Rainbow6
Community Checkpoint #2 - Ranked Map Pool, Mid-Season Balancing, and more!
04-10-2026 · 5h 11m
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I
I
You're just on another level.
The warmup kickoff is now.
The Rainbow Six North American League season kickoff.
That is crazy.
10 teams, new rosters, new stories.
We don't call ourselves legends.
We earn it.
Who will set the tone before the season even begins?
Well, they prove they belong.
Well, they shock the world.
And earn their spot at the main major.
Only one way to find out.
Group stage begins April 1st.
Earn here, not give it.
Welcome to the North American League Season Kickoff.
Welcome to the final day of the group stage here in the north of the city of San Francisco.
Welcome to the final day of the group stage here in the North American kickoff.
It is so glad to be back with you all after the internet shenanigans of yesterday.
But like you guys held down the fort, I mean, we saw the fastest day we'd ever seen and
you guys were analysts and hosts and just good looking guys the whole day.
I mean, it was good to see from the sidelines.
Nice to see you to show up, Jonah.
I mean, I can't disagree.
It is nice for you to show up.
And I do agree.
a very fast day. It was also fun hosting with Fox. I think we had a good time there.
But I mean, what's more interesting to me is I mean, you were having ISP issues and
then you managed to forego your contract on your lease in your apartment, sold your place,
found a new place to make sure just so you could work today. I mean, that's, that's
a dedication.
Listen, it's commitment, I guess. I mean, I'm here in a streamer booth at a land facility
in Chinatown in New York City. So we're absolutely vibing here today. But yesterday
was more than just a fast day. It was the day where we locked what felt like
almost everything down as far as who is making the playoffs box. It was fast
paced. Yes, we saw some seven ones to start the day, but when it came down to
it, five fears dominant. They locked themselves in dark zero guaranteed
that number one seed. It was quite a day indeed. I mean, the first seven one
of dark zero versus wild card was an amazing display of versatility strength.
dark zero is looking like the most consistent best at 18 currently. I mean they just had so many different looks getting those opening
kills, slowing it down, understanding where to be able to get the post plant situations down. I mean attacking on border to have such an amazing
half that they did. They looked scary. I hope that they don't let up because this is a beautiful dark zero launch. And then to pivot over
to another 7-1 from five fears taken on Shopify rebellion on Chalet. I mean they
did such a good job at understanding the wind conditions, understanding where they
needed to approach the site, attack certain parts of the map, find out romers. We
highlighted how well JJ and Forrest were on the shot calling being able to
essentially turn this game in every single scenario into their favor. I mean
they were picking a part at the side of SR and I mean I don't expect this
the game. They have to be
prepared. They've got to be
prepared. They've got to be
trained to let their foot off
the gas anytime soon. They
have been playing exceptionally
well. And now, guys, we got to
take out our tiniest violin and
play it for 100 thieves being
eliminated from making it to
the bracket play and the
Salt Lake City major. They
had a nail biter of a game so
close against M 80. But
unfortunately, 100 thieves
falls short and maybe a
and situated, get all the roles situated,
and it goes out the win and still put them in a situation
where they can get first today.
Yeah, and then for the newer guys, Cloud9 versus Outlast,
this was a very great display from Cloud9.
Some of that we could really hold on to.
I thought they played very well.
They were very fluid throughout the map.
They had a very good understanding
of how they could choke Outlast out,
not really allow them any headway on that attacking half,
having a nice 5-1 split.
And then once they get into that attacking half,
I mean, it did come down to a very dicey 5v1 that turned into a 1v1,
but they did shut it down.
And this is what we want to see from the newer teams,
be able to bounce back, finally get a win underneath their belt,
so hoping that that success can continue into the day's match.
Well, as we said, dark zero, right?
But that's 7-1 to start the day,
setting themselves up to lock in that group B number one spot,
which isn't just for playoff's sake.
It also locks them in for a buy round in the very first round of the bracket, which is very important.
On the other side, right, it was that elimination matchup.
Cloud9 and Outlast Fox, as you talked about, Cloud9 was able to solidify their position.
They guaranteed that playoff berth.
And we also had to say goodbye to one of these new young teams in Outlast,
who just found the lights a little too bright.
Yeah, it's not too much of a surprise that Outlast is going to be going out.
We had no expectations of them coming into the league.
They are full of rookies.
There's no veteran talent and brand new team to the T1 scene.
And they had a little bit of a rude awakening,
but we just wanted to see progress from them.
And even though it is a faster expedited season,
we still, I think it's safe to say,
saw a little bit of them playing the basics very well.
But that being said, outlast 100 thieves,
they will not be making it to the Salt Lake City Major.
And it's unfortunate for both those teams.
And hopefully, we'll see more of them in stage one.
On the group A side, it wasn't necessarily
a number one seed that we locked down.
But, Lax, we absolutely confirmed the dominance
that Five Fears had been showing.
It has no stopping point, it seems.
They took SR and put them in the fourth place position.
I mean, this is not the standings we expected
coming into the stage.
Yeah, not by no means.
And to see the pivot and the change
and the development of this team as a whole
and whether that's been in the interviews,
whether that's been in the play,
it's really been fun to watch
and be able to get behind this roster.
But they can really set themselves up here nice today with a simple win over I made
you which would ultimately lock them in that first seed, putting them only one step closer
to getting to Salt Lake City.
But either way, just being able to make playoffs is already something that they should feel
proud of that they've accomplished and really get to test their limits in a best of
three.
And then for the rest, it's really just fighting to stay out of that lower qualifier
because you have no lifelines.
That's really what it's all about.
We'll take you through the bracket again to remind everybody exactly what this looks like, but the fourth seed
They do make it into this bracket phase
But as you can see there on the bottom they go straight to the lower bracket
So as lack said no second chances everything else here is still up in the air
The only team you actually see penciled in in this bracket Fox is dark zero because they've locked in that number one seed
Today is all about grappling for position and deciding exactly where each of these teams is going to slot in
Yeah, I mean, getting seed one is obviously where you want to be.
You have to win one game to make it to the Salt Lake City Major.
But that being said, we've seen teams get comfortable once they do claim that spot.
We've seen lower bracket teams have an amazing run facing adversity
to make it to the Salt Lake City Major.
So at the end of the day, despite seeding, yes, it may be comfortable
for some teams to get in a certain position.
But at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter.
You're going to have to beat everybody that comes through your way.
And at the end of the day, you don't want to be in a position where you get complacent just because of seating because this regular stage
We've heard teams and interviews talk about it a win in the best of one doesn't matter once it gets to best of threes
Especially in bracket play with the pressure. It's a completely different ball game
Well that ball game starts today with five fears and one of 30
But we have quite a slate of games ahead all the way to seeing SSG
Continue to find their form at the end of the day lacks. What are you looking forward to most?
Honestly, there's a lot of good games. It's hard to choose this one.
But if I had to choose one, I would say the wild card versus cloud nine one on the side of cloud nine
I do want to see a little more from them. We only got to see a little bit on their attacking half
That's the bigger picture for me is can they adapt? Can they make those transitions and then for the side of wild card?
We haven't seen the wild card that we even saw in previous stages
So hoping to see a little more out of them once we get to that games
Well, I'm very first. No, you got it all you know, that's all I was gonna say I couldn't agree more
I think that game is the one to watch out for
Well five fears and one of 30 that's going to be the opening matchup of the day and the stakes here are fairly important
It's not playoff in or out, but it's can five fears secure first place and can one of 30
Secure in upper bracket birth as we said this would lock them in to that second or third place position
Which they are hunting for because M80 and Shopify rebellion play later on today
But the story here we have to talk about it from yesterday lacks five fears
I mean they have continued to
Explode into the stage and to kick off here to start off the year a win
Dismantling Shopify rebellion. I mean we just cannot talk about this enough. No, absolutely not and they've really
Sparked a new resurgence in this team
There's completely new life from each and every single individual player one of the biggest things is how fantastic
Fantastic they've been on their adaptations. They're shot calling as we said with JJ and for us at the forefront of that
And whether it's them using the shields whether it's them just being able to play off one or the other everything
Systematically is coming together and it's not something that we've seen from any of these players in quite some time
Maybe on the side of forest being able to research that oxygen roster
But even then that had its length and the sky really is the limit with this team
I can't say that we've seen everything and I can't wait to once we get into best of threes that we can really see
things be tested because as we know best of ones it's about who's showing up but
best of threes really is it's a marathon it's not a sprint by any means
well we talk a lot about five years in the lens of attacking strength and
really them surprising us on that side of things one player who's been
leading that charge has been has been snake it in game captain jack has been
dominating at the start yeah no he absolutely has been and one thing that
I always can appreciate with snake is the simple fact is he had a very
short time in his T1 career when he did join that TSM roster, but after that no team really
gave him a shot. They didn't really even bat an eye at him, but he has continued to deliver,
continued to show some sort of effort to prove that he needs to be in T1, that he is of the
caliber to play at this level, and he is delivering each and every single day, which then
begs the question, what were these players on TSM? What did they see as they clearly there
was something there that put him on their radar and he's very much deserving of giving a highlight
here. This is hilarious. Production told us that they were cooking up something. We had no idea what it was going to be, so this is kind of funny just to play on his whole Captain Jack. But he really has been taking the reins of being the captain of this team. Not so much the IGL, but just as the player. I mean, 32 and 18. I believe he's the third highest rated overall in the league so far. And we don't get to hear much from him. We don't see too much from him on Twitter or socials. But realistically, in the game, we are seeing more than enough of what he's capable of and what he's continuing to bring.
And just a funny fact, when we talk about the individual prowess on this team, when we talk about how strong they are in attack,
it's funny because on this team, they've played 17 rounds on attack, winning 13 out of that 17.
But by no means is their objective to plant. They've only planted two times. So it's kind of funny to think about that in retrospect.
I mean, their main goal is when they have so many good shield players with force and JJ Blass,
and you have entry dynamics of Snake, Fens, their whole roster essentially being able to be so aggressive
behind those shields, it's redundant to be able to go for plants. If you're able to get your foot
in the door, find that opening kill, and you have the opportunity to plant, great. But you don't
need to focus on it, and that's where a lot of teams get caught up in it. Oh, the objective play,
but the meta of siege constantly is evolving, and we'll see fewer and fewer plants just because
it takes so much to be able to get through all of these layers of defense, the traps,
the electrocuted walls, the tuberous. So if you're bringing the shields, which
Five years has two of two players that can do it. You're pushing behind those shields. Once you burst through that wall and you're inside of the site
Why not just continue it? Especially if you have that advantage and that's the style of play that I love seeing from five years
Is they're not worried so much about the plant
They're worried about making sure that they're utilizing the shields as best as possible
And I think despite this by being a hot take there are one of the few teams that uses shields exceptionally
well not just by the shield players but by following up the shield players and
getting the trades based off that information. A lot of the times we'll
see people on Monty Blackbeard and they're just standing there in the wind
waiting and giving information but you're not doing anything with that
information. Five fears they act on it. One of 30 on the other hand five fears
opponents in this game as we talked about the importance here is making it
into the top part of the bracket. They do not want to worry about that
fourth seed. They can do that here with a win. But the story, Fox hasn't necessarily been about
dominance like it has been for five years, but it's been about growth and where this team started
to where they are now, especially for someone like Packer, who we've seen a lot of that growth from.
Oh, it's only been growth. And I mean, we've seen Packer and Bino on a team that has grinded
through the mud, going all the way up to be able to make it to invite and showing up their
best foot forward. But I think when it comes to Packers growth individually, he's never really
had a chance on a roster where it's been able to be his system. He's essentially, you know,
been on M80, Cloud9, but he's always with conflicting personalities. He's with other
IGLs that have been in their shoes for longer than he has. And now for the first time,
he has his own team that he's able to lead. He has a team that's going to rely on him
and be able to hold that torch going forward. And I think it shows in his individual play.
He's so much more confident getting his own individual kills
and he's leading the team alongside Mike W in the kill department.
And that just goes to show that now that he's finally having an area
where it's finally his, he's succeeding.
And on Mike W, for his first stage, I think it goes without saying
that we need to commend him with how good his individual performance is,
being that entry, a player that has been in the C2 game for a long time
to now rise up and be a breakout player
that everyone's gonna be having their eyes on
just because of his individual performance.
Everything for one of 30 is about keeping it close
and growth, and now they're in the next step.
They're in the phase of reaching consistency,
being able to finally beat some of these top teams
besides just keeping it close.
That's the next step that I hope
that we'll be able to see them take.
Well, like, let's talk maps here
because we've seen a lot of,
and I'd say surprising amount of fortress
out of five fears showing a lot of comfort there,
but here in this matchup,
They're going to take us to Lair.
Yeah, well, we haven't seen Lair from any one of these teams.
And it's an interesting pick just because, again,
no team has any vaude on these guys.
Maybe they've seen something in scrims.
Maybe that's why they're going to it.
But stylistically, I think this
does favor a team like Five Fears when
you think of their step-by-step and how they get
to that process and get to that end goal.
And that's where we highlight those shields,
being able to be a big spearhead on a map like Lair.
Where I am curious to see is how they play Lair from Five
fears is are they going to use a lot of vertical pressure?
Now granted, they are starting on their defensive tasks.
We know how strong they can be on their defense.
But this is also for the side of 1 of 30,
and especially in their match versus M80,
where they did get exploited on their attacks.
There was very little to no existence of adaptation.
It was really throwing bodies into situations,
sticking to the strat, not necessarily falling off of it,
finding where an opening is, finding
where they can eliminate a certain player to game
control.
So it really is going to be a big question mark for me
one of 30 of are we going to see that adaptability being taken place and then
for the side of five years on their attacking halves are we going to see
those shields be utilized so they can pinpoint each position and then have
never really get to that execute. Well five years looking to go undefeated in
kickoff groups. That'd be a heck of a start for a roster trying to recover
from the end of last year. We're gonna chance to see if they can do that
right now. We pass it over to links and XR Troika who've got the call
for the day.
the final day of the groups
will be Ali and myself and I
really cannot believe five
years success so far we've had
in the group stage. Obviously
Ali, you know, new team never
quite sure they'll be capable
of beyond the best of ones. But
what they have so far, I mean,
there's only one other team
that's flawless in the NA League
so far, and it's dark zero.
That's gotta say something.
It really does doesn't it? And
dark zero course a team
themselves that have made
changes ahead of kickoff here.
It looks like five phase
though. They have got their
and we're seeing a lot of success out of this relatively new roster.
Obviously, they have forest on that team and I did a bit of a chat with JJ ahead of kickoff
starting and it was interesting to sort of pick up on some of the plus points that he was feeling
from having someone as experienced as forest on the roster and you kind of get the impression
that it's just what that team needed. They just needed a little bit more
more experience. It's going to
then free up JJ because there
was times last stage links or at
least last year where we were
looking at it. It was kind of as
if JJ was trying to do everything
right. He was trying to be the
entry. He was trying to be the
hard support. He was trying to
get up most kills in the lobby
and he was trying to play the
most objective. And there's
not always the space for that.
You can't you can't be that
one man army. But it seems
now as though they've got
themselves far more well
spread in terms of where
people are picking up slack
and who is doing what. And
And then on the flip side, you look at one of 30, a team that is still, you know, well in with a chance here inside of kickoff.
Currently sitting third place in the group.
There isn't a chance that they will get top.
However, they could very well nick that second spot off MAD, depending on how the games go today.
And definitely throughout the group stage, the desk highlighted, but the spotlight for this team is at least on an individual basis.
individual basis is still going to be on Packer and Mike W Packer, who the
desk mentioned, of course, you know, kind of in and out of the NAL on various
teams, various iterations over the past couple of years, but always still kind of
finding a way into the game, which I think we is very commendable. And I
certainly appreciate somebody who's been casting Packer for a while. But I mean,
as the group stage comes to a close, I mean, we got to talk about Mike W, a
player that as I think was Fox mentioned, has been grinding in tier two
for a while now and has always been quite impressive. But as we've made
in the first half of the
season, but he's not going to
be able to make it into her as
he's made it into the tier one
scene. He's only continued to
impress for this level. And so
while one of 30 might not be
able to make that, you know,
top spot, even if they lose to
five years today, I think in
particular Packard Mike W
continuing to look and make
names for themselves on an
individual basis. But of course,
alongside the rest of their
team, trying to find a lot of
holistic success. Be know in
particular as you're looking
at right now. Try to sort of
bounce back from some of the
woes that we've seen in the
you know, it's not like you're
not going to be able to get
into the zone. You're only one
team gets eliminated, but for a
new team. Can't get about that.
Can't get mad that you'll have
a seat at the table. That's it.
And that's all it's about
getting a seat at the table. Not
sure why we've got a little bit
of a tech pause ahead of this
game. Unfortunately, I do
apologize for that. Um looks
as other players are going to
be getting themselves into the
zone. This meditating links
is becoming more and more
popular. A little bit of
mindfulness, a little bit of
concentrating on the breathing.
I think I may be wrong in
the game. You know, it's
been a long time since we've
brought into SSG back in the
day, and then as obviously as
players have come and gone and
there's friends that you know
cross pollinate between teams. It
sort of leaks across everywhere,
doesn't it? But we're seeing it
be more and more common nowadays
for these players and never a
bad idea to get yourself in the
right mindset ahead of the
game. Certainly for five
years. I wouldn't say that
the pressures on here
tonight, but there's the
feeling that they are maybe at
I mean, I think it's a bit
of a poor time to turn the
turn the foot off the gas at
this point because you know,
why not go flawless? Why not
really stamp down that
authority? You still have a very
very new team with in all
reality. So you need to get
those reps him. And amount of
the pressure might just be
more hunger, right? I mean,
especially JJ, somebody who's
been I would say probably
one of the hungriest
competitors we've seen in
the N. A League over the
past few years. I think
they don't guarantee themselves that first place spot.
But JJ, somebody who, and I think, built a culture in his team that especially alongside veteran talent like Forest,
they know they can achieve it and they will not feel pressure that they have to,
but I think they'll feel a strong desire that they want to, that they expect that of themselves and that they want to be on top.
And I think they just, it's just a love of the game that is really quite admirable.
Also, talking again about JJ and going back to your point about the veteran presence on five years,
years. Something about JJ I've always found interesting and quite compelling is, uh, while he is
a bit of a trash talker, very confident in self, very assertive, has also on many times also
kind of shown a bit of a humble side, willing to kind of take advice from veteran players,
whether it's things that Gabe said or that Fox has said or other players has said.
It's a very good balance of both, like, I would say a healthy level of ego and confidence,
while also, you know, not walking around being rude or being inconsiderate of what
people who have been around a
long time, have to say, so
something I'm quite a bit about
JJ and something I imagine that
will be quite good for not only
him, but the rest of five years
with the veteran presence of
forest and to snake as well to
a lesser extent. But as we get
into the game, it is layer for
our first map a very
labyrinthian very step by step
map and one that I will say
on paper as the desk kind of
alluded to seems to favor five
years just a little bit. I
think you're right. I think
that like to get the plant down. They are a team that is very proficient on the attack
and that is definitely going to help you on a map like layer. It's not that it's particularly
difficult to attack into, but as we know, attack is often where teams tend to struggle a little bit.
So being the decider inside of this matchup, again, very difficult to say who it prefers
and what sort of map preference rank it kind of has just because we're so
brand new into kickoff and it would be unfair to to drag in a lot of statistics from sort of pre-si
given that neither of these two teams were there. So you've got to kind of give them the benefit
of the doubt really that they're heading up onto this place because that is where they want to be.
But certainly as you say, Lynx, the edge has to be given toward five fears moving into it. But
we will see as our bands start to float in now, what sort of a layer we are going to be
dealing with here today, but always at top floor is going to be the staging round for
our first round. We head into mask and R6 room. We've got one of 30 starting off there,
the base on the attack here. I've got a couple of shields left open to play around with as
well. The Deimos and the Ying both removed by five fears. It does leave some options
open and Bino, at least for the time being, is going to be hovering on that
blitz.
It's also something to keep in mind if you say similar pattern repeat on 5 years attack.
I think just generally we got two teams that are not, you know, maybe not always going to
bring out the shields, but certainly eager to if they have the option available and as
one of 30 starting on the attacking side, Bino will bring that blitz for the first round.
You never see that sends in to play all ethically, you have a pretty good idea
where this attack is going to be coming from.
You don't really throw those ROU, well, I was going to say you don't really throw
those ROU projectors over by the single window, but I guess you kind of do.
Usually we see it more on that offside right you know cover up the doorway allow you to cross and try to go for a plant over on the
operation side of the map
Hacker's got himself a little option for later there as he can move through and start to make a little bit of this reverse vertical
You can have to get a bit of control of what's going on inside of operations room with the tick the drones working at his feet as well
Likely gonna be be no job to be a little bit of a beachhead here in this attack
and already lost by just sending out some of those ROU projectors.
The other is control over on-site of bridge and well with that being open
it pretty safely moves his way down.
I could probably get the most difficult job in this setup
because kind of got to watch his own flank bait out a little bit
and obviously be in the right place at the right time for the skeleton key action.
There is going to be a little lurker.
Kind of glossed over this so far, but Davera for round one is a very bold move.
As is this hold inside of Ops from Rival.
He's gonna get the kitchen sink thrown to him shortly.
We know there's a blitz on the side,
so you kinda gotta be expecting that.
Gotta be expecting that.
And of course, a packer on the field with this buck
and the skeleton key.
Always gotta be worried that the floorboards
might get ripped open somewhere around here
when you're general with SEMV.
In goes that blitz, blinded, and Rival might unfortunately
pay, no, not at all whatsoever.
Bino charges in and gets his head taken clean off
behind that Kiba.
Kind of amazed that a one-for-one happened there
and Rival didn't just go down with not a single ounce of fight.
Oh, but there's that cavera spotted at the worst possible time.
Good for an interrogation.
Snake will take down Packer, and now five fears, putting 1 of 30
completely outside the map.
Silo's stuck fully aware of what might
be on the opposite side of that doorway.
And it seems at this point that Hustblesburg
gets a nice lineup for himself somewhere
inside of the building.
That single interrogation might
have been the end of 1 of 30 in round one.
Rolling out the whole you
I mean, I think we're going to
be able to do that. Yeah.
Okay.
Chalk it chalk in the first
round, but additionally, I mean,
just. Starting off with the
cavera is a more about
sending a message than
anything. Not exactly the
craziest strategy. Well, that
is a crazy strategic choice.
setting a good tone for what you want one of 30 would be thinking going into the rest of this half.
It's one thing to you know hear a calf pistol or spot her on a drone. It's another thing to get
interrogated within the first round. Now one of 30 going forward as they conduct these Rome clears
are going to be a little less certain. You know if you spot her great you'll be worried in that
round but after you were on the you know the receiving end of that and it didn't cost you
the whole round but it certainly didn't help facilitate any kind of 2v4. It's now something
that we'll have to consider and be worried about going into the rest of this half.
Oops. With that all said and done, we're going down to basement.
On second floor site, one for the defense. Typical rotation will be the top.
Then the basement, then, I was about to say one of the middle sites,
but it always ends up being bunk and briefing, and they grow pretty well used to that at this point.
point. Certainly, probably, probably our favorite site. I feel like, I feel like it's our favorite
site and you can tell because we always have to acknowledge how much we want to see the
attack win on it. Cause I feel like in terms of the rounds we've casted, it's gotta be
like 80, 85% defense. Nothing, period. But at least what we've casted is like 80, 85%
defensive win rate.
It's highlighted by Fox for those entry statistics.
The entry, as important as the on-layers is anywhere else.
Wallace getting caught out on the drone there nice and early on.
The dog can be called coming in as well, but it doesn't really anyone to take advantage
of the solace instead.
It's going to be the Scopus that falls early.
Not the best loss really there for this real heavy extension.
Again, it really feels as though 5Fs are almost sending a bit of a message because
you can play one guy on a loose roam and just anchor the site here for this basement
defense quite easily.
They have gone for a hefty extension and they've given a lot of problems here
for 1 of 30 to solve, so much so that we've got Packer all the way on that top floor, opening up with the skeleton key.
Next, I just seen Snake and Mike W dodging the first flash, and ooh, just dodging the second as well.
But Mike W, look at the discipline on that.
Nose Packers up top calls him in instead and completely just evades the entire situation, really smart coordination by 1 of 30.
Snake was beginning to cause that doka-beast and issues, they maintained their advantage despite the loss of a ram.
Mike W knows there might be more at play.
Forest, face checking down Sky Ridge, but we'll fall back.
Shotgun not exactly the best weapon for an engagement, about 20 to 30 feet away.
But also, sort of a good position for this late round.
Oh no, it actually does not help the Shotgun, has the Scorpion excusing.
But still, with all that ammunition, you want as many chances to contest that staircase by the site as long as possible.
possible. There's yellow stairs, whether it's over by Submarine. If something force has to consider,
especially the 3v4, you need to find opportunities to win that advantage back.
Absolutely, and I'm not sure if the vert is gonna be enough here.
See, the Packers made a lot. The time was always gonna be a factor. Those Vulcan canisters have
been popped. Packer popped them in self. At least two threw that vert. Packers can hold on here,
and that first kill is gonna be crucial to enable that. And now leveled it up 3-3 with
with only 18 on the clock.
The Vols were going in, but Packer
doing the most for 1 of 30 in this round.
Finally another gets on the board,
and can JJ get that 1v3?
He gets two bites of the apple, and unfortunately somehow
misses both options.
So 1 of 30 will answer back five years round
with one of their own.
It's a tie game early on.
A bit windy down there inside of Toxin.
Well, there's a bit of a breeze potentially.
Well, JJ, you don't often see him fluffing those ones.
I really thought that time was gonna do the work really four or five fears there.
They had a great position.
That first kill to bring it down to a three versus three.
So crucial.
There's that opener.
The great view of that there, back of making that really work for him.
The final kill coming in there as well.
Bruce, they can work under the clock as well, Link.
One of thirty.
not scared about the, not really going to be scared, the professional team, but not slowed down too much
by the fact that they basically had to do a full map play for that. They really had to work for
every single inch of map control that they gained, and it was the right play. Starting down from the
top and losing the ram early, obviously that is just further going to slow you down at that
point in the proceedings, so quite a good bounce back, a real good recovery round there from 1 of
And as you've put it, we've hand over toward that mid-flot.
Pretty much the default rotation of this point as, you know, the player's been in the game for about two and a half years now.
Tendencies are going to crystallize and solidify at this point in the map's life cycle.
The exact defenses don't always line up.
For example, to make late solos last round, solos often operated when they see defending this site above,
Also, in this case, going for a bit more, I would say, harder of utility.
The black mirrors, the keep of areas, seem to be at least in round one when they were
also defending our six room.
The strategy that Five Years Preferred, Seed of Preferred going down early as well, unfortunately,
has the second time in a row that Five Years Have moved into the 4v5 much earlier than
I imagine they actually wanted.
I believe I was about to say, was that the mirror on the site?
Because if that was, no, it's next down below as well.
Though, a bit farther away.
You don't have anybody exactly on the side right now, which is something that 5 years old will have to worry about.
You can defend it from above, but...
You'd like to have at least one person in that side.
