PGL
[A] FOKUS vs. Wildcard Gaming - PGL Bucharest 2026 - Group Stage: Round 3 Mid Match (1-1)
04-06-2026 · 10h 44m
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He's had more of these moments in this team at least, I would be all giving that.
That's fair, that's because it's not calling anymore.
Yeah, and ultimately it wasn't enough to be MIBR and there was a lot of elementary mistakes.
I mean, they should have lost 2-0, what MIBR did on Overpass was absolute criminal.
And then you add, this is the Anubis kind of, you know, highlights in head quotes.
There were moments in this game where I just watched, I was a hate watching, I was cynical watching,
like, alright, see how bad they are.
Jesus Christ, Rich.
I was like, they've done it.
At 8-2, I was like, there's no way they can lose.
Yeah.
And I like, went away, I was like, oh, have a beer, came back, and it's like, they were
up against it.
You know, it was, it was great.
And that's when a whiskey came out, because it was rough to watch.
Like there's one round, which is like, you know, God, better feed and everything, but
it's like, basically, simple planning the bomb.
I'm sure everyone's seen us watching this right now.
He planted the bomb at A, it's a 2v2, and Crazy's team is all the way in B when the bomb is planted from main
and he's still just looking around it, like so, there's a complete...
I wouldn't necessarily blame Crazy, maybe simple didn't tell him that where the bomb is planted, the comms weren't happening.
If that's the case, something's fundamentally broken and wrong in this team.
And they've been around for too long, for me to be like, oh it's beginning jitters and whatnot.
No, I feel personally Richard, this team is a dead team walking at the moment.
It feels that way.
I just wanted to give some props to Clem. We saw several highlights from Ben over the whole series
He was delivering
He was obviously one of the players that we had as as you know players to watch or I'm not saying me because I didn't actually end up putting
I didn't amen, but but I had him somewhere up there as well
Um for players that I was I was I was curious to see what that he would have what it takes to play on this level because we
Hadn't seen it might be our play in Europe the entire season so far, you know, so it's nice to see him have a have a game that
to pull them over the line in what was, yeah, very messy one, I believe.
And it's also because on that particular team, the entire narrative is,
oh, save Insani, save Insani, and I mean, I mean, that's probably so.
He's still very good, but right now, Clint, he's, you know, obviously no one can be Insani,
but with the AWP, he's more than just a pent-up.
He is a second pillar of the fracking output on that team.
Kind of impressive, honestly.
Do you want to talk about the most embarrassing game yesterday?
Do you want to do it?
Let's get into it. Let's get into it.
Oh, my word.
Right, so 3D Max here, I feel like,
when was it, was it like November, December?
I feel like it might not even be that long ago.
You know, we were sat here in this very studio
talking about, you know, 3D Max,
a team that might be in decline,
but you know, they were up there.
They were still like pushing these other teams deep.
They had that tag of being the gatekeepers of tier one.
If you beat 3D Max, you're a legit tier one team.
If you don't, you're in tier two through it.
But there are a few too many teams
that beat 3D Max.
Yeah, yeah.
They were Cerberus guarding the gates to hell but like then that is old news and yesterday
they took on Volker.
Remember Volker are a team with a stand-in, a stand-in that hasn't played competitive
league for five years, won't get into why.
The reality is there is no way on God's green earth that should have been a competitive
game and yet Volker could have beat 3D Max and I don't know, I don't know where
3D Max can go from here.
That even could have been that literally came down to a clutch in double overtime on ancients, you know, for Maka to save them and then for them to win the second overtime.
You were kind of referencing the last PGL Bucharest that that's where they were, that actually to me was kind of the beginning of the downfall, because that was just fresh off gravity taking you away in leadership.
Yes.
Maka, obviously went off of it. Now he's back on it. In the meanwhile, they've removed Boddy, who I feel has been a bit shafted by this team, you know, in this transition.
It feels like we just had an interview with Marco
where he was talking about that it was more
the organization decision.
I'm not so sure because it felt like the relationships
in that team were a bit rocky for quite a while
for that to be just condoned to the organization.
But overall, obviously, you do have to put it in contrast
or against the backdrop of their current situation,
which is they've just missed the major as well.
They've just been on this round of a couple of open lands
where they failed, obviously, could have done better.
But coming into this tournament,
the mental's gotta be pretty damn low.
I mean, sure, it might be low.
I completely agree with every point you made right there,
but also, again, at the same time,
no team in this tournament should be losing to Boko.
Again, not because I don't think they're necessarily bad,
but it's that in situation coming in,
like you should not be losing it,
especially considering it was a very last minute
replacement as well.
They haven't really prepped at all.
You should not be dropping even a map
if you're a team like 3D Max,
despite the struggles you've had so far,
despite your mental being in the dumpster right now.
So I feel changes have to happen
immediately after this event.
I still feel there's a couple of really good pieces over here, but at this moment, again,
I'm going to repeat what I said about BC GIF.
This is a dead team walking, because just looking at the body language, Richard, holy
hell, I'm getting PTSD.
Yeah, yeah, it's like we said, you know, the suit that's coming in might have been
a good idea, but body going out, definitely not.
Get on gravity, get body back in if you can.
That's all I'm going to say.
I agree with that.
Why don't we take a look at the schedule, because it is a PGL event, and therefore
we have two streams, and that means you can choose what you want to watch over
the course of the day.
This is going to be the secondary stream.
We got BC game taking on Volcker.
How bad can it get for simple?
How bad can it get?
Can it be that bad?
I don't know.
But you might want to watch that one to find out.
In a circle versus phase clan.
Look, there isn't a 2-0 there.
It's then going to play a game of Counter Strike.
Can't wait.
Let's see how that one pans out.
NRG versus iBall.
It's got to say we didn't really have time to talk about it at the pre-show.
I will just say J.W. Bach gave a very good account of himself yesterday, I love that, I love that for the scene.
And then of course legacy versus MIBR, a Brazilian derby match.
So lots of interesting games there guys.
Yeah, I feel for obviously the Brazilian derby should be quite fiery right, but I've been pleasantly surprised with NRG.
I've been, even since you know, a lot of the last minute played in Blast where Grimm just coming in,
the fact that they're able to hit the ground running so to speak.
And so far they've been kind of impressive as well.
Before J-Dubbs and his Mario Mendo yesterday, it was the first game, it was the first game obviously, right?
Even though they beat FaZe, so he did say in the interview it's a little bit of, you know, coming into a land like this,
first time for a team like theirs, in a very, very long time, in forever for a couple of these players.
It was a little bit of a rough outing, but I agree with you, I think you put a pretty good showing, so that matchup would be low key, could be a vanguard.
Yeah, but I don't think people realize how long he's been around, like, because he's only like 31, 32, something like that now,
And he's played all these maps.
He played the first major.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
He won the first CSGO major.
That is...
He was the MVP of the first major.
Yes, he was the major MVP.
So it's great to still see the old heads still around, you know, like people that know who I am, for instance.
Right, this is the main screen.
This is what we've got coming for you.
This is what we'll be talking about over the course of the day on the desk.
Again, working our way backwards.
Paravision versus foot.
That is a bang it.
That is an option.
great great that is the time Lord and the economics master going up against the
raw AIM heads that don't care about any of those things so that's gonna be
incredible Astralis versus Mongols actually can't wait for that one as
well bait versus 3d max is where bait is just gonna put these guys to bed put
them out of the misery I don't know man they've already played twice that it
was it was it was pretty close yeah yeah I know bait haven't looked at their
bed so far and then of course we can turn our attention to the first
game which is going to be Focus versus Wildcard? Yeah these two guys are actually teams that
have pretty much a common thread in that they're effectively a month or two old. They've
just come together with their new cores. Nemanja came into Wildcard last month. Cuban put
this in new international team together effectively two months ago and within something like two
weeks of their existence they qualified for this. And that tells you a lot about Focus and
and they're quick trajectory because right after that,
they go to this, I think it was parking challenger land
where they didn't do so hard.
They even lost teams like Volca, you know,
that they're coming in and obviously much less experienced
from some of their pieces.
But then they go to the next open land, to Urban Riga,
and they just win the whole thing
to effectively get within like top 30, top 40 of the ranking.
In two months of a team's existence,
you know, we've seen it from 100 thieves.
It is possible, but it is very difficult.
Oh, sure.
You've got to go to the scenic routes.
So over to you, Blair.
Let's meet the fuckers, right?
Who's on this team, and why do we like them?
I chalk on my banjo until I ZTR.
Yes, right.
Look, like banjo is the player to watch,
at least from the past result,
because it's so far it's been very, very impressive.
But overall, they're a team where,
even when it comes to the fragging department,
things are kind of, you know,
kind of very democratic, so to speak, right?
Everyone chips in when they had to.
Yesterday against Paris Vision,
one of the favorite of this tournament,
it was a pretty close affair.
It was actually Volt, a player who's way more tenured than almost anyone in the team, apart
from ZTR, of course, who was one doing a lot of heavy lifting, he was finding so much impact
as well.
So it's really cool for me that even apart from these young pieces like the Matheos,
Sharaprop one time, apart from Banjo and Jorca, who are kind of like these new pieces
coming in, it's also people like Volt, and of course they're calling by ZTR, which
is enabling them to work together, which is why this amalgamation of this random
talent seemed to somehow work.
I just want to say low key there is now the potential for a finished super team out there. I believe you got exit
You've got banjo Alexi bees in the house. That's that's always though. Yeah. Oh, is he?
There you go. There he is. We're claiming him in Finland, but no, you got Jimmy. You got banjo. You got Alexi
Another one. I mean, yeah
That too. No
There you go. There you go.
There you go. So that's the one you're talking about.
There you are.
Yeah, there's pretty solid, that's a pretty solid shelf to be honest.
The problem is Jimmy and Benjo kind of the same player.
That would be a bit of a problem.
Also, why would Alex say have a lead blade?
Well, you know, maybe not be big one.
I mean listen, maybe he would have a choice.
Maybe he would have a choice.
Yeah.
And then obviously we can talk about wildcard some more.
You know, the big storyline is the man you're coming over and essentially just
Breaking this team in the faces. Yeah, look I we had a conversation earlier as well, right where you got him for a reason
Right the August picked him up as Nigel for reason because they want his system to be kind of integrated into the team
However peeping has been struggling quite a bit because I get in ways to point it out a lot of the roles have been changed
Right, it's been the money doing a lot of the entries now
Even when it comes to most of the maps its positions is being the more active roles and peeping had a
He had a 0.6 rating in the game that had against Bitt.
Sure, Bitt are a reasonably tough opponent,
but he'd been struggling quite a bit.
But I will say the Marboy Hext,
the quiet pillar of the state.
I told you?
He popped off.
I might not know what nationality players are,
but I told you this.
Hext is definitely in his career best form right now.
And you know, got cuts.
We were a little bit surprised by that when it happened.
He got picked up by Wildcard.
We were like, well, can he maintain it?
He's been the one putting up
the solid consistent numbers for this team.
Yeah, I was just looking at the veto, very, very different from the last time that these two guys played where they,
Wildcard took it to Dust2, Focus took it to Inferno, so this time it's new form for Wildcard, of course,
and then there comes the Merage decider as last time, so, yeah, not a massive surprise because obviously Wildcard's map pool is kind of all over the place
and they might just feel like Nuke might be a better choice compared to last time where they got kind of destroyed in a one-sided game in Urban Regal, I think it was.
So yeah, no big surprise there.
I just wanted to say that it's interesting that the trajectory
of Nemanja and how he was kind of given the reins
and came to break up the roles on the team,
just take over completely.
And this is about me now.
That comes against the contrast of Focus,
who kind of went the other way because they really
built a very solid team role-wise that works together
from the get-go.
And they somehow managed to build a system that
works in such a short period of time.
So I do feel that for Wildcard,
It's going to be a bit of a difficult day in the office
because of the differences in systems.
And I can throw the server to you, Blair.
Obviously, I know you were on peeping watch.
You've been peeping, peeping.
And so because we talked a lot on day one, day two,
about how he's been essentially moved in
with different position.
He's learning a new position.
Nemanja has deemed him to have to play in these spots.
And the numbers haven't been so great
in your observations, right?
Yeah, but again, it's such a small sample size as well, right?
We just got a couple of maps being played in Nuke.
You know, this is a thing.
This seems like desperation to me, Striker,
the fact that Nuke is coming in because yesterday against Bay,
they showed us nothing.
And Bay are a better team compared to Focus, right?
And still, just the fact that they,
I don't know what was it like, 7 to 13,
and you picked this against them.
Instead, I thought they might even just go back
to Dust2, right?
Dust2?
Sure, you lost to Focus against them very recently,
but focus of Lost Boat The Dusters at this event.
It's been the one map where I feel like
any decent team would be abusing them on.
So you're coming in, I think you're nuking themselves.
Well, I will find out.
I'll bring in our commentators.
They always know better than I do.
Oh, you don't want to do that, Richard.
We don't want to do that.
He's mumbling already.
There he is.
It's every team, Anders.
So how do you see this one going?
Well, I'm getting back at it again.
We've got the focus,
fan club over here with Anders.
Oh, yeah, we do.
Yes, I think this is a really exciting team.
I look forward to it.
You know, like, they pretty much
are covering everything, but yeah,
They've made such a great run in such a short time.
It's a great project shows you don't have to have all the money
or all the superstars.
You can still do some work.
And your game of Legion DNA built in there with volts.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It was kind of crazy.
He like is in this spot right now
because I mean, I remember everyone raving about him.
When that game of Legion team got like this man
all after Paris.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It was kind of like everyone was.
He was calling himself a boomer in this team.
Exactly.
No, right?
24, he's not even that old.
The only one thing I want to see from Wildcard today is keep your weapons in your hands, lads.
If you're holding an angle, don't pull out a molotov.
Everybody knows all about that.
Keep it in your hands and that could be maybe the key to success here.
It was very unfortunate against Bay.
It looked like a game they could actually win.
At one moment, they pulled out the grenade.
Everything fell apart for them so they keep the AKs in their hands.
Maybe they got a chance today but I think focus definitely are the favourites.
Yeah, you agree with that, Anders?
Yeah, I've got them to make the playoffs.
I think they're going to make it through.
I think they've got what it takes.
All right, well, it's time to find out do what I boys all right
Let's get into it ladies and gentlemen focus taking on wildcars. We're still on camera
We'll do a bit of a dance on this. All right to move on here. We got it's been a minute Henry. Yeah, all right
But yeah, I think this could be a really really fun game
There might be some really chaotic couch right there might be more mistakes than we're used to because while I can't really
Just haven't played that many games with this team
But let's see how this one plays out some early
split let's see how this is for one so right now we've got the mania to make it
his way outside while the rest of the team are gonna be way the way towards the
ramp room and nobody is currently there I think focus was stuck in the ramp room
right at the beginning and then when they realized no one showed up they've
been I walked away and now they're here in the footsteps and now they're
coming back but this could be dangerous you're walking in to a bunch of
glocks here on the yeah on the ramp position and they're actually gonna
let it go I think they're not they don't really want to fight for it
Oh, no!
Guys?
Sometimes the USP in the back, it can, it can let you down, Anders.
It can happen. It's a real shame.
And now we've got a five versus three wild card in a prime position.
The in-game leader, DiMaria, setting them up for success here as now Volts will have to lead the charge,
making his way down towards his lower bomb site.
It's going to be Mateus to open things up.
And maybe they've got a slight chance here.
The time is running thin and they are running out of players well and here's some banjos they can care of
Bolt as we mentioned that game of Legion DNA is
Chilling through but it's gonna be even close things out there
But if a weird one they had all the advantages there on the CT side a mist shot on the back
There's the money out get a double kill and a wild car pistol in the bag
If you want to say something positive about that round is they actually identified perfectly all was going on
They knew when there were four people in the ramp that there had to be someone looking outside
So they actually went to find the mania to isolate him
Like the
Tactically the plate focus makes all of a sense because they read that the incoming t-pushed perfectly
They just didn't find a kills that's that is an important part of game many people said
One of the parts of the game definitely one of the parts of the game. So we've got a force bar. We love these on nuke
Why Henry dog?
Because with nuke you have so many tight choke points if you don't go outside
you choose to go towards squeaky, hot or ramp, things can get very uncomfortable and we are setting ourselves up to maybe go towards the aforementioned ramp.
A boost is coming in here as well.
You warned about this yesterday, so if you do this in these kind of rounds, it's a bit more obvious. People might check it.
These sort of rounds, yes, but it's all about the chaos that Vault can present.
If he's able to find a couple of kills, they will overlook it.
Well, they're throwing a lot of grenades to them, it's wrong around the corner, that's chaos.
He's found the kills, he's done some damage.
Chalka's been revealed, but still, not bad.
Like, it's a force of a trade, two for two,
and now CTR comes in,
defense under the kill, they keep trading back and forth,
and suddenly we're in a one versus two,
MHL, low enough that he could die very fast here,
but he's gonna get the kill,
and now we've got 50 seconds left for this 1v1.
Mateos, he's down to the B bomb site,
but the problem here is MHL has no idea what's happening.
He doesn't know where he is at all.
Well, he can pump the brakes.
Slow things right down, 52 HP.
Teyus. Bear in mind Anders, just with the Deagle. No utility.
Yeah. He does have body armour and helmet.
He does have Kevlar.
Which, against the Galil, you never know, could be that crucial difference.
It depends. Does he dare go down the vent, or does he maintain his focus towards the bomb site?
So we're going towards the latter.
Born to be planted, that's for sure.
Should he throw the Molotov?
I like to start sneaking up the vents, there we go.
Advantage, Matthias.
If he had to throw the Molotov, there was no other way out.
He's crept around, he's just launched around.
Oh, he's positioning though.
That makes yours done very well here. I think he wins.
Yeah, Matthias could think that he's gone into hut as well.
Like, he's not going to go the way he is.
He might just be, oh, he's actually going to check it.
That's crazy.
Wow.
Very nice work.
That's an easy position to overlook.
Yeah, I don't think you check that in a million years, but he gets away with it and it will be materials coming out on top very patient there towards events
A chaotic round, but it will be focus bouncing back there on the second round forced by we talked about the ramp and there's the tightest choke point on the map
Yeah, chaos always ensues when you head towards that position. Volt did more than enough to do enough damage
He takes out of a couple of kills. We've got a three of us three at this stage
You can see that's the case was open about setting up that five seven
There's a bit more damage, and then that's when the lobby crunch comes through as well
DTR managed to get one
NHL fighting for his life, but yeah, it's well read. I didn't think you'd ever check that
You would assume he's gone towards the hub and now it's forced by in response wild card
What have you got for us apparently an opening kill? It's gonna be Nomania in game leader
Yeah, find it at the end of the map.
Spray on through the smoke as well.
So, fair bit of damage to CTR.
You gotta be careful. He's back inside of the bomb site now.
Don't mind. It's in game leader with the AK as well.
Yeah, he's taking it on his own shoulders trying to...
After that P250 sequence? I don't mind it.
Yeah, he looked for out the enemy.
Oh, fortunately.
No one's checking that.
Marnie had gone down. Banyo, one of the players,
probably the player to watch on this focus team,
keep your eyes on him.
And he is for real from Finland by the way
Part of the Finnish super team perhaps
Although I've said for many years Colin kind of is the Finland of Central Europe. Okay. Yeah, that's fair. I'll give that one Richard
I think it's fine. Yeah fair enough
Although he had a focus will find a 2-1 it was an open kill from the money
Yeah, but not quite enough there ZTR steps up for focus
Should be 3-1 all day long
No. Kind of. I heard low HP bro. Negative vibes. Yeah. The wild card. Wait how's he
done that? It's like a bottle flip with a flashbang. Didn't even know it was possible.
I did know it was possible but I am still impressed. But yeah. I suppose it's exciting
that it's happening to me today Henry. I'll tell you that much. It's early in the
morning maybe the day will get better Anders who knows. Yeah well. But he was low HP
You want I don't know that's useful information
Getting into that after the rounds already over would have been good information before in the show
I feel like bringing that up is not going to create a positive environment. Yeah, I understand with you
I and I we talked about that post game. Yeah, we'll bring it up later
Shadow showing CTR. He's registered his mind. He's not really too worried about it
They are gonna be jumping around from every angle
Okay, he's jumping in return.
Got some nice skills coming out with the MP9.
The round is over very quickly.
We'll take it.
We don't want...
We want to go back to the AKs,
which we're going to get right now,
from Wildcard.
Again, I think it's worth pointing out
this team has played so few games with Nemanja.
Currently, their most played map is Nuke,
which they played four times, 75% win rate.
That's really good.
Their second most played map is Inferno,
which they played three times,
and they've won it zero times.
So just in general, their map pool is almost non-existent.
Is it really tough for a key of a wildcard and they didn't know they were gonna be at the turn of an either right?
They only got it they were the wildcard. It was a wildcard. Yeah, that was your joke yesterday
I didn't get it
That's I'm glad it's with right now, Henry
It's cuz it was such an it was such a
Intelligent joke that it just takes a while. He's layered. It's a real slow burner. Yeah
Yeah, but that's the best I could cook up on
Projecting so well, let's see whether wildcard can start to cook here as well. I went in the pistol
It's not being too good for them
Yeah, I'm gonna see full buy though
I say full buy the money and actually got the Mac 10 by virtue of him
Purchasing that hero AK previously we've got some Molotovs being delivered towards up up
ZTRs look pretty solid in this one site and oh my god who they go and it has not gone well
It's always upper execution sure
You might have given it a good go
Toby, you've not even made a dent, really.
It was cool the idea of Molotov-ing the rafters and the huts,
but when no CTs are playing there,
they don't have to move.
Like, the benefit of throwing those Molotovs
is if the CTs are running out of the fire
while you're running in with flashbangs,
it's a pretty good bet that you can win some fights there.
But if they're not actually in those positions,
yes, the flashbangs will work,
but as we can tell,
not enough to shut down Banjo, he is back.
Six to two right now.
he's definitely the highest rated player
quite an exciting character
we're getting a lot of these days that are coming up
from the
from the low levels we might need a few of them considering how some of the top
teams are unraveling at the seams
no one in particular
you can have a think about it
i might piece it together myself
it feels like some of the teams
at the very top
might have to be reconsidering the lineups, that's all I'm saying
well it's very diplomatic of you Henry not to be shaming anybody
you are a gentleman of nothing else
thank you so much, time out there
a much needed one
things aren't looking too great here, wildcard
after winning like a pistol they probably shouldn't have won
I say that with baited breath, like it was a very nice sequence from the
But there's a player who was shooting in the back. He got a 180p 50 kill. Yeah, 180 again got another one really impressive stuff
But like in the grand scheme of things you shouldn't be winning the round. That's I think unfortunately
That's actually a really good point, right? Yeah, they have one round. That's based off that play
That's it really does well. It was a great play. It was like if you can't really
Sustain that level like there's 180 kills aren't gonna keep coming
It's a wild card pick nuke and they are being outclassed in every single facet of the game
so far.
I've not seen much to convince me otherwise but we're very early stages here.
Have they gone for a force bomb?
Yes, they have.
Oh.
They've gone for the case.
This would be some sort of crazy set piece.
The mania, we set the vibes in like right over there.
So this would be like an upper rush and it would just be the case.
So they can make a bit of a dent here.
You're on top of the huts.
Okay, that's the kill they needed.
huge
Getting somewhere
Now it's on the ground again Kimani and wreck
Boxed in here see just is doing so much work. He's found three kills in the round
Yeah, he's looking very comfortable out there
rolling back the years Anders I all I think CTR is a bit of an unrated
figure in the Swedish scene okay I don't know why he's all the finished scene
all the finishing yeah whatever whichever one but they do have finna
in between they have this weird crossover at the border okay you go up
you can't tell who's right I didn't know that they all they all speak for the
streets and it's crazy I'm sorry this is like why not to be T.R. but what
They look lost. I'm sorry
They have no idea like where they've been pushed from why they're forced by that round I couldn't really tell you
Wasn't worth it
Like we're round seven. We've barely even had a full gun round. Yeah
Like there's been Mac 10s and galils and every gun round they brought out
Four spies when you're just rushing up over you haven't really found any sort of weakness there
If anything has been very strong with focus
we're going towards the ramp don't mind this it's a partial by now we've got a
Mac 10 the money at in-game leader AK again hero just taken down Z
vaults or I can just drop down confirm they've got ramp yep like we always say
it's not a bomb site doesn't really to do too much for you I'm afraid and now
you've got no grenades so that that that was your play that hero AK into
round. That was it. No plan B unfortunately. Yeah. You have to try and find. Slow it down
and hope that someone had a pick. Yeah. It hasn't happened yet. Keeping is there on the
other side. Desperate tournament how he's playing some different roles, maybe less of a style
position for him at the moment. See how that affects his mental. Yeah, I guess. Hext
coming in. You'd assume he's like the star player of the squad at this point. Okay,
They've all a little bit overambitious with that plate, unnecessary I would say, considering
that you're opening kill, and now you can let them in.
That's a great shot from Wreck.
Credit where it's due.
That was really cool.
Just pre-aiming that one before he even turns the corner.
Might have around here.
They might in fact have a round.
I wonder if we could get the replay from Wreck's point of view, I'd love to
see that.
Next, waiting.
Oh, Mateus shows up.
He can pull off the headshots.
Don't let it fall away now, Wildcard.
This is your chance to really build something, Corko's gonna land that.
Little flick onto Wreck, and now it's MHL already taking a little bit of something here, grenade
landing on top of him and he's forced out, and you'll find him, and the defuse is gonna
be in.
Okay, well that was their best chance to, yeah, I have to say, Bolt trying to hunt
for good information there, made things a bit uncomfortable.
He did very well in the first kill, but, uh, posting himself up to try and get
some information almost gave the round over but generally speaking very nice
retake focus goes six and one here on their opponents map pick wildcard seem
a bit frustrated they have got a full biotech confirmed that after partial
this was the lovely shot involved yeah when you know though when you've got
that sort of advantage yeah that sort of reposition yeah the reaggro of the
ramp it's very difficult to do like if you give it's clear great information
You go down though, you can see almost a bit of a disaster, but generally speaking they're okay.
Got the orb from HL now.
We see him some grenade tech here, double-nade on top of the silo.
No one home.
And even one inside of the bomb site, three grenades.
No one was there.
That undercuts the excitement by a little bit, but nonetheless...
Hexed is taking damage early on though, he's already down to 13 health.
They set up another smoke wall.
This particular wall, Henry, this double wall in front of Mini, up until recently the only team in the world I could find doing this particular line-up was FaZe.
And I think I even had some tweets about it, I was asking like, I don't think nobody else is doing this.
But for a good couple of months FaZe is the only team that did this, and now all the teams are picking it up, it's kind of interesting.
It's very interesting.
Phase might be here today might be in the operative word. We're not sure
Yeah, we heard there's a lot of rumors going around all the time now I
Can't tell what what anymore so I just try not to try to start out of the inside info
All I know is they might be here. I had there were
Rented bicycles. There's like
I guess like there is there is a way they get here whether they make it is yet to be seen
That's exciting though. Well, that's gonna be on the B stream. So we'll have to keep track of that
For now though, focused looking comfortable once again. We've got Hex, very low HP, nice, well from a mid-shell that takes a lot of damage on routes.
It's going to be a 3 vs 3 advantage focused though, and it's all about this heaven backstabbing.
And Hex has got it.
He's holding three positions at once, that seems very chaotic.
There's still very little help on that team side, but we've got to be careful here.
Jocko lands the shot of the Hex.
There's a time! Oh!
You're absolutely right, Henry! Time was running out, he couldn't have planted the bomb there.
He climbs the headshot instead.
It doesn't get closer than that.
Unlucky for focus, I suppose.
Nice backstab coming in from Hex towards the heavens.
Definitely not a comfortable round.
So the two rounds they've won is that Crazy Pistol from Nomania
with the 180 flicks,
and then the Spray through the smoke
when you had zero chance to plunder bomb.
Wildcard are on borrowed time right now.
Outside smoke's been deployed early.
Oh. Missed Molotov from someone.
More fireworks than anything else.
Yeah. Nice to look out.
Celebrating early perhaps as we're still only in the first half of the series.
I would really like to see Wildcard. I saw Miss Smoke as well.
There's a good catch from the observers here.
That's in fact completely right.
You want to see that drop down and waterfall off the side.
I'd love to see Wild Cup pick up another round here. Like, try and make it more competitive game.
This is the map that if they're gonna do anything in the series, it'll be on this map.
You did say.
That's important.
Great grenade tech, that Molotov falling back now, but see how he's hanging on the door to dodge the Molotov on the huts.
It's a very cheeky way to play it. Banjo is ready. See if he can get one more kill.
Nice wallbang.
Now, Rick, you shut up. He's had some really cool kills in this series so far.
Got the opening earlier down below.
Two players have gone down towards lower, which is great, but it's the bomb that needs to join them
But we do have volts here. Well read the ramp player. You know gonna shut this one down
There's the first and now
Repositioning here come his teammates. It's any child the worst weapon for the job really two versus one
You try and plan that bomb a WP in hand and vaults
Displays it perfectly a very capable player good to see him back on his feet in a decent team
Pretty rough and that was looking good. I was wild card another up execution
little bit sloppy, little bit one by one-ish and then they had to make the mid-round call
to get down the vents and there's the bomb that had to go down last and yeah.
Probably the kind of round that builds on frustration too because Wreck does get three kills to
open the round with, like you'd think that's it, we're pretty much home safe, but no.
Instead vaults, like you said rotating down below, reddit, quite a bit ahead of time and
they just weren't prepared for him being there.
Cuban, what a legend.
He's been around for a very long time,
talking in the background.
Had some good runs.
Even as of late, taking some young teams
all the way to quarterfinals or majors.
Paris, 2023 most notably.
Yeah, you know, he's just,
he's dedicated himself to the craft of coaching.
Yeah, and at this point,
this is a great lineup for him.
I think it is, yeah.
See whether he can get the most out of this.
squad and they're looking quite good right now wild card you can see that
they they've definitely got their struggles
Nemanius having to do a lot he's always one of the hero rifles and maybe
good reason gets a nice open of a keep trying to set up a bomb sight a thing
over and over trying to execute into this area we've got three CTs coming in
from the heavens looking to cause a ruckus here they're not going to even
allow them to try and plow this is a great reset really nice counter strike
Don't give them a moment to breathe, scythe all them.
Turd is about focus, right? They lost to Paravision in this tournament.
But it was an overtime, right?
It was an overtime on Inferno. That was 16-14 more importantly on Dust 2,
which is Focused's worst map that they actually played. They don't play in Ubers.
It was still 13-9. They got close.
But overtime on Inferno, and that's how you want.
Paravision almost beat Vitality on Inferno recently.
So by extension, by logic, Focused almost beat Vitality.
Yeah, no, I don't disagree, you know
The money though for wildcard the economy management has been pretty wonderful
The amount of rounds now that's fair
We've seen with hero AK's that not really paid off and then you have to come in with galils across the board
You're just desperate now
This is this is your pick. She's a desperate team, and it's quite desperate right now. They are getting
schooled by focus so they look way too comfortable defending it up a bomb so
that's all they really seem to be bringing to the table is the upper
execution time and time again which is fine if it's if you're pulling it off
and you're finding the wins in your governmental and your side of the
server sure that's there's playing in front of the yeah but you think he'd fall
back off it that's a problem he's actually done very well to play in front
of it I don't think that was to me is actually the top of secret agro being
and take it towards the Garant side of the line,
that's what I mean.
All right.
But that's a great detail.
I think you're absolutely right.
They probably thought about that,
even if they did it here again.
That's interesting.
Okay, we've got a nice little jumping back 10 kill there.
A chance, I suppose.
People love to pick up that AWP instead,
especially in keeping low on health,
but that's not.
Nice work for the TI, just falling back there,
not getting too greedy, getting the kill,
guaranteeing the round.
If he goes down there at 3v1,
it's possible for him HL, right?
A 4v1 though.
Sure.
30 seconds you ain't winning this
Let's look at the lost bonus situation is he had thirty four hundred dollars the next round it'll be guillots again
guillots AKs and
So many rounds though. Yeah, I had like maybe one or two that runs there. They are out of their depth
Which
Coming in on a wild card and they won the pistol by the way and they won the pistol as a good point
They're coming into the server that it did surely the point here is to get some real land experience and to kind of like
But that's also why it's a little bit annoying to see them be so frustrated
because in a way this is the best kind of practice you can get for Wildcard
to kind of test everything out. Nobody really expects anything of you.
That's fair.
They should be playing much more relaxed in some sense.
Like I don't want to see them big say at all.
Another round we have Galils.
It's another round, yes.
So I think we've had maybe two gun rounds and I think I'm being generous there
for Wildcard here in this first half.
It depends what your definition is, it's a full buy, but I would say we've got two.
We said some part of the game is about shooting people, the other part is about economy, does not extend.
A breath of execution again? Is it going to work out this time, Anders? I don't think so.
I think you're going to be a demon depending on this box site, along with Banjo of course.
It's been just the same thing, just get to lobby, set up a breath of execution and hopefully make it through.
it through it just hasn't really looked like it's ever going to work and that's
half. Wow. 10 to 2 and this is one of the maps you just want to forget unfortunately
you win the pistol and you win one scrappy follow-up round focus let's look at
the positives they look very good honestly nice good counter strike good
fundamentals individuals looking very strong shout out to ZTR 12 in game
15 and 8 top fragging. Great to see him bouncing back as well. Like we said,
game alligia DNA here with him and Volts in the team. Yeah, this is looking too
comfortable though. We heard some of the comms from Wildcard. They're
frustrated. I don't think they're prepared for this level of competition.
No. Understandably so. That's the thing. Like you can understand why that's the case.
Not trying to give them a hard time or beat them up or anything, but the
The proof is in the pudding as it were. Yeah focus already beating them up
So we don't need it. We just don't need that don't need of that
The good news Henry is inferno as a second map is the second most played map for a wild card. Okay, and wanted yet
Okay, let's be open minded for the second half let's see whether they can win another pistol here get both in the back
They will be on the CT side. If ever there was a map for a comeback, it would be Nuke,
CT side, and we'll see whether they can pick this one up. Tenth two though, doesn't feel great.
It really just the way it went down as well, like every single facet of the game,
specifically the economy management, was not looking good.
But it's a good catch up for those of us who maybe haven't seen too much of focus sort of,
You know in in person having got a chance to really you know see them play a lot
You know here and there, but again, they're brand new team. Okay, and you're Mateos
They open up the bidding on the second half is well peeping. Got the dualies. There is a chance here. He only gets one
Now they'll be aware
Slipping away, there's no way three C's lower. That's a crazy cold. Really good. Cool, though
That's not bad at all. I said I thought they made the playoffs, Henry.
Who focused? Yes. After seeing this, I didn't watch them before, be honest, and yeah, they
look like a well-rounded squad. In terms of star power, not many names that are leaving
off the page, but I've heard a lot about Banjo, for example. I know Z-Tier and Volta,
a safe pair of hands, Matthias seems to be very good at 16-5. Steve Hex can do anything.
on this retake they've got a lot of work to do and not much HP to do it with
convincing victory and there we have it that's going to be pretty much GG ladies
and gentlemen I didn't really follow the trajectory from the start I had people
telling me about them and I thought well I just don't haven't seen anything yet
but I went and did somewhat of a deep dive before this tournament because
there were like a couple of teams that I felt like I didn't know a lot about
Voko was one of them focus was another one that I just felt like I
didn't really sort of have any grasp up in a way.
I went to look at focus and triage,
like three or four hours looking into some of the games
and whatever else you do to prepare for a game.
And I will say, I was very convinced when I saw that,
like before the tournament started,
I thought, you know what, I actually need to do it.
Well, let's see how good they are handling these four spies.
These are some of the hardest rounds to win in CS2.
It takes a lot of discipline, takes good teamwork.
You have to treat it like a gun round.
You can't get too much away.
You can't be laxidaisical in your approach.
And I'm not seeing any of that. I'm seeing very efficient very disciplined play. Yep using this
Waller smokes get three players down towards secret nice area to go
It's very unlikely they stack the lower bombsite as I say that though Anders
We do have two players down towards lower bombsite. There are a couple of people here, you're right
But as long as you trade out effectively
And provide correct fundamentals you should be okay. I like this set up from Hexton peeping
I mean, the idea is there for it.
You do need to stay alive here, X.
He's gonna do it on so quickly.
Thing is, okay, really perfect play.
Yeah.
You get that first kill.
You send the Mach 10 in next.
As the cannon fodder, the sacrificial lamb,
and it's honestly perfect.
Would it be fair to say that
the difficulty of keeping focus
in these kind of rounds when you're up against it
is compounded by the fact that you're winning so much?
Like, surely did some tasting there.
Absolutely, and they play this round
perfection. Yeah and I don't use that word often. You really don't. Normally quite critical as we all
know but that is exactly how you play against this sort of round and even then we walked into this
stack down towards lower you clear those choke points very very effectively in terms of the
counter strike fundamentals that we discussed before doesn't get much better than that. Get the
first kill you don't just assume it's clear. You send the Mach 10 round first and then you
setting yourself up, even if he goes down as a perfect trainer, him jumping around the corner as well,
guarantees that CT player that could be there only gets one kill.
That's very cool. I guess for those of us who aren't part of the, you know, we're not part of the
focus team meetings, we don't know, we can only derive what the culture might be like from watching
them play. This is the kind of round way, so the culture looks like a team that understands
these fundamentals. Yeah, and this is up against a pretty weak wild card from what we've seen,
but in like, they're not giving anything away, they're not disrespecting their opponent.
Yeah, they're playing every round for locked in and that's what I want to focus on right now like wildcard
New roster like we said yesterday. Demania had even played Mirage with them when they played against bait is the first showing
So not trying to beat up in the two bad well the focus. I'm excited
But you told me coming in here today. This was a team to be interested in look out for they make a playoffs
I wasn't really buying it when I saw the line up a paper but watching this more convincing
This is looking very impressive.
The thing about having that kind of discipline too, right,
like almost by the definition of the word,
you can't really just have like selective discipline.
It doesn't work like that.
So if you're going to be a focused team
that doesn't throw away rounds,
that stays, you know, on point,
you've got to do it all the time.
And it's focused calling the time out now as well.
Because as Henry G always says,
round number 13, the hardest round in the world to pick up,
this is where the focus, for lack of a better word,
could drop off.
Nice.
Yeah, reminding everybody bringing in the coach
Making sure everyone's on board like we haven't won this game yet. Yeah, let's make this one easy
Let's not let them back into we always talk about the idea of this getting all it's got the five or six rounds
Even though the game's over. Let's get warmed up and brushes one off. No, leave them stewing. Let's close it out now
Let's bring the best strategy. We have to close out this game right here. It's a good mentality
I like it. Let's see if they actually can do it
They've got the Mac 10 of the UMP, so kind of still a bonus situation for them in many ways.
Taking the time out, checking the ramp early. They were going to get countered with smokes there again.
We've got a double setup down below from Wildcard who, honestly, in terms of the weapons and everything else,
kind of a desperate situation. I don't mind that they're trying to do something like this.
Double push with the MP9 and they've got Nemania in the garage as well.
Oh, they do this as well? I think we saw this earlier as well. Maybe yesterday.
Set up here, it can be very hard to read, see if it pays off.
For now, this is going to be the lowest split from what I can see, we're heading towards the ramp.
Okay.
We've got two players towards outside, they've already presented a wall of smokes,
trying to bait any potential grenades and anyone standing through over here comes a response.
Okay, quite a nasty one, but like we said, this is all a bit of a ruse,
they can call in towards upper if they want to, knowing there's players towards Seeker now,
you can just go towards the other bomb site, exactly what they've done.
This is really nice, Anders.
Loving this. Nice shot from the mania.
He's actually been one of the only players that's really turned up today, but no helmet.
And that should be GG. Should be.
I like the fact that you said that they changed it from the lowest split into the upper, in no time flat.
That also says something about the calling on focus, right?
Well, we've already seen them stack lower a couple of times.
The fact that there were two players towards secret suggests there are some antics going on down there.
Let's get in towards upper. It won't be a usual setup.
Just a clinical performance from this focus team.
this focus really nice yeah I want that to be the focus again part of the
time of this this game that this team is actually looking rock solid yeah if
big ever play focus we're gonna be in trouble yeah just like right she goes
down to 13 to 2 victory focus looking very sharp yes less ford focus and
more high-performance sports vehicle, wildcard just never at the races in that
world. I mean I said it earlier Rich, the fact that Nuke was picked by them looked
like a desperation plan. If you look at that map it was desperation play indeed.
That T side seems to consist of one AD and one AD only. We're gonna hit it up
a pops it is the exit this is execute I saw a TikTok and we're gonna work with
this and if it doesn't work well we screw that's what happens. Yeah I mean
you can't get away with picking you twice and then end up having three
round in total across two T-haves that's combined with the bait game that we saw
yesterday right so it's a orn day one it was I think so it just felt very flat
we saw kind of several rounds where even they team flashed they couldn't really
get through to the... Oh we have those rounds. Oh you have it okay I didn't know that.
Then it's kind of obvious that they don't have the playtime that they
don't have everything drilled in it completely and that's you know how
to be was right it's kind of understandable for me I just wanted to
give more props to focus for actually having really solid basics.
You know, this is a team that's been together for two months.
And yet a lot of these retakes that we saw when they were in 3v3 situations,
they put them together so fast, everybody knew, okay, we are throwing flashes.
Then we were just pushing together.
Everything was super solid in terms of stopping wildcard completely in their
tracks, whatever they had the opportunity to.
So I just wanted to shift focus away more on the, well, on the positive.
We're all just going to have to get over that.
They're called the common word that we use in small vernaculars.
Indeed, yeah.
We're just going to have to get over it.
So I just wanted to give them credit as opposed to bashing on Wildcard too much
for having some mistakes,
still a mistake when it's a team that exists for months.
I 100% agree.
It's also for focus.
It's easy, right?
When you know you're going up against Wildcard,
you know you're one of the kind of like the favourites to
at least maybe make it to the playoffs and have a good time over there.
It's so easy just get the little act today,
so go be a little bit of a Mr. Putt off your fault,
put focus, accelerate a little bit, but no.
They're really, really locked in.
They're really not allowing Wildcarts,
even a sniff of a chance to come back into this game, right?
Apart from maybe perhaps the final round
where they just had the SMG's running on in.
Even then, it was still very cohesive.
There was no individual place overall.
So again, focus, continued to impress,
considering, as we said, man, what a young team.
Yeah, I mean, I'll say this as well.
You saw Matthias jumping off there,
Not even one of the names we've talked about a lot.
The one thing I would expect Wildcard to be able to do,
like a lot of these teams, like NRG,
you know, are they going to make it to the playoffs?
Like probably not, but...
If it's here.
Yeah, you know, like, but it's like...
Two years in, on that one, I think.
You've got experienced players.
You can all aim.
You're still in the top percent isle of pros
to even be here in the first place.
So why not just simplify it and out-aim people?
They couldn't even really do that.
That's the worrying thing.
I don't think they even defaulted even like, you know, maybe one or two rounds. Yeah, and it's so weird because again
This is your map pick, right? Yeah game. You really must win. You're like, all right. Doesn't work out against them
Mirage and work on let's try new and they take a look at this round and this is something they've tried a couple of times
Right trying to go for this upper hit on on what is basically a buy-round what they're gonna do here
Standard stuff by the way fail multiple focus help the matters smokes outside
They don't even try to sell and then one failed smoke over there, right? They didn't even try to sell this fake
There's no one pushing out and making any noise and then the hit comes in, exec comes in
But a CT's Molly off hot and they don't have even one singular smoke to extinguish the molotov
So instead what happens is clear comes out, he's taking damage, the incendiary prevents the remaining teeth from coming out
Sure, they're able to get a couple of kills here and then it becomes a little awkward
They have control of this bomb site, they head down towards the lower bomb site where
By the way, he was all by his own some of the bomb, when his teammates went down
So there's a lot of disconnects happening here. I don't think the round necessarily played out that terribly for Wildcard over here
It was a very well played round from focus instead
But the fact that the utility usage is all over the place. Look at this
Look at look at look at the POV off the tee that you can see the POV of the teas over here
But you see the flashes coming out and it is actually going to be just getting completely blinded by their own
Flashes right so this super uncomfortable rounds from them
And just the fact that when you're going to be hitting the bomb site, especially in a map like Nuke,
when you're going for a full exec, I, one would assume that you know where the flashes are coming in,
from which flashes are being thrown in, what the pathing needs to be, where your entry needs to be looking towards,
and they were doing the complete opposite.
So I'm like, okay, fine, you picked the map, you had a couple ideas, but clearly I don't even think you drilled those ideas in which is worrying for me.
Yeah, I mean this is what you'd expect, maybe to try for them to go back to just to pick.
Obviously, they tried the first time didn't necessarily work against focus in the previous line, right?
But it is a map that's just easier to play even if it is more tactical
You know, then a lot of people make out to be all just to such an easy map
There's still so much more space that you have to work with if you can just default out and let your players
You know come up with some individual plays, you know
You have some some little moves that you can use nuke is such a heavily tactical map
You have to know your rotations perfectly all the strats
You have to have perfectly drilled for them to work as intended
Otherwise, you know end up in situations that you just pointed out, right?
Just to highlight a couple of small examples.
Whenever you see an up on new kid, there's so many variations of flashes and molotov and smokes, which you can use, right?
And you need to drill a place where to look at, where to go, where to path out.
That's true. You try, you know, you smoke off, you know, the cross towards the long, couple of, hey, I'm flashing behind you.
Just look the other way. Boom, boom, boom. Let your players pop off because they do have some decent aimers.
Hexes is a solid aimer. Peadings is a solid aimer as well.
And you know, and they can potentially make them sweat a little bit.
Instead you go for such a high tactical map where you showed nothing yesterday
and you continue to show nothing today.
I mean I just think in general the top tier teams what they do with utility
like it's no coincidence sorry to just bring face to the table again for a second
but it's no coincidence that if you look at the people in the that are
attending you know this tier of events it's they're the ones with the worst
utility stats right now in terms of it dropping down I think they've got the
worst like ADR from the maids and stuff like this and it's like look
The top teams will kill you, you're blind, you're in a smoke, you know, they push you, pull you around the map, they save nades so they can break your tactics.
Like I saw none of that from Wild Carb and you can't really, you can't really bring that to the table here, you know?
Yeah, and it's also because like Focus weren't playing anything special, right? They're just playing very few balls, there was no aggression coming down, there was no like lobby crunchers, you know, fighting for outside.
All right, we're just gonna have this crossword up top and we're just sitting in pretty much the same positions playing towards mustang
playing towards you know heaven one playing towards the CT vent side and second vent side and in the same set of
overseeing me every time and yet
He just started done again and again and again, so it's not like you were trying anything crazy
So yeah, I feel for wildcard. I don't think they're ready quite yet
I think this still far far away from being a team who can make things a little bit interesting
Let's quickly set up inferno
Yeah, I think obviously
based on what we've seen, you know, we kind of feel that the right hand's on the wall,
but we did that the other day with Astralis, if you remember, so you know, anything can happen,
but I mean, I really do feel the gulf between these two teams. Remember, this is focus is picked, so.
Richard, it's going to end here. I'm putting it onto line. It is going to end here. Yesterday,
focus on Inferno, they almost have done paravigio, almost have done a timelord,
And it came down to some classic game calls at the very end to sneak it through overtime and get the win
But this bring very impressive. I really enjoyed watching a volt especially alongside ZTR in the banana position
Just you know that duking out banana against the team like para vision
It's not easy and I think he did a fantastic job
Especially you know on the CD side on the T side as well
It's kind of his the king of banana put it seems so to speak so yeah for wild card off
for what we saw on Nuke, I didn't fancy any chance for that.
And that map actually went back to what I was talking about with Focus having surprisingly good basics.
You know, especially on the B bomb site, you were talking about Volts seem to always have the smoke for blocking like last 30 seconds
because they exactly knew what was coming from Paravision, the type of style that they have.
You know, you can sometimes save up a couple more grenades to try to combat that slow style.
And like he always seemed to be able to disrupt anything that was coming to the B bomb site.
Obviously, you know, in the end, it went the other way, but taking Paravision to overtime is no small task these days for sure.
And it was just, they, again, they didn't do anything crazy over that map.
It was just very strong basics from top to bottom.
All right guys, great talking to you. We must take a break now.
After that break, we're gonna find out if Wildcard can crawl their way out of their own personal hell on Inferno.
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What is going on everybody down on the floor with Hexed, a wild card Hexed.
Let's jump into a hot topic.
So the signing of Nemanja was sort of a wild card in itself.
How did it happen?
I mean we knew we needed some change.
There were some issues with the team that we needed to fix.
I mean, I joined Nautilungo, so I don't know if these were lingering before, but yeah, some
issues were happening, so we knew we needed an IGL, and then we got him.
I mean, I've heard of him from a long time ago, and I know he's been frying recently
as well, so I think it was a bit of a no-brainer pick when we saw we had the chance.
Yeah, he's been killing it, but as an IGL, what are you hoping he brings to
the team?
Yeah, let's start with that.
What are you hoping he brings to the team?
Well, there's obviously different calling styles.
There's more like strat heavy,
where you don't really get a much freedom.
And then there's the opposite,
where you get a lot of freedom,
and there's not too many strats.
And I think he's more into that category.
And I like that,
because he wants people to take initiative
and take space whatever they want,
whatever they think is right.
And he doesn't really punish,
like he doesn't get mad if you make a mistake.
He's honestly, it's the opposite.
Like he's happy if you're actually making mistakes.
So that means you're trying new things
and you're wanting to learn.
and I think that's a great thing to have in Agile.
Hex, as you mentioned yourself,
Nemanja, you're relatively new to the team.
What's it been like integrating into Wildcard?
Yeah, so for me, it's like, I mean,
I know of these guys already on the team,
so it's like, it was more sort of getting
to know their personality, but like my personality,
I feel like I'm pretty easy to get along with,
and I'm a little outgoing now,
that I was more now than I was before,
so I think it's easy for me to get along
with kind of anybody.
So it really wasn't that hard for me to fit in with the team.
OK, and now let's talk about the event itself.
So PGL, Bucharest, what are your general expectations
going to the event next?
Honestly, it's more so like there's no pressure,
because we shouldn't even be here.
So it's kind of just like trying
to see who we can upset, because I think everybody
were upset pretty much here.
So if you can do that, the future's bright,
but we'll see.
Yeah, in that sense, doing the guys
I see it as sort of a big opportunity that's
falling into your laps.
Pretty much, yeah.
I mean, like I said, we're not supposed to be here.
So the fact we are here, it's like, we have so much to gain
and so little to lose.
Yeah, so even considering that you're feeling less pressure
given the circumstance of how you got here,
how motivated are you guys with the opportunity?
Yeah, me personally, I'm very motivated.
Because just being back to these tournaments,
you kind of miss how everything is.
Like there's a strict schedule.
Everybody treats you very nicely.
Everything is so nice about it.
And I think just, me personally, I
miss that, be going to the smaller tournaments of Urban
Riga or Roman Perium.
They're both good tournaments, but nothing is like a tier one
tournament.
It's completely different.
Yeah, so in that sense, very excited to be here.
Very excited.
Wicked.
Well, Hext, I think, actually, one more thing.
So lack of pressure aside, very motivated.
What would be a good result for Wildcard?
I mean, a good result for Wildcard genuinely would be,
I would say like at least three wins.
Okay, cool.
If we can get three wins,
I feel like that'd be a really, really good result
because there are scenes here
that aren't playing very well right now.
And I feel like we, them thinking,
like they're the top, like, you know,
they should beat us for sure.
It's like that puts way more pressure on them
than the us.
them not playing well, combined with the pressure that they have,
it's like, I feel like we can easily take some wins from them.
All right, well, Hext, wishing you the best of luck.
Is there anything else that you'd like to say to everybody watching at home before I let you go?
I mean, I would say thank you for supporting,
but I feel like not a lot of people are supporting Wildcard.
So, I mean, if you become new supporters from this tournament,
then I appreciate it, and yeah, follow me on Twitter.
Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. We are ready with the second map here and we're watching
focus and Wildcard were coming hot off their victory against FaZe. Unfortunately, I think
it's not really possible for them here, Henry. Not so much, not so much. Wildcard
right now, I don't know, it feels like they're not ready for this level of competition,
which is understandable. New roster, we heard in the interview there. Hex, they're
just trying to get some experience. We're not trying to beat up on them too bad,
that first showing them that pick. It was pretty woeful. In terms of head-to-head
combat it felt like focus had them be in every single round. We now move on to
Inferno. Picked by focus I would expect more of the same but I'm hoping for at
least a more competitive game. It looks like 2-0 all day long. Focus look very
well-drilled, they look hungry and it was very skilled as well but the
individuals of Wildcard they can still show up here. They set in the
to do they're looking for three wins. Not sure that's going to be happening I'll be honest with you
but let's hope for a good game Anders. Well honestly you brought up some good points on Nuke right
the the economy for the T side there was really bad if they can just have a couple like if you
win the pistol round and the following two rounds you're already in a more interesting position.
You'll have the same man around you got in the first one. Exactly so just get that.
Rec was shooting really hard and Marnie had some good rounds I've had a couple of players
that were doing some work so I'm not going to rule it out here. Rec is back he's getting that
opening onto Jorko, he wants a bit more. It doesn't realize someone's in the smoke to his right,
so that's dangerous. And he doesn't have a teammate there actually either. So yeah,
Matias has walked through tactically a massive advantage right now for Focus.
You would probably, we definitely would exchange losing a player early on for this kind of an
advantage. Look at the position. Now, Nemania, he's actually watching for it, or he was.
I think he might have been asleep watching that.
Isn't that so funny?
It looked like he was covering that angle,
but he obviously wasn't.
Not at all.
MHL, he's at the back now going down,
and even if they lose the opening,
they bring it back.
They get the bomb planted,
and now there are man up in the after plant,
so everything is worked out.
Great work for Mattel.
So he has shown up in a massive way here today.
Wreck and Hext.
They're gonna try and see if they could do this retake.
It doesn't look like it'll be easy.
Dooley's coming for it.
He's found two kills so far.
They don't have a kit either.
And I don't see one on the bomb side.
Volts will get a headshot.
Wreck's going to go down to Banjo.
And in spite of the opening, it wasn't enough.
I'd love to see Nemanja, so funny.
Is that the fountain dipping his toes in?
Oh, it's a bit of a shame.
It looks so good there for a second.
Wreck, like he said, opening kill, three in total there.
We know this team likes a four spy,
But we'll see a focus and they're great fundamentals on these sort of anti-ecos or prevail
Do you think for the Mario when he sees this beat coming?
It's it's really unfortunate like he said about the regular first kill out of head all these stuff through smoke
It's just that isn't like it's just very unfortunate
No, it's not like they did anything fundamentally wrong now
No, they just it's got a bit of fortunate
But let's see if they can bounce back. As mentioned, it is going to be the force by here in the second round.
Inferno, who's going to always be difficult to handle.
One-for-one dual though, doesn't reduce too much for the CT side.
They have got a bit of a B-stack going on with three remaining players on this side of the map.
We have Hext, patrolling, flashed over, and yeah, one by one.
Flashbang was good. Good enough though, it's going to be Demania, who always seems to have the rifles here.
I don't see that too often as the in-game lead-up, but now he's given up the fact he's got the M4, that's your Q, and you just disappear, you get the hell out of there.
But, that's maybe what they all need to think.
Yeah, he's sticking around.
Back up not really there, he's coming back for more.
So dangerous, don't have a head armor, he's gonna go down.
Honestly, I don't really hate this round from Wildcard, I don't even hate the fact that they were flashing their way through the smoke, I think it's very...
Oh, all right
Giving us a taste of the real old times. I don't know what happy is these days
Got a little throwback there for a minute. I was gonna find
Happening any longer, okay nice positioning from hex though, but the problem is getting into that smoke
Getting into water coffins. He knows exactly where he is but the smoke dissipates all of a sudden things get a little bit weird
No helmet for X. He knows he hasn't got a kit. He doesn't need to panic yet.
Yeah, that's a good point. He's gonna have to grenade to really check it.
If he was panicking, he won't be any longer. Has to go for the full 10 second deep.
So unlikely this is gonna work out, but honestly, Banjo taking a sweet time with this one.
Trying to get through it. Oh, he came off it. I don't think there's gonna be enough time, is there?
Maybe? Just about. Oh, if he can. That'd be such a gift to Wildcard. They're getting close with it.
Yeah, they managed to get up. It's not a clean comfortable round, but it comes down to milliseconds there. Yeah, just about picking it up. It is going to be wildcub winning the round. Fair play to him. It took a ridiculous sequence from that. There's an eagle didn't want to go to win that round at all.
at all. Wrecked with the Deagle though, sets him up. There are a couple of disgusting kills in that
round. Even the back ten Brutus smoke as well. Wrecked though, again, whether this is sustainable,
I'm not so sure, wasn't even aiming at him. That's what I'm talking about.
That was the recoil.
Yeah. And then Hex gets away with a millisecond of spare, but not out of the woods by a long
shot. Aggressive towards Banana, but that's just what they needed. A bit of luck, you know.
I'm going to force myself a couple of AKs here.
The wildcard have to convert this if you get a standard chance.
They did not look ready for this level of competition in the previous map.
Now on their opponent's map pick, but we'll see what kind of setup we're looking at here.
Full banana control for wildcard.
They're quite good focus on the T side of this map.
They actually win most of the rounds on the T side these days.
So don't underestimate them here, even with low economy.
They've got a 4 vs 5 conversion rate of about 46%.
Even if they lose the opening pick here, what focus?
They still play really well on the T side, like they know what they're doing.
Oops, failed grenade into a perfect headshot.
Not the star they were looking for, but still with somewhat of an advantage in terms of
the firepower overall.
We are going to be setting up flashes here courtesy of Jorko
Let's go down to P-Bank
Oh, they don't know that he's there
He's got a chance here
No one's looking for him, that's awesome
And the money are coming in from the other side
The timing could not have been better
Oh, the one position they don't check and it costs them the round
That is the first real fumble we've seen from Focus
They've looked so clean, so concise but I don't know
all of a sudden there is a chance it's got a smoke for spawn as well two versus one
he can isolate these jewels and there is a real world he picks this one up this
kill decides the round
well right so patient yeah that actually is really well read okay yeah you
said it one mistake and that's all it takes and credits a wildcard not just a
double kill with the mp9 but the fact that the money was ready from the
other side because that's the follow up that yeah kills the whole round. Oh it's
looking so good there that's a lesson learned there for focus a mistake they
probably won't make again overlooking a key area you got a five on four advance
and you go towards banana and I guess because your team may run in there you
assume it's all clear and then yeah all hell breaks lose the fact that even came
out to a winnable scenario after that was so impressive but there's
definitely a case we made you could force by this again considering the
bomb was planted and he brought it down to a 2v1 they're just going to bring out the
banjo AK-47 he's 4 and 2 right now so
Is that a vint Jorko dropping it to banjo I guess?
Um, but it looks things yes. Okay.
We're kind of in. Also shows you how much they believe in
in banjo's abilities. Sure. I don't think that trust is misplaced so
we'll see but that's what they have for this round so couple of flashbangs
maybe to set him off
MHL though, is a perfect counter for this kind of a play, he's just in the corner right though,
moves forward into it, so that kind of defeats the AWP on the other side.
They still have a three man setup at the A bomb site, they're walking past the Nani,
but they are really checking the corners now, like you said, they're probably not gonna be able to take that again.
It's on MHL, an X inside of the bomb site with a stalling AK, very fine work for the defense,
that puts it back into a three versus three, and they still have about a minute on the clock,
so let's see what the mid-rounding is gonna be like here for focus.
They start to make their way to arch they can go anywhere peeping could be tested here
They start to feel that too
Looking as he crosses the road
We're gonna look both ways and is famously that's is they do say that and
Paul was looking like another promising round here for wild card
As unraveled at the seams. Oh, okay. The round is back on though. That's a nice pick up an image
I'll need to make a decision here 14 HP open the retake hex would have to do the heavy lifting here up in the
Two versus two nice position from Banjo looking to get at least one should secure the round if he does so
Flashbangs very good. It's gonna make a lot of noise though. I'm able to actually punish the flash
Good kill from Hex. Wow
Yeah, wasn't even the best of kids
And they do have catch rights importantly volts very common position right here
low HP on the bomb and he's gonna go down hexed with another good headshot.
Can you get the DPS this time? That's crazy! That's very very close DPS coming in
from hexed on both times but Wildcard are answering back. The thing is though
with that many kills Henry surely they're gonna force again. Oh that wasn't
even the force that was like that was just one AK and a couple of pistols so
yeah they definitely will have more than enough to purchase here. Wildcard
hanging on by a thread and still commend them for the individual skill there
that was a difficult retake low HP taking down the diffuser but hex is stepping up
I consider him to be the star player this squad and he is 5-1 right now this is
looking much better they've already got one more round total than they got on
So, uh... promising scenes, yeah.
and
MhL back here might miss the timing as Mateo
That's a good spray down, but I don't think even registered. There was a second play
He thought that was it. Hexed out of the round back in the 3v3 now wrecked gonna go down and the mania
USP outs if he ends that shot the round is secured
But now it's a tough retake MhL. He keeps the AK here almost surprised
He probably could have found he definitely found another weapon over on site
USP, he knows he's low.
There's a Molotov on Jorko.
Say it now, because there are many ways to Molotov this after plant, even from inside
of the church now.
He's walked around.
Does he know the lineup?
It is a bit of a rare thing to do, but you can throw it from inside of here with relative
ease now.
They open up the window, if you remember.
Not that long ago.
So Matty's gonna find it.
You're so right there.
If you had that lineup, that's the time to use it.
I'm very angry myself Henry that they open up windows. Why is that? I had spent
countless hours figuring out how to monitor from the church without the
windows. Okay. Even before. Right. But just but then they open and now everyone
would do it. That would have been a perfect time to deploy that. Yes. 1v1 your
low HP. You've managed to slip the net, get in towards the ruins, the bombs
down in a default spot. But yeah, I guess this didn't have to line up the
hands. I guess at a professional level there are so many much more
important lineups to learn. Yeah. Then the more the more mad kind of
setups you just don't always have time for. Yeah, here's the
defuse when you're low HP as well. You kind of just have to
hope it's not the full commitment. Yeah. And yeah, that
would have been a really nice time to drop that one in but
not gonna be the case. Again though, another one be one with
the bombs planted. It's like unreal that they are holding
on in his hex delivering the goods time and time again, and
it shall steps up here with the orb as well. Come down
That's the type 1v1. Focus will be getting a little bit frustrated now, but each and every time
a wild card coming out on top of these clutches, they just need one. Focus that is and they will break through.
That is probably the conversation they've had on the team right now, isn't it?
