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I
I
I
Moment of change, I want a revival
Switching the game, they know the name
I'm winning on A
I can't make it, get it right
Just wanna stay here tonight
It's time to try to deceive it like
Let's give it life, let's give it life
And a L is back. We are here for stage two. The North American League has returned. We're back in the studio in Copenhagen. Thank you so much for joining us. We're so glad to have you with us.
Jonas Willinger laxing mint guys we had what a nice little two-month off season there at least for some of us
Maybe what did you guys?
Get up to there. I missed you lax. I know you're at the eSports World Cup
I was gonna say I was at the eSports World Cup big shout out to phase good win for them three crown champions for three of those players
But after EWC before coming out here actually headed out to the Renaissance Festival and that was a ton of fun
So I'd highly recommend anyone in the States you can get to a Renaissance festival in your state
And new tat and new tat and new tat. Yeah brand new tattoo. I need a little
Need a little extra flair for the NAL 11-hour session. That was a long time, but well worth it. Well worth it
Yeah, no, thank you. I any new tats for you. No new tats for me. I do have one, but we're not gonna expose that one
Yeah, we're not gonna expose that I was just golfing. So hey great great
Sounds like Vegas. Yeah, pretty much
Classic stuff. Well, so good to be back with you guys here as we dive into the stage to action for those of you at home
who maybe missed the Stage 1 action while our very own Intero has a little recap for you.
The biggest title of them all was Wild Card.
They won Stage 1, besting a renewed and reinvigorated M80 in the Grand Finals.
It was a hell of a dogfight between Wild Card and M80.
Both of these teams both so consistent in North America and the world, but it was Wild Card.
Edging out M80 for first overall.
M80 will have to settle for second, but you know what?
That's a okay.
How about Dark Zero?
They won the Salt Lake City Major.
How did they do in Stage 1?
Pretty damn good.
stage two. Why not? And the fourth place team was Shopify Rebellion. Yes, the runners up
in Salt Lake City, losing to Dark Zero. Shopify Rebellion had some really grueling games and
there were moments where it looked like they might not be a top four team, but they ended
up sticking the landing and the hope for their fans is that they'd been able to put everything
together to be a little bit more consistent. Then you also have 100 Thieves. 100 Thieves
made some roster moves. They picked up Hankel. They jumped on him the moment
he was available. Now it wasn't enough for them to finish as a top 14. They ultimately got bounced
by Shopify Rebellion and M80 losing both of those matches for fun still looking to grow. They are
still a young team. They are still an experienced team. And while they had a disappointing kickoff,
just nearly missing in the Salt Lake City. The same thing happened to them here in stage one.
In stage two, their time, we will find out. Cloud9 showed that they could be
the underdog knocked some of the Titans down,
but ultimately it wasn't enough for a top six and third.
Five nine fans, look up, right?
The sky's the limit for you and your squad.
Speaking of looking up,
Space Station Gaming, the astronauts,
a disappointing eighth place for them.
In stage one, an organization that has won
the sixth invitation has higher expectations
than eighth place, but they are also
a very young and inexperienced team
with a bunch of rookies that are still
finding their footing.
The ninth place team was five years.
They had a very disappointing stage one,
a huge regression from kickoff.
They are sticking with their roster.
They have been grinding it out
and they have been all over social media,
promising that they will be prepped
and ready for stage two.
And that leads us to probably the most intriguing team
of all, the 10th place outlast.
They did not win a single game during stage one
and frankly it's been a disappointing year for them
the North American League, but raise your eyebrows because they made an incredible amount of roster
moves. They threw out the team and brought in some players that you might not have thought of. They
brought in the Cyborg of Joystick, they brought in Tyrant from EU, and they brought in King Iconic
to join Treadmac and Millie and Boyle Boyle with those three new players on this team. I know
I'm going to be doing a lot of yelling when I watch outlast games. That's the lay of the
for the North American League after stage one.
What are our expectations for stage two?
Well, I expect to see some pretty damn good games.
That's what I expect.
I hope you tune in because the NA League starts very soon.
Well, thank you, Parker.
The stage has been set here rather nicely.
And as he mentioned, things look largely the same
with a couple of very notable differences.
We've got some roster moves to talk about,
starting with kind of the new rookie of the stage.
There's always some young guy to talk about this time.
That is Cirx joining Four Fun Esports.
Yeah, congrats to Cirx.
This is going to be his rookie stage,
kind of taking the place of Silo.
And we'll talk about him more in depth a little bit later.
But we've talked about Four Fun in stage one.
It seemed like they were missing something.
And I think they agreed with us
because they're going to make that change again.
Silo out, Cirx in.
and I think he's going to add a lot of fragging power
to the team.
Well, Outlast may not one, not two, but three changes.
Getting rid of three out of five of the core who
made it through Challenger League,
just Trevmak and Millie remain.
And they've added such veteran, talent, iconic, joystick,
tyrant, a lot of big names here.
Yeah.
I mean, I'm a little offended.
They didn't go for me or men here.
Going for old heads, likes the cyborg and joystick.
But no, I mean, it's a very great change for this team.
I mean, we talked about it time and time again
throughout their stage, that they needed to make a change.
Whether it was going to be rookie players or experienced
players, and it looks like they really
went for experienced players.
And they went international and got some of the big names,
like I said, of the cyborg of joystick and an iconic entire.
And so very excited to see what they bring to the table
this stage around.
Yeah, I'm also disappointed.
We're in a shield meta, and you've
got a shield guy right here waiting for a phone call.
And it just didn't happen for me.
It's unfortunate.
I mean, what happened on Oregon Basement?
OK, let's move it on.
Good to see Iconic though back in T1 NA competition.
He's going to get to go to some familiar territory at least.
Because Villa makes its return to the map pool for the first time in a couple years.
Iconic, very familiar with this map, has played it when it was in its 2018-2023.
That's really when we saw that map the most.
It's making its return with some minor tweaks here.
But we'll have a chance to see this potentially play against it.
Yeah, I mean we got to play the map right back in our day.
So it wasn't my favorite map. It was a permanent ban, I believe, for us at the time.
But at the same time, I'm very glad that we are reintroducing a new map into the map pool.
We're not afraid to make changes. It's something I've been wanting for Pro League to happen for quite a while now.
I think we should have more changes. I think there's some other maps that could be pretty good out there, maybe Casino.
But anyway, I'm very happy Villa's going to be coming into play. And again, Consulate, it wasn't really a played map in NAL.
Anyway, it was played twice.
It wasn't. And Villa's also a very beautiful map in Italy as well.
And I mean it's also nice to see the basement being able to be reworked as that that map or that basement site
Specifically was just for roaming purposes wasn't a site actually, but I also want to see theme park
I mean, please please put theme park area. Please. Well the operation split fire also brought us a new operator
Which has now been released from quarantine today
So we haven't been able to see nor in competition in the T1 leagues just yet
But now we can an exciting new addition here that could potentially
Shake up the shield meta that we're in right now. Yeah, I'm very curious to see how nor is gonna be introduced
I think it's gonna be kind of a slow burn. I mean funny. We're talking about flames
That's exactly what his ability is used for his horse launcher
But again, I am curious to see if it's going to be used today now that it is off of quarantine
Obviously, we do know it does work off shields as you're seeing here is making them expose themselves
But again, it's a situation where is there someone going to be following up here because it can be a little risky if it is a
1v2 situation you have to pull out that launch in order to make it happen, which again, he's off quarantine
So the sky's the limit to see how he's going to be used. Yeah, I would love to see him
But I mean the reality is I even made a tier list of this on my YouTube channel
I think he's kind of like a C tier D tier kind of operator
A lot of people thought early on he was going to be used as wall denial
Which is where he would have really shaken up the meta
but obviously Ubisoft intended for him to be that shield operator working very similar to a lesion mine where he has to pull it out
And that's just where the problem is right. He has that launcher out. He's he's very vulnerable
You're gonna see like Kino or anybody on our shield
It's just gonna see that guy and they're just gonna kind of start ADS thing because you got a fight for your life
And I feel like yeah the pros just haven't quite enjoyed it quite the operator or it's gonna take a while to be
Incorporated I think a little bit more and not
Used heavily like I think it was intended to be at first
Well, we'll maybe get to see some people experimenting with that over the course of the day
Or maybe over the course of this super week because we have three play days coming your way this week
But other than that everything should be what you can expect here like stage one of the NAL
We have ten teams nine best of ones each throughout this group stage before they go into a double elimination
Playoff bracket six teams will be making the playoffs
So it will be all about which of our 10 teams can get into that top six.
And if stage one was any indication, it is going to be a hotly contested battle.
I mean, down to the very last day of the stage, of the group stage,
we were seeing these teams jumping up and down the leaderboard.
We do have quite a slate of games to look forward to today as well.
Later on Shopify Rebellion and M80 will go toe to toe,
hundred thies in cloud nine.
We got both of those redemption stories as they look to climb the ladder here in North America, but to start things off
dark zero and
Wildcard to a heavy
Hitting teams the two best teams from NA at the eSports World Cup lacks
I mean we saw this taking place
Over the course of the stage. We saw these two teams emerging at the top, but at EWC
They solidified that yeah, they absolutely did and arguably
I think these are the two teams that everyone kind of had in their back pocket of saying that these were going to be the two that were going to win the event.
I would say more so for wildcard, but even for dark zero. I mean, unfortunately, they did come up and be handed.
They did finish third overall in that third place match, but it is technically better than what they did in the previous EWC or fourth.
But I know when you look at that team, you see how they act.
That's not where they wanted to end their campaign was in a third place finish.
But nevertheless, it's still improvement. The consistency is clearly there.
And then on the side for wild card, I would say that's where I was a little more disappointed
I mean what we saw from the stage in and itself knocking out a matey making them not go flawless in the group stage being able to get
First place within the region, but then not to be able to get a top or finish let alone even get up to those semi-finals
I mean really lackluster in that aspect in that aspect yet because it is kind of they're both of these teams windows like they're both
Contenders to win almost every tournament that they're at right now like wild card looked super super good going into the tournament
All of some of this right? I mean a lot of experts picked them to win. Maybe I did and of course that didn't happen
I mean even DZ. I mean DZ looked unstoppable in the stage and what happened to them?
I mean honestly, it was kind of a tale of two halves, right?
They were one of the best attacking teams in the entire running out and they went into this tournament
I was expecting them to kind of continue that but it was their defense that was kind of carrying them in all those close games
And it was their attack that kept falling off short again and again, right?
They were the one of the lowest rated attacking teams in the entire tournament and you can even see the frustration
amongst the players in their facecams when they had to switch to the attacking side,
which you just normally don't see for this team, right?
We hear from Kino all the time talking about how they're such a great mental team and how they're always looking forward to the next round.
But when you're losing round after round, I mean the frustration was definitely there. Again, it was something kind of new
and they couldn't seem to kind of battle back from that.
I mean even for the side of Wildcard, I mean something that we highlighted throughout the entire stages,
their opening kills. Every single player on that team at the end of the stage was net positive.
They were getting those opening frags. They were able to win these rounds because of that.
But then throughout EWC, they were getting into those playoffs, they were not giving those
opening kills. And then even big players that were usually used to seeing pop off
like Adrian, like Spiker, just were not having a good performance. I think even in their
match versus Firi, I believe Spiker went like 8-20 overall or something like that.
Like it wasn't great. And that's obviously, that's not a performance we typically see
from Spiker. So obviously it's a little bit of one-off. But if there's anything
to take away from both of these teams as a whole.
The consistency is clearly there.
So there's still a reason to be able to support and get
behind these guys for future events.
And there's no doubt we're going to see them at outside,
regardless.
Well, you mentioned big names on these teams.
Kyle Wildcard, even though it wasn't firing on all cylinders,
and it didn't look like the normal, I would say,
dynamic of the players, right?
Spiker was not popping off like we would expect at EWC.
Bay was incredibly strong in that game against Feria.
Absolutely.
They may not have won, but that came very close.
Thanks to him.
Yeah, the weapon, the storm.
I mean, he was definitely activated,
which is where you want to see him.
And it's so hard to go into a tournament
and all five players to be popping off at the same time.
I think that's one thing we definitely
know going into tournaments.
Like, it's just very, very rare to have everyone is in form,
right?
That's the whole reason you go to these tournaments
and you're hoping.
But yeah, I mean, Bay, he was kind of willing him
in that last map on Fortress.
They were down and he kept winning round and clutch
after clutch after clutch.
Him and Kans were having big performances.
I believe Bay was like one of the highest rated
players in the entire tournament, right?
third highest rated player. It could be his time right? He's kind of that young, I still
kind of consider him like a young fragger in NAL even though he was on our NAL national
team. So he's known to be a good player but like he started to come into like his own
superstar status.
Alright, well our very first best of one of the stage. Let's see where we're headed
here if we get a chance to maybe see the new Villa map debuted and he will. I mean
And that's great, Velo right away, so both of these teams want to dip their toe into the
maybe unpredictable waters right now, we have not seen this map, lacks for three years.
Yeah, we haven't seen it for quite some time, obviously we've seen it played in the other
regions just recently watched the essay when I tuned into the G2 Falcons game, I believe
Falcons ended up winning that 7-4, but it's always been a 5-5.
It was a 5-5 this time around.
I am interested, obviously now there's a lot more operators in the pool, there's
a lot more possibilities than what it was when Velo was back in the day.
So I'm always curious to see these maps come back into play
and how teams are bringing these new operators into the pool
to create new takes, create new holds.
So it's always going to be interesting and fun
to see it for our very first time.
We haven't seen these things play in years.
I feel like when Villa was being played last,
Yana was still a core to the meta.
Like you had the club running in,
like just going through Trophy and Statuary,
breaking apart the site.
We are in such a different world right now with the meta.
It's going to be interesting to see how these teams kind
of feel that out.
Oh, absolutely.
I mean, there's still a lot of the old takes still kind of work.
We also had Nading from below back then, three years ago.
Can't do that now.
You can't be doing that now.
But we do got Zofia.
And I think we'll see a lot of Zofia going under and kind of being
the same kind of thing.
So I think that's kind of the interesting thing
for me with Zavilla.
I also think if Zavilla is a great map for both,
he seems to go to like, I'm going to be completely honest.
They're pretty dead even in how they play against each other.
It's like a 3-3 map count right now between each other.
And early in the season, this
is when teams are going to start testing their map pool.
like this is when you're gonna pull out the villa.
We see it happening on G2.
NA teams think the exact same.
Like both these teams are probably going to make playoffs.
Let's be honest here.
They're both top six teams in our region.
Now's the time to test.
It's early in the season.
Let's see where our villa is.
And whoever wins this villa matchup,
it's gonna look scary in their map in phase going forward.
And earlier when we saw the Nor demo
with the Horace Lance launcher,
we were seeing that on villa, right?
As you both mentioned, right?
You don't necessarily expect to see him
all that often right now, as people still feel him out
and kind of decide where he does fit in the meta.
But those shields, we know for a fact
that it's going to be a major factor.
And so on defense, right?
Obviously the attack can come from below,
but we're gonna see some of that vertical play
if these defenders want to stop the shield meta
onslaught that we're in right now.
Yeah, that's kind of what you can expect.
That's already how Villa was played even early on.
It's a lot of vertical pressure
trying to get into the main lobby,
trying to even get to the stairs.
But I think in terms of, you know,
We're talking about Nohr and other operators being brought.
He doesn't bring a lot in terms of helping the team out
outside of just helping himself, where you think of like an ally,
you think of a thorn that really is
going to benefit the team.
It's a sound cue.
People can play off of it a little better.
So that's what I'm more expecting.
It's going to be more standard holds
if they are playing around those shields.
Just anything to slow down those shields
is going to be a bigger factor than just being
able to open it up right away.
Well, we promise you we are going
to get into this game as soon as we can.
We've received word that I believe Jane I know
on the dark zero side, having some internet issues
connecting to the lobby.
So stick with us for just a bit longer
as we get our players filtering in.
With that in mind that this is the perfect opportunity
to kind of crack open the podcast over here.
Cause I want to hear from you guys
as we get into the second half of this year, right?
We've already had kickoff SLC stage one, EWC.
Now we sort of enter the final chase, so to speak,
for the six Invitational somehow
or in the back half of this year.
You guys have been in this position before right in the hunt as a coach as a player in both cases, right?
Like how do you in the case of these two teams bounce back from an eSports World Cup that maybe did not go your way and Kyle?
Reframe the kind of conversation here going at the stage two and eventually hopefully into Osaka
Man you want to do a podcast that Parker here to carry me with the talking pal. Don't you hear he's our pal
He's our buddy. Yeah, I mean look
I'm gonna give you kind of a easy answer. You're not gonna want to hear because this is kind of what's going through the pros minds
But yeah, they might have had a bad stage
We do you look back even at five fears who had a terrible stage one, but they had a great kickoff, right?
Like every team is looking into coming into the next stage like they can win the whole thing, right?
I even had a conversation with Vino for the roster changes that we'll talk about later with Cirques
But like they absolutely think they are in the hunt
They've been in playoffs every single time and maybe they think they're one change away
So every team they kind of diagnose their issues in the offseason right take some of those notes from EWC
Whatever it might be watch the bot learn from it
And then they're going to apply whatever they think they've learned
Going into the next stage that they're kind of working on an example that real quick just is g2 right?
I heard a good amount from stomp and I believe it was in an interview
That some of their issues were calm based right?
It was they felt like they were very panicked in that fanatic game going back for them missing EWC
So even something like that they've been working on comms non-stop or
Five-five that think they're one and one only one one. Yeah, sorry
We don't count that first one
But it just in general like that's just an example like you're gonna be taking one issue and just working on that and focusing on that
Yeah, I mean, I think it's totally a mentality shift of just realizing like okay
These are the things that went right these are the things that were get wrong and you just take it game by game
That's what we've also talked about easy time and time again
They aren't focused so much on the broader side of the future.
They're focused on day by day.
What can they do to improve?
And that's really the best mindset you can have.
You can't focus on what happened in the past.
You can't also live in the past of their high highs of winning everything.
It's really just focusing on what they can do every given day to improve,
to get back to where they were and then improve upon from there.
The other thing I want to say though too is like, I think people,
people think like everybody wins.
Like one team wins every single stage.
So like to say that DZ or Wildcard didn't have success at EWC,
Like we can kind of stretch that is what we want, but they still made the event
They still made so many the main stage that they still may top me
There's a lot of successes as well that they can take from their performance
There's a lot of things that they can just build on right doesn't always need to be well
How do we win? How do we win? It's like all it's about is putting yourself in contention
And if you just could keep putting yourself in contention
You'll get one right well
We got another scenario here that I also want to get your insight on we've got confirmation that dark
0 will be playing with a substitute. Jane I know will not be in the lobby. So they've
worn out promoted one of their dark zero Academy players. Cause she will be coming in to sub
for Jane I know before the match started. So there's no issue there in terms of getting
somebody sucked in. But the dynamic of this series lacks. It just changed a whole lot.
I mean, one player definitely changes a little bit of the dynamic of the team. It's not
to change it a ton. However, I would rather have this happen now very early into the start,
especially when you're getting your toes back into the water, you're getting a feel for playing,
again, playing your same region. So if there's any time to have this happen, it's definitely better
to have it in the beginning when the points aren't as dire. They're important, but there's
still two matches that follow immediately after this, so it's better to have this happen now
then later. Yeah, just a reminder to the chat that's probably freaking out right now about
why they're allowed to substitute. It's because the game hasn't started yet. So because the game hasn't
started yet they are allowed to have a substitute kind of step in because the internet issues.
So now they're going to have to play this entire game with Koshy. It's not like J9o could just come
back and match up as the internet working. I don't know too much about Koshy. I don't know much
about the DZ Academy team besides iconic and shuttle was on it. But yeah, I mean, Jack is
Jack's at the run fair. One of them. Yeah, baby. He was one of the most talented players
in the NAL. And yeah, he was a top five player, a phenomenal flex player. He's going to still be
be some big shoes to kind of fill in, but I know the DZ Academy boys. I mean, they know
the strap look over there. Callouts working with them just as closely as really anybody
else. So if anything, this is probably a good situation for me. And he's going to get some
game day match day T1 experience.
Most of it.
Well, if there was any question to like the value of playing in a T2 league or under
a T2 or under a T1 organization in T2, right, this is a perfect example. Somebody
can't make it. So you sub in on the fly, right? That is like, all right, prove
that you can hang in T1 level comms against the best players you've ever played against, right?
I'd argue now though, Wildcard has to be feeling a little bit of pressure here. They're not playing
against the full five. Like DarkZero aren't now expected to win this game at all. Wildcard now
need to win it. Yeah, I mean, again, when you look at Wildcard, yes, you're going to look
at it as a huge advantage because they don't have a player like JNL, no, but you still have
to play the game. There are still four very experienced players on the team that could
take the game at any given moment.
So you still have to give them the same amount of respect
with or without, Jack, or with or without any of their players.
You still have to fundamentally be there
and implement all of the things in order
to get the success of getting the win.
So I have no doubt that they're looking at this like, oh,
now this is a free win.
They're still going to be focused round by round
and just making sure that they're focusing on themselves
to get over DarkZero.
And that's something that I will say.
They do have this head to head over DarkZero
as of recently.
And something that I was going
to highlight jumping into the Smash once we got in the picks
is they've always controlled the ebb and flow of the map, whether it's the early game, whether it's the mid game, whether it's the late game.
So in that aspect, I think they are gonna be a little happier,
but again, it really is gonna be more focused on just them focusing entirely on themselves and not on what's happening with DarkZero.
That's the big thing right there, because if I'm Lagona and I'm hearing my players say,
this is gonna be a free game or they got a substitute and they're all really happy,
no, you're completely shut and that talk down doesn't matter who the heck we're playing,
I don't care if we've got a spray amount of T3 long.
So you just want them to lock in and play their own game like you were saying like it seeds really is a mental game
I feel like a mental like 90% and mechanics 10% everyone is so close at the top level to having like the same mechanics
Of course, they're gonna have those superstar moments sometimes
But it really is mental and like this is where you need to show that you're a top team
Well, we also talk about how dark zero has so many weapons up and down up and down the lineup
I mean we do we talk about wild card in the same vein as well
But like NJR best player in Salt Lake City, J9L regularly the top of this leaderboard
It was actually Newers, Lax, who was the standout DarkZero performer at EWC who helped lead the way to that third place finish
He's probably someone that you're looking at in today's matchup to step up
I mean it's Newer's aggression and initiative in many different moments whether it's on attack or defense
He just reads scenarios very well whether that's accompanied but due to team comp or that's just his own player
intuition and understanding the situation and the kens and kants in
certain moments and that's really where he thrives and especially in a math
like billow where he lurks as well a lot you can lurk very heavy and villa
regardless of it being on the top floor regardless beyond middle floor you're
lurking through living room you're lurking through art whatever that is
as long as he can play his style play his game regardless of Jack not being
in the serve and having to maybe take a little more charge there he can be
very lethal on a math like billow yeah I mean he is the X factor so we are
going to be looking at him. There was a wise man that once told me that your
your team is only as good as your lurker and Neurs is top three in the world in
my opinion. I've been watching a ton of Neurs and you're gonna see DZ. Typically
they love to do these 4-1 attacks, meaning wherever Kino is is usually
where the stack of the team is and Neurs is gonna be on the other side
lurking. The X factor and he is so good. He has such good intuition. He
knows when he can and can't do things. He knows when he has the gap
and he's communicating that really well with his team as we've heard in the
comms as well. So Neuvers really does it all right now. Again,
I've been very impressed with them and it's well deserved.
I'm glad you talked about like, you know,
having a really good lurker is also like a big success rate for your team.
And it's not just because they can get frag, they can open up rounds.
It's really interrupting comms for the other team where they're so set focus
on what's happening on one end and all of a sudden a flank is happening
on another that interrupts comms and just makes it a lot more chaotic.
And you were then scrambling in a situation of how you're dealing with
what's happening in the front, what's dealing with happening in the back,
Or then it goes into a future round where now you're almost questioning yourself of is newer is going to pop up here
Is this player going to do this and you're not really focusing on what's actually happening in that moment
That's why lurkers are really that more important than maybe some other roles. They're all respective and important
All respective lurking
Specifically really can cause a lot of chaos in the opponent's comms
Which makes it inevitably that much easier to take control of around and I'd argue more chaos is possible here on
on Villa the first chance we're gonna get to see this this year in the NAL we dive into it now with dark zero and wildcard as
Thankfully we've got all of our dark zero players in the lobby looks like even with the sub the community still favoring dark zero
Just a hair, but I know you guys wanted to talk about this as we get into it
The operator bands here will get a taste for exactly how these players want to play Villa as we get into it for the first time
Okay, so this is a map where electricity bands are not gonna be as powerful as we see on other maps
This is even the case in Old Villa. I was expecting more Wamai Azami bands
There's the Wamai. Wamai is so powerful on this map because you're able to play white stairs, red stairs, those closet extensions
Extremely well with Wamai after he got that new buff with the C4
He gets his magnets faster. Wamai is almost a perma band on this map
The Goyo is also, I mean, that's just a great band as well
That's just telling me that they're not going to be afraid to do full clears and and have to worry about going fires late
And you can even see the attack
I mean that is clearly a sight heavy hit aggressor and you're gonna have to demos to be able to buy that vertical pressure also find those
Operating around the capi town grim to be able to force players out of position cut off line of sights
And then you have the blackbeard pushing up and then as you already talked about with the Zofia and Nades below
You're able to also force players out of position just like that
So very well rounded attacks and defense that up
Yeah, I got to highlight the fact that we're going basement first, which is what I love to see why not if we're gonna test the new map
Why not test the newest bomb site?
We try to figure out how this is going to be played a lot of people have been you know been wondering if we're gonna be doing
Full five-man bunkers downstairs or we're gonna be roaming I personally think is the site
We should probably see a lot more five-man bunkers
The question though is DZ going to full clear and take the hatches or do they do the horizontal take so I'm very excited to see a
A brand new site, brand new map.
Alright, here we go! Our chance to dive into NAL Stage 2 Dark Zero and Wild Card.
Take it away, boys.
Well, good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It is a wonderful day here. NAL Stage 2 kicks off,
and as you've clearly seen already, guys, it starts off with a bang-on.
We go to Villa. Newest map in the pool.
We've got a substitute as well, making his team-one debut for Dark Zero,
and the matchup in itself is already incredibly enticing.
Yeah, absolutely keen to jump in.
Of course, we have seen Villa on several occasions.
In fact, there's actually James and I over in APR
that debuted the rework of this map last week.
Of course, most notably, Basement Change, the rest of the map unaltered.
And so the top floors play down in very traditional fashion,
but this Basement site certainly a little bit different.
Bay to find the first kill.
And I think Wildcard are very much going to go in with the mentality
They've been pretty brutal in the opening stages of this match up and tried to dominate their opposition and unfortunately do have that last minute change.
Bay finding the opening kill, good time to know. There was a lot of discussion on the desk around, you know, a lot of the performers for Dark Zero, but Bay was the number one rated player at the Esports World Cup.
World Cup. Their tournament ended unfortunately a little earlier than they would have liked
at the hands of Furia who ended up making the grand final. And it's a double kill start
from Bay on the Solas and as much as we want to kind of hype this entire match up, you
know, the ground is already a little bit of a fizzle. So shouldn't we lose the Carly
of Kino, NJR, the Dokka B? And a lot of the plan probably for DC in this round
goes out in the window and you probably send in the new young gunner in Koshy along
with false knowers and just see if you can find a couple of kills in the next 30 seconds
even. Give me the numbers back up heading into the execute.
There we have it, too much of an opportunity to kind of analyze that site set up at the
approach here from DZ but I guess most notably at this point it's important to remember the
verticality is very limited still on this objective it's going to force a lot of
horizontal play there are certainly hatches that can be used one specifically has been
added right above one of the respective objectives but DZ will have to play heads
It's up from this point onwards and unfortunately leaves them susceptible to these rat positions
from Wildcard who should be able to close this one out in pretty confident fashion.
It's Koshy to fight his first tier 1 kill, but he'll know it's fine, 3 more.
I mean what a way to make your debut if Koshy could win it from here.
1v3 30 seconds, already has found his opening kill for NAL, but as he gets tagged up
there I think Wildcard will give him a little bit of respect until Splank goes for the
run out swing.
We'll draw first blood in this game. Let's get really settled in now. So it didn't get to see too much of the basement site there.
So we'll go back to more of what we typically see when it comes to Villa. Excited for it to be back in the pool.
I kind of agree with what we heard from the boys on the desk, Consulate. Yeah, it just wasn't working.
It's been, what, three years now since we've seen Villa.
Go back and look at the highlights, it was really just Bay that opened this round up,
which you can't even get those highlights anyway, but he gets to open the two kills and from
there for DZ, the round probably ends up being null and void, they'll get us to go
here.
Yeah, so they returned to top floor, again, basically unaltered, unchanged, it's going
to play out in a very old-school fashion. As the boys on the desk, though, noted with
the exclusion of hot nades, that Caledon is a little bit more challenging to at least
gain from that aspect. But of course, Deimos in play, triple-impact, I fear. There are
still tools available for the attack to unlock the map vertically. And with that Goyo-banned
out, horizontal map clears as well are definitely going to be on the agenda here for DZ.
They'll be a little less worried about that still at U2 later on in the round.