Ooh, remember, look at this, Rival just stuck behind the desk.
I thought that maybe we'd have a bit of a chiller moment, but no, behind these Kiva barriers, he will go down eventually.
Takes quite a few bodies with him.
It's an advantage, of course, for 1 of 30, but with Bino stuck behind the desk.
That's an easy kill for Snake to get.
Round by Perry will end on this second floor as the attack is a mirror window used against the defense
Don't know how Packers come in at that sort of luck, but I don't think he'll question it all that much
Snake now
Finds himself in the 1v2
Rotated upstairs up rocket from a prone position down below
Not a single remaining player inside the site while all the bees are gone
That don't be caused going to give away the Goya's position. You better hope that sound doesn't travel far
On the opposite side, it's possible that one goes in for the kill, taking shelter by a
Nikibibarrier, Snake opts to retreat.
The attack moves into the pinch.
Impact through the floor, or on the floor, will not give him any angle for it.
Now Snake, maybe for just a brief moment, has some time to rest.
Oh, this is so winnable.
Depends on how the burst's being held.
It looks like he can get around here.
I could well get this one down, but it's still 2-1 vs. 1, essentially.
The flashbang goes out. Ooh!
Forcibly Packer sprinting right in, didn't hear him around the corner.
Flashbang as well, likely completely hiding the audio.
And so now Packer, excuse me, Snake rotates up after taking on Packer for the 1v1.
Mike W up above, but with the post plan we'll have the time advantage.
Likely he's the angle as well, unless the focus on one position with the cover of the desk.
Oh! Snake not even looking!
Just playing it patient, perfect read of the situation by Mike W and one of 30.
I'm not sure that might be a single clue that he'd rotated upstairs there by the way.
I feel like Snake kind of gave the game away when he sort of tap-fired past the mirror window.
At that point I was thinking, I kind of feel like he had the element of surprise.
But then he's just got the 50-50, it's like you check left or do you check right.
You've got no info, you've got no time.
It's off around a good attempt. Got it down to a 1v1, a 1 of 30.
Again, good stabilization. We've seen them.
We've seen them these aren't rounds that you necessarily should be losing but they're not rounds that are guaranteed to be one and so far the two rounds that one of 30 have got are the latter.
They are not guaranteed rounds you've still got to play very well in the moment to pull that off and to make it work.
Back upstairs now to the primary choice bombsite. This is where five years were successful inside of round one.
In part, if I'm being honest, there was a little bit of de-sync when taking through ops and that de-sync caused the blitz to be lost really early on.
That was going to be a really big pushing point of this attack. I'd like to see just a little bit more teamwork, a bit more synergy if they're going to go for that same style of ops push which it looks like they may be doing
doing or they may have a re there is a clash being played because it looks as
though we're seeing a bit of a six-pick after you're doing his best to try and
hide that whether one of 30 have sniffed it out or just had a punch looks like
they're gonna go for something slightly different. It's also entirely possible
that giving up they've shown some kind of let's play previously they just
wanted to move away could be a hunch as you said could be they saw the
clash by the way won't be bothered bringing this round no shield presence
whatsoever. Given the lack of any crazy execute utility, of course, Ying being banned, Grim
not being brought in this round, and the Dokubi, but both the Dokubi and the Demos have been banned.
You don't get a lot of the information, of course, that you would like, but you also don't have
a lot of utility in this lineup to say, like, flood in through the single window of my bathroom.
There's a lot of chaos on the site from a lot of different angles. It still seems to be that
that they might do something slower, whether it's a plant over on the offside or whether
it's a plant from somewhere else. It appears to be that while the exact components have
changed, the overall methodology by one authority might be somewhat similar to the one we saw
in the first round, given that, I mean, most you've gots a capitao and a sentence
and those aren't exactly the most explosive operators.
Come on the capitao, it's time for me explosive.
You're not playing with the right capitaos.
I thought it was a great pun, I didn't even go getting on.
Not as slow as some though.
You sure?
Very good to force JJ after.
There's one way to deal with the clash is to deny the area that the clash brings to try and hold.
Captile Fire Arrow is one of the best tools on the attack to do that job.
That's what JJ's been pushed all the way back. That now allows the wall to be open.
You can't need to retake it. Obviously, he's playing Clash, he's got a shield.
You can try and contest down this corridor, but to what end?
You don't want to push too far up and then something like,
this happened where you've got players already at the top of the rock stairs and inside a bathroom.
Just be having an unfortunate prefire.
Packer knows you can't land that shot.
The shield on the way. Not much you can do at that point.
Great information on the Solotron Scanner though.
Positions of four different players spotted.
How useful is that? You know four of them are on site,
but given that we're approaching a minute, the site's upstairs.
You just saw two of them.
It's nice to know. It's nice to get that confirmation,
but a lot of it I imagine Packer had already suspected.
And look at how 1 of 30 are pushing at the moment.
Predominately from ops.
This is going to allow the defense to concentrate all of their attention on this one direction.
I mean this is great information gathered by JJ spotting two to three different players right now.
And that's where not only the thrust of the attack is coming from, that's the only position the attack is coming from.
Mike W might be able to throw something in the mix, does the ROU projectors go through.
Packer pushes deep trying to take down JJ and he just gets burnt in the process.
Dino off the back of it has made it pretty far, but limits of Gershmot thrown in the corner has forced him out.
out and the smokes on top that put to 1 HP in the 15 seconds remaining and any kind of
lurk by mind W has not paid off so far. It's a 4v5, make it a 3v5 that 1 of 30 seem to
have zero hope at escaping from. The silo, the only one remaining, there's a quick fight
back from 5 years and nobody can get a lead on Lair.
I'm not sure if I've ever seen a Grishamot mine used in that fashion before. Cast your
mind-back and I know that you're gonna remember in this sort of stuff yeah I am I
do not remember seeing that specifically to deny the plant specifically to deny
the plant hmm that's actually a good question like I've seen Gershmot's
thrown actively like that quite a few times specifically to deny the plant I
feel like it's happened but I will say I have not as soon as I saw everything
As I was watching everything that happened, my instinct was instantly like, oh, it's a yokai.
And then obviously, secondary, I'm like straight down to the bottom right, and I'm looking, I'm thinking, no, there isn't enough though.
And then you see the yellow, and you make the connection, and all that happens in a very short amount of time.
But, yeah, just, I don't know, the mind boggled. Brilliant Grishmont mind.
Great play on JJ with the clash as well. I think he danced around that perfectly.
Lost control of what's very early, but didn't try and didn't hold onto it.
just sort of say, yeah, you know what, let's let it go.
We can play a little bit deeper.
We can just play a little bit further back
and everyone really holding their ground well.
By phase though, they are gonna have to do better
than only winning the top four.
They're gonna get a favorable split
or even an equal split off-layer.
They're going to need to win somewhere else
and we go downstairs for the second time.
Of course, when we saw this in round number two,
it was a successful round for one of 30.
A very different lineup.
You think about the lineup last time we saw this site,
We had Romans galore, we had solids, we had Scopos,
everyone was coming out to play.
And now we've transitioned.
We've got a Tachanka, we've got a Pulse,
we've got a Goyo, and it's army, and a smoke.
It is a very much solid stay on the site bunker lineup
that we are seeing now.
It's in stark contrast to what we saw in round number two.
I think that five fears are hoping
that this will stand them in slightly better step.
It's also representative of giving some respect over the 1 of 31.
They have had that success.
It's when they're having these roams that they had the ability to get an early pick on somebody.
We saw that not only on this round with rival going down early, but also on the Bunk's Briefing Defense.
So I'm going to pick on a JJ.
So I think it's recognizing that reality and adjusting to it.
It's also quite nice to get information.
Boister also I was about to say look at this hurriedly pressure not only by the
Grim but Packer as well getting a direct line onto the poles and basically
getting him pinched. As JJ was pushed deep onto that doorway Fenz also spotted
from above. They might have struggled to take down that consolidated sight presence
on second floor but on basement with all this verticality and the myriad of
angles. One of them having quite a bit of success and they appear to have
five years locked down early on.
I think it's a little hard just holding now and squeezing in the right places.
Golly Billards has made the vert.
My W upstairs with Sledge.
And he comes to blows right now though.
And that ability has very quickly been ripped away from the mystery.
Quick kills come in from five years.
Look at this endurance from five or one.
Yeah, five years at the moment.
One of 30 on the other hand.
As Bino is pushing through, a rock around the river at the moment trying to keep his standing.
He's made his claim inside of the site, and the force down, it's a 2v2, and health advantage.
Not exactly equal, but you couldn't have worse.
Bino with it all to do, cover Silo, gets the plant down successfully.
Now able to move into your post plant positions, and time spent.
Five-five fears to pick Forest back up, putting the odds back in their favor, and that he shemikas as well.
Silo makes one wrong step. That's the end of him.
If they land in Bino's corner, he'll have to move like in front of three different guns.
That's Tatchanka lines up in his army too.
It's a good flick with the 417 and maybe just one more line with the TCSG.
Talk about Mike, W and Packer, but Bino a 4K to keep 1 of 30 in the lead.
Big round there from Bino.
They were just lining up for him one after another.
You've got a question. A plant going down with that much denial. You've got this chanker.
As soon as this kill came through, from the snake upstairs, I was like, this is golden.
We're all good.
I was like, this chanker gets down, but you know what, you should just never be allowed
to play inside of the site like that.
quite literally waddling in trying to do so much space and value you're gonna be
playing the bunker self you've got to you've got to have it on lock you need to
have some bar by you need to have some looses you need to have a way of stopping
players that can just see a gap and try and exploit it able to walk all over you
one of they already done a really good job here on like getting three rounds
don't forget last time we saw this bit offside they also got the plant down there
there's two vases one came down to a 1v1 it was very handily one
Mike W the last player alive inside of round three but everyone's held their
own so far on this one of 30 side
It's still the impressive thing about the NAL so far, in five years obviously, no need to talk about that, but one of thirties had some good moments, he's thinking big loss, had some impressive moments.
It's been a very competitive season and not really just referring to the standings, I mean the quality of play has been pretty good so far at the beginning and it's only the group stage.
One of thirties showcasing some good moments not only clearing out those roams, but I think being right there to some good individual play as well.
Great calling to make that move and commit to the push, even though things hadn't gone well.
Certainly caught five years off guard.
But useful for attacking bunk briefing as well.
Attacking teams can so often get caught up on that roam if it's only half cleared out, if there's still some vertical angles.
And sometimes you just need that confidence to commit.
But willpower to push through might just make the difference.
At least with all the snake moving around the middle floor.
and one of their anti-whole opening up some new angles, clearly taking things slow and
there's a lot more work to be done.
A little bit of a slower opening to this round number six.
Getting that entry kill coming in a little bit earlier than now, but there's still very
much top floor presence upstairs and I don't think that an ROU projector is alone so we
can all of that top floor need to try and deal with some of that vertical play
I might be with great kill downs JJ JJ honestly just getting a bit unfortunate, but also maybe doing a bit too much
Moment but snake creeping around the corner spots the gun but packer ready for it one of 30 in a great spot to close
The sound four to two now is what do you know?
Just one sends even with Warden and play fence kept so well at bay
They just cast skate over both top and middle floor
four to two for one of 30
Snatching any hopes of a leadaway
And I mean, at this point, what else is there to say?
If you want to throw it over at the desk, I'm sure there'll be a lot of thoughts in
this surprising lead.
Thanks, guys.
This one's been interesting so far, and 4-2 at the half, 1 of 30 holding a little bit
of an advantage lacks one of you, like, so far from both of these teams.
I like what I've seen from both of these teams. Both of these teams have really been adapting well, switching between a site, switching between the operators to adjust, but more so on the side of 1 of 30.
What I really enjoy is they went with more standard bands for their attacking half, getting rid of the walls now, getting rid of the information and the pain that Mira can bring and trying to take, which is why you can see their
execute going into site is that much easier but then also on the two basement rounds in particular
Beano's call in the first round of this that you're even seeing right here they get aggressive
they don't have any smokes to cover line of sight they just brought vert pressure they brought a
lot of flashes to take that site but then the second time we would see it Beano plays the
operator of twitch bringing on smokes being able to allow cover off cover off line of sites
and then gets a huge 4k so it really is showing that Beano is doing a an exceptional job in
in that IGL role, being able to adjust his team,
being able to adjust the operators
to make these executes look really well.
And then for the side of Five Fears, just overall,
they got to close things down a little tighter.
But again, it really is playing into those operator bands.
Yeah, I think for Five Fears,
it's a little bit of over-aggression,
over-confidence on defense, or on the favorable side,
but now you're down two, four.
And one of 30 getting four attacking rounds
is a very difficult task, and they did their job.
Now, we've seen the efforts that they've made
to adapting inside of the server.
The one thing is, have they done their due diligence?
They're sticking to very neutral bands,
getting rid of things that will hinder them.
I'm hoping that they watch their match
of Five Fears versus SR yesterday
because I'm hoping to see the shield bands taken out
because we saw what SR did.
Leaving three shields in the hands of Five Fears
gives them so much versatility in how they wanna play.
They have a different playstyle
with each shield that they bring.
So this is what I'm gonna be looking forward to most
is if one of 30 is on top of their toes,
They're going to make sure that they're taking away Five Fears' lifeline, and it will be a good testament to see what Five Fears is going to adapt to if they don't have all of the shields at their availability.
Five Fears, they're now in a position that they haven't found themselves often, needing to make a bit of a mid-game comeback here if they want to stay undefeated.
Lynx, Ali, back to you.
Well, I mean, definitely surprising position for Five Fears, but at the same time, I feel like at least in the couple games that we've cast at Ali,
I mean, I mean, you've got to
have the confidence in them,
right? They've got that record
for a reason at the moment,
albeit it's from the fairly
small sample size. It's groups
for kickoff and kickoff is
something that we've never
really done before. Not that
that changes the analogy of
it or anything, but they're
only, you know, they're
probably not going to be
off is something that we've never really done before. Not that that changes the analogy
of it or anything, but there are only, you know, five other teams in the group, you're
only going to play four other teams. Again, it's a small sample size, it's not like you
play in the whole of the NAL and you've got those similar statistics. But you can only
give or you can only judge off what we've already seen. And for five fears, we know
that they're behind, and they are behind it by two rounds, and they've got to try
and get the job done here. And now they've given themselves a little bit of flexibility
In terms of getting the breach open, I'm only going to be dealing with a bandit and a tube brow at the worst.
And this round at least, it is only going to be the bandit.
Cade and the mirror have both been taken off.
Of course Cade fantastic for that walled now mirror.
Again, can be used more than a walled denial tool.
As well as of course those black mirrors that give you some brilliant lines of sight.
It's an interesting one for me that is going to be picked straight away by Beano.
It's going to be that to Chanke.
Now, we know from Firefares attacks so far that they're not really too interested in getting the plant down.
It's a 2 out of 14 successful attacking rounds that are actually getting the plant down, so, you know, that's not going to be there bread and butter, it's maybe not going to be there play style all the time.
And this chancre is definitely going to hinder that in this first opening round as well.
Speaking of hindering, like W doing the classics, I'm gonna sit on the rocket stairs and hope
they don't notice. If nobody does, they'd be the person walking to that doorway without
having to reloading. Snake, playing Snake, Crippin dude, the depths of layer at the
moment. Opening pick doesn't come from any of the players I just mentioned. Fens
finds Vulsfer from a window. Kept just so many crossing bathroom and one of
three don't exactly have a whole lot going for them at the moment. Sights intact,
sure. Five years are pretty much most of the day's desire and we're rapidly
pushing them back from rocket, back from ops. One of 30 can take their fallback
positions. They've still got some ability to contest with these shotguns.
The five years team would be getting everything for the moment. We've
still got half the round to go.
The pacing is pretty good, isn't it?
They've set themselves up quite nicely here,
but he's just started to go out with his C4 swing and this from Packett.
It looks like he's a bit of a whirlwind.
He doesn't really know which way to turn.
He's got players below and he's conscious that there's a walk-up rocket on the car
that's here that's eventually going to get taken out there by Fens.
Captain Jack, you can just concentrate on naveling this wall to be opened.
should be able to destroy these batteries here.
Just some grey patients there and picks the kill-all style.
Oh, that was a gimme!
It seems like nothing one-a-thirty can do right right now.
Even with the right setup, I mean,
smoke canisters, tachanka, hard bridge denial,
boredom, just to be safe.
On paper, seems like everything you got in five years
have maneuvered this situation perfectly from the vertical,
and also on the same floor.
So my W, already all the stocks of cancer is gone,
solely resting on those shunikas to delay any remaining time
against this incoming five of years push.
Spots one in, force isn't leaving, any stone unturned.
Nothing unchecked at the moment, five fears.
Couldn't have had it any easier in the first foray on the attack.
I mean, did they have it easier or did they come up with a good strategy?
And it's a genuine question because they didn't try to over extend they didn't try and do too much everybody did their job really well on their own
Maybe you've just got to give him give him a nod and say, you know well played
I was particularly impressed with with the prowess from underneath. I think that snake played it beautifully
It was really no nothing wrong with the way that he played that because this is such a difficult position difficult role
Obviously gets the kill that's great
But if you look at what else he was able to achieve,
he baited out a lot of toxic bait casters
because Paco is really worried about someone
just walking up rocket stairs
as the Blitz is going to be pushing in through Ops side.
And because it was all double reinforced,
we had Breach reinforced,
and then we had the two walls facing Ops reinforced.
That then makes it very difficult to hold Ops
because as soon as you've lost presence
in and around Ops door and Ops breach wall,
what can you do?
You've got to go because there's,
you're a player inside of sight, can't cover you,
It can't cover you through the wall because it's double reinforced so it makes it so difficult then to hold up
So pack or a really difficult job there
I think it was made even more difficult by the position that snake held below
It's always nice when we have things to talk about and compliment about the attacking side
I feel like complimenting a good defense is always a little bit boring
Unless you see something like to be fair like a Grish Moth thrown at an I a plant. That's always cool
But getting to look at all those different positions that you just mentioned, snake from below,
a lot of the pressure from the horizontal as well,
makes for a much more interesting game in five years,
giving us something quite good to talk about in the first round.
Of course, if you're a 1 of 30 fan hoping they might be able to make a run out of that lower bracket,
of course, not there yet,
but hoping that 1 of 30 can get a second chance once they're in the bracket phase of kickoff.
One likes to see attacks like that that are well coordinated, well thought out,
Well thought out as you said Ali that are emblematic of quite a good strategy early utility usage by Mike W. Hearing forest on that blitz
But beyond that
Looks like five years of just limit testing one of 30 of the moments seen what parts might be weakest whether it's on the site
Or on the realm a lot of presence around the map for five years at the moment just seeing what they might get away with I
Really want to see where this Rora is deployed
JJ gonna be rocking that
with the composition that they've got, there's good potential to really sort of
lay waste to some of these defenders, Volsper taking a little bit of damage there,
fends, but too deterred by the of what is happening here, hello!
He's having a dance! He's dancing on yellow stairs with Volsper.
I do you. I'm gonna find one onto Snake as well just to drag it back to evens.
The players now from 1 of 30, they can try and drop off back to site, I don't know, minute
15 left?
Pretty much full map control, as we can see Forest, he's just happily running here and
there upstairs.
He has the diffuser by the way, he used to do this a lot and it's stressing me out,
it's going to rot.
If he had lost the diffuser there, that would have been an entirely different round.
But as it stands, he does still have it.
These walking packs are going to start to be very crucial for 1 of 30.
I'm going to soak up a lot of this remain in 50 seconds.
Yeah, I was about to say it's worth acknowledging that it's only a 4v4 and a lot of the existing utility for one of 30 is quite strong.
Out of top two canisters, but might still be a yokai in the wind, could still be some Vulcan packs as well as C4.
The packer could throw it at any given time. Four strokes down and not alone.
Thankfully, I got worried for a very brief moment, but Rival hops down with the bearing 9, facilitates that entry very nice.
And the 4v2, he's still got bodies to spare, but a distinct advantage for Five Fears.
Might even finish the round before Forrest gets that planned down.
Yes indeed, all tied up in the blink of an eye.
Two attacks go very well for Five Fears and they have a strategy that can compete with one of 30.
That much is certain.
Can we start our petition for listeners?
I just feel like we need to be in the end of round listening for Five Fears.
Because we flick onto JJ's camera and he's always screaming.
And I just want to know what I just want to know what it's like. I want to know what it's like
So I have someone that's that passionate
Iron players don't do that. That's teammates don't scream when we're in the round
Here it is
I think I think the best part is that force was below him like how did for like how did for us dead?
On the bottom of the stairs. Yeah, I don't even know
You know, it's good we could hold your headset, Mike.
Yeah, you had to brace it.
You had to brace your own microphone.
It's like that scene in The Simpsons when the sound wave goes across town.
Whenever J.F.D. starts yelling, it just blows his mic physically all the way back.
Five seconds to go.
to go. Hey, so you're looking for more? Oh, absolutely. Attackers are moving to the
east of the box. Four four? Who'd have thought it?
All leveled up after two rounds in a row from five fears here, and they are not slowing
it, showing any sign of slowing down. Both teams still have their tactical time out
here as well by the way. We've only seen the mid game timeout used. I mean it's
getting used to every game isn't it it's it's new standard both teams are still
with an opportunity to reset for a brief time and I've got a feeling if this
round doesn't go the way of one of 30 now probably a good time for them to use it
I probably agree on it oh Silo
painfully close on that one, painfully if the bandit down to one HP.
I was gonna say, it would be a good time for time on incoming if this pace continues.
But an early lead by five years, not in terms of the man count, but in terms of the control,
evading that bandit trick entirely. Also, with no impact grenades on the board,
no opportunity to destroy those solid charges.
So that breach is open, full, and they attack and turn their attention
their attention to what will be quite a difficult portion of the set up is to chomp it and smoke
combo completely controlling the access around green stairs. That's the mind that five years
will have to worry about because at least on the outside for the moment, they might
be able to get some pressure later but there's at least a bit more light work they have to
do.
I just think at which five phase of moving for me that's impressive at the moment.
That wall was open in rapid time. So I was on one HP and they're just free to
to do whatever. That's a little bit sloppy potentially.
They're gonna look to try and route out anyone in and around that desk area but with this
army still being available, you can make yourself a very nice little fortress around there.
Glaz will deal with those cube virecades nicely with the DMR, and a C4 from Sylo.
Could this be a little contribution from the 1HB player?
C4's already ripped so there's potential that Snake hasn't really heard that.
It's a horrible angle to challenge on to maybe gonna wait for a little bit of support here
Kill start to come
Going five years way one of 30s woes continue on their defensive side
Just make it a perfect position to cover this plank from JJ not even an ounce of fight from one of 30
Not to say that they lack in spirit just in terms of their options, but smoke grenades down
You know not a good position to lay down any fire on the actual field inside of the side
made hell of a good free fire by
Volsper now maybe something maybe
just a little bit. That's a difficult
angle for both parties involved
to cover that diffuse plant
going prone on the floor especially
with somebody looking through the doorway
but force rotating back and forth between the
maverick hole and now asserting his presence
outside of ops. It is
a full return to form four or five
fears and at the pace they're setting
seems like there might be two 4-0 teams
in the NA League by the time this match
that. I think it's going to
be a good job. It's done.
Quite possibly. A really good
attacking round there from five
years. You've got to credit
them because they just bring
the right tools for the job.
You know, it's just like the
old saying every tools are
hammer. The five fears are
like the entire opposite of
that. They recognize that
there is a tool for every job.
And in that last round, it
the first time. They just
went through the first time
and then just work through
previously when we saw them
attack it, they played the
blitz. They tried to move a
little bit quicker. They
moved in through option and
there was a different element.
There was different flair.
There was some great vertical
play in the previous attempt
of that site. This time it
was just entirely flipped on its
head, both on their own merit.
Very good attacking rounds,
and it's just about knowing
when to play one and when to
play the other. Chalk all in
10 out of 10 and as predicted
links, we have a tactical
that's what we're going to do
in the next round. We're going
to have a lot of people running
away. They've shown signs of
life granted, but we haven't
necessarily seen a very close
round here. The attacks from
five years have been pretty
decisive. I mean, pretty
decisive is I mean, it's
accurate, but that feels like
the half of the times. I mean
what first round they won
four people remaining. Second
with extremely good momentum all the control they wanted in their win
conditions for that round it has been an excellent show form for five years and
you got to give one of 30 credit I think they had a lot of similar success on
their attacking sides I think especially when five years were roaming
one of 30 were very good at problem solving and figuring out what the win
conditions were and what they needed to do to succeed but I think anybody
would be stunned by the kind of momentum five years have gathered in
the past three rounds I think it's a sensible time for attack time I'm
I'm excited to see what they'll do differently.
For the first go,
at least first go post-timeout,
we'll see a Bunk's briefing defense,
as we saw from Five Fears on their defensive side as well.
And it will involve that solos that we mentioned.
So a bit of dueling methodologies between these two teams.
Five Fears much more inclined to bring the Mira
and the Izami.
There's one authority bringing that solos in.
We'll still have plenty of verticality,
but they're definitely playing a bit more
of a flexible lineup.
We'll still defend in the same position.
JJ, we're going to be rocking on to the Monty now, we've seen them use both the Monty and
the Blitz.
The Blackbeard has been removed or was removed as one of the first bannies, they have a really
good idea of how to play the different shields and the different strengths and weaknesses.
It's a place we'll see, typically forest if it's a Monty, more often than not a
JJ job.
It's going to be used as more of a human drone element of this attacking push already managing
to force Packard down these yellow stairs.
It's the first oak we call rings in.
Packard does need to be cautious.
You didn't know exactly the status here inside of Warehouse at the moment.
But it's nice to slip himself through.
JJ just a little bit waxed there maybe on catching Packard on that rotate.
He's going to be all the way downstairs and fairly out of this round.
JJ getting quite into things early as C4 goes out.
A little bit of damage, but nothing to worry too much about.
Gotta be careful you don't pull a forest and learn maybe some of the wrong lessons.
But howdy goes.
Just testing it a little bit early and dueling with Packer, getting some good information.
I was gonna say, we'll likely need to see the attack wrestling a little bit with the defense
within the next few seconds, and indeed we will, but actually in fact, just hopping in through the diffuser,
or stopping in through the breach to put down the diffuser.
And, uh, well, quiet enough, the ceremonies end for JJ, dropping that diffuser inside of the site,
but Force will pick it back up, and I actually don't know where the hell he's gone.
on rival good with for one kill.
Packer
leaving his travels in the bottom floor and decided to join the rest of the team
as five years continue to widen their lead.
A little bit of fight back in the mid round quite a bit of fight back in the
mid round.
There won't be enough to stop that diffuser.
One thirty will be speeding the odds going into the post spotting one as
they sprint out of side past as they can.
Smoke will cut him off for a bit and packer might just have a little bit
of an angle. A little bit of time to get up around the attacking team to deny them any
angles. Oh, but down through the smoke. Forrest at the last possible second. Might just guarantee
Ford a row, but Aafbino's got something to say about it. A 4k earlier now on the opposite
side. Just one more kill to keep them competitive. To tie things up 5-5. Forrest has to do
it again. 50% gone. Can he get the angle in time? Oh, he rides the last second.