One round, we're back on top. They had to give a lot of credit to wild card.
That guy was meaming a little bit, I said they played this map three times, they've won it zero.
Again, they're a brand new team, so we're not trying to be unfair to them.
They're playing like a team that's putting up some good numbers, some good crunches,
hexed in some of those 1v1 defuse situations, MHL on the last one.
Yeah, they're close rounds.
Well, you're getting rounds on the pole.
Smoke goes up, gonna be a flash out to try and take a bit of a peek here.
The mania doesn't commit to it.
I don't really hate that at all, I think it's fine.
Well focus what have you got for us this time tantalizingly close each and every round
Yeah, the straighting starts here on the T side
But as I mentioned just one round would do it you can break through the money is completely ruined
Smokes going down towards the library
And indeed the arch
It's a for master hex as well to what that hit position
It could be done, but
Last time he had an 8k here and it was a little bit more interesting perhaps
See what he could do. Wreck trying to get there in time. They know now it's coming.
Reinforcement should be going in, whether that range, you can see from us,
he just can't wait to get the job done.
And Rachel, I guess, Sam, they have to get the kill, but...
We have to save him.
Yes.
We'll cover that M4.
Which he has done, and get the hell out of there.
The money is going to be completely busted now.
They will be entering with zero loss bonus. That's $1,400.
So, focus finally on the board after winning the pistol.
has been four diffusers since. Every single round has come down to a clutch every single time.
Which, like you pointed out, in Focused Minds, they're thinking, well, we just keep doing this.
Eventually, we'll win one of these. We will break through. They recover the
AWP on the T side as well, worth noting, but there it is. It'll be 4-2. Focused should still
be comfortable. I still think they're playing the better brand of CS. It's just coming down
to Hex and the individual clutches coming through. Still don't think anything away from them in
in that department, like still very impressive what they've done in those 1v1s, 1v2s,
but they don't feel like the better team here on the final, even though they're up 4-2.
I would agree with that. I like the realism in the pre-game interview, you know, how it's kind of
really, you know, basically saying we weren't supposed to be here, nobody expects anything.
I think he even said if we beat anyone it's an upset, like any match we win is going to be
get upset so they're not delusional in that sense they kind of know that this
was short warning but also potentially very very rare experience right for a
for a team like wildcard to to be able to get here yeah they're coming to a tier
one environment and getting to play on these wall-class setups and get
everyone some experience yeah absolutely
I want that. Some teams have to play months and months and months online to sort of grind
through to be able to do this.
Yeah, well let's see if they can take this opportunity and run with it. It's a 4-2 right
now. We'll see if they can bounce back as it were with the force by on their side of
the server. Save M4s, a couple of MP9s. One pistol for NHL.
this round you're gonna lose a few more. They've got a reservoir of utility over there towards
that B bomb site but not many players. It turns out to be one man whole by a grenade there
from CT spawned. There's a ton of damage. Might dissuade them. The mania doing the heavy
lifting is continuing to find grenades here. He's got another H.E. available to him
as well. So the idea is I suggest there's multiple players there of course.
Yeah, gotta be careful, because the frequency of those grenades is almost a little bit too readable.
Oh, like this hex, taking it on himself.
Mateos, getting pushed from every angle, and he's gonna go down as well, and nice shot.
And all of the Galileo, he couldn't quite reload it in time.
I think he was in the middle of that, unfortunately.
Didn't have it out quite.
Cinemania, the one-man Grenadier over there.
He was doing great work.
arms probably hurting at the end of it but you'll have to make do with the
little they have left $1900 into the next round he's got all that you tell
still incendiary a g m4 yeah Kevlar how do you feel about the idea that when
they got the four man stack they decide to push like they actually
aggression is that okay yeah absolutely fine you hear them deploying that molotov
from the incendiary from the boiler room as soon as you hear that sound you've got
an SMG up close of course you get stuck in that's the time to strike they got the
opening kill there was just incredible shots coming in from vaults especially
they hit that shot towards the quad side not really much you can do about that
you're trying to catch them off guard and that's the best time to do in
the juggling grenades yeah trying to get that mid control it was just a
really nice sequence from focus in terms of individual mechanical skill like
you're not supposed to hit those shots.
Alright, well...
I actually thought it was actually quite well done from Wildcard.
Yeah, because they're not playing scared either. I do appreciate that.
I guess even on Nuke there was miserable T-Sci for them,
but they kept trying to do these executes like they never really gave up in that sense.
They just got shot down, but they kept coming up with ideas.
They're here a rifle once again in the hands of Nomania, in-game leader.
This time he did save it, to be fair to him.
Sure.
Double stack into all the apartments
What a foregone conclusion that you win this round 1 and 4 and a few upgraded pistols could be enough in this case
I was p250s three of them residing towards the apartments
That's interesting. I feel like it's it's more rare on inferno to see p250s than 5 7s
I mean the financial situation is just so bad right now, okay? That's that's the difference that you do need to save the extra
$200 p250 300
5 7 500 bucks
and if absolutely manage to get an opening kill, Banja goes down.
But he does spot a few players there, so next move will be very important.
They've got an AK-47 now as well.
Dave, once again, open up this arch position and we think he can keep going in here.
Should be a B-splipper, looks, things here.
Yeah, just gotta watch their back, I think.
Almost left Chocor alone. Yeah, get rid of the rest of the cork.
Okay, never mind. He's doing fine on his own.
I was gonna say it looks like Dave abandoned him for a second.
The AK is walking away. Look, he was getting caught there.
but everything is fine now they've decided to
bail off the possibility of a
drive-by
he's back
yeah
he was uh...
i think he ended up trying to get a new car
pretty good stuff
well the money is here again, kinda bored
we're all the same here
vaults on the hunt though
i like flying shots to close things down
as we tie things up, we go four four
And money will be stabilizing here.
That was the fully Ecos who mentioned a couple of P250s in the mix.
And the reason to get the five seven and is because even still they have to work with famuses now.
Yeah.
Forward says something about how tightly economy is.
I'm ready to bring it up.
Um, I quite like a P250.
I don't know.
I feel like I'm doing more precisely.
Yeah.
No, it's still very good.
So I see it in pistol rounds on the T side so often.
It's still a very good pistol.
But here we go.
I'm at number nine great start while I've got hard off to lose the pistol there are four to one. We now go four to three
It's all because of the clutches looking for their winning convincing rounds
They were getting away with murder in the defuse department milliseconds to spare
But this is promising the test goes down early. How did peeping go in that?
Maybe my brain just skipped a beat there, but it felt like he was running away pretty quickly and he's down to three
Try to get out of the fire. Maybe there was an HE that landed. Either way, they get the
opening on Mateos. That's good news. Wildcard. They kind of let focus back into the game.
Now would be a good time to see if you could throw them out before things get too rowdy
on the first half of Inferno. MHL is here. They've got Hex to cover the middle.
So trying to sort of do both at the same time. And they've got Wreck on the
the other side. It's a good crossfire. That's great protocol. He doesn't even think about
it. Love to see that. That's the best round Wildcard have put down so far in this series.
Very nice. Good crossfires. Got the opening kill. Hit their shots. Good swings coming
through. They take the lead once again. Five to four. Money should be pretty decent
though for focus. You can see the rebus coming through. They did purchase an alt
there for a second change their mind and went for the full AK spread so we'll
see whether they want to change at the pace a little bit and this maybe they
want to drop a bit more the pockets right here in Inferno deep smoke from
the CT towards banana green second mid quite a bit so that's yeah so this
looks like a palace bomb how to spot I keep this out from the right apartment
spot there's any three players here so this was a call out of spawn just
that you can just make that read. They buy the orb at the start, they're planning a default,
go for the AKs, means they've got something out their sleeve and it's going to be this
violent mob. There we go, Hex is trying to scrape him down, that's actually really cool,
he does get the shot on the banyou, he knew what was coming, he's seen the utility,
he can put together the rest of the round, he needs a backup though more than anything else.
They're in the pits, they're up on the railing right now, trying to step close to the
Hex. Close to the graveyard, Hex, he actually hold on to it here, he hasn't reloaded yet,
He's got 13 bullets, now he's got wrecked behind him and the lack of reload doesn't even hurt him at all.
He's still getting the kills.
Mateos playing a giant off-hangle.
Nobody's thinking about this anymore because they think the graveyard's closed, but not quite can still stand on those steps.
Bolt's trying to get closer.
Hex, what a champion.
Yeah.
Turning it down is what, four kills for him?
That's all about Hex.
All day long.
Gets an opening kill, reads it well.
Like we said, it was a set piece out of spawn, focus,
trying to attack those apartments.
It's a very common strategy,
normally utilized when you have the tech nines,
but I don't mind the change of pace there,
but Hex, getting our fortunate kill,
calculated shot through the smoke,
knew what he was up against there,
gets a clean headshot, repositions,
doesn't give too much away, finds a gap,
plays for self-preservation there as well.
And yeah, it's getting frustrating for focus,
because I would say, I think they're playing the better CS,
But they are getting unfortunate and a lot of these tense and close rounds, especially the clutches wild card now
Getting online getting some comfort is on the server last couple rounds here and the money running a bit in
Focus, this is the opening kill like I said, that's not lucky that that's like calculated. He knows what he's up against that
Yeah, it's just displaying a skill of a different kind which is the skill of reading what's actually absolutely true
Hexed is playing very well here on internal 15 of 5
I'm actually really happy for Wildcard because we were laughing a little bit earlier, but this is a moment in time where they can actually do something in this tournament and kind of walk away and say, you know what, we showed up and we played some of the counters that we want to play, which I think was one of the goals for them, is to try to put someone together here.
This is the first time that we've seen that, so...
Yeah. And, uh, focus looking a bit rattle now.
Three Galils.
Decent map control, early. Boiler and clear.
Confirm there's no stack there.
Smoke down towards the end of the apartments.
It's gonna be MHL.
Easy first kill, no problem now.
Okay, they've been doing good work of defending, especially that first corner towards the boiler.
all kinds of setup here for the CT side
is exposed if HEX goes down early
but that smoke is up and they're gonna recommit that smoke again
again, these are some of the basic protocols you wanna be doing when
defending the A bomb site, and HLE does miss the shots
but focus have had enough here
it's none of the fall back, they feel like it's too risky, maybe it's taken too long
and they worry that there's a bit of reinforcement, which there is
Keeping his walkover since this lurking towards the bombsite started once again the money is alone this time
He's got no utility on this position though Henry could be some behind them, but he doesn't have it
And he's dead
NHL make up for it
AWP final cylinders right now and hex has been strong throughout the CT campaign
Yeah, so if his 16th kill 4-2 should be a done deal here
No chance of banjo hex just mowing them down
down, clean round, great cross five.
Yeah, we could put some more praise on Hex, right?
When M.H.L. misses the second kill
that he had the opportunity for,
Hex actually repostsitions to take it.
He knew that there was gonna be a T chasing down M.H.L.
as he's reloading the AWP.
So again, just great intuition for Hex
or a great reader, what do you wanna call it?
But he was holding,
because he was holding the apartments.
And as soon as that missed shot happens,
it's like, all right,
I'll just take a couple of steps to the right
and help you out.
17 and 5. Very cool. Absolutely killing it. And they've killed their economy as well.
You can see the desperation, even the decoys being brought up, and Jorco trying to spend
every last dollar, and we're picking up the pace, smoked down quickly. It's going to
be another opening kill. Should be able to get a double as well with our 5-7. We are
all done here. Four is all they get. Wow. Wild card, a bouncing back. After losing
the pistol as well they get four rounds in a row all of which were clutches and
yet towards the end of the game they've really locked in Hext especially he
misses the half on 19 kills MHL Resolve as well really got going 13 for him it's
not a done deal they win this map definitely their t-sides were not
looking great on Nuke especially if they win the pistol though and get a good
start get the conversion I would say third maps very likely there's still
a lot of work to be done there's a lot of work that we've done you're
I think the pistol round is going to be critical here to see where this is going, but 90 kills and 12 rounds will take that all day if we're on the wild card side.
At least, like you're believing at this point, right?
Yeah.
You're feeling like we can actually do something with this.
I'm really happy for them.
It was a bit rough.
All we could do on Nuke was just kind of enjoy focus playing well on that map, and that's what we did.
But for this one, it's a little bit more exciting. There's something more to fight for.
And like I pointed out, focus, they actually win more of their rounds on the T side on this map.
So now they're switching essentially to their weaker side focus.
So now they play a bit, quite a bit in fact. They've played it nine times the last three months.
206 rounds of inferno is what they've clocked in so far.
Wow.
That's something.
Well, here we go. The all-important pistol and it's gonna be something quick here from both teams.
aggressive, of course. Opening kill from Banjo. Everyone's in towards the apartment. That's crazy
work with the jewelies. Right now you don't think it's right. They've gone aggressive.
Let's see if the bomb site's open towards A. It's actually completely locked down. It will
be focused to pick up a very convincing pistol round there. Nice idea. Trying to go for the
full apartment rush, I assume, but with the aggression and the CTs,
Sheds down their intentions and that's a big big round of pick up especially with no plan coming for round is I would not recommend a force by here
You've already got a nice
Collection of rounds to work with I don't think you have to force and try and win this one stay on the blocks
Buy up into the next and try and shut down the little guns because you know, there's gonna be MP 9s there
Famous
You bring out the AKs and the next that's where you have the best chance of winning
I think that's pretty much what they're doing here.
Focus happy to be a bit aggressive at the start.
Guess another stat to bring up here, Henry.
Oh, I like and the stats.
We do like some stats.
Focus had about a close to a 50% win rate
when they lose the opening fight on the T side.
Okay.
For wild card, that win rate when they lose the opening fight is about 25%.
So it's not as good.
No.
They lose three and four rounds where they lose a player early on.
That's tough on the T side because think about what a banana is.
That's where you go to send your T's to die early.
Well, they probably won't be winning this round after losing the first to play up.
True.
It's going to be that eco on the T side, objective for focus, keep it as clean as possible.
Ideally, five alive.
At most, one going down is okay.
Towards the apartments we go again this area has had a lot of action this map so far
Don't need to go over commit, but say yes
Come to the chill and there it is five alive
And now this where things get interesting the full eco will lead us to AKs in the next
I wouldn't be surprised. We see a timeout here. It's a very important round
It's per se for wild card and you're up against like we said two MP9s or two SMGs as an MP9 and MP7
Banjo on the Famous
You've got the advantage of the firepower, but you do need grenades
So can't get AKs across the board here a couple of glills will be required on a map like inferno
Oh, I say a couple of three glills so not as potent
That suggests they're gonna be going with something quite slow and tactical here. I'm trying to execute onto a bomb site
Rather than brute force their way
Yeah, because of how they got here as well porpoise have helmets on everybody
It's not one of those rounds where the CTs are like an S.
Yes, yep, good point.
So the glills, not as deadly.
But I guess, just to add to what you were saying,
it does show the emphasis on the grenades for Wildcard.
They really needed that.
So...
I appreciate it.
We're going down towards Arch.
Retake utility being set up here for focus.
Honestly, retake utility enables you to look towards top banana
exactly what Volt is doing. It's just because he has that lesser weapon. Trying to get up
close and personal. Locked him out as long as possible. Oh, this grenade could do a lot
of damage. Be times of wealth. Not quite. Man's in the middle of all of them. There's
damage to none. That's the only place you could have landed. Yeah, right. It's
unfortunate. Okay, small company. I can write for any way Volt here under some pressure
You'll get traded out to CT, although very accurate.
Done pretty well.
He goes down on the lifts, but nicely done.
They'll still find Emichael on the other side.
Yeah, that look doesn't do too much for you.
Everyone gets mowed down, and they're
still comfortable on the CT side towards banana.
Great patience, great read, very common.
There'll be one player lurking around Boiler towards mid,
all going for that back stab, and you kind of
have to activate with three deaths coming in your team.
And yeah, the round falls apart.
comes into a one round game. That was the very important one. We called out a bonus round for
a reason. If you win that round, you get a huge injection of cash. You recover their rifles.
In this case, it's two AK-47s and a Galil. And now you have rifles across the board and they have
to take a partial buy. That's why it's called the bonus round. And that is the term I came up
with 10 years ago. You know, you stole it. I was going to bring it up. I was going to say
it. How I was just about saying that. We were talking about nameplating. Yes. That's
Chad's thing bonus round is a hundred percent my thing there are there are some terms like that
I think are very important right because they just convey a lot yeah one of my favorite terms
this was an old ones brought in by Jordan nothing Gilbert okay it's the idea of peeking a corner
with intention yeah okay difference between that and just kind of I'll take a look in that direction
or I'm committed to this fight yeah yeah that's a good one let's see what the intention is here
for wildcard. As we mentioned, the apartments normally very common approach in these sort of
rounds. You want to keep it up close and personal with these tech lines, some basic utility,
brute force your way in, power in numbers, and unfortunately this banjo is looking sharp today
and they've got great crossfires, no one's overpeaking, they're getting the information,
getting a kill, and then ducking and weaving, playing for their life and the time is at
of this one to the leader.
But still, there's protocols in place.
There's really nice little sequence there.
And all of a sudden, that big lead
that wildcard found has dissipated.
It has.
Old Slava now.
He is cracked right now, Matheus.
I don't know what he's doing,
but he's just spinning all over the bomb site
with that round.
It's a nice attempt at the warfare.
I like it.
Eight, eight.
From eight, four.
Now, you really do need to lock in
you can have a standard challenge here yeah I think Richard was saying on the
desk that Blair was gonna be peeping peeping I think was the term deployed
he's at the shore right now okay
what is that spot if you're not aware as well in a Swiss system here this is
the one-one game yes so you're not eliminated you're not going through it's
It's not the end of the world, because it's not necessarily not ideal, and it is that.
Once again, focus is looking like they've had a team overall.
That was an opportunity that's a second kill available here by Banshee.
Oh my God.
Playing them like a fiddle, Anders.
Yeah, he could do it all.
Many instruments all at once.
Yeah, exactly.
I like it.
It's a great work, Henry.
I understand.
Thank you very much.
Well, yeah.
Yeah, um, yeah, this this might be done like we said I've said it for even when they were for one up wild card
I was saying focus was still playing the better CS
It was just the clutches and the millisecond diffuses coming through also look at the timeline here right in the beginning of the first
Half we had so many diffuses. Yeah means many bomb plants here. All yes, no another very good point
very different story
And it adds up right you're missing the extra money. They're not doing the same kind of damage
Focus are going to be disgusting rich. They already are bolts just shutting it down shut it down
Bolts always been a very safe pair of hands. I don't know why you so but look I really enjoy as a player like after game of
Legion what happened?
Yeah, I'm not sure but this is a great project. I have again never
Never spectated a focus game before and I'm impressed like you can tell that they've been working hard. Yeah
Yeah.
A small budget, and the players they have, not necessarily household names, but this
is looking very cool.
I'm enjoying this.
A lot of teams this season at Counter Strike has really proven that sometimes those small
budgets, you can go really far with it.
Absolutely true.
Out of the parry vision.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I think that's going to be the message going forward now.
I think the phase collapse is going to open up a new chapter in Counter Strike
Realizing that these huge salary players and veterans experience isn't necessarily going to win you
When you trope is necessarily even get you out of group stages. It's true
I think astronomers another maybe slightly bigger buddy, but still yeah, not compared to what it was true
Bombs planted. What a great turn around Wildcard. I'm really impressed. They found the kill that they needed
It was a bit awkward because they were bumping into each other smoke
But CTR went down now the bomb is gonna be planted. This is the money in here holding the church
very good work and they're gonna get Jorco as well Banjo how much could you do
it's got the AK if they given the fights this way you want to see this one
don't give him the fights it's not worth it this round they entered with pistols
and they've actually got away with this one they lost the first frag as well so
one of those four or five rounds they actually get away with does everyone go
down though that's what Banjo is trying to work out so it makes it costly for
them they didn't get out with a lot but still the finances will be absolutely
fine. Hext will save the AWP as well as we take a tactical timeout. I'm sure it's
called by focus here to try and slow down the momentum before it even gets going.
Yes. 9-9. So a bit of a lifeline here for wild card. Keeping the head above water.
There's a B-stream, Henry. That's happening. We've got wonderful colleagues with Chad and
Alex. They're doing the morning shift with us. Yeah. Yep. Yep. What's going on with the
of the B-stream right now? Well, I was just about to say, we've got legacy MIBR playing
over there. They're on the second map. The Brazilian Derby. Although MIBR now with two
Europeans now as well. That's true. Yes. They're trying to do the fury out, but it's
not really going as well. They had kicker and that roster and he lasted about two
months. It slightly is the T-Move fury. Yes. And I think they were trying to replicate
that. And I think it's a fine necessity. I think the Brazilian scene is so broken
with the contract and buyouts and stuff like it's not even worth trying to build a
Brazilian team right now which is such a shame because they've got a lot of great players
that are just all on the Brazilian team.
It's a good word to name a team.
But they've won against Legacy in the first match.
That's massive legacy, they're very good right now.
That's a surprise.
Yeah, alright. Good update Anders, enjoy that.
Working a bit of overtime, keeping up with both teams at the same time.
Very important round, cannot stress this enough.
World Cards have yet to win a gun round.
They are down 5-1 in their second half.
They want me to technize towards V after going down to a 5-4.
Great work, nice to bring it back to an even keel.
But yeah, can't stress enough the focus are playing much better.
much better team CS right now, through flashbang gets dropped off the angle and
it's going to be now banana control gifted over he is here Matheus I not
realized that wreck is already at that first corner in fact if wreck realizes
that that smoke goes there there is an opportunity from the move it's a risk
to doubtful great smoke on the end of the world we'd love to have seen wreck
take the opportunity but now Mateos is back inside of the smoke with him it's
become very intimate here in the middle spraying down his amazing Mateos
doing all the work.
The other side he's picking up the AK, he's found a third kill 19 and three at the moment.
He's four away from catching Hext.
Play the punishing that like I said pretty pretty shit smoke let's be honest and that's the problem with it.
It's not deep enough so it allows you to get so close to them no one can
really watch it and gets himself a plethora of kills on the other side. That is no good
from Wildcat I'm afraid. You can see back there, when he comes out of smoke, how close
he's basically talking to it when he comes out of the smoke. That's why it's no good
it's that deep. Or that shallow I should say. Gives him grounds to actually go
over that sort of maneuver. And there we have it. M.H.L will have the AWP. Gonna
have to be a hero here the only round they picked up is with these tech 9s and
it's never 5 on 4 but bear in mind they won the 5 on 4 previously with the
lesser weapons so maybe they can replicate that again.
Mateos creation player yeah I think adding to the story of kind of like a
rebirth of what I would say broadly Balkan counter strike sure it's become
so much better like it I think in 25 it was already happening like if you were
paying attention they could have seen it coming we're going into to this
like there's just there are a lot more interesting players coming out of the
region again a lot of them are end up playing in these teams where maybe you
don't see them at the the bigger tournament so they go under the radar
a bit there's a lot of them. Oh yeah well Vimaniya he's a Serbia as well right?
True. So yes good point. Yeah they're really they're really putting something
together I mean it's always obviously I guess Niko has been the
inspiration for like five generation of Counter Strike players and for good
good reason I think, but they're actually putting the other really good talents.
A challenge here I suppose. Challenge being the operative word, not a good one.
You have to play in front of that smoke before they all be ready to get a push through.
Oh my God, what a... but look at that is.
Why the hell not? You have to try right? There's no other way.
They can get a bomb planted here, with the all-part of the rounds, still not necessarily over.
There we go.
Just done a second kill with a bit of a chord sense.
It doesn't happen.
Wreck goes down and Nemania is so low that he just has to...
There is still a while they win this.
Okay, well let's give the benefit of the doubt.
You got peeping, he needs to do some action.
He with the tech nine obviously is in yellow.
And Nemania, I think he'd love to fall back,
but he has to kind of sneak around and help peeping out just a bit.
So unfortunately, Mangeo walking out was the perfect time.
That was the moment.
Yeah.
It's a shame because this might be one of the few opportunities they have here to stop focus.
You hear that in the background? I think it was Cuban. They're saying, yeah, let's go. Let's take our time.
Let's not rush these retakes. Let's make sure, like, even though it's a 4 on 2,
we make sure until we're ready to pincer, ready to come in at all angles,
drop our flashbangs, make them uncomfortable, take them off their angles,
then we strike. Sure, like, the bomb is ticking at some pace there, but a professional team
holds it together and they don't panic and focus. Yeah, recovering this A4 deficit.
only given up one round and that was to Tec-9s.
So, again, focus looked like a well-drilled team.
I would like to see them go to the playoffs here.
Yeah. You've convinced me.
Okay, we're getting more people on board.
I'm happy with that.
I think they deserve it, though.
Credit goes to the teams.
They're playing super well right now.
But they do, to the extent that people are being,
you know, more excited.
People are starting to wake up.
I think it's, um, I think it's World of Surge.
Vaults will be taking down Peeping.
He's trying to be ahead of that smoke that they throw down.
Peeping's 3 and 16 right now.
Nope.
It's not ideal.
It's not ideal at all.
We do pull him back.
Joker goes down.
I guess, again, Desper saying,
I think his roles have been essentially completely revamped for this team,
and they've had so few maps together that maybe he's just feeling very odd his debt.
These are the library and art smokes you throw from the bottom of the middle.
Nice.
Cinematic view. Good smokes to know.
And that isolates Banyo over here.
But he has been very comfortable on this side of the map, I will say.
If he gets a double, they probably go for the retake. If he dies,
he's got to wonder if they want to risk it.
Probably gets the double though, the way he's been playing right now.
Oh, there it is. Okay, that's round over. You can't go for it.
So there it is. We're going to go 10 rounds on the board.
As they said, though, they're going to take their time.
It's a bit of a gamble stack.
So it's 10 rounds on the board for Wildcard. Good recovery.
Lost that first pick again, but the AWP came through.
MHL brought them back through round 4 and 4.
They stacked B.
Hoping Banjo could find that double, but unable to hold on.
That's really good. Good mid-rounding.
I said in that fight against banjo with the with the smokes which they I think fought were a bit of a fake to to go for a B pop
But it wasn't
They're gonna be
What are your thoughts on the bait versus 3d max as the next game here on the a stream?
I mean if this was last year
How to set 3d max all day long?
I think 3d max have a bit of a identity crisis right now they do they've changed that the in-game leader multiple times
They've got rid of body who felt like the vibes guy felt like the guy who's kind of holding the team together
bringing an old face of misuta and
Sure, we're gonna save it say the thing that they need more time
But that is looking very weak right now if
If you're a student of history, Henry, you know you can only keep a French team together
for so long before things go over, right?
Okay.
Just doesn't work.
This is new information.
Alright.
There's always some kind of mutiny.
There's always some crazy stuff to happen.
Very passionate people, I believe.
Yes, that's true.
I love the Russian middle.
There's some passion to it as well.
Let's go.
I like it.
Mateuszka will be put to the test here.
The two best players right now for focus.
They're on the right position, but the backup needs to be there.
Slowly bolted, he's starting to get a bit closer.
What the f- he's wallbanged him in the pits!
He doesn't get the kill for it, but that's...
That takes away all the attention.
I've never seen anything like it.
That's just so funny.
Why would you do that?
I guess he's got his teammates on the other side,
so no one's gonna shut him down from library.
Like, he just feels like that's a safe thing to try and engage in.
A wild card on their feet.
One of the first real convincing gun rounds they've had here, changing things up,
they can fast round towards that outside,
hinsoring the bonsai from the apartments as well.
I'll tell you another reason why I think Bates had what it takes.
Just from what I've seen, NPL is playing like a man possessed so far in some of these games.
Sure.
Like, even when he has a slow start, I feel like he's determined not to lose to any team.
I've got some faith in him.
I think we're going to win, but I think it'll be an interesting game.
I hope so. Yeah, I definitely got bait taking that one as well, but 3D Max, yeah, definitely a lot of proof,
considering how highly regarded they were last year especially.
And that's another 1-1 game that will be coming up. Similar to this one, if you're just joining us
here at PGL Bookrest 2026.
I'm so shocked that this is a tied game in 11-11. In my mind, I thought this
it's actually going to be worse than Nuke for wildcars which obviously is hard to get much worse but
they definitely have played way above that. Renee's landing at the top here,
decimating focus, lot of damage, CTR and vault at 11 and 16 health so they have to pack up all their gear
and escape that top of the banana position. At least they suppose it's unconfirmed damage
So you can't necessarily, let's go B, we've done over 180 damage right now, let's get in there.
So I think this is a good call, bring the AWP over, set up the turrets, and maybe stack the A bombs at this time.
And that's exactly what they're doing.
Jorko, he's got no grenades either, so he keeps a flashbang, sure, but he can't really throw a incendiary to keep it back to three peaks at one at a time.
I guess they don't know how many people are here, so they don't feel comfortable just rushing it
But the fact that they're walking in like this is very scary
It does get one, but hex dies on the other side now the question. Okay very winnable round though for Wildcats
Because it's a two on four, but only really strictly speaking CTR. Oh, that's me. So there we go
Got some lineups. All right
That's very at these low HP couldn't actually do much about the bomb bomb going down
It definitely softens up rec who now will be cowering towards banana this kill could decide a bomb taking this a pace already
Yeah
They're born to into a four on three got one player with a little bit of health left in banu and everyone else is just
Whistle away from dying here. It's gonna get the head shot on the crazy retake
How does it happen so quickly? They just needed a bullet on either one of these players practically and that would have been it I
Guess like I said I'm confirmed damage you're going for head shots
But if you just sprayed them in the kneecaps both of them dead
Super unfortunate like I said that that four and two very winnable there
Special that kill coming towards banana and you think it was a double kill
But Joachim you have to say great work here. They've had to get a double kill like we said two low HP rifles
We'll never get a better hold on
right through with this kill
And this moment here MHL. Yeah, it's got to get at least one the bullet
I think from right past like in between the two players so unfortunate now playing for overtime
Let's see if they can get it, but oh, that's very unlucky I suppose
We're so promising for a glorious round that three AKs now in the CT ranks
A lot of credit to them. Hext, obviously he was leading the charge at the beginning, but now the rest of the team are showing up
He had 19 kills at the end of the first half and now he's gone down here, unfortunately
that's a star player that's your star player is a very ratty position yeah I
really see anything through there and now a four and five which famously I
think he told us they're not great at converting historically so far it's a
very low percentage of them so mid util again
Smoke coming down towards the arched side, trying to focus on Jorko.
I feel like he's going to get at least one here though.
He's coming up in timing, nice job from the in-game leader, very capable rifleman it seems,
and I'll be making my way towards CT spawn.
Step 2, ZTR is trying to defend here, nice position.
Wreck reads it well though.
His crossfire placement is almost perfect there.
Definitely had the opportunity to look at this.
Arneus walked through, it's only Cosmoteus so quick to react that he doesn't die as well and in fact gets the kill
3 versus 3, Bombs on the site is going to be planted right now
Inside of the Bombsite Park here, Rek
timing could not have been better
They have a chance for overtime. They need two more kills, Volt
He wants to get rid of this position so he can actually start to retake the Bombsite
As long as Rek is there, this retake is almost impossible
All the tails goes down so now it definitely is vaults.
There's just so much flashouts.
They don't have to fight him.
They can just stay hidden here.
Great headshot to begin with.
But again, so much time is off the clock already.
He's trying to run onto the side.
He gets one more kill.
There should be no way peeping.
You just need this one.
He's only got three so far.
No more bullets.
And peeping will get his fourth.
And send this game to overtime.
Peeping gets his fourth kill.
He goes four and 17.
the god not a comfortable way to get to overtime but we'll take it it's a very
scrappy round 12 12 they'll remain on the T side here they get away with one
lovely shot from the mania has to be said you can help me all pop wrecking
himself into a library and then keeping yeah he hasn't had a kill in about 12
rounds or so but we'll take that one yeah he wasn't against an opponent who
just empty these in time. Yeah he had no bullets, no time to vise the bomb, but we'll take it.
Still, it all counts, I suppose. Over time. Again, gotta save. Very cool for Wildcarts to be doing this.
Great HG to blow open the smoke in front of Hex. Banio can make it back. No, we cannot.
That's very cool. Simple trick to blow open that mid smoke on the T side and then take the fight.
Jorco, there's about three targets then, you can hit any of them.
Bomb and T spawn for now, P-ping will be responsible for that.
Ordinated himself towards second middle, but there'll be a problem here. Hex deals with it, no worries at all.
What's going to be Mateus going down? Should be the round here for Wildcard.
Can't imagine a world where they give this one up. It's just one AWP they have to deal with on the A bomb site.
Here the scope on the other side there for sure.
Nemania will know that there's an orb somewhere in here.
He's checked every corner so he could probably even guess, yeah, look at how smart he is.
This is just a great work for him.
He doesn't know if it's gone back to Arch, but he knows that it was here.
Jeez, I'm gonna slip the net.
Regardless, like you said, Brown should be theirs, Jean-Pierre's walked in.
I suppose if he somehow found a lineup to kill two and one, he'd be making fire away.
I think he's trying to go for a ninja, somehow.
There's no way he's gonna let's get one kill. Yeah, there he is going for it.
They don't deserve this hell. They really don't.
This could be everything.
Well he's slipped on through, or more people are exiting this way, 2 for 1, he's gonna
line it up, there's the first shot he ooooh!
He has a rifle there?
Yeah, that's it.
There's a world.
The closest player apart from Wreck would have been Hex in the middle, I don't think
he can get there to stop the defuse, because it's so deep in the side.
There was a world.
Yeah, he definitely dodged you, that you run right by him, the only player you
could have made exciting stuff there.
tried for the two-for-one shot for just a second there and they heard the scope
the first time around in the middle they knew that he was there they think
alright he's probably just slipped off. Oh man. What an archer. Imagine. Only play he could make.
And he went for it. Yeah it's such a cool attempt. Well we got a game in our
hands here. Yeah. Wild card. It's a Bulgarian player. Yeah, true. Bulgarian mentioned.
People are going to be excited.
Beautiful place.
It is. I was in Sofia last year.
Yeah, a really nice part of the world.
Yeah.
Oh, you were there too.
I was here.
Just remember.
Sorry about that, Henry.
It's okay.
But we're moving into round number 16 here.
Very standard defense.
Three at A, two at the top of an under here.
focus running into much more trouble than I anticipated
maybe they had to keeping still not really having a fun time
whatsoever crashing off the wall is yeah
didn't really want to dismount in that way I don't think ZTL longboard is well
you know the spotter will be taken care of and he gets one of the press
he's actually done damage there as well that's kind of crazy
How does it get two head tries from a position? Oh, no
I have actually no idea. That's not the play we're looking for. I'm HL. I'm afraid
Growing the Molotov and jumping with your knife had essentially into the open
When your teammates not even there yet didn't have to make that play but either way it's gonna be a two-on-one
Yeah, hex though known for his coaches Sanders will give him now. Yes. He's had quite a few in the series
They're so far removed. Okay. Now the rotation of African fruit
And well, yeah, X probably wins this now
He didn't even really have his crosshair in the perfect position there. He's just lightning fast up to 27
Actually, Banyo was already at the corner there sigh relief. Yeah, I think so
That's a very teachable moment of a wildcard like that's one of those things you're gonna go over and practice later
Let's take a look at this round where we are top mid against CTR who's on 6 health by the sandbags
Yeah, and we somehow don't remember the protocol to make sure that we can trade him out like a minimum trade him out
Yeah, some sloppy play there. Unfortunately from wildcars in the two-on-two situation
Just dropping our model and jumping around the corner like
At least have your gun out
That is unreal that moment now. I can't tell you what he's hoping for
Maybe he assumed that there was an orb on the other side or something and he was gonna jump past the bullet
even then he had his knife out. Yeah. Something really cost you, right? We had focus. Especially
when you got hexed and in tow as well. Way back, survival. Let's slow it down. Let's take
a breath. Yeah, they could have done that too. Yeah, some mistake that could haunt them.
Remember, focus had that one mistake at the bottom of banana in the regulation.
Hexed is not deserved to be able to lose to you right now. 27 and 16, keeping. I hear
So much about this guy you go you long mention him all the all the bloody time. It's four and right now right now
We're blaming dusts for it, right? It's all I can ever hear about when he comes to watch out for pee things. I'm trying to yeah
We are we were taking a close look
So far it's been at least on this map some very very
hard for him to get going
So I like to say Henry whenever I see a player like this I'm always curious can they bounce back at all?
I feel like if you have a bad start it's gonna happen sometimes, but I want to see the return
Well, we are an overtime. Yeah, there might not be many chances to bounce back
They give this map up and this is a will be to zero
That's what I'm saying like you just have to put rounds here and everything's
Just just have to get around to all right see if you can recover a five on three then
Come on people in there. So that was your chance. Yeah, this link your code now on fire at the back
They just waited out
Barbecue him
Three versus four bombers there about nice angle my child
Which service will hear another good flick possibly saving his teammate. I think and now. Oh my god
He's quick. All right, M.H.L. That's four kills one away from the AWP ace
We'll see if Banya was gonna give him the opportunity
he keeping laying out the bomb site.
Yeah, there he is.
There's our boy.
Guess the last one.
Wildcard pick up another round here.
Important, needed.
Yeah, that was looking like a round
they had no business winning whatsoever.
Five on three, I think at one point.
Coming in with the AWP, stepping up massively,
getting himself almost the ace.
And there we have it, swapping over now.
Wildcard have to lead.
It was looking so promising.
It was looking like a done deal.
Focus.
After that first mavi thing, there'd be no way to give up Inferno.
Their pick, but here we are.
In overtime, 2-1 down.
Looking for the 3-0 themselves.
A few more twists and turns here. Wildcard will command them for that tenacity.
This was the moment it all started to go wrong, though.
There was a 5-on-3.
mhl stepping up AWP this shot that is what you love to see if not for hex this
map has already been won by focus quite a while ago I think oh for sure but
somehow he's managed to keep the mhl's up there is one of 23 kill that's true
and that's a very very important one over time to pick up taking a page out
of the focus playbook here, pushing down towards middle, flash set up on the other side,
peeping off that it flashes the T-Ramp, and then you've got M.H.L. flipping them in the secondary mid position.
CTR, oh, he comes out, springing from the low ground, he gets two, but they'd already thrown the grenade in,
and he dies after the fact.
Okay, well, there's a slither of hope for vaults.
Low HP.
It's gonna have to wait for the reaction.
He has to wait for the spam to come through, see what's on the other side.
Nice grenade all my days.
He's on the something now, Anders.
Hex though, the master of the clutch.
Oh, he's gonna push with a smoke.
Well, Vol has to position himself, yeah, into somewhere a very ratty position.
I wish he'd go by the tree now.
He's found instead.
Running and gunning, Hexed.
That's ridiculous.
I thought he'd push in and just hide by the tree position.
That's what I thought as well.
But fair enough.
Wild card.
Oh, he's giving them hell. He's just shooting bodies out there right now as well.
What a player.
That's going to be a map point.
It will be.
I haven't even thought to the third map, but it is Mirage if we get there.
Oh, I think we're getting there.
I think focus choking a little bit now.
The aggression from wildcards.
Very nice, cool.
Pushing down towards these decks.
ZTR almost saves the day here.
It looked like it might be enough, like, so they threw the grenade, goes down after the facts.
I'm gonna go.
I'm gonna go.
A chance there, but what a shot from...
Oh, it's over.
Yeah, I did shoot the body.
Do you know how many rounds have emerged this wildcard line-up has played?
Um, I guess, like, 20 or something?
23.
Yeah.
It was the first showing...
Yeah.
...yesterday with the Mario, right?
Yeah.
That's it.
So not...
not a lot of data no it'll be a real adventure for all of us well they've
warmed up now you've let them back into the series this is yeah this is amazing
to watch oh not the class she was looking for I got a jump I guess comedic timing
with my life no two opportunities closing it now definitely the way to
go for your wild card you never know what's happening if it keeps going I will say again
reiterate this focus have looked at the much better team but the individuals really have
stepped up a wild card here yeah next MHL the individual sequences they've had the clutches
they pulled off miraculous rounds they've recovered not to take anything away from them still
have to win the rounds but um yeah this is a frustrating loss of focus if they give
this round up they finally take care of MHL he's been one of the big problems now
Now they're pushing towards the mania peeping is over here too. They got a bit of a crossfire, but it's
Distorted one still kind of works out. They trade favorably wrecked down on the other side. I need you but he's here
Yeah, you're absolutely right. He's got 12 bullets didn't reload yet
Oh, they made the ring across that's dangerous. Oh, it comes back. Jocko. Does he read it?
Had a good idea. He knew that he was gonna be peaking that one
And now it's hexed how much can you he can't win? Yeah, this is too much
well let's see you can't expect them to win this lads I don't know they've been
putting a lot on his shoulders and he's kind of stepped up so try it again he
showed me that one exactly where he is he's got no utility smoked off should be
a 0% chance yeah he's vandalizing the church instead
smoke rose up flash goes through he's not quite there he's hoping to maybe
you find one but yeah time is up so I guess the AK I wanted to believe I
wanted to be convinced he's done so well yeah you're probably right
bit of a step too far one chance now wildcard or we're in double OG we
certainly will be so many clutches so many crazy rounds here here in
We didn't think they'd stand the chance in the wildcard side after their map of Nuke with a
Really blown up the water
That's called timeout though for a wildcard at this point
Feeling the pressure feeling the burn on the focus side here
They know they should have probably put this one to bed already, but
so many rounds so many
Advantages positions given away
due to the
heroics of hex the
precision of the orb of MHL
First to 16 wild card one round away
It's the risky position of being this if one of those players goes down early as well it has a big impact on the team
So is there a life seems like really anything could happen
We're back now after a bit of a timeouts
Let's see what we get AWP on Jorco
MHL has got his as well
And it's an early three-man setup but it's very very quickly broken apart as a wreck
will start to fall back.
He's left a little of his utility over there.
So they can keep on throwing in Nade's super comic-style triangle in the middle.
Big attempt to make a play gets absolutely nothing for it.
Wreck.
We did some good work on Nuke.
Not that it really mattered but started the hell about now too as well.
Here we go then into the three-man stack in towards B.
Man advantage for Wildcars.
This round would do it.
They're gonna be bruising up in spawn, cancelling it out.
Mild oppression to deal with, Anders.
Can they step up?
Can they deliver?
It's gonna be a couple of kills.
I think they've done enough here.
We might be on our way to Sonny Mirage.
And that's for Tess.
Can do something unbelievably good here.
Three versus one, 27 kills to his name, half HP.
They know exactly where he is and the bomb is down.
It's IP ping, finding a triple at the end, Henry.
And Wildcard end up taking it, sending us onto a third map.
And I'm going to just say, the only reason
we're going to a third map is hexed.
You know, we highlighted, we were a little bit
perplexed about why he was kicked from an MAT.
You know, you look at the stats.
He was one of the best players on that roster.
He was surprised.
He said he didn't see it coming.
He ends up joining this Wildcard roster.
No one's really talking about him.
people are talking about you know the P pins and Michelle's all these other
players hex to literally subverted this game in the first half back to
backgrounds and otherwise it would have been a stop I think there are two things
to consider here right firstly yes Hikes hell of a game for clutches by the
way especially the beginning of the game and if you didn't get as much as
it's easily could have been other game for focus but we have to also point
Now, the fact that what we saw from focus on Nuke was clean, concise, respectful, solid counter-strike.
And I think, Rich, they got a little carried away early on.
Some of those clutches, some of those managerial situations, they were playing a little too lazy,
little too lack of acicle, and giving a throwing away round, so to speak.
They were able to tighten the shut up, they ship up a little bit later on.
However, at the very end, I got a friend of my own to do.
I think Wildcard, they called them very solid rounds, and also individually, everyone stepping up.
Yeah, we saw a lot of the basics slip up all throughout the first maybe five or six rounds that kind of got away from
From focus it was some of the clutches that you know Hexed effectively wasn't even supposed to be in a clutch by that point
I think like a lot of those rounds should have ended before it ever even got there
And then we saw Cuban, you know kind of steer the ship a bit was calming things down
Everything was fine for a bit and then Hexed took over for the rest of the half and from there
You know it just became kind of a bit of a bloodbath, you know in terms of how it went back and forth
And even in overtime we saw one round where I believe it was a 3 vs 5 or something and a 3 vs 4 from that mistake
And again the retake we saw shades of what we saw early in the game
We're just peeking in one by one, you know swinging together
We're not waiting for the teammates to rotate in so it felt like focus
Start they focused up in the middle of the game and at the very end they let it slip away
But I can't take it away from Hexen also Emma gel man. He was taking the fight
They're the two pieces on this roster really that are worth talking about because like look we can talk about in the man
You're coming in IGL everything. He's doing
What he's he's killed peeping career like I don't even know what's going on like that look I think I get it bro
He's still gonna hit your shots. He terrible start line peeping, but ultimately, you know, it's this guy
Like I say in the first half. It's not on your screen right now, but in the first half
He had back-to-back. I think it was one-on-one clutches and that totally changes the CT economy
Otherwise, it probably would have been 6-0 and you know that we're not going to Mirage
Yeah
And I mean if I was looking after that that even bit despite that 48 first half from focus where you know
They let it slip they start the second half really strong
They go 5-5 in a row, but then they throw away 5-3 at 9-8. Yeah, and that's that from there
It falls apart again
You know, it's just yeah, I think it is you hit it exactly on the head
I do think that's after New York after something went so so straightforward
You're just a little bit looser you you feel like you can get away with few more plays
But you know in our 12 like things can go the wrong way very very quickly. Yeah, there's no room for mistakes
You know, it's it's a much tighter game. We can take a look at some of these rounds were kind of alluding to now
I think you've got round four
Yes, I'm trying to remember which one round four is now
All that time it goes, you went through over time.
This is the round that starts out with a 5A3 where Benjo gets the first openings in the middle
and then we already see a couple of mistakes come through where Matthias and Jorkel, Alvia, they obviously over-peak a little bit.
This is the 3V3 in the end, they catch off peeping here to get an obvious advantage. They have the B bomb site at this point.
3V2 bomb down.
3V2 bomb down. First mistake is here. GTR just decides to stay behind and play the hero, right?
You might as well just go to the bomb site. It's a B bomb site at Inferno. Very difficult to retake out of disadvantage.
And then they're not even playing off of each other in this last 2v2, where they know they're both coming from the bomb site.
Why is there one guy just hiding in the banana the whole time while the other one is trying to take a fight in ruins?
It's just really, really, really unnecessary group up. Play the crossfires.
They probably wouldn't have even gone for it if they didn't get the kill on ZTR.
ZTRs, he heard both the CTs by the way. He knew where the opera was but because the opera
side of walking is always going all the way towards banana which is a massive assumption
to make over there and to just take the fight. Fine, he dies. Now you know where both the
CT players are coming in from. Why are you playing together? You have time to rotate,
work together, play towards dark, make a CT player, watch the cross coming in. Make
him spend time figuring it out, figuring it out where your post plans are. Huge
misplay and later on we're going to see, I think later on around, this is a good
Well called round by wild card. I think it's late in the second half right there
We'd have been pressuring towards banana so much that are going to force wall card to play
Aggro towards B right and then they go for the super fast a take
I believe we have the round
But even if you don't just like such beautifully beautiful calling coming out from nemonia right there
Do we have the round here? Yeah, well
And look at this right they're going to start at three towards B
Which is what focus is doing right now early on and in the perfect read fast wrap towards arch
They don't get Calvary the flash is a bit of a lucky kill there, but despite that they don't continue to they continue to just crush
Kind of like you know just collapse onto the bomb side pushing into the smoke everyone in sync
Great round being called a wild card and despite the criticisms we had on nuke on the t-side
This felt like a whole different ballgame, which is funny because this is your opponent's mapping
And this was also that we had round 10 right just underline how it was the hex yeah exactly
I mean round 10 and I don't know if we've got it up really really strong round from from hex to where he puts together and
Obviously again another bit of a bit more of a lucky shot than this position through the smoke
But this is where I wanted to point out the position and he's he's got the smoke down, you know to play around of
There's nobody with him right now. There's nobody who can help him
There's a guy rotating him through library, but he smoked off
So he's here alone effectively and he's just waiting out the smokes. He's not trying to make a big play
He's just waiting for focus to to become unrattled on their own right and then he's he's in the corner of one side and
Picks off the last couple of kills ass his team finally comes through to help and then play the crossfired
It's really nice transition towards the end and as you said at the beginning, you know, this was all the heck
I mean he decided to stay in this game. You could even see it
You know he's getting hype shooting bodies, you know, it's focus versus wildcard at the start of day three
He was just in the zone right from the get-go, I might say he's dragged his team, kicking
and screaming with a little help from MHL to be fair.
And a really cool thing about if you look at his frag highlight for this entire game,
so I think 20 kills at the end of the map right there, you barely will see any crazy
spraydowns, even that ace is not a flashy ace, he's such a smart player, his crosser
placement is perfect, he knows when to slow things down, even in that ace he
got right there he gonna jump on top of the battle try to peek over he's like no
I'm gonna wait I'm gonna be patient we're from opponents to make mistakes and it's
just such a smart solid play that's why for me like you know everyone's on what
peeping and everyone else but I'm like hex is the rock and a foundation of this
team well the man you have seen with that the peeping hype is I feel I feel
bad for peeping because if you look if you look at the the the scoreline you
know you completely shit the bed is terrible but no it just feels like
so many situations where he's been sent in and there's not enough support
being dealt by his teammates is going up towards banana and just maybe one flash for him to try and
peek you know the half wall and get a kill. Meanwhile Volt and Zetia just dumping utility double peeking
him and he has no chance on a lot of these fights to be taken so I know it's been rough for him I'm
not going to be too critical but I would like to see him get a little bit more help and even
if they switch up the roles I don't think this role switch up is really working out honestly
you have really good pieces if you give peeping some of his older positions and roles
and Nemania plays more of the standard support IGL role.
I feel this team could really kick some ass.
Well, again, I won't go that far.
We'll wait and see.
Yeah, well, let's set up Mirage first,
because I think it was Anders pulled out
a really interesting stat there,
which was they've only played 23 rounds together
as a team on this map.
And here we are in the decider.
And it's here, by the way.
Yeah, exactly.
That's from the game against Bate that we saw on day one,
you know, where they obviously took it quite close.
Yeah, so, I mean, obviously,
it's uh there were no no quantities. Yeah, very much so the previous version of wild card was
very very heavily leaning towards mirages their pick but obviously since the mania has come in they
didn't even get to play it until they arrived at this tournament yeah they we still still still
saw some good things from them when they were facing off against the bait squad but realistically
not a lot of play time for me i am more looking at whether focus are going to have that team
talk in the background because i know what the team talk is going to be i know what cuban is
is going to tell them.
He's going to be like locking the fuck up because they threw away so many rounds.
There were so many situations where, you know, I'm going to call it brain rot in ZTR's words
because he was the one who was talking in the pre-interview before the tournament where
he's like, when Paula asked him to describe the team, it was like brain rot.
And the reason that he said that was because Benjo, and not Benjo and Jorco, Matheus
and Jorco are two guys who, you know, get a little over exuberance, they go get
a little bit ahead of themselves and we saw a lot of that on Inferno where that
inexperience was showing through and they were just getting carried away
playing this NA team you know they's coming in month old you know and all
that sort of stuff so I think that's gonna be the talk for focus for them to
focus up and get it done. Yeah in an end of tech talk right you just lock in and
just like you try to be just be aware of what's happening in this
situation in the round don't get carried away. I will say this though
for Peeping you know this is a good opportunity for him to kind of
forget about what happened on this map for him.
He, we saw him yesterday, we were questioning,
is he still gonna be,
is he gonna be playing like an anchor position?
No, he was still playing towards connector.
We saw the active part of all those mid duels and whatnot,
which is something where he was playing in the past,
somewhere where he should be comfortable playing on.
So hopefully he has more opportunity to show,
to make Dust happy and be like, I told you so guys.
All right, well, we'll see if Wild Cards,
Wild Rides continues when we go to Mirage
after the break.
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good afternoon gamers welcome back to pgl book arrest 2026 join us to the third
and final map between wildcard and focus wildcard the surprise package of
Inferno taking the map in overtime I will stand by my point though and as I
feel like focus playing better team CS but they couldn't shut down the deadly
force that is hexed he just had such a mad impact on that map it was I think 19
kills in the first half for him yeah starting off and then it kind of you
know he had a little bit of a break but then he kept picked it right back up
again at a bunch of clutches he kept them alive long enough for MHL to get
activated absolutely the two of them they pretty much did like that was it
they couldn't actually hold on on the focus side I'm impressed I didn't think
we're gonna be here at all I would have said it I didn't think they could
We've got 10 rounds on Inferno, never mind winning no time.
I think it's super impressive, so a lot of credit to Wildcard.
Moving on to the map of Mirage, a mechanical player's dream.
Players like Hex, players getting an HL, and hopefully
Peeping can step up here and give us a real game.
Fogo should be worried, because the way they battered
and bruised their opponent on their pick of new game,
they made it look amateur.
They made it look foolish.
Well, also, Wildcard did lose this map to Bate,
but it was a 13 to 10 loss against Bates, so...
Bates are very good at Mirage.
Bates are, yeah, that's their map,
that's their home pick, pretty much.
So I think that's something to be said about this.
That's fine now, right now, as we head into the action,
it'll be focused on the CT side,
and already Wildcard looking to attack the A-bombs side.
CTR has already been damaged.
They find Jorko,
keeping with the first kill of the map, Henry.
He is both to a flyer.
Very difficult to retake, those jewelies not known for their range and they've got a couple of pairs of those.
An advantage for Wildcard, bomb already ticking at some pace here as well, not seeing any kits in play.
ZTRs low and Wildcard are giving nothing away, but here come the CTs in the retake attempt.
Gonna go for it right now, bullets kinda running out as well.
Rec will get a headshot in the middle of the map, there's Spangio the last one left and he goes down.
So it's Wildcard to pick up the pistol. That's the start they were hoping for and they kept it simple, right?
Nothing fancy. Nothing too flashy there. Focus will have to lock in. At this stage now, will they be
force-buying in the second round? Time will tell, but Wildcard, a bit of momentum on their side of
the server for once. I'm seeing MP7s, MP9s coming in quite late, so it's their last second
decision to force by here. See if it's one that prevails. You can still see them juggling
some guns around the spawn but here we go. This is fast. It's going to be peeping up
towards shore. Can he find that form? Ah, he's by himself. A bit of a shame he goes
down there with almost nothing. There's 30 damage towards Mattias I suppose.
Especially because there's nobody else on the map that can do anything about it.
It's not like they were ready to jump somewhere else. Like even if he had found three people
for some reason in the ladder room, there was nobody else that could have jumped on the E-bombside, not yet.
Well, it's a little bit silly. It doesn't look great unless he finds that kill. They're now executing in towards A.
Still giving them the advantage, wildcat that is, but let's see if both of us can hold a wolf in the door.
That's an NHL, Long Range Spray, spots two towards connector, that's the Q to go.
That kills, they don't have the HE.
Mateos had the HE to blow up in the smoke,
so that means the bomb's gonna be faster here
and relative safety.
Jorco though, he's found a kill and a follow up.
Nemania goes down next.
I hate everything about this.
He's just wrecking, he even loses the hot easy kill.
But kills Jorco, three kills with the MP9.
He cleans up like it was nothing.
Quite a disappointing follow up round there.
I'm afraid for moral cars.
I like that. We're talking about the inexperience of our car to 23 rounds, you know, with this
lineup. Just to say for focus, it's about 207 rounds in the last three months. There's
different kind of team that we're dealing with.
Don't go having a lot of fun here
Long range MP9 tapping away at the end there as well and after such a successful pistol for to go down like that in the second round
Actually, they actually stole an AK and galeel or two galeels. So huge conversion on the money as well
Yep, nice ejection of cash
Ziv Wildcatab responds
in terms of that previous round at least got the bomb planted so not always lost you'll have
some utile bit of firepower at the image you'll scout two players making their way towards
the end of the barge right now is Demania and Wreck.
Demania in-game leader but always seems to have to hear a rifleman.
Fair enough he seems very capable in terms of the fragging department not a criticism
more of an observation.
Yeah, going off of inferno you'd love to have seen Hex to play with it.
But that is also fair.
I don't think you're wrong though, he's been pretty sharp with some of these shots.
He's a good contemporary and they push him behind it.
Couldn't really be any better.
They're cleaning up everything in the middle CTR.
He was a menace on the A-bomb side of Nuke.
Oh absolutely.
They just couldn't really shut him down.
And now a triple in this one, Hex.
Any damage will count. Take away some more weapons here to build something for later. That's not going to happen.
Single casualty, on the side of focus in this one. They're more fired up now.
We're going to have to lose in the pistol. This is looking very promising here.
Focus will be going up three to one. Nothing you can really do.
We've run up a four here. Wildcard will have to make two of the glocks.
Normally these sort of rounds we took about, you just throw things right down from a bleed out
U-Till on the CT side trying to get a bomb part if possible but all of that very unlikely one of these gimme rounds
Staying the bomb in the palace. It is a palace this time. It is a palace this time
I was gonna say, you know one man's apartments another man's palace that's true
true
like that
Yeah, they want me to jump out. It's just bad flash. There's the bomb attempt
Yeah, I don't know what else this was should do exactly. We kind of outlined that
So we can really try set up the human shield around the planter.
Yeah, could have worked. Definitely could have worked.
But it's a very quick round. We appreciate that.
If you want to be wasting our time with that stuff, we want the rifles back out.
We're going to get those and see if Wildcard can find a way to shock like they did on map number two.
CTR is working on a bit of a scoreline, 7-1, still early days.
Break in the middle, ignoring the flashes, just wanted to see if you could find someone
early on while the smoke was still going up.
Oh, counter-fetched from South-Hex, can't see a thing.
But they traded back very well.
You ever chill in the Marnier, kill each bomb now on the bomb site, in fact.
That's so fast.
The pace in this round is mad and maybe too quick, because that's the problem,
like there are two people in the middle.
No, no, where is everyone else?
Yeah, they're not even close to it.
Somehow we got the bomb planted anyway.
And now, smoke is soft.
Oh, no!
Well, that's round.
The bomb would be used as a...
Yeah, a little bit too crazy there.
It was nice to get all that space.
Yeah, they didn't even know where the last player is.
MHL was so far removed from it.
That's a messy one.
It was called to...
Finally a bomb site, I suppose,
but you had no real cover towards CT spawn
and two players get mowed down.
I guess in a normal round what would happen is the other two people in middle would be pushing connector
so they would actually be reinforcing the plant pretty quickly
but they were falling backwards as this is happening and they're falling back through T spawn just so far away
what a grenade as well
Bombers planted, lots of bonus accumulating
still a chance here
nice hero rifles in the hands of M.H.L and Marnie out
That means you're saving here's of course.
Sanctuary's on the middle.
We utilize a smoke to extinguish the flames.
Minimal nade damage, but that's max.
Not a great amount of fun to start the round like that.
Down to 29.
I'll see if you could find some kind of a lurk positioner.
position I think they might just leave them at top mid and I hope that no one remembers.
He's actually going to be falling back with the rest of the team.
They're pushing B hallway, Henry.
Yeah, Jorco AWP leading the way.
They find nobody.
And that enables them to peel off and stack, they bomb say.
And as they're doing that, that's when they drop the incendiary to buy some time.
Yeah, that's very nice.
A lot of damage though, CTR.
Lots of space there, a lot of space.
Yeah, they can put the bomb down. There's a flank coming in from Banyo eventually as well.
René, that's huge on top.
Matheus has another one. CTR, he goes down, but he was always going to die.
Volt gets a kill in the meantime. They're still battling it out.
The bomb is planted here.
Nemania through the smoke. He's found Volt.
And now that AWP is a very crazy call for Jorka to try and go for that one.
One versus two. Banyo.
Can he find them? They've got the perfect crossfire here.
I don't think you can break it open, no matter what he does, he's going to expose it back to somebody.
Wreck will be the one to take him down, and good work for Wildcard.
Wildcard are back.
They're doing it again.
4-2, not letting this one get out of hand.
A bombsite cracked open this time.
Just so I'm sure I'm understanding correctly, Henry.
The incendiary they throw on the A ramp, that's based off the timing in the B hallways?
Sure, exactly. So they know they've got the information. Okay, they definitely go to an ace at attack
We need to kind of bolster the defense. So we drop the incendiary crime by ourselves that extra five seconds to rotate over
But obviously still one there in time over one. They got so much space in towards the ace site
That was the idea whether it actually worked out
Just the other just the fact that we could see the communication. I think yeah, exactly
Don't always get a chance. We can't obviously this is not all the time that information and utilizing information drop the
I hope you can get back in time, but for now they have the man advantage on the CT side focus will open things up
Nice little shot there from shore, but there's will find the open up
And they've got a fire and force scenario it's gonna be Jorco's
Gonna be coming they're up towards shore. Yeah in the ladder room peeping
Thinks he's there and detective, but he's certainly not
Reaction it was from Joker or from tails as well at the start. I don't think he was aiming in the right position
But he just flicked on over with the m4. Yeah, you're right. They know so they have got the read gets the shot anyway
But image how important return if they want a chance here wild card
They have to get on to the site and get at least one good entry
Otherwise, this is going to be shut down rather quickly. It tells in an unreadable position
I don't think you're ever going to expect that once you're already these people the sites
They were looking for vaults at the back, he's going to come out of the marker to find a kill.
MHL is throwing away the AWP, pick it up for an AK instead, but CTR will be there to shut it down.
So the victory is short-lived for Wildcard.
They would love to have gained more rounds and cut down the CT economy, it's not going to be the case here.
I certainly can't string anything together so far, bear in mind they've won the pistol, won the fifth round
and then since then it's in one way traffic focus locked in money is pretty decent for them
it's a little bit fragile having this exactly established their economy as of yet but
getting to round of rates here we'll have a look at the wildcard situation
they will be buying it to the following round here one one game here at pgl book rest
Go down to that scary one-two bracket if you give this map up
Yes, that's that's a potential isn't it?
Think for wild card sort of expect them to to go there focus I
Feel like they could defeat stronger teams than this but again, I'm blown away by wild card winning that second map just didn't
anticipated
Happy to say our underestimate of them. It's a good time to be wrong
Two players to palace, vaults, getting ahead of himself, Mimania there to punish.
Okay, they're going to walk out with no warning here.
Not checking the corner either.
They don't want to throw the flashes because they wanted to be super secret about it,
which I think is a really cool idea.
They're still in a good position.
Four versus three, they're in the middle of the bomb,
and they know that there's at least one player by CT's bomb
because he just threw an incendiary towards the apartments.
CT are sneaking in front of it now.
Now, Pee-pee, ready for a go-go, is dead every single time.