There was also discussions leading up to this matchup in regards to the shield play that
maybe we expected, we're actually not going to see that here in the second round from DZ.
I was going to say, nor are we going to see the nor.
We won't see the nor.
Not banned out, also not selected.
Again with that change that was made pretty early on in the test server, especially regarding
the ability to hard breach or now the inability or at least increased difficulty
of dealing with hard breach.
not as strong of an all-rounder and so I think it's going to take a little while before teams
are willing to experiment.
Yeah, I was going to say actually kind of what Nim was talking about on the desk, really
good way to kind of frame it.
Initially it was looking incredibly powerful.
I hope the kill goes the way of DZ here in the second round.
A little bit of a slower approach in this opening minute.
Taksiro taking a little bit more time, a bit more drone work.
They find the opening kill because of it.
Bay on the move towards start.
Hendryan falls to Koshy.
It's been a bright start for Koshy.
Last second substitute in to replace someone
with J-9-0's quality.
I mean, you could feel the pressure on someone's shoulders
as Bay goes for a run out.
And Hendryan is ready for it.
This is a wonderful response from Dark Zero
on the second round.
Kido gets involved as well.
And only Kansid remains.
I think we're going to have
to see.
We'll be looking to.
Take this flawlessly.
Kenson once at least get one,
but it's not going to happen.
courtesy of NJR. It's a dark
zero flawless response in the
second round. One one. Bit of
a frank fest early in this
matchup. I think things will
begin to normalize and
stabilize a little more as it
won't again kind of reflecting at least on the game that James and I did I was in
Asia first game of the reappearance of this map at the tier one level and the
top floors especially for the defense proved to be very tricky to defend
because the attack is so many you know well set out plans and that subsets of
those plans it's very difficult for the defense to play make in the more
traditional sense and it forced out aggression and typically that was
punished so we'll see if that is to be the case here in this matchup as wildcard flip over to
tripping. I think it doesn't help either when you lose someone so early on we see it all the time
that sort of trickle effect you lose one you kind of seek a couple more darts are a little far
more ready in this second round where a little bit more holdout expecting a little bit more
pressure from wildcard on the defense especially after that opening kill wildcard just kind of
into the machine. It's been a great start for Koshy. We haven't really got to see him
up close and personal in the rounds himself, but two kills. Nice way to kind of get settled.
You win the second round comfortably. I don't think it'll take too long for him to feel settled in
this match. You can look at in two ways that the negative and the positive get a very last
second pull up. I think that's nice. That's a nice run out from Adrian. But the positive
aspect of Koshy is that he gets kind of a free swing little to no expectation in your debut
because of the nature of the call-on. Foltz gets caught by the Nitrosaur. Wonderful play from
Adrian on the verts. Black can then get through to Koshy. They wanted to push in together the Black
Bit and the Ying and so far now the three rounds that we've seen all vary one-sided
both ways as Wildcat now respond in the third round.
I feel like they're making off a lost time a little bit with a little bit of a delayed
start, Jadononi's connection issues. This has been a rapid fire first rotation. Ultimately,
there was zero point in the dark zero attack still going out there. Unfortunately, losing
Kino up first in the Monty and then the Black Bear to follow. Curse of a phenomenal double
kill there from Adrian. You're not going to bolster your win chances on the side
of the attack by slowing down the pace there. You've got to try and formulate
bit of a snowball and ultimately that was not to be but for Wildcard certainly a positive start
on this first rotation in terms of the additional bans to now be thrown into the mix against Volk
alongside the Ying. I mean so far in the three rounds we've played it feels like we're watching a
heavyweight boxing match and they just both landed a blow each and we haven't really seen
proper sparring. I mean these rounds have been quick, losing key pieces early,
folds and toes should don't do a lot wrong here, wildcard are just ready to take the fights,
they're well set up. Both teams have been able to land a blow each. Now we'll see if DarkZero
can respond in the fourth round, kind of keep this trend going. Back and forth we go,
Officer not has the bands mentioned no valve. No ying
Ying only played the one time in that previous round and I didn't even really get
To be used probably the way they were the lights
Twice we've seen Valkyrie so a bit more of a loss probably for Wildcuff
The pivot over they bring the clash now for the first time. I wonder if that might just slow the pace a little bit
Yeah, may ultimately be the goal here with no
dedicated wall denial here on the side of Wildcard that would be a good stall
out tactic also great counter to Keen on the Blitz they did try and hide it didn't
quite spot if DZ did actually drone the clash but either way the Kali will be
in play and again noting that Kali did receive an adjustment above heading into
this particular operation with the more comfortable magnification now on her
scope and so he's going to allow NJR to be a little bit more dynamic on her and have more
fragging potential whereas in the past it was a little bit more challenging.
Yeah in the past it was more of this sort of like long range anchor that didn't really
want moving forward.
It was interesting when I was casting with Pengadir the other day he was talking about
it as a real game changer for Kali.
Haven't actually personally got to see it probably make that sort of game changing moment
just yet but maybe NJR could do it in the fourth round.
down so kind of a little slower the opening kill so far been 212 228 235
There's 152 now for wildcard courtesy of bait trade though from newest might get a little bit more back and forth in this
Fourth round lovely swim from Genson coach. She's standing outside the window, but then Kino responds to three versus three
So the first real round where both teams have been able to get involved get something to work
90 seconds left
You know still alive on that blitz, but so is Adrian on the clash
Now losing that car. You could be pretty devastating
You've also lost the YouTube belt on the Zofia so two of the better counters of course on the side of the attack out of play
Doctor will need to formulate a way to either isolate that clash or try to avoid
parthing in to Adrian
Certainly a tricky position here for DarkZero
We'll see how they were two problems solved their way through.
Faults almost catching one on the drop, but I don't know what to do.
So 60 seconds down the clock, so they've had plenty of time to work with.
Cool heads could prevail here.
If Dax here have thought we'd let it play on.
We can get Tina on a key playmaking position to see if he can find a bit of critical info.
I like the fact that Dax here have really used their time,
gone through a bit more of a checklist, open up some hatches,
open up some different avenues.
Fault's losing his battle though against Flanker, a 3-1 star for Flanker.
Pistol out from Keen over, Baby Shark has a different angle.
Neewers gets one, two more needed.
I don't think the kit's gonna play a factor in this round.
Pop-up from Baby Shark though is clean.
Back-to-back round wins for Wildcard.
They take a 3-1 lead.
Ah, they sure do.
Important to remember that in terms of all of this head-to-head,
Wildcard have had
DZ covered in recent times
If both their matches across stage one locally domestically
They won the best of one and then they were also successful in that best of three match of two one victory
That three three for the year
Yeah, that's the wider picture though. So it has definitely been back and forth
Of course that an asterisk ultimately going to be placed on this result
I think the wildcard they wouldn't care asterisks or not you just got to be ruthless like you
Coaches already found two killers it's not as if you substituted someone in he doesn't
know what they're doing so it can only put so much of an asterisk on it.
I think the wildcard is speed ruthless get the win because if we lose this it's going
to look a lot worse and so far they've shown really good quality in the opening
half year on villa two rounds to go.
Well start zero in that second round flawless like it's not as if this
scoreline is probably entirely reflective of what we've seen so far.
Nartere have shown what they can do just got to find a way to do it probably
at least one more time in these next two rounds.
kitchen, tertiary and play as well for this particular round and so we'll see all four
objectives tested here by Wildcard.
I like that though, the fact that we're getting the whole map here, not afraid.
And also showcasing that on Villa now, you can play pretty much all the bomb sites.
Another opening kill, that's super early into the round.
That's five rounds straight where it's essentially being within, for the most part, the first minute.
And now if you don't zero, you're on the wrong end of this.
So it's a four-one split in favour of Wild God.
You've got to start to factor that into the way that you're kind of pushing into the building
And losing faults early as well on the bark you lose some more vert pressure that can be applied with the skeleton key
It changes the course of this round again for dark zero in a bad way
Horizons of heavy Adrian's been looking above frequently so he's going to know that second floor is clear
Well kind of a strong read player advantage plenty of utility
It's gonna be reliant on dark zero finding some
opportunistic moments I think to slip in take a bit of space and find a kill or
two. Of course Kino's well posturing a bit towards the living side but again with
the reed that Wildcard have they kind of know what's in store, castles were also
placed and some sound coverage. Let's go for the drop here looking for a pinch I
believe on to Kansan. See if Dr. I can formulate that try and isolate a
to defend up there's the other way okay it's like control of the keynote they
might want to try and pick up the pace get into sight catch wild card napping
good shot as well from Kino on the blackbeard can you find some space to go
for the player no he keeps looking for more double kill entry from keynote
into the site with NJR to follow now can go for the plant inside a kitchen
The troops are here. They've got the angles cut off and they've got the numbers for these one-for-one trades
Only Bay left alive towards back stairs a
Wonderful play from keynote newest to finish it off, but it's keynote with a double kill entry into site
Good wrap up pantry stairs. They got plant down and it's a good round for dark zero to find their second
Well look someone had to step up and find that opening keynote in that instance
I thought that maybe they were formulated to pinch their cans and red stairs, maybe work something with NJR
But that went the route one option in towards site
able to capture a really swift double kill
Applying so much pressure on to the defense. He then weren't in position to
Deal with the crossfires quickly established by the follow-up from the attack
Sharp shots they do in court and then a great hunt here onto spiker
Getting peppered
It's a good read overall there from DarkZero fighting back nicely into the ground. It's
two for the half
At least at this point opportunity still for a third. I think 33 will be the benchmark longer term on this particular map
I don't think two will probably suffice but
Given the circumstances and also just the volatility and the tempo of this matchup
I think DarkZero at this point will be
decently satisfied that I feel still searching for
one more win here to top off half it's back to trophy stat
I do wonder after that opening gap in the round for Dark Zeroes they kind of took that pause moment
just to sort of recalibrate what they wanted to do, change up, do we go more direct?
Because at the present up to that point they were just losing so many players on these sort of solo entries
trying to get into the building and that was giving Wildcard the advantage
advantage because they weren't playing these off-site positions and disrupting Dark Zero's
method to get in. Kino finds an entry, gets a double kill on the round stairs.
Two-three. A third for Dark Zero would be a great way to close this half. After Wildcard
cut out to a fast start, Kino now puts the shield away and goes on to the glass. Faults
will take over the duties on the Montaigne.
This could be a brand stairs here pretty immediately from DarkZero.
They've just got the map cut in half elsewhere, so I like the setup here.
Not messing around, no hard hold on the staircase to be presented from Wildcard, so they'll
forfeit that space.
Spike with the pre-whip deep.
He catches the timing here, could help disrupt this push.
And falls, eat this Nitro.
Mike is shot out. No, Koshy doesn't get a chance and he's the one that goes down.
Faltz actually doesn't take any damage.
Does take a bit of damage there though and got pinched courtesy of Adrian pushing up.
They couldn't get the trade on him either despite the push in towards the ballway from Kino.
Just didn't find an angle. Trying to now find the feed of Adrian dancing nicely.
Does get the swing on to Kansan but Adrian then gets a crusty and pulls out the SMG.
Wildcard in a solid position to close this half out with a 4-2 lead down the
Neuers and NJR.
You can see how difficult it is to fight for this map control Wildcard.
Claiming this territory, NJR and Neuers are certainly a deadly join.
I'm not going to count them out from being able to wrangle this one back
but it could be really tough especially with that clash still on board
for wild card. Oh wonder though NGR on the Ryora you bring that for a reason is
there a chance that that can play a base got space don't have kit though. Yeah default shot
out as well that's he's gonna give away his position newer's down NGR in the one
versus four no kit. Fortunately for NGR it would take probably an all-time play
to win it from here and it's not gonna happen. Wildcard take a 4-2 advantage into the second half where they'll be testing their own attack.
A wonderful performance from them, got out to that 3-1 lead and we're able to close out and take that 2 round advantage.
We'll go to the desk and see what the boys have to say.
Wildcard strong start indeed for them. We knew that they wanted to start off this stage strong and 4-2 to first half on a new map here this stage.
at this stage? Good place to begin.
Yeah, they don't look cold by any means.
I mean, this is why I talk about it.
They always control the ebb and flow of the game.
They understand their opponent.
Their prep is always very well thought out,
and it's very well executed.
They're using the information extremely well.
Obviously, you saw DarkZio understood
they need to get rid of that balcony
once they got to that third band.
But it's that early aggression
that they can play off that information
and then still rely on that information
once it gets into the later half of the game.
And again, ending a 4-2 split on a map like Villa
is a very, very strong start for them.
And that's exactly what you want to see
to start out your first half.
And for Dark Zero, right, we knew
that this one would be challenging
because they're playing with a sub here,
but Kyle, right, two rounds, maybe not exactly
what they were looking for.
Yeah, not exactly what they're looking for.
I mean, I'm kind of starting to think
that this is going to be an attack or side of map,
so them only getting two attacks
is definitely not for the best.
Well, Wildcurt is, like you said,
they're a very good defensive team,
and I'm starting to think that this is going to be
a map in their favor, right?
The Valkyrie information operator
for very good back in our day on this map,
and I'm seeing it to be exactly the same here.
But yeah, DZ, I mean, they started out a little slow
just by, they kept getting opening picked over and over again.
I mean, they only got one opening kill
in their direction.
Five out of six rounds, they were at first half.
And it was the master take.
It was on that trophy site where I was thinking,
oh, this is gonna be around,
and I can't wait to highlight.
They brought the Monty, they brought the Rora,
and I believe they were going to do a master execute,
use the Rora to shut the doors.
If anyone watched EML G2, did a very similar execute,
right, maybe they got the idea from that.
And then what was it?
It was Wildcard running out of the garage using the garage space then to kill the player repelling,
which ended up being the most vital piece for DarkZero there.
So yeah, it's just unfortunate.
I think Wildcard, again, it's a great game plan to get aggressive on DZ, not let them
do what they want.
But let's see now if they know how to attack on this map.
The good thing is, I think it's clear that Koshy so far can't hang, at least just
a bit, enough that DarkZero going on to the defensive side, right?
Maybe that they can kind of buckle down and get something done here.
I mean what do you like in these bands like can you see things changing anyway?
I can maybe see some things change. Well, I think we're probably gonna see something change
Yeah, I mean this is what we were even talking about in the beginning
You know getting rid of the Izami getting rid of the demos for that vertical pressure below
Well, what I was just talking about even then transitioning to being able to go back to the defense side for dark
This is where inevitably it should be easier
Especially even with a sub coming into because it's a map that you understand
You know the kens and kants of what can happen now
It's just a matter of just moving around the map. So realistically this should be easier
But I am in agreeance with Kyle saying that I do believe this is gonna be an attacker-sided map
And we did just see the mute man actually instead of the one-eyed so this is telling me when Villa was really good in the league
It was a very good split map and IP came up with the 2-1-2 kind of split you have to map the map in half
Yeah, you cut the map in half exactly and that's now what we're gonna see the information that I already seen them locking on to
Snake they're gonna bring the dope could be they're gonna go for those heavy split takes
I think this could be really good for wild card. Well dark zero two rounds down looking to bounce back here in the second half
And we'll see if they can bounce back at the moment it's been all wild card inside of the server
They've got a five one split as well in the entry battle that set them up for success
They followed through only allowed plant once back in that fifth round a
Lot of the rounds themselves as well cars just very one-sided
There was maybe only one round that was relatively closed back in round 4, basically slightly
familiar enough, which is where we'll be going to start the second half.
We'll see if the boys on the desk are right in assessing that wildcard who'll get the
job done here on the attack.
Yeah, time will tell.
I'm intrigued to see how much investment we do actually end up seeing here from DZ
on first floor and how much manpower they want to actually persist through the round.
Some early positions certainly are established even as far across as living, so looking to
keep our guard on us on this map clear initially, elsewhere moving pieces, in terms of utility
clearance, the floor is going to be pretty critical on this style of sight, above
why are greater filtering through some specific positions.
There's a really good job in scouting out this hold and establishing some information which
will be valuable later in the round, but again large focus is going to be off-site, Kino
actually is quietly rotated all the way to second floor.
So it's pretty expansive from dark zero at the moment, and it means that a spiker
and a adion in terms of the information that they can gather in this round that's
going to be hypercritical.
I mean, Kino can make his way back down pretty quickly, in fact, he's already basement.
I mean, that's how quick you can kind of go second floor to basement on Villa.
Especially when they had some numbers still on that first floor.
Now, Fultz is going to give it a look.
Yeah, really, I think just locking down this side of the map, the ability to maybe push
up, Fultz, does creep a little bit more forward than what we saw, I think, from
Kino.
And Wildcat have just spent half the round really just outside the map using utility,
themselves ready for an eventual hit. Now just starting to take some of this first floor position
that could give folds an opportunity. This is a dirty little angle.
You know, I'm going to operate under the assumption that Wildcard are not aware of his position at
the moment, but in the meantime they've been able to path down towards basement in a pretty safe
fashion
And we now start to work their way at chipping towards the sides
Spike to get active he has the diffuser. Can he find this open kill? Oh
No, he can't go up by newest newest goes for the swing
You know is the one that actually found of that opening kill and then the second on to cancer
It's been a big game for Kino Bay hits he shot though onto newest
Take it very low and dark zero look in a commanding position in his seventh round
He desperately seeking these defenders but they are holding strong Keto one more why not?
He goes up to seven kills leaves baby shark by himself does beat out faults been a rough start for him
Saw him second floor wasn't needed in the end
And baby shark he's very much dead to rights and Keto
Big round from him. It's been a big game from him so far
And largely you think about the rounds that they've won now, three, he's probably won them at least two of those three.
Yeah, absolutely, that was look overall a really nice defensive
strat from Dark Zeroed. They were able to, you know, stall out a large portion of the round without taking high risk.
They still also had that avenue for some offsite flank potential, leading the round courtesy of Faults.
But the anchors on the objective packed themselves in with good coverage, there was a pocket of
space left right here and almost caught, but not quite, and ended up wrapping pretty quickly
from that point onwards.
They hit a beautiful shot right there, but of course not influential in terms of the
outcome of the round.
So good sides early from Dark Zero, but again as we alluded to back in the first
If there's any objective where the defence is expected to have a high wind delta, it is
basements such as the nature of basements, such generally in siege, but also the fact
that it is new to the map, it's going to take more time for the attack to unlock.
It doesn't return to the old school sites, whether it be the two situated on the second
floor or even the first floor where we're actually heading next.
That's where we can see why our car starts to unlock the map with a little bit more
freedom.
Yeah, I'm not too sure, I mean, even though these guys don't feel up, old school map has
been a long time.
I think whenever a map comes into the pool, normally, it starts out to then decided and
Then the adaptation and the evolution and kind of all of that takes its course.
You think about it's day one, a new stage, a new map.
Usually you're going to be more comfortable on the defense to begin with.
So it's up to Wildcard to sort of break that comfort, get in their face, be aggressive.
It's not like Dark Zero had an amazing time either on their attacking half.
It's Adrien though that finds the opening kill, again that's been a big strength for
Wildcard, that's going to help them as well in this attacking card, really stretch that
defense, open up the gaps, more space can then be taken.
A wonderful opening kill, plus onto the soul there's two, so less information available
for TZ.
Yeah pretty classic posture there for Wildcard, Adrien cutting them up in half, catch his
new as in transition who either picked for information or took the jewel and lost out
losing the solace as you mentioned quite large on the side of the defense now it's one night
of quinoa remains he may be able to potentially connect with some info from njr he is over the
woods back stairs though at the moment does gets that killed on a adrian i mean this is a good
response and it's from quinoa again so he's go stop to nine kills minute left in the round
It can't just be Kino. Others have to start sort of following suit. They can still get more info from that pulse of NJR.
This would be a huge round for DarkZero.
They tie the game back up, win a couple in a row, strong start on the defense.
What can Kosher do towards where it's theirs?
Spike has an inkling on that position though, so if he used to plant success Kosher needs to probably find a timing
or wait for the latter portion of this push cancels him to push it up towards Laundry with that diffuser third
still in play here for Wildcard as they try and ascertain a
pick to find favor for the final push, but like to haven't presented that opportunity
just laying on the edges in towards the spy 25 seconds Wildcard will need to be clean from here
Gonna have to win the gunfight as they push in from Laundry
The ult's getting a late call from Spyker, he just elect to eat that call, take the damage
beyond the move, into dining plant we'll go down, did end up eating that jug of payload,
baby shark falls to Kino, he's down 2 in this round again, the bay, a double kill from
him and then the plant was successful and Kansan swing kills Kino who was the last
man standing for Dark Zero and at the moment feels like the only man standing for Dark
CRO wildcard take the round and extend their lead once again.
Well, NJR just mustn't have seen the plan.
It was out of the open, I'm sure.
I know that Villa sometimes in the past has had issues in terms of visibility and in the
chaos of the moment, of course, it can sometimes be difficult to find targets, but that plant
was in a position where it could have been a denial to then throw a spanner in the
works for the rest of the attack there from wildcard who get, there I say, a
little bit fortunate they're late round. Either way the coverage elsewhere was
largely pretty good and that was enough to get them the round result. A little bit
dicey on reflection but nonetheless they will take it. Now just one away from
that point.
I think if they would have had as much trouble if the solos was maybe still alive as well.
Well, our little moments like that in reflection have a bigger impact than just an open and kill or death.
So 5-3.
The opportunity for Wildcard to get to 6-1, which would guarantee at least a point and give them the chance to maximise their take from this game.
Take your mags!
As we head over to Aviati Games, not must win for Taksira clearly, but they need to get a couple here.
You can do a co-shoot.
Ah, you can get a...
There is of course that shield tracking on the cap as far as I'm aware.
It's still a possibility that we'll go for the secondary option over towards the Voldor instead.
The evil eye in play as well was posed to the first half that Util is going to be bolstered.
Goyo in play means that Kansan is super valuable here on the Twitch, into the mirror as well,
but he can't quite get the lineup in time. And he now just has one more drone in pocket with
a lot of Util to find. Well, I did find a razor bloom shell there. I think that's the lower
end of the priority
And it's round for dark zero probably the most of this
Don't they get space elsewhere, so it's not too much of an issue fault switch be carefully doesn't get caught out over what's landing
Yeah, this is some real pace shown from adrian through astro could sweep across right now for wild card
It's been a rough game for all faults one and seven
I think maybe getting back to sight sitting in vault might make you feel a little bit more comfortable
What's Bay looking forward to here? Impact trade from the Zofia doesn't fully connect off of the Kawhine launcher from Spiker
But Adrian to finish off NJR they find yet another opening kill advantage
Baby Shark falls to Neuers
At least the trade back for Dark Zero keeps this equal man with one minute remaining
They've got the ability to just push in and find those kills that have been far better in a lot of the gunfights.
There's another example, Bay, Adrien both double up.
And Volta's low, Koshy.
And he stands up in his T1 debut, last second call-up.
But Adrien's found a 3k.
And now a 3 vs 1.
Step-up shot from Koshy doesn't land doesn't connect on to spiker
So match points available for wildcard and deservedly so been far better here on villa
They absolutely it's been a great performance from them and again given the substitute situation for Dyke
So it's kind of matchup. We don't have quite as much to gain
It's still obviously going to go down as a good win
But you have a lot more to lose if it goes the other way against you, right?
So they've been good in being able to consolidate their position in this matchup
They've got a full rotation now to be able to play through and secure this one before
overtime is required
I'm sure ducks are at this point in time a little bit frustrated and a disappointed
I'll call a tactical time out to have a chat
Wildcard in many aspects of the game at the moment are on top, opening kills for them overall
has been very successful. I think they've shown the ability here in the second half to play a
little more reserved in terms of their pacing. I mean the first half was super hectic a lot of that
was of course dictated by defense but Wildcard have been able to reign in that tempo in the
second half they look good despite that especially in late round with some of these
execute so look fair play and if it looks good and as the guys on the desk we're
actually saying in the pre-match right this is now good for them going forward
teams watching this matchup and looking at the numbers are gonna be like hmm
is Ville the kind of map that we want to take wildcard 2 in the future?
yeah look I do agree with you I think wildcard would have lost this game
against Dark Zero bringing in a substitute making his T1 debut you're
probably going to raise an eyebrow which is understandable but on the flip
side I kind of look at this game and I'm curious to see what the boys kind of say
about it but with plate nine rounds of siege and we're talking about a 7-2
opening kill split so even if Jane I know was here you're pretty much at a
man disadvantage at the start of every round and I think that that's been a
large factor as well dark zero is that just constantly behind the eight
They're not able to probably get these sort of full plans employed certainly that was the case in the first half
I don't know and get a little cut she's been alright for six. He hasn't been the worst player on the team
Bigger issues with dark zero in this game and then just okay. We had a southern that was the reason
I only that was the reason for where we've gotten to so far jobs not done though
I'm sorry, need to now win three straight rounds to get this to overtime.
So far I haven't even been able to swing together back to backgrounds.
Hard to envision if they'll suddenly just flip for them.
They're going to throw my band down and also Zamos and Snake while I kind of get a transition
into a very classical old school lineup here.
go for a little bit of map clearance I presume and then they've got the U-Tool set to be able to go for
a late-round play. The introduction here at the Thatcher as well would be interesting.
Good tool against the C4 Max line up here from the defense for Total, also the Solus as well
in play so if Bay is up there's plenty of counterplay on offer here from Wildcard.
As Neewers does take a tick of damage, Fultz searching for information doesn't look like
he's been able to ascertain too much, also taking a chunk of damage with little traded
backs so a positive start to the round for Wild Cod.
Just peppering aren't they?
I mean they're already close to the start, getting damage in, all Nitrous off of Fultz
though does connect, so he gets a double off that.
But now Fultz himself in the grave, bailing with a backstab, almost gets the timing
Look sir behind him a little too late though even off those shots and suddenly
Wildcard have the extra player advantage because he always got a little vert angle
and catches our baby shark from that first floor he'll have to do it by himself now
though on his debut to keep DarkZero alive in this game of Villa he has a
minute Wildcard don't have kid at the moment. It doesn't have nitro and Wildcard
will be fully aware that he's above. It's Bay to cover the plant. Ken Koshy clutch.
Does get himself down into basement plant mode now successfully down from Wildcat.
Koshy can't quite get the kill onto Adrian. He makes the cross back over towards Wine.
Koshy has to move. But Adrian Bay half held. Do all the ball for Koshy but he's gonna have
have to play the time well here.
Tarls hit the headshot on to Bay.
And notice that Adrian is around this one.
Positions for him crossed.
He has the information.
The Flash as well confirms the position.
Volts in 15 seconds.
But Adrian playing the time perfectly
will just run and hide and then find the kill.
A decent effort from Koshy on his debut,
but Wildcard too strong in this matchup.
7-3 on Villa.
They look solid to start Stage 2 for NAO.
Yeah, absolutely looking good.
And, I mean, overall, they're just enjoyable.
Displate of Villa, impressed by Wildcard and Darkseer.
We'll see if they can bounce back in the next play.
We'll see if they can bounce back.
We're gonna head to a break.
When we come back to the points on the couch, we'll break everything down.
I
and a pretty dominant one at that over dark zero. So we'll bring in the captain now victorious
after game one. We've got Spiker ready to go. Spiker, it's good to see you. Welcome back
to the NAL stage two. Here we are. I didn't get a chance to talk to you guys after EWC,
after your performance there, coming in to see you. So we're going to go ahead and
EWC after your performance there coming into stage two. Can you give me like your thoughts on how you felt EWC went as a whole and kind of
What you're taking into this thing?
As a whole I think you know it was a fantastic experience obviously EWC is a great event
But you know we definitely were not satisfied with the way we play in the Fiora game and that definitely stuck with us for a bit
We weren't playing our game
You know it's one thing to lose to a team when you feel like you're playing well and they just outclass you or whatever
We didn't think we were playing our game, you know, they played great regardless. Obviously they went to the finals
But you know, that definitely stung for a bit
Definitely stung for me too as I picked you guys to win and
Final but
Great question by the way because that was mine, but I'll go with another one. You just played Villa
Are we happy to see Villa back and do you think like the way you guys play defense, right?
It's not there's not much wall denial. It seemed like we're getting aggressive. We're taking fights
do you expect that to be kind of what we're going to see out of Villa kind of going forward?
Um, I don't know. I mean watching the games from the regions G2 played it,
FaZe played it, I've seen the mixture of strategies. So I think it'll, you could do either I think,
kind of spend some of the team, but you know, everybody has their own play style, so you know,
you can kind of pick and choose everyone. Yeah, everyone got their own play style until
they watch NAL play, and then they start taking the win. We play, and then the Villa meta is for them.
They start taking some notes. Well, Spikers, congratulations again on the win. I don't
I don't want to necessarily talk about you over CNO.
That's a sore spot for you as well.
Obviously, I mean, great way to start, though.
I mean, a 7-3 for you guys to start your first game,
especially heading into the super week.
I kind of want to talk about, obviously,
the last second change with DarkZero,
losing a player, losing J9-0.
Is that something you guys fixated on,
or were you just focusing entirely on yourselves?
No, we were just doing our thing.
It's a new map.
We didn't know, like, we had no prep.
We didn't team up any prep, right?
So we're just focused on ourselves,
just playing our game, you know.
But that was really it.
We didn't want to focus on it at all.
We did scrum them, DCA had like three days to go on Velo though, so that was interesting, but whatever.