Hopsoff and Mike W blink six to four for five years.
I would love we need to see the replay.
We need to see the replay on that.
I need to know if there was time or not.
It felt like there might have been.
I'll be honest.
It really felt like there might have been a second
to just hold on for the briefest of moments.
This was the first plumb was foiled there by the solid.
We asked for a close round. It didn't really get much closer than that.
I don't know, you know. I don't think there was enough time.
It would have been very close, but I don't think there was enough.
And the fuselage was getting a lot of fingerprints all over it.
We don't usually see that many people involved.
Two people it took to plant and two people it took to attempt to disable it.
disabled it usually it's just a you know
the person usually violence and there may be two people disabled it but we
really going around the houses takes a village takes a village
five seconds left before insertion by village I specifically mean five people
versus five would be trying to build their own village
Well, fortunately for 1 of 30, that was a very, very, very good effort.
Not enough to blunt any bit of the force from 5 beers, 4 in a row now on the attacking side,
and these last couple rounds have been much closer, but they haven't been decisive and
they haven't been wins.
Keep in mind, by the way, we already have each of our teams eliminated from the group,
so on the thieves and outlasts are both out.
This is not an elimination game, but if 1 of 30 lose this next round and lose
the one after that or lose in overtime. They will be in the lower bracket and have only
one chance. If they lose one game in the bracket, they will be done. If they manage to fight
back in OT, they managed to win after that. They'll have two chances to stay in the game
and maybe keep their Salt Lake City dreams alive. Five fears, they win this. They get
a joint DZ. That's the only two teams four and 0 inside of the kickoff so far.
Packer might be the first player to try and begin one of 30's overtime dreams, but at the same time, spotted by a drone.
Two players surrounding him at the moment, and no clear way up.
He sort of resigned himself to that, but as the nades come in,
he's about to start feeling a lot of pressure spotted by that Salaton scanner as well.
Snake very aware that the shotgun poses a deadly prospect.
You can take this fight, exactly.
The Packer's not going to buy it on the need.
You can't just swing it around the corner one shot from him.
And even if you take off half HP, he's gone.
Let's go third player in.
Packer's surrounded in a triangle at the moment.
But at the same time, you can make this calculus.
Are you investing too much?
Might have taken half the round to get him.
But with a few quick shots from JJ Blast,
five years get the lead they were looking for.
Whether Packer has done enough there or not,
a time will tell.
But I don't think he could have done any more.
position for a long time and he soaked up a lot in the process. Drones, nades, other pieces of utility.
Now there's a minute and with it's a shanker, it's not the end of the world. Still 12 Shimiko
launches kicking around up there. Looking for a big contribution again from Snake on that vertical
and a way to try and get this breach open. This has been removed now to this point so
pretty much well assumed that you're going to be able to get that breach open provided that
given the space. Kitchen sink has been thrown at it. That exothermic charge is gone to blow.
Still, half a tower. Sorry, still half a tower as well, but there are no fire arrows left. It's
more than a chunk of six sheathers in their pocket. If you use it in the hands of forest,
is the assault on the scanner going to give the information that five sheaths are desperately
needed? It gives them something, but the silo pushing up behind the desk. It's not a single
shot hits Snake and with that native the exact right time gets a good advantage in terms of
man count but in terms of the diffuser force got a rotate quick they might just win this one on kills
anyway but there's only a few seconds remaining five years find their way in my W good for one
and force on such loads Pee snaps onto them but at the end 1v1 they can't cross the finish line
five years join dark zero and move into the bracket stage without a single loss on their record
I haven't had a final few seconds of the round there was a really good display of just how powerful an operator snake can be
I'm sure we are gonna see it heavily featured in attacking lineups yet to come
Five shares doing a brilliant job here tonight on that attacking side the defense will be a little bit shaky
But they more than redeemed themselves once the sideswap. We're gonna throw some very short break after that
We'll be back with others
I
From down two rounds to taking five rounds in a row unanswered five fears undefeated and the top team in group a we welcome in for us now after another victory under their belts for us talk to me about this team a little bit more because to go from a team who wasn't in the best shape at the end of last
now you're on this roster. I mean what's it been like for this team to go from
maybe not the highest expectations to 4-0 undefeated the team to beat in this
group? Yeah I mean just a bunch of young guys that trusted me and you know
it's working really good right now like they can see the experience I have I
could bring to them and have a miraculous start so it's gonna keep
I'm glad that you mentioned that, you know, a bunch of young guys that look up to you,
you being the veteran on this team, I'd say it's the first time in your career where you're
joining a team where you are the main source of leadership, the player that everyone is
looking up to.
Does that add a whole list of responsibility to you?
Is that something that has impacted your play knowing that this team is looking to
you to be their guidance in a way?
Yeah, you know, this project I'm on right now, you know, I told JJ even specifically like I'm looking to not only, you know, help improve the whole team, but kind of pass the torch right, you know, I'm pretty, I'm pretty old in terms of sports, you know, time.
So, you know, I'm just trying to be like the another type of leader for the team and just something that can rely on and, you know, just friend card.
Well, for us, you certainly don't look old in the way that you move. You're still looking like you're 18, young and ready to go.
I want to just talk about, you know, we hear from you guys as players and how everything has been looking, but what is the support of staff and from the coaches, the analysts, what have been the inner workings to kind of get you guys mentally and in-game prepared for these matchups?
I mean, the coaching staff, you know, we go over our skirmish all, we go over the game day footage and, you know, we kind of create like a solid game plan to do most of the back end work and I can't leak too much, but like, it's some good shit.
You know, we kind of, you know, we have a lot of intel and we're playing really good off that.
for sure so we will for us thank you so much for your time as always and
congratulations on a fantastic start to kick off we'll see you in playoffs to get
a buy in the opening round and we'll see how you guys fare from there
the care thanks so much well five years really truly the surprise of the
start of this year I mean we knew they'd be stronger we knew for us had to be a
good addition to this team but we did not expect I think it's fair to say
across the board and undefeated top of the group performance from this team lacks.
I mean, there's just no other way to put it.
No, it's not what I would have expected, just given what it was on Envy,
what the collapse was towards oxygen and to see everything develop the way that it has
and to just even them and the losing rounds here being down and be able to bounce back,
get five rounds straight.
And it wasn't just rounds that were given to them.
They had to fight for each and every single inch in these rounds and make adaptations,
Make quick adjustments that we're getting them through each and every single attacking round and it just really showcases
The prep that's going in game the prep that's going out a game
Everyone is physically locked in and they are all striving to reach that same goal. Yeah, well, I couldn't agree more
I mean, I really loved seeing the fact of them being able to play without the shields relied
They were had substituting, you know operators like snake in and relying on
Utility and that's something that we didn't see the envy roster do that's something that we haven't really seen five
fears do up until today so I think it was a really good display of their skill and you know
hopefully the consistency travels into Bessa 3's. Well, Laxlet, let's talk a little bit more about
those moments that really showcase to this team's adaptability, this team's strengths. I know
you had a couple of things you wanted to point out starting with something you saw in round number
eight. Yeah, round number eight in particular, Fox was highlighting this, the difference between
this team with their utilization of shields is that there's always someone ready to follow
up and help and look at this as a prime example of it. He immediately force immediately drops gets
whacked by the knife shield goes up but immediately rival is right there to trade and because of that
they're able to take site they're able to take position they're able to go for the plant here
and there's really nothing one of 30 can do and then I do want to if I do want to highlight
round 10 after this of both teams and I want to give them their credit because both teams in
round 10 did such a good job at understanding where the win condition was what they needed
do to secure this round from both ends. Now for the side of 1 of 30, they understood hold vertical
pressure. Keep it going. Don't allow them into sight. And five fears immediately understanding,
okay, we have to put pressure upstairs. We have to take this control. We have to allow
ourselves to get into the site to be able to go for the plant. And then it just came down
to maybe one extra second for the side of 1 of 30. They jump on that diffuser. It goes in
their favor. But then for the side of five fears, just doing a very good job playing
that post plant, holding their positions, ultimately coming down to 1v1 where they
They sealed the deal. It was just a great game of back and forth adaptations, understanding
the win conditions, knowing what needed to be done to get to that end goal. And then
even in that very last round when we talk about win conditions, I think this was the
best utilization that I've seen out of Solid Snake right there. All four players
on the top four, these this information to the team where they need to collapse
on, where they need to focus their iron sights on. And it's done flawlessly. This
round just immediately falls apart for the side of one of 30 and it was solely
off of that last little bit of information from that radar on solid
snakes such a unique way of using it in those dire seconds to secure the map to
secure the round, secure the win and secure upper bracket for them and it
was so great to see that he actually picked up some of those nades from the
killer they got on par with below so that utility of just being able to use
snake just shows but they don't need the shields but I do love that we get
to commend them because they are constantly on their shields,
but whenever the shield is going in,
some veteran teams don't even have that success,
but they are always there to follow up force
or whoever may be on that shield.
And that's some great leadership
to be able to make plays like that
because it's not something that OSU was able to do,
even SSG, we know force can get a little aggressive
on those shields, but this team
is always there to back them up.
Well, Five Fears adds another victim
to the list of teams that they have taken down here
to start kick off their undefeated through the group stage
and we'll have a buy round going into the playoffs
and best of threes.
Truly astounding.
In a group with M80 and Shopify Rebellion,
five fears stand on top.
We've got Wild Guard and Cloud9 next.
We'll be right back.
I'm going to the A-M-M-M
I'm going to the A-M-M-M
It is Wildcard and Cloud9, a match for an upper bracket birth versus a lower bracket
immediately onto your second final chance in the playoffs. This is a big deal. I mean, for these teams,
they can treat it like it's the first round of an upper bracket, essentially, because that is what
it will function as. For Wildcard, this is that moment where they need to prove to us Fox that
the start they've had to kick off is not where they're going to play, not how they're going
to play in the playoffs. This has not been the team we that came in with high expectations.
This has not been the performance that they have won.
So far, every event that Wildcard have gone to, they have looked amazing.
They've looked so great, but then they come back home and we have high expectations
and they fall a little short, but not as short as they have since picking up Adrian.
I don't think a lot of the pressure is on Adrian.
I think a lot of it has been the role adjustment for Spiker because he was
previously on secondary support.
Now he's primarily taking over Dasher's roles being that flex
and him having to focus on positioning himself around the team has limited in a way the shot calling aspect
and being able to make sure that all the players are connected and we saw it in their match yesterday
it was very abysmal I mean dark zero is looking on it on a you know planet of their own but wildcard
them not trading them losing opening kills looking lost like they did was probably the worst
showing that we've seen so far in kickoff and it's not something that we're expecting from wildcard
for them to be so individualized, going for 1v1s.
This is not the characteristics of a team like Wildcard
that we know maybe they didn't necessarily have the star players
like other rosters, but they had the teamwork.
They had the end goal figured out.
But that's not something that we've been seeing.
They've been going for gunfights, going for individual ones,
and they're losing it.
And you saw it in the stats.
They're opening kills to only get one opening kill against Dark Zero.
That is a very big hindrance.
Yeah, that is not good whatsoever.
So wildcard needs to be able to wrap that up and maybe transition spiker to more of a backline rule so that he can focus on
Communicating for his teammates to connect the dots so that they're not just losing gunfights for free with no trade
Right, it's clear that even they are not keeping to the expectations that they had for themselves
I mean Adrienne said it that there's something going on that this roster has to figure out
Yeah, and it's really never a good look when, you know, after a game is over, you see players
taking the loss the way that they take it, but then also saying things in scrims clearly
aren't transitioning into game day.
And Fox, you know, we've been there.
We know what it's like on during scrims.
You're dominating, you're 7-0ing, you're having really good days, and then you get
to game day and it's the exact opposite.
And for Wildcard, it's really been the exact opposite.
It's been a very big downhill trend, very big dropping from the typical performance
we're used to seeing out of them.
And there's only one thing you can really do in that moment.
And it's not necessarily a team thing.
It's an individual thing.
And whether that's just not mentally being there,
whether that's just not in it in that moment
or overcompensating for something
that doesn't really need to be there,
those typically are the fundamental errors
that players do make when they're in situations like this.
We're in scrims, it's loose, it's free,
you aren't punished as hard.
But when it comes to game day,
the nerves are clearly there,
you're already down bad.
There's not a lot you can do as a team, but it's more so
comes to each individual understanding what they need
to do to get themselves as locked in as humanly possible.
The story for their opponents today
is very different, Fox, right?
Cloud9, I mean, this is a team that we did not
hold to the same standard as Wildcard coming in.
And thankfully for them, they were
able to get their very first win
against Outlast yesterday, and a key win, separating
themselves from that last place position.
So for now, hoping to ride that high,
we have to see what they can continue
to do against Wildcard here, a much different opponent.
Yeah.
Much needed win.
I don't think Cloud9.
I'm still not a believer in them.
Was it a great display of them being able to not just win,
but completely stop their opponents?
Absolutely.
It was seeing a different version of Cloud9.
And I don't know why we don't see this
against better teams, because clearly they
have the means to be able to do it.
I still think Center has been a great addition
to the team, consistently being that spearhead on attacks.
And he has been so good at getting them into positions.
But that being said, it was against the Outlast.
I don't necessarily know if consistency
is Cloud9's biggest thing.
I'm a very big doubter when it comes to the Cloud9 roster
specifically with Eddie and Kixrow.
And we talk about a win like that,
starting the first step in front of the other.
So if they can just use it as momentum
to potentially get a win here, at the end of the day,
I don't know, Lex. I don't believe in this Cloud9 roster.
Self-wound. I mean, yeah, I was going to say,
they still have a lot to show,
and today can either decide them to be in a lower bracket
or upper bracket.
So we'll, you know, we'll see what happens.
That's exactly the stakes.
The loser does not get a second chance in the playoffs.
It is a very big game for both Wildcard and Cloud9.
Lynx, XRTorch, all you.
Thank you very much, Jonah.
And we didn't really touch a lot on the maps there,
But if you if you enjoy layer into a strategy, you enjoy a lot of a lot of layers to the whole game plan.
Well, you probably will not have a lot of fun this game because we're going to we're going to border Ali.
So probably about as drastic a tonal shift as you could probably have for between a game one and a game two.
I thought you were like I was like either the trolling or the forgotten or just like a serious double block going on there.
you're like, yo board of them up
to and I was like, okay, cool.
So I start looking through my
stuff. I'm tapped up to the
nine's, you know, we're like 20
chrome tabs deep at this point.
We've got everything firing
over an open. Um, yeah, we're
tapped up and yeah, we're
going to board it. So what we
can do is we can remove all of
the tabs. We can just go
through them and just get that
really satisfying moment where
you get the mouse in the right
place and you just click,
click, click, click, click and
they all just disappear. And
you know, you know, you know
you can get rid of that. Um
because there's nothing like a
log off like that, right? That's
like the end of the day. When
you when you detailed and then
there's always a few that you
like you remain newly broken
because you're like, I'm going to
need that tomorrow. Um, but
yeah, we could basically get
rid of that because we headed
to border and who knows what
will happen here? Well
fortunately, we have got a
little bit of an idea. Wild
God, of course, do have a
map was against Team Secret, a very good boarder team, it was overtime win for Secret. That will
of course be under slightly different roster, roster that did not include Adrian, so a little bit
remains to be seen here. But Wildcard definitely with a bit of a point sprued and it's a team that
I always have quite a hard time figuring out because domestically they're quite mid and I
kind of say that with a lot of love and I say that with a lot of respect. Then when they get
It's an international stage, right, the most recent SI we see them playing even last year at Reload.
For some reason, they just, they've come alive and they have very good international performances
and people just start getting hyped up and they're like, it's not the same team though, like, they don't do this domestically.
And we are still yet to see that spark with this, with this team online at the moment.
Cloud9 on the flip side, what a weird old stage they're having so far.
These guys have won something like floor attacking rounds up until this point
Now they're attacking on border links. So there's surely a bit of hope for them here, but it is not difficult to attack, right?
I mean you would hope so border is
Border can be and always has been kind of weird like yeah
You should have a better time
But also if the defense is able to like defend all of those extremities pretty effectively
You can't really make much progress.
Borders are very all or nothing match.
If you're able to get that first bit of control
that can snowball effectively,
and if you're not, it's very difficult to find a way
in that being said.
Amati makes that a lot easier.
Not only can you just kind of get information on say
that player playing inside a CCTV right now,
you can also maybe try and go through the break doorway,
put some pressure there, walk up to this,
and not only gain information on that player,
but also see that hey,
there's somebody playing aggressively on the armory wall.
So there are certain ways you can navigate that.
Getting blown to pieces by a DMR doesn't exactly help.
Neither does Kansan also in coordination and tandem with Bay,
hopping out of, right guess, the rotate hole on our wall,
to get the second pick for Cloud9,
and not even confirmed the first, the down on the Bay.
Really good coordination by Wildcard and that defense there,
and I think we have a good idea
of what kind of defense Wildcard
would be throwing at Cloud9 today.
When close here with the shotgun, he's going to be able to reposition.
He needs to be careful.
Newsy has got a bit of a nasty angle, but it draws for the SMG.
It's a nutty shot, and things just get even more difficult for Cloud9.
Focke and Eddy both buddied up at the moment over toward this east side.
Focke, there's other line of sight through into break, but it's going to be kicks.
finding that kill over onto Bay. Earlier player that was a little bit injured up.
Blazergate. It's going to reactivate. It's going to make it even more difficult. You
have to announce your position at every single turn. There might be 45 seconds left, but
the two versus four things aren't looking fantastic. There's no utility really to speak
of for the defenders. They've got a couple of toxic bay casters. It's going to fall
inside a CC but again immediately traded. Wildcars can putty up here and they can play these crossfires.
Oh, great flick by Eddie. The Cloudrunner going down, at least the going down swinging,
a lot of impressive shots in the back half of this round. But not the rotate whole thing.
We enforced off Eddie, now it's fixed the accuser back up.
And nobody in an immediate position it can test, but with that smoke canister utility
and also the ability to walk up metal, yeah that's what I was about to say. Eddie's
quite close to the danger and they'll assert themselves very quickly wild card with an extremely
dominant first round and bolstered by some incredibly good coordination in the first half there.
I think that we're coming to expect that really aren't we from from Borda if you've not got a
good handle on that opening it can be such a punishing map it's a very small map which enables
the defenders to be able to hold quite aggressive crossfires and the lines of sight that can
can be open. I mean, you could see it there. Agent gets taken out inside a CCTV and boom,
one foot moves, one step is taken inside a break room and bam, you're dead from all the
way in office. Like, there are entirely different corners of that top floor, but it can be so
effectively traded onto, especially when the defenders have a bit of an advantage and
they can afford to, you know, just cover each other and hold each other's backs.
Down to workshop indentation, we're going to go for round number two then. Down
still looking for a bit of success here. That opening pick is becoming a bit of a problem for them.
And the likes are going to be forced again into this top play. You can see that Wildcard
is setting up as you have to on-boarder. But at least a substantial hold of this upstairs
office. The blurry enforcements hatch open. Presence inside of armoury.
Up to much has gone on inside the CCTV. I think we do have the little rotate
Into CC there just at the top of those metal stairs and Bay is going to quite nice to transition through that just to demonstrate
Just giving themselves a bit of a wrap-round to get around that top floor
Which is just kind of everything you're like going through on board or give yourself give yourself wrap rounds
Give yourself ways to contest as much of the map as you can it is not there's not a lot going on in this map
If you want to defend part of it you pretty much have to defend all of it
and so
Creating as many pathways as many routes through these areas depending on the strategy, but for a lot of these strategies is very very beneficial
You can see wildcard doing that exact thing head holes looking at CCTV ability to move between fountain and office and armory
Trying to increase the ability to decrease the friction of taking control across the maps
He four goes out should land right at the feet of that blackbeard center losing a lot of health
But a lot of tricky spots so far playing these shields went down earliest and won't be lost time
But we'll be the first to go down here Adrian trying to use that C4 as a being pinched by kickstraw and then another one
Complete reversal of portion for cloud nine this time going down three five in the first and now with a dominant lead over wild card in the second
Hey, Adrian both down
This is time now for cloud nine to strike. You don't need to waste a rush this sorry
They've got time that they can spend
Eddie, Michael shots him there onto metal stairs, but again doesn't need to
over commit at this moment. Wait for his team to get into a slightly better
position. They know that they've got some players pinched up here inside of
Armory. It's all about dealing with them as effectively as possible.
Kanzan is gonna be in the mix right now, gets taken out straight away. Their
focal and kicks all coming in with kills and baby shark what can he do?
Has to try and make something happen. He's left just scrambling there at the
top of beepers unable to have significant impact. Cloud nine respond. And seem to just have a constant
net spread out over the length of wildcard for the entire time. I mean, even from the beginning,
of course, that Easter's presence have Adrian cut off both on the actual Easter side, but then,
of course, also on the side, angling closer to 90 and pushing in it, pushing in as a unit there
and seem to just slowly tighten it over the course of the round. And it's a bit easier to
to do that when you start out with a 5v3 but you have to get some kind of start usually
with an advantage and it will be with that time. Contrast that with their approach in
the first one which is a bit more angled directly towards Armory. You have two people pushing
that side and then of course they're able to hop out the window, get aggressive. They're
a bit more spread out and just a bit more isolated. As that go around, whether it's
by chance, by setup, it's always a little bit of both. Pretty much the full brunt
of the team was at least within arms distance of each other most of that round so it's a
bit easier to deal with somebody like Faggeney at work.
In that case, Adrian's getting aggressive, we'll have that advantage.
1-1 has at least 7-7 to the back half of the first game.
These are pretty competitive for the first six rounds.
We'll see if that continues to be the case today.
It's now the team with the lead and I'll open the one more side left and
I got the right rotation
I don't like that look in your eye, Joe Capiche
Now the Blackbeard this time, it's then turned him to be rocking at that
Trying to make a little bit of headway
Really appreciated Cloud9's take last time, they did a great job of getting that opening pick
Double down and made it two, but then didn't rush into anything
Really leveraged the time that they had available to them, the time that was at their disposal
Look at the line-up they're going up against, there's a guard card.
It's one of those honking line-ups.
It's just a little bit of everything.
Bit of intel.
A lot of annoyance.
A lot of flexibility in the RX.
So you gotta keep an eye out on those hatches as well when RX is in play.
Some speedy rotates.
Can be made.
Bay and Kansan just loosely doubled up here on this top floor for the time being.
They just need to be careful though.
I'm going to play as it's on the catwalk outside as C4 rips him ready, sends out, but isn't going to find its mark.
You can see that Bay is desperate for a swing kill. He's going to need a black bait if he does.
There's going to be a razor room as well.
As Bay, again getting aggressive outside of the CCTV position.
No DMR will make contesting that player on break a bit more difficult, but much better equipped to deal with this shield.
But now I was about to say, they'd be gambling with a little too much there, hoping that maybe somebody in Armory could back him up.
back him up, but either way, Gamble doesn't pay off of Bay and Spiker down for the count.
Really really play from Bay there. I don't know what he's hoping to achieve, just jumping
out onto the black bed.
Well, and I was thinking the same thing. I mean, don't get me wrong, it worked in
round one, but I think it's a different set of circumstances. There was a bit wider
of a gap between the two attackers, and there just wasn't a scar around, and a
ping for it. Now Kansan going down too. Since round one was more just a hiccup
than anything, Cloud9 have got pretty much everything they've wanted, both in round
and three at the moment. Baby Shark needs to get aggressive, but has to deal with that,
but also focusing that utility. And now with the only one left, there's only so much one
player can think about. Two in a row for C9, and that first round looking more like an anomaly
as this half goes on.
Baby Shark again there, left as lost alive, but you can't even really blame him in
that round if he's got teammates that are jumping out and trying to make those sort
of aggressive plays. I think you can give Cloud9 a little bit of space. You can let
them operate. I mean, there's nothing really that you can do if they're operating
outside of CCTV and Armory. You've kind of just got to hold the best angle that you can, but I just
feel like you've got to play into your strengths a little bit more there. Raise the bloom. It hadn't
weakened Blackbeard enough to really be going for that sort of a play, as it stands both the
Thorn and the Blackbeard will be removed ahead of the next round. And we are going to see a
tactical timeout here played as well. Only imagine that it's going to be Wealthcard
bringing that in because they need a little bit of stability here links as you say round one
as we get into this game deeper it's looking a little bit more like the exception and not the norm
No, and if you even look at if you even look at the overall you know survival statistics by the
end of the round it's one that certainly trends cloud nine. I mean wild cards win only two alive
at the end and then a flawless into a near flawless for cloud nine two in a row a game
that has been on their side and the one round they've lost so far ended up being pretty
competitive towards the end. Of course, it was a 3v5 in round one, but able to whittle down that
man count to a degree that now with the benefit of hindsight, I think we see as a bit of an omen
for the future. Aggression where even if it might be warranted, it maybe isn't well set up,
or maybe it's just the gap wasn't quite as wide as they thought. And of course,
Alina and I both are referring to Bayes' moment here where they maybe just thought there was
something else behind that play, whether it's some of an armory wall, not sure, but
but wasn't quite the advantage they thought it was.
And it seems both times,
once Wildcard haven't lost that early game,
there has been very little capability
to fight back afterwards.
And whatever they've discussed in the time out,
I would look to that even if they go down early,
see how they're able to try and claw back
some kind of advantage,
how they coordinate to make the most of their positions,
because that's the part that seems a little bit lacking
for Wildcard at the moment.
Hopefully for a while, I'll cut that time out, it was just huge work.
I wonder if the core was just to, you know, slow down a little bit, maybe not go as aggressive.
And there's a tendency on boarders to do that is, you know, our boarder is an aggressive man, we need to turn it around a little bit.
You know, sometimes you can just, you know, lean in a little bit more.
There's no always need to be this sort of super fast, super high-paced, high-octane gameplay.
It can just be a little bit more boring sometimes, and often I can't yield results.
You see, Cloud9 are almost expecting it now.
Very slow approach to the building, making sure that you keep a good eye on likely spots
whether that be a door or a window.
Just trying to catch people off.
It's like the Spidey senses were tingling correctly.
spiked it is going to be playing inside of Armory here. He isn't going to be giving himself away.
And the same can kind of be said for Baby Shot this time. He's playing much more tucked
with the shotgun. He's going to get mistroned though. He will be found.
Finding is only part of it.
