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I thought you would say that it's true
These are over for your eyes, I'm looking to see what's done
Blonde, blonde, blinding the wires in the pipeline
These are the needs of the machine, the style line
These are the needs of the machine, the style line
These are the needs of the machine, the style line
This is the last second
The fire is the first
This is the last second
Counting on one two seven ten
I was nothing when I'm looking down, all the blinds
So I'm jumping out of fire, got into a firefly
I'm trying to spin it, full stop, so much play time
This is the world, this is the world
We focus on the fun, the fun
This is the world
I
Lately, I feel like I'll find my feet pushing close to me
My heart skips a beat and now I'm falling
I can't control the wind
I can't trust this fire, it smells like a light
It's like I'm told how to live
These things I can't fight
I just keep going
I just keep going
In my time, in my bed
Jaming in the spring
So many for my place
Always she sing
When I had your hand
Before these dark good days
I thought I'd find my way
Quickly face losing the race
Losing the place
When the bow down moved
My shoulder broken
And I'm falling, falling, falling
Even though I'm flying
I'm not controlling
No, no, no
I'm against these guys
Not so much why it's like I don't have it
I don't have my strings
I don't have my strings
I just keep going
I just keep going
I just keep going
I just keep going
I just keep going
I just keep going
Let's keep going
I just keep going
I'm not gonna stop
These things that I can't find
Let's just keep going
Let's just keep going
We got the bottle service VIP section, having a good time.
I'm on the concrete now
I can feel it all
I'm on the concrete now
I can feel it all
I'm on the concrete now
I can feel it all around A corner call of people came in
Another pressure of the dead time dress I can see all the foam but in
I can see the storm gave out
I'm burrowing up with another single claw
I can see the storm gave out
Where is your tail?
All the time
Can you see me?
It's all right
I'm not gonna be a good son
Don't you ever know
You're a poor boy and a dog
So hold on to your feelings
You're not a poor man
You're probably stressed out
But I'm not gonna know
You're so good, so good now
You're so good, so good now
You're so good
Can't see through my heart
Can't see through my heart
I'm gonna step out of here.
Can't you feel my pain?
Can't you feel my pain?
I can't feel it all around
A chronicle of people caving in
I'm gonna call up people caving in
Oh
Swing that cool hoop up and your hips down Oh honey, you're so cute
Sugar, pretty jealous, stick on your hips down
Oh my God, I was a bit of a pain to take it right here and now
Max attack, let me know if it kills it
89 tries to flounce the limits, who kills in?
Opera catches flank and now it's a battle of these odds and kills off
Watch out, and they're sticking the DQs, the fuses and the cover!
Oh, it's close!
Oh, we got it!
Comes up 9-0!
DGT is playing fire!
Oh, no!
That is ridiculous!
There's the ace!
Get off against these halts.
Absolutely off against.
Off against, huh?
The sweetest in the world
I'll shug it all
And so G2 is sworn that way at stage 3
I'll shug it, I'll shug it all
I'll shug it, I'll shug it all
I'll shug it, the sweetest in the world
I'll shug it all
There is no stopping him. He is immeasurable, the king of Counter-Strike.
Now the convention is on.
Please, if I'm not annoyed, I will have my precious.
I don't care anywhere.
Welcome back to the final day of Stage 2 at IM Cologne 2026.
We have three games left for you today here on the A-Stream where we have to find out
who's gonna make it to Stage 3 and who unfortunately will be sent home.
Two people who won't be sent home anytime soon is Janko and Ash.
Hopefully, I mean there's always a chance.
I'm sure you can make it happen.
a couple of majors man. There's always someone. Someone messes up. I've got to be me Jacob.
There's a reason I've been here for a long time. Well I think Justin Bieber said never
say never. Something along those lines. So be careful. In terms of what's been going
on in the last couple of days as I made the point in stage one, I was a little bit disappointed
in the level of Counter Strike. Do you think that has been better here stage two? What
you've seen so far? I think we're G2 in spirit, 100% in foot as well. There's been a couple
team that stood out and I think in general maybe some of the teams haven't blown us away
but I think we're getting to that point now with the level of Counter-Strike is really
going to go up a lot, Betbu would impress me, Nancy would do a good job to get through.
But in general I think the level for sure looks, you pick it out on a server I think
Yanca, right? You look at it you can see big changes in the Optimus who saved one.
Yeah, there's fewer head scratching moments, that's for one especially after day two was
finished and we got out of teams you know like Game of Legends, let's not talk about
But also some, you know, just better contract. Obviously, Donk has been unbelievable in this stage almost
like it is somewhat unfair that he had to perform against this level of opposition.
But yeah, the Spirigic 2-foot, the three main teams that actually we have a pretty good chance to make it even into the playoffs
of this tournament.
Yeah, it's been hard to predict, I feel, and against that's a direct result of the Piggums as well.
I'm in a position where I need both bait and legacy to win today in order to have a chance to make it
Don't know about the two of you. Are you still in contention? I'm just focused on sticker. That's all I'm watching today
So you can get perfect score zero, right?
Good shout from him
Actually, there's a world. There's a what what happens. I don't hope because then I will also be messed up
Oh, are you looking? No, you know, so yeah, I'm I'm doing the same as it did after the first round
Okay, so screwed. Well, I need legacy and bait to get mine, but I'm happy for them both to lose to see stick
Oh get zero, right? So I'm on both. Well, I mean, there's a lot on the line today also for all the different regions, right?
Like in these matches, it's about how many slots will go to each region for the Singapore major, right?
And we have obviously
EU
Versus the Americas first game that Asia versus the Americas in the second game and okay
the last one is between two European teams. So that has a lot of implications. And yeah,
it will be interesting to see how it goes.
Yeah, it will be super, super interesting to see how that goes. I think it's only fair
that we try to recap a bit of what's been going on so far with a bit of a game, you
know, and we label it by ourselves. So I basically want you guys to buy our cell stocks within
the teams that I'm going to mention here right now, because I think there's a few, you know,
interesting teams that's been eliminated. And there's also some of those where we expected
But perhaps they did better than we did expect starting off with Astralis. Let's start on an all-time low
Almost is any of the two of you willing to buy any Astralis stock right now?
Are you just willing to sell astralis? Well, when you when you heard the interview the hooks he gave
No, I was on Twitter. I'm not sure saying that he feels like there could be change and things
I think he's kind of he's making a point that's a selling right now. He's selling his teammates. What about you?
I mean the question is sort of is it are you buying or selling this?
iteration of Astralis because if it is sell as fast as you can get rid of it
it's going nowhere fast but if it's you know Astralis is an organization and
now their stock is as low as it has been in a while and you think they're gonna
make changes then you could buy but let's say sell because of how they buy
well no stock works maybe we can play this game again
now we're selling 100% on with you and if you would have said buy I would have
that sell anyway. So let's do the next one a bit quick. Sinus from stage one didn't think
they'd leave any good impression whatsoever. Again, maybe full of rookies, you know, maybe
there's some potential. But for now, I think that's fair to put them on sale, which puts
us on to the next one I want to talk about, which to me is a bit more interesting from
the down under your expectations for them coming into the tournament. I think everyone
had them as an O3. Would you be willing to buy into that a bit, Ash?
If they can find an organization, they need to lock the players down. So maybe change
a couple of plays in there maybe. I would say just about by because they did well but
if you don't have an organization, even there are some couple of them are playing part time
like they have nine to five jobs on the other side. And I think also, you know, the way
they were able to get to the major playing those two Brisbane lands, I think teams will
be a bit more aware of that next season. I don't think they can, you know, have the
same strategy and bank on it. So I would say sell while they're on a high.
Oh, sell while they're on a high. All right, let's put them at a sell. Then the next one
One is also one that disappointed me massively and I think I know we're leaning with this
one Heroic not having a great tournament.
Do you buy into them now or do you sell?
They came in cold and they went out cold so I think it's an easy sell though.
Yeah I agree you know you're thinking they might be able to turn it around considering
some of the other teams that were in the stage but not being able to make it through even
with that it's not a good sign and probably alongside the Stralis and other teams, other
Danish organisations that will make some changes.
I think that's the biggest disappointment for me in the whole stage when I was in Rogue.
I really thought they would go through 3-1 or 3-0 and it wasn't even close.
No, they weren't great. So we're sailing, we're sailing in Rogue. We're not buying a lot of time.
Give us an optimistic team, Jacob. Jesus.
Let's just put them all in cell.
How about, can we talk about MIBR maybe?
I was just about to say MIBR next on the list.
Of course, yeah.
I'd still, despite their result, they'll still buy MIBR at this point in time.
Obviously, it was unfortunate. It's not like they played the toughest of opponents.
But you know, those best of ones for teams like MIBR in this stage,
best of ones were critical, sort of get the upper hand.
And I think if you look at it, and it's just been one season with L and Z
and with Letny also as their coach, they've shown a lot of progress.
They became sort of a staple at some of these tier one turners
and getting into the invite bubble.
And they're still positives to take from their performance here in Klux.
Are you going to oppose buying MIBR?
Are you cool with that?
No, I'm pretty high on LZ.
I think they play a good Counter-Strike. Was it Bay? I think they lost too as well.
They're kind of like a structure killer team of Bay.
I think when you lose to them, you can add a... say, maybe sometimes it's okay.
So I like the lineup of MBR. More time, keep it going, Dr.
Alright, you guys are finally buying something. How about the next one? FlyQuest.
They made it through. They did better than a lot of people expected.
Again, is that a team you're willing to buy into Neko?
I am, mostly because this season was a disaster for them in terms of logistics, you know, as well.
just not being able to get everyone in the same region outside of some tournaments, lacking practice,
lacking official reps, maybe a couple of missteps in terms of playing some online tournaments
slash qualifiers in China, not going to these Brisbane lands that Thunderdown underwent,
I think that would have made their lives easier. But with their performance here, I think perhaps
they found some renewed confidence and hopefully logistically they'll have a better season in
in the second half of the year, right?
And you could see some glimpses of what they're capable of,
some good ideas, but also the rust from the lack of officials.
You go with buying a bit of iQuest stock?
Yeah, I agree with that. I don't have much else to add to refer.
Cool. Let's do something fun then. Game or Legion?
This one is fine.
Where are we at with Game or Legion?
Are we willing to sell them?
Are we willing to still buy to them?
I know the major was disappointing,
but over all the season has been okay.
But where are we at with Game or Legion?
The stock is so low, I don't think anyone is willing to buy it.
You just have to sort of burn it, you know, like buying a load of it's been so disappointing, man.
Just like strategically the approach, right?
Like you could I was willing to forgive them for stage one because they're not used to being the favorite.
They're overthinking some of the prep and, you know, you should just play more default, right?
You have better players, you're a better team.
And I was thinking, OK, that's going to change going into stage two.
It was actually more of the same and it was abysmal and it wasn't a surprise.
If you take that into account, they were 0-3, because their level wasn't great even in stage 1,
but sometimes teams played themselves into the tournament.
And yeah, it was very disappointing, because when you lose in such a way,
like how are you supposed to really recover and regain that trust from the players in the leadership?
I guess you already sold them a bit, Ash, but are you willing to do it again?
Yeah, I'm used to selling them again, so yeah.
I think I'll probably just go towards Cell, because I mean, they're the great Atlanta,
maybe this is more of a thing where they're just not used to playing as favorites right now.
So maybe we're going to see when the stock goes down again, maybe they don't have a good second
half of the season. We're not going to play out yet. So just go for sell. Yeah, they're going to have
some hard conversations about their approach in some of these games. You know, we were talking
about and people are wondering about PR and, you know, we're here giving examples of what he's not
really getting an opportunity to do much when you're calling these set rounds and, you know,
You're just running through smokes or doing things where you don't let the round develop and him use some of his game sense to
Get some good reads and make some plays like you're not getting the most out of your players
We heard repeat a thing whether we're talking about being frustrated and not playing the game
I was a kind of a listens in there. So maybe they have some ideas whether thinking we to fix that
Yeah, it wasn't a great tournament for game religion. We are we're selling them
I'll make an executive decision right here Lynn vision. Just put them on sale straight away
I hate watching them to be completely honest. The way they play Counter-Strike is not cool
So I'm willing to sell unless you don't go no no it tells you all you need to know about game
Allegiant that in one of the games on T side we said they look like
Tens tells you how bad it's been for them as well
But yeah, they just need to evolve with their approach to Counter-Strike right?
It's too one-dimensional. They can leave out a tire loose book to be fair
Retire one of the players and put in the first
Gaming gladiators. I'm putting them on sale as well
I don't even want to talk about it to be completely honest
We inferred
What are we talking about?
I don't know
The last one you have to guess
Well for you to sell stuff there has to be people willing to buy
Like I don't think
We'll try to sell
These ones you just stuck with them forever, you know, just like NFTs
Shucks
Um, buy, I guess
Their stock isn't super high at the moment
Nobody had any expectations for them, right?
Yeah, you know, I think with the likes of gaming gladiators being in there
didn't need to put them as an 0-3 sharks and you could see when they play some of their better maps
like they're able to do some damage it's just I think the map pool is one of their bigger limitations
you know they need to get better on more maps because once they got to the best of trees they got
a little bit exposed yeah I think they did good they had no experience coming here as well and
one win two wins I can't remember boy yeah they did alright so yeah I think we had no expectations
for them as well from the desk so I think they did pretty good they got eliminated by jam young the goat
We're willing to buy into a bit of shark stocks and I guess you know it's kind of evident with
all the teams being eliminated. We're not really willing to buy into too much. It's uncertain
times. We keep the money close in our pockets. Now the smart viewer would notice that there's
a couple of teams left out that we haven't spoken about just yet. Mainly teams from North America,
Liquid, NRG and M80. Now I'm quite certain that we start with Liquid and I think in case any of
of you two want to buy into Liquid, I would like to hear why.
Liquid is like that meme, our expectations were low, but holy fuck, you know?
It's like how bad can they actually be?
And then honestly, it's mostly about the lack, for me, I don't understand how you can have
guys like NAF and Leash on that roster, Shuei, even Malibu to some extent, and some of the
decision making, you know, going for some rounds that are clearly out of reach, not
playing with enough discipline, like those are things where I just when I see that I have a hard
time seeing how a team gets better without sweeping changes to the roster because that's just like
a virus it's in there now and it's really really hard getting it out. Ash, I could do you dirty
by by giving you this question you know give me two good reasons as to why we should buy interliquid
but I don't think that's fair so just tell me why we shouldn't. I'm honestly tired of talking about
the discipline side of things, I felt kind of happy. So many times now and I kind of
hope it's something that they would see and they would go out and they would dress in
but is this true or not? Look at it, oh actually maybe there's some truth there, let's really
focus on this. It just feels like they're just repeating the same mistakes over and over and over
so I'm kind of sick of watching. I think it's similar to the Astralis conversation. If you
want to buy believing that they will make changes soon and those changes will be truly an ultimate
for JT slash kick son and maybe try right on the off then I'll buy I'll buy that
thing okay you know but unless it's those two players getting replaced I'm not
going anywhere near for now we were sailing next one is quite interesting
to me energy now obviously the fashion they left the tournament was quite
disappointing we remember that game against big but I think overall it's a
team that has potential would just not quite seeing them get over the finish
I had to not lost that again against big we would probably more entitled to to buy yeah
I think if they did but they didn't so yeah
I mean the cave in is that I said the worst informed team here. Yeah, I think they're the only way best of ones as well
I'm not sure I should play with a coach at a couple of tournaments as well
Yeah, it was you messy
Yeah, it just looks like they kind of relied on sonic to go nuclear and couple of those games to get over the line
I think I'm still on solid you lose in that fashion
He must be pretty depressed and over there right now, I don't know if you have a different thought really uncle
But I didn't really see anything that blew me away. I didn't but I also saw them lose games that they were maybe supposed to win
You know losing rounds with advantages or losing to two pistols
Slash slash fours buys, you know when they had sort of the momentum of the game
I would buy because they were really low for me had really low expectations
They exceeded my expectations like sure. They didn't do much
you know, you can say they were supposed to be in stage 2 giving up that 12-0 lead, I mean, we'll never see something like it probably ever again.
Hopefully.
But, you know, if they're able to overcome that, I don't know if there may be one roster change away from reaching that next level.
But yeah, considering the state of NACS, I feel like you can buy low and hope.
I'm okay with that. Let's buy some energy low and let's move on to M80. I think that's interesting.
It's interesting, MAD, perhaps you had higher expectations for MAD coming into the tournament.
A team that has previously produced good results, even at majors and bigger tournaments, but again, not quite hitting the mark here.
I think they did about what I expected.
I think they did okay. I think on paper, the lineup doesn't have a lot of firepower or anything to it.
They did okay, and again, when they play against a good team, it just looks like they're just miles behind.
When it comes to teams around their level, they're pretty solid.
It reminds me kind of of the game legion that I had when we lost to you and him and we had to become like a full team
Oriated team we had to win with like trick ideas and focus on trading
That's kind of the vibe I however made to where the bitch can't compete against the best teams and they lost to
G2
legacy and
Bad boom so those are three really good teams
I mean and sometimes it is the lack of the draw and how the cookie crumbles
Yeah, you can argue in the bad boom game. What the hell did it play does too?
But with the way Bedboom has been playing this tournament,
would it really be much different on another map?
Probably not.
So it's hard.
They haven't shown you enough in these games for you to go by.
What the thing is, well, what change do you even make
in order to make them better?
That's the big question I think you have.
I don't know where to go.
Like if you give me a limited money and you say you've got to stay in an A,
I don't know what you would do there.
That's the key, right?
like if you have to go scout local talent in North America,
not like there's a wealth of it at the moment.
Yanko, you get the final say here.
Do we buy or do we sell?
Sell.
I mean, do you put them in the middle?
Like somewhere, you know.
Yeah, there's a few games that go in the middle.
I would just go to buy.
So like move it like 1% to the left, 49, 51%.
All right.
It's making life so difficult for production.
They almost made us buy into it.
Now, obviously, as you spoke about
in terms of how do we even fix these North American teams?
You said unlimited budget, Ash,
and you had to pick NA players.
It's a limited talent pool.
We have a graphic of all the players in 2026 for you as well,
and that brings us to the next conversation,
the state of NA Counter-Strike.
Is it disappointing for you guys
that we have no NA representatives in stage two anymore
and not making it to stage three?
Or is it expected where it's been hitting
the last couple of years?
Forget about NA teams, there's not a single NA player.
That's the thing, yeah.
Because before you would at least have twists on phase, like carrying the torch, but not even anymore.
And honestly, once you see Nitro on this graphic, the fact that he's still around after going to Valorant and coming back,
tells you how depleted the talent pool is in North America, especially when we talk about in-game leaders.
Because even MAT, they have a European in-game leader, wild card, European in-game leader
that they brought in, right?
So that's always a sign of a region struggling and you can link that to a lack of young players
of any sort of talent coming up because you don't have local IGLs who teach you how to
play the game, nurture the talent and sort of help them get better.
They lacked that source of inspiration without a doubt.
The Greshwood scene as well, seemingly at an all-time low, but in NA.
You guys were put up to a big task heading into the segment.
You had to build an NA Dream Team.
And I wanted to start with you, Janko.
What does your NA current Dream Team look like?
And is that team even competitive?
I think calling it the Dream Team is maybe pushing it to right.
It's more about not the nightmare team.
OK.
Grimm made it.
And you look at this and you're like, wait, actually.
It's not for me.
Those guys are pretty good grim.
he actually used to play with some of them for a while.
And then Ose is kind of like, ah, right, an AWPer.
We also need one of those.
But I mean, this is just sort of, who else can you get?
Okay, I was considering, you know, guys like Hex,
guys like George, I like them at times.
But you know, compared to the, you having to compete
on a tier one level, just the experience of some
of these guys really shines through.
And I think, I think they still have it
on an individual level.
It just hasn't been right situations.
The teams have been all over the place.
I obviously have twisted the IGL in this sort of scenario.
So, yeah, but look how many veterans,
there's not a single young up-and-coming player
on this roster, and that's very telling
for the North Americans.
She's about to say, I think Liquid have had all of them
on contract, you know, the last couple of years
and still didn't work out as I can imagine
your team looking much different,
but have you gone a different direction?
I mean, there's just nowhere to choose from.
I've even gone to the hope that maybe Donald Trump
besides, you know, what Argentina is looking for.
They incorporate them there.
So I just don't, I think that when he comes to in-game leaders, I've got an in-game leader
who kind of usually just doing it.
Like before you could say like Stanislaw or Nitro, but Nitro here going 0-12 on that.
Let me spice it up for you, Ash.
Would you coach this team?
No.
But I mean, like how much money are we talking?
Even here, like, I mean, we both have grim kind of, he's going to just have to anchor
bit again we're gonna throw him in there like it's really bad it feels like there's no people to
even pick it's like consider like oh maybe this guy's come back as opera had og with it i think
he's called i'm looking at his numbers like it's i don't really know what i'm banking or something
i just look at oc and i thought you know what he's i think he's not point eight three in the last
three months or something like in game leader numbers at that point you just have to go okay well
four north americans and then up and we call it american counter strike it's definitely something
to look out for the future for NA Counter-Strike, especially when you compare it to 2017, you know,
the golden age of NA CS, in terms of how many players they actually had at the major and how
competitive they were compared to today. It's just been a downslide for a long, long time where,
as you said, NA have failed to produce new talents and it doesn't look like there's a new generation
coming up either. Yeah, like we mentioned, like you still have names that were there 10 years ago
that now we're putting still on the Dream Team after all this time considering them the best in
in the region, so it's just been a lack of new talent and it's always been tough in NA with practice.
Practice is just so important, right? Like what makes Europe so great is there's tier three teams
that you can get decent practice against, right? When I was coaching MIBR and we were in NA, you
play a best of five one day against Cloud9, you play one the next day against Liquid, one more
against TempoStorm the day after, and after that it gets much more thin, right? And if you're supposed
to spend multiple weeks there. You just run out of practice like partners. Then you have
to do more theory, which is like, okay, but it's not the same. So I think that's really
always been the problem for NA teams. And that's why, you know, some smaller horse who
don't have the budget to go to Europe, who can't afford it and make it happen always
kind of end up lagging behind the big dogs.
Yeah, it's tough. It's looking tough for an A. And frankly, it makes me a little bit depressed.
I don't want to be depressed when we're at a Major, especially considering the games we have coming up.
We're talking Duo Di time, we're talking last day of Stage 2 at IEM Cologne.
We're starting off with a bit of Monty taking on Pain Gaming.
In a game where one team will be sent to Stage 3 and the other one will go home.
I think it's safe to say that Monty has surprised a lot of people and Pain have turned it around from a horrible day one.
We're jumping on a quick break, but once we're back it's going to be with the pre-show for this game.
I had so many trades trading and even your eyes are wide carry you tell me one round
Hold on. Let me pull up CS stats.
Oh, wait. My bad.
You suck.
Settle your debates, search your profile on CS stats, and turn on tracking to see all your games.
I'm fine, and you?
I'm doing alright, other than, you know, we're in the sun, it's kind of warm out here.
Let's go for a little walk, let's go inside.
I'll take my backpacks.
Oh yeah, come on, we can do that.
So anyway, to the side of Payne and Monty today,
it's going to be quite the battle,
the 2-2 race, them trying to get in the server snow.
Tell me a little bit about this game we've got today.
I think Monty is a really good team.
I think they surprised a lot some teams in this stage.
And I think it could be a good game.
They play a different style.
They are a bit aggressive,
but of course we can surprise them and make a good match.
You guys have started pretty much with your back against the wall in this stage.
Basically O2 between FlyQuest and Astralis was the bounce back.
Now at 2-2 for Stage 3.
Tell me about the grind. Tell me about the experience.
I think it was a very hard day for us because we lost against two teams that we know that we can win against them.
But they played really good CS that day and we were not prepared to play these two matches.
And I think we kind of changed our confidence and our mindset to play these build trees.
And I think it's been good and I'm very confident to play this final match, the decision match to go to stage 3.
Is pain going to stage 3?
Yeah, of course.
Alright, anything you want to say?
And to other Brazilian fans, guys, trust us, we will do the 0-2, which turns 3-2, you can trust us.
Thank you guys, love Brazil.
Thank you.
Thank you.
kept it but I don't even like it so it just stuck the it was good for the sticker
but uh yeah Gigi well played I think I can tell you on that one hey look man
2-1 versus bad boom let's uh let's talk about it in your own words what
happened um pretty hard I mean it was pretty close game I think especially
just to like if we played at a good level we I think most of the time we'd
beat Beboum on Dust2, but we didn't play our best level. They call us off-call, especially
on Nuke on our CT side. We started really good in the games and then they managed to
adapt and come back pretty good.
Yeah, it seemed like they at some point just took control of the game. Does that seem about
accurate?
Yeah, I think especially first two maps with very good starts, but then they managed to
adapt and come back. So Nuke was 6'2 and it became 6'6.
What were the CT sides for you guys, I guess is my question, versus Batboom?
Where were the CT sides for Monty?
With Bat CT?
On the third map that is, in Dust2.
We lost two rounds where they had really bad economy, and I think if we convert these
rounds it would have been, like, we would have probably won the half, so that was the
main thing in Dust2, sure.
So when you look across the way at Payne today at a 2-2 game in stage two of the Cologne
major. What does it personally, what does it make you feel?
I mean, first of all, it's like every player's dream to play the first major, so the fact
that we're going to go to the next stage if we win, like everything is on the line, you
know, so it's like the biggest match I've played probably.
So you thought about this moment for quite some time.
Yeah, like making the next stage would be my dream come true, so yeah.
Well, let's see if Monty Gain can do just that. Thank you so much for your time.
Thank you.
The Intel Extreme Masters clone major 2026 is brought to you by ESL at partnership with
Intel.
Acer Predator.
DHL.
Checks.
And so.
It is indeed a do or die time for both Monty and Pain Gaming.
You are watching stage 2, day 2 at IEM Cologne 2026 and we have to send teams through stage
3 or we have to send teams home.
There's no way around it.
Monty, for a lot of people out there, is probably a relatively unknown team, a team that not a lot of people
expected to do too much here, but yet we find themselves in a position, Janku, where they're just one game away from making it to Stakes.
Yeah, they played some good CS, you can see they faced tougher position, man.
You know, losing to Bad Boom in the best of three, beating Legacy, beating Big, that closed series,
where they had multiple match points against G2, and I think they've surprised, you know,
they've stayed composed for the most part, played good CS, everyone stepped up individually,
Right, no one's lagging behind in a in a significant way
And I think this is a match where I'm going up against Spain. They won't feel like they're the worst team, right?
They won't feel like a mega favorite either
But it's a matter you can just go in sort of focus on yourself and see how it goes
And I think this is all as well the the play against back boom no taken confidence
Even though they lost the kind of bottom two maps on the zoo for me right now is just entry in everywhere
And it's not slowing down. He's not slowing down on another team that hasn't slowed down despite a terrible start
But this pain gaming, speaking of the opposition, had a terrible start to the tournament on
day one, losing a best of one to Tyloo, losing to Big, and then they've turned it around.
You know, a clear victory against FlyQuest, the two overs, Astralis puts them in a 2-2
scenario. Ash, I know you prepared quite a lot for pain gaming in this instance, but
overall, have you been impressed with the way they were able to turn around a horrible
day one?
It's always difficult when you're back against a wall, it has 0-2 usually, it's a sign that
you've got no chance of going through, and they today have the opportunity to do that.
Okay, it's good mental from them and also they're almost 13-0.
It was just about Zey and it's been the catalyst behind all this strong CT sides.
That's something you paid attention to.
Yeah, and you can see that the 5v4 conversions, it's almost 95%.
They're the number one team in this stage at doing that.
Just much better on the CT side, some multi-kills.
Although the opening kills, the environment hasn't been as great
and perhaps to some extent, safe coming in last minute for NQZ.
Right, usually your AWPer is in charge of those openings on the CT side and just getting on the same page can be difficult in a short span of time.
You came in well prepared, Hez, to show us exactly what we're talking about in terms of the CT sides.
Yeah, I kind of want to show the mentality that's kind of going on and it's how they play so close together all of the time.
And here's a period junior with an opening frag, a McPerious senior, very proud, I would imagine.
You see, instantly everyone kind of bunches up close together in the good full trading mode.
Maybe perhaps going for a boost, but from Javis POV, he sees one person and he's enough to the side.
He comes out and gets killed on the side here.
Snow drops the smoke now, and now he's just going to play around.
He's going to look for kills.
And there's a great job here of finding a couple of kills.
But you buy so much time that Safiq comes from A, rotates from CT, comes to him together,
and now they can start going aggressive together.
And I think this is a kind of key way that Paine are going to play.
We'll show some more examples in a minute.
He's constantly grouping up, playing together, and pushing together and getting that information.
And that obviously makes it tough for the opposition to go up again.
Now the examples that you brought out here was against Astralis yesterday.
And from their point of view, how difficult is it to go up against a team like Pain when they're playing so combined and so compact?
Well, we're gonna see from the entry frags. They had an absolute nightmare in this game yesterday
They couldn't really turn any momentum. So every time he's gonna see a kill here
He almost goes back to well, there's a pain player. There's a second player
There's a third player and continue so they couldn't get any momentum actually in all these couples
I think Ryu is consistently finding one player. He goes, oh guys, I've got a kill never mind
I'm already dead and just a bit here and again instantly one comes out second person pushing
So this is a key thing they're going to have to look out for today because it's constant aggression
You don't see any of the pain players and suddenly look out behind you there comes get right through the smoke
You're dead again. So this is a big problem for them
I feel like you're bullying real a little bit with these examples unfortunate for him
He was he was dying a lot in that game and obviously that was the game that eliminated Astralis
Now one thing is strong CT sites another one that's been a bit surprising to me
Yanko is the impact snow was at for for pain gaming a player that has been a big question mark wouldn't designer for a long time
But so far this major he's stepping it up
Yeah, we saw that he joined two years ago and they were talking about him.
So many orgs wanted him in Brazil.
He's the next Colesira, his this, his that.
Hasn't really transpired in such a manner.
Honestly, felt like a time.
Why is he lurking all the time for his team?
Just put him in more active roles, then he'll get more out of it.
We saw a bit of that on the T side, but on CT side, it's still those anchor positions.
And he's one of the main reasons why they've had a strong CT side in this tournament.
However, despite having a strong tournament, Esh is opening killstats and not looking too good.
Yeah, they're not. And this is the bottom five players so far in both stages, I believe, actually,
in combined and snowy kind of see if he's not going for that many, maybe not as many as was before,
but success pretty poor. And he's kind of asked the question,
how is he doing so well on the CT side? So I had a look into that to see what kind of player
is snow right now in pain because he's putting up these very good numbers.
So maybe we have some examples that we can dive into now.
Yeah, it'd be nice to see exactly what he does well on the CT side.
Yeah, so perhaps we've got Snow here in Cologne.
I don't think that's a global warming problem.
It's just him kind of blossoming now as the youngest player from Paine.
And what I notice is he's really annoyed around these smokeshankers,
consistently going in through them, going back out of them again.
I think it's another real tilting thing.
But again, like we talked about in the first example,
buying a lot of time when he can do this.
Maybe it's an English thing.
Maybe he just misinterpreted how smoke is spelled,
because he sure does love him, like every time, just using it defensively.
And you can see in a lot of these rounds, also in that Astralis game, people are saying,
oh, zero rounds and you're picked on T side.
And they had a lot of opportunities.
They're getting into the bomb side, they're getting the first kill.
You see these are 5v4, it's 5v3, it's time and time again,
but they just didn't do a good enough job of those micro decisions of trading, spacing.
Like players also not shooting that well or taking enough initiative.
And you can see that's no, she's doing such a great job of repositioning,
using his utility, buying time, playing off of his teammates, and then, you know, once
you're feeling it, you even get away with a couple of kills that you're not necessarily
supposed to.
I think it's fair to say that Snow has matured a lot as a player in his time in Painter.
We had a point now where I feel like we were talking about potentially replacing him from
Painter gaming a couple of times, they decided to stick with him, Ash.
Is he untouchable now in Painter?
I don't think he's untouchable, but he's clearly kind of playing around in moments.
He's talked about these entry frags, which are not really like there, but you see like
in these examples now he's consistently got, he's been set up, like Big Azura takes aggro here,
he even went out from in the lower real round and this is later in the same round, he's the one
hiding, Peria is there playing for him, they don't actually come to A but you can see the mentality of
you know set snow up as much as you can on CT sides, he's not so good when it comes to just going
out and finding entries but when it's the chaos, the smoke plays, the little like macro mobs in
the middle of the round, that seems to be quite good at the moment. Yeah, he seems to be doing
quite well for himself and obviously you know a massive mood boost as well within the team as
is always evident by the player pictures. Speaking of the opponents in Monty,
Janko, you described them as a team that has played some good solid counter-strike so far.
When you look at that lineup, I'll be completely honest, heading into the major. I'm thinking to
myself, okay, this is interesting. First and foremost, the fact that they start in stage two,
a bit surprising. You look at players like Afro, Rainraker, who spent around for quite some time,
couldn't really find their footing in their respective teams. You put them together in Monty,
and all of a sudden, you have a very solid counter-strike team.
Yeah, that's why we're talking about different fits, right? And I think honestly,
I want to give a lot of props to the leadership of Monty, Gizmy and Kakafu for some of the
game plans, for how they look most of the time. They're rarely lost in rounds and also
a couple of voice comms that we heard from Gizmy. He's very much in command of the team,
speaks with a lot of confidence, a lot of authority. I think that just gives confidence
to his teammates, into his calls, and they execute with a lot of faith. And then of course,
the individual players, Rain Waker has been great on that Mirage T side out of abs, he just finds
impact again and again and really all the players have had their moments so far for Monti, that's
why they're in the 2-2 game. Good leadership, you know, good synergy in between the players and
seemingly a decent map pool as well. Speaking of the Vido Ash, is there anything you expect in this
game from from Pain or for that matter from Monty? I actually expected to be a banker of Mirage,
Nuke and potentially Nubis last, what I kind of like as well is Monty. They have seven maps,
which I'm not the biggest fan of sometimes, but in this series and kind of play around with
Payne, I think it's hard to guess what Luke and I are going to ban. So, ooh, does two pick going
in from Payne against Monty? That seems a little bit risky, perhaps. We'll have to see that one play,
though. Yeah. Well, I think for Payne, it was, their map pulls overlap in terms of Nuke, Nubis,
that's the like it. I thought Monty was going to pick Mirage. In this one, seeing how they beat
bad boom they had some good games on it but actually they go for that Dust2 pick
even though Payne plays a ton of it and I think them getting Mirage I'm a bit
surprised that Payne let Mirage through instead of Anubis and for Payne...
He was under as well. Yeah I think for Payne you were wondering like Nuke you know
they like it but are you confident enough to pick it and start a T side we got
their answer. Nuke, Dust2 and Mirage should we need it between Monty and
Payne gaming we're talking about a pain that went 0-2 on day one who fought the
way back and we're talking about Monty being one of the biggest surprises of stage two
so far. One of the teams will eventually win this game and make it to stage three and
the loser will go home. It is truly do or die time. We're ready with game number one.
Yes indeed, we are ready for this one. Monty taking on Payne, two Brits in the server and
two Brits at the casting desk. Chat Sponge Bertul is taking the day off to rest up feeling
a little under the weather and so I've stolen Hugo's boyfriend, Harry Russell in the building.
It's a nice way to be referred to on the entrance to this one.
And yeah, it's a great game we got in front of us, man.
Monty versus Payne for the final spot in stage three of battle.
You're either one game away so close or you get there with starting things off on Nuke.
Monty kind of shocked us all. A lot of folks had them down 0-3 in the pick-ums.
That is not what they bought to the server.
Some out-of-the-box thinking from their captain was going over these Payne pistol rounds.
tendency to finish A on kind of a second tempo. It's either that or out towards ramp. And so if
you've done your homework here, can have an idea as to what pain are going to bring you away.
Rain Waker has been a volatile presence for Monty. Sometimes it hits, sometimes it doesn't,
and looking at a zoo who's push here, safe was holding, but with a USP, that's all your needs
gone. So scrap your plans, accelerate ramp, Rain Waker dips down. Gives me, catches a bit of
flag. We'll have to back away, respect that. They concede ramp, but there are bodies here to receive
You've got Rainwaker and Afro, Poise and Ready.
In this crossfire, third rotate, even down through the vent.
This is going to be tricky for Payne.
It's Rainwaker in this kind of enclosed position.
They don't know about it.
Best of the team trying to bait for him, but they drop on down
and all the entry is coming through for Payne.
Azulu already found one and still they find themselves on the back foot.
This looks impossible to find a way back in.
Two HP, six bullets in your pistol, Gizmi just 11.
There's a flag from Gizmi that's easy pickings for Snow.
So he will find his first contribution in this do or die affair
Good luck be mercy the only healthy member. You've got your arm of dual barrettas
You might want to just bring them through to the next and it looks like they are gonna preserve the Kevlar
The only frag you have is the a zoo frag out on safe and they pivot down to be comfortably
It's rough there. You know what we're saying coming into this like pain really don't have any tendency to use yard in the pistol
Monty clearly did their homework heading into this round. They went for that yard push
They not only got a kill from it. They had all the info. I think that's gonna feel a little frustrating because you knew it was coming your way
You were ready for it, but ultimately don't hear your shots pain come through with a nice easy pistol
I don't know who I have in this one the desk would rather split as well
I think Monty have certainly impressed. I think they've done some convincing, but pain on name value
I pain on expectations. You actually were saying just before we went live you had quite high expectations for pain
Well, yeah, you know at least I figured they would get to stage three
You know just because you think about that they're kind of chasing that high all the way back from Austin where they had
That the best run at the majors yet, but a pest didn't go their way right going out in stage three made some changes
The safe one only a couple of months ago right having to bring him into this squad
That's the one thing. I think they gave you some doubt here
Yeah, the other the other changes very targeted the idea that stage three wasn't good enough
And I think you could actually regress from that if you fall down in this festive three
see. Oops. I don't think that was intentional. It might have just, yeah, hit his keyboard
with his mouse there because it's so, uh, deagle in warehouse if you, if you were listening.
Well, these snow and figures are working outside in a lot of these rounds for pain.
And so just kind of puffing their chest up here with the main smoke in cutting off info
Combined with the secret Molly just to deny any grab add information from Monty
It's a ramp take in the downtime and pain have got the repositions. They were hoping for here eyes on the yard leaves ramp open
You're not gliding into this you have to be cognizant that you've left this wide open you've sold it
And so as who is responsible an awful lot of responsibility on his shoulders
I've rated player so far for Monty at the major which is impressive. I say that as he pivot so I guess we're gonna gamble
Yeah, they're feeling a little blind here. Maybe you're going to look to see some lobby
aggression. You've got that BMS MP9 over towards the hut, but it's going to be mistimed. Bombs
already down on lower. You might just run this one back in the next. I think so. I mean,
it's a dream for Peyton to the second round as well. Sure, you wouldn't have minded a
couple of extra kills, but the fact is just you found the path of least resistance. You
glide into the B site. Haven't seen a single member of Monty. Here on Nuke, I have my eyes
I'm kind of three players for this Monty squad the a-hole. There's been a little bit rough and not just here at the major
Beemus obviously had a really really rough time yesterday in the bed boom game
It was a bit of a shame to see too because everyone else on the squad was was looking really solid
He was very much the the weekly snow. Oh my god. They were just trying to save man. That's brutal
Oh, not four of them
Well, now you get the worst of both worlds you lost the round
You didn't put up a fight and you lost the things we're trying to say
Isn't it snow is all smiles at the end of that
I mean he is yeah, he's I feel like he's kind of the face of the you know the idea of the next generation, right?
I mean snow was nine years old when SK gaming won in 2016
It's just you know the counter strike revolving door
The Brazilians have yes, yes, some of them still linger on our screens. Some of them don't
But you'd have got like that next batch of brazilian talent
I think it's so awesome with him as well, like having that little connection to Fallen
being a part of like his kind of Academy series back there, yes, you know, very much ingrained
in the scene.
And also, you know, Biggazera has been very loyal to this guy.
There's been a lot of calls over the years for Snow to be the guy to get caught and he's
survived throughout every iteration of the roster.
He's the guy sitting next to Biggazera.
Biggazera devotes a lot of attention and time to him.
I mean, the Desk highlighted as well that their CT setups were kind of setting him up
to succeed. I think that shows that there's faith and responsibility on the shoulders
of snow. This is just the eek. Should be that nice 3-0 start. But they aren't going to
mess around. You're seeing diligence on display. I mean, this couldn't get more high stakes.
You lose, your mage is over. You win, you're in stage three with the big boys.
Yeah, for money to contend within this first half, you need a solid presence out here towards
Okay, Bemis gets out with it, one, as the Rotates arrive, need a quick deal with it.
Desperate dash for Rainwaker, Pinsod from the lobby.
These A guys, it's a three man holder, at least it can be for the side of Monty in these
rounds.
Bemis very much the guy that's going to be anchored in place, had a rough go at it yesterday,
been something that's a trend that's kept up throughout a lot of their games.
A holds gives me sometimes with him over to wards made and then also a zoo who
Things that look up here for Monty is the afro has been solid out in the yard
Rain waker also a formidable presence rampside. It's really this a bomb site that makes me a little bit nervous
I'm gonna judge a lot of this CT side based on how they stack up
Okay, we're talking to stack enough he slipped off the boost not gonna be getting that launch
He was hoping for
Looks like big is there is go try and turn up a bit of momentum towards that top side
at least we're hesitant to do so with that smoke chain together as we attended to it all and on the
reload big is there has got an opportunity just in the gap gizmy's found him back turned put one
into the cerebellum we've got an opening kill in favor of montine to the first gun
hoping that you can get snow active out here in the yard feels right at home in this position
and they've missed timing on him on both of these breaks meanwhile painter back in the lobby
posturing over towards ramp ready to react around snow
So they're going to try and get past rain waker
In a position just to get one and then try and get the hell out of there
Oh, that'll do that'll do nicely even throws the follow-up HG avoids the hunt from BSM
Now period is going to have just 11 to work with
You get the info you maintain the advantage. That was an opportunity squandered afro onto snow does not connect the shot
on spot. Onto position noted,
and you've got 39 seconds to find this finish.
It does look like safe flirting with pushing out of this hut.
He's been audible. Here comes the commitment.
Femus, can you pass the test?
Yes, they can, in combination with the Zulu, two go down,
and they passed that.
I said, that's got to be a big thumbs up, Harry,
as far as your tally chart for top defense.
Yeah, well handled there, right?
And good info, grabbed the damage from Rainweaker,
ramping up to repel them,
meant that they didn't have to over rotate.
Didn't even concede that space.
And even the spot from Afro, like, sure, he missed the opportunity on Snow, but you build a better picture of the round when you see him still scurrying around Main, still playing for that yard control.
And so, five alive when all is said and done, and the A site with standing with four kills from those two defenders. That's a good step in the right direction here for Monty.
Uh...
See it again for Zulu's POV.
Very good position to be supportive of that commitment.
He looks really solid, doesn't he?
He's having a massive uptick across this major, which is kind of the dream, right?
Debut major for this guy as it is for four players on this Monty squad.
Usually it's...
They just get knifed.
They did just get knifed.
Love tap out towards Spawn.
Hope that that doesn't make all the difference in this round.
All right, bit of aggression here for Monty.
All right.
Works his way up close, under the silo.
Has Afro providing some overwatch on that AWP.
Looks like Snow's completely overlooked.
It did have a little glance, but Gizmy puts him down quickly.
Clash one tap, VSM on the hunt.
Afro provides the support.
Again, they're testing Rainwaker.
Has he got the capacity to just clean this round up with a clean headshot? No, he doesn't.
Biggie Zera.
Finding Rainwaker, but without first follow-up on Taperia, the numbers just aren't there.
I think there was a bit of flak there through the wall.
Safe ditches hit that.
Crazy.
For 18 damage, it's nothing to write home about.
They've also got ahead of this with the Rotates and Zulu moving down.
That's the freedom of having this 4v2 and info about the ramp take.
You just feel free to move bodies around and right place right time for a zoo
Monty these are two convincing rounds back to back and now building up some CT money
It's gonna kind of lodge them in place right paid up to start streaking rounds together if they want to break through
So this is a promising sign already. I'd say there's that knife
And this is that like half-high play like he starts to consider it as he's already around the corner
I'll be looking to avoid that in future, but yeah, nice.
Forward, good to see some proactivity on that CT side.
Gives me going outside and immediately finds them
in that second round, but two convincing ones.
Just one death for Monty over these last two rounds of play.
Thing about an outside round like that is, you know,
now for the rest of the game,
you're gonna be checking that close corner
and you're gonna be doing it thoroughly.
I think you're a little bit shocked
that Monty felt the freedom to do that so early on.
And if you're a VSM, you feel especially silly
because you're sitting there on silo crouching trying to clear him as an
orp shoots you looking like a bit of a plum
yeah yeah like okay guys we're going to clear that properly
so it's only a little bit of conditioning
afro on the scoreboard as well that was his first two contributions
nice just staying away from the odds
just going
hop with the pistols but double set up here
to receive no worries up against the eco.
That's a game set and match.
This is one death in the last three
rounds for Monty.
You couldn't really get better if you tried.
Playing a confident game.
An interesting hearing a bunch from
Gizmy all across this tournament.
I like the kind of self belief he has.
Has that a little in depth look at this team
talking about his major aspirations.
Yeah, and also just it's funny to see, you know, he talks about how how he likes to call counter strike
We'll see more of it on the T side, but it does like to manipulate the rotations. No better map for that than new gets pain to pick though
But on the CT side, he's been bringing the aggression now. Oh, this is brilliant snow's trying to clear one side and he's on the other
Ready for this? It's all Gizmy's found his head snow goes down again
As an opening dance trying to find a follow-up as big as Sarah though an important find back
They're accelerating behind this wall of smokes. Bomb on the back of safe. Does it really want to commit here?
Do you hear someone make his way down? Afro's caught Biguzzer in a belated trade.
It gets weird now because your bombs yard behind red.
Ooh, what a shot! He just spots the kneecaps of Afro and flicks into it for an equalizer.
PSMB and that secret is just so unexpected. Safe is really trying to sell this with a molly onto the secret stairs.
building this idea that no one's crossed no one's made it down they've got a man
in behind enemy lines this is now Monty feeling a little bit lost on the map
trying to take Lobby away three on three like this you can't afford to do it
flying blind here we go up of a guy okay but I'm still okay he's not a four by
three okay catch his period he can't be losing the bomb safe guess the
information that safe has returned to the lobby they still don't know about
He's still hanging out of the window.
This is so uncomfortable.
You need him to hook up your ramp round.
If you want to try and bring the bomb in to join him down on this B site, he's got to
make a decision.
Does he hold the vent for the rotate?
If so, you know, safe is going to have to do this all alone.
Oh, he had his chance.
He definitely had his chance.
Gets his eye to the scope, pulls the trigger, just whistles one path to Zewoo.
We're looking at another Monty round.
Another gives me opening and a very uncomfortable one for the T side.
Yeah, I mean, you know, just props to Monty good timing on that lobby aggression, right?
And I know it was kind of on a nice edge with the period catch. It felt like he saw Bimas
like three times over on that scale down the ladder. That one is a bit of a rough fight.
Kind of a sour round there for Monty because they get VSM into a good position. It was
just finding a way to marry it all up at the end that became the problem as he ends up
saving an immediate time out on the back of that ricks wanting to say his piece to the
gang recognize that they've been in some good spots in these rounds but have
struggled to kind of bring it all together
Monty a CT side that is really standing up to the eye test right now they've
had good round starts gizmy's aggression out in the yard already getting
ahead in the head of snow right think about his last two rounds didn't play
close dies to pushed up gizmy clears the angle he died from last time and that
ends up baiting him in to give me all over again.
Yeah, just a sigh from, uh, period.
You kind of just feel like you're lagging behind Monty a little bit, right?
They're faster off the mark with their round starts.
They're faster off the mark with their mid-round calls.
And so, time for Payne to be the ones to take a bit of control here.
They have this hero gun on VSN.
Yard smoke's going down.
time he was able to make it across fully. So maybe they're going to look to use that in some way.
It's a monty of paranoid about a potential garage cross so they don't play anyone super
deep in the yard but the exception it gives me through feeds vs m1 and that's an m4 to get
retrieved by pain. Has he got his fourth open and kill, they're accelerating in but blocked.
Again, it gives me on to snow. Sure, there is an immediate trade this time. And as M4
falls into bigger Zera's grasp, why do you go now? Had an aid if you wanted to try and
break this, but for now they're just going to hang out in secret. See if anyone overextends.
And would you, that's not really an over rotation, but Rainwake is going to kind of back a Zewoo.
I mean, it's the only info you have, right? The players did cross in a secret, so making
an adjustment to deal with it. You can go that for a covering if they come back up.
As soon as he was a nerd, dude, he saw it was an incentive.
The area is stuck around to tap the head. Now he can evacuate.
Brilliant.
Just a little safe haven from the flame.
Bears fruit for a tap of the head.
They're committing to this.
Single door will swing open.
Pressure applied.
Right away.
You're supposed to be there to help him out.
Now it's all onto Azumu's shoulders.
I'm wondering where he's gotten off to.
Lots of possibilities. The back was turned, draws attention. Now they know he's in so much trouble.
Gets another one on to safe swing, but the Martyrdom perk finds him from the grave.
It's Afro, not ideal, but could distract, could do damage. Now single door is open.
Divus has got two backs on his screen. Can he find it clean? Yes, he can.
Another Monty round. This one a whole lot harder work.
I don't know who to give the gold star to. Maybe Azumu for his defense.
Gives me providing another opening kill. I will reiterate that is his fourth.
And there's a 5-3 scoreline for Monty.
I mean, it feels like a necessity here on Nuke CT side.
After Payne picking up the pistol, you want to go on a bit of a run?
I'm on hell of a run right now.
Yeah, I mean, just look at how much Gizmy is putting himself in the position to get
these rounds off to good starts, you know, the age-old idea.
If you want something done right, do it yourself.
Yeah, okay.
He's requesting Util, he's requesting support, Tima playing off of him well in these yardtakes.
and you're shutting down like a major avenue of the map in going for this constant aggression.
Painter getting fights in the yard, they're just losing a lot of them.
And so maybe time for a change, steering away from the yard control in this round,
Gizmy's put the fear in them. But that's not going to stop Monty from making aggressive moves,
they're ready with a flash set up over towards ramp.