That's right, sure. Well, nevertheless, congratulations.
Any expectations before we send you off of what's ahead here in Stage 2?
You guys, of course, you stage one chance looking to defend that title.
Like, where is it you think you, what are you guys focusing on here in Stage 2?
We just want to keep improving and obviously make the event.
Just keep improving the results will come if we do that.
Just make the event doesn't even care about just you don't care about winning the league again beating JJ
I mean obviously we do but like if we're playing our game we're improving you know make the event
at the end of the day you're at the event that's what matters most so but I do want to be JJ that's for sure
okay there you go that's most important yeah we want to be JJ circle that one well we'll also
wait for that Matt just like your congratulations on the win uh we'll we'll talk to you later all right
all right thank you well wild card that is the way they wanted to start the stage as you mentioned
right? EWC, a bit of a sore spot. We heard it from Spiker. It did not go the way they wanted.
This is how to set the tone. Get yourself off on the right start here.
But this is the big difference, Makers. Their play style here in this match,
Air Stark Zero, is exactly what they were doing throughout their entire group stage.
They were getting the opening fix. They were controlling the flow of the
math and just the pacing and in which way it's played. That's what we need to see from
Wildcard. That's the consistency and the level of a championship-winning team.
They just need to be able to replicate that when it matters most in playouts.
but nevertheless getting it done in the 7-3 to showcase as you were saying Villa
It's gonna look very strong for the rest of the team is when they look to possibly play wild
Exactly, and I think this was ever more important for wild card to win this map and look dangerous on this map because consulate
Was their top map? No one in the NAL wanted to play him on it. They didn't ever ban it
It was their home turf so for them to now show dominant performance on Villa
Hopefully they add that to that, you know
of their new home turf.
People don't want to mess with them all in Villa.
Makes the map pool even stronger,
and you don't have to worry about it.
Exactly.
It's going to be deadly.
And also, love to see Adrian back up there.
12 and 5, the experienced player.
He had that really good clutch.
He had to clutch up against the new player of Koshy.
We thought Koshy was going to make something happen,
which would have been really exciting to talk about.
But overall, even he had a pretty decent day, right?
6-7, of course it's KD, 6-7, as I say, that great.
Hated as well.
But, I mean, look, he was able to kind of hang
in the first couple of rounds.
He was getting a couple kills going.
Things were kind of going for him.
He didn't get absolutely destroyed, which I love to see.
He got some now T1 experience.
It was valuable for him.
DZ is going to learn from this as well.
All in all, good day for everybody.
I mean, I think it's very commendable for Koshy
to be able to go neutral, especially in your first game,
just to have eyes watching him all across T1C,
that he can hang to a degree who knows what one other game
could possibly be.
So it's just good to see that he is playing at a neutral
level, that he isn't crumbling under pressure.
Even in that clutch situation, I mean,
we all thought maybe it was going to be a situation.
Adrian just played it that much better, but nevertheless, it was close either way.
Well, from one accidental rookie debut to another, this one intentional,
let's find out a little bit more about where these players are coming from.
So we'll go to Jesse with Spawn Point.
Ellen in 2026 may have wrapped up, but Tier 2 Scene is as active as ever,
with the NA open cup land being played across the continent.
My name is Jesse, and I'm here to get you caught up on everything that you miss in the NA Tier 2 Scene
here on Episode 3 of Spawn Points.
Last month we wrapped up the Mexico City Open Cup LAN, and fans should recognize our champions
as the former core of Team Cruelty, Pyrox, Fatal, Kaden, and Ivan, who have teamed up
with new player Garak, the winner of the winning roster, the Real Gods.
With Mexico City concluding, we've now run NA Open Cup Lans in three different countries,
allowing players from Canada, the USA, and Mexico to compete for a spot at the
highest level Siege has to offer.
Our fourth NA Open Cup plan in St. Louis also wrapped up last month, and with that, Richie
is officially a LAN champion.
He teamed up with former Cloud9 Pro Focal as well as the old pack runners core of Hyde,
Sog and Oyasumi.
Together, they make up Olympus Esports, and they didn't drop a single map, keeping Team
Session to finals 7-2 and 7-0.
We now have over half the teams confirmed for the NA Open Cup finals in Salt Lake
City.
with the Real Gods and Olympus Esports, Hachikimori and Masked Prodigy have secured spots by winning
previous NA Open Cup lands in Philadelphia and Windsor, while Blackjack earned their spot by
finishing first in Element 2026. This October, they'll be joined by the champions of the Palmetto
Bay Open Cup Land and two teams from the Salt Lake City Last Chance Qualifier, where they'll
battle it out for direct invites to the 2027 SILQ, the 2027 Challenger Finals,
and the ultimate title of NA Open Cup Champion.
If you think that you've got what it takes to be the best,
Sign Ups are still open for Kamado Bay and Salt Lake City,
but spots are limited,
so go sign up today to make sure that you don't miss out.
And to keep up with everything going on in the NA tier 2 scene,
keep it long right here on Spawn Point.
We heard it there from Jesse signups are still open for the remaining two N. A. Open Cup events
including the next event in Palmetto Bay this N. A. Open Cup ecosystem all leading into
that S. I. L. C. Q. And a challenger series spot where we could see these players and
these teams compete next in T1.
But for four funny sports, the team
that made their way through Challenger Series last time,
they've added one of these open cup threats to the team.
It is Cirx, who has come in to replace Silo.
A big addition now, a T2 weapon, who Kyle is going to be
looking to make his impact felt as soon as he can.
Yeah, I mean, absolutely.
First off, I mean, he was the runner up at STL
and one of those open cups that we're just saying,
losing to Richie for former turtle tactics member had to throw that in their force. But
for those who are wondering, first off, congratulations and welcome to the league
circus. And for those who are wondering who a little bit about this guy, who is he?
He comes from T2, has no T1 experience as we can kind of see. I mean, third, fourth place
in element. He's a fifth, sixth down in the challenger league. He played for team Sesh,
a little bit of a spin at the aerial arise camp. But most importantly, he is an entry
Frager for the team. He's one of those 18 year old mechanically gifted talented players that when
you're missing a little bit of a spark it's where you're going to T2 and it's who you're looking for.
And I had a conversation with Beano the captain in-game leader for the team kind of about the
change why they made the change and he agreed with us Lax like they also felt like they were
missing something they felt like they were missing something in the entry department
specifically that's what they thought they were missing right so they had to talk with Silo
It was a mutual agreement.
They moved on with them due to performance reasons.
And they're hoping search is going to come in
and he's just going to elevate where their ceiling is, right?
They have been making playoffs in both stages,
but it's not just making playoffs.
It's being able to be competitive against the top teams.
And whenever we see them going at the top teams,
that's when we're starting to worry about Packer
yelling at them and their mental.
Have you heard, help a few times.
Right, and that's helped a few times.
But it's like, can they hang and can they consistently
perform against those top teams?
I haven't seen it quite yet.
But this could be what gets him over the hump.
I do think it's something that I also look specifically at,
Rookies, it's not just their mechanical talent.
I also look at their mental state.
Obviously, he's going to have a lot of eyes watching in on him.
And then on top of it, you're playing the entry role.
There's going to be even more pressure on you
to find success, opening up rounds to then facilitate
the rest of the round to let Paco Vino take over.
So there's going to be a lot of pressure and aspect
in there alone.
But I'm also looking at him just
being able to be a sponge and absorb everything
that is being thrown at him and develop even more as a player, whether the negatives, whether
the positive to really develop as a player and use this opportunity in this stage to
really grow as an individual.
Well, like for Funny Sports, their opponents today in SSG have kind of been on the bubble,
right?
They're right in the middle, not quite making playoffs, not quite making the event, but
really hoping to change that this time.
And the problem has been for SSG lacks is that they started the year a little
stronger than where they are now.
Yeah, absolutely.
Just to look at the old SSG Rossers versus the newer SSG Rossers, and when you look at
those last two blips, that is the current SSG Rossers.
They are on a downward decline.
They need to improve.
When we saw them in kickoff, we were singing their praises.
They were one game away from being able to make SLC, and then we thought heading into
the first stage of the NAL, they were going to pop up.
They were going to be good, but it was the exact opposite.
We didn't see big players step up like Aiden, where he was the number one raided
in kickoff.
And then to even listen in on their comments, we were talking about how hectic those
were.
a drastic improvement coming into this stage or one they won't be able to make Osaka and then doubling
they won't be able to have a chance to make a side without having to go through an LCQ which is
going to be even more tantalizing than just being able to make an event get a few points and squeeze
your way yeah that's the big thing right there right it's like if you don't make Osaka you're
not going to make a side at that point you're you're kind of your job's kind of up in the air
I mean this SSG team was a rebuild team obviously the old SSG teams on the DZ roster
And it's like a lot of console players and the rookies and like we need to start seeing them
It kind of step up a little bit right like the performance they had last stage
It was definitely not good enough
They were one game one map away from beating dz and even just making slc and then who knows what could have happened
But now again, you're right. They're on that downward spiral
I need to see dream calling him out because he's one of my best friends
Of course, he's got to step up in the leadership the comms department. I want to see raid who's
Definitely a hyped up a console player as well
I need to see him kind of have that breakout performance eight in tax go to bed on time
Please wake up. We need you eight in tax. I want to see SSG have success so badly
This would be a good matchup here to set the tone for both of these teams and what we can expect from for fun as
That team bring it in the rookie and SSG as a team as you both said right looking to bounce back
You do not want to miss Osaka and then spend what seven months in the offseason without a game to play?
a brutal situation to be in and they look to cafe the map that could hopefully set the tone for both of them.
I mean, arguably this isn't a map great for either of these teams.
I would say it's a little less great for the side of for fun, losing it three times throughout last stage.
And then for SSG, they only lost it once.
Both these teams out really just wiped the slate clean.
You want a brand new start, but I think it's really going to be more pressure on SSG to get this win
because they haven't made any changes.
They know where everything went wrong and what they need to do in order to fix it.
It's just now a matter are you going to implement it going into the season and as you said, this should be the great way to start off your season with a very close matchup like for fun and get a win underneath your belt to start out improving where you are in this race between those teams on the bubble right last stage.
They were eighth place, two spots away from sixth, where four fun finished, but it came
down to the very last play day, right?
It was the last two days where we really decided who was going to make playoffs and who is just
going to miss it.
It looks like the community there, leaving the space station gaming as we get into
this one and take a look at the bands that we have in front of us now.
You go into cafe here for the first time, Kyle.
What are we going to see here?
Well, I think we're definitely going to see all my band and it's not totally because
I can see it in you guys.
It's more so the fact that Well, my is just never going to see the light of day on cafe again
It's it was buffed recently if you haven't played with my please check it out. Well, my is so good
But what's more interesting is that kai a or k-band? I don't want to get all fancy with that
But the k-band is interesting because this is not normally like a Walden Isle map even when hatches are kated
I mean you could still kind of open it up with a mona and a so that is a little bit more interesting to me on that
Defensive side of things. I mean, what are you trying to block off though? That's really gonna hinder a take
Oh, with Kade. Yeah. I mean hatches. I mean, that's what I'm saying. Like hatches. But
even then you can still play vertical pressure without even giving some of the hatches and
still apply the same pressure. All right, let's see it. SSG and four fun Esports. Go to
Cafe. All right. Well, excited for this one. Four fun Esports in the year. So far,
I've actually got a two one record over space station gaming, but they've got themselves
a new rookie looking to make his debut in Circs. Excited to see another debut
I can't wait to see another day view of course one unintentional now one intentional chasing set at best into this game though. I think that the boys on the couch wrap this up perfectly because the SSG kickoff okay stage one absolutely terrible need to bounce back here for stage two putting kind of all of the
on the line. Respectively, I think both teams come into this game, maybe thinking they can
get the win to start stage two on the positive and, you know, correct foot. I mean, if for
fun win this, suddenly you bring in a new rookie, things may be a little bit better.
For SSG, if they win this, there's maybe a good start to bounce back. You can find
the positives for both if they can find this first win. But only one can.
Exactly. That's the other side of the globe, right? I thought one of these teams,
going to walk away with that maximum one point won't get off to the best of starts
and obviously you can recover from that it's only play day one but that mental
component in terms of pressure compounding and I think especially for
the side of SSG the expectation on them with such a prestigious
organization backing them I'll really be wanting to make amends here in stage
two it all kicks off here for play day one expecting the pace and your
This second match of the night to probably be a little more old-school, especially on cafe,
can sometimes be a bit of a grind for the attack.
And that's for fun when I pick up tempo.
We are going to see the line flicks combo straight through, reading.
Vino doesn't make contact.
Now, we're going to hunt the thing.
They've got the pinch. Yeah, nice and done from Packer.
I mean, that's a good teamwork.
He's able to take that fight because of the push from Vino.
Just a boss mining site now into a fireplace.
Caught, though, by Aiden, Nipersold Throne.
It doesn't hit.
But that's a good way to maybe just slow this tempo down, that Four Fun wanted to bring in this opening round.
Oh, a swing! Everyone swings for SSG.
What a piece for Aiden, Rival and Dream.
Serks does get his first kill at the tier one level.
Needs three more.
That's a minute and 15 seconds, but what a way for your opening round to end up for Serks.
Did he make this a debut to remember in his first round?
It's gonna take something special. Cross is established by SSG.
It's a matter of isolation now for sex.
We'll see what it can do. Chunked by the nitro. Now about 40 HP.
Stalled by the extinguisher. Cross pillar is in place.
It works with a reed, but that defender will talk.
As you can see, just making progress towards...
It's like towards that diffuser
Very very difficult good prone position as well in play rather to pop up net the kill
And a good round overall from ssg
I think Aiden probably walking away as MVP in that round because the build up and the initial play
Sat there from the attack was actually really good great pinch over towards wide stairs
They got the the Deimos and the blitz to connect
but then the Blitz getting caught by a sharp shot in the objective kind of
threw us under in the works and then the rest of the SSG were able to
aggressively find a string of picks.
Yeah, there was literally just three kind of isolated fights all going exactly one
way which was space stations.
I think so, that's by the way in that sort of 1v3.
The difference between tier 2, tier 1, lower levels, those defenders maybe peak you.
I maybe give you a way back into the round.
It's just not going to happen at this level.
You got to stay tucked in and not going to give him isolated gunfights, hold the
cross.
He was always up against it.
If you buy the positive, I think the bow team is in that round, I mean first you get the
round win and they were able to offset that early advantage, 4-4 fun, but 4-4 fun were
able to sort of highlight that yeah maybe they can actually bring a good pace here
on cafe on their attack, try and take some of these positions early and not be scared
to take these sort of fights.
do drop the shield for the second round. We'll bring the sand for Vino as we go
reading fireplace this time rather than fireplace mining. That should be a similar
round. Maybe a slow pace though 4-4-5.
Christmas the quad nitro play here for the defense, the pulse as well also to
be included and the mozzie as well if Aiden can even snatch just one during
like massively influential in feeding information to the rest of the defense
and really getting value from the nitrosols here for fun are plush three for that top floor clear
they have the dedicated bird off in the ram and getting info currently and
you can see advanced positions on this top floor from SSG currently as
They look to travel a little away at the drone economy a little bit and will now be searching for contact shop side
Those onsite as well be mindful of the work from below, but
At least as we can see because they don't have benefited the positions the outliers. It's not very difficult currently
All the attack for fun certainly posturing still top floor the rest of the whole team rather still on the exterior of the building
It's a pretty classic cafe, but anyways, two minutes down and no one's stepped foot.
It's like, it's up for Serks, so here's the entry.
You can get away with it by cocktail.
You know, if this were top four, side minute 13, and these positions were now being held,
you know, Serks pushing in towards the gunshot, could have been in a bit more content.
But if you get that down on the rival towards the pillar, it's actually
repimable if someone gets over there.
No one close.
Fire, Serks, lovely entry kill, onto the dream and the follow-up on the raid.
Well, didn't need much time once they actually got boots on the ground inside of the building.
Serves with a double.
And that will build the confidence for the rookie.
Giddy has got good information on the pulse, but they've got no more nitrosols remaining either.
Forty seconds time, it may be the only ally remaining for SSG.
They're forced to play the attack.
If the fun go for default here, they need to be careful.
Although that position was flushed.
It's a good work and good build up here from the attack.
20 seconds, Vino's gonna have to drop pretty quickly into the pillar.
This may end up actually having to be a bit of a default here.
Aiden finds the kill on the MW.
It loves the swing though from Volsper.
They have to clear out the pillar position.
He was the first one to make that charge.
Get that swing kill.
Vino looking for the plant now with the shield screens.
Ah, it's going to be kitty though.
That is going to find the kill onto Volsper.
But in the end, kills found before fun.
They will get the round as they deservedly should have but that got a little spicy at the end
Yeah, a little bit
Certainly a decent round though overall both teams trading blows
Love that little connect from
Cirks in the mid round somebody had to step up and and play off the information that was being related
He was the one with a clean double spray
So well executed, in fact we will get the highlight package of the Dream Got Caught cocktail
and then it's raid searching forward for a bit of pokey also then Got Caught out.
Little whole lot of time remained in the round.
If Giddy had have denied that, maybe it could have been a different end result of 2 seconds
on the clock but that won't be the case.
One one school and it's kitchen next
Whenever you probably come in for your day view you're gonna have some kind of nerve some
Kind of buddy feeling in your stomach, and if you say well, that's probably gone now. That's a wonderful round
Lovely double kill. That's why you bring him into this team and sort of what he
Will want to bring
Not just the entry, but a double entry kill.
I can get the confidence flowing.
Keep an eye on his performance in this match.
Again, they'll bring the sends.
Kitchen bombsite for the third round, bands after this.
It's very default from SSG with the composition, they're bringing positions being held
moment and this will be top down from forefront. Play the vert with the sledge in the ramp.
Man, Packer also getting to work in terms of chipping away at the Glyo canister utility.
Very successful and of course if he is to retain those shock drains for the late
round that could also play nicely into the echo selection here from the defense.
Pop down will typically end freeze aside that's where the echo can sometimes come into play for
the coffee plant and so by having that tool still available that can be quite important later on.
We'll see what the attack ultimately ends up shaping for as they now transition in towards
the map, take this control, get to work in terms of the checklist, line the side co-chair,
double third to play, of course ensuring that nobody from the defense goes for a sneaky flank,
but that's hardly unlikely as this team will be looking into the way around denial.
And so it's probably going to formulate into a pretty classic scrap here.
A very old school kind of playstyle here on the kitchen side. I think I think it's well
also important to know, yeah exactly, the areas will be for that freezer drop.
And so there'll be pressure operating this round to get to work in denying that,
does have nitro cell in pocket. I'll tell you what I picked up the pace though in the checklist in
the last 15-20 seconds. It's funny you can kind of do not a lot for two minutes but then get a
lot done in about 20-30 seconds get yourself set up but they're not going to have a lot of time
my kitty's got quite a few yokai's still up three gaspabes for dreams so much utility
for space station reads but he's not just already towards VIP
shield screen up all spot
drop soon it's right there with a shotgun towards VIP sat down sir he was the
first in being I went to try and follow up in SSG I'm ready for this push it's
just taken far too long into the round
Wolfon took their time Packers found two now a third and now 10 seconds to
find Aiden and Giddy. Giddy over towards Bakery will not give him the time. So even if he finds
this kill onto Aiden, it wouldn't have mattered. Time would have expired. SSG will take the
third round.
Look for credit to raid in that round. I don't think you can really fault the attack
too much there for going for the trade attempt VIP, sensing that Nitro sell into a straight
freezer drop and that stack would have been pretty disastrous and of course being
the ward and it's easier said than done to be able to lay a utile into that position.
It is a straight up gunfire bit of a 50-50 in that regard and both went away of SSG.
Good work from Rade.
Shotgun up close, of course, naturally will favor him and some good positioning and some
good timing.
That's him.
Those critical two kills.
The follow-up then from the rest of the defense.
Pretty sound.
The bands for the remainder of this first half to be the Valk and the Grimms, a big
emphasis on information as we look back at this round so it's just probably a
micro movement there at the end proving costly and you know not quite tight
enough there for the trade attempts. Hacker was then left in a pretty
untenable situation and overall good defense for messaging.
Nice fucking white rain, that was the biggest fuck on white rain.
It was big from right, I do agree.
I'm going to kind of analyse that round though.
4-5 giving themselves 20 seconds.
It's just not enough time in this current state of the game.
This meta got to be going in at around that 35-40 second mark.
Just gives yourself a bit more breathing room.
Once it does get down to 20 seconds, it's just far easier for Ray to go shot down up and expect that swing towards VIP.
They already know what's going to be happening and how the ground's going to play out once those are used, go down, freeze a hatch.
It's a pretty easy read for space station.
We'll finally have to get a little more creative in this half.
Help Band, Grim Band.
Grim was played once in the second round, we haven't actually seen the Valkyrie so far
in this half and we will of course not get to see it anyway from now.
Fairly similar line-up composition for SSG throughout these rounds, they go repeat
comp for mining, which is where we're heading for the fourth round.
Yeah, it means again, quad nitro in play here for the defense.
So they'll be looking to get those in play against the transition here from the attack.
If I'm going to need to be important that the decision isn't too stagnant once they
do enter the map.
Because I'm not afraid to be pretty reserved in terms of their map at true time, which can
work out of course on CAFE.
But just a point of the expedite that checklist and maybe give themselves a little bit more
breathing room later on in the round.
Because they deploy drones at the moment, looking together a bit of info, trying to
find the part of least resistance for this map control, bit point all of the round.
out the clips to set up the overheads towards the white stairs.
Maybe trying to draw out some impression here from the defense
that they do cut the nitro lance.
I mean, the difference here is last time they brought the blitz,
they rushed up the stairs, hit the site.
Now they want to play that top down,
get the ram, boogie auto, breach up.
The SSG are defending top floor.
Now they find the pit and now they fall back
and there's only a minute left in the round.
This is a perfectly played round from space station.
Defend the top floor, deny that top down ability,
and then get that kill, fall back to site.
It's kind of been low on time again from full fun.
Really need this next kill.
Package just outside of mining.
They're even closer to the windows in a great position
and they still have three more nitros.
Rival connects on to Mike W.
Circs getting a kill back and Polster gets a free one
on to raid down the hallway,
looking more towards that mining window.
Yeah, Aiden, it's not really a 3v3.
Aiden needs to be really careful from that, from Bollspot.
20 seconds.
It's got the intel.
He hasn't made a sound in the shots,
while they do connect eventually on Topaka.
And Dream connects as well with his Nitrosol.
Bollspot.
Ox for the plant.
The right call with a bit of time still on the clock.
It is the movie though, and gets off it.
The audio sounded not to see this round fall
the way of SSG, they defend successfully again.
Yeah, big nitrous cells set themselves up early, good reposition back towards the site.
And whilst there was threat from Vosperpillar, it almost broke open the round, not quite enough in the end.
Susceptible to those total positions on the objective for fun to call their tactical time-out.
They need to find a second round in this first half.
We know Cafe, what we've seen of it I think over the last year probably.
It's quite a bit more 50-50 these days.
He can't afford to just get one attacking round in this half.
So this is a big timeout call at the right time to be honest.
Still got two more opportunities after this.
I think they've got to understand what worked for them back in that first two rounds, even
though they didn't win the first round.
I thought it was actually pretty deep.
They've got to bring a bit better pacing, pick up that tempo, get Thurks into the building
quicker so you can find these kills.
Just looking a little bit more stalled out in rounds three and four, taking the time.
The clock is getting very low once they're executing into sight.
It just means in that moment there,
Bulse has got far more limited options available,
where if there was 20, 30 seconds left on the clock
in that moment, 1, B2, the chances of winning
are statistically going to be a little higher.
And I'm surprised they haven't kind of gone back
to the blitz sides of it.
No shield play despite the vans.
They've been a really heavy focus on trying to play vert,
slow entry into the building.
A lot of time spent droning.
The SSJ is just kind of sitting ready and waiting
and they're just very much ready at the right moment.
Make sure you don't give in for a while.
Reading play of place before the second time.
This was the site that four FOM were able
to win back in the second round.
Honestly, I think they're going to need to win here.
Definitely sensing there's an element of comfortability here for SSG as it stands right now.
The style, like for fun, consistently now employing.
They look quite comfortable.
The nitrous hull plays being great.
Their info gathers being good.
They're for themselves now on a couple of occasions.
That's an early advantage and the opportunity to then flex their muscles on anchor work elsewhere.
Steve then can for fun switch up here find advantage maybe early courtesy of
Sirks on the entry who will route potentially up through that brown
stairs position into pillar he's going to be reliant on pressure being generated
elsewhere so that that window is up for him press a button on the exterior
our sex falls he pushed up barthing Aiden yeah Aiden's caught him on the
shoulders I was gonna say that's probably the threat then for Sirks yeah
it's the right play but SSG will be ready no Aiden got caught with my car and
well so with impact and end up actually finding the kill off of the
pipe thought my W was actually gonna get very lucky on the timing lucky he
was not. Giddy has been eliminated towards reading. This is actually going to be site control
for fun. We'll go for the plant. Where's the reinforcements for SSG? Far too slow.
As soon as Giddy's down there, everyone needs to get back on the move and get to site. No one made
a move. And now the time is against space station. And you can see the the positions here for the
the attack quite strong, but the two remain.
SSG can flood, or not.
Nice kill from Pack up.
He is though, the only one left.
1v2 against Dream and Rival.
They'll push together.
Rival actually on the kit by himself,
trying to hold the cross,
and Rival's going to get a pretty free counter defuse.
That's a good retake from SSG.
And Latham though, into the site,
and a very free plant,
they almost threw that round away,
but they're able to steal it.
And they go 4-1 up, and we're starting to see a bit of a gulf between the two teams, at least in this first half.
Yeah, SSG with the main power there at the end, the three bodies able to make it work, and then a good cross-hulled by Dream at the end as the Canada defuse went down.
As we're back at that round,
So X-File 1st courtesy of Aiden and then Mike W went for the trade and got caught by the impact grenade in skill courtesy of the gas pipe.
The plant went down.
S2 got in position to deny.
Despite that though, who changed their shot back towards the objectives of your positioning, enabling that counter to fuse.
We return to kitchen, so this time back in round number three, SSG is successful on that
previous attempt courtesy of Ray's ankle work, towards VIP, and they did a big double before
for fun, were able to go for the sense of drop, and it looks as if for fun are going
to bring another complimentary composition that more than likely is going to go for
that.
They do substitute out the twitch though, which was a really effective tool into the Goyo
So this ultimately ends up being the same style of drop or maybe there's something a little bit different on the cards there
Because again with the Goyo standing late and the Echo plus we factor in some of the time concerns for
The attack across this half so far
It looks a little scary on the surface
I'm really trying to sort of wrap my head around the gridlock selection over the Twitch.
Especially having really shown that they're wanting to mortade up and look for flaking opportunities that happen to just play these set default positions.
And then you bring entirely the same lineup outside of the gridlock.
Which indicates, at least for me, that 4-5 are going to play this in a very similar manner.
It can change it up. I mean, with the sends you're quite flexible, you don't have to go freeze the sign.
And maybe Bakery might be the play.
He's the drone game in this final round of the half.
Yeah, SSJ is just going to very much play this default towards site.
And back in their ability to win the late round battles, which so far they've been doing a very good job of.
I'm definitely expecting the smoke, the Goyo Plus Echo to just be formidable in the late round here.
So the timer is working well and truly against the attack, even more so than typical.
Of course they are working through that checklist.
They go for the same job, they might even still have concerns, but we're getting into the VIP clear.
They'll be probably taking a similar fight onto raid.
But even if they win that and have advantage if they shape up for the default coffee plant
it might be a bit of a challenge to... I mean the Goya U-Till has been dealt with so
I guess good grenade work to compensate. You can see there's flames dispersed currently.
I've lost a lot of battles already. Yeah, they lost the vert battle so the
U-Till wasn't actually maybe as much of a concern as I expected but they are going
to be playing from the disadvantage again. I think they're going to be relying on
Packer. Packer's gonna have to be the one to win them this round.
Has to just win a couple of real-life battles as he pushes in.
Looking for the pinch over towards VIP. Has to kill onto Rade from Packer. Knows this one as well towards Bar and Dream.
Kendo, time concerns are there. Forfun have got 15 seconds. Bino's into Freezer.
Can he get into a comfortable plant position? Giddy's still alive on the Echo.
Echo, trade so far vote in favor of SSG and no one is able to get this play down in time
will expire unless my top hit gets it with 0.1 seconds.
He's dead anyway.
Formalities in the end for SSG, a wonderful half as they take a 5-1 lead.
A 5-1 lead in a match that I thought was going to be a little bit more closer.
Well for fun have got some defending to do in the second half
Another round for four funny sports that comes down to those final few seconds on the execute
And it is just not working lacks. I like the way you put it when we were talking backstage
It looks like they're having an identity crisis with their operator picks. Can you elaborate on that?