Baby Shot would a lot of be a way to move at the moment with most of the attackers on the
the opposite side. There we go. Rotation from center. Now this is where things get tricky
for the Solas. We start considering falling back, dropping down onto the east side. Nobody
on the bottom floor to cut at the moment, but that could really change as Focal is outside
of Passport currently. So Baby Shark, unfortunately not a lot of good options for him at the
moment. Yup, down he goes. Four different players to get this Solas by the way,
and Eddie on the long angle to finish him off. Got a feel for Baby Shark at
that point spent a lot of time but with that much investment you're always
going to find it difficult to fight your way out now on bay inside a CCTV
they were trying to make something about position. I think that's fine I think you
can have a lot of effort spent on one player. Great C4 there, it's going to
deal some damage. It's also kind of to making it a bit more awkward to move as
well. Sensen needs some support here he's got great information he knows
exactly where at least two players are right now. Wildcard they don't
really need to do anything we don't need to get too active right now they can
continue to play this clockball as soon as that happens look at the kill start
I mean only one person on cloud nine went down and it's because kicks rose
shot it in the back of the head a team kill is the only blood shed by cloud
nine and everything else is wildcard getting dismantled on these defenses a
A slow burn to take down baby shark early on with long angles the shield pressuring crossfires set up and
Then after that
Once cloud nine get a little bit on the border
It just seems the rest of the structure falls to pieces underneath the pressure that they bring to bear
I mean that was what four five kills including the team kill. That's it felt like all within
10 seconds max maybe maybe 10
really impressive stuff from Cloud9 on this attacking side and they're only
getting stronger and stronger and unfortunately for Wildcard more
worrying worrying after the timeout as well you get an attack like that that
was almost another flawless hey thank you thanks thankfully you get another pause
at the at the half it's pretty different side but I think this might be one of
those moments of Wildcard need another bit of a reset because 5-1 is a very
likely possibility based on this trend it feels like they need to get off
the defence doesn't it? Like I understand holding the map, I understand board is small and I understand you have to hold your ground. You don't want to be given teams any sort of a chance. However, if you've already wasted half the round, if you're in still reasonable positions and have an option to rotate back to sight, force Cloud9 into an execute, force them to actually make something happen, instead of trying to hold on upstairs.
stairs. Accredited wildcard inside of round number one because of how well they were able
to establish crossfires, how well there is quite a small map, and once you've got a bit
of an advantage you can sort of affect one another and if someone is in CC you can kinda
hold them a little bit from office, you can hold them from armoury. There are these options.
But it just feels like Wildcard, excuse me, have kinda forgotten all of that and they're
all just trying to play their own little spots regardless of whether that's the
right thing to do or not. Again was he incentive, stood on the Monty at Armory. If he stood there
great let him stand there he's not going to do anything you don't need to overreact to it.
It's the most difficult thing when you see him applying that pressure you feel that bit of fear
just the recognition the enemy knows where you are they could apply more pressure to you
but at least for the moment Wild Card will take their foot off the gas a little bit
Bay instead prepped for a C4. You know what has been good I will say even though
it's not resolved in a kill the C4s have seemed to land quite well for wild card
I say that of course one goes wide but generally that utility usage has been
pretty decent. Is he taking some damage to the floor? Maybe not entirely sure but
nobody dead in the first half of the round that's always a good sign.
Resting on this hatch I think prepared to drop down the moment he feels like
he needs to. Plot on half full control of the second floor. This is the first time it's
felt like Wildcard had been pulling them in. Not necessarily to their advantage, but certainly
reacting accordingly and not over-extend back. Now at the moment, more I look at it, this
spike rate is ratting.
Sometimes that's what you need to do. The answer was yes. The answer was yes.
I mean, sometimes that's what you need to do. You need to hope for a mistrone or
play around, get in mistroned, leave that hatch soft,
if you sell off the option for getting out.
Big opening pick really, 45 seconds, much better.
Again, we're into that sort of suggestion
that I made of forcing Cloud9 into an execute.
Make them make a play, because now the clock really
is on them and kills the time to come into Wildcard
this time.
Two for Bay, in fact.
See, this game is only one of dominant halves.
Within the round, another, I was going to say another
but this would be wild cards first.
Bay's got three kills and indeed they'll claim it
to recover a bit of momentum,
no better way to do it than without dropping a single body.
A bit of a bewildering game so far,
only because it seems that if you're winning around,
there can't be a single mistake made.
If it kind of feels like that a little bit, doesn't it?
It feels like whichever team blinks,
whichever team sort of crumbles
under that first bout of pressure
is the team to fall over.
They're Bay writing upstairs, able to grab himself
a freebie onto the Nomad.
But again, from that point onwards, it worked really well.
It wasn't like let's stick around upstairs and find out.
Let's get ourselves back down to site
and just keep playing before this, you know,
forced in Cloud9 into an execute.
By the way, we're going to call them rats.
We need to be at least identifying the correct one.
A great play though, from Spiker.
bay with the uh, just a load of kills in the round to close it all out.
Spiker just picking up that last as well, so
brief bay two for Spiker, two big individual performances there inside of round five.
And to be honest, I kind of need him because without those individuals
you're looking at the side of Wildcard and you're thinking boys you're a
little bit light. Kansas, Baby Shark, Asian, two kills between them.
It's unfortunate, to say the least, especially player like Kansan.
And a player, honestly, like Adrian and Davy Shark as well.
Like, you know, we've hyped up Kansan for a long time, but I don't need to say much about Adrian, his tenure on Team Secret.
But Davy Shark also wildly improved over the past year or two.
He's been on this roster, really become a player that has, at the best of times, been putting an equal effort to a lot of everyone else.
I mean, not really so much as the guy who always lurks and plays no-for-no could be down below.
putting in a bit more equal effort to everybody else and he's doing that in this
case it just so happens that wildcard are struggling overall but in that round
at least Spiker and Dave were putting in some great performances Eddie just that
was crazy spotting a defender rotating out of CCTV and neither player ends up
exchanging any damage whatsoever they have not engagement but I guess both
parties will nod their heads and turn down below that's what the colors
bathroom defense you don't need to hold the top floor forever but you
at least want to stave off some time and if you're not going to do that you do a wild card doing right now extended events
Extended the customs because you can't just give up away everything for free if they get both if the attack
It's both the vertical and the horizontal you're in for about time
Edging big kill there onto Uzi
Second kill on his tally for this game
It's about time that we see them start to amp things up a little bit
Another round where the opening pick goes in Wildcard's favour as well, so it's been a bit of a delayed reaction for the damp fuse from the time out.
But it is starting to yield some result here for Wildcard, albeit round six is far from over.
And even if it is, it only guarantees them an equal 3-3 split. You can see the attackers circling my shots up there.
They've got great control inside of Office and Archives, and they've got the tools to open this up.
We've got the skeleton key.
Have the Monty to look to try and walk down as well.
They just need a little pressure in onto site window.
All of a sudden, they're going to have an opening.
They're going to have an option.
You can see that the defenders, they've had to scurry away.
They can't afford to sit and stay in site too long.
The only player that's going to be occupying that space is going to be there.
He's got a great re here on the Valkyrie camera,
but isn't going to be able to land the finishing blow.
Throwing flashbangs!
We'll put some fear in the mind of Cloud9 as they push forward.
4th, Adrian 2th through the floor with the LMG by the way, finding some crazy angles with that gun,
but still look at this center creeping in, C4 lands, not much you can do at that point.
Tye half seems to be on the table for Wildcard, took quite a lot of fight at the end of this half,
but with two strong performances, Tye things up perfect, 3-3 going into their attacks.
Better salvage of the half there from Wildcard, they've shown us a good amount of grit there
They've been able to get the job done and come away with an equal 3-3 split. Let's hear from our desk
Well, let's talk about this because you're looking at a wild card team guys that is just not performing on defense the way we expected
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I do want to get credit where credit is due. Cloud9 has been doing well
But I really want to focus specifically on Doug's, I mean Doug's your wild card
Their defense is not great and it certainly did not paint the picture there
I mean they are only winning 35% of the time even in that half we saw as well
They just don't look very coordinated. We saw one round
They jumping outside of server window to take a fight onto Blackbeard, which already it's your scratch in your head
What the hell are you doing at this point? But to pivot off of that like I said
I do want to highlight cloud nine because I do think their attacks have been well
I think whoa whoa whoa no way you're highlighting cloud nine. They're planning. It's a weak wild card
Cloud9 is playing bad man. I'm not giving no part of the nation trophy away.
You're bad. I don't even think if you were...
I'm bad.
Even that you could...
You knew them to walk out.
No, I could carry this team.
You know who's bad?
Cloud9 is bad.
No Jonah, you're bad too.
No guys.
All right, reign it in.
Reign it in.
And we finish up this half here.
Okay, let's get something real constructive here.
Okay, Cloud9, they now move on to the defense.
If Wildcard are playing this rough,
Fox, is this an opportunity for Cloud9 to come out and take this win?
I mean of course it is, but it's very difficult on defense for Cloud9 to be able to play together.
I mean, Border is a very spread out map.
There's going to be a lot of 1v1s because that's the nature of the map.
What I want to see from Wildcard though is just a little bit more trades.
I want to see them being able to take those aggressive fights together.
Trust would be great.
I don't want to see no Bay jumping out of CC or into CC window alone.
I don't want to see no baby shark alone on an island. Let's get Adrian and spiker involved
Let's trade our entries out and have once corrective like spearhead that goes together get two drones in front of bay and baby shark
Maybe wild car can start looking like the team that does well at events point still stands caught us bad
I'll just decide this one matters a lot the loser here will not get a second chance in the playoffs to a very big second half
Going into border back to you guys
attention in the paddocks as we walk back onto the field three three split
going into wild cards attacks and cloud 9s defenses whatever the verdict is for
the quality of play from either team I think the substance underneath is quite
out especially for wild cards case plate looking to play it more together
looking to play a bit more as a team which of course I mean Ali if there's
one side or playing as a team is probably the most important it's
got to be those attacks links I just want to say that I'm happy that I'm
in here with you. Hey, you know what? I appreciate that. I'm happy. I'm happy here with you, too.
Because I'm not sure how much of Fox crashing out I can take. I'm going to be real.
Well, it's funny you say that, that you don't know how much you can take a Fox crashing out,
but every other broadcast you play, there's a burp replay. Every other broadcast we're on,
there's a tech pause, and then you try to make me crash out as soon as possible.
But that's different because the thing is, I have a younger sister, so I have that in-built
brain programming to wind people up that are younger than me.
Mmm, that makes sense, that makes sense, because let me tell you, I get wild! I get wild on
those tech pauses.
Oh, I know.
33, let's see if that was a good little break in the game for Cloud9 to get themselves
back in, I'll be honest. Wildcard will have been wishing that we were under the
old system where we don't have a break at the halfway point just because they
would have wanted to carry through whatever momentum they were able to
generate in the last couple of rounds through into this round seven. However,
as is the norm now, we have the break at the halfway point standard. So, Card 9
have had a bit of a freebie there to see if they can try and stabilize a
little bit. Albeit, both teams are going into opposite half. Card 9 coming in
onto the defense and wild card going on to that attack inside. So things
We're always going to be different ahead of round seven so good information here from Adrian and oldy
But a Goldie the drone thrown up onto the roof and just perched on the top there
You can get a nice little angle through the skylight speaking vertical drones
There's one looking it down into main courtyard as well
So some really good eyes in the sky at the moment from Wildcard can they do anything with this information though?
So taking it facilitating an entry on the east stairs they seem to be about there. There is of
course the very forwardly positioned the cloud nine defense. There was the very forwardly positioned
cloud nine defender but based off that Intel gathered early on it seems to go down quite quick and
with the smoke canisters being the first to go. The late round for cloud nine if we even get
there isn't looking that great. Oh timing you got to feel bad for kick throw there but if
If you're a fan of Adrian, you'll be happy that the new pickup for Wildcard is entry in NA,
going at least a little bit better in his first foray onto the attack.
4v1 as the trend continues of dominant rounds.
And hey, at least we'll get a plant to solidify Wildcard's in all likelihood victory in round 7.
And Cloudine's first defense is falling very rapidly at the hands of a few well-placed guns.
Well, mainly agents walking in through archives and getting the job done there.
So cool.
In with a chance there.
25 seconds, but three attackers to find and already all you can see is traceable at
some pre-fires.
There's never going to be an easy one.
Died through the very angle that he made himself into Fountain.
Wild card.
out the gates swinging there in round seven. I mean Adrian on that entry only
gets a double kill but even with the coordination that they had between him
and baby shark could have easily got that first kill as well on how to triple
because you look at the coordination they had of course coming in from the
back baby shark might get it but they were well set up to go for that pinch and
I mean waiting to see if anybody took a peek around that window then taking
the gamble to push forth it was really good setup by Wilde Cardin a really
good duo entry by Adrienne and Baby Shark and then some just objectively great
and lucky timing for Adrienne pushing into fountain there. Ella turning around
right at the wrong moment. Got to feel bad for defense sometimes they don't
always go your way and the attack you just have to be ready to capitalize off
on it when the moment arises. Great start by Wildcard at the beginning of
this and the last highlighted attacks or sorry defenses not exactly the greatest
thing for them so now let's move the attack inside. Getting these rounds he
be at least their only remaining option to build off any of the failures they felt they had in that first half.
It's kind of nice to see Adrian on a bit more of an entry style role there. Obviously, whatever roles
and sort of operators a player or a person will play in sort of tier two doesn't always translate
when they make it into tier one. Adrian was always very much flex entry player and obviously went
to secret and became quite the support player. And it was a bit of a question in my mind as
to where he would sit on this wildcard roster. Wildcard have got that flexibility between them
if someone's not having a particularly hot day or even just round dependent if somebody
got something that they would like to play. There is that option to start a touch more
flexibility. Candela's already being sent into the heart of the bomb site and some small
but it's good kills that matter and they're coming in for cloud nine.
Coming in for cloud nine though Kansan good for one and only one.
What a back and forth game this is and not in the way I teams normally need it.
Kansan's got four to find who too far right too far to the left not able to find a good middle ground between that spray.
Tie game again as we have this weird trend of a close game overall
and yet round by round, if one thing breaks the way of either wild card or cloud nine, the round
just seems to fall apart afterward. And the round seven, their adrian and baby shark are able to
pin shot one player on each stairs, immediately flies in, adrian gets a good time and double kill
four of you two rounds pretty much done. In that round, you have an opening kill, break the way
of cloud nine, and about 15 seconds later, I start talking doing the post game or post round.
don't know exactly why that is it's always one of the weirder games to watch
Ollie but I suppose if we've learned anything just basically bet it all on
the 5v4 just bet it all on getting the first pick everything after that seems
easy it it feels like kind of sort of reductionist and and very sort of I don't
know almost pessimistic in a way but it kind of is the way that it's been
going right? We've seen that opening pick converted all but one round. Round number three was the
anomaly. It was around the cloud and we were able to walk away despite Adrian getting that opening
pick but since then and before it every single time we see that opening pick it's converted into
a round win and I guess that's kind of characteristic of Border. It's also kind of
characteristic of teams that you know fight well from in front and maybe don't fight too well
from behind. There are opportunities but with modern Siege you've got to give yourself the
best chance. Getting that opening pick or at least trading it is the recipe. Having that
ability to fight back or not let that numbers advantage, spiral out of control can be a
very important thing. All level though, Cloud9 have seen a little bit of success of their
own on this defensive side. We're gonna note they've got it in them. Wildcard are
gonna be starting their approach. Very horizontal. It is worth noting here we've
got Spiker and they both inside. All the hatches open above Don. There's a couple
of angles. A couple of shots just getting poked on through. Spiker doesn't need to
be cautious. Can't really afford to turn his back to that. It's one of the
downsides of just going for a horizontal approach but he's getting the plant down already.
I was going to say is the information gained by cloud nine sufficient to stop this and no
it is not.
I thought maybe with spotting it cloud nine to be a bit more ready but kind of difficult
to get everybody downstairs on such short notice.
Only a one for one and given the post plan situation wildcard inherently favored.
The retreat to their positions always awkward for a shield in this spot.
The wildcard with the better angles at the moment and I think cloud nine struggling
in the information department, just spotting the active diffuser and it's at that moment.
Spiker just pushes on in, they ready for the capitalization and an ace with the R4C, playing
really well off the back of that shield, the gun behind Spiker to facilitate that entire
round.
No, get Fox back in there, get him back in, patch him into the call, I'm on the
hype train, Cloud9 are bad.
we just look at what was available right there? Let's just break this down. So we have the
hatch open inside of customs. We can see that there's a blitz inside of customs and
we can safely assume all we know that we've seen or at least heard an R4C. So we know
that Ash is there as well. We're going to assume it's Ash because they're going horizontal.
I think we can make that assumption. This is going to be the content of their tactical
timeout now by the way. So this is basically going to be like listening. So pin them back.
We've then been able to transition out of customs, even though the hatch is open, which means
that Spike are at some point has turned his back to the hatch on the Blitz and walked through.
Okay, he slipped the net, fair enough.
Where is he going to go once he exits customs?
There's only one place, the site.
So he goes to the site.
Let's turn our attention there.
A couple of smokes get placed, they're okay, they're not fantastic, but they're okay,
they're doing the job.
Now if somebody is planting in the smoke, less than 101, where do we shoot? We shoot the smoke.
Because guess what? They're in the smoke. If you can't see them, they're in the smoke.
It's far better to smoke off your opponent than it is to smoke yourself and stand in it,
because you can just be shot in it. However, Wildcard didn't really have too many options.
They can't smoke a hatch. So what are they going to do? They're just going to smoke the planter.
So the hatch is open, there's vert onto where the plant is going down,
And there's two people upstairs inside of office or inside of archives, excuse me
Just looking at the window because someone's on archives and archives window. Now, that's great
I appreciate someone's on archives window, but just drop the hatch. The hatch is open
It leads directly to where the plant was going down. The plant has gone down in broad daylight
Theory made
I mean credits wildcard they saw a gap and they took it but cloud nine had
everything there to stop that plan from going down they did all the hard work
they've done all the vert they did all the prep and then just didn't use it and
it's not because they weren't able to use it they could have done they were
just stood there and looking at the wrong thing
listen I'm listening
Yeah, I got I got that. I thought I could come up with some kind of bit, but I couldn't so I
Think the main takeaway though want to keep this ball rolling
I think the main takeaway is probably probably around. We're definitely the cracks starting to form for cloud nine in a very material way
Like we've seen this in the past like we saw it towards the end of the first half slash beginning of the second half
But when you see a defender make direct eye contact with the Blitz like that, you expect to see, I think, a little bit more of a reaction of some kind from C9.
It just didn't occur. It just didn't occur whatsoever.
And so, probably a gigantic question mark going into this round. Not that there is going to be a similar play by Wildcard, but a big question mark is, was that just a hiccup, or is the end of this game going to be some poor reactivity from Cloud9?
Or, to take a more charitable approach to it, a bit more of a pro-Wildcard approach to it?
to it. There's going to be another well-set-of-play by Wildcard spotting a gap
and just moving quick enough that Cloud9 don't have sufficient time to respond.
I have this possibility. I've still got a minute fifty to go. Seems to be an off-a-side push at the moment
or an archives-sided push that Wildcard are gunning for. No montane on the field
so or no or no so whatsoever. So not the normal shield setup we often see.
As the firebolts go out, Adrian walking in facilitating that entry finds one
and sprays another through the monitor.
Not even a wall bang, it's a computer bang right there,
need an update for Windows to fix that one,
and it appears that wildcard
have not updated any kind of change from the last round.
It's caught another gap and they decide
to keep a good thing going.
Might be a three to three, but again,
favored by the time, favored by the position.
Playing conservatively both outside of the side 10,
in the case of one particular attacker,
in sight of it behind half wall it appears.
So the defense begins to move forward, setting up some razor blooms, throwing some traps and will
occlude the vision somewhat with the smoke canister, but Spiker's still good for that trade. The inside
of the site presence, that armory player goes down, but the bigger worry was always this crossfire,
but Uzi just made something happen with only one more second to go. All Spiker's gotta do is hop
in for this very brief moment. Uzi falls off instead, six to four for wild card, just one
round away from, well, given how tightly competitive this group is, I'm not entirely sure what
they get for winning this.
Wildcard there coming up with the business again, seeing the gap, Adrian with two kills,
double entry, Bishbash Bosh, plants going down, and as the plants going down, the
area has already been assessed. It is already clear, there's vert but there's no one
below. There's two people that have already died, you can already start retreating,
can already start playing that post plant because you know that that diffuser is
getting nailed to the floor. Another good round there from Wildcard and another
one where to be honest they kind of catch Cloud9 off guard yet again. So that Cloud9
haven't quite got the memo yet that there is potential that Wildcard are
gonna want to try and play this a little bit quickly. They are gonna want to
try and get in and get the job done nice and early and just what they're
gonna want to try and get the plant down. They've had the plant down three
out of the last four rounds. Only round they didn't get the plan down was the round that
Cloud9 won.
It seemed to finally be trending towards Wildcard's way as there's Holly contested in the first
half but since then Cloud9 have only won one of these sides or one of these sites. It
was Bath and Tellers which to be fair is the one we're going to right now. This
This was a very strong victory, I should say, for Cloud9.
Four players remaining at the end of the round, basically dispelling with the attack about
as soon as it began.
I was about to say we won't see the same thing, but I say that it was a very quick attack
last time and we have blitz in play this go around, so for all we know this could
actually be a lot quicker than we think.
It seems to me they're trying to recreate some of the success from that ventilation
workshop around to take this horizontally.
Yeah the horizontal push works out really well for them.
It's more than just a singular horizontal push though.
Cloud9 have opted to play the castle.
Now the castle isn't really going to slow this down.
You knew it was the ash and the blitz that pushed through customs last time so I'm going
to back his main strength, his castle barricades.
It's going to be dealt with quite nice.
They've got baby sharks supporting inside of passport as well.
Get that long angle open, this smoke placed out there, slightly different sight, but the
sentiment remains very similar.
It's going to start working against them right now, but we do have sentiment in the sight.
Why is he not stopping this?
He will hop up at that exact moment, center good for it.
Throwing the razor bloom out, it's focal in kick throw to get those two kills and
finally rotating around the oryx, now stopped by a castle barricade after all.
Attack well read by cloud nine.
And it seemed like for a brief moment the castle barricaded might cost C9 everything, but wrapping
around getting the information and with admittedly quite a heavy sight presence, C9 buy themselves
one more round and one more chance against Wildcard.
Though I say that, while costing a lot of HP, Adrian does find Kixrow.
Headshot onto the oryx who, let's be honest, was playing a little carefree with his life
so if he were going to get anything on this defense, the oryx was going to be
the one. Slow peeking around the corner. We'll reveal his position. And he
capitalizes off of it. And Baby Shark not in a good position to clutch that one V4.
One more round before we get our first OT of the night. But given C9's struggles
on defense, bathroom tellers was the easy one. It's every other site that's
been the issue. And you know Wildcard came up with a different approach. It
was a similar approach to what they'd used previously and being
successful with thought bathroom tellers is the sites that Cloud9 are successfully and
repeatedly holding on to at the moment, but they're going to have to find success in more
than just this site if they want to try and walk away with the round here, or at least
the game should I say.
Now I'm going to get enough opportunities to go down to bathroom tellers if that is
the only site that they're going to be doing the business on at the moment.
So wildcard, we can breathe a small sigh of relief knowing that it's very likely
we end up back at either ventilation or armory workshop
or armory archive, excuse me
it looks like we're in a
we're in a tech pause for one hour thirty and five fears
i guess that's uh...
is that a tech pause that has
waited an hour to sort of kick in links, do you think?
it's like um...
I was I can say on was it
no not delayed reaction
now that it was it was very funny so
it would have it would have to bang it to be fair if you're thinking about it
now yeah exactly and it's just like about at that point at that point if
you're not it if you're not about a break rate like kind of bill bar from
first principles you might as well just like
put it to rest
and others
bill burrs a comedian
I gathered that, but I don't know what his first principle is.
Well, no, I'm saying like recreate Bilber from first principles as in just like from the ground up, like recreate, you know.
I feel like it makes more sense than you're giving it credit for.
I feel like I feel like I'm getting used to nibble.
Winding. I'm being wound.
That's what's happening. That's what's happening.
Oh!
A clock, like a key with a clock.
You have a clock with a key?
Why would you use a key on a clock?
That's how you used to do it back in the day.
You used to wind a clock with a key.
Back in the day. Okay, come on.
Or if you've got an old clock, I don't know.
You might have an old clock.
Are you only like five years older than me?
What do you mean back in the day?
Like if you've got like a big grandfather clock
or I think a grandmother clock is a thing.
I think that's like one size down.
I'm sorry. I don't have any grand...
grandfather clocks because I didn't you know run around my parents estate in
Yorkshire or whatever no that's actually really offensive I'm from Lancashire
and Yorkshire and Lancashire don't get on I I didn't know that I'm really sorry
I didn't you didn't know that you didn't know about the War of the Roses I I do
know about the War of the Roses there you go I I mean I don't I I don't know
I don't know who was right I know who was wrong I know I know the War of
the roses was the basis for Game of Thrones.
Was it?
Yeah it was.
Did you know that?
No I didn't know that.
Yeah, George R. R. Martin was a big English history historian, but specifically medieval
and feudal English historian, and the Genesis for Game of Thrones, like the plot of the
first book and kind of the War of the Five Kings generally.
The basis of it was the War of the Roses.
I don't know the exact like the familial parallels, but I know like the Landers
were based on one and the Starks are based on the other. I'm pretty sure.
Interesting.
Somebody can fact-check me, but I think most of what I just said is correct.
I'll take it all as being correct. How's that?
I mean, I read a lot of fantasy, so I do feel if there's anything I've said tonight that I need desperately to be right about, it is that.
So if I am wrong, like don't tell me but just kind of like
Slide it in there in an hour after the fact like this tech boss
See that's a callback
Yeah, do apologize for this obviously tech pause we never liked them, but they do where they happily
They are a necessary evil of online play. Unfortunately. Hopefully we can get everybody back into the lobby
I only imagine that it's somebody that is disconnected and we are waiting for them to
to rejuvenate or reboot a PC or something along those lines, but it comes at quite interesting
time because the momentum of this game has been quite shifted at times. We've not really
seen one team hold an upper hand for really any length of time. I guess the most is the
two rounds that Cloud9, sorry, the three rounds that Cloud9 won from their defences into
their attack and likewise for Cloud9 they won three rounds on the bounce as well,
side from that. It has been a pretty back and forth game. Tactical timeouts working relatively
well for both teams and certainly the sideswap doing a little bit of a favor for Wildcard as well.
Giving them a bit of a chance to maintain some of that momentum that they'd found
toward the end of their defensive phase. Currently 6-5 for Wildcard. They only need one more round,
whereas Cloud9 are definitely fighting from behind at the minute.
You mentioned earlier the the standings and you know sort of the implication of this game
So we've currently got wild card in third tied with cloud nine cloud nine currently have the edge on them
I guess that that's going to be some sort of differential because the head Ted obviously isn't finished yet
It's not been finalized between these two teams
They both sit on three points
So the winner will clear the other and therefore be guaranteed in that third-place spot
against
So with space station space station again being in that second place
But the main news is that you're gonna be going in in that second or third place spot
And then you avoid being thrust straight into the lower bracket
And and then of course SG currently at six points
So if they just get one point in the game against outlast later in the night
Oh, they secure themselves second place because cloud nine and wildcard can only get a max of three points
So even if SSG lose an OT they will confirm the second place spot right behind dark zero at the top
We're currently sitting first with a four and oh record
Still pretty competitive, but much simpler than I what simpler than I might have led people to think
Yeah, I think that the highlight of group B has got to be dog zero, isn't it? You know for an O 12 points
the game. It's a lot of
games. Plus 16 or plus 17
round if. They've looked
fantastic, and there was a bit
of a question mark for me
coming into it. Obviously it
was a very similar core and
to what we've been used to
seeing in the space station
days, but with the addition
of Kino and how that was
sort of going to flex in how
that was going to fit. You
know, you've lost Kino
for action. There's a fair
difference. I would say in
side of things. And obviously it's great to see that they can go under a new organ and
continue some of the success and bring in even more success than we've seen them have previously.
