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I
the world. It reminded us that victory is never wanted. The world tested us. Now they
know who we are. Champions are made in North America. Everything's made result. Not given.
of the playoffs in the North
American League. So glad to
with us, everybody. Today we send our final two teams to the eSports World Cup. So good
to be back. I'm Jonas Rillinger alongside Laxing and Mint Lax. The playoffs, I mean,
it's so good every time. You shift gears from best of ones into best of threes territory.
You add the pressure. You add the stakes. You put teams up for elimination. You really
get to see who's cut out for it. And who is it? I mean, you see the best of both worlds.
For me personally, I love Vesa3s, I love playoffs, but today there is even more pressure on the
line when you were talking about pressure.
Just for the simple fact, we got teams that are going to still qualify for UWC, but then
the last bit of it, teams being eliminated and their campaign ends today.
That's the sad part, because we don't want the NEL stage to really end ever, but it usually
means it's going to set up an actual major competition.
So that I'm excited for, but yeah, you never want to see any team go home.
Well, we didn't send anyone home yesterday, that's what today is all about.
kicked off with well the best team we've got here in the NAL right now they
went nearly undefeated in the group stage it was M80 taking on 100 thieves to
start out the day. This was the beef match this was hot and cold versus
former organization M80 and hot cold he actually had a pretty stellar day by by
an ITL kind of standards he was the top fragger for the team had the internet
our individual stats but unfortunately it's a team game after all in the team
we were seeing a lot of the same issues that we did in the past they weren't
winning after getting those man advantages and they could keep failing at the conversion.
Yeah, I made him continue to look sharp. But as for the side of looking sharp, DarkZero Wildcard,
that was a sharp game from both teams. I mean, however, the first game, I think you said it best yesterday,
is Wildcard needed this win, especially once we get into that chalet, where they got absolutely dismantled by DarkZero.
But we're worried about the mentality. We did that listening. We quickly understood, OK, Wildcard still isn't good hopes.
They understand that this was DZ's map overall, let's push it to that night Haven lamp and really test one another and it tests
Exactly what DZ encounter
Yeah, we all came down to that conflict and right that map one how close that was that you highlighted it all those 1v1
Is that we're how I like the utility that would be around now. Oh the C4 max and we're talking about that on day two
Okay, we are C4 maxing. Yeah, we got to continue the trend. Maybe the casters will keep going with that one
It's crazy that we've seen this pattern continue now all five members of the team's secret roster that won EWC last year
They're going to EWC again because M80 as you see there
They now play wild card in the upper bracket final which will happen next week as they play
For the NAL title now. They've already made the eSports World Cup and today
We look to find two more teams who will join them Shopify rebellion in hundred thieves
That's one of our lower bracket matchups as well as for fun eSports and dark zero now these matchups
Not exactly what it seemed like you guys had in mind yesterday when you made your prediction at the end of the day
100% yeah, okay. Well, I've got some news for you. We actually have that bracket to pull up now the
Script that we chose to leak yesterday
Here's what it looked like hundred thieves winning dark zero winning not exactly what you guys had predicted. Hold on
Might not be exactly what predicts I did predict and maybe however, I did say that wild card was going to be
We're already on top of it. Wow
acknowledging that I was correct. Well, I think it's oh when two as in your game
Oh, I need to zero
I'm stunned. I'm stunned that we you actually went through the time of going back and getting this and proving me that I'm wrong guys
I love it.
Notoriously, what I'm known for is cast or cursing teams.
Every time I root for a team, it fails.
I think Super BlameD, who lifts it as well.
We'll see who I'm picking today now.
That's true.
Well, up ahead, as you guys said,
we'll get the chance to see Super and Shopify Rebellion.
And the first look that we will get of them
in our opening matchup of the day.
Later on, it's four fun Esports and dark zero.
A much more one-sided affair as four fun Esports
Look to prove if they can hang here in the NAL playoff.
They did it in kickoff, but it is a very different story now.
But we start the day with Shopify Rebellion and 100 Thieves.
As we said, it's our first opportunity
to get a look at this Shopify Rebellion roster
now that we move from the best of one territory
to the best of three territory.
And for this SR team, there's this odd pattern
that started to emerge in kickoff,
struggling in the group stage.
Much better in the playoffs.
They go to Salt Lake City and thrive.
Same thing here.
Struggling in the group stage.
Now they have to try to harness that playoff success again.
Yeah, I mean, I want to give them a little bit of grace,
even from being a former player.
And as you know, I hate best ones.
Best ones are awful.
And what we see, especially on the side from SR,
is once they get into best threes,
that fire is lit from underneath them,
and they turn into an entirely different beast.
Now, we haven't seen that exact same beast
that we highlighted through all of SLC,
where they were the second runners up.
We need to see that, especially going into the day,
given the fact that EWC is on the line.
And again, sure, it might not look pretty through group stage,
but once they get to play-offs,
they look a little more polished.
And this team has been polished for a long time,
and they've made international events for such a long time.
I mean, trying to think of the last event
that they did not make as an organization,
this team has been almost every single one.
Yeah, so if you're we're just looking at the Sonic's Core, they have not missed an event since EWC 2024, just about two years ago.
So they made every single event as SR and then again with that Sonic's going all the way back there.
So, of course, they have the prestige, they have the big organization, they have the star players and they've been making all these events.
So the question mark starts to come in, what happens if they don't make this event, right?
because we almost seen that happening with the SR4.
They almost missed out on a bunch of other events
and the community loves to get on them
with should they make roster changes?
Is it an IGL problem?
And now they find themselves in the lower bracket
because they didn't really care about the best of ones
and that just is what it is.
And now they are one game away from being eliminated.
We don't wanna see what happened to G2 happen to SR.
And now again, we're gonna have to answer
all those questions again from the community.
Yeah, that'll be a big kind of question mark for me.
We'll let further exacerbate issues from them
that we know that they have.
But again, that's a big question mark.
We don't know.
What we do know is for certain,
when they get to bless the best threes,
Troy's inevitable, they make a bet.
Well, and it feels like every single game,
there's somebody else on this team
that has an all-star performance.
We've talked about, and the F the major going God mode.
Spoight has been incredible for the most part
through the group stage.
We're kind of waiting to see when Rexon
is gonna make his move, right?
Like, who's the player that's gonna lead the way here?
Do you wanna take this, or do you want me to?
I want to I want to you know respectfully talk about Rex here because when you look at all the stars on the team
He has four you have Andy your surfing is on right. You have Troy is the leader
Rexon has kind of now switch into a role where he's playing the roles that no one really wants to play
That's but has to play in order to make all the moving pieces work in tandem with one another
So yes, he hasn't been as flashy. Yes
He isn't being statistically the best performer, but he's playing the roles that enable everyone else to perform and succeed in their respective roles
So I do want to give him his flowers there.
I don't want to just necessarily shit on him and be like,
are we going to see him perform?
In fact, with the Matters, you need
to play that as willing to bite down and just play the roles
that no one wants to play.
Look, we call him Mr. Consistent for a reason.
That is his nickname.
Because he's played every single role in SR.
He was the Ash entry frag.
He did play support.
I've seen him on Thermite.
He's played literally every role.
And now this is the role he's settled in because of all
the other great players added to this team.
So we know what he's capable of.
And I think we're all kind of hoping we can see a big game
out of him to show that.
But at the same time, at the end of the day,
he is still doing his job perfectly on the team.
He's the glue piece.
Well, on the 100 Thieves side of thing,
in SR's opponents today, we also know what they're capable of.
We just did not see that yesterday.
It really felt like they fell short of the expectations
that we had for them.
Yeah, and we got to look at the bigger picture of yesterday.
I mean, when you look at all of the 100 Thieves
and everything the progress has been throughout the stage,
it really looks like a regression from them,
especially leading into that playoff game.
I mean, I was highly anticipated
that they were going to come into this.
They're going to keep it close.
It simply wasn't there.
Their performance wasn't there.
When we were looking at star players,
they weren't there on the leaderboard,
like the typical performance we're used to seeing on them.
And then even in their match, they weren't in sync.
They were bleeding kills, so to speak, as you say.
It was all of these issues just piling up
that will lead into their ultimate demise
and now having to play here today with one life left.
Yeah, you just said it right there,
but it goes back to the beginning of the season,
regular stage where they always get the opening pick and they're not able to convert.
And that is what we saw yesterday again in their game versus Amity opening pick on the Geveni.
They're calling for them to sink and go through this pill on the diffuser on the mirror.
But we see the IT guys walking before the connector guys.
And it's the same problems that haunt them from the early stages.
And then even in the following the next one, they did such a good job at clearing out roamers,
understanding how they can go approach the bomb site.
But that's where then they lose focus.
They get the picks, they have the man advantage, but they don't understand the cut-offs and how they can play with each other in order to be in sync with each other and because of it, they end up losing yet another round.
And this is an issue that continues to plague this team.
Yeah, I mean, we're gonna watch Gomez, again, not watching the cut-off.
Unfortunate timing here, Gunnar.
That is a pick that you wish you could have had and around you wish you could have had.
And this, this is already a plan B.
We're on bank.
Let's go open the stock wall because we couldn't mess with Janitor of the Janitor mirror.
But hey, there's three women eyes.
We're not opening that wall.
We go to a plan C flood to the site.
But because they didn't clear the stock wall,
Savage is able to play curve and get aggressive,
and ultimately win then the run.
And all these players knows what that's taking,
especially for Han Cole being the IGL.
He knows where everything is going wrong,
and they are simply with just cutting corners,
where if they just tighten up,
things can be far prettier on the other side.
Well, what, this is Adam disappearing?
I don't know, this is what you guys are trying to say.
I mean, this is what I'm talking about with star players.
I mean, Adam, he's the eighth highest rated player in the NAI.
I believe he's also the 10th highest rated overall in KD.
And even in terms of the just matchup, SR versus 100,
these just even look back and when they played on board,
or Adam, what, dropped 18 or 19 kills in that game?
And you said himself, being a former coach,
we typically start to see Adam fall off
when it comes into playoffs.
That he doesn't exist.
He kind of disappears.
But Hot and Cold needs that firepower
coming into this playoff today.
Yeah, this kind of his MO, unfortunately for Adam.
I mean, he proved himself in like a stage
a little bit in the past.
But unfortunately, if you look at kind of his career,
when the playoffs come, it is kind of when he's not showing up.
And not even Adam Gomez yesterday struggled a little bit as well.
The whole, all the Fraggers, they all did.
All the Fraggers really on the team.
Your hot and cold should not be carrying the team's spirits.
I need to see a little bit more out of him as well.
He's on the shields.
And right now, I think he's having a little bit of confidence issues.
And we need to see him kind of get past that and going into SR.
Because I think that is going to be a huge key for them to win today.
Absolutely.
Well, if they want to harness some of that energy again,
Let's find out where we're going to end up here for this best of three again.
This one is already in the lower bracket.
So you win this series, you go to EWC, you lose, you pack your bags.
We're going to start on Fortress Kyle.
What do you make of this?
Well, it makes a lot of sense that it's going to be SR's pick here,
considering it's their best map and they have yet to lose on this map.
Yeah.
They look a little shaky versus outlast in a game that we were calling it.
Outlast had a chance in, but I don't think that's going to matter again.
Come here in the best of threes.
these guys know exactly what this is for, making the Esports World Cup.
This is their best map, it's their home ground.
I'm pretty confident in them being able to get their pick.
There's a little bit of a toss up for me.
Obviously we've seen highs and highs for both teams in low lows,
especially for the side of SR losing to 4-Fund Esports the way that they did.
I mean, it was a flawless defensive half for 4-Fund,
where they managed to only muster out three rounds
once they got to the defensive half.
But again, the bigger question for me is really,
is 100th is going to put up that same performance yesterday.
Because what we know, at least from SR,
when they get into this best three territory, they're on top of it.
They're on par with one another.
They able to play well off each other.
They play the trades extremely well.
They go for those side excuse really well.
For 100 Thieves, our first view of what we see in playoffs
hasn't been pretty.
So I really hope to see that bounce back.
Yeah, I do think it's a map though
that they can kind of counter SR on a little bit
because I do think SR is very rigid on Lair
which is why they've kind of been losing it
a little bit lately.
They kind of do the same things over and over again
and for fun was able to exploit that like you just said.
So I think I'm actually okay with this for 100 Thieves.
They never banned this map.
They love this map.
Again, we're gonna need them because I am not too confident in them on fortress. This has to be their background in the bed
I agree would be third spot in the eSports World Cup on the line for North America
It's hundred thieves and Shopify rebellion no second chances anymore for these themes
We start things out on fortress with Jesse and Parker
Thank you so very much Jesse first and foremost congratulations. You got married the other week
Chat for the dozens of you that are watching this show
Please clap and applaud our new married man Jesse. You and Jess. Congratulations. What a beautiful ceremony
Thank you, Parker
We've been a little bit away from the casting this last week because I was at my wedding and you were showing up to my wedding
Underdressed and sitting in the front row, but that's okay because all of that is behind us
And now we can get back to the rainbow six seed with the rebellion versus hundred days
For the record, I asked Jesse what was appropriate to wear and his exact words were
like the last couple of matches before the live event of Rambo 6.
So even when we are talking about his wedding, he is using Rambo 6 terms.
Jesse, I think you might need a longer vacation than the last week.
Also, it was my birthday, same day as your wedding, and I think it's really great that now every time I celebrate my birthday,
I will remember Edmonton. What a wonderful treat.
So, this matchup, though, 100 thieves and Shopify Rebellion,
when you go to Paris and EWC and lose, and that is Curtains.
Jesse, this is a really tough first map for 100 thieves.
Fortress is quite literally living up to its name for the Rebellion.
Yeah, no doubt about it.
Mitt mentioned you're on the desk, but the Rebellion are undefeated lifetime on Fortress.
They are 7-0 since this map joined the competitive pool.
They have been dominating on this map.
This map wrote Salt Lake City, they went 2-0 this stage, beating SSG and Outlast, so they're very comfortable here.
Little surprised to see 100 teams let it through the map fan phase, but they did win it for the first time one week ago.
That was 7-5 versus base stations, so hopefully they've been working on this map.
Making sure us some surprises up against SR.
It's been a bit of a rough go for SR here in stage number one, but they're not alone.
There have been a couple teams that have underperformed some that have seriously overperformed.
there was a period of time where it seemed like the rebellion would maybe have a
rougher pathway to the playoffs here and that their their road to EWC was
getting quite challenging. I mean if you watch yesterday's games which were
quite exciting both of the best of threes were good obviously the second
one was significantly better which was Darkseer versus Wildcard that was a
banger. The two teams that finished in the grand finals of Salt Lake City both
failed to qualify in that first day. Now one of them shot the Firebellion didn't
play so they couldn't qualify at all. DZ had a golden opportunity to do so, but Wildcard
is just doing Wildcard things, and yet again, we'll be back at another international event.
So, Hundred Thieves have their second opportunity, and as was stated, this is the last one. They
fail here, they've had two chances, they're out, they'll have to wait for stage two to
see if they can qualify for the Japan Major in November.
Yeah, and just off the rip here, Parker, I really like the bands from that 100th Yves.
The Rebellion, they really have two attacks on this primary site here, Fortress. They
They have a ying focused attack and they have a shield focused attack.
By taking away that ying, Canadians forced to go for the shield push.
It's bringing the black bear, which is an operator he knows well, but even so you're
taking tools away from SR and they're really focusing in on Canadian with these operator
bans.
The rebellion will ban what they always ban on fortress, smoke is on me, there will be
no surprises for 100 thieves on that one coming into this game.
So already I think 100 thieves may be winning a bit in the operator bans, but it of course
has to come to the test here in the server.
Many of these roamers have already fallen back on the side of Hundred Beads, so not
really wanting to contest the rebellion early, conceding a lot of this space out there on
the map so that they can have all five players alive for the execute.
Having Canadian be your main point with somebody following up with him is going to be the focus
for the rebellion.
A lot has been spoken about, Canadian and his impact on this team.
He enters this game 48th of 50th players in terms of EPS, and the only person that has
fewer kills than him in the league is JJ Blast so you know that he's gonna be
playing a very passive role you know he's not gonna be involved in a lot of
altercations or I should actually clarify he's involved in them he's just
off the one doing the shooting the shooting will be done by two people maybe
three more than it's gonna be ambi and he starts off very well points also on the
board the duel F2 is putting in some serious work
Kason will pick up his first kill he's chasing a hundred kills in stage one
quite a tally for his rookie debut that'll be 91 so far on the stage surf on
the board so three people on SR getting active from a kills perspective and
spoit will get the final one two kills for ambi two kills for spoit and one for
surf I'm assuming that's a bow and arrow and I mean spoit was shooting maybe not
at Rex on the other side of the room SR take round one vibes are good in the SR
campus what you want to see for the favorites coming into this matchup
despite starting to lower bracket I think most people would call the rebellion
the favorites here of course. Second place, just the last Salt Lake City major. They have
high hopes and high expectations to make it to Paris to head into EWC. One hugely important
aspect of this game that we saw front and center in the first round Parker are going
to be the opening engagements. This was touched on briefly by the desk. Certainly on the Hunter
Thieves side, they have really struggled to convert a lot of those entries. It was a big
problem for them yesterday versus M80, but I think especially against the Rebellion,
getting those opening gunfights are so important.
Shotfire, really, have the highest entry conversion rates
of any team in North America League,
winning 80% of the rounds when they get the opening pick.
And when Andy's doing stuff like this,
you can be pretty confident
they're gonna get those opening picks.
They had so much information helping out the rebellion there
and allowed Andy to take the space
that was given to him for free.
The F2s were singing as you mentioned, Parker.
So, 100 Ds, they've gotta be a little bit better
in the early parts of these games.
I wanna see them maybe getting a bit more aggressive,
the rebellion off guard, ruin some of their plans before they get set up for their five-man exit.
Yeah, I mean, a hundred thieves we need would have their hands full here. Your goal is to just
make it to map number two with, I guess, as competitive a map as possible. One thing that
Troy talked about when he was doing a bit of a post-mortem on Salt Lake City's finals was that
Shopify rebellion just mentally boomed on a map that they knew they were going to lose and they
and they were just not able to recover.
If you're 100 thieves, you have to not fall victim
to the same thing.
You almost certainly know you're gonna lose fortress
just based on the history and the way
that rebellion play this map.
So, square your mind off, prepare for map number two,
and just try to keep it as competitive.
One thing I will say about 100 thieves
is usually their mental is pretty good.
So, if they can stay the course,
they'll have a fighting chance in map two
and then can push us to border four in map three.
Also, just a small note, F2s being shown off.
That's the new Shopify rebellion R6 Shader skin.
It's quite nice, Jessica. I don't know if you've seen that.
I have seen it. I picked it up myself.
It's a beautiful little skin to come through there.
I believe it's from the Switch Bundle.
So, you pick it up now in the store.
If you're looking to get some swag on,
and certainly it'll be useful to SR here as they attack the second top floor bomb site.
One player highlighted by the desk,
but I'm hoping to see more from today will be Adam Parker.
This guy was instrumental in beating the rebellion back during the group stage.
He will have to be good again today.
He lurks just around the corner that Andy's staring at inside of bathroom at the moment.
So there's a couple of players here that they have to be worried about.
Information gathered in the site.
And there they go!
Andy killing everybody, but then Rexon kills Andy!
Oh my goodness, maybe he was just too strong.
That's an unfortunate team kill.
And frankly, a big window of opportunity for Hundred Thieves to exploit.
Yes, you've lost, go-mans. That's quite devastating.
You've almost lost hot and cold.
with what you saw Ambi do in the previous round.
This is a big blunder by the rebellion.
Yeah, that's Rexon's third team kill of the stage parkers,
the only person in the league with more than one.
So that's gonna be devastating for a team chances.
Shotgun close range for spirits
will do exactly what they were hoping for,
but the trades continue to be good.
Numbers remain even in this very close second round.
Throw and frag.
Reloading.
You see, sir, using that SR level,
by the way, that you were talking about.
Ball, his skin, his kit,
It's beautiful, not the skin itself.
The gun is the old bull skin.
Point fighting Adam Douglas.
Hot and cold Kaston is on the board yet again.
And for what?
Two rounds in a row.
Kaston's the only one on 100 thieves showing any signs of life.
That one ends in a hurry.
And it's a 2-0 start for the rebellion.
Richie redeems himself a little bit at the end there.
Rexon gets that final frag.
So the team kill is totally fine in the books
for Shopify Rebellion.
They start this one off nice too.
And oh, again, I like how close they kept it.
They got a little bit caught off guard
by Spirits' positioning close with the Warden shotgun.
I don't think they had any clue that he had pushed up
that close to the old tower stairs,
but they were so quick to get that frag back.
It was served to got that kill.
Here's the team kill run of the Anbi.
This is the trade onto the Warden I was talking about.
There's the speed at which this is happening.
It's so important.
And I think the team play from Shopify Rebellion
continues to be one of their biggest strengths in this league.
Wow!
Wow!
That's good idea. That love you, bro.
Celebrations bound at the Toronto Headquarters of Shopify.
Rexon's played pretty much every bit from home, but...
Just to hear the geography guy remind me again, what coast does Rexon live on?
Rexon lives on the fine west coast of California.
And remind me again, what coast is Toronto?
That would be the east coast on the Atlantic Ocean.
Anybody who knows anything knows that.
Ping from California to the east coast is not ideal.
And while surfing and you both play out of Chicago, it's a lot easier.
There's only a great lake or two really separating these teams.
So they have Rexon at the Shopify headquarters to play with sport in Canadian.
It hasn't really helped his numbers that much.
But again, one thing we have watched with this SR team over the last couple months
in public city in particular is how they've changed roles.
Rexon was in a more fragging, heavy role.
Herb has now kind of taken up some of that role.
Rexon has fallen a little bit back to play more on Zillery,
and the numbers really do support that.
Rexon has fallen quite a ways down the rankings,
but again, just as we said with Surf and Salt Lake City,
these are very tough roles to play.
As long as he doesn't get, you know, another team kill,
I think Rexon can provide some value here for the squad.
Getting four team kills before anybody else
the loot has to would be tough.
So we will hope that that doesn't occur for Rexon,
and I don't think it will
because he's an incredible player.
And you know the desk even talked about it plays some tough roles here
So it's going to be important that he continues to provide value for his teammates
There's not really much of a roam game from hundred thieves going on in round three Parker Gomez was
Lurking around the top of tower stairs and he's fallen back off to the main floor and conceiving all of this ground now for
SR to play with this is what a lot of teams will be doing these days on this kitchen defense for
Fortress they are fine to contest just the bottom floor because it's a little bit tough to contest the top floor
spreading out your forces a bit, so instead they will play the stall game.
They've got spirits inside of infirmary, locking down in incredibly important position,
hot and cold stalling things out with the Chanka as well.
Hatches are open with no problem, this is probably where the defuse kit is going to go on the side of SR,
so watch out for that, but right now it's still just a stall game.
Speaking of styling, here's points trapped on the stairs, serve for the lead-off pick.
off pic that's three in a row for sr hot and cold on the board though his very
first kill and Gomez will find one too so two of the three remaining players
on hundred these without a kill have broken that will wait on Adam's first
kill hopefully comes next round if you're a fan of hundred thieves surf will
find yet another it's hot and cold down these anchors getting picked off Gomez
called to action just a little bit under a minute to go
able bypass case and as he looks to strike fear into the hearts of sr playing
in her mom and just to dodge those bullets for the time being spirits will
find his second down goes surf 20 seconds have flown by both of these teams
very eager to narrow the numbers if you're the rebellion you got to keep
narrowing them now you are in a disadvantage rexon will have Canadians
coverage as they now have control of this bomb site and rexon will go for a
plant a bit of a precarious position Canadian downs go as a rare kill for
Canadian a second could be here oh my my buy a lottery ticket no case and out
duals him, defuse Kitch is knocked down. It's a 1v1 and Rexon wins it.
Baylif in hand and SR unbeaten so far on Fortress. Beautiful little 1v1 there at the end,
Parker. Got a bit messy with Canadian on the shield, but that's okay. Richie's there with
the Baylif to close that one out. Beautifully done to be able to get that third round on the board.