Yeah
I mean it's really more so just picking what's comfortable and not what's actually necessary or needed to facilitate these attacking rounds
It really just kind of looks like they're playing what's going to be more comfortable for them
And what's going to make them play better, but not realistically what's going to help the entire team go for these side executes
Is why we're even getting into these super late round where they're getting strappy where they're barely getting into the building
I mean I talked about them banding out the cave
I don't really see cave being much of a threat sure it blocks a hatch might block a wall, but the zombies up
Valch is up
Yo guys are up that goes are up
I mean I think there's better use of the operator bands that they could have used and then there's
definitely better uses of the operator pools that they were bringing here. They
weren't being able to get into the gunfights that they were hoping for. We
know that they like to take gunfights that they just like to be able to clear
the map, but if SST's not giving it to you, this is the exact result of a 5-1-1-2.
Yeah, I mean, I would have loved to see a little bit of adaptability with the
forefront side, right? Like, when you're talking about attacking cafe, I
loved what they did on the very first round. They went quick with the
blitz, and the only reason it didn't work was it looked like the
The smoke was off a little bit and the blitz died through the smoke cool
We tried something fast, but then we went to default takes but there was default takes and we never start to switch it up
We never hopped back on the montane and because we didn't hop on the montane
We never knew what was clear and it took us so long to clear things and it was just frustrating to watch and hopefully that's something
That they're gonna look forward to going into the future, but for SSG
I mean they played cafe perfectly like that is how cafe is playing to that is why it is one of the more defender
Side of maps in the NAL they're playing lots of vision look at the wild card right lots of vision
They're layering off the top floor.
They're not fighting.
The only time they fought top floor
is the round they lost.
Cirque's got the 2K.
After that, they started falling back, layering back,
and it was all real good from there.
Now, the question mark, though, we're up and down here.
The question mark, though, is SSG.
Can they attack, right?
That was a great defensive half.
I'll say this, they could attack last stage.
It was just the comms.
The comms were the bigger issue.
We saw numerous times they had control of a round.
It was solely the comms that then would completely
ruin everything that they had set up.
So as long as they can just pace themselves,
they can understand the position they are,
they don't have to force anything if need be,
they can easily have a solid attacking cap.
See, and this is interesting to me,
because we're getting a Montagne ban from For Fun onto SSG.
And if you know Montagne is that good at cafe,
and Montagne is great, why not run it?
Why are you not running it?
Right, like why do we only run Blitz?
Get Bino up.
I'll pay for identity crisis.
Yeah, get on the, it would have sped everything up.
Well, my ban makes a ton of sense again.
You're never gonna see a zombie.
A zombie.
That would have been great for For Fun to also look at now,
because we've seen a zombie getting used on them quite often.
They're left with a layer for SSC to then have to play back on.
I mean, there's a lot.
I mean, we could easily go in on this.
Fact of the matter is they need to have a strong defensive half.
Yeah, and there's two halves.
Right, so let's see what happens.
All right, exactly.
You set it up perfectly.
They can bounce back here.
They go to defense and can take advantage
of this cafe's defensive side of nature.
Let's find out.
Camerate.
Well, sorry to say, boys, back in stage one,
cafe actually started a attacker side of winrate which probably burns well for
SSG and that actually at the highest tied with Chalet at 53% the site that was
most vulnerable was reading fireplace at 68% attack aside and believe me I'm just
shocked at seeing some of these numbers as well one thing though that we saw in
the first half guys in terms of the slow pace etc well that is not just a full
fun issue it is actually the smallest map in the pool sitting at a 111 average
entry. Fortress for example which is the highest hits at a 130 so that's a 20
second difference on average for the opening kill. I think SSG are well
placed for this second half to take this game. The medial also last thing
Aiden on the solid snake and agree whole heartedly though with with lacks which the operator crisis was clearly there for fun bringing
Quite a lot of art side. It didn't make sense. Well, they weren't playing into that particular style
Yeah, of course remains to be seen if SSG will
Have a similar fate, but I think I probably back them into naturally just be a little more experienced
And yeah, very much like in the comp I'm seeing here in the opening round, the IQ count into the pulse
here will be an interesting addition. Early nitro for the defense, courtesy of Packer, doesn't quite
hit the mark. Fortunately though, they still have four remaining, so it's a full nitro cell lineup here
from the defense, trying to catch SSG off as they go for the horizontal take of the top floor
initially. Great tool against the heavy rappel game that is expected here on cafe.
Oh, a nice kill from Beatham on to Aiden took a bit of control towards fill up.
A rare opening kill.
That's four fun give themselves the advantage in this seventh round
We're gonna criticize the pacing from four fun in the opening half SSG
Having exactly been a whole lot quicker. I really was kind of a even the only one
That was getting into a more advanced position, but now with his death everyone else is quite a distance away
I'm not trying to catch as my W, look at all the run out gift indeed.
Don't want to give SSG your way back into this round.
I'm not sure if the run out at the minute mark was needed.
Packer now feeling as if he needs to find that next kill.
Don't know what that was.
Over the wall, it's right stairs, just ran out into the middle of the window and gave
a freebie.
And Giddy says, thank you very much, SSG say thank you for fun.
their stations to just go and die and the round's over. It just had to sit still.
Yeah that was one of the elements of the defense that the the boys on the desk correctly
complimented was SSG's ability to peel back towards the objective, to lay it back and to sit and
wait and drain time. Unfortunately for fun in that round I got a little antsy, a little too
active, some of those positions quite compromised. Initially they've run out and it
works as well. Continue to play aggressive under his windows similarly to
Packett who also I think got exposed so unfortunately they didn't quite hold their
nerve in that round. Kind of though to SSG it probably was the most comfortable
feeling position for them given a player down and the situation has a clock
and probably the absence then of map control as well but they held their
They kind of waited for that mistake to evolve they correctly assumed what was going to happen next so
I could read a good execution and now five opportunities the closest one in regulation unfortunately hasn't really lived up to its building
We expected this match to be a little closer a little bit more competitive
But assuming SFG to go on to take all three points
I think that's gonna be a feel-good story to start off the stage a team that many
I think the hoping will do well in this stage
Well, they're kind of split the series back in kickoff
They're both one a best of three against each other and then in stage one only played the one time and for fun
We're able to win that and then you suddenly now
Potentially getting seven one. That's a big bounce back for SSG
That's kind of what the story was coming into this game for both teams
But most importantly, I think for space station. Yeah, kickoff was okay stage one terrible
But this is the way to sort of make an early statement.
I don't want to say that they're back,
this is just one game,
but that they've gotten to work maybe in the off-season.
As you go from a match-up that we maybe thought
was going to be a little bit closer
and they've just completely blown this game
out of the water.
These are the kind of games as well
that just instill confidence
and give you that platform for the remainder of the stage.
Especially in the super week,
if you kind of hop this week
When you get up to a fast start, you pick up a lot of points, it's going to bode well
then for making playoffs.
The identical lineup for SSG in this round, that sort of dream, he jumps off the Grim and
on to the Habana, there's some ranged hard bridge potential which may aid in this top
floor clear into the mirror as well, so good counter tool and good selection from
him and it's just the little things like that the 1% is from SSG that I think have been really
good over the course of the day, HOMP selection has made sense, their shadowed use of wilding.
Concise.
Let's see if Dream can get value here on the Hibana, playing frontline over towards the
Garshot currently alongside Raid who has deployed his Jack Stingers on the grid lock
force and flank protection.
SSG will continue to get to work now of course, the timer, important to note,
minute on the clock, just slutting to track here as we whittle down in this eighth round.
It's a cautious approach.
Oh.
I mean that right there though is the difference.
Even though the time itself, yeah, it has been that slow pacing, but once they get into the right position, start to play the vert, start to push the side, they're the ones finding the kills.
Free beyond to Mike from raid, really well positioned towards White Stairs.
Stingers out 30 seconds, now SSG with the extra player.
Wait, threat detected.
Dream finds the kill onto Vault Spot and that leaves it down to just Packer and
Beano to try and extend this game of cafe.
And he's got the information from the Raider.
As Packer's down in bar, he has to make his way up over towards Pillar and
does do so with the headshot onto Dream, Aiden then falls.
And Bino catches Rival on the entry. It's only Raid Black by seconds. No kit.
And for fun, we'll play the time. Packers dead, but Bino hides.
Okay, a little bit more of cafe is required.
Yeah, fair play to Packer. Found a good rotation. He was isolated over towards White.
Raid Alping, though, he takes an appointment himself to rotate.
he would have of course been expecting follow-up and it did come his way in the
form of that frag grenade if he stayed in that position he would have been under
threat probably unlikely to make a play but unlocked brand stairs and to pillow
did a good job and there being as well to be credited with presence of mind to
just go pro in playtime and do a good job start of the bush look pretty
promising for SSG we catch on Sirks and Mike W as well
Hell courtesy of Raid
Dino's also, I guess, to be credited for his ankle work with the TCSG as well on the side
Maybe no opportunity
Pack of praise in the cons rightly so a great play and a good rotation from him
We need to see a lot more of that if the fun to form a comeback
Yeah, and similar though to fall fun in the first half so the same applies to SSG as I said in that round
They had about what 10-15 seconds left and they have to start, you know, quicker vault-ins,
quicker kind of sprinting around the map.
It just leaves you in a very tricky position to then be able to win those battles.
Credit for Fun at least had good bodies towards the site this time around rather than
just running out of the building.
just such a long way back though to be overly positive if you're for fun four
rounds needed straight five technically with one now already achieved big chain
jump for SSG lineup composition heading into the kitchen site they're gonna play
in the glass get he will leave the nook
big room maybe four four fun as Mike W. the Stollers top floor at the moment
packer on the monzi so they with Sirks on the thorn this kitchens like that we
saw SSG play that sort of default set position structure in the first half
for fun I don't think you're going to be playing it in the same fashion play of
the Vulpcams roam around the map Mike W that can get info on the solace and
Giddy though on the nook can counter a lot of his style he slips in cleanly
They've already taken VIP control expecting to push down Brown Stairs, but Mike Tovey hits a wonderful shot
Fortunately, they've lost most of their battles and very early in the round SSG with a tempo switch up to close out this map of cafe
It's been all slow going
Packer the only one left who was lauded in the previous round
Gets the kill on to dream and needs two more
does have Nitro. I wouldn't count him out from being able to win this fight. Raid
rival Double Stack Freeza ready to get the kill and it's SSG to close the map.
That's 7-2 victory for Space Station. What a way to launch into the new stage
after a disappointing stage one. They have quickly rebounded on the opening
playday taking down four fun esports. Remember they didn't even beat them back
back in stage one. So already rectifying some issues from the earlier stage of the year.
That's a wonderful start for space station gaming.
Open and shut for SSG as they get things started with a 7-2 victory and with a 12 kill performance
Aiden leading the charge once again, something we've seen from him in the past and we can
welcome him.
Rather it's Raid I think, oh standing back for the interview, I don't know where I was
going with that.
Don't you ever confuse the two.
I'm so sorry to me.
These young gunners are everywhere, Raid, a great performance from you as a team,
Congratulations on the win. Talk to me a little bit about what you guys have been focusing on over these last few weeks coming into the stage, obviously sitting back watching EWC can't have felt good.
So what's been the focus coming into stage two?
Yeah, so obviously there's a lot of disappointment at the end of the last stage.
I think we honestly like well as us as a team we know we have the best off-season we've had like even before kickoff like
We had a good running kickoff obviously we got our heart broken, but I don't think we've ever been more confident as a team going into a stage
so
Well right I want to say congratulations on the win for you
I also want to just talk to you individually, you know
What is something that you've taken away from your time now coming into kickoff playing the stage one now coming into stage two
I mean what have really been the hurdles for you as a player and developing
Um, so I'm not gonna lie, stage one I even though honestly I was playing better than or I guess kickoff now
I was playing better than stage one
um
There's a huge hurdles like you learn a lot like being in the league being around these guys like
I was nowhere near the level that I'm at right now and I'm just
Extremely like confident in my game and I mean I'm just so ready for the stage. What would you say has been the hardest hurdle for you?
Um, definitely the hardest hurdle is like obviously you shouldn't be performative and like or like you shouldn't be looking performance based
but like
You can't just you just can't like it's you can't let stuff get to you as a player when you're not playing the greatest or the stats aren't showing up
You just got to get right back to the drawing board lock back in and just focus on the wins. Absolutely
Love that. Love the both you taking my questions again, of course
I got a couple questions for you actually. What was more important for you or what was more enjoyable?
Was it winning this match against 4 Fun or winning the Jinxie Cup just a couple of days ago?
I mean, they go hand in hand. I had a lot of fun in that Jinxie Cup.
That was your first win too, right? I think this was your first time beating these 4 Fun guys as well.
Well, yeah, I mean I guess streamed, yes.
Sure was this kind of you guys testing your map pool a little bit of in cafe
Oh and one on it you guys don't really like to go to cafe it just seems like so
This is your first win all year is the beginning of the season for you guys just kind of like yeah
Kind of figuring out your strengths figuring out your map pool everything like that
I'm actually going into today. We're confident on every single map
I think our map was deeper than ever like we are very confident and I mean we knew when it was cafe was over
I mean they've sirks. He's the worst player I've ever seen. I don't even know what they were thinking
Oh, but oh, yeah, welcome to the league.
Okay, I did not know that.
Well, Ray, thank you so much for your time.
Congratulations on the win.
7-2 is a great way to start,
and we'll hopefully get a chance to talk to you.
Oh, go ahead.
I have one more thing.
If you guys want to win 7-2 versus 4-fun,
buy the pack or buy, oh, shoot,
buy the SSG bundle, let's go.
Hell yeah, Ray, thank you so much.
Congratulations on the win, we'll talk to you later.
Thank you guys.
What a finish there for Ray.
Some good energy there.
And a great answer to your question
lacks about the hurdles and what he's facing.
This SSG team as a whole, we know
that they have faced a lot of adversity
trying to get used to this young core,
trying to deal with a poor performance in stage one.
But here, at least to start the stage, they bounce back.
I mean, the confidence is clearly there.
Whether he is true that their map pool is very strong
in comparison to what it's been previously.
Fact of the matter is they came here today
to really showcase their talent
and what they've put in during the offseason in the 7-2 is a great way to start out your
debut at stage 2.
Yeah, great question, Locke.
Great question, John.
Yeah, absolutely great question, guys.
Yeah, I mean, it's definitely a big statement, especially since, again, it was the first
time that they've won that map this year.
They need to prove that they have a deep map pool.
It's going to become very important to come playoff if they were to make it, right?
It's going to become very important.
And then, you know, I don't know if I do believe them with a 9-map pool.
Everyone says they played 9-map.
I never had a 9 map pool, 8 map pool, whatever it was back then.
That's hard, but they've been putting in the work as well.
Well at the start of this interview, Aiden was on my mind because he did have a very impressive performance.
I know we wanted to talk about him a little bit because he dropped 12 kills and was trying to find some of that kickoff energy again.
Was the number one rated player in all of kickoff in the entire NAL, did not see the same performance from him in stage 1.
Good start here to stage two Kyle to kind of show us that maybe he can find that energy again
Looks like a didn't woke up right like that's what we wanted to see
I mean the memes kind of going around a didn't kind of sleep it in a little bit not taking the stages serious
But definitely seems a little bit more dialed for game one today
And we need to see that kind of going forward
We need him to kind of like that is when SSG was at their best is when they had a superstar player in
Aiden and when Aiden is not popping off that is when we start to worry right like who's that next player step up
That's why I called out raid
I would like to see Ray kind of cement himself as the number two option to have a lot of really good young players
But yeah, when Aiden's playing like that, maybe we don't even need him. Definitely not
But even for a player like Giddy, especially when they ran their stint on cloud nine
I mean Giddy really was performing for the team
We haven't really seen that same level of play from Giddy
But I have no doubt if Giddy can get to that level in a company with Ray playing better with a company with
Aiden playing the way that he's consistently played throughout kickoff
I mean SSG really can be a force to be reckoned with
But it's really just a matter of consistency and will it continue going forward?
Well the four teams that we sent to the eSports World Cup from North America,
DarkZero, Wildcard, SR and M80, they're all going toe to toe against each other today.
Because our next matchup, Shopify Rebellion and M80, another heavy hitting affair.
This one's no joke again.
Two teams that are consistently at the top of the NAO was the second and fourth place team
going into EWC from stage one, but lacks for both of these teams, particularly for M80.
They are looking to respond to some poor performances at EWC, not doing what they knew they were
capable of.
Listen, there were a lot of critics, including myself, including Kyle, on M80 specifically
getting Savage, removing Kino, removing Hot and Cold.
We didn't know what was to be expected, but back to the matters, they almost had
a flawless group stage, only losing to Wildcard, but then losing to Wildcard again up
in those finals and then solidifying themselves second in the region going in to EWC.
However, their international success simply was not there.
They got sent home almost immediately.
And this was something that I am worried about when we look at M8 as a whole,
is they are a very short term focused team.
So you go to the second biggest event of the year, get practically grouped.
I mean, you showed up to just play two games to get sent home.
It's certainly not what we were expecting out of M8.
I'm sure that they were also a favorite to some degree,
But to lose the way that they did, I do want to focus on that, because the games are relatively close.
It was really just little mistakes that just ended up literally losing them every single match.
And in these rounds in particular, I mean, this game, KZ, went absolutely crazy.
But this flank put them in overtime, and then it was just, again, little minutiae details that were making them lose.
So I still am confident that this team has a lot to learn, a lot to grow from.
But it just wasn't unfortunate that their first international event, they went out the way that they did.
Very unfortunate and these clips man. We're already breaking my heart again. This one was just oh my god insane to watch
And it it really was upsetting and it look I'm a big copium guy here. Okay. I like to look I like to look
Hopefully where the grass is green exactly especially with our NA teams
I'm always going to do that and they did have that IGL change going into the tournament
And they did technically have kind of like that group of death side
I mean they had to play liquid and liquid are definitely no slouches, right?
This is that XFURIA XW7M team that are very, very experienced.
And they also had to play Falcons who are a team that is,
in a lot of people's radars as a contender.
So two really tough matches for them going to EWC.
And clearly the moment they just quite weren't ready
and they just kept losing close round after close round
and flanks after flanks.
And that's something that they're gonna just be able
to learn from and hopefully, you know,
that's where I'm confident that they will continue
to find success.
And they need to, right for FI.
They have to have another good stage
for those FI points.
Well for the Rebellion, they also essentially got grouped.
They just got grouped in an earlier phase of the tournament.
They got the play-ins and didn't even make it through
losing to Kagan, one of the more talked about matchups
of the entire event.
It was not what SR wanted, that much we know,
but it was also not what we expected from them
after going all the way in Salt Lake CityLax.
I mean, the expectations for this team were higher.
Well, that was the big thing.
Obviously going into that stage and that SLC
is we heard from the coaches, we heard from Super saying
that we aren't making any roster changes.
We believe in our system.
And sure enough, they ended up getting second place in SLC.
So everyone kind of was like, OK, let's put that to rest.
They are performing.
They made the changes that they need to with their coaching
staff, and things are looking better.
They had the extra help.
But then we fall back into the regular league.
They just squeak into EWC.
Then as they're going to EWC, they're looking good.
They aren't looking bad.
But then it got into that final game versus K.
And they just got knocked out.
I mean, it's not what you want when you go from second place
at a major event to then immediately be in group.
It's just not a recipe that you want
to have for the future of your success.
Exactly.
And it's that international success
that has been plaguing this superstar roster, which
is why they get so much hate from the outside.
I mean, you look at the roster, and they're so talented.
But again, they're struggling internationally.
This was at EWC, and one of the things
that I'm seeing with this roster
is just how their late-round adaptations are kind of poor,
right?
gets banned out CAD great game plan. Now they're just getting stuffed right here with the smoke.
They have fires on the rocket stairs. SR's take is predictable. They're just going to have to
walk through the fire and the flames and be running through the rock stairs. We're jumping
it in bathroom. We're getting C4. They CAD knew exactly where SR was pushing from. And again,
because that Thatcher ban, we now have SPOIT on Maverick. I've never seen him on Maverick.
In fact, I talked to Super the coach and he was even ashamed that they even went Maverick.
What's still up? Buck, why are we not going underneath with Deimos with any of those operators
to try to open the wall instead. We have spoiled on Maverick and they looked lost. They're now getting
to chunk of fired off the wall. There's 10 seconds left. It's desperation. You got Troy walking in
to try to go for the bomb plant, whiffing a whole mag spray. It's completely lost. And we keep
seeing SR in these moments. Late round in tournaments, late round in the stages, in the seasons.
And it feels like they just when those rounds start happening, it just it's a snowball
effect. They just keep losing and losing. And we never see them really have that late
around adaption that real good game plan besides ambigo kill and drop 20 to really pull themselves out of it
And I feel like that is kind of what this team has been missing so far again
It's it's kind of mind-boggling because they have so much talent and I want to see them have success
Right, but the second place in SLC seems to be like the outlier
It's more likely that they have been grouped now twice and they failed to make eighth place at major tournaments
And we need to see more or this roster
We're gonna be talking about probably some changes coming up soon harsh reality
Well, we keep talking about this of how are these teams going to be making changes particularly with Shopify rebellion after
Falling short of our expectations now several times in a row yet
They haven't made any changes whatsoever lacks the only difference they had coming into the stage
They added Phoenix the coach of five beers now joining what is already a pretty stacked roster of staff behind the scene
And for me it kind of feels like the Phoenix support obviously he's known in the Call of Duty scene
He won a championship, I believe, with Luminosity if I'm not mistaken or some organization however
But I think they're bringing him on more as like a mental attack
I think that's maybe where they do lose focus a lot
We've always known whatever team Troy has been on they've always kind of been a mental team if that team just isn't having a good time
It clearly translated in their performance and it still rains true even on this SR team
So I think that's a great addition to the team
However, if you still can't manage to find success internationally
How long do you then hold on to a roster just for the you know the intermediate side of things of domestic success?
Well so far in both of our matches wild card and SSG showing that they want to expand their map pool a little bit
Try the new things we saw cafe premises G
Villa from wild card and now Villa again
The choice that Shopify rebellion will eventually make another chance to see this new map in play
Yeah, and this is going to benefit Shopify right here because they were one of the teams that was perma banning consulate
And they needed to upgrade their map pool. They were always banning consulate. They were always banning chalet
And they started to become a little bit predictable. I know SR fans. We never want to see you play chalet again
So they need Villa they were hoping for this map to come into the map pool
This is going to save them if they're able to make a statement here against M80
It's going to benefit them later in the map in phases. Yeah, certainly
Well, I mean hopefully we don't see a cave just trying to you know go for a hatch here
You know maybe move away from that like that more traditional stuff getting the one mile getting the asami out
Could you imagine playing back in our day if a zombie was the thing if one mile was to the level here now?
I mean it would be absolutely insane. So like I said already one mile off the board makes perfect sense
Yep, one mile off the board and I do expect out of zombie again. We don't need to get rid of electricity on this map
It's really not that big of a deal and they don't think so either
So those are the traditional bands that we're always gonna be seeing the I will say the ace up on a bands are interesting
That's gonna be interesting mainly for like the trophy site when you're gonna doing a master take
You now have to go inside of master using hard breach charges using thermite
You can definitely die to a little bit more see from both the top floor site any one of those
So I actually like that. I wonder if that will become that all right and maybe chop up our rebellion back to villa
We go goes zen X all you
Hey excited to head back to villa for this one and excited for this match in general because we actually got to cost that match
shop by rebellion, CAG, the esports walk up and look, you can find the negative approach
around shop by rebellion. We walked away from that. Clearly being from APAC just excited
about CAG finally putting it together on the international stage and they had a good
tournament. You know, CAG, I'm not a bad team by any stretch of the imagination. For
M80 though, I agree wholeheartedly with the consensus on the desk that when you
go back and look at who they had to play, they got the best of one against Falcons
and then a BESA3 against Liquid which went to back-to-back OTs.
Yeah, they technically got grouped, but like those are some difficult matches and they only had to, like...
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I'm hoping that this will be a competitive matchup.
And also, I'm just interested to kind of observe the differences in the approach of this map comparatively to the first matchup
that we of course had this evening.
Shopify will kick things off on the defensive side.
M80 on the attack, looking to go super in for Heavy immediately off the rip.
I think it's going to be pretty expected going forward that both of my and his army are going to be the most popular events.
And that will facilitate, of course, allowing a bit more information on the board where available.
And with Shuffle Fire Electing to go double hard bridge, it absolutely makes sense to go for that combo, plus the Grim as well.
We'll see how influential that ends up being as well as I fear will potentially enable a triple impact play from below
But as you can see from the defense, it's a 3-2 split currently and be served will situate themselves on the first floor underneath
the objective with Canadian rex and and split on site
Nice work early there from the views of the shock drain onto the mirror to compromise the surf's position
Yeah, I don't know, it was a short lived DWC for M80, but don't forget Ashen was the
number one rated player in NAL Stage 1, probably didn't have the influence he would have liked
to have had at the Esports World Cup.
You could make the case though that would probably be applied for the whole team.
Halfway through this opening round, Ashen is on the move, over towards 90.
Maybe he had a game to cross the side and be playing alone inside a piano
Maybe has
Of course already been labeled tonight by the boys in the couch at the drop 20. Well, there's one
Immediately time of the claymore, but at least got that opening kill rats are able to then follow up against average
And a shot from spoilt, but then ties to the fraculate of Gavin minute left 3v2
So Kai indexed to be targeted, we'll see if that's enough to help propel their matey
back into the round.
Defuser holds the cutoff, awkward timing, lodges the nitro, it's way too small that
they're separating these two attackers and no defuser.
Yeah gets a bad spot
And so as the flank on the fuser
Strong defensive hold from Shopify rebellion in the opening round in heavy-aider games
and be with the
Opening kill against gunner a little bit of a scrap just around the site
The defense able to prevail
You know, something that may develop into a little bit of a scrap between these two, depending
how they play.
Of course, there's probably going to be limited visibility in terms of how specifically they
want to play this map, and so that's going to probably lean itself into the team that's
a bit more comfortable with making some heads-up decisions and being able to play on the
fly, and then take more team-wide than being able to adapt quickly over the course
of each respective hull.
It should lead itself into being a good game, but it's shot 5 rebellion up the valley as
they jump across to the stat side, stat trophy, up next on the second floor.
They're going to lead heavily into the mirror, it seems, this hull bringing it again here
in the second ground to aid expansion horizontally.
I think the vert element though is going to be the most interesting note from the side of M80 across at the lineup, it's in a similar vein to the previous round.
Gunner, again, triple impact.
Ashen Solisnake will be lurked throughout. They do drop the Demos though going into this particular round.
And that may be off the back of the castle, introduced here from Shopify Rebellion. The Kali, of course, a great tool in dealing with that.
to have a good stage qualified for a Saka. Both will be in that conversation, need to
be in that conversation. It's just outside-bedroom, spots the window of
Canadian. You just do it so much utility by yourself even if you ruin your own match for
the clearance here from the Kali. Successfully dealing with the triple wall mirror.
So a good positive start and the meantime gun has been able to work
work into a potential playmaking position. As well, we'll continue to be a threat as
he links up study side.
Kanna's going to be reliant on Ashen and or Defuser to get the Intel, get the Pings and
then play off that looking later on maybe for a triple impact although he does make
his way up top main stairs.
I thought maybe that was going to be it. A tactic employed for M80 in this round,
Trying to get Gunner on this first floor in Patrick.
Well, Gavin's found a double kill on the both.
Boy, Anne Rexon, Savage 2, was able to get rid of Ambien just like that.
In the blink of an eye, M80 have got a three-player advantage.
And then when he get moving quickly,
Microsoft easily shot out in the air and Hansef will get his head completely ripped off.
Canadian by himself.
Wondering what happened to the rest of his team.
Flawless from M80.
Didn't get to see a lot of it in that round, but they had to set up.
They had multiple different avenues into the attack of that round.
And I think that's where they get a lot of success from.
It wasn't one-dimensional.
They had players moving around the building.
They had some players outside.
Good cutoff positions.
I mean, that was a well-worked round.
Took their time, got rewarded.
Yep, so, I mean, we had our sights set on the...
Ashen gonna link up for the Barclayer on the surf,
and ultimately we got to see...
That hard work pay-offs have got caught, but also on the opposing side of the map, the
defense capitulated of course great work early there in terms of U-Tool clearance, the Carly
was hyper-effective from Savage dealing with the Castle mirror and Aruny all in one, so
a bit of a triple threat in that particular round and laid down the groundwork for the
rest of the attack to make good work of that.
Finally, we go back down to basement because we saw it earlier today, but the first appearance
in this particular matchup, again the mirror in play quite powerful on this particular objective.
And the absence of hard breach on this site in particular will be a little bit more notable.
Of course, Thermite is available and to be played into, but...
title on the flip side is going to of course pump the thatcher so I mean the
bands you're going to funnel the round in a more favorable fashion I think on
paper for Shopify rebellion we'll see how M80 will to approach and just want to
know as well since we're into our third game of the day and with Savage getting
on to the Montaigne first shield play that we see from M80 nor is out of
Quarantine, but so far has not been selected today
Also hasn't been banned notably as well, so probably not expecting any super influential this stage
I think that's the yeah key indicated not only if it's not being selected and it's not being banned
Don't think it's gonna see much play
I think the Monty switch up here for Savage is going to really help them in this basement
site to put a bit of horizontal pressure.
Not yourself throwing out, but it's not even remotely close from Mb.
We use the electricity tucked away in a safe position as they get on Durant halfway
way through this third round.
It is Ampy though, that does find the opening kill onto Ash and sneaking around on the solid
snake.