Maybe sort of shake off some of the suspicions that we had when they were under that space
station roster. They're either the best team in the world or the worst team in the world.
They've been the best team in Group B throughout kickoff so far, and for them long may
that continue but looking a bit more closely at the game that we've got at our fingertips right now
we've got cloud nine wildcard still inside of this tech pause again unfortunately do apologize for
that for me links i think tonight it's been quite refreshing to see you know wildcard
i have a you know a bit of a tougher game really i know that there's there's a bit of a
question mark over cloud nine and and their sort of level and where they sit at the at the
moment inside of the greater picture that is going to be kickoff and obviously we'll get to see
a bit of cross-pollination when group A and group B merge and we go into the next sort of round of
games that's going to be starting next week. So again we'll get a bit of a better understanding
of where teams sit and who really is the best. But it's nice to see Wildcard, you know,
have some sort of problems to solve, be able to overcome that and get themselves a couple
of rounds. But Cloud9 is still in with a shout here. They need one round to bring this to
and overtime couple rounds to take it away. It isn't going to be given to them for free.
No, it will not. At least trend of the game so far for Cloud9's defenses. The only two successes
they've had have been on bathroom and tellers. The site we just saw played that admittedly was
still quite a dominant victory against Wildcard. But every other site we have seen these two teams
do battle on whether it was Armory up top or Ventilation Workshop in the middle.
It's not necessarily than one sighted, but it has been much more dominant to four wild
car than it has been on the opposite side.
Nothing quite like, you know, knife lawless, but still very good odds by the end.
Can stun fight from top line, but usually coming in the post plant when wild car already
have an advantage on time and on positioning.
So going back to Armory and Archives, the first sight we saw played this half.
I'm actually trying to remember exactly what happened in that room because it was the second one, right?
I saw Adrian hop in through, or walk in through the office door.
Oh, but the first one, see. Now, remember, second one, Adrian walked in through the office door and got two kills.
And the first one, Adrian walked in a fountain and got two kills.
Loading new medicine!
Seems to be a bit of a thing, isn't it?
Seems to be, seems to be a bit of a thing, bit of a move.
Yeah, I mean I don't need to reach for my magnifying glass to find the theme.
Two kills, two open picks and then the open pick has been decided as we have already mentioned.
Chance here, canzen.
Probably gets the worst end of that deal, takes a little bit of damage and loses his Stoma.
Knows now that we're going to have to deal with that as army upstairs if we're going to hope to try and get that wall open.
And it is going to slow down this approach.
Baccarat have often gone for these more minimalistic takes where it don't really look to try and control the whole map, they just take what they need, and then make good from that point onwards.
This time it's going to be Baby Shark with that opener on to it.
How about me? Renoting!
It would spike over the follow up counter punch on bottom east stairs. Thought he might be going after the player inside a break, but no.
Focal, safe and sound, asterisk for the time being.
He's got some keepers to block off any push from this blitz, and maybe an opportunity to retreat into office?
But it's certainly not safe.
Not entirely comfortable, though the sim can be set for spiker.
Count to one HP.
Any play you hope to get with that blitz is going to be cast much further into doubt.
There's one shot to the foot, or basically from any source whatsoever.
And the tip of the spear will, unfortunately, fall flat.
Not like any kind of contact with the enemy.
A bit of a call count.
Wildcard taking a breather outside a break in East Stairs.
And this feel the momentum has rapidly slipped away as Cloud9 don't have all that out of position
No, Cloud9 not in a bad spot. Spyro on 1 HP as well
That's gonna lend a little bit of advantage to them. What depends on this engagement right here though, Spyro
Are you able to find the angle? Can you find the beat? Someone's gonna jump in and make something happen
Why is it fine? Aiden! Oh, Spyro eventually takes him down, but not before they force it as well
That should have been a layup. You knew exactly where the player was
But the angle was just too great, ducking and diving, slithering like a snake, bro!
The window, not able to make it happen. You've now got a spiker on one HP, baby shark, on that snake.
He's going to get a bit of information here. He's wrong focal. All they need to do is put he up.
All they need to do is put he up. No C4, thankfully no impact whatsoever.
And covering up that mirror window with the smoke, spikers should be able to get it off in time.
But this could very quickly fall into a 1v2 with Baby Shark, the only gun. And I mean, even let's be honest.
Probably the only gun left alive.
Spiker might be able to find something.
But as the key of Barrier goes up, it's a late repel to rotate to the window.
Covered by the Barricade, sprays on through, Focal damaged and forced off.
Spiker, oh, it's barely knocked back!
But the only one left, try and get this for Wildcard.
Cloud9 now rotating, Focal going for the plant, falls off.
Giving Spiker a welcome reprieve, whether he knows it or not, but tucked around the corner.
The Prefire has to land on Kixro and nobody's giving anything and on Kixro might fall, but Focal gets the defuse!
First OT of the night as a fumble on Radio Window casts everything into question.
You've got a question why he drops off Vence Window there.
I think that's the winning angle.
You've got the post plant from there, you just need to harass on the shield.
You either kill Focal as he's trying to stop,
You know as he's trying to like body blocking and get in the way and shoot you back as the blitz or you you kill vocal and you win
The round it really is that simple
This was the one for me. It was a knife kill as well by the way
Nowhere and pops the knife
It's kicks excuse me on the diffuser, but I mean the sentiment remains kicks are all there on the diffuser
You've got to you've got to go for one of them
I think you have to stay on the window because the time then was just too great and you've got such a long
Distance you got that whole catwalk area that you've got to then transition through to be able to affect on the planet because he's
Can't be sure
You just got to feel for spiker and
Who I remember who was with him on that one though
But got a feel for those two people radio window dessert tantalizingly out of sight and you want to just say hop and hop in
At the same time, I can just see him hopping in and still getting stabbed in the sheds.
Seems like there's no good options in that situation in the Cloud 9.
Right at the very end.
Win a sight beyond tolerance and bathroom and now make things quite difficult and uncertain for Wildcard.
We're gonna go back to the attacking side, but now that it's paying out to be a 3-3-1 half,
maybe Armory and Archives, but that Armory and Archives around will end up proving an anomaly.
But it's still going to be a little bit of a doubt lingering in their minds as Clive and
I, kind of speaking, continue the rotation and go down to ventilation in workshop in our
first round beyond regulation.
Castle back in play, as we saw on that other ventilation in workshop, we translate the
introduction of a mirror, I believe, for the first time on this site.
That's going to be quite difficult for a while for our first group.
Reloading!
Yeah, the mirror's a bit of a road trick there, isn't it?
It's gonna make things a bit more tricky.
I'm reloading!
Cloud9's sticking on this defense side, obviously.
I'm not really gonna favor either team because it was a 3-3 half that got us here from both sides to begin with.
It's mainly being on those opening picks, and with Spiker going down first there,
it doesn't bode well here for Wildcard itself.
That's the barricade here, kind of doing a little bit of work to
assist the top of east stairs and get in and make a little bit of statement up there.
Wildcard 4 is going to disform up there at the moment.
They've been given up by the defants either sticking to their angles inside of
fountain, sticking to their positions I should say. Setting up some layers as
well, quickly C4 by center down below.
She had the B-scroll by Adrian, 60% of his primary utility and not really gaining anything beyond information that I think you could reasonably intuit.
Somebody might be in fountain.
Tri-probe for weakness at the moment, or maybe sensing it down below, but you can't help but feel in every position that Cloud9 have a bit of a leg up on everybody.
Maybe they can use this soliton scanner and center could get spotable with a new jammer auto.
No, all they can do is peek around the corner!
But Bay just quickly swings back, dodges the shotgun blast,
opens up a hole in the wall rather than a hole in Bay's chest,
can find another day, but it's the next engagement
that proves tricky.
As Focal goes down, it's still technically a 4v4.
But two players on wildcard and low HP, one of them goes.
Bay might be the next up.
As they push deeper into customs,
Cans and good for that one.
And it's three on three with only 28 seconds remaining.
Kicks Row taking center's position.
Working inside a library, as Kanzan
has moved into ventilation with the diffuser.
Not sure how much vertical he can get.
The holes are open, pinning at the angles.
No bay watching and waiting.
At the right time, fires the shots.
Wildcard confirmed their lead.
As Eddie's stuck upstairs, trapped with the rest of his team,
might spot a few right by the main double door.
But it's a long row down to the bottom,
but it's very little angles to shoot from the top.
Maybe with enough bullets, take down Bay,
maybe can sit as well if you can get the opportunity
but times ticking low, lower and lower
with just barely anything left to think about.
To find that if you use only one shot at this
to hope that wild card fall back, miss their shots
and they won't.
Another chance at match point for wild card
and another chance at escaping a fate
in the lower bracket.
I think Wildcard really have to try and capitalize on this now. They've shown us another good attack him round there
Again, one of those anomaly rounds where the opening pick doesn't lead to a conversion
It's focal. They got the opening pick instead of round 13
Wildcard were able to fight back there
Great control of that top floor
They were able to sweep through, I think to be honest, they were able to use the Castle
Barricades to their advantage.
A little bit that really assisted some of the speed in that top floor clear.
And Cloud9 just not able to hold on there.
Again, another big round from Bay.
I was just having a quick look because it feels like he's got more kills than he
has at this moment in time.
I've got them down at the minute for 12 kills.
One of those, one of the rounds I believe was an ace.
And he's got a 3k inside of round 5 as well.
I don't know, it just feels like he should be credited with more than 12 kills at this
moment in time, but they're the numbers and the numbers that do not why it seems it's
been a much more team contribution than we could be led to believe there.
With both Spiker and Ajun both putting a bit of double digits as well.
Unruly Kanzan who is sort of lagging behind the rest of the pack.
I may have been shocked but on the whole three main
fragging powers on the side of Wildcard are doing their job and they're doing it
nicely. Can they avoid the max OT now and close it all out here as they sit on
7-6 or are Cloud9 gonna have another bite at this point here for this game?
It feels like they've more than their fair share at this point and it
just feels like momentum's got the better of them.
And to your point about they by the way, you're correct. It is that ace and is that 3k so
75% of sorry two-thirds of
They've been coming only in two rounds kind of thing about that's the ones those like it's only in two rounds
But if you only play like nine twelve in this case
14 so far
It's got two rounds and what has been a very close game
So do you having a consistent impact? No, but when the margins are close
a round like that that saved the game for you. If he doesn't get that, it's probably over in regulation for Cloud9.
So, hard to continue, but something to note. Especially if we go forward, while Cloud9 go to their intensive side,
one of those multi-kills did occur on the defense. There are also some moments of bay jumping out of the window,
getting taken down by Cloud9, bit of a distance at others between the wildcard defenders.
What will we see on wildfire to one attempt? Will it be sufficient to close out a victory?
Will we need to see another attack?
Just to see who escapes that lower bracket.
Sends her getting some good information on the player playing around, found, playing inside of office.
But Cloud9 without any avenue in just yet.
No, there's not.
It's not the end of the world, though. We can usually make an avenue with that Monty.
We think that's sort of a successful attack in rounds. It was a very Monty ledge.
As soon as that monster is able to start in and start dishing that information out,
players usually are able to act on it.
But that's through wild card, maybe trying too much
or making too many moves in the moment.
A bit like this one for majoring. Washes forward, fortunately gets saved by Kanzli.
He's also got Spiker walking up East-Earth's grave.
A couple of heroes here from Spiker. Misses out on the second.
The plan is going down in the middle of the chaos.
I was gonna say maybe can still go down, but no baby shark hopping up on the desk spiker finally getting another chance at it
It seems easy nothing to do
Eight and six for wild card will get two chances as we enter the bracket stage
But both teams I mean Ollie some good performances, but man was that back and forth
What a back-and-forth game and I think with all the brakes and the tech pause that we had in between it as well
it feels like it was an absolute marathon and the wildcard are gonna be
breathing a sigh of relief there maybe Cloud9 is feeling like they could have
done a little bit better we're gonna take a short break after that we'll be back with our next
and we'll see you next time.
Wildcard take the overtime win
against cloud nine and we've
got spiker joining us now
after this was spiker.
Congrats on coming out with a
win here and closing off the
group stage in the positive
Obviously, you're going to make playoffs.
You're going to the upper bracket.
You don't have to worry about that anymore.
How do you feel like this team is meshing?
What do you feel like you have to work on?
You know, honestly, like I think we're meshing really well.
I think we're improving a lot.
Honestly, the problem has been that our practice,
especially on defense,
is just not translating the game well at all.
Like we're playing very reactionary
and not correctively at all.
And that's not the way that we're playing in practice.
So honestly, a lot of like,
we feel like we're really good.
We feel like we're better than we were last year already.
It's just about translating practice better to game day,
especially on the defensive side, our attacks are fine.
It's really just about the defenses.
Well, Spiker, congratulations on the win.
I thought you got kidnapped by Wally right there
for a second, your mic's gonna go crazy.
You know, you're like a little brother to me.
I've been, it's been fun watching your growth.
It's been fun watching how well you've succeeded
in your career so far.
But man, what has been going on?
Why do you guys always do this reasonably?
Like internationally.
You guys are just at the tipping point of winning the entire thing and then we come back to regional play and it's just like all right
You know we get to playoffs and now I'm sure because this seems to also be a tendency for you guys
For whatever reason once playoffs are on the line
You get it done and then once you get into the playoff bracket you get it done and you qualify
So are we gonna see you guys at the top of this bracket now?
Are we gonna see you guys push all the way through make us SLC like what is going on?
Honestly, I don't even think right now it's a regional thing. I think it's just like a game-day thing last year
We were bad in scrims in NA and we're bad on game. I agree. I was nationally
So right now we're good in scrims, but we're sucking on game day today
I think was a little bit better. We're a little bit more proactive
But it's still not even close to the level that we know we can be at
I was gonna say one more thing
What was that Looney to round on round 12 where you're just going up and down playing whack-a-mole with your shield not
jumping in knowing he's fly like what what's going on listen man first game
day where I played a lot of shields bro it wasn't too bad it wasn't too bad
alright it wasn't too bad I don't know that was awkward bro I kept seeing his
elbow and then he was just gone like I don't know I was trying to shoot him but
he was disappearing from my screen bro sorry sir well I mean I'm glad you
mentioned you playing shields for the first time we know that with Dash's
departure on the team you've taken up a lot of his load of when it comes to
his roles and things like that and personally I feel like watching it maybe
those roles have impacted your capability to IGL the team as a whole.
Do you feel like that's something that is true or do you think it's just taking
time to adjust to the roles or has it impacted your IGLing ability at all or
is it just you guys are a scrim team now or something like that?
Honestly I think it's made easier for them for the most part our attacks have felt way better
like in general so I honestly it has been a purely like defense thing for us like
SSG we had a 4-2 attack on club and then lost all five defenses yesterday we had a
one-five defense on back so like and today we got three attacks I think we
should have gone for it but that's besides the point but in general I
think it's definitely easier to IGL it's just about on defenses like it's
about the whole team communicating with each other and we've just been
struggling with an ungame day and being proactive and stuff so do you
you want to know by chance what your defensive win rate is.
Don't tell him.
I already know what it is, and I don't want you to say it out loud.
OK, so I already know what it is.
Do not say it.
32%.
He said it at the right time.
I said, don't say it.
Spiker, thank you so much.
Appreciate your candor.
And well, appreciate you guys taking this win here.
We look forward to seeing what you guys can do in the playoffs
in a couple of weeks.
Thanks so much.
All right, thank you.
A wild card.
Come out on top over Cloud9 here.
As Spikers said, Fox, it wasn't necessarily the best game of all time, but they're moving in the right direction, still clearly some things to work on.
Yeah, I mean, if they're saying that things are going well in scrims and then it's not translating to game day, there's a lot of factors that could be just stress of it all, the pressure of, you know, playing not to make mistakes.
Of course, it's going to happen when you make such a roster change of moving dash and getting a player like Adrian and Spikers changing his roles.
I mean, I think they understand exactly what they need to do.
The same mentality of Wild Card is still the same,
like they have the good ideas.
I think there's just a couple little minute gunfights
in areas that slip away.
But this last and final round, I mean,
it was just very well played by Wild Card with the retakes.
Like they communicated it so well.
So the mindset is still there.
And I think it's taking a little bit more time.
And hopefully in a best of three series,
which is where Wild Card is going to be going next week
or in two weeks.
Hopefully we'll be able to see them have time to process things and fix it proactively because the best one sometimes is very short
And that I'd say that's where wildcard strives is being able to adapt against their opponent
You need time to be able to adapt
No, I completely agree with you and we've seen time and time again once wildcard actually makes it into a bracket playward
Is best of threes that is typically where they do excel and I can understand best of ones being a little complicated
Especially an accelerated league you made a roster change
But I do want to pivot quickly over to cloud nine because if what we're hearing from spiker that they felt good
Their attacks felt strong then that only just speaks into how well cloud nine was also playing given how close this game was
I know you're a little bit of hater your role in your eyes and the unfortunate bit is I can't make fun of you because your success is my
Success and your losses are my losses, so it's like friendly fire at this point
I can't really roast you in that regard but fact of the matter is cloud nine did show up today
They're still in bracket play.
Yes, they are in losers bracket or lower bracket rather no lifelines, but I'm excited to see what they can do come best of threes
Well, we've got M80 and Shopify rebellion coming up next one thing
We do know for certain is that cloud nine they're in the playoffs. They don't have to worry about that
They just will not get that second chance. We'll be right back
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
M80 and Shopify Rebellion.
A match that may not seem like it matters that much on paper, but actually does have some
fairly substantial implications, namely for the team that's been struggling the most.
Shopify Rebellion, in their current position in third, tied for one of 30, meaning if
they lose here in regulation, by more than two rounds, Fox, they will find themselves
in fourth place going straight to the lower bracket.
Yeah, it's not a situation that we would have expected
Shopify or buying to be in a position
where they could end up fourth,
let alone not be dominating the group.
I mean, this group as a whole,
we thought SRM maybe would be at the top
and that being said to see how things have shaped up.
It's been entertaining to watch.
But if you're a Shopify or buying fan,
you have to feel a little scared.
I mean, you have so much talent on the roster.
You have the best idea in North America.
What is going wrong?
Well that is the question here for Shopify Rebellion. For M80, the question is, Lacks,
where can they go from here? How can this roster continue to improve? They're coming off a win
against 100 thieves, one that showed us how they can respond off of the back of a not-so-good loss
the week before. Yeah, I mean, I don't even think it was a bad loss before. Like I said,
it really just came down to certain gunfights, maybe not adjusting in certain situations.
But overall, to yesterday's match versus Under Thieves,
I thought they showed a very great resilience.
They had great orchestrated retakes and post-plants,
in particular.
There was that one round, I believe it was round four,
where we did highlight that.
But overall, it's just been very, very strong
from this team through and through.
There hasn't been really much to critique outside of maybe
not having a stronger, supportive player like Kino.
They did pick up Ashen, however,
and even in this round in particular,
Ashen was a huge reason why they were able to win that.
He was able to play below, he was able to stall out the time for the rotate to be able to go back.
And again, the round that I really want to talk about with talking about, you know,
an orchestrated retake was that round four because it just shows the discipline that this team
will always continue to have. I mean, it's a 3v4 and it looks loseable at this. I mean,
it's 5v3 at this point, it just looks lost. It doesn't look like you're going to be able
to go for this retake very well, but they play extremely well. They understand how they
need to isolate these players. It was a great Grishmont out to the player on Windows.
And then it was just a very swift and concisive retake to be able to go for that post-plant.
And again, this is a MAD roster that I had questions about because we highlighted before
with them having a supportive player like Kino, that they had that structure,
they had that pillar, removing it. I thought it was going to come with ramifications.
I thought they weren't going to be able to be as strong.
But, and that's another thing to note is if you are an MAD fan and you are curious to
see how they're faring comparisonively to what it was with Kino, I have something that
that kind of illustrates the difference between the two.
Because if you look at the first three days
when they picked up Kino back in 2025,
this is the team's average in their EPS.
Statistically, Ashen is already performing better
with this team.
So it really paints the picture that
is this a better version of M80 earlier in the league?
Absolutely.
Ashen and the team had been playing exceptionally well.
Obviously there's still more time that needs to be gel.
We heard from him in his interview
and talking with Fabian that there really isn't a goal
not necessarily a goal but there isn't expectations. They know what's going to take time. The process
needs to happen but with each and every single win, each and every single rep underneath their
belt they are going to get back to those glory days. I mean we can't deny that both of these players
are extremely talented on different sides of the coin. One is support, one is more aggressive.
We know what Ashton is going to bring to the table with clutch ability, getting those
opening kills. It's not him that I would be concerned about on the roster. It would be
more of Gunnar, Diffuser, and Gevini.
The core players on how they adjust to certain roles,
some are getting more comfortable on the utility operators
than others, but those are the bigger three
that I would look towards because they
have to adjust for Ashen.
Ashen's going to succeed, but we
want everybody else on the team to succeed as well.
Well, Fox, let's keep it here with Shopify Rebellion
for a moment, because this is the team that's
been the biggest surprise of the stage
and not in a good way.
This is a team that scraped by twice with two overtime victories.
And finally they got put in their place, dismantled by five fears yesterday.
This team needs to perform well here, otherwise they're going to the lower bracket.
I mean, they do.
I mean, it's almost as if Canadian, whatever team he's on, always loves to go to the overtime matches.
But against five fears, they got absolutely smoke showed.
And I really do think that this has been a virus that has slowly been
growing and growing within the team because we've talked about how in a
regional league they just rely on gunplay. There's not as much eye-jealing
from any of Canadians previous teams because he has so much talent on the
team. You want to let these players breathe and have the freedom to make
amazing plays but what happens when you don't practice adaptation enough?
Only gunfights can only win you so much and at a certain point you hit a
roadblock and that roadblock was five fears.
Chobhavar Rebellion did not have any responses to the shield play.
Their vans early on were ying and glass.
It didn't seem like they did their preparation correctly.
And then when they tried to adjust, it was too little too late.
At that point, they're bringing explosives to deal with the shields.
But the other team was adapting, getting ready.
And Chobhavar Rebellion was still doing the same thing of individual fights.
We're going to have big plays.
We have a C4 if they try to plant.
Well, the C4s didn't work.
What is the response?
We haven't seen Chobhavar Rebellion answer those questions.
And that's the biggest fear for me.
is because when they go to events and they play against top tier teams, that's where we see the
weaknesses, the cracks starting to form. But now we're seeing it in NA and that's not something
that we have ever seen from Shalva by Rebellion. Usually they have smooth sailing up until they
make it to these majors and that's when we see the struggles arise. Yeah, much more bumpy road
for them this time. Yesterday, the map that they got taken apart on, that was Shalva. You
have to imagine that's going to be something they're looking to avoid this time around.
They ban out the fortress that's M80 which means we end on cafe where this one is going to be decided again shop of fire
rebellion, they have to avoid a
Regulation lost by more than two rounds if they want to stay in the upper bracket over to links and XR Troika for this one
I mean less than a regulation lost by two rounds
They got all these all these numbers all these above the shoulders stuff Ali that really I can't wrap my head around
But I can tell you this, I love Shopify,
well I love every team in the NAL,
but I love Shopify Rebellion,
but a seven one loss yesterday,
seven to one loss going into the day.
I mean, it's five fears, I get it, but geez.
Yeah, doesn't make the greatest picture, does it?
For a team that we are expecting to perform, SR,
no slouch team, the only team not to make a change
ahead of kickoff here in NAL.
And that is a point that is kind of worth reiterating time again, because whether that's that they are not making changes because they are performing exceptionally well or not making changes because they are in our eyes under performing in some ways, it's worth mentioning and just figuring it all out.
They've got a lot to do to bounce back from their results yesterday.
M80, of course, with the recent edition of action.
I wouldn't say that things have been particularly smooth sailing for M80 either.
They also suffered a defeat at the hands of five fears,
albeit a much closer 7-5 was played out on Fortress
only a couple of days ago.
It's interesting that we end upon cafe or this game. It's very fairly low or middle to low
preference for shopper fire rebellion. I've got it as their sixth preference. And that's
of course accurate data because they haven't made a change. So there's no reason to, there's
no reason to not pull from a little bit more historic data on their side of things. M8C
only one change. So you can still pretty much believe that the data in the preferences,
It is their third preference. They've got a very good record on this map five and two
Last played of course one of against one of 30 and that was a way in
seven to three
SR they haven't played it in some time
They've not played it in a couple of months the last time they played it was of course
Intentional that was the last bout of competitive siege that we saw inside tier one
They played against space station and they did lose so
Coming into things, we hope that both teams are very well prepped, obviously with the
rebellion wetting this amount through and knowing that MAT have got some very recent
success on it, they may be looking to try and counter that somewhat.
However, they're going to be starting off on the attack, MAT starting things off on
the defensive.
And before I may be starting off the defense, I shockingly will not have the benefit
of the zombie or the castle, which are just one of the two standard bands.
Just keep me that top floor sight in mind
I'm gonna make Christmas as in defense school as possible and by extension make the site overall a lot more difficult
Conversely press ours attacks Monty and the ying. You're always gonna ban Monty against Canadian and my ink just really quite annoying
So as you go forth here into a middle floor defense from M80
You have to be on the lookout for the verticality of any kind no matter what site you're defending
It's with the one of the most powerful tools
on these second floor sites
And then, Kofi-mi-ki-ki, standing on in front of the barricade, cool as a cucumber as, well, bullets fly and zip right by his head.
Nothing bad happens, moment. First made it in, and it's a standard cafe around.
We must have one going to the roof or on the hotel, getting some information for making the round on the third floor sometime in the next 30 seconds.
So I'm just gonna throw some bees out there over to the wall. Why? We've got a bit of drone action happening here inside of the piano as well.
With a mirror up, it makes moving into piano quite difficult.
You can move it in, look at this voice position right now.
It's good to go into long bar, look up to the ROU to try and play around, but go very slow to get straight on through it.
Ooh, but, surf, good for two on the follow-up.
Keeping things down in the same position.
The noting with the clear leads, you've reached the exact halfway point of the round.
Positionally, though, the fuser with this mirror window fully intact, kind of difficult through it against that.
But when you look at things, everybody's on this top floor.
Sure, they got the two near windows. Sure, they've got basically Christmas fully locked down, long bar fully on hold.
But nobody's actually on the site and you can see I think both teams realizing that at the exact same time.
Rebellion players creeping in through snow door and also two M80 players dropping back down to the site.
Ashen quick on that reaction to catch the player lurking through red.
M80.
That's only might be microsecond, but just ever so slightly ahead of SR on the plan there.
There's a good rotation for both teams, but M80 just ever so quicker.