As he was once again in the right place at the right time to punish Perrier trying to get cheeky
around the smoke. He has lost his gun. I think he was trying to pick up the AK-47 and now
it's somewhere. It's fine. Everything's cool.
Oh, he found it. He found it.
You don't want to be dealing with that as a major rookie, do you?
Too to a fair. Boys, I've lost my gun.
Okay.
I know it sounds pretend, but this is really happening.
It's all good. He's got it back.
Afro, Aggie in the heart. Reblock on Squeak.
This is nothing more than a fake outside and would have guess we've been playing
you needs on that smoke didn't see anyone. I don't think he's bought down on this at
all. Even with a little push around that smoke just reconfirms the yard is clear and so Monty
have not you know bit down on that yard fake at all. What do you make of rain like his
passive approach ramp here? I mean this box so often gets overlooked doesn't it? You just
Here's a teammate nearby in hell. I don't think you at all think about this box
Yeah, it'd love be lovely if be must could take contact first
But it looks like it's just gonna be rain waker with two on his screen a third from VSM does get denied
He's got that ramp space, but the damage is done
I mean you are in so much trouble VSM's got the bomb on ramp side you got 15 seconds
This round feels like it's over up the heaven ladder if a zoo who wins this the ground is
Hang on
Be must in hot pursuit should be up to deny this
easy pickings and no time for safe to do a thing.
A unique flavor to that one.
Rainwaker definitely going to be very happy with his defense
of the ramp solid work from him after we've been denying safe bringin anything through.
Jacob, nothing.
Monty, you're doing a really, you know, they're putting up such a good defense
and their reader of the game has been stellar, man.
Like, they spotted early on that the yard fake was exactly that, just a fake.
Rainweaker then plays this position, and the reason my pain really are lax in clearing anything, they're assuming the yard smokes drew the rotate.
They think that their play shuffled the setup of Monty, and that's not at all what happened, they use it against them.
Just good awareness here from Monty, all across the CT side, great understanding of when and where they need to push, when and where they can take these risks.
This is Pain's pick, but you would not know it based on how Monty are playing.
Money in a bad spot again, and so, you know, these can sometimes be hard rounds to deal
with, Painter just gonna play something grouped, play together, sometimes feel like you have
a little less to lose here, so if things loosen up a little bit for the T side, that can be
good in a tense game like this one, it's a ramp hit for Rainwaker, just can't get into
the bomb size right now, they're keeping an arm's length, and Rainwaker a demonstration
of exactly that, another two kills as they come his way, oh dear, that's gonna complicate
came out as though, isn't it? Two quick trades, three on three, and a chance to slow this.
What if they keep going? Safe comes through that smoke. Never expected it to give me.
Bemis is now feeling pressure trapped in from heaven, worried about the lobby. He feels
that there's nowhere safe to turn, and with another entry out of Peria, this round is
just collapsing around Monty. There's nothing Bemis can do. What's
they kind of find his coordinates, see him on that topside? Everything pivots. The bomb
heads B, Perrier is going to get that planted. Safe contains him from this
heaven position. He feels like he can't even get vents. That's what Safe's kind
of intermittently checking for. He's got the cash where it kind of would be cool
to see him go for it, but I suspect it's just it's a hopeless endeavor.
It's just the moment you're faced with a vent drop into an uncertain B site. Like
you don't you don't think twice, you know, you just hold on to the gun and you
won't even get out with it. Great round from Safe. That's how we say like the
The tech diamonds should sometimes loosen you up, like safe would not have pushed that smoke in a rifle round.
He would have played his life, he would have sat back, Gizmy would have never fallen prey to the timing.
But you go into it, it's already lucrative after this double kill, and so down it is, the amorous.
I didn't see it from his POV, a smoke spam headshot into a smoke push onto Gizmy, who's kind of juggling guns.
Okay, well that's going to resuscitate some hope for pay.
Let's go guys, let's go!
do it is is a massive boon for Monty. That's an opener. That's a great find. You can see
the panic on period to start spamming his scroll wheel to try and get away from the bullets.
Opening kill again in favor of the CT side.
Meeting up the mines as to how you finish this.
Does look like safe lining up the yard smokes.
This gives me some reaction to this.
It leaves it in Afro's hands.
It seems that Afro has an age to break on these smokes.
Well placed, that is right in this pocket of ESM's pain jersey.
It gives me so active, he actually just got flashed through those yard smokes and so he's
confirmed like it's not outside guys, know exactly what's happening now.
Monty realized this is a bad fake last time they tried this it was just a set
piece in towards one of the sides it's gonna be an A play.
There it comes, they've only got 20 seconds to find this finish, you've got to get past Afro
as well but he's done well, removing bigger Saran, a quick follow up as well from Afro.
Down the vents is Snow with the bomb, a two versus four with Safe trying to hold that
rotate, trying to stop the drop of Gizmy. Looks like the bomb can go down, Rain Waker's confirmed
it and there's a one and done. The lurk is removed, Snow doesn't have the health for a
clutch like this rain waker to find time where he relays the information that he's crossed towards
that single door side they can just use their strength and numbers here snow would need that
one tap and hasn't been able to provide it on his first dip triple swing and the zoomer picks him
up seven now on monti ct side quick return to the norm after a tech nine pickup from pay
It's just crazy in this game, like Snow has more kills than Gizmy, but the impact that
Gizmy is having out in the yard is absolutely huge.
He's playing it with real confidence.
He's constantly sniffed out these yard fakes.
They've just not been working.
You nailed it, right?
Afro is not going to be dropping into this site without that information from Gizmy.
And it was him, you know, Afro was out in the yard with Gizmy, set him up with the flashbang,
in to rotate when they get that info.
Monty is just staying one step ahead with really nice, really active mid-round moves.
And the worst thing is, because Snow's kind of had the fear put in him in these yard control rounds,
he's never even there to confirm that they're doing this.
You know, Monty are walking into all these stacks, but they're, sorry,
Pena walking into all these Monty stacks, but they're no closer to figuring out why they're materializing.
You would love to see an eighth of your Monty, because I mean, Pain would only really have
a Tech 9 half by the pistol and its conversions to show for their first half of play here
in this elimination match, this elimination or qualification match.
Yeah, you know, they haven't won a full rifle round yet.
The one round they've been able to find outside of the pistol was that Tech 9 round.
Oh my God.
C1 on the AWP, this time Snow goes down to Afro, he had support from Gizmy for the potential trade attempt, but no one siloed and OOOH! Rain Waker's got pressure!
Second guessing is Util, just has to choose to stand and deliver, needs a rotation, maybe he could do it on his own. Again, he's just, Rain Waker's good for two.
They come to his ramp, he takes two heads, the damage is done. Once again, pain having to work with this number disadvantage.
You heard the desk talk about their their capacity for winning those 5v4s. Well, they haven't had that many of them
I think it's two open kills in this half from the T side of pain
Monty have just been able to keep the boot on the throat
Making things incredibly uncomfortable for them and that is a half Monty got to be proud of that one pain need help
Jeopardy on the way. This is their map pick, but you wouldn't know it in that first half. We'll be right back
Gameplan, combined with some sharp individuals, has seen them with a runaway success on their CT side.
Only one round passed the pistols in that first half of the game, and they now lag behind in a big way on their map pick.
They need results here in this CT pistol, or else Nuke is going to pass them by in an instant.
You're seeing a lot of frustration for Snow.
He was the real target of this Monty gameplan, getting his head and effectively cut the map in half.
Once you don't have to worry about yard anymore, let's see what money you've got at their sleeve here for this teahawk.
That's a bit of a lot riding on this pistol.
Hurry up and wait seems to be the go the second timing. Gizmy's gonna smoke main Afro with the Molotov and go.
Jules the rest is for snow, pressure applied. Gizmy's already removed Big Usera. Gizmy, how's he done that? Two into the top site.
He is the arch enemy of snow
Another rough ride for pain VSM in heaven. Good luck. Have fun mate. Oh when a zoo was put him down
I mean that feels like a keep it simple stupid kind of thing. I mean, it's you know bog standard
We're gonna pop Lobby second timing
Utils there and so are the frags. I didn't see it from gizmies POV, but that first one on to big who's era came rapid
Dude, honestly, yeah, it gives me. He's just got homing bullets for snow
Yeah, cool of Mr. Plow. He's the enemy of this guy.
That second kill was wild. He's in the smoke coming out into the topside.
More just key entries for the captain of Monty.
And I think this is the type of game that just gives you such a confidence boost.
The game plan's going flawlessly. The individuals are hitting hard.
Ok, so there isn't a weak link right now for Monty. I came into this game a little bit paranoid about the top site.
BMas had that really rough game versus Pia yesterday. Yeah, just casual spam and smokes.
Beautiful tracking on the drop down, gets a flash of information. I will just reiterate.
So Gizmy's got seven kills, five of them have been opening his.
The guy is just giving them an advantage in the majority of these rounds. So fair play.
Let's go, let's go, let's go, with will, man.
Damn, will.
Not to complain when you die, bro, when you die, bro, you have to help the team.
That's your function.
Nothing for you here. You fully invested. It's a 1 versus 4 for Big Busero that won't even get going
and we've got ourselves already the double digits for Monty.
All that hard work done in the first half. Now they get to convert upon the pistol. It just
feels like this is going to go one way and one way fast.
They have to echo this one. That's 11 and then the game gets going for pain.
But the fact that your coach is sitting there having to do the classic like
Don't moan when you die. Give me info, you know, help the team try and find a way back out of it
Hey money will have played a game that gets under your skin. There's absolutely no doubt about it
You just kind of been out game planned off the off the rip really
And I think there's nothing more frustrating like this is your pick in this series
It's one where you know going off the numbers. You're meant to have a huge edge
And you've just failed to deliver that and I think in the moment you're not even really sure how that first half
Passed by so quickly, but it did all start with snow just getting really targeted out in yard
And that's eroded the entire game plan for pain
You know think about how many fakes they were throwing in in that first half that the money just knew were
Fakes, yeah, they never they never fell prey to that like moment at the outweigh you see the outside smoke
So you get caught out of position because you rotate down they never felt those types of nerves
They've been in full control and so now you're left with a rifle round up against 11
That's the that's the reality here Monty
A really right there on the finish line with one rifle round to break through and this would be a stunning victory the fashion
They've done it in coming in with a hot start in this high pressure series, right? This is a 2-2 game
This is a dreaded position even for top teams even for experienced squads
No one likes to be here and if you're pain you can completely understand why they ended up on Luke
It's served them very well this major
They've been a strahles and fly quest on it so far and their opponent has only played it once here at the major versus bet boom
Where it was like I think Monty got what seven rounds in the loss
Yeah, and six of those rounds were in the first seven rounds. They are absolutely swept after an initial head start
Okay, so here's the guns. It's time to find out if pain planned to put up a resistance in
in this first map of this dual dive fair.
That looks like a little bit of a freeball smoke.
Gives me up on the silo.
He's gonna throw out one piece of the wall.
Trying to imply they're going down.
And then you accelerate into the topside.
Are you ready for this?
Ooh, Bigger Zera looked like he was a second away from ventropping,
but that Utahl coming in so early, he hangs around.
You are going into a bit more of a stack.
Afro with a catch.
Here he is, back in the site, getting walked on.
It's an important trade back for safe,
and that slows the role of Monty.
No longer can they walk out into this bomb site.
Smoke start to fade.
Now they're going into crossfires.
This is a high pressure situation.
Man out of the CT, Ben.
You've got to get past him.
You've got to do it quickly, because that's all.
It's on the way in.
Flank.
It's all about VSM's flank.
Two spotted Afro.
They have no idea.
It doesn't get the lethality.
They're safe on the follow-up.
should be good. It just gives me in the clutch with 40 seconds to cook.
He knows where they both are. And the bomb is retrievable.
Yes, I'm just walking on him. This is Cheeky from him. He should catch him and that
light spot puts the little bullet into his spine and pain. A necessary round
converted and safe to thank. Top of the tables.
Is he standing in or is he now in the roster? You know, it's been a bit of a
last second substitution, but
Safe has been putting in a shift for Payne.
Yeah, I think the thing that's nice about bringing in a guy like Safe, you know, at least he's had a lot of reps, has a lot of experience.
You're not taking a chance on some rookie here inside of the pain squad.
You kind of know the mileage, you know what to expect.
It's a guy who has a developed playstyle, who knows the type of fights he's looking for.
And it's, you know, it's familiar territory for him.
He joined Payne first in 2020, paid his first major in 2021, and remained with them until
2022 when Fury came knocking.
This is always seen as somewhat of a luxury.
You've got a body down secret early, Big Uzerra's the one tending to it.
We might get a little bit of a captain clash here.
Doesn't look prepared.
Never mind.
Takes the head off of Big Uzerra.
gonna lead to a lot of moving pieces. You get blocked, squeak, you accelerate ramps.
Safe-sorp is here, though.
U-Tel really punishing on VSM. Hoping to alleviate some of this ramp pressure and important double
and now it's snow pushing into the lobby. Will he find Rainwake? I don't think so.
I think it's a game of timings here. Harness each other completely.
Bonds going down after a mix it's so
I mean you've got a kid on snow, but I think you just need rounds you need rounds
Doesn't look good though. No one's feeling good about calling this save, but you're just out of position. You did have info and
You're looking to get out with guns
Also, doesn't it feel so poetic that in this all-important rifle round in a game
like gizmy had completely shut pain out of that yard control. How do they win it? He sneaks down
secret. He takes the fight over biguzera, the captain for the other side. And if that isn't kind
of a poetic justice for this game, I don't know what is. He's been out calling it. He dominated
the yard control all throughout that first half, and he gets to show it here in the round that takes
them onto that point. He was so unprepared for that. You know, like gizmy's not anticipating that.
that you just see this kind of crab walk of Big Uzerah and a very quick reaction as well.
There's some mechanics from Gizmy. You'll see it again, look. Bang. Just starts to move his mouse,
nails the shots. It's a nice double as well. You get to see Vsett putting up a fight. The
fact that you kind of, I feel a bit ridiculous to say he needed three there, but yeah, that's
kind of a round ending death. And we've got a 12-5 scoreline, folks. Riggs burning through his
timeouts. That's the last they'll get. And it would have to be seven consecutive, not,
I mean, it's just in this game only one team has profited from yard, and that team is Monty.
What do you do on Nuke when one of the two avenues you can look to play with is entirely removed from the game?
The map is so shrunk, you're playing it on, you know, close quarters mode where you're super reactive and it's forced you to constantly just play the game.
You're playing it on, you know, close quarters mode where you're super reactive and it's forced you to constantly just play catch-up to Monty's calls.
I think Gizmy's probably got a good idea as how he wants to throw this blow.
Is it pace? You've got so many rounds to play with. Why not flirt with aggression? The flash was there, but smoke is still with a white scream.
Nails the headshot. In the flame, Beamerz finds it back.
It's gonna go head-dick around these smokes as they are going for a vent dive.
My mask just unloads into the smoke.
Afro lingers Lobby, safe tending to this and an easy pick on to Gizmy.
Periacore, Afro's Lobby lurk as well, but the bomb has slipped forward and VMAs actually
gonna fake it out.
I think he's hoping for an overextension from the AWP.
He's not gonna get it.
Big Uzerah, presumably gonna find a Zoomer.
And look the right way, two versus four, goes two versus three, Harry.
This isn't happening.
Why is this happening?
He's going to drop vents!
Fiasse is a dead man. You are a dead man.
And now all onto the shoulders of Peria.
Can he come up clutch to save Payne on their pick?
Monty turning the tables, and it's a 35.
A statement in this duo die affair.
One of them, their major ends,
and for one of them, they will secure stage three.
And Payne's pick, down in 18 rounds of play.
That was rapid.
A fast game of Counter-Strike coming out for Manta, taking the first map away from pain
gaming which, in case you didn't know, was their map pick heading into this series.
Nuke not going the way pain had hoped for and Manta on the other hand continuing to deliver,
continuing to impress the amp.
You said something that I found very reasonable, that every single game Manta has played so
So far this tournament has been a good opponent and they remain competitive in every single
one of those games.
This time around though they do more than just be competitive.
They absolutely demolish paint.
Yeah, we were also talking about their leadership, saying how they have good game plans, you
know the players rarely seem lost on the server, they always have a plan about how it is they're
going to go about things and I think that showed itself here as well.
Some of the early rounds, the focus they had on outside in the lost pistol and after that
Once it came to the gun rounds, they lost one round by accident, really against the half-buy that was unlucky more than anything else.
And that was it. They were very dominant and in control on their CT side and throughout the game really were just a better team.
Yeah, especially in the opening kill department as well, in terms of dictating the rounds, you have a Gisby going 6 or 7 and in opening kills a Suvo going 4-5.
Yeah, that's Ash's thing.
Yeah, I'm sorry about that.
You know, in general, they win the opening kill department 14-4.
It's safe to say that Monty really knew exactly how to open up the rounds versus Penguin.
Yeah, some of them had a lot of disrupting going on there, which kind of could Payne really deal with it.
And I think we got a big firm no from London.
A big firm no. You repaired a couple of rounds there that we're going to watch back to Bagash.
Were you showing what exactly went so well for Monty and the CT side?
Losing the pistol, Payne converted, but then the aggression coming out from Monty and disturbance, I guess, did you describe?
Yeah, and actually snow going off to I think it was seven zero seven one in this round
He had such a great star and he's the outside player and a lot of the focus from Monty ends up just being let's go outside
And let's kill him and gives me did it in three different ways in this half
That was really nice to see and what I think I didn't really like so much uncle was it wasn't working from outside
I think the tier one teams kind of go
Okay, we to fix that problem we to go out time and address it and it felt like paying kind of ran away from that problem a little bit
Yeah, and in some of the rounds you see them how they die and looks a little bit pedestrian really from the side of pain
You know Anna wears about the potential aggression right getting shot to the side
Not being ready for some of these aggressive plays like caught off guard here
Completely and yeah, it was a lack of awareness and a lack of adjustments as well from the side of pain
Yeah, and actually what I like for once a year is they understand that pain is struggling outside
Let's go for some lobby aggression. You see there's a ramp play going on this moment
But actually because they just come and feed a kill to a zoo, they go outside, you know what guys?
We can just cancel this now. They've kind of funneled them in like sheep into guys guys outside doesn't work
We know we're not gonna go outside now come towards a and yeah, there's a really good job of that
And even in this one here, I think what I love is the idea is clearly they're gonna try and blow the smoke
So three H2 greens and I'm keep doing it and then throw a second wall
Which is kind of meta and there's a little tiny play you can make here
Which if you go in between the smokes you can find a timing before they explode and you can beat the tease here
and when Flashback comes in, I mean it's a 1 for 1 which isn't ideal, but the information
you can get there for the rotations and the map you can play in.
And it's also really important considering that second wave of smokes went out, so that
point the jig is up, right?
Like they're not using it with one guy to fake and the rest of the team is somewhere
else, no, that's where they are and it's much more difficult even though it's a 4v4 and
tier read favours the T's while considering the amount of utility that's been spent and
where the players are and thereby, it's still a big advantage for Monty in that round.
Whenever I watched them play so far in this tournament, one word that I would use to describe
them is having a great synergy. I feel like they're making the absolute most out of their
players. Again, this was broke about Yankee. You look at the lineup and you look at the
player material they have to work with, the likes of Bimers, the likes of Rain Waker,
a couple of their say unknown UK players coming into the match as well. I'm sorry about that.
You don't have a lot going on over there, but now you do. I feel like it's a team that
It really gets the most out of every single individual, like the synergy, the cohesiveness
within the team seems to be very strong.
I think it's a matter of, again, I'm getting a bit repetitive with leadership, but I truly
believe that as long as you have decent players, good coaching, good in-game leading, if you
get that team into the top 20, let's say, of the world, top 20-20, something, right?
And from that point on, to break further, maybe into the top 10, like that, it comes
down to the players a bit, they determine your ceiling, right? And I think that's why
what we're seeing here, we're seeing them play good Counter-Strike, we're seeing a team
that, you know, to me seems to mesh well the other day on Ancient Against Legacy, they had
an early timeout where they were getting a bit tilt, and they were able to reset Kaka
for getting them back on track, right, and the players being very aware and vocal about
yeah, we can't have those things happening, we have to keep the focus on the game, and
You know, that's just 5% here, 5% there, and all of a sudden you get a team that's looking pretty solid.
Phil, as you're quite known in your coaching career so far, and hopefully it's not over yet,
but to make the most out of the players that you have available, you know, what you did with certain game-leaders,
and so on and so forth, that's something you've been praised for.
Do you see the same thing happening here with Monti from Kakafu,
and gives me the fact that you're getting the absolute most out of the player material you have to work with?
Yeah, they've got good experience to offer. The rifle has been around for a while as well.
kind of all good, a little bit good at everything, but I think a zoo being unlocked is kicking
them up another level, because I haven't had this online, like a zoo hasn't been this
player has been here, but I think the main thing I'm liking so far about Monty is that
very proactive, and I think to come to the major, sometimes you end up going in your
shell, but actually if anything, I think they're constantly on the front foot, they're making
plays all the time, they're really bringing the game, they're playing to win, and if you
don't come to the major, playing to win, you're more worried about the emotions, everything.
That's where you can kind of get caught. In this game here, I don't think Payne could
say anything other than Monty would definitely try to win. They were the ones making all
all of the plays and pain will have to be reactive.
Being reactive sometimes,
I'm sure as you both know, it can be difficult.
And I start contrast to that new game yesterday
that we saw Monty on against BedBoom.
They also had a good start and a good plan,
but BedBoom doing a much better job of adjusting
and switching it up.
And you didn't really see much from pain.
In some of those examples, you see Peria trying to go
out door, just dying, that happened a couple of times.
In the first gun, it was Biguzera
going for that sort of play.
And sure, sometimes it can work,
But those are just like such high risk plays to go for.
They feel more like trick plays than something that you're really setting up.
You're just trying to take a timing there.
You have a feeling or something.
And I think, you know, the deeper you go in a tournament like this,
the fewer you, the less you will see those plays succeed
and more you will see teams punished for attempting them.
I agree fully.
And I think that for me, the way we talked about backstage
and watching that game is we're really impressed by the way Boom reached out with things.
I think here, like you said, I wasn't so impressed with the bigger 0, dealt with it, and also snow outside, it was 7-0, I think it ends at half, 8-9 or something, so I want to see more adapting on the fly, so this is what I expect from bigger 0 to find those examples, we'll be sure yesterday how to do it.
That's why I was a bit, you know, curious to why they picked Nugret, bigger 0 joining us after them winning yesterday, where he said Nugret is not a map for them, they can win a lot in a row, because it feels a bit random for them, and it's not really a homegrown map for them, and then you go into this game and you pick it, you know, and you show up with this performance, so that leaves us,
a couple of questions to be asked, however I'm focusing on Dust2, they have to win Dust2
if they want to stay alive, that is the map pick of Monty.
From what you've seen so far, from what you know about Big Yanko, are we looking at a
game that is more likely to go 2-0 for Monty than to be extended to a third map here?
I think more likely to go 2-0, not as much because of the map, but just because Monty
looked like a much better team.
I thought Mirage was going to be the pick because Payne plays at last, and Monty's
played it really well against some really good teams you know yesterday they lost it to bad boom
obviously on Dust2 so going back to it yeah it's their most played maps so I guess against a team
of Keynes caliber they feel like all right this is where we should still be fine on Dust2. You said
that Azubu is one of the the big differences for Monty as to why they're taking another step up
Dust2 is his worst map you know and in terms of his rating is there going to be an issue for them?
I don't think so much because I think if you look at all of the stats so far Azubu looks terrible
in everything because the last few months have been that bad that he genuinely looks
like a guy who is already out of the door would be kicking replacing him. I think now
Monty thinking you know what, so we need to keep this guy, go to a lot of UK players
and a lot of them usually very good, but I think he's probably potentially saving his
Monty career with his plane. I want to see if he keeps going on Dust2 because he hasn't
hit him and he was sharp again on this new game.
Timon gives me for me the guys that surprisingly, the UK guys, the ones that I think are the
biggest bright spots so far.
I just about to say no buyers at all from from your absolutely. You know, but she had this sentiment with Jankos
Well, do you think this smells more like a two-oh than that map? I think so, but I will say because I really thought this would be mirage
I was a hundred percent sure it's will be mirage and I think pain would have that same approach
They thought today there's going not to be a dust, too
They won't prepare for this and I think that's probably why
Once you've done because you've seen all the games like you mentioned the prep has been very good for Monty all the time
They have a huge advantage with the prep here because it just seemed like this is a foolish picks kind of make so will it backfire
maybe we'll have to see. I think Payne would have had a game plan ready from Ryze. They've wasted a lot of time
and now Monty's got put that game into effect. You're definitely right about that. We will have
to wait and see what's going to happen in this game between Payne and Monty. What we do know is
that Payne has backs against the wall. They need to win those two if they want to extend this series
to a third map. Otherwise, they will be eliminated from IM Cologne. After the break, it's coming up.
Goss 2, which potentially could be the last map of the series and potentially could set Monty into
Wait, my bad.
I got a mid-star!
We are back!
Flash!
Watching now. Secret.
Boom.
Two here. Three more outside guys.
They're running. They're running.
I'm going to block them.
I'm on the ramp.
I blocked them.
They're blocked, right?
I just want to go down.
I will take a trap shot in.
I will take a trap shot in.
Keep playing inside. You have main, yeah?
Yes.
Okay, I see.
We're fine like this.
Tell me when the smoke fades, uh...
You'll come in, it's okay.
It's fading now. You can come down.
You can come down.
You can come down.
At any time.
Well, hide inside or something.
I'm not going to tell you.
Tell me when you will not have a main anymore.
I will have it.
You'll have to end my door, remember?
Yeah, that's stuck for now.
Yeah, I'll place an item and watch around.
Ramp is open afro.
So hide.
One on Molly, double.
Bad Molly.
Underhead one if you can.
As you might have kills.
One more, one more, I'm moving, I'm sick of this.
Yeah, yeah, coming.
Yeah, I'm going up, I'm slain, okay?
Yeah, I'm up here, I'm up here.
I'm full of an OMS.
I have double from Dirk.
One double, they flashed.
I have double, I have double.
Windows, windows as well.
Okay guys, you're free.
Yeah, okay, okay.
I'm running ramp.
I'm single ramp.
Where are you Oscar?
Double one glass.
I'm single.
I'm double ramp.
Lantern, Lantern, Lantern and then ramp.
Both many ramps.
Sound, sound, sound.
Up on mid, jump in, jump in, jump in.
First time, first time, first time.
Last time, last time.
Nice!
Let's go, man. Good flow.
Nice.
My first major that I played
was Shanghai
in 224.
When we qualified
to that major, I started crying a lot
and was a very emotional
moment in my career, and yeah, I was very happy.
I changed a lot as a player and as a person. I was like a kid in that moment.
It's my, I think, four major in a row. I have to be normal. I have to stay comfortable playing the major.
Of course, it's very good to play major in Cologne because I was watching SK Gaming playing.
Of course, my biggest inspiration is Fallen.
When I was 13 years old, he was teaching me with some videos
and he was doing that for me.
And of course, he's my inspiration of all time.
For me, he's the goat.
And I love him, and I have a lot of respect for him.
I think the best highlight from Fallen for me
is the one that he was playing against Navi in Overpass.
And it's the fun, stop playing my life!
And for me, this round was insane.
It's very good to represent that flag in that country,
who is so big in Counter Strike.
I love Brazil, every time that we qualify to the playoffs,
I have a Brazilian flag with me,
and I try the most to make them happy.
For me, it's my dream to put Brazil on the top again.
I work a lot to do that.
It will be hard, but I will try my best for sure.
which Monty did so on Payne's pick of Nuke.
They'll be picking themselves up a spot in stage three.
It is that cutthroat moment,
last few spots available in the third stage.
Now, chance feeling a bit unwell,
so we've managed to rustle up the hero, the Super Sub.
It's Harry Russell.
That's nice, thank you.
Yeah, indeed.
What a great series this has been.
I'm glad I got to weigh in on it.
We just saw Monty with a fantastic game plan on Nuke,
shut down Payne in spectacular fashion.
clear game plan from the offset.
I think that was the order of the day for Monty.
And once it started working, there was no stopping it.
They shut down snow hard, and we saw from pain.
Frustrations were setting in.
There was a lot left to be desired.
And now trying to turn things around on Dust2.
And there are some notes here in this pistol round of paint
that I hope to pick up with this CT side start.
If you want to just try and take it by the numbers here,
obviously spawns factor in massively to these pistol
rounds.
I think you're gonna look for some type of mid engagement here. Just try and hit the ground running
You can learn a lot from what you see in this mid fight
Xbox smoke or door smoke is a bit of a staple here for this Monty squad in a lot of their pistol rounds
So you will have that to contend with his pain looking for that info. It's on the mid engagement
They run two players in and they get the spot now. They're out of there
Interesting that second
Second guessing the charge now you get that smoking
understandably gives me a zoo we're gonna have their feckles up before the
mid-fight flashes come through a spam through the smoke from period not gonna
find too much there's no block did manage to hit the goosh but he gets away
with the man advantage now I don't know where to see it in this round because
B-mass is lurking out towards long but this mid-door smoke does not mean a lot
to Monty and what I mean by that is not uncommon to see them just play
straight through it they've left a lot of options open here with B-mass still
over it long on that P250 he might be good for an opening but when one doesn't present
itself he's going to move back around try and link up with Monty around the tunnels.
Yeah he's been spotted Perrier nearly had a bit of a game winning or rather rounds winning
Frank there but he's going to get away with his life it's safe. Catches Rain Waker trying to jump spot.
5v3 it's all shaping up nicely for pain to start off on the right foot once more.
Flash and go, get some info, just gives me, and they catch Peria, still manages to stand
his ground and tap ahead.
Emus and Aphro to try and find a way back into this site, and a nice one in combination,
but there's the flank from safe.
Emus is a dead man, crouching.
Come on, safe.
There we go.
Three kills on the pistol, pain starts as they mean to go on, and when I was taking a look
at this one, you see Monty picking Dust2.
You quickly have a look at it.
four Dust2s on the TROP from Astana and here in Cologne, but previously prior to that they
were on somewhat of a run themselves, so this is obviously comfortable territory for them
and then basically communicating to us that they're not thrown off, you know, they haven't
lost their flow even if it is a comfortable map for them despite four consecutive Dust2
losses.
I'm going to keep my eyes on the openings, does feel like it's a very key detamining
factor at least it was on Nuke.
We had that stat coming into the series, right?
The idea that they're the number one for, paying the number one for converting 5B4s.
It's a very impressive stat, but it doesn't matter when you get two or three openers in
the game, right? It's quickly forgotten about. So if they're able to capitalize on these
entries a little bit more, going to be looking to a couple of names for that, thinking safe
on his AWP, right? Calling his opening moves, trying to be involved a bit more active on
that gun. Some of these little pushes you can do out towards short. If you're able to
force more of these opening fights, I think that's going to do a world of good for pain.
And for Monty now as well, you know, they're the ones you might have had their game plan
prepped for a little bit more here on Dust2 because I think even though it was
maybe surprising they picked it I know Yanko was saying earlier he thought maybe
they would lean into Mirage I think you could have made a guess that this was one
of the maps that would crop up in the series maybe left to a decider looking
like a B finish here out of Monty. Piria tucked in and will go over low
detention peeled away with two players fighting on the B ramp they're allowed to
swing on through, flashes just barreling over the top the entire time. That one goes nowhere quickly for Monty.
Parvme is impressed and has admiration for the fact you're calling something so direct.
And understandably, I mean, Peria was relatively alone. Safe just started to cheat over in time.
There was, you know, fractions of seconds in it. The fact that he was there to support or
attention from the doors as well, even chip in with a kill. Getting himself is sixth, but
period passes the first test on that B site. Shouldn't be too much for Afro in this clutch,
but he's going to give it a good go. Creeps and crawls. Is no one spotting the catwalk?
VSM's jiggling middle. Big Huzzera's not going to be able to spot this, so he has got a part of
least resistance for a plant. Yeah, it does have a gap. It's not a gap. If you're Afro,
you imagine you're going to find in this round, so I don't know how careful he's going to be
clearing all these angles, and that will inevitably give a bit more time to pay into course correct.
But for now, he's got all the room, has all the space.
It's going to come as a surprise to him that it's this open.
But he has found the gap.
Payne are going to be on for a retake.
The full belly util on Snow will help a hell of a lot
at nullifying some of these positions.
For Afro, it's a matter of you can't believe it.
He genuinely can't believe it.
Exactly.
And you would be suspicious the whole time.
How much room does he think he has?
How much room does he think he has from this gap?
Does he feel comfortable to be open along?
These are the things that are kind of rushing through his head right now.
As he sees nothing, I don't think that does a lot to shore up your mind in this spot, right?
You're still paranoid. There's got to be more resistance in this,
but it is just a mad scramble, three players up through short.
Molly clears out the bomb site, so Afro's got room to work with.
There's a second.
Oh, and they didn't hear it.
Because they didn't hear it, there was a slight tick of the Molly.
Now he's got two backs turned.
If he could just deny, go for the double!
Afro and hell of a clutch available!
He couldn't get the transfer.
Oh, if he just finds Snow on the defuse, it gets super awkward.
VSM would have got hectic, had to try and scoop up the kill
off Snow's corpse, find the bomb in the smoke.
That wasn't really the time.
That was a 1v3 on a play for Afro.
Just couldn't seem to transfer into the smoke defuse.
A real opportunity to give Monty a crazy fire start around.
You'll see it again in the replay.
Annoying movement back of the head as well.
It's scary and tough to track.
was a little late to the party so smoke gonna rain in they don't try and chance
this going super ahead of it good catch out of a zoo who up next is safe on this
all and he's certainly feeling the pressure this B site notoriously hard
to retake you might have to begrudgingly cancel this you're coming into it with
more firepower off the rip but that doesn't matter it's purely a numbers
game here so pain just bow out of this round yeah fair play that's gives me an
the zoo, willing the round with the frag contributions.
And you can do a bit of scavenging as well.
You only came into this with a half threatening bite.
Didn't even put all your pennies into it.
And you leave with your first round on the T side.
I'm sure there's no complaint.
Sachi Beemus might have something to say.
Yep, that's a bit frustrating.
He's gone down to safe sort,
but they will still leave with the round and three rifles.
And this is now, you know, a kind of a fleet of these b-hits across the last two rounds.
Maybe trying to condition pain a little to worry about this side of the map.
You've seen more often than not, they've been fine, or at least they feel fine to leave Peria and loathe on this side of the map.
And so Monty trying to show them, you can't do that, you need to dedicate a little bit more to b.
Again, multiple players sent towards those tunnels, but the bomb is with Bemis, and he's
the guy who floats around these long doors.
So you're not in a position to react super quickly here, just standard staging as they
go looking for map control.
It's a safe AWP on short position, and there's double law of snows posted on middle.
I didn't find anything on his smoke breaks pressure now being applied from the Utilith
as Ulu and Gizmy take that short space.
Getting ready to go B.
That's still the end destination here for Monty.
This will be their third B hit in a row.
Now they have a good idea that it's an AWP and Perrier over there.
Looking for answers middle.
Just a little jump spot from Perrier has nothing to report.
Generating short, chill, your beans gives me.
We'll keep the boots planted.
That's three.
Very disconnected from what's going to be this B finish.
Lurk smoke deployed.
Makes life difficult for Snow's orb.
Back flat.
Smoke to thwart rotations.
These two are on an island.
Here comes the flashes.
Here comes that push.
Snow forced into the flame.
Doesn't hit that first shot.
Now information flows.
Kerry overlooked.
Oh, and Rain Waker still manages to pivot into the headshot.
They know where he is, but Snow's doing a very good job
of delaying. Just by hiding out at the back of flat,
nae brokes open and a zoo has found the headshot.
Do you want to go for this one?
Is it the same story?
And this is Gizmy.
We've seen it in his calling.
He likes to do these kind of pattern calls.
He likes to condition you.
We haven't talked about long once.
Like it's just been it's like half of the map has been deleted.
Yeah, it's exactly what they did back on Nuke, man.
I think it's it's why this Monty squad have actually fed so well here.
I think gizmy is proving to be a pretty exciting cooler to get behind right good knowledge of his opponents in these games
I think some of the matchups they've had it's been almost hard to cool your way out of them
We're just individuals going missing, but he brings a very fresh perspective into this squad
For example here like you were crediting snow and buying all that time
And I think he did a phenomenal job on the back boxes. It's a really rough position, right?
But Molly had to smoke himself off
We find you so much time and the reason why in spite of him gifting you kind of 15 seconds
The rotates never arrive is the earlier in the round gives me fate the mid to be and so the whole time pain and meant to be
Rotating they've actually bogged down clearing completely dead angles over towards mid
Right. Yeah, you can see the x-ray there. They're under the impression
It's like two towards the doors holding the rotations. They don't realize
Just how committed they already were into the site
Oh, anticipating something on the short side.
They'll boost to try and catch an aggressive AWP.
The safe side, he's starting, he's all over R&D.
Considering that the potential remedy.
Oh, he might escort Perrier.
You know, perhaps aggression is the answer.
We'll just post up on this line, and is he going to go further?
But he haven't really had to consider any aggressive move in the mid-round yet.
That smoke is to just further sell.
This play isn't happening.
So this is going to free up Bigger Zera.
There's no way Rainwaker's expecting this. Surely he's fallen for that trap with the sound of that smoke.
And easy pickings for safe and opening kill.
This is where Pain do their best work. You've got the kill, now you convert.
VSM on high alert, hearing the stampeding boots and it supports it flash from big.
Who's there at least and just knocking them down like bowling pins.
Just gives me back with the belated trade, but two on four.
Afro had a good go at the 1v3. Now he's got a partner in crime and gives me.
When he cleared this corner diligently, oh, he does adjust into Biggie's air a nice leap for one back
And then he got a little too hungry for info here, right? They were so busy deep clearing sure
It means they have this flank from safe, which is very interesting and he can get here on a good timing
But it leaves two 1v1s open for the site control and safe on the AWP on this flank doesn't want to commit too early
to the backstab
Now he's going for it.
He's not there.
Afro's not going to hit the shot, but gives me will.
Suddenly a 2-1 fore goes to 1-2.
Now safe is activating.
Afro's considering that late arrival,
but safe beats him to the punch.
And there's Peria.
Close, but no cigar.
A nice attempt to try and get back into that round
after the early casualties.
But it's safe.
I feel like we have to give him credit.
I mean, he's up to 10 now.
10 and 1.
You're seeing him, right?
Trying to be a lot more involved,
because it's clear he's coming into Dust 2
with a point to prove.
wasn't really much of a factor back on that first map, but boy, do you know about him here.
He forces the opening fight in this round with that tunnel's aggression,
and he follows it all the way through to its conclusion, wrapping long, shot in the back,
safe. He's realized that he's going to have to have a big game, and to do that,
he's got to be in the right place, so he's playing a very aggressive brand of CS on that all.
Can't believe they're going to be again, or at least they were flirting with it. Now you're blocked.
period jump spotted towards big box.
Thing that's tough to contend with here is you've got safe with hot hands and he's highly mobile.
It feels like he's everywhere.
This round he's backing up Bigazera on the short side.
Has he respawned in that?
He gets away safe.
He's really got to stay safely, don't we, when we're casting paint?
Here he is.
Okay, Zulu rips his head off, opening Kill and Ghost Monty's way.
Short space taken, Biguzera firsting with a long smoke.
He's actually going to be the Insem Diary first.
He's picked up a HE as well, and that's done great damage.
Could be the standoff that the long side gives me in VSM, puts it all onto Biguzera
He's got so much work to do.
Gives me unprepared.
So VSM will find himself a rifle upgrade.
There's Big Ucero as well.
Solid on the hold.
He's just picking him apart.
One by one.
Triple in defense of his sight.
Looks leisurely, doesn't it?
Casual.
That one can be confirmed.
Nothing for Afro with a 1 vs 4 with 17 seconds left.
He's going to try and preserve his AWP.
Fancy his chances.
chance his period is locked the door behind him he's gonna have to time here if
they're not careful hunting him down 5 4 they're gonna kill him after time he's
going to have a grand left hold on for another okay well brings me up through
yeah some frustration there for gives me right there he actually called them into
great position. I think that's a more than justifiable round to be kind of pissed off at.
You got everything you wanted in the round. You get past the safe AWP. That's been the big threat
in this game. The defense was split, right? You have one guy pushed up long on an MP9,
Big Azera, the only player in the site. And Gizmy saying there, he called for the ramp molotov.
It never came in. And if it did, that's a Monty round all over. So timeout called in because
because there's a bit of friction right now for Monty.
He was crediting them for flowing well back on map one,
but that's not happening here at the dawn of Dust 2.
At a certain point, if U-Tills lobbed in in the wrong place,
you see that Molly, did he want a Ted ramp fall into the bomb site?
If things don't land where they're supposed to,
there's only so much the IGL can do.
And that's a perfect example.
It explains why that felt so casual for Biggie Zera.
Yeah, right. Suddenly just has all this room,
this freedom he almost can't believe they've made it so easy for him oh we're
gonna get a nice one he's actually lined up with the dot on the wall for a
smoke break play
Afro set up to succeed he had a target on his screen yes I'm lucky to be alive
wake her up to him we'll stroll out towards B
little stroll from big is there I think he's gonna back away now you have to be
very considerate in every fight
you take here, right? Because
of the presence of that orb.
They got a gentle reminder, let's
say with that gimmick over
towards long VSM lucky to be
alive. So it's pretty passive
here for pain playing crossfires
back in the site, leaving no one
out on these little islands to
present themselves to that orb.
And so they're saying the Monty
look it's your play to make. You
have to find a way to get that
orb involved. We're going to sit
As far as where I'd expect that up to be getting involved, he's spotting.
So now he's gonna throw a block smoke.
It does feel like, yeah, he's not gonna be returning to map.
Alright, boys.
Four Desert Eagles and then an AWP walk.
This is cool.
Out mid.
They're doing their best to set him up, aren't they?
That's like the...
boost over the top, and he spots a flash of VSM descending.
It's Big Uzeria that's hoping to catch him up prepared, and he perfectly times it!
Gets away, turns tail!
He's 50 HP though, a body shot would do it, can't hit it, can rain waker.
Afro eats the flashbang, that could be the end of the orb,
save already removing Gizmy from the pack.
One from Afro, one from the deagle.
How do you get across this line though?
Oh, you just have a missed orb shot from save with 8, 7.
You gotta get that bomb planted, Afro, taken out.
Just in time, he gets some extra cash for the boys, okay.
I feel like that's a silver lining, but it is a 6th round for the CT side.
Yeah, something was brewing there, right? But time becomes a bit of an issue. The faster
rotate out of pain, hot on the heels, they don't let him get comfortable.
And you're seeing smiles for pain, right? Getting through some of these rounds.
Previously, if ones like this started to get away from them on Nuke,
it would have just fallen through the cracks. But they're tightening things up here on this CT
defense. You're feeling very, very emboldened as well with safe having such a strong performance.
There isn't really a weak link right now. And a bunch of chances just slipping by for
Monty has left them in a bad way. They're desperate to find a way through here. It's
three rounds in a row for Payne. You've come close. You've gotten to good positions. But
some missed opportunities, some miscombed utility. It's leading to frustrations building
up here for the T's. So within that you know maybe things get a little more stripped back.
You've tried some more convoluted rounds, things haven't married up, maybe you just
go for a grouped hit. Early on the game plan was to abuse this B site, try and take advantage
of Peria often left to these solo holds and it looks like that's what they're going back
to. Let's just carry it. He's outside. It's just in the window. Oh, he gets his on the opening and
there's no door smoke. Themus, easy pickings for safe saw that survived just in time. Hang on a second.
Azumu's flames actually spread to finish what? Rainweaker started and Azumu's managed to find
two to equalize back into the three on three. They might give this one a good look though.
We've still got a smoke on Azumu and a Molotov to keep them at bay outside of B.
There's that smoke replenished there molly window
The presence tunnels either for pain and maybe freeze you up a little here
Not having a look over your shoulder not info they have yet but they will do soon
with all these flashes coming over they're gonna go on the back of this
flashbang out of snow he's ahead of the play big as Zera went too early a zoo
will find a third and it's gonna be montes as well
B site broken too.
Peria and Safe both found one.
I felt like that was their hard work done, but no, Azul was actually catching himself
a double on the way in.
The spread of the Molotov in combination with his bullets.
Yeah, good job indeed.
They're making a competitive half or at least starting to take steps in that direction.
We'll see it again here.
So Peria does well in the window, Safe with no smoke, no problem.
And this is that Molotov.
We can see Perra's reaction, thought he had a second. He could kind of reposition and punish.
Azumo gets them back into the site and gets the third round next to their name.
Has another grey spawn for B as well.
And so, another chance, right? The early game plan was sort of about eliminating this B side of the map,
putting a lot of pressure on there and opener in this round for Afro.
And so Monty can afford to slow it down a little. The pressure is now on pain.
The big part of this is just playing with the form you have in the game, right?
And it's like right now, BMAS has not been able to win one of these longfights, so largely
they've steered away from any type of the long control.
He's just kind of roaming, playing for info.
But where they've had a lot of success is on some of these B-openers, some of these early
involvements from the Afro Warp and so leaning into that a little bit more.
It's a take of this short control and they know at bare minimum in a 5v4 you're shuffling
this setup right now.
You're not getting any sound cues to confirm that but just on a gut feeling they know the
pressure that comes with playing a man down.
It does feel like the bombs maneuvering B. I think Gizmo might have had to be selling
this perfectly.
Starts dumping a little additional util.
Molly goo's gonna make you feel a whole lot of pressure safe
Finds a safe haven, but it keeps their boots planted. There is no one home
Beautifully orchestrated finish
Just finding that part the least resistance blighted into an open sight
Gizmy's calling a good game. I
I think that's the thing that's been so exciting to see here in these last couple of rounds,
right?
Like pain map one, they were struggling on an individual level as well, right?
It didn't help combine with all the prep work and the idea that Monty had really gotten
in the head of snow and by extension removed almost half the map from play.
But here, pain of matching them on the brawn front, right?
They're hitting hard.
have more muscles safe with a with a really, really solid game right now. But where you can take the edge is
Is in kind of the brain element, right?
You can try and just outmaneuver pain and that's been the case in these last few they had a very clear game plan as
Soon as this second map started exploit the B site try and
Condition pain to worry about that side of the map
They've gone back to that now since their pause since they went on a streak of losses and they're finding a bunch of success from it
So a chance still to level out on the half, because money is not in a good spot for pain.
You see that save come through, it leaves them with a bit more to fight with in this
round, but this is far from ideal.
They're going to be a little more strapped for cash, even in that final round of the
half as a result of this, you're not going to be seeing another safe AWP come out that
won't get to make another appearance.
The top performer right now doesn't get his weapon of choice in these final couple of rounds.
This is the chance Monty were looking for. They can still level out on this half.
Afro providing an important opening as well.
And that was the only kill required.
I suppose it was an understanding as well as to the fragile economy of pain or likelihood that they would have to gamble, stack and or reserve.
Oh perfect afro had best spawn and it just goes gallivanting out catches big who's error with a clothesline left hook
11 rounds in first long play of the entire map, so there's real intention behind that isn't there
Getting them worried about be having them lean stronger into a be would start
And you finally come through with an uppercut along 5v4
Absolutely get blocked pace is gonna get taken out of this for Monty. The job is far from done
You know Afro survey gifted his AWP, gives me just kept it warm for him while he took
his spawn.
Now understandably someone has to be tasked with the potential for that flank but there
is nothing coming their way.
Afro convinced that eventually a little jiggle for info is coming, they're looking to block
the smoke, you can see VSM's gonna try and get
bounce it off his head, but then we'll manufacture a gap.
Are you aware of that as you path for the finish?
Well for the first time there's no doubt in Payne's minds,
because Peri has cleared out the tunnels, they know what's happening,
they know what's coming their way, might be a man down, might be strapped for cash,
you still have to put up some form of a fight here.
around that gap, safe there, good tracking, removing gizmy, they still already light on
time here, it's getting a bit awkward for Monty, especially with another one onto Rainwaker.
Snow up next, dead to the point, over on the long side, you've got eight chickens left,
they've got to rush this bomb plot, in comes Perrier, and that's chaos! Just in time, just
It's in time! Jump shot won't connect, and so...
On goes down, but...
Oh!
Round through for pain. There wasn't time for it.
It said four. I swear it said four.
Milliseconds off it had to be...
And there's no rougher way to lose around than that.
Literally half a second making a world of difference.
Can we get that again? I'm sorry. I got baffled there.
So seven, six.
Hicks up bomb 4
Three yeah, I literally did a few milliseconds off of the bomb plant. Oh
Lee
Okay, I mean to be fair they really rocked that clock that blocked on long pain of stolen one and looks like an opening kill
It's been stolen away. Beemus has actually provided his second kill
Here on dust to to remove the SM immediately on the long side. Just took the fight took the spawn
We've got a big back and forth tip for Tat here on the short side and that's the patients from
Rainwaker, he knows your tricks, Snow has to dip down. Rainwaker's just accelerating into B here,
he's redpiri like a book there, what? Maybe he's got a sound cue. Yep, flash of it, Africa's the
Info and Rainwaker hunts him down, this one's been rappin' into the B site for their fifth round,
no pistol and still getting presenting a competitive half.
Yeah, credit to them right bouncing back after the rough round in the last one losing out
narrowly the time. Well, that's a mistake. They make sure they don't repeat and a good
read as well. The pain have been siphoning away this tunnel's control as they've left
it open money. They get dealt some rough rounds here, right? But it's still a fair way to
recovery on the half looking at a five round T side. They're the guys and up to the good
stealing away pain's pick, snow's shut down, and so five rounds for Monty far from out of the fight,
pain, their work is not done if they want to stay alive at this major.
There's the Flash that's going to catch Crimson out, they're going to force off through,
there's the KKS, what the Crimson is made of, he's got himself the triple, the Fnatic are not done yet.
Can you believe it?
Solid CT campaign for Payne, but they're not out of the woods yet.
Orpers top the charts in the server as we head into this pistol round.
They've got to hope they can improve on this track record.
two to one in their favor in pistols in the series.
Split them back on Nuke, first one on Dust2,
belonged to pain gaming.