Undefeated through three straight now, R the Rebellion. They're looking so good so far. That
That was definitely the closest round that we've seen, you know, gets down to that final one of you one
But in the end, I think the rebellion just did a really good job again of keeping the numbers close
Even when they would lose somebody they would get that trade back immediately. That was a big theme for them in round number two
It's happening again now in round number three and we get a very early tactile to come through from Divas
I have to imagine this is the right call. I mean, they're starting on defense. This is the side that they chose
So they clearly think it's the stronger side for them on this map and they have yet to win around through three straight
Through straight rounds here Parker definitely cause for concern
The man that was talked about quite a bit by the desk and their best
Fraggar on the team the one on your screen at the moment Adam did have some struggles yesterday
And today they are appearing yet again. This has been the main criticism has been leveled against Adam
Is that he does very well in the lower stakes games
but the moment that the pressure is on, Adam does not rise to the occasion the way that a lot of his other
Contemporaries do people in this lobby like ambi, spoit and surf for example can level up under severe pressure
Adam yesterday was one of the worst rated players in that best of three
And he enters as the only player on hundred thieves over a hundred kills
He's yet to find one
He's the only player right now on the side of hundred thieves that doesn't have a kill
the only player in the lobby that doesn't as well. If I don't know frankly what it is, whether it's
the shakes, whether it's he gets in his own head or not, but if Adam is not able to have a good
day against the offensive threats of the rebellion, 100 deeds are going to need an over
performance from the other four players to close that gap. Adam is a former Sonic and former teammate
of both Andy and Brexen. He dropped 18 kills the last time these two teams met in the group stage.
which that best of one 7-5 victory on boarder was Adam's best game of the season.
Since then, he has been unable to replicate such a performance, and you're right.
As we've gotten deeper into the season, as the matches have mattered more,
and as we've gotten to best of trees, especially, Adam hasn't been that star player there,
still looking to see him pop off and have those big moments.
We know the skill is there. We know the talent is within him to get these frags,
and to be the player that 100 Thieves need him to be, we just aren't seeing it so far through this game.
So, that'll be a big focus if we continue on through this.
Excited to see what kind of adaptations come through
from this tactile timeout as well.
They will get a chance to go through their full rotation
once more, so plenty of time to adapt.
He had three kills in that very first map,
was able to straighten things out by map two.
In the matchup against M80 yesterday, he went eight and eight,
which is still well below what we expected of him,
but a significant improvement from three and 10,
which was his tally line in map number one.
Again, the old player without a kill, and so goes Adam, so goes this 100 Thieves roster.
I mean, you're going up against a team that's had a very strange Stage 1, SR's had some very puzzling matches.
They have gone to 12 rounds or more in pretty much every single match they've played, so they've not been a very efficient team.
If you're a fan of 100 Thieves, you're looking at the scoreline and going,
okay, well, they've got three rounds on us, but we know we're gonna go up 12 rounds, so we'll have to get some at some point, right?
It's just when those rounds come in.
What the motivation is going to be like on the side of Hundred Thieves.
First, uh, first set of action.
Over towards Tower is Spirit.
Man, just survived a flashbang in Ambient Invasion's familiar position.
He's now looking for something allowing Canadian to take up space here.
Oh my goodness, he gets caught in the clouds, but it's an ugly one at that.
Jesse Gomez and Adam on the board.
There's Adam with his very first kill.
Spirit's still on Tower.
Action breaking out all over the place as we've just eclipsed the Halfway Point around.
Yeah, and it's the most important kill for Adam Parker.
It's that entry that we continue to talk about it gives the man advantage over to hundred thieves when Canadian trades out one for one
And now you see the rebellion they're kind of backing off of it
They didn't get the space they were hoping for as they pushed in big tower in white stairs and he finds some success
But they don't ever root that warden out of the tower position and they've dropped that a fuse kit as it's just shown by our observers
So they've got a lot of work to do
Information Gomez takes a fight but doesn't get rewarded with the kill
And he's been held in that exact same position the whole time.
Spoigt with one kill, there goes Ami at the hands of Kace, and it's all up to Spoigt to save the day.
Hundred thieves used their time out moments ago, and it seems to be paying off.
They know exactly where Spoigt is.
Default cam spots him, continuing to maneuver him.
Silhouette's far away, defuse kit even farther, 30 seconds to go.
almost unlinable and Gomez will shred him with the scorpion in hand a very good
round for 100 thieves. They get the opening pick and then they crush the
rest of the round to get their first on the board. I'm surprised Ambi didn't
shoot the default cam above him it's a easy mistake to make but usually a
player of his caliber does not forget about that that was what was feeding the
information 400 thieves to route that round and certainly gave them a bit of
an advantage on some of those fights over towards white stairs. I do think you
They have to give all the credit in the world to Adam though finding that entry is fine
but forced position in the end is on Amp.
But right as this engagement is going down, he finds that frag on the surf which is the
isolated kill they're looking for.
Then again with information, Go-Men gets aggressive, goes for a couple of fake swings
and gets 100 thieves there first, a much needed round on the board.
It's that top four bomb site that they started on as well, and really things did not go in
their favor.
The tides have turned, though.
You're just looking at progress that you've made over the last couple of rounds.
There's a single kill for 100 thieves in round number one.
They got three kills in round two.
They got four kills in round three, and again, it came down to a 1v1 that wrecks in one,
but wasn't very much a coin flip round.
If that breaks in favor of Kason, he was last man standing.
And if we're looking at a 2-2 scoreline,
things are completely different here.
400 thieves, they only suffered through two deaths
in round number four.
They have been making steady improvements
from just a numbers perspective,
and they're playing a lot better as well.
Playing off of each other effectively,
being able to shut down those entries
is really critical after giving up three opening picks.
They did that in round four,
maybe the timeout helped settle them down a little bit,
and if they can keep that up,
then this first half is gonna get infinitely more competitive
than what we've seen.
Hot and cold, bringing out the clash for their second top-floor bombsite here and their second go-round as well.
This is not something that he brought out earlier in the stage when they played Cloud9 or Space Station.
So this would be new that SR haven't been seeing, might not have been expecting to come out.
We'll be changing off that to Chonka, giving it over to Spirits from what we saw a couple rounds ago.
So SR will need to adapt. Whether they spot that in the prep phase or not, they have not chosen to bring Canadian on a shield.
Instead, the captain of SR is going to be on the lion this time around, so a very strong gun, plus the global gadget, can keep those defenders in place.
As a team like we're seeing SR go for that full map clear, like we sometimes see, there's a lot of players still sitting outside the building, waiting for something to happen over towards the bomb sites.
Jones and I are giving him intel that a lot of the space will be free, so they can run and take it, but getting past this clash in the late hour is going to be my biggest concern.
He spots it on Snake's gadget, that will go to those lion skins and back onto the gadget
Ambi will go hoping to provoke a fight, but I think he's a little concerned about that
fork in the road not too far from him.
Rexon now outside of the wreckage as he assesses the destruction that's been done on the wall.
Gomez hoping for an early warning sign throughout the Gijmot Line handled by Rexons.
That's some information that a hundred thieves will be without it.
They don't know that it's been shot away at.
This could be quite challenging.
Spirits with the first kill.
It's on the Canadian.
Down go serve as well.
Spirits will find three from his position.
Adam is gone.
Spoint the only kill so far for SR.
This is a huge round for the French Canadian as he now sits on six kills tied with Spoint
in the lobby and there's still two more bodies to be dug.
Clash slowing them down for the time being.
SR really has their work cut out for them.
They have to take these engagements.
Jesse they're looking for it.
100 Thieves are giving them absolutely nothing. Gomez, a peak, spoids, reflexes too good.
Now we'll go to Death Marhavi in the next mistake. Now, slow down by the clash, Kacen on the board.
No ace for Spirits. Kacen will find two, and 100 Thieves will grab their second round.
Well, I was worried about the clash, but how about that? It's a chonka. Spirits a huge triple to start that round.
He enters this game as the lowest rated player on 100 Thieves, the only negative player on this team as well as you look at the stage stats as a whole.
but what a big performance coming out from Spirits.
You mentioned it, but it's kind of a battle
of Canada here Parker.
You've got the Toronto-based captain
of the Toronto Org Shopify Rebellion, Troy Canadian,
playing in this matchup up against the Quebecois
captain of the Canadian national team, Spirits,
over on the side of 100 thieves.
So no doubt the two best players in the country
going head to head here.
And that one of the Spirits who came up to better
finds the opening pick onto his countryman
and then able to really clean things up after that.
Kretz and Kaysen are hot and cold as well for their huge impacts in that round.
It's a bit of a momentum to Hunter Thieves now, rolling into our final round of the half.
That's exactly what they need.
And they're doing it all without Adam. What do we say?
We needed individual performances.
We needed the rest of this Hunter Thieves team to pick up.
Kaysen has been very good at closing out rounds, those exit kills.
We spent a lot of time talking about entry kills, but how about exit kills?
that's when where Kaysen has really feasted upon this team.
But if we are focusing solely on entry kills,
Adam and Spirits have picked up the opening kill
in the previous two rounds,
and right now the team that strikes first
has a 100% success rate of converting.
So if you're 100 thieves, if you can strike early,
a rebellion have not been able to recover
from being knocked on their heels.
Ditto for 100 thieves.
If rebellion can strike, whether it beast point,
whether it be Andy getting an early and punishing you,
all hell breaks loose in this 100th defense,
and they're not able to recover either.
We haven't really seen quick rounds.
We've been waiting for about half of the round
to see kill number one.
So, pacing on Fortress pretty normal.
This one might be a little different.
They think he saw the Fenrir gadget get tossed out
and Rexon is waiting now, staring very patiently.
Right there.
He sees him, patience rewarded.
Adam goes down, Rexon the lead off pick
and Adam has a rough first half,
but 100 thieves will hang their hat
on their other four players for the next two minutes.
Yeah, that's a really nice pick.
He's giving advantage over the Biorex,
and he finds that space.
He grabs it.
Now that's man advantage, going over
to the best conversion team in the North American League.
5v4 with plenty of time to work with.
They know that there's unlikely to be anybody top floor.
People don't really play this site with many Romans up above,
so they should expect all four of these players
to be down on the ground floor.
Indeed, they are.
Barely Mr. and Kason there, of course.
They want to assume that it's clear,
but it's a bit of information that they just barely miss out
A lot of the pressure is going in towards the Pirmary.
Spirits will be good in the next 30 seconds.
We have to line up. The air jab will go.
Spirits in a bit of a tough situation.
Now the name will go.
If he manages to survive here.
Oh my goodness. Still alive for the time being.
Spoit gets one. Spoit gets two.
And suddenly all of a hundred thieves are falling by the wayside.
What did we say? You get that opening pick?
You do really, really well.
Spirits kills Gomez. They kill Dami and Serp.
Also looking for Canadian is even pursuit.
as he's in pursuit.
Not able to do enough damage, drops him
and now has to worry about spoint.
Sitting on nine kills, the sweet hoping
to break double digits.
Spirit says at eight, he's within striking distance.
Canadian has been picked back up.
And Spirit is still on the run.
Rexon starts things off.
Rexon finishes things in despite a scary two rounds.
Shopify Rebellion take the first half, four-two.
The four-two start on maybe their best map
the entire pool, not too surprising here from Shopify Rebellion. We asked for improvements
and individual performances on both sides and we're seeing that from Rex in a big clutch
in round three. Yeah, absolutely. It's been really well. And yeah, the round three that
you're talking about, Rex, and this was a great heads-up play. They were in the man disadvantage.
He calls for the rotate to try to go for site, knowing a couple of players were off site.
They immediately go for the take. Troy comes in to hold for the crossfire here, so it's
allowed to be planted. And inevitably, I mean, this is the SR that we were expecting coming
coming into best plays. I mean, almost those two rounds before this were practically flawless.
And again, it's what's expected once we get into these playoffs from the side of SR.
Yeah, I mean, it is expected, but it's still good to see it. Of course, when I'm coming in here,
they've casted us and talking a little bit about that opening man advantage as well.
And it's good to see that SR actually has that going into their favor,
because that's kind of been their kill he's healed.
But Spirits was another player that we were highlighting and talking about.
He needs to kind of get into the game.
And he's been struggling a little bit mentally for this team,
Having coached spirits a little bit in the past. I know that sometimes his own individual results can sometimes affect him
But he is having a good game as well a nice little 3k right there to hold down the site
Which was big for them to kind of get some rounds on the board
I mean even that last round he almost had that big clutch
It could have really came down to a 1v1 if he wins that next engagement
But what I really liked from the side of SR specifically was their attacking half
I think a little bit for the side of 100 these they did plunder their bands. We were talking about it
I felt like they maybe could have got more use out of a solid snake.
Maybe the mental could be. Yeah, especially the info.
And we were hearing from the comms.
They were using that that information very well.
And now it's a situation.
And once we switch sides here,
are they going to try to do the same thing?
Is SR going to get rid of those?
And even when they did go for the trap,
I'm so glad we didn't see the wall denial up.
They bring the Thatcher completely eliminates the use of the trap.
Ascent is just making the defensive half kind of just a routine standard defense
once you can alleviate all those traps.
Well, I what they did was yeah, they banned out the Twitch played the traps and we heard them say they're gonna start bunkering up here
I mean hunter thieves they started slow like that's not even a question even their coach called them out for playing too slow
They need to be able to play a little bit faster
They started bunkering up, but it relies when they started bunkering up it relies on them winning their ones
Which is I mean they were able to win two of those rounds with that last round
They got run over once boy was kind of getting some of the opening picks
But yeah for the bands on the other side
We are gonna see the Walden isle which we've kind of not been liking on fortress and the reason we don't like it on
Fortress though is because what is it leave up?
It leaves up the asami the mirror the clash for that the rebellion like to use
So I mean there's a slethra of things that you can use in Walden isle and we seen the Walden isle up and yeah
I mean they got it they got into the site and it was it once so I don't know but possible
Yeah, it is questionable, but they only took out. Let's see Monty away from from spirits. So that's gonna be like the old
full clears and then they all stuck out the glass which is good for the direct
takes but it does get countered out by the rebellion running smoke which is
why typically that's banned. I do just quickly want to mention I am glad to see
Kason starting out very well we talked about his sort of late to getting into
it so to see him have the performance that he is now it's great I don't want
to see a taper off I wanted to see to finish this half strong. Yeah the
individual performance is on a hundred. Absolutely. Heading in the right direction
but down two rounds gonna have to see the entire team come together.
Well, thank you very much guys. This has been a competitive game so far. This is the rebellion's map next
So it's not a huge surprise. It's even taking an early lead then again
Seven in a lifetime record on Fortress. This has not been a map where SR have ever found failure
100 beats hoping to make history now feeding them on this map for the first time
But 4-2 is gonna be a mountain to climb against especially now going on to their weaker side of attack
Absolutely correct. I mean rebellion have to be pretty happy about that first half
They've had some pretty good underlying numbers and everybody's showing up quite effectively
I know that I made a little bit of a cheeky remark earlier. I said a rare Canadian kill
But uh, he's got two. Ambi has three, which means by most properties
They're equivalent and given that Ambi is a 14th best rated player in the league then Canadian obviously can't be
That far behind. Oh my goodness. He's in for this. Okay, Jesse. I
I was wrong.
Honestly, a pretty good showing from everybody.
Spoyt, again, has just been continuing to improve.
Ever since they made those changes around the time,
it's all like cities.
Spoyt has been kind of in Berlin major form,
and it's obviously been boating well for Rebellion,
even if they've had some hookups in the regular season.
Yeah, there's no doubt Spoyt's been fantastic for this team
so far.
He's really finding good value.
The F2s will move from the SR hands over to 100 Thieves,
and we saw Gomez are doing great work with those drones.
case than struggling a little bit more with his own drones and the U2 Clear, but that's okay,
that's why they've been four of them. The Twitch drones have already dealt with a lot of these
goyota canisters, and should be able to get maybe some of the barricades? I'm not exactly sure what
he was hoping to do with some of those drones. One of them he definitely missed, the other
is here, he's just gonna send him off the roof. Causing some noise for sure. I'm not really sure
was going on there, to be completely honest with you, but that's okay. Finding the right
target for a death mark can be a bit of a tricky one. Spirits will find the Ella of
Spoit. I think that's a pretty decent player to target. They'll keep Spoit on the run,
give him information. Spoit and Spirits in a collision course is something that I'm
sure the fans are very excited for as they've both been far and away the two best gunners
in this lobby.
Slow round as we come to a spec from both of these teams. We do not have very aggressive
of squads competing today, Parker with both 100 feeds and the Rebellion.
Seeing a little bit more slow and steady, a little bit more methodical on some of their
takes, so expect this facing to keep up throughout this whole S3 series.
Well, no deaths just yet, but the information continues to sing.
This is what gave SR the event from their first attack.
100 hits have to do something with it too.
Hot and cold find Spoyt Blinken and miss it.
There's another as well, not far removed.
He gets surfed.
That one genuinely wasn't his kill.
I believe that was Spirits who picked that one up.
Hotten just got the secure.
But with it, that's two very early kills
for 100 Thieves.
Once again, if you get the opening pick,
you win the round.
That is how the first six rounds have played out.
100 Thieves are hoping that that continues
if the streak breaks, Rebellion's lead grows.
Final 20 seconds now, SR outnumbered by two.
Ambi Canadian rex in the last three remaining everybody still up on hundred
thieves as they look to break in and Canadian will be the one to stop this.
His attention goes elsewhere he's distracted Ambi the only kill so far
diffuse kit going down. Objective play has not been that important so far Ambi
will die at the hands of Adam and it's a triumphant first round of the second half
by hundred thieves. Again these entry picks they continue to tell the story
Parker it's that information that favors the attackers combined it with a couple
F2's that it's so hard to defend in some of these positions. You were right, it was spirits,
they got that second kill, but hot and cold with the down, then again the intel that was being
given by hot and cold with that snake scanner was so valuable to find out what space was free,
to find out where they could take some gunfights. At the end of the day, they all pushed together
on the side of 100 thieves and they collapsed in on that site. SR have a bit of a history
clutching in that environment on that primary site here on Fortress, but it was too much to handle
today, 100 easy, really good attack to start this second half and shows that this is still
anybody's game.
I mean, both of these teams are scrappy.
We knew it would be a dogfight.
We knew this would be a slow affair.
We knew that it would be a tough match for both of these teams.
There's good and strong individual players on both sides of this field.
So if one star performer fails to show up, if two fail to show up, that can be the difference
maker.
Adam's starting to find his footing, which is good.
He's gonna be playing main entry for a lot of these rounds.
Looks like he'd be playing snake, maybe swapping off.
Spirits will take it instead, so Adam will go back to more of that utility play that we had seen from him.
It won't put him in that position to get these opening picks as frequently.
Still searching for the first player to break double digits now as we begin round number 8.
Spirits and spoits, sitting at 9 kills, next closest.
He's all the way back at 6, and that's case and a reminder.
Case at the start of the day with 90 kills.
If he hits 10 either here or in his next game, he'll break 100 kills in his rookie season, which is quite the feat.
That's career stats as well, of course, given that this is rookie season, so exciting for Kason to get his first 100 kills as a professional player.
I'm sure there will be many more hundreds to come after this, but he'd hope sooner rather than later.
If they lose this, they'll be done for the summer, they'll have to wait for stage 2 happening later on in the fall.
fall. A victory here sends them to EWC. It moves Kason over to his first ever land event.
Somebody else who attended a land event in their rookie stage was Spoyt and of course he won that
one all the way back from Berlin many years ago. So big footsteps to be following in kind of fitting
that they have to go up against one another here for the final spot to make it to EWC from North
America. I say the final, there's one more right after this, but there are no second chances for
for whoever loses this game.
No more August or fall summer majors, as you want to call it,
depending on where you are in the world.
EWC has replaced that within the Rainbow Six ecosystem.
And if you recall, Spoyt's win at the Berlin Major
was during what would have been the August major.
So EWC will take place at the exact same time.
The Berlin Major was 2022, if memory's
correct me, so four years ago.
It's been a while since Spoyt was a rookie,
and he's really had some ebbs and flows.
A career that hasn't really been, I think, as dominant as people had thought it would be after his first couple of events,
but he's back in fine form. And again, if SR is to ever win anything, you're gonna need to point back in Berlin shape.
And with nine kills leading the team, taking fights without any hesitation, it seems like he's in that spot.
Final minute now, round number eight. Everybody's still alive.
How it goes with these teams, Parker, very close though, is served right up on the breach.
He doesn't have a way out of here, so he has to fight his way out,
but he loses the case, and that's 7-0 on the board for the rookie, and he starts to play this detail.
It's a good space-ticket for a hundred thieves, and they've got to watch out for the stall.
As it happens so often, gridlock shrugging off a lot of that damage.
Hot and close down an opportunity, yet the fuse gets out, and Ambi will hit the flank.
Goodbye to Hot and Cold. Now a rotate as Ambi positions himself towards the window.
towards the window, Spoyt finds two Kacen, yet another, and the outtool by Adam of
Alton. 30 seconds left to grab that diffuse kit for Adam and Kacen.
Rexon and Spoyt still remaining as Spoyt's two kills, and now put him in
double digits. Down goes Kacen, a single kill on the round is all he's gonna be
able to muster. Now Adam with diffuse kit in hand. Shutdown by Rexon, no real hope
there whatsoever, and SR will answer back. It's so fitting that it's Kacen and
And then there's the Spoyt who get the multi kills in that round, Parker that really define the plays that were happening inside the server.
Ambia as well, maybe not as many kills as some of his teammates, but an absolutely critical one, stopping the plant from going down in the midst of that execute.
I was worried about the toxic babes, I was worried about the goyocanisters, but it seemed like 100thede found a way to slip into the objective to start that diffuse plant going down.
It's just a shame the flank watch wasn't on point because that could have changed everything when it comes down to the executes, but Spoyt was incredible in the defense.
And he had a perfect flight to be able to shut that down and rebellion are now two rounds away from taking their own map
Which really is the calculus right you expected based on their stat lines seven and oh on this map
You figure that an 804 SR was good to go and then you have a layer as what could be the decider if hundred thieves don't win
That's that number two
Then we have border awaiting us as a potential tiebreaker all of these maps play out very differently
They all show off different styles of siege
Yeah, if you are not the most strategic of all teams border is a blessing for you
There's still obviously a lot of strategy at play on every single map in the map pool
But it is a fragger's paradise over on border and if we said that fortress seems scrappy
Oh boy hold on to your butts because border can absolutely be in that bang less no one layer
I suspect that we might not see border, but we're definitely seeing where
It'll be a bit more strategic, more in line with Fortress, and honestly, I feel like just, this is just the eye test, Jesse.
I feel like Astar is not the worst team on Lair, but I'm sure you've got numbers to correct me. We're agreed with it.
Uh, 0-2 this stage, losing to 4-fun and M80, but they've had their successes in the past, certainly on Lair.
Border was the map where these two teams faced off in the arch stage, and again, that was 7-5 win for 100 Beads.
that started a four game losing streak for the rebellion which is why they had to start in the
lower bracket here in these playoffs so it would be poetic if that ended up being our final
leading place between these two squads. I certainly hope it gets there but we'll have to see how it
turns out again here in round nine as you go down to the bottom floor. This is one where we don't see
too many roamers playing around to the top floor so knowing that 100 thieves will bring lots of soft
destruction Gomez here on the ramp, a lot of cold to pop up in these hatches with the Habana.
There should take quick work of this top floor and we'll start putting it down to the team in just a few moments.
It's been fast for them so far.
Wait a minute and 20 seconds off of the clock as that full horizontal destruction is now being done.
Give them a vertical look into the site below.
Jason will be guiding spirits forward. The Blackbeard and the Snake working in tandem to take map control
very quickly as the rest of the team is once again settled in on that top floor.
Nobody yet to come to blows. They've not been able to find any of the targets that they want
There's information on the side of rebellion as well Canadian playing the pulse
He will once again be unlikely to take engagements his cardiac sensor will guide the other four gentlemen on this SR squad
Ami takes down Adam. That's a devastating blow for hundred thieves for kills for Adam
He's still putting in work
But again below where I think he wants to be final minute around nine in the rebellion looking to move to match point
The opening kill has been a great predictor of the round wins so far Parker.
That might mean that the Rebellion are moments away from getting that sixth one on the board.
Surfing a really cheeky spot too. They seem to know his position and it's a great clear.
