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Hello, everybody, and welcome back to SAEL.
It is kickoff time, which is happily enough kicking off just as we speak.
Hi, welcome.
a very good evening. It's
my good friend David a butchie.
Mr Foxy is here with me. You're
looking great. You're looking
happy. Have you been? I've been
great. Excited to watch all of
every all the teams playing in
the sneak kickoff event that
being said, I say, how
arguably. Still the best
region that being said, looking
great. What are you wearing?
You're looking pretty spiffy
yourself. I got my best friend
Aaron, you're looking pretty spiffy yourself.
I got my Yucatan on.
It's comfy, it's cozy, it's like almost 11 PM for me here.
So I wanted something that can really care me
through the night and make me feel comfortable,
but also, you know, feel good.
It's a show and it's something different,
which is indeed the case because kickoff has a format
that we haven't really had before.
It kind of harkens to a more ancient system in many ways,
but it fits on, fits very, very well
because it's very condensed.
Everything is happening in three weeks.
That's for every single region.
And then it culminates in Salt Lake City,
which is gonna be pretty big for all North American fans
that will be making it to the event in Utah
to really see the best, the best battle it out.
And here in Brazil, which arguably is the best region
in the world, the format remains the same.
You can send only four teams to the major in Salt Lake City,
and that has to happen through the group stage,
sending it to playoffs and from then on deciding who those top four teams are.
So there's, I guess, because it's just the you and me for tonight and really for the shows coming in the future,
where it's just the two of us on the desk, I really wanted to kind of take it as a time to discuss between us
and really with chat if people want to have fun with the two to see, okay, there's been tierless,
there's been a bunch of things we could talk about the player transfers and all.
But first of all, do you think that the four teams that'll make it from Brazil, from SAO to Salt Lake City, kind of already been decided?
Or is there someone here that can surprise?
That's a very hard question to ask, because I will say every team that was already at the top only got that much better.
I mean, Faze, one of the only teams not to make changes, but Lakewood, I mean, come on, looking absolutely disgusting with Maya.
you got Furia essentially just keeping hers and building around them. It's very difficult to be
able to pinpoint one team that's going to be able to surpass the rest. That being said, I'm sure
we're going to see FaZe and Salt Lake City. Are there any sleeper picks? Honestly, for me, I think
Loud is still a team that you got to keep an eye out. Any one of these teams has a lot of potential.
You know, teams like NIP, if they can tap into that potential, they'll be able to maybe make Salt Lake
city. That being said, it's very difficult to go against the default four. You know, you got liquid
W7M Furia things. It's very difficult to imagine any team beating them, let alone the teams in SAO.
So that being said, it's big shoes to fill for the rest of SAO.
It's kind of the first time in a long time where we have people saying, oh, team liquid and all it
took was, oh, that would make it to the major. All took was literally rebuilding the entire team.
Yes, you have Maya on there, which is great, right? There's a string of continuity in there.
but you basically bring on all the old furia roster world champions all together as you said
except for one herds who remains on the furia roster that was rebuilt in its own way but i think
seeing it if we're to be very honest the liquid roster was quite aging the pa la pa loon change
a year and a bit ago was kind of the first sense of okay finally something is changing
Nesk retiring was also something that was kind of in the in the making for
quite a while if I were to say it very tactically like that. I'm glad it
happened for the continuation of the roster to actually make events even
though as a friend of Nesk and seeing him at events and everything it is
heartbreaking in its own way to not have him compete but amen this this guy he
his legacy built a lot of the competitive player base in SAL that is currently fighting to compete like the
Furia roster that started playing on console back in the day. They were looking up to Nesk when he was in his
championship form back in the day and that's how you got to see him competing and winning SI a couple years back.
So it is exciting in that way, but I'm also glad that you mentioned NIP because they were quite a big surprise.
at SI but also our two new teams that they're not fully new but kind of new
in their own way coming up from Challenger series in SAO. Can we talk
about that for a sec? Imperial and to them? Yeah of course I mean Imperial is
one of those teams that they were I believe previously low so I mean it's
similar roster you got Sexy Cake you have players from that bounce around I'm
excited to see some of these players be able to perform better I think a big
standout one is a player like Mock, you know. We haven't really seen him have really any success
last year and he was one of those players that came into the league being very sought after,
someone that could, you know, like a stomp in, like a turn the tides for the team, a fantasy that
be able to give the team hope and it's kind of the other direction completely. So that being said,
very underwhelming from them, same thing for the team. A lot of players from the Loos roster,
are a lot of players from the MIBR roster and measuring together. So it's very interesting how
the ACL works because it's almost like the lower teams just trying to mix matching players until
they find something that clicks. And the only real player on InSemi, I've seen Arthur play,
I've seen Legacy play, seen Angels play back all the way into the NAL when Loos was there.
There's still very young players. I have a lot of hope in them, especially a player like Legacy.
Hopefully we'll be able to see them now with more experience, bouncing around from a different
from team to team, getting different ideologies
about how to play the game.
They'll be able to pass their rookie statistics
that they all had last year and be able to maybe
get some wins over their belt against the solid four
in the SAO.
But that goes without saying.
The SAO is very interesting because it's very tight-knit
community and the way that they be able to improve
as a whole, they play with each other,
constantly bouncing on teams.
Other reasons don't really do that, a team.
The player gets dropped, you rarely ever see them come back.
No, not unless it's like hungry or somebody else like that, that you're saying right now in EML, for example, but yeah, there's a lot of things that are shifting about in SA a lot of teams that and a lot of players that get kind of swapped in between different rosters over time.
But now we have to talk about our games and as you'll see for every one of our evenings
We have multiple matches that will be going through we're starting off a phase lost and liquid black dragons
Flex with every 7m versus loud and furia versus nip and I'll correct myself that is team liquid
Alienware versus black dragons like the chat about our first squad here phase clan because I mean what what can we say because?
because it seems like FaZe are the unstoppable force of Siege.
There's no two ways around it.
I'll have to own it.
I kind of put myself in a bad time in the last episode of Blocking
that I shot at the end of December saying,
oh, you know, I'm not really too sure about FaZe.
And yet they looked like they were perfect.
The only game that they had that just did not look great
was their game against G2 in the group stage,
which I think they should have won a hundred million times over if you run the simulations,
but somehow it worked out for them.
But this is the undisputed team, the champions of the whole world, basically the best that's
ever been there.
I think they are the best dynasty ever.
I will put my hands out there and just solidify my opinion on that.
I mean, they can't believe we've seen them lose games like we just saw, like we just
saw.
And when it came to InviteWish, they won.
It was a very close game against Secret.
I mean, June, being able to clutch up some rounds and I think phase is always striving for perfection.
That's why they're always trying to depth in their map pool, depth in their play.
And when they get to a major event, they look untouchable because they're practicing it
in a regionally and that's something that we saw all throughout last year.
It wasn't necessarily phases dominating here and there.
Yes, we're going to make it to these events.
But that being said, we saw a lot of transitions on cyber going to support cyber
being positioned as flank watch being in different positions.
But then they always come back to their roots and that's what got them back to back into
invitational wins.
They just have so much depth to the roster that whatever team approaches them, they show
their cards, they show their hand.
Phase always has another trick up their sleeve to be able to approach it differently.
They change and they adapt and it's a very perfect siege.
And so to say, I don't see it changing any way in this kickoff event unless Phase is
is trying to, again, row their own bag of trips.
This is the team led by KDS, who at some point is like,
ah, I'm bored.
And then instead of quitting, he's like, oh, you know what?
Maybe I'll win two Invitational's just for the fun of it.
But this is the hydrogen bomb that we have.
However, the coughing baby on the other side is lost.
And we've got to bring them up.
We've got to talk about them.
Because this is a team still with a lot of hope behind them.
It's obviously a difficult time, no matter who you play against in SAL, but between Dark
Daffodash, Nux and Perez, these guys, they're going to have to work extra hard today.
And maybe having a best of one in the opening day, Fox, would be the perfect opportunity
to kind of hit them with a little side shot that FaZe might not be expecting.
Absolutely.
that's the benefit of being a brand new team going up against team like phases. No one really knows
what you expect from them. They don't know how they should moderate you, how to strategize against
you because you're a brand new team. And that being said, there's a lot of different looks of
players on the Los Roster. And it gives a lot of hope. I mean, Dash coming back from NA to rejoin
Los, he was on that original team back in the day before he went to North America. So that being said,
He has a lot of experience.
He's been IGL in different regions.
He can bring what Wildcard was succeeding with, IGL-ing,
and bring it to Lowe's.
There's Daffa, who struggled a little bit on liquid being able to find those openings,
find a little bit of comfortability.
But then you have players like Perez on the other side of things.
That is another player that hasn't really hit the spotlight.
But when we do see him, like when we saw big games out of him on those E1 rosters,
things of that nature, Perez does show up to impress.
to impress. And so all of these mixed matchup players, it gives
me a lot of hope, a lot of insight as if they're a Brazilian
version of that Beast Coach roster that went on to win that
Manchester Invitational. There's a lot of hope around this
roster. It's just about seeing if they can put it all together
and keep that consistency, but absolutely for our first game
day, you're going to be a little nervous that you're playing
in space, one of the adaptive Titans in the game, but you're
going to be happy that they have no real information on what
you're bringing to the table.
That is a very apt description that you gave there in comparison to that BCE roster back in the day
But still shame that that's like kind of this blanking out dark in the picture, but
He's leading the charge
Regardless and that and that is loss for us today and for this stage
I'd like to bring up our wonderful casters to have a chat with them and
Swap and mute different parts so that Dev Marta can hear us. Hello, mr. Dev Marta James
How are we doing? I'm a Mr. Jesse J chick
Apparently Jesse can hear us. He's curiously typing. Um, this is a great opportunity for us to say that actually me and Jesse are a new casting duo
So we're not working with Parker anymore. We're not working with them anymore
Those guys are obviously getting back together. I feel like it's been a long time coming Jesse
Yeah, I think it's about time that they put the two staffs nerds together so that we can have a proper broadcast where we discuss the merits
not based on what we're seeing, but based on what the numbers tell us.
Shut up. It's the first day, Jesse. We can't do that.
We're here to just have some fun and get through it all together.
Because this is the point of kickoff, right?
You got three weeks.
You're condensing everything into one tiny little space,
those nine play days to see who can make it through.
And this is your tester, right?
Even if you don't qualify for Salt Lake City, a space for you to still test out
your skills. And in this case, it's phase that get the last say.
they ban night haven labs and they take loss to Chalet. Now, Jesse, like you said, you like numbers.
How good are FaZe on Chalet, numberly speaking? Well, Milo, Chalet is a very good map for FaZe
Clan. They're currently rocking a seven game win streak on Chalet. They haven't lost it since the
Munich Major, so they are a very comfortable team here. But that also means there's a lot of
VODs available on them, right? I'm sure those have been doing their homework. They got Huxord
there as the new coach. So they're a brand new team coming into a mapper. They've got lots of
footage on their opponent. There could be a win plan there.
Fox, final thoughts before we go in? I mean, there's one of those things that Faze is not going
to make any mistakes really at the end of the day. It's their game to lose that being said. I'd
really love to see a revolutionized love. So brand new team coming to the table and hopefully that's
that's what we get. All of these mixed match band of players, hopefully we'll be able to see them finally click together on a roster.
Well, I'm very excited to get to see some solid snake action and nothing gets your snake solid than Dev Barda, Jesse Cast. Have fun.
Oh, wow. What an introduction. Thank you very much, Cassan and Davide. All right, Jesse, I'm so keen for this. Brazil, they play siege like nobody else does.
There's a very good reason why the South American League is regarded as the best home ground for breeding talent in Rainbow Six.
Of course, so many of the best teams in the world in history come from Brazil and you can't have a conversation about the best teams in Rainbow Six without talking about the only two time world champions in
phase and the back to back SI champs, the greatest team of all time. And it is a bit
of an atomic bomb versus the coughing baby here. But look, they have a new roster. They're
going to give it their all.
Yeah, they absolutely will, James. And listen, you say the only back to back roster, I feel
like your current duo might have a bit of a problem with that. But the first five men's
stack for sure in the first org. So we'll give you the technicalities. This should be
a fun game for Lois to go up against.
There's no such thing as a game, I don't know that guy. I don't work with that guy.
I work with Jesse Chico.
Well, it should be a good time, man. This low squad, it'll be a tough opponent to start things off up against FaZe Clan.
They're not going to be expected to win, but if they can just show some really nice stuff as a brand new roster, I think that'll be promising for their season ahead.
Yeah, for sure. And as Milosh mentioned in the pre-show, very exciting chance for us to see Brazil
playing Solid Snake and Perez is gonna bring it straight away.
Interestingly with the DMR, not often that you see that. A lot of people like the F2 now that it's got the vertical grip back.
Of course, it was notorious on Twitch back in the day and now that Solid Snake has it, especially in close range,
which Solid Snake is particularly good for, his gadget being very much a more kind of close range
I hope that we get to see a lot of action out of that operator.
Yeah, it would be nice to see some snake. I know we got to see a little bit in EML and
played in APAC quite a bit, but here in South America you've got to expect that they'll be
showing us exactly how this operator is meant to be played. Currently just being used to
clear who got bottom floor. There's nobody on phase plan playing down here below the site.
So it's a free walk up the solar stairs for Perez and find some players now just on the edge of his radar.
Yeah good info as well sees that player inside of the closet wants to take the gunfight as well
Right on the other side of it it is Vittor King of course
He doesn't want to lose his life too early being that echo is to keep those yokai's alive
But this temptation here to go for a vertical peek here from Perez almost actually lands
Shots onto the echo as well a lot of ground taken from low
So this is by no means been a dominant start for FaZe Clan. Low sat and are off very well. They've got good control
That will hurt though James. I mean that's their only player that was actually in the building taken out dark
Will now take up that mental feeling player in but missing some shots on the meds player
So this is just an awkward angle for him to take with the SMG
It is indeed big gunfight to come though for dark
He needs to win it to bring something back because the rest of Los are struggling
Viticig has held the line very nicely on that bombsite
It was a bit of a mistime to execute wasn't it? Loose went deep inside a bathroom
Well dark on the other side of the map didn't have a way to make an impact
Yeah, I mean I don't mind trying to go from different angles and have that approach
But ultimately the shots just weren't being hit on either side
They found souls but four members of face plans still sound strong with 40 seconds to go
And it's gonna be all on bath out of win this one out
A 1v4 becomes a 1v3 time to find some exit frags
Faze are very restrained. They are very unlikely to get baited into this one. What's more, they've got Yo-Kai's and they've got verticality as well.
Great opening from Faze, big round from Bitterking as well, and the reigning world champs are off to a very familiar start.
Yeah, nice to see Faze clan back in action. Really standard top floor hold. You've left the Mira up.
a lot of teams would choose to ban that out, but deciding that instead it's more important
to take away that denari that is on the two really popular operatives that's off-floor.
Let's FaZe Clan just play a very passive defense, nothing too crazy coming out from
them winning a lot of their fights on both sides of the map, not getting caught off by
Dark Souls.
Sneaky play in through the front door, so it's good to see FaZe Clan starting so strong.
The captain with four kills, viticking, very nice start coming here from the IGL.
I want to talk about Loser for a minute here, Jesse, because of course, while FaZe have
made absolutely no changes to their roster whatsoever, Loser are quite the opposite.
They've got four new players and a new coach, and I can talk about all of them individually,
but the one that I really want to focus on for a moment, Jesse, is Dash.
Of course, you'd be very familiar with Dash for such a long time with Wildcard.
trip up to North America for quite some time and now his return to Brazil. What
do you think about Dash and I guess his trajectory and his place on this Los
Rostros? Yeah I think it's a great great point because Dash really was one of
those guys that I think back when he was initially on Los and that W7M
Corps he didn't have much of an identity in himself. He was kind of just the guy
who played with López and Dótez and was part of that team that lifted the
hammer in Montreal, not the hammer but the trophy in the Montreal Major. He really
He came into his own on Wildcard and he really started to become a player that you could rely on as a backline support player that was going to clutch in those big moments.
Now coming in, he's the ideal of this new low squad. He's really been kind of given the reins to build this new team up from scratch.
And it's really exciting to see his development as a player because it really does feel like this is the most real look we're getting at Dash, whereas teammates aren't taking as much of the focus.
Yeah, of course, everything that Wildcard was able to achieve was incredible, especially
for a North American roster, especially for another dog, North American Ross.
You know, it wasn't your M80 or your Dark Zero, a bigger name from North America at
Space Station.
Perhaps it was Wildcard that has been the best performing NA team, and Dash has certainly
been an instrumental part of that.
But outside of that, I mean, you look at the rest of this roster, Nux previously being
on Elevate Academy, Perez on Loud, Daffo on the Team Liquid team, and Huxle, the coach
formerly with Elevate with their APAC or APL roster, the Brazilian APL roster, it's a bit of a
mixture that has come together to make this new low source. Unfortunately, Dash is the first to
fall, so we can gas him up all we like, but he won't be present this round.
It's off one, your Capitile going down. It's going to make that library corner clear really,
really tough. It was handy from that position who got the frag. Intel is still nice from
you can see the snake watching these players on his mini-map, but he jumps in and he's just going to get fried.
Oh, ouch.
Nux does manage to make his way forward with the Blackbeard, though, and it does create an opening here for Los.
In fact, they weather the storm as they clear some of these core positions on the top floor phase,
are forced back, and Perez, critically, now has control of the library stairs.
Yeah, they've got full top control as well. They don't really have soft breach to work with it,
but that's still something they don't have to worry about late round.
Vitaking's gonna have this information the pulse if he brings it out. No more
nitro to play with but with 45 seconds his push has to come quickly from low
He's making that with his grenade
I mean he could go and pick up some reaching charges and go for that with the solid snake
He's actually gonna pick up another grenade instead
The time is ticking away as you say the black be it needs to be one of the instrumental operators here
But completely caught off guard. Nox is taken down inside by souls handy makes it a very difficult task now for dark
in a 1v3 on the Deimos and that diffuser is called on the ground. The round is pretty much done in the bag for phase again
despite some solid efforts from low to the mid rounds. So the dark is certainly not getting back to it in time.
It's too straight for the reigning world champions.
I swear to god that hatch is probably the most deceptive one in the siege. I fall down it more often
I'd like to admit but for the push from Lowes
it just felt like they didn't have the tools they needed to make that execute happen. The second
that they get that top floor control, I really like what you mentioned. I mean, they could have
used that snake to switch their secondary utility, grab the breaching charge, maybe make something
happen with that soft destruction, but instead, without that verticality, they're forced to just
walk in through those doorways. FaceClan have their eyes on it. The Blackbeard shield, it's good,
but it is not perfect in covering your head unless you're facing someone dead straight on. So it's
just giving that little opportunity for FaceClan finds that pick, stopped the push before it
really get started. I think it's nice to see FaZe not really panicking. We wouldn't expect that from
them. Two time world champions. They're playing low since their opening game in the season.
The pressure is not really on for FaZe Clan, but even when they lose a couple of bodies,
even when they do give up a lot of space to low so they get back in round number two,
they're still finding ways to close out these rounds. They're not moving too much inside the
bomb site. Vidicang continuing to be strong. We see his 4k back in round number one and then a
a fifth in the second round too, just to make it a nice even fly bow.
Love to see it, love to see it. Here's another question for you Jesse. Of course for Faze
Clan we know what the expectation is, it's another hammer, it's to continue to be the
best team in the world. What's the expectation for Loats out of a season like this, especially
within the context of SAL, we've kind of got the big four in Brazil. If FazeCAN, you
Fluxo, W7M, your furior, and your team Liquid Alienware, what's Lose's position in all that?
It's gonna be a bit of a cough out answer James, but I don't think there are expectations if you're Lose, you know
This is a brand new team, not even like squads like Cloud where maybe they have some form or a little
roster that they're kind of leaning on, it's brand new!
Oh my god!
Sorry, you're making some great points Jesse, but yeah
The round is over, 45 seconds in and well it's done, it's finished, KDS finds a 4K in quite a spectacular fashion as well with the SMG12, it's another day in the office for these guys on FaZe, wow.
They are speedrunning it Jesse, they really are.
Yeah, I love trying to get a little bit cheeky to have the Amaru in that round.
They wanted to jump in and get something aggressive going around bathroom,
but Katie is so ready for that play.
And I think maybe the expectation for Lois is just spend a stage
or spend this kickoff finding your footing a little bit, right?
This is a team we're still trying to establish their identity.
They've got Dash IGLing.
Dash wasn't really IGLing prior to this.
He might have in the past, but at least on a wildcard, of course,
that was Spikers main domain.
He was contributing in some ways to the calling.
It's not like he's brand new to this,
but this will be his first time in a long time
really taking the reins in for a team.
So it's gonna be about finding their place in the meta.
It's gonna be about establishing their strategies
as they come alive.
And I think now it's just a little bit about
how do we put the brakes on for this FaZe Clan?
They played three rounds,
they've seen three different bomb sites
and they haven't really had a good look
on any of them maybe bar games,
but it really does feel like FaZe Clan
are dominant top to bottom.
What the hell do you say in a tactical primer like this? You've just been
utterly decimated. Lo's had some nice things going in the first round, the second round
not too bad, just petering out of the 3v3, and then round three it's just absolutely
in fire. What do you think about from that? I mean, this is what we test Huxord for sure.
Yeah, yeah, that's a good point. Huxord, of course, coming in from Elevate Academy coaching
last year was back at SI, had some success internationally, but now coming into this
Loze team, you're on chalet, right? You're playing arguably the most attacker side of
map of the pool, maybe second to border. You've banned out the Azami. You should have the tools
that you need to find success, especially in these early rounds when it comes to playing the
Windows, taking some of this map control. I'd like to see maybe Loze finding more success on
getting those earlier frags, but you go back to that bar site, it's like the capitao goes early.
you lose maybe the snake first when going back to that first round. It feels like really critical
operator dying before it's really time for them to shine, before they can come in and have an
impact. So maybe raining that in a little bit will help them a tad. They come in around four and
they will find their fourth new bomb site. So face plan going for a bit of a world tour. I'm not
sure if this will be something that they prepped for in the exact timeout, but hey, this could be a
good opportunity for them to show exactly how flexible they are. I'd love to see it. It's such
an ego move in a way, but it's also just such a good siege, isn't it? To be so
unafraid of trying out four different bombsites, a lot of teams globally will
have this mentality about saving strats. Now, FaZe Clan notoriously have so much
depth to their strategy. They have so much breadth as well. They have a deeper
strap looked in most teams. They happen to flex it. They're not trying to hide
anything. There's no better practice than on game day, and I really love to see
that FaZe are unafraid to play every single bomb side on Chalet.
FaZe Clan played base-mounting Chalet only four times
to the entirety of last season.
It wasn't a great map for them, one and three record,
but it will start off strong here.
Handy an entry and looking for a second.
No fear for these players, but maybe should have a bit.
Dark comes in, shades out the aggressive Romer in the mid-floor,
and that'll be Tuber outtaken off the board.
A really important answer from Lowes.
you have to be able to shut down this aggression on Charley.
Well, I fully agree. Just look at what handyman is to take with him.
He stole the life of the Ram, which is the main vertical operator on this lineup here for Los.
Aside from the Rams boogiejrans, you're really just looking at a secondary shotgun from Daffo and the gridlock,
which by far and away is not the same thing.
Arguably, the most important operator on this Los lineup has been taken down early.
Yeah, no, that's gonna be a rough one to lose and it's one and four now for Dash.
You haven't been finding as much success here on the IGL role.
The Romans are still standing at Cyber, who's always happy to play aggressive,
just by the West Main Stairs. As long as he exists here, they know that wine is
really not gonna be a problem. This has got to be kind of a snow take over on
that side of the map, but that's really where you start to feel the lack of the
ram, right? Without that soft destruction and pushing and snowmobile could be
really awkward. I think they are trying to go for it. It looks like some of the
boogie drones were able to go off before before dash died so there is still some
verticality they're working with but it really just comes down to these lowest
players can they convert with only 45 seconds to go maybe they will for the
first time in this game they have a numbers advantage for Los to be opening
moment now with dark finding that kill 20 seconds left vittigang has to hold
things down here in Snowmobiles being flashed out but he's still finding the shot. Great
hit head to find on the Perez. Now it's back to a 3v3. Daffodil on the souls. Dark with
a triple in this round. It's all debilitating but he can't quite get the job done. Dark
finds that final kill and it will finally be a round win from Loos to come in and stop
the streak. They find one round here in this game. They deny the full sweep from FaZe Clan
across all four bomb sites and beautifully execute to give themselves a lifeline.
I tell you what, Jesse, if you'd asked me at the start of that round, yeah, so you've got no
RAM, you've got no verticality, and you're playing up against a phase that has just utterly destroyed
you for the last three rounds in a row, is this going to make it happen? I'd say in no universe
is that going to happen. Incredible work from Lois to get that across the line, just beautiful.
I love to see it and maybe just maybe we have a little bit of a competition on our house.
Yeah, it's good to see it is the fourth site so faceclimb never have to touch basement again.
Once more throughout the entire last 365 days they went one in three on that site so it's not
like that's something they typically rely on. Their next least played site on this map is
Kitchen Dining with 20 plays so I do feel like that's faceclimb just testing the waters as you
said trying something on game day it doesn't work for them they're not going to shake off that
they are still very popular on these top floor sites most teams will tell you baseman is the
worst site on chalet so losing it like that is not a big deal the onus is still on lowest to complete
this comeback yeah very much so phasclan did not need to go back to that bomb site ever again
the clash is always fun though whenever you see vader king on the clash you know that phas are
cooking something up keeping that pressure on their opponents there's nothing quite like a clash
to say to the attacking team all right here's a problem deal with it and Los don't have a lot of
key ingredients to achieve that you know back in the day traditionally the main counter was Zephia
she's so out of the meta now that you know what is your main counter well the capita would certainly
help but that's actually foregone in this round by Los you've got a few frags and a few stuns
just a measly two on NUX. It's really not enough to deal with this clash. You're going to have to
use your zoning and your pressure to get up close and take that clash down. Yeah, this is a big
problem. This clash coming out now from FaZe Clan. I don't know if Lois have a great solution to it.
As you said, those nades will be nice, but it's not likely to be enough. We've got to find a way
to push this bomb site on an angle that Vitteking is not watching. Now that does open the door for
Solar. Not currently being held by Vitteking. That could be where they position themselves,
but we've got other FaZe Clan members lurking around that side of the map.
Perez here on the bathroom window would be a huge player to try to get a pick-off.
KDS just on the inside of this window looking to take that fight.
If this goes the way of Loser, it could provide the entry they're hoping for.
It is another round that Loser are electing to focus up on a soulless side-take,
rather than clearing from Library Across, but very split, as you said.
In the back of my mind, I won that. The end of this round.
Where is dark looking to push because he's the one that's separated from the rest of the team Perez though does find his opening kill from outside of
bathroom
Big opener onto KDS. Meanwhile dark has managed to get inside the building so Los are circling
They found their way inside. It's up to the next step now to try and convert this numbers advantage
There's not some flashes still some smokes this execute's gonna come as soon as they're ready for it
The clash of actually gets put down so Vidicum feeling like they need an extra gun for this push.
The long shot goes from Parrot to find Souls and we're off to the races for Loos.
Yeah, up until the SMG-11's come to life a phase and Vidicum joins in.
It's a retake now for Cyber up through display but deeper to the bomb site, Perez finds nothing.
Last one is Dash, he's alone on the mezzanine. They seem to know where he is as well.
Good spray through the smoke. He's gonna have to do it all.
now on the striker he needs to make this 1v2 reality into 1v1s and he
close with a shotgun baits out the first shot from Vita King a double kill for Dash
and a welcome back to Brazil he's had a little vacation up north but back down
south he comes up big and Loos find another round what a critical play to
come out Loos have just given themselves some life in this game and
Who else would it be? But Dash, this is the guy that was the best clutch player in North America last season 22% clutch percentage win rate in his last 365 days.
He is so reliable when it comes down to those dying seconds when he has to be the guy when he has to step up.
I feel like that was his biggest evolution going from back on W7M in Brazil a few years ago to playing in North America.
it felt like that was where he was able to shine the most.
And we're seeing again, bringing that experience
back to South America.
Dash on one of those guys, you might be wondering
why did Dash ever leave Wild Cards?
Certainly it feels like maybe a step down
going from Wild Card to Los.
He said in a statement on Twitter
that it was just about wanting to be close to his family,
not liking living in the US.