They can find this one, they start to pull ahead
and this lead would grow more comfortable.
During halftime, just reminding and reiterating
about communications, talking about how hard they worked.
And we are not going back home says safe. See what Monty have to say about that. They are that map up
Combination of their efforts gets you to the major now. Can you secure stage three?
Such a juxtaposition between what's on offer in this series, it's glory it's stage three or
It's a near miss close, but no cigar. Look this pixel block smoke after his playing with
He saw a little flash of the flash, that's enough.
Throws out a block, smoke, and I don't see a HE, you're not running through that, I say that.
Snow does commit.
We got a flash through.
Afro's got no help, he isn't so much trouble, he's just used half his bullets, okay?
Still finds VSM, we'll tuck in.
He's surely not getting this reload off, yep, he's got Gizmi's help just in time.
Finally felled.
Biguzera's taking him down, they will take the site, this is far from over.
He has a flashbang, but he's far away right now, so you've got to wait for him to move
on over before this can begin.
He's going to try and send them in with the flash, retaking B, notoriously difficult
bombsite, a pistol round that can bring you back into the series, bigger Zera shuts down
the first, cover for Snow, and these crossfires prove to be too strong as Monty get broken
in half.
Only B-Mass left, and they're not making it easy for him, never getting more than a second
to find the incision, time will expire here, and that's the real enemy of Beemass.
His pain run away with that pistol round.
They are now one step closer to securing a third map.
The dual warratters.
And the block smoke, he was equipped to defend against this kind of play,
but a flash through the smoke, you're just not expecting that.
You're not expecting a squad to dare to go through your blocks.
But you felt like you'd done your job.
the hit B in these pistols the Monty did on their T side pistol. It was a play they were
aware of. I think that's why Afro's there, you know, puffing his chest up so much with
the dualies and smoke down. Try to just scare them out of it.
Now you have this force to contend with and it's a stack over towards the A bomb site.
This is on a bit of a gamble for Monty. You have the signature Gizmy Nades. Remember
DPL where you first saw these trialed against top teams.
Azumu's playing Joker, he's just hiding out with his knife out on bomb site,
assuming there won't be a Molly site, which he's like to assume.
Looks like they're gonna go on this.
Gives me trying to throw a H.
He's gonna get caught, he opened his back turn.
Azumu will pop up to at least find one.
Have throw in support. Wow, this flash did catch snow.
Azumu standing his ground, two kills deep on that Desert Eagle, Afro Scout gets nothing, Azumu surely cut us more from him and the MP9 doesn't find its target.
Azumu for the ace, has he got it hit him, finds another, into the 1v1, picks up the AK-47 and pulls it off! Outrageous scenes!
Breaking the hearts of pain! One piece at a time, all five for Azumu!
And I mean that just sums up this guy's major run doesn't it a massive uptick of form out of a zoo
And he's just been going from strength to strength seemingly no situation too much for this guy
One player for this mochi squad where you kind of had tapered expectations coming into the major
But this is how he's been playing this is how he's been performing
Just looking better and better with each game. Oh, I got the chills from that one
crazy. Just doing the inverse of
what you would expect from someone at their debut major.
Usually this is where the pressures dialed to 11.
This is where you went to a bit of a slump.
If you were ever going to find one, it's a thing of dreams to have someone who had been struggling in this roster actually level up at the major.
Yeah, right? Some players are just built like that.
As the pressure amplifies, so does their skill.
Yeah.
very much play into the level of all the opposition he's faced.
More than deserves his credit, been an absolute monster for Monty.
And what a harsh, you know, slam back down a reality for pain,
a reminder that they're the team on the back foot.
The heroic plays have been going the other way.
So now they're now the ones coming through with this force,
and it's off to a rough start.
You've got two low players straight away.
And no real clear end destination in this round. They're grouped in the tunnel, sure.
But what's the idea here? You know, snow's low on health, safe as a scout.
You're looking for a mid to B. Chance to drop a player down in the CT, but I think those smokes are just a fake.
Disney lies in way and without having to look over his shoulder, he's just got free reign over these midfights.
So casual. You put all your pennies into it, you get very little out of it, and now just
a one-round game. Monty are very much in it to win it here on Dust2. Painforce to take
The echo that will tie us up at 8.8.
And forgive me, there's a lot riding on this as well, just personally.
The dude's supposed to be sitting at a university exam tomorrow, between stage two and three.
He's actually supposed to be sitting at an exam.
No way!
He's supposed to send the government his HLTV profile to prove that he is a player at
the tournament straight up like Olympic style. We have got a little bit of cash, a little
bit of friction or long and a messy spray. Afro forced to grab that M4 to do what gives
me couldn't. Azumu, easy there, he's been hurt by safe. Nearly presented the back of
his head to that Glock which could have ended it in a sour note. Should be no harm, no
foul here despite the couple of pigs from pain.
Yeah, well contained. Don't need that to get any weirder.
That's nine kills for Azumu in these last couple of rounds.
Ace to get them back in the conversation and a 4k there to shut down the glocks.
No worries for Monty. Tie game.
And that university exam, forgive me, might have to wait a little longer.
Feels like Monty are really making a mad dash for Stage 3.
Guns come back out for pain, but I think it's gonna be hard to not feel deflated.
You've got to lock in here for this rifle round.
I remember how quickly it felt like Nuke just got away from them.
One minute is scrapping in at the half, the next map is over.
This is a team that are trying to chase the high they experienced back in Austin and sure
there was disappointment in Budapest it led to roster changes for this squad as the old
one was deemed not enough to replicate that run but this would be an even earlier exit
for pain movement but in the wrong direction.
This is where you've got to dial in.
And you're up against four major rookies who are just straight life gaming.
I mean, game after game, I can't say life gaming.
But definitely playing to the level of their opponents throughout Stage 2.
They have impressed.
You don't have a hell of a lot left to work with in this round.
You've just used one of your two smokes to fake this mid to be.
That leaves you with a really, and they've wobbled the smoke even at that.
Oh no, we're gonna get a flash.
Gizmy's gonna have a lot on his screen here.
Perfect!
Look at them just sitting ducks and they get plucked!
Safe for BSM.
Coming to terms with the fact that this rifle round is just too far gone.
There is nowhere left to turn. There is nowhere left to hide in this matchup.
up. They're in trouble. That's another round like that is just a twist of the knife right
the knife's already in their gut, but this is a round that feels like a gut punch a twist
of it. Safe. Oh, we thought he could hide out in the corner can't bring it through not
a PSM as well. Okay, at least he gets to bring something death was off the time was off the
time. It's broke right as the clock changed over safe ties and he's got zero. So what we
I sleep ready to see the knife. I guess that's the second knife. Yeah, God straight karambit to the spine. That's horrible
This flashback 27 seconds left and you just time it to perfection about to exit. That's why they're there
Wow after time for safe straight zero dollars in his bank account as he's bankrupt
Yeah, this is also now just a string of really rough rounds
You know you got aced to lose to the force by then after having a way kind of doing nothing in your force struggling on your eco
You finally come back through with the rifles you you end up with 30 seconds left right?
You're at a critical juncture in the round you miss the CT smoke
That completely fumbles the fake you were trying to lob in it use the utile
The limited utile you had left at the end of the round and then you get flash popped on shore
short because Monty aren't worrying about mid you missed the utile nothing
lined up there nothing worked out there's such a round that just gets under
your skin in a game that's already getting away from you
gonna go to something a bit more basic long take on the FB mass here trying to
hold on to it but he's not gonna overstay his welcome that's not a fight you
hang around for. They've got the Royal Flush, Harry. They've got 4 AK-47s and an AWP.
You've got every weapon, every bell, every whistle, but you haven't got Bemis.
Conceit is 14th dead. Pop out the short side. There's a pistol.
Safe still finds output despite the $0 in his bank account and enough of a distraction for Snow.
He worms his way into it with a double.
And Monty, that's the opposite of what they were accounting for.
You had everything. Everything was going your way.
And Payne quickly reminds you that a little misstep can spiral out of control rapidly.
They test Bemis on the long side, and he is having a rough time here on Dust2.
Yeah, and it's a little bit worrisome, man.
And, you know, you don't want it to feel like it's becoming a bit of a trend
in some of these high-pressure matchups, but he had a really, really rough game yesterday.
versus Bed Boom as well. It was his new performance in there that casted a bit of a shadow over
Monty's game. Struggling here. I mean, this round he kind of really blamed the guy. He
did all he could. He fell back to car but just spammed out first casually and then everything
bulls apart past that point. I can't believe safe still gets outper after being completely
bankrupt. Just a glock straight through short. This is that Diggle. Straight to the head
as he's cowering on the car and there's safe's kill. Just a double head shot. Jumping through
with the short smokes, I'll find the necessary pieces
from all that kerfuffle caused on the short side,
and that will tie us up 9-9.
Do you know what this is?
This is a game where both teams are leaving it all
on the server.
Yeah.
100%.
I think, you know, if you're Monty there,
you tell yourselves, we maybe gave them
a little too much room.
The site was so claustrophobic, you'd smoke short,
you'd block long.
That leaves you kind of in nowhere to hide.
And so if there ever was a time to maybe make more
of an aggressive stance,
This would be the round, because you're freshly reminded of what it's like when you give too much room away.
This time you have Afro posted on an aggressive line with his AWP, shoring up this short defense.
And so, a lot less orientated around these early blocks.
This is incendiary. That might inspire Afro to try and stick around to get one and drop.
But I think the flash is going to deter him. Okay, space for Biguzera stretching his legs.
Still four smokes for pain.
No smoke dropped on B.
You've got options here, at least if you're pain.
Peri is still holding onto the tunnels.
Hasn't moved all round.
And you know this, this could be a pressure point for Monty.
If at any point they feel like the map's gone a little too quiet, but there's still
noise in mid that's where they're devoting a lot of their attention huge catch for snow but an even
better trade out of a zoo two kills to the good finally dealt with as they get out through mid
now they try and collapse down on rain waker's bomb site he knows to anticipate a player a little
later through the tunnels never took his eyes off it now worried about the mid component
his biggest error dropping in here's him trying to give chase rain waker is switched on
And with that double kill safe doesn't have the time nor the resources to win this round
He is out of there Monty might let pain tie this up, but they're not ready to give back that lead
Perri's just playing too soon there because there are really needs to be the one trying to draw attention
Confirm his location because that little boot just poking out of a smoke gives him everything he needs
Suddenly he's just liberated. He just has to worry about the mid player coming out window. Sure. You're right
That trade full blind. He does very well to see double out of a zoo. That was a big star
But rain waker punishing period is overstepped just a couple of moments too soon feeling that time pressure
It's got rain waker feeling extra confident and that is we're at the business end of this dust to yeah
100% I mean money is on the line now for pain right if they don't recover this half now
It may never happen. And so that is a
One hell of a way to get the ball rolling safe
the guy feeling pressured to get involved. There's another opening out on long. Montee
trying to get aggressive. That only makes matters worse. They've lent into a stack here, but
it's all fractured right now. They don't really know where this play is ending up. Flying
blind in the round. Even a self-portunity. Finding that double loses control of the
hose. Rain Waker going to try and make good. Finding one on superior, but he feels like
His days are numbered here the bomb on the back of snow they're not brushing things
Jumps up spots the tip of safe's head harness up with gizmy who's retrieved an AWP
Yes, I feel great on the retake very out of the action. There's a two-two open here
Snow's gonna try get the bomb down now tap on it
This moment safe wasn't even covering from short. He's holding the jump up. That's allowed them to close in rampside
That's a must win fight for snow
They don't know where Renwick has gotten to
And as they swing out short, they get the spot and snow with a monstrous 3K.
That was so required.
Such a necessity.
That round could have still got weird if they lose the bomb in the sight.
Thankfully snow never lets off the gas.
Crazy.
It was, it was gizmoscoping.
He was about to be vulnerable.
He got a little flash of his, saw his balaclava on the sight box.
See, reacts to that sound cue and three kills to keep paint tied up at 10-10.
Okay, Kakafu is called a timehouse, the second we've seen from Monty.
Rix will make full use of the opportunity as well.
You know, in a high pressure moment like that and snow getting like all the round rescuing
kills, I think it's easy to see why Big Azera has never given up on this dude.
Very, very young player has had some very scarring games at his time at majors, but there he
keeps paying in this conversation.
He's bought them some serious time, a chance now to break Monty this late in the day.
It's a cobbled together force, AWP to work with, but other than that a lot of limitations
here for Monty, they're lacking utility. Don't have a kit to work with, so can't really stomach
a bomb plant. Just going through the motions of this map control. It's quite quick already
to have so much space. Ooh, and some of that space has just been taken back. Biguzera swung
and it was Afro boosted up by Gizmy in the off angle. Biguzera not anticipating that.
I subdreams start considering the 5-7 MP-9 limited utility, just finding that open and kill is everything to Monty.
Rain Waker gambling with Azuwu, actually deep into the site as well, so he's got support if they do go for this mid to B.
Gives me just an MP-9, maybe gonna play around this smoke? Okay, throws out a block smoke of his own, and oh my god, he's found it! The headshot onto snow!
So we're going to look out. No secret about that with the lurk smoke. It's a sewage responsibility. Rain waker tasked with doors.
Flashcatches Rain Waker, jumps up, sewage onto Peria, then Rain Waker, they profit, looking good, just safe.
And Bemis is caught in perfect with the 5-7, gets the upgrade!
Monty, take 11 first.
Hell of a round, man. Everything about that is beautiful for Monty. They use gimmicks, they're really not afraid to do so right in low-ecom rounds like this.
this little cheeky boost over towards A, nets them that 5v4. That's how everything starts,
but this gives me boost onto Afro. Nails big as error. And from that moment, the round is
instantly in jeopardy. You have this crossfire with the two other rifles in the B site.
And it's a strong one of that. Azumu never doubted it, never doubted Rainwaker at the car,
didn't take his eyes off the doors. He had one angle to hold, he had one kill here to find,
and he got it. It's just the worst, most sporadic wave to be winning these two rounds.
You win one, you lose one, you win one, you lose one, you're broken late in a dual-die affair.
You're major life on the line and you're kind of having to accept that,
Mom, you're gonna have 12.
They've done it before with lesser weaponry.
This is a lot less.
It should be casual.
Could be one hell of a HE. Second guess is it complies for the block instead.
VSM tried his hand at long.
And now it's just two Desert Eagles, safe with the bomb and a dejected pain.
I'm just the idea that you're playing in an hour with your your tournament life on the
line your major life on the line if you're paying that even starts to feel like it restricts
the playbook you've got a lot riding against you here momentum sides of body they've got
of individuals showing up in great form, Afro on his AWP,
been a real force to be reckoned with,
a Zulu in fantastic form all across the major,
and gives me, I think, his call back-to-back blinders.
Sure, he had to reign in the troops a little here
on Dust2, right?
Lay out the game plan, force him to refocus,
but Monty have, this has not been a walk in the park
of a Dust2, but they're the team eyeing up Stage 3.
And they've got two chances to get there.
Pain with a timeout as they try and protect their major lifeline.
And you saw VSM doing almost all the talking during that timeout.
Usually it's a time for the coach, for the captain to iterate a game plan to come up with something.
But at 12-10, as the Major hangs in the balance, it was VSM using the clock.
See what the idea here is, sets up, period, to go and take this long control.
He's given that smoke to stop the Molly, turn from spawn, and you can seed long immediately.
Monty if he's getting almost every round now it's taken away from you
In times gone by when they fell down at that critical juncture
I think the big problem here was they got really boxed in you can't block short and long at the same time
You've got to fight for one of them
So you're aware that pain have taken this long control that's gonna lead to them shoring up the short defense
They've also got players nearby in mid. This is a full reaction from Monty in response to that long aggression
This is for Stage 3 for Monty. This is for your bags being packed and your major ending for pain.
Monty are making moves. They're not content just to sit around and wait for pain to bring this final round to them.
to them, they've just deep cleared mid.
BMAS is already moving over to B, so is Gizmy.
They're trying to get ahead of this play.
That's that door, smoke, Rainwick is
hidden at the back of the site.
Looks like BMAS takes first contact.
This could be his little redemption
to close down the game, to secure it for Monty,
but empty hands for BMAS.
They know Rainwaker's around here somewhere,
continues to just hide out at the back of this box,
supportive flashes over the top, and overlooking the position.
VSN catches Gizmy, swing, looks good for Payne
extend play to the final round of regulation have they held on yes another
round secured for pain they fight back
said there you know is a chance at redemption for Bemis Monty had the right
read they were beginning their rotations they were moving everyone over
but this B site you know the kind of one-man army of Rainmaker isn't going to
enough to get you through it and you don't want this to be a game defined by the one absent player
for Monty that's the risk they're running they've got one more chance to lock in stage three or
else pain force overtime but they look at this call like last tick of the molly main waker spots
the info gets the orbit down the quickly followed up by the whole squad put your smoke away rain
Rain Waker is the F4 you need!
AAAAAAAAH!
Flaps at the hands of Rain Waker!
Monty's surely have done enough now!
You come knocking on Rain Waker's sight and he escorts you out of the Major!
Bomb under their boots, three strong on B and it all falls onto the shoulders of the young gun.
Snow with an impossible task or his Major ends here.
Now with Afro looking down upon this mid control, the moment snow around this corner, Payne's
time at the Major is over, Monty advanced charging through a clean 2-0 and while one
team is elated embracing at the end of a hard fought battle, the others sit with their heads
in their hands for Payne, it's regression in Cologne, a stage shorter than the one that
that led to changes to this roster at the end of Budapest.
Looks like Gizmy's going to have to reschedule the exams
because he's got more Counter-Strike to play.
Stage 3 secured for Monty.
Very impressive Counter-Strike on display
and Rain Waker spray securing Stage 3.
Monty advancing to Stage 3 at the Major
where we will be joined by Bimes in just a couple of seconds
to discuss that game and get an info into all the emotions.
going on when in that game after that we'll discuss the major slot allocations
and coming on later we'll have Tailu taking on legacy so safe to say there's a
lot of good reasons in order to stay right here right now and watch this
stream. Janko are you surprised that much you were able to take it to him? No not
necessarily against pain gaming it's a bit surprising the level of caution
they showed in this stage right they played very solid very good I think
they improved throughout the season and to me they were the favorites in this
matchup. A couple of moments you know they got a little bit dicey but still kept
their head in it and managed to qualify for stage three. Most definitely kept
their head in it from start to finish. It was a very strong performance from
Monty once more. We joined by Bimesi on the desk first and foremost. Congratulations
making it to stage three. Thank you. I don't feel like I deserve it man. What a bad
map by me. I don't know what happened. It's just like we won, we made stage 3 but it really
sucks to have such a plunder on such an important map.
I mean sometimes you have it like that, I guess the good thing is that you have good
teammates around you and naturally fair to say that you played your part in getting to
this point first and foremost. We see results on screen right here. One of the things that
surprised me the most is how competitive you guys have been in every single game. Are you
Are you surprised by how competitive you've been in every single game or was this the level that you sort of expected coming into the tournament with?
After really terrible results against tier one in Astana, we didn't expect this.
We were getting destroyed, we were getting antistratted by teams like FURIA, by G2, and yeah, we didn't know what to expect.
respect and with this tournament, everything changed. We're now showing the good teams
what we're capable of. It wasn't so expected, but with each game we're just getting a lot
of confidence.
We were talking about, congrats first of all, taking the next stage. We were talking a lot
about the leadership, KakaFu and Gizmy and how you guys have good game plans. You don't
really look lost often in rounds. How much of your success would you contribute to that fact?
A lot, a lot. I would say Gizmi is probably the most important piece of our whole team.
He did so much work, so much anti-shred, of course, cannot forget Kakafu.
Them together is like the brains of our team. They make the whole structure, the
the strats, the anti-strats, also shout out to Fizzico for helping us for this
match. Yeah, they do a lot of work and it's crazy. Gizmy is so young still, so
such an unexperienced side gel but he doesn't lose temper in such important
games. I want to ask about you a little bit as well because 2024 was you kind of
disappeared for a while. What was it like for you to come back? What did you have to
do to get kind of back into tier one again? I mean I was just grinding a lot of
face it and I was just hoping that one day I would get some decent offer because once
you're inactive for some time, it gets harder to get inwards because people don't know what
to expect from you.
So yeah, I was running a lot of facets, streaming and yeah, Monty just one day wrote to me.
He gave me this opportunity and I'm really happy that he gave me this opportunity because
I'm here now.
Congratulations.
Were you expecting it?
Do you demotivate at any point, think you might not get enough of a chance?
Yeah, but at some point you're waiting for some offers and once your break goes through,
you didn't receive anything cool, you're like, hmm, interesting, maybe I need to go even
lower in the lower tier.
And then, yeah, but I was playing this national tournament with Team Lithuania, Riu spotted
me, he saw how I come, how I was shooting, and he suggested me to Monty, so Riu is the
guy which I should thank the most he gave me this opportunity. It's truly not
easy to make a comeback like that so that must feel you know amazing to now
find yourself in in stage three. One of the other cool things about your team is
that we get to learn more about a lot of the different players. I would like to
hear your thoughts on Asuvo you know from what I've seen and what we've seen so
far. A very aggressive player on the server and a player that is willing to
do whatever it takes in order to go into an entry duel. How is it like playing
What have you got like that?
This guy is fearless.
Even though the statistics haven't been the best,
but the guy is doing the hardest role,
so sometimes it's like that.
The team's anti-stratus.
We play against a team like Falcons on Dust2,
and Falcons had two guys on low,
which is holding Azul.
He's dying, the stats are bad,
so he had a lot of hate because of it,
but the reality is that he's very fearless,
he has a very great team,
he talks a lot,
he has a good understanding of the game,
when he's feeling it, he's just insane.
Well, that ace in the 4s buy was so huge for him, right?
For us too, a turning point for you guys
to be able to close it out.
Yeah, yeah, that ace was crazy.
What can I say?
But I also need to thank Rain Baker, I think.
The guy, you put him alone on the side,
the guy always delivers, always 3 kills, 4 kills out
over against full buys. Crazy guy. Crazy guy. Crazy theme for you guys, I guess that begs the question now.
Making it to stage three is a huge achievement, heading into stage three. I know this is a new
thought of yours now you have to deal with, but do you think you can upset some pick-ups and then
do some damage in stage three? For sure, for sure. I mean, we haven't even done the pick-ups yet.
Yeah.
With stage 2 we saw like, in my head we should have closed the game against G2 and it just
shows like we're here to fight, we're giving a tough fight to everyone, we want legacy,
we want pain now, we should have won G2 in my book so I think the stage 3 team should
be scared of us.
Where would you put yourself in the pick-ums?
I'll put 0-3 to anti-G.
I think that's a good way of doing it.
Thank you so much for joining us, Bermess.
It's always a pleasure to speak to you.
Unfortunately, we also have to say goodbye to pain gaming.
We had Trace catching up with big 0.
Sad on the turns over here in the side of pain,
as we will be saying goodbye to them in Cologne at the major,
big 0.
So graciously give me some words after the game here.
Let's talk a little bit about, man, right in front.
Nuke, what do you think?
Actually, I don't know.
I have to go towards the game.
But basically, I think we did a good start of the match, you know, like, I mean,
was 3-0 and we lost 3-1 and everything starts to go to the wrong way, you know.
So it was a difficult time today, especially because they had like an aggressive play style.
The Afro, yeah, he's very aggressive.
So it's difficult to play against these kind of players.
So sometimes don't go as well.
Just to revisit a little bit here, that last round of Nuke,
do you recall that round at all, the last round of Nuke?
I don't remember.
Well, we can leave it there.
It's completely fine.
Regardless, the outcome was that we had to go in the map to,
we get in a map to.
Where does your team stand when you come back into the server?
Sorry, what?
But how does your team feel coming back
to the server for map 2? To be honest we fought a little bit. We were under pressure I guess
and we wanted much to go through but at the same time we knew that New Kills had a strong
map so if we made mistakes there we never know that's too rare. But yeah I think our
mindset today was not good. You guys had your backs against the wild for a little bit here
here in Cologne, you've been playing upward and on an exit man, it kind of hurts my feelings.
So I have to ask you, is there anything that you want to say as you guys exit?
Like for the people, yeah.
Just I don't know, it's the end of season for us and of course we really want to do
more, not just for us, just for everyone that watch for us and cheering all the time, supporting
in us and yeah we said but it is what it is so we didn't play well this major at all and yeah
we said but we'll look for them also. I wish you guys the best of luck bud.
Safe to say it's a major to forget for pain gaming despite coming back from a horrible day
one they were not successful in making it into stage three. I can't help to feel that I'm missing
NQC on this lineup, first and foremost, I think it's been a bit rough on them, you know, with the roster changes with safe coming in and out.
But regardless of that, I think they've had enough practice, enough time leading up to the media that it must be disappointing ankle for them to go out on this fish.
I mean, it's not ideal losing a guy like NQC and then dealing with a replacement.
But honestly, I don't believe it would have changed all that much for pain gaming.
For me, it's been a recurring theme.
You know, they're going to soon enough via seven period are going to be replaced by another two
rifles and we're gonna get more of the same results. I'd understand people who are talking about the Brazilian dream team
And they're putting big Uzeras their IGL based off of what what have you seen from pain?
Tactically or strategically in the last two years three years to make you think that they're a good
Tactical team right like there hasn't been any improvement. There hasn't been any evolution
He's talking about players having bad mindset and players arguing during rounds like in
2026 and then you're supposed to be a tier one team. Where's the leadership there?
How they're adapting as well for me is the bigger one. We saw it in both maps. They couldn't really handle it.
And even said an interview, the aggression, Afro pushing the peak and everything.
We saw how boomage kind of put that to bed the other day on both maps.
And here today, they just couldn't handle it all. They seem like they mentioned like the push and push and push.
And well, I mean, you to find the answers on Nuke, we saw them just kind of outside isn't working.
Okay, we don't go outside anymore. This game, like you need to have more problem solving out there.
And once they had that scene from Stargaz, they felt like they were completely out cold on the server and he just felt like they were kind of snowballing.
And Pain need to have some uncomfortable conversations in the organization.
I mean, are you gonna keep doing this and keep getting more of the same?
Or are you going to actually see if you need to change something?
Because there's been players who've been on Pain and gotten replaced at their farm's success elsewhere, right?
I mean, they had DGT for a very short stay and he's been great in INZ before and after.
So maybe it's a leadership issue, that until it changes, pain is going to be stuck where they are for the foreseeable future.
Is that the notion that they're leaving with here?
You know, a team that we played the buy and sell theme once more, you most definitely would sell right now?
I'd throw it away.
You'd throw it away?
After that, hearing that that frustrated and the mindset is bad is one of the main reasons to lose.
And to Monty, whoever loses today wasn't going to feel the best about it, because I had a great opportunity to get to stage three that you're probably never going to get.
I kind of don't like here in this frustration where you need to just be focused on winning.
This isn't the time to be frustrated and think about rounds or how you died or you start something.
You've got to just focus on the next round. If you can't do that here, when can you do it?
That's a good question. It'll be interesting to see what pain is going to do with their roster.
As Janko said, there's been a lot of changing and a lot of chopping players as of late.
Another thing that's interesting in relation to the whole major slot allocations,
because we do have pain coming out from the Americas region.
With them losing this game, that also means that America is now losing one more spot for the Major.
So they started this tournament with 10 spots. They're now down to 9 as it is right now.
It could potentially be 8 if Legacy is also losing their game.
We spoke about their struggles not having any NA players within the top 16 here.
Now the Brazilian teams are also starting to fall off a little bit.
How dire is the situation for the Americans we can right now?
I think that if you imagine that was now and this happened liquid one
They've even made it after swapping regions to win. I've got through with this
And I think any struggling a lot and it's unfortunate for the Brazilian teams and the South American teams that they're lumped in together
With the NA teams because they're just not competitive all when the Brazilian teams it feels like well legacy
I could see them making stage three and getting a win or two like this
I a pain can do it a little bit
But there's some good Brazilian talent. Can we talk about doing like a South American dream team?
I think we could put together two fantastic liners that could be top ten teams
Provided you get more of this contract jail and everything so now losing these spots
This is a huge thing I think this region
There's a big difference between having 10 spots and potentially only eight spots
That depends on legacy taken on Tai Lua a game we'll dive into later
But if legacy were to lose you down to eight Yankee or Howard that torrential is that for for the Americas region?
I don't think it really is like there's not eight good teams in that region
And then it's also like for stage one, you're always guaranteed a number of slots.
It's more so how many teams would get to start in stage two or stage three.
And if you ask me in Asia, you have the Mongols in the Americas.
You have Furia, Legacy, and let's put 9Z as a stage two team.
For example, everyone else I'd put in stage three, because you can see how these teams
also alternate based off of who's going to win more local lands and everything.
a lot of these teams are unproven on the international stage.
So for me, start them from the beginning and see who can compete with teams from Europe,
with teams from Asia, right?
And just let the results pick for themselves.
On the upside, it also means that Europe now is guaranteed 18 spots for the next major.
They came into this one with 17.
I guess by the sounds of what you're saying here, Enku,
we honestly don't mind that as there's more quality within European countries right now.
Yeah, without a doubt.
and I think there's still a 32 team major,
there's enough spots for everyone, right?
It just comes down to, you know,
how many teams should be skipping a stage
and then starting in the following one.
And I think Europe is always going to be the region
where you have the most competition,
you have the most teams,
you have the most tournaments, tier one and tier two, right?
So you have the most opportunities.
That's one of the reasons why we have the most good teams,
right?
And the best practice as well, everyone's kind of,
even the NA teams like to come to Europe
bootcamp and you get quality practice all of the time, all year round as well.
There's a huge difference.
Yeah, who knows, maybe Ligret will verge back to trying to qualify through the European
qualifiers in terms of the sentiment here from Yankeesh that it doesn't really matter
whether you have eight or nine slots if you're from the Americas or five or six if you're
from Asia.
Do you agree that the lack of depth within those scenes, it's more so a courtesy if there
were to get one more than is solely needed?
It depends how much the sticker money is going to matter because if the organizations go
away. We saw this is probably one of the reasons why we would have said that NACS isn't that strong
anymore. They lose out on the money, they go away, there's less salaries, there's less opportunities
for players to come through. The young players, that's where we kind of worry a bit more. If it
means, for example, some of the players become available to sell transfers, you can build some
of the better lamps together, then maybe by East, it depends how much these organizations are relying
on sticker money, but if it's going down anyway, maybe it's a kind of a blessing in disguise for
us something else happens. Could be, could be a blessing in disguise. We'll have to wait and see.
What we do know for a fact is that the next game coming up will determine one of those spots and one of those major
Allocations we have naturally legacy taking on
Tyloo in a game again
Well, it's do or die time for both winner will progress into stage three whereas the loser will go home further more as we just
Said winner as well if that's legacy will book another spot for the Americas region whereas for Tyloo
They can have out the Asian region by winning this game meaning that they will have six spots for the next major instead of five
Safe to say, there's a lot of stake right here between Tailu and Legacy.
3, 2, 1.
Something's going to take control of us, D-Gun.
And that's what's going to happen to you.
Got him, sir.
We are back!
Okay, we're flushed through.
Okay, ready, ready?
Flashing down.
1 more in the open.
Come to me, 2-3 go.
2-3 go.
2-2-2, get back!
I'm flashing over, yeah
Yeah, I keep protecting
Take, take, take
I'm right now
One close, he's on your right
Nice, nice
I don't have protection anymore
I'm on it, I'm on it, I'm on it
I'm holding my shots
One for down
You have my CT right now, no?
No, no, no, I think it could go
Yeah, CT, CT, CT, CT, CT
Yeah, we'll smoke on your timing, let
Yeah
I have right side of smoke
I have right side
He can go Karthus
Teak Karthus in
Yeah, yeah
Nice guys, nice boys
Nice boys
Good job
Recovery guys, good recovery
I don't have it, it's okay
You have it now?
Yeah, yeah
I cannot
I have the flash
One B
I'm sorry, wait
I need to peek from Karthus
I need to peek from Karthus
I have window
I have window
I'm pushing top
We're the one. You can pick on me.
Yeah. I'll kill one.
I'm blind.
Two minutes. Nice, last flashed.
Water.
He's someone next to you.
He's close, he's close.
Nice!
Nice.
Nice.
Sick, man. Let's go.
Good comes, good comes, guys. Good job.
It's a 2-2 matchup with Legacy versus Tyloo.
I'm over here with Lotto.
Lotto is one of the heavy hitters on the side of Legacy.
So let's get right out in front of this one, Lotto.
You guys lost in Swiss, round three to Monti on Ancient.
Tell me what happened in that game.
Yeah, I think we played...
We started slowly, I think, in the Ancient, and BL1 punished this.
So I think we don't play our best CS, and now in BL3, I think we can do better.
Which is exactly what's happened, right?
We're looking at, you know, go a little bit further down the rabbit hole versus M80.
guys had the OT on Inferno you go some 34 and 22 in that series again that's
just proof that that's the threes are more comfortable. Yes, yes, Bill 3 it's
very comfortable for us because we don't have the pressure we lost if we lost
some pistols we know we can win the other round so Bill 3 for us it's
better. So you guys came into the stage as a
favorite for the stage for the pick-ups. What happens then when you lose
your opener in this stage when you lose the opening match where's your head
where's your heart at when that happens bro I fucking might be games as well
so I think it's hard because we like I said that we start slowly and we don't
have a good starting in the BL ones so now let's see if we can go to the stage
Yeah, for the CAC of VP, you guys beat the Falcons over there at a 2-2 game in Cologne.
Our legacy going to Stage 3.
Yeah, I think so.
We will prove we can go to Stage 3, so let's do our best game.
So that's it, I think we don't need to overthink about it and only do our game and do our
best.
Thank you so much for your time.
The Intel Extreme Masters Clone Major 2026 is brought to you by ESL and partnership with Intel.
Acer Predator.
DHL.
Checks.
And the Sony.
Oh wow, there's the first one, Craig!
He can get a double!
There's still two players left.
He got no help on them!
13 and 3.
Oh my goodness!
How did he do this?
How did he do it again?
Another do-or-die scenario is taking place here from Cologne, where at the major of 2026,
where Legacy will take on Tyloo in a game Peter that will send one of the teams to
to States 3 and one team home empty handed.
Now starting with Tyloo, first and foremost,
are you surprised that they even find themselves
in this position coming from Stage 1 into States 2?
I feel like a lot of people were doubting them in Stage 1.
A lot of people were even, you know,
flirting with their idea of putting them
0-3 here in States 2.
Now all of a sudden, they find themselves
just one game away from making it.
I did the same.
So I guess at some point I was part of that pile
of people that didn't think too well of Tyloo
and just looking at the recent matchups.
I don't think that Tyloo has taken down a team yet that I believe has the calibre of
also play at that level.
I think it's still a team that has been so much inside of a rollercoaster that the results
is hard to get anything out of.
I think it's a team where they've been carried by the individuals mainly from Yamio.
I think that's the guy that's been standing out.
He has had some moments, but for us a team, they haven't been looking that solid, but
I mean, they're here and they're fighting for us, but it's stage three.
So they must be doing something right.
Do you agree with that?
As you know, the results that we saw on the screen, not really impressed you either.
No, I have them down at zero three in this stage.
We've had one, two, best of one so far, but they lost to pain and lost to
Australia's we saw pain just not making now and not really be that close.
And Australia's over the lesser the better about how they went yesterday
against against pain as well.
So yeah, it hasn't really been impressive for for Tyler.
And as you said, right, they get to win a best of three and in this
naturally today that has to happen if they want to continue into stage three.
For Talu, for Asian Counter Strike, we just had the discussion, Peter, in terms of the fact they're also playing for an extra major spot.
Asia currently have five. If Talu were to win, that'll be six for the next major.
Is that added pressure on Talu or do you think they even care about that?
I think they care more about themselves. I mean, sure, I think it would be nice for the region to get one more spot, but then I'm going to be a little bit honest here.
I think it's just going to be like a way to spot my opinion.
I think that there's like other teams that would deserve that or another region that could use that sport more.
The thing is, the other alternative as it goes to the America's region.
Well, that doesn't really add anything, right? It's kind of the same, right?
But yeah, you know, Talu looking for a state three here.
They haven't done that since the face-up major in London, you know, in back in 18.
So I think for the team to, you know, try and at least go as far also thinking the last result in Budapest, whether they went 0-3,
You know, that's quite the opposite of what they're trying to achieve.
So I think it's a team that has a lot of the line for themselves.
I think they just want to prove themselves right that they can play with the best team, but also for the Chinese fans.
That's kind of the storyline I'm writing right here, Ash.
You know that you have Tyloo going up against Legacy, basically, America's going up against Asia.
Is it fair to say that, you know, at least before this game, we have, you know, the America's Counter-Strike scene,
especially the Brazilian teams in higher regard than Tyloo and Asian Counter-Strike, as it may.
I think so, yes, but then it comes down to there's a few teams like Tyler Lu and Mongols, obviously
They're very strong out there for sure
I think that many people can be paying interest on this the people in the teams the six seven func teams in both these teams
I don't even mean to say that that time first time
Those teams are kind of on the edge of the bubble
They're the ones that are stressing about this because this could be really difficult and suddenly like a team like Lin vision
For example the way they've played here. They're probably have to change their style everything
They're gonna drop a little bit you would think initially
Yeah, they won't be really struggling if we're losing the first slot here. Yeah, it's it's a game within the game
I think there's a lot of people who have a high interest in this one. Now speaking of legacy
I think it's been more a positive notion for them. You said to yourself, Peter, you know
It's been what eight years nine years since Tyler were able to make it to top 16 legacy did it at Austin and
Recently there's a year ago and how they played and conducted themselves so far at this tournament
Are you more on their side? So to speak than Tyler there results having impressed you legacy on the other hand
Have they impressed you or has it been okay? Just I think after adding odd
I think you know the team has gone, you know in the right direction after the the new the miracle run
They had in Austin where you know, they surprised everyone. I think that is
That that kind of you know put them a little bit on the on the map, right?
Everyone started paying attention to them how they were playing
But then this at the same time you also added more expectation of them
And I don't think really they could cope with that and from there on it just went down downhill, right?
And I think a legacy as a team at that time
They were a team that relied so much on the individual and always just play here
We get one kill we're just gonna go scale up on this and you know
Just playing this up hit and hit in your head counter strike where you always just try and dive deep in and
Attempt to you know get get the frags going whereas it's a little bit more thoughtful now
And I think that's one of the things that art has probably brought to a team that they still played sort of the same
It's the same stuff, but it's really like thought through they it's not as random as it was at that time
So it hasn't looked that great in this tournament so far, but I still think that they have more to show.
I think it's fair to say that bringing in Art has definitely changed the direction of Legacy.
Personally, I thought it was going to be a bit more bombastic, you know, and it was going to be more of the old Art.
But I feel like he's developed a little bit as she also said in a couple of interviews that he's finally taught himself to be a leader,
which he was not back in Inferior for four or five years, you know, where he had the chance, I guess, to make things happen.
So, have you seen the same? Have you seen a legacy that has actually progressed without coming into the line?
I think without, you say it's changed, but actually we did a start earlier.
He is the most aggressive person in terms of entries, he's still doing it.
However...
Surprised, right?
It was surprised we changed that, yeah, but however, I have noticed there's a little bit more team-wide style based on that now,
because before it used to be like you've played against him loads of times, you've played a lot like Vertigo,
he's already like pushing through Ivy in your spawn before the rounds even properly started, walking through every smoke possible,
and if you kill him, well, the round looks terrible, it's over instantly,
But now he's focusing more on being traded and this before he wasn't really doing this. No, no
I think that's that's why I actually think art could be a pretty good fit for this team because he brings this this recklessness
Right. He's the one that also wants to go for the opening
He's by far not like the most skilled inside the line-up
But at least his way of thinking is a little bit similar to how the team has been playing for a while, right?
But if he can you know use the thing that he's become a better leader and I've also paid attention to some of the
the time-outs that he's been taking. It's more like, guys, I want you to continue playing
the way you're doing right now, but do it together, right? I don't think he's trying to change the
style of legacy. He's trying to improve it. And I think that is why I think this fit is actually
proving me a little bit better than I thought when I saw Art join this roster. Because as you
mentioned, Ash, I've had my fair share of time against Art. And you know, sometimes you could
like hit your head against the table thinking, what the hell are you doing? But sometimes he made
It does feel like he's found a balance, right?
There's a bit of the old art in art, you know,
I've seen a couple of mech 7 plays as well at this tournament
where you think to yourself, all right, that's the old art, we know you.
Speaking of known quantities as well,
and focusing a bit on the Tai Lu side,
G, so far this tournament, have struck a little bit,
maybe haven't found the same amount of impact as you would like him to.
Yeah, he struggled coming into this,
this is one of the players I went in and watched the demos,
and I couldn't really see the sharpness in his game at all.
Kind of like he's taken a big step back with that one.
that one. Yeah, I think it's a good opponent's also struggle. So the one thing that you will
notice there, though, is clutches. Actually, joint most in the entire event, which we'll go
through in a second. But in terms of orpers, he's around 12 out of 24, it's kind of middle in
with everything. So he's kind of he needs to have this impact in these clutch rounds are super
important. And how do you explain that? Right? Because I'm thinking if you're crutching a lot
during a tournament, you must have a pretty good feel for the game and your confidence must be
be up there. But it's the round to round impact that is perhaps missing from G.
Yeah, I think he's all round game, but when he isn't looking that fantastic
But when he's in he has a bit more space, it's looking a little better
I would say it's not like he's not blowing me away in his clutches
But that kind of is the person that he's in this team right now
He's closing out the rounds and he's doing it a pretty good rate
It seems like and I'll show a couple of examples him and get a pick your brains a little bit in a second fear
But he is in a 1v3 doesn't really have any information his teammates have all kind of died
He gets very lucky here
I think seeing the corner of the guys arm goes through takes second kill
So now he's in the 1v1, he has no real information on Kwao, it's been a long time, in Molotov's event, he smokes out.
I'm interested to hear why in this situation, Peter, you think he goes straight up towards A, he barely even considers the fact that he could be coming down on the vents, knife out straight up and the way he plays his 1v1, I think he's pretty interested in himself.
I think the smoke is the bait here, you know, he gets those two kill where they're trying to search for information and as soon as he puts down the smoke, that is the bait he wants his opponent to be taking.
And then he realizes that since he hasn't rotated, then he's got to be somewhere else and he's thinking
he's probably flanking me either from lobby or from ramp and then he decides, okay, maybe I have a turn him to go and get an off-ranking for him coming secret.
Or if he late decides to rotate through vents or coming through ramp, then I have a favorable position coming up through Heaven where
no one is going to expect him to be in Heaven since he's planted for main, right? So I think G and this one is kind of a big burn, anyone?
Yeah, it's good. It's good to see my other understanding this one. I really want to highlight his movement in this one
I think one in this one. So a nice little running tech knight head jar
I don't know. It feels random to me then I feel you feel about it guys
But sometimes sometimes it just it sometimes it doesn't so he gets into this one v3
That's a ding comes through just about gets this will come through in the second
I want to really highlight here is how difficult he is to hit so it's a good
Nice clean kill from him probably the most underwhelming person at the storm of look at the jiggle peeking
There's a leg there's a leg again and again
Then the wide peak, dink and dink and unfortunately Starri did have the bomb. He did have it diffused
However, at the very last moment decided I'm turning around and the game went nope
He not having that one. See those are impressive clutches and obviously high impact
You know at a crucial moments in the game, but what I'm noticing right here. It's with the rifle. It's with a pistol
It's based off the movement. He's supposed to be an all-plan
He's supposed to find the impact with the AWP and is that why he's been lacking so far in this tournament?
I think it's good
he didn't have all in this situation because then he would have won him. I think that's
probably what speaks to me. Being an all player is also very crucial that you can yield and
wielding tech 9s and AKs and have impact with that as well because some games you will find
yourself where you just don't have the economies to get it going. I've seen plenty of offers
through my career that seems to be functioning so well with Sniper. I think the one that
comes to my mind the first is actually Searson, like the old big Sniper. He had a thing where
If he didn't heal like a scout or an AWP then he would be looking pretty bad with the rifles
And it's so important that you can also have these weapons in your arsenal and actually also have an impact them
These two clutters is very different
The one is more about him outplaying his point of use in his brain
Whereas the other one is more like the mechanical skill understanding when to like take the jiggle peeks and then do the white swing
So yeah, it's a good mix of a full package from G here
I played with one of those who's called JDM back in the days. He could play with the AWP, not the rifle
a good launch for all he cared.
Now, a player that has stayed true to his identity throughout the entire tournament
and a guy I feel like we can rely on every single time is Lado from Legacy.
I feel like he's, I wouldn't call him a forever talent,
but it does feel like he's always delivering great
and he's always a player we highlight,
but there hasn't been this massive breakthrough in his career.
Could this be the major?
Well, I think that Legacy kind of need that.
They won't have a good run here.
His CT side in particular, very, very good.
Yes. Some good stats there coming out as well.
fan of my consistency in this game. He's just a very solid player.
He's good. He's good. Yeah. He's a guy that always delivers and a guy you can always count
on. They say it out loud. Is he a bit wasted, perhaps a legacy? Is he too good for how they're
doing?
I don't know if we can say that quite yet, but I think there's a few players actually
in South American region who you could take him into the team. I'll Lucho things from
example, Mao, Lato, and you could build a really good team right now with a lot of this talent
in South America. Can they get them all in the same line? If that's the question. Right
They all have one, maybe two stars. Is that enough to win a major game?
You may be giggling a little bit, because you did say like this forever, Talon.
And I think we've both played against Lado and Duma back in our days.
They kind of been, I wouldn't have been, they've been in the shadow of the Brazilian scene for so long
and just reaching like maybe like the last two, that's why they've really started stood out
specifically talking about Lado, but I think also Duma has been in talks.
I think that Duma has for a long time been the more outstanding player,
But I believe that Lado now at least for the last three months since getting their new coach
I think he's been looking fantastic
He's putting in some really big numbers and he's a big reason to our legacy find them here and and haven't been eliminated yet
And I you know, it's it's a it's a player that you know, he's taking his time
I get spent a long journey for him to try and get to this point, right?
But you know, he's still relatively young and you know at this time
It's also just him growing up and becoming a better player
So it's it's a joy to see that a that a player that I've faced in my early stage of career as well is still is still here
Definitely without that we have to look out for leto look out for do now look out for jam young
There's a lot of individual playmakers in this game, but there's no game without maps ash
Anything in this video that you think could potentially stand out
Well, I think Tyloo probably gonna go for ancient here even though they're not that good at themselves
So kind of some kind of a punish pick or yeah more of a punish pick and the things that legs if quite a strong
map pool. Tyler, you have a fake strong map pool, but there's just a buff in this against
some of the weaker regions. However, one thing I don't really like about, like you're saying,
I think we need to consider changing. Is this a Nubis ban? I've checked the statistics.
Yeah. Out of 92 maps before today, you've prepared six times at this event, six times,
and it overpasses one. I think right now, if you're banning either a Nubis or overpass,
you're wasting a ban because you can float both of these and nobody wants to pick them.
So I think that's a weakness that they have that some of the other teams are really optimizing.
and maybe they haven't thought about so much so if they want to pick from Tyler
they've been loving this map seems like quite a lot of surprises and go for the
ancient and decide on you. It's quite a curveball actually because last time
they put just 20 days ago at CAC that is Mirage with the third map and they
never got to play that that was a very even series and now the
fact that they decided to pick this one you know even they won that series you
know it's both teams going somewhere different for where they just were 20
days ago and that kind of speaks to maybe a little bit of the level that
They both showed this tournament that Mirage is by far the map that both teams like to play the most and defracted.
Negasi decides to give that one to Tyloo. That's a little bit interesting to me.
Mirage, Inferno, Nuke should be needed. Ash, does that change your prediction for this game?
I think, let's say, win on Mirage because I checked the stats. Tyloo 28 and 3.
However, if you put Dome right down to top 50, they're 3 and 3.
And this is where the weakens come down. CT side, Jam Young is playing B-Apps.
I don't understand it. He has no impact. And that's why they're sucking on this map on CT side.
Well, there we go. Something to look out for. Whether or not Jamion can find enough impact to keep Tyloo alive on Mirage.
Well, guess there's only one way to find out. And that's by starting the game.
As said, winner progressed to stage 3. Lusa will have to book a flight home from IEM Cologne.
Everything is at stake right here. It's legacy taken on Tyloo and we're starting on Mirage.
Yes, we are. Mirage up first. Legacy versus Tyloo. And they're speaking of the only way.
And for me the only way Talu win this series today is if Jam Young continues the kind of performance
He's had at this event and we'll keep eyes on that CT
So we'll be playing the B bomb so anchor as ash pointed out
But the legacy let's see how this tea suck goes didn't really enjoy pointing it out
Did he just kind of like yeah
He's just kind of parked over here in the side of the map
It doesn't get a whole lot of in the whole lot of attention a whole lot of activity to it
So Merchie we're gonna be burned out
Flashes to get himself an escape which he does it's a split towards this B bomb say tons of pressure on this defense as they
turn the corner. Now you've got miss shots coming in from Jam Young, he needs to connect
one of these, his teammates are going down and Jam Young gets nothing despite multiple
chances to find the opening kill there for Tyloo. Oh, Bomber and G have actually got
two right back and Bomber's down. Yeah, it's on Catwalk, so actually they can slow, okay,
well actually Zero tries to make the run while the Bomber's on the ground, good fight from
G, it's bought opportunities now to turn this into a two on two, Bombing planted. I don't
know how Tyloo have got themselves back into a winnable situation here, but they're trying
make the most of it, stepping up. No kid on the back of the two remaining players. Zero
walking forward. Chulbaredes, nice shot to Nissen. It all falls to Art, the in-game leader
of Legacy, waiting at the bench and he peeks up and a lot of damage, but Zeros came in
with those Chulbaredes and what a turnaround from Tyloo.
Yeah, huge. I mean, that's how they win the round. You ask the question, it's the bomb
being dropped on towards Cat as it tries to make the avenue up. That's Zero who catches
the bomb just as it's about to turn the corner, and that makes Legacy run all the way back,
slows it down, gives G time to connect another kill, because it was an onslaught on the initial
attack. Really well done to slow down the pistol and come out on top. Lovely shooting
with these two, he's got some nasty snails in there, nice shot.