Spear from the Blackbeard does perfect work but immediately there's an answer.
Sploit with one back on the Haughton Cold in 35 seconds and SR continue to hold the lead.
Reloading. If you keep making 100 Thieves bleed you're gonna last a little bit longer.
They'll bleed out far quicker. The three remaining players have 100 Thieves now
on over on the old tower side and we've got one player trapped inside a bathroom.
Rexon takes down Kacen after spoilt falls to the hands of spirits one for one but
that still benefits the rebellion as they have no damage done to the three remaining players.
Gomez and spirits will now need to clutch out with just 10 seconds left on the round.
There's one kill Canadian dropped by spirits to fuse Canadian hands from the French Canadian.
He's still looking for kills though running out of time. I don't know if this was the right
Decision, Ambien Rexon get exit kills right as the timer runs out, and it's map point for Shopify Rebellion.
This is the thing, again with SR Parker, their trade game is phenomenal. I love the way they continue to play together.
You saw Spoyt trapped inside of laundry at the real beginning of that execute.
He doesn't panic, doesn't run away, holds his ground, knows his teammates are holding his cross.
It's that trade game and the team play that keeps SR on top.
Once they gain that man advantage, it's the reason they have the highest conversion rate of any team here in this league.
And even those last five or so seconds, it looked like even man count in the 2v2, but the third man, the clock, favoring SR, I think always gave them the advantage in that execute.
There was no point in that round where they looked like they were behind, so very confident on their defenses.
They concede a single round through this third quarter, but after these next set of off-bands come through Parker, they've got to be feeling so confident about closing out this map.
Absolutely, especially with 100 thieves having to burn their timeouts so early, there is no
ripcord to pull, there is no safety net for them there and free fall.
The only way that you have that is if you manage to knock SR off their stride and if
you do that, then they will call their timeout.
But I see no real reason to do that.
Rebellion has been in pretty much full control of this map and yet again, I don't want to
sound like a broken record, but this is a map where SR are undefeated.
know this very effectively. I mean, Canadians super really like the fact that they can play
unconventional maps, so it doesn't surprise me that Fortress, which is becoming more conventional
now, but at one point it was quite unconventional, would be within their wheelhouse. Flag on
the wall by the way for Morocco. As Canadians, we watch them beat us, and then a bit of a
last laugh as France took them down yesterday in the World Cup so anyway
sporting events be damned potential final round now here is rebellion look
for their knockout punch on their own map potential lot though Parker and I'm
gonna give some hope over to the hundred thieves span because we have seen
spirits now jump on to the yin for the first time this game and it comes right
as they ban out the warden it's a very one-dimensional strike you're gonna ban
up the only offer that can't get flashed and see through smokes and then you're
going to run a ton of smokes and a ton of flashes.
That's the game plan for 100 Thieves,
but SR don't have any more ability to react to it.
They have no more bans as long as this game lasts.
So if 100 Thieves can really work with this strategy,
they never have to stop playing it.
This is their gambit.
This is their hope to be able to push this one into overtime
and win on their attacks on OT as well.
I kind of like it as a last-ditch resort.
I'm excited to see what spirits can do with these Candelas.
and one minute now eclipsed here as the wait for hundred thieves gets ever heavier on their shoulders a huge organization picking up a team that during kickoff had a really rough go of it
I'm cold suddenly becoming a free agent after M80 made some roster moves roster moves that
Frankly benefited both teams now both M80 and 100 thieves are flourishing with those changes
Obviously M80 qualifying for the EWC in Paris savages their IGL yesterday
I also picked up case and as the rookie and once again looking for those looking for a hundred career kills
This is his first stage. So quite a debut. It would be
He's been trapped at 8 kills for the time being Jesse, almost starting to pick up 2 in the next map.
And that next map might be coming in a hurry just a little bit over a minute to go.
Spoigt starts the killing down, goes go down. Trouble for 100 thieves.
It's been tough so far. They have to get one back as soon as they possibly can, but nothing has come of it.
Waiting for a swing to come through, but when Spoigt fires like that, it's so difficult to be able to get an answer.
13 and 6 now for the Swedes and Spirits.
Spirits hoping to time on that kill count will begin to use his utility pushing in some rafters, but looks like just trying to move
Good kid Dallas out go the smokes
Spirits looking to capitalize off of this charging in with shotgun in hand
He's punished by spoilers on the ground a great read from the Swede
14 kills is all he'll get as casein finds kill number nine
But it's on the ground bleeding out of Adam on the board now as well
They've trapped the clash in the corner taking care of him as Adam
He's fired up just when he needs to be if casing can be retrieved
Then the advantage in numbers goes back to 100 thieves if not
It's a 2v2 with 20 seconds left hot and will allow case into crawl on over as Ambien Canadian
To stand the test of time clock continuing to run 100 thieves clinging to this map
To kills in the next five seconds is what they need to do
They're not able to find it just yet case and getting diffused can down today
He goes for the ball to over, shuts it down,
Han Cole gets the final two kills,
and with less than a second to go,
Honda Deves wins the round to stay alive.
It might not have been exactly as they drew up the plan,
Parker, but the clutch factor comes in at the moment
that they need it the most.
A huge round for Honda Deves to get that momentum back.
And there's so many players in this round,
but I want to talk about Adam just for a moment.
Entered this second half as a 1 and 6 KD.
He was the best player the last time these two teams met in the server and he's come alive here on the attack and side of things.
He's got a huge multi-kill in the midst of it to keep the numbers close.
There's that first one straight in on to Rexon.
Five and eight at that moment.
It's a brilliant shot on the surf right here that gives them that lead then and they were covered for his teammate.
Cotton cold.
That's fucking gober.
Feeling good.
It's the first three that they need, but that's an important first step.
as they shout amongst one another.
Sirely from the fans of 100 Thieves, once again two massive organizations within our
esports.
They've made their mark in other games.
Legends have played for them across completely different esports and now both of them are
looking to leave their mark here.
obviously with them being so new yet to make an international event shopify
rebellion has made a bevy but have never really had a great performance until
Salt Lake City where they finished second to the other North American team that
made the finals of Dark Zero and speaking of that Dark Zero will be in
action once this bout concludes we're in a best of three so you've got some time
if you're a fan of DZ they're gonna be playing up against four fun e-sports the
team that during kickoff was known as one of 30 DZ calling it the hands of
wild card yesterday. Just as we're in this situation, DZ will find themselves in the same
situation against 4-4 and where the winner goes to EWC, loser gets nothing but a vacation
until stage 2 in the fall. Two more opportunities to close this one out. Again, they will likely
be up against the game in every single defense as long as this map continues on. There is no
doubt under thieves are going to lean into this as hard as they can. It's swap rolls a little bit.
They've given it over to their captain to allow spirits to play a little bit more of these shields, but they love him on so desperately.
Nobody roaming down below too much. This game continues to be a very slow pace in the early game as neither of these teams want to give up that critical opening frag.
Now it's been a couple of times where we've seen teams start to tilt the trend a little bit.
It was round 8, the first time we saw the opening pick not result in a round win, and then round 10, the only just witness had the same set.
So narrative might be changing a little bit harder, but the opening pick is still critical.
Dominated so far by SR through the first half, it's tightened up as we've gone along four of the ten rounds.
Started off with hundred thieves getting those kills, so once again, matching up to the tallies, just they swapped it.
Rounds eight and rounds ten, that's where the streak broke.
Surf has had some troubles here defending as he's been punished by the attackers quite frequently.
What was it, the infirmary plate?
Where Surf was hunted down and there's a textbook clear by 100 Thieves.
Cross with the big issue, making sure they watch the cross, making sure that they're getting those flankers killed.
That was something that Mint highlighted on the desk.
I haven't really seen that being as much of an issue here for 100 Thieves.
So if they can continue to make these flight improvements, the team's fortunes will go up again.
They finished last in their group during kickoff.
Expectations were probably not that they would make land, but here they are.
Certainly within striking distance, but still with some work to be done.
Final 35 seconds and they're circling quite active.
Not a lot of bullets left in that vector as he falls over.
He finds one.
Kasin gets two.
Breaking 100 kills for the rookie.
But it might be all for naught.
A pure victory for Kacen as 100 teams are now reduced to just two players.
Make that one, Adam, against three from Shopify Rebellion.
Spoit at 16 kills.
An impressive tally from the Swede.
He won't get any more.
And be the final frag, and the rebellion will take their map.
It's a clean defense.
They waste all those handouts.
Parker, and once the utility is run out, that's when they step up to take those fights.
A huge game from the spoits, but everybody contributing on the side of the rebellion, they take their map pick comfortably in this best of three.
I
8-0 taking the very first map in the series over 100 Thieves.
We talked a lot about 100 Thieves and the problems they were having, some of the communication issues.
Before we even dive into that, I want to give the people at home an opportunity to listen to that.
Back in round 8, we'll set the stage.
100 Thieves, they're attacking and are dealing with a possible flank from Shopify Rebellion.
Take a listen.
I'm way across. Heard.
Watch the door.
Flank me red. Flank red.
Checkers. Checkers in.
I'm going to kill the window.
I'm going to kill the window.
Nice.
I'm going to kill the window.
I think he's watching the window.
I'm going to watch the window.
I'm going to rotate.
I'm going to rotate.
I'm going to rotate.
I'm sure they're going to flank, but no one's holding that shit.
Such a free bomb plant, man.
I mean, you can clearly hear the frustration.
We talked about this being the bigger picture.
They're so out of sync on their attacks.
In those attacks, they had everything set up.
They could have went for that site execute.
They even mentioned 40 seconds prior to them going for that plant that there's a possible
chance for a flank.
that nobody's watching it ends up being the reason they lose that round and
even push that further the next round they get flanked again. Yeah they literally
get flanked again and then what do they say at the end of the con? It's the same
thing. Guys why are we getting flanked twice in a row? Then we hear Adam with a
little bit of pushback. I actually can't hold the flank it's too much so you can
kind of see SR obviously they're really comfortable on their half on but it's
kind of bad for Hunter Thieves that we're now just figuring out that
flanks are too hard to hold. We also heard in comms later it's too
It's too hard to drop down old tower against his team, so clearly the struggle right quite goes to SR for
Exploiting that right there were able to play. I mean a very strong game
We saw good performances from spoy from Rex and who we highlighted coming into the game
Right, this was a team that was capitalizing on each and every single one of one of these mistakes
Yeah, I want to give the flowers to mr.
Consistent as we were calling him rex and there he is the glue piece nine and six
Maybe not quite as impressive as what spoys. That's enough 16 and 7, but that is enough
He's doing exactly what he needs to be doing
He's in the comms in a big way for this team as well
And I was also thinking this is a split game when we were talking a little bit
You said this is this is kind of a game for split to kind of pop off and we are seeing it
So again, wait, where are they having the success? Well all the defense we love to talk about layering
We love it, but hunter thieves on this map there. We're looking a little bit telegraphed
You kind of know where the push is coming from where spirits on the shield. They clearly saw it coming
And then they're you using the Valkyrie the Goya they're wasting time ambi with those flanks
It's another problem for them to solve and again
It's just showing how comfortable they are on this map against the hundred thieves. Well hundred thieves showed us
Individual strengths you mentioned spirits right like there was some potential there. So I gotta ask you this we're going to layer
strong territory for both teams.
It's 100 thieves pick, but SR are very capable here.
Do 100 thieves look like a team that will be able to respond
and be strong and win that second map?
It's not the fact that they look like they will.
They're all respectable players in their own right.
They absolutely can, but what we know and from this team
and what we're hearing, it's a lot of mental that is going on.
And we talked about spirits. He hasn't had the best mental.
He needed a big game. He absolutely stepped up.
He delivered on that one great game. He's smiling even case him talked about him
He had a wonderful game 11 and 9 but again the big players that we highlighted the Adam the Gomez kind of still
Disappearing non-existent not adding a lot of contribution to these rounds
Especially in those opening engagements where they need them the most hot cold actually
I think being the third or second highest rated on opening engagements, which is insane because he's their IGL
There needs to be a lot more from this team that we just aren't seeing that
Everyone on the side of SR is performing at their absolute best. Yeah, and again, it comes down to the comms for me
I'm just listening to them. It's a complete difference from when we have listened to wild card yesterday
Wild card losing in there. So I'm still having a blast, but this hundred these team
I mean, it's complete dead and of course. Yeah, they're not winning
So how why would they be happy but again?
We're listening in from from other teams and I know these guys having coached three of them on unwanted, right?
But what are they missing? They're missing the dream. They're missing the govindic
They're missing the upbeat guys the guys that when you're losing rounds
They're still gonna be able to have fun and kind of rally the boys that we can still win some rounds and we're hearing none of that
What are we hearing from the SR side though? Everyone and everyone making comments, but yeah
I mean Adam's not gonna say much Gomez isn't gonna say anything spirits isn't gonna say too much hot cold really gonna be the only one
Saying something and then for casein he's brand new. He's not gonna try to step on anyone's toes
He's kind of just reading the room being that sponge of absorbing what everyone's to do
It's not to say that casing can't be the one to be a voice here,
but someone has to be uplifting, get a little more animated,
and put a little more pep in each other's step.
Can they find that energy?
Can they find the momentum they need to take a win on their map pick?
We go to Lair to answer that very question.
I wish I was the same I wish I didn't have to listen to myself either way one thing that we were talking about before we uh before we got into this and before they flew to us spirits the best performance
to me and I was like, I wish I was the same. I wish I didn't have to listen to myself either
way. One thing that we were talking about before we, before we got into this and before
they threw to us, spirits, the best performing player yet is the lowest rated player heading
into today's matchups. Adams, second least performing player on the team. He's the highest
rated player. How do you fix that now going into your own map?
I think obviously you want to see your start showing up a little bit more like that's a no-brainer
But you do have to give I think Adam in particular some credit for how he turned his game around
When they swat to the attack his defensive side was not what we expected of him
But when they moved the sides around once you've got to hold an F2 in his hands
It definitely started to change things a little bit
So I think for a hundred thieves they didn't get to choose their start side
This would be SR choosing to start on the defense
But it might be a bit of a blessing in disguise for them
They can get the momentum rolling on this offensive side, if they can get their frags
frag and if we can get K-Sawn continuing to keep up his high level performance and you
combine that with Adam and Gomez hitting the shots that we know they can't pull off,
that's gotta be the win con for 100 feeds, they're coming into their map pick, they've
gotta be confident, this can't be a map where they just sit back and let things get rolled
over.
No absolutely, this is your map, this is where you need to grab the proverbial bowl by the
proverbial horns because if you don't, that's curtains!
Shopify Rebellion enter this map being able to knock you out of the race for UWC now.
Historically, as you said during the last map, this is a significantly better field
for 100 thieves than Shopify Rebellion.
At Shopify Rebellion, they played this a few times during the stage.
They've been tough matches against opponents, both of whom made it into the top six.
But ultimately, if you're the better team, there are times where even if you don't have
the best record and even if it is your opponent's map, a 2-0 is very possible.
I don't know if this is the current point in time where I think SR can be rarer, I think Border is quite likely,
but I remain, you know, things remain to be seen, and I'm happy to be surprised.
No doubt 100Bs will be comfortable coming here, there are two in one this stage, being five years in Outlast.
Their only loss was against M80, and they pushed it to overtime, so that's a very respectful result up against what seems to be the best team in North America right now.
Rebellion again a couple of losses so far, but you go back through history and SR
I've definitely had some really cool strats and ideas here on layer especially for this top floor attack which we get to see in the
second half with
Sends and more recently the Rara as well to try to get some good positioning here on the top floor
But for now, of course, they start on the defense and they will once again play into a very small style of defense, right?
They want to be able to slow things down. They actually just there use the two brow plus bandit combo
They will electrify that wall and remove one of the cell phones from cases. So already the utsil game going away
You're a SR. Oh, can we get back to spirits for a second?
Is it history?
Why food buff activated? I wish I did not have eyes. I
Hate that so much. It's I mean you're gonna get styled on and ranked and you're gonna see it in replays and it's gonna be
Enraging. Oh, I love it. I love that. I love what the teams are doing with us. Stop showing it!
You don't need to keep showing you can spectate somebody else.
This was just provocation at this point.
That is the Elevate R6 Shareskin.
So if you want to support Elevate, go ahead and pick up this Blitz Shield skin.
Even if you've never watched an Elevate game in your life,
I expect a lot of people are going to be picking up that skin.
That's a beauty.
Especially now that they've seen it.
I was going to say when they were showing us some of the R6 Shareskins.
Okay, he's not even in the building.
You can spectate someone else.
Even with all the other R6 share skins, they're really good.
I think this crop is among the best that we've seen in quite some time, and credit obviously
to all the designers who've done that.
While we've been waffling a minute has passed, and as it comes to a happen on the layer,
it's been quite slow with both of these teams, it will be extra slow.
I think we might have to add an extra minute of extra time to the round, so forming the
rounds here for these teams to be battle.
Experience has chilled off, Rex in the first kill, Spirit's answer is back, take care of
Rexon but not after Gomez is gone. Adam is hoping for a cheeky place. He scouts himself
in a little bit of reconnaissance for the snake as we come to expect with that operator.
Final 30 seconds now. 100 thieves completely lined up with the exception of Adam who's
now joining them. So all four looking for an entry. They managed Ice Plate 1 as the
bees tracked down Spoyt and bought for the racist spirits they'd go. He gets hair and
The clear passage of Nitro's cell blows up on cold.
Diffuse kid in the hands of Kaston.
He's wounded, though, and a charged up
is Canadian attempts to salvage the round.
Down goes Adam.
Diffuse kid is good, but they kill them all.
Thurth drowns the last two players of 100 thieves
and shoots the body for good measure
as the rebellion take ground one.
Little bit of disrespect, maybe,
being shown across the aisle, but hey, that's just
the game that we play.
It was a really decent looking attack there, Parker.
The time got away from them a bit at the end, but one thing that was criticized about this
team on the desk after map 1 was how a lot of their pushes were kind of predictable, right?
You always kind of knew, hey, the push is going to be wherever spirits on the shield
is going to be.
I like that they moved spirits around on that push.
They initially pressured over towards bathroom, they baited out some toxic babes, they got
a couple of kills, then they go back to their primary push, trying to get in through the
mask wall.
Again, with the Goyo canisters, the toxic babes, the bandit trick that happened earlier
in that round.
was just so much of an issue, even if you were out.
That wasn't quite enough in a post-plant circuit,
some brilliant shots, but I think this book plays
in spirit with absolutely phenomenal.
He did everything he possibly could for this round.
Vibes needed to remain high,
and he heard it through the comms of 100 thieves
when they got a motivator on Fortress,
and then rebellion starting off with that scramble
as the plant was going down.
really good strategy though from 100 thieves to push the rebellion defenders
remaining in spirits gets a lot of credit for that the way he was able to
take up space along as it in pushing into the bomb site stopping spoilt from
being able to do too much he wasn't able to grab the second night herself it was
then used to good effects and did cut down Canadian as the attempt was made
from the rebellion to regain their footing in their own bomb site it's just
they were so low HP on the side of 100 thieves and rebellion are gunning that's
That's really it. You saw on Fortress time and time again, the gunners on Fortress on
the side of rebellion were winning all of their engagements. I hate to sound like a broken
record because nobody likes a record not in working condition. Enough with the shield.
I know that they're doing this just to piss me off. I know that they're doing it. But
no, I hate to sound like a broken record, but there are some days where you can have
all the strategy in the world and if you just lose your gun sights and you're just not able
to hit your shots, that's it. It's over. And right now, through first map and now one round
the second map Jesse I think you can easily say rebellion's gunners have been
online a little bit more than 100 thieves. Yeah I also think just the shield being
so much of an impact in that first round was so huge as you mentioned and now SR
they banned out two of the shields there's no doubt in my minds they'll be
banning out the Blitz after round three so even before this game began the
rebellion expected these shields to be a problem here on Lair and they were
correct with that but even as I glaze it it will be taken out to avoid the opening
pick in this round gets the nitrous cell killed onto the blitz. It's not all bad for 100 thieves.
They had some really good intel inside the site. We were just watching a drone POV. So clearly the
information is flowing, but they have to be able to get a killback. Intel's only good if you can do
something with it. Exactly. That information only lasts for a short period of time as well.
Through the halfway point round number two, not a ton is happening other than Spirit's death. For
those that are watching, those that don't know ball or don't play at a high enough level, a lot
A lot of players fall victim to the trap where they'll drone for 30 seconds and then think
that that intel is still valid, go to enter a room and die to somebody who, you know,
because they have legs, and they've moved to that spot.
Typically, if you're droning, intel's good for 5-10 seconds, but what is this?
Oh, good lord.
Ami using every single bullet in that P90, and it does not work out.
Abraal and snooze though, his team's trade bodies left and right, Gomez and Hot and Cold,
Really low HP!
He manages to get split from above, so even if he does have very little remaining,
Hot and Cold can still make his presence.
No!
It leaves Canadian and Rexon to hold down the fort in the final 45 seconds.
I like the attempt there for Mambi, but ultimately it is just for naught.
It's Rexon and Canadian now to lock down in the 2v3.
They both are around the site.
They are very close, and I don't think they realize just how deep Adam is inside bomb site.
Certainly not.
Hot and Cold for his third of the round leaves Canadian with the clash, all alone in a 1v3.
Surely Canadian will win a 1v3, right?
This is everybody's predicted.
I got a lot of money riding on this, Jesse.
Please, my family, my poor family.
Hehehe.
I'm holding on to this on a single point of HP.
Canadian can easily win this.
My goodness, no way.
There's no way.
Old dog!
New tricks!
What a moment!
Take a bow!
I don't think there's a single person watching that thought Canadian would clutch a 1v3,
but he does it and Shopify rebellion go up to nothing.
A crazy clutch, Canadian really played that perfectly,
isolating all three of those engagements in the 1v1.
He gets to use that clash shield
to make the final frag so advantageous as well.
That's the experience paying off
from the oldest player in the league, 30 years old,
but still got it hanging with the young guns.
Massive clutch to come through from Canadian,
gets them out of an impossible situation.
And again, it just comes down to how much time
they still had on the clock and how hundred thieves were kind of pressured to make a move,
but they weren't playing together, they didn't have those positions.
Even after some of the uglier moments of that round, it's not what we'll be remembered here
from round two of the Rebellion, a huge clutch from Troy, and one to remember for his career for sure.
Don't have a lot of highlight reel clips with Canadian in front of the all that he's done in his career.
Inarguably one of the most legendary players, one of the most important players
that we've seen ever in the history of this eSport.
If there were a Mount Rushmore of Rainbow Six Siege,
I don't think anybody's arguing against his inclusion on it.
It's just the thing that people need to realize
about that role is he doesn't like to be in engagements.
And yeah, there are times where he gets into engagements
and maybe he has aim very similar to what you and I could do.
But at the end of the day,
he's won multiple world championships
and we have simply casted them
and not much else beyond that.
So when you get a moment for him to pop off like that and it really was a perfect storm right high rate of fire
Gone relatively low recoil individual and isolated fights all on low HP
It's a perfect storm moment, but still impressive all the same than a very big round for Shopify rebellion
That's gonna be a total I have to imagine for hundred thieves and something that can really get under their skin
They don't shake that off quickly
Their mental game might cost them a couple more rounds before this map is done
Yeah, you're absolutely right about Canadian. He averages the fewest engagements of any player per round, just barely averaging more than one engagement per round this stage.
So it's not something he likes to do too often, but he can frag when he needs to. Here's going to be another opportunity.
Just baiting off that LH arch, they knew the Grosmont line was there, so Spirits happily will trigger it, and then back off trying to bait the swing out from Andy, but he hasn't got it yet.
Testing their reflexes. His casein has been off to a slow start here.
Spoy takes down Spirit. It's brawl inside the- Canadian takes two with an Itro Cell.
I'm gonna say something that I haven't said in quite some time. Canadian top-fragging on Shopify Rebellion.
Five kills at this current point in time, and he is one of the two remaining players on SR yet again.
Not with Rex in though, he'll be side by side with Surf, he uses his last castle barricade
to force these 100 thieves players into frustrating situations.
As you can see from the 100 thieves loadout, neither of them have explosives so they will
just have to melee their way through those barricades.
I'll go to Discovery because all that action happened early enough that it gives Kacen
and Gomez enough time to figure out where to go next.