Another opening kill for Ampy, so it's been a bright start from him.
And he'll have the freedom now to be pretty expressive off-site.
Can now just be a little more aggro or of course can wait patiently for the push and
then go for the backstab, so it gets flooded.
Good push, he respawns from M80 and he's doubled down.
Nice, nice shots from the diffuser to keep this round alive for M80.
Savage taking a beating towards Garage.
Canadian has gaspates, this could be detrimental to Savage and both diffuser.
As they are low on health.
This point finds himself down at the moment inside of wine.
Revive the timing, oh my goodness, gets away.
That'll be still three up to Shopify Rebellion.
And they know exactly where Gunner is located. 30 seconds in a 3 vs 3.
Yeah, this boy is compromised. He knows he can't really swing into this position.
Waits for the F-nought, but that's not enough.
Yeah, it doesn't help him. Gunner had a clear sight once he made that swing.
Here comes the MP, though. The Trans-Salvage things for Shopify Rebellion.
Savage still low, needed to hit the pistol shot, could not, and now just Gunner.
Ganna, 8 seconds, time running out.
Can't fly Canadian, hiding towards wine.
And Ganna with no cap, no time,
shot in the back from Canadian.
At Shopify Rebellion, that will take the 2-1 lead
as we head into the bands.
Yes, I'll start to the round courtesy of Ambi,
caught the lurk thread of Ashen.
And ultimately, so they've got flooded,
DeFuse have found that nice double kill
and it started to see that sight hold crumbled
little bit spoilt as well. It's almost fortunate enough to be picked up and did absorb some time
then fell but unfortunately Tivity targets in the end kind of with a big responsibility to find
a multi in that round and you know just asking a little bit too much if in there were m80 because
we look back at the highlight package 5 vs 5 for a large portion of this round.
and Savage got good space on the multi to facilitate that play from Defuser, but ultimately
it was Ambi who rotated successfully back towards Scythe's accredited him and they're
losing his life back above and Canadian as well valuing his life, good smoke you till
as well throughout that round. They're draining the time away from the attack. As we enter
the second half it's the mirror to the band which was absolutely a main state played in every round
and largely due focus there in terms of the option of the attack
and then of course on the side all the defense chopper fire rebellion themselves taking away
the solid state which is as well was picked in all three rounds and that's just going to first
Spanner to work's terms of the blood potential for M80.
That should have been just...
...jump sword to the ash...
...instead of the solid snake.
They don't really change up the lineup too much...
...so the ash will replace the solid snake.
They still keep the grim...
...the Hemos...
...and the Zofia for a fourth round for the gunner.
Just think selection with the oryx for ambi, I mean he showed in the previous round, wants
to play a bit of roam, wants to move around the map.
I have yet a game for the fourth round but he's over towards stat.
I kind of like this approach to Shopify rebellion, I think it was earlier on in the night.
I can't remember if it was mitten or lax in terms of this sort of like 4-1 split
on the defense.
I should know, I think it was on the attack actually, but it's similar in vein
for Shopify Rebellion in this round.
Ambi, though, is just getting pampered with utility.
So they're glued onto his positioning pretty quickly.
Shopify Rebellion, though, will keep more bodies towards the site
and allow Ambi to kind of do his thing as a solo Roma.
But now, Lauren Halt will need to be very cautious.
He goes basement on the lurk.
They have cleared out the stat zone with that.
M80 can play the sweep across here on the top floor.
It's a parry game in play from Ashen as he has a cutoff position potentially here on to surf.
He has supportive info, courtesy of the Yokai's and across the Stublish with a spuit on Red Stairs.
Not yourself ripped. That will keep Ashen at bay momentarily. Information available, Ashen with a small opportunity.
Surf though able to rotate out successfully.
M80 formulating for Brownstay's push.
I wonder if they can get gunner involved this time, but I mean he's already used triple impact.
This boy finds the opening pick on to Ashton and he was doing a decent job out of the rappel.
Ambi actually makes his way quickly up second floor, the power of the oryx.
He was on the move and again, like the previous round, found the kill.
Raxen defending really nicely.
Well this attack has been very quickly snuffed out by Shopify Rebellion.
88 of games proving to be difficult for MAD.
They're savaged by himself in the 1 vs 5.
They never looked likely in this round
They got really stalled out they couldn't get the early kill on to ambi that allowed him to escape down basement
Made his way back up got a kill couldn't get up main stairs courtesy of rexman and happy to finish it
It's been a really strong start from him and a strong start from his team 3-1 lead for Shopify rebellion
You know the vibe's certainly good in the
Shopify camp at the moment ambi
The thorn in the side of these attacking efforts so far has been really tricky to contain on the entry
They made a sense in that this match can spiral if they aren't able to
Wrangle back some control so they'll call their attack time out score line
3-1 in favor of Shopify rebellion and be
leaving the charge 6-2 and
And a plus two on entry
Then resulted in a bit of a stall out with the stack over towards brown stairs that the follow-up
Was lacking there from the attack. I don't think we've seen the Zofia probably maybe be quite as effective as that
But liked outside of the the surf clear having comboed with it around. Yeah, the combo's been
In tricky
We'll see if that's something they look to adjust going forward as we look back at that previous round it's Ambicam
roaming around on the Oryx.
He's been hitting some nice timings
and then also being able to influence
later in rounds as well.
Here is the Oryx jump on full display, caught a great timing on two diffuser.
Left M80 scrambling
and we go back to Trevisat. This was successful
last time out for M80 so they'll be looking to replicate that. They
Cleared the U-Till on bedroom side really really effectively then had a two-pronged attack
To help deal with surf on the opposing side of the map as well like all the pieces move really quite smoothly for them last time
And so if they could do the same here
Interestingly it was the Carly that largely facilitated that last time into the castle
Rooting and at the time near a combat with the mirror now banged out. They'll flex a little bit here and they'll change it up
We see the Skopos in this round from Surf, that's the main change-up in terms of the
lighting composition of course with the mirror band away, they'll bring the smoke, they drop
the mute.
Oh the Skopos, I wonder how aggressive Surf will be with the shells, how much of a licensee
he will have to sort of roam around.
It sure probably ends bar here but instead of like last round where he plays alive
So he gets a second life back on the objective with the Shult change. So I actually quite like this adaptation
All is back on this flight last time from M80
But I'm jumping off the safety or as well it was played four rounds straight
So some little changes for an M80 off the back of that TAC Fabian of course having a
word to them and maybe just pulling some adjustments based on a
lack of success in some of these previous rounds
I do like the Dockabee selection, I was thinking we haven't seen the Dockabee at all from MAD, so far in this half.
And certainly, at times I've been able to get some good damage into Shop of Fire Valley and the Dragon Payloads, can add even more
sort of inadvertent pressure with those calls if they are on this counter.
We'll keep set for that.
Yeah.
Pettambi again.
That's his third opening kill of this game, and Surf is not kept at bay.
Pines ahead, a gun and defuse, it goes down on the wallbang.
Well at the half way mark of this round, Shopify Rebellion had a wonderful start, I say had now because it's suddenly 3 vs 3.
If user is still down, Shopify Rebellion may not fully know that.
This could still be a revivable attacker and it seems like he will be.
Yeah, absolutely. It's an interesting round state.
Now, Abby though with full Belch of Util and double Razor Bloom for spoits,
so the defense still has really, really strong Util that they can layer later in the round
if he's as low as they can, so he's incredibly susceptible to that.
This will require some good problem solving from N80.
Time not a major concern.
They can split this attack and Ash and Will head Bedroom side 40 seconds on the clock.
To have double Flash and the Quad, a Quad-Hive launcher
We'll be pivotal in getting some extra intel.
Ashton now laying out some of these big canisters.
This point has now placed those razor-blum shells. One gaspade remaining for Ambi.
Gavin's got the kit.
Now, time running low. Ashton is just going to be forced to run a gun.
Almost got the kill onto Ambi. Finds the foot sticking out.
out pulls out the bailiff with seven seconds left. Rexon and Spoight in the best position
to still win this round for the Rebellion. Gavin planting defuser on one HP, slow to move though
and allowed that plant but Spoight hits the immediate swing and Gavin is already down.
I don't think they know it. Reloading. Well now they do. Now it's confirmed and Shopify
Rebellion made it 4-1. That was a little funny at the end. Well deserved. Go off to a
good start and they've gotten off to a very good game of Villa even out of the
tactical timeout for M80 they are still unsuccessful and it's a pretty big lead
that has developed for Shopify rebellion yes the desk was kind of framing as
well they can be very mood-based you know slash momentum vibe kind of team and
well at the moment that's really at high that they're looking good across
multiple facets and must take it a little bit
dicey towards the end.
So I've got wallbangs, courtesy of Ashton.
I guess in some ways it was a bit of a payback
for the double wallbang that he was able to find
through that particular round.
And was Ashton from that 90 window position.
He then went on for a bit of a rampage.
But that was put to bed by Spoy.
Had a great round, great positioning from him.
Got a good timing as well.
He put him on a prefire swing.
He didn't even know he hit it.
No.
Now it's entering dangerous territory for M80. This round is feeling very critical.
For reference, we've only seen the one villas so far played before this in NIL's stage.
it falls in half to walk out on their defense and then they won the second half
with three attacking rounds to the one defense for DZ. Go ahead and get through
to the enemy nice and early, serve, unable to find anything on the run out.
That's a better start for MAD. It's their second opening kill of the half
of which the opening kills set a 100% conversion up to this point. We'll see
that's maintained by M80. Keeps Ambier Bay most critically who early around has been
devastating but then also his ability to typically then get back towards objective
and have influence has been quite a big determining factor in several of these
rounds so that's going to give M80 naturally now much more breathing room
which is one less annoyance to have to deal with over the course of this
particular attack of course that goes without saying plenty of threats still
available and the defense to now restructure themselves with the 2-2
split I'll get the nitrace on this first floor for the counter and then rex it
and surf to be a little more proactive a little more aggressive up above now that
may actually leave them pretty susceptible though to the basement room and
lurk but Ash and Savage posturing there currently I think Canadian Navy
sensing that will now turn off the support to Raxson who gets back towards the objective.
Leaving just to surf above and with Canadian on the pulse he'll start to get a read on this
basement lurk.
Flashing to bathroom seems like they've got a read on surf. Savage has found a double in
towards dining. We'll still at least be a good way to close the half for M80 and just
breathe a bit of hope back into this match for them. Just on this point it doesn't matter at this
point. Denies the flawless but much better from M80 to close out the half. So another two-four split
like our first match of the day and it is in favour though of Shopify Rebellion. Let's
Let's see what the second half has to say.
Well, much like our first match of the day,
with one notable difference, we're
seeing quite a bit of differences
on the defensive side compared to what Wildcard brought.
SR showing us another way of how to play Villa.
Yeah, exactly.
We asked Spiker earlier in the interview,
our team's going to play aggressive on Villa.
Like you guys, you said every team has their style,
which makes a lot of sense.
And we're already seeing it.
I love what I'm seeing out of SR on their defenses.
And this makes a lot of sense.
I mean, Troy or Canadian used to be
One of the best ability teams back in the day back when he was on SSG
So this makes a lot of sense coming back into their mat pull
But they're making it very difficult for M8 to kind of get any pickscaling
We're playing a lot of bunkers we see Mira getting used the first three times
And then they ban the Mira out and then what does Troy hop on one of his patented operators?
Which is going to be the echo and then the oryx play this is such an old-school play that we used to do back in the day
So the oryx I love and the fact that they're using it to get back to site crossing bunch of sightlines
They use the scope post to extend another round and here's that scope post
So if he can waste a bunch of time and then TP back like we're solving a lot of issues here with operators that we didn't have back in the day
But I love yeah, and I really like what you were saying about what SR was doing
Also when you look at the operator bands in general they got rid of the wall denial operator
So they were able to really I'm not walking out
But they were got rid of the operator that opened up the wall so they were able to bunker
They were able to play out to each other kind of force M80s hand
but we also took a look and listen in kind of on M80s comms and
They seem a little frustrated for sure
It seemed a little fingers were being pointed while some players were losing gunfights or weren't able to establish control
I think towards the end in that last round they kind of understood and maybe it was you know a blunder from rebellion getting a little aggressive
But they waited for rebellion in that last round to get aggressive overgress
Then get those picks swinging to their favorite because so far the opening kill engagements have not been going in M80s
Favor so hopefully once they can swap this size play this defensive half
Maybe they do the same thing bunker or they get aggressive similar to a wild card
which is maybe more what I'm expecting from an M80 and then start to get those
open to kill swing of the favorite and then peel back to those and attacking is
tough and Bill's probably going to be defensive side for the first time as
we're trying to figure out that map but what I'm surprised that M80 wasn't
doing a savages only on a shield I believe one time he was on the
montane in round three and that's typically not not what we're used to
seeing on savage he's going to be on the blitz or on the black beard that
he likes a lot so not seeing him use that when they were fully up I feel
like they weren't kind of adapting in that round either but as far as the
bands go exactly what we're always gonna see. I'm telling you guys the zombie
will my that is the key. They did get rid of the ace, but I would like to see
the ace of mine. I agree with you. I kind of like that. Yeah, I mean, I
definitely liked it. But again, I also like them getting rid of the
information, getting rid of that solid snake. I mean, again, it's another
small map. You can get a lot of information from that solid snake. So
it was a great band from SR to be able to get rid of it as well to be
able to turtle even more. So maybe we're gonna see more of a triple
setup just getting rid of that solid snake. That's gonna allow them to
kind of move around the map a little freely. And as you guys mentioned,
And this Tribal Firebellion team, when they're playing well, this is exactly how their line-up
is looking like.
Spoi.
Anthony at the top and playing well.
And to keep it up on the attack, though, we'll find out.
I'm not going to have long to wait to see.
I agree, though.
I think the sentiment is, naturally, whenever a new map comes in, starts out, defense,
teams figure it out.
And then we see where eventually lands probably under the end of the stage, maybe even into
the next.
So what M80 can do on their defense, I am expecting them to be quite strong defensively here on
Villa.
That's the hope for their sake at least.
But curious to see how Shopify Rebellion will also now play on the attack and intriguingly
a very fun looking lineup for this opening round of the second half.
Blitzray or a glass along with the Zofia for Ambi treat see what the overall
directions going to be
yeah a full stack study in terms of spawn as well so all signs pointing towards
this being some style of set plate here how fast will it be they from Shopify
Tracks to point.
U-Tills out for NB, then spoilt it now.
My whole smoke's just getting hot.
He in goes deep.
Yeah, they want to bring the pace here quickly into
88 of games and not allow M80 to feel comfortable.
He thought about the pistol instead, just calls it out.
It wasn't that yourself throwing into the mix
throwing gunner down below, but that doesn't have
an impact.
And suddenly Shopify are telling you,
well, they've got site control, they'll go for the plant
but they lose the opening battle.
Nicely done from Defuser to deal with NB.
with the MB, he's been a real issue.
And as Point falls though, on the glass,
they lose a big piece of the puzzle
for Shopify Rebellion.
Surf does get that kill,
but M80 been very quick to respond on the retake.
It's only Rexon that is up
and he's outside of the building.
Gets quickly into study,
but has many different angles
that he has to consider and gets overwhelmed.
Well, as quick as the plant was,
the retake was just as rapid.
Yeah, wow.
Good response there from MAD, he initially caught out, forced into the rotation, but
it crumbled pretty quickly. I mean it kind of first started with Canadian taking that space and elected not to take the fight.
That ended up being the right call.
They had the plant down in position to then be held from outside on the study bulk, but and we got isolated vault.
We saw racks on the repel Skull, I believe.
if he too was a little limited in the impact that he was able to have, members then fell
elsewhere. A little bit disappointing for Shopify, they'll be feeling as if they weren't rewarded.
Spoilt went for the flood. He got caught by shotgun that left Canadian exposed.
So they fell in the meantime. Like it just fell like a house of cards.
And that's going to be a big high build for N80 to fly back like that in the opening round.
We still get a 100% open kill conversion too, I mean I don't think that was the B end all
in that round, but it certainly helped when Defuse was able to get that first kill.
It's on to Ambi too, it's also back-to-back opening deaths for Ambi, and interestingly
then back-to-back, oh sorry, back-to-back round wins for M80, you can't put two and
two together and well it's not just the Ambi show when it comes to Job and Fire
He is a big piece of their success when they find it
So he's running rampant in the opening five rounds doing his pleases go seven and three and then shut down shut down
And they made it get this game back to a bit more of an equal footing three four defense looking quite solid here on bill
Oh, they will run Canadian on the blitz again
And I do like that pace from Shopify rebellion and considering they got the plant down
It just happened to be they never really got set in the post plan lost the glass lost a MB
and it quickly fell apart from there.
Surf's taken some very early damage,
30 seconds into this round.
M80 are looking active as well on the defense
as we go basement for round eight.
So the Twitch thatcher combo in play here for shopper five
the mirror kaig combo of their matey
hatch as well
the sport will play a part in dealing with this particular lineup
it seems as if they'll have their sights set on this
early U-Tool and as is evident on the drone of ruxen it's been
pretty successful early here from shopper fire rebellion I guess a follow up will now be
how much do they worry about above they want to get some vert control do they want to open up some of the part
things elsewhere. Oh, savage. That's big. It's Canadian down on the Blitz. A significant
wincon for being able to take space and clear some of these awkward positions surrounding
the objective.
Yeah, and surf low as well. You can't afford to then lose your Blitz. A good entry, open.
This suddenly now puts Shopify Rebellion into a bit of a stolen position at the minute
and 10 second mark off this round.
Oh, a small little opportunity there for Spoy.
The head was there physically for a short amount of time.
Wasn't expecting it, didn't shoot.
We head into the final minute
as they're made here looking for three straight rounds.
Remember, they were down 4-1.
Shopify Rebellion went all over them.
You can see how difficult this clear is
without the blitz to help confirm some of these positions.
It's a challenge, but Spoy did end up
finding a kill surf as well.
serve as well. Oh, another one as well. How quickly these rounds can flip. The views that
need this next kill. Feet spotted. Doesn't find it. Rexon the double is Shopify Rebellion
that take the round. Even after losing Canadian. Surf and Spoit combine. Got a couple of kills.
Rexon then finished the job and it's the first round of this entire match that the opening
was not converted. That's a big round loss for M80. Yeah, that was a bit of a
robbery effort there from them shopper fight, hence I think some right smiles
from them probably sensing that they got a little fortunate in that one. And
whilst we didn't quite see how those fights did play out through the mid-round,
we certainly captured this one. Savage catching Canadian. Great angle, great timing.
Oh, so it was an overpeak.
Oh, another one.
Well, I mean, at that point it was a 2 vs 4.
Yeah, that was really sharp from support.
I was really concerned for the attack's ability to get some space
and to maybe find a faithful fight without the blitz.
But that opportunity presented with the overpeak
and they made it a rightly punished.
So you're gonna snap charge into the right to round
True round advantage for Shopify rebellion and looking really
Pretty decent on their attacks a one once split so far in the second half
But the fact that they got the plant down in the seventh round looks really solid
Liking the attack operators that they're bringing this time they'll bring the capital
Now, Zerf will flex all of the daemons for the first time in his half.
I mean, from a perspective of M80, I mean, wouldn't he even ban away at this point?
So many different operators from Shopify and rebellion, flexing that off-ball.
It's a double down on that.
This is, Ambi has not played an operator twice at all in this entire game.
Yeah, that's pretty impressive. It's been very influential.
Especially early round as he gets kitchen control early in this round alongside surfdining.
I don't know though, the vert angle in response, they may be looking to try and catch one of these two off guard if they misstep in that transition in through sheets.
That's the team focused on the bedroom side clear. Canadian and his usual critical in this round alongside sploit with the range high bridge onto triple.
Oh, for a split second, I thought that was...
Yes, I did say it.
They just got a tap. It was actually ampy.
And on to Asher, they've really kept him quiet in this match.
4-7, the number one raided player in stage one.
And another open and kill for Shopify Rebellion.
Good point in the round. Just ticked over halfway.
Canadian stole 4 pups of utility on this capitol. Landscare now from Brexen.
One thing that Shot and Fire Rebellion have shown in this half though, they want to move quick.
They don't want that time to become a fact that Canadian can't quite find the kill though.
And Savage to double down. Defuse up. Gets involved too. 3 vs 2 in favour of M80.
But Savage low on health and Spoy catches the head of Gavin.
winnable for both teams in this nice round and critical for M80 to win it from here otherwise
Shopify Rebellion will deny them all three points as a possibility. It would be one or two and have to
need to then get three straight 40 seconds to decide this two versus two. Yeah good dream work
Shopify know of at least one triple. Savage of course is low one HP but does have nitro. We'll
Let's see if Shopify can problem-solve.
Oh, the problem is solved, because SPOIT is on a heater.
That's a 1HP Savage.
Has a Nitro, but it's SPOIT that wins the swing.
It's a big day from SPOIT, and from his team, they go 6-3 up.
And M8 is already called and used their tactical time-out.
They have to win three straight to 4-0-T.
Yeah, they sure do.
Shepha fire continue to play off good momentum.
In this match.
And many of course one, the best of one between these two back in stage one, but it's looking
like that may flip here in stage two additional bands to be introduced.
It's Deimos and Mirro, both of whom have seen pretty extensive play time.
You know, you pose the question in terms of from the M80 perspective
What do they try and take out here given that Shopify have worked very adaptable in terms of their
Operator pool, I think the day last is
Too poor of a selection most people just that's all occasion around nine
But can be highly influential with the bird opportunities that do present especially on these top
primers sites
They made it before them themselves back into this round pretty well just another slide over peak there and sports been capturing those opportunities
We sent a handful of those over the course of the map of his this big patient
He's been disciplined by position that he's converting opportunities
Yeah, 12 and 5 and it's turning into
Up to this point maybe one of the strongest performances we've seen from an individual today
The second multi-kill round of the match.
And I think that's what you really want.
I think it was Mint that said it on the desk.
If Ambient Sport had performed to this level,
that's the keys to success to Shopify Rebellion.
So back over to Aviator Games.
They're needing three straight.
It hasn't been an awful performance by them, I think it's just been a really solid performance
from SR.
And I think the Dokka B selection here, it's, it feels strange, it's the first time of
seeing Dokka B in this second half from SR, but it makes a lot of sense with the solid
snake and the Daemons band of weights and easy flex for surf to fall onto.
And he keeps his straight going now as he switches onto the ying for the first time
Yeah, it's gonna of course be a pretty contrast approach here from Shopify
Very direct last time they leverage the blitz this time bigger emphasis on map clear
But that's not going to completely nullify any pinch attempt here, I think Rexon will
once he plays his utility being in position to strike from the study balcony or get to
the ground stairs and link up with surf.
As the majority of the team will now get control astro side.
The utility dump from Ambi is going to be critical in this round, those candellas
can be a really effective tool.
Shopify though naturally will need to be mindful of defusing his location and giving
the warden is the perfect counter. Gav as well on the aga will offer some catch you chill.
They'll also need to be cautious on.
Ambi, Gav.
Oh, wow.
It's on.
It's on to Gav and it's the views of that.
That was also deal with spoits. I mean, this is now where the Shopify rebellion 3 versus
But you've lost, boy, and you've lost Ambi.
So, M80 in a really solid position now to close out this round.
Get it to 6-4.
They can surf.
Rexon.
Do enough to find some kills.
Or maybe even Canadian himself could get off that one.
Surf.
Pushes in, and Canadian will then follow.
How does Asher not get that kill on to surf?
That's a big blunder for M80.
and opens the front door now for SR.
Staffing is a late use smoke utility, but Wrexson is going to look for info here.
This is a key part of the Baron trying to identify where this defense is at,
or an entry hole at least.
In through study, that will allow more pressure through vault as well.
This is a good setup from Shopify.
They'll look to get Canadian in and try to force that plant down with coverage.
I just think they're not 100% sure where Staffing was.
Lovely tap from Staff Wrexson, then pushing and finding the kill.
And this ends up being rather one sided a 7-3 statement from Shopify rebellion that they still mean business
M80 I'm gonna have to bounce back tomorrow because that's a rough start to the stage
Yeah, rude awakening the M80 in this matchup, but I think that will fuel them and that will motivate them going forward
Absolutely well for Shopify rebellion. It's all smiles
Let's kill them!
Kill them!
What the hell is this?
Yeah, another one-sided affair on Villa as these teams try out the map reintroduced to
the pool. Well, we're seeing some pretty one sided results. Shopify Rebellion, they take
the win and we've got the man who went double digits in this series. We've got
SPOIT standing by, ready to go. SPOIT, congratulations on the win, my friend. A good one to start
the stage. Talk to me and I've kind of been asking everyone this, what your focus was
coming into the stage. We saw the coaching change rather than the addition of Phoenix
to the roster. What has he brought to the table and how has that shifted your
guys focus as they're going into the second half of the year.
Honestly, Phoenix, you know, started working with him since EWC, since after EWC and he's
been a great guy, like he's helping us with one-on-ones, helping us with like the team's
attitude and mentality and all that stuff, so happy with Phoenix and his addition in
the team and yeah, I'm just happy with the results today.
I think the team played great and you can keep pushing.
The team did look great.
Congratulations on your guys first win.
We'd love to see you guys get a dub on the board.
I want to ask you about the map pool change, because I know you guys are absolutely so sad
to see Consulate remove from the map.
What are your strongest maps?
What's your early thoughts on the build?
We're seeing it a lot already this stage.
Is it a welcome site to the pro players of getting kind of a new map update?
So Villa has not changed too much outside from when it last was played.
I've noticed a lot of teams have been taking a look at how Villa's played before
and they've been upgrading it with the current meta and the operators we have these days.
The new site is just basement, right?
And everything else pretty much played out the same.
You've just got to figure some small things out.
And I think we had a good blueprint today for Villa.
Yeah, you absolutely did.
I mean, obviously, I want to congratulate you.
You were clearly the MVP of this match.
A lot of opening engagements going into your favor
then helping the rest of the round play out.
I kind of want to talk about the comms.
We were listening in you guys sound a lot more just controlled a lot more
It's not as chaotic as it usually is especially in those late rounds
Is that something that Phoenix has also been playing a factor in as well as just making sure that these mid to late rounds are a lot cleaner and concise
I mean, I think that's always been like a thing for us to improve on like we've always had like when our comms get too crazy
like it's hard to understand the game run on the same page and it and and
How a competitive see just these days like everything has to be on the same page
Everyone's got to go together so you know if we get a load to antsy because we have very good initials in our team
But then you know mid to later on he's got it like tighten up a little bit and then yeah
Absolutely
All right boy. Thank you so much for your job. We'll let you go here. Thank you for well showing us what that's all might be capable of
This time around we look forward to seeing more of that
Thank you very much. See you guys soon. See you later, man
Well a job of firebellion they close things out quickly on villa as we said another chance to see this map and play
Showed us a little bit of a different defensive side than we saw from wild card
But kept that momentum up when they moved to the attack. Yeah, he's absolutely right
I mean the map has played very similarly. We've been talking about like oh, I actually remember this tank
You know if it's they're just kind of adding the different operators
We have Davos and different things like that now the scope was right here
I thought it was really a really cool idea because there was doing a tremendous job by the way
Yeah, exactly. So again, it doesn't surprise me at all. I'm loving I'm loving it
I'm loving that I'm able to recognize everything. I'm loving that. They're still updating it with with the new off
I love this basement site as well.
It actually went huge here too.
That was a great truck and job of him.
But yeah, just went massive in the comms as well,
like you're saying, like it was a master class.
Love to see SR winning.
I was gonna say, I think that was really the big factor
game changer for me when we listened to both the teams' comms.
I mean, you had SRs that was clearly clean and concise.
Everyone playing very well, everyone understanding the position
that they were in and how they can play the rest of the roundout,
whether attack or defense.
Whereas they may be, it definitely seemed a little more chaotic,
a little more frustration in their comms.
And I don't think that's something we're used to seeing from A-mini,
but obviously it's the beginning of the stage,
it's the beginning of the first match.
I have no doubt that they're going to right their wrongs going into tomorrow.
Well, the man we just spoke to, you mentioned MVP of that match.
If there was no question about that,
Spoyt playing incredibly well throughout,
and as we said, getting to double digits there towards the end.
I think 13 kills to his name by the end.
And so, SPOIT definitely capable.
We talk about this team as like having such star power all across the board,
but we've heard it from them all the time during interviews.
Troy has said this numerous times, when they are playing well,
it goes SPOIT, AMB, SURF, REX, and Canadians, usually in that order, right?
And so, last stage, EWC, we weren't seeing that.
Seeing that now, I think, is, I think, a good sign for them, cop.
Yeah, I mean, it is a good sign for them, but again, they're all capable.
They're all able to drop numbers when needed.
I mean, I'd even arguably say maybe Amby
just right above there.
But I mean, more than capable as well, he had a great game.
13 and 6, we've seen him dominate the NAL multiple times
being one of the top fraggers in the league as well.
I mean, it's not even just about going 13 and 6.
I mean, in round 5, round 9, he had big 3Ks,
big clutches in that round 9.
And then even in that round 8 in particular,
if you remember, in Wine Cellar,
he ends up getting that pick on a savage, which
essentially opens up the rest of that round.
