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you
you
I
the world. Hello and welcome to
the eighth playday of SL groups.
Just two more play days to
opportunities for our teams to
get points and lock themselves
in the top six earlier. So today
as well as we already mentioned
yesterday, Brazil is playing in
the World Cup later today, so
sense that every player from
Brazil gets to watch their
country play in the World Cup
an hour since we logged off yesterday and I think that just came down to how close every single match
was yesterday. I guess everything in life and is a question of perception. I feel like I've aged
two years because of the France match last night so you know what maybe it wasn't one or for you
it was two years for me but at the same time I'm very glad that's that's happening because I will
also want to watch Brazil after watching some great Brazilian siege action we'll watch some great
president football action so it is the perfect Sunday in my book. It is yeah let's talk about
the settings as well then because currently we have a gap of nine points between the fourth and
the tenth team obviously noting that the top three teams have already qualified and locked themselves
in for those playoffs that means the gap is increasing compared to yesterday because it was
six points yesterday but the point opportunities to really get these points and lock yourself in
those have decreased. Yeah that's the thing right you've got six points left here right now and as
As you've said, we have so many teams that are close to each other, so basically, to
understand what's going on here, we have two races.
We have the races for Top 6, which will set your playoffs for you, and then you have the
race for Top 4, because if you manage to get Top 4, you're going to land on the right side
of the bracket, the upper bracket side, and so that means that basically, whoever makes
playoffs, they only need to win 1 B.O.3 to make it WC, but most importantly, if you're
After part of the top 4, you start in the upper bracket, so even if you lose your first
BO3, you're able to then still play another BO3.
So here's an example here, this is the EML playoffs bracket, and as you can see the top
4 was G2 Falcons, VP and GK.
So right now, G2 Falcons are facing each other, one will win and will make it to EWC
straight away.
And then Falcons, let's just see if they lose, could play Fnatic, and then they would have
a second shot at making EWC if they won their second BO3.
So this is why it's not only so important for these teams to make it to top six, but
also make it to top four.
And if we look at the matches today, some teams can already look top four and already
look top six straight away before the end of the last playday.
And this is what is making this one especially critical for all of these teams.
And I'm going to play Devil's African here when we look at the matches because there's
also a shot for teams to be excluded from play-offs today.
You know, that's natural as we move towards the final few play days of the league.
Teams will fall short, but that could already happen today.
And that has to do with the results from matches earlier on.
We're looking at some of these matches where, for example, A-Loud, you know,
they're playing up against a very strong opponent.
The same goes for later.
I'm looking at that matchup between Furia and Flux Show W7M.
It's currently very well for Flux Show W7M.
Two big losses.
It's going to cost them many points.
And now they have to go up against a team that, sure, they lost yesterday.
But overall, in the SLL, they've looked incredibly good.
Yeah, honestly, there's so many different stories here.
You know, you can focus on FaZe and the fact that they're barely way above there.
They've locked in Top 4, they've locked in playoffs.
They are completely flawless right now.
They're likely just want to confirm their flawless stage and confirm the number one seed.
On the set of Furio and NIP, it's very likely that they can lock Top 4 today.
Either if Loss, if Loud loses to FaZe Clan, then both of them will be guaranteed
to make top four, because that won't be able to overtake them.
And in the case where Lout creates the upset and bits phase,
NIP can still beat Team Liquid 3,
I can still beat Fluxer.W7M,
and I can confirm that top four that way.
And like you said, that other impacts, right?
For example, loss, if they were to win,
that would put a lot of pressure on Fluxer.W7M.
So there are so many different scenarios here
with direct impacts, and as we go through the matches today,
we'll update you guys on what are the stakes for every match
and who's confirming play out, who's confirming top four,
most importantly, who's basically not confirming any
and has a very poor stage.
I'm just really glad that you did all the maths for this
because of this one thing, I'm really not good at
is doing maths and especially when it comes to doing that
on the pressure, especially with the results
from earlier matches influencing potential eliminations
or qualifications from the matches later on.
But yeah, of course, these matches will all really
matter a lot. It's 40 teams to get their 1-2 final shot of collecting points. And we can
talk a bit about momentum as well. I think yesterday we saw teams really put up a good
fight. You know, we're talking about an Imperial eSports who put up a great fight against Loos
despite being that very tense in the team now. They got 5 rounds, that's great. But
in the end, those 5 rounds are not going to lead them to a point. They're not going to
lead them to climbing up in the standings. And that's the double edge short that we
we see at least in this very final play,
that teams can get a lot of rounds,
they can seem competitive,
but then somehow they end up empty handed
and that seems to be the issue for some of these teams.
Speaking of that matchup,
and in particular, Lose versus INTZ
as our first matchup of the day,
these two teams coming in as the sixth versus the eighth
with eight and six points respectively,
both these teams won the matchup,
but as we already said, a close game yesterday,
they made it close against their opponents.
We look at Lowe's as the roster here, they did move into that top six with that win yesterday.
And they looked strong, especially in that first half.
I think it was Daphne who you just saw on your screen, joining us in the interview yesterday,
talking about how they played too scared in the second half,
with nearly led to a comeback from my Dragons.
But it was really good to see those two dominant rounds at the end there to help them get over the line.
It was a game of two halves, they really struggled to close the game,
but in the end the experience showed on their side.
And honestly, on the back of these two guys on your screen right now,
four dropping 17 kills, Paris 15 as well,
more than 30 kills combined for the two of them.
It's two experienced players, the one that have played the most international stages along with Dash.
And I think they stepped up at the right time.
Looking at loss, I think you want them to continue the legacy they're building.
They've been one of these big Brazilian contenders trying to challenge the top four,
the established top four FACL, they managed to do it during kickoff.
The question was, can they do it in a format that's much longer, where consistency is rewarded,
such as a normal stage, and so today is an opportunity for them to do it,
because if they were to win here, if they were to beat INTZ,
it means that if later down the road, Fluxo W7M loses to Furia, they have guaranteed playoffs,
and they eliminate Fluxo W7M for playoffs as well.
At least they will be very, very close to guaranteeing playoffs because obviously we jump from three points here and they basically would be, I would say like almost guaranteed it depends on the rest of the matches.
And on the side of INTZ, I think we're starting to see the resurgence, right?
Because they were one of these teams that we had the discussion of, you know,
they're at the lower end of the standings, they're struggling a little bit yet.
They make every single game look very close.
And I think we saw the momentum grow on their side all the way up until that
layer game yesterday, which I think was really the moment where everyone realized,
oh, wow, SL can be much closer than what we think.
What used to be a very tough, heavy league is becoming a league that is much closer, with a lot of pressure.
And I think an IP who was so consistent throughout the stage, losing to MTS at yesterday, was a very, I guess, surprising move here at.
It was, but it's a big victory for them as well, right? You think of these last two games where they get these two big wins in a row,
it makes you really excited about their progress, you know, they were tenth before starting to get these big wins,
They've already moved themselves up in A, it makes you wonder what else is possible for these final playdays.
We're looking at legacy, we're looking at Angels alongside Arthur, really stepping up in that match yesterday.
I mean that big 4K as well from Angels.
What was it? Seven kills in total in the overtime to help this team get over the line?
It's incredible if you think of that, but then again, they get to overtime, they get the win out there, that's two points.
If you look at it, starting to perfect their performance,
It's where they get the success in the early rounds, which is great.
They need to make sure they don't bleed these rounds away with stage 1 mini-team,
because I feel like that was the big storyline that we saw in the matchup from yesterday,
Heroics, from an NIP player that absolutely shot them down.
Yeah, always somehow hates our Pinot Good, like grabbing kills,
and honestly, I entered into that one that won in regulation.
They were the better team, and you know what?
At some point, the late round worked in their favor,
because Angels had some incredible 1v3,
Maybe that was the moment from the playday yesterday.
That Azami clutch on baseman, on lair,
it was such a weird move as well,
because he's not playing the usual gun,
he's not playing the cap gun on Azami.
And the fact that he was able to win that one,
I think really kicked off all the momentum on their side.
It was, I think, a very emotional one also for them,
not only for the other players to show to themselves
that they could beat an IP,
But to have one of them win a 1v3 against one of the big teams that usually close out these leg rounds, I think this was a very important one.
And as we see it right there, Arthur got aggressive here upstairs, got the first kill on Hades, and then he really quickly rotated down the hatch here in weapons.
And look at Pino who tries to get the 1v1 here. That's a huge mistake from him, by the way, because Bassetto is still in the shield, and they're completely disjointed.
When Pino went for the drop really quickly, Bassetto wasn't there.
And so after that, they just could isolate the kill on Bassetto.
A very important one, and one that rewarded them with a win.
I feel like that's just one-on-one on how to win your clutches, right?
You want to isolate your gunfire,
you want to make sure they create these individual moments against the opponents there.
But yeah, great moments. If they would have lost that round, for example,
should they have not won that clutch out there,
that would have been a regulation win for the side of NIP.
So it really shifted that momentum around,
help them push that game in the overtime and from there on of course you know winning these rounds
still in that great momentum and pushing it in uh into two points for them incredible stuff on
these two teams and I think with what they shown yesterday it gives us opportunities for a to not
close matchup and two I guess to keep things closed later on in the day as well you've already
mentioned you know should Lowe's get a victory here if you already have been Flux or W7M which
you know given the current momentum between these two teams especially Flux or W7M that seems like
it's very likely that that is going to happen later today but as we'll stick with these two teams
I would like to see the map veto and show where this match is going to end up going to as we
already saw a lair yesterday from the side of INTZ from imperial we saw a border so far lair
and border will not be brought out today and it seems like in the end we'll be headed to fortress
well that's a really good map for the two of them I know that both of them I've actually played it
and none of them have won it yet. But there is some caveat to this.
I'm to say they lost it all the way in the 15th round against Loud,
and that was all the way back at Kickoff, that was when the team was just being built,
and they had just won Challenger Series, or second up Challenger Series, and made it into TR1.
And so, I think you can basically forgive them from losing that map and making close
against the current Loud. I think it's perfectly a good estimate of how they were playing on the
the other side follows. It's a map that they tried playing at Kiko, then at the
Salt Lake City Major, they lost it 7-2 to Fluxo W7M, they lost it to
Bilbo at the Salt Lake City Major, and I remember talking to Dash about it, and
they completely reworked the map in between the Major and the stage, and they
took phase on the map, and it went all the way to the 12th round. It went 5-7
for us, obviously losing it, but still such a close one against the best team in
So for me, one of the better teams on the map in SAO and just as a global reminder about the stakes of these matches
Basically plus winning regulation. They hit 11 points. They are on the verge of looking top six at the same time
If I'm to say losing regulation, they're stuck at six. It's done. It's the end for them
It's go all day today and most importantly if loss were to win here
it's also ending completely any chances for Black Dragons and Imperial to remain in the playoffs race.
So you have basically lost right now as the Reaper and 90s BD and Imperial can be the victim of that.
Yeah, there will be a lot of teams looking at Lowe's performance today to see where this match will be headed to
and then eventually if Lowe's succeed today there's going to be a hate watch for them because
they'll want to hope that Lowe's does poorly today to keep themselves alive in the race for playoffs
else but we've given you all the information we've given you all the
stakes this time to bring in our casters for the day we are joined by
links and extra Troika and whilst we get you to in to talk about these matches
I hope your vocal chords are warmed up because if yes there's anything to go by
you're in for a long one today especially if I and he's here in the
matchup because I mean if you just consider the past two games they're
two and oh inside of the sal currently and frankly given I think a lot of us
thought it would be looks like Leo's point a pretty top-heavy league that we
you would have a pretty set six going into playoffs.
Blocks of W7M not really being in that conversation anymore
is already surprising,
but this is my most anticipated game of the day
because INTC has really just come out of nowhere,
especially yesterday with that comeback to make it exciting.
So I personally, if I had to strain my vocal chords
in any game, I actually would prefer it be this one.
I think that's it, isn't it?
We always talk about SL being a very unpredictable league
in a league where the top teams will eventually fall
to those lower down teams on the table
the game. I think that's a
really good point. The 90s have
proved that with the resurgence
this last couple of play days,
and it's just the question of
is it going to be a bridge too
far from here tonight or not?
I really like the position that
lost have got himself in. By
the way, Leo, when you're
explaining there that they were
almost gatekeeping three other
teams from even having a chance
at that top the top six spot.
Um you know, there's a lot of
control in their hands today.
Let's just say that. It's good
to really reiterate those kind
score line as well going from left to right. What do you think?
I think it's a hard call. It's a really hard one to call because initially I would have said that
loss would be the favourites especially after the qualification to South Lake City and overall the
players, like a labour of players on that roster. But the thing is with INTZ's current form, like
who could have bet that INTZ would beat an IP yesterday, you know? So I have no way to call it.
I'd like to see another time just because of how complex it would get with the maths and how
basically everything would still be in the air. So I would say you know what,
overtime victory from Lowe's. I think I think I'm also gonna go overtime victory
from Lowe's but especially especially that being fortress if we just like
invest the ones being what they are if we see somebody run up the score on the
defensive side really early you could also get some weird scenario where it's
like a 7-1 or a 7-2 not even necessarily because that's what the
matchup actually represents but just kind of the nature of best of ones and
on a more defender side of map, but I think at least in terms of like what this matchup
can spiritually offer, this has to be an overtime game. Given how close these two teams are,
given the states that are on the line, it has to be an OT game in theory.
One of these teams is going to have to win Fortress, right? And that's
something that neither team has done up until this point. I'm easier starting off on the defense.
I would give them that odd and give them that advantage, given that they will be able to run
up the score on that defensive side. Their game on Fortress was a hell of a lot closer than a
a lot of losses games on fortress. Um, lots of got some stinking losses in there. So I'm
going to give the, I'm going to give it to I and TZ, but I don't think I'm going to go
as far as to say overtime.
So they lock it in regulation. I mean, I would, I would love to see that because if I can
TZ do take it here, that means things. They excited for the rest of the day. We have a
lot to play for later on, but links, you said it was your most anticipated matchup of the
day. Good news for you. It is Ray.
Well, and I'm just, I'm perfectly happy to get into it now because as, uh, as the desk
kind of alluded to not only of course are these two teams very close in the
standings very close in terms of play lot writing on this matchup the results
of this and of course our loud phase game right after this basically could
decide a large chunk of the playoff errors within the first couple hours of
SAL playday 8 and while you and I might be the biggest fans of fortress I do
think that given the stakes of this matchup and given how INTZ have just
really come out of nowhere in the back half of the stage probably one of the
the most exciting fortress games you and I have cast up until this point.
Absolutely. It's, look, we've got to learn to love it. I think that's just the, I really
just think that's the way that the world is going right now. The thing is, the other option
was Cafe. Cafe was the second, but was the last map banned. So lots of maybe done us
a little bit of a favor there because I think, I think people prefer to watch Fortress than
Cafe. It's at least newer, isn't it? So we can, we can get ourselves in there. But as
Because we've sort of spoken about both of these two teams have, of course, played this
map before, but both searching for their first win here on Fortress.
So that may lead the question as to, well, why are we here?
Because if neither one has been able to do it up until this point, they're going to have
to show us something a little bit different here today.
INCZ, of course, coming very close, overtime loss, Max O.T., and they will be starting off
on that more favorable defense side.
shields being targeted on that defense as well. So loss are going to be a little bit hamstrung
there. No Monty and no Blitz. Both great space takers here on Fortress. On the flip side,
loss chosen to give themselves a little bit of an easier time with some of that area denial
utility that Goyo chooses to bring and removing the Cade as well just to make those breaches
a little bit more straightforward. Not that breaching is a big part here on Fortress,
but it can just speed things up a little bit.
I don't report this when you do have such a hard time on the attack.
One reason is you know you struggle to progress through the map,
struggle to clear some of these exterior positions like museum,
and then by the time you get to the site you spend a lot of time,
and then you got to deal if not with an electroclaw,
certainly with some Vulcan packs.
And so I think it was anticipating
that something attacks often suffer from on this map,
and just trying to avoid that entirely.
And of course bringing the yin and the grim,
focusing on more of the execute utility to start,
at least for the attack for the moment, with the shields completely taken down.
It'll be that kind of disruption, utility, and the intel gathering that are going to be the
two play styles they could lean into that are favorable inside of the attacking meta right now.
First minute, unfortunately, usually begins with a lot of opening of these exterior positions,
kind of sitting outside, trying to see what you can get, but at least right now,
for a brief moment, Pérez tempted us with early engagement wraps, not a museum like
his armies can be but instead down below quickly rotates back up not trying to take a fight too
quickly and Ollie I think that's the right move. Yeah just used to be playing in around this area
right that horse pillar is so crucial his own. You can really lock that off you get a good line
onto those main stairs big C4 kill off the rip here Angel's gonna take dark down.
Gonna be Nomad in there flank watching capabilities oh is he just riding as well downstairs
looks like he was just on the lower portion of tower still gonna be looking
to challenge that with a shot when he knows he's likely gonna get pushed here
but it's basically zero response from low flight he's kind of singled out right
there he's got a little bit of support nooks obviously playing on the ying
could look to try and flash and make a play on this but it's gonna be Paris
just called the ladder where the candles I mean you could see the idea in theory
thinking that they've distracted the warden, that maybe they can then climb up the ladder
sneakily, but you're just so vulnerable right there, and they know there's somebody at the
C4 on the bottom of a tower, and they're thinking about the normal defensive lineup.
Odds are, even if it's not a warden, it might be a mute, or somebody with a C4, I have to
think that to your point, maybe just using a bit of extra utility might have made that
a bit easier, even if you're going to do a ladder climb, still a 3v4, only one body separating
Los and INTZ at the moment.
Nux used all his candelas there.
Daffo down to two canisters in that launcher.
When it comes to the disruption, there's a minimal remaining capacity or potential energy
for Los pushing into this site.
The defense not only with an advanced, with better positions currently.
Nux opening up an important angle though, that's to put pressure on one of the defenders
playing close on the wall.
I believe that's STK announced to rotate across, but charged shot in the process, no new angle
created for this Los attack.
Almost picked the head off of nuts from behind Dapo adding an alternative angle with 10 seconds remaining
Catches a nice line through the rotate hole with the keep of barricade providing a lot of nice protection for this defense
There's the attack cut short as they push into the site Dapo only one second away from losing it on time
He does an ambitious swing there with the bailiff wasn't it to try and get that done it was
Not that not the finest round there from close really I think it really got struggling on some of those
Just a sort of dug in defender power positions
Sitting at the bottom of town with a C4. It's a great trick
But you really ought to get away with you know more than one Paris
I can't believe that you just tried to ladder up on him. There was no distraction at that time warden angels
You had nothing else to watch
Quite simply could just sit there with the shotgun watching the ladder
Listening for a hatch truck listening for someone coming in above and they have plenty of support from the site as well
even if Paris gets that kill you don't really fancy him to go too much further
because again it's a known player we've got two players hiding in the bathtub a
CK and Arthur so we're trying to hide a bandit and a clash I mean at that point
the drones are just gonna see what's going on and think I mean we know nothing
at this stage, like...
Aww.
Just sharing water, you know?
What's the ration out for Arthur getting out early versus SDK? Do you think...
I just feel like the DZA is like whatever.
Yeah.
We can't really change anything at that stage, can we? So it's just what, you know, it's like,
okay, we've missed her on the clash.
Well, typically I would say two of the most common operators we see hidden are clash and
some kind of hard reach to now, whether it's a Kade or a Bandit.
So not often we see the two happen at the same time.
The drone around being like, why have we only spotted three defenders?
Where did the other two go?
At least for the moment.
Pretty mean lineup for my TZ right now.
You got the two forms of hard bridge to now, the Bandit and the two Rau.
can't do the two brown cage. The latter is banned. The class providing some nice
mobile time wasting. There are a lot of different ways that ITZ could trip up this
loose attack and especially when you look at the lineup right now, we're still
focused on a lot of that extra utility, GLaD's and the game and of course some
intel gathering and the GLaD's taken down. Angel's a big opening pit. 4-0 right
now, big player yesterday as we mentioned and taking out pair as another
equally big player on low two always seems to pull out a good game. A good
person to shut down early. Two rounds and two opening picks for angels and he's
fancing himself for another just starting to get a little bit aggressive on
the window at the top of these main stairs right now.
Stapho searching for answers Perez as the glass was really being looked towards
as zone enough a lot of visual zone of a lot of line of sight and making use of
glasses scope and really starting to cut through some of those longer angles
upstairs without that now kind of trying to rely on dark to get in below and
make something happen on Deimos. See if that vendetta can do a little bit of
damage through the floor if they're going to be able to search anyone out.
But the moment it doesn't really look like he's got anyone to track, at least no
one active in that death mark. So him being downstairs really sort of leads the
team even further to being the deficit on this top floor.
Defo, very thorough clear of this bathroom, can choose to start to try and get
that wall open, but with both the bandit and the two brow, it isn't going to be
got some C4s in the clash, but the 20 seconds remaining,
a lot of these players might need to be gun up.
First C4 goes wide, SDK spots one,
but the flashbang landing perfectly.
Daffa at least keeps that defender behind the bunk bed
just for another few key seconds.
Dark going huge, pushing into the site.
Revolver in hand, great pinch on the SDK,
wraps now swinging around as everybody from ITZ
loses their fights.
I have to think that Angels getting aggressive there
and gave Lose the exact opening they were looking for.
to shame as well because they've done so much work on that opening pick again taking
Paris down and that's really what looser looking to try and leverage is that glass instead
it just comes down to having to burst and sort of brute force their way through the
site. Angels trying to play into a gap that really wasn't there. One that I'm sure that
they'll look back on and question that question that decision a little bit could very easily
be two nil up for INCZ here and if we're going to be right in our prediction links, which we're not
always correct, but Fortress fairly defender sided, crucial rounds like that on the top floor
on a primary bomb site really can start to be a difference maker because if Lost finds some
success elsewhere, I mean we're not even going to the normal downstairs site, looks like we're
going to Hermann, which for all intents and purposes is a bit of a honker. This is like
Fourth pick site here on fortress. You'll very often see people going into the alternate downstairs site kitchen
Where you can play inside of infirmary and you've got a got a few more playable areas around you
But you can quite literally just hop straight into her man. Well and and to your point
This is I'm 90% sure this is the first time you and I you and I have casted a home on defense
So and you know I've casted quite a bit of fortress
since SLC to now and
In fact, we have to cast this site one single time, I think is indicative, or at least just indicative of waiting room being the much more preferred option, even if Hamamate might theoretically not be all that bad.
See if Loser ready for it. Sometimes the offsite pit can trip up the attacking team when they expect a more standard third rotation down a waiting room and cafe.
A lot of rotates and soft destruction being created by INTZ 30 seconds into the round and this is a pretty extended defense.
So many architect operators, the Azami, the Castle, the Mira, looking to create layers and extend the site outward, create new positions.
It's still holding that all important museum and horse pillar as wraps and angels mount this two-person realm on the top floor.
See what those answer for it are. They don't have a lot of disruption utility like we saw last time.
It's mainly just the shield
Seems like it's still going to be a bit as low as taking their time
I'm just gonna quick flick through the data and there has been no play of this site on any region. Oh
So that would be what?
Yeah, I think honking might have been an understatement
It's like it like the honking is quite literally in all caps
Yeah, this site though. I didn't say that seems like you might hit the go button for a low shield rushing in looking to clear out this Rome
Knuck's clearly concerned about the vertical angles. Oh, wraps! Ends up saving his teammate, back facing the Blackbeard pushing in.
It's only a trade though. INTZ don't get any lead out of that. It's quite close. All things considered, but Daphne on low HP,
you know, it's Peres the next to go down, finished off by an impact grenade.
Stole only a one-body lead between these two. Daphne has been outside for so long, finally makes his way in.
He can tie around one and lost on the top floor. Angels wraps in, I believe, one other person, all keeping a lockdown in horse.
It doesn't matter what side it is if you're just going to lose every single gunfight.
And that's what happened to Lost when they got into that top floor.
They got a couple of consolation prizes, but the big gunfights there coming out in favour
of INTZ.
Angels again doing a fantastic job.
Perez from Lost struggling to find his feet in the fixture so far.
Which isn't where we want that young gunner to be.
Bandit and Ying to round out the bands so far. Ying has been pretty permanent fixture in the loss lineup.
Bandit as well, something that INCZ were looking to try and hide and looking to try and sort of surprise Lois with.
Okay, you've made your getting your walls open and you've made a little bit of the site clear easier with that Goyo band.
But you've still got things like a mirror, still got things like in his army.
I haven't even seen INTC bring the mirror out just yet, they're really rocking for more
of the mobile mirror approach on STK with the clash.
And they've got a lot to be playing with here.
Back to where we started, things off then.
Stairs to command.
Previously, kinda single-handedly won by Angels in that he got two kills inside a tower and
really all oughtn'ts who have got the second one, maybe shouldn't have even got the first.
currently seven and one doesn't really matter if he should or shouldn't be getting these kills
he's getting them anyway he's more importantly not dying in the process the only round that angels
has died in is where he basically gave himself away for free trying to make a bit of a play happen
aside from that he's been incredibly effective so far you look on the flip side of loss the story
can't be said for pera's dash nukes nukes as well with the operators that they play i mean if you're
to bring the block that he needs to be getting active on it
i don't think it's angel some credit me not to see i need to see about a rough
rough stage up until recently but
and angels on previous ross is to be quite a liability for example on the
enx team and angels these past few playdays has really been an excellent
standout player
you know i i know around the next ross are often going down in the opening
rules on important operators like the zombie like solis and
pretty in the work he has and in fact you know
2 and L on the opening duel so far that he's taken.
Really excellent stuff for Angels at the moment.
Nothing to complain about so far.
Most beginning to try and peel back some of the layers on this game's extension.
It's not Angels, nor Raps on, well, not that part of the realm at least.
It's just that the Clash and the Smoke calling that position as Angels is rotting down below.
We'll be playing on that solos, just trying to see if he can catch anyone out in any sort of gadget.
Poor solace fantastic for denying the plant as well, but I just don't feel like we're gonna get there in this game
Doesn't feel like that's been a massive focus for loss at this time. It's mainly more of being mainly more being about survival
more than anything
They never really holding significant control or imposition to really control the flow of the map and
Find themselves a pocket to get the plant down. It's more about these rat plays and it's more about angels
8-1 and disappears like a thief in the night after taking Paris down for the third time.
Most unfortunately pretty big gap in their Intel game right there. I mean very focused on
clearing out that second floor, that middle floor realm, but
I think Angel slipped through even now 8-1 and like you said in the wind.
Can't exactly rotate back up. I think a lot of the staircases or at least a good portion of them are covered by Loose.
It's so very well could potentially pose another threat on the flank later wraps meanwhile
Still keeping a tight grip on the museum position dark and nooks both suffering some damage
I mean all of IAG's power positions that we really want are still held legacy behind the shield
Angels firing some more shots at nooks and just harassing these attackers down below
I mean that blockade goes down
That's the shield and the diffuser dropped alone down below with no opportunity for a trade these attacks from most are spread out
INTZ are basically having them do exactly what they want them to do, wrap
still alive inside its position, gets a nice double on the 90 degree swing, can't
land the triple, but the work's been done by INTZ angels with the first and the
last. INTZ continue to rack up rounds on these defenses.
It's a very fancy goblet. I'm locked into the water containers or
I don't know if it I don't know if it's just this stage, but the amount of just insane containers. We have seen yeah
It blows my mind
The NL is a bit of a meme because it's all just bigger and it's like who can have the biggest water jug
It's just like I'm waiting for somebody to like literally reach both their hands down and pick up one of those jugs
They have attached to like the coolers in like the office. Yeah, I
I want someone to actually have to have like two other people bring them out their water container
Too heavy for one person
They've got like they've got like the highs intro not the highs and trophy
Yeah, like the Stanley cut with all like is that the one where they pour out the liquid
Is that something?
Do they pour out?
Out I can't spot liquid from the Stanley
Google tried to autocomplete with sippy cup not what I wanted
Okay, well now it's telling me about now. It's telling you that Stanley's the water bottle brand. Okay. This was a
No, no, that was a troll. That's my bad guys. I didn't waste all of our time. I just want to apologize
to me
Thanks actor comedian from
Indiana
That's cool time out there from Los used we kind of glossed over it
But really, what are they going to be able to find?
Because aside from a round where players from INTZ just really gave themselves up for free,
they haven't really come up with a strategy or a plan to deal with angels yet.
And he's not trying to reinvent the wheel, he's not doing anything incredibly flashy
or something that we haven't even seen before.
They're just playing a good lurking roaming game of Siege.
And Lois are struggling to deal with it at every single turn.
They look starved for information, but very often see them manually clearing rooms and
not having the readers to where anybody is.
The confidence on Angels is really just starting to swell right now, even so much as just challenging
on the periphery of the map, straight off the rip, just letting Loos know, yep, I'm here,
you can't walk him for nothing.
Now, as the Azami, not the first time he's played it, but played it on both tertiary
sites as we're not back to Hamam or on a waiting room this time. Really just hammering home the
fact that you cannot just walk in for free. These Keebas are going to be a problem. They're going to
block you out of these important entrances. Makes an important target to find. It also makes it
important that if he continues playing confidently, which I think he's earned a right to do nine and
one, but he could go down early. He could lose one of those fights and that's important utility
taken on early if that's the case. So, see what Angel continues to do. We'll see what Loser able
to find and we're kind of hitting the normal pace of fortress so far it always is a slow first
minute or so. Daffo has the a line on angels currently stuck on the old tower stairs but
instead Nux pushing him down takes the one-on-one fight wins it and that's angels first opening
death and also conversely most is first opening pick. So much better from Los that should have
been the focus all game long like I said angels he's not reinventing the wheel he's very killable
in these positions, but they have to focus on it. Round five, yes, they've spent half
the round doing it, but they have found that opening. STK takes a bit of damage, but dishes
even more out to Perez than already he's worried about the prospect of a flank. Should be okay,
though. He's got all the teammates upstairs. The vulnerability is going to be the main
stare at the minute, but as we can see, there's going to be no one in position to really challenge
on to that. The fact that INTC have already lost angels means that sending another person
up there for a bit of a flank is probably ill advised. And instead, you've sort of just
got to seed this control and try and hold on while this vert starts to get opened.
Dark, just going to be droning down. Ooh, don't think he has to read on the player.
Maybe they know. They're sort of framing up for a bit of a hatch drop right now. Nooks
is in position as well alongside Perez. Dark's going to go down and try and bait out as Nooks
He's gonna commit to this hatch drop
He's gonna make his way down start taking an angle towards the site
This is the nice thing though
You know you're in the 4v5 because of how much time is taken if INTZ can just hold some off positions
Most could get completely caught off guard SDK the first pick for INTZ at the moment still a distinct disadvantage
Especially low HP that was an easy gunfight for pairs to win to be for possible
But unlikely for INTZ at the moment of wraps legacy on such low HP
But only seven seconds remaining most have to push in big C4 over top is that can't hit it
It downs nucks takes down the ram and just a 2v1 make that a 1v1 that I and TZ take on time
Unbelievably huge C4 from the defense
That turns an impossible round in I and TZ's favor
They can't believe what's just happened. I don't know how we got into a position by the way
I am TZ are all of them all three players on the wrong side of their mirror windows. The mirrors weren't popped the mirrors weren't smashed
Usually if you're gonna give up your mirror window control
You're just gonna you're gonna smash it you're gonna pop it because you don't want the attack to have the benefit of it
And we got into a really weird spot where Lois were actually in control of those mirror windows and with the position of iron TZ
Nuk's already damaged a little bit familiar as well, that really what helped him, just putting him into a down but not out of state, of course if he stays alive he's got the diffuser, he can again, start to make a play, start to utilize those mirror windows a little bit.
As it stands, IN-TZ, shaping up here for what could be a 5-1 half.
Checking out if we just assume they win this round it could have been a 6-0 as well
Loser were really struggling for a way in all the way back on that first forms games defense
Which is where we're ending off this half
If we see maybe a bit more passive play inside of the site holding those positions and those angles as Loser
We're able to push into like 40 seconds remaining
It could easily be 5-0 for IMTZ right now and on the cost of a 6-0 start
Which is something I was worried about for Loser. We think this is going to be a close game
But the nature of the best of ones even if IMTZ accomplish a 5-1
All they need is around like what we just saw a C4 that very well could have been shot and won the round for Los
Few shots get missed now to the play different result
All you need the best of one is a couple rounds like that to shift the game whether it's 8-7 or even 7-2
But the defensive start like this Los could be in
Huge problems going forward and I mean I will say that Ali might be able to win things here
The standings remain a lot more interesting for a lot longer. Yeah, they really did
I don't know. I don't know.
The thing about this game that
makes it so tense is that even
if it's a five one half, I
wouldn't put it past loss to come
back on the defense. Yeah,
that's a thing. It's maybe less
of loss on the defense and more
of I'm easy on the attack and
that lack, but. With the way I
in TZ have been playing today
has been very much a one man
to drop off and we don't see a step up from somebody else or they're not able to support
him in the same ways. It'll be very difficult indeed. Wall now open. Mirror window is going
to be right there. An ace would have been a much better choice here just to try and deal
with that mirror window from afar. As it stands, stuck with the thermite. Perez starts trying
to make something happen but not much she can do to sort of challenge on because of
that mirror window is going to cause quite a few problems. It's nooks really to just
aggressively push up and smash that thing and make it a little bit more useless for
SDK who's going to be playing behind it. They've round the back, but if Clash starts
to fill the gap, they've waited too long here, INTZ have been able to rotate themselves
into far better positions now based off the push and that's a big opener once again from
Angels.
And again, this is where Loos felt like on that Dorms Games attack last time, struggling
for ways in, reliant on INTZ to give away openings, and with INTZ adding in this mirror
window, you can see it's just compounded these issues. They're dropping down old tower,
one of the ones with no time, dark has no information, lands a nice couple of pre-fires,
downs one and takes out the other, but this is all just luck, landing these nice little
pre-fires, taking fights and hoping for the best, but the broader structure, the broader
setup for INTZ has won it in round six and on time two rounds in a row no C4 no clutch
necessary INTZ up four rounds five to one against Loos.
So incredible stuff we're seeing here from from these teams at least a very dominant
half from INTZ and Leo you said Loos reworked this map a lot after the major how are you
supposed to attack a site that has not even been played at all inside competitive stage
when you go up against a Mon defense. It's rough and especially if there are players
on the side of INTC who, again, like yesterday, you've got to talk about Angels. He is getting
active. He's shutting down Paris, who also showed up so well yesterday. And then even
if Angels is dead, somehow in the chaos, it seems the INTC can still win the round.
Yeah, I think let's just take a look at a couple of examples here because INTC is a masterfully
playing his fortress. Maybe LUS has reworked it, but INTC has also reworked it, by the
So first and foremost, there is this Hammam defense. First time I see it as well. Huge extension up top.