Shopify Rebellion looking for a perfect rotation, one minute separates them and 100 thieves
from the round victory.
This is a big test for this young team on 100 Thieves.
This 2v2 is so winnable for them.
They've got loads of time.
The fuse gets in hand.
They've got good utility too to try to get this avert
and make some space for some of these players out.
The information flows and they get a good angle,
but it doesn't matter when they lose their fights.
Sir finds the head of Gomez and leaves the rookie in a 1v2.
Alrighty, Crippson, the 100 kill mark in his rookie campaign,
first time in his career.
And as you said, probably hundreds more to come
as long as he keeps up this level of play.
He's got his work cut out for him now as he cuts his way through this labyrinthian portion
of the bottom floor bomb site.
Canadian and surf still standing, nine kills between the two of them.
Surf wounded, but Canadian is still there in reserve.
Time running out, Canadian takes the engagement.
How does he do it again?
A 3K and a 3K, back to back for the captain of SR.
What a statement map to shut down everybody that's been shatting for months now on social
media.
is proving why he's captain of this team, why they were able to go so deep back at Salt Lake City.
It was a 3-0 lead in map number one and it is repeated here on their opponent's map pick.
This is devastating for 100 Thieves. You have to imagine a bullet span comes out.
I say that. Spoyne has actually killed Spirits kind of with ease these last two rounds. I'd
still expect it to get banned, but they will go for the Glaz instead. So kind of disrespectful
saying spirits go ahead play your shield we don't care but i like that coming out from the
rebellion they shut it down two rounds in a row and feeling confident they can do so again
that was the nitro cell that really started things off here if that misses or gets shot out
before 100 thieves almost certainly running around another good lineup for canadian is it forces
100 thieves into a very familiar position jesse they went down three and oh on fortress called
their timeout and things got a little bit better. Not by much but certainly better than it was.
They're now down 3-0 this time though on their map and another very early timeout either to
settle the nerves or get the team on the same page when it comes to strategy.
Yeah and I hate to harp on this point Parker but we mentioned it in map number one. I have to mention
it again Adam. Again the only player without a kill through the first three rounds here on
100 d's. He's been struggling to find that impact like we know he did. He came alive in the second
half of Fortress but he's got to be able to get involved earlier in these games.
Did find a big opening pick after the attack timeout that we saw on Fortress so I'm hoping
we can see that come through once again but now he's on the attack he's running with yet too.
It just feels like the rebellion are making some of these plays that are catching 100
thieves off guard. Whether it comes down to these last few moments whether it comes down
to these flutches 100 thieves are struggling to close it out and is this not exactly what the
the deaths talked about heading into this game versus the M80s.
They got a ton of advantages, but they converted less than half of them in that
best of three.
That's unacceptable for a team at this level.
And once again, what are we seeing?
We're seeing 100 feet is get these advantages and fail to convert them over
and deliver again or so.
I'm hoping that socks I'm up from be this can write the ship.
I'm hoping they can get their mental back on track because this 100 feet team,
they're doing the hard parts.
They're just to find a way to close out rounds.
Yeah, you're absolutely right. These have been very competitive rounds. No more than two players have survived at the end of every single round so far.
That's in a pretty strong contrast to map number one, where the first set of rounds that Shopify Rebellion 1 on Fortress were far more dominant.
To their credit, 100 thieves were making incremental progress through those first three rounds of Fortress.
They've been about the same through all three of these rounds, and they've been very winnable.
I mean, there is a, there really is a scenario
where 100 Thieves are up 3-0.
If one or two kills go the other way,
or again, that nitro cell gets shot,
a Canadian isn't able to pick up a 3K in that round.
So these are winnable positions
that 100 Thieves finds themselves in.
And honestly, I think, I say this as somebody
who's never played, but maybe some of the experts
can touch on this.
That's even more frustrating.
When you are that close to winning the round
and yet come up empty-handed time and time and time again,
That's gonna tilt you more than three, in my eyes,
more devastating and very obvious losses.
So, can 100 thieves write the ship?
They manage to immediately convert their timeout
on Fortress into a round victory.
They're gonna look to do that here in round number four.
Again, the Utile game is so good.
They commit so much to this ops wall, but it's worthwhile
because of how slow it makes 100 thieves start this round.
They will finally get to open it
after a bandit trick has cleared one.
Neverminds, the Zoto canisters looking to come out.
That's Andy's last piece of utility, so eventually this wall will get open, but I mean man, it's taken them half the round to get one boom of map control at a well below the pace that they would be hoping for, and it's exactly what the strategy has called for for the rebellion.
They want to waste time in the early game, they're happy to escape in a 5v5 with 90 seconds off the clock, they're playing exactly the way they want to right now.
Another slow start for Adam does not bode well for this 100 thieves team.
And that certainly doesn't bode well for them at all.
A nitrocell lands in the lap of Spirits, ambi the leadoff pick.
Rebellion across both of these maps have been terrific at drawing blood before 100 thieves
can and it's so difficult when you've spent the last hour and a half playing from behind.
Now Kasin is gone as well as ambi picks up yet another, Gomez makes his present stone
by firing way a little too early to cross held by Rexon, Gomez flattened, they just called
their time out and yet the likelihood of a flawless round victory for the
rebellion has never been higher. All of these rounds have been so competitive.
Adam will need to break his goose and he won't do that. Ambi gets a 4k and SR
go up 4-0. That's Jalen Turk the kid from Chicago with four in that fourth
round Parker and a huge one to keep the momentum going for SR that's half the
rounds they need here in this second map and again after the tack timeout it is
So critical looking at some of these hundred these tax maybe that white food buff that applies to spirits shield
I fear it might only last a single round because in rounds two three and four
He's accomplished essentially nothing with this blitz. It's been nitrous celled twice
Spoic got a headshot onto him once as well
It just feels like they're fully reliant on spirits being this spearhead making the space with this blitz
But because they're spending so long just trying to get basic walls open and then spirits is
Still dying as the first player on the board, it makes it really difficult for this team to do anything.
I feel like motivation is completely falling off around Rathive's as well.
I mean, I hate to harp on this point, Jesse, but Adam is really the person I'm looking at the most.
Fourth ISG player in this lobby, Spoyd. Next Adam in a...
Spoyd has shown up. He's at a relatively quiet second map, but he dropped 16 kills.
on Fortress. When you are in the top five rated players in the region, that's the expectation.
Adam enters in eight. Still top ten. This is the guy who needs to take over games for you.
Yesterday, he was unable to do that against M80. Three kills in map number one, eight kills in map number two.
That's just not going to get the job done up against a team that has scenery surgeons like M80 has.
On fortress, Adam six kills, second lowest rated player on his team, and he is the only player in this lobby without a kill at this current point in time.
Unfortunately for Adam, he needs to sort this out because his struggles impact the team and the team just cannot rely on four players time and time again.
It's very similar to the argument made against Canadian, the only difference is their roles. Canadian doesn't need to be getting you kills for 100 BBs, Adam certainly does.
So he's got to break that goose egg soon, Jesse.
I do want to say, I feel like it's not just Adam individually.
The whole system of 100 thieves on these pushes
is falling apart, because they've been quite
one-dimensional with spirits on that shield,
maybe aside from round one.
They move them off of it now.
They put them on the grim for the first time in this game.
Well, I don't know if it's perfectly correlated,
but that's an opening pick for Adam.
He gets one immediately traded out
in hot and cold press of play.
Ambie trading it back, planking down.
Nobody, Wiser, 100 thieves get out of dodge
with four players still alive and a mad scramble as the clock shortens from minute and a half down to 45 seconds.
10 seconds already knocked off.
Under thieves.
Getting in.
Under cover of darkness.
Getting diffuser down.
A rebellion knocked on their back feed despite being at equal man count.
You gotta make a move.
Half of the timer now eclipsed.
Nobody moving on the side of rebellion.
They draw Canadian in on the shield.
Casing goes down.
Hold on a second.
SR sinking their teeth in,
and the huge Canadian gets it done.
What did we just watch?
What is this game?
What is SR getting away with?
Five-O for the Rebellion.
That is one of the coolest rounds I've seen
in a hot minute, Parker.
What a play from both teams.
I mean, it starts with 100 thieves recognizing
there are five roamers on the top floor.
And instead of going for a plant bunks like every other team,
They sneak it in just through the wall, just through the other door into sight.
That's a crazy plant spot.
Oh shit!
And it nearly gave them the round win, but Canadian comes around with the clash,
finds huge value on this operator for the second time in a row on that site.
A massive disable to come through from the captain, 6-1.
It's Ambier who gets the kills, but none of that is possible if Canadian isn't playing the clash in that spot.
a really cool strat coming out from 100 thieves and an even cooler counter from the rebellion.
Ah, it's a shame this is a 5-0, Parker, because even with how some of these rounds have been
going, I wish we could see a lot more of it. I know, and it doesn't feel like a 5-0. Again,
there have been countless opportunities where 100 thieves could have stolen a couple of these
rounds. Their strategy was very good in that previous round, but the thing that has always
kind of doomed these teams, and this is one criticism of hot and cold, is what you do when
you get the first kill or the man advantage. Whether it was on M80 or 100 thieves here,
Dealing with the man advantage has been a big issue for hot and cold led squads and it seems to be still
Rearing its head here on this second map now. I know that I can already foresee the twitch chat
Saying that I'm doing all sorts of things to praise Canadian
But this has really been an outrageously good map for the Canadian to the captain
He has been doing so much fragging coordinating objective play
He has allowed his fraggers to shine while he does the heavy lifting and this has been one of the best
maps we've seen from Canadian in a long time. And he's been doing it in not really a flashing
manner. One death over five rounds. I mean, search in the same boat. They've been able
to stay alive. They've been largely invincible, but the utility play from the failure has
been great and you have to give Canadian credit for that. Don't just carry a nine kills. He's
been killing everybody that walks through his sight.
Canadian is sitting at a pending 169 EPS that blows as high as for the season out of the
water which was a 119 versus 4 fun back in April so I mean yeah we might be
trippin over ourselves but it's well deserved it's been quite a minute since
we've seen Canadian put up numbers like these still at least two more rounds
though so plenty can still happen hundred these are going for a pretty
direct attack as we've been waffling farther the gut garage control they're
starting to get some information into the bombslay with these bees feeding the
Mint fell into who is there but for now nobody's being caught by it and again
the stall game continues before the rebellion.
They'll run right through the fire and the flames.
Hundred thieves taking damage in the process,
but they've got a target and Surf manages to outdual them.
Remember, it's always faster to swap to your sidearm
than it is to reload.
And Surf understands that taking damage,
Rexon goes down.
Canadian now searching for kill number seven.
And he'll get it.
It's an ugly one, but he manages to take care of Kaston.
Advantage swings back in favor of the rebellion
with a minute to go.
Have they gotten Surf out of this position?
are 100 thieves walking in blind? He's still in the same position in lab. This could be
quite the surprise for the thieves if they don't manage to drone him out.
Without top control, this is so difficult. I don't even know what the winclin is. They're
stalling out, but like, what do you even do here?
I think a die is usually what happens when you stall out. And again, Canadian is full
control of above. A very linear and straightforward execute for 102 units. Without top floor control
is usually a death sentence, hot and cold things, then you can get the defuse kit down
and pop surf. He's caught them by surprise. Ring around the Rosie now as he sees the thermite,
but for a second Canadian will be casualty amidst that fray. Ambi will join now as Adam
has left empty-handed. He's found three kills, so he's managed to get on the board, but he has no
time remaining and surf and spoilt will likely just play keep away, denying Adam those final kills.
diffuse kit might as well be on boarder 604 Rebellion, indomitable in the first half and
they're doing it on 100 thieves map. They are one round away from qualifying for EWC Paris.
One round away just like that at the halfway point of this matchup by the way it is 60. This
thing feels like it's over. Everything that could possibly be going well for top of our
Our rebellion is going well absolutely and everything that could possibly going wrong for the side of a hundred these is going wrong
And honestly what's been propelling SR has been a ambi, but it's also been Troy respectfully
I mean him on that class and already hurt Parker
Yeah, so we really hurt Parker just giving praise to Troy and rightfully so even very well on that shield
It's been very well meeting coordinate the plays and again
He's been a big big piece for their success on that class which it begs the question again
You know, we talked about fans because some of these why not remove the clash?
We already highlighted well before into the state that Canadian whenever he's on that class
They have what a 80% win rate when that clash is being utilized. I think right now that's 63
But I'm sure after this game. It's going to skyrocket. But again, Troy, you turn it back to clock. Yeah
Are you not entertained? I'm entertained watching Canadian right now. Basically throw it back to 2018
I mean seven and one multiple clutches multiple three k's it's insane to watch and now I gotta switch
switch gears for a second here and talk to hundreds of these because I look I'm not gonna lie I'm really
disappointed in what I'm watching from these guys we're listening to the comms again and it's they're
just completely dead right they can't even get past step one they came into this game they're hitting
them with the same bands now what's the problem Walden idols up you got to have an issue to solve
the right operators know that they're constantly talking about we didn't bring
Nades this round we didn't bring the right operators we didn't know this guy
was here it's just excuses after excuses and it's poor play and it's everything
that we've seen from a hundred thieves even that clutch where we want to give
Troy flowers right we want to give Canadian the flowers in the 3v1 but
everyone went one by one by one where is where's the problem solving like it's
just making me it's extremely frustrating to watch this team right now
because again I wouldn't be surprised if we just watch one more round and we're
gonna be right back on this guy. I mean I forgot there was even a half time I
was kind of writing it off I was like oh this is over we're just going into the
DZ for fun game but even when we talk about the bands we said this going to
the next game while we were talking in the back maybe you have to get a little
in orthodox go outside of the regular scope of what you usually do where I was
highlighting when they get to their attacking side or the defending side to
then get rid of the info because that's where they were using it so much on the
previous map of Fortress so I want to see them be able to take away the
information which is good I like the day must be in a move getting rid of the
cap E tower is great but again is it going to be enough because what we were
just hearing from the comms was the mental just simply wasn't there
everyone already seemed very mentally chalked out as you were saying it was
one excuse after you have one round to work with I mean sure you can make that
comeback it doesn't only take one round but that mental game everything has to
be perfect and we have seen nothing close to perfect these are the moments
where we look at 100 thieves and we say,
all right, do they seem like a team
that's gonna rally that has the energy
that can make this comeback happen?
Unless something dramatic has changed in the last two minutes
and the comms sound completely different.
That better been a good time now.
This thing is just about over, guys.
Well, it's chaos in the city streets
as thieves duel with rebels,
but only one can spread their control
across the Atlantic in right now
It certainly seems to be the rebellion.
100 thieves, empty handed from that first half, Parker.
They will need to be perfect through these next six rounds
to tie the game and force us into an overtime.
Then they must win that overtime.
Then they must win map three.
The road ahead of them is as long as it was
when they started this series 90 minutes ago.
The desk set it.
Momentum is fully in the hands of the rebellion.
The columns don't seem to be there for 100 thieves.
Nothing is working to the guys in red and black.
This has to be a difference maker, and it has to come early, I think, in this seventh round.
Yeah, you've got a lot of runway to land this thing, Jesse, and I mean, it's quite daunting, right?
Six consecutive rounds to get to overtime.
Obviously, you don't want to give up momentum at that point in time, and then you need to win border.
We have seen these types of comebacks before over the history of this e-sport.
They are so absurdly unlikely.
I think the bigger thing is 100 thieves from the way they played yesterday,
And the way they played map number one, just don't strike me as a type of team that's underperforming and can get back to where they should be.
I think Hunter Dave's is a very good team that still has a lot of work to do, but is pretty solidly 5th, 6th, 7th place in an A.
I think that's where they stand right now.
You can make an argument that Shopify Rebellion is in that same orbit, but right now they're definitely playing like a team possessed and are 1 minute and 50 seconds away from a birth in Paris.
5 or the 100% part of this video is called TASC here from the entry, Andy will find it, the Blackbeard goes forward, the pistols are out and it nearly takes down Kason, one HP left on the rookie for 100thies and they will have to find the kill back somewhere but it's not coming, just struggling with this shield pressure and now the class will come up but it doesn't even matter, here's a plank.
Okay, Kaston back with two and that's man advantage for 100 feet. He manages to rope around and get both
Ambien surfed the two that had chased him off of that position. I don't know if you saw, but Ambien almost hits surf as well.
That's how quick his reaction time was after taking care of Adam before switching to the secondary.
So a bit of a blown tire for SR's. They look to get back on the road.
They'll do that with spoilt, taking out the remaining 10 HP. That was there for Kaston. Spirit eliminates Canadian.
I didn't hear the candelas or the smokes go off. So that's a utility lost in a bad death for Shopify rebellion again
Hundred thieves need to win six consecutive rounds. So if this one goes poorly for SR
You still got time to fix it final 45 seconds now as the two remaining players of Shopify rebellion rex and exploit
Work together, but they have to confront gas canisters held by spirits a clash
And of course all the guns that come with it
Looks like 100 thieves will finally get their first round Jesse as it's all Rex and left for the side of the rebellion
He knows how tough this one is
Bailiff in hand Gomez gets the job done
It will not be a perfect 7-0, but SR still sits on match point as 100 thieves finally picks up their first round
Well, finally a breath of life for 100 thieves if nothing else
And it's honestly a good defense from them to shut that pressure down
The star of the show has to be the 18 year old casing with that flank was so crazy to get that pressure for his teammates
It was a really smart decision to drop the hatch and go for that flank
I don't think it's one the SR had anticipated because they knew where he was at they knew he was such low HP and most players
They don't make it aggressive flank like that when they're on such little health
But you've got nothing to lose why not make that play try to find some guys that aren't looking at you
That's exactly what casing was able to do
You mentioned Canadian's death and the rest of that, he didn't hear those Candelas going through.
That's because he had already run out of the Candelas. They used all of their utility really in those first 90 seconds to try to get fountain control.
The fact that they didn't even escape that first phase with a man advantage made it really difficult for the rebellion to come back.
So they kind of put all their eggs in one basket trying to make that Blackbeard push go forward.
Much like what we saw from Hunter Thieves early pushes with spirits on the blitz.
but as you say there's lots of runway here they will have plenty more
opportunities to close this one out and they can try all sorts of different
strategies to make it happen. The bigger thing for me on the side of rebellion
is something we talked about during Fortress it's the mental game there's
no doubt in my mind that hundred thieves have been dragged down by their
mental and I mean even hot and doesn't look like he's talking that much the
whole team looks largely like they're sitting in silence that's not the kind
of thing you want when you're back serve against the wall you want to be vocal
you want to be active, you want to be calling.
But many teams will tell you that when things start to go bad,
everybody shuts up and it really does hurt the team.
Rebellion lost their mental against DZ.
It was the thing that Troy said was the single biggest reason
as to why they lost the Salt Lake City Major.
Rebellion do have a bit of a habit here,
Jesse, of making easy games harder than they need to.
So that's something that I'm almost certain,
hot and cold and the rest of 100 thieves
are keeping in mind as they stare down
this match point that they sit on.
Yeah, I think it's interesting to note, too.
We talk about 100 thieves, maybe not communicating as much.
Then we expect to serve for a second.
He's got hands-off keyboard and is talking to his teammates.
Sir, probably the quietest and most thoughtful
of the guy on this team.
So everybody is still communicating
on their side of the rebellion.
That's a great sign for fans of this team
that want to see them close it up to O.
The space is being taken.
Once again, the secondary bomb site
will be this mid-course site, Bungton briefing.
A lot of teams these days favoring the move away
from the basement, but we should still see it third.
Here comes all of this.
The hot and cold is going to be so critical to win this round.
They're harassing hot and cold with those logic bombs.
Soft destruction and hard destruction
still going off surface somehow.
Found himself in a precarious position,
finished off by spirits.
The handy gets on the board, down goes the Frenchman.
Canadian taking a lot of damage from that nitrocell,
Rexon, also on a single point of HP.
It's a rough go of it in terms of life,
but Rexon with just what little remains gets Gomez,
just as hot and cold did the same in that first half.
You can frag as long as you have a single point of HP
and a gun in your hand, you can make your presence known.
The advantage now for Rebellion,
but there's bruised bodies across the board here, Jesse.
Still two players up top, they do not want to give us the space.
You know, they do it round over,
so they have to play for every inch.
Here's the swing from Anthony, two massive kills.
And it's a 1v4 for Adam.
and he can't get it done and be with the final shot as well.
And Shopify Rebellion are headed to the eSports World Cup.
SR says,
Bonjour to EWC and they have claimed the third spot
in the North America League.
Spirits, that's a great reaction
because honestly, 100 D stands
probably got that same look on their face.
An incredibly quick two-hole,
SR are going to Paris.
A no contest affair, Shopify rebellion dismantled the thieves as they tried to do anything to
slow down the momentum that the rebellion brought to the table but from the start, the
rebellion had to control, they closed it out here on map 2.
Decisive.
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, this was a shutout performance from them, this is exactly what we were talking
about.
Once they get to those best of three territories, they are a brand new team.
They have the plot armor activated.
They have everything at their disposal to get it done and damn, did they make that clean?
Yeah, and that is the only thing that matters.
Who cares what their best of one stage looks like?
Who cares what the regular season looks like?
Not you!
When playoffs come, what do we always say?
Canadian is inevitable.
Yes, he is.
We saw it again here.
Individually performing well, better than we thought.
We saw a great individual performances from it felt like just about everybody in the Shopify
Rebellion throughout the series, Math 1, it was Rexon, it was Voight, Math 2, and the
serve.
They were the ones leading the way.
Yeah, again, it's a big effort from each individual stepping up, but that's exactly what you want
from a best of three.
You don't need one star fragger popping up every single game.
You want to collectively see everyone playing to their best performance that they possibly
can with what they're given in those moments, and I think this really highlighted and showcased
it for the side of SR every player in their own respective role in their own respective moment popped off showed up and displayed a
Phenomenal performance. Yeah, that's what I love seeing and I even want to look at Fortress again
They were playing that map split which normally the old SR
They're always gonna do like their direct takes where they're always gonna like kind of target something and stack on one side
But they were playing split off the information using the meta extremely well the dope to be the day most right
So that's what I want to see for them going into the Esports World Cup is showing that style
because that was the SLCS, and they have the talent to make it work.
Well the men at the helm of this SR team, we have standing by ready for an interview after that victory.
Canadian Troy, congratulations on this one. You guys make the Esports World Cup. These guys were saying that you are inevitable.
You go to every single international event, you go to this one again. We'll see you in Paris in just a few weeks.
I mean, you had a great individual performance
on this last map as well.
What are you feeling right now?
Is you got some of the blood flowing again.
We saw the old Troy back in the lobby.
Um, looking, yeah.
I mean, sure, but I think, I think that part of it,
that part of it's relevant.
It felt no different.
I just think I had opportunities.
I think that's really it.
The team was fine, good.
I think when the team's fine, good,
and I get opportunities that like stuff like that
can always happen.
If we're working well together,
good columns all that then I see the game a lot more clearly and can make better decisions when we're
a disaster than god knows. Well Troy congratulations you're far too humble take the spotlight it was
a wonderful performance from you. I want to talk about round two I want you to kind of run me through
that big 1v3 clutch however I also want to show you the beginning of the round because ambi
set you up for success in that late round. Take a look at that.