Kading finds a little bit of an angle.
Maybe another world could have caught the Fuser on that very tight one.
At least not for the moment. Backs up to red stairs.
Rexxen taking point in the push up. White, full pings, but Canadian. Not even a lick of damage taken.
Very important 1v1 as they creep down to the middle floor. Rexxen pulling back.
thinking now that they can maybe get some kind of plant inside of the site
especially Ashen found, oh but through the hatch, forced into his own TMA Canadian
now in the 1v2. Looking to get some cover as he pushes into the site, drops it
hoping to catch a quick rotation going 10 seconds to go. The time for Wiley
Tricks is over, there are gonna need to be kills or a plant and it's looking more
like the former. Not a whole lot to get information even less on time and so
as we hit triple zero, Canadian in the most vulnerable position of all and
That'll be what gives M 80 there first.
Yeah, I made to do a really good job there. I think like you say, they were just ahead on the rotate.
They'd recognize they'd held enough time on that top floor and didn't need or want to really hold any longer.
Getting that rotation off was a key wing condition there, forcing SR into a bit more of a conversion,
a bit more of a take, a bit more of an execute, however you want to word it and really put in the pressure on.
M80 were fantastic on their defences a couple of days ago back when we saw them play at 1 of 30.
They went flawless on that defensive phase. And that's not too unusual. Let's contextualize this.
1 of 30, maybe not the best attacking team in the league.
Caffe are difficult map to attack into, but still M80 absolutely dominated in that regard.
So SR have more than got their work cut out for them here on this attacking phase.
from round one whilst it wasn't close.
I think there was a window of opportunity
to that for the rebellion.
I think there was as well.
I mean, especially when circuits are double
in the mid-round.
You've got them in your windows
and you've got a lot of utility
that's difficult to cut through,
but it's definitely a close game
and I think given the fact that both teams
realized at the same time
the kind of rotation that should be made,
in any case that round one
was very much a game of equals.
And so we'll switch things up ever so slightly,
still a downing in defense
switching the mining for reading and basically SR's lineup pretty consistent as well. The
only thing Gunner saw that player duck down beneath the van was Ambie who avoided any
kind of engagement whatsoever with his counterpart on M80. So with no exchange of gunfire at
the beginning beyond just parting shots from Gunner, look to a run out, but likely not
Not much more beyond that from M80, give one player a little bit of a freer reign, but beyond that it's going to be a pretty similar beginning of the round, get up to the roof, put down the track stingers, get on your drones, like you'd be waiting, maybe not too much longer, but a little bit longer before we see some action.
I'm kind of surprised that the mirror has been left open, you know.
In this army castle, I kind of get it in a lot of ways, but I was just having a flip through
M8C's previous game on this map and MIRROR was taken out, like they didn't play MIRROR,
and there is kind of a bit of a reason for that.
It's such a powerful thing on CAFE.
You can quite literally play them anywhere.
You can play them on the site, you can play them off the site.
In this instance, M8C had chosen to play them off the site to gain a little bit
more control of this top floor.
Oh dear, that was a scrappy one there, but Ambi faves it just to the end.
Not before Gveni takes down Rekson.
But he still thinks he's found a gap.
No, he thinks he's found one being the operative word diffuser,
hit by a flashbang and a grenade, but still holding the position firm.
Ambi actually is the one who loses more HP in that engagement.
He can't even next to fall.
How does diffuser get away with that?
It's a trade from both players, but the only favor is M80.
The control of the diffuser inside a bathroom is spoilt, crept around the corner.
Wishing he had some nades but likely calling surf those flashbangs and that
dope would be call which goes out. I don't know how much sport is comforted by
hearing the phone calls around the corner. Knowing that his biggest fear that
that defense does have control of the diffuser is very much real. Waiting for
surf to get in position, flanking up white, the pressure being asserted from
just around the corner. A three-way crossfire as that made him get
flexible ahead of surf's rotation of white. No worry about a cutoff angle
Our surf has to try and recreate exactly where sport failed nice little purifier give them credit for that as it both that made
He players drop down
Recognizing that that moment is gone. They need to win this out on the site
Pick up the diffuser
Sir flacking for information with that dope be called going almost a minute prior it feels like
the
last flash bang goes out.
Doesn't get anything from it.
Swings around the corner has
once done and trapped. But no,
Oh, paints a nice little picture
inside a reading, but I don't
think a single shot hit on
cold. It's tough, isn't it?
Sir speed in that position so
many times before and we've
had him down as like the
clutch master of NAL in previous
that clip I see the first shot on to Washington I'm like it could be time it
could be one of those moments it usually has the SMG 12 in hand as well but very
uncharacteristically whiffs pretty much a whole magazine there on hot and I don't
know if it'll be in the highlight there to be fair it was quite windy in
cafe in general we saw ambi with struggling with this great control on
to the venue if you did a little bit more sure with the shot there's a
chance that, you know, Gavenny isn't able to take down that first kill, but I want to
know what action type. You can tell he's straight onto the keyboard. You just know he's straight
into the old chat, don't you?
I mean, two and a half years into the NL, we know. We know. We know. It's a brand
at this point.
Do you want to make a roll?
Should make a roll?
Book.
Go through all the previous broadcasts, everything that he's ever said, and just put it in a
book.
Each bit could be its own page.
That actually would be really cool.
Can you imagine like Ashen was a big tournament, we'd give him a scrapbook of every single
trash talk he's typed in chat.
That would actually be pretty funny.
Either way, didn't see it last time, oh, and be taking a little bit of damage.
Really love Scream for about 5 HP worth of damage, but that's fine.
Either way, to rather than a rope for M80, I will say, if we're talking about rotations,
that rotation in the 2v3, basically fully incinerated, spoiling inside a freezer was
a nasty call from whoever did it on the defense.
So it's, you know, a lot of, I would say, just a lot of good awareness and good
problem solving.
They're also just great activity as well
Didn't see it as much from SR in that round, but given their struggles yesterday. I mean
The rebellion still only have one round in two days two days at the moment
So looking just to get something on the board
Even if they lose have a bit of a better day keep mind not an elimination game both these teams still in but
The rebellion very much at risk potentially dropping a bit further down inside the groups
I also don't exactly know where but rexen ready for that one gunner hopping out in the wall a little bit too predictable
Oh good job that's all action to take boy down if I'm seeing for another area as well
rexen on the repel
I mean whatever happens from that point onwards for action
he has had a successful round six and one at the minute so it was a dangerous day when he's firing.
Another occasion where M8C have a hefty advantage with around a minute left on the clock.
Individually brought back by Ashen to swing you around. Two different one-view ones getting
both of them and it feels like three rounds in a row SR have got caught up on this position.
made it on the red made it into Christmas and then beyond that it is bloody brutal and just does
not seem to go their way hot and cold is probably one of the most classic rat spots on this map
sit behind the desk see if anybody wide swings new balcony and well they didn't drone it they didn't
know now ambi stopped in a one versus three wall banging that the second person to wall bang
that desk by the way hot and cold is long gone the rebellion trying to win last we were trying
to win the last war at the moment. It's Emmy on the cusp of going up three to zero. That would not
be shocked if a tactical timeout gets called and the rebellion try to get things back on track early.
Yeah, it's got to be a tack, isn't it? I don't think that you can continue and let that go. You
can't let the momentum continue here for M. 80. Not that I think that a tactical timeout is
going to slow M. 80 down. You can see that these players are absolutely vibing at the moment.
It's been played in every round, obviously, because it's open, but it has been such a key
factor.
I'm sure you could have banned the mirror first and banned the castle in the second round.
I mean, it's been a great
game. But it's been such a key
factor. I sure you could have
banned the mirror first and
banned the castle in the second
round. It is. It has been such
a key factor for M. A. D. I
almost feel like the map is
starting anew. For how
important that mirror was,
not only terms like the
utility, but also just even
the individual playing it. I
mean, Ashen putting up some
great performances of 3 K and
available has arguably been the most, by far and away, the most impactful thing for MAD so far.
Do you want to know the best bit?
I would love to know the best bit.
The best bit about this whole thing is that if we are only going to look very briefly over our shoulder and not deep dive into the history books,
if we look at the last time that MAD played this map against 1 of 30, a game that I've referenced a couple of times already, because it's relevant, it's happened very recently, they played Castle one time.
want and for some reason I start out straight away in the first round and
leave the mirror open am I wrong or M80 played the exact same lineup three
rounds in a row
because we had a mirror every round Gavini's played a rune every round I'm
pretty sure diffuser played to around every round no it is it yeah I mean
He defuses Nailed onto 2brow, like you are not getting that DMR out of his hands and you're also not seeing his O-Kannister toss.
It's just the way in the world.
How's that? I feel like I've...
No, that was last game. That was last game.
I was gonna say, I feel like I've seen the toss of Zotokannister and I was like, oh, no, that was on board.
I genuinely don't think we've seen his O-O toss.
It's also, by the way, it is still the exact same line-up, except Ashen, because Mera's
band has now switched to Sentry, so it seems like I made him have a game plan, a very
clear, consistent game plan for every single site.
Well, and I won't say this, I think it does kind of make sense when you think about
it because the only site you've not played is Kitchet, and basically every other defense
they've played has evolved around.
shocker black mirrors on top floor which you have to defend for basically
every single side except kitchen
yeah it's just quite DMR heavy isn't it I don't know that we're not seeing the
Aruni in there and the in the tube route because of the utility we are
genuinely seeing it because of the DMR
what I'm called could trigger discipline knows the claim was in place so I
can't really go for the gym power hatches open now as well so he's not
necessarily the best position.
Oh, Mosidoma, it's going to slow down the twitches approach a little bit.
Surf on Snake this time.
By the way, round one, I think it was, so I've got two kills and he was outside of East.
I have no idea because I don't even know how he was like challenging on the windows or anything like that.
This isn't going to be a factor though.
He isn't going to get two kills mysteriously out of nowhere.
Instead, it is going to be M80, continuing their prowess.
Good walk.
Honestly, imagine, white page, nice font, just good walk in the middle of it, and like
chun 1104.
Like, just chalk it up.
It's a book that's going to sell it.
It'll be a New York time bestseller.
Honestly, honestly, I feel like a good walk was also warranted there for correction taking
down Gunner.
Gunner running out so far is trying to compensate for the Coriolis effect, shooting around the Earth's curvature to get that run out.
And it did not pan out! Not pan out!
For our friend on the Solus.
You could forgive him for feeling confident though, for feeling that he might just be that guy.
Because SR has certainly not been that team for 4 rounds now.
It's only a 3v4, that should be said.
There's minimal verticality, but the odds are not in terms of sheer player count.
All that bad. Hey, look, that's two Zoto canisters. I just want to say that. I'm real
I've only got that on the record probably a third by the time this is done
I mean consider on the record
Three Zoto canisters one C4 one more kill for shop fire belly out now
It's usually the point where we should all start taking it seriously because as they fire off the brown stairs walk up
One-to-one could easily turn things for shop fire belly and not just in terms of the man counter for momentum as well
Just one site cleared out is all they need to get up full and start putting this diffuser down
Spoil tacked up quite low Canadian Sweeney deep inside of the smoke and sees one cross
But unfortunately doesn't check his closed corner good trade by rex in that so much time already spent nothing for the attack to do
It is four in a row for m80
Trains not stopping here
We'll be a little bit closer. It felt like there was a glimmer of hope there for a star
But still just a little bit too slow in that approach
I'm not sure what it is but it's kind of like they're just caught in the mud a little bit
in that early portion of the round and consistently we are seeing M80 come over here with that
opening pick.
It feels like M80, they're limit testing at the moment.
They are trying to get just a little bit more aggressive every single time.
It's calculated though.
It's not like they're both doing it and it's like all five players are doing it
and all five players are running around.
In that round it was gonna, you tried his luck but unfortunately for him it was
a little bit too much of a stretch. I feel like Rexon didn't even know where he was getting
shot from there in those final couple of seconds, really in the spin cycle.
4-0 for M-80. I mentioned they were flawless on their game, on the defense in their game
on CAFE only a couple of days ago against 1 of 30. Now shaping up to go flawless here again
Now, very different lineup though, considering that we have seen them play the same operators
pretty much every single round, bar round, four dupes of the Mirabean band, we're actually
seeing a little bit of diversity here. We've got a Mute, we've got a Goyo, we've even got
a Tade thrown into the mix. This top floor hold is not going to be as great forward and as such
you're going to need something to chew up a little bit of time later on into the round
And that's really where the go-yo comes into play.
Mute, of course, fantastically slowing down this drone game.
And of course, I feel like you're saving the best for last,
the K2 World combo.
You saw those reinforcements on the top four.
Instead of having some head holes to aid the mirror window,
it's just getting fully reinforced.
Though the Zodo canister's on,
keep the electroclaws on there as well.
It is going to be a much more passive defense from M80,
but contesting the exact same amount of control
as they were when that mirror was on the board.
and when they were defending Reading Room and Fireplace last.
This is not gonna make SR feel any better whatsoever,
because at least before they had some opportunities
to like get some angles, find some gaps.
But here, we don't have any Thatcher on the board,
don't have any EMPs, you've got the IQ
who can go from below and that could be quite helpful,
but when the vertical you need
is pretty much entirely co-extensive
with the bomb side itself, it's a bit difficult,
but Ambi will make their way in,
they're going to starting off
in the exact spot they should,
but recognizing that this is what's in front of you is going to be not a welcome sight.
I'm a bit of a scheme for it though.
Positioned quite well at the moment inside of shot.
He knows that there's somebody inside of bathroom.
If he's a very crucial position right now, just going to go for Hail Mary on the C4
and it will land.
I'm going to take him out immediately after and spoil it there for the backup.
It's much better for my star.
A really good run up and now the show of the bathroom player completely isolated, fully
reinforced and also white hall cut off.
Could be very well be a 4v2 for Shopify Rebellion.
Gunner has played a lot more passive than he's normally used to and has.
Boy, this boy is going to see you white years before you see him.
And obviously unequivocally and objectively the best beginning of a round for Shopify
Rebellion so far.
But just to set the stakes properly, a minute to get full vertical control.
Two smoke bolts remaining, a nade and flashes for the late round to force any of the remaining
defenders out of position.
No C4s for either of the remaining defenders.
This is about as good of a round you could possibly have, and yet Hot and Cold has crept
his way in, seen around the corner, oh no, Surf doesn't see, waiting so long it
pops the head as he runs on out!
only 25 seconds remaining though. Surely that's enough for S.R. to recover.
Something to hop down, get a bead on hot and cold, get a bead on Ashen, no!
And they completely un-ADS, super shorty around the corner! Finally gets stopped
and Ashen downs one, waiting for the other to spoil just around the corner with a super shorty!
This train's going all the way home! Five in a row for M-80! And that might be the killer.
What a round we've seen just about everything we could hope for out of this map from MAT so far
We've seen them dominate. We've seen them have really scrappy close ends like the one we've just witnessed and hot and cold. I mean
Cold as ice
in this occasion
Hot on the kills
But he kept his nerve
he knew exactly when to shoot surf there was no jumping the gun there you don't
want to jump the gun too early that the longer that you can burn the more time
that you can waste in that instance and just kill them before the plant goes down
you don't need to waste you don't need to wait too long and risk the plant
going down and then you know have to play a whole retake in your massive
disadvantage then if you can just burn an extra three seconds how many times
do we see the game of siege come down to less than one second I mean so
So if all you waste is two three seconds, that is absolutely massive for the context of the round.
On cold bear, really holding his nerve and getting the job done.
And backed up quite nicely by Ashen as well.
Ashen of course left in that clutch.
He kind of had to go for the kill, there was no real running away and playing the clock.
There was a little bit too much time left and a very close proximity for the two remaining players.
Well, that TCSG at close range is going to shred and the pressure all of a sudden just floods back onto SR
after they've had a really good opening round and they managed to, I don't want to say throw it away, but just get out of play like that.
Again, just some really snappy rotations here from M80. Again, just feeling like they are steps ahead at every single turn.
And you can't help but feel that that might be the end for SR in this map, because I mean the scoreboard for them, it's not 5-0 right now.
right now the scoreboard in their heads is 12-1.
The extremely dominant loss against five years yesterday
and not being able to get around so far against M80,
even converting a 4v2 like that
in which so much was going their way.
It cannot be overstated how much of an advantage they had
if just one simple mistrone.
It's stuck and gotten a lot of teams,
but at this moment in these past couple of days,
it is popping out the window.
All right, well, no, it is not going to be 6-0.
SR will get one as it is a almost a flawless round could very well be and indeed it will
Will there be any kind of hype in the SR?
Room after that because Ali it is a dominant win, but boy the half
Half has gone the complete opposite way
It really has and I think for a star. They've just got to take whatever they can out of that last round
Let's have a listen in to our desk and see what their take is on this game
We're going over our thoughts while watching this one from the sideline guys and it's very
clear that Shopify Rebellion, something just is not there that used to be Fox.
I mean tell me, we'll tell everyone a little bit more about what we were saying about this
team.
I mean we were talking about before this game started they're just reliant so much on
big individual plays that now when they find themselves in situations where they need
an out, they need an adaptation, they don't have one.
just 1v1s. Yes, it is a tack cafe and they didn't necessarily look that great, but at
the end of the day, I mean that round five that we had that we just saw them lose the
2v4 that is not around that should be being lost by a team like SR. I mean, first Han
cold gets the first pick and be solo dropping another 1v1. Here's a 1v1 that Han cold easily
could have won. But again, they get the pick back and brexen peaks and now spoits
in a 1v1. There's no communication. There's no 3-2-1s on let's make sure that we're using
this man advantage. They're just thinking, wow, we're great players. We can just win
these ones. We've done it before. We can do it again. But they've been finding themselves
in situations where they aren't, they aren't winning. They're not the Shopify rebellion
that people are fearing to fight against a team of talented players. So if it lacks,
in my opinion, it just feels like they're not I. Jelling and they're not playing
together. So they've lost their fundamentals.
Yeah, the fundamentals just don't look to be implicated or, I mean, implemented, rather.
And then for the side, I mean, I want to focus on the midi because they're obviously playing
very well. I do like the crossfires they set up. And that really is the biggest gap between
these two in this matchup is just the sheer trust in one another. Being able to play
the trades, being able ready to make a move if need be, where there's just,
I'm just honestly just disappointed with what we're seeing because this is not what we expected from
A team like rebellion at the end of the day these five players. Yes, they might not be having their glory days
But individually on paper
These are all dominant players in their own right and what is being shown and what we've been seeing from one game to the nest
Especially their last game
Nothing would speak that into existence of what we're watching
this far
maybe they got a four-round lead Shopify rebellion a lot of work to do.
Lynx, Ollie, back to you. I mean a lot of work might be the understatement of a
century, Ollie, if we're just being honest. I mean that's the their second round
in two days and you know you don't want to you don't want to get too like
existential and doom and gloom over two best of ones over a couple days when
SR are still qualified for the bracket stage like we got it you know that we
also took contextualize that they're not on the verge of elimination from
literally anything by losing this game, but you know, I think it'd be one thing if you see a 7-1 to M80
It's like, okay, you know M80 is really good team. It's best to one could in a bad day bad map
Who knows but the 7-1 was against five fears and there's an additional 7-1 against M80 still very much on the cards
And losing to good teams is fine, but SR
I mean they just need to be more competitive in these maps. They just need to be
absolutely I think there's an expectation on this team that they are gonna be one
of the top teams inside of NA. They have too much talent on this team for it to
fail. They've got one of the best IGLs that the game's ever seen. They've got
Stapoy, they've got Ambi. You know every single player on this roster you can
you can pick them out and you can list 10 great moments that they've all
had across their careers or 10 good 10 things that they are in the in the
best you know top five players inside of NA4. It really is that simple like this is a star-studded
lineup and we expect better things from them. MAT today they've just had to read every step. They
have been multiple steps ahead every single time and constantly ahead of the rebellion.
As we switch over onto sides MAT of course now on the attack and S.R. on the defense.
This is really the time for it to change. This is the time that we want to see a little bit of life in the Rebellion.
They've used the tactical timeout, they've of course got the couple of minutes that is now the round six break.
It isn't going to be starting nicely for them here in round number seven. Canadian first to fall, Surf will respond though.
I mean basically both teams have something to say going through here. Everyone getting in on the action around Pillar and Brown Stairs.
That's M80 with the last word, at least for the first half of the discussion.
The Bainys lost a lot of health, but Ambien's surfer separated right now.
Nothing completely, I suppose, isolating one to the opposite side of the map.
They can rejoin down below, but that Soliton scanner pinging one of them and Ash is spotting
the other.
It seems like 6-1 inevitability at this point.
guaranteed, but MAD have been remarkably well coordinated. They've been good at
setting up three-way crossfires. They've been good at playing these trades. It's
SR who we had questions about whether their comms are still flowing, whether
the synergy still there, the desk cast outs just now. Both teams sticking to
the script and just unfortunate the partner in for SR is lacking quite a
lot. Still, with some time to reset, maybe might be able to find a little bit of a gap.
Shoots the drone, spots one in pillar. Direct information on him as well. Get some good info
on the players red stairs. He will take the 1v1 and doesn't win it. 6-1 for M80 right now.
It's not over yet, but it seems like the curtains are about to close.
Yeah, I think it's a big ask for Ambi there left in that sort of a position.
The round is, you know, it's gone at that point really isn't it.
Going to get the opening pick on to Canadian very early on as well.
If we think about opening pick times and we think about SR and how their attacks were
sort of going regardless of whether they were, you know, which end of the opening pick they were on,
it was consistently happening at around the halfway point.
We're talking 138, 137, 146, 128, very, you know, halfway into the round.
Round number seven, MAT on the attack.
2 minutes 15, open and pick.
Like the pace difference is just night and day between these two teams at the minute.
And MAT is showing no signs of slowing down.
And let's be honest, I don't think anybody would ask them to at the moment unless you're a die-hard SR fan.
Because this is some pretty good siege that MAT are showing us.
SR have had chances in this map. I think that's something that's worth highlighting as well, Linkz.
It's not, you know, it's not been all won. Why has it?
there have been occasions where SR have had a window in and you know there has been an
opportunity there for them to you know grab the ball by the horns as it were but it just
marks me what happened.
No.
No we have not and unfortunately you know it is at this point that M80 have confirmed
themselves in the second place position I do believe that they'll all be at seven
points and one of 30 have already played, shop fire billion, their best hope is getting
two points, so they will confirm themselves in a second place spot, which I think they might have been going into this game to be fair.
But now the real question is how far might Shopify rebellion fall? There's still a very real chance that based on how dramatic this loss could be that they might drop below 1 of 30
and end up in the lower bracket right out the gate, a team that many thought would be one of the best in the NAL starting this year with how much things had changed.
Surely the one team that stayed consistent might be able to weather it and so far
It's just not proven the case not yesterday
It seems not today as well as Ashen's 12th kill a 4-0 KD
And we're only eight rounds in came with a fantastic trade
I will say hopping out the garage window taking down Ashen and it's still not enough to claw that lead back from N80
That's it unless you get to back you're always gonna be on the back foot and one of these is a shield
Of course, Canadian has the option to throw down class shield and bring out the pistol.
We've seen that pistol do tremendous work in the past, but with how quickly M80 are
moving through, again, I stress that point, the opening pick coming miles earlier than
when we saw the rebellion on their own attacks.
There's plenty of time here that M80 have to work with and they've still got some
really good tools.
They've doubled down on the flank, projections of the have got the gridlock in play now
as well.
The fusor is pretty much nailed to operators when it comes to cafe.
It's going to be Tuber on, it's going to be Gridlock.
He's on the Gridlock here inside of what could be our last round.
The ram now looking to try and open up some of this vert and push the remaining defenders out of sight.
Surf unlikely to be able to stay there for much longer and is instead going to have to retreat
and try and make something happen from elsewhere.
You can see it's kind of just swapping places with Canadian a little bit now.
It's quite down side in Bakery as well.
The time just seems to keep growing here for M80.
ROU projectors come out hot and cold with the kit.
This is where the plant's going to come in.
That's where it'll start.
Electricity shocked it.
I think Canadian anticipating some kind of push
into the double door.
But hot and cold as he moves in deep,
sticking quite close to the corner.
Great read by Canadian.
Just lasers right in on the exact spot he needed to.
Nate bounced around the corner.
Not a whole lot of cover for Canadian.
But with that shield, he can be his own long angle
for the fuser and that might just be what saved Shopify
Rebellion's regulation so far.
A very great read by the IGL on Shopify Rebellion
can't quite find the angle for peace for the IGL
and Shopify Rebellion still have something to say.
Canadians were rolling back for years there
with that one, isn't he?
Four kills on the clash.
I even commented, I said, look,
one of them's the clash,
he's gonna have to put down the shield.
We know the pistol can do some work
and the work it did great kill onto Hot and Cold.
Cashew Meinbach, fans by the way,
if anyone's been with us for a while tonight,
I said a little something over on border.
Smokes are a great tool, but if you plant in them,
you are pretty vulnerable,
and that was demonstrated right there and then.
Okay, it's not a smoke, it's an RRU projector,
but you've just gotta take your best guess.
The RRU projector, well,
it's kind of just playing in for Canadian there
in that point, cause he can't be seen,
and all he needs to do is guess where the plunge is going down, and he gets correct.
And objectively good round. I mean, show you got some struggles at the beginning, but I mean from Canadian right there, making every right decision, making the most of that clash, I think.
Showcasing why clash and shields in general are often banned against Shopify Rebellion would not be shocked if it's an 80's ban going into the band phase after this round wouldn't be spruced whatsoever.
Now as you're sitting there as the attack, you've got to squash this momentum.
You've got to make sure that the Rebellion don't start feeling comfortable.
And I don't think it's any surprise that for a brief moment we saw two shields in the lineup
for M80 there.
Now only one.
It's Ashen on the Blitz, so it won't be anything super fast.
I think M80 looking to try and bring out some operators that give them minimum advantage.
Conversely though, I mean, it's hard to find much more information than what the
Rebellion are bringing, Ollie.
Oh, I mean
They've got everything they could possibly want
They've got the oldie but the goldie
The pulse of our recombination
And then they've got some like, kinda secondary information, right?
If you're razor bloom triggers, you know where somebody is
The lucidant she goes off, you know where it's being pushed
They've got the bulletproof as well, so
Four extra cameras being brought
And that heartbeat scanner
It's a heck of a lot of value
It would almost be enough, well it would be enough to warrant an IQ pick
if you could squeeze it into the lineup.
M.A.T. have chosen not to do that.
And instead, just gonna try and play into this
with their own information.
A little bit longer for this opening pick to materialize it.
I've commented that both the opening picks have come
ahead of that two-minute mark.
Oh, actually, he went for it.
But Gavenny, with the backup,
he's gonna find himself two A-links,
and he's gonna be able to pick action up.
He got through it, he's all over the climb, oh!
Not getting comfortable whatsoever,
of any doing the most in round nine the fuser decides to get it on the action
even spends some time to pick his teammate back up you love to see that
level of camaraderie but for ambi there's nobody to fall back on nobody for
support nobody in the resistance left standing as everyone's capitulated and
every teammate has gone home one kill for ambi in only three rounds in two
two days for Shopify rebellion, but the highlights got to be at 80 if group as two teams is five
fears and that performance solidifies at 80 as the second.