Serf then gets a 2k I believe Rexon then follows up with another 2k
I mean Swayte was definitely doing a very good job getting these engagements going into his favor
But again, everyone else was playing very well regardless of Swayte being at the top of the charts
Everyone was putting in their same work and effort that they need to do to make this map and in a 7-3
Yeah, I think again, I was most impressed by their comps and we were having absolutely even when Troy was getting first pick
Contribute huge in the comps department that very last round. I think it was a surf or somebody called the Serf and Swayte
and spoil kind of communicating to each other,
telling Rexon to go to books right at the end,
then all we need to do,
and he's saying we just need to cover Troy,
like it's a complete team effort,
and they were solving problems together,
which we even heard from Super at the end,
like they kept solving the problems that they were
running into, and that's what I need to see from SNR.
That's what I was talking about the pregame.
They need to keep solving those problems.
Well, the problems that,
well, these two teams have been experienced
very different than the problems
that our next two teams have been experiencing.
Five fears and outlasts who ended up
on the absolute bottom of the standings in stage one.
They're looking to start things off
with a bit of a change to that rhythm right now.
And outlast lacks, they have changed things around
in a huge way.
We hinted at this at the top of the show.
The biggest roster move we've had arguably all year,
not one, not two, three new players,
longtime veterans of the game,
bringing them in to try to make a difference.
Yeah, I mean, it's a massive overhaul
and to get players like Iconic,
like Tyrant, like Joyce.
I mean, you just look at the accolades in comparison
to the left side.
Obviously, it's going to be a big difference,
anchor.
It's no slight to the guys on the left.
But this team needed experiences
because they didn't have it.
And Trevon Milley are now going
to be able to learn from these three players in particular.
And I think they really have a good lineup.
You have Tyron that's more of a supportive player.
If I'm not mistaken, I can't remember a little bit of a flex.
Iconic clearly can flex around.
And Joystick being that aggressive fragger
that he typically is.
I mean, you can definitely utilize this.
And I'm more so not expecting Millie and them to really,
you know, be the maker break of this team,
but what I really am expecting from them
is to learn from these guys,
which is only incoherently going to make them better
as a whole.
Yeah, exactly.
That was the whole reason
when I talked to Trev Mack for these roster changes.
It was they valued experience over everything.
They could have picked up other T2 rising stars,
but that's not what the team needed.
Their problem was they didn't know what to do.
They'd never been in the T1 leagues before,
even their staff, which they also upgraded as well on the on the back line and getting a little bit more experience back there.
So it's a complete team overhaul. I mean, I could talk on Tyron for a second since he's on our screen.
He used to be on M&M. I believe he was their main fragger at that time of M&M. We're going back with Nafe on the team.
Oh my God, Julia was their coach.
He was their flex. Right. And we were actually looking at him on DZ when we were making roster moves.
We were we were looking at Soliton and uses who were on that roster.
We couldn't get solid top and use this because they went to Falcon so we were looking at Tyron and Neyf and and at the time
Tyron did have a little bit of issues of work ethic that was kind of going around
But again, I've talked to the coaching staff all those problems put aside
He is a phenomenal fragger and he's more dialed. He's more motivated than ever. So I think it's a good pick up
I mean, we're talking about our last guys. I'm excited to watch this out
I mean, they definitely should be winning some games by but they should be far more competitive
I know I don't want to curse. I don't want to curse.
You have to win the game off here.
So that would be the first one they are able to secure.
Start with one and go from there.
You talk about motivation, though, and we know of all the teams in this league,
five feards have consistently been, I mean, at least vocal about just how motivated they are
and how much they want this to go from kickoff where they won the whole thing
and went to the major to stage one where things looked a little bit different.
This is when they're looking to prove, oh, we actually are that team that can finish in the top half.
Yeah, quite the fall from grace for NAO champions, right? And they're obviously sick of it. We can see that here.
I'm sure they love every time we bring up the kickoff champions, but I mean, you have to, right?
And it's the only time JJ finished first, so you got to hold on and I get it.
But if we take a look right here, what was actually the problem? And I've talked about this multiple times.
It wasn't the fact that it was their attack, right?
right? If you look at their attack, right? Yes, they were first place in kickoff, but
they were also only fourth in stage one. Now, what was the real problem was defense. They
went from the best defending team in kickoff to the very last defending team in kickoff.
And regardless, they also made a roster move. They brought on a new coach and I reached
out to JJ to kind of talk about that just a little bit and figure out why the change.
The main reason I'll clean it up. There was a and here it is
There's kitty from OXG is gonna be the move and they
Removed Phoenix and Archer who makes from the roster
It was just a little bit of a disagreement from the coaching staff and the players on how they wanted to play the game
I think the coaching staff wanted to go a different way
They wanted to play more default like the DZ the VP those kinds of teams
But that is not forest that is not these guys they want to crank they want to get on double shields
They want to do stuff that we're gonna be like why are they doing that?
But that's what brought on the success, not playing default.
I was gonna say that was the recipe for their success during kickoff is that they were kind of unpredictable.
You didn't know what to expect.
Yes, we were gonna have two different shield players, but it was because they played so differently
and then the rest of the team would be able to double off that and play with one another.
And it's, I'm glad that you mentioned that because when I spoke to JJ after Salt Lake City or during Salt Lake City,
my mistake, he was talking about he's uncomfortable because he's trying to play a more traditional role.
And I told him, I was like, sometimes don't fix something if it isn't broken.
Right.
what you are going to be comfortable with, especially if you're not finding success trying something new.
So it's good to, you know, be able to take the reins, understand we need to go back to our old style.
Hopefully it pays off. Well, clearly this is a team that like to bring out some of the fun, some of the unorthodox characters.
I love rocking with the hat there, but Kyle, I want to go back to this segment because I'm, I'm curious about this.
You mentioned that it was an intentional choice from Five Fears to change their coaching staff. Is that exactly how it went down?
I was always under the impression that oh maybe SR picked up Phoenix and then he ended up leaving their team
I think it was more of a mutual under if I'm getting this correctly. It was a combination
I believe Archer is now on a team called four angry men over in China and he's kind of getting that bag
And then Phoenix I believe it was kind of a mutual splish. It's like I said a disagreement
Which is gonna happen. We see that happen with players now happen with coping stick our coaching staff
Staff it's completely natural. Yeah, well these teams are both obviously looking to make quite a
bit of changes from their last stage performances.
This is where they can say, all right, day one, stage two,
are we going to be the team that's in the second half,
rather than the top half of this league?
Let's find out where we're going to end up going to
as far as the map is concerned.
We've seen a lot of innovation today,
a lot of changing it up and going to Villa,
and we want to go there again,
three Villas on opening day.
We already passed how many times
we played console at last stage,
so I'd say pretty sick.
right direction. Pretty successful from Ubisoft to whoever made the change. So you know, it's
all for that guy. But yeah, I look, I'm still not sick of Billy yet. I don't know if you guys are.
I can watch it. And I'll continue to watch it and enjoy it. And again, it makes sense to pull it
out in the beginning of the stage. Both these teams are trying to figure it out, trying to
figure out their map pool. So why not? And it's good to see, you know, the upper echelon, lower
echelon teams, you know, figure out these maps as well. Because again, a lot of teams watch
what other teams are doing. And sometimes even the lower tier teams can end up having a really
good strat that's taken or you know added upon for the rest of the time being but I mean I'm expecting
the bands to still be relatively the same but who knows maybe maybe someone's gonna throw a spanner
in the works. I'll tell you what too I mean Tyrant was on one of the best villa teams of M&M
back in his day in 2023 and Joystick as well VP were great villa uh enjoyers so let's see if we
see something out of them on this map but we're gonna see that as Omilax what do you think
we're gonna see. I'm pretty expected I I'd assume a willmai I mean as we have already said
with this will my change a very strong especially for a lot of the position that you can hold and from what we've
Already been seeing being able to turtle is only going to amplify that more if that will my is going to be up
And maybe you wall a wall operator open up these walls. I'm expecting maybe to go away as well and maybe not
Yep, okay. He's going away with my going away makes perfect sense
I'm assuming it's probably gonna be a similar setups to what we're seeing from every other team playing so far
We've got a crazy new look at this outlast team. Let's not forget
I mean they are looking so different so much potential here Kyle you offered this take earlier, and I want to talk to you about this
They have not won a game in the NAL just yet
And they have the opportunity to do that with such star power on this team iconic
joystick tyrant
Day one is the wind coming really fast put me on the spot, but I'm gonna say no
I don't think the wind's coming. I think it's gonna take a little bit to build to still
I'm sorry to be a hater, but can't wait to watch all right
We'll leave it at that and head into the game on Villa for the third time today
It is outlast a new look against five fears
Again guys the time for the day and the thing that we've seen so far in both of the two matches on the bill of Tina
start defense goes on to win the game. We'll see if that's going to work out for five years,
but excited for this one new look out last. Can this organization get their first win this year
in the North American League? Great to see iconic back. We've got the side fork in the server
and for five years, the kickoff champions second last in stage one. What do we get from them?
so much unknown in this matchup.
Yeah, I think that's the fairest way to frame it.
We really don't know what to expect in this game.
Five players will be looking to bounce back and out last.
Well, they look entirely different.
Bit of a mixed match for them.
And I'm excited to see if it can produce a result here
in playday one, but it can actually be an interpretation
as to whether or not that is a realistic goal for them.
They'll be more than likely looking to build up into the stage, but you never know.
As we go to Villa, of course, on that point,
there's several of those Outlast players who have a lot of experience in years gone by.
First site to be over towards Aviator.
And a pretty old school extension here from Five Fears.
Do you agree with the sentiment from Mint that might take a few games to jolt for this
outlast roster?
I mean that's the probably easy approach considering such a large change in return after some
time off for Iconic, Doristix, 4-8 into North American League.
I think if they can get off to a good start when a couple are attacking rounds it could
I give them some good confidence, but we've seen so far
defenses started really, really well in this map,
but it probably goes to the nature of new project,
new map in the pool, start defense, get off to a good start,
figure things out from the safest side.
And then as we've seen then in the second half,
you'll come to them on the attack.
It is tyrant though, that finds the opening kill
on to rival.
It starts so far from out last, taking good space,
they're cleared out the horizontal through stat trophy,
So finds the pick onto Millie, trap back, went the shotgun on the Ying after a condelope thrown, gets rid of Snake.
And an explosive 20 seconds or so from both teams, leaves us 3v3.
Yeah, at least 50 on the board, just basically having to take it in through 90.
That will be relayed courtesy of VPC, which is proving to be difficult to clear.
That's going to get a full live read on this push, which is being watched by a rival.
30 seconds now, still out vault side, still two gaspades for JJ.
It's iconic mix of all the iconic.
Opens up and can push in.
Gasping final one for JJ.
Has been used.
Good study control now for iconic.
Still 15 seconds, no more Candela's remaining.
There's essentially no utility remaining.
They'll be gunned off for everyone inside of the server, heading into bread time in the opening round.
Javmak will go for the plant side of Aviator. They've got a really good angle on the cross.
JJ dares to Tyrant. They know that Benz is inside a vault.
Successful plant. Benz gets one. Needs two more.
What's the play here though from Iconic and Javmak?
Do they just hold? They split between Stadi and Tot Red and Iconic hits the headshot.
What a return for him!
And what a start for Outlast and this new roster to attack and win the opening round
Yeah, absolutely clean across the board
able to convert that entry
Things got a little bit dicey compromised with 90 there the BPC up and had to draw out some of that smoke utility
But eventually once that had been achieved
Good plant position the coverage from iconic in particular was on point
And he was able to cut a marshal the troops there in the post and ensure that
It was very difficult for the retake to be a success.
I'll shut up there from Tyrant as well with equally good coverage.
Now that's got to be a good feeling to win your first round as a team in an official.
Five fears to respond over to a second foresight.
Or a second second foresight.
I'll start trophying.
We spent a lot of time with iconic of course in Paris where the esports walk up and he
was very much excited and itching to get back into the servo, didn't waste any time and
double kill in the opening round and it was his rotation, the main stairs that really
They gave the avenue for Outlast.
Be able to win that round, establish the cross, got the plant.
Starting shot down.
It's that trophy's second round.
Jack Knight will go on to the glass.
They bring also a joystick on the car.
He's a double sniper in this second round for Outlast.
And the two other villas that we saw earlier today,
defense started really really strong.
Four-two halves in both of those matches.
So if I asked to win the opening round on the attack, is there a good platform to follow through from?
I'm liking this early aggression outside of bedroom.
You know, so how they look about getting trapped in that king to play here on that glass.
What kind of influence that might have. They have a lot of YouTube-level potential though,
Before worrying about that, there could be
Kali and the Flores combination, perfect pick into the castle set up here from the defense
It's looking like a pretty consolidated attack at the moment, big emphasis on this bedroom side
Yeah, yep, to be seen if the attack is to be split in a different direction
Maybe something like a linked up asteriside for instance could be a play or
or maybe up main.
As long as this round draws on,
and 5K is not having contact study sites,
you can see that immediately rotating preparation
for this push.
Still got four smokes available as well for Trev
to play off all the glass.
I mean the one that I just saw now left as well from Snake.
So if Atlas can layer these smokes, push off,
the trap can find a couple of kills on the glass.
That's gonna be a really good avenue.
It's Joystick though on the Carly,
to find the open kill on the fence,
nitrocell thrown from Snake,
damage onto Millie, but that's all it is.
You know that you two left now for the defense,
but one charisma mine for Rival,
as Tyrant will go for the plant and slide a stat.
Has been pushed off temporarily,
but then straight back on, although finished by JJ.
But Joystick has got all the angles covered on this Carly. The Carly class
combos worked really nicely. Four outlasts and Iconic is just itching to get
into the action. Shutdown though with a double kill from Forrest and then finds
the headshot onto Joystick. It's been all outlasts up until this moment but it
will end still without last. A little moment from Forrest to just make it
Interesting came down to a one versus one, but it's a two-nothing start for outlast on the attack
Yeah, look fair play to forest. He made a real good shot of that
Almost able to win it out
But not quite winning the SMG jewel there right at the very end of the round credit to trevmak and retaining life
And then being able to hit that shot
Yeah, I love little combo there from outlasted initially taking space courtesy of the glass
and that complimented the U2 clearance that they then have but Jurassic as well
laying with the double sniper and just the sheer amount of angles and range that they
had on off without get that plant down was pretty impressive ultimately it was
disrupted though right here. Great work from Forest. Oh but Trevor, my god. I don't want to say lucky it was
certainly skill but pretty fortunate headshot there to be able to win out
that round for Outlast. You now have their sights set on a clean first
rotation if they can go across the kitchen. Interestingly, five fears are
lifting and not to go down to Basement in these first three rounds.
Yeah, Basement looks pretty good for defense in the earlier matches too.
Ah, the big change up for Outlast in terms of their attacking lineup. Of course,
different sites but really showcasing that they've got strategies for all of
these sites they seem well-prepared. I'll bring ascends play this time and
interestingly Trav goes on to the fuse. What a start though for iconic four
kills in the opening two rounds. They give you five beers here. A little
Discipline is so far with your defense giving up these opening picks
It's causing this kind of scramble towards the side
Outlast are just really set up in solid positions to then capitalize
Wouldn't mind seeing five fears
Let me look at a little bit more active inside of the server earlier or but as they try to do that through forest
It's Millie
I think it's a lovely headshot another opening kill for our loss
They'll make it three straight on the entry battle here on Villa
They've also taken a lot of space on the horizontal in the meantime, they could be around towards the side here pity direct from Tyron
JJ nitrous cell he doesn't quite get the time to pop it lovely pinch with the fuse Tyra got the kill snake at least
shut him down
The two on this top floor and then fends in basement the site is incredibly
vulnerable. The fence then catching iconic who's wondering why are you even
there. Plant now from trap back they've got the idea site is open but it's this
vert. The five fears will play into to try and win them this third round. The
million joystick are gonna have to pivot and adapt they've got a minute
to overcome this disadvantage. Yeah the solo stuff above is threatening and
They have the horizontal cover courtesy of the Nomad but this vert pressure hasn't been dealt
with particularly well by Outlast.
They tried to shortcut it and clearly it's now exposing them.
Another plant attempt.
This one might be good.
Do a stick it.
They had to cover.
Can he quickly play off it?
He couldn't quite fully connect.
Got the down.
The rival was sharp.
I wonder if they're even going to be able to get his revive on the fence.
Probably not, which means if Millie can find this next kill quickly, no they will get the revive.
If Millie in the right position towards Kitchen gets tagged up, has to be ready for the right side, wasn't quiet, and five fears will finally get their first round.
Yeah, they will get a really good effort there in being able to maintain divert control.
The initial plantanar was absolutely on point from Trev.
And while you could make an argument that the plant going down despite the soil still
being above us, maybe a slight misplait didn't really matter given they had that strong man
advantage at the end.
I thought that again though with the Nomad in position, we saw the AirJab sheets, that
that could have been definitely a compromising factor for them in the round, but nonetheless
they were able to get the job done.
Outlast will.
So that'd be a little bit disappointing.
This boy did probably sense that they could have had that clean first rotation on the attack
and that would have given them a huge boost, but nonetheless, the opposition maintained
touching distance as we FAAVG, but back at that previous round, first pick, went the
way of outlast.
Iconic then got caught in his rotation down below.
Sorry, it was rival onto Trevmak for that length and arm.
The views are collecting, we're back on the ground. Key moment right here in the round,
joystick button, the town immediately died. Still don't even in a two versus one. It probably
was going to be pretty favorable there, four or five years to go on to convert.
So I was just having a look back without last off to a pretty decent start to one up. Now,
as we know, North America League this year, no wins. So I was like, well, when was the last
time the organization actually got a win. And it hits a little close to home, Gus. For those unfamiliar
Outlast as an organization was actually representing in the Oceanic League last year,
in 2025, and that is when they got their last win. October 2nd, 2025, it was against Man E-Sports LFO.
They then lost the Chiefs. And ever since then, they have as an org not been able to find
a win. But I have a feeling here that they're right in this game. 2-1 lead. Good response
from 5v1s but outlasted looks really really solid with this new look roster. Brent the
Braor just started to trap me. They've actually shown some really good ideas in the attacking
half here on Villa. That's actually most notable for me is they're not kind of
coming into this plane default they look like they've actually got some really
solid plans as to what they want to do
it's a back over to AVG, AV80 games, now a fourth round and this time we see the
mirror employed for five years for the first time
well the chev's the one with the fuser outside and studied balcony you can use that to cut off
stairs to his left and that opens up right through study for sight just not
pressuring that or at least draw attention the rest of the team pushes
elsewhere that was like coming on to snake right also at our pills yeah the
entry has been really positive from out last I see how they now look to
converge on to the site peel down from rifle has been really good yeah
they're not messing around.
Even though it's a 2 vs 3, Philip's position needing to be cleared and doubles Dive for
Cell still available for 5 beers, but Iconic is on an absolute warpath.
Benz rips the Nitro, explodes it a little late and gets no value from it, and Tyrant
now feels safe enough to go for the plant with the cover.
This is a common spot and Milly's not going to allow him how to vault.
say another round for Outlast, they go 3-1 up, 3 attacking rounds as well, they're looking
mighty sharp with this new look roster.
I can't even look at cool karma collected, it's another day of the office, picking him
upon his return, highly influential so far, 5-fair sensing that the rest of this half
is really important, already up to 3 attacking rounds wins for Outlast, that in itself
is an uncomfortable prospect now that they are facing so an opportunity to try and reset here and
maximize value on defense. Got to find a way to better shut down the entry play though from
outlast it's been really strong and then it's also the follow-up I mean sure back in round three
I kind of gets caught in his rotation and a couple of things when I stray in terms of
of the Vert contest but in every other round essentially the ability for them to then transition
pretty quickly into taking map control and setting up for the execute and having good
executes in themselves in terms of the structure etc and the tempo it's been really impressive
they don't honestly they're not at the moment playing like a team that is so newly formed
They look quite well drilled, which I'm impressed by.
Timeout expires.
My fears need a quick response now.
Two rounds to go in this half, and they're on the back foot.
There's been some decent moments from Forrest in pens.
But our last have controlled this game.
Now, four straight opening kills, they've gotten planted down twice.
They were going to get it in that round as well.
And the 7 and 2 star on the iconic will...
Will him with individual confidence that...
He very much can still play at the highest level.
And apparently, he's dominating. Outlast level is really solid.
But to put himself down in a position where...
Look, you gotta kinda go all the way now though, the way he's played his first four rounds.
rounds that trophy round number five what five years do you have to attack time
now
and we'll see just the carly this time around from out last not doubling down
alongside the glass but just that carly
the south is going to be super powerful into the castle the mirror is of course
still available but not selected by the defense in this round the additional
bands where the snake and the solace solace will be certainly tricky if we go
back down kitchen as JJ aggressors and finds the first if that's off the
board that brings the double night show well and truly now into play for the
defense at the big pit and a good tester for outlasts who will now be
playing but a disadvantage on the entry for the first time on this map. Yeah, I think that's the
key takeaway. First opening kill for five fears, so just relieves a bit of pressure. Outlast the set
also now needs to navigate a situation. They haven't really been in down a player early. They don't
have the Thatcher, how much of that's part of their plans, the way they want to attack this site
and still double Microsoft as well. So that maybe has more impact later in the round for
fans and snake and we stick down on the carly
but much better response from fire fears
to stick we'll get brought back up
not a pellet call
from trev mack on to JJ in bathroom he may just like to eat his call especially
the flash coming his way no choice now on the matter
they do gain entry clear out
the bathroom position Astro held by JJ though still
and alongside Boris pushing up back stairs.
Therefore goes for the swing.
I'm confident to do so.
And hit the shot onto Iconic,
and the round is flawless for five beers.
The second round acquired, close first half.
But that round was the most dominant round
we've seen from either team up until this point.
Yeah, absolutely.
They looked comfortable playing with the advantage
their outlast forced into making some heroic efforts in that particular round to try and
isolate a defender and unfortunately that opportunity didn't really present it so I
could have 2, 5 fears to do the back at that round, it was of course tied into full first
they lose that defence offered a little bit more freedom then to get active around the
map and none of the players that the attack tried to execute upon whether it be like
the bathroom here for instance really paint dividends and so we won't see basement at all in this
first half even despite that solo span firefizz we'll like to go back towards kitchen they
played heavy there last time so if we're to buy that solo scene for that it could gather
and Atlas can contest them up above all that much we'll see if there's something different
in stall for this final round over half will Atlas go above and put a flash I mean I
I sort of refused he's there for a second. I thought that would maybe be indicative.
They also were thinking about the Monty initially, but switched off that as well.
Brother is in play looking to stall that sort of util here from
the defense, particularly with defaults as well.
So it could be some interesting ideas from Outlast as well.
definitely will be capable of taking away a lot of the Malusi and the Belgris
in this round and a Mute Jammer. This has been some really good work from Joystick
on the Brava. ModStrone has been very successful in the opening 40 seconds.
It's hard to get a real read on this game though, especially with what we've
seen so far on Villa today. This one playing a little differently, a bit more
a fast start from the attacking team the first two games was all about defense in the first half
naturally was always going to be a bit of an unknown coming into this game in general because of
the new look outlast roster but they've looked pretty good up to this point can they take a
commanding lead back to the opening kill game for them courtesy of joystick rivals look solid
though for five beers he gets the immediate trade luckily though for outlast guys they've
already gotten quite a lot from the Clutch Rounds of Joystick.
Yeah, absolutely. Utility and the balance, like honey-cooking for a reed.
Through hamstring into bathroom, has a cut off on the rappel, almost got the timing.
JJ responds with the Nitro. Good nitro cell on to Millie,
offsetting that opening kill, and now with the player advantage heading into the final minute.
He's on the move towards back stairs. Tyrant sweeps across, doesn't find anything initially here inside a dining.
And this trap map that goes down to the shotgun of JJ.
Tyrant couldn't get a response and I can't, well he does win his one versus one against Benz. He takes a beating.
And this is a difficult kit to collect, but nicely done from Tyrant.
frag grenade walks up grabs it looks to track back over towards sheets doesn't
spawn anything and now thinks this might be the spot to go for the plant with the
ROUs up iconic watching to see where the move will come from and while he does get
the double one versus one iconic goes nuts what a close to the half Dave is
back baby that's a huge triple kill and our last will take a four to two lead
North America and it looks good listen. I know he said Batman, but that's LeBronik right there in that round particularly and throughout that half
That's what I was gonna say too
Iconic or is that LeBronik for a second because my god is he back?
I mean it can we just can we just start watching some of those clips again because this
We have to highlight iconic I mean we gotta highlight all three of them
And I know we want to talk about like this new outlast team is impressive to watch right now like
Everybody is firing all cylinders. We're hearing the comms. We're hearing them work together, which we haven't heard before but most importantly
I mean I kind of this was a massive kill in a 3v3
That we he was able to get that kill coming up late stairs if he doesn't get that kill
They lose the round and that was what they were missing an expected type of player like iconic hitting on the flank right here coming
of loose stairs or making something happy going through the wall.
Like, again, this is something that Hellhouse has just not had,
and I would not have expected this.
I watched a little bit of Iconic back on the news on DZ Academy.
It wasn't this impressive.
I'm so glad you mentioned this, because obviously, as former players,
you know, you play against these players,
you never really understand who they are as a person in-game.
But to actually be able to listen in in terms of what Iconic is bringing to the table,
I mean, not only is he vocal, not only can he shoot,
but he's so good at finding the gaps.
I mean you wouldn't literally hear him in so many situations like do this pull their attention away
Then I can go for this and then all of a sudden he's getting a 2k he's getting a 3k
I mean even in that last round I mean we didn't get here because we were sitting over here
But he is so good at reading the game
And this is never an iconic that I've seen before in my life because I've been going against him
So it is really nice to be able to actually hear everything and see everything unfold and nice to see this
Working at least right now with him playing well like absolute the community discourse has largely been and I'll
paraphrase here. Is this going to be a good team or are they just a bunch of
watched unks right that's the question people been asking and right now the
answer has been well look at iconic like this is going well yeah the only thing
I want to say let's not get ahead of ourselves I would say we do make it sound
like they just won the game like it's only half five years was the worst
defensive team in the league and right now I'm not seeing any upgrades which is
what I'm worried about if I'm a five fierce fan they do get to go on
attack let's see if they get back to cranking with the double shields
Let's get forced activated a little bit but again. Let's let's calm the expectations down just a little bit
Although I'm just as hype as everybody. I mean, I'm a sucker for some good play absolutely
But that is also what I'm curious is obviously we heard that they were trying to do something more traditional didn't work
So they made their changes now they want to go back to something. That's more familiar
Is it going to work though?
Especially when you use so much of your time
Try and to try something different to then try to go back where I could easily see you stumbling your way to find
in that rhythm once again.
Yeah, I mean, one quick note.
This is probably the first time I've seen a zombie not there.
We actually get the Mira Band coming out instead.
So I'm really curious, because there's
some very good zombie kibos that you can use around
the aviator room that I believe Mr. Joystick kind of invented
back on VP.
So I'm really curious when we get up there to that statue
or that game's aviator if we're
going to see it come out.
Well, you also mentioned five fears.
Defense has not been there strong to.
When they make the difference in these games,
it happens on the attack.
We'll see if it can happen on the attack in this second half.
It's gonna be required, apparently,
because Outlast were sensational in the first half,
but agree with me, you know,
let's kind of temper things a little bit
because it's just the game of two halves.
But as we saw in the first two games of Villa,
it was a four-two-half,
and the team that got that four-two-half
went on to win the game.
Those were on the defense,
I must have done a lot on the attack.
I like the fact that Treadmax has actually gone straight onto the clash.
They allow the shields through.
They don't go with those as the bands.
But then expecting probably some shield play, bringing the clash.
Five beers initially had JJ on the black bit.
He switches off.
We go onto the Capitao instead.
They'll bring Forest onto the clash.
And then Paul smokes available along with the Capitao to help facilitate that.
But yeah, I mean obviously for some fly fears, they were the worst defensive team back in stage one their attack was actually top four raider
So something to keep in mind
Yeah, absolutely basement actually funnily enough here for the seventh round
It's first appearance as five years elected not to go to the new objective at all back in that first half
So a hopper approach here from the attack, some presence above on the second floor.
Other moving pieces are a little more direct, but Forrest now actually likes to rotate.
At last then give it a bit of space defensively, or at least joystick in particular to find
a roam game first floor, as the rest of the unit will play into a basement.
is cut off at least from red at the moment. So we'll see what the game plan is for him
but then gets caught out elsewhere. That could work from 5 years of rival to be able to isolate
that key defender. Pressure now mounts on the rest of outlast.
It's one thing that 5 years really struggled with in that first half. Just going to get
any of the entry battles to go their way.
So they can do a similar job to what outlasted
on their attacks that'll really give them a good avenue
to start getting some rounds on the board.
And look, yeah, very much walls that off
to hit the space of the site.
They've got the extra number they can flood.
As long as they can kind of circumnavigate
just mark all in the clash,
kind of the nitrosol rips to run.
In 35 seconds, it is getting a little low on time.
I think he did burn it, unfortunately.
Either way, 30 seconds now remains.
Loading dart.
U2 felt from JJ.
Can five fears convert this advantage?
I wonder if Trapman could really just kind of get in the way
of the plant here.
They're leaving this right down to the final 10 seconds.
JJ, the plant inside a storage.
Oh, no.
So far, it notes it all.