Wanting to come back home where he feels more comfortable.
Nothing to do with the team or being cut
or wanting to leave the players,
but just felt like SAL was his home and man.
It feels like he is coming alive in this region again,
giving some faith back to the Los fans.
There was a dire need for it and he stepped up.
Love to see it.
Big moment for Dash.
He's had plenty of those over the last few seasons
with Wildcard and now he's starting to forge
his new career with Los.
But of course, angering FaZe is always a very daring task.
Because we know how fired up they will get in response cyber is onto the vigil going for a big Rome all the way down in the basement
He was looking for a spawn peak is running the boss G as well
absolute mean cannon
Low south one final chance now to tie things up at the end of this first half
That entry to the basement knows that there is some players that were lurking down here
I think it was cyber is just playing over towards the blue stairs. He's run back up
Soles over in kitchen as well. Everybody else remains on the top floor, so it's a multi-layered defense from phase plan.
It's not gonna be easy to crack this one open for Los.
Kitchen bombsite, of course, successful the last time around as every bombsite was minus the basement.
It's a real entry. West Main could be a really sneaky place to try to push from. There is barbed wire on these stairs.
It will make noise as that now gets blown up.
It's gonna be on really cyber and souls to recognize that there's a basement push coming,
But as I say that they peel off a little bit and might be just trying to bait that a bit and then move back to the top floor
Changing their minds the first logic bomb has rung out
KDS and solar has managed to answer his phone earliest. They might not have been in position to hear that before he did so
All cyber on side gets injured and finished off by dark. That's a very critical kill
No longer they have to worry about that Bostie. No longer Delos have to worry about that vigil disrupting their drones
Now they could turn their attention on to the top floor, which is critical if they are to execute onto the site
Here comes the track from Bash gonna give themselves a little bit more information so that they can find these players top floor
The clash is still a problem
But despite the info loses the first fight Paris trades out onto the bit of kingdom the clash has fallen
They need these last couple of players up above
Big prone peak opportunity here, great threat of the needle onto handy 2v2 now for Loos.
As Dark has given them a second chance, but Nux is stuck here on this repel.
He doesn't know if it's safe, he's going to bait this.
Dark goes for the peak at the perfect time.
That's good micro team work, but they don't have a lot of time left, 25 seconds.
Diffuser in Nux's pocket as KDS and Solz are separated, but they each hold their own positions.
each hold their own space around the bomb site KDS duels back and forth trying to maintain that
crossfire and he does so perfectly him and souls together clutch up for phase it's the first half
in the books a 4-2 split for the reigning world champs
It gives us a little bit of extra time to talk to the team's coaches to discuss how
that last half is gone and how we can change things up in the second half.
Really feels like Loser one of those teams that could come alive on the defense just
because they are such a new roster.
Sometimes attacking can be the more difficult of the two halves.
that 2v2 right we saw multiple rounds in that in that first half where there was
either an even man counter maybe even a slightly advantageous position from
most I'm thinking about the bar attack in round three and around two and then
also that previous attack in around six where numbers were even but the players
on lows just can't quite group together enough their timings a little bit off
there's no potential for trades just because they're not playing together and
it means that phase plans sitting on site have a way easier time coordinating
and trading things out, even if they do happen to lose some of those fights.
If that switches around and now maybe FaZe Clan go to the harder attacking side,
those late round situations could go more in Los's favor,
but it's also FaZe Clan we're talking about. This is still the best team in the world.
They're not going to be struggling on Shelly attacks in the same way that Los was.
Yeah, the team should not really be struggling on attack on Shelly.
It's traditionally a more attacker-sided map. I mean, it's not like you're number one these days,
bank tends to take the cake but yeah it's definitely if you're looking holistically at the map pool
you know it's no cafe, it's no clubhouse, teams should have a lot more comfort attacking here
than on your average map and so a 4-2 split for FaZe's defense is nothing short of exemplary.
Now both teams have had a chance to talk to their coaches, it's hard to tell from the cams there but
but I believe that's Hugzord.
But yeah, there you go.
There's Hugzord behind Loos.
Another returning player to Brazil from overseas,
in this case, a returning coach.
Of course, Hugzord working for Elevate for their APL team
previously.
Now back in Brazil, where he belongs,
where he's been for a very long time prior to his expedition
over to APL.
It's been quite a few homecomings for Brazilian players
and staff.
One that I another one that comes to mind that we'll get to see a little bit later today is lawyer, of course formally over in you on G2 now back with the new fury a roster.
True.
True, it feels like after last season's departure from the region where a lot of players really did spread out to a pack or even to EU.
Now it's kind of a homecoming, as you say, with a lot of players coming back in.
They didn't lose apps, of course, who has moved his way over to Europe to start to play in some of those EML matches with GK.
So there's definitely been a big departure.
But no, it really does feel like the SAL is bringing its players back home,
assembling the Infinity Sons once again to continue to dominate the world as they tend to do so.
Nobody does it like Brazil when it comes to Rambo 6, that's for damn sure, and when it comes to Brazil, nobody does it like FaZe.
4-2 split, time to run away with it now, they're on the attacking side.
Lois actually banning out both of the F2 operators in the Twitch and the Snake, and that's not because of the F2, I have no doubt.
It's because of the power of those operators. Really breaking into this, let's first talk about the Twitch.
There are so many ways that you can get those drones into Chalet and clear out Yuta, whether it's your Denaris, whether it's your Goyos, whether it's your All My Discs, or even the default cameras.
That puts me very potent on Chalet, and FaZe are one of the best teams at doing their homework early in the round to prep for those executes.
Yes, certainly. I mean, we can see how good this switch can be sometimes for FaZe Clan. It really does feel like that's an operator that they've been finding success with.
Everybody has I mean especially with the f2 buffs most people I feel like they're still favoring the 417
But you've got two great options now when playing on twitch and it really does feel like she's been
Even more cemented in the meta than she was previously
But her at her at their side face that are gonna go for a bit of different take they've brought handy on the osa
Now I'm a bit of a skeptic when it comes to osa place you get some buffs a
a few months ago, so there are reasons to pick her now maybe that there weren't before,
but I'm very curious what this push is going to look like from Handy.
Depending on where he's positioned, they could try to make something happen just in the office door,
or maybe even on the solar windows, as Dash will sprint straight past those.
Yeah, well the Grimsbees have gone unbanned and that does allow them to really put Dash under the pump here.
This is such a big risk to run past the windows.
is able to shoot down one of those grim bees so that won't detonate. There also was a little bit of a battle going on between Lois and Faze.
Dash is really just doing his best to survive as the floor becomes lava, the shots ring out from underneath.
Best case scenario here for Dash is he finds one kill before he is eventually traded on back, but I'm not even confident he'll be able to achieve that.
has a perfect repel, a very high damage rifle and VitaKing is continuing to make mincemeat
out of the floor beneath Dash and eventually finally finds that kill. Enough damage done,
FaZe can move to their next step in the round. You know what though Jens, it took a lot of time.
That shouldn't have lived there but he shouldn't have been wasted as much time as he did. That could
be exactly what Loas needs to hold things down. Only 40 seconds, still EDS below the site hoping
to get a bang this is war but not really finding much instead cyber we got one and leave it to
mexico and peres well and nux goes down it's Perez up against the world one v four and vita
king will easily find him run of the mill round for phase as soon as they finally dealt with dash
that obstacle in solarium well those were toasts and it was a done deal five rounds to two in the
lead there's not many ways back into it here for the underdogs. Yeah you really
wanted to start with a strong defense if you were low so of course in your first
round on B it should be your strongest because you've got all sites available
you haven't shown any of your strats this is a brand new team so there's no
vods to really review but with face plan picking apart that defense despite the
denier despite the Goyos despite all the utils that was being brought out by
Lowes felt like face were doing a great job reading it picking it apart team
Cohesion was so strong from them to take from both the trophy side and the solar side
We were watching during that executes
Puts them into a dominating position their captain leading the charge with double digits after that round hit a multi kill
We go up to 10 and 3 you don't really talk about the king fragging out, but the king is certainly getting these flowers today
Love to see it love to see and that's the thing about this phase time off
So we might mostly be talking about MVP of the 6th of a tation of 2026 handy or players like cyber with his longevity and his ability to be such an aggressive
Fraga, but the backline of this face clan roster is just as deadly given the right scenario.
Two more rounds and los are done.
It just feels inevitable at this point. What can those do to try and stave off defeat?
They're gonna need some miracles to come out here on the defense. They've brought Dash
up with the boss G. I'm not sure if he's going for any type of a peek. He's sitting in
a master right now and that's certainly a common spawn peek angle. Boss G is not what
it used to be but that thing can still hit pretty damn hard so we'll see what Dash can
do with that. Not sure if he'll really engage with anyone though because this could be a
fast jump in from the good thing. Straight into site waiting for a chance to take a fight
but Nux will shut him down. Finally, Loos have a little bit of life as Faye's attempt
are very cheeky and perhaps undercooked. Execute straight onto site. The glass separated.
The black beard taking an unnecessary one. Do you want to look at what would have been
a very different story if Vita King had won that fight? But it's the nature of the attack
from Faye's. It comes down to gunfights. You lose one or two here or there and the round
is pretty much cooked
and i think that's the story here for phase is nothing to be done yet
especially with souls dying
one before and i want to
nothing before dash
gets nice and aggressive
but a life back into loss
third round on the board
and i see that's getting active once again to he's been probably
the most impactful player from los and some of these round wins he had that
clutch a couple rounds back and now this one
you'll come into clean up those last couple for eggs
Good to just stand up tall to that fast aggressive play.
Once more, it feels like FaZe are trying to play
with their food a little bit.
They're getting a bit cheeky with some of these takes.
The solo jumping with the Blackbeard
is not something that will work very often.
Even for FaZe Clan, the best team in the world.
So nice to see you love being able to put
the brakes on that rush push.
They had Handy who was playing on their yings,
but he didn't even get to toss a candela
before he ended up in the dirt
thanks to some big swings from those two.
So felt like they were able to identify that push
really early. They shut it down a little bit. They'll force phase
plans to give them a little bit more respect on some of these
attacking rounds. Wanted to get back to just kind of what
you were talking about earlier, James, with some of the
backline players needed to step up on face plan a little bit
more. We are starting to see a bit of a change in phase, I feel
where you don't just rely on the big fraggers of handy and
cyber with nests retirement, cyber is actually officially the
oldest player in SAL. So at some point, presumably in the near
future they're gonna be putting on a Marbreach and it will be up to Vitacan to
wrap you on set. That's unreal, yeah he's 27 years old. Yeah, he is. Might be the oldest player in SAO.
He does, that's the amazing thing about cyber, unique to most other players
that are, you know, as experienced, have as many years behind behind them in
siege because yes it is such a tradition you know you look at players like
Canadian once upon a time Canadian was renowned for being the IGL on those
entry fragging roles look sometimes you see that but not so much anymore but
that's the thing that makes cyber unique right is his longevity and the fact that
he still frags out
He's gonna be bringing the game around.
Yeah, no, I don't think so either, but you never know, the Arthurite is gonna hit his
wrist pretty quick.
Today he's on the Bamos, hoping to get some space, he's inside games already, and as
the smoke flares, he's looking for this player on the blue stairs that's gonna be, I believe,
dark, who is down to about a quarter HP thanks to his first gunfight with Cyber.
Three toxic babes still sit in his pocket, if Cyber gets an early pick onto the smoke
without any of that useful being expended. It could be a huge loss for Lowe's that just
starts the dominoes that we've seen in this round.
Where's Cyber taking all that damage from? I'm sure it happened there. Vita King upstairs
solo pushing but he finds Daffo and that is a rough start for Lowe's. Dark also being
finished off. No more smoke, no more Goyo. Daff shut down on his flank and with Perez
falling and FaZe knowing exactly where Dash is down below. It comes just down to Nux upstairs
and nobody on site. Now FaZe can look to try and execute. Cyber is deep in the site.
Solz has cut down Dash and it's all done. FaZe Clan, match points and Los are left searching for
a round begging for a way to get into the game. It's three more for Hags for the captain.
and then he got the 13 and it just feels like he is everywhere around this map.
He gets the opening frag onto Daphne.
It's just a simple lurk play.
You know, he opens the door to office early in that round.
He's holding it for a very long time.
Eventually, Daphne gets bored, goes for a swing.
And then King is right up in his face to get that entry frag.
The same time the rest of his team is coming in to support him,
they can take that top floor control.
They start finding those last couple of players and it just feels like
there's a point that every round where face can flip the switch.
They say we're going now, we find our opening, we find the gap, we find the mistake from
Los that will get us that opening pick and then it is go, go, go.
Let's just execute on to this site, find the players that we need dominating round from
FaZe to grab their first match point of the new season.
Attackers need to locate and diffuse bombs.
We don't know!
This momentum has really been built, you're right.
It's Vinnie King who's leading the way in the kill department.
It's crazy to think that he has three times as many kills.
as cyber who's typically the core fragger. Cyber's died five times. What's going on? Maybe he's
getting a little bit old. Meanwhile, Solz is one of the core support players. Bro's 8 and 4.
That's a 2.0 KD, my friend. What's going on, Cyber? Look, Peter King and Solz really teaming up
within the frag department, but look, the nature of Chalet is any player can get into the action
as quickly as they like. The way that FaZe are playing it so separately, one gunfight opens
the floodgates and that's exactly what we saw last round. Now last chance on the last legs for Los
and they're not really changing anything drastically Jesse that's what concerns me.
They're not going to have the confidence to swing and play aggressive. I don't think that this
boss G for Nux is going to find much. They're trying to do too much at once.
It feels like somebody's got to get aggressive do something crazy to give that advantage because
because when FaZe Clan strikes first, it is just an immediate answer with everybody falling on the team on the side of Lose.
Hoping to get some of those earlier frags, as you said, with the Boss G, but it's not happened for them.
Dash roaming around in the basement, he was there with the Scorpion last round, of course, playing on that Ella.
Lion Charge catches both Dark and Nux out, so they're going to have a little bit of extra information to work with on the side of FaZe Clan.
The entry will start into the basement, it will start onto the mid-floor, it will start
into the top floor soon as well, but there are roamers on all three that they're going
to have to find for Faith Lane.
Stakes are high here for Los, of course here in the group stage, we see teams eliminated
before we move into the playoffs and Los need to garner as many points as they can to qualify
through those playoffs to stay alive but Dash will fall early. He's done back to the entire match
as Cyber has snuck in to the basement all the way through to Blue and found a big opening kill for
FaZe. That could be the beginning of the end. Now four players remain on low. Half the round
still to go. Nuxa here on Blue Stairs will be a one-man army to try to lock things down. It's
Parra is actually down inside a bar who strikes first. It's not all alone. He's not just a one-man
I mean you've got a bit of support dealing with those airjabs now in a second from Perez before he does lose a teammate
He's still alive though and knocks over extending a little bit and Perez falling as well means that it's all done
Loads have a 1v3 before them that they cannot overcome
It's phase clan to start phenomenally here in the South America League
It's another day in the office for the best team in the world and I'm sure that nobody expected anything else
Yeah, nice to see face plans still in form on shall a that'll be their eighth victory in a row dating back to the Munich major last season
So just a dominating performance to come out from them. I think there were some bright spots from Los
I think that shot a couple of big rounds
We started to see a little bit of that teamwork coming through but they're a brand new team
They're still going to have to put in some work if they want to beat teams like FaZe Clan any time soon
It's not going to get much easy because their next team is team liquid
But of course we'll go back to the desk and see what Milo should and Fox say have to say about it
Yeah, I always love talking and just seeing what we think about it here
Fox I guess it's pretty easy to tell as our wonderful
casters were saying that the hydrogen bomb won at the end of the day eight wins
straight like Jesse was saying first half look like man Los really got
something to give and obviously once you get to the attack on Chalet that's
more kind of when face can just roll over you yeah I think phase being able
to adapt against their opponent is something that they're one of a kind
at and it really shows that despite them not knowing what Los is going to do
being a new team, they specifically look like they were targeting Dash in the way that he
would call things for wildcard because getting rid of the clash right off the bat, getting
rid of operators like Mira, being able to ban out Dash's safety guards of, we don't know
how to counter phase, let's bring information that phase can't shoot us on. So phase understanding
that, taking those variables out of the equation, instantly puts them in the driver's seat when
they get onto their attacks. And that being said, I'm glad Lowe's performed decently
well on their own attacks. That being said, I mean, they did go down 3-0, but then tied up, make it look like they had a little bit of an opportunity. It looked like they were also actively thinking, because they were losing gunfights left and right. So they decided to just turn up the aggression that much more. And that's where we saw them winning rounds. Now, they did lose. But that being said, I do think there is a lot to look forward to if you're lost.
absolutely and there's one thing to say about phase of anything is that JP is a
big part of making all this work their analyst that is I would attribute a lot
of victories to preparation that he kind of helps put in in the background to
enable these world-class athletes on the phase roster to do their best right
you always fed that info so that when you get into the game you know how to
handle your opponent obviously these guys are led by it might be in probably
one of the best Agile's in the entire game. In this case, the man knows exactly what to
do, how to adapt. The loss, as I said, definitely have opportunities. You can't really put too
much pressure on yourself that, hey, in the first day we lost the phase, yeah, but we
gave them like three really good rounds on attack, on Chalet, where we want to do our
best. I think three is kind of the minimum that you expect on an Apple Chalet. But you're
play against the world champions the best in the world there is a point where you have to be honest
with yourself and maybe that is a point where it kind of it's kind of a learning process through
accepting fate understanding that it's against phase and being okay with that and just coming back
stronger not letting a loss like this no pun intended bring you down yeah you can't let a game
like this affect you. That being said, all these players, they've faced the feed before.
They're probably in the most in the best possible that could possibly be a part of currently
them leaving their prior teams to collectively make this one. I think there's still some
consistencies here dashes issues with getting overpicked over aggressive. You can see when
Lo start to lose rounds. He gets very aggressive to find those picks. It didn't work out for
in the day. You can see Daffo with same issues that he had on liquid not being able to find utility,
find that usefulness to be able to follow up as teammates. But for Dark and Prez, again,
just being able to get their own kills. It looks like all of these players, the habits that they've
built from their previous teams haven't yet been washed away. And that takes time. And it's a build
up to get to a point where you're able to shake those off. And that being said, you have to be
content with this performance against FaZe. I mean, FaZe, I'm glad you brought up the supporting
staff because it really was that I mean just down to the map and the map bands when it comes down
to the operator bands you could see that they use the habits that Losus showed the players
individually who's going to be IGLing who's going to be playing what rules they get rid of the easy
operators it really was a team win from Faze specifically coming from the supporting staff
side so that's one of those gifts that you don't get unless you're a team for years and years and
half trophies under your belt so that being said the face still looking as strong as I've been.
Absolutely no two ways around it in this case the preparation and the power that is faceclan the
powerhouse it is faceclan definitely coming out up top we talked about Shelly before we got the
map veto information from Mr Jesse J Chick today and as it confirmed at the end of the match eight
wins in a row from Munich onwards for faceclan they're comfortable the map they've had no changes
though this is at least for loss is hey we're playing kickoff right it's a different format
it's in groups it's not the usual that we have in like stage one and two so why not take this time
to see how things work i don't think you can weigh a team based on their performance in kickoff as in
should we change everything or not i think it's a very good way to start here putting up as much
as possible against the powerhouse like FaZe, VitaKing, his MVP, honestly, when is he not
only on the days where Handi decides to show up in an even greater fashion, Fox?
Oh, on Clash, on Clash Ace is disgusting at the fact that he's top-ranking 14 and 4 and
getting kills on defense playing Clash.
I mean, that shows the diversity in their play, him being able to be on a shield for
the information truly, but he can make it work regardless of what weapons in his hands
regardless of what operator. So that being said, phase is always that team that it looks
like a team of supportive players besides cyber, yet each individual player can still
play aggressive when they need to. So it's about the intelligence that each individual
player has today that's been walking away with him. He does a great job on their shields.
It's crazy the game sense that you have after what a decade of playing at the highest competitive
level for a lot of these players in here. So yeah, pretty incredible. If you ask me,
much. Let's dig into the minds of the analysts behind it all. Mr. JP, double world champion. Let's
bring him up. Hello, hello, JP. Good to see you again, my friend. It's been a while since Paris.
First of all, congratulations. I know in the hustle and bustle of SI, there wasn't much time to chat,
but congrats again. How is your preparation leading up to kickoff? Because the format is
different and things are definitely squished to compare to what you're used to in stages.
Yeah, our progressions were basically the same, I would say, like speaking of how we
prepare on Macs, but studying the other teams were a little bit different, because we have
like, we knew which teams were in our group like three or four weeks ago, so we had just
one scrim against most, for example, and was basically everything we have to prep against
them. Luckily, one of the maps we screened in was Shalab and we have some information
prepared. But yeah, it's a different format, but nothing different from something we ever
see on stage. It's a format that everyone already played once, so yeah.
That's very interesting that you said that you screamed against them because something
that I highlighted was your operator bands, being able to take clash off of the board
from them, mirror off of the board for them, getting the shields off of the board.
Is that something that is just a comfortability band for you guys?
And now I guess it's something that you saw them using sprints that you knew that was something
that needed to be banned right out of the gate?
Yeah, the attack bands were more directed because we saw them using on sprints.
But the defense ones were like a choice for this game, based on what we want to show and
what we want to play against.
There we go.
You got another third.
We got you, you and me.
Do you want to ask another question?
Well, one question I want to ask is,
guys, being able to consistently
prevail,
that we've seen last year is trying to adapt
players to this.
We've seen them play support last year.
We've seen them play different roles.
you guys go to invite, you win it.
Now you have a whole year ahead of you.
Is that something that we should expect to see you pull out
is maybe different players on different roles,
different strategies from phase,
or is it something that you guys are just going to stick with
what one you, the back to back invitations?
Yeah, last year the, the role swap was more about a need
that we saw there at the time.
Nowadays, I wouldn't say that we should swap roles
less like the matter changes than we need to.
But new strats is always something
that we try to bring out the game.
So yeah, you should expect new strats.
But at the moment, Rosoff's either fixing it.
My final bid in a liquid in the next playday,
that's on fingers type of a Sunday.
This is not that I couldn't win anything.
This is like, or, like, quit on Pista.
Is there anything to tell them, or would you
expect ahead of that match?
Playing against that score is always like crazy.
There, everyone there is crazy good.
And now it's more a matter, you know,
like it's a big classic from Brazil, facing liquids.
But yeah, I expect a hardest, a hardest
match compared to today.
But I hope we won, and keeping the streak of winning this.
Wonderful.
Thank you very much, JP.
Thanks so much for joining.
We'll see you on Sunday with the rest of the phase
for a great match in the liquid.
Cheers.
And there it is.
That is our interview.
We already went through our statistics, our MVP.
Anything, Fox?
Those are great questions to really lob at JP, kind of dig
deeper into his mind and reasoning behind one decision or the other.
But now we have to move on to our next match.
We mentioned Team Liquid were they're up next against Black Dragon.
So we'll see you after this quick break for quick discussion.
Welcome back friends to S.A.L. kickoff.
Our first matchup of this kickoff set has just ended and I guess I'll give you a little
pause here in case you don't want to know the score.
But well, who would have thought the hydrogen bomb won at the end of the day?
Faceclan, Victoria 7-3 on Chalet against Lawson.
We're back here, Milosh and Fox to discuss our second matchup of the evening, four best
ones as you've come to expect from these two groups. Now the kickoff format is different than
what you've had usually in these two groups split in their own way. These teams in SAL. I need to
talk about these next two teams because Team Liquid Alienware is not the same team that we
ended 2025 on. They saw an opportunity that day. And when life gives you lemons, what do you do?
You get them on your team.
You make a line made.
Line made.
Yeah.
Well, what do you do?
You said in the pre show, I just wanted to talk about it because you said in the pre
show when we were talking about Nester tiring and everything like that and you were saying,
oh liquid, you know, you glossed over your like all liquid had to do was just, you know,
pick up a whole new roster.
They got the roster.
Like there wasn't just something that was so glossed over.
I mean, they kept my am I is arguably one of the best players in the SAO that hasn't really had his moments to shine.
Yeah.
And then they just took the Furia roster besides herds and made that team even scarier.
Herds is a great player, that being said, but to elevate a team like Furia is something that I didn't think was possible.
The question is, can they liquidate their opponents really throughout SAO here?
It's not going to be an easy time at all.
You're hoping that their alien tech will give them some great performance during the stage. This is why people watch
Let's say oh by the way, this is for the for the wordplay. Thank you James. We love you very much
He's trying to be very nice. Mr.
Dev Martin
Tiago is my favorite caster of the evening today. However, we have to move in. Let's let's pull up
Let's put up those lineups said team liquid alienware
Let's go with them and see what they have to offer because yes, they are different
But as you mentioned, Fox, they have stepped with Maya he Maya, huh?
Right, right, right on there with for the best to ever do it.
Yeah, I mean, the team itself as a core is still going to be the same.
It's very flexible.
When you take an IGL like Feli Poc, you put them with the same core,
essentially they're switching out one player for arguably it's hard to say
that Maya is a better player because herds are so good.
But I'd say Maya is a more consistent player because he has never really
had a bad performance and something that we saw on the previous liquid roster was,
Myo was playing support, then he went on to Ash who was that entry. No matter where he is,
he's going to find success. He's going to be a consistent key for this new liquid roster,
something that they didn't really need, but now they have and it makes him that much better and
scarier. Black dragons are on the other side. They were a big surprise going into the invitation,
Well, I have to say and frankly, they kind of won me over as a fan over the past six
months of watching them and really over stage one and two last year, it seems like there
is an opportunity.
There is a lot of hope with this team and I'm very much looking forward to seeing them
or more in competition.
Yeah, it's one of those teams that when we asked that in the pre show is anybody that
can be top of these top four names day teams coming out of the SAO and Black Dragons is
one of those teams and then they did look pretty decent when it came to the
Invitational. They just recently acquired Linda and as a roster, it's
something that they need to be able to figure out because it looks like a
miniature version of phase. They have a lot of supportive players on the team.
There's not too much aggression from it. It's something that can trip them up and
a good skilled team will be able to take advantage of it and that's something
that I hope we'll be able to see them dive into and develop over the course of
This year is can they turn the jets on?
Can they be that classic SAL team where they can get into your face and not be
stuck in being so slow, being split up, waiting the time to be drained down?
Because now you're going up against a team of Team Liquid Alienware, and they
will make sure that they take advantage of those things.
They're arguably one of the most aggressive teams.
So if they're slow, we're going to see Black Dragons look very flat footed.
Well, it might come down to our map.
So let's pull up our veto and see which map we're going to have for this best
of one series for the evening and what will be be left.
There's a lot. There's basically a lot of data on Black Dragons,
but nothing in Team Liquid here, given that Maya is on the roster.
Banks got a mirror move and we're going to be left with Confidus
Toyevsky as our decider.
And Dev did highlight something here in our chat,
which I'm not going to take him away from him.
I'm actually going to take the opportunity to pull him in.
But first, Fox, your thoughts on Cafe.
I think it's just a classic day for liquid. I mean, they're getting rid of the
In inconsistent variables of maps, you know clubhouse chalet. They're going to something that's comfortable one of those maps that they've revolutionized
You know, we're gonna see a lot of a zombie play holding piano again. It's just the liquids game to lose
I'm expecting the same thing as last game where we're hoping that black dragons can get a couple of rounds to give us hope in their
Development for the kickoff
Well, Fox, I'm very sorry, but I have to do it.
Let's bring up our casters and prepare for trouble and make it double.
To protect the world from devastation.
To unite all peoples within our nation.
To denounce the evils of truth and love.
To extend our reach to the stars above.
Jesse, James, Team Caster's SAO.
Blast off at the speed of light.
Surrender now or prepare to fight.
That's right.
Hello.
Hello
I will leave it to you because it's just gonna play out right here and I didn't steal your point of murder so you can have it all
That's okay. Thank you so much. Guess I'm Jesse. Let's jump straight into it
We've already flown past the bands and before we dissect them the one thing that's on my mind and the reason why I am so
So excited about this game specifically TL, Alienware versus Black Dragons.
Is it is a rematch of the grand final of the Brazil last chance qualifier for the Six Invitational,
where Black Dragons had a huge upset over Team Liquid and of course, infamously retired
Nes.
That was Nes' last pro game.
Liquid failed to make it to SI and Black Dragons, of course, went over to Paris not only to
to compete at the SI, but even to take down G2 to zero.