Now Xeroz had a couple of moves up this tournament, a few maps down there, maybe even just half,
so we could bring it down too, but I think Glintz is off his capabilities, but the reason
we talk so much about Jam Young is because he's the only part that's even positive for
Tai Lu at this event. It has been described as a hard carry and it's definitely in that
category right now.
Yeah, 1.19 rating for Jam Young. Everyone else below 1. Mose is next up with 0.98 in
terms of HLTV rating. So certainly on individual statistical level, Jam Young is providing so
much for this team and every time we've casted them through stage 1 where they looked bad,
I was actually surprised they made it through stage 2. In some sense, I'm surprised they're
actually fighting for a spawn stage 3. But every time we've casted them, we've just spent
Like this team isn't isn't going to progress to the next stage if they don't have a second player stepping up next to Jam
Young so at least in the piss around
He's got zero with this triple kill with the highly impactful kills to steal it away from legacy in a strong position
No, like said a tech issue that's it's resolved and straight into a force by the legacy
As Lato dropping out and coming back in and he was one of the strong performers for legacy to help them get over the finish line
It just last night now is an impressive performance from him
Also, strong performance the last time they played Tyloo that Dupree was highlighting 20 days ago.
He's a top-rated player for Legacy, you know, surprises that Duma was just in behind him.
Yeah, it's kind of cool getting this rematch so soon to see exactly how these teams have been able to build off whatever success or struggles they felt like they had back at CAC.
Unfortunately for Tyloo, Legacy, since that matchup, went on to win a corner-final match against Mongols, went on to win a semi-final against MIBR,
went on to win a best-of-five grand final against Falkin, so I think they've got a lot more confidence and positivity in their camp.
Absolutely, Dumau and Latso. Both the AKs dinked and brought low.
Yeah, extremely low, so Zero's hoping to bring the health down to that number.
He's got a G coming out, catching Dumau as he tries to get through connector.
Zero dives down under the wood, good nade towards Latto, that's going to finish him off.
Miss him, trying to be the release valve. Oh, he's missed a lot of shots there.
Miss him, is missing, and that's going to be a 2-0 start for Taiyuu as G gets the 3K this time.
Yeah, the Deagle give it, the Deagle take it away.
That was, uh, it looked like he was giving the land a couple, but none of those bullets connect.
But I don't think any of it really would have mattered at the end of the day.
The damage done to the AK-47 holders in the initial engagement up short
is what really sells this round.
What he's supposed to do from here. Good shooting from Jose, I believe that was, to grab that damage.
Alright, there we go. G's getting hyped up.
A lot of conversation on his awping at the desk.
Round to round impact has been missing throughout this major in Cologne.
Lovely in the clutches, but they're gonna need that op to have more influence and more presence.
Mercury all the way towards top middle, just pistols going up against him in this round and miss him already dead.
And you've done significant amounts of damage towards R as well.
Second to a big picture angle during the Seek around as well. Both these two teams kind of in similar places with similar goals.
both of them have like a team in the region that is clearly the top dog for
tylu it's the mongols coming out of the asian reason region for legacy it's
going to be fury of who's the top dog from the brazilian sides
and both of them are kind of chasing those those those teams in trying to
catch up to that level
and we see both of them have that conversation at various points back at
the austin major both these squads had some pretty decent runs through stage two
tylu is saying we want to keep doing this for asian counter strike we want to
get it to be as good as the mongols are
legacy saying the same thing we want to do this for brazilian counter strike
help and join up with Fury to get them back on the map.
And doing it with a full Brazilian team as well.
Legacy, staying loyal to Brazil.
He's got another couple of wins in China and back-to-back years.
He's there waiting, just as sure as he's caught, or caught rather,
sad as in as he comes out of the window.
Duma's going to send a shot right back and leaping into the B bomb site.
I'd like to see him get warmed up in this round. He's looked a little hesitant in the early rounds. That pistol was a little bit worrying.
It's going to be a 3-0 start for Tyloo, and the full buy coming up now for Legacy.
Yeah, I think coming into this game, both of us probably had a similar mindset of this.
I know I was talking to Dupree earlier as well, just in the green room before the games went live,
and Tyloo, Legacy, feels like this should just be like a brawl.
Both these teams just kind of hitting each other in the face, nothing too super strategic, nothing too much work in the map.
in the map it's kind of like let's just bunch each other and see how things land after the fact
all these players like to get stuck into fights go for aggressive moves
gee's gonna have a zade if he makes the jump up in the ladder room
lato and doomow coming underneath towards middle artin sads in to join up with them from top middle
yeah those two mitts moats tossed out now fading
what's top middle and now the window will fall as soon as that happens you see doomow
taking up residence underneath the window itself.
I'm gonna start molotov-ing out the latter room,
re-smoking the window, but G is not moving.
He's not biting, not changing his position yet.
If I lose getting proactive towards the A bomb site,
the Mazea and Xero start to push over towards A ramp.
This one's gonna be able to spot their feet
if they start moving too far down,
but just wanna make sure nobody's home.
G behind the flames, a minute on the clock.
Legacy with mid control.
Scaling that ball back all the way through top mid now.
A lot of stuff's being made for Nissan.
M'zaya's just gonna be patient with his advanced position towards the ramp.
You've got Legacy players coming back over here and they're being quite loud about it.
Yeah, Tyloo doesn't really know what's happening on the map yet,
but they're confident in the setup that they have and very nice off angle from M'zaya if he can get this first.
Oh, he sees two players line up, he does a lot of damage, but he doesn't get the kills.
the kills and zero grenade might be good enough to finish off lots of when it's
not extra damage on top but zero mullied out a position she caught a shortness
and coming into mouth on that follow-up and legacy find the essential kills as
we now hit the 22nd mark in the round yeah nice and simple I think Tyler's
gonna regret not applying a little bit more pressure towards middle you take
that mid control cautiously not even really looking for any fights get a
player moving up towards short and readjust all your forces all your pieces
on the map back to the a bomb site they're really nice job taking away the
advanced positions of moseya and a ramp really nice job grabbing g before that
all can have an impact and that's going to be saved by jam young so first round
of the board for legacy with three players surviving this is kind of the
first sign of what ashes talking about was like a lot of the contact we made
through connector in these a place throughout the half you'd imagine this
t-side and you can have situations where your best player is saving an all on
the other side of the map and he didn't get chassis involved at all so one of
the rounds, going for Tyloo in that respect, it's going to be legacy finally getting through
to their first round away.
I'll see what they continue forward with, how Tyloo want to play this defense, up can
we pass back over to G, plenty of money on the CT side after the conversions of the pistol
round to buy up again, so no one's sitting back at the moment, money not great for either
team right on the edge of host players, and G just never expected someone to be up in
ladder room, good work from our... Last time we'll hear those screams echoing in
the studio. Stage three gonna have the live audience. And all best of threes, both
these squads trying to make it there.
Can those mid smokes fading away now?
Once again, it's gonna be Doomow in underpass this time, not alone.
He's got two teammates with him, Art and Lato.
This is a re-smoking middle.
Being very, very cautious as they step out, trying to go light on utility for these plays.
Smoke gonna be broken open, peek in.
spotted from beneath a couple AKs ring out so information for Jamion. Jamion
gonna be playing window this time but he eats a grenade he's down to 34 health
and the first play hasn't really even come in for him so he's gonna start
backing off into the kitchen and the marquee you've got 55 seconds left.
Feels like an A hit at the moment and with G having the AWP in the B tunnel so
that Jamion can play towards middle they've shifted resources away from the
bomb site so this is one of those rounds we've wanted to see a step up from G
But it's looking like he has to step up if they want a chance at winning it
Yeah, let's see if G can deliver the off-wates
Scope down the whole way. There's no chance for recovery if G doesn't deliver
Flash goes forward 20 applies in front of him G unable to connect on that first
Dropping back into the site 20 seconds on the clock your legacy have to put up the pressure
You've got art catching off the rotation jam young dad
G is on an island, and he's now cut down by Latso. Nothing for Tyloo.
And that'll be the round again here for legacy. Two rounds back to back.
Yeah, and even Jam Young hustling over to try and get involved, recognizing the situation, just taken down.
Art was put up into window room. The perfect way to cut off the middle of the map, prevent anyone from supporting G.
Two misses, and G couldn't find any comfort at any new angles inside the bomb site either.
That'll be frustrating, so still having some struggles, G.
As we've seen throughout these first two stages of Cologne, all five players of Legacy
standing at the moment and Tyloo's not going to mess with their exit strategy.
So Bomb will go off, Legacy one step closer to tying this up.
And also really building that money in reserve, right, this is around where they still look
kind of weak when it comes to residual cash, but all five players, they've got plenty of
reserve now.
They'll need it.
Actually, I think there could be a buy coming out for Tyloo in this round.
Three saved M4s.
You won't have the AWP, but G's got 3,500, so perhaps a timeout, perhaps a conversation
for the Chinese side to figure out exactly how they want to invest into this round six.
Let's let her save all the money for the next round and see what the three M4s can do on their own.
Into an early position, just waiting, not really activating a play where he goes through the border ball, tries to make his nose once he's got that spot, he can cut off the rotation.
The rest of the two minutes are going through the apartments and I really like what Duke Prey was saying about coming into this team because I think it was a surprise to all really that Lux was
removed for the team as early as he was right because they once CAC last year
leading into the Budapest major had a bad major in Budapest and then they cut
Lux a lot not so long after and they bring Art into you like oh how is this
gonna go and I don't think people really expecting great things but he's been
managed to improve upon the team in a lot of aspects. Well I think part of it is
you know when Lux joins this team is when they kind of start at their rise. Him
coming into the squad is when we started really noticing legacy and
culminating in some of those deep runs in those trophies and clearly there were
some issues because they kind of fell off after all so their initial introduction
and they were struggling to get back to that level
i think eventually they just realized they had to go somewhere else if they
wanted yet the arctic was surprising because of his own the own criticisms of
arts in game leading back on fury of back in fluxo
but i'll tell you what he can do this is basically said i've learned a lot over
the years of gain a lot of maturity now i'm doing something that i've never had
to do before which is become a leader
and he means that as a leader of men not the leader called the tactics inside
the server
he's got a young squad a hungry squad
and he's putting him to good use now.
Oh, they're fucking out, look at this.
One piece of utility to block him,
they just go straight through that CT smoke
and Tyloo get destroyed.
Yeah, this is what we mean when we say this game
is gonna be a little bit more of a punch in the face
than some kind of tactical chess game.
Nothing fancy in that round for Legacy,
just really fast to the B bomb site,
getting a couple nice kills,
miss him down the stretch, added one more,
he's found the last two players.
And desperately, there's an M4 in the ground
that G would like to pick up.
Well, gee, he's not going to be allowed that whatsoever, so Zero,
waiting just beyond that murder hall, you've got Lato anticipating this position.
The best thing Zero can hope for is the save of this M4.
It's a nice position to be in to save the M4 though. You could see over towards T spawn,
there's a couple players, Sadson and Arter, starting to kind of close the gap to try and hunt this last M4 down,
but Zero's put himself out of the point of danger. Not going to be in Palace as you might expect,
might expect not going to be anywhere inside the A-bomb site and ain't nobody
want to mess with that murder hole I don't care what stage of the round it is
so we're tied at three
three straight gun rounds for legacy after losing the pistol on the ensuing two
yeah coming out hot tyloo but slowing down once these guns have started to
play just do now just jumping out of the window going through that one
One defensive smoke from Tyloo, like you see looked upon it, and got plenty of money
built up now as well.
Bai has returned for Tyloo, all back in the hands of Ji.
He's looking for the opening page, very close to removing Art, who just sprints up short,
flash goes in, information was passed over, Harked around the corner, how has he won that
fight?
Art has come out on top of a duel against Muzaya that looked like it was definitely going to
go the way the Chinese squad.
But a 3v3 thanks to Jam Young's Nade and now the aggressive play from Jean Mishot!
And Lacto's got the kill at CT spawn, scurrying out behind that corner, behind the cover of the walls.
And the grenade lands towards Mercury, has to drop back and let Jam Young make his move forward.
He is going to go up against the AWP, but Satsun will connect to the chest,
and absolutely no chance for a 29 HP player to pull off a 1v3 retake, so he backs away here, Mercury,
and it's legacy heading into the lead.
Yeah, a pair of fast rounds that Art has brought out back to back that have both had huge efficiency last round against a lower buy
But fast towards the B bombsite this one an uppercut at the A bombsite
But you also mix in art being really aggressive moving up catwalk. It's a lot of chaos in the comms
If you're Tyloo, G just takes his attention away when he feels that a hit coming spots the player moving fast on short
Hard to put the pieces into place and Tyloo fall apart yet again
Guys, you guys, go for it! Watch them!
And it's a nightmare scenario against a Brazilian team as they now rattle off four rounds in a row.
Now they're getting confidence, picking up the pace, changing the pace on you.
Getting loud inside the studio and building momentum.
This is the fight, you just can't believe our wins.
It's like he took a handicap. He was like, I'll even stare at this flash man.
He had a long time to turn from that flash and just decided to tank it.
Come on!
Dumal getting louder and louder as these rounds continue to tick up in favor of legacy.
And once again, a simplistic hit being called here for legacy.
They want B then A, and now they're going back to a B hit.
Sounds like an Alexi tactic.
Well, G's picked up an AWP. I think Mercury passed that over.
He's got 250 left in the bank.
And G is in the right position for this AWP to have impact here.
Gonna miss the first chance.
They get over the window. Flash is coming in as well.
Look at this. Again, Dumal jumping out of the window, down into the site.
G is stuck inside of the market. He's just not connecting these important shots.
Yeah, these aren't anything crazy either. It's kind of players swinging into it.
They drive peeking into his off and he's just missing the timing on it.
So really struggling to get a grip and have an accurate shot at the moment is G.
Yeah, that's the round done. I mean, if your AWPer is having no scalping power whatsoever, the game just becomes so much more difficult.
Well, he's been in the right position a couple of times, which makes it even more of a problem.
Yeah, assuming there's 7 and 5 right now, if you have to remember you start with 5 and 0 and there's early rounds.
So yeah, since the ult has come out, virtually 0 impact.
I can hear these footsteps, so I believe he's going to start calling the teammates over.
There's time in the bomb left if they want to hunt this down. It's a single M4.
They did hear the AWP ring out, so maybe they might be able to make a guess that there's some stronger weapons in play.
And Art is going to at least test things to see if he can grab one weapon on the way out.
I'm down below him, he'll get a second, but zero has been sapped, he's not killed.
Now on the Tyloo side is they've got to piece this together right now
They're on the verge of getting buried money has been an issue now back and forth with that investment into the AWP in the previous round
And now again gonna be missing some bells and whistles kits are missing nades are missing on a few players
And Tyloo's scrambling to get their grip here on Mirage
well they go again legacy as I pointed out in the last round it's been a call
towards the B bomb side back to a directed to the A side and then straight
back to B so look at all the default sprite this time once the buy fully
returns to Tyler's hands you've got a top mid push coming through from Tyler
trying to throw some aggression in but no one from legacy is there to get caught
off by it
I'm going to start sending a little bit of utility and presence up towards the A site
just early.
Trump baits some nades out of the defences.
I like the changeup for Ty Lutho.
I like that they pushed two players towards top mid.
I think their conversation had to have been like, well, we can't just sit back and let
them have everything they want.
They've been able to walk out underpass, grab mid control, and they're using that as a launch
pad, set up some lurks, and they're hitting both extremities of the map.
So we at least have to take something away from them.
Now there was no utility used on the initial wave.
Tyler don't have enough of it so now they're deploying the nades as G is the only guy who can do it so
Smokes out the ramp, but this is this feels like the best situation Tyler's been in in a while right the round has been calm
No one's really encountered anything. No one's lost HP and
Legacy is just about to run an egg. They've got one lurk over towards the B bomb site
But he won't matter if this doesn't pan out smoke a palace comes in and G actually connecting early into the round as well with that
I'll miss him on the smoke break takes down zero sadson actually trades out on mercury as well
This is not a commitment. They're going back to the B-bombside. Dumau sliding into position to maintain control.
The seesaw is working perfectly in Dumau. Now moving out towards the bench.
There's a great headshot. Masaya caught, but then Dumau goes straight to hand, busy with utility.
Jam Young trying to save his team, and he just can't double up. So he's gone. He's out of the way,
and G now rotating over from the A-bombside. A long journey to make for the Operate.
Remember, he's tied for the most clutches of stage one and two so far. 12 of them thus far for G.
This is where he's shine where in other areas he struggled throughout this tournament
He's got no kit on his back currently, but it should be once somewhere on the ground yet highlighted by this over
So it's short, but he can't get to it. So he's just going to concede this and back away
And that's a great call again from legacy being able to maneuver themselves laid into the round hit that a saw and then go
Back in for a B finish. I
Mean just a lovely lovely plan
I don't know if it was designed that way or maybe the kill from G at the start kind of made them feel like they should bounce back
Either way they get all the picks they want on the smoke breaks on the re-aggression from tyloo during the execute and just well time from
From do mouth sliding into the B bomb site free kill on the catwalk player whose attention was elsewhere and
Tyloo yet again another round they just can't handle
And this this is also what's so difficult is
I talk about this all the time on mirage because it's one of the maps you can see at the easiest is just the fact that the
extremities have gotten beaten up so many times the execute through the B halls
execute straight up through the ramp and palace at A bombsite.
Now you throw these fakes in and it's like what are you supposed to do with your Tyloo?
Both those bombsites have just fallen and crumbled whenever legacy's briefed on it.
As soon as they throw a fake you have to respect it.
And they gone directly into an towards an A hit again here for legacy.
Although it's a similar kind of setup as it was previously.
It's two miles over in the B halls but he's not lining up it looks like to look towards the bombsite.
So early timing for this execution.
If he costs out you're gonna win and the other smokes come in CT lands a little bit earlier than the other two.
Zero, what can you do with a 5-7 up close? Good flash on G, doesn't matter, still gets that kill.
Zero waits, now bomb is right there. Zero swings, drops the bomb, no one else around.
And Zero now goes to the AWP, and this round is stalled out for legacy.
Okay, we'll hold the phone. Dude, Mao's gonna grab one over in middle.
They're still over a minute to play with, so he's got time to make some magic happen.
Smoke break. G has an AWP and Zero's picked up sadzins.
And there's two palace players have to back off and start to group up to try and recover the ball
But jam young has given them the way back into the round with that peak into middle
Dumal was waiting for it. Look at the utility advantage on the legacy side
They've got plenty of flashes plenty of HG grenades to do a lot of damage and harass this setup
Oh, what they use it? Yeah, they got a way for Dumal to line it up from far back
I'm gonna start sending some utility and she's trying to zero blind it off the angle
Once that off shot rings out they go for the swing
1 kill, then traded 0-0 pistol, she can't do much, and once again, legacy fighting hard
for the round when they recover it, and put 7 in a row on the board.
Yeah, too many kills passed over to Dumau in middle, he gets the 3B, he gets the 1,
Jam Young peeking the window in a 4 on 3, that's a 3 vs 5 that just falls apart, and
yeah, you're recovering some weapons, you got some weaker weapons, good fight here from
Dumau, this one was nice and easy, this one's really really painful for the Tyloo side,
giving up the man advantage.
And that's the first round win without the bomb going off as well.
Just off elimination for Legacy.
Dig in deep and find in the resolve.
Two Mal delivering the fallback plan in two rounds so far on this T-side.
They've been very, very good Legacy of recovering 4v5 situations throughout this stage.
Do it again here and actually one better, recovering two-man disadvantage.
Hell, what a start from Two Mal, 12 and 5.
Well, it started so strong for Tyloo, a lot of positive to take from the first two rounds
of play.
Immediately, Legacy grabbed control of it.
Smoke break, assisted with a flash, and Mosaic gets that opening kill here for Tyloo.
So once again, it's got to be Legacy to recover a 4v5.
Yeah, again, and it's good to see them again with that philosophy of attacking them in
middle.
started out the first gun rounds legacy was able to gain mid control and kind of walk
up con walk up sure without being too harassed now we've seen a mid set up a couple rounds
back now we're seeing that smoke broken in some challenges however arts found the scene
but blinded.
Yeah it gets caught but that flashbang gets it easy killed our jam young on the swing
out.
40 seconds on the clock another 3v5 for legacy can they pull it off in back to backgrounds.
desperately need this you've got jam young wedding at the van he's heard
that drop-down from this he goes out to investigate but mizaya's got off the
bench and that's much better from tyloo to haven't lost a player yet in the
round
Latte's gonna try and spoil that clean sheet 15 seconds left and he starts to
back off around the corner at this point you might as well save you have
plenty of money you don't need the bonus cash not gonna win it for sure so
finally tyloo seven in a row from legacy before they could respond they get
their fourth round on the board, their first gun round of this game on the board.
So at least have that going for them. What a stretch from legacy though. Just dominant in
every fashion so they've got plenty of cash. They call their first time out because they just
really want the last one. Yeah. Don't want them pieced together in extra rounds, they have to
have. They fought so hard to get seven in a row. Might as well get eight out of it.
If I had to imagine, I wonder if we'll see them switch back to something a little bit
more fast-paced, however they have bought up a second AWP on ART.
Likely just for the spawn to go grab a quick shot and see what he can do with it, come
back and switch out to an AK-47, but something in there to surprise the Tyloo defense, potentially.
Here's that break over in the middle, and this round, one of the few, perhaps the only
round where Legacy just kind of got picked apart every step they made around the map,
and once you get a couple of those, and the Legacy attack gets spread out much easier
time for Tyloo to handle it.
So nobody's gonna cross from the A bombsite over towards Khan.
And nobody's gonna investigate the B halls by jumping into Art's AWP.
G is here with one of his own to defend Jam Young supporting him at the bombsite.
watching con zero in moseya the point men at the a bomb site arts gonna back off
from his opening play
I'm gonna tell you, just blocking the ramp as legacy arrive.
Art was looking the right way as that boost is coming in, but just moves off and Jam Young
doesn't spot him.
Art gets out from the underpass.
No one's in danger inside the A-bomb site from an armored column though.
Jaya, swings, not gonna connect onto Lato.
Opening kill for Legacy, 40 seconds left.
Arched through connector, hits the shot with AWP now pinned in the corner, goes for the tech,
now it goes for the swing!
But Jam Young, really poor headshot here for Tyloo, but Zero can do nothing!
From the defenses of Triple, Mercury top stairs dies, and Legacy have a two-man advantage,
going for the A-round score line.
It got the bomb plant coming through here on T1, what that shot was just passed!
Damn close, but not close enough.
His jam young is left alone with a 1v4 that looks impossible.
You know exactly where he is.
They throw utility, they keep him at bay.
The jam young has got some great mechanics and filthy abilities.
He's got that first quick headshot, but like you see, respect him.
They hide away and they will secure themselves 8 gun rounds on this T side
and 8-4 lead for the Brazilians.
I
Save Luminosity with the all-play.
Final day of stage two of the Intel Extreme Masters'
Cologne Major in 2026.
Win or go home for all the teams playing today.
Legacy taken on Tyloo, and they took the message to heart
because they'll win it up eight to four
in a dominant half on the T-side of Mirage.
They're going to switch over to the defensive side.
And Tyloo has got to take some of those cheers
from very early on in the first half
and carry them all the way through to the finish here
because it's got to be something special.
Yeah, it kind of changed pretty quick, didn't it, for Tyloo?
The first three rounds were fantastic. We got G screamin' Boa across the other side.
Uh, wasn't Boa for a whole long time there for Talu, did shift to absolute disaster very, very quickly.
It unbowed real fast.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Constricted, you might say. Well, we've got ourselves a quick play from Nysim, already up in the apartment.
Jam Young's at the front of the attack. All of his teammates in behind.
He missed that timing though.
Oh, Jam Young, he's gonna hit the headshot. And now you've got Satsun, able to step up in his teammate's stat.
He's done very well to get a second kill, but now it's about our do you expect a third player this close?
And zero has definitely spotted him at least. Oh, yeah, we're jumping down looks down
Okay, ball. It's all gonna keep do now at bay for the moment smoke up and market as well
So Lado comes over with Julie's do now does have a smoke, but there's no kit for either of these players smoke to give them
Self some space. It's also about time for Mercury to slide over towards bench and trench himself in a stronger position for the post plant
Yeah fighting for the pistol here at Halu for another one
You've got Dumal taking a sprinkle of damage as they try and come out.
Maze has hit the head shot and you've got Dumal just sitting back inside of the kitchen.
You can do nothing about this.
So all the way he goes, it's going to be another pistol round for Tyloo.
Yeah, the mistiming on Jam Young, boosting that player up.
Jam Young had already crossed over towards the kitchen up in the halls like that.
That was really painful.
If they'd known someone was there, maybe take it a little bit more passively.
Dumal reps one more on the exit before the bomb pops off.
Both pistols over to Tyloo.
Mm-hmm.
Let's see if, let me see, go for a four-spy here, they are.
So you're gonna see scouts coming out straight away,
Sads in and Dumal picking them up.
They won a lovely one last night on Dust2 against N80,
so you gotta imagine they're feeling confident
these scout by Sads in had some nasty shots with the scout.
Yeah, there's the check, there's the clear,
Art never saw it coming.
I think they were all a little bit surprised
at how that went against them.
I think they were feeling so comfortable and confident
with that push.
They got three being there, coming to you.
to
art in this in
can be talked into the corner over at the be bombsite do now playing bench
sadson with his scout
excuse me observe i'm going to look quick for you miss him arts
there's two now
now we're gonna go to sadson
he's gonna be a ticket
and then live up on the balcony
Well, you have fun?
I was having fun!
Yeah.
Oh, grenade. First ad's in about to leave.
It's gloved hand.
What a glove it is, look at that. Lots of colors going on, Jason.
That's cool.
It's gonna be a colorful play-up short here too now.
Wedding off the back of Bench.
His head's shredded!
Then another player, Wedding. This in can only get one on the 5-7.
You can see on our plays out, right? Even if it's just a tag, if that scout gets a kill, it's even stronger.
but a tag the empty nine cleans it up maybe a trade him off five seven
surprises you maybe there's still some chances
scout cam some repeats of it survives but good shooting from tyloot to
neutralize all of those eventualities
so start now very much how the first half started at the credit started
great at the pistols great at the second rounds
It's going to be 8-7, Mr. Hosea, goodbye, come in for legacy.
So, Tailu will have close to gap with merely just winning the pistol and conversion.
So, 8-6, the lead is cut to 2.
Tailu begin this campaign on the T side of Mirage. This is legacy's map pick as well.
And considering how well they played in the first half, you'd favor them to close out
this map. Exactly where they wanted to take it. Also a good map for Tyloo, though.
And around the legacy is gonna sit back. 5'7", and scout from the previous round.
A couple P250s and pistols upgraded, but nothing too crazy. And now's the chance
for Tyloo to creep this as close as possible.
I think he might have caught maybe the wrist or elbow of art between those pillars so he's
being very cautious in backing off Palace entirely to join up with G and Jam Young who just moved
into T spawn.
is coming over as well.
Yeah, Jam Young with the AK at the ready.
Oh, no.
That's a big shot from Mark.
G comes in to quickly upgrade and take two headshot.
Well, two kills, one headshot of his own.
So now, I'll end up being a 4v3.
We'll see where we can get into connector.
Spotted by the short player.
In fact, he could be dropped by that P250.
This is getting a little bit scary now for Tyloo,
because that skill is still around.
And it's landed a tie.
In fact, it's gotta kill, Zero's gone.
G and Mazeir have to pull this back.
All of a sudden, like, you see, we have a chance to win this.
G unleashed.
Another kill towards stairway.
There's three in the round from G, but he's out of commission now to put that bomb down.
Mism is not gonna move forward.
Waiting for Sadzi.
Folks, waiting.
Get a little bit closer.
That's the smoke towards jungle fading.
The other now faded too.
And G's trying to back away to get around Tetris.
He just makes it there.
Five, seven out, and G's got one more.
He has saved Tyloo in this round from absolute disaster with a 4k on his Khalil.
And Sanzu's gonna step out and see if he can grab an extra kill here, but with both players playing at Tetris,
it's gonna be impossible for the scout to pull this off at the time.
Taking...
Cheese got the ace, that's all five on the Khalil.
And he saves a disastrous round from going against Tyloo.
I was gonna say, normally it'd just be like, oh, I had no big deal, an ace in an anti-eco,
not the craziest thing in the world, but man, those are critical kills.
Our legacy was about to turn that round, snatched this one away, and that would have just been heartbreaking.
Lovely first shot from Art.
Eventually cleared out by G, traded off the second player on that bait and swing,
and then a nice piece of aggression to alleviate the pressure from the defense that shifted over.
Now, that round goes against Legacy, but you know you've primed your opponent for an economic break,
with the amount of damage that you were able to do in the last round.
So calling the time out here, realizing if we win this gun round, not only do we get back to winning ways,
but we do send the money down to a tough spot for Tyloo,
and this could be the beginning of a streak similar to what Legacy were able to pull off in the first half.
Yeah, chance for a little conversation. You would have had this talk during halftime as well of what the pistol rounds gonna look like
What the first gun rounds gonna look like?
Those should have all been set in place
But one last little refresher a reminder to make sure that they can get around early on in the CT side so that
Tyloo cannot control the map for the first five rounds before they can buy again
Op is out in the hands of sadzen M4 is otherwise
Few kits missing some pieces of utility missing
The legacy with the strong investment. Lado, Dumau, and Nism heading over to the P-Bomb site.
Satsons up in window are anchoring the A-Bomb site.
The box goes out, there's Mosaic staffing in the open, but Dumau, peeling away with that, kills up to a 16th frag.
I don't even mind necessarily Mosaic challenging for that fight with the flashbang either.
You see a player who's trying to push up, you know, you've caught him, you know, have him make the decision
If he wants to bail out or stand for the fight, I think that's a fine fight from Zay to take. It goes against him, unfortunately.
Lado has slid over to join up with Nysim at this B bomb site. Tylu's got some pieces in place.
Jam Young pushed up to latter room.
Three players to attack through halls. Now Doomow has come back to the B bomb site. The rest of the map is silent.
No indication of where Tyloo is at the moment.
But Legacy's still reading it pretty damn well.
Yeah, 35 seconds left. Nissan lining up in the apartment. Flash coming over.
Nissan, fine, but the flash comes in. Mercury catches him just as that port flight comes in.
Dumau and Latto, that combination, yet again, holding on for legacy!
Latto's got one more headshot, backs away behind the van, and you rely upon Jam Young.
He nearly gets one more out towards market, but look at the amount of damage he's taken on board.
9 HP, 13 seconds, and Jam Young diving down into the site.
Such limited chances, and Sadson removes him with the USP.
That hold is on a knife's edge though.
If they don't have Dumau already cheated towards the B bombsite with low HP, they lose that.
That player playing just beneath the lip of the balcony just gets taken down for free.
Dumau, this kill right here saves his life and allows Lato to get one more,
and then he adds a second on top of it for no good reason.
Very, very close affair that goes against Tyloo,
and they take their third time out very early on in this second half.
But unable to tie things up at eight, so sitting two rounds back,
And now, it's that weird money situation that you just mentioned.
Gia had $8,000 after the buy in the previous round, so he can drop AKs.
They got one more buy in them, but this is going to deplete all the cash that they have available.
I must figure out here for Tyloo in terms of whether they're going to send these resources.
I mean, it's actually a kind of a really hard decision to make of whether you want to buy here.
This is a huge investment that if it goes against you,
legacy's up at 10, and they've got money advantage,
and you have to save.
Could end up costing you the map.
Yeah, kind of, it feels like it rides heavily
on this round right now.
If Tai Lu can continue fighting back,
if it just turns into a desperate comeback affair,
or if they can keep things close
and try and grind one out in regulation.
Yeah, an important round,
and the stakes are at the highest here
at the major elimination on the line.
And Tyloo, we've got Galeel from Mercury, Tech 9 for GM. Galeel from Isaiah 2, at least they've got 2 AK-47s for Jam Young and Zero, but let's see what they can do with them.
It's crazy the voices, it feels like they're kind of piecing together the tactic as we sort of speak. It felt like that timeout was maybe to talk about how they wanted to buy and who was buying what and if they could actually get away with it and now kind of juggling the pieces of who's doing what in the tactic.
Okay, so it's just gonna be a simple hit towards this A side with one window smoke out to try and sell some presents in middle
Let's see how it goes for then Tyler trying to get past they do get beyond the gaze of sadson
So he gets nothing from that allp on the first timing and now you're out of your Tyler
You're scaling up you taking the stairs control you've got Mazea towards jungle the bomb gonna be planted not denied
And in fact two kills coming right back the legacy after the initial kill from jam young
Three players left for Tyler digging deep to try and win this out on the post plant
Okay, well two players gone down who are the aggressors towards con art and Lato handled that now the retake coming in
But she is an X factor flanking in middle. He's only got a tech nine
That's the issue right there just a pistol from this position
Lato's taking down mercury it all right don't she can you get anything done strikes now from connector held back behind that wall
No one on the deep view zero dead in palace now. They're on the diffusel now
They've got the round and that all important round for Tyler works against them
They do not have enough for a buy in the next round and that means legacy up to double figures on Mirage
Difficult place to be. Tyloo can't secure enough safety with that double push towards TopCon inside those smokes
They recognize they use all their utility on the exec and if you don't gain some ground after the fact then it just feels like
Five of you are stuck inside the bombsite sitting ducks for the nades the Molotovs the flashbangs of legacy coming in on the retake
So trying to extend the amount of area they can trigger around the A bombsite, but can't get it done
Really, really good kills for Martin Lotto to take away that piece of the post-plant.
And Tyloo say, you know what, we lost that round, but we really like the idea that you're playing retake at the A-bomb set.
At least we can get a plant. Maybe something cool happens from there. Let's go right back into it.
All the Utilt going straight into the execution. Tyloo breaking through.
Making no way forward, because there's no one to like to see playing in front of the smokes.
Jam young's on 1 HP, 1 HP to spam, and Mercury is dead.
Yeah, so now Tyloo, the idea of holding on to it becomes a lot more difficult,
but they go with some aggression towards Sanzin, has to pull up to tech 9, handles business,
and he's got Nysim there beside him.
So Jam young and G, the last two remaining players here,
Deagle's in hand, but a single point of health here for Jam young.
It's the same situation where it's just in a different spot.
You see how desperately they try and push toward those spawn stairs to gain control
any other part of the bombsite outside of the bombsite itself and when you go
down there's nothing left but you have to try and extend that sphere of influence.
Really really well done legacy back-to-back retake rounds at the A bombsite
and they passed them both with flying colors.
Well, we spoke about how important two rounds ago was for Tyler's chances here
in Mirage. This is the last chance. You got AKs coming out, you got one
the leal lose this you shall concede mirage and don't really have a whole
lot of aids to work them out this might be something you do have like an
initial salvo some initial presence but you might want to fall into another
it's a execute really quickly deep angle with saddens off
are waiting and tucked away AK coming out there's a second fight going down
there as well, or eventually getting spammed through that smoke.
Lato took a second kill here for Legacy.
So 4v3, basically a 4v2 with the amount of damage you've done to Mosaic.
Well, the story of this map has been nice pistol rounds for Tyloo, good second and third round
conversions.
You've done those perfectly, you get six rounds off that.
One single gun round victory.
Once the guns have come out and legacy has gotten weapons and nades and economy to play
with has just been all legacy.
Yeah, you couldn't stand up to the might of legacy in the full buys at all and now you've
got Jammer and Mosaic trying to get through connector.
They're going to walk into Lato.
There's going to be a very comfortable defender inside of connector.
This is going to take off short as well.
Not even needed.
Lato gets both inside of connector.
You've got G climbing down the ladder, a hopeless endeavor stepping into the 1v4.
Welcome to the All-Fross here, but saddened focus on the rep, good shot from Gianlato, trades it off immediately.
Quad kill in the round from Lato, up to 15 frags on the map.
Legacy being led by Dumau at the moment, 1911, but those are the two names synonymous with this organization.
And over the past year, we've really seen these two players step into their own, delivering in the high pressure matches now with consistency.
They really are the beating heart of Legacy.
Do now and Lato that combo. Look at that. Two pies walking through the smoke and Lato ends up getting both of them.
And this is it for Tyloo. You've got two Galeels, a Mach 10 and two Tech 9s.
We're going to battle in round 20. It's very likely to be the last round of Mirage here.
I'm next is Tyloo's map pick of Inferno and that's where their chances and their hopes and dreams lie here at the Major.
Now top mid, flash goes forward.
Jam Young has crossed behind those top boxes as Art slips away as that smoke fades.
Flash ready for G.
Puts Jam Young and C.O. up short.
In the waiting hours of Doom Owl, he actually is going to get caught by that flash,
but he's able to run the corner at a time.
You've got Nissan at long range with the M4, Dumal on the double grenade kill, Nissan and Dumal devastating Tyloo.
It is going to be a 13-7 dominant victory coming in from Legacy, despite Pistols going against them.
They still don't let Tyloo break double figures.
Very, very, very strong performance coming in for Legacy on their own map pick of Mirage.
From start to finish they were pretty much in control and making sure to leave no room
for doubt for neither us at the desk nor the viewers at home as to who were the better
team on Mirage, Peter.
We know the Legacy picked the map, we know they played to a higher level as you made
a great point saying that you know Tyloo's map pool is looks good on paper
maybe not as strong in reality. Was this sort of what you expected Peter on Mirage
or did you perhaps think that the game could have been more competitive?
I actually questioned the Mirage pick a little bit for legacy since it was the
third map in the last series and with the third map in series usually is a map
that both teams are very comfortable playing so I was curious why they
decided to give it but rightfully so you know I also looked at a team in terms of
legacy that really had a very balanced game plan it seemed like they were
From the get-go in a really good positions and had like the multiple of the forms that are right opposition
So I think you know as a team they look very strong
I think they played out the clutch situation very well, and I think the majority of the rounds
They were just like having the upper hand. Now you may think to yourself, you know, Jacob
How can you say the game wasn't competitive? It was 8 to 7 and you know potentially at that point you could argue it was competitive
Let me just remind you that Tyloo won both pistols that converted both pistols and yet
was still looking at a 13-7 score. All I hear from everyone else is saying that if you lose
both pistols and you lose both conversions, odds of you winning the map are quite narrow,
quite slim. So is this performance from Legacy even more dominating than the score I may even suggest?
Well, the fact that that happens and you still win easily in the map as well. Like, this is no
excuse. You should win the map and if you don't win it, you should be at least going like overtime
30, 11, 13, 10. It wasn't even close. I've got to ask you a question now. How come Jam Young is
Is there a star player on every map?
Did you lose a bet on some fish from a ranch?
You said the team is your which I don't let it go, yeah?
I'm gonna go play B-Apps like I don't know.
I can see his best team doesn't work
because he is their superstar player.
They don't have that much firepower.
He needs to be involved in the game.
He's been half of that game.
B-Apps and whenever they came, it was somewhere else.
So I don't really understand.
This needs to be changed for me.
All right, let's pick up on that.
Is there any logical reason to that, Peter?
Is there anything that you like?
Okay, we had this discussion in the book.
I'm taking a look, brother.
It reminds me of when you had Furia having Keisarado playing P.E.P.S.
I think that was also a lot of the questions.
I don't know if it's his own decision or if it's a team's decision,
but it is weird that you have your absolute star player, the manfriger of the team,
playing in a position where you either don't get any action or when you actually do get action,
it's about playing for time and not getting as many fights.
It's more like staying alive for the rotation, which I don't think is...
I mean, it's not that Game On can't do it, but I would rather see him play Connector or A,
where there's a lot more action going on.
I find this conversation very interesting. So before we dive into some of the rounds that we've prepared for you, is there any sort of that stuff going on?
Ash, where you like, let's say Jamion, he gets all his preferred spots on six out of seven maps, or five out of six maps,
but this one map he has to sort of like give and take a little bit, is that going on?
Or would you as a coach be like, I want my best player in the best position on all seven maps, if need be, and then you just got to suck it up over here?
I mean, that might have been a way to look to it. I'm biased to look at that backwards coach in the UK Counter-Strike.
You want to find more balance and people yeah, we're taking it on seriously
But this is your best player on CD side and he's also entry fragging on T side
You don't you want your best player playing trampoline simulator towards me. I was just hitting space bar
Maybe you love playing placing space bar
That's his favorite thing to do but he's out of the game and then when you're going to T side you're saying right everything is around you
Now you need to play or we don't have a chance to win the game and he goes okay, bro
I'm I'm two and two. We'll just lost the half of
nine three and what you meant to do and this is happening against the best teams
you just isn't in the game.
Yeah, well it's something we have to keep an eye out for if they're ever gonna change that.
Now back to this game Peter, most of the action and most of the competitiveness of this game happened
in the first half and around five has been picked up.
Yeah, I've picked up this scenario because I still think it's a very well balanced round by legacy
in the driving CTNU and it came on coming to the game I really liked that they found this
balance of playing you know structured and tactical but also you know playing off their
strengths of playing crazy and you see two players getting boosted at window-no trying to find some
of information, you have the thrust coming through B-Apps and then Ash, what actually
happens in this given situation?
Well, this is what we're highlighting with G, like he's coaching's good, but in this
game unfortunately we saw the absolute worst of his open, missing shots, missing shots
again and again, this load comes in now, but G has the opportunity to take his chance here,
I think three opportunities he has to miss and in the end he just kind of gets overwhelmed.
And it's just the idea from Lazy that I really like, it's just boosting those two guys in
the window, then you wait for Tyloo to make a mistake, that doesn't happen, then they
they decide to boost the guy in ladder room, which is kind of information that Tyloo can't really find,
because they haven't seen the guys, and then you just had the thrust coming from B,
and that activates Art in a window where he just picks off the rotation,
and then the rest of the guys that stuck on the A-bomb, they're afraid of rotation,
and from there on it's just winning out the trades, and Yi should have probably hit more shots,
that would have made it more difficult, but then you also see him getting eliminated
by the guy that actually skins off from short, so I think as a whole the round was very well balanced,
balance and it's this type of new identity that I really like to see out of place that is not all about just rushing and scaling and just
Getting that one right then running running it down
But it's also you know having the mix between playing structure ball so having these cut fronts
I just want to say as well
Did you see where the B ups player died there whenever they went B wasn't there this time?
He's rotating back to be he's dying in the side through when lovers you'll never ever ever let that one go
Stay true to yourself as speaking of that T side from legacy
I think they played it well. I said they didn't win pistol. They didn't convert but still find their way back into it
They work up a messy moments in the first half as well round turn ashes is one
Do we picked out where a lot of actions going on in the ramp? Yeah, and unfortunately
The bomb goes down if you don't win this so around this level. It's very difficult. You need to be winning runs
We have disadvantages, but when they say there's triple people in ramping
It's not like they even went back and did the good flashing to ramp just bounce the flash in through and over G
you're blind, it misses shot and then chaos kind of happened. And if legacy is going to
play good, you can't play bad in the same moment and expect to win. And that's kind
of what we saw here.
I would love to see that everyone wants more, Peter.
Yeah, let's go for it one more time. I think it's again the fact that I'm not even sure
if it's Yi or if it's SIR that's up close with the AWP. But I think the setup here,
it works kind of well. It's a bit of a bait set up, the flashes go in and then you do
see a miss of the AWP here. Mercury does find this one specific kill. But then it's like,
At this point, you know, it's like two of us trying to fight them off.
It's like they should probably even try to swing together.
Maybe they should have a better setup like from the get go, you know,
but you'd probably have to dive a little bit deeper into details in this round.
But, you know, it's all the grenades.
It could just go back to upstairs 30 color from T side,
but at least make the T side do something difficult.
Because we've got trying to come out of that with no grenades left.
Yeah. How hard is that against two of you know, there's not even two,
but one off is too close.
I don't know. They just made it too much too easy.
I gonna feel for them just I've got double up.
Well, we'll swing to save the MP9 player, guys.
That was one of the biggest moments I've seen throughout this game.
There's also some positives, and I think we highlighted it coming into the game.
We spoke about Lado, we spoke about Dumau.
In particular, Dumau found a lot of impact in this game.
Is it fair to say that despite Tyloo being able to pose a player like Jamion,
now that he's playing on that B box side, obviously he's kind of neutralized,
but individually speaking, does Legacy have more firepower compared to Tyloo?
I think there's something to specifically do Mao and Lado.
That is the dude that you always want to be mentioning when you look at legacy.
Lado seems to be the guy that gets more down the seat side than you have do Mao
mainly during all of the thrusting on the T side.
But the thing is they can both take turns and also showing up on the opposite one.
And I think this time around, Doohan just had the whole package.
He's very important for the team. He's a hype guy, but he's also a guy that gets so many entries.
He's really good at just believing in himself and he plays a lot out of this confidence and it's nice to have a player that regardless of how things are looking, he just always gets the job done and he's a big factor to get with Will Lado.
I've got to ask you as well because you were an intro progamer from every part of your career. I've seen that with Art coming in, Art's taken away a lot of that duty from him.
Jubal still gets to go for his plays but is it sometimes nice to have someone else that will go first sometimes so you can make the plays but not also like you know when you're the first person into one site.
Most of the time you just die and there's nothing you can do about it.
Yeah, it must be a nice balance because you know as an intro, it can be very hard.
Sometimes you would have games where you just don't really find the impact and you make a lot of wrong decisions
and then you can at least share it a little bit, but sometimes you also take turns going first.
So if one guy has a bad game, then hopefully the guy that's supposed to be trading you, you get that.
But for me, I think it's just important to dwell into that.
I think Dumas is a more skilled player, so I don't want to take too many resources away from him,
even though it also likes to go for these type of plays,
but Dumar has showed time and time again
that he's just the better one of those two,
but yeah, it can be good to have a look.
I think out of that context for a question like that,
Ash would be to tell Peter whether it's an eco round or not,
because Peter was Hong Kong in his days.
I can tell you that first hand,
you're always out there seeking for the eco's now.
Inferno coming up quickly, guys.
We don't have too much time here.
Does it end now, Peter?
Legacy 2.0 or can Tylo fight back?
I think the game plan so far for Legacy looked very well,
and coming into Inferno,
they've picked up some pretty good wins. So I'm fairly comfortable that that
legacy might close them on to well. I think a legacy of 5-1 recently on
Inferno and they beat the Mongols and they beat Navi. So I'm a little bit worried here.
But it's Tyler's best map, at least quite with a bang. At least a go-out with a bang.
At least give it a go here for Tyloo. They weren't able to make Mirage
competitive. Hopefully they can make Inferno competitive. So the viewers
tuning in right now. Don't forget this is do or die time for Tyloo. If they lose
inferno they are out and legacy will progress to stakes three so time to step up if you want to
stay in the game for Taillou.
The best of Counter-Strike 2
Available now on shop.esl.com
Oh, wait, my bad.
Settle your debates, search your profile on CS stats, and turn on tracking to see all your games.
I say that's no smoke city, what the fuck, please, guys, spectators, guys, please, we need to speak.
It's very important, if you want to win, just give me to speak.
I'm completely honest. The marathon we played on Mirage,
They just ran away with the momentum, like all the energy went into Mirage and they just kind of ran with it after it.
Three, two, one, mate.
Charging up, banana, they're gonna fight.
It's Alexia, J.L.! What they got? J.L.'s got nothing!
Still in the softbox, Mizzy puts him in the dirt!
What's the name? Speak, speak, speak.
No, speak!
Please, please, please, please, stop it.
We were kind of like one step behind all the time.
No matter how I phrase it here,
we went to the server and pretty much got destroyed on our CT side.
He's got a 1 on V1.
Looking for a leg, see if he fights it!
Flames looking to come up clutch!
They put in in this jersey, they saw the potential in Flames.
JL has no idea what Flames is doing!
Nice!
Let's go!
Thanks, we keep going.
We still stay like we tell them to go, we keep going.
Yes.
Your hopes kinda like they're taking everything away one round at a time.
And you feel like nothing's working.
Flames to be careful!
What a shot!
He's got a 7-figgle.
This is maincourt break.
That's a great take.
And wonderful, side-by-side, in command.
Oh!
He brings the fight to them!
In this grand final environment, but wonderful!
That's time.
Ah!
Ah!
Oh, thank you, boss.
Oh, thank you, boss.
Do you think I'm the able one?
Do you think I'm the able one?
Wonderful, down after 1.
Alexi B, he's going to know what to do!
What is that?
FUN SPIKE!
JL expoers in Apex!
Charging up to deliver the head shot!
Reboot!
He's running by Jack!
Apex wants this so damn much!
My first major was announced one year ago.
This is my third, but first major I got very nervous.
And my teammates are saying like, it's okay, it will be easy for you, it will help you.
This time is different, you know, like I'm feeling more comfortable.
I didn't play in that time, but it was the colon,
it was the first time that I see Fallen,
the first time that I got the inspiration.
When I saw the play on Train, that he does against FaZe,
but he killed the fuse and killed the guy trying to kill him,
So that run always gets me gosmo's.
They really teach me everything that I know.
Like when I come in Legacy,
I was just repeating and doing crazy plays.
I always remember RCO.
He was always in the cracks behind me,
and he was always like,
bro, you are Alphar, you cannot repeat like that, you know?
So yeah, he teached me a lot,
and why teach me like,
Hmm, let me see if you're gonna play right now.
So, yeah.
We'll get back to the World Championships of Counter-Strike here at the Intel Extreme Masters
Cologne 2026 Major.
We have got one team from China, one team from Brazil, five players on each side who
have grinded their careers to get to this point to play here at the top event in the
Counter-Strike world and one of them is heading home and right now it is Tailu who are against
the wall heading into their map page having a bounce back on Inferno.
Yeah, there's not really a whole lot you can take out of Mirage and say well if they
They can carry this forward if they can replicate this.
All we've got is them winning this around.
Outside of that, it's a complete wash.
It was all in the favor of legacy.
Individuals not there for Tyloo.
Teamwork not there for Tyloo.
And we'll see if that changes here on Inferno.
Art's going to try and get a little bit of information
towards Old Mid.
He wants to see if anyone's going to jump up.
And now he's got a shot.
That's the bomb at the back of the pack as well.
So that's going to slow things down.
Damn, dude.
That's a clean head shot.
Just a head shot.
That's a mean thing to do to these guys.
Art also said same vibe, same celebration,
same determination.
Hoping for a good start.
Well, he is leading by example, leading that charge,
getting the opening kill here, and slowing things down.
I mean, look at how much it's kind of thrown chaos
into Talu's game plan.
