underwriting you on this map?
Yeah, of course, also it was our promo band but at the end of it we were like 6-2 against the very best, we beat Vitality, we beat Falcons.
So yeah, I don't really understand why everyone is beating it against us but obviously we were really prepared today for it and happy we have another winner.
Last year you guys had a lot of games on stage right and in a lot of them
You were the underdog does it feel nice to be the more experienced team on stage now in the matchup for sure?
Obviously with Vitality up next so it differs again, but yeah
I feel like we're really experienced now and against teams like maybe G2 or Aurora
I feel like we are really comfortable on stage compared to them
And I think that was the biggest difference today you mentioned my telly and you know
It's been a it's been a historical match up so far basically last year
What's going to be different this time? What do you think and what you hope is going to be different tomorrow?
Because we've seen how this has been going.
Well, obviously I hope that we put on a good fight.
I think last matches were 2-2 against them or something like this,
so we definitely understand more how to play against them compared to the 9-0 in the past.
But yeah, I don't know what to expect yet.
Obviously, first we need to watch and analyze their game a little bit, but yeah, no promises.
We're going to go out tomorrow and do our best.
Did you just space me more, Kraser?
It looks like that today.
Of course, it's something we are working on because we need to activate the playmaking side of him since he joined us.
And I think he's doing it really well. This tournament is playing incredible.
And yeah, he was just feeling it. He's an animal. He has this killer instinct that I call it.
Yeah, because I read your interview where you said you would have to, you know,
you took a little bit of a step back to allow more space for the other guys in terms of making more place.
How has that one been for you? And do you feel like this is like a new way of seeing how Maus should be playing?
Yeah, of course, we strive to have more aggressive players than me and the team.
I think also Thorgy is getting more entry duels as on the city side.
Entry percent was really high coming into this game.
I think also today he had a lot of good entries.
Yeah, definitely it's something I would like to see, but it's also a bit different
as I played basically really aggressive my whole career.
So now it's a bit different playing these late rounds or clutches.
I'm really not used to it, to be honest.
I think we mentioned a bit Dust2 in terms of being back in the pool
and you guys have shown strength to it, but also the map that got removed was maybe your best map in Train.
So how difficult has it been to figure out your map pool and the strengths and what you're going to go for in some of these Beatles?
For this game, we were thinking, you know, there's a chance you might go for Mirage, you could go for Inferno, you ended up with Overpass.
Yeah, I think we have a lot of really good maps, but as you said, Train was definitely our favorite.
and coming into this season when they changed the map pool, that Dennis R. Kort said that we must
get one or two maps that we feel really confident to pick against anyone. And I think at the moment
we have more than two, to be honest. We feel really confident about all the maps. And yeah,
we can also see it is our third 2-0 in a row against good teams, top 10, top 8 teams, whatever
you want to call them. And yeah, I'm just really happy we were able to show a good map pool.
Spengs had a really nice quote that we've been referencing a lot up here. Those final 2-3% as
as he said would have made the difference for you guys lifting trophies last year.
Do you see it being that close and if so do you see yourself pushing those percentages
at the beginning of this year? Yeah of course we reached so many finals last year it's going to be
really close about winning them and obviously we didn't win the important ones but at the end of
the day it's also CS so there is always going to be a loser there's always going to be a winner
unfortunately last year we were the loser of Vitality was the main winners and coming into
To this year we're even more motivated to take that step over.
A lot of people counting us out saying that we might run off the energy and fuel but obviously
the first event already sent me finals.
So yeah just looking forward to get to those finals again and to prove ourselves that we
can actually lift the trophies.
You decided to skip bounty and this is your first event of 26.
What's been the main focus apart from the things you already touched on that you wanted
to have more playmakers?
What's been the focus for you in the master?
And we focused on sharpening our map pool, on getting Overpass integrated into our system.
I think that it was not our best map last year, so I think that in general we are super
confident in our map pool and we just need more play time and this event with various
implications didn't really make sense for us to play.
I'm not a genius about that, it's not my topic, but yeah, with just the coaching staff we
have a really tight schedule and yeah, I just hope that we will not run out of energy in
any tournaments.
So one final question from my side, you mentioned the word confidence and I don't know about
anybody else but whenever we've kind of seen you in the booth, seen you on media day and
stuff there seems to be a little bit more attitude about mouse, right?
There seems to be a little bit of something brewing, is that something that you've been
focusing on with the guys?
We know obviously Torsi's like the hype man when you're in the games but just in terms
of the kind of vision around mouse, has anything changed there?
No, I think it's just individually everyone is feeling maybe a little bit more easy, it's
the start of the season.
We have yet to lose like a really important game.
So of course that is a big factor of it, but at the same time my goal this year is to enjoy
CS more.
I feel like I was a bit burnt out at some points last year and also in my stage performances
I was maybe a bit tilting too much or still doing stuff that I don't usually do.
Also today I don't think I played my best, but obviously it's all a step at a time and
if I can help my team being dead and communicating I will do that as well.