And while they didn't make it deep into the tournament,
I think a lot of people looked at Black Dragons
with a little bit more of a favorable lens
after what they achieved,
not only through the LCQ, but in Paris itself.
So now it's a chance for Team Liquid
who have gone and picked up some of the greatest players
ever to touch the game, to get revenge on Black Dragons.
Yeah, it's kind of a cool story, isn't it, James?
Because Black Dragons are the ones
who destroyed the old Team Liquid,
And now they have to live with that consequence.
They have to face the team that they helped create
this new Liquid squad with Maya up on the roster still,
and then four players from the old team, Furya.
This is gonna be a tough battle for Black Dragons,
but I don't think this is quite the David Berth-Goliath story
that we saw in our last match up in FaZe Clan versus Lose.
Black Dragons are a good team.
They were at the Six Invitational
with four of these five players just a few months ago.
And despite not having the best results at SI,
Black Dragons did show some promise. They beat G2, they had some good games, they're a squad who have really been growing over the last couple of months and have really established themselves as one of the better teams inside of South America.
So, don't count them out just yet. I know Team Liquid Alienware will be our favorites in this matchup as they start on this cafe bottom floor attack, but Black Dragons are a very scary roster and they should not be underestimated.
Absolutely, without a doubt.
MR6 Outlaw going down the stairs on that warden who was tempted to go aggressive with that nitro cell
But on the team liquid side
I am so excited to see how Maya can fit in with the rest of this
Ex-furia squad that now plays for T-Law
Of course Maya being one of the best players in SL for a very long time and a very hot property
A variety of teams way back in the day
team to see what this team can achieve. Now a lot of map control taken, a lot of
execute operators prepared and it's time to get to work on the vertical game for
Team Liquid Alienware. What we typically see of course down here on the
cafe bottom floor holds you want to see teams taking their time to get this
verticality getting themselves in advantage. The Sen's walls have been
preset up and you can't do a whole lot about that if you're Black Dragons. They
did bring a couple of impacts but they're just gonna have to wait for those
walls to go up before they can do much about them. They do have of course
here on the warden, but he won't be able to see through those SEM falls anymore.
So once this push comes down, it's going to be chaos and it'll be TLA.
Strike first on the lender.
And now it's all about clearing VIP and moving on forward miracle does eventually go down inside of VIP.
Maya has a big opening down to the 3v3 though, as MR6 Outlaw falls back, brings out the MPX.
But Maya finds another kill on the round.
That is a gaping hole in the Black Dragon's defense that now Swag and Rare must fill my low HP,
needs to regroup with the rest of the team. Could pick up another secondary gadget.
Can't pick up another Nade, but could pick up a Flash for example to assist with this final execute.
25 seconds left to play as Swag tries to reposition. He gets caught off guard.
The Leapbox comes to life and Rare now up against three players from TLA who start to make their way forward.
It doesn't seem to know that actually behind him is fully free for lead box forcing that plant down
No need for you to when Maya is there with the F2 and
Team liquid Alienware find their first round with their brand new roster good start coming out from TLA
Obviously has a really long push being built up there
They had to take those top couple of floors, but they had everything they needed James
They had the soft destruction from Nade they had KZ working that opening pick onto brown stairs
and once that advantage started it just grew and grew and grew for Team Liquid Alienware.
Black Dragons were able to get a little bit of value there in the mid-round but ultimately it
was just going to be Team Liquid Alienware who walked away with the victory with a little bit
more of a man advantage. There's only so much that Otlock could do from that position.
Did you happen to notice there in the team liquid cameras at the back behind the players,
it looked like there was an armada of team liquid staff and employees ready to be at
the, just witnessing the debut of this new roster, I know how high it is for this entire
organization and I don't know if you had a chance to listen to it but I have to admit I have to
have a confession to make. I am Mr. Parker Interimacai's biggest fan when I come to his podcast.
I listen to every episode of Down But Not Out as it's now called and the episode with FiliPox is
probably my favorite episode of any seed podcast I've ever listened to and FiliPox spoke so much
about the move from furia to TL Alienware and a big part of what you spoke about is yes of course
Team Liquid, not a Brazilian organization like Theria is, but within Brazil, Team Liquid Alienware
have a huge presence. Of course, they've just sealed this deal with Alienware, which is why
that Alienware is now in the name, as it wasn't previously. And within Brazil, Rainbow Six is
the focus of the TL Alienware. It's not any other esports, not any other team. These five players
right now have all of TL Alienware's Brazilian resources behind them. And you can really see
that in the camps behind these players. There is so much going into this roster. It's not
just the five players. It's not just the coaching staff, you know, Igor, Abreo, who
have moved over from Fiora, but they even brought their psychologist. I don't actually
have their name written down, but Filippox talked about it at length in this podcast.
Filippox said to Team Liquid Alienware, guys, we have had so much benefit from our sports
psychologists can you bring them and TLM we're just like yeah absolutely yeah no
question yeah no it's it's crazy to see the investment that's been put in for
TLA obviously this is this is an organization that's been invested in
Brazil for a very long time they've always been supporting ATOP roster but
it just feels like now it's a brand new look for Team Liquid Alienware it's a
brand new team that they're bringing in it's really a new era and so to see them
going all out to give all the resources they can to this former world champion core. It has been
really nice to see coming up from Team Liquid Alienware. We'll have to see if they can convert
into more round wins. Starting off with your first attack on cafe is always a good sign,
so starting off 1-0 is very nice. We'll see how this continues though. We've got a bit of a
track coming up from KZ. You can't hunt it down though, except it seems like the follow-up has
happened elsewhere. Nice attempt there. The gas kept him at bay for a brief moment. It gave a
little bit of space for the rest of the Black Dragons players to spring into action, but
Mayer continues his reign of terror finds his fifth kill, but of course not without a response.
And JV now in a 1v3. It is possible, but two minutes. It's a decent amount of time to work
with. Swag will catch him on a rotation. First round of the board for Black Dragons and a much
much stated one of that. Yeah, a good little bounce back coming in there from
the obviously cafe defense. You expect to find some success. Little interesting
to see them going reading room there. That's a bomb site that's really falling
out of favor over the last couple of months last year or so. His teams have
been really favoring that mining, binding site and of course top floor. Always a
favorite of teams as well. But we see it being brought out by Team Liquid. They
find success to lock that down. They get a couple of early gunfights and even
though we saw some good information coming up from TLA, even though we
started to see them striking back with Miracle going down relatively early in
that it was just an answer back very fast to come from Black Dragons.
Glepoxon made falling early in that it's the numbers that do spiral out of
control for Team Liquid Alienware. So this is kind of what I'm talking about for Black
Dragons. You know, are there any underdogs in this game? For sure. Nobody is doubting
that, but they're not so much of an underdog that they won't be able to
compete. There is a real chance they walk away with the victory in this game.
They're an SI caliber team. They've only made one roster move in the off-season, so
So they've got everything they need to beat these giants.
For sure, for sure.
Though I do wonder, is it kind of T-Law's fault
for playing so aggressively so early and Black Dragon's
being ready for it?
We could see a T-Law that doesn't get quite so
egregious at the start of the round,
maybe a little bit more refined, taking a little bit less
of a risk at the start of the round,
and perhaps we'll see a different result.
But regardless, it's always impressive
if you're, it's impressive that a spawnpick KZ, or anyone at the T-Law level at the end of the times.
But, you know, I do wonder if perhaps TLA have just now realized, okay, we can't play quite as
aggressively as we thought we'd have to play with a little bit more respect.
Well, it's good to see Rare getting active. He was the captain of Black Dragons as of last season.
I believe he has held on to that mantle, though he's added Lenda, who of course used to be the
captain of team liquid towards the tail end of stage two last season so he's got a bit of
ideal experience as well but i believe it's rare who has kept that title on this team
not afraid to get active even with that ronnie finding the head of kz he starts
so strong and looks for a second beauty shot on a jv92 you don't see this too often he's not done
look at enough bullets there in the p10 ronnie and also of course cannot aim down sides while
Volting almost had one maybe two kills there. I wonder if he only had one target to worry about
maybe he actually might have found one of them but regardless it's a step forward for T-Law but
it's still a long road back to an advantage. Maya made a fun lot of kills so far but only one
round on the board for T.L. Alienware and there's a lot of work still to be done in this round of
course we're talking about a mining bomb site now Maya has fallen outlaw really coming into his
own here four kills so far in three rounds the leapbox and nades separated
now regrouping have to look for an opportunity to try and bring things back
and it's gonna be easy to do so yeah they've got top floor to work with but
really without soft destruction what is it worth not a whole lot three nades to
try to play around good information as they know top floor is likely not being
contested and 60 seconds to try to find this plant there will be players all
all around the floor, the wall is electrified.
They can't even get into sight without walking
into this crossfire.
This is just a brutal push with Brewing.
Yeah, good pick from Nate.
The Leapox needs to have a big impact here
on the black bin, especially with Nate, low HP,
but great positioning inside a fireplace,
hold from Swear, playing on the bomb.
There is one grenade here from the Leapox
that might be able to flush him out.
Can he take the aim down side-to-side?
He's gonna need to, but he missed the chance
While the Nade pushed him away to take that fight, the swing comes out again from Swag,
a little bit of damage here and there. Just going to need to be a simple bit of mechanics here
from Fully Pox, otherwise it's a done deal. Miracle has the Cross, Fully Pox eventually finds one,
but that's going to be all she wrote for the round. Black Dragons, look at it continue that fire,
they found a second round and they've taken the lead over Team Liquid Alienware.
Not the cleanest 4v2, but it's clean enough, the Crossfires are there in the end, a little
little bit this coordinated between lenda and swag just when we saw nade walking
and get that frag to make it a 2v3 I started to worry that things would come
undone but black dragons hold down the advantage that their captain gained for
them really good start to that round coming through from where as we
commented on you just don't see the roman mausie too often in 2026 but I guess
rare decided it was the right call and it certainly did pay off for him team
liquid alienware maybe need to continue to slow things down just be a little bit
more aware of the fast pace that's being played by black dragons because it's
clear they're not afraid of this new team liquid they want to go aggressive
against this squad and so far it's been working for them. Absolutely, love to see
it. Of course we hyped up this game it was definitely the forefront of my mind
by talking about that rivalry between black dragons and Team Liquid Alienware
in terms of the organization's very different rosses of course but Maya was
on that Team Liquid Alienware team, but succumbed to the Black Dragon's lower bracket run in the
LCQs and ended up falling and failing to qualify for Six Invitational as a result. He's back with
Evendance, he's got six kills. Black Dragons have now got the upper hand at the start of this game
of Cafe. And there's no doubt there's a bit of new-world pressure here on the Team Liquid Alienware
side. We hate to say it, but it's a reality that that just happens for every top level team. It
happened to a lot of these players when they first joined Fury after the W7M days. They really
struggled in their first year. Filippox talked a lot about how part of that was actually complacency
and one of the most exciting things to Filippox about bringing Meyer onto the squad is the fact
that he has never won anything. The rest of these Tile Alienware players, right? They've won majors,
They've won six of the nationals they've raised trophies domestically and on the world stage Maya has not done so
He is more motivated than anybody
Yeah, it really feels like Maya is the piece that they were needing to refresh this roster
Nothing against herds, of course one of the best in the world
But if you're gonna be revamping things why not bring him the highest rated sal player across the last
365 days Maya is absolutely the guy you want to add on to this team and he plays that entry Fred
He plays the same style of game that Hurds did too, so it's just a perfect bit to bring him into this team.
You can see him taking advantage of the new operator in the game as well.
Snake with the F2 being brought for round four, being used by Maya here to try to make this bottom floor attack work.
This was the best bombsite for Black Dragons through the first quarter of this game.
They had a lot of success pushing on his vert play going all the way top down from the very top floor,
and it seems like the game plan is pretty much the same.
the results might be to outlaw the first one to fall to JV-92.
Big kill. Warden goes down, that's one nitro cell gone.
That's a lot more fluidity that you have to use your smokes and your flashes in the late round as well, if you're going for an execute.
A large portions attack will be focusing up on clearing Miracle out of VIP.
Question for me is how did T-Law intend to do that? Surely Myer's not just going to take a 1v1, he surely will.
I asked his classic myr is not the ego to be looks for a second one, but lender will shut him down
That's the problem with Maya being a little bit in front of the utility black dragons are unafraid of taking these fights
They're not scared of these TLA and where players not one bit
Here come the swings lend off
2k up against his former or that's massive and it's tilted the scales. Oh my god
Come on, James, it just falls apart at the end there and Team Liquid Alienware answered back what a disaster place that ended up being though.
Everything was looking good. Maya wins that fight, but the problem is, like we said, I mean that was not a, by any stretch, that was not a strategic or tactical way to win around.
That was Maya a little bit of an off-piece attack a little bit out of pace going aggressive finding one kill as soon as that happens
BD are ready for the next swing and the rest of T-Law were very much disjointed
It feels like we've kind of got two separate things going on
We've got these ex feria players made KZ for leapbox and JV trying to accomplish one thing and Maya going for something completely different
Obviously, that's reflected on the scoreboard, but we need to see more
synchronicity the TLA in where if they are to find a win on their debut otherwise
Black Dragons will run away with it on the defensive side. Yeah well it really
just felt like Lenda in that whiskey position was such a problem that TLA
didn't really have good answers for. Of course he gets the trade on to Maya to
start things off. Maya goes one for one there and it's not the end of the world
but the fact that they can't then follow up and punish Lenda after he gets that
trade back right. They still had a fire bolt in the pocket of Fully Pox. They
had two nades in the pocket of Nade, ironically, that they could have used to try to clear that
whiskey position. There were magnets around, maybe some of them got caught, maybe they
didn't quite have the Uto clear to force that position out. But at the end of the day, it
felt like that whiskey position being held by Lenda was just so powerful and it wasn't
cleared out as well as it maybe could have been from Team Liquid Alienware. So really
nice play to come out from Black Dragons, and particularly Lenda with that really nice
round coming out from him. Once again you can go back to those SILCQs when
Team Liquid was denied a spot at the Sixth Imitational and it was Glenda that
was initially part of that roster that kind of helped them out in that second
half of the year but now on the other side of things he's really finding his
footing. He sure is. Black Dragons have a good read on the pace of the rounds here
different to your leilien where the attack needs to make sure that they are more in sync.
You can't be going for a lot of solo plays, even going one for one. It's not good enough
for me. You need to convert your advantages. Here's a big chance. Wow, just misses an opportunity
there. Onto Fully Pox, I believe. I don't know. I didn't manage to see who that was,
whoever that was. I don't know, it's out of line. Can't see much. The big thing here
I'm looking to look at is sorry to interrupt you for a moment. We just had a tough to your time out call from T
Law so Igor who you know Filippox has said is quite renowned for getting very angry
He's a he's a man who's very passionate and he's not afraid to share that and he's not afraid to tell his
teammates or his players when they're doing something wrong so I'm sure after a little bit of a rinse
see you later. We'll be back into shape. Well, it definitely feels like Black Dragons are
trying to change things up. Aware of that time, it will be giving Team Liquid Alien
where a chance to talk about how this push went wrong back in round number two. This
was the reading room bombsite that they lost. Hello repelling in bathroom. 3D for swag.
He takes a lot of damage for it though. And there are other players coming down, but swag
gets both my as well this is looking too clean now for DD. It's a little bit
embarrassing for T-Law what was that push from JV92 he had no idea what was
happening swag goes for three it's a flawless rounds to cap off what was meant
to be T-Law's tactical timeout black dragons are running rings around the
stallions 4-1 on the defensive side they have hit an exceeded path for the
because now the onus is on Team Liquid Alienware to come back.
All right, a little bit of an awkward push there on the top floor.
I mean, I want to give a little bit of credit to Team Liquid Alienware.
JV92 repels in with the sludge, with the shotgun.
He does pump swag for like 99 damage.
If he believes in that shot, he may be a little bit more.
Perhaps he walks away with the kill, but it's still a crazy bold play to come out
from Team Liquid Alienware.
It was coordinated.
They had a lion's charge that was being used, they had Candela's being used as well, but
in the end the position was just way better from Black Dragons.
They were ready for that aggressive moves, they got a little bit of space with it, they
tried to make things crazy and uncoordinated, but in the end, swag, just way too strong
in that bathroom position, hit some beauty shots, even when he was on one HP, and he
difference of a six and two KDF that beautiful defense.
Gnarly stuff from Black Dragons. They really are weathering the storm here. Teal Alien where
they are not respecting Black Dragons here. They're trying to go for things, too many
dry peaks. Not drowning areas to double check the positions. Not throwing in storms or
frag utility as they go for a push. Yes, it's somewhat coordinated. Sometimes there are
multiple pushing at the same time but they're not guaranteeing that they're
getting these kills with their U2 and that's not good enough. We expect
far more out of players like the ones on T-Law and Black Dragons. We've seen you
cannot underestimate them. These are good players and if you give them a chance to
take 1v1 after 1v1 so Agon Lender will happily lap that up. Yeah. We'll see
mining, dining now for the final round of the half. Team Liquid Alienware hoping to
least hold is back within two. Five one half would be devastating to start their season.
Little bit of a change in the lineup from Black Dragons. They brought Miracle on the Echo. He
was playing Kaede last time so they'll change that around and give themselves a little bit better
plant than on a late round. Can also use those drones to be a little bit aggressive as we can
see him using some of those just now on cams around the map. Map control being taken by Team
Liquid Alienware though. They're in cigar, they're in red, they can start to work on this hatch as
as well, the Habana here for no problems.
It definitely packs on the sledge,
but I think they're a little bit worried about some nitros
or maybe some impacts that could come his way
if they start to ripple from these floorboards.
And that's partly where for me the Thatcher comes into it.
JV can find any information gathering operators
that Black Dragon's property at the Echo,
the Mozzie, the Hatch Drones.
Benefit from Maya, great shot.
He continues to be deadly,
eight and four critical thing here for Alienware now
is to make sure that they don't over-commit individually.
They cannot lose their advantage.
Yeah, it's a good start.
You've taken down the captain where it was such a problem
last time they played this site on the Mausie.
You can't do that anymore.
The top floor is fully theirs.
I like their control.
I like the time they have as well, James.
I mean, everything should be lining up
for Team Liquid Alienware to close this one out.
They just have to be careful with these fights.
Make sure you can isolate these kills.
Don't rush things like we've seen them do
time and time again in this match.
It's under Peelaway. The layers of youths will start clearing out the
banshees from the Lucy start clearing out the Vulcan canisters from Goyo and
make sure that JV is in position to stun out those yokai drones, EMP them, remove
them from play when the execute comes through. You've got numbers. You can go
for a plant while JV is covering the echo drones while Maya is going for
frags. Yeah, here come the flashes, here come the nades. This could be everything
that they've ever wanted. Down inside of train, Fleepox does drop and he starts
the plan. The plan going down in mining before Lebox gets found by Outlaw and
there is no reply KZ eventually finds one he's going for a backstab Maya needs
to be the one to get in the building he does so he goes big find the double kill
on the round it's all up to swag now but his C4 finds the wrong target Maya for a
3k team liquid Alienware finally get back into it and they cap off the half
with the redemption of a second round on the scoreboard as we go into the half
time time out black dragons still retain their advantage Maya dragging this
team kicking and screaming across the finish line 10 and 4 as the rest of
Team Liquid tally for just seven frags across four players he is doing
everything for this team I liked what you were building up for that push
chains. It felt like they had the keys. You can use the Thatcher to deny the Echo drones.
You can use the Thatcher to deny the C4. The only thing Thatcher can't deny is the gun of Outlaw,
who was instantly able to deny that plant as it came out from Fleepox. It felt like the wheels
were about to fall off the bus, but Maya steps up exactly when he's needed most. He gets those
couple of kills, just forces things to get messy and grab a couple of frags in the mid-round,
in the midst of that executes. It was not the cleanest bush. They didn't get the plant down
like they were hoping to, but frankly, a good recovery from Team Liquid Alienair and they
escaped this first half and only a two round deficit.
It's so exciting to be able to see the coaches get involved in this. I like, I've got a new name
for it. Uh huh. Tell me. I believe technically it's called the Roll Swap Timeout. I believe in
in the rulebook, something along those lines. I like halftime vibe check. What do we think?
I like halftime vibe check for sure. I think that flows off the tongue a little bit better
than the roll swap timeout or whatever you said it was in the rulebook. I like the halftime vibe
check in here. I like it too because it gives a little bit less of an advantage to starting on the
defense. You know, I feel like sometimes it can be better to start on a specific side just because
if there's some specific strats you want to run, if there's a specific setup that you know your team
can be playing on the first round especially. You can kind of give it to them ahead of time.
Now if you've got this little time to reset the mental, reset the vibes and maybe feed some
strat, see your teammates, just get them reset between the halves. It makes it a little bit more
even I think starting attack versus starting the defense. Sometimes swapping can be a bit difficult
just because it is such a change in pace but this really gives the coach the chance to settle
things down, get the mindset, reframe for the second half and give us a little bit of time to
just yapp a little bit of how this series is gone.
Yeah, now I like it. And of course, for both of these teams, having a chance to talk to their
coaches is so valuable, invaluable. Believe for Black Dragons, it's ghost one who's still their
coach. Yeah, should be the one who's talking to them behind the scenes. And of course,
the very famous Igor for Team Liquid Alienware who's been with them since the W7M day,
since the very very beginning of the run of this team's success, their first international event
was all the way back in Mexico, I believe, in 2021. I remember meeting them for the first time in
Berlin, how do you get later? Yeah. And my God, what a what a start to their campaign Berlin was,
I think their first semi finals at that event. And then from then forth, it was pretty much just
almost exclusively grand finals or championships.
Yeah, I mean, they had a whole year there where they went back to back majors.
One SI, it was a real streak.
They were the first team in history to be able to win two majors.
And then following it up with a hammer is a bit of a statement.
Of course, on the Fury roster, after they left the WSUP member,
Org weren't as dominant, didn't win every single tournament,
still got that relay championship.
Yeah, yeah, we won't forget it.
It counts, even if maybe not quite as much as some of the other tournaments, but yes,
I think their time on Fury was probably a disappointment despite all the success that
they had.
Now that they're on Team Liquid, they want to go back to that W7M form, they want to
go back to winning championships.
It's not just going to be good enough to get top 8, top 4, this is a team who want
victory.
They want first or nothing else.
Yeah, so of course the big change since the W7M days is that they've made their first
roster change since losing the 6th rotational Grand Final in Montreal in 2023. What do we
think of Maia so far this game Jesse? You know, he kicked out 11 kills I suppose.
No, he doesn't get much better than this. 10 in 4. He has been the lifeline for Team Liquid
Alienware in this matchup. On defense I expect the other players to find their footing a little bit
more, but I mean you never know. If Maia is going to drop another 10 kills and go 20 and 8, I'll take that.
I'm sure T-Law would as well. Black Dragons though on the attacking side, they need to roam clear. KZ is active, he's found a fight as well.
Goodbye to Outlaw and goodbye to the striker. KZ wants to try and take another drone with him, won't get a chance.
Maya is also going to escort him back to the bombsite. That is picture perfect teamwork there from T-Law.
Yeah, and that's really nice too, because that's the type of duo play you used to see from Herds and KZ.
Now, Herds isn't on the lineup. You wonder how this new entry Rome duo of KZ Maya is going to look?
Well, it's looking really clean here in their first defensive round. They get that two-man advantage.
Still lots of soft reach. Frankly, the Yutzel is actually quite good still in Black Dragons for being in a 3B5,
but this bomb site is such a nightmare to push if you don't have the numbers.
They're going to have to barrel it down through the freezer hatch or try to make something happen over towards Bakeside.
It is not going to be easy for Black Dragons. It feels like that two-man lead is going to be all they need
to bring this within one.
BD is still worried about these drones.
They're still not convinced that they have full control.
Miracle is worried about re-aggression.
This is realistically where you need to have a drone set on this position
so that he can focus on actually using that vert
and start pushing forward.
I mean, less than a minute remains.
Black Dragons look at a shadow of their defensive cells
now that they're on the attacking side.
long angles this is so toxic to fight if you're up against KZ you're being
slowed by the two brawlers well it's miracle goes down it looks over for
this round it really does rare as the last one standing Alienware perfectly
cover each other great 2k there with the 417 as rare looks to pivot he's gonna
go all the way over to bakery 25 seconds to play and this is not likely to find
much success no one's in bakery so they'll give a little bit of ground but
They've read this to perfection and default cameras up the Vulcan fire will detonate
He does not have the HP to tank this and Nate will shut him down
It's another chance at a respite for team liquid Alienware a few smiles on their dials
And the faith that swapping onto the defensive side will let them far more success
Nice little attempt from rare. He's definitely hitting shots today
But 1v5 is a tall task against this team liquid Alienware squad
So really nice stuff coming out from them. Again, I just think it's that earlier on the Gression that Rome duo of KZ and Maya
It's been KZ and herds for literally years at this point. He hasn't had to really switch up his Rome partner
Obviously, I haven't made roster moves before this
But they haven't even really made a role swaps for the last few years on W7M and on Furia
It really was herds and KZ as the entry duo and if there were swaps being happening in the roles
It was you know, maybe JV getting a little bit more aggressive or maybe the Philippops didn't a little bit more passive
It would be small role changes like that to see KZ stepping up and playing so well alongside
Maya really does bring a smile to my face and it gives me a lot of hope for this team look at alienware squad
obviously first half didn't go the way they're wanted, but
Even down four three. I think I favor them to take the rest of this map
Yeah, I mean, I just think the form chain from the last two rounds speaks volumes
Yes, yeah, especially after how bad it was when we went for one right when TLA T law
I'm still getting used to the acronym
TLA is such an iconic acronym because it stands for three letter acronym, which is a little bit of acronym
But T law seems to be the way that we're going
Yeah, look after failing to convert a tactical time out getting flawless after they were down and ended up down for one
I thought it's pretty much over right like black dragons really got control the fact that they came back from that speaks volumes
About the mental aspect of this game
Well, we've got a reset now as we head into round eight
This is a cigar hole being held pretty aggressively on this top floor defense not a bomb site black dragons wanted to play out
But team look at Alienware will decide if they're stuck in best sites nice little floors drones coming out
They can start to pop open some of these bars
which makes them just a little bit more awkward to play behind.
There's a lot of anti-maid and anti-flash Uto being brought by Team Liquid Alienware.
They've got Yeager, they've got a Rune, they've got these Casabarricades as well,
which will waste some of those nades.
Makes it kind of costly to take map control.
Despite that, Black Dragons have done a decent job clearing out Sagaar.
They've done a decent job getting Uto in through Skylight.
They're not in the building just yet,
but I think the Uto game is one they're playing pretty nicely.
They've got a lot of tools on their side too.
Good kill to find as well on a KZ after the damage he managed to deal last round.
You're right, they're not fully in the building yet, just one into red stairs in Outlaw.
He's watching the flank mostly, but dragons will want to be taking control of Piano very shortly.
They've got a breach, top-rowed wall.
A lot of the workers involving spotting out these bulletproof cameras,
I'm sorry, I believe they spotted two of them now.
I need to clear him. One in bar is what KZ is using to feed information to his team. He isn't opportunity to peek for JV.
Oh, missed opportunity for Epox Cross. Outlaw almost found a frag. Nitro's Cell does not find its target for Maya,
but it does, of course, cue Outlaw to be worried about where Maya might be.
Yeah, Outlaw's gonna want those back, but of course all he can do is repeat the angle. Still nothing coming from that.
fishing for these frags James, but they're not being given the opportunity and the chances they do have they're just being missed
And Philippos has retaken his position just outside of pixel but a good upside down repel from lender and the white window
Opens up the round here for black dragons
T-Law are struggling. It's just my left one V five
He finds the first killer the round 12 in the map so far, but outlaw shuts him down
down. Black dragons will not let a second attack slip by them. They finally get back
into it. They retain their lead just two rounds away from taking a massive win over T-Law.
And really that is exactly what you have to do for a cafe top floor clear. That is picture
perfect coming out from Black Dragons. You could notice that round. The map just gets
smaller and smaller and smaller as more walls get opened up by the Yace. More angles get
held by by the gridlock of outlaw. It feels like every 30 seconds or so there's
more space being taken and the map just shrinks in its size. Really nice stuff
coming out from Black Dragon so we'll play those windows, work those picks, just
make it very awkward for Team Liquid Alienware and they almost force TLA or
T-Law to just make these moves across the map right to group up inside a back
bar to play in that bathroom hallway to play these uncomfortable positions
because there's nowhere else to really go. They put that pressure on, they force Team Liquid Alienware
to make those moves, and they punish them after the moves came out. It's a big reason why a lot
of teams now are no longer playing on that top floor defense of Black Dragons, just exploiting
it perfectly. Team Liquid Alienware has five of the most aggressive players in a very aggressive
region. You compare FaZe to T-Law, for example. T-Law, especially when they were back in the
the Furia days, very much on that more aggressive, willing to peak end of the spectrum similar
to the Fluxo W7M and what I assume the new Furia will be like as well.