I
Mean I think we need to play back for you really he told me they were on one HP. I couldn't see it's like very like
I'm gonna be honest as blurry
Wow, he is he is out there
He is out there
Yeah, I don't know
We had we had like decent info on where they're at
There's also like a bit of a different setup on this site
normally you know the whole floor is shredded so it's pretty viable to actually play in the site
here there was a bird on me and we just like we knew they could only drop or come through the
security side I think the first guy I killed was the only one that was full HP and the other ones
we knew were one HP so at that point it was just like I got that first one and then it was kind of
free because I knew they weren't in the site I think I heard the other guy going green so then I
Rotated it got killed the other guy with the bomb
I'm gonna it's honestly was a rough situation for them. I mean it was still clean and you took it and made it look clean
Just really quick. Are you kind of surprised that they don't ban clash against you guys given your success rate is so high when the clash is available
Um, I don't know. I mean I I think I think it's like a pick your poison kind of thing
Yeah, and I think that's like kind of an advantage that we have over some other teams is that you know
It's another op that we can abuse and like you potentially have to worry about
Because yeah, like there's a lot of maps ray where you do like the standard Walden Isle Bands or Mira
Or there they do like to trunk in a zombie. I know they used to do they used to do to trunk a clash actually on that
But yeah, I think it's just
Kind of pick your poison thing of like what you kind of want to deal with they apparently really don't like to trunk on that map
Which I mean is valid like it can be really strong on that map. So
Yeah, it's just kind of pinker. Also, I was only supposed to play clash once the other time
I literally thought well they banned the smoke and I think our pregame talk was it like the perfect one for that set up
So then we kind of scrambled and it actually worked out because they planted in a shit spot for the clash
So then we just refused well Troy we knew we're gonna be talking to you
Of course you are never as we already said after SLC though
You did mention that you thought a lot of your your struggles as a team came down to Mentals
Is that something you guys have been working on kind of going into the stage going into playoffs because we could hear you guys
Coms and I honestly thought today you guys were having more fun than I feel like I've ever seen you guys
So it was up
Yeah jumping around the room like it was crazy
The thing is is like if you're playing good, you're gonna have fun like I mean
And I think a hundred thieves previously have been a team that's like over goofy, over funny.
We just always have fun, but then, you know, you start losing and it gets quiet at the end of the day, it gets quiet.
Or you make a really bad joke, like, well, at least it's not seven one right now.
They made a couple of mistakes, right? And it's just like, no one's happy about that.
Like, sure, you're going to laugh, but it's not going to be a sincere laugh.
Right. So like at the end of the day, like everyone, you want to play good, you want to win.
But like, I think if you feel that you're playing good, you're gonna have fun, you know, like, if we're working together, if we're having good ideas,
if we're talking back and forth, having good teamwork, all that, you're gonna have more fun.
But if you're just going through the motions and, you know, the other teams are slamming you and you're not coming up with solutions,
and it feels like you're not even trying, it's not gonna be fun, no matter what.
So, I think it kind of comes from that. It is something that we focused on and, like, talked about.
But I think the biggest thing that we've put an emphasis on is like just having a good attitude and not getting frustrated by mistakes and
like just making sure that we're honing in on our fundamentals of teamwork and how we want to play the game because I think
There's been the opposite of that. We're sometimes like we'll make, you know, just a mistake and around but we have the right idea and
Really all it has to be is like, okay, we just double down on the fundamentals like we sink a bit better there
You know, we we go at the right target and you know and then that ground was fine
And then now let's say we're not like scrambling and trying to problem solve some problem that doesn't even exist
So I tried congratulations again. Thank you so much for your time as always
We'll see you in Paris in a few weeks and we'll see you next week as you guys hunt for the NAL title
Thank you very much. See you guys around. I'll see you later
That was a fantastic performance from Shopify rebellion as a whole. It's and be your match MVP
But everyone performing well on the Shopify rebellion side and on the other hand, you know
You got to talk about hundred these a little bit
They just did not go up and we did not see the best of 100 thieves in the best of threes at all
We certainly didn't and to more focus on the hundred these side of things one big thing for me that I was talking to you about
Was when's the last time Gomez Adam spirits played in a best of three in comparison to the players on
on shop of fire belly and I mean it's been quite some time even during kickoff
they weren't able to play those best three immediately best of one sure they
did improve in the best of one aspect the best of three are definitely a
beast especially when you don't have those reps were asset why I mean for SR
went to SLC got up many reps as possible definitely come back to bite you
you know you wonder the last time they played in the best of three what yesterday
And they lost.
So, yeah, obviously they didn't do any learning.
I should have just knew that was gonna be.
Well, out of thieves, we're not able to defy the expectations.
Hopefully we'll see them bounce back in stage two
in a few months when we eventually get there.
But for now, our focus shifts to four fun eSports
and Dark Zero, another underdog story coming your way.
We'll get to that and see if we can see any surprises
coming up next.
What do J.J. Blast, Packer, and Diffuser all have in common?
They're all Tier 2 champions who were turned into NA L superstars, and in 2026 the NA Tier
2 scene is bigger than it's ever been before.
Welcome to Spawn Points!
This year we've debuted the NA Open Cup, which is a series of tournaments across the
continent where you can sign up and play on LAN as part of your journey to becoming a pro player.
The first of these lands just wrapped up in Philly, where Hikikimori qualified for the finals
in Salt Lake City, but there's still five more lands that you can sign up for happening throughout
the summer and the fall. Canada will host the next Open Cup in Windsor, Ontario on July 17th,
and then the USA will host three more lands with St. Louis, Missouri hosting in August,
Palmetto Bay, Florida in September, and Salt Lake City, Utah, hosting the finals in October.
And if you thought we forgot about Mexico, then you're sorely mistaken, because I'm thrilled
to tell you that Mexico City will also be hosting an NA Open Cup LAN on July 31st.
Signups are open today, so make sure you go and register if you're able to attend.
The winners of all six lands and the winner of Element 2026 will then meet in Salt Lake City
for the NA Open Cup Finals, and the champion of that will earn an advanced spot in the Challenger
finals to fight for promotion to the 2027 NA L season, plus the spot in the SILCQ.
And let's talk about Element 2026 for a second, because the best amateur teams in
NA have already been battling it out for weeks and BO3s are about to begin.
Plans start on July 21st and continue into playoffs with a champion crown on July 26th,
so make sure you tune in to see the stars of tomorrow fighting for their spots today.
It has never been easier to play competitive Siege.
Go get your friends and sign up for an NA Open Cup land near you.
Watch Elna 226 and the NAL to learn the best strats and tactics, and if you can rise above
the rest, if you can prove that you are worthy of being a professional player, then the NAL
awaits you.
You've just got to come and earn it.
I
It's
the major champs against one of the newest teams in the NAL for a spot in EWC, a story
so insane we could not have made this upcoming. And who knew we would be here? It's the story
of David versus Goliath. The tale is all this time, the team that everyone wants to beat
versus the team that faces the challenge of their life.
Yeah, and it's gonna be DZ. Obviously, they are the SLC major champions and for fun
I mean this is their second stage now where they're able to make it to the playoffs
But the fact of the matter is that is not good enough
Eventually what no so say the end right there is DZ the SLC champion and then there's for fun
And that's basically it but at the end of the day
Making playoffs is not good enough
We know that you are going to have to make it over a juggernaut
And it's not just a juggernaut. Look at the head right here.
DZ are leading in every single statistical category that there is, and we were pulling it up.
Guys, we didn't cherry pick, I promise. It's not the only step.
We were trying to actually find something where Fun was leading it.
Unfortunately, they weren't. And there was one kind of bearable.
The close inversion versus pretty close, 74% to 76%.
But again, DZ are that machine. They're the team that has been there before.
They're planning to make every single event.
And for fun again, you've got to be able to get over a jug or not.
You can't just keep making playoffs.
And what is that going to come down to?
For me, it's going to come down to the leadership voice that is on the team, right?
Packer and Beano.
But we don't want Packer to just kind of go on a little bit of a tirade
and just start making everyone have to wake up, right?
It's going to be on the entire team to come into this game hot.
Everyone ready to play.
Everyone having their voices elevated on this team.
Well, I think for Dizzy, and maybe the only thing that for fun can kind of try to capture,
is they did lose their game yesterday against Wildcard, a blueprint potentially, for how
4fun could do this. Now we don't usually get a chance to speak to losers after their game,
but DarkZero, they did this for us. They posted an interview with Kino's thoughts on what
happened yesterday in that loss.
Yeah, it was a hard series against Wildcard. I did expect it to be a hard series because
I mean that's what happens every time we play against them. It's a good matchup, play styles,
So yeah, every time it's a farm burner, we were expecting it, we were ready for it,
they came out on top.
I think the particular issue on Labs, I would say on our attacks,
the European Light Blaster comes for getting in too hectic and we're missing some important
details that, you know, cost the round or two.
If that game is a...
We get like, what, three, four attacks, that's a completely different game, never know what
will happen.
I do think this loss teaches a bunch, I've said this before and I'll say it again, I
like losing is one of the biggest parts of winning and learning and going forward I mean this loss
won't only help we really don't care if we're in the lower bracket we'll game for playing and who
we're playing against we'll just show up and we're gonna play a game and we're gonna do our best.
Big shout out to the DZ fans, family, girlfriend, friends, everybody who's watching I wouldn't be
here without their support their love and make sure you get that DZ skin that just came out.
I always love hearing from Kino but at the same time I think it's very important to know that
losing is always going to be a part of winning and learning because if you're
winning all the time you're not learning too much. There's not anything
you're going to take from those wins. You're just going to replay it a good
game and realistically every time Dizzy does come to a loss they never lose
twice. They then always continue on to beat their opponents going forward. So
when you're looking at the history and history sure repeats here when they come
to that one loss immediately falls into Ws coming across the board and it's
It's going to be no exception coming in today from the side of DZ.
They get their loss against Wildcard.
They knew it was a close series.
And I think he said it best as well.
One round, two rounds going to their favor.
They're the victors going into that series.
In today's matchup, it is going to be a hurdle.
And I mean a hurdle for Forfun.
So not only lacks is this David vs. Goliath.
And we highlighted the head to head
where Forfun is behind in every category.
But they have to do something that has never been done before.
Is that what you're telling me?
They have to make them lose two times in a row.
No one's been able to do it.
That's great.
I think that's the entire year for the meds.
Thank you for finding that, too, because, yeah, that
wasn't insane.
I said something small about it, and he dug deep and found
just a plethora of wins versus, like, three losses.
Yeah, it's an insane stat.
Well, DZ, they did have their struggles in that game
against Wild Card yesterday.
Otherwise, they would have come out victorious.
We have another inside look into the comms of Dark Zero
when those struggles were happening.
I'm going to drone once.
You're just going to step on your left.
He has a natural forecall, okay?
Natural forecall.
Third.
Locking up Nish.
And Nish, he's Nishing me.
That natural.
I'm good.
We're far.
I'm calling.
I'm calling.
Nish, natural me again.
That natural.
So we're after on me.
On my body, on my body, boys.
On my body.
Okay, I'm okay, I'm okay.
I'm just, I'm just.
Come on, Ben.
That me, bro, on your body.
Come here, he's so middle after, middle after.
Middle after still.
Coming to the after door.
Bomb crush.
I kill him.
After that.
What's over top?
What's over top?
We're at 20 speed.
I'm going to the power top.
I'm going to direct to the smoke.
Lower grudge.
I'm coming to all of you.
It's Harry Potter.
Harry Potter, Harry Potter.
Pop, Grouch.
Man, I love that little desk slam there at the end from NJR.
That is a classic going back to coaching him on DZ.
A little bit of frustration there, but I actually struggled to see what Kino kind of meant.
I went back in a lot of those rounds and again, in that interview, he's talking about some
calm issues.
Well, if that is what we're considering a calm issue, I don't know.
kind of struggled to clear the Rafters player.
The Rafters player kind of smoked the guy off the Rafter
door and hit a great shot with the weapon 94.
What can you do against that?
But I really wanted to show that round
because that's what Gus was asking for yesterday.
Yeah.
That was their issue when those comments really
weren't that bad.
It was just Kino in a hell in a cell.
Everyone tried to assist.
It was just wildcard.
It was one step ahead.
They closed it out.
That's really what that game came down to
was a game of inches, realistically.
Yes.
So that's why we're painting this picture for fun
that this really is going to be a big juggernaut of a team
to try to get over. Well, dark zero in that series yesterday, they showcase one of their
best maps of the entire pool. They showcased chalet today for fun, not going to allow that
to happen. The very first ban right off the bat. It means we're going to end up on layer
cafe and potentially labs of for fun can pull off a map one way. It's really going to come
down to that though. Their performance on layer lacks. Do you like this pick for for
So, I like it in a sense of this is probably one of their better maps, however, DarkZero's
4-0.
You're not going to find comfort on any map going against a juggernaut like DarkZero,
however, the sample size for them on this map, they only have two wins, and that's over
SR.
So, they're thinking to themselves, okay, well, we beat SR twice, we had a very convincing
win the last time.
This isn't the same team.
That's also not the same SR that you played in the best of one night, and again, they
did play against each other in the group stage, it was a 7-5, but that was also the very
first playday. DZ has had so much time to improve and now we're in the best three seers. They
came off of a loss. I'm not liking the map. Yeah, it's a scary map because I'm even thinking
back to kick off where this was their best map and the filter stairs became known as
keynote stairs as he made play after play on those against SSG. Sorry, dream. Um, but
yeah, I mean, there's it's kind of hard because like there's no good map to pick into against
the key. You look at even cafe, which is the next map ticket. Really? That's a map or DZ
actually has been struggling where they got 7-0'd previously by M80 and they also lost a wildcard 7-5.
So look, I want to I want to say maybe there's a little bit of hope if we see 4-fun kind of countering
just like they did against SR. Maybe we see Volsper getting super aggressive on the Azami if he's
even up for it. Yeah, if they leave it up. However, I think if there is something to really hold on to
outside of obviously the entire team showing up playing systematically, fundamentally well,
is that conversion rate. If they can get those opening kills swinging into their favor and we
and saw how close they were.
It was by like 2%.
They get those opening kills
and they're able to convert those into rounds one.
That could swing into the side of Four Fun.
And we did notice that yesterday,
Darkseer actually struggled on the opening kill department,
right, versus Wildcard,
and they were still able to win that match.
Well, Four Fun, you're gonna have to do
a little bit better than that.
You're gonna have to capitalize on every single one of these
and not give DZ the lead.
Well, we saw it there a moment ago for Four Fun.
They're sporting the jerseys.
They're all smiles right now.
Can they keep that attitude up
as they entered the gauntlet against Dark Zero,
we're gonna go over to Lynx and XR Troika to find out.
And to find out, Zia, really,
David can be Goliath in anything but the stories.
Forthorn have had a promising stage,
certainly a promising stage to get to this point,
but to beat the Salt Lake City champions,
I feel like we always get these matchups
and you and I always think a little partial
to the favorites coming in,
but every time you do just have to look at this matchup
in one game, surely Dark Zero's luck
I think I don't even know if
it comes down to look for DZ like
they look pretty good yesterday
against Wildcard. It was a great
series. They've got a little bit
of tumultuous history with
Wildcard as well of DZ. They've
got less of a history with
full fun, full fun being one of
the newer teams inside the NL
and doing a fantastic job to
qualify for playoffs in that
sixth place spot. Only one spot
the game. We've got a lot of
players in the game. We've got
players in the game because we
have just watched beats 100
thieves and advanced through
this lower bracket. The lower
bracket is shaping up to be an
absolute doozy. I know there's
a lot of focus on the upper
bracket for any other as this
should be. You know, it's a
fantastic position to be in
inside of the bracket, but
with SR qualifying automatically
into it easy losing their game
that's the way to go. They're
going to be able to do that.
They've got well, we've got a
best of three professional
siege playing teams chance, but
that's as far as I would stretch
that chance. DZ have an incredible
map rule and for fun have clearly
found some difficulty in the
veto getting somewhere that they
are comfortable, given that
they're going to layer as an
opening pick map here. DZ and
then this sort of for themselves
and then DZ themselves are
to be a very difficult series that doubled in with the fact that this is the reigning
mage champions like they ain't missing either me you see right surely not and especially
with such a uh really close game and a really great game against wild card yesterday while
they came up short it wasn't maps where you know the maps they lost were all 15 or all
12 rounds extremely close to Paris those are going to happen but to return back to for fun
while the veto overall might be problematic for fun certainly have good showings on layer
that SR game just a couple weeks ago with really great individual performances but also
just some of the best actual team play we've seen from Forfun this whole stage.
Going up 6-0 and then closing out the game 7-3 against SR, now of course it's just one
dust of 1, but they've been able to bring the fight against big teams before.
On this map they've been able to do it in this very stage.
Question whether or not they can do it today is a separate one but considering that Forfun
and might have at least a better chance here on their pick,
he might, or we, might otherwise think Dark Zero
starting out on the defense, band phase has gone through,
we're unfortunately denying interesting defensive bands,
it will just be the normal hard-reached denial duo
we see taken off in a lot of these games.
For fun, Flip said Holly,
focusing heavily on the intel game this time.
Yep, they're going to be bringing that dope beat,
and of course that Blitz, Monty is usually
preferred on this top floor, Claire,
but Blitz can do a very good job.
They're all gonna have a bit of a task though.
NGR is clearly cooked.
Well, him and Jane I know I guess because well,
and Pulse because they're all involved
in one way or another.
There's a mirror window on the ops wall.
There is a keeper barricade next to that mirror window.
The mirror window's on a soft wall by the way,
and then NGR is gonna be playing that
in a fairly aggressive position.
I mean, it's genius because the mirror on the soft wall
is so much for vulnerability.
However, when you throw into a fight,
That would just put a key there so you can't immediately get banged.
You should be able to hold there for some time.
Can you know TASK was holding the backside of things?
And for fun, seemingly scratching their head a little bit at the moment
as Mike W. gets into his last Retaro Drone.
A great tool to deal with this utility,
but it looks like it's being committed elsewhere.
Yeah, it's a difficult tactical quandary for a for fun.
If they want to push you to op,
they'll have to deal with all of that utility.
But by the flip side, if they decide to rotate bridge,
I think DarkZero are clearly ready and accepting that, so the attack hits the rotate, Blitz pushing in, and Hacker starts off with two big kills pushing the front side, three in fact!
Switching to the bailiff, Bino finding a green way in, begins to put this diffuser down, they carve their way effectively through the site, and while Nurez gets one kill, the broader 4-fault assault is generally successful.
Newer's looking to retake behind or in front of his own mirror window on Claire prone around the corner ready pre-aiming that
And he had a 2v2 again
I know stopped by the don't be called gonna lose quite a bit of his HP drop a little bit of fire
Either the future as well what attacker I believe just coming in from the back side
Silo over by the single window gets the final two kills. I was worried that maybe
Darkseer would have forced for fun into a difficult position push a place that the defense was expecting
And even if they were that promise mitigated when you just kill them all
Well, just kill them all and just kind of ignore it, right? No. Oh, NGL's got a nice setup inside of ops
Anyway, we're just gonna push the garbage side. We're gonna take control of green stairs
We're gonna deal with Kino and we're just gonna start to flood through that breach because they've left it soft for a rotate
Great gap spotting there from the side of for fun and obviously packer leading the charge in a lot of ways
They're loaded kills there to really open things up a good round for fun rounds don't always come easy
to the defenders folks
We have friendly fire disabled nowadays brother. How have you ended up on 20 HP?
Imagine it was one of the flame ingredients
Yeah, there it is. Yeah, I
Mean that's one way to give an advantage for for fun. I guess they'll take it
I'm sure he was trying to like melee it and just run out of the way or whatever.
However, getting rid of those ingredients is really important because if you don't get rid of them, it will just destroy the utility that's placed in it.
So that barbed wire, if it's still there and there's an ingredient, they're just shooting the ingredient.
It's obviously shootable. The barbed wire isn't. You have to get up from melee it or use a piece of utility for it.
It's not like you're going to get a lot of damage.
It will just destroy the utility that's placed in it.
So that barbed wire, if it's still there and there's an ingredient,
they're just shooting the ingredient, it's obviously shootable.
The barbed wire isn't. You have to get up and melee it or use a piece of utility for it.
It will just destroy the barbed.
So it is advantageous on occasion as a defender to destroy some of those ingredients
and just enable you to place the utility that you deem a little bit more effective in that spot.
And I think it's widely considered that barbed wire is going to be better in a lot of applications
rather than those fire ingredients.
But not the desired outcome still.
It won't have too much impact on the round, I'd say.
It's going to require some sort of a clear from the locks of things.
Now, a clear has kind of fallen out,
a fraction of a little bit of attack in this bomb site,
but looking at the position of some of these attackers,
it looked like they could be going for that top floor.
It depends on what the team is going,
probably not often committing to this floor.
They're going to get you caught in a tangle of gunfights on the top floor,
in which the round either is won or lost
taking fights against these defenders.
Don't get me calls going out quite early, Janna no suffering some damage, let me call one, use or take the prime to disable his phone, retain the ability to get on cameras, not lose 30 HP as well.
There is going to be a clear, usually starts on the Ops side.
So for fun hitting the normal position for this style of attack, we did see Packer lurking down below earlier, Foltz with a clue towards that position.
Of course the damage done early, especially now that he's spotted on the drone, this is
going to make his position whether it's anti-flank or holding top rocket a lot weaker.
NGR finished off by Mike W outside of the bathroom window.
Fulping one of the main defenders remaining in this position is just going to be an even
bigger problem for DZ in light of the absence of both the Stolis and the Azami.
Four-fund shots landing quite well into the bodies of Dark Zero defenders on-layer so
far through these two rounds and now, on the first floor defense, extended up to the top
floor. It's rare that we see you be attacked in such a deep burn advantage.
Taking time to reset, Razorbloom triggered will likely stave off the
attack for just a little longer. With Mike W and Candela's around the corner, you know,
taking more time to clear. Finally, we'll see some of that utility expended onto the
rest of this defense as the shield sends the hop, not actually into the building,
out. As for fun esports, instead Ollie decided to wait a little longer.
Well, we've got the time to do so, we've still got 35 seconds, but with the kill coming quickly back onto Sylo, Packard will trade out onto Kino.
So, Nurs and Fools have got a heck of a lot of holding on to do right now. Packard downed in the process as well.
So, while time for a moment might have been on their side, Packard's just looking to try and information gather right now and give a bit of impulse to where Fools could be.
It's going to be a hot drop coming in onto the side.
Oh, that's not the side that you want to see.
Volsper grabbing two.
Neuers just has to hold on, finds the first.
Packers already down, don't forget.
Volsper has to push for the kill here.
With only two seconds, it's incredibly unlikely.
It will come down to a plant.
But all Neuers has to do is move on through Packer.
Actually, up in the melee, fourth one going to take the round.
I didn't realize that he'd been revived there.
No, I didn't either, but you can see Packer, I think,
understanding how close that round came.
When you're in late time like that,
Orez is a few key seconds that you don't always know
if you can spend.
I mean, going for that play was already quite low,
about two to one seconds remaining
when Wolfs were starting putting that diffuser on the floor.
Orez and him or not, Orez and him,
either way could be the difference maker in that round.
And only hindsight will kind of indicate
what was the better option.
In that case, taking those seconds of critical importance, Packer might go down, but takes
down Newer as he enters the grave, and with one player left standing on the attack, that
gives the second round on Layer 2 for fun.
DZ, after losing two rounds in a row, will take their tactical timeout.
Early days on Layer, early days on the defensive side of Layers as well.
So it's not all doom and gloom just yet, but Dart Zero clearly not wanting to get off on
a cold start.
No, I'm going to try and put a couple of these problems to bed early days.
I can imagine, you know, Kino obviously made a little bit of a nod to it in the sort of
loser interview that was posted last night, coms being a bit of an issue.
Now something that's eased store out in the first couple of rounds and to identify if
it is going to be a problem or if it is still a problem is the core communication.
We've not played every bombsite yet, but that doesn't matter if the coms aren't flowing
and people aren't being given the help that they need when they need it.
that we hear a lot of these teams talking about nowadays is just a togetherness in playing.
It was something that in fact, Packer himself, you know, went on a bit of a, sort of, tie
raid about a couple of play days ago, you know, there's a very famous tactical timeout
that was sort of aired on the broadcast from Packer, just saying, you know, guys, we just
need to play together. It doesn't really matter what operators we play, it doesn't really
matter how we play them. We just need to make sure that our focus is that we are playing
together. So it's, it's always a big focus. And it seems like DZ are just not having
that full together into just, yeah, I think, you know, round one, very narrow margin, you
kind of got caught out a little bit. Round two, it seemed a little bit more clear cut
what the player was going to be from fourth one, and not being able to deal with it is
obviously a little bit of a problem. Back to top floor we go though, for round number
three. We don't think that fourth one will get away with that same style of push yet
again, and well, they aren't really bringing the same tool for it. Gone is the blitz, and
On comes the Blackbeard for Bino.
So retaining the shield we're bringing a different kind, Dark Zero's, while bringing quite similar operators, but importantly dropping the mirror from the setup.
So won't have that same position held over by ops.
Forfun did try to play this pretty quickly last time.
And we might be going for different shield play, if Hacker with the shotgun.