Pee-pee was working on a 1-7 from getting that opening kill of his, by the way. He's up to 2 now.
Here's how to rough one.
Yeah, this series.
Can they convert this round, though, off that kill with a nice read of the AP apartment's push?
They'll make their way back to all the aforementioned beat.
Pee-pee with the bomb on his back.
time running a little bit low but it looks like we'll be going towards the
end of pass back in towards A. Oh this is the perfect call, we've dodged everything
CTR he's in T spawn he thinks he's flanking a B push but he's not. Definitely not.
Definitely not. Oh footsteps okay. I don't think he was hard to see. There's a kill here for CTR.
Not peeping. Okay no, some HL is in there. Yeah won't be going for this
That's one.
Three B.
Three A.W.B.
Are you gonna knife him?
He absolutely will.
That's making it personal, isn't it?
Well, he's an extra $1,500.
Yeah, now...
Just for him?
Just saving for the rest of it.
So, veteran professional like yourself, Henry,
from back in the day, a four kings legend.
Oh yeah, go on.
What would you do in a peeping situation?
Like you're having a game like this, right?
Oh, it's going to happen in your career at some point, right?
So of course, yeah, happens to even the top tier players.
I mean, at this point, you're just making sure
you're not sulking, you're not bringing the vibes down,
you're not going quiet.
You're coming, you're bringing ideas to the table,
you know you're not bragging well,
you're playing for your one and done positions,
you're trying to just bring, you're going,
there's a cannon fodder.
When we're going in on the pistols,
I'll leap in first, guys.
You're dropping guns when we need to.
when we need to. You're dropping the hero a key. Okay. So you're trying to be a resource
for your team. Try and keep your mental strong. If you start by just getting depressed and quiet,
that's the absolute worst you're going to do. You're under chopping butt for the transfer
the most sooner than you'll be. Yeah, so yeah, these games happen and we're not judging
his whole career based on his one series, of course. So yes, to answer your question,
those are the things you can do. Yeah. Making sure that you're still contributing
in other ways. And yeah, being a nuisance and not like being foolish and going for
pigs and trying to play for your stats, holding the extremities, making sure that you're getting
good information. Like you was, watching that bee apartment, those sort of plays. Okay. Not going
for the crazy shots of the peak confidence kills. You're just holding and staying alive more
importantly. I liked that. That's a good summary, contributing some sort of value, even if it's
not going to be on the Skull Wars. You just have to accept it. Like you're not playing
your A game, your B game. I wouldn't say this is even a C game. This is as bad as it gets
probably for peeping and he knows that and yeah he's got to keep you ahead of the game.
Right now he's looking to see if he can pave the way for the team, looking to see if they can
enter onto the bomb site he's front of the pack right now. He's getting close to Maneuil,
find that opening, a sick shot across the bomb site, smoke ball is up, MHL will burn alive
somewhere in the back, I'm not sure how but they've taken over CT spawn as well.
That's actually pretty good work. Speaking of peeping he's the one that's kind of leading
it here. Molotov is down, so he's keeping the CTs back. It's uncomfortable. They have
to use flashes to even get to the corner here, which they almost do. Peeping is not quite
going to get the shot. Wreck will AWP, and they keep on going. Vault to go down next.
2 vs 2. Flag is coming in. It's a free kill for CTR, and now they want to see if they
can get this on. Oh! They can pick up at the moment. What a headshot from Wreck.
I think he's bought enough time here dancing around. Didn't even need the time.
the head shot. What a kill for Wreck. The individuals have been shining bright here. They haven't played
the best team CS necessarily, but in terms of their individual skill, you really can't poke holes in
there whatsoever. That was a beautiful little 2v1 there coming in from Wreck. Goes 5-4. Thankfully,
ZTR got in at 9th earlier. They do have some residual cash going forward. One round game here
and it's wide open. Good showing here on the T side so far to be focused, a quarter tactical time now
adjust their funds, work out what they can do. They definitely can justify a couple
investments here, but what a shot from the Mali at the in-game lead. You can see
where they give them that. Here are rifles sometimes, yeah, very confident.
Good crosshair placement.
Volts, fighting back, admirably buff.
Fantastic, Clarkshire over all from Rack. Disappointing finish, yeah, you can see the frustration coming through.
Yeah, because once they had the CTR back to that, they felt like they had the round, that was it.
So what are the concessions they had to make here? So they still got four rifles, it's going to be Jorko on the Deagle instead.
So it would be a bit of aggression in the CTs, try and find an opening advance if possible.
Target has been chosen towards the underpass. Great reaction though, MHL. I didn't think he had any business hitting that shot. I think he was watching the B apartments.
We're going to have to see that flick on the replay if possible. That was crazy work.
That is a hard one to hit. Peeping, let's see. We ask he's a couple of rounds. There's the headshot to bring down.
And he's...
Stay alive now.
You know, CTR is in connector.
Yeah.
He's a huge runner. He's going to stay alive. He's got his one kill.
Yeah.
maintain the advantage patrol middle make sure they can't backstab you've done
enough here can be boosting up and towards window
city actually read that somehow I think he thought they were already there now
they're bumping into each other oh I'm gonna cuddle as he's got no sir yeah I
think he does Rex walked through he's now in the market but yeah the
information is there that's such great communication if a focus see if they
can win the round behind it almost shooting him in the back here wreck
There's even realized there's one running up. I don't think he does yet.
He's gonna die as a result. Three versus three, but they need a late round call.
Very good call there. He spotted one in towards BLE, and he knows he's got killed by ZTR backsabbing you.
So you gotta take an educated guess. The A bomb set is open here, and they are absolutely right.
Advantage wild card.
Difficult retake. I'm not seeing any kits in play right now.
Yeah, they had the smoke, but a 10 second defuse. Even inside of the smoke, it's very hard to come by.
I think the lack of kits just might be what gets them this time.
Damn Hex.
There's Hex.
Saw him on Inferno.
Doing an unbelievable work.
See if he can keep it going.
Banyo's found two.
Keeping an eye on him.
One versus two.
Don't have a kits.
Oh!
That's a wild shot at the end.
It's got to be close, but they've got a...
Banyo's showing us why he's been taught about so much here.
10 second defuse down to the absolute wire.
Are you all right, Henry?
They pick it up.
Oh, not a comfortable one, but focused to manage to steal it away there.
One more kill would have guaranteed the round, but Wildcard can't quite find it.
Huge advantage there as well, Anders, walking into an open 8-moment of 3vs3.
That's the replay I was looking for.
So it was a crazy flick from the B.R. Armoureds, right to the face.
Thank you very much, production.
That's not a normal set up out of two players watching under party.
He must be watching the apartment itself.
So yeah, great work from him.
But unfortunately, not enough to win that round.
It is focused now in full control.
And ultimately around here, the first half of our third map,
the second went to overtime.
After the first, we fought wild card, we're done.
They kept their head above water.
Won't even supposed to be at this tournament,
trying to make a name for themselves,
get some reps into experience.
And Nemania once again, the hero, AK Anders.
He gets himself a double, justifying it now.
I think that catches them completely off guard.
I don't think they were ready for that.
Mattel's repeat once he saw the Glock run boost.
I think he stuck around.
He wanted to keep fighting.
And I think the AK surprised him a bit on that one.
That's very interesting.
CTR, he goes down in the mania.
Three kills off of one AK.
completely rocked focus in this round. Hext is stolen an M4 and he'll bring down
Jorko leaving a single player at the B bomb site. They kind of know that he's
gonna be over here. Arm goes down. We often see the hero AK tried. I think it's
always fun to kind of see it brought out. Rarely did this effect. Three kills
stealing an M4. Hext gets the fourth. Round is over and done with wild card.
They had no business winning this round.
Oh, absolutely not. They've got Nomania to thank for it.
Three kills, the hat trick for the captain.
Gets himself the quad kill.
That's cool.
That's the attitude that I want, Henry.
That's the kind of Counter-Strike that I feel like we grew up with.
Oh, yeah. That takes me way back to the land halls of 2007.
That's an immediate classic, an immediate legendary call.
Nice work.
He gave me the, like you say, getting that quad kill.
Final round.
Final chance of focus with no money whatsoever.
Mateus will have to be the hero this time to get leaf out of the money, his book.
I don't think they can do it though.
So, three pistols and MP9, a single M4, wildcarder brought this half back to life.
Looking to tie things up at 6x6.
Just smoking up jungle from the middle there, was MHL during this one.
Hello.
Hello.
Back to the cannon, it's quite good.
Two MP9 kills.
Softened the attack a bit, slowed them down perhaps.
Hext's a long spray, but it does get it done.
More MP9s fighting from the window this time.
in hex they are so low on health here so the 2v2 gotta be very careful there's a
molotov as well so if you stand in the corner possibility that hex could get
burned out if he's just a little bit unfortunate Nash doesn't quite do it see
if they even want to throw it they're not gonna do it they're just gonna
run on the side see if they get the job done hex with a headshot oh and he gets
tacked one on to banjo wild card they've got some excitement around them
And now, they actually end up getting that last round, they tie the half at 6-6.
Well there we have it.
After getting absolutely wallops on the first map, 13-2, they look lost on the server.
They look like they won't get a turn up to the series whatsoever.
Inferno arrives and so does Hext.
He gets them into the series at least.
He finds multiple clutches.
He recovers a huge deficit and finds them some unbelievable rounds.
Now here we are in the third and final map and they've actually put it all the way back.
They were 5-2 down and they lock in.
The Marnier especially with the Hero AK goes supersonic with the rifle each and every time
finding those openers, breaking the money, breaking the backs of focus and now they
have a real chance of taking the series here on Mirage.
is such an unexpected development from how we got into today. A lot of people were saying
that big 3D Max game could be interesting, this first one much less so just didn't seem
like it. I don't think anyone was super excited for Focus Wildcard but honestly what we're
seeing today there's a lot of drama on this server, a lot of individual skill, we're
getting some shit talk out there now as well. Yeah, that's probably the best thing
for me honestly for this game so far, I just love that drama, I can't help it.
Here we go, ladies and gentlemen, second half is coming up, it's the final map of this series,
if you're tuning in, still early in the day, there's a lot of counter-tracks, there's a whole
B stream happening at the same time, let's see if Wilde can't do some more here.
They're on the CT side now, they do not have the defuse kit, even if they have the smoke,
they've got a flashbang and a mania as well, bit of a setup over at the bomb side,
they're going to smoke up the hallway there on the CT side, so they're pushing the T.
I don't like these sort of pistols, you really, what are you up to lads?
Thank you, you've missed the jump twice.
Maybe it all works out, maybe it's all fine.
It's a very gimmicky pistol, but it seems to be working okay, even with the fumble boosts.
All good.
Still looks a bit messy, but they have got the man advantage here.
They were playing lemmings in the middle.
Anyone born in the 1980s will know that reference.
That's exactly right.
Summers are confused.
What is he talking about?
Does he have dementia already?
What's going on?
Four versus five now.
Taking on MHL, Nemania.
Okay, that could bring them back.
That's the kind of shot you need.
The bomb is in connector for a second.
I don't think they know what they're doing with this round.
I really don't think so.
They're going to master them from the start of the finish.
Yeah, we've been phrasing focus for their focus.
But unfortunately, this is not one of those rounds. We're really excited about it. CTR, I can't believe they might bring it back. Oh, X goes down. How did they recover the round?
I don't know.
I'm just looking at his pistol rounds in a while.
Yeah, that really is like Cuban, I think, in God. What are we up to? What was that? But you get away with it. You take it all day long.
I don't know those sort of pistols at all. I don't think anyone should be running those sort of ideas.
If ever there was a person who was gonna be battle hardened by counter strike, it would be Cuban
Yeah, it was part of that original golden five lineup with Lord and all those and and that Polish team like they would fight each other at events practically
It's not even a joke. It's a different time. They would have you know, so
close to fist fights
crazy times
Much more civilized now
Of course, but yeah, he's a lovely man
Yeah, he's you know, it's kind of stronger for it on the other side, I suppose
Yeah, but what looked to be an absolute disaster of a pistol round is converted some way somehow and we will take a pause looks to be technical here.
So no chatting.
Keeps dumb.
Would you have liked that pistol round, Henry, if they didn't mess around with the jumping out of this is just the idea in general.
The idea in general, I don't love but the vagy fun, but it's wise then you like you're so locked in because like now
We've made these footsteps and we've got four people here. This we've already expended a smoke
We we've got nowhere to go with it really
Yeah, it's just like there's a reason no one don't at the top teams are doing that like a yes double boost
Up into the window trying to get three players up there. It works out like it's fine. It doesn't really matter
It's just like it's it's a gimmicky pistol rounds
There is unless you pull off perfectly get a look a little bit silly
They've managed to pull it off to some extent and win the round doesn't matter too much will move on
Well, I think we credit the initial setup with them winning the round
Eping that's an important kill he just needs to get his one yeah one 12 right now having another stinker unfortunately, but
That will do long as he gets his one
Yeah, stay in the game wait for that round
And Imani is here.
He's expecting that they will come back.
He's trying to read the game, and honestly, he might be doing a very good job,
but they did escape the ramp now.
Let's try to see if they could get a bit closer here.
Banyos on the other side.
Smoke up. Yeah, he saw that.
He had to buy a little bit more time.
In the back, he's got MHL with the scouts.
They don't have any more grenades here on the sites,
but they're rotating over.
If they get a bit closer to middle on this catwalk play, they're gonna have four people at this bottom side.
This could be a very very good call right now for wild card.
Checking out this top position, hex the same. There's no one here either, and now the smokes are coming in.
Okay, he's gonna turn that into a flank as well.
Nice little leg shot onto Jor-Co. Do it again. This time it's a headshot on CTR.
Great impact from the scout. He gets another one on Mateos. That's outrageous.
How has he done all of this it's all fallen apart?
They got away with the pistol with the second round might have moved them here, and there it is the backstab will come through
That's a massive round to win especially with a bomb plant going in
It is gonna be seven seven the war of attrition begins now
And we'll see what they can scrape together on the focus side
That is an absolute disaster giving that round up. You are nowhere near winning it Eva
So, I can see they've dropped an AK-47 over to Mateus. He's got only 10-10.
Tech 9s and PT-50s otherwise, you only get $1400 at the bottom of the barrel loss bonus.
Wildcard in a prime position now.
They've got an AK within their ranks. It could be an A execution, and it's a very, very common approach in these sort of rounds.
Hey, if they do it right now, like if they're fast with it, it'll only be right here.
The rest of the wildcard are checking middle a lot of CT side start like this
There's like an investigation in the middle if they don't find anything they probably come back to the bomb site
So we have two players of our Kevlar one player about a helmet
So true the MP9 should be able to mow through them. That's the problem. Yeah
Especially when he's a little bit further back like this. They've got decent space there
They sacrificed all cold they should just find out what's on the site now
they know. And he finds one of the few players with a helmet. Volts doesn't go down to the MP9.
So now at least they're on the site. That's a start.
Nice idea not to plant E4. You know that Nades coming in you low HP. They won't be winning
this round, but maybe I'll throw them too soon. There should be no way they win this round.
Yeah. Three-man retake from CT spawn with the Lashes and everything else. Pretty
serviceable stuff. Volts back here is going to be found. Hext, Stunner get warmed up.
That's a scary idea. Imagine if Hex gets himself into this game the way that it was on Inferno.
Oh yeah, that might well be happening.
He's going to be a mirage specialist for sure, as we see him take the lead here, 8-7.
Focus end up losing this series, I think they'll be kicking themselves.
He's out of advantages and clutches, but they lost it in Fernando after winning 13-2.
You have your opponents back, hey, can you make them look like they didn't know how to even approach them?
You're owning the map out. They looked lost.
They really did.
And you go on to, like, fair enough, like it happens on Inferno.
Like, one player, a couple players really stepped up,
but you had all the advantages.
Like, you were playing better teams, yes.
You go on to lose this now.
You're going to be so disappointed in yourselves,
because, like I said, if you're the team more experienced,
you've been working so hard, you can see that.
If it comes down to a few individuals just shutting you down,
That's going to be really difficult for the mental going forward in this tournament.
Especially to a team that wasn't even supposed to be here.
Yeah.
This is the second time that you've played Mirage during Game Leader.
Yeah, I think you're right.
Like, this is one of those losses that if it happens, at least from focus,
you, maybe even in the win now, you would say,
this is a serious conversation I have afterwards.
How did it get this far?
Well, I do take down the aforementioned in Game Leader.
Yeah.
shot from a tennis he's still one of the interesting players here he's barely
now they go for it keeping there that's all we need it sticks around for a
third practice okay two will do yeah not bad we did get three you got three
okay we'll take that size system on the last one as well okay brilliant that's
that's all like if peeping wakes up now it's a little focus or a trouble so
opening kill it was focused with the hero aka themselves there and it's got a
five on four but hexed with some fancy footwork or one of the bee
apartments just about gets away with his life out of the window backup arrives
in time even with the mist or shop it's peeping that saves the day what have
you got focus what's up next a splits looking very likely the bomb on this
side of the map. I see he's making his way back towards these points. This could be some
sort of fake ambush. I think he's maybe just dropping off Util. Okay. So, we'll see what
kind of plays ETI is cooking up here. It smokes down towards the jungle and steps position.
You need a more advanced version when you've got a water forming off the top. They peek
middle instead. Pee-pee does get the first with the AK, but he's traded out. Yeah,
Yeah, so that's why I think it's all a bit of a ruse.
But Hex is using that intel.
They drop a CT smoke deep in the apartments,
and he actually goes to the push as well.
He's got the AK in hand.
He's feeding himself today.
Yeah.
And you're hoping that there's a T on the other side
hearing that.
Like, you want to get a smoke.
Exactly, right?
That's exactly.
Yeah, and that's beautiful from Hex.
Yeah.
Can't stress that enough.
What a great play.
You've got the AK in hand.
You're feeling confident.
You know that they've presented a pretty weak fake.
They're gonna have to explore their options elsewhere.
You get yourself a really cheeky angle toward the B apartments.
One tap headshot. Don't get greedy, fall back.
And it's a guaranteed round.
Nemania confirms it.
A lot of cool little small details here for Wildcard in some of these moments.
Jocko sneaking in. He's got the bomb.
Got the bomb. Yeah, this is...
I was about to say, not necessarily over, but with three players remaining
and you haven't got some over my way for the play, and you've got another kill.
Yeah, big mistake there.
Anticipating him already running onto the site because that's pretty much what he was trying to do, but molly
Back step now looking to see if you could find anyone there. Hext is coming in from the position and you will win that fight
Safe pair of hands right now for this team got a bit messy a couple of mistakes
overcooked a bit in the four versus one, but
They got the round on the light on the board. That's all that really matters
They are touching distance now of sending focus down to the one-two bracket where no one wants to be
Can you give us a B stream update with that word said yes Henry I can in fact do
that obviously the others is legacy and my passion to third map now is very
even 910 on on that third map so can still battling it out over there on the
all good stuff yeah true what have you got we have partial investment and a
couple of one hero rifle a hero galil the Jorco things getting desperate out
They're now full A execution.
We're scraping the barrel, see what they can do with them.
Do they have the Molotov here for the firebox? No.
They don't at the moment, or if they do, they haven't thrown it yet, so wreck.
They can stick around, very quiet, they didn't see him coming.
He gets two big kills, that's very nice.
It's a patient play for wreck to not show himself early.
There's no Molotov in his position. I think they actually had another Molotov on CTI here,
but they never threw it, so they don't clear out that one.
Bombs planted. I don't think it matters. Wildcarn, they should be able to retake this every single time.
Hext, finding his 18th kill.
Look at this position. Just smoked off four players around him.
They're coming for you, kid.
Done well to get one, but yeah, not gonna be enough yet.
I'm gonna need translation.
Well, I think I had too easy at the end, but 10-second defuse comes in, three players survive,
focus, after that first map boys, 13-2, you were dancing around them on the server, you
were having fun, it was looking like such a comprehensive victory, we weren't even thinking
about a third map.
It was their opponent's pick as well, and now you're floundering, now you're getting
outclassed in the mechanical department, which is what Mirage is all about, and all you can
really bring to the table are these A-executions that aren't doing too much.
Maybe not to throw too much co-beam into the machine, but it's also impossible for focus
to really anti-strat anything that's going on here.
Nuke was the most played map for Wildcard at four, now up to five maps played on that
one with this lineup, so maybe they had a little bit of a chance though to, not
to say that they were all anti-stradding either but I'm just saying that on some of these maps
they just don't really know much of anything. So maybe that's something to think about too
but mostly Hext has got 19 kills, Rek is up to 13, Marnie at 16, some of the individuals
here for Wildcard are really stepping up and they're making some very smart choices as well.
I do like the leadership as well from Wildcard at the moment. Hext, the speaker of the demo,
he shall appear, gets two big kills to try and shot down this A push.
and does some damage to the third as well meaning just one tap head shall be quiet
not gonna be happening but then cendry makes a very uncomfortable burns away
and we've got a two on one ZTR can't make a lot of noise i think he's been hurt
not the cleanest kill on the money ever we'll take it
this is great
uh um my whole morning's been rescued by this Henry
oh yeah i wasn't sure what to make of this game could be in the studio today i wasn't
I was just forward so I was like you know what like you were telling me on the wall
Okay, you were telling me focus is gonna be the team to watch that even the playoffs and after the first half hours with you
Yeah, yeah, I'm really shoulder, but now while gosh, they're definitely the more exciting thing
In terms of like I'm not you in terms of entertainment value. Yes in terms of all the bullshit
They're definitely the more exciting team and as we might be done here
That can't be real!
Those are two totally bragged-up headshots of the smoke.
It might not be enough though.
It might not be enough anyway, but Rack, he's trying to make sure that it is
that kind of an opening for Demania, you think that's it?
It's already won.
They send focus down into the lower brackets.
Oh!
He goes down.
M.H.L.
Another good shot.
He's been very good with the AWP.
And now Jorco, he's got the bomb.
He's been in so many 3v1s.
Once he has this one, but they already know that he's here, right?
He's already thrown into smoke. Be careful lads go together
He doesn't respect it at all
We'll put a damage with a grenade on top now swings back towards the window hex to get the final killer wild card
A big upset I would say for this one. I am very impressed
Well, yes
Impressed if you're a wild card fan for sure
disappointed if you are focused and particularly that coach Cuban who had
his head in his hands for most of the past two maps and it's understandable
because realistically you could see they they got flustered they just threw down
the number 49 ranked team in the world and all we can say is that focus didn't
show up or rather they didn't they weren't focused and a hundred percent
agree with you this was sloppy sloppy counter sorry for focus and this is
a team that we've been praising if they think CS, they hit hard, they worked together as
a unit, but that was just some unforgivable rounds coming out, and I agree with you Rich,
because humans are going to be making them here, and like everything is gone, we've
been waiting to yell at them after this map, but I gotta say man, hex is just a real
deal, that's insane.
Oh, I mean, you know, considering where NA is relative to the rest of the world,
You know, everyone's clamoring, we're all trying to find like, who are the NA players right now, who are they?
And we were talking about Lake and we're talking about peeping and the toilet.
You know, and ultimately, like, X has just sort of been there the whole time, slowly steadily getting better.
I thought he was hot-guarding when he was an evil genius, frankly.
I said it all the time, you know, the stats bear me out.
And yet, in NA team last, you know, last year, he was really good, gets dropped, that's crazy.
crazy comes in the wildcard just continues where he left off and ultimately you know I agree I think
he's the best piece on this roster right now. To be fair it was hard to stand out on the EG team
no matter what you were doing. No he was also part of that what was it the blueprint whatever so
half the time the infamous blueprint. The other time you were on the EG seconds. Black. Yeah right EG
black. But EG black, EG white, wherever he was at the time. All the colors yeah. But it was also
So I was just going to point out that Maia also had a really good game, obviously.
He was constantly working around middle, getting a lot of openings, catching a lot of the focused
guys off-guard.
So a lot of credit goes to him as well.
He got off with one of the rounds that I think we're going to bring up later that
there was definitely a lot of mistakes coming from the other side that he was just there
to punish effectively.
But yeah, I do like to watch him play when it works because Maia, a lot of the time
you'll have ideas that are kind of out there in terms of, you know, catching the right timings and sometimes it looks a little bit
Rady, you know, but in a good way where like he's just gonna get boosted into window
You know flank to be one side these types of plays that are very aggressive and then just playing off of timings
And when it works, it looks great when it doesn't work
It looks a little bit silly occasionally, but this time it was definitely working for him and again
It's going back all the way to the Vita. I was I didn't surprise Walker
Why don't you just go to the Duster and Mirage, like allow some of your faces to pop off, and you can see how much more comfortable they feel here.
It wasn't anything highly tactical coming up from the side of Walkard, it was just the individuals playing the roles perfectly,
and just shutting it down, getting multi-kills after multi-kills.
And again, really cool to see, you know, not just Hex, but also Wreck Hattus moments,
and MhL Hattus moments, peeping a couple of rounds, he popped off a little bit here and there.
So, yeah, well done from there. This is, so far I think this is the upset of the tournament.
Yeah, it might well be, especially within the context of that now puts Wildcard in the 2-1s, right?
So they're one series away from, you know, getting through to the playoffs, so that's kind of wild.
I think you had a round, you wanted to...
Yes, exactly, that's what I was talking about, I was talking about Nemanja just taking advantage of some of the mistakes on the focus side.
This is at 6-4, and focus have the money upright, but that just realizes that they're the dog on the other side.
And so for a moment he believed it's a full Eto, but Nemanja has this hero AK working with.
But then Matheos kicks into him solo, then Volta was spamming this smoke in the window,
and Nemanja just punishes him for that, and then GTR tries to do the same thing where it's a 3v4,
he's trying to turn it back around, right? And this is just how they effectively peek him
one by one and die to him. Literally that was a hero AK, like everybody else only had
upgraded pistols. It was effectively an Eto on the other side.
I mean, Mephaeus dying, it's kind of forgivable, I guess, he's like, oh, it's just glots, but hey,
but he waits for a second, asks for a flash, or asks him to give him a peek with you,
and mow them down, instead of just getting too over-eager and trying to mop up all the kills.
He gets taken down, finds fair enough, but it's everyone else, right, Volus?
Well, why is he taking her in the smoke? Why are you giving an opportunity
for his trade bullet to land at you and the ZTR as well? These small little mistakes,
and by the way, after that, they didn't have any money the next round.
Two rounds just lost for free, just like that.
I'll tell you when a new focus will cook. It was that T side pistol. Oh, yeah, what was that like you you
Boost three people through a window you miss the jump twice
So they know it's coming even though it's telegraphed you get a kill then you stand there
You jump two people across murder hall taking damage
You send one of them back then you don't push then you sit there
Then there's a guy fighting by himself in connector and they still won that round
And it's one of the worst pistol rounds. I've seen they won the round with counter strike lost
That was it they won the round and that was when cuban was like
I'm telling you I'm telling you the corals are coming out right now
That's all you're going to be hearing right behind the arena here, but yeah
Just just a very very bad game honestly from focus considering that are favorites
But yeah wild card a bit of a surprise there and I feel like this might give them a little bit of winning the sales
Remember they have that they have that the default win they had over phase. Yes loss against bait now the two one up
Something nobody really expected sure they got lucky with the phase draw, but this is a well-earned victory
Yes, and obviously they now have the opportunity to you know, like sit back see who they might who the likely opponents are
Get prepared. They've got two more attempts to get through to the playoffs
Which would be a really big story for them if they got there. Yeah for sure
It's obviously going to be an uphill battle no matter what.
I mean, at this point, they're going to get into the better teams.
You know, the teams that lose the two zero games is probably going to be their first matchup.
That's the top four teams we have at the tournament.
That's all the top 10 teams in the world.
So it's effectively for a wildcard team that barely has any playbook.
It's going to be an uphill battle regardless.
And then whoever ends up in that two-two game,
probably going to be a pretty heavy underdog in that one as well.
So from here, I'm just looking for them to get a little bit more playtime,
with more experience, maybe take a map off one of these better teams because that's what
they're looking for. I don't think they're coming into this tournament expecting to make playoffs,
so whatever they get from like past this is a bonus really. And it's also like for
Peeping and hopefully to have a chat with him and just maybe trying to figure out why he's
struggling quite a bit because this is a rough performance. I know they got the win, you're
allowed to have a bad map, you're allowed to have two bad maps with three atrocious maps
right there. Clearly, I would put a blame purely on him, but surely his confidence has
shook. So, you know, maybe talk it out, figure out why he's struggling quite a bit over here.
And if he's able to pop off, you know, who knows, might be able to pull off another upset
come tomorrow.
All right, well, we'll see. We are going to take a quick break. When we come back
after the break, bait will be in the building and we'll be talking about them. So, we'll
see you soon.
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Alright guys, if you thought the first series was Carnage in Chaotic, get ready because
because we've got bait taking on 3D Max and we've got lots to say about both of these teams.
We've already talked a bit about bait, so I guess we'll start with 3D Max.
I'm just going to repeat the narrative that I've been putting out there.
This is not the 3D Max you remember from even, I don't know, four months ago.
This is a very different 3D Max.
They are in free fall, they look terrible and nearly lost the Voker the other day,
so I am totally out on 3D Max.
Which I'm sure you're aware of how the French Counter-Strike fans on Twitter can be, shall
we say, very vocal when a critical of French players, right?
I have no idea.
Yeah, I have no idea as well.
And yesterday I put our tweet saying, you know, this is embarrassing to watch, well
what is going on?
And guess what?
I saw a bunch of Frenchmen replying to me, oh no, what are they saying?
Click on the translate button, everyone's like, we, we, I agree with you.
That's how bad it's gone for 2D Max.
Yeah, 3D Max have lost the dimension.
down to 2D Max now, I think.
You know what?
Good.
I love that.
They saw that one.
They've obviously struggled through these last couple of months, and this tournament specifically,
I mean, obviously first losing to Focus, which is, yes, one of the teams we did have on our eyes
as a team that could pull off some upsets, but yesterday's game against Volka, man,
that was a rough watch.
I'm not going to lie.
that, you know, he totally spoke to Maka, and even there he was talking about how it's
a shame that they're playing that close against that kind of team, you know, NA is catching
strays left and right at this tournament, we had, we had FOOTS testing their map pool
against NRG, being like, yeah, we're going to play our lowest played map against them.
But guess what, Maka just been focused, you know, what's up now, EU4s?
Yeah, well listen, I don't know, I don't think he's catching strays, I think everybody
knows NA is dead in the conventional sense. It's not really a competitive region anymore.
They have a 3D max to take a team that isn't even a team, remember. Like Voker are just like,
you've got to stand in, maybe this is a guy that's going to be on the team and blah blah.
Like in a standing situation, that's the one, right? Like if it was Voker playing with a full
lineup, you can be like, all right, you know, Dave actually taking a couple of maps off
on LAN recently as well in EU. But the fact that you have a stat incoming,
as it played for five years, not a single official in five years, Rich, and you and you barely scrape a win.
If McHenry pulled off that clutch on ancient, this would have been actually, you know, the 3D Max in O2,
in O2 bracket. Embarrassing, honestly.
Yeah, yeah, and look, I mean, this used to be a team. The one thing you say about 3D Max is
they don't have any star players, but they have really good fundamentals, really good protocols.
We went through this change in IGL where we ended up with the gravity era.
It was a little bit different, but we were still kind of hopeful.
It's just been swirling down the drain.
I don't know if I agree with the strong fundamentals.
They definitely had that at points before.
They had fundamentals.
They had fundamentals.
They had some fundamentals.
But then those fundamentals sometimes just get thrown out of the window
and then they would just run a lot of crazy stuff all over the place.
So they just had that little bit of a flair that they brought out every now and again for crazy rounds to pull up.
But it was working for them when they were playing some of the better teams.
Occasionally they would take a big win.
Obviously it hasn't really happened this year.
They've only been tumbling further and further down the rankings ever since that move you were talking about came about.
I mean we can obviously contextualize why they are quite unsure.
Like struggling here.
They did not qualify for the major.
something that's going to be in the back of your mind,
the biggest event of the season.
They don't qualify to come in, they've looked glum,
but the question has to be raised, right?
So you're not playing the major.
It's not a couple of months remaining for the season.
Where do you go from here?
Because clearly this isn't it.
This, you know, the entire gravity macadynamic.
Well, sure.
But at some point, you want, of course, correct,
but this macadynamic just hasn't clicked.
You might say that trajectory thereon
makes them a victim of gravity.
But anyway, we can now talk
about bait their opponent.
Similar story would just being real about it.
I mean, I had a lot more kind of a respect for and faith
in this line up when they first started coming through.
They were well drilled, forged in the fires
of online counter strikes.
They were the team that had played the most maps
on a monthly basis and it really showed.
And then since then, you know, you had the drop off
of, you know, head trick and they made like a roster change.
They found that you can see they're still trying to make him,
you know, kind of fit the mold and get the best out of him.
And honestly, they're very flat right now.
I still think that they are, they are still the same team to me.
They just kind of came on the wrong end of a couple of losses that ended up
then ended up thanking their confidence.
If you look at them, they are still playing a very solid band of CS.
They were just hoping to get out of Sizi, that kind of X factor that
would get them to the next level.
Obviously, you know, a lot of pressure to point on a 16-year-old guy that effectively has no experience
and it's been a struggle for him to keep up the consistency.
We do see flares every now and again of his individual brilliance.
He's very sharp when he's feeling it, but then he has games where he just completely disappears,
doesn't really have any impact. And that's what we even saw yesterday when they were playing
Astralis, right? He gets off to the wrong foot, then, you know, they end up losing the first map
and then he comes back for Nuke and actually provides a big performance.
So, yeah, this is also the third time that we're going to see these couple of teams play against
them one another, even in the last, I think it's two weeks, because at Parking they played even
twice. They exchanged series and then Bates actually ended up winning the one that mattered
the most that actually put them through to the major effectively.
We're just kind of like absolutely. Again, as we juxtapose the two teams and they're
and the race of the major, this match-up is the one which knocked out 3D Max and Bate
qualifying for the major. So Bate coming to this event with a lot more confidence
which they had lost early in the season. Look at the nature of the win though.
That's what concerns me for 3D Max that like, oh when the pressure was off a little bit they
could sort of grind and get a few... That was a Muslim game. Yeah that's what I'm saying.
Yeah, they completely crushed. They completely crushed when it mattered and they go to pieces.
And I feel I forbade that particular match-up was the turning point,
the you know the stop so to speak of the downfall right ever since then you know
they they qualify they come on in they make reasonably quick work of wall card
against Astralis dude that could have been a 2-0 and Astralis for me are one
of the dark horses coming to this event so I feel like for bait we might be now
witnessing the resurgence coming back to the form of all sure it might not be
the same but says he's struggling a little bit but doesn't really matter as
long as the team is playing what they want to play.
I'm gonna just be real if bait can't absolutely batter 3d max
the way they've been playing of late. That is bad news.
Yes indeed. I think I do think that this is where it's headed. It could kind of go down to the same
kind of sloppy CS that we saw at Parkland where they were just kind of trading big blows
back and forth. And I do think that the Vito is probably going to go that way. Bait picking
Ancient is absolutely no surprise. That was the two, twice. Both times they won, they just
slammed them on Ancient. Newcore Inferno was the last two times that they played. So there's
the inferno pick again both times 3d max won that map and it would ended up going down to
dust 2 for the decider both cases they traded dust 2 twice so i wouldn't be surprised if that
never mind okay that's the nuts i guess it's baits uh baits no it's not 3d max yeah it is 3d max
removing dust 2 it was the map that they got slammed on last time but then won the one the
previous so the first thing so we are down to nuke nuke decider okay here i'm a little surprise
here i mean the ancient pick is no surprise obviously from bait but but a thing for inferno
you remember like day one three of us got absolutely slammed by focus on
Inferno so you go into that again this is not that his story can like to play
right so hopefully they have something in store for us here but you coming up
dude like even though bait might be kind of if you on this map they did beat
Astralis they destroyed them yesterday and remember so comfortably yes and it's
a map that is always a very comfortable on Astralis when they played that map I
even fear for some of the bigger names out there and the fact that
allowing this map through, if I'm bait, I'm grinning year to year. Yeah, I mean absolutely. I think the
problem that this current iteration of 3D Max has is it doesn't have the ability to find two
really good maps for itself. I think just naturally the way Abito is going to play out,
they don't seem to have two maps where they can feel confident that if we go to a handshake,
we're in with a shelf. And even the map that they do like to play a Nubus,
obviously it's a problem for Bay, but even yesterday they didn't mention people were pretty convincing
me on that. So I agree with you 100%, you need to at least have two maps and if your opponent is
just going to per-bound it out what are you left with? Yes, well we are left with going to ancient
and I do have to say you know I like Bates on this map. I think in the past historically
even with this lineup they've had some big wins on ancient. They look good, they're happy to
tear it up they'll use it as a handshake they'll pick it if it's there for 3d max i don't know
yeah i'm slightly worried about ancient just after seeing bait got kind of battered yesterday
by i think it's a bit of anomaly honestly yeah a bit of a hiccup because astralis will
be super confident super in your face i don't think baby baby really ready for it but if you
look at the previous games i've had it is very comfortably the best map right so i think it's
not going to happen i mean in the matchup they have gotten a couple of very convincing wins and
at the Park and Tire Tournament that we were talking about earlier as well.
13-8 and 13-3 back to back, so they're confident here.
Yeah, I mean, you know, we'll see, I'm again super worried about what the key to victory
for 3D Max might be.
I'll check in with our casters and see if they've got any ideas.
Can 3D Max win this?
Let's just even bring it down to Ancient.
Can they win Ancient?
What have you got on this?
Come on.
Man, I just don't trust this team any longer.
I mean, they can.
That's obviously the right answer, but I don't think they will.
I feel like, yeah, they've got a bit of an identity crisis right now.
Moving the in-game leader position around, removing body,
it seems like gravity's performance has got worse since he's not the in-game leader anymore.
But I agree, I feel like the Sizi conversation is the most important one here.
Him against Makka, I think it's going to be the most influential battle here.
Makka is a very powerful AWP, he's in the zone.
Sizi can be world-class, but we very rarely see that sort of form.
That for me is the most exciting battle, but I have got Bay taking this all day long.
I think 2-0.
Yeah, not a bad pick.
I'm tempted to say this. I think both teams have this thing in common though that they don't really have a superstar like none of these teams
That's that's just a feature. What about here? Maybe in here the most orless player. I've ever seen that
We'll talk about that later. We'll get into the game. All right, that's thanks very much
Let's get into it
It's gonna be bait taking on 3d max and we'll see bait starting on the T side here
And it's going to be a bee attack all five players here smokes going in early towards cave and
And towards Short, it's gonna be all our warfare here as Matthew goes down quickly,
and it will be Kendi's all helping himself through a couple of kills around us.
Don't you love to see it?
No breaks, no slow poking at the start, they just go for the bomb site and run it over.
Kendi's all just gonna go down and return, XC's he'll take down MPL,
so actually pretty good start to the retake.
They do have a kit as well, so this is still Jiggle somehow,
Now Ascentiel turning the wrong way, shot in the back of the head by Lucky, Sizi playing
around here towards the cave position and he's going to go down as well.
Misuta, three kills and they've got it even without the kits.
Could be a faster defuse.
That is somewhat unacceptable I think on the side of Bait.
You get two opening kills in the bomb plant in the first three seconds of the round and
then you still lose it.
I don't know how you lose that round.
I don't know either.
I don't want to know.
That is crazy work.
These kind of openness, this is a godsend.
That should be the rounds over.
That's it, yeah.
How do you give this one up?
Why are we challenging so much with the backwags?
Why are we not playing the bomb?
It's only round one.
It's already a disaster.
Yeah.
Both these teams finding themselves
in a weird state lately.
You mentioned NPL, I think I said earlier, he's playing like a man possessed to try and make this this line of work.
I think if you said, as a potential superstar, I think he's more as a case of circumstance, like he has to try to necessity, you know, that he's just playing this way.
Maybe you do it again today.
You might need him.
But good work.
Bomb plant is there.
In spite of the bomb plant, we're seeing two MP9s on the 3D max side.
Is that the map that sort of they don't want the extra m4 the extra for Mars or whatever?
Um, well time will tell they've definitely got a plan of their sleep air pushing in towards a main gravity
I'm sending back here get the information lucky trying to take the aggro that all do you nicely as that stays looking quite promising now
We do max after recovering that five on three deficit in the pistol. They've got a clean sweep here
As we go into the five on one a single kill. This is equal
we picked up I should be there wasn't due course and there we go I do like that
variation okay one of the reasons why this team can be fun it's more fun when
apex is on the other side receiving the banter from gravity but I still like it
yeah but yeah the double push with the MP9's like you said trick up their
sleeve yeah it was quite good I liked a little detail there as well of just
peeking from the K position just to take the aggro away, keep them on high alert as the
backstab came through and we go into what should be a very clean and simple procedure.
We've got 3D Max, we've got 3-0 here.
Bear in mind, if you're just joining us today, we are the 1-1 games and I'll cover
this for now as we'll look back at the previous results of these teams.
So Bates have taken down Wildcard but lost to Astralis, 3D Max lost to Focus, we
just saw 2-1 and they beat Voker 2-1. Bear in mind, Voker just stands out as well, so
the fact that they only just get that over the line, a little bit alarming.
That goes a long way to explain why the best and everybody else has been really worried
about this team, because these are teams that they would normally run over without
even thinking about it. But you know what, this start is pretty hot right now. I
must say, they got the kill last round with the MP9, one of them died so then
they pick up a good deal. So now they have a lot of money to work with on the CC side
very early on. So if I know casualties here, Sizi hoping to land a headshot. Doesn't seem
to be an easy job at the moment. He's boxed it. Still got 40 seconds.
It's another five on one. It's Sizi again, same position. Will he get a kill this
time? Can't have two clean sweeps in a row surely. Well, he definitely can.
is going to be out of control for the CT side. 3D Max looked locked in, fired up, and ready to go today.
Bates, an uphill battle, got to rebuild the morale. Giving up that pistol is criminal.
Got no one to blame but yourself. You're over Pete's, but over Confidant,
you thought the round was done, and you let them back in.
You're making that kind of a mistake very early in a series. It doesn't have to destroy
the whole series obviously, but it just makes me feel like why are we doing that to ourselves?
So, first gun rounds for the indicative as to where we're going with this one.
For now it's towards middle, smokes down towards donuts and the red room.
Boosted up though, nice idea, lucky.
Looking to find one, vaulting it towards the heaven, they've got no idea.
They have a chance of a double kill there, but it doesn't push his luck.
Does he take any damage? Is he opening frag?
Speaking of frags, MPL, the star, play up.
Wow. We'll be pulling one back as the suit had dropped.
I love this part of ancient where the T's get into the red room and they split the Martin map in half like this.
That's where it gets real chaotic.
XC is hoping that he could wrap around MPL was there ready.
He did go very low on health, but again, they've caught the map in half here.
So the BDF has got two people.
We've got Lucky on the other side playing that donut position.
He's alone. They can't really help each other out.
And there's still a minute left for bait to do something so this much like the pistol round is an extremely winnable round for them
Not to say that it's completely locked in but it is looking pretty good
Forward position, mackerel gravity. This could be an insane move
Galeel on the one side from us on the other one
Sentence straight to you out. The flashbang is everything man
Good protocol some baits their first rounds on the board here lucky after getting the opening kill
Nothing you can do about it. They know he's on the other side of the map as well
I don't know if we can catch it Henry one of the upcoming rounds, but in this round in the middle
You see baits obviously 3d max they throw an incendiary into the middle. They throw double he
Yep, bait themselves or a counter incendiary or Molotov to that elbow position. What's that doing for them?
Why are they why they close by yeah, and stopping the CT's being able to do things like
Getting super close up and spamming the corner allows you actually to tuck yourself in by the elbow like in the right angle
Okay. So yeah, like CTs it's very common for them. Yeah, exactly that Molotov that yeah
Stopping the CTs getting close and being able to take that space away from you
So even though the flashbang is going off and you are blind you can sit in that corner without CTs being able to swing
Cleanly around nice, you know what I mean? Yeah
And it means that you have to think a wider part thing aka they will get blind as they're trying to swing around and
Peek that angle. It's quite a chaotic part of the map because when you just watch in the middle of fight
this is fire everywhere otherwise you could think about you could just be
looking at that wall hugging it and then peeking the angle avoiding all the
flashbacks well good it I mean good protocols they took mid control yeah
you will see every team throwing them all out of well I like it and now we
know we're going into round number five and what do we have 3d max losing a
round finally probably should have lost the pistol round but yeah getting
Getting something on the board here for Bates, it's got to be important surely.
So much of this map, if you have the right mid opener for it, if you've got a player that feels comfortable in there,
really on both sides of the map can make a big difference.
Is that Elysian Art? Some signatures?
Maybe, I missed it.
Art was top fragging yesterday.
True
Oh, we've got the four man or the four flash set up towards middle two players and spawn
bombarding
the mid area with flashes
We'll see them. Let's you pick up this space no problem dangerous marker
Go straight down
Kansas or ran there to crouch and just put his crosshair in the perfect position
Maybe even 10 seconds before anyone showed up
going to pick up the AWP and try to walk back, but again, Bates looking at this tactical position.
They want to open up the red room so that they can really make any rotations, very difficult.
In any position that you think you're holding with safety, normally at the back of this B bomb site,
you could just focus on the ramp, but once you lose the red room, it's not the case anymore.
And they got to find their way towards XCCs. I can't imagine a world in which he is going
going to be able to stay alive back here for more than a kill.
Oh, he's in trouble. He's about to go down. No kills.
That's round three players in towards B. Bate started to come to
life. Definitely the favored team considering the downfall of
3D Max and recent months. So when they lose marker at the
start, the rest of 3D Max just freeze and do nothing. I feel
like there was no grounding for bait is so good.
Yeah, you're right. There was no real reaction there. They
kind of stayed posted up knowing they had the AWP over towards the A site and
hoping he would just be able to find one towards a main playing at that defensive
position but obviously lots of gaps in the map to exploit and that's exactly
what they did once again going through that red room CT spawn and just taking
it down no problem a bit of a gamble staff at this point hoping that the
orb would be able to survive that looks like no one will. Yeah they're getting
found out even after they've already given up on the round that's brutal.
What advice do you have to have seen a bit more in terms of the team right there?
Man, I've taken that peak from Donut, like you saw the crosshair placement there and ready for him.
Just a flashbang from a teammate from Red just before he peaks.
That would have been nice.
You know what I mean? Like get him off the angle, give him the advantage on the fire.
He does dry-peak zip and gets taken down by an AK.
I agree. It's very risky, unfortunately.
Any time for Kensen to sit there.
I feel like as well, you know, once they lose him and they stack three of the B bombsites,
The old original heroic lineup they would have pushed out right? I don't know. That's my only reference
I guess they're not the only team to do with a morse probably a bit dated at this point in time
But I'm just saying if you're gonna stack three in your down a man
I like I said, I think it was more of like a gamble stack at that stage
You've recovered the orbit in the hands of XC's if he can do something with a great. Oh my god
If it comes towards be for that stack going on
So yeah, there's definitely an argument to be made that you could have gone for more active play and speaking of what you're getting plenty of that in this particular round, some fantastic shots being exchanged here, but it will be advantage towards Bates still in the three on three.
Alex?
All three members once again towards a B-bomb side and Alex will be going for the long con through red.
This is another movement here, very, very smart I think for Bates to wait. They don't know how many of you are on the bomb side, so they let Alex do a little bit of an investigation.
He's gonna find out every single one is here. He dies but he now they know at least what both of them are
It's a very good shot for my car must admit
Vacating the premises and a bait are helping themselves and they're thinking exactly what you are and as they've seen both of us
They must be going towards a but I'm all it's off pretty much secured the rounds
There is an H. She unlucky. I suppose MBL could be killed if you
You have the perfect have to be a hell of a grenade
You'd have to be probably have to hit him first and then you know bounce on him easy. That's a pretty close shot
No kits, so you're not you shouldn't be taking the bay. You know, he's got no kid at this point. Yeah, you even need to check
All go all comfortable. Yeah
Got a bit close first kills very smooth
I don't know how those two people on the V bomb site managed to get a kill each but they did yeah
Okay position spray was bad. Yeah, but there we go round seven
We'll be
Bates now finding three in a row since losing well looked to be an absolutely locked in pistol
still reeling from the fact they lost that one but
Could be a very different school line. They picked it up. They're looking very confident ever since
Wow! A lot of grenades, a lot of use of them towards middle. Luckily looking to get stuck in here over towards the B lane.
Nice movement to get up there.
Yeah, interesting that they have so many people in middle and still have marker here with the AWP.
I think they were probably hoping I think that someone from bait would peek this because normally when you hear that much, you're going to have nobody on the AWP bomb site.
This is a fun position I guess in the middle when you have three people, but man it leaves the extremities very weak
Gravity's got no more grenades, so he can't re-smoke the ramp presumably this mid position
Either they push in and help out or they can't stay okay
There we go flashbang on over just to take a look. He does see someone at the bottom
Yeah, they have to they have to give up this mid control at some point
Yeah, well there you tell
He's being bled out. They were hoping for fights and jewels here that he'd given nothing on the CT side
So they know eventually they will lose that space. They're gonna have to run in push control go back to a more default setup here
Very patient very slow here from Bates
It's cute coming in. There's a few flashbangs. I think I was trying to provoke
Utility out of the CT side. We'll see if they want to commit off the back of these smokes down to Makar
Oh, he just walks away as he's coming through that's so unlucky
speaking of lucky he's rotating in there's 20 seconds I'll say if the bomb
dies here it's picked up again but there was a world that that cave push could
have ended bait in this round now it's a lot more likely or less lucky if he
had he could have put some pressure on the part itself maybe yeah there is
still such a difficult jewel yeah I was trying to weave yeah just have one
Well that's four in a row. Very passive here. Bates letting 3D Max play themselves. They dumped about $2,000 worth of utility at the start of middle thinking it'd be that mid play.
And three, sorry, Bates did nothing. They just held outside the double doors. They had one back in towards A main, one watching elbow for a back stab, three holding the double doors, waited till they got quiet.
They kept flashing over, having a couple of jiggle peaks there here and there, making sure no one had D lane control. Then they throw in the utility.
There's not much resistance at all and as soon as a utile is deployed as well
That's the moment the backstab comes in towards a yeah, and very fortunate timing like it's all by design
That's what they're trying to do, but it's the moment Machiave bradettes control of the angle that comes through that's so frustrating
He was very patient there. They weren't giving much away down the city side Eva back into words a we go
Really nicely grounding. It's very patient discipline ground from Bates
That's a good one to talk about on the desk.
That's some really impressive CS.
Yeah, I feel like that's been the theme
for a lot of these rounds for bait.
Like they're very patient.
The mid-round knee is really good.
Yeah, you get them second-guessing themselves.
They're desperate for information.
They've dumped all their Utah.
And the moment you put your quote-unquote execute
in towards B, that's when your locker is activated as well.
You're not even going in towards a B site.
Like it's a really nice round.
This paint's such a different picture
because again, we're insisting on the idea
bait should have won the pistol sure if they had it just won four in a row I mean
I'm not gonna say would have been a seven or lead but it's looking at this and
now like you've shown like the fact that you're willing to have these slow
rounds that there was no use of a TV in the boys was middle it's one of these
partial buys for sure but now you're willing to take that space right down
to a donut and wow the flashbang they've left themselves unfortunately
gravity that was a team flash yeah they were trying to set them up and
And of course they knocked him down
He came through the smoke ready and waiting. I think he had a kill there, but his teammates like
Yeah, you might be on the sun then MPL does get three kills you have to appreciate how he is
Shrinking into the angle every time they peek him so they can't just fight him like he narrows the angle against them
They have to take another bad fight against them every time it's really cool
Mark is here and BL finds four, he's up to eight in total.
And he has the potential bad news to 3D Max fans out there.
This is the weaker side of the map for Bates.
Normally they were about 47% of their rounds on the T side,
but it's up to something like 73% on the CT side.
It's crazy how much work they do over there.
Very good of it.
Since losing the pistol could be the perfect game.
Since then, but we have got five at a row.
What's the next play? Can we go to the Stratode here?
I'm going to use it all towards me once more.
You can see that's what we're talking about.
You don't get to go close to the wall.
You have to negate the flames.
I like that.
Very practical. We get to see it demonstrated.
A couple of rounds later.
Pretando notes he's actually trying to fight too much.
Lucky, smooth headshot.
He wants to disengage, but he has to be carefully kind of run back and now he's actually recommitting a little bit to it
sticking around for a lot longer than was maybe comfortable, but he got out alive
That's all that matters
We need 3d max to do something more here
Well, this is gonna be a smoke push I reckon from kensy's all lucky to be aware of it and even so can't find a kill
Back to a four and four. That's a big big kill to pick up here
Mac up AWP in towards red some difficult shots ahead of him and we'll just be slowing it right down. This is like
I'll be
Prefer to play
So cool smoke that Kenzo lands that kind of blocks off CT spawn from that back B lane
Doesn't put too much pressure on Mac. He's still sticking around but
So what's the next move here three outside B
We've got kensis or showing maybe a bit of presence in towards the A side of the map. He will be going for a lurk once again
Trying to catch one hour. He's low HP. He'll be going for like the long backstab. I suppose it's not really much presence
He could show it's have a look what he's up to I suppose
There it is they threw the flash on B. So they're hoping they think this is a bit of a fate
They have rotate it one player over but exorcises here
It's only 12 seconds on the clock
So this could be a bit of a nightmare the bombs trying to make it on the B bombsite gravity goes down
Ascentfield burst onto the site and kills them makes a hundred eighty three turn to get the second shot now
Maka
He goes down next 3d max this one was locked in ascentfield to the rescue
Three kills the second of which was disgusting. Oh, they took the baits for lack of a better words into a bomb side there
Ecstasy sport by okay, I've caught him towards donor. We found one a main. That's it call the rotations over
Yeah, the moment they do it, it's where it'll start, you can't store and she'll bring you back to a five on four
But this is where it really matters. Oh, there's two kills
They were somewhat ready for that as well
And it's no good for 3d max their blows continue here. I think you're progressed
I thought where do we go? Opening killed over gravity
Look at this time Alex is there and they put MPL
Well, he's just got the mechanics on lockdown right now.
Ten and six are in him individually.
They've got the P-bomb side. They're going to plant the bomb.
Just a formality at this stage here. See if Misuto and XZ could find a weapon.
I think it's the best we could do.
We could get an AK into the next round. At least that would be something.
But this is 3D Max.
He's going to be losing seven rounds in a row.
row after winning a strange pistol round and winning the follow-up two rounds
that's good that's a start but now when you look back on what's happened since
you can't ever wonder is that actually all they had for this seven in a row
seven in a row you don't love to see it doesn't make for the most compelling
game no but it is bait to pick that's also true
An Inferno coming up next, but yeah, if you win the pistol, I'm guessing you probably shouldn't have won.
There we go, I kind of rather use the troops I suppose, now we'll inspire some hope.
Nice little double kill, recovering an AK-47, all is lost, that was just a little partial investment of the MP9s.
Got the opening frag there, go to see a gravity, but couldn't necessarily hold on to him.
See whether they can get these last couple of rounds, 7 to 3.
If you get the last two at least, you feel a little bit better.
I mean sure, but that's if you get them.
I was going to say, we haven't really said Mac's name at all.
He's four and eight.
XSC's four and seven.
The Suits are after getting those two people kills at 11, but let's see where that will
take place here.
Maybe showing a bit more pressure towards eight this time.
got two in towards main. Molotovs. Smokes being exchanged over to the side of the map.
Middle control granted. Very defensive and lucky. Playing for one and done here.
Get that one kill, stay alive now. Yep, that's what you're hoping for. He's got the smoke as well.
We got a Molotov from out. That's why you want the smoke in that position.
Still playing around here. Oh, he's gonna touch it if they hear that on the other side
Because otherwise he might have fallen back for all they know
I think they put a very good read on it. Centiel takes him down. XC is the last defender here at the site
Oh, and he gets the kill if that had been MPL instead of getting killed
He would have known that a centiel was still there but because he kills a centiel
He's got no idea that this is a player towards that position. Masuta
Can you try to bring them back? Sizi will drop him and the bomb is going to be planted here
There's a chance. They've got a chance
Sizi though looks like he's destined to get this kill. Oh, he's waiting for a nice work
Comes down to this is a 2v1, but about a head down the size
They can maybe pick the round up
But it is going to be the first real gun round now, but 3d max breaking the streak of seven rounds in a row
We find four on the board pretty comfortable in the end for Mac up
Gravity was there to pick up the pieces if it did go wrong, but yeah looks like more size of relief more than celebrations there for the French
It's probably true
Yeah, one more round
Lucky did well that I have to say like I said, it's such a difficult position
Just to get that one kill then you're trying to stay live as long as possible when you're feeling that pressure come through
So he only gets one but he did set up his team into variations
Mac are able to close things out and finally an opportunity to get a couple
of rounds on the board setting final in the middle once again but in fact
rotating back immediately so not so much one in the control middle I think they
want to signal that there's a lot of people in middle and hoping that there's
going to be a B push they've got four people on the side and it will be a
B push I think 3d max design this very cool idea showing all this stuff in
the middle and then showing up for the B bomb site to the big climb that's
about to happen, gravity with the head shot. And now, Sizi on the ramp with the
bomb alone at the AK, Alex is here, XZ's had the right idea, don't give this one up,
it's a 2v2. They had it perfectly lined up, they threw two incendiaries, a smoke, a
lot of HE's in the middle, then they immediately rotated B to catch the
incoming push, it's a great idea. And now the A bomb site is wide open, can't
stress that enough, and they are locking off the points of access as well,
the Molotov towards Elba to try and slow them down, that's exactly what we'll be
heading. I think they might have heard that as well. Alex is in donut almost
certainly heard it. Let's have a look whether Sizi's ready for this flank
maneuver. Yeah, like I said he heard it. Yeah, and it's a clean finish. There we
have it. Bates after losing the pistol going down 0-3 will close things out
on the T-side campaign 8-4. Very convincing stuff. Definitely the
favorites coming into this one. But yeah, pretty flat overall from 3D Max.
They were getting absolutely ruined out there tactically pulled around the map and
Yeah, doesn't look great over on three max side
It really doesn't unfortunately
Because for the first three rounds it was looking pretty exciting. You thought I'd like to get the fire power
There's those like they're shutting them down pretty hard. Yeah recovering a three on five. Yeah
But since then it's been a little bit lackluster going into the second half now
like I said they are very good on the CT side they got some stats with them 73
percent win rate their four and five conversion is when they lose the opening
kill they still win about 48 percent of the rounds stats in the CT side that's
kind of crazy turn that around I'm gonna suit up the only one with double
digits we move over to the T side now for the French they will need both
pistols here I think before they put down so far we'll have a look at the
buy and see if we can work out where they might be heading. It's one smoke, one Molotov
and a couple of flashes. Do we have a PT-50 in the mix? We don't. We have two smokes now
as well. So a lot of teams like to be execute on these sort of rounds and Molotov the pillar,
smoke towards Long and Short, double flash in and off you go. We'll see if that's what
they've got.
They're going to be playing retake, right? They've got a smoke kit. They've got one
person here. Presumably they're not going to fight it if they show up. Just
I'll let them plant the bomb and hope you can do the retake.
Let's have a look.
I think, yeah, stay away from it.
Don't get run down. That's how you can stop the retake room happening,
but they're not gonna get a chance. That is so aggressive from 3D Max.
Okay, nice subtle strat though.
Far through cave, using the Molotov to deny cave entrance from the CT there.
It goes down just as they're coming through.
They've got a smoke down towards the long side,
and then they smoke deep towards CT spawn as well,
as well, so they can really force the issue and smother as we saw. Very, very, very quick,
very effective hitting their shots. Lots of drive-pies there, beautiful strap there from 3D Max.
That's a pistol round you like to see. Yeah, I mean, you know, that's what we saw on Mirage earlier,
the four-man boost into the window. That's a pistol round. That's a pistol round, yeah.
Almost with a bit of irony as well, because Bait were trying to do something somewhat similar
and their own pistol round. They got the kills, they got the plant, they wanted to push behind
and stop the CTs. Yeah, but the key detail there was the deep smoke in CT spawn, CT spawn
spot side. So, uh, it's a good detail. Sometimes it comes down to that. Really important here.
I doubt if 3D Max can bring this back. I just feel like it isn't their map pick. I
I feel like Bates are very strong on this one, but winning the pistol at least opens up the conversation once again.
If we shoot a key, playing the way that he is, the rest of the team, they're not that far behind, they're all playing as a bit of a squad there, so I don't want to count them out at all.
Oh, definitely not. Let's have a look.
Forced by in response here, Bates will have the pistols, the SMGs,
3D Max back on their feet, down the sort of pistol, will inspire hope, perfectly executed
in towards the B bombsite, gonna focus their efforts there once again.
No one home, just Alex alone.
Teammates stacked in towards the A bombsite here, it's like XQ coming through, got the
smoke down towards Long and Short.
will arrive but as we mentioned locked out by utility. Not necessarily committing of this,
it's determined they've got aid under their remit but there is a sneaky little move here from Alex.
Okay, the shooter is aware that it could be happening. He's definitely watching the edges so
it won't be complete surprise but this is gone from a one man's stack to a five man's stack
Basically.
Molotov for the pillar here.
Flashbang to go in.
That's a think.
Even better return though.
Gravity will knock at least one defender out of the Mach 10.
And that's a three on five.
If you've just blocked it off, the utility paving the way for everything else.
Gravity is what you want to be doing here.
Mach 10 doesn't even bother reloading.
It comes in with a block instead.
Fight the round for him. Three kills.
that's I guess that's a lesson in how to avoid dying the stats you just use so
much utility then it's can't do anything yeah overwhelm them even with the
double permit towards the allowance three bullets left no magazines okay
don't need it so it's still is yet to be a problem this new update no it's
Not a problem for MPL, he's got one bullet, get the headshot, that would have been very cool.
Okay, the really massive feeling here now, some very nice rounds, to be fair to them, first half really wasn't looking too good for them, but winning the pistol again, getting that 2-0 on the board, should be three and a one round game after this one.
one. Nothing they can do on the bait side. They were ready for these sort of maneuvers.
They knew they were going to be trying to push into the cave and trying to retain territory.
They were out of class positions. Taking them down comfortably. Couple of nice
Deagle shots, sure, but you can't really justify any investment here. What a shot
that is. Macau will pluck the Henry Zorn out of the air.
Yeah, that's what they need more of.
Down in the D.E.G.O. for Alex.
Would love an opportunity, but...
3D Max looks like they're a little bit more locked in once again.
He does get the kill on the marker.
Gravity could have gone down there as well.
MPL, scary stuff. He's hunting for him.
Guess the shot off.
