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No introduction.
No warm-up.
Kickoff is now.
The Rainbow Six North American League season kickoff.
That is crazy work.
10 teams.
New rosters.
Oh my lord.
New stories.
We don't call ourselves legends.
We earn it.
Who will set the tone before the season even begins?
season in the game.
Will they prove they belong?
Will they shock the world?
It earned their spot at the main agent.
Only one way to find out.
Loop stage begins April 1st.
Earn here, not given.
Welcome to the North American League season kickoff.
the NAL is back and God does it feel good it feels like they're in for a
treat in 2026 we've got so many new roster changes new organizations and
what feels like more new faces than we've ever seen in any league around the
world at one time 12 rookies wild stuff ahead and we get our look at all of that
that today in the NAL kickoff as we get things started.
Welcome back to another year of the North American League, everybody.
We are so glad to have you with us.
I'm Jonas Rulinger, alongside two guys who need absolutely no introduction, Foxy and
Lexing.
Lex, this is a crazy year.
We always know we're going to see a lot of roster changes.
I feel like that's esports, that's siege, but it feels like this stage coming into 2026,
We have seen more chaos than ever.
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, we've talked about roster mania's time and time
again, but this one definitely takes the cake,
and especially here in the NAL.
As you said, we have so many rookies entering the scene.
So that really just brings even more eyes, even
from the T2 scene, to watch these players develop for us
to watch and develop.
I'm really excited to see how this kickoff looks.
And it's a crazy time to be living in,
because when we were playing Lacks,
it felt like every T2 player that
was going to come into the T1 scene was anticipated.
Ambie, Yogg, all these players, Newers, Merck, Folt, yeah.
We knew these players from the T2 scene
that they were stars already.
And now there's such a huge pool of players
that you can pull from.
There's not one specific team, one specific player
to look at.
So it just goes to show that some of these players
have to be special enough to have
been selected for these teams to be able to debut.
And I'm excited to see it all unfold.
Well, our job here over this month of kickoff
is to figure out out of all the chaos that happens,
out of all the 10 teams we have in the NAL,
which four are gonna get to represent the region
at the Salt Lakes City Major?
Unbelievably, it feels like it's just around the corner,
only one month away.
To do that, we're gonna put teams into two groups of five.
Hopefully you've already gotten an idea.
If you don't, we're gonna give you a look
into those groups now.
After that, we eliminate one team from each group
and send the rest to a double elimination bracket.
I mean, there's so much to talk about here, Lex,
but right at the top of group A,
we have to talk about 100 Thieves
joining the NAL for the first time
and seeing what they can do to make their early mark here.
Yeah, 100 Thieves, I mean, super excited.
We got that teaser during SI.
Now they are officially here.
They have their team.
We know what they're gonna be looking like,
but then you gotta look at all the new faces,
five fears, one of 30, and then M80 Rebellion.
I mean, it is absolutely stacked in Group A.
So these newer teams, these newer players
are really being thrown into the thick of it.
Yeah, it's scary to be caught into Group A
because there's three really known teams
that are in that bracket.
But as for Group B, a lot closer in comparison,
two of the teams, SSH and Darkshare,
that had full roster rebuilds,
that we know and love those orgs,
but now they have new faces.
Alongside joining them without last,
We have cloud nine with their new rebuild and then wild card two.
So at the end of the day, it's anybody's game.
But that being said, I wouldn't want to be in group A.
Get to three known, good teams that could be fighting for that top four.
Yeah, there, there are so many known quantities and yet even more unknown
quantities as we dive into this.
So hopefully to clear things up for everyone, we're going to dive into
something that it feels like everyone has been fascinated by over the last week.
Thanks to our good friend, Alphama, he's got power rankings dialed in.
and so we've decided to give our own twist on it and take a look at these 10 teams in the NAL
and where we think they stack up. Starting with number 10, the newest face out last game.
And a team lacks its near and dear to my heart because they come from the T2 scene with all
five players not having a single minute of pro league experience.
Yeah, and that's the beauty of it though, Jonah, is, you know, sure they might not have that T-level
one experience, but they did get here. They all put in the effort. They all put in the
work to make their names present here today to really showcase what they got and to be
able to take each and every single hurdle in front of them and take from that and grow
as individuals. So I am really excited to see what this roster is going to bring as
we start this kickoff. Yeah, Atlas is one of those teams that we're looking forward
to seeing. But as we have the whole bottom six teams that we have ranked, I mean, there's
a lot of notable teams here. I mean, you got to be looking at full locker fitness.
I mean, we've seen Packer win almost every T2 possibility tournament out there for him
to come into T1. And it doesn't really go the right way. But now she's back again with
a new roster. He's got Vino on his team. And then you have all of these other teams that
we have seen as well, like Cloud9 and SSG that have had brand new faces entirely lacks.
Yeah, absolutely. And then, you know, we're going to be revealing the top five here. I
I mean, we're already starting out here with 100 thieves.
I mean, this has been a little bit of a shift
in terms of their roster change previously known as auction,
now 100 thieves.
So I am curious, you know, why we're putting them at five
is just for the simple fact that they still
have a pretty good core, but we do see them
at middle of the pack.
And then we have to reveal the others
to see where you guys think we're
correct in where we're putting them.
I will say, though, where Alphama was wrong,
we have all got tier players in the NAO.
Exactly, exactly.
every single one with a big ol G by their name.
But as we get into these top few teams, Fox, right,
we're looking at, we go from the unknown to the known.
We look at rosters that haven't made a ton of changes
and who we very well think are coming out of this,
heading into the SLC major potentially trying
to make their mark on an international level.
And one of those teams that needs to make their mark
this year more than ever is Dark Zero
with their brand new rebuild.
I mean, we didn't see Dark Zero at all last year
and they just decided to scrap the team.
They picked up the previous SSG guys
Plus a few additions, you know,
Fault's J9O and newer is coming from SSG,
but now with Kino and the only dark zero member
that stayed was NJR.
And even though they lost Ashen,
it feels like such a well-rounded team.
And they picked up and got players
that they exactly needed to make this roster a feared one.
No, I completely agree.
And coming in third, the bronze medal,
as you put it during rehearsals,
it's gotta be wild card.
I mean, this is a roster,
they did make a significant change
with removing gas for Adrian
with this tremendous pickup for this team,
but now it is time for them to solidify themselves
in the top side domestically.
We know what they can do internationally.
They always seem to be the best
whenever they go international.
Now this is the stage that I am expecting them,
or the kickoff rather,
that I am expecting them to lead the charge
and be within the top three,
possibly even number one,
given this significant roster change.
And as for the top two,
you know, the teams that we're expecting to be at the top,
M80 and Shopify Rebellion.
M80 on one hand, still the same roster.
Besides one, they ended up getting Ashen.
They lost Kino.
So there's a lot of firepower on this roster,
but the reason why they're not one is because
you have to figure out who's gonna be playing what
with a team filled with stacked entry players.
And that's the difficulty for M80
that we hopefully can see them surpass.
Yeah, and then for the Shopify Rebellion,
I mean, we put them at one just for the simple fact.
And if you remember seeing Supers quote on Twitter
saying that they're sticking with the program,
They understand their system.
They're bringing in thesis to be able to make things work,
revolutionize some of their strats,
and allow Seth really to focus more on the coaching aspect.
And you can't really fault the team
for trying to rely on what they know best.
So that's the only reason why that they are currently
at the top, because they don't have to change anything
unlike the rest of the others.
All right, it's easy.
You just rock from stage to stage,
from year to year, trying to improve all the performance
from, in this case, from SI.
And you've got a potential winning formula.
But let's take a look at what the day
We have a head starting things off with the newest face into the NAL it is hundred these to kick us off against five fears
But Fox we have a quite a slate of of matches ahead. We end without last. What do you have your eye on today?
I mean any one of these games could go any way with all the changes that have happened for me
The one that I'm looking forward to is SSG dark zero just because a majority of the SSG roster has now found themselves on dark zero with
good additions, and SSG has had to go through a whole rebuild, essentially, building around
Dream and picking up players here and there to be able to fill the big shoes that the
previous SSG roster has left.
I'm going to have to completely disagree, and this might sound like a snoozer to you
with the one that I'm about to say, but I have to say that last game, Wildcard vs. Outlast,
one I just want to see these new guys really come into it, and to go against a team like
Wildcard is already going to be a big hurdle in front of them, but for Wildcard I really
want to see this edition of Adrian and what he's able to bring to this roster and not just that
even from Spiker's point of view taken on Dasher's role I'm curious to see how well his IGL is going
to just perform even better now that he can utilize those shields and make it work within those rounds.
Well let's we'll start to dive into some answers here as we take a look at our first best of one
of the day 100 thieves and five fears going toe to toe to kick us off when we look at this
this 100 thieves roster Fox.
We look at a team that is, yes,
configured of those OXG components,
but with some pretty significant shifts.
You take Grixer, you take Forest,
you put them aside and you welcome spirits
and Pamba into the mix.
Yeah, we have a list of positive and negatives
that me and Lacks will go over.
And I think some of the biggest negatives of the fact
is a lot of these players won.
Pamba's out, hasn't played since 2025.
Spirits, he is a very gimmicky player.
He loves the shields, he loves playing game and glass.
But the positive of these two players joining this team
is the fact that they don't have another IGL
that they have to listen to.
They can finally find success on their own.
Pamba was not really on his own roles
on that later half of DZ up until he,
quote unquote, retired.
Spirits was stuck on these gimmicky operators
because he couldn't build teams around him.
But now with Spirits taking the helm
as the primary IGL, he can suit and position everybody
on his team in better ways to be able to find success
when he plays Blackbeard, when he plays Blitz,
when he plays Glass, Ying, any of these operators.
And those are the biggest takeaways is, yes,
these players didn't really look great on their own
on the previous rosters,
but now this friendship team has a lot of potential.
Yeah, I mean, Fox, I want to piggyback off
what you're talking about with bringing on Pamba,
bringing on Spirits of the IGL and Shield player.
The thing I am worried about most with this roster,
and I've heard it from previous players,
from even your time when you ended on Oxygen with Yogg
and our little bitter experience,
a lot of these players aren't super vocal.
Now, I'm not in their comms, I'm not in their boot camps,
I'm not listening to every single game that they have,
but my general understanding, they don't talk that much.
So at least Forrest at the time,
and how we saw Oxygen develop in that later half
of everything, we did see that communication being instilled,
but that was off of Forrest.
Now that's shifting to spirits,
which I've heard from numerous players that Spirits isn't that vocal,
but now he's taking on this leadership role.
And as you know, being in IGL, having to transition into that role from one team to another,
I'm curious on your thoughts personally,
what you think that is going to look like for this team.
If Spirits can't get a hold,
who's going to be the next person to step up and try to reign in the troops?
See, that's a great question because I don't have an answer for you.
That was the biggest falter for OXG.
If Forrest wasn't there, the rest of the team would crumble.
So now a lot of that pressure is on Spirit's shoulders.
Well, let's talk Forrest because he's now going
against his former team.
This time under five fears roster.
We talk about him joining this team,
Lacks and being that potential leadership voice
that JJ can use to support him.
I mean, with a team like former Envy,
the core here who was having a pretty decent finish to 2025,
maybe this is exactly what they need
to push them in the right direction.
Yeah, I think it's extremely crucial
that they got forced for this roster
because what we saw from Envy out of last seasons,
their attacks were pretty abysmal.
The defenses were solid, attacks didn't look too great,
and that's where we saw Oxygen shine because of force,
understanding where he needed to move those pieces on attack.
So him and JJ being able to work in unison
and understand the shot calling,
what they can do, how they can make a round plan,
their favorite, I think Forrest is gonna be so instrumental
for this side, especially on attack.
And it also gives that veteran leadership
that this team just never had.
So I am 100% on board with this roster change.
And then as you said in the beginning of this,
them keeping the core from that Envy roster,
I think is only gonna make things that much easier
of just sliding these extra pieces in.
I completely agree.
When you have players like Snake and Fens
that are gonna be on that entry,
something that Envy never really had
was that veteran leadership.
Somebody who's able to calm everyone down
in high intense situations.
That's exactly where force is gonna be.
But we can also see a flip-flop completely
Because we know Forrest loves being aggressive on Blitz, loves being aggressive on the shields,
and sometimes he will go too aggressive, but that's where you need the confidence of that
experience where you have the younger players like Fence to be able to follow him up.
And Snake, it's nice to see him back with all these players to finally have maybe a
little bit more limelight, because I wouldn't really say his name has been in the highlight
reels since he had his little stint on TSM so many years ago.
So now this whole team comprised of young players with Snake and Forrest that have a
a little bit of experience to be able to calm everyone down.
They're in a very good position and no better of a matchup
than a hundred thieves, a team that's also trying
to figure out their grassroots.
And we always talk about it.
When a player leaves their previous roster,
they always end up beating them.
And Forrest left OXE guys to join this team.
So that is a situation that you have to keep in mind
when you equalize the pressure.
Yeah, just everything that we were talking about.
I mean, I have a quote from JJ himself.
You know, he was talking about Forrest on defense.
really aggro on his role on attack. He helps me IGL and plays everything from shields to lurking.
He's been a great mentor to the team so far, but especially for him. So again, just highlighting
Forrest's impact already is already mentoring JJ to become a better IGL, be able to understand
these attacks better. I really just want to get into this game. I don't want to keep yapping at
this point. I want to get into the bands and figure out where this is going to be unleashed,
because it is going to be interesting to see one, how this new 100 Thieves look is going to look,
and then also from this five
years aspect as well. We ask
for it. Let's dive in. We'll
take a look at where we're
going for this very first best
of one of the N. A. L. kickoff.
And of course we got to start
things off Fox by going into
fortress. This one should be
good. Yeah, I've been loving
fortress and it's a great
playing ground for five years
to be able to take them to
because it's a map that no
team has really played
comfortable on. It's not like
a clubhouse, not a cafe,
something where you know what
of a lot of uncapped potential.
And for a team of five fears that can play
very aggressive a lot of the time,
and specifically using those shields with fours,
this is a great map to be able to take position
with the Blackbeard, with the Blitz,
and that's something that 100 Thieves
is gonna have to worry about.
A lot of those players are going to be focused on fours,
but if they take those shields off the board,
that's where the IGLing's gonna come
into question from spirits.
What is he going to play?
How is he going to line his players around him
if he's on the yank, if he's on the glass?
And this battle really comes down to a battle
the IJLs for me, who's got the better brain,
who's going to set their team off on the right foot forward
going into the rest of kickoff?
I do think this is really gonna favor five beers
just for the simple fact is they are bringing on Forrest
and he is playing against their old team.
And I doubt just with a little bit of transition,
a little bit of time this team has had together
that they're gonna have a lot of pieces played
for this map, that they're gonna have a lot of rotations
to be able to make off the cusp of something
not going in their favor.
So just for that simple fact,
I think it really is gonna fall on Forrest on JJ
of understanding where they need to put the bands,
where they can place these players,
and how are they gonna move on attack?
Cause once you get to this defense,
it's really just about knowing that blueprint,
knowing that layout,
how to play off one another,
play those trades,
and fall back into, you know,
whatever your setup is going to look like
through and through, and just playing those layers.
I do really like this map for five years,
but I really wanna see Pamba and Spirits
really wanna take charge in their roles
that we usually previously saw them on
when they were actually finding success
within those rosters back in the day.
I agree, there's just something
that I want to be able to set the tone for 100 Thieves
when it comes to the rest of the season.
Something that we've seen from the OXG roster
for the last couple of years is
there's a little bit of complacency.
And now that they've joined,
something that we've seen with Gomez and Yogg being on XSET,
going on to NM80,
every time to now OXG and now to 100 Thieves,
every time that they are building
this friendship style of a roster,
it never really pans out.
So I'm really hoping for them to wake up
now that they're on an order like 100 Thieves
to be able to have spirits and pamb on the team
and everybody to be able to put their best for forward
because that's something that we haven't seen
from these players in a while.
Clearly.
We get a chance to dive into this one right away.
Our first look at 100 Thebes, five fears,
can both of these rosters figure this out
as they try to make something happen,
starting the 2026 kickoff with a bang.
No better people to send it over to right now
than to Parker and Jesse as we dive
into our first match of the day.
Oh, thank you so very much.
And it's wonderful to kick off the kickoff.
I suppose with one of the big words that joined us
as of late hundred thieves is an org
that fans of Rainbow Six and fans of most esports
in fact have been salivating over,
investing in their community and they are here
and honestly not a bad set of players to pick up.
Jesse, they picked up the skeleton of the OXG team
added to very good players from DZ
and now they go up against the old core of that envy roster
that seems to be a little improved with some veteran leadership.
Yeah, I couldn't agree more, Parker.
I mean, we've got two brand new works to the league.
100 Thieves made a huge pass to the Six Invitational,
being announced as joining the North America League.
But five years as well, a new face to the NAL,
obviously picking up that MV core led by JJ Blast.
Now we got Forest in, the desk broke it down.
It should be exciting.
Am I crazy for thinking this might be game of the day?
I mean, I know 100 Thieves are a much bigger name
than five years, but I think when you look at the matches
we have today. This might be the closest we get. I mean this whole kickoff is going to be about
figuring out which teams can make the biggest improvements the fastest. The only team that is
largely unchanged is Shopify Rebellion. Everybody else has a new cast of characters. Some of them
have completely new identities. Some of them have mostly the same core but have changed things up.
You think M80, you think Wildcard, they're not going to look like the exact same teams. So it
What really is just a question of who finds their footing the fastest?
100 Thieves certainly has their work cut out for them because while they do have that
core of OXG, Jesse, I think it's fair to say the OXG core has some struggles with big games.
This OXG team finished atop the standings in one of those top two positions back in
stage two and then got decimated in playoffs losing every single one of their maps and
only made SI through that LCQ run, and well,
OXG had a better performance at SI
than I think we expected,
but still not exactly the most confident
given their abilities.
This five-fears roster started off so strong
in stage two under that envy banner,
winning four of their first five games,
and then losing the next four
and ultimately failing to make the top six.
Didn't make it to playoffs and didn't make it to SI.
So both of these teams have ways to improve.
Which one will show up hot here on Fortress?
Parker, it's gonna be a battle between two new faces here
in the North America League, but not new players.
These two cores have gone up against each other
in the past.
Of course, met twice last season.
It was seven, five in stage one, seven, three in stage two.
That was Oxygen versus NB.
Couple players have changed out,
but we know the history.
We know the expectations are higher
for this 100th Deeds team.
I'm gonna be looking at five fears
on these first couple of rounds, just to showcase exactly how much they've improved in the off season.
There's no pressure on this team, right? There's still a young core, even though they've got now a season behind them.
Guys like JJ, guys like rivals, even guy like Fens don't have that same history that we see on players like the guys on 100 Feeds.
So it's going to be really on them to show up and kind of give an example of what they're going to look like throughout this season and throughout kickoff.
I think they've got the opportunity to upset here.
I think they've got a good potential to bring it on to these.
Maybe more than people are expecting,
but we really just don't know because both these roasters are so new.
I mean, all of these players are known quantities at this point.
We've all seen them before.
We've talked about them before.
It's more about how they gel, right?
And I mean, when you've got a kickoff like this,
you have such a short window of opportunity to make your mark to qualify
or the Salt Lake City Major.
We've changed the way the schedule works here,
where you don't have stage one to qualify
for the first major.
We have majors, again, two of them this year
with SI included.
And then for those that participate,
there will be either you see in the summer.
So stage one and stage two are gonna be happening
after Salt Lake City.
You don't have that same kind of buffer
to fill things out over a couple months.
You've got basically three weeks, if not less,
to figure this one out.
and if you stumble on your first match or two,
depending on how tight the competition is
and how competitive your group is,
that honestly could be your shot at SLC gone.
Everything really does come down
to this playoff game, Parker,
but it's important to get yourself in a good position.
This would be a necessary win for 100Bs
if they want to cement themselves
in a solid spot for that upper bracket.
If you've played on fortress,
I don't feel like we haven't touched on that too much just yet.
This was a map that we obviously oxygen-played
the six-invitational.
Unfortunately, Parker, you and I casted that game, and it was a 7-0 defeat, so it wasn't exactly the best showing from Oxygen.
Both these teams played it in the SILCQ. Both of them had decent success with it there, so this is not a brand new map for these cores,
but still not one that I would say is exceptionally comfortable. I want to touch on the off-bands quickly as well.
I like the Blitzclaim from Five Fears to get that out of the hands of spirits as soon as possible, and the Snake Fan as well.
See, just most operators have been proven to be a bit of a menace over the last couple of days in other regions.
Spirits will be the one calling on this 100 Thieves roster as well, so he will be doing some eye-gelling.
Yago was calling for that OXG squad alongside Forrest at SI, so Yago is still there for some experience,
but it will be interesting to see how Spirits handles this.
The suspicion would be that he'd play on Shields, but no, he's on Twitch.
Playing that F2 DMR, gone from the French operator, and gone ascends!
As 100 Thieves will strike first in their matchup.
Okay, a bit of an answer back though. Spirits will fall and there goes Pamba getting one back as well.
So the Azami goes down, big swing from rival. It's just equalizations all over the place, Parker.
And we're now down to a three on three with just over 60 seconds to go.
These players in the 100th E's have yet to breach the bomb site and Defuse gets in a bit of a precarious spot here in the bathroom hall.
Now they're going to have to fight their way through this one. Yaga will make the job a little bit easier.
Shredding through JJ, leaving just Snake and Rival, Snake playing into the name Captain Jack.
I have to raise my eyebrows at that one, but hey, he's fragging out two kills so far.
And back to even footing, we go. Diffuser, still just out of reach for 100 beads. Both players from
Five Fears now guarding it with their lives, and Adam might be able to get an easy one of the
Nari of Rival who pops up and shreds him. Every kill for Five Fears on these last two surviving
players. Can Yaga manage to punish them 4-ed? He finds one, but an immediate trade from Snake.
Good patience. Great teamwork, and five fears take their first round. Well, it wasn't the cleanest
round of siege we've ever seen, but at the end of the day, the clutch potential and the teamwork
is good enough from five fears. This is what I was saying, Parker. We're one round dead,
I'm not going to over-hype anything, but the five fears team have been a core for a long time.
They've got three of the players from envy the teamwork was really key in this round
Everybody was playing close enough together that they could if somebody lost the fight
Reswing and get that pick play a little bit more aggressive. I have to give credit to snake in that round
I felt like his decision-making on when to take fights and where to take fights was absolutely critical
He was so good in those moments never overextending never overstepping
But always behind his teammates to make sure that they did not die in the
a really nice team play from around from five fears,
close one from 100 thieves, but they don't strike first.
Now, I don't have the most detailed stats on Fortress
for one reason and one reason alone,
because there was map Jesse,
and we don't exactly have a lot of stats
other than what we saw at SI,
and the qualifiers obviously up to this point.
But if my memory serves correctly,
the numbers that we have are correct.
This is a map that will eventually be favorable
to the attackers, but like so many was defender sided through most of the six
invitations. That means 100 thieves have their work cut out for them. We also say
that when a team is still finding themselves, attacking is much harder.
Five Thieves still has much of that same identity that they had when they were on
that old Envy roster. I would argue that 100 thieves has to deal with more motion
on that roster, which to me means they're the newer team, they have to work
through things, and they're gonna have to work through this round down a player as
Yaga gets destroyed outside of the building by Snake.
Snake's just on a bit of a heater, Parker.
I think after how round one went, he's saying, yeah, I'm going to keep this up, goes for
a little bit of a peek.
Just playing, I believe that was over towards the museum side, over towards horse, so able
to get a bit of an early take over towards the window and start things off strong for
five years.
That's the capitao as well.
I mean, that's such a critical operator when you're going for these executes.
You can see with the glas being brought out by Adam, some of those smoke grenades will
be missed during the miss of this execute. Still have three left, so the
spear is holding one as well, but even still those smokes can be so powerful if you're
bringing glass and the fire bolts as well. Always gonna be a high-value bit
of utility there, so up to 100 thieves to try to recover this round from this one.
I like Gomez playing down below, but so far he hasn't been able to find much.
I mean you've been knocked off stride, you've lost your capital, a very powerful
utility operator, good guns now as well. Access to an LNG and a small rifle,
The DMR, that new DMR, very strong and seeing quite a bit of that great across the operators where it's equipped to.
Funny enough, when we were submitted, when was submitted to us and we saw the rosters with all of the positions,
certain teams had listed players just as DMR. That was it. There's no role, there's no job, they just are DMR.
They play the character with the DMR, that's all they need.
So far though, things are going really, really well for this five-fierce roster.
Another kill will come in Snake so far with five kills all very high impact and it leaves hundred thieves with their hands empty
With a minute to go they're gonna try to go for a pit towards the bomb site with the glass and the mouth combo
Adam not able to do much with it. They've trapped JJ in the corner
Spirits is harassing him
Reunited with the shield what was that?
Why how does JJ get away with it another from snake?
How about four from Snake?
A ridiculous run-out from JJ
and a devastating round for Hundred Thieves.
Alright, welcome back to the NAL.
Hundred Thieves, good to see you.
You're gonna have to deal with this a couple more times.
JJ Plast hops out the window.
He has to do the dodging. That's the only thing he can do.
He can't swing. He's gonna get killed by the guys that are holding his swing.
Obviously he can't do anything with the Monty.
If he lives through that scenario, that's insane.
insane. He lives and somehow gets an angle to kill spirits in the midst of it. This isn't
even talking about the ridiculous kill streak that Snake is now on. I believe he's up to
seven after that round, finishes off. Got those last two. Maybe just six? No, he did
get the last two both. So, Snake is having an incredible game. JJ is doing things that
make absolutely no sense, and five years, they're up to zero.
You're just clinical stuff, and I mean, again, how are you supposed to be able to execute
a bomb site with the fire and the smoke arrows of a cap of town if he's not available?
Right?
I know that what we've heard right now from Scrim Reports, and if you watched SAEL yesterday,
which is just, I believe you betrayed me by casting with Devin.
It was enough fresh.
You've made a powerless enemy today, I hope you understand that.
EML obviously went off too. You'll know that we're in the information metal. Lots of demos, lots of dope, lots of snake.
The newest operator obviously coming from Metal Gear Solid. If you haven't followed along, yes.
That exclamation mark that is underneath Five Fears Banner in the center right of your screen is the Solid Snake icon.
These operators are really, really good at roam clearing, great for executes. They can be a real menace in the post plant as well.
Well, so if you're getting rid of these intel ops, you're gonna need some kind of paralysis, right?
You that's what intel ops can do capitals great for that
You don't have the smokes you can't conceal yourself. There's a glass on the board
That makes the glass weaker as well
It also means the games the fire arrows how nice what fire are have been on JJ in that corner
Can't do it and JJ ends up getting the kill and escaping because of it
These are the consequences of the early round and hopefully for snake's sake you can make things
awkward once again he gets a lot of bombs and we'll have to play back down the main
stairs this is a kitchen defense don't forget so the bottom side will be one
floor below looks like there's no real help for snakes on the top floor they've
fully spread across the bottom floor we do see teams do this relatively often or
if they don't roam too heavily up above just because it can be tough to lock
things down up there snake it's 7-0 is certainly feeling confident to try a
couple fights but knows better than to die for it you're gonna retreat back
down into Hamam and just play a position that they're not going to know on 100 Thieves.
I mean, this is one of the slower rounds so far. 90 seconds in and
teams yet to come to blows. LogiPond had gone off. The Daelos and Doki can still work
in tandem to find these defenders even if Solid Snake
is banned. Can't really run a third intel off with the way that this 100 Thieves lineup is
so it will instead go off. I guess Grim and Flores can sort of work
for information Grim in particular, but not the way that those nuisance are enabler ops like Lion, Jack, or Dokodin, Kamus, etc. can.
So, at the moment, five fears really strong on the roam for the first two rounds.
Hundred thieves have matched that by bringing in some anti-rollmops, but have not been able to find anything.
And with a minute to go, you're kind of running out of time.
Yeah, absolutely. We've been watching Gomez and rightfully so, because it's his job to find some kind of an angle, get some kind of a pick from up above,
but he hasn't been able to root anybody out.
That means it's going to be a full 5B5, actually, he's under 45 seconds to go. It's about to get messy.
The Gome is looking for the drop. He'll find it.
Encountering the Castle Barricade, this will slow him down.
35 seconds to go.
Gas canisters being tossed out, JJ, with one in back pocket.
Down goes Rival. Striking first is 100 D's. This is what they need.
They have been at a disadvantage to most of these rounds,
and they are finding their marks, but Snake, who is yet to die, will go 8-0.
a double drop from 100 deems. Inside the bombsite, Pambazoo gets Ben's. It's Snake and JJ to clutch out.
JJ with one kill, another for JJ. Yaga getting defused down. It's Gomez to watch all by himself.
Yaga gets defuser down successfully, tears through JJ Blast, and finally they claim Snake.
As 100 deems, we'll get on the board. It was a scrappy round, but the job gets done in the end.
Yeah, low time execute Parker, but they got the information. They really were able to isolate
a lot of those players inside the bomb site, you know, they were able to clear out the majority
of the other positions around the map. There was nobody holding them up above. It was really
just Snake that was trying to get extended outside of the bomb site. And Snake, because
he's outside the site, isn't really able to help his teammates much. Comes back in for
one trade, ultimately not good enough to do more than that. So his teammates struggle inside
the site, not a lot of places to play thanks to that buck up above. And it's a good collapse
from Hunter Thieves. That's a really critical round, because if you go down 3-0, that's
That's a full site rotation, that's a full confidence boost over towards five years and
when you're the underdogs coming into this game, when you're the team that I think only
twenty percent of people are something predicted to win this game, going up three-oh would
have been a massive boost to the next.
Yeah, against this team defending, I mean the job might get harder when you swap sides,
so if that's the belief, which again, stay this at the start of every single stage, every
single season, every single live event.
It's entirely possible that the script gets flipped because of the meta and because of
the teams and suddenly a defender side of map becomes a attacker side, we have to win.
But if conventional wisdom with fortress holds and this is the defender side of map, then
the job gets harder for five fears moving forward and all the things I said about 100
thieves, Jesse, applies to them as well.
So, trio would have been a devastating start for 100 thieves, they'd buy themselves some
breathing room and honestly, if you are a weak attacking team on this map, two rounds
is the goal for most teams in these situations as the 4-2 score line is most common in Siege.
If 100 thieves are able to get a number one pretty quickly, I do fear for five fears mental
as when they were on that envy team, they did have problems closing out games. Now it is a
different team, but old habits do die hard. We'll have to see if five-years-fals victim is the same
thing that envy fell victim to back in stage two. Yeah, I wouldn't read too much into attacker
defender sided for this game obviously why won't we have had a meta change but
oh well you didn't I mean you said it we've had a meta change which is gonna
change things up but also just the fact that these are kind of younger teams
and whilst the better teams have kind of made this map more attacker sided often
when you don't have the experience it does lean more towards the defenders now
Gomez nearly found the head of changes last here's the reinforcement but still
too slow to get that frag there was almost a big opportunity there instead
we'll just have to reach their way into master bedroom get themselves an angle
that way instead.
The spirit's reacquainted with this shield role.
He mentioned that he would be IGLing and would likely be doing it from the fortification
of these shield ops.
Five years opted to get rid of the doke, instead of a second shield operator.
Only Blitz unavailable for this hundred things rostered.
And those gummies, by the way, the ash is gone.
Snake will die very early.
He's been an incredibly impactful player so far.
They will have to do it without him.
Good news, though, for five years.
His gadgets, passive gadgets.
They will stay persistent even if his gun does not.
Now the guys in Yaga looking for an opening,
completely blinded, finds Forrest either way.
An impressive shot.
Smoke hand blinded at the hands of the Ying.
Pambazoo doing great work to facilitate this push from Yaga.
Now Fenz in a really awful spot.
Just him and rival as Fenz is pushed into the bathroom
from the Monty Spirit's breathing down his neck.
And yet to find a kill on this roll amidst the smoke
is rival, he could spring free and clear
and do some serious damage.
The glass just in front of him.
Oh my goodness.
The rival know this, he does now.
Fighting a single kill, but chased off of the position.
Benz is gone, so rival will have to do it all himself.
And there's a Monty still on the board
to make matters even harder.
Adam and Spirit's the last two standing.
It's a 1v2 for five years.
If gotta read, Rival knows exactly where Adam is
in vice versa.
It'll be a Deimos and the Ella in a showdown for the ages.
Monty getting the plant down, Rival sweeping across.
Off of the plant comes spirits to give information.
This is a great call and a very smart move.
As Adam capitalizes, well read by spirits
and a great adjustment to give 100 thieves another round.
And all the credit to Rival.
He brought that damn close.
Every decision he made in that parker,
every micro movement that he decided to commit to was the right call.
Just missed his shot on the final frag there onto the demos.
That was so close from rival pulling back around that they had no business winning.
But 100 thieves, they stand tall,
they managed to not let things get too out of hand despite
miss turning in a little bit and missed that.
Just not expecting kind of a cheeky spot out in the hallway.
I like that they went for a bit of a different approach here too, Parker.