Whenever he moves up, Rocket Stairs will likely attempt to be quick and decisive, normally a shotgun always holds this position, or typically holds this position.
Saw an SAO a few days ago, the difficulty of trying to push up, say, playing Deimos with the revolver, the AR, with the shotgun around the corner, and so,
Packer looking to try to...
Gave some kind of advantage in that fight, but with no clear, or at least no real...
real solid prizes over towards Ops like there were last time.
Darkseer more spread out in fourth line, not able to find a gap like they could before.
By the way, you just see if you can find a little bit of a gap there.
I often talk about him as a really good space finder on this team.
There's not much space to be found up there at the top of those green stairs,
looking in on the side. Shotgun at close range.
No, it's going to be SMG as Fultz, feeling himself happy to take that
engagement against Mike W.
Can switch over to the Shotgun and point his attention toward that sky bridge.
A very important ultimate pick here for DZ.
SELL THEM OUT!
An important pick, and now as the utility cleared, starts manifesting for dark zero.
A lot of the resources that we saw in the first round, but didn't see full use of, will now come to bear.
Smokes on Rocket, Chunika's inside a site.
Oh my lord, Vino!
Just trying to double swing on Rocket, ends up succumbing to the toxic canister.
ADS going down, shooting.
Kino now can hold both the bottom of the staircase and the windows inside of Atherham
Bolsford who was looking for some kind of initiative inside or outside of the single
window, excuse me, and that losing most of his HP can't quite find the one tap on a
newer's despite seeing the right side or left side of his head.
Kino now on for three as Wolfsburg is already one foot in the grave.
Sesame G-11's an SAO city on round three as the reattempt to the top floor goes
the way of dark zero. That's exactly around the DZ needed after the timeout isn't it? A flawless to
come straight out there. Loads of confidence in the gunfights they were taking and it quite
literally felt like they had just shut up shop. They were like top floor, you had loads of control
last time, not today. We are closing you down at every single point of entry. Rocket stairs,
bam, sorted. Faults on the backside, boom, two kills on the round. Everyone held their ground
and held it well and it was all supported really nice in it. Kino, like an anti-aircraft gun just
in the middle, spinning round as he's needed to throw toxic babes here or there, whether he's
supporting faults on one side or whether he's supporting the players playing on the on the
rocket stairs. Really good stuff there from DarkZero, just what they needed after quite a shaky start
really in this fixture. Fino's had a bit of a nightmare there, any blessing? Yeah, he's had a
bit of an idea but they're bringing so much you tell we're either have to all
be bought into the idea of splitting not sure if that was an alternative idea
brought up after the white W brought up during one seems to be differing visions
for for fun in round three could be the reason we saw quite a long time for
the I will say I say quite a long time till they committed for fun have
generally been on the quicker side I'd say Ali even if we consider that round
the stall. They still tried to connect to something with a minute to go and clearly recognizing
that just waiting for 20 seconds will give DZ full time to prepare, that they would succumb
to all of that util. You can clearly see that Four Fun are, I think, making the right decision
to err on the side of quicker rather than waiting for no reason. And that's at least
good for a team that has such an underdog volume to smash at that they're favourite
to slice the play over, wringing their hands.
Yeah, I don't think that Four Fun have really got too much of a problem with time on the
attack, which is a great thing to be able to say about a team in this position, right?
We never really look at him in a sort of itching for him to start getting into the building.
They're very good at finding those gaps and they've got some really good gap finders, you know.
Look at this, Packer. This time going to be on the book making his way through this top floor.
Thoughts will grab the opening pick. Packer, I'm aware that there is going to be Kino playing upstairs inside a server.
Pretty sure Kino's heard him there. You can sort of hear it. You can sort of see it in his face.
Kind of comment that he's walking down rocket stairs and already we've got players looking in position.
Jane I know I think it's just prowling ready. I think might have been an assumption favoring the quick entry over full droning
Yeah, but the timing
Unfortunate timing for Packer looks up at the default Jane and oh gets the kill Keto is standing on top of the view camera on the top floor
So I genuinely imagine for fun. We're like, okay, we're gonna move quickly through top floor. We've drone most of it and
For once, unfortunately the defender is in a perfect position to take advantage of that
Vols were going down early as well. It's getting that kill within the first 30 seconds of the round
the game. They're not going to
be able to get around. For fun
now in a position where they
don't really have the resources
to mount a quick attack like
they could last time the opening
kill came. Well past the halfway
point of the round in this time.
I mean, they're doing 35. We're
still at the minute 39 to go. It
does sometimes feel like if the
gap finding doesn't work, they
are left a little bit high and
dry. Because we still kind of
got style. I'm just starting to
move through now again.
Similar areas that were being
occupied earlier by package
Packers to the camera, they are going to the wind, they are downstairs, no one needs to play aggressive.
There's still Kino on the top, he's barely moved all round by the way.
And I'm sure that he will have a very tangible flank in mind at some point.
And the further entrenched that we see for fun get into this vertical game and pushing in down filtration,
the more powerful the position Kino will hold.
Reaching!
Use the Harvey's charge from the bird, never a good sign, but of course you do so, now the Packers gone down.
You know also getting a kill upstairs. That's two players that's two players
This flank has gotten kills for either directly with that gun or the information sent to Jane
I know able to hear Packer moving down rocket
being a now more focused on flank watch
Preserving his own individual life the team success and all likelihood is not gonna happen
Still got two Dokeby calls still have some important utilities to the capital
On the back of that realm the information gathered early dark zero have just done nothing to squander this lead throughout the mid-round
and it's always going to be difficult to clutch a 3v5 and a 2v5 as well.
And maybe a little bit easier as Kino swings around the corner,
but starts here a half of a nandigan is to trade down.
It seems like things will be all tied up by round four.
Yeah, I think anything that Kino got beyond the first couple of kills,
the assist on the first and then the finish on the second
was always going to be a bonus.
Look at the positions being occupied right now.
DZ are giving absolutely nothing.
Bino's on one HP and nobody is swinging him.
they're not going to be able to
get the job done. They're
not going to be able to get
them. They are guaranteeing
themselves these rounds. And
really just seems like quite a
simple pocket play from BZ to
get the job done, and it's one
of those things where you can't
always predict how the attacks
going to play. You know, if we
see a bit more thorough
droning from for fun, maybe
they recognize the presence of
mute chambers upstairs. They
give a little more credit, and
then Kino has to fall back. We
see a completely different
round. And that's just the
nature of the defense
For fun to gotten used to a certain pace. They've gotten used to assuming certain things and especially this being a new site
They didn't quite know what to expect from dark zero and coming out of the tactical time on feeling a bit fresher dark zero
We're ready to take advantage from that and you can obviously say all maybe for fun should have drawn better
Maybe should have bet they should have been more thorough. Maybe maybe they should have I
Think more importantly that was dark zero really trying to switch things up
Create a bit of a different pace a bit of a different
Defense that 4-4 didn't expect, and now going forward, I'm out to the journey to be more thorough.
Sometimes you have to make mistakes to learn to down the dark zero in a good position to force 4-4 into that spot.
And now, coming back towards briefing, we'll look to accomplish a flawless sacrifice.
Two rounds on the bounce after the timeout, then 4-4 of course still have theirs in pocket.
I'm not having two surprises to use at the start at round five, to be honest.
It could have been a good point in this game to get it out of the way and see if we can stabilize and try and embody some of the
Face-down they were bringing in rounds one and two, but it very much is that DZ aren't leaving those big gaping holes open anymore
Recognizing that 4-4 are a great team at finding a gap and being able to walk in and move quite quickly off the back of that
We will be re-attempting this mid-floor site
And we did see a top clear last time, but this lineup doesn't speak to top clear
Oh, she'll be brought by being a which is unusual in itself, give me the loves to play either the Blackbird or the Blitz
With the cap out and of course the fence
Gotta be expecting something a little bit more direct
We're trying to get in take a little bit of control on this first floor if you can control the bottom of green stairs
That's always be a really big swing
Just dealing with a bit of utility around this yellow side at the moment
They can get in the wall open, it's going to be somewhat problematic, they have to do it with being out.
They will only be a couple of lines of sight if that sight wall does get opened.
I hate to have to try to take down newers inside of that sight as well.
Plenty of ADS's deployable shield.
High-servered player for Dark Zero inside of the NIL this day, again, really great series.
In some of the wild hard matches yesterday on concert as well, a lot of multi-kills from newers.
Kind of expect that from them over the past few years.
Seapackers been really trying to find these gaps and take advantage of these little oversights from Dark Sierra looking to do it again
Could maybe go prone at the door and
Try and get a line onto Newers
Finding a shot on the bulls for
Spotted for just a second but hopping right behind the desk. I mean Newers just hops up beams another through the wall
Very rare. We see a Bunk's briefing defense and with the site player getting all the kills
If anybody can do it, it's newer as 9 and 2 has already proven that throughout this series, 6 and 2 before that triple kill, you know, looking to get one.
Calling somebody maybe to shoot those tracks. Stingers get a line around the corner, sprints through, but losing a bit of that momentum.
They had the ability by walking through the tracks and fortunately can't land the shot gun, you know, moving around the corner, but it's secondary is to get the job done.
Huge on-site play from newer. Big reason Dark Zero accomplished a flawless rotation.
I think if you looked at the line up and you were able to beforehand as a defender
Decided like figure out what exactly for fun. We're gonna do there
I don't think that you would set up your utility any different to that
They're the way that dark zero just set it up there in a playable shield in the perfect spot
They had ADS jam and ADS catches in the perfect spot newest was playing in the perfect spot
Everything went perfectly for them and for fun just walked seemingly right into the trap that DZ had laid right there
Packer got really unlucky now players don't always play on the same
resolution or
Aspect ratio should I say that we watch the stream up?
So sometimes the scope will block things and I think that was probably one of those occasions there for Packer
Although it did look quite central
So I'm unsure why he wasn't able to see him
But if you don't we flash over the screen for a very brief second so little bit of a missed opportunity there from packing kind of going
A little bit blind he was clearly trying to work off the back of the nation
But at the same time you could hear the ads is working to catch those cat's eyeballs
So there's a little bit of a decent there the ads is either not being known about or just you know hoping that they weren't there
And I don't really understand from for fun
And for packet if you'd got a kill that would have saved a lot of heartache there for for fun
really, because notice they're going to go on to get three from that position.
It really is just going to damage the attack beyond repair.
Easy now looking to extend a little bit of a lead here and four to half really would
be beyond the pale right now.
No, it wouldn't, especially with how these rounds have ended.
A flawless round three and only dropping one body in rounds four and five, given the trend
dark zero of late after tactical timeouts, but nothing but excellent so far on the screen
first round's sliding further and further into memory only that before fun
right now as the first round and I think as well I think his other two kills
came in the following he's had no goal since then I think player so far before
fun since the time out for fun about two kills true mathematically I don't know
why I put that together but that it's devastating like it really is
It's gonna be more difficult this time, given that we've got a bit of a Blitz-Dokey combination and Beano starting to charge down on this top-blocking position.
And they're pushing Janna a little back, but, you know, a Dokey call, Blitz-Princey, and very low utility cost for 4-fun.
But Janna knows he's just gonna take the fallback position a minute 20 into the round, now he'll play behind the desk.
I mean, this is all normal paces.
It seems exciting for the briefest moment,
but a lot more has to be accomplished for for fun, Ali.
And I mean, Packer down below,
we can't really see him lurk this time.
We gotta see some action about Skeleton Key.
Yeah, he's gonna need to try and get in
and displace some of those players upstairs,
get a little bit of information going,
utilize that Skeleton Key.
It's even a little bit of utility could target as well,
but the primary usage is just gonna be to open up hotspots,
try and stop those DZ players
from doing it with blocks by those spaces.
Silo has got his eyes set on the main breach.
Vulspur, quite good cut-off here as well, doesn't really need to challenge the angle too much.
Ooh, the thorn at the top of Main Stairs though, it does get a little bit more complicated.
You know, the try and make something happen here, but again, it's on brand for DZ right now, isn't it?
They now know that the breach is open, guess what, no one's flooding the breach.
This is where we need to see the value out of Packer from below.
Oh, timing again. Packer for the victim of this a couple times. Shooting the default cam on bottom
rocket now that time. Why does he activate the skeleton to get out of the dark zero and take the
fight? Always hate those days when they happen, but of course you work on getting a bit unlocked today.
NJR swinging around the corner. They'll be there for the trade. Quick flank by the defense makes
soft work of floor fun upstairs. Mike W. and Walsper. Below half HP. NJR actually more in
control that defuses the attack right now just whimpering over it as he pushes deeper inside
of the site. Volsper looking for his first kill of the game and will end the half with nothing.
Four fun starting things off quite nicely with two rounds but ever since that attack timeout Dark
Zero have not placed a single step wrong. Dark Zero have just been moving and grooving since the
timeout. One of these moments where you look at the experience of this team versus the inexperience
of four fun. And you have to say, we're seeing that on a platter in front of us. Yeah. And I love
that you mentioned the experience versus the inexperience of people are probably wondering
what's happening with four fun. The reality is the inexperience here is respectfully,
they got their two rounds. It looks good, but that's where an experienced team is always then
going to exploit that inexperience. It's the simple fact of, yes, you did get those two rounds. Now,
we understand the style of game that you're trying to play, and we're going to immediately
counter whether we're choosing to get aggressive, whether choosing to play more defensive. We are
going to stop your initial attack and make you work for these rounds. And that's what you're seeing
from the side of War Fund is they're just trying to get scrappy. They're sending body after body.
This is something we've already highlighted where once they run out of solutions, once they run out
of being able to forget, it's just trying to send one body right after the other. Hoping the
gunfire swings into their favor so they get that little bit of map control. But DZ is going to be
too strong of a team to allow you to even get to that point. Yeah, I mean they're the major champions
for a reason. If there was a play of the game for this situation here, a play at the halftime,
It's going to go down to call out in that timeout.
I don't want to give away all his secrets,
but basically what he told the guys,
he recognized they were having a slow start,
and he said, we're not being decisive right now.
We either need to get aggressive
or we need to just force a newer team with a newer IGL
to do something, right?
Let's just sit on our hands and create some problems for them
and make them have to solve it.
That's what we've seen on the side of DarkZero.
We had newers sitting behind a Jager shield in bunks, right?
With all the ADSs, they weren't a poor fun,
not able to problems off and then on that last round as well as they're trying to
flip their takes back and forth they're getting stalled out by the smoke by the
tachanka there's nothing that they can do. We know this forefront team is never
afraid of the highest caliber of opponents and something that they tell
us when we get a chance to talk to us but right now they have something to
fear right dark zero are putting them into uncomfortable spots and right
newer is being able to pop off it's kind of a part of that they're just feeding
kills one by one because it's a little awkward at times. It is, but they can they can wrap a
piece of gauze around the hemorrhaging, the bleeding that they're showing, casing right now,
especially starting on their defense. We already saw what they did against SR. They had a flawless
start, so they can be in the driver seat here now in our defense. They can create the chaos.
They can cause the problem. They can cause DZ to have to fight and find a solution, but again,
it really is also going to be on them to be able to adapt as well on defense and understand, okay,
what is DZ going for? How can we do it? Do we get aggressive? Do we fall back into our layers?
what is going to be their game plan, and that's where they always tend to seem to struggle.
It's trying to finagle what game plan works best and what is really going to get them the success
outside of maybe getting them a couple kills.
Yeah, I'm wondering what the game plan is going to be here because we are seeing them take off
the solid snake, so we're not seeing the wild card blueprint where you get rid of double shields
against Darkseer. Instead, we're going to be getting rid of the vision operators. The demos I like
because guess what? They did leave Azami up. We should see Volsper. Oh, maybe Tubra. Maybe they're
Switching their things up because they know dark zero is going to counter
So we might be able to see that come out a little bit later
But taking out the vision ops and not the shields. What do you think again?
That's just what worries me. Yes, you're gonna be able to utilize that a zombie
But again as far wasn't hitting the a zombie that hard you can get a buck coming from below to completely disrupt that setup
So if we are gonna possibly see that are we seeing the buck there is no buck
Okay, well there's time that they can switch but I assume they're gonna be far more aggressive if
If Volsper is playing in that position, but I maybe maybe not maybe we aren't gonna see it and nothing nothing just confirmed
Just yet, but for fun the one thing we do know on their own that pick they're down two rounds right now
They need to make it happen on the defense
And not just down two rounds if you exclude those first two
They've only got three kills this game as a flawless in round three followed up by dark zero only dropping one body in numbers
four, five, and six. It has been a complete shutout since Paul's tactical timeout. Clearly
packed enough to the new bomb. Desigated from the MVP. And frankly, the results, you can't really
argue this out. Oli, the success starts here have had since then, has been undisputed and now
looking to attack, but trying to continue that streak with number five. Absolutely. It's one of
the best things about major events that we get to listen into the tactical timeouts. We get to
to hear from the coaches and the impact that they have on them,
what we can then take from that and all the stats of like,
right, successful round after a timeout, yes or no sort of thing.
Who's got the most success after bringing that timeout?
There's no arguing it in this series right now.
Callout success has been phenomenal.
It's been a big reason as to how Dark Zero
have managed to get themselves to a fall two scoreline here,
starting off on their attacks.
Leaving the shields open against easy.
I agree, relax.
I think it is a dangerous game to play because Kino is going to be all over it.
Whatever is available he is going to play, he's going to be on the Blackbeard this time
but it should assist with taking some early ops control.
They have actually committed some bandit batteries to this as well but there's no one doing
plain further forward than that and nothing really to stop Kino from just walking in.
Kind of straightforward to get these things further and move on to the next step.
They seem to do just that.
So, Chloe's a little bit of trouble on this part of that location, but they get the right
panel and that's good enough for the angle you need to create.
Fault's down early though.
They use both the secondary utility, but the primary utility is what we're looking for.
Mike, W with the next?
You know, hopping out the window on Blackbeard, caught by the oozy on bottom rocket door.
Big couple of frags by the floor, pushing back in. Jane, I know, good for the cut. Him and NJR make this a 3v3.
Suddenly, we've got a ballgame again. Darkseer have lost to powerful operators. The shield being a big one, Ollie.
They brought it back to 3v3.
Well, they've lost the shield. They've also lost the scents, so, I mean, whenever you lose Kino on the shield,
you kind of lose the plants in power of this roster. You always look toward Kino and where that diffuser is,
and the scents is always a big part of that as well.
all new is forced to just run out in the range of that razor-blue-minute entirety.
Jane I know getting caught out by one as well.
As good as you still seem to burn at this stage,
then the bee's just gonna buy a little bit of time here for Jane I know,
as he just starts to challenge outside of this museum window.
But everything's fairly one-dimensional at the moment.
This is Lost Bee as well.
Darkseer are limited on secondary utility.
to make sure that the
team is in the right place.
Somebody from four phone
over swings is packed or
firing more and more should
meet us out front of office.
Just makes his way in the land
on the exact right mark, though,
getting on yours, both
falling and Jr one V three,
when so many of them in a
position like that back
against the wall, flames at his
feet. It's not going to happen,
for fun break that four round
streak and take their first
round since the second. Yeah,
I thought Packard dropped the
ball a little bit there where
you're allowed in sort of run
in, but the she meek is of
You can zone off too much time and even if you miss a couple it is never usually the end of the world
Still the echo drones being available there as well
Players on the side of for fun flicking just to give that last little bit of information
Certainly bringing plenty of information of their own given that they've starved the attack of that own pleasure
first round after the
Side swap and first round what feels like a long time for for fun and just some decent seeds, right?
All they did really was dig in, they got a couple of opening picks. I mean, Mike W's opening kill on to the back of the rocket.
You don't really expect him to be aggressively playing the bottom of the rocket like that.
And I feel like Kino's got an incredibly unfortunate, because he's obviously gone to jump out of the window and try and chase down Mike W at the bottom of these rocket stairs and sort of get it back as a trade.
But I'd love to see it from his point of view, from my W's point of view, because it kind of felt like, without quickly Kino died, it felt like he was almost watching that top-up window for the players to jump out.
So, by W, obviously finding two really impactful kills, two round win kills there, essentially, for 4-4 and inside around 7.
I think another win on the primary site, 4-4 will have tied things so far.
The trend has been at least winning a couple rounds to start, Darcy will come back, but
Darcy will only have the one-tack timeout.
If 4-4 can really break their momentum here, they'll have to find another solution in-round.
Darcy might be capable of that, but they won't at least have call-out to come into the comms,
bring the team back together.
huge round before fun, not necessarily a must win, but one of vital importance,
especially as if DarkZero can maintain a two round lead pretty consistently in the aggregate.
Things get real problematic for this defense.
Four fun, not holding too firmly onto this middle floor.
Likely stationing themselves, I was about to say, on the staircase.
At least somebody with a shot come playing that position. Seems that is so.
By and large, it's just holding the site, trying to give the utility a lot more focus,
and DarkZero will move in pretty quick to the midfloor as a result.
Yeah, DZ took the space that they are given for free quite quickly. Kino now going to start to just advance forward and see if you can further push this player down those filtration stairs.
Doesn't want to go too ahead of things though. We often see some pretty nasty engagements between shields and shotguns on those stairs.
Open pick! This time for Jane, I know.
This is going to be downstairs. Maybe looking for a little bit of a hop in here.
He must know that the player is just there.
It's gonna be pocket dug in behind the shield of William Timon, gotta go for the jump in now, boom!
What time in there from DZ?
J9O will fall down, but it's a small price to pay for some hell of a map control right now.
It really sparked a little pocket play from DarkZero. Kino will begin to cover his team as they pick J9O back up.
back up. Foltz might fall in the fray. Rescuing Private Jay and I know the operation speeds
down to the bottom of stairs. Kido now, we're going to put the diffuser down. With the Chaka
gone, Sylo clearly not in position for the C4 and he finds a couple kills on the long
angle. It's just the DMR to do the talking. He's way too far away to land any kind of
utility. He's done the important job for the moment. Now Neuers, who might take another
to make the right decision.
He's going to be able to
make a better fight at this
long angle. Silo C. Creep in
can't just creep around the
corner. Newers on the fall off
pops up and takes him down Dark
zero answer for funds win with
a round of their own. Easier
played that two versus one really
smart just baiting out the plant,
knowing that two brows a mile
away and that he needs to try
and close the gap to make that
C for work and the difference
between staying and choosing to
and just aggressively taking
that fight and being ready for
the trade is a massive one and
it gives DZ the round.
Tactical timeout now for fourth
one. It's kind of been
dismantled. It was, you know,
sort of an attempt to dig in. It
was an attempt to a shop shop
the same way that Dark Zero did,
but given the shield to Keenon,
making sure that this is still
available, just eliminates any
sort of time that you hope him
Packers position right he's just kind of stood up playing his day
He's got a Monty looking at him his deployable shield is about to explode because there's a rotero drone on it
And he's got Jane I know hopping in the window like there's quite literally nothing that you can do against that
It's great read of the position by dark zero in a game that has been filled with good reads so far on four funds pick especially
Looking increasingly worrying
for this team, especially since, I mean, in the series we just saw SR against
100 thieves. We saw close, comparatively close game on
Forth Triss SR's pick and thought maybe 100 thieves might have a little bit more
to offer on theirs and, well, it wasn't a 7-0, but a 6-0 half for the rebellion
followed up by a 7-1 victory on their opponent's pick on the map that we're
watching right now. So our team's on pick is by no means safe round. That logic
extends to dart zero as well but in their favorite position in the series so far and
continually sharp understanding positions for fun or playing I mean even in that round to make
that a two versus one style how to get a double kill with the dmr in hand that was another round
with a 1v4 start here I've had quite a few of those since that time out all the way back
during the first half for fun and increasingly difficult spots now turn to bunks briefing for
and it kind of does feel like that doesn't it it feels like a hope at the
moment for full fun let's see if the timeout is good for it for them easy
light up they've got on display you'd like to think that they're gonna go more
top-clear if you're looking for something a bit more direct you'd maybe be
expecting Keo to be playing the Monty as opposed to the Blackbeard you may be
looking for a lot more smoke and ability to sort of shock and or understand
you've got the ying with those smokes, but Pentar you project his capital, and you usually
the tools that you sort of go toward a little bit. Instead of folks just going to start
their hand off by picking away at some of this utility here and clear the way for players
like Kino, like NJR to try and get in and make something happen. NJR expecting some close
quarters engagements here, he's got the 6-12 in hand ready to go. JN on the flip side,
Seeing if he can give him a little bit of information there with those B's, those canisters just start to push these defenders around a little bit.