Mac 10 is gone.
Oh, bang, I've seen one.
Thanks to Cease and then MPR going down next
Without it's been low from the start of the round
Don't think you can hold on here. Ceasee's in the middle with the other Deagle
They've done some great damage. Got a good one. There's some credit here taking those two kills. That's pretty some pretty nice
But 3D Max's answer back. They'll lose another one. They're making some of these rounds very expensive
The last one was down to a single person as well. Maybe two on the 3D Max side, but
But this time it's a one versus two.
Again, no body armor here for Sizi.
So it's all headshots.
Any extended fight he's going to lose every time
has to be very clean.
And he can't spend all day.
And he might, yeah, he might say, you know what,
say he can shoot a valuable Stephanie.
He's not safe.
I'll get a specific thing for you.
So there we go.
trying to escape. One round game now, eight to seven 3D Max.
With the vibe shift you can see her body language
looking a lot more comfortable, a lot happier. Here's a round of 16 in the one round game
and they have got a nice amount of
residual cash as well. So we've got the all for Sizi, eight and eight currently right now, important round here
as Fuddy Max climbing back into their opponent's map pick.
Rifle's back out again.
Let's see what they could build. Sizi.
AWP, a lot of grenades in the middle. They're listening in.
Now the flashes come over.
Three, I think it's Frodo over the wall from the T side to try and take this mid control.
They're getting close to Sizi now. He's just holding back here.
Sizi's a shadow. Easy timing for him.
And if you try and hunt him down, then Kenzo's going to be there as well.
Well, takes a bit of a peek, Masuta knows he sees the shadow, he's heard it, he still
can't find the kill.
Hungry, he thought he had him locked in the corner.
Yeah, gotta go with those sort of plays though, he lost the first pick, get some information
as to where one of the CTs are trying to play in front of the smoke.
Unfortunately though, doesn't work out and it's gonna be pretty much locked him around
here.
He'll take something unbelievable.
4-3 Max, bring this one back to life, 5-3, but plenty of time, he can't really
So Jesse doing the same just yep gravity showing us some tech here
Sneaking up the wall
talking himself in
Okay
Sliding how high does it go there we go?
Camouflage never seem to be like it. Oh he comes
Well listen the fact that MPL is playing as well
and I've had to switch to the CT side Henry playing this a he's sort of a
rotating player on this map this is best position on any map this CT side of
ancient so he's going to be feeling very comfortable on this one probably gonna
get better from here on out three versus five they're waiting out the
clock. I guess that makes sense. They have stolen two AKs on the CT side, so they're
actually happy to weigh it out as well. They've got the AK or the AWP as well on
CT, so everyone deciding it's better. It's better just to be peaceful.
Nine, seven. It's quite peaceful for a moment there. A long save, but the first on the
board for bait in the second half here. They'll extend that lead to two rounds.
So bear in mind that's both pistols and conversions going in favor of 3D Max.
Bring them to seven rounds, which suggests they've only really got one
proper gun round in the mix, so far. But, Mr. Round there presented on the
T side was very good. Can't take that away from them. Yeah. Got a bit of a
fake coming in here courtesy of Lucky. These go towards shore while it's
Talking to Bombside itself, it's all a ruse though Anders, as we are getting ready to pop in towards the A site.
Stand at Kenzie's or to defend the classic position, classic angle, making the call now, here they come, you can hear them,
but the flash is nice, they can't recover, and honestly that might be enough to win if they smoke CZ spawn.
It's so difficult to recover this one, there's a smoke, you can pop it open, sure, hope for the best, but I think you're considering the save already.
Just might not be worth it there.
Lot of pressure on kensis or and he's he's taking that fight straight to them
Is he supposed to be doing that would it be better if he fell back in donut and kind of stayed alive back there?
Or is it uh, is it favorable for him to try and and spray them down? I felt like he was
I guess he could have been a hero looked like he was risking a lot there
Long goes up. Yeah, they don't even they don't even want to look for exit kills
That's how far back they are
Well, still looking quite good. That's one round. You just have to let slip by the wayside.
You managed to hold onto your AWP, your AKs, and M4s on the CT side. You just have to accept that they played a good round there.
Lucky with the fake over towards B, and just meant there was one player ready and waiting.
It was Kendi's AWP, and he called for the backup, but the flashes were very good from 3D Max.
Now you can have an uncomfortable angle. Couldn't hit the first headshot. He goes down with one.
They get that retake ago because of nothing is just not worth it
Okay, well listen, even if some of these rounds are as a result of 3d max winning the pistols
It's bought them more time to actually start to win some rifle rounds. Yes, definitely
That's good news. That's cool time out from the CT side here
Pretty max
Somehow some way bringing this one back to a one-round game after the first half a little bit no chance
takes up one single gun rounds and now that's their second round 18 yeah some
good ideas they'll smoke off towards the k position
and you will be through the max interesting both of those smokes see
whether it works out for them to be gravity to open things up a sent the
will go down quickly. Molotov towards long, courtesy of Lucky. Seems to be the utility man,
and what a great flashbang it is, makes it cease as well. Sizi, sure he gets one, but he's been
isolated by the Molotov, and now they're going to smoke him off as well. This is looking very promising.
Great initiative as well. Another flashbang goes over, the double swing, knowing if
the orb even hits one shot, you've got to take him down. And Lucky saw the last two players
coming in from middle, so they know what they need to know. There's no questions any longer.
Well, they're not rushing things either. They're making sure they just pump the brakes for a second or rushing the plan
He got a four on two
Maybe just get groups up when if they see two reactions to come through is there a possible flank?
Plant even a fake on this one as well seeing whether
And he's all bite down on it. Here comes a commitment
He's hoping this corner is overlooked. Yeah, and he can cause a ruckus
Even funny with a ninja defuse we had an attempt or at least a sneaky defuse on inferno
Maybe not exactly a ninja, but it's close could have been fun, but the AWP remember
Kansas all
No, they're on high a lot right now. Yeah. Yeah, they didn't run away and almost things
They're getting far away Henry
You might be on something
She's keeping an eye on him. He's very careful. I love it.
You're exactly right. Gravity with three kills in this round.
Like, they were so tentative and worried like, it was too quiet.
Like, there's no way they're not gonna check the bomb.
If you don't have the information as to whether they are whatsoever,
someone stay with the bomb for sure.
Even if it costs you a couple of players going down.
Well, I was trying to manifest Henry.
It doesn't look that's a real thing.
I don't think it is. I like the idea.
Have you tried it though?
No, I haven't.
You just did and it didn't work, so...
Based on the data.
Another win for science, I suppose.
We're tied up.
The game is in fact tied.
3D Max is from Alive, they were better on the T side somehow,
and he's running through that Molotov.
That's what the Molotov is trying to stop you doing.
He actually just tanked the damage,
tank the damage and that's why it's considered that the power for Molly to try and stop that
sort of play.
That's really awesome.
We have all the illustration here.
Why the grenade is thrown, what happens when you throw it, what happens if they make their
way through anyway.
It's been a very educational day.
Bombers in middle, so 3v3 now, health roughly equivalent.
And that's why you see some teams do a run boost here.
So you jump over the molotov and get into that position.
You've seen that before, right?
Yes.
so you can jump over and get to that very powerful position
and try and avoid the damage of the moment off.
I suppose the count of the run bush now is a double HG
instead of a T-stroll?
Yes, exactly.
So it's constantly developing.
It's so, I do love it though.
I think it's one of the reasons why Ancient is so much fun.
There's always something.
Well, I think everyone loves to play at home.
Everyone likes to kind of plug it.
Everyone likes to watch it.
No teams really have it as their perma ban, I would say.
like it's yeah it's just uh yeah it's good good old-fashioned
canals right now just need vitality to get on here and every everyone so we're
under 30 seconds they're close to the b-bomb side but they're not there yet
Alex or NPL they'd say this is his best position on any map play in the
middle of this one and rotating around but Alex is here where the bomb is
gonna be planted NPL start the show Alex is close to catching the bomb
He wants to do some pressure, but he's so low on health, bomb gets countered, but I doubt it's going to be more than that for Marcus.
Very nice flick, that might change my mind a little bit.
It's NPL instead.
Four kills.
He's up to 18 once again, playing like the main character here on the bait side that's trying to force his team forward and get them the wins that they need.
Very admirable.
I don't really see him celebrating like Richard said, maybe not the most aura, but he's putting
all his evidence into the server.
10-9 and yeah, I'm really quite impressed with that from Bate to recover it, but that's
only their second round of this half so far, but we do Max have definitely given them
a run for their money here on Ancient.
Yeah
NPL number six in the world on this in the position they play on this map. Who's number one
This in the top 20 the Sally. It's Wow so peak
Then so peak. Yeah, I'm searching dukes donk miscino MPL. Okay, so it's not a good company. Yeah, absolutely
Yeah, round 20 then important one
finances on both sides not really established at some close rounds here
3d max changing at the pace we're going fast a buckle your seatbelts smokes set
from spawn on the run scissi to defend here he'll be in front of the utility
hits the first shot maccazetta back it up though MPL somehow goes down it's
out of kensies or being messed it a few times here and then all the fire and
flames he doesn't manage to get a couple of kills or at least one in a
gank, fuck around and take the battle, ascential,
he's going to smoke, I don't even know if you could see that,
I don't know if he even blew it open, tell me that wasn't just a random timing,
Marker finds himself alone against three, and it's ascential to get the last kill,
couldn't help but laugh because CZ got the kill, and then NPL stepped in,
it almost looked like he was taking a fight against somebody else there,
and just got caught on the crossfire, but still, it's part of NPL dying,
It works out fine bait get up to 11. They did need this. I think they were starting to fall a little bit behind
Okay, it did blow it up
Well, there we have it bait
That's a huge one to win. I'm pretty sure that guarantees map points here the money as we mentioned is
Yeah, they only had second stage loss bonus after they found success here in the second half
So, yeah, you have to think of Follico. You can't even really justify P250 as much as you love them and is
I mean, that's obviously yeah, you would be throwing the game, but it would be fun. You're right
And that's more what's more important?
Um, the fun I suppose
It's a very leading question
Um, yeah, I I mean
I mean, bizarrely, it's still, it, this is, the fact that it's got such a close game, I still really can't believe it.
I feel like Bates have shown a lot more on this map.
3D Max have won some critical rounds in the, oh yeah, they did.
I don't, overall, even though like the first half was pretty woeful from 3D Max, they had that nice 3-0 star.
The second half has been much better. They've shown some good initiative, they had some decent fakes.
That A rush though could have gone either way to be fair. Unfortunately. It was such an important round
We are going to see a good old-fashioned friend Chico here everyone just using this is a tactical time out
Nothing you can do just have a chat about the follow-up round here
You know, it's going to that point and you're gonna have to find three in a row on the T side of your opponent's pick
three max
Maybe last year
Early 2026 you'd be saying yeah, this is the sort of team that can pull this one off
but this current iteration where
changing the in-game leader every other month. Yeah bodies being removed seem to
be like one of the back bone of the team like one of the key players in my
opinion. To be fair though Misuto is 16 and 13 he's top
fragrance. I think Striker had Misuto as one of the players to watch for the
tournaments. Yeah. People were frowning at that a little bit. Why is that?
He's doing very well here might all be in vain at this point considering a
three in a row so they'll get twenty four hundred dollars and top what they
have now so I thought he'd get a glass cannon a WPR I suppose well they've got
a boost with the deal exorcise is good with them
they did put on notice MPL collecting more for the stats
long waits, no bomb hunts, it's not even a kill, let's get a bit closer now almost
winning their own mafic which is good news
it will be Inferno coming up next
that's a re-tory one more time it's the 1-1 game get down to 1-2 not where
you want to be and it's the last chance to loon I don't think many people
I've got 3D Max making it to the playoffs considering their recent form
Feels like they are in a bit of a rebuild period right now trying to work out how they're going to operate going forward
Let's get into it then could be the final round of play lucky trying to do his best to get that mid control now
He's taking quite a lot of damage on roof flashbang lived by kendi's or what is that?
that. So it's not what you want at this stage of the game. Probably not. You want it to
cross over and go towards red with three players. Now you've got to think on your feet. Okay.
This one goes up. I'm trying to run through that. That's a very good read from Kenson's
all. But unfortunately the spray doesn't do what you want it there. Oh. You want going
Missou. Blessing in disguise perhaps. Yeah. Maybe, yeah, that's true. They're
like, you know what? Maybe it's a sign. Sign that we need to go to donut right
now it's worked out in spite of what they try to do yeah that's nice calling for
macro it's a pose like you would the idea that the intention because they are
creeping up this focus on donor they wanted to get three players in towards
red room that wasn't an option anymore so let's run in towards donor and hope for
the best boys and yeah we're sudo delivering the goods he gets a
double kill. Honestly, I mean, you take it. You're like, it's good to say as well, you
know, they get to save some rifles here, but there is a chance that we could end up playing
the last round of regulation with less cash on on baits. If they lose too many rifles
here, maybe not a problem now that it's a three, but 10 to 12. Timeout's been
called now. It's getting a little bit serious in this game that looked fairly
done. It's 8-4 in the first half in favor of Bates. They won almost every single
rifle round that that even was in that first half. So I'm looking very smooth
for them but now a bit of a different question. Again I was saying Bates
having tremendous win record playing CT side of this map. We're not really
getting that feeling at the moment. Unfortunately need to see something
more out of them here. Still have that CZ AWP, still got the one AK saved, but somebody
needs to help out MPL.
There we go. Finding some success that after the failed six smoke is going to be challenging
still to find two in a row.
See if you still lands good so far on both sides of the equation.
Lovely camera work here.
They're all set up, they want to go for a 3D max, nothing complicated.
They're keeping it real simple right now, everyone attacking the site there's no
fake anywhere else and that means they've got a lot of people to shoot back with.
Gravity gets to the opening, they burn out Alex, they keep trading and the bomb is going to be planted and now it's Sizi and Kenzisaur.
So far away I don't think he can go for it.
Yeah, he probably writes.
Smoked off is Sizi, he's going to have to wait another 10 seconds or so before he can even be activated hoping Kenzisaur can find one of the ramp still in a way.
The problem is, right, it's Sizi that's got the kit, so even if Kenzisaur finds a kill right now, Sizi's locked on the other side or if he dies there,
And this bomb's not going to be defused anytime soon
Trying to get up lucky perfect position. Yeah, that's the message and they hunt him down. They lose everything
That was worth it at all. I guess they've got money. Sissi still has a K
But there's gonna be concessions there. Kenzie's all beneath 3k MPL 3k
So there'll be a buy that it'll be fine, but I really
Want everything for this final round in regulation. There's gonna have to be some firepower concessions here
So we had to rush towards Donut now towards the B bomb site like they're keeping the tactical level somewhat low here
Which not not a criticism might be working for them MP9 for kensizor a few nades missing some too bad overall
There's the rumboos trying to get close
Lot of damage of Ruth though it won't control the middle
And so down to 39 points of out here flash banging towards the cave change the approach here
Good, I've been careful, Makka.
That's what you need, we're four kills away from OT.
Where's the energy for baits?
How are they gonna bring this one back up?
He was looking very done for a minute there.
They didn't seem like 3D Max would've been able to do anything, but you gotta give
them some credit here in the second half.
They've really come alive with Suta, responsible for a lot of it, but now gravity started
to get there.
Maca with an opening like that could deliver them into overtime
Bomb is being brought back. It's taken a long trek around through T spawn
now
Oh, are they reading this case?
Kensasaur is in middle NPL
He's down to this
That's gonna put some pressure on him has to relocate
But Sizzys at the A bomb site with his AWP
Two kills and it's on for him marker goes down. They lose MPL, but let's see what he can do
They line up and there's a lot of damage gets the next one
He's practically killed lucky, and he knows it as well pulls up the USB. This could be it
They got so close to overtime
But it might not be close enough 19 seconds and he is on the other side of the world for all
He can't actually do anything. Oh my god, Sizzys
He held down the bomb site alone a collateral shot one a kill and one enough to put him on death's bed
And that's gonna be it 13 to 11 the opening map goes the way of fate
Yes, so well that was
Attritional is how I'm gonna describe it, but of course I bait got there in the end
I mean, you know, uh, 3d max they just have these moments and I've got to give you credit
strike. Most of them are coming from Missoute. Yeah, he's done pretty great, but
also XRC was doing really well in some of these opening moves that kind of
kept them in that second half a lot of the time. He was doing a good job
picking up Kensenzor who was having a bit of a struggle all throughout the map
really. So yeah, I mean they did about as much as they could considering, but
considering they have both pistols and both conversions, they started out
both have 3-0. Realistically, you know, they had a real shot at this
whole map, but it is the entire reason about they were competitive in the first place, you know in the
gun round they got pretty much outclass all through the first half and the second in the end as well.
Yeah and it's also a tale as all this time as well right, like I think they did
recently on the CD set considering it was a bit running away, I think the 1-7 in an
or low right there, you win the second half this little together conversion as you pointed out
and then when you come to the buy-round and just see how they're calling is whenever you
slow things down they just seem to get picked apart, they don't really seem to have
proper ideas how to approach things. So most of the rounds day one we're just
you know calling from spawn straight up we're gonna go for an A hit then we're
gonna go for a B hit just back to back and the one thing that bait are decent
and I pretty solid I was just slowing things down a bit and not panicking and
over rotating and just learning from the rounds as they go. Go back to the
first half for example we saw how patient they were we saw aggression
from 3D mask to take mid control trying to go for lane control and bait
I'm like yeah I'm just gonna sit here just gonna wait, gonna wait on the utility
and slowly cranked onto the bomb site.
So difference in approach, I guess, and for 3D Max, yeah.
They don't seem to have that B or a C plan
when it comes to the T sides on most maps.
Yeah, fortunately over on the other side,
bait have NPL.
I'll clarify my statement about him lacking aura.
He's been playing really well
and I think he's way too softly spoken,
even when he trash talks his opposition.
I don't know if I'm...
You're like, you've got to really get in there
really sell it like that you mean it because the only time I've ever seen him sort of actually have
that kind of aura about it was when he trash talk pimp and everyone does that. That's true.
That's nothing. Yeah, there's nothing. There's nothing new about that. I think he just needs
a little bit more volume. I think that volume is going to be, yes, because the substance is there
because he does have some spicy takes every now and again, but he just doesn't quite, you know,
he's a small guy. He doesn't, he's very soft spoken as you say. You know, if you just give
gives all that a little bit of a moment. He just needs to do a little bit of
karaoke, you know. Everyone loves karaoke, just go out and sing a bit.
He was doing some dark arts here on the server for sure. He was really really good.
And just bringing these kills together particularly as you can see here in
this mid part of the map. I was very impressed. Yeah him and Kenzie are
usually the ones who are making the most things happen on on ancient
because they are the kind of the aggressive pieces. Kenzie is more of the
kind of traditional entry and then NPL is the guy who's probably the second guy in or or just looking on the sidelines trying to find some ticks he was he was tearing it up all over the map both sides doing really good job even a lot of the time playing solo you know and just
holding down mid when we saw him like dancing around the mall tops yeah really really strong and even someone who has come under quite a bit of criticism for ourselves as well as Sizi right he had a couple of Sizi moments but apart from that he was I think recently reliable on
AWP especially the CT sub we saw in the final round as well you know they were
going in for a bit of a roost towards mid contact out towards A I see him in a
position I'm like oh no he's just got to get one and die but no he did a great
job getting all three kills shutting it down so all in all I'm glad Bates
didn't fumble that one it looked like they should have had that one in the
back early on but when it closed pretty close but they got it done that's
easy is usually the guy that you see trying to go for some of these more
aggressive plays and trying to to come up with something a little bit
more high impact. This time he was just as you say very dependable staying back
just getting the kills that he needed a couple of misses and then closes it out
with with a big multi kill towards the end so yep very solid. You've got a couple
of rounds that you want to look at Blair and if I read it right you want to
price 3d max? No it's not price it's just a highlight like how they approach
the t-sides right? Yeah but we can just pay it out. This is going to be
around that this is a pretty cool round where they're just going to be going
for a bit of a ruse right? You're going to be going for the default
smoke towards mid and then you're gonna have, I think it was a sentheal I guess
about a mistake and sorry I'm not sure who it was but he was just taking towards V
and then boom Pogt was the A bomb so this is again a call straight out of spawn
they get the round right and yeah this is very much going to play out with I
think a couple of the bait members who's going to be saving the next round
immediately another call straight out of spawn wasting no time going for the
straight up the execute to get a lucky kill off the sentheal I think it
was timing through the smoke however and they don't slow it down to the
alright we're just going to be going for this and this is their bread and
like this is where they usually pride them right they see they have this energy
they know how to approach it the pathing everything's on point it's only I wish
they were better at defaulting you know I wish they're able to get a slow things
on a bit because you can't keep relying on this time and time again because when
you go against the better teams they will know how to handle this they will
know how to curtail it and it's just can't keep doing this fast-paced
calling kind of snappy-esque old snappy you know and snappy style all
all the time because that's not what the meta is nowadays you got to throw
it in mix it in a bit so for 3D Max it's not like they don't have any
ideas is just that if those ideas don't click you need to know how to default and
play the round as it plays out which seemingly I get it could be because of
the IGL in flip-flop happening but that is something they need to figure out no
I'm and this has been their identity the entire time whether it was Mako
whether it was gravity well they got NVK now and they got Washington
Bassett, mix it up a bit guys come on yeah we've seen them not that
long ago with these couple guys back so I think there's still a
bit more time for them to try to to slow it down but I think that's what
body was trying to do and obviously that didn't really work out you know and that
ended up you know costing him a spot on the team you know maybe possibly
rocking the boat a little bit too much you know so I think this team is just
very impervious to feedback but even that's not doing all the heavy lifting I
felt like but when when I saw that body was out it took Maui snake months to
make me come around on body and that's just when I did they cut him you know
what's going on here. So I don't know, very strange for me, the roster move probably should
have been gravity outs and you keep body and you're having a suit. I just think the shape
I think that is something everyone agrees on. Honestly, I think it would also fix the
lot of their role problems, right? Because they are very fluid in terms of, you know,
what Lucky is doing when body because occasionally they were just kind of taking turns on some
of the aggressive roles. But then gravity was also the guy who was a lot of doing
a lot of entry when body could do a lot of that stuff even though he likes to do a lot of solo plays and things like that you know so
There was definitely a world where Miss Suta could have become their their extremity guy instead of gravity and then have
Lucky in body take up more you know more of the active aggressive spots so rather than you know sharing some of those duties all the time
So body sentry numbers are really good. I was very agon very surprised. What do I know? I'm just a host
I mean his aim was his aim was definitely one of the sharpest out there
So he was very strong.
And if you look at a team right now,
it's well, see, Maka is still very, very dependable.
Shuri's had a dip of form last year.
They were all some of the struggles that they've had.
But then you look at, lucky, we know how we can just
have this pop-off games, right?
Just be so reliable.
Then you have the Suta, who's right now the best-rated player,
finding the most impact as well.
And then you keep body right there.
Suddenly you have three musketeers
who are just able to deliver and just
have a constant high level.
If someone struggles today, find
other two people who are going to pick up the slack.
But gravity, he's individually struggling.
So right now, you have to ask a question.
You know you can see him fighting with Maca half the time. We're losing the rounds in front of the camera
So what's he doing the team at the moment? Well good news guys and to everyone at home as well
If you thought that was attritional we've got inferno
It's the mat that shouldn't be in the pool no matter what Blair says. I like my inferno. I hate your opinions
It's fine. I think it's a grouchy old man who hates me
Love you, but definitely I'm sick to death of inferno get it out put something cooler
Inferno can be good, but the median Inferno is horrible.
There are a lot of good games on Inferno, but way more bad games on Inferno.
This will certainly not be one of them.
This is going to be, it's going to be wild rich, but on the bright side, because it can get chaotic, maybe we might find something entertaining.
I'll be laughing in the green room, don't worry about it.
If there is a team that can make Inferno look exciting, it is 3D Max to be fair, because they do throw in some of these chaotic rounds.
I just want to see Henry is mauled, well casting this, that would be perfect.
Kai, he will be losing his mind as well, with the fundamental errors.
But I mean, let's talk about the potential key of the 343D match, you can see we're highlighting.
Look, they are the favourites of this map, effectively.
More than anything else, I don't think they're particularly stable on the map themselves.
I think it's more Bates who have been struggling on the map.
We haven't really seen that much output on the T-Sats for anybody outside of NPL.
who is the guy who just likes to work out a lot of boiler, a lot of med, you know,
just try to go for some of these peaks, and he makes that work, but everybody else around him is
struggling a bit, you know, they have a centiel and alex kind of working banana with kenzie
occasionally throwing in the mix, and it's not it's not really working out a lot of the time
they just lose that banana fight, they don't get the control that they need, and you know,
without the control of banana you just struggle with the two sides. And if you just look at the
results as well, right, the last time they played this map, was it in 3D Max at a park and
challenge where they lost convincingly 13 to 8. They won twice against Falcons force
right at the academy team and then they've lost to NRG, Dossanavi and Fury Affair. Nothing
a pretty solid team and then also lost to a team called Wazabi. So I'm going to say 3D Max
with the struggles should still be getting the win here. Yeah if you're only two wins on
Inferno these entire season now against Falcons Academy then that's a problem. Falcons force
a little bit but also PGL Bucharest anything can happen especially with these two teams
and let's hope it's a good one we're gonna take a quick break when we come back we'll be into the
action she said she loves you but she can't love me but I love you I won't play
When do I need more
The human body was built to move, not trapped to death in one singular posture for twelve
hours a day. It's time your chair evolved. This is Secret Lab Titan Eva.
ergonomically engineered for you. Gamers. Hybrid workers. Artists. Back in your every move.
What is going on everybody down on the floor?
with NPL of bait. NPL great to see you bro. How are you? I'm good. Yeah NPL it feels like over
the last couple of months there's been a bit of a downward trend for the team. How do you and the
team see the last couple of months? As I can see from my perspective you know like
every tournament we have like opponents from top seven teams of the of the world and obviously
Obviously we're not there yet, we have a new opera player who plays a very important role
and it's very hard to show our best performance with him firstly and against top tier 1 level teams.
It's very hard but still we've fought well and maybe within the tower we're best at what we could have done.
But I'd say, unlike, you know, like, I'm just sitting.
Yeah, I think you raise a really important point.
So against the tougher competition,
what needs to change for the team?
What's going to start getting you those Ws
versus the best in the world?
I think for our team, especially any young team,
like you have to have a lot of confidence.
Because if you don't play a lot of matches,
you cannot gain confidence.
and if you play a small amount of matches against, for example, Na'Vi, Furya, etc.
You always lose, and you lose confidence, and then you go against them again,
and it's very hard to be sure of yourself when you're a young player.
Do you think the tournament in Copenhagen has helped build some confidence?
I think during like last three months we didn't show like this game. I didn't feel like that we were like a
whole team, you know, because after every loss someone gets frustrated, you know, because we lost again, again, again
it's very hard like to
maintain
Good mental health, you know. Yeah, and
And what's the plan here at PGL Bucharest?
How do you have a tournament more like the one in Copenhagen
as opposed to the other tournaments where the results haven't been quite as good?
I think the most important will be keeping that communication
and probably focusing on the game.
It's nice and special in a way.
Yeah, yeah.
And what are your expectations then for this tournament?
It's an interesting field of teams. How far do you think you can go in it?
I think if you continue playing like this, we can proceed to the playoffs for sure.
And just to say it now, we will see what we can do.
But obviously we can make it to the playoffs.
Yeah. Is that the main goal here then, to get to the playoffs?
I don't think we have a goal for this tournament.
So like, maybe yes, I don't know.
Yeah, sure.
And the other teams at this tournament,
are there any specific teams that you'd like to play?
Are there any teams that you see as the favorites
and you'd like to take them down?
No.
OK.
So the field for you, it doesn't matter who you play.
You're ready for anybody.
Yeah, I think every team, like every team
on this tournament, we can do.
FBL best of luck in the tournament.
And yeah, really looking forward to watching you guys play.
Thank you.
What's up, ladies and gentlemen? Welcome back to PGL Booker S 2026.
You join us with a second map between Bait and 3D Max.
3D Max after winning both pistols, converting both of those as well,
and has still dropped the first map of Ancient.
We move on to their map pick, though, of Inferno.
What are you feeling?
Do you feel like they can pull this one back or do they look too flat in the gun rounds?
I don't know though, I mean the fact that they made it as close as they did on that map
kind of inspires me a little bit. They start to wake up towards that side.
Like the T side was more interesting to watch the 3D Max.
I'm not completely turned off from them here.
We'll find out how this one plays out.
We are getting into the pistol round.
It's gonna be starting on the CT side 3D Max.
Or it's aggressive.
On the T side they are very aggressive rushing down the middle
but is backfiring and will for now a two for one trade NP election
what is going on?
stopping on his head, essential to go down at a leave scissor alone over here
they threw it all into that mid push and it does not work out 3D max with the one left pistol
yep three for three now begs the question if they can find the conversion once again
I assume we see the force behind the second
Inferno very common approach bring out the five sevens
the MP9s will see if they want to go all in, I'd imagine they do, and indeed they will.
So three MP9s, two 5.7s, they've got two HE grenades.
So using those either towards bottom of middle or bottom of banana at the start,
it's on the back pocket of Alex right now, so I think he just dropped them off towards banana.
So we talked about this earlier, I think Alex has got a couple of grenades,
he's got to try and dissuade them from coming towards me.
Careful though, that's a flaw that he can shoot out of the star.
Grenade recovered.
This is one of them bounce off the wall.
There we go, no one home.
Picks up another set.
It's ready to go again.
Yeah, it's not a bad idea.
It can work.
You are a little bit at the mercy of how aggressive the T's are going to be.
Okay.
another angle. He hasn't really hit anyone with them yet, but still thought that counts.
In the meantime, there is a big stack over here, including a flash for the corner. So
Sizi's ready and waiting. Down in the pit. Ascent field, the one to try and see if you
can do anything. If they get close. You can see he's just waiting for the signal
to try and go. Alright, flashed in. Very good flashbang, and they get to kill for
it as well and confirm a lot of people here nobody at the B bomb site Alex he's
thrown his last grenades they threw a bit of a fake over on that side now he's
backed off towards the arch oh it's looking a little bit scary here
carriers for 3d max four on four sure but everyone waiting on the other side
here the baits the full stack the flashbangs very effective so far but
they need to account for this stack and they are getting no doubt his MP9s
but overall it's comfortable in the end the 2v1 lands in their favor it will be
another 3-0 start here for 3d max. They did everything they could in that round
or bait to make it a favorable fight it's by the fact that you have the weapons
for it so I like it it's a very cool attempt 3d max be quite happy to live
through that one 1-8 she purchased in this round so far for baits don't know
if they can justify doing a lot more than that CZ wants the AWP as you can
by the economy. It's only the one grenade. Some D-Gulls.
Yeah, not much to report as Masuta will open up the fragging here, finds Alex666,
beautiful shot there with the AK-47 and yeah, we'll take a miracle now.
Not gonna find it. Councilor HPS, well, triple grenades towards the corner.
He was pretty exciting, Mr. Ture, on the opening map.
Oh, for sure.
And he was keeping them in the game.
Yeah.
That's fair to say.
We want more out of that.
We, you know, they need him here as well.
Somebody has to pick up the mantle, so...
All of them on banana.
Ready and waiting.
Lucky to get this one.
Sissy at the back.
Maybe it's a surprise, but it's not now.
and use the extra utility to make sure they clear out the large parts of the bombsite.
1v5, like we said, that's another conversion to 3D Max, 3v3 on pistols and 3v3 on conversions as well.
I'm able to close out that map, I'll take it to overtime on the previous of Ancient.
But in MR12, I mean if you can do this somewhat consistently, that's such a great way to build a series.
If you just keep winning the pistol rounds and the following rounds, you're already doing a lot of the work that needs to be done.
See if any work can be done here for Ascent Fuel. Absolutely not. We will have a bit of a bonus situation now with some Mac 10s in the mix here.
So it can be one to be fair. It's an answer to gravity.
Formating game leader. It's been one of the problems this squad unable to work out who's in charge.
Let's see what they've got.
I mean, my feeling is we're going to see a third map here.
Okay.
I think 3D Max on this one, they've invented some of the funny things on this.
There are some of the cool things that they've done last year when a lot of teams even were kind of looking at them to try and be inspired to do new things.
Inferno is one of the maps where they brought some interesting new tech to the space.
I feel like they have the comfort. Even if it's a different lineup, I still think they must have enough for it.
Also, not sure I trust that much in Bates T-Side when we get there.
Don't feel super comfortable with it at the moment.
And it provokes some utility out of the CTs and their success on the doing so.
First smoke deployed towards top of the banana.
Four players here. Normally ecstasies will be found elsewhere lurking on Inferno.
Loves to be in that boiler room, top of middle. That's what he's doing right now.
He'll call the teammates to join him.
Tell them they've shown enough presence towards B, baited out some Util.
It's worked to bring Kansas or over.
So I suppose they're right about that.
Maka can still do more.
It will be that apartment's playbook's thing, sir.
Maka was setting up some Util.
This one's the keepers focus towards B bombsite city spawn smoke
It's gonna feel like something's happening, right?
The first round of smokes has already disappeared from B now. There's a second round he picks up another smoke
So he smoked city spawn and coffins
He's got the Molotov now going into the B bombsite and here comes the actual attack a bombsite. Yeah, that is the round
Sissy, it's actually not worth it. He's already solo. Yeah, go join the others at the B bombsite
Very convincing if the 3d max is great calling the entire philosophy of this round
it's good to see. Yeah it's a really nice battle for banana at the start that didn't really take any
damage on roots for gaining control. Managed to get to the top, a double pump fake, four smokes used
to keep them on that side of the map and Makar with the the molotov as well and then of course
making their way out of the apartments there just as the CTs are starting to transition.
This is the biting down on that fake and yeah it's a beautiful round with 3D max.
You'll have to see that, barely took any damage for their troubles, just one kill required.
Suggest you made the perfect call, they've got no choice but to save because they're so locked out of the round.
If you are baiting and even losing this round, you're happy to have four people alive in the end of the game.
That's kind of the silver lining.
And true, the Dozen just completely crashed him out of the money.
Oh yeah, already up to four.
I think he could keep this going for another couple of rounds here at 3D Max.
I think they've they will have already done enough work.
Exorcise is 7-0 to begin with.
Hasn't actually died yet.
There are very few any kills on this.
Five kills in total on the bait side right now.
Yeah, really yet to get going as of yet.
But we'll see if they can recover this one.
what you're looking for. It's been a lot of that today.
At the end of the world, it's certainly not ideal.
CTs. Well, you might not know what it is, do you?
Exactly, yeah. If I could go aggressive now, yeah, if I could go through, yeah,
it is actually a massive issue. I didn't realize I'd go
with that aggressive movement off the back of it. Yeah, that is
a bit of a nightmare, actually. Yeah, you should be...
You should be hoping that smoke would be covering the T-steps
steps and allow you to gain that control and isolate jewels but with the
smoke's not there then yeah that actually is a complete disaster oh it was
it was just a funny quirky smoke up until that point yeah alright well the
rounds are not necessarily over we saw city said they a couple of times an
ancient particularly on that last round of play in regulation time so see if you
can do it again the wire for them just to face check this position but he
can see he is on high alert right now. Too many positions for him to manage so they actually
have got full mid control and going around towards the arch. He is alone.
Yeah, the best case for him was if they actually had peeked him in the middle. I think now
you get a kill, that's good. If you get a double kill, that would be completely wild.
Doubt that's going to happen at this stage. He actually hits the shot on gravity but
It's right on top of the box I think and it's not enough to get the kill unfortunately.
The bomb will be planted, it'll be another save for the rest of Bates.
Tell you the pressing stat for the T side for Bates.
Their conversion when they lose the opening pick is 8% on T side.
That's quite low.
Yeah. Um, on the CT side of this map, if it was the opening, it's 20%, so it's a one and five rounds.
That's still not very high.
I'm flying my way back.
It's another very convincing round here.
3D Max firing on all cylinders, looking to take us to a third.
Which would be Nuke.
Used to be a staple of theirs.
Yeah, but I mean...
It feels like this is a bit of frustrating game, even though they won the opening there, Bates.
I think they, in their minds coming out of the first half, must have been thinking,
we're going to win this a lot. This is going to be a walk in the park.
Yeah, it's because it felt closer than it actually was, because the gun rounds were so convincing for Bates.
Obviously we talked about the pistol rounds and conversions and a couple of clutches falling against them,
but still, it felt like they were playing the better CS, but right now,
especially with that miss smoke and T spawn and then going for the banana push itself
not having the cover of the smoke. Yeah, that's making me feel a little bit worried for their prospects
going forward. Five in a row with 3D Max here. Round number six. They do keep saving weapons and
with the maximum loss bonus, they are still in the game, but a disastrous start there. Got the
all-pacissi still. He's one and four. No one really fragging at all. Alex and zero. Kenzie
and MPR will be at the top with 3 kills. XC7 and 0.
Yeah, bit of a dream start. They had that on Ancient and they went away really quickly.
They started holding on to that start. It's everything you could have wanted out of 3D Max right now.
Like I said, from my opinion, bit of a home map for them over the years.
always feels like they've been able to bring something cool.
Banana is one of those positions in Counter-Strike that is always subject to new, weird updates
on how to throw the grenades, and staying on top of that mess out there is definitely important
if you're going to keep playing this is why your home maps.
It's time to smoke Garzland in the middle of Banana, but already Gravity's made his
way past he's charging in there.
If he keeps going, honestly, Alex just pushed all the way back towards CT spawn
No way that gravity could have known that it was still 3-5.
Maybe there was a chance.
I don't know what the play is right now. Three people at top mid.
Or baits.
You would love to see them have some more information than they currently do.
Although the information covered a big risk, you could tell.
You peeked this against Master, and you could be dead.
This X-cease gets one, Sizzy will get the one in return.
But he's got information there's at least two more players there.
So that's your Q to get in towards B right now, it should be wide open.
Alex will need a few kills here, he's so blind, one simply will not do.
No smoke down towards Spawn though, allows MPL to get himself back into the round.
Only for a split second, and reducing his double kill from Makka.
It's now down to Sizzy, the young gun, 16 years old AWP,
jumped over the angle.
At least give yourself a chance in this clutch situation.
It takes so much damage on the retreat,
pushing for the smoke.
Nothing you can do at 3D Max, continue
with their winning waves.
This is looking much healthier than what it was on ancients.
And that's going to be a never-breaking point.
The money, like, they keep saving weapons over and over
again, so there is another buy here.
But at some point, we're going to start seeing some rounds.
They are looking quite weak on the CT side.
3d max just bullying them and yeah like we said exorcise that's his signature move
Lucky in towards middle where he always seems to find great timings
He gets one and then gives the call off there's two more players here
I've been shot in the back from shore and from long that's good
And then you just know you can take an educated guess. There's gonna be one player
Into would that be bombsite
If some of that some of that math
Is not necessarily hard to do but it's very important you get the right information there
Do like that
I mean this is just where there's a lesson
We're just all sitting back enjoying the show
They're not making a lot of mistakes at the moment gravity does this a lot as well
They've got so much money to give the Mac 10
He just knows that they've got enough money to buy but they'll be clutching a straw
So three players of our helmets and he is really good on the Mac 10 gravity. He loves to throw himself in
So that's the he is chomping a bit. He's stuck in here. So buying the Mac 10
They'll be thrown in first trying to get an opener and trying to make a really awkward
Interaction for the first kill. So, well, let's see the works out. He's feeding himself right now. Here he comes front of the pack
Sissy has got a helmet
Flash up the angle looking for one. This is a shot. Oh, he's this pal. That's so dangerous
He does get the shooter, but there you go running it down with a map 10 Ken saw is dead and it sends to you
He's in the pit. He does have a teammate with them. They did have a big stack at the A bomb site
The gravity keeps it going. I'm glad you called it out Henry because it's worked
He's paved the way for the rest of the team so he farms a load of money
He is able to go in first and take the aggro. He's really annoying with his movement jumping around and getting two kills as well
beautiful stuff seven zero
Zero response as well from Bates in general all these rounds feel so convincing
One and five for Alex you will not be doing much of this three-on-one scenario looking for exits
is that ready any points the money's out of control I guess he's looking to
upgrade to an orbital and AK-47 but yeah just gonna be looking for anyone
retreating for the library no one home and off he goes
this is such a one-time thing they're just not like the problem is they're
doing so little on the CT side. That round works, it looked like, if Sizi got another
kill with the AWP, but I mean, if he's already got the first one, sticking around for it.
Well the analyst did speculate that Inferno might not be amazing.
Richard seems very...
Antony Inferno.
... very angry. Not a big fan.
Well, it's not delivering so far. It's not a great case we made for Inferno in this
particular showing but I will say there is the chance five rounds would be enough
on the CT side but they keep force buying in on the CT side unless you're
getting kills to go with it and you're surviving in multiple weapons you're
gonna feel that financial burn eventually and it's gonna be reflected
here you're 7-0 down you haven't went to a Famous 5-7 MP9 couple of m4s you're
sort of all in MPL trying to save some cash for the future
Let's have a look.
They need so much to go right at the moment.
They've been five in a row. I mean, I was at the smugs there this time.
Yeah, the smoke is there. It's a good start.
Marker looked like he almost saw a shadow of somebody there.
He actually saw MPL, but regardless, they surely aren't going to be careful.
Oh, there we go. Right at the smoke. I think it's just blind-tapping.
MPL walks into a shot.
Alex could go the same way. It's very dangerous. The smoke's gonna be fading and the suitor will not miss the opportunity
That is the B defense. There's nobody else here
3d max won't realize yet. I suppose but um
Still
You know what for bait though? I like the fact that they're at least trying to do something in this round pushing down
It doesn't work out, but I I'd rather see them do this being proactive. Yeah, like try something
Well, let's see if there's anything left to be said. I don't think there is I'm not even gonna try and
created a narrative here because the B-POM site's wide open, looks like they're considering the save already
as four players make their way towards B, smokes down spawn, waiting for any sort of backstamps to come through
there is the AWP on the ground, I'm going to throw that out of the map, if they're not going to be using it
but just biding their time, not giving anything away here, smoke coffins, all it's off to go in
Job done, round over.
Now, literally nobody defending the bomb site for the last 30 seconds.
We don't any of that fish in the fountains? Not any more.
Not that they were defending it before. No. Don't have anyone's ever tried to use.
But it's nice to see them reload. Yeah.
They're no longer getting blown up on the bomb site. As far as that's good news.
Yeah, this game not delivering. A lot of saving.
it's really not is it ready max with a pistol conversion once again and the
smooth sailing ever since you might as well give it a hunt you've got so much
cash on the French side
hunt comes to an end quite quickly Mac has found out a T spawn or T steps I
should say
They're trying to hold on to the AWP. They're actually giving quite a lot of away here.
And helping out with some team kills. All five members go down. It's the best round I've had yet.
And they still lost it.
It is tragically true. They've got an AK and an AWP now.
It's got to start somewhere. They're going to be equipped.
They're going to have those rare AKs on the CT side.
Best they can do is an 8-4 scoreline, which I just don't think is near enough, unfortunately, but, um...
3D Max, they're not wasting our time. They're trying to speedrun the second map, so we can get onto the final one.
Who doesn't want to see that?
Bit of nuke, bit of nuke towards the end.
Sizi trying to take matters into his own hands here. AWP'ing towards the apartments.
Hopefully this one starts to liven up because it's becoming a
Little bit dull with all this one-way traffic and speak the traffic or players just marching their way through towards a bomb site
So he's got no chance. It's good to ask you to keep using the Mac 10 here as well
Yeah, just alright
Oh, we might be down here again. You're just saving. Yep
You could see the way that Susie peaks that he doesn't realize how deep on the bomb site
they are so he's gonna walk out scoping a much much deeper angle and they're
already on top of him so even if I don't feel a lot right I guess I have to try
something gravity's dreaded Mac 10 you bring it up no helmets and they get
blown up I guess MPL has a helmet but you got no teammates had slipped the
net there is wall pasta player in that smoke and he's got a kit I mean yeah
sure when a single round by an indefuse you were obsessed with an engine I do
like them right there's just not gonna happen it's not 2014 it's definitely not
2014 people are aware that they're a little bit better than that then I will
give you that much like especially you've got a Mac 10 to save yeah and
you know they're desperate you're taking everything well now
Oh, he's coming through, he's getting the kill?
He can't actually run there.
There was actually a window, I thought it was might be possible, if it was planted, maybe.
Hit a default plant, maybe there was something to be said about it.
Okay, I almost ate my words there.
Well, Henry, on the other game that's going on simultaneously.
Oh, give me the update.
It's got to be better than this one.
It is.
It was, uh, Eyeball is taking up NRG in all the time, I believe.
Know what, first map.
How did you have to go for stats? How did JW?
Oh, I'm still glad you asked, Henry.
Um, so JW...
He's actually...
Oh, wait a minute. It's up there to the scoreboard.
I'll tell you...
Here we go, here we go.
Okay, he was middle of the pack. 23 kills.
Still pretty good.
Dex at the top.
Good for that.
Yeah, very good. Very cool.
Great to see him back on the server, holding his own as well.
And we'll see...
Oh, obviously talking over this game, not really much going on. I'm afraid.
But you max just absolutely destroying base here one of the weakest formages of super baits together
Yeah, they are winning
Almost sick of winning at this point Henry if you believe it
See whether gravity still caught that Mac 10 like now it's a bit now. It's a bit ridiculous
I can't get yourself an AK. Maybe he has one in sport. I don't know
He's having too much fun with it
Way too much fun
at least use that no again sport thank you very much yeah it was a very good
investigation yeah we're clear that right quick two people defending the scissi is
in front so there is that chance that if you try and run him down you think he's
alone you run straight into Alex rifle I don't hate it now he's a little bit
further back so now you probably won't make exactly the same mistake but when
he's playing that close corner sometimes you think oh that's it like he
might have shot one of us but we're gonna get him and there's again gravity
getting ready to launch himself in I think they when it bait is like in a
good position you think so I think they're gonna set Alex on fire I'm
worried about that fountain the water isn't gonna block them on us off we
don't have that kind of mechanic yet 25 seconds nice position yeah this is a
much much better position I do like this 10 for now to the round Alex
for the perfect spray down that's beautiful you called it Henry yeah no
they didn't have all the luxuries of opening picks there was no little flan
coming through there's no time yeah there we go nice and it was a decent
setup finally we're on the board we have around the baits yeah it comes down to
the hatch from alex 666 six seats will be dropped as well but they remind
their money's out of control right now that's not even a factor not even
more of discussing. It's up to Bate though to try and find these last couple of rounds.
9-3, I know it sounds crazy, but it wouldn't be over. They would just need to win a pistol
and find their own momentum, which is still very possible. The tactical timeouts has
been called by the French squad.
Obviously, this is just a bit their style as well, right? But some of the team in the
world at a 9-3 scoreline, I could see them hyping up the team to kind of get back
into it. But Bate, just look, again, there's no cheering, there's no nothing. They
kind of look like this.
difficult to cheer when you're 9-1 down yeah but even if they well I'm just
saying that you know even if they win the last two rounds and they win the
pistol round like are they gonna be cheering to definitely need a hype man
to they need a hype man yeah they're quite subdued this team but that just
means I have this laser focus locked in I suppose that's the I think that is
the generous yeah I'm trying to be charitable yeah right then round 11
they saved two AK-47s they have the AWP everything they need for a
successful run on this CT side 3d max absolutely owning them right now and
once again he's gone for the max and I can't believe it it was good when the
money was like tight as now when they've got helmets out there it's he is good
over getting out I'm sure we won I suppose you're not seeing no sufficient
way but there it is gonna be don't get the double kill yet okay just as I
call it up. Seems egregious to be running that in his full gun runs so much money but yeah
he is, at least I did say he is a good one. Egregious, yeah, guys are fairly criminal,
we're not gonna lie, trying to almost get the triple there. Ridiculous scenes.
If you don't see anyone else in the world running those sort of plays, it's just
gravestones
through here but
sentiel is coming in from banana
i suppose you have to try and go for this somehow you got a lot of money left on
anybody so if you lose the rifles that is a problem but
if you don't you're saying are we can get to round the city side like i think you
might as well try
for anything really unfortunately sentiel has already been dinked up
MPL, maybe he's trying to recreate that last round
or the previous one where you get maybe one or two kills right at the end and you're trying to run on there and defuse.
Like...
I'm not saying an injured. I'm not even saying that.
I know.
I'm just laughing at the fact that if you're bait right now and you're like,
okay, we just won our first round, you go to the next one
and then you're like, you're playing the A bombsite, three man stack, you are all doing your default setup to cross-fives,
you see both B players die to a Mach 10.
You just think a lot, what's happened there?
How have you let that through?
How has he got both kills?
I will say this, the technology that they used to get here with primacy is pretty cool, right?
Like the way that they died from all the smokes and everything.
Well, yeah, there's something that there are, there's definitely a tech behind it.
They are setting up smokes from C spawn that land halfway up to extinguish molotovs.
They've got great flashes being deployed by Masuta.
Everyone's blind and falling back and there's grenades landing on the corner as well.
So they're being softened up.
It's not just a simple case of running up with a mag 10 and up with the best.
It is a system yeah, like in the madness it looks like that was some more madness
Why is he doing it? He's not gonna find anyone here, but it's gonna create a lot of chaos
He finds a headshot puts the Mac 10 straight in Kansas
Is this madman doing okay?
It's done and there's 11 one
I don't why we've been trying to analyze the game. I don't know I even give it a shot, but he's doing this
It's working so well at the same time
It's really difficult to say anything negative about it.
Once you've got that kind of confidence, that's all momentum.
Just let him off the leash.
Let him do his thing.
And if they're allowing it to happen and you're getting inside their heads in more
way than one, then yeah, smiles all around.
Unbelievable scenes.
You're not going to see any other team in the world do that, but when it works,
it is.
I mean, that's fun.
That's been the most interesting element of this.
He kind of saved the half for us, he did.
Yeah, it was very boring until then.
The McThernan take suddenly turned out the heat a little.
Oh, give us some credit for it.
Okay, well that's something, definitely.
Second half is coming up.
It's gonna be bait now on the T side.
Like I said, they don't feel very comfortable there.
Not that they felt very comfortable on the other side
of the map here, as you could tell.
Nuke looming in the distance seems impossible
that we're not gonna get there.
I thought the first series of the day
It was going to be a fairly easy 2-0 in favour of focus, but it was a wild card that put us on a third map.
They won that series. That's crazy.
Now, we're on this one. We're bait. Probably their favourite team for most people here.
Oh yeah, for sure.
But 3D Max looked a bit wonky, honestly, on Ancient, but now they look very good here.
We'll see what happens.
Look at that round timeline.
11-1 on the T side of Inferno, you don't see that too often
Especially in the fashion they went down
That's if they can make it 4-4 on pistols and as
3d max committed one smoke one flash one incendiary into a cheese to the banana position and nobody was there
They dumped everything expecting a push to come in really fast. They're still going to win some fights here
a suitor. These two headshots and ecstasy in the smoke. You're listening for the footsteps
he's left in the past. This actually genius move. He comes back a little bit early, almost
a kill. Yeah, he does get one. I wish you would have waited for a scenic. They were
right there. Alex with the headshot. Now it's down to lucky and he gets overwhelmed.
Alex 666 will find a bit of a double and Bates will get the pistol. Find the first
pistol on the one. It is. They break the streak. I really feel like ecstasy could
done a little bit more of that like he said it'd be a little bit more patient
perhaps he had such prime information yes maybe trying to deny the plans but
went for the glory play try to take them the first player very awkward angle to
be fair to me gets the kill he just couldn't do it anymore of it that's
the problem but we'll see what's coming up next be five Galils and a fully which
is playing it by the book this is how you should operate any sort of round
and you have a massive lead you do not need to pause by in a second they've
got a shoot they've got a play as well they're setting up some sort of
construction here. What have we got going on? Okay, can we see it from the other side?
What it looks like? What the Tower of Doom? Here we go. Wow. It's very old. Oh my
day. Very old school. I think Fanatic used to do this back in the day. He scored the
Fanatic. Sort of stack. That's true. Yeah, they did that. They did. They brought so
many funny ideas to this map. If you remember the Fanatic, like the forward
bomb site smoke and they plant, like before you can take the bomb site.
They just run in and trample obviously and now you can go over the smoke so it doesn't really work, but
They had a lot of fun. I'm gonna see it activated
Yeah, it's real surprise. I like it
Traded out. Unfortunately. It's only good for the one and the Seuss is on the other side
So we might not gonna see that
You like Seuss as well, though
I just just I'm gonna break up the you know the game here a bit and into the fuses
I'm not asking for much Henry. No, not to I feel like I just you know
Every once in a while. We had a knife kill earlier. We did have a knife kill earlier. ZTR. Yeah
Well
Exceeds with nothing to do. We are gonna have to wait this one out about 30 seconds or so
the stack the tower of doom
Was pretty
Interesting I suppose but trying to take some players down with them not gonna happen
and Bates at least finding something here on the T7 inferno 11-3
just round by round as we can see.
Coach of the Swiss who's saying play your own game, focus on each round.
On the defaults, you've won the pistol, that's the hardest part of the job.
You found the conversion, but bear in mind you did not force by.
So we will have guns here in the third.
AWP as well for Mack up.
Okay, well, test the 3D Max as well, I suppose, to close this one out before things get really
uncomfortable.
I can't imagine that's going to happen right now, but never know.
MPL, maybe one of the jump up doesn't get it at any rates.
They are just taking a bit of a slower approach to this one.
fighting for banana early on baits while we're here and is um phase are in the
building they'll be playing it's inner circle and a zero to get in the building
they're setting up rider the most drama it's been in for a while obviously them
not making a major respect for them even coming down here I didn't think they
would have to go down like massive props even turning up and yeah being
willing to play. It's kind of an easy thing. Like getting on a flight straight after that.
Heartbreaking loss. Playing in a circle later on. In a circle, that's zero to it. They've
fought for their first couple of games and now Bayfield at the 4th. Alexi's moved early.
Gravity will chime in as well. Looking for map points here. Nuke feels like a certainty.
matter of if it's when in towards B we go, okay? It's going to have to be a retake though,
man, Cap. After his own devices, it's going to be, oh, okay. Well, his own devices seem
to be very powerful.
Yeah. That's kind of uncalled for.
Yeah. Just when they thought, okay, we've actually got a chance here. It might be a
five on three, but we've got the bomb down.
Which is actually not a bad position, right? You can definitely win that.
It's a five on two and the bombs only just been planted over the smoke. I'm not wasting any time brute force in we go
AKs make that one
The world and they don't get a single and the world wins. Yes
12 for 3d max
I am gonna be watching that in a circle game. I'm looking forward to it's a dowie dropping a
2.0 rating in a first stage
that could happen that's in the B stream that's on the B stream yes wow the
bees growing and on those I guess yes it's the ebbs yeah shout out to those
guys I'm sure they're watching this game on the edge of that seat right now it's
well free wondering if 3d mask and close it out yeah if you know in my own world
Henry they always are just make that assumption every time whenever I do
made those assumptions I probably get a text from one of the second saying actually
why have you done that to him nice round number 16 marker that's an easy shots
we'll take down a cent fuel baits never really showed up they never must have
anything on this map at all? No momentum. Nothing that we could be compounding to other
rounds. One of the best rounds they had, like you said, was the one where they actually
got all the kills because they lost the round. Like it was, it's been very tough to talk
about anything.
Well, let's just get us out of here, shall we? It looks like we are done. Richard was
right.
Okay.
Inferno sucks.
Richard was right.
Yeah, that's the only conclusion we could take away from this one. Blair's gonna
have some explaining to do after this.
Yeah, I think so. Why do they never fight about it?
We don't know.
We're going to find out very soon.
Hannel is coming up in a couple of seconds here. Lucky with three at the end.
And an overwhelming performance by 3D Max.
Yeah, overwhelming might be the keyword, and this is my childhood taught me everything.
It's when you're getting beaten, at least keep it short.
That's the one thing you can hope for.
There we are.
Man, what a bait doing guys, I mean...
Getting beaten?
Yeah, it's just like, what do you even say after that?
Oh, it's the Asian upbringing.
Oh, look, with your three mags, we're going to be, you know, obviously the favourite team over here,
but I expect something out of bait.
And we got Zeus, ladder.
Yeah, what can you even say to be honest, it was more of an expectation for me though
be the CT side would be at the side where they would struggle this much but it just evolved
into 3D Max pretty much doing whatever they wanted. We have around a little bit later and
that kind of delivers that point a little bit you know where you know 3D Max just decided
we have all the money we want but let's get gravity on a Mac then in front and just
rush out through and it worked. And it worked. In fact when they had 10k in the bank they
were still doing it and it was still working. I'll leash the dogs a war. Look I'm pretty
Where it's due to I think that's for 3d max. They switch it up the one
Complaints I had in the first round. All right, you have some good for a call straight out of spawn
But they're not really deep all the year here
They just were like five steps ahead like you know five dimensional underwater chess and 3d max. That's why you're in bait
We're just playing 2d checkers, but here's the thing
They did a very good job just kind of countering whatever to the bait with throwing at them and our desperation
We started banana aggression coming out just slow it down and they have such good utility protocols
and they know exactly how to punish bait there so yeah I feel like I think round
five or six that's when I'm like the writings on the wall this one's done
yeah once upon a time 3d max were really really strong team on inferno and this
was kind of the throwback yeah a little bit of a throwback to to that era you
know which isn't even that long ago to be honest it's like four months ago and
it's still a map about three IGLs ago and it's frankly they're still pretty
strong on the map it's just more the the the consistency I mean I will say
they made playing on be very uncomfortable with the utility usage you
know you would just oh yeah you were trying to like you know do a standard
setup and you would just get showered with mollies and nades and everything
else and as a result of that you know very hard to get set and just get a
few rounds on that CT side I mean by now already the right is kind of on
the wall yeah and it's also one thing I was impressed by how they
They didn't get too carried away, which we saw from earlier today.
A couple of teams who played, right?
Wait, wait, wait, wait, they had the advantage.
They have everything going their way, and they get a little bit sloppy.
No, you get two kills at B. What do they do?
They still use utility.
They still make sure to dart their eyes, cross the teeth, and knock some heads off.
Yeah, we just saw that round nose talking about where gravity was just running through smokes with a MAK10,
getting flashed over, you know, running between two Molotovs.
Still gets two kills.
And we get the nail on the head there, though.
like if you've just you've just won a round when that happened it's your first
round you know you're like maybe we can get three rounds win the pistol we can
build back better or whatever it is yeah and then $2,000 by the way yeah yeah
and then it's like both you just see on them Matt killfeed both you guys on be
a dead right look yeah that's it we didn't get a play counter scratch this
round yeah if you're the a guy you're just like kind of coming in at
the last the last moments even he's getting ball tough though we have to
gravity goes through the smoking goes try to find the
and that's the thing that's so annoying right like you've got two kills
she's alright got to go for the retakes like guys there's no one here and they
still throw the utility these two just
are so annoying to deal with but yeah I think 3D matches showing why they picked
the map you know they look super comfortable on it and for bait
I'm worried man because this was a little too unsighted for my taste because
they never go into the game my mind tastes right absolutely I think you
couldn't have said it better. It's like it looked like they never played the map before.
Yeah. It's a team. And it's also not that they're heading into a map that they've been convincing
on in the past. Yes, we saw them yesterday kind of surprised against the straws where they seem
to have a really good idea of what the straws were coming up with. They were shouting out on
the A-bomb set all the time. But honestly, like coming off of a map like this, that's a
rather like you're completely out of the game, nothing you try is working. And so
that's got to affect you coming into map three. And also you gotta remember I did have a
a question because a question as to why this map was allowed through because for
3D maps they lost to Bestia recently on this map 13-7 but if you go back to the
past six or five or six maps to play they have won very convincingly against
pretty reasonable opposition as well I'm talking about 13-3's and 13-4's and now
all of a sudden the momentum is completely shifted in the favor of the
Frenchman so if I'm bait I am sweating. But all of that said it is
Nuke and we did see bait beat Astralis who Astralis think Nuke is their
best map. It was certainly trending in a good way.
I feel that particular map was an anomaly for Astralis because yesterday where we saw
from them we're just going for these upper execs and upper hits where it just looks so
uncomfortable. They just try to abuse NPL towards a mini area going for these upper
crunches and apart from that we didn't see too much coming out from them. So it's
not a bait we're really testing the CV side. They didn't go for any aggro plays or
lobby crunches, no control towards outside, just being super passively. And if they
do that and if 3D Max have done their homework I don't think they're gonna have a comfortable time on their CT side
Yeah, I mean this time. I'm not sure they're starting T side or CT side
I guess if we're saying this means they're starting T side
Yeah, look, they have to get off to a better start there because it's like going down 08 or whatever
It was at the one point on on inferno that can't can't happen again
Obviously, you know, that's that goes for a stand for itself
I am looking to 2npl to get them out of that whole bit because he's the one who's gonna be the most active on this map as
As usual, he's the one lurking out the yard and trying to find some of these openings,
go down secret, and then bait work from there.
They're really known for their very slow approach on a map like Nuke, where they have a lot
of different approaches towards the outside.
Some of these crunches that we were talking about from Astralis, they do a lot of the
same stuff, you know, where Ankyl kind of sneaks through the smokes, you know, just
near Mini at the right timing, and they crunch to a bomb site.
They have a lot of depth on the two sides.
And when it comes down to the couple of plays we've touched upon in the beginning
of the game, it's Maka and Sizi, right?
He's been kind of okay. I mean in front of no one is hitting anything so we can forget about that
But the difference here is Macca he CD side. He's gonna be everywhere
He's gonna be in your face is gonna be for combat arping just trying to push towards hot early on get an early pig
Be aggressive outside catch you off guard and that is I feel gonna be the primary difference maker here for 3ds
3d matches CD side. Yeah
So I how do we feel about it then? I mean do we think bait of that rattle that they're not gonna be able to kind of
I was a bit worried from the beginning from Vito not gonna lie because they
got to 3D Max got two maps that they recently beat bait on relatively
handily with Nuke as well as well as Inferno which they've won in the
previous encounter even though they lost the series because it ended up going
down to Dust2. This after the map 2 I'm not gonna lie I am I am feeling 3D
max. I have to agree with you right honestly it's just a complete switch-up
that happened and again like I said for the side of bait if you look to
historically on Nuke, ignoring that Astralis game.
It's been kind of rough.
The numbers do favor 3D Max,
the momentum is favoring 3D Max as well.
And also talking about a couple of factors,
you're looking at Misuta towards Ramm,
he's a rock solid player right there.
And if they get off to anywhere close
to that first half we saw from them on Inferno,
this could be Danzo for a bait.