They were walking up like they were all
going to march in towards Hall's.
Mercury had some utility, I believe, as well.
So now things just kind of change.
Talu won both pistols on Mirage as well.
So like you see, digging deep to try and get this one,
Talu falling back into a different plan.
They're going to start walking up Banana
and trying to attack into the strong setup of Dumau
Lato. Defensive smoke is going to be dropped as well, so as long as you don't go contact you're
going to have to come through this, and there's going to be pistols ready waiting on the other side.
Yeah, Jorbo Red is as well. It can be so deadly in the hands of few miles, they come charging through
their smokies. Not that deadly. Definitely not deadly. One of the water pistols in that round.
That was weird. Lato at least getting one, but has the bomb plant for Tilo, so the minimum they
could have forced by the next round. Well, let's see if they can pull this off. Yeah,
still in a good position, but retake at the B bomb site is never easy, never makes you feel comfortable.
There's no kids on the CT side. They've just got a man advantage and a health advantage over zero
There's a quick kill from this it
Holding on jam young with a good headshot time starting to take him that fuse it burns away
She trying to turn around jam. No, it's going up. It sets in
Slices away both defending players to that post plans and that's gonna be legacy recovering the realm thanks to the double on the
USP. Oh it's so sad just playing so well together two on four two on three trying
to hold back that retake one watching CT one watching coffins it's all working
out so well and Sadzen just lines you up you're just constricted nowhere else to
go and unfortunately all of them were just primed up and ready for these
headshots from Sadzen. First pistol out of the series over to legacy and it does not
bode well for Tyloo who relied on those pistol rounds on Mirage just to stay in
the game well now they're gonna rely on a force buy instead that bomb plant has
given them enough money to get a good buy out here so forcal wheels one tech
nine a decent amount of utility for around like this let's see if it's gonna
be enough it's I look it's equalize
you can see jam you don't get much more involved from this map what not in this
round he gets jumping MP9 by R over the half wall not ideal no not a great way
started out. Oh, not at all. They still look like they kind of want to bash their head against
this a little bit more to see if they can turn the corner, but that follow-up smoke is going to
dissuade them. So, Tyloo just being funneled around the map with no good options and no
step forward, are doing a little bit of extra damage on a 0 down to 52 HP, just spotting them
out through the smoke. Tyloo have no options, not spreading around the map, not challenging
just waiting out this smoke.
Do you know how to block top and out?
Forty-five seconds left.
I mean, they have to know at this point.
Do you know how to convince at this point that it's coming to this B-bomb site?
They know.
You told me to try and block out that boosted spot.
And it works effectively.
Art can see nothing.
So he's going to buy this time.
Maintain this position, wait for the fade away.
That plant's coming in.
And in the meantime, Lacto is sending bullets
through that smoke.
They're not looking at Art just yet.
But Tyloo gets the bomb planted,
and they drop back into some post plants.
All right, there's a Molotov and an HE grenade
and two flashbangs for Legacy to put to use.
So let's see where they place that Molotov.
You imagine, first priority would be New Boxes.
Nobody's home at the moment.
Gee, you can see Realize is there's a disadvantage
in the player count.
He was challenging, but decides to drop down.
Now, Mercury goes for the swing,
has lost his fight towards CT,
so you need to step off into two dark players
and just know that is a sharp shot for the MP9 at that range.
So, I'm gonna be two in a row from legacy,
retaking that B-bomb side back to backgrounds.
And the bomb plant's nice for some extra bonus money
for Tyloo, but I think with three players surviving,
you're not gonna be motivated to buy up
and play that kind of economic game
and try and win the early advantage in that sense.
So, it might just be back to a half buy
with the bomb plant, Tech 9's armor,
a little bit of utility being upgraded for Tyloo.
Two rounds have gotten into the B-POM site, two rounds Legacy have retaken it.
Nice you guys, full way!
Legacy just continued momentum from Mirage.
And this time Tyloo do not have a good start in the half, so...
A lot more difficult for them here in Inferno, they're gonna be down to Tech Knights.
Oops, he's still a threat around like this, but...
Oh, what you know does that? Just into the smoke,
peels away with a headshot on zero, and I even see his target.
Yeah, he's got to be so confused how that just happened.
Do you know how he's just taken a couple of chance shots?
Of course, it's like, perfectly on my head as well.
Ah, well, now we're exacting to get up brackets, wrap around the bomb site,
not going to push towards CT, but now you've got to come through CT smoke.
One coming, Lane, Satsun's got to be careful.
Miss him inside the bomb site.
Nope clean headshot again. It's cheap. It's top or this time could swing out with that tech not from mercury at least getting the trade on this
In but don't even seem like there's a shot for a bomb plant because the rotations are so quick do now charges down banana arrives
It's short and swipes the legs of Tyler from underneath them
So that's three in a row here four legacy and you're starting to get worried just with how hot do mouth started
You know that be bomb site can be impenetrable when Lato and do now or having a good game
So that just takes one half of the map away from you.
That's just a bit crazy.
Zoom out, just making sure nobody's peeking in front of the smoke, takes a blind shot, grabs a headshot.
Yeah, that's got to be frustrating. Just take it out of a fight
for no good reason.
Sads in plays this very well when he realizes the amount of pressure coming in his direction,
just hiding inside the smoke, not trying to be the hero, trying to survive.
To be something they have to pay attention to for his teammates.
It's three to nothing into the first gun round.
The Tyloo of AK-47s. Couple players moving up Banana as we speak. Deep utility.
And they've got control of Sandbags. Zero and Jam Young.
And with that kind of control, now it makes a little bit more sense for Tyloo to spread out across the map.
Apply pressure elsewhere, because Legacy's gonna have to be a little bit nervous about that standing at top Banana this whole round.
He can force back this up on Satsun, smoke him off, take away his line of sight as information,
then the defense will probably have to force Art to shift over and commit himself into the
The A-bomb site... 57 seconds on the clock.
Two smokes towards Archway, one towards Library.
Pack of players here for Tyler, still at top middle, now trying to get all around towards the Archway.
Can they get there before Satsen starts to take them down?
He peeks out, Murth, Jerry's dead. They now get two players into the Archway.
They have to go for the B-split and they've got 25 seconds to do it.
A Defender's gonna start hunting them down now, but all the pressure on Doomow and Lotto.
And Lotto again, waiting inside of Church.
You've got Zero crossing over, he gets by his gaze.
Lotto just stays composed, stays planted.
Now it's Doomow, 13 seconds left from Newbox ready to strike.
There's G, that's the bomb, it's gone, and the chances of Tyloo disappear, two-mouth dead,
but there's not enough time to even think about a bomb crack and they don't even get that chance.
Legacy with no mercy, 4-0, flawless start here on Inferno.
The idea was kinda there, not a bad tactic for Tyloo to run, just not enough time in the round to actually make it work.
You could see G kinda wants to clear that with 13 seconds left, but realizes he doesn't really have all the time in the world.
No smoke towards CT spawn because that's where they're crossing from means the defenders following them up can just spray them down at range while I don't play slow inside the bomb site. Time out from Tyloo to talk things over.
First gun round firmly in control of legacy and without that pistol round of the ensuing two to buffer their score line, Tyloo already find themselves once again lagging behind in a big way.
We head into round 5, it's Tech 9's on the board for the Tyloo side of things.
Tech 9, armor and utility.
Last time they couldn't get much done with it, we'll see if this is any different.
You're in a desperate situation already if you're Tyloo.
One map down.
Elimination game here at the major.
4-0 down at the moment on your map pick.
And he just got absolutely destroyed on Mirage.
Flashbang over to come through the smoke,
Jam Young makes it as the leading player.
Zero's gonna be with him at his hip.
Scales like a P-Exec all day long.
Nobody from Tailu investigating towards A.
Nobody having any kind of presence,
no utility on that side of the map.
All five tech nines just marched up
behind this defensive utility.
Jumao inside the B bomb site, Lato's boosted up towards the spawn arches.
Uto goes up, here comes Jam Young, he goes through the smoke
and Jumao gonna be dead at the pillar, so first kill's good here, breaking in at zero.
But we seem like it's gonna retake this B bomb site a couple of times already.
If Sheldon can do it, almost it will.
You've got Art coming up through Banana, Mercury's going to be cut away.
And look at all that damage they've done to the Tyloo place, and then another kill through Smoke.
Art even backed off. He took a dink, so it doesn't want to actually be pressure, because he's just essentially a free kill.
But now he's forced Zero to move to Banana to assess the situation, believing there's still a lurker.
He's disappeared.
He's not in great positions there. You need G to step up to another level right now.
He's done well. Headshot, good on the first. Couldn't control the sprite for the second.
Nissan Monsad didn't come in and they know exactly where Zero is.
He does finish all far, but the deep fuse is happening around that corner and it's
got a bodyguard as well.
So five rounds in a row, legacy to recover the round again.
Not bad from Tyloo to get into the side and get the ball down with Tech Kines, but at
this point you need round wins.
Yeah, exactly.
A close but no cigar only works for so long and considering they have that history of
getting blown out of Mirage, I don't think that's going to sustain them for too much
longer.
It might be the last piece of hope you're kind of riding on at the moment.
Got a couple players on the legacy side, a little bit weak in terms of economy, considering
they've won 5 straight, 2 miles down to 800, Lotto down to 1600, but not even close to
being on the verge of a reset for the team, so I still got a lot of work to do, and haven't
yet taken their first step into the map.
Art's gonna shut down zero at the opening.
shot with the AWP and backs off into the bomb site.
5v4, couple of seconds into the round.
Zero again, gonna be that early death.
There's a couple of those already.
Frustration, I'm sure.
Building on the newest Tyloo player.
This is a little bit new from Tyloo though.
I don't think we're gonna see anything crazy from Legacy considering to have a man advantage,
to have a man advantage but we haven't really seen them take like you show that they take brackets
control with utility usually it's kind of the deep exact exact towards library towards spawn arch
and then you kind of push up and either go mid to be your wrapper on the bomb site this time
they show like they just want to take control of it and back away sadzen's got all the information
so he's going to start sliding towards the b-bomb so we're once again lato and du mal are going to
be called upon and after two rounds of seeing tyloos smoke ct spawn on the boost they don't play
that position any longer.
G-Mail.
Now, he's alone.
He only gets the one while they're blinded.
A really important double kill here from Mazea.
Once again, Tyloo's gotten into the B bomb site.
The bomb does get planted,
but Satsun actually goes to Dinkus Wall like so.
Jammu has a 4 HP.
And once again, Legit's have a good chance
at retaking this B bomb site.
A reposition though from Jange who drops down.
You really need this round, Tyloo.
You need a round picked up.
Time and time again, getting into the B site,
B site but you have to hold it just once at least. Art stepping out, closest Jam Young.
The head shots in and Mazeya delivers a 3k in the round and finally Tyloo get around victory.
Really good reposition for Jam Young after that first kill after a lot of takes him down low.
Changes his position you could see on the retake but neither legacy player even considered Jam
Young to be in that close right corner. A 4 vs 5 conversion for Tyloo. Zero got picked off in
in the first 10 seconds but this time they barrel over the B defense I don't
do now been so rock solid there but this time they fall prey
reinvestment from legacy but the money's all gone this is the chance for
Tyloo to come back into Inferno early enough to change the ending.
Sads in, top of the smoke, whispers of an opening kill and he flicks down, it's Zero gone again.
Another round, zero dead first, and Tyloo having to recover a 4v5.
Mazea, who was their savior in the last round, 23 HP. That's all he's got left.
This time you'll have Lotto and Dumal again at the B-Bombside, but this time the supporting element is going to be Art's with an M4 instead of Sadsen with the AWP, so he can be a little bit more chaotic and getting stuck into action.
action.
Sads in the middle going to go slide for more intel, a good shot, G swings out a little
bit wider when he spots the elbow, but Sadsons ready.
And it feels like Jam Young, Mercer, and Mose at this point have no other options but to
just walk forward up brackets and try and break into the A site.
Defense here has been bolstered by two more.
There he goes, and MP9 is coming through, we got Art nipping back, that's the bomb, that's
your chances, that is the round of 6-1.
Tyloo get them at breaking point economically, that was their chance, but legacy do not let
up, they keep all 5 players alive, money's now recovered, and this half becomes nightmare
mode again for Tyloo.
Tyloo's not playing very confident right now either, they felt like they didn't really
have a know what they wanted to do in that three versus five and third play
there's very rarely any kind of good options but it took so long for them to
kind of move into position to even attack and attempt the three vs. five
that legacy is able to rotate two more players from the B bomb side able to
execute that wraparound of brackets before Tyloo's really in any sort of
engagements moving forward so legacy is getting plenty of time in these rounds
to put it all together art sort of very good job working himself between the
bomb sites being in the right place at the right time.
And legacy up by five having really not a whole lot
of issues whatsoever.
Avoid the reset, avoid their economy being broken.
And as the time out comes to a close,
they get a slide into Route 8 with a full buy.
And for Tai Lu, final thoughts, their tournament life here
at the major on the line.
Their work in 2026 so far comes into having a comeback here on Inferno. That's just to extend the series
So Hall's control for Mercure and Mazea.
She's got the bomb centralized to zero on the Tech 9.
Two Galils in play for Tyloo. Plenty of utility.
Nobody messing with Banana early on from the Tyloo side.
Pretty straight round of...
Straight forward round, it looks like four players about to step up into brackets.
Control challenged by Satsun.
Good pick here from Satsun, Zero gonna be picked away, so again it's Zero, Knight and a Half coming in from him.
Archers gonna wait in the Archways, 45 seconds, Mercury and Mazeya walking in towards the leader of Legacy,
and he's got two headshots trying to back away, that's not gonna be too easy.
At least Jamming and G taking two kills between them as Tyler go for the last-ditch effort to try and split this B site.
Their best option.
Banana, one through CT, but lying away is Lato.
Well they know it's a 2v1 at the very least, which is why they've selected this bomb site to finish on, so Lato's gonna bite his time.
Lato peeks out.
Now Lato with the closer.
So, 7-1, just in full swing right now, like you see, doesn't feel like there's any chance for Tyloop.
Sadzins loving their plays towards the A bomb site though, like they've moved up into brackets a couple of time without smoking off left mid.
sadson's been able to get a couple kills in that sense you know if you're gonna
take that bracket control early on and what actually pressure the team to make
it sense like you're controlling it like we want to use it as a staging ground
gotta have that left side smoked off otherwise sadson's just gonna keep
abusing you
I wanted an aggressive play covered by sadson but the Molotov is gonna take
that option out of their hands.
Back to pistols for the majority of Tyloo, one single rifle in the hands of Chan Young.
This will be faster.
Now, Art's here in all those steps. He knows he's got victims, been destroyed, knows
he's got a collection of Tyloo players coming their way.
Missing Ruddy, Art in mid. This shows options upon options right now for legacy about who
is going to get these kills and
Art'll step out and close it. He's got a triple kill. 14 and 5 showing right now from Art's.
13 and 2 for Satsun, no one able to match it on Tyloo.
And it's getting easier as well for Legacy.
It feels like these rounds are a little bit more simplistic,
a little bit more one-feature to them.
I think Tyloo at this point feels like they're beat, knows they're beat.
And not anyone on the team, and either of the two maps that we've seen in the map,
and a half that we're seeing played, have been able to step up to change that sense within the Tyloo squad.
Looking like they might just fade out of the Cologne Major.
I lose beaten pain and Astralis and Best of Ones in this stage too, lost to Best of
Wonderfoot, lost to Best of 3 to 9z to bring us here.
Her legacy, lost to MIBR, win over FlyQuest, lost to Monty and a Best of 3 win over M80
to get them to this elimination series.
An early kill over in Banana. Art falls prey to it.
A rare round where Tyloo have the man advantage.
Only the second opening kill they've got here on Inferno.
And it's equalized right away by Sadzen once again in middle.
Two down. Good first kill. Zero to respawn. At least zero actually getting something done
in this round to be a lot happier about that, but let's see if they can get into the site.
Again, Latte waiting, shrouded in the darkness. He's been waiting again for his time to push
out and strike. Two kills, Nissen's got the other. Get him out of the server, get him
out of cologne. Like you see, you're the only team in the game right now.
Yeah, Lato is going to get the flowers for that, but he gives some credit over to Nism with the bait.
Just firing off a couple of those M4 bullets in the CT smoke made Tyloo feel like that second defender at the B bomb site wasn't anywhere close to the site.
That he was going to be wrapping around back towards Coffins. They didn't have to be concerned, and they missed the detail.
Lato lying in wait.
And that's, I mean, that's a great bait. It's a great job by legacy of just always being so mobile on this CT side.
Tyloo have got to feel like whenever they hit the B bombsite there's three defenders here. Whenever they had A there's four defenders there.
They've not been able to get a clean look at anything throughout this entire half.
And this is the map they wanted to take it to. So really early on going into round 11, Tyloo has burned all of their timeouts.
It makes sense. You just need something to work with at this point.
Completely desperate for Tailu as legacy are marching towards their stage 3 advancement.
Single round on your T side.
Tailu go out again.
The Leos for Jam Young and Mercury, everybody else at least on the AKs, but the utility is sparse right now for Tyloo.
And some of the art started to map, got aggressive into the apartments.
Just gonna stand with the rifle this time, inside of that smoke in the hallway.
This is spamming just to try and sell the fact that art isn't there.
Jamyong's got the only smoke and they will be moving up brackets across the
gaze of Sadson who's playing in the cubby on left mid. Arden is some of the two
riflers to help defend.
He got Sadson now waiting in towards the dark cubby right now. He's gonna go off
to the peak. He's missed a sprite. Hasn't connected as cleanly as he would have liked
at all 45 seconds left and that doesn't allow Tyler to scale up.
His library, Nissan, confused as to how that zone didn't break open and Art gets
caught on balcony so a bat rounds it from legacy and sharp shooting from Tyler.
They get into the site, ballman's gonna go down and a second round at least secured in the half.
It's one of the few rounds, probably the only round in this half that legacy just had like a
completely individual base defense. Sadsen just holding the angle for the run up towards brackets.
One player trying to break a smoke in single peek library. Left Art all on his own on
balcony to go for a crazy fight but no other options for art at the very least
every other time we've seen legacy do a good job being mobile so tylu at least take advantage
of that jmercury and jam young with kills in the round
kills no way out here big damage being taught to tylu we don't have huge amount of my left over
reserve right now emails out there as well flying pressure keeping them close towards that born blast
Mercury is going to go down with the bomb as well, so that might just affect this last
by significantly.
I mean, at least Tyloo gets a second, right, like, I know it seems silly, but that's all
they're hoping for.
That's that third time out, is that moment, is like, let's just get three, let's give
ourselves a couple of errors, a couple of rounds to give up in the second half, but
we got to have some breathing room to operate with.
So at least accomplishing that in round 11, final of the first half, Tyloo can get up
to three.
back in the hands of sadson all has one as well he's going for the mid-pick
all the way down middle he goes to the swamp
banana peak coming in the swamp
maybe connecting two mouth, he ain't made any flashbang
he has to come up the angle sadson that is a wild maneuver
it's fortunate to get alive, to get away alive yeah absolutely
alright when this and playing in boiler are with that AWP peeking aggressively
down middle sees it's completely vacant
so at the moment legacies image of the map says that everyone's in banana
And they're dead on.
All five members of Tyloo here, they're even stepping in front of the defensive smokes.
Their timing on this next hit could be a little bit faster than legacy expect.
Once again, attacking into this B bomb site, there's three defenders here.
Sands in in the open, confident to fight.
And even though his screen is white, he still takes that kill on zero.
Satsen winning here at the pool of burning into the smoke cover Latto's down next. Will they clear him? Will they check it?
Latto peeks out another kill towards Mercury. He's been so elusive in this half and another kill through smoke.
That's brutal.
Jam young last remaining player 10 rounds from legacy stage three in their sights. It's basically in their hands.
It's going to be a promise that it's going to go on fire!
It's going on fire!
We're going to find the point!
Well, the clock is ticking on Tyloo's attendance here at the Cologne Major.
Three rounds away from elimination, a dominant half, 10-2 for Legacy.
And who the hell knows if Tyloo can come back for this one, but it doesn't feel that way.
They haven't given us any indication yet that they're ready to go on that kind of a run.
No, they really haven't shown as much at all and they're gonna be extremely deflated at least over on Mirage
They won the pistols, but this is what the school and would have looked like on Mirage if he didn't get good starts, right?
Like they have been dominated.
We're gonna take a breath, go to the hole, make a stretch, and then press the slush.
Remember, bro, we're not giving you a chance and we're gonna finish this pistol there.
I thought it was very chill. I actually enjoyed that time out. That might have been my favorite
time out of the major so far. Looking to seize the moment and seize their spot in stage 3
of the Cologne Major. Legacy set out on the pistol. They get into the archway. They're flooding
through to spawn. I'm not committing to a B-split though. It looks like they want to
chill in CT spawn and potentially wrap around library. Looking to see what the reaction
is going to be, right? Put yourself in a really dangerous position. Show a really tough
tactic to handle to the CT side and see how that defense moves and shifts. Unfortunately,
it almost feels like Tyloo. They've been so beaten up and broken that they don't really
know how to handle this. No one's budged, not given legacy any of the looks that they'd
like.
You're just waiting for the fights. Is it going to be B or A? They're just sitting there,
paranoid, ready for a fight that can happen at any second. It is looking like it's going
to be that A play as now the wrap comes around long. Zero waits for the dual burratas, worried
about the apartments, but now here's the steps.
He's calling through his teammates.
They're coming in from Modo.
Zero's got the first kill, the Choper Red is lining them up.
Three from Zero, carving out the pistol,
stronghold on that ace site.
And we've got Nissan doing what he can from the apartments.
He's got the first kill,
gonna finish off the low HP players.
So Tyler at least getting the pistol here
to start off the second half.
Yeah, I feel like legacy
was just really expecting to get some kind of a response.
They were expecting to get somebody,
a B player to wander back towards CT spawn,
a A player to maybe push brackets,
something, anything to show that you're actually trying to handle the situation.
And Fireloo, for whatever reason, happy to just sit in the bomb sites and play the default
setup that they started with.
Just say, well, we're going to lose based off this.
No one trying to jump a quick flank, no one trying to go investigate where the final play
is, and Zero delivers you a triple kill.
So that time out we listened to from Legacy.
They said, let's get this pistol, don't give them any chances.
Well, you've given them a small one.
I mean, the comeback seems so far away from being possible for Tyloo, but...
I'm not even thinking about it yet.
Yeah.
I mean, you've won the rounds you've had too, so far.
Piss off!
Don't take off the start of the second half.
You've not got the second opener here, so that's Mercury taking down Ark.
It's not so much like it's far away on the scoreboard, which it is.
It's just...
Tyloo hasn't shown anything yet that makes you think it.
Like, there's not a point you can say, okay, well, this guy's having a good game.
If he can continue this level, he can put them on their back for a few rounds, maybe
wake someone else up.
It's just basically like, oh, it's Ailu, this is your final chance.
Let's see who's going to deliver today.
Well, we're going to see Legacy have an opportunity to buy in this next round, and they are going
to take it.
And that does mean they're going to have to play with a Mac 10 for Art, like Galeel
for Sadson.
Now, there's a case to be made, you've got enough rounds to play with that you can go
for a half buy in your Tech 9s and make sure you have a really strong buy, but they want
to get straight to it.
Again, there's still that facet of wanting to keep the money at a very precarious point,
right?
breaking point especially at with 10 rounds as soon as you break the CT
economy it feels like you just got to win the series and move on the stage
three they're going fast yeah all the way through top and we got G rifle at
the ready art edge first at Mach 10 come on utility dropping now slow down this
pace that makes you brought to the start of the round
co-pronade around the corner to should be able to finish that off it and G will
so good job from G yeah maybe a little over confidence at a legacy with that
kind of fast aggressive play trying to wrap around very quickly she's gonna
I love that kind of a performance, I'll be loving having that attack coming at him.
Very easy for him to handle, Jam Young, they've heard him burning the whole way through,
been able to track him inside the Molotov.
I didn't find the timing to break on through before reinforcements arrived, so once again, legacy.
This is a very, I mean, they're just sprinting between bomb sites.
Yeah, they've got one smoke left. That's all you've got.
There was no protocol after that initial play went sideways.
This could be a kill. Yep, it's gonna be.
The only thing you've got is Smoke CT spawn on B and try and get into the site.
At this point, well the other issue is too, Jam Young at 32 HP, Mercury and CT spawn,
there's no nades for the CT spawn.
Jam Young dies?
Oh, it's completely back on because now there's only a CT player getting blocked by Smoke
and Factory Mount just steps out of the open and then the trade comes in from Satsi.
They just keep moving forward like you see into the bomb site 2v2
Tylu have to win this otherwise. It's done
And zero is still a long way off. He's the one with the kit. He's the one with utility Molotov HE grenade and flashbang
Coming up banana as we speak. She's just gonna have to be patient sadzen
Positions himself in the dark corner this in at first oranges
The utility to start limiting some of these positions, but time is becoming limited.
Tyloo starts to move in, hoping for a last second retake.
Time taking on the clock.
Headshot, Touchy, Zero's gone as well, and Legacy have somehow brought this round back.
11-4, and that surely shatters the spine of Tyloo.
Yeah, too many kills given over too many kills for free as they're just playing a three versus five boost it up over the smoke trying to
Cross into the bomb site picked off
Jamion goes for a little bit of a play to see if they're still at the B bomb site
It's just patience that wins the day for legacy applying so much pressure utilities gone jam
I felt like he had to know what was coming outside the B bomb site and you just get picked off and traded the whole way through
One more buy for Tyloo open the hands of G truly desperation now
Archers running out, confident, opening kill from the Mactan on to Tyloo's best player.
It's now Maseya waiting here for his Oranges, and like you see, I'm going to smoke CT, but
are they just going to go?
Yep, they're just going to charge in, keeping the pressure up, boot to the throat, and Tyloo,
his dragon is out of fire, and like you see firing forward, it's going to be map point,
point if a tylu elimination point
blocked out and confidence and legacy just storming through the bomb site
since the ego man they just know they're better at this point they know
they're better and they're not afraid to just play these fast rounds tylu can
do nothing but save g and zero trying to bring these weapons forward into the
next round because it's the only thing they'll got they'll have
And one weapon taken away and M4 hits the ground.
If I lose, chances of staying alive at this major have dwindled to close to zero.
It takes something truly miraculous at this point.
Eight round lead.
chances to close out this map and in this very first attempt it's an all that
G saved and upgraded pistols
I
Art stays in the Mac 10
Running up into banana taking some a damage
You all start to fall away
No group away from banana, back up towards middle.
Gee, strikes first, missing dead.
There's something going for Talu here.
Oh, here's the first stop.
Yeah, and they hear the Molotov like, perfect, that's great.
Exactly what we wanted.
Op goes one for one.
Legacy's gonna be pleased with that.
starting to wrap around and aggress this A bomb site.
Zero, good head shot, but it's going to set the sun will set for
Tyloo. Unless Mosaic and Jam Young can come back into this
at least there's two low plays.
That was the bomb.
Yeah, that's true. But he's ready. That's the first headshot.
The sun and team will set on Tyloo. Legacy's leader shows them
the art of war. And a decade ago, these players watched the
legendary Brazilian team SK gaming with the color major
trophy and they have spent those long years sharpening their own skills so they can live
in their own dream and they will pass into stage three and they have the chance to chase
their own Brazilian legacy.
Also vindication for the decision to bring art into this team as an IGL after their initial
success getting to stage three at the Austin Major, the upset of her vitality that kind
of put him on the international map, winning, lifting some trophies at CAC events these
past two years, struggling to hit that form again, bringing art in to change that and
he's done it.
to the Major, he's got them in the Stage 3 to match that performance back in
Austin and see if they can do a little bit better. A dominant victory over
Tyloo 13-4. We've got the desk ready to talk us through it. That is easily one of
the most convincing victories we've seen all Major long especially considering
what was at stake right here. A spot in Stage 3 now guaranteed for Legacy
whereas for Tyloo they fall short once more not able to replicate what they did
back in 2018 at the face of London Major where they last time around made it to
top 16. I think it's fair to say Peter that there was only one team on the
server who could realistically win this game.
I found the better team today. Legacy in pretty much every department. Maybe the only thing that
you could actually tell about Ty Lewis you know they they fought but it's like even
then when they gave themselves opportunities to to clinch the rounds and actually play some
good cameras right they would still manage to throw it away in some regard but you know
The individuals on Legacy were just too sharp today, I think the calls for our point, I think the decision made them most really great.
And you know, if you don't show up individually as Ty Lutu and you also throw away that many rounds, then you're just not meant to beg to stay three.
They only gave up 11 rounds over the course of the two maps, Ash right here, and some of those rounds, and most of those rounds, to be completely honest,
and we rise there was after winning the pistol and then converting, so not even remotely competitive, right? Not even a game.
Nah, it wasn't. It really was one side. It's one very good team against a team that's done pretty good from him, not the best.
I think that the reason they went for Inferno in the first place is, it's just their best map.
Maybe they don't realise it's that good in the veto, but you want to go over the best map.
Like, I remember playing the Paris Mages final against Mr Dupree here, and we decided, I decided from the veto,
I need to pick overpass because I couldn't live myself if we played overpass.
It didn't play overpass and we lost this area, so maybe they have the same sort of thing. Let's go die by what last run it is.
And that's admirable to some extent. They tried their absolute best, they got the map they wanted.
However, we joined by a very happy, I assume, Art here under this. Congratulations on making it to stage 3.
Thank you very much. Very happy indeed.
Very happy indeed. We just spoke about it, right? We felt from the outside watching the game that this wasn't really a game.
There was only one team on the server and that was you guys dominating from start to finish.
Was that the same feeling you were sitting with, that this was going maybe a bit easier than you had expected?
Kind of, of course you expect a hard game but it was, it went our way, we won some very
good rounds, difficult ones and make it easier for us to finish the game.
And you did finish the game without breaking a shred, you know, what did you tell the boys
throughout the game to maintain focus and stay composed because I didn't see you finish
at all at any point?
Yeah, I think we just played together and the boys were very hungry after the early losses.
We knew that it was our fault and we could just focus and play better CS together, so
we did that today.
I'm curious because I think most people know you from your time in FURIA and that's
kind of where you took Brazilian Counter-Strike to a whole new level and now you find yourself
in legacy after a little bit of a break where you haven't played at the highest level.
How is it to be back and how is it to be back playing with such young and skilled guys
that's been around for a while but haven't really had the time to break through yet?
Yeah, it's amazing. I'm very grateful to have another opportunity to lead such a skilled players and you know, Sassie you played as well
It's our lives. We discovered ourselves
For this and so I give everything to make it work and also to help me a lot. So
That's about it. What about the journey for you then the highs have been on Fury and then kind of having to go back up again
How did I feel for you in those moments was it kind of a moment? We thought I might not get another chance like this
I don't think I even thought about that because I never gave up on CS.
I was trying hard at every moment and it was just a matter of getting an opportunity.
So it happened quite fast after I left Fluxo and I just gave everything for this route.
And what about as well your play style? So this Furia, remember the very aggressive kind of solo play?
I remember.
How kind of, how kind of, you brought yourself now in this legacy team.
Are you similar in that play style or do you think you've kind of changed your game a bit?
I change a lot, mainly on city sites, sometimes I go in front in set strats, whenever it's a set
strats they have support, I let the mod to the entries because he is very good and he can entry
very well and whenever it takes place sometimes I get in the front so it's a mix, depends on the
map, on the situation, on the call. Something I found very interesting from you out as well is that
you said a couple of times in certain interviews that you learned how to be a leader and you grew
from your time in Inferior. Now either you're playing with a new team, do you also feel like you
are the leader of the team? Do you feel like you're the biggest voice and is that something that
makes you able to play even better? Because I'm looking at your statistics and I'm looking at the
way you conduct yourself in the server and you seem to be back at a level that you weren't even at
in Inferior. You seem to be almost better than ever. Yeah, I think the boys also helped me share
the burden of some rounds. They play in front, I can play sometimes, they can play good positions
sometimes so sometimes I play bad but even though I have good positions so
about being a leader I think that's just a commisive time for me I'm at through a
lot of time so that's something I'm not finished I think I have a lot of space
to grow in the future and that's something I struggle for every day to be
better as a person as a GL as a player and you recently paid up a title at
CSE where you beat Fagos in the best of five to that give the team an extra
believe and like an extra amount of confidence coming into the tournament and
do you also think that people now have a little bit more expectations for you guys
since you took down Falcons and you've won a trophy coming into the tournament?
Yeah, we know that the stakes rises when you beat such less Falcons in a B of 5
but at some time you know how close the title game was. We had a one map down and
we almost lost ancient, it was a Niko play, it was very close so we could have
lose this so you know how close CS is and so we don't get of course confidence comes with it but
we don't get like above our heads you know that we are still a team that's improving we have not
finished our game style or gameplays our chemistry so we just try to let that in the past and just
try to focus on the next tournaments. I think this was a stressful game today it should have been
anyway maybe it wasn't as much tell me about tonight though what's your plans tonight is
Is that a celebrate until you bail or anything after that?
Definitely, yes.
The last couple of days, it was very tough, very hard.
It's always like that when you play majors.
You have such little time to prepare
and have to do so many things.
So sleep gets cut off.
So I think having a good dinner, have a good night of sleep.
What's your favorite food?
What food do you go for?
Brazilian banquets.
Of course.
It's a good choice.
What else could it be?
Now, before we let you go, I just quickly
want your thoughts on the next stage.
Obviously, now you have a better time
to figure out how you're going to play in a couple of days.
But stage three, no more best of ones.
And is it fair to say that it was the best of ones in stage two
that was a problem for you guys?
You're yet to lose a best of three.
So do you think that's a better format for you guys
as a team to finally get rid of the best of ones?
Yeah, I think for every team says that.
Exactly.
Everybody's tired of B01s.
It's such a bad for everything.
You try to prepare, but you don't know which map you're playing.
So you have to prepare for three maps sometimes,
even four sometimes.
So it's hard and when we play BL3s, we can prepare for a map and we kind of know what you expect
and we can prepare a lot better and the nerves also, it's way easier on everybody to play BL3s
that you know that you can commit some mistakes, you can play some rounds differently, you can take more risks as well
that you have more space to work with. Sometimes BL1s are just you lose two pistols, you lose a first buy and it's over.
You cannot do anything.
These guys were pretty good at the Budapest Major and best of ones, I'll tell you that.
Something about Austin against Vitality as well and all that kind of stuff.
Anyway, Art, congratulations once more. Thank you so much for joining us here on the desk.
From a very happy winner and a very happy legacy to, I would assume, maybe a sad camp in Tai Lu.
We had Trace catching up with G after Tai Lu. Was it a mix?
Tai Lu says goodbye now. As we say goodbye to them here in Cologne, I want to talk to you a little bit.
G, sorry, commiserations, some rough sides, T sides on Inferno. Let's talk a little about it.
Inferno? T side? I think it's maybe mentality problem. I think we
Our brain is not clean, I don't know how to say it, I think our mentality is not good
for Infono and we made a lot of mistakes and let's say it's a stronger team for us, they
play very well.
So you had slow starts on Overpass versus 9Z yesterday and you know kind of missing
on Inferno in the series the same way, but you did survive stage one.
You started out two there.
What positive takeaways does Tyloo have from their time in Cologne?
For Cologne?
I mean, actually everyone wanted to do the Stage 3, but obviously we are not really stronger
for Stage 3.
I think we still need to improve our individual skill, our aim, our communication, our mentality,
everything.
I mean, I think it's good. It's okay for the Major because I think it's 2-3. In last two
Major we are 1-3. Maybe next Major we are 3-3.
That's what I was going to ask. You went out Stage 2 in Budapest. What do you have to
to say for Tyloo for this season.
I think we know a lot of problems for Tyloo right now.
For us, I think our map proofs are not enough for,
when we played the stronger team,
our map proofs are not enough for us.
and our end, our little problem, yeah.
I see Queen in the Wapu camp after major, yeah.
Next for Tyloo, you got the Esports World Cup,
you got ESL Pro League Season 24, but for you,
is there anything you wanna say to the fans at home?
Thank you very much for the fans who supported us last night, and I'm very sorry that we didn't get into the group.
Maybe we can play a more exciting game, just like yesterday and today.
I don't want to find any excuses.
It's really a disaster.
Thank you for always supporting me.
I want to thank my father.
Thank you for always supporting me when I was at the bottom.
Your son will definitely pass on to you.
naturally a little bit disappointed in this very moment but overall Peter do
you think Tyloo can be okay with their major so far as they're stressed that the
window two in stage one they've made their way through her to stage two they
were just one game away despite it not being close here overall are you okay
with this result? I think with what Tyloo brings to the table and you know
when you look at the team and how they play and they're playing the table I
think you know Megan it's a stage three sorry sorry Megan it just stays true I
I can't even talk, just making it to stage 2 and then being that close, making it stage 3, that's what we maybe expect from them right.
I think they really, really, really want to make stage 3 to just feel like there's a bit of progression in their major runs.
The way they were eliminated in Budapest where they were in the 0-3, it's quite a rise since then.
So they have a little bit of a swing there, but overall, you can just tell that the way they play today against Legacy Deck,
It just doesn't conflict when you face the better teams and G also charges and as you know whenever they face the better teams
They they're just not good enough and like the map pool is just too poor and for you asha
Are you okay with with Talu so far at the major or did you expect a bit more?
No, I think they've done good. I think I should be proud of themselves personally
I think when you compare that as well, it's like Lynn vision for example
I think that plays right. Yeah, the playstyle has evolved and they're trying to go for something
It's trying to go deeper. You can say I think individually not quiet at that level where they can compete like G was saying
And also you can see like you was incredibly upset and he's one of these people that it seems like I'm gonna talk to him
He's getting a lot of hate a lot of the time like it's quite emotional interview then
I think as a community as well we need to relax this about sort today earlier as well
The trial is pointing out that their players are getting death threats and there's other things in there
I can know it's very serious and we love them this this game
We're all passionate about it, but there's a line we shouldn't be really crossing especially his hands like it's is a game at the end
Of the day. I know we'd like to say it's people fans of the same thing
It is a game these people are very emotionally involved in this you see with you that I was told
Trilling to hold back his tears when I stopped it. Yeah, I think I speak for for everyone
On behalf of this disc and everyone out that that obviously that is aligned that cannot be crossed
But at another day Pia that's something that that will be crushed and has been crossed for a long long time
You remember as a player. I remember as a player
It's it's not nice and and I can only say to to the people out there who may consider to do something like that
That at the end of the day, it's always the players who are the most disappointed right there. The ones living it
They're the ones, you know, at the end of the day, being in control of the situation and then losing control of such.
So I understand why that's something we probably need to highlight more often than not.
But it's also part of the game.
You know, as much as I hate to say it, there will always be those types of people out there.
And that's something you have to deal with as well as a pro player.
So it seems unfair to some degree.
But it is as much as I hate to say it.
It's part of the game.
What would your advice be with this public?
So a lot of young people now, especially, they're even more going up with social media than ever.
and they're kind of involved in their life, then they make it pro. It's not like they're planning to do this.
They grow up on social media. Now you become a pro, you get used to it, and suddenly you get in death threats
because you lose a game or you don't have a good game. You win a game sometimes and people are betting against you.
What would your advice be?
Yeah, it's very messed up. It's not cool whatsoever. I think my best advice is probably that you try and avoid social media for a bit.
for a bit. I mean, it's not going to do any good. And you know, it can be in any regards,
whether it's on ATL TV, Reddit, Twitter, whatever you name it, you know, you can probably, you
know, find your name in many, in many threats if you've had a poor tournament or a poor
tournament as a team. And it's, you know, everyone's doing their best, right? And as
a player to sit there and already be crossed that you've been eliminated for the major
and you've had a poor showing, then it's not cool to have someone from the outside, you
To tell you that and come like bringing some people are that crazy that they even bring in like your families, right?
They they they say that the X and Y should happen to your family
And you know, it's just not cool. It doesn't make sense that I don't get why I get I understand that you as a fan could be upset
That your team has done poor but what gets you to cross the line that you have to fill in such hateful comment
It's very scraicular. That's the thing. That's what it's very regular
Many of these comments even when my team was even more relevant
Like a couple of years ago people every single time you play a game just death threats
You're gonna kill your family and these sort of things
It's I just don't understand that you can be upset. I used to you can criticize teams
You can be frustrated with them
But there's a line where it just feels nowadays it's become normalized. We don't really do anything about it
We don't talk about it and the players just have to deal with it
And when you're going for emotions like this you've been eliminated you feel an all-time low
Yeah, there's people out there who will be thinking really negative thoughts about themselves and certainly they see you things online
Maybe one day we see something that we don't want to see
One of the most ridiculous things that I've tried in that regard is that you can go into
your DMs, let's say, on Instagram or anything, and you have a guy that's been talking to
you, maybe he's been texting you for a while when I was in Los Angeles, and we had a row
of three or four wins in a row in terms of tournaments, and then we lost one tournament
and it just went directly from zero to 100, you know, he just wanted to have my family
get hit by a bus.
And you're thinking, why is someone texting you, telling you you're doing such a good
job and you're such an awesome player and team and then you lose a tournament and then he wants to
get have your family get hit by boss I mean I don't get it I don't get what how you can be so
delusional but I mean like it is the internet and the thing about the internet is that everyone
thinks they can have an opinion well people can have an opinion on the internet we just don't care
there's a very fine line between you know potentially criticizing someone you know or
having a discussion about a certain player being on a team off the team and then you know as you're
you're describing here, wishing your family unwell or giving personal threats.
At the end of the day, I think the best thing we can do is just to tell people to think
about it and try to be as nice as you can, because it's obviously not nice for the players
to be put in situations like that.
Now, speaking of something nice and a little bit more upbeat conversation, it's the fact
that we're now getting closer and closer to Stage 3.
And I think we could take a look at what kind of teams we have, not only waiting in Stage
3, from obviously already qualifying, but also who got in there.
We have this nice little graphic to show you.
Now, it's safe to say, Ash, that stage one was perhaps slightly disappointing in terms of the level of Counter-Strike.
Stage two has been better.
Once we begin in a couple of days with stage three,
that's when we see the top world-class level of Counter-Strike that we're all waiting for.
I think this could be an amazing major.
And the fact that we're coming straight in with best of freeze is exciting.
And what I've loved so far in stage two is the teams that we had question marks on because they were coming in cold.
They've mostly just really been on it from the start.
And looking at these now, I fancy every team in the Stage 3 to be motivated, to be ready,
they're prepared, they're probably in the practice from playing for the last few days.
They've been watching what's going on as well. This could be a really, really exciting Stage 3,
and I'm thinking from the first game, with the crowd in here as well, this could be a banger.
It could be a banger. It's also worth noting that BedBoomSoFi is the only team making it from Stage 1.
Now, naturally, Bait will play Bix, so one of those two teams will also make it.
So we have two teams from Stage 1 making it to Stage 3.
My question is, Peter, is there any of those potential two now three teams you have to consider in big data and bedroom?
Can they make it to the plan?
If I had to get like a wild guess, that would be obvious my money on bedroom or legacy.
I don't think big has what it takes to like it.
I think they've been way too shaky in both stage one and two to actually even have an impact in three, regardless of how much they want.
I still think best of threes against this calibre of team, that's gonna draw the line for them, but you know
I remember legacy how they how they fared in Austin
They came from stage one and they made it all the way to state three where they had to play in elimination game
Against Marsport where they actually came up one zero
But then managed to throw it away and not make it to play up so anything can happen
But yeah money's on legacy and big moon if they have to pick one as if you have to pick out one team from stage three
and it cannot be Vitality that is is peak your interest the most which is the one team you feel
like has the ability to not necessarily do well and win the major but but be the most interesting
team to look out for. I think I would still go with Falcons for me I think they can win the major
I think they can win any series they could beat Vitality I think there's absolutely many worlds
that could happen there best game definitely overlaps with Vitality's worst game there's no
doubt about that. Karagin coming as well there's going to be some cinema in there as always is
is the individual skill, the kind of everything.
It's again, like, can they be more disciplined?
Because that's the thing that when I was looking at demos,
that was the kind of lacking, closing out rounds.
It's kind of difficult for them.
If they get that part of the game,
there is a world where the year is set up for them
to really go out there and have a really good...
It'd be nice if they can play a major
without having too much radar screen shot,
being shared around on...
Messing it up again.
Yeah, let's try not to go that route
if your falcon's peed on.
On the other hand, I would like your opinion.
State 3, Falcons is one of the most interesting teams to follow. Who for you are the least
interesting? Who is the team from State 3 that you think could be, maybe disappointing
already before we start?
I think Aurora could be one of them. I think there's been a lot going on in that one. I
think it's also a team that has seen a lot of good things but still have issues and I
just don't feel like they've come to a point where they can solve them. I think that's
So I think I could think of Mongols as well a little bit.
I think there could be one of those turns where they would not actually show up.
I still think they've been way too shaky.
And then, I mean, I have always had my hopes for Maus, but I'm a little bit
concerned with the, I'm not that exertion is aggravating.
I think that's pretty cool.
It's been working out.
But the whole thing that now they bring Braun back, is he going to be playing
different roles and how's that kind of for the team?
So yeah, there's a bit of a question about when I come to those three.
Theoretically, Maus is playing with us in Roland, as far as I'm understanding, you know, he's standing in.
One more for you, Ash, right here. Furia, I feel like that's a team we don't speak that much about anymore.
It's been a little bit shaky to begin with here in 2026, coming off 25.
There were even the main favourites in the Budapest Major, but haven't really found their footing ever since, at least not to the same level.
Do you think they have a chance of ramping it up and play more like De Furia we saw in late 25, and by then being a title contender?
Do we have them as a middle in the pack-in in state 3?
I'm a bit worried that they might be lacking behind Navi, Falcons and Vitality, that's
my main worry.
And I also think that they've had such an underwhelming half to the year, they kind
of need to have a really good major.
Well, things maybe change has happened and we already know that Fallen is going at the
end of the year.
Would they consider doing something earlier than that, perhaps?
Are they happy to set out the rest of the year as like a testimony for Fallen, he's
well deserved.
up an invoice. Imagine a 0-3 major here for Furia. I'm not kind of sure what the direction
is for the team, how the fans would feel about that. And I'm not sure they'd be in
the best shape to go out and get a top four here. I'm not so sure.
It's a little bit of a rocky situation for Furia, but I do know for a fact that it's
going to be interesting to follow all these teams happening in stage three. For now, though,
we have to find out who is the last team that's going to join them, who will be the
last team to be eliminated, who will be the last team to join the teams in Stage 3.
We have a banger of a game, hopefully coming up big.
They are, say, the hometown favorites.
The German team is still alive at the Major.
They're taking on Bate, who's had a bit of a rough Major so far.
It's been good, it's been bad.
Now it's good again.
All of a sudden, they find themselves one game away from making it to Stage 3.
It's safe to say there's a lot to talk about, so we have to break.
And once we're back, it's with Bait taking on BIC.
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patience, precision, pin points accuracy, a weapon that unites many of Counterstrike's
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This is no imitation game.
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He doesn't make mistakes, he carries them.
Walking straight through the fires of Hell to ignite again, and again, and again.
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Big game today, no pun intended, but you are playing bait and surely there's an opportunity
to be talked about which was playing G2 and how this could be a different day for you.
Yeah, I mean today is a good day. I think we are ready for this game. Yesterday we rewatched
it already. I mean I wrote on Twitter that we got our class looking at it back. I mean
day for sure our players but it felt way worse in the moment than it actually was. I think
we learned a lot from yesterday in terms of we got to stay true to ourselves, stay true
to our game, to our rules and rounds. I think yesterday we kind of went away from it because
that maybe was a better opponent and we wanted to do more, we wanted to outplay them, we
wanted to show how good we are, but in the end the result was still there.
The result was definitely there.
Speaking of results, the numbers are going to indicate that there was kind of an offensive
gap for you guys.
Your T-Sides were a little bit lacking.
What do you think about that?
I think our T-Sides are normally very good and one game doesn't change that.
Yes, I mean like I said yesterday, of course the T-Series is not gonna look optimal if if we are not staying true to what we have to do on that map
If we are not winning banana fights, I was getting
Cookburn Earths a little bit then of course the T-Series is gonna look rough
So I wouldn't overthink it at all. We talked about it yesterday like there's no need to doubt anything now
The system we have been running has been going well for us the last five months a bad game against a better team doesn't change anything
So yeah
understandably so and here's a quote from tab since tweet right today we're
gonna fulfill our dreams and quote with a smile on our face can you tell the
viewer at home about the mentality of the smile on the face the whole thing I
mean smile on our face definitely because it's just a door die day and we
have we want to leave you with no regrets no matter the outcome I think
it's just another showing of our mentality and how much we wanted because
like I said there's nothing to lose we have to play our hearts out today there's
There's no room for error, no room for doubt.
And we should leave here as the best thing possible,
no matter the outcome.
And I think that's what he meant.
Smiles on our face every round.
And just believe in every round, and we will win it.
I want to remind you that you did play a marathon game
versus NRG the other day.
It required a lot of rounds, in fact, 16 in a row,
unheard of scenes.
Before we get this matchup started today versus Bate,
anything you want to say on behalf of yourself and Bate?
I mean, on behalf of myself, I'm just very happy to be here.
I think it's a learning process for the whole team, and we've been developing a lot as well.
I mean, I'm just very happy, you know.
The energy game for us was a lot of retake it, if you look at it that way.
What we did was incredible, nearly impossible, and the odds were very against us,
so we took it as a new chance, and today's just another day like that, we have another chance.
And I hope we have the same luck on our side as well as the confidence to make the same again.
Good luck, Aufkitz.
Aufkitz, thank you.
The Intel Extreme Masters Clone Major 2026 is brought to you by ESL and partnership with Intel.
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Checks.
And so.
It is time for the final game of stage 2 here at the Intel Extreme Masters Cologne 2026
and truly everything is on the line.