The first round, they attacked on this office bomb site,
they tried to take it from the south,
They tried to pull up here at the top floor, it didn't go horribly but they created a lot
of kills.
They didn't manage to get the man advantage they were looking for.
And this time they say, screw it, let's cheese it up, let's go for the glass, let's go for
the yin, let's go for these operators that will not be giving fair fights.
Again, things get a little bit messy at the end of the rounds but in the end they still
have that information advantage, they still have that positioning in the utile a little
bit better.
So they will tie us up back now two to two.
I expect that cheesy style of player from Hunter Thieves to continue both through the rest of this half and likely the stage to follow.
I mean, you once said before we even played a single round.
Oh, lemme do your... lemme do your... lemme do my best to Jesse voice for the last time here.
Oh boy.
Parker!
Dare I say it?
This might be the match of the day.
I don't sound anything like that.
I don't have you saying anything exactly like that.
I don't sound anything like that!
You literally sound exactly like that!
Get close to me!
And I think so far as you're showing around, it's living up to the billing.
Now, obviously we've still got three more matches to go.
One of which, in our very next matchup, will be a team that made no changes other than
a assistant coaching change in the off-season and a team that is making their pro debut,
which will go by the name 1-N-30.
You might have seen them compete under a different name that will be touched upon
when that actual match starts.
They are up next. That could be a particularly exciting one, especially.
No shade here, but if SR underperforms expectations, that could be a very, very close game.
So far, though, these two teams on very even footing, I am eager to see what happens when
the sideswap comes in.
With the way the last two rounds have gone, 100 thieves of clubs are getting more comfortable.
I honestly think they might have the advantage carrying through the remainder of this first
half.
Well, JJ is doing his best to stall out the old tower push, as it has been successfully
stalled for now.
They're wasting smokes on both sides, but still two more in the pocket, and he was
one of his here. This was the bombsite where Yaga was immediately spawned piece previously,
so his existence is going to be a big boom for 100 thieves when they go for this push.
I mean, obviously when you ban the doka, you don't really have another ban to get rid of the
launch, so you do if you're 100 thieves. You use this operator that has been such a thorn in the
side of the defenders, and those last two rallies, the paralysis that comes from a small opening
the glass can see through. Well, it can do some numbers here. Adam gunned down by JJ's. He goes
through a bit of an ego swing through that a doorway. There goes the glass. So the fear that
we had, or rather the fear that they had, and the assumption that we had, is now gone. The missed
opportunity by Hanba is he could have collected too. JJ taking matters into his own hands and he
will find his second all of the kills so far for his team. Going on to this team captain, Jesse,
How many siege timing events are we going to see on this?
100 thieves roster they missed two kills now because of it
Yes, but a little awkward for 100 thieves, but really it's five years
Who's been playing so well he mangoes so quickly not give them that big of a week
Oh, then gets on the board for his first friend. No mess
So I'll go within a couple of shots here to chase and loses the fight
All alone his spirits on the Monty and chase
You cannot do that on television
Oh, you can't stop DJ with to do Parker frankly back-to-back opening picks the last two round playing out of his mind on the smoke
Five rounds in a row and he puts himself up to a very nice stat total the end of this one
I mean he has been just miraculous in these close range difficult situations. He's going for swings when it's not being expected
He's playing aggressive doesn't matter that he's on smoke doesn't matter that he's still got toxic gauge to waste
He's willing to die for it, he's willing to take risks, and he is paying off the big time against DJ's biggest new war.
A fight for the ages, and JJ blasts.
A man who, when he made his debut, if you recall, was towards the bottom of the standings in the NA League.
And, well, he has made his presence known, he's been quite good so far in this matchup,
in this matchup and has just continued to improve with time
as his teams get more familiar.
And he's doing all that in a leadership role.
Obviously that's really tricky.
We do have a fragging IGL in our league.
It's Packer, or sorry, not Packer, it's Spiker.
Packer will be in the game next.
Spiker, if people recall, leads that wildcard team
and happens to frag really, really well.
Now obviously with Adrian joining that wildcard roster,
Spiker's gonna be in a different role.
There's now opportunities for other people
to take up that spiker mantle.
JJ's always been more active than not.
And yeah, two opening picks in a row,
one not close enough, but the other to help the team
in a flawless round where he got a 4K.
I think he'll take that.
I just want to say JJ has always gotten active in the kills.
He's never been so successful in the kills.
You go back to last season, he ended the 2025-26 season
with a 0.64 KDR, that is the lowest of any returning player
to the North America League.
So he was not really known as a fragger last season,
more known as a dire when he was playing for Envy
as their captain.
But with the team changing a little bit around him
on this new mantle of five fears,
JJ is playing out of his mind.
I've got nothing but good things to say
about how he has played so far through this matchup, Parker.
And again, I mean, you look at him and Snake.
Snake is doing this from kind of like a roam position,
a little bit out of the mind, often just flanking.
And so they don't really know where he's at.
It's not taking anything away from his kills,
but JJ is doing it from one of the hardest positions
He's on the smoke, his position is known, and he's still working all of these frags out, so, yeah, it's clear the work that has been put in over the off-season.
It's clear how much JJ has been practicing both with his team and I think on his own game as well.
There was a great tweet that he put out just before today's game, I believe it was, where he said,
It's been a very long off-season. I spent a lot of time internally working on myself as a player and as a leader going into this year.
I am definitely ready for the year without a doubt.
I don't think he could be living up to those words more.
I absolutely agree. And he's been sensational in his role.
I mean, obviously we don't know the entire inner workings of this team, but bringing on a guy that was just on your screen there in Forest to be a veteran presence, to be that experience, might allow JJ Blastle to be, you know, kind of loosened on that leash, maybe give him a little bit more leeway to do some damage.
Yeah, look, I know that when you play on a certain role, you're not going to get a lot of kills. And if you play a specific role, there are going to be accusations of you not being the best player, you're not being able to stand up against your opponents, etc.
There are very few people at play this game professionally that are incapable when given the opportunity to frag well.
we are so used to seeing players that are just unbelievably talented at this game that when you
see guys who are towards the bottom of the standings or have poor ratings, you tend to think
that they're bad. People call them bums and say that they're terrible at the game. In all reality,
they're one of the best 300 players in the world at their role. So even if JJ just finished towards
the bottom, even if a guy like Forrest, who on some of his previous teams had really poor games
from a fragging perspective these guys are still able to pick it up where necessary forest is top
fragged before JJ is capable of doing it too so don't sleep on these players if they're given the
agency to get those kills as JJ was on smoke which is a bit odd yeah you end up you end up in a
position where you can still do very very well we're still in a tech pause here I think we're
getting back in the lobby I'm not really sure what's going on here but we'll update you when we
um I believe a tech pause was called but then it didn't get selected in time so we're just
just re-hosting so that you don't tech pause,
you mean maybe tack time out.
So that we can get things sorted out,
but yes, obviously, just getting everybody back
in the lobby as we do reset here.
It's a great point you make about JJ.
I mean, he is incredibly talented.
As all players are in this league,
you do not get to the NL without being one
of the best players in the world.
And I think it's great that they can kind of represent
a bit of a newer face here.
Five Theors are not an organization
that a lot of fans will be familiar with.
They're a brand new org just founded in 2025.
And it made a bit of a splash across eSports, you know,
they've got a pretty decent call of duty team
that was competing last year.
They have the number one Rocket League team
in all of Africa, which is kind of crazy.
They get to go to international events
and have a good time.
So I don't know, this five years team,
I feel like it's almost the perfect org
to be represented by JJ Blast,
who himself is a bit of a newer name in the R6 scene.
And it's good to see them off to a strong start.
We'll see how the second half really goes,
but it's been a very fun game of siege
to watch at least for the first five rounds.
electric five rounds absolutely and I mean you've got a you got a good cast of
characters on both sides of this matchup I know that the hundred D's guys
don't really do a lot of media they don't really do a lot of talking you
look at that roster and of the five you know which one would you say would be
the main person doing media I suppose it would be spirits I know it's been
Yaga at times in the past but I mean I don't even I don't know if Pamba has
ever spoken to anybody on the official broadcast, so I mean, you're looking at a reserved and
a relatively quiet team with a very loud and very big org that's active on socials.
On the other side of things, Five Fears is a relatively new organization in most esports
scenes and is certainly growing and growing quickly, picking up good players across the
board, and then the team has tons of big names on it that you know will do some talking.
Snake is very active on social media, he's been quite popular back since his TSM days,
you got JJ who is one of the probably the biggest up and coming characters in the North
America League, Forest is, well Forest is Forest.
So I mean you've got no shortage of people who if they need they can give good content,
they can give great interviews and they can easily be a, I don't want to say like a lightning
rod for their team but they certainly are capable of speaking out and speaking up.
So a good match so far, teams can do their talking on social media, but they've all been
doing it inside the server and obviously the score line is not on your screen, but it's
five years up three to the first half almost concluded.
It's been a really strong game, I think from both teams so far.
I mean, you mentioned kind of the content that's been going on between these teams.
And I think it was a great podcast that you were able to do with a couple of the hundred
thieves guys with spirits and Yogg jumping on and talking a lot about this team's journey
and their evolution.
I feel like Spirits in particular is a player who has gone through so many ups and downs.
Started in the Canadian division of the North America League back in 2020,
playing for Altiora to go from an org like that, which most people have not even heard of at this
point in time in Siege. It sounds like Altiora. Yeah, to go from that to now 100 Thieves excuse me
is kind of a crazy jump from Spirits. He's been all over the map on different organizations
throughout his career, but it feels like now being given the keys, given the reigns to this
new team that has been formed around the old Oxygen Core, it's maybe the most exciting time
to be a spirits fan just because it is such a, I don't know, open field of possibilities.
Yeah, I mean, it's really just, it's about potential. I think when you look at the landscape
of the North America League, and again, for those that didn't tune in for the first initial rounds
of this matchup. SR is really the only team that stayed where they were. They stood back.
Every other org, every other team made changes. Some of them completely significant. If you
have not paid attention at all, SSG completely blew up. All five of those players gone. Some of
them now they're regions. They're not even all in North America anymore. DZ completely blew up.
Oxygen does not exist anymore. So there's been a lot of upheaval especially at the top and it will
be intriguing to see which of these teams end up cementing themselves. I mean, if you're
somebody who wants a sure bet, SR making top four is probably the safest bet that you can
have based off of all that upheaval. Probably on AD next because while they lost Tino, they
did pick up action. Some things would change there and of course the meta might not be
super favorable to them, but they are still a team that has tried through and tested the
bones of that team very, very strong. As for all the rest, it is a complete coin flip as
to which of these teams will finish towards the top of the standings and you don't have
a lot of time and a lot of room to make it. If you blow a couple games, that is it, your
odds of making Salt Lake City completely up in smoke. So, we are back in the game. Tactical
Timeout has been taken. Tech Host is done by Fears with the lead final round of the
first half and...
I know.
...bomb located by attackers. Ten seconds left before insertion.
I don't like the letters R-H. I don't. I don't like it.
They're rough letters to see in the midst of it. Let me tell you that. I'm not 100% sure what the rehost is for. They were playing bathroom and office, but that is a valid site. There should be no conflicts with that because they lost it back in round four, so something clearly going on there.
But of course we apologize for the delay and we will get things sorted relatively quickly here
I'll disagree with you Parker because that's why I like to do when we have some open time
You said that the only teams you can really bet on our SR and MM80
I feel like we have to throw wild card into that mix
They were the best team from North America throughout last season obviously I made he got a major win
But consistently and certainly six evitational wild card were the number one rated team from NA
They make one roster move they lose dash going back to Brazil
would they end up picking up Adrian from Team Secret? A lot of people would tell you that's an upgrade, so I feel like those three are the safest picks for top four, but now we're giving three different teams a top four spot and you start thinking, okay, well, maybe it's not as safe as we might expect, especially because it's getting determined in a bracket format, and hey, if you're a top three team, but you go up against two of the other top three teams, you still might not make it to the first major in Salt Lake City.
It's a tricky one, and again, it just, it comes back to you gotta be good and you gotta be consistent.
At this point in time, in all of the major regions, of which are up to five now, with the addition of the Chinese League,
you have to be consistent if you want to make it.
Consistency was a major issue for both the OXG Core, which now most of them are playing on this 100 Thieves roster,
and the NV team, which is now mostly competing under the Five Fears roster.
Consistency was the problem.
OXG in Stage 2, incredibly consistent.
They finished second.
They looked like they could beat any team when they were at their best.
And then what happens?
They go into the playoffs and they lose 0-2-0-2 and that's it, they're done.
Then they need to go through the LCQs.
There are no LCQs here.
If you don't make it through this kickoff, there's no second chances.
The NB team, very consistent to start, won their first three games,
dropped their fourth match, won their fifth match and had all of us wagging our tongues saying,
Oh, this team looks like they're a top four team and then they get blown out in their next four games
And that's it for them. They don't even make top six
Yeah have to be consistent if you want to be one of the best teams whether it be consistent in a regular season
Whether it be consistent in a kickoff or a qualifier or whether you have to be consistent at a LAN event
If you have too many off days, yeah, I mean you can huff that copium Jesse and you can say oh, you know
We just had a bad day
The teams that are probably winning the event they might not be having any bad days at all
No, 100% I agree Parker, it's about being good from start to finish and because this
format is so fast, it can be a bit unforgiving at times because you don't have a whole lot
of time to get better.
If you've got serious issues at the start of the stage, it might not be enough time
for you to be able to get those things sorted out.
One maybe more forgiving part of our format is that we do have two groups of five and
four teams from each group will make it to playoff.
So only one team is going to get eliminated, we're here in group A to start things off
course with 5 Fears vs 100 Thieves, the other teams in this group are M80, Shopify Rebellion,
and 1 of 30.
And two of those teams we just brought up as maybe the best two teams in North America.
So that starts to limit the spots a little bit, this game starts to become even more
critical if we expect M80 and SR to otherwise win out against the field.
I think most people would tell you that Packers team 1 of 30 would be in the final spot just
because they came into Challenger series, but whoever loses this match up here kind
of gets put in that boat where it's like, all right, well, you're kind of on the chopping
block 50-50 between you and Packers team 1 of 30. It gets a little bit scary, even though
it's only the first game of the season.
Thank you so much for your patience, by the way, and we're not really sure what the culprits
are here as to why there have been continuous re-hosts, but we will update you when there
There is more information to be had.
For those that are unaware, there was also another change to the pacing of our professional
matches.
So, at half time, coaches are given a timeout, quote unquote, if you want to call it that,
to discuss.
So when we come back from this break, we will then go into another break.
So, we're going to get, we're going to get the break, we're going to get three minutes
of action.
I'm certain it will be exhilarating.
And then, we will get another break while we bring in our lovely people on the desk.
I don't know if you watched the EML sign of things, but it was nice how they were brought
in to be able to talk about it and have the coaches be able to fill that time and equip
their teams and their players on those teams with the ability to do well in the second
half.
Yeah, it's cool to be able to give that a little bit of a rest period for the teams
just to reset mentally.
Obviously, after round six, you swap from attack to defense or from defense to attack
and getting that little bit of time just to talk with your coach talk with your team can be nice
just to reset a little bit gives us a good opportunity in the broadcast to yap a bit as well
and bring our analysts back in to fill us with some knowledge fill us with some expectations
as to what may come ahead I know that's something that I always enjoyed doing back when I was a
desk analyst in ye olden days coming in these half times and yapping a bit now they got a whole
segment for it so it's nice to see that bit of evolution for the broadcast evolution for the game
I think that Jesse the desk is really really good right now probably better than at any point over the last
Two and a half years. I agree and honestly it was all uphill after I left. I
Couldn't have said it better myself. Yeah, no, they're doing a great job better looking better sounding
Better equipped for sure better spoken and if laxing is around better smelling. He's a well-perfumed man. Let's put it that way
Oh my god, you have no idea. I had to spend a good couple of like a month and a half just with laxing and
And Jacob and Copenhagen a few years back and man
It was just like living in the land of land of flowers. Okay, whether it's the good meats
He's cooking up whether it's the colognes whether it's I just his natural odor. I don't know man. Gabe's a good smelling boy
It takes himself very seriously, but there'd be the cologne whether it be the hair products the well-groomed beard. I
Know that you tuned in for the NA League here, but unfortunately
This is now a laxing glazing session
Let's talk let's talk a little bit more about what comes next by the way with the rotating schedule over the five
Play days that we have here in the groups. There will be two teams that take the day off today. We started off with hundred thieves and
Five fears as our very first matchup. They played under another name that happens to have another business as name in it
So I'm not really certain about the legality of me saying it
But we do know that they are now competing under the name 1 in 30.
That's the team that Packer captain that made its run through the Challenger series.
They will be playing up against Shopify Rebellion in our second match of the day.
As you can see on your screen here, this is what you're looking at.
Space station gaming's new identity will go up against Dark Zeros new identity in our third match.
And then Wildcard, who just tinkered ever so slightly, will be going up against Outlast.
And if you are curious as to who Outlast is, as, don't worry too too much, because, uh,
you might wonder who they are.
They're one of the other teams that qualified through the Challenger series.
You might know the name Trevmak.
He's been around for quite a long period of time.
He's been grinding.
It is nice to see him rewarded by making it up to Tier 1.
They will be rounding out our final playday, Cloud9.
And M80 are the two teams that have today off.
If you are a Cloud9 or M80 fan, you will have to wait till tomorrow.
will be in the second matchup
tomorrow. M 80 will be in the
final matchup of the day. I am
a loyal follower of Trev Mac on
Tiktok and I was scrolling this
morning and he posted a great
clip from coastline right before
his game said he's playing his
first ever pro league match
today and asked for some good
luck. The comments were filled
with well wishes, so I'm excited
to see that final game of the
match. How outlast can do. It
I imagine the guys on Outlast will be excited and hungry to cut their teeth on this competition
that they have here in NA, so we'll be really excited to see all of the rookies participating
throughout the day today.
We've got 12 new rookies in the league this season, if I'm not mistaken, which is some
of the most amount of rookies we've ever had in the North America League, so it's super
exciting to see all the new faces coming in and joining the league, just with the Challenger
the team. We've had a lot of
experience here. We've had a
lot of experience here. We've
been really giving two brand
new teams a chance to join this
league and a chance to kind of
show themselves off through
open competition. It really did
open the floodgates and. Hey,
we might have the new
generation of top level
talent. Being showcased for
the first time today. I think
it's great. You know, there's a
lot of familiar faces here.
They've been moved around.
You've got veterans teaming
with the newbies. There will be
experience that has bestowed
and fresh blood is always good for the game. You know, a year ago we were playing under
the name Siege X, now it's just Siege back again, the X temporary for the 10th year and
with it it's still a new game. If you think about it, they completely overhauled things
on the back end. They've updated much about the game that you see in front of you, so
why not see some changes with the teams, with the orgs, and with the players. We do have
an update as to what this lengthy test tech pause has been caused by and that's
Forrest's PC going kaput. We don't know what exactly is wrong with it. He had
some issues with it. He's trying to work around restarting his computer.
Hopefully that will be resolved in a couple minutes. So just bear with us
here as we continue to talk about these teams and talk about this matchup. 3-2
is the scoreline for five fears on our very first match of the day and again we
have three more matches to be played.
Parker, I have a question for you.
I hate when you ask me questions.
No, it's a fun question.
It's a fun question to kill our time.
That makes me even more worried because when you say it's a fun question,
it usually means it's not.
Which rookie joining the North America League this season?
Are you most excited to watch play today?
Troy Canadian.
I should have seen that one coming.
Troy Canadian is my favorite rookie.
I think he's got a lot of potential.
He's got to work on his aim.
That's undeniable.
But I feel like he's got some real leadership traits.
I think he could command a good team.
Well, I would have to go with the man playing
in our next match, Mike W, who's been down in Tier 2
for a while.
You and I actually got the chance
to cast him at the SPOIT contender series last year,
when we had the big Tier 2 tournament in Toronto.
He came out, played some great games.
We got to chat with him a bit as well.
And he's been signed, well, not signed,
I think he's got to be my most excited player to see playing here 20 years old jumping in as a rookie. And if I can pick two and I'm going to pick two because it's my question and I make the rules. I would also say raid bullies is a guy. I'm very excited to see play a lot of height behind his name course, joining the new SSG core 19 years old, the youngest player in the North America League now really excited to see what he's going to be able to bring for that SSG core.
Yeah, I mean, I think Mike W was a really easy one.
He looked sensational in that point event.
Now granted, that is not exactly the high water mark
for competition, but you had some pros there.
You had some really good players.
You got some guys who are now on the cusp
of being able to compete in the EML.
You've got players who could definitely hang there
and hang in the NAL.
So I think Mike W's got his work cut out for him.
There was a period of time where he was actually rumored
to be joining this five fears roster.
I do wonder if Forrest actually took his spot
from what I see of the roster list.
But, I mean, it was a long tryout process for five years.
I know that JJ and Mike W would have made a great pairing.
They seemed to want to play with each other,
and I know that we kind of talked to him
a little off the record.
Mike W, that is, at this point of in about the fact
that he might be going pro at the time,
and he was very hush-hush, you know, wink-wink,
but didn't give us anything, because obviously,
why break that news ahead of time?
Speaking of breaking news, good news.
We are back in fortress for the final round
of this first half of our first match of the day.
Five fears within the lead, 100 thieves
are looking to close this gap.
I think it's fair to say, Jesse,
if 100 thieves are able to take this round
and push a 3-3 first half,
they will be in very good and comfortable position.
It goes out this game.
Yeah, we already see some aggressive moves
coming right back in after tech pause.
Here comes Snake, goes for a bit of a run out,
doesn't quite find anything for it,
takes a little bit of damage instead,
so no success there with the run out.
Snake was an 8th frag for the Rehost by the way. We lost the stats, unfortunately, but Snake was leading the lobby with top kills.
JJ Blast had tied him with 8 frags of his own. Snake playing a very aggressive playstyle through this map, roaming all over the map.
JJ, this is his 6th round in a row on Smoke. Why change it if it's already working?
Of course. I mean, if you lose Snake early on a gamble like that, I don't think you can really be that mad.
JJ gabled a few times, Snake gambled a few times to your point, and it works out, and it knocks hundreds of dudes off stride.
That early gamble by Snake to kill Naga just in the second round, completely defamed the offense from hundreds of dudes, and Naga's back on their capitol wall,
taking out the Brazilian operator who neighbors so much of the execute would have been a major dagger to the hearts of hundreds of thieves.
Well, it's gonna be a clearing through Old Tower, at least based on these drone positions, but we've got quite a heavy extension.
The guppler's all over the map, but it's Panba from New Tower, who actually strikes first, taking down JJ Blast, who again had found so much success on that smoke roll previously.
With him off the board, the stall potential really does get limited for five fears. They're gonna have to come back towards the bomb site now, give up a bit more space on the roam, and that's gonna be even more awkward.
Your clash of forest dying to Yaga.
Yeah, I mean, these are very odd operators for who's early, right? You tell me, here's the operator lineup. Look at the five players on the team.
Okay, now you've got a clash and a smoke. Where should they die?
Uh, not first and second is the answer to that question.
And unfortunately, that's the situation that five fears find themselves in.
Tons of stall potential completely gone.
Gas canisters will not be able to stop the advance of 100 thieves,
particularly the shield of spirits, same with forest on that clash operator.
So things are pretty grim for five fears at this point.
Yeah, you gotta think somebody like Fens has to make a bit of a move here.
If you can get behind the Monty, that would down that a fuse kit.
that could be all they need.
It's a state-working way of light-stare, too,
so the opportunity's abound.
Mercy-killing continues.
A glamorous wave for this first half to end.
I suppose 100 Thieves looking for a flawless end.
They'll find it.
She's flawlessly done by five years in the previous round.
100 Thieves took about half an hour,
but we are back on even footing between those rounds.
3-3 setting us up for the second half.
Yeah, I've been good at adaptation.
They're coming through from 100 Thieves.
They slow things down a little bit and manage to find themselves that 3-3 score line as you said Parker
All right, well, it's the halftime Jesse and our studio is gonna want to talk through the first half of this match
Well, thanks Parker six rounds in lax
We've seen quite a bit and well a little bit longer of a timeline than we wanted
But already a good early impression as to what five years and a hundred thieves are capable of what's your early impressions so far?
I mean really impressed with five fears. Like I said, I like the way that they played their defense as they understood how
How they played against their
Attacks, I really like the defense as they did very well playing their trade games
But towards the end of it. This is where they struggled before is they would get over zealous
They would play too aggressive. They would lose early engagements. This is where they struggle now
The bigger thing is now them transitioning to attack. This is where everything needs to come to fruition with this addition now
being out of force. This is where everything should look completely different on their attacking half.
Oh, 100%. I mean, we highlighted five years of weakness last year. All came from their attack
side. Forrest was brought on because he is very good on attack. He's arguably, oh, and she's reasoned
for why the attacks were able to be so coordinated. And that being said, we saw it slip away towards
the end of that defensive half. That was the biggest issue. And now hopefully going into attack
will be able to fix it. But here are some of the over-aggressive plays that we're talking about.
I mean we get the first pick that C4 easily could have taken JJ blast out
But that being said thankfully they didn't when five fears is playing together playing slow the trade game that they're showing and displaying
In these defensive rounds is amazing transitioning that to attack is their biggest difficulty and their biggest challenge
That hopefully they've been able to correct from last year into now
Well clearly JJ off to a good start five fears looking to get a bit ahead here tied at three going into the second half Parker
I'm going to go back to the
game.
Half time half, I suppose.
Yaga using it for a presumably
much needed bathroom break.
I noticed that. Yeah. You know,
nature calls. You can't always
afford to ignore it. You got to
pick up because bad things can
happen if you choose to leave
them on red or let it go to
We are helping the viewers better understand what's going on by allowing our desk to flex their skills
We are allowing teams and their coaches to reassert
What their goals are for the second half and we are also engaging in very healthy bathroom activities
By allowing the players to not stress their kidneys and ultimately I think that is really quite beautiful
Wow, we'll load back in and of course as we do return from the halftime, 100 feeds have moved on to the defense and 5 peers will move over to the offense.
I said I don't think it matters so much who's on which side. I didn't want to read into it too much, at least when we were early on in this game.
But I think Laxing had a really good point before this game started and that Envy's attacks were not very good last season.
That was probably their biggest issue that they had as a team as Envy have morphed into this five years roster
The question is how different will the attacks look from last season and I think force coming into things is going to be a
Bit of a difference maker
This is what laxing wanted to see in the pre-show was is force going to make their attacks better
Is he going to have a bit of an impact just because he has so much experience as an ITL and as a bit of a cheesy player
Well now we get to find out
F2 is back in a big way. Not only was Snake added as an operator, but changes to the FAMAS came in which allowed it to have a grip.
And look at that. It's already being used by Snake. The DMR 417, widely considered by many to be the best gun available on attack.
No longer being run by Twitch. Instead, you go with the high fire rate of the F2.
Five beers off to the races. It's chased Adam out of his position as he sees the blitz.
There was no blitz available in the first half because of the operator bands.
Now we will see the German operator flex his muscle.
Forrest of course running those shield ops.
Please just for the love of God, do not put them on few shield best of all.
I ask of you. Now the top white is the main issue.
Ambizu firing away disoriented by his own Gijmont mines as the gas canister goes out.
He'll buy some time for 100 thieves, Jesse, as they get off of that position.
Yeah, they've repelled this push really nicely.
We wanted to see force impact on the attack,
and we see that immediately through the first round
from Five Fears.
But Adam plays it really nice.
He gets out of there ASAP, and Pamba Zoo
comes in to support him.
So those two players combining over towards White Stairs
have made things really, really nice.
There was an opportunity to kill Adam,
but I think it was JJ just on the museum window who
wasn't able to get the kill.
So a little bit of a missed opportunity for Five Fears.
They are still playing around White Stairs and White Hall.
They've made it now deep inside a museum, so it feels like Forrest has started to get a little bit of ground for his team.
They can use this to stage an execute, but they've still got players lurking on the south side of the map.
Fens will strike first for five fears. Just a little bit over a minute to go on the clock.
Adam is down. All of those gas canisters have been used as far as my count goes, Jess.
He's obviously lost a gun, the shock of MSNG-11, which is quite dire, but your stall potential is now gone.
And the shield on the side of five fears is gone too, so without the smoke, you don't have to worry as much.
You can pardon the pun.
Breathe a little bit easier.
Spirit's taking down JJ Blast.
The advantage will go to Five Fears,
but then rival turns this one on its head.
Neither of these teams had to shake one another.
Fends with one, Snake with another,
and there goes Gomez at the hands of Snake
who picks up a big 2K.
The lead was so good for Five Fears
through much of that first half.
They surrendered it in round six,
but they pick up where they left off here in round seven.
Yeah, and Five Fears is just determined
to make that white stairs push work.
They eventually do get it done, Parker.
That space was never retaken by 100 thieves.
They decided it's just too risky
with the Blitz playing around there.
Adam goes down.
He did have one toxic babe left in his pocket
when he dies there.
So maybe a little bit of stall potential off the board.
I don't think time was really the issue.
So I don't know if it would have made a big difference
in the end, but really I think it comes down
to this trade game, the coordination being played
by five years.
Keep in mind at the highest level,
this bomb site and this map is attacker-sided.
You see just teams able to collapse in on it
because there's so many good ways
the attackers to immediately get to the site. They wasted no time on five fears walking in
through the front door, getting up that staircase. They're immediately at the bomb site and then
spend almost three full minutes working frags, giving themselves an advantage, using their
cheese operators of both the Blitz and more importantly, the Glaz of the midst of that,
to give themselves the advantage. The attacks are looking sharp, one around deep.
Obviously, you want to get ahead of yourselves here, but I will say the growth that we have
witnessed from five years through these seven active rounds significantly better than anything
we saw when they were playing under that Envy banner.
And they made quite a leap up from stage one to stage two last year and then got a pretty
decent run through the qualifiers as well.
So this team is just continuing to improve, adding Forest to the roster, having this team
and firing on all cylinders, adding fends as well.
And then Five Fears is looking like they could easily
be a top five team here.
Now granted, we are saying this based on the old landscape.
We have no idea what DZ is going to look like.
We don't know what SSG is going to look like.
What Cloud9 is going to look like.
No ideas.
So all we can do is speculate.
But if everything had stayed the same,
the underlying fundamentals of this Five Fears team
are looking pretty good.
I might go as far as, say, the most underrated team here
North America League. It's easy to say that when they're up 4-3 against 100 thieves, but
they've really been impressing me so far, Parker, and of course just sticking together
as that core for Mb. Gives me a lot of hope as to what they could accomplish this kickoff.
But it's not going to head of ourselves. They still have a map to win, and it's very close
game even still. 100 thieves could pull this one back. They've got a bit of extension going
on inside a bathroom and inside of Master. Ooh, Spears just ran his Yo-Kai drone into
a denarii tripwire that will destroy your own drone. I have done that in a rank before. It is not fun,
but happens to the best of us spirits. They'll be down to one camera off that.
Candela's going off. The last one used by JJ Blast is he picked up eight kills in that first half.
Obviously the scoreboard has been wiped. Forest has found an entry point. Getting the defuse
kicked down. Rival to keep them at bay. Nitrocell goes out. Rival dies. Forest manages to get
get diffuser planted though and suddenly all hell will break loose. Snake with
another kill, KJ and Forrest on the board so far. Five fears shredding this
hundred thieves team. Adam who has been the standout performer on so many teams
he's played for will need to clutch this one. He's spotted by the Shield of Forest
and now he'll be a feeding frenzy. Fens and Snake searching for the final kill.
Fens will get the job done and another round goes to five fears as they live
up to their name, five fears, five rounds so far.
And Forest on the Blitz, gotta be the MVP for me
on that one, Parker.
Forest played Blitz 35 times last season,
or last 365 days, and he's one of the best shield players
that we have here in North America.
Sometimes, you know, he'd been criticized
from over extending and being a little bit too aggressive,
but that time, what does he do?
He finds a gap in towards the bomb site.
He plants it a fuser.
I feel like the players 100 Thieves
are just a little bit preoccupied.
over towards that bathroom room.
They lose sight of the objective just briefly,
and that opens the door for five years,
taking to the site, and then these two kills.
This one first from Forrest is absurd.
He pushes up, gets the second kill as well.
Those just aren't frags that most people
would be able to get on the blitz,
but Forrest is not most people,
and he gets five years, a sizable two round lead.
This is gonna be tough to overcome again.
We thought that it would be a defender-sided map.
If that is the case,
100 thieves did not receive that memo this morning,
Either that or it is still defender sided and five fears are just doing
Serious work. I mean when you look at the way the five fears defended they were all over the place, right?
They were playing very aggressive
It was forcing hundred thieves to bring intel ops and dedicate quite a bit of time to roam clearing
Providing that there wasn't an early altercation and time and time again
Five fears were quite interested in drawing blood within the first minute of action now
It's hundred thieves getting a bit more active on this road when they swapped sides five fears kept up that momentum in that
tempo Jesse, but they did it as attackers which is a little bit harder to do because you have to
respond to what the defenders have and if you find that there's an opening into the bomb site
which is exactly what happened on the previous round, well it puts it in a really rough spot.