And I think the Black Dragons have read that too perfection.
Just baiting them into these swings.
T-Law don't have much of a mechanical advantage over Black Dragons, let's be honest.
Like, this is a reasonably even game in terms of the pure mechanics of it.
And as soon as Black Dragons have a number's advantage, they are so good at converting
and consolidating it.
Yeah.
I think so much of that comes down to outlaw in particular.
This is, I mean, he's the star entry fragger for Black Dragons.
He's been considered the most mechanical counter player on this team for a while now.
And like, he's just not been talked about, I think, enough because he's never really
played on a top level team in South America.
He's been kind of slept on, especially by English audiences, but he is so good when it
comes to taking these gunfights.
His support players can frag too.
Miracle who finds the first frag and taking down Maya is a massive kill. That's 12 frags just off the board
And the rest of the team has 11 combined for team liquid alien layer. So yeah, there's no two ways about it
TLR have just lost their starfragger and now the rest of the team will have to step up into his shoes
Fighting 4v5 on a bomb site like this is challenging
but Outlaw goes down a good find from KZ on the mozzie with the commando no less.
I'll probably be seeing a little bit more of recently since the buffs.
The Team Liquid Alienware have to be careful not to lose this advantage now, bring it back to a 4v4.
I would argue that they're kind of winning except for the fact that Black Dragons have now taken full control of this top 4.
The best player from each team has gone down so it really comes down to these other players to step up and show what they're worth.
It was a bakery run out by the way that got Maya killed very early on in this round
So the aggression being punished a little bit from Team Liquid Alienware
But for Leapox in a equally aggressive position, he's got a good angle on the swag
You really can't push down these white stairs as long as Flea Pox exists where he is
This might be one of the weaknesses of Black Dragons
They are so methodical that they take a lot of time in this mid-round and look at the clock
It is ticking down. However, they are so thorough and they find their gaps
They are patient they find JV and now great positioning from rare as well
Flee box is so close to be able to go for a flank here two players in pillars
He's just on the other side of but they spot him out and a bit of damage onto enforces him back
However, KZ, close to the bomb site, finds one, traded again.
Ranys to get into the bomb site now, and Nate is the last one standing.
MPX in hand to try and stave off.
Match point, he cannot do so.
Black Dragons are firing up.
And Team Liquid Alienware now stare down the barrel of defeat
to the team that knocked them out of SI contention just a few months ago.
are the flashbacks coming back are the nightmares recurring team liquid fans this is starting to get scary black dragons they were at SI they've stuck together for the vast for the most part have been looking so good over the last couple of months and now are about to beat team liquid alienware for the second time in three months make that statement.
serve them a loss for their opening game of the season.
I mean, it's a brilliant push, James.
They're taking their time.
No doubt about that.
You were worried about the clock and I was as well,
but they were getting information at that time.
They were working picks.
They were so patient.
Team Liquid Alienware continue to just move so much
on these defensive rounds.
It looks just like their top floor defense.
And that's not me saying,
oh, these guys can't sit still,
but it is that pressure that's being created
by Black Dragons.
It's opening these walls.
It's making the angles annoying.
It's the constant ace being played by Rare
that I think is forcing a lot of these movements
from Team Liquid Alienware.
And it's creating this map to really shrink on them,
to reduce the number of options they have
to play in this map, right?
It just feels like they aren't being left with good options.
They're not getting enough kills early.
And because of that, things are starting to spiral
and the positions just get better for BD over and over again.
Team Liquid Alienware will now need to win back to back
the back sides just to force the overtime this was one of my
big good cards today Jesse really wasn't no me neither I was
messaging before this game started yeah the start today in
fact I was saying man I'm so excited for SAO obviously best
teams in the world all reside in SAO I mean it's just just a
fact of it like Brazil is the best region in Rainbow Six no
one does it quite like them we have good teams in other
regions but no one can hold a candle to just the number of good teams we have in
this region and black dragons are really making a statement of that at the
moment we're talking about the big four all day who's sleeping on black dragons
nobody after this game James that's for certain it's a statement to start the
season but the leapbox ain't done yet outlaw goes down for early for the second
time in a row he still sits at just ten kills it's been good for team liquid
to shut him down early these last couple of rounds.
That's definitely an advantage they can play with.
Now that they have that one man lead too,
do they try to rain things in a little bit?
Do they give up a little bit more space
or do they keep the pressure on?
Do they keep the gas going?
Does feel like they've started to slow things down.
They're happy to let them take
most of this top floor control.
Nobody from Team Liquid Alienware is playing up here,
but instead it's that pulse down below
that's creating a lot of problems.
However KZ overextends a little bit and loses his life again nine deaths more than anybody else in the match
KZ is not afraid to take risks rare also finds Maya
That's the deadly fragger for tealaw spotted the advantage is flipped once again black dragons in control
They're just finding opportunities to walk in they're finding frags players not looking at them swag is so
He's going to get another freebie.
Surely almost has the chance.
Filippox goes down the hatch and does manage to escape.
JV also just trying to escape damage as much as possible.
He knows that Swag is the last one standing.
He's going to contest him with the Reaper.
A much needed round.
That seemed liquid alienware.
Nice to see a smile on Filippox face KZ and Maya as well.
Might have to sweat off their brow.
There's no room to get complacent here.
They still stay down that point.
It's not pretty, it's not clean,
but it is a round win from Team Liquid Alienware.
Black Dragon's gonna call attack timeout after that,
deciding that they just need to reset a little bit,
talk about exactly how they're gonna break
this next defense.
But I mean, you go back to round number 10, James,
and it just feels like Team Liquid Alienware
are lucky to get away with it.
Sure, the opening pick is theirs,
but then after they lose Maya and KZ,
you're almost pulling your hair out.
You're like, how does this keep happening
where picks go the way of Black Dragon,
completely untreated, completely unexpected to come out.
The gaps have just been too good.
And if Swag had got that kill onto Filipeaux,
onto the mirror dropping the freezer hatch,
things could have gone in an entirely different way.
But thank God Filipeaux played so well
in that mining, in that dining position,
gets a big 2k to equalize the numbers.
The same time we see Nate with those toxic babes
getting a frag onto Rare,
over towards the VIP side of things.
So things do eventually go liquids way,
but it is scrappy, it is very, very close and Black Dragon still have two more opportunities to win this in regulation.
Attackers need to locate and defuse bombs.
Being on defense, when you win consecutive rounds of the road, it forces you to change things up.
That's the difference, right? If you win attack after attack after attack,
well, the defense is just going to have to keep trying different bombsites,
but you yourselves, you have this comfort of knowing, well, it's up to us.
you have a tackle re-pick, we can always play more adaptable.
Defensive side, you win one bomb site, in this case,
kitchen bakery, and T-Law suddenly has to say,
okay, well, what's our next best?
And even if they are to win this,
reading and fireplace bomb site,
well, what's our next best?
Surely we don't go back to bar.
That was absolutely devastating.
Even mining was not ideal.
So, round by round, I gotta bring it back.
Yeah, it gets very awkward.
You're right, exactly, James.
You start to win on defense your options get more and more limited and that's what they're facing right now
There are two defensive wins this half both came on the bottom floor
They both came on kitchen this mid floor and the top floor have not been successful for them
They haven't played this site exactly it was mining dining in around number nine and now in 11
It will be reading in dining so slightly different site, but sometimes the push can look very similar
Rare is gonna bring out the monty I believe for the first time this game so good to see a bit of a change coming
from Black Dragons this was likely called in the tactical timeouts and it can be one that can
be very helpful in clearing the top floor if that's the way they want to use it but you've
always got to be careful a pulse down below could be an excellent answer to stop the slowly
progressing montane. A lot of this is about time delay here between the Vulcan canisters.
is
mhm
thorn traps as well
nitro cell pre-ripped by KZ on white stairs
I think you must be waiting for someone to repel
on his window perhaps he's now back in pocket and
he's ripping it out again he's changing his mind
constantly while the rest of the focus seems to
be for black dragons on taking from red across
with rare as you said that monzi is always gonna
be the pivotal focal point of an attacking round
but in the late round you're really worried about
That verticality from the pulse and from the C4 from KZ. Looks like Outlaw just wants to make an entry.
Yeah, bit of a weird push.
Weird. Disappointing.
Yeah, you just get punished by it hard. You don't have top floor control. This is a reading defense.
Don't forget, so just marching down the red stairs will not get you to sight.
At least swag as well. He was one of those guys flying on the windows.
Oh, in a rare, you're not large for this world, my friend.
It was dropped into Maya's lap as what happened.
He had C4 from below and fell through the hatch.
Lender and Miracle will meet a Miracle now in the 2v5.
Flashbang goes out.
Oh, JV knows exactly where he is,
but he decides, you know what, I don't need to take this fight.
Consolation frag for Lender against his former organization,
but he's not gonna find all five of them.
That's for sure.
Shotgun comes out.
It wants to take the close range fight.
A leapbox upstairs in backstore.
As the last flashbang expended for Lender, just look at the way to Alienware just locking in they
No, they don't need to give anything up here and they will have another chance one final opportunity to push over time
After they find this kill for Leapox eventually goes down 25 seconds. It's just no way in this world
This is gonna happen on the stairs
Who sits there? It's Maya. He's falling back again. He's just gonna keep pulsing. This is how it's done
How much can I have had this out?
Jesse, this round is so over.
It's just Linda looking for a stat pad.
There we go.
JV92 finally closes things out, ends the inevitability of that round
and will win it for Team Liquid Alienware,
keeping them alive in this matchup, back to back rounds now to come through.
Drow Vitor, JV92, did a really important job earlier in that round.
Not so much the final frag but getting that pick mid round on to swag. It was just on one of the windows
I think might have been a red window where he gets that frag onto the IQ after he goes down after outlaw goes down
Walking down those red stairs it kind of pushed black dragons in an awkward position, right? The 3d5
Their push down red did not go their way at all again
You don't really see teams doing that unless it's a mining dining hold the bottom
was reading so top floor is so important to try to control they eventually try to push it with the
monty but we all saw how that went down with the nitro cell coming through and now it will be
the final opportunity to close things down for black dragon in regulation james we were talking
about this being done we were talking about black dragons completing the upset but team liquid alien
where they've kind of silenced that conversation yep and of course it's all just on the 10 players
and the server now both teams have used that tactical timeout. T-Law used it very early,
I believe it was after four rounds, they were down one three, they took their tactical timeout,
they then lost the next round flawlessly. Of course both teams also had a chance to talk to
their coach at the halftime vibe check, but it's been five rounds since then. And should we get to
overtime here, no team will have a chance to have another operator Vito, no team will have a chance
to talk to their coaches. It's just on what Filippo can lead the way for Alienware now
in these final few rounds. Well the Monty certainly didn't last long from rare, of course.
The pulse has just been too big of a problem. It continues to get selected by Maya and even
the information he's gathering on who's climbing up what wall, who's going to be outside the building.
It's just sitting in strain at the moment. So that's just under the piano room, of course,
in the top floor, which means there will be opportunities for those top floor players to
maybe swing out and get a bit of value from that information. The push starts quite slowly
as it usually does here on the cafe roof. Black dragons are not going for anything cheeky to
try to lock this game down. They just want to play this safe. They just want to play it standard
dropping in through cigar, making this push happen. It is rare the first one in, but it's
outlaw. The first one to get down. He's dropped cigar and buys the flip locks. It's devastating
How things flipped so horribly for Black Dragons, Miracle finally brings some light
into this round for BD. There's no question, T-Law are in control. They can sit back and relax for
now, force Black Dragons to make the next move. And I think that's the key thing, James. Like,
Team Liquid Alienware have stopped moving as much on the defense. They've stopped giving a lot of
these early fights to Black Dragons, and it just has resulted in a lot of stalling out. BD, they
They spend the first 60 seconds not doing a whole lot.
The second they drop into Sagar, both players die.
So it really feels like the map control
is being forced to be taken by Team Liquid Alienware.
They're forcing Black Dragons to step up
and do something for the map control
rather than giving them space for free,
rather than walking into their crosshairs.
And it's really made things much more difficult on the attack.
The trade is not gonna work out so well
for Black Dragons.
Swag, low HP, 1v3.
Team Liquid Alien were down six rounds to three
and they have brought it back with a vengeance.
Black Dragons doesn't matter how good swag is,
we'll not get it done in regulation.
And Team Liquid Alienware are fired up.
It looks so grim in their debut,
but they have shown their worth
and brought it back into overtime.
It's been over two years now
since the most miraculous comeback in Siege's history
when this Team Liquid Alien core completed the comeback
versus FaZe Clan in front of a Sao Paulo crowd,
but the vibes of that game still do feel relevant
to this team liquid squad,
because no matter what the scoreline is,
no matter how down and out this team looks,
you always know what they're capable of
because of what they pulled off in Sao Paulo.
We're starting to see more flashes that come through
from six, three down, it was, I believe,
back to back to back rounds
with their opponent sitting on match points.
They've done far harder than that before against far better teams and black dragons and now they're showing exactly the grip that they have on the defensive side of cafe finding so much good value across the rounds across the sites.
Team Liquid Alienware actually chose their starting side. They chose to start attack, which means it's Black Dragon's side choice in overtime.
So they will have the easier task through rounds 13 and 15. That might give them an edge, but for me I'm more worried about the mental.
James, I mean you have lost control of this game despite being up by so much earlier on. How do you pull things back from the mental perspective, especially without attack time out?
And T-Law are such a mental team. You look at the players on this roster, people like JV,
Maya, even Kalipokself admittedly is very much a mentality player. He talked a little bit in
the podcast with Parker about how he uses breathing techniques mid-game to try and calm his nerves.
Thanks to the sports psychologist that the team has been working with since back in the
a few of your days and after seeing their reactions to pushing overtime especially on
the face of mine, just know that two more are fired up into OT.
A reading room was very successful for Black Dragons in the first half.
They played it around two and five and they walked away with victories both times despite
running relatively different lineups.
They brought kind of their first look back to this bombsite with Rare on this pulse once
again.
Got the smoke coming back out as well from swag.
This is a look that they've seen before on the side of Team Liquid Alienware.
Usually on this ream room site, you want to clear the entire top floor.
You have to imagine that's the goal for T-Law.
Yeah, second time PD won this bomb site was flawless as well.
Sure.
Amire, of course, being the tip of the spear and the top frag of T-Law is the player that we really could be watching at the start of these rounds.
But I don't just want to see Maya go off.
I want to see T-Law actually have a clear execute.
Use this Blackbeard.
You've got the shield as the main portion of your execute.
Try and take some map control.
Take some space on the top floor.
It looks like they've done so.
As of now, good long angle from Outlaw Maya
cannot see that on his gadget and will die.
A second kill as well.
As Rare finds Nade with a Nitro Cell.
Now reposition for Black Dragons, they consolidate their advantage.
Yeah, this is good defensive play from BD.
They're not giving fair fights over the side of T-Law,
they're just hitting them when they're prepping a mate,
or they're launching that nitro self,
they're using the explosives to their advantage.
And putting T-Law in a really awkward position,
Fully pox still on this Blackbeard,
they've caught top four control,
but I mean, you're just trying to spam through the floor with Nomad.
I mean, this is not exactly the vert play
that you want to be seeing from a top level team,
but it's all that they've got left.
They know there's a player down those brown stairs,
That's going to be lender playing in that position, but they can't just sit and wait for him forever. They've got to make a move
Yeah, good kill from JV outlaws finally put to rest at JV. Sorry, KZ
I believe his finally just uses last air jab on that main
Flank up shooting up the brown stairs. It comes down to Flee Pox now all that gas missed actually
It's just one for the deep angle. Well, there might be a retake on here for black dragon straight up the white stairs as Flee Pox
his plan is denied by swag who finds a second as well KZ the last man standing and he's left
alone upstairs needs to take these fights one at a time that swag is putting the pressure on to KZ
dropping down into pillar no diffuser to speak of a consolation frag means nothing because miracle
is there ready to receive and a fourth match point opportunity presents itself to black dragons
yeah and it feels like they're starting to pull it back that's the one site that they've been so
confident on they've just got to win one more round so match point does get
re-secured again we saw how impactful outlaw was getting that opening frag onto
my it feels like those two have been in such a vicious battle back and forth at
one point the top frag for each team I think it might have been stolen by rare
at the tail end of that round as he did get a good nitro frag onto nade as well
that pulse play that's been good for both teams here on cafe favoring black
dragons in the first round of overtime but regardless it feels like taking down
Maya remains the key for black dragons they do that early in the previous
round they walk away with the victory swag and wear both tied for 12 fregs
now on the side of black dragons 11 for outlaw meanwhile Maya still remains the
ringleader for Team Liquid Alienware
Bomb located by attackers.
What does it mean to find a few nice 2Ks here or there, nice 3K?
If the team doesn't have a clear push,
if T-Law are getting stalled out, getting picked off,
and then in 3v5s where they just look for consolation frags and then desperately look for an execute,
imagine it for Lepox, add gond for a plant not too similar to what he did, eventually go for,
but earlier on in a 5 vs 5.
T-Law need to be careful because they're losing a lot of these opening picks in this game.
Look, even when they do find the opening kill, Black Dragons are so good at bringing it back.
Now, onto the defense, four Team Liquid Alienware, another chance to stave off defeat, another chance to get onto a match point.
Well, we're going back down to kitchen. This is the bomb site. T-Law were able to win twice on their own defensive half,
half so it's not a surprise but instead of going top down it looks like black dragons are approaching
this from the bakery side of things they brought rare onto the monty they tried this once previously
not on this bomb site that was of course on reading room where they tried to bring this up before
did not go very well at all gets nitro from down below if you're going horizontal onto cafe bake
though that's not going to be as much of an issue they've got at least three players stacked outside
this bake door and when the goblins run out you have to imagine they're walking in
It's just so risky going for such a brute force attack here, T-Law.
Just waiting patiently as a smoke and a Selma go out.
I believe Maya can continue to freeze that up, protect that prep all for as long as possible.
What is the eventual play here for Black Dragons?
Because I don't have a lot of faith in them if they just put all their eggs into this
bakery basket.
They got to kill Nade or Maya. Maya's in small bake at the moment takes so much damage. He's the one who takes Nade!
That's a brilliant shot for Maya. How does he hit that despite going down?
I mean, it's still good progress for Black Dragons to eliminate that position because him being present inside of small bake is such a thorn in Black Dragon's side.
But the fact that Maya gets a kill before he falls, especially on low HP, with that grenade at his feet,
That is monumental. The T-Law, it brings it back into the realm of possibility, but still, Team Liquid Alienware are forced back for Leapox having to expend some of his gases to keep the Monty at bay.
Oh, good opportunity. Hits the shoulder of swag, brings him down to about 40% HP, KZ with that TCSG, finding the long angles.
They're being stuffed. These toxic babes from the Leapox have done a great job of stopping the bakery walking. He's still got one more in his pocket, 40 seconds to go. Who's gonna make the move?
make the move. Full epochs. It has to be full epochs. Who holds down the fort here for Team Liquid Alienware.
Now you haven't been spotted! And he deals plenty of damage inside of Bakery. Into the 2v2 though, with Swag going massive on the striker.
Outlaw, facing the debuff of the Thorn, has to go big here. It's the opportunity for Black Dragons to close it.
KZ and JV stand in their way. As Outlaw makes his way forward, him and Swag piece up together.
They need to get that diffuser back in control. There should be info on site here for Team Liquid Alienware.
There's KZ and JV patiently wait for Black Dragons to make the first move.
It needs to be a plant and KZ has repositioned perfectly to deny the plant from the red stairs.
We're heading the distance and it doesn't matter what Black Dragons throw at Team Liquid Alienware.
The old guard already and waiting.
Such a good stall hold coming out from Team Liquid Alienware inside of Bakery there,
never faltering that play from behind the Bakery counter.
Just being run by Nate on that Jagger was so clean.
A beautiful shot straight onto the Montaimidway through that round.
The smoke from Flee Pawks denied time so expertly well and even Maya going one for one in Small Bake.
A stupid kill that he gets. Not that it's dumb, but just ridiculous talent,
ridiculous talented coming out from him. The fact that he gets that is insane.
You start to be shaking a little bit on the side of Black Dragons. I thought
swag was bringing them back in there. I thought swag gave them a bit of a
lifeline, jumping in small bake, finding two frags after his teammates go down.
But it's the same issue that Black Dragons have been dealing with all day
long James. It is that stalling out. It's that lack of time even when they get
into the bomb site. They're not going deep and finding a good plant spot. They
have to just go tight on the bomb chassis and because they don't know if
KZ's position. They predicted it wrong. They don't expect them to be going up those red
stairs. They're not ready to stop that swing. We are here seven apiece, maximum overtime.
Next round wins no matter what. And I couldn't tell you who's favored in this final round.
It could absolutely go either direction. Now it has been a slew of defenses one, which in
theory puts Black Dragons back into pole position in this round. But of course it's a new bomb
site and a new round and a last chance. The Team Liquid Alienware. Players like Maya called upon
to have an impact. 15 kills he has found and also you look at other players on the roster,
I mean particularly KZ, he's back even again 11-11 but a lot of this game he has been dying first,
he's been dying early, he hasn't been able to drag kills with him. While he came back and redeemed
himself in that previous round we need to see everyone from Liquid holding their own, not just
Maya. Well, my shirt being brought up by Miracle, that's likely to be countered by
Maya as he's brought the Brava around. We don't really see Maestro too often
these days simply because Brava is such a good counter that it just makes his
bubbles his evil eyes. Sometimes work against you more than they can help.
They keep an eye on Maya seeing how much of those he can actually hack, seeing if
you can get any of that valuable information stolen from the defenders,
those valuable cameras that can be shot at towards the defense as well. It is mind-binding.
It's also the best counter to the Malusi as well, which has been brought by Outlaw,
and you get rid of some of those badges. It opens the gates for a much more aggressive
execute for our alien land. Yeah, such a good operator pick to come through.
That could be the difference maker. Nobody's actually inside the second floor just yet.
KZ and Nade have found their way into the top floor, and of course JV is working his way on
these windows but it's very passive hold from black dragons they are not stepping up and taking
early fights maybe a bit nervous here on round 15. They have a lot of faith in these mute jammers and
we've seen the mutes protect some of these evil eyes from not just the braver drones but also the
riteros and we do need to see alienware get in with those drones from both of those two operators
maybe some of the maids from fully box on the sledge because there's so much util on site.
three pieces of big utile and in fact a C4 to take down KZ. That's good body in
Nomad, one of your core fraggers and your flank watch operator a 5v4 so early
in the round. It's not even early anymore. 50 seconds is all that's left for team
Liquid Alienware. Yeah, has the utile clear been good enough? They haven't even used all
their Flora's drones. Maya's still trying to get some value in with these clutch
drones as well so clearly they need to do some last second roaming. Nate just
Holding his angle doesn't feel like he has to move the stream is not frozen
I promise you 30 seconds to go and Team Liquid Alienware don't have a kill
Yeah, this has been far too little and it's been far too slow from Team Liquid Alienware
They need to be given a lifeline and they need somebody to go massive dropping down towards the objective
It's JV he finds one for leapbox is forcing down the plant
But the trade comes through thick and fast from mr. Outlaw
more. The plant has been denied and made and Maya has to go massive in the LCQ. They ended
a chapter of Nesq's legacy but today they demand our respects against Team Liquid Alienware
again. Black Dragons take 15 rounds but they get it done. What a comeback from Team Liquid
that does get denied. Black Dragons an upset victory. We all thought this roster was going
to be the key for Team Liquid Alienware to finally find success, but nothing is given
in the S.A.L. and Black Dragons. What a shock coming through from them.
Yeah, nothing is given. Everything is earned and there's no doubt who earned this match
today. Massive win for Black Dragons as we'll break down with you on the desk.
I thought that 2026 was the year the horse in the Chinese lunar calendar.
Team Liquid horse logo.
They basically bought out the team that won it all the best the best plus Maya.
But seemed like we're back 2024 it is indeed the year of the dragon at least of anything
the year of black dragons.
They managed to take a huge upset when Fox despite this spite.
Team Liquid Alienware's best efforts to bring this one back and they definitely put in a
lot of effort.
Still not enough.
I mean, all the creditors black dragons they performed exceptionally well.
They were so prepared to go up against everything that TL Alienware was bringing to them.
again, it's the same team as the previous career roster.
They're running the same strategies that they would do
on this normal cafe.
The only difference is Maya,
but it's all the same strategies, the same team.
And it looks like they haven't really been able to dive
into the flexibility of having Maya
a part of the roster as herds.
And that's something that a lot of people were speculating on
for this roster as in losing herds
is maybe he's not always being that player
on the stat sheet that is performing well,
but he's the flex player, he's the glue.
he's fitting in where it's necessary.
He's either taking a shot so that KZ and JV
can are able to clutch up,
or he's the one that's able to follow up his teammates
and get those opening kills.
And without him, Maya is an exceptional player,
nonetheless, but it really looked like Team Liquid Alienware
were just believing in the fact that they are the better team.
A lot of individual gunfights that they're going for,
the classic over-abressive furia look
that we're used to seeing, they tried to adapt here,
but it just didn't work out.
didn't have the same flair, the level of aggression that they would do altogether.
It felt a little off, a little bit of the timings were not necessarily there.
And Maya trying to bounce into that flex position.
That's not necessarily a role, despite him being so flexible on the previous
liquid roster, that wasn't necessarily his job.
He was either support on the back end as Miran Dermay, or he was entering in
his ash and being the main Romer.
Now being this flex, there's a lot of responsibility on their shoulders.
And that's one thing that is difficult when you put a star player in a role where he needs to think,
where he needs to adapt and incorporate himself into what's going on.
It forces this, I'm not saying that he's not thinking, but it's forces the no brain gunning a skilled player to use their brain.
And at that moment on, it kind of destroys them.
They're unable to find comfortability because they're always constantly thinking.
Now, he played great individually, but the rest of the team suffered.
The timing was off. The idiosyncrasies that they're used to having were not there. And as for Black Dragons, bringing on Linda, it looks like they brought in a whole new different game plan to what we're used to seeing them do.
And the last time these two teams played, Curious 7-1 Black Dragons. Now, it looked like Black Dragons was just way better versed to prepare what the liquid is going to do.
This is counting that TL Alienware are all present in the same facility as you've been
seeing over the past few years in Brazil, which is a practice facility that they have
in São Paulo.
It's a lot really to have in a situation like this, but that just means that that's just
more kudos to Black Dragons and what they can offer.
Before this game, I was saying BD were a massive surprise at the Invitational in the way that
they played a very positive one and I really am happy full of joy that they
continue on with that action going into kickoff and not falling off because TL
Alienware have to go back to the drawing board now to refresh themselves
because they're gonna play face clan on Sunday and we saw how dominant phase were
in the first game of today they looked incredible we talked to JP and I thought
he said you know we expect it to be a good game we expect this to be a
Classical to actually go back to a classical of liquid versus phase
Whereas in the past it became more of a phase fury a kind of thing
And I don't know if they're gonna be able to hold up to it unless they change up a lot
I'm glad that JV by round 10 turned on his monitor. That was great
But it did take a while and Maya definitely has a lot of stuff that was put on him during a game as important as this one in
the kickoff to kickoff. No two ways around it. And the man with the swag is swag. He's the MVP
of Black Dragons. I'm told that you have swag yourself, Fox. What do you think about that?
I don't think the kids these days don't really use that word anymore in 2026, but that being said,
swag himself had a lot of swag in the server if we want to use, you know, that terminology.
Everybody, honestly, on Black Dragons, they have three players over double digits,
and that's something that they desperately needed, the confidence. So who's to say where their
limitations are with beating able to beat down on this monster of a team and team Liquid?
Yes, it did get a little close for comfort, but that being said, they got the win that breaks
down that confidence issue going into the stage, into the kickoff, and now they have that. They
know that they have a working system. They have great players that have that confidence, and
Hopefully they're just able to use that to steamroll through the rest of kickoff and maybe we'll see them in Salt Lake City
Interjection and request maybe it's the fact that at some point we're calling them team liquid Alienware that's impacting them
It's kind of still leaves that old dust still on them and lose pushing them to lose
so maybe we just call them Alienware from now on and just turn on a new leaf and
Believe it at that
Well, what if what if Maya is the curse? What if he's just so good that everyone starts playing less good?