All right, thanks a lot guys.
Two teams playing with a policy
of mutually assured destruction,
so appropriately after the break we launched the Nuke.
See you then.
She said she loves you, but she can't love me, but I love you
I won't play window anymore
The human body was built to move, not granted a test in one single posture for 12 hours
a day.
It's time your chair evolved.
This is Secret Lab Titan Evo.
ergonomically engineered for you.
Gamers, hybrid wireless, on-premises.
Not in your every move.
Stop now, Are you ready?
Get out of my sight!
I
I
I'm not sure if you can hear me, but I'm sure you can hear me.
I'm not sure if you can hear me, but I'm sure you can hear me.
After a second map we're all trying to forget.
We move on to Nuke between Bait and 3D Max. Inferno did not deliver the goods and it was
an absolute nightmare for Bait.
It really was, but it came to an end pretty quickly. That's kind of the upside. Now we're
on the third map here and we'll see how this one plays out to decide it for the desk
seemed to be favouring 3D Max and I kind of have to agree with it.
Well considering what we just saw, just an embarrassing performance. By Bait standards
We know they're a solid team.
We know they've got some hard hitting individuals in the squad.
They're normally very well regimented and have great fundamentals.
Didn't see any of that.
There was it was it was just terrible to watch.
And I'm not really sure if they can recover.
The Norah team, there seems to have a hype man and yeah.
And three Max will be forgetting about ancient like they.
Sure, they lost that first map, but at least it was close.
Yeah. And it is completely destroyed them
even after losing their second half pistol as well.
So, yeah, it feels good for 3D Max here.
Used to be a very good map for them.
Haven't seen them with Misuto and their ranks playing Nuke as of yet.
So, well, I'm looking forward to it.
Just to tell you what though, Misuto's best position on any map is the Nuke ramp.
Okay, nice.
So, assuming he's sliding in there and everything's going to be fine,
also the best position for Makka is all being CT side Nuke.
So, they've got two experts.
That's already a good sign.
I've said it many times, I think Bates, T-Sides.
In general, Bates, T-Sides aren't that great,
but I think that T side on Nuke especially is you know lacking quite a bit. I think it's going to be a really rough game for them
I'd love to be wrong. I'd love to see something more of the baits
But right now we're just not really getting that vibe here. We go 3d max on the CT side baits on the T side as we get ready
See what they bring to the party got themselves Molotov a couple of flashes
smoke for main entrance but everyone outside, everyone's towards ramp.
Ok, so Masuta's gonna catch them so they won't need the human flashbang approach but he's
gonna see that they're there and they'll still run for it, they don't care if they've been
found out.
Lucky, trying to help but Masuta stays around, that's so dangerous.
Surely they will hunt him down, he's trying to reload, getting shot in the back, he's
running away, he's actually done very well.
Gets a kill and buys a little bit of space for privacy to get in with the dualies.
Here's a three versus two now.
But I think you're actually right in the future, all things considered.
That could have gone so much worse.
Exes sees three, nearly three.
Got a couple of moments of that today with the USP.
Yeah, I want to be very careful.
I'd like to freebie that.
I'll bring the bomb up. That could actually be so good to hear.
Okay, Makar saves a day. Bomb down.
Well done.
If they get Makar, they'd at least secure the bomb up.
Yes.
Not gonna happen.
off
okay
but you're right though missouche that was that could have been so much worse
i was i was
pain in the picture there
could see it coming but it but he rescued yeah generally speaking if you
lose control of ramp especially only after u.s.p you want to be falling back
and running that defensive angle but uh...
courts with large p got the reload in
managed to find one slow them down
uh... enables gravity to smoke on the left-hand side of ramp and some
moaning down with the jewelies a mac and save the day
No bomb planted, as you mentioned. Has to be the Fuliko. It's another pistol round going in the middle of 3D max.
4 out of 5 going in their favour so far.
But maybe there are a few more twists and turns here in run number 2. There's an opening kill courtesy of MPL.
And his deadly deagle shouldn't be too much to worry about though.
Of course with those Kevlar, no grenades.
A nice shot, sure, but...
Well, a couple of them, sure. But that should be it.
three kills is actually pretty impressive am I I'm right in saying that
they've won four out of five pistol rounds exactly okay that's also a bit of
an issue for bait I suppose I don't think it would have made any big difference
on inferno from the looks of it but I guess you never know how it works out
right now 3d max cruising along nicely knowing that they are they're gonna get
all of these early rounds bait have invested into eight days into this one across the board not a single good
yeah fully going the previous one D goal they give it two frags and yeah they've got all the
advances they can ask for here apart from the AWP mack up always make sure he has enough for one of those
got the helmet as well to work with and they are going to see
lucky the speculative spam outside smokes deployed and four players sneaking
their way or at least attempting to towards the secret position that Masuta
is there ready and waiting it's got a tough battle ahead of him
position taken aggro double kill gonna find it gets three in total that is
obscene that's such a commitment wow died in mini and he decided I'm gonna get the
revenge in them so they win the round just like that they've just been
absolutely over how many bullets did he have for the last kill in kind of in
more than three I think the Fenty gets through you there is crazy work but
it could like it's all about the teamwork there as well like your
teammates start nading and spamming the smoke just before he peaks as well
it takes so much aggro away. He gets the first and that the comms going to be so frantic at that point
and he peaks up gets three in total a complete shutdown and you can see where's the hype man
who's the person is really going to lift the spirit of this team everyone's just looking at their
feet quietly and the coach talk we need someone to really step up here raise morale
and get them believing they can bring this one back because they are not looking up for it
right now they're really not yeah it's it looks so quiet it's no energy in the
room for them at all yeah can't be the case can't be new boy says he he's 16
years old didn't even have a chocev profile a few months ago yeah that's the
point that we're not looking for him to be to be the kind to do this they got
some more experienced players out there for okay they're already getting into
hearts. Yeah, almost as soon as I think it's the season, it looks like you can find a
where, it doesn't matter, they're going to come for him. And now he's definitely ready.
Yeah, he's getting warmed up in this series now. Maybe into this tournament, it looked
pretty shaky. The last couple of showings, 3D Max crashing out in group stages, looked
pretty uncomfortable this tournament as well, dropping maps against teams they really
shouldn't be, but yeah this sort of victory here today against a very well
established base like in World Counter-Strike if they can find the success
they did on Inferno and convert that over to Nuke as well I feel like it will
be just what the team needs in terms of finding their confidence once again.
I think you're right this could be building something really cool for them.
Again, it's the early rounds that go to 3D Max. Quite reminiscent of what we've seen on Inferno.
Even some extent on Ancient, though, quickly baked right into it. Obviously, a very different story there,
but still just winning the pistol and winning the first couple of rounds.
Well, that's...
His angle's broken. He's gonna crush us.
Oh, I don't know why that took me so much. Just the look of disdain on his face afterwards.
I've got to pull them off the silo.
I've missed the free B-kill that was available to me
and I've taken nade damage, I think, as well.
Yeah, here we go.
I've been nullified.
Crazy.
Crazy scenes, Henry.
Gravity doing damage to him.
Eula, he's not even nearby.
Oh.
It was just the good old fashioned.
Oh, I see what you've done there.
Yes, yeah.
It's a physics joke, Henry.
We're into that.
Newton's laws prevail once again.
That is very true.
Oh objects in motion stay motion turns out
That's getting absolutely walloped out there this is an MMA fight they'd be
throwing in the towel they're not defending themselves anymore yes Dave
that's that's a grim image with your rights normally when you get a choked out
somebody's there to stop it you know someone's there to say
Sizi, again, you know, best case, you get a couple of kills, you make it expensive.
Playing game with him here, they're all gonna rush him down eventually.
No reason left to keep this AWP.
And there will be rounds, Miss Chichar on the hunt.
Falling off the silo, I haven't seen that in years.
Holy moly.
I guess he was, like, surprised there was an opportunity to get, like, such a free kill on Mako
who was trying to get towards Seeker on a late timing.
Yeah, we're gonna have to watch it.
Just what are you doing, kid?
Unlucky, unlucky.
We go again.
Yeah, that hurts, but we're waiting.
We needed some success from them.
They have in grand total eight kills in five rounds.
That's exciting.
Probably not gonna get any better anytime soon
as we're entering with tech lines here have they even planted the bomb yet they have not so that
that's no that normally is go quite a telling sign if you're not planting the bomb at all and you're
getting back to the bruise like this you're not really unlucky you're just getting outplayed
and they're already ready down below and they've got two people defending the hallways here
they did use an early incendiary so that's not available any longer
but the fact they've double-naded it as well there's like I guess we keep going yeah hope they
They missed their shots
You're telling them they're down here
You know there's a double set up now to the third man rotating in
They just have no respect for them any longer here 3D Max
And I guess they haven't done a lot to earn that respect either
Backflip
Yeah
That's stylish, we'll give them that
Didn't quite stick to landing
No, that's a zero out of ten
Sizzy
Again, we'll find himself on his own
This time even without the AWP
AWP is about to be a six and only here in favor of 3D max. I don't know what kind of encouraging words
What what would Moses say at this stage? I mean words. You've just been on mind a lot
I don't even know Moses could save this one
Not even Moses not even Moses would be able to save the day here. I think he'd be saying that's
At least we're not at the tournament. Okay. Yeah, that's probably that's a good point. Maybe I will come back tomorrow
day wasn't our day
I know the game's still live, but let's probably just consider
what demos we're going to review tonight. Let's just move on. Enjoy yourselves out there.
Make the most of it. Try and have a good time. Try out some new stuff. Maybe they themselves
were up late watching the phase game. What a gaming was. They will be coming on the
B stream later ladies and gents. That's going to be at 4pm I believe. Later. In a circle
versus FaZe. The magic is gone, but a new fairytale could begin here on a 0-2 run at
PGO Bucharest. I believe. I will always believe in Karrigan somehow. I can't have much of
that right now. Well, you have to say now, you can't say later when he rebuilds the
squad and wins a new Major. That's if he's still in the squad. No, it'll be definitely
a different squad. Might even be a different team. I don't mind that. I'm just saying.
I can't give up on me just yet.
What was the display, Meph? What a legend.
Oh, absolutely. Great place to see it there.
I saw you went like 7km to run after they won the game.
Yeah, absolutely.
It's mental.
Very respectable.
Back at the top, back at the majors.
Yeah.
Hasn't played many of them themselves.
Waka, that is Sarcher cheeky push.
In front of the smoke, through the squeak door,
he takes down Kenzisor, who's 1 and 7.
Alex finding his first kill of this map.
and taking down Maka, but Misuto is here.
Like I said, this is his best position on any map.
He's quite strong, and he's played a very good series overall.
They don't check it, they're not aware of it.
There we go.
They've got a double, but that's an opening.
You're right, that is the best chance yet.
Molotov to try and keep XZ a little bit back,
and they will do that.
Gravity's waiting down here.
It's going to be a heart attack for Alex.
No idea that anything was there.
OK, still the best chance yet.
Even in three on two disadvantage.
Yeah, it's the first time to find the ball, I believe.
So, you're absolutely right.
Yep, first plan.
3 on 2 disadvantage.
Both of them less than half health.
Yeah.
Doesn't sound great, but we'll see if they can step up.
Maybe there's a way.
One good shot with AWP.
Ascent fuel may be able to surprise them from this side.
There's definitely a way to get this done.
Smoke up on the other side of the door, but that means they're all gonna be looking at the ascent fuel.
He does get one.
And now Sizzies alone, that's been happening a lot.
Easy shot on the first, but Gravace is walking.
Oh!
That is a great flick and a great clutch coming out from the youngest player on the team.
Needed that desperately. Finally, some signs of life here from Bates.
We're still at the best chance yet in a three or two deficit.
Some high flying antics from the young gun.
Clutches up in the two on one.
But the problem is, we're only one player surviving. They get $3,500 each.
So you enter the next round, Anders, with mixed bag of weaponry.
Henry, I'm seeing some Galils out there.
Take a lesson from Gravity and Biomech 10.
So two Galils, two AKs, some key pieces of U-Till missing.
It's not looking great considering you just want a round.
There's still juggling weapons around here.
So you've actually opted for three AKs instead of an AWP.
Okay, it's better than it was.
They've managed to re-jig the finances, but they still are.
They can't decide whether they want the util or the firepower.
So it's MPO entering with one smoke and the AK.
I think that's the final decision there.
Yeah, big conversation I suppose happening.
Yeah.
They're on the board.
And it's such a technical map though.
They're not having the util or the big deal.
Yeah.
They need some more. Try now. I mean, it's needless to say, but...
God, let's start doing some damage to the economy. God, let's start stringing some rounds together.
Alex and Ken are both on one kill, one and seven for both those players.
It's just not good enough here. Lucky. Another interesting slide off angle.
You could see that Alex was not even thinking about it.
In fact, it's lucky who's there and not Misuto or somebody else, or she should tell you something.
If you're baited, that probably there's still a bit of a defense.
Might not guess that it's bold.
Oh, how did you see that? I don't know how you knew that it was gonna be a roost.
It was looking at the perfect setup for 3D Max.
In the back, he gets the first shot and you've got the rifle up into Misuto that's mowed them down.
You thought they'd actually do really well there.
Still, another chance for baits.
3 vs 3, bombs should go down, no problem.
Molotov ultimate bay, nice shot from a sentiel coming to life now.
Oh, great double.
That'll do it.
Mines, an opening kill, follows it up with those two, collects three in the round and...
gravity can't do much about it.
They still have a bit of a bank though, only Misucha is lacking some money, so to be honest, for gravity saving the weapon is not the worst idea in the world.
Third over to Misucha, then everyone is happy in the next round.
If they exit this way, get the kills, they're not doing that, so he will just wait around.
Bait with a second one. Okay.
Credit where it's due, they're starting to put someone together.
And I think you're right though, that was such a great setup.
Especially with...
...the AWP actually getting the opening as well. You'd think that was enough.
...fanny enough even.
What is this? That gives it away.
Oh, he sees the jump. Okay, well that's a... what a great replay.
He just says to test the breath booth on his back, but I don't know what it was, but someone was definitely showing heads up from him.
You love to see that.
Yeah, great replay.
6-2 is the scoreline.
It's not at all over yet. I get to debate C-Sides by far the worst here on this map.
C-C-Side was actually pretty strong, so if they get up to about four rounds, I mean, there's still something to fight for here, especially if they can clear out the mental a bit more.
CC had that great clutch, sent field, triple gear, there's no way, how has he got away with that?
What an absolute madman.
He's going down, he's almost killed him though.
I looked away for a second, I was like, is this a T?
How's he got this position? He somehow snuck up towards the T roof.
Okay, two rounds in a rove of baits.
They managed to quell the offense of XCCs on towards that roof.
a mad man maneuver has set them up in a four-and-four
That's gonna be called kensies or though. He's low
Down below gravity is holding
But the look is jumping. Okay, I'm gonna ask. Yeah, just playing for the Intel soon as the spots form a drop to you till
One gets across that
Did he actually see him I don't think so
Yeah, that's interesting
The bomb is down though and cancels low from earlier the grenade goes deep. It's not the grenade to the suture himself
Well now you've got supplies down so it was lower the bombs all the way back in trophy room with 30 seconds remaining
I don't I don't think there's a world you can win. Yeah, I have no idea how you fight your way out of this one
They could guess that marker is gonna be here somewhere. What a G grenades over there. Yeah, it's not much
We go mark that the instant shut down. This is right away. Yeah
Another grenade doesn't actually do damage. I guess he can make the bomb site
It's actually like the smartest movie could make is going towards upper through heaven. Have they read this?
They have yeah, they're not dirty play. Yeah
But still
comprehensive victory for 3d max
Did what they could just didn't really have the resources to try and retake that one
But to so discombobulated they've had the bombs back
back in towards like lobby when you got two players down lower like and it's getting found
out with your trousers run your ankles kind of says it all kind of summarizes this game
for baits so far.
A little bit.
It's a shame I would have loved to have seen what would have happened because I think
they did sneak past gravity somehow.
Yeah.
He actually saw that first player so that would have just been fun to see but.
So we've got a Mac 10, tech 9.
I think at this point let's go over the pocket strats.
To start this just upper executions like nothing else is working.
I'm going to step in and a little bit shambolic, see whether they can make this one work, send
the ones to the Mac 10, try and work outside of that weapon.
Good luck to you.
Yeah, got to get a bit closer than that.
Okay, Alex.
Trying to set up some grenades for the Mac 10 maybe to get a bit closer.
Could be the wrapper round through Mini from the looks of it
Let's see Molotov to the back of the bomb site, behind the silo I believe on this one
Nice one to know, yeah, there comes the wrap through Mini like we discussed
NPL gets an opening, gravity, quick to get one in return as well and now they've pretty much got it locked down
The suturous world on XCC, some of the credits game is putting here for some pretty good kills in this one
Yeah, they're done. Unfortunately, they are done
They just don't seem up for it, that was...
And they're ready to pull the plug.
Yeah, I think this series has already decided to it, because now they're down to partial buy again.
So it's at least going to be 9-2.
They just don't seem up for it after that second map.
Just desperately trying to find anything, any sort of entry into the bomb site that they haven't moved at opposition.
Gravity just seems to be everywhere they go, tucked away in a corner.
Best showing I've seen from him in a long time.
It's about time.
Yeah, like, once he went to win Game Leader, his performance dropped off a bit, then Matt went
to win Game Leader, and his performance got even worse somehow.
But yeah, to be fair to him, he's looking very good today, and he's like locked in, finding
his old form, his old antics with the Mac 10 on Inferno.
Came back from that roll with a bit of summoning sickness.
Yes, we did there.
Magic gathering reference.
Why not?
Why not?
Shooter in the back.
Alright. Too easy. Very easy in fact. Just like, this is giving this round, shall we?
Oh my god. Like I said, it is his best position. One by one, like excellent shots, don't get
me wrong, but it's like pedestrian. He's not even breaking a swamp. Getting those,
he's just like, yeah. Alright, you're gonna come in one by one, I was not a sheep in
the head, no worries. Just checking, Henry. For the top 20 in the world, Masuta is
the number one ramp player. That's crazy. I actually can't believe it's Ryu and Demon,
Rops, Frozen, and Milo for some reason. Yeah, Nisuta, he's, he's right at home here.
Kind of shows. I did not expect that. Well, he is playing very well today. 15 and 6 currently.
huge round statement, performance.
I don't think I'm wrong. I think Striker had him on his next
place to watch. He's really, he's doing Striker justice at the
moment. We can say that much.
By no means a new name on the scene or anything, but he's
obviously been in the lab. He's been grinding, taking his
opportunity.
I think that's why a lot of people were, were, I had my
eyebrows raised when Striker put him on the list. I thought,
well, yeah, I mean, if he's been around for so long, but
but this is looking very good.
Exorcise is on the roof again.
He's back.
How do they keep letting him do this?
Don't stay.
What's happening?
You know it was a bad omen when they were falling off the silo earlier.
That was already...
He's hunting them down from the rooftops.
Shooting now from the top tower.
words I don't know you really know how bad this is I don't have words this is not this is not my
day unfortunately Henry they do pay us to talk I know so it's just like the fact that's happened
twice and he's just like a free roam and I even have to get in the first kill he's still killing
players into a secret I'm even looking at it I know like there's no reaction there's no one
coming now and it is given up I'm so mad I'm gonna stay silent I'm just not
gonna say anything like you've let your awkwardness get shot in the back like
he's walking towards secret like yeah they're undetected there's a guy and see
a roof coming behind you he's on the silo that's a classical that you need
anything like yeah he's like my father on a walk cross silently towards
secret like oh baits really looking deflated like you said they're not
gonna get knocked out here but this is the kind of match that sticks in your
mind right you remember this next time you see anything they really just
disappeared at this moment here yeah you got he's got two kills and still
we're trying to walk across outside wild crazy absolutely wild Alex and
and kensis or end the first half with two kills each and just in general very very lacklustre
here of course second harvest coming up 3d max of one five out of four pistol rounds
it's going to be the sixth pistol round coming up now yeah but it's never that easy
Anders when it's the third and final map this probably goes on a bit longer we'll
see they've got some needs when all hope is lost that's where you normally find
some form. I would love to see bait at least attempt a bit of a fight back here. There is
a monotone on exorcist flashes as well yeah so here we go. Main split I'm guessing. Flashbang
over. Yeah you're onto it. Oh come on boys. Where did she had the gun in his face Henry?
USP is annoying at close range but like MPL, standards, he knows he should be getting out.
Yeah but at some point you're so close range you can't miss any longer right?
I get what you're saying but...
Like it's not even target shooting any longer if you're actually just walking up to the bullseye and just...
...get a point of the gun at it.
It's like no one's gonna give you credit but then you still miss some out.
All this round is done. It is going to be quite a simple finish it seems. We have to force by in a second.
No resistance. No pushback.
A chance there for MPL to bring things up against that first kill. He's ready for the second.
But yeah, they've kind of just checked out of this one.
one. Yeah, Fugimax seen themselves that looked like they were going through a lot at the
moment, couldn't figure out their identity. I mean, this sort of performance, this sort
of win is gonna light the fire beneath them. Let me tell you, they'll be able to carry
this forward. This is the old, it's the old Fudimax who's seeing right now. They've
They've got a bit of flair to their game, it's unique, it's annoying, and it's like another interesting maneuver here.
We've got a player down towards lower.
He's got a M10.
Oh, okay.
He doesn't use it, but he actually had it.
The P250 was almost just a bit of a threat, I feel like now, they're up on the high ground.
It might have been a bait anyway, he just...
It was a bait, he was trying to suggest he's parked down lower, and even though he goes down,
he's confirmed they've taken the bait by, god, I'm not saying that word, what does that keep happening?
It was happening earlier with focus.
Bait, focus, bait, yeah, I know.
Anyway, all the attention, I'll say. Taking down tools on the lower bomb side, and it works out, sure he goes down with nothing, but it invites them into an open bomb side, that's GG.
That was the four-spire. 12-2. I'm not sure the analysts can really talk about here. Maybe the player dropping off the silo, the fact XCs can just run up towards T-Roof every single round and kill three people.
Those are good talking points, yeah. Misuta on the ramp.
ramp the suit are getting a nice little four piece of the ramp one by one as they
run in the the scissi one we two pilots only the old man that was actually quite
good to be fair scissi we didn't like we still haven't seen him have a big pop
off moment. No, he was trying. We already playing them off? Yes. I like that. Oh my. What a strange
day of games it's been. I must admit. Yeah, this isn't. There's much better games coming
up off this. I promise you that. Let's have a look at those real quick. We've got
Moses and Dingo and those guys will take care of you. Your better commentators, better
Exactly, I was about to say, it's actually going to be lined up.
You've got Inner Circle versus Faze, you've got Astralis versus Mongols, Paravision
Footz, BC Game versus Volker, so lots of great storylines and threads there, commentators,
everything.
Yeah.
These first two games, they weren't great, I'll say that.
We're just warming the benches here, getting everything ready to set, the microphone's
warmed up, all the tech's working.
I can confirm the headsets are all good.
We've done our part.
They need to work on their map pool, on the individual stuff, and someone about this team
that's gone completely off the rails.
They're going to be around the landers, oh.
Yep, think it might be happening.
We ain't done yet.
Suits are timed up.
Oh, it's shut down.
A couple of kills for Alex.
The hardest round.
Down with that safety.
I'm lucky to some.
A couple of kills for Alex. The hardest round.
Number 30. I'm lucky to sun.
Also true.
You could see the silence there on the bait side.
Just doesn't feel good, you know.
You just want a round and no one's saying a damn thing. I don't expect them to celebrate that round.
Obviously, that would be ridiculous, but you know. Every game's winnable
yes that's that's the beauty of this game
it's not like people haven't made comebacks from this kind of a small army
for you but you have to believe that you are going to be one of those teams right now
it's hard to believe, especially in a real team
but um...
okay now they're starting to get some
a couple of kills for the smoke
use this, you're on the CT side of nuke
take it from me
You can come back on the CT side of Nuke, you can lock them out.
I mean, across the years and all versions of CS,
CT side of Nuke is the one place you can find these sort of comebacks.
I mean, the last three run, month, they win 75% of their CT rounds on Nuke.
Bates.
Well, there we go.
Could have needed to win 100% from now, but...
That's also true.
And there is a significant difference there.
But yeah.
get a little bit fired up. You got some kills with the smoke, you had a nice timing to block them off from that ramp position, now they're saving, going to be a fourth round of a bait.
Astralis Mongols is going to be fun isn't it? Astralis, the best looking Astralis we've seen, maybe six, seven years.
Unfortunately it's not even a lie.
And they're still finding their form as a team, they're still working things out.
There's plenty of things to improve, but you can see the plan,
see what the future projection could look like if they keep going.
And I think there's a chance that they can give Mongols a run for their money.
And Mongols are with the favourites for sure, but Astralis, like...
The trouble right now is MCDO is on some wild stuff right now.
And 910 is such a reliable offer, he's crazy good at the moment.
I think those two are going to be the main challenge, but you're not wrong.
Mongols' whole have had some issues, like the Southern has been a little bit different for them.
Well they've had the last few tournaments without the coach, that's been a weird thing for them.
Yeah, Mara's been missing.
But he's back.
Back indeed.
I'm really excited about the FUT Paravision game as well.
I think it'd be very interesting to see Krabani versus
Jayme in terms of leadership and style and thinking and all the rest of it.
So I think we've got some real banging games coming up.
Even just on the A stream B stream as in a circle and phase
Yeah, true. Yeah, I'm a PC game vocal as well. It's like simple fans out there
I feel like I have to watch it just because yeah the question is how how bad can it get, you know?
It's already been bad
Timeout is about to expire. Oh, okay, it's not
Definitely not 20 seconds to go
Well, looking for that knockout blow, what do they say in France, a coup de garras?
Yes, I do believe that is the exact name.
12 to 4.
Sorry if I pushed the pronunciation wrong.
they'll be alright. They can win a counter strike, you know?
True.
They'll take that. Early models will go down, XC's wants to make a bit of a push of it here.
Into smoke, it's confusion all across the board, MPL though, holding it and making sure
that nobody can make their way down.
Back of the ramp, you can feel that sort of grenades.
Oh, oh, oh! That blew them apart!
It looked like one of them actually caught the grenade, but it sort of bounced between them and I don't even know how to...
...work a shade around.
Yeah, how does that happen?
Okay.
Starting to see some smiles, starting to see some fist bump sanders.
Are they starting to believe? That is the question.
The money is broken. 3D Max and the 4 Spy.
We'll have to make do with an eco for now.
They've got themselves three HEs, so I'm guessing they'll nade the door and double nade main.
main okay would be my guess that's a nice idea you're doing damage with that
there it is nade
it's a great 4-hp
I think I mean that's that's a cool idea I like it
it's got a kill yeah how much more than that really
we're up to 12.6 now
Well, I'm thinking this whole time, Richard and Striker and Blair just in the couch waiting.
Waiting to be unleashed.
Richard's gonna be fuming when we get back.
To be fair, at least they thought it could be a 31 blowout or something like that.
The score line reads an agency view much differently now.
It looks like he's just unlucky at this point, we all know what happens.
And again, honestly, if they get fired up a little bit now, if there's some sort of a mention in the team,
obviously yeah like we said they can make a comeback it's absolutely possible
but they need to start believing a little bit more. Axe Cease he wants to put a
close on it now. Two headshots almost finds that kill and the smoke gets
Sissie who's in there and he's low on health they found him now. Knocked up with a killer now
the high ground they get the final one so it's a little bit of a cosmetic
comeback coming through 13 to 6 in a favour of 3D Max. Indeed and Henry
probably doesn't remember this but when he was a competitive player he
He actually did come back on Nuka the LAN, I think it was LAN 79 against Ultimate Attacks.
They were 14-1 down on the first half and they came back on the CT side and won in overtime.
That isn't the tale of what happened here, it's a far more interesting game.
In this instance, Dad went out for more cigarettes, came back into beating continued Richard.
That was absolutely a trochial debate.
They just looked rattles right from the get-go. I think I don't know what happened
the one thing I would always say about bait is they are
Competitive, I mean they make a game competitive. Would they usually come up to the level of their opposition?
I don't know what happened today. It didn't happen here
Look, I will say that 3d max did a lot of good in on that CT side
You know being very proactive, you know coming for like even from the first ground general
They came up through a secret.
Mr. Itta had a big triple to kind of get that CT side to go around started.
They had a lot of deflux at plays with XRC is going up the ladder obviously in a lot of ways.
Something that Bates should have prevented, you know, especially the second time.
It happened twice, twice in a half in full buy rounds.
He just goes up ladder and in that second time he gets four kills, Richard.
That should never be happening yet.
I was watching it too.
I was mouth the gate, crying, looking back in.
Yeah, just this was crazy, I know, I'm like...
He gets four kills from here, it's so unreasonable.
Also, I do have a weird striker over here, like Tremax, they love these super proactive
interface plays, but if you're bait, you're not new to the scene, you know that's what
they like to do, you know that's how they play, the moment you leave a hole, you have
to expect someone to push on in and make life uncomfortable, and yet they were not able
to do anything about it, so a day to forget for the side of bait.
Yeah, both of those cases were exercies snuck through.
I think there was just the wrong timing of somebody who just got off the angle and was just watching ramp on the other side, you know
Twice it happens, but it is crazy of when it happens the second time
You can only like this battle like five rounds of something
You can only let it go through once, you know, and it just felt like yeah, they just fizzled out at this at some point
You know the only round that they got on on T side that was or yeah
The one V2 that was the one V2 from Sizi, you know on the lower bomb side
That was also, you know, just barely caught it over the line.
Otherwise it would have been even more convincing than this, which is crazy to say on its own.
So, yeah, just very, very comprehensive outplay from 3D Max.
I mean, we don't think 3D Max's problems are over though, right?
I mean, I don't, again, I don't know.
I'm not gonna lie.
They looked kind of dead inside the entire series.
Yeah.
I never once saw them hyped at any point.
No matter how they were destroying them, I didn't see them get up.
Like, do they usually screaming antics where gravity gets to their faces?
None of that happens in this entire series.
Especially when you're completely curb-stopping them at two maps back-to-back, and I didn't hear gravity make a single peep at all.
I'm just going to show the mental somewhere else.
But to be credit, despite them being so mentally crushed on making it a major in all of that, despite all the issues they had,
they're still playing some pretty solid counter-strike overall.
So, but it's up to the given where they're due.
That's why I was had them in the first place as a team that I thought could still make it happen.
Despite all these issues that they've had facing, getting into this tournament because...
to be the 3d max whisperer yes exactly i mean i picked pick everything he's so far
all the teams are so far been delivering as well he's the he's the one stable rock are they three
dimensional max again again they're maybe even four dimensional after those last two games
definitely not may i'm not knocking them down a one one day uh well anyway look any any final thoughts
about the game i mean a few words about bait obviously they're not one two now it's super
I'm super disappointing because everyone's been talking about how they've struggled throughout
this entire season.
They go to the park and land, they win it, they qualify for the major and everything's
looking good.
They played day one and day two, some pretty competitive games against Astralis as well.
And then today they completely just, I don't know what happened to them.
So hopefully they're able to wake up and we can have a bit more faith in them.
Because they are a team we all know can go back to the level they had last year,
which is a team who are dangerous to almost everyone in the circuit.
No, I completely agree.
I do think that this is not over for Bates.
There's obviously a lot of teams that they're going to be heavily favored against
going into those elimination games almost no matter who they face.
So I think they're still in a pretty good spot to try to qualify for the playoffs.
All right, thanks a lot, guys.
We're taking a break.
You won't see us again for the rest of the day.
We've got Prof, Dust and Tech Girl coming in to guide you through the next two series,
which we are hoping are going to deliver.
Probably will. There's some good teams.
There's Strahles Mongols coming up.
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Ergonomically engineered for you, gamers, hybrid workers, and all the rest of the
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Astana, are you ready?
Get out of the way!
What is going on everybody down on the floor with Techno of the Mongols.
Techno, great to see you, how are you doing bro?
I'm good.
Techno, let's talk recent results. So very often just outside the top three quarterfinals,
can you talk to us about those results and where the team is at right now?
I think we're on the right path because comparing to I am Karko, we're reaching the playoff
often and I think we're going good. We lost against Aurora. We could have been
one there but in that moment everything's didn't work and everything's
went for that. Why do you think things didn't work against Aurora and what
does what needs to change going forward? There is always we need to improve
and that's the important part of it and also the Aurora is prepared well against for us.
Yeah. Let's talk about expectations for PGL Bucharest. What are your thoughts going into the
tournament? I think we're four stars second best ranked in this tournament so I think we're
supposed to win the tournament but every time when I say we will go champion or
win this tournament it went the wrong way every time but I don't want to say
anything how we will do far as we can. Yeah. What will be most important for the
team to perform well here in Bucharest?
Play the game as good as we can and don't make any mistakes and play smarter.
techno wishing you the best of luck final couple of questions you know national pride is huge
in the Mongolian scene and what's it like to play for such passionate fans back home
how much of it is pleasure, how much of it is pressure?
Actually, right now, there is kind of the thin base and the hype is more low now compared
to Austin or the last year's summer.
In that time there was crazy thin base we had and a lot of people.
But now everything's going the normal way, I think, but I'm happy to be still the Origins
Pride.
Alright, well, take note of anything that you'd like to say to the fans watching at
home before I let you go.
Thanks for cheering for us.
Keep still.
This is PGL Bookerist, you are watching Counter Strike, the sex drugs and rock and roll of
eSports.
All magic they're gathering, it doesn't matter, whatever you love will bring you some action.
Prof and Dust are with us now.
We have some banger games lined up for the second half of today, a kick starting with
Mongols up against Astralis, and I'm looking forward to this one Dust.
Absolutely, I mean we basically had the four best teams in the tournament in my
opinion battling for that 3-0 spot in the playoffs to get that top seed.
So the expectations now have been met, but now we get to see some intermingling of those
top four, which we have not seen this match up between Astralis and Mongols since Astralis
went international and since Cobra's era joined this Mongol squad.
So I'll be interested to see how they interact on the server today.
Yeah, I mean, I'm really looking forward to both.
Both teams have something to prove Astralis.
We know the story, how legendary the org is and how much issues they had in the
last few years.
And Mongols, as I like to call it, invasion mouse, you know, standard.
standard in the playoffs, but nothing else. Even Tecno was talking about it. He was like,
you know, every time I say we're supposed to win the tournament, we don't. So I'm not
going to say anything. It's the same story. It's the same story.
Okay, let me just give you some context. If you're watching at home and you didn't
see the day's guest today, prof throughout the Asian Mows reference to Mongols and it
tilted us something horrible. He really didn't like this comparison.
He didn't like it so much. He didn't want to have breakfast with me.
Wow, we're going there now.
That is where we've got.
They refuse to eat breakfast together.
It's very awkward for me.
Listen here, Oni Pixel.
We don't need to be letting out these things
into the public space.
I don't want to catch Maui on his co-stream,
deciding he's the fire away for some interactions.
Like, let's keep private things private, you know?
Do not eat breakfast with Prof
because he called the Mongols Asian mouths.
Here's what happened.
Okay.
I arrived at breakfast.
I saw Prof already at a table with another human being.
And other men.
Indeed, the Prof.
I was a little tilted, but then I saw Sam sitting alone, just getting her breakfast and
I was like, you know what?
I'm going to go sit with Sam.
That's what happens.
That's what happens.
Let's play with the woman and move on from this topic, right?
That's a classic keyboard move.
Sometimes I like to eat breakfast alone and no one gets the hint.
Yeah.
Okay, let's, I'm kidding.
Let's talk about Mongols and what they're bringing to the table.
Sure.
They've looked really good.
Yes.
They've done what needs to be done.
Nothing too flashy, nothing too fancy, but enough to get victories on the
board.
the team that is starting to catch a little bit of momentum.
And we saw them in Cluj actually get a fourth place finish,
only losing to Vitality, beating some very notable teams
to get a pretty solid run in that playoff.
And then we saw them follow it up in Rotterdam
with another top five finish,
beating some really good teams to do it.
And so thanks for starting to catch on again
for this team.
I mean, they are a team where the core
has steadily improved over time
at one point being a top five team in the world.
And they're not too far from that now in my opinion.
I think you can make the argument.
And we're seeing several of their players step up when needed.
And it's been fun to see kind of the identity as team
remain the same despite some changes to the roster.
Yeah, and it must have been tough, obviously,
being without their coach for the last two tournaments
and having a new player in Cobra Zero, pretty much a rookie
coming into the lineup, playing these star positions.
A lot is expected of them on the server, right?
And not having that father figure for the team, right?
Being with them at the lands and also being able to make
the adjustments live in the games,
like some of the games that they played.
Like their T-side win rate this year doesn't look that great.
I really feel a lot of it is just some of the T-sides started bad.
And they just kept going at whatever they were doing 100% into the wall without any adaptations,
without Mara there to be like, hey, guys, let's do this and this.
It really felt that they just almost like grieved some of these games earlier in the year.
But now he's back and I like so far what we saw from them at this tournament,
it seems like despite maybe a bad start or whatever,
they're always in the game and closing out without any pressure against these lower ranked teams.
Desimine, you both just have a clear image about Mongols' T-sides and the weaknesses that Prof has mentioned.
Have you seen an improvement, Sharon Bucharest?
Yeah, I think part of it is that they lost one of their best opening pieces, Sun Tzu, right?
And then Blitz is also a guy who was like an aggressive lurker, but he had to take on more of a pure entry role.
I feel like to make things a bit more comfortable for Cobra.
And, you know, Blitz's rating is down this year compared to the previous two years.
and he's had the identity for a long time
of being a fracking IGL.
So I think some of the production has gone down
in some areas and I think it's also about trying to,
you know, embed a new player,
you know, not having a coach, as you mentioned,
definitely can hurt.
You know, I think Mara has always been kind of seen
as the brains behind things alongside Blitz.
And, you know, they've had a couple of rough runs,
but we've also seen a lot of good out of them,
all things considered.
But they're up against an Astralis team
who has gone international for 2026
and they themselves have topped off.
I mean, a third place against DPL
definitely a really nice way to kind of get this roster rolling. Yeah. I was going to say though,
in this particular matchup, I don't think there should be a conversation about who could win this.
I think Mongols, if they want to shake those rumors of being the Asian mouse, that this is a
must-win situation. I mean, I think so, but the good thing is it's still a group stage right,
so there's a bounce back potential, and even if they lose this, maybe they get revenge
later in the tournament, but definitely the pressure is on them to deliver and
even though it's like HLTV rank 8 versus 10, it's not like in that way it's not a
big difference. Obviously in terms of previous accomplishments and where these
teams are, a pretty new lineup all together with Astralis Mongols, yes
made one change, but it hasn't been that huge, no like big role changers or
anything just like for like all in all, even Covers there also picks up
the second op and griefs with it sometimes just like Senzu did back in
in his days. So it feels pretty much like the same team, just one new piece.
Meanwhile, Astralis now international, completely new pieces and Riu and Fuzzi
coming in. And obviously they have proved something early on,
but they still have a lot of work to do to like, I would say,
just sooth the troubled Astralis fans,
the suffering that they had over the last years.
There's a lot more that this Astralis team needs to do to make up for it.
Yes. And we're taking a look on the screen here. You know,
I think one of the things that's going to be interesting
in this matchup is that you do have two oppers
who have really been doing some big things lately.
For Fuzi, he's kind of coming a little bit about obscurity.
I mean, he was on that wild card mess
in North America for a while,
and even though he was performing very well,
because it wasn't an environment
that isn't seen as competitive,
I don't think people really took much notice of it.
But then he kind of went and played with like nine
and a couple of other teams in Europe
and some tournaments, and people started to see that,
oh, okay, he actually can bring an op presence.
And man, he has really hit the ground running
on Astralis and has really maybe kind of seen
some other wars maybe feel like they missed out because he's played very well
but 9-10 I want to talk about him because I feel like he's one of the ones that
stepped up and since he was gone you know when there was a need for a star to
rise in this team I feel like 9-10 has really been able to be a lot more
impactful and really shape things for this team and I think that's gonna be
a fun clash to watch on the server today. I mean for me these are the two
best offers at the tournament we shout it out there's there's not much
discussion about it you can maybe talk about simple and but BC game is a
mess of its own. He's about to set up the keys in that conversation. We can't
In terms of the the team environment still matters a lot
So maybe in terms of the individual skill but in terms of actual what he can bring to a team and how the team can use that
I think these two guys are the most influential
Oppers that we have at the tournament foosie. I mean his game against spirit that
Netted in that third place at EPL in the end and
That was that was insane. I didn't see someone shut down donk 1v1 that many
duels won. Regardless of its op versus rifle we saw Donk stomp regardless. Any
player on the server he was owning him in that game and I think in general Fuzzi's
skill ceiling and what he can perform sometimes is super high. His maybe his
baseline is not that good but I think any given Sunday you know he can just
take over the server. Do you know who also I don't think gets enough credit in this line?
I mean, there's a guy who
I think was one of like the
few good things the Strauss
had when they were still a
fully Danish lineup and even
they're like the Cady and
Aaron and things that nature.
It was always kind of the rock
of the team and I think that,
you know, they've kind of pivoted
him over time into more star roles,
like being more of the trade
fragger, not necessarily always
to pure heart entry, putting him
in the star CT positions.
And I feel like he really
has risen to the occasion.
I mean, when you look at this
year compared to last year,
he's definitely doing a good bit
better. He was already pretty solid
in my opinion, but I think
in my opinion, but I think you know there was always a demand for him to do a
little bit more to get this team some real-star fire part. I thought this year
he's done a pretty good job of it. I mean I don't even agree that he's not being
given his flowers. I feel like every analyst and caster is just glazing him
forever, but we must do it more. Obviously he was the guy you know
that stepped up to the interview when the astrologer was eliminated and everyone
was just like why is he doing this out of everyone? And since then he's just
It's always been like a hipster analyst favorite.
Yeah, and this year just doing great.
Just doing amazing in the roles that he's been given.
Together, Fuzzi two of the most influential players
on the server.
Tell me what you said.
Oh, I was just.
The reaction was that.
They were doing like the whole.
Because Nidia team wants to play Anubis.
Anubis is both teams pretty much perma-ban.
So it's like, do we roll the dice
and risk it to the second rotation?
Or do we just go ahead and get rid of it?
And both teams like it to get rid of.
good bands to do in the matchup knowing that Anubis is probably not a threat to be picked.
So with that said, I do expect Anubis to get taken out in the second rotation though,
and there it is right away. So good gamesmanship there to kind of not waste your Anubis band right
away, get rid of something else that you proceed to be a weakness, and then get to the picks
that you kind of anticipated. I think this is also going to make the series maybe a bit
more balanced. Obviously if you're if you're bending out your weakest or your opponent's
strongest map right now, Astralis going for, for ancient right they have a four map win streak on
that meanwhile new both teams are pretty good but Mongols have been winning a lot, six map win streak
it does say five there because one of it was online with at least what I was looking at obviously
playing at EPL so overall a pretty I would say balanced map pool across the board so both teams
have something to I think they both have pretty good genes. Do you think this is going to be
to be a pretty close matchup?
It's going to be one where a lot of the early round
situations will dictate it.
I think that because I haven't seen them play against each
other before with these lineups, I don't really know how well
they'll get over on each other.
But what I expect is these are two teams that love the duel.
They're very scrappy.
They do it in a composed fashion,
but they like to play you forward and confident.
And so you're going to see a lot of willingness
to go for early duels and early picks.
And this is a situation where the Fuzi and 9-10-0 battle
is going to be very prevalent throughout the course
of the game.
I think both guys are more on the aggressive end
inspection with AWP, particularly on the CT side, looking for picks and being
dynamic on what they'd like to position. So I feel like that is going to be a
really big one. But I think for me, it's also, you know, we didn't mention Yabby
yet, but Yabby's been playing really good kind of strike this year on this
version of the team. He goes for a lot more openings than he used to as well.
And then you've got Mazzino on the other side, who's one of the best
players in the tournament so far. And he's been kind of the other guy
next to 9-10 that I feel like has been performing really well this year
to make up for that, you know, sort of gap that they were wanting to
fill with Sinzi's departure. So those are gonna be fun to watch as well. Yeah, yeah, I'm kind of
looking forward to seeing if Strauss and Hooksy have cooked up anything like special for for this
series. Kanna, is there any anti-strapping? Is there any like certain weaknesses that they
are looking to exploit? Like a certain players tendencies or something like that? I don't know
where they would do that on the map. Maybe CobraZera as the most like inexperienced player on
Mongols could be someone that they want to target, but they've been doing that quite successfully with this lineup in some previous
Matches, so there's always you know that foxy special I feel like our favorite rock and roll commentator duo is ready to take over
Moses and Dinko. What do we think about this matchup boys?
I actually think I've got a strollers having a really good shot at winning this one from yesterday
We see that other than maps are good for them
But also I think yesterday Mongols started so slow and looked they didn't look like they were the Mongols
I know. I think I think Mongle is in a weird place. Yeah, I'm on with you.
They're kind of a hard to judge. I think for me, I'm going to take Mongles to
win this only because I don't have a good reason of why. I think like I don't
I don't think Astralis can, I mean they can beat them. I just think Mongles for
whatever reason always plays better than I expect them to to be quite honest with you.
It's gonna have to be a tactical victory from from the Astralis side from
Moxie game planning this right? If you go back to pro league the playoffs
there back in Stockholm, I feel like the biggest weakness Astralis kind
of showed us was a limited map pool. So I think here on this opening
map. This opening map is actually kind of important and kind of cool because
Astralis needs to show that they can deepen the map pool and be dangerous on
more maps as they head into the major. That's probably their primary goal is
shoring up the map pool and improving their performance on some of the weaker
maps and Mirage is one of those. Well let's see how it goes as we have the
Mongol setting up for what is going to be a B-play into this pistol. And
Ryu gonna be waiting with Jewel Barretta's. Fuzi could start, it's
gonna be Blitz getting caught in the underpass for you waiting. And a
pause for the Mongols not going through just yet. It's gonna be tough to get past
this defense. If Yabbi who's the early detection, not gonna connect any of the
shots though. They hop out of the window, Ryu actually goes down, so more pressure on
Yabbi. There he is. And he's got a second kill very quickly. Sharp shooting on that
USP. Fuzzi comes in for his second frag and is pissed around and no bomb
plant in sight for the Mongols. So a clean pistol, a single player lost here
for his Stralis and they will not have to deal with a strong force
buy up against him in this next round either. Damn some snappy shooting huh
And I mean, that's a good, I think the desk just kind of talked about the performance of Yaby as well and his improvement his step up since
Hooks he rejoined the roster and yeah
He gets those two crisp headshots right at the gate and that's what takes the teeth out of the attack and allows the rest of
Astralis to arrive lovely shooting
Pretty simple pistol on overall just due to the straight-up headshots and one or nothing for Astralis
Now both these teams have I mean we've had we just we finished the craziness right all the invites to the major have gotten out
Of the way yesterday. We figured it all out only crazy. We were up late watching the phase game
We were up late celebrating the liquid qualification.
Mongols are starting the major in stage three.
Astralis is starting the major in stage two.
They didn't have to deal with any of that craziness.
So everything that they've got right now
is building up to the major.
Yeah, we were up late watching the phase game last night
and phase are playing right now over on the B3 this time.
I saw Karrigan when I walked in today in the parking lot.
I just went over and said hi.
And he was just like, mm, felt bad about that one.
Oh, saying hi?
No, felt bad just about the situation.
It's like, what can you say?
I was like, you know what, Finn, keep your chin up, brother.
Well, that's all right, well, we don't ever want to see that again.
Yeah, that was a full magazine into nothing, fully blinded.
Fuzzi then gets wall banged, and despite having very limited weapons, we see Mongols get
into the A bomb site, get that plant through, and they currently hold the man advantage.
Now, they haven't been able to pick up any better weapons, so you wouldn't imagine
going to win this round, especially with Ryu on the flank. He's got two kills here.
So that's one. Oh no, maybe just the one.
Well, it's fine. Now the rest of the players play. Now it's their turn to move in, so you
don't have the pressure on you, but these M4s are frozen. Not fighting the kills whatsoever.
Finally, Hooksy chiming in, and it's just one player, 9-10. The fuse should be there.
Yeah, they're showing the bomb, get the defuse in, and that'll be the round. Yeah,
be composed with the kill, but for the Mongols, good damage and a great bomb plant. Considering
what they brought into that round I think they've got to see that as a small victory so
sure this is gonna be a strong buy in this next round as you're saying due to that plan
due to the bonus money coming in so AK is hitting the board all five and all five have
full utility as well very strong investment coming in from the Mongols that the Astralis
is gonna have to outlast no up on the field of play yet for either side and really actually
kind of the money due to that round is in a little bit of a sketchy place for Astralis
that's you mentioned with Mongols having a good second round yeah it is it is pretty
sketchy so you lose this round and money
drew up significantly. Your buy is going to be terrible in the next round so let's see
Meshraw's going for some aggression up to his top middle, Cobra's Sarah
taking the dame immediately. You'll see Blitz fire one shot back
follow up kill from Blitz in the underpass, Ryu and Fuzi with a couple of
frags between them.
That's a great follow up piece of aggression. Look at the challenge from
Palace, Missinho can't control the spray.
He'll send an A to him but he's out of there so dropping back look how low
two of the players are here for Mongols. You need 9th hand to deliver. And he's gone
down instantly at the hand of Ryu. So Estrella's handling this change of pace and all the early
fights that were coming through. They threw aggression up through middle on the CT side,
created that chaos, and Estrella's come out on top of it.
Right, looking real sharp at the moment. I like watching Ryu just kind of stand at
the top of ramp, puff his chest up. 3v3, I'm usually thinking back away. This
isn't the fight that you want, but he was supremely confident. As the bomb down
And Mongols get stopped before they even get to take their first step really the challenge up middle for mid control kept players back
Even though Blitz backstabs him that follow-up layer of the mid push from Astralis is really effective equalize things
Round gets thrown into chaos, and I think Mongols players just start making their own individual moves from there
So it'll be three to nothing question is a Mazzini you have to imagine is just gonna save this AK 47 till the end of the round
And Astralis gonna build some money with only two players dying
I mean coming into this event, we've talked about favorites. Some people think it's going to be Paravision. Some people think it's Mongols.
You know, Astralis, I think, are a team you have to throw into that conversation as well, right?
Like, they are a team that are not favorites coming into the event necessarily, but someone who's capable of winning it.
I think Hoops did it in that way earlier in the competition, saying, you know, we're not favorites, but we can beat everyone.
Yeah, I'm with you. I mean, Paravision is really the kind of the team that I would put as the favorite as you're mentioning at this event overall.
I don't know what you'd call Astralis in this, I guess maybe like a Dark Horse, although
they're probably more expected to be better than you know like a Dark Horse seems like it's a
little bit too much of an underdog statement. I think more than anything, I think people see
the potential. We see the potential and what Astralis can be and how good it can be
and we're giving them time to establish the consistency and establish the map pool and
establish the experience here that lets them show us that with consistency and more
frequently. I think it's the fact that they're getting better and better each event. I
I think that's where it gets exciting for this Astralis team.
Yeah.
And I think we've seen maybe the ceiling, or maybe not the ceiling,
but we've seen the current peak, I think in that spirit game back,
it probably even the playoff.
Yeah, from a team perspective and from the individual perspective of Fosy for sure.
Quite a game that he was able to have.
But yeah, that's the other good thing about this Astralis roster
is not only do we see them improving in terms of like eye test from event to event,
things looking good,
is they've also got some of those huge wins to like kind of build up that confidence
and establish, you know, that improvement as well.
We talk about it with a lot of teams that you see like improving,
but never like moving the needle in terms of getting a bigger win
and getting deeper into an event.
And at a certain point, as you can see with miles,
if you never turn that corner, right, it gets really frustrating.
You just kind of get trapped in this situation
where you don't really have any moves to move up the ladder.
We're going to be setting up for what is going to be an A execution here for the Mongols.
And they don't have a whole lot to play with you got an AK-47 for Mzinho
The lurk here for techno and everybody else gonna be
Either pumping out a palace or coming out of the ramp and so you're going to see Fuzi
Trying to get a kill off the top of ticket. He'll get it onto Mzinho
Mongols move through one player here on Tetris. It's gonna Cobra and spot it and take it off
We got techno now coming up through connector
It needs to be all faster as teammates are going down. Techno did get a kill, but the Mongols
failed to get out into the site and it will be a very easy round there from Astralis.
Looking well prepared. Rios having a couple of good rounds as the A bomb site anchor now in the
early stages of this map. 4-0 for the CT side. Op comes out in the hands of Fosey. Op comes
out in the hands of 9-10 as well. Mongols still looking to get a round on the board and they
take a timeout to talk things over before this round begins. So a little bit of a
conversation and it's early and there's only been one full gun round right and
that was a gun round in which Astralis was really disruptive so in reality
Mongols haven't even really run a tactic yet you know they spread out in the
default in the first gun round Astralis is at top mid they're forced into
weird plays so a little bit of a conversation for Mara to the team
about how they want to design this and how they want to work themselves in a
position on the Astralis side it's keep going business as usual but I
I guess now we'll get to see what their philosophy is going to be, right?
Are they going to maintain that aggressive disruptive style from the CT side?
Are they going to stay back and let Fosy's AWP go to work as the initial contact on the defense?
Plenty of options available.
I don't know, they're just setting up a game for a direct hit towards the A site this time.
No lurk, it's going to be all five players trying to hit into this A bomb site and currently
it's real here alone.
Well the question is, do those mid smokes fade at the top of catwalk?
When does Stair kind of realize nothing's happening?
The hit's already coming.
Yeah, oh my god, what a hit it is.
Three who stood no chance,
peeking off the back of triple,
immediately annihilated by Techno.
Who now plays as part of the pack.
And the attack is through now.
Four of the Mongols, they're into the site,
smokes are up for stairs and jungle.
Oh, this is such a fast timing
and Mongols is taking their sweet time
getting into position to plant the bomb.
Yeah, look at the flank through Palace.
This is crazy.
Stair is still in Palace,
coming around the backside.
Uzi, that's quick reaction.
Stair with a knife out,
Trying to get it behind by all those teammates have won this.
And Mizzinho...
Drops down under the wood just in time to dodge the initial peek here from Stare,
but they're never expecting him coming up.
Alice in the insurance policy of Stare pays out.
They took such a long time, Mongols.
Like, they throw the utility, they get the kill,
and no one scales into the bomb site.
The first scale is to top Stare's.
Everyone's far back towards the boxes.
So Stare's got all the time in the world to make that flank work.
And hit in timing they'll never expect.
Here's the kill.
And I mean, you can see they just now planted the bomb 30 seconds later, smokes clear, and stairs able to shut everything down.
Alright, well you mentioned it at the start right at the intro is that, you know, your vision was a real chance for Astralis to at least get an early lead, a hot start because Mongols yesterday started slow.
It's happened again here on Mirage.
Yeah, but I think that the issue yesterday when Mongols had the slow start was they were able to get back into it, right?
Because eyeballs didn't have what it takes to really punish that slow start.
Well, I think Astralis do.
Well, they certainly have a chance to show it off.
Tons of utility in mid.
Cobra just slides into an angle.
Near miss for Stare, playing Top Con.
Got Fozy sliding out of the window room with the AWP, rotating back over towards Ticket.
Ryu can either push forward into the A-bomb site or back...
away to shift back towards B.
At the moment, Astralis don't really know what the final plan is.
Light shot under Cobra on short, so he's going to be forced back and taken down.
Yeah, Stralis doing very well. Just getting these opening kills and not giving them up.
It's not going to play from jungle now. Techno trying to get in to connect you, but the timing to look away.
It's going to be spotted, distracted, because that smoke was thrown out from short, so he turns and then the peek comes in.
So two kills here for Stralis with no answers from Moguls.
Stralis really shouldn't give a damn about a bomb plant at this B bomb site.
If it comes down to it, it's weapons you want to preserve to build up this money.
They have a full buy next round regardless with the losing bonus.
Hooksie's going to be playing bench.
Money's still not great for Astralis. Five players alive here is huge.
And Hooksie gets one and just tucks behind the bench. You know, he's still got Yabi out short.
Yabi's got the first kill. It doesn't even matter. Hooksie gets the second, that's the round.
So you lose one player. Money's swelling here for Astralis, looking really good at the moment.
And you're not even really losing AK-47. Hooksie was able to recover one up in halls,
up in halls, so he'll be able to pass that over to a teammate.
6-0.
Well then, I did not expect that coming into the studio today.
Yeah, Strollers started very strong.
Again, the Mongols have a slow start.
And I imagine it's going to get better at some point throughout
this game for the Mongols.
But it's just, will this slow start
rather get punished quickly by Strollers?
I mean, you've got a 0 and 6 star for your Alprin 9-10.
He's finally got the Alprin in his hands.
It's the second time he's had it to be fair.
as I know once before and just kind of got shut down. We'll see if he can get
anything out of it here in this round, round number seven. Would love a pick but
nobody from Astralis showing themselves. Pretty relaxed mid control for Mongols.
Astralis set up in more of a containment than any kind of a challenge for the
map control. You've got Ryu as the anchor at the A bomb site. He's got
Mazzinho lurking up against him in Palace. Towards the B bomb site, Hooksy
as the anchor with Techno there looking for pushes otherwise all attention towards middle
and how Mongols want to take the next step.
Under a minute on the clock.
They're also still spread out on a default.
Bomb just gets picked up and it's heading back to the A bomb site so that's going
to be the final play.
here, Cobra's there has found a position up in ladder room so he can punish any
kind of rotation, any kind of flank coming from short, coming through window
room towards jungle, but they've got to get the A bomb site first and Ryu's
aggressive on ramp, a strong position and the bomb carrier coming into his
location. Yeah, Fuzi actually moving deeper into the site, Cobra did catch up
on Yabi but Ryu unable to handle that awkward situation and then Fuzi's
too committed and so when Blitz activates out of jungle he just can't
handle that pressure so I could well construct a round there for Mongols
finally getting one on the board and the most the most like stationary and passive
we've seen Astralis yet in this game I think that conversation is gonna happen
after this round is just you know we can't ever play another round where
we're just kind of letting them have all this control quietly moving up like
no one's challenge getting into ladder room no one's challenge getting into
con and there's just too many players in tricky positions well done from the
Mongols and now we ask the question as does that burst the bubble or is
Just like a nice round does that actually kind of take away the veneer of Astralis's dominance and Mongols can gain some momentum
It's Astralis taking a timeout to make sure this doesn't build into something worse I
Wouldn't be surprised to see them this round go back to something aggressive and disruptive like the first gun around pushing top middle
Yeah
I think certainly they feel the pain of having not really fought for any kind of control and a few of the Mongols
You'll probably talk about that right now and you know expecting that that's been working for Astralis expect this
expect some maybe mid regression that they threw in earlier in the half. Let's
see what I think what was great about Astralis was the aggressive players are
so coordinated you know like if there's the short player peaks the connected
player peaks just a second later and it's just that there's always a moving
piece to find the next answer the next step it was really uncomfortable for
the Mongols. Let's see if we should keep that up now. Two kits available on
on Ryu and Starrist, so keep eyes on that.
And we'll see them on goals.
Just gonna out mid again.
What about having lean towards B to start things?
Floor's gonna be over there.
Might've been assuming like I was,
that there would be a bit more aggression in middle
and they could have an extra body
to send into the underpass
if they felt like it was necessary.
You can see them preparing for a push.
Up far back, 9-10 supportively,
looking for a push up mid from the entrance to B halls.
Now Cobra's slid into top mid boxes.
he's still having this awkward challenge with Techno and he wants a deeper angle and he's got it.
That is a very dangerous fight for Techno to be taking,
but he's able to survive it for the moment and at least have some harassment. Now this
feels like it's lining up into a mid-to-be split, doesn't it? I'm really happy once again
Again, they're able to get this ladder room position for free without anyone really realizing it from the Astralis side.
However, Hooksy is sent stair to rotate over. He's called them to the B bomb site, so a third defender arrives with 41 seconds on the clock.
Oh, Fusey. Under pressure, missing shots, and every shot that he misses is really going to cost him.
He's gone, and we got stair now waiting in the bomb site. He's got a huge, and he can't, so the Mongols run over the top of the defense.
Yeah, you had the exact setup you wanted.
You had it all read.
You knew exactly what was happening.
Great positioning from Astralis,
and then you miss all the shots.
Hooksy loses his flight over towards short.
Fosy's put under pressure from two different positions,
and Mongols just overwhelm and swarm the B-bomb site.
Okay, two really nice rounds for the Mongols,
and two rounds for Astralis' defense
where they haven't been able to prevent Mongols
from moving up and taking control
of dangerous parts of the map.
That lateral room is a key one.
Every time Mongols have gotten that,
they've just been supremely comfortable.
That's going to be a conversation for Astralis about how to deal with that and prevent that
from happening.
Especially so early into the rounds.
I mean look, these two losses aren't the most pain in the world.
The real issue comes now as the money starts dwindling.
So essentially Astralis have had two rounds now to try and figure this out, or one round
to try and figure out what Mongols is doing, the style they're playing and what they
want to do against it.
They're running out of those chances.
Yeah.
I mean we look back at the Mongols, we look at their run since the beginning of Rotterdam
and they beat Malus, they lost to Vitality, they beat Liquid, they beat Spirit, they lost to Aurora
and then they've beaten this competition Beast of Game and Eyeball
so they're only losing to the top teams in the world, the Mongols
and it's great to see them at least finding some foothold here on Mirage
finally because it was worrying seeing that 6-0 league going against them
The question is, would they be able to get back into things? And so far so good, and if you win this round,
you're really starting to reset and push Astralis down to some of these weaker weapons, and you're truly on for a good T-side.
Yeah, this round for Astralis is about, like, you need to think, you need to have it in the back of your mind,
and in a certain situation, we have the opportunity to save, right? Yabi has some money, Ryu has some money, so if Worse comes to it,
if you can keep those two weapons alive, you've got two more drops.
Astralis now clearing up mid and this is what I meant is like the map is silent
This is where they're gonna go try and find some things see that mid smoke thrown out
There's the push-up middle and Cobra caught off guard one more coming back from the B bomb site
And blitz is just gonna call it a stalemate meanwhile. A is overrun
I'm seeing you're moving into the site
Fuzi up on stairs you're gonna be taking up on 9 10 good response from yabby 50 seconds left
Bomb still not arriving. It's coming out of the ramp at just about now
Now, Huxi smoke being sent forward to Chris and cover but 9-10 wants to move with it and he all miss shot.
It was a nice move from 9-10. It looked like it was the right decision but he just couldn't get the kill.
Yabbi overperforming but they're going to be taking it down. They're going to be running into the last player.