The defenders then are basically boxed out of their own bomb site. The advantage of defending
is completely gone. I like the read that Five Fears is made and I'll be interested to see how
Hundred Thieves recovers. Well Parker, I don't know if it's one of the five but one of my fears
has been realized here in around 9 and that's that we've got a snake but it's not being played by snakes so
we'll try to refer to rival as rival and snake as snake but yes the operator has been brought for the
first time here in this game being used to get information on pamba's position just inside of a
mob this is the bottom floor bomb site of course being held by 100 bees that chosen not to go up above
for a second time and hopefully they can start to work themselves a bit of an advantage because the
The defensive side hasn't worked out so well for them.
It's early damage up a forest playing the Blackbeard,
but broadly they've done a good job
of keeping five beers out of the building.
This slowest round so far,
Forest still well acquainted with the Shield Ops.
Under Thieves not removing his Shield so far.
My goodness, the run out for Pambazoo.
He might've been Don Stabatical, I wanna say.
He didn't really quite retire for it.
He was just gone for a short period of time.
Detroit Canadian retirement, as we'll call it.
Which is, I don't wanna play anymore.
I'm on a new team and there's a new meta. I'm gonna come back. Yeah, run out there knocks five years off down. Go snake slash rival
I see what you're saying
They play by Gomez coming through your spirits jumps over but instead is teammate behind the frag this bombsite such a
Difficult nut for five years to crack Parker. It is just snake in the 1v5. I
Mean he gets one
Continuing to snap pad and he gets some credit here from Gomez as he shot from multiple angles
This is a really hard spot for him to be and he's on those tower stairs
He has the right idea that Yaga is encroaching upon his position
But if Yaga is smart all he needs to do is just sit and wait at this doorway people that don't play with good headphones
Don't realize that when you lean or reload or anything like that
You do make noise if you play through TV speakers or you happen to play in a noisy environment
You're not gonna hear those movements these guys though. They're dialed in you best know at upstairs. They heard him clear as day
They just wait them out. They get the final kill not much that snake could be done and hundred thieves get on the board
They deny a match point situation that would have been a 30 start for the second half
It's good
But hundred thieves has tied or trailed this entire match Jesse that is frankly just not good enough
They will need to find a better pace if they want to close out fortress in the win column
I agree Parker, but I will also say I think there's hope on the horizon for the first time
We see 100 these playing extremely aggressive style of defense
It's that round really started with the double run out from Gomez and Pamba and it works for them
One was a distraction that was good enough
Pamba then's able to come out and get that frag that finds the man advantage for 100 thieves
This is the run out right here from Pamba
It gets started on the right foot with the lead on the numbers and then it's just allows things to snowball from there
Once you don't have your full five-man stack
The plan has to change from five years and when you're a younger team, when you're a bit of a newer roster
adapting without your full five players can be some of the most difficult things to do in Rainbow Six Siege.
They try to just force it in through Medbay, force it in through the main floor hallway.
It doesn't really go their way. Yogg ends up with a couple of kills.
I think it was Gomez that ended up with a couple of big ones in the midst of that too.
So really nice to see those frags coming out in favor of 100 Beaks.
Well, Bano is on me to try to stop that happening next time,
but I will beat till round 12 if we go back there as it will be locked through the next two.
Compendence really got the party started. It also helps that Forrest was knocked off,
stride really early, took a lot of damage. I mean, if you're playing the shield off and you only have
a fraction of your HP, there really isn't that much you can do. You can't play with the same
impunity that you usually have. You don't feel quite as invincible, right? You're one bullet away
from death this is I'd be so pissed off if I got killed by this man I don't lose
my mind I mean just nobody yet this is a weird place to enter the building it's
pretty rare to see someone enter through there maybe there's some intel that
five years do you like to enter that part of the map I don't think it's happening
this round though but something toxic to watch out for in your end games if you
like to enter through music instead it looks like five years are gonna be
clearing over the top floor. So the last time they came to the site parker they
went for that really direct push with the blitz and the glass. Glass gets panned up by 100 thieves and I think the plan
has to change for five years because of that. They're gonna be aimed on clearing out these
roamers from the south side of the map. That means Gomez playing here instead of
old tower that might mean Pamba who's playing instead of games right now. These
players that are disconnected from the bombslayer will be the first targets for five
years.
As we saw the struggles that Under Thieves had in this particular area, dropping on
Old Tower will necessitate completely baiting out this utility and then you can sit in this
cubby spot that Kenzo is looking at and do an awful lot of damage to the defenders that
are playing in near the site.
There'll be Gomez being launched and he's shot at from two different angles.
Not aware of the JK Blast has opened up the exterior walls.
frustrating position for Gomez to be in and with a minute and a half to go five fears up by one player
and they've wasted decent time in this roam game they want a bit more but spirits actually is the
one to answer back they trade it with y'all dying to rival but still man advantage for five fears
and at what point do these rovers fall back spirits surely now will return to his teammates on site
i was gonna say if you're able to play this well and get under their skin then why not continue the
roam and they are clearly under the skin of five fears but the difference is is that five years
They still have utility, they still have intel, they still have gadgetry, and they have a numbers advantage that has not gone away.
So, you need to catch these players off guard, and we tend to see teams get really active at this point in a round, Jesse.
This is where they will go for broke.
Swing or be swung, you cannot have three players, six fingers inside of the bomb site.
The attackers will clamp down on you especially with how close the snake is.
He knows exactly where you're looking.
That's really devastating for these defenders.
Defenders 30 seconds left to go in the round five years looking to serve their claws in a good swing down goes
Pan busy was sitting duck inside of the corridor spirits bites the dust as well
An atom will need to clutch out. He's got a nitro cell against toss
It's shot does not go off and rival will seal the deal pushing five fears to match point for the orgs first time ever
It's just clinical looking Parker everything is on point right now for five fears
It's a beautiful Rome clear to come through the south side of the map. You saw them opening those angles
It took them a bit of time 90 seconds to get that first frag
But they were taking that time to open walls to make things difficult to pop those gas pipes and eventually they caught a player out
It was Gomez who went down first to JJ then things get a little bit messy, but they're able to trade things out
The coordination is good. JJ gets a critical pick in the hallway on to Pamba and then this plant is really nice
I believe it's rival that shoots that nitrocell just out of the air stopping Adam's last hope to deny that plant and giving themselves that match point
Nobody thought five years were walking and take the opening game with the male up against hundred thieves
But they will have two opportunities over the next six minutes to get that done to get that done
I mean this team knows adversity this OXG roster that they competed most of the players rather competed under as we said hundred thieves in mind is often
the spiritual successor, but not the actual successor to the OXG core.
Because of course he got some OXG players, then of course he got the DZ guys on it.
But more OXG, I suppose, we're really just splitting here,
just trying to find a way to relate to you, the audience.
So you're welcome.
Audience, that is, of course.
But yeah, I mean, if you go back to the old OXG roster,
they were never a team that would seemingly run away with games.
Now, obviously they did on occasion,
but I always found them to be a really scrappy team that would play Kaili Orthodox through a number of rounds
and they would be able to figure things out and close that gap.
It seems like even though they've lost their main shotcaller,
who's now actually playing on the other team of Five Years, which is Forrest,
that identity is still somewhat bare for 100 weeks, and they've really struggled on entry against Five Years,
defending its map control that's been the bigger issue here for them.
So, can 100 thieves turn this around, Jesse?
You said six minutes?
Two minutes and 20 seconds is all they have for this round,
and you have to go round by round if you want to get to the final round of regulation.
Yeah, they might not need all six minutes, but the stall from Pamba is going to cut off the course
at least a little bit more time off that clock. They've worked their way up the white stairs,
they get back in round number seven.
Blum's side's quite a ways away, of course, they've got to compare,
they've got to find their way past this roam game that was so devastating.
Just inside a bathroom, but Pamba is an awkward peek. Fenz has the information,
thanks to that scanner on the snake, and they're able to get the opening pick really nicely done.
This looks identical to the last round we just watched.
Yeah, I mean, Pambazoo's got some rust that he's gonna need to shake off,
but he doesn't have the most kills on the team to his credit.
Nine kills, but the rest of the team is really quite struggling from an offense perspective.
Top two frags on the side of five fears.
Snake and JJ sitting in double digits each.
So, Pambazoo's carrying his weight, but losing him, that's a detrimental loss.
His partner in the room, Adam, was hoping to get aggressive and get some kind of a pickback,
but he's been forced to play with his teammates over towards briefing.
The next row won't do much, not tossed far enough to come through there from Yaga.
This Monty's just giving him so much info, he's down to a half HP,
but with two shields staring at him, what are you even supposed to do 100 thieves?
Uh, I mean, what are you supposed to do? You're supposed to die, frankly, but I mean, Adam didn't get that memo.
Neither did Yaga, he gets traded out by JJ, so one shield is gone,
There still remains, and even footing for these teams,
a 3v3 share down with 50 seconds left.
Five Fears comes out ahead, that's the ball game.
They take their first victory,
under thieves will have to wait ever so long.
They'll be playing tomorrow against Shopify Rebellion,
so they could pick up their first victory
within the next 24-ish hours,
but things are not looking great for them here.
30 seconds for Five Fears to walk, this defuse get in.
Rival has a JJ taking a lot of damage from those flames.
Goyo canisters, spread for 20 seconds.
It's a long time to wait with where the clock is at.
Jesse, now it's Rival taking some damage,
a beautiful trade that was in the eliminated Gomez.
The flames taking out.
Just make somehow,
Rival killing everybody's spirits.
We'll have to climb as the Chonka almost gets the job done.
But it's JJ to break the backs of 100 Themes
and a victory for five years
as they made their NA League debut.
Welcome back, James.
We missed you so much.
North America League has a new top team for the first game.
Five fears get the upset victory over 100 feeds.
No one saw that coming.
An incredible first match, but three more to come.
Justy, five fears walking away from this with a big victory.
a seven four start for the five fears roster
in the battle of two fresh orgs into the siege scene.
It is indeed five fears led by JJ Blast
who come out on top.
We will welcome in the captain of this team now
and get to hear a little bit more from him
after this victory, JJ.
Congratulations.
I mean, I know you've been very active, right?
Hyping up this first match,
talking about just how much work you guys
been putting into the off season.
But I mean, what does it mean here to start that kickoff with a win over 100
beats?
It means the world to me, man.
Like we, um, we found ourselves in a position at the end of the year, like
things didn't go our way last year, the core of this team, right?
We had a one game winning your in playoffs.
That would have been like kind of a big goal for that roster, rookie year
pro league, right?
And we fell short and that feeling just stuck with me all off season.
I knew a lot of the change in the team internally with myself as a leader.
We had to be way more professional about things.
And like, I mean, it was a long off season, man.
It was like I went into like exile for like six or seven months and we just we grinded our asses off man
And we're here for this year man. It's one win. It feels great, but we got a lot more to do this year
You guys sure do but something that has been a positive so far in one game is force him bringing the shields on attack
That was something that we highlighted was your attacks last year were not that great
They're looking pretty solid right now
And those shield play from him and both of you in that final round is that something that you guys were just going on the flow?
Like how has he been able to impact your guys's gameplay on attacks bringing those shields, but just in general
Yeah, so first of all us getting a Brock's test for us
Like that was like a blessing in disguise like the gods intervening for us
Like he fell out of like those top teams and somehow didn't land himself on a top team at the end of the year and
like we saw him and we instantly knew like that's the vet we need on the team and
He's been especially to me man. He's like taking me under my his wing and he's like mentoring me as an IGL now
He's like every time he's just like JJ. I just want to help you grow man
And that's something like it took us a little while like you know me and him both as IGLs and like we also played shields too
So like we can crank stuff out and run double shield and just walk him down that last round
We said like we both like instantly at the same time when the rest I was like let's walk him down
But um, no, that's good. I just like he's able to um
He's able to kind of direct the kids in the in the round, right?
He just like he's always got an idea
He's just always doing something leading us through the round and like I can focus on the overall big picture
So working with him is a blessing man
Well JJ, I love the growth from you guys. I love to hear everything you're saying. I mean, I have a really important question for you
Yeah, what is the average looking like for you guys?
Uh average is I don't know. I'll follow is saying that like you said I was average and let me tell you
There's only one thing that's average about me
All right. Hold on. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the average amount of time and hours
You guys are putting in on a day-to-day basis to look as good as you guys did here today
Yeah, no this year like there's so much more work going in behind the scenes like I
We last year man
We like stage one was a struggle for us as that MV team we weren't in position to succeed
Out of the server, I guess you could say and then stage two
We I think we put in the bare minimum that a pro league team should put in and we saw some results in this year
Like I knew that that had to get turned up and I had to be 110% this year
So out of the out of the game and there's so much more VOD review going on now
There's so much more workshopping stuff going on right now
I'm on every day like for like 10 hours just like it's like as soon as I'm doing hits
I'm here from noon to 10 p.m. Working on team stuff with the team and Brock's always helping out the other guys
They're even pitching in now, which is great
Julia cultures that I also want to give one quick shout out to our new coach to the staff Sam Phoenix
Go to major winning team in Call of Duty
He's here
He's told a great culture in our team and like right now we wouldn't be the people and individuals
We would we are right now without him. So big shout out to him
I love it.
Listen, JJ, it is always a pleasure to watch you work, the energy you bring to the game,
and yeah, we cannot wait to see what Five Fears will continue to do in kickoff.
Congrats on the day one win.
All stagnation, let's ride!
Thank you, JJ.
What a win to start.
I mean, this was, I mean, a battle that early on lacks.
We couldn't quite tell which way it was going to go.
It was clear that Five Fears was bringing the aggression, and while that was getting
them into trouble at times, that aggression, that same style of gameplay, I mean it's why
they're sitting here at the end of this one with a 7-4 win under their belt.
Yeah, I mean the aggression certainly carried them through a lot of these rounds and also
gave up a few rounds to make it even look cleaner than how it actually did because the
rounds that they did ended up losing was really to themselves, they were just overpeaking,
they were overaggressing, they didn't need to make certain rotations, it wasn't necessary
and I really am impressed just with the attitude and what JJ was giving us inside of them and
how everything has been looking from inside the game or outside the game. I think it really
speaks into just how well this team has been developing and then with the addition of seeing
Forrest, I think this team really is going to be a force to be reckoned with as they get more and
more games underneath their belt. And as for the side of our 100 Thieves, I am honestly very
disappointed in the lack of performance that we saw from them. Again, I don't really think there's
anything tangible to hold on to from what we saw. I think a lot of mistakes were being made on their
and and they were just able to punish five fears off of their mistakes that realistically were given to them
Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that because the round wins that a hundred thieves got didn't really look like they wanted themselves
It was just five fears being over-aggressive
There was a lot of questionable plays a lot of decision-making from a hundred thieves where they would over-aggress in a certain way
There was a good amount of retakes that was good individually
You know two players focusing on getting a pinch down, but the strategy as a whole it's seeing it left me wanting more from them
It seemed very questionable their attacks are one thing. They brought it back with their defenses on a map like fortress
Yeah, always getting picked first constantly giving up positions the way that utility was getting wasted
It seemed very oblivious from where they would be standing where they could have gotten shot from so maybe it's a
Factor of them not having enough reps on a map like fortress or spirits being on these
You know gimmicky operators and he can't focus on eye-gelling the rest of the team
But it seemed very disconnected and there wasn't really one pinpoint voice that it seemed like everyone was listening to everyone was playing on their own
But one good takeaway was it didn't really look like Pamba has lost too much time since his being quote-unquote retired
He did look good. He had a good amount of rounds his shot was clean
I really feel like the strategy just set him up to fail some of those rounds, which is why he was getting picked first
first. Well, if you look at
where this team is going and
what the pressure is on their
shoulders, right? At least
100 Thieves sake. You can hope
that it's something they're
able to shake off. They don't
have to worry too much about
this one as they move in to
the rest of kickoff and try to
recover. But we'll shift gears
now straight in to the next
best of one as we look at
Shopify rebellion and one of
30. This matchup another one
We're going to see a young team trying to take on a powerhouse.
One of 30, a team that competed in Challenger Series known as Footlocker's Finest,
will be competing under the one of 30 banner going forward.
But this roster lacks, as we have seen, earned their way to this spot through Challenger Series.
There is no better way to prove you belong than by beating out every single other team on the path to T1.
Yeah, absolutely. And I love the fact that they have stuck together. They understood all the every all the ins and outs
What's gonna get them here?
What's able to make them prosper and something I want to focus on they're really big positives for this team too big
Positive is that you have Packer and be know they both have IGL experience more so from Packer at a bigger T1 level in terms of
International play but even for the sides of be know
He's definitely stepped up his ability to IGL as time has gone on so those two
I'm sure gonna be working hand-in-hand together in the strats in the attacks
Whatever that's gonna look like but looking at the other three of my w. Vulper and silo sure they might not have that t1
Experience but factor the matters they do have land experience. They've played in spoils contenders. They've won it
They've played an element six. I mean these players are still players
You should be watching and looking at because they have they all come together
Quite handedly to make it to this point. So you have to give them the credit there
I'm not gonna nitpick and say, you know, my expectations are low
I think that you're just gonna take everything that's in front of them and learn and just cultivate a team dynamic
That is going to make them be a team to be reckoned with
Yeah, my expectations for them aren't low of course
It's a very difficult first game to go up against them
But they have a good amount of tools in the shop to be able to have a successful team
And one of those biggest tools is packer in my opinion. She has always been joining these pro league rosters
We've seen time and time again, and he joins these rosters that are already built
He has to be able to work with what he's given he the only time that we've seen him find the most amount of success is
When he was on that CL 4l
Team that actually went to a major and was able to perform well because it was his roster
And now it's kind of a mixed match bag of that roster with rookie players
So now he finally has the ability to shot call everything that he wants to do
There's no system put in place
He has free reign and he has players that him and the rest of the team consistently dominate T2 tournaments
So there is some proof to this pudding on how they can find success
It's all about experience at this point now for the newer players shop of our rebellion is a difficult opponent
So as long as they keep it close, they can settle in to the rest of this kickoff
One of 30 they're getting thrown into the fire right away because as you mentioned Fox
they are going up against the team that we put at number one on the power rankings. The only team
who did not make a single roster change going from 2025 into 2026. It is of course Shopify
Rebellion and Fox the rebellion. I mean we know just how passionate this team is and we know exactly
what they're working on coming into this year because Super put out a video. He talked about
just how much this year matters to them and the progression of this team.
Shopify Rebellion doesn't need to worry about roster changes.
Their issues are miles away from just the regular season in the NALA.
It's about events.
They always play good and originally,
and then they go to events and that's where their issues follow,
because they're so used to relying on big individual performances.
And we could see it.
They perform well decently while on the NALA stage
and then bomb out when it comes to these major tournaments.
And I believe it's just the competition level that they bring to the NAOL to this kickoff is they underestimate their opponents because they have such
Talented individual players they don't practice the IGL and the teamwork aspect as much and when they get to those major events
That's where they suffer so for now
Hopefully they bring a different outlook coming into the kickoff where they treat every opponent as the best team in the world
That can get them a better finish than just third in the NAO region in the kickoff
and hopefully they can make it Salt Lake City
and show us exactly what everyone has been anticipating
from this roster.
Yeah, and I think the important bit there
is they're also bringing on T-SIS
to be able to bring some Brazilian experience,
to be able to bring some Brazilian insight
to help Super be able to facilitate, you know,
more ideas, to bring something else to the table,
because if you're not going to make a roster change,
at least something has to change.
And as me and you know, Fox, being the Internache,
I mean, being domestically really well,
it does do great, it gets you to events,
but as yeah as we've talked about SR does not place very well internationally so this has to start making something work not only domestically but
Especially once we get to that international level if they can make Salt Lake City because that's where everything needs to change for this roster
And for me as much as I do appreciate no roster change we made they're sticking to what they know
They're changing us they're tweaking a few things something will have to change if they don't make
to make the game. So let's
see where Shopify rebellion
want to take this novelist
opponent team to the map on
their very first best of one
of kickoff. It's going to be
clubhouse a decision that
shop of I rebellion got to
make by banning border at the
very end. Lacks. He said it's
a surprise. Why do you find
this one unusual? I mean, I
find it a surprise only for
the fact that this is a newer
a very fundamentally sound map. You don't need to do anything crazy. The only reason
why I can see I start picking this is because they don't want to show anything off early.
They don't want to show off, you know, once they possibly make it into playoffs. And the
nice thing about also playing a newer team, granted it does favor them into some degree,
it can expose you to new things that new teams might try granted. Again, it is clubhouse.
I can't really see that happening. It's the only thing I can try to make an understanding
of it, but I would say this should allow one in 30 to feel far more comfortable to play
on this map than any other map against SR.
We know Shopify. We know Shopify, and we know that they're most likely going to be in the
driver's seat. It's their game to lose regardless of the map. But in my opinion, what did I
just say when we were breaking them down? They take the inter-regional tournaments
very easily. They rely on individual gun skill, and then they go to majors and they get stomped
because they're not practicing adaptation.
They're not practicing teamwork.
So even on a map like Clubhouse,
yes, they probably will win today.
But that being said, you're not practicing that bone
of making sure that you're working on each other,
being able to adapt if necessary.
Clubhouse is a very simple map, like Black said.
So not only are you giving one out of 30
an easier run in this series,
but you're also not working the tool
that you need to get ready for these major events.
So I don't like the first step to get there
is to perform well domestically.
If you wanna see them ramp up and improve
on the very thing they're trying to work on,
it's gotta start right now with a good performance
here in kickoff, hopefully a good performance for them
on day one.
Over to you Parker.
I love that you keep saying my name
because you give less agency to Jesse
and that just frankly delights me.
It's as if I'm the only person who matters of the two of us
and while I think that's correct
and Jesse's opinion doesn't matter,
I do fear that there are at least dozens of people
watching this that might like what Jesse has to say and I will bring him in because as was talked
about on the desk Jesse you are the expert here between the two of us 96% in what might be the
most lopsided social prediction we've seen potentially ever Shopify rebellion giving the edge over
one of 30 as was mentioned they were called finest here I cannot say that word but we find a clever
work around they go by a different name now. Bino you will know as the former commander leader
of the LFL org-less team Packer has been around before Silo and most were making their day beings
alongside Mike W all three of those brush faces and they've got their hands full against a team
that may do well on no real change. Yeah that's exactly right Parker two teams at least from the
big three regions did not make roster moves over the off season one of them was the best team in
in the world phase plan and the other one with SR.
Not quite the best team in the world,
but have been standing at an international stage
for quite some time now.
The deaths shared their thoughts.
They'd have their struggles internationally for sure.
But today, the opponent in front of them
is one primarily built up of rookies, one of 30.
If you do the division, that's pretty close to 4%.
That might be all the odds that our community gets them,
but who knows, it's a brand new roster coming
straight out of Challenger League.
They're going to be the underdogs.
They're going to be the ones that nobody expects to come out on top,
but this could be their moment to upset all expectations
and take down one of the best teams in North America.
Yeah, I mean, what a statement match it would be.
We just saw the statement that was named by Five Fears
in the earlier game.
Now, an opportunity for 1 of 30 to get the job done.
How are they going to do?
Well, they go on a pretty default map.
You're going to be starting on any map at a T1 level.
You gotta imagine Clubhouse is a pretty good place to do it.
There will be a certain level of familiarity here on this map with every single professional.
This is a default map that launched with the game while it has had some pretty big
and some less significant overhauls over the course of its life.
Ranked players know it, casual players know it.
Observers who maybe never touched this game likely know it.
Certainly the pros will as well.
Now just because you know it, Jesse doesn't really know how to go about
dealing with a team that knows it better,
and I would say that Shopify Rebellion probably knows this map a little bit better,
but I mean, it's really good territory for you to make your debut on,
and it should be at least somewhat of a helpful map for 1 of 30.
Yeah, and I'm sure 1 of 30 will watch in the sixth invitational,
Shopify Rebellion played Clubhouse three times at that event,
and they only won it a single time.
That was an 8-7 game versus G2.
They then lost it to FaZe Clan, lost it to SSG.
So it's not like this is a really strong map in the corner of Shop Car Rebellion either.
They will have to make some adjustments coming into the new season on Clubhouse,
if they want to be competitive, at least against the best teams in the world.
And I don't think we're seeing a bit of adaptation.
Surf has just brought the Sens here to the bottom floor.
Bombsite, Canadians not playing a shield, and instead with a gun in his hand, he strikes for the opening pick.
And they got another inside of stock.
I don't know if they can get around this in time.
Packer might be able to do the old getaway as he pops the hatch and is just waiting for a drone to get the all clear
Then he's playing mausoleum. I wonder if those pests are in a position where he could net some intel
They'll use one of the day most tracks in the sense of the death mark goes out Packer gets out of there
The new jammers that are scattered throughout this map some on the top four menu on that bottom floor will certainly aid the escape
Of Packer and the rest of one or four and one of thirty
We will force this team of the rebellion to do some pretty extensive drone work.
Halfway point of the round and you can see they've already cleared out most of the top four
and now starting on the middle four, they'll begin to transition to gaining and telling ladies
what the final four and a half defenders are.
Because there is a Skopos on the board.
Yeah, the Skopos is the biggest problem for them.
They haven't droneed Valtper at a strip club just yet.
They might know he's around and there will be the information.
So you never know is this Skopos going to teleport back towards site.
site isn't going to sit in here and go for a flank when you're trying to run down the
Moto Hatch. He's always a threat and you choose not to clear him out. And shopfire Rebellion
don't have a ton of time. I'm not sure if they will be committing to go for that clear
instead. They just kind of have to spend these next 60 seconds watching their back, being
very careful knowing that at any moment, Valsker could pop out and go for the flank.
They've got to get read on him. They'll gain an even better advantage as Packer was punished
and now finished off. So Rebellion can easily put one player on flank watch and he was the
The one dedicated to that down goes Wolfsburg.
At Scopos, really not having the same impact
that we've seen on this map before.
A rough start for 1 of 30, but again,
they're making their debut and they're going up against
a well-oriented machine.
Consistently, one of the best teams in North America.
Not quite one of the best teams in the world,
but still quite competitive.
Silo now making his debut at a tier one level,
finds his very first kill.
It's on a Canadian road dog who's walking down main stairs
Now around the bar, oh my,
I was going to be the drink after that one.
Ambient surf, the final two kills in the rebellion.
Take round number one.
Just by the near flawless round, a little bit scary.
We get down to eight seconds
and nobody is holding the diffuse kit
on the side of Shopify Rebellion.
So maybe a little nervous,
it was dropped just at the bottom of main stairs.
So probably could have been recovered worst case,
but end of the day,
Shopify Rebellion looking really confident
in those gunfights.
The early pick onto the roamers,
shutting down Valtper's potential flank.
I hyped it up as a possibility to get them back into that round, but Andy was so ready for it.
And I think it is just, uh, maybe catching one of 30 off guard a little bit.
This slightly revamped line-up that Shopify rebellion are bringing, not in terms of players, of course,
but at least in terms of operators, just as an example, the last eight times that SR attacked the bottom floor bombsite here on Clubhouse,
Canadian was hard stuck on the Blackbeard.
This time, the first round of the new season, he's not bringing a shield at all.
Not Blackbeard, not Blitz, not Monty, of course, it got Bans, but he rocks it with the ace, gets that entry for his team, has a bit of success in the fragging department and maybe catches one of 30 off guard just a little bit with that change of operating.
One thing about Skopos, by the way, is that they? Because it's two robots, even though Skopos is piloted by a female operator, technically a cheese knot.
Yeah.
Actually, I think it is them.
Sure.
The two robots now gain a rune's passive.
So with the wave, and you saw it a little bit on that strip wall,
we didn't really make much of an action of it.
Oh, nice opportunity there from Mike W.
And he leans in real life, and it gives him a plus five boost
to get away in time.
Skullboost now has a rune's passive.
So if you're going to be defending on that middle floor,
or even the top floor, you can create escapes very easily
by just punching out a couple of holes in the wall.
And you can also get the hatches too.
It's a pretty significant buff.
Hot dream scophos.
It doesn't obviously change the way the operator functions.
They also buff scophos by making this a swap
a little bit faster.
But it will just make using the operator a little less clunky
and open up some playmaking potential.
They really want to see much of it from Bolspur
because he was caught in a really rough position,
but there was an attempt, and frankly, seeing that alone.
Pretty good.
Looks to the warden, he is playing Red Sparrow.
as T made the first to go down. Packer got downed early in the lap, and well, this time
the drone hole is his undoing. He did get some utility out, so the wall will be slow
to open, but because he's downed, he can't keep on throwing those super out-cancers,
and it's a second T-late, so an angle's been made in the cash wall.
Burn those magnets now, as Canadian just edges his way around the doorframe, looking for
information. They've caught the warden of Wolf's room, he's positioned and he gets
Wanted away, Volsper looks for a second on a Canadian.
The Ying now dueling with him. Volsper will find it making it for the last time.
Two kills anchored in this position on top.
Red and liquid-level shield in front.
He'll move the shield and immediately run down those stairs.
This is a great play by Volsper. It's gonna waste time.
And the damage that's been done to the rebellion is pretty devastating.
Hacker, who'd been downed earlier, by the way, picked up.
So, 130 had actually not lost anything other than a bit of HP.
All five guns still in hand.
You chose decent side of SR though. They've got two line chargers and two charts from the Grim to try to find some players
Information they go for this push. I don't love their position still a 3d5
It's never favorable when you're attacking us this gym bedroom bombsite
But it's got a couple of tools to work with they can use these to try to enable some gunfights and maybe work themselves in for a
Plant through gym through gym. They're just fishing for kills at this point hoping that one or thirty gets a little bit impatient on their hold
I mean, for a newer team, that's not a bad reaper.
Hacker has experience at this level,
as does Bino, both of them.
Pretty good minds, and they'll be able to get some information.
Served vaults in, running at a time.
Rebellion just really don't have a lot of options.
They've got to go for kills.
Rexon finds a single on Bino.
And Silo, the final two to strike.
But that man right there on your screen,
Volsper, almost single-handedly winning the round.
What a performance on round number two.
Two, tried to be a thorn in the side of round number one. Couldn't do it. Round number two, though, does a great job and it's a tie game.
Yeah, I couldn't agree more, Parker. It's a big round from Nathan Myers, a 20-year-old entry player known as Balsper on this team.
He's just sat top of the stairs. They never are able to deal with his shield. They try to hit him, but of course he's the worst and that's not going to work so well.
And they tried to do a little bit of distraction play. You saw Canadian just dumping his mag, trying to make Balsper look at him.
But I think Balspera read that and thought, you know what, I'm probably being pushed up my red stairs.
Perfectly timed to swing to kill Andy and then kill the old man of Shopify Rebellion.
It's exactly what you want to see from a young rookie of 1 of 30.
And yeah, that late round 5v3, very simple to hold things down.
I did like the angle of the patterns up from down inside of Billions though.
Not a common one you can see being brought out, but can be very powerful in a red situation.
That good read by 1 or 30. Really what it comes down to was a bit of that push onto
Red being out of sync. Those smart goggles that were used by the Warden in Wolfsburg
did not get the first candela, so you could see from the character model that Warden was
blinded when the first one was tossed in. Not the one that got caught by the magnet,
but the second one. Ambi was just a bit too slow on those red stairs, or you could argue
that maybe Qadian was a bit too fast with his candela.
I mean, one sticks a one-half a dozen of the other here,
but they were not in sync.
And because of that, the Warden was
able to turn what should have been a zero-kill performance
into an incredible 2K, getting AMB immediately
removing that pressure on Red Stairs
and focusing his teleference on that breach.
So well done by one of them.
30 again.
If you are somebody who is a talented mechanical player,
which so far, through these two rounds,
Volsper is able to stand up to this aggression.
You can make crazy things happen, and he took advantage of what might have been a poorly
synced up play from the rebellion.
The best part was a big player in the last round, as you say, Parker, and he's going
to have to be once again, he's the Izami playing inside of Rafters.
Now, this is a really important position to stall time out.
It can be a very tough position to play sometimes, because all eyes will be pointed in your direction.
The ball first seems ready for the charge.
It's got both walls reinforced in towards site.
That's how a lot of teams are playing these days, but the ace is actually going to open
up an angle so that makes the collision a little bit more awkward and here come the
Nades to force him out.
Borsig is in a really strong position but Volsper is just enjoying it which is really
quite impressive.
This is usually an easy target to get.
Volsper is still in this spot.
Canadian baited in by Mike W. That was the player you were most excited to see and he's
already made his presence felt.
In this round, down goes Spoit.
The guns from one of 30 finding their marks.
All the while, Jesse, they've not been able to deal with Wolfsburg's army on rafters.
They're losing everybody on this team.
Wolfsburg finally taking some damage as Wrexin is inside.
Surf and Ambi the last two left.
Surf sees him and gets the down, but still not a confirmed kill.
Rebellion really having some troubles through these last two rounds, Jesse.
Yeah, Wolfsburg won't get to kill this round, but by God did he not do a lot.