On the back of Angel is playing the strong position with Azami, trying to hold the run here together.
Everyone plays around him and look at that trade game. Look at just how good they are at trading each other.
So they decide to commit to the hold here up top and it's on back of Angel that gets a triple kill.
The round just after, look at this. Testing the limits here.
Angel is the free-runner. Look at the lineup on the side of ANTZ. Clash, Azami, Warden, Smoke.
So Angel is always the free-rumor, and then everyone else on the side of anti-Z plays a turtle,
and will abuse the space and the time wasted by Angels, by playing the turtle and playing time at the end of the round.
And this is really, really well displayed here.
Round five, Evan in the PV4.
All the time that was bought by the Roman Angels is then coming to fruition when they are in the clutch position.
If it wasn't for the time here, there's no anti-Z wins this.
But thanks to the time that was bought before, they get a really good triple kill and make sure that they win off time.
And then Evan in that last one, who's the one that gets the opening kill again?
Look at this, it's Angels and look at the lineup.
Once again, it's him going for roaming and then Clash, Smoke, Mira, Azami.
Everything so that your site is safe, it's a masterful defense side and it has a lot of impact.
because if INTZN were to win this inregulation, it means that basically they jump and
temporarily move into the 6th playoff spot, it means that Fluxor W7M cannot get eliminated tonight,
and it means that basically all the baron 5 teams of SEL will be within a pocket of points,
and the very last playday will define who's going to be the 6th team going to the playoffs.
Oh my, that's crazy, and I mean if you are a Fluxor W7M fan right now, you are whole-washing
for INTZ, especially after this first half here. And with you already mentioned, you know, these
roams that we're seeing on the side of INTZ, it always keeps you second guessing for most, you
know, if you get a bit of ground, oh, there's just somebody coming like behind me now in a few
seconds to try and get this ground back, trying to clear back from me here. The only issue now is
that INTZ have to go do this on their own attacks. We see that they want to get these breaches open,
they bend the anti-breach operators on the defense, seems pretty logical, and then they won't have the
the Daemons to their position as well. Going into the second half but you know I
need to see a good start. Can they make that happen in the second half as well?
Well you have to believe a little bit Ali. I think you have to believe they can
make it happen. I mean the nature of Vesta 1 up 5-1 they just have to win two
rounds. We brought this up halfway through which is Lowski of the opportunity
to play these defenses and it's not uncommon to see 4-2 5-1 defensive halves
on this map given of course some of the intrinsic defensive side parts of it but
Also, just given the fact that siege is always unpredictable, and sometimes you can just have, say,
angels going unpunished on a roam, going 10-2 to really make your team so much better than they already were on the defense.
So, to start with Loast defending command in bathroom, the first site on the second half, let's see what ends up happening.
Are Loast able to take advantage of these defenses, or INZ, INZ just have two attacks, and then to close this in regulation?
That's the question now.
I'm CZ have played a brilliant game so far
Then they just close it out tie a nice bow on it and give us a very confident win here on fortress
The side of lowest haven't already used that tactical timeout and it being good for
Pretty much diddly squat the only thing they got out of that timeout
It felt like was an opening pick on two angels and that was even only one round and then after that it just stopped being a focus again
similar tools available right now. Double hard breached denial, so it's going to make
things a little bit easier. You can already hear A's starting to get things open there.
Power side now in decent control as well. A little bit of a flight drone set up.
Best DK can just move down and confirm that. Legacy, getting involved on the action on the
opening pick but it's still the same victim it's still Paris going down first
such an important player for Los not having any kind of success so far on
this map is going to be a huge problem for Los going forward staff those able
to answer back the long angle on the fall off finds STK over by old tower the
thrust of this INTZ push still generally speaking intact especially since you
have Arthur on the shield but of course that's something Los are gonna know
about Arthur always plays these shields they're going to be ready for this
possibility, even if they're not building their entire lineup around countering him.
So they made their way through, adjust on the cusp of taking this initial bit of control,
but these mirror windows have been problematic for both teams and a lot of teams. On attacking
this map, Ollie, once you have to deal with these extra layers, these mirror windows, I
mean, Nox making good use of it, able to get a kill from behind it on the legacy to level
it 3-3.
But information here available in the solids on Skanna, Angels knows where players are
gonna be they've still got Arthur to utilize that blitz got some really good
guns pointed in the right direction here utility maybe a little bit lacking
granted but off the back of the blitz they should be able to push in here
most themselves equally nice utility you can hear those toxic babe canisters
going off now it's gonna slow down Arthur's approach here there are still
40 seconds so there is time to work with mirror window burnt right now by
wraps. It should make Arthur's approach a little bit easier here. We'll be a player
in the rotate and no other Toxic Babe sends out. That's the last one right now. Angels
desperately holding onto the angle. They are hoping and praying right now that Loose overpeek
because if they don't they know they are faced with just having to walk in.
And it seems like that's going to happen. Loose understand their position. They understand
and we do these mirror windows only getting cracked so late. Their positions are so completely
intact shotgun around the corner. Nux gets them both. That one with the double, Nux with
the double at the start of these defenses. They might go down three to five early, but
that setup is so strong, it does all the heavy lifting.
Holding on there inside of round one, INTZ. Usually we do see teams go for a little bit
more of a main stairs approach than that. We don't always see that full across clear
of that top floor. And I think the lack of any sort of pressure on that main stairs side
that tower side, it really just sort of gave Los far too much of a powerful position to
really dig back into. The cross clear not working out the way that INTZ will have hoped.
It's a primary bomb site though and the advantage that they have coming into this half is that
they've got a decent round buffer. Currently a three round buffer. So whilst these primary
sites yes may go Los's way, a lot's going to come down to the tertiary site. There is
of course still the chance that they're able to get it done upstairs in dorms and bunks.
We're not going to be feeling too hard done by not being successful on those primary bombsites
on this top floor. So that's a bit of a mental game and keeping yourself sharp for later on.
Ooh, I quite like this, you know. Just going to leave that soft some feet holes there.
It's going to be a real easy prefire.
Anybody does sort of show themselves there, or the F-na activates.
Maybe Gash gets his first kill of the game, Lynx.
Maybe.
Now, what's got to be careful is Fenrir swinging off of those F-nauts, though.
Attackers can sometimes be ready for it, not necessarily trigger it intentionally, but just
be ready for it and end up catching you on the swing.
It's a difficult balance of timing to make that work, but see if Daphne ends up finding it.
Ho, Daphno!
Swinging out the single window, crossing by wraps, but with the TCSG, just a few shots,
all that's required to take down an attacker.
That is only Loz's second opening kill, this entire match so far.
IGZ have had a strong hold on the entry game.
Starting off with this early will be quite important, especially if things end up coming
down to the tertiary sites, those needs to win the primaries to even put IHZ in that
difficult position.
If we're going to be thinking about dropping this sour now, in order to lose wraps like
you say, it doesn't put them in the best of spots here, the stallout is quite significant
at the moment.
Legacy.
You see the F nat on the corner there of the pillar, but it's not something that he's
he's gonna be thinking about it's not something that he's gonna be cognizant for
what the greatest throw really from Dash?
this still might work here
especially when time starts to get low
now she's fighting fights elsewhere though, museum
oh he's just deactivated the external one that should allow a bit of a walk up here
from legacy at least he's not gonna get detected now
on the side of INTZ it feels like they're not really doing enough at the minute
enough at the minute the work rate isn't high enough right now.
Just desperately trying to catch people at windows, but
Los have the advantage they don't need to move. They're not being given a reason
to shift around too much.
Big engagement approach in here though.
Dash just gonna get caught looking the wrong way. Finished off by angels.
Niantz has managed to work back a 4v4.
But they're running into the same issues that Los ran into and so many teams
attacking on fortress run into.
And the defense isn't giving you picks when you see that INGZ to start and now Loos on these defenses
are just holding their positions, not really taking all the many fights towards Windows.
You end up losing so much time, and that makes plays like this.
Dark creeping up the main stairs with a shotgun so powerful.
But again, if Daphos is going to win every fight on site when it's presented to him,
you don't need to flank, you don't need to push beyond what you held at the beginning.
Loos have had this round in hand since we entered the actual action phase.
Legacy now to cover three defenders protecting the blitz all alone dark winds that fight crossing through the attacks own smoke
Perez might not have had many kills, but the defenses are looking like this
You don't have to see massive individual performances from anybody on loose the defensive structure is winning this half
It does just go to show that you can have a player that's popping off and a bit of a one-man team like we're getting at the moment with
I'm TZ granted other people are starting to step up to the plate a little bit after the fantastic start the angels had
Rounds are still slowly but surely trickling losses away downstairs then to wait and in calf
This is gonna be the option
Brian TZ right now
This is gonna be the deciding factor if they're able to get around win here
Well, whatever happens at the end of this round
them expecting to see a tactical timeout. If they get the round win, great. They just
have to then work through the rotation and come back here again and win it just before
the game goes to overtime. If they can win here twice of course that is. Alternatively
if they struggle here, that's when we start to see a real potential for Los to get themselves
back in this. Los were good for one attacking round, don't forget. INTZ so far haven't
been. It was a top floor that Los were able to win and it was basically through mistakes
that INTZ were presenting and Lose in position to correctly punish.
I love a lot of pressure here inside of round nine.
INTZ needs to come out with a bit of a result here.
Looks like they're going to be going for a fairly typical line up.
Give themselves in onto that top floor.
Get wrapped. So OK, let's not get wraps in.
Rapsons are going to fall. Paris.
It's stinking to start off the game
and he's slowly starting to level things back up now.
he's only one kill behind at the minute five and six now we always say links that the vert isn't massive on this site
We never see loads of kills through it. It never really holds the plants
But it does do something to decide it does give the defenders something else to worry about and something else to think about
without the threat of those boogie drones above
Loach can just turn turtle into this. They don't need to go fancy
It's probably the worst thing that could happen for INTZ at the moment because those have already been
turtling on the top floor for both of those sites. They've already been basically just sitting inside
for most of the round, if not the entire round. So now that not only do they have the opportunity,
but an excuse to do that, they don't need to. If they want to, I mean they could. Why bother?
You already are going to extend out so far horizontally on this bottom floor room. You're
You're gonna hold into infirmary, you're gonna push into Hamam on the opposite side.
If you can just hold all these positions and not have to worry, play off these mirror windows, play off these keybugs, you're gonna be fine.
Feels like that's the order of the day, doesn't it?
SDK is apt to use some zephyrs to deal with...
Castle Barricade, so again, it's less for that mirror, it's more for the Hibana to do.
Arthur.
Whoever's been playing the shield today, whether it's been on Los, it's been Nux, or whether it's been INCZ, and it's been Arthur.
We haven't seen that impact from the shield player.
Arthur here just looking for a bit of a reposition externally.
I really hope that they know Paris is in her mom.
Paris, just gonna give himself away.
It's Core running out, and there's of course another player there, Dapo.
But even he takes a ton of damage, now we're starting to see a little bit of effect here.
Dash is going to get one back onto legacy and all important kill for his first one of the game coming here in round nine
But he's taking the Hibana down
He's kept it a 3v3 is denied INTZ a full man advantage
INTZ you're beginning to problem solve beginning to piece things together and these attacks
But it's just coming so late that kills like that become even more important than they already are
That's for this first two, but no C4 takes the fight in Arthur's ready for just a couple shots
makes this a 2v2, but at the same position as last time. Arthur with a diffuser and only one
player who can cover with even less time than the last. As he pushes further into infirmary,
he tries to take the fight with the Azami, he walks into a crossfire, and there is never enough
time to deal with that SDK grasping at straws and chasing ghosts on the bottom floor as the
warning signs begin, loathe with a flawless rotation. Seems like a sequence in problem right now for
off my NTC. Like we see angels die there and granted Arthur gets the trade back. Dash
picks off the snake as he swings the door. But who's he got behind him? He's got Blitz.
Send the Blitz in first. Of course it's coming down to the clock and a lot of this is, you
know, poor decisions based on short time. But it isn't a good enough reason for them
not to just take that extra second because despite the time being short, there was enough
time to make something happen there.
The side of INTZ they will take their tactical time out.
Reminder for everyone that this is a essentially a bit of a
restream of the the main Brazil broadcast. So we're not in
control of anything when we're in game. So we don't we don't
know why this graphics being called for. We can talk about it
of course. It looks like losses performance over the course of
the stage but I'm guessing but it seems fairly right the kills look about okay
for it to be over the course across the course the stage dark out 40 kills this
game do you miss it I mean sorry but I rest me you know I will actually I will
not having it is actually is reporting a dark having a bit of a rough stage so far
typically one of these standout performers lots of the teams he's been on
Loose, for example, in this roster, have a bit of a rough go of it. Of course, when you have players like Paris, you can fall back on.
Things are a little bit easier, but if you're darker having a good stage, Loose beat you, probably putting up a genuine problem for a lot of the teams inside of the SAO.
And of course on the flip side angels having a really solid end of stage so far
But generally speaking a decent stage overall of course
It's kind of difficult to have good stats when ITC as a whole have been struggling up until the last two play days
They did not have a single win inside of the SAL and not only that they only had
One point inside of the SAL and then out of nowhere. They beat Flux or W7 and regulation they come back
They beat NIP in overtime yesterday on Lair
Now we're in a position where if they're able to win in regulation today, not only are they in the conversation for that fifth-six-place spot, but basically a lot of the playoffs race will not be decided until our playday tomorrow. Conversely, if Los were able to mount the six-round comeback, a lot of things would get decided by the end of this matchup.
And if not that, by the end of the loud-phase matchup after this, which, there's a 7-0, Ollie. I have a feeling which way that one's going to go.
Really
I mean, I don't know if I'm gonna call it literally right now because it's the best of one
And it's kind of hard to go flawless. I mean I made he fell short right at the finish line
They did
Despite action dropping. What was it like 20? Was it 22 kills 21 kills something like that?
Ashen got more kills in years. He's been alive
Actually, I think that's true
me check
I don't know. I always look at like the
The black dragons phase game is that final final game for those two teams and I just see upset written all over it
Yes
Well good for him they still lost which game are you looking at his upset potential?
That's morose black dragons face. I don't know black. You only the only thing that's been upset has been me by black dragons this stage
I love it, you know
They're at a really bad stage so far and I just think it would be so funny if they came out and beat face
That I don't know what sort of ramifications that would have I think at that point is probably too late
I don't like to depend on what happens today as well.
What would you say ramifications? Do you mean ramifications for those teams specifically or for like the broader standings?
No, for the broader standings. If FaZe wins today, I think they're fairly locked, aren't they?
Oh, well, if FaZe are already locked top 4, I'm pretty sure.
Oh, I was winning like top 1.
Oh!
I don't think so.
If FaZe were locked top 4 before we'd even started.
Yes, if they wouldn't regulation today, I'm pretty sure they're a locked top one because furious at 17
So phase one and fury gets six points. They're only at 23 worst days be at 24
Yeah, so what's the point right?
It's like we're money or Sullivan asks what the what the bonuses
Get out of it. Who is that Ronnie or Sullivan?
So he's like a generational snooker player
And very, very famously, he used to ask what the bonus was for a maximum break, because
getting a 1-4-7 is the maximum point you can get off one trip to the table in Snuka.
And he would very often not pop the last couple of balls if there was not a good enough prize
for doing it, because he was saying like, you guys don't deserve to watch it basically.
So it'd be like FaZe just sort of saying, now you guys don't deserve to watch a floor
stage we're just gonna we're just gonna lose to black trainers tomorrow. Can you
imagine they just forfeit the game? What are you gonna do? We're still top.
The league's like we're gonna find you and they're like okay they lose money just
not to play again. Honestly I think if you pulled that team I think KDS would
at least consider it. I think you know what I might introduce KDS to Ronnie
O'Sullivan. I think I think I think KDS and Ronnie O'Sullivan have a good time to
KDS is like, wait, you got Cloud for not doing things?
By the way, for context, by the way, KDS has often said in interviews how he hates playing
the game, and very much, it's just like he's clocking into a 9-5.
We're not saying KDS is lazy, it's just a running joke that it seems like he hates the game.
maybe that's obviously even if he didn't care it's the probably a win a 1v1
against most players on the planet that's that's just a nice feature of face
clan I'm not up to speed with the one versus one stuff you know I don't know
it's the little thing anymore is I don't know I don't know if it is like I'm
literally not on social media so I can't I can't comment on this phenomenon
Because I know that there's been a lot of like, you know, we've seen a lot of the North American guys involved in it.
We've seen a couple of the EU guys involved in it.
I don't know that I've seen many of the SL guys involved in them, you know?
I think they'd be the ones that are the best at it.
Well, but I think the reason that is is just like, I mean, it's just like it's cultural exchange, right?
Like, those are the two English-speaking regions.
They started out kind of in along a jinxie in that kind of crowd
And then you had pro players come in who had a lot who had a big following like sport for example
Then you had a North American pros who were friends with them came in like ambi like Donner, I think
and
Then you had some EU pros came in who were quite famous Shiaiko being the big one then a couple more there drops are quite famous
And then Shiaiko by the way
But the point I'm making right is that like all of these players are like famous either
English-speaking players or players in English-speaking regions and I think S.A.L. just given the
language differences kind of insulated from that.
But I do think you're correct, like, can you imagine like Cyber in one of those one
of you ones?
Exactly.
Souls.
Stick handy in one.
He's going to rinse everybody.
fresh off putting his kid to bed coming in and rinsing somebody in a 1v1.
My lord.
You could have like Battle of the Dads. Could put him up against like Bolo and stuff.
Cyber, Cyber has to, this last thing I'll say that we can get back in the game,
Cyber has to be the most mechanically talented father inside of Rambo 6, right?
I don't know.
And that's no disrespect to Bolo, it's just like you know, one Bolo doesn't play anymore.
also like it's cyber I really don't know I don't know who has kids new doesn't to be honest
I'm gonna get an older let's get our don't even remind me we are we're all getting older
the rounds again the rounds getting higher and we're getting back into the game
INTZ has unfortunately lost a three well it was a four-round lead and now it has
been narrow to one round over Los, also won 3G Fences in a row on both primary
sites and one tertiary site. We have to clarify that they did not go to Hammam,
those went to Ratingman cafe to make it five to four. Now INTZ after I believe
a timeout into a re-host now looking to try and acquire map point. I've just been
reliably informed that Brazil does in fact have some serious 1v1ers and I
wouldn't bring it up unless it was extremely relevant. But STK actually won the one versus
one tournament. So it just goes to show how much we take care of like the mainstream tournaments
and not just all the brain rot that's on Twitch. But yeah, STK certified 1v1 gunner.
It hasn't been much of a gunner in this game though.
I just want to real quick, Leo said he plays in this game. We know, we're watching. He
plays in this game thank you but also thank you actually thank you for
information SDK if he wins the one you want to be his first kill after the
rehost as everything has been reset I do believe he's somewhere on the middle of
the pack for I'm easy at the moment I don't have the exact numbers in my
fingertips one thing that is at our fingertips though is an engagement or
least the potential of one between pairs and the player holding outside of
museum door this position that is always an issue for the attack to clear
Ollie to INTZ try to handle it this time on command.
So we've had the tactical timeout. We've had a lengthy re-host.
A little bit of a mental reset going into round nine here.
Arthur can choose to just burst himself through. Oh no, Angels first player to fall.
He's gone cold in the break. Dash on the flip side is warmed up a little bit.
yet another round here where INTC are going to be going in at a disadvantage. You can
start to drone through now. Legacy will be able to utilize these Selmas just to get that
breach open a little bit easier. There is a fair stack up right now of Lowe's players
but they've got more space to retreat back into. Again it's this very flat across clear
from dormantry side and there's nothing over toward tower, nothing toward those main stairs.
Nowhere really for Loos to be vulnerable from on that backside entirely and the fact that they've
lost the opening pick is just going to hurt that even more. 90z just running into the same
problems we've seen not only them but Loos and those six runs prior. Slow attacks can't acquire
anything. Defense gets an opening pick. Immediately falls back. It does not overplay their hand.
Nux detonating another smoke. This keeps them in front of the window sill up until red time.
Still pushed through. Recognizing the difficult position they're in.
Arthur trying to push through. We can see somebody holding that long angle with a crossfire. Arthur
trying to thread the needle through this smoke. But with Lose finally peeking out, getting killed,
there's nothing for INTZ to do. Another round lost on time. I think that's going to be a theme for
for these latter rounds on Fortress,
Lois now with four defences in a row.
I just don't think the plant is the right play there.
INTC don't have the control to pull that off.
You haven't got the presence inside of the site.
There's nothing that's assisting them
in terms of attack a utility to get that plant down.
They are just trying to back plant on a breach threshold.
And when you're doing that toward bathroom,
It's very difficult.
That half wall is a nightmare.
It's a position that you either need to control
or know is clear and have zoned off.
Because even if that isn't going to be
your final sort of vulnerability,
even if that isn't where you're going to lose the round from,
somebody can very easily retake that space as a defender.
It was the toxic babe canisters, really,
that did a lot of the heavy lifting there in round 10.
all square at 5, 5 going into round 11 then.
There is nothing else for INTZ to cling on to.
We've had all the bands,
we've had timeouts for both teams.
They have only got themselves to look toward
and they need to be better on these attacks.
They were fantastic on the defense.
They'd be a big shame if that was all for nothing right now,
but Lois, currently the team that is better in the server,
in that they were able to win an attacking round on Fortress.
Even if there was a close one,
even if it was reliant on INTC,
even making some missteps,
they're still putting themselves in a position to capitalize.
And as you've reached a tie game,
just a reminder, INTC winning with wood
and could still throw things completely out of whack
for the standings, but if low spring regulation,
they get all three points currently tied at 11 with,
or they will be currently tied at 11 with WoW in that fifth six-play spot and the race
on Play Day 9 that we were hoping might occur might end up generally speaking getting decided
on Play Day 8 except for a few small bits here or there.
So Vloce not only picked up this round but the next after that and closed us out in regulation
not only be a 6-0 comeback but basically shut IMTZ out of playoff contention as well and
No, depending on a few results later, shutting a lot of teams out of playoff attention.
It's like you're gonna be another slow one.
There's some impacts going out, not sure how successful they were over here.
The Selma opened up a little bit of the wall.
But INTZ's still taking their time.
Trying your best to get as many options as possible.
But every second they spend, Ali, I just get worried.
Is it going to happen again?
That's the difficulty, isn't it?
I think they need the open impact here.
They need to get that in and really start to single somebody out.
Loson gonna give that away for free though at the moment. It's about whittling away. What is inside of this site?
Apparently that was just gonna ignore entirely the shock drone and let it get as much utility as it can inside of that bomb site
Dash playing this all-important link role between museum
And on an island there you can see there's a cluster of players in the site and dash
Sort of tasked with holding main stairs horse
museum, a lot of those different areas. Even though he's out there and
ostensibly just on his own and fairly easy to pinch. It's not something that
INTZ have really caught on to just yet. He could be allowed to cross there. He's
allowed to get himself back to the site. I mean, he just further bolsters what the
defense have already got there. He's gonna be at the top of these main stairs to
this engagement. He comes away with a kill here. It's gonna be absolutely massive.
Aggressively challenging on to angels but will eventually lose the gunfight.
It's taken nearly all the round for this to happen though. There's 25 seconds left
And not only for all this to happen, but it's still just a straight up 1v1 between angels and dash
That could have gone either way darks able to see for from over the top of the stairs
I need to acquire a couple kills though
It's a 3v3 all that needs to happen is a couple just chance rounds even if that's what they come down to
SDK made his way in another time where I ain't one lone I enteezy attacker has to cover this
But as the defenders wrap in, STK gets the plant down, trying to hold out as long as he can behind this shield.
But three players converging, nobody's getting out of that with their back against the wall.
In the counter-diffuse, it's low after five rounds, the first to take that point.
Deservedly so. These defences have been fantastic. They have been as good, if not better, than the defences that INTZ showed us.
It's very easy to get wrapped up into this INTZ world of like they came out on the defense
and did fantastically well, but they carelessly gave one of those defensive rounds away.
Loach so far have not made that same mistake.
They have stood firm off the back of kind of very good bunker strategy, very disciplined
gameplay.
to hold on for as long as he
did as that sole offside player
really just opened everything
up, opened up the possibilities
for Loos. Just hold a very
straightforward crossfire when
push came to shove right at the
end. Yep, sure, the black
beard can be getting the plant
down. That's fine. We'll deal
with that later. Let's take care
of the player that's watching
him. Let's take care of wraps
who bless him has got four
different angles to hold.
in the driver's seat right now. Can they take it in regulation?
10 seconds to go. Of course, as a reminder, if this game does go regulation, the impact
on the standings is far more significant than if points are split here. Los playing gatekeeper
right now to three different teams. Black Dragons Imperial and INTCZ. Hell of a lot of hinges
on this. And there's probably even a world where it influences Fluxo a little bit as well
because Fluxo on seven points, Loose currently on eight. And opening pick for Legacy, or opening
pick on to legacy should I say.
Just seems like everything I and CZ do is wrong here on the attacks.
That's the second time in a row.
Lynx would be looking at these first floor bomb sites and the first pick has been the
Ram.
It was wraps a couple of rounds ago and this time it's legacy.
Perez is the player that's gotten both of those opening picks.
And it's completely changed for Lois in the back path as well.
Only get one opening pick that first half.
We've got four so far, of course, five defensive round wins as well.
It has been this defensive structure, the general site set up.
And also, I think Losia's understanding of the wind conditions on fortress,
how these positions need to be played,
that INTZ have just been completely ill-equipped and unable to wrap their heads around.
We'll see a clear of the top floor still, just to make sure there are no roamers at top.
But again, without these vertical angles, as Ali mentioned last time, mentioned again here,
Lois is going to be able to bunker, play passive, not peek.
And oh, that's the way they've won every single one of these rounds so far,
and now they have another excuse to do so.
One defender just around the corner swings out,
Angel is all alone.
So many times we've seen these INTZ attackers by themselves
ripe for a 1v1 victory by Lois if they choose to take it.
Down to 3v4, INTZ have time to reset, but how much difference will it make?
Arthur, again, gonna try and find some impacts on this blitz.
We've spoken out the shields of yielded very few results here today.
Got some tools to try and play with here, but there's still loose players.
Daffo, in Hammam at the moment, supported by Perez.
Perez, all he needs to do is hold the cross, little bit of a bait and switch there.
Raps next player to fall.
Perez is on a tear!
three kills so far and SDK. If
he wants to win one V ones, he's
got to win four in a row. It's
not going to happen. Pair as a
big four piece low six rounds
in a row. And just like that
shot iron TZ black dragons and
Imperial out of playoffs. Big
result there for those that
given us incredible mental
resilience to keep themselves in
you expect them to let that
sort of influence the rest of
the game and how that sort of
played out. That wasn't the case
at all. They were able to hit
that reset button on the side
swap and do the business when
they got onto that defensive
side. Let's throw it back to our
wonderful desk. Thank you.
Thank you so much. That was
devastating for the side of
INTZ because what do you mean
they start with a five one lead
on defense. We then go to an
even more defensive favorite
side for Loser and they determine
determine not only their own faith, but faith for a lot of players inside of the
SAO. It means we get to speak to the winners. We have Paris on the line to ask
him a few questions about this game and it's going to be joined by him. You know,
I would like to know Paris, a big congratulations on the victory here today.
That was a pretty tense matchup to not only determine your faith, but a lot of
teams' faith in SAO.
Thank you guys. This was a really tough match. I mean, it was a
really cool match to play. So, I don't know what to say. Just a great feeling to change the way we were playing and get the win.
Yeah, I mean, crazy comeback. Seven rounds almost in the last six rounds in a row, like to go back to that seven-five.
What do you think is the biggest reason why this game was so decided?
They were playing some strats like being with bandit, clash, these things and we were not playing the way that we should against this place.
So, and then they were giving like crazy shots, crazy bullets, so it was really difficult.
but then when we got to the defense to be honest was a little bit easier than the attack
because we could get the opens I think four or five rounds on the match so it was I think the
opening kills was the the main reason we like change this thing and I feel like watching you
guys playing defense it seemed like you ready try to buy into the layers of force rest like
you had the Azami, you had the Mira, like you could play Turtles quite a lot.
Was it a way for you guys to abuse how slow and disjointed I&Z were in attack?
Exactly. We knew that this match was with a lot of pressure to both sides, so we knew that
when we are doing this like start advanced, then going back, like you said, it was going to be the
the best way to play because they're not going to have the best, they're not going to know exactly
what they need to do when we are going back, when we are not. So I think we put a lot of pressure
on them playing in this way. So what's that? Alright Paris, and then final question before we let
you go. Do you feel like the rest of the day is going to be a little bit nerve-wracking for you?
I mean the result between Fury and Fluxo later will kind of help you guys lock in a playoff spot
or do you feel like oh you know whatever happens we will just make sure we take down Liquid tomorrow.
To be honest we are just focusing on on play against Liquid. I think if we want to make playoffs we
are not we don't need to be thinking about other results or other teams losing. We need to do the
things that we need to do and that's it. I'm just hoping for Brazil to win today and that's it.
That's awesome. Well, best of luck and enjoy the match. If you're going to watch it later, thank you for your time, Paris. And good luck tomorrow to you too, guys. Oh, I love that players are also mentally like the football game that's nature. Of course, that is why we're starting earlier. If you tuned into today's
stream, we're like, how are we live already with the S. A. L. That is the main reason why Brazil plays in the World Cup later today. But another team that came out to play today, Los, I mean, what a dominant defensive half. We heard it from Paris as well.
you know gang the openings on the defense turned out to be a little bit easier for them and then if
you think about it it's just devastating on the side of INTZ they got such a good point which
you could score for themselves out of their own defensive half to then lose six rounds in a row
to then not have a chance anymore of making a playoffs they must be feeling that they must
be going to bed later today with with a sorrow feeling in their chest yeah and I think you know
in these kind of scenarios that's where you see the lack of depth for teams like this like when
when you attack six rounds in a row
and you fail six attacks in a row
and you don't change fundamentally the way you play it.
It's always one Harbridge, one Solid Snake, one Shield.
They always attack split.
Like I didn't see them try a rush.
I didn't see them try something new.
I didn't see, you know, quite a lot of innovation.
I don't know, like try to bring some more random operators
or try to bring, I don't know, a glass, for example,
something that's gonna help you execute
a little bit more.
The problem is they try to play their defaults all the way up until the end,
maybe thinking that because they had such a huge lead, just doing a default take would work.
Realistically, if you don't change the way you're playing this, you're never going to win.
And so, considering of these rounds, it looks like they're quite close,
but in reality they are not. They're way too slow, way too disjointed.
And so, it must feel terrible for them because not only have they sealed their fate,
but they've also sealed the fate of Imperial and Light Dragons,
and I can tell you that 10 players that are going to play today,
they are going to be fuming, fuming that INTZ basically wasted that chance and it gives props to LOS and we mentioned it before why were they favourites because of the quality and experience on their players.
Well that also shows up in these moments when mentally you need to be able to come back from a 5-1 and today they showed that they could.
You think in hindsight, you know everybody watching INTZ kind of hope what's in there there
They will be they will be upset because all they kind of needed was one more round
It was their regulation win for lows that eventually pushed them to 11 points and pushed them to get a chance of locking their players for themselves here now
Of course, you know results like this go the way that they do
Another close game and that does mean that for later on even for loudest way
You know in their own fight when it comes to top six
They have to go up against FaZe, and that surely is not an easy opponent, but we'll talk about that game after the break.
Casino!
Samba, dude!
Thank you, what the fuck was that noise?
Yes, Samba!
And we are live!
Yeah, my friends, the system of right updates are already online, so let's knife into some of them.
The first one, even the great Juverto Barros knows already.
We got the Casino Map Edition, more specifically, Calypso Casino, and probably only the Brazilians
will get this reference.
Launched just now in Operation System Override and inspired by Rangle 6 Vegas, the new scenario
is set in Las Vegas and features spots that scream a real gambling pit.
whole table, lit bar, tobacco shop, aquarium, internal security circuit and even a fault actually.
Now that we're listening to it, there's a lot going on in this map, right?
I think it's very easy to change the game, so it's fun to play.
First impression, I thought it was a good map to explore a lot of entrances, tactical styles.
I liked it, but you have to see how it will be when it reaches a competitive level.
It's no longer the logic bomb, it's the jaguar charge.
The gadget job is to trigger one enemy phone at a time, not all of them at once, forcing
the defender to stand still and restart the device.
Because if they don't, they'll take a nice 48p damage.
So the question is, is this a buff or a nerf?
Doka Ebi was the biggest buff in the game, compared to the shield, it's very stolen, a lot of AP,
it has a lot of counter, basically only the Milt, and I'm sure it will be nerfed again, because it's a lot of AP.
It generates meta, I think it will continue even more in the meta, I think it changed a little the intuition of the doll,
but it's very stolen, it generates a very strong doll and now it's extremely strong.
I think Doka Ebi was a weird buff, I think you can connect to the operators individually
and even if the guy doesn't connect the phone and break the guy's cell phone, the guy takes a damage there
it makes it much more boring for those who are defending, but I think it's really cool for those who are attacking
you can make several backup combos, whether you connect to a time, with Montaigne armando a shield
for the guy to have to turn it off, or something like that, so I think it's an operator that gives you too much time
Another cool new thing is also tied to the KB, I'm talking about the XK23 assault rifle,
which, beside the South Korean attacker, can also be used by SENS and ROHARA.
The general stats on this new rifle, which our friend GCGamer is showing you here, are
mid range, with 49 base damage, 675 RPM and a 35 round mag, it's a solid loadout pick,
but maybe not enough to hype up the SAO pros.
Perfect. Lastly, and definitely not less important, we got the launch of Infamous Rank 3.0.
Basically, it works like this. First, you don't start from zero. Your rank depends on your previous season rank and your result in the best of five qualifiers.
Each rank has 5 divisions, and you need 100 points to advance, gain points when you win, lose points, and relost.
When killing for a match, the system only looks at your actual rank, so no more hidden MMR, and team balance is done by squad level.
If you win against stronger teams, you get more bonus points.
If you win against weaker teams, you get less.
They also change the matchmaking criteria.
From Brauns to Emerald, you can play with friends within three ranks.
For Diamond and Champions, it's only two ranks.
All this makes your progress slower, based purely on wins and losses.
No KD affecting your score anymore, which intentionally makes everything harder.
I think the revamp of the ranking was very good, the concept that they brought.
I still didn't have the opportunity to play enough.
We needed this change in the ranking, it was very monotonous, the champion was something very easy.
So all of this that is bringing it back is really cool.