We've had legacy, we've had Monty already earning that last minute ticket through to
stage three now it is time to find out who will join them between baits and big two gentlemen that
know the pressure these guys are experiencing much better than I it's of course to pre and
stiko joining us for the final game of this stage I just want to dive into the emotions straight
off the bat stiko what do you think these guys are experiencing right now who that's a great question
especially for bi g obviously they were probably thinking of themselves as you know we're going
home at some point but then the that comeback happened we're we're we're going to be talking
talking about it for sure, but it must be excitement because they're one step away from
essentially a home crowd because in stage 3 we're going to be having some audience here
and with the bait, they're just riding the wave as well, they're pretty inexperienced
when it comes to the age and experiencing all these major scissors obviously, we mentioned
a couple of times, the youngest attendee of this major, I'm very excited to see how it
goes, but mental is going to be a huge part of this best of 300%.
Yeah, it's a bit of a game of resilience. I think both teams have had their struggles throughout the tournament so far.
So Big maybe had the biggest scare that we've ever seen in that comeback.
I think, you know, also, Bate has been looking good at times.
Then they've been looking really bad and you would have thought they would the way they're playing right now.
It's about to end, but, you know, they've always seemingly found a way to bounce back and now they're here.
They're fighting for a stage three spot both of them.
And I think it's a match that's going to go down the wire.
It's going to be a challenge mainly in my books for Big.
But, you know, we already expect and have seen that Bait can complete a pretty poor counter-strike.
Yeah, it's been the best of times and the worst of times, kind of, for both of these squads independently.
We'll take a look at those big results as well for this stage.
Because obviously both teams starting in stage one, having to literally pour everything.
And then some, if you're talking about Big as well, this is what we've seen from stage two.
So before we talk about that comeback versus NRG there, Peter, what do you make of these
results?
How good are they actually playing here?
I haven't really felt that big has played against the greatest opposition, and even
when they did, they got smacked by G2.
I think Monti was a team that, I don't think biggest players would have such a fight against
Monti, but you couldn't really make that one count.
And yeah, the win against Payne and MRBR, I think MRBR is the one that stands out since
that they have been one of the best teams to make the better result but you know pain didn't really speak to me this tournament so I feel like
the fact that big is in a position right now where they're fighting for our stage three spot that's a that's pretty significant I
Don't feel like they snatched a little bit of that phase magic when they beat it
Where have I seen this before a team is about to be eliminated as at the buddha first major
It was 0.2 second diffuse from Kerrigan against red cannons. They made it all the way to the final
It happened here with NRG being 0-12 down, damn, 16-12 win after all, and this how they qualified here,
or how they denied face to go to this event by beating them in that bug-grade land.
So is this some kind of a black magic going on here? I wonder how this will go.
We were obviously covering that big versus NRG game, is the final game going down in stage one as well,
and we were riding on that emotional wave, right, and for good reason, because we couldn't even comprehend.
Peter, you even said whilst we were witnessing the comeback, this isn't going to happen.
I've never seen something of this magnitude most people would have said you were right big said no shut the hell up you're wrong
Yeah, I don't even know what to make of that game. I I'll give me the biggest joke that I've probably witnessed in my
Korea as a talent, but even as a player and I I thought I had six
Liquid in that prime. Yeah, I know and that's the funny part like
Sorry a nitro was in that line up as well. So, you know, that's that's I mean like maybe I think it was quite fun
to hear Nitro say he was like leaning back you know put his arms behind his head and
he's like maybe I am the problem. I thought that was a little bit funny. Also a little
bit of heart breaking right. But regardless massive resilience from Beijing. That's the
positive takeaway from it and that has brought them to where they are now and I think that
now when they go up against Beta I think they will also be thinking about how do we get here.
We made this massive comeback against, against NRG and guys where I should have a solid chance of making it.
And that's the thing, right? I would be looking at big in this situation if that comeback didn't materialize, obviously they'd already made it through to this stage, but without the context of that, I'd be thinking, you know, maybe it's going to be a bit shaky, maybe the pressure of potentially getting to play in front of your home audience would be getting to you.
I have never seen resilience like that. I don't know what to expect from big just because of that one result versus NRG.
Exactly. I mean, I feel like they're playing from each game to game with a little bit of a better mindset and obviously
It's showing. I mean, they're facing some harder position and they're going to be you know beaten by them
Like we've seen G2 yesterday, but overall
BIG I've seen glimpses of hope that this might go in their way
And as we are saying for every stage first rounds and first days that best of ones are random
So are these two two matchups like literally anything can happen and this is a big day for them as we can see Tubsum mentioning here in the tweet today
Yeah, I mean so much to him
I mean, let's just talk a little bit about tabs and in his history right because obviously back in
2018 stiko you were obviously competing Peter as well
But for big this was where they kind of make history by making it all the way to the grand finals of the Intel extreme masters cologne in
2018 so for him to still be here be trying to bring big back again and his namesake to this is a massive opportunity
opportunity for him. I guess you could say that this is the biggest result that
both Tapson and Big has ever had. You know it's weird to put it out since
they didn't win that grand final but you know making it to the grand final in
Cologne with where I guess like 90% of the crowd was cheering for Big if not
more and I think that was you know it used to lag at that time was standing in
as a coach and that was that was crazy. You feel like all the emotion that was
also when we had Smurion stage and you you have a lot of a lot of cool memories
from this game and I wouldn't say I had the joy of sitting in the crowd watching
But I was sitting in the crowd watching this game and you know, you could feel that the atmosphere was amazing
And I think that taps and you know, he's he's by far
you know, he loved that moment, you know
he wants to experience just like a glimpse of it again and and
It's probably gonna be unachievable in my books when you look at the team that sets that's waiting for them
But you know that it starts today and if they can clinch their way to say three then, you know, at least he can keep his
Upside, it would be magical. I mean if you can probably attest to the stiko as well
There's nothing like playing in front of your home crowd white winning in front of your home crowd
That's a whole nother feet that seem to be extra hard for some of the teams. Sorry, Peter
But third time this opportunity would be amazing. I did minus dude once right?
We didn't have we did have our choking problems
We did win the Grand Slam in front of our home crowd
We did minus to do it in the end, but it is difficult. It is difficult, you know
It's you know your fans your fans and family and everything that's watching you
It's a bit of an extra pressure
If you can't really cope with the pressure and turn it into something that makes you play better, then it's really difficult.
I have no clue what you're guys talking about. The Slovakia will never have a good event.
Maybe the Czech Republic, I am Bruno, maybe we're coming.
But until that point, I don't know what the home crowd really is.
So I'm glad that you have experience and get at least through what you're saying.
You did him more dirty than me.
Sorry, Sika.
the way, what pressure do you think this adds in your opinion, Stiko? Do you think it adds
any pressure to, I would say, the most resilient team that we've seen so far here?
I think it adds pressure for sure, but I'm going to be honest, I think Big is way better at dealing
with pressure and mental, you know, tiredness or whatever it might be, because they've been playing
since stage one every single day, every single day up until now, and if they win today, hell,
They're gonna playing stage three from the first get-go, right?
So they're gonna have only one day off and I
I do think that B.I.G. is more resilient in this matchup and if anything
Blamef are really known to you know have a solid cause even in these pressure moments
I think the individuals of you know Greeks and sometimes even Favin
I noticed him that he's in these pressure moments kind of like good like they're standing their ground
That's the thing right everyone's gonna experience pressure
It's about exactly how you handle it big could already kind of pass that test with that result versus energy
They on the other hand though stiko what should take on their mental at the moment? So
This is honestly
I was looking at the team like biggest weakness of B8 and I'm gonna be like breaking it down
You know and see where the problem is
But I don't think the the key problem is not in player or a map or an aim
I think it's literally that a mental like their skill difference between the floor and the ceiling is
miles apart and the mental just triggers where they are right now and we've seen
multiple frustrations on the cameras we've throughout the tournaments even
when they're sometimes winning they're frustrated at each other I can only
imagine what happens on in in the in the team speak I do think that when we see
them tilting it's a tough watch and if it happens today they're gonna lose I'm
not gonna lie I think this is this is just sort of normal in their team I
I think that's a very, it's a trait of the Eastern European team that that is just how they deal with it, you know.
I think we've all been seeing how similar electronics seem to be handling each other and everything in Navi back in the days,
but the thing with Bait for me is that it can go from good to bad in just like one round.
That's the whole thing that can change for this game and they're the second youngest team of the major right now,
so there's also a lot of emotions on the line and it's a team that at least in my books,
They still play the same regardless if they're actually doing good or doing bad.
They still continuously push.
They want to be finding info and they will not give up space if they have to.
And they even do it when they have advantages.
And it's extremely hard to play against.
The most difficult part when they do this kind of thing is if they're also playing well
individually, they will get so much space.
But obviously for the team to have this kind of mental, I wouldn't say issue, but at least
in a way where they can tilt and be flush with each other, I think it's relatively normal
and they at least know how to deal with it.
Okay, you wouldn't say a shoe, would you say a shoe there with the mental?
It sounds like you're kind of pushing that out.
I would definitely say so.
I think that's the biggest factor in this best of three, in my opinion.
And for Bate, you know, I've been looking at their body language, I've been looking,
I've been standing a little bit behind them and trying to hear because I understand them a little bit.
Sometimes it's not looking good, it's not looking great.
And we've seen it just before on the bureau there that there's an empty chair behind them.
They do not have a coach here, which is another big factor where, you know, there's no input.
input. There's only themselves to get out of that hole that they might sometimes put themselves in and it's tough, it's tough to watch.
When we're looking at Bates history here, it's kind of a shame that they're going up against big who have mounted the most unfathomable
comeback in basically all of Counter-Strike history because they did manage to get one of their own versus game
allegion on Nuke. What did you pick out from this is to maybe some of the reasons why they were able to get away with it?
And this is exactly the... We had some snippets from their TeamSpeak from this game
and as soon as that pissed around in the second half was one which was by the way 9-3 half on
CT side Nuke on this Hider against Game Religion. The loser would be going home.
After that Alex clutched 1v2 and I immediately checked the log of their TeamSpeak and it was just
guys we believe in each other like we're playing good and I was like well is this bait?
was this like, is this them? And after that, look what happened. Like they had pretty good momentum
going into the T side of Nuke. They were managing really good rounds, really good reads. Shooting
was on point. If that happens today, that's Paul's disaster for B.I.G. Okay, so we just need a moment
to kind of switch that mentor and then they kind of kick into gear, right? Let's talk about maps
very quickly before we do get into Vito because Sveeko for big, it's been an interesting situation
with the 7 map pool, right? Yes, they're trying to flex the 7 map pool and the only map that
they haven't played this manager is a new business far as I recall and that is fortunately or
unfortunately however you look at it is a perma-ban for BA. I think for me specifically
I think BA however they look at at this Vito I think they must pick either Mirage or Ancient
and therefore BAG must ban the opposite map of those two in their second phase. There is no
way around it and if this happens, I think BIG are actually going to be winning this Vito battle
due to the fact that their 7th map pool is just so strong.
There's really not many teams that had successful playing all 7 maps because you thin out your
resources so much and you had to divide it into every single map and that means you sometimes
have to take some attention away from the other one but obviously the whole video here is very
open in the sense that Big has a lot to choose from and they have a lot of good stats coming into
even though the opposition has been a little bit worse.
So Martin, are you interested in to see what the first pick is going to be?
I mean, this has to be an ancient pick and then probably an overpass,
which is B.I.G's love to pick overpass.
I think B.I.G didn't play it here yet.
Yes, exactly like that.
And therefore, Decider is going to be kind of interesting,
but I already can tell you just by screenshotting this,
B.I.G is in a good place in this video already right now.
Band Mirage, there's an Ancient, but I like what I'm seeing so far from B.I.G.
So it's an opportunity to already be done in two, in your opinion?
I think that Ancient is the only map where B.I.G. actually stands kind of like a chance.
If this goes three, that's perfectly reasonable, but I do think if Ancient somehow slips away from B.I.G., this might be a 2-0.
Yeah, Ancient's gonna be very instrumented and very important for the likes of B.I.G. if they can't clean this one.
Yeah, it's looking pretty bad.
Who are you taking, Peter? Who are you siding with?
I kind of want to go with Bait. I think Bait has gone through everything so fine this tournament like they've had the you know losing their own map
winning their opponents and yada yada yada going back and forth
I think that they have the better team or also Bait is my pick well
It is time to get into the action for one final time in stage two
It's big versus Bait with a spot at stage three on the line
Thank you very much Freya and thank you for joining us for the final game of the second stage of the major big
Once again in the last game of the stage Jason we've been here before we see it in stage one
They did it with style in stage one
I can't believe they're still here in the tournament, but they've got one more opportunity and a smaller crowd
But they will be German will be in the arena if big can make it to stage three
We've got JVC moving forward and that's gonna be a couple of quick kills before big coming in
So kensas or an MPL both dead, but that a bomb start wide open and they're gonna start moving in
I don't know if actually taps in spotter that they have the idea moving in towards temple is fizzy
Essential spots them in donut and this is gonna be a long round baits not trying to commit to anything at the moment the ball
Is still over at elbow they want to force some movement
They want to force a player from big to step into a bad fight to make a bad decision
Yeah, we got essential gonna be stepping out in towards the donut fight. He's got one kill back here on JDC
Sissy important frag needs to pick it up. He's got it on taps in
We're gonna have to trade it essential not going into the donut flight can't connect and puts Alex in the clutch
a 1v3 with a minute left. You move out, at least got the ball in his possession, but getting that
down just looks impossible, but good damage. Both donut players are low. Yeah, they really are. He
actually has time to play with this. Well, gonna tap the ball. He's actually gonna stick it. He's
gonna call the bluff and there's the peak from Griggs. And Tapsen's getting high tap. We saw his
tweet earlier today. It means a lot to Tapsen been in this organization for a long time,
trying to make the German organization work at a German team going. Now with a couple of international
editions he said this is the time this is the moment that big need to seize to
get into stage three so he's gonna be energetic he's gonna be allowed he's
gonna be focused the whole way through saying he's gonna fight to the last round
of this game so I'm burning every round victory a big moved away from a team of
full German players they've done that many times throughout these organizations
history brought in an international opera and smoothie and that was their best
run they had in Cologne they've tried so many things how about they to get back
to that kind of a level. A deeper on the had years and years ago in Cologne. Interesting
kind of run from big as well when you consider I feel like you know even in Stage 1 they
were somewhat popular pick for an O3 team. Stage 2 I don't think anyone saw a whole
lot to change their mind still having a 3 group and now they're here fighting for a
spot in Stage 3. Impressive way they've been able to build up throughout this Stage 2.
I think it's because when it's looking bad, it's looking pretty bad, right?
And I think that just leaves a sour taste in the mouth, but...
But when it's looking good, is it looking really good?
It's looking quite good, yeah.
It's easier than it looks.
Favon and Gleymeth are great individual players, and then we see JDC have good performances
here and there too.
And I think that was the real engine of that comeback in the last stage, right?
It was Favon and that CT side, or that second half, rather, with Favon.
with JDC, and it was just incredible the way they were able to outperform and really get into the server when they locked in.
But I think there's times where we've looked at it and we've seen the criticisms that BLEMF has had through our script.
I think we noticed some of those rounds coming back earlier on in this stage.
And you're wondering, OK, is this the part where Big Full apart?
But someone pulled themselves together just in time.
They had the very impressive deep utility, Kenz's or NPL getting tons of damage,
Spam down through the smoke at a blind angle.
BlameF has a trade.
The attack is forced back.
They try and brute force their way in towards middle.
They spend a lot of utility to get it done,
and they get shoved back immediately.
And PL also taking so much damage on board 28 health.
Look at the utility with both teams
in the mid and 25 seconds left.
Two flashes and a Molotov carried by Big.
An HE grenade of flash and a smoke carried by Bait.
And it highlights how important that midfire is here
on Ancient.
I think this is obviously going to slow down.
We're going to see some contact movements from Bade as they try and move back into the middle of the map a little bit delayed
Hoping that big is relinquished their presence here. Well, you see gricks is gonna be jump spotting into middle
But he's gonna be smoked out at Rudd now
But as he's doing this his teammates are flowing into a main they're going for an aggressive player on the back
Yeah, he's actually okay with and doesn't really care that that information has been taken from him
He doesn't want to die in that position to give time to taps and to make this move
But he's walking right into the crosshair MPL fell asleep at the wheel
So, Tapsin gonna keep pushing.
BlameF says, alright, if they think that's the A Defender who's pushing, they might try and come back towards Donut,
so BlameF is gonna stick around in Main and so is Tapsin.
Oh, they're coming back.
Oh, they are. Steps ahead.
30 seconds left.
Bait still clearing out middle.
Trying to be quiet about this, but they realize with the limited time, they have to come back,
and you're gonna hear all those steps if you're in A Main. There's two players here.
And BlameF should bait here.
Let Tapsin go out and make his presence known and die, and you follow it up.
it up. And we'll tap some joy now and now BlameF to profit from his death. You'll take
both Sissy and Alex both go on and that's the round falling away for bait. Perfectly
played. Perfect timing, perfect spacing for BlameF to slot out, grab his third kill, stop
the plant, third round for big on the board, three to nothing. All right, yeah, it's absent.
Build it up into it. Essentials able to bring an AK-47 to the next round, $0 in the bank
due to no bonus money for surviving.
We'll speak it up as soon as you heard Sneeko talking about how important this map is going
to be for Bank's chances in the series on Ancient.
This is a map that's almost synonymous with Bank when you think about them almost immediately.
Think about this green map.
Yeah, some of their best wins and some of the more impressive runs have always included
a nice win on this map entirely, so it makes a complete sense for them to take it here.
Well, Tec9s and that one AK you mentioned, let's see if they can get anything with it.
He's baitgathered at the bottom of the B ramp.
Look at this play from JDC.
Oop, taps and taps away! Now you need to have him to step up!
He's only got one! Blinded! Taken down!
JDC, that's the bomb! He's got it!
Bomb down! Disaster strikes for bait! They've got to go back!
And he's got a smoke, he's got a Molotov as well. They can delay this forever.
But his teammates are going to be in the awkward position of having to survive knowing the bomb is down.
Griggs is on his own.
Ooh.
Blemap is an important fight for Tensy's Ornn. He's got the headshot.
Play map steps into the open, and now more pressure on JDC as he's suddenly the solo defender of that bomb coming towards him.
The AK can't get anything, and now Greg Snow collaterally took the raid. Greg's won a round. What a start.
Saves the day. How did he know? He was so ready. Didn't even consider another option.
They double up on the ramp because that round fell apart for big JDC gave him a
chance to win it protecting the bomb but everyone else falls down around it
this kill and then the turn yeah that'll get the boys hyped up
everything's going right right now for big to kick things off
I've come out with some energy and they've got the place to back it up it's
adding fuel to the fire and you're gonna see bait now try and get in towards
If they say so, there's no one home right now for the CT defenses.
There's different emotional engine on both of these teams, isn't there?
Big is focused on getting fired up and hyped up for everything that goes their way, bait,
remaining stoic.
No.
And just waiting for the moment to get back in.
Oh, they're coming into the A plate.
Big no what's up.
Oh, this shot from Gricks.
Hero in the last round, zero on this one.
Tens is all at least getting that opening and getting that ball implanted.
They have to stick the landing on this one.
A 5v4 post plant.
Yeah, and how do you get back in?
Are you actually going to go for this if you're bigger?
You just want to relinquish it. A follow-up smoke over towards CT is going to take a lot of time off the clock.
There's two kits in play. There's plenty of utility.
And you can go for a frag here to see if you can equalize things before committing.
Look at the money, though, right? That's the risk. You throw yourself at this. You concede.
Money is in a tough spot. You got Kensy's over the headshot.
Now you're going to try and...
Oh, wow. Unless Favren's got a second, he does.
And so that reopens the conversation. A game of time. We're really taking fuses very short.
Bigs and everything they've got back into it and bait will hold on.
That's a lot of weapons lost for big that's gonna hurt their economy very very much
They never really even considered saving in that four and five always wanted to make a go out of it
But couldn't find the kill to really give them any safety to move forward
So money's a problem now going into round six. I think it was almost a chance. They could save them family gets to and you almost
Yeah, at a certain point you're kind of committed right like even though even if the calm comes out
You know everyone's mentally committed to pushing forward and trying to get to that bomb
So limited on nades limited on weaponry
Uh-oh, this is an issue, but Nades drop at the feet and softens them up for JDC and Favon.
Yeah.
Now one more, a third kill in mid.
Stuck in the mud as well, right?
There's Nades slow them down and make them easy pickings for Big even with the Weacher weapons.
It looked like MPO was gonna have the up on them for those early fights, but an incredibly important round for Big to survive in here
because you've seen that money got reset. They were down to a weak buy.
Now it's about sitting here in a 4 on 2 and saying, how do we win this round?
Where do we position ourselves to where we don't have to lose too many weapons?
They want to win and secure extra money moving forward, so once again, the call is for Tapsin and Blemeth to push out of the A bomb site. Start wrapping towards middle.
Bomb is on its own over towards Red Room in the hands of Sissi, Essential and Jaguar.
Waits in the Red Room, undetected so far as Sissi.
Ooh, Tapsin didn't spot him.
Blemeth doesn't see him.
Cricks has got the kill in the central belt, so it says he no one read, he must go on his own.
I mean there's no way for him to know the 8 bomb site is completely clear otherwise he'd be booking it,
but in this situation do you go challenge and see if you can just get a bomb plant and you're amazed when it's clear,
or do you just try and save the op for 30 seconds?
He's going back to the wrong side here, Favon's going to step into the open spots, the op.
Now says he holds on, scope is good for 1, taking half health now, 25 seconds, and Tabs will drop in.
Sniper on goes no work for Bait, and again, another point from Stick on the desk was the talk of mentality when it comes into a game like this, you know, Bait can sometimes be very quiet, they don't have a coach to lean on in these timeouts to get them back into it mentally, and you've got Bait who had the better start, and obviously coming up with a lot of energy, they've had the better individual play so far.
This is where if you're Bait and you realize how important this map is, this is a true test of your mentality early on in the game.
Yeah, and also don't ask for underestimates sitting at home, the effect that they can have on you,
a giant team with a giant as Tapsin, screaming every time they win a round right at you,
right across the room, that's otherwise dead silent, just reminding you each and every time
that you drop the ball in this round, and they're creeping a little bit closer.
I hear about the youth as well, babe.
When the youngest teams in Counter-Strike, a city of 16 years old, playing at the Major,
The pressure of an elimination game and you're down 5-1 to kick things off
Keeping everyone focused
Composers slipping on the other side
1-5 from the bait perspective
Everyone headed towards the B bomb site. Oh inside the molotov Sizi drills it. You know stylish. I'll put it out from Sizi
Can't really go anywhere with it just yet
Now but you know it's gonna spread the defense out
So this is the right call back off and spread around the map now
You have a chance to play for things still very far away from a victory
But you have a hero a k-47 on MPL who has armor you got it
You got two deagles and a little bit of utility so see if the fact that you get this opening kill
Creates an opening a weakness in the defense that you can exploit
They keep marching in this direction eventually they'll run into the off of Gricks
Who has not moved from his perch at Big Box, JDC playing towards the entrance of Donut.
Taps in spotting for Middles, so JDC doesn't have to be concerned about getting flanked.
Uh, Gricks waits at the Big Box.
There's the first peek.
Nails it on to Sissy.
The rest of the all sort of players coming through.
The JDC's got nothing so you rely on Gricks again.
What a deliverance from Gricks.
That's a great headshot on the USP brought out.
Look at the flank though in Middles.
This is going to slow.
Alex, is he getting time to play?
They're going to back off and go to the other side of the map.
Tapsin, here's these footsteps running.
So, Bleymouth is already on the move as well.
Tapsin going to try and cut this off at Heaven.
The bomb has to go a long way on its own.
And he's going to have to risk the fight against Tapsin from the jump up.
Tapsin now arriving towards Heaven.
Crosshair in position.
NPL makes that watch.
And he will win the challenge.
So, it falls to Bleymouth.
1v2, Alex and NPL.
Half health each.
And Tapsin, I mean, see, Bleymouth doesn't want to mess with the fact
that there's a smoke up in his cross to the bomb site.
If he waits behind it,
they know exactly where he's coming from to take in the moment,
the opportunity to slide back around and come for the flank,
whereas teammate had just fallen.
Oh, he's not going for it.
He's going to relinquish the clutch.
They went for it.
Kit pick up, and it doesn't put himself in a position
to go for the retake and go for the clutch.
So, can I hang on to the M4?
I'm imagining, like someone,
I feel like that's a clutch you would go for,
but I feel like maybe the calling within the big side
of things is, okay, you've got a little bit of money,
you're going to get more, you can drop an M4 over,
We can have a buy and it looks like I would imagine next year I'll get a force out of big
So throwing the nade to bring the exits back to his direction at CT spawn
He's got one dinked up now a second. That's a pretty critical. Okay. Well, he's gonna go down
Yeah, he dies takes enough damage to die and go off with a bomb there play math
Do you want to buy up now that he's gone down now that you can't drop a second M4?
Does that change the plan of big heading into this round? They haven't called the timeout yet?
Gricks doing what he can to hold on. He gets three kills.
When his right foot goes down there with JDC, Miss Fire is completely...
Miss Fire is, and I think Gricks also threw a very deep Molotov, so they run through just barely any of it.
So when JDC is fighting, they're not actually burning at the same time.
Oh, the spot from the AWP and the spam through the boards.
Fab them down first again early.
Exactly what you don't want to have happen if you're big, because your economy rides
on this round as well.
You've shoved all in.
get a big risk with the investment in round 8.
Kensen's all heads out of elbow, blame F, can we take one kill back?
Stick it around, wants to fight towards Heaven, can only manage the one.
And so this round is not going to be picked up by Big, no real threat just yet.
Oh, okay, Gricks, a little tap out with an AK-47 he's found.
And you've got a 5-7 waiting on that B-side. Where did they decide to go?
It makes things a little bit interesting, isn't it, as they've lost track of this AK-47 from Griggs.
Just a quick little one tap.
Griggs goes and checks the A-bomb site, sees nobody home.
Tabson's still on his lonesome with this 5-7. He's got to find a way to be impactful.
Got to get into at least the safety from Cave from B-Rap.
But both defenders are statics, I love no chance to work together, someone is going to
have to be the hero.
Taps the nose and now arriving towards his site.
And responsibility lies upon his shoulders to deliver anything in the round.
An essential step into the open, though, that AK-47 is too much.
The 5-7 a handle.
Nice job from essential.
That's the only part of the map that was going to be dangerous at all to them at that B bomb site.
So, Grix now sliding over, but he also, I think, just wants to maintain this AK-47 under his control.
So, a third round for Bate started slow, and then after a timeout, they've calmed things down,
had a little bit of conversation, and since coach, they found some winning moves in these last two rounds.
I think it's great to see that from Bate as well, that they didn't just go into 3-4
With all the early success big we're picking up, Griggs is, uh, Griggs rather is gonna be sitting here
Waiting for that cross, see if we can get a couple more exits
He will pick up an extra kill before going down and money still not in a good spot at all for big
So they should be closing this gap to just one round. Yeah, it should be all good
Gonna be a save here for big, says he was able to bring me up four, the bomb blast doesn't take him out
Here's how it opens, back to back rounds, Favon goes down first, back to back rounds
Big has to play a 4v5 from the CT side.
Shot.
More frustrated.
I don't know.
Not a few of those words.
Oh yeah?
Yeah.
I don't know any of them.
I thought he was talking about ice cream.
Yeah.
This is it.
This could be a...
This little round for some Echos.
As they run down the ramp respect the pic you know getting get that one over on dumb ways get us in the real
Boom look at the technology it's nice isn't it almost that's why it's not like big animation
No, so you want to write it up on fireworks and you get the time on buddy. That's fair
I don't mind a little bit about confetti effect goes a long way
Timeout from big
They've lost three in a row
Two of them by pics at the B bombsite to start both of them on favin one with the D. Go one with spam
through the boards. And outside of those rounds Big has had no issues
containing Bait. It's the rounds they're playing for V5 where they're having a man
disadvantaged so early that they're finding a tough time containing this
bait attack. So the conversation surely has to be how do we want to open up these
rounds. Bait themselves have gone away from putting heavy pressure towards
elbow and middle at the start which is where Big was getting some advantages
during that five-round run they had to open up the map.
There's Blemeth all the way down middle instead of the MPL top.
Blemeth got both of the early kills in mid. Alex is next up, but could be to the chopping block.
You've seen Blemeth back away. You're going to be very happy with that start if you pick.
You've got two of the kills and you've got back to safety.
go back to safety i just mentioned every time they turn like elbow that this is
what they've been able to grab a kill at least have a trade maybe a couple kills
get huge advantages beta isn't any success so as soon as they return back to
what they're thinking all right we've established some success elsewhere on
the extremities
picked player off at the be bomb site maybe we won't have as much defense in
middle to deal with
dead wrong
play method double kill in a second smoke to block their access to donut
PlayMath, another one.
Starting to become notorious in the big jersey.
He's got himself a third kill holding onto the donut.
You've got Sissy striking on towards JDC.
The low HP finished off by PlayMath.
He's killed everybody so far.
So the round is dead.
The central has to back away.
And that will be 6-4 big back to winning ways.
Yeah, they can surely maintain that lead.
33 seconds for essential to save this AK-47, he's got 4400 at the bank, Bates gonna have
no problem buying in the next round, they themselves will start having some financial
issues afterwards though.
And with good control, again this double maid that's coming deep, running through the Molotovs
as well.
Bates just can't get past it.
Well, Blamehouse loved the fact that most of his opponents didn't even see him that round.
i mean i have to imagine these with the last two rounds of play i have to imagine
we're not seeing bait challenge in middle whatsoever i don't think we're to see
it as kind of fast moves towards elbow
ages haven't been successful time to go away from it
but yet when when the rounds are so crucial to your map success now when
you look last couple left in the half
that mid-flight just feels like such a fifty fifty gamble
one of the way things are going is
delineation big department yeah definitely this game they gotta remember
to like bait
this is a map they've they've loved and they've had we've watched plenty of
games ourselves and we've casted plenty of games where they're running out mid
and they're just killing everything so I mean you still kind of feel like that
eventuality is gonna come but big's been able they've done a great job and
they're just shutting down this portion of the attack show some presence so
Kessie's or goes out and tries to block them earlier some utility but it's heavy
towards B and back to the B bombsite for bait where they've gotten their opening
picks and where they've also tasted that all but what's watching for this they're
already up they're already up this guy's close to her up and he can't get a kill
it has to be Griggs to respond but he has to back away he can't stick around and
He plants his feet for a multi-kill, but the bomb hasn't made it across, but it's the utility that puts Grinch in a tough spot,
Taps, who tries to deliver, and he just gets the one from Cave.
So JDC arrives and takes a while, but gets that kill, so essentially goes out, and he gets a taste of the JDC medicine.
So the 7th round for Big, the CT side continues to tick upwards, and Bait that frustration creeping back in.
Yeah, but I think if you're bait you probably go back to this be bombsite
Don't you this feels like the place where you found the most success you've been able to apply the most pressure
I could hear someone apologizing on the big side of the post game during the celebration
I'm assuming that's some kind of apology between Favin and between gricks with the AWP. They were changing positions
So Favin took his eyes off of the ramp
Gricks wasn't in position, which is how Favin gets killed by that play
So I think a little bit of apology on the miscommunication of who exactly was watching for what scaling well look at this by bait
They come into the last hour and a half and they've got a Mach 10, a Tecnaut, two Mach 10s, in fact, AWP at least for Sizi, an AK-47 for essential.
And they're not going towards B, they start with heavy numbers at the A side of the map.
They control, established for big, pressure being put on that elbow.
They like hearing that much utility pop off in middle as well as they walk in towards main because that's exactly what they're saying.
It's okay, well they've got forces in middle again, we've got a timing here.
They haven't hit it. Gricks is going to slide over. Sizi holding for a peek at Big Box, but last time we saw Gricks defending this, he didn't give him that peek at all.
No, he was able to deliver a 3k. Looking for some similar success.
He's a shadow shot.
Against the wall. Goes for the flick.
Unaccurate enough. Shadow is still cast against that wall. No kills from Gricks.
Moves out. Forced into the open by utility. Mishot after Mishot.
perhaps an employee map have arrived early enough to shut this down it is big that are starting to
believe an eight to four lead versus big on a bait on ancient this is looking good for the Germans
they have a massive advantage going into the second half
Well, the German crowd just arrived.
for stage three in just a couple of days and how cool it would be for them to get a look
at Big playing in front of them here for the Major up 8-4 at the half of this opening map
in the series.
Win or go home between Big and Bate and all the advantages over to the German organization
side as they switch over into offense and look to overrun Bate to take this first map.
Yeah, they came out with a strong mentality, Tapsen started the day on the right side of
the bird and they've obviously started to inch on the right side as well.
We're just looking so strong
Also zip zip some water. Yeah, it's when the father is watching he'll be very happy if he sees this
Let's hide our heads now. Okay
He's watching he's listening. I'm sure he's very pleased absent. I'm sure he's very very proud of you
Staying hydrated and focused for the second half as big now up eight to four pistol round
We'll take him in an incredible thrush to faking out this people also so much utility on taps and two players moving up
But it's three players are big ready to go into a yeah, but I think this isn't gonna sell the fake
In fact, it's gonna give it away the fact that there's no bomb plant at the moment and now the B defenders are saying wait
It's all clear so now they know that they've moved up in middle
Sissy gets one over at the A bombsite
There's the dualies in middle and this round has gone to hell
Yeah, well, Sissy does so well up from Donna to headshots blame. I can't even get the plan because they've arrived in the rotation
So in theory that round looks cool
But in the end it just falls flat in their face
So JDC has to come in and improvise as teammate goes down inside of the side now
They know where JDC is so into the temple he goes
Here's the steps out and try and track essential, but and he's gonna clock the idea that JDC saw the shadow
I've seen him now. It's JC creeps out. Everybody's looking at him. Good luck JDC
And immediately Ken Zort knocks his head off his shoulders
Yeah, I think they needed to call that tactic off when with the B defenders were in the bomb site
Or the B attackers were in the bomb site two of them
And they realized that nobody was home and that the defense was playing it so passively
That should be the alarm bells saying there's there's a massive CT bodies elsewhere that we don't know about
This fake was never gonna work as is he just so well like he goes down here
It's it's because he never had to consider rotating, you know, like again that fake has no commitment to it
There's no players. There's no bomb plant through all of it through the Molotov. There's no footsteps or anything like that
So he just never budged
No bomb plans big issue, you're not going to have a strong force by if you're big.
Big doesn't even have a coach and Big's making decisions for their performance coach.
Big's got like three coaches.
Yeah, that's true.
You can pressure it into some water sipping.
Susie.
Step up to a right run in front of you.
You've got to get your gun out.
No time to drop utility.
In fact, he's overwhelmed, line four comes in for the clean up,
and Kenzie's on the sprayway, MPL comes in to take that final,
and it's six rounds for Bait.
They've actually brought this back two rounds.
The gap, Bait gonna be investing into the AK-47s.
Yeah, that gap closed real quick.
Now, in the first half, whenever Bait kinda creeped close
on the scoreboard, Bait was able to extend it,
but they have that tough task now
of attacking into this Bait defense.
Sissi's got the AWP as well.
I am fucking here to win with you guys.
We are right back in history, man.
That's what I'm looking forward to, you guys, man.
This is magic here. I'm telling you.
That's fucking global well said.
Well, hoping that his words can hypnotize them over a BIG.
We'll see if that's the case.
Right now, a great start on the round.
Kenzie's solo in HP and MPL as well.
I'm envisioning a world where bait switch sides are like,
at least not to deal with maids in middle anymore.
They just caught all of them from the defensive side.
Kenzie brought solo as the solo aid defender.
8 HP. NPL brought down to about half HP by the utility of big, so very nice opening.
Unconfirmed damage on debates defense. And they're going to swap out the low HP
kensis ore for the AWP of Sizi. And this is exactly where big is traversing at
the moment. They've dropped utility for the A exec. And four players going to be
joining up at AMAIN with BLAMF providing that support.
NPL's gonna slide over for Bait on the defense from middle.
It's all on the AWP initially, though.
BAM!
SZE overwhelmed.
That young AWP are not doing much at all.
NPL is getting one on that spam through the CT scope.
You make it in, BONG gonna be planted
and now to create a fortress around it
to try and defend against these Bait players
who are still a long way off.
MPL misses out on the chance to grab Tabsin.
Does have utility. Tabsin's in a weird place now.
Doesn't want to back up too far. Now he has to because of the flames.
Moving up. Favon looks at Temple. MPL's out.
Missing shots. Not known to be an open, Mr. Favon.
Look at the flank from A-Main.
Yeah, essential now coming through CT.
He's pulling attention. Alice gets caught. Good turn from PlayMath.
And that should hold on.
That should be strong enough as PlayMath is defending it from Main.
They can't get out of the Temple. Time's gone.
JDC comes in to clean up and Big will celebrate a 9th round victory getting into the A site and holding on yeah
A nice break in a little bit chaotic for betas. They're switching positions the missed shot the missed off shot from Sizi though thinking they're gonna go a little bit wider
JDC tracks him down
That's a very very important kill to come hustle and get this one before Sizi's got another chance at it
Oh that turn is what's
Check off the side reacting quick enough
Many denies the exit from Temple as well.
Important round here for Bate, they're buying up. I don't know if Big realized it. They bought everything as well. They're coming right at this. Three defenders here.
Favons run a huge route behind this lurk smoke. Are they aware?
The calm before the storm. Quicks right through it. Alex taking down through smoke. Favons all the way up in the side.
He never knew about it. Even when the shots were coming in, Essential doesn't look in the right direction.
And the Greeks react faster than MPL.
It looks like it was about to be a bloodbath inside of the site, but big do not lose a single player.
Cool tactic though. The lurks smoke to sneak Faven in, and Bates calling and execute, but they're seeing nobody, they're feeling nobody, there's feeling no presence.
And then all of a sudden it all erupts. A kill through the smoke by the AWP and Faven springs. You're not getting away if you're scissi.
No, JVC's heard the step, he wraps you in the back, he can go to fight on at Kenzie's, but hang on to the rifle with that kill.
Look at the money for bait, look at the consequences of this drown loss. What are you supposed to do moving forward? Holding onto this M4 is critical.
Might be the only rifle you've got moving forward.
They got this map under control. They've got cash, they've got a four-round lead, they're playing well as a team as individuals.
And there are three rounds away from stealing Bates' map pick.
And what's so nice about this, like one moment of the game, if you're from the big perspective is,
you don't really have to descend too much into the fancy tactics and strategies of the playbook.
You know you have all the advantages in terms of weaponry.
You know you have all the advantages in terms of economy, in terms of what you can bring into fight.
So you can let the individuals play a little bit more.
You can be a little bit loose with things. Not everything has to be down to the detail in these rounds.
And you can tell because they're just doing back-to-back fast aggressive place towards the B bomb site
Yeah, no one home not a single player defending the B site big have taken over
The bomb gonna be planted
They can do nothing about it and even that rifle getting taken down without even seeing an opponent
Haven't with a Mac 10 could really punish
One on the back, takes the central away.
Yeah, nothing's being brought forward. Even the M4 hits the deck.
Might have been one of the easier shots Brick's has taken.
Today's landed some pretty tough ones. We'll give them a pass.
He's had some great ones, but we are now looking at 11-6 and the last stand of Bait on a really important map for them in this series.
We were said that, really, their chances in this series west on ancient...
Alright, now it looks like they stand no chance.
I can make it this close, I can make it.
Congratulations.
Nice.
They're gonna be...
Nice.
While we go into round 18,
all up in the hands of Gricks, 3 AK-47s,
that Mk-10 is still in play for Favin.
What's the call now?
Very fast plays towards the B bombsite to open up the previous two.
Are you gonna go do something like that again, Gricks?
It's gonna take us up. Up towards Jaguar, almost had it, almost there with the timing.
It's gonna be blocked away by that smoke. Can't chase after it.
Gonna take it, Paul. But once again, big getting into these early beat positions.
Like, you've got the whole B lane, you've got players up to Jag.
Important thing isn't the position, it's that you forced out the utility this early on, right?
That smoke came out from cave immediately when the AWP challenged it.
Now another smoke towards the top of the ramp, really early on in the round.
and you look at the Nades of Bait, they don't have the utility to play a long, grindy round.
Gricks.
Moving closer to Tave, there's two players in here, right before going out first, spots the information.
Gricks, that's not a good fight for you on the hill-hop, so he doesn't really want to edge too far forward.
He tries to isolate the one of you on the top box player, some Utah going in, making it uncomfortable,
and in fact, Gricks has died, so this K-fight has not gone the way Big would have hoped for, so good work from Bait,
and they're sending everybody at this fight!
Hell everybody's having a go and no one winning it for big
Like all right, that was the objective of the round. I guess you know what?
I don't really feel like doing anything. This is where we win or lose
Right here at this point. We don't deserve the round one still one by one guys
And JVC is turn 21 HP. You want to have a go at trying to get the cake?
Good luck. Kenzo's got the flank at red and he's got that kill. So
They needed that round we're gonna offer it up to them by big decisions, but they take it
certainly helps and you never know if that one round win is going to be the
one that like really establishes the CT side how many times have we seen the team
just win a single round and just lock the hell in for the rest of it big big
did that exactly that's why yeah there we go three players survive as well for
bait so money just gets a little bit better a little bit more secure beneath
their investments lead is cut down to four first gun round victory for bait in
this second half.
Taps in at big, I've got to just be leaning on the fact that they've played such a good
game here so far, not letting it relinquish.
But certainly now at this stage in the game, now that they've slowed things down and established
themselves, planted their feet on the defensive side, now if you're big you want to start
diving into the playbook a little bit.
Now you go towards the more strategic rounds that you can move around the map, because
They've got the utility to match you.
Some A main aggression from the CT side coming in.
Look at this, Favons making the same play he made earlier.
It worked really well last time.
Yeah, but essential is aware of it this time.
Is he?
Oh, he's here. Look, he's gonna get caught!
Favons just slipped away to safety behind the wall, had enough cover.
Tanty's always aggressive. A main play has got the information required and the one kill.
But it's Sizi who is now required to deliver here for bait.
Again, though, big, I think I need to rethink this because now there's an early warning system to this play towards the A-bomb site.
An important moment...
...for this young sniper.
Reacts, takes down JDC, steps up to the mark, and he might just go out again.
Fabbin's moved in, nearly getting MPL who was caught by the flash backtrack in towards CT.
Fabbin moves forward, so does Sizzy.
Trying to get out, but he's stuck here, but he's still fighting, still fragging, and finally downed by Griggs.
Alex steps out towards CT and he wins the all-important fight, but he's up against Griggs.
The 1v1.
Lose this, your chances dwindle to win this map, but Griggs has won it for Big.
12-7, map point on ancient.
And Big, that win is just around the corner.
Man, how good of a game is Griggs having right now? 20 years old.
This kid has been a beast, first major, 17-10 in this elimination match,
and the Alps hit some absolute blinders.
He did know.
He was aware, and that's the frustration,
laughing a little bit, because that's
only got beat the first time not realizing Favon
had slid into it.
This time, he does it clear.
He clears that corner, not really that Favon had
slid behind the lip of the wall.
Really cool play that Biggis brought out here in this match,
twice now to great effect for two-round wins.
They're going for the knockout, blowing this map as well.
Out middle with three players, the bomb.
Could be held back at the B doors for now,
and Blemeth takes a heavy grenade to the head.
But you've got bait pushing down B. Central and Alex have got decent positioning into the B-Lin.
They've got Sizi joining them, but they are going to be aware of the fact that this isn't open,
and they're ready for the fate of those smokes.
They're hunting these kills down, eliminating bait players one by one,
and they will be taking map one of this series.
Bait's map pick. They're home turf here on ancient,
and it's gone against them without them even being close to double figures.
a thirteen to seven victory for big such an impressive map from big they
started out so strong and you could see the determination in immediately
tapps and has got this team fired up in focus in their polls ready and waiting
for any final push fifty seconds left on the clock rick's does have the bomb
so he can be trapped with low-hp jdc is going to start exploring the map
uh... crooks is first run
professional team wasn't successful so they believed in them he gave them a
chance and now he's paying them back a 13-7 win on the opening map fantastic
showing from big they are looking locked in and they are looking for that stage
three appearance
a decisive victory to come out of big in the first map of this deciding series
and it is the perfect time for them to do so because Stiko I mean to put the
during the other foot for just a moment, this was a must win map debate, but no, big in full control.
I felt like they were truly in full control from the start to finish. There were a couple of rounds
where it might have almost slipped away, but you know, I felt like every important round, every
important duel went in a way of B.I.G. and I'm impressed how well prepared they were. It was
not like the usual stuff, but they were clearly preparing some anti-strat moves and they paid
of big time, couple of times, especially on the T side.
So much determination that Bigside had. I could really feel, even from watching the
game a little bit far away, you know, I could feel big in this game, you know.
I could feel that they were determined, they were on the same page, everyone was chiming in,
their individuals had some really good moments, I think Favre had some great moments.
Blemiff, as we always talk about, had a really good showing and it's just, you know,
it's just, you can just feel that they just really want to win and that really also showed in the server.
Yeah, the preparation practice certainly paying off for Earth, the big in this one you mentioned the individuals
I think we've got to start right off the bat with Griggs. This was an insane moment to be going down so early in the game Stiko
Yeah, I want to talk about Griggs specifically in this in this round where he made this double kill on 11v3 in the end
But all how it started is they're in a disadvantage, JDC manages to catch the C4, he's in here in B lobby
And they know they have a B side. Actually here, I don't understand how MPL did not hear like
Greeks in CT because he was actually throwing his nade. This is a good call by the way by Tiz.
Instead of retrieving the C4, they're trying to catch the rotations, trying to get closer to the C4.
But here they actually managed to get in a good position in 1v3, but here it is very important what Greek sees.
This is the pause moment where he clearly sees that Tiz are not clearing him.
They're just going into his crosshair, which prompts him to alert that someone was already on B side and he took a swing around.
He didn't see anyone clearly one guy must be behind him hiding in that smoke all the time on long side
And this is what this is like. We're literally seeing a picture being painted inside of Greeks's head during this one
It's a clutch obviously a big shot to hit double kill there
But that enables it all because it's not random. He just turns around. It's the way that tease peak that ramp
Understanding that oh someone is already behind me. Yeah, very good awareness. I think you know, it's also just
Started you know the ball rolling for big
you know, if you can, you know, turn these type of rounds around them, then anything could happen in the game.
And that was, uh, that they really paved the way for him.
And, you know, he's an offer that's caught my attention throughout the tournament.
I think a lot of people expected a lot of things when he joined Heroic, but only had a, like, I think it was two months or now.
Inside of pick, he's done phenomenal. Alongside Blame, he's by far their best player.
So it's, it's good to see that a young prospector can, can go in and, and have such a great impact specifically in a game where it's, it's do or die.
and you're literally fighting for a splatter state three.
Yeah, so much pressure on his shoulders
becomes up in dividends every single time, it seems.
Obviously, I'm not going to take anything away
from that stylus shot that was pulled off from round four.
But what should have fate done in that situation
if you wanted them to be a little bit more aware
of the positioning, what was read wrong?
It was clear that the Sun City was in city spawn.
NPL heard it.
The Greeks literally tossed the nade next to him.
And NPL maybe didn't comment, maybe he did,
but they were unsure whether he fell back to see this one or went forward too long.
But this needs to be communicated and needs to be, you know, taken more cautiously because
it is ridiculous how many advantageous situations.
This is the obvious one. This is 3v1.
There are such important moments throughout this map where it felt like someone is not doing what is called.
Someone is not doing what is communicated in the route.
And it was just piling up on the frustration.
I do think that the playing slower was the key to get at least some of the rounds for B8 and well
They were playing some of those rounds slow
But whenever they tend to fast up and pick up the pace that's when they were struggling
He also shouted out blame if particularly on that CT side
I was just tapping a look at it now
We have the rating in front of us 1.84 just on the CT side alone 16 to 6 that's very impressive
I think that is his biggest trade as a player that is that is his CT sides
And that's also one of his strongest card in the book when he was in Australia
I got I don't know why but he just seems to be so comfortable around using this silence m4
He just always gets him in heels and it's not because he gets headshot
He's just like body shots beauty even here like he's body shots people
He's still getting getting it to work and he he's always a force be reckoned with with inside big
He's a he's a very strong character. He's funnily enough also the Indian leader bowl
actively also being the style play it's a quite of a rare mix here, but you know, play me if
You either hating you love him like his playstyle is a bit baby at some times
But I mean, you can't take it away from Blemeth that he just puts up numbers after numbers.
Even if it was Bady, I mean, some of the rounds where he went for the exit frags, incredibly impactful when you look at the, when you unscope from that specific round into the whole magnitude of the hull, because Bade were just unable to string the rounds together.
And yeah, that is just the economy works.
And Blemeth is just not going to allow you to build up the economy.
Before we put this show on the other foot and talk about Bate, obviously, this was a map pick into this elimination and qualification series.
There was another little nice little trick that you saw on the T side, Favon getting away with this a couple of times, maybe a couple of times too many, some may say, but good for him.
Sometimes you can win runs by just making a bit of a gimmicky play. And your Favon, this is the second time around, he actually managed to do so.
And you know, he puts up the smoke that lands between, you know, Pillar and also Wall, he just gets stuck in this corner.
The Molo did nice in for the guy going on K, but I think he essentially even goes out and check and he's just to put it out there.
This is the second time that he has to get punished from this specific play
And you can just tell by that one kill that Farmer gets by getting in this corner so fast in the round
It just creates chaos inside the debate seems to begin and you know big use this one a little bit different
Second time around from from the first one where they would play off the chaos and then quickly try and take the attention towards a and
You know if you can win rounds off by just having a bit of a gimmicky play
but it was also just a clear picture that Fawon failed the game,
Big failed the game and first time around it worked out.
Why would they do the second time around?
And you know, it just gets in your head of your opponent
that you can get away with this kind of thing twice in the same game.
Exactly, like on your own map pick nonetheless.
Like when you get away two gun rounds like this in this such fashion
and those essential kills or kills on essential are super pivotal.
It basically decides the round.
So I cannot believe he let it slip twice.
And this tree is so old school.
I think this was seen maybe like three years ago,
like that you put up this smoke at the mall to do an eye info
and you have a guy rushing at the corner.
And I think the first time around,
he died when he thought it was a spam.
He actually shot at him before he actually died.
Then the second time he's like,
Oh, I gotta make sure that I take him.
Oh, I don't see him, but it didn't clear it far enough.
Yeah, that's a heartbreaking thing.
Yeah, maybe it goes to show
a bit of the mental state for Bay in this one.