He was able to bait so much attention and his teammates just took that and ran with it.
big swings coming out. They know he's down, I believe. In any case, they're not interested in pushing
garage. They feel they don't have the man count for it. They're gonna go stalk and face the shock
kind of Packer. This cannot go well. There's a position he played on that monazine. It's still
being harassed by that death mark. It's not Andy who's in that position, though. It's her. Andy
also will find a kill Packer against each time and Volspar is down and suddenly what's seemed unthinkable
has now become possible rebellion in a 2v2.
Wolfsburg likely not to be retrieved.
Surf has no choice, but to take some damage
is now he tinkers with what this defense has
in front of him's tight arm out.
Plenty of opportunity to relearn.
Musty was completely out of bullets.
Now it's Ami to take some damage too.
Mike W got the kill on the Canadian
and then gets a two piece to send the round away.
Oh my goodness, two rounds in a row
and one at 30 with the lead.
Now I know a Pro Siege coach, Parker,
But I would have to say that if you find yourself army crawling through in a Rooney gate just to get into site
Your push probably did not go exactly as you plans never were able to get that garage control once again with both for playing upstairs
In the rafters. It was some beautiful play with Mike W playing
I believe the bedroom window extended all the way across the top floor and then a couple of swings from Packer from just inside the site
Got them that early man advantage
Maybe there were a couple of good picks in the mid rounds to pull things back actually like how they address Packer at playing inside of stock
getting past them with that with that demo's track and biding their time but
man it just did not seem to matter in the end they did not have the utility if
they needed to go for that push. See Simon a bit there as you say Parker but
even still this has been a really nice couple of rounds from one of 30.
15 seconds range. You know just needed to wait. Right car to make.
I'm not really liking though his patience. Even in round number one there was still quite a lot of
patients from this one to 30 team they were not over peaking they weren't
taking fights needlessly they were trying to support each other with that
realm upstairs Packer not far removed from Volsper on the Skopos. Packer has
swapped off of the Mazi. The Skopos will be brought yet again on this same bomb
site you can already see the work that's being done one main criticism that a
lot of defenders get especially with the flexibility of certain defending
operators is their ability to do sight set up. Well by allowing this Scopus operator to have the
Aruni passive, you can now really help with sight set up if there's no bay lift or shotgun available
on the team. It allows players like, it allows players like Beno and Silo on the smoke in the
castle to do other things while Volsper did much of that top floor sight set up. They just speed
things up and allow them to roam a little bit better supported because you don't have to rely on
just one or two operators to get the job done.
I like the castle pick by Silo as well.
It's going to enable a bit more of an aggressive roam game.
Now the droning is good from Shopify Rebellion.
They spot that castle up very early,
so they will know Silo's down here.
Not like it was a big secret that they were playing the castle,
but his position is going to be vital to try to clear this robe.
Here comes Canadian on the blitz, hoping to clear him out.
I mean, he'll do that. He's got Silo on the run,
but yet again, the fade away through these hatches.
But hold on, Mike has gone untroned.
How did they not see him there? Rexon gets him, but the job is done!
The damage to the only shield operator on Rebellion has been committed and,
my goodness, SR with two minutes left have lost their captain and lost their shield.
Yeah, that's a great trade for 1 of 30, and they've still got roam presence.
The Volsper's upstairs in bedroom, Packer's playing the main stairs, Packer gets droned,
will go back to site, but this Scopo's still gonna be a bit of a threat playing inside a bedroom.
Even if he gets droned or flashed, he can just escape. With that fast time back towards site,
He's got all the tools that he needs to be a nuisance on this room and still survive for the exit
I mean Volsper can easily swap to there's a second Volsper on the board in there and go
He'll take a look and he will get out of dodge play safely half of the round done
And well, he'll swap to the one now playing in church
That's not a kill that's not a kill. I'm sorry sport. I know
That's not a kill. Yeah, will he still on zero to the first three. That's okay an opportunity here
to try to get that one back. The 4v4 is not devastating to Charlotte Fire Rebellion.
If Gawkgood's top breach, two more breaching charges still by Spoyt, a third if you count
the primary gadgets, the roamers have all fallen back, and frankly the site util is
not that good. There will be some goyos from Mike W, and of course the talks of babes from
Beano, but a lot of the pressure was being played on this roam game, and SR did get past
that part of the map relatively unscathed. 4v4 is not a bad spot to be if you're SR,
Of course it hurts though losing Canadian.
This boy will try to link up with the rest of his team.
It looks like he's going to be on bomb duty.
So he'll bring the case into those bomb chassis to try and get them down.
The objective in the hands of the Swede, playing from the Shopify offices in Toronto.
He and Canadian both playing in a very familiar spot.
So they know that set up quite well.
The rest of this team, they'll play from their own homes and be finding two.
My goodness shooting out of Chicago, Illinois,
Volspar and Dino on the board.
Volspar was second.
He was good for two kills before making a third.
One of 30 finds a third round in a row.
Shopify Rebellion in trouble early.
This is a game that everybody thought would be
an easy W for Shopify Rebellion.
One of only two teams in the big three regions
to not make any changes across the off-season.
A video posted to Twitter saying we're not perfect,
but we think we're still improving.
We don't need to make changes.
And I'm not even criticizing that decision.
I respect and agree with the decision
to not change any of the players.
But this game is certainly starting
to bring some warning bells, Parker.
You're down now one to three up against a Challenger League
team that is unsponsored, not playing with any representation.
And frankly, they're having a great time with it.
Volsper has been the MVP for me, continuously finding values
round after round.
It's that time it was the late round
where he's able to commit to that anchor play, but also have impacts slowing down the roam clear up above.
Mike W got active for an early frag from the team there as well.
You said it, it was a bit of a mistro, maybe a bit of a tunnel vision to come through from Shopify Rebellion.
They had such a good drone on the castle playing inside a bar, but they didn't think to drone out the rest of the map.
They weren't concerned with where the rest of those roamers might be.
It comes back to bite them.
It's actually a tech pause here it stalls for just a moment, but if they do want to take their tactical as well
I'm sure stupor would have some choice words for the players because this is not up to their standards so far
Yeah, I mean an ideal situation to be in to do
I do wonder what you do to fix this
Right, I mean you've had the most time to practice with this roster
There is a new meta and I will say I will we will say this quite often just because the team stuck together does not mean
that all will go well immediately. Yes, there is no denying that the team that
should perform the best is Shopify Rebellion. They made no roster moves.
They brought in some coaching help. They've had time to practice. They have a
lot of money behind them with this organization. They have a facility here
in Toronto that they bootcamp out of and can play out of, as we said, both
Canadian and sport are playing out of that location. And because they didn't
make any changes. They should be the best equipment to be the most successful.
But again, we don't play these matches in theory. We play these matches in
practice. And right now, in practice, one of 30 is dominating the rebellion.
Now, I will then argue against myself because this is defending on clubhouse.
Typically, and historically, defenders on clubhouse, if all goes according to
plan, should win no fewer than three rounds. That's exactly what one of 30 is.
So, they have met where most teams need to be.
It really comes down to how does the rest of this first half play out?
If they run up the score, that might be it for the rebellion through the second half.
If they are unable to run up the score, things are going to get mighty, mighty hard for this
team.
And because they are a newer team with very little experience as a unit, attacking is
where things get really challenging.
So while we focus a lot on the fact that Shopify Rebellion have not performed up just enough,
We then need to hold that same energy for this one of 30 team when the size swap comes
in.
The only question that remains to be answered, Jesse, is how much of a bloodbath is going
to occur over these next two routes?
No, I agree 100% Parker.
We are not past the point of no return.
There is ample time in this game for SR to figure out their last couple of attacks, get
themselves back to an even scoreline, and then maybe even if they get 5-1 on the first
half, maybe they roll the defenses, maybe the offensive strats just aren't quite there
yet for one of 30.
We still have no idea how this game is going to unfold, but at the same time, you can't
ignore the rounds that we've been witnessing.
One of thirty, they're not locking into these, they're not just getting random swings, it's
not like they're getting siege timing to every round.
They're playing the better game.
They're playing aggressive, they're playing multiple different positions, and they're
catching Shopify or Bellion off guard more often than not because of the positions they're
playing, because of the attention that they're drawing, and certainly because of the shots
they're hitting, they've been the better team through four rounds on Clubhouse, and it's
Of course, Mionis' on-shop fire bellied shop turned this around.
The desk said that this was their game to lose, and so far they are losing it.
This tech pause may be a bit of a blessing for the team to just reset the mental a little bit, because
expectations were a lot higher, and you gotta imagine, if they lose to 1 of 30 in their opening game,
they're not gonna be at the top of Fox and Laxing's tier list any longer.
HAH!
Which is the greatest concern, by the way.
Of course, that's what you're really playing for here.
96% of the community said that the rebellion would win 96% or percent of you the 4% of
you who might be mentally unfit to be in society but I love your optimism might actually end
up being the same group.
Parker you know what I was insulting them but I was really complimenting them you had
no idea.
You know another way to say, to say 4% it's about one in every 30 people.
One of 30.
One of 30.
Yeah. Makes you think.
I'm glad that that's a mirror because I thought he had like eight swords on his wall.
And I was like, that's too many swords.
Or is it just right?
How many swords do you own?
I own two swords, Parker.
I own two. You actually.
I do. I don't know if I'm allowed to bring them on broadcast.
You're talking to them swords!
Um, they're just cool to have.
I think you should get a sword. At least one.
They're like dual wielding swords, the two that I have two.
They're like each one handed and they're the same.
I have no reason to own a sword.
Every person has a reason to own a sword.
Why do you own a sword?
It's intrinsic. Cause it's cool as hell. What do you mean?
You said it was cool. That's not a reason.
There's lots of cool stuff.
It's absolutely a reason to own a sword. Are you kidding?
Helicopters are cool. Do you own one?
No, but I wish I did. That's a skill issue on my part.
I think it's more of a financial issue on your part.
Yeah.
The good people of Blast simply don't pay you well enough to afford a helicopter.
Blast, I'm gonna do the helicopter to the Salt Lake City Major.
I hope that we can get that into my contract, please. Thank you very much.
I want to fly into the Salt Lake City Major like Jeff Probst flew into the reunions on Survivor
where he would like come in on a helicopter after the show ended and land.
That would be really cool.
That would be sick.
With swords.
Imagine that the helicopter is landing, you step out of the helicopter dual wielding swords.
Parker, do you know why helicopters are so cool?
Because they fly by spinning a bunch of swords around the top of them.
That's the whole reason why helicopters are so cool.
That's the whole reason why helicopters are so cool.
No, I'm pretty sure I'm right on that one.
The reason for the tech pause, by the way, is that there was a timeout that was called
But unfortunately was called a bit too late and because of that the whole lobby had to be set up yet again
So we are currently unsure of the of where we are at
I can see that operators are being selected in surf's glasses shout out to surf for that one
So greatly appreciated
But no saying if the timeout has already been taken or not for people who didn't tune into the very first match up or
Turned into any of sal or eml yesterday
you would know that you wouldn't know that there is actually a timeout now
taken between halves so once the first six rounds are played there's a
mandatory timeout where the coaches are allowed to talk to the teams at our
desk so graciously comes in and talks to you puts their voices in your ears
re-centers the discussion explains what happened and then we get back into the
action so I don't know if that's gonna change up when timeouts are called so
100 thieves called their timeout in the first half of game number one and now I have to imagine a Shopify rebellion who called this timeout
Yeah, I think very high chance at that based on how things have been going super of course wants to talk with his team
Everybody knows the coach of Shopify rebellion. No big surprises there. You might not realize
It's actually Roy's in the head coach position for one of 30 Roy's former Mexican player that used to play for
team cruelty and coach team cruelty for much of twenty twenty two and twenty
twenty three through what was a pretty tough time for the team was actually
playing in the CL qualifiers with one of those Mexican stacks and lost to this
team one of thirty seven oh an open qualifier number four so wasn't able to
qualify to the league as a player but decided hey I've got some ways to show
myself off as a coach and the guys on one of thirty agreed they've brought him
the team. And so I think it's
really important for us to be
able to come on to be that
sixth man to help out with the
roster and will be very
interested to see kind of how
that develops the rest of the
season because Roy's is not
really a name that I think
people are super familiar with
across the North American
League, at least our English
speaking fans, but this could
be a good opportunity for him
to prove himself as a coach
up against one of the best
minds in the game. There's
more to talk about involving
the coaching staff, especially
some coaching changes that
Shopify rebellion and made and
you mentioned earlier, but
All this gets sorted out, we'll be back in a couple of minutes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Alright, we are back in action. I assume that the timeouts have been taken. There is some
joy spreading across the face of the Shopify Rebellion players, which is a good spot for
them to be in, the bad spot for them to be in. While they're 1-3 at the moment, they
are staring down the wrong side of a lead on this map. Timeout's being called right
now so they get to talk to their coach super and talk to each other. Both teams get to
talk by the way. And Jesse, you were actually talking about coaches before we went to our
short break. I was Parker. It's Roy's the former Mexican player now turned Mexican coach who
is working for one of 30 as their head coach. Definitely would be interested to get a conversation
as to how that really happened because he's not a player that has played with any of these
one of 30 guys in the past to my knowledge, but obviously has had a lot of success down
there in Latin America and has found some of that and been able to bring it to other teams across
the siege landscape. So we'll be excited to see how he can respond, but the onus of course is on
Super down 3-1 to a team that you should on paper be beating handedly. It's a Challenger League
un-sponsored team in one of 30 who have been tasked with upsetting arguably the best team in North
America. They topped our desk's power rankings at the start of this broadcast and now aren't
really living up to that hype. Opportunities about for them to still tie this half, but it's
going to be tricky with how well one of 30 have been playing. Yeah, honestly, very, very proud of
the way that they've made their debut. Now, I did set the scene earlier by talking about what clubhouse
is like as a man. The way that it exists in our esport, the way that it exists as a battlefield
for two teams and the fact that it's got quite fertile soil for a newer squad. Defending as a
new team on Clubhouse? What I'm gonna say might irritate some people, especially people who are
professionals, but I'm gonna say anyway, if you are a brand new team and you have to defend just
about any map to make your debut, I gotta pick Clubhouse. I'm sorry, it's just, you know this map
inside and out, it should be pretty comfortable and one of 30 looks quite comfortable. So they've
They've done their homework, they've got a, maybe not the most robust map pool at this
point Jesse, because they are a newer team, but you don't need in a best of one situation
to have a huge map pool.
You just gotta be able to play a couple maps, ban the ones you don't like.
And I mean it was, I think the rebellion actually ended up getting the pick here.
So the fact it made it this deep in, 1 of 30 looked quite comfortable.
The last time that we saw the rebellion attack this top floor, comfort was something that
was in spades for 1 of 30, and particularly because the rebellion's attack was not as
well-focused as it could be and not instinct. I suspect they don't benefit on the side of
1 of 30. I'll have that again. I think it's going to be a bit better for the Rebellion.
Well, Steve, the start of the push looks similar as they're opening up the cast wall,
the CC wall, but instead now they're pivoting to lodging. This might be a fast drop.
The boy's looking for the pick as it gets opened by his teammates, but instead pops the Goyo,
clears the bar, wire angle, back off and hatch from now. Could be re-distributed around if they
They want to use that as an angle into the site,
but all of these players have started to move away from CC.
It doesn't look like they want to commit to clearing it
because of how poorly it went last time.
The Logi Hatch is open though, and they're chucking into Candela's.
Yeah, it seemed like their first one was maybe a bit of a nift,
but Canadian was blind and get away
and run right into the waiting arms of Bino.
And Bino's still in this strong spot.
Surf almost perishes and will, in fact,
nice quarterbacking from the Clash of Packer.
Their Bino finally finished off,
But it's SR, getting bottled here.
A minute and 20 still on the clock.
Ambien, a 1v4.
You went for a go for Broke's strategy,
and Broke seems to be the end result.
Down goes Volspar as he swings out of the main stairs.
Ambien could potentially pull this one back.
It will be a daunting task, as he still
has the Clash of Packard lording over him.
Silo and Mike W just need to wait this one out.
Mike W kills Mike.
Oh my goodness!
A blunder!
A huge blunder on the side of 1 of 30.
And Ambi now in a 1v1 against Silo.
This is certainly not what you expected.
And it's a true showdown, a true duel.
Deathmark will go out.
He knows exactly where Silo is.
Ambi will be updated a little bit slower.
He's got him trapped around that key barrier.
Who's got the better aim?
The youngster of Ambi looking for kill number three
in this round, and he will find it.
They had no business winning that round,
and yet they win it all the same.
Oh my goodness, Shopify Rebellion, pull one out of the great beyond.
Well, like, it's only up from there.
Bit of a tough, bit of a tough round.
So it should have been an easy one for V1.
I believe it was a 1v4, correct?
With Andy alone on those main stairs, had no real way into that round whatsoever.
But Mike shoots his clash in the back of the head and loses the gunfight,
which opens the door wide open.
And Ambi does not lose those opportunities very often.
We just had to watch it in the replay too.
It's, that's a tough way to lose a round.
It will be, slow mo, good God, okay.
It happens, opening game, Rookie in his very first match
of professional career, it will happen from time to time
and SR gets bailed out from around.
That should have been unwinnable.
Bring us to within one match.
I mean, there are times where you look at a matchup,
Whether it be a single map or a best of three or even a best of five,
and there are certain times where you can point to a round and say,
that was the turning point.
I think it's way too early to say that about round number five,
but if this goes bad for 1 of 30,
and the rebellion end up eking out a victory,
I think that's the round they were going to point to,
and go, that's the moment everything changed.
1 of 30 showing that maybe they got a little bit too active.
The patience that we complimented them on
For much of those first couple rounds, completely gone, they all went kill hunting because they didn't want to leave the demos in a position where he could just little their numbers down, get information with his death mark, and instead, they blew it!
Dave, frankly, blew it. Mike W. Goh making up for lost time, he gets Andy, wrong round, gets him this time, and the lead will go to 1 of 30 with just over two minutes to go.
I actually think that is such an important kill from Mike W. Parker, because it would be so easy as a rookie player coming into your first game against Shopify Rebellion to make a mistake like that, cost your team around, and then just go cold and silent and scared for the rest of the game.
What better way to bounce back than instantly get a pick on the player to just run before your whole team. That's a crazy play to come through.
And there's so much damage being done by Shopify Rebellion now to a stalemate in terms of numbers, nobody ahead.
Packer finding surf on that wall, the jacuzzi wall, before he repositions himself looking towards that logi door.
Volspern in a familiar spot, up inside of Rafters in garage, spoketing the defuser down.
Nobody seems to know this. Rexon holding the cross.
Ready for somebody from logi. Nobody is there. Volspern now making his presence felt.
Nitrocell will go off down, go spoilt Rexon all by himself.
He needs to try and buy as much time as possible,
but the walls will close in on him.
It's Packer to get the job done.
Three kills for Packer and an easy counter disable
for one of 30 as they survive the bit of a scare.
You gotta imagine, this should have been
a five, one first half for one of 30,
but mistakes lead it to a four, two.
That's still a pretty decent score,
but that's basically the baseline for defending Clubhouse.
Yeah, happy with that result. You have to imagine Parker still forward to feeling good about it.
They stopped that little rush play from Shopify rebellion and put themselves in a very comfy spot.
I think we've got, I think we got the time out coming in front of us with the side swap here, Jesse, which means just in a manner of time, we will have our wonderful desk break that one down.
Mike W obviously starting things off so well. The focus from Shopify rebellion did not involve the garage. I think that is the right call.
think back to the last time they tried to take that part of the map the amount of utility they used on
Volsper up top on rafters and almost all of it found no success whatsoever he was almost the singular
reason why they have lost that top floor execute time and time again but enough from us let's hear what
the desk has to say about that first half. Thanks guys quite a half as we get at the 4-2 heading
into the split. No matter what you look at this and how you unpack clubhouse lacks one
of thirty at four to two over Shopify rebellion. This is more than we expected out of this
roster right off the bat. Yeah. And as Parker said and we all saw it realistically should
have been a five one. It was a little bit of an unfortunate misplay from Mike W. Killing
Packer when he was on that clash was then led to that one to one from Amy Dean able
to clutch it out. But I am really impressed with how well one in thirty is playing off
one. No one really looks disjointed. They're all playing with an understanding of how they want
to play the trade game, how they can swing things, and the man advances into their favorite. I am
really liking what I'm seeing. However, for the side of SR, I think this really speaks into what
Fox was talking about, is they aren't really challenging themselves. Whether it was bringing
them to a map like Clubhouse, whether it was bringing them to another map, they're just playing
the basics, and they are losing these fundamentals. But as we know, it's Clubhouse going two and
2-4 on a half isn't the end of the world.
You win off your attacks, you can easily get a clean sweep here if they have a solid defense.
Yeah, it's no cause to raise the alarms just yet.
We really want to see what 1 of 30 is going to bring on their attacks.
But there hasn't been too much out of the default of a regular clubhouse and a pro league 10 man
that we were expecting to see. There hasn't been too much deviation.
SR again looks like they're just doing their defaults and relying on individual skill.
I would love to see that change and see some problem solving.
Hopefully we get that into the second half, but they will be on defense at the end of the day. Whoever wins if you're SR
You can't be happy about this performance because you're just doing the basics
One of 30 underdog story very much alive as they head into the second half Parker Jesse back to you
No, thank you very much and always great to hear your wisdom be brought out
I think the one thing that you touched on that is really easy to sell to a larger audience is
How happy can you be if you're Shopify rebellion you know in your heart of hearts?
And I know Troy would argue this to us, you know, till he was blue in the face
But you know in your heart of hearts, this should be a 1-5 right now
You were able to benefit from the mistakes that were committed by your opponent in every single game
There will be mistakes made but those are some pretty obvious blunders from 1 of 30 that frankly should not have happened
Again, you can't play the what-if game, but even if you do ultimately win this
you've let one of 30 win four you could argue five rounds against you for a team
that has multiple players with no tier one experience playing up against you
the only team that did not make a single roster move in your region a team that
consistently makes it to live events maybe you don't have the most success
at the live events but you still make it there pardon this but like Shopify
Rebellion should be you know taken one of three out for a walk for a crumbling out loud like this
This should be like a seven one for Shopify rebellion
The fact that it's not is already a major loss for this team
And if you do end up coming back seven four seven five maybe you need to do an extra innings
It's gonna fall well below the rebellions expectations
And I imagine the coaching staff on the side of SR are not happy whatsoever
No, they're not totally not, but now they're gonna find some way to turn it around so they
can only take things as they come Parker and so far.
They're too bored down, defending now on Clubhouse.
Now, last season their Clubhouse defenses weren't great, they had a 48% defensive win rate
here on Clubhouse across the full 365 day seasons, so it wasn't a great side for them.
Historically, if they can get three rounds, that won't be enough.
that 50-50 stat line holds for them, it's still going to be 1 of 30 who walk away with this victory,
so they've got to be better than that.
Let's start on the base. One of these sites that 1 of 30 really seemed to love,
but this time there's not really as much of a roam game.
Troy is playing up on the top floor currently, and Andy was lurking around there too,
but I think if this jerk pressure's starting to come, they realize that they don't need to
commit too much to the roam game, and want a more or less play with everybody on site for a late round execute.
I mean that defender win rate is really something to talk about and I'm glad you bring it up
But again it goes back to it is hard to attack where you are a newer team and one of 30 will have to find their footing as a new squad
Yes, Packer and Beano do have teaming and experience but not on the same team
And because of that they don't have a long history together
Pads may have crossed Mike W. W. Winsfield might also have chemistry at a tier 2 or tier 3 level
But now you're in the big leagues and you're going up against a team that has tons of experience.
You can make a very good argument that somebody like Ambien, shot by Rebellion, has more experience
than the entirety of 1 of 30 combined.
So experience doesn't win you a game, but it certainly helps.
In this case, 1 of 30 are going to have to fake it till they make it.
They've done a good job of faking it so far and they're just a couple rounds away from
making it too.
Nice little flash for Zambie back in the main stairs.
It's Valsper versus Ambien.
arguably the two best players to this game on both sides who have been
dueling things out on Clubhouse. Valsper, he's so aggressive with this, he
actually pushes all the way up and gets rewarded. Valsper was giving up the angle
and that opens things up with 60 seconds to go. The man that bandaged now the way
of Shopify Rebellion, feel at the bottom of dirt has a lot of information but
you've got to find some way to use this to get a plant down or work a pick.
He's got three targets spotted, he can't do anybody at all and he just walks into
He was demise, might W. W. W. ground, stole one, the shuttle still nearby, dig one for
Packer as well as Silo finds himself in a 1v5, you're not just digging the bodies down,
but 1 of 30 you're digging this round, they are gone, a full all list start to the second
half, four Shopify rebellion, that's more like it, one round away from tying things
up.
Yeah, definitely the most dominant round for SR that we've seen so far Parker, and a lot
of it comes down to just not being able to force players out of those positions, they
They had the grim information.
Silo was able to get that,
these kind of down inside of blue,
down towards dummies.
They had good intel on where players were at,
but the entry to the bomb site ended up just being
being a walking out of dirt tunnel on the black beard
into a crossfire.
That's never really going to be good enough
for an entry into the bomb site.
The blue push didn't really go their way.
So all of that executing,
it definitely feels like through one round,
attacking side, not as proficient from one of 30
than what we saw on their defense.
plenty of opportunities to change that narrative around. I do want to touch briefly on kind of what
you're talking about on the on the coordination and the familiarity that these players on one
approach have with each other. There actually is a lot of overlap across tier two and tier three
with these players playing together on different stacks. Both Packer and Valsper work on the team
SOS together back in element six. Bino and Packer actually played together on that Seal
for Life roster that was attending the Montreal Major a couple years back so there definitely
is a lot of overlap on these players even though they are a brand new team
playing with one another and I'm hoping through these next couple of attacks
we'll be able to see some of that coordination and team play shine a
little bit brighter than what we saw in round number seven.
You don't think the you don't think you can discount the experience that's had
at a lower level but the competition you play against is really what's going to
determine how well you do right that old adage iron sharpens iron steel
sharpened steel as a man who owns two swords you should know full well about that.
I don't know how much you sharpen your swords here but they're actually
incredibly dull like purposefully dull so that I don't like hurt myself.
Did you not see that streamer who had like a real live katana that was sharpened
and it fell out of its I don't know it's sheath it's holster whatever you I don't
know anything about swords sword people don't come after me here and she tried to grab it
and it like sliced with her fingers and her tendons and now yeah
Yeah, that's tough. So don't sharpen your swords. I guess that's yeah
I guess that's the lesson to be learned today. Keep your swords. Keep your swords dull
But back to my point iron sharpens iron steel start with sharpen steel and because of that
If you are a really good team at a low level
There is eventually a point where you reach diminishing returns and consistently playing tier two and tier three teams
you need to play against and prep for
the better teams. Once you consistently do that, you will start to see yourself improve quite quickly.
Now this one of 30 team does not have a lot of pure one experience, and you're absolutely right.
They do have chemistry at a lower level. If they can keep up that chemistry at a higher level,
then good things will likely happen. This team has already surprised us so far through the seven rounds that we have seen.
They have taken a team that frankly shouldn't have allowed them more than maybe one or two rounds,
And they are now in a position where they are in the lead that lead might be temporary
They might end up seeding it to Shopify rebellion Shopify rebellion might absolutely demolish them and end up running away with it
But still you've made SR bleed
And that's because you sharpened your swords. Maybe down to one maybe T2 depends on where you are
So credit to 130 so far it gotta keep showing up attacking is gonna be tough
They've got their work cut out for them their first crack at it. Not very good
You don't know why there's a tech pause here
But hopefully they're able to reset their mental because it can be a bit of a tilt here with how that first round of the second half went
Yeah, I want to talk about the group a little bit too Parker
I don't usually do this on the first playday because we don't have all that much information
But five years won the opening game of the NAL they beat 100 these and in theory they beat 100 these in theory
right when four out of the five teams make it out of the group you really you
might only need to win a single game to make it out of groups it'll get a lower
bracket you do want to win more games for better seating of course but in
theory if if the better team always wins the team that gets eliminated from
this group will be the team that gets zero wins five fierce have a win one of
30 are maybe about to get their first win that leaves only rebellion 100
teams and M80 as the windless
teams and in theory, one of them
might end up going out of this
group without even making it to
playoffs. All three of these
teams expect to be at the kickoff.
They expect to be at the first
major of Salt Lake City. Imagine
the scenes if one of the biggest
orgs gets eliminated this early
into the competition and five
fears and one of 30 both make it
to the playoffs. And there's only
every team has an off day. Today it's M80 and Cloud9 from their respective groups that are not
going to be playing. So if you blow two games, that's it. You could have completely given up
any control you had over your own destiny. With that, you could be on the outside looking in.
You're absolutely right. There are three orgs and three teams, but the orgs in particular are
are expecting to be in Salt Lake City.
You know that there are people sitting in the head offices
of M80 Shopify rebellion and 100 thieves saying,
it's a huge loss if we don't make it to Salt Lake City.
You look at the fact that you're playing up against
Five Fears, which was that envy team that
has historically not been the best they have yet
to make playoffs through the two stages that they played.
And you look at a team that just qualified
from that challenge series, the Challenger series,
and you're like, easy, we know the top three.
It's 100 thieves, M80, and SR in some order.
Again, we don't play these matches on paper.
We don't play them in, you know, the hypothetical.
We play them in the now.
And Five Fears showed up in match number one,
and they clobbered.
They looked pretty good.
100 thieves obviously look like they have some stuff
to work out, but Five Fears,
I don't want to take anything away from them.
They looked like a decent team.
They looked like a team that could make a surprise run.
They didn't look like world beaters,
and they didn't look like a dominant force
that's going to walk away with this and make land,
but they certainly look like they could upset some good teams
along the way and play good siege.
We're now seeing the same thing from one of 30.
We're looking at a team here that up against Shopify Rebellion,
which I would argue is probably the one NA team
that might struggle against a quote unquote worst team.
They are at least giving them the gears.
And one of 30 might still end up losing this matchup,
but they've shown that SR can bleed.
That will cause some fear in the hearts
of these other teams in the group,
because you're absolutely right Jesse, there is a possibility that both 5 fears and 1 of 30 finish towards the top of this group.
It's not likely, but it is possible.
That would throw a complete spanner in the works for the other 3 teams in the group.
Certainly much more likely now than it was 2 hours ago, I'll tell you that Parker, with the results that we've seen here in the North America League.
Both of the underdogs have been big days to start the NAL, but it looks like we're right back into the action.
We really appreciate your guys patience on hanging in there as we get back into the game
Shopify rebellion lost the first half for two to one of 30
But they have managed to battle back with their first defensive round win a near flawless rounds to win on the basement bomb site
They will now go gym and bedroom to hopefully keep that up
We're back in thank you so much for your patience as
As you do tend to see, there are always some gidders and hip-hops that need to be worked out,
and the maiden voyage of all of these leagues, so we are hopefully getting all of the ghosts in the machine exercised, I suppose.
We did a seance, actually, and I think we're in for each of your...
I got my Ouija board out, and they actually typed in...
The Ouija board, the ghosts, actually did FF-15.
I don't know what that means, apparently it's some kind of game-wraithing go.
And then it went up to the numbers six and then it went to the number seven right next to it again
I don't know what any of this means, but
That's just that's what happens. So we said goodbye and now we're back in action
And as you can see as we did much yapping about one of 30 up for three
Could be a five to but is a four three this the last will reference it rebellion of their hands full
But they are defending the easier side of clubhouse
They're open to tie things up in the next two minutes
It's Ambien Canadian extended over towards this cash side Parker and be playing that warden position top red that we saw
Valsper do so much good work in he's got the very similar shield not the exact same protected by some of those
The anger charges that Canadian was brought down the lady at
Try to keep him safe, but it'll be Troy the first one under pressure is the ace starts to open up his wall
knows that there are players inside of garage inside of rafters nobody's
walked into CC yet but the opportunity is there
Mike has been one of the main points of the spear involved in a lot of early
action Mike gets a read on Canadian he actually misses it because of the debris
he'll now have to use his gadget to try and find his position Canadian swings on him
that car is an awful lot of damage Mike is a little worried hoping for a follow-up
Packer is in position to do that
Canadian down in the corner Packer dies to Ambi is now it's Bino to lock up Silo is gone
Mike W and Bino the only two kills might gets it right as he dies
Things go from bad to worse in the hurry for the 1-30 team
It looked like they were gonna pinch Canadian and they lost almost all of their team
Produced a whole spur and Bino watched on that ball proof camera their assault inside a construction is spotted
We need to go for 1-30 to dig these cells out of this hole.
Yeah, not good enough for what they were looking for in that cash clear part,
but they desperately wanted to walk away with a man of anis just because of how much time they sunk into it,
but instead they're gonna have to fight Sirfraxen and a low HP ambi as they go for this execute.
They've got good guns in their hand. They do have some utility.