Boris down inside of the smoke.
JJ will get this plant down, though.
So it enters the post plant 3v3 and now 2 left for Outlast.
It's Trapmack and Iconic, they get around the clash, not much influence from it.
Oh!
Lames out, doesn't matter, well influence from the SMG, it's only Rival up, he shuts down
Trapmack down to Iconic to save the day again for Outlast.
Low on health, going for the revive onto Millie?
No.
Iconic now onto the kit.
A few warning shots thrown in the way of rival.
After 10 kills and make it 11, he shuts down Iconic.
A huge round for 5 fears to start the second half.
Oh, it was Clarice Iconic.
I think he was almost on for another clutch there.
I can't believe he was in that tuck position away from the flames and even made that
round competitive.
I think Outlast will upon reflection be pretty disappointed that they weren't able to deny
the exposed plant there.
they break down other parts of the push but unfortunately with the defuser down
it entered a pretty awkward post but they didn't have a lot of ground
established it was difficult for them to be able to fight back in five years
positionally in that post was really really sound there was the start of the
round at the minute 25 mark joystick did fall
oh that was a whiff unlucky there for Tyra and again unfortunate that they
weren't able to deny that plan because what coverage of the spray did not
land.
Well, five years back in it.
Seven rounds played.
It's kind of been rival versus iconic in terms of both of those two being heavy on the top
ranking department.
Getting a lot of help from their teammates.
Look, I actually have kind of one concern here for Outlast, you've got four players going
negative and then Iconic 12 and 4, so if Iconic is unable to kind of keep his pace, what happens
to the rest of this team?
See, just the team came naturally, you can't just have one individual, well it can happen,
show it every down there, and it's not really the hallmark sign of a team that's
fully functioning, Iconic has been sensational for Outlast, we'll need some help in the
second half. This rival goes on to the Kali this round. They'll actually lock in the
Blackbeard this time for JJ. Hovered it previously.
Maybe at a games the second sight attempt before Outlast.
Yeah, I'll see how this Blackbeard does get leveraged in round 8.
I mean the absence of clash outlasts to deal with that they do have very much a good line
up into it with the disruptor, the outlast and the thorn because it's based out of the
final part of the push with the smoke and the goya.
As expected if you see the asami now enter the comp pretty rare that we'll probably
see her make it through the initial bang phase so Mili will be eager to get value
from her in this particular round and open up some more playable space whether
it be for the study hold or cutting off some of the angles over the woods
landing. Trev is holding back cross currently, important that he has good
ground management here doesn't want to give away his life for free and again
has some useful utility to disrupt the Black Deer.
This one by Floyd will be flushed down by a conflagrate from JJ who then quickly responds
by taking this space 90, minted on the clock from the time management from Five Deers,
this round has been pretty solid.
Oh, my clients, that's very solid.
Here's our Islamic area, this makes it seem very awkward late round especially into
the smoke of the Gura combo.
They will keep a various remaining from Milly and low on health, probably a one
and done position inside of Aviator. I can't think though, upright stairs. Could he be
the factor again? No, Snake, shots that down. Oh, and then gets the TK onto the
Blackbeard. It won't matter. A little comical moment will not stop. Five fears
from taking the round. And suddenly they've got the momentum. They've won
three of the last four rounds. We are tied here on Villa and a lot of that hype to close
out the first half for Outlast. It feels as if it's deflating a little bit and they call
the tactical timeout.
Yeah, they'll just be looking to hit the mental reset here and discuss the plan going forward
and how they can, first and foremost, hide out the early round. The early round has
been in start contrast for the first half it's now open kills back to back for five
years the time management then from the attacks have been quite good so far and
then because they're fighting for behind outlast and then going for pretty
aggressive playmaking through the mid round good example in the last one there
iconic going for the flank that didn't quite hit the mark they're probably
also struggling to get full value from some of the operators that they've
been playing so far a good example probably clash of basement and then
And also into that round, maybe these armies, some of the positions that opened up over here
didn't quite get fully used as they would have liked either, so...
Gonna be a big emphasis on the first pick that we're going for in this matchup.
Mid-flowing to the round and 5v3's layered pressure, JJ getting insane shot here.
And I checked backwards searching for info, he got caught out.
So I couldn't get caught on his flank attempt and...
Once there was a team kill, it was...
I mean, completely unimpactful in terms of the end result of that 5v5 flooding, they were really really good on that attack
and in fact that's kind of been the hallmark for them in the second half, these attacks have looked strong
So I'm attempting expectations after what was a heroic effort from Iconic, a massive clutch to cap off that first half
but it has a quite translated across here to the second half
Attackers are moving out to locate a bomb and if you know five years have started to get
Better controlling these entry battles through the last four rounds kind of coinciding with the their round wins, too
eight rounds of play opening kill
conversion in every round bar one
Treadmack will go back on to the clash and they will go back to basement just the one change for outlast
They drop the mozzie for the smoke
Which probably makes sense consider a joystick. Yeah dying as the opening death
back in that seventh round. I want to try and keep him towards sight and it looks
like a full fire stack for Outlast. This is the first time we're seeing
Maverick here on Villa today as well. Yeah I'll see how JJ looks to implement that.
Maybe try to create some favorable lines of sight to probe deeper towards the objective
we'll see.
Secretary Hardbridge as well available for fans as they now look to lay in Utah aggressively
through the garage.
JJ to go deep.
Maybe look in a sense, or sensing an opportunity rather to do a grass here.
will deploy that secondary utility is outlast now reposition in response.
I mean there's just not much of a way for outlast to be able to stop that push into
garage and now with this position as well look at this hold here from rival
outlast need to be very very careful in these set positions.
But don't follow up from the defense.
Marvel is very patient in this position, fence will get brought back up.
Outlast is having presented here, and Traffmac does find entry, so better from Outlast.
They didn't overplay their hand, they didn't succumb to that early garage pressure from 5 years.
I'm assuming now they'll look to peel and consolidate some stuff, gasoline as well in play.
Oh my, Connick did get caught out though.
Did they even hit him?
That snake will get rid of Milly.
Oh, I'm close to Tyrant.
I don't think Boris was ready for that.
I think he got a little jump scare afterwards, pantry.
35 seconds.
Still got this clash.
Jeffmax got to find a way to disrupt lovely help from Tyrant, though.
And they actually got to kill off this snake elsewhere with the razor bloom and
it's a one versus one rival versus joystick.
20 seconds has hit towards Pantry, making a little bit of time though to get
into sight to go for a plant. Maybe expecting Joystick to get on the mood
finally gets the angle and will go for the kill.
Four seconds left as Joystick starts to maneuver around, plays close, shotgun and
the Cyborg has still got it! Yeah sure does. I looked early in an attempt there
on the Carly and I think we could see there just had bossed a state with the
more favorable magnification just making that a little more comfortable those
old Carly I don't think you'd ever give the sniper a chance in that situation but
it was close but joystick was better positionally did a good job very late
there in the round to try and force time played out as he expected in the
shotgun favorable at that range good work overall some big moments throughout
the outlast and critically they just didn't succumb to that early
pressure and that early stack from five fears, and to tidy up that entry jewel, which has
been a key indicator over the course of this match so far. Only the one round back in round
number three was not a successful converted entry. Every other round has been.
I've had a couple of 1v1 rounds though as well, so I mean, place of fact at the
the start of the round, but we've also had quite a few rounds now that have come down
to these sort of clutch moments. And so Joe stick with a 1v1 rival with a 1v1 iconic of
course with that 1v3 to close the first half and Dreadmak with 1v1 in the second round
too. High multi kill kind of match from individuals clutch moments. Back and forth in a lot
these rounds. I think it's cool. It's interesting, it's 4-5 lead for Outlast, but the two most
dominant rounds, 4 alive and 5, of course, the flawless, have both been from 5 beats.
Yeah. If they start well, they tend to kind of take that momentum and have a good round.
I was just going to say, it's probably now the most competitive and enjoyable match
so far and I mean objectively that is the case the uh game so far for this open playday have
been quite one side it's a three, so a two, so a three. This one already shaping up to honestly
maybe go all the way to overtime it's got that aura about it at the moment as these two continue
to trade blows I'm expecting five fears to be able to fight back into this game and
now it's been coined that they're going to crank it this round with the double shield
Plus the Kali.
Excited to see how Outlast try and deal with, you know, that pressure,
which can be very overwhelming if it catches you off guard.
Especially if they isolate some of the defenders offside, if they get tripped.
So this is going to be a good test, really for both teams.
And interestingly, the two rounds that Outlast have actually brought the clash,
neither of those rounds five beers brought shield play they did bring of
course the Blackbeard to heavy-aided games the last time and as you pointed out
now they'll double down with the Blitz for Forrest and her rival can continue to put
work in on his Carly third straight round that he brings it
Hatch wards nine, Joysticks got to be careful on the Azami, don't be dying this early
He just gets completely outplayed by JJ.
Wonderful clear.
And that is a bolt of utility in those key barriers that will no longer be available for Outlast.
Yeah, absolutely. It was perfectly played by JJ.
Completely cut off his exit.
And that's the power of the shield to make up an isolate defender's offside
when you don't have that trade potential or that cross potential.
And just like that, five is again pretty early in the round shaping the plan.
Iconic is going to have to be quick on this back here, play going down from JJ,
force the foot from the gas pipe of Tyrant, and Iconic gets caught.
Good flank watch from Snake.
While they take Aviate again, it's potentially flawless, it will be flawless.
The second flawless round, this match from Five Beers.
Aviate Games has been theirs.
We are tied at five to five.
Yeah, the shield play was great that round and JJ has been very difficult to deal with on the Blackbeard, that's once again him finding great space through that 90 push and a failure of Outlast to be able to find a more effective method to deal with that, or at least.
at least so got the utility crit if they get back to its side you can't really
point odd joystick there he tried to go for more calculated play in the moment
of getting back to the objective and just got caught on timing. Good coverage
down below as they went from plant to my chronic in potential position on the
solace to find that plant and at least temporarily disrupt it but
ultimately wouldn't have mattered anyway it was a complete flood of the objective.
5-5 the score line outlast being kept on their toes. As we head across the kitchen now for the
I think it changes scenery will do outlasts well, we're losing Aggie against twice, it's
certainly not ideal.
One thing though for Villa, we've seen three matches of Villa today, I think that's most
enjoyable is the fact that all four bomb sites get played.
Now which one maybe will be the least?
Hard to say at the moment because we've actually seen quite a bit of kitchen, quite a lot of
basement, a lot of baby-headed games, early days, but is that trophy could maybe be the
one?
I don't know.
I don't think it comes down to actually team dependency.
Which ones that they favour?
Double shield set up again for five years in this 11th round.
The closest, the most entertaining match that we've had today to kickstart the North American League for Stage 2.
Oh no!
And Fens is dead to Joystick on the Oryx!
That was cheeky. Cheeky angle.
That's why we love Joystick.
So good at being able to find those small opportunities to have big influence and that's going to prove costly now as far as there's a lot of dead bird operators that do still have the sledges back up.
That's not the end of the world stuff for the attack but as far less than I deal there's going to be an emphasis now on this double shield really coming into play.
And I have my eyes set on JJ this round again, he's been great on the Blackbeard in finding
entry.
This time a slightly different dynamic of course in being able to try and wrangle around back
and take a bit of space to play it down, but still has the potential to be a difference
maker.
Five years has gone with some good information towards the site courtesy of Vivalon there,
now looking to play off that.
Like in this tandem shield push and into dining forest, we'll go for the plant.
Oh, that is a great shot though from Trap Mark onto Rival.
Plant will be successful, but in the post, they outlast have the numbers.
Forest outside towards the balcony and they're just going to rush him down, but he gets
back up onto the roof and Snake finds a kill on to Millie.
Iconic then goes for the counter-diffuse, back in towards bathroom on the top floor from Boris, Iconic though is diffusing and gets it off for Outlast.
They've got match point 343 days since this organisation last saw a win.
Could this be their moment? Up 6-5.
Oh, they're so close.
I kind of want to say so close yet, so far given Five Fears ability, it's just not give up in this match.
So we'll wait and see how this one does conclude in regulation, and if overtime will be required to settle it.
Good round once again though.
Form out last good work in the post. Got a little chaotic.
Got a little chaotic, we saw some brief decision involved from Five Fears and then Iconic again, another good executive decision from him to get on the kit, relay that to the team, got the cover he needed.
As he jumps onto the scope post for this first match point round, it suddenly feels like their best opportunity as an organisation to get at resolve and foot.
I mean this team and this roster specifically, it'd be one hell of a way to kick off their campaign.
only once in the North America League this year about last month to six is back just in
stage 1, 2, 3 against Space Station Gaming they lost 6-8-0-T now that may still happen
again but it's a point at the very least secured with this new look roster showcasing
that they may just be the real deal can they get all three points and a critical
win for the organization 343 days since the previous and that was in an
entirely different region
nearly potential Michelle has been so important that yeah I don't mind this
for outlast get the advantage early
I reckon it could work, let's see.
Jeff Mac does find that opening kill on defense and damage to Forrest but he did find the kill
for the trade.
Ever so slight advantage for Outlast because of that damage on to Forrest but with Forrest
finding that immediate trade it does offset that opening kill slightly.
Yeah, minute 45. Snake, 90, wall big battle.
Jewel initially in outlast, looking now really well primed to win this midpoint of the round.
Little to show for it from the side of 5 fears, player down for a slow, everyone outside.
And if you two will still play off with the Candelos, but that's really about it.
This is not the great state of five years.
The rival has already shown a couple of rounds now.
They've got the ability to get some big multi-kills.
He's not going to do it now though, dead.
An outlast of this close to the organization's first win this year in the North America
Milly with this new look roster.
As Milly sits in the ball tub waiting for this push in.
Ball white, good clip from JJ.
Is that a way back into this round and into this game for five fears?
Fifty seconds leaves them a lot of time.
But some nervous seconds now taking down for Outlast.
I kind of need to be cautious. If he goes for the Astro flank, he needs to hit a good timing.
Fortunately, JJ Forrest both low.
JJJ, uh, that does find the kill onto Tyrant. It's down to Iconic and Joystick.
30 seconds, Forrest JJ, low.
What are the nerves like now for Iconic?
A hand for Joystick, considering he too is also low on health. He hits the shot onto Forrest.
Now they can play the time. That's the kit.
As well, not in the hands of JJ. He acquires it.
And if he goes for the plate he has to do so right here right now and try and bait them to push into him
And then get off and find the double kill instead. It is going to be iconic
That gets the very last kill of this game
Outlast have finally won in the North American League for the first time in 2026
I'm breaking this and I'm out of it.
Check this out, I'm out of it.
I'ma keep it going so there ain't nothing left.
I'm breaking this and I'm out of it.
I'm gonna feel full of stuff and I'm running out.
Because I can't get down from this running up.
I'ma keep it going so there ain't nothing left.
I
Outlasts get their first win in the NAL.
We were finally waiting for them to break that seal and they have done it.
in part to this man right here joystick joining this team coming out of Europe to make this happen
and now joining us on the desk congratulations on the win joystick it is uh yeah good to have
you here in North America what uh what is that feeling like for you haven't played on like VP
Empire and here you are outlast in the NAL teaming up with some very unexpected faces what's
What's this experience been like so far?
Honestly, for me it's a little bit hard anyway to play because of the language barrier,
because collouts and everything is an illusion that I've never experienced before.
I mean, only in team settings.
So it's a little bit hard still, because sometimes when there's a lot of chaos, chaos,
I don't know what to say in team speak, it's so hard to understand what is going on
and what you need to do because Rainbow Six is like so fast game
you need to make your decisions so fast.
So sometimes it's hard, but I hope it will be better and better.
So yeah, that's it.
Yeah, it's good seeing your brother and congratulations on the win.
I mean, obviously you're talking about your hurdle of just obviously
with the language barrier, but I kind of want to pick your brain.
Obviously you were on the VP and Empire roster for so long.
You guys had that long term structure.
I'm curious what it's now for you of adjusting your playstyle,
where you aren't so limited to this slower playstyle for a team dynamic.
Yeah, of course, it's not really...
What to say?
I don't really feel good sometimes to play this playstyle,
because I have different vision in the game,
but right now the game changed, so we need to be better
and like prepare for everything you need to try to change your play styles sometimes play fast sometimes play slow like
Change game change. So yeah, it's a different game from we all play completely different game
Because for example before there's like no solid snake no demons
You can just whoo-hoo run around the map and like being being good, but right now. It's not so comfortable
So we don't got a drone like back in our day joystick. What's going on here?
Yeah, I got it easy. What are we doing here?
Yeah, I kind of wanted to ask a very similar question, of course all day today.
What's it like playing with Trapback as your IGL?
I mean, obviously you guys, the veterans on the team, love that,
but I still hear him calming a ton in the team speak,
and I want to kind of get your thoughts on his IGL ability,
because I always thought it was kind of fucked on.
Yeah, honestly, I think these two guys, Millie and Trapmark, are like so good,
in my opinion because they have this young, when you're young, you have fire in the eyes,
you want to watch everything, learn everything, blah blah blah.
So they really want to win and want to progress.
So it's really cool to have them in team because it's like a mix of the old players
and young.
So it's really cool.
I liked how he's brain working.
I don't know how he's adapting during the game.
So yeah, it's cool for me.
I liked his playstyle, I liked his vision of the game, so it's fun.
Amazing.
Can you give me a little bit more context as well as to like, who is like stepping up as
the leader, as that central voice, like outside of the game, right?
Are you taking that role as iconic, as tyrant, like where is like that wisdom coming from?
I will say that like it's all about like, Tremark is the main leader, like he's
trying to call like strats and everything and like Dave helping him but I'm so shy. I honestly like
never talking in the game like honestly I talk when I only see the gaps like where I can go
so I'm just trying to listen to my teammates and try to understand where I can go what I can
what I can do to help them so um and focus on my own playstyle I guess so yeah that's it
I did try to look and Dave like doing the work at Koenig.
Koenig is the best, 14 out of 7, like doing these games apart, so...
I was just back.
I was just saying, Joystick, you definitely weren't shy when it came to the after-parties.
You were not shy.
You were not a different type of person.
We got an after-party joystick on the comms.
I mean, it's in the game.
It's in the games.
After-parties is like a little bit different.
Just a little bit.
Joystick, thank you so much.
Congratulations on helping out.
Let's get their very first win.
and now you are now a key part of this team
as it continues to go forward.
Thanks so much, man.
Yeah, thank you to you guys.
Good luck.
What a start to the stage for Outlast.
These three veterans coming in and making their mark.
Good to hear a little bit about the team dynamic,
how things are going on behind the scenes.
We saw the success here in the lobby,
but that's great insight.
Yeah, I mean, something that I can definitely relate to
is when I joined Parabell and me and Skye's,
and we brought in the newer guys,
or Spike or one of those guys,
it really does revitalize your kind of aspect
what you look at the game so I can totally relate and understand what he's
talking about just seeing their vision, seeing how hungry they are to learn and
absorb the knowledge and you know to be able to give credit and praise to those
players from a player like Joystick it definitely says a lot for those two as a
whole where maybe the community wasn't giving them as much respect but when
you're hearing it from a teammate when you're hearing it from a player like
Joystick that goes a long way. Yeah 100% I expect to check in the mail
because you asked me are they gonna ever win a game or are they gonna win this game
Of course, I said no, I'm gonna hate watch and look what happens when I hate watch DZ wins a major. So yeah
I mean iconic 14 and 7 I mean I
Just want to keep glazing these guys like I actually am looking forward to watching
This new outlast now for the next week that week after that like the improvements were there and the burns were there fast
Like we are seeing them do things that we haven't seen before they're there
They're not just five man taking we're now seeing Tremac on Aurora
and he's pulling pressure onto the study side and then you're seeing Dave in the comms saying gap city gap city
Walking up white stairs as he's exploiting all of five years and they're having fun
Yeah, which is something that we weren't here out or hearing in the comms, right?
And so it's complete obviously completely brand-new team with the with the three new members and yeah
The synergies already there the synergies are and we got to see that synergy on display
And as you mentioned it we got to hear that behind the scenes
So we wanted to give you a little bit of an insight into what that here's like
what that sounds like when these three players are flowing and clutching up.
Bar guys, you need to hold the seat between the bar.
50, let's go, 70.
Should be both, should be both, yeah.
I'm fighting him, I'm fighting him.
Right side, go left, left side, both, left side, both.
I'm backing up.
You can play shotgun.
I'm playing deep, I'm playing security, okay.
Yep, true, guys.
Is there a gate there?
No!
Yeah, and this was such a beautiful round to just capture kind of the new and improved outlasts.
I mean, we weren't here in problem solving,
We weren't hearing what's the solution and how they can remedy certain issues and that was the exact round one to kick off their
Season of being able to identify the things they needed to take the positions that needed to be held in order to go for those
Executes and then just playing the post plan
I mean, I think it's very important for both Trevon Milley to live in these moments understand these moments look back at them
And just use that and be like I said be a sponge and absorb as much of it as possible
And they're only going to improve and being around those three is going to pay off tremendously
Yeah, I mean, I was gonna say I didn't sound shy there. No, right? Like he was
That's after part. That's after part. Yeah, he was yeah great first round for them
Yeah, well this day is flying by that's four matches down only one to go
But this last one hundred thieves and cloud nine two teams still figuring out their new systems both teams
Adjusting to new IGLs as they did last stage, but are both also on upward trajectory here
I mean cloud nine. I mean this team with Pamba as that IGL we've seen just how much
improvement they've been experiencing over the last few months. Yeah I mean I
think they were your most improved team at the last stage when we kind of gave
out that award and I mean they were I mean they were very fun to watch. They
were in every single game even against the top teams the juggernauts in our
region we like to say they were still in it they were just narrow five
seven losses and typically that always came down to the attacking side of
If we take a look right here, that was the big problem.
Their defensive win percentage, 60%,
which was good for top four in the region,
which is very good for a young team under a new IEL.
But 33%, I believe it was close to dead last,
basically, in the attacking win percentage.
So that is ultimately what hurt them
and cost them a chance at the playoffs.
But I think that's something that we also highlighted
time and time again with wrapping up that season.
It's really about time.
It's really about having the experience,
going through the motions, going and getting over
those hurdles where I feel that they are going to be even far more confident and
look even more pristine coming into this stage than what it was prior, especially
even bringing on Pambi. I mean I question his ability to IGL and sure enough it
paid off. Sure it wasn't the most pretty again attacks but now that they've had
all this time I am expecting them to start out swinging right up the gates.
It's funny you mentioned our most improved team award at the end of
last day because I remember this being heavily debated. Was it Cloud9? Was it
100 thieves it could go either way but this hundred thieves team you can make
the argument that with hot and cold with a case in coming on under the hot and
cold system really stepped up from like what no wins to a very good team
contending for the playoffs. Yeah and it's the improvement that you were
expecting to see because they didn't have a good idea that could really
facilitate rounds and who's the next best idea they get on the team or in
the league it was gonna be Han cold and definitely improvements already from
there we saw spirit start to find his rhythm being on those shields with
He also gave praise to being able to actually have a shield player and utilize that
But then it was like players that you're talking about a case
I mean case and was another rookie that came into that stage that we were questioning
You know what he was going to bring to the table and I would honestly say he met expectations
But something that I'm specifically going to be looking at in this state is his consistency and how he starts around and how he
Finishes because he was kind of hit or miss in some of those moments where some games
He was starting out very strong and then towards the end he would start to fall off or it would be in the beginning
He wouldn't be in the game and then towards the end. He would start to find his rhythm
I want to see a little more consistency that we can actually hold on to where he starts strong and finishes strong
Yeah, and you said it all about time in a new IGL system and hot and cold is one of the more demanding
IGLs especially that I've ever been around. He has a very specific style of play that he wants to play
He needs a certain type of players on his team and he has the certain type of players that he needs to make it happen
So I'm expecting big things from case and kind of stepping up in this stage specifically because I also think they were missing
Kind of another X factor. Yeah, Adam seemed to be there their star player at that point
He was like the top reader player in the NAL kind of caring in that regard, but that's not really his role
They're missing it still in the kind of like some of their entry fragging department
And I also need to see spirits
I think a little bit to get more comfortable playing with his eye chill again and
and gets us more comfortable on the shields and making openings for the team.
Both of these teams who said they're like are in that similar boat of time with an IGL, right?
And getting the ability to like, okay, learn and grow under that system.
Both teams have been on that upward trajectory, maybe 100th, you've finished a little higher,
but Lax, like, you look at the challenges that a team can face when changing IGLs.
The difference that these two teams, like the amount of growth that is possible here,
Now that they've been under these systems and have had a couple of months to really grind this down
I mean you have to imagine we're gonna see some special stuff. Yeah, we definitely should
I mean the foundation has been laid out now now
It's really just practicing what you you know preach in terms of scrims in terms of outside a game
But I would say also the biggest thing of just changing ideal
They come down to every individual player wanting it just as much as the other to the left to their right
Every player has to be putting in that same amount of work
And it really is going to show whether it's in the first game second game or third game
You'll really be able to see everyone that is truly contributing and trying to be the best version of themselves
Yeah, and a lot of its timings too, right?
Like again, that's what the repetitions are for with the time and like they they're gonna get all that extra scrim practice and
The double scrims that all the pro players are doing. Monk was also a brand new rookie last stage as well
So he's gonna need time to adjust, right? This is still his only second stage within the NAL
I think it's only him in case in besides Sirke's kind of coming in the NAL, right?
So he's still one of those newer players center popped off at big time before cloud night
So we need to see that as well, but I've also just like I've actually been impressed with cloud nine on attack
Like I've kept praising their operator lineups
I kept praising the fact that I think they were using the meta operators correctly
But it always came down to the late round and mid round kind of things which is a new team new player kind of thing
So hopefully that's fixed just with the repetitions that they've been having
I always seen three villas and one cafe today. Maybe these teams
Look at the experiment again. Can we get a fourth Villa?
Oh no, we're gonna end up on labs Villa taking off there by a hundred thieves about halfway through the band phase here
But a good look at labs first chance
We're gonna see this in our second stage of play lacks. What do you make of this?
I mean the sample size isn't great for either these teams a hundred thieves oh and two on and for cloud nine
They are one and one but you have to look at the win that they got in the previous stage
And it was a seven one over our last and are we really holding on to that as like all right?
this is gonna be the game they're gonna be the strongest over a hundred
these yeah I don't think so I'm wiped in the slate clean for both these teams
they've had some time to really improve what I'm gonna be looking at
specifically just you were talking about on the attacking side for Cloud9 is
their ability to adapt mid to late round yeah and I love the fact that we're
going to this map because it's a step-by-step map which means I for me I'm
kind of favoring the thieves on this one I think that's how Matt basics that
yeah exactly it's more basics more veteran kind of players this is how
Matt likes to play the game. The band phase is going to come out here and it's going to be the same thing.
The bands always tell you the story of the IT wall, the most important piece on this map.
And it's always going to be a cave and then either a bandit or a mirror coming out here.
So we'll have to see what the thieves are going to get rid of.
But I had to think it's probably more so going to be a mirror because I
or sorry the bandit because they've been leaving the mirror up and running the fascia.
And there it is. Right. So it's going to be IT. It's going to be connector.
You're going to see these being opened up.
But now it's just a matter of our team
is going to try to replicate what Wildcard does extremely well.
And that's using the information, using the utility
effectively, getting those C4s down.
It's just a matter of, are we going to see those things?
But you're seeing the Azami up.
You're seeing the Thorn brought in.
Things are going to be slowed down.
100 Thieves is going to have to adapt.
All right, both of these teams,
looking to grow from what we've seen from them
in the past, could stage two be their time?
We go to Labs to find out.
We're going to have to go
to the next round. Let's head
into our final maximum of this
evening. 100 thieves taking on
cloud nine. We had tonight
Haven labs with Tom with Villa
for the day, guys. We got our
fill of the new map, but it's
time for our final game excited
for this one. I think the
boys on the couch put it
perfectly two teams that will
be looking to kind of take
but didn't really make a splash, Cloud9 would long to get their chance here in Stage 2.
Yeah, Eager for this game, it feels like it has the potential to be quite closely contested between these two.
But kicking it off on defense, so off the rip of the clutch selection, I think Centrum is trying to hide it as well.
And right this zone, there's going to be the Blackbeard on the side all behind him.
and Spirit on Shields of course is going to be a threat that they'll be aware of and actively looking to deal with over the course of this first half.
Without the bands checked off as well, I think we're going to be intriguing.
Kodakolts jump onto the Maverick to deal with that objective on the checklist for this opening round.
There's a good test for the first place here in officials if there are no tricks on form
but there is a doubt.
I'm not expecting this to be pretty clinical and there it is on point to begin.
Okay, we're going to go and pop.
The mighty wall will be opened up a minute into the round.
I don't even know if it's quite interesting in the North American League compared to other
regions.
This top floor site isn't so much of a defensive juggernaut, it actually sits pretty much close
to 50-50, at least based on the stage 1 data, and similar as well for basement 47-53 split.
Interestingly, it's storage and control that is heavily defended side of it in North America.
Slow approach for 100 thieves, but top floor and labs you can certainly take your time.
Have got IT opened up, now I want to get some con-side presence.
So far this is looking like a pretty solid split.
EDS devices from Uzi.