And anything you'd like to say to all the mouse fans who have been cheering you on out there?
Thank you everyone for cheering for us.
It feels great to have some fans by our side at times and yeah keep cheering and hopefully
we bring trophies for you this year.
Thank you so much Lesha and congratulations once again and yeah we'll be singing the semi-finals
versus vitality tomorrow but that does mean it's time to be checking in on DHL MVP.
Who will be the DHL MVP?
You decide.
You can participate in the DHL MVP vote as it happens.
Make sure to be tuned in to the Twitch stream and be ready to have your say.
a lot of information, I think that's what's to check out for him.
He also proved to me a little bit that they have been working in the decision of trying to
play more aggressive, it was great to see.
Tosy up as option number two. I'm loving seeing the bounce back from him,
not least because of the heartbreak that he experienced in Budapest,
but it's great to see him popping off when you are getting comfortable in that open.
Yeah absolutely, stepped up towards the end of overpass and the regulation and in overtime then
Dust2 was just solid all around and had a good series.
final option is actually going to be Roland, not only leading in the calling department,
but leading by example as well.
Isn't his name Christopher?
Christopher Brolin.
Yeah man, he erected something pretty sick actually.
You did the oblin armor, right?
Yeah.
Yeah, something like that.
Awesome.
Either way, J.L., who would you be voting for, how?
Brolin, Tauzy, and Spinks?
I mean, the obvious answer is always to go for Spinks, the highest rated player, but just
because I see an ink leader here at the DHL MEP, I'm going to go for Brolin.
Yeah.
Big respect.
We love to see that.
I do think we need to put the shoe on the other foot for a moment to talk about G2 and sadly the collapse that we saw on Dust2
It's very competitive on the overpass moving on to them. I think Zershom was right
people are underestimating them on Dust2, but what was a key issue that you saw unfolding for G2 there?
I think it was problematic outside of the pistol round and the conversion in first half just struggling in gun rounds struggling to win
consecutive rounds. They had a couple of
close ones towards that B bomb side but it seems like also Maus had pretty decent reads on how they were going to play.
You know, they had good mid setups when G2 seemed to want to finish at the B bomb side, doing mid to B splits.
And on the CT side just couldn't get anything going.
That's all gun round, getting reset and not being able to get any momentum really.
Just got to praise Maus for how they played. I think they had a lot of good answers to what was being thrown at them.
Sometimes it's just your opponent having a good day, and obviously G2 also have to look at themselves and see what they could have done better.
But Mausler, they played on a lot of strings, you know, not only always playing defensively, we saw Spings moving into tunnels, he was going top, you know, he was really trying to find the openings.
And then I guess Torres here also just being a rock solid Torres A-Bound.
Considering the point that we're looking at G2 within the wider context of the team rebuilds, now we're sort of, you know, six months down the line, JL, is this a problem?
problem that they're not making it to a semi-final or are you still giving them a
little bit more leeway considering the size of the rebuild that G2 had to
endure? I mean ever since the Wonder Tournament they've kind of been going
downhill at the VRS rating and I feel like it's because they're not doing
enough or not winning enough games or not showing enough potential that they
have in them. Maybe now is the time to actually think about making some changes
or switching something up in the team that might actually propel you to play
better. Well we are going to get a few closing thoughts, as you saw upon his
exit of the Intel Extreme Masters crack-off. Didn't work out for G2 today, I've
got Saw the coach here. What is your first view on what went wrong today Saw?
I think to be honest the whole match was quite sloppy from us, like a lot of
individual mistakes and we were not able to show the team play that we needed to
show and then like they were able to punish our mistakes so it's pretty
simple in that way that the team who makes the most mistakes probably loses and yeah we got punished
by that of course. Sometimes that is the way it happens you think it has something to do with
the fact that it's been a while since you were able to play on a stage like this and that for
Maus of course they have tons of reps in that regard. Well it could be possibly but I mean also
like we started overpass pretty strong I would say so and like the hype and the energy was there
and I didn't feel nervous in that way. So I don't know if it's about the stage.
I think it's most likely some other things, but yeah.
From a Frank perspective, you as a coach, you know with that big initial success in London,
is it taking a bit too long for you to to see what you know these guys can do or what's your
perspective? Well, I mean, I think it's still early on in the season right now. And well,
Well, this is the important season in that way, that the last season was like building
the new roster and building everything, so this season obviously it's more that we need
to perform.
Reaching playoffs here in a way is a decent step, but then on the other hand, like, well,
the match today, this match against Maus was disappointing, so we need to still do better,
but it's going to be a long season and I hope we can step up like the next events.
You're heading straight back to Kluj after this, so there is no rest.
Thank you for talking to me, so good luck.
Yeah, certainly moving the right direction for G2, but stepping no further here in Crankoff,
which does tier Soutyanko with the 12th head to head between Vitality and Maus since Spinks
was moved from Vitality to Maus.
Yeah, pretty one-sided rivalry, but we should heed what Xerxion said.