No, I'm intimidated by his or yeah, I wouldn't be too worried if you are a
Elite teams like with alien wear fan just because this roster is notorious for because they've won so many tournaments in the past
Interregionally, they don't necessarily put their best foot forward. It's something that they've said once they lose enough times
We've heard Igor say in interviews. That's when they wake up
That's when they realize, okay, well, we need to start winning again.
And that's when we had that reload win from them.
So maybe just it's a slow start to the stage.
It happens.
That is what it is.
But that being said, Black Dragon is both phenomenal.
Yeah, that's really the main takeaway of today.
And we'll talk about them later on in this weekend, though, Fox.
Let's take a quick break.
When we get back, we'll take you into our third matchup of the day.
See you in a moment.
Welcome back everybody.
to SAO we continue on with our matches of Reese path. We have passed the halfway mark
of today. Not a lot of surprises in the game that kicked off the day. What intended. A lot
of surprises, I would say for match number two, I think that's one to really reflect
on over the week and heading into the weekend for SAO. But now we have our third matchup
we join you once again, Milosh and Foxy to get deep into the nitty gritty for this one
here because well I think there's a lot of questions about change right and two
teams that have also been impacted by changes in their own right which is a
lot of SAL is Fluxo W7M and allowed. I want to talk about them before we get
into our matchup here and maybe you can pull up whatever lineups our producers
would like to pull up here because it would be great I think we can just go
with anyone? Maybe Fluxo? Will we go with that? Maybe. What do you feel about the game?
Maybe. Fluxo.
One thing about change Milosh is it's going to happen regardless if you wanted to or not.
And that's something that Fluxo the B7M was forced to have to change because Volts, their
previous IGL captain, you know, one of the leaders, one of the main players from that
team went to greener pastures. He joined Fiora. He left the team in the dust and they were
forced with a, so to say limited pool, because all of the top rosters were picking up players,
my estate on liquid, Volts, or DeFuria, FaZe made no changes. So who do you look towards
when you're looking at the bottom teams in SAO to pick up? And that player ended up being cons.
And I think that's something that when you look at who's going to be, when a team assesses who
they're going to pick up, okay, you lost Volts, he did IGL. Do you want to pick up an IGL? What
what IGLs are available.
Not many in the bottom teams that you want to take a risk on.
When you then say, okay, well,
maybe somebody on the roster can take up IGLing.
I believe Dots is going to be IGLing now.
Now you look at, okay, well,
maybe we can have somebody filled the shoes, but not IGL.
So what about support players?
What support player are there?
And Collins is one of those support players
that previously played on NIP.
He was always performing considerably well.
He did his job.
He was pretty much getting the short end with a stick
and doing the best he could with it,
especially on a team as fast-paced as NIP,
that never really played slow.
He tend to be on his element.
Now he's joining a team that is going to be able
to play around him.
And that's something that I'm excited to see.
It's big shoes to fill because Vulp's is a player
that can single-handedly win your team a game.
That's something that is not a characteristic
out of the cash to cons.
That being said, if he just continuously does his job,
there's an amazing roster around him.
you know, Paula, Loeb and Dots days that are going to be able to find a successful end.
I think that is a definitely core change as you mentioned, Fox, that will impact how you
guide your team. But with four players around with Norris, as you see on your screen, coaching
the team, someone who's very well known all over the world, but especially in Brazil,
as a coach that really knows how to guide you and how he interacts with his players,
Maybe that form will not take too long to really show properly as we've been expecting from what's with the 7m really over the past couple of years in the way that they are competing.
On the other side, it is allowed and we expect them to get a bit louder than what they've been doing over the past year in competition.
maybe kickoff is the right opportunity but I think that's a lot up in the air
with big changes that were kind of put on them with three players really swapped
out before the start of kickoff yeah I mean for loud I hope we don't find
ourselves in the same situation they were last year where they came out of
the gate swinging a lot of people had big hopes high hopes for this roster and
they just ended up falling flat on their face they didn't really look too good
didn't make SI. So they go for a different approach. Instead of trying to maybe recycle
other players in the SAO region, they do a little bit of that, but they also bring on
some new bloods. I mean, the three players that they got resets is one of the players
from Liquid that was performing very well. Stem had a little bit of a stint in the APL
playing for Elevate. We all know that didn't go too hot for him. So he comes back to Brazil.
He comes back to play for a loud and gathered the player that I hope I have high hopes for
because he is a full flushed out rookie that got dragged out of the T2 scene.
He was playing for Elevate Academy.
He actually in the LCQ for Invitational beat Liquid, knocked them out to
then go on and they didn't make the event.
But that being said, that got his name out there.
Resets was one of the players that lost to him.
So that being said, could have got him that leg in the door.
Played for Elevate Academy, stepped plate for Elevate.
There's a lot of crossing lines on how this player was viewed and seen and caught.
And now he's getting his first opportunity to perform for a loud.
So there's a lot of high hopes for this team, a team of younger players that
finally don't have a brooding older veteran player to be able to hold them
down like each one of those players had on their team.
So that being said, I'm excited to see what this band of younger players is
able to approach, especially against a team like Flux O W7M, which I would say
at the moment with losing bolts, have a little bit of an Achilles heel.
They're still a very big team, a Titan.
But I would say if there's a time for them to believe it would be now.
Absolutely.
It will be a special and the opening game of best of ones in group stage.
That is the perfect opportunity for a team like Loudon and unknown to come in.
Right, Adam.
And for that, let's take a look at our map veto and see what map we're actually
going to be playing on in this series.
It's going to be something a bit more fast paced or we'll flex it.
I'm going to get to slow it down a bit.
Well, it seems like not the case.
Laren Fortress both taken out.
So we're going to get a bit faster than that night haven very much a 50 50 map with how things are flowing currently
But you would rated I don't know if you agree with me
But I would rate it more in the way of attackers now just because of solid snake and the way that he's playing around and been played
Over an APL after having to watch at these the amount of that. I feel like
Well, you're saying you're you're comparing the map to what you saw from APL
Well, look, I happen to watch regions to see what's going on, just out of curiosity, and
the combinations of like anti-Romers plus, put Salt Snake in there is also an anti-Romer,
is just so frustrating and oppressive to deal with on Night Haven, that I would not be surprised
if that was just the MO.
those isolate all the defenders that are roaming and then smash onto the site once you've kind of
killed off the wings in that. I mean I'm seeing a little bit of a common trend when we look to bands
W7Flexo enjoys maps where they're going to be able to roam like you're saying they're going to be
able to have flexibility. Loeben's one of the best roamers on the SA-L so banning maps where roaming
is very difficult you know clubhouse layer maps that you can lock down floor by floor makes perfect
sense they're playing confidently now the biggest issue for loud if you look at last year excuse me
is the fact that loud was very split up they don't always have Perez and STK entering in their
previous roster where the supportive players are a little bit more farther back and now they have a
roster comprised of very smart supportive players live flash through reset step all very slower
placed players so now if they can just do a little bit of a phase ask take on a map like labs step by
step and have Gabby leading the charge as would Saigler would for phase. We might have
a game on our hands.
Well, let's bring in our casters here before the game actually gets fully realized in our
hands. Fox, Jesse, friends, you're back in. Fox, uh, uh,
Sorry, what did you call me?
You wish you were right.
I can say, I can see why you get that mixed up and we both are devilishly handsome.
That's true. Well, Mr. Devil, I've been taking a look at kind of how the meta's been shaping
up now with Solid Snake. There's been a few Night Havens here and there. What's your take
so far after having been on EML, how this might be played on Night Haven?
Well, I've been playing a lot of the redacted game mode, and that's on Night Haven.
Very fun, by the way.
So fun.
I feel like I'm pretty prepared for this matchup. No, look, I don't have a lot of detailed
analysis to say specifically about night haven labs like I think he requires to
be James you should use your brains I'll try it's you know it's small I have a
play-by-play cast for after all but I'll do what I can look labs as a map it's been
the pool for ages I personally love it and I don't think the way structurally
the map plays has changed much since back in the day obviously it comes a lot
down to Rome clearing when you're on pretty much any of the bomb sites
Except for that top floor top floor. It's all about those crazy choke points
Solid snake obviously a great operator when it comes to solo roaming, but I don't know if he's gonna get picked a lot here
I just feel like especially that I see you're attacking the basement
Well, the teams are either gonna focus up on hard breach like you need hard breach you need that right?
So by the time you have hard breach invert you can't fit many of these other operators into your lineup like a solid snake
because you probably want to go for something that has execute potential like a ying.
But it really just depends on the team's playstyle.
I am very curious to see how a loud play,
obviously being such a new team, having three new players, and Fluxo as well.
Like you said, Fox, losing your IGL has a massive impact on the team,
especially losing a player as good as Volx, and Khan's a great player, but very different player.
So I don't know how much this flux of W7M team will just look completely different to the flux of W7M we saw in our side.
Some prediction Jesse, how do you see this going?
Yeah, I think if you're flux of W7M, the goal is just don't beat Team Liquid, right?
Don't get upset in your very first game of the season like we just saw. They're going to be the favorites coming into this.
And unlike Black Dragons who were, you know, a four man core from the Sixth Invitational who had played big games against big teams, beaten G2.
I don't think loud have that kind of pedigree. They've changed a lot more of their roster than we've seen from BD
So I don't think louder is going to be as large of a threat
But you never know there's no easy games in the SAL
Certainly not here in the first playday when we still got some of the younger teams some of the newer teams
Waiting to play their first matchup
So this won't be a free game by any means from flexor W7m, but I believe this team will have what it takes to close it out
very much looking forward to it here Fox last words before we head into our game
what do you feel the operator bands are gonna look like just looking at kind of
compositions for both attack defenses we've kind of discussed that at the
beginning of the caster segment I'd imagine the shields will be taken off the
board for loud I don't think that we said them as a team that really crunches
shields too much. That being said, I think they want to eliminate those inconsistent variables and
take it to a gunfight map, force a slow team like loud to go slow or change up the tempo.
I don't think Snake is going to be that much of a problem solver because you can't really use the
gadget on staircases. And once a fight is on a floor, once you're on that floor, you're in the
fight. So there's no real moments where you're going to be able to essentially clear things out.
I don't know exactly what they were doing in the APL, but for the good teams in the rest of the world
I don't think snake is going to have that much play
I'd much rather see a deimos when it comes to the vertical a verticality
That's what we've been seeing just like dev said, I don't think we're going to see that change at all just yet
James, I'll give you the floor for a second here to respond
David A can live in whatever delusion he wants
But I do agree with him on one thing is I don't think snake will get a lot of play on this map
Maybe I'll be wrong, but I think of any map it's probably not going to be last way you're saying.
Well, I mean, listen, the streets are saying that Stem plays a bit of snake.
The streets have said that Stem's a bit of a snake name.
So I think we could see a little bit of it.
You never know. I've never seen that.
The streets?
The streets. Yeah.
Ah, obviously I was wondering.
Yeah.
The streets of Twitter, the ends.
Is that how it goes?
You know, you never know. You never know.
We'll find out. We'll find out.
I would not want to describe the type of streets that I would find you trying to look for information about matches on.
I think those are streets that I can never roam.
I need sauce to make tell me the truth.
You just got to tell him Jesse's got you down.
Yeah, just mention my name.
Tell him you know Big Jesse.
Big J.
Some I got a cell power over here. I want to be walking around with a little scanner in my hand just constantly looking at area clear
Yeah, you might have used needed that in Rio, but that's another story for the other day
But it's something that would be helpful. You never know when you get to do it, but
Yeah, let's actually since we are we're not just the acting for the sake of it
We're waiting for a game to start and in the meantime
So take a look at our groups real quick because we've kind of been going through the selection
Our first two matches were really locked in on that group a which put in phase and black dragons ahead
Three points two points and one for TL Alienware, but now as you swap to group B
the overall question is always
Gentlemen, do you reckon there is a group of death at least one more than the other?
I know there's there's ten teams two groups
How do you see it? How do you rate it, Justin?
Can I chime in?
Oh, okay. Just go ahead.
Of course.
Obviously, it's Group A because it's got Black Dragons in it.
That's fair.
Yeah, I feel like Group A is like the scarier group just because of how it has played out
so far. You expect FaZe to top it, but you honestly never really know. Group B for me,
I think it should be shaking out with Flux with W7M1st, Furia and NIP maybe battling
second third and then loud like a solid fourth, but it really depends on how I mean loud look
is a new roster. We haven't seen this team play as a five man stack. We really no idea what
ince is going to look like either that team coming in kind of with the old, the old low
score from last season. So it's up in the air, but I would say like group A is maybe a little
bit scarier across the boards, but I don't know man group B is tough to call. I would disagree.
I think if there's a group, I wouldn't want to be in its group B just because it's a lot closer
Tighten it any team one of these teams I could see beating the other
I wouldn't have any one of these teams being a quote unquote tight and so to say besides you're right
It's like so that'd be so number when you look at the other side of things
I mean up until today you would have thought phase number one
Liquid alienware number two black dragons number three
There's harder opponents different echelons of teams
all the way down, but for
Group B, anybody could happen.
Anything could happen.
Points could just bounce you
around and you don't qualify
just because of the points.
I fully agree in second that
opinion of Fox.
The pinnings of science time for
us to get into our matchup,
which means we have to hand it
over to our wonderful Jesse and
James all yours have fun.
Thank you, Milosh, and look just
to close the conversation Jesse
about the groups.
Obviously, Fluxer W7M look to be
be the best team out of this group B. But I have to admit I have questions after seeing
the roster change after Volx departing the roster. We talked about how he is the IGL,
also just a phenomenal and experienced player. And the magic for Fluxer W7M was their aggression.
Now, Conn's great individual player, but he was far from star potential that we saw at a Volx.
So I do feel like this initial match right here is a real testing ground after the roster change
to this team. Certainly James it's gonna be fun to see the new looks of both
Flux of W7 and Loud here on Night Haven Labs. This was a map I should say that
Flux of W7 and played a ton back at the Six Invitational in Paris. They played it
five times, three wins, two losses. Loud of course weren't that SI but throughout
last season didn't play it too much. Wasn't a super common map for them and
they've changed three players so even if they had I wouldn't want to read into it
too too heavily. We have been shaking up the bands a little bit though. Fox has
predicting some shield bands. I actually would have predicted that as well.
Flexed Bubby 7M, uh, you know, they're known to play some shields. Loud can play
shields from time to time as well, but it's gonna be Grim Ace. And then Mera
Bandit taken out, leaves Paiied on the board, doesn't get chosen by Flexed Bubby
7M first round. Instead, they're gonna use two mute jammers to try to keep this
wall closed. And because they banned out the ace, those mute jammers will stop
both the Havana and Thermite from opening this wall up so maybe a good choice to be bringing out
one hard breach smile instead of the other. It's true buddy, it won't stop the tin can
openness from the step. As soon as Lab realizes that there's Muti Amas on that wall, that's the only
form of wall growl then it's just two ways of Muti Amas isn't it? Of course it does change the
kind of a breach you can get, you'll only get to get a vault or crouch breach, it's not as ideal as
But of course we also have Thatcher, so if you really want to use it in Xenoblix, just pick EMP, easy as you like, no too-drown in the mix.
So yeah, look, I hate to be hypercritical, but I just feel like that. That mute pick was kind of just the waste.
Yeah, I guess with the Thatcher, it doesn't really matter if it's a Kite or a Mute or whatever, they'll get the wall open regardless.
This is probably the most important wall in Siege, this IT wall, it's so critical for so many different sites.
Livelet's one good away from America, but nah, it really does.
There's a lot that gets committed to keeping this wall open or closed, and it's good from live to see it being opened up so early here in the first round of Night Haven Labs.
It's funny though, because it was critical about the use of the Mutas of Aldenar, but it's actually been fantastic at Drone Denar.
There's not a single Ritero left from live, and I don't think he got many into the building to actually clear the utile he was looking for, primarily those Kiva barriers.
I also don't see many DMRs in line-up, just resets on the Hibana, which makes it harder to clear those Kiva barriers.
the barriers. However, opening kill for Stemp on the Capitao, and Dots down below, forcing
to a little bit of aggression after he hears the action going down up above him, might
go and look to push onto Stemp. But as of yet, Stemp seems to be hyper aware that there
might be a player loitering down below IT.
Dots has already used his nitro, so he's not really a threat down here.
Let's go show you how to make some more threats.
Well...
Now he's not a threat
Well big chance here as well for stem
The fight on elevate in the APL stemp was a core fragger core pillar part of their roster
Flastry great opening from him dotes goes down the deadly dotes and it's all good closed
By loud so swiftly it's led up towards the objective
And there's not a lot to say for fluxo w7m a disastrous start to their defense on labs
I will say, I think I see the vision from Fluxo in that round, James.
They are hoping they can make it just a can opener breach on the main wall with those new jammers.
And then they're swinging really aggressive on the IT breach.
They've got the pulse down there below IT.
They've even got a player bottom garage to protect the pulse.
They really want to fight them in IT, make it as awkward as possible to get through that breach.
But, I mean, as you said, the counters came out from loud.
They reacted really nicely to that.
They get the exothermic breach on it anyways.
They send players down below it's stem who steps up big for two frags in the bottom floor and then two frags during the
XQ as well a
4k for the young fragger on loud formerly of Elevate Academy and I'm glad you hyped him up as one of the star fraggers on that
APAC team because I got the pleasure of casting the one and only game that elevates not Academy
I should say but elevate one
at the six invitationals and
And Stemp was incredible in that one game that they were successful in.
It was a map versus wild card. They were already out of SI, so it was a very low pressure matchup.
But I got to see for a cent just how good Stemp can be.
And if he continues to perform at that level, this loud team absolutely has legs.
Yeah, for sure.
he's joined by resets coming over from Elevate as an APAC and Gab, oh Gaboo I don't know how we're
saying this, Gaboots? Yeah Gaboo? It's Gaboo? It's Gaboo. Alright Gaboo. Gaboo funnily enough over
from Elevate Academy in Brazil itself. So yeah three players from the Elevate organization,
Monwere and other making this new lab roster very much a new look just flastry and live from the
the old team live on the blitz. Looks to get aggressive on this Rome clear.
Spotted a player for a brief moment, but now he is all alone and Lard can continue marching
through the map. Yeah, I like this light Rome coming up from Fluxo W7M. They don't want
to take fights, certainly not against the blitz up here on the top floor where they're
all alone, but slow things down a little bit, make this map clear a little bit painful for
Lard to come through. We are going to see Gabu jump right on to that demo. We were talking
about maybe seeing some maybe some snake play but demos I think a little bit
more proficient as a roam clearing operator when it comes to these multi-floor
clears and that's exactly why we're gonna see Gab who jump on this operator now
two players over towards Cavite area that'll be low but in dots you see on the
outlines just now and still players over towards cargo stairs too so lots to clear
good drawing work though ahead of stem not to mention he is of course a solid
so he can get a little bit of information on his own with his gadget.
Looking to make a move, he actually can't decide where he wants to push as of yet.
There's a lot of room to clear as you say, he says continuing to get that information
but loud, and not making any massive moves as of yet.
In fact, there's even pivoting towards the objective.
Streets never lie, James.
I told you he was a snake player.
Yeah, I'll trust you on that one.
What's live looking for on this work here with the lit... seems to be... oh, unfortunately
Reese has disconnected from the round.
As I heard, Stem did manage to use his gadget to track one of these players, yet Polly has
now been revealed.
If you continue gassing up this position, it's pretty much a death wish if anyone looks
to try and drop down that hatch or contest him on the stairs.
Paulie just falls off, I mean he's out of talks with babes so it makes a lot of sense
but how do you stop the push down cargo at this point?
You've got to have some really good guns trained in that direction, you know that's where the
push is coming from.
It's about to see the Blitz as well.
Oh, he's going to take the fight on to Stem, finds the head and the shotgun under the feet,
Collins will come and support.
It's goodbye to live on the Blitz.
Now Gabu and Flastry the last piece of the puzzle fall loud.
Lastly, finally gets one. Gabbou is so far removed from the objective.
We've got a lot of time left.
They're going to have to drop straight into it, and there's Kahn's ready and waiting.
Finds one, traded back again, 1v3 for Gabbou.
It's not going to happen for Loud and Fluxo W7M.
Get on the board there, first round.
Yeah, tough round to come out from Loud and that push.
Obviously, losing your striker early in that round just to disconnect is unfortunate.
Those types of things happen, unfortunately, but Astros Online Siege
We'll get step back in here not step excuse me, but we'll get the player back in here ASAP as resets tries to get
You might think that that push was a little disconnected
You saw the blitz and the snake pushing down through the nano hallway all by themselves the main time Gabbu was actually top floor
That's because he was fighting romers. Loven had retaken up above dots was roaming inside storage too
So whilst we were watching this push happen down towards the bomb site
It was just chaos happening around the map pulling the attention
Long angle onto the head behind the blitz and then prone for the feet, I mean, just perfectly
play it against the Blitz from Polly in that round.
I love getting to see all these teams in their team facilities with the staff
walking around behind them. Such a privilege. Fortunately, Loud can't say the
same, but I noticed it especially in the Team Liquid Alienware cameras. Now I'm
seeing in the Fluxo W7M cameras as well. It really reminds us that of
course it's not just a five players in the server it's not even just the coach
as well most of these teams especially at the top level in Brazil have coaches
assistant coaches a squadron of analysts and occasionally additional staff like
obviously before I was talking about team liquid alienware sports psychologist
and other teams have that I don't know some teams have dieticians and all kinds
of other player managers all kinds of stuff like that I mean the old space
station roster of course even though it was mainly ran by call out their coach
they did a lot of meditation and cared about the physical routine of a lot of
these players as well it just goes to show how much goes into high performance
that isn't just rocking up opening up in PC playing video games well all the
PCs are working once again James so we can get back into playing the video
games, which I'm sure we're all happy about and we're flexed with W7M. They're going to try this
top floor once again, deciding that that hold over towards IT didn't really go so well. They still
brought out the mute, but this time there's a tuber out here to try to keep things closed a
little bit longer and they're not running that pulse down below either. Instead it's just Logan
who's running around lounge doing what he wants kind of towards Aqua Stairs, probably not going
to be playing those same positions and no, he's just kind of playing around the staircase instead
this time. So bit of a different hold from Flux of W7N and just off the rip I like the look of
this one a bit more. I don't know what the plan is here for life with you near the end of this round.
One thing I do quite like at this attacking lineup, Jesse is a Thatcher. Now of course back in the
day Thatcher was primarily just brought to enable the hard breach. These days you can't really afford
to bring too many operators just to deal with High Breach because there's so many check boxes and
so many things you need to achieve and around High Breach is just one of those elements. Nowadays,
Thatcher is far more than just High Breach. He can counter, you know, the arena gates. In this
round, there's actually not a lot that he can counter, but you know, C4s, plant denial, so many
traps as well are vulnerable to that Thatcher. Even the New Jammer, for example, you know,
Two of these players are protected from the death mark by those new jammers.
If that shit could come in and stun them, Kahn's actually gonna find a killer.
It's alive, nice and aggressive with that shotgun.
He wants to retake a little bit of space into Electrical as well.
Such a good position for him to be playing.
He actually re-aggresses on the window with the smoke covering.
And you wonder where those candles were gonna go from live.
And they go into E-box, it's Kahn's who finds the frags, and he's very aggro.
Even though for a swing into jungle but backs up he's playing on a new channel here
So even if he gets deathmark, it's not the end of the world with a tube around even here to stop that deathmark from tracking him
It's funny. We did see Gabu actually stunned out or EMP that new channel which enabled him to get tracked
However, there's redundancy because Paul who came in with a tube around beautiful work cons
Continues to stay alive despite being tracked time and time again by that game off
so it's desperation.
The stamp he finds, nothing.
Fluxo W7M, beautiful.
It's perfect on that defensive side.
They know how to enable that aggression
and they take the fight to loud.
Yeah, bit of a game of protect the president
if you're Fluxo W7M.
They've got cons playing close with the shotgun.
When you're playing that position
of an SAS operator in e-box,
I mean, it is so annoying to clear that player out
and especially without the ying,
it just becomes impossible.
The death mark was a good shot to try to make that happen,
but he's got all the utility in the world.
You're absolutely right about that redundancy.
It's the, it's the mute countering the Deimos,
but then it's the factor countering the mute.
And then it's the two row countering that.
It's just a crazy multi-layered cake of counters.
And in the end, the Flux 37M are just a little bit better.
Really cool stuff to come out from this team.
I was gonna say this, one of the things I love about Siege.
Yeah.
Every now and then we get to see a counter on a counter
on a counter on a counter.
And it is so bloody beautiful.
It's like when we saw, of course, Thatcher get reworked
and start being used to counter plant the Nile C4s.
And then we saw, I think you might have been cast in the game.
Was it Shopify Rebellion?
Was it, um, threw out a proxy alarm?
Yeah, you threw out a proxy alarm on this map, actually,
instead of the nitro cell to bait out the EMP from the Thatcher
and then like that's a counter on a counter, right?
And you said it, of course, right?
the Damos there to counter the player with a mute to counter the Damos, the Thatcher to counter the Mutes, and the Tuber Al to counter that.
I mean, it's just so beautiful. This is why I love Siege. Nothing else, no other game does it quite like it.
Well, we're also seeing one of the sometimes hardest operators to counter in the Kaid being brought out.
Now, of course, with Thatcher Kaid's prevalence has dropped a little bit, but he's still the most popular operator to ban on this map.
He is the most common up to ban on night Haven labs usually alongside that bandit even through the second set of bands
He has escaped the wrath of loud they take the Azami out instead
So it's gonna be a little bit trickier to open some of these walls again with the thatcher
They shouldn't have any problems and certainly it does get opened up now, but it's another opera that they're having to the gates of those walls
Sure, maybe he can still be used on the mute chambers and defenders, but it's a little bit more of that
anti-wall, a little bit more things that they will need to counter just because
that Kaid is here on the board. Of course, not pairing the Kaid with the Tuber out
does mean that we miss out on maximizing the use of the side of that
operator and it can't be counted much more easily. For now the action's going down
on the top floor, a bit of pressure onto this defense but Palu says that's no
worry is it all shotgun fine stem and a little bit of the wind out of the sails
for that even though they did find Dodas they do not weather the storm on this
top floor they need to still find an entry lobin is supporting his teammate
and resets has gone down as well. Paolo is holding on with a vengeance his
position on this top floor Gabu and Flastree desperately looking for
something but they don't find much good killer the dots but still this top floor
dominated by W7M. Wow, a third from Paulu and a fourth. Why not, brother?
SNG11 King, it just feels like the SAS ops are singing for Fluxo W7M, whether it's Paulu or Kahn's.
Usually it's both, finding so much good value on that top floor. It's going to force a timeout
from loud after they get just bodied by Palu.
Wow. Massive moment from the old guard of Palu, the dad himself. I actually haven't heard
an update of course. Remember at SI he changes him to Palu, P-A-I-L-U-H. Has he had his kid
yet? I'm guessing not. It's only been a few months.
I can't confirm what it is. I'm not sure.
I'll look into it. I'll ask the streets.
Yeah, please. Put you into the ground. I know that's what you do best, Jesse.
An exciting time for Pahlu, of course, in his life. An exciting time in his career as well.
Of course, for such a long time, he was getting with Nesque on Team Liquid Alienware,
or back when they weren't Alienware, it was Team Liquid.
But for the longest time, not a great result for him.
Also, obviously losing the grand final in Paris in 2021 at the sixth invitational
We did not get close enough to a hammer again and then
Sixth invitational this year in Paris, you know only losing to the two grand finalists team secret in phase
Only two teams that fluxo w7m lost to it throughout the whole tournament. It was a
record performance
From fluxo w7m. I believe they finished
Yes, it was indeed fourth place cool hundred and seventy thousand dollars to take home by the way not too half bad
This team is definitely only at the ascendancy Paloo
Joining the roster is a huge part of that of course when they raised the trophy in Montreal just a year and a half ago
They do with cons instead of volps that's the question that's on everyone's blips coming into
2026 mm-hmm
There's a lot of winners and losers at the Rostamania this year, isn't there, Jesse?
Yeah.
I think for most people on paper, Fluxo W7M probably sitting the count of being one of the losers.