About the new rank, I would say that I like to have the old MMR,
that you don't get to pull the rank of falling with a very low guys,
even with the champ, those things that, both for them in the bad experience
and for me it's very easy, it's very annoying.
Also the issue of going up to the rank is not so easy,
I've seen people talking about being 20 points,
being more difficult, but I prefer it that way,
because it used to give life to the champion,
and yet, it didn't get it.
Thanks squad. See you next time. Peace
Always nice to hear the players talk about all the changes that have come in this most recent season
Especially the map in my opinion
I hope that we get to see Kulitokasino in the competitive map pool sometime so we can move on to actually watching it Leo
Instead of just talking about it. Yeah, absolutely
I mean, I disagree with some of the statements from the pro players.
I don't think it's that big, I know it's big.
Like, I don't think it's too big for pro play.
I mean, we played, I don't know, we played theme park, for example, at pro level.
We played maps that are quite big.
Obviously, right now it's three floors, but I think that it's just always a question adaptation.
Like, the top floor is quite small, actually, and the basement, you can't play in that many rooms either.
So, I just want to see it in the hands of pro players.
That's all I want to see.
Well, I especially like when we get new maps instead of shows how how quickly teams can adapt and it's really going to show depth of which team is better at adapting at new things that are thrown at them.
And currently, you know, when new things are at them, you know, you don't be worried all the things that are mentioned phase seems to be the better team and doing that so far.
They're playing in our next matchup against loud and we'll look at the settings to really show everybody what we're dealing with so far because if you look at it,
If you look at it, top of your screen, phase RR reverse, James Bond, you know, JP was in the interview yesterday, talked about going follows, it doesn't really matter to them, but in general, it would be a pretty cool conclusion at the stage if we get through it without even suffering any loss.
Yeah, absolutely, and as you can see, on the standings with the current amount of points loss has just put an enormous amount of pressure out through the 7M, so that will be the six spots decided for playoffs.
playoffs and fall out right now. They're in a position where I guess their faith is in their hands, but they have to do it against such a strong opponent, right?
Phase is completely flawless. They're absolutely incredible. It's the first stage ever that they are going completely flawless, not dropping a single point.
I've checked all of their last stages as the team since 2023, since they were all five together, and it never happened.
always had a moment where they lost in overtime in some of the leagues, so it would be absolutely
incredible for them to do it.
And for the side of love, basically, if they win in regulation, they absolutely lock playoffs
because they will jump 14 points, they will jump to 14.
If they lose in regulation, they're stuck at 11, but as you can see, because loss is
still on 11, it does not mean that they're eliminated whatsoever, it just means that
it pushes back the decision to play D9 and then basically for top 4, if Loud loses this
match against FaZe Clan, it means that Furia and NIP are guaranteed top 4.
And so Furia and NIP right now are watching this match and praying for Loud's downfall
because if FaZe beats them, it means that Furia and NIP are going to start in the upper
bracket of the playoffs for this.
a lot of pressure on the shoulders of loud here but look at that roster as the first
round in this match we know we've already had a 7-5 today both these teams in a 7-5
yesterday as well for loud against black dragons and I think that's it's fair to say that
that was closer than we expected and round 11 in my opinion if we move back at that one
is the big turning point you know they get a plant down there's there's an owl going
on with the trunk and we talked about him afterwards in the interview and then they
they play a brilliant 2v4 out of them, that's why they made a big difference to really turn
that round and turn momentum around in their favourites. Resets, live, pulling up good numbers
for the roster as well, but in general I think, you know, Faze, they say sometimes we attempt
to bleep rounds, if you get a loud like yesterday where we get two rounds and they just walk
in and they get the clamp down, they could cause some hook.
Yeah, I think honestly, for follow ups, I think it was the success mostly on the back
of Black Dragons not being able to use the advantage they had early on in the match and
making some really close mistakes, as you said, like the two plans that got done when
realistically, like they had the Solies, they had the Valkyrie, they had all of the Intel
to make sure that they were aware of this.
So I think they're going to play an opponent today that's going to be way, way harder to
face in terms of not only just pure mechanical skill and cohesion, but also you're never
are going to be able to get away with like a fast plant out of nowhere when someone is
on site. Faze, they don't make that kind of mistake. And if they don't make any mistakes,
you've got to push them to do it. And I just think that fallout, it's going to be a very
tricky opponent. If they struggled against Black Dragons yesterday, laying against Faze,
it will be another kind of challenge.
If they bring the aggression like they did yesterday, well, remember what JP said in
the interview, you know, we struggle against aggressive teams and we still do. We need
to watch the game back and learn from it. So I just think there are opportunities today for a lot.
Of course, you know, that's kind of hope-watching because it is Faze, after all, as the only team
that has gone on the pre-dots so far. But what we also saw from them yesterday with that victory and
JP confirmed that, so you know, it was the first time we saw Clifage from them. They get this
opportunity now that they have the safety net of locking in the upper bracket, that they get to
try out new things, they even get to hold things back as well, should they want to do that. They
would have to give everything because they already have that confirmation of the upper bracket for
Yeah, they don't need the record, they don't need to go flawless and really, I don't think they care.
I think what they want is titles and if they could trade going flawless for a full stage for a title, they would do it any day of the week.
So I think in general, they're in full testing mode right now. All they want to do is try some new things.
And the one on your screen, the one man that is the common denominator factor of FACES success, especially since honestly, the FULDER of 2026,
I think is I said it yesterday in my book is the best player in the world
He's got the most MVPs in SEL already tied with by talking by the way on the same lineup
He is extremely consistent who was the best player yesterday again with 17 kills
I mean the handy is just the one man army for face clan and if anything goes wrong with these guys
They can always count on him to be the consistent player
For faith for their path. They still have to play by trekkins after this
So that could be considered an easier matchup as well for a lot
They play Flux or W7 and as you already mentioned there is pressure on shoulders of those players to given the result of the first game
But as we talked about both rosters
I would like to see the map veto and see where we take our a series to will we end up seeing new things again from phase
Will they hold things back from us?
Clubhouse is a curious one the situation loud actually bended out as their second ban in this map veto
And it's that will be taken tonight. Hey the labs nice
One of the best maps for the two teams Red Strictly allowed, they want to go back to the map on which they did team Liquid.
Their biggest upset in the stage was on that map.
And so they think if we did team Liquid on it, who are supposed to be one of the best teams in the world, surely we can take FaZe Clan on it.
And I do think that is a massive gamble, because in my opinion, FaZe Clan might just be the best might have an last team in the world.
world. They're on a six win streak right now. Ever since kickoff, they played it a lot.
They did Imperial, Fluxo W7M, Black Dragons loss, five fears at the solo XVI Major, and
Imperial again during the stage. What's even more impressive is that it's not only a six
win streak, it's a six win streak never going to overtime. Literally, they never went to
overtime on this map since the season started at kickoff. So, 100% win rate. I'm a bit scared
right now for now.
Okay, well, the good thing is for like, if you get to start with a defense, which is usually considered to be the easier side, you know, you get to wait and see what the opponents throw at you in this match up here.
But hey, if you mentioned a phase on beta, and it is some of their best maps, loud that result against Liquid is something that they will be hoping and keeping in the back of their minds like, okay, maybe if that gives us something, we can replicate success here as well.
But a nice map for both these two teams. I'm excited to see how it turns out.
Out the gate, but a good map for both teams you have to ask what standard are we grading by objective metrics?
Or are we grading them not on a curve that allowed me to be graded on a curve
They're in fifth place they can make playoffs, but a good map for phase means as Leo mentioned
They're currently what five and O since kickoff the thing about phase is because they win so often Ali
They've got streaks on shall a they've got streaks on night Haven labs
They've got streaks on it feels like five different maps in the pool
And when that's the team you're going up against in a best of one who currently seven and oh inside of the s.a.l
They just put themselves on a bit of a different curve, don't they?
Exactly, you know two things can be good
But one can be better, and I think that's maybe where I judge this game on the face value
Obviously the result will give us the the definitive value of how good both these two teams are on this map
that. Well, there's levels to
this sort of stuff, isn't there?
And I think that that's where
we might be about to see a
different level between phase
and loud. Of course, loud
themselves confident enough to
leave labs open. And the benefit
that they've got in doing that
is that. Yes, phase are kind
of known for this map. It
suits their play style
incredibly well and loud can
step-by-step teams that we have very happy with giving themselves a long laundry list
of things to do and then just checking them off and working them through so a lot of gonna
have to try and feel a little bit unpredictable in a couple of ways in how they want to try
and do that. Already I quite like resets on the pulse. I think it was a tendency to hide
it inside of the prep phase but a pulse playing in that electric area can be massive. We always
know that to be a big nitro hotspot. That's where you're expecting C4s to be sent out
of the window and onto unsuspecting attackers. At least in the meantime, FaZe are going to
be starting to tick things off their list. Handy, going to be in below. Looking for anyone
that could be lurking down there. Ooh, pre-play C4, great find. Going to be Gebu's. She's
of course bringing that Sentry as a bit of a benefit there and that you can bring two pieces
of secondary utility. It was maybe trying for a little bit of a cheeky one there.
We are going to see a ton of Striker in Sentry in this game by the way as we talked about many
times before. Back in SLC, Faze like a lot of Striker, but KDS often the one to play that operator.
And SAO in general liking a lot of Striker and Sentry for the flexibility that it brings
Stemped the first to go down.
It's KDS hunting over on the garage side, finds the Azami,
either hopping down or remaining on the rafters.
His clan advantage continues throughout the mid-round,
though a nice little kill by live,
and resets just escaping the fire in garage.
Means this is even as we approach the final minute.
Resets getting out as well
can provide some really useful information.
As we, sorry, I didn't realize Handy was in the site,
and then two seconds later,
Gabu spots it and sends him out of the round on the cams.
KDS in a really tricky spot.
The Fines one playing deep in the corner.
Good trade by Loud, though.
Really important engagements in the mid-round
to keep this trading structure alive
and Vitaking just spots one and Jen.
I was gonna have to walk into a 180 crossfire
and I just don't think there's a way
he can isolate either of these engagements.
I believe might've just pushed out a little bit,
but that makes it harder.
Now closer with the shotgun.
Got around the corner as well.
There we go.
Job done by Loud.
Huge gunfighting escape by Resets
in the 3D3 to then set up loud for a great 3D3 at that.
This information isn't it from the pulse resets
on a sliver of HP, but still alive, still kicking,
and still able to get in that heartbeat scanner
and figure out just where those final couple
of phase players were.
Handi nearly had a brilliant lick on into the site,
but I guess couldn't find the gap,
couldn't find the angle, was very quickly dealt with
as soon as he was found there.
to be able to get to the
top of the game. So, you
know, the players need to
locate and phase struggling on
that top floor. Bands are
quite strange in this game
because there's a hell of a lot
open that usually is sort of
taken away. Harbridge is
usually a massive focus for the
defensive team in their bands,
and they've not really touched
it. They've got a grim and a
Monty now to brilliant bands
and two tools that phase will
use on this map.
big player in that previous round on round number one. What we played here for the
basement it can be but it's not as typical. Usually a bit more of a hold of
this top floor is required and hence things like a castle really start to
come into their own just buying you a little bit of time and starting to layer
up that defense a little bit. Flustery, maybe rocking solace as well. Always a
fantastic tool for the basement site. You are expecting that plants will go down
here especially where there's anywhere that you can just get in from outside
breach one wall and boom you're in there's always the danger of a plant so
I mean that's soulless just gives you an extra level of security
find some drones over in house is stumbling a little bit in round one
And now looking to win on the next primary site.
The girls will open an initial set of angles for FaZe, but Gabu, hello, just walking out of IT, Vitikig, not expecting that one.
That is case dropped up top as well.
Gabu just lurking around the second floor of the FaZe, clearly not ready for that kind of play.
Not only takes down the vertical destruction, but gets an opening pick, and Gabu on this castle, he can waste a lot of time up here if he wants to.
wants to doesn't have any active utility remaining he's just a gun right now
I think you can see him recognizing that doesn't hear anybody nipping at his
heels are coming in quick though understandably he's expecting somebody
to make that push I think here's somebody playing over by Aqua and now if you
reach about a minute 30 there we go drops back down joins the link players
down below. That is an expert roam from Lauda.
I'm a really good job there. I mean, especially to slip the net. Still got players like Flastry
here inside of Cafeteria. Lauda spread far and wide right now, FaZe. Havin' to go search
in Stemp. This is gonna be the first player to fall, Cyber, looking to hold a bit of a
cross here. Oh, Recess. Caught from nowhere. Wasn't aware of the drone hole behind him.
We'll be there for a trade if you win this next one. That could be massive. There's gonna be gay boo instead that takes handy down
Oh, and a nice flick by flash tree as well
See the couple times player tucked inside a dining like that can trip teams up
Having an option to fall out of engagements behind that solid half wall cyber the 1v3
on scaboo
So defense on the Roman running rough shot over phase at the moment another one of you one though
Oh the timing right there
Sends out the concussion, can cross successfully.
Soberge's looking to isolate these 1v1s. There's distinct possibility he could do it,
but live ready for these angles, Liao just need to isolate their engagements as well.
Two in a row for Liao on the primary sites, and if they win this next one,
these might be a really rough goings of it, just to start out night hapen.
It really isn't going too well, is it? You know, for all that we sell, this team is being very step-by-step
very methodical and able to just essentially pick apart defences for fun. They've really
struggled here on these opening couple of rounds and I think that it's largely down
to the unpredictability from loud. You're not expecting people to run out of IT breach
after you've sent the boogie drone in. You're not expecting people to be, you know, holding
different positions and having so much information on the site, happy to give up a little bit
of control and bunker up like they did inside of round one. So phase needs to adapt to this
game is of course something that we know them to be capable of doing but a
couple of rounds have gone awry now and if we don't see a response here it would
be fairly uncharacteristic from phase to go down three rounds in a row. They're
expecting them to come here on this offsite with a little bit of fight back.
Of course it's still very early days. A couple of rounds doesn't make a game but
Loud have certainly started off on the right foot. Yeah a lot of things have done a great job so far and I think
really understanding their win conditions as well particularly with that
roam last time if we continue to see that in the rest of these defensive
rounds even if they drop the tertiary side here 4-2 half against FaZe you're
not gonna complain about that whatsoever because they look to try and defend the
tertiary site you won't have necessarily as deep of a roam as you saw in round 2
but you will need to see some play on the top floor see how your understanding
continues here pulse in action as well so this or pulse has been a consistent
fixture of these defenses so far providing a lot of some good information
Early on that we haven't seen as much play in the post or in the uh late round from either these operators
Back on the rafters as well to defend the top floor
The phase clan can do as they begin to poke at some of these extremities opening up the it breach
They will need to turn their attention to the second floor
Cyber does have it open right now
We're not going to be mirror windows to clear on the top floor
Ooh, good information being found out from below as well as C4 going to be attempted here, but oh, taking down KDS in the right place at the right time
Stops that C4 from happening. That's a little bit of a trigger there. They now know that they've killed the pulse
They're just gonna try and directly push on to the site raise a bloom there from resets
Oh, it's a freebie. He just needs to wait gets the kill, but it's a bit too late
Just need to confirm it all the time in there is devastating
Handy just hops in. I really expected him to hold on the window and I would have commended resets making a great play
But handy clearly aware of it comes in save cyber gets the plant down and now for phase
Not only can this be a post this could be a flawless depending on how well these post plant positions are from phase
Lot have extremely minimal options to close this one out everyone from face outside the building
Completely extricated themselves from this situation. That was a fantastic play by resets, but handy
Touching just the briefest moment to turn things in phases favor stops. It could have been a disastrous flank from the thorn
I really want to see that from handy's perspective because I wonder if resets just gave himself up a little bit on the window
Maybe wasn't expecting this to be someone just outside the window watching or was maybe hoping to get the kill and
Waste a little bit of time. Obviously it takes time to plan that diffuser. So if you could burn those few seconds as well
It leads into that unpredictability
But maybe one of those occasions where the best thing to do would have just been to get the kill and get out of there from resets
Tell you what was scary in that round
It was the speed at which phase switched up as soon as they killed that pulse and I mean the
Second that that pulse was dead. Boom rotation
Cyber had been flirting with it breach for the whole round and as soon as the pulse is dead
It's like no forget it
We're just going to go directs because we know we can get a plant down and they've now got nothing that is going to stop us.
It's the kind of coordination that face have always been able to unlock at a moment's notice, whether it's late or early on in a game, something that loud have to worry about.
But up to one right now, they've only dropped the tertiary site at the moment.
Loud are looking quite good for these night haven defenses and this time it'll be indicative of whether or not that trend will continue, where phase have some kind of idea for how things are going for loud.
Might be able to switch in their favor. He's banning the Mira as well, not ironing the intel ops
you've seen brought up pretty repeatedly by loud whether it be soulless or pulse, but neither in play in this one.
Said to look like it'll be more a normal look and more top floor centric hold as
all this utility they're really just trying to bolster the site and not much else.
Gabriel attempting that pre-place again. I do wonder if it gets found. Handy searched that out, but he wasn't a
a snake inside a round one. I love a little pre-place like that, I really want to see
it work because it's stuff like that, it's just easy to steal and take into your own
ranked games, isn't it? You can just get a nice little pre-place off the back of a queue,
able to hit the boom and hopefully pick yourself up for freebie. Just keep an eye on it here
inside of round four
where is it going into canada
i think it must be going into canada
i think so based off the uh...
based off the positioning
and if not in the connector somewhere around this gen area
like this general vicinity
especially since god was the one that through it clues you
I'm ready for it.
The cyber walking up, Vulcan pack popped.
Is it the C4? Yes it is.
And the connector.
It's beautiful. It's so good.
Oh what a masterclass from Gabi.
That's one you can take and see your own games.
You don't even need anyone else to help you do it.
No.
And also just like using some of the Vulcan packs
as some of the utility for a queue.
Yeah, literally just waiting in for the cross
in front of that doorway.
And as you said, handy spotted it last time
with nobody clearing down below this time.
Hany was snake he was going on that clear this time he's ace it's not even the position to do it
No, you can't criticize me. He's not like right by the way guys, I know where there's gonna be a pre-place
I'm just gonna go and get that before I get a breach you thinking
I don't know you get upstairs and get breach open. You might have lost cyber, but they're not out of the fight handy
Gonna take one over onto loud
Big engagement there as live will fall
And he doesn't have any cellmers left though
So can't do anything about connector and that's somewhere that you can get swung from at a moment's notice
Super short he played super close to the breach right now super close to electrical right now
Should I say as we do have players starting to walk into IT?
Just beginning to walk up on the attack, but the shotgun close now my shotgun far God
We're switching to the primary taking a fight against handy as phaser
Well, it's really shut out of the second floor defense at the moment a lot of kept good control of the breaches
They've got shotguns close. He switches up the angle on KDS Capitao not ready for it another one
but step tagging on denies some of the credit from Gabu.
Now, Vidicang, 1vx, saw big 1v3 yesterday.
Vidicang give us one on the attack, crosses, tanks a shot from the TCSG,
wins the heads-up fight against two different players.
Now, Gabu basically needs to ace to win this, wrapping around Super Shorty,
just one pump required, all five kills for Gabu.
Utility would have been impressive enough at the beginning,
but getting the job done for loud, all on the top floor.
an ace against FaZe. Not many people can sit there and say that they have achieved such a great accolade.
Probably able to do it there on the century of all operators. It's a real Swiss army knife,
TCSG, super shorty, deployable shield and a nitro cell. And he has used each and every single piece
of that kit to perfection, pre-play C4, deployable shield to help with the pre-play C4 kill
and to hold the angle. TCSG got himself a couple of kills, super short at close range,
just showing a mastery of exactly how to play that position. Phase muddied by a single player.
A single player, by the way, just a really good understanding of the position. Basically,
time, times and is ready for, I believe the IT walk up pretty much immediately, then not
only is he able to hold the fight on the connector but anticipating the follow up swing, hits
the prone angle, I mean just the individual movement and game sense from Gabu in that
position was really quite impressive to set him up for that ace.
There were even a whole lot of like really egregious mistakes made, that was just Gabu
was an individual playing and understanding the situation so well.
Now Face who lost second floor two times in a row, it's kind of a make or break moment
Five one half for any team is something that's difficult to overcome though. We've seen phase do it
We've seen it just happen for a loss against INTZ
But still something you have to get a lot of credit for if they can do it if they lose the primary site here
I just don't know if storage and control is gonna fall as easily as it did last time
I'll be honest. I'm kind of surprised we haven't seen the time out
Good information here for cyber
I can't believe that's this.
Maybe, man at the moment, ooh the grismo.
Has him a little bit of security.
Nages to go out, Cyber really wants this engagement.
Takes him out, stunned or not, he is better with the F2 in his hand.
KDS gonna find one onto Flastry.
Feeling like it's a bit of a lash-out round from FaZe.
Stomp, Stemp takes a ton of damage as well.
Able to drop off on the Azami.
Resets, thinking about a bit of a rotation back to side.
They've not really been able to hold any ground here inside of the first minute and 10 seconds
The top floor has been flushed out and two players lost for the defense
And the difficult nature of a 3d5
Oh just spotted you want to make a play find a pick but a step on low HP spotted by the drone
They have so many attackers you can come off bottom house bottom aqua
Resets basically has to fight for his life upstairs and souls are still taking on players who try to commit to this room
Resets falling all the way back
Last time phase attacked this site
Lauer basically able to play the top floor at exactly the pace they wanted
God we're getting a pit falling back in a minute 30 the clear was basically non-existent
Now days get two picks push resets back to the site all alone
It's one kill flash both the player coming in from behind that is the end of him face a much better look on basement
Now a chance of tying the half
I'm not saying that they've been
like on a lead for the first
couple of rounds, but it kind of
felt like it didn't it. It just
felt like it loud. We're just
sort of walking around wherever
they wanted. Finally, we start
to see a little bit of reaction.
Finally, we start to see a little
bit of the phase that we have
come to know and love. Chance
now to level things up at a 3
3 reminder. They've not used
their tactical time out of the
Chance now to level things up at a 3-3 reminder they've not used their tactical time out here
Three rounds of attack on labs is still gonna be seen as you know a reasonable side-slot side-swap
Just because of the reputation of this team and the expectation that we all have that they are just gonna go out there and win everything
We do you know we do kind of come down a little bit harder when they do lose rounds
It's actually in some of the ways that we're losing those top floor rounds rounds one rounds two in particular
loud absolutely dominating mid-floor site we go to then this is of course
where phase were successful previously in round three a lot of that coming down
to being able to kill the pulse nice and early and remove any ability to try and
deny that plant from below it's very common for attacking to for attacking
teams to clear out the basement that's where you're expecting a solace a pulse
of Valkyrie someone that plays a C4 just because that storage window hopping
plant is so so so popular. There is going to be C4 in this round, live will have one
but there's no pulse or valkyrie to really play it off the back of. Instead it's likely
going to be off the razor blues maybe from resets, I imagine he's got one of those tucked
in storage door.
Probably, I mean he's got two up in his pocket right now so he's got to be a bit more reactive
to where this got around.
Could be a problem for vidicating on that shield.
Baseclon haven't really brought one into their lineup until I believe this pass round.
No, they had a run one run one.
Still got something that played a whole lot this half.
KDS taking the long way around, opening up an uh, roti hole on connector breach.
Doing a bit of the normal steps that we see on 9-Hand and step one is all is open these exterior walls,
Especially when the second floor is like an important component of the defense
Kind of have to do it not only to give yourself a point to walk in but also a point to pressure some of these defenders and cover the
Vertical it could ends up being a single window plant like yourself before just spotting that defender as he crossed on to the top floor
Or crossed the top floor but phase again should be generally aware of the presence of defenders here last things going in
Zombie broken right at the last second but snap getting a kill pretty quickly resets as well as phase claims struggling in these opening duels
C4 overtop loud at a 4-2 right now. The entry, completely thwarted by this defense, handy looking to recover.
Spotted by the defenders in sight. Cyber just trying to get a pre-fire, and he won't even get that.
Dabu with the final kill, big player for this half, and loud with a big set of defenses taking a 4-2 lead against FaZe.
No one really talking on the side of FaZe either, it's not like we've got...
You know, don't get me wrong. They're not the most vocal team anyway, but a bit of an alarm bell there at least in the cameras
See what the desk thing
Has to be I mean
I am also super impressed by this first half from loud here all on their defense
Sometimes are you playing as a big team like this a live game is needed?
And I feel like we're getting that right now from Gabbu an ace in round four putting up numbers
That's only your rookie right we talk about this this player being in their first season of a tier one
gameplay so I personally think Leo loud have a good read on what phase is doing
you know you see that in the pre-play C4s for example when they go back to a
specific site they seem to know what phase is gonna bring to the table yeah
and we can watch a couple of examples of that I think it's it's really tough to
play against a team that is supposed to be perfect like phase and it looks like
loud have found the right solutions to cause enough problems and it starts all
the way on top floor here when they're in the 3v3 one player tries to walk in
on the side of FaZe, completely isolated. Gabu gets the very important kill there, and
then they manage to win that 2v1. And then the round here with their embasement, they're
just doing a normal roam, but just roam clearing that seems to be a problem for FaZe. As you
can see, Solis gets two multiple 1v1s. Gabu on the other side on Gage gets a kill as well,
and they turn a 3v3 to another 3v1. Eventually, Sider will get his kill, but that's okay,
like they go actually close the round. And it's like multiple rounds in a row where they
manage to get the opening kill. You look at this pre-placed C4, you just mentioned it,
Pretty cool one to just set up and as soon as someone picks your connector
There are you blow it up boom another opening kill Gabou playing really well this connector position basically
Single-handedly holding that side and if you look at it from the side of face
How many 1v1s easy playing here because it's it's multiple times
He just gets to see for on cyber he gets a first kill here
Then he can just come up close. There's no trade here from the same player that was in connector
He waited too long
In fact Gabou had the time to reload his shotgun in between the two kills
So like to me it screams that face plan is not really worried in right now
they're not playing up to the level that we expect and
That that is showed in many far ways, but it's also, you know, not face playing weak
But also loud being really well here
Yeah, of course, and then there's a few moments as well me
I want to talk about round three where resets almost at that great read on the plan that was going down in the offside
We just a little bit too long it makes you wonder, you know if moments like that also went the way of loud
Could we have looked at a more dominant half here and it's actually given how today has gone how yesterday when we see some really defense
Favored side sometime
But that should mean that face now have the advantage on the second half here to try and get some rounds back at least in their favor
They should have that opportunity but a lot of looking objectively quite good so far Ali and
Well, they might have been some mistakes made loud and in good positions to capitalize them
They've got good player performances as well with Gabu topping the charts right now
Obviously we have to watch the second half of play but for an upset win against face clan a lot of the pieces appearing in that first half
for loud
Listen
Two things can be good. It just depends on the level of which they are good
It comes back to what we were talking about in round one right?
We know that face are a good team on labs
We know that loud are a good team on labs at the moment in that first half
If all we had to play in the best of one was six rounds and one side stayed on the defense the whole state
One side said in this act loud would have won right now
However, we let's try and keep things a little bit more even in the best of one and we get six rounds a piece
It just so happens that loud are only three rounds away from wrapping this game up and taking a full three points right now
Now I don't expect them to come out here and win three rounds in a row that would be crazy talk
But they put themselves in a fantastic position right now and phase. We haven't seen any real flare from them so far today
We got a little bit only a fraction inside arounds four and five aside from that
It has been all loud all day
Let's see what loud are able to cook up here on their own attacks
Certainly got plenty of tools to be going at grim and Deimos both targeted
leaves all the hard breeches available all the shields available that's something
that loud like to try and play into which looks like live is gonna be rocking
the blitz to start things off but the addition of the ace just makes this so
much easier to get everything open even with mirror and play
I sent in a connector by resets trying to find an opportunity to actually put
and down some of this utility.
Ends it out of the mirror window.
In case of time, all things considered,
attacking these Kivas and these mirror windows
for the minute fifty to go,
all things considered pretty good, flash three.
A lengthy prefire catches cyber on the swing.
Lessor one for one is a lot of that hard-reaching utility
already utilized loud.
I don't think characterised them as a slow team.
I don't even know who the hell I'm watching right now.
Pushing it to connector is quickly with a man advantage.
A 3v1 at that!
They've already got handy to waste all of his toxic canisters. They've got him isolated in the opposite site.
Who the hell is this right now?
Is this the lot that we saw beat Liquid 7 to 4 on this map?
Moving into the post. Handy an excellent player. If anybody can clutch this 1v3, it'd be him.
They've got the shield to pressure, resets and Gabu with perfect guns to hold these long angles into the late.
I mean, what do you do here? Shield gets them. Oh, but misses all the spray!
God, we're getting a kill just to pat his stats at this point. If a lot are gonna play attacks like that
This might not be a close game. It really might not be a beautiful attack
Everything done everything that needed to be achieved in that round was sorted straight away and the pace that louder playing at
It's catching phase entirely off guard a lot of times a lot of teams are very slow and steady on the attack
It's very doable. It's very winnable. You're just gonna take your time
You're just going to set yourself up for these crossfires and continue to manipulate these players. That's where phase is comfortable
Phase are extremely comfortable when you give them that much space to do it phase turning to just any other team
When you start to apply that pressure quickly bang it
IT breaches open and then immediately the keeper barricades are getting pressured and the Azami inside of rafters is starting to be dealt with
Yep phase reply. They try and swing on to it door bank. It's a meat. It's already getting pre-fired
You're literally swinging into the prefire. Yeah, there's someone there for the trade
But by that by the time that's all happening already the push is coming through that connect side and that it and that electrical side
So you've got pressure from there as well
Loud are just hitting everything at the same time and it's working beautifully for them right now
I really hope they wouldn't deserve it so far. They've played some brilliant siege
They at least serve a point it feels like they stopped the effort they put up and especially for the attacks are like that one
They will absolutely get a point too. They'll look quite good. It's worth noting out noting in that liquid game
They won four out of the five attacks, but how did they win four out of those five attacks that they played?
They wanted a man disadvantage as well even when they were coming to low time lot of were winning a ton of those late-round engagements
against
Team Liquid Alienware and if you think to yourself, oh, you know cyber getting an opening pick falling back and winning before like winning the
before that's phases game plan and if a lot are able to win that against liquid and they're getting advantages here
They're getting the control they want here if that continues
There was a 74 against liquid this really might be a 7 2 7 3 against phase
This might be a must win one for the defense not only to win this second primary site
But just to I think for once make it argument to us that phase have a chance
That's it.
Sky feels like the limit for Loud right now.
Resets, some great information there available in the site.
Sol's caught out on the phone call and on the drone there.
He's going to expect to be pushed very shortly.
It's not only the information from the dokerby that we've got from Loud at the moment.
Flastrate will be playing Snake, so that Sol is on scanner.
That accurate information that is already available.
to help him hone in on that player. Resets. Trying to find something inside of Animus
right now, but KDS has taken live down. That's the diffuser called on the ground. KDS picks
himself up another. This top floor hold is brutal and nobody has done anything about
it. Loud hoping to go for a bit of a direct there and phase on that top floor really
holding firm.
You can see loud they caught this kind of awkward halfway in halfway out position. Resets
things there might be a gap but all they have to do is clear these vertical angles
then there's nobody on the site. That's always the tricky gamble when you have such a
distinct top floor hold or vertical hold into a site. All we have to do is clear out the vertical
angles. There's just four guys up there all able and capable of trading off of each other
and also still watching angles into the site down below. And you think maybe if we see loud,
let's say phase run that setup back and loud take another run at it. You have to think that maybe
they go away from that intel lineup and maybe bring something that's more disruptive. Bring
some candelas, bring some grims, to disrupt those vertical angles because what they brought,
the snake and the dokeby, that was meant to clear out a roam. And it's kind of tricky when the entire
setup is the roam to really do that effectively. I have to think if phase ever run that strap back,
loud would just bring completely different tools for the job. Yeah, I just don't see that you can
go direct on that side and especially against a team like FaZe. No matter how they're playing
on the day, I mean they're obviously, they're not playing fantastically today, right? They've
lost a lot of gunfires, they've lost a lot of rounds. You've still got to give them the
respect and I don't think you can ignore that in its entirety. It has to be a little bit
of a nod toward that extension upstairs because you are just going to be incredibly vulnerable.
still loud with a lead here is it going to be that these sort of lower
downsides where there is a requirement to clear a lot of the map they the ones
that are gonna start to trip them up base spread pretty thinly right now they've
not thinly but across the map cyber in a very usual position for a post play
downstairs the players occupy in space upstairs as well IT reinforced and
players occupying those spaces so there's a lot for loud to do here it's not
like where we saw them successful on that top floor site and they were able to
just entirely focus their efforts on that there is deceit there are decisions
to be made are they gonna go downstairs and clear outside but are they just
gonna go for that top floor clear haven't brought the ram so it's not like
they can just get it breach open and then start to ram through and give
themselves some angles to work through that way instead with reset position
inside a cafeteria right now it looks like it could be a bit of an across
clear which again would be a little bit of an alarm bell like gonna need to deal
with those players upstairs in some way
on some way to do it you've seen a lot of good at clearing these keyboards last
time I'm sure with you so again this exterior angle so much more work to be
by the attack, just by Hibana having this DMR.
Ooh snap, tanking a C4, obtaining his life.
Another one goes out, this one gets him.
No utility thrown on the ying, but through the fray,
loud, come away with an advantage.
Four to three right now.
Cyber with attackers surrounding him,
but inside the other site and pushing into garage,
handy a big flight to alleviate some of that pressure
on the bottom aqua position,
in the garage 90 position as well.
It can keep hold this top floor alongside souls,
but that leaves cyber down below.
The attack seems to have an idea.
Beginning to apply that pressure with the Blackbeard live.
It's been here the whole time.
Can you hear the call ringing out?
SMG-12 around the corner.
Live ready for it.
Right as Cyber realizes his fate.
And that's when the smokes go down,
creating some off positions.
But with the defuser, he doesn't even rotate in.
Not even going for the plant.
Just trying to bait some rotations.
A lot of going for the kills.
They know they have 40 seconds remaining.
They do not need to push this just yet.
But that will burn some important utility out of that dookie.
no longer have an ability to block these angles.
It's only 25 remaining.
It's not the most time there's some for a lot to work with,
but if they can just get at one or two kills,
they can make this so much easier,
but handy thinking is safe.
Flash replaying so passively catches FaZe off guard.
Loud seemed like they have all of FaZe's moves mapped out.
Even when they drop a body,
it's in service of the greater scheme.
Incredible round.