Yeah, and 80 with a very good show in that. You can just see what that means. If you
just straight up out of this chair, all called looking pleased with himself. We're
going to have right. We'll be back just after this with our best
I'ma keep it going till I ain't nothing left
I'ma keep it going till I ain't nothing left
Well, M80, Dismantle Shopify Rebellion, this is now the second time in a row this has
happen to SR, but M80 come out on top as already locking their position in for the playoffs.
Han cold welcome in and congratulations on a dominant win.
What kickoff is all about here and we've talked about this with a lot of teams is getting
an early feel for what everyone is capable of and that goes for us watching these teams
and you feeling out any roster moves that you have made coming into this.
Can you tell us a little bit how things are feeling?
there are things progressing in terms of the development of this team right now.
I think for us, obviously we all have big expectations on us.
Everyone does, not just the team.
But I think, I mean I knew especially going into it that our team is going to change completely.
Liam is not the same player as Kino, one to one.
We've lost our shield player, so the shield rule kind of has to be bounced around a
little bit more.
on top of that is just like he's a way faster player, you know, he honestly, he could be an
IGL on a different team. So I mean, right now it's about just making sure we're all on the same page
at, you know, at the same time, and just finding the consistency in that, I think has been our
real struggle. I think, I mean, honestly, obviously, I think that's kind of proven
just game by game, just slowly figuring things out.
Yeah, I mean you guys have slowly been figuring things out still looking strong still getting those wins
Like you mentioned with losing Kino you lose your shield player the secondary support player
Does that add any extra responsibility to you being the main?
IGL the main supportive player the main shield player
You have more of a workload and also do you have to have that responsibility of cultivating the other players into?
Picking up one of those roles sometimes
Yeah, for sure. I mean, Kino, he would listen to anything you know I tell him to do and he's very step by step. Like I said, it doesn't allow me to play some freaky ops like I'll still get on some ash every once while but you know I'm a lot more tied down to the support of roles now I think and defensively I had to I had to kind of switch over to a lot of
and they're making goals as well.
So I'm doing rotates and making, you know,
making holes into the, into the round a lot of times.
I feel bad for his setup. I'm so sorry. You know, I'm so sorry.
I mean, he is a great player and for you,
you are a great mind of the game going up against Canadian today.
You guys take away the win.
I wanted to maybe get your opinion from an IGN perspective after playing them.
What do you feel is going wrong with shopfire ballon?
Viralion because theoretically they should have the same pieces of the puzzle as a team like you guys do
Well, I think from the top down their system is very interesting, you know, I don't think the way they play is necessarily bad
But I do think
This great mastermind as Troy is is you know made out to be they play very one dimensional a lot of time on attack
You know, it's very step by step. I mean I watched JJ stream yesterday
after their game and he was saying they didn't change a single thing.
It's like, yeah, I mean, that's FSR, they're kind of the NA VP nowadays.
I think that definitely hurts them and I think they just put a lot of pressure on themselves
and I think their coaching staff also puts a lot of pressure on them.
So it's just, it's a house of cards waiting to cave in over there, in my opinion.
Well, Matt, congratulations on Upper Bracket and honestly just how well you guys have been
performing these past few play days.
I kind of want to talk about the future of this team
and where you guys see yourselves.
And obviously you want to win.
You've won it now a couple of times here.
How fast do you think you guys can get back to those glory days
and get to that same stature that you guys were with Kino?
See, I'd like to say I'm chasing the same stature,
like saying, but in my opinion,
it's just all about improving.
We're not going to be the same team we were in Munich.
We're not going to be the same team we were in Manchester.
It's just improving day by day.
And when the time comes, the time comes, you know?
Obviously, I'd like that time come a lot sooner.
But if it comes, not this major, not the next, after that,
I mean, it'll eventually come with this team.
We just got to work out our problems.
Absolutely.
All right, Hot and Cold, thank you so much for your time,
as always.
And we will see you down the road in the playoffs.
Appreciate it.
Have a good one.
Well, M80, take the win and a dominant one at bat,
closing things out on half-time.
I mean, it's just a lot of
things. It's just a lot of
spots because or maybe you
can't even hear me. That's
totally muted in discord. But
the people at home were
hearing me. It is M 80. They're
taking the wind. Sorry I got to
mute my mic because there's a
party outside my streaming
box. The point is M 80. They
take the win. It is a
dismantling of Shopify
rebellion, and they move on
to the playoffs to close out
the group stage with the
win lacks. You got to
imagine that is a good
Everyone you know the firm handshakes around maybe grabbing a cupcake, but no but the side of the matey
I mean this was a beautiful game from them. They really displayed some great siege
I mean you could see it also just everyone just being very animated after every single victory
And I think hot and cold kind of hit the nail on the head is they aren't playing bad
But it's their system is where they're struggling the most they're very one-dimensional and again
That's really where the bigger picture is being played in this matchup where you could see a matey
They were able to play those trades.
They were able to force the rebellion into unwinnable situations,
not really giving them a leg into the match.
Maybe outside that one round,
we saw that round, I believe, end in like two seconds
once they swapped sides,
or maybe it was the end of the defensive half.
But overall, I mean, this is the typical MAD
that we're used to seeing,
and I'm glad to see the progress
hasn't really shifted too much with the addition from Ashen.
Yeah, I couldn't agree more.
I mean, there is changes in the way that who's playing what,
who's making those opening plays,
but Ashen, we've known that any team that he's on, any game,
there's no situation where he's underperforming.
He's always going to get his and do his best for his team.
And I think as long as everything else is in play,
everyone is there to follow each other up,
you have games like these where MAD look dominant,
they look scary, they look like if they could play against five years again,
that they would be able to maybe right their wrongs.
And hopefully we'll get a chance to see that when it comes to the bracket itself.
for Shopify rebellion. Yeah, it does look very one-dimensional. It looks like they
don't necessarily try to adapt. They're just trying to punch their way through
the problems and I think teams are becoming aware of that. Teams are
understanding it and we're not seeing Shopify really change
anything and it's an unfortunate day for them because with that loss of
they're not getting enough rounds, they actually get solidified in fourth
place and they have to play in the loser's bracket, which is not a place
you want to find yourself if you are SR. I mean, I also just want to add, I mean, you
know, I read Twitch chat, I read Reddit, I read Twitter, and it's not to say that,
you know, any of the things that could said should be taken seriously, but I can just
speak from being a former player and I think the shit talk that a lot of the SR is getting,
not to say that they aren't playing to their expectations by any mean, but to just shit
talk to players individually and come at them the way that they do. I don't think
it's really necessary because on paper, these players are dominant and they would shit
on you in a 1v1 or in any match scenario,
I just do believe that the system right now
currently isn't working.
And like I said, I just don't think
they're as deserving as much as hate as they're getting.
So I hope once we get into bracket play,
we can see a lot more out of them
and at least get them back to where we typically hold them
in terms of standards.
Well, we'll walk through these final standings here
at the end of the group stage.
We will have one more game after this,
Outlast and SSG go toe-to-toe, but the result of that will not impact the standing.
So here how things look in group A. It is five fears with the buy there.
Group B dark zero is the team securing the buy, meaning that for both of them a single best of three
stands between them and a bid to Salt Lake City. A single match
qualifies them for the Major. The same cannot be said, Fox for a team like SR as we just talked about
about alongside cloud nine, they will go straight to the lower bracket,
which means they do not have any second chances.
No second chances is stressful, but sometimes, you know, we, we talk about
every single event, the lower bracket, a team that starts there has more
to fight for, more to earn.
And we've seen teams be able to make it all the way to the major and
win tournaments through that lower bracket, just because of them being
mentally taught, told that you're starting lower, you need to fight to earn it. So if there
was a time for a fire to be lit under SR and cloud nine, it would be now.
Well, let's talk about this final matchup of the group stage, SSG and outlast gaming.
Somebody just came up to the booth and took a picture of me. That's because I look ridiculous.
I'm holding the mic like this. So forgive the interruptions. Actually, wild. And he
I didn't think I could see it.
He just goes like this.
We go into SSG and Outlast Gaming, and we start with this SSG team, Fox, who has come
out of the gates, maybe took them a second to find their stride after a lost to Dark
Zero, but they have looked like a surprisingly mature team, an adaptable team despite their
youth.
They've had a lot of success so far.
I mean, it just goes to show what kind of an impact it is when you have a player
with so much information like Dream and Giddy to be able to teach the new generation of Siege or
the new generation of Siege players an older version of the game. I mean the way that their
attacks have been looking have been amazing cutting off isolating the opening kills and then
pausing slowing it down forcing the other team into an uncomfortable situation where they have
to choose between giving up the site or going for a counter attack which SSG so far has always
been there and it has been a dream to watch these young gunners, you know, learn this older style
of play and I think they've been thriving in it because it takes a lot of the complexity out of
things and simplifies it at a base value. You got Raid, you got Aiden, they can just walk in,
they can just have a drone in front of them and once they get that kill, they know somebody
is getting posted up and holding the cross. And a big player that is still very new to the scene,
maybe not a entirely new rookie for just this stage.
She has had one stage so far,
but she has been impressing Aiden.
Every single time he steps into the server,
you can tell that she has the mentality to be a winner
compared to all the other rookies that come in
and they're a little scared, a little timid.
Aiden's had the confidence since day one.
And now having a team with the backing of Dream and Giddy
to be able to support him from the back line,
giving him all the freedom he must be,
having such a lovely environment to work in,
I mean, it's been picture perfect for SSG, but for Aiden specifically.
And I hope to see him continue this run of terror, and hopefully we'll be able to
see them in Salt Lake City.
We've got to hear from some of these guys over the course of the interview
and over the course of the last few play days.
And it's really felt great to hear these guys' feedback on how their system
is going, what it feels like to play on this team.
We've heard from Dream.
We've heard from Aiden.
We might get a chance to hear from more of these guys down the line,
but their opponents laxing it is a very different story because they are also a young team in Outlast Gaming,
a team with very little experience coming in, but things have not gone according to plan.
We knew that it was going to be tough adjusting to the T1 level,
but safe to say there are still some more adjustments to make.
Yeah, absolutely. And we already said with this team, there isn't many expectations that we were holding to this team.
Yes, they did get here. Yes, they deserve to be here.
But it was more of a matter of what are they going to do to maintain their longevity here in the pro scene.
And honestly, there wasn't a lot to hold onto.
Unfortunately, they didn't really show a lot.
Maybe in some rounds there was something to take away or something that we could have highlighted.
But for me, it's similar to when we talked to JJ after their first couple of wins.
What did they do in the offseason?
They were practicing. They were dry running.
They were working out the kinks and the issues to make sure once they started this kickoff
that they were going to be more prepared than they ever did.
Whether that was the addition of adding on a player like force and getting that veteran leadership
Maybe they have to do the same thing
I would much rather see these five be able to stick it out no matter what but the fact is they are have they have one more game
They they can end on a positive note
They can get a win underneath their belt to at least show themselves
If not the rest of the community that they have what it takes that they can fight that they can get this win
But for me more so than anything I want to still see them fight
I want to see them putting in work in the offseason.
So when we do come back to this,
once the regular stage starts,
we see a new and improved team
that is showing a lot more gumption,
a lot more tenacity, a lot more resilience
through each and every single match going forward.
Fox, when I look at you,
I see a guy who really wants to talk
about the map bands now.
As we get into this final best of one of the group stage,
so take me through this.
We're end up on Chalet.
What do you make of this pick for Outlast and SSG?
I mean, I think it's a great pick to be able to showcase what both teams have to bring.
I mean, SSG haven't really been playing maps super aggressively.
This is a more aggressive style of map.
So SSG is just using it as kind of a playtesting ground.
I mean, again, nothing is really changing too much in the standings from this part.
So SSG using it as an experiments outlasts, obviously.
I want to see them play it, not timid, not scared with full confidence.
now they have essentially nothing to play for but pride so I'm hoping to see
them come alive and be a lot more aggressive on their entry trying to
find those opening picks and fighting SSG on those entries because SSG so far
they have been dominating their own attacks. Lackton tell me a little bit more
about this outlast team especially now looking at them on the final day of
the group stage. What has been in your opinion their their strong suit
The thing that they should be leveraging now in their final game, potentially, until we see them in June,
what should they be focusing on here?
What should their takeaways be from this final best of one?
I mean, the biggest takeaway from each and every single game is where they went wrong,
where communication was misled.
And the bigger picture then falls on Treadmack of just being able to rally the troops.
Like I said, a systematical sort of gameplay of just understanding why you're in the position,
why you're playing the operator, what it's needed for, how do you get to that execute?
That's why they pay you the big bucks man. I mean that's that's good insight
Hopefully outlast can listen to that and take that into this final game as I said no major playoff implications
But it may be our final chance to see this outlast gaming team for quite a while for the final time in the group stage
We'll send things over to links and XR troika
And you know Ali sometimes we find ourselves in these weird positions right the game in terms of the standings
It doesn't mean anything. Nothing's getting changed, but this probably is one of the games
I'm more excited in this position because ever since our game last week there has genuinely been one team
I have wanted to watch more of and it's actually SSG
This is a team that has really surprised me really impressed me and are they going up against like the best competition?
No outlasts had a rough stage, but I am just so excited by this team so excited by this team
And you know what's not to be excited about you've got to look at it on the balance things
I mean, it's a brand new roster for SSG, an org that we know very well and we are very familiar
with at this point inside of NAL, but I like what they're trying to do over here.
I like that they have got some real veteran experience in dream and they are trying to
bring on some newer talents and rookie players.
Forrest has something really interesting in his interview earlier tonight and it was
that he feels like in some ways he's trying to like cast the ban on.
you know, keep the torch lit and recognize that, yeah, you know, I've played a bit. I've
been around, I've played events, I've played the SIs, I've played wherever. And it's about
bringing on that next bout of talent, those rookie players that are going to go out and,
you know, make their own story and make their own sort of journey through the game that
we all know and love. So I'm really excited about it as well. I can share that sentiment.
I think my excitement is a little bit more subdued. I think it's maybe a polite way
I think that's the way of putting it for outlast. I just don't think that they've got the recipe quite right just yet. And that's obviously been reflected in the fact that we are yet to see them win a game here so far.
And how about be honest, the games have not been that convincing really. It was a 7-1 defeat yesterday against Hard 9. It was a 7-2 defeat against Dark 0.
Okay, Dark Zero, top team in the group, Cloud9 have shown that there's a little bit of weakness there where you want it to be.
And just, you know, 7-1 defeat against Wildcard.
It's kind of difficult to get excited about this Outlast roster, but,
perhaps from this, as you can, I'm all in.
No time to waste.
And, you know, like, you know when it comes to Outlast, like, there's always, there's always going to be that team that's
you're new to the block and you've got to take your lumps, right? I mean, let's just think back a year ago.
Now that was MD and stage one of last year.
I mean, I think they got what one, one win in their first stage.
I think it might have been one win, maybe, maybe an OT loss,
like somewhere in there.
Like it was an abysmal performance,
like in terms of the standings.
But now you look at your later and there's a very real chance
that JJ Blasch will make his first international tournament.
Just because of how you start doesn't mean
that's where you'll end up.
And to your point about passing on the baton,
when you are this newer team, the whole point is to learn.
If your objective, if your goal is to make SLC out the gate,
I appreciate your confidence, but like if I do a little bit of spice, like,
you're gonna have to learn a lot.
It's always a culture shock going to a higher level of competition.
And I think just getting the opportunity to play against these teams and also like,
show us, like show your skills off, I think is excellent.
And I think Atlas still have, you know, they've got time.
They'll be a pretty quick turnaround time to like, try and show us again.
I'm not all that worried.
It's always, it's always rough for you to the new team on the block.
But it has its advantages and you never know where things might take you afterward.
At least for the first minute, things are taking us into games at the moment,
as two attacking players have made their way inside of the first floor.
Giddy has taken note of this, and is playing a bit of the Maya position,
deeper down on the library stairs, though the site is across the map.
Waiting to see if anybody might get a little too aggressive.
Fortunately pinged by the soliton scanner now that means that
Ron will get some very useful information and any hope of catching them to tackle on a mistrone will not happen
Let's go around give you will support raid but unfortunately
There's just too much information too much utility and too many angles being pointed towards that Ella
Yeah, the other one was not one of this world
her decent first clear there from Outlast
We need to identify a bit of a looser Roma on this SSG side of things and they pick them
off.
Without too much cost to themselves, they still have a full wealth of global utility,
both E1Vs and both Logi Bombs in the line and Dogby, respectively, so there's still
a good ability to continue to clear out this roam, but one kill at one opening kill
is not going to make the round.
Nice attempt there from Gixi, but he's just going to get forced into more engagement
and they're going to favor him and still he tries to hop up onto the piano and finish off.
Things get a little hectic and the engagement's there.
Braun peeking around the corner, pistol in hand, though it's SSG tying things up!
Not even ADS for that one puts a dream in the 1v2 in a matter of seconds.
I'm not expecting around to, I suppose, transpire like that.
Now last, maybe he was not super shocking. It can happen. It's a shallow attack.
But an impressive individual shove from Vron with that F2 on Snake. Like 13 seconds remaining.
Talk about veteran skill. Talk about passing to Baton. Dream might try to keep a hold of that
torch just a little bit longer. It's only six seconds left. He might be running out of ammo,
but with the right angle on the 1v1, that's all he needs to do. Just a couple well placed
shots and the rookies will have to wait a little bit longer and it's a classic
example isn't it they will watch that back in a year's time 12 months time 18
months time and they will have a million and one day they might even watch it
back next week and have a million and one different ways that they would
rather play it but in the heat of the moment that making that decision and
making the right play it's so much easier that watching than actually
doing it I thought at this point I also thought getting was gonna get
I know that.
They've not made the decision there, they haven't made the decision quick enough, whether it was planned or go for the kill.
If it's go for the kill, you have to go together.
If it's planned, then, you know, you're leaving your teammate in a one versus one while you get the plant down, so it's not ideal.
And that 2v1 with low time, you have to try and go for the kill, but you have to push together.
The Nape was inspired. The Nape did a really good job of zoning Dream off,
and at that point, you need to put the gas on, you need to take advantage of that Nape,
that's cutting off a position that Dream could be in and it just narrows down where he's going to be and just makes that
two versus one trade even easier. As it stands, Dream was able to stand up.
He takes three kills in that opening round, getting a rival with one a piece as well,
and despite an opening pick, the first round goes the way of SSG.
But it goes live, SSG in the 1v2 and should give that caveat, there's a decently good
roam clear from out last at the beginning of that and sometimes you get clutched on
at the beginning, that happens.
Dream's been around the block a few times, he knows a thing or two because he's seen
a thing or two.
Now try to recreate some of those successes you had in the last round.
If you look at the lineup out last to bring in this one, it seems like it might
be pretty easy to do just that.
Got the Ying in play, got the Doki being brought again, dropping the Grimm. I hate that. It's not because it's bad. I just love Grimm.
But a Doki-Demos and Ying combination could be quite lethal and quite problematic, especially since SSG are not bringing the Warden as a prophylactic measure.
The clash kind of makes things a bit more difficult, doesn't fill the same role as the Warden, but can be very frustrating to deal with and mitigate some of the effects of that Ying or any, I guess, aggressive pressure or quick momentum that the attack might otherwise get.
First Okupi call goes out, I don't think anybody really in a position to capitalize on food right now.
Alice is moving the building, make the same play, and unfortunately start things off with the loss of their Okupi.
Candela is primed and ready. They don't seem to be finding their mark.
I think there's a very tight angle that we're going to be holding with the DMR.
You can see that Trev is going to be calling.
Quite frantically knows that somebody is over to all that back there inside.
He needs to be in a position to try and do something about it.
I can only imagine that he's running the shot, but it looks like someone's trying to rotate up those...
...tell the stars as well, and maybe try and charge on and just go,
No, there it is! It's a one-for-one trade, but Raid gets his man.
Not done yet though.
SG might have been starting out ahead, but Outlast aren't too far behind.
Some good information by Vron, though. Part of it's onto the clash and whether he knows it or not.
Can't do a whole lot with that information. Spotting, confirming it, but there is a gun following it up and a well-placed pre-fire.
Wow, I was gonna say it might be the end of it, but as Vron goes into the trade, his teammate falls on the prostess,
Giddy spinning around rapidly, but Vron is good for it! A triple for the newest entry into the NAL.
Swing around the corner, oh boy, it's another dream, 1v2.
Stuck on the rotate. Both players over by solar. If this one gets thrown as well, surely not with a deathmark tracker.
The information given to the attacking side. The crossfire coming in just around the corner. There we go!
I believe it's a 4k for Vron and Round 2. And no comeback for Dream this time.
You can see it in Dream's eyes. He was ready to win that again.
Again, breaking it down into one versus one. They gave him that space. They gave him that chance.
Yeah, sure, you've got the deathmark tracker on him, but we live in a game where one-shot headshot is all you need.
I thought that play from Ray was fantastic when he was able to push up.
A little bit more questionable on the gitty, sort of bikini body attempt, but I think instead of the 180 or the 360,
he was just hitting like 720 or something like a snowboarder at the Olympics.
He found himself well and truly in the spin cycle.
Maybe backing up there would have been a better play. You're still in 2 vs 2 and you've got a great position.
It's left green with a bit too much to do.
We could be sat here like saying that our last R2-0 up. As it stands, Dream was good for it in round 1.
And that is just going to bring us level. All square moving into round 3.
It feels like it's been a thing for every single one of our games except the shopfire made you want.
you want. Feels like the start's always a bit highly contested. Tied pretty quickly out the gate.
So, sticking with the pattern, outlast versus SSG.
Bar and Game Sight. Gonna play with a deadly combo for SSG. Hazami and Mira that has been
present throughout this entire half only brought this guy on. In addition to the mezzanine,
The mirror is just objectively a fantastic combo.
Ooh.
I'll never make!
Hmm.
So we have the mirror, we have the mirror looking towards piano,
which I've seen before and it's kind of uncommon.
Ooh, so you have the stock mirror as well, but no mirror looking out towards the library window.
That's what I was curious about.
Usually, a more common position is the mirror on or facing the library window and then one in stock.
But if you want to play aggressive and really keep an eye on piano,
It's a good one. It's a good one to have.
It's fairly slow at pace into this round.
Ooh, again.
Nesta with the pistol out.
A little bit of a pixel angle going on.
Who would have thought that the delirp from that by now
had been swung and challenged on the window.
SSG aren't giving anything up at the moment.
And quite rightly so.
Attack can have a field day on Chalet, just with the sheer amount of cut-offs and windows,
so that you can funnel defenders around inside of the building.
But SSG are not for moving at the moment, they are rooted to the spot
in our last trying to find that ultimate. You know that rain's in here at the top of fireplace,
that isn't going to be too much of a surprise though.
Zahebi and Lett through the Bantaz is massive because instead of needing a deployable shield
to the top of those library stairs instead you can just rotate around throw a
keyboard barricade. I was starting to move through this top floor now. You just get
the feeling that time's gonna be a factor here. There's a minute left, 10 players
alive. Sure you've got a little bit of upstairs control but it's only really a
half player at the moment. A lot of value needs to come from this utility
which there's a lot of it. So far are you projectors and most importantly all
all four of those candelas, two smoke grenades that go down.
Perfectly including Rival's vision,
Treadmack capitalizes off that perfectly.
Nothing that Player Unwiped can do.
This is a very good setup and very good play from Outlast.
Raid is retreated into library,
but Miller did great angle onside as well.
That prime spot to dismantle this SSG defense
while Raid might spring out.
There's simply too many angles to deal with.
It's a bit of a slower progression through that top floor,
But Outlast have checked every single angle.
While Dream's the only one on the site,
Aiden is tucked very deep on the blue stairs.
The last bit of surprise that maybe the defense can spring.
Bitty gets one with a razor bloom.
Aiden gets another.
And Nesta go down as well.
It's been from behind, but two times now,
SSG, in a very dire situation, has snatched victory
away from Outlast gaming.
And it's a shame because it was a really good round from Outlast. Their pacing was off.
I'll admit that and I called that at the time.
The way that they were able to deal with that upstairs hold, inside of library, inside of library stairs, top of fireplace,
they did a really good job of rooting those players out and getting quite favorable gunfights.
Where it came to pass, where the failure was, was then in the transition.
was transitioning that vertical control and that upstairs presence into something meaningful on the bomb site.
And SSG knew that all they had to do was dig in a little bit deeper.
You've still got control of a key area like stock,
you're going to have a very easy time of holding anybody that's trying to either drop on down through the hatch
or make a play in the three main lobby in that single doorway.
So SSG really played into the win condition there and basically forced an outlast into an execute.
And that's what we mean sometimes, especially tonight, there's been a couple of occasions where I've gone,
you know, I really wish that this team had just forced this team into an execute.
That's exactly what that is.
Hold upstairs, the upstairs hold doesn't go well, instead of just trying to retake and throw bodies at it,
force them to make that execute, force them to play into power positions.
All of these sites have power positions, whether they've been self-holy or not,
there's going to be something there that you can leverage in the moment.
And that's exactly what SSG were able to do in round three.
Attacker's objective is to diffuse a bomb.
Now's a move to retry sites.
It's a strength that hopefully Outlast will be considering going into this one.
First shield I believe in the lineup for Outlast so far.
Though it's been pretty much the same steps every single time.
An entry in a bar in games for, well, any site that isn't just bar in games.
It'll be the case this time.
get to not get it right this time on the thorn. We'll get that exact information.
How about having them punished for their push on this side of the map? But three of the four
rounds they've started in the exact same spot and SSG will make note of that RRU projector.
Moving directly into bedroom they're not dropped on the hatch like I were.
Really nice job it cut off that rotate right there. I'll see what impact has but
But you can see the change from SSG, whereas before, Giddy was sitting on library stairs
for probably about half the round, just completely fall back at the beginning, hold their power
positions and Giddy gets the first pick, but based off this lineup, Oli, I think it sounds
like they have a wider end of the comp, so it seems like they cooked your exact advice
from what went well last round.
absolutely raid tough as a snare especially if that blitz starts to try and get a bit aggressive
but Nesta's looking for a bit of a rotate maybe off you note that window inside of Ivy
I feel like you've kind of just got a push and utilize the finger try and get something
off the back of this you gather in good information with the blitz and you force him
S.S.G. to push back no one's in there now no one's playing piano instead they
Retreat back to a more powerful, more dominant position. Again, force them to execute great swing from Rival, and Ness is gonna find Blond, but not the second.
Almost a good prefire on the player on Blast Wall, and last but not least, to get the advantage you have to admire Outlast's fight.
This is every single one of these rounds has come down to a 3v3 and then a 2v2.
Even as S.G. get the advantage, Outlast are showing up in terms of gun skill and brawn in particular, 7 and 2 at the moment.
At the time they have remaining, and an entry into dining, this is not unwinnable for Outlast.