Yeah, I mean, Kong, he was on this NIP team for three years before making the switch over to Fluxo W7M,
but this first game back, I think he's been playing quite nicely.
It'll be his teammate to grab the opening frag onto Gabu.
Another new pickup from Loud making his professional debut today in his first ever pro game.
Not the start he's been looking for unfortunately,
ailing to find the scoreboard in all but one round.
It's the problem when you're playing as Flux W7, they start to find their footing a little bit.
They're a team that loves to play aggressively, they love to put you under the pump.
Loeb and such an ego player, I mean this is the way he likes to toy with you.
You continue piquing and shoot your drawings. We'll bet you in the blitz goes forth
Yeah, lobin just falls back knows. It doesn't have to fight this. He's all alone
He's just trying to show some pressure they kind of respect that on their side as well
Though I mean there's no easy way to the bomb side if you're allowed there are still rumors up above them
They wanted to take a minimal push direct through cafeteria down these vending stairs
But they've hit a couple snags along the way
Drone will now show that there is pretty much a clear path down to XO
They've got a bit of a path to get in towards the bomb site, but again James there's roamers up on the top floor
There's players around the map. They're gonna have verticality on you if you just have this part of the map
They need to have pressure elsewhere if they go for this push either whilst they go or before
Yeah, you're dead, right?
A lot of it comes down to verticality on this bomb site and that's something that loud and not looking to invest in instead
They go directly through a rush live and that's slightly off position on this plant hopes
He can sneak it through no plant denial from flux. So W7M, but they have the numbers advantage and they kill him
Immediately afterwards which means a 5v2 retake is on the cards here for flux. So W7M faster
Looks to go outside the breach. I'm not sure he has much of an opening step needs to come in quickly
But dots can continue hitting that diffuser and there is no way back into the round for loud flux. So W7M find for in a row
And that's a classic strategy, James. That little push in through XO, especially with the Maverick on the main wall. This is something that we've seen a couple of years now. It used to be really popular kind of back when we had the Manchester Major and the Montreal Major.
Back when Fluxo arguably peaked as a team. We really started to see a lot of this style of push focus on the XL plant just inside the door. But if there's anybody who's going to be good at countering that push, it's going to be Fluxo at value 7M.
They're fine with the plant going down.
They step up and make those swings happen.
They managed to take the maverick off of the main wall.
That's often a really tough kill to get,
but they managed to find that frag
onto the hard breaching operator at the same time.
They're able to trade back onto the plants.
Yes, it goes down,
but there's never any panicking going on
because they've got control up above.
They've got control in towards the site.
Loud don't have the bodies to win that post plant.
And Fluxo W7M on the verge of a 5-1-1-2.
Yeah, especially because the loud one that first round it's been Fluxo W7M ever since
the momentum is squarely on that side. This isn't a 4-1 half Jesse where it's
a little bit back and forth. It's a 4-1 half where that won the first round and
Fluxo have stolen the show ever since. They've only lost one or two players in
every single round that they have won so far. They have Loud's number and they
found their confidence in peeking and playing aggressively which is what
fluxo I want to do now to add to that they've gone with a second layer on
this defensive round they're combining both the tuba row and the caillou it's
gonna make opening this wall very challenging yeah and as soon as those
extra thermo charges they're sorry the Habana charges lights there comes the
freeze and you're not gonna be able to do much about this if you're allowed you
You just have to really wait for these Zodo canisters to get cleared out.
I guess in theory you could go below and try to shoot the Zodo canister off the floor,
but it's just not a realistic path of success.
You're probably just going to have to wait to set up.
At the same time, you're constantly spamming those Fatter Chargers to try to make sure
that claw never activates, because if it does, all of those Habana Chargers will be destroyed
and you are not opening this wall.
I mean, it was good though, it's so well done there from loud.
Gabu had to make sure he timed that right, as you said, otherwise, all those ex-Karris
would have been toasts.
4v5 still is not going to be easy, opening this IT wall is not the be-all end all of
this round.
I mean, of course, it's important, but it doesn't know, by no means mean that you've
got it given round.
In fact, it's just step one, Stem has to try and take control of rafters, but that's
opens the equation. Goodbye to Flastry, second one for Dots. Stemp has to have a big impact.
I'll play it deep inside of IT. Gabu needs to rotate over and support Stemp to find this kill.
They finally do, but it's just Stemp left. It's a big ace, I believe.
Massive round from Fluxo W7M. Dots finding all five kills and with that five rounds in a row to
close up the half five one yeah really nice round from dots the captain of
fluxo w7m it's a title that he took just before the start of si he was really
thrust into that role and it worked so well they said let's just keep them on
it doesn't even matter if we lose our former IGL of volps dots can be the
man doing the calling he started things up with a frag onto resets that was
actually all the way over towards the lobby side of things over towards
meeting where dots gets that first frag then constantly he gets back to site
He's playing around it. He gets aggressive actually retaking that space in the position after they kill both live and flash tree and
Finds those couple of frags in towards warehouse to clean up with the ace
Beautifully played by dots a guy mostly known for eye-jelling and shields not really a known ace player
But why not come and get your 5k king?
Yeah, and it's not easy to do with the TCSG as well
I don't know how you feel about this Jesse, but some team some players just absolutely farm with it
I noticed KZ on cafe earlier today in the team liquid alien where match
Really confident with the a cog on that TC SG if you're not used to playing it does pack quite a bit of punch
It's that recoil is not just vertical but quite horizontal as well
Which means that you really need to be going for as many one taps as possible and at very long range
It has a much steeper damage fall off compared to something like a DMR
So while it isn't theory functioning like a DMR compared to a shotgun, it's nowhere near as good in my mind compared to something like the Mark 14 that a rooting has, or even the AR-15 that you've got on TurboRow.
And yet, he gets an ace with it on the Kaid, a one-speed operator. Really impressive stuff.
Yeah, the C4 coming in for a bit of an assist in that round as well, but the TCSG doing the majority of the heavy lifting, it's not a gun you get to practice very often either in pro level siege, because Kairi is just so commonly banned on a multitude of different maps.
But today it wasn't something that loud chose to remove off the board and they might be kicking themselves at that decision, because even if the electroclaws aren't the most impactful thing, even though they've got good counters to that, the man behind those electroclaws is still deadly.
So really nice stuff coming out from Fluxo W7M, very respect the Gaedea, of course.
I mean it's so commonly taken off the board and they're going to just play a standard set of bands here.
I have to imagine the band it will be next.
Maybe with the Ace, maybe with the Habana.
Usually you're going to be focusing fully on the hard breach or fully on the electricity,
but they could go a shield here on the side of Loud instead.
I wonder if we're going to execute up like a grim instead.
instead. So you called it Jesse, it's the double high breach and the double high breach denial,
the electro bros. Yeah, I do wonder about that ace ban. Of course, you've still got Maverick in,
which is slow, but you can get a full breach. The main reason I would typically want to ban a
thermite is so that you just a force into smaller breaches, whether that's ace putting two summers
together, Hibana putting a set like we saw last round, or the T-can openers. Whereas when the
The NIT breach is fully open with an exothermic, you can play there, the cheeky head angles
from the stairs, you can do an upside down play, you've got options, right, it makes
it much harder to fight as a defender.
Now you can achieve the same outcome with a Maverick, but it takes a lot longer, it's
a lot slower and you're a lot more vulnerable.
So it really depends on what a team wants to go for.
Pre-SI, you could also do it with a Habana, there was a Habana tech where you could pop
the top and bottom of the wall and make it soft similar to Mav, but they did nerf that
So it doesn't work quite the same as it used to so if you want the full breach Mav is really all you have left as an option
But doesn't seem like fucks with public seven. I'm gonna be too concerned about it
It will stick just with the traditional I say can openers. They will four can open
It's something
It's interesting. I have noticed that people don't really have trick much anymore. No, it's really out of the better
I think
Feel like we're in such a time-sensitive meta at the moment
You know we used to joke about the 20-second meta
Well at the moment with the number of traps and obstacles to clear on defense
Lot of teams want to make sure that they make good timing at the start of the round
They don't want to mess around with the Maverick
Paolo certainly made good timing this round to get something nice and aggressive early on almost catches
Resets off guard who gets back to site, but it's actually live the first wonderful
We just smoked going down 40 seconds into the rounds
It costs LoBin a lot of HP, but that is absolutely worth it.
Alive still hunting for his first kill. He's the captain of loud. He's the one doing the IGLing for this team
So he's certainly
Contributing in other ways, but we maybe haven't seen it so much in the scoreboard down five to one and without a kill
Really looking to get a bit more impact in this matchup
Now that's just LoBin going down below on the demos getting that value with that solo lurk operator
It's something that lobin does oh so well
And that is too often lobin's partner in crime on the entry he will be that player today taking down gabu
They combine for just a 1 and 13 stat line the veteran in the rookie
Dream water flying
Capitao's a nice ingredient here to clear afters but they weren't even needed because step is injured from outside the brace
The fire will surely finish him off. It's up to resets now the last one standing
the only one that stands in flux so W7M's way between them and a flawless
rounds a first kill is only one step but it's easily shut down afterwards it's a
straight six in a row and match point for flux so W7M James I don't mean to
scare you but the streets are saying it's over the streets the streets I've
said that this is looking quite bad if you're a loud fan. I mean, the top floor of Night Haven Labs
is supposed to be the best site on this map. It's very often won by the defenders. Even Loud
themselves a 75% win rate defending top floor on Night Haven last season, although it's a small
sample size. Not being able to close it down, putting yourself on match point for five rounds
in a row. We've seen crazy comebacks today. Liquid forced back a 6-3 game into overtime, but
I don't think louder team liquid alienware
No, they're not and look we've seen nice moments from them
But they are really being outclassed at the minute by fluxo w7m
And I'm loving to see a team that we had so much expectation for going into six invitational and
Rightly so they delivered in spades a fourth place finish the world championship only losing to the two grand finalists
Were they able to continue that form after losing their IGL after losing such an esteemed player as Vulp's Deferia?
Well, the answer seems to be yes, at least against the caliber of teams such as that.
Time to show us what they're made of. Loud. Time to show us exactly what you can do.
This organization was, well, this team was at one point in time, top six in the world right before they got signed by Loud.
Didn't qualify to a single international event last season after reload, so they were expecting a little bit more. They've rebuilt their roster.
And the success is not being found early. Here's an opportunity for thoughts. He actually just goes right past the Romer and heads to site. Why not?
The temptation to get aggressive is too great for Loben.
It looks like Flux is on the 7 and we slowed down just a brief bit. Dota's a fine one. Here we go. Watch out for Dota's.
He's so good. He's so consistent with his dragon capability. He finds one. Yeah, be
careful. Stamp, don't bite off more than you can chew because Dodez will go hunting
for you. Oh, he's gonna find another one. Second kill. Suddenly the numbers are
brought back. Even Jesse, watch out loud. Dodez is hunting for it. Stamp is forced
back into the corner. Dodez, he finds another one! This is utterly insane. Finally,
And Gabi puts into rest, Palu is the last one standing, 1v2 to finish this off a clean
seven rounds in a row.
How did we even get here?
It was a cheeky pushing through cargo, it felt like it was going to be a disaster push
from Foxo W7M1 where they bite off more than they can chew, but somehow, all thanks to
Dota as this is possible.
It's a 1v2, you'd expect loud to come out on top, but I'll tell you, if there is anybody
who's going to pull off a 1v2 on match point. It has to be this guy.
Palu is known as the clutch king. He's in late round positions so often as a player.
He's used to the pressure. He's got so much time, frankly, on the clock that a fused kit
is being held by the defenders just at the bottom of the car, goes stairs, but with plenty of drone,
Palu can find that information and make his way down.
Palu had the most clutches of any player at 6th invitation. If he could do it on the world stage,
Why not here? The debut of the South American League.
The little information.
Oh, a couple of cameras to flick.
Briefly for a moment, he saw life's feet,
but finally off the doughnut for Lads' captain.
One looks on their faces,
but they have finally got themselves back into it.
After six rounds lost in a row,
Lads find their second, but it is a long road back to redemption
and to what of the time here for that.
It's a bit of a fast, cheeky push from Flux with W7M,
but it's a round wind nonetheless for a loud.
You can only bat at the pitches that you're given,
so hey, they hit that one out of the park
and stay alive in this matchup.
I'm still gonna take the post round
as an opportunity to do a little glazing of Dodez
because I think he was absolutely the MVP of that round,
even though they lost it.
His shots that he was hitting to pull that one back
were just miraculous.
I'm hoping we see some of them here in the replay.
Bet you we will.
Godas finished last season with 855 kills.
Only Shaco finished last season with more frags than that.
And I think Godas was also not dropped by his team.
So maybe his kills were a little bit more impactful.
Not sure.
Some brilliant slow-mo shots we're seeing now in this round
and it wasn't quite enough, but bam, he came close.
I'll tell you what, I believed him for every single one of those.
Even the one where we eventually died after what we're going to get.
Dota's is so insane. I know it's been a bit of fun happening over on Twitter, a bit of controversy with the player tier list that Alphama's been giving you right on those.
I have, I have.
Yeah, I believe Dota's was one of the few players that wasn't on Team Liquid Alienware or FaZe that actually got the God tier ranking.
I think you got, you get God tier to get S tier according to Alphama.
He deserves god tier. If he didn't get god tier then I fear Leon does not know ball
I think donors in Palu both got god tier
Valid and let's be real. That's pretty pretty warranted after how they performed at 60 rotational and
Form I expect to continue
Both s tier actually god tier was only reserved for face clan kazi in gav92
Also, for Leapox, not getting gods here is absolutely criminal.
Yeah, Leo, we're going to look at these rankings and have a little bit of discussion.
Are you getting out of the pitch, Fawkes?
Are you battling all of North America already because anyone in NA gods here?
I know that, uh, and BFanboys were pre-op.
Yeah, listen, uh, NA's not really been doing so hard in our national last couple of years.
I'm not going to fight that battle, right?
You guys have won a major.
You're right.
You're right, you're right.
Even still, Fluxo W7M have done just that as well.
Major champions a couple of years back and probably champions of this opening playday as well.
They get to attack onto this top floor now, which has been so successful in the past,
but it's an ill-advised swing from Stemp Kahn's ready for that one.
He hits a nice little headshot to get in the lead.
It's his army as well, that's your operator, you want to be staying alive for as long as
humanly possible.
Yeah.
To keep adding that extra layer of fortification on the bomb site.
Watch out.
Gaby, that's a rookie mistake for the young player in his first pro league match to get
caught off guard like that.
No second chance is now for Loud.
It's a 5v3, resets, brings one back.
Goodbye to Palu, goodbye to the bees for the rest of this round.
Dodez is still alive and he's looking gently nice bit of aggression from Flastry
But it doesn't work out resets finds his seconds
But lobin makes the 3v1 and it looks like resets is at the end of his rope
Fluxo forcing that plant down good coverage
Dodez who better to close it and to put to bed the game
It's another open and shut case for Fluxo W7M as they spring into the SAEL in peak form
The streets don't lie and neither does Dota as a big final frag after a couple of clean
rounds on the attack.
Beautifully done there to come out from Fluxo W7M.
Domination from start to finish.
They were worried about Wolp's leaving and Kahn's coming in, but James to me, it looks
easy as ever.
No worries whatsoever for the absolute Dota server on Fluxo W7M, but now the discussion
starts was this fluxo playing at the level that they achieved with volks or was this playing against
a lower level of competition such as lad because let's be honest the lad boys are looking a little
bit rough looks like they're still finding their mojo fighter that team chemistry they've got a lot
to work on but that takes nothing away from this moment belongs to fluxo w7n as i'm sure
Milus and Fox will break down for us on the desk.
From Fluxo W7M, that's the way that you expect to come in, go on, swing through the game,
and if we thought that game two kind of put us off the schedule for a moment there,
this one definitely brought us back here Fox because it looked like an incredible team effort.
and everything hitting well.
Then when things really got bad, don't worry about it.
We got Palu, though, that has to do with work.
Yeah, very fast game.
That's exactly what you want to see from Flex.
With WSOM, having such a drastic change
for us to be made with filling Vox's shoes
and it's safe to say that that's exactly
what we wanted to see at a con.
We don't need her oaks from, just needs to do his job.
And that's exactly what he did on the Flex supportive role.
He was always there in the right time,
draining the exact positions that he needed to be.
He did his job, he did his job while the rest of the team is going to come alive.
Not everyone can always get the spotlight.
And if anything, this is a good testament as to what the rest of the players can consistently
do now that they finally have more opportunities to be in that spotlight.
But I really like how Dev left us on the end there.
Is this flexor W7M playing at the peak as they were when they had Volts or was this
them just playing a weaver opponent?
I think it's a little bit of both.
I don't necessarily think you can be the same level
that the previous Flexord episode on the roster was
with Phulps so early on so soon,
but there are highlights like Hans doing his job.
Now, as for Loud, I do think they have to go back
to the drawing board, same thing for them.
Three new players on the roster,
it takes a lot of time to build fundamentals,
build little idiosyncrasies to be able to fix
the issues that they showed today.
Honestly, looking at loud like, okay, today, Flux W7M,
great strong team, right?
Let's set that aside.
Who do they play next time?
They play IMTZ, a team that's still yet to be explored
within SAO.
Cool, an opportunity to bounce back, right?
Then NIP, NIP are no slouches,
but definitely a way to kind of get you back
in the swing of things.
Fury, very different for you
than what we had a couple months ago.
So there are opportunities for loud here to recover.
Maybe the fun things to test over the weekend and in the coming week is, of course,
SAO is always on on Tuesdays and Saturday and Sunday.
Whereas for Flexor W7M, things really ramp up from here, right?
They play NIP on Saturday and that is a real test, if you ask me,
because seeing NIP and how they've been performing and how much like Black Dragons,
it seems like they can be a big upsetter, a dark horse that no matter where you throw them,
they're going to perform well, at least in an unexpected manner.
I think that'll be a proper time for flexor W7M.
However, like you mentioned, looking at today, it seems like all the pieces are
well and truly in place for flexor W7M.
The question is, can you just keep it up and just, you know, keep it up champ.
You're doing great.
That's about it.
Yeah.
The biggest question for flexor W7M is how are they going to be able to perform
having a new IGL, having dots be that IGL.
And it's safe to say that it looked very strong, right?
But once they play against another team
that is of an equal caliber, which if you look at their group,
the only team that they should find a good competition against
is going to be Furia against Volps himself.
So that being said, once we see Furia play after this match,
we'll be able to theory craft a little bit
of what there is to come for both these teams.
We'll see them play on play day three.
But that being said, eye-jelling was great.
Everyone was doing their job.
It wasn't anything special, so to say,
nothing that proved the questions
or answered the questions that we had.
But at the end of the day, a win is a win.
And that's what you need.
And for loud, sometimes you have to get stomped by the best
to be able to understand all of the potholes
in your strategy.
Because scrims could be going great,
but matters most on game day
and playing against one of the best teams in the world
gives you everything that you need to know.
So now, like you said, they got ints, they got an IP.
Those are two huge games that this loss
could lead to two back-to-back wins
if they use it correctly.
Yeah, maybe an opportunity to fill those potholes.
As you mentioned, Fox, though, let's bring up
our interviewee for this matchup.
We've got Lobin joining us.
Hello, Lobin.
Good evening, good to see you again.
It has been a while, but to me, it looked like
you were going into this day very prepared through it all.
How was the planning and preparation before kickoff and how are you guys all together in the space kind of feeling to kick things off?
At first we focus on like showing comps like the game style and the playstyle of the team because two different lineups and IP play really passive and more structure.
And we are like more freestyle so we focus on that.
that and for the kickoff we're just like focusing first on getting like the
feel of the team with like thoughts being agile and caught calling sometimes of
course thoughts is already like present good because he had a good aside at
yelling so he's already like possible and for today's game what we didn't have
like any Intel or now so we just focus on like our best maps and just play it
If like all the folks
Yeah, I mean you kind of answered all the questions that I was gonna have you know
How what it's like planning? It's a team. That's a brand new team my biggest question
I guess for you as a player, you know, you're always playing on the room. What has been the biggest transition for you?
With going from different IGLs. Yes, you were able to practice a little bit at the invitation or with thoughts being the IGL
but now it's fully finished and you have a new supportive player with Kahn.
So what has been the biggest transition for you to fix and help Kahn's get into the team,
as well as you individually?
I think the biggest difference, like, first talking about the IGLs is probably because
DOS let me play more free.
So more of the time than just doing like what I want, especially like in those like demos playing alone.
I just do what I feel like, and I'll communicate and do it.
So I'm probably more free in my game style.
And to help cons, I'm probably just communicating the basic things
when you are in a team, that you're playing for a long time,
you normally don't communicate, because you know, like,
oh, the guy besides me here already know what we're going to do.
But with cons, you focus on, like, oh, you know what you're going to do in the next step.
Okay, so I think that's around it.
Like you can't just hit the place, the vibes, and this time everything is going to be more normal.
Yeah, and this question is just personally for me. I just want to know, Playday 3, you guys play Furia, how excited are you to play against Volts?
Yeah, pretty excited. It's always good to play against our last teammates, so it's going to be a fun match. Probably we have a lot of trash talks, so it's going to be fun.
We'll make sure to tell the admins to keep the chat active for us to take a look at during the game.
Thank you very much, Loben. Congratulations again on the win, and we'll see you later this weekend for your next matchup.
Have a good night.
Thank you guys. See ya.
See ya.
There it is. We got it from Loben. He's saying that he's kind of on the long leash.
He can float around and do whatever he wants.
The question is, can he keep that up against the big teams that are also in their group?
It's kind of the question that you can kind of lay on everybody at the beginning of any
stage or any tournament because there's a lot of unknowns and right now in SAO with
the amount of changes within rosters and all around them, there are so many unknowns that
we need and want to explore and I'm very excited to get through all of this.
All together, Mr. Davide though, our night is ending really, really quickly.
Can you believe it?
Yeah, yeah, I can.
Yeah, I can't. I mean, when I was looking at the games coming up today, I would have thought
Liquid Black Dragons would have been a fast one too. So that being said, it's only going longer
because Black Dragons had an amazing performance. Now we got Furia and Nip coming up and that could
be a lot closer than we think too. Oh yes, let's explore this new Furia roster and what they have
to offer. We'll see you after the break.
Are everybody welcome back to SAO much like our day?
I don't know. It's just it's going so fast. I can't believe it. It's our first day
We're already in the final matchup of this very first playday of kickoff for SA Alan Smith
self-knosh and Foxy bringing you all the action side of Dev Marta and Jesse Jesse and James that is our casters for
This evening and we have this final matchup
Mr. Davide there is
exploration to be made because
NIP, a team that hasn't really had changes, versus Furia, a team that a couple months ago was, if I'm not mistaken, completely different minus one to what we have right now.
So let's have a chat about that. Can we bring up the Furia lineup? It'll show at some point, but this is kind of one of those mind-boggling transfer window bits that we've seen this, I guess, in the lead-up to kickoff fox.
Yeah, we have the other half of the ex feria. I guess they're still feria of herds, though
one man alone, I can rebuild this team around him with box area, yes, Lucas lawyer and volts,
you know, two players coming from our volts coming from the flux of W7M lawyer from G2,
which is a huge pickup from him coming back to Brazil. A lot of players coming back to
Brazil. It's almost like it's the best region is huge. Dia's leaving liquid, a lot of high
high hopes for him. He's coming from the NAL region. I'm always going to support him.
In Boxer, a very, very special player. I feel like he has a lot of potential, hasn't really had an
opportunity like this to be able to shine on a big stage. And this roster has so much individual
talent alongside an amazing IGL. And we just heard Logan say he's playing a lot more free.
Volts has a lot stricter of a program in the way he wants to run things. And I think it's a
a lot stricter than the way that Felly Pops would run things as well, so this Fyria roster,
although it has so much talent, still has a very big challenge of being able to reign
all of these amazing individual players together.
Well, on the other side, basically the four core plus now one player joining that, of course,
fans leaving NIP with Bassetto joining in earlier or late last month couple weeks ago
and say hey this NIP if they continue like they've been doing from stage one last year
up to today they can continue to be a powerhouse I think they definitely did peak in Munich
I think I expected a bit more out of them also going into SI maybe but again the way
that they are the way that they play it's been impressive every time you see them clock
into the server has it I don't know I'm never really the ship hasn't
sold for me on the nip roster I mean I get it I get it but like you cannot deny
that they've been punching above their weight significantly very quickly over
the past year how they do it in bite that's why I said they peaked me at it
that's limited that my base issue than IP is they're very predictable the roster
The organization as a whole, it's always been a test of time.
Even when I was playing back in the day, it's always been the thing.
They're very aggressive.
They're going to get in your face.
But if you shut them down early on, one round is all it takes.
Combs get quiet, their energy is down, they make plays alone.
They don't know how to play slow.
They don't know how to play defensive.
Yes, there was some glimmers of having some diversity in their play
in the last year, but they lost Collins.
Probably one of the more slower players on this roster.
Basetto isn't a player that I'm expecting to change the atmosphere or really do anything besides his job at the moment again for
NIP until I see the main players of fantasy and Pino be able to take reigns and change the play styles themselves
It's a cash-22
The fantasy is such a good player that you need to be able to let him off the leash
And the whole team is play around him.
And if you don't, you lose.
And if you do play around him, sometimes you still lose
because the aggression just doesn't work sometimes.
So we need to be able to have those two options
but still be able to see fantasy play slow
and see the whole team play slow with it.
And that's something that we haven't seen
and until we see it, I'm not believing in our IP.
There is one thing that if I remember correctly
in stage one last year, we had a little chat with Pino.
Actually, it wasn't SAL during the stage.
And this was right after the roster was overhauled.
By overhauled, I mean, Psycho was no longer on the team,
went to elevate, and they had their own changes.
And that's like, hey, if this one change,
do you think it's actually going to have an impact on you?
And he said, yes, there was a lot that was happening
in communication that we could spot.
And if you ask me clearly, from being a team that kind of
always pooped the bed to getting to the position
that they did to communicate, pretty impressive.
now is that enough like you're talking about your brook had done very effectively
probably not yet but i think it's an opportunity here and kick off to really show up and in their
group because you said that groupie is so tight between all the teams there is a very clear
opportunity to rise above and i'm really excited to to see if it actually does happen or not however
our map veto is already let's bring it up and see what map we're going to be going to and who had the
the last laugh, the last ban to really take us into that ninth map pick.
Shanley bank, there you go.
There's more aggressive maps, maybe even slower.
They're taking up now.
We're going to even be left with cafe.
Okay.
Well, that's going to force you to slow things down.
You'd be surprised.
These are quite fast on cafe and IP loves this map because they approach it
so aggressively compared to how the rest of the world plays cafe.
It's arguably one of their better maps.
They're not necessarily that great on it, but they enjoy playing it a lot.
As for Furia, let's do Furia roster.
So many questions that were excited to see what they're able to bring to the table.
That being said, cafe was always a furious staple.
And we just saw a majority of that roster lose it today in a close battle.
So maybe hers was the glue.
I was saying that he was the previous roster
because he's able to flex around all of these talented players.
And honestly, I'm just excited to see
how Volps is able to IGL everybody on this roster
and how they play off of each other.
On paper, this roster looks amazing.
So many talented players,
we just need to be able to put Volps in the driver's seat
and lead everybody.
And it looks like almost like a Shopify rebellion.
You have so much talent
and then you have Canadian or Volps IGLing.
I'd argue that Volps has more firepower in the tank
than the Shopify rebounding roster.
So that being said, it's just a matter of seeing
how these teams play, but in my opinion,
I feel like there's a little bit of a chip
on all of the shoulders of the player's own theory
because they're all leading teams
that had their ups and downs
to finally find themselves on a history to organization
that has won countless of times.
And they want to be that new team
to drive theory into the sunlight.
All I'm gonna say is if the goat herds
picks you to be on his team. There's probably something that they see in you that is on
another level and I think that alone speaks volumes. There's a man that's been grinding
a lot, also especially after SI. Clearly there's a lot for him to prove. Hopefully that's
enough to continue with it. However, your casters are getting impatient so let's bring
them on and have a quick chat, a quick check up on our wonderful Jessie J Chick and Mr.