Three candelas remain, one E, one D.
the side of Volsper so
You can flesh these players out of this position push your way towards the bomb site
This is an opening for one of thirty no do just that
Blind scan this off, Kandell is going completely blinded Volsper dies
Bino not able to get into the building if he had hopped in and started the defuse while Volsper watched them might have been a chance or
Have two guns up to do some damage
But the rebellion are just out of reach and so is the round time ticking down rexing gets the final kill and we are all tied up
Four rounds apiece
Here's some of these ying plays just aren't really working out as well as they need to be for one of 30
I mean we're seeing the the kendallas get used we're seeing players getting blind
But the follow-up is not always there sometimes you're seeing them blinding their own teammates
We saw that with Mike W getting blind on that cash clear
Canadian I thought did a really good job of playing it just aggressive enough to force them to be a little bit scared
But not so aggressive that he died really early
He didn't get a kill in that round, but I thought Canadian was really impactful in
Enabling frags to come out from spoint and from some of his other teammates to really stop that clear through the cache side of the map
Definitely feels like that's one of those
Maybe discord nation issues that we're seeing once again where the players on one of 30 they have the right idea
They know what they have to do to accomplish this, but a player is slightly out of position
They're slightly missed timing some of these swings
They're slightly missing their shots when they try to go for these clears
and it's giving SR a really big advantage that they can run with in these late rounds.
We'll not call a timeout because they are worried about how it's used by their opponents.
I remember one time when you break them.
Oh, that made some decisions about timeouts that we always thought were sometimes a little interesting.
But, he said sometimes you don't call timeouts because it's obvious what you need to do and you trust the IGL to do it.
You don't want to call the timeout because if you know that you don't want your opponents to gain anything from that time
Maybe there's something their coaches seem that they can talk about you just have to trust that your team can do it
I think with a younger team like 1 of 30 and in fact and frankly most teams actually find themselves in this position
Jesse they're gonna call the timeout no matter what there's no real games to be out here
You think things are bad just call the timeout game what your opponents are gonna do
You need to focus on yourself and yourself first and foremost
1 of 30 will call that and hope for the best
I mean with the way that they've attacked these last two rounds, I think there's very good reason for them to try to figure things out
I just don't know if they're gonna be able to do it in the map
Yeah, I agree. I think it's a bit of a tall ask and it would have been an even taller ask if Richie had stuck around a little bit longer on that spawn peek
and managed to get the kill
Leaves maybe a second or two before the player walks into his roster down there at the bottom of garage gets up without any damage of course
but even still some opportunities not going their way. They've got intel on these players towards the cache side too.
Sorry, towards the master side. It's a exploit playing inside of gym and Canadian inside of bedroom with ambi there as well.
They have a three-man extension over towards this side of the map. The drones are good. They've got solid information on this,
but clearing these players out will be very tricky.
That's a interesting spot for Spock to be in if he gets pressured from that window.
He's now been droned out so he's gonna have to go for the drop.
Packer is fishing for anything.
There's two slacks of eyes now staring at Spock's position.
For bicing time with the key to the barrier is really good value here.
This is a great play from Spock.
I know that he gets...
Chris has been thrown his way for lack of kills but this utility work is terrific and
and he is living way longer than he has any right to live for.
Blugging holes, dodging explosions, dodging bullets.
It's pure cinema here inside of the wait room,
and Wells Boyd is doing more than lifting and carrying his own chair.
But wait, he's finally kicked off as is him.
He kills from 1 to 30, make that a third.
Vulseport's the only one who's dropped Serfletrade most of his HP for that in the process.
But Serf has a good position here.
Guess nobody's to be found.
Long action with one minute to go, one at thirty, working until we get in the lead.
Hold on.
Hold on.
Hold on.
No, you may go ahead.
Sir, from the 1v3 partner, there's anybody I trust in this position.
It's him, but it's a tall task.
Forty-five seconds still to work on this timer.
They're going to be able to pick up the defuse kit without too many problems.
I believe it was just dropped over towards Jim.
So once they can get this information too, Sir, from one HP, how does he pull this back?
I mean this is a similar position that they were in when Ambi was on attack if you recall.
He was the Deimos and he made this work.
It's a lot harder when you're a defender.
I mean you get styled, you pushed up, a packer gets the job done through the wall, a really
nice comeback from SR over the last couple rounds but the timeout from 1-30 looks like
it paid off.
Still not the most confidence inspiring round but a pretty good round across the board.
or one of those, you find yourself on match point.
Yeah, I actually think by far the most impressive attack
we've seen from one of 30,
we were focused on Spoit most of that round.
Then rightfully so, he was doing really good work.
If Spoit had just denied like two minutes or a minute 45
and then died, I think SR would have been
in a really good spot to win that.
But a couple of picks happened completely separate
from the Spoit shenanigans that made that into a 5v2.
Ambi was playing construction.
He died through the hatch.
The papper was down below in bar, killed him through the con hatch to make that a 4v2, 5v3 even.
And then the final frag was Brexton trying to jump from, where afters back into the bombsite,
the main breach was open and Skylow was in for 10k, and he tried to make that rotation.
So completely separate from Canadian and spoits.
Crazy play happening over towards bathroom.
Two frags go the way of one of thirty, they're not all focused on that one part of the map
separate from the bombsite, and it just gives them such a massive advantage that they're
able to close that one out.
If they can have a couple more early rounds that look like that, where they're picking
off players across the map, they're in good shape to close this one out.
Yeah, and I mean, I, I said I wasn't gonna say it.
We'll stay on one more time.
This could very easily be 6-3 if, if that wasn't a tremendous throw by one of thirty
earlier in that first half.
So that's something that you have to keep in the back of your mind.
I know that if they end up losing here, you have to imagine the post-game tweets from
1 of 30 will make reference to that, like, wow, we probably should have won that one.
Can't believe we threw that round, blah, blah.
But I mean, again, you just gotta take it round by round, just work through it and pretend
that it's only a one-round game.
That's exactly what 1 of 30 is gonna try to do.
Silo looking for something early.
He was on a collision course with Rexon.
Some damage is done to Silo.
Very little.
And he manages to get away from it.
could have been scary for 1 of 30 as they looked to move to match point.
Down in the bottom floor, it's a very similar lineup.
The only thing they dropped is the Warden in favor of the Mira from the side of surf.
So they've swapped that up briefly, and I believe it was hiding for a bit on that Mira.
So didn't want to force 1 of 30 to bring one of those Mira counters, and you can see there's
no Twitch being brought, there's no Ash being brought, there's no Kali being brought.
It would have been a bit of a troll anyways on the basement.
But there's no real immediate counters other than maybe the Habana trying to counter the
mirror windows that will be placed down towards the bottom floor. There is a bit of a roam.
Rebson's top red here on the smoke. They're about to find that out. The drones and Andy is down
towards lounge, but I honestly think they're going to fall back immediately. That's exactly what they
do is the logic bomb comes out. And now you basically spend 75 seconds to get nothing if you're
one of 30 on the roam clear. Waiting out those logic bombs is the last one we'll generate.
Volsperters needs to stay alive to see it through and we will succeed.
I'll let them know a little bit of action that we saw earlier and the damage that was
done to Silo. It's been a relatively quiet minute. This is 130 dotting their eyes crossing
their teeth. They've taken that top floor and will now translate.
I'm going to Silo that again. I'm for the stock destruction over by Kitchen. Two nitro
cells in pocket for SR. You have to watch your feet if you want a 30.
We're just attempting to get that main hatch out the inside of the kitchen. Not succeeding
right now. Mike will get the job done. Nade's still in pocket for Packer 2. No nitrocells
extended from SR with one minute to go. This is exactly where the rebellion want to be.
They've got all their players up. They've got all their site utility. There's going
to be toxic babes, goyos, the mirror windows, a C4 from Canadian. I mean so much utility
to stop this push. Very similar to what we saw in round seven. They tried to
force them to the Black Rift through dirt. That went horribly for 1 of 30. So they're
changing things up, getting the hatches, but just the same, the util advantage is
not there for the attackers.
Oh no, I feel about a 5v5 collision course with 30 seconds to go, Jesse. This is
going to be absolute chaos. I have to favor the defenders, which is great for
SR, but you never really know. Flip a coin, and that's ultimately which team will
come out ahead, because the killing will start at the hands of Ambi, now working
their way over towards church, the cross being held by Wolfsburg, but the whole team is being
picked apart. Mike will go for the drop, another flawless round will come out, a second for Shopify
Rebellion as they tie things up yet again. Not much to say on these rounds, Parker,
other than it feels like one of thirty got to go back to the drawing board on these basement
attacks. They are not coming together, they're wasting so much time on the early game to get
really no value, they're not able to punish the light roam that's being played by Shopify Rebellion,
And then when the XQ comes out, I mean, they're just completely outclassed even in the 5v5.
The utility advantage has been massive from Shopify Rebellion on that bottom floor bomb site.
The good news for the underdogs is they don't have to play that site again until we get to overtime.
No doubt in my mind, it'll be the first site SR pick if we get to that round 13, round 14, but...
Yeah, top floor is gonna have to be where this game gets decided.
I will say as well, Ambien.
Three opening picks in this second half. He's been playing quite aggressive on this roam game.
He's not always been the player to go for spawn peeks or go for kind of crazy plays in the early rounds.
But he's happy to get into those extension gunfights over towards the point of the map where maybe the bomb site is not.
He's been having a lot of success with it four in one since the re-host.
If it wasn't for Andy, there'd be very little opportunities for rebellion to get these opening picks.
the rest of the way it has been this one and thirty team with the most opening picks. So kudos to them
for that. Mike W with three first bloods as well. He was the player that you mentioned earlier and
said that oh you know he could be the real surprise so far. Today he is leading the team
with the present moment eight and six. The scores on the bottom of your screen are not accurate
because there has been a re-host but eight and six is the present score line for Mike W which
Dropping eight kills against the Shopify rebellion team. I mean the whole team is actually pretty even when it comes to kills
But being able to be the best on your team against a pretty formidable opponent is might even second on the team by the way
Is Packer which is pretty crazy to think about a woman's role
Hacker leading this team of course doing all that he can be no technical
IGL of this squad but Packer often a very focal player as well
There's no doubt in my mind he's gonna have a large impact on what this team looks like from day to day and inside the server
Bedroom once again from SR and their lineup has really been changed quite dramatically
They're not committing as much to that cash side hold and said they've sent ambi to the base
Potentially go for a bit of a late-round flank
They are on this jacuzzi hatch
There's a world where he may even goes dirt tunnel to try to get a cheeky kill
but nowhere near that position at the moment, just playing at the bottom of the main stairs,
thinking you might get pushed soon.
I'm not aware of any info. It doesn't look like one of 30 realises he's down there,
but they have to imagine if there's a bit of a room game going on,
just because of how, like, the casual really was.
They're going to reposition themselves over towards Logi,
he's breathtaking damage, but he outtools Packer Packer,
he was living on borrowed time, he was very, very low on HP from that earlier engagement about a
a minute ago, exploiting this familiar spot.
Last time he was on Wait Room, he survived two nades,
a hail of bullets, three players trying to dig at him,
and he used his utility so effortlessly,
he got a kill in the process,
but he really wasn't there to fend them off with his gun.
He was there to buy time,
with his presence being what it is.
If he could buy even more time,
that might be the nail in the coffin for one or 30.
And then he's the second player,
and Wolfsburg is gone.
Outside of Wolfsburg's play as the insolvent,
it's been a bit of a rough debut for him.
On his role, we know how hard that can be.
Mike W. Now last alive as things have fallen apart.
The one of 30, the rebellion, absolutely mauging him.
What about Mike?
What can he do?
In his position over by Jacqui Bates in search,
sidearm is out, bullets are out,
and Spoyt will get the final kill for the first time
all day.
Shopify rebellion will take the lead.
They won round number one.
They had the lead through round one,
and then immediately lost it.
I don't know, I don't count round one as the lead, because it's the first round.
Yeah.
But now?
It's theirs and they are a single round away from putting this one into their win cold.
And it comes off the back with a really nice little 3k from my favorite react channel content creator.
Spoight has always been a top level player inside of Jin.
He's played this position throughout his career on different teams, even back when he was on M80.
You put him on the Azami inside of Jim on Clubhouse and he will do ridiculous things.
You brought it up on this CCD catch defense where he was roaming over there.
Even when the bombsites on that side of the map, the C-Spoil is playing in that position.
So really nice to C-Spoil continue to have so much skill and so much of an advantage inside that spot.
Just three really important kills throughout that round to give the lead to SR.
And now, one round away from a regulation win.
It is important to win these without getting the overtime.
I'll remind you, you get more points in the groups.
It's three points for a regulation win two points for an overtime win. So for SR it is critical now being close to step seven five
Rexon posted up now with the DMR in hand mention it back in our first match that some teams like to use the role
DMR what is your job?
Yeah, but you play on defense. I don't know maybe I'll play a
Maybe I'll play some, you know, we'll play some Rune, we'll play some Tuber Al, what do you play on Attack?
I don't really think it's a DMR. Ah, that's great. We do a lot of damage and again a reminder for you that while there are other guns that are slowly getting buffed, DMRs are still very, very strong.
If you're playing Twitch, we'll try to get to you, but for everybody else, see what that 417 is. It might be good, and I mean Rex and, and an earlier engagement a couple rounds and you'll try to get and find anything for this time.
This was the one bombsite where 1 of 30 had a pretty good looking push parker, they had
pressure all around the map.
It looks like they're reached and exactly go to plan over there.
The Habana Peltz from Mike W don't get something that you can actually enter through at least
without a vault prompt so that might make the execute a little bit more awkward.
They are still concerned with his pressure over towards Master.
Spoilett is right back in his position, locking down Jim.
At the same time, you see some of these players over on one of three holding down below.
Packer got his first kill on this bomb site through the con hatch,
so we know how good he can be from playing down on that bottom floor.
And Valsper hoping to get a bit of an entry with these Candelas.
It's going to be tough no matter where they choose to push from Parker.
Yeah, I mean, this is where the rubber's meant to route.
Attacking on this map can be challenging, even for teams that are really well-practiced,
but for a newer team that's still finding their footing, it is torturous.
And you won't even able to see a single attacking victory from this 1-30 team on this second half.
Even if you do change things with that one fateful round, I don't know how much it would do for 1-30.
At this point in time, this second half has just been too much for them to handle.
They trade out kills, Bino dies to Rexxan, who finds this position that he was in much earlier.
Now, to be all too similar, still up on Raptors watching B-Bomb chassis.
He gets my W as well.
A third to cross, but Vulsper with the pre-fire guns him down.
Things not going so well for 1-30 at this point in time. 50 seconds left on the clock.
Volsberg with the case of the halfway point packer watching. He gets Canadian immediately turns towards Red Stairs.
He knows somebody's pushing up in that direction. It's him versus Amy in a nice shot.
Now it's Boyd, heading back to the bomb site. He needs to worry about both of them. Volsberg gets him.
We're going all the way! What a debut for this team as we need extra innings between these two squads.
The SOS duo, Volsper and Pack are getting all five frags in that round, Parker, and it was not looking like an easy round for them.
They couldn't find an opening over towards Jim, they couldn't find an opening in towards Garage, no matter where they were pressuring.
They weren't able to find that man advantage, so eventually Packard just says, yeah, I'll walk up red stairs, but you saw him down below inside of storage.
He managed to make that play just walking up the stairs finding a bit of a gap and then playing perfect angles as his teammate got the plant down
Ready for every push that came his way watching the con player watching the red player
Even though things didn't go to plan they got into site very early and with that pressure forced movements out of the rebellion
That always favored one of 30
Those are your stats right there nine kills so far from Mike stacking against 11 for ambi ambi doing ambi things
You come to expect that.
He, when he is on his game, can easily
match up with the best of the best of them.
Ignore everything about the rest of the team.
Ignore international and domestic success.
And look solely at the abilities of one player.
You could put Ambien on most of the top teams in the world,
and I think he would flourish in his role.
He really is a standout performer, one of the best
in North America, and he makes this team so much better.
I mean, if it wasn't for Ambien, it would be Serf, frankly,
who's getting his flowers on this SR team.
I feel like Serf often lives in the shadow.
of ambi with how good ambi is.
Spoi is having a very good day from kills as well.
It's worth mentioning because a lot of players
tend to, a lot of people, viewers, players, castors,
etc. tend to focus on when Spoi does poorly.
Today, he's doing pretty well.
He's done a lot of grid utility work
and he's also matching up well
from a fragging perspective.
So, Spoi banging away and that depth
is what's helped the rebellion to get to this point.
Yeah.
And a cute point, Jesse.
OT.
Yeah, we're here in OT
And we've got a very different look from Shopify Rebellion.
So Boith is upstairs near Jim, where he's been finding so much success.
I said we'd CSR, come back down to the basement around 13.
That's exactly what they've done, but the AWP lineup is completely different.
They're going for a full roam setup, Parker, with a ton of oppression towards the top four.
That's despite the fact that their anchor setups on this bomb site work amazing in around 7 and 10.
It was completely uncraftable from 1 of 30.
It's a bit of a risk going for a roam setup this time around, changing things up after your anchor setups worked so well, but you have to take risks when you're an OD and you're an AL.
Snake on the board, being piloted by Packer.
The Steadologic Bombs will go off. Only two of these Info Ops that are being brought at this point in time, down goes Pino with a hint of surf. What did I say?
If it wasn't for Ambysurf, would have a much bigger spotlight on him.
Down he goes to Silo as now 1-30 looks to breach into this bomb site.
They've made their way in and they're finding their targets.
1-30 though trailing in numbers and they've lost control of that top floor,
allowing these defenders of the rebellion to get to the bottom of main stairs.
It'll be all up to Mike W with 16 bullets in Hibana's Type 89 to stop them.
You know how quickly those bullets go by.
He'll go for a reload as they fall a little bit farther back.
They have control of the site and they have the defuse kit now as well.
So things working pretty effectively. It's all on Packer to cover here. A minute still left on the clock
Mike W. Faked takes down the sweet attempting to get ever closer to the bombsite cannot get the job done
Michael now need to reposition
You cannot breach the air Mike
Now I'll pull out the defuse kit
Safety behind the boxes Packer still holding this cut just waiting. He needs somebody to cross Mike is completely shielded
Skopos, using their passive so effectively, might go down to Ambie.
It's all up to Packard and Clutch, and he'll do it!
My goodness, one of thirty steals the round, and they move to match point.
I don't know how they've done it, Parker, but this team, in the late rounds,
when the pressure should be the highest, with three rookies on the roster,
are so cool, calm, and collected they know exactly how to play around one another.
Those bottom floor bombsite attacks had looked so bad over the regulation rounds of seven and ten
It did not seem like this was gonna be a win of a bombsite for one of 30
But what do they do not much different they get their way in through their tunnel
They have blue control
But this time they're able to trade kills out and because shopfire
Ballion are going for such an aggressive throne because they don't have that full five man in the basement like they did previously
They're able to have really good positions and they could hold the two players on main stairs not let them back down into the sites
the game, and it's not just
the way it is. It's the way
it is. It's the way it is.
It's the way it is. It's
the way it is. Packers in the
perfect position to get the
couple of players that rotated
over towards church, despite
the pressure that was being
applied to them. Mike plays
absolutely phenomenally around
that diffuse kit getting it
down, baiting for the pick on
the spoits. Thought he had
flashbacks in the midst of
that didn't quite have them,
but didn't need them to secure
the round win. And if this
ends up being an eight seven
or an eight six victory for one
You gotta move on, right? You gotta mentally prepare yourself and move on, and that's...
...when you see this point in time. A lot of long faces on the Shopify rebellion side of things.
Again, of all the teams that you could take to this point, it's the team that made no changes to their active roster.
Shopify Rebellion should have skated through this one. This match should have been over 30 minutes ago.
But that's not what transpired, and it has been a fight of their lives, a team with tons of experience.
No real serious weakness that at least we can see, and yet now they are in overtime needing to win back-to-back rounds in order to walk away with a victory.
It's Mike W, who's just on your screen in the rest of his team, who are in the driver's seat.
Don't really know what SR can do to turn this one around. It just seems like they've been fighting from behind all match long.
I mean you got to imagine that that was their opportunity Parker. You get defense and over time it's been 4-2 defensive sides in both the first and second half.
Of course that's how we got here. Shot by our belly and they go to the basement. They take a bit of a risk. It does not pay off for them.
Now they've got to win a round on attack, which was not super successful for them
It'll probably be CCTV cash brought out by one of 30
That's the bomb site that they went to an O on back during regulation
And then they've got to win the defense once again
I would bet you if we get to round 15
We see a fourth baseman defense from SR and they just try to anchor it up because again
I think when they were running that strategy, it was so good for them
It could go gym bedroom round 15 if they get there
But for me, I just feel like running that back
and trusting your anchors is going
to be the better play for them.
I have to imagine so.
We saw some empty chairs there as some of the players
have gone to do a bathroom break.
We need a brief re-house, so we'll
be going on a break of our own.
We'll be back in just a few minutes.
Sit tight.
I
I'm gonna keep it going, I'm gonna keep it going, I'm gonna keep it going till I hurt my neck.
Alright, we are back in action. Thank you again for that short commercial break.
I'm not entirely sure what was wrong. I'm no rehostologist here. No, you were not you are not in
Rehostology one-on-one. You're not doing your bachelor's in rehosting. That's not how it works here
You're just along for the ride and again
As always we appreciate so much your patience while we get these matches done
You can see the frustrations slowly creeping in on the face of these Shopify rebellion players
You don't really see a lot of joy, Jesse, on the one of 30 guys.
And I think that's because they understand the importance of this matchup.
If they win here, they are in really good shape.
Yeah, no doubt. I mean, this was once again the number one ranked team by our analyst,
as Shopify Rebellion thought to be by many the best team coming into the North America League.
And they're up against a challenger series team.
I mean, don't get me wrong, 1 of 30 played very well in Challenger League.
They finished first overall, they dominated versus a couple of really good tier 2 teams,
but there's levels to this thing, right?
You don't expect the top level Challenger League team to even have a close game against the top level
pro NAL team, and yet we're not only seeing a close game,
we're seeing a game where 1 of 30 have been in the lead for the vast majority of it.
We'll bring you back. I mean, it was Volsper for me who really started them off so strong on the defense.
He had some really big plays on Warden and on Azami, having some really high impact over towards the cash side of the map.
Then, as we swapped around, Mike W has been a really big player for them here on the attack.
Everybody's contributing. I wouldn't say there's one player who's dragging them across the finish line, like we do sometimes see with low-level teams.
but the back and forth that we've seen between these two squads, the level of play that we've seen come out from 1 of 30,
it's not been perfect, it's not been clean, especially in the second half there have been mistakes,
but broadly I'm very impressed with the game that they're playing and they look like they're better team across the board
than what we've seen out of SR so far.
I think that's a great way of putting it, and I mean again, go back to that one round, this should be over.
If they didn't throw the round in the garbage by killing each other in all the jazz, this game's over.
games over. And SR loses. Honestly, it doesn't even go to OT if that's the case. It gets
one, seven, five in regulation. So I just, yeah, I mean, you can't be happy about this
if you're SR. They, you know, they, they made a splash picking up thesis as their, as their
secondary coach to help them out. Super did a whole long video about it. There was a lot
a discussion after the results in SI to back-to-back disappointing places for SR.
And I don't say disappointing from my perspective, I say disappointing from their own perspective.
Those were their own words.
They were disappointed with how Munich went, they were disappointed with how SI went.
And you'd think that they spent most of that off time, you know, in the off season wood
shopping and trying to improve.
And they did.
I'm sure they did.
I know from the times that I talked to a couple guys on the team, they were screaming, constantly
working through things and they were pretty confident coming into this matchup and that confidence
seems at this point in time to be a bit misplaced because they don't look like they're playing
their own game Jesse even in the rounds that they're winning it looks like more than anything they
are reacting to mistakes that have been made by this one of 30 team it has not been a confidence
inspiring game from SR even if they do manage to pull off the unthinkable at this point in time which
which is win back to back rounds here in OT
to take the 15 round victory.
It still seems like one of 30 deserved,
and I don't say this word often,
but deserved to ultimately win this one.
I guess even if you lose,
it's gonna be a little bittersweet for the team
that's on your screen right now,
but they're gonna be probably pretty proud
of how they played,
but pride isn't what gets you to Salt Lake City.
Victories are, and that's what they need to focus on.
They've got three minutes when they load into the server
I feel the deal, we're gonna pull that one off.
Oh, we can take a brief look at what happened
last round, Parker, in round 13,
which gave the lead back to one of 30.
Again, keeping in notice is how many SR players
were not actively in the site.
These two guys at the bottom of main stairs, it's spoilt,
and I believe it's Andy trying to work their way
down the staircase, were really the big problem
for Shopify Rebellion.
The fact that they weren't in the site
to support those team, those members,
and the fact that they could both be held
Mike W on that angle was just so devastating for that retake on SR. It ended up not going their
way, it was a really good little clutch coming out from both Packer and Mike W in that moment,
and it's given them some life here and over time. They will take the lead and they themselves will
go down to the bottom floor bomb site, site that they did lose all the way back in round number
one but of course one on the rematch round four.
You're dead!
Four Shopify Rebellion.
You are in a tough group.
You saw the teams that they are competing against five fears of a big victory earlier
today over the 100 Thieves roster, 103 is hoping for quite a big splash with their roster
but they'll have to wait until their match up tomorrow as five fears took the victory.
Five fears might be the team that you used to know as Envy.
hundred thieves. The core of that team is made of OXG squad, with Spirits and
Pambazoo from Dark Zero. Here, Shopify rebellion didn't make any changes.
130? Well, they were, uh, they went by a name that happened to be a shoe store with
the word finest. At the end, now they go by one of 30. Likely, I'd have to imagine
for like copyright and legal purposes, you can just use another company's name.
But you know, I'm not a no copyrightologist here. Not a lot of
to be honest. But this 30 team, one of the newest additions with three players making their tier one debut and they are about to, if all goes according to plan, over the next minute and 50 seconds, defeat Shopify Rebellion, one of the most experienced, if not the most experienced team when you add all these players together in the NAL. That is quite the statement.
Packer and Silo were on a bit of a roam together on the mid-floor, but as Silo falls back to the bomb site, he leaves Packer all by himself in Strip Club.
He's been droned out. They're very aware on the side of Shopify Rebellion where this Ella is roaming, but clearing him out is going to take time.
Canadian outside the Strip Door deciding that maybe they do need to take that time to clear him. They don't want to have to push, especially with this Ying Sen setup that they're trying to brew up.
They don't want to try to push it without this player still being not taken care of but this is the job how much time
the packer waste.
Oh, not a lot. I mean one minute still remaining on the clock.
Managing to get away with this life still intact and as we've seen before even a single point of HP just and you can do some serious damage
So it's still alive still upright now
Rest of his team will embrace the chaos
They will go upstairs starting to work away at that kitchen floor
Finding where these defenders are they walk their way down towards the church wall and make sure cells lined up to create them
Volsper will miss. I don't know if he got the ex kairos charges
That might have been his main goal or a potential happy accident. He does give the ex kairos charges
So back to the drawing board. The rebellion will have to go wall finally opened up. That means church not as safe
For this 130 defense sub squad might w choking out what remained of
Now it's Ambi inside the church searching for something he finds Mike W pivoting around surf on the board as well
Fullspur and Beano will need to clutch out Ambi holds the case 10 seconds left next to the vending machine down
He goes he falls off not the right call to make five seconds left and he'll attempt it yet again
Fullspur on the ground down goes Rexing can he stop Ambi in time?
Beano will need to be the one to do it across his head
Beano eliminating one but still two remain. Ambi and Canadian upright as the timer will work away
They use the death mark in goes the grenade down goes be now and we go all the way
SR take round 14
Your heart's beating a little bit after that Parker it gets a little close
But in the end ambi is good enough in the midst of that that push doesn't start for 20 seconds left on the clock
That's when the first kill goes down after Packer gets Rome cleared
It's Mike W with the smoke kill, but ambi is positioned down towards the bottom of those main stairs
I thought was really critical. He's able to work his way in gets a pick on some like W trading out to Boyd's death
And from that point he plays perfectly with the diffuser
He had to pick it up Troy had it at the start Canadian had it gave it over towards points
And he's got to pick it up in the midst of the late round chaos starts planting ends up to a triple zeros
There is an opportunity for balls for to deny that plant
But because he's so deep into the box and because he's got his teammates cover
There's no real threat to it. They shut back down and Shopify rebellion will take their around with
Now just as I've suspected Parker
We will go to the bottom the bottom floor bomb site for the fourth time this game from Shopify rebellion
And they're going to go back to basics reign this one in play your five-man anchor
The only little mixed up Canadian hiding on the Valkyrie
Oh, sneaky sneaky. You'll see if he gets thrown down, or if any of those cans get spotted.
The last set of operators locked in on the side of 1 of 30, they will not bring an IQ,
they will bring a lineup that we sequined. Often you've got some intel being brought
from the Deimos. Very, very rare that a lineup will be played without a Doka B, without a
Deimos, without a Lion, or without a Snake now. You usually need one of those Intel
operators at your disposal and Deimos is just oh so strong with the big dicker that Deimos has
is that soft destruction that comes with his sidearm. That gun destroys floors and walls,
it's caliber-based destruction. Honestly, alone makes him incredibly important, but his gadgets
quite good too, so there's no real reason to not run him, frankly.
So the same little light room we've been seeing from Shopify Rebellion. It's
Rexton's toy towards the top of those red stairs, they get out, mostly unharmed.
The Keebas will block off the angle and they're back to the basement with all of their heads
intact.
This is what SR have done so well on the bottom floor of Bomb Site, with the exception of
round 13.
It's been a bit of a light road, they've teased a little bit of aggression towards the top
of the red stairs and as soon as they force out a little bit of utility, they're back
down to the basement for a 5-man anchor, 1 of 30.
This will be their third attempt to crack the five-man anchor onto this bomb site to
find some way in.
They have tried Bino in through the dirt tunnel on the Blackbeard over and over again.
It's not found them success.
There's got to be some better answer brewing from one of 30.
It cannot be too sluggish here.
There's that caliber-based destruction that we talked about on display as Wolfsburg shreds
through that wall.
Now survey what lays below in blue.
Rebellion will need to win two of these three overtime rounds
to pull out the victory.
I mean, it's not outside the question.
And you are defending on Clubhouse.
That's the sign that for most of today you've
wanted to be on.
These Valcams finding really good value.
Canadian has played this operator on this map for almost
a decade at this point.
So he knows all of the spots, and it's great for you,
the viewer, as well, to see where those cams are.
You can take those into your own casual and ranked games,
Well, hopefully you profit. Obviously it depends on your teammates.
One minute to go now, everybody's still alive, no damage done yet.
And this has been the problem for 1 of 30, they're stalling out quite a bit.
Now they're focused more towards the Moto Hatch, this would be great if it wasn't already known.
There's gonna be toxic babes for it, there's gonna be Goyo Canisters,
there's gonna be Nitro's aimed in this position as well.
Something has to give on the side of SR for 1 of 30 to have a chance here.
They have to be able to work a pick, otherwise the Util again favors the North American team of SR.
There goes that keep of barriers all of this utility designed to slow down the advance
Team one of two of the newest teams rather there goes Mike W
But Amy doesn't see silo for the backstab sport on the board traded out by Volsberg
Volsberg's been down though. So all of these kills favoring the rebellion
You know and silo last remaining they've double up on Canadian
They have control at the back of this church position and you know has the diffuse kid
10 seconds left, he needs to find safe harbor.
Out will go the flames, bullets traded back and forth,
Tyler looking for the punch on to surf,
down goes Vino and with no time left,
almost done by one of 30, but a 1v1,
one by the clock, shop of five rebellion,
survive one of the biggest scares we've seen
in recent history, my goodness.
There's no doubt that one's gonna sting
for the Orgless team.
They came so close, Parker.
So many of those rounds, they could have had it.
They should have had it, but well done still to this team,
forcing Shopify Rebellion, one of the best teams
in North America, all the way to 15 rounds.
An incredible debut for these players on one at 30.
They just could not get the job done.
We're halfway through the first day of the NAL kickoff.
But we still have two more matches to go.
Sit tight.
They come out wind-billing like an Englishman looking for a scrap, a talking of a scrap!
Pino!
He goes uncontested, the kick goes cold, that would be devastating.
The green goes through, that's a swing!
Cyber and Butter able to get one apiece with the kick so far away
and Canadian down upstairs.
Wow, that was special.
It's a one versus three to hold, and they're pushing him from behind.
He's found one, he's got to get the vertical as well,
and he gets pulled off two, but down to the last three and four seconds.
Ryder's got another, he's held on, he's going to do it!
And BFG, take the two up win.
Both players spotted, but the rest and he makes a step away.
Oh!
Got another one of a sort of information from the Beast!
He goes, Tim!
What?
Now he has seven eggs!
They cement themselves as one of the greatest of all time!
He's starting to get cooked alive, Ollie,
but he's using the stem pistols!
Look at this from the dark!
Surely not.
Brilliant!
That's Clay the Year in my book.
Place the game hits the old body doesn't go and catch it.
There's the-
Oh my god, Seth!
There's the dash!
He doesn't have-
Oh my god, Seth!
He's going back.
He's not quite sure.
He-
That's good.
He has a few seconds to get Nassal's sticking.
This is an angle that he might be able to contest.
No, unfortunately, he takes just a bit of damage there.
A walk, I guess, to the second one.
Eclipse though, will get one.
Turning it into a 2v2, and I'm pushing on the side.
The bandit will lose out on this.
Eclipse, the last alive on the Ella.