Live take about.
that is how you play the most broken operator in the game right now save you don't be phone calls
and just spam them in the final 40 seconds there is nothing that phase could have done
they're in a man disadvantage cyber's getting called his position's already known he's already
had a bit of a melee over with the black beard he's low one hp he has to answer the phone bang
swing the corner take him out souls on the top floor brilliant bait out the plant utilize the
impact grenades then if you do have to go for a plant he hasn't got the impacts to make new holes
even if there is information he's left trying to bang through the floor which as we all know is
very unpredictable another phone call goes out we've still got a player on it repel like
loud have just been so patient there with that round and phase waits to loud have guaranteed
themselves points in the fixture to take their tactical time out.
is it too little too late now we don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves because elsewhere
phase have looked good downstairs in particular they looked fantastic but loud avengers shown us
an ability to affect multiple layers of the map at the same time it's not just like the top floor
where they can just go in and deal with what's going on on the top floor they were attacking
the mid floor they had to clear top floor they had to do something about the plate cyber downstairs
as in Basement. There was a lot more to do. So, FaZe using their tactical time out now,
hoping that they can get three rounds in a row here. I feel like even for FaZe, it is
going to be a bit of a stretch.
Yeah, I think at this point, with how well a lot have played across these two attacks,
they've certainly lost that pretty heavy presumption. We often understandably afford FaZe Clan,
but Loud have objectively looked like the better team in pretty much every single one
of these rounds and even in rounds they've lost you go back to that first
storage control room attack they still lose by making plays that generally
speaking are quite smart and you can't fault them for playing and basically just
happen to catch them and take perfect advantage of that because it's phase of
course they will but loud it feels like every time they needed to make a move
they've made the right one way way way more often than they've made the wrong
ones in this series and we're a team that has always found themselves on the
outside looking in always found themselves a little bit below the rest of
the pack even if things have been close for them to be here and not only to you
know basically already be confirmed playoff standing at 11 points but to take
a regulation victory off base clan a full three points and pretty much
effectively cement playoffs off a regulation win here I mean this is some
of the knowledge so the best the team has looked inside of the SEL but probably
one of the best finishes they will have had inside of the SEL and to be the
potentially the only team to take down face clan that's a win in and of itself
phase on the opposite side. Things are a bit lower stakes. They're already locked in top four.
They might not get a flawless regulation group stage off the back of this. I mean,
so much more for Loudon. It seems good that they might get it here.
And that's the important context at the moment, isn't it? The bigger picture at the minute for
phase is going to be that AWC qualification, which they are regardless of the results they
still in a fine position to achieve. It just feels like a big result when Loudon can come out here
and give us a very dominant night haven labs now isn't over just yet lads still need to convert it
they still need to win one more round here but with what we've seen it'd be hard-pressed to make
an argument that they wouldn't be able to do that upside down repel flastery to make something work
through this it breach in a big focus so far pretty far and out onto this army just trying to deal
with those keep of arcades stem there as well so expect airjobs in that vicinity just love one
in pocket. Souls does need to be cautious here.
They're the world that is caught out on the drone. He's expected to be known where he is anyway.
Big engagement right now though as the stuns come out.
Just flirting with the breach. Cyber finds life, but
Gabe gets that all-important kill onto handy. That's the smoke out of action.
Smoke taking down, a stamp winning another big 1v1, but quickly traded by FaZe.
Anything is keeping them in this, this trading game they've had on the top floor.
They might have started with the opening pick, but the advantage has changed hands.
Taking down the shield in the process as well, they'll lost some important utility in turn.
They should have at least given themselves a decent shot at closing this out.
It might be out of the C4, but Gabu's low. Flash, be fine, Cyber though!
And Stoll's down up top!
Bid of King now, another 1v3 this time on the defense, and he can't even get one!
Loud stun everybody, not just with a 50 over phase, that'd be shocking in and of itself.
7-3 on one of phase's best maps? You can never, you can never be over too soon inside of the SAL.
Even losing the opening pick there and with the position of that diffuser down on the stairs
inside a warehouse, you were looking at that round and you're thinking surely not, surely this
isn't the way that phase lose, but yeah it was. Both things can be good and loud today were better.
Let's see if my desk. Well, a
shock and result we have there
who would have thought that it
was allowed to be the first team
to take down the phase. What an
impressive way as well. You know,
they had a good start on their
attack. You know, some response
we needed to see from phase in
this match up here as well. But
it is just so incredible that
they get these points on the
board, even for themselves and
get to speak to a resets out to this game, because I can only imagine how good that must
be of a feeling to take down FaZe, congratulations on the three points, you're the first team
to take down FaZe this stage, how are you feeling?
It was actually very great, it was a very important match, I don't know if we're qualified
for the playoffs, I think so, but yeah, very hard for that.
You are qualified for the Playoff Reset, so congratulations, I mean, I want you to basically
use this moment maybe to try and circle back to what happened at Kickoff, because you guys
kept the exact same lineup, you trusted all of the players, you went from being grouped
at Kickoff to beating FaZe and making playoffs, how has it been for the team to go through
that crazy momentum, that crazy adventure all the way here?
Kiko was really hard because it was like a short tournament.
We played only four games, so for a new team it was very hard,
but we realized that we knew like we are a very good team,
we are very solid, and we just thrusted the process.
And speaking of thrusting the process,
you basically had the confidence to pick up a young player
that had never played at tier one level before.
Gabu has surprised everyone, I think, coming into SL.
across many different matches, but to drop today 14 kills, 15 kills, sorry, against FaZe Clan,
I mean, tell me more about this player. What makes him special?
Gabu, for me, like, I think he, like, how can I say, one of the best players in Brazil right now.
Like, he's a rookie, but I don't think that really matters. He's a very good, very solid player.
And yeah, that's it. One of the best, to be honest. One of the best.
not no doubt okay okay that's that's big for his first uh first year with you guys here but
i want to ask you about the game you're coming up after this because of course you know the
playoffs is locked in top four there is still a possibility for it you have to play against
Flux should it be seven in to uh well sorry next to it not tomorrow after this game they seem to be
in a little bit of a slump right now with two big losses how are you feeling about that game
i feel very confident they are having some troubles like outside the game i guess so i think we are
better just that outside the game yeah some problems like I don't know how to
say and I don't really know if I can say that but outside again yeah alright
well thank you so much for giving us the insights as well thank you for your
time resets and good luck next Sunday in your final game thank you and bye
loud metal bye bye of course very well media train at the end there I mean we're
seeing it in action once again here looking at the replays loud what an
incredible victory. Good effort on their attention. Cass has already talked about it as well, but it's
just you see it in that final round as well. The fact that they can put so much pressure
on face from so many different areas, so many different angles, to really kind of squish them
and put them back to the side. And it's just really impressive. I'm glad to see this from loud
and you know looking at their whole process so far. In fourth, playoffs confirmed, this must
be looking amazing for them. Yeah, it's honestly, it's a dream come true. They needed a miracle to
to make sure that they would lock in playoffs,
and that miracle happened.
And it was not on the back of FaceTime
playing really bad whatsoever.
I think that loud really were playing super well.
I thought they were in control in most of these rounds.
Even the ones that they had lost were very close.
They had a perfect understanding of how to play the game.
They brought innovation to the table,
things that Face had not seen.
And it's surprising because it's the map on which they
beat Liquid as well.
So yes, it's one of the best maps.
But on top of that, they had shown quite a lot of things
on the road. So, for Fextan, it doesn't mean much. They will be in top four anyway. They've
so many points ahead that it's not so much a problem on the other side. And fallout, it means
so much because not only does this confirm playoff, but it's now put a pressure that is insane
on teams like Fluxo, W7M for example, to absolutely win absolutely gain points. Otherwise, it's the
end of the playoffs race for these guys. And so, there is a lot at stake following these results.
And I just want to praise Gabu again. What a way to start off his career in SAL.
We have not seen, it's a long time we've seen like a player come up from Tier 2 or just straight
off in Tier 1 and already play at this level. We've seen Outlaw, we've seen Guto, we've seen
certain players come up and have like great performances but however they're most of the
time a little bit inconsistent. Gabu, he's the best rated in loud. He is the top 10 rated of SAL
that was before this playday, so I assume he's even jumped more ranks. Incredible player.
This is really impressive to see that as well, you know, getting an ace against a big team like
FaZe to really show up like he did today and also to get like the flowers right from resets,
where reset says this is one of the best players I have seen in a little while, one of the best
players you know in Brazil at the moment, so you can only imagine what's going to happen once
they eventually reach playoffs, go into best of threes, make it to international events and
see that player blossom even further.
An incredible result, I think it's time for us to take a little bit of a break
and re-gate our senses from what we just saw on our screens.
And then, while we're back, we're going to break down everything you need to know
for Imperial eSports and Black Dragons.
Well, my friends, it's true that the Brazilian teams didn't exactly land the best results at the last major.
But hey, there's an explanation for that.
So you get a LOS that had a lot of strians, darts, daffos, they didn't play, they were a totally new team.
FURIA, even though they had more experienced players, is a totally new group,
Boquizeira was strianing and everything else, so, like, and then you get the Pranip, which is a more formed base,
and it's more like the first Major of the Basse, like IGL, so I think this ended up bringing a little more weight and obviously added to the improvement of the other regions.
And about not seeing a lot of changes, like Janela,
it's because it was a very short championship.
We went to the Prapa Torcedo da Liga for two weeks, you know?
Two weeks can't define the future of a team,
so we have to remove the players and everything else.
And when results like these happen, changes usually follow.
At least, that's how it's supposed to work.
Because out of all 10 SAL teams, only Black Dragons decided to shake things up.
So, whether we plan it or not, this video has basically turned into a full-blown Black Dragon's roster move special!
To put things into perspective, since 2024 and counting the current lineup, no fewer than 17 players have worn the BD jersey!
Doing some quick math, that's roughly one roster change every two months.
Yeah, that's a lot!
I believe the changes were necessary, I think we saw that we hit a roof there as a team, even if it's too early, and I think the change is when it's necessary, you have to do it, you can't stay taking so long, because the Team Secret itself made more than 20 changes in the team until it won the AWC, it's not that we like it, but sometimes it's necessary.
no stranger to the dragons. He previously played for the team between 24 and 25 and even represented
the organization as a Montreal Major. After that, he took a little trip from tier 2, absolutely
farming the competition with Stylite Gaming and now his back. Hopefully to help push
Black Dragons toured their first ever eSports World Cup appearance.
The other new addition is practically a tier one rookie.
After spending time with Elevator Academy, Romel got his biggest shot on the main elevator
roster during reload, where he played alongside the veterans, Ian and Cycle.
Oh, and fun fact, you could say Romeo already knows one of his new teammates pretty well.
That's because the two of them shared the stage in last year's tier 2 Grand Final, just on opposite sides of the server.
He's a very good guy, he's very skilled.
He also had a great experience playing with great players like Psyche,
who also taught him a lot of things.
He's also a musician himself, who helped him in the LV Academy.
But he's a new guy, he has to get more and more experience,
more teachings, but this is just content.
the longest. So before we wrap things up, I want to know exactly what role our man Hadi has been playing in this new look, Black Dragon's roster.
you can coordinate very well, you can get this emulation there during the round, ok?
And as we move on to our third match of the day, we got Imperial eSports going up against Black Dragon.
So whereas at the start of the day, we really assumed this was going to be an important match, you know,
with the bottom two teams in the league going up against each other, big fight for survival.
Unfortunately, due to results earlier from today, this match is no longer about the hopes and dreams of making it into playoffs.
We can play the doubles-efficant here, Leo, and talk about how these teams, I mean, it's early days,
but will have to play for survival in the league, right?
They want to make sure that comes stage 2, they get some improvement on the board,
they don't find themselves in the very last when it comes to overall points and standings,
and they don't find themselves at a point of potential relegation from SAO.
They're facing the big problem of SAO right now, which is that you have the established top 4 with FaZe, Furia, NIP,
and somewhat what should have been lost if you think of Soul Exity,
And then on top of that, you have to have Team Liquid, who are doing really well,
who are bringing it back and likely making playoffs.
Fluxo WCNM, who are still contender.
And then Loud, who have surprised everyone and came out of nowhere and played really good.
And then on top of that, you might think that INTZ might be one of these
big teams that you could play on and the reality is INTZ just won the last two games.
So that means that in the end, Black Dragon and Imperial, all the way down of the Durbos here,
are fighting. They are the two worst teams of SEL.
They are on 3 and 4 points and so yes at this point you start thinking of allegations because
you're almost halfway through the entire season for these guys. They only have 2 more days to play
and after that they will be at half of the season and so if they don't grab points especially
against their rivals it will basically be a death sentence for these guys. And it's a tough story
for them and because I feel like both of them have showed really good glimpses of hope. Imperial
They've played much better. They've made it super close against loss yesterday.
We thought they could beat them. They beat Laud, they played AB4, Laud who just beat FaZe.
So it goes to show that Imperial, they had that level. They had went to the 12th round against NIP.
They went to the 15th round against Furia. So Imperial, they have that quality.
They just like the experience sometimes to be able to close out the most important games.
And on Blackhair Gunside, you could say the same thing, they managed to beat Fluxo W7M fairly in the stage,
they managed to make things close against Loud as well, against Sphere as well, 12th round.
So the two teams, yes they're all the way at the bottom of the standings, but they like to make it close against every single opponent,
and it goes to show once again how short are, how the gap that separated the top teams of ACL and the bottom teams of ACL has reduced them right now.
Yeah, I feel like that's what eventually comes down to right you mentioned it both teams have shown as glimpse and
Shimmers of hope as well with their matches. I mean even yesterday
They both suffered a 5v7
But they were giving us hope and they were giving us something to watch for because they look stronger
Then we expected to in the match that they were playing yesterday diving into Imperial eSports as a first team here in this match
I mean they were getting away with some silly stuff, right?
It was a player that jumps outside was they must start at the same time
And then they still make it close all the way until the end of that game
But then you know not trying to be a negative answer because I feel like we're gonna have to do a lot in this matchup between these two teams
Nice, you know, you got away with silly things you brought it close
But what do you get at the end of the day?
Nothing no points nothing and that's eventually what brings you down to the 10th position here in inside the group
Capitalizing often loads of playing choose here great wonderful, but then again
And no points is the most important thing about that matchup.
The fact that I do find themselves here, and as we already talked about, you know,
relegation at the end of the year is something Dana wanna face.
No, definitely not.
And props to Mithrix and Makina, who were the main two stakeholders of the combat.
I mean, barely yesterday on Mordor, who played really well.
The two standout players on the other side for Black Dragons.
I'm looking at Guto obviously trying to perform a bit more consistently.
When he was first brought on with Romeo, he was one of the players that we wanted to highlight.
Outlaw on your screen has been the best performer on the set of Light Dragons originally and so these guys were kind of
The same two guys that we're looking at also in terms of fragging power on the set of light dragons
This will be the clash that expects between the two teams
It's it's good. I I think already early on in the stage for for these ones because
There's nothing to play for the at the end for these guys now
it's all about salvaging as many points as possible and back against the wall already for a team like
Imperial for example that has already done the yoyo right has already been in tier one dropped in tier two went back into tier one
It would be a huge disappointment for these guys to be relegated a second time
It makes me upset on their behalf especially also if you look at yesterday, right?
You know, they had strategic advantage in many of these rounds
They should have won more rounds or even push an overtime to at least get a point and still have something to play for
for today inside this matchup, but I would like to look at the map feature. Yes, maybe this
matchup doesn't matter so much in regards to the playoffs coming into a dereligation is still on the
line. The last time they played it was in kickoff groups. It was an 8-6 overtime for Black Terran,
so a mere victory on on cafe. It seems like Imperial eSports do not want to go back there today.
Instead, we're going to go to Lair. Alright, interesting. I don't think I've seen any of this
play the map in the recent stage. I think none of the map played it actually.
So this will be like an interesting one. Maybe going back to kickoff Black Dragon
showed it a little bit, but it was a different lineup obviously with two
different roster changes. So this will be a question mark. It's
gonna be an interesting one. I just want to see Imperial able to fight
better in defense. I think that was a huge issue yesterday, mainly due to the map
obviously bordering how to defend against but still I do think that the
attacks have improved drastically I think that in general it's the different
side which is a bit weird for them where they struggle to get a line on the same
game plan they tend to spread around a little bit
try not to be conscious of the direct effects as well they lost multiple rounds
to rushes yesterday those are all things that Blackbeard are able to pull off an
attack as well this will be something that they need to be really careful about
something to keep in mind going into this matchup. We'll bring in our casters though before we kick
off this match as it is almost ready to go welcoming back Lynx and Exotorica and let's be honest
it's not easy matchup this one given that you know there is nothing to play for anymore in
regards of the playoffs, the silver relegation you know come the end of the year but it kind of
makes us sad for both these teams really because Lynx we were hoping to see more from them and we
hope we to see them at least have a shot still on playday 8. Well especially since you know for
for both these being the last place teams,
it's I think more so than a lot of the other regions,
two perfect examples of teams you want to give points
more as like credit for their improvement
or credit for the performances they put up
rather than necessarily like,
even if they've not truly been like super close games
because, you know, Ollie like contrast with NA,
like we have a couple of teams that like are really struggling
to get even like seven, four, seven, fives.
Both of these teams, Black Dragons and Imperial
have OT games, plenty of those.
They have plenty of games that went all 12 rounds.
Both of these teams have been hyper competitive
in the ninth, 10th place spots.
And so not only for the League
overall is that a good sign,
but even for these teams,
you kind of wish they had a
couple more points, not only
so the standings are more
competitive, but also it feels
like they deserve.
They hit based on the effort
they put in a couple more
points.
Yeah, you know, you can make
good arguments.
I think for it.
It reminds me quite a lot of
the games that we're covering
this week in NL where we had,
you know, sort of five fears
going up against Wildcard.
We had our last going up
against 100 thieves.
So where you're not directly
competing with the person that
you are going to be in that
the game. You know, it's
not a game that you can't
play. You know, it's not a
game that you can't play spot
with. It's still a difficult
game. This is arguably a
little bit easier inside of
SL because you're actually
going up against the team that
you are going to be rubbing
shoulders with at the end. But
for anyone that didn't watch
the Atlas, the five phase game,
there's the other win. They
beat wildcard and wildcard
were at the top. So Stranger
things can happen. We have
already seen one upset here
today. I don't know that this
I'm glad you're making that argument though, because yeah, we've seen it even in EU as well, right, where you have heretics who have nothing to play for anymore on the final day, all of a sudden they get unleashed and they get this upset victory on the board.
So maybe that's the positive thing that we look forward to in this matchup. Both these teams don't really have anything to play for anymore, but what can they show us in regards to the wheels coming off for Imperial e-sports and Black Dragons?
Let's hope they give us something fun because at this point when both these teams are outside
of playoffs and both these teams are, you know, gonna probably be somewhere around the
ninth, tenth place position or at least one of them will be, of course, you know, they're
playing for entertainment because that's the nature of sports.
But more importantly, they're playing for, I think, for the entertainment of people who
really love the game.
And by that, I mean, we're looking to see these teams continue their improvements, looking
to see Black Dragons and Imperial build offs a lot of the promise we've seen from these
teams in their close or 12 round or overtime games you've seen over the
course of the stage and give us a good show because obviously these two teams
close to the standings you'd hope it would be close Ali but obviously while
that's this is not always the case you'd still have to believe based on the
improvements they put in this one should be close I just like the fight to the
death lane for our entertainment and our entertainment only I mean no I think
that's the case.
You guys specifically are entertainment like you and I?
Absolutely.
Yeah.
There's a whole lot of people watching but I'll make sure they're included as well.
I can just think of Maximus stood in the Colosseum.
Are you not entertained?
I don't know what to say right now but I'm not going to.
I reckon that's what I wanted and if I was on that loud side I would've just stood up
in the middle of labs.
Are you not entertained?
you know, sort of delayed
gratification on whatever result
you get today because,
whilst it isn't going to matter
as to the result of stage one
all too much. Whether you
finish, you know, ninth,
tenth, whatever it might be,
however many points you get.
Once that gets added onto your
stage two performance, that's
when it really starts to matter,
and that's when it really starts
to count. And then, of course,
looking longer term than that,
things like si point starts
come into the mix because si
points have gotten from stage
like that. So the ramifications are very far reaching, but the consequences for those ramifications is it's not relevant until a lot further down the line. But we've still got to see Imperial and Black Dragons give us their A game here today.
So far, this is a site very familiar. Oh, back winner. I was just going to go on like a 30 second rant on how this is such a powerful position. He gives himself away. He's just walks up to the door.
We've seen teams and players do well in that position, but when we had like two to three people all watching ops, it was always going to be difficult getting some kind of 1v1 there that was going to be favorable for the Azami.
I mean, especially when you also have defenders that are tagging on with the T'Chonka as well, Black Dragons are going to kind of feel incentivized to go for that.
If they get a kill there, potentially even a couple more, that could be the whole round.
Black Dragons buy into it, take down the Azami and Ops, that means that if somebody's played behind a small desk, they're gonna be so much more exposed going into the latter portions of this round to Black Dragons with a good start.
And if they can get top rock control pretty soon as well, I don't think you could hope for a better start on a later attack.
No, absolutely not. The Azami's job is to hold up for as long as possible and then if possible rotate back and play desk
With my kind of going down really softly
Leaves them very vulnerable this vert play could be massive as well Romeo tracking out onto smoke matrix
Caught in the scanner brilliant shot there tracked or not
He's gonna hop himself outside
He knew where the Deimos was and he knew that he was safe as toxic babes buying him a lot of time here the area
denial right now is just insane for Imperial.
Just locking down every single one of these zones even with an advantage this is the kind
of lineup that can just basically squeeze every second out of the attacks clear.
Mr. Outlaw pushing D if he's all the way in the other side of Florio checking his corners
ready for it and Black Dragons excuse me simply cannot move beyond these exterior positions.
Rocket no good, ops no good and even when somebody lurks inside of the site Imperial
have an answer for it.
surprise with how that round's gone because the opening pick from black dragons there is crucial
that should be the first step in maintaining good control of ops but they were never really able
to get it because of the players deep inside of bathroom and the rocket stairs walk up just not
working out not enough answers really being found there by black dragons with the utility that they
had available to them they needed a way of displacing those players up at the top of rocket stairs
they needed a way of clearing underneath the default camera position where sexy cake was
kind of just happy to swing this way all that depending on where the pressure was coming in from.
Black Dragons struggle into problem solve in round one.
We'll be attacking it down in the basement here for round two.
Don't see how things get much better here with the lineup the Imperial are bringing.
They've got some horrible toys to play with. You've banned double electrification so yeah,
your walls are a bit easier to open. But look at what you've got to chew through once you start
getting into the meat and bones of the site. It's going to be a clash that's going to be
all compact. Even the castle is just going to cause a little bit of time where you stay
in McQuinnage. Going to go and place a couple of those out toward that warehouse side anticipating
there will be some element of a little bit of a cross-clair here from Black Dragons.
Certainly indicative of Imperial's identified wind conditions which kind of stall as much
time as possible and if they get into an opening engagement with five seconds remaining that's
That's about five seconds too soon.
Just want to win this off the utility and off the time alone.
I say that of course.
Sexycake has the single door open in front of him and
needs to at least pay attention there if he wants to cross.
Thinks it's safe.
Will make it through.
Reaches being opened downstairs as well as there is some
some presence off-site by Imperial.
Stepped a few rooms beyond on the bottom floor.
One or two roamers up top as a standard hello.
That's cake putting Romeo down to pretty low HP about a third remaining with some TCSG shots and gets off as well
And again with the utility that infill have on the site even doing some damage to attack an attacker as a win
If you get back and you can bolster and play a 5v5 if you damage a couple people on the way out
That's honestly extremely good. You really don't need to worry
Matrix just on that clash providing a little bit of presence right now. Let's just stay clear of Guito
Just want to get caught out by Callie. It's a great way of dealing with a clash
Often needs someone on the Callie shoulder though. So great. I'm needing a little bit of assistance from a teammate here, but
Paces fairly dire right now. Mr. Outlaw just taking a little bit of damages is trying to walk in through warehouse
Regardless of the fact that they've brought the ram. Where's the top floor clear?
Minute and 15 left on the clock. Mr. Outlaw grabs a great kill on some Aquina
Romeo can start to try and move in alongside a swag. There's a heavy intention here on clearing out this top floor and getting some of this
Vert open. So far we've not seen it. All the kills have come flat from Mr. Outlaw.
Right as you reach the minute point, Romeo putting down some of these boogie drones.
Maybe a little late but still coming in. Oh, a quick push by Mitrix. Catches
Floreo completely off guard. Nobody checking the tucked-in corner. And just like that,
Black Dragon still with an advantage, but Imperial Esports with 40 seconds remaining. They've got the Clash to Burn time, they might have Vulcan Packs remaining.
And even though it F-Nauts might still be activated lurking around somewhere on this bottom floor.
Oh, what a shot by Sexy Cake! Barely even sees Romeo's head as the ram walks in.
But some of that damage done earlier in the round, paying off, Mitrix now creating a stronghold. Sexy Cake still with that pick.
You've got the fuser well in hand sexy cake with four
He's playing at every position on this map, but fully controlled of sub down below
I mean sexy case your single handedly won that round
Imperial they had no business
Winning that round from the position that they found themselves in sexy case caught off inside a warehouse
We've just given him to one versus ones. It's it's 2v2 and and there's it was three versus two and one of them's a clash
So Clash has to plant the shield. Clash has to go gun up there because otherwise you just leave in sexy cake hung out to dry
So Clash is wrapped spinning an engagement one versus one. Okay, not ideal
But then you have to two versus one sexy cake inside a warehouse and blood dragons just didn't do that
They only kills that they really got that were meaningful in that round with the two opening picks from mr. Outlaw and at that point
So much of the round had already been burnt
that only then do we start seeing the vertical work start to take place. It took forever
for Swag and Romino to get in on the book and the RAM to start ripping open that floor.
I was anticipating grab top floor control. Everybody helps with that. Rotate into base or
rotate into warehouse and let the soft breach do their job upstairs. And then we can start catching
players as they rotate outside inside a warehouse. That didn't happen. Mr. Outlaw got two for three.
And then Imperial just go ahead and win a three versus five and one of the three is a clash
That'll do the trick from here at least on the second primary site
Now it's black dragon safe the tactical timeout before the tertiary. It won't have the Goya won't have the clash present for Imperial's lineup
Instead do what you have to in Bugs briefing
in creating as much of a stronghold on the top floor as you possibly can,
Keevas, Nero windows. Even a Rooney Gates as well to add in some projectile denial.
Smoke likely upstairs too with the shotgun and the docks at canisters.
Here at East Quartz playing these standard win cons for a first floor defense,
looking down at a bunks and breathing. And the more extreme question is always
what black dragons will do to answer. Plenty of smokes and execute operators,
getting a plant in the side is always trickier than you might think.
Looks like Black Reddens are going to be going for a very standard line up for this attack.
So they obviously feel as though rounds one and two, I mean definitely didn't go to plan
but there was some real glaring holes in the way that they were trying to play.
But they didn't wait until after round three to take that time out, they took it early.
So their intention here is going to be for that half clear.
with the Monty being removed it makes just planting behind a Monty shield a lot
more difficult. You have got the capitol, you have got the sense. It takes care of just
allowed to cross. It's going to take a point of damage, sticks him fairly low
considering that's only one DMR shot. Just goes to show how powerful those
tools are. Oh further zoned out here as well, made it his feet and fire up above.
Trying to buy himself some time but Flames gonna do the rest of the work
that Mr. Outlaw started.
Sexy Geek falling there on Azami.
A big opening pick here for Black Dragons.
It'll take down one of the forward players on the staircase,
and getting a foothold on this top floor clear can always be so difficult for the attack,
and even in a 4v5, do a Black Dragon still have to go through.
Smoke, mirror windows, difficult utility.
Yaks also with the Riggers Motson Pocket right for lobbing those at rare
if he tries to push in through the top floor.
Well, mocking out on the Rome, as you can see, right at the bottom of the bridge staircase.
It's not like this top floor setup or the site is all that well reinforced by the defense.
There are some holes that Black Dragons can exploit.
Mitrix is going to be the first target right now.
He's conscious of the breach.
He should be getting punished from there right now.
Instead, it's just going to be a flat engagement here as Ra tries to battle him back.
but this allows these players upstairs to reposition themselves.
Shots now coming in from Yex as he has joined the fray.
Maquina finds Guito, but Swag is going to be better.
The Blitz starting to do a little bit of this heavy lifting now.
Now Florio 1v4, Scott free toxic canisters can burn some time on this diffuse plant down below,
but doesn't even know where it's going.
I mean, no, he's creating angles and throwing smokes where nobody is on the bottom floor.
player with an unfortunate lack of information, which makes this one before even more unwinnable.
One player up top, got a position locked down, what even went into the fight against Mr. Outlaw?
Black Dragons after the attack timeout, win their first round on the attack.
Now let's turn, as they turn their attention toward the primaries, let's do so as well.
We barely even saw the sense utility there, did we?
Mr. Outlaw basically picking sense because it's a great DMR.
He was making that sing.
I didn't really need the RRU projectors, a lot just coming down to Rare getting really
balshy on Blitz and getting up close and personal into the faces of a lot of those
Imperial defenders.
Tertiary bombsite there seemingly coming quite easily to Black Dragons.
Very shield focused round four bands, the Blackbeard and the Clash will both be removed
here.
Back upstairs we go then to this top floor
You can only imagine
Why are we not playing the Asami? The Asami worked so well
It was only because Mac Winner really played too far ahead of his utility. He wasn't able to hold onto ops
Honestly, if I was Imperial I'd be looking to try and run this back exactly the same because it worked so incredibly well
I guess that a large proportion of that was down to this chanker and the smoke the goyo as well that sexgate was playing also coming into the mix
Instead, this time he's going to be opting to play Tubrao.
Again, another great DMR to be brought, and the Zoto canister is just to slow down that
inevitable breach.
So he's trying to hide himself at the moment as well, just tucked away in the corner.
Open his teammates are able to shoot the drones before they get too close to discovering.
Ooh, double reinforcing ops off as well.
I guess you can play the mirror window there and you can always smash that and utilize that a little bit
But if that's just able to reinforce and there's no mirror window played on it
Then really are giving away quite a lot of control ops becomes very difficult to hold
You can see that I'm here are you sports are just leaning fully into the setup
We've kind of seen develop over at least some of the first two defenses
Which is fully focusing on the site hold with that utility
They might give up off, but Sejikake will contest these drones for 45 seconds to a minute,
and then the wind condition is just to use the utility for the actual plant deniler.
Stalling time, preventing black dragons from pushing into the site.
Really nice mirror trick.
Catches a Selma charge, but I was going to say, it should get the next one, and it will
eventually, the Zoto canisters will freeze it, pop the mirror window, see if they can
shoot it.
They're entirely sure if they're able to, and they don't have any impact grenades to
to toss outside that window, and I don't think anybody wants to burn a C4, and won't do so.
It is a bit of a gamble for Imperial, as you mentioned. They get seed control of ops,
Black Dragons take that immediately, but if this utility on the site holds true, Imperial
Esports have a ton of it, and that might be sufficient.
Mr. Outlaw, Stines challenge us on the top of Rocket now. Have the ops control kind of
given in a lot of ways. No smoke plane at the top of these rockets
there's either so a walk up far more possible now. Especially under the cover
of Deimos or any sort of nades. That soft flora is going to be a little bit of a
vulnerability right now. Yext gonna be looking to try and challenge onto this
quite aggressively letting him know that he's got the shot and then at close range
and Romeo thinks better of the engagement but could really be going
some vert angle here and try and cut him off on the retreat. It's kind of tricky
either way. Neither player will decide whether they want to commit or not. Romeo
likely making the smart decision to hold back. Powering Rocket makes sense in
theory but against a shotgun close quarters I just don't think Romeo is
getting that. He can still make Warden's life difficult, give more information to
his team on the exact position. He'll try to find the vertical angle. Another
attempt to take down this Warden but rushing against that shotgun. You can see
the fear, the hesitance. Yex commits a little deeper though, but even one playing right
behind him for the trade. This is just not a good engagement for Romeo to take. You can
see him recognize that. A whole minute spent on this position, but finally, Romeo falls
back. Yex swings out. That's just the opening pit for Black Dragon. Still a 3v3, but Mr.
Outlaw pushing up, punishes Machina for supporting his teammate. No good deed, gone unpunished
inside of round four. As Outlaw pushing deeper, doesn't even need to fight the Techanka this
time. It's a plant that if you're down in an off spot, take full control of the site,
sexicade not able to line that one up with DMR. Black Dragons act two in a row. Black
Dragons had nothing until Yex pushes that on the warden. Just got a little bit too antsy.
I know there's 30 seconds on the clock, but that was the trigger. That was really what
the whole round hinged on that engagement on Rocket Stairs. We got a great view of it.
I'll be honest, I thought that Romeo was kind of misplaying that in a lot of ways because
he needed a little bit of support from somewhere.
If Yex doesn't push him there, that round just peed us out due to time and Imperial
walk away with another defensive win.
As it stands, he's got a bit too aggressive, bit too cocky, bit too confident, whatever
you want to call it and goes for the challenge and it was the first of many dominoes to fall.
Dragon's good for two now after their tactical timeout. They can take a round down here.
It starts to look like a bit of a flash in the pan from Imperial over rounds one and
two where maybe they just got a little bit lucky. Maybe Sexy Cake got a little bit fortunate
hitting three, four kills inside of round number two.
Aside from that, we haven't really seen the contribution. This round will tell us though
Dragons are able to rectify some of the mistakes we saw them make here previously in round two.
And if you just want to think about mistakes, one thing that we haven't really seen be a mistake
from Black Dragons has been this opening pick. They've got it four times in a row,
they got it the past two rounds, and now they've resulted in conversions.
They didn't continue that trend here. Of course, basically the improvements in the mid-round that
you were kind of alluding to there. Black Dragons really could start running away with this first
Hathen, make it the early lead acquired by Imperial Esports. Mitra's taking a
little bit of damage but nothing all that crazy. Didn't see much attention paid
to the roam by Black Dragons last time. Didn't start getting the vert until
about a minute remaining in the round. Got at least a similar lineup but it comes
to that element of the push and adding in some intel ops to help with the clear
iron as well. See what they can do. It is pretty slow all things considered. Not
slow in terms of the pace, but slow in terms of the action as soon as your eSports continuing
with this more conservative stance.
So we're going to be starting to attempt to clear this top floor now.
A great tool to do it, the Solothon scanner.
And in a far better time sense, we're getting these boogie drones used just after we've
seen the first minute of action.
This wasn't something that happened until around 30 to 40 seconds left in round two.
already the pace is better here by Black Dragons. They haven't just tried to walk into warehouse and
find a couple of quick openers. I think Mr Outlaw knows that that isn't something that's going to
happen every time. Romeo now having used only one of the drones can start to challenge onto the bottom
of these yellow stairs. Mr Outlaw again trying to make something happen onto this barrel and
missile angle. No one on the side of Imperial giving themselves up so easily this time.
time. Mitrix is opening a pick
onto Swag. That run clear
element will fall. Great shot
on to Mr Outlaw. He just got
absolutely deleted off the
angle. Reral five one back as a
trade, but things are far better
here for Imperial. Don't forget.