Huxi has a chance at this and they just get right back over.
Huxi given the clutch.
Oh you could see it. As soon as they get that kill and pull the knife out to speed up and you see the Huxi dot in C.T. Spawn you could just see it coming in.
They thought Hooksy would be in a completely different location and a lovely double kill to be prepared for that fight.
7-2, 1-2 victory from Hooksy to keep Astralis in a powerful position and a great recovery as well.
Credit for Yabi, the one kill, the second kill on the offense. He actually makes this round doable for Astralis.
Great work from the CT side.
The timeout by the Mongols after the devils saying loss, they want to take a moment to
kind of reconvene three more rounds to try and scrape together to have the best score
possible going into the halftime break, but really it feels like this offense hasn't
actually gotten started in any meaningful way.
Two rounds out of the nine played, both of them nice, but outside of that, really
it's been all Astralis like the seven round wins Astralis have felt pretty strong
Yeah, a couple of crucial op misses in the last couple rounds to both teams
You know foods in that B bomb site and then that last round with nine ten
You're going to make that aggressive play you really need to hit that shot if he does I mean
and Mongols win that round.
More complete mid control again for the Mongols.
Four players there.
Smoke towards TopCon is gonna allow them
to have a little bit more freedom
to start scaling up short.
Now Flash play for Sterak
The connector comes with a quick kill, but immediately traded.
54 seconds left. Window is not going to be easy to take control of, because Yabby has planted his feet here.
He's done well. He's got that kill on Techno. Timing on that pushout from Mazzinho.
You're getting caught. Tetris and then Kobrashi won the fight versus Yabby.
So the strong side's strong positioning in this round, but now they've lost the advantage.
And the mongol is the bomb is inside the middle. You've got 30 seconds to decide where you want to put it.
Look at Hooksie. He's just coming in through the underpass in the middle.
Yeah, bomb has backed off though.
Yeah, Cobra's in ladder room though still.
Hooksy has no idea that he's still maintained that position.
Yeah, and you've highlighted how that ladder room has been so impactful.
And these round victories for the Mongols, but Fuzzi's caught Mazzino.
He hasn't been able to see him at all.
And they're going to be going into the B bomb site here, Mongols.
So Fuzzi rotates over it.
He's lost Hooksy.
He's lost everybody.
It's on him to make this clutch happen.
Now he's fast.
He's quick, decisive, getting through the window into the bomb site.
But now he realizes, look at him, and he goes,
he's got to worry about it, but he's nailed it.
He just doesn't have the info and now he's got it.
They've communicated that Cobra is towards short.
And so Fuzzi lining this up, he's got utility,
he's going to throw it towards Cobra.
That'll prevent him pushing forward
and Fuzzi can tap that diffusel
and try and pull him into the peak.
Cobra has gone for the bait shot.
Hasn't taken it here Fuzzi because under the defuse
and Cobra is just playing with him
and Fuzzi isn't taking the shot
and then Cobra will nail it for the 4K.
That's a hard angle to just hold.
What a round from Cobra Zara.
He's been so influential for the Mongols, not only in terms of kills, like he had the quad kill in that round,
but just the positioning he's been able to get over towards ladder room is alleviating so much pressure.
Beautiful sequence, and for Fozie, that shot is always gonna be hard to hit, just constantly baited,
and Jiggle peeked over and over again. Two rounds remaining in this half,
money has finally hit the end of the line for Astralis.
From us on Fozie,
Big stair had an MP9 upgraded pistols as well.
So right at the tail end of this half, Mongols, if they've broken the economy and might be
able to gain enough rounds to bring this to 7-5, taking all the resources away from
Mastralis. This is a 2-0 game in the Swiss system here at PGL Bucharest as well, so neither
of these teams getting eliminated.
Winner does advance to the playoffs.
Yeah, 3-0.
I think these are two teams you would expect in that bracket,
but not what you expect in this round
as Astralis just burst with three kills all of a sudden.
So with 2v2, 58 seconds left on the clock
under a minute, Fusy is just prowling,
realizing there was a gap on the A bomb site.
Could be a player all the way through, and there is.
Well, I mean, this round is just
going to get really, really weird.
The bomb was dropped all the way back towards T spawn.
So, at this point, Astralis is kind of playing with almost like anti-information.
You're kind of expecting them to be playing around the bomb sites,
and now that a player has to run off and go get the bomb, you just...
There's no telling. There's no way for you to read this.
They are in the right place in the right time.
But now they got a word about Mazzinho coming from behind.
Okay, playing out of the wood. It's a quick kill from Mazzinho.
Good reaction. You thought Fousey was going to put too much pressure on that.
Now Molotov, if it weren't a little bit deeper, would be very impact for Izzinho.
Down to five bullets left.
Hooksi has repositioned while that smoke is up.
He's gone to the ramp. Izzinho is going to be forced to think about the plant soon,
but look who the ball misses. He's got to get the kill,
and utility comes in to win the round.
Hooksi maneuvers himself perfectly around that smoke
and gets away from danger.
Okay, that's awesome from Astralis stealing around like this at this stage in the game.
That's actually phenomenal to see them pull that off.
The Mongols, that was their chance to get into this map and actually carve themselves out some rounds to play with when we switch sides.
That's a brutal way for this to close out.
Losing to the pistols, the single Formas, and yeah, a little bit of shock on the face of the Mongols.
Now, this is back-to-back days, or it hasn't felt like we've seen them kind of reach their A-game in any sense.
Still, all that being said, look at the buy from Astralis.
Compared to the buy from Mongols, AWP is out for 9-10.
Two MP9s on the Astralis side as well, so money just even out of a victory still really, really hurting.
Yeah, just cheaper to be a T-Sauder player.
So the back and forth never favors the CT-Sauder call to me.
And push out from Ryu.
He's going to be assisted by Yabbi on that push too, so the kill's coming in at Mzeno.
Tecno's gone back to try and stop it, but Astralis have already retreated.
They're happy you go out there you claim some information you put yabbi up top
While Rio is just dropped back a little bit further behind him and you get a second kill from that aggressive maneuver
You're laughing right now if you're a straws you're loving this 9-3
Corner and hoaxie is the only B player
They have checked him eventually getting caught and stuck in a weird spot
And that will end up allowing techno the kill so they do get into the site and the Mongols have a fight for a fourth round
Again, yeah, this is actually not an easy retake. Oh that smoke misses the mark
a little bit of safety, a little bit of cover that Fuzzi can play with.
He's got a teammate with him, Ryu. Other than that, it's going to be Stare and Yabi coming from short, coming from Cat.
Two smokes, one flash, no one kill on Yabi, so let's see.
He pulled off again, an ugly spread out from Fuzzi, but he'll come in from Ryu, two traded outs,
so that keeps the advantage alive here for Astralis.
The Stare now moves in, but Kofra, great shooting again.
It falls to just Techno. Can he win this? 1v2 to give a fourth round to the Mongols.
He's down close to it, but unable to win it.
So Astralis will leave the first half of Mirage with a 9-3 lead over the Mongols.
Yeah, give a big shout out to Yabi.
16-6 he ends the half with, but an absolute beast for Astralis.
Riyu does some great work anchoring the A-bombs.
They threw out that half, but really, some part of the story is just the underwhelming
performance of Mongols these last few days.
You're not able to get this offense going today.
Couple nice rounds, felt like they put themselves in position and just missed the opportunity.
To me, I think the signs are there. The fact that Mongols got away with it because they're
playing against weak opponents, they're playing against BC game and i-ballers, they got away
with those slow starts and because they're just individually good, they were able to pull it out
in the end. I think it was obvious that if they played the same way they've been playing the last
couple of days but they go up against a better opponent that that was going to cost them.
Yeah, well that's maybe a little bit of a shock to the Mongols right now that they'll have
to overcome here at halftime or between maps if this is just going to continue being all
Astralis on Mirage, but I mean if you want to go back to kind of how we position this coming into it is
Both these teams already in the in the in the major
This is the period of the season where these teams are both trying to shore up some of the weaknesses and for Astralis
That's been the map pool Mirage is towards the bottom of their map pool as is dust too
So getting challenged on this map by someone who likes playing it and showing this level is gotta be
I mean, it's a very good thing for an Astralis team that's looking to build confidence deeper into their map pool
The lovely little little victory if they're able to close it out
9-3 pistol round of the second half Astralis switches to the T side Mongols defending here on Mirage
And Hooksy just hitting him with that brush
And look at a brush over this map
My straw list if they win the pistol round it is incredibly likely that they will just round out Mirage
No, good sharp shot. He's got the information. He's got a cold rotation teammates are coming through. He's got three CT
Oh my god
How have you got away with that there's a slasher movie on the b-bomb site that is insane
Like coming in for a hook see still my lose. Oh my god. We got ghost face over here with nine ten
He's still Frankie's got headshots here, right? There is a shot. It's still losing this booze. He would have to ace them
The clock is out and emzino make sure that the hard work from techno does not go wasted
How and he's laughing about that?
Yes, I can only I've got away with a double knife. Yeah
Well, it's probably a different story on the other side of the other table as Charles look at the line
Like how the hell how's it not communicate?
How's it never like really seen where he is or heard or not?
I know he's got a sound service spotted here
Just distracted by the short player, but I'm just I'm shocked nobody reacts to that
And talk about this to techno Scott not
The two knife kills and he just drops the adp over to 910 right out of the gate Mars. Love it
He thinks it's a joke
So how are you getting away with that in a pro-level game like you never see
Double knife like that in the middle of the fight, but I love that he went for it amazing work from techno
He's got so much bank nine tank hits and all about in the second round
Like okay, that's a great start to the second half here for the Mongols
I'm sure all of us obviously getting a bomb play is good. It's great. You got two AK-47s
You got pistols around it. Now you can't answer back with a forced by win here and go up to 10 rounds regardless
Two smokes into the A-bombs, that one for stairs, look for the jungle cross.
I'm taking a risk without any smoke up in the window at the moment, a risk they have to take.
The deagle is just to hold them back, but information spotted.
Cobra slides into lateral room, which means he's not going to be able to fight.
Conn and they're already up, Blitz never expected it, knockout punch.
Yeah, good start here from stairs.
Mzinho is going to feel uncomfortable realizing he kept pushing from so many different angles on this A-side.
side so he wants to move away and 910 stepping up, Palace push about to come in.
Gombra fighting the connector, players doesn't want to give away his life, he's hugging on to that
ladder room. Whoa, careful now. Stair might need to do a little bit more in this situation,
the only rifle is going to come swing for it, not oh bullets running out. That way he's got
the advantage, okay Gombra, let's lift away, stairs got another one, but the open place.
Yeah, I mean another kill from Stair is huge, so let's have 910,
The star core is somebody's back, but then the pay-ship's from Palace.
Yabbi was waiting all round long to try and come out at the right time, and he does.
So even though you get everything you want there, the more goals you get.
The pistol, you get an AWP out in second round.
Astralis have won this round with only one death.
So they have no issue losing the pistol round when this happens.
Absolutely crazy that they're able to take this one away.
What a round from Stair.
two opening kills but just all across the board you mentioned the patience
just everyone kind of waiting and nobody trying to force the issue
really cool discipline from the astraliside
double digits now 10 to 4 here on mirage
that's better when in the pistol now the money for the mongols is really in an
odd place
six rounds back
And weird decisions to make, I mean, I almost, like, I think, again, it's one of those places,
stages of the game where I feel like there's not necessarily blatant wrong or right answer,
but they're going to have to kind of force by here, right, with the losing bonus the
way it is, not built up whatsoever, and only 1,400 in the bank, so, I mean, Astralis just
that way to win like that, red carpets laid out to take the opening map.
I mean, it shuts down the great opportunity that Mongols presented themselves with,
of the strong pistol, like, you also,
the other factors, you get a double night kill
from Techno and you've got everybody laughing
and smiling and pumped up.
Like, you could, that could be the turning point
of the game, is if you win the pistol
and you convert it, but they don't.
So you're right back to feeling like shit again.
So.
It happens fast.
Yeah, it's the mood swings, the rollercoaster.
Yeah, well, two defenders at the B bomb site.
Spotted already, that's gonna pull 9-10 over in support.
Okay, Deagle's doing some work.
He don't wanna take too many of those.
Fosy's got one with the AWP, but this is tough.
Astralis doesn't have to commit here.
They might want to be a little bit more patient with this one
and now Killstar coming out.
Yeah, it was looking scary.
It looked like a fortress had been set up there for them all.
And it was like, you know, that closed line of the Eagles
ready to take you down as you come through short.
So good work from Astralis to flush them out.
And it'll be 11 to 4.
And really, that should be the map now.
It's cool seeing that out of Astralis.
They're not like trying to just punch through, right?
And not trying to power their way through that crossfire.
Being patient, knowing the players are eventually
going to have to peek, knowing you have the advantage
of weaponry and utility.
Molotov kill, burning someone out into the open.
Yeah, hugely for Astralis, they've got complete control.
And then we'll see what the Mongols decide to do in the next round,
if they're just kind of enforced by hell until they lose,
or if they're going to be saving and saying,
we'll make the comeback, we'll try and make the comeback happen with rifles.
And the high-fives are in as well as know that they have done enough, most likely, to
close this one out.
Last time out, being burned here by the Mongols.
It better be one hell of a time out, one hell of a speech, one hell of a tactical call.
You better be calling for the next 10 rounds.
You really should be.
a lot to cover here for Mara. We'll see what they could do.
Alright guys, we lost Marash. Let's focus up for map 2.
They make a joke but Holly did that exact thing.
Exactly.
And it's not, it kind of sounds almost like a contradictory but it's not like the worst
mentality to have sometimes. Like don't pour your heart and soul into a map. You're
down 12-3.
I don't think Mara goes to the canteen. Don't do that though.
But the thing is they still got a chance to win, you know they do absolutely so they still have a chance to win in regulation as well
This comeback in small chance. Yeah, small chance, but it starts here
I mean they have a FAMAS for blitz that's your favorite weapon Jason. It's up there
MP9 the superior of choice also there
9 10 and in Xenia with two of them and five sevens
Also some my favorite weapon. Yeah. Yeah, that's all glove combo there with the knife that position all the
style bit of a color scheme purple yeah pink yellow and green classic
combination little bit of baby blue looks like a tracksuit you'd want the
80s yeah are you rocking that I was born in the late 80s I wasn't alive
through the I wasn't like you know like hanging out maybe your parents
Trusting you in like tracksuits and 80s. Yeah, okay. That'd be cool. I'll ask them
Here comes as a push out with you for seconds good kill from Starras in Dino dead 9 10 only getting the one so
Astralis gonna be happy with the start to the round now the issue is you could get sold out
But they won't so Ryu just runs over the top of blitz and we have techno and Cobra's era and a situation in a
Two, two, four. So Hoaxies got a Cobra, and Techno's left alone.
When Stare's playing this way on the T side, it's going to be really hard to beat Astralis.
Like when he's just so explosive on that first kill, just grabs the first kill, creates the space,
and even though he goes down after that, Yabby's there for the trade, or Xinyri is there for the trade,
just Stare provides so much in these T rounds, just being that guy who gets that one critical kill
that makes everyone else's life easier.
Okay, that was a kill from Tecnoe. He's hanging around like it is much as he can out of this,
but it is going to be map point from Astralis. Up next, Ancient. I mean, Astralis are on
the street there. I feel good about Astralis when in the series today just with the houses
going.
Yeah, I mean, as you have to look at it now, yeah, this does very much feel like a 2-0
because Ancient is a map that Astralis very much love going to. So they're showing
this level of play here on Mongols' map pick, when we switch over, they could get even worse.
We did see Mongols play ancient as well early in the events against BC game, winning 13-11,
but really, really got tested, although they were up pretty big and BC game made a comeback
at the tail end, so Mongols can do some cool things on it, just going to be tough
as a straw, like it's so much.
117 and potentially the last round of this map
There's always one extra there's always one extra. I don't know but now with this by there might not be one extra with this by
No, you're gonna get some mad D. Galata of Cobra for some reason. Okay. I'm feeling it
Hey, it hooks he's about to hit you with a with a crazy
Cobra is very far away from me. He's over here right now
Okay, it's gotta be a 5-7 man. Yeah, it's gotta be a clip. It's gotta be an emzineo 5-7
A fairytale performance.
There they come.
Out into the site.
Zinho's dead.
9-10.
Required.
And he only gets to one of the Fibas, and it's over.
So it will be Astralis knocking them out here on the A-Bomb site.
A fantastic performance from Astralis.
I don't know.
He'll be opening map.
Blitz can make this interesting.
Blitz can get this a little weird.
Okay, don't turn around, Frozen.
He wants to.
Okay, he's got it down.
And one more.
The Kiko's going to start swinging into Astralis, crumbling.
Okay, never mind. I told you what extra JC us that's not believe it for a second, but now we're back on yabby
What me to back of triple AK's good to close it out?
Yeah, he shuts it down fastest performance from yabby 19 met kills on this first map in the series a straw
Let's take Mirage and are set for a 2-0 over the Mongols
Well, well, well how that cookie crumbles
Mongols did not even get a chance to really get on the server
I know in the QMash we spoke a lot about how their T-side is a little bit questionable.
Very kill problems when you see what happened there.
Yeah, I mean we even saw a super early time-out from Mara, but the call that came in,
they got open and killed, they didn't really do much with it.
And just looked like a complete domination on the CT side from a shot.
I was expecting it more to be, you know, maybe when they go on the T-side,
they can like, Cooksy can outcall a Blitz or something,
but this was just people dragging out, not really struggling too much
too much in the few rounds that Mongols won were super tight, which also
Strauss had some chances in. So overall quite a quite a domination, a rough look
for Mongols here at MAP1. Yeah, I mean this is a map that used to be part of
Mongols' core identity. It was a map that suited their really pacey but
controlled play style, but now this is their sixth loss in their last eight
games. And in this game they didn't even look like they arrived on the
server. I mean through the first six rounds of this game, when a Strauss
jumped off to that hot start, Mongols had a total of 10 kills. You
had been almost by himself. And if it wasn't for crazy heroics like Techno getting a double knife
kill on the pistol round, they would have had even less than the four rounds than they got.
They couldn't even pull up with women boots, had a super flank on that front around, and gave
them an opportunity to maybe pull off a 2v1 and keep the game going. They couldn't even get
that done. They just looked so absent. I haven't seen Mongols look like this destroyed in a while.
I'm just thinking about the rounds that Mongols actually won. So one is the pistol that
we saw the double knife kill. One is when they executed B and Fuzzi missed three shots in a row.
Then one was the 1v1 on B with Fuzzi also had the, I think over zero clutch, the 1v1,
when he was on short, Fuzzi also missed that. These are three rounds that they won. I don't
remember the fourth one, but that's like all of these could have all really gone the other way
and you see why they were lost by Astralis. Everything else was pretty, pretty chill. Even
that 1v2, the hooksy clutch, I'm not really sure what was happening because they had the
have the whole bombsite there like okay let's swing CT why I don't know and then
you get sprayed down by Hooksy kind of unforgivable shout out to Hooksy love
him but he's not the guy that's gonna be spraying down two enemies as they push
him that's that's not what should be happening here. Can we talk about this
guy on our screens though because he's had a bit of a rough time right in
the sisterless lineup and I do feel like since this international change up
it's it's worked in his favor I feel like we're starting to see the
Yeah, I mean, I think that
on this team, you know, he's
had some really good events
as you said. He had one kind
of rough one, but everything
else he's done this year has
been really high. And I think
it's because, you know, in
some cases, like if we're
looking at this map, for
example, he's been allowed to
get into some more active
positions that he used to
play like if you don't
remember, the Abbey was
actually a really good like
the rotator on the city
side of this map, but he
kind of gave it up whenever
May just came into the
team and stown took the
position for a little bit
as well. And he kind of
got relegated to being an
anchor. And so you really
didn't get to be a part of
he kind of got relegated to being an A anchor.
And so he really didn't get to be a part of, you know,
the place that he used to make, you know,
those aggressive, like little peeps and things.
And I think that with Ryu kind of taking over the A anchor spot,
it's freed up Yabi to be able to do that explosive self
that he's used to being on the defense.
And, you know, even though he's like kind of a,
what you would consider a lurker and a lot of T sides,
he's going for a lot of openings, you know.
So like, I feel like he's being allowed to make more moves
and he's very confident in them.
He knows he's got a good team around him
that's going to be able to help facilitate that.
So he just does look a little bit more free.
I feel like on this lineup.
Yeah, he's one of those players that you kind of hate to play against because when he's in the zone,
he's just making these plays kind of like, he's a bit ratty, but he's also aggressive and just like in the back side,
but a bit faster than a rops, right?
He's there getting that maybe even an entry sometimes, maybe like, you know, cutting off rotations.
And on this, on this map, you're just on short killing everyone and then clutching that 1v2 at the end.
You just see the confidence in that play as well, where it's like, should I, should I just wait for him?
I play the time wait for him to get now. I'm just gonna I'm just gonna wide swing the guy and that blood just ended here
And that was it. Are we surprised by what we've seen from Mongols right now on this man?
I expected more for sure
You know
I thought this game could go either way in the sense that we haven't seen them play against each other yet and both teams have
Kind of had a similar amount of momentum in recent events played this year like Ashevillus has certainly looked a lot more fiery
Since they brought Ryu Enfuse on board Mongols has surprised us by staying pretty relevant
despite the fact that they've gone through all these roster changes but I
surely didn't expect that. I mean the fact that you were able to recall every
round that they won that game I mean blessed you have a great memory smart
guy, mega brain but still that is also just like a testament to just how much
Mongols lacked any ability in the server in this game on their map pick to have
any impact like I'm shocked that it was this bad. Yeah I mean it's just they
never really started started playing it just doesn't feel like a map that I
I saw Mongols play on, so let's move on to Ancient.
Maybe they actually play the map, and we see 9-10 on the AWP doing something.
Mazzinho on some lurks, it felt like a lot of bombsite hits that just got shut down very easily
and comfortably re-e-e-ed.
I think also had a few nice moments on the 8th, a bombsite is anchoring down.
I want to give him a shout-out.
We didn't really speak about him a lot.
He is like the quiet glue of this team, right?
Not really doing anything super shiny,
but I guess if the rest of the team is working,
he must be doing something right.
What do we expect from Mongols on Ancient?
So what would they normally bring
from a playstyle point of view?
Yeah, I mean, normally, you know,
this is a team that Ancient was next to Barrage
in their wheelhouse, I think for a long time
was when the maps were very, very good on a fight
that Reds were made since he left the team
has not been nearly as high.
You know, they have a positive win rate,
but most of their wins are against weaker opposition.
And most of their loss though are the top teams.
It's not like they're losing the slouches,
but still it's just not as potent as it used to be.
You know, going into Ancient, you know,
They usually play it just like they play Mirage.
They're a very explosive team.
They like to play with a lot of pace,
but they do so in a controlled chaos.
It's kind of how I like to put it,
where there's definitely a method behind the man.
The problem is, it's just like we saw on Mirage,
but Schraus are going to play you up front too, man.
They are so dangerous all across the map.
And it's because, while we were discussing a little bit
with Yabi, it's like, even though he's kind of just
sitting at B ramp a lot of the time,
the fact that he can just poke into B
and put on pressure and get entry kills,
it's just so much value.
And this is also a map where Ryu really gets involved
a lot more than typical A lurkers would.
Like you're going to be seeing him out there with Stair
and Hoopsy taking mid control with three players
and just being in your face a lot.
And I just think his trials are so well rounded on this map.
Their play looks very deep.
Like when you look through the five games
they've played so far, all of which were wins by the way,
some of which against top teams,
they just have so many different tools
of their disposal on this map.
Yeah, it's just that the models we saw so far
were a bit sloppy, but their individuals were
so ahead, so much ahead of the opposition they were playing.
Like, the eyeballs game we saw yesterday,
you know, you're in some of these rounds,
you're like, what's happening here?
But the other team is just not a match.
And I think Astralis is individually, you know,
they're somewhere there.
They're not like two classes ahead, Mongols.
And I think they're just clean in most of their takes.
So that's going to be pretty tough.
I think what I saw on, you know, ancient against Spirit,
if they can dominate mid against dunk,
then they can probably take me against Mongols as well.
That doesn't sound very positive.
If you're a Mongols fan listening to this right now,
I feel like you guys are leaning to an Astralis 2-0.
It seems that way a lot.
I mean, if I was to give Mongols some win conditions
in this game, like what they actually
have to do to try to keep this series going,
we're going to have to see Vlitz and Mizino be able to control
that mid-portion on the map.
They're going to be the main guys defensively
in this first half that are going to be called upon
to deal with stairs from these guys who
are very fiery and very explosive.
They need to match that energy with their own abilities
as well as Cobra, this is another big map for him.
Everybody's still kind of wondering what type of player
Cobra's there is going to be.
And him being kind of that B anchor is gonna be huge
because Astralis is a very mid and B heavy oriented team
on this map, they don't really explore A all that often.
So I thought they're really gonna test
like those key players I talked about
and they're gonna have to rise to the occasion.
They're in the same way.
Yeah, I mean, I don't wanna like,
based on one map, just be like,
ah, this is now over because oftentimes
you see one very bad map and then everything changes,
especially I think as we saw in the first map,
There's pistol round 5-0, 6-0 start right for Astralis.
Mongols win the pistol in the second half,
then the full force comes in and they lose that.
I don't want to say even that they threw it.
I think it was really well played for Astralis,
but they never really got more than two rounds in a row,
four rounds in total, so that's kind of not a surprise.
So I think they obviously have a good chance still
if they start in a good way.
If they actually can string some rounds together,
have a few full buys and things are working,
Then you can start calling up, okay, this worked in early round.
We can throw a fake on it, or we were taking mid.
Now we can leave mid and put more resources elsewhere.
I don't think that Mongols are a type of team that tilts and then just loses because they lost the first map.
They lost a map pick that they're now going to show up in ancient and just be completely deflated.
I think they are going to give it a good shot.
So it's still like a 50-50 on the ancient for me.
Stralis impressing us with that win, taking away Mongols map pick.
We now move over to ancient.
That's their choice.
We'll see if Mongols can claw their way back the first quick break.
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What is going on everybody, it's time to chat to some of our players here at PGL, Bucharest,
pick their brains on the recent changes to ammo and how magazines work with
Probeanie of foot, Nitro Nick Canella of NRG, with Wreck of Wildcard, Demow of Legacy.
Do you still spam smokes now as much as you did before the change?
I think I spam the same kind of like it's not yet very
I just took it in my head that there is this update.
Yes, but last time, you just want a magazine, that's it.
Yes, I don't really, I don't ever remember
situation where I've used like all my clips and around.
I would say, yeah, I think it's a very like
position dependent thing, right?
I think as an anchor, I'm not spamming smokes
a whole lot compared to other positions.
I think when the update first came out,
it was like, it seemed like it was gonna
It changed a lot, but it didn't really change that much in my opinion.
No, I think just the first day, there's some peace arounds.
Like you're spending FSB, and then you just go reload, and then you wait,
and then you just change your knife again and go back.
But after it's okay.
The M4A1S, you have a less bullet, so it's not yet in my head that
if I spam too much, I won't have bullets in the end of that round.
The biggest change I saw is, or I've seen as more for like pistols,
because, like, I'm Raja and I rotate, like, I'm a B anchor.
So I go B, I shoot the vent, I shoot the little, like,
wooden thing I'd be on the B window,
and I have one mag left, and I'm like, oh, crap.
I mean, I should start, like, knifing that, you know?
Yeah.
So overall, no, not really.
Welcome back to PGL Bucharest.
We have got Astralis and they're on their way to a 2-0 up against the Mongols today.
Yeah they really are. Everything seems primed with the map pool the way it's kind of worked out.
Being able to overcome Mongols on their map selection of Mirage in emphatic fashion
just fills you with confidence coming into ancient.
Their map pick where they have a very strong record on
that you'd look at and say they're just going to take the series 2-0.
Yeah it definitely feels that way right now and it's just these slow stars.
I mean, really punished there by Astralis from the Mongols.
Like, they just come out there so slow,
nothing really gets going for them.
And the slow start that never turns around.
You know, as you mentioned, we saw it against BCG.
We saw a turnaround there.
We saw it the other day yesterday
and they're winning series.
But here against Astralis, hard to turn it around again.
It's a team that's just a much higher quality.
I'm able to turn it around against I-Ballers against BCG.
But Astralis proved too much for him on Mirage.
So now we're going to have to see what happens here
on Ancient, and Astralis is going
to be starting off on the T side.
Mongols defending.
Just because we mentioned that game versus Spirit back in the pro league playoffs where they peeked
Ancient T side was just unreasonably good
Utility usage was bonkers in that game
Yes, and the elbow fights, the mid fights, you know we usually talk about that being a 50-50
No, it was like 75% ashral, a spiny
And that was them going up against Dark Honor as well
So yeah, take from that way you will
Yes, they can be very, very strong going through mid on this T side
And they have gone through mid into the donut coming up against Nine-Tran
plays behind the big box. That's what? Okay, 9-10. That is filthy.
How's he live?
Off towards A-man as well. Finally going down, but really good work from 9-10.
But Starr is still fracking. Yabbi's arrived as well.
And despite a big effort, it doesn't matter because the Strawlers have so much
firepower available in their two deans.
And look at how all of them are off the bomb together.
Just kind of waiting until they know exactly where technical is before making
the move. Gush taken down. Lovely round from Yabbi.
He's really the strength of that recovery. Triple kill on the round from Yabbi.
And he took down, I think, all three like bowling pins coming out of a temple.
Yeah, it's been great to see Yabbi really see an elevation in performance
in this new version of Astralis with Hooksy at the helm, you know.
We know Yabbi was playing some of his best counter-strike
when he first broke onto the scene,
when he was playing with Hooksy back in Copenhagen Flames.
So good to see them reunited, not necessarily find the most success
with the full Danish squad here at Astralis,
but this new version seems to be fitting Yabbi much better.
Yeah, this is absolutely disgusting.
This around from Yabi, Stare trying to do it, two kills as well.
So those two are able to clean up all five Mongols
and give Astralis the lead and the advantage to open up this half.
Take it slow for the moment.
Eventually we'll see these MAK-10s, one in the hands of Hooksy,
one in the hands of Fozy, be the ones to kind of lead the way
and investigate exactly what kind of defense they're going to be going up against.
Techno extinguishers the Molotov as it comes in
Huxley says okay playing inside cave we want nothing to do with it here
And it is a stack at the B bomb site Astralis has applied no pressure elsewhere and haven't really thrown any utility
This feels like at the end of this round. They might just walk right into a trap
Kupr is going to a good start. Techno even better. Getting traded out though by Starr who
needs a second to really allow them to feel comfortable again for a shot. They're getting
flanked out by Blitz at the moment. Timing on this though because Fosy is coming over right now.
Okay, here we go.
Go from Starr onto the site.
Bombs already made it past. Blitz knows what he's up against.
Going to flank the donut players. He's silent. Bombs there.
Shouldn't be the kill here for Blitz. Fusy getting the bomb to safety though towards the site.
But Blitz is just going to creep up on him.
Deny that plant and the rotation's right from CT as well. They can sandwich Ryu.
And now it's all on Starr with 14 seconds left. It's a 1v2.
If you're the Mongols, just hide one player away. Squirrel away behind the big box.
big box and don't allow Stata win this round as Cobra been able to win the first
fight so that's a great response there from the Mongols. I think the the loss of
that round for Astralis comes when that that initial contact over in Jaguar when
the when the first smoke is dropped to extinguish the Molotov during that
smoke that 17-18 seconds you have Astralis basically did nothing on the
map they just kind of held fell back a little bit avoided the name damage
but they didn't do anything to pressure elsewhere on the map didn't
do anything to investigate elsewhere on the map so just kind of blindly
stepping into a trap as that smoke clears.
Longalls, just four players there, the entire round catching them off guard.
So, Astralis, invest. There's Deagles across the board, no rifles.
Four players towards the A bomb, so it takes me three players towards A.
In main, one player going to be watching elbow, and you've got Yabby over towards the B bomb site.
By outside of a crazy Deagle shot, this round shouldn't have a whole lot to it.
should be said as well I mean that's that's quite a hiccup right quite a
quite a punch to take early on in your tea half we saw Stralis do the same
thing to mongrel CT side in the second half of Mirage but when you're looking
for that hot starter when you have a team that's been having slow starts and
We've got to give up the early advantage, very, very painful.
That was a quick kill from Zinia, he's a follow-up here too.
These teammates are all around him, and the mid-hold is strong here from the Mongol.
So you're avoiding getting in that 5-0, 6-0 hold to kick things off for the Mongols.
Which is nice, there's probably a pretty big goal of theirs coming out of the first map.
Should be goal number one really priority. Well, they've accomplished it. Let's see if they can build something off of it quickly
We know this is a team that can put up just a blue wall of CT defense
Yeah, I think the bummer is the the Astralis offense not getting started early on with that with that loss of the second round
So they're gonna have to sit back with pistols. We know the Mongols can can set up a strong defense as we saw the other day against BCG
We just want to see Astralis get the money back in their hands so they can challenge and try and break it down
just as much lurk smoke at the B bomb site, so it's a Russian, they're trying to get this bomb planted,
and that's not going to happen. Mongols not even going to let him get close to it,
and Techno prioritizing his life, it's going to be three to one, and now the guns will come back out for the Astralis attack.
Alright, start stepping out, to take him down. So the Mongols will be up to three one,
a very very strong beginning to the game from the Mongols,
and we're gonna get Astralis buying up now, so...
You know, you're not gonna have everything you want, but enough money to get the rifles out here.
AK-47s, a Galil on the Astralis side.
All rifles, the MP9 in the hands of Techno for the Mongols' defense.
Let's see if it's Astralis who can respond quickly, or are they gonna be the ones trying to dig themselves?
This is very fast towards the A bomb site. Super quick. 910 is here. He's gonna have to push through the smoke into the bomb site
And he's got the first kill traded off by Yabi, but now you got to contend with Blitz and Mazzinho
Yeah, the kills are coming through here for the Monkles significantly so and it is just taking the main
Brunt to be attacked away here from a swallow
So you got to dig deep to try and pull this back in stair. He's brought a shovel. He's got himself two kills
So Yabi unfortunately taking a lot of damage on board
It is a little bit more health you'd favor him slightly in this situation, but right now it looks very difficult to see a world in which Yabbi wins this.
He hasn't picked up the bomb. He's got so many angles to worry about and Blitz is flying through a main.
There's the confirmation that this run falls in favor of Mongols.
Yeah, I mean nice nice job from the Mongols realizing that at the last second getting back in time and just
execute a rush like that towards the A bomb set if you're a straw. So you got to get those opening kills.
It's a strength of that. It's catching him off guard.
But when Mazzini and Blitz are both able to respond with one pretty much immediately, that sells the round down the river.
And a timeout burn from Astralis, their first early on heading into round six.
They're staring a 1-4 scoreboard after winning the pistol, so nothing has gone right from round two on for Hooksy and the boys.
We're going to have a conversation to start turning things around here on Ancient.
Their map pick in this series.
2-0 game in this Swiss system, winner moves on to the playoffs as Stralos is up on the map.
We're live into round 6, Hopso in the hands of 9-10.
For Stralos it's a Mac 10 on Stair and again, upgraded pistols and a little bit of utility to sprinkle in there.
Oh, they go, it's Stair straight away, let's see if he's going to fall, no problem.
Kill from Starr, and an opening frag, go for a straw, it's so desperately needing a round like this, but
if you realize the weapons you've got around you, there's a certain pressure on Starr to continue to make a play.
Now he's going to wait for his teammates to come through AMA before he activates out,
but he's hoping they can create some space and draw attention for a long period of time to create that opening,
and they have done that, so he needs to move soon as teammates are going to start falling,
and then this flank will be ineffective, and Starr hasn't been able to make his way through red,
So his teammates are all dead and he's gone back into the donut and really made nothing on this
So there will be constant all 5-1 for the Mongols
Impressive to see them
Can see the pistol but come out looking so strong among the rest
Yeah, I mean the death mail that's everything was profit was mentioning Mongols isn't a team to like completely tilt out of a series
Right or the tilt after a map one loss. So they've clearly come back and reset
and looking looking much sharper looking like a
completely different than the team that was here on the first map.
Stralis has taken some real real quick headshots, quick dinks, and there's not a
lot of production on their side of things. Raiju, they're real, excuse me, with one
kill, Fuzi, and Hooksie with zero kills.
Kind of like a 2v5 right now in a way.
The headshot feels that way.
Start changing it up now, Stralis. There goes Hackgallon to crush it.
Competitive building and the Mongols have crushed them. Okay. That's it. Yep. They've leveled up. Okay different team now
Get out. This is Mongols the first map of Mirage. They're just five imposters. This is this is crazy
I love it though. I mean just you're just piling on Astralis
It was like you you have to know with their mentality what it's like within the within the comms right now for them
Because you just experience it on Mirage. So yeah, I just shoved her right back down
Make them have experienced the the crappy feeling of just getting deleted out of the map
Minute 8 seconds, uh, Fosy and Stare coming over just to see what they can find.
Yeah, this sucks if you're a straws. If you're Fosy, if you're Stare.
So, 6-1. Impressive start.
And really not a whole lot negative to speak of.
And now you can see them as well with a little bit of confidence,
a little wind beneath their sails pushing forward.
They're being the disruptive ones now.
It's on a trough to put an end to that, right?
To punish some of those players.
You gotta stop it, otherwise they're just gonna keep throwing.
Like, it's at you, it's just gonna be dis-successful.
I came after like a triple-made barrage as well,
that pretty much mostly landed on Yaddy,
so he's just like completely all like,
just knocked out of the fight before it even begins.
I mean, you're really frustrated because you've been waiting a long time to get that full buy out again.
Yep.
And you don't even get to play it around.
Like, it's just gone and it's not like you could buy it again.
You're back down the pistol.
So, the wait begins once more for those rifles to come out again.
And by that point, you're going to be 7-1 down.
It's a really cool CT side calling from the Mongols as well.
Just, yeah, every time you feel like they've got another full buy,
like they're going to be able to execute or that you know they're going to be executing their plan,
exactly what they want to do.
Yeah, just never let him actually pull anything off, get into their face, win the fight.
Molotovs now make this defense a little bit awkward, but it's only a Tech 9 challenging,
because this is a fake, and the fake is working very much.
Oop, Zinho gonna try to tag down to 70 HP, can't take that or find a headshot there,
or find a gap, and here comes the push-out from Zinho, the risk taking but not paid off,
and an AK-47 available if you can find it, and eventually Fuzi does pick it up.
AK-47 and another smoke, quite a big deal to continue stalling this out.
Hooksie still has a role to play. He doesn't want to peek towards Red Room.
He wants to catch Techno just as he's entering into Donuts.
So timing is everything as he covers his team's flank.
Blitz and Techno, one of the couple of kills between them.
Here comes Fuzi out into the site.
Blitz knocked off the back of the big box and Tief uses being stuck right now,
The Mongols and despite there being a foothold on the site there from Astralis with some of the weaker counts the Mongols still prevail
Yeah, really well done. I mean in Mizzinho coming through might have been a little bit dangerous giving the AK-47 and the extra utility over
But still since such strong positions
Looks he had to get that kill over in middle
But he'd been so patient that he thought the timing had passed and moved in at the wrong moment
Six rounds back is Astralis and a second time out burned and the first one didn't net them anything.
A rush hasn't worked, this fake didn't work. We haven't seen them go to that mid control that
worked so well against Spirit so that's still an option available to them. They've gotten out
mid a couple times and never been able to do anything with it. But the big
Big issue is, I mean, just looking at the Mongols economy, what are you supposed to do?
It's like, you don't have a solution to win one round, but you probably have to grind three
away to break the economy.
Like, Mongols are set for the rest of the half.
Oh, Xenia, made the jump loose properly.
He's landed on the ledge, then there's the spam battle begins inside of Elbow.
Is it still off the guns, you don't know, ain't you?
And a one for one.
Yabbi catches Cobra trying to retreat back into the donut with the player advantage
and disallows Mongols the advantage and make control.
A really cool play from Yabbi because that's kind of how...
Ooh, wait, hold the phone.
There's a little lurk out A main hooks.
He got one, thought that was the sole defender.
Mazzimio's gonna back away and give it up, smoke to the lay.
Uh, Yabbi's gonna be in front of it, quick headshot.
And now we're into the A bomb site, excuse me.
Ooh, good shot on Yabbi, that push.
Into the site, immediately knocked down.
And so it will be a plant coming through and finally,
his trolleys breaking another round win.
Taktown can do nothing about this, even though he's 11-2.
Yeah, I mean, I think he's gonna, he might actually just go for it because of the money.
He got 14,700, and he's, Cobra's got 13k, so I think he just gave it a good go, because why the hell not?
Well, the only reason I-
Yeah, you're thinking you might want to keep the AK-47?
Yeah, exactly, but you could also win this round.
So, oh, kid, this is a go. It's Bowson!
Oh my god, he's got the right reads.
You can see the positions available, but just go to make it happen.
Yeah, don't mind the attempts whatsoever considering the circumstances.
Sure, you lose an AK-47, but whatever.
First timeout taken from the Mongols out of that loss.
Mara having a little chit-chat.
7-2, and this is, I mean, Astralis took a very similar timeout on Mirage
after their first round loss as well.
It's not like there's any problem, no red flags.
It's just everyone settle down and make sure we don't let them climb back into this game.
So if you're Mongols, it's just continue, continue doing as we're doing because it's, it's all worked.
But at least Hooksy's got a round wind to play with and let's see if he can build anything off of it.
Two to seven, five rounds back.
Really cool. One of the reasons maybe we haven't seen Astralis really kind of get outfitted too much
Too much or like maybe go for those hardcore mid control plays is
Mongols maybe having watched that spirit game on ancient
They're sending three bodies down mid to like just spam into the elbow corner, you know, like it's hard to get out
We get three players doing it now. It's just blitz with one. He gets a kill then trade it off
We use blind again. He's dropped as well. Yeah, the mid box is pouring forward and
Xenia and techno though coming out on top of the further engagements and it does leave us
with just two players so it does not look like they're going to be able to
string consistent success together here on the T side which will just allow
Mongols to continue to build this beautiful CT performance. 8 to 2 we'll go
into last couple rounds of this half. Stralis best I can hope for is four rounds on T side.
It doesn't even look like they're gonna get that. I mean not even getting the first step.
You just lost three players in the first 15 seconds of the round. We're not
We're not even getting to the mid-round, we're not even getting to the point in the game where Hooksy can actually tactically work the map.
Still one kill on Fosy, still one kill on Hooksy as well.
Fragging department for Astralis, struggling here on Ancient.
Round 11.
I'll give it another go. 3 AK-47's a Galil and a Tech 9 on Hooksy.
That's a missed smoke down to the elbow, but for the first time in a while, it won't
be just a full-out war coming out of the elbow into the midfights straight away.
A slower approach.
There is certainly going to be there at elbow, but the majority of Astralis forces
are currently walking their way through the b-lane into JAG, and perhaps thinking
about progressing into the cave, but that smoke will discourage that for a while.
just kind of waiting for what's coming next well Mongols have three players
near B another plane on retake no one's inside of the site there's actually with
the spot Molotov excuse me smoke is put down instead deeper Molotov to just make
it a little bit awkward to stand there and stand but misses its mark however not
gonna do much damage I'm firing through looks like Mongols are set up with
utility ready for a retake just barraging the bomb planter made
Molotov combo real burns good way to find a kill before the retake
starts happy what's he gonna do about this it comes to walk right in towards
him it's gonna be happy of removing blitz genio traded not only the trade but
also the follow-up kill to tiffin in mongol's favor but boozy that is what
we're talking about destruction from inside cave he batters them and clubs
them into the ground man only had one kill coming into this situation an
an incredible quad kill there just to give Astralis a lifeline.
Lovely sequence, you can see, no one's blowing up,
no one's popping out of their seats
because I know the situation is really so very, very dire
for God that Astralis need a performance like this.
Yeah, they needed that step up for sure.
I mean, if you're going to come back into this game,
you're going to need four rounds on this T side.
Fuzi stepping up here, it all looks lost.
And Xenia, looking like he has done the majority
of the work that after the Mongols
to get back in for yet another retake,
but absolutely massive effort for Fuzi.
You've got to take this last arm of the half now if your Astralis burning, that will stop
the construction and then boost the notes coping, get away with one here again and re-u-defending
Techno.
So now it's going to be Blitz who's just waiting for the rest of Astralis running out of it.
He can't get anything.
So that was a play that worked earlier in the half for the Mongols that didn't this
time and Astralis are able to get four rounds in this half.
I was going to say, Fuzzy is like, I've seen those nades before.
I know exactly what this means.
It didn't happen in twice.
It uses the AWP like a shotgun.
Cool back-to-back rounds from Fosey.
Dropped here by 9-10, but no chance at a victory.
So 8-4.
And just enough for Astralis to work with as they switch sides,
despite how rough most of this half looks.
They've got a little bit of breathing room to work with,
and now you get over to the CT side.
We'll see what you can do up against Mongol's offense.
Here's Fosey just stopping at push.
Nuo is coming, Ryu comes through as well.
Last time now his executed Mongols just deleted Astralis out of the round, but they make sure it doesn't happen twice.
Still a great half out of Mongols in a recovery from a tough Mirage loss.
I get to see how this is actually going to play out here.
So Astralis switches over to the defense, who's he moving around with the AWP?
Xixi is going to be commanding Gover from Jaguar and Cave just gathering information telling everyone what's going on.
Then the question becomes, can Mongols take this lead and actually run away with it on the CT side?
It felt like towards the tail end in those last two, three rounds.
It's not anything crazy. The crispy shots that we'd seen at Mongols throughout the whole half went against them now.
and there's last two rounds missing some shots.
Fossey's able to get that 4-man 4K in the post-plant.
Those are kills Kober should have had that frag at the very least.
So, seen some mixed shots at the tail end
and I hope it doesn't come over to the second half.
Pist a round critical for Astralis.
And then same with the second round, be if they're able to win it.
Now, four sets of Cavalier here for Astralis into the pistol.
Hoopsie taking a hit for some utility,
but not gonna be good enough to slow things down.
It's all a quick play into the B bomb site.
Mongols trying to bruise them,
but Hooksy, he makes quick work of them on these USP.
Hooksy getting away with two.
He's still alive as well.
So that has forced Mongols to reconsider their,
oh my God, he's just spotted 9-10.
He couldn't get the shot though.
Fusy will.
And Tecna's out of there.
He's like, I don't want nothing to do with this.
I've got a chance to get to the A bomb site,
get a plant at least, but.
He's like 9-10, slide in there and sell this.
Take one for me so I can try and get the bomb plant.
He's got it at the very least.
That's even when it now.
Starr is a little further forward than he would anticipate,
so it will come down to a reaction.
He was further ahead than he would anticipate,
and the footsteps of Fosier, like telling his brain,
like, okay, you got three seconds until the peak
until he gets to this corner,
and then all of a sudden Starr pops up.
It's a great pistol,
and Hooksy has a lot of stopping power
inside that B-bomb.
Sight two critical headshots of Mongol's players
coming through the smoke.
There's the first one from Yabi,
but these ones from, this one from Hooksy.
Scrabbin' Blitz as soon as he lands, think of beauty.
And that's a Stralis up to five.
Now three in a row and five in the last six.
Yeah, I mean, they've given themselves a second chance
here on the map.
I mean, it was such a terrible start.
They've played themselves back into the game again.
Obviously, still work to do, but when this round,
and that work becomes a lot easier,
because Mongols won't have much to play with at all
in the next round.
They'll be able to shrink the gap to just one round.
Stroll is very much still in this.
Nice step.
Spying down the B lane. It's just the one kill.
Attack 9 from Tobra comes through.
And the Abbey to respond with it for mass.
Tobra is very low.
So Stroll is favored to win this one.
As long as they survive this round without taking too many deaths for no reason,
essentially at this point, in the 5-on-2,
I think Stroll has a great shot at actually taking this map.
You know, this is their map hit coming into it dominant on the first one
I think a lot of things leaning in their direction if the CT side gets going
And then we'd actually I think it would be impressive
Have that bad start and still be able to come back in with the map. They're losing players for no reason. There they are
We talked about limiting casualties here and building up some money. I mean fortunately going into this round
There's not enough to get a reasonable buyout for the Mongols. Maybe you can have a couple of upgraded pistols
But for Astralis this round should be all about making sure that you keep five players alive
You can recover some of that economic damage for the previous round. It would be lovely to have
Eight to six though with the most likely outcome of the next minute and 55 seconds being an eight to seven score line
Let's suppose the molecules just sprite out, look there's a few shots, but the mid-fight
obviously not going to go your way when you don't have the utility to combat them or
the weapons.
Yeah, four-step in the elbow is just a challenge.
Exactly.
Ooh, that's a deep knave that finds its mark, good catch, Fosy.
Well, five players alive for now.
Yeah, love that.
Now there will be.
All five players left for Astralis.
They build a lot of money from that.
just one round back. Exactly. So they've played themselves into this game. I mean,
Fosy in that first half really important 4k from him inside of cave and has
reignited the opportunity for Astralis to win this series 2-0. No op out yet for
Fosy though. Silled the MP9 on Hooksie. So Astralis, that's what you like to see.
Plenty of money in the bank. Pretty much 4,000 on three players or more.
2,500 on two players. Things looking good for the defense in terms of
their financials. Even if they are to lose this round though of another
buying the next tons of deep utility and Mongols here are coming back away but
once again up towards Evan stairs got an opening kill
well there's Yabi another one for Astralis okay Mongols have disappeared
they've been stunned and look at the confidence from Astralis now you got
foosies stepping through smoke you know I'm not gonna criticize that one way or
the other it's it's high-risk high reward and he almost got the reward
But now you're getting the risk end of it, which is all of a sudden a 5 on 2 turns into a 3 on 3 real quick.
And if you're foes you'd love to be alive and not have taken that risk to have an influence in this round.
Defense has to get spread thin with the death of foes pushing through the smoke, so now there's a lot of factors that just come down to timing.
I think they're going to be really frustrated with the decisions they've made in this round.
They're going to want to lose it, but yeah, with that kill from the start, it's still on,
but you have just one HP.
Yeah, actually with that nade damage, maybe you just call for the save now on this two
on to as it was it worth actually risking the web or maybe you come in very very late to maybe catch
him off guard but oh tough retake with this HP this is gonna be around that you kick yourself
when you think back about it if you go on to lose this it's a snare 5v3 putting themselves
in a really strong spot about to tie up the game and they just gave it away there's no
molotov they could actually just stick this while they aren't flash goes up probe into the peak
Stairs get the head shot now they can take it. Okay. They come right back into it. Astralis do pick it up a
Scary moment there for them, but even that retake going in their favor really interesting decision though from the Mongols to play the post plan in that fashion
You know they didn't have the most HP in the world
But the plate in that fashion away like that bombs not planted for you if it's planted a little bit wider
I understand you're putting a lot of faith in that one pop flash
It's going to be able to catch some people off-guard, lovely shooting from stair as well
in the two on two to protect his teammate.
I mean you can understand as well if you've got the utility for...
I was looking for a Molotov.
I was like, okay, maybe they got a Molotov.
Yeah, they just don't have the utility to even pull that off.
So I guess the only thing though they understand is they don't have this unconfirmed damage
to the Rene Astralis place.
You don't know how low they are.
Potentially, yeah.
I mean, really easy retake when Astralis with that low HP is able to just kind of walk in for free with no contact
And no peeking. No peeking. No peeking
All right, here we go
We're all tied up finally with that plant another buy comes in for the Mongols Galil's an AK-47's plenty of utility
Fozie finally has the AWP in the field of play on the CT side
Let's see what kind of an influence that can have dictating the way the map is played
The Mongols into middle, no one from Astralis attempting to challenge, they're gonna be happy
having a deep position towards Jag here for Hoxie, he's just gonna maintain that spot
with a deep smoke.
So you can have mid, good luck getting through any of the other choke points.
Dona is defended, Red is heavily defended, the AWP is on the prowl and a miss shot
but he's gonna go back again and he's gonna be punished by 9-10, but they might think that it's open
because of that, but there's actually two rifles waiting for them, and they get that warning system.
Hooksy's got the kill, though. Good push out from Cape, then combined with the donut push,
and Astralis play this one perfectly together, not making a mistake, and putting Amzino and Techno into a clutch,
but they have taken the B bomb site.
Yeah, but then also that kind of a play that's really, really cool to see Astralis execute
is put them in a bad position for the post plan, move them all the way from the B bomb site.
Yabi is going to be coming in with low HP. You got to have him lead the way.
He's got to be the first person through to show the location of these defenders of these Mongols players and one of them is in cave.
It's a strong position. You surely get Yabi at least. There's the low HP going down, but with the spacing,
they need to just push in and get rid of them.
It was all on techno and hooksy. It was the last bullet. It actually just connects to the head. Damn. Nicely done.
I love that play. Yeah, Yabi, you should be hiked up. Give a powerful high five to hooksy.
That's great work. Him sitting in donut very easy for him to play the safety game and just say I need to hold on to
Donuts so they can't access the a bomb site
But instead pushing through to get a double kill alleviate the pressure on red room
That's really cool to watch Astralis put that together because they orchestrated it right they had the smokes up at the B
Bomb site they had the smokes up in donut
They know the one photo faded in red room, so they brought the op over the 2m4
They were ready for that fight and in the situation Yabbi's ready to pounce
Really cool to see Astralis playing this way and they've taken their first lead of the map
Seven straight going back to the first half. Eight of the last nine rounds in Astralis' favor. They've taken complete control here on ancient.
And the driver's seat to close out this series stood to nothing.
Well, they cross up into Red Room, so Mongols have been given the space to play with.
Tostralas is going to be happy holding bomb sites.
Instead, you've got three players over in B. Now they realize, okay, well, mid control
is given over.
They'll see that smoke in red, and they realize that an A-split is possible through
A main and CT.
Tostralas have got two players inside of Donut, though, so you are conceding
the A bomb site, but you'll be happy to play retake, and I guess it's the only option available,
so the bomb has been planted, Techno now moving out of middle, and they take donut away, they
take stare, now the last player to get is Yabi, if they win this fight the round becomes
almost impossible to win for Astralis, so Yabi does very well to maneuver himself and
stay alive, he's doing damage, his teammates now arriving, and Yabi's done so well to
get another kill, all of a sudden repops into position, and it's crazy how Yabi
stays alive for so long. Oh my god he's so good. That's unbelievable. That's that's what I meant
when I felt like it like some of that strength some of the like the precise shooting we felt out
of the Mongols and like the first 10 rounds of the first half kind of like disappeared.
Are you starting to feel it now? Like the some of these fights you're just like oh they're just
kind of missing like how are you not trading this kill? How are you not getting this fight?
Individually feels like Mongols have lost a step as this game has gone on
and Astralis has just continually powered up. Really cool to watch this recovery. Well
What this was a six to two at one point. This was seven to one at a certain point in the game.
Oh my. It really does feel like it was that hook C4K inside of cave that gives them even this
opportunity. This could have been a 10 to two half from the Mongols. If it wasn't for that pop-off
it's. Yeah. The foes you want that. You're exactly right. Because that's what carved out
the rounds needed to then survive long enough. Yeah, to hit this level of play. Really
So Mongols take their third and final time out no chance to pause the action after this that just tells you how desperate
It's gotten over in the camp. Yeah, I mean it starts to make it a beeline for the wind here in a 2-0 fashion
Really impressive to see them
Start so slowly and really just getting their asses handed to them for a long period of time
But then just turn things around also like it's really nice to see them have that kind of like an upset overspirited pro league
And then they kind of the next game against Aurora just kind of felt flat
But it's nice to see them kind of respond and show a start like a complete fluke now
We're starting to see a little bit of evidence behind it that this can be replicated. It can happen again and again
Yeah, be in real they've grabbed the opening two kills add hooksie into it for good measure
I mean it's the first time in years for a straw so being exciting again
Yeah, I think hooksie like during during his like time off his little like sabbatical
He just he just turned into like such an awesomely ratty player
I've seen him like playing dust to now doing like crazy timing pushes and long like constantly
He'll do it even when it feels like you've done it three times already now. He's doing things like this
I mean there this one's an intelligent move right two players go down elsewhere figures
The T's gonna take his attention away. That's a great opportunity for a free kill
Well, I love about it as well as they back it problem. We're listening to this comms
And coach Raga was saying, you know, let's stop whining and he's not no
I'm not gonna stop whining
Like I just love that like the honesty and the attitude and the pursuit of excellence is
is respectable. And Emsenio pursuing excellence in this round. He's taken two inside a donut.
Great headshots. Yeah, but that's not the real thrust of this attack. This is all a fake and
actually it's pulled the straws all the way to CT spawn. They've been fooled. Oh my god,
are they going to attack right? They are going to come to A. Oh, okay. Well, yeah, that's
perfect for a shot. What's happening? Well, they're letting Emsenio get around the back,
so he's going to go through Red Room and try and flank them out. Now it is being considered
all of a sudden my food miss shot oh oh oh no well luckily stare is so good he
gets the kill regardless and now 910 it's forced into a clutch you know he's
given the time he's given the respect put that bomb down and get into a better
position he's planted for himself if he can make it into CT oh they're gonna be
kept he's still gonna kill them oh 910 he didn't take any damage so it's up
against stare let's reposition 910 has played this one incredibly well
hard to see how he loses this now to be honest smoke is on the site stare just
needs to win an unfavorite fight because he has to consider where he is
and stare just hunts him down and takes 9-10 away what a lovely route to walk in
the 1v1 that box covers his whole his whole progression the smoke is down as
well that's no sick from stare and then just a hard wide swing at the end
and unable to get handled by 9-10 nice attempt in the 1v2 cool move to take
down Hooksy to open up the possibility of CT spawns?
You can see that Hooksy isn't happy.
After that, he's still stressing the issue.
Like, does this round should have been cleaner?
Like, we don't need it to get into a 1v1 scenario.
It's great that Stare won it, but we're allowing him to get two kills in the donut.
We're allowing those heavy, favorite advantages to fall into a position where Mongols could
win it.
I see him stressing that and wanting to get into a position of just winning the
series and not allowing them into rounds like that at all.
Yeah, we'll bottle the stress up.
That's what we like to do.
it in because you're so close to the finish line. Two rounds away from a 2-0 series victory
over the Mongols. Stare has slid over into position playing at the default plant spot.
You've got a third player arriving in Fossey's AWP.
Yeah, well Stare just annihilated by Mzinio, who gets a second as well. Monstrous entry
from the Mongolians into the site, and that plant is thrown out. Hooksy just sprinting
back to the donut, but they've already conceded that deep positioning. And so impossible
for Astros to win this one. They're going to back off.
You got money to drop weapons, there's no point in going for this now.
Nice hit, good opening kills provided, even though Fosy gets one.
The two rifles inside the bomb site and in Donut can get absolutely nothing done.
And you can see again, that's the difference.
You see Hooksy doing that really fast play towards Donut to try and flank and hit a really
nice timing on that attack.
And that works if those rifles get one or two kills.
But when they don't get anything, Mongol's attack is able to spread out so much quicker
and get into those positions to protect themselves way faster than Hooksy was able to catch.
So a nice round for the Mongols, it's not out of the woods just yet, our Astralis.
I've got enough money as you mentioned just to drop these weapons over.
And the timeout being taken.
I think the back to back rounds where you lose that one and you could have lost the
one prior.
It wasn't for that stab big 1v1.
So I think for Astralis they want to tighten things up and just make sure that they
don't allow the Mongols any opportunities to return themselves to this game.
Yeah, this has got to be the timeout that's just like nothing tactical.
everybody chill, everyone calm down, everyone take a deep breath, we're playing great, we're still up by two, no cause for panic just yet.
Let's just make these rounds cleaners, they're getting away from us as we're trying to kind of force the victory in these final few rounds.
Op still in the hands of Fosy, which is nice, he's got $5,600 left in the bank as well, so we can afford that in the next round also.
There's a decent amount of cash left over for the Astralis side, losing bonus obviously not built up, but finally, looking at that round history, finally the Mongols stopped that run.
8-0 run to start the second half.
Astralis with a 2-round lead but it's dwindling.
One just taken away in the previous round before that, Mongols have brought it very,
very close into a 1-on-1 clutch.
Perhaps the final punch back from the Mongols and Astralis just have to outlast
it. Very quiet on the map compared to some previous rounds. So Tecno is going to start
heating things up over towards Jack.
It's going to be fozy and hook-seats to defense.
No more goals just taking the time, getting in the correct positions for this.
Smoke is going to fade away. Flash comes in, looking to activate re-U, but...
It's not the most effective flashback.
Pooxie's in a good spot.
Boonsie also, and it's all shut down.
Mongols are wrecked as they try and come through cave.
Rifle's waiting for them to stare on the cleanup for the final two.
And Astralis reach series point.
So, the flash is good.
It's the second player who's playing anti-flash.
You could see the first player aided entirely,
but that's the exact setup that the Mongols have in cave
is for that second player to be playing anti-flash.
He does exactly his job, how it's designed.
Unfortunately for the Mongols,
Astralis set up as exactly how it's designed.
That contact is made, utility thrown out,
and as soon as Rory goes down,
Bozy hustles over to the entrance with the AWP
to buy hooks in time to get ready
for that third player's try to stream through.
This is great protocols, great reactions,
and just fantastic teamwork from Astralis in this round.
12-9, three chances to close it out.
They just need the one more round.
However, 9-10's gonna make that a little bit more difficult.
Let's start nipping down and taking Cobra away.
So, a 4v4 off the back of it.
Let's see what Mongols can do is they have an aim and push open to them.
Yeah, I think they got to feel like they can get this A bomb site frequently.
Like they've been able to find, you know, it emptied, they've been able to find it with one defender.
Now it's just nobody's home.
It's also done a decent job at retaking it.
Here and there even if it comes down to 1v1 fights.
I think the problem is they've done a good job retaking it,
but they usually have a little bit of a jump, right?
Here you're just kind of gambling that they're not going to take the bomb site,
And when they eventually do, I think you just call a save?
Do you... do you come for this?
It's two smokes on 9-10 and techno.
They don't want to use it because the AWP has the angle, now it gives it up.
But if you lose a single player before this begins, you have to call it off.
So, risky on the staging.
We got Enzinho wetting inside all of the temple, goes into the peak and dies.
No scope again from Fusey, but it's a two for two.
All down to Hoocsey.
Can he close the map here and now?
Hoocsey down to the 1v1 up against 9-10 behind the big box.
And Hoocsey jumping up on top.
He throws the smoke down onto the diffuse.
He's going to hold it.
Hoocsey's going to hold it.
Here we go, Hoocsey, all the way.
Yeah.
5-4-9, Hoocsey just sticks it inside of the smoke.