Some of these frag grenades from Spirits, but eventually this deployable shield will
be dealt with.
They do still have Adam over the wall to that IT position.
Uncold also inside of Electrical, so 100th is starting to take some good ground here.
Now Clush is on the pain, AirJab doesn't land,
Concussion deep that they weren't able to play off,
it's a sin to do a good job.
Eddie, a close shotgun, gets in on the action,
AirJab to follow up,
does land again,
it's so difficult to follow up,
the coverage is on point,
and in fact, it's his own nitro.
Eddie gets the job done solo.
C9, now in the dominant position.
I mean, there's just no push anywhere else on the map,
at that point in time.
Gretchen now onto the Blackbeard,
but the swing timing from Gomez!
Three quick kills!
To give us a two versus two to start in the opening round give them a way back in don't have kick currently need to keep pushing
And find these kills of the world's warehouse for month
Uzi sitting inside of command and he then gets the double
Hull position towards the bomb chassis was able to help out and cloud time will get the opening round
Yeah, definitely a bit of a scare though
Gomez catching a good timing there
info electrical
and almost made the opposition punished in terms of how it then concluded.
Without the defuser, it forced to then go deep and Uzi had the line up in the end.
Hunter Thieves trying the best, trying to clear Eddy, but he was able to stand tall to manage herself.
Hollow Rock was great as well, but the sweep from Go-Vez and got caught out alongside Eddy.
But there's a track which deep who's the inside of command on that chassis ankle was able to hit the lineup
So nine able to claim first round I like to go below here for the second
The outside of Covers didn't really get anything going, I was stored out towards Electrical
and fortunately 4-100 Beads didn't really look as if 4-5 were in sync on the push.
Spirits on to the Montaic this round, round to the end of Blackbeard.
I should really like this lineup for 100D, solid-stated K-Song, can clear out roamers,
what we've told them with the Boogie Auto breaches to play the Vert when they eventually get it,
if they get it, but this is a heavy roam deployed by Cloud9 with the mute-chammers,
top-floor presence towards Blue and IT.
Only one player actively playing the site at the moment for Cloud9.
This is a case where long the solid snake will help facilitate the room clear.
Yeah, let's see how effective the clear ends up being.
We've done work currently.
An extensive room to contend with.
Beauty of the Auto Breach is there from the Honecog is that you can do with a little bit more safety and autonomy
and in the meantime, Sproots is taking good space, kitchen side
in fact they'll just handle it around courtesy of that auto breacher
and immediately they can start thinking about layering pressure towards XO
and maybe even just going down the staircase and drawing pressure
we'll see what they ultimately end up going for it
I don't think they'll look to shortcut the attack just yet
especially with all this presence
presence.
Across the map.
Proactive Mutuaima from Eddie.
Trying to stay clear to the radar and I think it's gonna work.
Yep.
Perfect.
That's a lovely view.
Good observation to catch.
Eddie's little trap that he has laid.
Poor old K-Song gets a fright.
Gives Cloud9 the player advantage.
advantage they dealt with spirits as well so only is the Monty dead but the
solid snake can help me find out maybe where some of these rumors are is also
in the grave this puts 100 thieves at a bad spot and they need to add insult to
injury get rid of Adam who is in hot and cold as the duo have only got 45
seconds try make something work here in this second round otherwise it's
shaping up to be a really good start to lives from cloud nine.
Yeah, absolutely. And I don't really foresee 100 days being able to formulate
to come back in this round. There's just too much space to clear,
too little time to make that work.
Only ways if they get a heroic entry on the side and then the
retakes a failure. It's slow, low percent from here.
Honokot at least drops to make it deploy.
That's straight into Uzi on the board and she's not optimal and on the ball of Pamphlet to catch.
Gomez will fight back. Three more to find. Unfortunately, no, this round is definitely over.
Cloud9, great round. Love that play on the top floor with the Mute.
Now, Gomez is patting the stats nicely in the opening two rounds, but Cloud9 have been in control of these rounds.
I mean, this is a really, really solid start.
They're not just, you know, winning.
They're winning quite comfortably.
Even if Gomez has been able to find a couple of kills,
which by the way, it's the only one that's got any kills
so far for 100 thieves with five, everyone else on zero.
Jammer activated.
The overall team play from Cloud9 has been,
well, far better.
It's a little less than four case on.
to learn from. Back to back opening kills. It's a really solid start. It's going to
mean for 100 thieves to get to this third round, bands after this. I don't really want to be
losing control of storage. Now, I mentioned before, Custer, this is actually very...
Defender sided in the North American region is the most defender sided site on this map. 65% in NAL.
But as we know in other regions it's far more achievable for the attacking team. So curious to see how this round will play out.
Very similar looking lineup, four 100 thieves, but they will drop the Monty.
And looking across the pulse of this round, I think for Cloud9 that could be a really
key piece to the pulse of an identifying information across the map can also be the type of operator
that's really effective in being able to rotate low.
I mean clearly it is in good form today, it's had a couple of really good rounds.
It's really sharp, it's been on the wall.
So that's that that one of these would be you're going to contend with unfortunately they don't have a
complete direct one-for-one counter in the IQ, but there's a lot of tools to deal with that
snake and lurk late. You can also posh to down base my late in the round as well to try and
cut off that playing making potential that that of course is
definitely easier when you have a player advantage and then you can
invest that player below without compromising elsewhere.
So we'll see how the first third of the round does conclude.
Still 5 vs 5, some of you too has been chipped away at courtesy of the Flores and spirits
just with one retera remains.
Unfortunately, finally, these Gomez will fall first.
Things may be going from bad to worse here for the attack.
In case you've been seeing inside of cafeteria for the last 40 seconds on the solid snake,
pinging the radar, trying to get some information, at some point he's going to have to probably
make his way up blue and try to get some presents up above,
help to clear up spirits fortunately towards cargo,
found one.
Then the second onto Uzi,
Pambazoo makes his way down blue to get the trade,
but it's actually on to Kaesom.
And spirits is still alive, but low.
At least it's done enough though
to put this round on a nice edge,
heading into the last 50 seconds.
The storage wall defended by Monk and you've still got Eddie that can get information on
this pulse and has spotted hot and cold.
Yeah, thirty second tons of things, we're trying to drop and transfer that diffuser onto
the side.
You can still see though, I think it has the position of the body language, it's
They're certainly here from the attack and they can't compromise, not a lot of time.
Well, this is one trade.
And Eddy's gonna push Kavan, and over towards Warehouse, he's up in Rafters, finds the kill
onto Adam, hot and cold by himself inside of storage, heading into Redtime.
This is wild play by Monk, just falling back, deep inside of control, eats the
time, swings, and gets the kill for Cloud9 to make it three straight to start here
on Nighthaven Labs.
Really wild play from Monk, bought some time.
And he was able to then find a free kill on that flank on the top floor, 3-0, and then
straight back now to command server.
The digital bands were all through banded as anticipated for the Triple Hard Bridge denial.
The Ram as well, also out of play, which has been used on one occasion so far by 100
speaking of, 100 Thieves called their tactical time out as they looked to try and maintain their
composure, trying to stay in this game. The benefit of, I mean of course of the first rotation now
being complete on the side of the attack, they kind of know what to expect provided C9 don't
dramatically change plans going forward, so they can look to focus on themselves here and
find improvement for the rest of the half and get themselves back into the match. It's
Certainly by no means over but clearly up to this point. There's been a better team inside of the server
C9 a dominating
most metrics at the moment entry has been good
Time management as well from hundred these
Unfortunately hasn't kind of been making up for that fact. So late rounds been a challenge for them
C9 just looking solid across the border man playing some good Siege
Yeah, getting the opening kills, controlling the late round situations, having the extra
number is helping.
Ram banned at the bans, curious out of the tactical timeout for 100 thieves, how they
will look to adapt what they want to change up, hasn't exactly been super fast, paced
to begin with, and that lab's not typically one of the quicker paced maps though, certainly
on this top floor.
I'm just going to give credit to Cloud9 in the way that they're playing.
Off the Blackbeard, no shield play for 100 thieves out of the TAC timeout, didn't bring
into the previous ramp but they did bring a top floor last time with the
blackbeard, Monty as well to its basement. They dropped the Maverick as well.
I don't know, hard breaks are just the secondaries for hot and cold and Gomez.
That's all you really need now considering the
The uh...
Operate vans, defensively
Not much for that, I can...
Do about that
I do wonder, yeah, if they're not bringing shield in a spree
By the clash pick earlier
Either way, it's going to be a switch up
Here from...hundred thieves
And ultimately are the team
That needs to switch things up here
To try and find a bit more success
And I'll spend the first half of this round
In terms of dipping away at the C-Tilt
to create opening over towards rafters, good countertools as well into the keybiz from pamphlet.
Huge part of execute utility available as well for the late-run here for
100 thies. Again my eyes though go towards 80 in this round, so back on the pulse,
running shotgun, very influential on this site last time on the
remute, and his ability to lock down these close positions really effectively with the shotgun in hand.
We'll see how 100thies look to contend with that as they shape up IT at the moment.
And here it is, they do too well.
It is ready though.
Though that nitro cell is a little early.
It doesn't even get back on the heartbeat sensor and get info towards electrical.
Three gas pipes still up the center.
The nitro cell for Uzi says still a lot available for Cloud 9,
9, but for 100 thieves at the very least they've been able to clear out IT. They've got rafters control.
The only problem with this hit, it's very one-dimensional. There's nothing con meeting
side. Makes it very easy for Cloud 9 to keep their focus. And 55 seconds doesn't leave a whole
lot of room for 100 thieves. If they are going to go for a separate hit, it's going to be
late and it looks like it's going to be blue. Blue cover plate. They have a decent amount
of utility to go for that flash on that side. We'll see if an opportunity presents for the entry,
but Cloud9 are being very disciplined.
The ship has stayed its course for cloud nine. It's fall straight
Yeah, it feels like we've gone back to regular scheduling here in NAL
All but one game today has been pretty one-sided and look this one feels like it might be headed towards being the most one-sided so far
Which I didn't really anticipate expected good fight
These two teams with quite a bit of proof to prove really just to themselves to kick off this stage
unfortunately a hundred thieves have not gotten out of the blocks and Cloud9 defensively
just continue to have big moments go their way. It's another good shotgun kill from Eddy.
Then the Anker's got into the play, hits him and our shots laid in the piece as well. The
utility was laid pretty well from the defense too, just all out into stagger the push.
Cloud9 looking great as they go down to basement. Of course, are you successful
them last time out with three players standing. It's getting more and more difficult now to
see a half forward for 100 days. They're not out of it just yet, but two rounds feeling
very, very important. And the two remain in the half. Hanukholt now takes it upon
himself to jump on to the Monty. And in the second appearance of the shield, this
particular half than the first time he'll play it.
Yeah, they go spirits on the bark as well. They drop the ram, Kason back on to the solid
snake but haven't really seen a lot of success with the radar and the snake in general. One
full start for Kason hasn't been able to get any opening kills. Nothing is worth
with the opening four rounds but things can change quickly in Siege and if they can
I'm fine too here. I think it puts them back in a good position and somehow spirits already take it down to one HP
That might have been from Monk on the vigil
Imagine that is the case
Or potentially verb, but I think Monk is well tucked inside of electrical
Got a good read on his position as could be round the fighting they can clear him successfully
to be their first opening kill.
The frag grenade, Monk cannot dodge that one.
Really good clear.
So finally 100 Thieves will have the advantage.
That's a matter of being able to convert that advantage.
It's actually something to show for in the meantime.
Uzi, Patch's case and spirit also falls.
That's crumbled quickly for 100 Thieves.
It's a great response from C9.
in Tej's position, Hot and Cold has his sights set on the objective, Gomez to support and
add them above Warehouse. There is potential for them here to try and get a plant down
and force the misplay from Cloud9, but still it looks really rough with a double smoke
on the Pampas and Nitro for Uzi.
The good news for 100 thieves is the time to be honest, they don't have to rush this
moment so if they can just go to the plant, how this then develops off that test, okay,
you tilt out, bit of damage on the hot and cold.
If you get information on some of the positioning, you drew out the final gaspade from Pampasu.
You didn't draw out those that nitrosol from Uzi
Still two keeper barriers available for the is army waiting for the flames to extinguish that is though buying time for
Cloud nine now only 30 seconds
Remains Gomez Adam have got hit their shots and Eddie beats out Adam
Now down to just Gomez to defend the hot and cold but he too will fall
Lovely play from Santa and it's Pampasuda then get the final kill. It's five straight from cloud nine
100 Thieves even with the opening kill still unable to find an attacking round.
Yeah that was their best bet, their best opportunity so far across the half and
as quickly as they got that advantage it flipped against them. A good mid round
play there from C9 isolating a couple of those attackers consolidated site
didn't overplay their hand late as Horticorps tried desperately to cover
Some kind of planned attempt and that was immediately disrupted the smoke the rest of the defense able to flood in and became
Too much too much while we find your dues to be able to compete and fight at the tail end of that round
signs of great defense from
C9
Storage control up next the C9 have their sights set on a perfect half which is yeah
Wow pretty remarkable
Not what I expected at all coming in this game to be honest I was probably insisting this to be
evenly matched it may still be if 100 days win this round on five or not even lamps is not totally uncommon
And the biggest thing for me though to remember remind everyone cloud 9 second lowest rated
attacking team in stage one
only above outlast and
and they were actually a very good defensive team, top four.
So that's played the same, at least here in this opening map.
That's certainly expected, more out of 100 thieves,
a stat around a 50% attack for win rate.
They actually bought them four in stage one for defense,
so it's not like they're going to be switching over to a very strong side for them either.
They're definitely going to walk away from this, they're very disappointed.
But will it be with or without a round?
We'll have to find out as they get some control towards IT, open up the wall, thrown in.
He's going to be defended by Michael the Izami.
It's been a really solid team effort. Two from Cloud9.
No one with less than four kills.
So you're getting a lot from all five players.
players. It's been a really standout team performance.
And Booz is actually the only player to have not had an entry duel, and for the other four,
everyone's positive except for Monk who's gone 1-1, so they're spreading the load in
a couple of different areas at the moment, which is pretty impressive. Certainly not
a solo worth it by any stretch, and very much a sign that all five have come to
play today. Monk catch his spirits.
one. And stays alive in this position and keep a barrier out. Oh, don't about that one.
Yeah, that was a little too overzealous for Monk. Kind of gives his life away. He is only
downed, but not really the position to get revived. That plant now going inside a storage
from Holt and Cole. 100 thieves pick up the pace. Does get offered though, but
it's a kill on to Eddie seems like now they will get their first round and the
final round of this half. Nice Uzi can clutch a 1v3 if he does may as well
play the white flag. Monk finished off does get the headshot on to hot and
cold. Oh not like that. Adam towards warehouse as he makes his way down the
stairs he will group up with Gomez but I like this angle for Uzi. He does get
the down onto Adam. Now 1v1 but he's low on health. 30 seconds needs the headshot
against Gomez. This would be so demoralizing for 100 thieves. New
position damage onto Gomez. But may still leave that headshot and knows now
that Adam is getting revived. Uzi wants to try and get a little closer. 15
seconds. Can he eventually now look to maybe play the time? Gets the kill onto
Gomez and then on to Adam as well a 1v3 clutch for Uzi. And it's a long as half from cloud 9.
Six zip against 100 thieves.
Okay throw out everything we were going to talk about and let's just talk about that.
Like what just happened? What HPE? He has to kill three people because they got revived.
That was just great decision-making from Uzi every step of the way right there.
understanding how we can take these Engainers, how not to overextend, and then just playing his life,
especially in the 1 HP scenario here, of just being able to play it safe,
play to the advantage of using the cover, and then forcing them to try to go for this kill,
and then ducking, instantly popping back up. I mean, great, great decision making from Uzi right there.
Yeah, and he keeps talking about decision making, so I feel like this is a good transition.
Good transition, but I mean there's a couple things going on for 100 thieves. One, you got to be able to win a 3v1. That's the first four most.
Two, you got to be able to get opening kills on your side, right? They went 1 and 5 in the opening kill department. You're not going to win many rounds playing 4v5. Ask G2 that.
And third, yeah, there's a lack of decisiveness happening right now on the sides of 100 thieves. They are just completely stalling out every single time in the mid-round.
I thought this was going to be a good map for them. I thought it was going to be step by step and we're going to be able to work.
Keyword thought.
We thought we were going to be able to work these zones,
but every time they get to the zones
and they're about to do a 3-2-1, too many ideas
are happening in the comms.
They don't know how to clear certain spots.
Like, very first round, they don't know
how to clear the player close to E-box.
And then the second round, they call it,
there's roaming up top, but there's a mute on a mute
jammer.
Then another top floor round, they want to clear water,
but they're fighting the guy bottom water
and the guy top order at the same time.
And credit the Cloud9, though.
I don't want to give credit to Cloud9.
They were one of the best defensive teams.
And what makes them so good at defense?
They know how to help each other so well once they figure out what your take is and what you're trying to do
They're so good at coming to the rescue and helping each other
Which is why I would have loved to see this the thieves implement more fakes more split strategies instead of just relying on what wasn't working
There's one of these halftime's where you look like you're going to the second half of the game
And it feels like it's over already like this could end in just one round
We got to see a massive turn around from hundred feet
I was gonna say I mean
I don't want to say it's exactly like clubhouse, but it also is one of the most defender-sided maps
So if there is anything for a hundred things to be able to do is to replicate the exact same thing
Play off one another play those trades for C9's hand, but even just listening in on those comms
I mean they almost sound defeated. I mean in round five particular once that happened
There wasn't anyone making any calls. It was just we just need one round
We just need one round, but there wasn't a solution on how to get to that one round
There wasn't a way of what they were going to do and then you lose a 3v1
I mean that kind of just puts the nail right into the coffin
So I wouldn't be surprised if this ends in a 7-0, but I'm not going to take anything away from the players on the side of 100
These they're all experienced. They all know what it takes to bring a game back
Yeah, it does take one to kind of restart the map one thing I'm worried about here again
We're looking at the opera bands real quick the Cade mirror gets taken off the board
That means band that's got to get used for the IT wall
But why is Bandit kind of weak nowadays? Zofia from below? You're really vulnerable to that. So
case it, hopefully you got some help.
Help needs to arrive right now, backs against the wall. Not where they want it to be. Day one, map one.
All right, certainly not. This is a disappointing start to the stage for 100 thieves.
At least to this point.
I mean, I agree with Lax, I mean, if there's a couple of maps in the pool where you can
maybe pull back a 6-0 deficit, LAMPS is certainly in that pool.
I'm just not sensing that's going to be the case.
I mean, Cloud9 have been sensational, an 8-1 half from Uzi, capped off by the 1v3,
and there was a quad kill in the round, dominated the opening kills.
If what Lex said is true in terms of the comms sounding a bit deflated, it's hard to probably
then get the mojo going on your defensive half when you're 6-bill down.
And you just lost the 1 vs 3.
That's about as mentally challenging as it can get.
I suppose the halftime break though offering an opportunity for them to cool down over
a couple of minutes and try to hit that reset button, can't change the past.
to this 7th round though. And the lineup here from Cloud9 looking to be pretty
execute-heavy direct. I want to layer the Glaz and the Yin-Yu-Til.
There's a fear as well, a great inclusion as mentioned into Bandit. So I see it as being
highly unlikely that I team War will remain reinforced. It should be dealt with here by
the attacking. Oh my god, oh my god, Adam is dead already.
changing mages. This Dacentor even knows that, well look there, there he's downed but I wonder if he even knew that he got that down
because of the window barricade. IT opened up, damage onto Adam, at least he's backed up, has a nitrocell plus the
generative utility from the Wormite Discs. He did get one more out.
out. Triple Nitrosol available for 100 thieves. And I was going to say, just inform that down,
I think it's ultra critical for 100 thieves. Get this burst kill just to deny the ability
to get flooded into site, especially with this lineup from Cloud 9. To re-origate it's
going out. Flood it in. Smokes. And Sansa trying to get into position, but he has
been blocked off by this kid with Mario. It's a decent little counter from Gomez.
There is that opening kill.
Watch out below.
Yeah, Hot and Cold did get that nitrous off below,
but Uzi deals with spirits.
K-Song, he gets one, but instantly traded two,
and it's a two versus two.
It's cloud nine, looking for the 7-0.
Eddie, though, pressured from below by Hot and Cold.
So they lost the 1v3.
Will they lose the 1v2?
Mark knows, he's pushing up through blue.
Has the kit, does he think about the plant?
Yes, but Hot and Cold will be quick to move.
28 seconds was certainly time for Mark, who hits the shot!
He too was on 1 HP!
Well, a repeat of the final round of the first half
to close this out, 7-0 from Cloud9.
Well, wait, I don't know how much more to add,
but what a performance from Cloud9 did not see that coming,
but they played really well today.
I think they can be very proud of this performance,
and on the flipside for 100 Thies,
Did a soul searching now at the early stages.
Well, I hope you didn't go too far because we're coming straight back to you guys.
Yeah, here we are. One round later and well, an early similar finish to the round.
A 1 HP Cloud9 player.
Two thieves remain and they don't stand a chance. Cloud9 from a team perspective, from an individual perspective,
Firing on all cylinders and a clean win to start the stage.
Yeah, absolutely. It's also nice to be highlighting newer players that we didn't get to speak too much about in the previous stage.
I mean, Uzi had a tremendous performance. I believe he went 7-1 on the half. Great showing from him.
But overall, the entire team just impressive with their performance through and through.
Even in this last round, I mean, Monk, again, another player, 1 HP, managed to keep their nerve in check,
check, close it on a 7-0.
I said it, I wouldn't be surprised
that given how we were listening in 100 Thieves,
their comms were in given how well Cloud9 was playing.
I mean, very well executed around,
very well overall performance for today.
Yeah, that's exactly what we wanted to see from Cloud9, right?
I mean, they were one of the most fun teams to watch
last stage, and I think they're already showing
that they're going to be fun to watch this stage.
We have so many improved teams now
without last actually getting a win too.
It just, it just, don't want to see it
over at the Thieves, man.
I heard from hot and cold. What are we working on in the offseason Matt?
What are we working on? And he told me, hey, we're working on the fundamentals.
It was all about the fundamentals and honestly the fundamentals is what cost it in there because it didn't look like we were talking to each other.
We weren't droning for each other. We weren't three two wanting for each other. It was rough. It was rough to watch.
Listen, there's a lot of controversy
During last stage about you know, which team is the most improved? I said cloud nine over a hundred thieves
I mean it's written on the wall for you. Yeah, I mean no disrespect to my girl Taylor
But Beyonce had the greatest album of all time. That's what you sound like right now. Come on now
You just have a tip of your tongue
We got we got understanding by after the win cloud nine victorious to start the state
I mean this was a huge victory for you guys said to
Congratulations on a strong start
We talked so much about like you guys being one of the most improved teams right adjusting to PANBA's system and all that
But just talk to me about what you felt in the lobby today
Would you have those one beat the one be two clutches that you get to witness and those back-to-back final rounds?
I mean one of the vibes like on this team right now
Um, I mean it was pretty
Fun for me because I didn't have to do any of the work
It was all boozy, it was all, I mean, everybody honestly, I felt like everybody was, so like
I was pretty cracking jokes mid-round.
I was just, I just showed up basically.
I was just playing the lobby for them.
Not actually, but.
I was going to say, it definitely sounded like you were out in fun because you were
cracking jokes in the all chat going after thieves and affecting their mental, which,
you know, you might have won to be honest because we were here and then pretty defeated.
You know, I'll take the host question if you don't want to ask it, Jonah.
What were you guys kind of working on in between stage?
Because it seemed like your guys' biggest problem was on the attack side.
What were you kind of working on attack-wise?
Because we really only got to see one round, so like, you know, 100% success rate, that's all you need.
Confidence going forward, I mean, yeah, what's kind of some of the things that you were kind of targeting and working on for that?
I think it was just more implementing our, like, what fits best for us.
So like we were changing things around like operator wise,
we tried different variations of attacks
and just trying to find out what really worked well for us
instead of just doing what was on the paper basically.
Like we like to go off paper a lot.
I mean, it's Rob, he's always shot calling
something else off the head.
He's, so he's, it's been a lot better
and I think it's working.
What about on the defensive side?
You guys had a dominant 6-0 defensive half here.
you guys been one of the best offensive teams.
Like what is it that makes you guys so special on defense?
I think just being aware and being like we
have good players on the room obviously.
So like them being aware, being able to talk to each other.
I mean, just working together.
That's it's basically at the end of the day defense
comes down to teamwork and we're good at it.
It's definitely what it seems.
Absolutely.
I mean, center congratulations.
I mean, a 7-0 to kick off the second stage.
I mean, beautiful performance from you guys.
I just want to ask you, I mean, what are the expectations coming into this stage?
Is this the team that we're going to be seeing constantly improving?
I mean, what what really is, you know, what's the ceiling for you guys?
The ceiling is as far as we can make it, it's at the top.
We obviously are going to aim for the top.
We want to be there.
We won only three games last stage.
We were, I think a couple of points off from making top six, making
playoffs last stage and honestly, that really hurt us.
We wanted to be there.
We wanted to make an event.
We wanted to be at the top.
And everything that we did last stage
was basically for nothing.
It seemed like so.
Going into the off season, we worked on everything else
again, and this time we're going to show something.
You guys are looking beautiful again.
Congratulations on the 7-0.
Beautiful.
Yeah, and you know what they say, hungry dogs run faster.
You guys were looking.
You guys look like you've been putting a ton of work
in.
Love to see it.
Congrats, Hunter.
We will talk to you later on, hopefully this stage.
Great start.
Of course.
C9MuteBundle, he'll buy it.
I don't know if the camera's showing well, but it's amazing.
All right, well, he's got the ad in there.
He got the ad.
Had to make it happen.
Truly an astonishing start for Cloud9.
Like, we had to wait.
It felt like, I think, like four weeks in stage one
to get our first 7-0.
I think maybe it came in the playoffs, if at all.
Like, this was a statement to start the stage.
Yeah, and I don't want to take anything away from them.
They played a tremendous game of siege through and through, whether it was on their defenses
or they're one round on attack.
I mean, I don't want to say that 100 Thieves just didn't show up today.
I just genuinely think they got dominated and outclash by a better team that was playing
a better day of siege.
Yeah, no 100% agree.
I mean, Cloud9 deserved that win 100%.
I just didn't think that would have been the 7-0 day.
I thought, you know, they could definitely win in that game.
But for that to be the 7-0, I actually thought the M80 SR game, because that was the last
time we hyped that game up.
It was a 7-0, and I thought we were gonna get something to do with the other side.
Hey, it's a new state. Maybe we can do that now.
So many players.
Clearly anything is possible. We saw some surprisingly one-sided matchups today throughout the day.
We ended with the most one-sided matchup of all, but we also saw a ton of Villa.
So if you joined us today, you were treated to, I think, something special.
We didn't see any nor yet, but we did see what that new slight rework and reintroduction of Villa into the pool has to offer.
how it impacts these teams and I mean eventually how it will impact the overall
standings of this group stage as we work our way through cloud nine with that
win put themselves for now on the top of the standings hundred thieves all the
way there at the bottom of the usual suspects collecting victories throughout
the day listen I know the points aren't as important right now because
it's only the first day but we're on our super week once you get through
this entire week I mean that's quite a bit of your match that's almost half
half of the match is done for the stage, so it really is going to be important once we
get to that Friday of who is going to be on top, who's going to be in the middle, and
who's dead last.
And we heard it from center, like they were just a couple of points away from making it.
So like the fact that they get those dominant wins and round differential if it really comes
down to it.
But right now, like you said, the ability over these next three days, including I
mean some great matches that we have coming up tomorrow to set yourself up for a really
strong stage, it all starts here in the super week.
2 of the super week rolls on tomorrow on Thursday. We continue the action at 2 p.m. Eastern for fun
eSports and Shopify rebellion will kick us off before we get dark zero and m80 a little later on
five fears and space station gaming look to go toe to toe there and then cloud nine see if they
can go back to back end of the day seven ohs against outlast there yeah just multiple bangers
after bangers I mean are we biased and saying that just feels like I want to watch every single
I mean, four fun the last time I think they played SR.
I mean, that's a game where I think four fun even dominated in that game.
So there's not a, especially after today, I think the only team that won that was
favorited might have been wildcard possibly.
So there was a lot of a lot of upsets, a lot of surprises, anything can happen.
And like you guys were both saying, it's those teams on the bubble,
the teams that are around that six through eight.
See how it skips there.
It's really important that they get those points right now.
So we'll see what happens.
Anything is possible.
If there's any take away from day one, going into the rest of the super week, that is a
good one to have.
To those of you who tuned in all day long, thank you so much for being a part of the broadcast.
For Mint, for Laxing, for our entire Studio Crew, I'm Jonas Willinger saying have a
great night everybody and we'll see you tomorrow.
They know the name of one of them eyes
Big guy with a hate eye
He's a little guy, don't be smart
I think you're from life
Bring your back up and look me back
I'm never been out to get it right
Are you entertained?
Moment of change, I wanna revive
Switching the game
They know the name of one of them eyes
Go, go, go, go, go
I can't make it here right
This one is the end of life
It's time to tell it to see the light
Let's give it life, let's give it life
Let's give it life, let's give it life
Stimulite! Stimulite! Stimulite! Stimulite!