It was a five versus three last
time against Imperial and they
were still able to walk around
with the win this time. They've
got an advantage but only
Acquire one back pretty soon after Romeo swinging from behind though takes down an important player on a purely sports
But they continue to maintain this advantage through and through
Guto now with the calls 1v2 swings around the corner almost tags up Floreo and he does but there's nothing lethal
In fact loses some HP that toxic canister chase deeper into the side by the smoke
But what a flick headshot gets the job done a huge 1v2 for Guto to keep black dragons streak alive
that's the last round. You
can see that the last round
is on the left side. Glad
dragons now after the time out
effective in all three rounds.
They take a lead for the first
time here on layer. There's a
very real possibility that they
come away with a favorable half
of 42 splits is on the cards here.
Imperial. Repeatedly show us
that rounds one and two may have
just been a little bit of a
It wasn't going to be enough.
Regardless of the advantage, Black Dragon's able to snatch it back.
A lot down in part to Guito and his fancy movement there at the end just being able to rotate and find the angle onto the remaining player.
This is really where it all started to go terribly wrong. It was this side healings that we saw around 3.
Black Dragons have been brilliant since that point.
A little bit of a half-clear onto that top floor, the Blitz being used by Rare exceptionally
well to bully those players that were hanging around at the bottom of Green Stairs.
Not the same lineup though.
Capitao was a big proponent of this push last time, it was the Capitao that was able to really
zone Sexy Cake out and ultimately take him out with the Fire Arrows.
Sense as well.
Not that that was a key component from Mr. Outlaw, it was more the DMR and the kills
that he was able to get, really see the ROR you project to use this time going to bring
in an equally good gun, but Snake and that Soliton scanner to assist on that clear.
I can provide some good information.
I'm going to in-harbor charge the breach of the exteriors at the beginning of this one.
for Bunk's briefing defense.
The Saw Black Dragons get a lot of focus
to the actual sight clear last time,
pushing in with the bullets, ironically.
Some players spotted by the Saw Torn Scanners,
Black Dragons pushing in quite quickly upstairs,
already moving out through bathroom,
taking a look into display.
Can't quite push in just yet.
Still has about a season,
some more work needs to be done,
and that's what we need you to see.
Quick kill, Mr. Outlaw acquires another opening
I picked a lot of those this half for him, and we begin again very fast.
Oh, a big moment!
As Romeo goes down, it's another close 2v...
NO! 1v2!
Sexycake down below!
Black Dragons with an opportunity to pick Romeo back up.
Doki calls as well.
Oh, what a brutal position.
Sexycake spotted by the call.
These spots are unwinnable for the defense.
They've got the vertical angles, diffuser control.
A lot of utility expended.
None of those canisters remaining for Guto.
And yet still, Sexycake gets Whittle lower as able to find swag.
Takes the first one.
Get a bit of a crossfire, but can he...
He can isolate them!
Prefire on the corner with a clutch z-ping from Imperial!
And now with Guto low, this is comparable!
A hash drop, commit that late!
How often do we say, Dokebino, 3vx, that is unwinnable for the defense,
and if they're gonna give Sexycake 1v1s and make it easy for him like that,
It's winnable any day of the week
What a crazier out that was oh my goodness and then of course like you were mentioning as I you know getting targeted
I getting pushed by three people at the same time and somehow he wins that out
Absolutely incredible. I mean hey it started off well for Imperial too
I feel like this is kind of damage control here and sexy cake while he was so important in the final rounds
Importantly beginning as well with those two rounds on the board
You know whether it's getting kills trying to survive as long as possible in difficult positions
And then it turned out that on this defense for Imperial sometimes there are very questionable decisions made by the defense
And I feel like you know with black dragons were punishing the mistakes that Imperial were making
Yeah, I mean he saved them two rounds entirely like if it wasn't for 68
This should be 5-1 for black dragons realistically and I think everything started changing after the timeout
I think as soon as by dragons understood they could just go for a default
play style and just go step by step and it went well for them. It went well up
until the late round but in general like they understood the win condition was
let's just bring the shoulders, step by step, let's isolate the keys that we want
and that's that's round three and that to me that starts the real comeback from
like dragons and you can see how quickly they get huge man advantage and in this
scenario even when they don't they are not given like a kill somehow Imperial
moves too much and give them the opening kill like there was no need for the
to swing here, he can hold with the shotgun, he's got a trade potential.
But what's good to see from Vladimir Agans is the ability for everyone to then double up on this.
As soon as he gains mainsail control, one pushes Medza, the other one jumps in display.
It's beautiful, it's well timed, everyone plays together, and it is a question as to how can they do this on certain rounds
and then completely forget to do it in a 3v1 clutch, like on round 6.
It's well done, they play well overall, they should be the team that is in the lead here.
and you see it on the last round by the way like it's a good execution you see
the green on display window the blitz pushing in cc at the same time you have
two players coming up green that's a proper room clear step by step instead
of avoiding the layers of defense they go and problem solve them that's well
fed from them and honestly that should have been around when the 3v1 overall
black dragons dominating in attack and the scoreline really doesn't do them
justice okay that's that's a big thing to call of course you know with two
rounds on the board here as the second half. You'd imagine that going into defense, especially
on a map like Lair, they will probably have the better hand in this matchup given that
should be an easier side for them here, though, going into the bends. Not seeing anything too
surprising for this one so far, I guess. No shields and mold in Eil. I think at some point
it would look like... I'd like to recall how many Kaid and Bended Bends I've seen in SL, because it's
been a trend for sure. I think in general they just want to make sure that
that they can get the breeches open as quickly as they can and can just go through the steps.
As expected, double shield band, double K-Dun, bandit band.
It's like the Spongebob meme where they go and how daring today to pick these very off
meta operators to ban out in the second half though.
But let's see how it turns out.
Black Jagans, happy end farms, there's not only three rounds, what can they do in the
second half?
Now this might be considered match fixing so I want to say that out the gate but I will put up an ungodly amount of money to get teams to stop banning double hard breach.
He's born to say that let's say.
You can quote me on this. I will go to jail even if it means we see it a little bit less.
I think what I feel that were a point where we could just vote for default bands for the stage and still have bands
I mean like like just like governing the bands over the course of the whole stage
Yeah
So like stage one would just have these things banned by default in every game and then the teams would still get three bands like normal
Sorry, I got caught off guard because they like cleaned that rotate hole up. Did you see that?
That's my story.
It's not even that big of a rotate, they just shaved off every little little bit of debris.
Anyway, I don't know about that idea. What I do know is not a big fan of double
I mean, it's good. I'm not I'm a fan of it for strategic reasons for entertainment value. It's not that great, but
Well, I don't know it's only us point if they're able to complete that step quicker
I don't think anybody's favorite part of a round is the hard-reaching part of it
So maybe they are doing us a favor in a way
Yeah, in a lot of ways, it's it just speeds things up a little bit, doesn't it?
You've still got so much to chew through once you get to it like top floor layer
I'd be except never to jank a band
I bet you expect to never mirror ban and as I'm about any of those things because you know that they're gonna be used and they're all present here for black dragons
Like dragons gonna feel like they've not been robbed, but definitely missed out on an opportunity
Sexy cake clutching up against them twice so far
It could be coming into this heavy favorites on the defense side and as it stands they've just been good for a very normal
33 split
They are going to have to dig deep on these defences and really force Imperial's hand
right now.
They're doing a good job of that so far.
Big extension over and toward Ops, that's somewhere that Azami has since vacated and
got themselves back to the site around the halfway point in the round, allowing for that
breach in to start to work through.
We've got Mitrix below, he'll be looking for some tracks and some death marks to try
and display some of these players.
There's nothing stopping this breach from getting open for the time being.
I was kind of expecting an impact to come in from the top of the rocket stairs sort of direction, but no
We'll only be vulnerable though
Isn't gonna be one that you can just sort of slip in and out of and when there's a chanker in play that makes things even more tricky
That vaulting animation it's gonna cause you to take a little bit of damage
It's gonna be a bit more clunky to get in and out of that rotate and sufficiently bait utility
You're gonna cause Imperial a bit of a problem
All the utility posing issues like that and Mr. Outlaw could just swing around.
Shumiko Grenade out in turn.
Do Imperial really have a way in?
I mean, Mr. Outlaw's gonna make it rotate like that.
We'll give Mock into the opportunity.
Not to get an opening pick, but just to create a little bit more of an opening on this side.
I'm gonna move it and put the diffuse plant down.
They certainly could.
There are mental toxic cancers remaining.
Only one C4, but 20 seconds to go.
H. Shumiko's in a C4.
That is plenty efficient to get the job done against Imperial.
Swag don'ts two of them, a collat on a Makina and a Mitrix.
The X now rotating over his Gudo,
takes some aggressive ground against the attack.
Flori-Ami, not much to do at that point.
4v1, Black Dragons with the round.
Utility waste so much time
and they get all the kills after that.
Yeah, the Utility's doing a lot of the heavy lifting there.
Real unfortunate lineup as well for Swag to find two
with the Vector.
Just felt like both players, the stars aligned
to try to walk in to site top of rocket trying to make it work again comes down to the fact
that breach was only a vault breach if you can slip in there and just crouch walk in it makes it
a different ball game entirely you can get in there and start to challenge onto the the angles
you can challenge onto this chanker plane a little bit deeper as it stands when it's a
awkward hopping like that you're really left with only one option and that is to try and get
yourself in through that door and also I had a perfect read on that position and that timing.
Black Dragons downstairs to the basement of the goal then.
I think we are expecting reasonable things out of Black Dragons here on these defensive rounds.
We don't really look toward Imperial as an incredible attacking team.
We tend to sit at the less than favourable side of things when it comes to these attacking
win rates and hence why they are down there at the bottom of the leaderboard at the moment.
Black Dragons just trying to put enough problems in between them and the site.
They're going for a little bit of a balance hale links is the kind of best of both worlds
situation where, yeah, we've got some big, heavy anchor players, we've got a smoke, we've
got an echo really looking toward you know late round value and time denial and
stopping a plan from going down then we have rare on the scope of just fully
unleashed at the minute he's got one of those shells upstairs and he's currently
downstairs in warehouse but I imagine he's got a shell maybe even on top floor
that he's gonna be able to rotate into once this attack starts to gain a little
bit of ground in the mid
yeah that's what I was curious about I was curious about the status of that
second shell, normally what we see is have the scopos start early and then
recall back late. Well it's already been destroyed, as I say we can see there's
clearly some kind of issue there, but maybe it could be close to the walnut
fairly short. There we go, but also found extremely quickly and yeah that's kind of
a bigger reason why we normally see the shell played upstairs at the beginning
and then you rotate back because you're upstairs, you bait the attack in, then you
recall, then they destroy the shell. I mean at that point you know if you're
e-sports wasted a minute but if we're up there maybe waste another 30 seconds 45
seconds so I think maybe a bit of a missed opportunity for black dragons
kind of kind of a question why you would bring the scopus at the beginning I
mean the play about the front right yeah surely they drawn out top floor and
there's nobody up there I would just I would just help and that's obviously
what happened Ram might have a chance to redeem himself here though
Sixth cake is going to try and challenge on DMR in hand. Smoke just to cover the cross and will send a shock drone in and attempt to gather information and delete a little bit of utility.
Stums now onto rares position. You're expecting the swing to come quite quickly. Pops the caster at the bottom of yellow trying to keep himself safe.
We've got quite a lot of support from his team here.
Smoke playing just inside a missile corridor.
An option even to get away if we wanted to, I mean, surely getting back to site at this point with 50 seconds is going to be beneficial.
Nothing has happened so far.
I mean, Imperial eSports are doing things. As you can see, we're getting the vertical destruction, we're getting important steps, but late in the round, I mean, Rare hasn't moved.
Literally, he's been in this one spot the whole time.
Swag taking a more aggressive position to provide some support inside of Warehouse.
Romeo finds a long-angle head shot on the X and Imperial eSports are finding some of these frags
But again rare has been there for two minutes in 30 seconds
Imperial eSports just now figuring it out is like somebody just now figuring out that four plus four is eight
You kind of learned that super early on it's an achievable skill
And unfortunately at the moment Imperial eSports struggling with some of these basics matrix though on the backside
This is a nice flank even if a lot of the attacking team going down and he ends up dying to mr. Outlaw
Well, that's unfortunate.
Black Dragons now with two in a row on the primary sites,
as purely sports don't leave us a whole lot to talk about.
Yeah, it's starting to not really look too close,
is it, Imperial?
They're not, just not really giving us
anything to get excited about here.
We've got rare inside a warehouse,
plenty of ways of dealing with him, by the way,
whether it be pinched, drone, getting in there,
just endless opportunity.
and no one really does anything about it.
He's there for the entirety of the round.
Yeah, the vert gets open,
but it's fairly inconsequential
in the grand scheme of things.
Tactical timeout now for Imperial
as they're starting to search for answers.
If someone isn't clutching,
if someone isn't hitting a multi-kill,
this team are not in the fight right now.
This game, in a lot of ways, should be wrapped up.
Should just be a seven-one, said and done,
the two clutch rounds from SexyCake.
never should have happened and we can all move on with the playday.
Fortunately for Imperial, they are still in with a shot.
Tactical timeout hopefully can bring a little bit of stability back to them
and they can understand how they want to approach these attacks going forward.
But they are going to have to start seeing success somewhere.
Again, taking that tactical timeout, the same time that Black Dragon said,
after those two attacking rounds to open things up,
obviously confident in their bunk attacks and how they want to try and approach this.
It's fairly well sort of solved at this stage with how teams like to approach this very much a half-clear is the order of the day
Wonder if sexy cakes on few shield up any years
Knowing sexy cake is probably on a shield generally
That's been the root the read from black dragons, hasn't it just remove the shields remove sex cakes ability to play on the blitz play on the black
did. He is one of those few players that will flex onto the fuse shield on occasion. Now I don't
hate fuse for this site, I think it's okay, but it does involve you going for a full top floor
clear to get max value out of it, which isn't the sort of invoke thing at the minute.
Or, alternatively, you put it on the reinforcements on site. But there's usually only one defender
down below and there's usually not a lot of on-site utility. So like if this were
like an anchor setup I could totally see that he's been quite useful.
Well they put it on the reinforcement or the ceiling but if you look at this lineup
if we're seeing like destroyable utility it's probably gonna be on the top floor.
I mean to be fair also and this is not like sexy cakes issue but like we don't
even place down a single keybar shield yet so really like predicting what those
cluster charges can or should go is gonna be quite difficult because the defense
hasn't even placed anything down yet. Now, if Sexy-Kate couldn't predict it, that's no fault of his, but
it's all kind of a weird position. You get the shield, that's all well and good,
but I don't really know what these cluster charges are gonna be able to get.
Maybe they could get something, I'm not sure, but either way, knowing Imperial, I
think this will be a bit of a slow one, but coming out of attack timeout, even if it's slow, as long as it's measured,
No complaints. No complaints. What's up?
It's like Skate hopping in.
I think we're on site.
Is hopping in and looking towards site measured or not?
That's the question.
Skate just looking to deal with a little bit of utility now.
They have got good control at the bottom of green inside of Bunk corridor.
Infuser will start to be juggled around, Floreo,
and starts to get a little bit of the breach open.
Looks like it could be a plant in the off-site,
but it's the X that holds the diffuser.
Plenty available here. Floreo.
I mean, Capitile's utility is okay for this.
You can block off a little bit of line of sight,
but with Romeo in the side and what my magnet's knocking about,
they're likely not gonna hit their mark.
That's a huge Keeba, by the way, from above.
Oh, Machina still gets it.
Catches Romeo swinging around the Keeba.
So that is some nice support from Mr. Outlaw.
Unfortunately, goes to waste a little bit.
I really don't know what this fuse pick was for, but if it's just for the shield, could still work out.
Smoke grenades going in, smokes also, blocking off some of the important angles up top.
Might just be for that utility pick, who knows.
Saxo-K making his way through, but with the warden upstairs. That's an easy one for Gudot to find.
Don't even need the Specioscan to get involved to figure out that one.
Now with the Fuser inside of the site, Imperial will walk in from the vertical angle again. Shall we make it lucky number three?
I make it actually before. Guto just needs to sit in like a century gone, just pick people off, they walk in through the single doorway.
Timing might be against him as he's reloading the MPX. They won't make it through, but Black Dragon's holding on pretty nicely.
The fuse are recovered, both beneath the hatch. This is the easiest set of kills I was going to say for Guto, but for Mr. Outlaw in that case.
Three in a row now for Black Dragons, as Bug's briefing looks a whole lot like Basement.
which kind of looks a whole lot like top floor right black dragons just going
through the motions at the moment they're not getting challenged appropriately by
this imperial lineup imperial just consistently trying to brute force their
way into site especially on that bunk surround like keep doing the same thing
you're gonna keep getting the same result if that's the sum of the I mean the
tactical timeout obviously isn't to discuss that site in particular because
we've not seen them play it yet so they'll have the plan that they brought
into the game to deal with it. It's not like taking the time out ahead of that to specifically go for it.
I just, I don't know. Like
we're getting Nomad banned out of nowhere blood drain is just like yeah you know what
we're gonna get rid of Nomad. I genuinely, the more I think about it, and this is just so funny to
to me. The more I think about it, the more I wonder, did he pick few shield actually
just for the smokes?
No, I think it was a combination of the shield and the smokes, wasn't it?
Well, that's what, sorry, that's what I mean, like, sorry. Assuming he picks a shield operator,
did he, the decision to pick few was for the smokes over the Blackbeard?
Yes, I believe so.
Which makes sense if you don't think about the fact that Warden is one of the most common
played operators for a top-floor defense and they had no answer for that.
Because like one thing we see right is, and I'm just gonna go on a rant, I'm sorry Ali,
one thing we see is we'll see teams like bring a glass to counter that exact
play. I like to take a one-for-one against the ward at the top and we just
didn't even see that. And it's obviously there are a lot of ways in which
Apparel's problem-solving are quite clearly deficient at the moment and I
think that you kind of summarize a lot of it well. But even things like that, it's
It's like, okay, we're going to pick the fuse just for the smokes in the shield.
It's like, okay, I see that and then they didn't think to counter the operator that
is always brought on that site that can look at the smokes.
If there's a ward in the solace, again, a plant down there, it requires a Monty, doesn't
it?
Or an incredible offspot and an advantage beyond just, you know, a little bit of control.
It's not to say that you need to take all the top floor, but someone floated through
the top floor at the same time as you're pushing into site can sometimes be enough.
to get it all down.
Throw me up.
Just giving Mr Outlaw a little bit of something to peek off here as the clash will be in play.
I'm glad that you went on a rant about that because I was just going to rant about the Nomad
and the fact that it hasn't been played yet at all.
Now granted, I think the clash was something that Black Dragons wants to play.
They're trying to keep the clash a little bit safer knowing that there's going to be no Nomads
that are going to shoot them across anywhere.
Metrics like this is your job soft floor get banging start putting some damage into those players up there
Romeo seen a little bit of damage, but it was from earlier on in the fight
Nothing so far coming in on the vert from metrics. Mr. Outlaw
Bold enough is to peak the breach. I mean he can just plug this up with the keeper barricades
Ops there's still the remnants of a fortress that was created and these angles can now be utilized by Machina
You should be able to get the breach open fairly easily here, but again he's only got
one Selma, so yeah you can get the breach, but you're not going to be able to transition
through it again, it's going to come down to that side door, that side single, and even
then Mr Outlaw in position to try and either aggressively peek off the back of it, currently
looking below, get some great shots in onto Mitrax, can call the rocket stairs push, and
Black Dragons can just move appropriately.
say that. See co-players are by the single window and of course mocking a top
rocket at the moment. Clash will create her beach head inside of the site
defending the small desk. Mitric still down below has found basically nothing
for this vertical angle up top. He's tried, we can certainly say that, but it's not
successful unfortunately. For the 18 seconds remaining, Floria looking to push
and that is a really nice fight when against rare. Black Dragons just need to
keep it close and if one body left alive that'll be good enough. It's two on two
With seven seconds to go, diffuser control in the hands of the defense, Floreo shocked right as he pushes in.
It's all Romeo in the 1v2 and he lines up both.
Black Dragons get four defenses in a row in a game that doesn't mean a whole lot for either of these teams.
The battle for who is most improved, Black Dragons wins at 7-3.
Yeah, Bloodrunner starts to fall a little bit of distance between themselves
in the standings there, but ultimately, it's a day to forget, isn't it?
like I don't think Imperial
going to be looking back at
that one very fondly. Indeed
without those couple of
clutch rounds from sexy cake,
it would have been even quicker
a fair than it already was.
Black Dragons starting to put
a little bit of difference
between themselves and Imperial.
Again, that doesn't mean too
much to the summons this stage,
but it could be very crucial
from the end of stage two.
We're going to head over to our
desk. We're going to break it
down further and set us up for
our next game of the day. Thank
you very much. And I agree with
what was being said, of course,
matchup and things very fondly and very happy of it, but for the likes of Black Dragons,
the main conclusion we can take from this one is that the second half was so much cleaner.
They didn't allow Imperial eSports to win a single or round here on their defenses,
on the Black Dragons defenses this is. I think that's really important. We saw players come
alive in that final half. We saw Kuto absolutely huge, but it's all for control. Romeo bursting
through the clash shield as well, the final round to pick up some kills. Mr. Outlaw as
as well. Just incredible performances from these players here as well, but I think it's
really important to note, especially for their confidence going into tomorrow or next day.
This was much cleaner. We're letting one player like Sexcake step up and get a kill on them.
Yeah, much more consistent playground for Black Dragons overall. Like, even the attacks,
they mean, they, like, all these multiple times should have been a 7-1. If they just
look at the attacks and the step by step play that they were able to layer, I think overall,
It was really clean, it was them getting the opening kill in almost every round.
It was getting the right amount of control.
Yes, they were splitting split, but it's kind of the way Laird is being played right now,
so it's not an issue whatsoever.
It's just the late round that they needed to fix an attack, but overall, really good
performance from them.
I think from in pair, really, I'm just, I'm wondering how they can go from trying to
to conden with some of the very best of SAL
and bring them to the 12th round,
just looking completely clueless in one of these games.
To me, it screams off mental issues
in the sense of stress, nerves, the fact
that they already know that they're out of the playoffs run
and that this is likely a match where they're
playing a rival for relegations.
So it's extremely important for them
if they want to keep their job.
And I think that's basically why we see mistakes like this.
that round for example, where they take the fuse when Black Dragon is opened by the day,
they take the fuse shield to go for the plant and instead of going inside the bunk where
they can be safe from the vert, they just plant straight in front of the ward and like,
it's really basic stuff, stuff that you see in ranked even, they probably saw in scrims
and it's just basic mistakes and it's rough because I felt like Imperial had so much
more potential and this game overall between Black Dragons and Imperial had much more potential
because both of them were able to go to the distance and even upset some big teams.
So I expected more of these games, but perhaps to Black Dragons from taking these points away,
they're going to be really important when comes the next stage.
Especially when you say if they've been able to make close to bigger opponents in the league,
then you would have expected as much up here to be closer as well.
And I think, you know, Stray Steekeck was doing a really good job at that in the first half,
with some big moments from himself there.
But in the end, Romeo on the side of Black Dragons, I mean,
Looking overall at the entry as well from every player on the set of Black Dragons, as you said,
the difference was already made in the early part of the round, and it's good to see these players
come alive in the second half as well, I think, for their confidence and their beliefs as well,
you know, given that this is against a direct opponent for the relegation, as you were mentioning,
come the end of the year, this must be a good feeling and a good way to end the stage, because
if you look for Black Dragons, they still have to go against FaZe and FaZe look vulnerable earlier
today, but with the game that we saw here, I don't think they're gonna do much against FaZe.
No, clearly not, but focusing on the positives here, props to Romeo. Props for having the first
MVP for him and also, you know, proving that he was a great pick up on the set of Ligergans. I
think him and Muto are doing a good job with the lineup. I think overall, I think that Romeo probably
We should have, I guess, showed a little bit more throughout the stage, because it's actually
Guuto that took the spotlights from him.
But it's great to see him wake up.
I wouldn't say it's the most important time, because obviously they're out of the players'
run, but still it's important for the confidence, especially for players that have not played
that much in ACL recently.
So yeah, it's a good one for him.
And hopefully now we can focus on some of the most important games, right?
4 teams that have direct stakes into either of the playoffs all the top 4 here.
Yeah, I'm quite excited for that of course.
There's still 3 teams fighting 4 spots in the playoffs, but there's only 2 more slots
for the institutes.
A big part of that will be our next match as well, especially with the pressure being
on Flux or W7M as they go up against Fiora as it is.
How is your aim?
It's good, I think.
Is it good?
Yes.
Let's see if it's out of the server too.
What weapon are you going to get?
I'm going to get this one.
We have here two weapons.
What weapon are you going to get?
The biggest one.
The biggest.
I have a chance to try to hit there.
I have six bullets, three targets, you can hit him.
The game is over.
We have to do something.
We have to do something.
I think we need to play a bit more.
I think we need to make a move.
a little bit calm calm there are four more chances you're going to be there
I'm going to be there in the middle
you have to be at least two so you don't get ugly at least god
ah it was down right it was down it could have been a little better but it's life right
It's the first time, but sometimes I'm lucky that it's the first time, that's it.
Dude, I have 3000 pcs, look.
This is crazy, it's worth it.
I'm the first, I don't want to be the first.
It's not very easy, man.
I can't see you shooting, how are the guys, can't you see me?
I have a question for you, Genta.
What was the problem with the team that you already had in the game?
Why?
Hey guys, I have a bad feeling about this game. Let's see if I can get out of this bad feeling.
Look, number 6 is here. If I had the choice, I would have been the player of the game. Who would win? Why?
I can't answer this one.
You have to answer it yourself.
Besides 1. Why?
Look.
I got 7 here.
What a question.
What was the worst team game you've ever played?
Why?
Man, I think Darkman is the worst for me.
Because he didn't teach me anything.
I didn't have any will to do that.
But he's not trolling.
But he's doing well today.
He's not making too many mistakes.
Choose a sincere nickname for a player from the Sun and justify your response.
Man, I think Paulusão.
Paulusão when he played in the liquid,
Paulusão when he played in the liquid and he was just under the water.
I think I'll do a full day of a disco now, okay?
I'll eat brexit on the bomb, you have to mark it, right?
I'll mark this one, the winner of the focus, you have to have it, you have to have it, you have to have it, you have to have it, you have to have it, you have to have it,
I'm not sure if we're going to be able to discuss it, because it's changing.
On Instagram?
Yeah, on Instagram.
Yeah, you can say that.
That's what I think I do all day long.
Okay.
The more you're doing it, the more we're...
Man, I'm a 7-0.
I'm sad, I think.
I'm not going to be able to play in the cafe.
You don't want to?
I don't want to.
Man, the good thing about the situation is that I'm not going to be able to discuss it.
Man, I'm not going to be able to discuss it.
I'm not going to be able to discuss it.
I don't think I'm getting it, bro, it's ugly.
And the suicide tactic is the one who doesn't like it, right?
There are several, there are several.
You can mark it, bro.
The strength of the hole there is the suicide tactic.
Shit!
This one is heavy, no.
Just a phase, this one is going to be a bad one here, let's see what it does to us.
We have three players from SAW, who are a monooperator and just fix their response.
I'll play this one, he only plays this one, I'll play Pox, he only plays Shield, he became a monoblendator
And I'll also play...
The operator is really good today, he's a flexible player
I'll play there, I only play Harmonia, I only play Necron, and that's it
Which player is the ugliest of all?
Damn, you want to weigh it down, bro?
Man, the guy is ugly, he's too ugly, we have many ugly guys, I think you're the last one
It was bad to leave the team.
It was possible to get a job in the team.
I've always thought that I would be in the team.
Which player is the most stupid of all?
It's heavy, it's like ugly, it's heavy too.
I think that by playing like this, I think that I'm in the team.
I don't think I respect the same goal as my partner,
but by playing like this, I think that's it.
I would like to bring up the standings before we dive into the roster, before we talk about anything, just to really re-iterate what everything is about for this matchup here.
What is it to play for? Which team maybe has the most pressure on their shoulders, Leo?
So the team that has the most pressure, 100% is Phukes of W7M. Let's pay attention to their situation right now.
They've got 7 points and they're minus 9 in terms of round differential.
Loss is on minus 3 and they are the closest in playoffs right now with 11 points.
There is a 4 points gap between the two of them.
So basically, Fluxo W7M, if they lose in regulation here,
that means that next playday they can all get 3 points,
and that means that whatever happens, they're completely out of the playoffs race.
Let's put it that way, if Fluxo W7M loses in regulation right now,
you have your 6 qualified team to the playoffs in your standings right now, as it is.
Loss, Team Liquid, Log, and IK Sharia phase.
Now, the main thing is, if Fluxo just win a single point, technically it would still be possible for them to catch up with Loss and somehow, because there is a 14 rounds Delta, Loss could go 0-0-0-7 and Fluxo W7 could go 7-0 the next playday.
In theory, Fluxo W7M with the equal amount of points could overtake Loss with a round differential, but even then, like, they would need some crazy things to happen.
So, for Fluxo W7M right now, they absolutely need as many points as possible,
because not only do they want to try and catch up with loss,
but on top of that, they won't even be in a situation where they have the control over their fate.
They need to first win in regulation, they need loss to lose, and then they need to win again.
So, for Fluxo W7M here, it's massive pressure, especially for their names,
for a team that has never missed playoff before, this would be detrimental.
And then on the other side of Ustia for Furia, it's much simpler honestly, they just in one point,
and it will guarantee themselves in top four.
Okay, well that's looking a lot better on the side of Furia than I think if you look at these two
teams and also given the history, it makes sense that it goes that way, right? Furia is that roster
that we expect to be there, it's about to show up as well for Flux or W7, as you mentioned,
that risk of not making it to playoffs for the first time is also a big thing for them to keep
in the back of their minds. I think it is a pretty top-heavy one this one though given that
Fiora coming into second place, Fluxer W7M coming into seventh place, but most of these teams
didn't lose again yesterday. And I think it's in the nature of their losses and the opponent
that they were playing against that will make the difference here today and should probably give the
favour to Fiora in this match. We can start talking about this roster first because they
suffered their first loss yesterday but then you know if you look at it who it was against it was
against FaZe. Is that really a shame to lose against a team like that? And going up against
a weak in Flux to W7M as well seems like a perfect moment to strike and lock in top four, which
it's kind of crazy actually, given the results from period that they haven't even locked in top
four in yet is a surprise. Yeah, I think it was just a testament of how close ACL has been,
especially in the middle of the table. But overall, I think Flora has been really dominant
the entire stage like you said it could have like it could have went anywhere to be in it they
could have at least went over time against Faith Clan and and in recent history they've dominated
the matchup against Luxio W7M they seven won them the first time they faced them in the V1
at kickoff and then again at kickoff during the playoffs they won their Vio 3 2 0 7 5 7 5 clearly
still right now three are out of avarice not only because of their consistency throughout the stage
but also because of recent results and also because of the recent results of Luxio W7M like you
very disappointing so far, so many losses in a row, absolutely demolished by liquid, lost
way into that as well, they keep on dropping huge amount of points where we expect them
to at least take some or at least make it a little bit closer and the bad thing with
Kassoud El-Zernam is it seems that it's very often a stomp, whether they win or whether
they lose, it's rare that it's more than 10 rounds played in the game so there is something
that probably, you know, will mean a lot for these guys. Now, as we check at the side of Furia,
two players on your screens that have been doing really well during the stage, but most
importantly, two players that have had a very specific relationship with the Fluxer W7M roster.
Perz was the leader of W7M Sports for more than five years. He created that roster from scratch.
He rebuilt everything around it before leaving to Furia and had to rebuild again with the
the new roster within Furia. And for Volps, up until recently, he was still the leader
in-game for Fluxo W7. He was the leader in-game in the Munich Major. He had to play with them
before they got cons. And ever since replacing Volps with cons, this roster has not looked the same.
It's not to say that cons is the worst player whatsoever. It's more so saying that the system
seems to be able to not work the same way as when Volps was there. And now we're seeing Furia
completely revamped on the back of Volps IGL-ing with players that seems to fit his style way
more than the ones that are on the side of Fluxer W7M.
Like everything that we're adding to this matchup and how we talk about these players
just makes it seem like it's going to be more and more convincing on the side of Fiora.
I mean, the results speak for themselves and especially when we look at Fluxer W7M, talking
about them a little bit much more as well, it's just, with these two losses that they
have gone on, I don't quite know what to say.
It's just been such a rough losses as well, again, okay first half and then it just seems
like they were locked out for the second half.
They couldn't get anything done on their defences, left so many gaps against Liquid to pursue these squads, and these will be the matches.
These last two, that Fluture W7 and play, will be the ones that you think back on at the end of the stage.
It's like, oh, even if you should have gotten a point there, if you'd gotten a victory there, we would have been closer to playoffs or we would have even made playoffs.
So it is unfortunate, it's frustrating for them probably the most, and I wonder for both these teams how they're going to recover from their losses.
where the Smash is going to. Speaking of the map Vito, especially the last time these two played against each other,
it was a 7-1 for Fiora on boarder, so the question I guess for Fluxo, the objective is to at least improve a little bit from there.
What about their play? Nothing is.
They almost rematched, they almost went for boarder again, but no Fiora decided to go to Caffe instead.
I get it, it's also a map on which they played, by the way, they played against FUXU-17M during W03 to qualify to Seoul Lake City.
It was one of these two games and they beat FUXU-17M75, it was a very close victory, so I understand why FUXU-17M1 wants to go back there.
Also recently, that team has found recent success, they set up an Imperial, they set up three losses.
It's supposed to be one of these maps that they reworked and they're playing on really well one of the best ones that they have so far in the stage.
find the stage, one of the only ones that they seem to retain the level that they usually had.
And then now, to just go back a little bit about the stakes here,
just how much pressure has been added to the shoulders of FT7M since Loud won.
The reality was, when Loud beat Phase, it was a massive upset,
because if Phase was beat Loud like usual,
the next game for FT7M, after this game, would have been against Loud.
So in theory, not only did Loud miss on 3 points,
there was a 3 on 11, but on top of that,
Fuxo W7M would have been in a position
to take 3 points away from them.
And that would have guaranteed for Fuxo W7M
to jump over Loud and take their spot in the playoffs.
But now that Loud has been in phase,
now we're in a situation where there are 14 points,
Loud cannot be removed,
and that sees one less spot in the playoffs
for Fuxo W7M, which means that now they have
to try and jump over Loud's,
and they have zero control over us.