Dev Marta James how how are you doing I have a cup of tea I'm ready for the tea
I'm ready for the cards I'm ready for the drama I'm ready for Furia I can't wait
to see what this brand new roster has in store for us today yeah I mean this has
got to be the match of the day right Black Dragons liquid was fun to watch
to don't get me wrong but as soon as I saw a schedule this was the matchup I
was excited for. We have no idea what the Stereo team is going to look like. On paper, they seem
like a Brazilian super team, the Avengers of Brazil. But in practice, who knows what that's
going to look like. And I think NIP are a formidable opponent to go up against for their
opening game. They shouldn't be a cakewalk. This is a good team. They were at SI. They've got a
core of four who know how to play together. So I like this as a first test for Fyria.
It should be really exciting to see how it plays out.
It is in many ways a test to both games of Fox.
Let's talk about NIP and how there's still stuff to prove out there.
Yes, they've had a change, but is it enough to really change their gameplay from your expectations, Jesse,
from your digging around?
What's the word on the street that you've been able to find about next?
Well, I mean, listen, it's one change.
And I don't know if Paceto is a massive impact player, but I will say he's been immediately given
the reigns to IGL this team you can go see when he got picked up he said I'm
IGL and now so they've handed him the keys and if he's going to make a
difference I feel like this is how he would make that impact this is how he
would have his way on the team and how he could maybe have a bit more of a
voice by being that IGL I mean cons was on this roster for three years you have
to imagine he as an individual had a lot of sway on this roster maybe not so much
as a guy like Pino who's been on this roster for like eights but even still I
mean it is a big switch even though it's only one player so I'm excited to see
what Pisteto can bring to this roster for sure. You think Balsetto has the
falsetto to take this to the next level James? I was gonna do some falsetto. I can't do that, it's too cringy.
I can't I can't do that. That's why I put you in it. Yeah, you knew you knew that I would take the bait for that one
No, I do myself respect
the way I see it
Gossam is that
Ninjas and pyjamas ever since they were at their peak ever since they won a 6th rotation in 2021
They've been living in the shadow of these big four teams and of course furia brand new roster
It's only herds who remains from the old furia
They're now immediately just given the benefit of the doubt that because they have this big organization because that organization has history
And because it's a very talented roster that they're immediately in this conversation of the big four like who gave him a right
And so I think it's nip's chance to say look maybe we're in that conversation to it
They can have a big win here and upset
Fiora in their debut at the new roster
I think that's a statement maybe even bigger than what black dragons did over the team that could alien wear earlier today
I think that's a very good way of putting a James very well done
I would say I could not have described it any better myself and
Maybe it's just this fury Tim liquid alien wear thing that's going on
We're like hey just because you're on the roster and on the organization
Doesn't mean that it's changing the whole world. We got to see it for real and this is the chance for real for real to see
What's up fury a nip?
Begins for Jesse and James have fun
Thank you very much, Gassar, Jesse, we finally get to see this little experiment come to life.
It's this Frankenstein's monster of a team in theory, brand new players from all over
the place, of course, Herds retaining his spot, Diaz Lucas from Liquid, Boxerra from
Enex, Volpe from Fluxo W7N and Loira making his return from Europe on G2 back into Brazil.
an exciting time to be a Furia fan.
Yeah, there's not a single player on this roster
that you can underestimate, James.
It feels like every single one of them
could be a star in their own right,
and now you put them all into one roster.
They have no experience together.
For the most part, I mean, nobody has really
ever played with each other.
So team coordination might take some time to develop,
but man, you cannot be upset with the pieces
that Furia have assembled.
It looks like it might be the end of the world for them,
losing the world-class Russian that they picked up just a couple of years ago from that W7M core,
but this is a pretty exciting replacement. They go up against NIP here on cafe and I want to say
quickly as we load into this game that I like the way Fox described NIP on this map. He said
they're not great at it, but they enjoyed playing it and he's right. They played cafe three times
the six of itational and they won just four rounds across all three games combined. Wow.
Yeah, look, as as Fox said, NIP is really struggled at the six
Invitational course. Munich and prior to that, the eSports
World Cup last year was NIP's big return to the international
stage. It has been years and years. I believe SI 24 prior to
EWC was the last time NIP made it to an international event. Of
course, they leveled up even further in Munich. They went
pretty deep eventually knocked out by wildcard SI though yet
not great. They only won a single game. It was against BNK, FiraX who ended up nuking their roster
one of the week at APAC teams, unfortunately. And yes, so NIP, they're looking for a bit of a
reprise after that. And I think Bersetto is the perfect ingredient, a little bit of a fresh face,
a little bit of a fresh voice into the roster, especially after losing a very strong fragger
in cons. Let's see if they've got what it takes to battle it with such a fiery team as Fira.
Fox and Milo certainly had some nice words to say at the start of this game, but it would be nice to see exactly how the first round is playing out.
We expect to see some big stuff coming out. I know it was a really nice defense being mounted, of course, to start things off.
Biden used in pajamas. They had that pulse play. We knew exactly how good pulse was the last time we watched Cafe just a couple of hours ago against liquid and black dragons.
Not an op that is so common in the meta, but can be so impactful and played correctly.
I actually do have the clean feed on my second monitor, so I can tell you what is happening right now.
It's been a bit of a back and forth round, and from what I can see, Furio really being kept at bay well by NIP holding onto mining.
But it does come back into a 2v2. It's Wizard and Bissetto on the defense against Box Zero and Diaz.
now we're back with the full feed. Fantasy still on the floor and a chance for Furia to lock it
in after confirming that kill big one for Boxera. Veseto all the way back with the Reaper,
like to bring the shotgun as a primary wizard, the opposite, bring the shotgun as a secondary.
The two of them, I'm sorry Diaz, bring the shotgun secondary opens up a line of sight.
He's hoping to take this 1v1 and he does get it, goodbye to the Mozzie. And Diaz to close the
round big from Furia on the attacking side despite having a two versus four they find every single kill.
Well beautiful little 2v2 to come there at the end. I wish I could see a little bit more to tell
you about the early round but I have to say DS is hitting some brilliant shots able to close
that one out for Furia to start on the attack and DS has always been one of those players
that you can rely on when things get hairy in the late round. He's often been called one of
one of the most clutch players in the world.
I think we're seeing a little bit more of that,
not technically a clutch,
but always available to play for that later on.
68% cost to the last 365 days.
That's the highest of any player here
in the South America League.
So we can expect some big things to come up from him.
The consistency has always been a big part of his game.
And to start off with a little 3K,
I mean, that is more than you could ask for.
And we saw the reaction in the face cameras as well,
especially on Loira, great to see energy out of these Furia guys.
Of course, they're known to be a fiery bunch,
Volps, he loves to get lippy in the old chat.
I think every time we watch Voxo, W7M and SI,
it was this guy, it doesn't matter if he's one and seven,
and it's the rest of the team doing
a lot of the heavy lifting on the kills.
He's still in the old chat,
he's still trying to tilt his opponent.
I expect to see similar energy out of Furia.
Yep. Yeah, I mean, this Fiora roster, they have the ability to talk smack, even though they are a brand new team, I think just the pedigree on this team speaks for itself.
43 ST here events over 17 seasons of competitive experience, 1.3 million in estimated prize winnings and experience across four different regions.
regions. I mean, this is really a roster that has been around the globe. Of course, they've all played
in South America, but you've got, uh, Loira, who's just come back from playing in Europe. You've got
Diaz, who's spent the majority of his career in North America. And Baxara, technically, I'm going
to count this as a fourth region, played in the Hispanic LADAM League for exactly one stage in
2020, I believe it was 2024. So I'm counting that as four regions of experience on this furious, uh,
I love that. That's awesome. That's very cool. Very, very nice. We're into a little bit of a technical pause at the moment. I'm sure we'll be back before you know it's...
I heard a lot of people say that Box Zero was a very promising up-and-coming talent, but I haven't necessarily seen that myself in his former matches. Is that something you're a bit more familiar with than me with Box Zero, or is he a bit of a new kid on the block to you as well?
to you as well. Yeah, we got to see him play throughout the SL last season. It wasn't on
a top team, was playing for ENX and certainly had his moments, I think, in that season,
but just not really being on a top level team. He struggled. That was of course under the
leadership of SexyCake throughout the first stage and finding a little bit of success
throughout the season there. We got to see moments of him, but I do still think the best
is yet to come for Boxer. He's a guy that has been hyped up way more than I think even
what we've seen through his rookie season on ENX and now to see him come out on one of these top
teams. It shows a lot how much confidence Furia and these players have in him to step up and be
that big game player. There was a great content piece at SI and I'm sure you know what I'm thinking
of James where they went around and they asked a bunch of pro players who is the rookie of the
year this season and who's the best new player to come into the scene. And basically everyone said
Stompin right? I mean Stompin was kind of the obvious answer that a lot of people gave but a
a couple people, including herds, put down Bach's era as their rookie of the year. He
was the second most common name to be said in that content piece. So even though he wasn't
making it to big high level events, even though he didn't get to play for a top level org,
there was a lot of praise for this guy floating around the BR scene. And I think we're starting
to see that now that he's on Fury.
Definitely. I hope we get to see a couple of big rounds from it. We're back into the
game Jesse and it's another attacking opportunity for Furia here. NIP going to
this top floor now we talked about this a lot in the Team Liquid Alienware versus
Black Dragons match earlier today on cafe this top floor is can be a bit of a
fickle thing it's quite a challenging defense at the top level because teams
can be so good at exposing these positions as attacking side so I'm
curious what NIP are gonna be cooking you how aggressive they'll be playing on
this defense. I like herds bringing out the ram here it's obviously not going to be too much for
the soft destruction but the way herds play is this is going to be likely enabling him to jump
through one of these windows to have a fast push in and here he comes exactly never mind and honestly
I never thought that would be a good play from herds. Yeah yeah you never thought that would be
be good, right? Perfectly counted. NIP reading this aggression from Furia. Just amazing to
see the way that teams get creative with these gadgets. Of course, RAM was never intended
to be used to enable a hop reach, but the change, a few seasons ago, a few patches ago,
where you can do the repelling animation even if the window is closed and it's just up to
you to make sure the window is open by the time you get to it. Oof, nice shot, threading
the needle for Volbs. 2v3 is very winnable. We saw Fiora win a 2v4 last round, so don't
count them out. Anything's possible.
Yeah, this would be a ridiculous comeback on the round for them. We will pull this one
back. Their positions are known. They've even got pings on the side of NIP, but Volbs!
Oh, what can you do when he's shooting like that? Ah! Volbs for 4. It's Bissetto now with
a one V2. This was a four versus two. And Volbs cooks up an ace. Back in action. Furious
as ever. And he's having a laugh. What a debut for this roster and for Volbs. Back on Furia.
It only took two rounds, but James, this roster is something special. This Furia team is so
So fun to watch just two rounds deep.
What an ace to come out from Volpe's to be the star player of his team.
Even when the entry went so bad, you know, they got a nitro cell immediately fantasy
playing the zombie and piano gets 2k is the 2k right off the rip.
We're writing it off.
We're saying it's over.
GG.
Good night.
NIP ties at one.
But no, of course, Volpe's has something to say about it.
Didn't even see full heads.
I mean, how does he see these players?
must have seen a pixel or two for the vast majority of these kills threading the needle
frag after frag headshot after headshot it will be a six in one stat line to start cafe
on massive statements come out from the fury of captain.
And to go from a 2v4 to a 2v0 is insane.
Yeah.
Volts what a moment.
Grimm obviously is such a great utility operator but utility didn't come into it at all it was
Just pure talent from Vulp's two rounds deep and on the attacking side, no less cafe,
fans to skew, defensive favorite.
We get a chance to see the fury of faces.
Matt, it's great to see Lora back in Brazil, isn't it?
Yeah, it's so good to see Lora join up with this team.
No offense to the Europeans or to the G2 fans out there, but I think Lora belongs down here
in South America.
He is so good to be held back by Alamau is a fate worse than death so we welcome them
back I say.
Wow.
It's a joke.
I love Carl.
I love Carl.
Yeah, sure you do.
Everyone does, you know, to his face.
Look, I don't think G2 fans will be too upset.
They've got a pretty stacked lineup right now.
They do.
They do.
But they didn't turn out so well for them last night actually.
Well, today I guess for most people in Europe, but for me last night, their debut match, they
it over time to Virtus.Pro.
Yeah, it was a bit of a rough game to come through from G2, of course, playing there
in the EML, but listen, plenty of time still to bounce back over there in Group A. They
do sit 0-1, as you're right, they didn't play the first player, but we'll have to see it
how this NIP team can react to Furia.
The desk kind of touched on it a little bit, but this is a very young Furia squad box era,
the youngest player in the league, Volpz, the youngest IGL in the league, they have been
playing explosive and they have been playing fast, and IP needs to find some way to put
on the brakes.
And they will do so by going to the bottom floor on cafe, what is statistically the slowest
snap, or the slowest bomb set I should say in our competitive pool, because the top down
clear is do take oh so long.
How much will NIP try and burn down the clock here is my question.
Furia have shown that they like to play it fast, they like to get in the building quick.
Wow, G.S. was injured but not able to be finished off and in fact it's Furia that find the opening kill.
Good job from Box Zero, Phantasy, baited into a little bit of over-aggression.
I think that was a run-out from Phantasy. Yeah, you ran out the front door and he got the down onto the glass but then of course does get treated out.
A nice little aggressive move, but it does get shut down and they do pick up Diaz
So it's unfruitful for fantasy
He was a star player in around two for NIP the one that seemed like he had won them the round but
We know Volpe's had other plans
Wow, that's a very aggressive play from Hertz
He's just going straight in is caught off guard by hates
but I think Hates is now going to be out of position as the rest of Furia starts to collapse.
Pino will be found but Wizard on the bomb side stole what is ever for NIP.
Volts and Diaz both low on HP but Hates is taken down and likely to be finished off in a brief
moment. Wizard though he's cooking up so much for NIP holding down the fort despite Furia
getting aggressive. 2v2 Hates still on the floor feeding information Volts starting to force that
plant down he fakes it for a brief moment as he's hoping someone from NIP will peek into Diaz's
waiting arms the DMR at the ready and so we'll go for it again not baited too much it's going to
have to be a retake now for NIP as Wizard is revealed by the Grimms bees and Volbs now has
to do everything himself it's a 1 versus 3 as Hates has been picked back up again for a brief
moment, Volbs sports wizard shuts him down. Hates is still low. Bissetto full HP with
the TCSG in hand. Volbs has to play this perfectly. After he cooked up an ace last round he can't
afford to be caught off guard inside of the gas. Bissetto full HP looks to try and hold
down the four but the gas will put a stop to the push from Volbs and Hates back from
In the grave, we'll find the first round for NIP.
I was nervous, James.
I was shaking.
The HATES was low HP.
We had Bacettos sticking to defuse.
I mean, that was a scary moment.
Volps had the potential there, but just too low HP.
The toxic babes were played really nicely by HATES.
Didn't use a single one of those gas grenades
until the plant had already gone down.
So HATES conservative with that utility,
but it pays off in the end.
The retake goes their way.
a messy round as it has been consistently from Fyria.
And one of my favorite moments of that round
was when we were watching Bach
and he's going for these crazy peaks
over towards whiskey on the snake.
He's peaking left and right.
He eventually does go down and then we swap the BS.
He's just holding the longest angle on the glass.
And I feel like that's the perfect embodiment
of the difference in play style between those two players
and that you can see across the spectrum here on Fyria.
They've got fast players.
They've got aggressive players like Boxerra.
They've also got really cautious and patient players
like Diaz.
And when that can come together,
it can find a lot of good success.
Bat round, I think just a little bit shut down.
We saw some really nice shots from Wizard coming out
in the mid round to keep the numbers close.
And then of course,
Payton that post plant was certainly the MVP,
but nothing is easy in this game.
And NIP have definitely had to battle
for their first round of the board.
I'll have a look at those operator bands though, huh?
bit of solid snake. Okay. Bach is a little scary with it, man. He's a little scary.
Yeah. It's funny. There's a clip circulating from earlier today on Twitter. Thank you to
a good friend Fettuccine from North America makes a lot of content that man does. Obviously
Team Liquid Alienware and Black Dragons played on this map just earlier today. And we saw
it was Maya from tealaw using the solid snake on the cocktail repell for basically any
bomb site that's not cocktail and if he repels below that kind of second floor so he's kind of
in line with the first floor he will have full information on anyone on the white stairs or
anyone that's new pillars and then he repels up a little bit he has full info on anyone
on cocktail once you know that's clear you can simply repel it inside and pick in your room clear
just expedites the process reduces the need for as much droning and that's really the name of the
the game for Solid Snake. It's expediting, it's making things faster. And so you're very
powerful, especially on positions where you just know like how you can use the gadget
to its best ability, because it comes down so much to the architecture of the map, how
big the rooms are, and where the most common spots are that you would need to drone.
Definitely a creative operator, one of the most fun ops that you've had, entering to
Rainbow Six Siege, but we won't see it for the next three rounds, of course. Well, I'm
Walkin' to have to change his operator up a little bit, he's going to bring out the lion this time around, so a different op to get you some information.
Moira finds the opening frag onto HATES, and it might have been another aggressive move there, James, to start things off for Firaia.
HATES to see it.
Alright, bro.
I figured you're not working with Park this time, I'm gonna have to get some bad humor in there just to make you feel right at home.
Thanks. Thanks, I didn't miss it.
Look at this, Lawyer has also already hacked the cameras as well, so he's just checking out all of where those vault cams are.
And seeing what info he might be able to feed to his team. Now, the Doki call will ring on out. Lawyer is deep inside the building.
So much info here for Furia. The OyoQ's might actually be able to net him a kill. He spots our wizard and quickly shuts him down.
a beautiful start to the round for Feria. Two players in the lead.
Beceto already taking a bit of damage as well, and with Alonti to rally behind,
this round is pretty much unloosable.
Yeah, I mean, he's going to have to go for a plant,
likely just default in through cigar.
You could maybe get like a Nitro or something below,
but of course the only Nitro is being held by Beceto,
and he is inside of Laundry.
It'll be Lawyer's job to stop that denial,
and that's why Lawyer is sitting still.
He doesn't need to join his team top floor.
He needs to deny this C4,
but he loses the gunfight.
That opens the door for Bissetto.
Yeah, Bissetto still has that C4 in pocket.
I do wonder here, Furia, if they need to perhaps overwhelm
the Bombsite Fantasy, ill-timed aggression he needs
to try and buy time for Bissetto downstairs
and force out a plant, but instead he opens up a gap
for Furia now on the objective.
And Pino, completely obliterated by Volbs,
the ego challenge, and Boxer will finish off Bissetto
as he tries to come back up the stairs.
It's another big attack round for Furia,
just as convincing as we've seen from them thus far, a three to one lead.
They're so good at working these early picks, James.
It feels like they've got a great read as to where these players are at.
We watched Loira in the mid-round go down below the bomb site,
find a really cool angle to take down a wizard,
where maybe he's not being expected from.
Hates at the same time, was trying to play over towards the red stairs,
but gets a little aggressive on the mid-floor and loses the gunfight on the window.
Once the two men lead for Furia, they just have such good control, especially with Diaz on that glass, Volpe's on that Monty.
Sure, maybe they don't have a balk in Volpe's running around and getting frags like they sometimes do, but instead, it's a slow and steady push-up.
Even when something doesn't go to plan, even when they lose the gunfight down to the bottom floor, it's fine, because you've got an angle being held by Diaz to shut down fantasy, and that top floor clear just goes oh so perfectly for them to push through on the Monty.
Furia looked like a well put together team. There were questions about this roster. There were wonders of if they're going to be as
Coordinated or as put together as some of the other established teams in the SAO
But to me that doesn't look like a problem at all
Of course, it'll be a bigger test in their next matchup against team liquid Alienware
I think that the playstyle from Fury here, it's about domineering, it's about ego, I think that works better against a team like NIP than it does against a team like T-Law.
I think that Team Liquid Alienware's struggle
and has always been there.
Struggle isn't playing,
it's aggression, it's playing its structure.
It's why for such a long time,
teams like Faze have gotten the better of them.
And it's because of the ability to abuse that
meta and abuse structure and present issues
that unfortunately Team Liquid Outlaw
just don't seem to have the ability to deal with.
Fury they are a cut from the same cloth
as that Team Liquid Outlaw type,
that Team Liquid Outlaw Team Liquid Alienware.
Alright, tight roster. It's all about aggression.
And we see that here with Volx early on with the Blitz finding a big kill.
Now, it's not without being bloodied himself.
Perfect timing though. He gets covered by the smoke.
Oh, beautiful!
Come on! Finish him off!
FANACY! NO, FURIA!
Calm down!
FANACY thought he had a gaff by detonating.
The fire extinguisher concussing the Blitz, but no, it did not last.
Now, Baceto is running away.
Tail between his legs.
Volp says you can have the red stairs. I'm going to the site and now Beceto knows C4 in pocket has to look to retake with the Reaper in a 1v4.
Tell him he's dreaming. Nothing is going to happen here for NIP. Fury are about to go up for one.
It's breakneck pace, James. It just seems like Fury know exactly where they want to go and it is near flawless.
Lawyer finds the final frag, puts the nail in the coffin. There was no hope on the pulse with the Reaper.
It's just a clean push to the top floor and how do you stop a push like that?
I mean the blitz is in getting aggressive in your face
He gets an opening frag and then runs straight towards fantasy fantasy got his one
He kind of did his job, but then he's in a nightmare situation
Battling up against the blitz. I really liked the you know the fire extinguisher tech
Felt like he had a bit of an opportunity there, but couldn't find yangle and herds is in there a little bit faster to find that kill
you can see the chaos that they're creating right every one of these pushes is designed to disorient the opponents so they
Give you a hundred different things to look at
Even if NIP have counters right even they have ways to stop the blitz from running into piano with that with the fire extinguisher there
There's a million other things you've got to worry about an NIP. I mean this is just maybe more than they can handle
Furia looks so good on these executes
I'm trying to hit the Google translate right now, okay. Yeah, go ask the streets. I'm
talking to the streets. Hold on. I'm looking at it now. I think you said, does Pino do
not have a mic? Let me see. Yeah, yeah, it looks like he was asking in the chat. Pino,
Pino, have you got a mic?
Says Laura.
I think there must have been something funny going on
when Pino just could not call out to his team
or Pino died and the rest of NIP didn't seem to know
where he died from.
Fury are really in their heads.
I mean, this is just classic textbook.
Volps, right?
It's classic Laura as well.
It's Hertz.
It's all about the ego.
It's all about the energy and fantasy shutdown.
Volps immediately typing in the chat.
Look at him go.
Bit of a laugh.
What's he following it up with?
I need to see what that means.
He took his time typing it out, OK?
It's clearly something important.
They have broken the mental.
But not all hope is lost.
Lurk gets traded out so Wizard gets on the board.
They've managed to equalize this at 4 piece.
And Herds, who was sitting at 0 kills
before the previous round, despite the typing
that he's been doing, is playing on some of these windows
just alongside his team at a bot to hopefully bait out
some kills, bait the nitro instead.
no refrax coming up do we have a translation
uh...
i'm so close
holding
what do you what do you think crazy
what do you think to
right here
it's better when we're going to
yeah i like you know i'm sorry
i'm actually i'm on the duolingo
portuguese actually
are you
Clearly, it's not helping much.
I got a bit of ways to go.
As to Furia, if they're going to finish this one off with herds dropping like that,
I don't know what he was looking at, to be honest.
It seemed to be tunnel visioning a little bit on Cocktail.
I'm not realizing Wizards were still at large at the top of Y stairs.
Not realizing now that Beceto was peeking out from inside of the bomb site.
Volts has fallen.
I shot for Diaz.
H goes down.
What a low HP plays here on NIP.
So while it's just Box Zero and Diaz left, I certainly wouldn't count him out,
Especially not with box era landing shots like that another sweet to come through from wizard
He finds that 3k on the round winnable for Diaz, but low HP no diffuser to speak of
Pino is also low and he might be able to isolate this one is the wall on reinforce a spray through the wall
Or even a nade might be able to finish him off the nade might flush him out of that corner
wall bang
Straight into the head 1v1
Wizard has three kills this round and the Ella
Needs desperately to give NIP a second round on the board.
Diaz, he's firing hard, but not hard enough for Wizard, who cooks him and finally brings NIP their second round to close up.
What was a pretty devastating half?
Gustavo Gomez, better known as Wizard, dragging his team through that round and it's going to force that half time to come through here.
four to two staying alive. But man, what a half that was. You said something in the
midst of that that it was it's only Buck and and Diaz left alive. Some of the scariest
words I've heard in my casting career, because goddamn, they almost caught that done. Good
around start to finish though from wizard multi kill coming out there keeps an IP competitive
in this contest, but even still change only two successful defenses on cafe. That's, that's
Generally not enough. I mean, we'll see what their attacks look like. Maybe they're demons offensively on this map
But we're really going to see a big turn of a turn of pace for them. I think through round 7 to 12
In what universe is two rounds of defense enough on cafe at six of a tational Jesse
We had 57% of rounds one on cafe were won by that defensive side
One of the most defensive favored maps in the pool third just behind Consular and Fortress at least that was the stats from the six
Invitational of course things have changed a little bit, but there's no real way to spin this and not be pretty scared for
NIP in the second half. I think that's reflected in the faces as well. Just look at Pino front the sensor
Yeah
It doesn't look like he's having a fun time and fantasy has been shut down demonstrably. So
So, uh, fury are quite a contrast on their camps.
Again, the playing facility that they've got, the support staff behind them, social media
team, ready to jump in and take footage, the fact that they're sitting next to each other
in the facility and they can turn and look each other in the eye when they're making
team comps.
I mean, it's just, it's such a massive advantage and, yeah, the mental game is a huge part
of it as well.
I don't want to read too much into the furious stats, I should say, just because it's the
different team, but I will say NIP 48% attacking win rate on
cafe last season as a sample size of 58 rounds as well. So
that's good. That's actually yeah, it's it's above average, but
it's still below 50%. And they're gonna have to hit about two
thirds on the second half to fourth year. So it is it's good.
Is it good enough? We'll see.
As we swapped from the furia to the NIP cans, I actually
wondered if NIP are in the same facility, at least some of these players. I noticed the
backgrounds look the same. Maybe the next time we have a chance to look at their cameras
we'll be out of comment on that again. But yeah, for now it's into the second half and
through the Operator Vito, Solid Snake once again getting banned out. And here's another
one, a bit of a classic for Cafe Jesse, the Azami Castle combo. I love that you get rid
of a lot of the core architect operators in cafe and it makes it suddenly so much harder
to hide behind this bulletproof barriers from obviously the Izami or the barricades from
the castle and immediately you're so much more exposed on that defensive side.
So what else can you do?
What else is bulletproof that you can bring?
Jesse, well, there's how about the clash?
That's some of the half bad idea.
Volts has already brought that to the table and just classic for Volts, classic for Fioria
And what we know out of these plays, get aggressive behind a clash.
Why not, right?
I mean, you can have so much success with this operator,
have some fun with the clash.
They're going to go mining and binding
to start this defensive side off.
And we know just how incredible Feria can be on their offensive side.
But this will be their first test as a defensive team.
And it's a fun lineup for sure to come through.
Well, let's just put the SMG out right now.
I do kind of get the vibe that if anybody's going to be putting
the shield down and going for a swing. It's probably a bolt. He can always play around
at least the start, but as long as the teammates are falling, he will need to pull out the
SMG first. He certainly will. I don't know. It must have been some kind of spawnpeek from
Loira. Unfortunately, if any operator to die early, I mean, your soloist is active utility.
I do really want that to be a goya. If you're going to lose someone, lose someone that's
already put down all their utility instead of someone who's value. From a utility perspective,
exclusively gonna be had while they still are alive yeah unfortunate start
for lawyer it was bottom white that he went down so Pino just in the back alley
not sure if it was the door or a wall they know garage but that's how he fell
it's probably lawyers fault let's be real have a look at this fantasy is in
the building box here I see you later Wizards found his gap as well NIP
looking to go deep it's up to Volbs and Herds now and I think NIP might have
actually found the pace here for this second half,
Bob's feeling all kinds of pressure.
It's not a shotgun.
A lion?
OK.
What am I watching right now?
Sure.
NIP have been cooking, and they've come up the white stairs
and come up with an incredible off-pace execute that's
left herds with far more questions and answers.
Looking about maybe jumping out the window, not his call.
He jumps down the pillar instead.
Doesn't even get one.
What an execute from NIP.
As we're out here somewhat singing their demise,
I mean, it felt like maybe that first half
was a bit doom and gloom,
but a rush in for the round number seven
to get yourself back on your feet
on this offensive side, why not?
They saw how much utility fury
we're posting up on that top floor.
They were looking at Goyo Cancers.