And just one shot from Jango's watchroom maneuvers down a little bit.
They're recognizing death penalty, so many defenders of Tom. Oh, almost, it capitates Kino instead.
He loses head to Mike W. Prefire around the corner against the trade.
NJR, big kill onto the T'Chanka. That 6-12 push needed to go big.
The Drops here would have blocked an actual foot hold into the top floor now with it.
They don't have the full way in.
But the acquired control of the top of Green Stairs, just a little bit of pressure.
They can now consistently apply to this top floor, newers as well on the opposite side.
Looking to cut off Silo on the retreat, spots his head.
One shot's good enough in this game.
Silo now down, it is another round where Dark Zero have four bodies compared to a deficit
for 4 fun. At this point DZ if they wanted to could transition this into a
plant they don't need to try and search out these last couple of kills they've
got that upstairs control they've really locked the defenders out of this zone
right now. Razer Blink triggered, still isn't gonna slow
Foltz down, Pack is gonna be kicking himself for that one, Volsper. Now looking to try and
add on to his kill tally which for his standard isn't looking too great inside
of the match so far, JNNO nailing that diffuser down, putting it into a post and
And still there's DZ players upstairs.
It's going to be newest from the top of green
to take down Volsper, put DarkZero onto map point.
It is rare we see clears like that work on Bunks and Briefing.
More often than not, we see pressure applied,
and if the round ends anywhere and they commit to a clear,
it usually ends on that top floor,
or you go for a half clear over by green,
and then you move for a plant down below.
But DarkZero is going to kill three of the,
what, four defenders on the top floor.
the top floor there was simply nobody left to fight for that control. They didn't even need
to maneuver for a plant at that point. There was still what, a minute 10 seconds left in the round?
One of the best, you know, midpoints for a bunks briefing attack I've seen in quite a long time.
It's rare to see clears go that well, rare to see rounds end that way. Even this trade right here,
losing the shield, Janna waste no time moving, land that prefire before Mike W can even switch to
to the shotgun and kills like that are why Newroz gets paid the big big box of problem
this team and is currently one of the highest-rated player for Dark Zero.
Inside of the NAL and inside of this matchup as well, 12 and 3 right now after that round.
Dark Zero now up 3 rounds against 4 fun on Fairfun's kick.
Activating camera.
Things are looking too great for full fun at the moment then.
Cafe is going to be the next map in this series.
I believe memory serves correct.
Cafe is a map that they have yet to win yet.
They've lost it twice this stage.
Before Shadowman, they already lost it to DZ once.
Will they lose it to DZ again?
It was 7-5 last time they played it.
And DZ, of course, coming into this.
The map pool that they have really had the the pick of the litter as it's so to speak
In terms of where they wanted to play this series on versus the fourth one map pool that is of course a little bit smaller
We aren't done with the layer yet though. DZ still need to convert it
Or fun having been lifeless on the defense they have found themselves a round
But they have a need to do a lot better than that if they help to try and take this one to an overtime
which is the only way it's going if they choose to do it.
They'll have to get on six rounds, have to force it into an OT here,
which means they have to win three.
The seed we've seen just doesn't feel likely.
Top floor to be defended then for full fun here.
Again, we've got what is becoming quite a standard easy line up at the moment.
Oh, OK, we have a little bit of presence inside of options.
time. Volscar choosing to play a little bit more of a forward position. Usually good for wasting the
good chunk of time. We're just keen on something to think about. Oh, Packers going into the mix
as well can start to utilize some of those shumi because usually you end up with a few left over
at the end of the round, so no bad things to get them used early, but Volscar gonna get down from
outside, finished off by Nuis. Yeah, in a make sense, we're just seeing that now. That's a typical
position Volscar plays on this map. He played it to great success in the SR games, so clearly
not playing the Izami, she survives the band phase and likely not playing her for that purpose.
So they bring her out in round 10, but it's also something Forfun have played quite a lot.
So Dark Zero clearly ready for it, they've got players at the single windows, they've got the
shield pushing in and Folsper on his way out puts Folts to 1 HP. Might have even got a kill there
if he was just maybe aiming a little bit higher, but still 1 for 1, Dark Zero, well 1 for 1 if
if it were that reality and we're not there.
5 and 4 for Dark Zero, I'll be with a couple players
on reduced HP.
They were clearly ready for a standard of effective,
but standard defense before fun.
Peanut rotating over now, puts his defense side on the side.
Can't get the initial kill on the Tachanka.
Lendjard pulls face a lot more success.
They carved out our six room and chopped up the defense.
Dark Zero, another streak, three rounds on their attacking
side, good enough to close things out.
7 to 3 on the first.
DZ looking really good there on there.
They did a shame for 4-1, given that that was their map choice
in spester 3.
With the map pool that they have, you would expect them to be doing
quite well on that only choice that they get.
They were liking it in just about every department there.
DZ after the timeout looks electric.
We're going to head right and we'll be back on map 2.
I'm breaking the next and I'm winding up,
Well I can almost suck me my money out,
Cause I can't get down from this running up,
I'ma keep it going till I hit my left
I'ma keep it going
I'ma keep it going
I'ma keep it going till I hit my left
Hi, it's Baby Shark
I'm playing for White Guard
and this is Raptors
Let's go!
Baby Shark!
Baby Shark!
That's my dream
the game I fell in love with
I wanted to sign the contract and tell myself ok, I did it.
One month ago I was not even pro and one month after and literally like qualifying for a
main event in front of one of the biggest crowds in the world, the best thing that could
ever happen for me.
BBYSHARKK.
So my name is John Benito, I'm from France, I spent my whole life in Avignon.
I felt like it was pretty big, but here in US, Houston is way, way, way bigger than where I live.
Also, I love the people in US. I feel like everybody are really respectful. I love it.
So, one of the only things I miss from France, I'm gonna say it's probably the food. Obviously, my family and my friends, but the food.
Not that I don't like the US food, but just in France, I'm used to it and I love it. I love the cheese, the baguettes, the raclette.
Oh, my God.
I'm a suspect.
All the name of the shark.
My dad works in electronic stores,
and he's the one who was bringing a lot of electronic stuff.
Oh, my God, I had a Twitter video, very famous,
where I was literally presenting stuff from this store.
Thank you all.
My dad is literally my first fan, I'm gonna say.
He has always believed in me,
even when I had some tough moments.
He's the one who introduced me into video games,
something extremely precious for me.
It's absolutely not me!
Back in the day, the only thing I was waiting for was the end of the school and this playing Ringo 6.
But people in my classroom were a little bit like mocking me. I was like kind of a geek.
My idea was just being pro. If I want to go pro, I gotta play with famous persons.
Since nobody wanted to pick me up in their team, I started creating my own teams, trying to IDGL.
I was probably the worst IDGL ever and my team literally blew up.
I got picked up by Hungry, old G2 player, Bibu, old Wolf player, and they brought me in their team.
I had like another point of view about how playing the game and how to understand it.
I joined our team Project X and we're participating, I remember, on the combined, one of the biggest T2 tournaments.
And we qualified for the Cologne finals in Germany.
That was my first land ever experience at like a very good level.
After this tournament, the team disbanded.
One day, I got a message from a general manager from White Car Gaming.
In my mind I was like, okay, I'm not gonna get picked up, but still a great experience.
They fell in love with me and now I'm here.
I remember I was like signing my contract.
I was literally shaking.
My parents were extremely happy for me, finally being able to go pro, that's that's my dream.
So reload 2025, all the context was crazy for me in Brazil. First time I'm in Brazil,
nobody knew me, baby shark who is baby shark who is this guy. So I had to play well,
I had to show my skills. At first match was a little bit like scary.
Unbelievable shot from Baby Shark!
Nobody were literally expecting Whiteheart to go deep in the tournament.
Very, very happy of our performance. The best thing that could ever happen for me.
So right after the reload, we ended up qualifying for the Munich Major.
Top 4 at the Major, it was very good for us, extremely happy.
We've been able to prove that the reload was not a fluke.
And we ended up qualifying for the 6th minute national 2026 in Paris.
I ended up playing back home in France in front of my father, so extremely extremely grateful for that.
The workflow was insane. I had some chills when I entered on the main stage.
Thousands of people are watching me playing, screaming my name.
At the S.I. we end up losing all the slaps.
Same secret your victory here today.
Against team secret, against Mugli.
Mugli if you're watching this, tu m'as brisé le coeur.
You broke my heart.
I was extremely sad.
I started crying.
I'm not really emotional, but I started crying.
And I'm hearing Mugli talking about me.
And this guy did something crazy, this shirt, upload for him at Starras.
I was extremely grateful for his words.
Merci infiniment.
So this is my team experience.
Need a gaming, make your destiny, e-sports, meets or a project, projects X, and now white
car gaming.
Being a French guy in America, it was not very easy at the beginning, but I think I
For myself, we are working extremely hard. I'm gonna give my best for them
Calm weapon
MVP
ideal
Crazy, I would like people to say about me that I'm very crazy
Snake so the snake town I'm mr. Bay
well
I'm a mini-manager.
He showed the world that we were not a back team,
and we were a very good team.
I love to yell.
I love to have shits with them.
I have healthy shits with them.
I'm not going to go!
Let's go!
I think he's going to be a
little bit more about the
players who make all this
happen. Baby shark as we heard
from him there. He just
qualified for the Esports World
Cup yesterday with Wildcard.
Go to hear a little bit more
about about his background. I
mean, I know you guys have been
similar spots, you know, coming
up through. I mean, you know,
you know, you know, you know,
I mean, I know you guys have been in similar spots,
you know, coming up through the siege ecosystem
through the years, it's good stuff.
There wasn't a weaker system when we started.
It was one qualifier to make the pro scene.
I remember I made top aid that guaranteed you being a pro.
I went to my mom, I was like, mom, I made it.
She was like, cool.
I was like, oh, all right, she wasn't on board.
But the second I got to take it out to Boston,
totally on board since.
Yeah, once they started seeing those flight tickets
or something, where you get a little bit of money
or something, they think-
She was definitely skeptical.
She was like, who's paying for this?
What's all this?
Is this real? A funny moment.
Definitely opposite for me.
I mean, everyone was super supportive.
It was a gamer family, so it was just kind of one of those,
hey, can I cook my job and go pro?
Yeah, sure.
I don't know, I'll make it happen.
Well, the four fun guys were in a pretty similar spot
not too long ago.
And here, against DarkZero,
they still have a lot of work left to do right now.
I mean, these two teams duking it out on map one
and DarkZero as expected.
They're able to take the win.
They do it after a strong start from four fun.
So on four funds in that pick for Dark Zero to take the win,
that is not going to sit well with this underdog team.
Yeah, I really do believe they needed to get this map to swing
into their favorite game.
Respectfully, they got those two rounds.
But as Min said, once that timeout came out from call out,
everything.
I think they needed to take call out out of the game.
I think they needed to take call out of the game.
If they could have banned operators or choose call out,
they should have banned call out.
Because that really was a turning table for the size of Dark Zero.
And they just kind of ran away with it.
The second they swung to the half,
I mean, yes, there were some good engagements.
were some good close rounds, but ultimately that's where the experience is always going to shine for dark zero and again
We talk about every key component of this roster. We've seen it with the shield
We were seeing it from newer zone those playing through to see each individual step up in their moments to bring these rounds into their paper
Yeah, I'm just to shine a little bit of a light and not a good way maybe but both for was kind of
When they were able to defeat a juggernaut on this map or going back to that SR game
It was Volsper in that 7-2 who was holding down the operations room with the zombie and here it is
And what's gonna be the difference? Well, he's gonna be able to get the kill
That's the only round though. He actually chose to go with on me, right?
It was even the first three rounds. He wasn't even going it. They weren't really contesting
They weren't really trying to get into the face of DZ kind of playing a little bit scared
Which has me worried for them. But yeah, Volsper
I mean he's a big fragger for this team that needs to step up
We highlighted the fact that it's gonna take everybody out. They don't really have a star on this team
It's going to take every single body to be able to have an amazing game and they started with those first two rounds
But unfortunately, I guess at the lights just got a little bit too bright
Oh, obviously newers having a great performance there getting 12 kills to his name dark zero
We'll be looking to continue that on map 2 as they move to their pick of
Cafe for fun. We know they have their work cut out for them here if they want to stay alive and make their way to
EWC we're gonna have to see a win here on cafe
and it only becomes darker for for fun as well moving away from their pick which they lost three to seven now a
Favorite for dark zero on comfortable territory
You've had a well one series today Ali. It was quite dominant. It resulted in a seven one for SR
Do you think we're matching that scoreline now?
I don't know if we're gonna see
I'm not too sure one thing that
easy to have going for them
here in terms of enabling that a
little bit is of course the
start off on cafe defense cafe
as a map as we've mentioned
already. Well, we've already
seen four funds struggle in the
past. It is a very difficult
situation. I'm not sure if it's
going to be a two zero. I think
based off the stage we've seen
it would be fair to predict
that at this point whether it's
the past. It isn't necessarily
a known stronghold for this
team. I don't really know if
we've got any folks maps at this
point is they're still looking
to try and develop and grow and
you know, move that map to where
it needs to be. Um last time it
was played. It was a 75. That
was against dark zero. Previous
to that. They lost it 372 and 80.
That was a long time ago, though.
That was three months ago, so
easy one far more relevant and
that would have just been
So, I don't know if they'll be a 7-1 because they were good for a couple of rounds before.
What's to say they're not going to be good for them again?
They seem to be in generally good spirits, coming out of lair.
We're starting off with a good foundation.
So, they'll connect to each other, they'll feel capable in this series, entirely possible.
They can get a couple good rounds to offer, but Dark Zero already coming in the favour.
It's now coming in their leaders in this series so far, up 1-0 against 4-fun.
Looking to continue their streak of rounds on Cathay.
Bands have come through and because it's cafe, that means we don't have double heartbeats now.
Not really. Bands we see all that often on this map.
Molly it is typically in other areas.
Orphan decided to take off Azami and Solus, I will say.
Don't often see that offer specifically bad.
Darkzone puts that game in grip. Execute ops. They're main targets.
Yeah, the Solus is something that BZL played quite a lot.
So it's self coming into a lot more popularity as of late and whether it warrants the ban or not
I don't know it's just a difficult one today. It's certainly an operator that easy to play a hell of a lot
You have left open some quite nice toys there
Let's watch the DMR
And think to myself hmm
They usually play a big part in these cafe defensive given that the top floor is usually where a lot of the fighting will go down
regardless of which site you are actually going to be defending. Okay, the basement maybe a little bit
less so, should I say, downstairs in kick-in, but the general sentiment is that DMRs will rain to
prime up here. That is going to be something to contend with, but Nua's will be rocking. Again,
the lockout continues here as Beano tries to hop in his drone and can't even drone the bottom of
that reading door. Instead, just going to try and make something happen through the skylight. It's
going to need to go down, either remove that huge hammer or bear the wood to try and make a little
bit of progress there, but I think there's someone that is going to be tucked in on that
Mute Jammer as well, so it'd be a shame if all this information that fall in front of
God would fall foul to a rat play, eh?
I've already seen it happen once on Lair.
Packer is the one who succumbed to it.
See what happens again, Volsper trying to take this fight with Newers, albeit from a
different route.
Oh, and dies the Faults down below.
on the bottom of the double window. Now C4 prepped for the cocktail repel.
No lurk present whatsoever. Mike W, whether he knows it or not,
just planted a DMR shot into Folt's chest. But that C4 is still a factor.
Might be waiting for information. If he hops in, does Folt know it right as he lands?
Be no knows it or not, if Folt just presses one button, the striker's going down,
but spots it through the floor and hops out just for safety.
So it's pushed back deeper inside of the site loses a c4 in the process of playing verticals all nice
But you will at least lack some of that necessary secondary utility to play
Dropping down to the basement as well potentially for a little bit like a both green stairs silo
And if I'm one onto Jane, I know she'll be able to move down white as well as top floor has been taken here
Time doesn't look fantastic
And there isn't a really quick way of making a lot of this soft breach happen, so these defenders are fairly dug in as you can see.
Tugs inside a wheel or in keynote. Not really giving too much of a reason to. Sorry, NJR it would have been.
They opposed an SES operator.
Packin' now going searching for that lurking player downstairs.
Sposman's not on such low HP at one bullet, either way it was gonna be the end of their fault.
Just gets the better angle, bite W with a good trade, but Dark Zero keeping things as close as they can.
Just sees one creeping on Red Hall. Newers with the cutoff. Doesn't take the gunfight.
Bino instead creeps in, putting the diffuser down. Stylal on special oi speedy.
The only player can cover. Oh, Kino second guesses.
Well, Newers downs one. He gives Bino enough time to plant.
Headshot onto the striker and a counter diffuse for round one.
Newers is just doing it all with the pistol.
Absolutely everything. After all the talk of the DMR and how powerful it is,
He's like nah forget it. We're close quarters. We're going pistol only for this
Cleans it up like a spilt drink brilliant opening round at four dark zero
Four fun will have felt fairly confident with that clear
But DZ just continuing to move continuing to adapt continuing to rotate as well
It was false for me
Massive killer packing knows that he's down there. They've got the information that someone's flying
He's still able to get back in the fight and pick himself up just as one despite being taken to 1hp earlier on in the round
And new is doing what new is does best. I mean, he's got no business within that at all
Brilliant clutch nonetheless
And darts you're getting around I
I mean, kind of alluded to earlier, didn't really feel like it was going the way it was.
They were giving it close.
It wasn't, you know, by no means, it should have been a dominant one for Fora Fun, but
Vino able to weave in, get the defuse plant down front, rad.
Viewers with a pistol, I mean, Vino also able to get the plant off in the process.
I feel like it's close enough, it should be in the way of Fora Fun, but someone could
drive on their course at the end, right?
Vito decides to hurry up the double door position, there's just a little hole in the wall.
Gives Newers the opening immediately, big three piece to start, the player's the top rated,
to dark zero in the series so far.
Now as they defend one second floor site, they will move one room over and defend the other,
leaving them in fireplace as our next set of defenses that of course, necessarily suppresses the top floor.
As is required.
Top floor has to be held, and when you've got a mirror,
You better off holding it, because some long angles can be really nice.
It's one of the downsides of banning the slight off-pick there of the Solus,
as you can leave things like a mirror, things like Castle up,
and if there are available dogs here, I will be playing them.
Back here, should be able to make short work of some of the examples on this east side.
Will be able to get himself up there onto the rappel.
He's pretty confident that no one's going to be at the bottom of that reading door,
he looks over in that direction we can see this suspicions are correct less confident about the
thought of a run out though it's going to be something that he contends with here kino rip
somebody on a c4 another one of those occasions where you feel like if he sends it at the right
time he'd see a heck of a lot of success with that top red has been occupied as well now and
black castamark is going to be dealing with in a different manner a little drone out there
I haven't actually got the top of red reinforced though, so that's something that Super Shorty could open up and could start to try and push in there a little bit.
Just find a little way in, newer to the first pick.
Trippin' and fixing the road with our zero now.
Walsper just bobbing and weaving to evade the razor bloom.
Mike W trying to recreate the maid from below era, opening up a hole through the floor, banking it through.
It doesn't really force Foltz out whatsoever, holding that same position and takes down
Vino and Mike W still left without any clear answers to this position.
I think he just spotted Foltz's head briefly.
It certainly doesn't mean anything in the long run.
Bolster's been on red for basically the entire round, same amount of time that Mike W's been
below.
For a fun, don't even really have the pieces to push down the reposal box.
It's still well closed.
Just a real window.
40 seconds remaining, not only still solid, not even cracked.
Dark Zero can play behind whatever positions they want and will continue to do so.
Mike W with a line on the mirror around the corner can't easily land a free fire.
That seems unlikely. Newers with the first and the last kill in round two is Dark Zero.
Start off with two in a row.
It's the problem solving, isn't it, for 4-fun where they're lacking at the moment?
And it's something that the desk touched on. It's something we've touched on all stage long.
That when you leave gaps, when you leave space, they're very good at occupying those gaps in space.
And a lot of times you can kind of then bait them into positions that you then want to try and take advantage of them in because you know that they're going to be in a less than favourable spot.
And then it comes down to the problem-solving mirror windows. There's nothing to deal with them. Like you said, they're all solid. Now granted, a lot of gunfighters have been lost.
But it's mirror windows and castle barricades. Like we know how we need to be dealing with mirror windows and castle barricades.
on six castle barricades are done. Then you can deal with one each. Bring nades. You can
deal with castle barricades. Bring ash. Great tool for both. Even bring the Cali if you fancy.
Another great option for both. I'd love to be a fly on the wall. I'd love to be listening
into what Packer's got to say right now.
So imagine some of it has to ring through, right? Some of it has to come back to this
problem solving.
Always in a motive one in these tack timeouts and I could say about any pack or tactical
time out and I would like to be there. I would like to know what was being said.
Either way, I imagine at least part of the focus will be
thinking about what site they'll have to deal with next. Is both second floor sites one?
If your options are third floor on first floor, well, I know which one I'm betting on every day
of the week and it will be this bottom floor site. One teams always end up going to at some point
in the one you can expect a full five-man hold on the bottom floor, somebody holding bottom white,
maybe somebody pushing out to big, or even by and large. The third and second floors will be
seated by dart and zero. So I think one nice thing, Ali, we talked about problem solving. On this map
there are certainly plenty, or on this side there's certainly plenty of problems, but generally maybe
the simplest, uh, at least initial, set up when you're attacking my side on this map. There's
There's nothing nobody on these levels.
They're very 2D problems, right?
It's all happening on one level.
And when you start to add multiple levels in,
then that's when the problems can get a bit much.
NJR, hello!
That's a bit of a problem.
Would have been a problem if you'd have got an opening pick.
As it stands, it can just sit and aggress onto this angle now.
This is the confidence that DZ are playing with at the moment.
Ackie's challenged pretty much everything.
He really knows they've got 4-form ratchets in a big way.
Only 4 kills across the first couple of rounds for 4-forms,
so it's kind of every department where they're falling short at the moment.
IW should be able to get his boogie drones in
and make a little bit of something happen here.
Those were coming in from the top as well,
so you would expect flights to be fairly well sorted.
There is a rogue player up here from Darkseer and I do wonder if they get drone. Jane, I know.
Just going to be hanging around on that top floor.
A little bit of an unorthodox position. Fools this spot as well. Like, these are really good in for this fight.
They're not giving this map control away for free.
We talk about that pose a little problems.
Three man hold on the second and third floor. This is a problem we do not often see.
Poor Fun forced into a much more time consuming roam clear than they otherwise would have got.
And Darkseer are trying to take advantage of the team's inexperience just like we saw with that Kino mute jammer on lair
This is the exact same kind of strategy play more aggro not play more aggressive in terms of taking gunfights
But be more assertive at the control you're taking early in the round make them clear you and call their bluff predict that
They won't do it NGR with the first pick on to the vertical control
They can't even get the boogie drones down on a kitchen attack
What's so often an afterthought something you throw in through the window and don't even think about?
I mean, it's like four fun can't even accomplish when attacking cafe right now. Jan. No looking to bait an attacker simply gun site of
Newers bolts tag on for another. He almost gets them on the hipfire and they get him on the clear
Dark zero with an unorthodox strat take advantage of four fun and now have one three in a row
DZ looking fantastic at the moment. There's individual performance
Yes, and we're seeing big pop-off plays from people like newers, but ultimately they are in full control of this
and I'm not sure what you're
saying. I'm just saying. There
are a lot of theories. Another
round where they only lose one
body. They've just fronted up
to four fun and just said, You
know what? We're not even to
get fancy with it. There was
barely any utility commitment
into that like multiple floor
Rome. Jane I know might have a
grishmot mind upstairs, but
aside from that, nothing not too
much going on for false either
as he was stuck inside a train.
He's just happy to sit in
more fun have not got that answer in case you're curious, JNL actually did only commit
one Grishmott to that. It's possible, I mean, he threw that and he threw them at the mid
point of the round, so he did commit a couple, but they were entirely reactive.