They can only control this game against Peria, and their game against Laos tomorrow.
Laos is an entirely different team, and they have 4 points ahead.
So, Fluxo W7 and Evan if they did perfectly right, 6 points of the last 2 playdays.
It just means that if Laos wins 3 points against Liquid tomorrow,
it would have all been for nothing, and Fluxo W7 would be out of the playoffs.
So right now, they need absolutely any point they can get to make sure that the scenario is positive,
but it's looking very dire for them.
And they're trying to create as positive a scenario as possible for them, but you know as as harsh as it sounds that like oh
You know if they it's no longer in their hands and speak to players all the time about things not being in their hands anymore
And how frustrating and how difficult it is they themselves will be the only ones to blame for that because should they have gotten points in
As much as earlier then they wouldn't have even been in a situation to begin with where they were risking
Plus or they were relying on other teams to get certain results to lock in players for themselves
and as we bring in our casters for this matchup I would like to open the I guess the debate kind
of also like the discussion to me it is so crazy looking at these two roster you got a fury you
got a fluctuation of W7M to especially for the likes of fluctuation of W7M to see names on there
like Apollo and Elluban and not see them make an international event let alone make it to playoffs
I mean like it is weird for that reason but this is also just kind of a weird roster and I think
this stage has kind of compounded that cons was on nip as like a pretty formidable shield player
but so was dots on this roster before cons came in so if you have two players who primarily play
shields and now dots has kind of fallen back as cons has taken that role it doesn't really seem
all that surprising in the grand scheme of things that the system has been disrupted you have cons
taking a role that dots been playing for like three years now that lobin is on record is saying
that they think he's one of the best shield players in the world, you know, at the beginning of the
stage it was hard to call, but now I, it's two and five surprising because of those names? Yeah,
I think it is. But is a poor result of maybe not making playoffs of that surprising? I don't know,
the system clearly got disrupted and even things like that I think are pretty indicative of why that
is. Yeah, I think we didn't see this Fluxo team make Salt Lake, right? Okay, we saw them make the
qualifier attempt for it, but it was a very different qualifier, let's be honest, it was kickoff, so
It was, it wasn't a full stage. It was, you know, two mini groups inside of a bigger group. So it was arguably easier in a lot of ways to qualify. And it was argued, you know, and I think that kind of made it even more stark that W7 didn't qualify.
So, you know, the fact that we saw them actually get to the qualification point of SLC would not make it. And it was kind of funny that it was Fury that kicked him out because it could be Fury that kicks him out again here today.
I think for me, it just speaks
to the roster and where it is.
And I think I agree with you,
Link. So I just don't, I don't
know that this is the best five
players to be put together. I
think individually cracking
players, everyone, everyone can
hold their own. You could, you
could go on about how every
single individual player on the
team, you know, holds their
weight in their role at this
level. But together, it just
doesn't seem like they've got
the recipe right at the minute.
Such a shame as well to see
that for these players. Do you
mean we're talking, we're talking
big names, we're talking players
and I've taken over roles from
over roles from other players as well. You want to see them succeed. You want to, especially with the backing of a big organization as well. You know, we talk about Titans inside SLL all the time, you know, that W7 and Brosser that went on and won SIs or the organization weather.
There are definitely stories and there are storylines here that are the risk of losing streaks or event qualification here and that is always going to be the sad thing. But I feel like with this matchup, we have been putting so much pressure on the players here over on the side of Fluxo W7M.
you serve at him. All right.
Do you think they can make it
happen today? I just don't know
answer. Be honest, and I don't
know if they deserve it at this
point. I always like to go go
into these portions. You know
the end of stage thinking. Okay.
I cast this region. I'm proud
of this region. Who do I want to
represent this region on the
big stage, and I don't know if
it's fluxo. That's the
question that can they make us
play us for them or will they fall short. Fiora is not an easy opponent but the match
goes on on cafe.
Matt will begin on cafe. We'll see what Flux of W7M and Fiora can accomplish. Obviously
you and I were quite low on an underdog earlier and we ended up paying for it loud with that
big 7-3 victory over FaZe. For the context of that I do feel it's important, right Haven?
Really good map for loud and really great results for loud on it. FaZe don't have exactly
a whole lot to lose already being solidified in top four.
And while there's some similarities here, for example,
Fira, all they need is the one point to make it into top four
and they're already confirmed for playoffs.
Where's Fluxor W7M?
Like loud, they're not in playoffs,
but the road is much more dire.
As Leo mentioned, four point gap separating
Lose and Fluxor W7M, even a regulation win here today
leaves their fates not entirely up to them tomorrow.
And I think that's the kicker, isn't it?
that they've played to a level
where they are no longer in
control of their own outcome. So
whatever happens in this game,
they're still flying by the seat
of their pants come tomorrow
when they're watching that
lowest game because the result
of that is going to define
everything. Even if they go
flawless, even if they get a full
six points, it's still
uncertain as to their position
right now. Fury on the flip
down on W7M. Fury on the flip side, I think we're starting to see this roster, we're starting
to believe this roster a little bit, lackluster performance at SLC, but domestically, you can't
really criticise them too much. You've not really put too many steps wrong so far. We've seen them
have quiet weeks here and there, but it hasn't amounted to anything too damaging or anything too
Dammit that currently site in second place only one point ahead of nip phase at this point
Probably catchable given that phase lost their results today
So a full six points on the week for for furia. Oh, sorry six points today and six points tomorrow
three points day three points tomorrow six points total would would put them in a decent spot so
Furia still
Still in with a shot here and regardless of what's happened top four is cemented for them here. So
need to give us another one of those trademark performance. I think for me, Furia, in a lot
of ways, the most work to do, just given the players on this team and the fact that it
is a roster that is made up of lots of different individuals and lots of different nationalities.
There we go, three kills to kick us off. Gonna be lobin'. Slightly new look on the name.
low backs maybe that's the secret of some off links
well I don't know I don't know
what sauce was getting cooked in round one but Plexo W7M
that seems stressed for some reason
not dots excuse me Dota seems stressed for some reason Plexo W7M
demolish Furia out the gate don't entirely know
how it seems I mean we saw two men push down Red Hatch and like Lobon got both of
them
Then three players feed Polly 1v1s and of course it's Polly. He's gonna win those. It's a pretty simple formula
One thing that I think is worth pointing out into this is to kind of I think synthesize
Point me by Leo point me by Anne. We have some crazy names on the side of flux of W7 and we have Polly, Lobin, Dodez
And I would say like those three are the big
Fraggers the biggest names in flux of W7. You know back way back three years ago
Maya was here back a couple years ago Volpe's was here
But this is a roster that has always had some really standout names on it and some kind of like the biggest boogeyman of
SAO
And I think that makes sense when you consider the fact that folks at W7 have not had a close game win or lose
Probably a big part of that is when they've dominated their opponents
It's probably when things like that are happening when lobin simply can't drop a fight when Palu just can't lose a 1v1
That probably makes sense as to why these games are one-sided if they're showing up they're demolishing if they're not it's rough
Obviously, you feel free to go back in the archives, maybe I'm wrong, but if we see another couple rounds like that, this, this is, could be another 7-3, I'll see you now.
Could be a hot day, you're right. A lot of the deployments have been fairly lopsided, win or lose.
And that's, you know, it's a good thing, if you're winning, great.
If you're losing, you need to have that fight and you need to have that ability to be able to pull a game back because it is never over until it's over.
and that's the strength that we see the better teams in the world, not just in SAO, but globally have
an ability to do is to turn those games that look quite loosable into winnable games and fight
tooth and nail to get through into the end. So we'll see if this game follows suit or if
Furio got a little bit of fights in them today. I would wager that given the incredible one-sided
nature and the fact that nearly all the kills came through in the very spot we're occupying now.
We're not going to be expecting that to happen again, but Doss has found himself a real nice pocket here.
Yeah, I would say there's no way Laura gets out of this alive. Doss gets him.
Vulp's also down for the count. Fluxo W7M not letting Fury get even the least bit comfortable.
You can tell this roster not really letting the pressure of their position get to them.
Fighting like it's 0-0 inside the league like it's playday one. Bok also on one HP at the moment.
moment, just catches the feet of one player on white stairs, but not really an angle to
find it.
Hers is just around the corner too.
Where is this guy?
We just, we not just see him.
Either way, Paulu's made it all the way back.
What a nasty angle from Kahn's look at this.
There is just like, on no planet would you check this.
You could have the most pristine counter-strat on the planet and you're not checking this.
What an employed angle.
No, absolutely, literally. This man has never even thought about a job, let alone got one.
Heard Smeado pastel.
Evaded the crossfire and now sitting low on the white stairs.
Notice we pushed down as Furia trying to gain some kind of pace, but now is when Flux or W7 seem to fall back.
Pacing on this is perfect right now, Lobin.
Might find a second here or a cocktail repel.
Instead, just thinks better of it, knows there's one walking in through pillars.
We can try and assist the rest of the team.
Fluxo are low right now, but we buck on 1 HP.
There's only one way this is going to go.
Dots on the swing to confirm, too.
We might have players battered and bruised,
but it's still a flawless here for Fluxo.
Two great rounds out of the gate.
Two flawless rounds to start.
Again, showing that an SAL predictions
are quite a silly thing.
I mean, are we going to see a technical timeout at this point?
maybe not
but i mean we get flawless two times in a row you don't understand if you're
decided to take it now none will be called
very a confident
at least uh...
coaching staff of fury a confident in what they're hearing whether from
forces calling the team as a whole that no
paul's necessary
see that pays off as
books that we said i'm just shift sites just one room over
go from mining in fireplace to dining in fireplace
That's right, oh, sorry, reading and dining, excuse me.
See each call-out's on my right.
It would be a vertical hold for Fluxor W7M,
as is often the case on this map.
Didn't talk about the bands that much.
There is a mirror available,
but not being brought to my Fluxor W7M.
You do usually see the mirror on the top floor.
There's usually a common component,
especially when you've got these DMRs
that you can utilize some of these really long angles with,
but Operator selection at the moment for Fluxo feels like just play something you're comfortable with because everything has been down to gunfights.
Docs, Palu and Lobin, all three kills apiece across those first two rounds.
Starting now into round number three, they're going to look to try and extend that even further.
Furia, they're going to be forced into an early tactical timeout if they can't make things work here.
Conz is playing quite an unorthodox position at the moment inside a train got some banshees to a system as well and gots down at the bottom of white stairs
They're spreading ourselves quite thinly at the moment
Especially given that top floor is also being held and has been reinforced
Fury are gonna have to really pick their path of least resistance here
And it looks like it's gonna start taking Dota's down on that top floor
Oh, first thing in on everybody on this top floor almost finds the third below new hatch
Laura dropping almost finding lobin who hops over the rafters and tries to run as quick as he can back into site
Constantly back to provide some positions for lobin to take
If you're here quickly initiating the clear on that top floor
Then likely gonna pause for a little bit into the mid-round here
Now the vertical though if you are trying to increase the pace
It could continue to do so. I almost thought Bakker's gonna lose his head there, but that's the benefit of the Blackbeard shield.
DS finding a nice angle on the dots.
Looking to cross in through red. All of fireplace clear right now. It is just defenders inside of reading.
Birds is their position locked down, sees the feet of one.
Tag's lobin' up quite a bit, but he can escape. On one HP though, only one bullet required to be the end of him.
Well, anybody upstairs find him or if you're a wait a little bit longer, I don't think they're gonna be waiting whatsoever
Even if they're gonna get avert down to the bottom floor
They've got every single kill before even touching the middle floor as cons it goes to rotate up box
There is ready with the cutoff here. I don't need attack time out through in that one not flawlessly pretty damn well
You just did a good job of picking it apart right it commented at the time
Fluxo that spread themselves really thinly across the whole portion of the map and
and okay they've just won two rounds very easily. A lot of those kills have kind of landed in their lap
and Furia have just really been caught on the backflot in rounds one and two. Round three,
either a swell of confidence from Fluxo or a little bit of a step back and a breath taken from
Furia and gone right let's just pick this apart a little bit better than we have been doing and
there was a lot of opportunities to isolate little engagements there. Herds did a really good job of
picking up the opening kill and isolated pick on that top floor was then able to transition it
onto a player inside a freezer as soon as an attempt for a trade or an attempt for a gap fill
started to come in from Fluxo nearly got the next kill as well. So really starting to chain them
together a little bit better there and without that opening pick and without that initial surge
in advantage Fluxo struggling really to effect onto one another's positions just through the
nature of how spread out they were. Downstairs to the basement we go then for round number four
No real alarm bells at the moment for Furia as this is cafe is expected to be fairly difficult to attack into
This round four starts the bands will join a thorn and a blackbeard both removed
That made something that fury of course use box area in particular used to great effect in round three
It will leave the blitz open though, and it looks like that's where volts is gonna end up
Seems like that'll be the case
Those lineups that could be a quick one, but it's going to be a fast one no matter when the execute hits.
It could also feature a lot of action front side, though with some options to rotate up for the vertical, as Herds is bringing the buck.
Nature of the kitchen defense though, it's going to be all spread out on the first floor, the attacking team, or the zero with floor, whatever you in European call it.
Ground floor?
Ground floor.
Ground floor. Which you know what I will say, there's a lot of linguistic variability between the forms of English. Ground floor, that's a fair one.
It makes the most sense.
I mean, first floor also makes sense. I'm not saying ours doesn't, I'm just saying that one is like fair.
But it is on the ground.
I'm not boxing when I'm trying to approach this.
Got thoughts playing on the clash so he's in a great position to deal with this as the
captain's out.
Get through to the ingredients, C4 expended as well, still two in the pockets of W7M players
right now.
Just trying to flame off a little bit, stop any initial push.
Do not have vaults in position as well but he doesn't really want to come ahead to head
with dots.
Blitz versus a Clash isn't an engagement you want as a Blitz.
Logan at the bottom of these red stairs as well.
Pallu now able to rotate in through check.
All your first kill is going to be found though as the wedding player will fall.
The wedding player goes down, Pallu missing an opportunity
taking the fight with the player outside of Coachek. They just fully clear out bottom white.
How they found that?
Barely any utility it seems expended. Furia just surround the Clash inside of VIP.
the deal with the remaining defenders as they come to support to and around our tight things up pretty quickly
When if a team is winning around it seems they're barely facing any resistance
You know I know that we've said that we've had one-sided games for fluxo
You know and if they win they win by a good margin if they lose they lose
But lose by a fairly big margin these rounds have been very one-sided like you say the first two rounds
No questions about it. Look so do you seven M on top couldn't lose a single gunfight?
right. Round three and four
creep around and it's Furia in
that exact same position.
Just feels like as soon as one
of these sides gets going, it's
incredibly difficult to stop
that momentum. Getting back into
the midfloor now. This is where
we've seen Fluxo W7MB successful
already today. With the way that
a lot of those opening picks came
with the ways that rounds one and
really transpired. It was rat positions, it was players that got mistroned, it was
you know good opening kill opportunities that just cascaded into
advantage after advantage. Now that Furia have taken their foot off the gas a
little bit and are just starting to pick apart these defenses instead of just
running headlong into them, we're seeing very different results come out. I'm sure
that that's a trend that is going to continue here for Furia and that they
are just going to continue to try and pick these apart. They're not going to be
Looking to blindly run in and risk giving up that early advantage because we've seen already what it's done to them
The mirror window now being employed for round five as well
It's evaded all of the bands so far so it'll be available for the rest of the game
Or at least the rest of as these sides sit
Dots again trying to be that rap player. It looks like lawyers got a read on it this time though
There you can see it door opened up Laura thinking about swinging around the corner, but no
Instead, I think just waiting to see if Dott's runs out like he did last time.
Dott's opting not to do it. Dott has a nice C4 outside.
Maybe he finds one. Just sees another on the opposite side of the repel, but I was about to say it's gonna be difficult to get an angle from that position standing on the bar.
Books of W7, M&M's adaptation, their new look involves a smear winner defending the top floor. Dott spots Laura, calls his bluff.
Thinking about taking the engagement, there's just no need to. There's so little need to take this fight,
God's like you there is no fight you've ever needed to take less than this I
Think he's in the reasonable position. He's got a banshee at the bottom of reading door. So
Lawyers shouldn't just be able to walk in on him there
Get back answer the phone
Lawyer returns attention to this top floor trying to assist his team on this clear
For as long as dots is wrapped up in reading he isn't having good effect on what's going on on this top floor. So
kind of evens things out a little bit for a brief time here for Furia the longer that he's out of action
Plus dropping new hatch if Laura was to that's an angle that dots can really affect on to there's a great line of sight
There from the bottom of reading door up toward that new hatch area
Pace at the moment from Furia really is starting to seep out of the round
He has desperate to try and catch someone on a flank as see a very one-sided clear come across from the shop and cigar side
The players on the side of Fluxo don't really need to do too much right now, they can still
drop off, depending on when that time it is and with Loeben getting the kill on to Herds,
I imagine the drop off is going to come quiet soon.
No, Loeben.
Gonna be a grass up here on Whitehall.
This is Loeben we're talking about.
If he thinks he can get a line like this, the 40 seconds remaining, they expect him
to draw back.
Understandably, because that's what most people would do, but him and Dots, both holding
ratty positions, catch Furia off guard, Pollywan sight finding one as well.
Loben not really finding any picks from that flank, but Dott's playing by a similar methodology,
able to take Furia completely off guard. It is again just a streaky one-sided game within these
rounds. Despite only one round separating the two teams, just whoever gets that opening pick,
whoever gets an advantage, they run with it. Furia, where we've seen them be quite slow and
the game is gone because. The
rounds that they did well in
three and four. They used that
time quite effectively to pick
apart the defense. We never
really saw them pick it apart
with the same level of muster.
I mean, they're dots just
harassing on reading like him
versus lawyer. It's an
engagement. We've seen a couple
of times now, and it's a
consistent theme and still
their dots just harassing on reading like him versus lawyer it's an engagement we've
seen a couple of times now and it's a consistent theme and still furia not only don't have
a way of dealing with it but are also kind of willing to waste a little bit of time like
when it may be a better option just to leave sleeping dogs to lie and just let that be let
him play there you know areas and try and focus on clearing that top floor effectively
because when everyone eventually transitioned into that top floor clear it just felt a bit
too late because at that point players are allowed to drop players are allowed to switch
things up and lawyers been baited over into that top floor career if you just stayed on
the on the bottom of that reading door and that snow door he would have had a great line
on to dots and dots of rotation because he got two kills to end the round inside of pillars
so just feels like fury are getting pulled all over the place a little bit on some of
these attacking rounds where they're not doing well and then on others it's like they can't
put a foot wrong see was trying to
size to appear around six is a flexor
to seven and get the opening pick
they might be the indicators that has
been 100% guarantee so far on cafe
it's able to find his way into the
building pretty quickly a couple times
now to kitchen defense they can
certainly do so but because fluxor to
be seven and have given up all the
ground before they were looking a lot
more direct when attacking this site
Now it seems they're going through the full clear bringing the flight watch operators
Or still maintains some kind of vertical destruction with the buck
It's going to be a bit more of a standard look at a kitchen defense as folks who to be said and based on their positions
Aren't looking to change many things up either. Well, we're not finding anybody confirming that this will be in fact
At least for now a standard go of a kitchen attack
Yeah, the top floor looking quite safe at the minute herds is seeing to that
mid-floor as well as Boxera starts to move through and start to rip open some
of this floor with the Skeleton Key. V7M, I'm a little bit too concerned right now.
This is all fairly standard stuff. Opening pick there onto herds though. Not an ideal
body to lose. Grimby's can be fantastic especially when used vertically. I think that
he was the player that was clearing top floor. He's made quick progress to get
himself down there. Try and use the sense RRU projected to zone off that player in Christmas.
Maybe make something happen a little bit later on, of course, sense RRU projected can be turned
on and off now, so even though it's down now, doesn't necessarily mean that it is going
to be up. Some great vertical angles being held, but there's not enough presence, there's
not enough pressure being directed onto actually the site level to force these players to move
into it. We're just having them are going to know exactly where these angles are, they
know what's going to be opened up. They don't need to wander too far into that danger zone.
You instead just dig into bomb red stairs, bakery. Ooh, hot drop into the site though.
Maybe you're going to try and get it down just under these ROUs.
I mean, they might be able to, but they've got a warden online with a couple C4s as well.
First one doesn't land, Polly tries to hit it on the bottom of the hatch.
That leaves Loben, who might just find one. Now Khan's running up close instead.
Lorda has to do so much work covered from that position and whether or not cons knew that they take advantage of it
through and on the disadvantage with if you're stuck down below
Polywind control of VIP walking down or dropping freezers going to be quite difficult especially with a Zodo
Wasting key seconds of the few that box era has remaining spotted on the default as well
Well, that's the flashbang but succumb to the pre-fire Dia is not much lucky on that position as well
Well, it's two for two for two, Fluxor W7M taking the lead when they need every point they can get their hands on, they end the first half four to two.
Defensive half from Fluxor, I feel like it's mainly the strategies that they are bringing out, the game plan, which is helping them win out these rounds.
I mean, the cast already talked about some retting here and there as well, but it's also the big extensions, the way that they're controlling the space on the map that is helping them win.
Yeah, they're trying to basically prevent Feria to get the foot in the building.
And I think really abusing the fact that Feria's playstyle leans a lot into split takes, right?
It's a lot of positions where players are isolated.
They're used to winning these 1v1s.
Here's the problem.
Here's the problem on your screen.
What happens if they don't win these 1v1s?
And it's exactly what happened in the first few rounds.
It's them trying to go into the building,
shirling to room clear, losing the important 1v1s,
and because they're so split, there's no trade.
So every single time that we started to see a first opening kill,
because there's no trade. Generally speaking, it's a snowball effect,
and that's why you have such one-sided rounds.
When you look at this one, here they don't even get into the building.
Two players get aggressive outside the building at the same time.
And I feel like the answer in general was lacking at some point,
and I think that Fluxus and Xenon, they had the right plan.
Try to get aggressive together,
try to make sure that you isolate these guys,
and if you have to play one-on-one with them in a convincing way,
and that's how we have many rounds in defense where Fluxus and Xen plays it right.
I will say this, there was one answer from Furia, which I thought was the right one.
And that's to group up.
And that is an attack on Bakery, where they all group up.
Four players initially were in Bakery.
Before they split in three-state Bakery, two went to Christmas side.
And you can see that when they focus on the objective and they're all close to each other,
they make sure they get a trade potential, or even they double up on one player and they don't lose anyone.
And if you look at the last round, by the way, round six,
it's one of the closest rounds that they've had.
And if it wasn't for the execute cover that was not probably there on the plant,
if they kill that Melusi that runs through the sense, they win that round.
And so to me, they just liked a little bit of the adaptation earlier.
Play as a group, punish the fact that FOXWC is going to run at you quite isolated,
but do it, I guess, as a team, right, instead of trying to go split all the time.
And I think they just liked that adaptation a bit sooner,
and that's why right now, they're on the back foot in this match.
which is a curious thing because you know we know from Furia that aggression is always going to
be their main game so the fact that they're being met with similar aggression or at least the
extension from Fluxer W7M and also like the flanking that we're seeing which you showed in the clip
as well is something that maybe Furia weren't expecting going into this matchup but we know
that there is more pressure on the shoulders of Fluxer W7M to at least get something done here
to keep matters in their own hands or sort of make the situation better for them going into
the next match. So Furia now on the defense what kind of game plan will they bring us? Let's find out.
Well, if it's a game plan like we saw in the first half, it'll be theory winning the first two rounds,
Fluxy W7M answering back, and then we'll just push it to OT pretty quickly.
Just a couple dominant rounds exchanged back and forth.
I have a feeling that won't be the case, given a lot of the reasons that Leo just mentioned.
All these are first site, will be kitchen floor down below.
I'm excited to see what Fluxy W7M decided to do on the wall.
I mean I am but also it's kind of kitchen so it's really gonna be a lot of the same flavors
We saw from fury on that for a staff
Yeah, the similarities on
Cafe between different teams and how they want to attack it never never really ventures too far
from from one another, excuse me
You're excused
You're excused, do you not worry?
I'm terribly sorry I had a frog in my throat those aren't supposed to be there
no it was riveting I have a solid back though
oh surely not the C4 spawn kill on send it we can see him on the bottom of the
screen send it doesn't send it fuck you teasing us right now
He's in the room too.
Oh my gosh.
He's aware.
What are you waiting for?
Oh.
The lineup was perfect but Pali was baiting sufficiently.
Couple of attempts at some real ballsy C4s right now.
Occe still got his and his hand by the way.
The moment's patched up, I'm a friend.
He needs to just lock in for the round.
Speaking of moments, hello lawyer.
Oh, Datsun is well aware of this.
I was about to say, surely either Dots gets the killer, or somebody swoops in and they'll be doed as.
Laura's saying, Bawk, not throw the C4, is like, fine, I'll take matters into my own hands.
And while that didn't work, unfortunate.
Luxor W7M now with a man advantage.
As they go forward, the rest of them are clear.
They can build the boogie drones down, get the dope because, whatever they want.
They can do the normal steps of what was going to be their kitchen clear with a man advantage.
I will say, Lopen face-checking Engels on the top floor, so we are really taking our time
in not leaving any stone unturned.
No, they're very cautious of a flanking player, aren't they?
There are going to be a couple of players at the top of red stairs.
Cons will be concerned with that, throws a ping in that direction,
but lets on the attempt this topflare. Ooh,
Bok, could I take it?
Yes, saving it for a rainy day.
Was able to get the kill on T'Godes.
At least confirm it. Oh, okay, Cons.
I don't think he was expecting to walk around the corner
and be greeted by those two.
All the way from the top of red hatch we'll find one. Oh, that's a hell of an angle a really good save
And it keeps this competitive if you're here. They are a man down
It still puts them not too bad of a position especially given the time available the fluxo on this attack
Now Paul is still very much employed holding that angle, but we're
Very close if you're getting kills on to do two different floors on red stairs
And while they have the advantage, Flux of W7M only with 30 seconds remaining.
They want to get in, put this diffuser down, of course, but with the splits, and on low HP if even one small thing goes awry,
if they're able to nick you on a couple shots, well I say that, Palu, this is the exact kind of backstab we needed,
realizing coach X-Free wins a big 1v1, Box Zero takes it down on the back side,
Flux of W7M creating the space necessary inside of the side, 4 and pops up, DS catches him completely off guard,
Consist goes to commit and our box zero one be one still surprising flux. Oh, W7m
DS and box zero popping up from the exact same spot to clutch that 2v3
I really thought we were gonna see the attack as pop the go yo canister there
I don't know if he was worried if it was gonna deal damage to blitz
I think it was like was it just too close it must have been obviously blitz not up for HP either so
So any risk at that stage is, you know, you just don't want to be taking a D. You can't
be taking that chance.
You don't want to lose the round because you've popped a Vulcan canister as an attacker, thinking
that you were big brain.
Real narrow margins there.
Flux out.
Not able to close out on the attack.
Furia buying themselves a little bit of a lifeline here.
Just closing the gap by one.
again as we've spoken about we're expecting attack to struggle a little bit here tonight
on cafe and especially because of the ramifications of this game obviously for furia they're kind
of playing for seeding at the moment inside of that top four which side of the bracket
they're going to be going on who they're going to be playing up against it's important but
it's far less important once you know that that top four spot is guaranteed because you
are only one best three away from qualification.
Fluxo W7M, this is everything they need to win here and even then it isn't enough.
Our next playday is going to be next week.
They will have to win there as well.
And hope on other results going in their favor if they want to make it.
Oh dear.
That's not good.
I'll be lobin' I'll take it.
Fluxo W7M will take it.
Last round we can now do a 1v1 advantage through and through.
35 to 2 right now, they just converted it. Now they got an opening pick this time.
I don't know if the first half is kind of weird, but it's looking like in many ways this game might not be close, depending on what happens.
We'll see, of course, how round 8 transpires, but given how razor thin the marches were for Fury on round 7, if round 8 is dominant,
we might need to see an attack timeout hit by Fury. I'll be very glad they saved it.
There's not a plenty of time to spend on this clear. There's no reason to rush.
Got a opening pick on the run out. You know the second floor is going to have
players on it, but now that you have a 5v4 you can afford to take a little bit
more time. That information great fine on the pulse as well. Oh okay he's found
another. LoBot has literally found two picks for absolutely free right now.
Could not be better for W7N. It's a LoBot round through and through isn't it?
Furia have gone for a very C4 heavy line up
They're bringing information and they're bringing plenty of C4s and they are wanting to try and blow up this attacking push from fluxo
They've got the information. They've got the C4s
But no one from fluxo has given themselves up right now. Heads. He's gonna try and play this pixel position
It's caught out on the drone thinks better of it
Car fought to be challenged on cigar as an SMG12 or an SMG11 excuse me as you've got players that now know exactly where you are caught on the drone again.
Yeah sure it's denied a little bit of information but we are asking a hell of a lot from these C4s now.
There's one, Hertz on to Loven. It isn't going to be enough though as Volps is going to pay the price.
Goes down with a C4 and more importantly at this stage a heartbeat scanner.
DS is now going to be flying blind when he goes to throw his.
The C4s are good when you create those layers and force Flux
to W7M to walk into the first set of them, but if you're playing so far up with those C4s,
maybe they'll open just getting a little bit lucky.
It depends on what happens. We don't know exactly.
And the 3v5 Hertz gets that C4. Some of the wind cons are working,
but Flux W7M have such a stark advantage.
What are they really to do?
Yes, maybe thinking the Sledge Pollyw isn't aware of his position and it seems that's
the case.
But again, he's got to go big, reveals his position by firing the MPX, Dota is now paying
some attention towards Train, Dots quick with the kill, swoops in to take that one for
Fluxo W7M.
Plant should go down with about 7 seconds remaining, Herd's creeping forward and Dots
ready for it.
Fluxo W7M looking excellent in round 8, ready for those C4s and not dropping the advantage
after that.
It just feels like they know, doesn't it?
It really does.
Dots, you know, holding the right angle at the right time
to pick up that final kill onto herds.
You got to feel so sorry as well for the train player.
The, you know, so much to watch,
so many different angles in the moment.
And when you're at that sort of a man count,
when you drastically behind,
you're never going to be able to hold the angle for long enough.
It's always just going to be,
oh, if I'd have only held it for another few seconds,
the odds would have had a little bit of success there onto Pali.
but again, even that wouldn't have been enough in the round.
Furia taking their tactical time out here before flux of guaranteed points in the fixture.
Seen enough.
They now need to figure these things out, these defensive rounds.
Shouldn't be this difficult to come by.
Furia are making things quite hard for themselves indeed.
Lobin, of course, getting two open picks. In round A is a big part of that.
Both teams working incredibly well with momentum today.
Defenders, protect your bomb.
Let's see if Flux at W7, I'm able to continue off of that as...
Fury again, just...
Oh, actually no. Repeating the site, I believe. Normally used to teams switching up sites like that,
but going back to fireplace and mining.
Feeling confident in that general setup clearly as I think
moving with not moving away from the C4 lineup, but
Giving some of the core tools still have the caves don't have the warden
But now focusing a lot more on anchoring on the site with it
We're not anchoring on site but placing a lot more of this utility on the site
Vulcan packs the waste time smoke canisters of course to waste time do some damage down on the plant
So we'll see that same
C4 look from here like we saw last time the keys
matchup we're not really going to see any runouts as well. Ollie at Flux
W7M or at least Loben probably can't get those first two picks the way he was
able to in round eight. Well he shouldn't be allowed to should he really and I
think that's you know as small a thing as it is and as basic as it is it's got
to be something that got brought up in the timeout you know let's stop giving
ourselves away early on into the round we just need to see Furia playing with a
little bit more togetherness if they make things difficult here if they give
problems for Fluxo W7M to solve. We'll see a very different game. So far, we haven't seen sufficient
problem put in front of Fluxo and they've kind of just been washing over the map for three.
Even this movement now from Lobin, it's incredibly quick. The pace is fantastic.
Immediately getting in. Bang, we've already got Nades going on to clash. There's already someone
holding White Window. Palu gets in with a Nade. It could have been any single one of them and Lobin
doesn't stop there continues to move through but it is a little bit too far. Herds will take him
down is allowed to drop into laundry and can now start to watch these white stairs.
Hello Ben trying to push deep like that great check by herds onto the freezer position.
Lawcaster be careful.
Angel can be powerful but with somebody lurking on white can always become susceptible to it.
But Flash going down early is so big for Fluxor W7M, though.
The fact they were able to find her was just a little bit of utility expended, because
so, I mean, Fury, we're not looking to waste the whole round on the role, but we're looking
to waste a decent bit of time, and Fluxor W7M just denied that.
Snatched it away from her, haven't they?
Notice, we're getting zoned off by the Toxic Bay Caster, but it's not the end of the world.
Oc's caught out in the line scan as well as he wasn't safe to just stand still and cons hits his global
BIG CHOTS NOW COMING IN, BUT A MIST OPPORTUNITY!
Ooooo, Palu!
So every day we see you miss one of those, Heard's been put down to 1HP,
but he's more importantly still in the fight right now.
More vert can be made here, and Palu can continue to swing that sledgehammer
and see if he can open up any further lines of sight that Fluxo are gonna need here in this execute,
but I feel like that was his big opportunity there.
There might be, especially just letting a player like Herd's into the wild, that vector in hand, no utility to worry about, even getting quite a lot of work done.
I was still looking to create angles into mining though, can't quite find anything, so we're looking around the corner.
We'll take down Box Era.
Here's an important moment right here.
Put Imperia into disadvantage, creating a lot of solid control in and around mining.
Herd's going for this flank.
Laura going for the retake upstairs.
First prong of it works is Laura can retake the vertical angles,
but can he get there in time?
Oh, what a load bearing air jab.
Staves off the retake, and now as the flank
comes through for Furia, Luxor W7-19
has still got a post-bland.
They've still got a little bit of an advantage,
even if, for the briefest of moments,
Furia had a one-body lead.
But as both remaining attackers get important picks,
Laura now forced off the top floor,
backed it onto the side as Dots is ready for it.
So much info to find.
Understandable praise for Dots.
Getting the plant down and also holding the post plant
like that, Flux O W7M looking great to get three.
Herds is gonna kick himself when he rewatches this
and realizes that all he had to do
was just pre-fire a bit through the wall,
hit a couple of bullets through the soft
and he would have done damage or even taken Dots down.
So close there and especially given the fact
that he was able to dodge death earlier
with the engagement he had with Pali on the vert,
that could have been a massive kill to get,
that really would have swung things for Furia.
Well, Flux O W7M focused on just getting that plant down,
just holding that post.
An opportunity there that really just slipped Furia by,
and they're the rounds that you look back on and go,
ah, on a different day.