He spots the head and takes the-
The ace for Waka.
He wheeled down BC Canadian positioning to pick up,
but that's going to result in a double-dead from Vertical.
Left corner for him in the round.
Necrux the final defender against Vertical.
The ace, absolute domination.
You'll believe in Magic, Michael.
Team 1 does as they win the Mexico Major.
Yeah, yeah, yeah!
I think about half way through that game, what you're going to take an 8-7 win.
We're back.
We are.
We are back.
You're back.
We're back.
Great timing.
Great timing.
We're back.
Shop will buy rebellion.
Take a much needed 8-7 win by the skin of their teeth.
production baby but they come out on the other side with the win and so hopefully we've got
ambi standing by to chat with him about this victory because i can imagine for the entire team
this is a big sigh of relief before we get to that laxing i mean what a start what a debut
for one of 30 that is exactly how you want to come into the league coming off of a challenger
series win walking into tier one for the very first time for most of these players and performing
like that. I mean, you just don't expect that kind of thing out of this team. No, you don't.
And it's really good to see, especially to start your first game out against a team
like SR to put up the numbers they did to put up the fight. I mean, those kids really
do have a lot of tenacity and resilience in them. Well, speaking of those kids, and be
welcome and congratulations on securing this first win. I have to imagine that wasn't necessarily
the way you wanted to get it done. What's the general type of the team right now, though,
the other side, having a round one win onto your buttons?
Um, we're just happy we won, you know, we know we uh, we played a little, we played
uh, not our best, but we're just happy we won.
We got the, we stayed composed and we won.
Yeah, I mean there was a couple uh, missed shots here and there that we saw, but I guess
the biggest question was, why go to clubhouse in the first place?
It felt like you made the whole series so much easier for Packer and Co.
You could have brought it to any other map that would have challenged them as not an
experienced team.
I know maybe you're not the right person to ask, but why clubhouse?
I mean, we're just confident.
We're confident in all of our maps and, you know, I'm not the one who really does our
advance. So, uh, but I mean, we're confident on the online map.
So we can take any team anywhere.
I think it'll be fun.
Just to go with the flow kind of guy, I am, but I like it.
Well, I did like your play specifically on round five.
I kind of want you to just run us through it in the audience.
When you were on those main stairs, you knew it was a one V three.
You go up, you look towards hot tub, you see a clash in the front of you.
I mean, just give me everything that was going through your head in that moment
all the way up until that 1v1.
I mean, they're calling out, 1v1's gold, there's 2 short,
gold guy swinging me, I pre-fire him.
We had an active info on the 2 guys short, and you know,
that guy, DK, his teammate, unfortunate on them,
that I just killed a clash, and I'm Daniels 1v1,
I'm not losing that Daniels 1v1.
It's just chalk from there.
I was going to say, did you get kind of like a sigh of breath of fresh air once you just saw the clash immediately fall over?
Yeah, I was like, I was confused that for like, what just happened? And then, hey, just
got it done, got it done.
No, you definitely did.
Well, congratulations, Anvi, on pulling out this victory. I know it may not have happened the way you wanted to, but like you said,
it is a win nonetheless, and you guys get to move on to the rest of this kickoff with a good start under your belt. Thanks so much, man.
All right. Thank you. You guys have a good day.
Well, as we said, what a beginning this was, Fox.
I mean, maybe not to the start they wanted,
but they come out with the win,
holding off just barely a very powerful one of 30 team
that I think surprised a lot of us right out the gate.
Of course. I mean, you're going to be impressed
with this showing, especially since you're playing against,
arguably, we all voted to chop the barbell
and to be the number one team.
Sorry, this is a little ridiculous,
but you know, Shopify will be the number one team
coming out of the NAL,
but that was not number one team material at all out of them.
It seemed very scrappy and we set up, we talked about it.
It was a four, two split easily could have been five, one.
A lot of rounds, Shopify don't,
we're getting bailed out by big individual performances
from Anthony regardless of the situation.
So you find yourself in this situation
where can you really be happy?
They said they're happy with just getting a win
in their belt, but every point matters at the end of the day.
Yes, we're still expecting them to see
them makes all Lake City, but at the end of the day,
they need to really focus on the core issues
going into these matches, because you can't just always
rely on Ambi, RecCenter, Svoyd,
to pull them out of dire situations.
If anything, I would take this more of a win
from one at a 30 side than I would Shopify Rebellions.
Yeah, I was really hoping that, you know,
after what we saw from Super on social media,
is that coming into this match,
regardless being on a clubhouse,
regardless of them bursting one in 30,
it was going to look more of what we were expecting.
A more well-rounded team fighting hard,
being able to shut it down.
And Parker said it best.
I mean, realistically, this should
have been a stomping on paper.
But it really just shows the testament of 1 and 30
of how well they are as a team, regardless
of the inexperience from the majority of them not being
at the T1 level, which is why it showcases them here,
why they deserve to be here, why they made it
through the qualifier, why that no team should sleep
on this team if they're going to bring a team like SR
to the very last round where it really just
came down to a big mistake of a team kill that essentially lost them this entire series.
Well, let's unpack those final few rounds a little bit more relaxing.
I know you want to focus on how impactful 1 of 30 was able to be on the post plan, right?
And this back and forth between the rebellion and 1 of 30, it did come down to these final
few rounds.
Here's round 12 and round 13 for you.
Yeah, I really like this setup from Packer.
I mean, he did such a good job going into cash, getting that initial pick and then Volsper
being able to get the pick on the rafters to go for this postman.
They set up beautifully there for the crossfire, good heads of play from Packer.
I really like this run, particularly we didn't get a capture at the beginning of this, but
Mike going down to bait the diffuser being planted, gets a free kill, and then they just
play this setup perfectly.
Great transition from Packer to get the 2v1 to go in their favor.
I mean, I don't want to just, you know, write this off as, you know, SR played bad.
They should have stomped this team.
No, all of 1 and 30 should get the credit for this match.
They played their hearts out.
They made them fight tooth and nail for every single inch of this map.
They deserve the respect for this match particularly.
I don't want to give any bit of leeway.
They fought so hard and I was honestly I'm impressed for a brand new team coming into
the league to be able to make the decisions they were to be able to play the way that
they were and set up the post plan set up the crossfires.
I mean it really was impressive and them even rewatching this match.
I'm sure there's a lot that they're going to take from and learn and just look even
better going into the later half a kickoff.
I think that's what comes into the confidence aspect,
because like we said, this roster led by Packer and Bino.
Every time that one of these two players
have attempted to join another team,
they're joining a different system,
and the way that they were playing today
looked like they felt confident.
They knew what they were doing is their system.
It's the first time that they're running a team,
so to say, on their own,
that they don't necessarily have to abide by another person
or another roster's rules.
And you can really see how the comfortability affects
their gameplay adaptations later in the rounds.
All those rounds you just highlighted,
I mean, Packer putting himself in good situations
to clutch up.
Sometimes in previous rosters,
Packer's been in those situations,
but because he's thinking about what that team does on paper,
he's unable to really get into his flow state.
But today on this roster, for one in 30,
I'm excited to see what comes next in the rest of kickoff.
And just really quick,
I do wanna praise them on just the resilience
for a brand new team, the obstacles in front of them,
to be able to have that mental resilience,
Even in that last round, it came down to a 2v2.
They were fighting every single bit of the way,
and I'm, again, really proud of what they showcase today
to debut themselves as a team.
Well, speaking of debuts, we've got a little bit more
of debut action coming up now.
It's not just necessarily debut organizations.
It's SSG and Dark Zero.
We've seen them plenty of times before,
but these rosters look very, very different.
Lax, let's start with SSG,
one of the legacy organizations in Rainbow Six,
but a very different look to this lineup.
Yeah, they are a different look for the most part.
Sure, the notably ones that you're gonna remind yourself of
from the Cloud9 roster is Dream and Giddy,
with now the addition of Aiden.
But then adding on Rival,
he had a short stint on that DarkZero roster,
and then Raid coming into this.
I really like this roster
because they're keeping Dream as the IGL,
and especially playing around rookies,
I can only see them learning so much from Dream,
Just for the simple fact, he has now had experience
through his tenant year with Cloud9
of being able to shape and mold new players into the system.
So I'm really excited to see what Dream is going to cook up
with these new players.
Yeah, he's only been improving in the leadership department.
I mean, his journey as a player has really just grown.
Step by step, he is so dedicated to the game
and he has almost a similar mindset to other teams
like SSG, Call Out, you know, people that you want to follow,
that you want to win with, and he leads his team in the right direction.
And now, again, on a new roster with rookies alongside him,
he has the opportunity to be able to grow and start a team of his own
and essentially just continue this.
And he's filled with good players around him to be able to continue it.
Aiden Taks is one of those players that had a breakout season last year with Envy.
And I only wanted to see more from Aiden because he was someone that we didn't expect
to come into the league as good as he did on Envy
and was a big reason why Envy found success,
and I'm glad that he's able to join SSG alongside
another experienced IGL like Dream.
And hopefully this experience can only make
all of these new players feel a lot more comfortable
in their drive-in scene.
Well, the dynamic here is interesting, Fox,
because when you look at Dark Zero,
you look at former SSG, basically.
That same Core 3, now with the additions of NJR and Kino,
it changes the dynamic quite a bit,
but essentially they're playing against
their old organization.
We always talked about that previous SSG team.
They're stacked with rosters.
How do they go to events and things go wrong?
Well, the answer was they just had so much talent.
It was really difficult to fit players in certain gaps.
And I feel like this roster, they got the exact pickups that they needed.
Chino and NGR fit their roles perfectly because the previous SSG
roster, who's going to play shields?
We saw sometimes newers on shields.
We saw J9O folds playing shields, but then who's going to play support?
Now you have Kino, who can not only play shields and support, but he fits all of these wacky operators like Glaz and Yang.
And then you have NJR, arguably one of the best flank watch players, one of the best pinhold players that if you put him in a position,
if you have him behind newers in certain spots, he's able to lock it down.
So now you have so much freedom for newers, he doesn't have to share that entry roll with J9L and Ashen.
He just has to focus on entering, and J9O is there with the flex. It's a picture perfect roster, and they have call out as well on Darkseer.
well on Dark Zero. I mean, I couldn't imagine a better roster for this team.
Well, let's talk maps here. We see layer is where this is going to end up Dark Zero making that deciding choice at the very end.
They're relaxing. Yeah, I think this is a very good map for both these teams.
Cloud nine was comfortable with the now known as SSG.
And then even for the side on SSG going to Dark Zero, this is just mind boggling to keep bouncing around these organizations and teams.
This is a very common map for both teams.
What to Fox's point of bringing in on support players like
like
Geez, I can't even think right now. There's too many roster names going through my head of Kino of
Oh my god, why am I blanking right now of NJR? Jeez?
I apologize the fact that they have these supportive players being able to be on that defensive half
It is going to allow flexibility and more versatility within their ranks on that defense
Jack can get aggressive folds can get aggressive
They then now can fall back onto those players of Kino and NJR
and have something more reliable and more tangible
that they didn't have before.
A lot of their players would get aggressive.
They would get over-aggressive, I'd argue.
So for me, I really want to see that defensive half.
And then even starting on that attacking half,
I also want to see how they're going to utilize the shield
and what Fools is going to be able to do.
Because again, it is going to allow a lot more versatility
and flexibility within this roster.
Lots of questions to answer.
SSG and DarkZero, they look very different.
Let's see how they start off the year here in kickoff Parker and Mr. Jesse J. Chick over to you
You finally get your flowers
You finally got them which I think is is pretty good here
I think what they said right at the tail end of that death segment is gonna be the story for this match
Two teams and orange, you know very well, but completely different identities and I mean, I'm not even used to seeing these teams
play under different banners. I was thinking as we were getting into the run-up of this
match that I'm not ready to say goodbye to some of these teams and their connections
to these orgs, Jesse. It's kind of sad, but with it, new opportunities and new chances
to secure top of your group. This is the first set of teams in Group B who will do battle
and yes, you did not watch any of the rostrum media stuff that was posted on social media.
It might be a bit surprised to see these five players on Dark Zero and these five players on SSG.
Yeah, Dark Zero essentially their team
disbanded. They kind of blew up some of their players when it over to Team Secret in Europe, some of their players went elsewhere,
and they kind of absorbed the old space station roster, at least the core of it, the coaching staff,
Faults, Neurs, and JNIO, of course, that they've been combined in with Kino and NJR.
That left SSG without a roster and they kind of salvaged the remains of the old cloud nine with dream and giddy
And they kind of assembled this new roster to try to bring into the s.a.l.
With the NAL I should say with a really fresh face lots of rookies lots of young talent on this team
And maybe not the history maybe not the high-level top performers that we're expecting to see that we're used to seeing on SSG
But a brand new face that could absolutely turn some heads here in the North America League
Just before we get too deep into it, I want to touch on the fact that we're playing on
Lair.
Last season, SSG and Cloud9 both really did not touch this map at all.
Space Station played it twice through the last 365 days, lost it both times.
Cloud9 played Lair four times and lost it every single time as well.
So I know it's different cores, I know that there are certainly going to be a lot of practices
the go on in the offseason but even still with the histories that remain on these players
we should be seeing some some new successes on this map at least for one of the teams.
Yeah I mean this SSG team is is going to be a pretty big mystery here because it is a
group of five players that don't have a ton of history together so you get them all on board
and it'll be a completely new look but I'm really excited to see what frankly both of these teams
are capable of doing. Dark Zero maintaining that SSG core while keeping NJR and then
adding Kino who said that he wasn't sticking with MAD not because of any
team issues but because of something contractor or related I believe so it
had nothing to do with the roster wanting to get rid of him and it is a bit of a
shame because I think you can you can joke about his Monty plays all you want
but Kino was a very very active part of their championship winning team and I
honestly think MAD is gonna miss him. Yeah I mean we heard that MAD wanted to
stick together as a five-man corps after Paris,
but didn't happen that way, and now Kino's
on to new adventures and bigger and brighter things.
He's playing on the Blackbeard.
As was predicted by our desk, they
wanted to see a little bit more shield play coming out
from this SSG-turned-Dark Zero team,
and we are getting that.
Unfortunately, it's not super fruitful, partner.
And Jaren fought both going down early in this first attack.
Yeah, not an ideal start for this Dark Zero team,
but again, layer of big map, very favorable to the defenders.
It can be a hard-to-attack.
And again, as we said, in both matches that we have transpired so far today,
attacking is a lot harder to do with your new roster.
You need to find out how you function as a unit so far.
This new Dark Zero look, not really having a great skill and success.
They'll lose a third.
Down goes J9 now, yours and Kino.
Last two standing Kino picks up a double rival on the board.
Kino! Oh, he almost finds a fourth! Good lord!
He could still have it, very limited HP.
Raiden Dream, the last two standing, Kino.
They just flashed with that M80 team,
but it was a surprise that he moved off of the roster,
but he's already paying off for this DZ2,
and he breeds in a single tick of that gas.
He's gone, so he'll bait it out,
waiting on the call, Raiden gets the job done!
Hack of a debut!
He's an Oklahoma Sooners fan, look at that,
isn't that cool?
Marsh Madness going on right now,
even though we're no longer in March.
Congratulations to SSG on their very first round victory with this new look.
Yeah, nice little round to start off. Dominate, frankly.
Just a couple of good swings that went their way.
The Nitro started things off and then it really just didn't seem like there was any potential for trades to come out from dark zero.
Kino did it best.
Certainly, I tried to go for the ace to win this out.
None of his team is able to help him, unfortunately.
He hit some nice shots, but with the low HP that he was on,
it just wasn't going to be a realistic round for him to win.
Raid stepping up for SSG to get those last couple of kills,
top frag'ing the first round, two of them alongside Rival.
Raid once again, rookie coming here into the North American League,
the youngest player that we have, like Waterman, making his pro league debut,
tier one debut on the SSG team.
There's a lot of hype around this young player,
and it's certainly paying off, at least for what we're seeing in the first round.
I will admit I was not super familiar with with raid prior to his name being
floated around and got up to speed pretty quickly you might be in the same
boat as me I fear that I'm just too old for a lot of that content in that wing I
guess you can call of the youngsters that are coming up as potential players
now that have made their way from content creation on over but honestly it
is nice to see the level of competition continue to increase and it's nice to have fresh faces here
in tier one. The NA League has been a ton of upheaval. The desk talked about it over the last
couple hours. We mentioned it in both of our matches so far but if you are solely tuned in for
Guard Zero and SSG, that's when you didn't watch the two matches before, it's good to repeat it.
Aiden gunning down Foltz and I mean it's Foltz man. Why is Foltz the first one dying that is an
abnormal position for him to be in and SSG will leave things off in round number two.
I mean it is historically an abnormal position but with this team I mean the roles have changed
drastically from what Falz is used to and because of that a couple kills are going the way of SSG
it's an early 2k from Aiden in round two but one does get answered back they find Giddy in the
midst of that with Jane I know finally getting up onto the board. It's a very heavy roam strap
being played by space station gaming they are holding all across the map and i just feel like
it's been catching DZ off guard. I don't think we heard it once i think our first game partner
but i was thinking it's weird especially if we're talking and you talk loud it didn't mean
Distinguishing others and you also don't talk laughs all about me Buster and Jared a plane spot and they'll go for it
If you get the falls off
Gonna get these players from SSG out of their positions real do so maybe not the way you intended rival finds to
Aiden with two kills rival with two kills who will get the fateful final kill on to newers as he toys with his position
in the basement, soft walls, a plenty of great gun in hand that F2 getting a big
buff with the attachments. It's dream to get the final pick and things are
rolling for space station. SSG did not want to come into this game in place
scared Parker. They wanted to come in and set the pace and they've done exactly
that. We've seen back-to-back aggressive defenses coming out from the
astronauts where they're just happy to take fights. They're not afraid of the
pedigree being brought by Dark Zero. They're not afraid of the experience. The
players on DZ have they know they're just as good if not better so take these
fights and take them confidently that's been the game plan coming out from
space station you mentioned as well and I want to come back to it a little bit
how fault is not usually seen as a player who goes down early he is still
the IGL of this core he's the captain now of dark zero but you got to keep in
mind what did this core do when it made the two roster moves over the off season
you lost Benja and Ashen two hyper aggressive players two players that
were historically fighting with newers for those entry rules,
for those aggressive spots on the team,
and instead have brought in NJR and Kino.
And I just really like that change.
And I'm not saying it's going to be a bad change by any means,
because maybe there was a little bit too much
of the aggressive fraggers on that team before,
and they needed a bit more of the support focus.
But that kind of forces guys like Fulton and J9O
to step up a little bit and be a bit more aggressive than what
we used to see from this squad.
I mean, historically on Space Station,
Fulton and J9O were the support duo.
they were the two most passive players on this team.
Now they're gonna have to kind of change the roles around.
You're going to see Faults getting
some more of these aggressive engagements.
So far they haven't really worked out
for how long is it gonna take for him to find his footing.
Yeah, really good question here.
And honestly, when you look on the side of this SSG team,
they've been able to share these kills
around that's good versatility
for these first two cracks on layer.
Again, it is defending on layers,
time for your expectations,
but the skill steering on the Starg Zero team
to many people who are unfamiliar with the names on SSG,
we'll assume that DZ's skill ceiling is higher.
Why?
I mean, you've got a world champion on the team.
You've got a major champion on the team.
You've got lots of experience.
On the side of SSG, unless you're really dialed in,
there are a lot of names you might not recognize.
If you didn't watch much of the tail end of last year,
you might not even really be familiar with Aiden either.
But when you add guys like this,
who are still looking to make a name for themselves,
you underestimate them as your opponents
and as an audience, at your own peril.
SSG already silencing some of the doubters I have to imagine through these first six minutes of action
And they're gonna look to do it again going for hope. Hopefully as SSG fans will say. A perfect rotation here defending on another site
Yeah, we'll be bunks and briefing to continue this train. This will generally where we see teams go for the third bomb site
Once again, you expect to have E-Rome game that is being brought
It's Raid, Dream and Aiden currently playing up above the bomb site
rival on the green stairs and Giddy is the lone anchor to try to lock down the
site and stop anything too aggressive and going down quickly on the side of Dark
Zero. They do have, of course, quite good utility on the side of DZ2 and they're
gonna commit to clearing this top floor. Newer's some early damage being thrown
his way. Don't be surprised if the candela is the grimby's. Even some of the
snake charges do get used to fear this roam because it is so important to fight
on the top floor. Breaking through the utility that's now been used by the
SSG team almost the halfway point of the round. Darkseer responding to Gadgetree out of their own
Alcoe Candela's. Keep a barrier blocking off the units so NJR's assault will be slowed for the time being.
Aiden getting down false Keto on the block there! Got three kills and a previous position will do two.
This time still alive. Raiden Rival combining for kills on SSG to give the numbers back. Newers
on the board. His first kill. He and Keto have their work cut out for them. On low HP is Newers.
as Gideon rival will now back away not wanting to attempt fate with still over a minute to go.
You just need to find some safety in the bomb site and wait for Dark Zero to bring their forces to you.
Really nervous with this Nitro in the pocket of Gideon Parker with players on Dark Zero both
so low that Nitro does not have to be right on the mark for it to deal some damage. You could
easily get some kills even if you're a ways off and if Dark Zero are going to try to go for a plant
strategy as they very well could that becomes even more of a threat for them. Lots of time on the
That's the biggest advantage DZ have. They're gonna try to use that to work a different dimension to this push
They know both players towards bottom green. How can you force them out?
How can you coordinate with this time to try to get yourself a man advantage?
Just need to wait ever so patiently newer is looking to gain some intel. He had the right read
Down goes the hands again. Can't cut this one out looking for a fourth kill and evaded it. Nothing time
He couldn't get it done in round one, but the third time he manages to do it.
What an incredible round from the Brazilian and DZ is on the board.
Kino takes this team, kicking and screaming through their first round one of the new season.
Kino 111 rounds on Blackbeard throughout last season.
That was about one-fifth of all attacking rounds that he played.
There is no operator he is more proficient on.
you're seeing that on display against space station gaming.
Notice just at the end, he flicks his head up
as he brings the gun down.
That's so that his head is a little bit less exposed
as he's ADSing to try to get that final kill in the 1v1.
He had three kills in the very first round
then lines up a few more here in round number three
to just stop over SSG.
That should have been an impossible task marker.
The 1v2 on the black here, but he gets the 1v1 here
and then this is the move flicks up with his mouth
so that his head can't be shot as he's ADS-ing
and then hits those kills at the end of things.
Gotta feel a little bit bad for the players
on space station gaming,
because they should've had that one.
Yeah, I mean, go back to match number two.
And I mean, there was a particular round
that one team should've had as well,
but sure woulda coulda,
it doesn't mean you're actually gonna get the victory.
You have to get the job done.
Just as we saw one and 30 knock at the job done
or one and 30 knock at the job done,
back in matchup number two.
It was an SSG to get the job done in round number three.
So close though, tantalizingly close.
Five seconds left.
I mean, fundamentally, I still think
the play from SSG was very well designed.
They were able to rebuff the advance.
They chewed through that utility so simply.
Once they knocked DZ off stride, they realized, hey,
we got a minute left.
It's a 2v2.
They're going to be injured.
Let's just get back to site and wait.
It's later.
It's a big map.
They don't know that we're going to be here.
We get to wait for them.
Right call, ultimately.
When it comes down to a gunfight,
They're the best strategy in the world, but if you lose the duel, that's all that matters.
Yeah, we did definitely see much of the same trends from the first two rounds,
continuing to the third, SSG playing aggressive, getting into those early fights.
Another early depth and fault, he's hoping to avoid that this time around,
but he is again solo, down to the bottom of missile stairs.
We're back over to the top floor bomb site, of course.
They banned out the snake on the side of SSG, so that's no longer gonna be able to get brought by Dark Zero.
The soloist gets banned in response.
That was a big operator for Aiden being played across those first two rounds.
He's had to adjust his play, this time the Azami being held inside of hops.
Kino again on this shield roll.
One of the big criticisms about this Darkseer team is who is going to properly entry.
You've got some more passive players on the side.
So far it looks like all of them, they've all been far more active in the way that they're approaching this team.
Now again, maybe it's because they feel SSG is just a less experienced team, it's hard to say.
Amazing flush out of game, by the way, in that position. That was clinical by DarkZero.
Got really nice from FaltonG and I know working together with that old SSG core, they've got the utility to get that textbook.
And where is it? Getting answered back. It's still equal man count.
4-4 with 90 seconds on the clock.
Still cheering the way through the walls with the QT of Barriers providing a...
I mean, it's working very effectively. It's a beachhead that's been established behind that chair, Teimos's office, and I mean, it wastes a lot of bullets, wastes a lot of time, and Aiden manages to get away with a minute left, and his life's still intact.
Dream can deny this plant's bopper the rest of the round, essentially, on this Chonka, so they've got to find some way to either force him back or get the kill if they want this plant to be successful.
The keynote is just evading the fire for the time being.
NJR with an arms reach to shut this one down.
DZ have a really good view though,
as I don't think SSG will be able to stop at any time.
A troubling position for the astronauts.
They just saw their brethren lift off and break orbit.
As Artemis ascended, can SSG attempt the same thing?
Out will go more Molotovs as Dream tries to clean away
for the rest of his compatriots.
He's not able to do so.
DZ finds two, one kill on the board for SSG,
But Dark Zero is shutting the door on an attempt from Space Station.
Aiden, with 15 seconds left.
Where do you go? What do you do?
I'm running out.
Give it to Kino, why not?
No, he'll stab Pad.
J-Nano gets the final kill.
DZ fully in control.
The final minute of that round,
and they have closed the gap between them and SSG.
It's a very interesting dynamic we're seeing here, Parker,
because you've got the team of Dark Zero,
who, again, force the four players on this team
if you go by the traditional roles.
And they're playing a very objective focused game.
They're using capital ball utility to force frags
into players that they don't have to take direct gunfights on.
They're focusing on the plant with that Blackbeard
to get it in around Tachanka, avoiding the toxic babes,
avoiding the fire.
Needlebox base station, the rounds they're winning,
it's coming off of aggressive early gunfights.
The bullets are flying, everybody's crying,
it feels like SSG are trying to get more active
and play maybe a bit more of a frag-focused game
versus the strategic game that Dark Zero
are trying to play up against their old organization.
In the end, the Chonka fire is just not
doing enough good for SSG.
They thought it was covering the plant spot.
It was just barely not hitting.
And maybe that's a mistake from Dream.
I will say, though, even the best players in the world
in the Chonka are pretty commonly missing those fire lineups.
It is very tough to deny a plant spot like that.
So it's going to happen from time to time.
as you won't have to worry about it though,
then you can just go right back down to the bottom floor,
where they were successful previously.
And I mean, Jesse, we've seen smokes miss that line up too.
And I mean, smoking relatively easy.
You just toss it in the arc lands,
then you hope that the gas propagates in a way
that it does damage.
It's a little bit trickier
if you're trying to bounce or angle those molotovs
shot out from the shemika.
So I can completely understand.
Goyo canisters have missed, smokes have missed.
It's a tough one.
We did see a little bit of thorn get used
on that particular bomb site,
but obviously the Irish operator
It's not been as prevalent here as I would have thought.
We saw a bunch of her in our first match of the day, but very little since.
Certainly nowhere near as prevalent as in my Silver Rank.
Oh, you've been promoted.
Yeah, thank you.
Thank you for noticing.
Well, once again, starting at the bottom now you're here.
The road game is being addressed by Dark Zero.
They want to build a 50 squares out of armor and a golf piano in the case once more with a Whackpeer.
This didn't get fanned out.
So instead it's gonna be on arrival to stop all of these players focusing him down.
Defiant don't want to play fingers, but I'm a little surprised at the Snake Band.
Newers finding two. There have been so many multi-kills in this series already, Jesse.
Almost every round has had one multi-kill, so...
These two players walking in, taking engagements, they're stacked up.
Now it's gonna be tough.
14 on this position, played so well. No!
You reload first, Aiden! You reload first!
What are you doing? Oh my goodness!
I have to imagine that was a bit of an experience and maybe a bit of panic because he managed to do everything right.
And would have gone the kill if the vector wasn't out of force.
Raid now in a 1v4 and this is just printed off to a great start, but it has been all DZ since the end of the second round.
round. They'll finish off round number three. They themselves were the perfect
rotation as they grabbed three rounds in a row and now DZ. We can say for the
first time has the lead in this match. Yeah, I think panic is the perfect word
to use for those last couple of defenses, especially the previous round from
space station gaming. And you know, I don't want to over harp on this and
maybe draw too much attention to it, but you choose to ban the snake instead of
the black beard. Kino has been such a menace on this operator, looking like
one of the best Blackbeard players in the world.
Instead, you chose to ban out Newers,
and Newers is a great player.
I have no problem trying to nerf him by banning his operator,
but he's frying just as hard on the Demos.
It's not like he was reliant on that snake to do what he does.
It still feels like he's able to get exactly the value he was
getting in the first three rounds,
and Kino has also not been hindered by that off-banner force
as well.
So it's been tough.
These last couple for SSG, they've got one more opportunity
on the defense to tie this game and not let DarkZero get
that early 4-2 lead, but as long as the Blackbeard's on the board, I don't know
what you do if you're space station, it's just been a nightmare to try to deal with
this operator.
We got no project.
Ten seconds remaining.
That's what I said.
No, I don't want to play fingers here because I know Snake is a strong operator.
He's a male at roam clearing, and the thing with Snake is that it's like running Doka
B and Deimos together.
Back in the day when you run a Doka B and a Lion, they are even stronger when you run
them in tandem.
If you have a Deimos available, which you do.
SSG banned out the glass, they banned out the Monty.
I think that's a terrific ban against the Stark Zero team.
But I do have to wonder why you wouldn't
get rid of the Blackbeard.
It is abundantly clear that Kigo is your biggest nemesis
at this point in time.
And it's not because he just as a human being
is somebody you don't like.
It's because the operator he's playing is destroying you.
He got a 3K in round number one.
He got a 4K.
Was it in round number four?
So I mean, he's been on the tear.
But that is the bulk of his kills, so the rest of the team now on the side of DarkZero
starting to pick up the pace.
The credit to SSG for being even in terms of their kills, Dizzy is now doing just about
the same.
And DarkZero could easily go up 4-2, just being the final round of the first half.
Oh, this is on Space Station.
This is the bombsite that you lost the last time around.
You didn't get the opportunity to go back to top floor or back to basement, but you're
confident in your site rotation.
A lot of top level teams are these days.
They say it doesn't matter.
We're going to stick to our ABC.
We're not going to deviate even if we do lose these sites and have the opportunity to try them again.
Blackbeard once again is going to be used to clear this top floor.
This clear went pretty well for Dark Zero last time, trading three for three with plenty of time still on the clock.
These will attempt to push them right into Kino's waiting arms, but he's a bit too slow on that one.
I mean, this had to be well coordinated.
DZ's had some really good looks with coordination.
So I got pinched just a couple of rounds before the way they were able to swoop in and get that two-piece.
Kino could have attempted something else.
Volts is there now with the F2 in hand.
It'll be getting to die early yet again.
Those beta batteries may persist, but SSG losing that player is quite a death blow.
Even so, losing most of his HP, traded off by J9L, who then himself is traded by Ray Dream on the board,
and it's suddenly DZ's advantage.
He is gone, newer student, quite a beating in his position,
native from down below.
Can he make it to NJR?
In time, it seems unlikely.
So the first half, unless something goes catastrophically wrong,
will be a 3-3.
NJR finding one.
You gonna make him believe?
Oh my goodness.
Oh my goodness.
Jesse Rival and NJR.
In a 1v1 with 35 seconds left.
Rival at full HP.
NJR does not hold the case.
So what rival really just needs to do is escape get away and see if NJR
Crosses any type of gadgetry his position now given away by the f-mine
Pits the kijmah mine. There could be a default cab rival reads that one so
So well, and yes tie game three rounds apiece
This SSG closes the door on a lead for DZ in that first half
Nice try by NJR a little bit too much to handle though
you till all favoring the astronauts and they get a really nice round there to tie us up at three
Parker we've got an analyst desk who's ready to jump in and break things down as our two minute halftime break begins
Three three at the half could go either way right now fox. What do you'd like to see from these teams so far?
I mean i'm liking a lot of what i'm seeing from both teams
Right out the gate. I said she played it very slow very methodically dark zero take some time after two round losses
and swap to Kino being the primary spearhead
and Neur's hitting flanks.
And I really love that adaptation between them.
Kino's been having a phenomenal game.
As for SSG, they lose a couple of rounds,
and they realize, okay, we need to turn the Jets on.
Let's go to the middle floor site
and start fighting them on all angles
so that Kino can have the impact.
Now, side swap.
So we're gonna imagine that SSG
need to be able to use some type of shields here
to get into the building, to get position,
because I'm imagining the same type of lurking from Neur's
and J9O to be the same win condition on Dark Zero's defenses.
Yeah, the shields are definitely the most impactful and most influential bits in these rounds.
I mean, you've got to think how tight these pathways are.
The shield just amplifies that so much to take that space.