Well that's what I mean, right? Like, the maximum utility allotted before the mid-round
was maybe three Riserbloks. Maybe. And then Grismaw's placed in reaction where the attack
was put. There is nothing to make that round happen, other than will power basically. Darts
Clearly have no shortage of that and at this point who can really blame that if you track the game back to layer dark zero
Now one six rounds in a row at the moment
We the flawless application cafe for fun already burned their tactical timeout
We're in real danger of repeating that sr. Hundred these games six oh strong on map to
For fun seemingly running on both kids is dark zero continue throwing the track look at them
I mean, we've technically seen this line up before, but you saw the castle mirror for a reading defense. Now we're on fire place
It doesn't feel like the occasion has got the fourth one a little bit in this instance, doesn't it?
You know, because we've seen these players play with confidence, we've seen them do great things.
Volsby in particular had a fantastic performance against SSTAR in the game that fourth one won in the regular stage
And he's been quiet as a mouse in this series so far. He picks at what? One kill on lair?
We're currently into the fourth round right now, okay, it's not over, but it's currently got zero
But that's not someone that you can expect to just sort of fly under the radar and not pick the working
For fun need a performance to have everybody. We don't have a Talisman star. They don't have a big player
Everyone needs to pull their own way
So far we're not seeing that another round another opening pick here new as takes down style
It takes a bit of damage in the process, but even then, Wolfberg can't land the finishing blow.
He even finds a way to drop without exposing himself to the repel. Wolfberg's not actively holding that angle anymore.
But now he's trying to take an aggressive line against the Nommad. Even on the Lloyd's P, he almost favor him for this.
He just seems dark as Europe, can't do anything wrong at the moment.
Double mirror, a setup on the top floor, you can tell, 4-5.
Understandably starting to strong-brand, ooh, X-Towers getting caught in the window, so that's a bummer.
Yes, I mean completely stalled on this repel at the moment. I mean, you can see a lot of the right positions
But you know on the cocktail repel will look to make his way in as the defenders have all dropped off
But now it's just a hollow setup the darks here have vacated at their own pace
Yeah, and it will still take a couple of seconds for fourth one to start to move through that with the confidence
Knowing that it is all clear and it's all available and in that time easy
What can they do? Well, they can reposition downstairs. They've got C4s at their disposal NJR heartbeat scanner
They will know where these players are upstairs, and they will be able to do something about it
We'll just open up a little bit, but he used his last two ex-carrot spellets on the vert and then gets greeted by a castle barricade
This guy can't buy a break this game
Yeah, that's a real bummer. I mean Mike's help you will have to release the nade on that
I mean thankfully doesn't take too long, but again ten key seconds of half the spend doing that
That frustration might start to build as well.
NJR, I think through the floor finds a shot on the Volsper.
Doesn't have a C4, just trying to take fights, get the players on the window,
get the confidence on this.
There's absolutely zero reason to beat that window.
Zero reason to keep crossing.
The Dark Zero playing with the confidence that comes with invulnerability.
Foltz, a couple kills to end things off,
but you could add any name to that scorecard,
and it would be basically the same result,
completely expected for DC at this point,
and just running away with cafe.
I mean, it's just it's starting
to feel more and more like a
formality, isn't it? DZ are
running through for fun.
Quite literally for fun at the
moment. In a contest, which we
were given its credit and
giving for fun. You know, I
love the dog. I love the story
where you see an underdog come
in and put in a performance, but
at the moment for fun of just
laid down on the floor instead
just whatever you need. Take
it. DZ are obliging right
You don't get me wrong to play in the game that's in front of them
But for fun aren't giving them too much of a contest at the minute. It is a little bit of a shame
This defensive side was always gonna be a good one for dark zero and for fun
We're always gonna have to suffer end of things on the start here
realistically
You've got to give them some sort of
I don't know you've got to give them some sort of belief because
If this is DZ's map then 4th one of Chosen Star on this side, like they were expecting to get rounds on me as I can.
Expecting or Hoping?
Well, we all know that Hoping is in a strategy, so I would lie to them if they were expecting it.
Oh yeah.
But yeah, your point is very valid, because it looks like it was Hoping, isn't it?
that.
Well, Dark Zero continued to switch things up against 4-fun.
We've got the Mirrors as a consistent fixture, a lot of these second floor extensions.
But now they've brought in the pulse since the halfway point, including again trying
to add some layers, you know.
The attack clears out the mirror windows, they push in, and what's the normal thing
we've seen on Cathay for years now?
The idea being we'll throw up C floors, hopefully they hit their feet, hopefully they get killed
off the back of the night.
Polts can whip out the heartbeat scanner and get information on where they're pushing where their positions are.
He's doing that exact thing right now over in train.
Normal starting position for a pulse, trying to find where the attack's pushing from, where the positions are.
Trying to give some information to enable dark zero defenders up top.
Can I play more aggressively in Christmas?
Do I have to play more passively? Are they moving quick?
Of course, maybe you look slow.
He does. You might find Silo lurking your bottom brown.
might be trying to find a little bit of space here downstairs drone should
confirm that someone is gonna be there false just gives himself away a little
bit to expose us some leg through the softball there is available to track so
you can jump in the deathmark and try and get a beam on him but I don't think
the might be he's got the space to really push in and make anything happen off
the back of that style now go to the target a lot more folks on information
inside of this round, this team got 4-1, they're trying their best to get 1 open in pick and hopefully that'll snowball.
They will find 1 on support, but no one's immediately there for a trade.
On.
Mike W, Packer followed up though.
And 4-1 with not only an advantage, the best one they've had so far.
Kino isolated behind the bomb chassis.
Now the only one left, doesn't matter if it all comes down to kills.
All 4-1, right now, is a W.
This one's as good as any Kino good.
Spots 1 doesn't land it.
Packer aside, relief is for fun to pick up their first round all the way since what I think round seven on layer
It's been a while it certainly has better late than never
But it can't be the last it needs to be the start of many if they hoped try and take this series to a map to
Because at the moment one attacking round on cafe is not going to cut the most of that
is not going to make the cut.
Interesting tactic that they went for there, they just decided, you know what, all of this
information is available and it has taken us until round 5 to play all of it at the
same time.
And look what happens when you're able to play a dogby, a snake and a demos.
Oh, guess what, you know where people are.
So all this dog zero lurking that we've been seeing, where DZ have just been sitting in
corners and stay upstairs and going, okay, you know where we are, deal with us. But you
don't really know where we are because we're going to decimate your drone economy and we're
going to make sure that you haven't really got the information to try and push us. There
are attackers that can assist that and they are very effective. And four of them have realized
that in round five. It won't do here though. They are going to be forced into a little
bit more utility for this downstairs kitchen site. They will be bringing the wall. So looking
Maybe for a little bit of a plan because we've got the sense as well still the usual suspects of the round and the dog
Could be in a bit of gridlocked some point to fall
But really the the roar and the sense paint
most of the picture here in terms of what I expect for fun want to get accomplished and that is gonna be to try and move in and
Make something happen on that side
But previously and with the way that this round went last time
You've got a thing but in the back of their mind there is gonna be a nagging feeling
that they need to go for a clear.
I mean, they trained for fun for this at this point.
They have played those roams so consistently to well,
to a lesser extent on layer, but majorly on cafe that for fun
to feel like they have to do that.
I mean, they've been conditioned at this point.
So they'll do so and understandable, but Darkseer's
reaction makes it even better.
The moment for fun.
I have any kind of success.
They go, OK, now we're going to play kitchen normally.
You're going to bring a cave just to stall even more time on
the site.
That's been the undeniably best quality of DarkZero so far in this series.
The moment something hasn't worked or Thorpon has figured it out,
they just switched immediately on a dime.
They do a practical tie-up, in this case it didn't.
Just a falling round.
Well, might W might spot one player down below
because this completes the push-up and striking through DarkZero.
They'll need to do more work to find a way in the round.
Yeah, might W can send his boogie drones out there.
one of them will get destroyed there leave impact from njr trees are open though
stylo doesn't need to be cautious to the bottom of those white stairs and from to that but nothing
to take in this round as well as newers of the first place the ball packer is able to find him
newers obviously finding that somewhat comical maybe it was a nice angle the pack was holding
maybe a fully employed, you know, 40 hours a week kind of angle.
Or the latter, who knows?
Vulsberg, we'll be challenging now onto the bottom of these red stares.
As with that vert opening the side, easier, a little bit restricted,
but time isn't going to be too kind to full fun right now.
The Arctic Bags are in position.
Now there's NKR.
A lot of laughs in the dark zero paddocks right now.
The predictor.
Aiming for a 5-1 half is only 35 seconds remaining for 4-1.
Try and find their way in.
Bino creeping forward, Razor here giving away his position.
Holds with information on two different players,
but my W whips around, takes down Foltz.
Fortunately, the bottom-brown gunfight
not going well for the smoke.
But as Volsper and my W both go down,
4-fun began at a disadvantage on this clear
and now will continue to do so.
Bino on a 1vx, here's 1.
Just on the other side of the counter.
Can't see him.
Hop in.
I guess Kino, good opportunity.
Not taken by the cage.
C4 out.
Switching hands, switching weapons, so consistently gives Bino the opportunity, but waste so much time
that J9O can move in and put in the final blow.
DarkZero in the past nine rounds across Lair and Cafe have dropped but one.
The DarkZero dominance continues a 5-1 score line here on Cafe for fun.
close to getting a 4-2 which would have set themselves up for success into the second half
Theoretically, but now 5-1 is a very different story. It seems like DZ have complete control
Yeah, I mean 4-2 would have been a little bit nicer
Going on to the defensive side, but I mean the side of DZ we can see why this is their map pick look at the operators
They're taking out clearly they had a plan here going against for fun
They're taking up the game
They're taking up the Grim and then they were able to take out the cap and two of how as well
And why are they able to take out these execute operators while we've been saying it all stage for fun
They really neglect to play certain styles of seeds sometimes really they always kind of lean into the information that is so
What's actually up? It's the shields and I would like to bring I'd like to have seen them kind of bring some shields round to they did
A train ISO and they were trying to go for the player inside of green train
They had the demos underneath what would have been nice is a shield probably jumping in and trying to get that guy because they had
Nothing to clear them out of their spots. And again, that is what Darkseer's bands are for all of those operators are designed
So that they kind of sit back after they clear the ram from the top floor
They can fall back they can layer back the site and there's no execute out some boards
Listen, I don't want to be all doom and gloom and say it's over here for him
I think we're all kind of painting that picture of what the reality is going to look like but come back
They do end up coming back as you said
I think they really have to play into the meta here
You're only shooting yourself in the foot here by not abusing those shields
Also using them in tandem with the information like both of those two key components can win you a lot of rounds
We see a lot of the top teams utilize those piece of operators and we're instead again for for fun
We're just kind of bringing some operators here for whatever the reason for fun
Yeah, yeah for fun
Whatever they want Callie and they could fix so many of those issues if they just play into the meta where DZ is going to
Abuse it on their attack. Yeah, you can be guaranteed. They're gonna bring shields. However last time they didn't really use
They didn't always that they use shields the last time they play
I think it was pretty much all Habana for the side of Kino so I'm curious if they do decide to get rid of those shields
But again, I did like their pre-placed the vans on their defensive half of getting rid of all that utility
That's gonna force them out of position and really make them struggle under the late-round executes now
It's gonna be big on for fun what their bands are. Do you see a path here for for fun?
Like are you seeing enough that maybe they're gonna be able to make something happen?
I don't know if I'm seeing enough for for fun, but we did an and have seen dark zero struggle on the attacking side of cafe
That's when they got seven node
That's when wild card was able to bring back there or have to come back and normally it starts with the double shield band
Which we're not gonna see for fun do they're gonna take away the snake and the the BB
But the the blueprint on this map that's been working against DZ is to use the vision use the Valk
Play top floor layer back on those second floor bomb sites and make DZ execute
But that is how these teams have been winning, and of course, using a ton of C4s.
Funny enough, I was going to say, also to your C4 point, they could use the Mazi drone
here and block and deny a lot of the walls, a lot of the doorway of getting a drone.
They aren't using it!
Perfect!
I love that!
Exactly!
We're talking about in the M80 game.
I actually really like the defensive setup right now, especially with that Mazi, to
deny any bit of information from DarkZero.
So come back happening.
We'll see their four rounds down right now.
move to the defense they're gonna need quite a big push let's see the quite a
big push that will start here down four rounds against dark zero of course I'm
now looking to their cafe defenses to bring things back that's one of the
sea a lot of C4s and layer defenses and see to be happy
Results Ali based off the squadron and have all reason to be
into that weakness or they simply just
It feels like they've been built in a different factors to fall from doesn't it let's be honest with the with the seeds that we've seen today
It's the only fair thing to judge both of these two teams off. I
Like the mindset from for fun. I like the fact that they are heavily restricting the drone game
Well, they haven't really heavily restricted the shields.
Now, Kino isn't going to be playing a shield in this round, he will be on the finger instead,
but with only the Blackbeard banned out of the first round, it's still a chance, ooh,
I'm just going to put a bit of a spider on that angle there, trying to get on the upside
down repelling.
They catch the player out, well, the desk asks for C4s, and that's what 4-4 makes me
start with, might them use specifically, takes Nuas down, I imagine that I was sent
outside. Put it in 10 upstairs. I don't know if News was moving quite quickly in order to get himself into Cigar.
I know he's at least moving away from the single window, so it's possibly tossed it outside, also could have tossed it up above, and as you said, New York's planning this meeting, either option is possible.
For fun.
I actually got it, three rounds in a row, oof.
Injured, play more.
My W without any utility remaining decides to set it out the window.
Oh, Bino almost gets sent into the grave.
You know, literally sliding down the repellent.
Warp speed is trying to catch the Tuber Owl running back in.
I quite find it.
I'm making his way into the building.
Another lengthy pre-fire as Bino's finished off.
We wanted to see those T4s.
and the first two players
to play in the game, but
they're not going to play
the fours. Dark zero just
often to kill them before they
even touch the floor. Lot of
utility kills this round. C4
claymore than a razor bloom
and I'll pack her with the
commando at hand will need to
find it with bullets and. Well,
you couldn't find it with both
eyes open dark zero continue
their stretch now on series
point. And I think that's the
problem that for fun have
gotten themselves into, right?
They can still play a lineup
the game, I'm not sure if you
know that he's been played out
on paper and with the way the
gunfires have been going today.
DZ have been in the driver's
seat, might be just getting a
bit too over aggressive after
you've got that opening pick a
few retreats back and plays a
little bit more passive great,
but instead sends himself
outside and gets caught in the
claim or like you've got to
expect the claim or you have to
predict that that is going to
be in play at least that or an
It looks like he was good for the down on NJR, but NJR got Finkie back up, of course
Kino is miraculous for chosen this round to play Finkie for that exact moment so NJR
could be upside down on the hotel on White Stairs to get one of the last two kills.
Of course he has.
Go side.
Good pick.
And a good round.
Don't doubt his genius.
Listen, I don't doubt any of the genius.
I
See your point zero your second six one about to the day would be
Remarkably similar score lines all things considered
7471 might be 7371 the end of this two minutes and 50 seconds
Might have gone down early
Even the C4s were not good enough to stop them that round
Well, let's take that lineup again
Mausie back in play as well. So keeping with a lot of the strengths of what we saw from that last round
for that line up we saw from for fun in the last round when we were thinking about it in theory.
Curious dart hero maybe gonna take it, not even slower, but just a little bit slower at the beginning.
Maybe trying to make sure they should give these people a good checking.
But the way this game is going on, don't put past these to get this done in the next two minutes and ten seconds.
They've been running through for fun.
They've been starting off on the upside-down bell here, just hoping to complete those longer lines of sight.
Jane I know is already in piano.
The positions are already being concentrated.
Vulsberg going to be the first player to pull a quiet game on left and a very quiet game on cafe.
Stars here are reflaming their early round dominance.
Now looking over towards the cocktail bar, trying to find their next pet.
over towards the cocktail bar trying to find their next pet. Chan, I know so quick up White Hall
swinging around onto the hatch. I saw one player over on the balcony earlier silo creeping up. Oh,
cutoff by newers. They're holding every position at the exact right time. They're putting newers
on cutoff angles. That is just despicable from dark zero. They're not trying to leave a single
position unchecked. Now the minute 18 to go, able to get the full vertical, it looks like we're
This series
Really does it looks like dark zero are booking their spots. We WC right now
Langles now being held brilliant pick there from Jane. I know Packer and Beano to try and hold on rap position attempted, but not successful
Not successful and dark zero only success throughout this series 7371
Your final team to qualify to EWC
I think with the way that we saw this game turn after the call out time out. It was fairly clear what dark zero's intention was here today and it was to get it done as quickly as possible.
Commiserations to for fun and I'm sure that you will grow off the back of this. We're going to send it to death for the last time.
DarkZero will be going to the Esports World Cup alongside Shopify Rebellion, Wildcard and M80, the North American representation looking very fine, heading into the second international event of the year.
They take down four fun Esports in a clean two-maps.
Lacks, it was open and shut much like our earlier series. Even more one-sided, they were confident the whole way through.
Four things are inevitable. Death, taxes, DZ not losing two games in a row and then
qualifying for a major event and that was quite the performance that we wanted to see from them.
Well, what about Canadian? I thought he was inevitable.
Okay, we're at a fifth thing. Is that the fifth thing?
Yeah. But no, again, DZ lights out performance from them. This is exactly what we expected after
that loss. Wake up call from Wildcard and they talked about it. Kino himself even said losing
is a part of winning and that's absolutely correct. The only way you're going to extrapolate anything
from those logs is when you actually lose two,
even a better team than themselves.
And that's exactly the wild card provided for them.
Yeah, and that's why I want to give credit to Call Out,
not only for helping them kind of pick themselves up
in that game after the timeout in round two,
the very first map, which he's kind of famous for.
He's one of the only coaches that calls the timeout
after two rounds, so just a little tidbit there.
But also, I mean, just the culture of the team,
how they're able to turn things around
very quickly like that, right?
They literally have like no fear,
they just go into meditation mode
and they pull themselves out.
And look at that.
I mean, Newer's match MVP.
We saw consistent performances from him the entire time.
22 kills to his name.
I mean, it was truly, I mean, it was,
we talk about DZ as having all the components.
Like in every role, they have the best player
in their positions, and it seemed like that was the dark zero
we saw today.
Lacks like you said, no back-to-back losses.
And doing a nice job of bouncing back from whatever,
you know, led them astray against Wildcarts.
They fixed it, and they got their win.
Yeah, they absolutely did.
I don't we highlight yes, they fixed their issues, but they really didn't have issues
They're kind of just picking at that smallest thing. You gotta find something with it. I mean absolutely and that series verse wild card again
And really just came down to a couple inches
You know so that himself a couple of those attacks with defense is slinging the others favor and then we're talking about wild card in this matchup
We aren't talking about these so again
It's really just another day in the office for them just picking up on those little things fixing maybe a few small
communication errors and that's the result today. Flawless win. Well dark zero headed to EWC.
Kino headed there as well alongside the boys on the newest team. His second international event
with this roster. Kino congratulations on making the eSports World Cup. I mean tell me what it means
for you. I mean with these guys back to back international events what's going through your
head right now. Thank you Jonah. It feels good. It's nice. It was a good game against those guys too
and I'm happy to be here, happy to be a part of this team, happy to be a part of this culture.
I remember years ago in Atlanta, I was talking to Liam Ashton about this team and this culture,
and I told him how much I wanted to be a part of this culture one day, and here and now.
Then it took us five.
It's amazing guys.
Well, we like traded, right?
Traded.
We called that a trade.
Yeah.
We traded.
He's happy.
I'm happy. That's all that matters. Yeah. Sorry guys. You guys are both going. Yeah.
Okay. Well, that's the question. I mean, obviously you talked about the culture.
I've been with you for a long time through your career. I want to talk about obviously,
back then when you first started and all the way up until this point, did you look at losses
the same that you look at it now? No, definitely not. You know that. I know I used to get, you
you know, frustrated. I used to think about like, you know, the next match, the next qualification,
the next major, whatever it was, like, I got in my head a lot because of that. And I feel
like it's mostly because I didn't have any training. I didn't have any month to tell me
besides you, obviously, but in general, like, I didn't have like a whole culture behind it.
Yeah, you know, to get the whole into the game, you know, be present and all that, like, and now it's, uh,
Except the forefront.
Yeah, the forefront.
And do you think that your guy's mental edge is kind of what separates you as a team then?
Uh, I mean, I don't know. I, yeah, I would say the culture in general. Like, maybe not just like the mental part, like just everything in general.
Yeah, like we're working out of your day as a team
Yeah, all of that just builds like a whole
You know right a big family unit I can always see you guys never know what you guys are always
Yeah, and if we have problems with the way put the gloves on and we'll figure it out
Yeah, serious question just for me. I want to know a game plan wise going into that cafe
You guys took away all the execute ops
What was kind of the the decision on that instead of maybe getting rid of the information or anything like that?
I'm just kind of curious how you guys attacked for fun
We know how so they are they showed out on there
There's pretty play that so you know getting the egg to get up to kind of it removes like the cheese back there a little bit
like it's harder for them to do like a C1 kill or like a stack skill or maybe like a
Just like the little isos, you know
And we kind of wanted them to go more like the piano the piano like front
Just like the more like standard
We knew they were gonna have like one or two lurks anyways, so we were ready for the gaps
Okay, just kind of like change how they're playing you weren't scared of Packer
Maybe hopping on the blitz be no on the montane. Maybe they got a BV running at you in Volsper. Nothing like that
You were ready for it. I got the triple cross upstairs. I don't think they've ever run
I mean, I don't know if I've
even ran a shield. It feels like
sometimes. I kill you. Shut up.
Maybe maybe maybe. Thank you so
much for your time. As always, we
look forward to seeing in the
eSports World Cup. We'll see you
next week as you guys fight for
the stage one title. Thanks so
much, man. Thanks guys. Well
Dark zero finish the day off with
a win. What I mean, what a way
day two. We now have our four
eSports World Cup teams confirmed
100 thieves and for fun eSports up in case you missed the action earlier you
missed a fairly brief series between Shopify rebellion and 100 thieves that
was what opened up our day here on day two of the playoffs that was a pretty
swift 2-0 from SR then it was for fun and dark zero could not see for fun
taking a map off of the Titans though dark zero they take the win a clean 2-0
And that means we've got our four teams going to EWC and we have our four teams moving on in the bracket
M80 and wild card
That's your upper bracket final down in the lower bracket semis
It's Shopify rebellion and dark zero where we go to next all that action continues next week lacks
I know so much to look forward to here because we've got an
SLC major
Rematch coming in in our second matchup of our next play. Yeah, I'm really looking forward to the series from M80 versus
wild card. I mean, we know wild card was the only one to
de-throne them from their flawless streak. However, I am happy
with our four that we are sending to EWC, respectively. So I
mean, we are the best region given those four going. I have no
doubt in my mind we walk away as the North American champions
of EWC. No, I agree. Yeah, I don't feel robbed at all. Right? I
know EU again. I keep talking about G2, but I don't feel
robbed at all. I feel very happy about all four of those teams
and I feel very happy even going forward. We heard Spiker,
Man, I always want to say, JJ, we heard Spiker say that they're going out to win the entire thing, right?
So they want to go extremely hard at MAD and I'm sure the rest of the teams do too.
So I'm sure we still have some really good games to watch and enjoy.
And he guesses of who we beat in the finals or are we going to...
It's just going to be another all NA and a final.
I really do like the 14% here. It feels like the best four that we have sent in a while, they're looking incredibly refined.
I would like to see M80 vs Wildcard in the finals because the Adrian Savage, you know,
like the storyline of both of them defending their title would be pretty cool.
And Lexa, are you going to be out there for the World Cup?
I have no idea.
Alright, no contract in front of me.
Alright, no idea.
We'll find out.
Well, thank you so much for tuning in to day two here of the playoffs next week, as we said.
That is when we crown an NAL stage one champion.
So Esports World Cup has decided to still prize money, SI points, and an NAL title on the line.
So you're not going to want to miss it. Action continues on Thursday as usual at 2 p.m. Eastern for our entire studio crew for Mint for Lexic
I'm Jonas Willinger saying thank you so much for watching and we'll see you next week. Have a good night