There are two in the last four matchups, right?
So that gives you a bit of hope for Maus.
to these stages of the tournament,
where usually it did go pretty one-sided for Vitality,
but just to touch quickly on Sol's interview,
you know, I feel like G2 had a good run here.
Definitely had their opportunities in the matchup,
but this is where now you need to see this happen
on a consistent basis.
They need to get a bigger sample size
of them performing in playoffs to pinpoint,
okay, if things keep going wrong, what's the reason?
Does a player shut down in terms of communication?
Does someone get too frustrated maybe
and is ruining the chemistry and whatnot?
They made the playoffs here with six teams going through the playoffs.
Next week, we'll have eight teams making it.
So they absolutely need to repeat this sort of performance
and see where this roster is going.
I always love these new excellent interviews,
because even people are being very honest.
I feel like Saul was just being extremely honest.
He was a little bit disappointed in them not putting out a better fight.
They maybe couldn't convert.
How could they actually be into today's match?
It is moving forward for G2.
That is the whole thing. They did have the rebuild last year, but it's interesting to see where they're going to end up in, let's say, three months.
Yeah, well, when I look at the teams that do remain, one thing does spring to mind.
And that is it. Three out of the four of them are in contention for the ESL Grand Slam.
Now, it won't be happening at this event, but if you're vitality, you are surely eyeing this opportunity upright.
You're already halfway there. You need the championship level event, which of course Spirit has winning I am Cologne.
But wouldn't it be ridiculous to see the first back-to-back team, Janko,
achieving the ESL Grand Slam in what?
Basically, a year's span? That would be insane.
It would be great for vitality, I'm sure, right?
And as you mentioned, you need to have either Krakow or Cologne out of those four.
So for vitality, this would be great timing
because then you get multiple opportunities.
And some of these smaller IEMs also to clinch it,
and we remember with FaZe, you know, and their Grand Slam.
Finally getting it in 2023, it was starting to get to their nerves, right?
You know, they didn't have many opportunities left, so yeah, vitality I feel, even with the remaining field,
still the main favorite here for the trophy.
Clearly, and if there's one team to do the back-to-back, that will probably be good.
Are you saying that through gritted teeth?
That's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine.
I've retired already, so I'm fine, okay?
Like, the first time I got to hear of the grindstone, but I was like,
that's never gonna be possible for anyone to achieve, and now we've seen multiple teams do it.
I think you're the first. I know.
You'll always be the first.
It's not about me anymore, Frans.
I'm looking at the semi-finals later, you know.
Spirit vs. Furia, Vitality vs. Maus.
Which one's more exciting, do you think?
Which one are you really looking forward to the most?
I feel like they're both really exciting.
I mean, Vitality and Spirit on either side of the bracket
kind of set us up a really nice grand finding for us
if they win their respective games, of course.
But, yeah.
I wouldn't forget about Furia, though.
I think Fury at the moment is a slight favorite in that game against Perid,
because Perid made two roster changes, and Magisk is new to the IGL role,
and of course, they have dunk, and you can never count out a team that has dunk on the roster,
but Fury played a very good game today.
They've been getting better with each game so far in this tournament,
and they're looking more like the Fury of the tail end of 2025,
They show up in that sort of form tomorrow. I think it will be a tough task for a literally anything can happen gentlemen
Thank you so much for joining us for day one here of the playoff to be until extreme losses crack of 20 26
We'll see you tomorrow same time same place for semi-finals Saturday
Oh, man, I'm feeling fine.
I know that, a new city, a new era, the same traffic,
but this is what it's about.
We've never been here, God, and our last believer
But I let go
I'll say it loud and tell me how the time has come to believe me
I'm not gonna say something out of the blue
I'm gonna go
I'm gonna go
I'm gonna sing it loud and dance with you
I'm gonna go
Surely Woxic isn't ready for this.
The answer is everything we've already said. Coming into this game he doesn't know when to quit.
Nice guys.
It's a good match, it's good for him, now eats the flashback of his own, still gets
vision in time, but still another hit in every damn shot.
Torchy wants to equalize, he finds the head to head, removes Hunter, some pious, a high
pressure clutch, G2 needs this now, smoke break, puts him low up, Torchy can win this,
Damage exchange, puts him on half health, still the pressure to block off!
Hooray!
Zinfra, Torgy!
Okay, listen to me, we're gonna do something special today.
Man!
Who's that three-core man?
Dischecking the resolution is still the same?
Yeah, it's the same.
Awesome, good luck.
Thank you.
Thank you.
The Intel Extreme Masters Crack-O, 2026, brought to you by ESL, in partnership with Intel,
Acer Predator, DHL, Zao, and City of Crackle.
He's not content with just the Nexus kill.
He's not content with just the Nexus kill.
He's beating it!
And it's all done!
A strong break!
Unbelievable road with a four-shadow victory over Clash's.
And they did it again!
In the black knight!
It's not new!
Give it up for your intel,
Extreme Masters World Champion!
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