What do you think, Siko?
Yeah, we've never mentioned before the match
that it's going to be incredibly important
to bounce back into the best of three with a good map from the get-go, we have not seen that.
Again, showing signs of frustration and it gets to individuals as well when it comes to
individual shooting and decision making. There are perhaps some fights within the team when it
comes to calling and who gets to do what. It's not pretty once again. It feels like we are not on
the same page when it comes to bait. However, complete opposite on the other side. BIG is
really impressing me and even though they're losing a couple of rounds here and there,
it feels like they're cheering, they're having fun, they're enjoying this and they're here to
win while Bait is here, not to lose and it shows. Yeah and I think it's only getting harder as we
move towards Overpass Seaco because for Bait this is not a map where we know anything about them
on, right? Big of gone for the clear punish and I feel like it's going to pay off. Yeah and there's
only one silver lining greater and that is that Bait gets to choose the side because BIG is the one
picking the map and we know that Overpass is statistically the most city-side map we have
right now in the map pool and they get to choose that city-side to start the miraculous comeback
on this best of three because so far what we've seen is just complete outclass. Overpass can be a
map I'm saying in like quote unquote can be the map where everything can turn around but we just
don't have any data to work with right now. Bait is not playing this map of this major whatsoever
just yet and even then before the major it wasn't there you know like a pinnacle pick that you get
to rely on. What do you expect for this one then Peter if you're coming off of your own
map pick and we've heard from the comms things aren't exactly flowing it isn't looking fluid on
the server what should they be doing in this break what what can they do to turn it around?
Yeah that's a that's a really great question I think it's uh it's about the fact that that
that, it's a funny team, right?
Because with how they communicate,
they don't even celebrate when they win rounds.
I'm curious to what they do in their breaks,
like when they've just been smacked in this one.
But the one thing that does speak to me that I'm not,
I mean, I'm worried, but I'm not as worried
that people might think is that
Bate has been in this position before.
Like, I don't think they, of course they care,
but it's not the first time around.
They don't get off to a good start
and don't win their own match picks.
So there's definitely something to be cleared up.
But I think right now it's just about getting the head back
the game as specifically more as individuals because that is just where bait seems to be
the team that people fear because as a team, team tactics, that's not really where they
get things going.
I like your optimism. I like your silver lining, but I'm really struggling to buy into it,
Stika, because I'm looking at this big, they're so fired up, they've been under the most
pressure they've probably ever experienced and now it feels like the red carpet's rolled
out for them, no?
Definitely, and it would be only poetic if BIG gets to clinch the stage three on Overpass,
which is German man.
Let's see exactly how it is going to be going down. Big storming ahead on what was bait
map pick of ancient. Their choice of overpass lasing way potentially the final stop before
They booked that ticket to stage 3.
The best of Counter-Strike 2.
Available now on shop.esl.com.
I have window myself, a bit.
They're kinda good, you like this.
You have everything.
They can be out there.
Window, window.
Or donut, donut, donut, donut.
And we play first.
Yes, they will not expect to here.
You see any double swing?
They are coming.
I have, I have.
How many?
Out there, two.
Two, two.
Hey, speed planter, you can get him.
Nice one.
One one.
I don't want to know.
But we don't have that thing.
No window maybe, hold the rotation guys.
Maybe even we look.
Don't see it.
Good coms, Ben, man!
I'm saying, man, right now!
We're liaisin' that's the B player!
Fuckin' go, man!
Nice!
Yeah, this is the B peeking one!
It's here, okay?
Benny!
It's RGP, it's B!
This is Mokshog, we're B!
Fuck you, outside!
They're full on site!
Mine is hard once.
Is there a Spenna for me?
Yeah, come!
I think now.
You have bombed, let me ask him, but they still can't push you.
I don't see myself.
Two. Two coming out, Kate.
A project.
Two banana.
On one.
Last second, we've got...
No! No! No! No!
I'll kill you with the flash, damn you!
You're in the kitchen!
Thank you, boys. Thank you, thank you.
I love you.
I love you.
I am fucking here to win with you guys.
Yeah, man, that's fine.
We are in a great history, man.
This is what I'm looking forward to, you guys.
This is magic, I'm telling you.
Let's fucking go, bro. Wait a second.
Okay, ready ready
flash flash
Big box up large big box dead nice
Yeah, more than 60 John seat is fine. I don't I don't you go on smoke to the smoke as well
Yes, I've already seen it listen up some re-smoke re-smoked or not to let the op you're still not
Do you have time? Yeah, no, not really, okay, I'm already tempted now. He mollies me. I need to play
Not out, flash CT!
Temp!
Temp out!
Red Molly!
Don't flash CT!
Burt!
Red!
I have tempo, one!
CT!
I have right side!
Tebow out!
Both!
Both!
Nice!
I have up!
I have up!
I have up!
I have up!
I'm fucking dead!
I'm fucking dead!
Listen!
Listen!
I have flash, go with it!
Go with it!
I have flash, go with it!
Big box up!
And now!
Big box!
Temp!
Temp!
Temp!
Tempel in the temple
One flashing in main
I see the crossway
I see you
Nice
Tempel up still
Out, out, out
Out
I think him
He's in again
Dead
I'm pushing
One in three
One in three
That's HP max
He will peeks I think
Nice
Nice
Nice
Nice
Thank you
What? Oh my god! Human reactions!
Welcome back to the Intel Extreme Masters Cologne Major. We have big one-map win away from stage three of the competition where we open up the studio doors and welcome the German fans to watch them obviously playing with our hearts on their sleeve right now.
right now. You can hear how much enjoyment Tapsons getting out of playing with these guys.
Yeah, yeah, man. He's been around the block. He's been around for a while. So, I mean, he knows,
he knows these don't, these aren't always easy to get to these majors and these situations to
progress even further. So, he's just living the dream right now with a new squad that he has a lot
of faith in. You know, I was reading before this game went live, just doing some research. You know,
this Fabin gave an interview just a couple days back and he basically been like, this is the best
atmosphere I've ever been in. He was just going on and on about the atmosphere and the team, how
Now while they work together, he says his connection with Blame F is really, really good, really, really strong.
So everyone seems to be on the same page. Everyone seems to be in a good mood overcoming some of the issues that they face.
And obviously, with those kind of vibes, nice and easy to kind of soar your way to a map victory on Ancient when you start heating up into things.
They've done a lot of the hard work upsetting fate on that opening map.
Bates, map pick. Now you come to Overpass where you wanted to take it, and it feels like it's all yours from here.
Well, FaZe went up for that hill-maring run to try and qualify for the major.
The team that stopped them from getting to the major was Big back in Belgrade.
They won that series 2-1 in the final. They qualified here to the major and now...
Breaking hearts before the major even started.
Exactly. And now looking to try and get into stage 3.
Overpass kicks off. You've got Sizi all the way down towards Divider.
And he's going to pick up that early information and fall away.
Yeah, Big's map pick here on Overpass.
So they're going to start on the T side, which we know can be an issue.
We've seen many a T side stall out fall flat and have zero impact here on overpass
So the first obstacle for big is getting this
offense cruisin
Everyone's aligning up outside the B bomb site smoke towards heaven rotation is underway for the CT side as well
So it's all down to the kills now first for Ken's is on Alex
Yeah, first couple of kills are great JDC and found both removed
Blamehouse gonna go and fight on and not give this pistol round up. Bricks is still alive
He's trying to fight towards that heaven pig but Sissy long range not even gonna be finished off
Just dodging ducking and weaving those bullets in bait to find the pistol here in overpass
Yeah, they rotated so so quick they had everyone here ready to party very very fast before anyone from big was even
Pressuring into the bomb site itself really really good defensive stand for bait to get the pistol and start off
The right way on the CT side trying to recover in this series
Lovely shot from Kenzazor, Alex chimed in as well over from the ramp.
And Big just couldn't find the kills to secure himself and any kind of safety for a plant or any kind of safety to try and snatch the round away.
So, a Diga long play map and glocks otherwise.
Up to be a second round of row here for Bait, which is so important for the measure mentioned.
Getting a good start here on this map is going to mean everything, because,
all right, ancient, missing out on a good start really cost him, it felt like you got so much energy built up early on for Bait.
You had a clutch moment in the fourth round where Griggs gets to collateral 1v3
Yeah, there's a lot of things going right for big in the early stages for a team without a coach
And a team that kind of just got beat up on the first map as well for them. The hot start is just so critical. It's it's so important
For this we'll see what the first gun rounds look like but I mean if you can really start to bury this t-side and
replenish that confidence
It won't be the calm composed team we saw on ancient they'll get some celebration of their own going
They never really had a chance to pop off in the first map because they never got close to overtaking anything
To nothing and the rifles come in for big
Two Galils three AK-47s plenty of nades. AWP is gonna be out in the hands of Sizi for Bates defense
Scariest thing on the map for Big's attack
Now literally some hit or miss situations for Sizi on that last map
Two great shots, but towards the end of the game, there's an important one on the A-Box.
More pressure on his shoulders again here with CT side AWPing on overpass.
Most important role as you can play.
He's got no rival on the other side at the moment.
He's going to start falling back towards the A-side early on with that AWP.
And we'll see Big start scaling up past the fountain.
I'm just taking the time.
Yeah, they've gotten into like the first step territory, right?
Taps it at the squeak door, JDC up at Picnic, but not really moving past this at the moment,
seeing if they're going to get any kind of a reaction.
And they don't want to give them that reaction because they're still working with some MP9s.
Good push from MPL.
That's exactly what they were looking for, but at the wrong moment, now you have 43 seconds left of the clock, you've got three players and you've got the entire map to figure out.
You lost the bomb on that precious wall, so that bomb goes down at Fountain, so you're not recovering this if you're big. It's been a non-starter. This round literally went nowhere.
So, that was the first gun round, just chalked it up as a loss, and they're gonna be very happy about how this has started.
Yeah, but you're right in saying it went absolutely nowhere. It was not even necessarily that it went nowhere, it's that nothing was done to make it go anywhere.
Right it was just kind of like everyone getting into a position and standing and chilling and that's 50 seconds MPL is like
All right, I'll move I'll be the one to make a play first. Yeah, it's like let's call it default and
That was it nothing else
Yeah, a little bit awkward for big good kill from MPL just as JDC turns the corner not ready for the fight grabs a second one
distraction with the smoke
Peek and with it just a beautiful round start to finish from MPL triple kill for him
We'll bring that bomb all the way back over to West Johnson now, big.
We'll attempt to break forward, but you've got a rifle here and you've got Sizi's
AWP.
It just doesn't seem all that likely that you're going to find too much success if
you're big getting anyone near the bathrooms here warm since he's all
but there's the first big JDC he's gone and 5v4 now for big I look at a little
bit sharper across the board for bait than what we saw in ancient so early
going here on overpass haven't seen big really dig too deep into the playbook
and throw anything too tricky at the defense
and invested quite a bit you want to get something out of this if you're big
two kills at the very least take some money away miss shot from the off close
himself as MPL, he's only able to get the one.
That's an aide to Fnishoff.
Great Sizi going back out again.
Great to see this 4K coming in from Sizi
and you want him to come online as early as possible
if you're big.
Nightmare scenario for Big who's now looking at an AWPer
who's just kind of wrecked him with a quad kill
in that round and they're on the other side of the coin
of San.
I hope he doesn't start to feel comfortable
and settle into this because the AWP on this map
can just be an absolute nuisance picking you apart
as you move across it.
First time out for Big to talk things over, 0-4 the score line that they're staring at, gonna have another buy coming in with rifles, one Galil on Blame F.
Haven't really seen him do a whole lot quite yet and attempt to be exact on the pistol round that went sideways.
First gun round had nothing to it.
Now we'll see if they can find an opportunity to scale up towards these bomb sites and cause some issues for Bates defense.
says he's doing a good job with the off, standing his ground.
We didn't really have to see Big's offense back on ancient whatsoever.
It didn't really have to build into anything.
They kind of had all the advantages and just kind of got to run them over to close out the map.
Here on Overpass, they're going to have to play a grindy style now down 0 to 4.
And JDC off the march, but here comes MPL trying to get aggressive, trying to get into
his face and JDC will send out a headshot.
Seems like that was a conversation and a philosophy change that they wanted to have between the
maps now.
We've seen MPL aggressive a number of times to open up this half, so wanting to be a little
bit more in their face, wanting to be a little bit more disruptive and SZ is in a great position
for it. Can peek out at will with impunity. Man, he's been over towards A the whole start
of this game, but now he's in the right place at the right time. Here's the push forward.
JDC picks up, but he got stuck. Oh, he rashed straight into the board, so he's only got the
one. His teammates need to step up now instead. An essential comes out with the AK, but a
blinded situation for him. He only gets the one. Alex comes off short, and Griggs trades
that as well, so it's Kensis or Flawless so far. Six and zero start, and he slipped
this position probably earlier than they expect. So he comes up around the back and the element of surprise hits enough!
Kensen's sword comes in, saves the day for Bait. A quick reposition and he arrives way earlier than Bait would anticipate.
Yeah, they never spotted him drop out of heaven, but the only reason he's able to make that play is due to the fact his teammates provide so much resistance.
This is a lovely kill from JDC, even coming unblind.
This is unfortunate getting caught on the wall, that's the first kill, but look at the follow-up two players, one of the toxic barrels gets a kill, one of the MP7 at boards or MP9 at boards gets a kill, and because of all of that, Kenzie is able to drop down with the distraction.
In a very different environment inside the studio between rounds as well, no more do we have Tabson's voice ringing out, no more do we hear the cheers out of big, because they're quiet.
Everything was going right for them at the start of ancient now. Nothing is going right for them at the start of overpass
They're the ones in the 5-0 hole and they have to try to come back into this and they lose the opening kill from a boost
Feels like bait is starting to hit a bit of a flow state on the CT side
Well, you know all the conversation around you know different the map pool and you know the lack of a coach and everything like that
I'd say you know even before this series I would have mentioned I felt like you know individually
I'd give the I'd give the edge over to the bait side of things top to bottom
We didn't get to see any of that back on ancient starting to see a bit of it here on
On overpass another good win for NPL eight and three start for him eight and no for Kenzie six and one for Sizi
Blin that thing behind. Oh
What the he still gets it, but yeah strange quick switch that for playing that I don't know
What happened there, but he's managed to pull it off
As long as you still get it
Hey, you don't tilt if you still get it get a little bit frustrated with yourself if you died at
50 seconds in the clock. Resmote coming in.
It's a rifle passed over to Griggs as well.
So they're going to smoke off Monster.
Say they're more than happy to take any engagement that comes off towards Sandbags, towards Short.
They're giving this round a lot of breathing room, a lot of silence, to make it feel like they're moving across this gigantic map.
Essential in the Alex to defend, and they're going to defend at the point of attack.
Oh, it stops playing that from getting out of monster your last hope is bricks and that rifles also gone
They do not get passed into the blue wall right now for this bait defense
All right, now we get to see what Biggs mentality has we talked about it in the last map and coming into this one
How they all feel like this is the atmosphere and the environment is the best they've ever been in and
Enjoyed working with each other and figure out how to make this team work
Let's see if that stands through now that you're staring down 0 to 6, how that nothing's going your way and nothing feels like it's working.
Electrically this team is going to have to find the solutions.
I mean the core part of that energy and the positivity and the communications task has started 0 and 6 as well.
So frustrating start for Capsen and that's something that's going to start slowing those columns down and his willingness to start celebrating and shouting.
Oh, for sure. He's waiting for that moment that gives it a reason to, but veteran presence,
I don't think it's going to be any issue for him to snap back in once they, well, if they can turn the corner.
Tapsen's joining up. Balm on his back with Blaine F and Favin outside of Monster.
JDC and Griggs to challenge out towards Long, but again, it's Sizi.
The opening fight, opening pick with the AWP.
And with that Long presence, the defense starts shifting back, but now the step forward for Big comes through Monster.
Man, they're walking up and Alex is just waiting here at the barrels.
Oh, pulls the utility.
They're close, and they just want second-aid as well.
Okay, just not ready for Tapsen to be so far up.
Essential try to be sneaky and get into the same position, but as Tapsen finally arriving
to the server and playing after is far too far forward, that's the bomb.
And it's down in the pit now.
This is a tough situation all of a sudden for Big, and they've got to put themselves
in it.
Yeah, should still be under control.
Tapsen going to peek up.
This is the chance. This is the shot. Oh, it's a catastrophe. Oh, they can't catch a break and says he can't miss apparently
JDC 1v2 required
And it cannot be overstated
How important this clutch would be if they can pull this off and oh quick show kensies would dad now
It says he's stepping out and rising to the occasion of the clutch
That is a 4k a 10 and one start from the 16 year old and seven rounds in a row for bait
That's crazy. Nothing's going big in direction whatsoever. They even had all the advantages in that round.
They had the defense shifting away from their point of attack.
They had two defenders at the B bomb site, neither of which were keeping an eye on this walkout.
They had no intention or no information on the scaling. You had a free opening kill, a really easy second kill into the bomb site.
It's the aggression of trying to close out the rotation by pushing forward to the graffiti by Tapsin with the bomb, by BlayMath who tried to follow it up.
And they're coming for a quick B-play. Looking desperate already, big with Tec9 trying to get out, trying to get through.
Tapsen's killed his own teammate, but he has made up for it with a trade onto Alex.
Waiting inside all water though. Tapsen goes flying over the top to remove essential.
And they break into this B-bomb site.
They've got to hold it now.
Should be okay. The nightmare is giving up a one easy kill at this point before the bombs even planted.
JDC hasn't worked up the courage to slide into the bomb site just yet.
Just yet, one player gonna flank monster from bait.
Oh, made tickles, Tapsin.
Can't concede this one big.
This will be mentally shattering.
You finally, and you get the bomb planted,
a 4v3 post plant.
Says he's stuck at heaven, uncomfortable.
Trying to clear that with the AWP.
Flash goes in, Kansy's AWP.
Again, a great kill.
Nearly reacts fast enough, MPL now.
Triggers forward, out of monster!
He's got one more, and it's MPL in the 1v1 against Plan F, he's right below him!
And with that Tech 9, he looks to the sky, MPL couldn't figure out where he was, but confused, and finally, big breakthrough.
That was so close, I thought MPL was going to be able to win that, but the jump up onto the box,
couldn't figure out exactly where Blemeth at what, made himself an easy target.
A very tough win for Big, but they've got their first round off of B Rush.
And the margins were so small again, like look how close Sissi is to getting that kill on the site player with the AWP.
It's a really well played round from Beta as well. They're trying to retake that with the flank coming in.
Just as the players are starting to move from Graffiti and Heaven, dropping the flashes, taking a shot.
That's when the flank activated. If it's maybe a little bit earlier to save the Heaven player, Sissi with the AWP,
might have actually come out on top of it. But that was a very much needed round for Big to get their first foot hold here on the T side of Overpass.
Overpass and they do it at a point where there's still time for them to recover this half
Yeah, and back to back entry power as well from Tapsin
He was the player that got the impact two rounds in a row that the reason they were getting into the site
And this time actually able to make something off it
But now it's the Germans on the receiving end of a seven to one score line
Yeah, well you've got another bite of breakthrough if you're big off still in the hands of Sissi
You've got one now in the hands of Griggs as well. He was excellent on ancient but NPL back to his disruptive ways
Oh, he really is. Oh, Gricks.
Not gonna be able to handle that at all. MPL's gone forward. Even had help from his teammate.
He didn't need it. He caught both kills and MPL's away with his life.
Not the best positions to watch for that long push from, especially if your Gricks stoked up, never even saw MPL swing out wide.
And just when you have a chance to build up momentum, this is the worst feeling.
Two players die immediately and your heart sinks.
And you gotta love the attitude though from bait right there disruptive confidence that they're showing it's an attitude that we didn't see on ancient
It's an I mean and it's also let's say we've prompted the deaths have kind of be talking about that that whole thing of
Bait looking like they're kind of playing not to lose not so much to come in and win the game and qualify
But here on the gun overpass this looks like a bait team that's motivated to win
This is a team that came in and hated the way ancient went and
Has done a complete 180 because now they're getting into fights now. They're pushing into your face now
They're trying to influence the way the map can play
A lot of it on the shoulders of NPL with all the pushes he's had towards Fountain and Longay.
He set themselves up to have a hot start and he's helping them to continue into the later
stages of this half.
We will always talk about the big comeback when there were 0-12 down, but we also have
to talk about the other side of that, a team that are able to go 12-0 down.
You know, like we're in that position where they just spiral out of control and we're
put it against the wall and the reason that's a historical run and the reason
they were able to come back and everybody's talking about it is because that doesn't
happen that often. So if you find yourself in that position again, especially in a
game of this importance, how many times can you actually do that? And also
frustrating too if this is your map pick. Thinking about that, the map that you
decided to go to last night or this morning had a conversation how you
want to play it and you come in here and everything's gone in the complete wrong
direction. So seven rounds back and this round they'd love to forget about. It was pretty much over
at a minute and 35 seconds left in the rounds.
Favon's feet didn't even get to touch the head of his teammate before he died.
This is the buy you have as well. Favon having to play with the Khalil, so is JDC.
Chris, trying to sprint up short with his AWP. Trying to make it the battering round that
opens things up, but the AWP on the other side is waiting for him and says he steps forward
into the next fight. This time he gets away, he doesn't run into the wall.
Favon tries to make up for it. We see his AWP here on ancient. Didn't do too much.
This is so desperate. This is so desperate in every single way and you can just sense
it. You can see by the fights they're selecting the way they're stepping into Molotov's trying
to force the issue. Nothing's worked and they've got no idea how to make it work.
Diary to your side now for Big 9-1.
That's a shocking turn of events from map 1 to map 2.
Oh, incredibly so. I mean, there was, it felt like only one team mentally showed up to the series after ancient, right?
Big came out swinging, such a great start, so much momentum and positivity coming out of the team.
For all the reasons highlighted by a desk about why it's going to be tough for Big to stay in it mentally.
They have really risen to the occasion using that break in between maps to reset come back on their opponent's map page
And be up 9 to 1 in the first half and look you like they're even going to get more
And PL in the middle of the map doesn't want to stick around too long drops another Molotov to cover his escape
JDC at fountain Greeks and tabs it over by blue door Fabin is gonna be there as well blame F outside the B bomb site
Lovely chip damage on a Tapsin and Gricks from the Nade, and the spam was, uh, it's right there.
Little bit of extra damage.
Little bit of extra damage. Always helps here for bait.
Just feeling like you're suffocated now, big.
They wanted the show here, that they're lined up outside the B bomb site, getting ready for an exact, right?
Getting ready for a set piece, that these tech lines have kind of gotten close and are about to barrel their way in,
way in and now they've evacuated to the other side of the map. But with that boost up, decent
amount of information gained for Bates. So Kenzie's always already going to read the
play and start shifting over to the A-bomb site.
And you're going to be communicating to Sissy to get ready, to get ready for what is going
to be an A-play. And the flash is coming over the top. The all-post scope, pinned behind
the dice box and he goes out of the open. Another collateral. This time from Sissy showing
us his all-pin skills are sensational. Four picks up. There's the eighth for the young
Man, he's got all five, 10-1 lead for Bage.
And 16-2 for Bage, brother.
Incredible.
He's just been absolutely dominant.
This is disgusting.
We said it right at the start.
Right when he was up at 5-0 with the op,
he got like a triple kill towards the 8-box.
I was like, look, on overpass, that's the worst thing.
You'd never want to see your opposing offer get the hot hand
and start hitting these shots on both sides of dice boxes.
Absolutely crazy performance out of the Bade offer.
Incredible indeed.
10-1.
I mean, what can you really say about this?
if you're big. All his positive vibes are out the window. You're getting absolutely wrecked.
16-2 from Sizi. He's got a kill for every year he's been on the planet. MPL inside of connector
is dead. That's Taps and it's got rid of him, so at least an opening. But where can you really go for this?
Sizi's still waiting. He's still alive. You're still going to deal with this threat. He's just got another one.
Another one spots his next victim, come and challenge him.
Deagle's out, he'll use that as well.
Sissy's unstoppable, unrelenting.
Could he do it?
Could he get back to back aces?
Well, Kenzie's always probably going to ruin that.
He's got the rifle ready.
JGC's coming out.
Kenzie's always blind, but he takes the right steps back.
And that utility is going to cut off the vision of Sissy.
He breaks it open.
And Big slowly limp their way out into the site,
and Kenzie's all around the backside.
It's Alex who's got that kill, Alex who's got both 11-1,
Big nowhere to be seen, they've gone missing.
After being in the lead, after being in control,
Big are nowhere to be seen.
We got it, baby boy!
We got it, baby boy!
We can serve in this game, okay? We have done many comebacks before. It's really important.
There's three set now.
And we need to keep going on CT, okay?
Yeah.
We're in the pistol and we get into the floor like we did against NRG, okay?
And also we did it back then against a lot of other teams.
We just need to keep believing. That's really important.
Yeah, we see that side we believe in.
Yes, exactly. The game is not over until it's over, okay?
very different vibes in the pick camp than what we saw on math one it was all
jubilation and celebration and joy now it's muted it's a little bit quiet and
it's dreaming of that comeback they had just a few days back to get here in the
stage to all those comebacks against all those teams like energy and other
other teams so we get into the second half and 11-1 lead for bait surely they
can't let this go no that was the way they're playing yeah I mean the eye
test is completely switched where big just kind of looked individually on a
different level on ancient it's a completely different degree here on
overpass where it feels like eight players taking all the initiative shark
shooting as well play mev gush gricks might have to fall back this aggressive
piece from the cc side hasn't panned out one for one on gricks at least there's
that
for the fort you got a push coming through monsters while here for big even
Bates falling right back into this push and they might be able to catch tabs and all on his lonesome
Well, he spotted one he wants out get out of that and it also I mean it's kind of weird
It kind of puts bait into a weird situation where they're I mean they're back at T spawn like essentially the round has just started for them
And a four on four you have less than a minute left still a defensive smoke to deploy a monster
Gonna be a tough pistol rounds
It's gonna be really tough to see how big get out of this one
They're gonna reposition that smoke is enough to just tell him go somewhere else. All right, boys
We're doing strat roulette
First we go out to found get a kill then we fall back to the B bombsite force out of smoke now
We just run all the way back through playground 30 seconds left to the clock the turn of the corner out at long out of the big rock
Lotta ways to go and not a lot of time to slow down. It's gonna be very close
I guess you know, wait, it's all the deep. It's a B. Well, that's the only way he's coming back now. I'll go back
Oh, boy. Oh, they've got a smoke as well. They can throw that out for the cross and just get on to the site
You have to plant it pretty soon like there exists a couple of seconds here blast trying to stop them
But he's gonna play passive and an essential one the fight against JDC was their biggest threat in terms of stopping that bomb plant
So they've actually done it. They find a way into the site. They've got to play advantage as well
They might just be over kensis or taping down three on three Alex MPL and essential to hold on to the post plant
Better bank on MPL getting at least the kill here.
Just gonna hold with that Glock.
Not abiding by the...
Oh my god!
...rolls on the wall, but he's got headshot, Blemeth coming through with a great headshot on MPL.
They try and get out into the site, out of swinging towards the dice box.
You've got Blemeth stepping up.
How?
Time is ticking, Dfuse starting, and I don't know how he's done it, but Blemeth marches in with a 3k and recovers a must win pistol.
It's down to the wire and that defuse is just about taking he's meant to be the distraction with low HP
He's meant to go in and get killed so they can trade him off or grab a kill before being before being dropped himself
What a crazy turn of events to find the bombsite that wide open into four on three
After you after your planet was taken away from you plan B was taken away if you plant C was taken away from you
You find a way to get a bomb plant and then you don't get a shot after the fact what a weird round big take the pistol
Well, that's the opening they were looking for.
Well, Tech 9's, Mac 10.
Come for the fourth spot here, B.
And let's see where B is going to go with this one.
Quickly towards B, straight into the water.
Got a lot of spam damage towards MPL.
40 health left.
He got two players in water and three outside of monster at the time.
B and they can also join up short if they desire,
but they've got utility and a lot of it to try and head into this B bomb site.
Sound cue from the Molotov as well.
Underheading a Nade over the wall, chunking essential down to 65.
Nades still have not moved from these positions outside of the B-Bombside.
Start to finish this round as always.
Betta split towards the B-Bombside. Nades ran in, and now the defense begins.
Well, Tamsin is waiting down. We've got Fappen who's out in the zone for the time being.
But his teammate's helping out, making this defense look very strong for Bade.
They do not break open.
Sissy left with just his eagle.
Okay, another kill, that's his 20th of the game, but it's 4th death.
11-3 leads still for bait, but big winning the first couple.
Yeah, they'll be okay with losing just two players in that round.
Denied the bomb plants, pretty much mopped it up.
No real danger of losing it whatsoever.
So, if you're big trying to get started in mounting this comeback from 1-10,
Or excuse me 111. Yeah, you're looking at you just at least got the start that you've wanted round by round
We go up against pistols with no armor
They go in towards Alex 12 HP to beef you want
Central unhappy. Also 4 HP taps and we're really close to taking that kill, but his group
Favon's rolled to do that, so big draw first blood in this round. He's not going to pose
a threat to the defense at all. Just about not dropping anybody if you're big. You're
need is as much money as you possibly can put together that's why play math is
heading out there with the MP9 get some extra cash on the SMG you can see base
start moving up scaling past the bathrooms and bricks is waiting at
range with the rifle
oh we're still fine we're still all good okay well we're still we're still okay
moderately fine the rifles picked up it's kind of average at the moment
Tapsen's here though, gonna try and delay that bomb plant as long as possible and the flank should even things up, nice and easy.
Yeah, denial of the plant, so Kenzie's all in now, has a clutch ahead of him, he has spent a little bit of time, but Tapsen's still ready for that move, so,
trying to walk through that smoke, Tapsen's got locked in.
Yeah, well prepared, it was the only move that Kenzie's ever really had at the end of the day, being flanked out.
Knew he wasn't gonna really have a great time picking up the bomb, so, big, get the first three of the half and bring this to within seven.
Well, that AWP in the first half of Sizzly was Sizzling.
Yeah, but is it cooled down? That's the question. It's come out straight away. Yeah, it's not even about being cooled down
It's just T side hoping on this map can be as good, you know
See T side on this you just have so many angles you can grab on a retreat as well
If you play aggressive
There's like ten angles you can grab as you fall back and you know depending on the situation you're in T side
You have to have your teammates kind of set you up flash the opposing offer off the angle try and find them somewhere on the map
Rifles need to create the space for that up to have impacts
Oh, Kenzie's all of that timing is a nightmare, pulls utility and as soon as he does so, JDC just appears on the screen.
Can't be too upset about it, NPL is doing the very same thing to big in the first half, that's why their CT side got started so strong.
Look at the central, trying to pull this kill back, trying to reel it in, he's got up towards short, he's in behind the sandbag.
Tamsen gonna peek and get some information. No reaction. Nothing going the way of bait.
Even get caught by the flashes. They try and move out monster. It's a very strong defense
for Big. It's a good look early in this half. Yeah, really nice protocols on juggling that
aggression and where it was coming from. And here's that op of Sizi, as I mentioned, hasn't
been able to get involved just yet. No openings created by the AK-47s, the rifles. So Sizi's
He's got a back off to a deep angle with the AWP and NPL still just making sure they're
not getting flanked out.
34 seconds left on the clock and I think this is just got to be a save for Bate.
And Big's going to be loving that.
Money growing for the CT side.
Got a lot of cash beneath him now.
And five rounds on the board.
Amazing.
Since he's dropped down here.
I'm kind of surprised that Big doesn't want to lose a lot of weapons, but I feel like, you know,
you're Alper kind of dropping into that position. Go take that away.
If you see that as big, he gets that kill on Gricks. Go trade it off.
Tapsen's going to grab the CT side AWP. They'll be content to just get out of here with these four weapons.
So the lead is just six now for bait.
Two away from forcing a third map. They're going to take their first time out and talk things over.
No cause for panic just yet, but
Hopefully a timeout that can prevent big from continuing to grow into this can
reinvigorate bait to put a stop to this defense just being so strong.
Just no one mentioned the NRG game. No one even acknowledged that it ever existed.
No one watched it. Except for us. We can mention it. Just on bait. No one even
acknowledged it. And we all saw it. We all know it happened. Timeout being burned.
Let's see if it's enough to get them on the same page to squeeze out that point.
I think what, around like this it feels like bait's gonna pick up some armor and some
upgraded pistols around the AWP in the AK-47 and played to buy in the next round.
Crustration started to grow, few fights not going their way through surprises with the
JDC push, with Tabsun being so aggressive around boards around the monster position.
Oh, that grenade is massive! 52 HP on Sizi!
I'm backing away after the fact. Here's the AWP angle from Gricks.
The boost up on the stairs to try and peer around the corner, take out an off angle towards
Divider, trying to keep yourself hidden from that front bathroom's peak.
Griggs has given up angles as he goes, and JDC's kind of jump spotting out towards Long,
so there's no rifle to keep the space or keep the scaling towards Divider.
Griggs could be in trouble.
Tough position for an inexperienced player, but he delivered for him on ancient.
Cricks steps out, essential. The first victim of the round.
And Cricks going back into the open pit, this time Sissy stepping out and stepping up.
It's Cricks dead, responses there, 45 seconds left.
Now that the AWP has been taken out, you can see two players from bait reconvening out towards long,
not having to go up against the AWP as they run this route.
However, the defense is stacking up at the A bomb site.
A third defender in Tapsen arriving now over towards bank, doubled up at the truck.
truck. At least on that side of the bomb site, it's a fortress. But can they penetrate it?
Bait trying to come forward from long. 25 seconds left. Good flashbang. Really solid
second flash. PlayMath goes out. JDC has the other. Alex sending a shot back, but Sizi's
dead. Alex in the open and PlayMath hasn't covered off. It's another round for Bait.
One at a time. It's not necessarily going to get easier for Bait either. Sure they have
more money now so they can buy, but remember two saved weapons on Sizi and NPL a couple
rounds back means they didn't get the bonus money, so now you won't have the AWP in Sizi's
hands. He's got to pick up a Galil, NPL only has 2700. So you got a good buy for the bait
side of things, but it's not everything you would have hoped for. All done from BlameF
and JDC playing over towards the truck inside the bomb site. Round 18 is alive. Lead cut
to just five now, 11 to six.
Kansas, oh, that is more like it.
Taking matters into his own hands,
charging out middle, and taking two opening kills.
Blamath trying to respond, he needs to respond.
And utility lands on top of his head,
so he has to fall down.
And he has to continue making plays
that can get his team back in the round.
He cannot just retreat to the B bomb site
and back away and just kind of play it safe.
He's really the only player for big in a position
to make any kind of a move that can help them win in this disadvantage situation, but he
needs to gather information, or he needs to be in a position where he can flike very quickly
and catch them off guard.
For the moment, waiting to see if he's just going to get aggressed upon.
And Bait is happy to leave him in that position as they work out towards Long A. It's only
Tapsin
Smoke fades in the bathrooms. He's got to worry about that
As well as his flank side in a central. He's moving into the B bomb site right now for bait if he doesn't find favin
He might call them back
So close with 35 seconds. He sees nobody here. So he's saying they're stacked up at the A bomb site
They don't have the time. I don't think to make it all the way though
No, they definitely don't so it's got to be the A play right now for bait
Essential is just trying to get a kill here and he's actually spotted Favon, so he's going to just take that frag right now.
Favon dead, final three moving through long.
Captain must deliver and it is only one kill.
You mentioned PlayMath, he's the only option, he's the only player left, and he steps out there planting on the other side of those diceboxes and now they've spotted him.
They've got him locked in.
PlayMath doing what he can.
First is Sissy, next is Kensysaur.
Blame F's got that one too and this is why Bigif brought him to the team. Blame F, stepping up in the big moments.
But Essentials got away. Blame F's found a smoke but Essentials steps out, runs to the top of the stairs.
It does not cower away in the clutch.
Almost an admirable effort. Big was almost able to piece that together right at the perfect moment.
moment. It was so close from being in their hands recovering that three versus five. Instead they
get wiped out and they've got to call their third and final time out. One last conversation to get
that motivation up. As we saw from the tweet of Tapsen he said we're going to be fighting till the
final round so none of these are going to come easy for Bate. They've got six chances to close out
this map. Capitalized on a phenomenal performance in the first half. 11-1 lead.
and the second after just looking to put it into the hole just spotted a leg if
he wasn't able to grab this kill maybe favin could have had some impact in
the round he was moving into the right location even play math making it
possible down the straight six in a row required for big now to force over time
I hope he can kill for a big, great scratch at long and immediately retreats, wants to
change up that position and just hands himself a little bit further back, but Sizi without
his AWP still showing that he's got a lot of prowess on the AK, moves forward through
the smoke, hunts that trade kill down 4v4.
Yeah, like this move though, but you need a few more seconds to put it into place. Blemeth isn't set.
Flashbang is out there as the jump up light shot can't transfer down, but at least one for one.
And the Nade? Oh, too short.
Right direction. Sissy! I cannot believe you've gone back for that one.
You knew they were in position. You don't need to take that fight at that point.
Lord into it by the pressure of the moment.
into the open Sizi is down but is his 3k enough to close out this map Tapsin
looking to deny that MPL last alive 1v2 join through the fire join into the
charge one in the 1v1 fight and he's got what he's looking for MPL against
Farvin this one is for the map he's got so much time as far that arrives about to
walk up the steps onto the truck. Now that's where he is, grenade. Down to 6 HP. Is that
all he needs? One headshot. Let me go to Dust2. MPL walks it in! Dust2 is required. What a
bounce back from Bait. They got blown out of the water on Ancient, but they were turned
to the second map, reinvigorated and led by Sizi. And not even a reaction out of the
eight side no celebration on the clutch MPL barely even reacts for them. It's just business as usual. This is how it should have gone. They've forgotten about the first map. Come in reinvigorated here, put big on the back foot and now we get to decide things on a third map one was all about
It was all about him, but map 2, it's Sizi's show.
Yeah, business as usual may be Jason, but business not exactly as we expected,
Stiko, we might have to just eat our words just to tag here,
because that was an emphatic CT side to kick things off the bait.
You're silver lining, it does come into fruition,
decree, and we find ourselves on the precipice of a third bait.
They're back in it, maybe not celebrating,
but they have that third map to potentially set.
You cannot count out baits on the fact that they've looked tilted or they don't look like they want to be here or play Counter-Strike at all,
because that's just how it is inside the game.
That's how they deal with, I don't know if that's how they deal with pressure, but I think this is just an everyday thing for them.
That's how their team function, and I think you can put pretty much any player that's also that team inside that will not function.
But for this squad, you know, that's what, how they deal with it.
And I think it's a very interesting approach.
It's very different from how how big is doing it
But that's also one of the reasons why I think they're gonna be bound to pet because if they would have been sitting there screaming and yelling and
Have been finding themselves in this, you know very low ceiling then they wouldn't have made this comeback just dead inside and on the show
And be it like
Yeah, you know show it. Yeah, I mean the season gets an ace, you know, no hype nothing
No, no celebration from him or his teammates that feels a little bit like weirds coming from the outside
perspective. I guess it works. And as we said before, nothing makes sense in this best of three.
Confident went on ancient out of all maps for BIG. Now it goes to overpass again. Confident went
in terms of BA. Got a little bit rowdy towards the end, but you know, win is a win. And yeah,
third map on the menu. Rowdy inside the server. Certainly not outside. Couldn't be me. Couldn't
be you, Peter. I can imagine you being like this. But it was the Sizi show through and through. He
started firing on all cylinders on that CT side's deco. And it's exactly what we need, right? He's
an instrumental player in terms of some of these high-pressure situations and he delivers on this map.
Yeah, and Overpass is going to be, you know, always labeled as that kind of
city-side-op paradise, so to speak. It's not like Dust 2, which we're going to be seeing, but
a lot of the ways how we can play this map is very, like, low risk and you're still getting a lot of
impact. Look at the skills that Sizz is getting. Obviously, this is probably one of the only rounds
where it goes really close. He kills Stapson here and then ends up in 1v1 against JDC,
But other than that, a lot of the times he was just in a good position, in a good angle,
and there's so many of them on overpass that if you don't have utility on the east side,
then you're going to have time clearing everything. So that's why on the east side,
he's getting a lot of the kills. Right now we see him getting an ace. You can see that he's just
having a good time and it's really hard to counter these op plays that he's going for.
It's not even an op plays. It's just op holds. It's op shotgunning, right? Yeah, yeah. Plastic
fallen. It's a map where you do actually get a lot of free shots off because you have so many
opportunities of getting one shot and then you can just fall back if you get blind whether that's
playing long or playing the A side but the thing that apart from him hitting all of his shots when
he got the maturity the one thing that really stood out to me that he was just being everywhere on
the map he's being very fluent he found himself in connector trying to get kills he was also a
president B both trying to get kills through monster but also a shot but then you know phenomenally
me as an as an albus paradise stick into the eight bombs that if you really know how to work
your angles which he did in this one then um then you're just like a you're such a nuisance to get
rid of because it's it's so hard and like you have to be on point with the shots and to eliminate him
and i just don't think big pick was this we got to see that in the highlight package as well so
many different areas which is almost extra impressive when you consider the flat first map
they had right as a team bait like to go into your opponent's map pick which we were branding as a
a punish but that much confidence it's kind of one of those situations where you think okay we've
got nothing left to lose I guess I just go out and play my game and we've actually seen that work
for bait a handful of times yeah exactly what I was saying I think this is exactly what we've seen
from bait multiple times backs against the wall where if they lose this map they're out of the
tournament and yeah someone decides to turn up sometimes it's MPL sometimes it's kensizor today
it was well sisi mainly kensizor in a kind of like a playing duet with him and he was also present
On the T side, they kind of slowed down in my opinion, but yeah, they get over the line.
11-1 scoreline is a really tough one to throw. So yeah, this is just Dust all over the place.
I really think that Big looked extremely prepared on Ancient. I really feel like they looked like
a team that knew exactly what they wanted to do with their game plan, but also the individual
plays. But this one seemed to me that Big was really prepared. Like I saw specifically on the
also, even if they turned their attention to the T side, that's where they had like, you know,
the staggered grenades, they were at least trying to get their game-playing through.
But sure, the fact that they got that many rounds on the CT side, that's what saved them in the end,
because I don't think they would have gotten maybe like four or five rounds.
That would be too difficult, because they could really show the prowess of why they're so good
on the CT side. Whereas I was a little bit concerned looking at Big. It's like, when you get this close,
they're really close to winning out and you're cleansing their spot in stage three.
I really feel like Big tried to finish this map too fast.
I think they played too fast.
It sounds weird saying they wanted to get it over with, right?
But sometimes if you want to achieve something so bad,
you just want to throw yourself in there like,
yeah, I'm going to be the hero of the round.
We can do this, guys.
And they just seem to be forgetting a bit of their fundamentals here.
How we add to this is that those clutches went always in the favor of BA.
Especially on this B side, we've seen Sizi winning that 1v1 against JDC, I believe.
and there was also Kansis are winning 1v2, just spamming the planter in the smoke on B side.
Those were pretty early in the half and I think if those rounds would have gone BIG's way,
I think we got a game on our hands, but since everything kind of like they did was just kind of
like going their way and then it ended up with 1.
Let's put some visuals to what we're referencing to then because there were CT rounds at plenty,
you could have chosen from DePri, why did you pick out round number 5?
I really wanted to take into consideration this one that it's the game plan of fate here
that MPL is really trying to be aggressive, a little bit like trying to set the pace of
the game.
He does go down in this specification.
Then you see Sisi as I mentioned, he's being very proactive, he does try and find his kill,
he does find it, then gets caught off a little bit and this is why all past CSI is so difficult
because you can tell from the rotations happening, the trades are going back and forth that the
The rotation is so fast and Kenzo realizes that the only chance of him going into this
round by winning is to drop out of heaven super fast and you can tell by the fact that
the pick players, they don't even know he's here.
He catches the guy inside and then just spams through and wins out this round.
It's a tough start for Big now that this is a round they saw themselves winning, but the
rotation is there so fast and that is just why all past CT side can be so hard to deal
with because it's just like one guy that just pours in, it's like Lemmings just falling
out of him.
They just don't give you time to breathe and I think Kenzo, he played this one extremely well.
Yeah, I agree. I think that since he was close to monster, gave all the information needed just in time.
I always feel a bit delusional whenever I see Big on that CT side though.
Like we were up there to free, Stiko, you committed to the bit a bit.
A bit ahead of us, you were already down here waiting, you could see that one ending out.
I just feel like, yeah, I felt like I'm kind of losing my mind.
Sometimes we went into that second half, but ultimately it wasn't to be, to pray.
No, I think you know it was too big of a gap to close out and I think even though we saw a
He longest you know come back from big against an ID, you know
It's still something that is so rare that like having to to to win off so many rounds on the seed side
It's still a very difficult task and I think they they they showed that they were here to play and that they want
They wanted this is just as big just in a different fashion, right?
So it's it's still very open for both teams
I think it's it's really gonna come down to the resilience and on this third one because
Resilience is the main character for both teams throughout this tournament, so it's
about showing who can stay the coolest for the last one because it's going to be very important.
Big on our screens right now, they're going to be starting Dust2 on the CT side of things,
so Stiko, what do you expect off the bat for them to kind of right their wrongs of what we saw on
this overpass? It's really hard to say about Dust2 for either of these teams. We haven't seen them
play too much here, I think there was only one game for each so far this major. All I'm going to say
is that this Dust2 win is going to be incredibly vital and important for the Stage 3 because we
We have new teams coming in and all of them in this tier one pure tier one teams
They're so good on that suit that you need to be capable of having something along the lines of good practice and also good execution
So I want to highlight that whoever wins this gives themselves extra extra chance to have some kind of veto advantage
Or at least not so big disadvantage moving into stage three
I don't expect anything then good and messy CS, but you know, it's a bad and bi g
So let's see who delivers more like for the longest time
I can remember playing big in my tournaments that was always they picked us to and all you would ban out those two
Because you didn't want to play those two against big. I think for the the core is it's a little bit different nowadays
But it was always their go-to map
So I think at least absent he enjoys playing it right you know and I'm sure that the team as a whole also is fine
With going up on those two
I think it's they sure gets energy that they can play at high level and I know it's it's just energy
But they did win it's 13-5
So it's definitely still a comfortable place to go for them whether it's going to be enough against bait
I don't know. I think bait is also a team that that they just it's a perfect playground for them because they can go for a
Lot of pushes they can play a little bit of orthodox pushing smokes and you know
It's a little bit it can be a playground if you play correctly well too very compelling maps
But ironically going the opposite direction now both teams will sell the score on dust to a spot at stage three awaits
after this quick break
I had so many trades trading in me, you're miles away.
Harry Jr. Tell me one round, hold on, let me pull up CS Stats.
Wait, my bad.
Settle your debates, search your profile on CS Stats, and turn on tracking to see all your games.
I got top, that's one.
I got top, that's one.
Nice.
Block the block, block the block.
Block the block.
As they are, they are scouting, looking for, getting awkward.
Zybel good for Zontics.
Oh, come on, come on, come on.
That's not so safe.
Come on, come on, come on.
Nice!
Nice boy.
Big boys.
Big boys and now he's got a couple of kills and this one,
Queen has a whistle.
Nice boy.
Nice, nice.
Watch the log, watch the log.
Watch the log.
I'm going for B.
I'm going for Flash!
Flash!
I'm going for it!
Flash!
Flash!
I'm going for it!
I'm going for it!
Oh, fuck!
You just went for it.
I tried to pick a new one, but...
I'm going for it.
Nice fucking run today.
He was perfect, I promise.
He just picked Super.
I'm gonna kill him!
I'm gonna kill him!
I'm gonna put him back for real.
Guys, just remember to pass the dust.
We kill Zip, we do a run.
We kill Zip, we do a run.
Yeah, I'm just calling, I'm a string.
I'm gonna try it.
Yeah, yeah, work out.
They wanted to explore B, watch out. They have Adidas, I think.
Maybe they will do Adidas, okay?
So let's be focused guys.
Because they don't have a strong bike.
We need to play with Robin at the beginning, okay?
Yeah, we need to play with Robin.
Zip, I can't see him, I'll go up to the stairs.
This could be perfectly timed.
Oh, an armoured.
And well...
Cywoo!
Sense chopper to spawn.
Ouch, that hurts!
Dom does deliver!
There it is!
It's enabled to plant.
But is it around?
We certainly should be now!
On one.
On one.
Come on, come on!
That's it?
Let's go, let's go, let's go.
Hey, cut still, he's the round!
He has the key, he has the smoke.
It's an ult for Junior, and this gets all good!
This gets really all good, very quick!
He's spamming around, and then ult!
Nice job!
Let's go!
When you're just trying to serve, you play a few rounds,
you can understand that your team is not in the shape,
you're not communicating the way you shoot,
you're doing some mistakes that you usually never do, then they just begin to use the situation.
No, I didn't see the first one, I didn't see the second one, up there, up there.
No, who do you want?
Rob's caster hit a hard shot with the AWP.
Oh, it's okay, he'll do it anyway.
Flames definitely gets a point.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Wait.
Okay, Rob's went to drop the second AWP to Mezzi on ramp,
round expired, Rob's lost the AWP, they didn't get either.
It was a very small thing, people kind of nearly make it a big thing,
thing but I mean we won the rounds I think we had pretty good economy the
next time you just brush it off if you get too long into it then for sure you're
gonna raise the next one as well
Welcome back to the Intel Extreme Masters Cologne Major 2026.
There are very few opportunities you get to play at majors in your career and even
fewer you get to play in front of your home crowd. If they are able to get through this map,
the studio doors open up. We get a small Truman crowd ready to come and watch them and give them
support. And if there's any shot at getting stage three, well, they will have the crowd support.
But Bate have put an obstacle in their way. It was looking smooth sailing for Bate. They came in
today, intense, fired up. Everything was going their way. They defeat Bate on their map pick on
their home turf of ancient, but they did not account for Sizi. He comes in, he shows up,
and Overpass is picked up by Bate and we will settle who is going out of a major who is going to stage 3 here on Dust2
It's a it feels like a perfect map Dust2 to end this on considering as you mentioned
Sissi was lights out the star on Overpass you go back to ancient Grex with the op for big clan was an absolute beast
Carry them through some stretches pull them over the finish line. So ops are both warmed up
As we enter this third and deciding map one team is eliminated here
one team is moving on the stage three to play in front of the crowd here at the
Cologne Major. MPL and KENZEZOAR and SISI moving down middle as we speak.