Some shots taken by the Alda, a lot of ammo expended by Dream, and a lengthy reload awaits
him as he switches to the bay left out of ammo there as well it seems.
So Aiden comes in for support, and the Overwatch works successfully.
Bron goes down, Treadback finds one, it is another close round, and yet it seems
that SSG are able to find the better of Outlast in these moments.
Spotted by the BP, defuser in hand.
How much verticality does Aiden have?
Appears to be a shortage of vertical holes.
The hatch might be his main way.
Z-ping through the wall, sprays him down.
Headshot, indeed.
Three to one for SSG at the moment,
but Outlast are keeping it competitive.
My head is in my hands for those that can't see.
I wonder where he was planting.
I wonder where he was planting.
Maybe planting in the smoke.
Of all the angles that you've got to check from the hatch.
Let's just broadcast it, shall we?
Let's just stay exactly where we are getting it down in a one versus one.
Top round.
I don't think the Blitz could use flash properly.
I think the Blitz could have been used a lot better.
I mean the smoke wasn't even good!
I don't know.
Yeah, I don't think the Blitz was utilized really that well.
I wouldn't be worried about the Blitz.
I think that's probably why SCG had like the open to be honest with you.
You don't tend to think of Blitz and Chalet as like a real marriage made in heaven.
And I don't really know for why that is.
I think there's just maybe other options that it can be used a little bit better.
but long-range engagement is throwing out the pistol,
they're not really funneling defenders into attackers
or playing it as like a buddy system
where you've got someone directly over your shoulder.
I think it just needs a little bit more
and a switch onto the blackboard is welcome in my eyes.
3-1-4 SSG is removing to round number five.
We're gonna be again, cutting out mid-floor sites.
Gitty.
Gonna be looking to try and get rid of the name
for himself down here.
Only gonna be drawn hunting for the time being though.
He catches one that was just keeping a BDI on him downstairs inside a garage.
He said Neste is going to try and move through with the rest of his team into the library.
There's going to be some big people in the library window though.
Oh, Rave, he's not going to be playing any sort of patient games.
Happily to get droned and happy to get out of there alive.
I was the benefit of flying out his army.
There was Kiva on the desk back up though.
trying his luck and the gamble pays off. Millie's head taken down, Nesta saved from that likely
just because he's got a shield directly in front of it. Because Almy slips back
alongside the rest of the defenders, not a whole lot outlads can do in a moment
to mitigate that loss. Gargreish on the office wall, some important angles,
oh but Ray just swinging again, bullying his opponents at the moment.
I mean, at this point, Nesta's by himself.
It's the first round where it seems like the wheels are starting to fall off the wagon for
Outlast, as with everybody a bit individualized, they'll consolidate now, but they're clearing
a part of the map in which, never mind, somebody is home.
He's giddy, freaking up the stairs, knife sharpened, aimed directly at the back.
Oh, but he lets it go a little bit early.
Now if players on library stairs his way back is quite dangerous.
So good information still available here as well.
Raid gonna find the kill on Zaron.
Ooh, grab yourself a second, hit the ace, go for it my friend, get yourself a nice little ace here.
And that will be it, confirmed.
Onto the fingers though, a little bit more anti-climactic, cause the finger of course gets downed
and then has the option to get themselves back up, but in the 1v4 you're never gonna be able to use that.
raid. Big, big round. I don't feel like Alast ever really got started there. Gitty, I think,
spent the majority of the round downstairs inside of garage and snow and just was never
really that pressured or pushed. Alast really got dragged into almost like a proxy battle
there in that it was, the site is over in Narnia and we're just going to set the
site up and whatever, but we're just going to have a couple of romas that are going
because there's so much headache and pain that if you spend any amount of time on them
whatsoever, you've basically lost yourselves the round.
And that was kind of what it was.
It was all about taking library, it was all about getting into games, and it was just
a couple of really well-placed, sort of lurky players that were able to just dismantle
that attack.
And it's maybe when you look back on and go, if you need to just cut our losses
and go a little bit more direct, try and catch them on the rotate back.
I know. Tough one to call, but things really aren't going your way. What else are you left to try?
4-1 now. No tactical time out. Use, of course, the mandatory one at the end of this round.
Will be leaving. Link Alask will be glad of a little bit of a break in this fixture.
Regardless of how this round goes, they've taken a bit of a beating in a couple of these rounds.
Particularly in that one, all the other ones have at least, you know, come down to some
kind of 3v3 or 2v2.
That was the first one where Outlast really just had zero selling what transpired.
So a bit of a breather is probably in order for everybody involved, but for Outlast in
particular.
The final site will be bar and gaming, so Outlast do what they've done pretty much
every single round and start on the other side of the map, hopping in through my games,
hopping in through... I cannot murder the cough, the lightning, what's bottom solar
cult except for him again? Tell us. That's not true, it's not tellers. It's not tellers.
There's so many maps of tellers and it's not that one. Either way, this is piano
I'll throw it out.
Trophy!
Why have I forgotten it?
See?
I wouldn't say library, that's just not library.
Anyway, we're at piano right now.
Trophy, trophy, it's trophy.
Thank you, Jonah.
The host is going to call up, and I don't.
I knew he was going to say.
See?
Hey listen, I've got an excuse.
It's 2 AM.
That's true.
Hey, it's...
809?
Yeah.
It's a minute and a half left in the round for Alas at the moment.
Moved all the way up to Piano and you can see that whereas earlier in the beginning of this half SQ were willing to entertain some kind of roam or, you know, aggression towards Alas and not really anymore.
The holding doesn't even. The holding library stares.
But they don't feel much of an obligation to do anything beyond that.
That is a hell of a good bounce for that Nade.
Well, force Aiden up, but with those Qs, he can take a bit more advance of a position and
then just fall back once that Nade is gone.
You can see a bit of an idea for Atlas though, an idea I quite like.
Ratero drone blows up the barbed wire, bottom blue, and now instead going to lurk
up this staircase, this could be a brilliant rotation.
So they push up through the ROU directly into the blitz.
Aiden goes down.
Outlasts firmly in the lead and firmly in the driver's seat, turns the advantage and the pace.
Raid holding his ground on the top floor will spot the Blitz for a second and likely make the well-reasoned decision to fall back as
over top of the Blitz he'll take some shots against one, but everybody is getting in on the action. Can't find a kill.
Drives most one-sided clutch.
Might be required to stave off a 4-2. Began this half with a 1-DX. Will he end it with another success?
Three players on low HP, but one coming in from the left blitz coming in from the right
Not much anybody can do at that point outlast with a loss
But at least ending it on a victory at 2-4 and that's exactly how you play the blitz
You've got to be on the buddy system
You have to have somebody on your shoulder and just terrorize those defenders warden or not
It doesn't matter if you've got somebody right behind you to back you up. Let's say from the desk
the game. I'm going to be
talking to you about that.
Thank you, Gaston. I says she's
leading the way currently going
into the second half and since
me and likes it all the hosting
yesterday, we thought it would
be a great time to put Jonah in
the hot seat and see Jonah. What
do you think outlasts need to
do to turn the tables here in
the series? Well, I'm so glad
you asked box. Thank you so
much for giving me the
opportunity here. I will say
Rivemac is performing well.
Veronica is putting up some numbers,
and that's not something we've always seen.
Through the first half,
those are what they're gonna have to hang on to
as they go into the spot.
They're gonna have to keep putting those guys
in positions to thrive,
but the word we talk about with these guys all the time
is adaptability,
and it's something that they just don't quite have
under their belt yet.
It's gonna come with time as a newer team,
and on the attacking half,
they're gonna have those problems exposed a little more.
So I'm not too hopeless yet for this team.
I think you go into the second half, you move to defense.
You've got some players playing well.
I think they just got to leverage that, lock in,
and it's not quite over yet.
Yeah, and now for the side for SSG.
I mean, what does SSG have to continue to do
to make sure that they don't instill any bit of hope
for the side of Outlast to be able to even rally a comeback?
Well, with SSG, Blacks, we've talked so much
about the leadership of Dream
and how they've rallied around that.
We've seen just how effective that's been through this first half.
I'll take the same word I used to refer to Outlast.
Adaptability, SSG have shown that they have that.
They've adjusted well to where Outlast have found success
on the attacking side when they were defending.
Now they get to attack.
Now they get to show off that adaptability
and raid the young gunner, nine and five right now.
We continue to see that from him.
We continue to see them adapt on the fly
to what Outlast is doing.
And hey, the rules are oyster.
And we will continue to let the casters close this game out.
Lynx, X, back to you.
Actually, I just got a memo straight from John W. Blast,
all the way from the top.
Jonah's actually being substituted in for both Oli
and I as well.
So if we could just get him in the room,
if we could just get him on the mic, that'd be excellent.
You can see why there are people taking selfies
with him earlier outside the streamer box, apparently.
Absolutely.
I mean, he's gonna be famous soon.
I mean,
It's gonna be the Jonah show.
Mr. Jonah.
He's gonna say something, but I didn't wanna do that.
No.
Oh, it's a praising exercise.
We're giving them a praise.
Is that a thing?
A praising exercise?
I don't know.
Kinda corporate speak is this.
Bob was created by attackers.
We are to bring in Jonah do some team building we're gonna do improv icebreakers the rule for tonight. Yes, and
Yeah, I know you was yes, I mean
You know, okay, okay pause two things one
Everything I just said is real. I didn't experience it. I do know people who do improv corporate icebreakers and that's just a that's it
That's a hell of a sentence, isn't it?
But yes, and is a core principle of improv.
The idea is that when somebody says something, whether it's an idea, whether it's a line,
a joke, instead of shutting it down, you build on top of it.
So even if you don't say it explicitly, the idea of yes and is you accept what they're
saying, you go along with it, and then you build on top of it.
So yes is the accepting, and the and is the building on top of the bit.
Oh, yeah, and yeah, I've done that, yeah.
Am I improving?
Well, I mean, most of what we do
when we're vamping is improv.
Most of all.
I was gonna say it quite literally sounds like our job.
Yes, it quite literally sounds, it's like,
that's the thing, it sounds like our job
and I would say a lot of casting is improv
because you don't know what the game's gonna be
but it's a bit more structured.
When we're vamping though, that's all improv.
I'm literally, it's like rhythm, it's like jazz.
You gotta keep up with the changes, you know?
Speaking of which, changes, besides the swamp.
it into the round. Milly is in the depths of Chalet trying to escape kind of a
roam clear of the middle floor but just a little bit of looser pressure on the
outside of the building. Nobody from SSG has actually taken a step inside just yet.
It's master of the office defense which means that here actually has quite the
trek back to side out of her. I'm sure that Milly is up for the task.
Aiden, looking to make use of that glass downstairs, we've got Dream above looking for a little
bit of action inside of Solar.
I know that somebody's in bathroom right now.
Nesta, well there's a labyrinth of Wamai discs around him, but I don't think that's going
to matter too much.
I'm starting to hear those going pinged out now.
Some of the frags have been used.
Ooh, I'm not sure if that was an intentional bounce or not.
I think it was, Aiden.
Pretty fancy footwork there, I was going to try and leverage
this smoke and get a chance at a shot onto the wall.
That's inside of the tall room, will be successful.
The only time it's appropriate to be inside of the smoke
is if you are the glass, of course.
And Dream, you can't have a finger framing for a plant.
They've got the cover from Big Window.
They can cut the sight in half, and Dream can move in.
I mean, there's nothing else
of the attack at one with this set up right here.
Full vertical control early on.
Every single crossfire figured out.
I mean, and that's it.
That's the round pretty much done and dusted run
literally outside the building for the end of round seven,
five to two lead now for space station gaming,
not wasting any time to get that lead.
It just, I love a good attack in Siege
because it just looks so simple
and it looks like something that you go like,
yeah, we can just take that for ourselves
and play it in ranked.
I can, I can get all people
The aren't professionals, they're just good players, they're just people that can listen and take instruction.
That's all we're asking for here in teammates.
Or even maybe coordinate it with randoms if you can get in the voice chat and persuade somebody to sit on your big window.
Which you should be able to, because it's a good spot to get kills.
But you look at that attack and you think it's so straightforward.
There's nothing flashy. Okay, maybe the kill from Aiden is the flashiest bit of that removing the bathroom player.
There's more than one way of doing that.
You could have burnt all of the magnets and sent a ying in and jumped in or he's sent a nade in and moved him out of there
Now there's options. You've got options for that
Getting controller solar
It appraises on big window
Somebody had a bit of a backstab coming in through snow balcony and you've got some on piano whoever was you know
Dealing with bathroom can also deal with piano either way
And it just looks so straightforward and so simple, but it's executed just so well
That's a student 5 2 now
Fire and Games are going to be the site of choice for round number 8, Outlast not wanting
another go on that top floor instead of going to try and change their fortune a little bit
here.
Still going to be rocking with some catch utilities, they're still going to be bringing
that Jager.
I do worry about this one because I don't see a deployable shield and typically a good
hold of games is going to be keeping control of fireplace and usually you're going
to need something to do that way.
The zombie of course, Bann. No shield in play.
But with this heavy stack up outside of games, I don't know if it'll even matter.
Are they just gonna try and hop in here?
Might be a serious hop in incoming.
I mean, well, I mean, hopefully they don't at this point.
You can see all of Outlast making the right call.
Barreling back towards site.
Millions wrong.
The only ones to stay from that rotation.
It might be committed.
I mean, you can see comms, you can see some excited energy from hate and dream also exchanging
some shots.
After likely ready to anticipate any further throne electronics on the actual plant spot,
who logger?
It could be a nasty shot incoming right here.
You just see it happening.
Oh, that's a rough one.
That's the hit in the air jab.
Good trade though.
As one player hops in, isolating the other one, V1, logger in the perfect position,
this perfectly a giddy with a late flank able to get that trade and again despite the 5-2 these
rounds typically quite close in the aggregate it's no quick plant anymore but that's a stream
look to salvage something spotting one through the wall aiden cuts him down advantage a little
more than or a little less than half the round to go wrong to have to try and transition now
needs to take upstairs two versus three you've got to try and make a play you've got an isolated
player and we know exactly where he is.
Little bit of an impact on out Trev starting to see that pressure from above.
It needs alleviating, it needs the Ella to challenge upstairs but no
Ron finds himself inside a site and Trev
downed in the process. Player on the hatch, player planted.
It's being covered from every which angle. A couple of shots can get put in
on to Aiden and Ron can have a rotation.
There's a three-way cross onto this player
and I really doubt that one's gonna be able to get it going.
No, ends up walking directly in the middle of it, 6-2 now, 4 space station gaming.
Again, nothing changes as a result of this Outlast...
Sorry, I dropped my fidget toy, because I'm very Gen Z.
Outlast already eliminated, SSG firmly in...
Brain broke for a second, firmly in second place.
Not much, not much is changing.
But, I think what we can say is that one thing that's continued Ollie that really impressed me about SSG last week
and honestly with the first team that really kind of clued me into this phenomenon
the attacks are just really good for this team man.
I'm really impressed with what they were able to put together last week when we saw them play
in every single one of the games they played.
It's been one of their stronger points and these two rounds on Chalet
even when they've been dirty they've been clean if you know what I mean like.
They did well against Wildcard as well they won five rounds on the attack against Wildcard
not the wildcard or like the barometer that we hold teams to, but it's a point, isn't it?
A little bit less so against DZ. They were only good for one round on the attack against DZ,
but that's not weak one. Like, well, it's also DZ and it's also weak one. You know,
this is very much a team that is looking to build and looking to, you know, carve their
own sort of path. So I think we can kind of forgive them of that. And since we've been
really up and running inside a kickoff, we've seen them do some great things.
and you know it's continuing here tonight isn't it and the pacing of it is
very important for me their ability to switch and be very agile in what it is
that they want to do there are there is no doubt in my mind that they were
gearing up for just hopping into bar window and getting a plan down and trying
to hold it if that was an option that was available to them but for whatever
reason it felt like it wasn't I'll ask them rotate all the way down and that
opens up the top floor again right because okay we've debated everyone back down to the site so
we just need to go and push top and very quickly people are in really key positions we've got
somebody on snow balcony we've got you know players contesting inside of library the the
play that gets to snow balcony that's no short rotate that's the thing is that calls are made
bam they're gone so really good play from ssg very reactive i'm very willing to you know sort
sort of set themselves up and maybe realize it's not the right path. Straight out of
ranky. That's the sort of thing I died to.
I got spawn killed today on Naive and labs and I felt like a child again. I literally felt like a child getting told off.
Did they hit you with the turds to two step?
No, it wasn't even that good. It was just Lodgy window. What is it called? Storage window.
Oh, yeah, that one's kind of boring. Yeah, really bad.
Well, not boring in the way that you and I say boring, where it's like, it's so boring, man.
It's just like, oh, that one's just not very, that one's not very, that's all.
I was almost convinced that Rival's trying to get away with that drone, but Aruni Nesta pops off the camera
can work in just a second. Ooh, logger. Takes a shot to the arm with the 417. That one makes
you pay for it a little bit harder than every other gun in the game.
Dukupi call goes out, but hit by the Gershmot. He really pushed further beyond trophy.
Pause for applause. Good coms. Good coms. More Dukupi call in the pocket though,
but SSG definitely not having nearly at least the initial bit of success we've seen
them had. He's passed a couple rounds, they've been able to get the control they wanted, but
they're very spread out at the moment.
Well, they're quite spread and they're, you know, a little bit sparse. That kill on Tamili
is going to be a big one. Removing the Oryx takes away any quick ability to rotate, but
it's bounced back straight away, raid falling. You've still got Harbreach. You've still
got an ability to try and get this wall open. It isn't going to be clean. It's
Harry Scrappy.
He goes straight in off the back of it with a flash as well, or maybe not.
Aiding can transition through that.
It is going to be crouchable.
Maybe he's going to translate the bombsite here and make something happen.
Rival straight in.
Oh, this might work. This might be good.
Just to take any angle, but Lyon wins a big fight.
And so as the defense starts to rotate, drawn with a must-win kill,
it's not enough to stop the diffuser, but to get the advantage,
Giddy, another must win, and SSG just barely hanging on.
They fought from behind in so many of these rounds,
they might just take the lead, but now last least expected it.
Just around the corner, neither player ready for that engagement.
And it still gets the W.
7-2 victory for SSG, nothing changes.
And yet SSG continue to impress in the NA League.
Dream almost was confused and angry there
as to what's happened and how it's been allowed to happen.
a great round from SSG and one that they really clutched out on. They lost the opening pick,
but they were still able to make that transition onto the bomb site. And I guess just punished
Outlast. I think at the point, Outlast get that opening kill, they just need to retreat
back to site, play the advantage and don't get too fancy with it. And SSG were there
to capitalize. One last time tonight, we are going to send you over to our wonderful
desk.
Well, thank you so much, guys.
It was a great way to close out the group stage with SSG taking the win over Outlast.
Maybe the result we expected, yes, but a strong performance nonetheless, Fox, from
this SSG roster that seems to be improving every single week.
Yeah, I mean, more repetitions, never a bad thing.
It's another day in the office for SSG.
I think it's exactly the expectations that we're going to be seeing from them as continuously improving.
I don't know if they're necessarily at the T1 level as some of the teams in the top four just yet,
until we see more from them, but we don't know as they have to argue that.
Oh, you can argue it. You can argue it. I think they have the great ground workings of a team
that would be in the conversation for top four. They're doing amazing so far. And that being
I hope it only continues to grow and get better, but I just love watching raid and aid in and dream
I love watching all these younger players play alongside dream and their style of play is just very reminiscent of a
You know hybrid of early versions of siege different metas all together and I just really love how on their toes
They are at adaptations
Hey second ace of the stage especially for raid the new blood
I mean we aren't gonna get an interview with him
He was begging me for an interview then he doesn't want to do the interview
But I do want to focus on outlasts really quick
Unfortunately for some of the players they did have a good showing I believe for Von I believe for
Trevmak I believe for Lager that's a great way to end your stage just on a personal note that you
guys perform well but I am really hoping given the off time given just the time to work things
whether out of game in game we do see something falling into the next stage because next stage
I will be far more critical of what we're seeing with the time that they should be giving to
develop to look like a better team but again SSG I mean beautiful display overall great performance
great showcasing of what this team is doing day in and day out to make their names and make a statement
once we get to playoffs. We get to talk to the winners themselves we will welcome and I believe
we have Giddy standing by because Raid did indeed turn us down for the interview but who needs the
youngsters Giddy we've got you here congratulations on the win and on closing out the stage
or rather the kickoff group stage with a win.
How is it feeling being on this team right now?
We've heard from some of the other guys yet to hear from you.
Give us your perspective.
What's it like to be on the team right now?
And yeah, how are things feeling?
It's fun.
I mean, it's different, too.
It's different from my past experiences with teams,
except for when I first started playing Siege.
That's what it kind of feels like.
Like I first started playing Siege with some younger guys
that bring different personalities.
It's been definitely a good time, fun time.
Yeah, I wasn't sure fuck first and me was I was usually do but then I saw Jonah say Alex is gonna go so I was confused
But well, it doesn't matter what the confusion may be. I mean diddy you guys have looked amazing throughout group B so far
I'm excited to watch you guys play against teams on the other side of group a you guys will be going up against Packers team
Is there a little bit of anticipation or you guys excited to go against them?
Do you feel like it's a good matchup for you guys? How do you guys feel about that?
Um, I mean, yeah, it's definitely exciting.
We didn't talk about it too much because it literally just got confirmed before our game.
So we haven't really talked too much about it, but I mean, yeah, we know those guys
well, everyone on that team.
We played up, but against like with and against them for like three, four years now.
So, you know, it's definitely going to be fun.
Should be a barn burner for that series for sure.
Well, what's your opinion on Packers of player Packers of player?
It's good.
He's a good player.
Oh, yeah.
I can't say much more than that.
Well, good.
Yeah.
I want to congratulate you on your guys of success.
So far, you're going to be in the upper brackets.
I want to just talk about the expectations and goals
for this team.
I mean, what are the even goals for your own stuff
and expectations of this roster?
And where do you guys see your guys' ceiling?
I mean, we expect to make the major.
Honestly, even before our first game,
we expected to make the major.
So I mean, our ceiling, like, I mean, I have no idea.
Because we have so much young talent.
And I feel like we've only gotten better
since the first day.
Like, insane improvement every single day.
And like, I actually don't know where our ceiling is,
at all. I will see. That's the time to tell us. We'll see.
Do you just, I was going to say, if you look up, you can see the ceiling.
If you look up outside, he always gets like this.
I was going to say, obviously when we saw that like little resurgence out of
cloud nine, you guys are winning games back to back to back.
And then unfortunately it fell short.
Do you feel like when you guys were at that high on cloud nine, is that
what it's kind of feeling right now?
Or is it a completely different feel?
completely different completely different. I don't know but like LCQ felt pretty good but like the
both stages I mean sometimes you just know you know I mean like you could just tell like you
obviously keep high hopes you keep it positive but like you play every day with the same results
you kind of know what's going to happen so like for us like we get good results mostly every day
so it's good for us and even when it's bad results it's still improvement because we know
what things we need to work on and it makes sense when we're losing that's always good to see
it so. Well listen goody congratulations on closing out the group stage here with the
win and we will see you in the upper bracket as you take on one of 30 in a couple weeks. Thanks so much man.
Thank you. Have a good one. Well what a finish to the day that saw us go through a reasonably paced
four game slate. We locked in five fears as undefeated the kings of that group and then we saw of course
our last look at outlast for some time but Fox we talk a lot about our expectations coming
into this group stage. We did a power ranking. We looked at all these teams and said, how do we
think this is going to stack up here on the other side? What are your biggest reactions
to where we started and where we are now? Well, the powerhouse teams that we expected of
SR and M80 definitely, you know, M80's taking a little bit of time. They're still up there,
but SR completely below expectations did not meet what we wanted to see from them.
five years though, I think it's safe to say that this stage so far has been so exciting to watch
because of the new teams and because the new teams are also performing well. I mean, five years
is so amazing to watch. It's entertaining because they're brand new. They have a very creative
way to attack and I just want to be able to see them play more and more and hopefully,
you know, they continue to do well enough to make Salt Lake City. And that being said, I mean,
I don't think any of the expectations that we had actually hit the nail on the head. I don't
think I don't think we have one expectation that went correct besides baby outlast being last
well lax talk to me about group b on the other side right we have outlast obviously will not see
them again here in kickoff but you have a team like cloud nine you have a team like wildcard ssg
who we just saw perform better and better every single week i mean other than dark zero being
at the top here i mean where do you put your hopes where do you think that second team making
the major could potentially come from from this group. I will say if it's the typical
traditional way of wildcard once we get to playoffs and get to those brackets runs wildcard easily
could be the second contender but if ssg continues to keep expanding and growing with each and every
single game it's definitely a toss up between those two and then as for cloud nine unfortunately
I can't give them that much credit and think that they will be the one to go the distance
there, but who knows? Maybe something will surprise us. I mean you can't expect that.
It's still on it. I don't know. I don't know. But we can get a look at our final bracket picture.
We teased this before we got into the game, but here we are. Group stage now officially in the
rear view mirror. This is the matchups that will be set for the playoffs. We'll open up with
the quarterfinals, SSG and one of 30. M80 and wildcard will take each other on there
before seeing who goes on to play five fears and dark zero and as we said earlier fox for five fears and dark zero a
Big deal that they got that mine round because now all they need is a single best of three win and they're going to the major
Yeah, just one win
I mean it's a nice life to live when you're up there
But sometimes you teams that are at the top can get over confident. We've seen it happen to that previous
Oh, I see roster
I believe that was the last team to start in the upper bracket and then not make it to the major and also
So it's really exciting to see that we will have one of the new teams no matter what make
it to the major because five fears, SSG and one of 30 are all in the same upper part of
the bracket.
So one of the new teams is going to be in Salt Lake City.
That's pretty exciting.
Lacks any final final remarks on on how this stage played out this group stage?
I'm just honestly very pleased with all the new teams with all the new faces that
we're seeing it definitely didn't disappoint in a lot of the areas that I thought maybe
it was going to.
a little even surprising for myself.
And then obviously the big shake-ups
of a team like Five Fears leading the charge.
Even this new iteration of Dark Zero has been fun
to get behind because you weren't sure
what it was going to look like,
what the ideology was going to be.
Everything kind of has been delivering
where I wasn't sure it was going to.
So excited to see what it's gonna look like
once we get into the end of it.
Yeah, we get into the playoffs in a couple of weeks.
The NAL playoffs start on April 20th
where we will be bringing you the coverage
from in studio.
So get hyped about that.
We've got four days of coverage coming your way
for the playoffs in just a couple of weeks.
So stay tuned for that.
Jonah, yes?
Do you know what's after the 20th?
Tell me.
My birthday.
The 21st?
The 21st.
OK, we'll make sure to bring that up
when it comes to the playoffs.
For everyone who tuned in tonight,
thank you so much for watching,
for our amazing production staff,
for Oscar, who had 40 wings and three AOLIs today,
for Fox Day and Laxing.
I'm Jonas Villanger.
Come and get you from a studio streaming booth in Chinatown, New York, saying thank you so much for watching, and we'll see you during the playoffs.
Have a good one.