Way down by his big old balls.
That's a huge play.
Let's freaking go, Dico!
Let's see those big old bulls, right?
I'm going to haul them around the wheelbarrow like they do from South Park.
That's a gig at the way over there.
Absolutely.
You know, I used to be a huge Estrada's family.
I used to get their jersey every season.
And then a couple of years ago, I packed them all up and put them into storage.
I'm going to go home and get them out of storage now after that.
I'm impressed.
It's been quite some years since Estrada's has been exciting.
Certainly just a wild game though, like let's be honest
It was looking like a mat 3 was in the cars for the majority of this game
I mean the first half Mongols were taken into Astralis playing a super aggressive defense
Getting in their faces disrupting all their plans and looking why that they were gonna put this on cruise control to new
But then all of a sudden we switch sides and Astralis is just
There's back man. I think this show is like how you can't
Let's just put up the gas in these in these games eight to up
And then this point you see this one before from Fuji not one before before 4k
Right spray down just the trading there from cobra not good enough. You give him an inch. He takes a mile
You know eight four then the pistol and everything starts rolling out of nowhere
Astralis has complete control of the game
And it looks like you don't even know what happened the first time for how mongols were up so much because they look
out of that completely. So it is a bit of a filter just looking at the
scenes like Mara at the end there kind of staring in their fists wondering what
happened this round just to finish it all off. I see on the cake.
So many jokes. Okay let's talk about the two sides of Mongols because now we've
seen it on both Mirage and Ancient. It's something you spoke about in the
pregame. It's something that was brought up in clues even. It's actually a
topic of conversation that we've brought up time and time again with this
team. They are struggling. Yeah, I mean, it's not as effective as getting
openers as they used to be. I mean, a part of when you're playing that super
controlled chaos, aggressive play styles, you have to be able to find the
opening kill or find the trade, at least in equalize. And they're just not
doing that, you know. Again, losing Senzu is a big piece. That guy was one of
the best entry fighters in the world last year in the sense of how often
he was taking opening duels on the T side, how often he converted. And if
he wasn't the first guy, when you see your second or third trading in the
slot, doing a fantastic job at doing that. You know, right now, the main
guys trying to do that for this team is Blitz has kind of upped his
you know, entrying to try to make up for some stuff and then
they've obviously called on Techno sometimes to do it. Obviously Cobra is an aggressive
striker so he's in the half his attempt at it as well.
And they're just not converting at the same rate that they used to.
Yeah, I mean it's just, it's a rough one to see and I mean as much as you're talking about the
entries I feel like the trading in this map you saw in a couple of instances
where it's just like what's happening guys. This is the bread and butter, the basics,
I think what Mongols used to do really well after plant situations on the T side they were getting into them
But then they couldn't close out and one of the fingers around 18 when I was like there's no way if Astralis retakes this
It's it's jover because the positions were so good. It's not like they just sat on the bop side and waited
They did took cave control they went for the fights
But then when the fights were there they just allowed Astralis player to take a 1v1
One V1 reposition is like, this can't be happening guys, you just need to trade that out, clear
the area and then focus on the other part of the bombsite of the retake and yeah, that
just allowed Astralis to gain so much momentum on the CT side.
Surely it's not just the removal of one player though, because I know we keep going
back to Senzu, but I don't feel like this falloff is completely based on just one player
change.
I mean, the Senzu-Aura departure, which put them in the category of maybe an average European team,
maybe that's maybe the aura from this guy, which was pretty huge, I would say.
That's such a bad position.
I mean, obviously, if the answer was easy, they would have already solved it,
and we wouldn't be watching this right now and having to speculate.
But I mean, if you're looking at all the variables in play, it's, you know,
obviously not only just losing Senzu, but going through two different players along the way, right?
control as first. Now it's
going to Cobra as the permanent member.
You missed Mara for a couple of events.
And let's be frank.
One other thing that this team always has kind of a
reputation of is not bootcamping,
not putting in as much practice.
There's been a lot of reporting to have about you.
It's like you're great at not bootcamping.
Yeah. And I mean, I would have imagined and I'm sure that
they probably did put in some extra preparation.
Once Cobra's here first got on board to try to embed him
into the team and kind of understand what roles he was
going to play and things that nature.
So you just kind of wonder when you see all these things
kind of swimming around what it is I'm not sure.
Okay so we will focus a bit more on Mongols in a bit,
but right now I would love to chat to Ruga
from Astralis making the playoffs.
Congratulations, job well done.
You've got to be happy with the team.
Ruga, I want to start by asking you about Yabi
because I've been so impressed with him
since this international Astralis has come about.
Is there anything specific from a coaching style
that you've implemented to get him to activate
like this in the server?
Not like down to one thing.
I think we just gave him a lot more responsibility
in terms of deciding not only his own small micros
that he does on the map, but he's also very good at enabling
the players around him.
And I also think he is a big part of also why
Star has popped off this year, that they have a really good
vibe going.
And the ping pong, when they play these key positions
on the map, it's definitely great for the whole team.
And I'm just happy that Jaby is stepping
a notch up? Yeah I have a question here obviously congrats on the win and just the results recently.
A bit of a loaded question but how much more motivated is this lineup than the previous Danish
one that you had? I think it's two different teams so I think it's also hard to compare them.
I think political answer, respectful. Yeah but the old Danish one I think our ambitions were
higher like from the get-go whereas this one we know that we can do really good but we also
So no, we need to grind it out.
And when you look at the NECS traditionally,
I think we've maybe skipped a couple of steps
when you compare ourselves to the international teams
in terms of building the foundations down to the core.
And I think that's what we've been able to do here
with the international one,
like take a couple of steps back,
look at what we wanna do,
and then focus really hard on it
and also develop the culture around it.
Yeah, I got two questions for you.
So the first one is being,
how comfortable was Astralis moving
in the international direction
because you already had a in-game leader like Hootsy who has already done that before.
Was that something that kind of helped that decision be a little bit easier?
I think there's a couple of things, right?
Like one that the talent pool in Denmark lately hasn't been the greatest.
So like picking up new, like upcoming players,
which Danny Sears have been doing like historically, it has been really hard.
So that was basically one of them.
And then obviously that we have a couple of players also me as the coach
that has played this international series that obviously also is a big plus
that we know how it works, like what type of culture do you want in these tier 1 and tier 2 teams
that are grinding their way up, you know?
So, yeah, I think it's a big plus that we had an in-game leader that our fluent in English
and have done it at the highest level.
That obviously helps a lot when you're grinding together as a new team
that we can focus on what's really important,
which is sometimes different from the old national lineups,
where it's a lot about microcommunication from the start until the end,
whereas here it's also about the structure and within that structure making it simple enough
for the new players also to know what is expected of them
when the heat is on.
Yeah, last question for me, speaking of the new players,
Fuzzi coming in as a new operator team.
We know that the open market is kind of tough out there.
And I feel like a lot of people didn't notice Fuzzi
because he was playing on a North American organization
and obviously not the best competition over there.
And it seemed like a lot of guys kind of missed the ball
on this one.
How were you able to realize that Fuzzi could be
an asset for this team?
And how have you felt about things so far?
I think everyone around like the tier one
he knew his name, and like that he was a good player.
I think previously he's maybe been like on the road
of carrying his teams too much,
which was maybe also why sometimes he didn't look as great
over a long period of time.
But I think here like obviously we're giving him the room
to become like the bearer version of himself,
where we can help us help with the experience
that we have within the team to also enable him.
And yeah, like he has no fear.
And I think in the today, as you say today's off market,
I still see a lot of very scared offers
that don't know exactly what to do in CS2 or take the right gambles when they actually need to do something.
And I think he is fearless enough that we can help mold it into the best version of him.
So I'm really happy with him.
And I remember him from back when he came up in NIP and had his stints there.
He was a really flashy AWPer that had some insane shots.
But to quote himself, he's become older and more experienced now.
And that's also what we're seeing the benefit of.
Yeah, just maybe the last question about the match that you just played,
like obviously you had two really, really good CT sides here.
How much was this model's game preparation based,
and how much was it just on the servers the players just delivered?
I think we have a really good record against them,
and I think we have a couple of key points on how we want to handle them,
and I think that's why we sometimes make these big scorelines
that we know exactly what we want to do and how to break it down,
and not to give the full key to success away.
I think that's one of the big things when we play the Mongols team
that they can be quite hard to handle
if you don't know exactly how to put them in boxes
and make what they're doing a little bit more simple.
And I think that's what we're seeing the benefit from today.
So to answer your question, it was definitely a mix,
as I said to the boys on the CT Mirage.
It doesn't matter what we call out of spawn
as long as this ping-pong and small setups
and ideas 24-7 are going, then it doesn't matter.
So it was kind of a mix.
Roger, thank you so much. Congratulations. We'll see you in playoffs. Enjoy the break
before you get there. So there we go. Astralis, our team, making it through the first team,
which is quite exciting, but we do have to talk about something else that was happening
on the B stream because it is quite important to bring this up. FaZe made a huge run to
to get you to play this final game.
They obviously four-fitted two of them.
They lost their game here, and they are out.
In some ways, I mean, it would have been nice
to see a fairytale run from them, you know,
from 0-2 down, maybe make the playoffs or something.
But in some ways, I'm also happy that it's kind of over,
and they can just take a step back and figure out
what they want to do, because obviously missing the major
for FaZe is unacceptable for this roster.
to continue going like this, I don't think it's gonna happen, right?
So now they finally have that time to obviously with the together with the players,
the management to figure out who is the core that is gonna continue forward or
is it even gonna be a core, what they are doing?
Because obviously in no way did they impress after they are a major final and
at the end of last year.
This isn't such a prolonged ordeal, right?
because you felt like we had already done phases eulogy
after they had failed at Rotterdam.
And it felt like the major chances were over.
And then it took another shot with Draculand.
And that didn't work out either.
And so then they took another one on this Belgrade event.
And that hasn't done it either.
And it's like we've been just kind of seeing them
on a ventilator for the last several months at this point.
And now finally, the plug has been pulled.
And it's one of those things where I think it's
a blessing disguise, I hope, at least.
one of those things where there is no, you know,
face bullshit or major magic to, you know,
hold on to it anymore to have the hope that maybe there is
actually some things still here for us that we can deliver.
You know, we keep having these rough seasons,
but we keep having these major ones that makes believe
that we're still on the right path.
And I think now there is nothing that would lead you
to believe that this is going to work.
And hopefully this means drastic changes are on the way
because they certainly need to be there, I think.
And this was just, you know, maybe a last chance
for some of these guys in the phase of Jersey.
Unfortunately, not the way you want to do it, but at some point it's got to be done.
Very quick final question.
I mean, how soon before we won here, Ash is now the new phase coach, and two, the Rebuild
starts.
Do they wait till after the major before they start making these big moves?
Well, the rumors for Ash are some other teams, right?
The Chad is leaking Aurora, looking into the British strategist, right?
So maybe they're late for that vote as well, wouldn't be a surprise considering how
phase have handled some of their business.
The question is like what they can actually do.
The financial situation, apparently not that great.
Now they're missing out on a major,
missing out on sticker money as well.
So that's gonna put them in even the worst situation.
Their players all look terrible except for frozen, right?
So unless they're gonna sell frozen
and rebuild completely,
where can they even get the money
to make some signings, right?
So it's gonna be a, it's gonna be a rough run,
but then you look at, you know,
Astralis picked up Fuzi, where, where were you?
What was what was phase doing when this guy signed for nine for a month before going to Astralis?
Like he was out of options completely. No one was talking to him. So I don't know
It's just the same old same old until we see a change. I don't you know believe in it too much
I'll never not believe in phase. I'll never not believe in Kerrigan
I think that's the right thing to say like I I believe in Kerrigan too
I've seen him do great things over the years and I've seen him come from dire situations and fine
But on the end of my ending of how beautiful
Karrigan is as a player, I'm very upset to do that.
I'm not.
You know, I think a lot of people are out on Karrigan in hope that he's one of the
people that get changed.
And I actually wouldn't mind him sticking around.
You know, I think the question will be does he want to, A, B, does he want to stick
around as a player, or is it time to move to a coaching role?
I think those are some of the things that maybe he'll have to kind of think and
consider.
But I do think that, look, if we're looking at the most minimalist way to change
you, if they want to keep the VRS core, then I think the three to keep would
be Karrigan as your in-game leader, because we know how tough those are to find.
and then twist and frozen are fantastic pieces,
but you got to hope that frozen wants to stay
is kind of the big problem.
Cause I think that he might want out, right?
Also, also if you're out twist is for him
because this year it's has been horrible, right?
It's not been what this guy expects from himself
and everyone expects from him, right?
So without him, it was just frozen this year,
Broke he being super inconsistent Jacob back
to his like pre major form all together
looking pretty rough.
Obviously they can also make changes incrementally
maybe change too and then change another guy
after a month or whatever to keep that VRS going, right?
But it's overall just a very dire situation.
I think they should start looking as soon as possible
because you want to make the moves before a G2 is making
moves, before Falcons are making moves,
because you're not anymore that attractive location
for up-and-coming players.
Such as you've already let people like Fuzi go by.
You let Senzu get loaned out the passion UA.
Like, you've let the big names go.
So like, they got to work quick.
There's no point in beating a dead horse, to be fair.
Be nice online today, because I think this was a big one.
And these are superstar players,
and I assure you they're feeling this a lot more
than you ever will.
We're gonna take a break when we return,
paravision, playing up against Spitz.
She said she loves you, but she can't love me.
But I love you.
I
Won't play window anymore
The human body was built to move, not trapped at a desk in one singular posture for 12 hours a day.
It's time your chair evolved. This is Secret Lab Type Evo.
Ergonomically engineered for you, gamers, hybrid workers, artists, that can use every move.
I
You're watching PGL Booker as we're moving to the last game of the day here on the A-Stream
and it is a banger paravision up against Foote.
I am looking forward to this one at the beginning of the year.
of question marks around foot but if you're following the tier 2 scene even
when they were Navi Academy everyone spoke so highly of what this team was
capable of the incredible firepower that they brought to the table they come
into Cluj they were a replacement team and they do this like magical run that
we all thoroughly enjoyed and since then it just feels like they've
consistent he got better they're super fun to watch and they're knocking on the
door of the top teams in tier 1 kind of making themselves known that give
them a little bit more time than they're coming for you yeah I mean
something that's under the radar is that this team qualified for the major their
first major together like they are not there and in Budapest last last year
right and these results just coming off of CAC late last year then getting
invited to bounty then coming as a replacement in Krakow and inclusion
inclusion and then the fourth and pro league and they just avoided all of
this drama that teams like FaZe had to go through with a few key wins over
over really good opposition yeah I mean just we're making mouse sports
comparisons before. This is the better one, right? Because mouse sports built
themselves off of their academy system. Mouse the next week. Where are you going?
Give me a second. I'm getting there. You're a European mouse. So obviously, you know,
that they obviously went from their academy system. They brought in, you
know, Zersen, they brought in Torsi, they brought in Jimmy, and they were
able to eventually build themselves up into not just the feeder team, like
mouse sports used to be selling players off or losing their talent
elsewhere. They were able to finally build something solid. And so,
Foot, coming from the Navi Junior System, were able to come over to
this organization bringing locks replaced Macaulay,
who obviously stayed and played with the Navi main team.
And as you noted,
CAC was kind of probably where they first got notoriety
cause they beat FaZe in a couple of games
and had a fifth, sixth place finish.
But, you know, this year,
while they haven't made many playoffs,
they've been getting some really good wins.
Like, you know, you look at the one they got against
Aurora at Cluj, or the one they got against Furio
over at Cracow.
And then you look at EPL, they beat Mouseports,
they had a fourth place finish.
Like, they're slowly building themselves up
to being a really, you know, fun team
actually can do some damage. What do we like about them? I mean I think why people are excited
about them is their play style. Obviously they're new young players so kind of unknown,
not high expectations on them but when they are on the server most of the times the games
are very exciting. They're fast, they go for fights and they make the games, even
the games that they lose are close. We'll be talking about the one that they had against
Perry version earlier in the year. That one's just a highlight machine of a bastard
three right and when you have games like that then obviously there's something
to enjoy and kind of what we're getting at here is like this is a team of players
that will be in your favorite team in six 12 months 18 months or whatever or
they'll stick together and this will be your favorite team I it they already are
quite a few people out there enjoying them they're kind of the hipster pic I
feel like on like the CS Twitter out there people are like ah you know I
don't like mouse they have no aura but these guys you know long skits
fired up they crab and he picks up a scout and aces for no reason and stuff
like this is something you can get behind. How did they measure up against
ParaVision? Just a very different team you know ParaVision obviously is a squad
that's kind of built more on a very structured discipline system they're
not as fiery with their explosive play style they can do some fast plays if
they're more known for kind of wearing you down taking it slow and just
playing very smart discipline counter strike on the T side slowly building up
rounds and then on the CT side they're known for their gamble stacks
and, you know, hedging bets and things that nature, whereas, you know,
foot is just that team that gets in your face right away and it kind of starts
with Krabini. I mean, Krabini is a very aggressive in-game leader as far as
being also an entry fragger on top of leading, but he's also one of the better
fragging ideas in the world. I mean, I think that he's one of the ones that
really goes up there and, you know, when him and Launt come together, they
just really create a lot of space and so we basically have two in-game
leaders who are very capable of fragging, but in two very different ways,
right? We've already mentioned Krabini's aggressive rifling and some
the star ct positions as well that he plays with the rifle but then you have
james just that steady opera right the guy who plays that and hits the easy
shots he plays the smart angles and he makes his presence known on the server
particularly defensively while also calling him to get kind of striking his
own right but in a much different way than Caribbean does so it's really fun
to kind of see the dichotomy of these two players who do you think wins out
in this duel when you take a look at those two well I mean we saw them
earlier in the year and it was, as Cluz has said, that game was insane, like, you know, big comebacks over times.
Pretty much anyone or everyone on the server had a highlight moment, a 3K here or there.
Belchernauk was really, really good in that one's way as well.
Then on the other side, Locke was so inspired, he really wanted that playoff appearance, didn't really happen for them.
Perry eventually ended up going all the way to the final.
Symmetry as well was was insane, and he's the guy that I'm not really sure of like at
Some games earlier in this tournament as well. He was looking very solid
But other games I feel like he's not really making the difference with the off
So that's one of the the players that they'll definitely need if they have game on the other side that you kind of know
What you're getting from how important is the Vita gonna be in this matchup dust?
It's interesting because like they get to take out this friend
So they're opponent really well like we obviously know how good paravidgen are in inferno
foot's not going to let them have it just like you know,
Paravision not going to let them have nukes.
So then it really kind of comes down to you know,
some weird middle ground maps.
You know, the Dust 2 pick from Paravision,
I think makes a lot of sense.
I think a Mirage pick would probably make a good sense
out of here from foot.
So you're going to get the plate of your strengths.
And you know, Mirage has been a vulnerability
if we're honest for Paravision.
One of the few maps that they haven't been able
to really figure out just yet.
So it kind of breaks down in a fun way
where they do kind of have opposing map pools.
Yeah, I mean, this was how it went the last time
Last time around Dust2, Mirage, and then Ancient as a decider.
Let's just see if there's going to be any changes.
I don't really expect it.
No, so it's the same maps.
And it's maps that both teams we saw a lot of on this.
I think for me, an interesting player for Ft is Demon,
someone that, when they broke out last year at CAC,
looked insane.
This year, it seems to be a bit in the shadow of Longx,
who is taking more of the opening entry duels.
And Demon is kind of like on the sides and I don't feel like he is just shining or finding
the spotlight that much.
Obviously, he's still a strong player, but what he was doing last year was just running
into a bomb site and destroying three people out of nowhere.
And I haven't really seen that much from him this year.
Yeah, I mean, Demon was one of the ones that people had a lot of things to say about
him.
It's because he was just like a fun rifle.
Like he's an anchor on the CT side that was very efficient in playing that role.
And then he was kind of a flex rifle on the T side where he placed a lot of
extremely positions, but it's a really good trade-fragger behind Trebini and behind Launtes and was really able to, you know, give a lot of fire part to them.
But now, you know, it's kind of been others who have kind of stepped up and got it done.
And really with Dust2 coming up, I'm just excited for it because this was the map that went into two overtimes over there, playing against each other at Cluesnipoca.
And it's a map that Paravigian are very strong on, but, I mean, Foot really brought them a nice fight that one.
So I hope to see it again.
Do you know what worries me, though, is this is Dustin and Jay.
I'm like, I have no doubts after that matchup.
I think they do this with all their matchups like they all go back to their little team house
And then the whole team has to sit and Dustin and James for the next three hours
They're gonna break down every tiny micro mistake you made so that it doesn't happen again
And I worry in this particular matchup that para vision would have done just that and then have gone on to play some bigger teams
Meaning coming into this they're gonna be stronger than what they were it's very possible. It's just I think with foot
You don't have an easy weakness to exploit that other teams have
I think the anchoring of jubes and demon is very very good and then longson
Kerbini are very good rotators. You have mentioned that cemetery at times can
have struggles with AWP and so that is something to certainly keep an eye upon
but I just feel like foot are a pretty well-balanced squad and so there's no
like glaring you know gap that I feel like you know paraventics can exploit
but paraventics are just so good at playing a very dynamic and diverse T side
you know they can really change it up quite a lot so for me it's just more
about you know them having more of a deep playbook and playing their own
game than necessarily trying to anti-strat the opponent.
Yeah, and I mean, I really like Zwei on Dust2, especially on the CT side, the way he plays
long. I think if he's alone or if there's support there, it seems like whatever happens,
he either gets a multi-kill, just takes control, be it early or late round. I think that gives
a lot of freedom for Jame to play around with the rest of the CT side, to stack on
short or do something to be locked down and stuff like that, or even Zwei to activate
with a long lurk. I think that's a part of Paravision's game on Dust2 that's super strong
and it just shows the way that we didn't see in spirit when he has a bit more freedom to
do stuff. When it's not like, oh, if you make a mistake, it's the end of the world,
but it's more like you go with instinct when you feel the space is there. He just has
like a really good, mechanically he's really good, and then Ken actually turned
around for your team.
A couple of years ago, I got into a little bit of trouble for discussing the balls of a Danish IGL.
Wasn't Bruxy at that time?
Which IGL was it, Sam?
I mean, I told Katie and he didn't have balls for his race.
But Dingo, you had to throw that line out there.
That's a pair of balls you can talk about.
Yeah, now we can talk about Jane.
Yes, right there.
I've made so many transitions in my career.
Okay, yes, Jane. Great IGL.
No, no joke. I saw that I don't know if you guys saw that clip that the Paravision release from the 1v5 of Zywoo
Yeah, actually, I think Jane handled that like a goddamn legend
That was so cool seeing the way like he reacted to how devastating that could be like guys
This time told us Zywoo was gonna punish us if we made mistakes that was this round
It can't get any worse so everyone shape up so
I'm super impressed with the level of control and kind of leadership that Jane has over this team
Obviously, that's not any kind of a secret it just you know the more and more that gets revealed the more and more
It's kind of like oh, this is awesome. Yeah. Yeah, I heard dust wanting a second right there
So maybe we'll get that from them. We'll get the new so it was the balls talk
You know, I get some going all right
Pavichy versus football get into this one dust two fights are happening straight away
Now this is literally the the two teams with two very different philosophies and how to play counter strike and I love it
So foot already completely in the tunnels like
Completely in the tunnels already that was are you are you gonna challenge us?
Parapers like, mmm balls in your court, Jim.
Interesting. So we're going to actually pack away from P.
We're in the tunnel. So let's just go back and reset.
This is cool, yeah, but here's the next layer of this that Foot have to figure out is how long do you stay in this setup.
Like you can see, by the information that there was that like mass push into
upper, we've already watched Jane kind of walk out long
realizing that resources are on the other side of the map. He's got a chance this is clear
And still, Foot hasn't budged. So how do they want to play the mid-round with so many players in upper tunnels?
Push them away into the tunnels, Grobenny. Dropping him on the dual-barrettes.
And Foot are in a situation where they are loving this, because Demon has just got another two through the smoke-sheller doing what he can.
He's pulled two kills back, but still a very difficult round ahead of them. They're completely split up.
And James and I'm predicted move from cemetery. He will fall and leaving
Fight to fall in the paper off. Shallow
Happen louse is all alone 1v2 all of a sudden
That's what I was saying is you've got you've got a cool start to the round by taking control of halls
But that's a lot of resources in that part of the map and all of a sudden para vision has kind of schooled you elsewhere
Well, it's getting closed. There's a flight down from James that is wild that they win that pistol round
Hey because it's you lose track of the rest of the map right and as you're reacting they never had information that Jane was out long
So as the reacting to the mid presence of the double kill from Jello to go step towards short
They're not paying attention to that because they don't they don't realize that someone's actually gotten out just a detail
That's miss and James able to clean up a free one and then all of a sudden you're like oh two on two
This is a 2v5 conversion
if your foot
Not a pissed off right now
To be honest
Yeah, it's I'd be very annoyed, but you can obviously fix that by winning a second round here true
Now we know Krabani with us to the scout what he could do with that. Yeah, he's
Yeah, that ace was a weird thing wasn't always never never seen before really one of the more wild scout clips
We've had an also you said it felt like one of those random God clips
You'll find on reddit. Yeah like a matric game, but it actually happened in professional game in the playoffs
It'll happen and it's it's insane
So hoping for something similar here from Krebbeni.
There's three men set up over on that B bomb site.
Putting all your eggs in the scout basket.
Yeah.
It was Easter, so.
True.
I don't see what I can do about this, but really hoping that paratroopers are coming
to the B bomb site.
But that ain't happening.
Go towards D-minute short. They're gonna block out with the smoke.
Yeah, just trying to stall it out for as long as possible.
They're obviously never gonna be able to block them off for the whole round,
but maybe they can see if you can buy some time to give a teammate,
maybe grab one cheeky kill before the exec begins.
But as we can see, Foot stacked up at the B bomb site,
really relying on the finishing move being heading in this direction,
and they're wrong, but they are heading at the Grubini Scout.
Yes, this is the moment we've all been waiting for.
Krabeni, not landing the first shot, but don't worry.
He's gonna hit everyone from here.
They're scared of it.
It's already past the line. They've already snuck one past the line. They don't care about him at all.
You know, like they're like, okay, you're already there planning the bomb. We don't need to fight you.
Yeah, we actually don't need to walk out short at all. So bomb is planted.
Yeah. I mean, if it wasn't for that, obviously Krabeni would have won that round.
So, um, just an unfortunate scenario.
It's also one of the things Paravision is just kind of known for, right?
It's one of the one of the great positives that we always talk about with them is just fundamentally.
Like this is one of those teams that's just like have min max every part of this and jame and distan have passed that all
Down the lines that the new guys who have joined up in the roster and it's it's a matter of like yeah
This fight you have a huge advantage like you may you probably win nine out of ten times
But we don't need it to win the round so why even give the ten percent a chance true
Clean the one thing that's really disappoints me about para vision is that james said he was going to get a new haircut
And he hasn't done that Jason. He's just lied to us all did he oh, yeah
He did ask for like some hair cut. Yeah, he just hasn't even it isn't changed at all. Well, he can always hit me up
I've got some tips. Yeah, I reckon he can rock that look, you know, he probably could he definitely could
As long as you have the beard
You know, you can kind of rock anything
Yeah, the Jane beard is just no just any beard any beard. Yeah
It's good news for me. Yeah, you're good
I'm very slow rounds from para vision as we all know and love
But just being cautious in the anti-eco staying grouped up out towards longs where the AK could have maximum impact against the pistols
And we've been seeing this kind of anti-eco meta plant on dust to for for months now
Everyone knows what's happening
Defense shifting over they've threw down tunnels, but there's just nothing you can do to stop it
So three two zero for paravision
But we're gonna get foot having their first gun round moving forward
I wonder if Prof has any fun facts for us in the next segment.
I'll be enjoying that.
I bet now that, you know, Prof has given you some homework.
You know, you can't just sit there and relax in the green room.
No.
Time to look some things up.
It was a fun fact.
Maybe about foot, some foot fun facts.
Some foot facts?
Yeah.
That's your wheelhouse, Prof.
All right, Cemetery's got the op.
I heard the best talking about Cemetery, some of the inconsistencies,
but one thing you can't ever deny is the guy's fast.
Yeah, and his peak is super high.
Yeah, we've seen some crazy shots come out of him.
So let's see what this AWP can do on the CT side
if he can get foot started in the first gun round.
Dude, it was on the CT side of Dust 2
where the cemetery pulled that comeback against Miles
and the playoffs as well.
He has the ability to take over the server.
We've seen it on this very map.
All right, well, Longst is going to be the first contact
in the lower.
You do have Krebeni up at short,
who might just take a few bullets
and try and take attention away.
But good Molotov from top mid
means Longst has to give it up
that aggressive disrupting setup has to be given away so the defense backs off a
little bit more passive lean towards the B bomb site as that supportive element
longs who's just meant to be everywhere on the map that's being attacked is
Weaning in mid.
Oh, Molotov.
Not too short.
Got that catwalk control.
We go under a minute on the clock.
Got the hold here over on the deep bomb site.
It looks like it's going to finish as a mid to B split.
We've seen the Dust 2 from Paravision a number of times.
So keep your eye.
Usually when they do this,
they've had a number of times know to begin the attack.
to begin the attack from middle rather than letting the B players be the main
thrust. This time they've changed up that timing a little bit.
Jukes in at 7th. Rolosa locks in is one hell of a shutdown here. Paramission
getting absolutely wrecked. So that's the first buyer on tier for FOOT and it's a
great look. Yeah really nice one that was just completely shut down. Time's out
coming kind of executing through a smoke. Good setup three defenders at the
B bomb site. Really really good from FOOT. So James Holdings just to try and
keep this up alive. He knows at least one's going to investigate. The Jiggle Peaks don't
work out, but now we've got to survive for 10 more seconds. There's not a whole lot
of motivation to hunt this. The money from Foot isn't there, so they'll just be content,
I think, to let him save. Three to one. And critically out of this first victory, four
players are alive. So money doesn't get dinged up too bad. You can drop an M4 over
demon and it's no harm no foul around five coming in paravision encounter their
first difficulty james still has the AWP zero bucks beneath this buy for him
you've actually still got a healthy amount of money on the rest of the four
players with the AK-47 so all is good in the paravision camp at the moment
I believe yesterday on Dust2, Jayme got two, maybe three kills on the cross to open up rounds.
He was on point with it.
So we'll see today.
Actually, I think the Dust2 game they played the other day was against, uh, was it Legacy
on day one?
This was the map Jayme just took over.
Mid control now with utility.
stance at long for demon. Long's gonna back away from short. He's got, excuse me, cemetery
gonna back away from short. He's got Krebbeni with him. And the two B defenders. No one
home in middle, so as Yellow as he's kind of peeking and prodded is calling that out.
It's all clear.
Oh, Krebbeni comes to hear the steps here of Jane. He's right beside him, hearing
him throughout utility. Krebbeni waiting for that smoke fade.
As he's waiting, Jame has moved off, got cemetery, holding the long attack, no toe walking out
into the open, cemetery's dropped him in a second kill as well, this time on Belchnock,
Longs falls to Jame's hands, way off, so going down, finally Krebbeni strikes forward
trying to deal with Jame but he's lost him, the elusive, Jame hits the shot but it's
to the wall and that is the bomb so they have to come to Krebbeni who picks up
the AWP for this. He gets his back safe as he gets to the doors. He's moving towards the
B bomb site. He's making the right call. Excuse me, I'm crazy. It's not the bomb. Bomb's on
Jello. Yeah, I just spotted that. Yeah, which is rotating through the B tunnels right now.
But Krebhenni is in position to stop this with the AWP outside the B bomb site.
Oh, they're coming in. And Krebhenni's got that kill. Now looking for it. Down
to a 1P1. Jello has to commit to the plant. Utility's too deep. Krebhenni goes forward,
Trying to deny it, and oh my gosh, Shelo, he decides to fight any winzy.
Yeah, well he knew. He knew if that Krebbeni, when he jumps down, he spots him in the window.
And he knew if Krebbeni's gonna be there, he can't back up into the Molotov,
so he knows the fight is gonna be available.
Valiant attempt with the AWP, and essentially the 1v3 finding Jamin mid.
Someone that slips away entirely from foot.
Felt like Semitri was gonna gain control of Long,
was actually gonna control that after the second kill, the second shot.
But man, did it collapse elsewhere.
Those paravision lurkers, Jame in middle, one player at the B bomb site, both of them effective.
Smoke misses like the hinge position, but still still feels about effective. Yeah. Yeah, what goes tall enough?
We take those.
Three M4s, defending short.
In the open, standing and ready and hoping for a fight.
Yeah, they're always looking for a fight, but always willing to brawl, and demon comes
out on top of the opening kill.
They're going to see some numbers committed short, which does give the information
to Belchinov that you can feel a bit more free in terms of taking long and taking
some liberties here.
So, moving up, look how much space he's got.
Demon can't die. Demon can't fall back. They're dead. They don't even realize it. They don't realize how dead they are until just now.
Yeah, I mean, that's a great reaction and decisiveness for paravision. Once you get that information on the peek at short, they see how many players are there.
You move into logs so quickly and take so much space that the foot just aren't aware of how much ground you've gained.
Alright, well it's all going to come down to this long flank. You've got Jame with the interview over at the car.
They're going to come right through the Molotov extinguishing it. He's got the angle. He's got the first kill.
Yeah, there's the spray from Marks. He's actually got two.
Oh my God, okay, James was all of a sudden left into 1v2.
And he's at the side of the smoke. He's wrapped around. He's left the position.
Very sneaky, just about spotted.
He's going to be tagged. They're moving into the site, spraying him down.
Demon delivers in this round, and there's the yells coming out of Juggs.
Long side, Longs.
Foot can be happy about that because it looked like Paravizion had done enough to win that quite decisively towards the end.
Yeah, I felt unlikely for a foot to turn that in their favor a great round from demon the the the fortunate double spray down from longs as well
To get them back into things. There's the opening kill provided, but it's almost like television like
They're using the power of foot against him in this round to a certain extent sorry not a fortune
I just lined up at long. They probably thought James was going to be able to provide a little bit more cover
That's the second time remember the pistol round to like all the resources in one position and James finding the weak spot to attack
you're taking that aggressive stance that was initially successful on short,
recognizing it and then using the fact that they want to hold on to short to just kind of creep up long quietly.
Completely subverting the defense, but just an excellent retake individually from lungs and demon.
Four to two.
And with that loss, money is just so bruised up for paravisions that they can't really invest in any rifles.
So they drop down at the tech nines, a light buy, pistols and armor, a little bit of utility.
and
the technology console the potent
it depends on whether placed a go
patch in the utile falls off again
stand
we're not this time it doesn't not so much
all right missing that smoke over and over now para vision and the all for
is gonna love that
yeah well you turn that corner you get picked off by the off i mean if
If you're going to make this mistake and catch it in this round, it might as well be one with your tech nines, but that's going to be frustrating as they call it out.
There goes the back of XBOX.
Shallow losing a bit of health.
Get the swing, blinded, cemetery under pressure, technology running at it, pulls out the USP,
gets a second kill and needs to get behind the box, can't do it, have no support.
So does well to get a second kill, hit them with the right ball through the CT smoke,
preventing cleaning up, just have to open your hands again and get it into the next
round.
Alright, well let's see if this is full with these three rounds in a row, if this
is them kind of splatting their feet and getting this defense going.
good so far, nice clean round. They've had a couple clean wins that have let them build
up economy, which is great considering they just took away all of ParaVision's.
Another buy coming in from the T side, AK's across the board. James going to have his AWP.
Yeah, we were talking about early, we had the discussion earlier about ParaVision being
favorites to the tournament. Mungle has been in that conversation. Then we mentioned
Astralis. And what a footfall on that. You know, like this is a team who we're
knocking at the door, making it into the playoffs, event after event to start the
You finally made it to the semifinals, where do we place foot in the hierarchy of this competition?
I think Foot's a team, you're going to look at them and say this is one of the teams you'd say is going to be a playoff team, right?
I think when we did this beforehand in the podcast, we did like 16s, 5, 6 teams it felt like we're kind of quote-unquote locks to make the playoffs that you'd expect to.
Foot's one of them.
In terms of winning the whole thing, shit, it would be incredible.
You could see by the way, without any of the crazy world beaters here, it's possible.
I mean if they beat I mean this might be a preview right they're playing the team that we're saying is
Probably the favorite to win this event right now
The playoffs will be in a studio
So it's not like you're gonna go and have to deal with something new
The crowd will see a plan in front of it didn't face them
On Stockholm was it a smaller crowd smaller audience for sure, but no audience here
So also if that helps foot as they move deeper into the competition right now
stabilizing on the CT side and it done damage as well to shallow early on he's
done a 6 HP. I like this shift in the defense as well we just saw a cemetery
kind of move with the op out towards the long corner just for a moment we saw
them back off so that Kerbenny could play towards railing and bombsite gonna
try and play behind his own smoke at the moment. What you've spread out so
you can't get pinched as they have in some previous rounds.
Actually, they're shifting a lot at the moment.
Sumitri is now going to the long corner.
Good kill from Krippany.
Better follow up.
Oh, no way you get three there out in the open and nobody can trade you off.
The round's done.
Who cares about the shifting defense now?
Krippany's just shut down the attack.
No chance for paravision.
No, man.
Very little chance for Jayme to get away, but there's one thing he'll manage to
pull off.
and he survives on one HP, they get around the corner so big save there from
Jayme getting away from that somehow. Big round from Krebbeni I mean just just
man this this a defense with the amount of movement at times it just feels like
it's a little bit it's a little bit scary a little bit on the edge watching
them potentially putting themselves in a situation where they can be split and
pinched from two different sides but the Krebbeni triple kill takes care of
everything that's beautiful in the open one by one they come and one by
one they get knocked down we're all tied up at four
that's a great thing about foot is their in-game leader is such a great
fragging players, you know, throughout those stages of Pro League, it's all he was there.
Oh, that's the forward player in group stages. He's got some big moments, but not in this
round. He ends up fumbling a little bit there, hands busy with Mays, getting caught by Shallow,
hunts him down. Yeah, he was very confident that nobody had made it up and turned that corner.
I mean, even when the Molotov missed, you're sat there like, okay, we'll be careful. You have
to realize that's missed the mark a little bit. They get past him. So now to say defense,
it's under a lot of pressure at the moment. Demon at long, actually, cemetery coming back to
the corner to help them out as well. This could be massive. All of ParaVision is here.
Okay, collateral. It's just ended the round. So no way you can get away from this one. Zwei
is going to die as well. Everybody falling here for ParaVision that round felt way too easy.
A lot of pistols, a lot of unarmed players. You dropped the bomb immediately. It was only
really that often in one AK they had to play with. But yeah, I would have liked to have
You've gotten one pick if you were paravisional, just cemetery makes the perfect read, the perfect call to slide back towards long, at just the right moment.
And Jane probably a little bit distracted with Noda going back and forth in front of his scope as well.
Yeah, pause needed. It's gonna be an attack issue here.
So you've only got to glee a SMG and a bunch of pistols going into this next round for paravisional, so foot are going to extend their lead most likely.
I hope she can never count out around like this, but most like we're looking at 6-4 already
for Fulton on the CT side.
They're going to be feeling great about that.
Yeah, a pair of versions of the map pick as well.
They've hit a little bit of a rut here, haven't been able to shake themselves out of it, and
the four rounds they won early on, felt like they were having right reads, were moving
around the map, were kind of countering the things Fulton were doing, they were
taking their aggressive, disruptive stances and kind of using them against them by
going where there's less resources.
James did a very good job, but now things have started to slow down a little bit due to some of the play from Kerbini from Cemetery.
Yeah. Foot there running this tournament, and a circle in the opening, NRG in the follow-up, and the way they handled NRG was very impressive.
And it's good to see a team as new and as fresh as Foot be able to comprehensively defeat opponents they should be.
And right now, they're dealing with the threat of a B rush, and they're dealing with it.
So, Jukes is taking two away, I'll hold behind the car and get a third kill.
I'm gonna miss shots here from 7-3, we could have ended this round already.
It's alright, you know, it happens.
It's just a rough round.
That's what we'll go with.
It's a good thing Jukes got three.
Yeah, it's a good thing Jukes got the first two, that's for damn sure.
Well the bomb planted, shouldn't be any way to win the round, but...
The bomb plant and further damage would be fantastic for paravision.
Just got themselves up for the retake.
They're straight getting right 70 feet spab and through the door.
And yeah, a foot coming in and making that retake look simple.
Oh, that's stupid.
Well done, Demon.
Six to four, two-round lead.
Foot taken control of this map.
It's built up into a streak.
Five in a row.
Six of the last seven have been won by foot as well.
They've just really cranked it up in this stretch of the half.
And paravision's getting left in the dust.
Another buy comes in, Jame with the AWP 4 AKs around it, another good one for ParaVision.
So with the chance to tie things up before we switch sides here on Dust2, Mirage is going to be the second map of the series.
Got some of the old classics and back to back.
Long, quickly out long.
Belchock, notar.
How quick they are to long corner with that smoke.
Ooh, long, it's going for the push.
Mr. Jello is waiting for him though. Should be a kill, no issue.
You know, the high ground is favored.
Another 4v5 for foot.
Three players gonna start pushing short.
Jugs is
kind of hovering between the B bomb site and middle, just being kept on us as teammates are telling him,
we have, we kind of have mid. We got information here at the very least.
you should be good for a while. Meanwhile,
for many playing at the A bombsite is just repeatedly smoking out towards long
to delay any kind of progression or any kind of play coming from that part of the map
to buy time for this mid-set-up to have an impact for foot.
Jug still hasn't moved at all.
Even flashes out going for a line-up and just gets nothing from it.
Important kill there from Jane.
Furthering the advantages of ParaVision in this round.
Preventing once again required to go big.
Not wanting to overexpose himself to that AWP.
Belchard on good positioning to just slightly jiggle out and take that fight.
Cemetery getting into the smoke.
We need a new killer performance from this AWP.
Smoke craigsaw!
And yeah, he's just immediately revealed to so many opponents.
That's a crappy feeling.
And well, there were a couple of opportunities to make this round interesting, right?
It was always going to be tough in the 4v5, but the Flash Peek from Demon, he kind of just,
I think his brain just kind of got stuck, not deciding which target to aim at, kind
of shot between two players who were blinded.
Kerbeni had a chance at one on top of the boxes as well, and just every opportunity
just went against Flitt in the round.
So, Paravision creeped it closer together, closer to that tie scoreline, five to six.
Just as a little surprise treat for the final round of the first half,
Foot have broke into the double AWP setup.
Cemetery with one, longs with the other.
Paravision hasn't had to deal with this yet.
James has the first.
That's Cemetery, another five on four for Paravision,
but evened out quickly.
Just a brawl in middle and Jame is the one who takes the worst of the damage. 90 HP gone.
I spam through the door in utility, so three players from Paravision huddle up in safety and lower tunnels.
Delushinak is going to start scaling up short as the smoke just begins to fade.
who is finding kill after kill now really coming into his own 12-5 performance from him right now.
Good turn from Nota. Paravision level up towards the end of his half looking so sharp and almost
dominant in the last couple of rounds here. And further impact from Jaymon just two on the
AWP in Judy's. He will be taken out by Krebbeni who the 1v4 ahead of him drops it down to 1v2
trying to gather information they've doubled up together he does spot his target. Krebbeni
looking for the next fight, knows what he's up against, but trying to deal with it is a different
problem altogether, and Suai will confirm the kill and a tight game between ParaVision and Foot
in this first half. Yeah, gotta be a little bit of a bummer for Foot. Those last two rounds of the
half especially, just both of them being four and fives. You know, after such a nice stretch
where you looked so dominant on the CT side, started giving up a couple early kills, the
lounge pushing towards lower, and cemetery's push on short that was caught by Jane. Both
of those make touches such difficult rounds. With the pacing of ParaVision, with the way
James calls those T-sides. Playing 4v5 against him is so so difficult.
So nice recovery right at the tail end of the half. Paravision, they won 4 early. Those last two
add 6 to the tally to tie things up as we switch sides. It's going to be Paravision's defense now.
As they look to close out their own map pick.
James with 13 kills for Paravision. Jello with 11. On the other side it's Kerbetti
with 11 kills and demon with nine to lead the way for the foot side.
Last words from the coaches. Fist bumps are out because pistol round is coming in.
Freestime underweight and we're going to get this started. Tie ball game.
And if you're just tuning in, another of the 2-2-2-0 matches in the Swiss round three.
So winter advances to playoffs. The loser fights again another day to see if they can qualify.
Nobody's going home
Not yet. Not yet, but they will be deep. I'm just going home well phase for example
Which was very too soon. Yeah very soon very sad to see
Sounds like it. Yeah, it actually is though I get it and it
You know phase the most entertaining team in in counter strike history and yeah, it's just sad to see how it's gone
We'll see how the future goes, nice push around, demon with one, and we've got no turns away.
Picking a couple of kills between them.
Yeah, that's very costly to go get that kill on Jame.
Definitely not worth.
None of the glocks like peeking left whatsoever, everyone kind of focused on Jame inside the pit.
This P250 has to win the fight so far.
It hasn't, Lunks is able to get one cemetery for bullets.
He wants to challenge, there's the dualies.
And Aljuks just has to move up, and he gets dropped cold.
And the longs is going to our walk away.
Opens himself into the corner.
And this person around and not going away at foot, so Paravision will start to continue in one of rounds that they've set themselves up with.
Felt like foot. We're going to run away with that first half and the switch was turned on by Paravision.
Yeah, it's been it's been a really cool recovery seeing them get back to what what netted them that first that strong start of a four to one opening on dust to it's been cool.
and then get back to that level of play. 30 seconds, Launcest is just hoping somebody
pushes into him to give him a free kill before he eventually progresses, hoping eventually
that maybe it opens up the A bomb site a little bit more space, but he probably realizes that
he's most likely boxed in, and Valschnok is going to start closing that gap now.
And really, there's just no time.
And he's caught by that snark, finally finished off, paravision, pretty comfortable and composed
at the moment.
It's no one foot to once again fight their way back into this game, no other T side
is going to bring some speed to it, but I need to start getting those guns out, which
will be delayed with the way this half is started.
Alright, well, low pistol buy from foot, but we know they like to get pretty aggressive
at times.
I can always catch someone off guard.
Get first key.
One of the tech nines and Mactans.
I'll take a little bit longer, because two players head out towards long, including the
bomb.
Other three players are going to come in through lower tunnels and take control
of middle.
We'll see if they decide to meet up or if this is going to be attempted split.
There's a lot of utility.
Benny's got everything, or smokes in total for this T-Side, and just waiting for that
long smoke to clear so they can begin their strategy, their tactic.
for the CT cross.
They're going to back up and start walking their way through short.
Now, line of way to notice that smoke fades away.
Deagle shot cracks over the bricks beside his head.
And no, he stands down to some safety, but only manages to one kill,
which puts more pressure here on his way.
Well, he's got a team that goes to shoot the way
she wants, he keeps his head down and James does well to clean up the rest of his way.
Discipline not to break apart the strength of that crossfire actually played it. Just so perfectly
I'm never committing to fights which run it, but yeah
Even when he takes a dink right like the dink is actually the best thing that could have happened first way because
That does with the bloodthirst of the T side to press the issue and you're like, oh guys
We can we can actually overrun this bomb site and you just get pulled right into James waiting him for
To round lead and now foot have to sit back with no investment after the loss in round 14. Just Eagles
Yeah, so right now, Paravish, you're gonna be very happy.
They're gonna be up to nine rounds before the first buy round here in the second half.
And Jane's starting to heat up now.
He's got 16 kills now, 16 and 7, just doing great work.
There he is, taking the opening.
Another kill, looking for more.
So Kraviti's gonna have a tough job to do to recover this.
His team is gonna be three rounds back going into their first gun rounds.
He's got an opposing AWPer who's heating up and is quite a nuisance on this map and
is looking for cheeky kills as we speak.
He's got another one.
Now, he probably wants to get this aggressive and this kind of frisky and gun rounds, but
knowing that he's up against pistols, there's such a low risk.
got the information of both remaining players and Flick just kind of toying with ParaVision,
begging them to make an overextension, begging them to make a move.
And it's all cleaned up.
So, five players up, ParaVision's money in a really strong spot before this first
gun round, and now all the pressure on foot to start turning this round almost immediately.
Over on the B stream right now, interesting game, it's Voka taking on BCG, BC game.
Now that's about one map into the series, would you like to know the score, Dinko?
I would.
Okay, if you don't want to hear the score, then I'd even go back and watch it for whatever
reason.
Plug your ears, mute the stream.
13-10 victory for Voka.
Oh my.
How are we living in this universe?
It's getting weird isn't it it's getting crazy out there simple is losing to voka
Well, good for voka. Yeah great for voka
Garst right is on the rise Jason. Well, let's not go too far
It is though sure it's not much of a rise one of a jump, but it's that
Here we go break it open. Okay. Locke's heard the Nate coming in and wisely dropped down off the box
It's going to join up on short with Krebbeny who's challenging behind the Molotov.
It's Noda inside the site, Zwei out towards Long for the moment.
Jane focused on mid-double doors, so the AWP is out of play for the moment.
None of that matters if foot doesn't actually pull the trigger and get aggressive.
I thought they might try and get a little peeky into the bomb site, but they're
just going to wait for the moment.
The Jukes turns into a little bit of a lurker in upper tunnel, so shift towards
lower.
guard xbox at some point off this catwalk hit look at paravision as well
they've taken a big risk by giving up long entirely there's no lurker there
so it's gonna work but a crazy risk to take
just breaking those smokes open seeing a foot across and here comes the second
one as well they thought they were safe to move now no they're getting
the information communicating he spots two players attempting to attack this
A bomb site with 25 seconds left.
Swaye waits with one flash up to the pantry
and straight into the peek.
They are blind, they are destroyed.
A single kill though.
Look like he was going to get a second.
A demon response, notes that tries to keep his head down,
cropping on the hunt,
and a retake required if Paravision wants to go for this.
There's no way.
There's no way this is of all the rounds.
Three players coming through CT spawn
is basically impossible.
So James gonna pull him back.
No sense in challenging,
no sense in risking the weapons.
foot gets a nice hard fought round win off catwalk to make sure paravision
don't just run away with this half immediately plant their flag in the
second half
and a nice measured take as well being defensive despite the smokes being
broken open despite flashbangs in the sky not panicking at all and eventually
finding their way in good clearance on the rail as well peaking all the way
down and now they have seven just two rounds back plenty of money only one
One player goes down, same with ParaVision.
They've got cash as well to spend.
So another full buy coming in from the CT side.
Foot's not out of it just yet.
The timeout is called as well, from ParaVision.
As they talk things over, this is Distan trying to prevent
any kind of a comeback, any kind of a sense
that Foot is gaining momentum
and gaining steam on this T side.
So maybe a call, maybe a switch up,
Maybe just tell everyone to calm down.
Maybe a couple of things he's noticed.
I think in some of the Dust 2 we've seen at this event too,
like one thing, like James actually,
I mean, this is the second time we've seen him kind of dominate
a match on Dust 2.
The other one he did was against Legacy.
And in that game, he was going for a lot more
like opening picks with the AWP
than I think I've really ever seen him do in the past.
He's usually, he's not one of those offers
that goes for the openings, like too much,
especially aggressive ones but here on Dust2 he's had a couple of games where he's got real crazy
he's got the longspawn now
no one headed in this direction from foot no but at least not the challenge
But just so worried about the aggressive stances, it's very quiet.
Smoke just goes out to double doors, missed time to flashbang but nobody's home on short
for paravision so no one there to punish cemetery.
And a good scale to get control of Xbox now jumping up.
There's utility signaling the catwalk take.
And Paravision out of this is leaning towards the B bomb site saying,
okay, last round you hit catwalk and you were successful.
Overran the bomb site.
Now they're kind of trying to get a step ahead of saying,
you're going to fake the catwalk hit and drop into mid to be split
and we're going to surprise you with three players here.
See if that's what happens.
No, we've found success doing this in the last round.
So here they go again.
This time James AWP winning.
He's in reaction, just inaccurate and then he gets overwhelmed by flashes and bullets and they run over the top of this A site.
That's kind of a really cool take.
Yeah, very cool take and it's so effective because that single kill comes in from the defense so foot forced to save immediately out of paravision.
They do hit a perfect timing on it, right?
It's Zwei who's the other right flier at that position.
It just shifted into CT spawn so he gets stuck behind the smoke and then the drop down on him as well.
It's possibly the worst timing for paravision for foot to actually pull the trigger, but
you're starting to have some issues.
Money's going to begin running low, even though you're saving three.
That's very nice, but in terms of your off, James is going to have to spend some cash
on that.
All of a sudden, this is creeping a little bit closer.
9-8 is the score line.
Foot's still very much in this map and still proven that they can take rounds
away from paravision on it.
13 kills for Krebbeni, the IGL, the captain of foot to lead the way, and out of that round
victory it's Footer calls the timeout.
So they have a conversation, instead of kind of riding with this momentum of two rounds
in a row and making ParaVision kind of figure things out on the fly, they stall things
out themselves right now to have a conversation, maybe just trying to get on the same page
moving forward maybe trying to get ahead of jaymond perivision
round 18 set to begin in perivision's back with their buy there is jayme picking up the
awp yet again down to zero dollars in the bank he spent everything he's got
still some cash left over on perivision so they're not out of the fight entirely
if they lose this but they might be missing some critical pieces
I'm gonna put a stop to this rung before it gets any worse
And if eventually a foot just keep winning and keep winning until the economy is broken from paravision
That just might be the critical mass. They need to win doubled up on short for the defense
There's great kills from Noda and James to get right back to the winning ways five on three advantage out of the gate
I've got the mid-control as the only thing to go off her foot right now and the strength
of the last couple of rounds of being able to execute up through short with numbers
just not available but that is one way to pull a kill back.
shot from cemetery on the jump spotter okay do you just call it do you say that's
that's the end point we got the kill this is the bomb say we have to finish
at we have to take the risk that it's going to be a three on one here at the
B bombsite showing like they want to move out middle but even cemetery actually
sticking around to catch the lurks but there's one coming from long yeah it's
an all push jame realizing that there has to be some sort of maneuver from
the CT side to alleviate the pressure belchinock that is a terrible way to
die looking into the wall trying to find themselves in two positions the late
round and you needed your B bombsite defender to do something belgin on gets
nothing no more smoke so they can't block off any more choke points demon and
jugs have to get set up in a perfect position to defend against this retake
what a way to get back into the round here for it can they close it out
though demon take a chain counter trade from sway and they run over the top
of jugs a real nice try from foot to work that 3v5 back into the
They come close to doing it, but paravision still prevailed.
Also, you got to give credit over to James, too.
I was not going to say reposition.
He had that flank out towards Long to get the operant X-Box,
and there's the assumption that it's possible he could actually come through tunnels.
So you could see the player in the bomb site looking for the tunnels player.
That's his responsibility to watch that, and the crossfire and react to his teammates' contact.
You can't react in time to stop the floodgate of retakes coming through the window.
Close, but no cigar for a foot.
And a tough round where they start 3 versus 5, almost bringing it back, a double kill from Sway.
Still money though for the attack, so Foot's not out of it yet.
Up in the hands of Cemetery.
AKs for the other four players, cash behind those purchases as well.
I will mid-control and Xbox control nothing unusual paravision hasn't really challenged
that too much outside of some catwalk setups no one's really been at double doors peeking
it too much game occasionally with the AWP
it even managed to get short again throughout the half they've been able to get that
for free in Belchonok, just wanders into the open.
Once again, just so that Dathi takes just kind of strolling across middle,
not aware of the possibility of the Operon's in with Krebbeni,
turns the corner without any kind of utility.
So it all falls, our tension goes to long in Zwei.
Oh, Zwei, looks like he was going to get a lineup of a multi-killer there,
but just the one, Great Tray from Demon,
so 3v3, 40 seconds left.
We still got that mid-fight that goes down between Juge and Jello,
It's going to work out here in the CT's favor.
Well, Cemetery and Demon, tough round ahead of them.
They're completely split up, and that bomb
is being spotted towards top middle.
25 seconds left.
They know.
OK, this is a play.
This is a play.
It's worked out so well.
OK, Demon.
Brilliant, says he pushes through the smoke.
And it puts it all on Jane to recover this round
for paravision.
Foot have found a way.
He's got a really nice timing.
I think they're going to plant for short.
They're going to plant for long,
and Jane can actually stop and get the kill after the plant.
No, he can't just gets to the corner, but he's gonna come for it one versus two no kit on Jane, but 22 kills
No utility that's the problem as well right like he can't block the player
We just actually yeah, he walks past the kid
He's got to move quickly and there's no util to smoke the bomb or Molly a player out
It's gonna be so tough and they're both peeking at the same time Jane coast down
But what a release valve it is from demon going through that smoke making a hero play and making it work
out that such an incredible play to find a double out of that. That's beautiful. The least
expected eventuality that ParaVision had. Jello had no clue that that was going to happen.
I'm not able to react fast enough. I don't think Jayme really, I mean he probably wasn't
even thinking about the kid at that point. We hovered over it at long. He's trying
to stop the plant. He thinks he can turn that corner in time to maybe stop the plant
and he was a second late. Final time out from ParaVision. Excuse me, from foot.
time out from foot. I thought for sure that would have been para vision but
foot again out of a victory want to talk some things over. Yeah they want to
make sure that they figure out the money situation and imagine over for para
vision right and have a discussion on what you might expect to deal with
coming into this because if they assume that they've hurt the money they
would be correct. The para vision situation where it's a jame led team
right so you're gonna be saying we've won three out of the last four they
won a single one and then lost the next one so the losing bonus got
resets of their cash is going to be hurt we don't know exactly what it is but
just prepare for one to two prepare for boss yeah exactly so paravision they're
gonna be stacking long multiple players here longs just gets sent out with a
quip any flash bang and he's gonna head and take himself a couple so that
should be the round wrapped up no problem and that's gonna be 10 to 10
yeah how explosive at the point of attack is this team belchinox he's
had it set a stressful three rounds yes you're really frustrating stretch of
rounds. I mean there's just been multiple rounds here where
Paravigian get into a better spot early in the round but there's some sort of
playmaker or a kill that happens that somehow opens up the competition again.
You know if you think about a couple rounds ago they didn't win the round but
Cemetery's kill on that jump spotter at Widow opens up the opportunity to hit
that B bomb site and go for a round victory and then the last round Demon
stepping through this marketing a double kill. There's a lot of playmakers
on the squad. Absolutely I would give a lot of that credit over to the
foot side of things because that's just what they've been doing for the past few
months they got individuals who just who just very good at finding impact
lovely shot nice and easy Jane goes down last and we're tied at 10 these teams
going blow for blow I mean it's this map has really never been blown open by
either one it's been pretty close the whole way through very impressive and
Paravision now back to the bay and the single heroic m4 in the previous round does nothing for them
So jame does have his op from us to m4s and unfortunately jello gonna be stuck on the eagle
Good way to get demon out long fast
You could tell Paravision what nothing to do with the flight.
Once the utility was there, they don't have the weapon redone, they have the counter-nades for it, so just giving it up.
In early timings to be throwing the cross smoke over at long, they want to force the utility out
right now, so that in the later stages of the round, they don't have to be concerned about getting stalled out.
It's 10s though, I mean like if you're paravisional, you know they took long, they threw the cross
smoke, you just have no idea if they're still there, really, like they could have fallen
away, they could be rotating all the way back to the B bomb site, so still there's
no indication.
A follow up smoke, that too could still just be a fake, nice blocker, that's a
huge gap.
We'll get re-smoked before anyone crosses, so it's all good.
There's Jay.
That's the AWPer.
Yeah, and that's cemetery. Knockoff is purged, so really important kill found.
And then Sway also stepping out with a FAMAS.
It's all crumbling here for foot. Longs is gone.
And such a crucial point of this game, a golden opportunity.
And footer letting it slip away.
I don't think they gave enough potential.
I think they made enough of noise to make Paravision feel like there was ever going to be another option, but that long hit.
This was the only thing they signaled throughout the entire round of gaining long control, right?
Resmoking cross a couple of times, never any pressure in mid, no one ever taking cow walk or throwing utility, no presence in B.
Paravision was just set up for this the entire round, prepared for it the entire round.
And I think the extra benefit is, James takes a shot just as his smoke pops at long.
I don't even know if he like saw the target or just took a quick shot to stay alive
But he hit the offer of all the people to hit. It's the guy who could have contained him from re-peaking
Another piece of impact from Jane and it pushes paravision up to 11 rounds they reclaim the lead of the game here on dust to
It's gonna be a hard-fought victory for whoever look at the shot
She's the job so he went for it
then sway, obviously, great round from him overall, that for mass
there's some special work picking up a 4k
I guess you can have that one, Jason
pretty well that
every once in a while, you know, every once in a while it sings
on the back
foot, 11 to 10, is that intentional?
Yeah, that one was.
Launch just...
Coming off to the low at Tunnel, so he's gonna Molotov up towards Short, for Benny.
Starting to clear it, Jayme has got a good angle here.
Going Molly to White.
Ooh, he almost...
Oh, yeah.
That is, on Molotov might have obscured his vision, but he was Tunnel-visioned on a Jayme at the very least.
Thomas couldn't believe his eyes when he saw CT in the open blind.
Bouchonok now in a risky spot, but smokes up and he's just going to suspect me down.
He's flying to the sky.
Yep, he's the demon has arrived.
So it's out of the sight.
Cemetery with a really important kill there, and they're in the bomb site.
So 54 seconds left.
The issue is for foot.
They've taken significant damage on Cemetery.
Two's also hit.
Ooh, here's the thing.
This is a deep lurksmoke at the double doors.
It's going to make them very nervous that someone's stepping through it.
So nobody's actually got in a great position to watch for tunnels, which is where two players are coming in for this retake
I definitely favoring paravision that some utility left two flashes one Molly. Where'd they get to put it?
Molotov to clear out
Launch actually has the spread through them though. Oh, that is massive isn't it? Look at that
Look at that gap. He's got that sanctuary in the corner not forced to change up his position
Semitre also nail in the shot and James out of that get out of there go for the safe
Carry the all over it for e-sports gonna tie things up again 11 to 11. Yeah, beautiful. The loss is gonna get out of the bomb
It's all good. He's happy about the win
Like a little bit light on utility to get a drop from a teammate
That's a lovely work from cemetery in the open off angle first kill and as soon as that first kill comes out on the
Tunnels player James dips
He knows how critical that opposite how unlikely that retake becomes but issue for para vision is just money
You've got the AWP, that's great, and we can see the buy. Another from us, an MP7.
This final stretch of this half has been Paravision just scraping together and battling back with what they can.