They were looking at a clash.
They were looking at all of this,
you till being dumped up above the bomb site.
And they said, no, thanks.
We're just gonna send it in lion shotgun and all and it works out beautifully for them to catch fury off guard
They find a bit of a gap that they're able to exploit
Wow look impressive to see nip back with a bit of gusto in a round like that
Can't rush every round Jesse even if you do have a very nicely cooked setup. It's really those
established in prep phase right like yeah you're not bringing your line with a
shotgun unless you know you're gonna be playing white stairs and fantasy of course
he had his clear part thing in through reading it was fantastic it doesn't get
much better than also having a free opening kill onto Loira at the start of
the round as well great start from NIP but like I said I don't think you can
land that every single round. Atheria have doubled down on this clash Jesse but
But this time they've hidden it, box zero, hiding away near the dishes inside a kitchen
until the action phase.
So NIP cannot bring any specific counters.
Yeah, exactly.
Bok hoping that they will bring a shield clash, one of the best shield counters in the game,
and that's exactly what NIP have done.
They weren't able to spot that out.
Hiding on kitchen bomb set on cafe as the clash gives me a bit of a throwback vibe to
Foxe, our wonderful analyst who loved that type of a strategy back when he was a pro
player.
Still, of course, decently common in the meta today to bring Clash here on this bottom floor.
There's a lot of verticality on this map. It could be a little bit risky to play the Clash, but as long as you're playing smart spots, you're inside a bakery or you're over here by Whiskey, he could be really, really hard to push out.
show.
Yeah, that took a hell of a lot of damage early on as well as he was escorted back to site
by Loira.
NIP, I think they've got a bit of a read on the pace from Furia, but that doesn't mean
that they're going to be able to actually convert these advantages.
I like that.
I mean, Agoyo on the hash just slows down NIP, it forces them to blow it before they
open up the wall, means they can't rush quite as quickly and have the 10 count openers from
and fantasy which can go down in 20 seconds once that fire subsides.
Name of the game with this top down take is always the time.
This is the slowest bomb site in seeds just because it takes so long to go from the very top to bottom.
And that is how most pro teams will push this site.
But big takes do happen.
We've seen them already so far today.
The two brow from lawyer slows down the hash even more so that clock ticking down dangerously.
But I will say I think nip's early round went pretty fast
They didn't have to deal with any roamers really other than the herds peaking his head up briefly
But even that they dealt with quite quickly so they've got time to play with him the side of nip
This is not immediately round-ending the fact that it's taken them this long to get the freezer hatch
It does show a lot of synergy between the different Furia players in this setup
Everything that they have brought to the table is all about delaying time and Laura. He has layers
He knows, oh yeah, well once that hatch opens up, I've got a nitro, so I can toss that over.
I think he was probably waiting for the audio cue, he didn't get it, now he hears them drop.
He knows he's going to be covered off by the stairs as here comes the execute from NIP,
Pissetto wants to vault in, but he knows he'll be vulnerable if he does so.
He tosses out yet another smoke, and finally goes in, assumes his plant position,
Wizard does good cover, and so does Hates, joins it as well.
We need some plant denial, it's Vops who gets him nice and aggressive,
He can't see anything if it's the smoke.
And eventually, it's just Bob's remaining.
Heights will clean house for Ninjas in pajamas.
And they tie the score line, Jesse.
They brought it back on the attack.
And James, it's a really nice push
to come through once again from NIP.
The name of the game was Time, but NIP were rich with it.
I mean, they had every second that they wanted.
They dropped that hatch at 41 seconds.
That's plenty of time to get into the bomb site,
to get that plant down.
We saw it from Becero's POV.
He gets the smokes down.
Those smoke grenades critical, because otherwise, that plant
would have been denied.
We saw how big of a problem that was.
And Bokzera, the man on the clash,
the one who was supposed to maybe slow some of that down
to stop that, actually, the opening
death in the midst of that round,
dies to a nade from Wizard.
He's just trying to get back into the bomb site.
He walks on top of a frag grenade.
From there, everything just tumbles out of control.
Now 10 and 6 the top frag for NIP in this lobby and really finding good success once we've hit this half swap
This one I start getting a little bit worried for furia
The clash has not been very effective
NIP's executes have been very impressive
They've shown that they happen to bring a variety of different shield operators. They teased out the Monty for a moment now
They've swapped it
Anything I wonder if the doka be has been a little bit too much for furia to handle
After this round obviously both teams are gonna get an operator ban
Something that I know Pingu loves to talk about yeah is how defensive teams would force things like the clash in the hopes that
Attack a will ban it and then furia can actually flex onto what they really want to be playing
So yeah, that could be maybe why they're forcing this clash, but I know if I'm an IP
I don't know if I even want to ban it at this point
No, it has not been a big problem for them. They found ways around it every single time.
Not sure if there's anything else that they had problems with, so maybe they'll just ban it to ban it, but in any case
they've got options and if they can walk away with a
303rd quarter then they will be in the driver's seat headed into the final three rounds of regulation.
Top floor defense can be a tricky one. We can see NIP playing this somewhat slow on the skylight down inside of red as well.
Volts are really damaged playing the pixel position, but no kills yet.
It's feeling a lot of pressure.
Duria have to perfectly balance that textbook aggression that we know and love from them
and not getting too over-aggregious and giving NIP the earlier damage,
just like they have for the last two rounds of the row where NIP have claimed the opening kill.
Wow, what a shot from Lawyer.
lawyer. These are the one player on the white stairs that's about to catch him off guard.
No, it looks like he's fine, my mistake. So we can just run right down here and continue
to be a nuisance. Vulps at the same time. Pixel position swings out for fantasy.
Well, all due respect, NIP, I think that's the round over. And it's 15 now. Left 3v5,
attacking into a clash onto this bomb site. Good luck with it. Pino finds a little one
onto herds, and then a big one onto Diaz. Two from the rappel. This is a classic way to how to throw rounds as demonstrated by Feria.
Moment where you'd love to have an Azami or a castle, eh?
Not too wrong.
Just these outside positions that have been so deadly. The job's not done from NIP. We're back into a realistic range, but the clash is going to be annoying and the time is continuing to tick down 40 seconds on the clock. This is where they executed from in the last round.
I think it's a toss.
If he's still looking again, a little bit info.
Throwing out some of these three-year gates from the Aruni.
Clash is still going to be difficult.
Another Aruni gate still open.
That's going to soak up a lot of the flashbangs from Pecedo.
Wizard needs to find a big opening, but no, he's shut down.
Spotted, Pino though finds a third of the round.
This could be the opening for NIP.
Pecedo needs to come in and join the fray.
Loire and Bokzera together. Finally get back onto the scoreboard for Furia
and take the lead once again over NIP. Good to rain things in there and I mean
this can sometimes be the worry with a young team and Furia are still a young team. They've got a
lot of experience but you've got guys like Bokk, you've got guys like even frankly herds who
not maybe a young man but one who can play kind of aggressive kind of uh you could use the word
brainless if you'd like. It's because they can play so hyper aggro and sometimes things
get a little bit out of hand, but in the end they're able to calm things down. They don't
overextend. It's actually Bax Zera, the youngest player in the SAL who is the calm one in that
moment who doesn't start running around and who's able to get those last couple of kills
to close things out cleanly. For Aferia, give themselves the lead once again now on cafe.
Pino, just no help in round nine as he's forced to get all five kills. He gets three of them instead.
And it is just not quite enough to continue the train for Nip.
Still they're not staring at a match point as of yet.
There's a little bit of breathing room here for Fury up and for NIP both.
It's a far cry from the 4-2 split that we saw at the start and that was definitely indicating perhaps a 7-3 type of scoreline here, Jesse.
I mean, it's not just about they want to attack, but it was the first two rounds of their attack
You know, they didn't let a single one slip and to only lose one player in two rounds
I mean that tells you plenty about how potent
NIP are on the attacking side of cafe. So don't underestimate them. They might be trailing behind
But it is very much doable from here to come back
Well, whether it was the goal of furia or not, they have managed to get the clash band in around 10
So we won't be seeing that operator for the rest of regulation instead fury. I have to pivot a little bit
They go back to the kitchen bomb site
They swap the clash out for a smoke, but otherwise this lineup seems very similar
Lawyer has also gone from the two route over to the warden
So if we see another smoke plant dare smoke drop down through the freezer hash
Then he's got the tools to deal with it
Of course, there's something a little bit more pressing to start hers at the TC SG was Roman top floor cocktail
He does drop down to the second floor now as the Monty makes his way in
But Herd's is still an aggressive player up here on the roam.
You've got to be really careful at NIP that they can find this guy and force him back
to site to get the kill before he does any damage.
I don't think he has the hatch open as well, so he's going to play to die.
Very unlikely he'll be able to escape while he knows.
He'll get all the way down to white stairs.
Wow, I'm surprised.
He was given a lot of freedom.
There might be someone outside trying to watch as he retreats, but no, it's pretty easy for
to get back to site and now it's all about the time and the clock for NIP like you said previously
it was all about the Goyo and the Tuber out of burn time coming down this hash this time
it's the Goyo but the smoke instead of that Tuber out and then when eventually we do see
the execute like you said that water will be able to peer through the smokes and this is also
tempted to get a little bit aggressive he's continuing to poke at the bottom of brown stairs
Lora aggressive
Unusual for us to see someone from VIP playing so aggressively, but that is so textbook
So classic out of these fury of players that you have to you know
They're gonna be trying to take you down fantasies whole job was let's kill this guy
So he doesn't stop our freezer drop, but that hasn't gone their way
So now it looks like NIP are considering a pivot they've got a couple players outside of bakery James
I think that is gonna be where this push comes through
bip is too strong and we can't make a freezer take go through. We'll fight
Volps instead. Yeah and I think this is pretty much over on the bakery side as
well. Bersetto taking a hell of a lot of damage. Nate comes in, Volps manages to
dodge it, another Nate. He can dodge easily as well. The gas also ticks Bersetto's
health very low. Boxeric coming to Volps as Aid with Diaz finishing off
Wizards. It's just Pino on the vert and Bersetto outside of Bakery with such low HP
And now he's being abused. He's got players running out in the gas aggressive and he still dies to box era
Oh, no, no now in a 1v5 with Bersetto on the ground and Volts is on an off angle on the wrong side
He's got a pings. We might be able to get a free kill here in D. Pino will but that's just a consolation frag
Water from the fury of players because it is all done
on, Fiora have match point here on cafe over NIP.
Just no good solutions for the ninjas.
I don't hate the idea to go bakery.
Obviously that push through freezer was looking really messy.
The second that you lose fantasy and that VIP player looks so strong,
but the bakery side just as good.
Volts the best player on Fiora today stepping up and finding value once more.
playing on that. Well, my inside of bake, the stoke rotates back over from box there as well to get good value. And it really is a clean round from fury ideas up to eight and five with that round two. It's kind of funny, James, we talk about fury and the one player they hold on to is
Heard the one player that was on that legacy roster that has defined everything for Furio over the last couple of years
Is the one that they don't seemingly need today. He's doing seven years
Both those skills came from the same round and he immediately was typing after that round by the way, so
At least keeping the vibes up
Yeah, look, what we've seen from Heard's pattern developed over the years
He's a big go-go-go-home type of player
Like you'll have these crazy 20 bomb games and then he'll have ones where he's two and seven and his energy doesn't change no matter what he's always
You know a big ego player big personality
And that's just what you get out of herds
And like you said, of course the only player that retains with this organization after
the rest of the roster went over to Team Liquid Alienware and my understanding based on
conversations I've heard with
Filippox is that was always
going to be the case. Of
course, that old fury roster
plan on making changes after
they failed to qualify for
Montreal a year and a half ago.
They stuck together eventually
a year later, they finally do
make those changes. And herds
was always the one that they
were going to part with as
far as I'm aware. Now it's
Volts actually the first one
to fall now. Funnily enough, he
actually played on that roster
back in the W7M days for quite
Yeah, I mean, he goes down early and if we're still repeating our history, yeah, fantasy
as well used to be the star player of fury. If you go back enough years on our old core,
Oh, that was a very long time ago. He will also die. So every player we seem to be hyping
up as a legacy player in this game, falling in the matchup. Yeah.
That is just reminding me of something. So si 2021 nip with champions played for that
that team. Fantasy played for
Furia and came third place, and
that was the best ever result out
of that specific Furia roster.
I mean, still the best result
from Furia at an SI, no?
Yes. Wow.
That's crazy to think that the old
Furia, old Furia had a better
performance in the new Furia.
That's like, wow, that's crazy.
Yeah, because they got top six
at this one, and they did get
thirds. They tied it in twenty
That's right. They got third in Boston too. That's right. Yeah
Well
After the calamity of those opening exchanges, there's no question who's unfaithed of course losing that monty and losing fantasy
Early is a pretty detrimental blow for NIP and look at the way theory are playing now
They have such an advantage. They don't need to get over aggressive. That's just being so patient
They're uncharacteristic of these theory of players, but it's the smart move here
make the first move. Information being gained by the defenders. You can hear the banshee's
scream. Wizard just has to face check these angles, clearing them one at a time. There
is a player holding his doorway. I believe that's going to be heard just inside a fireplace.
And it will be. That's a crucial mistake here. Right next to the bombsite, Wizard needs to
be careful. Hates and Pino now have to pick up the pieces of what is a very
tattered round all up to Hates now finds a quick two almost a third as well on
the Diaz stranded inside a train human lawyer are separated it's up to Hates
to stave off defeat to find a big clutch and keep NIP in the game but it's not
going to be easy he's got no diffuser and he's being watched lawyer shuts him
down on his return to Brazil he gives a gift to Furia and this massive roster
makes a stellar debut with a ripper match over NIP.
Well, that is a fun way to start your season
and start a new chapter for Furio,
one that didn't find the success they were looking for
with the old core, but this new core
seems like something special.
They take down the ninjas and pajamas here on cafe.
It's a strong game.
Nip, I think, looked pretty decent today too.
I mean, this was a very tough game for them.
They had no information going into it.
Furio played a very crazy game
They still managed to walk away with a good couple of rounds. We forced this one deep even if they didn't get all the way in the end
So nice showing to come up from ninjas, but fury it today. What a statement to come from them
I'd tell you what after we've seen the rostamania panna in Brazil
Fury with the opening game against nip
Seem liquid alien where lose the opening game against black dragons and things get even more
So I'll see the tea is spilling and third this is gonna be a very sweet victory
I want to know what Fox has to say about NIP because I actually think they played pretty well
So I guess on a fox, please break it down for us
Ask for Davide's opinion. I know you don't care about mine. It's fine Davide. It was beautiful to witness fury yet
Just go through things
things beautifully through this genuinely it feels like yes of course there's a big change
and there's disparity from where we were at SI and now but for a kickoff game not too
bad.
Yeah.
For our first game a win is a win at the end of the day so Fury is going to be able to
take that home.
But yeah still some growing pains and that's natural when it comes to a brand new team and
for herds, not really much has changed.
You know, he's just doing his job
and he's surrounded by amazing players.
And I think that was the biggest question for everyone was,
yeah, we're, you know, dead made a great point
or we're just assuming Fury is going to be one of those teams
that's in the top, even though they're a brand new roster.
But from what we saw, you know,
do I think they played good?
Yeah, I think they played better.
I think them trying to grow
and learn different types of play styles
on an app like cafe two,
Which is one of their favorite maps.
Absolutely.
I think that's a good step in the right direction for Furia.
I wouldn't say that they got tested.
Uh, again, I think the only team that can test them in this bracket is going
to be flexo.
Uh, I can't wait for them to be able to see that.
And that being said for Furia, hopefully they only get stronger from that point
with more time to be able to build together because again, it isn't completely
a brand new roster, but a lot of good tools to be able to grow and go forward from here.
Absolutely. Good showing overall from Furia. Some things to look back at from this very first playday.
Again, it takes, I would say, maybe this is my opinion on what is fair.
Like you would need to wait for the first week of kickoff to start actually giving like more informed opinions on teams, if that makes sense to you, Fox.
Because like the first day is just the first day, right?
Right and in our case there's three play this in a week
You have to wait until the weekend now
So there's a chance to really fix things up and the real test is on the weekend because you're playing then back-to-back
Right, so that's kind of the real test of can you actually pull it off?
In in kickoff and once that's done then you're like, okay going into Tuesday
We'll have a better opinion of
What can we expect who's really kind of the winners and losers of them the transfer period?
What did we really get out of it?
You've had enough games and maps and variety to kind of decide on all of that and all the roster changes and position changes and yada yada yada
There's just a lot in SAO genuinely we could spend
the
Equivalent of the length of this show
Just talking about permutations in players and roles and how they would impact different teams and you're seeing it
first-hand here in Furia and in NIP maybe I guess not as a prominent example
in NIP just because it's the one-role change. Furia just kind of a mishmash of
so many different kinds and types of players all together all around someone
who's grinded quite a bit over the past bit in Hertz you've got Laura coming
over from from EML now competing here and all the fallout that yeah he's had
with G2 and Alamo and all of that, like, there's just a lot to pull you towards being a Furia
viewer, if not a fan. That's what I was going to say completely. It's nice to see everybody on the
roster of Furia finding success. I know it's just one game, but it's nice to see all of them
coming alive. You know, besides Vulp's, I would say, and Herds, the rest of the players on the
team haven't had, you know, the easiest of paths. Liquid hasn't really looked too good in the past
of Diaz was on a G2 and it didn't look great when Laura was on a despite Laura playing amazing
and box era finally on a roster of such a high caliber where she can now have his skills
displayed and tested and to see each one of those three individuals alongside Vulp's as well
leading the charge on every team that he's on and IGLing which is such a huge task to consistently
be able to do. It's nice to see all of those players find themselves on this roster and just
be able to continue getting better and better. That's the best part about it is, you know,
constantly growing in the ecosystem of SAO, going from a T2 to a T1 and then from T1,
you're going from small changes to reach a team that can eventually lift that hammer. And for
Herds, I mean, he's lifted the hammer a bunch and wow, how happy must he be knowing that he was
able to have a tournament winning team in the prior furia. And now he's been able to surround
himself again with four other amazing players that have that potential. Now it's all about the
little little small details if they can get it all together have good time and together and time
together is all they need. As for Nip, I mean, I think the same issue is still on still on Pino,
still on fantasy, it's still on their shoulders. Are they going to be they can win a game, they can
lose a game again. Will they be able to change the rest of the players on the team? Played very
good, the side of play very good. So again, same issues, different day.
And we'll probably need a couple different days, like we mentioned, to accurately gauge how the
team is doing. And that we'll have to wait for for the weekend. However, before we talk about that,
we have to bring out our interview, and it's none other than Tia Slukas.
Hello, Tia, thank you very much for joining us. Can you hear us all good?
Yes wonderful DS first of all congratulations I wanted to ask you
mainly about how has it been for you and your teammates now all coming
together under one banner in fury because you're all coming in from so
many different backgrounds and teams and experience to mesh together how has
that been in preparation for kickoff it's been hard and fun at the same time
Like you said, everyone's from a different base, but bringing in a lot of experience from different teams together and making our own little thing has been pretty fun.
What's been the toughest thing?
I think playstyles, everyone had different playstyles and it's like hard to choose, I
feel like, like every map.
You have things from G2, Liquid, Furia, W7M and so many like good things to choose from
and I feel like that's the hardest thing.
Yeah, to dive deeper into that with all of these ideas for I guess the viewer at home,
And does it look like being a bro, like with team players from all different teams, how
is that direction guided?
How do you guys figure out what to do, how to play the strategies as the one main person
that's leading the charge like VULPS?
Is it a team effort of who likes what trial and error for the viewer at home, let us know.
I think it's a team thing.
I mean, most of the things are, are run through by Reduct and VULPS, but every player here
as a big opinion, you know, but mainly we looked and they filled out the good stuff
and the bad stuff. Amazing. And for you individually going from, you know, obviously
NA to liquid to now finding yourself on this team, all of those changes that you made were
into a pursuit of being able to win a tournament, right? So do you finally feel like this decision
Is the right one? Do you feel like those decisions were the right ones in the time?
What do you think?
For sure. I feel like I'm at the right place
I've been through a lot throughout my career and I think I'm finally
Where I deserve to be
I'm a good team with good players, good org, good everything. I deserve to be here
Very good. Can't wait to see you then with the rest of the squad. You guys were playing
Fluxo W7M on the next plate from the mistaken and that seems like a very
cool match to witness and watch here from the group so anything would like to
say to Fluxo W7M ahead of it.
Not really, just good luck to them, that would be a good game for sure.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, I'm looking forward to it, if anything. That is a clash
that really has me eyeing the weekend. But thank you very much, it's your wonderful night. We'll see you next time.
Welcome me too. See you guys.
Bye bye.
There we go. Good to hear that, I guess the honesty from DS in this where, hey, it is fun because it is a challenge, but at the same time there's the difficulties of different play styles.
If I were to say different egos, they're also
Kind of mushing all together in the same space that definitely takes a while to iron up together
And I don't want to ask about your opinion on this fox because you've been through
So many teams and different play styles and all how have you kind of learned to adapt?
and also from being a pro player to moving over to this job that you do right now that
You know, there's a lot of different things to modulate as a person in those spaces.
Well, that's the beautiful part about it is big transitions in your life like that are very different.
Each individual one is different in its own way for me personally, especially for most players, when you're joining team to team,
or if you are a current team just picking up one player, there's already a system in place.
place. Everything is already done for you. You've had the time to be able to
understand how to be able to build a player into your format. And for me,
that's why it was so easy to be able to take players of Yogg and Kino and then
Newer's and Dream and slowly transition them into better and better players
because of the system we had built for a team like this to be able to just take
five talented individuals from different teams entirely and put them in one
room and essentially say make the best version of you five that you possibly could. It's an
experience that one is going to be enjoyable for each great player on this roster, but it's
something that no one's going to be able to experience besides them. There's no, there's no
one way to go about it, even just asking it. I was, I guess, looking for an answer of, oh,
Vulp's the MVP for today's match being the IGL. He's the one that's dictating what we do. He's
picking the decisions, making everything. But obviously, Volts is not the only voice in that
room now. And so everybody as a whole, like Diaz said, is making the decisions. It goes through
the coach and to end the IGL, but everyone is able to have input in what is most comfortable
for each one another. And then they take that, they go in the lab, they start practicing it,
seeing what works, what doesn't. And it's almost like when you start playing professionally or
you're competitively for the first time
and maybe you're just playing with your friends,
you're getting on your first team,
that type of atmosphere is very whimsical.
Anything can happen, anything's possible,
you can do anything, you're trying new things,
it's exciting.
And then through trial and error,
you figure out what works and what could,
hopefully, lift you a hammer.
It's a very good way of putting it.
You don't want to start off rosy-eyed
and then within a couple of games,
have everything feel like it's crumbling on top of you that's not a way that you
want it to to happen and I'm pretty sure that will not be the case for players
of this caliber because they're hungry to win so it's about hey we got to figure
out we got to crack this nut no matter what we got to do it together and if
that's kind of the orientation that they have all between them then I would love
to be a fly on the wall to just kind of listen in and see how things are being
worked in those screams in the preparation that they're doing together
They're entering matches because that's just the beauty of watching the so the best to ever do it
Play your favorite game. There's there's there's something about it. That just kind of keeps pulling us
Deeper and deeper into it though Fox
I would love one day much like you've done with the players in the past to kind of lift me up as well as
Your own teammate in here and feel that you know what maybe I can
can contribute to things. But a group stage. Maybe. Maybe. Fox, do you think I have a shot
to trial on your team?
It's my team. It's my team's, you know, speaking multiple languages, you know, you could be
a really good translator.
Thanks, Davide. Thank you.
Though I think your French will handle it, no problem. Anyways, for today, it's face
clan that were top of the charts in group a black dragons at two points liquid alienware at one point
through a match that left us at a loss for words fox. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. A lot to be desired from
team liquid team that we expected the core of furia. We expected them to still be that same
core but black dragons really came to play and even though liquid didn't necessarily look at
heat performance. Black Dragons have the hell of a game. And as we were saying at the start of the day,
oh, I'd rather be in group A because you know, phase is going to win, liquids are going to win,
but then you have a chance against the other team, whereas group B is very back and forth,
but seemed to get flip flopped. Anybody is able to win out of all of these teams. But in group A,
we saw it here today. The only real decisive match today was phase versus loss and flexo
W7M versus WoW. All of the other underdog teams really did put up a fight. I didn't think we were
going to be seeing, let alone an upset, but close matches as we did with NIP. So it was really well
played from these underdog teams. Everybody is slowly progressing. Very much so. We saw this
from Flux of Fury, and not that we're seeing the Bazonder dogs, but at least putting up the numbers
that we expect them to in this case, speaking of which their runs do not end as the flux
or we are playing NIP that is on Saturday or still reminder for everybody out there.
S.A.L. will always be on on Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday. On Tuesdays, it's happening after
EML. So we're starting later than what you're used to. It's about a four hour difference
to what people are used to at a start time. However, once we get to the weekend, that
is SAO back to its normal starting time as you've been kind of used to over the years
Black Dragons play Imperial, we get to try out Imperial. Sexycake is back in action in
his own way, different roster and all, through Challenger series, Lost, Team Liquid, Alienware.
I'm looking forward to seeing a different Team Liquid, we'll see. NIP Fluxo, like I
said and then loud IMTZ we get to see IMTZ performing on this in the
C1 competition for the first time. Very much looking forward to your thoughts.
Yeah, absolutely. I mean when you look at the games coming up some teams have a
way harder road than other teams. NIP had to play Furia now they're gonna be
playing W7 Fluxo. As for Black Dragons they get a little bit of a load off
They're playing IMP, which we haven't really seen.
But if it's anything like the previous team,
Sexy K's been on last year,
then it could be a little bit of a cake rock
for Black Dragons.
That being said, it's good to get wins early on,
but it's great to get wins
against the other good teams in your bracket
that will also be able to get wins
because the points matter.
So Black Dragons, I'd say right now,
is in the best spot out of all the teams.
It's a very good way to put it here, reminder that Team Liquid multiple times have hung
on the edge of making it to playoffs or qualifying to events just because they messed up in
a game here or there, they lost a few too many or they went over time one too many times
and they kind of messed things up.
You can't always recover it the last second, especially not in kickoff when things are
quite shortened compared to what you're used to during normal stage with a full set of play
days and then into playoffs. You're terming that down here in the setup to Salt Lake City.
There's a lot more pressure, but if anything, just means that we get a lot better storylines
to talk about in this short three week period before we qualify four teams from SAL into the
Salt Lake City Major. Though Fox, the glow sings off. Thank you very much for a wonderful evening.
I can't wait to be back on here with you in what like two weeks
Yeah, it's gonna be very quickly
Yeah, I'll be back for a day six
Dad I think that's the Tuesday the 14th
Yes, yes. Yeah, that is in just two weeks
That's gonna be a very fun time when we get back into it
And maybe there will be a lot of changes that will surprise you from now till then
I'll let you make whatever predictions you have in mind to see if we are right about them in two weeks
What do you think? What do you got?
I'll be watching every single player, but my predictions are
A's will top their group
Bold bold aren't we tonight damn you really choose some tough one and my other prediction is and I people will not make Salt Lake City
Okay
It's kind of on the it's lukewarm, but I'd say that's
Given how an IP it's it's a fair thing. So I have a good reasoning
It's because they're a very momentum based team and then unfortunately they play the two best teams in their bracket early on
And I feel like those two losses
Will set the rest of their season the rest of their takeoff into failure
It depends on the bracket for playoffs right? I would say like for now you can
still put like BO1s away we're really digging into this. BO1s are one thing
when you get to the playoffs when it's best of threes even if it's online
sure that's when the real test begins this is kind of like the the you got to
through go through this paperwork to get to the point of the playoffs and it
just means you have to start showing consistency and now just dropping random
maps and random series to whatever team really put up a fight as best as you can and then
we'll see what you're really made of once we get to those playoffs which I believe will
be going through the first playday of when we're together next time.
Jens, look forward to that.
Alright so Fox thank you again, I'll let you go on with your day and go have some fun.
Say hi to your cat and your big old kiss.
Anyways, for you guys watching at home, thank you for joining us for SAL.
be back on Saturday and Sunday for more SAO though there's some other
regions that are happening in the meantime for all the fans out there
there's of course NAL and APL that are happening throughout this and you'll be
seeing Fox at least on the NAL broadcast can't wait to catch it in
Not Long From Now. Have a good day Fox and have a good day everybody at home.
Have a wonderful time.
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