And yeah, we are going to need shields on that SSG's half,
but I have really been impressed with how well Aiden has been getting these opening picks,
only able to convert two out of the four that he's gotten so far.
gotten so far. So if we can continue to see Aiden get those opening kills, open up these
rounds, then even also, I mean, speaking of Giddy, if we can start to see Giddy come alive,
that's going to be very scary. Because as we know on that old Cloud9 roster, Giddy was
so influential and so impactful when he was able to get those picks, getting one to the
next and then allowing them to just constrict the defensive site on those attacks. So I
am looking forward to see what we're going to see now on the attacking side from SSG.
thing is clear this SSG roster that despite the lack of experience going toe to toe against
this dark zero roster it is clear that dream in his boys of putting something together
and might be looking to ramp things up going into the second half Parker Jesse back to
you.
Well much appreciated and great insight as always I like the reprieve that we have here
from the constant action as we can settle it down here.
set tones as you talk about these teams. GZ obviously has impressed with how quickly they
were able to bounce back, but I gotta say I'm a bit more impressed with Space Station across the
board. It is not easy to step in against a team where the core has been together as long as this
Dark Zero team's core has, albeit on a different organization, but still together for quite some
time. SSG looks like they're playing pretty well. Now granted, there have been some missteps,
the way that they have roamed a bit unsupported and some of the engagements have been a bit
It's not until timed, but I mean if you think you can knock your opponent off stride, maybe
they're perfectly calculated and a deliberate decision that just ultimately doesn't pan
out because that's something that's possible too.
You don't always have to be negative.
Sometimes it's not about them making mistakes, it's about a deliberate decision that just
doesn't ultimately work the way you want it to.
Either way, no closer to a resolution here, both teams still with their timeouts 3-3 through
those six rounds.
Now it's DZ's time to defend.
And clearly, FALSE has been spending a lot of time in my silver-ranked games because
They will instilock onto the thorn in our first defensive round seen from DarkZero in the new season
and he's hiding it just here inside of storage, but they can't find operators specifically to counter him out.
A lot of times the thorn can be hard countered by a twitch if you bring it directly,
it can be countered by really any of those drone operators at the brawl, at the flores,
and sometimes get some good operators in to just burn him out with nades even.
So, with Volta bringing that and hiding it, it might give a little bit of an opportunity for DZ to get some free de-kills
if they aren't careful on the side of space station gaming.
The second half, as the fire analyst says in the half-time,
will need to be beat by SSG instead of all day partners.
These younger teams have been playing on the offensive side.
This is usually where things get more difficult.
And just like in the Shopify rebellion game
that we watched previously,
this could be the moment where the veterans
start to take charge.
I mean, you've got nerves, I have to imagine, on the side of.
Honestly, there's probably a bunch of nerves
on both of these teams. I don't know if they'd admit it, but DZ players playing under a new
banner with some new teammates, there's going to be some pressure on their shoulders. And
I mean, if you ever talk to any of the guys who've played on DZ before, they will tell
you that that org does not mess around at all. They always expect the best of me. They
are usually an org that is very quick to change things out if they don't find the success
that they think that they should. So these Dark Zero players are likely playing with
that in mind, but you gotta trust the system as they have consistently all made land, even
if it was on different teams. Now, they just need to sit and wait. If Lair is a defender
setting, then she's in a pretty good spot. Jesse for the remainder of this match.
I said G-Band's smoke, which is a really interesting ban. You don't see that very often on teams
on Lair, but it's gonna force this to chock out again from NJR, and it speaks to the idea
that they're probably going for a similar plant that would be softened from Dark Zero
back in round four. They can just get that wall over inside of Mask if they can work their
way through mezz try to get the plant down either from Aiden or from Dream on
the Blackbeard they're gonna have a really tough time denying this on the
side of Dark Zero.
Right on that damos what do we talk about these Intel operators working together
Dark Zero not opting to ban of the doga be so instead end the snake so you're
just gonna see the lion in the damos all the real damos work done is right as the
first casualty. Come down from above now it's kingo to get back to him. Nitro cell goes out but a good pinch from SSQ will equal
on numbers this round has flown by one minute remains now it's giddy taking some
serious damage his rival is searching for just a pixel of newers and he finds it
how about another no time to get out of there ssg 40 seconds remain to get the
job done rival so good today so far against the bold organization nine
and four now a man vanished make the second beat out them but only 35 seconds
they want to get that plant down in through the mask wall they've got to do
quickly because again these players are still persisting behind the office
scheme of being played by Jena I know.
Critical of these lions and the Molotovs before but in the hands of the NJR he
needs to stay alive. Here comes the Black Mirror. Now they get to feel how
the lion is going to be Keto on this road. How do you allow folks to do that?
that SSG have some bad coms.
A Russian Aidan thought he had the down on NJR
and muscle memory betrays him.
A bunch of missteps from SSG snowball into an avalanche
that destroys their dreams in that first round
of the second half.
DZ, take the lead.
Fault must have been practicing his two-step
because he is dancing on them
in these close range engagements, Parker.
I mean, the way that Fault is able to move around
These players clearly a bit of a miscommunication there for sure
Way goes sometimes again. I want to credit rival the shots
He's been hitting not just in this round, but all day today have been incredible
He's a little bit of revenge up against easy that moment there
Maybe a bit tunnel visioned unfortunately and even the wraparound back on the dream finds the back of the black here
It's a calamity of errors in the really tense late moments for space station gaining at the end of that round
I liked how they opened things up the way that they were able to pressure mezz. They got the wall open
It looked like things were going their way, but just some
shenanigans going down over towards the display side of the map caused all the doom and gloom precious
I can't get left before insertion
I mean
When we go back and look at the matches that we saw so far today
Your prediction was that matchup number one five years versus hundred thieves would be the match of the day
So far it
Well, I mean, let's say this after match once finished it was definitely
It was no longer the match of the day
I do have a feeling that it will no longer be the match of the day
After this one is done unless SSG or DZ run away with this
I expect that it will be a
Fight you're already a little bit behind schedule, but hey, that's okay. So we all get to spend more time together
And we get to enjoy these teams. I one thing I didn't want to point out
Yeah, back-to-back plays. Fault's now J9O gonna hold this one, just at the top of the yellow stairs.
Not really a heavy roam game going on here, but they do have a couple of players who are lurking around, including Newers.
The lone aggro player who's about to get shot. Aiden just barely misses that opportunity, not aiming at head level, looking for the crouch peek, but it doesn't happen that way, so...
Aiden just barely misses that opportunity, not aiming at head level, looking for the
crouch peek, but it doesn't happen that way, so no kill and I believe no real damage being
sent that way.
I kind of expected that first game to be game of the day, because I thought I had the most
potential for an upset, but the underdogs winning, and technically that was correct.
I might get another one in the space station to get their attacks together here on Lair,
but so far they haven't found much success on this side.
No, I think you're absolutely correct, and I mean, hey, so far here, it's a real slugfest.
There's been great performances, the Giants have opened these teams, backing up well against
one another, Kino entrenched in his position, down they go, and he makes it even harder
for the next one up on the side of SSG.
He gets those kills, but you know what really enabled him?
It was the Akkai drone, Colt's calling for Kino, and Colt doesn't really get much credit
for that.
We'll find a third on the reins and forth as well.
We've yet to have somebody get all the kills
in a single round.
Kino could get the job done and he does.
The ace for Kino, a flawless victory
and dark zero stretches their lead.
Welcome to DZ, Leo Beyond D, the new support player
for this established organization stepping up big today.
An ace here in their second defensive round
After dominating the offensive side on Blackbeard, Kino start to finish has been the MVP of Dark
Zero in his first game with the Org looking so good in black and purple.
You had to give Krents defaults to their parter, you did in the mid-round, those yo-kai is
so important as well to feed the info, to disorient the attackers a little bit, but
it really does come down to Kino.
The perfect aim, the perfect positioning, just around these keeper barriers and hey,
They basically didn't have the opportunity to ban the Azami, they had the opportunity to ban the Blackbeard, they haven't chosen to ban these power operators and because of it Kino is running away with the frags here on Lair.
13 kills says M80's management might be looking on with a couple shades of envy.
He's been really quite terrific in his role and I mean again the way that the roles are
shaking on a dark zero Kino shouldn't necessarily be getting all of these kills, he still is
sometimes that happens.
If you're looking at M80, sometimes hot and cold shouldn't be getting all the kills,
but sometimes he does.
Things just work out the way that they do.
Right now when you run up against a red hot player like Kino sometimes there's really
little recourse you just have to try your best because SSG is doing just that.
Of their three rounds that they've accomplished so far two of those came around one or two
since then it's a 5-1 run.
For Dark Zero they are very quickly putting this layer map away.
Alarm bells are ringing for Space Station Parker they need to be able to get an attack
on the board they cannot allow Dark Zero to complete a full site rotation that would
I mean three rounds in a row with easy sit on match points and look to get a very early lead a top group B here in the North American
B business is the first group B match being played.
Usually what you see on this bomb site and I've said it before I'll say it again is that full focus on the top floor.
We're not seeing that as much coming out from SSG.
They've got a lot of pressure actually in towards the bomb site.
Aiden on that Maverick has already created a main line on the breach and they've got a couple of players that are poking around elsewhere too.
It's not to say there's nobody pressuring top floor, Giddy is upstairs in Skybridge
and could fight Kino early on in this top floor battles, but they don't seem as focused
as Dark Zero did when it came to clearing the top floor on this site.
This is G stacked up and dealing with a familiar issue that teams will have on layer, which
is stalling out.
If you've been able to clear most of this map and get a good footing, you now need to
deal with where the obstacles are set up by the defenders and dark zero is
they're two rounds set a pretty decent job of setting up a series of hurdles
that SSG have failed to get over in fact they've tripped you can see the DZ
spread out all over this map they've got a really good read on this bottom floor
site they're playing the vertical very effectively DZ has not been shaken off of
this position we're gonna try to conceal the plan dreamwalks in behind the
same walls DZ on the board SSG falling by the wayside aid and rival the first
He's ready for the board attack. He's with a bit of a saving grace as Dream pulls off the defuse plant.
The defuse plant is all up to Raid and Dream to get the job done. A second kill for Raid.
DZ's still with the numbers advantage but they've got the clock working against them.
Eager to move to match point. Out goes an air jab that's information that SSG will have in their control.
Raid's still in this very powerful position and JR not looking in the right way.
Raid only gets three. Jack sends him away and Dream with 20 seconds left.
seconds left will need to hold down the fort against two DZ members and in
closer to the diffuse kit there's the drop dream is allowed them to take the
bomb site they are getting span pain running at a time you gotta get going
three will find one not the other and he doesn't have time my god jack so close
but he will ultimately fall victim to the clock warden is just not fast enough
SSG by the hair on Dream's chin wins the round.
An absurd round to follow, I said they needed it Parker and they got it.
27 year old captain of space station gaming clutches up after his team is unable to support him up above.
That's a really classic push to come out from the bottom of green with the sends getting the plant down just inside of the cubby of bunks.
We've seen teams do this for months and months, I thought over years now.
try to get that bomb down onto the bomb site.
In the end, DarkZero, they did a good job
of getting early kills.
They were able to rack up the numbers,
but they weren't able to stop that plant as it fell.
They got a little bit too distracted and Dream
perfectly positions himself.
He's fine if they drop.
He's fine if they have the other site,
because he knows he planted just on the far side of that room.
They have to cross his line of sight
in order to get to that diffuser.
And it doesn't get them both, but it's just enough
to win the round.
a massive play to come out from Dream.
They call their time out on the side of Space Station,
and I think for good reason.
I mean, one or two bullets difference,
and you manage to get onto that case,
and the round goes for Dark Zero,
and it's a six-three ball game instead of a five-four.
The gap a lot closer now, but, I mean, even that round,
if all that SSG could muster was that,
yeah, I think there's some cause for concern there.
And especially when you keep giving up these opening rules,
You should be with the players on SSG, good on your entry,
but they just keep running in your brick wall
on the side of Dark Zero.
The main criticism about DZ again was,
who's gonna frag on this team?
Who's gonna entry?
Well, so far the answer's kind of everybody.
This whole team is showing an awful lot of depth.
Ratchet, he knows the one that's running away with it,
but I've been quite impressed with a lot of these players
and despite the scoreline not being great
on some of their gunners,
there's still been big impactful moments
from Newers, from NJR, and from J9O.
and I know just breaking double digits. On SSG, what a performance and debut so far for Raid?
Raid is only a plus one at the moment, but stacking up against the legends in North America
is not an easy task. Raid so far has been able to rise to the occasion very effectively.
Fun joke, maybe fact. Just going back quickly to the one woman who was lost for anyone interested.
We've got two Wisconsin-based players here in the North American League, and both of them happen
to be in a 1v1 at the end of that round. Jane, I know, coming out on top from O'Connor
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, eating a dream from Oshkosh, Wisconsin. I don't know whose name
in town is up in Wisconsin. Oshkosh? Oh my gosh. How have you not heard of this place before?
I have, I just say it. I like the names and whoever's name in the town should keep it up.
Did you know, Jesse, that of the 50 counties in America with the highest rate of alcohol
consumption 48 of them are in Wisconsin as I once heard a beautiful
comedians the two worst words that a Wisconsin I can hear bars closed we're
nothing if not an informative casting do it but to also entertain its
It's edutainment, so...
This Contenative Dream opening to an early fight.
On their side of him will be Kino with the shotgun,
and that is not going to be a favorable engagement for him
once the ace opens up this line of sight.
Of course, Kino back, but not enough for the kill
and baits them into the Nitro.
Now it's a two-man lead for Dark Zero.
Dizzy every single opening duel,
breaking in their favor since this second half swapped.
SSG was in pretty decent control through the first half,
But, me oh my, it is in DZ all the way down.
Aiden striking first, three times for SSG, and he's still on the board,
but he's playing a more support role.
He's not being involved in one of these early engagements as an attacker,
which speaks to the flexibility that this SSG team has,
but they are missing a bit of that firepower.
DZ, which is a little bit over a minute to go, will now use as Zodo canisters.
We'll use the end of batteries and now there we go, the Gnari tripwires and Rival just walks right in.
There was a running man kill. Aiden finally on the board. I talked about him.
What's the opposite of Caster Curse? He and Giddy will need to do... Yeah, there you go.
He and Giddy will have to do all this work. Jesse has a 2v4 SSG once again,
hoping to not allow DZ to go to match point.
This Subaru is really annoying. It takes away the reticle from Aiden as well,
and the cost of a kill earlier in this round on the Kino, he gets it back eventually,
But now having to play these really tight angles, we've seen some great pixel peaks coming up from these players,
but it's not going to be enough just yet. 1v4 all alone, 30 seconds to go, Parker.
And you will not find even one NJR, the final couple of frags, in that round to push Dark Zero to match point up against the Bay Station Gaming.
Yeah, I mean, DZ's just been in complete control since round number three, you know?
SSG obviously won the most recent round before this one by quite literally like 0.2 seconds.
But it was a great start for SSG. They looked mighty good through those two rounds, and then DZ either just woke up or re-centered themselves, and then that's all she got.
Ignoring those first two rounds that were so dominant for Space Station, SSG has only been able to get first one of two of the following eight rounds.
Having to play on your back foot non-stop is exhausting, but it's also just setting you up so poorly for success.
Easy punishing them easy getting kills from their anchor players easy getting kills from their roamers easy getting kills from their entries from their support
Supporting cast of darksir has been really good and honestly this team has functioned very well together
SSG again
Doing all right for a team that has very limited chemistry and has been assembled from a bunch of different masters
And I mean to go up against five players that have played
probably more siege than most people on us at she except for dream as you saw
that infographic on the desk earlier it's tough that's a tough opening the
only thing I will say to argue against myself did you not see one of 30 in that
exact same position up against SR in the most previous matchup and everything we
just said did not matter in that game so you can beat the odds it's just not
likely and it gets even harder Parker you were just talking about the opening
picks like fear another one will go the way of easy rival the first one to fall
in round 11 and that could be the beginning of the end dark zero they're
setting up exactly the same as they did back in around eight that was key knows
he's forgotten on the Azami playing filter stairs playing the exact same
position now so everything is gonna become even more difficult ten and a
with two of god damn Parker did you I mean that reaction from kiddie speaks volumes
it looked like he's about to smash his mouse on the desk yeah I mean he might
not need that mouse for at least under 24 hours here because he almost certainly
looks like SSG is done so Aiden and Dream will need to clutch out into 2v5 if
It's not, TARG Zero will ride their way into the ring column, the first set of teams from Group B now playing.
We do have one more matchup for those that are curious, and it's going to be none other than Wildcard vs Outlast to close out the day.
That should be an exciting one, it'll be good to see the new Wildcard team taking shape as they just picked up.
Adrien, Spiker will be on different roles than, of course, Outlast, the team that's reloading.
All these players are going to be making their tier 1 debut, and it'll be good to see how well they function, and pretty tough contest for them to go up against an experienced team such as Wildcard.
It isn't a wait, Dark Zero has no reason to take engagements here, just buy time as much as he can.
Down goes Aiden Dream, will deny the flawless round, it would be yet another for Dark Zero, as Keno is the culprit.
In that engagement, Dark Zero will say goodbye to him, the four remaining players,
holding a funeral for their fallen teammate, and they avenge him as Newer's guns down Dream and DZ ends this one pretty quickly.
I dare I say it, our fastest match of the day.
in Dark Zero, propels themselves to a victory,
seven for the score line.
Yeah, this new look of Dark Zero
had some question marks coming into the new season,
but it is clear this team looks fierce,
playing all together, all with the utility,
and managing to get a big win
over their old organization of SSG.
SSG has their work cut out for them.
We'll see what growth they have to DZ
firing on all cylinders.
One more match awaits us,
but first let's hear from our winners after this break.
the
I think we got the answer seven four right out the gate and they were looking good together
Yeah, I mean any ending any split on attacking half three three
That's the best you can ask for in that scenario and then to immediately pivot on their defense
I think that's where we really see the pieces of NJR and Kino really come into play and what Fox was already talking about because it really
Allows them to flex around and always have a reliable
reliable backline always relying that Kino is going to hold his spot.
NDR is going to hold his angle.
So it allows folks to play up.
It allows J9 to play up.
But it allows new words to play up.
And I mean, in those defenses, I mean, it really showcased that through and through.
Well, let us talk to the MVP of this game.
We really led the way for Dark Zero Kino.
Congrats on a great first performance with this team.
As you may have heard, obviously, we were curious, as I'm sure you were right.
What the vibes would be like on this team? How you and NJR would mesh with this SSGCorp?
Talk to me, what has it been like as you guys have started off and now that you've hit the ground running?
It's been good. I mean, this team is just a bunch of clowns.
You're fair.
Yeah, we're all just fucking around. Simon's up low.
Mesh is up low.
Right, well, it sure did look like it meshed up low. I mean, you had a phenomenal performance.
And I guess I just wanted to ask since you've been on you were on m80 for so long now you're on dark zero
How is the atmosphere changed for you inside the server and outside of the server?
Honestly, I don't
Good question. I think like outside the server like these guys are like literally by family
okay, I treat them with like the utmost respect and expect the same from them and
And uh, you just should build a great relationship like that, you know?
It's proper. And I think in the game, I don't know what changed.
You guys tell me, I don't know, still playing some shields.
Have fun.
Yeah, you were cooking. What's all those boxes behind you?
Oh, some light.
Show me some light.
If you know you know, some light.
Anyways
Well, you know, I have I have some clips to show you if you're able to see these just to kind of run us through
We kind of everything that went through that. I mean you had a quite a few highlights from yourself
Especially on those staircase, but you just want to run me through these rounds kind of what's going on
How you're taking these positions and just yeah run us through it
Yeah, well these video rounds were just fucking
Shake hairs like first round is just walking in idea
Yeah, this round they had no idea when I walked into the fly, they looked up tech, shit's fucking fire, oh, sorry, anyways.
Okay, this was not in particular. This was lit. This was insane.
Oh, they were stuffed. They were dumbfounded. They had no idea what time it was.
I was a little jumped out of there because obviously two of them died. I thought they would have broke the Izami, the Kido barrier early on because now that it was feeding you that.
And the fact that they did it after the two kills, I mean,
we're playing pretty lights out.
And I don't know if you've heard me in the beginning of this.
Fox has already touched up on this.
I mean, what you and NJR can bring to this team now
is just a lot more stability in terms of a defensive hold,
in terms of a support side.
And I think we've also highlighted you numerous times
on M80.
It's a lot of flexible players.
They brought you on.
You were their supportive staff.
You were that pillar.
Do you kind of feel that's the exact same place
that you're now feeling on this roster
that they never had similar to also NJR
coming into that spot as well.
I'm gonna keep it at bug 50.
I think all me and Nick bring to this team is just,
we just sit, we have a movie theater here in the house,
at the DZ house.
We just sit in the movie theater.
We watch some anime together,
be in hand with Chikato,
and then, you know,
Nour and Jack join us,
because they're also here.
And we're just like,
we're all Chikato and fucking,
oh, sorry.
So what's with my, what's the movie?
At this point, you can't even say sorry.
You just,
it's like that exact thing,
at least five times.
Yo, it's not my fault.
Oh my god, what's same on you?
Sorry, anyways
Sorry guys, it's all good. You know, it is always a pleasure to chat with you and to watch you do your work incredible stuff today
And we will hope to see you continue to thrive down the line. Thanks so much my friend. Thanks guys
What what a finish what a start to the kickoff
that he was having some fun
out there. Smile on his face.
Drop into 14 kills. If you're
dark zero and you're this team
trying to build this new core,
build this new roster. I mean,
it's exactly what you wanted to
see from him. Yeah, I mean, you
can tell he was having fun. He
said, uh, as many words he
shouldn't say on a lot of
broadcasts as he had kills. And
so that being said, you could
just see how comfortable he was.
Now I don't know if that's the
if that's the fact that now he has a tournament win, a major win under his belt, or the fact
that he's in a fun environment with already a really great structure of the SSG guys coming
over.
They have call out alongside.
And I think that's exactly what they need to, I mean, even though he's saying me and
NJR are just bringing good energy in the house, that's half of the battle is just having a
fun time while you're playing.
You're instantly going to play better.
SSG and now DarkZero have always had that method in the call out system of having a
good time together and you could just see it in his play the way that she's playing confidently
no mistake is a bad mistake even if they lose rounds they're going to find their way to bounce
back in it everybody seemed a lot more fluid and I don't think it's just the good vibes you could
see it in the way that they play it operator wise everyone seemed a lot more comfortable
farmer structure well well the the vibes were clearly high and well we'll see how they continue
to perform as they move on through kickoff we've got some more teams to check out one final best
of one to close out our very first day of kickoff wildcard with the addition of adrian take on the
newest team making their t1 debut outlast and wildcard coming up next i'm going to
I'm gonna keep it going, I'm gonna keep it going, I'm gonna keep it going, I'm gonna keep it going, so I won't let it go.
We've seen some ups and downs throughout the day to day, but one thing is clear, we've
seen some very impressive debuts from new rosters, new players, a little bit of both.
And we got our final opportunity here today to see the freshest roster in the business.
I think I'm lagging.
I hope it's not too bad.
We've got outlast and we've got wildcard going toe to toe here to close out the day.
card a team that have made a little bit of a change here lacks, but it is a big one to
talk about because of bringing in an EWC champion, an SI runner up there adding team
secret alumni Adrian to this already powerful roster.
Yeah, I was going to say, I don't know if this is a small change. This is definitely
a massive change, a huge upgrade. I mean, when you compare the two players of Dash and
Adrian, I mean, no offense to Dash, but as recently towards the end of Wildcard's run,
I mean, he just wasn't performing and Adrian as we know just based off that side just based off his career so far
He is performing exceptionally well and something to also know
Spiker is going to be taking on the role from Dash and we already have talked about how well Spiker has developed as a player
Developed as an IGL now. He's going to be on Dast's world
Which is notoriously playing those shield operators on attack that is only going to make him so much more
versatile in terms of how he can shot call how we can move the pieces around on
those attacks and then to have that supportive backing and from Adrian I
mean I am so excited for this wildcard roster if there was a bias to have one
it's definitely towards this wildcard team. It's gonna help the team shot calling the
apartment absolutely having spiker play those roles and also having a better
team player in my opinion Adrian just really fits his role he plays flexible
He does his job. That's something that Dash was struggling to find towards the latter half of the year
He was always
Struggling to be able to make the mark on getting those kills or being able to take positions
It seemed like there was a conflict of ideologies when it came to spiker and dash now having Adrian just being able to join on
Do his job only impacts better
But spike or something that we've seen from him in the last year is he performs very well individually as well
So that's one thing that I know Adrian will be able to get his own kills
But I hope that spiker being on those shields being on the flexible information operators isn't going to hinder his performance
Because he had an exceptional year to say the least so it's only up for as a team
But I hope spiker is able to settle into this new role comfortably
Well their opponents today are a team that aren't just making one small roster change or another outlast gaming are an entirely new
organization and an entirely new five-man team when it comes to the NAL. They grinded their way
through Challenger series, shocking everyone along the way. Why? Because none of these players
had a lick of pro experience coming into Challenger series. Fox, not only that,
only two of the five players had ever played in a proper Tier 2 tournament, whether that's
Element or Challenger League or Challenger series before that. They came out of nowhere
with almost no experience to their name,
and they became the runner-up in Challenger series
and made the NIL.
It is a big story,
but now they have quite a bit of work ahead of them.
But it's well-deserved, and yes,
we haven't seen any of these players really in T1,
barely in T2,
but those two players that have been groaning
for a couple of years in T2, Treadmack and Millie,
they've been around for a while.
I remember playing ranked with both of those players
and seeing their progression,
wanting to get into competitive leagues,
They're hungry. They are very hungry when it comes to this and it doesn't matter. They're doing it out of pure passion. It's something that I see a little bit of myself for all the older players that have been playing when they started.
They weren't playing for, you know, a huge paycheck or anything. They were playing for the love of the game and all these players. That's the best part. They did it together. They found play like minded players that all wanted to be able to make it.
And for those at home that watch when they say, oh, there's two tournaments you can qualify for through Challenger League and you think, you know, I don't know if I'll ever be able to do that.
That's exactly these players. They were watching. They wanted to be in T1 and they successfully did it all together.
And the expectations, I mean, there's not many expectations. They're going to be doing their best, putting their best foot forward.
forward. The good thing is that they don't have a ton of pressure on your
shoulders. As he said, Fox, right? There's not a ton of, oh, Trevmax gonna all of a
sudden get first place in the NAL, right? Anything they do, right? Anytime they're
able to take a team a little further into a map than you expected, right? That
will be considered an accomplishment. And who knows? I mean, we saw what one of
30 was able to do to Shopify Rebellion earlier. Cannot count any of these teams
out, especially if these teams are willing to go to some of those more neutral maps.
And so we'll jump over to the map bands now to see if wildcard lacks are going to make
the same mistake that Shopify rebellion did, right?
Go to a map like clubhouse to give a much younger, much more inexperienced opponents
a chance to thrive.
You know, I make the joke you spoke too soon to that if there was going to be one team
that I am going to be confident on picking clubhouse, it would be wildcard.
sure their overall yearly record is six, I mean five and six on the map, you have to
look at the teams that they've lost to, right? They've lost to Falcons, they lost to Darkzeer,
they've lost to Space Station, they've lost to FaZe, they've lost to Falcons again and FaZe Clan
again. I mean, they have lost to some pretty heading hitting teams that do enjoy this map.
So if there is going to be one team that like I said, that would find enjoyment on a clubhouse
regardless of who they're playing against, no brain or wild card. But at the same time,
similar to what we said about the other matches,
this should be a very comfortable for Trevon the boys
to be able to rally, be able to get behind,
and just focus on the fundamentals and playing together.
And if they can do that
and they can replicate that exact same success
that we saw at a Packers team,
maybe you know, have a few little less mistakes.
They could walk away with a win here,
but by no means is it gonna be an easy match for them.
Not at all, but it is the best situation
that outlasted fund themselves in.
You're going to a classic map that you've played in,
ranked time and time again.
You don't need to do anything crazy.
If anything, again, it's another situation
where the powerhouse team, Wildcard,
it's in their hands to lose.
And that being said, will they lose?
We don't know yet, but what I'm expecting
or hoping to see is Spiker, right?
We talked about how he's gonna be taking Dash's roles,
this is a map where we're gonna see the Blackbeard,
the Monte de Shields.
And it's not the first time that we've seen Spiker on it,
but it's going to be a time where he's going to be picking
those roles more prominently.
So we'll have to see how Wildcard is able
to adapt that way and how Spiker is going to incorporate that.
Well, Lax, talk to me a little bit more
about what Wildcard are gonna be focusing on,
especially for this kickoff event, right?
Kind of the opposite of what Shopify Rebellion,
the problem they were having, right?
Domestic success, international, I'm not gonna say failure,
but certainly falling short,
Wildcard were kind of the opposite.
Didn't show up as well domestically, internationally.
They were one of, if not the best North American team.
When they come in to 2026,
to have this roster change, how is that going to shape their approach to this kickoff event
and to potentially, that's all like city major?
I mean, that's exactly what needed to happen was the roster change.
It was to remove Dash because he wasn't able to make the shields work.
He wasn't able to utilize them properly where we know Spike or Kent.
We know that he can be that IGL that they need in those moments that are dire to win
around.
And then you just going to amplify that by putting a shield in front of them where we've
seen time and time again with Shields just for IGL to be able to dissect an entire defense
and tear it apart and that's what I'm expecting from Spiker to be able to do here now that
he is more notably going to be on the Shields. I can't see him pivoting off of it any time
soon. Wildcard and Outlast they will be the final game of our first day of the NAL kickoff.
It's been a heck of a day so far for the final time. We'll pass things over to Jesse and
partner. Greatly appreciated and the final day of kickoff which I guess is
touchdown. Technically you kick off and then you get the touchdown is here and
it's gonna be I would say the most successful North American team over the
last calendar year. Wildcard has been very good. They don't want anything,
Jesse. They have made terrific runs at just about every event. Yeah they've been
so consistent Parker. This team has been at the top level of North America at the
top level globally at every single event over the last 365 days. Now they're coming up against
Outlast, a brand new roster full of Brookies, five players who have never played in a professional
match before. It's David vs Goliath, but sometimes those create the best upset potentials. We'll
see how Outlast can do up against one of North America's finest.
video games. So, hey, let's listen. These outlast players, Chesty, making their
debuts over the first time that we get to say their names. Reason we start off
saying Treadmax named four on the broadcast, but not as an active
competitor. He's been grinding for so, so long and he's finally made it. As with
just about everything, congratulations to the players who made it here from
Challenger Series from Challenger League. It's not easy to get to this point. It is
It's a grind, it is grueling, it is often thankless.
Teens will qualify and then immediately drop you for somebody better.
So kudos to the teams that stuck together, and I mean, you're going up against Wildcard.
This will be a heady task.
It will be very, very tough for this outlast squad, but I have high hopes.
I have high hopes for the team.
My hopes might be dashed.
Let's see how they do.
It's unfortunate that they start off with such a strong, infirmity foe, but hey, not
to spoil the results of the matchup earlier, but Shopify Rebellion was the
foe that the other newest team formerly referred to as its finest, now known as
one in 30 or one of 30. And the result wasn't what you think it was. So did the
same happen here? Does lightning strike twice? I believe it does scientifically,
but yeah, in this game, you don't know. Well, it certainly helps that we're going
to the same place that lightning was striking just a couple hours ago at
Parker clubhouse has been selected as our final map of the night.
Maybe a mistake for Wildcard, bringing this new team to one of
Steve's most classic and well-known maps.
And I'll say outlast eSports on a three game winning streak here on
clubhouse, beating Codex eSports, Fisher College and Zen eSports.
Don't ask me a single player on those three teams because I couldn't
name you one, but there are wins nonetheless throughout the tier two
circuit and of course in tier three competitions as well.
Wildcard didn't get touched on it. They've had a couple of losses on this map throughout the six-divitational and even going back to the Munich Major.
Tough for opponents, no doubt about that. And I think even against some of those great teams where they ended up losing, Wildcard looked like a pretty good clubhouse team.
So I'm maybe not so concerned for their record on this map as you maybe would be for some other opponents that they're going up against.
But still, this is one of those maps where upsets can happen.
We saw it nearly just a few hours ago in the one of 30 versus rebellion game, and it could happen again.
I think, uh, the reason we started these wildcard guys are no longer in a teamhouse, so...
Maybe they're on, trying to figure it out.
Last year they were in like this crazy teamhouse where they were all playing, like from the kitchen.
and like they put Dash in the basement or something like it was it was a it was a setup to be sure
they're not in the same place i can tell you that it was it was in suburban houston i believe could
you imagine coming all the way over from brazil to get stuck in like a basement of suburban houston
i mean dash literally tweeted the reason why he left the team was because he
didn't like living in america and maybe maybe wildcard didn't give him the best chance
I mean, I kind of agree with Dash a little, but I don't blame him at all.
Clubhouse is where we started our second match of the day, and it's where we conclude our
first day of kickoff or reminder for everybody.
Kickoff is a bit, it's kind of full season, right?
It's kind of a truncated set of qualifiers.
So if you are wondering when is the next day of kickoff, well, my good friends and those
who don't even like me are giving this information as well.