Flash gonna go through the doors. MPL unleashed charging out towards JDC but
all of a sudden three players are big appears they drop down and are ready to
fight. It's going the way of bait until Favon and JDC show up with the Jubilettas
and the USP but essential comes as the release valve from the tunnels and that
That bomb can sprint up and try and get in towards B.
Yeah, and how do you want to play this now in the 2-on-2?
You know the one player's got to cross with the bomb as well.
USB not a great one to hit this shot on.
JDC wants to challenge blinded.
Oh, it's beautiful.
Right to the dome.
Yeah, now it's essential.
1v2.
Blamer half is a long way off.
He's all the way down in CT.
Ready to react once JDC takes contact.
But JDC hits that headshot.
Essential walks out the door trying to fight for the clutch.
And that's big, taking pistol.
Now, both the teams who have gone on
lose the first two maps of this series have started very very slow right it was bait on ancient who
started slow couldn't anything go get going for six seven rounds big they were one and eleven at
the end of the first half they just had a terrible opening half so let's see what's gonna happen for
bait is this a lost pistol i'm gonna be able to respond to that gun run to get started we just heard
the words from zontics and the content piece as well of saying you step into a server and you
play a couple rounds and you know immediately if your team has it or not you know within the first
three rounds whether they're ready to fight. I'll just walk into the toys, no fighting
this round. And the glock actually does a little bit more than you might anticipate.
Blin-F was hoping to get a few of the glock kills going this way, but they're going to
stop another dink on board, but they double up and they pair up for those kills. When
you've got MPL stepped it short, you'll be finished off, and a 2-0 start for Pink.
Alright, well I think this first gun round is going to tell us a lot of what kind of
attitude Bate comes into it. Another reason why Dust2 is going to be a lot of fun in my
on is there seemed to be like a swap in my brain at least for the for the eye test
back on back on overpass or just felt like individually they was showing that
they have they have a level that they can hit that we didn't see on the first
map of the series I feel like individually bait's gonna be the
stronger team and dust you can make that very very dangerous for big no ops yet
out on the field JDC and Tapsin gonna defend long NPL and Alex to challenge it
Taps in.
Rounding the Sombra smoke.
It's JDC with the first two MPL trying to keep this fight going for bait.
But JDC tapping away and that smoke has got another one.
And look at this. BAKE have read the call. They've reacted but Sissy!
He's got two headshots back. He's 3 HP though.
He slipped into the smoke. If he had a little bit more health, this clutch is a lot more doable.
But Favon grabbed the information though. If he slips all the way back around through T spawn, this changes.
This can turn into a timing round.
So Favon going to fall in towards lower, slide over towards upper and he has the read, he has the timing and he's going to get the sound cues.
Yeah, he's going to get this kill too if he wants it, but he's not going to move up quick enough to get into the position, but...
It's fine. Sizi can't actually stop and this is the last place he's going to check. He can't actually stop and do anything about it.
His goal is the bomb plate. He's got that and you're going to go down.
Crosses into the open. Favon's not even the player to get the kill. Let's play a map all the way down at CT.
They had a fourth player big at long, quite quickly.
Yes.
They were ready for that reaction.
They had three coming initially.
And then I think Blaine F was that third player with utility.
I think Gricks almost called them off.
Was it Gricks as the fourth player?
Just said, no, you go join up with them.
I'll throw the utility.
It was just a war of attrition.
Just trying to get out those doors.
I mean, it would have been complete shutdown
if it wasn't for Sizi getting a double there.
And actually, just slip away with the ball and planting.
Some point, you get that extra cash available.
They're going to have a scout and a couple of pistols
this round but it's a by returning in the next yeah at least as he took a
couple of weapons away for some revised good shot from Griggs with the ops as
he tags his teammate he doesn't want better captain's in trouble though already
out he's very late to this long party fortunate that they weren't able to turn
the corner Alex or if he had a tech nine maybe you could just run and gun it but
a five on three
all right this happened pretty quick you're big gonna be four zero up and
and hot starts have been the name of the game.
And you're highlighting.
Let's see what they can do here.
They can still dig deep into 3v5,
try and squeeze out a bomb plan.
The issue is you've got two players waiting on this B bomb site.
Actually just entrenched in the site itself,
and the A players are playing pretty passive,
so with these weaker weapons,
you're looking too likely.
Yeah, you don't want to give them any chance to pick up a gun
and go on a little bit of a run,
so good shot from Griggs.
Not really much to do here. Smoke is down. JDC playing outside the bomb site. Another good shot from Gricks off warming up on the CT side Dust2.
He's going to have all three. Makes it four total on the round as I go through a little bit of a count there.
Both these teams have played Dust2 once in this major. For Big it was a 13-5 win over NRG back in Stage 1 in that series that would eventually move them into Stage 2.
2. Ferbeta was thundered down under, who they defeated 13-11 here on Dust2, also in stage
1.
No, Dust2 was high pressure, I'm currently watching for them and I've really enjoyed
watching both AWPers today.
Griggs and Sizi really showing up at JDC into the lower tunnels.
She's come away with the opening kill.
Yeah, that's actually nasty.
Very disruptive, slows things down, make it disjointed.
You added to the fact that Sizi's been lagged.
Oh, that Nade kills him.
Nade, oh, he gets down the way just in time.
8 HP.
There was another Nade coming too to the same position.
Just didn't go as deep for Sizi.
So 8 HP.
Is he still going to be able to do something here?
Also, this is how bait gained control on Overpass, right?
The opening CT-sided rounds, NPL, all those pieces
of aggression up towards fountain, just like disjoint
and disrupt the offense before it can begin.
Two players are on the corner.
This is a tough setup to try and deal with if you're baited,
if you come out long.
Yeah, you'll never expect Blemeth.
That's for sure.
All right, the little bait's waiting.
I mean, you added like a fourth defender
at the last long exec in the first gun round.
I feel like there's been a decent amount of research
and a decent game plan in place
for Big here against Bait.
Still walking, holding them back at long.
The Johnson's moved off.
As the pressure of Blemeth doesn't sit back,
yet she moves forward to challenge.
You're like, two players long again?
Every time we go long,
They have multiple players ready to take us down. It's going to be frustrating for Bates, Sissy.
That's a bit of an odd angle for Gricks to be overexposed in, but with 30 seconds and the bomb dropped out long,
it isn't going to result in a round victory, and JDC's on the prowl. Sissy's got three.
What a read. This is a great read.
Yeah, well, I mean, it's not going to win the round, but at least you're taking some guns away,
and at least you're keeping your AWP in your hands.
They have a few more seconds to play with you. A different story, of course, Sissy.
One in some great kills here. Despite being, remember, Sissi was tagged at the start of this.
He was lagged by Gricks in the opening of the round, then made it down to 8 HP.
At least grabbing two kills in the way out, but...
So Strong starts the round from B, and they're gonna close it again by the heavy long setup.
Yeah, I wonder if we're gonna see Bade continue to try and come back to this.
Maybe there's an indication or an idea that they have in their game plan of in these mid rounds, in these kind of situations.
We can stack towards Long. They like doing some late mid, or late long takes. Mid round long takes?
Either way, shut down both times. They've tried to get that part of the map under their control.
Well, you got to call a timeout. You're 5-0 down.
Your initial game plan is being destroyed at the moment.
You've got to figure out a solution and you've got to do it with no coach.
You've got to do it with young players.
And with as high pressure as possible.
So a conversation for Bate.
Big, very pleased with how they've opened up. It's about continuing down this road.
The theme for them on Ancient was don't give them a chance, don't let them back into the game.
Gonna try and force that here as well.
Kenzozor picks up a Deagle, two Tech 9s, the Saved AWP and the Saved AK-47 on Essential and SZZ.
Feels like the only way is the AWP. Feels like that is the only way they get into this round is if SZZ can do something for them.
Got Alex charging down into the lower tunnels.
It's going to be flashed just around that corner, some decent control at least, getting
down to the doors early on, Sizi covering it off, but Bigger not peeking and not giving
any chances to this all early.
And actually Bates just going to walk out middle, already starting to pressure it.
They sense no presence, no defense, nobody's home.
They're going to have a really dangerous execute because the defense is very, very passive
towards the A bomb site.
Gricks and Favon to defend. All five players of bait gonna head into this B
bombsite, try and take it over to get their first round of the board. Good shot
from Gricks to open. Yeah it takes away the tunnel threat. The attack's only from
one side now so they realize okay let's change it up. Let's try and get through CT
and go towards this A site. Taps in right below, under a minute on the clock,
drops the defensive smoke, sprays away, splashes damage, but it's JDC here at
Goose, the ring out there next.
And it's a 3K from JDC off of Goose.
That is a great round from him,
and a fantastic start to this map as well from JDC 12 and 2.
I gotta give huge credit over to Big just as a team
in that round, holding on to the utility
when eventually the mid to B split came out,
dropped Smoke at the B double doors.
That's what forces them away.
They wanted to hit V that whole time,
but when they see all the utility,
Gritz gets the kill and upper,
Smoke drops it, double doors are like,
well, we're never getting into that bomb,
So we might as well try our luck over at the A bomb site, and that's where JDC puts him down.
MPL, look at this long attack, he's out straight away.
He's past it, he's got to blue.
JDC, smoke is gonna clear and put pressure on him.
He's lost taps in.
So Beta actually won the fight at long for it, well, feels like the first time.
It was disorganization though, some players wanted to fall back, okay, they just looked away, essential.
One more, that's Faven, easy. Grits, peeks out for one.
You know, there's likely to be two players just standing in the same site now.
Blame mask could be forced out of the car.
You've got a lot of information if you're baited about the positions of these players.
Now it's JDC who took damage earlier in that long fight,
trying to defend the site on his own, and he's cleared out this time by Ken's Azor.
Good shot up from Griggs.
If you're in ace clutch, if he's able to pull this off...
...and he's not able to, Alex will prevent that from happening,
and finally, bait able to break through with a round win.
Yeah, that can't happen for big, because they've controlled long for most of the time by being hyper-aggressive turning around that smoke.
But this time around, it'd feel like JDC realized NPL had them beat on the timing, and JDC stops.
Tapsen keeps trying to go forward, so it ends up when the smoke breaks.
Only one CT are fighting.
There's two other CTs ready to party, but they kind of got disjointed by the fact that one player wanted to fall back,
one player wanted to fight on different pages, and no effect whatsoever.
After breaking through to the first round victory bay immediately, slow things down.
No trying to pop out long, no trying to be surprising.
Just under the default.
Going through the motions.
And PL into the lower tunnels.
And you'll see Sizi start to move up short.
And he opened his hand a number of times in this half, but just the AK-47 this time.
I'm going to start getting control of Cowalk.
Rixx in middle hasn't shifted away towards CT spawn.
JDC has moved out of the B bomb site, so the possibility is open to Rixx if he feels like
he needs to shore up the A site.
Bait happy at the moment to keep playing it slow.
With the map control up short, two players outside long waiting for a smoke to fake.
Looks like they want to turn this into a split onto the bomb site.
Still, no third defender has arrived or even considered shifting from big.
Good night. Into the packet players at short. Just a little bit of damage.
I can't walk execution. Coming in now from bait. Smokes will be deployed.
Spam will be sent out by playmaps.
Oh, it's after three, but they're both dead. They're both dead.
Hold away. Tapsen's gone. Can playmaps do anything about this?
No way!
It's the way he got both. Both long players dead, but he's out of bullets, so he couldn't transition back to the site.
back to the site. That's almost a miracle in a way, but unfortunately they were so far back that
the miracle only gives him a chance to come for the retake, doesn't secure him a victory,
flash over for short, Favon goes down, JDC can't win that either.
No, quick step sell, MPL dead, they know exactly where he's coming from, they know they've got
a little bit of time to compose themselves, to position themselves, to deal with the threat.
He's going for it. He is, but look how tough it is, you've got a player up or short, one down
towards CT, it's just the different levels of elevation would have cost quicks there, so
He doesn't know that, but he's made the wise decision to drop back and save.
It's unfortunate to get a mistake like that on Big Clanside.
Essentially, you're most experienced player in Tabson of leaving long,
and I felt like with Tabson maybe as the only defender,
he wanted to sneak back and just get a little bit of a look to double up on that fight,
but man, you have to keep your eyes on long, especially if there's only two defenders there.
Well, they've done the hard job of actually fighting their way into this game,
and they've brought that money down for Pig.
It's not in a great spot right now.
It's not in the worst, I mean, Brut's saving is huge because these guys actually drop an M4.
Just what makes this mistake so painful. I mean, I can't even believe Blame F should have never got a double kill here,
but look at what it does. His attention turned, magazine emptied, and the retake individual.
First time out for big is they're on the verge of losing their grip on this map.
6-0, now 2 in a row for bait to bring it within 4.
And big spending, everything they've got in this round. Money is gone after this,
making the time out and the call in it all important to see if big can continue.
Continue building upon this lead.
Gricks and Sizi both still with the AWPs. That's been a feature, a mainstay of this series that's continuing on Dust 2.
Both AWPs leading the way for their dual... excuse me, Gricks second place. JDC's got 12 kills with his hot start.
Well, big step back and ponder what bait might call.
Waterfall smoke ploys towards the doors.
Ooh, Sizi, taking damage through that smoke.
Fifty-four health left.
Tapsin to send the Nader on the corner, and, oh, that timing as Alex jumps forward through the utility of his zone, he ends up taking the grenade to the head.
Same defense, only two defenders at the A-bombside. Tapsin and Gricks this time, so at least it's the AWP.
Man, you gotta be worried about that long attack that was the bane of your existence in the last round.
Yeah, but Gricks' AWP wants to peek towards Short, so it could be interesting.
Tap from sending the Nades in trucking utility bricks has come back
Alex has caught no reaction from any bait play coming out long for now because there isn't any but bricks is gonna be worried about it
Regardless and that's gonna keep his eyes away and that support that you want to be on the A site just isn't there at the moment 39 seconds left
And what are baits doing now? They're starting to peel back with that ball coming towards middle
They pick off they get pulled into the fights blame F lying in wait the snake in the grass
They'll never expect it, but he's got three players coming at him
Here's all the steps rifles out says he jumps into the open and to his death
Can they get rid of blame F can they force him out?
They will get the headshot and now they'll go for the bomb a quick
He's ready for that jump he connects one HB single HP
For essential that bomb is gonna go down and now it is a retake that one HP could be everything
Cuz now he's picked it up up off the ground and plays backplot good luck Tapsin
The weight of that single point of health could crash down on big, essential to peak.
From the back platform, Tapsen's gone!
Gricks is not going to pull this off.
And 1v2 just don't give him the shot.
Do not give him the chance.
And this round is secured.
He tries to move away.
He's taking damages.
He retreats.
A third round collective for Bate and it is a single point of health that makes the difference.
That's crazy.
That's crazy.
He actually tags him on the jump, just barely surviving.
But Bate backing away off that A exec and both B, two of the three B defenders swinging
middle for the fight.
Man, that's where the round goes south.
Another mistake that has devastating consequences for Big.
Favon and JDC just getting caught peeking at the double doors.
They thought always it was going to be a commitment to the A-bombs,
but they thought they were swinging for a fight against the lurker,
and bit off way more than they can chew.
Oh, Alex already got blue. We've got JDC pushed up another tunnel.
Joe, what?! Oh, jeez.
What is that reaction? I thought MPL was guaranteed to be dead.
That's all going horribly wrong all of a sudden.
I'll be right from the great perspective, we've got out long.
Quicks is going to bring that AWP over for a little look down into the pit.
The whole percent is shot past each other, they're connecting and the defensive smoke
intended to delay their opponents starting off by big.
It's hard, I think, because big know exactly what's happening on the map.
They know it's going to be this long take, they know it's going to be extended, they're
just trying to lay things, but they're playing with the man deficit.
Right?
Like, normally if they have five people, they're clearing out B tunnels, they're clearing out
the middle of the map, they're getting ready to just kind of defend this hit from long at
the A bomb site, maybe trapping them in the long cave, but without that extra player,
they haven't done any of that.
They just got to sit and wait for bait to pull the trigger.
the attempt to disrupt the smoke that lands dead on.
Taps and just spams through it instead.
Kansas is definitely taking damage all in the way.
But here's the flight.
MPL waiting to strike again.
Hedge shot connects on Quicks goes in again.
MPL handing out heritage.
Taps are trying to step forward for a Hail Mary play
with the MP9, but it's not going to be enough.
And Faven instead is required to clutch.
And they know exactly where he's coming from.
So step through that smoke to your demise.
Big are starting to disappear.
and they are staying in this it's incredible to see that's an accident
time and time again it's it's the place away from action that are destroying
big there they're losing control of this map it's not it's not so much the actual
execute in the tactic in the thrust from bait that's really ruining them
it's these plays it's the little workers away from things it's npl coming in
really late offshore when big feel like they have control
and then it for for good reason i guess they had a player double doors looking
up towards short just never saw that scale
Yeah, it's just weak weapons here, so MPL's out long, he's slumping this kind of play, he's fired up right now, MPL!
Jesus.
Sits him on the rasses, and now he's out long, just going forward.
You've got Cricks playing at the elevator, this is his first play, you can't hide, there's nowhere to hide, there's nowhere to run!
This match has lost all finesse, now it's just brute force, and MPL's coming out on top of that exchange.
11 frags, he has shot up the scoreboard.
The intention is that it's high, so you're on this third and final map in the survival
game.
In stage two of the major, there's the individuals that make the difference in its MPL.
Look back to backgrounds, this one against the weaker guns, but stylish as he just runs
over the top of them.
Last round of the half.
Such hot starts from these big players in particular JDC, that's come slowed down and
You know, not being able to keep it up right now, either, it's unfortunate to see Bate disappear the way they have,
but you've got to hand it to Bate. This has been an incredible run on T-side now, five in a row.
I think Bigger's just taken some devastating losses at pretty critical moments in the half.
The round that Tabson kind of gave up his perch out towards long and they got flanked.
Now you have the one on Catwalk that MPL comes up.
You've got some good performances, you know, some opening.
some opening. Some of the deaths they're taking happen so suddenly and at just
such terrible timings that it's really hard for Big to recover in these scenarios.
Sizi's been spotted by Favin.
A long corner smoke, not rich in its intended marks. Sizi burning, singeing, inside of the flames, even steps out.
Well, they want to go to the B bomb site, so he was being aggressive and trying to find that pick. You can see them all lined up.
Again, this is not in any way a half of finesse, especially since Bait have gained control.
They've just said, we don't really want to do anything too crazy.
We're going to go through the basics and then we're just going to bulldoze you.
Ending the streak.
Went to a lot for the mentality of Big.
And on a win.
And on a round victory.
Very static defense yet again from Big though.
I guess since he's been spotted twice now in upper tunnels and still no one has shifted,
no one at the A-bomb site has tried to make a move, nobody's trying to creep a little bit closer.
And Bates just stay committed. Stay committed to the call.
Favon and JDC are out of all utility, not even a decoy to their name.
Smoke at CT is now fading. And now on the tunnels as well.
They're coming in towards Favon. Can he step up?
Bates barrels go around the corner. And Favon barrels through two.
JDC responds with a headshot on essentially.
He's waiting for the mid-prong to be approached. There's plenty of players looking for that.
and they will get the result they needed.
It's now Sizi with a clutch.
He's got two flashes as well that he could have used earlier.
Absolutely, he's got some utile.
It's going to make it uncomfortable for JDCs.
That was the first kill.
Well done from Sizi by Cat Stop Taps in the shot connects on the cross.
They put an end to the streak right at the end of the half.
Seven to five, a competitive dust two down the stretch
to decide who is staying alive and who is heading home.
I
I ain't gonna lie, I ain't gonna lie
I ain't always gonna enjoy it
I'm already locked in the ring
The lonely, bad, bad mess
When the body is wet
You're the center too
It's not like I got the shit
But I'm afraid of what has happened
You know when I'm over
But I will never always
Will step away
But I won't ever choose
Forget the pain you left in me
From this delight
Hiking on the line
Always keeping in tune
And following the forms
And we're shining in the outskirts
In the wind
In the wind of power
We're ready to meet
We're ready to die
We're so deep in the middle of the night
Allowing our worst nightmares
The vision of the next step
Making my life
Walking just like that
We made the same but it's not the last for one night
Rocking my eyes on the ground, gazing into the stars
Just don't leave me, just hold on, I'm away
Don't listen to the light, I've been following all my life
Always to be mature, and I'll hold on to the forms that we're
Shining in the dark, the way that they went down
I'm always reminding me of what happened
Trying to get through the deep of it
You want to take me back to where I was, to where I knew I was taking my time, thinking I was still one star, taking care, and you want to make it better take you out of the way.
No matter how far I went, did I always muster my way, and now I never let you stand in the way you're me, like this baby.
No one you can control
You can't let me take this throne
Can't stand what's in me for one word
There's faith in this all I know
If I could have brought you back
I'd take you from this right back
I just wouldn't have ever waited
For ever you were a sin
Your is the last thing I've been found
With no value at all
No one to hold you back
God, keep this movement in reaction!
No!
Well, Tapsin, before the games of today is the day German CS is going to be back at the highest level.
With amazing international star players, they're going to fulfill their dreams,
fighting for the very last round of the game with a smile on our face.
And we might need to see that out of them, because this one feels like it might go down the stretch.
Both teams battling back and forth with big narrowly taking a lead into the halftime break seven to five
And here on dust you this is gonna be decided elimination match one team moves on one team goes home from the I am cologne major
And let's do it like in the energy game, okay? I'm having a very nice game
So in the default after Ben made a call let me really take charge and I will dictate the pace on how we take the stuff
Okay, I will completely destroy them. I'm pretty sure
All right, big Papa JDC said I'm having a good game. I can feel this and just like energy
Let me let me kind of control the situation
All right brains of the operation let's strap ourselves in and enjoy a John DeCastro T side then shall we tell you what?
He sounded real confident. He really did well. Let's see if they can just knock that out of him real quick
Absolutely to HP guys I take it back take it would take the wheel somebody else call
Well, that slows things down.
It really does.
Takes this thing out of the attack quite quickly.
Another smoke coming in.
This one, the mid to B split.
JDC is going to lead the way with that 2 HP.
He don't care.
Nice, Sizzzy.
Nice start.
Even better second.
It's Grick's dead and Sizzzy's going for everything.
His teammate's coming out to help him.
Kensi's always got it.
Sizzzy stepped up and he's going for it.
It's Grick's dead and Sissy's going for everything! His teammate's coming out to help him!
Kenzie's always got it!
Sissy stepped up and delivered a beautiful pistol round with a 3k
and Favon now leaping into the site, no hope here for Big.
It's gonna be a sixth round for Bait.
Favon will step out, he'll try and fight his way through the window,
but look how many players are on the other side and now you've got a tunnel player coming in as well,
which he's now just protected on the jump.
So Kenzie's always comes through, and yet another round out of this young kid Sissy.
This is insane. He's having a great game on the final chance here in Stage 2.
Having a great pair of maps and the maps that Bait looks, uh, well, the one they won earlier on Overpass and now here on Dust 2,
which they still have a chance to win, obviously. Great shooting with the USP, but also the flashes coming through that smoke.
Notice how there's only two defenders, two attackers. They go down and two more stream out three seconds later.
Those flashbangs disjointed that entire attack.
Well, 7-6 now, a chance for bait to even things up, good utility into the cave, and Sizzy.
Feed the opper some bonus cash.
Oh, he is loving it right now.
Was that back-to-back triple kills for Sizzy to start out this second half?
Uh-oh, we know what happened when he got a good start on the CT side of Overpass.
He destroyed Big on his own.
That's a 4k coming out of Sizzy.
Look at that smile on his face.
now he's rich this should be like the most high-pressure environment possible
form you're about
your elimination game the last chance in stage two of a major
sixteen years old
he's playing the best we've seen from him
i'll tell you what though your first major elimination game and you're given
this kind of a performance no reason to not have a giant smile on your face and
giggle between every single triple kill keep it up
Looking for the jump spot?
Reaction test for the AWPer?
Gricks isn't gonna give it to him.
Opens up measured from big as they spread out into a default JDC just now arriving at Xbox.
Bricks with the bomb is going to join up with Faven and Upper Dark. JDC is going to be on short.
Tabsyn and Blame F as well, rotating around the map through T spawn.
So forcing out some defensive utility and making sure Bait is kept on us showing presence towards the A bomb site.
It's not working. Kenzazor is leaning towards B. There's a third defender here.
Silent for now, first bullet's gonna ring out, it's essential to a headshot, MPL steps
out and gives nothing, and Essential's doing so much, he's even got his teammate in to
confirm it, so the three-man setup of the B-bomb, so almost intangible, yeah, when that bomb
goes down, so even though you've got two players still alive, the bomb's now in possession
of Bates.
Yeah, but this play from Blemeth does not, like if his teammates, if he has, there's
more teammates alive, this can actually be a dangerous position, but now that it's only
One of his teammates like you just relying essentially on JDC to win this round and you're there to help out if he can get you into that position
JDC's grabbed the bomb and the kill, but there's only 12 seconds
Yeah, he's gonna run out and already in so they've rotated it to the window
Baiter locked in this is crazy. This was a 6-0 start from bait
An 8-1 run at the moment for the bait side of things. It's completely reversed
Out of a timeout in the first half bait just woke up
trying to walk in contact but what a crossfire set up even getting a clean
kill on the NPL is impressive but you still get wiped off the map so a one
round lead for bait and it's back to tech 9s and pistols for big and they
go down lands in behind JDC I'm not gonna have too many opportunities to
Hold his T side, is he?
Such a strong start from bait in the second half MPL going out and catching Gricks
5v4 for baits
There's a swing out the reaction from Szyetcha took a bullet to the head
He all comes through and backs him up and all that rifle support for the all-bow is perfect and Favons even getting spammed down through the doors as well
So know where you can hide
It's a 9th round now for Bates. Nice and easy. Not a single player going down.
Prop now is Bates just have so much money. Sizi with all those MP9 kills earlier on the
half, 7300. Alex has 8600. Kenz is over 6k. There are so many buys that Big have to battle
through before they get any kind of reprieve. And we go into round 17. They've got 4 AKs
in and up on Gricks.
I mean, there's an extra pressure on Big as well. Obviously, pressure on everybody at
the major, but when you're playing in your home country in Germany and you know if you
get through this map, if you win this map, you get to play in front of an audience, it's
just going to add that extra desire for this game, but right now Bate are the ones who are
fully in control of it.
Sizi looking down into the tunnels.
Going to be flashed and put under pressure, but he'll hold them back for you too.
I'm actually kind of surprised that Big didn't step forward.
They had four players in tunnels and actually it would have been a great round forward.
They couldn't have known that, but Sizi was the only one starting at the B bomb site
So a fast aggressive play could have been super effective against a solo upper
However now they move elsewhere on the map towards middle towards Xbox flashbang out mid essential is blind
So big getting stalled out towards middle when they wanted to apply some pressure it looked like out double doors
They had a left side smoke
And almost feels like they're just gonna slide players back and execute a mid to be split here
Favon and taps in with the bomb and upper Sissi back flat with the AWP breaks the smoke plays on top of the box a bit risky
But they're starting to sense like there's no pressure coming in this direction
Trying to get through this smoke Sissi great head shot from Favon
And the sensual is locked out of the site
Smokes are off to the doorway, Kendi's on a stepping through the smoke,
PlayMap line and wait, great par ahead, shots, Kendi's on essential, both dead!
And PlayMap goes for a third!
Somehow that one goes right through the CT smoke and connects onto the head of MPL.
And finally big, getting another round victory.
Yeah, nice job, I mean just kind of moving as a pack, right?
Pack towards middle, secure it, set the staging area a little bit of a pump fake
on an initial smoke to draw utility.
And when they come back in to commit to the B-split,
there's no nades left for the bait side of things.
And actually they didn't even really need the mid portion of the attack.
That got to play passively.
Really well constructed from big and nice triple kill from Blame F.
Sizi playing solo inside the B-bomb side.
I might not see that again for a while.
Had a real tough time finding any kind of comfort.
but that's the first of many steps big have to take the score line is close
but the cash on the bait side is the problem for them another pull by coming
in for the CT side there will be another one if they're to lose this round
favin has taken responsibility to grab the AWP he's got the long spawn you hear
a little anti-strat there like preparation for the game saying because
you said they always then it cut off but I assume that they're going to challenge
long so favin's going for the challenge and he is going to get a chance at it but
Hasn't been able to connect
Another four-man opening towards long and now they're just backing off showing the presence and then letting it disappear and
Adjusting elsewhere on the map
Trying to catch big in some kind of a reaction to the long presence
That was dead wrong says he's right back with the solo up on the platform at the B bomb site
Main defense here on short
Yeah, a lot of defense at short, isn't it?
Three players around here, play map without the challenge first, and he didn't really
get to see the amount of players there because MPL is so quick on that headshot.
We know the footsteps as they start backing off, and there's no information of this hold.
What a shot from Suzy, that's fast!
He's going back in for it again, so JDC thinks twice about stepping forward into the waiting
scope so they drop back but the problem is a two-man advantage now and you
still got clear out short so you walk into your death as MPL hung around so
taps and walks through dies and the chances are big now dwindle JDC is gonna
try and reignite. That's an opening. Smoke faded you've got no replenishment.
Yeah no one's peeking at the moment yet so maybe they can get a little longer.
What a shot from JDC another one tap. Okay. 17 kills he is having a great game
up to the A bombsite we go they feel like they just weakened the defense and
they'd be dead right. Well, for MPL you know you got to ready yourself for this
so just tucks himself in and the site keeps his head down, lets them come close
and he looks to be the devastating force to cancel out this round. MPL goes for it, that's a 4k!
And double figures reach on this final map for Biggs. Yes, Biggs scrambling throughout that
round to find the final play, to find a chance to get into a bomb site. JDC provided it with a
one tap, but MPL just way too smart. Tough position to deal with as he can just pop up at will.
and great utility support from his teammates rotating over.
No momentum built up for Big.
One round win and an immediate loss after the fact, so the money continues being strong for Bate.
Well, it taps in.
Throwing himself through the long smoke.
Just trying to challenge, trying to get some of the space, and he's done pretty well.
He's got street control for now. Does he just keep scaling? Does he keep walking?
walking Alex goes out of a great flashbang assist from MPL as Tapsun and
Griggs both gone push forward into the tunnel Faven needs both kills and he
can't get it too much of an ask and so big fault to two players versus the four
of Bates in the round has virtually just begun
it feels like big are going to be eliminated from the Cologne Major unless
they can find around it that inspires them that gives us some energy and this might just be a JDC
and play man fighting back but a collateral landed and Sissy switches out to the AK-47
simple as that from Sissy 11th round for Bates. He even got the one in his name.
This region just keeps cranking out strong offers. Sissy making a name for himself here in this
elimination game in the Bate jersey. Absolutely impressive stuff. That's a lovely shot from
from JDC, they're supposed to make you feel like they might have something here, but the collateral realizing it, and the hot swap to the AK.
Bait is just two rounds away from stage three, two rounds away from eliminating Big, and that forces their third time out in regulation as they talk things over.
Last chance potentially for the coach to have any kind of impact in the talk, in the match.
Think about Big's journey to get to this point. Having to go to the smaller events on the lead-up, the tier 2 events.
Defeating FaZe in that game back in Belgrade months ago.
Coming all the way through stage 1 to the final day of play, having to come back from 0-12 down,
fighting and breaking a record to come in and stay alive and qualify for stage 2.
The odd stacked against them here as well. They make it to the final day of play.
They wake up today with optimism of hope, a dream that they can make it into stage 3 with the big boys
Big boys in the crowd coming in, but it looks like baits are about to be their end.
Sissy trying to hold the long attack.
Big send multiple players out here again, but the AWP is waiting for them.
They're both here, they're doubled up as well, this is dangerous.
Yeah, but Alex again, same result.
It's a long attack from Big, Alex opens up with two and Sissy stopped the rest.
He's handled quicks.
No hope for Big.
It's Siri's point for bait.
Series point and four opportunities to close it out four opportunities to move on
They were at stage three in the Budapest major now looking to back it up with another stage three attendance
And big just feel like they've run out of gas at this point
We know they're fighting for every single round down to the stretch down until the bell
But this second half they've had no real fight in him and they lost that it feels maybe six rounds into the third
Mount got a fine four rounds in a row just to get over time since he unleashed all the way to top middle
But he's missed the shot JT sees God a bit Kenzie's or again the response is sweet from bait
They're just getting these kills and now Kenzie's or charging towards top middle way and
Big destroy
He knocked him out of cologne within a says he runs up middle
Heartbreak descends upon the Germans, but forbate some hope and positivity as they will take the final step into Stage 3.
An incredible showing of mental tenacity and fortitude. They have no coach behind them.
And these players are so young, they got blown out of the water on the opening map, but somehow they stay in it.
And their young 16-year-old Alper with some showstopper performances in back-to-back maps.
to the major sissy. That is a
performance a rookie
performance to move them on to
advance his team that he will
not forget. What an incredible
showing as he stepped up. For
big. It's a really tough missed
opportunity, especially after
that first map, and that's going
to be absolutely heartbreaking
heartbreaking. Excuse me. We've
got the desk ready to go. They're
going to talk us through it.
Yeah, base securing that spot
stage three and what a way to
from what was a dismal showing on map number one to Kendozor,
closing it out with an A, speaking of which,
we do have Alex joining us up here.
First of all, massive congratulations.
Tell me what's going through your head.
All right.
Thank you, I know.
I feel tired, but I think that's it.
Not many emotions, feeling like this opponent
is not very strong, so we can win this game easy,
but we cannot win our best maps right now, I know how.
I want to ask you a little bit about the emotions that you guys show because it's very different
from a lot of the other teams.
We see a lot of teams screaming and yelling every time they win a round where you guys
are, you know, you're doing more cool, you give it a little high five.
That's it.
Is that just normal for you guys when you're trying to do something different?
Yeah, it's normal for us.
When we was only starting our journey at Theron tournaments, maybe we was like, I was saying
guys, we need to be more hyped, but it was not working.
And after we just realized it's not giving us any power or something, so we were just
chill guys.
Speaking of not working, you mentioned the maps, strong maps are not really working well
for you.
Can you walk us a little bit through that ancient, because we've had a couple of moments
where we've heard you having ideas and a lot of calls obviously, and you just couldn't
really do them.
It was pretty tough to bring it together and see it on the server.
So why is it happening?
Because I think it happens in a couple of maps for you.
It's not only Ancient that we've seen today.
I think a lot depends on our individual skill.
On Ancient vs BG, I will shoot in not really good, me either.
So I don't know, we cannot play good CS at our bestness because people are just prepared
and we don't have like too much time to gain new strategies to improve our best maps.
We are focusing on our weaker maps, so maybe we're winning weaker maps easily, so that's why.
What about Sizi? How is he impressing you so far? Ukrainian simple.
Sizi, he's not feeling any pressure. It's just a usual tournament for him.
He doesn't feel like something, like this is a major, this is very important, he's just playing like previous tournaments, he's super confident.
And yeah, he's talking a lot when he's getting more and more kills, he's talking more and more and sometimes it's not really good.
What about yourself now being the ingame leader of the team? How have you slotted into this role? Is it good? How's the feeling?
I think tournament by tournament, I'm improving my IGL skill, working with my coach.
If you're talking individually, maybe it's a bit harder because I'm doing more time at preparing and also we don't have a coach, so we're just working together with him.
Overall, it's good, I know how it's going to happen.
How much more work does that put on your shoulders though? Not having a coach here to support you, just maybe even in terms of during the game, taking those timeouts, taking a breather, how much more responsibility?
Yeah, I think there is more responsibility on maybe our mood or something.
Yeah, and I think also preparing, sometimes I'm preparing different maps solo, so without my coach.
But yeah, we're just having a conversation and then we're just having one strategy. So yeah, that's it.
That also helps you because you're the one preparing, so you know what the opponents are doing.
So if you have a game plan that doesn't go that well, you always have a backup in your head because you'll prepare it yourself.
yourself. It's not the coach, it's not the adolescent, right? It helps a little bit.
Yeah, sometimes, yeah, when I'm preparing solo, maybe I feel more, I feel the map more, maybe.
In control, yeah. Yeah, yeah, so maybe sometimes it's good, sometimes not very good, so it's an
experience. I'm curious to hear your opinion on this one, because you know, it's been a little
bit up and down for you this tournament, but now you're in stage three. Are you in your own head,
are you satisfied and happy with how you guys have been playing this tournament?
I think yes, we just need to maybe improve. We have one day maybe to improve somehow our maps or maybe we just need to come when we're like having the game, we just need to prepare maybe for the hard game because maybe someone is thinking it will be easy game because like we have a good good maps and they have bad map.
I mean, if you're talking about ancient versus BLEG, so yeah, we just need to be more stable
in our preparation, emotions and other stuff.
And do you think you're ready for stage 3?
Now you have all the best teams in the world showing up.
Do you think you can potentially go to playoffs?
I think it's hard to say, it's just momentum.
So yeah, maybe if we improve, we'll be getting more focused on our main maps.
So I think everything's possible.
And maybe depends who you're playing against.
Should we find out? We do have the matches ready.
You have a day off tomorrow, obviously to prepare.
So let's bring them up. We can bring up all the matchups that we're going to be seeing.
Okay, these are some interesting ones, not including you guys,
but oh, that's a rough draw.
Man, go 3-0, then you get vitality out.
Ravi spirit. That's a fun one.
We got some bangers.
That's a very fun one.
If we could flip it so that we could see Baitescape as well,
that would be very, very exciting.
exciting oh you're in there somewhere okay how do you feel about that I
think it's good because like for now they're not playing this is they was
playing before like the start of the season but who knows maybe they prepared
so good and we're gonna find out I think it's not like that the best team in
tournament so yeah we can try to fight. Very reasonable way to look at it Alex. I've only
got one more question for you because I know you said you're tired. It's been a long day for you
guys as well but just looking at Budapest you guys obviously unfortunately finished in stage three.
How different is bait looking compared to Budapest in your opinion? Maybe the difference
is we don't have like this much pressure like before and we're just playing game by game
So we don't have any goals on any tournaments.
So it's just like a moment to fulfill the game.
If everyone is just killing and shooting, if everyone is playing in the middle,
if you play five players, you'll have a good game individually.
So I think you can win every team.
Maybe not with white LTE.
Well, let's see how that one goes, Alex.
Thank you so much. Congratulations.
Unfortunately, with Bait winning though,
that does mean that Big do fall here at the final hurdle.
So let's get a few closing thoughts, Kersi, of them.
Unfortunately, Stage 2 does come to an end, so does our time with Berlin International
Gaming here at the Cologne Major in 2026.
It's a rough one, perhaps, and we've caught up several times through this process, through
this major process.
Let's talk about the performance today.
We started really good.
Unfortunately, we didn't keep it up.
I think they must have played also very good, obviously.
They are a good team.
Unfortunately, we didn't play to our standards.
that's an overpass and the store would say we was close round so could have gone
either way on the store would say and then such counter strike sucks to lose
but the better team won. Talking about the performance your players today and
then the team around you that helped build into this major and ultimately this
result. I love these guys it's just fun to play with them my eyes they're just
really good players they have a lot of to learn of course especially Greeks
For example, he's a very young, unexperienced player.
He's the first major to get to this stage.
And I'm really proud of him, how he developed as a player.
I'm really proud to be playing under BlameF.
He's an inspiration for all of us.
He's an amazing captain.
And we will learn from it.
We will make sure that we will learn from it.
We have another tournament coming up later on.
Sucks to Lucy in Cologne, of course.
But we just tried our very best.
And there's a second half of the year coming.
And we will do everything that we can do,
especially with the German call we have.
I'm really happy to have them.
I have a really selfless player in the team with Josef.
I think he's one of the best roleplayers ever.
He's just doing whatever it's supposed to do for him.
And JDC, I think he can definitely be one of the best players we have in Germany
and also in the national scene.
You know, and I think right now we didn't just play how we are, what we are capable of.
And I'm just still very proud to be under the leadership of PlayMath.
And of course, under the team, it's a big.
Perhaps, and you've made several runs in IAMs, you've made several stature performances across
different tournaments.
At the end of this season, what keeps you coming back for more?
What keeps you fighting?
Counter-Strike, buddy.
Everyone loves Counter-Strike.
We're all here for Counter-Strike.
Everyone loves the game and just being in a team environment, it's just amazing to be
around, you know, and everyone has the same passion and everyone loves the game.
Hopefully we will be back next year in Cologne and there will be many more EMS or many more
good big tournaments where hopefully we can attend and show what we are capable of.
Well to the plenty of big clan fans that are going to be around, you're going to tell
us something German?
A little more off-gates for the road?
Of course.
Welcome to Germany and of course to Austria and Switzerland.
Thank you for all the support.
Of course, it's a shame that we lost, but we are back on the road to the top.
I hope you could be a little bit more confident and have this faith and this will.
That's a German team in the top 10 or in the top 20 is definitely active.
We hope that they have play-offs or can play a good team.
We are a very young and fresh team.
I think all the painters of this team have a very good constellation in this team.
We have a great team, all of them watching the vlog from us.
You can see that we have harmony with each other and that we are a really cool team.
We believe in it and we will definitely make it this year.
moment for Tapsen right now. It's not one that he hasn't
weathered before. And I love that question from Trace. What
keeps you coming back? And it is Counter Strike. And we've
seen that loyalty for Tapsen to big actually quantified this
event, right? With Krims retiring Tapsen now taking up the
mantra of the longest standing active player for an organization.
And we get to hear it there. And some of those final words he
believes in the German team. And I just want to wish him the
best of luck moving forward heartbreaking right now. But I
hope this is signs of life for big moving forward.
I like what they shown throughout the event. And
And especially in this interview, he mentioned a couple of times that he loves to be under
the leadership of Blemeth, which is another thing.
He played his whole career in BIG, or biggest portion of his career in BIG as a captain,
and he still learns from these kind of like, quote-unquote, younger players and the kind
of like fresh IGLs that are the one star players and playing in a different role.
So he's absorbing all of that.
And I think that this is such a good trait at, you know, when you're experienced, when
you're older and you can act like you know it all and you know the best because you've
been up and you know how it is.
But I like that he's bringing that kind of sponge mentality to the team because, well,
the team itself is young, it's fresh and that's exactly what they need.
They need to reform a little bit and after all, B.I.G. is no longer German.
Well, it is German core, but it's not like pure German.
It's just solely German.
Yes, it is international team right now and they have to change the attitude a little bit.
So I like what I'm seeing.
I like this interview, it remains me hopeful for the future of Viagra.
And let's just jump into the helicopter for a moment, like let's go up top down, look and look down, you know.
Big, you know, this was their return to the highest position of Counter-Strike, right?
This is their return to playing Tier 1 and I think they did a pretty good job.
I think they proved to themselves and turned everyone around that Big is still a team that needs to be looked out for.
They played some good Counter-Strike, they at least showed a lot of good resilience,
Resilience, but I also feel like from the interview that we got with captain that he was also being realistic
I think they were realistic in the ways that you know, yes, they could have made state 3
It's definitely could have but that would probably have been a little bit too big of a mouthful
So I think you know for them to go out here is right now disappointment
But in a couple of days they will be they'll be grateful for the opportunity they had and what they showed you ever jumped out of a helicopter
To bring no I have not but that's what last my spot. I cause it's usually set to me. So yeah, I'm just using his reference
Okay, I'm going to park that one there. Where did big, did they exceed your expectations?
Did they match them? Did they disappoint them? Where would you put them, Stiko?
Like, if they would be losing that game against NRG, it's below my expectations. But since
they came back and they made it all the way here, they exceeded my expectations. So I'm
looking at it, yes, they exceeded it, but by such a virtue of unlikely scenario that,
You know, it's kind of like, I'm tipping the scales right now, I can put it either way because it's such a crazy thing that happened that will probably not be replicated in years.
Whoever watched that game, you were part of the history, I'm not sure if you're aware of that.
This will not happen in years, maybe on nature, ever, period, that's it.
So, yes, they exceeded my expectations, but by how they got here, they got a little bit lucky in a way.
Yeah, it was a stylish way to make it to the issue.
That's the word I was looking for.
should we wrap up stage two to
see exactly what has gone down.
We can take a look at our Swiss
bracket to see who's made it
through who has departed along
the way as well. Eight teams,
of course, going through to
stage three, where eight of the
very best are waiting in the
wings. I guess, um, to pre, are
there any massive surprises?
I guess 90s probably the biggest
one. We're kind of not on our
radar so so much in terms of
tournaments leading up to
things. Probably the biggest
one. I think one of these, the
biggest one actually true I mean yes I mean friend you have two Brits going
forward at this given moment at this given moment we have more British
player at the latest stage three of a million that we have Danish players is
that the first time in history I think it might be we need someone to check up
on this that breaks my heart as a Danish player regardless of that regardless of
that it's coming home I said I've been home
right Monday has Monday has proven what hardware does that that's like really
stand up to me. I think no one would have looked at this roster, pound by pound, and when you look at
the player, that they would actually make it to the next stage. And I think that they have proven
what hard works actually showcase, and I'm very happy with them to actually make it. It's going to
be extremely difficult moving forward, but that's massive. Shout out to Ezio as well, he's just
feeding me more stats about British players, equal amount of French players as British players.
That's nuts. Whoa, this is historic first. That's massive countries in terms of counter strikes,
So that's that's that's very and it's all because ashes up here on the desk. You know, he's right in the script
It's going absolutely perfectly stika who was a what it was your favorite team to witness in stitch to every team to witness
Team spirit boring answer on the long was namely that FUT surprised me a lot
Yes, I was great. That was absolutely great other than those three zero advances
I would say I would say G2 play pretty good games. I was happy with
I was happy with nerds what he showed pretty good gel today. I think they're aiming for definitely a playoff. Oh, no, I mean by making it through that was like, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I was like the the problem probably go for G2 in general for me is definitely a playoff hit and potentially even, you know, little bit more, but I'm going to be
to be fielding them in that top eight for sure.
Yes, I'm happy relief that G2 made it through.
Let's just put it like that.
Am I happy about my pickings though?
I think so.
I think I got five doesn't matter.
But wait, oh no, I did get five.
Let's go.
But I did four on stage one.
So I'm a corner possible for anybody on this list.
I'm not there, apparently.
You're not there.
You did so poorly.
No, you got this.
Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
I don't think that's right.
To be complete.
I don't think I did to be I had to go home and take I'm pretty sure I'm one off
That's got to be a mistake here because I'm maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm wrong pretty you could just lie just lie
I don't know. I don't want to lie. I wouldn't lie
I just say I almost went zero five in stage two
I might get surprised when I get home zero one off because you're you're doing not five. You're doing basically
nine pigs right six plus two plus two I'm not a mathematician see which is
which is ten so you're doing ten pigs I didn't even get three oh but did get it
isn't a pin did get it it's been the smartest out of all of us no way really
I see the mistake you just lie and Harry obviously Harry is the big bad
damn he got a lot he got a hell of a lot right did he actually did he harry harry i thought it was
just you go because launder's out at him a little bit on a little bit of a video on twitter but it
was harry too i don't trust anybody these days you jump out of the cast just to change the
vacans real quick i guess you're joking it's bounce joke in the end it's bounce i don't know
blame the ride. You give them the little finger the entire arm, right?
Depeh. What? I'm just disappointed with you. You could have lied. Now you're defending
people that did cheat. Where's your morals, man? Where's your morals?
Out the window, maybe.
Just bring up the schedule, man. Please just bring up the schedule. I don't know who I'm
more disappointed than myself or the people that changed their pickups. I am very excited
about these matchups. So we've already kind of touched upon it. It feels bad for a third
going 3-0. Oh, there's your prize. It's my time to open things up. G2 versus Falcons though.
Hunter versus Niko. It's already happening.
I've never gone over that one. That's actually hilarious. You know, I'm looking so much forward
to talking about Fragments. Hopefully, I get to do that through Archdorff. I have some spices
left. Really? You ready to bladdle out on the table? This is what I've been waiting for. Let's go.
Let's go. Novi Spirit. That's a really cool one as well. Obviously, a lot of history between
to some of these players and these organizations too, so I'm very excited for that one, Stiko.
Absolutely. When I look at the B-stream as well, there's a couple of good games, I would say.
I'm especially looking at the form of Maus coming into this Fielding Brolin bag into the lineup,
and how Paravision is going to recover this season against 9-Z.
Oh, Paravision going to recover this.
Yeah, okay, okay, you got me there. But against 9-Z, it feels very doable,
But at the same time, you know, these aim heavy teams are maybe somewhat of a counter to parry vision in a lot of sense
I got this is a massive opening game honestly at Paris and with 90 I would have it
I mean, I've seen what Paris and at their best can do so I have been surprised with what they can bring
But I'm see at the same time, you know, negative three or anything. They they show great form and they they've done that the last couple months
So it is all best of threes from here on out. I know, right?
I mean, I don't know, but still, but still, there is a chance.
There is always a chance.
There really is.
We have a day off tomorrow, which I'm very sad about.
Maybe we could just stay here and just talk about all of the games all the time.
That would be amazing.
But we do have a media day tomorrow before the action re-insues in two days
time for stage three beginning, as we said, all best of threes from here on out.
And we're going to have the audience joining us to kick things off as well.
We'll see you in a couple of days time.
Assume the flash will pop up to at least 5 bar.
Wow, this flash decaps snow.
As soon as we look for the ace, as he got an hit in, finds another, into the 1v1, picks up the AK-47 and pulls him out!
Outrageous scenes!
I need to calm down. Let's go boys.
It's a good shot from this end.
Holding on, jam young with a catch shot time, starting to take on that fuse, it burns away.
Gene trying to turn the camera off, it's sensing!
Will they clear him? Will they check it?
Let's go beats out another kill towards mercury. He's been some elusive in this half and another kill through smoke
Jam young last remaining higher 10 for legacy
This box and he goes on the open another collateral this time from scissi showing us his open skills are
Sensational for pigs up. There's the eighth for the young man. He's got all five
He knocks him out of the corner, look at the ace as he runs up the middle.
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And Zoe
As long as I'm alive!
There is no stopping him!
He is invincible!
The King of Counter-Strike!
Now get your hands on the phone, easy, come on, do it, I'm out of my breath, and he's not going anywhere!
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