Economically, they've been at a disadvantage for a number of rounds.
And a knockout blow here from foot, like...
Not gonna say you get the default win, but you're at 12-11 and you got one chance with a huge advantage.
23 kills now for Jame, 18 for Zwayte, 18 as well for Demon on the other side.
And round 23 begins.
This round actually, this round is a huge swing round. There's only two rounds remaining, but whoever wins this one has such an economic advantage over the other team in the final round.
It's going to be one team with pistols and one team with rifles, so let's see who gets it.
Very important one, and it could dictate who takes the first map win
Mid smoke throwing out this one lands
Foot noise was the break
No one will be detected from the daybreak, so James is going to retreat back into spawn.
Oh, that Molotov misses it's mark, not exactly where he wanted it to land, but still swing
behind it with a flashbang.
So short control, at least to the boxes.
risk for paravision with a 4-1 lead.
Jame alone at the B bomb site looking mid, back to the B entrance.
Oh, and there's a risk required.
You can rely upon Jame, time and time again to deliver.
He's got one on locks, eats another.
Jame getting pushed in the tunnels now, getting back, has a little bit of cover.
Can Jame get another one?
His teammate's trying to race into position.
Demon has taken two with him down though.
A shot from Jade, finally overwhelmed by Krebbeni who runs on his blindside and that plant is in foot fighting for the opening map point.
It's Sway who retreats and looking for a better weapon. The AWP is picked up off the battlefield and they are going to fall away.
There is no shot at winning this one. Foot are going to head to map point on Dust2.
I was going to say the only play they have is to grab the weapons off the ground and hope that I can do something for you in the next round because this one's cooked.
You're not retaking the B bomb site two on three.
Great work from Demon.
Those two kills from CT spawn, because you know what?
Credit to Jame.
He does exactly what's needed.
Alone at the B bomb site, no one else even close by.
Closest teammates are way, way over at A, gets a kill in middle,
gets one more as they enter into the B bomb site.
That's really all you could ask for.
When the support is the first kills being taken out for paravision,
it's devastating.
There's no one to assist Jame.
So credit to Demon.
Coming up middle and when they feel stalled out by the AWP peeking window, he's just watching for the run-through of the smoke.
Or he's just spamming.
Okay, over the top he spots him, great shooting. He's been planting downpatch.
Definitely has. Definitely been playing a lot of deathmatch.
Okay, here's the advantage we talked about. Thankfully, with Paravision saving at AWP and M4, it looks a lot better, because if it wasn't there, you'd be seeing a lot more SMGs.
Tagged on the cross. What a shot from cemetery
There's something though Jason parents you know in front over time or two. That's that's a very good point
That's where they eat
Good day don't longs chain to respond to that initial damage. Oh
He is not having a good time here longs peppered and trapped no
but cemetery has taken first blood here in round 24.
Huge luxury to have as well. I think if you're if you're long to now on a five on four
You just kind of give things up and say I'll just I'll be the flank watcher. I don't need to be I'm not going to be the
Entryman. I'm not going to be a playmaker. I have all I can take kind of the crappy roles of just making sure you guys can't
wrap the pond or flanked.
This is going to be towards the B bomb site and once again paravision out of position.
Yeah, Belcherock he's going to walk through the smoke right into longs to take it back.
He just takes Belcher knocked down and it's all on cello look how low he is in HP absolutely no shot at this footy sports
We'll be taking map number one dust to will fall in their favor pair vision is Matt pick going against them here
I've got to be loving life Mirage is up next. It's their home ground the battlefield
Well, they do their best work and they could be looking at a three and a record in the group stages here PGL Bucharest
This young team, these up-and-comers, coming into Dust 2, beating ParaVision without a doubt
one of the favorites for this competition on their math pick.
What a boost of confidence that is for them.
I know the series isn't done, they still have to close this up, but it puts them in a great
position as they move to Mirage.
Absolutely.
I mean, this is great.
You know, the script kind of flipped this time.
You know, last time around it was ParaVision winning Dust 2 and Double Overtime.
And the funny thing was is it was 6-6-has in that game just like we saw in the first
half of this game the difference being is that Paravision started hot in both
games both has rather and foot had to kind of play from behind whereas a little
bit more even equal contest last time around throughout the course of each half
so gotta give props to foots for the resilience to come from behind on Paravision's
home map I mean they're one of the best Dust2 team in the world so to be able
to take this one away from them that that's huge yeah watching throughout this
game it felt like the scoreline was a bit deceiving considering I just said
Paravision won both baseball started hot on both both sides but didn't
really get control of the first half as you would expect from a James side after
you know you go up 4-1 that you will just be like out calling out maneuvering and
all of this and the same thing on the CT side I really think foot did a great
job in like countering in these key moments faking we saw on the on the
CT side as well like all of these gamble stacks from James actually failed
two times they tried to they tried to stack towards B I mean to be they
expected them to be foot went a then at the end
James soloing be they go be trade on him easily
and get to get around and now finally they close out in 13
11 and that's also a part where I'm kind of impressed
because one thing about foot I do feel like they're a bit of a
they have a bit of a choking issue in terms of young team
when the state when they're when it's a big opponent it's a
it's a stage match or it's a match to get to the playoffs
that's where they have stumbled even when they were in big
in good situations and big advantages but this has been
really really good map throughout. They do sometimes stumble at the end there so
you'll see the scoreline they're in a good position but they'll allow the
opposition to sneak in. They've allowed paravision in the pass to sneak in but
they didn't do that today. What was it about their playstyle that was just
working in their favor? It was the fact that once they got their economy in
order after the hot swordsman paravision they just played a really good
dynamic counter strike. You know it starts in the first half where
you were looking at Dean and your standout player normally known as an A
anchor he had a couple of big holes in that side of the map but they also
So we're able to throw him into the mix with Cabinny,
you know, playing aggressively off catwalk,
taking duels, you know, getting in pair with his face
and not let them set up because look,
when you let pair vision play out around
and let them dictate every part of it,
where they kind of just stage around the way
if they want to and they choose their pacing,
they're very comfortable doing that
and they're very good at executing it
because of the discipline of these players
and how they understand all the protocols.
And, you know, Foot didn't let them do that.
You know, they had good anchoring
and they had good aggressive play.
Yeah, I mean, I think the differences
from this maybe previous maps,
I didn't really see many pop-off moments from the pair of vision guys.
I feel like his way was kind of cagey, didn't really show up.
I think on the city side, they didn't really have a lot of freedom.
It was more about like the Jame positioning stacking.
Then let's just have an outright duel on the other side.
I think in the key moments, we had a Krabbeni 3k when he was on short, just folding that, right?
Then we had one round with locks makes the flank on long and it seems like around they don't have time to retake,
but he gets a double kill there.
and you know I think a bit of the pair vision guys the baseline the trading
some of the communication wasn't fully there and the foot guys just exploited
that we saw the highlight from demon there in a 2v3 at 10 a down where he
sneaks up along through the smoke gets a rotator gets a guy on the side and then
James has to like coming on a very hard retake right so I think the opportunity
was there for the young European squad and they just took it you know the
the individual showed up and kind of play this fearless counter strike that we really love to see from them.
That's also like very dynamic from foot changing stuff up in the middle of rounds to kind of
counsel whatever Paravision was throwing at them. Yeah they did a great job of making things look
the same but then playing them out very differently. So the first round you're going to see is it's
kind of just the typical smoke wall that you're going to see on the catwalk time and time again
to threaten some type of cat cross or potentially fake this and go into a mid-b split. This time
round they laid out their grenades to explode the smokes they never really
showed too much to pair vision as far as how many numbers they actually had
coming up the catwalk and while they do run into a defense that's in place and
prepared for multiple members to come their direction they're able to win out
the trades get full control of the site and ultimately they're going to come up
with the round as you're going to see here now what they do is the very next
round is they do the exact same opener they send three players through
the tunnels they eventually are going to start staging up over here at middle
after throwing a little bit of utility at B to kind of keep
people guessing.
And you notice it keeps those players locked in on the B
bomb site.
They don't move.
They feel like there's a chance that a mid-B split is
still very much in the cards.
And then you're going to see them set up yet again with the
same smoke wall that they had just done the previous round.
But they're going to do something a little bit different.
They're actually going to drop down.
And so that means Jayne is totally overwhelmed because
he's looking at the cat cross, not at people jumping down
directly in his line of sight.
And they're able to overwhelm him.
And not only does it win them two rounds, the other big
things you have to think about is, A, it ruins the
perivision economy which was a huge problem for the rest of the game and two
there were gamble stacking a after those two rounds happened and then they caught
you know two rounds where it was only one guy on the B side of the map to finish
off the game so that was just masterful calling in my opinion yeah I mean if you
hit the bomb site when there's two guys there no one's holding long so they
they're not really comfortable on the on the bomb site right the next round
it's practically just James and one guy in CT spawn so it's one guy on a and
then the third round you go on B where there's only one guy there so
that's that's as good as it can get. Before we get into Mirage I have to do this for Dinkor.
Prof, do you have a foot fun fact? Or to keep it clean, right? Only foot's not allowed.
I was looking, I didn't really have anything prepared for foot specifically so I had to
go in and look. This is not maybe the best one but it's interesting about their coach
Coolio. Yeah, not super well known but he's Hungarian and he played on a team. Do you
Do you want to guess maybe the team that I'm referencing here?
Who'd have passed five?
Who'd have passed five and who'd he play with on that team?
No clue, bro.
Torsi.
Okay, that's fun.
That's fun.
They played together and they actually played against the Navi Academy one time and they
got smoked by Monosy in 2021.
That's a fun fact right there.
That was fun.
That was fun fact.
Thank you for that.
Okay, let's talk about Mirage now.
We're moving to Foots map pick.
What is the conversation that Dustin's having with his boys right now with Paravish
and coming into this?
I have no clue because their mirages look pretty pitiful.
If I'm honest with you,
it's been one of the really big weaknesses in their map pool.
They've lost their last nine out of 10 games
and most of them haven't even been close.
Meanwhile, Futs 1, 10 of their last 12,
and they are just so dynamic on this map.
I mean, the amount of opening formations
that they have to their T side
just makes them so hard to read.
You know, we kind of highlighted those two rounds
where they make things look the same,
but then they kind of just vary the numbers a bit.
They're very good at doing that on Mirage 2
where they kind of give you
that persistent pressure at middle,
but you never really know how many people
are actually there and how many people are actually like on an extremity getting ready to split you.
And so they're just super deep on this map. They're very confident in how they play. They're very
pacey and they're just very good at manipulating the numbers. And I think that they are in a really
prime position the two other series now. Yeah, I mean it's it's going to be on Zelo and Nota.
I think a lot. I think after map one didn't really see too much from this way. And I think on
anchoring beyond Mirage, you're not going to be able to do too much maybe on the
with the side when there's a bit more for him to do in terms of openings and stuff like that.
Here it's going to be on the two of them, also on Jane, but yeah, we really saw them get
uncomfortable on the A side defense and all of these splits in previous games.
So I don't know how they're going to deal with a team that's really comfortable on this
map.
Last time they played they were up, I think 10-0 at some point, but then the issue
we talked about, closing it out, not always super comfortable for a foot.
So, let's see if they can do it now without any, you know, how would I say, laziness.
Yeah.
My other concern with Paravigian, I feel like they're really one note on this map.
You know, they don't have the same depth that Foot has as far as how they'll open
up rounds.
They're very A-heavy.
They're very aligned on, like, pacey plays and set pieces.
And they're very readable, I feel like, as well.
And so these are some of the challenges they're going to face in Spanish also.
Let's see how this goes.
Foot is one map away from securing themselves a spot in the playoffs.
Can Paravigian bring it back?
All of these questions will be answered after this.
Play your role, one expert, onto the next level.
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It's time your chair evolved.
This is Secret Lab Titan Evo.
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backing every move.
What is going on everybody down on the floor with louse of furth?
Salute frate cummerge.
I mean, it's good. You can understand it as a Romanian for sure, and it's like everyone will appreciate it for sure.
Awesome. What are your initial feelings coming into this tournament?
I mean, I'm excited to play. Now it's like a bit of a chill environment. I feel a bit more calm, more relaxed.
I don't feel anything at all. It's just like I'm playing with my guys, a pug, and that's it.
Generally speaking, huge rankings climb over the last few months.
Talk to us about how that experience has been overall.
I mean to be honest it's good it's very good right but in the same time for me as
an individual like I want to get the best out of me right so for me at this
point because we kind of reached this level and we can maintain it like for me
now it's not enough to just like sit in this ranking right like I want to go
even further I want to see how much we can actually push because I can I feel
it we have it we have what it takes but we need to polish it like the
diamond very smooth and very sharp and it takes time it's a pain in the
Yes, but we have to do it.
I like that, that's a strong metaphor.
Lance, I imagine for you there's a lot of extra motivation,
another chance to compete in Romania.
What can you tell us about that?
Kevin.
Because for me, even maybe it's not the best
to go with a lot of high expectations in the tournament.
But for me, as I know myself, I'm a stubborn guy,
I have a big ego, right?
So I'm gonna say, like, I do believe,
I think we'll reach the semifinals.
I mean, for me, there is no other way
I can see this road ending.
either I lose in the semi-finals, finals and then I'm happy or like it's not possible.
You speak really confidently about yourself and the team's mental.
How important is that side of the game for you and the team?
I think it's important for everyone, not only for us, but the team with us is because we're all extremely young.
It hits harder.
I mean, in a way like, for example, when you have bad mental moments, you can see it very quickly.
But also when we have insane mental moments, when we come back, when we scream, when we
hype each other, like you don't see this at the other teams.
And that's again because we're a team of five, I mean, kind of two teenagers and three children
kind of still, if I can call it like this, right?
So, you know, we are still a bit crazy that I always said it, so it's up and down,
up and down.
For the finish, the points with regards to practice.
So, similar to results like practice has been a bit up and down, it's multifaceted.
But overall, are you as prepared as can be, are you happy with the preparation that you
and the team have had?
I mean, the preparation, it was insane, like we fixed the mess we wanted to fix, but that's
the thing, I feel like we kind of worked so much on some aspects that I think it's
impossible to not get a burnt-out feeling at one point.
And I think it kind of happened to us, but I'm happy the management and the coaching
staff kind of realized it ASAP and they gave us the free days before the tournament because
like now I don't know what's going to happen.
But I do have a good feeling actually that we're going to do good because of those
breaks because people can reset, people can enjoy their free time, the loved ones,
it's different.
Yeah.
All right.
Final couple of questions then.
Just talk to me about the field of teams here at PGL, Bucharest.
What do you think about the teams? Any teams that you think are at the front of the pack
that you're looking forward to playing? Anything like that?
Paravision.
Okay, of course. That's it. Like Paravision, I want to face them and I want to beat them.
I want to take revenge for Cluj-Napoca, but of course it's going to be a tough game,
but a good game, I know for sure.
So, yeah. And against the other teams, I think we reached a point where we should
not be scared or even think about the other teams. At least that's how I see it.
We should just play our game confidently and just do what we do best.
Amazing, Lance. Pleasure to chat to you. Wishing you the best of luck, especially to you here
in Bucharest, in Romania. Is there anything else that you'd like to say to fans watching
at home before I let you go?
I mean, you know, I said every time, thank you for the support and stuff, so I'm not
going to appear again, right? But, yeah, I think I just wanted to say that I would
just like people to chill down a bit not only to my team maybe to everyone in
the community because I feel people who kind of got disconnected from the touch
of reality like first I'm not robust for care sake like we will fail we will do
shit things it's like yeah just look at a normal sports career to some football
day and it will be even crazier I can come for the statistics. That's it.
Lounge wise beyond your years really such a pleasure to chat and watch again.
Best of luck. Thank you Palau. Thank you.
Well, we heard from the man himself looking for revenge today from the inclusion of Poco
Lost.
He said he wanted the face paravision, he wanted the beat paravision and it was going
to be a good game.
And by God, all three of those things were true on map one.
Yes, they were.
It was a great game and it goes down to the wire, goes down to the last round
and I think with the way Footwork playing was just really fun as usual.
Yeah, as usual.
We lost the most entertaining team in Counter-Strike and FaZe, but Foot might be filling that gap a little bit.
We got a new one on the rise, you know. I'm excited to see these players continue to grow.
There's just so much playmaking ability inside of this squad.
And we're going to their home ground, right there, the turf where they really made a name for themselves.
Going to Mirage, Dust was highlighting now how Paravision have been woeful, I think was the word he used.
I'm sorry about that, Dust.
When you use the word woeful, you're not joking around.
Yeah, it has not been great. So I need to see if it can get this series down to zero fashion
Be a fairly impressive result from the head into the playoffs. Well, it's gonna be funny
I mean, you know, we know they like to be pacey. We know they like to be aggressive
They know we know they like to be explosive and hit you in the face really hard
Map like this they can do all of those things and they do do all of those things
However, they've taken the first loss here. That's demon to fall down deep smoke to prevent the retake through CT
So Bellasinox got to move his position and leaves way to lurk
Oh, Longstreet is just waiting for you to come through that smoke, you'll punish that when
I eventually arise.
Now we go.
Four plies must have marched away into the bomb site, jukes to peek on out.
He's just going to keep himself tucked away now, they're moving in, taking a good shot.
Oh my, that literally went to the moon as well.
Artifus 2, look out for that.
We have got Longstreet just waiting all the way back at CT, and he is taken down
by no to defuse all being stuck all the way.
For how confident we've seen foot B over the past months and even in the first
map and in terms of taking fights and how assertive they've been this this one
was all hesitation this one was all them they block CT spawn but never had
the information of how many bodies were retaking from top con and none of them
really ever committed to any kind of a fight because again it's actually like
their own smoke worked against them it's like their own smoke denied them
information that no one was coming from CT spawn and they just could never
find a clean way to peek into this and you got to credit the
para vision some really clean shots on a couple players break up some of the
crossfires to help lose that confidence but man around where
our foot feels probably like that's around Pistoron or they should have at least been
contesting for more.
It's been more of a challenge.
Yeah, well not the best scenario here.
It's like an issue to kick off the map, but...
I had one in the first map as well, but it was fixed up pretty quick.
Yeah, and this one's quick as well.
It's like pit stops.
We're flying through them.
Shout out to the admin crews here in PGL.
Shout out indeed.
This is the cap of our pistol round here.
Yeah, that's a lovely first kill to get on rounds like these, especially when you're playing retake.
And I shoot it all the time. It's just so critical to drop that one kill.
If you're going to play retake on the bomb site, just trim it off one player.
Making it a five on four does so much work.
A lot of players towards B, but three of them heading into the underpass.
So Cemetery's going to lead the way with the Galil.
and following up behind him with a MAK-10.
Lounx third in line with the Galil as well.
Krebbeni at top mid right now to help activate and protect them with smoke in towards the window.
Whoa! Can you believe that timing?
To dodge the grenade, cemetery jumping up just out of that.
He gets so close to death at that.
That's a decent amount of damage and return to Jello.
However, this position from Longs, they might expect it, but they don't realize it quite
yet.
What's his timing?
Gonna look right.
Good first kill.
Notice still here.
And Longs gonna fake the drop and reposition.
Another great kill.
Longs is doing everything at the moment.
Yeah, he is.
Another incredible multi-kill and gets out of there to tell the tale as well.
So you're sitting in a 5v3.
The fake drop is so nasty.
Yeah.
Great ability there, Longs, to pull that one off.
Here comes the final attack, 30 seconds.
Jullo will be taken out by the Max 10s.
Why is he alive?
For Mass, he's only going to 4k with this over on 1,000.
Two looking to do the same here,
but overrun by the Max 10, eventually leaving
Jame on his lonesome.
So they break through.
That's going to be a one-to-one,
and Foody Sports will tie things up.
That round is all Longs.
You know, there's two kills in the middle.
You take away a lot of the pressure or the snack.
People shift back to deal with Langson's position.
He's even got Jame right at the end of the day.
Triple kill, including the two openers.
In a perfectly played situation,
finds a great timing as the smoke fades,
fakes the drop, pulls a second player back
for a second kill, and even hunts down the final.
Brilliant from start to finish.
Oh, so perfect.
No, not even realizing what happened to him.
And then obviously that alleviates
a lot of pressure to make this attack work. The MAK10s sing out, and Furt respond with
a second round victory after losing the pistol. So Scout in the hands of Jane. He does get
a tag on cemetery, but takes tons of damage in return. Jokes playing way way back at
Palace. Three players rotating back through T spawn. They wouldn't come back to this
bomb site and attack into it. Taking some time though, so Jame is starting to get the idea.
They sense no pressure in the middle. They sense no pressure up short or towards the B bomb site.
So Paravision at least aligning what little resources they have in the right place.
It's going to be a battle for Foote as they step in.
Okay, Swase Deagle rings out first, cracks the skill of Demon, and another one from Zway.
Is there one more? No.
Jokes and longs, at least.
Getting those kills right back.
Longs again.
Impact, impact the background for a squad here.
It's not out of the woods just yet.
Deep smoke towards Jane.
He's going to hold him back inside of the smoke,
and he'll move up and a cemetery to remove Jane.
Belchernock now 1v3, 5-7.
Knocked off its perch at the top of the stairway.
Yeah, great round.
Good recovery.
A little bit scary when Kerbetti and Deeman
go down to the Deagle first,
but no one really too scared of that situation.
And Longs just kinda steps up and makes sure he finds the equalizers.
Great eagle from Zwei, there's the first one, demon goes down, dodge the flashbang, prevent
his necks, but then becomes the response.
Hit kill from Longs, Jets adds one in there, oh that's a nice tap, we didn't see live.
Beautiful stuff from Longs.
And two to one, so USPs only prepare a vision and put a chance to build up some T rounds
early.
Yeah, should be no issue right here right now.
This is scary, and I think this is where you get to the point where it's like,
okay, if foot's gonna win the next gun round and you start having them build some momentum,
if they get to play and dig into their playbook and control tactically this map,
and the pace changes are gonna be in their favor,
like this team can play it slow,
they're gonna be playing it fast from time to time,
following for Benny on a timing up towards Khan,
they're just gonna blow up on this map,
so if they get on too much of a run and too much momentum,
I think Paravision's really gonna struggle to contain them moving forward.
X gun round is pretty critical in my opinion that Paravision steals around the way.
I said they can do it.
A big part of that performance on Dust2 was Jayne.
He had a really good game.
Even though the losing effort was frantic,
now it's delivering a lot of impact on both halves with that AWP.
So we'll be keen to see how he can affect Mirage here.
Yeah, 26 kills Jayne on Dust2.
So he was a beast with the AWP.
Might be a little bit more difficult for him on this map to rack up that number of frags, but let's find out together.
3-1, round 5 coming in.
Jame is not gonna have, is he gonna, no, no AWP on the board.
M4's across the entirety of ParaVision. One kid is on Noda.
Yeah, but the lack of AWP can really cost ParaVision here, we'll see, because Cemetery has his out on the server, and he's gonna open it through his ramp.
He's gonna be mullied.
He's gonna cover their progression, they're just gonna hit this.
This is one of those faster timings that Flitz is going to be playing with throughout this half.
They have me throwing those mid smokes out too to sell that there's a little bit more presence there than there really is.
Look at the shift, Belleshenox rotated away, notice the only defender, James, is sliding over to the B bomb site.
Yeah, Paravision is a little bit lost here in round five, not voting well.
Those smokes are fading away, but the pressure is still being put on by Craveni, who is throwing utility out towards the window,
keeping eyes on it, keeping them pinned, denying the information as to the numbers in middle.
So, Paravision's feeling very uncomfortable. In fact, they're even further falling further back away from the A-bomb site.
Krebbeni gets one kill. This is sold and Paravision's basically dead in the water.
Ah, that's a tough fight there. He's got to worry about multiple angles, but now comes the attack.
And remember, the A-site is still completely wide open.
Yeah, but at least you have a 5 on 4, so you're not like in any kind of crazy panic right now.
If you're a Paravision, you're going to trust this retake, but the X-factor, remember, is only the one kill on Noda.
A second kill, excuse me, makes it a little bit better.
Lack of utility in the retake as well.
Longs again, impact kill, but this time, foot of taking damage.
Look how much damage there is done on towards Demon and Longs.
Cemetery has to make a move.
The AWPer on the rifle.
He switches out to the AK through the AWP over towards Demon.
Longs is looking to fight, looking to biff, and it's worked out very well.
Clean one tap from Longs. Cemetery goes too far,
and James Patience once again a virtue.
Longs is fragging though, another round where he's had an incredible multi-kill for his squad.
only jayme is good enough to deal with him and he finally will getting into the retake in paravision
does he have it make it work i mean they're going to yeah he's got the kit picked up so i love that
diffuse yeah he had to get offered to go pick up the kit so yeah i came back and and yeah closer than
i expected two three to two he had very tough lax is having himself a heater to open this map
up yeah exactly look that round it goes the way paravision easily if lax isn't there to get
that kill on belcher not through the smoke and then also standing and fighting on the hp
I wonder, by the logic, you were kind of highlighting it the whole way through, the amount that Krebbeni was doing over in middle,
I would question the logic of having him be the point man to make the first play,
to just kind of walk up Kat and try and find a kill on his own.
Why not keep him as a kind of lurk, as a nuisance.
You know they're going to be shifting in middle when you hit the bomb site with four.
I'll see how foot changed things up moving forward.
Once again, three players coming in through the underpass, Krebbeni at top middle on his own,
Some jugs looking for a B push in the halls for a foot's attack.
For paravision, way more short up on the A bomb site this time, despite the fact they've
been able to rotate back and recover the rounds.
They don't want to have to deal with that level of hard work each and every time.
So smoke window room all the top towards short.
cover the progression, the boost up in towards window if they want it.
Four players, four players to defend here at A.
scoop fry that's going to be no they're going down towards jungle and opening
again when you guessed it long sitting at 12 and 2 and now they're attacking again
the weak bombsite one defender yeah it's fell back as well oh my god okay you
can't do anything I feel like what's doing to paravision right now with
paravision at times does does make it unpredictable when you're going to take
the next finding a kill in the middle of the map and then your entire round
is frozen because you don't entirely know how to deal with this one player sitting in a very
powerful position? I mean it's fantastic to see football at this level. I mean when do they,
now the question was when do they take the next step. You know we're getting into positions to
qualify into the playoffs multiple times to start this year. I mean in Krakow they got to that
spot really quickly they lost to G2 in a heartbreaking way and they went on to lose
the follow-up game and get knocked out on the group stages and obviously we've highlighted
In this game in particular, they close the poker run, they get to the final match-up and then lose, unfortunately, the ParaVision.
But then, Pro League, they make it to the playoffs. They make it online. They qualify to the online group stage, they play online, they get to the semi-finals in the playoffs.
But now here, a Ph.L. Bucharest is in the event that they are about to go 3-0 through the group stages.
And even if they work, you can see this somehow, because you never really count ParaVision out.
They were going to a 2-1 bracket where it's like a Mongols wildcard MIBR3 max-eye ballers, right?
So foots should absolutely qualify for that well
We'll find out that with the way they're playing at the moment
I don't have to be concerned about dropping out of that level of play
See if they continue it here. It's it's kind of it's fun in a way
They're on a similar trajectory to para vision we can touch on that in an eco round because this one's
This one's gonna be a spicy round off is out in the hands of Jane for the first time on the map
He's got that in towards calm for the moment
Both teams kind of establishing themselves and kind of making a name for themselves briefly towards the end of last year a little bit of a rise up at the tier 2 level and at the end of the year having impact at tier 1.
And openings this year has been, will these guys continue? It feels like these teams are on a similar trajectory.
I don't know if Kribenny can hear this flank, but demon is ready.
I don't know, he's got this kill.
They're coming back to the area.
They're like, you're looking at them.
Come on, Pete!
And it was coming.
So 5-2, it just feels a bit too easy right now for foot e-sports to be honest.
I mean, honestly, we've got longs doing this.
I remember, too, coming into this second map of the series.
We did kind of know this was going to be a map that,
we know it's a map Footloft to play, are very strong on it.
and challenged a lot of teams on it.
And it's towards the bottom of the map pool
for ParaVision as well.
So a little bit of a mismatch here.
That was kind of the benefit that ParaVision
was supposed to have on Dust2,
but didn't really work out that way.
So stealing that first map, there's a reason
why all of a sudden it kind of felt like Para,
or excuse me, Foot have a great shot at the 2-0.
Would you like the previous series
with the Strahl-Steel and Mongols map pick away
to open up the series?
three-round lead and we get the first time out out of paravision because yeah
looking lost looking like they don't really have answers not too often I
think you see Jame and paravision get out called to this degree I feel like
even in some of the rounds the paravision of one
foots have the right call and the right read and maybe drop the ball but a
number of times they've been able to find the weaker bomb site with one
defender. There's the timeout coming to a close so coaches stop talk and freeze
time descends as round eight is set to begin. Off in the hands of Cemetery still.
Jim with his on the other side and still waiting to see Barovision have a
defense that makes us feel like they settle into the game.
That was very quick this time, changing pace, 4ft to get Longs straight away up Cat, look
at this sprinting all the way up through Catwalk, looking to try and take the ladder
room and he's already got it, Jello now realizes, oh no they're right here and he's going
to deal with it, so could these boys actually get crushed on their attempt to speed things
up towards the B bomb site for a split?
Jugs has got a couple but they're pretty low, they are pretty low, the issue with
the bomb is dropped all the way towards Short.
Yeah, well, I'll tell you what, I don't think Jigs is thinking about the win right now. He's thinking about kills.
That's got to be the goal at this point, is take some of that money away.
Make them rebuy some weapons. 1v3, you can't feel like it's too possible, but let's see if you can create the opportunity.
So using all the time on the clock and taking the route that he's hoping they won't expect whatsoever,
he's saying, you guys will probably think I'll come directly for the bomb. I'm going to try and wrap around, but Jello, too smart.
Even, oh, he was wiping his nose. He was wiping his nose.
Oh my god, you don't lose a round because you got to wipe your nose.
It was an itchy nose.
An itchy nose might cost him the round.
Would have been itchy for the whole round up to that point.
And that's when he finally gave in.
I have to.
I mean, we've all been there.
Scratch your nose, though.
Yeah, itching his face.
Itching his nose doesn't really make sense, does it?
People do say that interchangeably.
I do believe the correct term is to scratch your nose.
Oh, yeah.
It is what you're doing.
branch in each way he has a smoke it's not going to drop it and actually no does
checkmate it in regardless even if Jane doesn't get this kill with the AWP
well I mean he's getting kills and that's why he's looking for so oh $10,000
oh he's out of time for winning the round out yeah it's done don't step back
in a chain this is risky okay we're all good he's actually just gonna get to
chill so you get three kills get safety okay you got $10,000 I thought
he was gonna bomb rush the player at the B bombslay when he saw him drop
out yeah that would be really fun I don't think I don't know if you could have
that would have been a huge mistake if you give him that kill with time to plant
but that would have been the only option to actually try and win the round was
like 10 seconds back it was 12 when he spotted it so like you can push up but
as long as he like just hides van or anywhere really do ring around the
Rosie in the site do anything you can basically not die immediately alright
well around for paravision not a lot of money being built up though in
reserve so gotta make sure that they keep players alive here yeah still yet as
well to win two in a row which has just made this tough to string rounds together
to be a sentence yeah we'll take it that makes sense it'll leave it be
around mid for Betty already oh no no no notes is gonna be sad about that yeah
where did he get caught from where did he where we're calls him to get jumped
up in the air a little bit scared not in a great place so long snow has
control of middle and he's been a beast from this position.
Look at this.
Ooh, Demon's already out.
That's so quick.
Longskid's one at the same time as well.
Dude, there's just pressure all over the map.
All the choke points all at once.
It's just overwhelming.
Yeah, and we haven't seen Paravision yet.
At some point, they might want to get aggressive in middle,
set up like a delayed trap, push up.
Again, it's the same concept we talk about with other teams.
If you keep letting them have that much space to work with.
They're like, yeah, you were in mid this round.
I don't know what note he got caught off by,
Jumping kind of down trying to get into some cover in the underpass
We had nothing nothing's clean at the moment for paravision
HLTV
And I think James right right in that right now
This is this is insane the performance he's got right now 15 and three. Yeah, he's this is this is gross
He's just got them started in such a great place and he's got paravision started in such a deep hole
not only in terms of rounds but just just the way he's punished the defense a
number of times they haven't been able to keep track of him or contain him
whatsoever
it's always nice when you have a life game like we're not like when you have a
great map like this he's had a lot of these just is his life I suppose
honestly it's cool to that you know it's lungs part of the part of the thing
with his foot team is like not only are they cool to watch playing
Counter Strike but long skips them a personality that makes them like
easy easy to get excited for you know like puts a little bit of humanity on to
the team so whatever he's having a good game it is kind of like cool you know I
was like listening to a locks interview these days yep absolutely well it's
gonna be 70 rounds coming right up here for a foot
I was sitting in this very chair months ago last year when I was first
casting the foot rise and they knocked FaZe clan out. Sure at the CACs.
CAC, I'm showing Howard casting an event remote from here and that was really impressive but
you wondered is it just FaZe or is it Foot? Being good and I think it was a
little bit of both but Foot, with the way that we're playing it was so
impressive and then they obviously continued that. Well at the time we
probably said it was mostly FaZe and now on hindsight it's like okay well they
We were just better than we kind of realized at that point.
Yeah.
Band phase.
It's definitely a little bit of both.
All right, well your strong utility and showing presence towards short, you put Jello on
notice with this, with his Zeus hoping somebody's going to turn in, that's not going to
happen.
A bomb site's wide open for the taking.
So this round of USP is no big deal.
I think paravision, whatever, eventually going to come get killed over towards short.
Logs might be able to have a field there, so let's stat that.
25 seconds, bomb finally going down, and here it comes.
Two stills charging through.
Connector logs, of course, getting two extra out of that scenario.
And they're being traded out by Jay.
He also called at least one in the window room as well, so there's really no issues here.
Medicaid that was picked up by the CTs has now been removed.
removed? Seven to three is going to be the score line and no signs of slowing down for
foot. Charles is waiting. Someone please come to my Zeus please. I'm one. I don't care
about any. I'm going to the window with an AK. Alright, well four round lead and two
rounds remaining in this opening half. It's one of those halves where it seems
so dominant it seems like paravision is just getting crushed but man just like one more
round and it's like all right we're actually kind of fine now that hits the line where
it's like okay we can we can make this happen just the stylistically how it's occurring
has felt so dominant in the favor of foot. Round 11 and four players swinging wide over
middle they were looking for a fight in window room
well they're going to be stacking players over towards A for what is going to be an
A finish for a foot
you've got Krebbeny in middle and we've seen this play a couple of times in the
half where Krebbeny will
try and sell more presents in mid than there really is just himself
and then the rest of the teammates get ready for the A finish once a couple of
those defenders have been removed but they're not moving right now on Paravision
so they're keeping three players on the site. Yeah, not a very pretty comms smoke either
well now they know they're in the right place look at all the presence look at
all the utility all the noise coming in. Jello caught out in the open still
wins this fight. Yeah important to pick that up he's still right on the
words walks goes in and for once loses the engagement so much stronger
I think not a great execution from foot obviously
So they try to improvise based on that and didn't go very well
And it helps when you got three players over towards a now if you lose this round
Oh my god, you can't lose this surely not come on paravision. You certainly can
Let's see what some of trees got each up
The no scope now down to just Jane and he will always save you so there we go
at least James reliable getting the chop down back that was ridiculous. Yeah, look how difficult
this game is right now for paravision. What is that a two on five two on four recovery,
whichever way you want to put it. They were stuck. They had nowhere to go. That's a nasty
shot from demon as well. So to kind of bring that back. Thank God, James arrives when he does.
Time out for foot for this last round of the half. They want to get up to eight
I'm with them. You always want to obviously you want to get the most rounds possible
But I think if you're foot with the way this half has gone the way you guys have played
I think there's you wouldn't be disappointed in the moment, but it feels like they deserve more than seven rounds. Yeah
We'll have a discussion just trying to piece together what they would like to do for this final round of play
foot looking for eight certainly like you said Jason feel like they deserve it
the way they've been playing and likely to get it just with how strong they have
been no to it with a USP now he's got them for okay like I know it's like
somebody put up a fort of the P250 at the very least give the man a P250 you
can always afford a P250. Bombs here again, it almost looks like foot want to do something
similar in this round, although there might be a certain mid element to it, cemeteries
over in the B-holes. Preventing rotating back through T-spawn now, so just wanted to make
sure there wasn't going to be a push on the other side of the map that's going to
give ParaVision a ton of information. Fortunately for foot, ParaVision has put Jame with
the AWP up in B-tunnels, which gives Zwei the mobility to shift back towards middle,
So staunch defense and reinforcements are going to be here very fast, which means lounge has
to deliver a couple more of those knockout blows very, very fast.
All the Nates into the site, Jellar has had enough of sitting back and letting them run
at him, so he gets aggressive, goes into the palace, and it's a strong spot to have,
but his teammates are going down, so no longer does that palace spot feel all that strong.
He's going to be taken down by Krebbeni, and then you have Jayme and Zwei in a 2v3
here trying to prevent an eighth round falling in favor of the T's and the plant is through
puts the pressure on television now to retake. They've got some utility obviously James still
alive but he's the only player alive now 1v3 solo retake with the AWP. He's got some
utility here where he smoked out deep at CT spawn and this is eating time off that clock.
Yeah and I think you could see the cemetery just backing up he's like okay well if you
haven't been shown elsewhere I'm surprised he didn't back up even further a chance
for James that's going to flush a player out of the boxes on top of it briefly
There's the peak from Palace James.
Oh, look at he's got it.
Oh, he's actually playing this perfectly.
Then comes down to the open with a smoke.
The time really pressured him into making that decision.
If he had a few extra seconds, he could have remained composed.
But James was taking all the right steps
to clutch that one up.
But Thut will squeeze an extra round out of this half.
Eight to four lead on the second map of play.
Looking like Thut are going to be the squad that
go three and zero.
They just dotted scattered round wins for ParaVision
in the four that they have.
Never two in a row winning pistol, losing the second.
winning the fifth, losing the sixth. They could just never ever get any sense of
control over what foot was bringing to the table. Very good half called by
Krebbeni, very good half individually from Longs who just has incredible impact
at 18 kills. And now we switch side. Defense for foot and Jane gets to
captain his team on offense. A recovery mission to try and keep this
series alive. Two and 0 game in the Swiss system so nobody's going home
but it's just qualifying for the playoffs.
Foot is just five rounds away.
Pistol round for paravision isn't necessary,
but it closes the gap quick and takes a lot of pressure off you.
The loss in the pistol you can still come back and win,
but you just have so much less mistakes
that you're able to give up throughout the half.
And here we go, it begins.
Launc, Steemen and Krabeni going over to the B bomb site, Cemetery and Window, and Jugs
playing retake from Ticket at the A bomb site.
teams at the moment looking for the first play, the first piece of aggression, and
Foot is showing no signs of pushing into whatever setup Paravision is playing.
Bomb this whole time has been brought over deep behind the A ramp for the
moment towards T spawn, so it feels like the end is always going to be towards
A, which you'd imagine would be three players coming through underpass.
to make it two players through underpass.
Oh no, Jane slipping into connector.
Player down and walking into what is going to be a three man set up cemetery hearing.
Oh Jane got a sixth sense and he felt cemetery right beside him inside of that smoke
Jane will take him down and now 4v4 as the plant is through para vision
We're gonna win this piss around a lot of targets inside of the side
Jukes is connected on to one of them long says now arriving the deadly weapon off through these ports goes away without a single kill
And now it's away standing and fighting but taking damage to his chest seven HP
Jukes still not giving up his life easily in fact he finds his killer
And the crowd will follow up and celebrations from foot in particular longs because foot
have moved up to nine rounds and increased their chances of closing out this series.
Huge kill from James to get that to alleviate some of the pressure taking that eight bombsite
on the cemetery.
But the real issue is after the bomb gets planted all three members of Paravision are
stuck inside the bombsite.
There's no there's no spread defense to prevent that retake from happening.
No real contact.
Longs is able to scale all the way to this bombsite before he gets into a fight.
So for uptime, you can see on the minimap there, it's like, where do you go?
Look at how little cover you have from all these angles being peeked.
Zwei does a fantastic job holding on as long as he possibly can, but there's just no hope.
Nine to four, a second round by with the plant.
Paravision need this.
Kiro AK on Jello.
He's got the kill.
Yeah, he hunted him down perfectly, like a homing missile to his butt, and now Jame is going to run all the way back through T spawn to join him on the A site, because the execution's coming in.
Yeah, there's space to work without this A bomb site.
Now Jamie is going to run all the way back through T spawn to join them on the A site because the execution is coming in
Yeah, there's space to work without the same bomb site
Gonna have to step through the smoke as long she's actually gonna make it all the way over the boxes a risky route to run
But he's found the advantage of it
Longs, swinging out, side of the smoke, and he's just cleaning up, he's gonna push them
all over the place, finally. Too much to handle for him, but he's got plenty of teammates.
And the support network pulled through for foot, that was a purchase for ParaVision,
they don't have enough money to get a real good buyout. And this one, no, not even enough
kills to even like make the argument that you could go for it, no bomb plant for
bonus money whatsoever so looking like the sun is setting on paravision here on map 2
they got maybe one more chance one more buy coming up next but for here it's like he just
got to sit back on glocks which is just so painful considering the score line
20 kills now on lungs 13 on krubenny 11 on jokes and cemetery apiece demon's just been
I'm chilling this game.
Gonna get tapped, oh my god, how's he not died?
Longs is just on an absolute heater today.
23 kills, 8 taps, that's a 3K in middle, Angelo now left running away.
Yeah, I mean, you could see, like, when that flashbang comes in,
like everyone from foot is like swinging to protect their blind teammate.
Everyone is prepared for the fight. Catwalk player comes over, Loms comes over, they make sure he's not fighting alone.
This handle in business right now, Foot's got to be very, very happy.
Crews into this victory, a 7 round lead, 11-4 over ParaVision.
We mentioned, I mean, you asked like, where we might kind of expect Foot to kind of end up in the conversation around like teams that could win this event.
because Paravision's the one you'd put in that slot of saying they are the favorites to win the event right now
and Foote is just trouncing him at the moment
It's a great, great sign to see here for Foote for taking the next step and throwing the name in the hat
as a team that could win this trophy
Here comes the utility flying up through the sky
She was gonna play the ticker box demon taking damage. She hasn't a great map individually and it will continue to be an issue for
him and she'll get through to demon
3 and 5v4 paraversion into the site comfortably, so
For me throwing up a flash to the sky
Spound down these smokes trying to stop that bomb plant, but not able to do it
They're gonna be a tough retake you had a footy sports here
How has he got away with another one daylight robbery from launch again
Stella performance, James again needing to clutch and he's got it in him!
Another one from James, at least the lifeline right now for Paravision, but it's just not enough
to get you excited even with a clutch like that.
Dude, I can't even believe Locke's is able to continue doing this, continue changing rounds to this degree.
This is a 4 vs 5, no one watching for this on the Paravision side of things,
Jokes making the retake at the same time so the third kill Longskid is distracted,
Yet again for paravision james steps up at a desperate 1v1
You know you're you're needing jame to clutch up in these rounds. It should be a lot easier than that and
It just feels like eventually knocking out the door the only thing that can weaken locks is giving him an mp5
Why is he got that please demon give him your rifle?
Demon needs the help dog and he's the solo B defender long so give him the help
generally I'm with you on the concept not demon though he's on the other side of
the map you gotta have your be on the rightful be anchor with a rifle cemetery
give him your all
mp5 though this is this is the true test of his powers today yeah if you can't
make the mp5 work right now with a game he's playing there's no hope for
the weapon
Under a minute on the clock.
Power vision, look at the slow things down.
Yeah, but they're lining up towards A again, so good position.
What?
Cemetery stepping up on top of ticket, exposed to the connector, and Jame takes a free kill.
Now this MP5 really sucks because it's fine if you're dealing with a player at close palace,
but when you've got a deal with players coming up jungle and stairs,
It's a whole different story for Benny winning the fight, but his perfect last drops the smoke so he doesn't expose himself to any other angles
We can focus on the palace player. He does get a kill with it
I don't think they realized jigs is here quite yet. He still has a role to play oh
Shallow fall so demon important kill gets traded by Jane once again a clutch required from Jane
Looking in the right direction jerks up on top of Tetris and a headshot right between the ice
James is knocked over and it's 12 to 5 series point for footy sports as they look for a 3-0 progression into the playoffs.
Yeah, that was such a fast shot watching it from James POV as well because it felt like he had him.
It felt like he had the sense of where he was. He was getting wide with the AWP already scoped in.
That shot came out so fast from Juggs. 12 to 5, 7 chances.
And once again, as you can see on the round history, not a single sequence of rounds strung
together by paravision throughout this whole map, just individual rounds picked up, but
never anything that gave them consistency or confidence.
I'm just never knowing the whole time where Jigs was until he pounced towards the end.
12-5.
And ParaVision really out of things to fight with, only one single rifle into this round, the AK-47 on yellow.
That's a good job.
Well, it's out of its impact.
Yeah.
It's coming out middle, getting the advantage, and then falling away.
ParaVision wants to try and going to be knocking on this A-bomb site.
Smokes are up, and they're held back for now, but actually...
They don't have anyone in the middle, right? The mid-player demon is playing outside of window room, so they know Conn is kind of an issue, like anyone could be moving up Conn peeking from Conn at any point.
But by the time they move in, they've only got one smoke left, so you can't exactly re-smoke the same positions. You've got to rely on flashes, and while that, I suppose, Sway sends one deep towards CT, another one on Jukes, and they're into the site.
Okay, I'm just banging them out. That makes it easier.
Demons gonna come over, he's gonna get things started, two on three, and remember they have a couple pistols still in place, so this is doable.
Demon one more kill would be excellent if you can get it before his teammate arrives
Oh
I mean, it's it's the right idea just kind of weird to sacrifice the retake to do it in that moment
Yeah, you just like I don't believe myself right now
Yeah
Long sit as an MP5 coming through palace. So I guess he thought he might have it just been safe
So we could chuck it away and then actually step into the bomb site for the retake, but
Anyways
Anyone's gonna win this round at his longs to be fair again with the empty five
And he's gonna give it up
So sixth for para vision and now the money is pretty gone is pretty cost
For the foot side this might be this is the chance to get to in a row of your para vision
That's what you got to be selling to your teammates right now
We have a long comeback
But let's start it with that first step, which is just getting two rounds straight because because we need six in a row
Just some great shots
I'm in mid and then obviously
The entrance here from Zway onto the altar of cemetery. You just got taken off the angle fire flashbang
So reinvestment from foot without any kind of critical losing bonus
Miss window smoke, but shouldn't be too punishing at least in this round
Oh, James talking quite a lot.
Longs and P5 again.
Okay, spraying away has got one.
They're just making something happen with that.
They're coming into a stack.
They're coming into the exact round that Foot want them to play.
A couple tags as well from that scout so far, so it's softened up for the pistols.
Oh, here we go.
If this is how it ends, foot esports with weakened weapons in a position to close out the series and move into the playoffs.
There's Jokes, 5-7 connects.
Yeah, they're trapped now.
Yeah, and it's all crumbling here for Paravision.
Paravision are favorites of the competition, but foot handling business against them easily.
They will take a 3-0 run.
The team that always had a heartbreak trying to progress into the playoffs have done it flawlessly.
sleep. Absolutely done from this team. I don't have anything else to say. It was
fantastic. Yeah, foot gave him a nice ass kicking. That's for sure. I mean, I
don't really know how else you can put that. Longs was on a mission. The do was
on the absolute heater. I thought he was about to drop a 30 bomb in
regulation, which is almost unheard of nowadays. I mean, the dude just could
not be stopped on his home soil. That's worth noting. Quick little
story long. Longs obviously was not was he was remaining alongside Ema
trying to get to the playoffs at Cluj wasn't able to do so. Just
missed it in the last game. Now he is going to be in the playoffs in Romanian soil.
So that's pretty cool stuff.
Yeah, I mean he played very well in that game, but this game, this map particularly.
Dust2 I think he started quite cold and then kind of warmed up a bit, but here he was insane
just from the start. And you could see the frustration of Terrivers inside.
I think I counted two dust slams at least, one from Zi, one from Nota.
They win the pistol and then literally second round boosts Longston to window.
He gets some openings and from that point onward, they're just kind of the same feeling over and over again.
Oblong's just finding so many frags in the middle that you couldn't be traded.
And Foot in such a great position to win this map.
Yeah, it's kind of funny because last time they played against each other on Mirage,
it was Foot started on the CT side, dominated, struggled to close on the T side.
This time they start on T side, dominate, no trouble dotting the eyes and crossing the T's on this one.
And it kind of goes back to what you were discussing.
like, you know, foot just is so relentless and how they pressure middle and they're so good at varying the numbers and
whilst just so good at solo pressuring window, I think I get in the window probably like three or four rounds that game
it seemed like and was always making the right moves and just doing the right things and
Really made sure that this was not going to go any other way but close
Did you think I mean for me
I was a little bit worried as hard time because I felt like the score line didn't really
make a tough strong foot look and when you see it when you see the 8-4 with paravid and you're like, oof
Yeah, I mean for sure about thankfully, you know, the pistol the pistol went this direction. I mean the fact that both of these map matches that we just watched also Astralis Mongols and this one both went to definitely not something I expected, especially for the underdogs to win in such like handed fashion on both.
Look at that timeline.
2.25.
What did I call the rating?
I said 2.25, you know?
Bro, he only had four rounds,
so he didn't get a kill.
Yeah.
Look at this heat map.
He was all over the place.
He was ripping them a new one everywhere.
I mean, we're talking about in the pre-show,
just the mid-to-A splits for Paravision.
They're struggling to close it down.
They're not really on the same page.
They're allowing too much space for the T's to come in
and trying to stop them, maybe a bit too late.
And yeah, this is the highlight reel that everyone's looking for.
I mean this is the most dominant performance of a player so far this tournament.
It's what launches did this game.
Is it concerning when you think about para vision and what we expect from them to see
them go down in this fashion?
I mean especially considering they have a mirage that looks so weak and it's a map
that most teams will be okay with playing, not many like firm and ban mirage, so it's
just a weakness that they need to be better at if they want to be winning tournaments.
They can't have a map that almost everyone plays that's looking like a free pick for
for the average team. Average top ten team, right?
Yeah, I mean, look, we know that they're great on ancient.
We know that they're great on just two. But yeah, you're right.
The issue is, is that Mirage is a key vulnerability that they play a lot.
They also don't really play overpass very well.
They're from a band new. So that is going to become a real issue,
especially because a lot of this, I think, is provision prepared for the
major, obviously. And look, if you make it to that best of five grand final,
that's going to be some problems that you're going to have to face against
really elite team potentially in the vitality or whomever they face so that
is something they're gonna have to address for sure. Longest highlight reel of
all time because of all the frags and we actually have him with us now. Longs is
here in studio I'm gonna call him to the couch, gonna plunk himself down between
our two analysts. Hello, join us over there. They're keeping your seat warm.
Are we getting a handshake even? There you go.
Surprised I didn't feel some steam coming off that hand. To the heater you just
down over there at that mouse hand.
No, no, no, no.
I'm all good.
Your hogs.
I don't sweat in general with my hands.
You're good.
Like you were on fire though, in the server.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I can call it like that, yes.
You should call it like that.
You played so well.
So I do have a question for you.
How much preparation did the team do coming into this matchup against ParaVision?
I mean, I feel like we didn't do as much preparation as we did last time when
we faced them.
And I think that was one of the strongholds, right?
If we wanted to play our game, we knew what's our strongest points, what are their weakest points,
and we just abused them. My voice is cracking down a bit from the screen, I'm sorry.
I can imagine. You're pretty loud after those rounds, and I mean, again, congratulations.
You also said before the tournament that you want revenge.
It's the classic question that the interviewers ask, is there anyone you want to face?
99% of the time, it's just like, ah, whatever, I don't care.
And you're like, no, I want to beat Perry Vison. Tell me how it feels.
I mean, it feels great, especially because last time they,
I mean, they eliminated me from Cluj-Napoca
and it was my whole country playing in front of my people.
And it hit me in the feeling,
feelings I can tell you that it was a big pain
and it kind of teach me a lot, but I'm happy.
We took the revenge.
Now we went into the playoffs.
We have more time to prepare, to relax,
to do things good.
So yeah, I'm looking forward to it.
What do you think was like the big difference maker
on Dust2 this time around?
Because obviously last time it was a pretty close game.
Went to multiple over times,
but Paravision were able to kind of edge you out.
This time, it seemed like you were much more in control.
Like, yeah, they won both pistols, they had hot starts,
but you guys recovered very quickly
and were able to dominate a lot of the gun rounds.
What do you think was the difference there?
I feel like, I mean, as I said in previous interviews,
I think from tournament to tournament, right?
I feel we've evolved in so many ways.
And I think in this tournament, the biggest difference,
and I feel that's why we went also on Dust2,
is that we are much, much more calmer, right?
Like, we don't scream as much,
we don't do as much chaos on TeamSpeaks.
the comps are much better.
And I really feel they kind of overthink the situation, right?
I didn't feel they played as they played last time.
I think we actually got into their head, which is good.
So yeah, I mean props to Krabbeni and Kulu
because they did their hell of a good job.
They did good calls.
They knew what to eat, what are the weakest points.
And I don't know, like I felt like I was playing
with the all-hacker with Krabbeni calling.
It was a good time, to be honest.
No, we're talking about it as well.
I think three-year T-side rounds,
you just walked into a bomb side that had like one
or two players, right?
so it was a great calling there on the T side
to make the comeback after losing both pistols and everything.
So really impressive, impressive dust too from you guys.
I have a question for you about the mental game.
So at the start of the year, just before Cluj,
everyone knew that during up and coming team,
we speak a lot about you,
but I don't think there was a lot of expectation on you.
Now, I think that's changed
and a lot of the bigger teams are much more aware of you,
are seeing you as a bit of a threat.
Have you felt that pressure shift in the team?
Is it something that you as a group have noticed?
I mean, we have noticed that for sure
that teams are preparing more against us.
They're looking into us more, which is normal,
but I don't feel we got any pressure on the individuals.
If anything, I think we kind of got rid of the pressure
because like, I think they've not realized
how good we are, how much damage we can do together.
And I think now it's just like a good story.
We just keep writing books and pages and pages
and we see where you two land.
Are you worried about teams after the Major coming and trying to grab all of you?
I mean, they can come, but I don't think they can, to be honest.
Nice. I just want to say also on the topic of the Major, you know,
you're not playing RMRs anymore.
So it kind of went under the radar that you guys are going to the Major, right?
You didn't go to the Budapest one. You just kind of had a nice start to the year.
You won a drag line last year. You had some nice results at CAC and you were like
chilling, avoiding all of this drama.
We saw what happened with FaZe and Big and all of these other teams.
So how does that feel? Was it for you guys? Like, oh yeah, we're going to the major or is it just, you know, just another tournament?
I mean, of course, I mean, I think it's big for everyone because we qualified to the major. It's their first major for everyone in the team.
I mean, not for me, but still I didn't place in the studio major. So it's a long, long, long time.
So I will count it as my first major in CS2. But yeah, I mean, we kind of knew we will be in the major with the Pro League situation.
But we didn't know where exactly we are going to land, but we kind of realized like there is no way to play more tournaments because it wouldn't change the outcome.
Yeah, like we wanted to go for stage three, but that like we needed to win pro league.
If you would have won pro league, we wanted to go to Dracula to take that stage three for sure.
But it didn't matter in the end because we lost.
Just one quick question. MP5.
The best can in the game.
What did you do in practice that convinced you that this is the this is the weapon?
To be honest, first I just started trolling on Premier with my friends with MP5 and then
I just realized, okay, on Premier there are bad players and I can just spam them with MP5
but it's a very good gun.
It has so much accuracy, it has a big fire rate, a lot of bullets and then I started
playing it in practice.
My teammates were laughing, they were like, what's happening with this guy?
This is not normal.
And then I said, okay, you'll see, I'll do it in games too.
Pretty good.
Yeah, so obviously the majority of this team, aside from yourself, came from Nabi's Academy
system moving over into foot and you're a player who has a bit more experience
through us the team you know you played around a couple different teams and
played more lands and a lot of these guys have what has it been like kind of
embedding yourself into this you know core for players that have been through a
lot you know rising up and and being able to kind of build something
together where now both of you you know you and your teammates are going
further than any of you ever have before I mean for me it's a good
feeling but maybe it sounds weird a bit of a big ego but when I got the
offer. I remember I told my agent like this is it, like I know this is it, like I felt
like I never truly had the chance to play with people that are kind of on the same
page and on the same line as me and that kind of made me do some bad things in
my career, right? Which I can say that I'm happy how my things turned on because
I think I gained a lot of maturity and a lot of experience on real life. So now
I'm, I don't know, I'm happy how I got integrated into the team, right? I feel
I have a very good connection with them.
I can say it's one of the best connections I had in the game.
So yeah, I can't just wait to see what you're
going to do in the future.
So you mentioned it early on in the interview.
So I'm going to bring it back up again.
Obviously, Cluj was a little bit tough, right?
Because you were so close to getting the play in front
of the home crowd, inclusion of poke.
Obviously, Ema got to experience that on Na'Vi.
While we obviously don't have the big crowd here,
we are still on Romanian soil
and we're in a tournament where not only did you make
the playoffs already, but you're
one of the teams that can win this trophy.
it's very possible to do, what does that feel like to be able to have that opportunity here?
I mean, for me, I'm grateful for the opportunity, right? Because I think we do have chances, right?
But I think it's still a long road. We need to just maintain our composure and go game by game.
I don't want to say anything because you might jinx it, so I don't want to do it.
But yeah, I think it's great for me. If I win this tournament on Romanian soil, it will mean a lot.
And I think it will mean also a lot of the Romanian people.
And for me it would be a dream actually to win my first ASTAR tournament, I plan to be in Romania so yeah, awesome.
Thank you so much for taking some time to chat. I'm sure you want to go celebrate with your team because you are in the playoffs. Congratulations.
Thank you.
It was awesome to speak to you and we'll get to chat about you a little bit later on in the tournament.
We're going to say goodbye to him now and then we're going to wrap up today.
This has been really fun and it looks like you're going to stay here for a little bit longer.
Do you want to be an analyst now?
Let's have a little bit of fun here
What did you think about phase not qualifying for the major because that's the big talking points?
I mean, I don't want to be rude, but it was kind of expected with the current form. I think everyone
Playing pro CS kind of realized they're not in a good shape, right? So it's very bad
Honestly, I think it's very bad for such a nook to fail the major
But in the same time, I think it should be a wake-up call because and not only for them
I'm saying overall I think with the new CS2 and the new kids coming up like a lot of changes will be made in
I've not in six months
I think in one year and a half a lot of changes will be made in a lot of organizations because it's the future you can't do anything about it
What do you think about the VRS system as a defense?
I mean I qualified to the real major through the RMR show I kind of experienced both
But I think VRS is much better even if it has its flaws
I feel in the end it's kind of rewarding the guys who play the best right before the major, right?
If you want to make it to the major you need to play kind of good all the season
But when it matters the most it's right before the invite and who is doing it? Congrats to them
I can't say anything. I'm happy. It's like this everyone is full competing in the last week slash months
It's the best. Yes, you can watch everyone is trying so hard to make it
So I think it's good for the community. Yes, this is a pretty exciting because we start watching those smaller land tournaments as well
So we get a chance to see these like up-and-coming teams.
That's something that I've really enjoyed through this process.
Yeah, I mean just the fact that you know a team like FaZe or G2 or whatever needs to go to like an open land or a smaller tournament
and really be tested by teams they usually don't play.
Like if you go back two years, an AG wouldn't play anyone else, a big wouldn't play anyone else, right?
Even the lowest teams of the partner league, they would just be playing the same teams over and over again.
And even someone like a top five team, you know, you don't really know what to expect in you.
Another team that's trying to qualify for the major needs to go against all of these tier three,
tier four teams, tier two teams, and also the tier one teams when they qualify for a big event,
they need to be challenged so much. I think it's just more fair, right? You lose a few
tournaments, you go out and last, yeah, now you need to go to Draculand and try yourself
there against tier, you know, Dopp and Commerce. Before this turns into a podcast, let's pull
up the results from today so you can see what's up.
Langstaff, also just being told your team is waiting for you, so I'm going to say...
I'm going to go so I don't get killed.
Yeah. I hope they don't kill you. They need you in the playoffs, my friend.
Take a look at these results. Obviously, like I would say the disappointments,
specifically the phase dropouts, which I think, I think Scorni, I'm in a paraphrase now,
but he said something incredible in the class, which is the most entertaining team to watch
and Counter-Strike is no longer...
It's not fun to watch anymore.
No, it's just pretty sad for a while.
So not much to say there.
That's kind of done and dusted story.
And now it remains to be seen what's going to happen.
BC game was simple and electronic,
kind of in a not in a great position,
even just losing one map to Volka,
I feel like is already an indictment.
But maybe they can bounce back
and kind of make something out of it.
I think from today,
my biggest disappointment was focus,
obviously kind of bias there with creation player, but they played some really good Counter
Strike and then some really atrocious rounds that costed them this game and also got your
shout out to Neimanya who pulled out some crazy stuff and hexed as well individually,
really made that game a firecracker towards the end on Rosh.
So that's kind of from my side.
Well, it might be our beat legacy, I missed it.
Dust, I have to ask.
The two games we've just seen, I always have to ask you the tough questions.
Astralis Mongols, ParaVision, Futs.
Is it fair to say that in both of these games,
the team not expected to win was the one that took the victory,
and both teams taking it in convincing style?
I'll disagree on that one.
I think that in this game, I think you're right.
I think a lot of people obviously would have chosen ParaVision overflip.
They beat them before.
They're a higher-ranked team.
They've done more.
They have more experienced players, so on and so forth, right?
But I think the Astralis Mongols game was a toss-up.
Like I don't think we really knew what to expect just because you know mongols aren't the same team
They used to be as trousers been on the come up and they actually just had a big finish EPL
They show that they have some guys who can really shoot and they're they're on the same page right now
I'm playing good counter-strike. So that one to me was kind of a wide-open game actually
And I don't feel like you best energy you're brought to the pregame. I don't know
I feel like in the pre-show you're very mongols bias. I said the exact same thing
I'm not sure about that one, but we'll see we'll check that in the VODs. Indeed. Yeah
Those are our results, but there is still a game underway.
If you want to go see Simple and Electronic, either save their skin and live to play another
day or crash out in spectacular style, you need to go do that over on the B-Stream right
now and we will be back here tomorrow with more PGL Bucharest action.
Go quick, go watch.
We're going to go watch, too.
I