You could be my enemy.
Tomorrow we will be live with another day of kickoff. Eight of the ten teams play on these play days.
There are five play days in the group stages before we get into the playoffs to determine which four teams from this region will qualify for the Salt Lake City Major.
For some of these squads, it means not actually going all that far.
Space Station, the organization that just played in match three, they're best out of Utah.
So for them presumably wouldn't be that far assuming of course that they're in the title actually know where the players are
American major
Unlike in previous stages there is no Mexican team this time to include to do not be qualified
So all the players as far as I'm aware
competing from either Canada or
America this team on the left side of your screen screen screen
Outlast they are brand new and if you don't recognize
recognize any of the names, do not worry, you'd only really know them if you watched
tier 2 or even tier 3, so we'll be here to give you more information about the players
as the match rolls on on the right side.
Wildcard, you should know them pretty well at this point.
Yeah, it was only about 2 weeks ago when this Outlast core team beat the former team cruelty
in the finals spot to make it to the North America League.
It was damn close, it was a 3 map series that went all the way the distance, 7-4 on the
final map to allow this Outlast team to make it, then known as In-Control.
They have to attack to start their first round here in the NAL, that's going to be a bit
difficult up against Wildcard, but I like the progress they've made so far, Parker.
They've managed to get themselves into the building, they've gotten full master control
and can work their way into construction.
Watch out for Baby Shark, he's playing just kind of towards the bottom of red.
Bay is actually down in the basement as well, so they've got a couple of roamers down below
the bomb site. That could be a nasty surprise. Don't laugh for it ready. This is a tricky little spot.
Millie managed to get away, taking a bit of damage in the process. Capitally an incredibly powerful
operator at this point in time. In the meta, good guns, good secondary gadgets, with the ability to
do some aerial denial while also obscuring the attackers. Did a glass, could it be for an execute,
could it be for a shield? Lager has his hands full right now inside of construction and he's got
Got some more work to be done. Kansan blows him up with a nitro cell.
And that'll be the first pick. It comes with 50 seconds to go.
That's a really nice drone.
They is spotted so somebody can easily greet him.
That was Veronica who's watching that drone.
They might be able to get away.
With the advantage for Wildcard, all they need to do is just waste time.
Veronica will get him, but he's downstairs.
They need to link up in the final 35 seconds here to pull off and execute.
Yeah, 30 seconds. Lots of utility.
Three Kendels from Trev-Mac and four Arrows still for Milly.
So they've got the tools to make this push happen, but it has to be in sync.
There go the flames, Kanzan on the board, down goes Trev-Mac, Kanzan traded out by Nesta, back to a 3v3.
The defenders of the upper hand, if this keeps going deep into the round, Spike are playing around this mirror window, gets one.
Adrien's first kill on Wildcard will come at the expense of Veronica, and Millie barges into the bomb site,
Dying at the hands of a dream wildcard strike first and take round number one
That's a really good round coming out from Kansan striking for those two early frags coming out Parker Kansan turning
24 just a week ago today
Makes him the oldest player in this very young matchup between wildcard and outlasts a couple of 19 year olds playing for
Outlast as well in this game both laugher and Millie yet to hit their 20s and struggling a little bit in this opening game
You can see Lawdrey was ready for the nitro.
He was staring at the top of the wall waiting for it,
but unfortunately, gets siege timing a little bit.
The second he looks away, the C4 comes out,
and then it's a big swing from Kansan for his second frag.
It really cracks the round wide open.
The second Trev Matt goes down.
That utility that I was saying was so important
to coordinate with wasn't going to be available for him.
So, tough first round, but Wildcard looking all together
one hour early.
I mean, there was good strategy there
from the Outlast guys, being able to take from the...
the master side over get the job done in construction largely forego a rafter's take
that's something that teams have started to do especially if you don't feel confident flushing
out a player who should play on rafters a lot of times just see the zonin play in that position
saw quite a lot in the sr versus one and thirty matchup earlier today if you don't have the right
tools if you don't have a capital if you can't fight your magnets or ads's if you can't deal with
that operator with a grenade, then it's often times better to just isolate them and push from
construction and red stairs once you get main breach open. There's obviously a lot to be done
there to account for the fact you have decided to avoid this part of the map, but it is definitely
doable. I think it was ultimately the right call from Outlast, but one of the things that you see
these tier two, now tier three, or now tier one teams struggle with is often times confidence
and game sense and both of those things play a much larger role in mechanical
ability than you would think. Very cool castles that are coming out now from
Wildcards are trying to extend over towards the cast side. We really see this from them much.
We saw a little bit of castle played by Bay previously at the Sixth Intentional when defending this ball.
It'll be the first time that Kansan brings the operator here to the top floor of the clubhouse.
They've got it combined with this Mira and Clash set up to start a walk down the top floor.
It's gonna hit really annoying. Try to make your way into the enemy force.
Got this wall reinforced for crafters.
Usually this will get opened up relatively early by the ace,
and we do see Millie making that happen.
But with so many players on this side of the map, it is gonna be really awkward to clear through here.
They'll let Millie lose at least one body.
Gronix now looking for an opening as he tussles with the flash.
He'll expend all of his flashbangs. It's all for naught.
Wasted utility, maybe not, the Wild Card dominating with a minute and thirty to go, the round is over.
Kansan getting a bevy of kills and Wild Card greet this outlast aggression with open arms. Two in a row for Wild Card.
Welcome to the lead, you're playing arguably the best team in North America and they are bringing everything they have up against you in these first couple of defenses.
It's been tough for outlast and listen
It's a quick round because you kind of if you're going for this push they're going for you have to commit everybody to clearing cash
That is the first step on this executes. So you may as well send all five players. You've committed to it
They did push together. I really appreciated that from outlast
They had everybody going in all at once to try to coordinate those trades
But in the end I think wild card just had so many bodies on that side of the map
They didn't really even have many players back on the site. They had of course they playing the red stairs
They had spikers instead of cash, they had cans instead of cash.
They really had a lot of bodies brought that direction, and so in the end, the trade games were better.
The shots were a little bit better in Wildcard, looking really clean up 2-0.
Yeah, not many deficiencies there in round number two for Wildcard.
It didn't really get a little bit hard to spot them with how every single kill occurred in the same on seconds give or take.
Yeah.
But I mean structurally quite sound and if you're attacking the upstairs bomb site
There are obviously opportunities for you to be able to vault in a window or get a single door open and then rush on in especially if you've got
smokes or flames or
Shield
Any of that stuff can work wonders just seem like a bit of a try execute from outlast and they rushed in they immediately got picked apart because wild card was
Rightly so watching them watching the windows watching the walls that have been opened up and you didn't even bother to fire back
the exception of Veronica's. I don't think there was anybody else who got on the
board in the midst of that fray and so far only three rounds or only three
kills for our last three of these two rounds now three rounds just only got to
be better than that you got to find your marks and I mean first round was okay
you got to replicate that for round number three.
Now he's gonna be bringing the bullets out. He's self-proclaimed a cheese player
following in his French-Canadian, not teammate, but countrymen in this role and
his footsteps by playing some of these more gimmicky operators inside of
Rainbow Six. Gonna be trying to use this blitz to get some space for his squad.
There is a heavy roam game going on. Baby Shark and Kansan are roaming to the top floor,
but the goal is not to clear these players out there. Instead, just working
their way in through the community, trying to find their way down these main stairs.
At some point you have to imagine these rumors will be addressed, but it might also just be the case that they want to
Rotate back to site feeling like it's not really advantage to go for a big flank
Usually takes about 90 seconds or so to full clear with drones assuming that there aren't any rumors
It seems to be about the market outlast is hit at this point and
what we can see of the silhouettes
top-down view here but it looks pretty close to everybody playing in the
basement it looks like there's a retake happening over on the stock side yes so
there are two players and they have a good idea of this a good read from
Outlast only the question is who strikes first? Spiker and Bay go for it?
Oh they're all pretty much upstairs over the reinforced hatch. Oh all right they
know that they don't need to really contest the space on Outlast if they
I don't want to, but if you leave it alone,
then the flank potential is just so devastating.
This impact from Baby Shark will create some panic
if he does choose to go for it,
but instead, worry about a kitchen drop.
These attackers on Outlast,
they might hit the site before Baby Shark and Spike
are really have a chance to react.
You have a very small window of opportunity here
for Baby Shark to play off of,
and there he goes, running on in their attention elsewhere.
Baby Shark couldn't get water if he fell out of a boat!
Oh my goodness!
He had this wave lined up, now Spiker dies, same set of circumstances, outlast with plot armor like I've never seen.
Wildcard now will have to swing for the fences cans and left all by himself, but not set up for success.
Way more of a blunder on the side of Wildcard than success for Outlast, but hey, that's how they'll take their first round in the NAL.
At this point, Parker, I have watched genuinely hundreds of rounds of Baby Shark playing Rainbow Six Siege across all competitions over the last year and a bit that he's been playing at a professional level.
It's probably the worst whiff I've ever seen him throw out in the middle of a game.
That was a tough one to come out from the French import player on Wildcard.
He had the perfect flank, the timing was ideal, and then that happened.
So, Trep-Mack is the kill, Trep-Mack a good flick to be able to get that frag and he gets the second pick as well.
Spiker also not able to get that frag, Trep-Mack has been very aware of it, so good patience from the IGL has outlasted.
Read into that eventually and shut it down before it destroyed his whole team.
But, uh, yeah, it's certainly one that Shark's gonna want back.
Oh boy.
They both. It's not even Baby Shark.
I think it was Spiker who also whiffed. Maybe it was Bayak. I can't remember which one it was in that particular role, but they...
Yeah, Spiker was the next guy.
I was whiffed.
Yeah.
It was Spiker. Spiker maybe whiffed a bullet or two. Sure, it was a total mess. Slightly different.
Ten seconds to go.
I'd just say that's...
He played it perfectly. There was a tiny sliver of time and he ran and they had their attention elsewhere.
He could have easily came the ace and turned the round on its head.
At worst, you're expecting to trade himself out.
I don't even think he had a single bullet.
I'm not even trying to disparage Claire because obviously mistakes happen.
If I was in that position, I probably would have hit about as many bullets as he did.
So like, I can't really talk here, but he's a pro and I'm not, and that is a devastating position.
And honestly, brilliant, strategic play from Wildcard that is just undone by some poor mechanical ability with some bad timing.
And that's it. The round is over for Wildcard, even though it sure seemed like when he was doing that backstab,
things were going to go very well and they would win yet another round.
Well Parker, we have got the rarest bomb site in Siege, so we've got something else to talk about.
Bar stage being played by Wildcard, they tried this twice last season, once in October, once at the Sixth Ivitational.
They failed both times, so they tried to hold this bomb site, but maybe third time's the charm,
up against a team of five rookies here in the North American League to kick off their new season.
It's been a bit of an awkward approach from Outlast so far.
They clearly want to take this top floor control. They've breached their way into Assisi, and they're starting to drown it out now, finding just
Adria in the newest pickup over at the top of Red Stairs, but plenty of map control still to be taken. All they have in the building right now is Millie, who's just sitting at the top of Rafters.
Greatest issue that faces a lot of these newer teams, especially when they attack is time management.
So far outlast time management's pretty good and again
You have to kind of say your expectations a little bit low for those that are wondering why
We tend to be a little bit more patient and give a little bit more grace to some of these newer teams
It's because they don't have the experience. We can't chew into them the same way if SR makes a blunder like that
You have to realize that all these outlast players are making their debut
Expectations for them frankly should be relatively low because they've yet to prove themselves
They can definitely upset and do well
Oh my goodness. Nice read from Adrian as he takes down Veronica.
Swirling this position will fight from the spot. Shot after multiple angles.
It is really tough to play inside a stock unsupported blogger getting the kill.
Wildcurt have done some pretty good damage. They take down the nook.
Veronica is not able to surprise the defenders whatsoever on this bar stage defense.
Yeah, that's what I'm saying Parker, but here we have an opportunity now to go for the plant.
The smokes are ready for Mestis. This is gonna likely prompt a slight...
It will clear out one of those yokai cans. I don't know if Bay's got any more to try to stop this plant when it does come down.
A rough fight from Nesta that just runs right into Bay, ready for that angle, and this is going to make a cover on the plant.
It's so much more difficult for Outlast.
My, uh, I think it is frozen.
Well, I'll tell you, Parker, it's still a 3D4 that pushes, not come out just yet.
TREPMAX found a bit of an angle, takes down Mili, it scans it actually, who gets that frag instead,
logger grabs one for his troubles, and leaves TREPMAX all alone. He sees the actual gift to down,
but there's no time, and without that abuse kit, they will play Keep Away, getting Wildcard their
third round up three to one.
I mean, I didn't...
And do you have to wonder if it could be a four-oh?
But I mean, hey, they're getting the job done, and that's really all that matters. I didn't see
any of it my feet just came back so okay well glad to have you back i i have to
suspect it was terrific
it's a nice finale of the plant honestly like you were talking to the time
management throughout this round parker i felt like despite it being good in
the previous round and it'd get away from them a little bit here in round four
they got stock control quite nicely they trade out one for one but then once
this play comes out from cans and disrupts the whole push it starts to
make things really chaotic and without the diffuser again, just nothing to Trev
Matt could do from that position despite his best efforts.
I mean again, expectation setting for this Outlast roster.
They're going up against a level of machine.
Adrien has slotted it on this team very effectively.
Spiker looks like he's playing quite confidently, but defense was never going to be an issue with Dash.
And I mean, I don't want to say that Dash was an issue on this squad.
The main Achilles heel of this wildcard team was how Dash would approach gunfights as a
shield player on attack.
Wildcard are defending first, so they get six rounds when we don't have to see how
they adapt to the new rules on the squad.
Spiker is going to be playing more shields than he ever has.
It is a role that is, as far as I'm aware, not exactly the most comfortable for him,
but that's okay.
He can acclimate him again.
He's a very talented player.
He's got a great set of hands.
The mechanical aim is fantastic.
He's obviously a good thinker, and he's able to lead the team.
He really is a tremendous player, and I'm
glad that people in the region are finally starting
to take notice of the potential that Spiker has.
Because I don't even think he reached his full potential yet.
He's already pretty damn good.
Defense not being a huge issue for Wildcard.
How do they adapt when they go on to attack?
We might not have many opportunities
to see them on attack if they run up the score here
on this side, Jesse.
I see really no reason for Outlast to pick up more than two rounds based on their play so far.
So Wildcard could in theory take a 5-1 first half lead.
No, I agree Parker. That's the real danger that Outlast are staring at.
They need to be able to put some pushes together to avoid that scenario
because you can't be going down to 5-1 in your opening game.
First match as a team, tough opponent, but you've got to find ways to break through.
They are getting to clear through the master side of the map.
That puts them in contact with Baby Shark, who has yet to find a kill.
Still playing over here towards the master side of things.
He can't say that.
He's afraid of whoever won.
All right.
There was a reason why they sought out Adrien on this team.
Spirits was also somebody who was offered this role.
If you did listen to him in the Spiker interview from a couple weeks back, they opted to go
with Adrien and Spirits, one of his own identity.
Baby Shark, missing an opportunity now over towards Jacuzzi, is easy as it really is to
he finds kill number one in round five cases upstairs inside the bombsite that is particularly
devastating. Veronica is down below and I don't really know if Logger's in a position
to do much here. No, it looks like this is the worst spot, Jesse. One pump, two pump,
it's over. Tendedly, Spiker got that second kill. It wasn't even Adrian credited with
it, but I mean, you're peeking top stairs. There's one on landing. It's a shotgun. That's
the top spot to be in all things and all systems go so far for wild card they
are cruising through this map. Yep, clear is not going the way they need to for
Outlast and it's nice to see Adrian on the board for one of his better rounds.
He's been good I think every round so far but hasn't had a huge pop off
performance. To be fair that's not why they picked him up right they wanted him
to play in spikers roles they want him to be that support duo alongside
spiker to just lock things down be consistent. The SI Silver Medalist has
been hyped up for ages with a rookie in EML a couple years back and sometimes had a problem
with LAN performance.
He kind of used to be known as this guy who would go crazy online while playing EML domestically
and then would show up to an event and kind of fall off a little bit, not really have
that same impact.
He ended up being the MVP of their EWC winning run back in August last year for Team Secret.
And I think with that performance really shook all of those
Stereotypes off of him in one swell one fell swoop so nice to see him kind of battling back and sits them
I think he's been really consistent as a land player those have really been put to bed those worries about him
Now an opportunity to shine in North America and a brand new team in a brand new region
And up against a brand new rookie roster team. It's having a good time with it
this is the kind of hey we're winning let's just see what crazy stuff you do
and I'm all here for it's like that was a baby shark game unfortunately I don't
baby shark game on the kitchen not in general yeah he's a great player I was
just dunking on him because you know he missed a pretty obvious shot
He's one of my favorite players to join the siege competitive scene over the last year man. He's so fun to see it
He had a blast in Paris because obviously he's French right? So he's walking around. He's in his home country
Most of the team doesn't speak French. He's walking around. He's got friends coming through. He's having a great time
He's not with wild card for the most part and then he's gonna get the game and he just absolutely lights it up
And I'm like man this guy's living a dream. Just living the dream Jesse
Ah, currently living inside a bedroom, taking a bit of a snooze as the team continues to
try to walk down things over towards the cap side of the map, loggers down to the bottom
of these stairs trying to find some way to break open this defense.
They really struggled with this last time, Parker.
They sent all five players in and not one of them edited alive.
I like the Capitow play, the ace is starting to open things up, but Spiker, he's back
for one. Looking for more.
I thought he got that one. He did not. Everybody else is getting one. No goodness gracious. Baby shark,
the man that you were touting so highly absolutely swatters them all. Five one and it really could
have been a six oh first half. Wildcard will have to see the single round but I mean they just they
They were playing without last there, a rough debut for these players, but again, you have
to set expectations accordingly.
Let's hear what our desk has to say about that first half.
Thanks guys.
It has been indeed a rough start for Outlast, but definitely not their most familiar territory.
They're walking into a gauntlet, wildcard, our well-trained professional team, adding
the force of Adrien.
Laxing, what do you make of Outlast so far?
they look like a team that can bounce back in the second half.
I'm being realistic here, Jonah.
I don't think that they're going to be able to bounce back too heavy,
just from what I'm seeing on their attacking half.
I mean, they look very, very disjointed.
They don't really look in sync as you've watched in a few of these rounds.
One person is pushing while the other's holding an angle,
then someone dies, someone then tries to rotate the other pushes.
There's just not a lot of communication that I can try to see
and try to make use out of.
It just kind of seems that they're moving with no purpose
and seeing if they can get these picks.
And I don't want to be too hard on them.
That really is where the inexperience comes in from T2 to T1.
That level itself really is being showcased here.
And then for the side of Wildcard,
I mean, they're just playing this to a T.
I mean, there's very little mistakes on there,
and they're doing what they need to, holding the control,
playing the trades.
It's just pretty pristine coming from them.
It's really that simple.
It's a good takeaway for Atlas to go through a defeat like this,
whether they bring a little bit of a comeback or not,
because it really is an experience difference.
That is the biggest thing.
A lot of ways they're dying.
I mean, we're seeing, well, play C4s from LogCard,
great flanks.
These are very basic things that any team
that is a top T1 level team that has had that experience
would be able to watch.
Outlast just finds themselves on the short end of the stick
where they don't have that experience.
So it's not necessarily their fault.
You have to go through situations like this to get better.
And that being said, with this potential first loss
on their hands, there's a lot to learn from,
a lot to take away, and I'm sure all of these players
are learning as they're losing these rounds as well.
Definitely shouldn't go.
It sounds like at the very least,
hopeful that the Outlast future
looks a little bit better than this,
but we know that everyone's got to have that welcome
to the show moment.
And this may very well be that for Outlast.
Jesse Parker, all you.
The one thing that I want anybody listening to this
take from it is that we do appreciate the newer players that have made their mark here in the NAL.
Now there's been a lot of players making their debut today. They have a lot of learning to do,
they have a lot of growing to do, and some of them will immediately perform better than others.
Some of them will have a hot start and then eventually regress because maybe they over
performed. The one thing that we as casters have to do is be ambassadors, frankly, for the esport
and for the new players. So if we make jokes or if we say things just know that it's always ingest.
Five players on the left side of your screen, they're having a rough debut, but they all
earned their strikes. They're all in tier one because they are good enough to hang,
and I don't want anybody thinking that we or anybody else looked down on them for that.
And as with all the players that we're going to do today, they have earned nothing but our respect
in admiration we appreciate them stepping up even if it is a welcome to a show moment where they
end up going out in this matchup against wildcard with some less than sexy stats and numbers so
just to just to go off of what jonah said and just to kind of you know maybe try to help the
community reaction here because i saw some of the ml and i saw some of s al and i saw some of the
way you people yes in the audience talked about these players on social media i don't want that for
for our good friends here in the NALEA win or lose.
That said, cover me.
Well, the cards having a pretty easy day so far.
Yeah, I think for Outlast, you're looking forward
beyond this game, most likely you've got
probably the hardest game up first.
You're off tomorrow, you'll be playing
Dark Zero for your second match of the pro team,
then Cloud9 and then Space Station gaming.
Kind of gets easier as you go on, I think.
For most people, the back half, Cloud9 and SSG
should be thought of as the two most winnable games for the squad.
And that'll come when they've had the most amount of practice,
the most experience as a roster.
So it's just about learning everything you can in these tough,
early games that are playing as a team.
See you on the outside.
You've got a chance to defend now.
Of course, first round since the sideswap,
going to Jim and Bedricks to try to walk this one down.
Adrian Trudeau's word, jumping on Spike,
his most common operator of Grimm,
is trying to make this attack work well.
And no shields being runner than Kanzin on the Blackbeard
One of the conventional shields, of course, we're talking Blitz and Monty.
We've actually seen very little of those two operators today.
If you come to think about it, the shields are nowhere near as potent as they used to
be.
Blackbeard obviously taking up a pretty big role in it.
We have seen Blitz and Monty, but not as much as I would have suspected.
Again, information has been really, really powerful.
Quite a bit of Snake, the newest operator out into the game.
Obviously a lot of Demos, a lot of Doka B, and even some Lyon.
Wild Card is shooting most of that, Jesse.
This is just a pure, hugealism lineup.
Lots of fragging power, lots of explosives, lots of damage that can be done.
Yeah, they're getting ready for a really explosive execute, Parker.
They haven't bothered to take any caps out of the map instead of just jacuzzi.
You're on the highway windows, you've likely got the logi hatch open as well.
That's where Bay is currently playing towards, so you've got a lot of dimensions to this push.
The question is going to be how do you crack it open?
How do you get that first frag to give yourself an opening?
Because right now, Outlast can control every piece of the map control,
and there's nothing really to force them out of it.
Down goes Veronica, down goes Millie, wild cards, entry guns, finding their targets.
They narrowly miss out on one as there's a vault out over on the side of weight room.
Dreb Mack, and Nesta last to alive.
There goes Nesta Kansan just demolishing him.
This has been a rough match.
This has been a rough round, but honestly a rough match so far for Outlast.
Barring that one opportunity by Baby Shark.
Yeah, I mean you might get tired of me saying this, but this could have been a 7-0.
This one is what they'll have to settle for for the time being wildcard could be one round
away from our most dominant and fastest match so far in NAL kickoff.
And again, I really liked Adrian's contributions in that round, Parker.
While the rest of the team was focused over towards the windows, over towards Jacuzzi,
Adrian was working his way up rafters.
He eventually gets to the top of garage.
That's where he takes down Nilly, who's trying to go for that peek on the CC window.
If you choose not to take CCGV and cash on a gym bedroom attack, right, your biggest
is that somebody is going to hop on that window,
they're going to kill your players that are playing on the site windows instead,
and it's a big disaster, but because Adrien was in there coming from behind,
getting those kills, it made all the difference in the world for Wildcard.
The Jacuzzi push also went quite well, the playover round,
Lodgy went quite well for Bay 2, so top to bottom,
everything was working in their favor,
and it just shows that coordination, that team play.
Even though Adrien is the newest pick up for this Wildcard team,
he's meshing right away with the rest of the score.
Yeah, I'm actually quite surprised with how well he's fit in, and, you know, again,
Spiker talked at length about the swap that he was making.
I'm gonna be honest, I really hate talking about my own podcast, but I do think it is
relevant.
So forgive me.
Uh, Spiker talks an awful lot about having to change roles and how comfortable he was
calling on hard breach.
He was still calling on hard breach.
He played Hibana on that round.
There wasn't really anything that abnormal about how Spiker approached that particular
round.
And now, unless they swap out their operators, it looks like Spiker's going to be playing
very similarly to what he usually does.
So maybe Wildcard have tinkered with things, maybe it's more map dependent, or maybe they
just are opting to not go with shields, or if I can, or, or, they might not see Outlast
as an opponent that they necessarily need to strat to and might just be using old and
default strats.
to try and keep things under lock and key for when they face up against the
burns that they think might be tougher and I don't say that to put down at last
I say that because teams literally will do that yeah I don't honestly think
that's it I think wildcard they have their new system they want to play their
new system spiker is traditionally on clubhouse a grim player he doesn't play
a ton of heart reach he does play some don't get me wrong but historically
especially on that previous bombsite of Tim Badger he is the guy on grim it was
Adrian who took the mantle from it last time. I think they are trying to move these roles around but the roles were never so
Cut and dry for a wild card, right? It's not like spiker had to play hard breach every single round
There were always changes to the strats. And so I think we're just doing that being reflected now here after things have changed
That's one
I mean hey, you're gonna take kills when you get it logger with the logger with the
the environment of destruction, maybe just to get away, that pipe blowing up will claim
Bay, Baby Shark that as well. Wildcard now in a bit unfamiliar territory so far in this
matchup, they are down in numbers.
Yeah, it was an early pick for Nesta actually playing just at the very top of dirt tunnel
that he managed to get to kill on the Baby Shark. I think they're saying screw it, we're
down 6-1, let's play aggressive, let's get fast against these opponents, let's show Wildcard,
not just a team we're gonna play defaults, we can be explosive and catch you off-guard.
Wildcard attacking down numbers is where things are going to be particularly challenging.
Spiker taking quite a beating. Adrian with eight kills chasing Kansan for team league.
What a debut for him on this squad. But I mean, if you watch that secret run, you know what Adrian
can do. Finds one, finds two, breaks double digits. Kansan, you best watch behind you because
Adrien could find another but he's choked out by the gas of Nesta
Drebmak and Nesta last two remaining Kansan spiker searching for these kills Kansan knows that he's got the castle tucked into a corner
Drebmak living on board time, but he swings the UMP shreds Kansan
Spiker will need to do something he's done many many times before and that's frags
So effectively in his role using the wild card skin on his F2
Two targets to find 50 seconds. Very doable for the captain of Wildcard. It would secure a 7-1 victory.
He switched between the bomb sites now, Jesse. Do they have any intel on him?
Speicher knows that he can't get this diffuser down. He'll be spotted right away. Outlast very wisely.
Have moved away from this part of the map and are giving him a ton of room!
He was expecting another to play. Drebmak really experienced. Just play around that bomb, Chassis.
Michael will now attempt to draw him out.
25 seconds on the clock.
Trev-Mac will slowly make his way over.
Spiker is not faking.
He gets off.
Trev-Mac tussling tucked into a corner,
surrounded by walls,
but they might be closing in on him.
As now Spiker swings and wins it!
Oh, my word!
Wildcard 7-1 in their first match.
Here in kickoff.
Welcome to the new season, Brady Lukens.
It's a one V two clutch for the captain of wild card and it happens just against the captain on the other side
Outlast top match to start things off for the NA L
But listen, it's all up from here beautifully done top to bottom from wild card
They placed so well just as they have all year long
Well, that's it for our first day kickoff for you and me
But there's still the rhythm roll to close out the show there were a bunch of highlights in this matchup
Let's take a look before our desk comes in to close things out.
Last making their debut, they tried to hang, but wildcard,
they showed us that they are a well-rounded, clean team at the moment.
Yeah, this is definitely what's expected from this, Ross.
I mean, you can clearly tell Adrian's settling in just fine.
and I mean, believe what, he dropped 11 or 10 to end it.
And then we already know, okay, no, he dropped, wait,
okay, 10, yeah, 10, yeah.
I mean, this team is just pretty cut and clean.
This is what I expect from this team.
I said going into this map,
if there was gonna be one team that was gonna be comfortable,
that was gonna find success on, was going to be wild card.
It is a little unfortunate that Trevon
them couldn't find much success,
but again, that's the biggest difference here
is the inexperience versus the experience.
And when I already highlighted the teams
that Wildcard has played numerous times on this map,
a 7-1 isn't a surprise.
And I do hope with what Jesse said
that it is only up from here from Outlast,
but we really have to see how they develop
with each hurdle that gets placed in front of them
because it's not gonna be an easy road for them
by any means.
Not at all.
I mean, every team that has had their first stage
or first event when it comes to the NAL,
they're always gonna struggle.
Unless you're cruelty,
then you struggle all the way through.
for Outlast. I mean there's only up from here in high hopes because these players are grinding.
They grinded together till they get to the pro league in the first place. To get to this league
they're going to continue the trend to just keep playing and going further and further and passing
their potential. As for the wildcard guys, amazing. Really great start. Hit the ground running when it
came to the kickoff event. I'm excited to see more from them.
I mean, it's very clear that we've got quite a roster here, quite a lineup of teams in
front of us.
I mean, you open up the day with five fears, safe to say, playing very well.
I mean, 100 thieves, maybe we didn't expect the most out of them, but five fears played
even better than we thought for that dark zero SSG match started to pick up the pace
as we started to see a little bit more one-sided matchup
towards the back half, like, I mean,
what did you make of this slate of games today?
I mean, we saw a little bit of everything it felt like.
You know, I think this is gonna be the first time
you hear me say this, and a long time, you know,
I've typically have dogged on T2 players and say,
you know, I'm not really impressed
what you've done throughout your career
up until what you do in T1.
I am, however, impressed with this batch so far.
I think for the most part, outside of Outlast,
I'll give them a little bit of a break.
You're going against Wildcard, which dominantly
leads the best international team out of NA.
Everyone has been really impressive.
And I think it really is showcasing, especially us,
forming this grass root system for the T2,
really is expanding the caliber of players
we're getting out of T2, which is really
going to make me look more at these T2 players
from a completely different scope,
just from what I've seen today, because it really
has been impressive.
So I really want to give all these T2 players
their flowers for their development
and showing for their debut today.
They deserve it.
All of the games that we thought were going to be so one-sided
ended up not being one-sided.
I'm excited.
I'm happy that we saw the T2 scene, or the T2 scene.
I mean, they're T1 now.
But mapping to see the up-and-coming teams
be able to at least script way arounds five years
and got a whole win under their belt,
it's going to make everything that much more competitive.
Well, let's remember what we're actually playing for here,
right?
Top four positioning in each group.
We can see how things today have affected the standings in each group and where things
shake up at the moment.
Five years, right?
With that performance, they quickly put themselves atop the group A standings above.
Yes, lacks above the rebellion who came out of here with just an overtime wins.
So Group A already taking shape here, but definitely going to see M80 play their first
game tomorrow.
And that is where things shake up a bit.
we move on to group B and we see Wildcard Dark Zero clearly the two teams to watch for at this point
And obviously outlast at the moment sitting in that fifth place position
Yeah, yeah, it's definitely one to see for sure and no surprise for Wildcard as we just watched Dark Zero
I'm excited to see how that team starts to look again with the additions of NJR and Kino
And then we get to see what cloud 9 is gonna look like completely brand new roster. It'll be the first time
I'm not going to jump into things just yet because we've got that for tomorrow
But we do have another siblings in the scene which is surfs brother if some people aren't aware in center
Also tomorrow
Yep, I'm eighty. They didn't get a blade it. They didn't get to play
No, we get we get to see how they how they open things up tomorrow
The schedule is what we will bring you next and maybe as we said we'll make their
here in kickoff as well. Of
course, we will see the rest
of these guys go toe to toe.
We met Mark opens things up
with SSG and Wildcard Dark
Zero Cloud nine will get the
second game of the day going
hundred thieves Shopify rebellion
before we wrap things up with
a one of 30 and M 80 Fox. What
stands out to you here? I mean,
I think it has to be dark
zero cloud nine again. We only
want to see more. I mean, wow,
just absolutely banger games as she wild cards going to be a great game dark zero cloud nine for me
I really want to see if hundred thieves can bounce back after such a loss and both them and shop of
our rebellion did not look too hot today so that'll be a great matchup everyone except for maybe the
last one I feel like that should should be a given that m80 should come out on top on it but
you never know especially after how today went well that today was a long one we had some tech
in there. We had quite a bit of rookie debuts and hopefully tomorrow will be smoother and
just as exciting as we get the NAL kickoff underway. Thanks so much for sticking with
us all day long. Thanks for tuning into these four fantastic matches and we will hope to
see you as we continue the action tomorrow for Foxy and Laxing. I'm Jonas Willinger saying
thank you so much for watching and we will see you tomorrow as the NAL kickoff rolls
on. We go live at 5 p.m. Eastern. See you then.