Gunfight goes the other way.
Boom, they're able to re-take on that,
but it was just too much of an ask.
Upside down repel as well, outside of Black Tuck,
It's always going to be a really difficult angle to challenge onto, but dots the superstar
in the side getting the plan down and then able to hold it into the post.
But Fluxo on a match and series point right now.
What they need over the course the next two playdays, three points is all that will do.
They can't afford to go to overtime.
It's not to say they need to clear it out here.
There is a nice buffer that they've got at the moment.
a three rounds behind, but Flux OW7M don't want this to get close. They want to snub it out here and now.
And for their chances they need to. I mean, the round diff is obviously important, but the
greater thing is the three points. Again, mentioned on the desk at the top, most currently have a four
point lead over them. So even a three point victory here will not get them into sixth place,
it will not get them over that threshold because the stage they had,
Luxor W7 straight is not entirely in their hands, but
but
Three points here puts them at 10 in seventh tomorrow lows have to play liquid
Luxor W7 have to play loud. It would be a difficult game
But even just one or two points out of that loud game and a loss by loss against liquid
Might just be able to save Luxor W7M stage
This was likely going to be the harder game for this weekend and if you're a fall here
I mean, it's whatever they don't secure top four, but this means so much for flexor w7m and tomorrow becomes so much more interesting
And when you say tomorrow you mean next week it just feels like it's tomorrow because we have to play
Only one playday next week. Yeah
Well
and drop into the freezer. He was looking to hold a little bit of ground upstairs for a time, but
the mute jammers and a little bit of presence up there has done a large portion of that work.
Cons can quickly sweep through. Start to check out, just make sure no one is ratting upstairs.
Hasn't really been the furrier game plan so far. Yeah, they've been good for a flank or two,
but not really looked at, um, rat out or hold positions in that sort of a way. It hasn't been
their game plan so far. Instead they're gonna lead into some of these more powerful positions
downstairs and see if they can try and hold on here. No Vulcan canister beam brawl this time,
no Goryo. One C4 already expended from her, it's not sure if that's pre-placed or not,
I don't believe I've heard a C4 go off so, maybe something to keep our ears out for.
Plus C4's on Lora and Bok though. It's the most part of these fewer perspectives are very dug in,
they are not moving nor do they really need to. It'll be about these key engagements as Dota
starts to flash out now onto Christmas lobin. Looks like he's primed and ready at the bottom
of round stairs to make a move. His pinch onto Christmas player is going to be crucial.
That must win. Whenever you're attacking kitchen this position's got to fall in some way. Dota
wins that important 1v1. Now Flux W7M and a 2v4. Furia can't exactly convert off of this advantage
need to reset a little bit but Dota as we split away from the shield wins a big
fight against box era catches another player with utility in hand now cons
forced off the plant we've got time to reset 27 seconds remaining in the
players in the opposite site there's important utility for furia deus able to
stay alive but folks are gonna be seven and time to try and work through Dota
has take that fight well cons push deeper he decides to go for the ladder
isolates the 1v1 and how they've got the thorn cut off and co-check they can go for the plant but instead they'll go for the kill
Lux or W7M when with the whole stage on the line come away with what could be the most important
three points of this year
The one of the more frustrating teams in the leagues to watch because we watch them all stage long and they're okay
And then they pull out here and they give us a performance like that against fury
they thoroughly deserve the
full three points today and
they will get them. It just
breaks my heart that it still
might not be enough. It still
might not get them into that
playoff spot. They need to win
next week and they need a full
three points there and they
rely on other results. But if
that's the team and that's what
they can do against the seem
like Furia, where is it being
all stage long? We're going to
send it over to our wonderful
desk. They'll have an interview
with the seven M break it down
Thank you so much, and wow, we really put pressure on the shoulders of the Flux to W7M players,
but it turns out pressure creates diamonds, a big victory they get on the line for themselves here.
That means we get to speak to the winners. We have Lobin on the line to ask him a few questions
after a difficult matchup in the way that we put a lot of pressure on you, Lobin. Congratulations on the victory.
I hope you're doing alright because this must have been a difficult match for you guys knowing the consequences of it.
Yeah, I think it was most of the opposite, we just had in mind that, oh guys, we already
are in the shit, we really don't have a lot to do, we lose again, we lost like 4-5 times
in split, let's just play our game, let's play relaxed, let's not focus on the mistakes
and focus on the next round, the next move that we can do.
I've been very surprised to play Cafe, because I felt like this was one of your best maps,
I was surprised to see Feria take you there.
I was kind of surprised, but at the same time I think they're in a good position and they're probably trying to test the map against the team that plays the map good.
I think that's probably their way of thinking.
But yeah, it was really good for us, it's our best map, so we are thankful for them to give that to us.
And I guess going back to what you were saying, obviously this has been a really rough stage for you guys.
We've all been asking the questions, we're like, it's the same amazing players that we know and love, what's going on?
Do you have maybe something to say for the fans and for the rest of us that are like, they love you and they also wonder what's going on with the team?
What's going on a little bit behind the scenes with the roster?
So, a couple things that have been happening, I think we made some mistakes, like for some
example, we did a good job in the first split, and then we slipped the last game and lost
the roles, but it wasn't the best split, we were playing good, and then because of that
we thought that if we changed the roles of Gods and Cons, we only would go up, not down,
But it seems like it wasn't the best choice for us, because we couldn't get the hand of
the AGL team that's not really structured.
We are more free, we play more in the petitions and all that.
So I think it was a little bit of that.
We had some confidence problems for some games.
Like yesterday, for example, it was a game that we didn't communicate like we did today.
We were communicating, changing the operators that we're using on defense because we say,
oh, they're attacking like that.
They're using this and this and this.
But yesterday it was like, guys, they're doing this.
Okay, let's play our default and just pray that we win it.
So the feeling was different.
I think Dots were coming back to IGL today was pretty good too.
I think that the big change that happened, that's the only difference I can see.
And yeah, that's pretty much it.
Now we have to cross our fingers that the NIP wins today, and we only need to play for ourselves in the last game.
Must be nerve-wracking to have to rely on other results to still survive as a playoff chance.
Is that what you're most proud of today as well then? Bring it back to confidence?
Or do you think there's anything else that you're more proud of for your team today?
I think, yeah, the feeling of winning is really good when you get that again.
And of course against FURIO, there's one of the top teams here in Brazil, so I'm pretty sure that everybody was putting us to lose.
really one sided to Florea and then we recommend the opposite of it and I think
that's really good for a confidence and that's really good for the general like
we showed for ourselves today that we are the team that can do it right Norris?
Don't kiss me please.
Not on camera.
Not on camera.
Yeah, I think that's it. We showed ourselves that we are good and we need to do what we need to do in the next games.
That's really what matters, of course. Congratulations once again on the victory.
We'll hope for your sake indeed that the results go your way and later today.
And I wish you best of luck in your last game next week.
Thank you.
Good to hear from him and good to also speak about the rough past that they were going
through.
Everything that's been going on behind the scenes, as some players of other teams already
alluded to, there were some issues going on for this roster here.
But hearing it from LoBin himself is all about the IGL changing, some things that are going
on behind the scenes that we don't always see, but then also reading the confidence,
I think was the big part in here to get this victory over the line, as he said as well,
against a big opponent.
I guess it seemed like faria, and I guess it's fair, we put them in a spot where we
thought they were going to lose today here, but then getting the victory over the line
is a clear sign that they are here to fight for this final spot in playoffs.
Yeah, and it goes to show you can never never calm them down like they will they will still have that potential
I think a really good insight from loving by the I'm always I'm always stunned by his English level eight every time like he gives
Interviews, I feel like we learned so much and he's so
Transparent about what the team is going through. I think that we mentioned it before I think in terms of falls right in a pregame. I think
I can remember if it was Lynx or Ali who mentioned the fact that they brought cons despite having
dots as an IGL.
It was always going to be a question, right?
Who's going to be the IGL?
Who's going to be the Shelds player?
Are they going to swap between the two of them?
Are they going to have double Shelds on certain strategies?
And I think the fact that they tried to have cons as an IGL clearly disrupted their system.
And like you said, like cons came from an IP, a system that watched much more step-by-step
and methodical than the crazy, chaotic, aggressive playstyle of the previous W7M roster.
Reverting back to this on their best map, it was perfect for them to take down Furia on it.
The real question mark is, was it the only difference?
As you can see from Dots, completely going crazy right now, probably our MVP of the game as the HGL.
Is it only that? Is it also the fact that they were on a favorite map?
Are they able to play on the same level with Dots as an IGL and reach instantly the level that they had before on another map when it matters most?
All these questions, they will need to be answered next playday.
And I think it puts a lot more pressure on Liquid once again because, realistically, the thing that's happening right now is that Liquid are going to play an IP.
But because Lose and Liquid are facing each other tomorrow and those two are the direct contenders for the playoff spot, it brings a lot of pressure on Liquid right now.
right now and as we can see that's is the MVP playing the clash in defense the
main shot player and IGL it's great to see him perform again because he had been
struggling the last few months ever since kickoff ready had been the worst
way to play on the roster. I'm excited to see this indeed as Lopen confirmed him
going back to the IGL getting plans down which seemed like a big win condition
as well for Fluxer W7M in the attacking house where they kind of turn the
momentum around right you know you get the plan down the defenders now have to
They were holding these rounds out really well. So, impressions to see this from Fluxer W7M.
It's a big victory that does not only keep them alive, it keeps things very exciting here.
As you already mentioned, that puts the pressure onto Liquid.
And they don't have an easy opponent to go up against in the final game of the day either, as they'll be facing NIP after this.
Yes.
Well, it's great.
The three bullets will hit the three.
It's the best.
There's no way.
I like this one.
Because it's lighter, it's easier to handle.
And I think it's better to press.
Look, two weapons here for you.
This one here, this one is more tight.
Two weapons here.
I'm going to use the pistol, because I've already trained a lot with it.
I'm not going to miss any.
Six bullets for you, no chance.
To hit these three nails.
Stop!
Damn.
it's not
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
It's much easier inside the server.
It's much easier inside the server.
Fuck, what the fuck.
But also, cut the first one there.
The first one was a test.
Oh, but this one...
Oh, the ball is making a curve, man.
The ball is making a curve, man.
Cut the first one there. The first one was a test.
Oh, but this one...
Oh, the bullets are making a curve, man!
The bullets are making a curve, man!
It's the last one, I'll get it right.
It's hard, man, with the weapons.
But there's one more chance that the first one doesn't work, ok?
The weapon is hard to stop.
No, wait there, man! Wait there, man!
We didn't do that, right?
Recording bass players' docks.
Yes.
Recording bass players' docks.
What's that?
How do you know who's the bass player?
Documentary.
The guy goes there with the camera, the team and records.
Yeah, the bass player.
Nothing related to the championship.
We never played bass players.
How did you know who's the bass player?
You've never seen a bass player's video.
He said, the Vechiaro, the Vechiaro.
He's the one before the Vechiaro.
He took the network on Twitter.
This one is good, this one is good.
You won a lot.
What's your own experience?
A pause from Igor?
Wait a minute.
What?
No, this one is not.
A pause from Igor?
No.
A pause from Igor?
Now this one is not.
A pause?
No.
I've never.
I think it's a good idea.
2, 3, 4, 3, 4
I'm going to do it, because I want to do it on the internet.
Really? Do you wait on the internet?
Yes, I want to do it on the internet.
Can I do my internet via the internet?
The internet is beautiful.
But I don't, I lose a lot of money.
I knew it would be like this.
I want to do it on the internet.
This is the test class, this guy.
Oh, man.
Is it a recipe?
Yeah, you can.
I'll put it in the fridge.
There goes the hippie.
You win.
There goes the hippie, son of a bitch.
Well, KDS is a lot without education, man.
I don't even have to answer it.
He's a coward, man.
Fuck.
This one I'll...
Say it's here.
How many?
How many kilos?
Go get it, go get it.
I'll get it.
Ah, a guy here!
I want to go there
He took the aura, haha
0-3, 1-1, 6-5, 1-4
Dibs
There's a guy, there's a guy
And if it wasn't for him, I would have taken the f***
It's someone who's still cute
As there's a lot of people everywhere
You can't specify too much
Ah, it's not that big
Ah, it's not that big
F***
I don't see it.
Thank you for taking me out of the Major to do that shit there.
I'm still selling two jantars.
I love you.
And I love you.
I love you.
He made a fuss with me, the two matches that we played with them.
He made a fuss.
I love you two jantars.
I bet more, bro.
I bet a car from the next one.
That's it, I love you.
Just to be able to jantate until today.
I don't want to say anything about the car that everyone has driven.
I never drive.
Let's see here. Who wants to be hunted?
Here, I already understand.
Good afternoon, Mr. Aura.
Be careful, I'll get you to the base.
I want to see you.
It's easy.
You are a good ballon.
Zagheiro, rival of training.
I don't know what I'm doing here.
I don't know what I'm doing here.
I've been here for 6 years.
I don't know who he is.
Thanks for the message.
If I find out who you are,
there will be more chat in the training.
Good luck.
Dear StK, you are a great team.
He would come to think of playing forza.
That's a good fact, right? That's the big guy, right?
Big mouth, man.
Alive for the playoffs. Leo, I'm glad you have all the numbers showing out because as I said, I'm not very good at bats.
What is the stakes, especially for Liquid going into this one?
Well, there are a lot of stakes right now. The thing is,
Liquid are in a leading position. So if you just look at the standings right now, their attention to the first four teams,
they are all qualified for playoffs already. Only six teams can make it.
And so there are only two spots remaining for playoffs. Four, three teams are in contention.
team liquid on 12 points, loss on 11 and Fluxo W7M on 10. And so right now, everything is in the
hands of team Liquid. If they win, any win. Over time can be a regulation loss. So long as they
gain two points or more, they will jump to 14 or 15 and there will be guaranteed playoff and then
it will be a direct shout out between loss and Fluxo W7M for that last match. But what makes
it very important is that if Team Liquid lose today, they are still on 12 points. They are
playing loss tomorrow, so the two rivals for our players' spots are facing each other, and that means
that in this possible scenario, if Team Liquid lose today, we know that loss and Team Liquid cannot
both win because they will be playing each other, and that means that Fluxo W7M will have their own
fate in their hands, because if they win tomorrow, then they can overtake either or. And so that's
That's why Fluxo and Lucian and they want Liquid to lose, and that's why Liquid right
now are in a position where they can secure playoffs if they win against an IP.
On the side of an IP, any win on their side would lock them as top 4 because they would
go to 18 points, which would lock them at this point no one can overtake them.
Wow, okay, so for Liquid, the scenario is looking pretty good.
Let's dive into both these rushes and get the game going on as there is a lot of pressure
on both these teams.
and IP, starting out with them. Time and time again yesterday, some late rounds saved from
big players helped the win at rounds in the first half, but then when it comes to push
the shove, they lose it over time. Against INTZ, I did not expect that from this roster
at all. They have to play Furia against this. They're going to need some points to lock
in at 24 as well. It can't be that they were one of the first to lock in top six of them,
just slouch after them and then falling down to the lower brink to start their run in playoffs.
They were the king of champions for Christ's sake.
So that's something that I'm expecting to see from them here today, inside this matchup
against Liquid.
When we talk about their opponents, great insights from Igor yesterday in the interview
after they got that win on the board against FW7, I think what was most important was
what they learned against Faze, you know, Faze making great rounds, where you have the
advantage, they sing the way out and they make you lose players.
And we saw way less of that yesterday with the good performance and a dominant score
against yet another Titan in the league.
If there is a moment for Liquid to, as you said, confirm those playoffs and strike, it is against NIP right now, where they seem a little bit weakened going into this matchup given their recent form.
So, for both of these teams, that's kind of the details of what happened in the most recent rounds and where they find themselves in regards to their performance and their momentum.
But we'll dive straight into the Met V2 to make this match important. The final best of one of the Group stage of SAL, and that is going to take us to NIP in the match.
I'm surprised Liquid wants to go back there, it's the map that they lost to Loud, the big upset in their season.
But I will say this, Loud, we've seen them play on that map against FaZe, we've seen them beat FaZe on it.
They're incredible at this map, so it's not a problem of their level.
I think it's overall Liquid maybe a reaction, and something they've learned from that game.
On the side of an IP, that's a map that they played last time against in Liquid, and they lost it 7-4 during kick-off.
Back you guys for the game.
it was throwing now whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa
timeout timeout okay we do not we do not take not take the scabs on this
broadcast okay and does the throws I will not have that again
been on the desk for what like four years now things you can do that all the
people leave this guy I know I know he's above the sticks
I don't know why it's really tickled me. Leo really did take control there. I love that actually.
But, to the death's point, I know we've kind of talked about some of the games today.
We talked about the lowest game earlier as a big one. We talked about the plug to W7M1 that we just saw as a big one.
And this one, I think, doesn't feel as important, right, Ali?
Because it's Team Liquid vs. NIP, and it's playday 8. How could this game possibly be important?
Considering that Team Liquid Alienware still have not locked in playoffs and might very well might not at the end of this day as well
This is still quite as important. Just as important as the other ones
Well, absolutely
NIP on the flip side having a fairly good stage which isn't unusual and it's something that we've started to
Get a little bit used to I guess domestically for this NIP roster
Oh dear
I assume that's actually open
I hope it is for Pino's sake.
Was that a rhetorical question?
Oh, it just didn't look open, did it?
Like the soft wall was still there after he'd opened the breach.
I'm wondering if it's like a, I think it's like our side more than anything else.
The players can see through it just fine.
Well, so, so.
My finds a clutch drone early after he captures one of his banshees.
Playing close inside a gem.
I don't want to see a shotgun in this position, but Milady holding it with the M5 right now.
Ooh!
Raffer's player drawn early.
That's a huge fine for NIP.
That garage position could waste easily another 30 seconds, so finding that and also clearly
doing a good job taking out a lot of these exterior traps, and I think I've really done
a good job kind of thawing some of these extremities of the cycle.
It looks like the breach did just bug a little bit on the opening.
got hates trying to rip through with the super shorty plus a little bit dangerous to do that
isn't going to stop them or isn't going to slow them down at least from getting that open pick
jv92 downstairs below is going to feel quite safe given that it's the smoke on the target from the
demos the timing here needs to be critical but fancy he's better it was a bait all along fancy
targeting someone upstairs inside but at a great read that's where jv92 was playing
50 seconds now to convert this hefty advantage as more deathmark tracks can be
sent up there the clash next on the chopping block need gonna be targeted
out here very vulnerable from below fancy we'll be trying to put that work in
in conjunction with the scene now starting to take control inside of IT
and the top of these warehouse stairs
online AP have lost a lot of time on some of the stall and some of the clear
just some bad luck unfortunately in the game. 22nd remaining 5v3 so makes this very doable.
A lot of important utility wasted. Vulcan canisters dealt with, smoke canisters not a factor.
Double swing inside a gen, good for ninjas in pajamas. Hates only on low HP as we reach the
10 second mark. Wizard checking all of the right angles and felipops completely isolated on aqua.
It might be low but NIP do exactly what you need to do. Push as a unit, push as a team. They take
the first round off the back of it. NIP just making it look very step-by-step there.
Lab's one of the more step-by-step maps that we have in the pool. And even when things didn't
really go their way, I mean the breach not opening in an ideal way and the mapping to
clean that up with a super shorted, there's some resilience enough there. I didn't start the fact
that they got two opening picks fancy with a great read onto JV92 downstairs. JV was really
trying to play that lurking role and picking an opportune moment to flank up Warehouse.
Not able to find that space.
Top floor going the way of NIP on that opening attack and straight down to the basement here
for round 2.
Team Liquid Alienware.
Not the way that they wanted to be starting things off, only achieving one kill in the
first round.
It is only the first round and there is still plenty of this game to go.
But NIP aren't the team that you want to give a decent lead to or any sort of advantage
because they really will just run away with it.
Well it's also just funny because if somebody was just now tuning in they'd hear, oh what,
NIP won a round but they executed with 20 seconds remaining.
Classic NIP.
First off, a little bit different this stage.
But even then it's like well it was 20 seconds remaining because IT reached out bugged and
they had to open it with super shorties.
Yeah.
and they still managed to execute with a 5v3 at 20 seconds left.
Like, actually, that's kind of impressive that they managed to do that.
So it's not just they won that round, and even then, it looked pretty easy.
It's also like the game literally was conniving and plotting against them,
and they still managed to do it with, you know, quite a bit of breathing room.
Of course, they only won round.
Two liquid alien were losing a primary site.
Go down to basement, see what they can manage.
does seem with a snake in Deimos and of course Dope could be lineup.
We'll try to pay some attention to this clear and likely imagine one's team
liquid alien to see this in case he's getting hit by the deathmark tracker.
Yeah, he's gonna fall back and I don't think this defense will be holding on to
the top four. It must be too much longer, but yeah, no, they're literally all falling
back in 50 seconds. This is probably the right call. Yeah, you've got to pick your
battles, haven't you? You've gotten the grim in an ace. You better believe the NIP.
A team that love to play these high information, high value operators are
going to be running them. Fancy. Grab the first, but bait in on the second. KZ. Tucked
in the corner, able to find a trade. Did just linger around in that mid-floor for a time,
but I think he realizes just what he's achieved there. Went one for one. It's only the go-yo
that's down, so that utility has already been placed. Yes, you've still got the Deimos.
Yes, you've still got the doke, but if you can get back to sight in one piece, and a bad position to be in for Leapox, he's not going to have that fortune, called, tracked flames at his feet, and on the amount of time until Hates hits him on the swing.
There was no, there was no world where Spellapox was getting out of that one alive, that much intel, that much intel gathered on a damage utility dedicated to him.
What could he do?
KZ the next target for it but he's right next to the hatch so where his
fellow Pops did not have any path of egress out of that position KZ can just
drop down and don't get me wrong he's got to worry about the vertical especially
he might be worried about grabbing at C4 too based on the information where these
attackers are but at least now it's on the floor and it has an option to go where he wants to
where he drones ripping open the ceiling as opposed to last round based on the
trajectory of this one. This will be an MIP very late execute partially because
of Team Liquid Alienware stall, partially because of MIP being very careful clearing out that realm,
which has worked out so far. 4v3, 25 seconds is always going to be a bit low on time.
That leaves an important moment for Team Liquid Alienware. They can either play on site or flank,
take these off positions. KZ, the initial spray not working out.
As you can just see Wizard considering taking that fight instead. KZ committing to it when he sees Pino,
Blasch in hand, distracted up above that allows JV92 to push in and wizard, unfortunately,
he was holding an important position and has only become redundant based off the trend of that
round. Huge retake by KZ, getting the kills above and setting up the teammates below.
Well, if you play a risky game, eventually you are going to get an unfortunate prize.
The prize there for NIP is that they had spent so long on that clear and,
And Team Liquid Alienware did a great job of holding on
for as long as they did.
It was the time that really did the rest there.
Couple of unfortunate gunfights for NIP,
but they were forced into positions
where they didn't really have the read
as to where the defenders were gonna be playing.
And even if they did, it was 50-50 gunfights
and you're not always guaranteed to be walking away
from those Team Liquid Alienware holding out
and winning the round on time.
I think NIP are gonna feel like they've missed
an opportunity there with that round,
depending on the result of the game,
because it was very winnable for a time.
They had a good advantage.
Fancy, obviously, getting that open and pick was great.
The fact that it was traded out by Team Liquid
was fantastic because it just nullified any effect
that it immediately had.
And KZ eventually pathing back down
toward the site as well to be able to partake
in that final stand.
Mid-floor will go then for round number three.
Now you can already...
The NIP are gonna be continuing to rock
this information-heavy lineup.
We've even got space to bring the Monty in as well.
I mean, this is just a Roma's nightmare, isn't it?
This top floor, it shouldn't last long at all.
No, I mean, what?
We got all three intel operators
with a Monty that can lock in and clear.
That'd feel bad for the team with Alienware defenders.
We'll see how much of a problem it actually ends up being.
Mine is always one thing in theory,
but maybe another thing in practice.
At least on paper, this one looks quite difficult.
see a team liquidary where there's a bit more attention to these doorways and windows than
they might otherwise. KZ makes eye contact with the Monty. That'll be a useful call for this clear,
someone you anticipate for the defenders holding upstairs. That is a nice bit of information
gathered early and then you'll play to their advantage later on in the round.
KZ's built himself a bit of a fortress here at the top of Warehouse,
far wide for the hop in, Keebo arcades to give him some angles to peek off.
Assessor can feed this information over, yeah fine, you can even track and even call this his army bot.
No real way of dealing with him.
Two nades from Fancy is going to be your best bet right now.
He's all the way down in basement by the looks of things.
Just watching the flank, so NIP again, in danger of stalling right now.
Fancy will start to walk up those cargo stairs.
JV could be a target here inside a control room.
Here's the player on the hop in, hates his just better in the moment.
batter in the moment. That's two rips through his opponent.
Same with the shotgun for Fancy, no need for a revolver,
taking that close quarters gunfire,
he's the right primary.
That's nice flank by KZ, but Nate,
oh this 1v1 has gone on way too long, wins it.
But well spotted by the attack
and gave it a four to time to reposition.
KZ will down one, but as the Monty in hand,
I was about to say, Fancy should be able to pick up
one of these kills, he will take it.
Assetto wrapped around the corner,
KZ gets both with the hip fire,
Surely not, we're on the corner as well, dodging the hate.
Just touches him at the window, but with such low HP,
one shot, done shot, more than sufficient.
It's down to the wire, but NIP with another.
It really did come down to the wire, didn't it?
But a lot relied on those kills.
NIP, they might have brought a lot of information.
They might have brought them onto,
but they didn't have a lot of utility and tools
to deal with some of those sticky positions
that Team Liquid Alienware were finding themselves
and had to rely on sheer gunfights and gunfights alone,
but they were able to get it done in the tertiary bomb site.
round four. What do you choose to get rid of here? Try and get rid of that Monty and
just guarantee that they're not going to be able to utilize that. Instead, mix things
up. Hard breaches now targeted. We've already had the ace band rounding it out with the
removal of that thermite. Team Liquid Alienware just sort of holding the hands up and going,
you know what? If you want to play Daymoth Snake and go to the other round, be my guest.
But you're not going to have much of a good time of it if you can't get the walls open.
going to force some secondary hard breach to be used, maybe even a maverick to be brought
into line up for this attack onto the top floor. The IT wall, it's critical that that
gets opened. With the removal of two primary hard breaches, any other way is just less than
ideal in getting that job done.
Especially the breeches kind of mess them up like last time, gotta be careful about that.
But for NIP who have been quite good in getting these opening duels set up, what happens after those breeches are open is also quite important.
They are currently 3-0 on the opening duels.
In general, no one particular player kind of standing out, I mean Fancy's obviously had some highlight moments and winning a big 1v1 that round, but while there has been, you know, it's three specific players who all have the kills for NIP right now.
He runs in, especially when fancies on the roster and players like Hayes also gets a lot of attention.
Not bad. Not bad at all for NIP so far.
Generally a good team performance, and as they look to take this second floor,
the operator lineup actually solidified.
We'll see them move away from that intel gathering lineup you saw,
and move back to what we saw on that first second floor attack,
which is focused more on the traditional execute.
I'm just more getting excited for him just bursting through connects with the 612 well
which is, uh...
The thing is, this is Bassetto, so is he going to do that?
Well, I mean, he's the only person that can, because he's the only person that has it.
True.
Now, is Bassetto going to be the one to lead that charge when we've got, you know, Hades,
Wizards, Fancy, all throwing serious numbers up today?
I'm not too sure.
Opening pick here for Fancy.
Oh!
Oh, there it is!
T-S-J-V-92 out.
That's Control of Aqua.
That's one way of grabbing it.
Oh!
Overpeeks!
a little bit, and Nate punishes him for it.
Not Bassetto to make that quick play,
but Fancy also with a shotgun could easily make it happen.
Now right as we say that, look at this,
Bassetto picking up the pace, prone with the 6-12,
secures the man advantage for NIP.
Got time to reset now if they want to.
But look at this, IT control, already Jen.
We still got half the round to go.
With these shotguns at close angles,
you see how Bassetto might find another kill
with a prone on prone fight,
and Maya often gets a lot of clout for good reason.
When you're peeking angles like that,
Bercetto's better every day of the week.
That's the three piece overall.
Thank God you highlighted them.
Well, there we go.
We asked for a little bit of action with the 612
and we got it.
NIP playing some explosive siege today.
As they have been all stage,
I mean, it's no new look for this roster really, is it?
This is the kind of siege that we're expecting them to play.
They've demonstrated that they can play at multiple different levels.
Yes, we do still find them in the red time.
And yes, sometimes it doesn't work.
Just look at the basement round that we played here on labs.
Team Liquid Alienware, win it out on time.
Ultimately, NIP can play at any level,
whether that's quick, slow, a gentle build up to the round
and then bang an explosive beginning, middle, and then
because everything happens in such a condensed period.
Liquid obviously wanting more out of this first half of the game, hence the tactical timeout being used now at the end of round four start of round five.
Still chance for them here to salvage an equal round or an equal half, but
do you wonder if a tactical timeout is going to be enough because the pace that NIP are bringing at the minute, Liquid just aren't standing up to that.
No, they've shown quite proficient at basically every side of the game, like you said, the quick, the slow, but also just proficient in these gunfights.
I mean, every player has shown up when they needed to.
But Settel, who's the one guy who you wouldn't think would be rushing into a position with the Ying necessarily, is able to win every 1v1 he's given.
And if everybody on the roster talked to bottom is able to win these fights, then, well, what chances do you have for everyone to even have?
Not because they're bad, but just because NIP currently have everything going for them in these past few rounds, and you think back to Basement, and there was some good Team Liquid Alienware plays, but it was still recovering from a disadvantage, and a lot of it was off of some really smart but still individual isolated plays.
And I said isolated from the greater trajectory of the round.
KZ with that retake basically setting up the whole final 10 seconds for Team Liquid Alienware.
For NIP, it'd be kind of hard to boil these rounds down to one moment like that, because
everything has been so good for NIP so far, much of the stage has been that way as well,
only taking their second loss in the whole stage in overtime yesterday to INTZ.
Just SAL, that just means you wanted the big dogs if you're dropping a random matchup
to a team that doesn't make playoffs.
You're officially part of the top four for a few years now.
I mean, welcome, it's just cost of entry.
Very simple.
You know, if you want to be a big dog,
a voice like sometimes you have to lose.
Speaking of big dogs,
NIP is looking to take this even quicker after the timeout.
Thought last round was fast.
How about playing down at two minutes and 16 seconds remaining?
One kill in hand, Nadefeld early, JV92 as well.
NIP looking to get their three points as quick as possible,
put Team Liquid Alienware in as difficult a spot tomorrow
as they can.
Wistered on the cutoff angle.
this past NJR impression and all of NIP looking like champions at the moment
demolishing Team Liquid Alienware on the one site they've won so far.
Well, we said is the time out going to be enough? Is that going to slow NIP down?
Are Liquid going to stand up to that aggression in that?
Team Liquid Alienware just packed up. They had the U-Haul van outside. They'd moved.
They were just clear out of that.
They were like, yeah, we're not going to hold the site.
We'll just double down on this extension a little bit more.
Why don't we just, you know, we know
they're going to play the information.
We'll put it up upstairs.
We'll have a nice little trade system going.
So if you get one of us, we'll be able to, you know, trade it back
and hopefully just trade the numbers down that way.
Nope.
And I paid just like, you left the site open.
See you later.
And with the pace they set that round,
I mean, we mentioned that they could play fast.
They could play slow.
Okay, now that they could play really fast, fast or slow.
So, it is about as good in the attacking half
as you could hope for.
Definitely not the kind of thing
that it should be 5-0 right now.
I do think that Team Liquid Alienware was well played,
especially in the late rounds.
So I think 4-1 is about the score line this game should be at.
And we'll see if Leo asks another thoughts later.
But, right now, based on what we're seeing here in the I.D.,
based in terms of like, just the general quality,
how well put together these attacks have been.
RTC and McRailing are coming out of this with the round. They're going back to second four though.
Third time we've seen the site played. NIP have won it both times attempted.
Ooh, KZ taking a bit of a gander outside the building.
NIP, by the way, 5-0 on open dual so far. Things just get better and better.
I mean, this should be right. Look at what they've got. They've got everything.
dream right now in terms of information. This is probably the only round where we're not seeing at
least two components of that used. It's fancy just on the Deimos, but it's still a Deimos for
good mistake. It's still an incredible tool to facilitate that opening pick and especially
in the hands of somebody like fancy. Might even be down to him though as Pino. He's going to be
challenging onto that connector wall that's been opened quite nicely now early on. Fancy looks like
He's downstairs at the moment does have KZ available to track. Oh good trigger discipline and peanut
I think he's probably got a glimpse there as the player just crossing over into electric
Wizard giving himself in position now and all the focus is gonna be on this KZ player
Up on warehouse on those rafters can start to get walked on by a Monty and I'm sure phone called or at least tracked
Excuse me by the day must only got the capital imposition as well. This is horrible for KZ
I feel like I'm watching clubhouse right now with this Monty utility clear push
I mean
Seem might see more of these on night having that we do our clubhouse anymore
So that'll will take a bit of a peek
Of course the benefit here
Rafters have a doorway directly back to the site where you don't really have that option on clubhouse
This means is the capital firebolts go out case he able to get back into the site where is on clubhouse
He's kind of just gonna hop thereafter as a no push wins a one-for-one
MVP making very good time on this clear at the moment, tripped up a little bit as he looks to regress forward, but
still a full 5v5, as fancy. Hasn't quite had the impact down below as he's been hoping so far, but still two deathmarts.
Hazy on this flank now. Oh, what a nice one! He's been really good on these offside plays.
With both victories for Team Liquid Alienware, involve a KZ flank, leveling things up.
Exactly the MVP of the defense might be fellow pox down low though
So it's not all said and done just yet still quite a lot of important utility
But now that the capitals down now that nip are in a disadvantage
This is where team liquid alienware can start squeezing the life out of this attack stuck on it stuck in garage
What a heads-up gunfight by fancy quickly whips out the shotgun knife to finish that one off
Minimal guns to take on these three defenders
You don't have a lot to cover this Monty, especially as the support is falling every gunfight that's taken
Chavisetto got a whip out the pistol with 12 seconds remaining
Looks like this will be T-Law's second one. It'll be a one-half for NIP
The team Liquid Alienware are able to squeeze a couple defenses, but NIP made them work for every single kill
They absolutely did us a great half we could say from NIP here on the first half and even after that's that's cool
We saw Team Liquid Alienware in a bit of trouble and then out of the day took the tactical
time at NIP, even dialed it further up by just being on site so fast.
And these two rounds, I mean, Link's already said it as well, right?
KC is the hero that they needed.
The fight that he managed to get out of that Raptors position and then Flank as well afterwards
is incredible to me.
It keeps on hope for Team Liquid Alienware.
Yeah, a little bit of hope carried by KC, which is always the case, I feel, with that
roster.
But if we look at the rounds, there's a consistent theme here and that's how quick
and how aggressive fantasy has been on the entry.
If you look at this, in most of the rounds,
actually in all of the rounds, they had the opening kill.
In round one, they get from Wizard on the wrapper
all the way onto IT.
On this one, it's Solisnay getting really aggressive.
On this one, again, it's Solisnay getting aggressive.
They've been incredible NIP at finding those opening kills,
gaining the initial momentum,
and then getting set up for the exit.
Now, I will say this, KZ, look at this.
Given almost brings back that round,
and then who's there to win that critical 1v1,
It's fantasy once again.
Him and Wizard have played an incredible game so far.
Look at this again.
This is another opening kill from fantasy based on a replay
drone.
And after this, if it wasn't enough,
they had to rush straight out of the technical timeout.
It's masterful from an AP right now,
completely different from what we saw yesterday in their game
against IMTZ.
I think it was a slap in the face for them
to lose against a weaker opponent on paper like this.
And I think they really reacted the right way
playing against him liquid today.
Yeah, that's absolutely true. But this keeps everything exciting as well. You know, you mentioned the importance for Liquid at least to get some points, the fact that, for example, Tuxer W7M should be hate-watching Team Liquid right now to keep things excited and to keep the sort of matters in their own hand going into that final playday here.
But for the second half now, Team Liquid, Iliama will be moving on the attack. Anything in particular that you hope to see from them?
I think I stepped up from the rest of the teammates, right now they've relied on KZ and his flanks to try and keep, I guess, the chances on their side.
I think I need to see the entire team live up to expectations.
Yesterday it was masterful, they had the whole team aligned, they had a very unique identity, the views, the yings, the executes, heavy operators, the greens and the glass.
I'm not going to have green with them right now, but maybe they can still bring some more of these executes to operators, and who knows, show us a little bit of a comeback on attack.
after winning the very important last round in this year's defence.
There are still quite some execute operators available as the second operator ban.
There is an ace for this one here on the defence zone, nothing really out of the ordinary.
What we're seeing as you mentioned, a lot of bans have been so far inside the SAL.
But the pressure is on Team Liquid, what can they do in the second half?
I have to think what a couple of attacks is something they can do.
I mean, talk about teams that again have a general kind of presumption of forwarding them.
Team Liquid Alienware are definitely among the upper echelon teams I've probably had though well actually that's not a true Flux or W7M have literally only won their third game today.
But aside from Flux or W7M, Team Liquid Alienware have had I think a rougher stage by their standards.
But winning an attack on Night Haven Labs, they've played quite a few times up until this point. We'll see what happens at the gate Ollie, but I have to think this will be a close one.
Yeah, I think you you know you've got to afford them the chance, haven't you, that it's that it's gonna be a little bit
of a closer game
We can't let one round or one side of siege define how the how the game's gonna turn out
I think the thing that I would worry about is that
NIP are clearly on one today
And clearly doing a great job
You don't necessarily have that same ability on the defense to affect that opening kill as much as they did on the attacks
they are going to try and bring nearly as much information. Fancy's got Paulson is going to be
utilising that scanner to get a very quick read as to where this push is going to be coming from
and no doubt seeing him try and act off the back of some of that information in an aggressive manner.
But Team Liquid Alienware just needs to take a little bit of control in this fixture because so far
it feels like the only rounds that they've been successful in have been ones that have largely
ran out on time as, you know, yes they've done a good job of getting kills, yes they've done a good
job of holding on but the time has also been a huge factor in and amongst that as well.
There was an attempt at a cave trick there but it ain't gonna go off. Not with a Thatcher JV92
on the roof spamming that EMP launcher down. That wall interconnector will be opened and
they can turn his attention toward this IT breach as well.
It's worth considering that that that did take a good portion of JV92's EMP blasts and so if we
get to the late round often we'll see the Thatcher launcher used to more effectively deny C4s than
the EMP grenades were able to. You won't have as many charges to do so. Now there's only two C4s
to be fair but there is a little bit of a safety net for plant denial that isn't as available because
of how much was extended. Understandably to get that wall so something to keep in the back of your
guys's head get into these later rounds case you're looking to take a fight inside building can't
quite find anything though the broader defensive setup is still very much intact. Yeah it was a little
bit deep in our knees inside of command so not giving himself away over on that garage catwalk
and of course we're Bissetto playing clash it's kind of a Bissetto's job to sneak out there and
gather that little bit of information. Hates cautious of something happening through this
backside but it's going to be Bissetto that's seeing all of the action right now as players
is starting to occupy that space inside of IT.
So you really need to wonder where
Francie is in that scanner, because with the pings that
are going down on the floor, I'm half-expecting a bit of a swing
to come off the back of it, or at least a C4 over the top.
So they're trying to stall as long as he can.
He's flashing, of course, pushing him back just a little bit.
People in the area don't have an exact way in just yet,
especially now that fantasy, taking that fight close
with the shotgun.
Masato now deciding to lock down IT behind this shield.
Team Liquid Alienware searching for an entry
can't quite find it up until Maya winning
his engagement in Connector.
But getting through this breach,
what are they going to do?
KZ locks onto both, prone on the floor,
and standing up via good court too.
A two-man push inside, sets up Felipox for the plant
to now wizard.
Stuck on the opposite side, damaged by that doke of a call.
Doesn't even have the angle necessary.
A three-piece and a double kill,
two-man play from Team Liquid Alienware.
I feel like it's so easy to be critical of the clash, because when the mistake is made,
it is so blatantly obvious, but Bistetta was literally just plonked his shield down, hoping
that that's going to do the business, and then turned his back to one of the most dangerous
players in the lobby and has given himself up for free.
Haist did a really good job of trying to control inside a connection and was good for the hopping
into electric, but there was layers to the team liquid attack there, and they were very
cognizant of that it was all through the IT side and then immediately two players on the flank
one in through electric one through connector and bang the pinch happened through that direction
the leapbox can start to move in to get the plant down in order to extend the time and
not leave it down to something that wizard could eventually clutch if you're just going out and
one by one through a single door or through the breach started a bit of information kicking around
and so he would have had a chance at winning that would have been a bit of a stretch to ask him to
to win a one versus three but the more guaranteed way of securing that round is of course to
get that plant down. Force wizard into action. Force him to do something. Tim will come in
a way with a much needed round here. Still trailing by one, but a chance for them to
level it up. My worry with this side and other sides that aren't the top floor is the space
that players like fancy are going to be afforded. Look at him out on the solace, over to a cafeteria.
Yes, fairly common spot to be but we know what this player is capable of and it's a lot
And if you give him space to work in he is going to run around you in circles
He's already coming off the back of a
Defensive victory at least on the opening kills and I keep currently second and oh right now on that stat
Where's your taking a bit of a gander down towards the brief finding it open early?
We've seen it in our Night Haven Labs game earlier between Loud and FaZe.
How powerful these vertical angles can be if you don't give them the proper respect
and don't try to peel those defenders off if you try to push in.
But that's not what Team Liquid Alienware are trying to do.
Two of them staffed around the mid-floor currently.
They're going to try to clear this out and apply some pressure directly to the roamers.
Vanity taking a lot of damage and that doke will be calling some shots.
It's Hades. That's the eighth opening duel now.
Quick trade by Team Liquid Alienware though.
KZ might just push deeper, sees Wizard around the corner but there is some support, Goyle and Asolus.
On this two man hold on top of the stairs at the moment, KZ ready for it.
And as JV92 hops in as well, might just end the round here. Huge win by Pino though.
Takes the fight and immediately falls off. You can't risk it, you'll fall back pretty soon after.
Oh, the round play from Basetto, tooks in the corner inside of XO, Pino.
You know, they have two kills all game and they've come here in round eight.
Nade, defuser called.
He's gonna have an idea where these players are, but he needs to single them out.
He needs to find a both, catches one, another around the corner, and Becerro doesn't swing.
Nade's got time to reset for the 1v1.
He has no defuser control. Becerro knows the win condition is in his hands.
He's literally standing on it, waiting for Nade to swing.
On the first attempt, he tags him up heavily.
He's got a C4 as well, likely wants to wait, keep the gun in hand, only one bullet required
with how low this Thermite is and he lands it.
One for one on the second half and NIP reclaimed their two round lead.
Honestly, it felt like NIP was throwing good money after Bad there.
Fancy tried to make a play in the opening portion of the round and was punished for
it.
And it just felt like it went from Bad to worse and then Pino comes out of nowhere.
Sprinting up cargo stairs immediately challenging grabs the kill and is able to not only get back to side, but also be
Instrumental there in that two versus one. Yeah, he gave himself away
He was crossing probably should have just tried to stay and have a bit of a crossfire in XO
He could have watched XO stairs while we've got the other player watching onto the door
But realistically it was fairly inconsequential. It was a very difficult clutch that Nade had to try and win
Then, NIP creep another round closer to a full three points.
I mean, if Nade had even a little bit of useful utility there,
like even a different operator like Candela's or Graham's,
something to make it easier.
I mean, there was just no way of obviously predicting that.
That's how close it was.
You can see the ways you could have wanted if things were just a little bit different.
But with a lack utility, Bassetto got cheddar positioning.
though so need to clutch what it ends up being not only 1v1 but a 2v4 just to get there instead of
doing a lot of work with that TCSG you know as well as you mentioned that SMG-11. It had to
recover from quite a deficit and obviously we're not able to convert their advantage acquired in
round seven. This has been a very Team Liquid Alienware favored attacking half so far. Could very well
be tied up at the moment. Of course. No, actually, two rounds. No, I'll tie it up. That's correct,
it'd be 4-4. But, should be able to take the lead with a couple more rounds, or if NIP can secure
that point off the back of this. JV92, taking a good look towards one window. Given the nature of
this first floor defense, you'll need to pay attention to the second floor, and if you're not
not going to rush means you got to clear.
Yeah, clear is going to be required.
Flee Pokes going to start to try and get the IT wall open
and display some of the players upstairs.
Again, the information staff, Team Liquid Alienware,
they've got very similar tools.
That's what we saw NIP use on their own attacks.
Bringing the damage, they're bringing the dokeby.
They've got the thermite.
Makes things easy to get.
Breach is open.
Nice, large lines of sight.
Maya, prowl him below, you thinking about a strike on this, Deimos?
Looks like he's really targeting Pino on the Mew, oh nice use there, of the pocket EMPs,
rendering those Mewjammers useless for a time and especially with a phone call going in on
to Hates, at that same moment loads of value there, Flea Pox trying to make something happen,
is gonna find one, Hates just getting way too aggressive but a brilliant C4 from Pino
to shut him down.
and a good prefire from fellow pox as well, anticipating somebody to push up far.
Pino, how does he come away with that one?
Huge gunfights in the past couple rounds, still team liquid enemy with the advantage.
Leo mentioned this, it always feels like KZ is the one who's making it happen for T-Law in 13 and 6 right now.
Only player positive at the moment, I know exactly who the MVP is still.
Looking to get their fourth round, he's tagged up wizard.
Heavily.
DMR shot with the end of that Azami, a lot more damage has to be done to Beceto.
He got the plant down as well.
Miracle man for T-Law at the moment working his way to the opposite site.
Also getting himself to save territory. Can't really be C4'd from that position.
Wizard called as well.
So Force NIP back on their retake will also stop anybody from taking these vertical angles.
Some key seconds wasted by Team Lithraelienware. Good utility usage.
Good angles covered by Maya on a long cutoff.
Wizard had no chance of spotting that one.
Bissetta will pop open the seal angle with a Deathmark tracker and a 1DX.
Oh, and a Doki call as well.
Welcome to 2026 Rainbow Six Siege.
Have fun clutching this one.
We've got more information that we could possibly spend to take you down.
And Maya's still holding this angle as Team Liquid Alienware will narrow their lead by one.
Come on, Bissetta.
Give it a go.
Swing the angle.
Time has now elapsed.
Ooh, JV.
JV will fall, Berset will get his one, but the end is inevitable.
Team Liquid Alienware.
Just showing how good those tools can be.
Well, let's operate, by the way.
Poor old wizard. He's on less than 40 HP, and he got a phone called, what, twice?
He has to answer! If he doesn't answer, he dies!
Like, you need to pick up the phone!
Just deathmark tracker doka be call 1v3. Oh, cool. Great. I don't want to play the game. Anyway, actually, I was gonna I was gonna unplug my mouse and keyboard and kick my PC.
Time out then for NIP.
the game I mean it still feels to me and I don't know if I'm just a little bit
biased in this but it still feels like NIP I know that this they still lead but
they don't the only lead by one I still feel like they're in the driver's seat I
still feel like they hold all the cards it's not panic stations just yet they
don't need to start you know running around chasing the tail figuring out
how they solve this
Ali
No, I'm serious
Nothing that's a good read
Just do the second side it's labs. That's all it is
What what what would you say? Did you say I was on copium when we were cat?
Oh, yeah, it was the team. They're a phase game. You said I was on copium. You're on copium now
You've stolen my supply. I don't think I am. I just think it's an attack of sided labs
I both seem to be doing really well on the attack.
I mean that's true, right? But Tima Kurei on the attack right now. Based on the rounds we've seen, the only one NIP of 1 came down to a 2v4.
When it came to round 7, obviously it was a bit of a slow one, but Tima Kurei is still able to facilitate a pretty successful entry over on the opposite side.
And I will say, to your point, I think if KZ is not having the performance he's having,
this is probably a very different series.
What month is he?
Yeah, and so I think like, that's definitely a valid point.
Like, I don't think this is going to be Team Liquidating where winning and closing this out 7-5, necessarily.
In the driver's seat, I don't know.
At least the way they played the last round, they've been getting some good information,
and at least setting up KZ very well.
And I do think that it's not just him playing completely by himself.
himself. I think he's getting fed a lot of really good information of being set up quite well by the team.
Maybe it could be one of those cars where one person stared and the other person's in charge of the pedals,
or or it's one of those cars where one person's driving, but so he's getting the directions of the passenger seat.
That's a GPS open.
He's getting back seated by the GPS.
Well front seated, but yes.
I think this round will tell us a lot.
Of course, the difference at the moment in the, yes, this is an attack of sided labs,
is the Team Liquid Alienware was still good for a couple of rounds on the defense.
That could be the difference maker right now because NIP themselves are struggling.
I've got one already, because we all know one round doesn't make the game.
I see wall, gonna be opened nice and early.
Surprised to see NIP not target the thermite here
and just make things a little bit more difficult.
They instead chose to get rid of the Nomad.
The clash going as well.
It's not that those two balance each other out,
but one of Nomad's primary uses on this map
is to deal with electrical and stop clashes
from being able to aggress through
or stop even a player from being able to aggress through.
So it's not something that NIP
are gonna now have to worry about,
in those air jobs but they still need to be cautious because these breaches are just going
to continue to get opened for free massive lines of sight available for NIP2 or for NIP2
to try and hide from and for Team Liquid Alienware to try and exploit. Give a walk-up through
Garbage Air for Leapox not even going through the barbed wire just a little bit of aggression
as it's KZ the main man on this Team Liquid roster 13 and 6 right now letting them know
told that he's dead. DMR pre-firing through.
I honestly thought KZ just got that kill right there.
It was JB92 finding hate at the exact moment that KZ swung.
Quick trade by NIP.
But look at this pressure. Team Liquid Avalonware
are applying to the site.
We still got a minute 10 seconds left.
And it feels like NIP are boxed into second floor currently.
Adding in a dimension for IT as well.
Oh, he sees him, but Becetto reacts quicker.
JB92 not expecting somebody to be peeking up behind that Kiba.
is where the issue of a direct take like this, full IT side,
garage side, Tate comes into play.
You don't have a whole lot of room to work with
if you don't win these fights.
Gotta rotate.
That's a G what'll happen.
KZMIA again, doing a two man push from the opposite side.
Maya gets the first, Maya gets the second.
KZ looking for number three and number four
as he lands the DMR on the right spot
instead of Spellapox to get the last.
Might be another big round coming down
to KZMIA pushing, but what that was,
a good call rotating to the opposite side
the first attack failed. Team
liquid alien we're starting to find their feet here.
Been fantastic in that opening pick for the last couple
of rounds. A stat line that NIP have dominated and then
proceeded to run away with the game.
As the tide start to turn, leveled up at 5-5 is team liquid alien
where they're starting to get some of that success start to get
some of that early game down. It's not only KZ at the moment
that's performing. Maya has really stepped up over the course of the last couple of
rounds picking up two really important kills in round number 10. Sane could be
said for players like JV92, I mean even for Leapox was getting in on the action
there, he was on the Monty and even D-Shielded just to ensure he got his kill
onto Wizard, for I'm maintaining those stats somewhat after playing the shield
and doing a lot of the thankless work. And IP have taken their time out.
when they got themselves to look toward now as they try to defend it downstairs
and they're going for a hatch-open approach so they will be occupying space on
this top floor cast our minds back to how NIP dealt with this themselves
we went for a very direct approach back to seeing a hefty off-site extension by
Team Liquid Alienware. I wonder if Liquid Alienware will go for the same thing here
because there is a chance for that not a great deal of denial especially when you're
dealing vertically, yeah you can throw your toxic wave canisters down but this goes down
in the cloud of smoke, not really going to have too many places to look for.
this roam back. Can be very useful. Again, you have to respect these vertical
angles, have to put a little bit of pressure on them with the alienware.
Spend this time moving around on the middle floor. Get him progressively
closer. Got a feel that he might push pretty soon, actually. The Monti moving in,
KZ bottom house. Smoke grenades going out as well, likely to facilitate KZ walking
up the hallway and the Monty just around the corner hates years it can't really
take the fight is Maya instead coming in from the backstab what a good
distraction play by team liquid alien where Maya KZ both getting active KZ
finally getting another actor on stage making this a two-man performance not
just KZ with 15 and 6 NIP now forced back down to the site as T-Law have a
firm lead
You are in danger.
Now, it's six to five for Team Liquid Alienware.
Good thing to remind everybody of the wind conditions for it's T law.
All that's required is a victory either one round or a few more to close things out in 8, 7 or 8, 6 to be fair.
That is all that is needed for T law.
Just well, not just one point at least two or three.
And not only do they secure playoffs and makes things quite difficult tomorrow for flux. So W7M.
Of course, Los playing Liquid tomorrow means that matchup only really means things for
Los when it comes to actual playoff contention.
If you can level things up here, of course, at any point on this, I believe secures them
top four of a Team Liquid Amateur, whether it's 7-5 or 8-7, all they are looking for
is a W.
Yeah, let's go to that stage in the, in proceedings where points are the name of the game.
For an IP, while this game is important, I'm more likely to qualify through that top 4.
Team Liquid Alienware need these points and they need them desperately.
If NIP lose here and don't get any points, they remain at 16.
It does leave the door open for both loud and liquid to challenge them.
So for Team Liquid Alienware, they just want the points, they just need the points.
How far they've shown us that?
NIP, are you good for another defensive round? Can you match Liquid's two defensive rounds, one?
And take this game to an OTMA if this game goes to all the time.
I don't even know if we've done the numbers for that, because then things just get even crazier.
Start splitting points across two different teams, and especially with how many of these games rely on other results.
the results. The ramifications that will be extremely wide spread.
Cutting up in the top floor. Breach is not betraying it this time. KZ finds the first, so quickly traded.
They'll be looking to push in deep through that middle floor man. What a time to get a
OG KZ performance right now 17 and 7
Putting on these kinds of members for quite a long time
It's a half to the kitchen defense by the way, and if you going to completely different off-site
Being able to find a player early is nice
But one thing you want to find is especially a couple kills on this round
from being able to push these defenders back and it seems NIP have already seeded a lot of that ground to T-Lock.
So, I want to see them make some more aggressive plays, they have the full vertical troll to make use of it.
Looks like the off-site is really putting Team Liquid Alienware off at the moment.
Two kills down, Maya and KZ have both fallen so far.
Pull Epox.
And see him calling in the player cam.
He's needing a little bit of assistance upstairs inside a meeting, but it's going to be JV92
trying to burst his way through off the back of anything that he's got, a couple of nades.
Speaking of, Nade trying to make the challenge, but look at where's it close play with the
shotgun.
Can he grab them both?
Yes, he does.
Defuser called on the ground.
He should be able to win the next one, and if not that, rely on his teammates to back
him up.
The fuser now in the hands of the defense.
JV92 kept outside by these toxic canisters on another shotgun close quarters team liquid Alienware
I fed themselves to the meat grinder bottom house and then I pee will bring us to
O T a win for either teams is exactly what they need if it all comes down to 15. That's all the better for us
Well, why not go 12 at time?
Why shouldn't we have it all?
NIP, Team Liquid Alienware, both desperate for points here.
Locking in that top floor before the last playday always takes a little bit of the pressure
off.
Both still have a chance.
NIP remain on the defense.
Is that going to be the difference, Lynx?
It's been incredibly attack-asided so far.
teams have had to fight tooth and nail for only two rounds to each on the defence
and yet we go back up to the top floor site where defenders have struggled it
feels all night long we've got one win on this site round six just at the end of
the half liquid road we're good for a win aside from that it's been all attack
all day on this top floor and I P hoping that they too can snag one away and give
themselves a bit of an advantage.
Attacker side of day. That turn continues to hold. It'll be Team Liquid
Alienware with the advantage to start out. Also generally been good for the opening
picks in the attack as well. Team Liquid Alienware breaking away that streak for
NIP. The first eight rounds were 8-0 on opening duels. As things ended up being,
Team Liquid Alienware generally speaking better on the attack, but that offside
pick in round 12 definitely catching them off. But when it's come to second
floor, they've been good. Two times now they've been able to get a win on this
primary site. Not every single time bringing this monty is only the second
time we saw fellow pox hit that walk up the rafter stairs. But generally speaking,
pretty good at clearing our garage, good at acquiring control, and my MKZ specifically
happen to stand out players, usually opening things up over on the connector and IT side
walking in, or connector generator side, excuse me, walking in, just keep your eyes
on those two players, if they can have impact in this round, Team Liquid A1 will be looking
quite good.
It's not taken much really far to you all to look good in this fixture on attack.
Love their attacks have been very well considered.
Still KZ though.
The large load to bear.
And we're trying to join up with Flee Pox as a initial clear inside of where House is
happening.
IT breach already open.
Flee Pox plays a beautiful Monty by the way.
Real aggressive I mean look at the time.
Halfway through the round and he's already shoved that as army right back.
Yes, they can play a little bit deeper from inside, but with KZ on the wall, he can make
sure that no one's going to swing while that hard breach charge goes off and still put
chip damaging onto people.
And if KZ can just get active from this angle or from any of these positions, Team Liquid
Airware will always have a chance, especially as you said off the back of this aggressive
play by the Monty, JB92 coming in below, catching that fantasy, trying to catch the Monty off
guard.
big what he needs to holding the cutoff angle on the single door in the IT
breach stops what could have been NIP quickly sweeping the round away from
T-Law looking for his 20th kill was Pino so distracted by the Monty KZ season
but Thelopox is doing so with the pistol and there's the big 2-0 KZ breaking
well beyond double digits his 20th kill this series as it is a map point for
you are deservedly so little one two punch of KZ and Filippox and then JV92
just swooping in like a superhero at the exact opportune moment deny the flank
that was being attempted a flank that by the way if that goes off and Filippox
falls it starts to get very dangerous because for all that KZ is doing a
brilliant job all of that is facilitated by Monty all of that is
facility to buy full epochs. Without full epochs, without the threat of the Monty, it's
just one player swinging with the DMR onto the breach wall. And guess what? Just don't
peek it. But as soon as there's a Monty there, you have to challenge it because as soon as
you lose that fight, the space is going to be taken. Team Liquid Alienware, they're going
to choose the top floor to make what could be their final stand here. Another chance at
points and another chance at closing out the game as we approach maximum overtime
here still there is potential we go 7-7 and an IP end up back on that defensive
side well the momentum in this game it has been very slowly edging toward that
Team Liquid Alienware direction and it is in large part due to one man and one
man only KZ 20 and 7 right now. You can have another good round here, especially in the
position that he's going to defend it on that rafters. Could be wraps. Could be, I mean especially
as we've seen him falling back out of the rafters and then going for flanks later, even
on the defense when it hasn't necessarily been multi kill city, it was just a few really
important frags on that defensive half.
Rounds 2 and round 6, and even then, almost 1v3 from KZ as well.
It's just been from really important individual plays from him that made that defensive half
and kept Team Liquid in competitive to get to this position.
So being able to have that impact on rafters, whether it's weathering the storm or going
for the flank later, public enemy number one might be this man right here with a 9x19 wizard.
can use those fire bolts if he wants to send them over top they have the Monty as
well you try to force the issue though it would be difficult going back close
quarter is there a couple different options though as NIP generally speak
he takes the fight on IT he swings hates on the repel he gets the win and not
at least that garage cleared KZ is down for the round someone's not trying to
fill this gap it's gonna be Maya to move into position knows this area needs
to be held. The Seto. He knows it's going to be backfilled. No more Keeper Barricades though.
Myra's only got his gun to rely on. Banshee's yes, sure they might help him but it's not active
utility that he can place in a pinch. Slowly but surely we start to see the utility taking care of
here on rafters. The way this round has gone given that about the minute and 20 second mark
Do you have hates on it? You get the feeling that could be a slower paced round fancy downstairs below looking for a bit of an opening
Doesn't realize just how close he is. This is a crucial engagement. He needs to win
Target onto the Goryo
Isn't the Goryo that is the Goryo that's downstairs with him a little bit of support coming in now as well fancy misses his shots
Fluffs it JV92 takes him out can rotate back up back where that's a massive kill
And a big one to follow up, Nate's able to take down Hades on the IT push in, NIPU tried
to make it.
Do a similar way that T-Law did, IT and Garage.
The prongs aren't working.
We've got the Garage part, but as Pino is looking to flank on the back side, he just
wins the fight against Velopox, but Team Liquid Alienware still keep things in the lead.
Only one active done for NIP right now.
Pino's got to be the cover for Basetto right now, putting the diffuser down.
Well, isolated on the opposite side, but Bassetto falls off.
Full shields to apply some more pressure, work himself into an off position that might be better for Pino to cover,
but it's still gonna be difficult. He catches the head of one.
Another right around the corner as he spots another, but made with it, and on the next to the nine, a post away from NIP!
A dub was all they needed, and it's a dub made to go get eight to six.
Team Liquid Alienware are your fifth team in the playoffs.
a photo finish there for Team
Liquid Alienware. Not the easiest
game at all going down in the
first half, having to dig
incredibly deep on their own
attacks and eventually get it
over the line, winning that top
floor on the defense. It comes
down to a one versus one. I
genuinely feel like we saved the
best until the last heard
tonight. We're going to send it
just as they do it with boxing,
where you get the heavy weight at the end of the day.
What a great matchup between these two teams.
And of course, overtime, I think deserving of how close this matchup was
and the stakes that were on this matchup.
But we get to speak to the winners.
We have Igor on the line,
who we can ask some questions about this game
and that we can also congratulate Igor.
Congratulations on making it into playoffs.
But let's be honest, that was a pretty tense matchup to watch from the sidelines.
Yes, of course, they surprised us with the Night Hand Labs. We didn't expect this map on this match.
We were expecting a caffè, to be honest, but they played really well.
It was the second time they played. The last time it was against us in the playoffs, we got the spots for the Major.
And we won again, so I think we had a good resilience today and we could get the payoff spot is the most important.
Igor, I was also surprised to see this map being played, it was not in my prep, so I guess it was also on your side.
Initially on the first few rounds, I saw an IT go crazy aggressive early in the rounds, like they won, I think the 8 first opening kills in a row.
Was it something that you noticed, like, did you expect that kind of aggression on their side?
We know they really enjoyed to play with Teimos, Dokka, B, and Snake.
They had like a perma-ban, and had like Ace and Grim, very good operators.
And we knew it, they will play aggressive, but at the same time they couldn't do anything.
They played really well in the attack side.
side and our defense I think we were like to push it to be honest like we needed to
he did more kind of aggressive in our defense and my pause was about that and that's it but
Nip played really well. And speaking of those bands I think you were one of the first teams
that were really super innovative at using the new band system to target bands teams when it came out
And just in this scenario, for example, why do you go sometimes with default bands on a certain map,
rather than cunter bands against a team like an IP that you know they're going to play the crazy
triple demos, the KAB, Solis Snake, Green Lion? I think it depends on how much we like the map,
like sub-maps like Nightingale Labs, Clubhouse, it's about opening the bridge, so the bands
it's going to help this and other maps like border or our cafe or chalet we can manage this like
a counter ban or something like that so I think it depends on the map.
All right and then more question before we let you go Igor you have now confirmed the playoff
which is great for your side but there's two teams left there's low such Flux or W7M but
only one more spot. Who do you think makes it?
I think Fluxo because we will play against
Lowe's and we want to one of course.
Maybe we have the change at the third position. I don't know.
I think it depends on the match against NIP but
that's it and the most important thing is
Liquid England. Be there in the playoffs so Lowe's Fluxo.
I don't care.
I get it. You can play a better devils advocate than that much of us, and we will be ruined stage for a team there as well, Igor.
Thank you so much for your time, both congratulations on the qualification and good luck next week.
Thank you. Bye bye.
Good to hear from you. I'll always love the insights as well, starting all the way from like, oh, we didn't expect Nighthunter in the Laps like you were saying as well, to the issues they were facing on their defense, the fact that they were playing too scared.
Leo, let's be honest, they talked about the operators that NIP were playing on their attacks.
I felt some very similar operators there on the side of Team Liquid as well.
Crowd control operators, Dokubi, Soul and Snake, Gamos, they threw a line in the mixer as well.
And all of that leads to KZ, the guy on your screen right now, getting away with absolute murder sometimes.
Yeah, honestly, they can be really thankful to KZ for that game, because dropping 20 kills,
Even if you're in the last round, he's the opponent that...
I mean, he deserves the praise. He deserves that win.
For far, he needed that. He needed that to make it to the playoffs.
I think he made sure he was dropping 20 kills in one single map.
And overall, I think a great comeback on the side of Team Liquid.
I think also a great adaptation to so many rounds where they were at the man deficit.
And they had this ability mostly on the back of KZ, but not only.
Mayer had a couple of great rounds where he really came back.
He started off really poorly in this game and managed to get positive in the end.
And I think that's on the back of many moments where he went and managed to get a few picks here and there
by lurking, by getting aggressive.
It was a crazy game.
High intensity between two teams that honestly are playing at a really high level.
That's the top of the top of Brazil and you can feel it.
And I think that just looking at the top four on paper,
It feels like phase, furia, NIP, team liquid are all four looking incredibly strong.
No one of them is able to qualify for the WC yet, but I would not be surprised if they were the top four making it for the WC
with the level they've been showing. Obviously, out of the top four,
Liquid has been the one that's been the least consistent.
I think if they can win against those tomorrow, they're looking at that top four at 100%,
and then things will be different.
I'm quite excited to see the fact that this went to overtime against the follow-up from it and how played it now will be impactful.
It will be a direct shot-out between Loss and Fluxxer W7M for that last player spot, but they don't play each other.
So this is going to make things very interesting, and Loss has one more point than W7M, so obviously not at all at the same level here.
And all the way until the final match as well, because here I could throw a Spanner in the works for Team Liquid in regards to their top 4 position.
But I don't think it is to anybody's surprise that the MVP of this matchup is KZ, you know, getting some plans out as well, going active on the entry and then 20 kills to help his team get locked in for play-offs.
As Igar was saying, of course, that is the main objective, that is the main goal for group stage.
They don't care what ever team it is that faces or joins them as the last team inside of those playoffs,
but making it to the playoffs was the most important thing.
Now, folks are on this year and purely the numbers that we're seeing, right?
NIP, Furia on the same amount of points, they play against each other next week.
Then Team Liquid, they have a shot of equaling Furia in those points there.
Should NIP pull off something against Furia there?
And then the round differential between all these teams, Leo, it is so incredibly close that even, you know, with the fact that we've seen so many 7-5s,
any round next week can make the difference whether you're first, second, well, second, third, or fourth.
Yeah, I'm just trying to make the math in my head if NIP somehow with their round difference have managed to lock in top four, despite losing another time.
because they're on 17 points so loud needs to overtake them
and in theory loud can get up to 17 in the next playday
but NIP has got a plus 10 round difference on them
so they would need a crazy performance like a 7-0
and they would need an IP to drop quite a lot of rounds
if they wanted to overtake them
so it's going to be, I don't think NIP is locked at 100%
maybe I'll need to double check the math
But the most important thing is LUS and FW7M, these two.
One point separating the two of them, and obviously only one can make the playoffs.
And I think it's the harsh truth of loud making playoffs by beating FaZe,
basically means that out of the usual suspect that we would find in the top six of ACL,
one of them has to lose, one of them has to miss that,
and that will be either LUS, either FW7M.
That is to be decided next week Sunday as we only have one more playday remaining in groups and therefore only on Sunday
Will we have action going down in the essay or very important to keep in mind and also we'll be back at our normal schedule
There will be no match for Brazil in the World Cup on next week Sunday
So we'll be starting again at 6 p.m
CST has we have been doing with many of these playoffs and I think our attention really is going to be focused on that later
have for the day, right? The chances for lows, the chances for a loud as well, but also for
NIP and Fiora, and regards to positioning on the leaderboard, come the end of that final playday.
Yeah, and I'm just wondering right now, if for NIP there isn't some kind of redemption,
if they can go and beat Fiora all the way at the end, it doesn't mean much, but I just,
I feel like it would be such a big banger for them, and I think they need that kind of confidence
back, because after facing multiple top teams and fading to beat each of them, I just feel like
It's like we're starting to notice the ceiling that we started to notice last year, of NIP being the most consistent team and yet not being able to beat some of the most important teams.
I think they're going to need this, especially looking at the performance in Salt Lake City.
They want to go into WC with a different momentum and a different confidence.
I'm super excited about the game here, Lost Liquid, like I said.
It's probably going to be like an incredible banger and one that's going to define exactly the strength of SEL going into WC.
Exactly, yeah, we'll have to wait a whole week though before that playday finally kicks off the final playday of SAAL.
Luckily for us, specifically, we'll be back on the e-world tomorrow with some more action to play out there starting as well.
That means the same for the viewers. There is a lot of action happening next week with players starting in many of the regions.
SAAL is one of the later regions when it comes to playing out their group stage. We'll be doing that next week, Sunday.
That is it from us here on the SAAL. We thank you so very much for watching. Hope you have a great rest of your night, and we'll see you again.
Next week.